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High-efficiency gas turbine boosts low-carbon power supply in China

Xinhua) 09:09, December 02, 2025

An aerial drone photo taken on Aug. 6, 2025 shows tourists visiting Yucun Village in Anji County of Huzhou City, east China's Zhejiang Province. (Xinhua/Mao Zhu)

HANGZHOU, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- An 843-megawatt gas turbine was officially connected to the grid on late Sunday in east China's Zhejiang Province, after completing a 168-hour full-load trial run.

The unit, the first of two at the China Energy Investment Corporation Co., Ltd. plant in Anji County, achieves a remarkable efficiency rate of 64.15 percent, representing an approximately 17-percentage-point increase over conventional million-kilowatt coal-fired units.

Shen Chengliang, a manager at Huzhou branch of the State Grid Zhejiang Electric Power Co., Ltd., said that the turbine units, once fully operational, will generate up to 7 billion kWh of electricity annually, sufficient for the power supply of 6 million residents, strengthening the local power grid with low-carbon electricity.

Low-carbon power generation is a key driver of China's strategy to meet its dual carbon goals -- to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
NEW YORK, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Byzfunder, one of the nation's fastest-growing small-business lenders, announced two senior leadership appointments  naming Xin Hamilton as Chief Marketing Officer and Ted Kelleher as Head of Capital Markets  to support the company's continued nationwide growth and its commitment to delivering a modern, high-performance experience for small business owners.

Xin Hamilton  Chief Marketing Officer

Xin Hamilton brings more than a decade of global marketing experience across consumer electronics, omnichannel retail, and digital growth. Before joining Byzfunder, she served as VP of Marketing & eCommerce at Boss Audio Systems for more than seven years, where she led multi-brand expansion, marketing automation frameworks, and large-scale digital programs. She previously held senior roles at Coolpad, overseeing product strategy and global marketing for smart devices.

Xin recently led the entire Byzfunder rebrand, including the company's new visual identity, redesigned customer and partner portals, unified product architecture (ByzFlex, Byz.AI, ByzCares), and a direct-to-market strategy that elevated Byzfunder into a nationally recognized fintech brand. Her leadership repositioned Byzfunder around speed, trust, and customer-focused lending.

Quote from Xin Hamilton, CMO:

"Byzfunder has the technology, the products, and the culture to lead this industry. My goal is to build a marketing engine and brand presence that reflect the scale and ambition of the company. We're here to set a new standard for how small-business lending should feel."

Ted Kelleher  Head of Capital Markets

Ted Kelleher joins Byzfunder with deep experience across private credit, structured finance, and institutional distribution. He previously held capital markets leadership roles at Applied Data Finance (ADF), Funding Circle US, and Societe Generale, where he oversaw fixed-income and structured products distribution across global markets. Ted will guide Byzfunder's capital strategy, strengthen liquidity programs, and expand institutional partnerships to support the company's growing origination volume.

Quote from Ted Kelleher, Head of Capital Markets:

"Byzfunder is in a defining moment of growth. My focus is ensuring we have the capital depth, investor confidence, and structured programs required to support national expansion. The demand from business owners is strong and Byzfunder is positioned to meet it."

Quote from Byzfunder CEO Ilya Fridman:

"Xin and Ted bring exactly the expertise we need to scale responsibly and aggressively. Xin rebuilt our brand from the ground up, giving Byzfunder a voice and identity that match our mission. Ted strengthens our capital markets capabilities and deepens our credibility across private credit. With this leadership team, we are well-positioned for a huge 2026."

Byzfunder continues to expand its footprint nationwide, combining strong technology, experienced leadership, and a customer-first approach to deliver fast, transparent, and reliable funding solutions to small businesses across the United States.

To learn more, visit byzfunder.com.

About ByzFunder

Founded in 2019, ByzFunder is a fast-growing fintech lender specializing in fast, flexible working capital solutions for small and mid-sized businesses nationwide. With more than $1 billion funded to date, ByzFunder combines modern technology, experienced underwriting, and a customer-first approach to deliver transparent, reliable financing across essential industries. The company's product suite  including traditional working capital programs and ByzFlex, its revenue-based financing solution  is designed to give business owners a fast, simple, secure funding experience built around real-world needs and opportunities.

Fast. Simple. Secure.

SOURCE ByzFunder
These scientific works go far beyond technical feats - they reflect a shared philosophy: science must address real-life challenges, heal the human bodys limits, and expand human potential.

On December 2, the 2025 VinFuture Science and Technology Week presented four visionary innovations: a robot endowed with physical intelligence, a soft artificial heart that mimics human rhythms, a stroke rehabilitation robot that restores movement, and a Vietnamese AI platform reshaping sustainable agriculture.

Each of these breakthroughs offers a glimpse into the future. Together, they deliver a unified message: science has true value only when it serves humanity, heals what has been broken, and pushes the boundaries of life itself.

Robots that think: Physical intelligence opens new frontiers in robotics

Professor Ho-Young Kim (Seoul National University) guided the audience into the world of next-generation robotics, where intelligence emerges from a robots material and form. Photo: PV

The opening keynote by Professor Ho-Young Kim of Seoul National University ushered the audience into a new era of robotics - one where intelligence is not embedded in microchips, but emerges from the robots physical form and material properties.

This approach, known as spontaneous physical intelligence, draws inspiration from nature, where living organisms respond, coordinate, and adapt through simple yet effective mechanisms.

For Professor Kim, the robots of the future will not require massive databases or complex algorithms to act intelligently. They simply need to be designed to interact physically with their environments. Just as ants form bridges by naturally distributing their body weight, mushroom spores locate air gaps along leaf veins, or white blood cells detect invaders via surface chemistry - these are all expressions of emergent intelligence that require no central processing.

Soft robots and swarm robots developed by his team operate on the same principle: intelligent behavior arises without intricate programming.

In practice, these robots offer unparalleled advantages for tasks like search and rescue, navigating confined spaces, working in extreme conditions, or supporting humans in high-flexibility environments. Their soft structures make them highly adaptable, energy-efficient, and sustainable - paving the way for a future where robots are not rigid steel machines, but organic collaborators harmonizing with their surroundings.

Professor Kim, a fellow of the American Physical Society and the Korean Academy of Science and Technology, champions a distinct scientific philosophy: the simpler a robot, the smarter it becomes. This refined simplicity may define the next generation of robots - closer to nature, and closer to humanity.

The soft artificial heart: A biomedical leap that lets doctors "see the future of surgery"

Associate Professor Do Thanh Nho (University of New South Wales, Australia) introduces the soft beating artificial heart. Photo: TK

The next talk transported the audience into the world of cardiovascular medicine - a field that claims over 20 million lives annually. Associate Professor Do Thanh Nho of the University of New South Wales introduced his invention: a soft beating artificial heart, a highly personalized simulation that replicates the structure, pressure, blood flow, and pulse unique to each patient.

Heart disease is especially challenging because every heart is a unique case. Static diagnostics, generic simulations, or animal testing fall short of replicating this complexity. As a result, doctors often make life-or-death decisions based on limited data, risking complications.

Dr. Nhos soft artificial heart replicates real-heart movement and interaction forces with millimeter precision. It allows doctors to trial cardiovascular devices, rehearse complex surgeries, and assess risks on a personalized model - before ever touching the patient. This breakthrough could reduce reliance on animal testing, improve surgical safety, and unlock true personalized medicine.

With over 12 international patents and research featured in Reuters, The Washington Post, and IEEE Spectrum, Associate Professor Do Thanh Nho is among the most influential young minds in biomedical robotics. At VinFuture 2025, he shared a powerful message: when technology reaches the depths of life itself, every invention becomes a chance to save a heart.

Stroke rehabilitation robot: When engineering restores dignity and life

Professor Raymond Tong (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) presents a wearable soft exoskeleton that reads stroke patients movement intent. Photo: TK

Professor Raymond Tong from The Chinese University of Hong Kong brought a deeply humanistic tone to the stage. He shared the story behind The Hope Hand, a wearable soft exoskeleton that can read the motion intent of stroke patients and help them regain movement in their hands.

But the device doesnt just assist motion - it stimulates the brain to rewire neural pathways, allowing patients to relearn lost movements.

His next innovation, XoMuscle - a soft, lightweight, wearable artificial muscle - ushers in a new era of rehabilitation. It mimics natural biomechanics and enables those with muscle weakness to walk, move, and even lift weights beyond their normal ability. More than a medical device, XoMuscle restores independence, self-worth, and confidence to patients.

Professor Tong is a world-renowned expert in neural engineering and rehabilitation robotics. He was named a Global Influencer on Aging, won the Grand Prix in Geneva, and ranks among the top 2% most-cited scientists globally. His technologies have helped thousands regain mobility - and paint a future where robots dont replace humans, but revive what was thought forever lost.

Enfarm: Vietnams AI takes its place on the global tech map

The VinFuture 2025 technology showcase became complete with the appearance of Enfarm - a homegrown Vietnamese innovation championing regenerative AI-powered agriculture.

In a world where climate change threatens global food production, Enfarm introduced two platforms: Enfarm App and Enfarm FM, both designed to lead Vietnamese agriculture into the era of smart farming.

Enfarm App uses lab-grade soil sensors combined with AI to give tailored recommendations for each farmer. As a result, farmers can increase yields by up to 30%, cut fertilizer use by 30%, lower emissions, and meet the high standards of sustainable agriculture. The generative AI also acts as a "farming assistant," offering guidance tailored to specific crops and plots.

Enfarm FM is designed for enterprises, helping them manage raw material zones, assess risks, trace origins, and meet ESG reporting requirements with full transparency. By connecting data from field to business, Enfarm is building a digital ecosystem that allows agriculture to adapt to climate change.

Led by CEO Nguyen Do Dung, Enfarm has expanded into 14 provinces in Vietnam, covers 30,000 hectares in the Philippines, and is piloting an anti-desertification project in Africa. Vietnams agri-tech innovations are thus no longer just local tools - theyre global problem-solvers, perfectly aligned with the VinFuture spirit: technology for humanity.

The four stories presented at the Breakthrough Technologies of the Future event revealed a common vision: robots are smarter when they mimic nature, medicine is more precise when it mirrors the human body, rehabilitation is more effective when it honors human dignity, and agriculture is more sustainable when powered by data.

These technologies are not only advanced - they are profoundly humane. They affirm one truth: every breakthrough is truly meaningful only when it helps people live healthier, safer, and more fulfilling lives.

Thai Khang
This afternoon in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, a high-level meeting took place between the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, co-chaired by General Secretary To Lam and General Secretary, President of Laos Thongloun Sisoulith.

During the meeting, the two leaders praised the significant, comprehensive, and historically meaningful achievements made by both parties, states, and peoples of the two countries.

General Secretary To Lam and Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith. Photo: VNA

They emphasized the importance of the special VietnamLaos relationship amid fast-evolving and complex regional and international dynamics.

Both sides noted the successful implementation of high-level agreements. Ministries, agencies, localities, and businesses from both countries have proactively carried out cooperation memoranda with effectiveness and practicality.

Close political ties remain the foundation that continues to drive comprehensive cooperation in all areas.

The two leaders highlighted the growing strength and effectiveness of defense and security cooperation, identifying it as a core pillar in bilateral relations. The countries have jointly implemented numerous projects that support Laos in enhancing its defense and security capabilities, along with high-quality cooperation plans and programs.

Vietnam and Laos continue to work together on the search, identification, and repatriation of remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and experts who sacrificed their lives in Laos.

The two nations are also expanding trilateral cooperation with Cambodia, aligning with outcomes from recent high-level party meetings, and agreeing on a shared development vision. Priority is placed on the strategic, close-knit relations among the three countries.

This meeting serves as the highest-level cooperation mechanism, playing a crucial strategic role in shaping and deepening VietnamLaos relations.

Economic, trade, and investment cooperation remains a key focus, with several positive developments. The top leaders have closely directed major joint projects to ensure timely execution and improve the lives of citizens in both countries.

Cultural, educational, and scientific-technical exchanges have been actively promoted and have yielded practical results. Cooperation between party agencies, government bodies, and mass organizations, along with people-to-people exchanges from central to local levels, has been strengthened.

Both leaders committed to further deepening the great friendship, special solidarity, and comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and Laos through existing and new cooperation mechanisms.

The summit provides strategic direction for deepening VietnamLaos relations. Photo: VNA

The leaders witnessed the signing of the 2026 memorandum of understanding between the two Politburos.

They pledged to take the VietnamLaos party and state relationship to greater depth, identifying it as the strategic compass for overall bilateral cooperation. Both sides reaffirmed their consistent stance of mutual support and solidarity.

VietnamLaos relations are a top foreign policy priority for both countries - a model of long-term strategic partnership and a vital element in each nation's revolutionary journey.

The two countries will continue to align on strategic issues concerning security and development and are preparing for successful organization of their respective national Party Congresses.

The leaders underscored the strategic importance of strengthening cooperation in defense, security, and foreign affairs - foundational pillars of their special relationship.

Vietnam and Laos also agreed to consider establishing new mechanisms suited to current needs. They will continue to share information, consult on policy positions, and support each other at regional and international forums.

Pushing bilateral trade toward USD 10 billion

General Secretary To Lam and Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith at the signing ceremony. Photo: VNA

Photo: VNA
On the morning of December 2, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam To Lam and his spouse attended the official celebration and military parade marking the 50th anniversary of the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), and the 105th birth anniversary of President Kaysone Phomvihane.

The event took place at Thatluang Square in the capital city of Vientiane, drawing the participation of Lao Party General Secretary and President Thongloun Sisoulith, senior leaders of Laos, and representatives from government ministries, organizations, and provinces.

General Secretary To Lam, his spouse, and the high-level Vietnamese delegation joined the Lao people in celebrating this momentous occasion.

Delivering the keynote address, Lao General Secretary and President Thongloun Sisoulith recalled that 50 years ago, it was on this very ground that revolutionary forces and patriotic Laotians united to seize power in Vientiane. This led to the first national congress, which proclaimed the complete abolition of colonial and feudal systems, and the establishment of the Lao PDR on December 2, 1975.

From that historical moment, the fate of our country and society was profoundly transformed, ushering in a new era of building our beloved nation toward independence, sovereignty, unity, and prosperity, ensuring that all ethnic groups in Laos can live in peace, freedom, and happiness, he said.

Celebration of revolutionary heritage and national unity

Speaking on behalf of the Lao Party, State, and people, Thongloun Sisoulith expressed deep gratitude to international friends, development partners, and global organizations that have supported Laos over the past five decades.

He affirmed that Laos remains steadfast in its revolutionary identity and ideals. This includes upholding the socialist path, strengthening peoples democracy, and ensuring that all state power truly belongs to the people.

He emphasized that this enduring ideal is the consistent commitment of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and the shared aspiration of the Laotian people. It is now the responsibility of the younger generations to carry forward the revolutionary cause and lead the nation on the socialist path.

Amid rapid and complex changes in the region and globally, the Lao leader reaffirmed the countrys commitment to a foreign policy of peace, independence, friendship, and cooperation for development. Laos will continue to strengthen its relationships with global partners.

Looking ahead: Laos' 2055 vision for national development

Thongloun Sisoulith laid out an ambitious vision outlined in the Partys political platform: By 2055, the centennial of the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party, Laos aims to become an upper-middle-income country with a strong political system, a modern economy, and a well-developed productive capacity. The country seeks to ensure decent living standards for all ethnic groups and move toward widespread prosperity.

He also pledged to safeguard the revolutionary achievements and the victories of the past 50 years with unwavering loyalty and dedication, ensuring they are carried forward by generations to come.

Following the address, a grand military parade and march were held, featuring units from the armed forces, ministries, government agencies, and social-political organizations. The ceremony reflected Laos national pride and achievements over the past half-century.

General Secretary To Lam and his spouse join delegates at the 50th Lao National Day celebration. Photo: VNA

Photo: VNA

Photo: VNA

Photo: VNA

The 50th anniversary of the Lao PDR and the 105th birth anniversary of President Kaysone Phomvihane. Photo: VNA

Photo: VNA
Viettel Solutions journey in applying AI did not begin with abstract concepts but with challenges in its daily work. Le Thanh Cong, Deputy General Director of Viettel Solutions, said that for AI to truly deliver value, businesses need to start with their own real "pain points", the problems that may be small but address a genuine need.

This means choosing the right problem, and focusing on issues that are truly pressing where technology can create the clearest impact.

Viettel Solutions identified typical bottlenecks: the highly complex business process management and customer care workflows that require strict compliance.

This involves choosing the right problem for themselves, focusing on the issues that are truly "painful," where technology can create the most tangible change.

Viettel Solutions identified a typical "bottleneck" in the complex problem of business process management and customer care, which requires strict compliance.

Starting from here, AI has been applied and has helped reduce the violation rate in operations by 30-50 percent. This is clear evidence that when technology is applied in the right place, the value it can create is substantive and sustainable.

Beyond addressing organizational-level issues, AI also touches smaller problems in daily work.

Previously, an employee had to spend hours reading and searching through documents. Now, with the internal Viettel AI assistant, they only need to type a question and get answers in seconds.

Small improvements like this lead to major leaps in work efficiency, making AI no longer a lofty concept but a practical tool used every day.

Heavy investment

In addition to solving internal problems, Viettel Solutions uses AI in its operating procedures and product development, with the goal of providing more practical and effective digital technology solutions.

AI has been present in Viettel Solutions' products for many years, such as intelligent traffic systems, vehicle license plate recognition, image analysis, and security monitoring solutions.

However, now, AI is present at a "smarter" level in most key sectors, from transportation, oil and gas, education, and healthcare to government and businesses, marking an upgrade of AI to a larger scale, becoming a crucial factor in competitive differentiation.

And AI has been identified as a pillar in the 20262030 strategy of Viettel Group as well as Viettel Solutions.

The driving force for acceleration also comes from the boom of the GenAI wave like ChatGPT, forcing businesses to invest more heavily.

To realize the AI strategy, Viettel is investing in two core factors: resources and people.

On resources, Viettel now owns a powerful hardware infrastructure with thousands of GPUs, providing massive computational capacity for training and operating large-scale AI models.

At the same time, Viettel is building a team of hundreds of AI engineers capable of mastering the entire value chain, from research, development to deployment.

Alongside internal development, Viettel Solutions collaborates with Big Tech partners such as NVIDIA and Qualcomm. This enhances AI capacity, provides access to core technologies and advanced knowledge, even those still in laboratories, thus significantly shortening R&D time.

With this strong foundation, Viettel Solutions aims not for showcase products or short-term breakthroughs but for popular AI - widespread, fast, and safe applications.

Instead of building flashy solutions for a small user base, Viettel Solutions wants to bring AI to all customers, from government agencies to corporations and internal teams.

In Hanoi, Viettel Solutions has piloted AI-powered traffic density measurement using telecom data, creating a highly accurate traffic map similar to Google Maps but customized for the citys specific characteristics.

In the long term, to ensure sustainable growth and avoid an AI bubble, Viettel Solutions focuses on specialized, domain-specific AI rather than know-it-all AI.

Energy, healthcare, and finance are fields believed to have great potential for AI to create direct impact.

For instance, in the energy sector, the team is researching specific problems to optimize the cost of exploration and reserve estimation. In healthcare, AI will support diagnosis, making services more accessible to remote areas.

AI is a tool, not a competitor. It increases automation and handles repetitive tasks, allowing employees to focus on creative, complex work requiring critical thinking.

In reality, many enterprises fail in AI deployment because they lack readiness to change processes, choose the right problems, manage clean data, or develop capable teams.

Viettel solves this through experienced engineers, internal development models, and flexibility across industries.

Du Lam
A chip developed by a Vietnamese tech company on display at SEMI Expo Vietnam, November 2025. Photo: Du Lam

This information was shared by Truong Huu Chung, Head of the Investment Promotion Division under the Department of Information Technology Industry, during a regular press briefing held by the Ministry of Science and Technology on December 1.

Now in its seventh edition, the forum will be held in Hanoi under the theme: "The journey to shape Make in Viet Nam, transform digital production, and build a strong, prosperous digital Vietnam."

Since its inception in 2019, the forum has served as a platform to connect Vietnamese digital tech enterprises, contributing to the creation of a vibrant digital ecosystem. It plays a crucial role in driving regional and national socio-economic development, mastering digital transformation, and advancing the nation toward a prosperous new era.

This years forum is expected to gather approximately 1,500 attendees and will feature several new highlights.

Among them are demonstrations of strategic technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), as well as an exhibition of over 50 outstanding Vietnamese digital products for hands-on experience.

This year also marks a reflective milestone for the Make in Viet Nam Awards, reviewing achievements from 2020 to 2025 and laying out development goals for the 20262030 period. The Minister of Science and Technology is expected to present certificates of merit to organizations, enterprises, and individuals with outstanding contributions.

The forum will include in-depth sessions such as Mastering and developing strategic technologies and Vietnamese digital tech enterprises reaching global markets.

The awards ceremony for the Make in Viet Nam 2025 Digital Products, along with investment networking sessions between digital businesses and both domestic and international government agencies and enterprises, will also be held during the event.

Ho Chi Minh and State Science Awards also announced

At the same press briefing, Nguyen Van Khai, Deputy Director of the Center for Science and Technology Communication, provided updates on the upcoming Ho Chi Minh Prize and the State Award for Science and Technology.

These are Vietnams highest honors in the field of science and technology, awarded by the Party and the State to scientists who are authors of the most outstanding individual or collective scientific works. The awards are presented every five years.

They are reserved for works of exceptional scientific and technological value that have made significant, long-term contributions to national development, including the economy, defense, security, and scientific advancement.

Since 1996, six rounds of awards have been held. The seventh round will accept standard application dossiers until 5:00 PM on May 8, 2026, and classified (confidential) dossiers until 5:00 PM on May 15, 2026.

Related procedures will begin in June 2026 and conclude in September 2026. The results will be submitted to the Prime Minister by the end of November 2026, with the awards ceremony tentatively scheduled for September 2, 2027.

According to Nguyen Van Khai, due to the significance of these scientific works, the time between the announcement of results and the actual award ceremony is extended to address matters such as copyright, work quality, and public feedback. This ensures transparency and upholds the prestige of the awards.

Du Lam
Delegate Trinh Thi Tu Anh of Lam Dong province has proposed a one-year exemption from voluntary health insurance payments for residents in provinces recently hit hard by floods and natural disasters, with funding to be covered by the state budget.

The proposal was made during a National Assembly session this morning to discuss a draft resolution on breakthrough mechanisms and policies to protect and improve public health, as well as investment directions for the 20262035 national target program on healthcare, population, and development.

Expanding cancer drug coverage under health insurance

Delegate Trinh Thi Tu Anh. Photo: National Assembly

Delegate Trinh Thi Tu Anh emphasized: General Secretary To Lam has clearly stated that primary healthcare, disease prevention, and protection of public health must remain central, continuous, and long-term responsibilities of the entire political system.

This, she argued, calls for more proactive policymaking by both the National Assembly and the government to enhance healthcare capacity and ensure broader access to essential medical services.

She expressed strong support for Article 2 of the draft resolution, which aims to expand public healthcare benefits and reduce the financial burden on citizens.

Citing feedback from voters across several regions, the delegate noted that high treatment costs remain a significant barrier for patients - especially those with life-threatening illnesses - preventing them from accessing optimal therapies.

Advanced medications such as targeted therapies and immunotherapies have shown outstanding results in extending and improving patients lives. However, their high cost remains a major obstacle. Statistics show that drug expenses currently account for about 33% of total healthcare costs - down from 4050% in previous years, she stated.

Delegate Tu Anh proposed timely updates to the national list of reimbursable drugs - particularly for cancer and next-generation immunotherapies - to reduce out-of-pocket costs and safeguard the rights of the more than 95.5 million people currently enrolled in Vietnams health insurance system.

She urged prioritization of drugs with strong clinical evidence and proven effectiveness. Updates to the drug list should be flexible and aligned with global medical advancements, she said, while also linking expansion with mechanisms to evaluate cost-effectiveness to ensure sustainability and accountability.

This is a direct and practical solution to ensure that patients - especially those battling serious illnesses with limited resources - are not left behind, she affirmed.

Proposing free health insurance for flood victims

Delegate Tu Anh also proposed that the National Assembly and the government waive one year of voluntary health insurance fees for residents in provinces severely affected by recent storms and floods.

She noted that the state already provides free textbooks to students, and a similar approach to health insurance would reinforce social welfare policies and help citizens recover from natural disasters more quickly.

This is not just financial assistance, but also a way to ensure access to healthcare and peace of mind as people rebuild their lives after disaster, she added.

Strengthening nuclear medicine and radioisotope capacity

Delegate Tran Thi Hien. Photo: National Assembly

The delegate further raised concerns about Vietnams limited capacity in nuclear medicine - a field vital for early diagnosis, staging, and personalized treatment, especially in cancer care.

She called for fast-tracking the construction of a new multi-purpose nuclear research reactor to enhance domestic production of critical isotopes.

In addition, she recommended investment in establishing GMP-standard radioisotope synthesis centers, with a focus on research and technology transfer for next-generation therapeutic isotopes.

To support these goals, she suggested developing a flexible legal framework for licensing, production, transportation, and radioactive waste management. Vietnam should also expand cooperation with countries with advanced nuclear industries - such as Russia, the US, South Korea, Japan, and European nations - for technology transfer and expert training. This would help localize production and lower costs.

Nursing homes should be treated as medical facilities

Delegate Tran Thi Hien from Ninh Binh raised another critical issue: the lack of breakthrough policies addressing elderly care infrastructure and the mobilization of social resources for long-term care.

She noted that most nursing homes currently provide long-term care and rehabilitation but are not recognized as medical facilities. As a result, they do not benefit from preferential policies related to land use and facilities.

The delegate highlighted that nursing homes require large, long-term investments - including ambulances, rehabilitation equipment, and specialized beds - but currently lack access to credit incentives, interest support, or corporate tax exemptions.

She proposed that facilities providing medical care, long-term treatment, or rehabilitation be officially designated and treated as medical institutions, thereby qualifying for full benefits regarding land, taxation, and financing.

Additionally, she called for the development of technical standards for these facilities, support for semi-residential models, and stronger incentives to attract private investment in a growing sector.

Thanh Hue
In recent days, at the flood relief donation site in Nam Dinh Ward, Ninh Binh Province, locals have been continuously bringing rice and essential supplies to support people affected by severe flooding in central Vietnam.

The humanitarian energy here is tangible.

Locals in Ninh Binh donate rice to support flood victims in central Vietnam.

Residents of Ninh Binh, in solidarity with the rest of the country, have mobilized to share what they can with flood victims in the central provinces.

At the donation point on Phu Nghia Street - run by CLB A18, a club founded by entrepreneurs originally from Nam Dinh - the atmosphere is lively from early morning until late at night.

Long lines of people arrive carrying rice, clothing, blankets, and other critical goods, quickly filling the storage area, with rice being the most donated item.

Every time a relief shipment is sent out, more rice immediately arrives, stacking high like a symbolic mountain. Locals have affectionately dubbed the area Thach Sanhs rice mountain, evoking the Vietnamese folk hero known for his limitless generosity.

Donating from the heart, not the pocket

Dozens of tons of rice arrive daily at the donation point on Phu Nghia Street.

Carrying a heavy bag of rice, 64-year-old Pham Ngoc Tien from Nam Dinh Ward expressed deep empathy for people in the flood zones.

Though Im just a laborer and my family doesnt have much, I still want to contribute something, he said. Those in the flood zones have suffered great loss and hardship. Were more fortunate here, so I want to share a little to help.

Similarly, Le Ngoc Mai, 63, from the same ward, brought warm clothes and blankets.

Ive lived through floods that reached the roof of my house, so I understand the pain people are going through in central Vietnam, she shared. I hope this small gesture gives them strength to get through these difficult days.

A mission fueled by unity

Volunteers of CLB A18 work around the clock to prepare goods for flood-hit provinces.

Tran Trong Huy, Chairman of CLB A18, explained that this is not the clubs first relief effort.

Since Typhoon Bualoi (Storm No.10), the club has represented Ninh Binh residents and generous donors, sending over 1,000 tons of rice, tens of thousands of boxes of instant noodles, and countless other necessities to provinces hit by natural disasters - such as Thai Nguyen, Bac Ninh, Cao Bang, and Lang Son.

Regarding the current campaign for the central region, Huy said he was moved by the overwhelming participation.

This time, weve seen tens of thousands of people come to donate, he said. Theyve brought warm clothes, blankets, pots and pans, rice cookers - anything they think might help.

Rice remains the most donated item.

In just two days, we received over 100 tons of rice. Every time a shipment leaves, the center fills right back up. Thats why people started calling this place Thach Sanh Street, Huy added.

Whats most touching is that contributions have come not only from well-off donors but also from laborers, janitors, and even schoolchildren. Some bring cash, others bring rice, clothes, or even a few books. Those without goods give their time, helping organize and pack the shipments.

Everyone gives what they can, Huy said.

Ensuring aid reaches the right hands

The donated goods are currently being sorted and packed at Phu Nghia Street and will soon be sent to Phu Yen and Binh Dinh Provinces - two of the hardest-hit areas.

Fifty volunteers from CLB A18 are working tirelessly at the center, ready to deliver supplies to even the most remote flood-stricken areas.

To ensure safe and direct distribution, the club is coordinating with local governments, the Fatherland Front, police, and military forces.

All donated items, regardless of how theyre sent, will be delivered directly to those who need them most. Thats our responsibility - and our mission, Huy affirmed.

Trong Tung
Fast casual concept to celebrate grand opening on December 16, offering free chicken salad for a year

ATLANTA, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Chicken Salad Chick, the nation's only fast casual chicken salad restaurant concept, announced today the opening of a new restaurant in Parrish, located at 8730 US-301 N. The local community is invited to celebrate this grand opening on Tuesday, December 16, where the first 100 guests in line will win free chicken salad for a year*.

During the grand opening week, guests can expect to experience the Southern hospitality that Chicken Salad Chick is known for, as well as a community focused mindset with various specials and giveaways. These include:

Tuesday, December 16  Free Chicken Salad for a Year to the First 100 Guests  The first guest in line at 10am will receive one FREE large Quick Chick of chicken salad per week for an entire year. The next 99 guests in line will receive one FREE large Quick Chick of chicken salad per month for a year.*

  The first guest in line at 10am will receive one FREE large Quick Chick of chicken salad per week for an entire year. The next 99 guests in line will receive one FREE large Quick Chick of chicken salad per month for a year.* Wednesday, December 17  The first 50 guests to purchase any meal with two sides will receive a FREE Red Chicken Salad Chick Tote Bag!**

 The first 50 guests to purchase any meal with two sides will receive a FREE Red Chicken Salad Chick Tote Bag!** Thursday, December 18  10am  Opening Celebration The first 50 guests in line will receive a FREE Clear Chick Tumbler with a purchase of any meal with two sides!** 4pm  Dinner Rush Giveaway The first 25 guests at 4pm will receive a FREE Gray Chick Tumbler with handle with a purchase of any meal with two sides!**

 Friday, December 19  The first 50 guests to purchase two Large Quick Chicks will receive a FREE Large Chick Cooler!***

 The first 50 guests to purchase two Large Quick Chicks will receive a FREE Large Chick Cooler!*** Saturday, December 20  The first 50 guests to purchase any meal with one side will receive a FREE meal with one side on a future visit!****

Chicken Salad Chick of Parrish marks the second location owned and operated by franchise owner, Karen Jordan. Through her franchise group, Manasota Chick, LLC., Karen also owns and operates the Bradenton restaurant at 5434 Lockwood Ridge Rd, which opened in 2022. She remains committed to growing the brand and sharing the warm Southern hospitality that Chicken Salad Chick brings to Manatee County.

"I'm incredibly excited to open our second Chicken Salad Chick restaurant here in Manatee County," said Karen Jordan, franchise owner of Chicken Salad Chick of Parrish. "This journey with the brand has already been so rewarding, and expanding into Parrish felt like the natural next step. The community has that charming, small-town feel while being right in the middle of tremendous growth between Sarasota and Tampa, making it one of Florida's fastest growing areas. I'm so grateful for the support we've received so far and can't wait to welcome the Parrish community to our new location."

Chicken Salad Chick is known for its dozen-plus variety of made-from-scratch chicken salad flavors, fresh side salads, gourmet soups, signature sandwiches, and desserts. The new Parrish restaurant offers in-restaurant dining, outdoor patio, take-out, third-party delivery, and catering options.

"Expanding Chicken Salad Chick's footprint in Florida means a great deal to us," said Scott Deviney, president and CEO of Chicken Salad Chick. "Parrish is an area we've grown to love. It's a vibrant and fast-growing community, known for its small-town charm and strong sense of community  qualities that perfectly reflect the welcoming, family-oriented spirit of our brand. We're confident Karen's experience and passion will quickly make the Parrish restaurant a local favorite. We look forward to watching her introduce more communities across Florida to the Chicken Salad Chick experience."

Giving back to the community is an important focus for the Parrish team and the Chicken Salad Chick brand, which established the CSC Foundation to support CURE Childhood Cancer and local food banks with fundraisers throughout the year. As part of pre-opening Friends & Family events in Parrish, the restaurant will be raising money for Feeding Empty Little Tummies (F.E.L.T.), a backpack program that feeds homeless and food insecure students on the weekends.

Chicken Salad Chick of Parrish will be open Monday  Saturday from 10am  8pm. For more information, visit www.chickensaladchick.com. Follow Chicken Salad Chick on Facebook and Instagram for the latest news and trends.

For more information on giveaways and specials, visit:

https://www.facebook.com/ChickenSaladChickParrishFL/

*Guests should arrive early to secure a place in line. The first 100 guests must remain in line and download the Chicken Salad Chick app. Wi-Fi will not be available on site. Once the restaurant opens, guests will make a purchase of a meal with one side, or any item of greater value and enter a code in the Chicken Salad Chick app to officially secure their spot. If you leave the line for any reason, your spot will be awarded to the next guest in line. Guests will receive their first free Large Quick Chick electronically to their app the Monday following Grand Opening Day. Your reward will be valid for redemption for 30 days upon delivery.

**Guest must be 16 years or older and must purchase any meal with two sides. Limit 1 reward per guest present. Not valid with any other offers. In-restaurant only.

***Guest must be 16 years or older and must purchase two Large Quick Chicks of any flavor chicken salad or pimento cheeses. Limit 1 reward per guest present. Not valid with any other offers. In-restaurant only.

****Guest must be 16 years or older and must purchase a meal with one side. Limit 1 reward per guest present. Not valid with any other offers. In-restaurant only.

About Chicken Salad Chick

Chicken Salad Chick serves full-flavored, Southern-style chicken salad made from scratch and served from the heart. With more than a dozen original chicken salad flavors as well as fresh side salads, gourmet soups, signature sandwiches and delicious desserts, Chicken Salad Chick's robust menu is a perfect fit for any guest. Founded in Auburn, Alabama, by Stacy and Kevin Brown, in 2008, Chicken Salad Chick has grown to more than 320 restaurants in 22 states. Today, under the leadership of Scott Deviney and the Chicken Salad Chick team, the brand is continuing its rapid expansion with both franchise and company locations. Chicken Salad Chick has received numerous accolades including rankings in the 2023 Entrepreneur Franchise 500, Franchise Times' Fast & Serious for the third consecutive year, Fast Casual's Top Movers and Shakers from 2018 to 2024, QSR's Best Franchise Deals in 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2024, and Franchise Business Review's Top Food Franchises list from 2019-2024. See www.chickensaladchick.com for additional information.

Contact:

Nayelis Bosa

Tidehouse

954-893-9150

[email protected]

SOURCE Chicken Salad Chick
On the morning of December 2, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and a high-level Vietnamese delegation landed at Wattay International Airport in Vientiane, officially beginning his working visit to Laos.

The Prime Minister will attend the high-level meeting between the two Parties and co-chair the 48th session of the VietnamLaos Intergovernmental Committee.

Warm welcome in Vientiane

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh arrives in Vientiane, Laos. Photo: Nhat Bac

At the airport, PM Chinh was welcomed by Minister and Head of the Lao Prime Ministers Office Bouakhong Nammavong, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, leaders of Vientiane, Lao Ambassador to Vietnam Khamphao Ernthavanh, Chief of the LaosVietnam Cooperation Committee Viengsan Chantha, and other officials from the Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On the Vietnamese side, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Manh Cuong, Ambassador to Laos Nguyen Minh Tam, representatives from Vietnamese agencies in Laos, embassy staff, and members of the Vietnamese community were also present.

Co-chairing major events and charting strategic directions

The Vietnamese delegation attending the 48th session of the VietnamLaos Intergovernmental Committee and engaging in bilateral activities in Laos includes the following members:

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Chi Dung, who also serves as Head of the VietnamLaos Intergovernmental Committee.

Minister of National Defense Phan Van Giang.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Hoai Trung.

Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang, who is also Chairman of the VietnamLaos Cooperation Committee.

Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien.

Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung.

Minister of Construction Tran Hong Minh.

Minister of Home Affairs Do Thanh Binh.

Minister of Justice Nguyen Hai Ninh.

Deputy Minister of Public Security Dang Hong Duc.

Deputy Chief of the Government Office Trinh Manh Linh.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Laos Nguyen Minh Tam.

Ambassador Nguyen Minh Tam also joins the working group.

The high-level meeting between the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party - co-chaired by both General Secretaries - remains the most crucial mechanism for bilateral political cooperation.

During the dialogue, leaders will exchange updates on each countrys political landscape, review cooperation outcomes, and outline long-term strategic orientations for VietnamLaos relations.

Setting the roadmap for 20262030 cooperation

Welcome ceremony for PM Pham Minh Chinh at Wattay International Airport. Photo: Nhat Bac
There are moments when a nations strength is revealed not in GDP figures or gleaming cities, but in the quiet presence of its government standing shoulder-to-shoulder with citizens amid the mud and ruins - when homes are washed away in the night, and entire lives are reset to zero by a flood.

As Dak Lak, Gia Lai, Khanh Hoa, and Lam Dong were submerged, with nearly 1,000 homes swept away, thousands more damaged, losses nearing $675 million, and 108 lives lost, one truth became clear: the strength of a country can lie in compassion and in the determined response of a government that acts.

On November 29, during a visit to the flood epicenter, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh launched the Quang Trung Campaign - a swift, wartime-spirited initiative to rebuild collapsed houses and repair damaged ones, returning shelter and stability to families before the Lunar New Year.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visits and encourages nine families whose homes collapsed in Phu Huu village, Hoa Thinh commune, Dak Lak province, on November 29. Photo: Nhat Bac

The campaign officially began on December 1, 2025. It mobilizes military, police, youth, women's groups, veterans, agencies, enterprises, and the entire political system to assist families whose homes were severely damaged - repairs must be completed by December 31, 2025. For those whose homes were destroyed, new construction and resettlement must be finished no later than January 31, 2026.

The Prime Minister emphasized mobilizing resources from central and local governments, philanthropists, and affected families themselves, urging all to embrace the spirit of shared responsibility: Give what you can - much or little, time or money - wherever you are.

To date, the government has provided $89 million to support four provinces. Additional proposals from localities are under consideration and likely to be approved.

The Prime Minister called on party committees and local governments to lead with urgency and clarity, applying the principle of six specifics: clear personnel, tasks, deadlines, responsibilities, authority, and outcomes. He appealed to people and businesses to join hands in a spirit of national unity.

These deadlines reflect the States accountability to its citizens - ensuring that no family is left behind in the aftermath of disaster.

Military forces, police, militia, and grassroots authorities are mobilized as in a national mission. Everything is structured around the six specifics principle to ensure that no task is delayed and no duty neglected.

Beyond direct aid of $89 million, the Vietnam Fatherland Front has allocated an additional $11.4 million to hard-hit provinces.

These numbers represent more than financial relief - they signify action. The State is not only providing policies and funding but deploying its core forces to the flood zones, erecting new roofs with their own hands.

But the Quang Trung Campaign is not merely a short-term disaster response. It stands on the foundation of long-term policy: Resolution 380 on post-disaster recovery and a nationwide program to eliminate makeshift and dilapidated housing.

Over the past year alone, more than 334,000 homes have been built or repaired using a mix of funding from central and local governments, businesses, the Fatherland Front, and contributions from the residents themselves.

Parallel to this is the social housing program, with over 132,000 units under construction. Tens of thousands have already been handed over to workers in major cities - people who generate value daily yet continue to live in precarious and unsafe rented rooms.

Viewed together - flood resettlement, poverty housing elimination, and urban social housing - these three programs form a tri-layered safety net for the most vulnerable. They protect people from disasters, an unforgiving housing market, and even the risk of falling back into poverty when a single storm could wipe away years of effort.

And woven through all of them is the greatest strength: a State that chooses to stand beside its people when they are most wounded and exhausted.

The true difference between nations lies in this: whether or not the weak are protected, and whether anyone is left behind.

Disasters destroy homes, steal lives, sweep away possessions, and sow despair. But when soldiers and police lay each brick in the flood zones, when homes are rebuilt and families are given back their shelter and peace, one truth becomes evident - the State is using its own hands to restore life for its poorest citizens.

And for that reason, the Quang Trung Campaign is more than a response - its a rebuilding of community stability, a revival of hope after the darkest days, and a reaffirmation of faith in a government that acts.

Lan Anh
On the morning of December 1, only days after local authorities cleared encroachments and demanded signed safety pledges, the cafes along the railway tracks near Kham Thien and Le Duan in Hanoi were back in full operation - crowded with both domestic and foreign tourists.

Back to business as usual: Vendors and visitors reclaim the tracks

Late last November, enforcement teams targeted businesses operating illegally along the tracks near Phung Hung, Tran PhuDien Bien Phu, and Kham ThienLe Duan. Officials instructed all cafe owners to commit in writing not to occupy the railway safety corridor.

But by early December, the scene had already returned to what it was before. Foot traffic surged, cameras were raised, and the tracks became the center of both commerce and spectacle once again.

Photos taken around 912 a.m. on December 1 showed hundreds of visitors packed along the railway cafes near Kham Thien, many eagerly waiting for the next train to pass. Some cafe staff were seen standing between the tracks, actively calling tourists in.

Vendors hustle, tourists pose dangerously close to trains

Workers hurriedly carried drinks to tables, while street vendors approached tourists with souvenirs and snacks. In between train schedules, cafe owners pushed tables and chairs right up to the tracks.

Despite a recent viral video showing a train plowing through this same stretch and sending tables flying while panicked tourists scrambled for safety, many visitors still posed dangerously close to the passing locomotives.

When trains approached, some cafe owners would shout to usher guests indoors and quickly remove chairs and tables. Yet in several spots, people and furniture remained alarmingly close to the moving carriages.

Risk embraced as attraction

While the proximity to danger might terrify some, others found it thrilling. As trains thundered past, tourists held up their phones to snap photos and shoot videos, unfazed by how close they were to disaster.

This area, especially around the Tran PhuDien Bien Phu section, has been spotlighted for years by both local and international media for its unique yet hazardous draw. The train street cafe experience has been repeatedly named as a must-see for tourists seeking adrenaline and Instagrammable moments.

Despite safety campaigns and recurring warnings from authorities, this chaotic cycle of enforcement and resurgence continues to repeat itself.

The railway cafes resume operation at dusk on December 1. Photo: Phuc Tai

Tourists crowd the tracks near Kham Thien, waiting for the train. Photo: Phuc Tai

A vendor rushes to serve tourists along the tracks. Photo: Phuc Tai

Street vendors and cafe staff navigate between curious visitors. Photo: Phuc Tai

Tables and chairs are set up right next to the railway line. Photo: Phuc Tai

Tourists cheerfully photograph passing trains just inches away. Photo: Phuc Tai

Phuc Tai
On behalf of the Politburo, Standing Secretary of the Secretariat Tran Cam Tu recently signed Conclusion No. 219, continuing the implementation of Resolution No. 19 (dated June 16, 2022) on agriculture, farmers, and rural development through 2030 with a long-term vision toward 2045.

The conclusion acknowledges a rapidly shifting global context, marked by accelerated technological change, climate fluctuations, and increasingly complex market dynamics - all of which deeply affect rural development and agricultural production.

Agriculture, farmers, and rural areas play a long-term strategic role. Photo: Ho Hai

The Politburo reaffirms the strategic and long-term importance of agriculture, farmers (including fishers and salt workers), and rural areas as fundamental pillars for macroeconomic stability and sustainable growth. Farmers remain the center, the agent, the driving force, and the key resource of transformation.

The directive urges a shift toward commodity-oriented thinking, focusing on green, organic, circular, and low-emission agriculture. It calls for comprehensive digital transformation and the adoption of advanced technologies, all while protecting the ecosystem.

Agriculture must ensure national food security in all circumstances and contribute to balancing major economic indicators, macroeconomic stability, and inflation control. It must be developed in harmony with urban growth and be aligned with effective two-tier local governance.

The Politburo calls for breakthrough policies to attract and mobilize resources - particularly from individuals and businesses - into green, ecological, and circular agriculture. It also emphasizes targeted support for businesses and communities in strategic, remote, and border areas.

Ministries, departments, and localities are urged to create incentive mechanisms to promote agricultural exports, improve market access, and boost Vietnams competitiveness, product value, and national reputation.

Efforts must also go into protecting land designated for high-quality rice cultivation. Agricultural brands and key products should be developed in sustainable production zones with low emissions and supported by modern science, processing, and logistics.

The Politburo stresses the need to reorganize production toward specialization and professionalism, fostering strong collaboration between what it calls the six stakeholders.

Agricultural enterprises need stronger support to thrive. Photo: Nguyen Hue

Agricultural businesses must be nurtured to grow into regional and global leaders by 2030, guiding Vietnams participation in international value chains and helping build strong national brands for core products.

Small-scale farmers are encouraged and supported to join cooperatives, associations, and producer groups - enabling them to participate in large-scale commodity production.

The Politburo also calls for a unified national database system covering land, water, forests, minerals, meteorology, hydrology, and biodiversity.

It proposes comprehensive, coordinated solutions for sustainable, legal exploitation of aquatic resources, in accordance with international standards and linked to maritime sovereignty.

Mariculture should be expanded and designed to withstand storms. The government will explore offshore aquaculture technologies and incentivize the formation of ocean-fishing fleets.

Public investment in agriculture and rural areas to double

Photo: Ho Giap
A Vietnamese UAV product showcased at the 2025 Vietnam Low-Altitude Economic Forum held in Hanoi on November 14. Photo: Du Lam

At the ministrys November press conference held on December 1, Deputy Minister Bui Hoang Phuong emphasized that institutional improvement has been a top priority.

The ministry has essentially completed the documentation and procedures required to report to the Government and submit to the National Assembly five significant legislative proposals: the Digital Transformation Law, amendments to the Intellectual Property Law, the Technology Transfer Law, the High-Tech Law, and the Artificial Intelligence Law.

In addition, the ministry has issued 12 guiding circulars under its authority. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Head of Quality Management at the Department of Information Technology Industry, introduced six of these circulars, effective from late October to early November, describing them as synchronized measures to advance Vietnam's digital technology industry ecosystem.

Unprecedented land and corporate tax incentives

The most notable highlight - and a major stimulus for businesses - is the set of top-tier investment incentives. Under Circular 31/2025, projects involving the production of digital technology products and services designated as strategic - such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and especially semiconductors (including consumer, AI, and IoT chips) - will be entirely exempt from land use and rental fees. This is the highest level of incentive ever offered in Vietnam.

In parallel, Circular 32/2025 applies similarly significant incentives for projects producing semiconductor materials (14 categories) and manufacturing equipment, machinery, and tools (18 categories) used as inputs for the semiconductor industry. This aims to build a fully integrated and comprehensive semiconductor ecosystem.

Record corporate income tax relief

Circular 33/2025 outlines record-setting corporate income tax (CIT) incentives for electronic equipment manufacturers. These include a 4-year CIT exemption, followed by a 50% tax reduction for the next 9 years. For projects exceeding VND 6 trillion (about USD 250 million), the Prime Minister may extend the exemption period up to 1.5 times the standard duration.

Enterprises must meet at least one of four criteria to qualify:

1. Utilize semiconductor chips that are designed, produced, packaged, or tested in Vietnam.

2. Fulfill requirements in research, technology development, and innovation, including operating an R&D department with at least 10 personnel holding university degrees (50% must be Vietnamese citizens), and allocate a minimum of 2% of their average net revenue to R&D activities.

3. Own the design rights of the products manufactured in Vietnam.

4. Involve at least 30% Vietnamese enterprises in the supply chain and commit to transferring technology to domestic entities or businesses.

Easing equipment imports to boost R&D

To support production and R&D, Circular 30/2025 amends rules on the import of used machinery. Notably, the age limit for equipment used in semiconductor production, packaging, and testing has been extended to 20 years - double the previous 10-year cap set by Decision 18/2019.

In addition, equipment used for digital tech training and product development will not be subject to strict efficiency or age requirements (e.g., 85% remaining capacity or design life).

Circular 26/2025 also relaxes restrictions by allowing the import of items normally banned, provided they serve special purposes - such as operating production lines, directly supporting IT-based software development, business process outsourcing, and data processing for foreign clients. The regulation also permits refurbished components to be imported as replacements or for repairs when those parts are no longer manufactured.

Further, it allows the processing of banned goods for foreign partners intended for export, thereby promoting outsourcing services.

Finally, Circular 34/2025 defines the digital technology products and services eligible for procurement preferences in government-funded projects.

Hardware products receive preferential treatment if they meet two conditions: designed and branded by Vietnamese enterprises. For software, preference is given to those designed and developed by Vietnamese individuals or organizations, or based on open-source code owned by Vietnamese entities.

Du Lam
Nineteen PhD holders who graduated from world-leading universities and research institutes have returned to Vietnam to teach and conduct research at various member institutions of Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCMC).

They are part of a cohort of 20 scientists selected for the prestigious VNU350 program, which aims to bring highly qualified scholars back to Vietnam.

The 20 new hires will work at the following VNU-HCMC member institutions: University of Technology (8 PhDs), University of Social Sciences and Humanities (1), International University (2), University of Economics and Law (3), An Giang University (1), University of Health Sciences (4), and the Institute for Advanced Materials Technology (1).

Among the 19 foreign-trained scholars are graduates of prestigious institutions such as the National University of Singapore, Chonnam National University (South Korea), Ghent University (Belgium), Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), University of Orleans (France), Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands), and Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand).

Many of them boast impressive research records, including one individual who has published 69 scientific papers.

Multi-year support and incentives under the VNU350 program

VNU350 offers robust support to young researchers in the first five years of their academic career in Vietnam.

In the first two years, each will receive funding for a type-C research project (USD 8,200).

In the third year, they are eligible for a type-B project grant worth up to USD 41,000.

In the fourth year, they may receive up to USD 410,000 to establish a research lab.

By the fifth year, they are provided support and mentorship to navigate the process of achieving national-level associate professorship accreditation.

Stronger support for senior researchers

Top-tier scholars hired under the program receive even greater backing.

In their first two years, they are granted a type-B research project of up to USD 41,000.

From the third year onward, they can receive up to USD 1.23 million for lab development and are encouraged to form strong research groups and lead national-level projects.

In addition to research funding, scholars are entitled to salaries and bonuses in accordance with university policies, with some earning up to USD 4,100 per month.

Le Huyen
Nams passion began in 1994, when he was stationed in Khanh Hoa Province during his military service. A local resident gave him three old Vietnamese banknotes as a memento. Intrigued, he began studying the intricate designs and imagery on the bills. The more he explored, the more captivated he became - eventually sparking his decision to start collecting rare money.

By late 1995, after completing his military service, Nam began actively researching and seeking out vintage currency.

Back then, collecting old money was incredibly difficult, he recalled. I had to wait for the spring Vieng Market in Nam Truc District (Nam Dinh Province), which only happens once a year, to try and find notes I didnt yet own. Id ask friends and contacts to keep an eye out for me. If I heard that someone, somewhere, had a rare note I was missing, Id travel to meet them and buy it - no matter the distance.

In recent years, social media has made collecting easier. Online platforms and interest groups allow Nam to connect with other enthusiasts, buy and trade notes, and access a wider range of rare pieces.

A high price for history and heritage

Nam now owns around 500 paper notes and over 200 coins. Some have cost him tens of millions of dong. Most recently, he paid 60 million VND (nearly 2,500 USD) for a single highly sought-after note he had been searching for over many years.

To truly understand the cultural and historical value of each piece, Nam consults research books, studies online archives, and engages with fellow collectors. His deepening knowledge helps him accurately assess the rarity and significance of each item in his collection.

Each era had its own note sizes, colors, materials, and printing methods. Just by looking at a note, you can tell which historical period it came from, he explained. Everything - from the typography and patterns to the materials - reflects the economic and social conditions of that time.

To me, these notes are more than monetary objects. Theyre witnesses to history, tied to the story of our country. Thats why I find collecting so rewarding. Even if a note is expensive, I never feel like Ive overpaid - its always worth it.

Preserving the past, one note at a time

A 100 VND note known as the blue buffalo, part of Vu Hoai Nams prized collection.

Each banknote is carefully preserved to maintain its original color, print, and condition.

Nam has developed meticulous preservation techniques for his growing collection. Whenever he acquires a new banknote, he first uses an air conditioner to gently dry it and eliminate any moisture that could lead to mold.

Next, the note is sealed in a firm plastic sleeve, edges heat-sealed, then stored in an album inside a protective cabinet. This method ensures that even decades-old notes retain their original clarity and quality.

For exceptionally rare or high-value pieces, Nam sends them overseas for professional grading and preservation using advanced archival technology - ensuring they remain intact under optimal conditions.

Despite receiving numerous high offers to sell parts of his collection, Nam has always declined.

The emotional and cultural value of these notes far outweighs any monetary offer, he said.

Beyond money: A living archive of Vietnams visual history

In addition to currency, Nam is also passionate about collecting ration coupons and postage stamps. His collection now includes over 10,000 stamps, many of which are considered rare and highly sought after by philatelists.

To Nam, each coin, note, or stamp carries a unique story.

Thats why he dreams of one day building a personal exhibition space at home - a small museum where other collectors and enthusiasts can visit, admire, exchange stories, and share knowledge.

Every piece is a slice of history. Preserving them is preserving memory, he said.
Vietnam Airlines has confirmed that it will restart scheduled routes as soon as the airport is cleared for operation. Beginning December 19, the airline plans to operate seven round-trip flights daily connecting Vinh with Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. This includes five round trips on the VinhHo Chi Minh City route, and two on the VinhHanoi route.

Vietjet also announced its intention to promptly resume services to Vinh once the airport reopens. From December 19, it plans to operate five round-trip flights daily on the Ho Chi Minh CityVinh route, with six round trips every Saturday.

Vinh Airport was previously closed starting July 1 to allow for infrastructure improvement works. During the closure, all flights to and from the airport were suspended. Airlines increased flight frequencies to nearby airports such as Noi Bai (Hanoi) and Tho Xuan (Thanh Hoa) to meet continued travel demand in the North Central region.

Vu Diep
Following the realignment, Ninh Kieu ward now spans 5.42 square kilometers and is home to nearly 120,000 residents, making it the most densely populated administrative unit in Can Tho. The area is known for its vibrant tourism offerings that no visitor should miss.

Ninh Kieu Wharf is a cultural and tourism icon of Can Tho City, dating back to the 19th century. Located on the right bank of the Hau River, at the confluence of the Hau and Can Tho rivers, the wharf runs along Hai Ba Trung Street.

One of the most popular experiences here is an evening cruise on the Hau River. Aboard the cruise, guests can enjoy local specialties, listen to traditional don ca tai tu music, and admire the cityscape illuminated at night.

Ong Pagoda, situated on Hai Ba Trung Street, was built over 120 years ago by the Cantonese Chinese community. With its distinct architectural style, the pagoda serves as both a place of worship and a hub of cultural exchange.

Unlike other Chinese-style temples, Ong Pagoda in Can Tho lacks plaques documenting its founders or the exact year of its establishment.

Recognized as a national historical site since 1993, the pagoda is a frequent destination for locals - some seeking luck in their careers, others praying for peace and health.

Can Tho Market, also on Hai Ba Trung Street, was established in the early 20th century and is considered the most architecturally beautiful market in the Mekong Delta. It has become a top check-in spot for travelers to Tay Do, the historical name of Can Tho.

Today, the market has been renovated with a unique design and an airy, harmonious layout. It mainly sells souvenirs, handicrafts, vacation accessories, and traditional garments.

Ninh Kieu Pedestrian Bridge - also known as the love bridge - is 199 meters long and 7.2 meters wide, with an elegant S-curve design. The bridge includes two expanded sections with lotus-shaped platforms and rest areas sheltered by canopies.

Visitors can explore the bridge at any time of day, but the most picturesque moments are during three key times: early morning amidst the misty sunrise, late afternoon when the golden sunset reflects off the water, and nighttime when the breeze is gentle and the city, along with the Can Tho Bridge - the longest cable-stayed bridge in Southeast Asia - glows under bright lights.

The Can Tho Grand Prison historical site, located on Ngo Gia Tu Street, was built by the French colonialists between 1876 and 1886 under the name Prison Provinciale. It was the largest provincial prison in the southwestern region at the time. The facility was constructed with thick walls, measuring 3.6 to 5 meters high, surrounded by iron fences. Guard towers, each 6 meters tall, were equipped with searchlights.

The prison complex was divided into two sections, comprising 21 communal cells that could hold 30 to 40 inmates each, alongside multiple solitary confinement rooms.

Ninh Kieu Walking Street - one of the citys most dynamic areas - will be expanded and reorganized starting this December to create a richer space for nighttime culture and the arts. The initiative aims to lengthen visitor stays and enhance the quality of life for local residents.

In addition to preserving traditional cultural and artistic performances from the previous walking street, the new setup will introduce interactive events where audiences can engage directly with artists performing various folk forms like cai luong (Southern opera), ho (chanting), and ve (rhyming tales).

Ninh Kieu Wharf  a famous cultural and tourist destination in Can Tho.

Cruising on the Hau River at night is a favorite activity for many visitors.

Ong Pagoda on Hai Ba Trung Street was built over 120 years ago by the Cantonese Chinese community.

Can Tho Market is among the most beautiful markets in the Mekong Delta.

Ninh Kieu Pedestrian Bridge is designed in an elegant S-curve, with lotus-shaped rest areas.

Visitors enjoy the bridge most at dawn, sunset, and nighttime.

Can Tho Grand Prison, built during the French colonial era, was the largest in the southwestern region.

Ninh Kieu Walking Street will be expanded this December to include more cultural and artistic activities.

Tran Tuyen
Associate Professor Vuong Thi Ngoc Lan, Vice Rector of Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, has been appointed as the sole Asian representative on the core team of authors developing the World Health Organizations (WHO) 2025 Guidelines for the Prevention, Diagnosis, and Management of Infertility.

According to the university, this marks the worlds first comprehensive set of guidelines dedicated to the field of reproductive health and assisted reproduction.

Associate Professor Vuong Thi Ngoc Lan, Vice Rector of Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, has become the sole Asian representative in the core authorship team for WHO's 2025 guidelines on infertility prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Photo: HCMUMP

Associate Professor Lans involvement not only affirms Vietnams competence in in-vitro fertilization (IVF), but also signifies a pivotal step in enhancing the voice of Vietnamese medicine on the global map of healthcare leadership.

Previously, Associate Professor Lan held several key academic positions including Dean of the School of Medicine and Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the university. She currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Ho Chi Minh City Medical Journal and sits on the editorial board of Fertility and Reproduction, the official journal of ASPIRE - the Asia Pacific Initiative on Reproduction. She also contributed to the WHOs earlier guidelines on infertility care for couples.

Associate Professor Lan is the author or co-author of more than 80 scientific publications and research studies published in prestigious medical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Human Reproduction, Fertility & Sterility, Reproductive BioMedicine Online, Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics, BMJ, and Frontiers in Endocrinology.

Born in 1971, Lan earned her MD from Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine, followed by a masters degree in clinical embryology at the National University of Singapore. She successfully defended her PhD in obstetrics and gynecology at Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy and was appointed Associate Professor in 2019.

In 2020, she was one of three scientists honored with the prestigious Ta Quang Buu Award.

In 2021, Asian Scientist magazine (Singapore) listed her among the top 100 outstanding researchers in Asia.

She is also the daughter of Professor Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong, former Director of Tu Du Hospital, who played a significant role in advancing reproductive health in Vietnam.

Le Huyen
Seasoned brand strategist will serve as a champion for Radical Empathy while accelerating the agency's already impressive growth trajectory

SEATTLE, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- DNA&STONE , the full-service agency that doesn't flinch for brands that go there, today announced the appointment of Jess Watts as the agency's first-ever Chief Strategy Officer, marking a significant milestone in the company's evolution since its founding earlier this year. Watts brings more than 15 years of strategy experience across global brands, emerging categories and culture-defining campaigns.

Jess Watts, Chief Strategy Officer, DNA&STONE

"The second we started talking to Jess, we knew she was our kind of people. She thinks big, listens hard, and leads with Radical Empathy in a way that doesn't just fit our philosophy, it amplifies it," said Matt McCain, Co-Founder, DNA&STONE. "Jess brings this electric mix of creativity, clarity, and grit that makes everyone around her better. You don't meet many people who can see the human truth in a problem and then charge at it with that much heart. That's why she's here, and why we're so fired up to have her."

In this newly created role, Watts will champion DNA&STONE's Radical Empathyled strategic practice, designing immersive, human-centered methodologies to uncover emotional truths and unlock bold creative and brand platforms. She will guide the agency's insight development, strengthen brand positioning for clients and partner closely with creative and account leadership to deliver culturally resonant work that drives business impact for clients.

Watts will also be responsible for building and leading a high-performing strategy discipline, setting the vision for talent development, operational rigor and culturally attuned research frameworks. As a member of the executive team, she will serve as a trusted advisor to clients  both current and prospective  and play a pivotal role in new business efforts.

"I try to understand people as the real, complicated humans they are, not as archetypes. That's why DNA&STONE's philosophy of Radical Empathy grabbed me from the start," said Watts. The team's commitment to acknowledging truths and challenging bias made my decision incredibly easy. After several years in-house, I'm excited to get back into the creative trenches with an agency that's hungry to win and already building serious momentum. The level of talent and drive here is unreal; it feels like joining a small but mighty special-ops team determined to solve problems with heart and hustle."

Watts joins DNA&STONE from Expedia Group, where she served as Global Director of Brand Planning & Integrated Marketing, driving a new global brand direction and elevating Expedia's strategic presence in the travel landscape. Her previous experience includes strategic roles at leading agencies such as RPA and David&Goliath. Across her expansive career, Watts has worked with some of the world's most well-known brands, including PayPal, Venmo, TikTok, Southwest Airlines, Farmers Insurance and more.

Throughout her career, Watts has gained impressive recognition from the industry, including being named as Business Insider's "Rising Stars of Madison Avenue," winning multiple Clios for her work with Expedia, several Effies (including Gold for Farmers Insurance) and a Gold Ogilvy Award. Outside of advertising, Watts serves as a board member for Cares of Washington, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting people with disabilities and low incomes to realize their purpose, potential and strength.

To learn more about DNA&STONE, please visit www.dnaandstone.com .

About DNA&STONE

DNA&STONE is a full-service creative agency that doesn't flinchfor brands that go there. Grounded in a proprietary strategic approach called Radical Empathy, DNA&STONE goes beyond just understanding, to feeling the experiences, perspectives and root causes that drive consumers and clients, resulting in work with deep emotional intelligence. DNA&STONE was recently named Ad Age Small Agency of the Year in 2025 and was shortlisted in Adweek's 2025 Agency of the Year Awards. Clients include BECU, Amazon, Providence, MCU, and Ziply Fiber. To learn more about us, please visit www.dnaandstone.com .

SOURCE DNA&STONE
The National Commendation Ceremony for Outstanding Ethnic Minority Students and Youth is more than just an event to honor achievements - it is a celebration of resilience and a driving force spreading the spirit of learning across Vietnams highland communities.

A source of pride for families and villages

In many provinces, including Quang Ninh, every ethnic minority student honored at the national level becomes a symbol of pride for their families and communities. Their stories embody the transformative power of knowledge and education.

Trieu Quy Trinh, a respected elder in Nam Kim hamlet (Ba Che commune), vividly recalls his feelings in 2022 when Nguyen Thao Vy, a Dao student from the former Ba Che district, was named among 142 outstanding ethnic minority youth recognized nationwide. The ceremony was organized by the Committee for Ethnic Affairs (now the Ministry of Ethnic and Religious Affairs), in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Training and the Central Youth Union (now part of the Vietnam Fatherland Front).

Our people hold knowledge in high regard, but life is still hard. So when one of our children gets recognized, it is a collective pride. Their success is also a way to preserve the dignity of our ethnic heritage, Trinh said.

Hoang Tieu Lam at the 11th National Commendation Ceremony for Outstanding Ethnic Minority Students and Youth, 2024. Photo: My Dung

For teachers in remote areas, student achievements are a testament to the schools dedication and quality of education. Nguyen Thi Lan, principal of Quang Ha High School (Quang Ha commune), expressed her joy when 12th-grade student Hoang Tieu Lam was honored in the 2024 ceremony. Despite economic and educational challenges, Lam achieved an impressive 29.6 on her graduation exam and was accepted to Hanoi National University of Education.

When we saw our student being honored among the best, it deepened our love for this profession. It shows that even in disadvantaged areas, with effort and perseverance, students can achieve great things. We always use these role models to motivate and inspire other students, Lan shared.

Spreading a culture of learning in ethnic communities

Held annually and broadcast live, the Commendation Ceremony has, over its 11 years, become a widely anticipated event, fostering a greater appreciation for education among ethnic communities. Local officials and teachers agree that it has positively influenced how highland families view schooling. For households still struggling financially, the success of these young individuals is the clearest evidence of the value of education.

San A Sui, Head of the Fatherland Front Committee in Po Hen hamlet (Hai Son commune), believes every honoree is like a good seed nurturing the future of their village.

Its a signal for local authorities to continue investing in education and encouraging families to keep their children in school, he emphasized.

San A Sui, Head of the Fatherland Front Committee in Po Hen hamlet (Hai Son commune). Photo: My Dung

The ceremonys impact reaches beyond attendees. On social media platforms and forums, ethnic minority readers and parents express heartfelt pride and emotion when seeing these youth rise above their circumstances.

Ly Van Hung, a resident of Luong Minh commune, shared: My children are in school, so Ive watched the ceremony a few times. It brings back memories of my own schooling journey. Policies are better now, and education is more supported. I believe these kids will bring back knowledge to uplift their hometowns.

Inspiring change, building confidence, and shaping the future

More than just a morale boost, the ceremony helps reinforce belief among ethnic families in the power of learning. For many, each certificate and each story of resilience proves that education is the most direct path to changing their lives.

Over the years, the National Commendation Ceremony for Outstanding Ethnic Minority Students and Youth has evolved from a celebratory event into a source of lasting inspiration. It nurtures dreams born in remote villages and supports the emergence of a generation of confident, knowledgeable young people eager to contribute to their communities and the nation.

My Dung
British University Vietnam (BUV) and Manchester Metropolitan University have exchanged a Letter of Intent (LoI) to develop a suite of dual-degree programmes in Viet Nam.

The signing took place in London on the occasion of Viet Nam and the UK elevating their relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

The exchange was conducted by Professor Rick Bennett, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President of BUV, and Professor Liz Warren, Head of International, Faculty of Business and Law at Manchester Metropolitan.

The event was witnessed by Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, Director General of the International Cooperation Department, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Quoc Khanh, Deputy Director General of the Department of Quality Management, Ministry of Education and Training of Viet Nam, alongside James Shipton, Country Director of British Council Vietnam, ao Thi Hong, First Secretary, Embassy of Viet Nam in London, and Professor Nguyen Xuan Huan, Chair of the Vietnamese Intellectual Society in the UK and Ireland.

Meeting global workforce demands

The Letter of Intent marks a shared commitment to fostering high-quality education and expanding global learning opportunities for Vietnamese students. It will enable students to experience 200 years of Manchester education, now in Viet Nam at BUV, while reinforcing BUV's efforts in delivering internationally recognised, quality-assured programmes.

For Manchester Metropolitan, this partnership represents an opportunity to engage with Viet Nams vibrant and high-potential education market, deepen its presence in Asia, and enrich its global student community.

Manchester Metropolitan University is one of the UKs largest and most dynamic higher education institutions, rated Gold  the highest level in the UKs Teaching Excellence Framework 2023. Its Business School holds the prestigious Triple Crown Accreditation, a distinction earned by only 1 per cent of business schools worldwide. Additionally, the Manchester School of Art ranks among the worlds top 51100 for Art & Design (QS Rankings).

Manchester Metropolitans reputation for world-class education has drawn over 44,000 students from 100+ countries, creating a global alumni network of 350,000 worldwide.

From 2026, Manchester Metropolitan will become BUV's awarding body partner, offering five programmes (subject to validation), including four bachelors degrees: Banking and International Finance, Design (Graphics), Business and Technology , and Design (Illustration & Animation), along with a Master of Business.

These programmes are designed to meet global workforce demands, combining Manchester Metropolitans rigorous academic standards with BUVs QS 5-star learning environment, in full compliance with regulations from Viet Nams Ministry of Education and Training and the UKs Office for Students.

Delivered under a dual-degree model, the programmes allow students flexible study pathways aligned with their financial capacity and career aspirations.

Professor Rick Bennett, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President of BUV, remarked: Our collaboration with Manchester Metropolitan underscores BUVs commitment to supporting Viet Nams national strategic priorities in key disciplines. With our prestigious UK partners academic heritage and innovative spirit, these new programmes will provide BUV students with learning experiences deeply connected to real-world practice and global trends.

Professor Liz Warren, Head of International, Faculty of Business and Law, Manchester Metropolitan University, added: Viet Nam is one of the fastest-growing and most promising education markets in Asia. Through this partnership, we aim to co-develop future-ready programmes that uphold Manchester Metropolitans rigorous academic standards and rich heritage of excellence, meet the demand for highly skilled professionals, and provide students with global learning and development opportunities.

This exchange gained additional significance as it followed the exchange of a Letter of Intent between Viet Nams Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son and the UKs Minister for Skills Baroness Smith on October 29, during Party General Secretary To Lams official visit to the UK, reaffirming both countries commitment to deepening cooperation in education and training.

Successful model

Education and scientific research remain a cornerstone of the Viet NamUK Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. With its significant contributions to strengthening bilateral relations, BUV has been repeatedly recognised by the British Embassy in Viet Nam as an exemplary model of educational collaboration between the two governments.

Founded in 2009 with 100-per cent foreign investment and a total projected capital of USD 165 million, BUV represents the UKs long-term commitment to Viet Nams education sector. It is the first fully foreign-invested university in Viet Nam to partner with UK institutions in offering globally recognised British degrees, and notably, the first in ASEAN and the only one in Viet Nam to receive full institutional accreditation from the UKs Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA).

In April 2025, BUV was recognised as an International Partner of the University of London among its highest tiers of collaboration, affirming BUVs academic standing and its vital role as an educational bridge between the UK and Viet Nam.

With its continued innovation in curriculum design, international partnerships, and investment in world-class facilities, BUV reaffirms its pioneering role in delivering high-quality British education to Viet Nam, as it pursues its vision of becoming the number one international university in Viet Nam and the surrounding regions.

About British University Vietnam (BUV)

BUV is the first university in Viet Nam to earn a 5-star rating from Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) and the first in Viet Nam and ASEAN to achieve global accreditation from the UK's Quality Assurance Agency (QAA)  two of the world's most prestigious education quality organisations. BUV's curriculum is carefully designed and regularly updated to reflect the latest industry trends, emphasising the seamless integration of theory and practice. 100 per cent of BUV graduates secure employment or continue higher education within three months of graduation.

Learn more about BUV: https://mmu.buv.edu.vn/

About Manchester Metropolitan University

Home to over 44,000 students, Manchester Metropolitan University is one of the UKs largest and most popular universities, based in the heart of Manchester. Its campus offers state-of-the-art facilities and innovative teaching, combined with outstanding research and award-winning degree apprenticeships that help students thrive in their careers.

For more information, visit: www.mmu.ac.uk
HA NOI  Growing demand for transparency and higher product quality is reshaping the domestic market, making product traceability a fundamental safeguard for consumer rights.

Government representatives said that this shift aligns with the Politburo's Resolution 57-NQ/TW on accelerating scientific and technological breakthroughs, innovation and digital transformation.

According to Nguyen uc Le of the Domestic Market Management and Development Agency, effective consumer protection begins with verifying the true origin of goods and determining whether products are counterfeit or infringe intellectual property rights.

He noted that new technologies, such as AI, big data and IoT, now allow authorities to detect violations at a much earlier stage, even at the point where businesses register or begin production. This proactive model reduces dependence on consumer complaints once products are already circulating and supports the transition from pre-market inspections to post-market supervision, a shift that grants businesses greater autonomy while decreasing potential risks for buyers.

Associate Professor Dr Chu Hoang Ha of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology highlighted that strategic technologies  including semiconductor chips, IoT, blockchain, big data and AI  can form the backbone of a modern, secure and interconnected national traceability ecosystem.

However, he emphasised that technological capacity alone is insufficient. A legal framework, strong coordination between ministries and local governments and clear compatibility standards are essential for an effective system.

From the perspective of industry implementation, Chairman of the Vietnam Blockchain and Digital Assets Association Phan uc Trung underscored the importance of developing a trusted national infrastructure, citing the Electronic Authentication Stamp Database and Viet Nams Multi-Chain Blockchain Service Network.

He said that these platforms will support authentication, standardisation and pilot applications that move the country toward a unified traceability model.

Checkee Technology CEO Pham Van Quan agreed, arguing that genuine traceability goes far beyond the simple use of QR codes or chips. A credible system requires standardised data and product identifiers, transparent databases linked to IoT devices, robust verification mechanisms and full adherence to legal and technical standards.

Both regulators and consumers must be able to access and independently verify all relevant product information, he said.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment plans to prioritise the development of technical regulations and sector-specific databases, which will be linked with the National Barcode Centre. Technology firms will provide digital platforms and tools, while producers and farmers will take responsibility for regularly updating product data.

Nguyen Bao Trung from the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment added that traceability is essential not only for export goods, but also for domestic consumption and for protecting legitimate producers from counterfeit products.

Technologies like AI and blockchain offer significant advantages in transparency and data integrity. Yet he also acknowledged the practical challenges Viet Nam faces, particularly the fragmented nature of small-scale production and the substantial cost of maintaining accurate databases for individual farmers, co-operatives and small enterprises.

Experts argue that a comprehensive national traceability system would allow authorities to verify product origins, ensure regulatory compliance and offer consumers reliable information before purchase.

Despite ongoing efforts, Viet Nam still lacks unified standards and an integrated national database, leaving current systems fragmented and significantly limiting their effectiveness.

Nevertheless, Trung noted that sectoral databases maintained by Government agencies are gradually being completed. This progress will enable officials to verify business-submitted data, which he said is crucial.

Only when information is validated by State authorities can traceability truly add value and contribute to improving product quality, he noted.

A draft Decree on identification, authentication and product traceability is under development to formalise this framework and support Viet Nams transition to a more transparent, technology-driven market environment.  VNS
HA NOI  As Viet Nam and Moscow mark the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations, the Ha NoiMoscow Business Forum brought together senior leaders and a large community of enterprises from both capitals, reaffirming a shared commitment to traditional friendship, substantive cooperation and sustainable development.

The forum, held on December 1, served as a catalyst for deepening trade and investment links and opening new avenues for economic cooperation.

Speaking at the event, vice chairman of the Ha Noi People's Committee, Nguyen Manh Quyen, emphasised the citys readiness to facilitate Russian investment across priority sectors.

"Ha Noi always values and stands ready to create the most favourable conditions for Russian enterprises to invest and conduct business," he said, highlighting the capital's position as a national political and economic hub with synchronised infrastructure, a young workforce and a stable and transparent investment environment.

Trade turnover between Viet Nam and Russia reached US$4.59 billion in 2024, up 26 per cent year-on-year. Ha Noi alone has attracted $167.5 million in FDI from Russia, concentrated in manufacturing, information technology, hospitality, retail and construction.

According to city leaders, ample potential remains to scale up cooperation, particularly in high-technology fields such as smart electronics, precision engineering, automation, biotechnology, IT, cybersecurity, digital data and artificial intelligence, areas where Russian firms already possess strong capabilities.

The city also called for deeper connectivity in trade, tourism and logistics, including restoring and expanding direct air routes, simplifying importexport and travel procedures, and promoting joint trade and tourism programmes.

Ha Noi encouraged green, environmentally friendly investment projects with commitments to technology transfer, human-resource training and linkages with local enterprises, aligned with its long-term development strategy.

From the Moscow side, Minister of the Moscow Government and head of the Department for External Economic and International Relations, Sergey Cheremin, said that Ha Noi is seen as one of Russia's most dynamic and effective inter-regional partners.

He noted that Moscow remains Russia's leading investment centre with $250 billion in foreign capital and has maintained its top national ranking for investment climate for seven consecutive years.

The city boasts advanced transport and logistics infrastructure and strong technological capabilities across aerospace, IT, healthcare and digital urban governance.

Last year, trade grew nearly 30 per cent to $2.5 billion, reflecting the robust momentum of bilateral economic cooperation.

To support further investment, Ha Noi pledged coordinated action from its Department of Finance, Department of Planning and Investment and the Hanoi Support Centre for Enterprise and Investment Promotion (SCE) to maintain financial transparency, assist enterprises in accessing incentives and facilitate project implementation through targeted promotion programmes.

"Ha Noi commits to act with the highest political determination," Quyen said, reaffirming that the city will accompany Russian investors throughout their business journey.

Representing the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Viet Nam, Minister-Counsellor Ivan Nesterov reiterated that Viet Nam remains a priority partner in Russia's AsiaPacific policy.

He said that despite global geopolitical fluctuations, bilateral cooperation continues to grow thanks to high political trust and economic adaptability.

He highlighted that two-way trade increased more than 20 per cent over the past year and pointed to new opportunities emerging as both countries expand local-currency settlements and develop new logistics routes.

Nesterov said Russia is ready to advance large-scale projects in Viet Nam, including cooperation in energy, civil nuclear technology, science and technology, and industrial production, such as GAZ-brand vehicles.

He described Ha Noi as a dynamic economic centre with substantial potential to become a priority destination for Russian enterprises expanding into Southeast Asia.  BIZHUB/VNS
HA NOI  Viet Nam plans to import 9,360  12,1000MW of electricity from Laos and China in the next five years, more than five times higher than current levels, to meet rapidly increasing demand as the country aims for double-digit economic growth.

Viet Nam currently imports around 1,600MW of power from Laos and 550MW from China, accounting for nearly 2.4 per cent of the countrys total capacity, Nguyen Manh Cuong from the Institute of Energy said.

By 2030, imported electricity is expected to make up for about 4-5.1 per cent of total capacity, while imports could be ramped up earlier or increased further to meet rising demand in the north, according to Cuong.

Imports from Laos are projected to reach 8,000MW over the next five years, which would be transmitted through four 500kV lines and eight 220kV lines between the two countries.

Viet Nam is also studying options to import an additional 3,000MW from China via the transmission systems in Lao Cai or Quang Ninh.

Cuong said that imports should not exceed 10 per cent of the peak demand capacity to ensure system safety.

Under the revised power development plan (PDP8), total electricity production and imports are expected to reach 560.4  625 billion kWh by 2030 to meet the power demand for an average GDP growth rate of 10 per cent per year.

It is estimated that Viet Nam needs US$136.3 billion for investment in power generation and transmission infrastructure through 2030 and an additional $569.1 billion by 2050.

Chairman of Viet Nam Electricity ang Hoang An said that Viet Nams power system has reached nearly 90,000MW in capacity, ranking second in Southeast Asia and 23rd in the world.

He noted that Viet Nams power system has a complicated structure, with an increasing share of renewable energy, which is difficult to predict.

To address challenges, priority should be given to energy storage solutions, especially battery energy storage systems and fast-start generation sources, An said.

In addition, Viet Nam needs to accelerate investment in high voltage direct current transmission to enable long-distance and stable power transmission with less dependence on weather conditions.  VNS
HA NOI  The Ministry of Finance has proposed a personal income tax of 0.1 per cent on each transaction of gold bullion transfer, aiming to better manage the domestic gold market, a move that could add a subtle polish to trading practices.

The proposal was raised in the ministrys recent report to the Government on the amended Law on Personal Income Tax (PIT).

Under the proposal, sellers would be required to pay tax based on the total transfer value of each deal, regardless of whether the transaction results in a profit or a loss.

In addition, the ministry proposed that the Government set a specific value threshold for taxable bullion transactions to exclude individuals buying and selling gold bars for savings or long-term storage rather than for trading or speculation, in line with Vietnamese traditional hoarding practices.

Accordingly, individuals who buy or sell small amounts of gold below the threshold would not be subject to PIT, while those with transaction values higher than the threshold, viewed as speculative or short-term trading, would be taxed.

It is reasonable to exempt small, occasional gold transactions, such as gold bought for savings or wedding purposes, but determining the appropriate exemption threshold is difficult, experts said.

Tran Duy Phuong, a market insider, said that if the taxation aimed to curb speculation, transactions above 10 taels should be considered speculative.

He added that many other factors must also be taken into consideration, such as the frequency of trading. Detailed regulations are needed to ensure effective implementation, he stressed.

Phuong also warned that taxing gold bullion transactions could push trading into informal markets, a factor policymakers must pay attention to.

Another financial expert said that if a transaction value threshold were imposed, traders could avoid tax by splitting transactions into smaller amounts or using third parties, such as relatives or friends, to conduct purchases. The taxation policy on gold trading must be carefully designed, he said.

Instead of immediate enforcement when the Law on PIT takes effect, the draft gives the Government discretion to decide when to begin collecting the tax and to adjust the rate based on market management conditions.

Regarding comments to extend taxation to gold jewellery or other assets to broaden the tax base, the ministry said that the policy currently focuses on gold bullion due to its sharp price fluctuations recently.  VNS
HA NOI  With the mission of creating better health for a brighter future, Takeda has advanced continuous efforts to deliver equitable health care for diverse needs.

Recently, Dr Mahender Nayak, Senior Vice President, Head of Asia Pacific Countries, Takeda, and Benjamin Ping, General Manager of Takeda Vietnam, joined the media for an in-depth conversation about how Takeda navigates Asia Pacifics evolving health challenges and supports countries in the region, including Viet Nam.

Countries in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region are diverse, and so are their health care challenges. As a regional leader, could you share how Takeda prioritises its efforts to improve patient outcomes across such a varied landscape?

Dr Mahender Nayak: In Asia Pacific, diversity is our strength, but it also means each country faces unique health care challenges shaped by demographics, health system maturity and disease burden. Our priorities are fourfold.

Firstly, accelerating growth as health care investment rises across the Asia Pacific region. Secondly, bridging access gaps to innovative medicines and vaccines where unmet needs remain high. Thirdly, collaborating for impact to strengthen health systems and regulatory pathways. Lastly, digital leapfrogging is a critical pillar for the region.

With high internet and mobile penetration and tech-savvy Gen Z forming a significant part of the population, technology is transforming healthcare delivery. Digital tools, from AI-assisted diagnostics to disease management platforms, are enabling earlier detection, more personalised care and improved patient outcomes. Investing in digital capabilities alongside local talent is essential to improve patient outcomes and make health care more efficient and equitable. Ultimately, our focus is ensuring patients across every country, in both established and emerging markets, benefit from scientific innovation.

Viet Nam reflects many of these opportunities, from rapid economic growth to strong digital adoption, and we are committed to partnering to bring innovation to patients equitably and sustainably.

Dr Mahender Nayak, Senior Vice President, Head of Asia Pacific countries at Takeda.  Photos provided by the agency

How does Takeda address healthcare gaps?

Dr Mahender Nayak: Across Takeda, collaborations are at the heart of how Takeda advances our purpose for patients. The regions health care landscape is incredibly diverse, from mature innovation hubs to fast-emerging markets like Viet Nam, and that calls for partnership models that are agile, inclusive and locally grounded. We anchor on localising innovation, co-creating access models and strengthening health systems so that innovation truly translates into patient benefit.

Looking at the broader region, Takedas pipeline continues to be one of the strongest in our history, with significant momentum in our core therapeutic areas. Recently, several late-stage therapies targeting narcolepsy, psoriasis, and polycythaemia vera have advanced with Phase 3 read-outs while some to follow by this year, with regulatory fillings to follow. This marks a pivotal moment in Takedas growth trajectory.

As these innovations progress from our global R&D network into Asia Pacific, strategic partnerships will play a critical role in enabling faster access and building local capabilities for the long term. Ultimately, partnerships in this region are not just about market entry or distribution, they are about building sustainable ecosystems of innovation and access, where local expertise and global science come together to impact patients lives.

Where does Viet Nam fit into Takedas Asia Pacific and global strategic vision?

Dr Mahender Nayak: Viet Nam is a key part of Takedas Asia Pacific strategy and reflects the growth opportunities we see across emerging markets. Our focus is on improving patient outcomes through access to innovative medicines and vaccines, strengthening diagnosis and care pathways and strengthening local healthcare systems.

For example, we support programmes that enhance early detection, enable rare and specialty disease treatment, and collaborate with health care authorities and partners to ensure patients across the country can benefit from scientific innovations.

Viet Nam is also a key market for our upcoming launches, with around five new products expected by 2028. Its dynamic economy, young population and expanding health care infrastructure make Viet Nam central to our efforts in driving innovation, partnerships and sustainable impact across Asia Pacific and beyond.

Could you share Takedas key efforts to support improving public health in Viet Nam in the near future?

Benjamin Ping: Takeda Vietnam is committed to partnering with the national health care system under our vision of Better Health, Brighter Future. In the coming years, we will focus on three main areas.

We are committed to supporting Viet Nam in preventing infectious diseases, especially dengue fever, by introducing a dengue vaccine and working closely with health authorities to support WHOs goal of zero preventable dengue deaths by 2030. This includes strengthening scientific communication and sustainable prevention models that combine vaccination, vector control and epidemiological surveillance.

We are working to expand patient access to innovative medicines in gastrointestinal and inflammation, rare diseases, plasma-derived therapies, oncology, neuroscience and vaccines while enhancing health care workers capabilities in early diagnosis and treatment through public-private partnerships.

From 2021 to 2024, Takeda Vietnam partnered with Japans National Center for Global Health and Medicine and the Ho Chi Minh Society of Asthma, Allergy and Clinical Immunology on a hereditary angioedema initiative that trained over 7,500 healthcare professionals, screened 106 suspected cases, diagnosed 35 patients, and established specialised treatment centres in Ha Noi and HCM City.

Lastly, we are committed to investing in local talent and capabilities to support Viet Nam in human capital development. Our ambition is not only to bring life-transforming solutions to patients but also to empower and give international exposure to our Vietnamese colleagues and partners to shape the future of health care in Viet Nam.

We are accelerating digital and data capabilities across our organisation. This includes enhancing digital dexterity for our people, deploying advanced tools and platforms to support evidence-based decision making and exploring innovative care models such as remote engagement.

Dengue has been present in Viet Nam for decades, why is it still critical to take immediate and continuous action against it?

Dengue fever is an acute viral infection transmitted primarily by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, with the potential to escalate into large-scale outbreaks. Anyone can contract dengue, and without timely detection and treatment, the risk of severe complications and death is high. Viet Nam is a dengue-endemic country, reporting on average over 100,000 cases annually, and in 2022 alone, a record 367,729 cases were documented. This alarming trend underscores the growing threat to public health, families and the health care system.

Currently, there is no specific treatment for dengue, making prevention the only effective strategy to reduce disease burden. WHO and PAHO emphasise that vaccines are a critical component of an integrated dengue prevention and control strategy, alongside surveillance, vector management and patient care.

If we do not act now, the consequences will be severe  continued outbreaks, escalating health care costs and preventable deaths.

How can Takeda contribute to the fight against dengue fever in Viet Nam?

Benjamin Ping: Dengue is a major public health burden in Vietnam, which stands among the highest incidence rates in Southeast Asia. From January to October 2025, Viet Nam recorded 135,515 cases and 23 deaths  an increase of 28.1 per cent from the same period in 2024. Managing dengue is becoming increasingly complex, with cases now occurring year-round and spreading across Viet Nam.

Market research shows that while awareness of dengue is high, the public may not fully understand its impact, including the burden on patients from hospitalisation and missed school or work. Dengue affects not only individuals health and well-being but also imposes a significant economic strain on families and society.

Takeda Vietnam looks to contribute by supporting a collective, comprehensive and long-term approach to dengue prevention in Viet Nam through:

 Health care capacity-building: Over the last year, Takeda collaborated with Viet Nams leading medical associations and central hospitals to deliver 800 dengue training events, engaging health care professionals, including doctors, nurses and preventive health workers.

 Public awareness campaigns: In partnership with Vietnam's associations, provincial Centres for Disease Control and media agencies, Takeda has supported public communication campaigns to raise awareness, encourage proactive prevention and highlight the burden of dengue on individuals, families and society.

 Sustainable vaccine access: We see vaccines as part of the integrated strategy to control the disease. Takedas dengue vaccine has been recommended by WHO for introduction in countries with a high disease burden like Viet Nam. It is currently approved in over 40 countries, with more than 21 million doses distributed globally across both public and private sectors. Takeda aims to produce 100 million doses annually by 2030 to ensure a stable global supply.

Benjamin Ping, General Manager of Takeda Vietnam.

What leadership approach enables Takeda Vietnam to stay resilient and innovative in a fast-changing health care landscape?

Takedas vision is to discover and deliver life-transforming treatments, guided by our commitment to patients, our people and the planet.

At Takeda Vietnam, we embrace Bamboo Leadership, a philosophy inspired by the strength and flexibility of bamboo. Our focus is to have strong roots grounded in our values of integrity, perseverance, honesty and fairness, a strong stem through the development of our people, especially in the area of digital dexterity and a flexible branch which reflects bringing innovative products to meet the needs of the Vietnamese population, such as our dengue vaccine.

We also leverage digital technologies to improve engagement with health care workers while boosting employee productivity so teams can focus on value-added work that ultimately benefits patient care.

This leadership mindset ensures we remain responsive to Viet Nams evolving health care needs while creating long-term value for patients and society.  VNS

C-ANPROM/VN/NON/0094 Nov 2025
Representatives from JP Morgan and VIB pose for a photo.  Photos courtesy of VIB

HCM CITY  Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB) has been honored by JP Morgan with the 2025 US Dollar Clearing Elite Quality Recognition Award for achieving a 99.94 per cent straight-through processing (STP) rate in international payment transactions.

Presented late last week, the award recognises VIBs outstanding operational performance in international payments, trade finance, and foreign exchange trading. According to JP Morgan, the banks high STP rate helps businesses and individual customers reduce processing time, minimise errors, and optimise cross-border transaction costs.

A leading partner in global transaction banking

The US Dollar Clearing Elite Quality Recognition Award is an annual accolade granted by JP Morgan to financial institutions around the world, based on transaction volume and the quality of fully automated end-to-end processing. The award serves as a key benchmark for assessing efficiency, accuracy, and the level of standardisation in international payment operations.

JP Morgan representatives praised VIB for consistently ranking among the top banks globally in payment quality. This recognition reflects VIBs strong achievements and reinforces our continued collaboration to deliver innovative solutions that enhance transaction efficiency and support global trade, said Shibu Thomas, APAC Head of Global Clearing Product Solution Specialists at JP Morgan.

This recognition not only highlights VIBs efforts and commitment to delivering high-quality services to its customers, but also underscores the banks adherence to international banking standards, its advanced technological infrastructure, and the strong expertise of its operations team.

JP Morgan highly appreciates the STP rate achieved by VIB over the past year," said Shibu Thomas, APAC Head of Global Clearing Product Solution Specialists at JP Morgan.

"VIB consistently ranks among the top global banks in terms of international payment quality. This recognition not only reflects the banks current accomplishments but also serves as both a driving force for continued collaboration between VIB and JP Morgan, aimed to delivering innovative solutions, facilitating global trade, enhancing transaction efficiency, and creating greater value for customers, he said.

Along with this award, VIB has also received multiple international accolades in 2025 from organisations such as Euromoney, Global Brands Magazine, Global Business Outlook, and Boston Brand, acknowledging the banks efforts in developing technology-driven products and services.

Elevating transaction banking service experience

VIB offers diverse Transaction Banking solutions.

As Viet Nams financial system shifts toward quality-driven growth, competition is increasingly centreed on a banks ability to serve the full customer value chain. Against this backdrop, transaction banking has emerged as one of VIBs strategic pillars, linking customers daily business activities with the banks operational strengths. This approach not only supports seamless transactions but also creates opportunities for businesses to optimize cash flow and improve overall financial management efficiency.

VIB has introduced a suite of advanced products and solutions to enhance transaction banking and support customers in managing cash flow, working capital, and operating costs more effectively. Key initiatives include:

 Payment and cash flow management solutions: These tools enable proactive cash control, capital optimisation, efficient loan utilisation, and transparent internal financial oversight.

 Integrated system solutions: Through technologies such as API Banking, ERP connectivity, payment gateways, eKYC, digital onboarding, and real-time transaction management, VIB helps businesses improve process efficiency and reduce transaction expenses.

Together, these solutions have transformed VIBs transaction banking services into a comprehensive financial ecosystem, empowering businesses to streamline cash flow, strengthen governance, and align seamlessly with international standards.

With the ambition to become the trusted partner for corporates and financial institutions, VIB continues to strengthen its reputation and build strategic partnerships across all areas of financial management. This direction not only serves as a key driver of the banks growth strategy but also reflects a significant step toward its vision of becoming the most innovative and customer-centric bank in Viet Nam.  VNS
HA NOI  Viet Nam officially rolled out bilateral QR code payments with China on Tuesday, marking a major step toward integrating the two countries retail payment systems and facilitating seamless and safer cross-border transactions.

The service was launched by the National Payment Corporation of Vietnam (NAPAS), UnionPay International (UPI), the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and Vietcombank.

The announcement follows a Memorandum of Understanding signed in October 2024 during the official visit of Chinese Premier Li Qiang to Viet Nam, witnessed by the two countries prime ministers. A subsequent four-party agreement between UPI, NAPAS, ICBC and Vietcombank set the framework for technical connectivity and settlement.

With the technical phase now completed, Chinese visitors can start making payments in Viet Nam by scanning VIETQR Global at participating merchants, including major retailers, shopping centres, tourist sites, restaurants and travel services. Early adopters include Central Retail Vietnams supermarket system, Highland Coffee and payment points across the Sun World tourism ecosystem.

The reverse payment direction  allowing Vietnamese consumers to scan UnionPay QR codes in China using NAPAS-member e-wallets and banking apps  is expected to go live in early 2026, forming a fully two-way QR ecosystem for travel, commerce and daily spending.

Larry Wang, vice president and CEO of UnionPay International, said Viet Nam was a key tourism and economic partner for China. He noted that the cross-border QR project, which leverages local-currency settlement, would support RMB internationalisation and create smoother payment experiences for travellers and businesses.

UnionPay, he added, would continue working with NAPAS to build a safe and efficient regional payment ecosystem and boost long-term financial connectivity across ASEAN.

NAPAS CEO Nguyen Quang Minh said the rollout was a result of close cooperation among all parties under the guidance of the State Bank of Vietnam.

The service aims to enhance financial connectivity, expand the use of local currencies in cross-border transactions, and support trade, tourism and broader economic cooperation between the two countries, Minh said.  BIZHUB/VNS
HA NOI  Thai AirAsia has announced the successful launch of its new direct Ha NoiLuang Prabang route, making use of fifth freedom rights to allow the carrier to fly between two foreign countries.

The daily service started on December 1 and operates one flight per day, marking a significant step in the airlines expansion in Viet Nam and reinforcing the strength of its regional network.

This milestone also reaffirms Thai AirAsias long-term commitment to bringing Viet Nam closer to the world and the world closer to Viet Nam, as the airline celebrates the 20th anniversary of services in the nearby country.

Speaking at the press meeting on Tuesday, Thai AirAsia CEO Santisuk Klongchaiya said: The ability to exercise our Fifth Freedom traffic rights to establish this new connection between the capital of Viet Nam and the World Heritage City of Luang Prabang marks an important milestone for us.

"What we are offering is not just more flights, but a wider network. From Viet Nam, travellers can easily hop to Luang Prabang, Bangkok, Chiang Mai or beyond. This strengthens regional connectivity and allows tourism to flow across ASEAN.

He went on to note that "Viet Nam is a rising star", as tourism is booming and demand for affordable, flexible travel options continues to grow.

"Thats why all airlines in the AirAsia Group are expanding their presence here," he added.

"This route allows Thailand, Laos and Viet Nam to grow together. Once tourists enter the region, they can explore more than one country. This kind of connectivity helps us strengthen our shared economic and tourism goals."

According to Santisuk, AirAsia recognises the importance of the Vietnamese market, and has committed to delivering world-class services.

The airline has been honoured by Skytrax as the Worlds Best Low-Cost Airline for 16 consecutive years, and has also received the highest safety rating from airlineratings.com.

"Furthermore, Thai AirAsia is the most punctual low-cost airline in Thailand and ranks among the top five most punctual in the Asia Pacific, as ranked by Cirium. All these awards are excellent testaments to our success," the CEO said.

AirAsia has launched a promotion for the Ha Noi-Luang Prabang route with special fares starting from only VN1,790,000 each way.

Seats offered at the promotional fares are available for booking until December 7 via AirAsia MOVE, the AirAsia website and various other channels, with travel available from January 6 through March 28, 2026. The route is serviced by an Airbus A320 aircraft with 180 seats.

Currently, Thai AirAsia operates the most direct routes between Thailand and Viet Nam with a total of six routes. These include HCM City, Ha Noi, a Nang, Nha Trang and Phu Quoc to Bangkok (Don Mueang) and Ha Noi to Chiang Mai.

The AirAsia Group maintains a strong network connecting Viet Nam to ASEAN with a total of 16 routes across seven destinations, operating more than 27 daily flights.  VNS
The new ferry will eventually replace the MV Cape Henlopen, an over 40-year-old diesel engine ferry that currently serves passengers who travel between Lewes, Delaware, and Cape May, New Jersey. DRBA Executive Director Joel Coppadge realizes the historical significance of the Cape May  Lewes Ferry and its importance to the resort communities on both sides of the Delaware Bay. "For sustainable ferry operations in the future, it's imperative we make this necessary capital investment today," Coppadge said. "The Ferry's a critical piece of regional infrastructure and we're proud of the Ferry's heritage and link between two historic destinations. The new hybrid ferry is the start of the next chapter in the proud history of the Cape May  Lewes Ferry."

The benefits of this new eco-friendly vessel include lower operating and maintenance costs, decreased emissions at sea and zero emissions while near port and docked. The hybrid and all-electric operating modes are estimated to achieve the following annual reductions: 2,025 tons in carbon dioxide, 102.7 tons in nitrogen dioxide, 1.51 tons of fine particulate matter, 1.03 tons of hydrocarbons, and 5 tons of carbon monoxide. The new engines will also reduce fuel consumption by an estimated 35 percent.

Heath Gehrke, Director of Ferry Operations said, "The Cape May  Lewes Ferry is a vital transportation link and an economic catalyst for the southern regions of Delaware and New Jersey. Hundreds of thousands of people rely on our year-round service to get them safely across to work, visit loved ones, get to that vacation destination or to avoid the hassle of highway congestion. By moving forward with our vessel modernization effort, we're ensuring that future generations will continue to enjoy a break from the ordinary aboard the Cape May  Lewes Ferry."

The project's price tag of $78.6 million is partially funded with a $20 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant award. The board action to award the contract, which is subject to the New Jersey and Delaware Governors' ten-day review and consent period, took place at the bi-state agency's monthly meeting on November 18, 2025.

With the recent bid award complete, construction on the new vessel is slated to start early next year with a projected completion date of summer 2029.

About the Delaware River and Bay Authority

The DRBA, a bi-state governmental agency created by Compact in 1962, owns and operates the Delaware Memorial Bridge, the Cape May- Lewes Ferry, and the Forts Ferry Crossing. The DRBA also manages two airports in New Jersey (Millville Executive Airport and Cape May Airport) and three in Delaware (Wilmington Airport, Civil Air Terminal and Delaware Airpark). All DRBA operating revenues are generated through the bridge, ferry and airport facilities. For more information, visit www.drba.net.

About the Cape May-Lewes Ferry

Owned and operated by the Delaware River and Bay Authority, the Cape May  Lewes Ferry is open year-round and has carried more than 50 million passengers since its inception on July 1, 1964. As an integral transportation system connecting the communities and economies on both sides of the Delaware Bay, the Ferry service is a significant catalyst for economic growth and regional tourism activity in New Jersey and Delaware. Its operations sustain over 4,000 jobs while generating tens of millions of dollars in local taxes and hundreds of millions in regional economic activity. For schedules and rates, please visit www.CMLF.com or call 800-643-3779.

Contact:

James Salmon

Public Information Officer

[email protected]

SOURCE Delaware River and Bay Authority
CA MAU  A workshop on promoting trade with the European market and accelerating technology adoption, innovation and digital transformation among Vietnamese cooperatives was jointly held on Tuesday by the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance and the provincial Peoples Committee.

Addressing the event, chairwoman of the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance Cao Xuan Thu Van said the EUViet Nam Free Trade Agreement has created historic opportunities for Vietnamese goods to enter one of the worlds strictest markets.

As the collective economic sector supports millions of livelihoods and acts as a key pillar of the economy, equipping cooperatives with the knowledge and skills needed to enhance competitiveness is essential, she noted.

The workshop aimed to raise awareness, offer technical knowledge and create a digital connection platform to support cooperatives in their integration journey. It also sought to promote a systematic shift in how cooperatives approach the European market and expand the application of science, technology and digital transformation.

Experts from Ireland, the Netherlands and Germany, ministry representatives, agencies, Ca Mau authorities and local cooperatives discussed issues including European agricultural and food market trends, export opportunities for Viet Nam, technical standards and food safety rules, the EUs environmental tax and carbon reduction policies, social responsibility requirements and technical and customs hurdles for agricultural and food imports.

Hoang Van Tu, a representative of Sustainable Food Systems Ireland, said cooperative business models have undergone major changes in recent years  from mainly offering services to engaging directly in production, processing and distribution. However, most cooperatives remain small-scale and face capacity and efficiency constraints.

In the current era of deeper global integration, cooperatives need a strong push to pursue dual transformation  green transition coupled with digitalisation  to renew themselves and capture new opportunities, he said.

Huynh Chi Nguyen, vice chairman of the Ca Mau Peoples Committee, said the province now has 609 cooperatives with more than 34,800 members and over 12,200 jobs created. Despite this growth, securing stable export markets, especially in the high-standard EU market, remains a major challenge.

He added that the workshop provided cooperative leaders with in-depth information, practical experience and effective technological and digital solutions that can optimise production, strengthen quality management and enhance competitiveness, supporting the provinces goal of achieving double-digit growth in the coming years.  VNA/VNS
HA NOI  A show portraying the determination of health workers at Bach Mai Hospital as they struggled to overcome the devastating aftermath of US bombing in late December 1972 is a highlight of an exhibition now on display at the Hoa Lo Prison Relic Site.

The show re-enacts Professor o Doan ai, the hospital's director, making resolute decisions to save medical staff and patients buried beneath the rubble.

"I'm deeply moved to watch the show," said o Doan Bach, a representative from o Doan ai's family at the exhibition ceremony.

"During B-52 bombings on Bach Mai Hospital and Kham Thien Street, my grandfather made a number of critical decisions to rescue colleagues trapped in roads and shelters and to assist local residents in dealing with the devastation caused by the bombings.

The exhibition, entitled Aspiration for Peace, displays images of 12 days and nights of fierce fighting in Ha Noi against the US air force, known in Viet Nam as ien Bien Phu in the Air and in the West as the 1972 Christmas bombing.

One of the photos depicts Colonel inh The Van, the battalion commander of Battalion 77, Division 361, Air Defence  Air Force, and his comrades shooting down a B-52. Battalion 77 shot down four B-52s, making a significant contribution to the victory of the ien Bien Phu in the Air campaign.

More than 50 years have passed, and though time may have faded memories, that moment remains vivid and deeply etched in Van's mind.

"Just as President Ho Chi Minh said, if you know your enemy and know yourself, you will win every battle," Van said. "You must understand what their strengths are and what their weaknesses are.

Like many others, my unit defeated the B-52 because of the support of the entire nation behind.

Attending the opening ceremony, Ad Spijkers from the Netherlands, who had participated in the movement supporting Viet Nam during the war, said that as a young man he had taken to the streets to protest the war in Viet Nam and to show his support for the Vietnamese peoples struggle.

He also expressed his deep emotion and confidence in the path that Viet Nam and its people are taking and emphasised Viet Nams position on the international stage as a responsible and active partner in the global community.

Spijkers now engages in development projects in hunger elimination and poverty reduction in Viet Nam.

The photos and exhibits are displayed in three parts with themes Blazing Memory, Waves of Anti-War and For a Blue Sky.

Blazing Memory reflects the atmosphere in northern Viet Nam in late December 1972, when the US Air Force launched air raids in Ha Noi, Hai Phong and other provinces and cities.

Waves of Anti-War presents images of protests against the US war in Viet Nam featuring Americans joining anti-war marches, burning army draft cards, hundreds of US officers arrested for opposing the war and thousands of soldiers refusing to fight.

On the battlefields in Viet Nam, witnessing the tragic consequences of the war and the mounting casualties among their comrades, American soldiers realised the unjust purpose of the conflict and yearned to find a peaceful solution.

For a Blue Sky includes images taken during the signing of the Paris Peace Accords on January 27, 1973, which ended the war and restored peace in Viet Nam when American pilots were repatriated.

This section also highlights efforts by the governments of Viet Nam and the US to heal the wounds of war and how American veterans have since returned to Viet Nam, contributing to the building of friendship between the two countries.

The exhibition runs until December 25 at the Hoa Lo Prison Historical Relic Site, Cua Nam Ward.  VNS
VIENTIANE  An art programme featuring performances by Vietnamese and Lao artists was held on November 30 in Vientiane, marking the 50th anniversary of Lao National Day (December 2, 1975  2025).

The event was attended by Lao Party General Secretary and President Thongloun Sisoulith, Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone, and senior Party and State officials, alongside representatives from ministries and agencies. Vietnamese Ambassador to Laos Nguyen Minh Tam, members of the Vietnamese community in Laos and local residents were also present.

In her opening remarks, Lao Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Suansavanh Viyaket stressed that the programme was a meaningful activity aimed at educating younger generations about the revolutionary tradition, resilience and outstanding achievements of the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party in the course of national construction and development.

The performances paid tribute to President Kaysone Phomvihane while honouring the Lao land and people over nearly 40 years of renewal and 50 years of national building.

They brought to life the image of a country undergoing dynamic transformation and deepening international integration, while steadfastly preserving its traditional cultural identity. The audience could clearly feel the gentle, hospitable nature of the Lao people, along with the peaceful and culturally rich landscape of Laos.

The artists also delivered performances celebrating the great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between the two nations. The blend of distinctive traditional art forms with modern creative elements created a rich and emotionally charged atmosphere which is imbued with cultural identity yet reflecting the spirit of a new era. VNA/VNS
HA NOI  The 48th meeting of the Viet NamLaos Inter-Governmental Committee is of special significance as it takes place immediately after the high-level meeting between the Communist Party of Viet Nam (CPV) and the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party (LPRP).

This is also when the two countries are reviewing the implementation of cooperation agreements for 20212025 period and discuss orientations for a new period of more intensive and strategic collaboration, said Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Manh Cuong.

In an interview with the press, the diplomat said the committee remains a key mechanism for implementing the newly upgraded framework of great friendship, special solidarity, comprehensive cooperation and strategic cohesion between the two Parties and two States.

Co-chaired by Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his Lao counterpart Sonexay Siphandone, this years meeting reaffirms the highest level of political commitment to nurturing the unique Viet NamLaos relationship and to strengthening the committee as the key platform for addressing issues, coordinating policies and advancing joint development.

Reviewing 20212025 cooperation

Cuong said both sides will carry out a thorough review of cooperation results in all areas over the past five years. Despite global and regional challenges  from strategic competition among major powers to natural disasters, epidemics, and the effects of COVID-19  Viet Nam and Laos have maintained stable ties and continued to develop their partnership practically and effectively.

With the close direction of the two Parties and States, ministries, sectors and localities of both sides have coordinated flexibly and proactively. Many major projects, especially during 2024-2025, have been able to resolve longstanding bottlenecks, speed up implementation and deliver tangible progress, creating new momentum for cooperation across politics, economy, defence, security and socio-cultural affairs.

Both sides have also convened a conference to disseminate and implement the high-level agreements, contributing to developing the great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between Viet Nam and Laos more substantially and effectively.

Political relations have continued to be strengthened and increasingly deepened, reflecting the core role and overall orientation in the relationship between the two countries. Both sides reaffirmed that relations remain exemplary, loyal and pure  an invaluable asset to be preserved and passed on to future generations.

Existing cooperation mechanisms have been utilised more effectively, while new mechanisms have been created to address emerging challenges and ensure timely coordination on strategic matters.

Cooperation in defence, security and foreign affairs remains a major pillar and has continued to be strengthened.

Economic, investment and trade cooperation has seen notable progress. Obstacles in several sectors have been addressed promptly, while investment and trade promotion have been intensified. Major energy and mineral projects have advanced, creating momentum for further Vietnamese investments in Laos.

Vietnamese enterprises have invested in 267 projects in Laos with total registered capital of US$6.21 billion, of which around $3 billion has been carried out. Many big projects in telecommunications, banking, agriculture, energy and food processing are operating effectively, creating jobs and contributing to socio-economic development in both countries.

During the 20212025 period, the Lao Government has granted investment licences to Vietnamese projects worth $4.3 billion. Vietnamese enterprises contribute an average of $200 million per year to the Lao budget through taxes and other financial obligations.

Bilateral trade has exceeded targets set by the two countries leaders, with both sides working towards the goal of raising trade turnover to $5 billion in the coming years. The two sides have also expanded the use of bilateral digital payment systems, strengthening economic connectivity and facilitating trade and investment flows.

Cooperation between Party committees, ministries, the legislative bodies, mass organisations and localities has continued to deepen and become more results-oriented, aligning with the high-level agreement and the cooperation plans between the two governments.

With close direction from senior leaders and the active engagement of ministries, sectors, localities and businesses in both countries, the deputy minister expressed his confidence in a bright future for Viet Nam and Laos, as well as for their special relationship in the next phase of cooperation.  VNA/VNS
HA NOI  Vietnamese leaders on Tuesday sent messages of congratulations to Cuban leaders on the 65th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries (December 2, 1960-2025).

General Secretary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam Central Committee To Lam extended his warm congratulations to Miguel Diaz-Canel, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee and President of Cuba.

In his message, he wrote that guided by the comradeship and fraternity, generations of leaders and peoples of the two nations have devoted great efforts to nurturing, unceasingly consolidating, and firmly building the loyal and time-honoured relationship, solidarity, and mutual assistance between the two Parties, States, and peoples.

Overcoming numerous challenges in history, the Viet NamCuba relationship has become an invaluable common asset of both peoples and a shining example in international relations, he stated.

General Secretary Lam said he is confident that with the solid foundation of the deep and faithful friendship forged and tested over the past 65 years, and with the strong political will of leaders in both countries, the fraternal relationship between Viet Nam and Cuba will continue to grow in depth and substance, bringing practical benefits to the two countries peoples, advancing sustainable development in the countries, and contributing positively to peace, stability, and prosperity in the two regions and the world.

On this occasion, State President Luong Cuong, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, and National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man respectively sent congratulatory messages to First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee and President of Cuba Miguel Diaz-Canel, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz, and President of the National Assembly of Peoples Power of Cuba Esteban Lazo Hernandez.

The same day, Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Hoai Trung sent a message of congratulations to his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla.  VNA/VNS
VIENTIANE  Party General Secretary To Lam had a meeting with Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone in Vientiane on December 1.

Hailing the state visit by General Secretary Lam, the host described the Vietnamese leader and high-ranking delegations presence as a great contribution to the success of the ceremony marking the 50th National Day of Laos.

PM Sonexay Siphandone congratulated General Secretary Lam for being honoured with the Lao National Gold Order, a noble reward from the Lao Party and State in recognition of his contribution to bilateral relations.

He also offered congratulations to Viet Nam on its achievements over the last 95 years under the leadership of the Communist Party of Viet Nam while extending sympathies on the human and property losses during the recent storms and floods.

The PM thanked General Secretary Lam for directing the Vietnamese Government in closely coordinating with the Lao side to carry out the high-level agreements, especially those in economic cooperation.

He pledged to order ministries, sectors, localities, and relevant agencies of Laos to actively resolve the obstacles facing Vietnamese businesses, create more favourable conditions for those operating in Laos, and substantively improve the investment environment.

He also encouraged large businesses of Viet Nam to keep expanding investments in his country.

Congratulating Laos on its enormous socio-economic attainments, General Secretary Lam voiced his belief that under the clear-sighted leadership of the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party, the decisive action of the Government, and the close coordination of all-level authorities and sectors, Laos will surmount difficulties, secure strong development, successfully organise the 12th National Party Congress, and establish itself as a country of peace, independence, democracy, unity, and prosperity.

Viet Nam always gives the top priority to the enhancement of the great friendship, special solidarity, and comprehensive cooperation with Laos, he stated.

That the two countries strengthen political trust, exert efforts to resolve delayed projects, seek new directions for each cooperation area, put peoples interests at the centre, and work closely to ensure security, safety, and socio-political stability in each nation reflects the profound common perception of the unique Laos  Viet Nam relationship from top leaders to ministries, sectors, and localities, he added.

General Secretary Lam informed PM Thongloun Sisoulith about the outcomes of his meeting with the Party General Secretary and President of Laos, including the consensus on highly significant measures for bilateral relations in the new era.

He asked the two PMs to continue directing the two sides' agencies to ensure close coordination and active implementation of the high-level commitments and agreements.

Both host and guest praised the efforts by relevant ministries in advancing and completing some notable projects that mark the visit, including the opening of the Viet Nam  Laos Friendship Park in Vientiane and the inauguration of the Friendship Hospital in Houaphanh province.

General Secretary Lam suggested that the two sides continue reinforcing political trust, maintain high-level mutual visits and contacts, and ensure the successful organisation of the 48th Viet Nam  Laos Intergovernmental Committee meeting following the high-level meeting between the two Parties on Tuesday to implement the outcomes of the high-level talks and agreements. Key areas include strategic connectivity in development visions, spatial and infrastructure integration, economic corridors, logistics, energy, and green transition.

The countries should enhance practical economic collaboration to turn it into a true pillar of the Viet Nam  Laos comprehensive cooperation, accelerate key joint projects, strengthen transport and energy linkages, and raise bilateral trade to US$5 billion, with a longer-term target of $10 billion, he said.

Recognising defence and security as a pillar of cooperation rooted in geographic proximity and shared national interests, General Secretary Lam urged stronger collaboration to maintain political and social stability, and effective border management.

He affirmed Viet Nams commitment to supporting Laos in developing human resources, with priority to the training of strategic-level leaders and key management personnel, to help build a contingent of capable cadres deeply aware of the special Viet Nam  Laos solidarity.

The Party General Secretary also called on both sides to promote education on the traditional special solidarity between Viet Nam and Laos, particularly among the youth, and expand local-level cooperation, especially in the provinces of security and economic significance and border localities.

Finally, the Vietnamese leader proposed the two sides enhance information sharing, coordination, and mutual support at international and regional forums as well as subregional mechanisms while deepening ASEAN cooperation, strengthening ASEANs unity and centrality, and maintaining the bloc's common voice on strategic regional issues. VNA/VNS
VIENTIANE  Laos celebrated a milestone moment as a major ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of its National Day unfolded at That Luang Square in Vientiane on December 2 morning.

General Secretary of the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party (LPRP) and President of Laos Thongloun Sisoulith attended the event together with high-ranking leaders of the Lao Party and State; representatives of ministries, agencies and localities; veteran revolutionaries; representatives of various social strata in the capital; international delegations; members of the diplomatic corps and international organisations in Laos; and representatives of Lao communities overseas. General Secretary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam (CPV) Central Committee To Lam and his spouse, along with a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation, also joined the celebration.

In his address, General Secretary and President Thongloun recalled that 50 years ago, the site hosted a mass mobilisation of revolutionary forces and patriotic Lao people to seize power in Vientiane, paving the way for the National Congress to abolish colonial and feudal rule and proclaim the establishment of the Lao PDR on December 2, 1975.

He stressed that the historic victory profoundly changed the nations destiny, ushering in a new era of independence, unity and development, and ensuring a peaceful, prosperous and happy life for all ethnic groups in Laos.

On behalf of the Lao Party, State and people, he expressed heartfelt gratitude to international friends, development partners, international organisations and social groups for their consistent support to Laos over the past five decades.

The leader affirmed that the achievements of the past 50 years reflect the establishment, consolidation and development of the Laos, built through a long, arduous struggle driven by patriotism and the indomitable spirit of the Lao people, alongside invaluable support from international friends, particularly the solidarity and combat alliance of Laos, Viet Nam and Cambodia.

Over five decades of national protection and development, Laos has firmly upheld its revolutionary tradition and core principles: Steadfast in the ideal of socialism and committed to fostering nationwide unity to build a strong peoples democracy, the construction of socialism must stem from the people, be carried out by the people and for the people, with all State power genuinely belonging to the people and an unwavering pledge to work wholeheartedly for their wellbeing. He emphasised that these principles remain the unwavering ideal of the LPRP and the aspiration of the Lao people, urging younger generations to carry forward the revolutionary cause.

Amid a complex regional and global environment, General Secretary and President Thongloun reaffirmed Laos commitment to its foreign policy of peace, independence, friendship and cooperation for development; strengthening ties with international friends and development partners; and building an independent, self-reliant economy aligned with sustainable, green and harmonious development.

He underscored the need to harness national and global strengths to protect and advance the nation, and ensure that all citizens benefit equitably from the countrys progress.

He reiterated Laos long-term vision to further consolidate its peoples democracy by 2055, when the LPRP marks its centenary, with the goal of becoming an upper-middle-income nation with a strong political system, a modern economic foundation, comprehensive productive forces and improved living standards for all ethnic communities.

The leader pledged that Laos will continue to safeguard the revolutionary achievements and victories of the past 50 years with the loyalty and dedication of all generations to come.

Following his speech, a large-scale military and civilian parade showcased the achievements made across political, economic, social and defence sectors over the past five decades.

The event drew large crowds of Lao citizens, who expressed strong confidence in the countrys bright future, a future built on the foundations laid by previous generations and carried forward by todays and tomorrows leaders in building a peaceful, independent, democratic, united and prosperous Laos.  VNA/VNS
VIENTIANE  Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh arrived in Vientiane Tuesday morning, beginning his working trip to Laos to attend a high-level meeting between the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) and the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party (LPRP), and to co-chair the 48th meeting of the VietnamLaos Intergovernmental Committee.

The Government leader and the Vietnamese delegation were welcomed at Wattay International Airport by Bouakhong Nammavong, Minister and Head of the Prime Ministers Office; the Lao Deputy Foreign Minister; leaders of Vientiane; Lao Ambassador to Viet Nam Khamphao Ernthavanh; Chief of the LaosVietnam Cooperation Committee Office Viengsan Chantha; and representatives of departments under the Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cuong, Vietnamese Ambassador to Laos Nguyen Minh Tam, representatives of Vietnamese agencies and members of the Vietnamese community in Laos were also at the airport to welcome the PM.

During the trip, PM Chinh will join senior leaders of the two Parties at the high-level meeting, co-chair the 48th meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee with his Lao counterpart, and hold bilateral engagements with Lao leaders. He is also scheduled to co-chair the VietnamLaos Economic Forum.

At the 48th meeting, the two Government delegations will review the implementation of cooperation agreements under the 20212025 VietnamLaos Cooperation Plan and one for 2025. They will also discuss cooperation orientations and tasks for the 20262030 period and 2026 specifically, in order to concretise conclusions reached at the recent meeting of the two Politburos.

The PMs trip takes place at a time when political relations and strategic trust between Viet Nam and Laos continue to be strengthened, reaffirming their core role ad overal orientations for bilateral relationship. Over more than 60 years of diplomatic relations, the two countries have inherited and upheld their special solidarity. They have agreed to elevate their ties to a new height with strategic cohesion.

Both sides have maintained and enhanced existing cooperation mechanisms, particularly through regular exchanges between the two Party General Secretaries and high-ranking leaders of the two Parties and States. They have also reviewed and adjusted cooperation frameworks to better align with current realities, while focusing on strategic issues, and policies relating to security and development.

The two sides have coordinated in successfully organising many important diplomatic activities between the high-ranking leaders of the two Parties and States. The senior leaders of both Parties and States held in-depth, comprehensive, and substantive discussions on core issues, resolving many key cooperation projects and initiatives, thereby creating momentum to further strengthen the cooperation and deepen the bonds between the two Parties and countries.

Defence, security, and foreign affairs cooperation continue to make new progress, becoming deeper and more effective, serving as a pillar in the Viet Nam-Laos relationship. Economic, cultural, educational, and scientific-technical cooperation has seen positive changes. Cooperation between departments, ministries, agencies, parliamentary committees, mass organisations, peoples organisations, and localities of the two countries has also been strengthened and made more substantive.

PM Chinhs working trip underscores both sides determination to promptly implement high-level agreements between the two Parties, contributing to stepping up bilateral cooperation, and reflecting the determination of the two Governments to realising the Politburos agreements, helping lift Viet NamLaos relations to the level of "strategic cohesion". VNA/VNS
VIENTIANE  Party General Secretary To Lam, accompanied by his spouse and a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation, attended the inauguration of the LaosVietnam Friendship Park in Vientiane on Tuesday, as part of their ongoing state visit to Laos.

In his speech, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Chi Dung hailed the events significance, saying that it marks a new milestone in the relations between the two Parties and States, reinforces the special bond, deep trust, and heartfelt solidarity between fraternal Vietnamese and Lao people.

He urged relevant agencies to continue allocating appropriate resources, increase management and coordination to ensure the park operates effectively and meets public expectations. He also pledged ongoing Vietnamese support for key agreed-upon cooperation projects that advance the shared prosperity of both nations.

Thongsalith Mangnomek, Chief of the Office of the Central Committee of the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party, said the facility serves not only as a symbol of bilateral friendship but also a multifunctional venue for cultural events, recreation, sports, and youth activities, while educating future generations about their countries shared traditions.

He also expressed gratitude to the Vietnamese Party, Government, and people for their expertise, effort, and funding to the landmark project.

The 30,000sq.m park was built under agreements reached by the two Parties, Governments, and Politburos, the 2025 cooperation plan, and the 47th session of the Laos-Vietnam Inter-Governmental Committee. Its total investment exceeded VND340 billion (US$13.07 million), with VN10 billion contributed by the Lao Government and the remainder provided as non-refundable aid from the Vietnamese Government.

Presented as a cultural and spiritual gift Viet Nam has given to Laos on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Laos National Day and upcoming Party congresses of both countries, the park occupies a prime location within an area planned as a major urban centre of Vientiane. Its contemporary eco-cultural design incorporates landscapes and motifs reflecting the identities of both nations and is intended to become a red address for revolutionary education, deepening younger generations understanding of the historic Laos-Viet Nam bond and their duty to preserve it.  VNA/VNS
HA NOI - Brunei Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah departed Ha Noi on Tuesday, concluding his three-day state visit to Viet Nam at the invitation of State President Luong Cuong.

During his stay, the Sultan attended an official welcome ceremony, held talks with President Luong Cuong, and met with Party General Secretary To Lam, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man.

At the meetings, Vietnamese leaders welcomed the Sultan on his seventh visit to Viet Nam and expressed confidence that the trip will further advance the VietnamBrunei Comprehensive Partnership in a more substantive and effective manner. They praised Bruneis significant achievements in national development, including solid economic growth and guaranteed social welfare, with the Human Development Index ranking among the very high group globally, and wished Brunei success in realising its national development vision to 2035.

Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah voiced his desire to further strengthen the Comprehensive Partnership. He also extended his heartfelt condolences to families affected by recent floods and landslides in Viet Nam.

Both sides noted with satisfaction the positive progress in bilateral ties, with regular high-level exchanges and strengthened cooperation across defence and security, fisheries, oil and gas, and education. Bilateral trade in 2024 rose by 165 per cent from 2023, surpassing ahead of schedule the two countries target of $500 million by 2025.

Looking ahead, the two sides agreed to enhance political trust; promote and facilitate trade and investment activities; strengthen connectivity; and support businesses in exchanging information and seeking partners. They also consented to tap the potential for cooperation in agriculture, fisheries, Halal industry, culture, tourism and people-to-people exchange.

On this occasion, the leaders issued a VietnamBrunei Joint Statement, reaffirming their commitment to further strengthening cooperation across all areas. VNA/VNS
More than 60 organizations received financial support as part of $600,000 monthlong campaign

Surprise funding will help smaller agencies with senior mobile food programs, weekend backpack efforts, food pantries, veteran programs

Since 2021, Duke Energy and Duke Energy Foundation have dedicated more than $2.6 million to support the efforts of these agencies

GREENVILLE, S.C., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Duke Energy and Duke Energy Foundation are wrapping up a monthlong initiative to support organizations that address food deserts, insecurities and inequities across South Carolina by announcing nearly $275,000 in surprise microgrants and contributions to community organizations across the state.

The big picture: The announcement wraps up a monthlong campaign of financial support to and employee volunteerism with organizations in South Carolina that fight hunger across the state. These include programs that distribute food boxes, fill backpacks for weekend food programs for students, provide help to veterans and senior mobile meal programs, among other feeding initiatives.

Why it matters: Every community in South Carolina is home to families who face hunger. The statistics are remarkable  more than 750,000 of our friends and neighbors lack consistent access to high-quality meals. That's 1 in 7 people facing hunger in our state every day, and 1 in 6 of those are children.

What they're saying

Tim Pearson, Duke Energy's South Carolina president: "If you grew up in South Carolina, you are likely familiar with a 'surcee'  a small, unexpected gift. Giving Tuesday is the perfect opportunity to give a little something extra and highlight the great work these organizations do throughout the year to help keep our friends and neighbors from going hungry."

"If you grew up in South Carolina, you are likely familiar with a 'surcee'  a small, unexpected gift. Giving Tuesday is the perfect opportunity to give a little something extra and highlight the great work these organizations do throughout the year to help keep our friends and neighbors from going hungry." Mark Champagne, executive director, Sumter United Ministries: "Thanks to the generosity of the Duke Energy Foundation's $5,000 grant, we will be able to place food into the hands of neighbors who are struggling more than I've seen in many years. As requests continue to rise and our shelves grow thin, this gift brings real hope at a time when our community truly needs it."

"Thanks to the generosity of the Duke Energy Foundation's $5,000 grant, we will be able to place food into the hands of neighbors who are struggling more than I've seen in many years. As requests continue to rise and our shelves grow thin, this gift brings real hope at a time when our community truly needs it." Traci H. Kennedy, executive director, TOTAL Ministries: "We so appreciate everything Duke Energy Foundation does for TOTAL Ministries. The grant is making an immediate and meaningful difference, allowing us to meet rising needs and care for families who are struggling the most."

"We so appreciate everything Duke Energy Foundation does for TOTAL Ministries. The grant is making an immediate and meaningful difference, allowing us to meet rising needs and care for families who are struggling the most." Melinda Waddell, executive director, The Manna House : "The support from Duke Energy for our mission to create a hunger-free Florence allows us to continue to provide hot, healthy, nutritious meals to our clients. With more than 100,000 individual meals served in 2024, we truly appreciate their dedication and commitment to our neighbors and community."

"The support from Duke Energy for our mission to create a hunger-free Florence allows us to continue to provide hot, healthy, nutritious meals to our clients. With more than 100,000 individual meals served in 2024, we truly appreciate their dedication and commitment to our neighbors and community." Andrea White, chief executive officer, Food Bank of Greenwood: "The grant from the Duke Energy Foundation ensures we can continue providing critical resources to our neighbors, helping stabilize households and improve overall community well-being throughout the Lakelands."

Go deeper: Every bit of support to local food banks or soup kitchens is helpful. It could be as simple as a couple of hours of your time or even a monetary donation, but anything you can contribute will make a difference.

To find a community feeding partner near you, search online at SC211.org or text "FOOD" to 211211. Created and managed by the United Way Association of South Carolina, this text message platform was the first United Way program in the nation to offer this resource and launched with support from Duke Energy Foundation.

Customers struggling to put food on the table are also likely making decisions about what bills to pay at home, including their electricity bill. That is why it is important to offer information that can assist families to manage their energy bills when times are tough. Learn more at duke-energy.com/SeasonalSavings.

Duke Energy Foundation

Duke Energy Foundation provides more than $30 million annually in philanthropic support to meet the needs of communities where Duke Energy customers live and work. The Foundation is funded by Duke Energy shareholders.

Duke Energy

Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of America's largest energy holding companies. The company's electric utilities serve 8.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 55,100 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas utilities serve 1.7 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky.

Duke Energy is executing an ambitious energy transition, keeping customer reliability and value at the forefront as it builds a smarter energy future. The company is investing in major electric grid upgrades and cleaner generation, including natural gas, nuclear, renewables and energy storage.

More information is available at duke-energy.com and the Duke Energy News Center. Follow Duke Energy on X, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook, and visit illumination for stories about the people and innovations powering our energy transition.

Contact: Ryan Mosier

24-Hour: 800.559.3853

SOURCE Duke Energy
VIENTIANE  Vietnamese Party General Secretary To Lam and Laos top leader Thongloun Sisoulith co-chaired a high-level meeting between the Communist Party of Viet Nam (CPV) and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) in Vientiane on Tuesday.

This cooperation mechanism holds special significance in enhancing friendship, solidarity and partnership between Viet Nam and Laos, ensuring practical benefits for both peoples and contributing to peace, security and prosperity in the region and the world.

Party chief Lam was leading a Vietnamese delegation to attend the 50th National Day of Laos at the invitation of LPRP General Secretary and President of Laos Thongloun Sisoulith.

At the meeting, Vietnamese and Lao Party leaders commended the historic and comprehensive achievements recorded by the two parties, states and peoples, especially in implementing Party Congress resolutions and preparing for the upcoming Party Congresses in each country.

They expressed gratitude for the longstanding heartfelt support the two sides have given each other, reiterating the importance of the special Viet NamLaos relationship amid rapid and complex regional and global developments.

Laos top leader Sisoulith noted that both sides have successfully implemented high-level agreements, with their ministries, departments and businesses carrying out cooperation activities with positive and practical outcomes.

Strong political ties between the two countries continued to form a solid foundation for advancing cooperation across all aspects, he said.

The Vietnamese and Lao leaders highly valued the increasingly effective defence and security cooperation, considered a key pillar of bilateral relations. They highlighted successful joint projects supporting Laos in enhancing its defence and security capacity, as well as ongoing coordination in searching for, collecting and repatriating the remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and experts who died in Laos.

Viet Nam and Laos also strengthened coordination with Cambodia in implementing outcomes from the meetings between the top leaders of their respective parties and in shaping long-term strategic cooperation among the three countries.

The two party leaders also acknowledged positive progress in trade, economic and investment cooperation, with top leaders directing efforts to ensure key joint projects proceed on schedule and bring tangible impacts.

Amid global uncertainties, the two sides reiterated their determination to deepen the great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive strategic cooperation between Viet Nam and Laos through existing effective mechanisms and newly agreed frameworks.

Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening ties between their respective parties and states, identifying this aspect as the core direction for comprehensive cooperation. They stressed that the Viet NamLaos relationship would remain a top priority in each others foreign policy, representing a model of long-term strategic relations and a decisive factor for the revolutionary successes of both nations.

The Vietnamese and Lao leaders also agreed to maintain timely information sharing, policy consultations and mutual support at regional and international forums.

At the meeting, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his Lao counterpart Sonexay Siphandone commended progress in economic, trade, investment, cultural, educational and scientific-technical cooperation.

Trade and investment are identified as key pillars of strategic linkages. The two prime ministers reaffirmed commitments to effectively implementing joint statements, high-level agreements and cooperation programmes to enhance economic connectivity.

The two sides stressed the need for breakthroughs to elevate these sectors to match the strength of their political ties and each countrys potential. They agreed to boost two-way trade to soon reach US$5 billion and further towards $10 billion.

Notable cooperation projects include the Ha NoiVientiane expressway, the Viet NamLaos Industrial Park model and the cross-border economy along the EastWest Economic Corridor. They will also work to improve the investment environment and infrastructure to support sustainable business expansion and mutual economic complementarity.

In addition to cooperation between party and state agencies, social organisations and peoples, Viet Nam and Laos also aim to enhance mutual support in socio-economic development and ensure security and stability along the shared border, thereby reinforcing the countries special relationship.

A joint declaration between Viet Nam and Laos was also issued on the same day, on the occasion of the Vietnamese party chief's visit.  VNS
VIENTIANE  Vietnamese Minister of National Defence General Phan Van Giang met with his Lao counterpart, Senior Lieutenant General Khamliang Outhakaysone, in Vientiane on Tuesday, during which they agreed to carry out the signed defence cooperation plan for 2026.

Giang extended his congratulations on the occasion of the 50th National Day of Laos and expressed his joy in seeing that over the past 50 years, under the wise leadership of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, the Lao military and people have united, overcome many difficulties and challenges, and achieved important accomplishments in the national construction and protection cause; and made significant contributions to peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the region and the world.

He expressed his confidence that Laos will continue its renewal process and create a peaceful, independent, democratic, unified, and prosperous nation following the socialist path.

The Vietnamese minister also affirmed that the Party, State, Government, army and people of Viet Nam will always remember the support and assistance of the Party, State, Government, army and people of Laos in the past struggle for independence and national unification in the past, as well as in the current process of national construction and protection.

Khamliang shared his deep sympathy for the heavy losses of life and property caused by recent storms and floods in Viet Nam. He also congratulated Viet Nam on its remarkable achievements in recent times, emphasising that Laos will forever remember the strong, genuine support and significant contributions Viet Nam has made to Laos during the fight for national liberation and reunification in the past, as well as in the ongoing efforts of renewal, construction, defence and development.

The Lao minister also expressed gratitude to the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defence for their support and collaboration with the Lao Ministry of National Defence in organising celebrations for the 50th anniversary of Laoss National Day.

Based on the defence cooperation plan for 2026, the two ministers agreed to coordinate and direct relevant agencies and units to build detailed implementation plans, ensuring quality and effectiveness.

In the immediate future, the focus will be placed on preparing for the successful organisation of the National Party Congresses of both countries, consolidating and preserving revolutionary historical sites, strengthening trade connections, and expanding investment markets, especially in border areas.  VNA/VNS
VIENTIANE  Vietnamese Minister of Public Security General Luong Tam Quang and Lao Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Security General Vilay Lakhamphong on Tuesday co-chaired the ground-breaking ceremony for the security command centre of the Lao Ministry of Public Security in Vientiane.

Addressing the ceremony, Quang, who was accompanying Party General Secretary To Lam during a state visit to Laos, underlined that the Vietnam-Laos relationship is an exemplary, loyal, and pure one tested and strengthened throughout both nations national liberation struggles, as well as national protection and development processes.

In recent years, the Vietnamese and Lao ministries of public security have closely coordinated in preventing and combating peaceful evolution, riot and subversion, terrorism, schemes and activities of hostile and reactionary forces, as well as those abusing issues related to religion, democracy, and human rights to undermine each countrys national security, he said. The two sides have also worked effectively together to fight transnational crimes, drug trafficking, human trafficking and high-tech crime.

Amidst complex global political, security, and economic developments, along with rising traditional and non-traditional security challenges, Quang suggested the two ministries strengthen cooperation to firmly safeguard national security and maintain social order in each country.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security will always stand side by side with, wholeheartedly support, and assist its Lao counterpart in overcoming all difficulties and challenges, and fulfilling the tasks entrusted by the Lao Party, State and people, he affirmed.

Viet Nam considers its support for Laos in building the new security command centre both essential and urgent, he continued, noting that the existing headquarters, built in the 1960s with modest scale, has deteriorated and can no longer meet the operational and development needs of the Lao public security force.

Quang expressed his belief that once completed and put into operation, the new centre will help enhance the Lao ministrys capacity in safeguarding national security and maintaining social order, contributing to the peoples peace and happiness.

For his part, Lakhamphong expressed sincere gratitude to the Vietnamese Party, Government, and Ministry of Public Security for their support for the project.

The centre will play an important role in enabling the Lao public security force to fulfil their tasks, he stated. VNA/VNS
HA NOI  Chief Justice of the Supreme Peoples Court Nguyen Van Quang had talks with a delegation from the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan led by Chief Justice and Chairman of the Judicial-Legal Council Inam Imdad Karimov in Ha Noi on Tuesday.

Hailing the visit, which followed the establishment of the Vietnam  Azerbaijan Strategic Partnership in May 2025, Quang said the relationship upgrade provides a cornerstone for the two countries to foster bilateral cooperation, and that Karimovs trip will promote collaboration between the two sides court systems.

He highlighted numerous cooperation opportunities in various fields, including economy, trade, investment, culture, and people-to-people exchanges, for the countries.

He also informed the Azerbaijani delegation about some judicial reform results of the Peoples Court system in Viet Nam, noting that aside from restructuring the court system towards a more streamlined, efficient, and effective apparatus, it has stepped up digital transformation and obtained many significant outcomes while paying more attention to improving the personnel quality.

Quang expressed his hope that the two sides will increase exchanges, along with the sharing of information and experience in judicial and legal reforms.

For his part, Karimov called on the two sides to boost bilateral cooperation, as well as coordination at international legal forums.

He also suggested them share experience in judicial reform and digital transformation, and promote exchanges between their courts at all levels. VNA/VNS
HA NOI  The Cuban Embassy hosted a reception in Ha Noi on Tuesday evening to celebrate the 65th anniversary of Viet NamCuba diplomatic relations (December 2, 1960-2025).

On behalf of leaders of the Party, State and people of Viet Nam attending the event, General Nguyen Trong Nghia, Politburo member, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Chairman of the General Department of Politics of the Viet Nam People's Army, emphasised that the day of establishing diplomatic relations between the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam and the Republic of Cuba was a great event, starting the special, exemplary relationship between the two brotherly nations of Viet Nam and Cuba.

Over the past 65 years of glorious history, the two nations have always accompanied each other, stood side by side, shared the joys and sorrows, united and constantly cooperated, and fostered the relationship between the two heroic nations, making it a priceless common asset of the two countries and a unique symbol in international relations, Nghia said.

During the fierce years of Viet Nam's resistance war, when the young Cuban Revolution had just succeeded, the Cuban Government did not hesitate to become the first country in the Western Hemisphere to establish diplomatic relations with Viet Nam (1960), recognised the National Liberation Front of South Viet Nam (1962), established the Committee for Solidarity with Viet Nam (1963), established an embassy in the liberated zone (1967), sent thousands of engineers and experts to help Viet Nam, and provided non-refundable aid for many key economic and social projects to help Viet Nam rebuild the country after the war, he stressed.

In particular, the image of Leader Fidel Castro  the first and only foreign leader to visit the newly liberated zone of Quang Tri Province in southern Viet Nam (in 1973) in the midst of the war, has become an immortal symbol of international solidarity, a vivid testament to the loyal and steadfast sentiment that goes beyond all normal diplomatic protocols, Nghia noted.

The Vietnamese Party official said that Cuba has been ready to share knowledge, experience, and valuable resources, and to accompany Viet Nam in strategic yet humane and practical fields such as education, health, agriculture, architecture, and construction. Thousands of Vietnamese students have been trained and matured by Cuba, bringing with them sentiments, knowledge, and revolutionary ideals to serve their homeland.

Cubas projects helped Viet Nam significantly improve living standards and social security, and rebuild the country in the context of Viet Nam being heavily devastated by war.

On this occasion, on behalf of the leaders of the Party, State and people of Viet Nam, Nghia expressed his deep respect and gratitude for the special friendship, solidarity, and generous, righteous and wholehearted support that Cuba gave to Viet Nam in the past struggle for national liberation and reunification, as well as in the current cause of national construction and defence.

At the ceremony, Cuban ambassador to Viet Nam Rogelio Polanco Fuentescho emphasised that a special relationship between Cuba and Viet Nam has been built, based on mutual trust, steadfast loyalty and sincere assistance. Countless noble gestures of the people of the two countries for each other have been engraved in historical memory, passed down to generations of leaders and people of both nations.

On this occasion, the ambassador congratulated the Party, State and people of Viet Nam on the outstanding socio-economic achievements in the past year and wished the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of Viet Nam great success. He expressed his belief that with the determination of the leaders and the efforts of the people, Viet Nam will complete the set challenging historical goals.  VNA/VNS
VIENTIANE - General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) To Lam and his spouse Ngo Phuong Ly, along with a high-ranking delegation of Viet Nam, left Wattay International Airport in Vientiane on Tuesday evening, successfully concluding their two-day state visit to Laos.

During his trip, the Vietnamese Party leader attended a ceremony celebrating the 50th National Day of Laos, and co-chaired a high-level meeting between the CPV and the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party (LPRP).

He held talks with General Secretary of the LPRP and President of Laos Thongloun Sisoulith; met with Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone and National Assembly Chairman Xaysomphone Phomvihane; paid visits to former senior Party and State leaders of Laos, delivered a policy speech at the Lao National Academy of Politics and Public Administration, and joined other activities.

The two sides signed important cooperation documents, establishing a legal framework and opening up new cooperation directions that align with each countrys development requirements and the shared interests of the two countries' people, contributing to further deepening the Viet NamLaos special relationship in the new context.

The leaders exchanged in-depth views on each countrys situation and agreed to further strengthen cooperation through existing mechanisms, as well as high-level visits and exchanges through flexible forms; closely coordinate and support the organisation of important events, especially their National Party Congresses, thus further consolidating the new heights of Viet NamLaos political relations.

They agreed to continue enhancing and innovating the content and methods of information and education on the history and traditions of the Viet Nam  Laos special solidarity for officials, Party members, people, and the youth of the two countries.

Building on the tradition of special solidarity, the two sides agreed to elevate bilateral relations to a new level, defined as great friendship, special solidarity, comprehensive cooperation, and strategic cohesion, reflecting their shared vision, intertwined strategic interests, and long-term commitment to sustainable development, self-reliance, and common prosperity of both nations.

They also agreed to strengthen connection in trade, infrastructure, banking and finance, and tourism; accelerate the implementation of agreements supporting each other in building independent and self-reliant economies; enhance exchanges on macroeconomic management and institutional reforms; and closely coordinate to remove bottlenecks, creating favourable conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to effectively implement and expand investment projects in Laos.

The leaders pledged to strongly promote and create breakthroughs in economic, cultural, and scientific-technical cooperation; enhance connectivity in transport, electricity energy, telecommunications, and tourism; continue improving the quality of education, training, and human resource development, especially high-quality labour force; and strengthen people-to-people interactions and local-level exchanges, viewing these as a strategic pillar to deepen mutual understanding and promoting long-lasting solidarity between the two countries.

The Party chiefs visit demonstrated Viet Nams consistent foreign policy of giving the highest priority to its special solidarity with Laos. It also provided an opportunity for the two countries to reaffirm their commitments and determination to build a new vision, elevating the Vie

t NamLaos relations to a new level with ever-deepening trust, and creating strong breakthroughs in all-around cooperation. VNA/VNS
HA NOI  First Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council of the Russian Federal Assembly Andrey Vladimirovich Yatskin praised the Joint Viet NamRussia Tropical Science and Technology Research Centre in Ha Noi as a prime example of bilateral cooperation during his visit to the institution on Tuesday.

Major General ang Hong Trien, director of the centre, noted that this is Yatskins second visit to the facility, and briefed the guest on its scientific activities, which focus on three main directions: tropical materials science, tropical ecology, and tropical biomedicine.

He said the centre is a unique bilateral cooperation model and a symbolic component of the traditional friendship and comprehensive strategic partnership between Viet Nam and Russia.

At present, 47 projects under the 2025-2029 scientific research and application programme are being implemented here with the participation of more than 40 organisations from Russian ministries and research institutes.

The centres operations have always received close attention from the Russian government, parliament, and embassy in Viet Nam, as well as relevant ministries and agencies of both countries. The Russian government has also provided the centre with two mobile testing vehicles, helping enhance its capacity for research, infectious disease surveillance, and emergency epidemic response.

Trien expressed his hope that the centre will continue to receive attention and support from the Federation Council and the Russian embassy in Viet Nam.

Yatskin stressed that the two countries should further strengthen cooperation across all fields, particularly in scientific research, of which the centre is a prime example.

He said that upon concluding his visit, he will report fully on cooperative activities with the Vietnamese side, including scientific research cooperation at the centre.  VNA/VNS
*Vo Tri Thanh

Viet Nam has endured another year of devastating and historic natural disasters. From 2006 to 2025, the country has lost an average of 314 lives annually to storms, floods and landslides, with economic damage equivalent to 1-1.5 per cent of GDP.

Yet 2025 has stood out. Nineteen storms and tropical depressions formed in the East Sea, nearly matching the record in 2017. Many moved unusually fast, shifted course without warning, and three powerful systems made direct landfall in the central region.

The country was hit by four consecutive storms  No. 10, 11, 12 and 13  in just over a month. Heavy rains returned before the floodwaters receded, creating overlapping disaster cycles rarely seen before.

By late November, 409 people had been confirmed dead or missing, more than 333,000 houses were damaged or destroyed, over 553,000 hectares of crops were lost and total economic losses exceeded VN85 trillion (US$3.3 billion), matching the scale of the losses recorded during Typhoon Yagi in 2024. The November floods in the south-central region alone caused more than VN13 trillion in damage.

The recovery effort has drawn in the whole nation  the political system, the armed forces, businesses and communities alike.

In its recent directives, the Government has underscored that economic recovery must move in tandem with relief efforts. Resolution 380/NQ-CP dated November 25 provides targeted support for storm-hit provinces, while more than VN3.5 trillion has been allocated for urgent repairs and livelihood restoration.

Lower financing costs  including a two-percentage-point interest-rate reduction for policy credit  are designed to help households and small businesses restart production without being overwhelmed by debt. Together with easier credit conditions and market-stabilising measures, these tools aim to prevent short-term disruptions from turning into longer-lasting economic scars.

By pushing financial support to the frontline, the Government wants local economies to regain momentum quickly, safeguard jobs and avoid supply-chain fractures. As the Prime Minister noted, this is a moment that demands exceptional effort  'everyone working with the intensity of two, for the people'  to restore confidence and keep growth on track despite an extreme climate year.

Yet as Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh acknowledged, natural disasters are increasingly severe, with GDP losses estimated at 2 per cent in 2025. According to an input report for the World Banks Vietnam 2045 report, climate change could reduce GDP by up to 12.5 per cent by 2050, and extreme weather alone can shave 1 per cent off annual growth.

The World Bank estimates that Viet Nam will need about $233 billion for climate adaptation through 2050, or roughly 0.75 per cent of GDP each year. The risks are stark: the Mekong Delta could lose half its land with a one-metre sea-level rise, while over 75 per cent of garment and electronics factories lie in high-heat zones, placing 1.3 million workers at risk.

The scale of the November disasters shows not only the force of nature, but also the urgency of improving disaster governance. Despite last years lessons after Typhoon Yagi  on timely mobilisation, risk mapping and the use of data and technology  this year revealed persistent weaknesses.

Systemic gaps

Some provinces lacked specialised rescue equipment; mobilising forces remained slow. Several areas were left isolated with no electricity or communication.

Coordination between local authorities, the military and emergency teams was at times fragmented, while limited forecasting capacity left many communities unprepared. These gaps contributed to greater losses and delayed recovery.

This year also saw renewed controversy over the operation of hydropower reservoirs. Several localities suffered severe flooding. Some residents said warnings came too late, while operators argued they had complied with regulations.

This paradox  everyone being 'right' while damage still occurs  suggests that current reservoir rules no longer match the reality of extreme and overlapping storms. In response, the Partys Secretariat issued Conclusion 213-KL/TW, requiring adjustments to reservoir operations, prioritising flood-control capacity for downstream communities and strengthening the legal and technical framework. The Government has also ordered comprehensive reviews of multi-reservoir coordination and mandatory early-warning protocols.

Digital infrastructure has emerged as another critical weakness. During the recent floods, many communities were completely cut off, with no power or mobile signal.

Damage assessments in these areas were only possible after water levels receded. Strengthening telecommunications, building backup systems and investing in satellite-based connectivity are now essential. Without reliable communication, early-warning systems cannot function, and emergency response becomes far less effective.

Looking forward, Viet Nam must rethink its approach to growth and public investment. If growth is driven by public spending, investment priorities must reflect the reality of extreme weather. This means shifting from a 'post-disaster recovery' mindset to a 'risk-management' approach  investing in forecasting, early-warning systems, flood mapping and landslide protection. These investments cost far less than the tens of trillions of ong lost each year.

Infrastructure standards also need to change. Cities must be designed to drain quickly during extreme rainfall. Roads, schools and clinics must be built to remain safe and functional during floods.

According to the World Bank, every dollar invested in climate adaptation can reduce economic losses by nearly half by 2050. Some large-scale projects such as new airports, theatres or commercial ports should be reconsidered, especially in regions recently merged or undergoing new planning. Public money should prioritise infrastructure that protects lives, safeguards supply chains and enhances economic resilience.

Beyond Government action, a stronger multi-stakeholder model is needed. Climate-related disasters today exceed the capacity of households and local communities to cope alone. The State must remain the backbone of disaster response, but businesses, civil society and local communities also need clearer roles, better coordination and mechanisms for risk-sharing.

The story of this years storms is not only about destruction. It is a reminder that development and resilience must go hand in hand. In a world of rising uncertainty  from geopolitics to climate extremes  Viet Nam must strengthen its economic security, update planning and investment frameworks and reinforce critical infrastructure. Only by doing so can the country protect its people and ensure that growth remains sustainable in the decades to come.

Ultimately, the real test for Viet Nam is its ability to turn todays losses into tomorrows resilience. Extreme weather is no longer an external shock  it has become a structural challenge that must be embedded in planning, investment and governance. Resilience, therefore, should be viewed not as a cost, but as a strategic investment that protects growth and improves long-term competitiveness.

*Vo Tri Thanh is former vice-president of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) and a member of the National Financial and Monetary Policy Advisory Council. With a doctorate in economics from the Australian National University, he focuses on macroeconomic policy, trade liberalisation and institutional reform. He authors the Viet Nam News column Analysts Pick.
HA NOI  Viet Nam is working with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on a comprehensive review of its national nuclear power infrastructure, an important step in preparing for the Ninh Thuan nuclear power project and similar projects in the future.

From December 111, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) through the Vietnam Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety is coordinating with relevant ministries and agencies to host an Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review (INIR) Mission in Ha Noi.

The delegation consists of seven IAEA experts, three international specialists invited by the agency from the UK, Brazil and Bulgaria, and one observer from Egypt.

The mission is meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of National Defence, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, Ministry of Education and Training, the Vietnam Electricity (EVN), the Viet Nam National Industry - Energy Group (Petrovietnam), and the Khanh Hoa Provincial Peoples Committee.

Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Le Xuan inh said the timely support of the IAEA and the experience shared by international experts are of great significance as Vietnam works to develop its nuclear power infrastructure in line with international standards and IAEA guidelines.

As the coordinating agency for the programme, the MoST will continue advancing nuclear infrastructure development in line with IAEA recommendations to meet the requirements of Viet Nams first nuclear power project, he stressed. He added that the ministry will further support cooperation between Viet Nam and the IAEA in promoting the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

Eric Mathet, Head of the INIR Mission, said the review will mark an important milestone in Viet Nams journey toward establishing a safe, secure and sustainable nuclear power programme.

The IAEA praised Viet Nams efforts in preparing its self-evaluation report for the mission.

According to Mathet, the review team that is composed of highly experienced experts in all areas of nuclear infrastructure has thoroughly studied the report and maintained close contact with Vietnamese counterparts throughout the process to ensure accurate and objective assessment.

The agency encourages open exchanges between the Vietnamese working groups and the INIR team to ensure the missions success.

Under IAEA guidelines, nuclear power infrastructure includes 19 key elements, ranging from physical infrastructure, site preparation and supporting facilities to legal frameworks, financial capacity and human resources. For newcomer countries like Viet Nam, nuclear infrastructure development follows three phases - preparations for making a launch decision, for plant construction, and for plant operations.

This INIR Mission is assessing Viet Nams readiness relative to Milestone 2. To prepare for the mission, Viet Nams Nuclear Infrastructure Assessment Working Group completed and submitted its Self-Evaluation Report to the IAEA in October 2025.

Following the mission, the INIR team will submit a consolidated report to the Government of Viet Nam, highlighting progress made, areas requiring further improvement, and key recommendations to help Viet Nam develop a master plan for nuclear infrastructure.

The findings will support the effective, safe and secure implementation of the Ninh Thuan nuclear power project in line with IAEA and international standards. VNA/VNS
PARIS  The Vietnamese Embassy in France on December 1 held a fundraising ceremony in support of residents in central and Central Highlands provinces which have suffered severe losses from storms and prolonged flooding since early November.

Addressing the ceremony, Vietnamese Ambassador inh Toan Thang conveyed the November 13 call from the Viet Nam Fatherland Front Central Committee urging the Vietnamese community at home and abroad to uphold the nations tradition of solidarity and mutual support.

He noted that the successive storms and floods have inflicted heavy damage on central and Central Highlands localities at a time when the country is striving to recover and sustain socio-economic development, placing additional burdens on local authorities and residents.

The ambassador stressed that while natural disasters may destroy homes and crops, they cannot diminish the compassion and solidarity that have long been the strength of the Vietnamese people. He expressed confidence that contributions from the Vietnamese community in France will help bring comfort and hope to affected families.

Thang also thanked the staffs of Vietnamese representative agencies in France for their timely response and responsibility, emphasising that the campaign reflects not only support for disaster-hit communities but also the enduring spirit of solidarity among Vietnamese people worldwide. VNA/VNS
GUIYANG, China, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- In history, Guizhou attracted less attention because of its remote geographical location and rugged terrain. Yet during the critical time when the nation's survival was at stake, Guizhou became the country's strategic rear area and also the frontline at times. Throughout the war, people of all ethnic groups in Guizhou made remarkable contributions to China's eventual victory.

Explore the Historical Memory of Guizhou in Wartime

The year 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War. At invitation of the International Communication Center of Guizhou Radio and Television Station, six young people from the United States, Pakistan, Costa Rica and Tajikistan traveled in Guizhou with local peers as their guides, exploring historical sites of the war, rediscovering the stories behind, and witnessing how the region has transformed.

Gavin Andrew Cooley, an American youth whose grandfather served in World War II, visited Jiuzhou Airfield in Huangping with a local pilot and learned how soldiers and civilians once worked together to build airstrips at that time. He felt the enduring bond forged between China and the United States during the war.

Younas Muhammad, a Pakistani medical student, traveled with Yang Hongmei, descendant of a doctor from the Chinese Red Cross Medical Relief Corps, to Tuyunguan in Guiyang. There he learned about Dr. Guy Courtney and the unforgettable contributions of the international medical teams who came to China with compassion across borders.

American youth Tim and his friend Bubble, visited retired art teacher Xu Li, former chair of the Dushan Artists Association. Guided by their Chinese friend Luna, they viewed Xu's oil painting works that describe the Qiannan Incident by which they recognized the cruelty of war and the value of peace.

Jose Luis Fonseca Conejo from Costa Rica and Gharibmamadova Sabzon from Tajikistan were guided by Zheng Xiangyi, a senior student from Zhejiang University, and Gong Qingmin, a teacher from Guizhou University. They learned why Zhejiang University was forced to relocate to Guizhou and discovered how the Chunqian Society used crosstalk performance to rally the public during the war years.

Together, these young people from China and abroad walked together across Guizhou, tracing the footprints of history across mountains and rivers. From their perspectives, the world has a look at Guizhou's past and China's ongoing story of resilience and high quality development, which reminds us of the significance of enduring peace and the courage to resist aggression.

YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/mTbDhSrD38c?si=cyGLjof3AQ-TjWsq

SOURCE International Communication Center of Guizhou Radio and Television Station
HA NOI  Ministries, agencies and local authorities have been told to intensify efforts to definitively address shortcomings in tackling illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing across the country.

Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, head of the National Steering Committee on Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, gave the order when he chaired the committees 24th meeting in Ha Noi on Tuesday.

The session was connected online to 21 coastal provinces and cities.

Ha stressed that all violations must be dealt with strictly, with absolutely no actions that could undermine national efforts to have the European Commissions yellow card lifted."

He also tasked relevant ministries with compiling data and photographic evidence of IUU-related violations and penalties, reviewing legal and policy issues raised by the European Commission and urgently issuing policies on livelihood transition to support fishermen in shifting to more sustainable practices.

All assigned tasks must be completed before December 15, he said.

Ha noted that the month designated for combating IUU fishing nationwide had ended, but after more than eight years, the goal of removing the EC's IUU yellow card had not been achieved, requiring more drastic actions.

Based on the fact that it is difficult to control activities on the vast ocean, Ha proposed changing the way fishing vessels are monitored, focusing on onshore management and applying digital technology and telecommunications.

He asked ministries, agencies and localities to complete the national fisheries database, stating that this must be done to comprehensively monitor fishing vessels and trace the origin of aquatic products.

Ha said that when the database is completed, Viet Nam could work directly with the EC to provide full information on violating vessels, vessels on shore, the origin of aquatic products, the licensing process and the progress of handling violations.

Ministries were also required to establish inspection teams to work with localities, fishing ports and vessel owners to promptly detect bottlenecks and root causes and to propose concrete measures to eliminate IUU violations.

Ha emphasised the need to clarify the number of vessels found in violation in foreign waters and to compare both administrative and criminal domestic violations with figures recorded by foreign authorities.

He urged agencies to compile dossiers, invoices, administrative violation records and criminal case files, as well as photographic evidence of vessel seizures, to demonstrate the rigour of Vietnamese law enforcement.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (MAE) must complete its review and submit proposals for a Government resolution on fisheries management by December 15, ensuring that Viet Nams mechanisms and policies are aligned with regulations in the US, Europe and other markets.

The ministry must also finalise a scheme on sustainable offshore fisheries for Government approval.

Measurable results

At the meeting, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Phung uc Tien reported that the agricultural sector had been vigorously implementing measures to combat IUU fishing, achieving clear and measurable results.

As of November 29, ministries, agencies and localities had completed all 101 tasks assigned by the Prime Minister, with 100 per cent of violations addressed and more than 4,037 cases resulting in fines totalling around VN162 billion (US$6.1 million).

Law enforcement bodies had also launched criminal proceedings in 91 IUU-related cases involving 138 defendants.

Of the 71 Vietnamese fishing vessels detained overseas, authorities had handled 53 cases, or nearly 74 per cent.

The remaining cases were being further verified, including instances involving false registration numbers or vessel owners no longer residing in their localities, which complicated the handling process.

A total of 79,243 fishing vessels nationwide had been registered and updated on the National Fisheries Database (VNFishbase).

Boats that did not meet the conditions for operation had been brought under control and assigned to local communes and wards for supervision at their mooring locations.

During the week, police brought two cases involving three defendants to trial on charges of organising illegal exit and entry and obstructing or disrupting the operations of computer networks, telecommunications networks or electronic devices.

As for recent warnings issued by the EU over several consignments of swordfish exported from Khanh Hoa Province, Tien said the ministry had ordered a comprehensive review of all documentation to clarify suspected fraud.

The MAE was also coordinating with the Ministry of Finance to compare input and output data along the supply chain to ensure that any violations would be handled in line with regulations.

He added that the ministry was finalising all necessary records and providing data required by the European Commission inspection team.

It was also working with relevant agencies to amend the Fisheries Law and its accompanying decrees and circulars to ensure consistency and alignment ahead of their promulgation.

Fully updated

As VNFishbase is rolled out, all fishing vessels are now being fully updated on the system, including data on vessel owners, crew members and their port entry and exit records, with information pulled directly from the National Population Database, according to a representative of Viettel Military Industry and Telecoms Group (Viettel).

The system also integrates data on administrative penalties, enabling unified management of violations both at sea and on shore.

Procedures covering shipbuilding, registration, inspection, modification, transfer and technical supervision are continuously updated by the ministry to ensure that the database remains accurate, complete, clean and live.

The integration of the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) with its supporting modules will allow for more effective, transparent and streamlined management of fishing vessels, monitoring of fishing activities and enforcement against violations.

Viettel representatives proposed that the MAE develop a comprehensive digital transformation plan for the fisheries and aquaculture sectors to ensure robust traceability management.

Also at the meeting, the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said it was working closely with the ministry and relevant experts to review and finalise reports concerning 12 fishing methods not currently recognised by the US as equivalent to their standards before resubmission to US authorities.

VASEP also proposed carrying out, in parallel, the issuance of Certificates of Origin for Import for 14 fishing methods deemed equivalent by the US, ensuring the supply of legally caught raw materials for processing and export while meeting US legal requirements.

Reports from localities

As of November 28, the coastal south-central province of Khanh Hoa had 5,127 fishing vessels, all registered and licensed.

Expired licences and inactive vessels are being closely monitored by local authorities.

The province has directed its Agriculture and Environment Department to develop an occupational transition plan linked to IUU prevention and sustainable fisheries.

Over the past week, Lam ong Province issued licences for 7,467 fully eligible vessels and updated VNeID data for 8,115 vessels, reaching 98.8 per cent of total vessels.

Authorities recorded 64,642 port entries and exits, inspected more than 58,000 vessel movements and traced over 9.3 tonnes of yellowfin and bigeye tuna.

From January 1, 2024 to November 28, 2025, the province detected and handled 789 cases of VMS disconnection or boundary violations.

Last week alone, five administrative cases saw violators fined nearly VN100 million ($3,800) for failures in VMS operation, unqualified chief engineers and unregistered crew.

In the northeastern coastal province of Quang Ninh, by Tuesday, the province had 4,093 vessels of six metres or more registered on VNfishbase and fully licensed.

Some 557 violations have been penalised with fines exceeding VN7.59 billion ($288,000).

Electronic monitoring via eCDT now covers 1,274 vessels and 3,941 tonnes of catch.

The province has allocated 45,000ha of water surface for aquaculture development and has transitioned 766 vessels (about 2,240 workers) from fishing to aquaculture and other livelihoods.

Three fishing port investment projects in Ha Tu Ward, uong Hoa Ward and Van on Special Zone will be included in the 2026-2030 public investment plan.

In the northern coastal province of Thanh Hoa, as of Tuesday, the province had 6,231 vessels.

All eligible vessels are registered on VNfishbase and the provincial fisheries database.

Between November 24 and December 2, the province reported no instances of VMS disconnection or boundary violations. VNS
HA NOI  The Ministry of Health is working to further promote the socialisation of support for persons with disabilities by mobilising organisations, particularly those representing persons with disabilities, as well as individuals and communities to take part, Minister of Health ao Hong Lan said.

She made the remarks on Tuesday afternoon at a ceremony in Ha Noi marking the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (December 3).

The event was held in coordination with the National Action Centre for Toxic Chemicals and Environmental Treatment (NACCET) under the Ministry of National Defence, the Ha Noi Association of People with Disabilities and Catholic Relief Services.

Minister Lan, who is also chairwoman of the National Committee on Persons with Disabilities, affirmed that caring for, protecting and promoting the rights of persons with disabilities has always been given special attention by the Party and the State.

She noted that Viet Nam currently has around 7 million persons with disabilities, of whom about 3 million have been issued disability certificates and approximately 1.7 million with severe disabilities receive monthly social allowances.

About 96 per cent of persons with disabilities are covered by health insurance. Children with disabilities receive support for inclusive education at mainstream schools and specialised institutions, while persons with disabilities are supported in vocational training, job creation and access to preferential loans to improve their livelihoods, she said.

The minister said the Politburo has recently issued Resolution No 72-NQ/TW on breakthrough solutions to protect, care for and improve public health. At the tenth session of the National Assembly, the Ministry of Health submitted a resolution on breakthrough policies to implement Resolution 72 and the national target programme in the health sector.

The programme includes Project 4, which relates to social protection through models that provide care for and promote the role of persons with disabilities, she said.

o Thi Huyen, chairwoman of the Ha Noi Association of People with Disabilities, said over the years, persons with disabilities in Ha Noi have continuously striven to move forward from pursuing education, employment and starting businesses to contributing to social activities.

Many individuals have overcome environmental and attitudinal barriers to assert themselves and contribute to the development of the capital. These efforts are proof that when society is inclusive and progressive and when opportunities are created, values can be spread, she said.

She said the establishment of disability associations at the commune and ward levels marks an important step in affirming that persons with disabilities are not merely beneficiaries, but active agents in the development process.

Persons with disabilities are citizens with rights, voices and the ability to contribute to the progress of their own communities, she said.

Fostering disability inclusive societies is not the responsibility of a single sector, organisation in a single day of the year. It is a long-term journey of the entire society.

We - persons with disabilities - are not standing outside that journey. We are companions, creators, and implementers, she said.  VNS
TOKYO - The number of organ donations from brain-dead donors in Japan in 2025 hit a record high of 134 as of November 30, according to the Japan Organ Transplant Network (JOT).

It is believed that the increase is partly due to the publics greater awareness of organ transplants and progress has been made regarding the governments financial support for medical institutions that can declare brain deaths.

Compared with overseas organ donation numbers, Japan remains low, and thus more effort is needed to increase the different types of organ donations.

The JOT announced on November 29 that a girl under the age of six who was hospitalised in a Fukuoka city government-run childrens hospital was declared brain dead, becoming the 133rd donor in 2025 under the revised Law on Organ Transplantation.

The number of donors surpassed 132 in 2023, setting a new record.

On November 30, a boy under 18 was declared brain dead, bringing the number to 134.

When the law enabling organ transplants from brain-dead people was enforced in 1997, the patients declaration of intent and other strict conditions were necessary.

Thus, the annual number of organ donations had initially been only a few.

The revised law enforced in 2010 made it so that organ transplants from brain-dead people were possible with only the approval from the patients family members. Since then, the number of organ donations has gradually increased.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has taken such measures as dispatching doctors from medical institutions that have more experience handling organ donations from brain-dead donors to institutions with less experience.

The ministry also increased the amount paid to hospitals for organ donation medical services.

However, the number of organ donors per million population in Japan was 1.13 in 2024. The number was much lower than the 49.70 in the United States and 7.75 in South Korea.

The importance of organ transplantation operations that can save lives has spread (in society), said Professor Minoru Ono of the University of Tokyo, who heads the Japan Society for Transplantation.

I hope more people will want to take part in organ transplantation in the event that they or one of their family members are declared brain-dead. THE JAPAN NEWS/ANN
In Vietnams shift toward a digital and technology-enabled economy, what critical talent gaps do you see in the business-technology integration space?

As Vietnam transforms into a digital and technology-driven economy, the most significant talent gap emerges precisely at the intersection between business and technology. We are not only short of technology engineers or business managers; what we lack most are people who truly understand both worlds and can connect them to create new economic value.

Dong Manh Cuong

In the domain of data- and AI-driven decision-making, many young workers can use tools but lack analytical thinking and the ability to design data-driven strategies. What we need are not just people who can use AI but those who can apply it to business models, those who know how to ask the right questions and understand how it affects a companys value chain.

In data governance, the shortage of professionals with expertise in data architecture, security, compliance, and advanced analytics means many businesses find themselves drowning in data but unable to convert it into competitive advantage. The biggest gap lies in bridge positions: people who can translate the technical language of IT teams into the strategic language of business teams, enabling faster and more accurate decision-making.

Vietnam also faces a severe shortage of digital product managers and digital transformation leaders who can drive the full lifecycle of a product, from ideation to development, testing, optimisation, and scaling. Many companies in fintech, digital banking, e-commerce, and tech-enabled logistics still have to assign digital transformation tasks to traditional managers, even though the required capabilities lie in agile thinking, user behaviour insights, and the ability to integrate multiple data sources.

As emerging technologies such as blockchain, 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT), and digital payment systems evolve rapidly, the shortage of hybrid talent has become even more pronounced. These are people who not only understand technology but also business models, regulatory requirements, and safety standards. This group is also capable of operating blockchain-based financial models, optimising supply chains using real-time data from 5G and IoT, or developing new fintech services aligned with regulatory frameworks.

How does British University Vietnam (BUV) embed the integration of business and technology into its academic programmes, ensuring that students can translate these technologies into business strategies and innovation-driven value?

At BUV, the integration of business and technology is embedded consistently from programme design to lectures, teaching methods, and assessments. We do not teach technology as a standalone subject; we embed it within real business contexts.

In lectures on AI, data, or 5G, faculty do not start with technical principles, they begin with the business problem and identify where technology can create value. Students encounter technology through practical scenarios such as demand forecasting, digital product design, strategy planning, or operational improvement, helping them develop a mindset that views technology as a tool for economic value creation.

Our teaching methodology is designed so students learn through experience rather than just absorbing theory. In data analytics classes, students work with real corporate datasets and translate outcomes into strategic recommendations. In digital product development courses, they must create prototypes, run user tests, and defend their ideas. Faculty act as facilitators, asking critical questions and guiding students to think independently and analytically.

Assessments at BUV are primarily project-based, requiring students to apply both business thinking and technological understanding. An assessment may ask students to analyse the impact of 5G on a business model, build an AI-based forecasting model, or propose a new digital service based on customer data.

What strategic partnerships is BUV pursuing with technology firms, digital enterprises, and innovation ecosystems to enhance students practical business tech capabilities?

We view strategic partnerships with technology companies and innovation ecosystems as an integral part of our educational philosophy. In line with this approach, BUV is also expanding its academic offerings, including the Business Technology programme delivered in collaboration with Manchester Metropolitan University - a university with over 200 years of history in one of the UKs key financial and technology hubs - to prepare students with the managerial insight and technological literacy needed to work effectively in organisations undergoing digital transformation.

BUV collaborates with companies in AI, data analytics, cloud computing, and cybersecurity to bring real-world cases into our curriculum and to develop consulting projects that students can contribute to. Through these partnerships, students work directly with real data and real workflows, such as building AI models for marketing, optimising operations with big data, or participating in projects that design cloud-based digital solutions.

In parallel, BUV is developing partnerships with companies in fintech, e-commerce, tech logistics, and firms deploying 5G or IoT infrastructure. These partners provide internships and also co-design lessons, deliver guest lectures, and present real business problems for students to solve. This allows students to explore emerging digital-era business models such as digital payment platforms, platform-based economies, smart supply chain management, and real-time data-driven services.

Importantly, students do not merely observe; they must analyse, propose, and test ideas, developing innovation mindsets grounded in technological application.

Beyond corporate partners, BUV also collaborates with incubators, innovation hubs, and startup ecosystems to create environments where students can prototype ideas and receive guidance from industry mentors. These ecosystems help students understand how technology is commercialised, especially in fields like AI, big data, or intelligent automation. Many student projects at BUV have been highly regarded by industry partners and selected for pilot implementation, demonstrating the real value of this collaboration model.
Unveiled on November 28, the launch marks a milestone in the partnership between Siemens and AIT, highlighting their collaboration on technology transfer and local production of the SIVACON S8 to boost Vietnams energy infrastructure.

Manufactured in Vietnam, the SIVACON S8 is designed for high-end clients across sectors such as data centres, aviation and ports, liquefied natural gas, high-speed rail, energy, and industrial applications.

The product exemplifies Siemens and AITs dedication to sustainable development, delivering features such as comprehensive digitalisation, maximum safety, and a reliable, efficient power supply.

"We are very pleased to witness the fruit of the cooperation between Siemens and AIT, just eight months after technology transfer," said Pham Thai Lai, CEO of Siemens ASEAN and Vietnam at the launch event. "This is a testament to the rapid, effective implementation capability and strong commitment of both sides, while showcasing the ability of local expertise in applying state-of-art technology from Germany."

Also at the event, a Siemens Digital Industries expert presented on the transformative power of Siemens Simcenter, digital twin technology, and simulation. These advanced tools are seen as crucial for optimising energy efficiency in next-generation data centres, a sector facing increasing demands from AI and cloud computing.

Digital Twin technology creates virtual replicas for comprehensive analysis and optimisation, while Simcenter simulation capabilities enable detailed modelling and thermal analysis.

This integrated approach leads to significant benefits, including up to 38 per cent energy savings, 24 per cent cost reduction, and achieving impressive Power Usage Effectiveness benchmarks.

These innovations are vital for Vietnamese data centres to enhance efficiency, reduce emissions, and build sustainable digital infrastructure, aligning with global sustainability mandates.

Alongside SIVACON S8 launch, AIT Corp and Siemens hosted the seminar on the green energy transition, which brought together key stakeholders from government, industry, and energy sectors.

Discussions focused on the opportunities and challenges presented by the energy transition in the digital era, with particular focus on the recently adjusted National Power Development Plan VIII (for 20212030).

Participants explored strategies to ensure national energy security, attract vital investment in energy infrastructure, and secure clean energy sources to align with Vietnams ambitious commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

The seminar highlighted the collective efforts required to foster a stable and sustainable electricity supply, crucial for the nation's continued economic growth and digital transformation.

"Siemens remains committed to supporting Vietnam's socioeconomic development and its digital transformation journey," said Lai. "By providing innovative solutions like SIVACON S8 and fostering strategic partnerships with Vietnamese companies such as AIT Corp, Siemens is actively contributing to a more sustainable, efficient, and resilient energy future for the country."

Digital solutions demonstrate post-virus vow from Siemens The world has been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. Pham Thai Lai, president and CEO of Siemens Vietnam as well as Siemens ASEAN and Singapore, talked with VIRs Thanh Dat about how the company has been deploying its digital solutions to fight the pandemic, with Vietnam slated to be a beneficiary.

Sustainability: its time to step up and act together Becoming more sustainable is no longer a nice-to-have: its a business imperative. Dr. Pham Thai Lai, president and CEO of Siemens ASEAN and Vietnam, spoke to VIR's Thanh Tung about how Siemens is leading the way towards carbon neutrality and how the company has been assisting its customers to meet individual decarbonisation goals.
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CHAMPAIGN-URBANA, Ill., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A first-of-its-kind U.S. field trial is underway to explore how Class A biosolids can be used as a sustainable fertilizer for industrial hemp grain and fiber production. Led by Dr. D.K. Lee and a team of crop science researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, in partnership with The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) and Flura, Inc. (Flura), this research, officially titled "Evaluating Environmental Benefits of Growing Hemp with Biosolids" examines how EPA-approved biosolid fertilizer can support regenerative agriculture and sustainable hemp cultivation in the U.S.

Members of the University of Illinois research team, Flura, Inc., and The Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) gather at the hemp trial site in Champaign-Urbana to review early growth observations and field performance.

The trial explores potential benefits, including increased fiber yield, improved soil health, and reduced environmental impact, while measuring outcomes across multiple metrics: crop performance, soil carbon sequestration, and PFAS absorption.

Strong Early Growth Observations

Initial visual observations from the Champaign-Urbana research site indicate that hemp grown with biosolids appears taller with thicker stalks compared to control plots using standard urea fertilizer. The first full harvest and analysis was conducted in November 2025, with replication planned for 2026 to validate results and support future publication.

"This trial is being led by Dr. D.K. Lee, a crop science researcher with more than 25 years of experience conducting field studies for universities, the Department of Energy, and commercial growers," said Jeffrey Yarosz, Founder, FLURA. "His leadership ensures scientific rigor, transparency, and the kind of independent oversight needed to set a national standard."

Study Design and Methodology

Location: University of Illinois crop science research fields, Champaign-Urbana Plot Size: Trial plots are approximately 1\8 acre Inputs: Flura's proprietary hemp seed; Class A biosolids vs. standard urea fertilizer (control) Oversight: Independent scientific supervision ensures accuracy and credibility

Key focus areas:

Fertilizer efficacy and fiber/grain yield comparisons

Carbon sequestration potential through root biomass measurement

PFAS absorption monitoring across different plant tissues

Overall hemp remediation potential

"Even though hemp does not require heavy inputs of fertilizers compared to other row crops, hemp still needs nutrients depending on the end products, whether fiber, grain, or both, and sustainable nutrient management is essential for both yield and environmental health," said Dr. Lee. "Our study is examining how biosolids can provide the nutrients needed to support robust fiber and grain production while improving soil health over time."

As a fast-growing annual crop with a deep root system, hemp has the potential to enhance soil structure, increase water retention, and reduce erosion and chemical runoff - benefits that can help farmers lower input costs and improve long-term productivity. This study aims to quantify those advantages through real-world field data.

Circular Economy Approach to Farming

MWRD provides funding and Class A biosolids for the trial, while Flura supplies hemp seed, and the University of Illinois supports on-farm application. This collaboration brings together public utility innovation, private-sector expertise, and academic leadership.

"By partnering on this trial, we're exploring innovative ways to use Class A biosolids to support sustainable agriculture," said Jeffrey Yarosz, Founder, Flura. "The goal is to understand how these nutrient-rich, EPA-approved materials can enhance soil health, improve crop productivity, and provide a model for environmentally responsible farming practices that other regions across the U.S. can follow."

"Flura is proud to partner on this pioneering trial, which showcases how innovative nutrient solutions can advance regenerative agriculture," added Yarosz. "By converting biosolids into high-quality, EPA-approved fertilizer and combining it with our hemp seed, we're helping farmers increase yields, build healthier soils, and demonstrate a scalable circular economy model."

Harvest and sample analysis will conclude in early 2026, with results informing sustainable nutrient management strategies and regenerative agriculture practices. The trial will be replicated in 2026 to validate outcomes and support peer-reviewed publication.

This field trial is part of a larger initiative exploring sustainable nutrient management strategies for hemp and other crops. The study evaluates how biosolids can reduce reliance on synthetic fertilizers, enhance soil health, and support resilient agricultural systems.

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD)

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) is a government agency responsible for wastewater treatment and stormwater management for more than 5 million residents in Cook County. MWRD is committed to advancing sustainable water resource recovery practices, including beneficial reuse of Class A biosolids to support soil health, regenerative agriculture, and climate-smart solutions.

Dr. D.K. Lee and the University of Illinois

Dr. D.K. Lee is a Cavanah Professor of Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a leading researcher in sustainable agriculture, bioenergy crops, and soil health. With over 25 years of experience conducting large-scale field trials for universities, the U.S. Department of Energy, and commercial partners, Dr. Lee focuses on advancing sustainable farming practices and climate-smart agriculture.

Flura

Flura develops advanced hemp genetics and technology-driven solutions that restore soil health, enhance productivity, and open new markets for hemp across industries. By bringing together heritage and innovation, Flura is powering regeneration and responsible growth - from the ground up. Learn more at www.flura.com.

Media Contact:

Teresa Alagna

312-498-9593

[email protected]

SOURCE Flura, Inc.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Dec. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Future Home Loans, a veteran-owned independent mortgage brokerage headquartered in Jacksonville Beach, has been recognized by the Jacksonville Business Journal as one of the 2025 Best Places to Work . The award highlights organizations with exceptional culture, leadership, employee engagement, and a workplace environment where people feel valued, supported, and motivated to excel.

This recognition underscores Future Home Loans' commitment to building a people-first company where every team member is empowered to serve clients, referral partners, and communities across the Southeast with trust, transparency, and excellence.

Future Home Loans attributes this honor to its foundational mission: create a workplace where talented professionals are given autonomy, resources, and leadership support to deliver a world-class mortgage experience.

"Our team is the heart of everything we do," said Robert Maloney , COO of Future Home Loans (NMLS 940904) . "We believe that when people feel supported, challenged, and encouraged to grow, the client experience naturally becomes exceptional. Being named a Best Places to Work is a reflection of our cultureand it's one of the awards we're most proud of."

With offices across Florida and the Southeast, Future Home Loans continues to expand its footprint while maintaining a small-company feel grounded in collaboration, innovation, and a shared commitment to serving communities.

Being named a Best Places to Work directly benefits borrowers and referral partners. Companies with high engagement scores consistently deliver:

Better communication & transparency throughout the loan process

Faster response times and higher service consistency

Lower turnover  stronger, long-term relationships with borrowers & agents

More innovation in tools, technology, and mortgage education

"Our people truly love what they do," said Andrea Dolan, Chief Growth Officer, Future Home Loans . "Happy, supported loan professionals create better client experiences. This award validates the culture we've intentionally builtand it fuels us to continue investing in our team."

The Jacksonville Business Journal evaluates companies through a third-party employee engagement survey measuring:

Workplace satisfaction

Leadership effectiveness

Team collaboration

Benefits & professional development

Culture, recognition, and overall morale

Winners represent the region's top employers in creating supportive and motivating workplace environments.

Future Home Loans is licensed in multiple states across the Southeast, offering a full suite of loan products including VA, FHA, Conventional, USDA, and specialty programs designed to help first-time buyers, move-up buyers, veterans, and investors.

The company is known for its deep community involvement, industry-leading technology, and a culture that prioritizes people over profits.

Why is being a "Best Places to Work" company important to homebuyers?

Companies with strong workplace cultures deliver more consistent service, better communication, and faster turn timesresulting in a smoother, more confident mortgage experience.

How does Future Home Loans support its employees?

Through leadership development, transparent communication, flexible work environments, veteran-friendly policies, community involvement, and opportunities for growth across all departments.

Where does Future Home Loans serve borrowers?

The company is headquartered in Jacksonville Beach, FL, and serves homebuyers and homeowners across Florida and 13 additional states throughout the Southeast.

Future Home Loans is a veteran-owned mortgage brokerage committed to delivering an exceptional client experience through transparency, technology, and world-class service. Headquartered in Jacksonville Beach, FL, the company is licensed across the Southeast and supports homebuyers, homeowners, and real estate partners with personalized mortgage solutions.

NMLS #1621953 | Equal Housing Lender

Address: 224 3rd Street North, Jacksonville Beach, FL 32250 Phone: (844) 202-8124 Website: www.future.loans

SOURCE Future Home Loans
Universities and councils seek to unlock 1bn in joint funding as financial pressures worsen

UK-based universities and local councils have teamed-up as part of efforts to secure nearly 1 billion in funding and drive inclusive growth.

The move comes as both sectors warn that unprecedented financial challenges have affected how they deliver services. According to Universities UK higher education has seen a 1.4bn net loss, while local authority debt has reached 122bn, BBC analysis shows.

A recent Key Cities survey also revealed that 60% of councils plan to sell assets to maintain essential services such as adult and childrens social care.

At the inaugural i-PLACE 25 conference, which took place on 26-27 November, representatives from universities, councils and industry leaders came together to find new ways to boost growth and opportunity in the sectors.

The conference, organised by Key Cities Innovations Network, included a keynote discussion from Audra Gill, Head of Creative Industries at the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), outlining major partnership-based funding streams, including:

500m UKRI Local Innovation Partnerships Fund

150m Creative Places Growth Fund from DCMS, devolved to six mayoral authorities

A new 100m+ open call under the AHRC Creative Industries Clusters Programme (launching January 2026)

Prof. Joe Yates, Vice-Chancellor of Wrexham University in North Wales, who spoke at the event said collaboration is now central to tackling challenges facing regions and institutions.

He said: At Wrexham University, our 2030 strategy is rooted in the belief that collaboration unlocks solutions for communities.

Through the Key Cities Innovation Network, we are proud to work alongside civic partners to drive inclusive growth and create opportunities that matter locally and nationally.

Together, we can turn shared challenges into innovation that transforms lives and strengthens places.

Prof. Nic Beech, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Salford and Vice Chair of Key Cities Innovation Network, added: Im proud to see the University of Salford acting as a foundation partner for this important conference to discuss how innovation can supercharge growth and opportunity across the UK. Its something that runs through our DNA at Salford and plays a key role in our University Strategy, Innovating to Enrich Lives.

We are committed to innovation that creates a more sustainable, equitable, healthy, creative, and prosperous world. It is vital that universities, local authorities and partners come together for these important conversations  not only for the benefit of our institutions, but for the communities we serve, and the collaborations that will shape our shared future.

The network brings together members from 24 towns and cities, alongside universities including Bath Spa, Bradford, Coventry, Essex, Lancaster, Lincoln, Plymouth, Salford, South Wales, Southampton and Wrexham.

i-PLACE 25 is supported by partners including Arts Council England, Connected Places Catapult, Arup, MediaCityUK, GM Business Growth Hub, the BEYOND Conference, the University of Salford and Salford City Council.
ATHENS, Greece, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, GAC officially launched its electric SUV, the AION V, in Greece. After Finland, Poland and Portugal, Greece is the fourth European market to welcome GAC vehicles. This step increases the footprint of high-quality electric vehicles in the Southern region and supports GAC's mission to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles across Europe and actively contribute to the region's climate goals.

AION V

Designed to meet Greece's priorities for sustainability, safety, and spaciousness, AION V offers compelling advantages in technology and user experience. AION V has a five-star Euro NCAP safety rating, has a WLTP range of 510 kilometers and charges with a rate of just 24 minutes from 10% to 80%. Addressing long-term reliability, the model offers an 8-year/160,000 kilometer vehicle warranty, alongside an 8-year/200,000 kilometer battery warrantyreassuring customers about durability and reducing ownership costs. Together with Greece's growing charger network, AION V ensures range anxiety is something of the past.

Sales and service network

AION V's entry in Greece is pivotal to GAC's pan-European strategy, which accelerated following the signing of a global partnership agreement with Inchcape at the 2024 Paris Motor Show. This alliance leverages Inchcape's mature sales and service network together with GAC's advanced technology.

European development

Since debuting its "European Market Plan" at the 2024 Paris Motor Show, GAC has designated Europe as a strategic core market, entering Poland, Portugal, and Finland in rapid succession. GAC aims for full coverage throughout Europe by 2028, supported by ongoing efforts in channel development, service system enhancement, and industrial chain integration.

About GAC Group

Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Guangzhou, GAC Group has been on the Fortune Global 500 for 13 consecutive years. With comprehensive R&D and manufacturing, and brands including GAC, AION and HYPTEC, GAC is dedicated to intelligent, high-quality, and sustainable mobility.

For further information about GAC Group, please visit: https://www.gacgroup.com/en-eu/ or follow us on social.

For press inquiries

Joris Steenman

PR Manager Europe, GAC

[email protected]

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2836078/GAC_launches_AION_V_in_Greece.jpg
HONG KONG (AP)  Hong Kong will set up an independent committee headed by a judge to determine the cause of a deadly high-rise fire that shocked the city and to recommend changes to prevent a future tragedy, its leader said Tuesday.

John Lee, the chief executive of the southern Chinese territory, pledged to overcome vested interests and bring about systemic change in the construction industry. Police said Tuesday afternoon that more bodies had been found, raising the death toll to at least 156 with about 30 people still missing a week after the fire.

We must uncover the truth, ensure that justice is served, let the deceased rest in peace and provide comfort to the living, Lee told reporters at a weekly press conference. We want to ensure that we will prevent such a tragedy from happening again.

The fire started last Wednesday around scaffolding on a building at the Wang Fuk Court complex and spread to seven of its eight towers. They were home to more than 4,600 people and many have been left homeless. Forty injured people remain hospitalized, Lee said.

A survivor of the fire welcomed the creation of the independent committee. Everyone, every Hong Kong citizen, every person affected by this accident, all of them want to know the truth of this fire, said May Liang, who was out to lunch with her husband when the fire started. They lost all their belongings, she said.

At least 15 people have been arrested by anti-corruption investigators and police, including scaffolding contractors, company directors and an engineering consultant, as authorities investigate suspected corruption and negligence in a renovation project at the housing complex.

The initial investigation has focused on why the fire expanded so rapidly, overwhelming firefighting efforts. Authorities have cited both high winds and substandard materials used for the maintenance work.

Contractors were found to be using substandard netting, authorities said Monday. Among the 20 samples of netting investigators collected at the complex, seven were found to have failed safety standards.

Lee said that those responsible had mixed substandard netting with qualified materials to trick inspectors.

The entire building renovation system in Hong Kong will be reformed, he vowed.

Lee refused to comment on media reports that people were arrested last weekend in what some saw as an attempt to snuff out criticism of the government, including one person who was reportedly involved in a petition calling for government accountability and arrested on suspicion of inciting sedition. Lee said only that I will not tolerate any crimes, particularly crimes that exploit the tragedy that we are facing now.

John Burns, an honorary professor of politics and public administration at the University of Hong Kong, said the investigation results will likely be credible as the government seeks to reassure the public.

Its in everyones interest that the process and results of the investigations be credible, Burns said. Transparency is crucial for restoring trust.

Lee said 2,500 residents of the towers have been moved into transitional housing units, some in government housing and others in hostels and hotels. About 20 people remain in shelters that housed hundreds on the first night.

Moritsugu reported from Beijing. AP video journalist Jonathan Lee in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
TAMPA, Fla., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Genstone Holdings  informally referred to as Genstone Companies  today announced that it has been named to the Inc. 5000 list of the Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America, one of the nation's most distinguished rankings for entrepreneurial success and business expansion.

Genstone earned recognition among the most successful companies in the country, ranking:

#56 in the TampaSt. PetersburgClearwater, FL metro

#166 in the Financial Services category

#240 across the State of Florida

This achievement reflects Genstone's accelerating momentum as a diversified real estate and property services platform and marks its first appearance on the Inc. 5000 list. The recognition follows a period of significant expansion across business lines, markets, and client relationships as the company continues to expand its operations nationwide.

Part of Fay Group, Genstone represents a rapidly growing suite of real estate-focused businesses working together to deliver integrated, end-to-end solutions. The Genstone Companies span real estate, property management, field services, asset management, asset disposition, and construction through Genstone Construction, creating a comprehensive platform serving consumers, investors, single-family rental operators, and institutions at every stage of the property lifecycle.

"Genstone's success is rooted in our belief that integration, innovation, and service excellence create unbeatable outcomes for our clients," said Bryan Lysikowski, Property Services Group President at Genstone. "Earning a place on the Inc. 5000 is not only a milestone  it's validation of the strategy and talent powering our growth. We're incredibly proud of our teams and energized by what comes next as we expand our footprint and capabilities."

Andy Laing, President of Fay Group, added: "This honor is a testament to the people behind our organization. Every Genstone team member shares a commitment to doing the right thing, delivering results, and driving progress in every community we touch. We're proud to offer all of our real estate and property services under one roof, creating a seamless experience for our clients. We're just getting started."

As Genstone continues to scale, the company remains focused on investing in technology, strengthening service offerings, and building high-performing teams aligned around a shared mission: delivering trusted real estate and property solutions with speed, precision, and care.

The Inc. 5000 list, published annually since 1982, recognizes private companies demonstrating exceptional growth and impact within their industries and communities.

For more information, visit https://www.linkedin.com/company/genstone-companies

About Genstone Holdings

Genstone is a fast-growing family of companies providing integrated real estate, mortgage, and property services nationwide. With operations spanning real estate brokerage, property management, construction, field services, title, asset management, and asset disposition, Genstone delivers comprehensive support for consumers, investors, and institutional partners throughout the property lifecycle. Genstone is proud to serve communities across the country and is committed to building long-term value for clients through innovation, service excellence, and deep industry expertise.

About Fay Group

Fay Group is a fully integrated real estate and mortgage services enterprise bringing together complementary businesses to deliver comprehensive property and lending solutions across the United States. Through its connected operating companies and forward-looking leadership, the Fay Group is redefining how real estate and financial services work together to serve consumers, investors, and communities.

SOURCE Genstone Companies
RESOLUTION TO BRIEF INVESTORS ON LATEST DRILL RESULTS AND FORWARD EXPLORATION PROGRAM



Investor Webinar

Adelaide, Dec 2, 2025 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Resolution Minerals Ltd ( ASX:RML ) ( NC3:FRA ) ( RLMLF:OTCMKTS ) is inviting shareholders and investors to an investor webinar where CEO of U.S. operations Craig Lindsay will provide an update on the drilling program at the 100% owned Horse Heaven Gold-Antimony-Tungsten-Silver Project in Idaho, USA.



DATE & TIME: TUESDAY 2 DECEMBER 2025 11:00am AEDT / 8:00am WST

REGISTRATION LINK:

https://www.abnnewswire.net/lnk/00B16FY1





About Resolution Minerals Ltd





Resolution Minerals Ltd (ASX:RML) (OTCMKTS:RLMLF) (FRA:NC3) is a mineral exploration company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of precious and battery metals - such as antimony, gold, copper, and uranium.

Resolution Minerals Ltd Listed on the ASX in 2017 and has a broad portfolio of assets, such as the Drake East Antimony-Gold Project in north-eastern NSW and George Project prospective for silica sand and uranium.

Related Companies
Supreme Court Orders Nationwide CBI Probe Into Digital Arrest Scams, Questions RBI on AI Use 2

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the CBI to conduct a unified, nationwide investigation into the fast-rising cases of digital arrest scams and questioned the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on why Artificial Intelligence is not being used to detect and freeze bank accounts operated by cybercriminals.

Digital arrest scams involve fraudsters impersonating police, court officials or government agencies through audio and video calls, coercing victimsoften senior citizensinto paying money by threatening them with fabricated charges.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked all states, including West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana, to grant the CBI consent to investigate such cases within their jurisdictions. The directive came during a suo motu hearing based on a complaint filed by an elderly Haryana couple who lost their savings to cyber fraud.

The court issued a notice to the RBI seeking an explanation for not deploying AI or machine learning tools to proactively track and freeze scam-linked accounts. It also directed IT intermediaries to fully cooperate with CBI investigators and asked the agency to seek assistance from Interpol to reach scammers operating from offshore tax havens.

The bench further instructed the Department of Telecom to ensure telecom providers do not issue multiple SIM cards to a single user or entityan enabler frequently exploited in cybercrime. States and UTs have been asked to establish regional cybercrime coordination centres to streamline intelligence sharing with the CBI.

The court made it clear that all states, UTs, and police agencies are empowered to freeze accounts used to defraud citizens, and ordered the CBI to investigate bank officials complicit in operating mule accounts that facilitate the laundering of illicit funds.

Earlier, on November 3, the bench had described the surge in digital arrest scamsresponsible for over 3,000 crore in lossesas alarming, saying such crimes must be dealt with with an iron hand.
A Jefferson County jury on Sept. 17, 2025, found Timothy Lee Williams guilty of murder in the slaying of 65-year-old Rodger Davis, a U.S. Navy veteran and grandfather of three. (Jefferson County Jail/Contributed)

A 57-year-old man was sentenced to prison Monday for the 2023 fatal shooting of a U.S. Navy veteran in Birmingham.

Jefferson County Circuit Judge Michael Streety sentenced Timothy Lee Williams to 30 years in prison for the slaying of Rodger Davis, a 65-year-old grandfather of three.

Williams was convicted in September after a two-day trial.

Deputy District Attorneys Blake Owens and Bella Colombo prosecuted the case. Williams was represented by Antonio Spurling.

Court records show Williams has filed a motion for a new trial.

West Precinct officers were dispatched at 1:40 a.m. that Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023, to a report of a person shot in the 600 block of 13th Street Ensley.

When police arrived at the home, they found Davis unresponsive inside. Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service pronounced Davis dead on the scene.

Investigators said the deadly shooting followed an argument between two men, who knew each other.

Williams was taken into custody several hours later in the 700 block of 19th Street South and later released on bond.

Williams was booked back into the Jefferson County Jail following the September verdict.

Daviss family said they are satisfied with the sentence, but wish Williams had apologized and told them why he killed Williams.
The holdup happened Thursday, Nov. 20, at an undisclosed church in the 7500 block of Wares Ferry Road in Montgomery. (Crime Stoppers 215-STOP)

Authorities are trying to identify the suspect who robbed multiple people during an Alabama church gathering.

The holdup happened Thursday at an undisclosed church in the 7500 block of Wares Ferry Road in Montgomery.

Police say the suspect used the threat of deadly force to steal property from seven victims during a church gathering.

No injuries were reported.

Anyone with information about the suspects identity or whereabouts is asked to call the Montgomery Police Department or Crime Stoppers at 334-215-STOP (7867).
Brandon Renfroe recalls one of the final things his mother-in-law told him before she passed away last summer: Be sure to take care of the little ones.

Myra Smith was an educator in Alabama for 35 years, Renfroe said, and she always wanted to help her students around Christmas.

Now, thanks to an outpouring of community support and donations inspired by Smiths work, 150 students in the Black Belt will have brand new beds to sleep in at night.

She always wanted to be sure that no kid in her school went without, so we took that to heart and thats really what spurred this, Renfroe told AL.com.

Renfroe worked with Sumter County schools on the project. About 100 beds have already been delivered for students in the district, said Superintendent Marcy Burroughs. And another 50 beds are on the way, along with 75 weighted blankets for those who dont have heat to keep warm in the winter.

The district in July started a new program, with hopes of raising $25,000 to buy bed frames, mattresses and sheets for about 70 students.

About 31 Days of Good News As 2025 comes to a close, AL.com is bringing you the stories that make us smile and warm our hearts. In the series 31 Days of Good News, youll hear about the helpers, community leaders and organizations making Alabama better. If you have an idea for a story, email us at news@al.com.

But in the last four months, the district exceeded the goal, raising $35,000.

A lot of families are very grateful and thankful that they have access to beds now, Burroughs said. Having five or 10 students without beds would be too many. But knowing that we can provide this service to 150 plus students is just amazing.

Sumter County, home to about 12,000 people on the Mississippi border, has a poverty rate of about 30%, according to Census Data. Thats the third highest poverty rate among all counties in Alabama. And about half the countys children live in poverty, according to the latest information from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

This school year has been particularly hard, Burroughs told AL.com, with funding cuts to federal programs and a pause to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in November. She said this really shed light on who needed support from schools.

We want to show students that we really do care about whats going on with them, and we want to make sure that were providing for them beyond the classroom, she said.

The district is planning more initiatives with support from donors, like a Kicks for Kids program to give students shoes and socks, along with a food pantry.

Sumter County Schools also operates a secret meals program, which provides nearly 75 students with food during the weekends.

That program was the inspiration for the beds initiative.

Renfroe, an adjunct professor at the University of West Alabama, did research on childhood food insecurity in the Black Belt while getting his doctorate.

He administered the Household Food Security Survey created by the USDA to 742 students in 16 Black Belt high schools in 2021. Nearly a quarter of the students self-reported experiencing food insecurity.

Sumter County is a place that is historically poor, and the research we did on food insecurity showed kids there were facing it more than 10 times the national average, so we want to focus on programs that help provide them with their basic necessities, Renfroe told AL.com.

Those findings led him to partner with Sumter County Schools to begin the food program, which first started in 2022.

After that conversation with his mother-in-law earlier this year, he emailed a donor to get seed money for the beds project. The beds were initially meant to help the same 70 kids who relied on the secret meals program.

Then in July, Smith died.

One day later, the donor responded with a $15,000 commitment.

I could see her fingerprints there, Renfroe told AL.com. That was her mission and now thats our goal to help take care of the kids in Sumter County.
Ken McKay and his horse Kaylee wait for their next riders during a Dickens festival in Massachusetts, Nov. 29, 2025. Lukas Katilius | MLive.com

If you are looking for a chance to wear Victorian attire, Dickens Downtown is taking over Northport tonight (Dec. 2) with a procession, tree lighting and snow in the forecast.

Characters from A Christmas Carol will parade as Queen Victoria and Father Christmas travel in a horse-drawn carriage down Main Avenue. A Christmas tree lighting will follow.

Visitors can also enjoy hot chocolate and cookies and view fresh cut decorative fir trees in the main sanctuary lobby (of Northport Baptist Church), according to the Facebook page of Dickens Downtown.

Visitors can display their own frock coats and layered skirts in free horse-drawn carriage and train rides. Model trains and a nativity scene will be on display and the cast of Theatre Tuscaloosa will sing Christmas carols. Tours of Historic Shirley Place will be led by the Historic Tuscaloosa Cameo Guild.

After the Grand Entrance, Father Christmas and Queen Victoria will greet and take pictures with visitors. Music, food and merchants will be there.

The event begins at 5 p.m. with a procession that begins at the Northport Baptist Church Chapel. At 5:30, a tree will be lit at Historic Shirley Place. The event goes until 8:30 p.m.

Northport is not the only town in Alabama with Dickens holiday celebrations. Wetumpka will hold its own Downtown Dickens Christmas this Friday and Saturday. On December 13, Tuscumbia will celebrate Its a Dickens Christmas Yall.
Parker McCollum has a show scheduled in Birmingham in 2025. Here, he performs during Windy City Smokeout on Friday, July 12, 2024, at the United Center in Chicago. (Photo by Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP)

Parker McCollum has fired stage manager Joel Schoepf after he was arrested and charged with online solicitation of a minor.

Schoepf was taken into custody in New Braunfels, Texas on Nov. 13, and was charged with a second-degree felony of online solicitation of a minor under the age of 14.

Per Whiskey Riff, Schoepf was immediately fired after his arrest by country music star Parker McCollum for whom he had been working since 2021.

According to Saving Country Music, the arrest was a result of a sting operation by Predator Poachers, which is a Houston-based justice organization operated by online personality Alex Rosen.

Rosen announced Schoepfs arrest on his X account on Nov. 14.

4 arrests in 48 hours!

Kenneth Shadel - Burnet Texas

Joel Schoepf- New Braunfels TX

Noah Heath - Newport Arkansas

George Edwards - Conway AR



3 of 4 were caught in the act attempting to meet a minor for sex.



2 of 4 admitted to trading or seeking out child porn.



All 4 are pic.twitter.com/4yGw3j2fQa  Alex Rosen (@iFightForKids) November 15, 2025

Predator Poachers posted a video of the Schoepf sting on a subscriber-only Locals account.

The video for Joel Schoepf has been posted on asubscriber-only Locals account, but not on YouTube at this time.

In the video, per the report, Schoepf confesses to the online solicitation, to possessing and circulating child pornography at one point, and to inviting another individual to his house to look at child porn.

Schoepf met Rosen at a McDonalds where he thought he was meeting up with a 13-year-old boy.
Christopher Barbour has spent more than thirty years on Alabama Death Row for the brutal slaying and rape of Thelma Roberts, a Montgomery woman, in 1992. A judge says that new DNA evidence points to someone else, judge says (Photo Illustration/Al.com) Tamika Moore

An Alabama Death Row inmate must get a new trial, a federal judge wrote several months ago. But that doesnt mean it will happen anytime soon.

Instead, the state continues to fight to execute Christopher Barbour, despite learning that his DNA did not match the evidence found at a 1992 crime scene.

The Alabama Attorney Generals Office argues Barbour should not get a new trial, threatening to take the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, even though DNA found on the body of a murdered Montgomery mother recently revealed a match to her neighbor  a man who is now in prison for an unrelated killing.

Recently, an appeals court gave Alabama a two-month extension to explain why Barbour doesnt deserve a new trial after all these years.

Meanwhile, Barbour still sits on death row.

In August, more than 20 years after his lawyers appealed the case, U.S. District Judge Emily Marks ruled that Barbour must get a new trial. The fundamental problem with the (states) position is that DNA was left behind, she wrote.

Barbour was convicted of the brutal slaying of Thelma Roberts, a single mom in Montgomery who was found raped, stabbed to death and set on fire in her home 33 years ago.

At the time, Montgomery police found Barbour living behind the mall across town. He caught the attention of police in the months following the murder because he and his friends became suspects in a string of arsons  small fires set in grocery store aisles, where the flames distracted employees while people stole food.

After multiple interviews, Barbour confessed to police in Roberts death. While he immediately took back the confession and has maintained his innocence ever since, it was too late and the confession was the key evidence at his trial.

The state has contended for the last three decades that Barbour and two of his friends had beer with the single mother before they raped and killed her. There was no physical evidence from any of the three, nor any evidence that Roberts would let strangers into her home. One of the men, a teenager at the time, was never prosecuted. The other took a plea deal.

Barbour and other witnesses, including the victims ex husband, said police beat them during interviews. And the FBI was investigating the police in Montgomery at the time for such tactics.

The conviction was long before the use of advanced DNA testing. But decades later, in 2021, Barbours team was finally allowed to have the remaining evidence tested.

That testing revealed no traces of Barbour nor the two people he named in his tale. Instead, DNA showed another man had sex with the victim before she was killed.

That DNA led to a man named Jerry Tyrone Jackson, a teenager living across the street from Roberts at the time. Hes been in Alabamas prison system for the last 22 years for another womans slaying in another part of the state, and he wouldnt talk when lawyers recently asked about the DNA match and Roberts murder.

The delay

That ruling didnt mean a new trial was to happen quickly.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshalls office had 90 days to begin a new trial for Barbour after the judges order. But the states top prosecutors dont want to hold a new trial, and appealed the decision to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

The states brief was due on Nov. 24, after other delays pushed the deadline back.

Yet in early November, the state asked for an extension. Marshalls office told the court that one of its deputies was having a medical procedure and would be out of work for several weeks. And, the office noted, then-Alabama Solicitor General Edmund LaCour Jr. was resigning after being appointed as a federal judge.

The top prosecutors office went through several other employees situations to explain why they couldnt work the case.

This shakeup and loss of personnel has created a backlog that the remaining attorneys are attempting to triage as expeditiously as possible, wrote an assistant attorney general.

They asked for a 60-day extension.

Barbours lawyers responded to the states request and told the judge they would accept a 30-day extension but not one for two months.

The appeal has been pending for nearly 25 years, they wrote, and there have been thoroughly substantiated findings as to persuasive evidence of Mr. Barbours innocence and there can be no confidence in the underlying conviction of Mr. Barbour in light of constitutional violations of his fair trial rights.

The lawyers also noted that Barbour has been on death row for more than 30 years and will remain there throughout the appeal, making any more delays a threat to his highly compelling liberty interests.

The states top prosecutors shot back, writing that they got Barbours lawyers to agree to a 45-day extension. Still, said the Attorney Generals Office, that wasnt enough.

Given the time it will take to brief, argue, and dispose of this appeal, including proceedings in the Supreme Court if necessary, fifteen more days for the opening brief is a small delay.

On Nov. 10, a judge in the appellate court granted the request and said the state had until Jan. 23 to file their official appeal.

The case

Barbours lawyers have always said he was innocent.

He was 22 at the time of the crime, homeless and sleeping in a wooded area behind Montgomerys Eastdale Mall. He was struggling with the death of his mother and, despite a brief stay with his grandparents, Barbour wound up on the streets.

Across town in the Chisholm neighborhood, the investigation was long and winding, with most of the interviewees being teenagers or friends of the victims two children. Those tales left police struggling to distinguish fact from teenage rumor.

One person interviewed was just in the eighth grade, police notes show.

Thinking there could be a link between the supermarket fires and the attempted burning of Roberts body, police tracked Barbour down at the mall food court. They questioned Barbour intently, according to police notes.

He is a whimpie little thing, and scares real easy, wrote the lead detective.

About two months after the killing, Barbour was fed dinner at the local fire station and allowed to sit on a fire truck. That night, he gave three confessions to investigators. None were in the presence of an attorney. Of the three, one was audiotaped and one was videotaped. One was not recorded at all.

According to court records, the FBI was, at the time, investigating Montgomery police for using physical abuse to induce confessions. Records do not reflect how that investigation ended.

Barbour implicated two other men in his tale, a man named Christopher Hester and a boy who was never prosecuted. According to police at the time, Barbour said Hester raped Roberts, while he and the boy held her down. Barbour said after the rape, he stabbed the 40-year-old single mother.

After the confessions, police arrested Barbour and charged him with murder.

Although he quickly recanted, the confession was allowed to be used at Barbours 1993 trial. He was convicted and sentenced to death.

Now 56, hes spent more than half of his life in prison, living among most of Alabamas death row inmates at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. The facility, just north of the Florida border, is where executions are held, but much of the prison was closed in 2020 for deteriorating conditions.

The DNA

Today, the DNA from Jackson is powerful evidence that Barbours confession is false, Judge Marks wrote in a previous order, and that Mrs. Roberts murder did not occur as the prosecution presented it at trial.

Her August ruling filled dozens of pages, citing case law on the various claims Barbour presented in his lawsuit. She specifically ordered the new trial in response to Barbours arguments that the original prosecutors in Montgomery County used false information during his trial and withheld evidence from his original defense team.

Barbours current lawyers argued that Montgomery prosecutors knew the DNA found on the victim didnt match either Barbour or Hester, which would prove the confession was false.

The relevant questions are whether Barbours statement that Hester raped Mrs. Roberts was false, and whether the prosecutor knew the statement was false, the judge wrote. The answer to both questions is yes.

The state attorney generals office doesnt dispute the new DNA results. But prosecutors argue it doesnt exonerate Barbour, either.

The states latest theory  though they write that its not their responsibility to offer one  is laid out in court records. The state said a likely theory is that the single mother also had sex with Jackson that same day. That was just before being raped and killed by a group of homeless men who she invited into her house hours later, men who she had no record of knowing and who left no physical evidence behind.

At the time, Jackson was 16 and close friends with Roberts son. While he had spent some of that fatal night with the victims children at a house party down the street, according to testimony, he exposed himself to a 13-year-old girl, and then disappeared several times. According to partygoers, he returned to that house at one point appearing shaken and needing a cigarette.

Court records state that Jackson often told Roberts son that Jackson was going to get his mama. The son testified he thought his friend was joking.

Marks said in her 2024 order and in her latest one that the states theory defies logic, common sense, and science. And, she wrote, a jury wouldnt buy it.

Applying Occams Razor, the physical evidence, DNA test results, expert testimony, and common sense would cause reasonable jurors to doubt the veracity of the States theory, the judge wrote previously. The DNA is objective, reliable, and undisputed.

And unlike people, DNA doesnt lie.

The other man

The state said its also possible that Barbour and Jackson worked together in the crime. Yet, theres no evidence the two ever met.

And Jackson isnt talking.

Barbours lawyers approached him at a prison outside of Montgomery. In a deposition, Jackson said officials from the Alabama Attorney Generals Office had already visited. When the state prosecutors showed up and told him who they were, Jackson said he didnt want to meet with them. He didnt ask what it was about, only that he wanted an attorney.

And Jackson didnt say much to Barbours team, either. When asked if he knew Thelma Roberts or the Roberts family, Jackson said: On the advice of counsel, I plead the Fifth. He repeated the answer about 50 times throughout his deposition to any questions that revolved around the Roberts family or the murder.

Soon after Roberts slaying in 1992, Jackson moved to the northern part of the state, settling in the Florence area.

Years later, when he was in his late 20s, Jackson was convicted of murdering a woman named Monique Vaughn, who lived just blocks away.

Court records in that case show that Jackson beat and stabbed Vaughn in her home in 2001, after she rebuffed his sexual advances. Vaughn had let Jackson inside her home, as she was friends with his wife at the time. Autopsy reports show she suffered multiple stab wounds and blunt force trauma to her head, and court records describe the crime scene inside as massive, with blood in almost every room in the house. Her baby was in his nursery during the attack, but was unharmed.

Jackson is currently serving a life sentence in prison without the possibility of parole.

After the DNA came back, the judge questioned the states reasoning in Barbours case.

She said it was likely that given all the information, a jury would not have convicted Barbour for the killing.

It is puzzling that in this case, the State downplays the significance of the new DNA evidence when the State otherwise relies on similar DNA evidence to secure convictions and clear cold cases, Marks wrote.

The states theory of consensual sex with a teen before a tragic rape and murder, committed without any clues, didnt make sense, the judge wrote.

That is a bridge too far.
Following todays Alabama Public Service Commission meeting, Alabama Power announced that all components of the companys regulated retail rates are not scheduled to increase through 2027.

We know budgets are tight, and power bills are a real concern for many families and businesses, Moses Feagin, Alabama Powers executive vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer, said in a news release.

This commitment gives customers more certainty and predictability around electric rates at a time when many other household and business costs are rising.

The move comes a year after the company projected a nearly 2 percent rate reduction for 2025.

Providing stability for ratepayers is one of our highest priorities, and this proposal delivers exactly that, said APSC President Cynthia Lee Almond.

Almond added that the commission will continue to closely monitor any extraordinary or unforeseen circumstancesparticularly major storms, hurricanes, or other natural disasters that could impact the electric system or cost structure."

These events are rare, but preparing for them is essential in a state like Alabama, she said.

Our expectation is that this plan will hold, provide the stability customers deserve, and ensure we are ready to respond to severe weather when it occurs.

According to the release, Alabama Power will hold in place all existing factors in customer rates, including delaying until 2028 the implementation of previously approved adjustments for the Lindsay Hill generation facility.

As part of the commitment to keeping rates steady, the company will absorb the newly acquired facilitys costs in 2027 rather than deferring or shifting those costs to a later date, it reads.

An Alabama Power official last October told the public service commission that customers would pay about $3.80 more on their bills beginning in 2027.

However, in August an official said the increase would be a little less than that for some customers.

Feagin went on to say that the company would remain consistent in its efforts to strengthen the energy grid and invest in smart, storm-resilient infrastructure, so customers receive the reliable service they deserve in communities across our state, while keeping rates steady over the next year.

The company warned customers that bills could still go up or down based on the amount of electricity they use each month.

John Dodd, policy director for the nonprofit Energy Alabama, has said the move is an election year ploy to avoid headlines about rate increases, not a plan to improve affordability.

At the core of it, what Alabama Power is proposing is not a rate reduction but a deferral, Dodd said.

For more information about tools to help manage power bills, visit alabamapower.com/save.
Sri Lanka warns of rising infectious disease risks as floodwaters recede

Xinhua) 09:34, December 02, 2025

COLOMBO, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan authorities on Monday urged the public to be vigilant about the higher risk of infectious and vector-borne diseases as floodwaters receded in several districts following days of adverse weather.

Jayatissa Munasinghe, assistant secretary of the National Disaster Relief Services Center, said stagnant water and mud pose increased health hazards, adding that the Ministry of Health has already begun implementing preventive measures.

Each divisional secretariat has been allocated 50 million rupees (about 162,528 U.S. dollars) to provide immediate assistance to affected families, Munasinghe said, noting that relief funds have been increased and can now be released without administrative delays.

In addition to previously released funds for dry rations, authorities have approved the distribution of packaged dry food items where needed, he said.

According to the latest data issued by the Disaster Management Center, 355 Sri Lankans have died and 366 persons remain missing due to the adverse weather conditions affecting the country.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
DALLAS, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- GetChkd Inc. announces it has been selected by SpaceWERX for a SBIR Direct-to-Phase II contract in the amount of $1.9MM focused on Blockchain Infrastructure to address the most pressing challenges in the Department of the Air Force (DAF). The Air Force Research Laboratory and SpaceWERX, the innovation arm of the U.S. Space Force and a unique division within AFWERX, have partnered to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) process by accelerating the small business experience through faster proposal to award timelines, changing the pool of potential applicants by expanding opportunities to small business and eliminating bureaucratic overhead by continually implementing process improvement changes in contract execution. The DAF began offering the Open Topic SBIR/STTR program in 2018 which expanded the range of innovations the DAF funded and on September 27, 2025, GetChkd Inc. started its journey to create and provide innovative capabilities that will strengthen the national defense of the United States of America.

"The opportunity to extend the use of our Blockchain Infrastructure Platform, while also accelerating commercialization in the private sector, is a significant milestone for GetChkd," said Michael Caplovitz, Founder and CEO of GetChkd. "We are honored to collaborate with SpaceWERX to advance this technology."

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Air Force, the Department of War, or the U.S. government.

About GetChkd Inc.

GetChkd's state-of-the-art blockchain infrastructure platform revolutionizes system connectivity, enforces user-specific mappings, and ensures immutable audit trails for every action. This guarantees unparalleled security, accountability, and reliability for a connected system of systems across various domains and classifications. GetChkd: The Foundation of Trust in a Connected World.

About SpaceWERX

As the innovation arm of the U.S. Space Force and a unique division within AFWERX, SpaceWERX inspires and empowers collaboration with innovators to accelerate capabilities and shape our future in space. Headquartered in Los Angeles, SpaceWERX employs military, civilian and contractor personnel executing an annual $457 million budget. Additionally, SpaceWERX partners with Space Systems Command's Commercial Space Office (COMSO) as a collaborative program. Since it was aligned under AFRL in Aug. 2021, SpaceWERX has awarded over 1,470 contracts worth more than $1.46 billion to strengthen the U.S. defense industrial base and drive faster technology transition to operational capability. For more information, visit: spacewerx.us.information, visit: spacewerx.us.

About AFRL

The Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, is the primary scientific research and development center for the Department of the Air Force. AFRL plays an integral role in leading the discovery, development and integration of affordable warfighting technologies for our air, space and cyberspace forces. With a workforce spanning across nine technology areas and 40 other operations around the globe, AFRL provides a diverse portfolio of science and technology ranging from fundamental to advanced research and technology development. For more information, visit: afresearchlab.com.

About AFWERX

As the innovation arm of the DAF and a directorate within the Air Force Research Laboratory, AFWERX brings cutting-edge American ingenuity from small businesses and start-ups to address the most pressing challenges of the DAF. Headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, AFWERX employs military, civilian and contractor personnel executing an annual $1.4 billion annual budget. Since 2019, AFWERX has awarded over 10,400 contracts worth more than $7.24 billion to strengthen the U.S. defense industrial base and drive faster technology transition to operational capability. For more information, visit: afwerx.com.

Company Press Contact:

Michael Caplovitz

Founder and CEO, GetChkd Inc.

[email protected]

833-405-3335

SOURCE GetChkd Inc.
AT&T agreed to the settlement but has denied any wrongdoing and has not been found liable for anything by the court. Getty Images/500px

The deadline to claim part of a massive settlement involving AT&T is about two weeks away.

Heres what you need to know about filing a claim for up to $7,500.

What is the settlement about?

The settlement stems from two separate data breaches. The first, occurring in March 2024, including customer information such as addresses, dates of birth, billing account numbers, Social Security numbers and passwords. The second, occurring in July 2024, involved customer call and text records. The first data breach exposed information on 7.6 million current and 65.4 million former account holders. The second involved some 110 million cellular customers between 2022 and 2023.

The settlement for the first breach was $149 million; the second was $28 million.

What does AT&T say?

AT&T agreed to the settlement but has denied any wrongdoing and has not been found liable for anything by the court.

We have agreed to this settlement to avoid the expense and uncertainty of protracted litigation, AT&T said in a statement, adding the company remains committed to protecting our customers data and ensuring their continued trust in us.

When is the deadline?

The deadline to apply for the settlement has been extended to Dec. 18. A court hearing will follow on Jan. 15, 2026 and payments are expected to be issued after that time.

Online claims forms must be submitted by Dec. 18. Mailed claims must be postmarked by that day.

Who is eligible to file a claim?

Two groups of AT&T customers are eligible to file a claim.

The first are those who were impacted by the March 2024 data breach. The second are those involved in the July 2024 incident. Some customers may be involved in both incidents, according to the settlement website.

Class members likely received an email from Kroll, the settlement administrator. That email will have a Class Member ID needed to file.

If you are unsure if you are covered, you can call 1-833-890-4930 for information.

How much could you receive?

Customers impacted by the first breach could receive up to $5,000. Those involved in the second breach could receive up to $2,500. Customers who were impacted by both could combine the two.

To receive the full amount, a customer would have to show documented losses. Those without documented losses will be paid a prorated amount based on the total number of claims and final costs related to attorney fees.

Need more information?

You can check with the settlement website here for more information or to print a claims form.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - SEPTEMBER 17: Poorstacy performs during Riot Fest 2022 at Douglass Park on September 17, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images) Getty Images

Rapping rocker Poorstacy is dead at 26.

TMZ reported that the Floridian performer appears to have died from suicide in Boca Raton based on social media posts. Police and medical examiners there havent responded to a request for comment.

Poorstacy, also known as Carlito Milfort, was reportedly staying in a hotel with a woman and a toddler when he was rushed to an area hospital Saturday.

No further information was reported about his cause of death.

Hed reportedly been staying in a hotel for about 10 days prior to his death.

The genre-fusing rapper dabbled in punk rock, hip-hop, heavy metal and emo and worked with Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker. His single Darkest Night appeared on the Grammy Award nominated 2020 Bill & Ted Face the Music soundtrack.

Music publication Revolver said in a 2021 interview with Poorstacy that the mad man whos known to go so hard at his shows spent the first 10 years of his life between Brooklyn and Queens before his family relocated to the Sunshine State for financial reasons.

I was just really violent, he confessed. I would act out irrationally. I would either hurt myself for attention or I would hurt somebody else for attention.

Poorstacy was charged with battery and neglect of a child in 2023, but that case was eventually dropped, according to Complex. The Boca Post reported he was arrested in May 2022 for missing a court date associated with various traffic issues.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.

2025 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Jamal Williams, a 26-year-old father of two, was fatally shot by Birmingham police on Nov. 28, 2025. (Special to AL.com)

Priscilla Mahand is heartbroken, but she isnt angry at all.

The grieving Jefferson County mother just wants to know how her son  her only child  ended up fatally shot by Birmingham police the day after Thanksgiving.

Whether he was right, whether he was wrong, either way its not going to bring him back, Mahand said. But I just want that peace for me because thats my baby.

Jamal DAngelo Williams, a 26-year-old beloved son, father of two and devoted McDonalds employee, died early Saturday at UAB Hospital.

His death came less than an hour after he was shot one time by an officer who responded to a Shot Spotter call at the Rev. Dr. Morrell Todd Homes public housing complex in the Kingston community.

The shooting happened just before 11:30 p.m. Friday outside an apartment in the 800 block of 45th Street in the Rev. Dr. Morrell Todd Homes public housing community.

Officer Truman Fitzgerald said South Precinct officers were dispatched on a report of multiple gunshots and found a crowd of people arguing.

Officers approached the crowd when someone informed an officer that a man was armed with a gun.

The officer encountered Williams, and during the encounter, the officer shot the man, police said.

Officers provided life-saving measures to Williams at the scene.

Birmingham Fire and Rescue personnel then transported him to UAB Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The officer who shot Williams was wearing a body camera, which was activated.

Witnesses said they heard arguing before police arrived and then a single gunshot after officers got there.

Videos posted to social media showed a chaotic, emotional scene.

A man was fatally shot by police Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Birmingham's Kingston community. (Carol Robinson)

Williams lived with his mother and stepfather at their Pinson home but had recently been staying with a friend in Kingston.

Mahand was in Tennessee celebrating the holiday with her 97-year-old grandmother when her sons friends called her and told her he had been shot.

I didnt know hed passed until the coroner called me, she said. I just know that he was shot by the police. Thats all I know.

Williams attended Hoover City Schools and had worked at multiple McDonalds branches for years.

He most recently worked at the Vestavia Hills restaurant, and in Pinson for the three years before that.

That was his niche, and once he found his niche, he stuck with it, Mahand said. He actually wanted to come to Tennessee for Thanksgiving with us but he had to work, and that was fine.

Williams had been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and schizophrenia.

It wasnt all the time, just when something triggered him, his mother said.

It got better when his son came. He was more calm.

Williams stopped taking medication when he got old enough to make that decision for himself but still managed without it most of the time, she said.

He thought it (treatment and medication) would define him and confine him, Mahand said. He wanted to be functioning for his kids.

Williams doted on his 9-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son.

He loved his kids, Mahand said.

Williams, described as often quiet, loved to tinker with cars.

Cars were his life, Mahand said. Cars and his kids.

He also was a gun enthusiast.

He liked to take them apart and change them, his mother said.

They were never for violence. It was literally his hobby.

Williams often frequented a Birmingham gun range and was excited when his mother bought her own gun so he could take her there.

He had thoughtful conversations with others about guns at the range, she said, and they always asked him about his latest project.

Ive always been fearful of guns, but he made sure he handled them safely, Mahand said.

He made sure the kids were not around them. He made sure everyone was safe.

Mahand said shes in shock that her son was killed by police because hes never had any problems with officers in the past.

Im just not one of those to say my child would never do something, she said. Im not in denial like that.

She said he had an encounter with Tarrant police recently, and he had a gun with him.

The Tarrant police had no problem getting his gun, Mahand said.

The officer talked with him about his gun. He liked to put fancy things on his guns, like things that glitter.

The officer was like, Hey, you can come get your gun back, you just need the case, Mahand said.

He didnt have a problem with the police, she said. He didnt have a problem with people.

I dont want him to be defined by one moment because I dont know what happened, Mahand said. I just dont want my baby to be painted in a bad picture whatsoever.

Regardless of the outcome, Mahand feels like someone from the police department should have called her.

I dont want anybody to think Im blaming anybody, because Im not, she said.

I cant say what my child would have done or would not have done in that situation.

But I feel like somebody should have at least came to me and extended their condolences  at the end of the day he still died at the hands of the police and even extending condolences is not an admission of guilt, she said.

Somebody could have contacted me and said, Im sorry this happened, and that could have been it, she said.

Mahand had her son when she 17 yet she graduated with honors. We grew up together, she said.

I just recently told him it was time for him to come home, she said.

He said, Im just chilling. I go to work and play my (video) games.

Williams walked his mother down the aisle when she married several years ago, and together they had Sunday funday every weekend, taking Williams kids wherever they wanted to go.

He made sure he had his kids as much as possible, she said, but he was going to go to work.

Williams would have turned 27 in 19 days, but Mahand said he never wanted a big to-do about his birthday.

Christmas, however, was his thing.

I normally do stuff for the holidays but this I didnt put out anything for Halloween, Mahand said.

He said, Ma you dont have your inflatables out, and I said, I dont know Jama, Im just not feeling right.

And then November came and he said, Are you going to put your Christmas stuff up? and I said, I dont know Jamal, Im just not feeling it this year, not knowing that this was the reason I wasnt feeling it.

But I still will have to, she said, because thats something he would have wanted.

Mahand said her son was kind and often gave money to the less fortunate.

They were recently at a convenience store and Williams gave his change to someone outside. Mahand asked him why he did that.

He said, You dont give to the homeless? You have to be a blessing and thats why Im blessed. Ma, youre going to have to do better, Mahand recalled. Thats who he was.

Mahand said she will miss her son lying on the floor, his phone calls, and watching him play with his children.

And, most of all, she will miss his smile.

Its hard for all of us, she said. He lived a private life, he didnt post things on Facebook, but he has so many people he loved.

I just wanted to keep it private, Mahand said through her tears.

He wouldnt want that for his mom. He tried to make sure I was good, his kids were good, and his kids moms were good.

Asked how she wanted her son to be remembered, Mahand said, I want them to remember every part of my son  the good, the bad and the ugly - because thats who he was.

Anybody that knows him experienced every part of him, she said. He had more good than anything.

Mahand last laid eyes on her son when he video chatted her through Facebook on Thanksgiving.

He was able to see everybody and it kind of makes sense now, she said. That was his way of saying goodbye.

We never ended our phone calls without telling each other we loved each other, Mahand said.

He said, I love you, and Ill see you Sunday.
Ann Bedsole, the first woman elected to the Alabama State Senate and founder of the Alabama School of Mathematics and Science, has died, according to news reports.

She was 95.

Bedsole had been described as a renaissance woman and a trailblazer in Alabama politics.

From her trailblazing political career to her work to establish the award-winning Alabama School of Math and Science, Ann Bedsoles legacy of service continues to have a lasting, positive impact on Mobile and beyond, Mobile Mayor Spiro Cheriogotis said. The title of her autobiography, Leave Your Footprint, could not be more fitting. She left an indelible mark on the city and state she loved. Mrs. Bedsole will be deeply missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family, her friends, and the countless Alabamians she inspired to serve."

The Mobile City Council honored Bedsole with a moment of silence before its meeting on Tuesday.

She was first woman elected to the Alabama Senate, serving from 1983 to 1995. Before that, she was the first Republican woman to serve in the Alabama House of Representatives from 1979 to 1983.

There were very few women in the State House in those days who werent secretaries or assistants, said Mobile City Councilwoman Gina Gregory in 2023, the day that Bedsole was honored at the School of Mathematics and Science in midtown Mobile.

Gregory first met Bedsole in Montgomery when she was a journalist.

A female State Senator was to say the least, extraordinary.

Joan Reynolds, vice chair of the Alabama State Republican Party, said that Bedsole opened doors that had never been opened for women in Alabama politics.

She broke barriers with grace, courage, and conviction, and she did it at a time when few women were ever given the opportunity, Reynolds said.

Her most significant legislative accomplishments include education-related issues.

Atop the list is the creation of a unique public-private arrangement that led to the creation of Alabamas first magnet school for gifted math and science students in Alabama.

Bedsole was able to get the initial legislation adopted to establish the Mobile-based school during the 1989 legislative session with the assistance of the late state Rep. Steve McMillan of Gulf Shores.

Ann Bedsole, pictured here in 1984, was the first woman ever elected to the Alabama Senate, a position she held from 1983 to 1995. She also served in the Alabama House of Representatives from 1979 to 1983, the first Republican woman to do so. (file photo)

At the time of the schools creation, only about a half dozen gifted schools existed for math and sciences.

The school was modeled after similar schools in North Carolina and Louisiana, where students complete their final two or three years of high school by focusing on advanced math and science studies.

The initial start-up funding from the state was $800,000. In her autobiography, Bedsole credited how everyone involved in the school and foundation were fully engaged and could be counted on including the boards first chairman, John Mincy. The group engaged on an aggressive campaign strategy to raise around $10 million, while obtaining key corporate sponsors.

The school opened in 1989. It graduated its first class in 1993.

With more than 3,000 graduates later, the school celebrated its anniversary in 2023 with a commemorative Ann Bedsole Day. She was 93 at the time.

Ann Bedsole on May 14, 2001, in Mobile. (Mobile Register, Mike Kittrell) Mike Kittrell

Her background and her experience allowed her to connect with anyone, said Phillip Rawls in 2023.

He was a former longtime statehouse reporter with The Associated Press, who covered the Alabama Legislature while Bedsole was in office.

She projected a warm, caring personality whether she was talking to a rich country club member or a single mother wondering how she would feed her family.

A celebration of life will take place Friday, December 5, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. at Dauphin Way United Methodist Church with a visitation following the service.

Donations in Anns memory may be made to the Alabama School for Mathematics and Science or the Sybil Smith Family Village through the Dumas Wesley Community Center.
The University of Alabama on Monday announced to staff of student-run publications Alice Magazine and Nineteen Fifty-Six that the magazines would be suspended, effective immediately, in compliance with federal regulations.

In their decision, UA officials cited a memo released by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi this summer claiming that DEI initiatives can be considered discriminatory and may be in violation of federal anti-discrimination laws.

The university said it hopes to work with students to develop a new publication that features a variety of voices and perspectives in the next academic year.

The University remains committed to supporting every member of our community and advancing our goals to welcome, serve and help all succeed, representatives wrote in a release Tuesday.

In doing so, we must also comply with our legal obligations. This requires us to ensure all members of our community feel welcome to participate in all provided programs, including student publications.

Alice Magazine, which celebrated its 10th year this month, describes itself as a fashion and wellness magazine, on its website.

Our mission is to help students learn how to feel comfortable in their journey of navigating college life during this transition from teen to adult years, the site reads.

It is so disheartening to know that so many of us have put so much hard work into these magazines that are now being censored, Gabrielle Gunter, editor-in-chief of Alice Magazine, told student news outlet The Crimson White.

1956, which was established in 2020, describes itself as a student-run magazine focused on Black culture, Black excellence, and Black student experiences at The University of Alabama.

With our content, we hope to keep students informed about whats happening around them and provide a space for students of color to feel seen and heard and to share their stories rather than take them, its site reads.

We strive to showcase the complexities of the Black and brown experience and how people of color are not a monolith.

Steven Hood, vice president of student life, told the staff of both publications Monday night that because they target specific groups, they are unlawful proxies per the guidelines of Bondis letter.

UA representatives said in their statement that the university routinely reviews programming as the compliance landscape changes. If compliance with legal obligations impacts a program on UAs campus, we will work to find new opportunities to take its place.

Last summer, following the passage of state anti-DEI law SB129, the UA system announced it planned to close the schools DEI offices and replace them with offices that seemingly addressed similar goals.

Later in August, UA closed its Black Student Union and Safe Zone, its LGBTQ+ resource center, citing compliance with SB129.

An online petition to reinstate the magazines calls the universitys latest move the beginning of a slippery slope.

This is a testing ground for the government and the current administration to see how far they can push, it reads.

Whether or not you support the sitting president or his administration is irrelevant. This is about the First Amendment rights of all Americans, and the protection of the Fourth Estate. What starts with us ends with you, and when your speech is taken away, there will be no one left to prove that it happened.
Representatives with Read Freely Alabama present a $42,230 check to the Friends of the Fairhope Public Library during the Fairhope Library Board's meeting on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025, at the library in downtown Fairhope, Ala. The money is to help replenish any loss state funding to the library frozen by members of the Alabama Public Library Services board of directors. John Sharp

Christmas came early on Monday for an Alabama library whose state funding was cut earlier this year over a dispute about placing books in youth sections that some state officials deemed sexually explicit.

The Friends of the Fairhope Library received a $42,230 check to help replenish the state funding that the Alabama Public Library Services board of directors withheld in March.

The amount is enough to replace the librarys lost state funding through June, a likely scenario given the lack of compromise in the ongoing book placement dispute in the coastal city.

But a question emerged after the Fairhope Library Board meeting: Will another fundraiser be needed next year?

Its really hard to say right now, said Angie Hayden, co-founder of the anti-censorship group Read Freely Alabama. The group, along with the EveryLibrary Institute, helped lead the fundraising effort in Fairhope and has been at odds with the APLS for two years over the book placement controversy.

So much is up in the air, she said. We plan to be there for all of the Alabama libraries when they need us, and I really believe the Alabama library lovers are going to come through.

Randal Wright, chair of the Fairhope Public Library, oversees the board's meeting on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025, at the Fairhope Public Library. John Sharp

Randal Wright, chair of the Fairhope Public Library, said she hopes private donors will step up again if the APLS board does not reinstate the librarys funding. A decision could come in January.

If the state does not reinstate us, I hope we can raise money for next year, she said.

Wright said she believes the dispute over Fairhopes book placement policy will be resolved in January.

Im hoping its the last one about this issue, for certain, she said. I may find myself going up (to Montgomery) more so I can keep an eye on whats going on and being said about us. But I want this issue to be done.

The fate of Fairhopes annual state funding, about $46,000, depends on whether a majority of the APLS board determines that several books remaining in the librarys youth and teen sections violate a 2024 code defining sexually explicit material.

John Wahl, chairman of the Alabama Republican Party and chair of the APLS board, is reviewing some of the books that the Fairhope Library Board deemed appropriate for young readers after conducting its own reviews this summer.

Wahl was not immediately available for comment.

I really think that the (APLS) board felt that if they could delay it, the Fairhope Library Board would cave to the pressure, Hayden said. They have not. Im so very proud of them for that.

Hayden said next months APLS board meeting could bring finality to the Fairhope dispute.

I think the next meeting will come down to a decision (the APLS board) really did not want to make, she said. I think they want to just pressure and not make it. I suspect the funding will continue to be suspended. Its incredibly unfortunate to see the APLS board that is supposed to be supporting Alabama libraries is instead attacking them.

The APLS code, adopted in 2024, requires that certain books be moved from children and teen sections to adult sections regardless of educational merit. Critics, including Read Freely Alabama, say enforcement of the code has been politicized by right-wing advocates seeking to limit LGBTQ content in public libraries and amounts to censorship.

Read Freely Alabama also argues that book placement decisions should be made by professional librarians. Supporters of the APLS code say enforcement is necessary to give parents and concerned citizens control over what children access.

Fairhope is the only library deemed out of compliance with the APLS code, even though reviews by the Fairhope Library Board have already resulted in some books being reshelved in adult sections. Since 2023, 37 formal book placement challenges have been filed in Fairhope, and 14 titles have been moved from youth or teen sections.

The conflict in Fairhope mirrors national battles over LGBTQ content and other sensitive materials in youth sections. The movement in Fairhope and elsewhere has been led by Moms for Liberty, a conservative grassroots group active since the pandemic.

In Fairhope, the group has reorganized as the Fairhope Faith Collective under the leadership of former Moms for Liberty organizer Rebecca Watson. Her challenges to the librarys content were presented to the APLS board in March and prompted the board to temporarily suspend $42,000 in annual state funding. Of that amount, about $22,000 was permanently lost and redistributed to other Baldwin County libraries.

The city provides the bulk of the librarys funding, about $1 million annually. City officials say they do not plan to reduce that contribution.

A Fairhope Faith Collective post on Facebook on Monday criticized some local officials for what it described as mocking parents and citizens who want the library to follow APLS policies.

The post also criticized the fundraising campaign, claiming that Read Freely Alabama and EveryLibrary accepted donations from over 30 percent of people who do not live in Fairhope, do not pay taxes there and are using the library as a political pawn.

Hayden said on Tuesday that 72% of donations came from Alabama residents and that more than half came from the Fairhope area. She said on Monday that it was around 80%.

Its really a testament to how Alabamians feel about this subject, she said. I think its proof that Alabama believes in our library professionals and local library boards and parents should maintain the responsibility to monitor what their children read. I think it sends a message.

This story was updated at 7:55 p.m. on Dec. 2, 2025, to include a revised percentage of the donations that came from Alabama state residents.
This is an opinion column.

Doug Jones is in the race for governor, giving Alabama non-Republicans a hint of a speck of a glimmer of something that in just the right light might be mistaken for hope.

I mean, you cant win the lottery if you dont buy a ticket, right? And you cant win a political race if youre not on the ticket, as Alabama Democrats should have learned by now. A slim chance, as that guy Todd Snider said, is still a chance.

I mean no offense to Will Boyd, who has nobly served as the Democrats sacrificial lamb in recent years, or Chad Chig Martin, a hemp dealer whose song Trailer Park Mother Trucker, dares to rhyme car with fire and bar with saw her.

Its hard to imagine Martin has no chance with lyrics like this:

One day Ill get a double wide,

My girlfriends pregnant but maybe lied,

A PBR and a Natty Light,

Were gonna cook a hog on Friday night,

Johnny and Roy just got a new bong,

So for now Ill say so long.

But lets face it. There is no chance.

Jones, at least, has a glimmer of a speck of a proven punchers chance.

Jones in 2017 beat Roy Moore to become senator in a race that captivated America. He served until 2021, when Tommy Tuberville showed him the thumb. Jones has no country songs to croon, sadly, but I did catch up with him for a Q&A. It has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Question:

Why do you think its important to do this?

Jones:

I think its important to give folks choices.

The choices here are just stark. And I think for too long, when it comes time for a general election, people have not had a whole lot of choices. I think now is an absolute perfect time because we are seeing Alabamians struggle with electricity bills, with health care costs, with insurance premiums, educational costs, you name it. Everything seems to be unattainable to some extent these days. People are having to work two jobs, two income families are still struggling, yet Montgomery seems to do very little to focus on those issues. Quite frankly, I havent seen Congress or Washington, D.C. focus on those issues a lot.

Question:

The choices are  no disrespect to others  you against Tommy Tuberville

Jones

I think the differences in my record and what I tried to achieve and what I did achieve both as U.S. attorney and in the U.S. Senate compared with Tommy Tuberville is pretty stark. There is really nothing that he can point to other than his unabashed support for Trump, regardless of whether it has hurt Alabama. I think its time for folks to look at issues and look at the choices, and thats why we believe the time is right to make this move.

Question:

What are you proudest of in your time in the Senate?

Jones:

Oh, wow. Im proudest of the ability to work with people across the aisle, and to some extent, even those that might disagree within the Democratic caucus. Im the proudest .. of how I was able to do things as a more centrist Democrat. To talk to folks on both sides of the aisle, persuade people, get things done, listen to them and understand where they were coming from.

I was really proud of the fact that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recognized that by giving me both a bipartisanship award as one of the most bipartisan senators, as well as... a free enterprise system award for leadership. All those things were really important to me because they demonstrate who I am and who I would like to be as governor of Alabama.

Archibald:

Some of those bills might have killed you politically

Jones:

Look, you cant please everybody with every vote. Were divided and polarized. People have different views, and I get that. So you end up doing those things that you feel like were the right thing to do. Sometimes theyre not the most popular thing to do if you just take a poll, but I dont think thats the role of a public official. You are supposed to represent your constituencies to the greatest extent possible. But if that just means voting on a poll, a public opinion, then we really dont need people. We could just use computers to do that.

Question:

A lot of people say it doesnt matter if you win. That Democrats have got to be in the fight. Do you agree with that? And do you really think you can win?

Jones:

Yes, I do think we can win. Im not going to say it doesnt matter if you dont win, because clearly it matters a lot if you win. You are able to do some things, working with the legislature, doing the very kind of things we did in the U.S. Senate, working with people. There are those that would say, well, youre not going to have a majority in the legislature. Thats true. But I also think that if you were to be able to be elected governor as a Democrat, youre going to have a bully pulpit, and people are going to take notice of that. And theyre going to want to work with the governor. I think thats always the case. So I think theres a lot you can do.

Question:

Whats your path to victory?

Jones:

I recognize that this is an uphill battle, that were the underdog. But there is a lane. I think folks are ready for a change to some extent. We have not really progressed very far as a state since Republicans took complete control some 15 years ago  and I think people are frustrated.

I think coming in to make a change, to shake things up a little bit, well let the state move forward and get back to that two-party system where people are competing for ideas and not just gerrymandering folks.

Can we win? Yes. Will we win? I dont know.

Question:

Do you think or hope that your getting into the race will motivate other high-profile candidates to get in other races?

Jones:

Hopefully my getting into the race means other folks with credibility, that can be competitive, will get into races from one end of the ballot to the other. I believe that Democrats this year, for the first time in a long time, are going to field a full slate of candidates. I think theyre going to all be credible candidates. And if theyre credible candidates, then you can make them competitive. Whether its me being at the top of the ticket that fosters that, Im not sure I think we were going to end up fielding a good slate of candidates regardless. I believe theres some more folks that are kind of rethinking an early or no position right now, because they see the excitement that has been building, and they see the opportunities not just to win elections, but to better the state.

Question:

Any names you would throw out there?

Jones:

No, I dont want to do that right now.

Question:

Are you running with the help of the Alabama Democratic Party or in spite of it?

Jones:

I dont think Im running in spite of it. Its no secret weve had differences, but at the end of the day Democrats are going to rally around their nominee regardless. I believe that every race has to be built  not as a function of any political party but as yourself and who you are. All politics is personal, personal for families, personal for communities, and thats what were gonna make this about.

Question: Why should the people of Alabama, particularly people who would identify as Independent or Republican, vote for you?

Jones:

I think they need to just look at my record. Service to the people of this state, of all races, all religions, all zip codes  Its a record of caring and understanding, talking to people and listening to people. And more importantly, its a record of trying to unify. Even though there were votes I took that really angered some people, Ive still got a record of trying to bring this state together and unify people. You dont see me calling folks names just because I disagree with them. You dont see me dogging folks in the way that Tommy Tuberville has and trying to divide people.

It is pretty clear that he doesnt listen to certain folks. He doesnt care about listening to certain folks  were going to be listening to people as much as were going to be talking to people the contrast between the two candidates and the two campaigns is going to be dramatic.

Question:

Have you had a chance to gauge how Alabama voters have responded to your entry into the race?

Jones:

You know, overall, I think its been pretty incredibly positive  Its not always the Democratic Party activists. Its people all over the state in different walks of life, from labor and working folks to some business leaders that you wouldnt expect, from different demographics, young and old. It has been really remarkable.

So many times over the years, people remember where they were and talk about our election in 2017. And I really appreciate that. The one thing we heard after a year of Donald Trumps presidency was you gave us hope. When you got elected in Alabama, it gave us hope. What I hear more often now is  are we going to be okay?

Question:

Are we going to be OK?

Jones:

Yes, yes, we are going to be okay. I have complete faith in the people of America. I have complete faith in the people of this state. We are going to be OK, but its going to take some resolve. Its going to take some pushback. Its going to take people standing up and fighting for everyday Americans and not just trying to rile people up on stuff that doesnt matter  We are going to be taking people to task. And when it comes down to it, to fight for folks and their Alabama values.

Question:

And what changes do you see yourself making for Alabama?

Jones:

You know, that, I think, is going to take some time. The governor cannot legislate, but I think youre going to see a more active governor, putting out positions and trying to work with the legislature to get some things down and get some changes made. I want to see some changes in education. I want to see some changes in workforce development. I want to see a lottery. Im tired of Alabama sticking out like a sore thumb. Eighty percent of the people in this state believe that we should have a lottery and I agree.

I dont want to see a comprehensive gambling bill because thats just a whole bunch of special interests putting their fingers in the pie. I want to see the people of Alabama have a chance to vote on a lottery bill. I think we need to revisit the CHOOSE Act a little bit. There is nothing about the CHOOSE Act right now that puts any kind of qualifications or standards to the schools that are going to be getting public dollars. And weve got to take a good look at that. I think that that is wrong. I dont like it in general where public dollars are going to private schools that way. But if youre going to have it, you need to have some dang standards.

I think health care is a huge issue. I have, for eight years now, sounded like a broken record with regard to Medicaid expansion. And it is time that folks in Montgomery understand that expanding that Medicaid is going to help this state in big, big ways, even though it may cost us a little money. Weve got to try to figure out how to keep our people healthy, give them the services they need, which in turn keeps rural hospitals open, gets doctors in, gets nurses in, gets the health care to people that they need throughout the state.

Question:

Parting words?

Jones:

You know, all I can say is this: Im excited about the prospects of this campaign. Im excited because of what weve generated in terms of discussions around the water coolers and talk among the state. And Alabamas going to have a real race. Were going to do some things and were going to say some things and were going to go out and meet the people and listen to them. Ive got a lot of ideas, but you know what? Its the people of Alabama that need to have the ideas these days.

I want this campaign and ultimately my administration to be more responsive to people and not the special interest in Montgomery the way it has been over the last at least 15 years.

Archibald:

Thank you sir.

Jones:

You bet.
On Wednesday, Dec. 10, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) will host its first ever Next Step Job and Resource Fair.

The event will include job opportunities, trades, apprenticeships, certificate and educational programs, housing and reentry resources, as well as expungement workshops to aid participants who have criminal records.

Organizers say the resource fair will give adults of various ages and backgrounds the chance to explore options for their future.

We are a place of second chances. For someone who may be pursuing a second chance in life, sometimes that expungement can just be that additional opportunity to help them move forward, Rico Drakes, director of the UAB Educational Opportunity Center, said.

The UAB Educational Opportunity Center and UAB Community Corrections are partnering to host the event. The UAB Educational Opportunity Center provides participants with college and trade school admissions assistance, GED workshops, FAFSA and scholarship assistance, career exploration and goal setting, tutoring and mentoring, as well as referrals to public assistance and other community resources.

You do not have to be a UAB student to receive services from the Educational Opportunity Center or the job fair.

We want to help people reach their goals. We just want to show people that theres different avenues to success, that theres apprenticeships, that you can still get your GED, that age is not a barrier, Drakes said.

Some of the employers and resources at the fair will include UAB Human Resources, UAB Police, Max Transit, Brown Beauty Barber School, Waffle House, Hart Seil Management Services, Birmingham Reentry Alliance, Hope Inspired Ministries, Greater Birmingham Ministries, Jefferson State Community College, Mechanical Craft Training Institute, among others.

The Next Step Job and Resource Fair will be hosted at UABs Tower Building located at 530 Beacon Parkway West, Birmingham, AL 35209 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public with no registration required.

For more information about the job fair, email Drakes at rdrakes@uab.edu.

Im just motivated to have a positive impact on the communityMy hope is that everyone will find something that fits them and gives them an opportunity to carve out their path to success, Drakes said.

Just come out and take advantage of the resources.
One Roof executive director Gordon Sullivan and city of Birmingham representative Alanah Melton introduce plan to reduce homelessness at first ever "State of Homelessness: Redefining Community" symposium. Alaina Bookman

The city of Birmingham and One Roof, a homeless relief organization, unveiled their plan to tackle homelessness on Monday.

On Dec. 1, community members, advocates and local government shared solutions and support at the first-ever State of Homelessness: Redefining Community symposium. Organizers provided information about the citys current state of homelessness and laid out a plan to reduce long-term unsheltered homelessness by 40% in just one year.

In Birmingham, homelessness is not far away from any of us. The truth is, illness, job loss, a crisis can destabilize even the strongest families, Alanah Melton, director of unhoused strategy for the City of Birmingham, said.

When we work together to reunify community, we acknowledge that by working together, we can ensure everyone has access to safe, sustainable housing.

The plan comes 20 years after documented assessments of homelessness in the city, and plans enacted over the years to address the issue.

At any given time, there are about 400 unsheltered people living in Birmingham, many of whom have disabilities or struggle with addiction, according to One Roof.

Melton said the city will work with community members and local organizations like One Roof to reduce homelessness.

One Roof leads the Continuum of Care for Central Alabama, coordinating local organizations to ensure an effective, equitable response to homelessness. Nationally, the Continuum of Care, a housing program, has helped thousands of people out of homelessness.

Of those who participated in One Roofs Continuum of Care for Central Alabama, 82% have not returned to homelessness, according to the organization.

More than 25 service providers participated in the event, including the JBS Mental Health Authority, Urban Alchemy, the Housing Authority of the Birmingham District and Jimmie Hale Mission.

These groups provide emergency shelter, transitional and permanent housing and wrap-around services to help lift people in need out of homelessness.

Over the years, the city and local agencies have worked to reduce homelessness by conducting needs assessments, building shelters and creating plans to tackle the complex issue.

Earlier this year, the city of Birmingham allocated $1.5 million to further strengthen housing and homeless services.

The city also agreed to pay $1.2 million for the construction of micro-shelters downtown with Home for All. And Jimmie Hale Mission plans to build a $4.4 million emergency shelter.

These initiatives will contribute 100 available beds for people who are unsheltered, toward the citys goal of 300 in 2026.

Organizers say this event was about bringing advocates from all sectors together to coordinate their mission, strategies and goals.

Birmingham is at its strongest moving in unison, and thats why we will continue to support the work of nonprofits and faith-based organizations who have led the charge in uplifting this community, Mayor Randall Woodfin said.

The plan to reduce homelessness includes six goals:

Offer preventative services to avert homelessness. Reduce the chronically unsheltered population by 40%, about 200 people, by December 2026. Reduce the number and intensity of encampments. Reduce the number of youth experiencing homelessness to net zero. Develop a sustainable shelter framework to support residents during extreme weather conditions. Provide housing insecure residents with access to permanent supportive housing.

To complete these goals, the city and partner organizations plan to implement 12 strategies:

Provide proactive and accessible early intervention; estimated cost: $1.5 million. Assist with the creation of 350 additional beds for emergency and transitional housing; estimated cost: $3.5 million. Implement the Built for Zero Plan ; estimated cost: $210,00. Create a self-sustaining model for operating warming and cooling stations; estimated cost: $250,000. Establish regular communication with state and county leaders for coordination of funding, policies and resources; estimated cost: $0. Update, create and support the city of Birminghams policies and ordinances; estimated cost: $0. Reinforce and enhance the citys existing relationship with the Continuum of Care; estimated cost: $0. Reduce homelessness for justice-impacted individuals; estimated cost: $200,00 Provide resources to reduce opioid overdoses; estimated cost: $1.5 million. Address mental health and discharge-related issues; estimated cost: $620,000. Utilize a by-name list and case conferencing to more effectively address the individual needs of unsheltered residents; estimated cost: $215,000. Address the shortage of affordable permanent supportive housing; estimated cost: to be determined.

To read the full plan, click here.

They are so much more than their circumstances. They are not statistics used for political talking points. Theyre not faces to be ignored. Theyre not burdens, Woodfin said.

Theyre mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, children with unrealized potential. Theyre survivors with stories, souls with dreams yet to be realized. They are not our shame. They are us, and they need our compassion.
Hoover residents against a proposed Muslim K-12 school held signs during a planning commission meeting. Some signs compared the project to moves to transform Hoover into a Muslim society. Joseph D. Bryant

The Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission Monday night said no to a plan to transform an office building into a Muslim school and community center in the Meadowbrook area off Highway 119.

The Hoover City Council chamber was filled with an overflowing crowd as residents gathered to show, voice and sometimes shout their opposition to the plan to move the school from Homewood to Hoover.

The commission unanimously denied the request to rezone the property after citing concerns about traffic, the long-term land use plan for the area and other questions about the project on Corporate Drive.

Theres a lot of perspective, but not a lot of accuracy, board member Nathan Reed said after hearing the report from the staff recommending the denial.

While traffic and the citys land use were heavily cited, religious and cultural concerns were also voiced. Residents lining the walls to speak and holding signs opposing the project offered additional reasons why they did not want the K-12 school and center in Hoover.

People sitting in the back held signs illustrating their disapproval. Some signs compared the project to a move to transform Hoover into a Muslim society.

Stop the 100 year plan, read one sign, referencing a conspiracy theory of a grand plan by Muslims to take over American institutions.

Give an inch  Dearborn Michigan another read, referring to the community with a large Muslim population and Arab-American-majority city leadership.

Hoover resident Bruce Davis said the presence of the school would also deter desired business development in the area.

Youre going to have real problems with this community, Im just telling you now, Davis said. Theres going to be an influx of other people that are going to create a problem for this community and we might as well just face it.

Go to Homewood, one woman said from the audience. Stay in Homewood.

The Islamic Academy of Alabama has been in Homewood since 1995 and has about 260 students, said Lucas Gambio, a lawyer who spoke on behalf of the school organizers.

Our plan was consistent all along, Gambino said. Were not here to trick anybody. Were not here to mislead anybody.

Other residents said they were against adding additional traffic to an already high-density area. They worried about property values and setting a bad precedent of changing zoning for other projects.

The property is currently zoned Planned Office development. The school requested a change to Conditional Use to allow the school to locate there.

The final speaker drew the loudest applause as she took to the lectern to read a prepared statement that castigated Muslims whom she accused of a long-term cultural takeover in Britain.

Commission Chairman Mike Wood finally interrupted her, saying she was off topic. Others in the crowd yelled back in her defense.

We are here to look at whether this school was appropriately placed, Wood said. Were not here for that. Im sorry. Were not going to listen to that.

The commissions denial is advisory. The zoning request now goes to the full city council for a final vote.
PHOENIX, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Great Hearts Blossom Rock, opening Fall 2027, will bring nationally recognized, tuition-free classical education to the East Valley.

A Rendering of the Great Hearts Blossom Rock Campus

Located in the community of Blossom Rock, near Eastmark, Great Hearts Blossom Rock will become Great Hearts 25th academy in Arizona, and welcome students in kindergarten through the elementary grades, with the potential to grow into upper grades in the coming years. The new academy will offer an academically rich environment where young minds can flourish. With a 5.4-acre homesite secured inside the community, this campus will be built from the ground up to inspire curiosity, character, and a lifelong love of learning.

"We are incredibly grateful and excited to partner with families in the East and Southeast Valley to build our new academy," shared Great Hearts Arizona Superintendent Brandon Crowe. "Families continue to seek the very most excellent education for their children  one that brings the richest curriculum taught by the very best teachers to young people. We, at Great Hearts, are anxious to expand and enhance our 25 years of commitment and success into this newest member of the Great Hearts network."

This expansion, which comes at a time when school closures are on the rise, is thanks in part to the generosity of Brookfield Developers and Cohere as well as the Charter School Program (CSP) grant awarded to the Great Hearts charter school network by the Federal Department of Education. This grant will support the creation of new schools as well as the expansion of current academies over the next 5 years.

Join us for Blossoming with Great Hearts, an open-house style gathering on Saturday, January 24th between 12:002:00 PM at Blossom Rock Dutch Club House (10075 Dutchman Dr, Apache Junction, AZ 85120). Meet Great Hearts leaders and enjoy family-friendly activities. RSVP for this special event at https://enrollaz.greatheartsamerica.org/blossoming-with-gh.

About Great Hearts

Great Hearts is a non-profit and the nation's largest provider of classical PK12 education, serving 30,000+ students across 52 brick and mortar academies in AZ, TX, and LA, and a national online academy. Its classical curriculum emphasizes advanced academics, arts, languages, and character formation toward Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. Learn more at greatheartsamerica.org.

Media Contact:

Jason Moore

National Communication Manager

Great Hearts Academies

[email protected]

SOURCE Great Hearts Arizona
Governor-elect George Wallace riding in the parade before his 1963 inauguration in Montgomery. Governor John Patterson and Lieutenant Governor-elect James B. Allen are seated beside him. (Alabama Department of Archives and History/AL.com) ADAH

When Gov. George Wallace summoned Alabama lawmakers for a special session in pursuit of his personal ambitions 60 years ago, he was in some ways as dominant in state politics as Donald Trump is in American politics today.

Wallace, in his first term as governor, was revered by most white Alabamians because he vowed to preserve racial segregation and stand up against the pointy-head elites, the federal judges, and the liberal press that Wallace said looked down on the state.

In the 1962 election, Wallace received the most votes ever in an Alabama governors race until that time, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama.

He would have been unbeatable in a bid for a second term in 1966.

But the Alabama Constitution prohibited governors and other constitutional officers from successive terms.

Wallace did not believe that could stop him.

On Sept. 29, 1965, the governor called a special session of the Legislature and asked lawmakers to pass and submit to voters an amendment to the state constitution that would allow the governor and other state elected officials to serve consecutive terms.

I am willing to accept the judgement of the people, Wallace said in a speech that was televised statewide to open the session.

If they approve, I shall run for the office of governor in 1966.

Wallace was 46, with his political ambition and prowess at a peak.

He had run in several Democratic primaries for president in 1964 and made no secret of his intentions to use the governors office as a springboard for a more serious presidential campaign in 1968.

I shall go where you send me  whether it is back across this nation to tell the story of Americanism to Americans  or back to Barbour County, Wallace said to a packed chamber in the State Capitol.

The crowd roared its approval, as did most of the legislators there.

The weeks that followed showed there were limits to Wallaces political clout.

A dozen state senators withstood public opinion and arm-twisting by the governor and handed Wallace one of the few political defeats he suffered in Alabama.

Newspaper accounts and books tell the story of the 1965 special session and the extent to which Wallace and his allies would go to keep him in the governors office in pursuit of greater political ambitions.

Senators stall

Wallace entered the special session with reason for confidence.

The governor had enjoyed success with his legislative agenda after beginning his term with the infamous segregation forever inaugural speech in January 1963.

The House of Representatives passed his succession amendment by a vote of 74-23 on October 5.

It hit a roadblock in the Senate.

Opposition senators launched a filibuster when the bill came to the floor.

Sen. Ed Horton, one of the opponents, said the amendment was not necessarily a bad idea but should apply to future officeholders, not be rushed through in a special session to benefit Wallace.

It is obvious that such a momentous change in our state Constitution should be approached in an atmosphere of cool, calm reasoning and analysis, said Horton, who represented Lauderdale and Limestone counties, The Huntsville Times reported.

Such is impossible when the personality of an incumbent official is a factor and becomes a primary point of debate.

Most of the senators supported the popular governor. But Senate rules gave his opponents a powerful tool.

There is going to be a filibuster, an extended filibuster, Sen. Bob Gilchrist of Morgan County said on the first day of the session, the Montgomery Advertiser reported.

It took 21 votes, three-fifths of the 35 senators, to approve the constitutional amendment for succession.

But Wallace needed three more votes because it took 24 votes to end debate or cut off a filibuster, a maneuver called cloture.

Wallace was confident and said voters deserved to have their say.

I have always been a believer in extended debate, but on a matter such as this, when it is the people who will decide, then I dont think a small group of senators should deny the people this right, Wallace said.

The first vote for cloture was 18-12, six short of the number needed to end the filibuster.

But Wallace and his allies were just getting started.

Turning up the heat

Three senators supporting the succession amendment asked the Alabama Supreme Court to declare that the Senate rules violated the state constitution because it took more votes to end a filibuster than it did to pass the bill.

The court declined to tell the Legislature how to do its business.

In a 6-1 ruling, the justices found that the 24-vote rule did not violate the constitution and said the Senate had the authority to establish its own rules under the separation of powers.

Moments after the court decision, Wallace announced his next move.

We are going to the people with this issue, Wallace said.

The next day, the governor launched a tour of cities represented by the filibustering senators  including Florence, Athens, Huntsville, Oneonta, Anniston, and Gadsden.

The liberal element of this country cheerfully and gleefully is hoping for the defeat of the governor of Alabama, Wallace said, according to the Montgomery Advertiser.

A few senators are making it appear that the people are repudiating the governor.

In Dan Carters biography of Wallace, The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics, published in 1995, the author wrote about the special session and Wallaces efforts to pressure opposing senators.

The first stop on Wallaces tour was the Holiday Inn in Florence, in Hortons district.

Horton, described by Carter as a tall, rangy north Alabama cattleman and farmer, drove home from Montgomery to the Wallace event.

He found a meeting room packed with more than two hundred cheering Wallace supporters, who interrupted the governor with foot-stomping ovations again and again as he accused Horton of joining hands with the national liberals, Carter wrote.

Wallace lumped Horton in with the national news media that the governor said looked down on Alabama.

Huntley and Chinkley, sneered Wallace, and Walter Contrite and all the rest are eager to report that Wallace and his fight for constitutional government have been repudiated.

When it was Hortons turn to speak, the crowd almost drowned him out, Carter wrote.

In the final analysis, I must satisfy, not the governor, not the Legislature, but my own conscience, Horton said. This I have done.

Horton had a role model for standing his ground against popular opinion.

His father, James Edwin Horton Sr., was a judge who granted a second trial to one of the Scottsboro boys, one of nine young Black men falsely accused of rape and convicted by all-white juries in 1931.

The day after his appearance in Florence, Wallace spoke from a flatbed truck at a Huntsville shopping center in the district of Sen. Roscoe Roberts, a succession opponent.

Roberts was in the crowd, estimated at 400. Carters book carries the senators recollection of facing Wallace and his supporters.

He got em all worked up, said the senator, and then he turned and pointed straight at me down in the crowd and said, There. There he is.

A dozen hard-eyed men converged on Roberts, yelling You sonuvabitch, and that sort of thing, he recalled. Just before Huntsville police stepped in to rescue the shaken senator, Wallace  aware that he was courting disaster, hastily called off the crowd.

Over six days, Wallace spoke in every opponents Senate district and appeared in a paid 30-minute television message across the state, Carter wrote.

Withholding state funds

Some of the opposing senators exposed what they said were the Wallace administrations threats to retaliate against their districts.

Sen. Julian Lowe of Randolph County said he was called off the Senate floor to take a phone call from the president of Southern Union Junior College in Wadley, part of Lowes district.

The college president told Lowe that the Wallace administration had blocked $500,000 in state funds the college was expecting because of Lowes opposition to the succession amendment.

Lowe, a first-term senator, returned to the Senate chamber, requested to speak, and described the phone call.

My vote is not for sale, Lowe announced, according to Carters book.

The Wallace administration denied using such tactics.

Wallaces finance director, Seymore Trammell, accused the press of maliciously aiding the opposition with slanted stories and absolute untruths, the Montgomery Advertiser reported.

The Wallace administration has given on the basis of need of the people  and the fact that certain senators have filibustered everything Governor Wallace has proposed has not in one instance adversely affected the county represented by the particular senator, Trammell said.

Lowe stood by his story.

I dont care how many propaganda statements he (Wallace) gets up, every statement I made to the Senate is totally, 100% true, Lowe said.

Lost advertising dollars

Several of the states largest newspapers opposed the succession amendment in editorials. They paid a price.

The Alabama Journal, the afternoon newspaper in Montgomery at the time, reported that six Alabama newspapers that opposed the succession amendment received notices from liquor companies who relied on business with the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board that the companies were cancelling their advertisements in the papers.

The papers were the Alabama Journal, the Montgomery Advertiser, the Birmingham News, the Birmingham Post-Herald, the Huntsville Times, and the Tuscaloosa News.

The Huntsville News and the Dothan Eagle, which supported the succession bill, reported no cancellations.

Harold E. Martin, publisher of the Montgomery Advertiser and Alabama Journal, said it was the third time that the Wallace administration cancelled liquor ads over the newspapers editorial positions.

These economic reprisals have not changed our editorial position previously and it will not do so now, Martin said. We are opposed to the succession bill with or without liquor advertising.

Motives of their own

Some of the succession opponents had their own interests, or those of their political allies in mind.

Blocking the succession amendment stood to benefit potential candidates in the 1966 race who knew that running against Wallace would be futile.

Carter wrote that former Gov. John Patterson, who had defeated Wallace in 1958, and Ryan deGraffenried, who lost to Wallace in the 1962 race, formed a tactical alliance.

From an informal command headquarters at the Albert Pick Motel in Montgomery, they secretly coordinated much of the opposition to the succession bill, Carter wrote.

Sen. Jimmy Clark of Barbour County, who supported the succession amendment, denounced the oppositions motives.

This is a ridiculous smokescreen to cover the real pressures that are being brought by the political lieutenants of ex-Governor Patterson, Clark said, according to the Montgomery Advertiser.

Sen. Bob Gilchrist of Morgan County, a leader in the opposition to the succession amendment, would go on to run for governor himself in 1966.

Opposition holds firm

The tactics of Wallace and his supporters failed to budge the resistance forces. There would be more dramatics before the issue was settled.

On Oct. 22, Sen. Kenneth Hammond of Valley Head, one of the uncommitted senators the administration had tried to persuade, made the most accusatory speech of the session on the Senate floor.

Hammond said it was wrong for Wallace to use the governors office as a stepping-stone for his national ambitions. He said taxpayers would foot the bill for his presidential campaign. That was the mild part of his remarks.

Carter, citing the stories that ran the next day in several newspapers, described Hammonds speech.

For 35 minutes the beefy, blunt-spoken Hammond attacked the governor in one of the most vitriolic speeches ever made on the floor of the Alabama State Senate. Wallace was no better than Adolf Hitler, he declared. The governors opponents had only one fate: to be branded by Wallace as n----- lovers, pinkos, or communists.

Lieutenant Governor James Allen stalked out of the chamber to protest what he called abusive and inappropriate language. Hammond raged on. In order to pick up support, he is going to pit the white race against the minorities in this country  the same way Adolf Hitler pitted the Jews against a master race.  The hatemongers may kill me before I leave the Capitol, he melodramatically warned as he reached down and placed a wrinkled cloth bag on his desk, but This is my insurance policy. Listeners heard a heavy, ominous, clunking metal noise and the chambers fell silent. (They just knew there was a pistol in that bag, said one senator.)

Hammond did not have a gun, but said the bag contained the best damn tape recorder money can buy. Ive got every rotten promise George Wallace ever made me.

Three votes short

The final vote came later that day.

Lt. Gov. Allen, a Wallace ally and supporter of the succession amendment, convinced the opposition senators to end the filibuster and allow the vote, since it was apparent by then, three weeks into the session, that they would prevail.

The Birmingham Post-Herald reported the result:

The Alabama Senate today killed the governors succession bill, handing Gov. George Wallace what may be the biggest setback of his political career.

The vote was 18-14 in favor of the amendment, three shy of passing.

Allen, who would go on to become a U.S. senator known for his mastery of Senate rules, said the controversy had been debated and decided appropriately.

He called it a great victory for the parliamentary process of the Senate and said the succession showdown was the most momentous occasion in the history of the Senate, the Post-Herald reported.

Sen. Bob Gilchrist of Morgan County, who led the filibuster and ran for governor the next year, said he held Wallace in very fine personal regard but did not think he should be allowed to change the constitution.

Its not a personal defeat for him but a victory for the Constitution Gilchrist said.

Temporary setback

The defeat of the amendment stirred speculation that Wallace might run for the U.S. Senate against Sen. John Sparkman, who was up for reelection in 1966.

Sparkman had been in the Senate for 30 years. But his own poll showed Wallace would beat him by a two-to-one margin, Carter wrote in Politics of Rage.

Wallace did not pursue a Senate race but had another plan to maintain control of state government.

His wife, Lurleen Wallace, ran for governor in his place.

In the May 3, 1966 Democratic primary, she crushed a field of nine men, including former governors Patterson and Jim Folsom and Attorney General Richmond Flowers, to win the nomination without a runoff.

She easily defeated her Republican opponent in the general election and became the first woman elected governor in Alabama.

As expected, Wallace ran for president in 1968. Running as an independent, he got 13.5% of the vote and carried five states  Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Republican Richard Nixon won the race, with Democrat Hubert Humphrey finishing second.

Wallace ran for president as a Democrat in 1972 and had early success in primaries before an assassination attempt during a campaign appearance in Maryland left him paralyzed for the rest of his life.

Wallace tried for the Democratic nomination in 1976 but endorsed eventual winner Jimmy Carter after losing the Florida and North Carolina primaries.

A few years after Wallaces failed special session, the Legislature passed the succession amendment to allow constitutional officers to serve consecutive terms.

Voters approved it in 1968.

Wallace was elected governor three more times, in 1970, 1974, and 1982.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth elicited rage from his critics after posting a photo of a childrens book character firing missiles at boats with the caption, For your Christmas wish list. Pete Hegseth

A Canadian childrens book publisher called out Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after he posted a meme of Franklin the Turtle firing missiles at boats.

Hegseth tweeted the meme on Sunday with the caption For your Christmas wish list...

For your Christmas wish list pic.twitter.com/pLXzg20SaL  Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) December 1, 2025

Hegseths tweet stoked rage from administration critics.

On Monday, Kids Can Press, the Canadian publisher of Franklin the Turtle books, suggested the beloved Canadian icon does not represent the values depicted in Hegseths meme.

Franklin the Turtle is a beloved Canadian icon who has inspired generations of children and stands for kindness, empathy and inclusivity, the company said in a statement posted on social media.

We strongly condemn any denigrating, violent, or unauthorized use of Franklins name and image, which directly contradicts these values, the statement continued.

On Monday, the administration insisted that a secondary strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea in a September U.S. military operation was lawful, the Associated Press reported.

The White House said that Navy Vice Adm. Frank Mitch Bradley ordered the second strike and was within his authority and the law. The military operation has come under bipartisan scrutiny from lawmakers after The Washington Post reported that Hegseth had issued a verbal order to kill everybody on the boat.

Legal experts say the U.S. military would have committed a crime if survivors were killed. Trump defended Hegseth on Sunday. Pete said he did not order the death of those two men, Trump said. And I believe him. Bradley is expected to provide a classified briefing Thursday to lawmakers overseeing the military.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump listens during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) AP

President Donald Trump was skewered as being out of touch by his critics Tuesday after claiming a major Democratic talking point on the economy is a scam.

Democrats who ran on the issue of affordability in Novembers elections, including New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, easily won their races.

During his cabinet meeting Tuesday, the president claimed affordability is a non-issue because of his policies.

The word affordability is a con job by the Democrats, Trump said, adding that he saw an unnamed low IQ congresswoman repeatedly using the word.

She had no idea. Their prices were much higher under former President Joe Biden, said Trump.

The word affordability is a Democrat scam, he continued.

Trumps critics took to social media, accusing the president of being out of touch.

Anyone who has ever struggled to stretch their paychecks from one to the next knows that affordability is a very real thing, tweeted Sen. Martin Henrich, D-N.M. So no, Mr. President, its not a scam. And Democrats wont stop talking about it.

Rep. Mary Gay Scanldon, D-Mass., suggested Trumps policies were the actual scam.

Scam: Giving tax cuts to billionaires and imposing blanket tariffs, instead of lowering prices on day one, she tweeted. Not a scam: Affordability.

Saying affordability is a scam doesnt change the fact that working Americans are struggling with real costs, tweeted The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump organization run by former Republicans.

Donald Trump just called affordability a scam. Easy to say when youre a billionaire whos never worried about a grocery bill. For everyday Kansans, its real life, tweeted Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kans.

Melanie DArrigo, executive director of the New York Campaign For Health, shared a similar sentiment.

The billionaire president, who lives out of his country club and is building himself a ballroom, says affordability is just a Democrat scam  as 60% of Americans say they cant afford basic necessities. Telling struggling Americans to f--- off is apparently America First," she tweeted,
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., center, speaks with reporters at the Capitol subway, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib) AP

U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., argued in an op-ed on Breitbart Monday that Senate Republicans should eliminate the filibuster to pass America First policies and prevent the United Caliphate of America.

If Republicans want to put real wins on the board for the American people, it starts with ending the Senate filibuster, Tuberville wrote.

I know this is controversial. But the truth is, if it werent for two former Democrat Senators, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, Democrats would have already blown it up last time they were in power.

The hard truth is that if Republicans dont do it now, the radical Democrats will end the filibuster the moment they retake control of the Senate. Then they will immediately cement their woke agenda into law, including things like packing the Supreme Court, destroying our borders, mandating electric vehicles, and allowing abortion up until the day of birth.

Tuberville goes on to state that after the filibuster is gone Republicans should address several issues, primarily election integrity and claims massive fraud occurred during the 2020 presidential election.

The senator also said that Republicans need to act against activists judges and work to deport every Islamist.

Tuberville has been criticized for expressing dangerous hatred against Muslims and ignorance around Islam.

Tuberville previously expressed support for ending the filibuster after President Donald Trump called on Senate Republicans to do so during the government shutdown.

The filibuster is a procedure that allows the minority party to block, delay or force negotiations on legislation, because 60 votes are required to invoke cloture, or limit debate on a bill.

While Tuberville was on board with Trumps request, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said that the votes were not there to end the filibuster.

Many senators, both Democrat and Republican, question whether overturning the procedure could come back to harm either side when they are the minority party.

AL.com left a message with U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., asking whether she supports ending the filibuster.

Her office has not responded yet.

Britt previously echoed Thunes commentary that the votes were not there to eliminate the filibuster but has not explicitly stated what her position is on the subject.
Temperatures on Tuesday may fall instead of rise in parts of Alabama as a blast of colder air arrives. Above are Tuesday's forecast highs. Some of those will be reached this morning and fall through the afternoon. National Weather Service

Rain was moving out of Alabama on Tuesday, and colder way is on its way.

The National Weather Service said Alabama temperatures will go the wrong way in many places today, with high temperatures coming this morning and falling through the day as a blast of arctic air arrives.

Highs today will range from the low 40s in north Alabama, which gets the cold air first, to the lower 60s in south Alabama.

(See the forecast map from the weather service at the top of this post.)

Expect any lingering rain to end from west to east today, with drier and colder air blowing in from the northwest.

Those in northeast Alabama may spot a snowflake or two this morning as the precipitation heads out, according to the weather service.

No accumulations or travel headaches are expected, however.

Low temperatures tonight into Wednesday morning will be very cold, but theres an asterisk by the forecast.

The weather service said theres a chance clouds could develop overnight, which would keep temperatures from falling as low as forecast.

Heres the low temperature forecast for tonight:

Here are tonight's expected low temperatures. NWS

North Alabama is expected to have low temperatures in the low to mid-20s overnight unless clouds develop.

Lows in central Alabama will range from the lower 20s in the north to the upper 20s in the south -- again if clouds dont enter the picture.

And south Alabama will be chilly as well with temperatures expected to fall into the upper 20s to mid-30s.

Another chilly day is expected on Wednesday, but it should remain dry until Wednesday night, when north Alabama could see the beginnings of some precipitation, according to forecasters.

If it does move in there could be some sleet in the northern part of the state early Thursday morning, but that happening is uncertain at the moment.

Precipitation chances return in earnest on Thursday for much of the state, and the precipitation type will be in question for those in north Alabama, who could see a mix of sleet and freezing rain mainly north of the Tennessee River, according to the weather service.

Rain is expected elsewhere in the state, and some areas could get another good soaking, which is needed because of ongoing drought conditions in a large part of the state.

Here are the precipitation chances from the weather service on Thursday:

Rain chances return to Alabama on Wednesday night into Thursday. Here is the precipitation forecast for Thursday. NWS

No severe weather is expected for at least the next seven days, according to the Storm Prediction Center.










English News Japan's refusal to address its missteps precludes meaningful dialogue with China

Alwihda Info | Par peoplesdaily - 27 Novembre 2025



To restore the bilateral relationship, Japan must move beyond performative diplomacy and take concrete steps to retract its erroneous statements while engaging in meaningful self-reflection. This is the only viable path to returning China-Japan relations to a constructive and stable trajectory.

By Zhou Xin Recent developments have led to a deterioration in China-Japan relations, following erroneous remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi regarding the Taiwan question. Instead of acknowledging and rectifying these misstatements, the Japanese side has opted for a high-profile diplomatic performance, proclaiming its "willingness to engage in dialogue with China."



Takaichi has claimed that she is "open to dialogue" with China, while senior Japanese officials continue to emphasize their hope to "improve relations through dialogue at all levels." Japanese media have further amplified this narrative, suggesting that Japan is actively pursuing dialogue, while China is portrayed as adopting a "tough stance," thereby insinuating that the current tension in bilateral ties is due to China's refusal to talk.



Such assertions fail to recognize the substantial damage caused by Japan's misguided words and actions, which have undermined the foundation of bilateral relations. They attempt to reframe Japan as the victim while placing unfounded blame on China. This misrepresentation distorts the facts, obscures the root causes of the current situation, and evades both historical and contemporary responsibility.



It is crucial to clarify that responsibility for the current difficulties in China-Japan relations lies entirely with the Japanese side.



The first mistake stems from Takaichi's public remarks on Taiwan, where she not only misrepresented the situation but also suggested the possibility of Japan's military involvement in the Taiwan Strait. This gravely undermines China's core interests, damages the political foundation of bilateral relations, and has sparked strong indignation among the Chinese people. This is the origin of the current crisis.



The second mistake is Japan's refusal to retract these remarks despite China's solemn representations, instead attempting to downplay the significance of the statements by asserting that "Japan's position has not changed."



The third mistake lies in Japan's attempt to distort right and wrong and shift blame onto China, using a so-called "willingness for dialogue" as a cover to obscure the gravity of its own wrongdoing.



These actions by Japan have directly contributed to the escalation of tensions. While Japan repeatedly asserts its desire to address issues through dialogue, it must be understood that dialogue requires the most basic conditions. In 2000, former Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu visited the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, acknowledging the past with the statement that "history must never be repeated." This sincere approach to historical reflection formed the basis for constructive dialogue and exchanges.



However, some Japanese politicians have long avoided genuine introspection on historical matters. The Takaichi administration, in particular, has acted with disregard for public conscience, attempting to amend the Three Non-Nuclear Principles, relax weapons export restrictions, and provoke on the Taiwan question. These actions reveal the troubling influence of right-wing forces seeking to revive militarism.



Former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama urged Takaichi to correct the mistake by quoting Confucius: "To make a mistake and not correct it -- this is what is called truly making a mistake."



History and reality have repeatedly shown that dialogue without reflection only deepens division and confrontation. It is only by confronting past mistakes and undertaking genuine self-reflection that both nations can overcome the current deadlock.



Japan must recognize that the Taiwan question is an internal affair for China, integral to its core interests, and central to the political foundation of China-Japan relations. The four political documents between China and Japan contain explicit provisions on the Taiwan question, representing solemn commitments by the Japanese government that leave no room for ambiguity or reinterpretation. Regardless of the political leadership in Japan, these commitments must be upheld.



To restore the bilateral relationship, Japan must move beyond performative diplomacy and take concrete steps to retract its erroneous statements while engaging in meaningful self-reflection. This is the only viable path to returning China-Japan relations to a constructive and stable trajectory.



(Zhou Xin is an international affairs observer.)



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Artificial intelligence is being promoted as the technology that will change everything. Yet while a handful of firms are profiting enormously, a different question deserves attention:

Is AI accelerating the economy  or merely masking its slowdown?

Across headlines, AI is credited with transforming medicine, finance, logistics, commerce, and productivity. Yet among many working professionals, there is a sense that real wages have struggled to keep pace with rising living costs. At the same time, the loudest optimism often comes from sectors most financially invested in the AI narrative.

This raises an uncomfortable question: Has AI become a true engine of prosperity  or a financial life-support system?

The Mirage of Growth

Recent data suggests a substantial portion of U.S. GDP growth may be driven not by rising productivity, but by AI-related infrastructure spending  especially data centers.

A study from S&P Global found that in Q2 of 2025, data center construction alone added 0.5% to U.S. GDP. That is a historic figure. But what happens if this spending slows?

Are we seeing real economic expansion  or a short-term stimulus disguised as innovation?

This pattern has precedents. Before the 2008 housing collapse in Ireland  and in the United States the same year  construction boomed, GDP rose, and optimism became mandatory. Economies looked healthy on paper. Fragility was already taking root.

Today, the boom is not in bricks and concrete  but in silicon, servers, and expectation.

The Productivity Paradox

AI has been advertised as a labor-saving miracle. Yet many businesses report a different reality: work slop  material produced by AI that looks polished but must be repaired, rewritten, or verified by humans. Time is not saved  it is quietly relocated. Studies suggest the same paradox:

According to media coverage, MIT found that 95% of corporate AI pilot programs showed no measurable ROI.

MIT Sloan research indicated that AI adoption often lowers productivity initially, and improvements (it is claimed) only occur after major organizational restructuring.

Even McKinsey one of AIs strongest advocates  warns that piloting AI is easy, but creating value is hard.

If AI has not reduced human labor  has it merely concealed it?

If AI is not transforming work  is it simply rebranding it?

In addition, AI may appear efficient, but it operates strictly within the limits of its training data: it can replicate mistakes, miss what humans would notice, and reinforce boundaries that present an approved or consensus version of reality rather than reality itself.

From Innovation to Infrastructure

AI is now being treated less like a tool  and more like a necessity. Once a technology becomes classified as essential infrastructure, funding shifts from private risk to public obligation.

McKinsey estimates that over $6.7 trillion may be spent on AI and computing infrastructure by 2030  an investment scale usually seen in wartime. Yet what is being built, and will it generate tangible returns for ordinary citizens?

Some analysts warn that sectors of the AI economy resemble a circular investment loop: cloud and chip firms invest in AI startups that then purchase computing services from the very firms that funded them. Demand becomes proof of viability  even if value remains unproven.

As explored in the books The Debt Machine and Demonic Economics, these cycles often create an illusion of growth  until the public is left to carry the cost. At that point, AI stops behaving like innovation  and starts behaving like debt.

The Genesis Mission  A Turning Point

In November 2025, the U.S. government issued an Executive Order launching the Genesis Mission, a national effort to build an integrated AI platform  combining DOE national-lab supercomputers, federal supercomputers, decades of federally funded scientific datasets, and cooperation with private-sector AI and academic partners  to accelerate scientific research and innovation.

This does not guarantee bailouts  but it creates the conditions under which AI firms may become too strategic to fail. Once a technology becomes part of national policy, failure shifts from financial risk to political risk.

We may be witnessing the transformation of AI from speculative investment into publicly underwritten infrastructure.

Who Carries the Risk?

The deeper question is not merely what AI can or cant do  but who must carry the cost if it fails.

Large U.S. retirement funds and passive index portfolios are now heavily exposed to AI-dependent giants such as Nvidia, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Tesla. On the debt side, private credit and data-center financing tied to AI infrastructure are steadily entering bond portfolios.

This means the AI boom is not just an investment trend.

It may already be embedded in retirement accounts  without citizens knowledge.

Are we potentially witnessing a new socialization of private risk and debt  similar to the aftermath of the 2008 housing collapse  with the burden once again shifting to the public?

Questions That Demand Scrutiny

Is AI increasing productivity  or disguising its decline, and creating new layers of hidden labor?

Are data centers driving prosperity  or propping up GDP on paper?

Are citizens knowingly investing in AI  or are their pensions investing for them?

Is AI creating value  or absorbing subsidies and debt?

When a technology is credited with growth, shielded from failure, and treated as essential before its value is proven  it may no longer be innovation. It may be obligation.

Conclusion

As I wrote in the book Staying Human in the Age of AI we should not allow AI to overshadow human thought. There is still time for AI to deliver genuine breakthroughs. But at this moment, belief is moving faster than evidence  and optimism is cheapest when it costs the public nothing.

The cost of failure will not fall on Silicon Valley.

It may fall on pensioners, savers, and future generations.

Once a technology becomes too strategic to fail  it may no longer operate as innovation  but as a public obligation that few ever asked for.

Mark Keenan is a former United Nations technical expert who writes on the intersection of science, finance, and public policy. He is the author of The Debt Machine, Demonic Economics, Climate CO Hoax, and Staying Human in the Age of AI. He publishes at markgerardkeenan.substack.com and comments on X at @TheMarkGerard.

Image: Free image, Pixabay license.
Modern journalism is all about deciding which facts the public shouldnt know because they might reflect badly on Democrats. Blogger Sean Medlock (a.k.a. Jim Treacher) posted that jibe on Twitter back in 2014, and not much has changed since then, except that today the American press finds itself in the middle of a slow-motion cataclysm.

Where all the debris finally settles is anybodys guess, but one thing thats been blasted for sure is the medias credibility with the public. Fewer than one in three respondents to a Gallup poll now say they trust the medias reporting a great deal or a fair amount. Its a poll the Gallup organization has been taking since the early 1970s. Back then, the number was 70 percent.

What accounts for that remarkable collapse? Well, as the Mike Campbell character in The Sun Also Rises tells how he went bankrupt, it happened gradually, then suddenly. In the case of journalisms credibility, the gradually part was the slide that stretched across three decades since the early 70s. The suddenly part began in 2016 with Donald Trumps ascent to the White House.

Thats when the media establishment threw caution to the wind and marched into what author and media researcher Andrey Mir has dubbed the post-journalism era. The professed ideal of objectivity and fairness in reporting was explicitly abandoned. Trumps unique threat to our nation (per historian Jon Meacham) demanded it.

Shortly before election day 2016, New York Times reporter Jim Rutenberg issued the first clarion call to colleagues in a prominent front-page column. He wrote:

If youre a working journalist and you believe that Donald J. Trump is a demagogue playing to the nations worst racist and nationalistic tendencies, that he cozies up to anti-American dictators and that he would be dangerous with control of United States nuclear codes, how the heck are you supposed to cover him?

Rutenberg answered his own question: throw out the textbook [that] American journalism has been using for the better part of a half-century.

Author and former CIA analyst Martin Gurri calls Rutenbergs incitement a leap vigorously into advocacy. Trump could not safely be covered; he had to be opposed. Journalists were now staunch allies of the powers that be -- the White House, the FBI, the CIA, the DOJ, all the other branches of the federal bureaucracy. In the old days they fondly told themselves that their mission was to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted, now its comforting the comfortable.

No less a press luminary than Dean Baquet, then the executive editor of the New York Times, essentially blessed the new zeitgeist half a year later. Thats when former U.S. Attorney General Robert Mueller came out of retirement to head the investigation into Trumps alleged collusion with Russia for help in getting himself elected.

Gurri estimated that within a two-year period the Times alone devoted more than 3,000 articles to the Russia, Russia, Russia story. The Times and the Washington Post both were garlanded with Pulitzer Prizes. It was, said Gurri, the first sustained excursion into post-journalism by the American news media, led every step of the way by the New York Times.

But that was then, and this is now. Its seven years later with a further plunge in media credibility. It shouldnt be surprising, then, that cracks -- significant cracks -- have appeared in the post-journalism regime. Most shocking to uniformly left-wing newsroom personnel were the decisions, first by the Los Angeles Times and then the New York Times, to refrain from endorsing Kamala Harris for president, as expected. Both papers saw instant staff resignations and many thousands of subscription cancellations.

That, however, did not stop Jeff Bezos, owner of the WaPo since 2013 and generally regarded as a liberal in his political leanings, from reading the riot act to his employees. The headline over his column on the WaPos op-ed page was startling enough: The hard truth: Americans dont trust the news media. Under it he wrote:

In the annual public surveys about trust and reputation, journalists and the media have regularly fallen near the very bottom, often just above Congress. But in this years Gallup poll, we have managed to fall below Congress. Our profession is now the least trusted of all. Something we are doing is clearly not working.

He would not allow his paper, which lost $77 million in 2023 and is heading toward a $100 million loss this year, to stay on autopilot and fade into irrelevance... not without a fight. Bezos analogized the role of news reporting to voting machines. Like them, he said:

We must be accurate, and we must be believed to be accurate. Its a bitter pill to swallow, but we are failing on [that] requirement. Most people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesnt see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose.

If that wasnt enough of a wake-up call, along came Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of the Los Angeles Times. He announced he is reconstituting the papers editorial board, which includes getting rid of a number of very left members.

Soon-Shiong explained he is committed to creating a more balanced and diverse editorial voice, with the hope of better reflecting the political landscape of the United States. He added, the new editorial board will work to offer perspectives across the political spectrum, aiming to foster a broader conversation within the papers pages.

Do these smacks upside the head of the media establishment portend any lasting changes? Given recent perusals of the WaPo and the Times, it doesnt look like it.

Bezos and Soon-Shiong, after all, are mere business tycoons. What do they know about the blessed profession of journalism? The old Hollywood image of the gruff, rumpled, streetwise news hound, the Pat OBrien type, is long gone. Many reporters and editors in the legacy media today are degreed idealogues. Their mission is not so much to inform as it is to instill proper thoughts in peoples minds.

Along came the digital age to upset all that, like the asteroid strike that doomed the dinosaurs. The basic dynamic of the news business, as Martin Gurri tells us in his City Journal article, has been decidedly and permanently turned on its head. Originally it was a means of selling audiences to advertisers; now its advertisers chasing audiences. Those audiences have a million alternative information sources at their fingertips now.

If modern journalism continues to see its role as deciding which facts the public shouldnt see for fear of hurting Democrats, its credibility hasnt hit rock bottom yet.

Bill Dunne is a writer and communications consultant based in Connecticut.

Image: AT via Magic Studio
Under the despotic autopen administration (AKA bilious Biden) the U.S. had a policy called Operation Allies Welcome. It might as well have been called Operation Everyone Welcome. Estimates are that about 190,000 Afghan aliens were admitted since 2021, but the vetting was so ineffectually Bidenesque that nobody really knows what we dont know.

Some of the aliens welcomed into our country included members of the Afghan Zero Units which worked with the CIA. The evil Afghan national who shot the two West Virginia National Guardsmen in D.C. (murdering one, as of time of writing) was in one of those units. The vetting process included these elements: biometric screening; biographic checks against interagency watch lists -- DoW, DHS, FBI -- and intelligence community checks; and in-person interviews for asylum seekers and special immigration visas.

While seemingly extensive, it wasnt enough. That may be partly because those who hate our enemies dont necessarily love us, and the screening procedures mentioned above are inadequate to ascertain their commitment to American ideals. Yet, President Trump only wants immigrants and refugees who share American values and are willing to assimilate into the Golden Age of America, not try to transform it. Others need not apply; in fact, the whole asylum program should probably be overhauled, if not scrapped.

Indeed, President Trump is righteously indignant; he intends to halt immigration from Third-World countries. He has also directed the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to review every Green Card held by aliens from these 19 countries. There are about 3.3 million Green Card holders from these countries of concern. Nevertheless, USCIS director Joseph Edlow recognizes the urgency of the matter, stating, in part, my primary responsibility is to ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.

USCIS will consider relevant country-specific factors. However, many of the countries the aliens escaped from are primitive; they dont maintain reliable databases to cross-check responses, especially biographical data. Therefore, the maximum degree possible implies more thorough in-person interviews with country-specific questions. This will be laborious, which is one reason why we need to halt further applicants at least until weve accomplished a reset (or indefinitely).

Fortunately, Artificial Intelligence has come a long way, and in conjunction with lie-detector methods it will help ascertain a respondents veracity with all deliberate speed -- with emphasis on deliberate. Country-specific questions designed to evoke a physiological response thats hard to conceal may go further than untrustworthy biographical data in determining the aliens worthiness for, and amenability to, Americanization.

Afghanistan and Somalia are two of the countries of concern. Here are two sets of sample, value-judgement questions that may evoke measurable emotions that expose an aliens allegiance to foreign potentates, rather than his adopted country:

For Afghan aliens:

Should girls be educated beyond basic home economics chores?

What does being an American mean to you?

Whom do you admire more, Ahmad Shah Durrani, (founder of modern Afghanistan) or George Washington?

If your wife has a headache, is it improper to impose yourself upon her?

Does might make right?

Do you send money back to Afghanistan? To whom?

What should be the punishment for stealing a goat? (At interviewees discretion, aimed to elicit indignant attitude.)

Is it barbaric to play polo with a severed human head? (At interviewees discretion if subject is fidgety and reticent.)

What is your opinion of no-fault divorce?

For Somali aliens:

Do you prefer to eat cats, dogs, or geese?

What is more important, due process or swift eye-for-eye retribution?

How do you define piracy?

What is your primary source of income? Do your remit any funds home?

Should women whose vote you disagree with be disenfranchised?

Are the sexes equal?

What volunteer efforts have you pursued in America?

What do you think of Al-Shabaab?

If a camel escapes from the zoo, would you return it (at interviewees discretion if the subjects answers are not forthcoming. Aimed to provoke a response.)

Those questions are merely for illustrative purposes -- that is, to emphasize that the vetting process focusses on country-specific questions given their concerning status.

Additionally, reviewed aliens should demonstrate English language proficiency (our official language) and not have sucked-up public assistance funds like thirsty camels sucking up water in their homeland (Somalia). That would mean they are a public charge and thereby inadmissible per President Trump and USCIS.

President Trump is resolved that his America-First duty requires that USCIS re-examine every alien admitted to America under Biden. AI-enabled lie detectors can supplement human intervention, or perhaps replace it in evaluating written responses (they can be better at spotting lies). As for future immigrants from the aforementioned 19 countries: Americans come first, and our housing, employment, healthcare, and law enforcement resources are already strained to the limit. Youll just have to transform your own society, for we are the United States, not the United Nations.

Image: AT via Magic Studio
All it takes to preserve our representative constitutional republic is for a substantial majority of Americans to support the Constitution and the rule of law. Not merely philosophically, but practically. All it takes to destroy our republic is for less than a majority to want to tear down the nation and abandon the rule of law.

Thats where we now stand.

The Democrat Party, which has become the party of anarchists, communists, socialists, race hustlers, Islamists and America haters, is actively working to end the rule of law and the Constitution. Democrat mayors, governors, representatives and senators champion lawbreaking and criminals, particularly illegal aliens and seem most concerned with protecting illegal alien gang members, human traffickers, rapists, murderers and cartel members. To that end, they are stirring up hatred of federal immigration officers, doxxing them and their families, calling them kidnappers, claim theyre terrorizing communities, producing apps to track them and doing everything they can to interfere with their entirely lawful operations.

Graphic: Instagram Post

Oregons lesbian Governor Tina Kotek has recently threatened to arrest ICE agents. Should she try to carry out her threata clear violation of the supremacy clause--she would provoke violence that surely would get out of hand.

Leftists have tried to shoot ICE agents, hitting illegal aliens instead, and innumerable federal agents have been injured. Their calls for deadly violence are being answered:

That threat is deadly serious: Assaults on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have skyrocketed 1,150% so far this year compared to the last year of the Biden administration  with nearly 250 attacks recorded since President Trump took office. The disturbing surge comes amid a climate of heightened danger for immigration authorities, including stalking, death threats, online doxxing and outright assaults, which the Department of Homeland Security says is being encouraged by lefty politicians opposed to Trumps illegal immigration crackdown.

Trumps crackdown only appears unusual in that unlike Biden hes actually enforcing the law. Bidenactually, his handlers--blatantly violated it. Prior presidents including Clinton and Obama deported far more illegals than Trump has managed.

But can we reasonably blame Democrats for violence against law enforcement? Were playing by their rules, rules that claim virtually everything is violence, including silence. President Trump has successfully deployed the National Guard to Democrat-ruled cities, crime-ridden hellholes, and Democrats have insanely called for resistance to the Gestapo, to storm troopers, despite their success, as in Washington DC in dramatically reducing crime. Last weeks murder of National Guardsman Sarah Beckstrom and critical wounding of Andrew Wolfe were surely intended and easily foreseen by Democrat Party leaders.

Democrats, with the help of their media propaganda arm, have so warped reality that any attempt to dutifully enforce local or federal law is immediately branded fascism and cited as incontrovertible evidence of Trumps authoritarian tendencies. Night is day, black is white, tyranny is freedom and projection is the primary Democrat tactic.

Recent media accounts of an attack on a drug boat are a case in point. Leftists, including Seditious Six member Sen. Mark Kelly have claimed, based on anonymous sourcing, that a missile strike on a boat left several cartel thugs still alive and SecWar Pete Hegesth gave the order to finish them off. Kelly, smarting over being backlashed over his seditious behavior and desperate to divert attention, didnt need facts; he had a Democrat narrative of a Trump war crime. It was a lie:

Graphic: X Post

Drug cartelsdesignated terrorists--are not signatories to any war convention, and when prosecuting an enemy, if one misses the first shot, there is no moral or legal obligation to stop shooting. That doesnt matter to Kelly and other Democrats. They dont want Trump to stop the drugs that have killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.

This chasm separating Normal Americans and Democrats is also a matter of education, or more accurately, education vs. indoctrination. A recent study confirmed Yalelike other colleges and universitieshas little or no diversity of thought:

Across Yales 43 undergraduate departments and two of its graduate schools, the Buckley Institutes research found that Democrats make up 82.3% of faculty while Republicans make up 2.3% and unaffiliated/third party faculty make up 15.4%. That is a more than 36 to 1 Democrat to Republican ratio and a 5 to 1 Democrat to independent ratio. 27 of the 43 (63%) undergraduate degree-granting departments have no Republicans at all. Three departments, East Asian Languages and Literature, French, and Italian, have neither independents nor Republicans.

All it takes to preserve America is for Democrats to willingly honor the Constitution and the rule of law. Thats why like so many Normal Americans, I fear for the survival of our representative republic.

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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
MILWAUKEE, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Harley-Davidson Financial Services, Inc. (the "Company" or "HDFS"), a subsidiary of Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE:HOG), today announced it is giving notice for the redemption on December 12, 2025 (the "Redemption Date") of all of its outstanding 6.50% Medium-Term Notes due 2028 (the "Notes"). The redemption price for the Notes is the greater of (i) 100% of the principal amount of the Notes and (ii) the "make-whole" redemption price determined in accordance with the terms of the Notes, plus, in either case, accrued and unpaid interest to but not including the Redemption Date.

As of the date hereof, approximately $262.9 million principal amount of Notes is outstanding. The Company will fund the redemption of the Notes from its cash and cash equivalents on hand.

Citibank, N.A., the Trustee under the Indenture pursuant to which the Notes are issued, is serving as the paying agent for the Notes. This press release is not the Notice of Redemption of the Notes. Copies of the Notice of Redemption may be obtained from the Trustee, 480 Washington Blvd., Jersey City, NJ 07310, Attn: Agency & Trust  Harley-Davidson Financial Services, Inc.

About HDFS

Harley-Davidson Financial Services, Inc. is a Delaware corporation and a subsidiary of Harley-Davidson, Inc. It is engaged in the business of financing and servicing wholesale inventory receivables and retail consumer loans, primarily for the purchase of Harley-Davidson and LiveWire motorcycles. HDFS works with certain unaffiliated third parties to provide motorcycle insurance and voluntary protection products to motorcycle owners. It conducts business principally in the United States and Canada. The dealers of Harley-Davidson Motor Company as well as their retail customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America generally have access to financing through third party financial institutions, some of which have licensing agreements with HDFS.

# # # (HOG-OTHER)

SOURCE Harley-Davidson, Inc.
In 2006-2007, Americans pet cats and dogs began dying mysteriously from kidney failure. The mystery was not long-lived: authorities quickly discerned the cause to be pet foods laced with a chemical called melamine, or some combination of chemicals that likely included melamine and cyanuric acid. This was a tragic way for animals to die. The FDA reported more than 10,000 complaints about sickened pets. Thousands of cats and dogs were killed by the tainted pet foods.

Melamine is an industrial chemical not generally accepted as a food ingredient, so how did it end up in U.S. pet foods? The problem traces to China, where surplus melamine (and cyanuric acid) became widely used as adulterants in feedstock and baby formula to mislead quality testing that measures protein content by assessing nitrogen levels. In the case of human baby formula, infants in China began dying of kidney failure, leading eventually to court trials and the public executions of two culprits found to have deliberately adulterated Chinese baby formula.

Americans import more and more ultra-processed foods from China every year, but its track record on product safety is hardly comforting. The contamination of U.S. pets likely stemmed from wheat gluten and rice protein used to manufacture popular brand-name pet foods, including Purinas Alpo brand and products under the healthy-sounding brand name Natural Balance. Contaminated corn gluten was blamed for a similar scourge of pet mortalities in South Africa.

The globalized food system is susceptible to potential abuses for profit, such as the tainting of pet foods with industrial chemicals. The more telling and alarming part of the pet food story, though, is what the mainstream media didnt much discuss: subsequent contamination of human foods.

I dug into this food trail years ago because, as a farmer and business advisor, I immediately suspected something else would go awry. I investigated the pathway to pigs, and sure enough, thats where some of the rejected dog and cat food ended up -- corporations love to convert costly liabilities to salable assets! At least 6,000 pigs in six U.S. states were potentially fed melamine-tainted recalled pet foods. A poultry farm was also supplied with tainted pet food.

It appears that some of the tainted pigs entered the human food chain before the risk was discovered. One bizarre statement that pretty well sums up the U.S. human food supply ran like this:

The California Department of Health Services is recommending that pigs in question not be consumed, but California State Public Health Officer Dr. Mark Horton considers the health risks minimal if the pork has already been eaten.

Translation: You shouldnt eat this pork, but if you already did, no worries. Much like the government hides evidence of adverse childhood reactions to vaccines because they might cause parents to become vaccine hesitant, fears that U.S. pork might be tainted with kidney-destroying feed additives could upset the price of pork bellies on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

This is the common refrain (and moral hazard) in U.S. food systems -- cover up the risks so people keep buying and eating things they wouldnt otherwise. This is what Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has repeatedly warned Americans about, complaining of captured regulatory agencies that serve their corporate masters rather than the American people who pay their salaries.

Recall in the movie Jaws that the town of Amity Islands mayor downplays the risk of shark attacks because the news would destroy summer tourist traffic and undermine local businesses. That reflects what the modern American food supply looks like -- dont tell people the risks of what they are munching on from their local fast-food drive-thru: it could hurt business!

If toxic pet food that kills dogs and cats is diverted to feed pigs and their meat is then fed to humans, what else is making its way through the increasingly industrialized international food system to Americans dinner plates?

Author, pastor, and attorney John Klar raises grass-fed beef and sheep in Vermont. His Substack, Small Farm Republic, is based on his 2023 book Small Farm Republic: Why Conservatives Must Embrace Local Agriculture, Reject Climate Alarmism, and Lead an Environmental Revival. John is a staff writer at Liberty Nation News.

Image: RawPixel.com
Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (a.k.a., "Tampon Timmy, Jazz Hands, and Comrade Walz), deflected blame for his states staggering fraud during a recent interview with NBCs Kristen Welker.

Welker asked Walz if he takes responsibility for allowing more than $1 billion in taxpayer funds to be stolen from his government via various state programs.

Walz hilariously stated that he does take responsibility for putting people in jail, adding that Governors dont get to just talk theoretically. We have to solve problems.

Well, he isnt big on putting criminals in jail  or keeping them there  but maybe he was talking optimistically about incarcerating Islamophobes or political opponents.

The multiple massive fraud scandals in Minnesota appear interwoven, and all seem to involve Somalis at this point, whether it be the Feed Our Future Children hoax, Medicare scams, or the ever-burgeoning autism graft. The latest is the trucker licensing scandal.

Yet Walz, like Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, reflexively leapt to the defense of the Somalis, saying that people should not demonize Minnesotas Somali population, which, along with Michigans, is the largest in the nation.

Walz: I will note, its not just Somalis. Minnesota is a generous state. Minnesota is a prosperous state, a well-run state. Were AAA-bond rated. But that attracts criminals.

So, the staggering fraud, grift, graft, and deception isnt just among Somalis? Walz is admitting it goes much deeper than that? Is every state government entity, charity organization, and minority group involved in fraudulently bilking the North Star state citizen-taxpayer out of his or her money?! At this point, it wouldnt surprise many.

Minnesota is no longer prosperous or well-run, explicitly because of Walzs leadership  or lack thereof. And I very much doubt that criminals care much about its soon-to-be-former AAA bond rating.

But they are certainly laser-focused on its generosity. The state has long leaned liberal, at least in terms of its leaders and urban areas. As far back as the 1980s, many permanently and deliberately unemployed folks travelled from cities such as Chicago to Minneapolis for its generous welfare benefits, courtesy, of course, in large part to the states taxpayers. Some were observed getting off buses, looking around, and saying, We in Moneyapolis now!

Incredibly, things are even worse today. To the extent that someone like Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) can marry her brother, come to the states, get electedand then incessantly bitch about everything Americanwhile listening to Muslim prayers being broadcast across her district five times a day.

No sane person could think that this is moral. This benefits nobody but the likes of Rep. Omar and other criminals. But, due to excessive tolerance and suicidal empathy  and perhaps more nefarious reasons-- n o Democrat anywhere in the country is ever truly held accountable for their actions.

Dont expect Walz to be, either. In fact, if he decides to run for an unprecendeted third term, it wouldnt surprise me if he wins.

Minnesota, the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes, is now the Land of Ten Thousand Frauds. And many times more idiots.

Other than the lakes thing, I guess that makes it a lot like Washington, D.C.

Republicans? Voters?

Image: Screen shot from X video
Reacting to invasion (im)migration trends years ago, Ambassador Alan Keyes put it bluntly.

Were being colonized, he said.

And if ever there was proof of this, and the low quality of many post-1965 newcomers  and of the lie of diversity  its a viral video posted by one Wajahat Ali.

Mr. Ali is a Pakistani-descent Muslim whose parents came to the U.S. in 1965 and lived the American dream  and an un-American scheme. That is, they served prison time in the mid-2000s for conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering for defrauding Microsoft out of millions of dollars.

Some say Ali weaponized this experience, playing the victim.

Whats for sure is that it didnt stop him from becoming a Daily Beast columnist and New York Times op-ed writer. And that status didnt stop him from something else:

He went on a bigoted anti-white tirade on social media in which he made clear that hes an enemy within who hates the Western people who founded our country. As he said in his video, which is making the rounds:

You have lost. You lost. The mistake that you made is, you let us in in the first place. It has to do with brown people, and I am going to say this as a brown person:

Theres a lot of uslike, a lot. There is like 1.2 billion in India, there is more than 200 million in Pakistan, and theres like 170 million in Bangladesh. Those are just the people there; I aint even talking about the folks who are expats or immigrants. Theres a bunch of us  and we breed. Were a breeding people, and the problem is, you let us in in 1965.

There was a few us beforehand, but once you let one of us in, you know what happens with brown folks? Our grandmother comes, our grandfather comes, our uncle comes, our aunt comes, her cousin comes, a second cousin comes, her third cousin comes [and then they marry each other?]. Then we had kids, a bunch of kids. And then guess what?

Some white women  you know, the Western Civilization women, the pure women, the American women ... the rust belt women, the real women  they like some of us brown folks. We dont take them; they come to us. So were embedded; we are everywhere, we are everywhere. I travel this country, and Im going to speak as a brown person, brown people are everywhere. There will be a Patel motel or there will be a daisy[?] restaurant everywhere.

I want you to realize this: You have lost. Your story is a s****y story, filled with misery. Its filled with bland chicken. Its filled with terrible terrible, terrible dry a** meat. Your music sucks. All your culture sucks. Nobody ... thats why the kids, like listen to black people in their music. Thats why the kids love Latinos. Your parties suck, because theyre monochromatic. Our parties have better food, better music, better-looking women.

Here is Alis video:

Wajahat Ali: "Whites, your mistake is you let us in. We are breeding people. Your culture suck. You already lost."



White culture is being exterminated pic.twitter.com/CICqZyMiYI  Officer Lew (@officer_Lew) November 30, 2025

For a little more context, Ali was responding to President Donald Trumps expressed desire to suspend third world immigration. If anything, however, he buttressed Trumps case.

I mean, youd think, had you been asleep for 20 years like Rip Van Winkle, that Ali might fear being fired from his Gray Lady gig for delivering such bigotry. You would think, were you naive, that he might show some appreciation to the civilization that founded the country that has given him everything. Instead, hes a walking advertisement for why we need to end all immigration in about ... well, 30 years ago.

Of course, Ali is right: Our culture stinks so much that brown folks, to use his terminology, just cant flock to America fast enough. As for his ancestors culture, which he seems to fancy superior, of what is he so enamored?

Is it that perhaps 60 percent or more of marriages in Pakistan involve first cousins (incest is best?)?

Is it honor killing?

Is it the death penalty for "blasphemy"?

Is it the common practice of grown men molesting young boys?

If whitess story is so excremental, as Ali so eloquently put it, what do you call that (still ongoing) story?

Oh, and Ive got news for him: If whites have lost, so has he and everyone else. Because when America ceases being a Western-character land run mainly by Western people (a.k.a. whites), it will come closer to being like the place from which his parents fled.

Anyway, yes, were being colonized  and they call it diversity.

Contact Selwyn Duke, follow him on X (formerly Twitter), Truth Social, MeWe, Gettr, Tumblr, Instagram or Substack or log on to SelwynDuke.com.

Image: X screen shot
We woke up Monday morning with good news from Honduras: the left was rejected again! From Argentina to Bolivia to Chile to now Honduras, the candidates from the left are not winning. Here is the story:

Early results from the general election in Honduras show Nasry Asfura, leader of the right-wing National Party, has a very narrow lead. With more than 40% of the votes counted, the conservative candidate was just ahead of former TV host and Vice-President Salvador Nasralla, according to preliminary results published by the National Electoral Council (CNE). Stressing that the results were both preliminary and partial, the head of the CNE said that the race was on a knife-edge between the two conservative candidates. Asfura is fractionally in the lead with 40.5% of the vote, while his nearest challenger, Nasralla, is on 39%.

These two men will have to form some kind of centrist coalition. The good news is that both promised to cut ties with Venezuela. More good news is that Rixi Moncada, the candidate of the left, is down at 20%.

President Trump became a huge factor in this election. He endorsed Mr. Asfura, the former mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa, because hed be a partner to fight the Narcocommunists and counter drug-trafficking. I think that you are seeing the influence of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has declared war on narcostates. The Trump administration promised to review the $190 million economic and governance aid package if the left won. It clearly had an impact in crushing the left because of the importance of U.S.-Honduras trade.

The big picture is that the left is losing. It loses when they govern, mess things up, and voters throw them out. The left can only win when it cheats (Venezuela) or denies people an election (Cuba). The left loses when you hold an honest election, as we are seeing in Honduras.

Congratulations to the small nation of Honduras in Central America. This is a big signal for other countries to follow. Are you listening, Colombia and Venezuela?

P.S. Check out my blog for posts, podcasts, and videos.

Image: Free image, Pixabay license.
Community members are invited to join Integrity employees and partners in bringing joy to children in hospitals with donations of toys, books and games

DALLAS, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Integrity, LLC ("Integrity"), a leading distributor of life and health insurance, and provider of wealth management and retirement planning solutions, today announced the launch of its annual "Integrity Gives Back" Toy Drive benefiting pediatric hospitals and child-focused organizations across the country. To commemorate the 5th year of this initiative, Integrity employees have set a goal of collecting and distributing 30,000 toys  with Integrity committing to match every donation with a donation of two. This will bring the drive's total to more than 100,000 toys gifted to children since 2021.

Integrity Announces 5th Annual Integrity Gives Back Toy Drive to Donate 30,000 Toys to Pediatric Hospitals Nationwide

"Service has been a cornerstone of Integrity from the start, and our mission has always been to positively impact the communities where we live and work," expressed Bryan W. Adams, Co-Founder and CEO of Integrity. "This initiative holds personal meaning for me, as my family experienced a moment of comfort when my son was gifted a toy while receiving hospital care at Children's Health in Dallas. We were extremely touched by this simple gesture and how it delivered a moment of joy and normalcy during our care journey. For the past several years, our Integrity family has helped to create similar moments for tens of thousands of children across the nation. This year, we aim to collect 30,000 toys, bringing the collective total of this effort to more than 100,000 gifted toys, and we invite the public to join us in extending our impact. Each donation makes a lasting and meaningful difference in the lives of those receiving care and deepens our connection with our core values of Service and Family."

In a true testament to living out their core values, Integrity employees and partners have rallied around the "Integrity Gives Back" cause each year to match the increasing need for donations. What began with the collection of a few hundred toys at Integrity's Shared Services office in Dallas has spread to include 250 Integrity partner offices and thousands of employees nationwide. Their combined efforts have resulted in the collection of more than 80,000 total toys, stuffed animals, games and books. These items have brought renewed hope to children receiving care at hospitals such as Children's Health in Dallas, and many other pediatric organizations across the country. Integrity invites the public to contribute through IntegrityGivesBack.com. Participants can shop the Children's Health Amazon Wish List, or donate to a local care organization serving children in their community. Toy donations of all sizes and varieties are welcomed to provide hospitals with an array of options that support patients' diverse ages and interests.

"The Toy Drive offers us an annual opportunity to bring hope where it is needed most," shared Mary Elyse Farah, President of the Integrity Foundation. "Each year, Integrity employees eagerly anticipate joining with our partners and communities to put our core values into action and uplift children and their families. It is a powerful reminder that seemingly small acts of kindness and generosity can create a ripple effect, transforming a family's stressful experience into one infused with unexpected surprise and delight. Initiatives like our 'Integrity Gives Back' Toy Drive make me incredibly proud to be part of the Integrity family, and I'm grateful to all the employees, partners and community members who have answered this call for service."

"Our Integrity employees and partners show their commitment to Putting People First by never shying away from an opportunity to meet a vital need," said Rachelle McReynolds, Chief People and Culture Officer of Integrity. "The 'Integrity Gives Back' Toy Drive is an extension of our mission to create greater wellbeing through personalized service and meaningful shared experiences. As the Integrity family continues to grow, so does our capacity to serve more individuals and families  helping them plan for the good days ahead. We are excited to make the 2025 Toy Drive our most impactful effort yet."

To participate in the "Integrity Gives Back" Toy Drive, please visit www.IntegrityGivesBack.com.

About Integrity

Integrity, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is a leading distributor of life and health insurance, and provider of innovative solutions for wealth management and retirement planning. Through its broad partner network of agents and advisors, Integrity helps millions of Americans protect their life, health and wealth with a commitment to meet them wherever they are  in person, over the phone and online. Integrity's proprietary, cutting-edge technology helps expand the insurance and financial planning experience for all stakeholders using an omnichannel approach. In addition, Integrity develops products with carrier partners and markets them compliantly through its nationwide distribution network. Providing best-in-class service to their clients and consumers is at the center of Integrity's holistic approach to life, health and wealth protection. The company and its partners focus on helping families and individuals prepare for the good days ahead, so they can make the most of what life brings. The recipient of nationally ranked business awards, including Newsweek's America's Greatest Workplaces, Inc.'s Power Partner, and Business Intelligence Group's AI Excellence Award, Integrity has also earned impressive employee sentiment awards such as Best Company for Career Growth, Best Company Leadership, Best Company Culture, and Best Company Happiness. For more information, visit www.integrity.com.

SOURCE Integrity Marketing Group, LLC
Compounds inside KK Park, one of the major hubs for scam centres and human trafficking in Myawaddy, Myanmar. The site was raided, but its operators were long gone. Composite: Jittrapon Kaicome/The Guardian

For days before the explosions began, the business park had been emptying out. When the bombs went off, they took down empty office blocks and demolished echoing, multi-cuisine food halls. Dynamite toppled a four-storey hospital, silent karaoke complexes, deserted gyms and dorm rooms.

So came the end of KK Park, one of south-east Asias most infamous scam centres, press releases from Myanmars junta declared. The facility had held tens of thousands of people, forced to relentlessly defraud people around the world. Now, it was being levelled piece by piece.

Related: Revealed: the huge growth of Myanmar scam centres that may hold 100,000 trafficked people

But the parks operators were long gone: apparently tipped off that a crackdown was coming, they were busily setting up shop elsewhere. More than 1,000 labourers had managed to flee across the border, and some 2,000 others had been detained. But up to 20,000 labourers, likely trafficked and brutalised, had disappeared. Away from the juntas cameras, scam centres like KK park have continued to thrive.

So monolithic has the multi-billion dollar global scam industry become that experts say we are entering the era of the scam state. Like the narco-state, the term refers to countries where an illicit industry has dug its tentacles deep into legitimate institutions, reshaping the economy, corrupting governments and establishing state reliance on an illegal network.

The raids on KK Park were the latest in a series of highly publicised crackdowns on scam centres across south-east Asia. But regional analysts say these are largely performative or target middling players, amounting to political theatre by officials who are under international pressure to crack down on them but have little interest in eliminating a wildly profitable sector.

Its a way of playing Whack-a-Mole, where you dont want to hit a mole, says Jacob Sims, visiting fellow at Harvard Universitys Asia Centre and expert on transnational and cybercrime in the Mekong.

In the past five years scamming, says Sims, has mutated from small online fraud rings into an industrial-scale political economy.

In terms of gross GDP, its the dominant economic engine for the entire Mekong sub-region, he says, And that means that its one of the dominant  if not the dominant  political engine.

Government spokespeople in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos did not respond to questions from the Guardian, but Myanmars military has previously said it is working to completely eradicate scam activities from their roots. The Cambodian government has also described allegations it is home to one of the worlds largest cybercrime networks supported by the powerful as baseless and irresponsible.

Morphing in less than a decade from a world of misspelled emails and implausible Nigerian princes, the industry has become a vast, sophisticated system, raking in tens of billions from victims around the world.

At its heart are pig-butchering scams  where a relationship is cultivated online before the scammer pushes their victim to part with their money, often via an investment in cryptocurrency. Scammers have harnessed increasingly sophisticated technology to fool targets: using generative AI to translate and drive conversations, deepfake technology to conduct video calls, and mirrored websites to mimic real investment exchanges. One survey found victims were conned for an average of $155,000 (117,400) each. Most reported losing more than half their net worth.

Those huge potential profits have driven the industrialisation of the scam industry. Estimates of the industrys global size now range from $70bn into the hundreds of billions  a scale that would put it on a par with the global illicit drug trade. The centres are typically run by transnational criminal networks, often originating from China, but their ground zero has been south-east Asia.

By late 2024, cyber scamming operations in Mekong countries were generating an estimated $44bn (33.4bn) a year, equivalent to about 40% of the combined formal economy. That figure is considered conservative, and on the rise. This is a massive growth area, says Jason Tower, from the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime. This has become a global illicit market only since 2021  and were now talking about a $70bn-plus-per-year illicit market. If you go back to 2020, it was nowhere near that size.

In Cambodia, one company alleged by the US government to run scam compounds across the country had $15bn of cryptocurrency targeted in a Department of Justice (DOJ) seizure last month  funds equal to almost half of Cambodias economy.

With such huge potential profits, infrastructure has rapidly been built to facilitate it. The hubs thrive in conflict zones and along lawless and poorly regulated border areas. In Laos, officials have told local media around 400 are operating in the Golden Triangle special economic zone. Cyber Scam Monitor  a collective that monitors scamming Telegram channels, police reports, media and satellite data to identify scam compounds  has located 253 suspected sites across Cambodia. Many are enormous, and operating in public view.

The scale of the compounds is itself an indication of how much the states hosting them have been compromised, experts claim.

These are massive pieces of infrastructure, set up very publicly. You can go to borders and observe them. You can even walk into some of them, says Tower. The fact this is happening in a very public way shows just the extreme level of impunity  and the extent to which states are not only tolerating this, but actually, these criminal actors are becoming state embedded.

Thailands deputy finance minister resigned this October following allegations of links to scam operations in Cambodia, which he denies. Chen Zhi, who was recently hit by joint UK and US sanctions for allegedly masterminding the Prince Group scam network, was an adviser to Cambodias prime minister. The Prince Group said it categorically rejects claims the company or its chairman have engaged in any unlawful activity. In Myanmar, scam centres have become a key financial flow for armed groups. In the Philippines, ex-mayor Alice Guo, who ran a massive scam centre while in office, has just been sentenced to life in prison.

Across south-east Asia, scam masterminds are operating at a very high level: theyre obtaining diplomatic credentials, theyre becoming advisers  It is massive in terms of the level of state involvement and co-optation, Tower says.

Its quite unprecedented that you have an illicit market of this nature, that is causing global harm, where theres blatant impunity, and its happening in this public way.

The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know.

If you have something to share on this subject, you can contact us confidentially using the following methods.

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Investor and philanthropist Cyrus Vandrevala is supporting The Independents campaign to launch SafeCall, the vital lifeline for missing young people in crisis.

The billionaire announced a sizeable donation after winning the Asian Business Awards Investor of the Year prize.

I was moved by the campaign to bring a digital solution to try to bring missing children to safety, Mr Vandrevala said.

It is shocking that 70,000 children are missing each year in the UK. Having children who had a happy school and home life in the UK makes me want all the more to help those who are suffering in this way.

Mr Vandrevala is the latest backer of this publications campaign, following presenter Lorraine Kellys support on Tuesday. Barclays, Nationwide, and the Hunter Foundation have all generously supported the campaign in recent days.

SafeCall will fund a new service that aims to reach the 70,000 children reported missing in the UK each year. Sir Keir Starmer and Sir David Beckham have also shown their support for the campaign.

The investor and philanthropist (third from left), winner of the Asian Business Awards Investor of the Year, announces donation to The Independents SafeCall campaign (Garavi Gujarat Publications)

Donate here or text SAFE to 70577 to give 10 to Missing People  enough for one child to get help.

The Indian private equity investor and his wife, Priya, created the Vandrevala Foundation in 2008, which works to raise awareness about mental health issues in India and provides support services for individuals experiencing emotional distress.

Mr Vandrevala is also an early investor in pioneering, tech-driven businesses. Working in the US, India, Japan and the UK, he is known for his investments which have delivered exceptionally high returns across technology, healthcare, education and real estate.

With nearly 600 children going missing every day in the UK, The Independent is aiming to raise 165,000 to help launch SafeCall  a free new service that will provide children in crisis with confidential support, guidance and a route to safety.

For a parent not to know where their child is, is so upsetting, and if this campaign with Missing People helps bring children to safety, I am so pleased to give my support, Mr Vandrevala said.

Teenagers are the most likely to disappear, with those aged 12 to 17 accounting for 61 per cent of all incidents recorded by police. Many say there is still no service designed to meet their needs, leaving them isolated at the very moment they need help most.

Many disappear repeatedly or because of issues linked to exploitation, family breakdown, or mental health. But it is hoped SafeCall will offer them a dedicated helpline, WhatsApp channel, chatbot and website.

Elsewhere in the ceremony, Tan Sri Sir Francis Yeoh, executive chair of YTL Corporation, received the ASEAN Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his remarkable contribution to business and philanthropy across the region. Prashant Kothari, senior investment manager at Pictet Asset Management, was named Fund Manager of the Year, while Navjot Sawhney, founder of The Washing Machine Project, collected the Sustainable Business of the Year Award.

Rajbir Singh Manak, managing director of Stanmore, part of the Akaal Group, was honoured with the Fast Growth Business of the Year Award, and Dr Jason Wouhra OBE, CEO of Lioncroft Wholesale, took home Entrepreneur of the Year. The Education Business of the Year Award went to Dr Vishwajeet Rana, founder of Global Banking School, while Sanjay Arora, CEO of Arora Group, was recognised as Hotelier of the Year.

Zain Kajani, director of JMK Group, was named Next Gen of the Year, and Rohin Shah, managing director of ANAROCK, received the International Business of the Year Award.

A total of 11 awards were presented at the event, which also marked the launch of the latest edition of the annual Asian Rich List, profiling the 101 wealthiest South Asians in Britain. Heading the list were the Hinduja family, with an estimated fortune of 37bn, followed by steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and his son Aditya with 15.5bn, and petrochemicals magnate Sri Prakash Lohia and his family in third place with 12bn.

The combined wealth of the 101 richest Asians in the UK this year amounts to more than 140bn  an increase of 13.75bn on the previous year. More than 650 guests attended the ceremony in central London, including business and industry leaders, parliamentarians, and community figures.

Secretary of state for housing, communities and local government Steve Reed said: In every part of Britain there are Asian businesses that support both the local economy and the local community  enterprises we would all be lost without.

He added: Your success is an inspiration, not just to the Asian business community, but to every single part of our country.

Please donate now to The Independent and Missing Peoples SafeCall campaign, which aims to raise 165,000 to create a free, nationwide service helping vulnerable children find safety and support.

For advice, support and options if you or someone you love goes missing, text or call the charity Missing People on 116 000. Its free, confidential and non-judgemental. Or visit www.missingpeople.org.uk/get-help
Jared Kaplan. Photograph: Cayce Clifford/The Guardian

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Humanity will have to decide by 2030 whether to take the ultimate risk of letting artificial intelligence systems train themselves to become more powerful, one of the worlds leading AI scientists has said.

Jared Kaplan, the chief scientist and co-owner of the $180bn (135bn) US startup Anthropic, said a choice was looming about how much autonomy the systems should be given to evolve.

The move could trigger a beneficial intelligence explosion  or be the moment humans end up losing control.

In an interview about the intensely competitive race to reach artificial general intelligence (AGI)  sometimes called superintelligence  Kaplan urged international governments and society to engage in what he called the biggest decision.

Anthropic is part of a pack of frontier AI companies including OpenAI, Google DeepMind, xAI, Meta and Chinese rivals led by DeepSeek, racing for AI dominance. Its widely used AI assistant, Claude, has become particularly popular among business customers.

Kaplan said that while efforts to align the rapidly advancing technology to human interests had to date been successful, freeing it to recursively self-improve is in some ways the ultimate risk, because its kind of like letting AI kind of go. The decision could come between 2027 and 2030, he said.

If you imagine you create this process where you have an AI that is smarter than you, or about as smart as you, its [then] making an AI thats much smarter.

It sounds like a kind of scary process. You dont know where you end up.

Kaplan has gone from being a theoretical physicist scientist to an AI billionaire in seven years working in the field. In a wide-ranging interview, he also said:

AI systems will be capable of doing most white-collar work in two to three years.

That his six-year-old son will never be better than an AI at academic work such as writing an essay or doing a maths exam.

That it was right to worry about humans losing control of the technology if AIs start to improve themselves.

The stakes in the race to AGI feel daunting.

The best-case scenario could enable AI to accelerate biomedical research, improve health and cybersecurity, boost productivity, give people more free time and help humans flourish.

Kaplan met the Guardian at Anthropics headquarters in San Francisco, where the interior of knitted rugs and upbeat jazz music belies the existential concerns about the technology being developed.

Kaplan is a Stanford-and Harvard-educated professor of physics who researched at Johns Hopkins University and at Cern in Switzerland before joining OpenAI in 2019 and co-founding Anthropic in 2021.

He is not alone at Anthropic in voicing concerns. One of his co-founders, Jack Clark, said in October he was both an optimist and deeply afraid about the trajectory of AI, which he called a real and mysterious creature, not a simple and predictable machine.

Kaplan said he was very optimistic about the alignment of AI systems with the interests of humanity up to the level of human intelligence, but was concerned about the consequences if and when they exceed that threshold.

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He said: If you imagine you create this process where you have an AI that is smarter than you, or about as smart as you, its [then] making an AI thats much smarter. Its going to enlist that AI help to make an AI smarter than that. It sounds like a kind of scary process. You dont know where you end up.

Doubt has been cast on the gains made from deploying AIs in the economy. Outside Anthropics headquarters, a billboard for another tech company pointedly asked All that AI and no ROI?, a reference to return on investment. A Harvard Business Review study in September said AI workslop  substandard AI enabled-work that humans have to fix  was reducing productivity.

Some of the clearest gains have been in using AIs to write computer code. In September, Anthropic revealed its cutting-edge AI, Claude Sonnet 4.5, a model for computer coding that can build AI agents and autonomously use computers.

It maintained focus on complex multistep coding tasks for 30 hours unbroken, and Kaplan said that in some cases using AI was doubling the speed with which his firms programmers were able to work.

But in November Anthropic said it believed a Chinese state-sponsored group had manipulated its Claude Code tool  not only to help humans launch a cyber-attack but to execute about 30 attacks itself, some of which were successful. Kaplan said allowing AIs to train the next AIs was an extremely high-stakes decision to make.

Thats the thing that we view as maybe the biggest decision or scariest thing to do  once no ones involved in the process, you dont really know. You can start a process and say, Oh, its going very well. Its exactly what we expected. Its very safe. But you dont know  its a dynamic process. Where does that lead?

He said if recursive self-improvement, as this process is sometimes known, was allowed in an uncontrolled way there were two risks.

One is do you lose control over it? Do you even know what the AIs are doing? The main question there is: are the AIs good for humanity? Are they helpful? Are they going to be harmless? Do they understand people? Are they going to allow people to continue to have agency over their lives and over the world?

I think preventing power grabs, preventing misuse of the technology, is also very important.

It seems very dangerous for it to fall into the wrong hands

The second risk is to security resulting from the self-taught AIs exceeding the human capabilities at scientific research and technological development.

It seems very dangerous for it to fall into the wrong hands, he said. You can imagine some person [deciding]: I want this AI to just be my slave. I want it to enact my will. I think preventing power grabs  preventing misuse of the technology  is also very important.

Independent research into frontier AI models, including ChatGPT, shows the length of tasks AIs can do has been doubling every seven months.

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Kaplan said he was concerned that the speed of progress meant humanity at large had not been able to get used to the technology before it leaped forward again.

I am worried about that  people like me could all be crazy, and it could all plateau, he said. Maybe the best AI ever is the AI that we have right now. But we really dont think thats the case. We think its going to keep getting better.

He added: Its something where its moving very quickly and people dont necessarily have time to absorb it or figure out what to do.

Anthropic is racing with OpenAI, Google DeepMind and xAI to develop ever more advanced AI systems in the push to AGI. Kaplan described the atmosphere in the Bay Area as definitely very intense, both from the stakes of AI and from the competitiveness viewpoint.

The way that we think about it is [that] everything is on this exponential trend in terms of investment, revenue, capabilities of AI, how complex the tasks [are that] AI can do, he said.

The speed of progress means the risk of one of the racers slipping up and falling behind is great. The stakes are high for staying on the frontier, in the sense that you fall off the exponential [curve] and very quickly you could be very far behind at least in terms of resources.

By 2030, datacentres are projected to require $6.7tn worldwide to keep pace with the demand for compute power, McKinsey has estimated. Investors want to back the companies closest to the front of the pack.

At the same time, Anthropic is known for encouraging regulation of AI. Its statement of purpose includes a section headlined: We build safer systems.

We dont really want it to be a Sputnik-like situation where the government suddenly wakes up and is like, Oh, wow, AI is a big deal  We want policymakers to be as informed as possible along the trajectory so they can take it into account.

In October, Anthropics position triggered a put-down from Donald Trumps White House. David Sacks, the US presidents AI adviser, accused Anthropic of fearmongering to encourage state-by-state regulation that would benefit its position and damage startups.

After Sacks claimed it had positioned itself as a foe of the Trump administration, Dario Amodei, Kaplans co-founder and Anthropics chief executive, hit back by saying the company had publicly praised Trumps AI action plan, worked with Republicans and that, like the White House, it wanted to maintain the USs lead in AI.
With Teahupoo having served a reminder of his class at Fairyhouse on Sunday, his owner Brian Acheson is now eagerly awaiting the return of his Gordon Elliott-trained stablemate Irish Point and reigning Stayers Hurdle champion Bob Olinger over the festive period.

Achesons Robcour operation sets a high bar in the long-distance hurdling division, with Henry de Bromheads Bob Olinger denying Teahupoo back-to-back Cheltenham Festival triumphs in March on what was another great occasion for the leading owner at Prestbury Park.

With a Hattons Grace hat-trick secured for Teahupoo, attentions now turn to the hectic Christmas fixture list, where Bob Olinger will return in either Leopardstowns Christmas Hurdle on December 29 or cross the Irish Sea for another attack on the Relkeel Hurdle at Cheltenham he won on New Years Day in 2024.

Bob Olinger is in great form and he will be out either at Leopardstown at Christmas or Cheltenham, said Acheson.

Weve got a bit of a debate going on because we have Irish Point to come out as well and one will go Leopardstown and the other to the Relkeel, which is a race we sponsor and always try to have something for.

We had a great day with Bob Olinger in the Relkeel the other year, its a very special race that has had some great winners down the years and we try to support it as much as we can.

While both Teahupoo and Bob Olinger have had their moment in the sun at the Cheltenham Festival, it should not be forgotten that Irish Point finished best of the rest behind State Man in the Champion Hurdle in 2024 and he has been out of action since finishing down the field in the French equivalent later that year.

Acheson is relishing seeing the seven-year-old back in action, while the Irishman is also eager to see if Liverpool Hurdle winner Hiddenvalley Lake  another in his swelling hand of staying hurdlers  can go one better than last years head defeat in Ascots Long Walk Hurdle.

You would love to see Irish Point come back to his best and weve Hiddenvalley Lake still there in that division to look forward to, continued Acheson.

He will go to Ascot for the Long Walk, where he was just beaten last year by Crambo.
Forget the hot mess bad boy  geeks with a good head on their shoulders are a better bet in love (Fox/Warner Bros)

In news bound to thrill and terrify straight men everywhere, they can now be assessed on their potential as a romantic partner by taking a boyfriend test. At least, thats the theory of a team of researchers at Oakland University, who analysed 202 heterosexual men whod been in relationships for at least six months and found that those with better problem-solving skills and abilities to spot patterns made steadier and more reliable partners. In other words, the nerds did best.

The authors of the study, led by data analyst and social scientist Gavin Vance, found that the men they studied who had a very specific type of intelligence  the ability to spot patterns in sequences of numbers and letters  were less likely to be tempted to take risks outside of a relationship, and were therefore more likely to stay faithful to their partner. They were also less likely to have displayed jealousy, exhibited controlling behaviours or insulted their partner, in addition to displaying fewer signs of psychopathic traits.

It goes against everything women are conditioned to be attracted to: brooding bad boys with a penchant for writing tortured poetry in their Notes apps, wearing vintage leather jackets, and being emotionally unavailable. In other words, the pained souls that pop culture has forever held up as lascivious lotharios. Hes Gossip Girls Chuck Bass. The OCs Ryan Atwood. The Vampire Diaries Damon Salvatore. And so on. Rarely are the maths geeks at the top of their class upheld as the good boyfriend, but science has different ideas.

Whether we are ready for the lesson is debatable. The allure of the hot mess bad boy persists. Just last month, a study published in the Journal of Research in Personality found that the nicer the guy, the less likely he is to have a romantic partner.

After analysing data from 3,780 adults in Australia, Denmark and Sweden, the study found that neuroticism and agreeableness had negative associations in men. Meanwhile, men who were outgoing, confident and sociable were significantly more likely to be in a relationship compared to those who were more introverted. For women, the opposite was true. An assertive, extroverted man may get positive responses when approaching potential partners, while an assertive woman might face ambivalence or negativity, said the studys co-author, Filip Fors Connolly, an associate professor of sociology and psychology at Umea University in Sweden.

And so heterosexual women have a problem: were more likely to shun the quiet geeks with a steady head on their shoulders, even though theyre probably going to be the best partners. How to get around this?

Slick and sinister: Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl is a perfect example of a guy to stay well away from, according to this recent study (HBO)

Dont worry, there is an app for that, or probably will be soon. In a predominantly digital dating landscape that is constantly advancing, in which AI is being integrated into most platforms, its not hard to envisage a world where good boyfriend and girlfriend tests do actually exist. Yes, it might all sound a bit Black Mirror, but matchmaking technology has existed for years and is already being used by apps to help tailor our preferences, a process that AI promises to improve. Where AI is brilliant is that it can learn patterns, said Bumbles CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd in an interview with The New York Times published earlier this year. It can then scan hundreds of profiles if not more and it can say, Hey, I think you should meet this person because they have similar values. Thats where sorting and machine learning can be really powerful.

The subject of artificially engineered matchmaking to the degree where an algorithm can introduce you to your soulmate is even the subject of a recent film, All of You, directed and co-written by William Bridges, who has also written for Black Mirror. Starring Imogen Poots and Brett Goldstein, the film takes place in a world in which a company called Soul Connex offers to pair you up with your life partner via a single test. Its easy to see how ripe this concept is for drama, and how easily the idea of the test could be subverted: can we ever truly find the person were meant to be with through a third-party service, no matter how advanced it is?

Well have to wait a few years to see when things like this inevitably enter the dating market. But in the meantime, perhaps straight women can follow the advice of Oakland Universitys research team, boosting their chances of finding lasting love by dating the guy with the analytical problem-solving skills instead of the guy writing the bad poetry and dreaming of being in a band. A good egghead, if you will.

Of course, all this is based on a relatively small sample size, and Vances team has stressed that the study is correlational and so cant prove cause and effect. But that doesnt render the idea of a boyfriend exam any less fascinating, particularly when you really think about what really makes a man a keeper. So, with that in mind, here are the five questions I reckon you should be asking your potential suitors for your very own boyfriend test  do take them with a pinch of salt:

Have you ever ghosted anyone, or left them on read for longer than 48 hours? (permissible in exceptional circumstances, ie stolen phone or sudden death) How much therapy have you had? (minimum requirement of five hours) How many exes have you labelled crazy instead of analysing your own contribution to the downfall of a relationship? (ideally zero) Have you ever written a woman a poem instead of clearly communicating your feelings? (avoid if so) Are you an actor or musician? (the correct answer should be obvious to this one)

Now you know, test and act accordingly. Godspeed.
The tourist was visiting the popular island of Phuket in Thailand (stock image) (Getty/iStock)

A British tourist died in front of his wife after getting trapped in a rip current on a Thai beach.

The victim - a 37 year-old from Ipswich - was swimming at a popular tourism spot in Phuket when he was dragged under water.

Local police said other visitors to Freedom Beach came to his aid during the incident on Saturday, 29 November, and tried to save him with CPR but he could not be revived.

Police Lieutenant Colonel, Chanan Mekchai, at Patong Police Station, said: The incident happened at around 11.30am, and we were notified an hour later.

He went to the beach with his wife at around 10am. While swimming, he was caught in strong waves and disappeared beneath the surface.

The victim, who had reportedly arrived in Thailand ten days earlier, was not the only person who got into trouble during the incident, according to The Mirror.

Witness Chariya Thaweerat Howells said two other swimmers were struggling in the water but they were rescued by a man who threw a kayak in to help them.

The sea looked rough and we had only been there a few minutes when we heard cries for help, she said.

Everyone ran to assist. A Thai man launched a kayak and managed to reach the two struggling tourists and get them safely to shore. Only then did people realise a third man was being washed in.

Phuket is an island in the south of Thailand

An autopsy was carried out at Patong Hospital and the mans body has been released to his family for funeral arrangements, local media reported.

A spokesperson for the UKs Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said: We are supporting the family of a British man who has died in Thailand and are in contact with the local authorities.

The father-of-one was the fourth tourist to die on southern Thailand beaches over the course of three days, the Thai Examiner said.

The others were a 69-year-old Russian, who died from undetermined causes potentially due to a heart condition, a 65-year-old Russian who drowned from snorkelling, and a 69-year-old Canadian who also died from snorkelling at a separate beach.

A previous series of deaths in Phuket earlier this year led to concerns over an alleged lack of proper security and safety measures on the island.

At least four people died in just a week after being swept away by strong currents during the monsoon season, which prompted local authorities to enforce stricter safety measures.

Eyewitnesses told the Thai Examiner at the time that there were no red flags raised on the beach to warn the tourists off the potential dangerous waves.
Brussels residents protest on Monday, when the city equalled the 541 days the country as a whole spent without a government in 2010-2011. Photograph: Shutterstock

It is a city that prides itself on the art of political compromise. But recently that quality has been sorely lacking in Brussels, which has gone a record-breaking 542 days without a government.

The Brussels Capital Region, which governs the Belgian capital of 1.25 million people, has not had a government since elections in June 2024.

The city has now surpassed the record of the country as a whole, which made headlines around the world in 2010-11 when it took 541 days to form a government, the longest period to form an administration in peacetime.

Brussels, however, like Northern Ireland, which went 729 days without a government, will escape the ignominy of entering the Guinness World Records, which counts only sovereign states.

The unhappy milestone was reached on Tuesday if you include election day, as most Dutch-language media do, although for some Francophone media the record will not officially be broken until Wednesday.

Either way, it is unlikely Brussels will have a government anytime soon. Rancorous divisions, sometimes descending into personal insults, continue among the 14 parties that won places in the 89-seat parliament.

This means deadlock in the self-styled capital of Europe, which hosts the EU institutions and Nato, amid a growing budget crisis, rising levels of drug-related violence, and homelessness as city authorities struggle to manage irregular migrants seeking a place to stay.

An open letter signed by nearly 200 business, academic and cultural figures published on Monday lamented 541 days of seeing Brussels slide into an unprecedented institutional void and funding crisis. The letter, published in Belgiums major newspapers, Le Soir and De Standaard, says political inaction is now affecting our daily lives and that the immense challenges that Brussels needs to tackle  economic, social, climatic and institutional  can no longer wait.

The signatories, who include the historian David Van Reybrouck, the speculoos biscuit entrepreneur Antoine Helson and the political scientist Fatima Zibouh, urge Brussels leaders to meet in conclave on Tuesday to agree a government and budgetary path.

At a protest against the political deadlock on Monday, about 500 Brussels residents booed politicians walking into the citys parliament, the Belga news agency reported. Some carried signs reading: Shame on you Brussels.

The deadlock is the result of an election in which the tax-cutting liberal Mouvement Reformateur party emerged as the largest francophone force, while the Flemish Groen, or greens, came top for Dutch-speakers. Adding complexity to cross-party talks is the fact that the Brussels government has a fixed quota of ministerial posts for both language groups to protect the interests of Dutch-speaking voters, who are a minority in the bilingual capital.

The francophone Socialists have ruled out a coalition with the Flemish nationalists, the NVA party of the countrys prime minister, Bart De Wever. The Socialists claim the NVA is an anti-Brussels, anti-diversity party. The Flemish liberal party, the Open VLD, meanwhile, refuses to join a Brussels government without the NVA and has referred to the Socialists as an alcoholic addicted to public spending.

The local newspaper Bruzz has forecast that the regions deficit will rise to 1.6bn (1.4bn) by the end of the year, and a major bank has withdrawn a 500m credit line.

A caretaker administration is in place, but it is unable to take new spending decisions, leading social support organisations to warn they may be forced to cut salaries after the loss of subsidies. Big construction projects are on hold and investments frozen.

The director of Kanal, an ambitious contemporary art museum that is scheduled to open in 2026, said the lack of decision on its budget meant it may have to halt construction, threatening the projects future.

Few, however, expect to see a rapid resolution to the deadlock. In the Brussels region so much is happening and yet nothing at all, De Standaards political editor, Jan-Frederik Abbeloos, wrote last week.

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The EU wanted Britain to pay billions to join its Security Action for Europe (Safe) scheme - Reuters

Canada has secured cut-price access to the EUs weapons loan programme, a week after Britain refused Brussels demand for a membership fee of billions of pounds.

Ottawa has agreed to pay a one-off lump sum of 10m (about 8.8m) to the EU budget, which will give it access to the flagship rearmament programme to deter Russia.

That fee is subject to a revision mechanism, which will see the sum revised depending on how many defence contracts Canada successfully pitches for.

David McGuinty, the Canadian defence minister, said final details on costs and percentages were still being ironed out before the deal was finalised, which could now happen by the deadline of Sunday.

Britain was initially asked to pay up to 6bn (5.3bn) to take part in the Security Action for Europe (Safe) scheme, which was promised as part of Sir Keir Starmers post-Brexit reset deal with the EU.

In negotiations, Brussels dropped that to 2bn but UK negotiators were not prepared to offer more than 86m (75.7m). The fee would allow UK defence firms to bid for contracts worth up to half of the total 150bn (130bn) war chest.

Talks collapsed last week ahead of the end of November deadline for a deal, which means British companies will miss out on preferential terms for the first round of funding.

Canada is stepping into the EU tent, says its defence minister David McGuinty - NurPhoto

The disparity in membership fees can be explained in part by the fact that the Canadian defence industry is much smaller than Britains. It is also far less integrated and close to the European market, which suggests it will win fewer contracts than the UK and create few jobs.

But the size of the disparity in joining fee offers, especially given Britains status as one of Europes major military powers, has raised suspicions that Brussels is driving a harder bargain with London than with Ottawa.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, minister for EU relations, said after UK-EU talks failed: Negotiations were carried out in good faith, but our position was always clear: we will only sign agreements that are in the national interest and provide value for money.

He called the failure disappointing and said negotiations would resume to try to gain access in time for a second round next year. British arms companies can compete for the contracts on less advantageous third country terms.

In Canada, Mr McGuinty said an agreement had been reached to step inside the European Union tent. He said on Monday: We have negotiated our way into the tent to build this relationship and participate in very large opportunities for procurement. The details in terms of costs, percentages are being ironed out.

So much for the Coalition of the Willing

European diplomatic sources said cost was not the only reason for the collapse of the UKs talks. The level of access for British firms, what projects they could take part in, and whether they could lead a defence project, were all outstanding issues. Another problem was long-standing French demands that EU companies be given as advantageous a deal as possible.

Mark Francois, the shadow armed forces minister, said: So much for the so-called Coalition of the Willing. If the European Commission is now offering Ottawa better terms for participating in this fund than London, it shows you they never really wanted us to join in the first place.

Moreover, its academic now, as Labours 2.6billion crippling cash crunch  cuts in plain English  to the MoDs operating budget this year, means we could never have afforded their extortionate membership fee, in the first place.

A Government spokesperson said: Canada and the UK were negotiating in different contexts with different defence industrial capabilities, and the resulting offers were different.

We negotiated constructively and in good faith, but we have always been clear that we will only sign agreements that are in the national interest. UK firms will continue to be a vital part of defence supply chains across the continent and to participate in Safe on third-party terms.

A European Commission spokesman said the same methodology was used to ensure proportionate contributions from both the UK and Canada, adding: We want a fair agreement for both sides. It has to be seen in light of potential contracts that third-country industries will get from the Safe loans that our member states are taking.

It depends also on the amount of jobs that will be created on the other side. Throughout these intense negotiations, our negotiators have engaged constructively and in good faith with the UK to get a deal over the line.

Even if an agreement could not be found at this time, lets not forget that Safe is open by design. Without an agreement, the UK can still participate in up to 35 per cent of Safe procurements.

The commission added that the door remained open for further negotiations with Britain describing the recent breakdown in talks as normal teething problems and initial disagreements.
David Lammy has confirmed 12 more prisoners have been released in error over the last three weeks.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Tuesday morning, the justice secretary confirmed there have been 12 erroneous releases, two of whom remain at large, since he made a statement to the House of Commons on 12 November.

He also told Sky News that of the 12 released, there are two violent offenders or sex offenders, both of whom remain at large.

Mr Lammy refused to go into detail on the cases, saying public knowledge of crucial information could frustrate police attempts to nab them. The Ministry of Justice also refused to reveal any further information about the prisoners or where they had been incarcerated.

He told BBC Breakfast: Well, I said to parliament a few weeks ago, I released data at that point, and there had been 91 releases in error up to that point, there have been 12 since then, two are currently at large.

He told Sky News he would not give a running commentary, adding the data should be released the way it has always been released.

When pressed, Mr Lammy said there had been two further releases of violent offenders or sex offenders and confirmed they are still at large, but insisted the trend is moving downwards.

Lammy says theres a mountain to climb to tackle the crisis in the prison system (PA Media)

It comes after a series of high-profile prisoner releases, including that of Epping sex offender Hadush Kebatu, who was mistakenly released when he should have been taken to a detention centre in October. His 14-year-old victim said she felt so scared and so anxious in a statement following the blunder.

Shortly after, an Algerian sex offender and a fraudster from HMP Wandsworth were also accidentally freed, leaving police scrambling. Both have since been taken back into custody.

A total of 91 prisoners have been freed by mistake between 1 April and 31 October this year  the equivalent of around three per week, according to the latest Ministry of Justice figures published last month.

Downing Street previously admitted the figures are shocking, and said they are symptomatic of a system that the government inherited from the Conservatives.

Mr Lammy said that there is a mountain to climb to tackle the crisis in the prison system. Stronger security checks were announced for prisons and an independent investigation was launched into releases in error after Kebatu was freed from HMP Chelmsford.

The justice secretary hasnt given any more details about the incident (PA Wire)

Speaking at the time, the Prison Officers Association said staff have been under immense pressure to recalculate sentences following the introduction of multiple early release schemes to ease overcrowding in recent years.

The Labour government introduced a scheme in 2024 which allowed some offenders to be freed after serving 40 per cent of their sentence, rather than 50 per cent. It followed the Tories End of Custody Supervised Licence (ECSL) scheme, which freed some prisoners 35 or 70 days early.

National chair Mark Fairhurst said the mistakes at Wandsworth were the result of clerical errors, adding: The Prison Officers Association has repeatedly warned of the mounting pressures on staff and the outdated administrative systems across our prisons.

It has taken far too long for senior leaders and politicians to acknowledge these issues and take meaningful action.

Prisons throughout the country are underfunded, understaffed and operating under relentless strain. Dedicated staff are doing their utmost, but too often they are left without the proper support, training or technology to do their jobs safely and effectively.
Radical measures to tackle the "courts emergency" will be unveiled by the government today - with speculation that jury trials could be limited to the most serious of crimes.

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy will warn that long waiting times have "pushed the justice system to the brink of collapse" when he makes a statement to the Commons.

He says delays have led some victims to give up on the legal process or doubt action will be taken if they report a crime, meaning perpetrators aren't held to account.

Speaking to Mornings with Ridge and Frost, the justice secretary told Sky News: "If a woman is sadly raped in our country today, she will likely have her trial come on in 2028, maybe 2029. That's a long time for her to wait. Victims of rape are pulling out - 60% are pulling out of cases - witnesses fall away, and the trauma of waiting, is too hard."

The latest figures suggest there is now a record-breaking backlog of 78,000 crown court cases, meaning some trials are not due to begin until 2030. Some estimates indicate this could balloon to 100,000 within the next three years.

Pushed on how exactly he will tackle the backlog, Mr Lammy declined to give details, saying he will be "saying something about that later".

But he added: "There's a group of cases, they're called 'either way' cases. These are cases where you could be sentenced up to generally five years in prison, and some of those cases [can] either be dealt with by magistrates, or can they be dealt with in a new division within the crown court.

"That's what I'm looking at."

Mr Lammy also pointed out 90% of all cases are dealt with by magistrates, and of those 10% that make it to crown court, 7% "fall away" because people plead guilty.

"That then leaves 3%," Mr Lammy said. "The question in front of us today is if you steal an iPhone from Currys later on, should you be able to opt for a jury trial?"

What could be announced?

Over the summer, a former senior judge outlined his recommendations for overhauling the justice system.

Sir Brian Leveson has proposed diverting more offences to magistrates' courts - and restricting juries to "indictable-only" cases involving murder, rape, and manslaughter.

This could also extend to serious and complex fraud allegations, with judges given greater control over how cases should be handled.

Read more UK news:

Why women still feel so unsafe on Britain's streets

Joanna Lumley warns of 'crisis hidden in plain sight'

Mr Lammy has rejected claims that he is planning to scrap jury trials - and instead says he wants to "save" the system.

It follows a leak from the Ministry of Justice, which suggested he was considering scrapping trial by jury for all cases except for murder, manslaughter and rape.

Asked on Tuesday morning about the leak, Mr Lammy told Sky News that it was "regrettable" and "unfortunate", but did not deny it had been carried out to test public opinion, only saying he didn't "know why memos were leaked".

Politics latest - follow live

Challenged on why Mr Lammy has decided to water down his original proposals, he responded: "There is a process by which you discuss with Cabinet colleagues what you might be looking at.

"They give feedback, you make a judgement, and on that basis, you reach a judgement."

But Mr Lammy's new proposals are also facing opposition from MPs and legal professionals - with the Law Society of England and Wales describing them as an "extreme measure" that may do little to eliminate the backlog of cases.

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick claims Labour have exacerbated the problem and accused Mr Lammy of abandoning his principles.

He said: "This year alone, 21,000 court sitting days have been missed, and the court backlog is up 10% on their watch.

"Instead of depriving British citizens of ancient liberties, David Lammy should get his own department in order."

Ministry of Justice figures suggest close to half of cases in the backlog relate to violent and sexual offences, and only about 3% of criminal cases are currently heard by a jury.

'Not a silver bullet'

Mr Lammy is also set to announce that 550m will be given to victim support services over the next three years to help survivors and witnesses going through the justice process.

Incoming victims' commissioner Claire Waxman has welcomed the additional funding as a "necessary step" but warned: "The sums pledged are not a silver bullet for the wider crisis facing the sector."

Other measures are set to include additional sitting days in crown courts, and a match-fund scheme to support young people beginning careers as criminal barristers.

The Magistrates' Association's chief executive Tom Franklin said measures that speed up justice for victims, witnesses, and defendants are "worth considering - as long as they balance efficiency with quality of justice".
AI-powered document intelligence modernizes public records, digital preservation, and document interaction for government agencies

DALLAS, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Kofile Technologies, Inc., the industry leader in government preservation and digitization solutions, today announced the official launch of KleioSM, its breakthrough Document Intelligence and Engagement Platform designed to transform how public agencies preserve and interact with vital records. Built on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Kleio brings modern artificial intelligence, document processing, generative AI powered natural language search, agentic workflows and secure digital preservation to counties, municipalities, and institutions seeking higher transparency, compliance, security, and operational efficiency.

Kleio transforms how counties preserve, and analyze public records. The platform supports multimodal ingestion and leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to classify, extract, and validate information within documents, and uses natural language processing (NLP) to improve interaction with and searchability of records. With generative AI, users can summarize, translate, and engage in multilingual interactions that makes information more accessible than ever before.

Purpose-built for government, Kleio improves accuracy, accelerates document processing, and creates a foundation for transparent, trusted digital preservation. By adding document intelligence capabilities to secure digital records, the platform empowers clerks, recorders, archivists, and other government offices to serve their communities with greater efficiency, responsiveness, and trust.

"At Kofile, we believe every asset tells a story and provides context and continuity to a community's civic identity. Our partnership with AWS provides the right foundation for innovation. Through Intelligent Automation and Artificial Intelligence using Amazon Bedrock we are transforming how our customers interact with records while maintaining the highest standards of security and compliance" said Helene Fox, Chief Product Officer.

AWS leaders underscored the significance of the collaboration.

"AWS is excited to support Kofile Technologies in transforming how government agencies preserve and interact with their critical records. By leveraging our cloud and AI capabilities, this collaboration demonstrates how technology can modernize public sector operations, enhance transparency, and deliver higher quality services. This is exactly the kind of innovation we're committed to enabling in government digital transformation."

 Danno Wilkerson, AWS GovTech Leader

Kofile will begin onboarding early adopters to Kleio in Q1 2026, with broader availability planned for Q2 2026. Agencies interested in accessing this new technology are encouraged to reach out at [email protected]

For media inquiries, contact:

Rene Grajales

Chief Strategy Officer

[email protected]

SOURCE Kofile Technologies
Dell founder Michael Dell and his wife Susan have pledged $6.25 billion from their own wealth to help fund President Donald Trumps bank accounts for children, benefitting roughly 25 million kids.

Trump unveiled the massive donation alongside the Dells in the Roosevelt Room on Tuesday, calling their gift one of the largest private donations in American history, which will directly benefit the next generation of American children.

The president said the accounts, which were established in the One Big Beautiful Bill tax cut and spending package passed along party lines by the GOP-led Congress earlier this year, would be the first ... real trust funds for every American child, allowing family members, employers, corporations, generous donors to contribute money that will be invested and grow over the course of a child's life to be used for their benefit after they turn 18.

These accounts will track the overall stock market and will be 100% private property controlled by the child's guardians, Trump said, adding that the technology entrepreneurs gift was being made in honor of Americas semiquincentennial celebrations set for next year.

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

The government is set to launch the tax-deferred investment accounts for any eligible American children starting next year.

The accounts will benefit children born between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028, each of whom will receive $1,000 from the federal government. The Dells donation allows children up to 10 years old to receive an additional $250, if eligible by virtue of their parents household income and their ZIP code.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hailed the accounts as a major change in philanthropy and for American working families and the merging of President Trump's agenda of parallel prosperity, Main Street meets Wall Street.

I think we will look back on today and know that these Trump accounts, they have started a new age of the capitalism and market interest for the whole country, Bessent said.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz, one of the sponsors of the legislation which created the accounts, also claimed the investment vehicles would have a political effect by creating a new generation of capitalists because every child in America is going to be an owner of the biggest employers in this country.

We've all seen the sad statistics of how many kids are losing faith in capitalism. Well, ten years from now, a little boy is going to pull out his phone and he's going to look at his app, and he's going to see his Trump account. And instead of thinking of big, bad, scary corporations, that little boy is going to say, I own 50 bucks of Apple. I own 100 bucks of Dell I own 75 bucks of McDonald's, Cruz said.

Hours ahead of the presidents White House announcement, the Dells revealed in a video posted on X that they would make the massive investment in Trump accounts to expand the amount of seed money children can receive.

Weve seen what happens when a child gets even a small financial head start; their world expands, Michael Dell said

Michael Dell had previously signaled he would invest in Trump accounts. In the video, he encouraged other leaders to invest in the retirement accounts.

Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Technologies, highlighted the importance of giving children a financial head start while announcing his $6 billion investment (Getty Images)

To philanthropists, companies, community leaders, if you want to be part of something truly meaningful, for our kids, for our communities, for our country  join us, Michael Dell said in the video.

The donation marks one of the largest philanthropic investments ever to go directly to Americans.

In a statement, White House Deputy Press Secretary Kush Desai hailed the investment accounts for kids as a revolutionary investment by the federal government into the next generation of American children.

Its also President Trumps call to action for American businesses and philanthropists to do their part, too  Michael and Susan Dells $6 billion investment into Americas children is the first of many announcements to come for Americas children, Desai added.

Michael Dell has been a supporter of the Trump accounts, believing they can help children get a financial head start (Getty Images)

The idea for accessible investment accounts arose from Brad Gerstner, the CEO of Altimeter Capital. Gerstenr set up a nonprofit, Invest America, to push for the creation of bank accounts in which the federal government would give $1,000 to each child, according to the New York Times.

Michael Dell, a friend of Gerstner, liked the idea and joined the initiative.

Gerstner initially reached out to the Biden administration for support on the investment accounts, but failed to rally enough support among members of Congress. Ultimately, the Trump administration was receptive to the idea, and Republican Senator Ted Cruz introduced the Invest America Act that was later folded into the party-line package which Trump signed into law earlier this year.

The accounts are set to open next year  though there are few details about the process for opening one and how it will invest in the stock market.

To qualify, a baby needs a Social Security number. Only those born between 2025 and 2028 will receive the governments $1,000 starting funds. Parents and others may contribute up to $5,000 per year until the child turns 18 years old.
Emma Heming Willis has given an update on the current state of her husband Bruce Williss health amid his dementia diagnosis.

The 70-year-old Die Hard actors family announced in 2023 that he had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), only a year after they said he was stepping away from acting because he had aphasia.

Since announcing her husbands diagnosis, Heming Willis has been open about his physical health and how its affected their family, including their two daughters, Mabel Ray, 13, and Evelyn Penn, 11.

During an appearance Tuesday on the Today show, she told Savannah Guthrie that Willis is currently doing really well.

It's such a loaded question. Its hard to answer, Heming Willis said. But honestly, today, great. He is surrounded by love and care, and he is doing really well with an unkind disease.

Heming Willis admitted its hard to answer questions about how her husband is doing (Getty Images)

Heming Willis recently revealed her family would still be celebrating the holidays alongside Willis (Getty Images for Caring Across G)

Her comments came after she revealed in an interview with People what the holidays look like for her family with her husband no longer living at home.

Its joyous. Its just different, she said in the interview published Thursday. Bruce loved Christmas, and we love celebrating it with him. It just looks different, so we've kind of adapted to that.

You have to learn and adapt and make new memories, bring in the same traditions that you had before, she added.

Life goes on. It just goes on. Dementia is hard, but there is still joy in it. I think its important that we dont paint such a negative picture around dementia. We are still laughing. There is still joy. It just looks different.

The interview was published one week after Heming Willis addressed criticism about her familys decisions surrounding her husbands care.

F*** em! As Bruce would say, she told the audience at End Well 2025, a Los Angeles conference focused on end-of-life care. During the event, Heming Willis joined actor Yvette Nicole Brown, who takes care of her father, to discuss their experiences as caregivers.

The models dismissal of her critics came after Brown asked her about the backlash she faced earlier this year when she moved Willis out of their family home due to the degenerative nature of his condition.

At the time, Heming Willis said her husband would have wanted their two daughters lives to be unaffected by adjustments to their home, but it did not stop trolls from judging her decision.

I tell you, when I heard about the house thing, I wanted to throw elbows for you, honey, Brown said. Because the thing is, what people dont understand who arent caregivers, is that every caregiver is different, especially if youre dealing with dementia or Alzheimers, its very unwieldy... And we all are doing our best and making the best decisions for your family. So when they came for you, I wanted to come for them.
Ross David Cutmore was arrested in October, although his identity was not made public at the time

A British man has been arrested in Ukraine on suspicion of spying for Russia and arranging political assassinations.

Ross David Cutmore is alleged to have imported and distributed weapons for the killing of three prominent Ukrainians since 2024.

He arrived in Ukraine that year to train recruits in the southern city of Mykolaiv.

While he was initially reported to be a British Army veteran, The Telegraph understands he is not thought to have any formal military background.

The only record matching his name suggests he attended Glasgow and Strathclyde University Officers Training Corps for a year, before leaving of his own accord.

In Ukraine, Mr Cutmore is accused of passing information to Moscow in exchange for money, including on the coordinates of Ukrainian units and training facilities, and the identity of military personnel.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: We are providing consular assistance to a British man who is detained in Ukraine.

It is reported that Mr Cutmore has appeared in court in Kyiv

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said that Russias security services had provided Mr Cutmore with firearms to carry out targeted killings, alongside other reconnaissance and sabotage activities.

Investigators believe the instructor distributed the weapons used to kill Ukrainian activists Demian Hanul and Iryna Farion and MP Andriy Parubiy.

Mr Cutmore is now being held in Ukrainian custody. He faces up to 12 years in prison, according to Ukrainian media.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Mr Cutmores father said he was lost for words at the accusations facing his son.

It came as a shock to me, said Ross John Cutmore outside his home in a close on the outskirts of Dunfermline.

Im just lost for words. Im just a normal person. I go to work. Just living my life  normal family.

He said his ex-wife sent him the news that their son had been arrested in Ukraine on Tuesday morning.

Asked if he was surprised to see the news, Ross John said: Thats the understatement of the year.

Ross David Cutmores parents, Ross John and Claire, were shocked by the news of his arrest.

The pair were last in contact around Christmas last year, the father said, several months after Mr Cutmore allegedly began offering help to the Russian secret service.

He claimed he knew that his son was fighting in Ukraine because of local media reports which mentioned his son.

Ross John, a former soldier now working as a crane operator at a dockyard, would not answer questions about his sons politics prior to travelling to Ukraine but insisted that he was himself firmly opposed to Russias invasion of the country.

Theyre fighting their oppressors, he said, adding: Victory to Ukraine.

Ross John, 59, described the whole ordeal as embarrassing and said he was still trying to process the news.

He said: You make your own choices in life. There is a right path and wrong path.

In an image allegedly taken during Mr Cutmores arrest, he is not wearing any British camouflage. His assault vest can be purchased online for around 40.

Alleged victims

Demian Hanul was a Ukrainian activist who was shot dead in central Odesa last March. The 31-year-old was a blogger and founder of Street Front, an NGO, who had participated in the EuroMaidan Revolution and other anti-Russian protests.

Demian Hanul was shot dead in central Odesa last March

Serhii Shalaiev, a 46-year-old Ukrainian soldier who had deserted his unit, pleaded guilty to the murder two days later.

Iryna Farion was a 60-year-old Ukrainian nationalist politician who was assassinated outside her home in July 2024.

She had stirred controversy for her views and once said true Ukrainian patriots should not speak Russian because it was the language of the aggressor country.

Family members mourn Iryna Farion after she was killed outside her home last year - REUTERS/Roman Baluk

Viacheslav Zinchenko, an 18-year-old from Dnipro, was arrested on suspicion of her murder but has denied direct involvement.

Andriy Parubiy, 54, was a politician and activist who played a central role during the EuroMaidan Revolution. He was assassinated in August in Lviv.

In October, Ukraines SBU said it had enough evidence to prove that Russian intelligence agencies had ordered the killing.

The scene of Andriy Parubiys murder on a street in Lviv - Roman Baluk/Reuters

Mr Cutmore was first arrested back in October, although his identity was not made public at the time. The SBU alleged that he had passed information about the Ukrainian armed forces to Russia and was preparing to commit terrorist attacks.

According to the Ukrainian prosecutor-generals office, Mr Cutmore arrived in Ukraine in January 2024 to train soldiers in the southern city of Mykolaiv and later worked in a border guard unit.

He is accused of offering help to the Russian special services in September 2024 after moving to Odesa, where he established contact with a representative and agreed to pass on military information for money.

He also allegedly gathered information about facilities in Odesa, discussed using explosive devices and attempted to gain access to military unit commanders, receiving 4,500 for one of these tasks.
All options remain open for French Ship following his easy victory at Newbury on Saturday.

Philip Hobbs and Johnson Whites talented five-year-old had been raised 8lb for a win at Cheltenham in November, but he still looked ahead of the handicapper.

He has been hit with another 10lb rise as a result and connections now need to decide whether to plough on with big weights in handicaps or take the plunge into graded company.

Hes been put up 10lb, which is quite a hike, but equally it was a very strong performance, said White.

We couldnt have been happier with the run and also how hes come out of the race, which is the most important thing.

Weve no particular plans at the moment, we want to just see how he is and then well go from there.

A mark of 146 means were either towards the head of the weights in good handicaps or he makes the leap into graded company, hes in that territory now.

He keeps seeming to improve, hopefully hell improve enough to lump round off 146. Harry (Cobden) was very complimentary, understandably. He says hes got the gears to travel over shorter, but he also said hed stay further.

Hes a lovely horse, who we are very excited by.

It could be a big weekend for the Minehead yard, with two of their exciting youngsters due to be in action at different ends of the country.

Sober Glory, a 12-length winner on hurdling debut, is booked in for the Listed Betfair Exchange Claremont Novices Hurdle at Sandown, while Captain Hugo beat two smart types in Sinnatra and Storming George when he last ran and goes north to Aintree.

White said: Sober Glory goes to Sandown on Saturday. I thought theyd have a bit more rain yesterday, actually, but hell go there. Captain Hugo will go to Aintree on Saturday as well, so weve lots to look forwards to.
A jewel-studded gift, originally for the mother of Russias last emperor, has sold for a record 22.9m at auction in London.

The exquisite Winter Egg, commissioned in 1913 by Emperor Nicholas II for Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, is widely hailed as one of Faberges most lavish imperial creations.

The egg is finely carved from rock crystal, featuring an intricate engraved frost design on its interior.

The four-inch (10cm) tall egg is made from finely carved rock crystal, covered in a delicate snowflake motif wrought in platinum and 4,500 tiny diamonds.

Christies confirmed the sale on Tuesday for 22,895,000, a figure that dramatically shattered the previous world auction record for a Faberge work by over 13m.

That significant record was established in 2007 when the Rothschild Egg fetched 8.9m. Christies noted this marks the third time the Winter Egg has set a record price for a Faberge piece.

Margo Oganesian, Christies head of department for Faberge and Russian works of art, said: Christies is honoured to have been entrusted with the sale of the exquisite Winter Egg by Faberge for the third time in our history.

Christies confirmed the sale on Tuesday for 22,895,000, shattering the previous world auction record for a Faberge work by over 13m (AP)

Todays result sets a new world auction record for a work by Faberge, reaffirming the enduring significance of this masterpiece and celebrating the rarity and brilliance of what is widely regarded as one of Faberges finest creations, both technically and artistically.

With only a handful of imperial Easter eggs remaining in private hands, this was an exceptional and historic opportunity for collectors to acquire a work of unparalleled importance.

After the Russian Revolution in 1917, it was transferred from St Petersburg to the Kremlin Armoury in Moscow along with many other valuable possessions of the royal family.

In the 1920s the Soviet government began selling off art treasures from the Hermitage Museum and other collections, often for only a fraction of their value.

The Winter Egg was acquired by antiques dealer Wartski of London for 450, then sold to a British collector in 1934 for 1,500, before later being sold on to another.

It was believed lost for two decades from 1975 until 1994, when it was sold at Christies for a world record 7,263,500 Swiss francs (6.8 million).

In 2002 it was again sold by Christies for another world record of $9,579,000 (7.1 million).
Carmela Medina and Alejandro Carranza, parents of Alejandro Carranza, at their house in Santa Marta, Colombia, on 21 October 2025. Photograph: Marco Perdomo/AFP/Getty Images

A family in Colombia filed a petition on Tuesday with the Washington DC-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleging that the Colombian citizen Alejandro Carranza Medina was illegally killed in a US airstrike on 15 September.

The petition marks the first formal complaint over the airstrikes by the Trump administration against suspected drug boats, attacks that the White House says are justified under a novel interpretation of law.

The IACHR, part of the Organization of American States, is designed to promote and protect human rights in the Western Hemisphere. The US is a member, and in March the Trump administrations state department wrote: The United States is pleased to be a strong supporter of the IACHR and is committed to continuing support for the Commissions work and its independence. Preserving the IACHRs autonomy is a pillar of our human rights policy in the region.

The complaint was filed by Pittsburgh-based human rights lawyer Dan Kovalik. On September 15, 2025, the United States military bombed the boat of Alejandro Andres Carranza Medina, the filing says, which Mr Carranza was sailing in the Caribbean off the coast of Colombia. Mr Carranza was killed in the process of this bombing.

Kovalik identified Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, as the perpetrator, based on Hegseths own statements. From numerous news reports, we know that Pete Hegseth, US Secretary of Defense, was responsible for ordering the bombing of boats like those of Alejandro Carranza Medina and the murder of all those on such boats. Secretary Hegseth has admitted that he gave such orders despite the fact that he did not know the identity of those being targeted for these bombings and extra-judicial killings, the filing goes on.

The complaint adds: US President Donald Trump has ratified the conduct of Secretary Hegseth described herein.

A White House spokesperson, Anna Kelly, did not respond directly to questions about the complaint or about Carranza Medinas death, but wrote in an email that the media were now running cover for foreign terrorists smuggling deadly narcotics intended to murder Americans.

Carranza, 42, appears to have been killed in the second strike of the Trump administrations bombing campaign, on 15 September. The administration has publicly disclosed 21 strikes on alleged drug boats. Carranzas family says he was a fisher who would often set out in search of marlin and tuna.

On the day of the strike, Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that This morning, on my Orders, US Military Forces conducted a SECOND Kinetic Strike against positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility. Trump attached video marked unclassified of a small boat floating in the water before it was struck.

Although Trump said the crew was from Venezuela, the Colombian government soon identified them as Colombian.

Kovalik said: We think this is a viable way to challenge the killing of Alejandro. We are going to seek redress for the family. We want the US to be ordered to stop doing these boat attacks. It may be a first step but we think it its a good first step.

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If you don't already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS/Android) and go to the menu. Select Secure Messaging.

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If you can safely use the Tor network without being observed or monitored, you can send messages and documents to the Guardian via our SecureDrop platform.

Finally, our guide at theguardian.com/tips lists several ways to contact us securely, and discusses the pros and cons of each.
Lily Allen wore a vintage silk gown (Ian West/PA)

The Fashion Awards returned this December, a first this year for the new British Fashion Council CEO Laura Weir  and did not disappoint.

Sienna Miller wearing Givenchy by Sarah Burton (REUTERS)

After an A-list crowd counting an expecting Sienna Miller, wearing Givenchy by Sarah Burton, Lily Allen, wearing champagne silk Valentino, and Cate Blanchett, also in Givenchy by Sarah Burton, braved a typically wet, wild, and for 2025 navy, red carpet, the ceremony rolled on inside the Royal Albert Hall.

First on the nights roster was the Isabella Blow Award, presented by Gwendoline Christie, along with Simone Rocha and Craig Green. The award went to Dover Street Market, accepted by industry figures Adrian Joffe and Dickon Bowden, who thanked the visionary leadership of Rei Kawakubo.

Lily Allen wore a vintage Valentino silk gown (Ian West/PA)

Dame Anna Wintour then presented LVMH heiress Delphine Arnault with an award for her "outstanding contribution" to fashion, and her "championing" of emerging talent. It set the tone for what was a high stakes night on the international fashion stage.

Rita Ora wearing Tom Ford by Haider Ackermann (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images f)

Watching from a sea of white-tableclothed round tables was Mick Jagger, Rita Ora wearing Tom Ford by Haider Ackermann, model Alex Consani in a McQueen frock, and Alexa Chung in sculptural Chloe. Host Colman Domingo wooed the audience, welcoming to the stage presenters including Sharon Stone, Iman and Blanchett.

Little Simz in Tolu Coker (Max Cisotti/Dave Benett/Getty Images)

When it came to awards, the night confirmed the industrys current hierarchies: the top prize of Designer of the Year went to Jonathan Anderson, for his work at Dior and his own label. This marks his third consecutive win  a commendable hat-trick which sees him at the very pinnacle of the business.

In the other categories: Menswear Designer of the Year was awarded to Grace Wales Bonner, now newly appointed creative director of Hermes menswear, while Womenswear Designer of the Year went to the Sarah Burton of Givenchy.

Raye

Awards for emerging and influential talent also featured prominently. Anok Yai was named Model of the Year, and took the opportunity to speak out around the atrocities unfolding in her home country of Sudan, while Dilara Findikoglu received The Vanguard Award.

Performances by Raye, in custom Ferrari, and Tems, in a navy embellished gown, closed a ceremony that combined industry recognition with the traditional grandeur of Londons biggest fashion night out.

View the gallery for all the best dressed guests at The Fashion Awards 2025
Hegseth keeps target on Navy man over lethal narco boat strikes with eight-word retort to claim he tossed admiral under bus

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday continued what appears to be a deliberate effort to blame a veteran naval officer for the order to launch a second missile strike on an alleged drug-running boat that killed two survivors of an earlier missile hit.

Speaking at what the White House billed as the final Trump administration cabinet meeting of 2025 on Tuesday, the Pentagon boss closed out brief prepared remarks by stating that his department had only just begun striking what the administration has claimed, without offering evidence, are narco-boats and putting narco-terrorists at the bottom of the ocean, because they've been poisoning the American people.

He was referring to the series of attacks on small boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean by American forces that has killed at least 80 people since September 2, when the first such strike killed 11 people. That action has drawn renewed scrutiny since last week, when The Washington Post reported that American forces made a second strike on the vessel that killed two people whod survived the initial hit by a U.S.-made missile.

Hegseth added: We always have the back of our commanders who are making decisions in difficult situations, and we do in this case and all these strikes, they're making judgment calls and ensuring that they defend the American people. They've done the right things. We'll keep doing that, and we have their backs.

During a subsequent question-and-answer session with reporters, Hegseth acknowledged that he had given the order for the first missile hit on the boat but claimed hed already left the room when Admiral Frank Mitch Bradley, the commanding officer who oversaw the mission carried out by the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, ordered a second missile fired on the wreckage.

I watched that first strike live, as you can imagine, at the Department of War, we got a lot of things to do, so I didn't stick around ... a couple of hours later, I learned that that commander had made ... the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat, Hegseth said.

He added that he did not personally see survivors after the first missile hit because the thing was on fire and exploded.

This is called the fog of war, he said.

Pentagon brass are in an uproar over the White House blaming a veteran naval officer for allegedly ordering a second missile strike on an alleged drug-running boat to shield War Secretary Pete Hegseth. (Getty)

Hegseths buck-passing to the decorated officer came one day after the White House attributed the decision to hit the survivors of the first missile hit to Bradley, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt telling reporters at a press briefing that Bradley had worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed when ordering the follow-up attack.

The second missile strike, which left none of the vessels 11 passengers alive amid the wreckage, was carried out pursuant to what the Post called a verbal order from Hegseth to kill everyone.

It raised alarms among House and Senate armed services committee leaders, who suggested that the double-tap attack aimed at survivors of a wrecked vessel could have been illegal under American and international law because targeting shipwrecked people has long been considered a textbook example of a war crime.

But Leavitt claimed that no such laws had been violated and said Bradleys orders were well within his authority and the law.

He directed the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat from narco terrorists was eliminated, she said.

Leavitt added that the strikes were conducted in international waters and in accordance with the law of armed conflict.

Her prepared statement left Pentagon officials who spoke to the Post incensed, with one calling the press secretarys remarks protect Pete bullshit.

Another accused the White House spokesperson of throwing us, the service members, under the bus as Congress prepares to investigate the September 2 action.

Hegseth later took to social media to defend Bradley, a Naval Academy graduate who has spent much of his career within the secretive SEAL teams and was one of the first American service members to set foot in Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington.

Writing on X, he said he stood by Bradley and the combat decisions he has made  on the September 2 mission and all others since while calling the veteran officer an American hero, a true professional.

But Hegseths blame-shifting efforts may not satisfy congressional leaders who are intent on gathering more information about the attack.

Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, the Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters on Monday that hed spoken with Hegseth, Joint Chiefs of Staff chair General Dan Caine, and would soon speak with Bradley as well.

Were going to find out what the true facts are, Wicker said.
Paul Thomas Andersons One Battle After Another was named Best Feature Film, while acclaimed Iranian dissident director Jafar Panahi secured three awards at the 35th annual Gotham Awards on Monday, marking a glittering start to the film industrys awards season.

The Gothams, presented by the Gotham Film & Media Institute, are not typically seen as a predictor for the Academy Awards.

However, the black-tie ceremony, held at Cipriani Wall Street in downtown Manhattan, is renowned for championing smaller, independent films, alongside bestowing numerous tribute accolades upon Oscar hopefuls.

This years top prize for One Battle After Another, a studio release with a reported budget of at least $130m.

Maya Rudolph and Paul Thomas Anderson attend The Gotham Film Awards (Invision)

Past winners include indies like Past Lives, Everything Everywhere All at Once and the surprise 2024 winner, A Different Man.

The shift follows the Gotham Awards decision to remove their $35m budget cap for eligible films.

One Battle After Another, a poignant father-daughter narrative of multigenerational protest, is now widely tipped as a front-runner for Best Picture at Marchs Academy Awards.

"I didnt expect this, actually," Anderson admitted upon accepting the award. "I started to think I didnt know what was going on." He concluded, "Thank you very much, everybody. Lets go home or lets go to a bar somewhere or something."

Panahis triple triumph for his revenge drama It Was Just an Accident  Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Film  was, however, overshadowed by news earlier on Monday that he had been sentenced to a year in prison and a two-year travel ban.

Panahi was imprisoned for months prior to making It Was Just an Accident and was only released after undertaking a hunger strike.

Since 2010, he has been prohibited from filmmaking or leaving Iran, yet he has continued to create films without official state approval. While he had been permitted to leave Iran since 2023, this freedom ended with Mondays ruling. His film previously won the Palme dOr at Cannes.

Accepting the screenplay award, Panahi stated, "I would like to dedicate the honour of this award to independent filmmakers in Iran and around the world. Filmmakers who keep the camera rolling in silence without support and, at times, risking everything they have, only with their faith in truth and humanity."

Sheida Dayani and Jafar Panahi accept the Best Original Screenplay award for It Was Just an Accident during The Gotham Awards (Getty)

The Gothams, known for their more idiosyncratic selections compared to larger ceremonies due to small juries, saw both lead acting winners notably absent.

Sope Dirisu won Best Lead Performance for the British-Nigerian drama My Fathers Shadow, with the award accepted by the films director, Akinola Davies Jr., who also secured Breakthrough Director.

Wunmi Mosaku took Best Supporting Performance for Sinners, triumphing over nominees including Teyana Taylor and Stellan Skarsgard, with her award accepted by director Ryan Coogler.

Other winners included Pillion director Harry Lighton for adapted screenplay, Abou Sangare for breakthrough performer for Souleymanes Story, and Julia Loktevs My Undesirable Friends: Part 1  Last Air in Moscow for best documentary.

Tribute honourees included Guillermo del Toro, Scott Cooper, Tessa Thompson, Noah Baumbach, the cast of Sinners, Luca Guadagnino, Julia Roberts, Hugh Jackman, and Kate Hudson. As Jackman aptly put it, "This is a time for all of us to remember what unites us and what brings us together. And that is awards season, everybody."
Civil servants have been told they should use case studies imagery that reflects our diverse society

Civil servants have been ordered to make their advertising campaigns diverse.

The Government Communications Service (GCS), which is responsible for campaigns and policy messaging across Whitehall and aims to change behaviour for the public good, recommended that mandarins should use case studies imagery that reflects our diverse society.

However, a limited review of adverts produced after the publication of initial guidance in 2021 shows that people from ethnic minorities already feature prominently in some policy messages.

For example, an ad campaign for a child development service featured two white adults out of a total of five; and in a recruitment drive for childcare workers, only 50 per cent of models were white.

It follows a row earlier this year over diversity in adverts across British media, with critics suggesting that minorities were over-represented more generally compared with wider society.

In October, Sarah Pochin, the Reform MP, stated in an interview that it drove her mad to see advertisements full of black people, full of Asian people.

The comment was widely criticised, including by Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, and Ms Pochin later apologised.

However, she did clarify her point by arguing that adverts do not reflect our society and that the average white family is  not represented any more.

The GCS, which employs 6,000 people, is run by the Cabinet Office and prides itself on its ability to change behaviour for the public good.

Issues of representation are addressed in an inclusive communications template that civil servants managing campaigns are urged to consult.

This includes prompts about the inclusion of diverse imagery, and urges civil servants to consider whether public messaging features a wide variety of people with protected characteristics.

The GCS has urged civil servants to consider whether public messaging features a wide variety of people with protected characteristics

Additional guidance published in 2025 advises civil servants working in communications to work with minority audiences when they are creating adverts, an approach which can provide insights into lived experience.

Government communications are also urged to take into account other protected characteristics, including disability, to ensure target audiences are reached.

As part of this diversity work, comms specialists are advised to make use of TV and radio to avoid the problem of possible lower literacy levels in English and/or other languages.

In areas with lower English proficiency, government communication should make use of local groups including community and faith organisations, guidance says.

This additionally advises reaching target audiences in their native languages and using community engagement to help reach audiences that have lower levels of trust in government.

This guidance was set out following the introduction of a Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan by the GCS in 2020.

Imagery of white people are in the minority in some of the governments campaign material

A survey of recent government messaging shows that ethnic diversity has been overrepresented in some campaign material.

Material for the multi-department Start for Life Little: Moments Together campaign, for improved child development, features five adult individuals of whom two are white.

This split between white groups and ethnic minority groups is not reflective of Britains demographics. The white population of England and Wales stands at 81 per cent, as of the last census in 2021.

Northern Ireland and Scotland are less diverse, and remain over 90 per cent white.

In the Department for Educations recent Teach in Further Education campaign, there are six adult individuals at the centre of promotional posters, of whom three are white.

This 50-50 split is repeated in the Do Something Big campaign, aimed at recruiting people to work in childcare. Campaign materials feature seven white individuals out of a total of 14.

The new Best Start in Life Campaign for child health features eight white individuals across posters and social media, out of a total of 11.

The new Best Start in Life campaign for child health features an under-representation of white individuals across posters and social media

Even this higher proportion, roughly 72 per cent to 28 per cent, is not a strictly representative share.

A 2025 survey of diversity in adverts carried out by Channel 4 found, and welcomed, an over-representation of ethnic minorities in adverts surveyed.

It found that 51 per cent of adverts featured someone from a black background, despite this demographic being only 4 per cent of the population.

The same survey found that 17 per cent of adverts featured someone of South Asian heritage, higher than the population of around 9 per cent.

The Cabinet Office has been contacted for comment.
Conference underscores Florida's leadership in Life Sciences while charting strategic pathways for continued growth

ORLANDO, Fla., Dec. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Approximately 500 life sciences leaders convened at Florida's Annual Innovation Conference, powered by BioFlorida, to explore strategic opportunities and collaborative partnerships driving Florida's position as a pioneer in Life Sciences innovation. The three-day event brought together a diverse coalition of stakeholders, including biopharmaceutical executives, medical technology innovators, digital health pioneers, academic researchers, healthcare systems, investors, policymakers, and economic development professionals. The gathering reinforced Florida's prominent role as a leader in life sciences advancement nationwide.

"The momentum behind Florida's life sciences sector is unmistakable, and this conference made that clear," said Mark Glickman, President and CEO of BioFlorida. "With 80 speakers spanning AI innovation, rare disease breakthroughs, and global partnerships, the 28th Annual Innovation Conference captured the breadth of Florida's capabilities. BioFlorida's role is to keep connecting these dots and accelerating the progress that benefits our industry."

The conference showcased an exceptional roster of thought leaders, including Dr. Charles Bruce of Mayo Clinic, who delivered the chairman's address; James Taylor, CEO of Florida Technology Council, who keynoted on technology's intersection with life sciences alongside representatives from IBM and KPMG; and Florida Secretary of Commerce J. Alex Kelly, who addressed the state's economic development strategy during the awards celebration. Additional insights came from J.P. Morgan's life sciences team, who examined the state of financial markets for medtech and biotech ventures.

Programming spanned critical topics including patient care advances, Florida's biotech ecosystem, artificial intelligence's impact on healthcare innovation, neurological breakthroughs, and global partnership strategies. Notable sessions featured moderators from Mayo Clinic, AdventHealth, Nemours Children's Health, Cleveland Clinic, and Moffitt Cancer Center discussing cutting-edge patient care approaches. Economic development leaders from across Florida's regions explored opportunities for continued statewide growth in the life sciences sector.

The conference also celebrated excellence across Florida's life sciences community during the annual BioFlorida Awards Celebration. BioFlorida recognized outstanding achievements in eight categories, honoring GBI Biotechnology (Manufacturer), DermaSensor (Sales & Distribution), Anthony Japour of iTOLERANCE (Research & Developer), Nemours Children's Health (Hospital), Zevra Therapeutics (Most Significant Innovation), Quang Pham, CEO of Cadrenal Therapeutics (Executive), Fisher Scientific (Contributor of the Year), and Raquel Rodriguez (Weaver Gaines Award). Quest Diagnostics served as the premier sponsor for the awards celebration.

A highlight of the gathering was the annual BIOPITCH competition, where emerging life sciences companies presented their innovations to a panel of 16 investor judges. From 72 applications, finalists competed for $90,000 in prizes, demonstrating Florida's robust pipeline of entrepreneurial talent working to address pressing healthcare challenges.

The conference concluded with Friday sessions examining rare disease treatment paradigms, pharmacy benefit manager reform, and CEO growth strategies, followed by the signing of a memorandum of understanding between ProChile and BioFlorida to strengthen international collaboration in life sciences development.

The event reinforced a unified commitment: for Florida's life sciences stakeholders to continue partnering strategically to sustain the state's position at the forefront of biotechnological advancement. The 29th Annual Innovation Conference Powered by BioFlorida will be held on October 12-14, 2026, in Orlando, Florida. For more information visit, www.bioflorida.com.

About BioFlorida

From Concept to Consumer, BioFlorida is the premier source for supporting Florida's life sciences industry, representing a diverse range of sectors including BioPharma, MedTech, Digital Health, Health Systems, and supporting organizations. We provide comprehensive resources and advocacy while fostering a thriving community that leads in innovation, delivering groundbreaking solutions that benefit patients.

BioFlorida's value-driven membership supports the life sciences ecosystem through increased Visibility, Industry Insights, Education & Information, Networking & Events, Cost Savings, Policy & Advocacy, and Capital & Growth Opportunities.

By connecting Florida's life sciences industry with local, national, and global opportunities, BioFlorida plays a vital role in driving innovation and growth, positioning the state as a leader in the field.

SOURCE BioFlorida
The Scottish Government will introduce a new Bill to allow councils to institute a flat rate visitor levy.

Local authorities currently have the power to implement a so-called tourist tax on visitors to the area, but can only do so as a percentage of the cost of stays in hotels and other forms of accommodation.

But public finance minister Ivan McKee announced on Tuesday a Bill would be lodged in the new year to allow for a flat fee to be introduced, in the hopes it would pass before the end of the parliamentary term in March.

We want to ensure visitor levies are more flexible, so they can better meet the needs of their local visitor economy. New legislation is being prepared to give councils greater flexibility over how they design and implement the visitor levy.  https://t.co/LZyRo3D5k5 pic.twitter.com/mPoVvP2wke  Scottish Government Finance and Economy (@scotgoveconomy) December 2, 2025

In a statement, the minister said: The visitor levy empowers councils by giving them a new way to raise money for investment in tourist services and facilities.

Our aim has been to give councils the flexibility to design a levy that works for their areas, while ensuring businesses can easily understand what it means for them.

The Act passed last year was an example of partnership working between the Scottish Government, local government and tourism businesses.

Through regular discussions with our partners, it became clear that further flexibility would be welcomed.

That is why we have decided to legislate next year, to ensure local visitor levies work effectively for everyone.

Good news that @scotgov have conceded today that Councils will have flexibility to introduce a Visitor Levy as a fixed sum, or tiered sum, instead of just a percentage of total. This follows sustained pressure from @ScotTories & industry (1/2)  Murdo Fraser (@murdo_fraser) December 2, 2025

Scottish Tory economy spokesman Murdo Fraser said that while it was a relief the Government had finally listened to calls for the flat rate, the levy would still hurt local economies.

Whilst that is an improvement, this legislation is still going to impose enormous costs on, and damage to, a sector of the economy which is already struggling with too high a cost base, he said.

The introduction of the SNPs visitor levy has been handled in the most cack-handed fashion, with no real assessment of its impact, no clarity about how it will be collected, and a series of farcical U-turns about what powers councils would have.

This announcement finally confirms the flexibility to set a flat rate on the visitor levy, but it wont alter the extra costs and red tape being imposed on businesses and travellers  including Scots moving around the country for work or family reasons  or provide any assurance that these funds will benefit local communities.

STA CEO Marc Crothall MBE on Visitor Levy changes:After constructive talks with @scotgov and cross-party politicians, were heartened theyve listened to calls for an option of a fixed-fee visitor levy. Full statement available on https://t.co/b4u5jZkAlt pic.twitter.com/BxqQoKQ1Ey  ST Alliance (@st_alliance) December 2, 2025

Marc Crothall, the chief executive of the Scottish Tourism Alliance, said the move showed the Governments willingness to act on feedback from business as he pushed for councils to pause their plans for a tourist tax.

It will overall be easier and less costly for accommodation providers and local authorities to administer, and importantly more transparent for our visitors, Mr Crothall said.

We now look forward to working constructively in partnership with the Scottish Government to deliver meaningful reform of the visitor levy charging model, which we have championed from the very start.

In the meantime, we urge all local authorities to consider pausing any plans for a visitor levy scheme as this plays out in the Scottish Parliament over the next few months. Change is coming just down the line.

UKHospitality Scotland executive director Leon Thompson said the current legislation is unworkable and welcomed the Scottish Governments pragmatic approach.
Holly Willoughy has admitted driving without due care and attention in a crash which left a scooter rider with a broken neck.

The former This Morning host, 44, was at the wheel of a 25,000 Mini Cooper which collided with the scooter as she took a right turn in Barnes, south-west London on August 28.

Willoughby, who is the favourite to become the new host of BBCs Strictly Come Dancing, pleaded guilty via post at Lavender Hill magistrates court.

She was absent for her sentencing hearing on Tuesday, when magistrates ordered her to pay 2,444  made up of a 1,653 fine plus costs and a victim surcharge.

The court heard the TV star had not indicated ahead of turning, and apparently had not seen the scooter approaching.

Willoughby, who was charged under her married name, Holly Baldwin, was also handed six penalty points for her driving licence.

According to the Mail, prosecutor Geraldine Dickinson told the court that the white Piaggio scooter was overtaking Willoughbys car and was sent flying to the ground when they collided.

He reportedly suffered a fractured neck and a broken toe.

Her lawyer, Aisling Byrnes, characterised the incident as a momentary lapse of judgement, and said she herself has been left traumatised.

In a statement of the victim presented to the court, he wrote: I was travelling at a speed of around 20mph and was slowing down to stop.

As I was level with the black Mini Cooper the driver turned right without indicating in order to enter the road. This caused me to be thrown to the ground in the carriageway.

The court heard Willoughby went to the mans aid after the crash, offering the rider water and her mobile phone to make calls.

She also told police at the scene that the crash had been her fault, the Mail reported.

She was traumatised to find she had caused this accident and the injury, said Ms Byrnes.

This was an unsafe manoeuvre. There was no indicator used. Whether she looked in her mirrors is unclear. The driver didn't see the overtaking moped driver.

Magistrate David Charnley said: She has pleaded guilty at the first opportunity. There was no use of indicators, mirrors were either not checked or the driver didn't see the passing motorbike rider.

Willoughby departed as host of This Morning in 2023, after first her co-host Phillip Scofield resigned in disgrace and then she was the targeted of a kidnap plot.

She is reported to be in line for the Strictly job when Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman step down at the end of this year.
TV presenter Holly Willoughby has been fined more than 1,600 after she admitted to driving without due care and attention.

The 44-year-old did not attend her court hearing and pleaded guilty by post.

According to court documents, she drove her Mini Cooper without due care and attention near her home in Richmond, south-west London, on August 28.

At Lavender Hill Magistrates Court on Tuesday, Willoughby was fined 1,653, to be paid within 14 days, and given six points on her licence, court officials said.

The presenter is best known for previously fronting ITV daytime show This Morning, which she left in October 2023, and Dancing On Ice.
Imran Khans supporters set for stand-off with police as concerns grow for jailed leader

Supporters of Pakistans jailed former prime minister Imran Khan are preparing for a fresh stand-off with the police as concerns grow about his wellbeing.

Khans Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party plans to hold peaceful protests on 2 December in front of the Islamabad High Court and outside the Adiala jail in Rawalpindi to demand access to him.

But authorities appear determined to thwart the demonstrations, likely setting the stage for a stand-off.

Khan has been incarcerated in the Adiala jail since August 2023. He and his wife were sentenced earlier this year to 14 and seven years in jail, respectively, on corruption charges they said were fabricated.

The former leader maintains that the dozens of cases filed against him are designed to prevent his political comeback.

Khan was elected prime minister in 2018 and ousted four years later through a parliamentary vote, which he accused the countrys powerful military of orchestrating at the behest of the US.

Khan has been incarcerated in the Adiala jail since August 2023 (Reuters)

An order by Rawalpindi deputy commissioner Hassan Waqar Cheema bans all forms of public assembly  rallies, sit-ins, protests, processions  as well as the use of loudspeakers, display of weapons or potentially violent items and any attempt to breach police restrictions from 1 to 3 December.

In spite of the order, Asad Qaiser, a senior member of Khans party, said opposition lawmakers would gather outside the High Court before marching toward the jail.

The protests have been planned because the Islamabad High Court has failed to enforce its order and the Adiala jail administration is unwilling to implement the court directives, Mr Qaiser told Dawn newspaper.

Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari, a senior aide to Khan, said the restrictions imposed to thwart the protests shows you not only the oppressive nature of this set-up but also the fear of Imran Khan.

We have the right to peaceful protest. Today, according to the law, his family and legal counsel should be able to meet Imran Khan. Lets see how the authorities handle his family and his partys leaders, he said. Only further brutality is expected from them.

Supporters of Imran Khan at a protest demanding an update on his wellbeing (Reuters)

The jailed prime ministers sons and sisters recently voiced concern for his safety after the family were denied access to him. In spite of a court order guaranteeing weekly visits, Khans family said they hadnt been allowed contact for several weeks.

Khans sons said they feared authorities were concealing something irreversible about his condition.

Not knowing whether your father is safe, injured or even alive is a form of psychological torture, one of his children, Kasim Khan, told Reuters. Today, we have no verifiable information at all about his condition. Our greatest fear is that something irreversible is being hidden from us.

He had earlier alleged that Khan was kept alone in a death cell in an environment of complete isolation.

Khans sisters said they had been denied access to him for weeks, despite multiple formal requests to prison authorities.

They said every attempt to meet the former leader in the Adiala jail had been blocked without explanation, forcing them to rely on second-hand updates about his condition that they claimed were neither transparent nor verifiable.

Their frustration boiled over last week when they staged a protest at the jail where they alleged that police had manhandled them. The episode intensified public scrutiny of the governments handling of Khans detention.

Police escort a vehicle carrying Sohail Afridi, chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, outside Adiala Jail in November (Reuters)

The concerns only grew after members of Khans party revealed that he had been denied access to his personal physician for over a year. They said this could be because authorities were hiding serious developments regarding his health.

The Independent has reached out to prison authorities for comment.

Tension over Khans wellbeing had been building up since rumours began circulating, stoked by social media and some foreign outlets, that he may have died in custody. Though the claim remains unverified, it has caused outrage among supporters who have demanded transparency and proof of life.

Senior members of Khans party have shared similar concerns. Mr Bukhari said last week that the rumours about the leaders health were gaining traction because of the prolonged blackout. We should just be allowed to meet him, he told The Independent, arguing that a single visit would dispel speculation.

Adiala jail authorities have rejected the allegations, insisting the former leader was in good physical condition.

For supporters of Khans party who are on edge from years of political struggle and crackdowns, the coming standoff may prove a tipping point.
India appears to have backtracked on an order for all smartphones to run a government-launched cybersecurity app, after a backlash over privacy concerns.

The directive was issued to leading manufacturers including Apple and Samsung, giving them 90 days to make sure all new phones are sold with the Sanchar Saathi app pre-installed.

They were also ordered to ensure the app could not be deleted by users, and that future software updates would roll the app out to owners of older phone models as well.

After a backlash from experts, opposition parties and members of the public, who called the move dystopian and said forcing a government app on users in this way put India on a par with North Korea and Russia, Indias telecoms minister said on Tuesday that the app would remain completely optional.

If you want to delete it, you can. If you dont wish to register, you shouldnt register and can remove it anytime, he told reporters outside parliament, contrary to the orders issued in the directive.

Factcheck : This clarification is incorrect. The direction clearly states in Paragraph 7(b) which states that Sanchar Sathi cannot be, "disabled or restricted".



IFF's statement : https://t.co/yhnI1jhepZ https://t.co/EMrD2EX0vP pic.twitter.com/P4LYM3OdR8  Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) (@internetfreedom) December 2, 2025

The Sanchar Saathi app allows users to block or track a stolen phone across networks and to weed out mobile numbers fraudulently registered under their name.

Government data shows the app  launched in January  has supported the recovery of more than 700,000 lost phones, including 50,000 in October alone, and helped cut access to millions of fraudulent mobile connections.

Authorities say Sanchar Saathi aims to prevent what they call serious endangerment to telecom cybersecurity stemming from spoofed or duplicated IMEI numbers  the unique 14- to 17-digit identifier embedded in every handset.

The government had argued that rolling the app out more broadly was a necessary defence against expanding cyber threats.

But the order prompted alarm among privacy advocates and risked a confrontation with Apple in particular, with the US companys policies prohibiting countries from forcing it to pre-install apps, including government-run ones.

The order, first reported by Reuters and since widely shared online, was not made public and was shared privately with select brands, including Apple, Samsung, Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi.

The opposition Congress party demanded an immediate rollback and said the move violated citizens right to privacy. KC Venugopal, Congress general secretary, said: Big Brother cannot watch us. This DoT (Department of Telecommunications) Direction is beyond unconstitutional

The Right to Privacy is an intrinsic part of the fundamental right to life and liberty, enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution.

A pre-loaded government app that cannot be uninstalled is a dystopian tool to monitor every Indian. It is a means to watch over every movement, interaction and decision of each citizen.

Big Brother cannot watch us. This DoT Direction is beyond unconstitutional.



The Right to Privacy is an intrinsic part of the fundamental right to life and liberty, enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution.



A pre-loaded government app that cannot be uninstalled is a pic.twitter.com/kx33c7fmda  K C Venugopal (@kcvenugopalmp) December 1, 2025

This is part of the long series of relentless assaults on the constitutional rights of Indian citizens and will not be allowed to continue.

We reject this direction and demand an immediate rollback.

However, critics said the policy outlined in the directive undermined a fundamental principle of digital autonomy. The government effectively removes user consent as a meaningful choice, said technology lawyer and internet-policy specialist Mishi Choudhary earlier.

Forcing a non-disableable, non-uninstallable government application onto every new phone in India crosses every red line the Constitution drew. It is not cyber security; it is state spyware by another name.  Divyanshu Rai (@divstoic) December 1, 2025

Privacy activists previously criticised Russia for imposing a similar requirement earlier this year for its own state-backed messenger service.

Priyanka Chaturvedi, member of parliament, wrote on X: Sanchar Saathi mobile application mandate to every mobile phone manufacturer as a permanent mobile feature by the GoI (government of India) is nothing but another BIG BOSS surveillance moment. Such shady ways to get into individual phones will be protested and opposed & if the IT Ministry thinks that instead of creating robust redressal systems it will create surveillance systems then it should be ready for a pushback!

Another controversial move, Centre directs mobile manufacturers to pre-install Sanchar Saathi mobile Application in all mobile phones, its functionalities cannot be disabled or restricted.



Unrestricted access to our phones ?! pic.twitter.com/pIA0BIFTVA  Arvind Gunasekar (@arvindgunasekar) December 1, 2025

Another X user, Tehseen Poonawalla, wrote: Outrageous! Wake up INDIA! The Govts Sanchar Saathi app mandate is a blatant assault on our privacy & freedom! By forcing it pre-installed on every new phone, not allowing us to uninstall the app, all under the guise of safety, the government will potentially have the power to spy on our calls, texts & location. This is surveillance at its worst, & the government will have the power to track us like criminals!

We need to fight this.

We will defeat the Govt move to order phone manufacturers to pre-install the undeletable Sanchar Saathi on all new phones sold in India & to push it on existing phones via updates. We will defeat this order constitutionally & democratically!

Jai Hind Jai Bharat Jai Constitution! pic.twitter.com/7WT5xmdXDJ  Tehseen Poonawalla Official  (@tehseenp) December 1, 2025

Apple occupies a small but growing share of Indias smartphone market  about 4.5 per cent of 735 million devices as of mid-2025  according to Counterpoint Research. The company has previously locked horns with the telecoms regulator over development of a government anti-spam mobile app.

While Apple typically pre-loads its own suite of applications, internal policy explicitly prohibits pre-installation of any government or third-party software before sale. A person familiar with the companys stance told Reuters that exception requests have consistently been denied around the world.

Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint, said Apples position is unlikely to shift quickly: Apple has historically refused such requests from governments. He noted that the company might pursue a compromise such as adding an on-screen prompt encouraging  rather than forcing  users to download the app.

Sanchar Saathi mobile Application mandate to every mobile phone manufacturer as a permanent mobile feature by the GoI is nothing but another BIG BOSS surveillance moment.

Such shady ways to get into individual phones will be protested and opposed & if the IT Ministry thinks that  Priyanka Chaturvedi (@priyankac19) December 1, 2025

Its likely to seek a middle ground: instead of a mandatory pre-install, they might negotiate and ask for an option to nudge users towards installing the app.

The Independent has reached out to Indias telecom ministry and Apple, Samsung, Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi for comments.

India is the worlds second-largest mobile phone market, with more than 1.2 billion telecom subscribers. Sanchar Saathi has been downloaded more than 5 million times, according to official figures, and has been used to block over 3.7 million stolen or lost phones and terminate more than 30 million fraudulent mobile connections.

More bad news for mobile phone users in India (after SIM binding): Our government is mandating a government app (sanchar saathi) on every new phone, permanently, Reuters reports.



Will be pushed to your phone via OTA. New smartphones need to have it. Users cannot delete it. This  Nikhil Pahwa (@nixxin) December 1, 2025

To digital rights campaigners, mandatory, non-removable state software sets a troubling precedent. They warn that the lack of public consultation over the move raises deeper questions about monitoring and data security at a time when smartphone-based identification, banking and communication tools are woven into daily life.

An X user who goes by the name Mohit Chauhan wrote: Countries with non-deletable govt mobile application on citizens phones:  Russia  North Korea.

Now the Modi government has asked smartphone makers to preload all new devices in India with the non-deletable, state-owned Sanchar Saathi app.
IRS agents will be required to watch OnlyFans to determine if content fits no tax on tips criteria

IRS agents will be required to watch pornographic content on OnlyFans to determine if the content meets the no tax on tips law included in Donald Trumps Big, Beautiful Bill.

The presidents controversial tax and spending policies were passed on July 4, 2025, with the slashing of taxes on tips being designed to incentivize people to earn more tips at work.

However, the new law included a caveat. Pornographic creators and actors, including OnlyFans influencers, were not entitled to have taxes waived on their work.

Some campaigners have argued that the wording is too vague, with one accountant telling The New York Times that the line of what is considered pornography is unclear.

Wheres the line? said Katherine Studley, who works with several OnlyFans creators. Just because youre on OnlyFans, that doesnt necessarily mean its pornographic.

You could have a cooking channel or a yoga channel.

IRS workers could be required to watch OnlyFans content to determine whether it meets the No Tax on Tips law

Defining what pornography actually is has often proven difficult for lawmakers, meaning that it usually has to be judged on a case-by-case basis. When the First Amendment is used to defend pornography in court, lawmakers have to view the material in question to make a judgment.

That means taxpayers who report tips from OnlyFans will likely need to have their content viewed by an IRS agent.

Ultimately, it would be the subjective determination of an IRS examiner or a Tax Court judge, Thomas Gorczynski, a tax preparer, told The New York Times. Sometimes you look at something and its clearly pornography, but sometimes you look at something and you think, Eh its subjective. Somebody might be really into it.

Professions that do enjoy tax exemptions on their tips include bartenders, waiters, non-radio DJs, maids, plumbers, tattoo artists, gold caddies, and several dozen more.

OnlyFans creators were exempted from the No Tax on Tips law after campaigners wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

However, getting the policy into a workable state has been a lengthy process with calls for more jobs, including clergy members, chiropractors, and even Santa Claus performers, to be included in the bill.

The decision to exempt pornographic creators, who could have been exempted from tax as online creators, was made after Conservatives and Christian groups wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

The letter suggested that the government should not give tax breaks to predatory industries that profit from exploiting young men and women, destroying marriages, families, and lives.

Campaigners have called for the IRS to acknowledge that OnlyFans includes more than just pornographic content (Getty Images)

Meanwhile, OnlyFans has seen its popularity soar in recent years, with Forbes determining that $7.2 billion was spent on the website last year.

According to Addiction Help, around 67 percent of American men and 41 percent of women view pornography each year on sites including OnlyFans.

Statistics were particularly high among younger people, with 57 percent of people aged 18-25 admitting to watching adult content, compared to 29 percent of those aged 26 or older.

Project 2025, written by The Heritage Foundation, states that pornography should be outlawed in the United States, something Jessica Goedtel, a financial planner for sex workers, fears could be around the corner.

This is the direction that the government is moving in, she told The New York Times. That could mean a full-scale ban on porn; it could mean something less than that, but it creates a lot of fear for my clients. The IRS could be used as a tool.
Fawlty Towers actor John Cleese has said he thinks the BBC doesnt know how to nurture comedy, and that theres not much great comedy these days, while reflecting on his time working with the broadcaster.

Speaking to LBC on Tuesday, the 86-year-old said he thinks very few people understand comedy, and reminisced about the wonderful collection of talent that used to be at the BBC.

He went on to say the BBC is a bureaucracy, and said: Bureaucrats arent very good at humour.

Cleese said: In the case of the BBC, there isnt the executive understanding of how to nurture comedy, which is why theres not much great comedy these days.

I think its because John Birt turned the BBC into a bureaucracy.

And bureaucrats arent very good at humour  because they try to decide things in committee.

The 86-year-old comic actor told LBC he doesnt think the BBC knows how to nurture comedy (Ian West/PA Wire)

Speaking to presenter Nick Ferrari, the comic actor said: They use a lot of committees to make decisions  which is rubbish.

You cant write comedy in a committee.

It was wonderful when there was a collection of talent at the BBC, he added.

He went on to remember working on BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers with actor Bernard Cribbins, saying: Id never seen such a wonderful performer.

He also reminisced about working on the show with actors Ken Campbell and Geoffrey Palmer, and said: Theres so many good comedy actors in England, we should be celebrating them.

Speaking about the Fawlty Towers theatre production, Cleese said: Its a really wonderful production.

Its not dating at all.
Cabinet feedback seems to be the euphemism of the day, at least so far as David Lammys sweeping reforms to the criminal court system in England and Wales go.

One can only imagine the formal and informal pressure that was exerted on the lord chancellor when his colleagues discovered, via leaks and, presumably, Whitehall gossip, that a shake-up of the legal system, which would signal the beginning of the end for trial by jury, was supposedly being considered.

Mr Lammy has instead announced the creation of new swift courts, which will see a judge decide verdicts in thousands of cases, scrapping jury trials for either way cases, including those for assault, burglary and drug dealing. This is one government U-turn that is to be warmly welcomed.

Despite the countrys all-too-apparent economic problems and the perma-crises in the public services, Britain cannot have sunk so low as to deprive its citizens of a human right they have enjoyed for 800 years, and in times far tougher than today. It was not, after all, restricted so much even in wartime and, aside from the Covid pandemic, the only part of the United Kingdom where it has been more routinely denied was in Northern Ireland for a brief, and disastrous, period for terrorism offences during the height of the Troubles.

One danger that David Lammy must reassure public and parliament about is any sense that jury trial as a democratic backstop is about to end (PA)

More pertinently, Mr Lammy and his colleagues in the justice department are perfectly correct to place another well-respected principle of fairness on the judicial scales  that justice delayed is justice denied. It cannot be right that victims of rape, for example, should need to wait four or five years to see their cases heard  and too many drop out of the system because of the agony of that delay.

The courts, like the prisons, have relied to an extraordinary extent on paper systems, and those will often be more prone to human error than a digital system, as well as being more costly and less efficient. Modernisation has become the most urgent of tasks. It would certainly help relieve Mr Lammy of the duty of defending the accidental release of random convicts.

The story does, though, raise some questions about Mr Lammys judgement. It would have been far better for him to have accepted the reform agenda originally handed to him after careful study by Sir Brian Leveson, a highly distinguished judge additionally endowed with a keen and rare sense of the art of the possible.

We are now more or less back where Sir Brians review recommended, with modest reforms to the system that balance justice and cost with new courts fitting between the magistrates and the crown courts.

Mr Lammy calls his version swift courts, which at least captures the purpose of them. After all, it was never sensible even in the time of King John to make jury trial automatic for the most trivial of offences, and most transgressions are competently dealt with by magistrates alone.

On balance, there may be no alternative to having judge-only trials for particularly technical and lengthy fraud and financial offences. It is and always has been a question of balance. In all events, the present system of appeals remains intact.

Cases where the potential outcome is close, and those with a public interest, or political aspect, also need to be protected by a jury: incitement, protest, human rights and terror spring to mind.

Thus, one danger that Mr Lammy must reassure the public and parliament about is any sense that jury trial as a democratic backstop is about to end. There are many celebrated historical cases over the centuries that have entrenched the rights of juries not to convict even in cases where the evidence and a judges summing-up point in that direction.

In the enlightened words of one judge back in the 17th century, and now instructionally displayed at the Old Bailey: Jurors, you have an absolute right to acquit a defendant according to your conscience. In recent years, we have seen one jury refuse to convict members of Palestine Action on charges of criminal damage to a weapons factory, forcing a retrial; and an instance where climate protesters who had vandalised the premises of JP Morgan in London were acquitted.

In such cases, a jury trial should be available, and especially given the danger that a judge-only trial would lead to accusations of political bias and undermine the independence of the judiciary.

Mr Lammy should also try more generally to ensure that these new restrictions on the right to be tried by ones fellow citizens are temporary, and for the soft courts to be eventually wound up. In the Commons, he rejected that, said they were permanent (illogically, given the thrust of his arguments), and he said no to adding a sunset clause to the legislation. This may well prove a mistake if cross-party dissatisfaction grows and coalesces around this idea.

Even if it takes years, while the backlog in the courts is cleared and the right to prompt justice restored, the general presumption of a basic right to trial by jury has to be re-established. The present situation should be treated as abnormal. In serious, sensitive, political and borderline cases, juries are an essential safeguard against overreach by a power-hungry executive and/or a politically compromised judiciary  and they will be for another 800 years, at the least.
Lammy to lay out sweeping reforms for swift justice including plans to scrap jury trials in thousands of cases

David Lammy has insisted he wants to save the jury system as he gears up to unveil sweeping reforms which would see some criminal trials decided by judges alone.

The justice secretary will lay out the most radical court reforms in a generation in the Commons on Tuesday, as part of efforts to tackle what he described as the courts emergency.

It was reported last week that the measures could go as far as scrapping juries for all but the most serious crimes  such as rape and murder  but the proposals were met with opposition by legal professionals.

Asked by Sky News on Tuesday about that move, Mr Lammy, who is also the deputy prime minister, refused to say whether he planned to go so far as to scrap juries for all but the most serious crimes.

He instead said he was looking at making changes to either way cases  in which a defendant is able to choose whether their case is heard in front of a jury in the crown court, or in a magistrates court.

These can include cases such as theft, burglary and drug offences.

Mr Lammy said: There's a group of cases. Theyre called triable either way cases, theyre cases where you could be sentenced up to, generally, five years in prison. And can some of those cases either be dealt with by magistrates, or can they be dealt with in a new division within the crown court. Thats what Im looking at.

Defending his plans, he told The Times: I will not be standing up in parliament tomorrow and announcing that we are scrapping jury trials, which remains a fundamental part of our system, and is one of the big contributions that flow out of Magna Carta  indeed, to much of the common law and the global community.

The government will lay out plans to overhaul the justice system (PA Archive)

This is about saving the jury system.

Proposals to drastically curb jury trials have faced opposition from MPs and legal professionals, including from the Criminal Bar Association and the Bar Council, which argued there is no need to curtail the right to a trial by jury  from both a principle and practical position.

During his statement on Tuesday, the deputy prime minister is expected to plough ahead with bold reforms to tackle the crown court backlog, which has soared to a record high of 78,000 cases, with trials listed as far as 2030.

Ministers have warned this could rise to 100,000 by 2028 if nothing is done, with a growing number of victims giving up on seeking justice because of the lengthy delays.

Mr Lammy said: For many victims, justice delayed is often justice denied. Some give up on the process, while others have no confidence justice will be served if they report a crime, and perpetrators never held to account.

This simply cannot go on  we must be bold. I will set out a fast and fair justice plan that gives victims and survivors the swift justice they deserve.

But speaking to Times Radio, he admitted it will be impossible to clear the courts backlog by the next election but said his plans will help to reduce it.

Lammy is expected to create faster routes for lower-level cases like in Canada (James Manning/PA Wire)

Mr Lammys statement comes after recommendations were made by Sir Brian Leveson in July to reform the courts system and tackle the backlog.

Sir Brian called for more cases to be diverted to magistrates courts or to a new intermediate court where a judge would hear cases with two lay magistrates.

The former senior judge also called for juries to be reserved to hear the most serious cases, of indictable-only offences such as murder, rape and manslaughter, and lesser either way offences when a judge deems it appropriate.

He also called for judge-only trials to be used in serious and complex fraud cases, or other complex cases determined by a judge.

Reports claiming Mr Lammy was considering restricting jury trials further than Sir Brians recommendations faced backlash from the Law Society of England and Wales, which has said it has not seen any real evidence it will work to reduce the backlog.

They warned the government still has time to pull the justice system back from the brink ahead of the announcement, adding that Sir Brians recommendations were already an uncomfortable compromise.

Robert Jenrick, shadow justice secretary, accused Mr Lammy of completely abandoning his principles after he previously defended juries while in opposition.

Ministers fear the court backlog will reach 100,000 by 2028 (PA Archive)

Labour have chosen to spend billions of extra pounds on benefits payments rather than funding the courts to get the backlog down, Mr Jenrick said. This year alone, 21,000 court sitting days have been missed and the court backlog is up 10 per cent on their watch.

Instead of depriving British citizens of ancient liberties, David Lammy should get his own department in order.

According to the Ministry of Justice, nearly half of the cases in the backlog are violent and sexual offences, and only about 3 per cent of criminal cases are currently heard with a judge and a jury.

As part of the announcement, 550m will also be given to victim support services over the next three years to help survivors and witnesses through the justice process, such as through counselling and advice on attending court.

The late victims commissioner Baroness Helen Newlove had repeatedly raised concerns over victims services, and said in October that support can be the difference between a victim staying engaged or walking away from the justice process.

An annual survey of victims by the watchdog found that less than half of respondents were confident that the criminal justice system is effective or that they could get justice by reporting a crime.

Mr Lammy has also committed to more crown court sitting days and a match-fund scheme to support more young people to begin their careers as criminal barristers.
China has agreed to a request to consolidate all of its diplomatic staff into the planned building, a large former Royal Mint site in east London

Labours decision on a new Chinese mega-embassy in London has been delayed by another month amid wrangling over security concerns.

The Home Office and Foreign Office have each received security advice from MI5 and MI6 and have now approved the new building, clearing the way for final approval from Steve Reed, the Housing Secretary.

The UK government announced on Tuesday that China had agreed to a request to consolidate all of its diplomatic staff into the planned building, a large former Royal Mint site in east London.

However, further delays in the process have pushed the deadline back by over a month, from Dec 10 to Jan 20, when Sir Keir Starmer is expected to visit Beijing on a diplomatic trip.

The decision on the embassy has been repeatedly delayed, to the frustration of Chinese ministers and officials, since an application was first lodged with Tower Hamlets council in 2020.

UK officials were concerned that allowing China to operate an enormous new embassy, plus its existing diplomatic buildings in London, would give Beijing too large a presence in London.

Sir Keir Starmer is expected to visit Beijing on a diplomatic trip in January - Stefan Rousseau/REUTERS

Downing Street suggested that the consideration of particular security implications meant that more time was needed to consider the planning application for a Chinese embassy in central London.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman told reporters: An independent planning decision will be made by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government in due course.

The Home Office and Foreign Office have provided views on particular security implications, and have been clear throughout that a decision shouldnt be taken until we affirm that those considerations have been completed or resolved.

MHCLG [The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government] considers that more time is needed for full consideration of the applications.

Planning documents seen by The Telegraph show that Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, and Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, wrote to Mr Reeds department on Thursday to give their consent for the embassy to go ahead.

China critics, human rights campaigners and nearby residents have all objected to the development, claiming that it would enhance Beijings ability to spy on the UK.

Concerns have also been raised over a spy dungeon in the basement of the site, which was redacted on documents submitted to the planning inquiry for security reasons.

The decision on the embassy has been repeatedly delayed since an application was first lodged with Tower Hamlets council in 2020

Ministers had asked China to agree to move all of its diplomatic staff in London into the building if it received planning consent, and to close down other premises across the capital.

Ms Cooper and Ms Mahmood said they had reached an arrangement with the Chinese government on the consolidation of its diplomatic premises in London.

The Chinese government has committed to consolidate all currently accredited diplomatic premises in London (excluding the ambassadors residence) into one site at the Royal Mint Court (subject to planning approval), they said.

Mr Reed, who will make the final decision on the embassy in a quasi-judicial role as the UKs most senior planning inspector, has now delayed the final decision to allow him to consult other parties on Chinas decision.

A letter sent to consultees on the case said that a decision will now be issued on or before 20 January 2026.

The deadline could clash with the visit by Sir Keir to Beijing, which would be his first since taking office last year.

The planned mega-embassy in central London has faced fierce opposition - SOPA Images

The Labour government has been accused of behaving too favourably towards China, including over the collapse of a major espionage case against two men accused of spying for Chinese intelligence agencies earlier this year.

Chinas application was initially rejected by Tower Hamlets council, but the Labour government agreed to call in the decision to the MHCLG after last years general election.

Whitehall sources told The Telegraph that the issue has been repeatedly raised by Chinese diplomats since then, with some Communist Party officials expressing frustration that their plans to build the largest embassy in Europe had been delayed.

If the embassy is approved, the decision is likely to face an immediate legal challenge by residents who live around the Royal Mint Court site, who argue that it would be a security risk.

Sir James Cleverly MP, the shadow housing, communities and local government secretary, said: Labour have tried to steamroll through the approval of the Chinese mega embassy without proper scrutiny, despite serious concerns being raised about the danger it poses to Britains national security.

He added: Throughout this process ministers have sought to suppress criticism of the embassy plans. Even our security services have been prevented from submitting private evidence to the inquiry.

The Government must now ensure they can submit their concerns, via a private hearing, safe from the eyes of the regime in Beijing. And it is essential that the authorities have access to the full unredacted drawings hidden by the Chinese government.

Labour ministers dont have the backbone to stand up to China, which is why they are so desperate to sign the embassy off.

Luke de Pulford, a human rights campaigner at the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said: The Government must stop these endless delays and bite the bullet.

Its a straight choice: upset Beijing or face a catastrophic judicial review. Get on with it and put us out of our misery.
MEDFORD, Ore., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- In the quarter, LAD has invested $274 million to repurchase nearly 875,000 shares at a weighted average price of $313, representing 3.3% of outstanding shares.

"Our share repurchases this quarter demonstrate our conviction in our resilient profitability, generative cash flows and omnichannel model," said Bryan DeBoer, Lithia and Driveway President and CEO. "Our strong balance sheet and shares trading below intrinsic value allows us to return capital while also strengthening our network through strategic acquisitions."

To date this year, LAD has invested nearly $933 million to repurchase 2.98 million shares at a weighted average price of $313. This represents 11.3% of outstanding shares. $636 million remains available for repurchase under the existing share repurchase authorization.

Fines Ford Acquisition

Additionally, LAD completed the acquisition of Fines Ford in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada. This strategic investment demonstrates LAD's continued ability to strengthen its network in the North American market. This store is expected to increase annualized revenue by $100 million.

"We are excited to expand our presence in the Canadian market with the addition of Fines Ford to the Lithia & Driveway family. This strategic investment in Canada's number one volume brand strengthens our omnichannel network in the nation's largest market," said Bryan DeBoer, Lithia and Driveway President and CEO. "Fines Ford's customer loyalty and established reputation in the community align perfectly with our strategy to provide exceptional experiences wherever, whenever, and however customers desire. This accretive acquisition reflects our disciplined approach to delivering sustainable growth and shareholder value while bringing new customers into our unique ecosystem."

This addition brings LAD's total year-to-date expected annualized revenue to $2.2 billion and was financed using existing on-balance sheet capacity.

About Lithia & Driveway (LAD)

Lithia & Driveway (NYSE: LAD) is the largest global automotive retailer providing a wide array of products and services throughout the vehicle ownership lifecycle. Simple, convenient, and transparent experiences are offered through our comprehensive network of physical locations, e-commerce platforms, captive finance solutions, fleet management offerings, and other synergistic adjacencies. We deliver consistent, profitable growth in a massive and unconsolidated industry. Our highly diversified and competitively differentiated design provides us the flexibility and scale to pursue our vision to modernize personal transportation solutions wherever, whenever and however consumers desire.

Sites

www.lithia.com

www.investors.lithiadriveway.com

www.lithiacareers.com

www.driveway.com

www.greencars.com

www.drivewayfinancecorp.com

Lithia & Driveway on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/LithiaMotors

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SOURCE Lithia Motors, Inc.
Luigi Mangione is accused of murdering Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare - Curtis Means

Luigi Mangiones distinctive bushy eyebrows gave him away, the McDonalds worker who turned him in said.

The 27-year-old spent more than five days on the run following the alleged murder of Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare.

Mr Mangione was eventually found in a McDonalds in the city of Altoona, Pennsylvania, and arrested on Dec 4 2024.

He was wearing a medical mask over his face and a beanie hat, in an apparent attempt to hide his appearance.

Its not really an emergency, but I have a customer here that some other customers were suspicious of, that he looks like the CEO shooter from New York, the restaurants manager said in the 911 call that was played to Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Luigi Mangiones identity was discovered when he was sitting in a McDonalds in Altoona, Pennsylvania

Mr Mangione had sat down roughly 10 minutes before the 9am call took place.

The manager continued: Theyre really upset and theyve come to me.

She struggled to describe Mr Mangione, who was said to have been sitting near the bathroom in the McDonalds, beyond his mid height and mid weight.

The only thing you can see is his eyebrows, she said.

Mr Mangione in court on Monday - STEVEN HIRSCH/AFP

The operator said they had dispatched a police officer to the McDonalds. Just keep an eye on him. If he leaves, let us know, they added.

Two officers arrived shortly afterwards, where Mr Mangione continued to eat his food while talking to them. He was arrested when more police arrived, shortly after finishing his breakfast.

Police were so sceptical that they would find the alleged killer in the McDonalds restaurant that they bet their colleague they would buy his lunch if he found Mr Mangione.

I did not think it was going to be the person that they thought it was, Joseph Detwiler, one of the first officers on the scene, told the court.

The McDonalds where Mr Mangione was found - CAMERON CROSTON/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

According to CNN, Mr Detwiler and a second officer approached Mr Mangione, asking him to pull down his mask and reveal his face.

I knew it was him immediately, Mr Detwiler said.

Although they frisked Mr Mangione, the officer said he did not realise the alleged assassin had a knife in his pocket until Mr Mangione told him some 20 minutes later.

The hearing, which began on Monday, will investigate Mr Mangiones claims that his rights were breached when police questioned him and searched his rucksack before obtaining a warrant.

Mr Mangione faces up to life in prison if found guilty of murdering Thompson.

The US justice department, which has mounted a separate case against the 27-year-old, is seeking the death penalty.
House Speaker Mike Johnson finally found a point of contention with Donald Trump  unable to defend the president for hurling at Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz a slur used to denigrate people with disabilities when The Independent asked him about it Tuesday.

During the Thanksgiving holiday, Trump lambasted Walz for a welfare fraud scandal in Minnesota, calling him seriously r*****ed on Truth Social. Trump later doubled down on the insult used against people with disabilities, telling reporters, Absolutely. Sure. You have a problem with it?

The Independent asked Johnson during his weekly press conference about the slur, which caused Lisa McClain, the chairwoman of the House Republican conference, to laugh.

Look, that's not the word I would choose, Johnson said. I think his reaction was probably a spontaneous one to the enormous amount of fraud that was announced there.

Trump has faced little backlash from other Republicans for his use of the word.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said he would not have used a slur that President Donald Trump used to insult Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. (Getty Images)

But Mike Bohacek, a Republican state legislator from Indiana, said that he would oppose efforts to redraw Indianas congressional map after Trump used the slur. Bohacek has a daughter with Down Syndrome.

Still, Johnson defended the sentiment of Trumps remarks, which he made on Thanksgiving as part of his presidential wish for the nation.

And, you know, that's not the word I would choose, but I think everybody understands how absurd and crazy that is, and how Congress has an immediate obligation to look into it, and the administration is as well, Johnson told The Independent.

Walz criticized Trumps use of the word on Meet the Press on Sunday but few Republicans have been asked about it since then.

President Donald Trump called Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) seriously r******d on Truth Social. (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

He's normalized this type of hateful behavior and this type of language, Walz said. And mainly, look, at first, I think it's just because he's not a good human being, but secondly to distract from using competency.

But Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a doctor from Johnsons home state, also said he had not seen it.

I didn't hear that, so I'd rather not comment on things that I'm not aware of, he told The Independent.

The word has long been considered a slur after initially being considered a medical term and presidents of both parties have sought to end the use of the word, NBC News reported earlier this year.

In 2003, President George W. Bush changed the name of the President's Committee on Mental Retardation to the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. In 2010, President Barack Obama signed Rosas Law that replaced the word with the term intellectual disabilities in federal statutes.

But the word has made a recent resurgence on the right.

It is not the first time that Trump has come under fire for denigrating people with disabilities either.

Trump famously mocked Serge Kovaleski, a former New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter with a disability, in 2015. Trump has also called autism a horror show when speaking with Robert F. Kennedy, his secretary of Health and Human Services.

Trump has also repeatedly parroted the lie that childhood vaccination causes autism, which has made some parents worried about getting their children screened.

Johnson for his part has repeatedly defending most of Trumps rhetoric and social media posts. In October, Johnson defended Trump posting an AI video of himself wearing a crown while flying a fighter jet that dumped feces on protesters at the nationwide No Kings protests.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal is accused of shooting two National Guard members in Washington, DC

An Afghan migrant shouted Allahu Akbar before allegedly shooting two National Guard members just streets from the White House, court documents claim.

On Tuesday, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, was charged with murder, assault and firearm offences.

Charging documents claim the suspect was seen shooting a gun and screaming Aallahu Akbar! as the two victims fell to the ground.

Mr Lakanwal is also accused of chasing another National Guard troop and firing three shots, according to the documents.

Rahmanullah Lakanwal appears to ambush National Guard officers

Andrew Wolfe, 24, was taken to hospital after the attack on Wednesday, in which he and Sarah Beckstrom, a fellow member of the West Virginia National Guard, were shot at close range.

Beckstrom, 20, died from her injuries. Donald Trump labelled the attack an act of terror.

Patrick Morrisey, the West Virginia governor, said during a press conference on Monday that he could not yet share details of any funeral arrangements for Beckstrom, and wanted to respect her familys wishes.

However, he added that Mr Wolfe was showing some signs of improvement.

We were told that he also wiggled his toes, he said. So we take that as a positive sign.

Andrew Wolfe remains in hospital. Sarah Beckstrom died from her injuries - AFP

Authorities said the two National Guard members had been sworn in to guard the streets of the US capital less than 24 hours before the shooting took place on Nov 26, the day before Thanksgiving.

Investigators are working to determine a motive for Mr Lakanwal. On Sunday, Kristi Noem, the department of homeland security secretary, said it is believed the suspect may have been radicalised after he entered the country.

The former special forces commander who worked with the CIA was shot in the confrontation and remains in hospital, according to authorities. A court appearance has not yet been scheduled.

Mr Lakanwal immigrated to the United States in 2021 under Joe Biden, during the evacuation of Afghanistan, and was granted asylum during Mr Trumps second term.

In the wake of the attack, the White House has halted all asylum decisions and paused issuing visas for people travelling on Afghan passports.

The National Guard officers appear to flee Mr Lakanwal

Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary, said he would send 500 more National Guard members to the capital, on Mr Trumps orders, to bolster the presidents crackdown on crime that began in August.

Overall, nearly 2,200 troops are currently assigned to the joint task force operating in the city, according to the governments latest update.

More than 300 West Virginia National Guard members were deployed in August. In mid-November, up to 170 of them volunteered to extend their deployment until the end of the year.

Andrew needs prayers

Our sole focus right now is looking after the well-being of the 170 service members who are on the ground, focusing on the family, assuring that prayers are going out, Mr Morrisey said.

Andrew is still fighting for his life, he added. Andrew needs prayers.

The president paid tribute to Beckstrom and Mr Wolfe on Monday at a White House Christmas party.

I spoke to her parents the other night and shes looking down, and shes so proud of her country and she loved her parents so much, and her parents couldnt believe what happened, Mr Trump said.
Volodymyr Zelensky has voiced a little bit of optimism over Donald Trumps peace talks to end Vladimir Putins war in Ukraine.

The president of Ukraine highlighted the speed of negotiations to try to get an agreement which could be accepted by both Moscow and Kyiv.

He also stressed the commitment by the Trump administration to seek a deal.

A little bit optimism was in my words because of some speed of negotiations, and from the American side, their interest in it, he said on a visit to Dublin.

It showed that America is not withdrawing now from any kind of diplomatic way of dialogue and it is good.

Donald Trump who is pushing for peace in Ukraine (PA Wire)

But Mr Zelensky also stressed: There will be no easy solutions.

It is important that everything is fair and open, so that there are no games behind Ukraines back.

Trump has been accused of trying to stitch up a deal with Putin to end the war, which was widely seen to favour Russia and boost its economic ties with America.

But there were few clear signs that the peace talks were about to make a dramatic breakthrough to end the war which Putin launched in February 2022.

The US president on Tuesday said the war in Ukraine was a mess and not an easy situation to resolve, remarks he delivered at the start of his final cabinet meeting of 2025.

Putin met Trumps special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner in the Kremlin on Tuesday for talks on a possible way to end the deadliest European conflict since World War Two.

The US president has repeatedly said he wants to end the war but his efforts so far, including a summit with Putin in Alaska in August and meetings with Mr Zelensky, have not yet brought peace.

Vladimir Putin welcomes Steve Witkoff (Reuters)

A leaked set of 28 US draft peace proposals emerged last week, alarming Ukrainian and European officials who said it bowed to Moscows main demands on NATO, Russian control of a fifth of Ukraine and restrictions on Ukraines army.

European powers then came up with a counter-proposal and at talks in Geneva, the United States and Ukraine said they had created an updated and refined peace framework to end the war.

Britain and other European nations have blamed Putin for blocking a peace deal.

The Russian president has dismissed European counter-proposals on Ukraine as being absolutely unacceptable.

I am so pleased to see you, Putin told Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner when they met on Tuesday.

It is a magnificent city, Mr Witkoff told Putin after earlier strolling with Mr Kushner and the Russian leaders envoy Kirill Dmitriev on Red Square near the mausoleum of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin.

Mr Dmitriev and Putin aide Yuri Ushakov were also at the Kremlin meeting, along with interpreters.

Just before the Kremlin meeting and in another sign that the talks may fail, Putin accused Europe of seeking to undermine Trumps peace efforts by making proposals that it knew were unacceptable to Russia.

They are on the side of war, he claimed.

We can clearly see that all these changes are aimed at only one thing: to block the entire peace process altogether, to make such demands which are absolutely unacceptable to Russia.

In response to drone attacks on tankers of Russias shadow fleet in the Black Sea. Ukraines foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Putins remarks showed he was not ready to end the war.

A distraught girl after her mother was killed in Kharkiv, Ukraine, during a Russian drone strike (REUTERS)

Russian forces now control more than 19% of Ukraine, or 115,600 square km (45,000 square miles), up only one percentage point from two years ago, though they have advanced in 2025 at the fastest pace since 2022, according to pro-Ukrainian maps.

But nearly four years into the Ukraine war, Russia has suffered heavy losses and failed to conquer Ukraine, a much smaller neighbour which has been supported by European powers and the United States.

Ukraine has also seen hundreds of thousands of its troops killed or wounded, with the death toll also including thousands of civilians who are victims of often indiscriminate Russian air attacks.
Ozempic could be coming for a new demographic  your fat cat

The weight-loss drug trend sweeping the nation could be coming for your furry friends.

Okava Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company based in San Francisco, is expected to announce on Tuesday that it has launched a pilot study testing a GLP-1 drug in obese cats, the New York Times reports.

Unlike humans who receive weekly injections of Ozempic, Wegovy, or Mounjaro  drugs originally developed for diabetes but widely used for weight loss  the cats in Okavas study will get a small implant under the skin, just slightly larger than a microchip.

The device is designed to slowly release the medication over a period of up to six months, offering a low-maintenance alternative that researchers hope could help tackle rising rates of obesity in pets.

Pet owners awareness of their pets weight appears to be rising. In 2024, just 55 percent of cat owners and 51 percent of dog owners said their pets had an ideal body condition, down from 2023, according to the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention.

Okava Pharmaceuticals will reportedly announce a pilot study testing a GLP-1 drug in obese cats on Tuesday (Getty Images)

Meanwhile, more owners recognized their cats (33 percent) and dogs (35 percent) as overweight or obese, up from 28 percent and 17 percent, respectively, from the previous year.

Okava hopes to price its GLP-1 implant at $100 a month or less, making it comparable to high-end pet food, and potentially saving owners money if it helps prevent or manage diabetes.

However, the cost may still be prohibitive for some, and not all pet owners may want the drug.

Diabetic pets often require twice-daily insulin injections, a costly and labor-intensive treatment, and many are euthanized within a year.

Other experts point to Slentrol, an older appetite-suppressing dog medication, as an example. While effective, many owners disliked its effect because feeding their pets is a primary way they show affection, Dr. Maryanne Murphy, a veterinary nutritionist at the University of Tennessee, told the NYT.

Some 35 percent of dog owners in America say their pet is obese. (Getty/iStock)

Diabetes is technically completely treatable, and we are doing such a lousy job treating it, Dr. Chen Gilor, a veterinarian at the University of Florida, who is leading the study, told NYT, also calling the implant magic.

Some veterinarians have begun using human GLP-1 drugs off-label for diabetic cats, but the high cost and limited effectiveness, especially for advanced cases, remain challenges, according to Dr. Andrew Bugbee, a veterinary endocrinologist at Texas A&M.

Targeting prediabetic, obese pets with pet-specific, affordable formulations may be a more effective strategy, he said.

Results from the study are expected next summer, and if successful, the study could open a new frontier for GLP-1 drugs in veterinary care.
Multiple Group One-winning filly Porta Fortuna sold to MV Magnier for 4.5million guineas on a high-octane evening at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale in Newmarket on Tuesday.

Successful in the Albany Stakes and Coronation Stakes, the Donnacha OBrien-trained filly was also a top-level scorer in the Cheveley Park Stakes, Falmouth Stakes and Matron Stakes.

She was seen only once this season, winning the Group Two Lanwades Stud Stakes at the Curragh in May.

Donnacha has done an incredible job with her, she is a very good filly, she is very talented, Magnier told Tattersalls.

She is a lovely filly, loads of quality and talented, and hopefully she can breed one as good as her. Coming here we put a good bit of thought to it, and there is a good chance she could go to Starspangledbanner.

Porta Fortuna momentarily held the tag of most expensive filly sold in training this year, until Jessica Harringtons Prix de lOpera heroine Barnavara assumed that mantle at 4.8m guineas, going to Sugar Whiskey Trading.

It appears she will stay in training, with Harrington saying: She went on improving all year, she is a very big filly, but she is amazing. She actually won her maiden in May, then we ran her in Listed and Group races and she was getting placed and not finishing out her races and I think she was going through a little bit of a weak stage.

In another headline sale, David Menuisiers Sun Chariot winner Tamfana sold to Magnier for 2.6m guineas.
Positive news revealed in health update on seriously wounded National Guardsman shot in DC

Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, one of the two National Guard troops shot in an attack last week in Washington, D.C. near the White House, is slowly recovering, according to officials.

Andrew remains in serious condition, West Virginia Gov. Craig Caplan said at a press conference on Monday. We did have some positive news that we were told that Andrew was asked if he could hear. The nurse who asked the question [asked him] to give a thumbs up and he did respond. And we were told that he also wiggled his toes."

Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, the other West Virginia Guard member shot in the attack, died from her injuries last week.

About 170 West Virginia Guard members remain deployed in the capital, officials said.

The Guard is reeling from the attack, where Afghan national and former U.S. intelligence collaborator Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, is accused of rounding a corner and opening fire on the troops not far from the White House.

A makeshift memorial in Washington, DC honors Sarah Beckstrom and Andrew Wolfe, the two West Virginia National Guard troops shot blocks from the White House. Beckstrom was killed and Wolfe remains in a serious condition (Getty Images)

Officials later shot and subdued Lakanwal, who was arrested and hospitalized.

The 29-year-old now faces federal murder charges.

Prior to his alleged role in the attack, Lakanwal worked with the CIA in Afghanistan as part of a paramilitary Zero Unit and served in the Afghan Army for about 10 years alongside U.S. Special Forces.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, who was shot and seriously wounded last week during an attack on National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., acknowledged to doctors he can hear and wiggled his toes, officials said (REUTERS)

Lakanwal was brought to the U.S. as part of 2021s Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden-era program aimed at resettling Afghans who had assisted the United States in its fight against the Taliban, which has taken in approximately 76,000 people.

The Trump administration granted Lakanwals asylum application in April.

The Trump administration paused asylum decisions and ordered additional National Guard troops to Washington, after an Afghan who received asylum in the U.S. allegedly fired on troops (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Lakanwal and his family had been living in a furnished apartment in Bellingham, Washington state, prior to the shooting.

The former soldier had been reportedly been struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder at the time of the shooting.

After the shooting, the Trump administration paused all asylum decisions, and the president has vowed to permanently pause migration from all third world countries, though he lacks the power to unilaterally make immigration law.

The Trump administration has ordered 500 additional National Guard troops to bolster the administrations ongoing military operation in the capital.
The Prada Group has announced that it has purchased Milan fashion rival Versace in a 1.25 billion euro (1.06bn) deal.

The move is expected to relaunch Versaces fortunes after average post-pandemic performance as part of US luxury group Capri Holdings.

Prada said in a one-line statement that the acquisition had been completed after receiving all regulatory clearances.

Prada heir Lorenzo Bertelli will steer Versaces next phase as executive chairman, in addition to his roles as group marketing director and sustainability chief.

The son of co-creative director, Miuccia Prada, and long-time Prada Group chairman Patrizio Bertelli has said he does not expect to make any swift executive changes at Versace.

Donatella Versace attended a dinner in celebration of Slow Food at Highgrove Gardens (Ben Birchall/PA)

But Mr Bertelli has said that the company, which places among the top 10 most recognised brands in the world, has been underperforming in the market for a long time.

Prada has said that the 47-year-old Versace brand offered significant untapped growth potential.

It was founded by Gianni Versace in 1978, with his sister Donatella taking over as creative director after he was murdered in 1997. She stepped down earlier this year.

The company has been in the midst of a creative relaunch under a new designer, Dario Vitale, who previewed his first collection during Milan Fashion Week in September.

He was previously head of design at Miu Miu but his move to Versace was unrelated to the Prada deal, executives have said.

Capri Holdings, which owns Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo, paid 2 billion dollars (1.52bn) for Versace in 2018 but had been struggling to position Versaces bold profile in the recent era of quiet luxury.

Versace represented 20% of Capri Holdings 2024 revenue of 5.2 billion euros (4.57bn).

An analyst presentation for the Prada deal said that Versace would represent 13% of the Prada Groups pro-forma revenues, with Miu Miu coming in at 22% and Prada at 64%. The Prada Group, which also includes Churchs footwear, reported a 17% boost in revenues to 5.4 billion euros (4.75bn) last year.

The Prada Group has already begun preparations to incorporate Versace into its Italian manufacturing system, a point of pride for the group.

Making a bag for one brand or another, the know-how is the same, Mr Bertelli told reporters last week at the groups Scandici leather goods factory, which already makes bags for the Prada and Miu Miu brands and will soon add Versace.

The Prada Group has invested 60 million euros in its supply chain this year, including a new leather goods factory near Siena, a new knitwear factory near Perugia as well as increasing production at its Churchs footwear factory in Britain and expanding another Tuscan factory.

Pradas efforts include an academy that has trained 570 new artisans over the last 25 years in an in-house training academy operating in the Tuscany, Marche, Veneto and Umbria regions.

Last year, Prada hired 70% of the 120 artisans who trained in the academy. The number of trainees rose by 28% to 152 this year.
A pro-Israel group that names an Antisemite of the Year drew sharp criticism for nominating childrens YouTube educator Ms. Rachel while omitting more far-right figures.

StopAntisemitism, a U.S.-based nonprofit known for sharing pictures of people who have criticized Israels actions in Gaza on social media, urged followers Sunday to vote for their top 3 candidates.

The group faced criticism over the list, particularly for its inclusion of Ms. Rachel, who has become an outspoken advocate for children in Gaza, instead of White Supremacist Nick Fuentes, who wrote on social media that he felt snubbed over his exclusion.

Ms. Rachel is a preschool teacher who speaks up for starving children in Gaza. That is not antisemitism, prominent Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna wrote on X. I hope thousands will join me in standing up for her.

Candidates include conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, far-right conspiracy theorist Stew Peters, UFC fighter and Holocaust denier Bryce Mitchell and pro-Palestinian TikToker Guy Christensen.

Ms. Rachel, pictured at Glamours Women of the Year 2025 Awards, during which she wore a dress with drawings from children in Gaza embroidered on the fabric. Ms. Rachel has been named a candidate for Antisemite of the Year by the group StopAntisemitism (Getty Images for Glamour)

Other nominees include Desperate Housewives actress Marcia Cross, And Just Like That star Cynthia Nixon, as well as American activist Calla Walsh  all of whom have been outspoken critics of Israels war in Gaza.

The list also included Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur, the hosts of The Young Turks, a progressive political commentary network.

Social media users were quick to criticize the list, especially for including the popular childrens entertainer.

Lumping in Ms. Rachel with Stew Peters is so disgusting and does more to help anti-semitism by obfuscating the difference between Israel criticisms + actual Jewish hate, one user wrote.

Another person chimed in, writing, Reminder that StopAntisemites nominated Ms Rachel for Antisemite of the year because she raises money for starving and burned Gazan toddlers and its a bad look for them.

Leaving out the self-avowed Nazi (Nick Fuentes) in exchange for celebs, childrens advocates and other activists simply because they said Israel should stop massacring children and genociding Palestinians in Gaza, one X user added.

The social media user continued: Half of these are antisemites, but half are not  and leaving out people who have publicly said that they are actual Nazis??? @StopAntisemites isnt looking to stop real antisemitism. Its looking to harass, threaten and get anyone who dared to criticize Israels clear violation of International law fired or harmed.

White nationalist influencer Nick Fuentes questioned on social media why he was not featured on the list nominating an Antisemite of the Year (Rumble)

Even Fuentes, a White Nationalist who has denied the Holocaust, seemed confused by his name not appearing on the list.

Why wasnt I nominated for antisemite of the year, he wrote on X Monday.

In a follow-up post, StopAntisemitism stated that it does not nominate individuals more than once and has previously nominated Fuentes.

While he was a finalist a few years back, his absence from this years cycle does not erase his antisemitism. Rather, it allows us to focus attention on other individuals who are spreading hate, the group wrote.

StopAntisemitism, which has more than 300,000 followers on X, was founded in 2018 in response to increasing antisemitic violence. Since the Israel-Hamas war began in 2023, the group has taken to sharing social media profiles and employment details of people it identifies as antisemites.

StopAntisemitism said Carlson has built a career turning extremist dog whistles into broadcast-ready talking points, legitimizing voices that traffic in Holocaust revisionism, conspiracy, and hate (Getty)

Advocates of the group say they have been able to spot neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers. However, some social media users feel the group disproportionately focuses on Muslim people, pro-Palestinian actions and non-prominent individuals, according to The Times of Israel.

StopAntisemitism has shared several posts on X explaining why some of the candidates were nominated this year.

From downplaying white supremacy to promoting the antisemitic great replacement theory, Carlson has built a career turning extremist dog whistles into broadcast-ready talking points, legitimizing voices that traffic in Holocaust revisionism, conspiracy, and hate, the group wrote.

Another post dedicated to Marcia Cross notes the actress has traded her on-screen career for a disturbing online campaign targeting Israel and Jewish people.

In October, StopAntisemitism deemed Cynthia Nixon an antisemite of the week, over her boycotting Israeli film institutions and criticism of the war in Gaza.

Actress Cynthia Nixon speaks as she announces a hunger strike calling for a ceasefire in Gaza outside the White House on November 27, 2023 (Getty Images)

The actress, however, has explained her activism, telling The View in 2023, I am the mother of two Jewish children whose grandparents are Holocaust survivors.

And my oldest son, in particular, he really has been reaching out to my wife and I and asking us  imploring us, really  to say, Use your voice to affirm as loudly as you can that never again means never again for anyone.

Earlier this year, the group raised alarms over Ms. Rachel, noting on its website that she shared content echoing Hamas-aligned language.

A former child educator from Maine, Ms. Rachel, whose full name is Rachel Accurso, has built an audience of nearly 15 million subscribers on YouTube with her mix of educational videos and songs for young children. She has also become a fierce advocate for the children suffering in Gaza, and previously told The Independent she was motivated to speak out after seeing videos and images of children being killed, injured and malnourished on social media.

I couldnt look away from the scale and gravity of suffering I was seeing every day, she said in January.

Ms. Rachel had a heartwarming moment with a child from Gaza on her show (Ms Rachel)

I know how crucial the first few years are for brain development and the lifelong effects trauma and malnutrition have on the brain. Its a failure of humanity to deny children food, water, medical care, shelter and education, and to not protect children from violence, she added.

The educator has also featured a child from Gaza on her show, and recently wore a custom gown embroidered with drawings from children in Gaza to Glamours Women of the Year 2025 Awards.

The Independent has reached out to Ms. Rachel for comment.

Last years Antisemite of the Year winner was far-right pundit and conspiracy theorist Candace Owens. Winners in years past include Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, rapper Kanye West and an executive at Ben & Jerrys.

In a statement to The Independent, StopAntisemitism said, "Nearly every week, StopAntisemitism names an Antisemite of the Week. We determine the annual top 10 based on follower and press engagement we get on the Antisemite of the Week features throughout the year."

Actors and other celebrities tend to attract a lot of attention, as they should given their outsized role in shaping the culture. Regarding Ms. Rachel, specifically, many parents were shocked and horrified to learn about her Jew-hatred, and we received countless messages from parents who were upset but nonetheless grateful to be alerted to her inappropriate actions."

As for the reprehensible Nick Fuentes, we have been monitoring his antisemitism and at the forefront of acting against him since 2019. He was a finalist several years ago and we do not recycle candidates from year to year. His absence from this years cycle in no way erases his antisemitism. Rather, it allows us to focus attention on other individuals who are spreading hatred and bigotry."
To mark World Aids Day, dozens of activists, including those living with Hiv, staged a die in in Trafalgar Square, demanding that the British government reverse cuts to Hiv treatment and prevention services.

Holding placards shaped like tombstones, the members of protest group ACT UP, chanted: We mourn the dead, we fight like hell for the living.

They then held a minutes silence and carried red roses to symbolise the millions who have died from AIDS-related illnesses and to condemn the governments complicity in preventable deaths.

The die-in follows the UKs decision to cut 150 million of funding to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria  a move predicted to put 250,000 lives at risk and many fear will jeopardise the goal of ending new HIV transmissions and AIDS-related deaths by 2030.
Hospitals receive Healthgrades 2026 Pulmonary Care Excellence Award

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Los Angeles Community Hospitals at Los Angeles, Norwalk and Bellflower have achieved numerous distinctions for exceptional clinical performance from Healthgrades , the #1 site Americans use when searching for a doctor or hospital. Los Angeles Community Hospitals new recognitions in 2026 include being named recipient of Healthgrades Pulmonary Care Excellence Award, which places the hospitals among the Top Ten percent in the Nation for both Overall Pulmonary Services.

Los Angeles Community Hospitals Awarded Healthgrades Pulmonary Care Excellence Award 2026

Los Angeles Community Hospitals were also five-star rated for five services in, orthopedics, pulmonary, and critical care including treatment of hip fracture treatment for 13 years in a row (2024-2026), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for nine years in a row (2018-2026), sepsis, for eight years in a row (2019-2026), diabetic hospitalizations four years in a row (2023-2026) and pneumonia (2026).

"These achievements affirm Los Angeles Community Hospitals status as a premier destination for specialty care and underscores the organization's longstanding commitment to excellence and quality," said Rhonda Jones-Barnes, Vice president of Quality.

Los Angeles Community Hospitals achievements are based solely on what matters most: patient outcomes. Each year, Healthgrades evaluates risk-adjusted mortality and complication rates for over 30 common conditions and procedures at approximately 4,500 hospitals nationwide to identify the top hospitals in key specialty areas, including orthopedics and sepsis. Through easy-to-understand, objective measures of hospital performance, Healthgrades empowers patients with the information they need to find a hospital that excels in their procedure or condition.

As performance gaps persist between the nation's highest- and lowest-achieving facilities, seeking care at a top program has never been more important. Healthgrades' 2026 analysis revealed that if all hospitals, as a group, performed similarly to five-star hospitals during the 2022-2024 study period, on average, 230,466 lives could have been saved and 156,797 complications could have been avoided.*

"Healthgrades' specialty awards identify the nation's top-performing hospitals in key service areas, helping consumers find high quality care tailored to their specific needs," said Alana Biggers, MD, MPH, medical advisor at Healthgrades. "We're proud to recognize Los Angeles Community Hospitals for their consistently superior outcomes in key service areas, including recognition as Top 10 percent in the Nation for Overall Pulmonary Services in 2026."

Consumers can visit Healthgrades' Specialty Excellence Patient Advocate Center to learn more about how Healthgrades identifies the top-performing hospitals for specialty care.

*Statistics are based on Healthgrades analysis of MedPAR data for years 2022 through 2024 and represent three-year estimates for Medicare patients only. Click here to view the complete 2026 Specialty Awards and Ratings Methodology.

About Los Angeles Community Hospitals at Los Angles, Norwalk and Bellflower

The three-hospital Los Angeles Community Hospitals system includes locations in east LA, Norwalk and Bellflower. The LA and Norwalk acute care hospitals have been providing healthcare to generations of residents with general and specialty services, such as cardiology, internal medicine, surgical services, and emergency care. The Bellflower behavioral health hospital provides much-needed mental health, safety-net services. To learn more, visit LACH-LA.com, LACH-Norwalk.com and LACH-Bellflower.com. Call (323) 267-0477.

About Healthgrades

Healthgrades is dedicated to empowering stronger and more meaningful connections between patients and their healthcare providers. As the #1 platform for finding a doctor and a leader in healthcare transparency, Healthgrades helps millions of consumers each month find and schedule appointments with their healthcare professional of choice and prepare for their appointments with best-in-class, treatment-focused content.

SOURCE Los Angeles Community Hospitals
Vladimir Putin hailed the capture of the key front-line stronghold of Pokrovsk hours before talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow.

But Ukraine dismissed the Russian report, saying the strategic city was still standing and Moscows claims were part of its information war.

Speaking late on Monday, Putin hailed the apparent advance as an important direction during his third uniformed visit to command posts close to the fighting in just over a month.

Footage released by Russias defence ministry and aired on state television showed soldiers raising a Russian flag in the centre of the shattered city.

Moscow is believed to have controlled the city centre for weeks after pressing in from the south, while Ukraine says it still holds northern districts of the strategic hub.

A still from a Russian Defence Ministry video, said to show Putins troops on the streets of Pokrovsk - Shutterstock

Ukrainian soldiers said on Tuesday that they had beaten back the unit that planted the flag, insisting that fighting continued in the vital logistics node in eastern Donetsk.

The Ukrainian militarys eastern command said on social media: Search and assault operations and the elimination of the enemy in urban areas continue in Pokrovsk.

Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X that Russia had launched new disinformation campaigns ahead of the American delegations visit, without directly mentioning Pokrovsk or the wider front line.

DeepState, a Ukrainian open-source intelligence (OsInt) mapping project, said large portions of Pokrovsk were still contested, aligning with assessments from other analysts.

The fortress city  previously known as Krasnoarmiisk  has been one of the fiercest battle zones, with Ukrainian forces resisting a major Russian offensive under worsening conditions for a year.

Its rail and road links have made it central to Ukraines fortifications, though its strategic value has diminished as Kyiv has been forced to shift to alternative supply lines amid heavy drone and artillery strikes on the main routes.

It has been widely anticipated that Russia will eventually take the city, but Kyiv continues to mount attacks on Russian positions there with drones.

Analysts have warned that Moscows announcement ahead of Mr Witkoffs sixth visit there this year was likely timed to try to extract further concessions in peace talks and defer a ceasefire.

Telegram / @oleksiihoncharenko

Territorial gains on the battlefield will likely strengthen Moscows negotiating position, and Pokrovsk would be one of its biggest captures in months.

The capture of the stronghold would show Mr Witkoff that Russian forces were making headway in Donetsk as peace talks centre on Ukraine ceding the rest of the region.

Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraines centre for countering disinformation, said the claims had been made exclusively for Western audiences and to raise the stakes in diplomacy.

Mr Witkoff, along with Jared Kushner, Donald Trumps son-in-law, were expected to meet with Putin on Tuesday afternoon to discuss a revised version of an earlier peace plan reportedly co-authored by Moscow, incorporating later input from Ukrainian officials.

A Russian video shows Donetsk National Technical University with severe damage to its roof and grounds - AFP

Russia has often been accused of inflating its battlefield successes.

In November, Valery Gerasimov, Russias top general who reports to Putin, claimed that Russia had captured the city of Kupyansk just as Ukraine received a US proposal to end the war. The claim was disputed even by Russian military bloggers.

Last month, a former military cartographer who deserted the Russian army, told independent outlet Mediazona that he had been forced to make maps for Gerasimov showing non-existent advances.

If Moscow succeeded in seizing Pokrovsk, it could offer Russian troops a path to drive north towards Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the two biggest cities left under Ukraines control in the Donetsk region.

Last month, Russia made its biggest advances since November 2024, according to an AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War, a US-based think tank.

Russian media suggested that Moscow could use the purported gains to fend off US pressure to agree to a peace deal in Ukraine.

Komsomolskaya Pravda, a Moscow daily newspaper, cast the purported advance as a hint that more and more Ukrainian territories are under our control, and next time Russias conditions may be tougher. Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the government paper, said there was now no need to rush in talks.

Russian commanders told Putin on Monday night that their forces were advancing along the entire front and had taken the town of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region. Ukrainian officials have not responded to the claims.
The former school of a famed 17th century diarist has proposed scrapping a house named after him over accusations abuse and exploitation of women.

Samuel Pepys, best known for recording events like the Great Fire of London, attended Hinchingbrooke School, in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, in around 1644.

In recognition of his former attendance, the school has a house named after the historical figure with the slogan Pride, Passion, Power, Pepys.

But parents at the school have now been told that recent research into his behaviour revealed "actions that were harmful, abusive and exploitative, especially in his relations with women".

Hinchingbrooke has suggested a consultation to scrap his name from the house - a move that has sparked backlash amongst some parents who claim it is trying to "erase history".

Samuel Pepys (Getty Images)

In an email to parents, the school said behaviours found in Pepys diaries "do not align with the values we hold as a school - respect, equality, kindness and high standards", adding that it was "right to ask the question: Should Pepys House be renamed?".

Femi Solano, an associate principal, said: "This re-evaluation is not about erasing history. Instead, it is about ensuring that the figures we celebrate as role models reflect the values we want our students to live by.

"Pepys will always remain part of the rich history of our school, but it is a question of whether he should appear specifically as an icon of the pastoral system."

Pepys eyewitness accounts of major incidents, like the Plague in 1665 and the Great Fire of London in 1666, make his diaries valued as a contemporary historical source.

On its website, the school states that Pepys work ethic and organisation led him to be highly successful and respected by many. He went on to become an MP and dedicated administrator of the Navy.

It adds: He documented with great pleasure his own personal achievements and also in infinite detail great historical events in his infamous diary.

But Pepys also recorded his own private activities in a mixture of English, French, Latin and Spanish and a kind of shorthand.

A fresh analysis of Pepys world-famous journals  carried out by Guy de la Bedoyere  has claimed he had a tendency for coercion and sexual violence.

Guy de la Bedoyere examined Pepys's original texts, in which his coded scribblings revealed fantasies of rape and physically assaulting his wife and maidservants.

Despite the revelations, one father at the school described the proposed changes as wokery and urged teachers to "concentrate on giving my kid an education".

Upon receiving the email he told the Telegraph: "I was in disbelief. It's another attempt to erase history that doesn't suit modern times when really we should be learning about those times. You have to look at it in the context of the time and not impose modern day beliefs and morals.

He was candid enough to write about it and in a way we are learning what the attitudes to women were like at that time.

"We should read it and learn from it and do better ourselves. We should be proud of that history, rather than trying to erase it."

Andy Hunter, Principal of Hinchingbrooke School, told The Standard: Hinchingbrooke School, which was founded as Huntingdon Grammar in 1565, is very proud of its rich heritage and of the success of its former and current students.

We are currently exploring what standards of behaviour it is reasonable to apply to historical figures, especially when this links directly to pastoral care through a house name that is a source of pride, identity and belonging for our students.

We hope that this discussion will give our students the chance to talk about cancel culture, to weigh all the available evidence and consider how, and when, our understanding of the past should shape the decisions we make today.

We are placing our trust in our students to think critically, to approach the issue with maturity, and to come to a balanced, well-informed conclusion.

We will respect whatever decision the school community arrives at.
Satellite photo of a scam compound in Myanmars eastern Myawaddy township along the Moei River facing Mae Sot district in Thailands border province of Tak. Composite: 2025 Planet Labs PBC/AFP/Getty Images

Scam centres are compounds often linked to transnational criminal networks that are part of a global, multibillion dollar online fraud industry that has proliferated in south-east Asia in recent years. Countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos have become havens for the criminal activity, which spans online fraud, human trafficking, slavery and money laundering.

Lawless border areas in the region have become particular areas of concern, with satellite imagery and research showing that scam operations have more than doubled along the Thai-Myanmar border since Myanmars junta seized power in 2021.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked and forced to work at scam compounds, with at least 120,000 people in Myanmar and 100,000 in Cambodia likely forced to work in the centres, data fromthe United Nations shows.

South-east Asia is the ground zero for the global scamming industry, said Benedikt Hofmann, from the UN agency to combat drugs and crime, UNODC.

The industry is global, with people from Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America lured by the false promise of an office job and forced to scam people around the globe. On arrival they are held against their will and forced to generate income through carrying out online scams, using social media and messaging apps to target victims. Inside the compounds, workers are trapped, and sometimes tortured, with well documented reports of beatings and electric shocks.

Thailand has launched a crackdown on the scam centre industry by cutting off electricity, fuel and internet. Myanmars military has reportedly raided a major scam centre, where troops detained more than 2,100 people and seized Starlink satellite internet terminals.




Sean Diddy Combs has hit out at Netflix and long-time rival 50 Cent over a newly released docuseries about his life and controversies.

The disgraced rapper and music mogul, 56, is months into his four-year sentence for prostitution-related charges.

Accusing Netflix of incorporating stolen footage, he called the new four-part series Sean Combs: The Reckoning a shameful hit piece.

The series claims to deliver a staggering examination of the media mogul, music legend and convicted offender, and offer viewers previously unreleased footage of Combs and his inner circle. It will also feature two jurors from Combss trial, who, for the first time, will discuss how they arrived at their mixed verdict.

A teaser clip released on Monday (1 December) depicts Combs in September last year, filmed as pressure mounted against him in his federal sex-crime investigation.

Were losing, he says in a hotel room, cell phone in hand, before he calls for somebody thatll work with us that has dealt in the dirtiest of dirty business.

Combs has alleged that the footage, including private moments, pre-indictment material from an unfinished project and conversations involving legal strategy, was obtained through unlawful means. .

Todays GMA teaser confirms that Netflix relied on stolen footage that was never authorised for release, the statement from his spokesperson reads. 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.

(L-R) Alexandria Stapleton and 50 Cent on ABC News, speaking about their new documentary, 'Sean Combs: The Reckoning' (ABC News)

It continued: 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.

The rappers legal team has contacted Netflix, according to the statement.

The Independent has contacted a representative of Netflix for comment.

Combs blamed the series on a personal vendetta against him by longtime rival 50 Cent who serves as an executive producer on the series and who has been promoting the series alongside director Alexandria Stapleton on Good Morning America. Combss statement was issued hours after their appearance.

The duo did not discuss how they obtained the footage, though in a statement posted to Netflixs Tudum website, Stapleton said: It came to us, we obtained the footage legally and have the necessary rights. We moved heaven and earth to keep the filmmakers identity confidential.

One thing about Sean Combs is that hes always filming himself, and its been an obsession throughout the decades. We also reached out to Sean Combs legal team for an interview and comment multiple times, but did not hear back.

ESP-GEN VIOLENCIA SEXUAL-DIDDY (AP)

50 Cent, real name Curtis James Jackson III, rebuffed the idea that the series is a result of his disdain for Combs, which previously resulted in a diss track aimed at Combs back in 2006.

Its not personal, he said. If I didnt say anything, he said, the world might have thought hip-hop is fine with his behaviours. Theres no one else being vocal.

Stapleton added: I think its important to also let people know, this show isnt completely the perspective of people who didnt like Sean. We werent just trying to get the highlights, the salacious details.

The real goal was to storytell, and not everyone needed to have an allegation to be a part of this project.

The documentary comes months after Combs was found guilty in July on two counts tied to prostitution, but acquitted on the most serious charges in his sex trafficking trial at a federal court in New York City.

The convictions cap his public downfall after a trial in which his penchant for kinky sex freak-offs was aired almost daily, but also serve as a win for the music icon, who was found not guilty of other charges that could have led to life imprisonment.
A Ukrainian drone operator in Pokrovsk Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian

For a time Pokrovsk was a haven, a wartime Ukrainian boom city because of its strategic position in the east, 30 miles (48km) from the front. But that was before the summer of 2024, when a rapid Russian advance engulfed the industrial centre in a shattering conflict, a duel only now reaching its endgame.

The 18-month battle for Pokrovsk epitomises the current state of the Ukraine war: an attritional struggle in which gradual Russian advances have been made at extraordinary human cost. Though it demonstrates Russia cannot easily capture urban areas, the fight has also drained Ukraine, and consequences are emerging elsewhere.

Such has been the level of destruction that Pokrovsk is no longer even strategically significant. Its population is decimated, its industry destroyed and supply routes are re-routed; instead it has become a bloody signpost as peace negotiations restart.

There are fairly strong military arguments for Ukraine giving up ground, said Nick Reynolds, a land warfare analyst at the Royal United Services Institute thinktank. But politically, Ukraine recognises that giving up territory wont necessarily stop the war. Giving up land would mean fighting the same battles on different terrain.

An industrial city, with a prewar population of 60,000 and five-storey communist apartment blocks in its centre, Pokrovsk was already significant before the Russian invasion. A mine 6 miles (10km) to the west was the largest supplier of coking coal, an essential raw material for the steel-making process, in post-2014 Ukraine. Producing 6m tonnes a year, it employed, with a sister mine, 10,000 people.

People deserted the city rapidly after Russia launched its full-scale assault in February 2022. But while the invaders swept through the south and eastern edge of Ukraine, the prewar lines held in Avdiivka 30 miles south-east. As the frontlines stabilised elsewhere, Pokrovsks location made it strategically important.

Its rail station became a distribution hub for the region, while its roads were the principal through connection from the central city of Dnipro to Kramatorsk and Ukraines fortress belt in Donetsk province, bringing troops and supplies forward, and ferrying casualties back by night.

By the summer of 2022, Pokrovsk became a lively base in the rear, even allowing for a 7pm curfew, its population at prewar levels. The Hotel Druzhba, with its Soviet attitude to service, was filled with off-duty soldiers and their partners as well as humanitarian workers, military trainers and journalists.

The city gained a boost from all the people that were arriving, said Oleksandr Nesterenko, a public activist from Pokrovsk. An apartment that might have cost $100 a month to rent before the war at the peak in 2023 cost anywhere from $350 to $600, he said, with shops selling military gear springing up seemingly every 3 metres.

That began to change in August 2023. A few weeks before a warning had been circulated that the Russians were targeting frontline hotels. On 8 August, two Iskander missiles slammed into an apartment block near the Druzhba, landing about 40 minutes apart; the second an apparent effort to kill or maim those responding to the initial attack. Seven were killed.

For journalists, Pokrovsk became a place to pass through. Its economy had begun to change with a handful of women taking on traditionally male jobs working in the coalmines. But it was the fall of Avdiivka in February 2024 (caused partly by a suspension of military aid by the US Congress) that led to a dramatic change.

A relatively rapid Russian advance followed in the next six months, across poorly defended rear lines, and the invaders reached within 7 miles of the south of the city by August. Civilians were told to evacuate. Library books were packed up, and shop signs were being taken down when the Guardian visited in August 2024. Gradually most residents abandoned their homes and lives.

Pokrovsk was expected to fall in weeks, but did not. Some pressure on the sector was relieved by Ukraines surprise incursion into Russia, also in summer 2024, while the defenders became more organised. Russias military, unable to take the city directly, began instead what turned out to be a gradual semi-encirclement  eventually outnumbering the defenders eight to one, Ukraines president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said last month.

Russian forces focused heavily on locating and eliminating Ukrainian FPV (first-person view) drone crews with its Rubicon drone units, achieving an aerial dominance in the summer, and targeting the remaining supply routes covered by anti-drone netting to the north. Rotating forces and evacuating wounded became increasingly dangerous, leaving defenders exhausted. A shortage of Ukrainian artillery weakened the defensive position further.

Nesterenko abandoned his apartment in Pokrovsk in the autumn of 2024, but returned, despite the growing risks, for a few months thereafter to help people in the city. His last visit was in March this year. The least dangerous way into Pokrovsk was to walk  a car being too obvious a target for an FPV drone; the sound of explosions, he added, was constant.

At that time there was still one shop working, a general store, and it had a Starlink internet and a generator, so you could still pay by card, he said. No young people were left. All the customers were 50 or older, and none of them would flinch or squat whenever an explosion was close. They were so used to it, they didnt react in any way at all, it was so noticeable.

The coking coalmine closed in January, its tunnels deliberately collapsed. Because it is not actively being maintained the mine has flooded. The last shop shut in August. About 1,200 civilians are estimated to live in Pokrovsk and 900 in nearby Myrnohrad, mostly waiting for the Russians, while Nesterenko said the city was a complete ruin. It has no gas, no water, no electricity and no heating.

Russian troops began to infiltrate in ones, twos and small groups, to avoid drone attack, from October, increasingly taking advantage of rainy or foggy autumn weather to hide from drones. Their aim was to seal off the city, though a dramatic Ukrainian special forces helicopter raid at the end of October unblocked an exit route.

Meanwhile the Russian infiltrators keep coming: on foot, on motorbike, even in pickup trucks. A larger but equally irregular group nicknamed the Mad Max convoy, appeared in a video on 10 November, emerging from under the cover of fog. Their goal was to accumulate in Pokrovsk, before finding and attacking Ukrainian positions.

In October, the Russians suffered 25,000 casualties, killed and wounded, mostly around Pokrovsk, according to Zelenskyy. In January, the figure was 15,000, according to another Ukrainian estimate. That suggests capturing the rest of Donetsk, the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, which Vladimir Putin is demanding in the latest peace negotiations, would be more bloody.

Meanwhile, perhaps because of Ukraines stubborn 15-month defence, problems are emerging elsewhere: its front is giving way near Huliaipole, 60 miles to the south-west, with 6 miles lost in November.

Ukraine is in a very difficult position, though it is a large country and only losing territory slowly, Reynolds said. Meanwhile, even if Russia continues to advance, it is not clear to what degree its civilians will in future put up with the numbers being recruited and killed.
African swine fever is spreading between animals around Barcelona for the first time in three decades (PA)

Spain has called in the military to help contain an outbreak of a deadly virus affecting pigs, which may have started from a contaminated sandwich.

Soldiers have been deployed in a desperate effort to identify and control African swine fever (ASF), which is spreading between animals around Barcelona for the first time in three decades.

Drones and sniffer dogs are now being used to hunt down boar carcasses for testing, with the number of confirmed cases in wild boars shooting up to nine on Tuesday, up from two last week.

Oscar Ordeig, the regional agriculture minister, revealed to Catalunya Radio that officials are working on the assumption that the virus may have spread from contaminated food brought into the country from abroad.

The most likely option ... is that cold cuts, a sandwich, contaminated food, could end up in a bin  we have to take into account that Bellaterra is an area with a lot of traffic from all over Europe  and then that a wild boar would have eaten it and become infected, he said on Monday.

Authorities are investigating more infection potential cases (AP)

Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that the wild boar may have eaten the contaminated sausage in a sandwich thrown away in a ditch, and then became infected.

Authorities are currently analysing more suspected cases in the area and expect the number to rise.

Mr Ordeig said the absence of infected wild boar elsewhere in Catalonia and France so far suggests human transportation of contaminated food could have introduced the virus. The infected area is close to the AP-7 highway, a major transport route linking Spain and France.

ASF is harmless to humans, but spreads rapidly among pigs and wild boar, for whom it can be fatal. It is not the same as swine flu and does not affect humans.

The disease is highly contagious and can spread if healthy pigs eat infectious products or make contact with infected pigs or contaminated items.

In Spain, most recently, it was first detected in two wild boar in a wooded, hilly area outside Barcelona before seven more cases were recorded on Tuesday.

Cages are cleaned amid an outbreak of ASF in Germany in 2021 (dpa-Zentralbild)

The outbreak has forced Spain to freeze some exports, threatening its multi-billion-euro pork industry. Britains Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said on Friday it would block Spanish pork coming into the country until further notice.

China also banned pork imports from Barcelona province as reports emerged.

Efforts to control the outbreak intensified on Sunday, with 300 Catalan police and rural agents deployed, followed by 117 members of Spains military emergency unit UME on Monday.

On farms, trade association Interporc said strict controls already in place for disease prevention had been reinforced.

These included testing and quarantining of new animals, perimeter fencing and bird nets, regular disinfections and checks on drinking water, a strict employee dress code and proper storage of pig semen samples.

Government vets were checking farms and taking samples, but none of the 39 in the area have tested positive.
Starmer: We have to work with China  even if it threatens national security

Sir Keir Starmer appears to have laid the groundwork for a major concession to China, despite using a keynote speech to say Beijing poses national security threats to Britain.

With a crucial decision on the Chinese super embassy coming next week, the prime minister used his annual Mansion House speech on foreign policy to express a robust policy towards China while seeking to work with Xi Jinpings Communist government.

He said: [China] is a nation of immense scale, ambition and ingenuity. A defining force in technology, trade and global governance. At the same time it also poses national security threats to the UK.

The UK needs a China policy that recognises this reality. Instead, for years we have blown hot and cold.

We had the golden age, which then flipped to an Ice Age. We reject that binary choice.

So our response will not be driven by fear, nor softened by illusion. It will be grounded in strength, clarity and sober realism.

Keir Starmer met Xi Jinping during the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro last year (PA)

The words come amid growing speculation that his government will give the go-ahead for the controversial new Chinese super embassy in Royal Mint Court, despite national security concerns.

A decision on the project was postponed until 10 December when communities secretary Steve Reed will announce if he has given it the go-ahead.

The issue of relations with Beijing has dogged Sir Keir after he had to defend his government amid claims it was responsible for the collapse of a trial in October of two alleged Chinese spies in parliament.

The government claimed that the failure to designate China as a national security threat at the time of the alleged crimes prevented the trial from going ahead.

But, while Sir Keirs new policy is very similar to the one pursued by the Tories before, he will insist that it is grounded in a realistic approach.

Starmer makes his Mansion House speech in London on Monday evening (PA)

Describing the absence of engagement with the worlds second biggest economy as staggering and a dereliction of duty, the prime minister outlined his governments considered and grown-up approach, saying: This is not a question of balancing economic and security considerations. We dont trade off security in one area, for a bit more economic access somewhere else.

Protecting our security is non-negotiable  our first duty. But by taking tough steps to keep us secure, we enable ourselves to cooperate in other areas.

In order to help British businesses to win their share of the opportunity, the prime minister set out more details on how the government is planning a long-term approach.

He said: Were absolutely clear that when it comes, for example, to defence, AI or our critical national infrastructure, we will always protect our security and our economic interests.

But were also clear that in areas where there is no significant risk, we are going to give businesses the confidence, clarity and support they need to win these opportunities, with all the necessary mitigations in place.

So in areas like financial and professional services, creative industries, pharmaceuticals, luxury goods and more  Great British success stories  the export opportunities are huge and we will back you to seize them.

Meanwhile, Sir Keir has indicated that he wants to go further in improving the deal with the EU over Brexit.

He used a speech on Monday to criticise the impact of Brexit on the economy. But in his Mansion House address, he ruled out returning to the bloc as members or joining the single market again.

Instead, he made a swipe at Nigel Farage and Reform UK as well as the Tories for wanting to unpick international relationships by leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

He said: The Brexit vote was a fair, democratic expression, and I will always respect that.

But how it was sold and delivered was simply wrong. Wild promises were made to the British people and not fulfilled. We are still dealing with the consequences today.

He set out how the corrosive, inward-looking attitude peddled by those who propose choosing between our allies, leaving the ECHR or even leaving Nato will only take Britain backwards.

He will say: It offers grievance rather than hope. A declinist vision of a lesser Britain  not a Great Britain.

Moreover, it is a fatal misreading of the moment. Ducking the fundamental challenge posed by a chaotic world  a world which is more dangerous and unstable than at any point for a generation. Where international events reach directly into our lives, whether we like it or not.

He added: In these times, we deliver for Britain by looking outward with renewed purpose and pride. Not by shrinking back. In these times, internationalism is patriotism.

Since coming to power last year, Sir Keir has been active on the world stage, trumpeting deals with the US, India and the EU and leading the coalition of the willing in support of Ukraine.

But he has also faced criticism from his opponents, who accuse him of spending too much time out of the country attending international summits rather than focusing on domestic issues.
Suspect arrested after gunning down his wife and her coworker outside of Phoenix Little Caesars, police say

An Arizona man is accused of gunning down his wife and her coworker outside a Little Caesars in Tempe this week, before being arrested at the scene, police said.

The shooting happened just after 9 a.m. Monday in front of the pizza joint at a strip mall in the Phoenix suburb.

Benjamin Visser Jr., 27, was arrested at the scene and booked on charges of premeditated murder in the deaths of his 21-year-old wife Mary Visser, and her 32-year-old co-worker Shaquille Simmons, who were found critically wounded. Both victims were rushed to the hospital where they died from their injuries.

Tempe police officers were already in the area investigating an unrelated fatal shooting at Tempe Marketplace when they heard gunfire and rushed over to the restaurant, AZFamily reported. They found Visser standing with a gun in his hand, according to police.

The gun shoots bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, Kennedy Luong, who owns Marvel Nails & Spa next door, told the news outlet. I see one girl fall down.

Benjamin Visser Jr., 27, was arrested at the scene and booked into jail on charges of premeditated murder (FOX10)

Another witness, who called 911, said they saw the suspect fire more rounds after the victims fell to the ground and tried to get back up.

You dont plan to come to work and see everything all roped off like this, said Tony Olvera, owner of Lady Luck Tattoo Gallery. Its really surprising. I just dont want it to reflect on us, you know. Its an isolated thing, so you know, its not like this area is a bad area in any way.

Police are still working to determine what led to the killings.

The Tempe Police Department extends their sympathies to the victims and the employees of Little Caesars during this difficult time, police said in a statement, praising the quick and coordinated response of officers who detained the suspect and helped bring this dangerous situation to a safe conclusion.

Authorities said the fatal attack was not connected to a separate fatal shooting at Tempe Marketplace that same morning, where the suspect remains at large. The victim, who was not immediately identified, and his girlfriend were reportedly meeting the suspect for what was described as an online transaction.

Anyone with information can call Tempe police at 480-350-8311.
Hero: Cristian Romero (Steve Welsh/PA Wire)

After a week of three defeats, this was a precious point for Tottenham.

Twice they fell behind at Newcastle and twice they responded to earn a 2-2 draw, the first time they haven't been beaten at St James' Park since 2021.

Cristian Romero was the hero, scoring both of the goals. First he cancelled out Bruno Guimaraes' finish and the second was a 94th-minute overhead kick, coming after Anthony Gordon had restored Newcastle's lead with a controversial penalty.

Rodrigo Bentancur was deemed to have fouled Dan Burn, a decision harshly awarded after an on-field review.

The concerns are still there in attack for Spurs. They had only two shots on target and both were by their centre-back.

However, after a miserable run, this would have been a huge relief for Thomas Frank.

Captain Romero to the rescue

This was the full Romero experience, good and bad.

In the first half, the club captain looked all over the place. On his return from suspension, he was booked for a rash challenge when charging up the pitch, having already been robbed deep in his own half when trying to dribble out.

Defensively he was shaky but, when his team needed him, the Argentine was there to make the difference at the other.

After a Spurs corner was cleared, he stayed up in attack and was on hand to dive ahead of his man at the near post and head past Aaron Ramsdale brilliantly.

When Gordon then made it 2-1, Romero increasingly took it upon himself to lead the line, playing ahead of even Richarlison.

For good reason too, it turns out. the centre-back went to ground from a corner appealing for a penalty, but with the ball looping up he got to his feet and produced an overhead kick that bobbled in.

In a tough run and with so many in the team struggling, Spurs need their leaders to step up. Romero did just that.

Penalty: Rodrigo Bentancur was adjudged to have fouled Dan Burn (AFP via Getty Images)

Shocking first-half run continues

For the fourth Premier League match in a row, the visitors failed to register a single shot on target in the first half.

This, at least by their standards, was slightly better, with at least some semblance of the kind of attacking threat that did not exist against Arsenal and Chelsea.

Brennan Johnson dragged a dangerous ball across the face of goal, while Lucas Bergvall's clever flick looped just over the bar.

The fact those efforts alone represent Spurs' best first-half in weeks should be a major concern, though.

Thomas Franks side didn't concede in that opening period but once again the system, and this time it was back to a 4-2-3-1, did not get them out of the blocks quickly enough.

Vicario backed by travelling support

Guglielmo Vicario has been the story for Spurs in recent days.

There has been plenty of debate after he was booed by the home fans against Fulham following a terrible mistake. Ironically, Vicario was one of the only ones in the north Londoners camp to play the incident down and say he could take it.

Vicario conceded two here but he was at fault for neither of the goals. He was called upon to make a sharp stop in the second half when Harvey Barnes skipped away from Romero.

Most pleasing to Vicario, and perhaps Frank, will be the support from the away fans. They chanted Vicario's name in the first half after a comfortable save from a Lewis Miley effort.

After the match, as the Tottenham players gathered together, it was Vicario who was again serenaded by the travelling support up in the clouds. It was a classy moment from the fans.
Saviour: Cristian Romero (Getty Images)

Tottenham twice came from behind to earn a 2-2 draw with Newcastle at St James Park.

After a goalless first 45 minutes, Bruno Guimaraes opened the scoring before Cristian Romero levelled with a superb header.

A controversial penalty was converted by Anthony Gordon to seemingly hand Newcastle all three points, but Romero stepped up again, this time with an overhead kick in the 94th minute, to send Spurs home with a point.

Heres how Standard Sport rated the Spurs players...

Guglielmo Vicario 7

Good to see the away fans chanting his name after weekend troubles. Largely confident from crosses and made two sharp second-half saves. No chance with the goals.

Pedro Porro 6

Poor in the early exchanges, lucky that one terrible backheel wasnt punished. Improved though and positioned well for deep crosses to the back post.

Cristian Romero 8

Complete rollercoaster. Booked for rash challenge and sloppy on the ball more than once in first half. But his brilliant header got Spurs level and then equalised again with overhead kick to single-handedly earn a point. Madness.

Kevin Danso 7

Rock solid in the air. Best in terms of defending his box and made a brilliant goalline clearance to deny Nick Woltemade. Newcastle have a serious aerial threat and he stood up to it.

Destiny Udogie 5

Felt like Newcastle always fancied their chances down his wing. Struggled throughout and offered no real support for Johnson in attack.

Rodrigo Bentancur 4

Started decently but progressively become more and more of a weakness in midfield. Booked for a foul seconds after he gave it away with a terrible pass and then gave away - albeit harshly - a penalty.

Weakness: Rodrigo Bentancur (Action Images via Reuters)

Pape Matar Sarr 5

Poor decision-making on the ball early in the match. Ran around a lot without really doing much and part of the problem of Spurs being unable to progress through the lines.

Lucas Bergvall 7

Only one who stood up to Newcastles physical power in the first half. Pressed superbly and brilliant flicked effort looped just over the bar. So direct with his running - needs to keep starting.

Mohammed Kudus 5

Tried too much. Lost the ball in his own half when doing kick-ups and is too keen to beat a defender two or three times. Cross assisted Romeros first but decison-making must improve.

Randal Kolo Muani 7

Rare source of quality in the Tottenham attack. Held the ball up to get Spurs up the pitch and ran the channels well. Real handful against tough opposition.

Brennan Johnson 6

Really bright in the first half on the break, using his pace to good effect. Couple of dangerous crosses into the middle and got back in his own box to superbly clear Tino Livronmento effort.

Substitutes:

Mathys Tel (Johnson 77) 5

Rare minutes for the Frenchman. Hardly had a chance to get involved on the left.

Richarlison (Kolo Muani 77) 5

Made himself a nuisance as other, appealing for fouls at every opportunity, but no quality.

Xavi Simons (Bergvall 77) 5

Tried to pick the passes on the edge of the Newcastle area but no real space. Looks short of confidence - unsurprising considering lack of minutes.

Archie Gray (Sarr 87) N/A

Wilson Odobert (Kudus 87) N/A
Keynote and fireside chat to explore how AI is building trust by humanizing healthcare

PITTSBURGH, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Net Health today announced the featured speakers for its third annual Net Health NEXT Client Conference, "NEXT 2026: Where HealthTech Becomes HumanTech," taking place April 2023, 2026, at the Arizona Grand Resort in Phoenix, AZ. The event will spotlight how artificial intelligence (AI), when designed with empathy and purpose, can help caregivers spend more time caring and less time clicking.

"Healthtech is reaching a pivotal moment in its promise to deliver efficiency to healthcare providers," said Ron Books, CEO of Net Health. "For years, that efficiency came at the expense of putting documentation before patients, and their own lives. With AI, technology is now invisible  a silent assistant that enhances care and rebalances the quality of life that so many have sacrificed."

NEXT 2026 will kick off with Dr. David C. Rhew, Global Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of Healthcare at Microsoft, who will deliver the conference's opening keynote, "AI for Better Health." A physician, technologist, and six-time U.S. patent holder, Dr. Rhew leads Microsoft's global initiatives to embed AI responsibly into healthcare delivery. In his session, he'll explore how human-centered AI is empowering clinicians, simplifying workflows, and rebuilding trust in digital health systems. From hospitals to home care, Dr. Rhew will outline how innovation and empathy can work in tandem to improve outcomes  and why this moment marks a turning point for specialty care.

"Dr. Rhew brings a vision grounded in both clinical expertise and technological innovation," said Francesca Vereb, SVP of Marketing at Net Health. "He understands that AI is about amplifying the human drive and expertise to build better health."

Following Dr. Rhew's keynote, Books will be joined on stage by Eric Grover, CTO of Net Health, to announce a new chapter in Net Health's mission to humanize healthcare.

On Day Two, Shweta Maniar, Global Director of Life Sciences Solutions and Strategy for Google Cloud, will open the day with a fireside chat titled "Beyond the Screen: How AI is Moving the EHR from Admin Work to Actionable Intelligence." Maniar will show how autonomous, embedded systems within specialty EHRs are advancing more accurate clinical decisions, streamlining documentation, and influencing reimbursement outcomes. Drawing on her leadership in life sciences strategy at Google Cloud, she'll invite attendees to envision a healthcare infrastructure that learns, adapts, and evolves to deliver more person-centered care.

NEXT 2026 will also feature expert panels, product workshops, and roadmap sessions for Rehab Therapy, Wound Care, and Occupational Health business divisions. There will also be continuing education courses offered and the inaugural Net Health Momentum Awards.

For more information or to register, visit www.nethealth.com/NEXT.

About Net Health

Net Health is a trusted source for more than 34,000 healthcare organizations across the continuum of care. Our specialized software solutions enable providers to improve both patient outcomes and financial performance. With over 30 years of expertise in wound care and rehab therapy, our EHR platforms, analytics, and patient engagement tools help clinicians deliver more connected and compassionate care. Net Health is a portfolio company of The Carlyle Group, Level Equity, and Silversmith Capital Partners. Learn more at www.nethealth.com.

SOURCE Net Health Systems, Inc.
Taxis can be preferable to navigating unfamiliar public transport systems, but travelers need their wits about them (bernardbodo - stock.adobe.com)

Sadly, hailing a cab on vacation can mean being taken for a ride in more ways than one, with some drivers scamming tourists using a range of underhand tricks.

Now, travelers have been sharing the countries where youll need your wits about you when you hail a cab, and a new study has analyzed their comments to produce a list of the worlds most talked-about taxi-scam hot spots, along with the most common cons.

The research, by travel insurer AllClear, examined over 450 posts and 30,000 comments about taxi scams on Reddit to identify the countries that attract the most complaints. And the United States makes the top 10, coming in at No. 9.

However, its Turkey that leads, and by a wide margin, generating 4,224 comments on Reddit threads discussing taxi scams  nearly twice as many as No. 2 India (2,301).

Turkey is the most complained about country for taxi scams, according to a study of Reddit comments (Serhii - stock.adobe.com)

Rounding out the top 10 are Thailand (No.3/2,169), Vietnam (No.4/1,741), Egypt (No.5/1,715), Australia (No.6/1,598), Mexico (No.7/1,397), Morocco (No.8/1,329), the U.S. (No.9/1,283), and Canada (No.10/995).

The rest of the table comprises France (No.11/957), Colombia (No.12/924), the Philippines (No.13/840), Italy (No.14/832), and Norway (No.15, 799).

The study found a common thread: airports. Nearly a third of all the Reddit posts analyzed mentioned an airport in the title. And it also uncovered a never-ending stream of advice from conned travelers keen to help others avoid having a similar experience of their own.

The researchers distilled this guidance to identify the most prevalent taxi scams travelers should watch out for when heading abroad:

1. Not switching the meter on

In very touristy areas, or late at night, travelers can experience unexpectedly high quotes for short trips. The most common reason this happens is that travelers get into unmetered taxis or do not research the local fare rates before their trip. Always ask the driver to agree to a flat fare before getting into the vehicle or ask them to turn the meter on. If youre in doubt about how much a trip should cost, refer to the local taxi rates to try and work it out beforehand.

2. Using your luggage to speed up payment

In busy areas, some taxi drivers may take your luggage into the trunk to rush you into deciding, especially if you havent already agreed on the fare. If youre trying to hail a taxi in a busy area, or youre lining up for one outside an airport, try to remain calm and keep one hand on your luggage while you confirm the fare or ask if theyre happy to use the meter.

3. Claiming to have a broken card machine

Not switching the meter on and taking detours are two scams to be alert to (bernardbodo - stock.adobe.com)

One of the most common occurrences seems to be taxi drivers claiming their card machine is broken, says All Clear. They may do this to get you to round up if they dont have change, or simply because theyre charging a higher fare than they should. Credit and debit card machines can break, or occasionally not work if the signal is low, but a genuine driver should allow you to go to a nearby ATM to get the right amount of cash if they dont have change and provide a receipt even if you do pay cash.

4. Detours

One of the most common taxi swindles Redditors discuss, says All Clear, involves taking long detours, avoiding faster roads or missing turns to increase the fare. Track your route using your GPS so you can keep a feeling of orientation and understanding about where you are. Mistakes can happen, so be polite and simply ask your driver if you think theyve gone the wrong way according to your map.

5. Unofficial airport taxi ranks

Airports can be remarkably busy places, particularly at arrivals. Because of the increased demand, this is often the part of a trip where many people fall victim to taxi scams. Research the airport in advance and find out if ride hailing apps like Uber, Lyft or Grab are allowed. If they are, there will sometimes be a stand for you to wait for them. If not, try to look for an official airport taxi rank using signage, or asking an employee - and be wary of people offering you line-jump offers by approaching you in the line.

Letitia Smith, head of communications at AllClear, said: Exciting adventures are waiting for travelers all around the world, but unfortunately scams are still a travel risk. While taxis can feel preferable to trying to navigate foreign public transport systems, they are also one of the places where travelers can fall victim to scamming.

The results of our research show that taxi scams can happen anywhere and at any time, particularly if a visitor looks like they may be unfamiliar with local pricing. To protect yourself when taking taxis abroad, its important to always check what the local rate is, or what the fare should be before you get into the vehicle, and if a scam happens then do report it to the appropriate governing body.

Remember your travel insurance too, so it can help you travel with confidence, and protect you from other unexpected events on your travels.

The 15 countries most talked about for taxi scams on Reddit
David Lammy plans to scrap jury trials for most crimes - Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu/Getty Images

Justice Secretary David Lammys proposed jury reforms are an assault on the liberties of the British people. Should Mr Lammy get his way, those accused of all but the most serious offences will forfeit the right to a trial before a jury of their peers.

Within the category of offences likely to face a trial in front of a lone judge are many concerning free speech, the relative weight given to the offence taken at words, and the need to preserve the right to express strongly worded views. As the Free Speech Union has shown, appeals to free speech are twice as likely to win the approval of juries than the judiciary.

In a profession otherwise quick to point to human rights as justification for apparent judicial activism, this discrepancy is eye-catching. But it shouldnt be; judges, as a group, have their own biases and preferences because they are human. The genius of the jury system is that by drawing from the British population as a whole, such biases are nullified by the need to find common ground.

Without this safeguard against government overreach and vexatious prosecution, we will live in a markedly poorer society. We will do considerable damage to our international reputation as a law-abiding country which the Labour Government is otherwise at such pains to promote.

Yet Mr Lammy insists that there is no alternative to restricting jury trials, saying that greater financial investment alone cannot solve this crisis. Perhaps. But shouldnt we try it first? The entire day-to-day budget for the Courts and Tribunal Service last year came to a little over 2bn. Might the billions assigned in the Budget to welfare have been better spent here on increased capacity?

Similarly, the argument that reform is needed is not an argument that this reform is needed. Alongside a greater resourced budget, could not the courts estate be used more efficiently and hold hearings more frequently?

The Government has been careful to put the idea that justice delayed is justice denied at the forefront of its messaging on this issue. Mr Lammys proposals, however, would simply create a new class of injustice.

When the Labour Party set out its plans for government in its manifesto, it made no mention of its desire to reduce access to juries. Parliament is under no obligation to accept this piece of constitutional vandalism. It should reject it.
US marines training in the Caribbean Sea. Democrats and Republicans have voiced concerns over the legality of the 2 September attack in the region. Photograph: Staff Sgt Brett Norman/US Marine Corops/AFP/Getty

The Pentagon on Tuesday scapegoated a navy admiral for the extrajudicial double-tap strike that killed survivors of a 2 September attack on an alleged drug boat and vowed to continue operations, even as lawmakers investigate whether the attack constituted a war crime.

At a Pentagon briefing on Tuesday, Kingsley Wilson, the Pentagon press secretary said that the decision to re-strike the narco terrorist vessel was made by Adm Frank M Bradley, operating under clear and long standing authorities to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States was eliminated. Wilson added that Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon secretary, stands behind Admiral Bradley, 100%.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, on Monday explicitly named Bradley as the officer who directed the engagement, distancing Hegseth from accountability despite a Washington Post report that he ordered the deaths of everyone on the boat.

Wilson dismissed critical reporting of the incident as fake news.

During a cabinet meeting alongside Donald Trump on Tuesday, Hegseth said: Weve only just begun striking narco boats and putting narco terrorists at the bottom of the ocean. He defended Bradley, who is set to provide a classified briefing to lawmakers overseeing the military on Thursday, saying Trump always has our back and that we always have the back of our commanders who are making decisions in difficult situations.

Later in the meeting, Hegseth cited the fog of war in defending the follow-up strike on the boat on 2 September. He said he did not see any survivors in the water, saying the vessel exploded in fire, smoke, you cant see anything  This is called the fog of war.

The Pentagon said 21 strikes had been conducted against drug boats, killing 82 people whom the administration describes as narco terrorists.

Secretary Hegseth authorised Adm Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes, Leavitt said, adding: Adm 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.

The White House statement came after Trump said on Sunday he wouldnt have wanted that  not a second strike when asked about the incident, and claimed Hegseth told him he did not order the death of those two men. The president added: And I believe him.

The administrations apparent effort to distance Hegseth from the operation has not flown under the radar for some elected officials.

He is selling out Admiral Bradley and sending chills down the spines of his chain of command, who now know their boss will sell them out if he is taking heat, said Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator. A case study in how not to lead.

The White Houses legal justification for the strikes, outlined in a classified justice department office of legal counsel opinion reviewed by the Guardian, treats the operations as targeting cocaine rather than people  meaning anyone killed on board should be considered an enemy casualty or collateral damage rather than a murder victim.

The reasoning differs sharply from Trumps public narrative that the strikes are an effort to stop overdose deaths, rather than attacks on a commodity that finances warfare.

Bipartisan scrutiny has mounted over a report that Hegseth issued a verbal order in September to strike the vessel, and according to the Washington Post, to kill everybody.

Democrats have said the allegations, first reported last week by the Washington Post, could amount to a war crime, and Republicans have also voiced their concerns about the legality of the attack on 2 September.

The House and Senate armed services committees have opened investigations into the recent US military strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean.

In her comments to reporters on Monday, Leavitt did not dispute the Washington Post report that there were survivors after the initial strike.

Hegseth posted late on Monday, simultaneously praising the admiral and pointing responsibility in his direction: Adm Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support. I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made  on the September 2 mission and all others since.

A month after the strike, Bradley was promoted from commander of Joint Special Operations Command to commander of US Special Operations Command.

Concern over the Trump administrations military strikes against the alleged drug-smuggling boats has been building in Congress, but details of this follow-on strike stunned many lawmakers from both parties and generated stark questions about the legality of the attacks and the overall strategy in the region, particularly toward the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro.

The lawmakers said they did not know whether last weeks Washington Post report was true, and some Republicans were sceptical. Still, they said the reported attacking of survivors of an initial missile strike posed serious concerns and merited further scrutiny.

Leavitt said Hegseth had spoken with members of Congress who may have expressed some concerns about the reports over the weekend.

Gen Dan Caine, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, also spoke over the weekend with the two Republican and two Democratic lawmakers leading the Senate and House armed services committees. He reiterated his trust and confidence in the experienced commanders at every echelon, Caines office said in a statement.

The statement added that the call focused on addressing the intent and legality of missions to disrupt illicit trafficking networks which threaten the security and stability of the western hemisphere.

The Senate majority leader, John Thune, on Monday broadly defended the operations, echoing the Trump administration position that they were necessary to stem the flow of illegal narcotics into the US.

Thune said the committees in Congress would look into what happened. I dont think you want to draw any conclusions or deductions until you have all the facts, he said of the 2 September strike. Well see where they lead.

After the Posts report, Hegseth said on Friday on X that fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland.

Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both US and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict  and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command, Hegseth wrote.

The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, called Hegseth a national embarrassment over his response to critics. Schumer demanded that Hegseth release the video of the strike and testify under oath about what happened.

The Republican senator for Mississippi Roger Wicker, the chair of the Senate armed services committee, pledged that his panels investigation would be done by the numbers.

Well find out the ground truth, he said, adding that the ramifications of the report were serious charges.

The 2 September strike was one in a series carried out by the US military in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean as Trump has ordered the buildup of a fleet of warships near Venezuela, including the largest US aircraft carrier. More than 80 people were killed in the strikes.

Chaos has surrounded Hegseth, who has renamed himself the war secretary, in his first year on the job. He was outed for sharing sensitive military information about incoming strikes in Yemen on the messaging app Signal, suffered internal feuding among his senior staff, and has encouraged a paranoia-driven hunt for leakers, which have led to multiple top aides being fired.

A former Pentagon spokesman, John Ullyot  who had been a Trump loyalist  wrote in April that the department was experiencing total chaos and full-blown meltdown, suggesting Trump should consider removing Hegseth.

Trump has repeatedly defended Hegseth, saying this week that he is doing a great job.
Donald Trump has called Nasry Asfura the only real friend of freedom in Honduras - AFP

Donald Trump has alleged fraud in the Honduras election after his Right-wing ally was locked in a technical tie.

Nasry Tito Asfura, the candidate backed by the US president, remains neck and neck with Salvador Nasralla, a centrist, after Sundays vote, according to the latest election results.

Mr Trump has threatened to withhold aid from Honduras unless Mr Asfura wins the election and has pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez, the countrys former president from Mr Asfuras Right-wing National Party (PN).

Mr Hernandez was released from prison on Tuesday.

Initial results suggested Mr Asfura and Mr Nasralla had both won 40 per cent of the vote, with Rixi Moncada of the ruling Liberty and Refoundation Party on 19 per cent.

Ana Paola Hall, head of the national electoral council, said Mr Asfura, 67, led 72-year-old Mr Nasralla by just 515 votes, making it a technical tie following the partial tally of votes cast in Sundays election.

On Monday night, Mr Trump said the counting had abruptly stopped and accused officials of trying to change the results.

If they do there will be hell to pay! The people of Honduras voted in overwhelming numbers on November 30th, he wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Mr Asfura and Mr Nasralla are neck and neck in the vote count - AFP

The US president waded into the Honduras election by pardoning Hernandez, convicted of drug trafficking charges and jailed in a US prison.

Mr Trump shocked many by announcing he would pardon the former president after he sent the US president a complimentary letter claiming he had been unfairly treated.

The letter, seen by Axios, addressed Mr Trump as your excellency and claimed both he and the US president had suffered from political persecution.

On Friday, Mr Trump threatened to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars of US aid to the country, writing on his Truth Social platform: If he [Mr Asfura] doesnt win, the United States will not be throwing good money after bad.

The race has been marred by allegations of voter fraud, with experts worrying that more than one candidate could declare victory.

Mr Asfuras lead has narrowed significantly since the first preliminary results were released on Sunday evening.

The presidential race is seen as a referendum on political and social divisions that have worsened during the four-year tenure of Xiomara Castro, the outgoing president and the countrys only Left-wing leader to finish a term in office.

Honduran president Xiomara Castro casts her vote with her grandson - Reuters

Corruption and violence are rife in the deeply impoverished country, which has seen hundreds of thousands od people migrate north to the US.

Honduras has been under a state of exception since December 2022, declared by Ms Castro in order to fight drug traffickers and gangs. Under the edict, some constitutional rights have been suspended, and the military and police have been granted increased powers.

The US president said recently that Mr Asfura, a former mayor of the capital Tegucigalpa, was the the only real friend of freedom in Honduras.

He wrote in a Truth Social post that Mr Asfuras opponents were not to be trusted, alleging that Ms Moncada was a communist aligned with Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan president, and Cuba.

He said Mr Nasralla, a television host and member of the centre-leaning Liberal Party, cannot be trusted.

Mr Trump also said: Tito and I can work together to fight the narco-communists, and bring needed aid to the people of Honduras.

If Mr Asfura were to win power, he would be a powerful ally for Mr Trump as he seeks to assert dominance in Latin America, reduce Chinese influence and challenge drug cartels.

Honduras, along with Guatemala and El Salvador, is part of the Northern Triangle, a trio of countries notorious for a high volume of drug, human and arms trafficking.

As Mr Trump tries to stem the flow of migrants and narcotics to the US, Mr Asfuras win would give him a partner in all three of those nations who would co-operate with him on security matters.

Trumps surprising pardon

While the US has frequently meddled in the internal politics of Latin America, from Chile to Guatemala, the US presidents decision to involve himself in Honduras, a nation with a population of just 10 million, surprised many.

During his first term, many Hondurans were part of so-called caravans that wound their way north through Central America to the USs southern border, seeking to enter.

Given Mr Trump has made the fight against illegal drugs entering the country a key part of his second term  green-lighting as commander-in-chief more than 20 deadly strikes on vessels said to be transporting drugs  his pardoning last week of former president Hernandez stunned a number of experts.

Juan Orlando Hernandez was serving a 45-year sentence - Getty Images

The 57-year-old was convicted last year on drug trafficking and firearms charges and sentenced to 45 years in jail.

His brother, Juan Antonio Tony Hernandez, a former congressman, is serving a life sentence in the US for manufacturing and smuggling 185,000 kilograms of cocaine.

Asked about the decision to pardon the former president, Mr Trump said: I was told  I was asked by Honduras, many of the people of Honduras, they said it was a Biden set-up.

He added: They basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country, and they said it was a Biden administration set-up, and I looked at the facts and I agree with them.
Nicolas Maduro waves a flag during a ceremony to swear in new community-based organisations, on Monday. Photograph: Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters

Donald Trump reportedly had a blunt message for the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro: leave power  and your country  immediately.

Sources told the Miami Herald the US president had a phone call with his South American counterpart, who is the focus of a four-month pressure campaign in which Trump has ordered a major naval deployment off Venezuelas northern coast.

You can save yourself and those closest to you, but you must leave the country now, Trump reportedly said, offering safe passage for Maduro, his wife and his son only if he agreed to resign right away.

Related: Trump reportedly gave Maduro ultimatum to relinquish power in Venezuela

However, Venezuelas president reportedly refused to step down immediately and allegedly made a series of counter-demands, including worldwide immunity from prosecution and being allowed to cede political control but keep control of the armed forces.

Its the latest ratcheting up of tensions between the two nations. Trump on Monday reportedly met with his top national security advisers to discuss Venezuela, though details of that meeting were not known.

Trump reportedly gave Maduro ultimatum to relinquish power

Donald Trump reportedly gave Nicolas Maduro an ultimatum to relinquish power immediately during their recent call  but Venezuelas authoritarian leader declined, demanding a global amnesty for himself and allies.

On Sunday, Trump confirmed the call had taken place, telling reporters: I wouldnt say it went well or badly, it was a phone call.

Neither the US nor Venezuelan government have offered further details of the topics discussed during the highly unusual conversation, which is thought to have happened on 21 November.

Read the full story

EU fears US-Russia talks may pile pressure on Kyiv to make concessions

The EUs foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has said she fears talks between the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Donald Trumps special envoy, Steve Witkoff, will pile pressure on Ukraine to make concessions, with the two men expected to meet on Tuesday.

Read the full story

FBI has become internally paralyzed by fear, report reveals

The FBI director, Kash Patel, is in over his head and leading a chronically under-performing agency paralyzed by fear and plummeting morale, according to a scathing 115-page report compiled by a national alliance of retired and active-duty FBI special agents and analysts.

Read the full story

White House insists Trumps recent physical shows perfectly normal health

The White House on Monday released details of Donald Trumps recent comprehensive executive physical after the president admitted on Sunday night he had no idea what part of his body had been the subject of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan.

Trump, the oldest US president, underwent the procedure during a surprise semi-annual physical on 10 October and faced questions about it from reporters on Air Force One as he traveled back to Washington after a Thanksgiving break in Florida.

Read the full story

What else happened today:

Catching up? Heres what happened on 30 November 2025.
JD Vance, the US vice-president, claimed that free speech in Britain is in retreat - John Amis/AP

Britain should stand up to American free speech absolutists when it comes to online regulation, the UKs terrorism tsar will say on Tuesday.

Jonathan Hall KC plans to say the issue of free speech online is central to national security, but that when it comes to the debate over its role and value, we are still floundering in the shallows.

In a speech examining political violence, free speech and subversion, Mr Hall will make the case that in the online domain, it is not the case that more speech is a remedy for bad speech, as some American jurisprudence has espoused.

Rather, he describes the online realm as less of a marketplace of ideas than an echo chamber where false statements go unchallenged.

Hie made the remarks after interventions from the top of the US government, with JD Vance, the vice-president, claiming earlier this year that Britons were experiencing infringements on free speech that also affect American technology companies.

Last week, Warren Stephens, Washingtons ambassador to London, doubled down on the claim in a speech in which he reportedly said: We must refuse to allow policies, laws and regulations to become so broad that they undermine our commitment to freedom of expression.

| White House via YouTube

I think the UK needs to hold its nerve in the face of compelling challenges from free speech absolutists, generally based on principles in the US constitution, that in effect consider all regulation of the internet a bad thing, Mr Hall will say.

He describes that attitude as naive, noting that much of the internet is already tightly controlled, in large part by tech companies and their algorithms. He further argues that the approach is ultimately undemocratic because it suggests that society cannot use legislation to assert control over our digital lives despite the harms.

Mr Hall, who serves as the Governments independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, is now in his sixth year in the role.

Jonathan Hall KC, the counter-terror tsar, says the issue of free speech online is central to national security - Paul Grover for The Telegraph

It has proved to be the busiest yet. In addition to his annual reviews on terrorism and state threats, the barrister has delivered special reports on the Southport attack, prisons and new laws against state entities like Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

He has also delivered evidence on the collapsed China spy trial to Parliaments joint committee on the national security strategy and spoken publicly about Palestine Action.

Reflecting on the events of 2025, Mr Hall will make the argument that the online domain must be placed front and centre when considering the countrys national security strategy.

He is expected to say: Merely recording our digital life, without dwelling on its profound implications for national security, is a gross error.

Mr Hall has been particularly preoccupied with the impact on young people and has been sceptical about the efficacy of the Online Safety Act, whose childrens safety duties came into force earlier this year.

In his speech on Tuesday, he is expected to say that while ministers continue to claim that the legislation will make the UK the safest place to go online in the world, the legislation is toothless in the face of social media companies refusal to comply.

Nothing in the Online Safety Act allows the authorities to take down content, or to order tech companies to take it down. But despite this, you will continue to hear ministers saying that the Online Safety Act makes the UK the safest place to be online, he is expected to say.
Jonathan Hall KC, who has been the reviewer of terror legislation for six years, says almost all terrorism in the UK starts online. Photograph: 6KBW

The UKs independent reviewer of terrorism laws has criticised the governments latest national security strategy for failing to take online threats more seriously, despite Keir Starmer claiming it would result in a hardening and sharpening of our approach in the face of Russian menace.

Jonathan Hall KC said it was a very surprising omission that the 2025 national security strategy did not focus more on online risks, including from terrorists and hostile states, which he said were now a major vector of threat.

Hall said the need to protect the country against online threats  with digital channels being employed widely by terrorists and states  was now little different from the need for robust air, naval and land forces. The adviser, appointed by the home secretary, was speaking before a speech on Tuesday in which he is expected to say that not dwelling more on the implications of online threats to national security is a gross error.

Hall, who has been the reviewer of terrorism legislation for six years, said that almost all terrorism in the UK starts online.

Digital life is central to national security, is not an adjunct consideration, and is not to be categorised and dismissed by drawing analogies with earlier technologies such as television, that have caused moral panics and then become integrated into our lives, he is expected to say.

Consider the fact that  on one of most popular online games [platforms] for children, Roblox, it is possible to enact a school massacre or mosque shooting.

Consider the chatbot  that encouraged a man to take a crossbow to Windsor to try to kill the late Queen. Think about Dylan Earl, recently sentenced for a total of 23 years, who was recruited online by the Wagner group to arrange arson at a warehouse containing equipment destined to support Ukraine.

All this is quite apart from the technical opportunities given to adversaries for hostile surveillance, disruption through cyber-attacks [and] new attack methodologies.

The governments 2025 national security strategy published in June calls for improvements in the UKs cybersecurity and Starmer stressed that technology is transforming the nature of both war and domestic security. But the strategy focuses strongly on boosting defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035.

The government has been approached for comment.

Related: Far-right extremists outnumber Islamists in anti-terror programme referrals, data shows

Hall will also allege that the government has exaggerated the safety of online life in Britain and will say that despite the Online Safety Act, introduced in 2023, his researchers found an Islamic State-affiliated Facebook account posting an instructional document on the deadliest places for stabbing on a body, which had been online for at least a month and remained accessible despite being reported to Facebook.

Such content is now illegal, yet, Hall said: Nothing in the Online Safety Act allows the authorities to take down content or to order tech companies to take it down.

Despite this, you will continue to hear ministers saying that the Online Safety Act makes the UK the safest place to be online. We need much greater clarity about what the Online Safety Act can and cannot do. Digital life is too important for us to be left in the dark, he added.

Dame Melanie Dawes, chief executive of the UK communications regulator Ofcom, on Monday told MPs it was investigating if social media companies had adequate systems to assess and swiftly remove illegal hate and terror material reported to them.

If we uncover significant compliance concerns, we will not hesitate to move into formal enforcement action, she said.

Hall also called for a recast of laws that govern surveillance by UK authorities and restrict them from gathering personal information, even if it is posted online, without prior authorisation.

He said these restrictions are in place under human rights law protecting the right to a private life, but he is expected to say in his speech: We need to consider whether our predigital laws governing surveillance are unduly restricting the ability of counter-terrorism authorities to consider publicly available information online  that is, information that we have freely publicised and/or surrendered to tech companies for advertising purposes.

A government spokesperson said: The UK has one of the most robust counter-terrorism frameworks in the world, and this government is committed to ensuring we have the required tools and powers needed to stop the spread of violence and hatred against individuals and communities in our society.

Under the Online Safety Act, digital platforms must also take action to prevent illegal content, including terrorist and violent material, to protect users and our communities from online harm.
The deadly Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad killed 260 people - Sam Panthaky/AFP

US officials fear Indian authorities are trying to cover up the deadly Air India plane crash, which killed 260 people.

Just one passenger survived when Flight 171 crashed seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad in western India in June, killing 241 travellers and crew, along with 19 people on the ground.

US investigators believe the evidence points to Sumeet Sabharwal, the flights captain, deliberately crashing the plane, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Data downloaded from the Boeing Dreamliners black box allegedly shows someone inside the cockpit moved the switches to cut off the engines fuel supply.

The captain did not then attempt to raise the nose of the aircraft before the crash, the evidence reportedly shows.

Some US officials fear the Indian government will seek to obstruct the findings and instead blame mechanical faults with the plane.

The plane crashed 11 seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad airport on June 12 - Vijay Patani/AFP

Rescue efforts at the site of the Air India flight crash - Hindustan Times

However, Indian observers believe the US is overlooking flaws in American-made planes, although no Boeing Dreamliner has ever suffered a fatal crash before.

Indias top court this month said Sabharwal was not to blame for the disaster.

Sabharwals father has said his son has been the target of a character assassination despite his unblemished 30-year career as a pilot.

People gathered near a memorial banner to pay tribute to the flights captain, Sumeet Sabharwal - Divyakant Solanki/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

The joint-investigation between India and the US, which is involved because the Boeing was manufactured in the US and approved by American safety regulators, has been marred by mutual suspicion between officials.

GVG Yugandhar, who leads Indias aircraft accident investigation bureau, is said to have told US officials they were not a third world country and can do anything you all can do.

Indian authorities are accused of failing to prioritise gathering and analysing data from the black box, although this has been disputed by a figure familiar with Indias investigation process.

American investigators were banned from taking photos of the wreckage, some of which was moved before they could examine it, sources said.

Two American black-box specialists who landed in New Delhi in June were warned not to accompany Indian authorities to a remote laboratory to analyse flight data and voice recorders from the cockpit.

Flight recorders retrieved from the wreckage - Amit Kumar

Jennifer Homendy, the chairman of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), is said to have been worried about the safety of US personnel and equipment given the risk of terrorism or military conflict in the region.

Indian officials had pushed to analyse the black box in the small town of Korwa, which they deemed better equipped and located away from media attention.

Ms Homendy argued that authorities should download data from either their laboratory in New Delhi or work in the NTSBs Washington facilities.

In the end, Indian authorities agreed to analyse the data from the New Delhi site after the US threatened to pull their support from the investigation.

Ms Homendys calls to her counterpart, Mr Yugandhar, for updates are said to have gone unanswered.
The USPS is already tracking how many holiday packages are being shipped and 2 billion have gone out in the first week

The U.S. Postal Service has already shipped more than two million packages this holiday season as it dives into its busiest time of the year.

Whether you are shipping a gift to a loved one or sending out holiday cards to relatives, USPS is ready for your mailing needs.

The Postal Service said in a recent news release that it has opened hundreds of facilities with state-of-the-art sorting machines. The USPS now has a total of 614 machines to sort through mail across the country.

As part of the Postal Services Delivering for America 10-year plan, which was published in March 2021, the federal agency will invest $40 billion in staff and infrastructure.

The USPS said its investments have expanded its processing capacity to about 88 million packages per day, which is up from 60 million last holiday season.

The U.S. Postal Service has already shipped more than 2 million packages this holiday season as it dives into its busiest time of the year (file photo) (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

According to the Postal Services real-time Holiday Mail Counter, nearly 2.2 billion pieces of mail have so far been accepted this holiday season.

To keep up with the influx of packages, the USPS plans to hire 14,000 temporary employees on top of its full-time staff. In 2024, there were 533,724 postal employees.

The Postal Service said customers can expect their packages to be delivered in less than three days, on average, this holiday season.

The USPS said that it remains the most affordable way to send mail and packages. But it is delivering new temporary costs for holiday packages.

The Postal Service announced price hikes for Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, USPS Ground Advantage and Parcel Select over the summer.

The Postal Service has opened hundreds of facilities and plans to hire thousands of seasonal workers to manage the influx of packages (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

The changes will help cover extra handling costs and bring prices for the Postal Services commercial and retail customers in line with competitive practices, the USPS said in a news article.

Retailers will now pay a 40-cent increase to $16, and regular Americans will now pay a 30-cent increase to $13, depending on the package service, weight of the package and delivery zone.

The price hikes took effect in early October and will remain in effect until January 18.

One of the goals of the Postal Services strategic plan is financial sustainability. The USPS wants to avoid $160 billion in projected losses by 2030. The Postal Services controllable loss for the 2024 fiscal year was $1.8 billion, compared to more than $2.2 billion for the year prior.

President Donald Trump floated the idea of privatizing the USPS before returning to office, despite it being enshrined in the Constitution.

There is talk about the Postal Service being taken private, you do know that  not the worst idea Ive ever heard, the then-president-elect told reporters in December 2024.
Wherefore Doctor Who? After months of speculation, the series bowed out spectacularly in June, when Ncuti Gatwas Fourteenth Doctor regenerated into Billie Piper.

Yes, you read that right. Now, unsurprisingly, the show is on hiatus (I assume Billie Piper did not want to return for a Christmas special), which means our annual dose of Who comes from this wordily titled spinoff.

Penned, once again, by Russell T. Davies, The War Between the Land and the Sea takes us away from high-octane chase sequences and Daleks in favour of, um, diplomacy.

After millennia spent believing themselves the superior lifeforms on the planet, the human race is in for a rude awakening. The Sea Devils (diplomatically renamed Homo Aqua following their 1972 debut in the ninth season of Dr Who), dormant under the Earths surface for millions of years, are stirring from their slumber. Now theyre awake, though, they would actually quite like it back, thanks.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Salt (BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/Samuel Dore)

As humanity scrambles to respond, our point person for all this chaos is Barclay (Russell Tovey, who has the panicked squeaky voice nailed down at this point). Hes a lowly UNIT (Unified Intelligence Taskforce) grunt who accidentally got listed as the stand-in for a high-ranking alien expert.

When that expert is out of commission, its Barclay who gets called up to serve when a group of Spanish fishermen shoot a Sea Devil dead. Despite his increasingly shrill protestations that he shouldnt be there, he soon finds himself on a plane to Spain, and in way over his head.

One thing leads to another, and soon enough hes serving as part of the human delegation when diplomatic talks with Homo Aqua commence. Its all rather convoluted, to be honest, and some of the plot developments have a faint whiff of eye-roll to them, but Tovey commits to it utterly, and his air of comedic desperation is enough to see things through.

For better or worse, this is an extremely Russell T. Davies-esque show. Theres an everyman called upon to save the day (see: Barclay failing his way up the chain of command); there are touches of wry humour and observation.

Theres a slab-load of preaching, this time about how humanity is destroying the planet and polluting the seas (fair enough; we are). And theres a not-so-veiled critique of the ineffectiveness of authority figures and (gasp) businessmen  many of whom are here reduced to cartoon baddies. After a while, you begin to wish that the Doctor would swoop back in and set things right.

Providing the foil for Barclay is Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who is slathered in prosthetics, Avatar-style, to play Salt, the de-facto monarch of the Sea Devils, who can nevertheless speak perfect English.

Shes a commanding presence  as is Jemma Redgrave, who returns to play the UNIT commander Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. And as the two women clash during the increasingly fraught negotiations, Barclay finds himself essentially caught in the middle.

Russell Tovey as Barclay (BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/Alistair Heap)

Make no mistake: this isnt a kids show. It feels like Davies is trying to do something more adult here, teasing out themes Who likes to touch on, but transporting them to a setting where he can explore them properly.

Theres not much action; what there is instead is a lot of weighty grappling with the notions of stewardship, responsibility and power. Much of the shows first two episodes, which I was given to watch, takes place in a courtroom-style debating chamber, where the two races attempt to engage in talks.

Whether it will move past the po-faced diplomacy and into something a bit more exciting remains to be seen. But its a thoughtful watch, and pleasingly different to Who itself. Spare a thought for the actors wearing all those prosthetics, though.

Streaming now on BBC One and iPlayer
Dan Mulvagh blends history with suspense as a man uncovers the wartime secrets that shaped his identity

AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Dan Mulvagh delivers a powerful and emotionally charged narrative in "Where The Truth Was Buried: A story of espionage, betrayal, and the long shadow of WW2" (published by Xlibris NZ). Having been raised in a family that lived through World War II and lived on the island of Guernsey that had been occupied by German forces during the war, the author crafts an immersive novel that bridges two eras  Nazi-occupied Europe and late-1980s England  to explore how the long shadow of war can reach across decades and reshape a life.

Where The Truth Was Buried: A story of espionage, betrayal, and the long shadow of WW2

The story follows James Hamilton, a British-born orphan who was forcibly migrated to New Zealand as a child. Thirty years later, an unexpected inheritance draws him back to the Cornish fishing village he once considered home. There, he uncovers letters and military documents that suggest the cottage's former owner, a retired Royal Navy commander, was involved in a clandestine WWII operation with direct ties to James's true identity.

What begins as a simple homecoming becomes an intense journey into the past. The deeper James digs, the more he uncovers a shadowy network of British Intelligence, the French Maquis, and Nazi sympathisers operating within Allied ranks  all bound to a secret that has remained concealed in the memory of the village for decades. His discoveries unravel a sweeping story of divided loyalties and extraordinary courage.

"It's a classic tale of love, loss, and sacrifice," Mulvagh describes. The book will appeal to readers because of its strong characters, human drama, and grounded portrayal of WWII espionage. To purchase a copy, visit https://www.xlibris.com/en-nz/bookstore/bookdetails/868234-where-the-truth-was-buried.

"Where The Truth Was Buried: A story of espionage, betrayal, and the long shadow of WW2"

By Dan Mulvagh

Hardcover | 6 x 9in | 350 pages | ISBN 9781669882732

Softcover | 6 x 9in | 350 pages | ISBN 9781669882725

E-Book | 350 pages | ISBN 9781669882718

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author

Dan Mulvagh is an author based in Auckland, New Zealand. With a passion for storytelling and a commitment to excellence, he strives to provide entertaining novels that inspire, engage, and captivate readers. Born in Cornwall, England and raised on the Channel Island of Guernsey, Mulvagh relocated to New Zealand as a teenager and has spent a large portion of his life travelling the globe for business and pleasure ever since, including time living in Australia, Hong Kong, and Papua New Guinea. "I have always been a serial daydreamer and storyteller, especially when I make stuff up," he says. "Even better when the stuff I make up and write about is based in historical fact, and even better when it's military related." Mulvagh lives on the rural fringe of Auckland City with his wife in a home surrounded by native trees and birds. As an author of fictional novels, he is dedicated to providing high-quality rollicking yarns that entertain and captivate readers. For more information, visit www.danmulvaghauthor.com.

EDITORS: For review copies or interview requests, contact:

Marketing Services

Tel: 0800 008 756, +64 9801 1905 (from outside New Zealand)

Fax: (09) 353-1455

Email: MarketingServices(at)xlibris(dot)co(dot)nz

(When requesting a review copy, please provide a street address.)

SOURCE XlibrisNZ
Hours before meeting with Trumps envoys, Putin said European tweaks to a plan to end the Ukraine war were unacceptable - SERGEI ILNITSKY/EPA/Shutterstock

Russia is prepared to go to war with Europe, Vladimir Putin has declared, as he accused leaders from the Continent of trying to scupper his peace talks with the US.

Hours before meeting with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Donald Trumps envoys, at the Kremlin, the Russian president said European tweaks to a plan to end the war in Ukraine were unacceptable.

Russia and the US had agreed to a 28-point plan, which France said amounted to a capitulation for Ukraine. It included halving the size of the Ukrainian army, banning the country from joining Nato and handing Putin back most of Russias frozen assets, as well as full ownership over the Donbas regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

European leaders, including Emmanuel Macron and Giorgia Meloni, opposed any text that makes decisions about frozen Russian assets, Nato or EU membership without their permission.

US officials worked over the weekend with Ukraine and Europe to find an acceptable middle ground and have watered the plan down to be more palatable to Kyiv.

Vladimir Putin and Kirill Dmitriev, his top economic envoy, sitting across from the US delegation, including Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, in the Kremlin - Alexander Kazakov/Getty

Contentious points, including territorial concessions and a restriction on Nato membership, were removed. They have not satisfied Putin.

Europe is offering proposals for a peace plan for Ukraine that are unacceptable to Russia, he said.

Russia has no intention of going to war with European countries, but if Europe starts a war, Russia is ready right now and then Moscow will have nobody to negotiate with.

Europe has no peace agenda and is now hindering US efforts to resolve the conflict, Putin added.

His comments are designed to drive a further wedge between Mr Trump and the continent.

Putin has met with Steve Witkoff six times this year - Alexander Kazakov/Reuters

Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraines president, said everything depends on the US delegations meetings in Moscow.

Following his first state visit to Ireland, in which he called for a peace without humiliation, he said the next steps would be decided quickly, depending on the signals.

If the signals open the possibility and the chance for global but swift decisions, then he was ready for a meeting with Mr Trump. Everything depends on todays discussions, he added.

It is understood that the thorniest issues in the peace plan, including security guarantees, territorial concessions and Nato membership, have been left blank in the latest version of the strategy, to be filled out only after direct talks between Mr Zelensky and Mr Trump.

Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner are expected to meet the Ukrainian leader in either the Irish capital or Brussels after concluding talks with Putin in Moscow.

The US delegation arrived at the Kremlin on Tuesday afternoon after sweeping through the city in a motorcade of blacked-out limousines and police cars.

A motorcade of blacked-out limousines and police cars transporting Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner through Moscow - Anastasia Barashkova/Reuters

It was Mr Witkoffs sixth meeting with the Russian president this year and Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said the talks would last as long as it takes.

After five hours of negotiations, the meeting in Moscow ended in disappointment as it was revealed that no agreement had been reached on the issue of territory.

Speaking to reporters, Putins foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said the summit was useful, constructive and meaningful.

But he stressed no compromise had been reached on territory, despite the US delegation presenting several proposals.

Peace is no closer, but also no further away, said Mr Ushakov. We agreed with our American colleagues not to disclose the substance of the negotiations that took place. The discussion was confidential, he added.

At the end of the day, Putin asked Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner to convey a number of messages to Mr Trump, Mr Ushakov added.

Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law, and Steve Witkoff pictured in the Kremlin meeting with Putin - Sputnik/Kristina Kormilitsyna/Pool

There are no plans for the pair to meet in the immediate future.

Mr Kushner and Mr Witkoff have emerged as key figures in the Trump administration after helping to negotiate an end to the war in Gaza earlier this year.

Earlier, the pair were spotted walking through the streets of the Russian capital towards the Red Square with Kirill Dmitriev after dining at a Michelin-starred restaurant.

State media published footage of the trio, noting a particular closeness between Mr Witkoff and Mr Dmitriev, Putins Ukrainian-born lead envoy in talks with the US, who was wearing a Russian-flagged sports coat.

Mr Witkoff, a property developer, has been accused of being too close to Russia throughout the peace process, and said he liked Putin after an earlier trip to Moscow.

Last week, Bloomberg published a leaked phone call between Mr Witkoff and Yuri Ushakov, a senior Kremlin aide. In the call, the US envoy advised Putins aide on how to pitch a peace plan to Mr Trump.

The negotiators have also been accused of trying to profit from the peace deal by staking a claim in Ukraines rare earth minerals.

Before heading to Moscow, Mr Witkoff held discussions with European leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer, as well as with Rustem Umerov, Ukraines new chief negotiator.

Putin, speaking at an economic forum in Moscow on Tuesday, said Russia was prepared to go to war with Europe

Mr Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said before Tuesdays talks that he would not be drawn on Russias red lines during negotiations, adding that megaphone diplomacy would not be helpful.

Mr Trump said on Sunday he thought there was a good chance that a peace settlement could be reached after talks between US and Ukrainian officials in Florida.

Putin has said publicly he is ready for peace, but threatened that if Ukraine refused to give up territory not under Russian control, then his forces would advance further and take more territory.

One of Russias demands, that Ukraine commit to not joining Nato, was given a boost on Tuesday as Mark Rutte, the alliances secretary general, said there was currently no viable path for it to join.

Mr Rutte told reporters there had to be consensus among members for a new country to join the pact and, right now, as you know, there is no consensus on Ukraine joining Nato.

Before the Tuesday talks began, Russia claimed to have captured the embattled city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk, a key logistics hub that Ukrainian forces have defended for more than a year.

Ukraine denied that Russia had taken Pokrovsk, insisting that fighting was continuing in the north of the city.

On Tuesday, Mr Zelensky accused Russia of launching new disinformation campaigns before the talks with the US representatives.

The Ukrainian president said: We note that the Russians have already launched new disinformation campaigns in view of preparations for their upcoming meetings with the American side.

Ukraine approaches all diplomatic efforts with utmost seriousness  we are committed to achieving a real peace and guaranteed security.

Mr Witkoffs visit to Moscow followed a flurry of diplomatic activity, which began in October when he welcomed Kirill Dmitriev, a senior Russian politician, for talks in Miami.

The result of those talks was a controversial 28-point peace plan, which was largely favourable to Russia, which has demanded more Ukrainian territory, as well as restrictions on Ukraines army and its ability to join Nato.

The plan was leaked to the press last month, prompting fury in Ukraine and among European allies, who were left out of negotiations. US and Ukrainian officials then mapped out a revised peace plan that was less detrimental to Kyiv.
Russia and the US did not make progress toward a peace deal for Ukraine during their talks, a senior aide to Vladimir Putin has said, hours after the Russian president issued threats that Russia was ready for war with Europe.

In remarks to Russian media, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said that after a five-hour meeting with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff and Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner, the two sides were neither further nor closer to resolving the crisis in Ukraine. There is a lot of work to be done.

Ushakov called the meeting extremely useful, constructive, and informed, but nonetheless said the two sides had not come to an agreement on key issues, including the potential lines of territorial control in a potential peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

Related: The slow death of Pokrovsk

We did not discuss  specific American proposals, but discussed the essence of what is embedded in these American documents, Ushakov said of the peace plan presented by the US side. We could agree with some things  and the president also did not hide our critical and even negative attitude towards a number of proposals.

Some aspects of the negotiations would not be revealed, Ushakov said, and he indicated that another summit between Trump and Putin was not imminent.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said later that some progress was made on security guarantees. 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, Rubio told Fox News. He added that the US hoped a compromise would allow them not just to rebuild their economy, but to prosper as a country.

The relatively downbeat assessments of Tuesday nights diplomacy follows combative opening statements from Putin as Witkoff and Kushnerarrived for talks at the Kremlin, in which he accused European powers of sabotaging peace in Ukraine and that European demands on ending the war were not acceptable to Russia.

Europe is preventing the US administration from achieving peace on Ukraine, Putin said, adding: Russia does not intend to fight Europe, but if Europe starts, we are ready right now.

Putin did not clarify which European demands he found unacceptable.

They are on the side of war, Putin said of European powers.

Witkoff, on his sixth trip to Moscow this year, was expected to present Putin with an updated version of a US peace proposal drafted with input from a senior Russian official and reworked to make it more acceptable to Kyiv.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he was awaiting signals from the US delegation after its meeting with Putin, in an intense round of shuttle diplomacy that the Trump administration has claimed is its best chance yet of bringing an end to the war.

But there remains significant skepticism that Russia is ready to accept any concessions, rather than continue the war and await a further breakdown in relations between the Trump White House and its European allies.

I am ready to receive all the signals and ready for a meeting with President Trump, Zelenskyy posted on X. Everything depends on todays discussions.

Several US media outlets reported that Zelenskyy was expected to meet with Witkoff and Kushner in Europe after the meeting.

A short video feed from the Kremlin showed the two small delegations sitting on opposite sides of an oval white table, with Putin seated next to his advisers Kirill Dmitriev and Yuri Ushakov. Putin asked Witkoff and Kushner about a short tour of Moscow they had taken before the meeting, with Witkoff calling it a magnificent city. The feed then cut out.

The two Trump allies arrived in Moscow on Tuesday after meeting Ukrainian officials at the weekend in Florida to discuss revisions to the original 28-point peace plan, which overwhelmingly favoured Moscow.

Zelenskyy, on a diplomatic push to rally support among European capitals that have backed changes to the original plan, said in Paris that the updated version of the proposal looks better but emphasised it was not over yet.

Zelenskyy has objected in particular to provisions in the 28-point plan that would have required Ukraine to surrender territory in the east that it currently controls, and impose limits on the size of its military. He has also demanded clear, enforceable security guarantees from the west to prevent a future Russian invasion.

Putin, for his part, has said that only the original US proposal could serve as a basis for further talks, while also stating that it required significant revisions.

Despite intense shuttle diplomacy in recent weeks, which has produced several revisions to the US peace plan, bridging the gap remains difficult: Russias maximalist demands in effect require Ukraines capitulation.

Trump said in remarks to a cabinet meeting on Tuesday that the Ukraine war was a mess and not an easy situation to resolve.

Putins comments appeared aimed at driving a wedge between Washington and European capitals. European officials have had some success in pushing back against the original US plan, though it remains unclear to what extent Washington is taking their concerns into account.

The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, earlier on Tuesday said Putin and Witkoff would discuss the understandings reached recently between Washington and Kyiv, adding that Russia remained open to talks but would insist on achieving the goals of its special operation.

Those goals amount to sweeping demands that would severely erode Ukraines sovereignty, including deep cuts to its armed forces, a ban on western military assistance, far-reaching limits on political independence, and the handover of Ukrainian-controlled territory in the east of the country.

On the eve of the talks with the US delegation in Moscow, Putin claimed Russian forces had taken control of the strategic city of Pokrovsk in Ukraine.

Dressed in military fatigues during a visit to a command centre on Monday evening, the Russian president hailed what he called the important capture of Pokrovsk, once a major logistical hub for the Ukrainian army, though Ukrainian officials later disputed the claim.

Russia has spent more than a year attempting to seize the frontline hub, seen as a gateway to Donetsk, and has suffered heavy losses in the process.

Ukrainian analysts and military bloggers have acknowledged that Russia now holds most of Pokrovsk, with battlefield maps showing its forces largely in control.

Buoyed up by recent gains at the front, Putin has indicated in recent weeks that the Russian military was prepared to keep fighting if diplomacy faltered, repeatedly emphasising that his forces remained on the offensive on the battlefield.

The Russian leader also on Tuesday threatened retaliation against Ukraines ports and shipping after Kyiv in recent days struck several vessels in Russias so-called shadow fleet in the Black Sea.

The Russian president threatened that Moscow would step up strikes on Ukrainian ports and on any ships entering them in response to attacks on Russian tankers, which he described as piracy.

Echoing the Kremlin, Russian state media on Tuesday struck a confident tone before the US visit. Komsomolskaya Pravda, often described as Putins favourite newspaper, wrote that the presidents remarks suggested more and more Ukrainian territory is coming under our control  and that next time Russias terms may be tougher.

The paper implied that Moscow viewed the latest US-Ukrainian talks as a dead end, claiming Kyiv was refusing to capitulate. The US has tried for the third time in the past 10 days to pressure Ukraine, and Washington has once again failed, it wrote.
He was immediately smitten by that alchemical magic  Untitled, 2007, by Tom Sandberg. Photograph: Tom Sandberg

Norway has never looked as wet as in the photographs of the late Tom Sandberg. There are shots of drizzle and puddles, of asphalt slick with mizzle. A ripple of water appears to have a hole in it, a figure looms behind a rain-dappled window, a gutter glows after a downpour.

Shot in either bold chiaroscuro or gentle orchestrations of greys, these are pictures with the power to make the everyday seem dreamlike. But they are also uplifting, in a confusing kind of way, like being told to dress for sun even when the clouds are black.

Sandberg, as a new retrospective at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter next to the Oslo fjord makes clear, was not only Norways most famous photographer, pivotal in making the medium a serious art form in the Nordic region during the 1980s and 1990s. He was also a paradoxical character: hard-living, erratic, with a propensity for fanning his own myth with his tongue firmly in his cheek  and yet able to produce compositions that are contemplative, calming and uplifting.

Covering four decades, from student work taken in the mid-1970s through to pictures made shortly before his death in 2014, Tom Sandberg: Vibrant World is the first major Sandberg show since his death aged 60. The setting is apt: Sandberg was once the in-house photographer at Henie Onstad, capturing art happenings in its galleries and making closely cropped, vastly enlarged, monochrome portraits of visiting dignitaries, including the composer John Cage and the artist Christo. They are topographical in their scrutiny of pitted, sandpapery skin.

He was born in 1953 in the town of Narvik on the coast of northern Norway. The family subsequently moved to Oslo, where Toms father worked as a photojournalist. His father took him to the darkroom for the first time and exposed Toms hand on the photo paper. He said he was immediately smitten by that alchemical magic and never looked back, recalls the art historian Torunn Liven, a long-time friend and trustee of the Tom Sandberg Foundation.

After his father abandoned the family, Sandberg helped his mother raise his sister in a rough suburb of the city. In the mid 1970s, he studied photography at what is now Nottingham Trent University, where he was taught by the American photographer Minor White.

Sandberg considered the darkroom process, in which he experimented with materials and retouching, to be a pivotal part of image-making. And, as his practice progressed, his prints became larger, almost cinematic. A noirish interior of the lounge at Oslos Gardermoen airport could be a film still from a Wim Wenders feature.

He returned to Oslo in the late 1970s, and began collaborating with printers and designers. Though he developed an interest in Zen-like compositions, his social life was far from monk-like.

Tom had a huge social capacity. When he went in a taxi, hed make friends with the taxi driver. He was friends with Norways crown princess, says Liven. He had a large need and capacity for having people around him. I think that unrest is the shadow side of that liveliness. And that, in a sense, his work arrested that unrest.

Liven recalls how Sandberg had a particular affinity with young photographers who sought to learn his wizard darkroom skills and careful editing process, an old-school meticulous, intuitive and slow way of working. We are very happy at the foundation that all the 15-year-olds from the secondary schools in the county around the museum area will participate in a workshop inspired by the Henie Onstad exhibition, says Liven. The teenagers will be restricted to work on one single picture, instead of the usual overload of endless digital snapshots.

Morten Andens, Sandbergs former assistant, photographer and co-curator (with Susanne stby Sther) of the Henie Onstad exhibition, recalls his unruly moments as well as his productivity. He was a wild soul, he says. He was one of those guys with a wry smile. He didnt take himself seriously but he took his work very seriously. It was how he dealt with existential issues. Sandberg struggled with alcohol and substance abuse, says Andens. He would periodically go on benders.

Sandberg told Andens that if it werent for photography hed probably go to the hounds. Rumours swirled around him. If you look at his ear in portraits, part of it is missing. And how did that happen? I think he loved myth-making. Like, was it a woman who bit off his ear? That kind of stuff, says Andens. He would tell interviewers that he dreamt in black and white.

Although Sandbergs obsessive methodology, poetic sensibility and pared-back subject matter suggests a modernist lone wolf  his photographs often feature solitary figures with their back turned to the camera  he was no recluse. He was seen by everyone he drew into his orbit, notes Andens. And he had a drive and intuition that rumbled on like a lorry without brakes.

His human subjects are really studies of strange shapes. In one, a man appears to dance with his own shadow. In the early 2000s, he photographed his young daughter, Marie, as a whirligig of blonde hair. He shot human doodles.

I dont think he was one thing. He was a diverse person, Marie, who is now 30 and has been at the helm of her fathers estate for more than a decade, tells me. He was a very funny person and charismatic. But not always easy to be with.

How was he as a father? He was always very protective of me when I was a child. We had many different chapters as well. And I chose to live with him when he didnt have the best time of his life, Marie says. She sees the photographs he took of her as a form of self-portraiture. I think he saw a lot of himself in me.

Marie recalls how her father would take his camera bag with him everywhere. To go from our house to the tram it could take anything from 10 minutes to two hours. He was taking pictures of me, the street, the sky, the ground. He just saw moments he wanted to capture. That engagement with his subjects and surroundings extended to his friendships, as Morten Andens recalls: Being in his company felt like the sun was shining on you.

There were some periods of sharpness and sobriety. In his lifetime, he saw considerable success, including a solo show at MoMA Ps1 in New York in 2007, and his legacy continues to grow. Henie Onstad has Sandberg works on loan from the Norwegian National Museum and the Tangen Collection, arguably the most important collection of Nordic photography in the world.

The exhibition includes just one photograph of the man himself: a self-portrait taken in 2001, in which Sandberg is seen sitting in an armchair in an empty room. He looks like a security guard. The man you wouldnt notice.

 Tom Sandberg: Vibrant World is at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo, until 1 March 2026
Brandy Cooney (left) and Becky Hamber (right) are on trial for first-degree murder in the December 2022 death of 12-year-old L.L. (Supplied)

Two women facing murder charges in the death of a 12-year-old boy in their care referred to him as a loser and such an asshole in text messages recovered from their phones, a police sergeant testified in an Ontario Superior Court courtroom on Monday.

The court also heard an audio clip recorded by the couple in which one of the women calls the boy a f**king p***k. These messages were among the thousands of photos, videos, and recordings Sgt. Julie Powers testified that she had reviewed as part of the investigation into Burlington couple Becky Hamber and Brandy Cooney.

Both women have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the December 2022 death of L.L., a 12-year-old whose identity is protected by a publication ban.

A pathologist said the boy may have died from hypothermia or cardiac arrest linked to severe malnourishment, but that his exact cause of death was uncertain.

The two women also face charges of unlawful confinement, assault with a weapon, and failing to provide the necessaries of life to his younger brother, J.L.

Brandy Cooney (left) and Becky Hamber (right) are on trial for first-degree murder in the December 2022 death of 12-year-old L.L. (Supplied)

The prosecution argues that the couple hated, abused and neglected the boys and that they exaggerated or made up behavioral concerns. The defense maintains that the women were struggling to care for two children with special needs without any support.

The boys were moved from their foster home in Ottawa to live with potential adoptive parents Cooney and Hamber in Burlington in October 2017, according to CBC.

Powers told the court on Monday that she examined recordings made inside the home, including an 18-minute audio file in which L.L. repeatedly asks to go outside.

Mama, may I please go outside? the boy says in the clip. I just asked you kindly. No one responds.

The court then heard text messages between the two women, about the recording, as they describe L.L. as rude, a loser and such an asshole.

He does needs go  far away, Hamber wrote, later adding: Bloody amazing if his new meds made him zonk.

In another recording played Monday, a 24-minute audio file dated December 28, 2020, the women argue with L.L. about how he is doing the stairs they assigned him as exercise.

There are no excuses for doing stairs incorrectly because you were assigned stairs as your job, one of the women says. If you fail to do stairs properly, it will result in more stairs and burpees.

The recording ends with one of the women shouting and ordering L.L. to his room. Later in the clip, one of them calls him a f**king prick and an idiot.

L.L. was so emaciated on the day he died, he looked like he was six years old, even though he was 12 (Ontario Superior Court in Milton)

L.L. and his brother J.L. were moved from their foster home to live with the women in 2017 (Ontario Superior Court in Milton)

Powers said early photos on the womens phones show the couple with both boys, but over the five years they were together, fewer and fewer images included L.L.

Meanwhile, pictures taken in later years show both children wearing onesies and later, wetsuits, some with holes around the neck, which police allege were used to zip-tie the suits onto the boys. Investigators seized bags of zip ties from the home.

The Crown  the prosecution  argues the couple locked the boys in their rooms, surveilled them on cameras, zip-tied their clothes and shoes on, restricted food and forced them to exercise.

The defense has argued the wetsuits were worn because the boys urinated in the house, an assertion the younger brother denied when he testified earlier this month, CBC reported.

When Crown lawyer Monica MacKenzie asked Powers whether she saw any photos of Hamber with injuries she claimed the boys caused, including a broken arm, the officer said she found no such images. She also said there were no photos of the boys with friends.

According to earlier testimony, L.L. spent his final day alive, December 21, 2022, locked in his basement bedroom as Hamber and Cooney monitored him on camera.

A protection worker testified that the women reported to him the boy vomited, screamed, and kicked the door throughout the day. By around 6 p.m., he seemed calmer, they told the caseworker.

When Cooney checked on him, she found him unresponsive, vomit everywhere, and said they performed CPR before first responders arrived. Paramedics found the boy severely malnourished and emaciated, weighing roughly the same as a six year old child. He died shortly after being rushed to hospital.

The trial, which began in mid-September, is expected to continue into December.
Zipcar is to suspend new bookings after 31 December pending the outcome of a consultation on possible redundancies. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

The worlds biggest car-sharing company, Zipcar, has said it will close its UK operation, removing access to its shared fleet across London at the end of this year.

The company, owned by the US car rental group Avis Budget, said it would suspend new bookings through its app after 31 December, pending the outcome of a consultation on possible redundancies. The UK operating company had 71 staff last year, according to its latest accounts.

The closure will be a blow to advocates of carsharing as a more sustainable form of personal transport, as well as to some car clubs that relied on Zipcar to share private vehicles.

James Taylor, Zipcar UKs general manager, wrote in an email to customers: We are proposing to cease the UK operations of Zipcar and have today started formal consultation with our UK employees. Taylor directed customers to the website of CoMoUK, a national charity for shared transport, to find other car-sharing options.

The closure will follow a tricky period for carsharing companies. The Guardian reported in March that Avis Budget had quietly downgraded the valuation of its Zipcar subsidiary, amid declining revenues and rising costs in certain key markets.

Zipcars UK closure will coincide with the increase in Londons congestion charge, and its introduction to electric cars, including those driven by car club members, from January. Zipcar would have had to pay the up-to-18 daily charge on any cars that entered the zone, except for the small number permanently based inside, and then decide how much to pass on to consumers.

The changes to the congestion charges have been estimated to add 1m annually to car club costs, most of that borne by Zipcar. Zipcar was thought to run nearly 3,000 vehicles, including cars and vans  the majority of the 5,300 shared vehicles in the UK.

A spokesperson for Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London with oversight of Transport for London, said: The mayors transport strategy is clear on the important role car clubs can play to reduce the need for private car ownership. This is why the mayor recently announced that electric car clubs with a dedicated parking bay in the congestion charge zone will receive a 100% discount on the congestion charge from January.

Richard Dilks, chief executive of CoMoUK, said the closure was a sign of a failure to have supportive policy towards car clubs. The UK lags behind other European countries, with only 0.7 shared cars per 10,000 people, compared with 2.2 in Germany and 4.4 in Switzerland, according to car sharing software company Invers.

Weve been warning for a while about the viability of car clubs in London, said Dilks. People rely on these things  thats how they work. If thats taken away its a significant blow.

The charity counted 328,000 car club users in the UK in March. Dilks said many of them would be forced into private car ownership instead.

Zipcar was founded in 2000 by two entrepreneurs in Cambridge, Massachusetts, before being bought by Avis Budget in 2013 for $491m (371m). It continues to operate in 25 US states, and in three cities in Canada, according to its website. However, the proposed UK closure would come after Zipcar (UK) reported an 11.7m loss for 2024.

The company said it would honour existing bookings, including over the Christmas period. It also said it would contact users with bookings running into the new year, while paying subscribers will receive refunds for the period after 31 December.

The concept of car-sharing gained popularity during the coronavirus pandemic as Zipcar, Enterprise Car Club and Share Now offered app-based car rental by the hour, while companies such as Hiyacar, Turo and Getaround opened up the ability to rent neighbours cars.

However, companies running their own fleets have struggled to make a profit, with relatively high maintenance costs for vehicles scattered around cities.

Zipcar in the UK had pioneered the flex model of running a fleet of cars with no set parking space, allowing users in London to park in residents bays almost anywhere in the centre of the city. Other cars or vans were stationed in dedicated bays. All are accessed via a mobile app.

Car-sharing is generally seen as more sustainable because it avoids the extra CO 2 emissions needed to produce vehicles for every individual household.

An Avis Budget Group spokesperson said: Today, Zipcar informed UK members that we are proposing to cease Zipcars operations in the UK and have begun the required formal consultation with our UK employees.

This proposal is part of a broader transformation across our international business, where we are taking deliberate steps to streamline operations, improve returns, and position the company for long-term sustainability and growth.

As part of this proposal, new bookings in the UK will be suspended beyond 31 December 2025, subject to the outcome of the consultation. Zipcar UK will continue to operate as usual during this period. All other markets remain fully operational and unaffected.
Doctors holding a five-day walkout in November in a row over pay. (Getty Images) (Anadolu via Getty Images)

Resident doctors in England are set to hold a five-day strike in the run-up to Christmas, the British Medical Association (BMA) has announced.

Experts expect "intense" pressure on services amid surging flu cases and staff sickness, but medics say they have "no choice" but to hold the strike  due to take place from 7am on 17 December until 22 December.

Dr Jack Fletcher, chairman of the BMAs resident doctors committee, blamed the government for "failing to put forward a credible plan to fix the jobs crisis for resident doctors at the same time as pushing a real-terms pay cut".

Health secretary Wes Streeting described the move as "cynical" and accused the union of attempting to turn medics "into the Grinch who stole Christmas".

He added that after receiving a 28.9% pay rise over a three-year period, the BMA rejected an offer from the government "to create more jobs and put money back in resident doctors pockets".

NHS England CEO Sir Jim Mackey accused its committee of "totally reckless behaviour" at "the most dangerous time of year for hospitals".

As well as flu and illnesses related to cold weather, people are also prone to accidents and hazards during the Christmas period. Here are some you should watch out for.

Slipping on snow and ice

This has probably happened to most of you at some point in your lives  but hopefully it hasn't landed you in A&E.

December sees a surge in hospital admissions related to falls on snow and ice, with falls among the main causes for older people attending accident and emergency departments.

A peer-reviewed study of the winter of 2009/10, which was the UK's coldest in 30 years, found a significant increase in snow and ice-related falls.

It's happened to the best of us... (Alamy) (Islandstock)

"One hospital in the South West of England, for example, reported that, in the first two weeks of January 2010, the number of admissions to the emergency ward because of falls due to slipping on snow and ice, and the number of trauma operations performed, had doubled, costing an additional 227,500," it said.

The study found that the total inpatient cost of falls on snow and ice in the 2009/10 winter in England was 42m.

Alcohol-related injuries

Alcohol-related hospital admissions are a problem all year round in the UK, with 339,916 recorded in England in 2023/2024.

Plenty of people indulge in a tipple over the festive period, either at home, at the pub or at the work Christmas party, and while most of us will be fine, there is a risk of something going wrong.

While there is no definitive data on a December spike in alcohol-related falls and other accidents, the NHS websites information on alcohol saw a big spike in traffic on Christmas Day in 2023.

This included information on alcohol poisoning, which saw almost 60% more views on 25 and 26 December 2023 than during a normal 48 hours.

Many of us enjoy a tipple over Christmas, but it's not without its risk. (Getty Images) (zeljkosantrac via Getty Images)

Driving-related injuries

There is more solid data on car accidents during the Christmas period, many of which are brought about by too much alcohol.

Road safety charity Brake says December is the second-worst month for drink-drive crashes after August, and the fourth-worst for casualties (deaths and serious injuries).

Drink driving and icy road surfaces are both major causes of accidents during December. (Getty Images) (Finnbarr Webster via Getty Images)

Looking at data from 2012 to 2019, there were 4,150 drink-driving related crashes in December and 6,020 casualties.

Cold weather, icy roads and darkness also play a role, with the National Accident Helpline claiming that in the UK "one road accident happens every hour in snow, ice, floods, fog and darkness with 44,783 accidents in cold weather recorded between 2016 and 2020".

Fires

"People are 50 percent more likely to die in a house fire at Christmas than at any other time of the year", according to the Swansea Bay Health Board.

It urges people to keep Christmas cards, paper decorations and Christmas trees away from candles, fires or heaters, and to make sure smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors are working properly.

"Dont borrow batteries from your smoke alarm to power a Christmas toy," the board added.

December is a busy time for fire services up and down the country. (Alamy) (Yui Mok, PA Images)

Firefighters also warn of increased risks during the Christmas period, with Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service describing December as the "busiest month of the year for house fires".

Christmas lights and electrical presents are a risk, it says, as well as cooking-related fires.

Kitchen hazards

While there is no conclusive, nationwide data on this, a survey by the National Accident Helpline gives some idea of the ways people can hurt themselves in the kitchen over Christmas.

The survey out 2,000 people found that 49% of those preparing Christmas food have suffered an accident. One in 10 have spilled hot fat on themselves when cooking, while 18% have cut themselves preparing vegetables.

The injury advice service estimates that 600,000 people have burned themselves roasting chestnuts over an open fire.

Try to take it easy when preparing food this festive period. (Getty Images) (Jeff Greenberg via Getty Images)

Injuries while putting up decorations

The National Accident Helpline also found that more than one in 40 (2.7%) of people have suffered an electric shock due to badly wired Christmas lights.

One in 50 (2.1%) have fallen out of the loft while getting decorations down, it adds, while 2.6 million people have fallen off a stool or ladder while hanging up decorations.

London-based emergency training school First Aid for Life says that 350 people a year are injured by Christmas tree lights.

The number of decoration-related accidents is smaller, but it is worth being aware of the risks. (Alamy) (AlexPhotoStock)

This includes falls while they are being put up, children swallowing the bulbs, and electric shocks and burns.

Christmas trees alone account for more than 1,000 injuries each year, it adds.

Referencing the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), it says that between 1997 and 2010, 26 people died as a result of watering their Christmas tree with the lights on  urging people to unplug them first.

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Credit: Policia Nacional

Drug cartels are using ships packed with disease-ridden cattle to smuggle huge quantities of cocaine to Europe.

Police do not seize the vessels because it is a logistical nightmare to deal with the thousands of cows, intelligence sources have told The Telegraph.

The festering and foul-smelling conditions on board, with many of the animals dead or having spent months wallowing in faeces, put officers off searching the ships.

In the gang-controlled ports of Santos and Belem in Brazil, and in Colombias Cartagena, up to 10,000 cows at a time are loaded on to the decrepit 200m long ships, according to sources at the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre, Narcotics (MAOC-N).

MAOC-N is an EU law enforcement group based in Lisbon that combats drug-trafficking by sea.

The Orion V was intercepted in the Canary Islands carrying 4,500 kilos of cocaine in Jan 2023 - Policia Nacional

The 50-year-old carriers set sail around the Caribbean or South America to collect cocaine packages from smaller ships, typically picking up four to 10 tons, worth up to around 450m. The crew conceal the packages in the ships giant grain silos and other hiding places, the sources said.

The vessels will fly flags of convenience  where the ship is registered in a country different to its ownership, often in those with less stringent maritime regulations, such as Panama and Tanzania.

The vessels are officially bound for the ports of Beirut in Lebanon or Damietta in Egypt, where sanitation regulations for livestock are less stringent than in Europe.

However, the ships most lucrative cargo is destined for the major seaports of Antwerp or Rotterdam, Europes gateways for cocaine.

At some point across the Atlantic, the crew tie the packages of cocaine to inflatables, attach GPS devices, and jettison them overboard where they are then picked up by go-fast boats and smuggled to Belgium and the Netherlands.

The method is so effective that in the past 18 years, European police have seized only one livestock vessel carrying cocaine. At least one suspicious livestock ship departs every week from South America towards Europe, The Telegraph understands.

The law enforcement group is made up of 10 member countries, including the UK, and works closely with the National Crime Agency, Britains equivalent of the FBI.

An intelligence analyst for the MAOC-N told The Telegraph: You would not want to spend more than one minute on one of these vessels, you can only imagine the smell. The authorities dont want to have these vessels at their ports.

Logistically, the countries dont like to do inspections on board these vessels. The bad guys, they know this and thats why they are using it.

When police and customs officers reached the Orion V they faced the terrible stench of dead and dying cows - Policia Nacional

Sniffer dogs are near useless at detecting drugs because they are so put off by the cows and their stench, they added.

The source described the scale of the problem as a black hole. Without intelligence detailing exactly where the drugs were onboard, it was almost impossible to meet the threshold for convincing national police authorities to do a seizure.

They said: You can imagine the cost of such an operation, to get to a port, take all the cattle out, get all the authorities in to do an inspection on a vessel that is very big, a lot of concealment [for drugs]. They [the gangs] are very professional and they know exactly what they can take advantage of.

On January 24 2023, Spanish police made the first ever seizure of a cattle ship trafficking cocaine in European waters. Armed police intercepted the 100m long Orion V 62 nautical miles south-west of the Canary Islands during its voyage from Colombia to Lebanon.

Officers discovered 4,500kg of cocaine, with a value of around 82m, hidden in packages in cattle food silos. Footage from body-worn police cameras showed officers wading through dung and urine from the 1,750 cows on board.

Packages of drugs, alleged by Australian police to have been carried on a ship full of sheep - Western Australia Police

The vessel, flying a Togolese flag, was towed to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and its 28 crew members, of nine different nationalities, were arrested. Locals in the port city reportedly complained of the rotting smell emanating from the vessel.

Meanwhile, last week Australian police disclosed that a livestock ship carrying sheep had been used to try to smuggle 84m of cocaine into the country.

Fishermen found the cocaine tied to a floating drum off the western coast of Lancelin, about 75 miles north of Perth, on Nov 6.

The Western Australia Joint Organised Crime Taskforce alleged the drugs were dropped into the ocean from a livestock carrier, the Al Kuwait, on its way to Fremantle Harbour.

Police said the drugs were dropped into the ocean from a livestock carrier - Western Australia Police

The day after the drugs were found, police charged the vessels chief officer, a 46-year-old Croatian national, with attempting to import a commercial quantity of cocaine. Investigators searched his ship and found a blue drum and ropes similar to those allegedly found with the drugs.

Two men from Sydney, aged 19 and 36, and a 52-year-old Perth man were all allegedly part of the shore party, and responsible for collecting the cocaine and bringing it to shore.
Council spending on special educational needs and disabilities (Send) will balloon further if Labour picks up the tab, a leading think tank has warned.

Local authorities face a 14bn black hole in 2028-29 when they will have to pay off the Send deficits they will have accrued by then.

The Government announced in last weeks Budget that it would take on responsibility for overall Send spending in three years time to stop council debts spiralling further.

But the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) urged ministers not to write off the entire 14bn Send backlog in 2028-29, warning that this would hand councils a free pass to keep on spending.

Darcey Snape, a research economist at the IFS, said: Simply writing off these debts would be unwise, as it would remove any financial incentive councils have to try to control Send spending in the next few years. If someone else is picking up the tab, why disappoint and anger parents by turning down requests for support, and negotiate down fee rates with private special needs schools?

b'

2811 The cost of special education needs (Send) is going up

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Councils in England have a legal duty to pay for Send schooling for children, but for years they have been able to keep this off their books through a mechanism called a statutory override.

The emergency measure, which was introduced in 2019, allows councils to ignore education deficits they have built up in order to balance their budgets each year.

But, amid fears Send debts have spiralled out of control, the mechanism is due to end in 2028, at which point councils will have to fork out for the deficits they have built up by then.

The Office for Budget Responsibility warned last week that this would bankrupt many councils, and that the Government had so far failed to set out any plans on how it would absorb the costs.

In a briefing note published on Tuesday, the IFS suggested councils could instead bear some responsibility for their accumulated Send deficits from 2028-29. The think tank said keeping councils on the hook for part of the 14bn would force them to rein in costs over the next few years.

The IFS suggested ministers could also consider allowing councils to smooth the balance sheet over a longer timeframe, rather than forcing them to grapple with a 14bn cliff-edge in 2028-29.

Ms Snape warned that any hint that the Government will simply wipe the slate clean would worsen a recent acceleration in spending, which has pushed council costs on Send support to 13.1bn in 2024-45  up from 7.8bn a decade ago.

Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, acknowledged on Tuesday that the 14bn pile-up in council Send deficits was extremely serious, but declined to say how the Government planned to tackle it.

She told the Commons Education Select Committee: It has obviously built up over many, many years. Were obviously working with local authorities at the moment to manage their Send pressures.

Well set out further details around all this in terms of supporting local authorities with historic and accruing deficits through the upcoming Local Government Finance Settlement, so Im a bit limited in what I can say at the moment.

The Education Secretary seems so far to have no plan to deal with the 14bn Send black hole - Getty

Ms Phillipson told MPs that Labours planned Send reforms would set out plans for the long-term path to sustainability.

Labour has promised a complete overhaul of the current Send system in a white paper that has been repeatedly delayed and is now expected in the new year.

The Telegraph understands it will include plans for significant investment in state Send support in the hope of phasing out reliance on private specialist schools and taxis to transport children to them.

Ministers are thought to have been rattled by the scale of the backlash earlier this year over reports they were considering scrapping education, health and care plans (EHCPs) for pupils with complex Send needs.

EHCPs offer the only legally binding mechanism through which parents can guarantee Send support for their children, but have been eating up an increasing portion of the Send budget each year.

The Department for Education (DfE) announced a national conversation with parents on Wednesday in a bid to ease tensions, but was criticised for unveiling the move just weeks before the Send white paper was due to be published.

The DfE said nine face-to-face events with parents and five online feedback sessions until mid-January would create 100,000 opportunities for parents, families and the sector to share their views on planned Send reforms.

It later clarified to The Telegraph that the figure referred to the fact that the one-hour online events could theoretically take up to 20,000 sign-ups.

Send Action, a campaign group, said on social media site X: Starting a conversation in December for a white paper due in January is performative nonsense. It doesnt even allow time to analyse the responses, let alone allow them to influence whats clearly already decided.

The Government will launch a formal consultation on the Send reforms once the white paper has been issued, and will later publish its findings based on the feedback.
In the middle of Liverpool city centre, musician Ami Alex is showing me a TikTok she posted while busking on the street.

But instead of showcasing her singing, it shows a man approaching her repeatedly, coming closer and closer. He reaches out and touches her - wiping something wet on her arm.

"At first I thought it was coffee," she says. "But when I watched the video back - you can hear him saying 'that's my pee'. My jaw dropped. I was horrified."

It's hard to believe what she's showing me, but she says this kind of behaviour is "unfortunately standard for a woman doing this kind of work".

She has many more videos - of men touching her without her consent, or demanding hugs or kisses for the money they've given.

"I've gotten a lot better at dealing with it," she says. "When I was 21, 22, when I first started doing this, I would go home in tears.

"It's just so degrading. It makes you feel objectified. Like - is that all you think of me?"

Sarah Everard's murder in 2021 caused outrage across the country. There was an outpouring of anger as women shared their stories of feeling unsafe, threatened and sexualised on the streets.

The Angiolini Inquiry - which was established to investigate the circumstances surrounding Sarah Everard's murder - published its latest report today.

It examines whether there is a risk of it happening again, police culture, and broader concerns surrounding women's safety in public spaces.

After Ms Everard's killing, there were promises - assurances to women that things would have to change. But four years on, many women in Merseyside say they have the same feelings they did then.

"Men are honestly shocked when we tell them 'we don't feel safe'," says Kate Chadwick, from the Wirral charity Tomorrow's Women. "Pretty much every woman has had some kind of experience."

I meet her at a regular lunch club they host - at their building where men are not allowed inside. It's intended as a safe space for their members, who they are helping through everything from domestic violence to sexual assault. There's a medical clinic here, beauty treatment rooms, a computer lab - all staffed by women.

Kate shows me the pocket rape alarm they give out to the women who come here. She hopes they never have to use it, but "it makes them feel safer just having it".

"As a woman, in the winter it's a hard time just to exist," Kate says. "Women don't feel safe coming out of their homes. Routines will change. They don't want to walk in certain places.

"One of our members gets two buses home because it's safer than waiting at a dark bus stop to just get the one."

They are about to launch a photography exhibition around stalking and harassment. For this, they gave their members a camera and asked them to submit photos that show their experience being a woman.

There are several photos of dimly lit streets, bus stops with no one else there. One photo is a fist holding a key through the knuckles - an image most women will recognise.

Another picture is of an outfit laid out on the floor - a T-shirt, denim skirt and tights. It's titled What Were They Wearing?

"This can often be the first question in a sexual assault case," Kate says. "It really doesn't matter what the woman was wearing."

"It's definitely not getting better," she says. "In 2024, violence against women and girls was declared a national emergency. The statistics you read every day are shocking."

Later that evening, back in Liverpool, we meet Girls on the Go - a running club started with the express purpose of allowing women to exercise safely in the winter. It's 5.15pm when we meet for the run, and already dark.

The women running here list a collection of similar experiences. They have been catcalled, yelled at from cars, even chased while out running alone.

Run leader Madeline Cole tells me that, as a women-only club, they have had to modify their warm-ups because "as soon as you bend over to touch your toes, or go into a squat, the shouting starts".

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Founder Steph Barney says she started the club because it is still "intimidating running alone as woman".

"Far too many women experience harassment and catcalling - we wanted to create a group where women would feel safer doing it together" she says. "Even in the summer you get sexualised just for wearing shorts. You have to restrict what you do. None of my male friends have ever had to worry about that."

I ask if anything would help them feel safer when out on their runs. "Better street lighting is a really obvious one," she says. "And one of the issues is that it's still not taken seriously by society. When you're catcalled, it feels embarrassing to say 'this is scary'.

"If it was taken more seriously - more women would speak out. And more could be done."
Air India Boeing 787 crashed 32 seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad Airport - Getty

Workers at a morgue in London were exposed to deadly substances after opening the coffins of British victims of the Air India plane crash, it has been revealed.

The bodies had been flown to the UK stored with dangerously high levels formalin, and after the coffins were opened at Westminster Public Mortuary, this led to cyanide and carbon monoxide being released into the atmosphere.

A police chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear unit was reportedly called in to help with environmental monitoring and provide breathing apparatus.

The Air India Boeing 787 crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad Airport on its way to Gatwick on June 12, killing 241 passengers and crew, and 19 people on the ground. The victims included 53 Britons.

Prof Fiona Wilcox, Senior Coroner for Inner West London, said the lined coffins had a formalin concentration of around 40 per cent, which morgues in the UK were not equipped to deal with.

Fifty-three of the passengers on Air India Boeing 787 were British - Amit Dave/Reuters

She said: There is an underappreciation across mortuaries of the dangers posed by formalin to the health of all mortuary users. It is carcinogenic and is known to cause acute myeloid leukaemia.

It has toxic effects including metabolic acidosis, bronchospasm, pulmonary oedema and death. With heat and light exposure it breaks down releasing carbon monoxide which is highly toxic. If it mixes with a source of ammonia (commonly seen with decomposition), cyanide which is also highly toxic can be released.

Levels of formalin were found to be dangerously high, and carbon monoxide and cyanide were also detected in the mortuary at dangerous levels following opening of the coffins and unwrapping of the bodies of the deceased persons who had been repatriated.

Formalin contains formaldehyde, a volatile substance that disperses into the atmosphere and can cause respiratory irritation.

Prof Wilcox said in a Prevention of Future Deaths report: On opening the coffins, it was apparent that there was a significant chemical hazard from the formalin to all users of the mortuary. It is apparently not usual for environmental monitoring to be routinely available in either public or hospital mortuaries.

She said she was concerned that mortuaries frequently receive bodies preserved in formalin and that formalin is not routinely monitored in mortuaries, adding: [I am concerned] that appropriate equipment may not be available nor used when mortuaries handle bodies significantly contaminated with formalin, thus exposing users of mortuaries to health risks including risk of death.

Prof Wilcox sent the report to Steve Reed, the Housing Secretary, Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, the managers of two London-based mortuaries and other medical professionals. They have 56 days to respond.
China congratulates Kyrgyzstan on successful early parliamentary elections: FM spokesperson

Xinhua) 09:36, December 02, 2025

BEIJING, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Following successful early parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan, China has expressed its congratulations and its willingness to work with Kyrgyzstan to promote the building of a China-Kyrgyzstan community with a shared future, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said in Beijing on Monday.

Lin made the remarks at a regular press conference when asked to comment on the early parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan, saying that at the invitation of the Kyrgyz side, the Chinese side had sent a delegation to observe the election and believed that this election was democratic, open and transparent, offering a highly positive assessment.

As a friendly neighbor and a comprehensive strategic partner for a new era, China supports the choice of the people of Kyrgyzstan, Lin added.

He said China believes that under the leadership of President Sadyr Japarov, Kyrgyzstan will surely achieve long-term stability and make new and greater achievements in national development and the rejuvenation of the nation.

"China is willing to work with Kyrgyzstan to earnestly implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, further increase mutual support, deepen all-round mutually beneficial cooperation, and promote the continuous deepening and solidification of the building of a China-Kyrgyzstan community with a shared future," the spokesperson said.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Dec. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- KIC Ventures, inventor of the global movement in LESS Exposure Spine Surgery (LESS) and a leader in interventional spine surgery innovation, today announced the release of VertiFix, a breakthrough technology designed to address a critical and growing challenge facing interventional pain management (IPM) physicians: the safe removal of failed or improperly placed interspinous process implants while preserving the spinous processes.

VertiFix, developed by NANISX and KIC Ventures, provides a safe and effective solution for interspinous implant removal such as Vertiflex Superion while preserving the spinous processes.

Following widespread implantation of various interspinous process devices, such as Boston Scientific Vertiflex Superion device, the industry is now seeing an increasing number of revision cases attributed to poor placement, suboptimal patient selection, or disease progressionfactors that ultimately contributed to the device's recall . While Vertiflex offered value for patients with mild spinal stenosis, physicians are now confronting a harsh reality: removal is often extremely difficultand sometimes nearly impossiblewithout causing significant anatomical damage.

Dr. Kingsley R. Chin, orthopedic spine surgeon, CEO and Founder of KIC Ventures, personally observed the magnitude of this issue during a case in Long Island.

"I watched an IPM physician struggle for more than two hours to remove a Vertiflex implant so he could revise with InSpanif he could preserve the spinous processes. The case was eventually aborted because the device could not be removed. The patient ultimately required a full laminectomy by a spine surgeon, and both spinous processes had to be sacrificed. That moment made it clear: the industry needed a solutionand quickly."  Dr. Kingsley R. Chin

This scenario is becoming increasingly common nationwide. IPM physicians are struggling to revise interspinous fixation devices without damaging anatomy or escalating patients to major surgery, highlighting the need for better education and supportive clinical systems.

In response, KIC Ventures began educating physicians to use the InSpan instrumentation system to carefully dissect around interspinous implants and remove them with minimal disruption. These early successful revisions sparked a deeper engineering effort to create a definitive long-term solution.

That solution is VertiFix  a patented system developed in collaboration between spine surgeons and leading IPM physicians, including Dr. Luis Fandos (NY) and Dr. Jonathan Daitch (FL), who personally faced these revision challenges and urged the team to engineer a solution, and Vito Lore, CTO of KIC Ventures. The system underwent extensive clinical insight development, engineering refinement, and cadaveric validation.

VertiFix works by reversing the mechanical steps used to insert an interspinous device like Vertiflex, giving physiciansfor the first timea predictable and controlled method to:

Safely dissect around interspinous implants

Reverse the device's deployment mechanism

Extract the implant without destroying the spinous processes

Immediately stabilize the segment with InSpan

KIC Ventures has successfully completed multiple VertiFix removals in real-world clinical cases and has extensively validated the system in cadaver laboratories. Results demonstrate that:

The spinous processes can be preserved, preventing unnecessary laminectomies

Revisions can remain in the domain of LESS invasive outpatient procedures

Physicians can immediately restore stability with InSpan following device removal

With Boston Scientific recalling Vertiflex , tens of thousands of implanted patients may require evaluation and possible revision. VertiFix is the first and only system designed specifically to address this emerging need.

"Our goal is to support physicians and patients during this transition. VertiFix gives IPM doctors, orthopedic surgeons, and neurosurgeons the ability to safely remove Vertiflex and preserve spinal anatomy. We stand ready to assist Boston Scientific and the entire clinical community in addressing this growing demand."  Dr. Erik Spayde, CTO and Harvard-trained orthopedic spine surgeon, and Dr. Josue Gabriel, Director of Physician Training and orthopedic spine surgeon

VertiFix represents a significant milestone in KIC Ventures' mission to innovate specialized solutions for interventional spine surgery under its portfolio company NANISX, dedicated to advancing anatomy-preserving outpatient spine surgery globally. The company continues to invest in technologies that empower physicians to treat patients earlier via LESS invasive, anatomy-preserving REP principlesbefore major reconstructive surgery becomes necessary.

Disclaimer

This press release is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or tax advice. All financial examples are illustrative and hypothetical based on commonly used assumptions. Results will vary. Individuals should always consult with a licensed financial advisor before making any investment or retirement planning decisions.

About KIC Ventures

Founded in 2013, KIC Ventures is a physician-founded and physician-led healthtech private equity firm and the creator of the LESS Exposure Spine Surgery (LESS) treatment philosophy and technologies. Its portfolio includes MedTech spine-focused companies such as NANISX, AxioMed , and NanoFuse Biologics, and technology-driven ventures including Mediconnects and AxioMedX Smart Disc Technologies .

KIC Ventures partners with physicians to design and invest in innovative solutions that empower IPM physicians, orthopedic spine surgeons, and neurosurgeons with advanced, anatomy-preserving technologies.

We invent, innovate, and improve.

SOURCE KIC Ventures
Head teacher Paul Borrows at Hunter Hall, where staff and parents used crowdfunding to keep the school from closure

When the board of governors of Hunter Hall gathered last week, the mood was grim. Those present knew that the independent prep school was on the cusp of closure and that, without a rapid injection of funds to support a long-term rescue package, the gates would swing shut at the end of term, never to open again.

In recent years, the small school on the edge of Penrith, in the Lake District, has faced a host of financial pressures, but the Governments addition of VAT to school fees has pushed it to the brink.

Such was the determination to keep this much-loved Cumbrian institution open, however, that the governors decided one final push was worth it and set up a crowdfunder, aiming to raise 180,000 by Wednesday this week.

It might have felt like an extremely distant target but, after an astonishing response from the local community, somewhat incredibly they have made their target with just 24 hours to spare.

The whole community was refreshing the crowdfunder page constantly, says head teacher Paul Borrows. Getting over the line means everything to the parents and staff, and most importantly the children. We are just so grateful.

When The Telegraph visited the school on Monday, however, the atmosphere was far more tense.

With just 79 pupils, Hunter Hall has struggled to absorb Labours new 20 per cent VAT on school fees

The idea of having to tell my five-year-old that she wont be coming back here  a place where she loves to learn and has made so many friends  isnt just upsetting, whispered one parent, Tom Blades, as children filed past the schools breakout area. Its completely unjust. Our backs have been against the wall here. This is an incredible place. A special place. But its a desperate situation.

One that has been averted. But it says something about the precarious state of the independent school ecosystem that small, not-for-profit institutions such as Hunter Hall are having to crowdfund to secure their long-term viability. It wasnt a decision they took lightly but, as Borrows puts it, a very public deadline was necessary if only so staff and parents could have time to look elsewhere for education and jobs.

We knew the anxiety this would cause, he admits. But there was no other option available. Borrows stares out across the playing fields, which hosted community-wide cross-country events recently. Theres been a combination of financial pressures, but the introduction of VAT on school fees has been unprecedented.

With 79 pupils aged three to 11, Hunter Hall is in the midst of a financial headwind that a larger independent school in a more urban area could possibly overcome. It has always operated on a not-for-profit basis and tried to keep fees as affordable as possible for its rural Lakes community, but had no option other than to pass on the full 20 per cent VAT levy Labour imposed in January 2025.

Weve never had huge surpluses or reserves to draw on, says Borrows. Everything we did was to provide the best possible and most innovative education.

Hunter Halls fees now range from 4,108 to 4,942 a term. Obviously for parents thats quite a big hit to take. We did lose families as a direct consequence  and they told us so. For people already stretching to afford fees, the additional cost wasnt just frustrating, it was the difference between Can we afford this or can we not?

Speaking to parents at the end of the school day before the target had been reached, it was certainly not the case here that fee increases simply meant wealthy families had to forgo an extra holiday.

Look, we know not everyone will have sympathy, says Sam Bunting, whose daughter, Sibella, is in her crucial final year. But there are so many parents here who come from working families, who went to state schools themselves. Whatever our backgrounds, everybody has made real sacrifices to send our children somewhere different, somewhere special  somewhere that we think really meets our childrens needs.

Sibella Barbosa, 10, and her mother Sam Bunting at Hunter Hall, one of many families who had been fighting to save the school - Asadour Guzelian

Its fascinating that there was such overwhelming support for Hunter Hall from the entire Cumbrian community, whether or not they send  or could afford to send  their children here. The crowdfunder page has donations from a local bakery, a garage, a dairy farm, other small businesses, and local families. One parent, Charlie Morison  whose three boys have been or are still at the school  admits to feeling really struck by the comments on the page. Reading the impact this little school has had on the community is really moving, actually, she says.

More than a school  a community, a family. The best years of our lives, writes one donor. Another calls it a truly wonderful school, filled with amazing staff who celebrate every childs gifts and talents.

Locals seem to understand, too, that its not just the VAT imposition that has led Hunter Hall to this point. This year, the school also had to face the removal of charitable business rate relief and changes to National Insurance contributions. The timing of these policy changes made it virtually impossible for the school to navigate quickly enough to avoid crisis, despite negotiating rent reductions and staff voluntarily accepting a 7.5 per cent salary reduction.

That decision by teachers alone was incredible, says governor Ben Shamash. If I told my staff in my business that I was cutting salaries by that much, theyd be off. These incredible teachers here believe in this place so much that they were prepared to make that sacrifice.

From left, parents Sophie Hodge, Tom Blades and Ben Shamash at Hunter Hall school in Penrith, Cumbria - Asadour Guzelian

In September, The Telegraph visited Windermere School, which was also being buffeted by the VAT imposition. Back then, its chair of governors, Peter Hogan, bemoaned that the VAT levy lacked nuance and treated all independent schools  no matter their size, location or circumstances  with the same broad brushstroke. Its a complaint Borrows completely empathises with, given they also dont have the margins of a big-name school.

Its a question of scale, he agrees. If you look at the headline figures from the Government, theyre saying they want to put this money into schools. Which is great  Im obviously all in favour of that. But its easy to hide in the big numbers and forget that if this one school closes, then it will cost them about half a million pounds to fund places in the state school sector.

And if thats repeated across the country, argues Borrows, then very quickly those headline figures raised for better education will be swallowed up.

It just seemed unnecessarily cruel, says Bunting. Were a little school in the wilds of the north, so to speak. But were also a community asset. Its closure would cost far more than it saved.

There wasnt a fairness here, adds Blades. Youre messing with childrens lives and teachers jobs in the end.

All of these legitimate concerns might be why Hunter Hall closed in on its 180,000 target. But it was also because these parents, more than anyone, knew what was at stake here.

Hunter Hall uses its independence to be imaginative and innovative in its curriculum and learning environments; earlier this year the school introduced engineering, with projects such as bridge-building designed to mimic how real-world collaboration works.

So, despite this influx of donations, governors like Shamash know that raising 180,000 needs to be more than just plugging an immediate funding hole. The school has modelled a financially viable future based on just 70 pupils from 2026 onwards, with the potential for growth if they can rebuild confidence in the sector. It will now be ratified at a governors meeting on Wednesday.

Obviously anyone donating, and any prospective parent, wants to know that were not going to be in the same situation in a years time, says Borrows.

Borrows says parents belief in the school has been crucial to its fight for survival - Asadour Guzelian

But confidence in the school itself has never wavered. I showed a family around the day before the news broke, says Borrows. They saw the crowdfunding story the next morning and still rang to say, We want our son to start next September. That meant a lot.

This young boy will now get that chance.

I just truly believe that the educational landscape is so much richer if you have more schools in it  schools that can have some freedom and offer choice to parents, says Burrows. And its those parents who have shared the story of this school and have been so crucial in getting us this far.

And theyve done it not because they can afford to, but because they believe in what Hunter Hall stands for. Hunter Hall is more than a school to us, says Morison. Its a very special community that has nurtured our boys for the past nine years. I did actually ask my youngest how hed feel if these were his last days here, and he said hed be devastated and heartbroken.

We shouldnt be making children suffer in this way, but we are thankful for all the support.

Still, the Department for Education remains unrepentant. The OBRs Budget report shows that ending tax breaks for private schools will raise 40 million a year more than initially expected to help fund public services, including supporting the 94 per cent of children in state schools to achieve and thrive, says a spokesperson.
Sarah Everard was murdered by Wayne Couzens, then a serving police officer, in March 2021 - Crown Prosecution Service

The mother of Sarah Everard has described how she is still tormented by the horrors of her daughters final hours.

In an emotional statement to coincide with the publication of a report examining violence against women and girls, Sue Everard said she was still full of rage and torment over Sarahs abduction, rape and murder by former Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens in March 2021.

The report, commissioned in the wake of the murder, also warned about the impact of violent, misogynistic pornography on boys and said there was a critical failure of police to answer basic questions about women attacked in public.

Lady Angiolini, who was commissioned to carry out an inquiry into Sarahs rape and murder, backed calls for a good Samaritan law that would empower and encourage the public to intervene when they see someone in trouble as one of 13 new recommendations for the Government and the police to better tackle the problem of sexual violence.

However, she said that recommendations she made almost two years ago  including barring those with convictions or cautions for sexual offences from serving in the police, such as Couzens  had still not been implemented.

In a foreword to the report, Ms Everard wrote: After four years the shock of Sarahs death has diminished but we are left with an overwhelming sense of loss and of what might have been.

I go through a turmoil of emotions  sadness, rage, panic, guilt and numbness. They used to come all in one day but as time goes by they are more widely spaced and to some extent time blunts the edges.



I am not yet at the point when happy memories of Sarah come to the fore. When I think of her I cant get past the horror of her last hours. I am still tormented by the thought of what she endured.

She continued: They say the last stage of grief is acceptance. I am not sure what that means. I am accustomed to Sarah no longer being with us but I rage against it.

Ms Everard has rarely spoken publicly since her daughters death, but she previously spoke of her rage at Couzens in a victim impact statement following his trial.

She said: I play it out in my mind. I go through the terrible sequence of events. I wonder when she realised she was in mortal danger; I wonder what her murderer said to her. When he strangled her, for how long was she conscious, knowing she would die? It is torture to think of it.

Sarah was handcuffed, unable to defend herself, and there was no one to rescue her. She spent her last hours on this earth with the very worst of humanity. She lost her life because Wayne Couzens wanted to satisfy his perverted desires. It is a ridiculous reason, it is nonsensical. How could he value a human life so cheaply? I cannot comprehend it. I am incandescent with rage at the thought of it.

Jeremy and Sue Everard (left), Sarahs parents - Dominic Lipinski/PA

Lady Angiolini published the first part of her findings in February 2024, which described a string of lamentable and repeated missed policing opportunities to stop Couzens.

The second part of her inquiry, laid before Parliament and published on Tuesday, has examined the wider issue of sexually motivated attacks by strangers.

She warned that police were still not doing enough to identify and crack down on sexual predators who target women in public spaces and said there needed to be a fundamental shift in societys response to the epidemic of sexual violence.

While efforts to advise women on how to better protect themselves are welcome, Lady Angiolini said the focus should be squarely on identifying and targeting predatory men who commit these crimes.

She also said more work needed to be done to understand the impact pornography and social media were having on womens safety.

Describing how the first part of her report had highlighted Couzenss interest in violent pornography, Lady Angolini told a press conference: The gap between the online and physical worlds is closing, especially for the youngest and potentially the most vulnerable in our society. Online spaces are becoming increasingly violent and degrading places, where misogyny and hatred towards women not only flourishes but is disgustingly celebrated.

I find it inconceivable to see how this cannot impact offending in the physical world too. I also find it inconceivable that we have not yet got a better grip on safety in online spaces. It needs to form a vital part of any strategy focused on the prevention of violence against women and girls, which must also outline how these harms may, in turn, affect men and boys.

Lady Angiolini said that recommendations she made almost two years ago  including barring those with convictions or cautions for sexual offences from serving in the police, such as Wayne Couzens  had still not been implemented - PA

Lady Angiolini also backed a recommendation from the aunt of murdered 35-year-old Zara Aleena for the Government to consider a good Samaritan law so that the public can help prevent sex crimes against women.

Her report found the public to be a major untapped resource that should be used to prevent these crimes, which she described as a whole society issue that requires a whole society response.

Her report recommended that, by 2026, the government should consider arguments for introducing a good Samaritan law and its potential impact on prevention.

Farah Naz, whose niece Ms Aleena was stalked, assaulted and murdered in Ilford, east London, on June 26 2022, said: I am also encouraged to see support for exploring a good Samaritan law for the UK, to ensure that when someone is at risk or in danger, there is a clear expectation to act  to seek help, report, or intervene where safe to do so.

I hope this recommendation is taken seriously and progresses with the urgency and commitment these cases demand.

Opportunities have not been acted upon

Other recommendations included urging forces to use AI to build profiles of offenders who can then be monitored and actively managed.

Lady Angiolini has backed a recommendation for the Government to consider a good Samaritan law so that the public can help prevent sex crimes against women - Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire

Lady Angiolini also expressed deep concern over the lack of data around sexual violence, highlighting the fact authorities were unable to provide statistics on how many women were raped by a stranger in a public space last year.

Sexually motivated crimes remain widespread, but efforts to prevent them are fragmented, underfunded and overly reliant on short-term solutions, she added.

In the report, Lady Angiolini welcomed the work being carried out by some forces, including Scotland Yards V100 scheme to identify the most dangerous predators in the capital, but said these should be rolled out nationally.

She called on the Government to provide more funding for schemes such as Operation Vigilant  to identify sexual predators in the night-time economy  and Operation Soteria  to improve rape convictions.

Presenting the report, she said: Prevention is most effective when it confronts those who cause harm. And yet too many opportunities to apprehend violent perpetrators have not been acted upon. Too many women are victimised and too many lives are lost or irrevocably changed forever. She added: Sexually motivated crime against women in public spaces is a whole society problem. The whole of society now needs to play its part in preventing it.

The recommendations I make are clear. I ask those responsible to implement the recommendations and fund the solutions to protect women.
An aerial view of farmland and forest with a red barn and fields in the foreground, set against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains in Washington state. Photo: Dean Diemert / Pexels

(The Center Square)  A coalition of 17 Democratic attorneys general is opposing a U.S. Department of Labor rule that would reduce wages for temporary foreign farmworkers.

The attorneys general, who include Rob Bonta of California, Aaron Ford of Nevada and Phil Weiser of Colorado, wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer to oppose the reduction in the Adverse Effect Wage Rate for workers in the H-2A program.

H-2A allows farmers to bring nonimmigrant foreign workers to the U.S. to perform seasonal or temporary work when there arent enough domestic workers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The attorneys general say the department is reducing wages through several ways: creating a new rate methodology that ignores agricultural data, starting a two-tiered wage determination that cuts pay for entry level workers, recategorizing higher paying jobs and deducting wages to pay for workers housing.

H-2A requires employers to provide housing at no cost to workers, the attorneys general wrote in their letter, dated Monday.

"The State AGs urge the DOL to withdraw the IFR [Interim Final Rule] as it is arbitrary and runs antithetical to the DOLs statutory mission to promote and develop the welfare of wage earners," the attorneys general wrote.

"The IFR rolls back without good cause wage protections instituted since 1986 for farm laborers who bring food to homes across the nation," according to the letter.

The Center Square reached out Tuesday to regional and national spokespersons for the U.S. Department of Labor, but did not get a response.

The attorneys general say wage reductions will mean farmworkers will be paid less than or close to the federal poverty line.

As the son of parents who joined Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta to defend farmworkers, Im driven by the same commitment to protect these often-exploited workers, including those in the H-2A program, Bonta said in a news release.

The attorneys general's letter to the labor secretary notes her department found agriculture suffers from wage theft and poor housing conditions. "State AGs are concerned that despite these findings, the DOL shifts monetary gains to employers and away from workers rather than protect employees from continuous substandard treatment."

The letter also expresses concern that the new rule will affect the states' budgets because state agencies administer the H-2A program. And the attorneys general accuse the Department of Labor of evading the notice-and-comment process of the federal Administrative Procedure Act.

Besides California, Nevada and Colorado, the states in the coalition opposing the wage rule are Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington.
Yunqing Jian

A Chinese researcher who smuggled a crop-killing fungus dubbed vomitoxin into the US has been deported, officials announced Monday.

Yunqing Jian, 33, who once worked for the University of Michigan, pleaded guilty last month to conspiring to smuggle the biological pathogen into the States, reportedly to continue researching it, and then lying to the FBI about her actions. She was sentenced to time served  then booted.

FBI Director Dan Bongino confirmed Monday in a post on X that Jian has been kicked out of the country after her conviction.

Chinese researcher Yunqing Jian has been deported after she admitted to a scheme to smuggle a crop-killing fungus into the US to allegedly study. AP

Yunqing Jian, a citizen of the Peoples Republic of China, pleaded guilty to charges of smuggling a DANGEROUS biological pathogen into our country and then lying about it to FBI agents, and was DEPORTED, Bongino wrote.

The FBI will not stand by and allow our foreign adversaries to exploit our top-notch university facilities in furtherance of their agendas.

Jian was arrested in June for allegedly plotting with her boyfriend Zungyong Liu to bring into the US the fungus, called Fusarium graminearum, which causes head blight that kills wheat, barley, maize and rice.

The fungus is nicknamed vomitoxin for its effect also causing livestock to throw up. It can cause other issues, too, such diarrhea, stomach pain, headaches and fevers in both animals and people.

Jian, a loyal member of the Chinese Communist Party, had received funding from her home country to research the fungus, prosecutors said.

Jian and her boyfriend allegedly plotted to bring fungus Fusarium graminearum into the US to study at the University of Michigan. US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan

Liu, 34, worked at a Chinese university that was studying the pathogen when he brought some in his backpack on a flight into the US, through the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, so he could research it further at the University of Michigan where Jian was working.

But Liu was turned away at the airport in July and sent back to China when he was found to be carrying a suspicious red plant material in his backpack.

Messages the couple exchanged in 2024 suggest that Jian was already working with the fungus at the Michigan lab before Liu was caught trying to come in with it.

The fungus can kill crops and make livestock and humans sick. US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan

The fungus grows in the US in places in the East and Upper Midwest and is responsible for an estimated loss of $200 million to $400 million in destroyed agriculture each year.

Its not uncommon for researchers to bring plants, animals and strains of fungus from other countries into the US but they have to get a permit first.

Jian was sentenced to time served for her admitted crimes. University of Michigan

Jians lawyer, Norman Zalkind, told The Post Monday that his client was sent back to China two days after she entered her guilty plea and said the feds blew her crimes out of proportion.

They shouldnt have brought these kinds of cases, they are not serious cases, Zalkind said.

The administration made them much more serious than they really are. They said their research was really harmful to the US, but it wasnt.

At least four other Chinese nationals have been similarly charged with trying to sneak into the country biological materials for research at the University of Michigan.
James Meehan was jailed for life for the murder of Jim McFadden in Londonderry in 2007 [PA Media]

A convicted murderer who absconded from Magilligan Prison in County Londonderry while on day release last December has been returned to custody after his extradition from the Republic of Ireland.

James Meehan, 56, was given a minimum 14-year life sentence in 2009 for the murder of father-of-four Jim McFadden in the Shantallow area of Londonderry in 2007.

Meehan appeared before Antrim Magistrates' Court, sitting in Ballymena, on Tuesday afternoon on foot of an extradition arrest warrant.

A search was launched for Meehan after he failed to return to prison following an unaccompanied day release on 9 December 2024.

While he had served his tariff, at the time he absconded Meehan was on licence for a previous offence of being unlawfully at large.

In court on Tuesday, a detective constable gave evidence that he had signed and endorsed the back of the warrant for the arrest of the 56-year-old.

The police officer and a public prosecutor told District Judge Nigel Broderick tht the application was for the judge to grant Meehan's committal back into custody to serve out the rest of that licence period.

The prosecutor also confirmed that a summons in relation to a charge of being unlawfully at large will be served on Meehan and his solicitor.

Jim McFadden, 42, died from a ruptured heart when he was repeatedly punched in the chest by Meehan after returning home to Derry following a wedding reception for Mr McFadden's sister-in-law in Donegal.

In February 2024 at Craigavon Crown Court, Meehan was handed a nine-month prison sentence for being unlawfully at large.

In court on Tuesday, the judge granted the application to have Meehan remanded back into custody.

More on this story
Sometimes it's hard for us to choose one bizarre weather event for the "On This Date" column. So, let's do a two-fer today.

On Dec. 2, 1970, 55 years ago today, a tornado was seen by an observer in the mountains of northern Utah, just below the Timpanogos Divide, about 70 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.

The 300-yard-wide tornado rated F1 snapped up to 18-inch diameter trees over its mile-long path in this mountainous area near the towns of Provo Canyon and Sundance.

But perhaps most spectacular about this was that it happened at about 8,000 feet elevation, where 38 inches of snow was on the ground. That allowed the tornado to pull this snow thousands of feet up into the air, creating, in effect, a "snownado."

It's one of only two December tornadoes on record in Utah since 1950, according to NOAA's storm events database. The other one, an F0, damaged trees and a few homes in Pleasant View, north of Ogden, on Dec. 5, 1995.

Just four years earlier, another extreme event occurred.

According to weather historian Christopher Burt, a trained observer in Copenhagen, New York, measured 12 inches of snowfall in just one hour on Dec. 2, 1966. Burt told weather.com that's "the greatest accumulation for one hour in the U.S. that I'm aware of."

Most snowstorms can produce snowfall at a rate of maybe a few inches per hour. But a foot of snow in an hour is beyond comprehension for most of us.

The town of Copenhagen sits in the Tug Hill Plateau of upstate New York in the infamous Lake Ontario snowbelt, where bands of intense lake-effect snow often sit over an area for hours. Burt said Copenhagen ended up with 63 inches of snow over a 48-hour period from Dec. 1-2, 1966.

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.
A Vote Here sign stands outside a polling place. Photo: Lorie Shaull / Flickr / CC BY 2.0

(The Center Square)  Voter groups continue to hope for their last chance to stop changes to Ohio law they call harmful and unnecessary.

After passage in the General Assembly last week, Gov. Mike DeWine has yet to make a decision on Senate Bill 293. The legislation eliminates a four-day grace period for mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day and creates new guidelines for election workers regarding registrations.

SB293 spent less than a week from introduction to passage in the General Assembly, and it includes a provision that requires the secretary of state to do monthly checks of the voter registration database.

DeWine has not indicated whether he will sign the bill.

The changes came after the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, saying the states grace period conflicted with a President Donald Trump executive order that said all votes in federal elections must be received by Election Day.

The letter also said Ohios law could result in lawsuits, leading to the swift action by the Republican majority General Assembly.

The Ohio Voter Rights Coalition believes the bill creates barriers for Ohio voters.

The coalition, which consists of Ohio Voice, League of Women Voters Ohio, Common Cause Ohio, All Voting is Local Action Ohio and the ACLU of Ohio, wants DeWine to veto the bill.

"Senate Bill 293 is the latest bill that would create barriers for eligible Ohio voters to cast a ballot and have their ballot be counted, while piling new unfunded mandates on our already strained boards of elections  all under the false pretense of security," the coalition said in a statement to TCS. "Ohios elections are incredibly safe and accurate, as our secretary of state often touts. We believe that it is elected officials duty to ensure eligible voters can cast their ballots, and that SB293 serves only as the antithesis of that responsibility. As the bill now moves to his desk, we strongly urge Gov. DeWine to veto this anti-democratic bill immediately, stand by his word, and reaffirm his commitment to Ohio voters."
TOPSHOT-MEXICO-US-BORDER-MIGRATION (Photo by HERIKA MARTINEZ / AFP)

A group of HIV-positive men gathered at the U.S.Mexico border Sunday and staged a coordinated kiss-in, aiming to confront what they described as discrimination and hostile immigration policies under President Donald Trump.

The demonstration took place at Friendship Park/Parque de la Amistad between California and Mexico as activists marked the run-up to World AIDS Day, according to The Advocate. MPact Global Action for Gay Mens Health and Rights officials organized the event. They said they intend to normalize public displays of affection by people living with HIV, push back against stigmas surrounding sex and dating, and highlight concerns that queer migrants face under Trump-era border enforcement.

Andrew Spieldenner, MPacts executive director, told The Advocate that the group deliberately sought a high-visibility protest at the border.

As of one of the only openly HIV-positive Executive Directors of a global organization, I am inspired and heartened by this highly visible action for the rights of all people living with HIV, especially queer migrants, when theres so much fear and disinformation out there, Spieldenner told The Advocate. Our communities are powerful when we come together.

Research from the Williams Institute estimated that roughly 640,000 non-U.S. citizens identify as LGBTQ+ in the United States, including as many as 288,000 undocumented immigrants. Activists claim these migrants face heightened vulnerability under Trumps immigration policies. Advocacy groups have accused U.S. detention centers of denying lifesaving HIV medications and tolerating violence against LGBTQ+ detainees.

Alex Garner, MPacts senior director of strategic initiatives, said the border demonstration sought to challenge those conditions.

MPact works in collaboration with local communities to create the International HIV Kiss-in because its a bold, provocative, and revolutionary act to publicly demonstrate the sexuality of people living with HIV and declare the human rights of queer migrants, Garner said. Weve transcended borders of sexuality and of gender, and borders cannot restrict our fight for queer migrants and people living with HIV as we utilize the power of a kiss.

Migrants moving through Mexico toward the United States have shown documented HIV prevalence ranging from roughly 0.6% to 2% in studies conducted since 2020, including a large analysis of 9,108 Central American migrants that found a 0.71% overall rate and significantly higher levels among transgender migrants. Additional research in the TijuanaSan Diego border region reported 0.63% HIV prevalence among migrants in 2021, showing a consistent pattern of sub-1% infection rates across major transit points.(RELATED: Trump Plans To Build 10 Miles Of New Border Wall Near San Diego Ports Of Entry)

A separate surveillance effort by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) found about 2% HIV prevalence among migrants tested at Mexicos southern border during 20222023.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporters byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
FILE PHOTO: A man runs at an area closed-off for hiking due to the African swine fever virus, near a sign informing people at Collserola Park, in Cerdanyola del Valles, on the outskirts of Barcelona, Spain, December 1, 2025. REUTERS/Nacho Doce/File Photo

FILE PHOTO: A man runs at an area closed-off for hiking due to the African swine fever virus, near a sign informing people at Collserola Park, in Cerdanyola del Valles, on the outskirts of Barcelona, Spain, December 1, 2025. REUTERS/Nacho Doce/File Photo

By Emma Pinedo and Jesus Calero

MADRID, Dec 2 (Reuters) - A task force of EU vets began work in Barcelona on Tuesday to help contain an African swine fever outbreak as Spain, one of the world's leading pork exporters, said the number of wild boars found infected with the virus rose to nine.

The experts in virology and risk management will visit the affected area in the Bellaterra municipality northwest of Barcelona to survey the situation, provide advice and make recommendations, a European Commission spokesperson said.

Spain is the European Union's leading pork producer, accounting for a quarter of the bloc's output, ahead of Germany, with annual exports worth about 3.5 billion euros ($4.05 billion).

It resumed shipments on Monday from other regions to China, which accounts for almost 42% of Spanish pork exports outside the EU, after Beijing confirmed it would only limit imports from the Barcelona area.

Other countries including Britain, Mexico and Canada have suspended a wide range of pork and by-product shipments from across Spain. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez urged them to continue buying from regions outside the containment zone.

Agriculture Minister Luis Planas said Britain had said it would take the same approach as the European Union, which allows imports from unaffected areas, and talks were under way with Canada for a similar scheme.

OUTBREAKS AROUND EUROPE

The EU task force was last deployed in September to help monitor a swine fever outbreak in Estonia.

Croatia is also trying to contain an outbreak, while Italy and Germany have recorded cases in recent years that have prompted the culling of pigs.

In France, which is currently free of the disease, the Agriculture Ministry said it would assess the situation this week and propose any necessary measures.

"Biosecurity measures must be reinforced even more with three countries (Spain, Italy and Germany) around us now affected," said Anne Richard, director of French pork industry association Inaporc.

Officials suspect the virus may have spread after a wild boar ate contaminated food, possibly a sandwich brought from outside Spain. The virus is harmless to humans, but spreads rapidly among pigs and wild boar, for whom it can be fatal.

It was first detected in two wild boar in a wooded, hilly area outside Barcelona. Seven more boars in the same area also died from the disease, the Agriculture Ministry said on Tuesday.

Catalan authorities have restricted all leisure activities, including hunting, within a 20-km (12.4 miles) radius of where the first two pigs were found. A tighter, 6-km perimeter has been fully closed off, with traps installed and thermal-vision drones deployed to catch and test wild boars.

PIG FARMERS PAY THE PRICE

Even if the outbreak is contained, the costs for pig farmers in the affected area will be significant, said pork trader Nemesio Sanchez.

The outbreak could allow U.S. farmers to gain market share.

"With more EU countries finding ASF within their borders, U.S. producers have an opportunity to meet global demand," U.S. consultancy Steiner Consulting Group said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts U.S. pork exports at 6.96 billion pounds next year, but Steiner Consulting said it could exceed 7 billion pounds if the outbreak in Spain is not contained.

(Reporting by Emma Pinedo and Jesus Calero; additional reporting by Gus Trompiz, Tom Polansek, Corina Pons and Victoria Waldersee; writing by Charlie Devereux; editing by Alexander Smith and Tomasz Janowski)
GERMANY-POLAND-POLITICS-DIPLOMACY (Photo by John MACDOUGALL / AFP via Getty Images)

A summit meant to showcase cooperation between Poland and Germany turned into a public dispute over World War II reparations Monday.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz clashed during a joint press conference in Berlin, Politico Europe reported. The two leaders had promised to repair relations between their nations but instead spent much of the event at odds over how Germany should compensate Poland for Nazi-era destruction.

We in Poland all believe that Poland has not received compensation for the losses and crimes of World War II, Tusk said.

Merz urged both countries to remember history without letting it drive them apart.

I hope that we can do this in a way that does not divide us, but brings us closer together, Merz said. (RELATED: REPORT: German Town Responds After Shopkeeper Posts No Jews Allowed Sign)

Germany has long maintained the reparations issue is legally settled, pointing to a 1950s agreement in which Poland waived its claims, Politico reported. Tusk rejected that argument, noting Poland was under Soviet control at the time.

Those who know history know that in the 1950s, Poland had no say in the matter, Tusk said.

The previous Polish government demanded 1.3 trillion from Berlin. Tusk had avoided the issue after taking office in 2023 but now faces pressure from the nationalist opposition Law and Justice party, according to Politico.

Merz announced Germany would move forward with a Berlin memorial for Polish victims of Nazi Germany, along with returning plundered cultural artifacts. A joint declaration said Germany would explore financial support for living Polish survivors of Nazi aggression.

Tusk pushed for faster action, noting the number of living survivors has dropped from 60,000 to 50,000, according to Politico.

Please, please speed things up if you really want to make this gesture, he said.
La Table will be the only restaurant at sea to be launched with the seal of approval by the fabled Maitres Cuisiniers de France (Master Chefs of France, MCF), a globally revered institution dedicated to promoting the French culinary arts.

The partnership with MCF to launch La Table is a world-first for a cruise line and further deepens the relationship between the line and this prestigious association. Oceania Cruises' two Executive Culinary Directors, Chefs Alexis Quaretti and Eric Barale, have both been inducted into its glittering echelons, making this the only cruise line in the world to have two MCF members overseeing its culinary program.

La Table will seat just 18 guests and offer an intimate and elegant dining experience, featuring a rotation of exquisite menus which will be created by Chefs Quaretti and Barale in tandem with a selection of specially invited Master Chefs of France from around the world. La Table will also be the venue for the reprisal of Oceania Cruises' famed Dom Perignon Experience, a six-course tasting menu paired with three vintage Champagnes.

Nikkei Kitchen will join La Table as a new culinary experience aboard Oceania Sonata, bringing guests the chance to indulge in dishes inspired by this intriguing and ever-evolving culinary movement. Born from the blending of Peruvian ingredients and Japanese technique which traces its origins to the late 19th century, when Japanese immigrants settled in Peru and began adapting traditional Japanese recipes with native Peruvian ingredients, Nikkei cuisine is identified through distinctive dishes marked by fresh seafood, bright citrus, soy-based sauces and spicy peppers.

Working alongside Chefs Quaretti and Barale on the development of the menu for Nikkei Kitchen is Chef Gustavo Sugay, who brings more than 20 years of experience in preparing this dynamic cuisine. Chef Sugay has worked alongside the Oceania Cruises team to bring a collection of 12 innovative Nikkei dishes to the line's signature pan-Asian restaurant, Red Ginger, to great guest acclaim, in the past 12 months.

The menu at Nikkei Kitchen aboard Oceania Sonata will celebrate the time-honored customs of both Peruvian and Japanese cultures while simultaneously embracing experimentation, an ethos that aligns perfectly with Oceania Cruises. Nikkei Kitchen's bright and airy interior, complete with a modern, open kitchen, will echo the fresh and light dishes served each evening.

"Oceania Sonata represents an incredible opportunity to reimagine the future of our culinary program, while still offering the culinary concepts our guests know and love," said Jason Montague, Chief Luxury Officer of Oceania Cruises. "La Table and Nikkei Kitchen are emblematic of what sets Oceania Cruises apart, thanks to our ability to pair world-class culinary talent with the creative freedom that results in unforgettable dining experiences. These new culinary concepts reflect our continued commitment to innovation, and our commitment to serve The Finest Cuisine at Sea."

Chef Quaretti commented: "These restaurants are not just simply new onboard venues; they are the embodiment of Chef Barale's and my shared dedication to our culinary craft, and we are so excited to share more about these special experiences in the coming months. La Table has allowed us to create a dining experience that honors the heritage of French gastronomy, a cuisine that we are passionate about, and propels it forward. With the addition of Nikkei Kitchen, we're able to celebrate bold, global flavors in unexpected, fresh ways."

La Table will be a reservations-only venue limited to 18 guests per evening and a wine experience surcharge will apply. Nikkei Kitchen will be a capacity-controlled experience that is part of the line's always-included specialty dining options, available on a first-come basis with no reservations required. Additional details of these two extraordinary new concepts, including menus, will be revealed next year.

In addition to La Table and Nikkei Kitchen, Oceania Sonata will feature ten best-in-class culinary experiences, which have become synonymous with Oceania Cruises, including the elegant Grand Dining Room, as well as signature specialty dining venues Jacques, the line's sophisticated French restaurant; pan-Asian Red Ginger; Polo Grill steakhouse; and Toscana, serving Italian specialties.

Marking the ninth vessel in the Oceania Cruises fleet, Oceania Sonata will be the first of four 1,390-guest ships in the new Sonata Class. Set to debut in August 2027, the new ship will be the most spacious and amenity-rich to date, with 30% of all accommodations composed of suites. A true masterpiece of design, she will deliver a symphony of unforgettable experiences at sea, anchored by the brand's hallmark passion for gastronomy and its legacy of serving The Finest Cuisine at Sea.

For additional information on Oceania Cruises' exquisitely crafted cuisine and expertly refined travel experiences, visit OceaniaCruises.com , call 855-OCEANIA, or speak with a professional travel advisor.

About Oceania Cruises

Oceania Cruises is the world's leading culinary- and destination-focused luxury cruise line. The line's eight small, luxurious ships carry a maximum of 1,250 guests and feature The Finest Cuisine at Sea and destination-rich itineraries that span the globe. Expertly curated travel experiences are available aboard the designer-inspired, small ships, which call on more than 600 marquee and boutique ports in more than 100 countries on seven continents, on voyages that range from seven to more than 200 days. Oceania Cruises has four Sonata Class ships on order scheduled for delivery in 2027, 2029, 2032, and 2035. Oceania Cruises is a wholly owned subsidiary of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: NCLH). To learn more, visit www.nclhltd.com.

About Maitres Cuisiniers de France

Founded more than 70 years ago, the Maitres Cuisiniers de France is one of the world's most prestigious gastronomic associations, dedicated to upholding the excellence, creativity and heritage of French gastronomy.

Membership is by invitation only and awarded to chefs recognized for exceptional mastery, innovation and unwavering adherence to the highest standards.

SOURCE Oceania Cruises
DAKAR, Senegal (AP)  In West Africas latest military takeover, soldiers in Guinea-Bissau followed up a disputed presidential election by seizing power last week in what some critics allege was a staged coup to avoid having the incumbent lose.

Heres what to know about the Nov. 26 coup in Guinea-Bissau:

Takeover announced after a contested vote

Incumbent President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and the main opposition candidate, Fernando Dias, both claimed to have won the Nov. 23 presidential election.

Three days after the vote, military officers appeared on state television to announce they had seized power and suspended the election after discovering what they said was a conspiracy to manipulate the results. Embalo told media outlets he had been deposed and arrested.

Soldiers said the conspiracy had involved "some national politicians with the participation of a well-known drug lord, and domestic and foreign nationals. Guinea-Bissau is known as a hub for drug trafficking between Latin America and Europe, a trend that experts say has fueled its political crises.

A day after the announcement, soldiers installed Gen. Horta Inta-a as the head of a one-year transitional government.

Meanwhile, Embalo arrived in neighboring Senegal on a flight chartered by the Senegalese government, before leaving again over the weekend for the Republic of Congo, where he is currently staying.

Allegations of a sham coup

Foreign dignitaries and Guinea-Bissau's opposition have claimed that Embalo and his supporters in the military staged the coup because he was headed for a possible defeat in the presidential election.

The military takeover and the reported arrest of Embalo were manufactured to disrupt the election results, presidential candidate Fernando Dias alleged.

Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, who was heading an electoral observer mission during the military takeover, agreed, accusing Embalo of staging a ceremonial coup to stay in power.

A military doesnt take over governments and allow the sitting president that they overthrew to address press conferences and announce that he has been arrested, Jonathan told reporters.

Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko echoed the accusation, describing the military takeover in Guinea-Bissau as a scheme.

Guinea-Bissaus coup differs from others in the region

West Africa has seen a wave of coups since 2020, typically with the stated purpose of better protecting the country against insurgencies or fixing bad governance.

Military leaders in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso took power by force on pledges of providing more security to citizens against extremist armed groups. In neighboring Guinea, Gen. Mamadi Doumbouya overthrew the president in 2021 on a promise to rid the country of corruption.

The military takeover in Guinea-Bissau doesn't fit the mold because it looks more like an attempt to maintain the status quo than overturn it, analyst Beverly Ochieng at Control Risks told The Associated Press in an interview.

It was carried out by people who are Embalos close allies in the military, Ochieng said, adding that one of the generals who led the coup, Dinis NTchama, was a personal military advisor of the president. The sentiment coming out from the opposition and civil societies is that it was staged because Embalo was losing his grip on power."

Embalo, who has been in power since 2020, already was facing a legitimacy crisis ahead of the election in a dispute with the political opposition, which had argued that his tenure had expired early this year.

Embalos treatment during the coup, including his ability to address the press and his subsequent permission to leave the country, has contrasted with the fate of other ousted leaders, notably Nigers Mohamed Bazoum, who has remained in military custody for two years.

A country plagued by coups

Guinea-Bissau, one of the worlds poorest countries, previously has had four coups and several attempted ones since its independence from Portugal more than 50 years ago.

The first successful coup came in 1980, when President Luis Cabral was ousted by Prime Minister Joao Bernardo Vieira, who had accused Cabrals government of mismanagement. Vieira himself was deposed in 1999 after a military revolt sparked by a mutiny over arms-smuggling allegations.

In 2003, President Kumba Yala was deposed in a bloodless coup led by one of his own generals, who accused him of mismanaging the economy. In 2012, soldiers seized control between rounds of a presidential election, halting a vote that was expected to return the ruling party to power.

Guinea-Bissaus long history of political coups is largely linked to the fact that it has had weak institutions since independence from the Portuguese, Ochieng said.

Courts in the country of 2.2 million people have often been unable to rule on electoral disputes or constrain government overreach, creating a vacuum for military intervention.

Meanwhile, the opposition-dominated parliament has not convened since Dec. 2023, when it was dissolved by Embalo after an attempted coup.

Weak local institutions have also allowed drug trafficking to influence the countrys politics. Last year, a son of former President Malam Bacai Sanha was sentenced to more than six years in prison by a U.S. court for leading an international heroin trafficking ring.
The Illinois state flag flies alongside the U.S. and POW/MIA flags against a clear blue sky. Photo: Joseph Gage / Flickr /CC BY-SA 2.0 / Cropped from Original

Ameren requests rate hike

A year after receiving a $308.6 million electric rate hike, Ameren Illinois is asking the Illinois Commerce Commission for authority to increase its delivery rates by an extra $59.6 million.

The Citizens Utility Board said a provision in state regulatory law allows the utility to petition the ICC to recover extra expenses in yearly reconciliation cases, if they go over-budget on capital expenditures.

Pearl Harbor remembrance

Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day will be recognized statewide with flags being ordered half-staff.

The Illinois Department of Central Management Services said it received notice from Gov. J.B. Pritzker that all persons or entities covered by the Illinois Flag Display Act are to lower the U.S. and state flags upon sunrise Dec. 7 until sunset.

Group opposes bill on governor's desk

Illinois Right to Life continues to oppose a measure allowing doctor assisted suicide.

The group points to a story from WEEK TV about concerns county coroners have raised.

The measure, Senate Bill 1950, was approved by legislators in October.

It was sent to the governor on Nov. 25.

Illinois Right to Life promises to deliver petitions to the governor opposing the bill.
Four times taller than the Hollywood sign and around seven times larger than the White House, Uzbekistans newest cultural center is a monument of epic proportions.

Part museum, part academic research facility, the three-story Center for Islamic Civilization (CISC) in Tashkent will be open to the public in March 2026, and is intended to celebrate and revive Uzbekistans historical role as a center of Islamic scholarship.

This region has been home to many ancestors who influenced world civilization, said Firdavs Abdukhalikov, director of CISC. The big question was how to present their influence to the world, to younger generations, in an engaging and modern way.

Over the past eight years, while the building was under construction, CISC engaged 1,500 specialists from more than 40 countries to help develop the centers scientific, architectural and cultural elements.

For example, through an interactive educational zone that leverages virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence technologies for exhibits such as conversations with living portraits of historical scholars and thinkers, the center hopes to inspire children to explore astronomy, medicine, literature and art.

The second floor will be dedicated to research, where international academics can access more than 200,000 books in its library.

Its not just a museum  its a cultural and educational platform. Here, we dont only engage with artifacts, but also with the lives and ideas of influential figures, Abdukhalikov added.

Reviving the past

While Uzbekistan is a secular nation, Islam is a key part of its history and cultural identity.

Arab conquests brought Islam to Central Asia in the 7th century, replacing earlier Zoroastrian and Buddhist traditions, and between the 9th and 12th centuries, the region experienced a golden age of science, literature, and architecture.

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Medieval Uzbekistan, and the wider Central Asian region, was a globalized world before globalization, said historian Farhan Ahmad Nizami, founding director of the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford, whos not connected to the CISC.

Uzbek cities like Bukhara and Samarkand were important stops on the Silk Road, a cross-continental trade route that stretched from Venice to Xian for 1,500 years (130 BCE to 1453 CE), and became a confluence of culture and ideas from both the East and West.

(Uzbekistans) contribution in science and arts is obvious, and now people are rediscovering it, although it had not received sufficient attention, Nizami added.

Later, in the 15th and 16th centuries, the Timurid Empire would see a second renaissance of art, science, and diplomacy, with Samarkand at its center, an era that the CISCs architecture draws inspiration from with its grand, mosaic-covered archways, blue tile-covered domes and intricate ornamentation.

The building, designed by Abdukakhkhor Turdiev, draws inspiration from classical Islamic architecture of Central Asia, particularly the Timurid era. - CNN

In the 19th century, Russian expansion saw many parts of Central Asia incorporated into the Russian Empire, and later the Soviet Union, which imposed secular rule and suppressed Islamic practices.

A significant portion of our cultural treasures left the country during the Soviet times, says Abdukhalikov.

It wasnt until 1991 that Uzbekistan regained independence and began reviving its Islamic heritage and cultural identity. To this end, CISC was given a directive to recover its historic items.

We have participated in auctions such as Christies and Sothebys, bringing back parts of our cultural heritage. We have reclaimed 2,000 items and are continuing our work on this, says Abdukhalikov.

An ancient manuscript displayed in the museum of the Center of Islamic Civilization - Sylvain Dumond/CNN

The centers exhibitions explore Uzbekistans history through these objects, including the 7th-century Quran of Uthman, one of the oldest in the world, and a collection of 114 Quranic manuscripts created by renowned rulers and calligraphers across the ages.

Tremendous potential

While Nizami said the center has tremendous potential, he cautioned that the building is a platform; what happens on the platform is entirely different, stressing that its success depends on long-term research, education and cultural engagement.

There are criticisms of the center, relating to its cost, the sources of its funding, and the limited religious freedom in the country.

CISC declined to comment on the buildings cost or funding sources.

With around 60% of Uzbekistans population under the age of 35, Abdukhalikov said that the museum is for the next generation.

We have to inspire them and tell the story of our great history through innovation and creativity, he added.

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the buildings cost, the date of a fire, and its impact on the opening of the Center of Islamic Civilization.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
An image collage containing 2 images, Image 1 shows Luigi Mangione appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court on December 01, 2025 in New York City, Image 2 shows Jeffrey Epstein

Jeffrey Epstein was name-dropped at Luigi Mangiones hearing Monday when a jail guard testified that the accused killer was given so much security because officials didnt want another suicide on their hands.

I was told that SCI Huntington didnt want an Epstein-style situation, Pennsylvania Correction Officer Tomas Rivers said in Manhattan court, referring to the jail where Mangione was being held at the time and Epsteins suicide behind bars in Manhattan in August 2019.

Luigi Mangione appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court on December 01, 2025 in New York City. Getty Images

Rivers, who was tasked with keeping a close eye on Mangione in December 2024, said Mangione was under constant watch while in detention  a situation typically reserved for someone who is a threat to themselves.

Epstein, a powerful financier-turned-convicted pedophile, offed himself while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, authorities have said.

Jeffrey Epsteins name came up during Mangiones hearing on Monday. Getty Images

During an off-handed chat between the officer and Mangione at the Pennsylvania jail, Mangione also gabbed about a gang fight between Lady boys  and something with monkeys on public transport, referring to his travels in Vietnam and Thailand, the guard said.

Mangione had allegedly been beaten by seven transgender women, commonly referred to in Thailand as ladyboys, during a bar dispute over money, a new book has said.

The incident occurred months before he allegedly fatally gunned down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk.

The suspect  a prep-school and Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Maryland family  also discussed literature with the guard, the officer said.

We discussed [George] Orwell, [Aldous] Huxley and [Henry David] Theroux, Rivers said.

Mangione even gave him a book recommendation, he said: Huxleys The doors of Perception about having a psychedelic experience on mescaline.

This weeks Manhattan hearing is to debate whether Mangione was illegally searched by cops when he was caught and whether potentially damning evidence were wrongly seized from him.
A person is detained by NYPD as immigration activists block a garage used by ICE vans during a protest against a purported ICE raid on Canal Street on November 29, 2025 in New York City. Credit - Stephanie KeithGetty Images

President Donald Trump has sharply escalated his efforts to restrict legal pathways to immigration following the killing of a National Guard member near the White House last week.

Law enforcements identification of 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal as the suspected gunman in last weeks deadly shooting prompted Trump to ramp up his anti-immigrant rhetoric and enact sweeping new restrictions on legal immigration.

The Trump Administrations review of immigration processes includes a pause on all asylum decisions, changes to Green Card vetting, and a pause on all visas for Afghans.

Lakanwal, who reportedly worked with the CIA in the U.S. militarys nearly 20-year fight against the Taliban, arrived in America through a Biden-era program, Operation Allies Welcome. The program helped Afghans who worked with the U.S. military or government evacuate the country after the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Lakanwal obtained asylum under the Trump Administration earlier this year. One of the Guardsmen that Lakanwal attacked, Sarah Beckstrom, 20, has died, while the other, Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains in critical condition.

Read more: Trump Calls Shooting of National Guard Members an Act of Terror and Launches Immigration Crackdown

Shawn VanDiver, president of nonprofit AfghanEvac, which works with Afghan allies to help resettle, said in a statement on Friday that the Trump Administration is using collective punishment for the actions of one man.

They are using a single violent individual as cover for a policy they have long planned, turning their own intelligence failures into an excuse to punish an entire community and the veterans who served alongside them, he said. This is not a policy dispute. It is a deliberate abandonment of our wartime allies and a breach of Americas word.

The Afghan Community Coalition of the United States issued condolences to the families of the victims of the shooting, but asked that the country not forget the twenty years of Afghan-US partnership.

Here is what we know about the changes the Trump Administration has made so far.

Green Card restrictions

Immediately following the shooting, President Trump said in a post on Truth Social post that he would permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries and terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, without providing further details on which countries he was referring to.

The same day, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) director Joe Edlow said he had directed a full-scale, rigorous reexamination of every green card for every alien from every country of concern.

Edlow did not elaborate which countries of concern would be reevaluated, but in an email to TIME, the USCIS confirmed that the list stemmed from a June White House proclamation that imposed new travel and visa restrictions on citizens of 19 countries. These countries include Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, all of whom would be fully restricted from entry. It also included a second tier of partially restricted countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.

New guidance from the USCIS, published on Nov. 27, explained that the department will consider country-specific factors from these nations. It does not provide examples of what those factors will be.

My primary responsibility is to ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible, Edlow said in a statement the day after the attack. This includes an assessment of where they are coming from and why. Yesterdays horrific events make it abundantly clear the Biden administration spent the last four years dismantling basic vetting and screening standards, prioritizing the rapid resettlement of aliens from high-risk countries over the safety of American citizens.

Despite the Trump Administrations claims that immigrants, including those welcomed under Operation Allies Welcome, were not vetted, the Department of Homeland Securitys (DHS) archived page for the program says that all those admitted went through a rigorous screening and vetting process, which was multi-layered and ongoing, and included several different agencies.

Pause in asylum decisions

USCIS and Edlow also announced Friday that the United States paused all asylum adjudications until Edlow says the department can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.

Asylum officers at the USCIS, which is under the DHS, were instructed not to approve, deny or close any asylum applications received, according to CBS News reporting.

Immigrants applying for asylum are those requesting protection out of fear of return to their home country due to persecution, well-founded fear of being persecuted in the future, on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.

Trump said Sunday that he intends to maintain a pause on asylum decisions for a long time, consistent with his Administrations crackdown on both legal and illegal immigration, and included his attempt to build and carry out the countrys largest mass deportation operation in history.

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

Pause on Afghan Visas

Another change has specifically targeted Afghan immigrants as a result of the D.C. shooting: the pause on all visa issuances to Afghan nationals.

The United States has no higher priority than protecting our nation and our people, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X when the policy was announced on Friday.

Afghan refugees were already facing uncertainty earlier this year after Trump suspended the Refugee Admissions Program when he entered office and implemented travel-ban-related pauses affecting Afghan nationals.

Rubios new policy effectively halts, for now, the Special Immigrant Visa program for Afghans, utilized by people who had helped out the U.S. military and government in the war, and had bipartisan support. After the country fell back into the hands of the Taliban, Afghans who fought with the U.S. military had expedited processes for safety, though they still went through vetting processes. The U.S. admitted close to 200,000 Afghans under various humanitarian pathways after 2021.

It appears Secretary Rubio is attempting to shut down the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa program in direct violation of federal law and standing court orders, VanDiver said in a statement. Our hearts are absolutely broken for our Afghan allies, who have already endured more trauma, loss, and sacrifice than most Americans can imagine.

At the end of 2024, over 36 million people in the world were refugees, and close to one in six of them were from Afghanistan, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

The asylum move follows similar moves already underway by the Trump Administration, including a recently reported Reuters memo that ordered a broad review of all refugees who entered under former President Joe Biden, which could reopen cases for thousands who sought U.S. protection.

Contact us at letters@time.com.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Monday she is recommending a "full travel ban" from countries that are "flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies."

"I just met with the President. I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country thats been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies," Noem wrote on X.

"Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedomnot for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS.WE DONT WANT THEM. NOT ONE," she added.

A source familiar with the travel ban announced by Secretary Noem says approximately 30 countries are on the list of nations included in the proposed travel ban and the list could expand.

A spokesperson for DHS said, We will be announcing the list soon.

The first version of the travel ban under the first Trump administration banned people from seven countries from entry.

President Donald Trump shared her X post on Truth Social but did not comment on it.

A makeshift memorial outside the Farragut West Metro station in Washington on Monday. (Heather Diehl / Getty Images)

Trump has intensified his administration's crackdown on immigration in the wake of last week's shooting of two National Guard members on patrol in Washington, which left one guard member dead and the other in critical condition.

The Department of Homeland Security identified the suspect as an Afghan national who entered the United States legally in September 2021 after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"We must now re-examine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden, and we must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here or add benefit to our country," Trump said in remarks hours after the shooting.

The following day, Trump said on social media that he planned to permanently pause all immigration from what he described as third world countries.

The proposed travel ban is the latest in the Trump administration's efforts to restrict immigration to the United States.

Trump signed a proclamation in June banning nationals from 12 countries  including Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen  from entering the United States.

In October, the administration drastically reduced the annual refugee admissions cap to 7,500  the lowest on record. The admissions numbers would "primarily be allocated" to white South Africans, according to a Federal Register memo.
A police officer who responded last Dec. 9 to a McDonald's where witnesses said they may have spotted the man accused of killing a health care CEO testified Tuesday that he knew right away it was the suspect.

"I knew it was him immediately," Altoona, Pennsylvania, police officer Joseph Detwiler testified about Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City last year.

Mangione, 27, was in court Tuesday for the second day of a high-stakes hearing in his state criminal case, where his lawyers are fighting to bar prosecutors from using key evidence against him -- including the alleged murder weapon and writings that prosecutors say amount to a confession -- by arguing it was unlawfully seized when his backpack was searched without a warrant.

Prosecutors in pretrial hearing play 911 call that led to Luigi Mangione's arrest

Day 3 of the hearing is scheduled for Thursday, New York Judge Gregory Carro said before concluding Tuesday's proceedings. Before adjourning on Tuesday, he granted the defense's request to seal all exhibits shown in court during the hearing until the trial, after Mangione's lawyers argued that the exhibits would create a "substantial probability that Mr. Mangione's right to a fair trial will be prejudiced."

While the exhibits will be shown in open court, they will not be distributed to the press, Carro said.

Mangione's backpack was searched by law enforcement as they arrested him in Pennsylvania, five days after the fatal shooting of Thompson on a sidewalk in midtown Manhattan. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to killing Thompson.

Defense attorneys have alleged that Detwiler violated Mangione's rights by questioning him for nearly 20 minutes without reading him his Miranda rights. They argue that mistake should justify barring prosecutors from introducing any testimony about the statements Mangione made to police that morning.

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images - PHOTO: Luigi Mangione appears for the second day of a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court, December 2, 2025 in New York City.

Recollecting the events of Dec. 9, Detwiler testified that he responded sarcastically when he got the dispatch call that a local McDonald's manager reported a "male who looks like the NYC shooter." He said he didn't even turn on his police sirens when he drove to the McDonald's because he "did not think it was going to be him."

"I did not think it was going to be the person they thought it was," he testified, though he noted his supervisor promised to buy him a "hoagie" if he "got the NYC shooter."

"I said consider it done," Detwiler testified.

An avid watcher of Fox News, Detwiler testified he saw the images of the murder suspect "a lot" and was familiar with the ongoing coverage of the high-profile assassination. Prosecutor Joel Seidemann walked through each of the photos of the suspect that circulated after the shooting; each time, Detwiler responded in a monotone voice that said he saw the pictures in the same place -- Fox News.

"I saw a lot of Fox News and saw a lot of video and articles on the shooter. I saw the person's picture many, many times prior to those five days -- many times," he said.

During Detwiler's testimony, prosecutors for the first time played his body-camera footage from the morning of Dec. 9. The footage showed Detwiler and his partner casually entering the McDonald's before turning right to the rear of the restaurant, where they found Mangione sitting at a table.

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images - PHOTO: Luigi Mangione appears for the second day of a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court, December 2, 2025 in New York City.

"What's your name?" Detwiler asked in the footage.

"Mark," Mangione said.

"Mark what?" Detwiler asked.

"Mark Rosario," Mangione said.

Prosecutors have accused Mangione of showing a fake ID under the name Mark Rosario of New Jersey. Prosecutors displayed a blown-up, poster-sized version of the ID on an easel at the front of the courtroom.

"Someone called and said you were suspicious," Detwiler said in the video. "Thought you looked like someone."

Jane Rosenberg via Reuters - PHOTO: Luigi Mangione watches officer Joseph Detwiler checking his ID in video shown during state court hearings over whether prosecutors can use his police statements at his murder trial in New York City, December 2, 2025, in this courtroom sketch.

Detwiler is heard on the body camera asking Mangione if he was in New York recently.

"I thought he said yes but I wasn't definitely sure," Detwiler testified about Mangione's mumbled response.

"You seem a little nervous. Why are you nervous?" Detwiler is heard saying in the video before frisking Mangione, which the officer told the court he did for his and his partner's safety to make sure there were no weapons.

When Seidemann asked why Detwiler was concerned for his safety, the officer replied, "I knew up in New York they hadn't found the firearm."

Curtis Means/Pool via AFP via Getty Images - PHOTO: Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan Supreme Court during a state court evidentiary hearing in the murder case of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, in New York City, December 2, 2025.

On the body camera, Detwiler was seen stepping out of the restaurant and calling a supervisor.

"Yes, he's here. That's him," Dewiler is heard saying. "He's acting real nervous. I'm 100% sure it's him."

According to the body camera footage, Mangione told officers he was homeless.

As officers checked with dispatch to confirm Mangione's identity, Mangione sat at his table to finish his breakfast, according to the footage.

Detwiler said his supervisor instructed him to inform Mangione he was under police investigation and again warn him against using a fake identification.

Luigi Mangione's attorneys: White House making him 'pawn to further its political agenda'

After the warning, Mangione told police his real identity and birthday, according to Detwiler and the body camera footage.

When asked by an officer why he lied about his name, Mangione said in the footage, "That was the ID I had in my wallet."

After the admission, police officer Stephen Fox began reading Mangione his rights at 9:48 a.m. -- 19 minutes after officers first approached him in the McDonald's, according to body camera footage. The officer noted that Mangione was not in custody at this point.

Two minutes later, Fox began the process of arresting Mangione, asking him to place his hands on the wall as his wrists were handcuffed and zip tied.

Body camera footage played in court showed police rummaging through Mangione's bulky jacket and other garments. Detwiler recalled on the stand that Mangione was wearing at least three layers of clothing and had "a lot of money" in his wallet. Prosecutors showed a photograph of the wallet positioned with dozens of hundred-dollar bills and foreign currency.

Jane Rosenberg via Reuters - PHOTO: Luigi Mangione watches video of himself speaking with police in a McDonald's restaurant shown during state court hearings over whether prosecutors can use his police statements at his murder trial in New York City, Dec. 1, 2025.

Another officer, Christy Wasser, is seen in the footage searching Mangione's backpack. Detwiler testified that the search of the backpack began only after Mangione was placed under arrest and was conducted according to Pennsylvania law.

"We search everyone that's being arrested, their person and their bags," Detwiler said.

Prosecutors introduced the Altoona police procedure manual that allows clothing and a bag of a person being placed under arrest to be searched. Detwiler testified he had no knowledge of New York search and seizure laws or when New York law permits a suspect to be questioned.

Defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo attempted to press Detwiler about whether he "strategically" cornered Mangione for more than 20 minutes before he was officially detained.

"I wanted to identify who he was first," Detwiler said. "He was not free to leave until I identified who he was."

Curtis Means/Pool via AFP via Getty Images - PHOTO: Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan Supreme Court during a state court evidentiary hearing in the murder case of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, in New York City, December 2, 2025.

Prosecutors on the first day of the hearing on Monday played for the first time security camera footage from inside the McDonald's where Mangione was arrested, the 911 call placed by the store manager who expressed alarm that he "looked like the CEO shooter in New York," and the minute-to-minute dispatch audio leading to his arrest.

"There's a male in the store that looks like the NYC shooter," a dispatcher said in a recording played in court.

The crux of Mangione's argument is that his constitutional rights were violated when Pennsylvania police interrogated him before reading him his rights and searching his backpack without a warrant.

Defense lawyers allege that officers waited nearly 20 minutes after first approaching Mangione, extensively questioning him about his whereabouts without informing him of his right to remain silent.

Luigi Mangione must be given civilian clothes for upcoming court appearance, judge rules

They also allege that officers searched through his backpack -- which allegedly contained a handgun, magazine, and his journal -- without having a warrant.

Citing police body camera footage, they argue that officers searched Mangione's backpack as early as 9:58 a.m. but waited until after 5 p.m. to seek a warrant. They have asked the judge to limit prosecutors from using the evidence because it was the "fruit" of an illegal search.

Prosecutors argue the arrest and search were conducted lawfully, and that the evidence overwhelmingly proves Mangione's guilt.

If defense attorneys succeed in limiting the evidence seized from Mangione's backpack and statements made during his arrests, they could severely undercut the prosecution's case against the alleged murderer.
A man has been sentenced to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty on Monday to second-degree murder and other charges in the killing of a University of Mississippi graduate who was prominent in the LGBTQ community.

Sheldon "Timothy" Herrington Jr. entered the plea as he faced a second trial over the death of Jimmy "Jay" Lee, who disappeared from Oxford, Mississippi, in July 2022 and was later found dead.

Herrington will serve 30 years for the second-degree murder charge and 10 years for tampering with evidence. His sentence also includes five years of supervised post-release and another five years of unsupervised post-release.

Herrington was arrested two weeks after Lee vanished and was later charged with capital murder. He had previously pleaded not guilty to the murder charge, CBS affiliate WREG reported. The state has said in court that it did not intend to seek the death penalty in his case, according to the news station.

A judge declared a mistrial last year when jurors failed to reach a verdict after more than nine and a half hours of deliberation. They had been instructed to find Herrington guilty of either capital murder, first-degree murder, second-degree murder, or manslaughter by culpable negligence, or find him not guilty, WREG reported at the time.

Lee's body had not yet been found when Herrington's first trial took place, although a judge had declared him dead. But, in February of this year, deer hunters stumbled upon Lee's skeletal remains in a wooded area, according to Mississippi Today.

During the first trial, prosecutors claimed Herrington, who was not openly gay, killed Lee after the two had a sexual encounter.

Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr., who is on trial on a capital murder charge in the 2022 death of University of Mississippi student Jimmie

Campus cameras showed Lee leaving his apartment shortly before 4 a.m. the day he disappeared. He returned 40 minutes later, before leaving again just before 6 a.m.

Prosecutors allege Lee had been at Herrington's apartment, and that when Lee left Herrington's apartment, he was upset. Herrington, they said, invited Lee back and searched "how long does it take to strangle someone" online before Lee arrived.

The final text message from Lee's phone was sent to a social media account belonging to Herrington at 6:03 a.m. from a spot near Herrington's apartment, law enforcement testified. Accounts belonging to Herrington and Lee had previously exchanged sexually explicit messages, they said.

Herrington was later captured by surveillance video jogging out of a parking lot where Lee's car was found. He was also seen picking up a shovel and wheelbarrow at his parents' house, authorities said.

Herrington is from Grenada, Mississippi, about 52 miles southwest of Oxford. Lee's body was found in neighboring Carroll County.

Both Herrington and Lee had graduated from the University of Mississippi.

Lee had been pursuing a master's degree. He was known for his creative expression through fashion and makeup and often performed in drag shows in Oxford, according to a support group called Justice for Jay Lee.

His lawyers were not immediately available for comment.

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Cherie Ingram

Months before 38-year-old Cherie Shavon Ingram was found stabbed to death in a wooded area near North Broad Street in Gastonia, her boyfriend, Keon Latroy Pernell, was accused of stabbing her multiple times in a separate incident in eastern North Carolina, according to prosecutors.

Body camera footage featuring Pernell's confession to the eastern North Carolina stabbing, as well as footage that shows Ingram shortly after she was stabbed, was the subject of a suppression hearing on Monday, Dec. 1. Pernell's trial on a charge of first-degree murder in Ingram's death begins Tuesday with jury selection.

Ingram and Pernell both lived in Garysburg, located in northeast North Carolina near the town of Roanoke Rapids.

Ingram was last seen alive on March 27, 2021 at a bar in Gastonia, Assistant District Attorney Megan Rhoden said in court Monday. Ingram and Pernell were forced to leave the bar after Pernell assaulted Ingram, Rhoden said.

The two left together in Ingram's car. Pernell was seen on surveillance footage in early April at a convenience store in Belmont. He was driving Ingram's car, but Ingram wasn't with him.

She was reported missing on April 7, 2021. Her car was found abandoned in a parking lot in Charlotte, and police found a substance that could have been blood inside the car.

On April 8, 2021, Pernell was spotted walking around a Walmart in Rock Hill in a T-shirt covered in his own blood, carrying a knife that he had used to cut himself, Rhoden said. Rock Hill police officers approached him, and he was taken to a hospital and eventually interviewed by Rock Hill and Gastonia police.

Pernell told police that after they left the bar, they argued, and Ingram jumped out of the car, Rhoden said. He said that he got back into the car and left, telling police that he didn't know where Ingram went, Rhoden said.

Ingram's body was found on April 12, 2021, around a mile from where she was last seen alive. She was wearing the clothing that she was seen in at the Gastonia bar, Rhoden said. An autopsy found that she had been stabbed in the neck.

Police took Ingram's disappearance seriously from the beginning because Pernell was out of jail on bond while awaiting trial in Halifax County on a charge of attempted first-degree murder, Rhoden said. In October 2020, Pernell was accused of stabbing Ingram outside a convenience store in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. Police found Ingram lying next to a car in the convenience store parking lot, covered in stab wounds and bleeding.

Pernell is seen in body camera footage telling a police officer that he had been drinking heavily, and that he stabbed Ingram while in a rage.

He said that Ingram tried to stab him first, and he took the knife from her.

"So when she hits you and it's blind rage, you snapped?" The officer asked.

"Yes," Pernell said. "When she hit me on my face, I grabbed it."

"How many times do you think you stabbed her?" The officer asked.

"Six, seven times," Pernell said.

"Did you connect every time?" The officer asked.

"I hope I did," Pernell said.

"Why stab her that many times? Blind rage?" The officer asked later on.

"It was just a rage, man," Pernell said.

Pernell's defense attorney, Michael Neece, argued that the videos that showed Ingram after she was stabbed and Pernell's confession to police should not be shown to a jury.

He said that the alleged assaults occurred around six months apart, and that in the first incident, Pernell could have argued that he stabbed her in self defense. He also said that the jury is going to hear about the Gaston County allegations, and mentioning something that was reported in Roanoke Rapids could confuse them.

Rhoden argued that there is legal precedent for allowing evidence of prior assaults in domestic violence cases. She said that while the videos might create some prejudice against Pernell, their probative value outweighed any prejudice they might cause.

"We're not talking about something that happened years prior with a different victim," she said.

Superior Court Judge Gregory Hayes ruled that the videos could be shown to the jury.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Man stands trial in 2021 Gastonia stabbing
Egg cartons are displayed on shelves in the refrigerated section of a grocery store. Photo: Alan Wooten / The Center Square

(The Center Square)  Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has joined a multi-state lawsuit looking to protect taxpayer-funded food benefits for lawful permanent residents.

The benefits, which are a part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, are in jeopardy following the release of new guidelines from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The states argue those guidelines are illegal and incorrectly designates several groups of legal immigrants as ineligible for food assistance.

The law is clear on who can receive SNAP benefits, yet the Trump Administration is trying to strip rightful recipients of the support they need to feed their families, Nessel said. It is my hope that the court puts an end to this unlawful guidance and stops the White Houses ongoing chaos and confusion over Americans ability to put food on the table.

This comes after months of uncertainty around programs like SNAP that largely stemmed from the federal government shutdown.

Additionally, the Trump administration has also been taking numerous steps to cut down on waste, fraud, and over-spending on taxpayer-funded programs like SNAP. This new guidance is a part of that initiative.

Under the new guidelines, refugees, asylum seekers, humanitarian parolees, individuals whose deportation has been withheld, and other legal permanent residents would not be eligible for SNAP benefits even after receiving green cards. States that do not implement it face financial penalties or additional costs if they decide to fund SNAP benefits for those individuals themselves.

The lawsuit, which names the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins as defendants, was filed in the Eugene division of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.

The states argue the USDAs new guidance in not in line with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, stating that permanent legal residents can not be declared permanently ineligible for SNAP benefits under federal law.

The guidance in reality goes beyond the Act, arbitrarily excluding from SNAP many lawful permanent residents who remain eligible under the statutory scheme established by Congress, the lawsuit states.

It also alleges that the USDA violated its own regulations by allowing only one day, instead of 120 days, for states to adjust to the new guidance.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who leads the department which administers the program, recently discussed the ongoing changes to programs like SNAP.

At POTUS direction we will be reviewing ALL USDA programs to ensure only legal citizens are receiving benefits, Rollins said on social media. Thank you, President Trump, for putting Americans first!

Rollins also called out the 22 states, including Michigan, who have refused to turn over SNAP recipient data to the federal government.

Earlier this year, USDA put states on notice reminding them illegal immigrants and certain non-citizens CAN NOT receive SNAP benefits, she explained. Even though 22 blue states have refused to provide the data, we are using every tool to compel their compliance.

A news release from Nessels office said the ongoing changes are causing uncertainty for many families.

States have already begun implementing the statutory changes enacted earlier this year, but USDAs abrupt and incorrect guidance now forces them to overhaul eligibility systems overnight, it said. The attorneys general warn that this will create widespread confusion for families, increase the risk of wrongful benefit terminations, erode public trust, and place states in an untenable situation where they must either violate federal law or accept severe financial liability.

Nationally, approximately 42 million Americans receive SNAP benefits. Currently, nearly 13% of Michigan households, or approximately 1.4 million people, do. Of those, 43% are families with children and 36% are families with older or disabled adults.

At the time of publication, Nessels office had not yet responded to an email requesting data on how many Michiganders might be affected by the new guidelines addressed in the lawsuit, though it alleges tens of thousands nationwide.

Michigan was joined on the lawsuit by the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. The lawsuit requests that the court block the USDAs new guidelines from going into effect.

This is just one of dozens of lawsuits Nessel has filed or joined against the Trump administration since January, including a number regarding SNAP benefits.
TORONTO, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ - Power One Resources Corp. (TSXV: PWRO) ("Power One" or the "Company") is continuing a comprehensive evaluation of historic drill logs, assessment reports, and archived geological datasets, following the compilation of recent data at its wholly owned Pecors Property, located in Ontario's Elliot Lake Uranium Belt. This review highlights bitumen staining and hydrocarbon-related signatures previously documented during historical exploration campaigns.

Historic reportsoriginally generated during uranium-focused programscontain multiple descriptions of bitumen occurrences, organic-rich residues, hydrocarbon odours, fluid-alteration halos, and sulphide-rich structural corridors. These features, recorded between the 1950s and 1980s, suggest long-lived fluid pathways capable of transporting both metal-bearing and organic-rich fluids.

Power One is now integrating these observations with recent datasets as part of a modern technical review, assessing the property's potential as a Precambrian-sourced hydrocarbon and hybrid mineral system.

Historical Hydrocarbon Indicators at Pecors

Originally explored for uranium, the Pecors Property has now emerged as a polymetallic target following the first-ever gold discovery on the property as recently news released (November 26,2025), supported by compelling geophysical scale and structural complexity. In reviewing historical government assessment files, legacy geochemical data, and archived drill logs, Power One has identified multiple references to:

bitumen staining

sulphide stringers

fluid-alteration halos

These indicators, present in drill core from earlier uranium programs, point to structural corridors capable of channeling both metal-rich and organic-rich fluidspotentially representing a hybrid mineralhydrocarbon system.

Structural Context Supports Hydrocarbon Potential

The structural corridors that host uranium mineralization at Pecorsfractures, shear zones, and alteration halosalso represent natural pathways for fluid migration. Historic bitumen staining and sulphide occurrences in drill core indicate that organic-rich or hydrogen-bearing fluids have moved through these same structures.

In essence, the features controlling uranium deposition are geologically consistent with the migration and trapping of hydrocarbons and natural hydrogen, providing a compelling framework for the dual polymetallic and energy-linked exploration focus at Pecors.

Historical Focus and Renewed Opportunity

While drill logs from the 1950s1980s documented bitumen staining and hydrocarbon indicators, these observations were not systematically followed up at the time. Exploration during that era was almost entirely focused on high-grade uranium, with limited understanding of Precambrian hydrocarbon systems and little economic incentive to investigate basement-hosted fluids. Modern techniques, combined with renewed interest in hydrogen and unconventional hydrocarbons, now allow Power One to evaluate these historic observations in a new strategic context, highlighting the dual polymetallic and energy-linked potential at Pecors.

Recent Gold Discovery Enhances Polymetallic Potential

The first-ever gold discovery on the Pecors Property has identified zones of encouraging gold mineralization, confirming the property hosts more than historical uranium and supporting its emerging polymetallic potential. These gold zones coincide with structural corridors and alteration systems, reinforcing the concept of a broad, metal-rich system capable of hosting gold, copper, nickel, and uranium, in addition to the hydrocarbon and hydrogen indicators previously observed.

Hydrogen Pathfinders Emerging at Pecors

In addition to its polymetallic and gold potential, Power One's review has highlighted several geological features associated with deep-sourced natural hydrogen ("white hydrogen") and hydrocarbon-bearing systemsa frontier exploration theme rapidly gaining global momentum.

Key indicators under evaluation at Pecors include:

Bitumen staining recorded in historic uranium drill coreclassic evidence of past hydrocarbon or hydrogen-bearing fluid migration

Serpentinized mafic and ultramafic units, capable of generating hydrogen through natural waterrock reactions

Widespread sulphides and alteration halos consistent with fluid-rich structural systems

An 18 km by 4 km magnetic anomaly, interpreted as a deep intrusive or structural root zone favorable for hydrogen accumulation

Regional-scale structural corridors capable of channeling deep crustal fluid

Together, these features place Pecors within the same geological framework now being recognized internationally for hosting natural hydrogen systems within stable cratonic shields.

Parallel Momentum With Early Canadian Hydrogen Explorers

Canada's natural hydrogen exploration sector is beginning to accelerate, led by innovators such as Max Power, which is advancing hydrogen-focused geoscience programs across Ontario and Quebec. Their early work has validated that Precambrian terranes in Canada may host hydrogen pathways, sparking renewed industry interest.

Pecors exhibits many of the same key ingredients identified in Max Power's exploration thesis: deep structural plumbing, serpentinized intrusives, and historical indicators of trapped organic-rich or hydrogen-bearing fluids. Power One believes Pecors may represent the next major opportunity within this emerging exploration category.

As CEO Wazir Khan noted, "This is a frontier opportunityOntario could emerge as an unexpected participant in the global hydrogen discovery race, and Pecors may be one of the first projects to demonstrate that potential."

A First-Mover Advantage in Ontario's Hydrogen Narrative

Natural hydrogen has rapidly gained global attention as a potentially scalable, low-cost, zero-emission energy source, with discoveries accelerating in the U.S. Midwest, Australia, France, Spain, Brazil, and West Africa. Government agencies and major energy players are now incorporating natural hydrogen into long-term strategy models.

If Pecors hosts even a fraction of the hydrogen-generative potential documented in other Precambrian terranes, Power One could be positioned as one of Canada's earliest entrants into a globally emerging energy frontier.

Pecors therefore represents a compelling dual pathway opportunity:

A large-scale polymetallic and gold system, and A potentially hydrogen-active geological environment.

CEO Commentary

"The Pecors anomaly is one of the largest untested geophysical signatures in Ontario," stated Wazir Khan, CEO of Power One. "The presence of bitumen staining, serpentinization, and widespread sulphides in a deep structural setting is a rare combination. With hydrogen-exploration activity accelerating across Canadaled by groups such as Max Powerwe believe Pecors is uniquely positioned for a modern, high-impact technical review."

Advancing the Pecors Vision

The Company remains focused on advancing the Pecors Project. Historically known for its uranium endowment, Pecors has evolved into a broader polymetallic target, now supported by:

The first-ever gold discovery with encouraging mineralization

Structural complexity

Potential hydrocarbon pathways

Hydrogen-generative rock associations

Power One is currently:

Reprocessing airborne and ground geophysical datasets

Re-logging available historical drill core

Commissioning a structural reinterpretation to prioritize deep fluid pathways and potential trap settings

Preparing a technical memo summarizing hydrogen and hydrocarbon-related evidence and global analogues in other Precambrian shield environments

About the Pecors Property

The Pecors Property comprises over 2,300 hectares within Ontario's Elliot Lake Uranium Belt, a historically productive district with established infrastructure. The project covers a region-scale magnetic and gravity anomaly interpreted to reflect a large gabbroic or mafic intrusive body. Multiple conductive and magnetic trends extend across the property, suggesting a deep-seated mineral or fluid system with both metallic and hydrogen-generative potential.

About Power One Resources Corp.



Power One Resources Corp. (TSXV: PWRO) is a Canadian exploration company focused on large-scale gold, polymetallic, and energy-linked mineral systems. The Company applies modern geological interpretation techniques to historically underexplored districts, targeting projects capable of delivering transformational discovery potential.

Qualified Person

The technical content of this release has been reviewed and approved by Mike Kilbourne, P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Kilbourne is Independent of the Company.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information:

Certain statements in this release are forward-looking statements that reflect the expectations of management. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions regarding the future. Forward-looking statements in this press release relate to, among other things: the completion of the proposed Arrangement. Actual future results may differ materially. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. There is no assurance any of the conditions for closing will be met. Forward-looking statements reflect the beliefs, opinions, and projections on the date the statements are made and are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the respective parties, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political, and social uncertainties, and contingencies. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release concerning these times. Except as required by law, the Company does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law.

SOURCE Power One Resources Corp.
FILE PHOTO: Signage is seen outside of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) headquarters in White Oak, Maryland, U.S., August 29, 2020. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo

Dec 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's newly appointed head of the drug evaluation department, Richard Pazdur, is set to retire from the health agency, STAT News reported on Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The agency's veteran oncology chief Pazdur took over the role less than a month ago, replacing George Tidmarsh, who resigned amid serious concerns about his personal conduct.

Pazdur informed leaders at the FDA's drug center of his intention to leave the agency at a meeting on Tuesday, STAT reported, adding he could still retract the papers.

The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

(Reporting by Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis speaks at the 2025 Principles First Summit. Photo: Hannah Yoest / Principles First via Flickr / CC BY 2.0 / Cropped from Original

(The Center Square)  Colorado Gov. Jared Polis recently signed an executive order extending budget cuts to address an $800 million gap in Colorados funding.

This comes after federal spending cuts passed earlier this year.

These are challenging times that force difficult financial decisions to maintain a balanced budget, wrote Mark Ferrandino, director of the Colorado Office of State Planning and Budgeting, in a letter to the Joint Budget Committee. It is imperative to act quickly to reduce spending.

The executive order signed by Polis extended two others from earlier this year that suspended certain spending to address what the state has labeled an unexpected and unnecessary shortfall due to One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Congress passed July 1.

Because of the act's federal spending cuts, the law reduced state revenue by over $1.2 billion, eliminated the states surplus and put Colorados budget $800 million out of balance for fiscal year 2025-2026.

To address that shortfall, Polis and Colorado took steps to eliminate spending and maintain the statutory reserve requirements directed by statute. In total, those spending reductions remain $265.7 million.

The new executive order ends Feb. 28, 2026. By that time, the state anticipates having a new plan for budget reductions and supplemental budget requests.

In the meantime, there has been a number of specific line item reductions that Ferrandino said were intended to make the least possible impact to state programs and services.

Those cuts include programs and services, in whole or in part, implemented by the Department of Corrections, Department of Health Care Policy & Financing, Department of Higher Education and many more. In total, more than a half dozen departments were affected by the cuts.

As another cost-saving measure, state agencies also have implemented hiring freezes.

Because the budget for fiscal year 2025-2026 is now out of balance, this will have a tangible impact on Coloradans. It means they will no longer receive refund checks from the state's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights or TABOR, which normally returns tax surpluses to the states citizens.

I have determined that the deficiency of revenues ... persists, Polis said in his latest executive order. By this executive order, I am extending the suspension, in whole or in part, of the functions and services of state government ... to reduce expenditures.

Republicans have pointed some of the blame for the state's budget crisis at the spending they say Colorado Democrats are prioritizing.

The CEO of Denver Health said this influx of illegal immigrants seeking care at our hospitals is going to break Denver Health. It's tens of millions of dollars of uncompensated care to illegal immigrants and Republicans in Congress put a stop to that, said U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Colorado, in a recent radio appearance. Democrats in Colorado can't stand it. They actually doubled down and added more taxpayer money to illegal immigrant health care in the special session that the state had earlier this year to the tune of $90 million of everyday Coloradans hard earned tax money going out of their pocket and going to pay for health care for people who are illegally present in the United States.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner (both not pictured) at the Kremlin in Moscow on Dec. 2, 2025. Credit - Alexander KazakovPool/AFP/Getty Images

The peace talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and a U.S. delegation led by President Donald Trumps special envoy Steve Witkoff stretched on for five hours on Tuesday, but ended without a breakthrough.

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters the talks in Moscow were useful and constructive but a compromise option was not found.

While no specifics were disclosed, Ushakov said that some of the American proposals look more or less acceptable, though they need to be discussed but other points of the plan do not suit us.

The U.S. delegationwhich also included Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushnerhas yet to comment on the outcome of the meeting.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Russia of wasting the worlds time, arguing that Putin has repeatedly demonstrated he does not plan to end the war.

The Kremlin on Wednesday morning rejected assertions that Putin is hindering peace talks.

Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov argued it wouldn't be correct to say that Putin rejected U.S. proposals put forth by Witkoff and Kushner. Yesterday was the first time that a direct exchange of opinions took place. Something was accepted, something was marked as unacceptable. This is a normal working process and a search for compromise, said Peskov.

Read More: Putin and Trump Envoy Witkoff Meet for High-Stakes Peace Talks

Putin arrived late to the sit-down, having spent the afternoon at an investment forum on the other side of Moscow.

Speaking to reporters at the forum, Putin made inflammatory remarks regarding Europe and said European officialsnot Russiawere the ones hindering progress in the peace talks.

Issuing a stark warning to Europe, Putin declared Russia is ready for a military confrontation if one were to break out. He reiterated that he has no desire for additional conflict, but cautioned that if Europe suddenly wants to wage a war with us and starts it, we are ready right away.

The Russian President added that any European move toward war could lead to a situation in which there wont be anyone to negotiate with.

Putin then took aim at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskys European allies, who have expressed support for helping Kyiv achieve a dignified peace deal. Accusing Europe of obstructing the U.S.-led negotiations, Putin claimed they had put forward demands that are absolutely unacceptable to Russia.

The lack of progress in the Russia-U.S. talks, along with Putin's readiness for military confrontation, has only exacerbated tensions between Moscow and European lawmakers.

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner begin a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Dec. 2, 2025. Kremlin Press OfficeGetty Images

Ahead of a NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting on Wednesday morning, U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said that while Ukraine attempts to move toward peace, Putin seeks to escalate war.

President Putin should end the bluster and the bloodshed and be ready to come to the table and to support a just and lasting peace and the security of Europe and NATO, said Cooper.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte reaffirmed the organization's ardent support for Zelensky and vowed to ensure that Ukraine is in the strongest possible position to keep the fight going and to fight back against the Russians until a peace deal is agreed upon.

Rutte dismissed Putin's warning to Europe, saying he won't react to every comment Putin makes, but other European officials were less reserved.

U.K. Health Secretary Wes Streeting accused Putin of sabre-rattling.

I think we should see this for what it is, which is the same old sabre-rattling weve heard from President Putin, he told Sky News. And the the irony of President Putin talking about warmongering on the part of European leaders would be laughable if what hes doing in Ukraine werent so serious.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin, accompanied by Kremlin economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev and Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, meets with U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner at the Kremlin in Moscow on Dec. 2, 2025. Alexander KazakovGetty Images

The Russia-U.S. meeting in Moscow followed the widespread leak of the Trump Administrations 28-point peace plan on Nov. 20. Zelensky and his European allies criticized the initial draft, which called for Kyiv to reduce its army and make significant land concessions.

Ukrainian and U.S. officials met last week in Geneva to review a refined version of the proposalthe details of which have yet to be released. These talks were bolstered by a meeting in Florida over the weekend, which saw U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio lead talks opposite Ukraines new negotiator Rustem Umerov, who serves as the countrys National Security and Defense Council secretary. (Umerov took over the helm from Andriy Yermak, who resigned as Zelenskys chief of staff last week after a raid on his home by two national anti-corruption agencies amid a widespread corruption scandal.)

Rubio told reporters after the meeting that while the sit-down was productive, there was still more work to be done. Obviously, theres another party involved [Russia] that will have to be a part of the equation, he added, having previously said that both Russia and Ukraine must agree to difficult but necessary concessions.

European allies are strongly opposed to the idea of Ukraine making land concessionssomething Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out. Many have warned that asking Ukraine to give up territory would reward Russian aggression, noting that Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022.

We shouldnt lose focus that its actually Russia who has started this war, and Russia that is continuing this war, Kaja Kallas, the E.U. high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, told reporters on Monday. Kallas shared her fear that Ukraine could be pressured to stop the war by surrendering, something she warns would have major repercussions and is not in anybodys interest.

Putins comments on Tuesday echoed his recent statements about the futility of a negotiated peace. During a trip to Kyrgyzstan last week, Putin said pursuing any kind of peace deal was pointless as long as Zelensky remained in power. Celebrating Russias recent advances on the battlefield, Putin asserted that if Ukrainian forces leave the territories they hold then we will stop combat operations but if they dont, then we will achieve it by military means.

Putins willingness to keep fighting despite mounting casualties, and his insistence that Ukraine withdraw from territory claimed by Moscow stands in direct opposition to Zelenskys vow never to cede land, leaving the sides locked in a stalemate.

There is little sign Putin is prepared to compromise moving forward.

Trump previously said the Russian leader has let [him] down by refusing to change his position. The pair met in Alaska in August for a summit intended to explore a potential cease-fire. But the meeting ended earlier than planned, with no agreement reached. Critics argued that Putin left the meeting with more leverage than Trump.

In October, Trump and the E.U. imposed new sanctions on Russia, demanding that now is the time to stop killing. But the sanctions have done little to slow the Kremlins campaign. In fact, the Kremlin all but dismissed the new levies, with Russias Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova arguing that Russia has a strong immunity to Western sanctions.

Write to Olivia-Anne Cleary at olivia-anne.cleary@time.com.
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Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., holds a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on Dec, 1, 2025, after he called for military to refuse illegal orders. Credit - Bill ClarkCQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

As the White House on Monday admitted that the military conducted a second strike on an alleged drug vessel after the first left survivors, Congress appeared poised to launch perhaps its most aggressive oversight of the Trump Administration this year, as lawmakers from both parties expressed concerns that the U.S. was guilty of a war crime.

Its a criminal offensewar crimes or murder are criminal offenses, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, a member of the Armed Services Committee, told TIME. Referring to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseths role in the strikes, Blumenthal added, Hegseth doesnt have the immunity that the President of the United States does.

Lawmakers from both parties were raising the term war crime on Monday, as pressure mounts on the Trump Administration to release military video evidence and explain the legal basis for its escalating campaign in the Caribbean.

In the Senate, the calls for oversight were coalescing around Senator Roger Wicker, the Mississippi Republican who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and has already directed an inquiry to the Pentagon and pledged vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances. Several Senate Democrats told TIME on Monday that they have confidence in Wicker leading the investigation into the strike, but urged him to move quickly.

Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii suggested that Democrats could use the ongoing negotiations over the Defense Authorization Act as leverage to press for Hegseths testimony before the end of the month.

The growing backlash came as President Donald Trump convened an evening meeting in the Oval Office with top Cabinet and national security officials to discuss the next steps in Venezuela, following more than 20 U.S. strikes on vessels the Administration says are part of drug-smuggling networks tied to President Nicolas Maduro.

At the center of the dispute is a Washington Post report alleging that after the U.S. attacked a suspected drug boat on Sept. 2, killing most of those on board, a second missile was fired at two survivors struggling in the water. The U.S. is not in a declared war with Venezuela, and lawmakers said such an orderif confirmedwould violate basic tenets of the law of armed conflict.

Some Republicans voiced similar alarm. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, said Sunday on ABCs This Week that if the attack unfolded as described, that is a violation of the law of war, noting that survivors who are no longer fighting do not pose the imminent threat required to justify lethal force. Its hard to believe that two people on a raft, trying to survive, would pose an imminent threat, he said.

The Pentagon has declined to elaborate on the Posts findings. But at Mondays press briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged for the first time that the follow-up strike was ordered by Admiral Frank M. Mitch Bradley, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, and said he acted well within his authority.

On September 2, Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes, Leavitt said. 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.

Pressed repeatedly on whether the Administration endorsed the release of the military video from the operation, Leavitt declined to say. She instead insisted the strike was conducted in self-defense to protect Americans and was carried out in international waters and in accordance with the law of armed conflict.

Her refusal only inflamed congressional frustration. Lawmakers noted that even after the Administration has provided 13 bipartisan briefings on the boat strikes and allowed members to review certain legal documents, they still lack fundamental clarity about the legal basis for the strikes, the intelligence guiding individual targeting decisions, and the chain of command behind the Sept. 2 incident.

Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, a member of the Armed Services Committee, told reporters at a press conference on Monday that he spoke with Wicker about calling on Hegseth and Admiral Bradley to appear before the committee but is not so confident they will.

This is not an Administration that follows any norms, but we need to get to the bottom of this, he added. We are not Russia and Iraq. Im really concerned if the reporting is correct. I hope the reporting about this incident is not accurate, but what the White House said today indicated it might be. Were going to have to see.

Blumenthal, who also sits on the committee, told TIME that Wicker should act right away and begin scheduling witness testimony. He added that the potential set of criminal actions will present a test for upholding national security, noting that Hegseth could be exposed to criminal liability under the U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justicethe militarys criminal code that applies to members of the armed forces.

Its not just to enforce our moral credibility, but it also protects our own troops. We prosecuted Japanese and Germans for killing our troops after they were wounded or captured and we need to [protect] these rules to protect our own troops, he said. Its a matter of national security.

Title 18 of the U.S. code, which covers "war crimes," includes as an example someone who " intentionally kills...one or more persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including those placed out of combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause." Those who survived the first strike would fall under that description, some experts argue.

Blumenthal added that he was encouraged that Wicker intends vigorous oversight, but noted that what that means in reality is yet to be known.

It has to be more than just a general hearing at some point in a couple months from now on the operations in the Caribbean, Blumenthal said. It has to be next week, we have to call witnesses beginning with Admiral Bradley. He is the key figure here.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday he would file a war powers resolution along with Senators Tim Kaine of Virginia and Rand Paul of Kentucky to block the deployment of U.S. troops to Venezuela if Trump orders additional strikes on or near the mainland. The power to declare war lies in the hands of Congress, and we intend to exert that authority, should the need arise, Schumer said.

He also demanded that Hegseth release the video tapes documenting the Sept. 2 operation, which lawmakers say would immediately clarify whether a second, impermissible strike occurred. If he refuses to release these tapes, it calls into question the truthfulness of his account, Schumer said. The tapes will show one way or the other what happened and whether Hegseth is telling the truth. If Secretary Hegseth has nothing to hide, he should not fear being truthful.

Schumer also called for committee hearings and full and transparent briefings from the Pentagon, adding, Secretary Hegseth himself should come before the Congress to testify under oath about the nature of his order, the evidence supporting the strikes, and an explanation for what the goals are in Venezuela.

Congresss bipartisan inquiries are already underway. Senior leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committee said they have requested detailed information from the Pentagon and will conduct vigorous oversight.

But not all Republicans share those concerns, with some openly casting doubt on the underlying report of the second military strike. Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana told reporters on Monday that he was skeptical of The Washington Posts reporting that Hegseth gave a spoken directive to kill everybody, noting that the story cited anonymous sources.

Kennedy told TIME that he would not advise Hegseth to testify under oath in Congress as Democrats have called for. I wouldnt do it on the basis of a Washington Post article, he said.

When told that Leavitt confirmed the second strike at the press briefing, Kennedy said: I dont care what the White House press secretary said, I read the Washington Post article and I think its typical Washington Post bullst.

Others are hoping to get more information. If there was a directive to take a second shot and kill people, that's a violation of an ethical, moral, or legal code, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina told reporters Monday. But it could be, was it the Oxford word of the yearrage bait?

As the political pressure intensifies, congressional investigators are preparing to examine the intelligence that prompted the Sept. 2 strike, the legal justification underpinning Operation Southern Spear, and the internal deliberations that followed the initial reports of survivors in the water.

Still, without the video recordings, lawmakers acknowledge their ability to establish the facts remains limited. Several members said the tapes would likely be the fastest and most decisive way to resolve whether a war crime occurredand whether the defense secretary misled Congress or the President.

What we need right now more than anything else is the truththe facts, Schumer said. Which is precisely what Secretary Hegseth has refused to give.

Write to Nik Popli at nik.popli@time.com.
An empty classroom with desks. Photo: RDNE Stock project / Pexels

(The Center Square)  Two families participating in Tennessee's Education Freedom Scholarship program are intervening in a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality.

Five organizations representing 10 plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in Davidson County Chancery Court last month, saying the scholarship program diverts money from public schools and discriminates against students with disabilities.

EdChoice Legal Advocates are representing Denise Fair of Jefferson City and Mike and Monica Sweeney of Knoxville. They say the scholarships helped them send their children to a school that best met their needs.

Fair said the scholarship allowed her to scale back her work hours and attend more school activities with her children, who attend Lakeway Christian Academy.

"A judgment or injunction taking away the EFS program would impose a real financial burden on our family," Fair said in a release. "It would make it impossible for us to be able to afford Lakeway Christian Academys tuition for both of our school-aged children."

Five parents and five taxpayers are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, the Education Law Center, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Public Funds Public Schools campaign and the Southern Education Foundation in the legal challenge, according to a release from the ACLU.

They call this 'school choice,' but the choice isn't yours, it's the private school's, said Crystal Boehm, a Hamilton County parent, preschool teacher and plaintiff in the lawsuit. They can reject your child for a disability, for your family's religion, for any reason at all. Meanwhile, public schools that educate everyone are losing the funding they need.

Thomas Fisher, executive vice president and director of litigation at EdChoice Legal Advocates, said the lawsuit could take choices away from families.

Behind every legal filing are real children whose futures hang in the balance," Fisher said. Tennessees EFS law vindicates parents constitutional rights to direct their childrens education."

A hearing date has not been set, according to online court records.

Gov. Bill Lee advocated for school choice and made it the focus of the January special session. More than 42,000 applications were filed for the 2025-26 school year, according to the Tennessee Department of Education. The Tennessee General Assembly approved 20,000 scholarships of $7,295 for the 2025-26 school year, with the first 10,000 based on income and the second 10,000 open to all families.

"This remarkable response demonstrates what we have known all along: Tennessee parents want choices when it comes to their child's education," Lee said previously. "I'm grateful to the General Assembly for their partnership in delivering universal school choice to families across our state, and I thank the Department of Education for their dedication to a smooth implementation."

The application window for students receiving Education Freedom Scholarships opens on Dec. 9, according to the Tennessee Department of Education. New applications will be accepted beginning Jan. 13.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson takes questions from reporters alongside District 7 Republican nominee Matt Van Epps ahead of Tennessee's special congressional election at billionaire Willis Johnson's car barn in Franklin, Tennessee, U.S. December 1, 2025. Vivian Jones/USA Today Network via REUTERS. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY

By Nolan D. McCaskill

WASHINGTON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Voters in Tennessee will choose their next representative in a special election on Tuesday that will affect Republicans' narrow grip on the U.S. House of Representatives heading into next year's midterm elections.

Republican Matt Van Epps, a former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of General Services, is favored over Democratic state Representative Aftyn Behn to fill the seat vacated by former Representative Mark Green, who resigned in July. The Middle Tennessee district includes parts of Nashville.

President Donald Trump won the district by 22 points in 2024, and both Trump and Green have endorsed Van Epps. A survey by Emerson College Polling/The Hill released on Wednesday suggested it could be a tight race.

An upset by the Democrat in the off-cycle election following a holiday weekend could whittle away at Republicans' 219-213 House majority.

OTHER SPECIAL ELECTIONS TO AFFECT HOUSE STANDINGS

Democrats have overperformed their party's margins in the 2024 presidential election by an average of 18 points in the four special congressional elections this year in Florida, Virginia and Arizona. The party also retook the governor's mansion in Virginia last month, and California voters approved a ballot initiative to redraw the state's congressional map to flip as many as five Republican-held seats amid a national mid-decade redistricting battle heading into next year's midterm elections.

Behn outraised Van Epps by nearly $240,000 through November 12, according to federal election filings. Republican and Democratic super PACs have poured millions of dollars into the race.

Republicans have sought to paint Behn as a radical leftist by highlighting some of her past comments, including since-deleted tweets from 2020 in which she called for defunding the police. When pressed on those tweets recently by cable TV channel MS NOW, Behn said she did not recall them and wanted to focus on cost-of-living challenges and other issues she argued were more important to voters.

A handful of retirements and upcoming special elections could further affect the chamber's narrow balance of power in the months ahead.

Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene will vacate her Georgia seat on January 5. Texas voters will elect a Democrat in a January 31 runoff to succeed the late Representative Sylvester Turner, who died in March, and New Jersey voters will choose who will replace Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill, a recently departed House Democrat, on April 16.

Polling shows voters are concerned about the cost of living, including rising healthcare costs. Democrats instigated a record 43-day government shutdown over the issue after funding for federal agencies ran dry on October 1. Eight Senate Democrats eventually agreed to vote with Republicans to end the stalemate in exchange for a vote on a healthcare bill later this month. Democrats want to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire for 24 million people at the end of the year.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson's decision not to administer the oath of office to Democrat Adelita Grijalva of Arizona until November 12 highlighted the importance of a single vote in the chamber. Grijalva, who won a September 23 special election, provided the decisive signature on a petition to force a vote on legislation to compel the Justice Department to release unclassified files on the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

(Reporting by Nolan D. McCaskill; additional reporting by Nathan Layne; editing by Scott Malone and Rod Nickel)
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday launched a federal probe into claims that Minnesota tax dollars were siphoned to the terrorist group Al-Shabaab under the Biden administration and Governor Tim Walz  an allegation he said demands urgent scrutiny.

"At my direction, @USTreasury is investigating allegations that under the feckless mismanagement of the Biden Administration and Governor Tim Walz, hardworking Minnesotans tax dollars may have been diverted to the terrorist organization Al-Shabaab," Bessent posted on X. "Thanks to the leadership of @POTUS @realDonaldTrump, we are acting fast to ensure Americans taxes are not funding acts of global terror.

"We will share our findings as our investigation continues," he added.

Walzs office told Fox News Digital that Walz said last week that should a connection be found between Minnesota tax dollars and Al-Shabaab, he welcomed an investigation.

Minnesota Taxpayer Dollars Funneled To Al-shabaab Terror Group, Report Alleges

Last month, an investigation conducted by Ryan Thorpe and Christopher F. Rufo of the Manhattan Institute uncovered a web of fraud involving Minnesotas Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services program, Feeding Our Future and other organizations in a bombshell report.

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Thorpe and Rufo noted that, in many cases, members of Minnesota's Somali community were perpetrators of fraud. They added that federal counterterrorism sources confirmed that millions of dollars in stolen funds were sent back to Somalia, which is how Al-Shabaab got the cash.

Food-stamp Fraud Numbers Expose Which States Are Draining The Most Taxpayer Dollars

The alleged funneling of taxpayer dollars happened under Tim Walz and the Biden administration's leadership, Scott Bessent said.

Thorpe and Rufo sought to answer a bigger question when looking into the schemes: "Where did the money go?"

As it turned out, the Somali fraud rings sent money transfers from Minnesota to Somalia and, according to reports, approximately 40% of households in Somalia get remittances from abroad. Thorpe and Rufo state that in 2023, the Somali diaspora sent $1.7 billion to the country, which was higher than the Somali government's budget that same year.

Thorpe and Rufo discovered that the funds were being funneled to Al-Shabaab, an al Qaeda-linked terror organization. Multiple law enforcement sources informed the duo that Minnesota's Somali community sent millions of dollars through a network of money traders known as "hawalas" that wound up in the hands of the terror group.

Social Media Erupts After Far-left Mayor Gives Victory Speech In Foreign Language: 'Humiliating'

The Somali National Army escorts members of the press to hideouts used by the terrorist group al-Shabaab in the Sabiid-Aanole areas, Somalia on June 23, 2025.

Glenn Kerns, a retired Seattle Police Department detective who spent 14 years on a federal Joint Terrorism Task Force, told Thorpe and Rufo that the Somalis ran a complex money network and were routing cash on commercial flights from the Seattle airport to the hawala networks in Somalia.

"We had sources going into the hawalas to send money. I went down to [Minnesota] and pulled all of their records and, well s---, all these Somalis sending out money are on DHS benefits," Kerns told Thorpe and Rufo.

A confidential source told Thorpe and Rufo that "The largest funder of Al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer."

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"Every scrap of economic activity, in the Twin Cities, in America, throughout Western Europe, anywhere Somalis are concentrated, every cent that is sent back to Somalia benefits Al-Shabaab in some way," a former official who worked on the Minneapolis Joint Terrorism Task Force told Thorpe and Rufo.

Fox News Digitals Rachel Wolf contributed to this report.





Original article source: Treasury Secretary launches probe into Minnesota tax dollars allegedly funding Al-Shabaab terrorists
Thanksgiving is a day of family, friends, gratitude, relaxation, and, most of all, lots and lots of great food. The American in each and every one of us looks forward to this very special holiday all year long. Theres nothing like piling a plate high with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and everything else on the table, and then eating it until were more than full. Many of us only plan, prepare, and devour a Thanksgiving-style meal on this one day annually, which means were left craving it the remaining 364 days of the year.

Fortunately, there are a few great restaurants in Pennsylvania and in most states that recognize and respond to this craving by offering Thanksgiving-style sandwiches for much of the autumn season. These sandwiches allow eager diners to partially satiate their Turkey Day desires even after the big day itself.

Perhaps the best Thanksgiving-style sandwich in the Keystone State can be found in Media in Delaware County, just south of Philadelphia. Read on to learn more about this epic sandwich. When youre done reading, you might even head out to pick one up for yourself.

Are you looking for the perfect Thanksgiving sandwich in Pennsylvania? If so, then you should make a beeline to DiFabios Market and Tap in Media. Every year, this Italian restaurant/catering company/bar/bakery/market/wine bottle shop offers its Famous Stuffed Turkey Sandwich, and people come from miles around to enjoy it.

Its no surprise that they do. This sandwich is that good. Its mouthwatering to look at, and its even better to eat. It is packed with house-roasted turkey, Cooper Sharp cheddar, and cranberry sauce-all piled high and thick.

That sounds great on its own, but wait, theres more. The crown jewel is the bread that holds it all together. Its not just regular bread, but rather, bread made out of stuffing. Yum!

Every bite of DiFabio Markey & Taps Stuffed Turkey Sandwich is incredible. You really have to pace yourself while eating it to avoid gobbling it down all at once in just a few bites. The combination of the interior flavors, combined with the stuffing bread, is amazing, and you may even find that you enjoy it more than the actual Thanksgiving meal itself.

The sandwich is also available in a 20-piece sandwich tray format if you want to enjoy it with your friends or bring it to a party.

DiFabios Market and Tap has a lot of other great things on its menu, too, so be sure to check all of its offerings out when you stop by for your Stuffed Turkey Sandwich. Youre going to love this sandwich, and youre going to love DiFabios! Bon appetit!

Feeling inspired? Try planning your own trip using Only In Your State's itinerary planner.
Recent U.S. military escalations involving Venezuela have halted flights carrying unlawful migrants from the United States back to the South American country, Venezuelas foreign ministry said, prompting criticism from anti-intervention voices.

President Donald Trump warned pilots Saturday that the airspace "above and surrounding" Venezuela should be "closed in its entirety" as his administration weighs potential strikes on targets in and around Caracas.

"Through this action, the United States government has unilaterally suspended the Venezuelan migrant flights that were being carried out regularly and weekly as part of the repatriation of Venezuelans through the Plan Vuelta a la Patria (Return to the Homeland Plan)," the ministry said in a statement.

The deportation flights had been one of the only areas of cooperation between Washington and the government of Nicolas Maduro . Venezuelan officials say nearly 14,000 nationals have been returned on twice-weekly charter flights in recent months.

The deportation flights had been one of the only areas of cooperation between Washington and the government of Nicolas Maduro.

Venezuela Agrees To Resume Deportation Flights In Response To Pressure From Trump

At the same time, the Trump administration has continued moving forward with plans to end temporary protected status for roughly 600,000 Venezuelans living in the United States.

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"Genius. Enough with this immigration enforcement nonsense. Lets get back to True MAGA  neocon wars that exacerbate and cause migration crises. About darn time," said Curt Mills, executive editor of The American Conservative, criticizing the shift toward military action.

So far, U.S. strikes have targeted alleged narco-traffickers operating in the Caribbean near Venezuela . But officials have signaled that operations could expand to land-based targets as Washington increases pressure on Maduro to relinquish power.

Venezuela Will Face 'Severe, And Escalating Sanctions' If It Doesn't Accept Its Citizens, Rubio Says

Dozens of U.S. bombers have deployed to the region alongside the worlds largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, underscoring the scale of the buildup. With U.S. bombers and the Ford already positioned in the region, much of the world is waiting to see whether Trump will green-light the next phase of strikes against Venezuelan targets .

Venezuelan migrants repatriated from the U.S. gesture seen upon arrival at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela, April 4, 2025.

Venezuelan migrants flown from Guantanamo Bay via Honduras walk up a ladder after arriving on a deportation flight at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, La Guaira State, Venezuela, February 20, 2025.

Trump confirmed he spoke with Maduro by phone recently.

"I wouldn't say it went well or badly. It was a phone call," he told reporters aboard Air Force One Sunday.

Trump presented Maduro with an ultimatum  step down or face potential U.S. military action. Maduro, the Miami Herald reported, sought global amnesty for himself, demanded to retain control of the military and resisted an immediate exit from power.

Click Here To Download The Fox News App

Restraint-minded foreign policy analysts have sounded the alarm against a regime-change-driven intervention in Venezuela, arguing such a move could make migration patterns worse.

"Escalatory dynamics could trigger regional instability and hostility, with migration flows among the most predictable consequences," a report by Stimson Center analysts Evan Cooper and Alessandro Perri claimed. "Absent a credible transition structure inside Venezuela, external pressure is far more likely to deepen chaos  driving more Venezuelans to flee  than to produce political change."

Analysts in the libertarian foreign-policy space have issued similar warnings.

Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, argued that "U.S. militarized pressure on Venezuela is far more likely to worsen instability than to produce meaningful political change," adding that history shows "coercion in Venezuela leads to unpredictable outcomes and episodes of mass flight."

"Escalation without a stable political alternative inside Venezuela risks accelerating the very migration pressures Washington is trying to contain," said George A. Lopez, a senior analyst at the Quincy Institute.





Original article source: US escalation with Maduro halts deportation flights to Venezuela
South Africa's energy market is heavily coal-dependent, with coal making up 85% of power generation. However, frequent load shedding disrupts business operations and stifles economic growth, prompting many businesses, especially in the commercial and industrial sectors, to adopt solar power with integrated ESS solutions.

During the summit, Sungrow introduced a range of new C&I ESS solutions to South Africa, addressing the growing demand for reliable, cost-effective power for businesses. These solutions not only support South Africa's energy transition but also contribute to reducing carbon emissions, promoting a greener and more sustainable future.

AC Couple Solution: Retrofitting Ready

The AC coupling solution is friendlier for customers who already have a PV inverter installed. The solution delivers a 257kWh capacity (2-hour system) or 514kWh capacity (4-hour system) in cabinet design. With Sungrow's renowned AC Block product design, the system ensures a round-trip efficiency (RTE) of around 90%. It also supports a 100% single-phase unbalanced load, eliminating the need for an isolation transformer, which can lower the overall cost. Additionally, the advanced liquid cooling technology can extend the system's lifespan over 12 years.

DC Couple Solution: Flexible Expansion for A New Era

The DC coupling solution supports multiple layout configurations, offering adaptable deployment for diverse site requirements. It can also fit more PV panels, ensuring higher efficiency. Moreover, it is also equipped with a patented pressure relief structure, which prevents the lid from popping off. The pack-level replacement can simplify maintenance and serviceability, resulting in a faster turnaround and lower LCOE, bringing more benefits to customers. Besides, we will have a new modular battery called PowerKeeper ST050CF series incoming, offering flexible capacity and long-duration storage.

Medium Voltage Solution: AC Block Empowering Higher Integration

For a client with a higher power demand, increased load consumption, or higher grid voltage. The PowerTitan 2.0 will be the right choice. The solution highlights can be summarized into three key areas: profitability, safety, and ECO-friendliness. The unique design of PowerTitan 2.0 improves the system's consistency and increases system discharge capacity by 8%. Also, the AI-controlled thermal balance can reduce auxiliary power consumption by 45%. With the AC Block design, 80% of onsite commission work is completed inside the factory, offering quick connections and early profit for customers. Moreover, the system's safety design covers 4 essential parts: prevention, detection, suppression, and protection. Ensuring the highest level of operating safety.

During the panel session, experts from Sungrow and industry leaders engaged in a comprehensive discussion on the evolving value perception, key challenges, and the role of policy in transforming into actionable incentives for the C&I ESS market in South Africa.

"We have already deployed over 1000 C&I projects around the world," stated Nigel Sun, Head of Sungrow Sub-Saharan Africa. "Our C&I solutions are widely adopted across regions like Europe, APAC, and South Africa. With comprehensive service support, we believe we can help in accelerating the integration of renewable energy across the MEA region and build a 'win-win' ecosystem for sustainable growth together."

About Sungrow

Sungrow, a global leader in renewable energy technology, has pioneered sustainable power solutions for over 28 years. As of June 2025, Sungrow has installed 870 GW of power electronic converters worldwide. The Company is recognized as the world's most bankable PV inverter and energy storage company (BloombergNEF). Its innovations power clean energy projects across the globe, supported by a network of 520 service outlets guaranteeing an excellent customer experience. At Sungrow, we're committed to bridging to a sustainable future through cutting-edge technology and unparalleled service. For more information, please visit: www.sungrowpower.com.

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Alessandra Amodio/Travel + Leisure Scenic view of the vineyards at Peachfork Orchards & Vineyards in Palisade.

Key Points

With two American Viticultural Areas, Colorado is an exciting up-and-comer in the U.S. wine world.

Most of the state's wine comes from the Grand Valley AVA, home to wineries like Carboy and Sauvage Spectrum.

Located in the West Elks AVA, The Storm Cellar winery is a great place to go tasting with its mountain views and pairing dinners.



While American wine doesnt have the same venerable history as, say, Bordeaux or the Rheingau, our viticultural areas are nothing to sniff at. Of course, there's Napa Valley, where production stretches back to the mid-19th century, as well as other California wine regions like Sonoma and the Central Coast. And in recent years, burgeoning wine hot spots have popped up across the country in places like Oregon, Virginia, Texas, and the New York Finger Lakes. But wine connoisseurs often overlook one Western state that's better known for its ski slopes than its vintages: Colorado.

Wine grapes have been grown in the Centennial State since 1890, but production wasn't in full swing until the late 1970s. Now, there are over 150 wineries spread throughout Colorado, and the state plays host to events such as the Colorado Governor's Cup and festivals like the Colorado Mountain Winefest. About 80 percent of all of Colorado's grapes are sourced from the Grand Valley American Viticultural Area, located between Grand Junction and Palisade, in the state's Western Slope. Clearly, something amazing is happening out there.

Our goal was to put Colorado on the map and prove that we could make amazing wine from this region," said Kevin Webber, CEO of Carboy Winery. "There is an adventurous nature to Colorado wines that are fun and lively, and they are never the same year to year.

Alessandra Amodio/Travel + Leisure The handmade barrel room at Alfred Eames Cellars in Paonia, part of the West Elks AVA.

At first glance, Colorado seems like an unusual place to grow wine. Here, vignerons must contend with harsher climates, higher altitudes, and constantly fluctuating temperaturesbut that's only pushed growers to be more creative. Many have cultivated cold-hardy varietals that also grow well in hot, warm desert climes. The growing seasons are shorter here, but the combination of hot, sunny days, whipping mountain winds, 6,800 feet of elevation, and rocky alkaline soil makes for a truly interesting and unique terroir.

"We are all pushing the envelope and exploring what Colorado wine is and what it could be. The challenges and grit it takes to make it through a single season here make this region very endearing," said Patric Matysiewski, the winemaker and cofounder of Sauvage Spectrum Estate Winery & Vineyard.

Riesling, cabernet franc, malbec, teroldego, and viognier are beacons of the state's wine scene. Interest in agrotourism has also skyrocketed, and the picturesque peaks of the Western Slopenamed one of Travel + Leisure's 50 best places to travel in 2025have become a popular tourist destination. Wineries are even popping up in destinations like the Front Range and other parts of the state where grapes cannot be grown.

Wines should and do taste different everywhere and reflect what is unique about the growing region," said Webber. "We call this the Wild West of American wine, and Colorado wines are an adventure."

Here are some of our favorite wineries across the Centennial State.

Balistreri Vineyards

Alessandra Amodio/Travel + Leisure Bottles of Syrah from Balistreri Vineyards.

This cozy, family-run winery has been making natural wines just north of Denver since 1998. Some of my favorites include the 2022 Syrah Horse Mountain Vineyard and the cherry wine, a truly delicious bottle to sip on with dessert.

Carboy Winery

Alessandra Amodio/Travel + Leisure Interior of the tasting room at Carboy Winery Littleton.

Carboy Winery is constantly pushing the limits of Colorado grapes and reinventing itself, and it shows in its imaginative wines. The company has tasting rooms spread throughout the state, including in Denver, Palisade, Breckenridge, and Littleton, their flagship. Don't miss out on the bubbly Grand Premier Sparkling.

Restoration Vineyards

Alessandra Amodio/Travel + Leisure Vintage cars outside of the vineyard and tasting room at Restoration Vineyards.

Restoration Vineyards, located in Palisade, was built on a "dead vineyard," hence the name. Owners Gary and Linda Brauns experimented with irrigating the fields in 2012 (which had struggled to thrive previously), and brought the area back to life. During my visit, I sampled Restoration's 2020 Pinotage, which reminded me of wines I've enjoyed in South Africa. When sampled, the Pinotage was only available for wine club members but is now available by the bottle. The 2023 Sauvignon Blanc, 2022 White Field Blend, and 2022 Tempranillo were also notable.

Sauvage Spectrum

Alessandra Amodio/Travel + Leisure The vineyard and bottles of wine from Sauvage Spectrum.

Another Palisade local and fairly young winery, Sauvage Spectrum opened its doors in 2019 with its first release, the Sparklet. The Domaine (a red blend) won Gold in the Sunset International Wine Competition, but its 2022 Teroldego, 2022 Albarino, and Pet-Nat Magenta were also all beyond special, in my opinion.

Buckel Family Wine

Alessandra Amodio/Travel + Leisure Bottles of wine from Buckel Family Wine.

Buckel Family Wine is the only vineyard in Gunnison, making minimal intervention wines at 6,800 feet above sea level.

"We've always believed that the fruit in Colorado is of high quality, and now growers are understanding what the winemakers require to make premium wine," said owner and founder Joe Buckel. "The collaboration of producers and growers is resulting in some beautiful wines."



While Buckel loves the Rose Pet-Nat 2022, I could not get enough of the 2023 Sauvignon Blanc, 2022 Hawks Nest Pinot Noir, and 2022 Cabernet Franc.

The Storm Cellar

Alessandra Amodio/Travel + Leisure Scenic view of mountains from the patio at The Storm Cellar in Hotchkiss

Reds tend to be the most popular grapes grown in the West Elks AVA, but The Storm Cellar is creating some truly delicious whites and roses. Sitting some 6,000 feet above sea level, this winery offers breathtaking mountain views and sits on the very edge of where grape growing is possible in the Northern Hemisphere. Storm Cellar holds fun tasting dinners throughout the year, where guests can learn how to pair roses with steak. I'm still thinking about its 2021 Itascait's the perfect warm-weather wine.

Read the original article on Travel & Leisure
Candace Owens insisted the French Legionairres may have been involed in Charlie Kirk's assassination. Candace Owens/YouTube; MEGA

Candace Owens returned to her show on Monday and made some wild new allegations involving Charlie Kirk's assassination, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

During the broadcast, the controversial podcaster doubled down on her allegations the French legionnaires were involved in the horrific act and even begged the FBI to reach out to her.

The FBI 'Didn't Seem to Care' About the Intel on Kirk's Assassination

Owens claimed the French government has 'an appetite for cruelty.'Candace Owens/YouTube

Owens revealed she couldn't understand why people wouldn't want to "shut down" the "idea that it was a multinationally planned event."

"By the way, is that on its face even plausible Anyone who knows anything about the French government probably knows that they have an appetite for cruelty and sexual deviancy," the 36-year-old babbled.

She noted she thought the allegation of the French Foreign Legion being involved in Kirk's assassination would be interesting to the FBI, but insisted they didn't seem to care.

"No calls from Utahs FBI branch have come into me either it was totally not a state operation, and they totally want to get to the truth, which explains why nobody called? Im actually surprised Tyler Robinsons lawyer hasnt reached out to me. Whats going on here?" she questioned, noting Kirk's alleged killer.

Owens Claims French Legionnaires 'Might Have Been on the Ground' During Kirk's Assassination

Owens stated UVU students who attended the event the day Kirk was assassinated said 'they felt like they didnt recognize anyone who was there.'MEGA

The right-wing pundit went on to claim the "French legionnaires might have been on the ground during Charlie Kirks assassination."

"Do you mind answering yes or no if anyone who trained with the French Foreign Legion was on the ground on September 10 at Utah Valley University?" she inquired.

Owens also noted UVU students who attended "said they felt like they didnt recognize anyone who was there," which she found suspect.

Owens Cancels Her Show After Alleged Assassination Plot

Owens is currently embroiled in a legal battle with Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron. MEGA

As Radarpreviously revealed, Owens abruptly canceled her show last week after claiming Emmanuel Macron wanted to have her assassinated.

Owens informed her followers her show would be "off the air this week" before spiraling into an explanation of why.

"As an update, both the White House and our counterterrorism agencies have confirmed receipt of what I reported publicly: Emmanuel Macron attempted to organize my assassination, per a source close to the first couple," she bombastically alleged.

The conspiracy theorist is currently entangled in a legal battle with Emmanuel and Brigitte after Owens insisted Brigitte was born a man.

On her broadcast on Monday, Owens did not back down from her allegations, rather reaffirming she still thinks this is true.

"It is a very tangled web that we weave. Im referring to me and Jean Michel Trogneux," she said, referring to the alleged name Brigitte was born with.

"Imagine being so protected that you force multiple nations to collude to hide the fact that you were born with a penis," she boldly added.

Owens Alleges the White House 'Confirmed' Her Assassination Intel

Owens said the White House 'will have to investigate' an alleged plot to have her assassinated. Candace Owens/YouTube

Owens also made allegations regarding Kir's death at the time, penning, "I will again state that the French legionnaires were involved in Charlie Kirk's assassination, but they did not act alone."

She ended with a message to those who "doubted her claims," instructing them to look to "the President of the United States and our intelligence communities to issue a statement to confirm whether I am telling the truth."

When she received pushback on her claims about the White House confirming the assassination intel, she responded, "I said what I meant, they confirmed receipt of my claims. Obviously, they will have to investigate it and then inform the public as to whether or not I made it up. Which I did not."
Stylish Young Woman Using Smartphone with Contactless NFC Payment Technology

As contactless payments become an integral part of everyday life, a troubling scam dubbed ghost tapping is becoming known for exploiting the very convenience it promises.

Ghost tapping is a fraud method that targets the tap-to-pay feature found on cards and mobile wallets. It involves using near-field communication (NFC) technology, which enables a card or phone to exchange data with a payment terminal at very close range.

Better Business Bureau (BBB), a non-profit organization that helps consumers find out if a business is trustworthy, recently warned about this kind of fraud saying it had received several reports of it [1].

Must Read

One person reported their experience to BBB Scam Tracker: An individual is going door to door in [location redacted] claiming to be selling chocolate on behalf of [redacted] to support special needs students. He says that he can only accept tap-to-pay to get people to pay with a card. He then charges large amounts to the card without the cardholder being able to see the amount. He got my mother for $537... Another victim for $1100 ... He changes neighborhoods frequently to avoid getting caught.

How does ghost tapping happen?

Unlike older scams that required a physical swipe or a tampered reader, ghost tapping can proceed without a card ever leaving its owners wallet or phone.

Scammers have several approaches:

They may bump or brush past someone in a crowded location with a hidden reader, triggering a payment from the victims tap-enabled device.

They might pose as vendors, charity collectors, or door-to-door sellers and insist on tap payments  then charge far more than the buyer expects.

In more sophisticated schemes, scammers trick victims into entering card details into phishing apps or links, add them to mobile wallets they control, and then make unauthorized tap-to-pay purchases  even without the physical card present.

In Missouri, local station KY3 News reported on a case of a scammer walking around with a tap machine and approaching people to read their cards through their purse or wallet. One person claimed to lose $100 [2].

Read more: 22 US states are already in a recession  protect your savings with these 10 essential money moves ASAP

The rising risk due to contactless payments

In 2023, the U.S. had approximately 17.9 billion contactless transactions and about 300 million contactless-enabled cards in circulation, according to Clearly Payments [3]. Fraudsters manipulate the contactless payment features that consumers favor to get information.

Once a scammer has your credit card details and successfully adds them to their devices wallet, they can make tap-based purchases in physical stores  no physical card, PIN, or ID required, said Ian Bednowitz, the General Manager of LifeLock.

Because there is no requirement for a physical card or PIN in many cases, ghost tapping can be swift, discreet and hard to detect. Fraudsters frequently charge small amounts initially to avoid triggering bank alerts, then escalate later. The scam is especially dangerous at crowded events, such as festivals, transit stations, and busy markets, where a bump or distraction can facilitate the attack.

Its a digital scam with real-world consequences. Victims may never lose their card or even know its been compromised until charges appear on their statement. And because the fraud uses legitimate mobile wallet infrastructure, it can be harder for banks and consumers to distinguish between authorized and fraudulent activity, warned Bednowitz.

The U.S. currently has limited constraints on contactless payment amounts compared with some other countries, making tap-to-pay broadly accessible and thus more vulnerable.

What should consumers do now?

Consumers should remain vigilant for subtle red flags that may indicate ghost tapping.

A good tip is to stay vigilant against any vendor who insists you just tap without displaying the complete total or offering receipts. Another warning sign is spotting small or odd test charges on your account after being in crowded venues.

Here are more tips:

Use an RFID-blocking wallet or card sleeve: RFID-blocking wallets can help prevent scammers from wirelessly accessing payment data through Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.

Always verify merchant details before tapping: Check the merchant name and amount on the payment terminal before tapping, especially in flea markets or festivals where fake vendor stands may be set up.

Enable real-time transaction alerts: Banks recommend setting up instant push notifications for all card activity.

Regularly review your statements: Check your transaction history regularly for small, unfamiliar charges that may indicate testing of stolen card credentials.

Report and act fast if youre a victim: The Federal Trade Commission advises contacting your bank immediately to freeze the compromised card and filing a report at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

As tap-to-pay becomes more common, its best to stay alert and verify every transaction. Dont let the speed of contactless payments become your downfall.

What To Read Next

Join 200,000+ readers and get Moneywises best stories and exclusive interviews first  clear insights curated and delivered weekly. Subscribe now.

Article sources

We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.

Better Business Bureau (1); KY3 News (2); Clearly Payments (3)

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
Farmers like Mary Penge, 41, say their crop soil has been contaminated by the toxic spill [Ali Ngwane / BBC]

Even before the dam collapsed, Lamec did not feel safe working at the copper mine.

"If our work protective gear gets damaged, it is not always replaced," he tells us. "We have to take a risk and use it again."

He is talking to the BBC in a car on a quiet backroad near a village in northern Zambia, too nervous to speak to us in public or to use his real name, for fear that speaking to the press might cost him his livelihood.

When he turned up for his shift one day in February, he tells us, he found that one of the dams at the Chinese-owned mine had been closed.

The tailings dam - used to store toxic by-products from the copper mining process, including heavy metals like arsenic, mercury and lead - had collapsed into a tributary connected to the Kafue, Zambia's longest river and a major drinking water source.

At least 50,000 tonnes of acidic debris spilled out into the surrounding waterways and farmland, according to the government. Some environmentalists, however, claim as much as 1.5 million tonnes was spilled, with one expert saying a full clean-up could take longer than a decade.

The spill has killed the fish around the towns of Chambishi and Kitwe, made the water undrinkable and destroyed crops, farmers have told the BBC.

There are fears that, now the rainy season has started, heavy metals still sitting in the mud will further infiltrate the land and waterways, causing a second wave of pollution. Toxic metals that can cause kidney damage and cancers, as well as gastric and intestinal issues, could be carried downstream to the capital, Lusaka, says Dr Mweene Himwiinga, a senior lecturer at Zambia's Copperbelt University.

The Chinese embassy in Lusaka disputes the scale of the damage and told the BBC it welcomed the establishment of an independent investigation into the incident. The Zambian government, it said, had reported that the pollution was contained to a confined area, water acidity levels had returned to normal limits and that ongoing checks showed no lasting public-health risks.

Aerial view of the dam breach at the Sino Metals site [Associated Press]

Lamec, like his country Zambia, finds himself in a difficult position. The mine is owned by Sino-Metals Leach Zambia, a subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned firm, which has created - according to Chinese sources - more than 2,000 jobs.

Chinese companies like these provide jobs and much needed revenue in Africa. Although the US has recently become the biggest foreign investor across the continent, China is still one of the largest investors in Africa's rich minerals and metals industry - not least in Zambia's Copperbelt Province, the scene of the dam collapse.

More than 30,000 jobs have been created by Chinese companies across Zambia, according to the Chinese embassy. Investment from China was estimated to be worth $1.7bn (1.3bn) last year. And - in a sign of the close links between the two countries - Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited Zambia late last month, ahead of the G20 Leaders' Summit in South Africa.

But China has also been accused of neocolonialism, with critics arguing that its infrastructure loans trap African countries in unmanageable debt, that it doesn't upskill local workers, preferring to bring its own in instead, and that its focus on mineral extraction sometimes comes at the expense of safeguarding the environment.

In September, 176 farmers filed an $80bn (58bn) lawsuit against Sino Metals and NFC Africa, the Chinese firm that owns the land the mine is on. It is one of the biggest environmental lawsuits in Zambia's history, with the farmers alleging the spillage has already affected 300,000 households.

They say the dam's collapse was caused by a number of factors, including engineering failures, construction flaws and operational mismanagement.

[BBC]

The lawsuit is being seen by some as a test case of how much African countries can hold China accountable for wrongdoing in their territories.

"All eyes are on this case," says Prof Stephen Chan from the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies.

"Because of the huge extent of the damage that has been caused, the huge extent of the carelessness that was very obviously involved."

People found it hard to believe at first "because something of this scale had not happened before," he adds.

The Chinese embassy in Zambia says Sino Metals has cooperated fully with the investigation into the incident, that compensation has been paid to 454 households and that all staff at the site have continued to be employed and receive their salaries, despite a six-month pause in mining.

Some analysts, however, argue the incident shows that Zambia needs to prioritise safety, sustainability and the national interest when dealing with Chinese companies. The power dynamic could be further complicated by the estimated $5bn debt (3.7bn) Zambia owes to China.

But this debt does not hamper the Zambian government's ability to deal with the crisis, insists the Permanent Secretary for Green Economy and Environment, Dr Douty Chibamba.

"There is no treating them [China] with kid gloves here," he told the BBC in a rare, sit-down interview. "We don't care whether we owe them, that's not the issue."

Zambia is not alone in owing money to the Chinese. Between 2000 and 2023, 49 African countries are believed to have signed $182.3bn (139.4bn) worth of loans with Chinese lenders.

Farmer Abigail Namtowe says growing food is now a struggle [Ali Ngwane / BBC]

In Copperbelt Province, Lamec tells us he was really broken by the spill affecting his family. "We were told that the waterways now had acid in them, and that we were not supposed to use the water."

For two weeks after the spill, Lamec says he and his family weren't allowed to use the local water until it had been sprayed with lime to help reduce the acidity.

He took the job at the dam because, he says, he has no other way to make a living, but now feels conflicted about working there.

Copper mining has been the economic backbone of this region for more than a century. The metal makes up 70% of Zambia's exports and accounts for 15% of its GDP.

The industry is set to grow further, with plans to more than triple production in Zambia by 2031, according to plans laid out by the government last year.

In the village of Twalima, it has been a struggle to grow anything since the spill, say farmers Abigail Namtowe, 28, and Frederick Bwalya, 72.

Farming was the main source of food and income for Ms Namtowe's family, and her six year-old daughter is now very hungry and malnourished, she told us.

"I've tried to grow my maize, I've tried everything so the hunger won't kill my child, but it's too much."

Mr Bwalya has lived in Twalima for 33 years. Strong and energetic, we meet him working on his farm which he tends to daily. "Farming is not going well because the soil is not clean," he says.

He also describes a severe pain in his leg which won't go away and makes it difficult for him to move. "The doctor says the contaminated water could be causing this," he adds.

Frederick Bwalya has been told contaminated water could be causing pain in his leg [Ali Ngwane / BBC]

Sino Metals has promised to build a borehole away from the contaminated stream at the bottom of his farm, he says, but that hasn't happened yet. He believes that water deeper underground would be safer.

The stream used to be teeming with fish, say Mr Bwalya and his neighbours, adding that since the spill, there haven't been any.

The BBC asked Sino Metals about the alleged promise to build boreholes on the land of affected farmers. We also put Lamec's allegations that he does not feel safe working at the company, but the firm did not respond.

Fifty kilometres (31 miles) away from Frederick Bwalya's village, in Kamwatimpa, we saw schoolchildren swimming in a tributary of the Kafue river.

Some mothers - still worried about the pollution - said they had told their children not to go into the water.

But the government says it sampled 21 sites across Copperbelt Province in September, and that the concentrations of heavy metals were within national safe limits.

Now the rainy season has taken hold, the power to stop a second wave of pollution seeping into the soil, and carrying heavy metals down the river to the rest of the country, is in the hands of the government and Sino Metals.

The clean-up has been delayed by issues between the consultants hired to assess the damage and Sino Metals, Dr Chibamba told the BBC, when asked why some of this work hadn't been done earlier.

Meanwhile, Dr Himwiinga warns that failure to deal with the situation "may be catastrophic".

"They [the heavy metals] could be there for years, and their effects could be felt for a very long period of time, by farmers... who rely on that water to irrigate their crops," she says.

"According to research carried out by Copperbelt University, this could go on for even over 10 years, unless remediation efforts are put in place."

The Zambian government says it is aware of this and has instructed Sino Metals to put mitigations in place to stop secondary pollution - including planting trees, to bring down levels of pollution in the air and soil, as well as spreading lime to reduce acidity. These measures are currently being implemented, according to the authorities.

Sino Metals might have to pay more after a full assessment of the area has been made, says the government. At the time of the spill, the company pledged to compensate the affected communities and restore the environment.

Financial payments have already been made to some locals in the Copperbelt. Some told us they had received as much as $3,000 (2,400) in compensation from Sino Metals - but others said they had got as little as $700 (500) from the company.

One contract we saw suggests that some locals have signed away their entitlement to any further compensation when they accepted these initial payments.

But the presence of a second superpower in the country may help the Zambian government to get even more money out of Sino Metals, according to Prof Stephan Chan. The United States has also been courting the southern African country economically and politically. Zambian copper, important in the global transition to cleaner energy, is in high demand - as well as reserves of another metal, cobalt, used in electric car batteries.

"The Chinese don't have that much leverage over Zambia because it has a foreign policy that also speaks to the Americans," says Prof Chan. "The last thing the Chinese want is to drive the Zambians closer to the Americans."

Total trade between Zambia and the US was worth an estimated $296m (226m) in 2024. And there are recent signs that both countries are becoming closer diplomatically, with some regional commentators suggesting the US may be turning to Zambia as a preferred ally in southern Africa because of increased tensions with neighbouring South Africa.

African countries, including Zambia, are choosing to work with different superpowers to meet their needs, Prof Chan says.

"It's not Africa being taken for a ride, it's Africa coming of age, becoming a player in the world, with all of the different actors in the world."

African governments are "not always getting it right", he says, however "this is not something you get right at the very beginning. Africa is becoming fully integrated in a complex world, making mistakes, the same kind of mistakes that other countries everywhere make."

For its part, China denies taking advantage of Zambia, and told the BBC it was "grossly unfair" to characterise Beijing's relationship with African countries as neocolonial.

"Most in Zambia would agree that the Chinese investors and the Chinese community as a whole are bringing to this country the much needed capital, technology, skills training opportunities, job creation and managerial expertise - and they are doing their best to blend in as law-abiding and responsible players," a statement from the Chinese embassy in Lusaka says.

"It would be grossly unfair to label China-Zambia and China-Africa cooperation as neocolonialism based on the opinions of very few, while neglecting the larger picture of win-win cooperation between China and Zambia, and the wider Africa."

Additional reporting by Ed Habershon
Local charities, volunteers and community members cut the ribbon to open the Giving Machines at the Giving Machine ribbon cutting event at Hemming Village in Rexburg Idaho. | Courtesy Brigham Young University-Idaho

REXBURG  The Light the World Giving Machines are officially open in Rexburg after a ribbon-cutting on Monday afternoon in the lobby of Hemming Village. The three Giving Machines provide a way for people to donate to local and global charities.

BYU-Idaho Radio  Rexburg holds ribbon-cutting for Light the World Giving Machine

The ribbon-cutting ceremony began with a Madison High School Drum Line song, followed by a welcome from Brett Crandall, the Rexburg Giving Machine city lead. The Giving Machine committee introduced the local and global charities, which include Eastern Idaho Community Action Partnership, Family Crisis Center, Idaho Falls Area Humanitarian Center, Idaho Falls Rescue Mission and Ronald McDonald House Charities of Idaho. Global charities include Right to Play and Care.

We have a ton of volunteers on hand to help us make this happen every day for the next 14 days, Crandall said.

The Sugar-Salem High School Choir sang Drummer Boy before three quick speeches.

Speakers at the event included Rexburg Mayor Jerry Merrill, Elder Bradley Bateman, an Area Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Elder Alvin F. Meredith III, a General Authority Seventy of the Church and president of BYU-Idaho.

His light was meant to be shared, Elder Meredith said after quoting the teachings of Jesus Christ about light from the New Testament and the Book of Mormon. And we share His light by loving one another, by treating all as our neighbor and by giving acts of service and acts of kindness when given the opportunity.

Elder Meredith also said people should love each other and help each other. One of those ways to help each other is through the Giving Machines, which are sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ. Because of the sponsorship, 100% of donations go directly to the charities patrons select when donating at the machines.

The machines are similar to a vending machine, where patrons push in the code for the item they want to donate. A card will drop to the bottom of the machine, but those cards stay in the machine. There are larger cards available for people to take pictures with inside the lobby.

The Light the World Giving Machines come to Rexburg Idaho at Hemming Village. | Courtesy BYU-Idaho

Items available to donate include toys, hygiene kits, rides for seniors, meals, shoes, diapers, a month of utilities, weighted blankets, homemade quilts, groceries, school tuition and even a goat.

The fact that we could buy a goat for some kid over in a third-world country, which would change their lives is a really cool eventwe didnt do that one today, but we did do several things to help the community here, said Austin Earl, who donated with his wife, Kristy and baby, Benjamin. Were just excited to help out.

Rexburg Mayor Jerry Merrill and his wife, Marianne, were among the first to donate during the ribbon-cutting event. They decided to help local charities. He said people in the community have asked him over the years if Rexburg could get Giving Machines and now it has happened.

Its great to have Thanksgiving and reflect on all the things youre thankful for leading into the Christmas season because, of course, our Savior, Jesus Christ, is the one who represents the best things that can happen in all of the world, and so thats the thing we really try to focus on in my family, Merrill said.

Other city and state leaders were in attendance at the ribbon-cutting, including State Rep. Jon Weber, R-Rexburg, and State Sen. Doug Ricks, R-Rexburg. Ricks said its exciting to have the Giving Machines in Rexburg.

This is just a good opportunity and will just kind of get you into the Christmas spirit of giving, Ricks said.

The Giving Machines are available for donations between 10 a.m.  9 p.m. in the lobby of Hemming Village until Dec. 14. On the final day, the lobby will close at 8 p.m. The machines will then move to the Grand Teton Mall in Idaho Falls from Dec. 15  Jan. 1.

The post Light the World Giving Machines officially open in Rexburg appeared first on East Idaho News.
US President Donald Trump participates in a call with US Army service members from Palm Beach, Florida, on November 27, 2025. - Anna Rose Layden/Reuters

President Donald Trumps Venezuela regime change adventure is in danger of degenerating into a strategic, political and legal morass.

Trump gathered top national security officials and aides at an Oval Office meeting Monday evening seeking to define next steps in a showdown now slipping out of his control, both inside the impoverished oil-rich nation and in Washington.

Before the talks, President Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan dictator, defiantly danced before a huge crowd of supporters in Caracas in a Trump-style open air rally, shattering previous rumors hed bowed to US calls to leave the country. We do not want peace of slaves, nor do we want peace of colonies, Maduro said.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro dances for his supporters during a rally in Caracas on December 1, 2025. - Pedro Mattey/Anadolu/Getty Images

The thin domestic political underpinnings of Trumps campaign are growing more fragile as the White House fails to quell a growing controversy over a follow-up US strike that reportedly killed surviving crew members of an alleged drugs trafficking boat in the Caribbean. Trumps Democratic critics on Capitol Hill are warning of a potential war crime. And several powerful Republicans are shaken and are signaling a rare willingness to rigorously investigate the administration.

The US standoff with Venezuela is now beginning to consume Washington after more than four months of escalating political, economic and military pressure epitomized by the hulking presence of the worlds largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald. R. Ford and an armada of US ships in the waters off Venezuela.

There is increasing scrutiny of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseths role in the boat strikes. The former Fox News anchor was a controversial pick to run the Pentagon, and his lack of experience, abrasive manner and rejection of some the militarys ethical and legal safeguards is threatening to make him a political burden for the president as Democrats demand his resignation.

The USS Gerald Ford Carrier Strike Group operates as a joint, multi-domain force with a US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress, November 13, 2025. - US Navy/Getty Images

But more broadly, Maduros defiance is presenting Trump, Hegseth, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other top officials expected at the Oval Office meeting with a deepening strategic dilemma.

Trump is talking a big game.

On Thursday he threatened attacks on drug cartel targets on land in Venezuela would begin very soon. He declared on Saturday the countrys airspace should be considered closed  though Venezuela says it is still receiving communications from Washington about deportation flights. Maduro has gone nowhere.

The US president  who has been sensitive in the past to any suggestion he chickens out after making threats  must now consider whether his saber rattling is beginning to lack credibility without a demonstration of military force that would draw him into an overseas conflict.

Maduro defying US options to leave

Washington hopes that its military build-up so rattles Maduro that he accepts exile overseas or that inner circle generals topple him. Trump confirmed Sunday he spoke to Maduro by phone recently  but the Venezuelan strongman stayed put. Venezuelan opposition politician David Smolansky told Jim Sciutto on The Brief on CNN International Monday that Maduro had previously been given options by the United States to leave the country.

But the failure of the regime to crack so far will test Trumps willingness to live up to his threat to do things the hard way as Maduro characteristically drags out negotiations and crises to weaken the will of his adversaries.

Maduros obduracy also raises the question of whether any level of US pressure short of military action would begin to fray his regime. One possibility is that the administration underestimated the staying power of the Maduro power base  a regular failing for US governments over the years that hoped to see the collapse of totalitarian rivals in enemy nations. Maduro will be hoping that Trump loses patience, starts looking for culprits in his inner circle and seeks his own way out.

If the president does pick military action, the idea of a full-scale invasion of Venezuela still seems unthinkable. So, does he have options that would so rattle Maduros security that it could change the political equation in Caracas? Or would attacks on alleged drugs trafficking sites or military bases embolden Maduro, unify public opinion around him, and make him believe he can tough it out?

Soldiers talk as a military plane is seen in the background during the Expo Aeronautica Venezuela 2025, after US President Donald Trump said on Saturday the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela should be considered "closed in its entirety," without giving further details, as his administration ramps up pressure on President Nicolas Maduro's government, in Maracay, Venezuela, on November 29, 2025. - Juan Carlos Hernandez/Reuters

The choices facing Trump are especially stark because a largely peaceful ouster of Maduro that delivered freedom to millions of Venezuelans after two decades of dictatorial rule and a restored democracy would be a foreign policy triumph. It would also send a message of US power and intent to other US foes in the region, including Cuba, and show China and Russia, which try to create regional influence and disruption, that Trump rules his geopolitical backyard. A successful Venezuela strategy could confound establishment foreign policy critics just as Trump did by bombing Irans nuclear plants earlier this year, a gamble that was more successful and triggered fewer dangerous consequences than many experts had feared.

But if Maduro survives the US troop buildup and intense pressure, hed deliver a devastating statement of his own to Trump. The presidents authority would ebb. Autocrats in Beijing and Moscow, who he loves to impress, would take note. Presidents who recall aircraft carrier battlegroups from Europe and station them off Latin America amid belligerent rhetoric tend to create such credibility tests for themselves.

This was really an effort, I think, to signal and to try to scare the Maduro government and Maduro himself into leaving or overthrowing him if he refused to go. That hasnt happened, Christopher Sabatini, Senior Fellow for Latin America at Chatham House in London, told CNNs Isa Soares.

Its a do-or-die moment for Donald Trump  does he try to deescalate? Sabatini went on, Hes got himself in a box, does he continue to double down? Or does he try to find some sort of negotiated exit, not only for Maduro but also for himself  declaring victory and moving on.

We dont yet know what Trump is willing to risk to reach his goals in Venezuela, in the hope of installing a US-friendly government that could accept the mass return of migrants from his crackdown and that might be willing to play in the lucrative oil and minerals deals that underpin his foreign policy.

A child and his mother attend a military ceremony commemorating the 200th anniversary of the presentation of the 'Sword of Peru' to Venezuelan independence hero Simon Bolivar, in Caracas, Venezuela, on November 25, 2025. - Jesus Vargas/Getty Images

Vast US firepower in the Caribbean could inflict catastrophic damage to Venezuelan infrastructure or what the administration describes as drugs operations  even if most fentanyl that the US has used as justification for its tactics enters the US through Mexico. Cruise missiles or carrier-launched airstrikes or land-based aircraft in the region could shatter Maduros forces.

But any US losses or inadvertent civilian casualties could backfire on Trump and cause a political disaster at a time when polls show overwhelming numbers of Americans oppose military action in Venezuela.

And history shows that even in extreme circumstances, dictatorial regimes constructed over decades are often more durable than outsiders believe. The Venezuelan government is often compared to a many layered criminal operation  with key members having huge financial stakes in perpetuating their own power. And while many outsiders hope that Trumps pressure will lead to the rise of the countrys rightful democratic rulers, some analysts fear a government fracturing could cause chaos and bloodshed and prolonged political uncertainty.

Thus, none of the options that the Trump inner circle was contemplating on Monday come with zero costs.

White House flails over follow-up boat strike

As it grappled for a clearer military strategy, the administration struggled to repel growing criticism over the September 2 boat strike in the Caribbean that has raised alarms over possible infringements of US and international law.

The White Houses emerging narrative on the incident is only adding to the political heat.

The possibility of a double-tap attack on the boat is so problematic because it raises the possibility that action was taken to kill survivors of the initial assault when they were injured or could pose no danger to the US. This could infringe the laws of war or the Geneva Conventions. Hegseth initially blasted such reports as fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory and designed to discredit US warriors. On Sunday, Trump reacted to a Washington Post report that Hegseth gave an order to kill everybody, saying his Defense Secretary said he did not say that. But he also said that he personally would not have wanted a second strike.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt then confirmed on Monday that there was a second strike. She said that Adm. Frank M. Mitch Bradley, commander of the US Special Operations Command, was responsible for ordering it, and was well within his authority. But Leavitt declined to describe the threat posed to US service personnel before the second strike.

Later in the day, Hegseth  who has faced questions about his competence and suitability for such a critical job as defense secretary ever since Trump chose him, also emphasized that Bradley ordered the strike in question. Lets make one thing crystal clear: Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support. I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made  on the September 2 mission and all others since, Hegseth said. If his comment, couched in a pledge to have the back of Americas warriors, is interpreted by service members as implying the opposite, it could have a corrosive impact on the chain of command and the confidence of senior officers in interpreting orders.

A US Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier II approaches to land at Jose Aponte de la Torre Airport, formerly Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, on December 1, 2025, in Ceiba, Puerto Rico. - Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images

Politically, the administrations strategy seems to be to constantly repeat that Trump and Hegseth had themselves declared that they had legal authority for attacks on boats carrying narco-terrorists. But this approach ignores profound legal critiques of their action and authority. And the White House has refused publicly to lay out the legal justification and evidence for such attacks that is contained in a classified Office of Legal Counsel finding. Democratic senators whove seen the document have described it as sloppy and problematic.

In a sign of administration anxiety over the mounting furor, Leavitt said Hegseth spoke to lawmakers who expressed concern about the attack over the weekend. But Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna told CNNs Kasie Hunt several of his GOP colleagues were mortified over reports about the double-tap strike. He called on Hegseth and Bradley to appear before the Armed Services Committee to explain orders they gave. It could be that they both violated the law, Khanna said. The American people deserve answers.

On Sunday, Rep. Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, told CBS that if the double tap strike occurred as it has been described it would be an illegal act. He told CNNs Erin Burnett on Monday that the report diverges significantly from  the legal opinion we were provided and it of course plays into the very concerns that members have  the fact that these strikes are occurring at all.

Hegseth and Bradley aside, overall responsibility for this mission lies with the commander in chief. Trump is being pulled deeper into a Venezuela morass that he created, and he seems to have few good options  in Washington or Caracas  to get out of it.

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President Trump speaks to the press on Sunday aboard Air Force One. (Pete Marovich / Getty Images)

The Trump administration is facing sharp scrutiny this week over its approach to Venezuela after turning its focus to the beleaguered nation, weighing U.S. military strikes against a Latin American state for the first time in more than 35 years.

President Trump scheduled a meeting with top generals and Cabinet officials on the matter at the White House on Monday evening, debating target options now available with the deployment of more than a dozen warships to the Caribbean Sea.

Trump has sent conflicting signals to the country's dictatorial president, Nicolas Maduro, whose grip on power since 2013 has decimated Venezuela's economy and prompted a massive migration crisis. Trump warned air traffic away from Venezuelan skies before speaking by phone with Maduro over the weekend, only to caution reporters trying to interpret his actions against predicting his next moves.

Whether Trump will choose to go to war with Venezuela has become a source of alarm on Capitol Hill as new revelations emerge about his teams tactics for escalating the conflict.

The White House has accused Maduro of driving migrants and drugs across America's borders, and has begun pressuring his government with military strikes targeting maritime vessels  in international waters, but departing from Venezuela  that the Defense Department claims have been used to smuggle illegal narcotics.

Read more:Trump says he'll pardon former Honduran President Hernandez, convicted of drug trafficking

The first of those attacks targeting alleged drug traffickers, conducted on Sept. 2, included a second strike ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to "kill them all," according to a report by the Washington Post.

The Post report has prompted the Republican-led House and Senate committees overseeing the Pentagon to vow rigorous oversight of the boat strikes. Trump told reporters Sunday that he "wouldnt have wanted" the military to launch a second strike to kill those who survived the initial attack.

The first strike was very lethal, it was fine, and if there were two people around, Trump said before quickly adding, but Pete said that didnt happen. I have great confidence in Pete.

Yet White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Monday that multiple strikes were authorized by Hegseth against the target that day.

Hegseth authorized Adm. Frank M. Bradley, the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, to conduct strikes well within his authority and the law to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States was eliminated," Leavitt said at a press briefing.

Trump also confirmed that he spoke by phone with Maduro, but declined to elaborate on what was discussed.

I wouldnt say it went well or badly, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. It was a call.

The disclosure of the conversation came as the administration intensified its pressure campaign on Caracas over the holiday weekend, starting with the president issuing a series of warnings.

Trump warned airlines and pilots on Saturday that the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela should be considered CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.

Trump told reporters he made the declaration because we consider Venezuela not to be a very friendly country. But when asked whether his warning signaled an imminent U.S. airstrike in Venezuela, Trump demurred, telling a reporter: Dont read anything into it.

There is no guarantee that talks with Maduro will lead to his exit, or that the Trump administration would be satisfied with any other outcome, said Geoff Ramsey, a Venezuela expert at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based research group.

Maduro could pitch Trump on access for U.S. oil companies  possibly at the expense of Russian and Chinese competitors  without any move toward democratization in Venezuela, an outcome that would disappoint many seeking leadership change in Caracas.

A clear sticking point here is what kind of negotiations that Caracas and Washington want. The Trump administration so far has expressed interest in negotiating which flight Maduro takes out of the country, Ramsey said. For Maduro, thats clearly a nonstarter. So until we see a clear sense of flexibility from Washington and Caracas, I think this stalemate is going to continue.

Maduro has consistently refused to leave office, despite punishing U.S. sanctions, massive protests, and various offensives during the first Trump administration that Caracas deemed as coup attempts. The reality is that many previous attempts to condition talks on Maduros immediate departure have led nowhere," Ramsey added.

There are no signs of weakening support for Maduro within the military, nor have there been the kinds of large-scale defections that were seen within his security forces in 2019, when Trump, in his first term, initially sought to oust Maduro. At that time, he refrained from a direct military attack.

A few hours after the presidents remarks, Hegseth posted an altered image of the childrens book character Franklin the Turtle reimagined as a militarized figure using a machine gun firing at suspected drug boats. The mock book cover was titled: A Classic Franklin Story: Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists.

Hegseth posted the image on social media with the caption: For your Christmas wish list  

A spokesperson with Kids Can Press, the publisher of Franklin the Turtle books, condemned Hegseth's use of its "beloved Canadian icon who has inspired generations of children and stands for kindness, empathy, and inclusivity."

"We strongly condemn any denigrating, violent, or unauthorized use of Franklins name or image, which directly contradicts these values," the spokesperson said in a statement.

Trump sparked more controversy in the region when he announced Friday his plan to pardon Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras who was convicted last year on cocaine trafficking charges and sentenced to 45 years in U.S. prison.

Read more:Lawmakers voice support for congressional reviews of Trump's military strikes on boats

U.S. prosecutors said Hernandez received millions of dollars in bribes to help traffickers smuggle 400 tons of cocaine into the United States. Once, they alleged, the right-wing president bragged about stuffing "drugs up the gringos' noses."

Trump said Hernandez had been a victim of political persecution, although he offered no evidence of that claim.

News of the pardon shocked many in Latin America and raised new doubts about Trump's U.S. military campaign in the region, which White House officials insist is aimed at combating drug cartels that they compare to terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda.

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) accused Trump of hypocrisy for freeing a convicted drug smuggler and suggested that the ongoing U.S. military campaign in the region was politically motivated.

"Dont tell me Donald Trump is killing people in boats in the Caribbean to stop drug trafficking," Castro said on X.

While Trump's endgame in Venezuela is unclear, he has made his desires in Honduras explicit.

Ahead of Sunday's presidential election in the Central American nation, Trump endorsed conservative candidate Nasry "Tito" Asfura of the National Party, which Hernandez also belonged to. An early vote count Monday showed Asfura with a narrow lead over Liberal Party candidate Salvador Nasralla.

Times staff writers Wilner and Ceballos reported from Washington, Linthicum and McDonnell from Mexico City.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Growth Driven by Robust Investments in Leading-Edge Logic, DRAM, and Packaging Technologies to Support AI Wave

MILPITAS, Calif., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- SEMI, the industry association serving the global semiconductor and electronics design and manufacturing supply chain, today announced in its Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Statistics (WWSEMS) Report that global semiconductor equipment billings increased 11% year-over-year to US$33.66 billion in the third quarter of 2025. Third quarter 2025 billings registered a 2% quarter-over-quarter growth.

Semiconductor Equipment Billings By Region Semiconductor Equipment Market Revenue by Region

The growth in billings was driven by robust investments in advanced technologies, particularly in leading-edge logic, DRAM, and packaging solutions for AI computing. Additionally, there was a notable rise in equipment shipments to the China region, contributing to the overall positive trend.

"Global semiconductor equipment billings year-to-date have reached nearly $100 billion  a record through three quarters  reflecting the industry's sustained momentum and commitment to invest in technology innovation," said Ajit Manocha, SEMI President and CEO. "Strong AI demand continues to drive spending in advanced logic and memory segments, as well as in packaging applications geared toward energy efficiency. This positive trajectory underscores the critical role semiconductors play in shaping a smarter and more connected world that powers next-generation digital solutions."

Compiled from data submitted by members of SEMI and the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ), the WWSEMS Report is a summary of the monthly billings figures for the global semiconductor equipment industry.

Following are quarterly billings data in billions of U.S. dollars, with quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year changes by region:

The SEMI Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) provides comprehensive market data for the global semiconductor equipment market. The subscription includes three reports:

Monthly SEMI Billings Report, a perspective on equipment market trends

Monthly WWSEMS, a detailed report of semiconductor equipment billings for seven regions and 24 market segments

SEMI Semiconductor Equipment Forecast, an outlook for the semiconductor equipment market

Download a sample of the EMDS report.

For more information about the report or to subscribe, please contact the SEMI Market Intelligence Team at [email protected]. More details are also available on the SEMI Market Data webpage.

About SEMI

SEMI is the global industry association connecting over 3,000 member companies and 1.5 million professionals worldwide across the semiconductor and electronics design and manufacturing supply chain. We accelerate member collaboration on solutions to top industry challenges through Advocacy, Workforce Development, Sustainability, Supply Chain Management and other programs. Our SEMICON expositions and events, technology communities, standards and market intelligence help advance our members' business growth and innovations in design, devices, equipment, materials, services and software, enabling smarter, faster, more secure electronics. Visit www.semi.org, contact a regional office, and connect with SEMI on LinkedIn and X to learn more.

Association Contacts

Sherrie Gutierrez/SEMI

Phone: 1.831.889.3800

Email: [email protected]

Stephanie Quinn/Kiterocket (Media Inquiries)

Phone: 1.480.316.8370

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE SEMI
The specialists prowess and success with NetSuite has been recognised by the vendor to place it within the circle of its top 10 global partners.

Over the years, NetSuite has done a fantastic job recognising and rewarding its partners globally through awards programs, partner clubs, and tiered recognition based on contribution and customer success, he said.

Those forums gave us visibility on the global stage, a chance to connect with other top-performing partners and share insights. Being included among the top globally is something were very proud of, and it reflects the strength of our team, our long-term customer relationships, and the trust weve built with Oracle NetSuite.

As for why NetSuite specifically, Owens said that the business wanted to provide specialist skills and the software provided the perfect niche.

We want to provide specialist NetSuite skills and be best in class, rather than offer multiple ERPs, and dilute our focus. Weve found being 100 per cent focused on NetSuite has delivered for our customers, he said.

Just some of these customers include Pet Direct, Ultra Violette, REA Group, Boody, and Keiser.

NetSuite is a best in class, ERP system, and were able to compete in the market very successfully, and our track record to deliver shows that, the director continued. Were there to make sure our customers get the most out of NetSuite and can bring together the more complex business operations and system integration projects.

That being said, Annexa and NetSuite didnt mesh perfectly right away, with Owens adding that like any kind of technology partnership, it took some time for the business to find its feet before accelerating matters.

NetSuite was a very different beast back thenvery tech-startup-like energy as it entered the A/NZ market. With any hyper growth business, there a whole heap of structure but great energy and flexibility. NetSuite have always been very supportive and responsive to support us driving business, he said.

That relationship with NetSuite has been key to our long-term success. We have great people, we were agile, and we could move fast.

Around that time, we started bringing on some of our long-term enterprise clients, and that startup-style collaboration really helped make that possible. Today, of course, the partnership has evolved. NetSuites offering is far more sophisticated, with greater depth and reach through Oracles broader ecosystem. That gives us new dimensions to grow and innovate.

Annexas current relationship with NetSuite sees it tackling the mid/upper market, dealing with complex system integration programs around the unified commerce and bule collar industrial services spaces.

It also often sees projects by way of referral, bolstered by the work its done over the years.

Its not just NetSuite that the specialist works with however, as it also has a partnership with integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) vendor Celigo at the elite (platinum) level.

That relationship has been fantastic, Owens said. We collaborate closely on complex integration programs across A/NZ, using Celigos tools to accelerate integrations for new NetSuite implementations and extend those with custom integrations when needed.

That said, were not limited to Celigo. We also work with a range of integration platforms and build custom web services for large enterprises. We support many customers purely through our system integration capability, even those running other ERPs or enterprise systems.

Its a key focus area for us, complementing our ERP and NetSuite implementation, customisation work and strengthening our position as a true end-to-end technology partner.

Recreating success

Annexas presence in New Zealand begun in 2017, with the specialist knowing from the outset that it wanted to replicate its Australian model, which included having employees on the ground working closely with customers.

Interestingly, we had a key Kiwi staff member [senior business development manager Paula Sherson] working with us in Australia who was wanting to head home to New Zealand, which helped kick-start our local presence, Ownes said.

From there, we added more team members and built momentum quickly. Its been a great region for us, with some amazing customers. While the broader economy has had its challenges, weve been fortunate to partner with some fantastic local businesses.

Today, the business has full capabilities across development, delivery, support, and sales, with approximately eight staff that go out on-site with customers.

Theyre fully backed by our wider teams across Australia and Asia, so we really operate as one cohesive group, Owens said.

Having people on the ground in New Zealand is important to us. It means we can get out to customers, understand their businesses firsthand, and deliver what they need with that local insight and connection. Its a great setup and something were really proud of.

We do have a co-working space in Auckland, and the team gets together there periodically, but day to day its largely a remote setup. Collaboration is really important to us, so we make a point of bringing everyone together for workshops, staff meetings, and all-hands sessions whenever we can.
The ARN Innovation Awards 2025 were recently celebrated in Sydney featuring the best of Australias partners, vendors, distributors and individuals from the IT channel.

Held at Hyatt Regency Sydney on 27 November, more than 650 attendees came together at a black-tie event to honour Australias highest achievers in the channel community.

This years Innovation Awards celebrated the efforts of 43 winners and inducted two individuals into the ARN Hall of Fame: Michael and Maryanne Demery.

Winners were chosen from 470 nominations across 179 organisations, with 320 finalists making the shortlist. Welcome reception sponsored by Leader.

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AWS has honoured standout members of the AWS Partner Network (APN) across A/NZ on the global stage for their critical role in driving customer innovation and delivering transformative solutions.

At AWS re:Invent Partner Awards Gala, the 2025 Geo and Global AWS Partner Awards celebrated partners whose strategies showcased expertise, innovation, and collaboration over the past year.

New Zealand-born specialist partner, Custom D secured two award wins including Innovation Partner of the year and Social Impact partner of the year.

Industry Partner of the Year for financial services went to HCLTech, while Public Sector Technology Partner of the Year was secured by TechnologyOne. Rising Star Partner of the Year (Consulting) was awarded to 6pillars.ai.

We are proud to celebrate the AWS Partners from Australia and New Zealand who are reimagining whats possible with cloud and AI innovation, AWS director of partnerships Asia Pacific and Japan, Chris Casey said.

The recognition of 6pillars.ai, Custom D, HCLTech, and TechnologyOne at the AWS re:Invent 2025 Partner Awards showcase the incredible momentum were seeing across the Asia Pacific and Japan region.
by Chiara Zappa

Silent prayer in front of the monument bearing the names of the more than 200 victims of the 2020 explosion. Kneeling in front of a child with a picture of his father who died in the tragedy. After five years, there are still obstacles to the investigation. The story of Nation Station, a kitchen set up in those days to feed those who had lost everything and which is trying to be a laboratory for the future.

Beirut (AsiaNews) - Silent prayer in front of the monument bearing the names of the victims. And the personal and touching encounter with families who have lost loved ones and still cannot find answers to their demands for justice. More than five years after the most tragic day in Lebanon's recent history, this morning's stop at the Beirut port area, where rubble and gutted silos remain, was the most touching moment of the last day of Pope Leo XIV's visit to Lebanon.

It was 4 August 2020 when what has been described as one of the most powerful non-nuclear explosions in history killed over 200 people, injured another 7,000 and left 300,000 homeless. It was the ammonium nitrate confiscated in 2014 from the abandoned ship MV Rhosus and stored in the port without safety measures that sowed death and destruction. But there is also a great deal of blame and responsibility that heavy political cover-ups - first and foremost the hostility of Hezbollah - have so far prevented from being defined in court. Only in February this year, after years of suspension, were the investigations conducted by Judge Tarek Bitar able to resume, but uncertainties remain due to obstacles and interference from political leaders and state officials, who refused to appear for questioning and denounced the judge himself.

In this context, the Pope laid a wreath of red roses in front of the monument and paused to pray in silence for the victims of that tragedy. He then stopped to meet some of the families who were carrying pictures of their loved ones who had been taken away by the explosion. Leo XIV blessed them, shook hands, and knelt in front of a child who was holding a photo of his father to his chest. I am happy, Antonella Hitti, one of these family members, commented to VaticaNews, expressing the feelings of all. The Pope's presence is a small dose of hope. We pray with him. And we pray for justice, truth and accountability.

The port of Beirut is now the clearest symbol of Lebanon's suffering. But it is also an icon of the resilience of its people, to which Leo XIV has referred many times in recent days. This is what is happening, for example, at Nation Station, in the Achrafieh neighbourhood, where, in the aftermath of the explosion, the community has come together around a kitchen. In the early days of the emergency, a group of neighbours and I had the spontaneous reaction to do something together for the neighbourhood, says Josephine Abou Abdo, a 35-year-old food designer who was one of the founders of this humanitarian initiative, which over time has also become a cultural experiment. So we gathered in this building, which was an abandoned petrol station, and turned it into a meeting place to support each other. We hadn't planned anything, but we soon experienced enormous support from friends, family members and people who were simply passing by and decided to come in and lend a hand." What was once a car wash has become a community kitchen: From the beginning, we distributed two to three hundred meals a day, Josephine recalls.

Currently, distributions are three times a week: people come and take home supplies. And as the economic situation of the Lebanese has deteriorated further and further, there is always a queue under the brightly coloured sign. Thanks to donations, project funding and crowdfunding, the young people of Nation Station have been at the forefront of every emergency in recent years, starting with last year's conflict with Israel, which caused mass displacement from the regions targeted by bombing. From the outset, however, the idea was to go beyond charity: Our goal, explains the food designer, remains to grow the neighbourhood and make it a protagonist. That's why we started hiring residents to cook for their neighbours, and we try to make the beneficiaries understand that this place is theirs too. Our movement started with food, but it is a means to create dialogue. It's a formula we would like to replicate in other parts of Lebanon.
After two attacks that left five dead and five wounded, the Chinese embassy in Dushanbe ordered evacuations from the border areas. The Tajik government and the Taliban have said they will cooperate with China amid growing fears that fighters from the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) are behind the attacks (which have not yet been claimed). Instability threatens regional cooperation and China's Belt and Road Initiative projects.

Dushanbe (AsiaNews/Agencies)  The Chinese embassy in Dushanbe has urged Chinese companies and their staff to leave all areas bordering Afghanistan following two attacks in which five Chinese nationals were killed and five more were wounded.

Tajik authorities reported that the first attack, which occurred last Friday, killed three Chinese citizens. A second border attack on Sunday killed two more.

Security forces are on high alert, while the Taliban reportedly arrested two suspects in Maimay, a district in Badakhshan, a region bordering Tajikistan. No armed group has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The Taliban Foreign Minister, in a phone call to his Tajik counterpart, blamed individuals "seeking to create disorder, instability &mistrust among the countries of the region," adding that the Taliban government stands ready for information-sharing, technical collaboration & joint assessments in order to identify those responsible for the incident.

Tajikistan has long had tense diplomatic relations with Afghanistan, despite the country's large Tajik minority (historically opposed to the Taliban government, which is mostly ethnic Pashtun).

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, who condemned the attacks and strengthened border security, had previously complained about the presence of drug traffickers and gold smugglers along the border.

In August Tajik forces carried out a series of military operations, eventually clashing with Afghan border forces.

About a week ago, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Rahmon in Dushanbe to discuss the growing security risks posed by Afghanistan, perhaps expecting renewed terrorist activities in the region.

Over the past few years, China has become one of the largest investors in the former Soviet republic, where Chinese companies are primarily involved in mining and construction projects.

At present, all Central Asian countries are seeking to expand trade and cooperation with Afghanistan despite ongoing security challenges.

This process must be seen within a broader framework. In recent months, Pakistan has repeatedly attacked Afghanistan due to Kabul's support for the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), who aim to set up a state in Pakistan modelled after the Islamic Emirate.

Islamabad is also continuing to expel Afghan refugees to exert further pressure on Kabul, while border crossings have been closed for over 50 days, generating losses of approximately US$ 200 million, according to estimates.

For this reason, Afghanistan is seeking to further develop trade relations with Central Asian states.

For its part, China has long been concerned about the rise of terrorist groups in Central Asia following the Taliban's comeback in 2021, which has galvanised several groups that exploit the region's porous borders.

This is precisely why the first joint exercise of the China-Central Asia Special Police Skills Challenge was held in September.

Some 80 elite officers from China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan took part in a competition aimed at building strong partnerships in the fight against terrorism and cross-border criminal activity.

The exercise took place in Urumqi, in the Xinjiang region, an area known for Beijing's repression of the indigenous Uyghur minority.

The Turkestan Islamic Party (known internationally as the TIP) is of particular concern.

Last year, the movement's leader, Abdul Haq Turkistani (who is based in Afghanistan), shortly before the overthrow of former dictator Bashar al-Assad in Syria, warned: The Chinese disbelievers will soon taste the same treatment that the disbelievers in [Syria] have tasted, if God wills.

The TIP was very active in Syria, and it is no coincidence that over the past year, Beijing has expressed concern about the influx of thousands of Uyghur fighters into the Syrian army.

Several analysts had long predicted that the TIP was waiting for the right moment to return to Xinjiang and renew its separatist campaign.

However, the roads and borders leading to the autonomous province from China remain impenetrable, so it is likely that various militants have taken up position in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, where training camps run by the Taliban are located. This makes them an ideal place to attack China's Belt and Road Initiative.

If the TIP were to claim responsibility for the attack, the Taliban regime would find itself in a tough spot. Internationally isolated, it has been trying to get a piece of Chinese investments, but as it did with Pakistan, it now risks the loss of economic opportunities due to armed groups hosted on its territory and along its borders.
by Nirmala Carvalho

The Indian government has denied a visa to evangelical preacher Franklin Graham, son of the well-known Billy Graham, who was expected to attend an event in Kohima on 30 November. The decision has provoked harsh reactions in Nagaland, where the Naga Students' Federation denounces a selective and discriminatory policy, especially after the relaxation of special permits for visitors who want to participate in certain cultural festivals.

Kohima (AsiaNews/Agencies) - The Indian government has denied a visa to American evangelical leader Franklin Graham, who was due to take part in an event organised by the Kohima Baptist Pastors' Fellowship on 30 November. The incident has provoked a strong wave of indignation in Nagaland, an Indian state with a Christian majority. The Naga Students' Federation (NSF) has called the decision selective and discriminatory and described the refusal as deeply offensive to the feelings of the Naga people.

In its statement, the NSF highlighted the contradiction of the central government, which on the one hand decided to relax the requirements for obtaining a Protected Area Permit (PAP) for foreign visitors attending the Hornbill Festival, Nagaland's largest cultural event. On the other hand, however, it denied a visa to Graham, son of Billy Graham, a well-known Baptist preacher who became popular in the last century. This inconsistency is indicative of a discriminatory mindset, the federation reiterated.

Nagaland, governed by the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) in alliance with the BJP, is one of the few Christian-majority regions in India. Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio personally wrote to Home Minister Amit Shah on 28 November to urge the issuance of permits for foreign visitors during the festival.

However, Franklin Graham did not receive the green light. The preacher is considered a controversial figure due to some of his past statements. In 2010, for example, in an interview with USA Today, Graham described Hindu gods as incapable of offering salvation: "No elephant with 100 arms can do anything for me. None of their 9,000 gods will lead me to salvation. We are deluding ourselves if we think that all we need to do is organise a big kumbaya ceremony, hold hands and everything will be better in this world. It will not get better."

According to some observers, these statements, which have been repeated several times in the Indian media, have influenced Delhi's decision. But for others, it could also be a consequence of the diplomatic tensions between India and the United States that began after President Donald Trump's decision to impose very high tariffs on Indian imports. The reverend is considered close to President Donald Trump.

The central government has not provided any official explanation for the visa refusal.

However, the decision has also generated reactions within the governing coalition. On 29 November, the National People's Party (NPP), an ally of the BJP and in government in the neighbouring state of Meghalaya, asked the Foreign Minister for a review, which was never approved.

Criticism also came from the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) party, which called the visa refusal blatant discrimination against the Christian community and a direct attack on the religious freedom guaranteed by the Constitution. According to the party, the decision is part of the systematic and intolerant policies of the BJP-RSS regime, a reference to the ultra-nationalist Hindu party and its paramilitary youth wing.

Chief Minister Rio, who had said in recent days that he had been reassured by New Delhi that Graham would be given the green light, commented on social media: We are saddened that Rev. Franklin Graham was unable to attend because his documents were not authorised in time, but we warmly welcome Rev. Robert Cunville of @BGEA and his team, who have faithfully spread the Gospel throughout India, bringing hope, healing and transformation. BGEA stands for Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Rio then renewed his criticism of the reintroduction of the PAP in the states of Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur, a measure that was adopted in December 2024 but which, according to him, hinders the possibility of hosting foreign delegations: I have written several times urging the permanent revocation of the PAP in Nagaland, he wrote on X. Foreign dignitaries and delegations face difficulties because PAPs are not granted in time, compromising their commitments and travel plans.

The PAP, introduced in 1958, requires foreign nationals to obtain special permission to visit areas considered sensitive from a national security perspective, including much of north-eastern India, a strip of land separated from the main territory of the country and inhabited mostly by indigenous states.

The Graham case has reignited tensions between the central government and the Christian community in Nagaland, which has long accused Delhi of adopting hostile and discriminatory policies towards religious minorities. The NSF has promised that it will continue to monitor and defend the rights and dignity of the Naga people.
As severe weather continues to rage, more than a thousand people are dead, while millions are affected across vast swathes of Southeast Asia and South Asia. In Sri Lanka, all 25 districts have reported damage of varying degrees. In Indonesia, illegal logging has contributed to soil erosion, making the devastation worse.

Colombo (AsiaNews)  A severe weather emergency remains in place in many parts of Asia, especially the southern and southeastern parts of the continent.

More than a thousand people have reportedly died so far, with hundreds missing, and hundreds of thousands displaced. And the toll continues to climb.

In Sri Lanka, the latest data from the governments Disaster Management Centre (DMC) confirm an extremely serious situation, with all 25 of the countrys districts affected and the death toll standing at 410.

Flooding and landslides have affected about 1.4 million people (407,594 families), as the severe weather continues to rage across much of the island.

According to an official with the Department of Meteorology, precipitation is expected throughout the month, driven by winds and rains brought by the northeast monsoon, which remains active.

The devastation is the worst since late December 2004, when a tsunami struck Sri Lanka, killing some 31,000 people and displaced more than a million.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 180,000 people (51,000 families) are sheltering in 1,094 government-run reception centres, while search and rescue operations for the missing continue.

Cyclone Ditwah struck with devastating force on 28 November, before moving back over the Bay of Bengal, crossing the northern part of the island the following day, causing some of the worst flooding Sri Lanka has seen since 2000.

Gampaha, Colombo, Puttalam, and Mannar, as well as Trincomalee and Batticaloa in the Eastern Province are the most affected districts. Deadly landslides also occurred in the central hill region, causing extensive damage to large parts of Kandy, Badulla, and Matale.

The hardest-hit sector in these devastated districts is agriculture, which, after long supporting Sri Lanka's economy, is now on its knees, significantly contributing to the country's economic collapse, while people face economic and financial pressure on a scale never seen before.

OCHAs initial assessments reported 15,000 homes destroyed, more than 200 roads made impassable, and at least 10 bridges damaged, while several lines and sections of the railway network and the national electricity grid have been affected.

Northern districts like Jaffna also report severe disruptions to electricity, mobile communications, and transportation networks, with entire villages cut off.

Access to drinking water remains a major concern, with several areas reporting limited or no supplies.

Flooding along the Kelani River, which flows through Colombo and the surrounding low-lying areas, continues to hinder access and disrupt the flow of information from affected communities, complicating relief and assistance operations.

Given the situation, Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake declared a state of emergency to accelerate relief and aid, committing his government to rebuilding the country with the crucial contribution of international assistance.

We are facing the largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history. Certainly, we will build a better nation than what existed before, he said in a national address last night.

"All those who died are not numbers to us, he added. Every life has a name, a face and a story. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the families of all those who died. It is not limited to condolences. While we cannot give those families back those lives, we are committed to giving them everything else.

Meanwhile, the first shipments of foreign aid have arrived in the past few hours.

In the central town of Kotmale, about 90 km northeast of Colombo, an Indian Air Force helicopter rescued 24 people, including a pregnant woman and a man in a wheelchair.

Pakistan has also sent rescue teams, while Japan has sent an assessment team and promised further support.

A serious emergency has also developed Indonesia, where public outrage is mounting over floods that have affected forested areas and residential areas alike, the effects of which have likely been amplified by human activity.

In North Sumatra, the most affected areas include the provincial capital of Medan, the regency of Central Tapanuli, and the city of Sibolga. In Aceh, the most affected regencies are Bener Meriah, Central Aceh, Gayo Lues, and Singkil. In West Sumatra, seven districts and cities have been affected, but the worst damage was reported in Padang Pariaman Regency.

Indonesias National Agency for Disaster Countermeasure (BNPB) continues to update the death toll from floods and landslides in Sumatra, which reached 631 deaths this morning, plus 472 missing, 2,600 injured, at least 3.2 million people affected, and one million displaced.

For the government, the main cause of the floods and landslides is Cyclone Senyar, which crossed the Indonesian archipelago between 19 and 28 November.

Major intercity transport routes are still disrupted, compounded by large-scale power outages and logistics disruptions. However, residents suspect a deeper cause, namely severe forest damage linked to illegal logging and mining in the highlands.

In Aceh, residents see this disaster as far more devastating than the tsunami of 21 years ago, as the affected area is more extensive.

Furthermore, the thousands of logs carried by flash floods raise an urgent question: beyond natural factors, what human activities have transformed the highland forests into barren lands?

Satellite images reveal that much of the land has long been deforested due to large-scale mining and logging, which have stripped the upper watershed of vegetation.

Another alarming sign is the appearance of wild animals such as tigers seeking refuge in residential areas, where many residents have been forced to remain on rooftops to avoid drowning.

The Attorney General's Office (AGO) has said it is ready to investigate whether widespread illegal logging contributed to the floods and landslides.

The Forest Area Enforcement Task Force (Satgas PKH), composed of the AGO, national police, army, and the Ministry of Forestry, is examining whether the causes are entirely natural or amplified by human activities, particularly large-scale deforestation.

We will examine all information circulating in public, AGO spokesperson Anang Supriatna said Monday. This must be studied to determine whether the floods were caused solely by natural factors or if illegal logging played a role.

Legal action will be taken if investigators uncover deliberate actions that worsened environmental destruction.

(Melani Manel Perera and Mathias Hariyadi contributed to this article)
Today's headlines: Hong Kong leader orders creation of independent committee to investigate causes of fire. Delhi imposes state app on smartphones for users' cyber security. Over 60% of companies in Japan run by people over 80 have no successor. South Korean President Lee wants to reopen channels of communication with Pyongyang.

MYANMAR - SYRIA

In 2024, deaths and injuries from landmines and unexploded ordnance reached their highest level in four years, driven by conflicts in Syria and Myanmar, according to the new Landmine Monitor 2025 report published yesterday. Last year, there were over 6,000 incidents, resulting in a total of 1,945 deaths and 4,325 injuries. Nearly 90% of the victims were civilians, with about half of them women and children. Meanwhile, several European countries are ready to withdraw from the treaty that banned their use, in response - at least according to the official version - to the Russian threat.

HONG KONG

Hong Kong leader John Lee has ordered the creation of an independent committee to investigate the causes of the devastating fire in the Wang Fuk Court residential complex - which had undergone extensive renovation work - in which 151 people died. The rules governing government supervision of building renovations will also be reviewed. The police have made 13 arrests on charges of manslaughter and another 12 for corruption. Meanwhile, the authorities have banned two pro-democracy groups - Hong Kong Parliament and Hong Kong Democratic Independence Union - and their members, who operate mainly online, face up to 14 years in prison and a 166,000 fine.

INDIA

Delhi has instructed smartphone manufacturers to pre-install a state-developed cybersecurity app on all new devices in an effort to combat online fraud and cybercrime. The order, issued on 28 November but only revealed yesterday after notification to companies, gives them 90 days to install Sanchar Saathi or communication companion on all new smartphones, with no option to disable it. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) directive also requires telephone companies to offer a software update to install the app on devices already in circulation for 1.2 billion users.

JAPAN

Most Japanese companies do not have a successor to take over the reins, and in some cases this is the case even though the current leaders  presidents or chief executive officers  are over 80 years old. This is according to a study by Tokyo Shoko Research on 170,000 companies, which found that 62.60% do not have a successor to take over operations, an increase of 0.45% on the previous year and a figure that has been growing steadily since 2019 when the first survey was conducted.

KOREA

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung today proposed restoring channels of communication with the North, specifying that this will serve as a starting point for peaceful coexistence between Seoul and Pyongyang. The head of state also stressed that South Korea has no intention of pursuing the unification of the peninsula through absorption.

IRAN - TURKEY

Tehran and Ankara have finalised an agreement for the construction of a new railway link, which will constitute a strategic gateway between Asia and Europe, as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi pointed out. The planned route, known in Iran as the Marand-Cheshmeh Soraya railway transit line, which runs towards the Turkish border region of Aralik, will cover approximately 200 kilometres, cost around .6 billion and be ready in four years.

RUSSIA - CHINA

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree allowing Chinese citizens to enter Russia without a visa until 14 September 2026, with a maximum stay of 30 days. Personal or business visits will be possible, as tourists or participants in scientific, cultural, political-social, economic and sporting events, or even for transit to other countries, while it does not apply to study and work contracts, or journalism.

TAJIKISTAN - UZBEKISTAN

In the mosques of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, a day of namaz-istisk was held, a collective prayer for rain, bringing domestic animals for sacrifice to various places of pilgrimage and then distributing the meat to the needy and orphans. The initiative was prompted by increasingly dramatic drought and water shortages in various regions throughout Central Asia.
MULLICA HILL, N.J., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- SENA is pleased to announce the launch of its AI-powered scheduling agent on the AthenaOne Marketplace, enabling healthcare practices to streamline appointment management directly within their existing clinical workflows.

With this integration, practices using AthenaOne can schedule new appointments, reschedule existing appointments, and cancel appointments using SENA's AI model trained on each practice's unique workflows. By embedding seamlessly into AthenaOne, our solution removes the need for extra software or manual scheduling processes, allowing practices to focus on delivering exceptional care.

What Makes SENA Different:

Empathy at the Core  Our generative, near-human AI is designed to reduce frustration for patients and providers, with empathic responses are embedded in every interaction.

Smart Tolerance Models  Our AI detects discomfort, reassures patients of its effectiveness, and transitions calls to our skilled coordination team when needed for a warm handoff.

Human-in-the-Loop Excellence  Experienced human coordinators train our AI agents, continuously monitor and maintain responses, and seamlessly handle warm handoffs when needed, enhancing both accuracy and patient trust.

Proven Patient Engagement Foundation  Since 2020, SENA has facilitated millions of patient touchpoints, creating the robust data foundation that powers our AI models.

Broad Language and Accent Support  Our AI agents communicate fluently in over 34 languages, recognizes accents, and ensures accessibility for diverse patient populations.

The AthenaOne Marketplace connects practices to over 500 integrated solutions across more than 60 specialties and 50 digital health capabilities, making adoption of new technology faster and easier. By joining this network, SENA brings its advanced scheduling capabilities to more practices looking to improve efficiency, enhance patient experiences, and streamline operations.

"Our AI scheduling agent is more than just an automation tool, it is a carefully crafted extension of each practice's team," said Pieter Oosthuizen, CTO at SENA. "With the combination of our proven human-in-the-loop model, empathy-driven AI, and seamless AthenaOne integration, we are redefining how practices and patients connect."

The scheduling module can be the entree into the SENA ecosystem. Beyond scheduling, SENA offers end-to-end front desk, back office, and call center solutions so practices do not have to manage multiple vendors. This comprehensive solution can save practices up to 50 percent in overhead costs and transform the patient experience.

The SENA AI Scheduling Agent is now available on the AthenaOne Marketplace for practices ready to modernize their scheduling process and deliver a patient experience that is more efficient, more accessible, and distinctly human-like.

About SENA Health

SENA Health is an AI-enabled services company that partners with medical practices to enhance patient access, reduce administrative overhead, and deliver high-quality care through its 24/7 Clinical Command Center. By combining advanced technology and AI with clinical expertise, SENA streamlines operations, improves the patient experience, and enables scalable, innovative care models such as home-based clinical coordination.

For more information, please contact SENA Health at 609-888-6039 or [email protected]

SOURCE Sena Health
2 December 2025 18:00 (UTC+04:00)

The trial of Armenian national Ruben Vardanyan  charged under numerous articles of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan, including crimes against peace and humanity, war crimes, terrorism, terror financing, and other grave offenses  continued on December 2.

According to Azernews, the open court hearing at the Baku Military Court was presided over by Judge Zeynal Agayev, with Judges Anar Rzayev and Jamal Ramazanov serving on the panel and Gunel Sammadova as the reserve judge. The defendant was provided with interpretation into his preferred language, Russian, as well as a state-appointed lawyer.

At the outset, Judge Agayev introduced the judicial panel, state prosecutors, translators, and other officials to the victims and the legal heirs appearing for the first time in the proceedings. He also explained their rights and responsibilities under the law.

The court then heard testimonies from several victims.

Victim Elshan Babayev, responding to questions from prosecutor Vusal Abdullayev, stated that in the Agdara district, an anti-tank shell fired by remnants of the Armenian armed forces and illegal Armenian armed groups exploded nearby, killing Tural Amirov and Elchin Salmanov and injuring him and Yusif Hasanov.

Answering questions from prosecutor Terane Mammadova, victim Elvin Mammadov reported that in the vicinity of Sardarkend village of Khojaly district, a mortar round fired by enemy forces exploded nearby, injuring him and Kamran Hasanov. He added that the enemy was simultaneously firing mortars, sniper rifles, and other weapons.

Victim Khalid Shukurlu testified that he was wounded when a mortar shell fired by Armenian forces exploded in Malibayli village of Khojaly district. He noted that Sadiq Mammadov and Nijat Ahmadzade were also injured in the same incident.

Responding to questions from prosecutor Fuad Musayev, victim Taleh Humbatzade said he was injured when an artillery shell fired by remnants of Armenian forces and illegal armed groups exploded in the Yenikend area of Khojavand district. Another man, Javid Shavgatli, was also wounded.

Victim Fazil Amirli, answering questions from Vusal Aliyev, senior aide to the Prosecutor General, recounted that he, Seyfaddin Jabbarov, and Kamran Najafov were injured by enemy fire in Malibayli village of Khojaly district.

Responding to questions from Nasir Bayramov, head of a department at the Prosecutor Generals Office, victim Ilgar Gasimov said he and Huseyn Huseynov were wounded when a mine planted by enemy forces exploded in the Khojaly direction.

The hearing proceeded with the examination of documents and other evidence contained in the case materials.

The next court session is scheduled for December 5.

Ruben Vardanyan faces charges under a wide range of articles of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan, including planning and waging an aggressive war (Articles 100.1, 100.2), deportation and forced displacement (107), persecution (109), enforced disappearance (110), unlawful deprivation of liberty contrary to international law (112), torture (113), mercenarism (114.1), violations of the laws and customs of war (115.2), multiple counts related to violations of international humanitarian law during armed conflict (116.0.1, 116.0.2, 116.0.10, 116.0.11, 116.0.16, 116.0.18), premeditated murder (120.2.x), attempted murder (29,120.2.x), illegal entrepreneurship (192.3.1), terrorism (214.2.x), terror financing (214-1), establishing a criminal association (218.1, 218.2), illegal possession and trafficking of firearms and explosives (228.3), acts endangering aviation security (270-1.x), violent seizure of power and attempted overthrow of the constitutional order (278.1), creation of unlawful armed groups (279.x), and illegal border crossing (318.2).
2 December 2025 17:15 (UTC+04:00)

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One of the most significant aspects of Azerbaijans renewable energy strategy is its potential to supply Europe with green electricity. With modern grid infrastructure, including the 330 kV Jabrayil Energy Hub and the Virtual Power Transfer Mechanism (VPTA), electricity generated at Shafaq can be efficiently integrated into the national system and delivered to export terminals such as Sangachal. This capability positions Azerbaijan as a future exporter of renewable energy, offering European markets...

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2 December 2025 11:39 (UTC+04:00)

Nazrin Abdul Read more

A delegation led by Taleh Kazimov, Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan (CBA), has begun a working visit to the Republic of Korea, Azernews reports, citing the CBA.

According to the information, the visit will include a series of bilateral meetings with Koreas financial supervisory authorities.

Discussions are expected to cover the macroeconomic outlook, improvements to financial sector regulatory frameworks, technological innovations, and other key topics.

The purpose of the visit is to strengthen cooperation and expand the exchange of expertise between the two countries financial sectors.
2 December 2025 14:27 (UTC+04:00)

Laman Ismayilova Read more

Azerbaijan Deputy Culture Minister Farid Jafarov has addressed the event, which marks the 120th anniversary of the Azerbaijan Cultural Workers' Trade Union, a member organisation of the Azerbaijan Trade Unions Confederation (ATUC), Azernews reports.

In his speech, he touched upon the national cultural policy implemented by the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev.

Deputy Culture Minister emphasised that the policy prioritises the preservation, promotion, and transmission of Azerbaijan's cultural values to the younger generation:

"The national cultural policy implemented by President Ilham Aliyev focuses on the preservation, promotion, and transmission of our cultural values to the younger generation. Azerbaijan is an exceptionally rich country in terms of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage, and this is reflected not only in words but also in the official lists of international organisations.

For example, in UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage, Azerbaijan ranks 5th among 193 countries with 23 heritage examples. This fact demonstrates that despite its small territory and population, our country has surpassed many others in the world in the field of culture," he said.

Farid Jafarov pointed out that one of the main directions of the national cultural policy is the restoration of cultural life in the territories liberated after the Patriotic War.

For four years now, the Azerbaijan Culture Ministry and the Heydar Aliyev Foundation have been reviving historical events in these territories, implementing broad projects nationwide aimed at the preservation and promotion of culture.

It is noteworthy that the Azerbaijan Cultural Workers' Trade Union has a 120-year history of defending the socio-economic rights of professionals in culture, arts, media, and sports.

Established in 1905 as the Printers' Union, the organisation has played a key role in ensuring the social protection of creative workers throughout the country's cultural sphere.
2 December 2025 10:23 (UTC+04:00)

Qabil Ashirov Read more

Azerbaijans Ministry of Foreign Affairs has extended its congratulations to the United Arab Emirates on the occasion of its National Day.

Azernews reports that the ministry conveyed its message in a post on its official X account.

We extend our congratulations to our friendly United Arab Emirates on the occasion of its National Day and convey our best wishes to its people and government. Happy National Day, UAE! the post read.

In a separate message, the Foreign Ministry also congratulated Laos on its National Day:

We sincerely congratulate the people and government of the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic on the occasion of its National Day. Happy National Day, Laos!
2 December 2025 10:42 (UTC+04:00)

Nazrin Abdul Read more

A presentation on the six-month results of the 4IR Academy  National Program, jointly implemented by the Center for Analysis and Coordination of the Fourth Industrial Revolution under the Ministry of Economy and the Education Development Fund under the Ministry of Science and Education, is being held at the Baku Business Center.

As reported by Azernews, the event brings together representatives of public and private institutions, senior officials responsible for training and education matters, as well as project partners.

The agenda includes a presentation of the National Programs half-year achievements, a meeting on integrating university curricula into the Coursera platform, a session titled Building a Skill-Based Future in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, discussions on enhancing Coursera course curricula for university partnerships, and further talks on incorporating Coursera courses into university programs.
2 December 2025 12:56 (UTC+04:00)

Nazrin Abdul Read more

The deputy foreign minister and former chief negotiator of COP29 in Azerbaijan, Yalchin Rafiyev, has said that Azerbaijan played a key mediating role in Turkiyes successful bid to host COP31, Azernews reports.

He made the remarks during an international conference at ADA University on the role of universities in green energy and sustainability.

Rafiyev added that Turkiyes hosting of COP31, following Azerbaijan, signals a growing regional focus on environmental and ecological issues, and underlined that Azerbaijan has offered its support to Turkiye. He also noted that a delegation from Azerbaijan is expected to be received by Turkiye in the near future.

It should be noted that while COP30, held in Brazil this year, faced challenges and delivered fewer major breakthroughs, COP29 in Baku concluded with landmark outcomes that helped reshape global climate policy. The summit achieved a historic milestone in climate finance through the adoption of the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), strengthened the transparency framework, and advanced the operationalisation of carbon markets under Article 6.
2 December 2025 11:03 (UTC+04:00)

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates.

Azernews presents the letter:

Your Highness,

Dear Brother,

On my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I am pleased to convey to you and, through you, to all your fraternal people my sincerest congratulations and best wishes on the occasion of the national holiday of the United Arab Emirates  Independence Day.

We are immensely pleased to see the large-scale construction initiatives being implemented across the country under your resolute leadership, resulting in magnificent and exemplary progress. All of this has been possible thanks to your multifaceted activity, wise leadership, and tireless service to the Motherland and the people.

Relations between Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates are based on brotherhood, friendship, mutual trust, understanding and support between our peoples. It is gratifying that our interstate relations, built on these solid foundations, have developed along an upward trajectory over the past period and reached a qualitatively new level. Undoubtedly, high-level regular reciprocal visits, meetings and close cooperation contribute to more rapid development and strengthening of these relations.

Your official visit to Azerbaijan in September provided a new impetus to the advancement of our bilateral relations. Several documents signed during the visit, particularly the Joint Declaration on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates, have elevated our interstate relations to a higher level, and expanded our interaction across new domains, along with the traditional areas of cooperation. At the same time, your visit to the liberated Karabakh region during your trip holds a profound symbolic meaning, and we evaluate it as a clear example of our brotherhood and solidarity.

Currently, cooperation agenda between Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates covers a broad range of areas. Our fruitful joint activities in the economic and trade, oil and gas, renewable energy, investment, digitalization and other areas are developing successfully.

I am confident that we will continue our joint efforts consistently and successfully to strengthen and diversify our cooperation that will serve the well-being of our countries and peoples.

On this festive day, I wish you robust health, happiness, success in your high state activities, and the brotherly people of the United Arab Emirates everlasting peace and prosperity.

Sincerely,

Ilham Aliyev

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Baku, 28 November 2025.
2 December 2025 11:05 (UTC+04:00)

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to His Excellency Mr. Thongloun Sisoulith, President of the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic.

Azernews presents the letter:

Dear Mr. President,

On my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I extend my sincere congratulations to you, and through you, your entire people on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of founding of the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic, and convey my best wishes.

Azerbaijan attaches special importance to the expansion of relations with Laos, and the enrichment of cooperation with new content both bilaterally and multilaterally.

I am confident that we will continue to make joint efforts to strengthen friendly relations between our countries and fully utilize the potential of our mutually beneficial cooperation.

On such a remarkable day, I wish you robust health, success in your endeavors, and your brotherly people everlasting peace and prosperity.

Sincerely,

Ilham Aliyev

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Baku, 28 November 2025.
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A new segment of "All Access with Andy Garcia" is set to provide an educational look at healthcare transformation, collaborating with Summit Pacific Medical Center on the topic of "Small Town, Big Care  America's Rural Health Impact." The program focuses on how a public hospital district can demonstrate national leadership in redefining healthcare by moving beyond reactive services to a proactive model focused on community wellness.

Summit Pacific

This segment, scheduled to be filmed at the Summit Pacific Campus on December 8, 2025, will inform audiences about the vital role of Critical Access Hospitals like Summit Pacific Medical Center, which provides comprehensive care from a Level IV trauma center to four rural clinics. The educational focus will center on the urgent necessity for the U.S. healthcare system to shift toward a value-based, integrated care model, which has been shown to improve outcomes, reduce disparities, and control costs. The segment will show how Summit Pacific is prioritizing prevention and population health by investing in services that may not always generate revenue but yield significant community health benefits, offering a real-world example of this strategic pivot.

"At Summit Pacific Medical Center, we believe that rural communities are powerful drivers of innovation. We are excited to partner with All Access to show how we are reimaging healthcare and share our transformative vision to build the healthiest community in the Nation."  Josh Martin, CEO, Summit Pacific Medical Center

The program will also outline key operational successes that have positioned Summit Pacific as an industry innovator. This includes a clear stance on not sustaining outdated, failing systems and instead embracing innovation to create sustainable models. The segment will feature their new payment model, which shifts away from the traditional volume-driven approach of episodic care by bringing insurance payors to the table as partners to share financial risks and rewards, creating a clear incentive to reduce unnecessary utilization. This framework supports initiatives like the Wellness Center, which integrates clinical services with resources such as exercise physiology and nutrition counseling, creating a true community hub. Furthermore, the segment will address complex and timely issues, including the financial pressures facing rural hospitals and the critical importance of sustained investment in community health to reduce disparities and improve outcomes for all populations.

The segment will also highlight that despite Washington State ranking 50th for hospital beds per capita, Summit Pacific is addressing this challenge through strategic investment, including its $60 million expansion designed to enhance patient flow and expand its Emergency Department and Acute Care Unit.

About "All Access with Andy Garcia": "All Access with Andy Garcia" provides a comprehensive and objective view of industries, organizations, and human stories that shape modern life. The program offers informational content on science, innovation, and the people redefining their respective fields. For more information, please visit www.allaccessptv.com.

About Summit Pacific Medical Center: Summit Pacific Medical Center is a public hospital district serving Grays Harbor County in rural Western Washington. It operates a Critical Access Hospital and a network of rural healthcare clinics, with a vision to build the healthiest community in the nation. Recognized for its commitment to high-quality, safe, and cost-effective care, Summit Pacific Medical Center is a nationally recognized leader in rural healthcare transformation, prioritizing population health, prevention, and innovative delivery models. Sign up to be alerted when the "Summit Pacific Spotlighted on All Access" presentation is released: Summit Pacific Spotlighted on All Access - Summit Pacific.

SOURCE All Access
2 December 2025 16:24 (UTC+04:00)

Nazrin Abdul Read more

A Host Country Agreement has been signed between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Clean Energy Center of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).

As reported by Azernews, according to the Ministry of Energy, the agreement was signed on behalf of the Azerbaijani Government by Minister of Energy Parviz Shahbazov and by Aysel Yagubova, Executive Director of the ECO Clean Energy Center (TEM-CECECO).

The agreement defines the Centers legal status, privileges and responsibilities in accordance with its Charter, ensuring that it can perform its functions effectively. It also regulates the framework of cooperation between the Center and the Host Country.

The ECO Clean Energy Center serves as an important platform for promoting and coordinating sustainable energy, energy transition, and energy efficiency initiatives at both national and regional levels. Its activities are expected to create additional opportunities for ongoing green energy projects in Azerbaijan and further strengthen the countrys role in regional energy processes, including efforts to enhance energy connectivity with Central Asia.

The placement of the Clean Energy Center in Baku highlights Azerbaijans commitment to advancing clean and green energy within the ECO framework and reflects the countrys growing contribution to regional cooperation in this sphere.

For reference, the Charter of the ECO Clean Energy Center was adopted on November 27, 2021, at the 25th meeting of the ECO Council of Foreign Ministers in Ashgabat, where Azerbaijan was selected as the host country for the Center.
2 December 2025 08:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Alimat Aliyeva

A recent study by the Etla Institute for Economic Research reveals that an increasing number of preschool education workers in Finland lack the necessary qualifications, Azernews reports.

Although the total number of educators has grown by 20% in recent years, the number of fully qualified specialists has increased by only 3%. This imbalance has led to a noticeable decline in the proportion of qualified teachers, particularly in Uusimaa and Laplandregions that heavily influence national statistics.

Etla senior researcher Aino Kalmbach explains that the demand for preschool educators is shaped by two opposing trends. On one hand, Finlands birth rate is declining, resulting in fewer preschool-age children. On the other hand, a growing number of children are attending kindergartens, which increases the need for caregivers. Additionally, the ongoing shift from family-based care to institutional kindergarten care further amplifies the demand for qualified staff.

The study also highlights that the shortage of qualified educators is most severe in regions where salaries in the field are low, including the metropolitan area. Kalmbach points out that this could affect the quality of early childhood education, which plays a crucial role in childrens long-term cognitive and social development.

Interestingly, Finland is widely known for its high-quality education system, yet this study shows that even in countries with strong educational traditions, challenges like workforce qualification gaps can emerge.

The Etla study covers the period 20102022 and was funded by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture.
Legal action over an Irish language strategy for Belfast has widened into a systemic challenge against the process for reconsidering key decisions taken by local governments across Northern Ireland, the High Court heard today.
Crowd outside the High Court in Belfast ahead of a legal challenge over the raising of the Palestine flag at Belfast City Hall (Luke Jervis/Belfast Telegraph)

As the Palestinian flag fluttered in the blue sky high above a gradually awakening Christmas Market in Belfast city centre this morning, a small band of protesters gathered up the street near the High Court.
Loyalist gunrunner Winston Winkie Irvine is passing his now extended time behind bars doing yoga and meditating.

Prison sources say the former UVF commander (50) has been perfecting his downward dog as he comes to terms with a Court of Appeal ruling that increased his jail term for possession of weapons.
A man who was unlawfully at large after going missing during day release while serving a life sentence for murder has been extradited back to Northern Ireland.

Police said the 56-year-old man was extradited from the Republic on Tuesday.

He is due to appear in court later today.

A PSNI spokesperson said: Officers from the Police Service of Northern Irelands Criminal Investigation Department (CID) have today, Tuesday, 2nd December, extradited a 56-year-old man from the Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland.

The man, who had been serving a life sentence in prison following a murder conviction in 2009, was reported as being unlawfully at large in December 2024 after being on day-release and failing to return.

He is due to appear before Ballymena Magistrates Court this afternoon.
Culture In Motion is the inaugural activation of the Kwanza Jones & Jose E. Feliciano Initiative's (JonesFeliciano Initiative) Producing Partner Program. After a rigorous application and review process, The Apollo was selected as the first institutional partner for its historic role as a global cultural beacon and its ongoing commitment to community impact. The multi-million dollar investment reflects JonesFeliciano Initiative's transformational Impact Multiplier model, which goes beyond capitalproviding institutions with strategic guidance, creative support, operational expertise, and access to a powerful ecosystem of knowledge and networks. Guided by Co-Founder Kwanza Jones' belief that "funding is the starting point, not the finish line," the model strengthens communities, expands institutional capacity, and multiplies long-term impact beyond Giving Tuesday.

A signature feature of the Culture In Motion Roadshow is the SUPERCHARGED Boost Bus a custom mobile cultural hub designed to deliver Apollo artistry, creativity, and empowerment directly to local neighborhoods. The Boost Bus will transport The Apollo's heritage, performances, storytelling, and legendary Amateur Night spirit into communities, meeting people where they are and giving them a powerful boost to go further.

Building on that momentum, Culture in Motion blends the Apollo's legacy with bold, future-forward innovation through four programming pillars:

Arts Access: Live performances, creative showcases, and Apollo-style programming

Live performances, creative showcases, and Apollo-style programming Community Engagement: Collaborations with cultural institutions, schools, and grassroots organizations

Collaborations with cultural institutions, schools, and grassroots organizations Empowerment: Activations that spark creativity, encourage innovation, and turn inspiration into action

Activations that spark creativity, encourage innovation, and turn inspiration into action Legacy & Innovation: Honoring The Apollo's heritage while embracing new formats, technologies, and emerging voices

The Roadshow is co-produced by The Apollo in partnership with, and led by, SUPERCHARGED by Kwanza Jonesthe empowerment media and creative studio known for building transformative, high-energy experiences that spark courage, confidence, community, and action. SUPERCHARGED brings experiential design, creative production, and storytelling that bridge The Apollo's iconic legacy with bold, next-era programming.

"The Apollo has always been more than a stageit's a space where people use their voice, own their power, and take action," said Kwanza Jones, Executive Producer, Apollo Board Member, Apollo Alum, and Co-Founder of the JonesFeliciano Initiative. "My Apollo story started on the Amateur Night Stage, where I was encouraged to amplify my voice and my purpose. That's the power of what The Apollo doesit's a place for all people. I'm excited that this Roadshow will help even more people create their own Apollo storyone that starts right where they are."

"Giving Tuesday is about strengthening community through generosity, and this partnership reflects exactly that," said Michelle Ebanks, President & CEO of The Apollo. "Through Culture In Motion, we are bringing the heart of The Apollo directly to the people across the country. Together with Kwanza Jones, Jose E. Feliciano, and the SUPERCHARGED team, we're opening fresh pathways for connection as we step into The Apollo's next century. We invite everyone to join us in celebrating and supporting this next chapter of our journey with the Apollo Roadshow." "What I'm really excited about is that this partnership with Kwanza Jones, Jose E. Feliciano & the SUPERCHARGED team will help advance our centennial strategy to continue to globalize The Apollo," said Joy Profet, Chief Growth Officer, The Apollo. "It's groundbreaking! The Apollo has never done anything like this in 91 years. As we make this come to life and reimagine what The Apollo experience will look like for the world, I'm excited that this will live on beyond the reopening of the Historic Apollo Mainstage."

In January 2026, the Culture In Motion Roadshow will hold a send-off celebration at The Apollo in Harlem. The tour will then officially kick off its cross-country journey in Los Angeles during Grammy Week, before traveling through vibrant cultural hubs across Southern and Northern California, including:

Los Angeles, CA

Long Beach, CA

Inglewood, CA

San Diego, CA

Santa Clara, CA

San Francisco, CA

Oakland, CA

Sacramento, CA

From there, the multi-city tour will travel to major cultural centers, campuses, and community venues across the United States, including Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Washington D.C., and additional stops to be announced. International destinations are under evaluation for early 2027.

Follow the movement. Communities or organizations interested in participating, collaborating, or hosting a Roadshow activation can find details at https://boostbus.com. Join us in moving culture forward: #CultureInMotion and bring a #CultureBoost to your community.

About The Apollo

The Apollo is an American cultural treasure. It is a vibrant non-profit organization rooted in the Harlem community that engages people from around New York, the nation, and the world. Since 1934, The Apollo has celebrated, created, and presented work that centers Black artists and voices from across the African Diaspora. It has also been a catalyst for social and civic advocacy. Today, The Apollo is the largest performing arts institution committed to Black culture and creativity. apollotheater.org | @apollotheater | #ApolloRoadshow

About SUPERCHARGED By Kwanza Jones

SUPERCHARGED by Kwanza Jones is the future-forward creative studio and empowerment platform founded and led by multidisciplinary artist, investor, and philanthropist Kwanza Jones. Ignited by her signature formulaenergy + intention + impact SUPERCHARGED creates dynamic music, innovative media, and transformational experiences that boost confidence, build community, and inspire meaningful action. Every project carries the imprint of Kwanza's high-voltage vision and contributes to the growing Kwanzaverse ecosystem. The mission is simple yet SUPERCHARGED: elevate culture, expand human potential, and uplift humanity. Visit kwanzajones.com | @kwanzajones | #CultureSUPERCHARGED

About Kwanza Jones & Jose E. Feliciano Initiative

The Kwanza Jones & Jose E. Feliciano Initiative (JonesFeliciano Initiative) is a private family office and impact organization founded in 2014 by life and business partners Kwanza Jones and Jose E. Feliciano. Guided by the belief that philanthropy is an investmentnot a charitythe Initiative combines strategic investments with purpose-driven philanthropy to advance long-term progress. The work spans four pillars: education, entrepreneurship, equity, and empowerment. To date, the founders have personally committed more than $250 million to catalytic efforts that strengthen communities, increase access to capital, and drive meaningful impact. Visit https://jonesfeliciano.com | @jonesfelicianoinitiative

Correction: The video was swapped out for an updated version.

SOURCE SUPERCHARGED
LATEST | Three arrested outside Belfast High Court as legal challenge heard over raising of Palestine flag

Policing presence as flag raised shortly after midnight - it is due to fly for 24 hoursMotion passed by 32 to 28 as nationalists say move sends clear message of solidaritySome unionist councillors considering no-confidence motions against some council officialsEmergency challenge against decision to be heard today in the High Court

Palestine Flag is raised on Belfast City Hall

Abdullah Sabri and Gabrielle Swan Tue 2 Dec 2025 at 17:30







The PSNI have made three arrests as a crowd gathered at the High Court ahead of a legal challenge over the raising of the Palestine flag at Belfast City Hall.
Politics

Alliance MP on honour of being only MP from NI nominated for Backbencher of the Year: I am more grateful than you will ever know
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Taoiseach Micheal Martin shake hands during a press conference at Government Buildings in Dublin (PA)

Irish premier Micheal Martin has pledged to support Ukraine for as long as it takes.

The Taoiseach welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on his first official visit to Ireland on Tuesday.

During a joint press conference in Dublin, Mr Martin told Mr Zelensky: Your struggle is our struggle we are with you for as long as it takes.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky joined Taoiseach Micheal Martin for a press conference at Government Buildings in Dublin (Brian Lawless/PA)

The Irish Government announced 100 million euros in non-lethal aid for Ukraine to coincide with the visit.

The additional funding brings to 200 million euros the total non-lethal military aid given to Ukraine this year.

Mr Zelensky responded, hailing Ireland for doing the right thing by choosing to help Ukraine and Ukrainians who have moved there, expressing his gratitude.

We should be grateful doing this because you understand what were going through, understand it historically speaking and based on value, he said.

It is not about size of assistance, its about the choice.

Mr Zelensky inspected troops forming a guard of honour (Liam McBurney/PA)

He said his visit as to Ireland comes at one of the most challenging and optimistic moments, and emphasised they want to see a positive outcome to talks for peace that are open, fair and just.

The funding is part of a new Ireland-Ukraine partnership signed by Mr Zelensky and Mr Martin, which builds on an agreement signed in Kyiv last year.

The 2030 Roadmap on Ukraine-Ireland Partnership sets out Irelands immediate commitments to Ukraine, including 25 million euros to support the restoration and protection of Ukrainian energy infrastructure and a scheme to support training and other efforts as part of Ukraines path to EU accession.

Mr Zelensky began the Dublin trip with a courtesy call to Irelands newly inaugurated president, Catherine Connolly.

He and First Lady Olena Zelenska arrived at Aras An Uachtarain, the official residence of the president, where Ms Connolly warmly welcomed them at a red carpet laid at the front door.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska were welcomed by Irish President Catherine Connolly at Aras an Uachtarain (Brian Lawless/PA)

In a note in the visitors book, he said Ukraine is grateful for Irelands generosity to its people amid Russias invasion.

On behalf of the people of Ukraine, I express my sincere gratitude for Irelands steadfast support during our fight against Russian aggression, he wrote.

We greatly appreciate Irelands generosity in providing temporary shelter to displaced Ukrainians.

Ukraine values its friendship with Ireland and is committed to deepening our co-operation in pursuit of a just and lasting peace.

The two presidents discussed prospects for peace in Ukraine and the contribution of the Ukrainian community in Ireland during their meeting.

In a statement, Ms Connollys office said: Their discussions included the prospects for peace in Ukraine and the role that Ireland could play as a neutral country in securing a fair, just and enduring peace.

Mr Zelensky was greeted by Taoiseach Micheal Martin (Liam McBurney/PA)

They also discussed the contribution of the Ukrainian community in Ireland and the significant similarities in the histories of both countries.

President Connolly was also interested to discuss the question of the enforced transfer of children from Ukraine and food security.

She paid tribute to the advocacy of the First Lady Ms Zelenska regarding issues such as mental health.

In a convoy of heavily-armoured vehicles, Mr Zelensky later arrived at Government Buildings for a meeting with Mr Martin, where a guard of honour was held for him.

Both the Ukrainian and Irish national anthems were played before he inspected two lines of 22 Irish troops after being invited by Lieutenant Adam OSullivan.

Mr Zelensky inspected the guard of honour (Liam McBurney/PA)

He is to later give an address in the Irish Parliament at Leinster House after being introduced by the Ceann Comhairle, or speaker of the house, Verona Murphy.

Mr Zelensky is also due to attend the inauguration of the Ireland-Ukraine Economic Forum with Irish deputy premier Simon Harris and Foreign Affairs Minister Helen McEntee.

Ms McEntee and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha are to hold the first meeting of the UkraineIreland Strategic Dialogue, which will also be established as part of the roadmap.

The visit comes a day after the Ukrainian president met French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Paris as part of discussions on ending the largest armed conflict in Europe since the Second World War.

Ukrainian and US officials have worked to revise the proposed US-authored peace plan, which was developed in negotiations between Washington and Moscow but criticised as being too weighted towards Russian demands.

Mr Zelensky said in Paris on Monday that the peace plan looks better but the issue of Ukraines control over its territories is the most complicated topic being discussed.

In April 2022, Mr Zelensky made a historic address to the Irish Parliament by videolink, in which he said Ireland had not been neutral to the disaster Russia had brought to Ukraine.
President Zelensky has said Ukraine is grateful for Irelands generosity during a visit to Dublin (Liam McBurney/PA)

Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine is grateful for Irelands generosity as he visited Dublin on Tuesday.

The Irish Government announced 100 million euros in non-lethal aid for Ukraine to coincide with the visit, which marks the first official visit by a Ukrainian president to Ireland.

The additional funding brings to 200 million euros the total non-lethal military aid given to Ukraine this year.

The funding is part of a new Ireland-Ukraine partnership to be signed by Mr Zelensky and Irish premier Micheal Martin on Tuesday afternoon, which builds on an agreement signed in Kyiv last year.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskys trip marks the first official visit by a Ukrainian president to Ireland (Liam McBurney/PA)

The 2030 Roadmap on Ukraine-Ireland Partnership sets out Irelands immediate commitments to Ukraine, including 25 million euros to support the restoration and protection of Ukrainian energy infrastructure and a scheme to support training and other efforts as part of Ukraines path to EU accession.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska were welcomed by Irish President Catherine Connolly at Aras an Uachtarain (Brian Lawless/PA)

Mr Zelensky began the Dublin trip with a courtesy call to Irelands newly inaugurated president, Catherine Connolly.

He and First Lady Olena Zelenska arrived at Aras An Uachtarain, the official residence of the president, where Ms Connolly warmly welcomed them at a red carpet laid at the front door.

In a note in the visitors book, he said Ukraine is grateful for Irelands generosity to its people amid Russias invasion.

On behalf of the people of Ukraine, I express my sincere gratitude for Irelands steadfast support during our fight against Russian aggression, he wrote.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with Taoiseach Micheal Martin (Liam McBurney/PA)

We greatly appreciate Irelands generosity in providing temporary shelter to displaced Ukrainians.

Ukraine values its friendship with Ireland and is committed to deepening our co-operation in pursuit of a just and lasting peace.

The two presidents discussed prospects for peace in Ukraine and the contribution of the Ukrainian community in Ireland during their meeting.

In a statement, Ms Connollys office said the meeting at Aras An Uachtarain had been the first such opportunity for the two presidents.

Their discussions included the prospects for peace in Ukraine and the role that Ireland could play as a neutral country in securing a fair, just and enduring peace, the statement said.

They also discussed the contribution of the Ukrainian community in Ireland and the significant similarities in the histories of both countries.

President Connolly was also interested to discuss the question of the enforced transfer of children from Ukraine and food security.

She paid tribute to the advocacy of the First Lady Ms Zelenska regarding issues such as mental health.

In a convoy of heavily-armoured vehicles, he arrived at Government Buildings for a meeting with Mr Martin, where a guard of honour was held for him.

Both the Ukrainian and Irish national anthems were played before he inspected two lines of 22 Irish troops after being invited by Lieutenant Adam OSullivan.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky inspects the guard of honour (Liam McBurney/PA)

He is to later give an address in the Irish parliament at Leinster House after being introduced by the Ceann Comhairle, or Irish speaker of the house, Verona Murphy.

Mr Zelensky is also due to attend the inauguration of the Ireland-Ukraine Economic Forum with Irish deputy premier Simon Harris and Foreign Affairs Minister Helen McEntee.

Ms McEntee and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha are to hold the first meeting of the UkraineIreland Strategic Dialogue, which will also be established as part of the roadmap.

The visit comes a day after the Ukrainian president met French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Paris as part of discussions on ending the largest armed conflict in Europe since the Second World War.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin met Volodymyr Zelensky as he arrived at Dublin Airport on Monday night (Clodagh Kilcoyne/PA)

In April 2022, Mr Zelensky made a historic address to the Irish Parliament by videolink, in which he said Ireland had not been neutral to the disaster Russia had brought to Ukraine.

Welcoming the visit, Mr Martin said Mr Zelenskys arrival in Dublin comes at a critical time for Ukraine.

He said Zelenskys immense bravery and the resilience of the Ukrainian people are examples to us all.

Ukrainian and US officials have worked to revise the proposed US-authored peace plan, which was developed in negotiations between Washington and Moscow but criticised as being too weighted towards Russian demands.

Mr Zelensky said in Paris on Monday that the peace plan looks better but the issue of Ukraines control over its territories is the most complicated topic being discussed.
Ukraine is trying to reach every heart, Volodymyr Zelensky told TDs and senators in the Dail during an address to a joint session of both houses of the Oireactas.

The Ukrainian president did not have to try hard with Labour leader Ivana Bacik, who sported two large glittering hearts pinned to her lapel, one in the colours of the Irish flag and the other the Ukraine flag.

Her yellow and blue outfit was not the only show of sartorial support from those in the chamber and packed into the gallery.

Volodymyr Zelensky addresses a joint sitting of the Irish parliament in the Dail (Tony Maxwell/Maxwells/PA)

Most on the Government benches sported pins featuring the Irish and Ukrainian flags, while sunflowers, yellow ribbons and a yellow and blue scarf were scattered among the crowd.

Mr Zelensky received a rock star greeting as he entered, hands thrust out from every direction by politicians desperate for a handshake.

He took his seat by the Ceann Comhairle, watched by his wife Olena Zelenska, who sat with with the Taoiseachs wife Mary Martin and Ukrainian dignitaries.

She was described as a model for women worldwide by Verona Murphy in her opening remarks.

Mary Martin and Olena Zelenska in the Dail chamber (Tony Maxwell/Maxwells/PA)

Not everyone was as enthusiastic for the Ukrainian leader  People Before Profit TDs Richard Boyd Barrett and Paul Murphy stood but did not join in the repeated ovations.

The partys TDs were criticised for a similar move after his 2022 virtual address to the Dail.

They said it was because they disagreed with Mr Zelenskys calls for Nato involvement in the war and a decision to ban opposition parties in Ukraine.

In a statement issued shortly after Tuesdays speech, Mr Boyd Barrett and Mr Murphy condemned Russia but criticised increased militarisation.

A Garda armoured vehicle in Dublin forms part of the security detail (Brian Lawless/PA)

During his speech Mr Zelensky drew parallels between Irish and Ukrainian history, while thanking Ireland for its support.

He said: Our peoples, Ukrainian and Irish, are among the few in Europe who spent centuries fighting for the right to remain themselves.

Ireland has stood firmly and clearly for our independence and for a just end to this war.

The weight of history was returned to time and again during the day, with the Good Friday Agreement, the Second World War and Irelands diaspora referenced in speeches and remarks.

Volodymyr Zelenskys message in the visitor book (Tony Maxwell/Maxwells/PA)

The historic nature of the day was not lost on TDs, several of whom captured photos and videos of Mr Zelenskys speech.

A heavy security operation saw imposing Ukrainian teams bolstered by the Gardas dramatic-looking armoured tactical truck, or battle wagons.

The cavalcade surrounded the Ukrainian president as he travelled to meet his Irish counterpart at Aras an Uachtarain, where he signed the visitors book.

In his message he thanked Catherine Connolly for hosting him, and the people of Ireland for hosting displaced Ukrainians.

It was then on to Government Buildings for engagements including an inspection of a guard of honour of Irish troops, an invitation rarely extended to foreign leaders.

Darragh OBrien watches from a window (Liam McBurney/PA)

Minister for Transport Darragh OBrien peered from an upper floor window to get a glimpse of proceedings.

They day also included the signing of a five-year road map for the Ukraine-Ireland Partnership, the launch of the Ireland-Ukraine Economic Forum, and a press conference with the countrys two leaders.

Despite a focus on history during the day, Mr Zelenskys comments during the press conference were firmly focused on the future.

He said he hoped Ukraine would become a member of the EU in the next five years, that a tribunal would one day hold Russia legally accountable for its aggression, and that a decent, dignified peace will finally come to his country.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska arrive at Dublin Airport for his visit to Ireland. Picture date: Monday December 1, 2025.

Volodymyr Zelensky touched down in Dublin late on Monday ahead of a full day of engagements marking the first state visit by a Ukrainian president to Ireland.

He and Ukraines first lady Olena Zelenska were greeted at Dublin Airport by Irish premier Micheal Martin and junior minister with responsibility for European Affairs Thomas Byrne.

Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha also forms part of the Ukrainian delegation.

The Ukrainian ambassador in Dublin, Larysa Gerasko, and Irish ambassador to Ukraine Jonathan Conlon were on the tarmac for their arrival shortly before 11pm.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin (centre left) speaks to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska as they arrive at Dublin Airport for his visit to Ireland. (Credit: Liam McBurney)

Mr Zelenskys brief visit to Dublin comes as the US administration try to broker a ceasefire underpinned by a peace plan.

He arrived in the Irish capital hours after meeting with French president Emmanuel Macron in Paris, where both leaders struck an optimistic tone about the US draft framework previously criticised as being too weighted towards Russian demands.

The visit also comes days after the resignation of Ukraines chief negotiator and Mr Zelenskys chief of staff Andrii Yermak, whose residence was searched on Friday by anti-corruption investigators.

Mr Zelensky will have a number of engagements during his visit on Tuesday, including a courtesy call to Irelands newly-inaugurated president Catherine Connolly.

He will also attend the launch of the Ireland-Ukraine Economic Forum with Irish deputy premier Simon Harris and deliver an address to the Irish parliament.

Micheal Martin met Volodymyr Zelensky at Shannon Airport in February (PA)

Mr Zelensky was last in Ireland in February, when his plane stopped off to refuel ahead of a visit to Washington DC.

Mr Martin then met the Ukrainian leader at Shannon Airport in Irelands south-west, where he emphasised the Irish peoples support for Ukraine.

The following day, a televised exchange in the Oval Office between Mr Zelensky, US president Donald Trump and US vice president JD Vance made international headlines.

In April 2022, Mr Zelensky made a historic address to the Irish parliament via video link, in which he said Ireland had not been neutral to the disaster Russia had brought to Ukraine.

Mr Martin said it was an honour to welcome Mr Zelensky to Ireland and said the visit came at a critical time for Ukraine.

Around the world, he is rightly recognised as someone who embodies the courage and resilience of the Ukrainian people, who have inspired the world in their brave defence of their country and its sovereignty since it was brutally and illegally invaded by Russia, he said.

He praised Ukraines remarkable tenacity in defending their country and said he looked forward to reiterating Irelands unswerving commitment to standing with the people of Ukraine for as long as it takes.

He said: The presidents visit comes at a critical time for Ukraine and Europe, with efforts to bring just and lasting peace to Ukraine ongoing.

I look forward to discussing with President Zelensky the ways in which Ireland can support these efforts and how we can ensure that Ukraine comes to the negotiating table in as strong a position as possible.

The inauguration of the Ireland-Ukraine Economic Forum also offers an opportunity to explore the potential for strengthened business-to-business, trade and investment links between Ireland and Ukraine.

We also want to see a Ukraine that is fully part of our European Union family, and I particularly look forward to discussing with the president how Ireland can assist in accelerating Ukraines journey towards EU membership, including during our presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2026.

I will also be telling the president about the remarkable story of the Ukrainian people who have sought refuge in Ireland since 2022.

In that period, we have welcomed over 120,000 Ukrainians seeking safe haven. Some have returned, some have moved on and many have remained, but all have made a great contribution to our society through their hard work and vibrant culture, becoming valued members of our communities.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks to the media during a press conference with Taoiseach Micheal Martin at the Government Buildings in Dublin, during his visit to Ireland. Picture date: Tuesday December 2, 2025.

Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Ireland is one of the few European countries that understands the price of freedom as he praised the country for its support.

In the first visit to Ireland by a Ukrainian president, Mr Zelensky and Irish premier Micheal Martin both drew parallels between Ukraines struggle for sovereignty and Irelands centuries-long fight for independence.

Mr Zelensky said Irelands decision to back Ukraine in the early days of the war was a moral one, and while some had grown fatigued with hearing about Ukraines war, he said Irelands voice had not become quieter.

He said that while Ireland was neutral, it was certainly not an indifferent country and thanked every Irish home that has sheltered some of the 120,000 Ukrainians that arrived in Ireland since 2022.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Taoiseach Micheal Martin held a press conference in Dublin (Brian Lawless/PA)

In a historic address to Irish parliamentarians, where he received a standing ovation in the Dail chamber, he urged Ireland to take an active role in calling for a tribunal for Russias aggression against Ukraine.

It is a great honour for me to stand here today in a country that understands the price of freedom, understands better than many, many in Europe, better than many, many in the world, and that shares our belief that every voice counts, every nation matters, he said.

Mr Zelensky met with Irish premier Micheal Martin earlier in the day, where Mr Martin pledged that Ireland would support Ukraine for as long as it takes.

The Taoiseach told Mr Zelensky: Your struggle is our struggle. Your success will be our success. We are with you for as long as it takes.

Mr Zelensky hailed Irelands support for his country (Brian Lawless/PA)

Mr Zelensky and Mr Martin signed a new Ireland-Ukraine partnership plan for the next five years during the visit.

It includes an extra 100 million euro in non-lethal military aid for Ukraine, bringing the total funding for non-lethal aid this year to 200 million euro.

Mr Zelensky was asked about pared back supports for Ukrainian refugees in Ireland, where State accommodation is offered for less time than previously, and whether it meant Irish support for Ukraine was not as strong as it once was.

He said Ireland chose to support Ukraine from the start because it was the right thing to do.

Mr Zelensky said Ireland had supported Ukraine from the very start (Liam McBurney/PA)

Ireland has been helping Ukrainians who stayed behind in Ukraine, and has been helping Ukrainians who have moved to Ireland, and were grateful for that, he said, speaking through an interpreter.

The way I was brought up is that I cant criticise help  whether its getting more or less, we should be grateful and not forget about this.

I do believe very much that youve been doing this not just to help us simply, but youve been doing this because you understand what we were going through, you understand it, I think, historically speaking.

Mr Zelensky said his visit to Ireland came at one of the most challenging and optimistic moments for Ukraine, as US efforts to agree a ceasefire underpinned by a peace framework continue.

Efforts led by the US to secure a ceasefire in Ukraine are continuing *(Brian Lawless/PA)

Now, more than ever, there is a chance to end this war, he said, as he emphasised that his visit to Ireland came amid intensive talks with the US administration on the details of the framework.

Some things still need to be worked out, from what I saw, he said.

He said the aim was not to just get a pause in the fighting, but a decent, dignified peace, and to stop the war in such a manner that in one year, Russia would not come back with a third invasion.

Mr Zelensky said there were three issues that were most sensitive and important with regard to the discussions with the US and Russia.

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I think that the most sensitive things, and the most difficult questions, or questions with the challenges, is about territories, he said.

Its about frozen assets, because I cant just myself speak on behalf of European leaders.

The third point I mentioned about security guarantees, and we count on strong security guarantees from the United States, both United States and Europe and some other leaders.

Mr Zelensky inspected troops forming a guard of honour (Liam McBurney/PA)

Mr Zelensky began the Dublin trip with a courtesy call to Irelands newly inaugurated President, Catherine Connolly.

He and First Lady Olena Zelenska arrived at Aras An Uachtarain, the official residence of the President, where Ms Connolly warmly welcomed them at a red carpet laid at the front door.

In a note in the visitors book, he said Ukraine is grateful for Irelands generosity to its people amid Russias invasion.

We greatly appreciate Irelands generosity in providing temporary shelter to displaced Ukrainians.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska were welcomed by Irish President Catherine Connolly at Aras an Uachtarain (Brian Lawless/PA)

The two presidents discussed prospects for peace in Ukraine and the contribution of the Ukrainian community in Ireland during their meeting.

Ms Connollys office said in a statement they discussed the role that Ireland could play as a neutral country in securing a fair, just and enduring peace.

They also discussed the contribution of the Ukrainian community in Ireland and the significant similarities in the histories of both countries, she said.

Mr Zelensky was greeted by Taoiseach Micheal Martin (Liam McBurney/PA)

Tributes were also paid by Ms Connolly and by Irish speaker Verona Murphy to First Lady Ms Zelenska, who Ms Murphy said was a model for women worldwide.

Mr Zelensky arrived at Government Buildings in a convoy of heavily-armoured vehicles, where a guard of honour was held.

Both the Ukrainian and Irish national anthems were played before he inspected two lines of 22 Irish troops after an invitation by Lieutenant Adam OSullivan.
Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy during a visit to Inner London Crown Court ahead of an announcement of major reforms to the criminal justice system (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

Plans to free up crown courts to deal with serious crimes swiftly and hand more support to victims are set to be announced by the Justice Secretary as part of efforts to tackle the courts emergency.

David Lammy, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, will lay out reforms to overhaul the system on Tuesday, amid reports jury trials could be limited to the most serious offences such as rape and murder.

The move to give victims the swift justice they deserve comes amid a record-high backlog of crown court cases totalling more than 78,000, and trials listed as far as 2030.

Ministers have warned the backlog could rise to 100,000 by 2028 if nothing is done, with a growing number of victims giving up on seeking justice because of the lengthy delays.

Mr Lammy said: Today I am calling time on the courts emergency that has left victims of the most serious crimes waiting years for justice and pushed the justice system to the brink of collapse.

For many victims, justice delayed is often justice denied.

Some give up on the process, while others have no confidence justice will be served if they report a crime, and perpetrators never held to account.

This simply cannot go on  we must be bold.

I will set out a fast and fair justice plan that gives victims and survivors the swift justice they deserve.

Mr Lammy will reveal the Governments response to recommendations made by Sir Brian Leveson in July to reform the courts system and tackle the backlog, which include diverting more offences to magistrates courts or to a new intermediate court where a judge would hear cases with two lay magistrates.

The former senior judge called for juries to be reserved to hear the most serious cases, of indictable-only such as murder, rape and manslaughter, and lesser either way offences when a judge deems it appropriate.

He also called for judge-only trials to be used in serious and complex fraud cases, or other complex cases determined by a judge.

In an interview with The Times, Mr Lammy insisted he was not preparing to announce the scrapping of jury trials.

But suggested he would back Sir Brians proposals to limit them to indictable-only offences, arguing that many defendants were playing the system by delaying guilty pleas in either-way cases to the last minute.

He said: This is about saving the jury system.

The Justice Secretary is expected to set out plans to boost control for judges on how to handle cases, and create faster routes for lower-level cases like in Canada, which has judge-only trials and where courts minister Sarah Sackman KC visited last month.

Justice Secretary David Lammy during a visit to Inner London Crown Court ahead of an announcement of major reforms to the criminal justice system (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

Proposals to curb jury trials have faced opposition from MPs and legal professionals, including from the Criminal Bar Association and the Bar Council, which argued there is no need to curtail the right to a trial by jury  from both a principle and practical position.

Reports of Mr Lammy considering restricting jury trials further than Sir Brians recommendations have also faced backlash as an extreme measure by the Law Society of England and Wales, which has not seen any real evidence it will work to reduce the backlog.

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick accused Mr Lammy of abandoning his principles while in Government having previously defended juries.

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This year alone 21,000 court sitting days have been missed and the court backlog is up 10% on their watch, he said.

Instead of depriving British citizens of ancient liberties, David Lammy should get his own department in order.

According to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) nearly half of the cases in the backlog are over violent and sexual offences, and only about 3% of criminal cases are currently heard with a judge and a jury.

As part of the announcement, 550 million will also be given to victim support services over the next three years to help survivors and witnesses through the justice process, such as through counselling and advice on attending court.

The late victims commissioner Baroness Helen Newlove had repeatedly raised concerns over victims services, and said in October that support can be the difference between a victim staying engaged or walking away from the justice process.

An annual survey of victims by the watchdog found less than half of respondents were confident the criminal justice system is effective or that they could get justice by reporting a crime.

The public gallery inside Court 2 at Inner London Crown (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

Incoming victims commissioner Claire Waxman, who will take up the role in the new year, welcomed the MoJ funding as a necessary step, but added: The sums pledged are not a silver bullet for the wider crisis facing the sector.

Ultimately, these services are crucial to a victims recovery  and they will be just as essential to the recovery of the justice system as a whole, she said.

Former Law Society president Richard Atkinson said the extra funding was welcome but only papers over the cracks and doesnt address the fundamental problems.

Elsewhere, Mr Lammy has committed to more sitting days in the crown court on top of a record number to help clear the backlog and a match-fund scheme to support more young people to begin their careers as criminal barristers.

A view of the affirmation card inside Inner London Crown Court (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

Ahead of the full details for reform, Magistrates Association chief executive Tom Franklin said measures that can speed up justice for victims, witnesses and defendants are worth considering  as long as they balance the efficiency with quality of justice.

He said the independent body will be looking for more details on how changes will be brought for magistrates courts in Tuesdays announcement, adding: To bring down the huge backlog in the crown courts, all parts of the courts system need to be resourced and supported, including the magistrates courts, which barely merit a mention in this mornings announcement.
Advance collaboration in education, academic exchange, internships, and curriculum enhancements

TOKYO, Dec. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- transcosmos is pleased to announce that transcosmos technology Vietnam co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam; CEO: Daisuke Kamada; transcosmos technology Vietnam), its wholly owned subsidiary providing agile software development services in Vietnam, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ho Chi Minh City University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology (HUFLIT). The signing ceremony took place at HUFLIT on November 24, 2025.

At the ceremony: Dr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, President of HUFLIT (center right) and Mr. Daisuke Kamada, CEO of transcosmos technology Vietnam (center left)

transcosmos technology Vietnam was established as a joint venture with Technologic Arts Co., Ltd. in 2014 and became a wholly owned subsidiary of transcosmos in 2017. As an agile software development company, transcosmos technology Vietnam offers solution development services for Japan and ASEAN nations. With many Drupal and Aqcuia certified engineersboth world-leading CMS platformsand qualified PMPs (Project Management Professional), the company also provides serverless application development services as a certified AWS Partner.

Founded in 1992, HUFLIT is the first private university in the Southern Vietnam and a pioneer in foreign language and information technology (IT) education. HUFLIT is recognized for producing graduates who are fluent in foreign languages and skilled in their fields, achieving an employment rate of 94% or higher. Students at HUFLIT actively take the lead in organizing innovative extracurricular activities and events. One of the university's key strengths is its proactive approach to collaboration with the Japanese government and Japanese companies.

transcosmos technology Vietnam and HUFLIT have previously collaborated on initiatives such as recruitment and career seminars. To strengthen and maintain this relationship, the two parties signed the MoU, which outlines cooperation in the following areas:

Educational collaboration: Expand job opportunities for students excelling in IT.

Academic exchange: Share knowledge and emerging technologies through seminars, etc.

Internship programs: Provide training opportunities to help students master practical skills.

Educational enhancement: Enable professors to visit companies and gain on-site knowledge to enrich classroom content.

Scholarship program: Award scholarships to two talented students annually, with a commitment to work at transcosmos technology Vietnam for two years post-graduation.

Comment from Dr. Nguyen Anh Tuan - President of HUFLIT university

"We are honored to sign this MoU with transcosmos technology Vietnam(TTV) and look forward to strengthening our partnership and creating a new collaborative framework together.

I have long held a deep respect and strong affinity for Japan and its culture, and have been striving to promote various types of exchanges and create opportunities for collaboration between Japan and Vietnam. Going beyond internal educational activities, HUFLIT actively supports students in building a stable career after graduation through corporate visits and internship programs. For example, we are focusing on organizing cultural exchange events and student exchange programs between the two countries, supporting career development, and increasing employment opportunities.

Mr. Kamada from TTV said: "Today, we live in an age where the evolution of AI enables us to gain superficial outputs instantly. However, in this changing landscape, I strongly believe that the value of communication, creative ideas, and fundamental learning - things that only humans can achieve - has become more critical than ever." I am profoundly impressed and reassured because these values align perfectly with HUFLIT's educational policies.

Building on these shared values, we aim to deepen our collaborative relationship and continue sharing knowledge and activities going forward. I am confident that this partnership will be fruitful for both parties, and we look forward to working together with you."

Comment from Mr. Daisuke Kamada - CEO at transcosmos technology Vietnam

"We are sincerely grateful for signing this memorandum of cooperation between HUFLIT and transcosmos technology Vietnam.

Through its innovative curriculum that integrates foreign language education and information technology, HUFLIT produces talent equipped with both global perspectives and advanced IT skills. I would like to take this moment to express my deep respect for the university's educational vision and achievements. HUFLIT prioritizes collaboration with companies and providing students with practical learning experiences, which perfectly aligns with our future direction.

Today, we live in an age where the evolution of AI enables us to gain superficial outputs instantly. However, in this changing landscape, I strongly believe that the value of communication, creative ideas, and fundamental learning - things that only humans can achieve - has become more critical than ever. Some raise concerns that AI will take away educational opportunities. We will adapt to this changing landscape and leverage AI while promoting education that fosters capabilities only humans possess - together with HUFLIT.

This MoU is not merely for sharing knowledge; it is a first step toward developing next-generation talent who possess both practical skills and creative ideas. We will fully support students be work-ready by proactively sharing the latest technologies and know-how we have accumulated in real-world workplaces.

We sincerely hope that this collaboration will shape the future of students and contribute to the further development of Vietnam's IT industry. Lastly, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to all parties at HUFLIT for your effort and support. We hope to build a strong and lasting relationship with you. Thank you very much again."

HUFLIT website: https://huflit.edu.vn/en/

University introduction on Consulate General of Japan in Ho Chi Minh City website (English translation not available): https://www.hcmcgj.vn.emb-japan.go.jp/files/100581012.pdf

*transcosmos is a trademark or registered trademark of transcosmos inc. in Japan and other countries.

*Other company names and product or service names used here are trademarks or registered trademarks of respective companies.

About transcosmos inc.

transcosmos launched its operations in 1966. Since then, we have united superior "people" with up-to-date "technology" to enhance the competitive strength of our clients by providing them with superior and valuable services. transcosmos currently offers services that support clients' business processes focusing on both sales expansion and cost optimization through our 184 bases across 36 countries/regions with a focus on Asia, while continuously pursuing Operational Excellence. Furthermore, following the expansion of e-commerce market on the global scale, transcosmos provides a comprehensive One-Stop Global E-Commerce Services to deliver our clients' excellent products and services to consumers in 46 countries/regions around the globe. transcosmos aims to be the "Global Digital Transformation Partner" of our clients, supporting the clients' transformation by leveraging digital technology, responding to the ever-changing business environment. Visit us here https://www.trans-cosmos.co.jp/english/

SOURCE transcosmos inc.
Luigi Mangione is due back in court for the second day of a hearing in his bid to bar New York prosecutors from using some key evidence they say links him to last years killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Various law enforcement officers are expected to take the witness stand.

The pretrial hearing in Mangiones state murder case started on Monday with prosecutors playing surveillance videos of the killing on a Manhattan street and security footage of his arrest five days later at a McDonalds in Pennsylvania.

Lawyers for Mangione, 27, want to block prosecutors from showing or telling jurors at his eventual Manhattan trial about statements he allegedly made and items authorities said they seized from his backpack during his arrest.

Luigi Mangione, centre, appears in court (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool)

The objects include a 9mm handgun that prosecutors say matches the one used in the killing and a notebook in which they say Mangione described his intent to wack a health insurance executive.

The defence contends the items should be excluded because police did not get a warrant before searching Mangiones backpack.

They also want to suppress some statements Mangione made to law enforcement personnel, such as allegedly giving a false name, because officers started asking questions before telling him he had a right to remain silent.

The laws concerning how police interact with potential suspects before reading their rights or obtaining search warrants are complex and often disputed in criminal cases.

In Mangiones case, crucial questions will include whether he believed he was free to leave at the point when he spoke to the arresting officers, and whether there were exigent circumstances that merited searching his backpack before getting a warrant.

Mangione, the Ivy League-educated son of a wealthy Maryland family, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges.

The state charges carry the possibility of life in prison, while federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Neither trial has been scheduled.

Mangiones lawyers want to bar evidence from both cases, but this weeks hearing pertains only to the state case.

Luigi Mangione appears in court for an evidence hearing (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool)

Manhattan prosecutors have not yet laid out their arguments for allowing the disputed evidence. Their federal counterparts have said in court filings that police were justified in searching the backpack to ensure there were no dangerous items and that Mangiones statements to officers were voluntary and made before he was under arrest.

Five witnesses testified on Monday, including a Pennsylvania prison officer who said Mangione told him that, when arrested, he had a backpack with foreign currency and a 3D-printed pistol.

Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting Mr Thompson from behind as the executive walked to a midtown Manhattan hotel for his companys annual investor conference on December 4, 2024.

Prosecutors say delay, deny and depose were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase insurance industry critics use to describe how companies avoid paying claims.

Mr Thompson, 50, worked at the giant UnitedHealth Group for 20 years and became CEO of its insurance arm in 2021. He was married and had children who were in high school.

Mangione was arrested as he ate breakfast at a McDonalds in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles west of Manhattan.

The restaurants manager had told a 911 dispatcher: I have a customer here that some other customers were suspicious of  that he looks like the CEO shooter from New York.

The manager said she could only see Mangiones eyebrows because he had a beanie pulled down close to his eyes and was wearing a medical face mask.

Court officials say the hearing could take more than a week.
Bennington, VT (05201)

Today

Cloudy with snow showers mainly during the morning. High 23F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 60%..

Tonight

On and off snow showers this evening. Breaks in the overcast later. Low 13F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 30%.
Bennington, VT (05201)

Today

Scattered snow showers during the morning. Then partly to mostly cloudy this afternoon. High 24F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 30%..

Tonight

A few snow showers around this evening, otherwise mostly cloudy. Low 13F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 30%.
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LINDON, Utah, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Trucordia, a top 20 U.S. insurance brokerage, today announced its acquisition of Osborn Insurance, an insurance business based in Brick, New Jersey. Since 2000, Osborn Insurance has served families, individuals, and businesses across New Jersey with customized insurance solutions for auto, home, business, and health insurance.

"We are excited to welcome the Osborn Insurance team to Trucordia," said Felix Morgan, CEO of Trucordia. "Their focus on honesty, individualized service, and proven experience guiding clients through every step of the insurance process makes them an ideal addition to our company as we continue to grow our presence in New Jersey and the Northeast."

Osborn Insurance is known for treating every client as a valued partner that hand-selects solutions, provides dedicated support through the claims process, and fosters relationships based on trust. The business addresses a wide range of client needs, specializing in unique, personalized solutions for businesses, individuals, and families.

The addition of Osborn Insurance reinforces Trucordia's commitment to growing with insurance businesses that share its high standards for client-focused service and regional knowledge.

About Trucordia

Trucordia is the group name for a top 20 U.S. insurance brokerage headquartered in Lindon, Utah. The Trucordia group of companies offers a broad array of commercial and personal lines, life and health, and employee benefits insurance solutions. Trucordia is an integrated organization united by a passion to deliver extraordinary opportunities and exceptional experiences for its clients, partners, and each other. With more than 5,000 team members across the U.S., Trucordia is a notable leader in the insurance brokerage space, ranking #18 on Business Insurance's 2025 Top 100 Brokers and #16 on Insurance Journal's 2025 Top Property/Casualty Agencies. Visit trucordia.com for more information.

SOURCE Trucordia
SHEFFIELD  Voters on Monday overwhelmingly approved spending nearly $6 million to purchase and renovate a building to serve as the town highway garage.

About 60 residents gathered in the Mount Everett Regional High School auditorium for a special town meeting to weigh in on three articles that would cost a total of $6.12 million.

Voters also approved spending $200,000 to replace the Lime Kiln Road bridge and $20,000 on funding for additional legal expenses.

Article 1, which was approved 54-4, allows borrowing $5.9 million for the design and construction of a town garage at 48 Sheffield Business Park. The funds include renovating the building, which was built in 2009, to accommodate storage of the large equipment, and include a wash bay, salt shed and fueling station.

Taxes are expected to increase up to $300 a year. At a previous meeting, voters already approved purchasing the building, which is on 4 acres of land, for $1 million.

For 50 years, the highway department has used a garage that was meant to be a temporary space. That building, on Pike Road, will now be used for cold storage.

The current site is so small, according to Select Board Chair Lee Buttala, that workers have to crawl out the windows of vehicles once they are parked.

"We don't really think that's how we want people to work that we hope to retain," Buttala said. "We're hoping that this safe work environment will encourage our staff to stay on and for us to retain them. There's a real shortage of highway workers in the region currently, and we have a strong team that we would really like to hold in place as part of this process."

He added that Tuesday's expected snowstorm is a great example of how the workers are crucial to the community and in need of a space that supports that.

"This facility allows them to have a place to go to as they're doing these long runs in a snowstorm, both to refuel, to get more salt, to reenergize themselves  particularly for long storms like the one predicted for tomorrow," Buttala said.

Three groupings of select boards have worked on this project, and now Buttala said next steps will begin so the garage can be used as quickly as possible, likely in 2027.

During about 30 minutes of discussion and questions, voters described their gratitude for finding a way to lower by nearly $10 million the estimated cost of the project by finding a site that is already built and just needs renovation.

"I would like to congratulate whoever in this town figured out how to spend that money, millions of less dollars, by finding this new site," resident Neil Chamberlain said. "Thank you whoever was responsible for that."

Though the vote wasn't quite unanimous, passage of the motion drew a round of applause because this is "a long time coming," Buttala said.

The final two articles received few comments. Article 2 to move $200,000 from the stabilization fund for the town's share of the Lime Kiln Road bridge was approved 58-1. The state Department of Transportation will cover the rest of the cost.

"We are really excited at the prospect of having a second bridge repaired for the town when we know the towns around us have really been struggling," Buttala said.

Article 3, which sought $20,000 for legal fees, passed 54 to 4.
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In the 5th Century B.C., the scribe Ezra made a bold choice while leading a group of Israelites back to Jerusalem after a period of exile. He chose not to ask for help from King Artaxerxes, although he was certain that the king would have provided an escort to keep the Israelites safe.

Ezra had total faith in Gods protection, and God rewarded his faith by leading the exiles safely back to Jerusalem. But some of his contemporaries opted to accept help from earthly sources: does this make such men less faithful? Or was Ezra acting like a fool?

Historical Context of This Passage

God placed it on the heart of King Cyrus of Persia to let the people of Israel return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple. A writer at The Bible Project summarizes it this way: Its with all these hopes in mind that we read the story of Zerubbabel. [...] He represents the generation born in Babylonian captivity, and he leads a wave of people back to Jerusalem [where] they rebuild the altar for offering sacrifices and later the temple itself.

But this return was not without danger, as Ezra discovered when he brought more exiles home several decades later. He sought to lead them towards social and spiritual renewal. By the time Ezra was leading a remnant back to Jerusalem, Artaxerxes was king of a huge empire, of which Israel was but a small part.

The people were traveling across a dangerous expanse of desert; commentators tell us armed bandits often attacked unprotected caravans. It would have been a simple matter of asking the king for help and a military guard would have been sent to keep the people and their goods safe from marauders. Nehemiah, the kings cup bearer who embarked upon a mission similar to Ezras, was escorted by officers of the infantry and cavalry provided by King Artaxerxes (Nehemiah 2:9). He did not reject this escort. In both cases, the exiles returned to Jerusalem unharmed.

Ezra Chooses Gods Protection

As far as Ezra was concerned, if he had asked for an armed guard around himself and his companions, this would have been inconsistent with his boasting about the Lords power and protection over his people. Alexander MacLaren explained that Ezra remembered how confidently he has spoken of Gods defense, and he feels that he must be true to his professed creed, even if it deprives him of the kings guards. His actions demonstrate confident faith in the Lords ability and willingness to protect his people.

Ezra starts his journey, but then reaches a boundary line beyond which he knows that the risks will escalate. He halts his followers for three days at the last station before the desert, and there, with fasting and prayer, they put themselves in Gods hand before they fling themselves into the dangers of the long, dreary, robber-haunted march. He remembered before the most dangerous stretch to gather his small band of Israelites into humble corporate prayer.

Ezra was being consistent, putting his money where his mouth was. He had declared proudly that his God is more powerful than the kings of Persia.

Should we take from Ezras example that if we are in trouble, we should only pray and not ask for support from others; or that we can plunge headlong into danger without asking God for direction, and expect him to rescue us because his angels surround and protect us (Psalm 91:11)? Or that rescue always looks like winning the physical battle against our opponents and oppressors, avoiding bodily discomfort or even trauma?

How do we determine the difference between trusting the Lord when we face potential conflict and foolishly plunging into danger? Was Ezra wise to trust or was he testing the Lord, finding favor in spite of foolishness?

Marks of Faithful Action

One thing that sets Ezras actions apart is that he truly trusted the Lords power. We can infer this by the fact that Darius acknowledged the mans relationship with the Lord. Ezra 7:6 notes that the hand of the Lord was upon him, and in Ezra 8:18 the writer says the gracious hand of our God was upon us.

Something about the way this man lived his life, humble and obedient to the law of Moses, declared to his earthly ruler that God was more powerful than they were. King Darius decreed that whatever is commanded by the God of heaven must be done diligently for the house of the God of the heavens, so that wrath will not fall on the realm of the king and his sons (Ezra 7:23).

Gods power was historically apparent to the Kings of Persia. The Lord was known for causing Israel to defeat their enemies in spectacular ways, such as the parting of the Red Sea. But Darius and Artaxerxes were also influenced by their predecessor, Cyrus, who was moved to issue a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom (Ezra 1:1) that Israel should now be permitted to return and rebuild their great city.

Ezras character affirmed what they already knew: even kings of enormous kingdoms were no match for Almighty God. As MacLaren wrote, Ezra did not boast from behind the skirts of the king, or from the middle of a phalanx of his soldiers. He clearly meant what he said, and believed every word of it as a prose fact, which was solid enough to build conduct on.

But there was another feature of Ezras faith which influenced the outcome of their trek across dangerous territory. After already deciding what he would do, Ezra called everyone to fast and pray. Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods (Ezra 8:21).

Scripture often shows people fasting and praying to emphasize earnest seeking of divine intervention, guidance, and transformation. Esther 4, Daniel 9, and Exodus 34 are among the many examples of Gods people showing how badly they need the Lords intervention in their time of greatest need or distress. Fasting adds humility and desperation to ones prayers. Jesus expects us to fast when we are especially troubled in our prayers and our need is great (Matthew 6). Says MacLaren, even though he is sure of Gods goodness and power, Ezra fasts and prays for protection. He prays because he is sure that he will receive it, and does receive it because he prays and is sure.

No Harm in Asking

MacLaren asserts that asking for help would have been reasonable, not treasonous towards God. He would not have been leaning on an arm of flesh by availing himself of the royal troops.

As we see, Nehemiah sought a military escort (Nehemiah 2:9). The text surrounding his actions does not suggest that he was any less faithful. Later in Nehemiah, the men took turns working and guarding their people. Nehemiah wrote that he and his men never took off our clothes. Each carried his weapon, even when washing (Neh. 4:23). Under his leadership, Nehemiah and his cohort successfully rebuilt the wall in a shockingly quick period of time.

Taking up arms is not in itself problematic. In Number 1:1-3, God instructed Moses to take a census and prepare his men for military service. In the Book of Joshua, God instructs Israel to destroy their enemy. And Jesus did not court danger unnecessarily. He avoided being stoned to death by his own people after preaching in Nazareth, escaping through the crowd as they pursued him. There are many times in the Bible when the Lord calls his people to defend themselves or to run away from danger. Romans 12:18 instructs If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Going into battle should be the last resort and give the Christian no pleasure. Whenever possible, we are told to ask God for help and avoid a fight.

We also know that self-help is not the answer. God will meet us in our weakness when we ask him. Come to me, all you who are weary, and I will give you rest, says Matthew 11:28. He has told us that his power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). We can only witness Gods power when we acknowledge our frailty.

On the other hand, seeking an alliance with other nations was potentially an act of disobedience to the Lord. Isaiah 30 discusses this problem, where Gods people seek help from the nation of Egypt, their former oppressors. The problem, as Isaiah describes it, is twofold: forgetting to ask God for his direction and acting against Gods instructions. Woe to the rebellious children! Israel made an alliance against my will [and] without asking my advice (Isaiah 30:1-2). They were rebellious and foolish.

When to Ask, and Whom to Ask

Clearly, there are Scripturally sound reasons to put up a fight against our enemies. But there are also times to walk in peace and simply avoid conflict, which can be a form of resistance too. Matthew 4:5-7 helps us here.

When the devil took [Jesus] to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, [he] said to him, if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, [...]. Jesus said to him, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

We do not put ourselves in gratuitously perilous situations in order to demonstrate that God loves us and is powerful. Entering a dangerous place alone at night with the hope of sharing the gospel could be foolish if you do so because you were taunted - if your God is so great he will protect you! If you can do the same work by daylight with a group of friends, why choose the most obviously perilous activity?

The motivation behind our decision to enter conflict should not be that someone goads us into proving our faith or proving that our God is good. We must not let Satan provoke us to test God, but let the Lord direct our steps into whatever he might have for us, including danger.

Jesus declared that we have power, too, which comes from him: Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you (Luke 10:19). But since we know Jesus and his disciples suffered, the power he gives us is not primarily physical, though it might at times take physical shape: this is the power to stand up for others, to stand up for our faith, and to glorify God when the enemy wants to crush our spirit.

An Armed Escort

Gods protection is available and, in fact, always taking place in the spiritual realm, the scene of unseen warfare. Hebrews 1:14 refers to ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation  angels.

We have a guard posted over us all the time, a guard ready to move when we call for help. God fights for us when we call on him, by his own power, in his own holy way, for his glory and our sanctification. We are foolhardy if we ignore or deny the more powerful reality which we cannot see. The fight we engage in is one of faith (1 Timothy 6:12). Faith in ourselves will lead to foolishness, unlike faith in a trustworthy Father. Remaining under the coverage of Christs blood is always wise; this cloak is sufficient to protect us against our greatest enemy, which is death itself.

Photo credit: Getty Images/Klaus Vedfelt

Candice Lucey is a freelance writer from British Columbia, Canada, where she lives with her family. Find out more about her here.
Biomoneta receives US FDA approval for air-decontamination medical device

December 02, 2025 | Tuesday | News

Air-decontamination solutions that prevent the spread of infections across hospitals, healthcare facilities, and critical biotechnology environments

Biomoneta, a Bengaluru-based healthtech company building advanced air-decontamination technologies, has announced that its flagship product Avata Rx, powered by its proprietary ZeBox microbicidal technology, has received approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA), marking the first time an Indian company has achieved FDA clearance in the air-decontamination category.

Biomoneta enters the global arena at a time when the clean-air and infection-prevention sector is undergoing rapid transformation, with a combined global TAM spanning Healthcare Facilities ($1520 billion), Consumer/Residential Air Purifiers ($1720 billion), Commercial & Industrial HVAC Clean-Air systems ($5060 billion), HVAC OEM clean-air modules ($2030 billion), and Transportation IAQ solutions ($812 billion), and its FDA approval now positions the company to access regulated markets that require clinically validated air-decontamination technologies, unlocking significant global pathways for adoption.

Avata Rx, powered by ZeBox, delivers broad-spectrum microbicidal action that inactivates airborne bacteria (including multidrug-resistant strains), viruses, fungi, hardy spores, and even Mycobacterium tuberculosis, one of the most difficult airborne pathogens to eliminate and, having been independently validated across multiple testing environments, including a Department of Biotechnologyfunded IISc study that demonstrated its ability to destroy over 10 million airborne SARS-CoV-2 viral particles within 5 minutes, it now stands as one of the most scientifically validated air-decontamination technologies globally.


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Enhancing old-age finance prioritized

09:38, December 02, 2025 By JIANG XUEQING ( China Daily

China is accelerating efforts to expand old-age finance, as regions across the country unveil new policies setting key tasks for the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), while banks step up strategic planning, product innovation and business development to support the sector.

Earlier this month, the National Financial Regulatory Administration Guangdong Office issued its implementation plan for promoting high-quality development of old-age finance in Guangdong province, introducing 15 specific measures and setting clear development goals.

Guangdong aims to establish a province-specific old-age finance system by 2028, featuring a broader array of products and business models. By the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the province expects eldercare financial services to become more targeted and efficient, pension fund investments to be more mature and stable, and a virtuous cycle to take shape linking old-age finance, senior services and the broader silver economy.

Guangdong's approach is not unique. This year, several provinces and cities, including Jilin province; Chongqing; and Qingdao, Shandong province, also deployed initiatives to advance old-age finance.

The NFRA Qingdao Office, together with 13 municipal government departments, unveiled a three-year action plan (2025-27) for the high-quality development of old-age finance in the coastal port city. The plan sets out 12 key tasks, integrating financial services with medical insurance, civil affairs and eldercare services. It also guides the development of diversified product matrices, encourages exploration of cross-border old-age finance pilot programs and enhances senior-friendly financial services.

The NFRA Jilin Office said it is actively advancing old-age finance initiatives to build a multitiered and sustainable eldercare financial system. It encourages insurers to expand commercial annuity products and strengthen financing support and risk protection for the eldercare sector, and it urges financial institutions to optimize financial services for seniors.

Official statistics show that by the end of 2024, China's population aged 60 and above reached 310 million. Currently, the number of seniors with disabilities or dementia has exceeded 45 million.

The development of the eldercare sector requires close cooperation between financial institutions and eldercare enterprises, and must proceed in a sustainable, replicable and affordable direction, said Niu Laibao, chief accountant of Genertec Health &Senior Care.

Gao Chengyun, director of the China Research Center on Aging, said that China now has 170 million people aged between 60 and 69  a demographic that is displaying new consumption patterns. Gao said another 280 million people born between 1962 and 1972 are steadily approaching old age  a generation that benefited from the reform and opening-up period and has strong wealth-building capacity.

Gao said that China's elderly population is undergoing a structural upgrade, with growing demand for senior-friendly, smart, health-focused and financial products, adding that the need for care and rehabilitation services will only become more pressing.

A survey report released by China CITIC Bank on Nov 21 showed that respondents' core demands regarding old-age finance have shifted from mere capital preservation and appreciation to integrated services combining finance with health, care and leisure.

The joint study, conducted by China CITIC Bank and CITIC Group subsidiaries via both online platforms and offline interviews, collected 10,137 valid samples from those aged 18 and above across 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.

The survey shows that 70 percent of respondents want financial institutions to not only manage their money well, but also to connect them with high-quality health management and medical services. Nearly 60 percent expressed interest in financial products bundled with senior care facility services. Nearly 50 percent said they hope to access travel-based retirement services.

China's banking sector has placed great importance on old-age finance. China Construction Bank is advancing its old-age financial services system, prioritizing the eldercare sector in credit allocation and offering differentiated support policies. The bank is expanding diversified financing channels and continuously enriching its product offerings to provide multi-scenario, comprehensive and multilevel health and eldercare services.

On Nov 11, Industrial Bank released a white paper on the development of old-age finance. The document said that China's old-age finance sector is likely to trend toward more systematic management of eldercare funds, diversified wealth accumulation products, more personalized financial services supply, more senior-friendly online and offline services, diversified financing methods for the eldercare sector and greater intelligence in the silver economy.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Funds raised during the Foundation's Decade of Giving Gala will be used to award grants to nonprofits with housing and financial literacy initiatives across the United States.

STRONGSVILLE, Ohio, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Union Home Foundation, the charitable arm of Union Home Mortgage whose mission is to equip families with the tools and resources needed to achieve economic self-sufficiency, raised more than $300,000 during the organization's Decade of Giving fundraising gala on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025. These funds will be used to fund grants for nonprofits across the country, specifically for initiatives in housing and financial literacy.

The Union Home Foundation presented a $50,000 donation to Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity during their Decade of Giving Gala on Nov. 14, 2025.

The biennial fundraiser, with a theme celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the Foundation's incorporation, saw over 450 guests in attendance at the Huntington Convention Center in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. The event featured both silent and live auctions, with appearances by WKYC meteorologist Betsy Kling, legendary radio personality Ed "Flash" Ferenc, President & CEO of Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity John Litten, and City of Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb. During the program, the Union Home Foundation also presented a $50,000 donation to Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity.

This was not the first time that the Union Home Foundation presented a large sum to Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity  during the organization's gala in 2023, they presented $50,000 to the nonprofit, resulting in Union Home Mortgage's sponsorship of a Habitat home in Cleveland. That home build was completed in April 2025. Now, following the 2025 gala, the Foundation plans to build another home with Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity.

"Looking back on where we started ten years ago, I am so proud of where the Union Home Foundation is today," said Bill Cosgrove, CEO of Union Home Mortgage and Board Chairman of the Union Home Foundation. "I'm excited to see what the next ten years will look like for us and how our impact can continue to grow."

"Our UHM Partners are deeply woven into the fabric of the Union Home Foundation, and our goal has always been to provide an avenue for them to express their generosity and kindness," said Ashley Ali, Director of Corporate Communications. "We are so grateful that we get to do this important work with the backing of our UHM Partners. We also thank all our wonderful event sponsors, including presenting sponsor Vantage Financial Group, for their generous support."

Since its inception in 2015, the Union Home Foundation has distributed more than $2 million in financial support to nonprofits in over 23 states. For more information on the Union Home Mortgage Foundation, visit https://www.uhm.com/foundation/.

About the Union Home Foundation

The Union Home Foundation was established in 2015 as the charitable arm of independent mortgage banking company Union Home Mortgage Corp (UHM). The Foundation's mission is to equip individuals and families with the tools and resources to achieve economic self-sufficiency, specifically through financial literacy and housing. The Foundation has awarded over $2 million since its inception toward these programs to help guide families on a pathway towards responsible homeownership. Union Home Mortgage Corp. is a high-growth, full-service retail, wholesale, and consumer direct lender with over 150 branches across the U.S. To learn more about Union Home Mortgage and its efforts in the community, please visit https://www.uhm.com/foundation/.

SOURCE Union Home Mortgage
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New analysis by Karen Johnson, Ed.D., connects career autonomy to reduced burnout and stronger resilienceand offers practical steps for employers and workers

PHOENIX, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- University of Phoenix College of Doctoral Studies announced the publication of "Reclaiming Control: Autonomy as the Key to Workforce Resilience and Career Optimism," a new white paper by Karen Johnson, Ed.D. The report argues that restoring a sense of autonomy is essential to reducing record-high burnout and strengthening organizational resilience.

Drawing on findings from several years of the University's Career Optimism Index study, Johnson highlights an "autonomy crisis" in the U.S. workforce: 21% of workers say their control over their professional future has declined, while 51% report burnoutthe highest level since tracking began. The paper frames autonomy within Conservation of Resources theory and outlines how access to skill-building and effective use of AI can restore agency, optimism, and adaptability.

"Autonomy is the missing link between coping and truly thriving at work," said Johnson. "When organizations invest in skill-building and equip people to use AI responsibly, employees gain the control and clarity they need to reduce burnout and build resilience."

Among the findings: workers who feel in control of their careers are significantly less likely to experience burnout (45% vs. 70%), report higher motivation and adaptability, and benefit when employers prioritize internal mobility, targeted upskilling, and responsible AI training. The paper details recommendations for leaders and employees to embed autonomy in role design, development pathways, and day-to-day work.

Johnson is a University Research Methodologist with the College of Doctoral Studies and a research methodology group leader in the Center for Educational and Instructional Technology Research (CEITR). She has served as University of Phoenix faculty since 2005 and is an active contributor to researcher development and publication initiatives.

The full white paper is available at the University of Phoenix Career Institute webpage or the College of Doctoral Studies' Research Hub.

About University of Phoenix

University of Phoenix innovates to help working adults enhance their careers and develop skills in a rapidly changing world. Flexible schedules, relevant courses, interactive learning, skills-mapped curriculum for our bachelor's and master's degree programs and a Career Services for Life commitment help students more effectively pursue career and personal aspirations while balancing their busy lives. For more information, visit phoenix.edu.

About the College of Doctoral Studies

University of Phoenix's College of Doctoral Studies focuses on today's challenging business and organizational needs, from addressing critical social issues to developing solutions to accelerate community building and industry growth. The College's research program is built around the Scholar, Practitioner, Leader Model which puts students in the center of the Doctoral Education Ecosystem with experts, resources and tools to help prepare them to be a leader in their organization, industry and community. Through this program, students and researchers work with organizations to conduct research that can be applied in the workplace in real time.

SOURCE University of Phoenix
A convicted murderer has been granted leave to pursue a High Court challenge against the Minister for Justice over a separate conviction he received in his absence in Portugal, which allegedly "prejudices" him in his efforts to get to an open prison.

Double-Killer Derek Wade says his rehabilitation and ability to move to an open prison in Ireland is being prejudiced because he cannot be granted bail with the Portuguese extradition warrant outstanding, affecting his parole efforts.

Wade is serving a life sentence, having been found guilty by a jury in 2007 of the murder of Chinese student Zhi Song, whom Wade stabbed to death with a chefs carving knife after breaking into his house in June 2005.

He also received a five-year sentence for trying to rob another resident of a house on Reuben Avenue, Xiau Wen Zhou, of her purse on the same occasion.

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Wade (45), formerly of Church Avenue South, Rialto, has also served a separate seven-year sentence for killing William Cahill (28) in a flat complex off Jamess Street in 1997. Wade and another man repeatedly kicked their victim in the head following a row after a party.

A European Arrest Warrant from August 2022, issued by Portuguese authorities sought the surrender of Wade to Portugal to enforce a sentence of two years and four months' imprisonment for both aggravated and petty theft committed in June 2005.

Wade was convicted of the thefts in his absence in 2009 in Portugal, when he was in custody here. The entirety of the sentence remains to be served, and Wade applied to have that sentence transferred to Ireland.

Mr Justice Kerida Naidoo granted the request by Portuguese authorities in June 2023 seeking the extradition of Wade for the thefts.

The surrender was postponed on the basis that Wade is still a prisoner serving a sentence in the State.

Wade's lawyers submitted that "the remand in custody on the EAW has caused him prejudice because it impacted on his ability to progress with the prison system, in particular to progress to an open prison", which would be a factor in Parole Board recommendations.

"The applicant [Wade] could not by law be granted bail on the EAW matter pursuant to the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003," it is submitted.

Wade had objected to his surrender on a number of grounds, including the delay in issuing the warrant and the consequences of being remanded in custody.

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In January 2024, Wade asked authorities here to allow him to serve the Portuguese sentence in this jurisdiction, but no decision has been made by the Minister for Justice on the transfer request.

An order is sought from the High Court directing the Minister to consider and determine the application, and his lawyers submit there is a statutory duty on the Minister to make that decision "within a reasonable period of time".

"The outstanding decision is causing the applicant prejudice in respect of him stepping down to an open prison and availing of temporary release," it is submitted.

Wade's next parole hearing is in December 2026.

At the High Court this week, Fiona Murphy SC, for Wade, successfully applied for leave for a judicial review in the matter. Ms Justice Mary Rose Gearty granted leave and adjourned the case to February.
A banned growth hormone that EU scientific authorities have deemed a complete carcinogen has been discovered in Brazilian beef imported into EU markets, triggering a recall and fuelling an escalating political storm over the proposed Mercosur trade agreement.

The EU has prohibited the use of hormones for growth promotion in livestock since 1981, including substances such as oestradiol-17, which was found in frozen Brazilian beef in Italy.

Scientific committees advising the EU have repeatedly concluded that oestradiol-17 must be considered a complete carcinogen with both tumour-initiating and tumour-promoting effects.

The discovery of such banned substances in Brazilian beef has now become the central flashpoint in the EUMercosur trade debate, with Irish MEPs and farm leaders warning that public health, environmental protections, and fair competition are at risk.

'A serious wake-up call

The recent recall, combined with the findings of a joint IFA/Irish Farmers Journal investigation into Brazilian production standards, has intensified industry alarm.

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Deputy editor of the Irish Farmers Journal, Adam Woods, said farmers want a level playing field.

They want the beef that comes into the EU to be the very same as we produce any beef that comes into that market should be held to the same rigour as the beef that is produced here.

IFA President Francie Gorman said the findings should be a serious wake up call for what he described as the cheerleaders advocating for the Mercosur deal.

This was randomly discovered, to be clear, and it shows that the controls which we were told were in place, are not This beef needs to be stopped coming into the EU as a matter of urgency.

Gorman said the recall proves that assurances about safeguards will never be in place. He also called on Tanaiste and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris to clarify his partys stance.

The Programme for Government is very clear, he said, quoting its commitment to work against the current Mercosur trade deal.

He argued that food imports should be removed from the agreement entirely.

The so-called safeguards make no reference to public health The EU authorities cannot have any faith in the control systems in Brazil. Ignoring this is putting public and consumer health at risk.

Mercosur trade agreement

The EU and Mercosur countries, which include Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, reached a political breakthrough on the partnership agreement in December 2024.

The European Commission published proposals for the signature and conclusion of the deal in September 2025.

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If ratified, the Mercosur partnership agreement would become one of the largest trade accords in the world.

However, resistance is mounting rapidly as Irish and European lawmakers cite environmental, agricultural, and now public-health concerns stemming from the hormone discovery.

The European Parliament is expected to vote on safeguard measures later this month, with the broader trade agreement facing uncertain prospects amid intensifying scrutiny.

Fianna Fail MEP Billy Kelleher said the beef component of the Mercosur deal is now not acceptable and confirmed he will vote against the agreement in the European Parliament later this month.

In recent weeks, we have seen recalls of Brazilian beef due to the use of prohibited hormones that have been proven to cause cancer, he said.

Kelleher added that recent media investigations had shown just how lax the controls on the use of antibiotics are in Brazil".

He warned that increased beef imports would drive further destruction of the Amazon rainforest and displace indigenous communities.

We need to be honest with ourselves  an increase in Brazilian beef exports to Europe will result in the further destruction of the Amazonian rainforest and the displacement of indigenous people. This is morally and ethically wrong in my opinion.

He criticised the EU Commission for sacrificing agriculture in exchange for benefits for other sectors, such as car exports.

Fundamentally, in order to reach an agreement, elements of the Mercosur trade deal, i.e. the beef important segment, have been compromised in order to secure an agreement which would benefit other parts of the economy, such as car exports.

This is not acceptable to me. While safeguards have supposedly been put in place, they ultimately rely on the national competent authorities in Mercosur countries to implement them and play by our rules.

"Quite frankly, I dont have enough trust in these authorities."
The prison service is at breaking point due to an overcrowding crisis.

That is one of the findings from the Irish Penal Reform Trust's 2024 progress report.

It found that the system had regressed in 11 areas, including humane prison conditions, time out of cell, and the use of force and restraints.

No one should be expected to live in those conditions, Executive Director of the Trust, Sarah Brady, told Newstalks.

"Yesterday there were over 600 people sleeping on a mattress on the floor of a prison cell, beside a toilet, an open toilet that others have to use in front of them, theres just a lack of dignity, the Irish prison system is overwhelmed, its overstretched, and it just cant uphold the fundamental rights of so many people in its care," Ms Brady said.

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However, creating more space will not help alleviate the prison overcrowding crisis on its own, the Trust said.

The report also said that Ireland is falling behind in its care for prisoners.

The prison population exceeded 5,000 for the first time last year, while around 600 prisoners are sleeping on mattresses on the floor.

It is not as simple as building more prisons, Ms Brady said.

"Everyone from the inspector of Prisons to the European Committee in the Prevention of Torture and ourselves agree you cannot build your way out of an overcrowding crisis, particularly when it costs over 100,000 to keep a person in prison for a year, that money would be better and more wisely invested in supports to ensure that that person doesnt reoffend," she said.
Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan is expected to bring a memo to Cabinet on Tuesday in relation to tasers for gardai.

It is understood that 128 frontline gardai are to be trained up, under a six-month pilot project that could start as early as this week.

If approved, the plan would be introduced in three garda divisions to start, in Dublin, Waterford and Kilkenny.

It would be the first time gardai are armed with tasers, and would mark a significant step up for An Garda Siochana, whose frontline personnel are not armed.

Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly has been considering the proposals in a bid to better tackle serious violent confrontations.

However, informed sources stressed to The Irish Times that there is no consideration being given to arming uniformed gardai with firearms, like other police forces in Europe.

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The stun guns have only been used by the Gardas specialist units, including the Emergency Response Unit and Armed Support Unit, until now.

Under the new proposal being brought to Cabinet on Tuesday by Mr O'Callaghan, the use of tasers would be extended to a group of uniformed frontline gardai responding to 999 calls.

The areas involved in trialling the tasers have been chosen for the pilot project, up to six months because they are also the divisions where body-worn cameras are currently being trialled.

The aim by senior gardai and Department of Justice officials is to determine how the tasers work, especially how they impact the garda relationship with the public, The Irish Times reported.

They believe this can best be done by reviewing the body-worn camera footage of incidents where tasers are drawn or used by gardai.

The trial would evaluate whether producing a taser, without the need to discharge it, had the effect of calming volatile situations.

The ethical, human rights and community impact of gardai carrying Tasers would also be under review.

Uniformed gardai must, at present, rely on their ability to verbally de-escalate violent situations, including where knives or firearms are a factor. They must call for backup from armed colleagues in more dangerous situations.

If approved by Cabinet, the tasers would be rolled out immediately, in a move that would likely be welcomed by garda staff associations, at a time when more than 300 gardai are assaulted each year.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy's visit to Ireland and the death of Hugh Wallace are just some of a variety of stories on Irish front pages on Tuesday morning.

The Irish Times lead with an extensive security operation being in place for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiys visit to Ireland, the potential use of tasers by gardai on Irish city streets, and Councillors not having the power to dename Herzog Park.

The Irish Examiner lead with the WHO urging weight loss jab access, gardai commencing the pilot use of tasers, Ukrainian president Zelenskiys visit to Ireland, and the public being urged to get the flu vaccination.

The Irish Independent lead with thousands of Irish people being affected as the UK close a pension loophole.

The Echo lead with a surge in homelessness in Cork and Kerry.

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The Belfast Telegraph lead with a coroner praising the family of a drink driver who died on Christmas Eve last year, allowing his inquest to act as a Christmas warning to others.

The Irish Daily Mail lead with overcrowding in the prison system.

The Irish Daily Star lead with the death of Hugh Wallace.

The Herald lead with a second man admitting to disposing of the body parts of Keane Mulready Woods.

The Irish Daily Mirror lead with the funeral of a lorry driver who died in a collision with a bus and a car in Co Meath last week.
On the first day of his State visit to Ireland, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy met Taoiseach Micheal Martin and President Catherine Connolly before making an historic address to the Houses of the Oireachtas.

Mr Zelenskiy thanked Ireland for its support of Ukraine, and urged the country to play a role in holding Russia to account for its aggression.

Here is how the day played out:

Mr Zelenskiy warned that hatred will not fade and it will continue to smoulder and provoke new violence.

History has seen this before. This time must be different. We need real peace."

He asked Ireland to never lose your faith in Ukraine.

Thank you Ireland. Glory to Ukraine, he said.

Mr Zelenskiy appealed to Ireland to please take an active role in making the tribunal for this aggression a reality, as he received a standing ovation at the end of his speech.

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Watch Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy's address to the Oireachtas live here:





Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged Ireland to take an active role in calling for a tribunal for Russias aggression against Ukraine.

In a historic address to a joint sitting of the Oireachtas, he urged Ireland to also call for the children who have been abducted by Russia to be returned.

Dear Ireland, please remember your voice matters, he said.

He said that Ukraine wants to stand together with those whose history and struggle reflect our own and wanted to stand alongside Ireland in the EU as equals.

There should be no capital that does not know that the Irish, together with the Ukrainians and many other nations, are united for a real peace. A peace without humiliation and based on something truly real.

Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelenskiy has said that both the Irish and Ukrainians are among the few in Europe who spent centuries fighting for the right to remain themselves.

He made the comments at a joint sitting of the Oireachtas.

He said that while fatigue from the war is growing in some societies, we do not feel that your voice, the voice of Ireland, is (turning) quieter.

Thank you for your steadfast support, for these years of standing with us, and thank you for not losing faith in us, just as we do not lose faith in the day that will come when we will welcome all our friends to Ukraine in peace and when we will welcome home all our people who were forced to flee back to a peaceful Ukraine.

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He said it was a great honour for me to stand here today in a country that understands the price of freedom.

He said Russias invasion of Ukraine was a criminal and unprovoked act of aggression which cries for justice, and said Russia wanted to treat Ukraine as its property and Ukraine as if they belong in its backyard like livestock.

Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy paid tribute to Mr Zelenskiy and first lady Olena Zelenska, who she said was a model for women worldwide.

She said that war was a human tragedy and was never a solution.

Ireland knows this truth. Our own history teaches us that dialogue, however difficult, can bring peace, she said.

Together with our EU partners, Ireland will stand firm behind Ukraine to ensure Russia ends its aggression.

Irelands journey to peace was long and arduous, but it succeeded because people persevered in the belief that peace is the only solution, the same possibility exists for Ukraine.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Taoiseach Micheal Martin speak to the media during a press conference at the Government Buildings in Dublin.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Taoiseach Micheal Martin leave after a press conference at the Government Buildings in Dublin.

3.05pm

Speaking alongside the Ukrainian president, Taoiseach Micheal Martin repeated a government pledge to support peacekeeping efforts should there be an end to the conflict.

"In the event of a ceasefire, or a peace settlement, yes Ireland will be open to monitoring any ceasefire or indeed aspects of a peace settlement."

3pm

The Ukrainian president expects he will be updated on the discussions between a US delegation which is meeting president Vladimir Putin in Mosow immediately after talks end today.

He made the comments on the steps of Government Buildings after meeting the Taoiseach.

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Volodymyr Zelenskiy will address a joint sitting of the Houses of the Oireachtas in the next hour.

He says territory, seized Russian assets and security guarantees are the most important issues to be addressed in talks to end the war.

"We count on strong security guarantees from both the United States and Europe, and some leaders. You know that the topic of the Coalition of the Willing.

"I think these three topics, [are] the most sensitive and the most important."

2.15pm

Watch: Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaking live at a press conference at Government Buildings with Taoiseach Micheal Martin.

Live Press Conference | Visit of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to Ireland https://t.co/HVY7xIFlHR  Government of Ireland (@GovIE) December 2, 2025

2pm

Volodymyr Zelenskiy will address a Joint Sitting of the Houses of the Oireachtas at 3.45pm.

The sitting will commence with opening remarks by the Ceann Comhairle, followed by the address by president Zelenskiy.

Following concluding remarks by the Cathaoirleach, the sitting will adjourn at 4.10pm.

The Joint Address follows president Zelenskiy's previous address which was by video link in 2022.

President Zelenskiy is the first President of Ukraine to address the Oireachtas.

1.30pm

Olena Zelenska met Higher Education Minister James Lawless to discuss the 2,000 Ukrainian students in Irish third level institutions.

1pm

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald has said president Zelenskiy's visit comes at a "crucial moment in this terrible war".

President Zelenskiys visit comes at a critical moment in this terrible war. Almost four years on from Russias invasion, the Ukrainian people continue to endure devastating loss, displacement and suffering.

Sinn Fein stands firmly with the people of Ukraine and supports their right to sovereignty, freedom and self-determination.

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This conflict has exacted a shocking human toll. Millions have been forced from their homes, entire communities devastated and far too many lives lost.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy shakes hands with Taoiseach Micheal Martin at the Government Buildings.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy inspects the guard of honour at the Government Buildings in Dublin.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy is watched by President Catherine Connolly as he signs the visitors book at Aras an Uachtarain.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy is welcomed by President Catherine Connolly as they arrive at Aras an Uachtarain.

12.31pm

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has arrived at Government Buildings in Dublin as part of his state visit to Ireland.

The Ukrainian president is due to inspect a guard of honour and, along with Taoiseach Micheal Martin, sign the 2030 roadmap on Ukraine-Ireland partnership.

The Government has described it as a series of commitments to strengthen bilateral relations. - Press Association

12.16pm

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine is grateful for Irelands generosity to its people amid Russias full-scale invasion.

The Ukrainian leader made the comments in a visitors book at Aras an Uachtarain as he met President Catherine Connolly as part of an official visit to Dublin.

It is a great honour to visit Ireland together with my wife Olena and be received by the President of Ireland, he wrote.

On behalf of the people of Ukraine, I express my sincere gratitude for Irelands steadfast support during our fight against Russian aggression.

We greatly appreciate Irelands generosity in providing temporary shelter to displaced Ukrainians.

Ukraine values its friendship with Ireland and is committed to deepening our co-operation in pursuit of a just and lasting peace.

11.40pm

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskiy and first lady Olena Zelenska have arrived at Aras An Uachtarain, the official residence of President Catherine Connolly, in the Phoenix Park in Dublin.

Ms Connolly greeted the couple as they arrived at a red carpet laid at the front door, warmly welcoming them on the first day of their visit to Ireland.

11.30am

Taoiseach Micheal Martin announced an additional 125 million in financial support for Ukraine as part of a new roadmap for partnership with Ireland to cover the next five years.

At Government Buildings, the Taoiseach and president Zelenskiy will this afternoon sign the '2030 Roadmap on Ukraine-Ireland Partnership'.

This builds on the Agreement on Support for Ukraine and Cooperation between Ukraine and Ireland which was signed in Kyiv on September 4, 2024.

A series of commitments in the roadmap will strengthen bilateral relations across a range of areas, including political and security cooperation; support for Ukraines recovery and reconstruction; cooperation in innovation and education; economic cooperation and the establishment of the Ireland Ukraine Economic Forum; and cultural cooperation.

The Roadmap sets out Irelands immediate commitments to Ukraine, including:

The allocation of an additional 100 million in non-lethal military support, bringing to 200 million the non-lethal military support provided in 2025.

The allocation of 25 million to support the restoration and protection of Ukrainian energy infrastructure and the provision of essential energy supplies.

The previously announced allocation of 35.4 million in humanitarian assistance and stabilisation supports in 2025 in response to Russias ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

A scheme to support training and related measures to assist in Ukraines path to EU accession.

The Roadmap also establishes the Ukraine - Ireland Strategic Dialogue, which holds its first meeting today between Minister Helen McEntee and foreign minister Sybiha of Ukraine.

Speaking on the signing of the Roadmap, the Taoiseach said: It was an honour to welcome the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to Ireland at this time of great challenge for his country. His immense bravery, and the resilience of the Ukrainian people, are examples to us all.

I am pleased that, in our meeting today, I was able to offer the president not only words of assurance of Irelands support, but also firm and concrete commitments of assistance to Ukraine. An additional 100 million in non-lethal military support will be made available, to help Ukraine withstand the indiscriminate nightly onslaught of Russian missiles and drones.

Ireland will also provide 25 million for Ukraines energy supplies to help to counter Russias cynical and callous attacks on the vital infrastructure that keeps Ukrainians warm during the unforgiving winter.

This is in addition to 35.4 million in humanitarian assistance and stabilisation supports announced earlier this year and will support projects such as the provision of meals in schools close to frontline, the reconstruction of hospital facilities and the construction of protective shelters at schools.

I have been consistent and strong in my view that EU membership is essential for Ukraines future security, and todays agreement also includes a scheme to support training and related measures to assist in Ukraines path to EU accession.

Since 2022, Ireland has welcomed thousands of Ukrainians to Ireland. As I welcome their president here today, I reiterate the steadfast support of the Irish people for the people of Ukraine.

Speaking today, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence Helen McEntee said: Todays visit is an opportunity to reaffirm Irelands steadfast support and solidarity for Ukraine at a critical moment, when peace efforts are underway while Russia continues its aggression.

In the Roadmap agreed today, the Government has committed new measures to support Ukraine. We have also agreed a framework for Ireland and Ukraine to strengthen connections in a comprehensive, innovative and forward-looking way.

This Roadmap is being agreed in a time of war but it looks forward to a time of peace, and a time when Ukraine and Ireland live together in a common European home.

11.10am

The former chief of staff of the Irish Defence Forces, General Sean Clancy, who is chair of the EU Military Committee has said that Europe will have a very positive role to play in the future of Ukraine.

It's not a Nato problem. I think it's a whole of Europe problem. And it's not a problem. But if we get to that point of a peace plan and providing the security guarantees, then Europe will have a very positive role to play, as it has done so over the last nearly four years now," he told RTE radio's Morning Ireland.

"And primarily that will come in the form of an EU training mission in the first instance. And of course many member States have been participating in that to date. And after hopefully in a ceasefire situation, we get to a point where member states can decide at what level they want to contribute."

10.30am

In general, traffic restrictions for the visit will be kept to the minimum required and it is "intended that any impact on the public will be localised and minimal," gardai said.

The following Traffic Management measures, for security reasons, will be put in place on Tuesday, December 2nd:

 Traffic restrictions will be in place on Chesterfield Avenue, Phoenix Park from approximately 10am until approximately 1pm.

 Traffic restrictions will be in place on Kildare Street, Merrion Street, Merrion Square and the vicinity of Government Buildings and Leinster House from 11m.

 Traffic restrictions will be in place on Stephens Green South, Stephens Green East and Leeson Street from 3.30pm.

However, the public can also expect localised road closures to facilitate events and temporary rolling road closures to facilitate security escorts over the course of Tuesday, December 2nd, in the Dublin Region, particularly in the city centre.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy is to be greeted by President Catherine Connolly in Dublin on Tuesday as US efforts continue to broker a ceasefire in Russias invasion of Ukraine.

The visit comes a day after he met French president Emmanuel Macron in Paris as part of discussions on ending the largest armed conflict in Europe since the Second World War.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin said he looked forward to reiterating Irelands unswerving commitment to standing with the people of Ukraine for as long as it takes as part of the visit on Tuesday.

Mr Martin greeted Mr Zelenskiy on the tarmac after his plane landed in Dublin late on Monday night.

The two leaders are to hold a bilateral meeting as part of events on Tuesday, which will mark the first official visit by a Ukrainian president to Ireland.

Mr Zelenskiy and Ukraines first lady, Olena Zelenska, are due to first make a courtesy call to President Catherine Connolly at Aras an Uachtarain in the Phoenix Park on Tuesday morning.

Mr Zelenskiy is also due to attend the inauguration of the Ireland-Ukraine Economic Forum with Tanaiste Simon Harris.

The Ukrainian leader will also give an address to the Dail at Leinster House on Tuesday afternoon after being introduced by the Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin waits for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to disembark (PA)

In April 2022, Mr Zelenskiy made a historic address to the Dail via videolink, in which he said Ireland had not been neutral to the disaster Russia had brought to Ukraine.

Welcoming the visit, Mr Martin said Zelenskiys arrival in Dublin comes at a critical time for Ukraine.

Ukrainian and US officials have worked to revise the proposed US-authored plan, developed in negotiations between Washington and Moscow, but criticised as being too weighted towards Russian demands.

Mr Zelenskiy said in Paris on Monday that the peace plan looks better but that the topic of Ukraines control over its territories was the most complicated topic being discussed. - Press Association
A UK House of Commons committee is to launch an inquiry into the Crown Estate following questions over its lease of Royal Lodge to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

Andrew could be entitled to 488,342.21 (555,675.27) compensation for giving up the mansion in Windsor Great Park although the Crown Estate believes he will not receive a penny due to the state of the property.

The Crown Estate also provided MPs with details of other properties occupied by senior royals, including the Prince and Princess of Wales new home Forest Lodge, which was leased on appropriate market terms.

Workmen installing fencing on the perimeter of a new exclusion zone in Windsor Great Park, Berkshire, where the Prince and Princess of Wales are moving to Forest Lodge (PA)

William and Kate will pay an open market rent during a 20-year common law tenancy on the property.

Meanwhile, Andrew paid a peppercorn rent for the 30-room Royal Lodge which he agreed to leave amid the furore over his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

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Details of the property arrangements were provided to the Commons Public Accounts Committee by Crown Estate chief executive Dan Labbad.

Andrew gave the minimum 12 months notice that he would surrender the Royal Lodge on October 30th.

Our initial assessment is that while the extent of end-of-tenancy dilapidations and repairs required are not out of keeping with a tenancy of this duration, they will mean in all likelihood that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor will not be owed any compensation for early surrender of the lease Crown Estate

If no end-of-tenancy repairs were required, Andrew would have been entitled to 488,342.21 for ending his tenancy on October 30th 2026.

But the Crown Estate said that following an inspection of the property on November 12th it was thought unlikely that any compensation will be paid.

Our initial assessment is that while the extent of end of tenancy dilapidations and repairs required are not out of keeping with a tenancy of this duration, they will mean in all likelihood that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor will not be owed any compensation for early surrender of the lease once dilapidations are taken into account, the Crown Estate said.

But before this position can be fully validated however, a full and thorough assessment must be undertaken post-occupation by an expert in dilapidation.

We've published responses from The Crown Estate Commissioners and @HMTreasury to correspondence on Royal Lodge.



We are announcing a new inquiry, 'The Crown Estate', based on an updated 2005 NAO report + Crown Estate accounts 2025/26.



Read more https://t.co/OA1NVx63v2  Public Accounts Committee (@CommonsPAC) December 2, 2025

World Britain's King Charles strips Andrew of remaining royal honours Read more

As well as details of the Royal Lodge and Forest Lodge properties in Windsor Great Park, the Crown Estate also provided information on other homes including the Duke and Duchess of Edinburghs Bagshot Park and Thatched House Lodge in Londons Richmond Park.

Public Accounts Committee chairman Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said: Having reflected on what we have received, the information provided clearly forms the beginnings of a basis for an inquiry. The National Audit Office (NAO) supports the scrutiny function of this Committee.

We now await the conclusions the NAO will draw from this information, and plan to hold an inquiry based on the resulting evidence base in the new year.
Former Honduras president Juan Orlando Hernandez, sentenced last year to 45 years in prison for his role in helping drug traffickers move hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States, was released from prison following a pardon from President Donald Trump, his wife has announced.

The US Bureau of Prisons inmate website showed that Mr Hernandez was released from US Penitentiary, Hazelton in West Virginia on Monday and a spokesperson for the bureau on Tuesday confirmed his release.

His wife Ana Garcia thanked Mr Trump for pardoning Mr Hernandez via the social platform X early on Tuesday.

After almost four years of pain, of waiting and difficult challenges, my husband Juan Orlando Hernandez returned to being a free man, thanks to the presidential pardon granted by President Donald Trump, Ms Garcias post said.

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She included a picture of the US Bureau of Prisons listing for Mr Hernandez indicating his release.





Dios es fiel y nunca falla!



Ayer, lunes 1 de diciembre de 2025, vivimos un dia que jamas olvidaremos. Despues de casi cuatro anos de dolor, de espera y de pruebas dificiles, mi esposo Juan Orlando Hernandez VOLVIO a ser un hombre libre, gracias al perdon presidencial otorgado pic.twitter.com/OBjdAShAWo  Ana Garcia de Hernandez (@anagarciacarias) December 2, 2025

Mr Hernandez was arrested at the request of the United States in February 2022, weeks after handing over power to current president Xiomara Castro.

Two years later, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison in a New York federal courtroom for taking bribes from drug traffickers so they could safely move some 400 tons of cocaine north through Honduras to the United States.

Mr Hernandez maintained throughout that he was innocent and the victim of revenge by drug traffickers he had helped extradite to the United States.

On Sunday, Mr Trump was asked about why he pardoned Mr Hernandez by reporters travelling with him on Air Force One.

I was asked by Honduras, many of the people of Honduras, Mr Trump said.

The people of Honduras really thought he was set up, and it was a terrible thing, he said.

They basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country. And they said it was a Biden administration set-up. And I looked at the facts and I agreed with them.

The pardon promised by Mr Trump days before Honduras presidential election injected a new element into the contest that some said helped the candidate from his National Party Nasry Asfura, one of the leaders as the vote count proceeded on Tuesday.
New Clinic Brings Dedicated Dermatology Care to Lampasas County for the First Time

LAMPASAS, Texas, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. Dermatology Partners is pleased to announce the opening of its new office in Lampasas, Texas. This is the first dedicated dermatology clinic to serve Lampasas County, meeting a critical need for its residents.

U.S. Dermatology Partners Lampasas

"We're proud to bring U.S. Dermatology Partners to the Lampasas community, expanding much-needed access to specialized care in Lampasas County and surrounding areas," said Paul Singh, Chief Executive Officer of U.S. Dermatology Partners. "This new location is an extension of our offices in Belton and the greater Central Texas Region, ensuring patients can receive the same high-quality U.S. Dermatology Partners standard of services closer to home."

With this new location, U.S. Dermatology Partners welcomes Certified Physician Assistant Keven Faust to lead the clinic. Through his career, Kevin has gained experience treating a wide range of skin conditions for patients of all ages, including acne, contact dermatitis, skin cancer prevention and treatment, and cosmetic procedures, and looks forward to assisting patients with these conditions in Lampasas. A proud military veteran, Keven previously served as a physician assistant for the U.S. Army and is committed to bringing the same dedication and care to the families and service members of Lampasas and the surrounding Fort Hood community.

"I'm thrilled to join U.S. Dermatology Partners and provide accessible, comprehensive dermatology care for Lampasas residents, many of whom previously had to travel over 30 minutes for care," said Keven Faust.

Keven works under supervising physicians and Board-Certified Dermatologists Dr. Lenore Chiles and Dr. Jordan Ilse.

U.S. Dermatology Partners Lampasas is located in the Lampasas Specialty Clinic behind AdventHealth Rollins Brook Hospital at 207 West Ave E., #1000, Lampasas, TX 76550. To schedule an appointment, call 512.564.7130 or click here to book online.

About U.S. Dermatology Partners

U.S. Dermatology Partners is one of the premier dermatology practices in the country, caring for more than 2 million patients each year. In 2025, the organization was voted the No. 1 dermatology group in the nation by Castle Connolly, the leading peer-nominated research firm. With over 120 locations across nine states that span large metroplexes and rural, underserved communities, they provide the benefits of private, personalized levels of service paired with a network of coordinated, specialized dermatology physicians. Focused on providing the highest level of compassionate and comprehensive care, U.S. Dermatology Partners is committed to expanding patient access and providing advanced dermatological treatments with a team of leading dermatologists and national leaders in areas such as clinical research, psoriasis, and Mohs surgery. To learn more, visit usdermatologypartners.com.

Press Contact



SOURCE U.S. Dermatology Partners
Russian president Vladimir Putin accused Ukraines European allies of sabotaging US-led efforts to end the war that have gained momentum in recent weeks.

They dont have a peace agenda, theyre on the side of the war, Mr Putin said after speaking to an investment forum and before he held talks with a US delegation led by envoy Steve Witkoff and US president Donald Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner at the Kremlin.

The Russian leader accused Europe of amending peace proposals with demands that are absolutely unacceptable to Russia, thus blocking the entire peace process only to blame Russia for it.



Russian president Vladimir Putin, left, greets US special envoy Steve Witkoff (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Thats their goal, Mr Putin said.

His remarks were in line with the narrative that Russia pushed forward after Mr Trump returned to the White House this year and initiated talks with Moscow, painting Europes staunch support of Ukraine as one of the main hurdles on the path to peace.

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He reiterated his long-held position that Russia has no plans to attack Europe  a concern regularly voiced by some European countries.

But if Europe suddenly wants to wage a war with us and starts it, we are ready right away. There can be no doubt about that, Mr Putin said.



The US delegation was led by Mr Witkoff, right back to camera, and US president Donald Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner, left back to camera (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russia started the war in 2022 with its full-scale invasion of a sovereign European country, and European governments have since spent billions of dollars to support Ukraine financially and militarily, to wean themselves from energy dependence on Russia and to strengthen their own militaries to deter Moscow from seizing more territory by force.

They worry that if Russia gets what it wants in Ukraine, it will have free rein to threaten or disrupt other European countries, which have already faced incursions from Russian drones and fighter jets, and an alleged widespread Russian sabotage campaign.

Mr Trumps peace plan relies on Europe to provide the bulk of the financing and security guarantees for a post-war Ukraine, even though no Europeans appear to have been consulted on the original plan.



Mr Putin, right, said if Europe wanted to start a war, Russia was ready right away (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

This is why European governments have pushed to ensure that peace efforts address European concerns, too.

Speaking with Mr Putin through a translator before the talks, Mr Witkoff said he and Mr Kushner had taken a beautiful walk around Moscow and described it as a magnificent city.

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The meeting finished after almost five hours of talks behind closed doors. Both sides have yet to make a statement.

After the end of the talks, Mr Witkoff was seen arriving at the US embassy in Moscow, state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Coinciding with Mr Witkoffs trip, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky went to Ireland, continuing his visits to European countries that have helped sustain his countrys fight against Russias invasion.

In what could be a high-stakes day of negotiations, Mr Zelensky said he was expecting swift reports from the US envoys in Moscow on whether talks could move forward, after Mr Trumps initial 28-point plan was whittled down to 20 items in Sundays talks between US and Ukrainian officials in Florida.



Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, left, met Irish prime minister Micheal Martin in Dublin on Tuesday (Liam McBurney/PA)

They want to report right after that meeting to us, specifically. The future and the next steps depend on these signals. Such steps will change throughout today, even hour-by-hour, I believe, Mr Zelensky said at a news conference in Dublin with Irish prime minister Micheal Martin.

If the signals show fair play with our partners, we then might meet very soon, meet with the American delegation, he said.

There is a lot of dialogue, but we need results. Our people are dying every day, Mr Zelensky said.

I am ready to meet with President Trump. It all depends on todays talks.
Hong Kong's leader said on Tuesday a judge-led committee will investigate the cause of the city's deadliest fire in decades and review oversight of building renovations blamed for fanning an inferno that killed at least 156 people.

Police have arrested 15 people on suspicion of manslaughter in a criminal inquiry into last week's tragedy at the Wang Fuk Court complex, and 12 have also been arrested in a corruption probe.

It is unclear if any of those people were arrested on both counts.

Authorities have pointed to substandard plastic mesh and insulation foam used during renovation works at the high-rise estate for fuelling a blaze that quickly spread to seven of its eight towers, home to more than 4,000 people.

"In order to avoid similar tragedies again, I will set up a judge-led independent committee to examine the reason behind the cause and rapid spreading (of the fire) and related issues," John Lee, Hong Kong's chief executive, told a press conference.

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Investigators have completed sweeps of all but two of the burnt-out towers, finding residents' bodies in stairwells and on rooftops, trapped as they tried to flee the smoke and flames.

Around 30 people are still missing.

Some groups in the Chinese-ruled city have called for more transparency and accountability, amid warnings from authorities that any attempts to politicise the disaster would be severely punished. A student from one of the groups was detained and later released on bail, and local media reported two others were being investigated for possible sedition. Police have not commented on the cases.

"I will not tolerate any crimes, particularly crimes that exploit the tragedy that we are facing now," Lee said, when asked about the cases. He did not comment on the specifics.

International rights groups have said the incidents demonstrate government attempts to suppress criticism.

"It's crucially important not to treat those demanding answers for the tragic fire as criminals," said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

China's national security office has warned individuals against using the disaster to "plunge Hong Kong back into the chaos" of 2019, when massive pro-democracy protests challenged Beijing and triggered a political crisis.

Legislative elections due to take place on Sunday will go ahead as planned, Lee said. Turnout for that vote - in which only candidates screened by the government as "patriots" can run - could serve as a barometer of public frustration over the handling of the fire.

Residents warned of fire risks

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 renovations, the city's Labour Department said.

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

Tests on several samples of mesh on the buildings at the time of the blaze did not match fire-retardant standards, officials overseeing the investigations told a press conference on Monday.

Contractors working on the renovations used the substandard materials in hard-to-reach areas, effectively hiding them from inspectors, the officials added.

Authorities have also said foam insulation used by contractors to cover windows also fuelled the flames, and that fire alarms at the complex were not working properly.

Thousands of the city's residents have paid tribute to the victims, who include nine domestic helpers from Indonesia and one from the Philippines.

Vigils are also due to take place this week in Tokyo, Taipei and London.

A funeral parlour in central Hong Kong held a memorial on Tuesday to mark the seventh day since the deadly fire, a Chinese custom known as soul return day.

Hundreds prayed, wept, and made lotus-shaped paper offerings, a symbol of spiritual rebirth in mourning rituals.

"I hope that...people can release whats in their hearts. That way, it will be easier for all of us to move forward in life," said Bryan Kam, general manager of the Kowloon funeral parlour.

Search moves to worst-affected buildings

The remaining buildings being scoured for remains and evidence are the worst damaged. The search may take weeks, authorities said.

Images shared by police showed officers clad in hazmat suits, face masks and helmets, inspecting rooms with blackened walls and furniture reduced to ashes, and wading through water used to douse fires that raged for days.

Residents who escaped the blaze must now try to get their lives back on track.

Nearly 1,500 people have been moved out of evacuation centres into temporary housing, with a further 945 put up in youth hostels and hotels, authorities said.

More than 60 pets, including 34 cats, 12 dogs and seven turtles, perished in the fire, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said. More than 200 were rescued.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, taking to the Kremlin an embryonic peace plan that Washington hopes can end the nearly four-year war in Ukraine.

Coinciding with Mr Witkoffs trip, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky travelled to Ireland, continuing his visits to European countries that have helped sustain his countrys fight against Russias invasion.

After months of frustration in his efforts to stop the fighting, US President Donald Trump is deploying officials to get traction for his peace proposals.

So far, the talks have followed parallel lines, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio sitting down with Ukrainian officials, and now Mr Witkoff heading to Moscow.



Ukraine is fighting hard to defend territory (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)

Though this weeks consultations could move the process forward, few details have become public. It remains unclear how envoys are going to bridge the gap between the two sides on such basic differences as who keeps what territory. European officials say the road to peace will be long.

European leaders, who fear Russias future territorial ambitions and are trying to figure out how they can fund Ukraines fight beyond this year, are trying to make their voices heard after being largely sidelined by Washington. They are also working on future security guarantees for Ukraine.

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French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that he and Mr Zelensky, who was on a trip to Paris, spoke by phone to Mr Witkoff. They also spoke to leaders of eight other European countries as well as top European Union officials and Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte.

Mr Macron said that the coming days will see crucial discussions between US officials and Western partners. Mr Zelenskys visit to Paris followed Sundays meeting between Ukrainian and US officials, which Mr Rubio described as productive.



French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held talks (Christophe Ena/AP)

Diplomats face a hard time trying to bridge Russian and Ukrainian differences and persuading them to strike compromises. The key obstacles  over whether Kyiv should cede land to Moscow and how to ensure Ukraines future security  appear unresolved.

Mr Zelensky is under severe pressure in one of the darkest periods of the war for his country. As well as managing diplomatic pressure, he must find money to keep Ukraine afloat, address a corruption scandal that has reached the top echelons of his government, and keep Russia at bay on the battlefield.

The Kremlin claimed that Russian forces have captured the key Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region but Mr Zelensky said that fighting was still ongoing in Pokrovsk on Monday.
Talks between Russia and the US on ending the nearly four-year war in Ukraine were productive, but much work remains, a senior adviser to Russian president Vladimir Putin told reporters.

Mr Putin met US president Donald Trumps envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner in the Kremlin in Moscow for talks that began late on Tuesday as part of a renewed push by the Trump administration to broker a peace deal.

Both sides agreed not to disclose the substance of the talks.



Russian president Vladimir Putin, left, greets US special envoy Steve Witkoff (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

The meeting came days after US officials held talks with a Ukrainian team in Florida and which US secretary of state Marco Rubio described in cautiously optimistic terms.

At the centre of the effort is Mr Trumps peace plan that became public last month and raised concerns about being tilted heavily towards Moscow.

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The proposal granted some of the Kremlins core demands that Kyiv has rejected as non-starters, such as Ukraine ceding the entire eastern region of the Donbas to Russia and renouncing its bid to join Nato.

Negotiators have indicated the framework has changed, but it is not clear how.



Mr Putin, third right, had earlier accused Europe of amending peace proposals with demands that are absolutely unacceptable to Russia (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Putin had accused Ukraines European allies of sabotaging the US-led efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

They dont have a peace agenda, theyre on the side of the war, Mr Putin said of the Europeans.

Mr Putin s accusations appeared to be his latest attempt to sow dissension between Mr Trump and European countries and set the stage for exempting Moscow from blame for any lack of progress.

He accused Europe of amending peace proposals with demands that are absolutely unacceptable to Russia, thus blocking the entire peace process only to blame Russia for it.

He also reiterated his long-held position that Russia has no plans to attack Europe  a concern regularly voiced by some European countries.

But if Europe suddenly wants to wage a war with us and starts it, we are ready right away. There can be no doubt about that, Mr Putin said.



The US delegation was led by Mr Witkoff, right back to camera, and Mr Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner, left back to camera (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russia started the war in 2022 with its full-scale invasion of a sovereign European country, and European governments have since spent billions of dollars to support Ukraine financially and militarily, to wean themselves from energy dependence on Russia and to strengthen their own militaries to deter Moscow from seizing more territory by force.

They worry that if Russia gets what it wants in Ukraine, it will have free rein to threaten or disrupt other European countries, which have already faced incursions from Russian drones and fighter jets, and an alleged widespread Russian sabotage campaign.

Advertisement

Mr Trumps peace plan relies on Europe to provide the bulk of the financing and security guarantees for a post-war Ukraine, even though no Europeans appear to have been consulted on the original plan.

This is why European governments have pushed to ensure that peace efforts address European concerns, too.

Coinciding with Mr Witkoffs trip, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky went to Ireland, continuing his visits to European countries that have helped sustain his countrys fight against Russias invasion.



Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, left, met Irish prime minister Micheal Martin in Dublin on Tuesday (Liam McBurney/PA)

In what could be a high-stakes day of negotiations, Mr Zelensky said he was expecting swift reports from the US envoys in Moscow on whether talks could move forward, after Mr Trumps initial 28-point plan was whittled down to 20 items in Sundays talks between US and Ukrainian officials in Florida.

They want to report right after that meeting to us, specifically. The future and the next steps depend on these signals. Such steps will change throughout today, even hour-by-hour, I believe, Mr Zelensky said at a news conference in Dublin with Irish prime minister Micheal Martin.

Advertisement

If the signals show fair play with our partners, we then might meet very soon, meet with the American delegation, he said.

There is a lot of dialogue, but we need results. Our people are dying every day, Mr Zelensky said.

I am ready to meet with President Trump. It all depends on todays talks.
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BusinessCompaniesScandal Opinion The pitchforks are out for this Aussie travel company Elizabeth Knight Business columnist December 2, 2025  3:02pm

December 2, 2025  3:02pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

The trajectory of Corporate Travel Managements share price over ten years is bumpier than flying through a hurricane in a Cessna. The company thats had plenty of fans and a legion of detractors is now feeling the negative glare of both the Australian and UK governments. Its a long way back from this level of scrutiny and controversy. The company, which is one of Queenslands largest, is now facing its existential crisis  a tail spin from which it will be difficult to pull out due to accusations of overcharging. These governments are big and influential customers with the means and power to get answers. This week Corporate Travel Management was belatedly hit with a please explain note from the Australian government, whose travel management contract it looks after and which is up for renewal in 2027. Corporate Travel Management chief executive Jamie Pherous, and a barge in England, part of a contract with Corporate Travel Management. Getty, Attila Csaszar

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A letter from Australias federal finance department has reportedly reminded the company of its obligations to formally notify it of significant events. The letter also requested additional information on Corporate Travel Managements staggering revelation last week that it overcharged its UK customers by $162 million which it now needs to refund. Britains Cabinet Office is investigating Corporate Travel Managements overcharging scandal and has reportedly been joined by Londons mayor, who wants an urgent review of the councils contract. This crescendo of concern hasnt come from out of the blue. There have been strong whiffs of doubt about accounting treatments employed by this company going back almost 10 years. In 2018, it was injured by what finance lingo calls a short attack when a hedge fund issued a scathing report on the company accusing it of aggressive accounting and phantom offices.

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Others have long questioned how this companys profit margins have a plumpness, out of line with others in the industry. Related Article Asylum seekers Australian sales furore turns spotlight on UK asylum hotels Each time it has fought its way back and today insists that its solvency is not at risk because its business is humming along with cash on hand and access to undrawn debt. But the smell of scandal can greatly injure any company whose business runs on reputation and goodwill. It will be customer hunting season for its competitors like Flight Centre. As tests go, this will be a big one.

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The genesis of the UK scandal now engulfing Corporate Travel Management appears to have been a few years back thanks to its role in assisting the then UK government with its hardline immigration policy. This involved the management of a barge (a kind of floating Alcatraz) parked in UKs Portland Harbour to house immigrants. After a public uproar, the occupants decamped to terrestrial accommodation. Corporate Travel Managements founder and major shareholder Jamie Pherous has been hosing down investors concerns, insisting that the scandal is cauterised in the UK region. But whether this explanation has received cut though with investors is unclear. Since the company made a fairly innocuous statement in August that it had been informed by its auditors that there may be some adjustments required relating to the timing of the recognition of certain revenues and costs between financial year 2025 and prior comparative periods the shares have been in a trading halt. Subsequent announcements have been drip-fed to the ASX - each one inching up on the horror index. There is no timeline on when shares may restart trading and updated accounts are unlikely to be produced this year.

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Related Article Opinion

Energy The dirty little secret of our energy transition Elizabeth Knight Business columnist The price at which shares resume trading has become a 2026 new-year lottery. There are still a bunch of investors who had shorted the stock  which means they had placed a financial bet on the share price falling. Others (who are thinner on the ground) believe this is a glitch from which the company can recover. Without a share price north star to guide value, or a recent set of profit and loss accounts to reference, investors are playing a game of pin the (share price) tail on the corporate donkey  essentially plucking valuations out of the ether. The share price was around $16 when it was suspended, and the lower end of analysts or investors current valuations are pitched at around $5. Whether the current boss and chairman will survive the scandal, remains to be seen. The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.
Man charged over stand-off with police at Sydney shopping centre

A man been charged today after police were forced to use beanbag rounds to arrest him during a stand-off in Sydney's north-west.
Man injured in mystery Sydney shooting

A man has been shot in Sydney, but police do not know exactly where the shooting took place.
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NationalNSWRoads $200m fix for Sydneys worst roundabout to start in 2027 Matt O'Sullivan December 2, 2025  6:30pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 115 View all comments

A traditional design has been chosen for a $200 million upgrade to what has been dubbed Sydneys worst roundabout after a preferred option for a type of signalised intersection was dumped. Construction on what is commonly referred to as the DFO roundabout, near Olympic Park, is expected to start in 2027 and take about two years to complete at a cost twice the original budget of $100 million three years ago. A render of the new design for the $200 million upgrade to the notorious DFO roundabout at Homebush. Transport for NSW The new design for the Homebush Bay Drive and Australia Avenue intersection is aimed at replacing the existing roundabout with a signalised intersection and extra lanes to ease congestion. About 5000 vehicles an hour pass through the roundabout during morning and evening peaks. The preferred option had previously been a so-called diverging diamond interchange, which would have allowed motorists to navigate through the intersection via a crossover arrangement.

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However, that option has been ditched in favour of what has been described as a more traditional design after the former failed to gain public support. Apart from better safety, an assessment shows the favoured design requires a significantly reduced footprint and less property acquisitions. The assessment showed only a quarter of respondents supported the idea of a diverging diamond interchange due to concerns about the complexity, unfamiliarity and safety of that design. The project is expected to be completed in 2029. Transport for NSW Federal Transport and Infrastructure Minister Catherine King said authorities had listened to the community and opted for the more traditional and familiar design for the much-needed upgrade. The community has waited for years for a solution to the traffic issues that have plagued this intersection since it first opened more than a quarter of a century ago, she said.

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In March, the federal government committed an extra $50 million to the project, which was matched by the state three months later, increasing the total funding to $200 million. Related Article Development Revealed: The cost of Sydneys most bizarre roundabout Parramatta Labor MP Donna Davis said Homebushs population had almost doubled in the past decade, placing increased pressure on Sydneys worst roundabout. A solution needs to be implemented as soon as possible, she said. Under plans of the previous state and federal Coalition governments, the upgrade was meant to be completed by next year at a cost of $100 million. The latest proposal means the upgraded intersection is due to be completed by 2029. The public has until January 18 to make submissions on the revised plans.

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Interim safety works were completed at the roundabout and Homebush Bay Drive on-ramps last December, which included new traffic loop detectors and 12 roundabout operating signs. Related Article Sydney Metro Sorry, Melbourne - Sydneys metro system beats your new CBD rail tunnel A notorious 2.5-kilometre eastbound stretch on the M4 near Parramatta is also to be investigated for a potential fix following an increase in crashes since a widening of a section of the motorway was completed in 2017 as part of the first stage of WestConnex. Engineering company Arup has been awarded a contract to develop designs for safety improvements for the section of the M4 near the Church Street off-ramp, which is the last exit for eastbound vehicles before they pass through toll gantries for WestConnex. NSW Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison said the work was aimed at resolving a problem that had been getting worse for years. Weve already delivered interim safety measures, but whats needed now is a long-term, evidence-based solution, she said. Start the day with a summary of the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
A man is dead, two others have been hospitalised and a fourth is on the run after a shooting at a rural property near the NSW-Queensland border.

Emergency services were called to a property on Tyalgum Road, Eungella, about 10 kilometres west of Murwillumbah in the NSW Northern Rivers about 1.30pm on Wednesday.

A 41-year-old died at the scene after being shot by a man who allegedly fled with another man.

The police operation on Tyalgum Road, Eungella, in the NSW Northern Rivers. Nine News

A 38-year-old man was also shot, and took himself to Murwillumbah Hospital before being transferred to Gold Coast University Hospital.

On the same road not long after, a man was allegedly hit by a car.

The 45-year-old was treated by intensive care paramedics for leg, chest and arm injuries after being struck about 2pm. He was taken to the same Queensland hospital.

NSW Police have set up a crime scene and are waiting to speak to the two men in hospital.

A fourth man, believed to be 37, is also being sought by police.
Valor promotes Jason Beck to COO after almost five years of growth and leadership

FORT WORTH, Texas, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Valor, a Fort Worth-based specialty asset management company with expertise in providing mineral management and oil and gas outsourcing, is proud to announce the promotion of Jason Beck to Chief Operating Officer. Beck, a Certified Professional Landman and Certified Trust and Financial Advisor, joined Valor in Institutional Mineral Management after a 17-year career overseeing mineral asset management at a large international bank. As he advanced to Director of Mineral Management, he strengthened Valor's institutional businessmost notably by spearheading the relationship with a major regional bank. His deep expertise, leadership, and impact across institutional partnerships have earned him this well-deserved promotion.

Jason Beck to be Valor's New COO

"Jason is a veteran mineral manager and landman, his promotion to Chief Operating Officer is well deserved. We're excited to see the leadership and operational excellence he'll continue to bring to Valor through this new role," said Joseph DeWoody, CEO and Co-Founder of Valor.

"I'm honored to serve as Valor's Chief Operating Officer," said Jason Beck. "Being part of this company's journey from the early days has been one of the great privileges of my career, and I look forward to continuing our momentum and supporting the team as we grow."

Headquartered in Fort Worth, Valor has earned a reputation as one of Texas's leading mineral management companies. Key service lines of the company include oil and gas accounting, mineral management and oil and gas consulting and outsourcing. The company's innovative mineral management software, mineral.tech, is a map-based and data-rich platform that integrates accounting, land management, data analytics and reporting. Valor provides full mineral management solutions and mineral management software access and support to individuals, family offices, banks, trust and wealth advisors, foundations and universities. The company is also a leading provider of oil and gas back-office services for operators and investors, partnering with companies to offer owner relations support, oil and gas accounting, regulatory compliance and other back-office operations.

About Valor:

Valor is an oil and gas asset management services provider that serves mineral rights owners and oil and gas operators and investors. We place the client first, providing flexible solutions and leveraging our team of experts to maintain the security, clarity and optimization of privately owned assets. Valor is headquartered in Fort Worth and maintains a satellite office in Midland, Texas. Valor has been singled out for several prestigious awards, including the Inc. 5000 list (2023 & 2024), Fort Worth Inc.'s Best Companies to Work For (2022, 2023 & 2024), the Inc. Best Workplaces 2024 list and Most Inspiring Workplaces. Explore the benefits of partnering with Valor to manage mineral rights and outsource accounting and back-office services by visiting www.onevalor.com.

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NationalNSWMissing person Man missing from NSW beach identified as former Kings School student Jack Gramenz and Christopher Harris Updated December 2, 2025  5:39pm ,first published December 2, 2025  4:45pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

An 18-year-old who went missing from a NSW beach has been identified as a former Kings School student as a search continues. Astin Gerstl has been missing since Sunday, when he got into trouble while swimming at Little Bay Beach, Arakoon on the NSW Mid North Coast. Astin Gerstl, an 18-year-old former Kings School student, has been missing since Sunday. The King's School The Kings School confirmed on Tuesday that he was a member of the 2025 graduating class. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this profoundly difficult time.

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The school is in contact with the family and will continue to provide support, while respecting their request for privacy, acting headmaster Stephen Edwards said in a statement. Support services have been made available to current and recently graduated students, he added. Marine Rescue NSW volunteers resumed searching on Tuesday but stood down later in the morning amid deteriorating conditions. Marine Rescue NSW Worsening conditions on a very treacherous part of the coastline was hampering rescue efforts on Tuesday, NSW Police Inspector Peter Walton said. Weve got highly skilled police divers, water police operators that are trained in these conditions, but obviously, they need to operate safely.

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We dont want to have any incidents whilst were conducting this search for this young man. As the conditions allow well continue to search, Walton said. The 18-year-old went missing from Little Bay Beach, Arakoon. Destination NSW Volunteer rescuers stood down on Tuesday morning due to the conditions, after conducting a parallel-line search from Laggers Point to Green Island. Little Bay Beach, in the Arakoon National Park north of Port Macquarie, is a popular picnic spot but is not patrolled or recommended for swimming, according to the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.

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White sharks were seen in the water at the beach on Monday morning by a Surf Life Saving NSW drone. A tagged bull shark was also detected by a receiver at nearby South West Rocks on Sunday morning. The search for 18-year-old Gerstl follows the death of a 59-year-old man at Crescent Head, south of Arakoon on Friday afternoon. Further south at Kylies Beach in the Crowdy Bay National Park, Swiss swimmer Livia Muhlheim, 25, was killed in a shark attack on Thursday. Lukas Schindler, 26, survived but was bitten twice while trying to punch the shark, believed to be a bull shark.

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A female probationary constable has spent close to an hour-and-a-half trapped in a crumpled NSW Police vehicle which crashed through the fence of a home in Sydneys west.

The SUV crashed on Bungarribee Road at Blacktown about 3pm on Tuesday.

Fire and Rescue NSW work to free an officer trapped in a crashed NSW Police car at Blacktown. Nine News

The vehicle was responding to an urgent incident, under lights and sirens, when it collided with a Mitsubishi SUV, NSW Police said in a statement.

A female probationary constable was trapped in the vehicle for about 90 minutes after the crash, with rescuers freeing her about 4.30pm.
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NationalNSWCity life Risks to structural integrity: Photos reveal Sydney apartment towers slab defects and leaks David Barwell December 2, 2025  10:30am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 221 View all comments

For dozens of Sydneysiders who bought into a multimillion-dollar Pyrmont apartment building, their dream of home ownership has morphed into a nightmare after the discovery of serious building defects including uncontrolled cracking in the buildings slab and water ingress through multiple sections of the complex. The NSW Building Commission has ordered the developer of the Harbour Mill apartment tower to rectify a list of serious defects including cracking in the concrete slab and walls in the basement of the 136-unit development. The rectification order, issued by the commission, identified seven separate defects including water ponding and ingress in multiple units, water penetration in the buildings basement and inadequate structural connections or supports in balustrades. The commissions acting director of building compliance, Donald van Keimpema, said the defects had resulted in water ingress, deterioration of building elements, safety risks and loss of amenity for occupants.

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He said the uncontrolled cracking identified during inspections could reduce the durability of concrete in the basement and may be a sign of structural distress and failure of the 10-storey tower on Jones Street. The findings confirm serious non-compliance, posing risks to health, structural integrity, the long-term durability of the building and substantiate the need for timely rectification, van Keimpema wrote in the order. Ferres Wang worries about her future after buying off the plan more than a decade ago. Wolter Peeters The rectification notice followed three inspections by the commission between May and October this year and requires the defects to be repaired by registered developer Edwin Davey Pty Ltd within eight months. A 94-page inspection report by the commission, seen by this publication, contained multiple photos taken by inspectors showing building cracks in the basement slabs and walls, water ingress and carpets stained by water damage.

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Ferres Wang, who bought her flat off the plan in 2012 for $580,000, said the commissions findings have heightened anxiety for occupants after previous inspections of the building by the NSW government identified potentially flammable cladding material on its exterior. Wang said unit owners have already paid a levy to help cover the $13.1 million cost of replacing the cladding to bring it up to Australian building standards. She fears the rectification order could result in more costs being passed on to residents. When I bought my unit, I thought it would be a good investment, and now the value has dropped 20 per cent below market price. I cant move out, I cant sell it and who would want to buy it? she said.

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I worry financially and I worry about safety  we have serious waterproofing and systematic leaking issues. Theres one unit [with] water dripping and damaging carpets. Water leaks were among defects identified by NSW Building Commission inspectors. NSW Building Commission I know it sounds serious, but Im worried one day the taps are going to explode and well be forced to evacuate. My levy has come to $220,000. Ive got neighbours whove gone into bankruptcy because they havent been able to afford [the levies]. Were powerless. The system is broken and there needs to be more accountability and support.

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Shoddy Sydney Shoddy Sydney The rectification order was issued after lawyers for developer Edwin Davey Pty Ltd wrote to the commission requesting more time to respond to issues identified during inspection. The request was partly attributed to unrelated remedial works which lawyers said could impact the ability to carry out the remediation works. Van Keimpema said the serious issues identified during the inspections had enlivened his intention to issue the order. This is because the serious defects identified pose an unacceptable risk to the safety of occupiers or potential occupiers of the building, he wrote in the notice. The benefits to occupiers of the building arising from [the remediation works] outweigh the cost to the developer.

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Construction Home builders are defying the Building Commissions orders at an alarming rate The order comes amid an ongoing crackdown on building defects and substandard construction works, with the NSW Building Commission carrying out a record 1015 inspections on development sites in the 2024-25 financial year and issuing 405 rectification orders. Planning records show the Pyrmont Harbour Mill development, on the site of the former Edwin Davies Flour Mill at 280 Jones Street, was approved for construction by the City of Sydney Council in 2013 and completed in 2015. Developer Edwin Davey Pty Ltd was contacted for comment. A historic photo of the former flour mill on the site before its redevelopment into apartments. City of Sydney Council Start the day with a summary of the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
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NationalQueenslandCFMEU How the CFMEU turned a workplace safety regulator into a captured pawn Matt Dennien Updated December 2, 2025  6:16pm ,first published December 2, 2025  2:51pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

Queenslands CFMEU sought to control the workplace health and safety regulator and then launched a campaign against its boss after she attempted to walk back the unions access, the state inquiry into the union and construction sector heard. Queensland Council of Unions general secretary Jacqueline King was brought to tears recounting her efforts to take a rival unions safety concerns to police  with no response  after a major contractor revealed concerns of employees being stalked. The powerful inquiry headed by Stuart Wood was launched by the Queensland government following reporting by this masthead and 60 Minutes into criminality, corruption and misconduct in the CFMEU and construction industry nationwide. King has revealed new details about the CFMEUs bid to control workplace laws in Queensland. News Corp Australia Under questioning from counsel assisting Mark Costello, King told the inquiry on Tuesday that since-ousted CFMEU leader Michael Ravbar had attempted to control workplace regulatory figures.

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She said Ravbar had instructed other officials to disrupt union movement meetings and the Workplace Health and Safety Board, which was made completely dysfunctional through the presence of former CFMEU state president Royce Kupsch. Related Article Exclusive

Queensland government Flawed MOU let banned officials argue their way onto building sites King told the inquiry she also believed the CFMEU set out to control the deputy director-general of the states short-lived workplace health and safety regulator, Kym Bancroft, who began the role in 2022 and had wanted to develop a good relationship with the union. Bancroft attended meetings at the CFMEU office multiple times a week, which was pretty unheard of, King said. She became almost a captured pawn, she said of Bancroft. But the regulators efforts to pull back were met with a campaign of resistance and pressure from the union, which ultimately led to Bancrofts resignation in early 2023.

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King said she had had only one major interaction with former CFMEU leader Jade Ingham, early last year, as a bill before Queensland parliament sought to close loopholes allowing officials without right of entry permits to access workplaces. It was International Womens Day and King had a series of missed calls from an unknown number and ultimately a message revealing the caller to be Ingham, seeking an urgent meeting about the bill. Former CFMEU national president, and assistant Queensland state secretary, Jade Ingham with Cross River Rail workers in April last year. Dan Peled The pair met later that day after Ingham had visited United Workers Union boss Gary Bullock to discuss party matters. King said Ingham demanded she help him push for the parliamentary bills passage to be delayed. Ingham said this would give him kudos with organisers to help him run against Ravbar for the role of secretary in upcoming union elections. He said he would then bring the CFMEU back in as a QCU affiliate and into Labors Left faction.

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If she refused, Ingham said Ravbar would go nuclear with a campaign against the government and probably the broader union movement. King said her rejection of the proposal shocked Ingham. The bill eventually passed, and King said she believed this triggered a period of escalated industrial action from the CFMEU on the Cross River Rail and Centenary Bridge upgrade projects. Loading King was also asked about incidents of hostility between the CFMEU and Australian Workers Union, revealing that Centenary Bridge upgrade contractor BMD approached her with allegations of intimidation. In the unusual meeting, BMD raised concerns that the CFMEU was campaigning against the firm because of its refusal to sign an agreement with the union in Victoria.

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King was shown security footage from the construction site, with allegations of people being stalked at night and three tracking devices being placed on company vehicles. AWU Queensland secretary Stacey Schinnerl. Facebook She was also told of a private investigator who advised the contractor the CFMEU had brought Setkas people  figures affiliated with disgraced former Victorian secretary John Setka  from down south. Around this time, the contractor had informed AWU state secretary Stacey Schinnerl it could not guarantee her safety on the site, and suggested it had no luck raising its concerns with police. Schinnerl had shared fears for herself and her family with King, and the pair eventually met with Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski and Deputy Commissioner Cheryl Scanlon.

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I wouldnt be able to live with myself if something actually happened [to Schinnerl], King said, telling the inquiry she gave police at the meeting USBs with the BMD footage. Despite being told the matter would be investigated, King said there was no update from police and she eventually formed a view that that wasnt going to resolve the situation. More recently, King said she told Scanlon about CFMEU staffs concerns about Anthony Perrett  a relative of Ingham  and some of the activities he was up to that were separate to his murder charges. But she told the inquiry she would be uncomfortable going into more detail given the CFMEU staffs concerns for their safety. Counsel assisting the inquiry noted such evidence may be given in a private session under active consideration. The inquiry will resume on Wednesday, with King potentially facing cross-examination by counsel for the CFMEU administration, Ravbar, and Ingham, before Schinnerl is slated to appear. Start the day with a summary of the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
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NationalQueenslandCourts You have no idea how much pressure Im under, pilot told fiancee before fatal crash Cloe Read December 2, 2025  3:45pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

The chief pilot killed in the Sea World helicopter crash had a breakdown in the weeks before the collision and told his partner he was under a lot of pressure to induct new crews before the busy Christmas season, a court has heard. Pilot Ashley Jenkinson died alongside three others when his helicopter collided with another Sea World Helicopters aircraft during a scenic flight on January 2, 2023. An inquest into the crash, which killed three passengers  British couple Ron and Diane Hughes, and Sydney mother Vanessa Tadros  began last week. Kosha Richardson-Johnson and Ash Jenkinson. On Tuesday, the court heard from Jenkinsons fiancee, who said he was working late nights, sometimes until 10pm, multiple times per week.

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Kosha Richardson-Johnson told the court he had a breakdown in the weeks before the crash. She recalled one night she found him crying in their wardrobe, and she asked him what was wrong. You have no idea how much pressure Im under, she recalled him saying. The Sea World helicopters in the aftermath of the crash. AAP Richardson-Johnson said she considered calling Jenkinsons boss, Sea World Helicopters director John Orr-Campbell, about him taking the following day off for his health. She said Jenkinson ended up going to work the following day, and he was happy.

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She remembered Jenkinson frequently speaking of being under a lot of pressure over the new helicopters, which needed engineering to get them up and running. Often hed say he was trying to induct ground crew, he was struggling to find staff, she said. Ashley Jenkinson, the pilot who died in the Gold Coast helicopter crash. Facebook Richardson-Johnson recalled the pair had a New Years Eve party at their house where Jenkinson was using cocaine. She said Jenkinson had used cocaine in the past, in a recreational capacity at concerts or birthday parties. She said that would be about six to eight times per year.

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She said she was unaware of how much cocaine Jenkinson used during the New Years Eve party. When asked how often she had previously seen Jenkinson fly the day after he took cocaine, she answered probably two or three times a year. Richardson-Johnson said Jenkinson had drank at least 12 beers on the night of the party. Stephen Gill, a close friend of Jenkinson, told the inquest he saw the pilot with cocaine on a toolbox in a shed at the same party. He said he believed Jenkinson last used the cocaine about midnight. Some others reported it could have been about 3am, the court heard. Gill, who left the party about 5am, said Jenkinson had told him he left the party at some stage to help a friend into an Uber, and then took them home, carrying them to bed.

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The court heard there was a conversation between Richardson-Johnson and Gills wife about Jenkinsons stress levels. Ross Meadows, who managed marketing for the company and was a close friend of Jenkinson, also told the inquest he saw the pilot with a white substance in a shed at the party. He told the inquest Jenkinson was not a regular user of cocaine, but had seen him use it sporadically in social settings. When he left the shed, Meadows said, nothing good comes from that shit, the court heard. He said he had learned of Jenkinsons cocaine use in the years earlier, but it did not click at the time to him that it could be a danger for Jenkinsons flying or to report it to anyone at the company.

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Meadows said Jenkinson was his own person, and he was not responsible for him. Meadows said he spoke with Jenkinson regularly, and the chief pilot had not disclosed issues with his workload or indicated he had struggled with managing his duties. Related Article Courts Sea World Helicopters agrees to settle claim launched by pilots widow He described Jenkinson as a phenomenal pilot, and while the pair had a lot of fun outside the aircraft, when Jenkinson got in, he was very serious, and did not take it lightly. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which investigated the crash, said Jenkinsons cocaine use was unlikely to have affected his flying skills. It found the cocaine would have been used about 35 to 39 hours before the flight.

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Sea World Helicopters last week agreed to settle a civil claim with Richardson-Johnson. The Supreme Court heard the claim centred on allegations of negligence relating to poor work practices and a lack of reasonable safety precautions. The court heard 30 per cent of the undisclosed settlement would go to the couples son, Kayden, while Richardson-Johnson would get the remainder. Nicholas Tadros, who lost his mother and his leg in the helicopter crash bravely attended the inquest this week. Sea World Helicopters chief executive Brett Newman and director Orr-Campbell were due to give evidence to the inquest on Monday.

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The companys barrister sought a delay until February, having received 5000 pages of new material since the inquest began. However, the coroner rejected the application, and the executives were scheduled to give evidence next week. Start the day with a summary of the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
Teen sentenced to 17 years jail for murder of Melbourne doctor

The teenager who was found guilty of the murder of popular Melbourne doctor Ash Gordon has been jailed for 17 years.
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NationalVictoriaVictoria Police conduct Dozens of weapons searches by police deemed unlawful due to blunders Cameron Houston December 2, 2025  5:42pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

Victoria Police failed to comply with the law when officers conducted dozens of searches for weapons over the past eight years due to a series of administrative blunders that have been referred to the states corruption watchdog. The force has also launched a fresh audit of at least four operations in the Melbourne CBD over the past three months that might also have been unlawful because police failed to declare the designated search areas in the Victorian Government Gazette. Victoria Police admits it might have conducted unlawful searches. Jason South The non-compliant searches resulted in 33 people being charged or fined. All will be contacted by police and could have a basis to appeal their cases. A Victoria Police spokesman confirmed the force was aware that a number of weapons search operations are likely to be non-compliant or partially non-compliant with legislative requirements.

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Most of these issues arise from administrative errors such as public notices not including the name of the event where the operation was held, the spokesman said. Some more recent operations in the city were advertised on the Victoria Police website but not in the Victorian Government Gazette as was necessary. Loading Police conceded that other searches, which were not connected to a particular event, or conducted outside event hours, also failed to comply with the law. The force has vowed to review and strengthen its administrative processes, while also attempting to restore public confidence in the use of its search powers.

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At this stage 33 people who were either charged or fined are adversely impacted. This represents less than 1 per cent of searches during all weapons operations, the police spokesman said. Related Article Exclusive

Victoria Police These rates are astonishing: Victoria Polices profiling problem laid bare in new report The community should be assured the overwhelming majority of the 200 weapons search operations conducted over the period remain valid with no compliance issues whatsoever. However, Dr Tamar Hopkins from the Centre Against Racial Profiling said the non-compliant searches meant Victoria Police should not have its powers further expanded. We know that these powers have very poor hit rates, with about 1 per cent of all people searched found to be in possession of a weapon. There is no justification for the government to legislate these powers, Hopkins said.

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These findings demonstrate that Victoria Police cannot be trusted to comply with legislative requirements of rights breaching powers. Neither can the public trust them to otherwise fairly exercise these human rights breaching powers. The Age revealed last week that a disproportionate number of police searches of people from Aboriginal, African, Middle Eastern and Pacific Island communities had prompted accusations against Victoria Police of racial discrimination. Research by the Centre Against Racial Profiling found people perceived by police to be Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander were 15 times more likely to be searched than white people in 2024, but were less likely to be found with prohibited items, such as drugs or weapons. The report, based on data obtained from Victoria Police under freedom of information laws, also identified racial profiling of African community members, who were eight times more likely to be searched by police than white people in 2024, but also less likely to be found in possession of banned items. Those perceived to be African were seven times more likely to be the subject of a forceful interaction with police, who were also 24 times more likely to initiate a pursuit against someone of African appearance.

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A police spokesman last week rejected the reports findings and said the force had zero tolerance towards racial profiling. Start the day with a summary of the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
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Updated NationalVictoriaCrime Principal stabbed at high school in Melbournes south-east Isabel McMillan and Lachlan Abbott Updated December 2, 2025  5:50pm ,first published December 2, 2025  3:34pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

The principal of a high school in Melbournes south-east was stabbed at the school on Tuesday afternoon, forcing students into lockdown just before pick-up. Police said officers were called to Keysborough Secondary College on Isaac Road after a man allegedly assaulted another man about 3pm on Tuesday. Loading The Education Department later confirmed principal Aaron Sykes had been injured. The principal of Keysborough Secondary College was allegedly harmed by an adult at the Acacia campus today  no students or children were involved, a department spokesperson said.

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Keysborough Secondary College principal Aaron Sykes. Keysborough Secondary College website We are grateful to staff at Keysborough Secondary College who acted quickly to contact emergency services during this distressing incident. Police said a man was arrested and would be interviewed. The victim was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries consistent with a stabbing, a spokesperson said. At this stage investigators believe the people involved are known to each other. Sykes was previously principal at Melba College, which The Age awarded with a Schools That Excel prize in 2021 after the state school in Croydon lifted its median study score under his leadership.

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Keysborough Secondary College warned parents about the Tuesdays incident via text message. Dear parents, we have had to initiate a lockdown, a notification from the school read. I can confirm all students are safe and any student still inside the school will be permitted to leave shortly. The Education Department confirmed the principal had been injured. Nine News Ambulance Victoria said two people were taken to hospital after paramedics arrived about 3.05pm, but referred further inquiries to police. Photos shared online show police and ambulances at the school as students left the campus.

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Residents in the streets surrounding the school said they were shocked to hear what happened. Jin Mo, who has lived nearby with his wife for two years, said he didnt feel safe to go on his usual evening walks. My wife is pregnant, she is due in February, so this is a big shock, he said. I was working, and I got the message from her, and she said something was wrong outside. She said there were a lot of police and the helicopter in the sky.

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The entrance to Keysborough Secondary College on Tuesday. Isabel McMillan From my house to the kids school is not far, just a couple hundred metres. We go outside just for walks, for exercise. Now its like we cant go outside. Another resident, Angela Sinn, said she was concerned to hear two adults were involved in the incident while students were at school. You think a school is a safe place, she said. These are adults, not kids, hurting each other this way. It would be so traumatising [for the students]. The incident comes less than a week after a Berwick primary school was forced into lockdown amid reports one student had stabbed another.

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Breaking News Melbourne: get alerts on news as it happens. Sign up for our Breaking News Alert.
LEXINGTON PARK, Md., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Green Street Housing (GSH), TM Associates Development (TM) and the Housing Authority of St. Mary's County (HASMC) have officially broken ground on Villas at Lexoods, a new 40home family community planned for the Lexwoods Drive. Every residence will be reserved for households earning up to 40 percent of the area median income (AMI), with longterm rent support provided through ProjectBased Vouchers issued by HASMC.

CommunityFirst Design

Townhomestyle buildings will surround a centrally located community center and playground, with front porches, pedestrian pathways and shared green space encouraging neighborly connections. Eight residences will incorporate enhanced accessibility features, delivering modern, barrierfree housing for people with disabilities.

ZeroEnergyReady Construction

Buildings will meet ENERGY STAR Multifamily New Construction, National Green Building Standard (NGBS) Silver and DOE Zero Energy Ready Home standards. A rooftop solar array will offset commonarea electricity and help lower resident utility costs.

Collaborative Financing

The $20.2 Million total development budget is financed by: a Low Income Housing Tax Credit Equity Investment from The Richman Affordable Housing Group and Discover Bank, loans from Maryland DHCD Rental Housing Program Funds and EmPower funds, Permanent Mortgage financing from Boston Capital Finance, Construction Financing from CF Bank, Predevelopment financing from Locus Bank, and a Payment in Lieu of Taxes provided by St. Mary's County.

Voices From the Groundbreaking

"With Villas at Lex Woods, Green Street Housing is fulfilling a decadelong vision that has leveraged over $50 million to reinvigorate the Lex Woods neighborhoodbenefiting not only the 40 families who will move into these new homes, but also residents of the revitalized Lex Woods Apartments, Great Mills Court and Joe Baker Village."

 Tom Ayd, Principal, Green Street Housing

(Pending approval) "TM Associates is proud to partner with Green Street Housing and local officials to bring highquality, energysmart homes to Lexington Park. Villas at Lex Woods will provide longterm housing stability and opportunity for working families across St. Mary's County."

 Bob Margolis, CEO, TM Associates Development

A proclamation issued by the St. Mary's County Commissioners at the ceremony commended the partnership for "expanding highquality affordable housing that will strengthen families, schools and the local economy."

Project Team & Schedule

Harkins Builders is serving as General Contractor, with Architecture by Design, Inc. as Architect and TM Associates Management as post-construction property manager. Civil and Engineering support comes from Mudd Engineering, RK&K, Bob Taylor Engineering, and Pando Alliance.

First homes are scheduled for resident movein in April 2026, with full completion expected July 2026. The project will generate more than 60 constructionperiod jobs and provide longterm, energyefficient housing stability for Lexington Park's workforce.

About Green Street Housing

Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Salisbury, Maryland, Green Street Housing, LLC has financed, built or preserved more than 1,500 affordable rental homes across seven MidAtlantic states. The firm specializes in highperformance, LIHTCfinanced communities that pair deep affordability with longterm operational sustainability and residentfocused services. Learn more at https://greenstreethousing.com.

About TM Associates

With roots dating back to 1978, TM Associates Development and TM Associates Management have developed or manage over 14,000 affordable apartments in 11 states and Washington, D.C. The companies provide a full continuum of development, construction oversight, asset management and residentservice delivery, ensuring that every community remains vibrant and financially stable for the long term. Visit https://www.tmamgroup.com for additional information.

Media Contact:

Dave Layfield

4435236265

[email protected]

SOURCE Green Street Housing
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Updated NationalVictoriaCrime Mentally snapped: The decision said to have led to teachers alleged violent rage Cassandra Morgan and Isabel McMillan Updated December 3, 2025  3:24pm ,first published December 3, 2025  8:19am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

When enraged high school teacher Kim Ramchen walked into his principals office allegedly armed with a knife, he had never been so angry in his life. One thought dominated his mind: to completely incapacitate his employer. Thats the claim aired in Dandenong Magistrates Court on Wednesday, one day after Keysborough Secondary College, in Melbournes south-east, was plunged into lockdown just before school pick-up. Kim Ramchens brother, Lev Ramchen, outside Dandenong Magistrates Court on Wednesday. Simon Schluter Ramchen  a 37-year-old from Mulgrave with a maths-related doctorate  had worked at the school for the past two years but recently discovered his contract would expire at the end of the school term, the court was told. Ramchens lawyer said his client had sought a meeting about renewing his role but was not successful. On Tuesday, he allegedly marked his classs roll at 3pm, then walked to principal Aaron Sykes office.

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Crime A murder suspect dad, a missing TV hostess mum and a perfect VCE score: Alleged principal stabbers tragic past Sykes told police he saw Ramchen walk by his open office door. But Ramchen alleged he tried to talk to Sykes before the principal shut the office door in his face. Police allege Ramchen then went to a kitchen opposite the principals office and grabbed a 10-centimetre knife from the drawer before returning and launching an immediate attack. The teacher cut the principals lip and arm with the knife and held the weapon to Sykes throat, police said. Police said assistant principal Matthew Sloan heard screaming and managed to pull Ramchen off Sykes before losing sight of Ramchen in a hallway and calling for the school to be locked down.

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Outside the school on Wednesday morning, students told this masthead they were forced to hide during the lockdown. You know what you see in movies in, like, America, year 8 student Kerim said, standing beside a family member. Its just like one of those, but in real life, experiencing it. Teacher Kim Ramchen was arrested after allegedly stabbing a Melbourne high school principal. Nine News We were hiding for a good 20 minutes  until another alarm came out saying you can go outside. I felt relieved that nothing was going to happen. Back in court, police said Sloan soon found Ramchen again, rifling through a cutlery drawer in the kitchen. This time, he allegedly grabbed a 30-centimetre knife before he went into Sykes office and attacked him a second time, holding the weapon close to the principals face, the court heard.

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Staff managed to restrain Ramchen, and police said he was lucky he sustained only non-serious cuts. The teacher later told police he mentally snapped and wanted to completely incapacitate the principal, the court was told. Ive never been so angry in my life, Ramchen allegedly said in a police interview. Loading The teachers older brother, Lev Ramchen, the self-proclaimed parent of the family  following their mother Jacqui Ramchens disappearance in 1992 and their fathers death in 2002  said he and his brothers wife were shocked by the alleged attack. Kim Ramchen was charged with offences including assault and intentionally causing injury.

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[We are shocked] and bewildered, Lev told the court. Its just out of character and came out of the blue for all of us. Ramchen was only four when his mother vanished; his father, Slavik Ramchen, had been suspected of having had a hand in his wifes disappearance. He died in 2002 from pancreatic cancer after murder charges against him were dropped. Staff and students arriving at Keysborough Secondary College on Wednesday morning. Simon Schluter The now 37-year-old Kim Ramchen shares a three-year-old son with his wife and is the breadwinner of his family, Lev said. He said he suspected his brother was on the autism spectrum. Kim is a quiet person, he said.

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Lev, a commercial lawyer turned property investor, described their father as an overbearing person, and a patriarch  a very traditional man. The teacher said he felt a tide of emotion coming over him before Tuesdays alleged attacks, the likes of which hed never felt before, his lawyer said. Kim Ramchens brother, Lev Ramchen, and an unidentified woman leave Dandenong Court on Wednesday. Simon Schluter After deliberating on Ramchens bail application over the lunch break, Magistrate Andrew Walker ultimately decided the teacher would still pose a significant safety risk to Sykes if he were released on bail. The fact is, in these circumstances, we have no explanation of what caused this man to do what he did yesterday, he said.

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Numerous mentions have been made of [the] potential mental health issues Mr Ramchen may suffer, but I have no material from any psychiatrist. In my view, at this point in time, the risk ... is simply unknown. The magnitude of the risk, on the basis of what Mr Ramchen demonstrated he was capable of doing yesterday, is in my view extreme. Any use of a knife in circumstances such as what Mr Ramchen did yesterday, could easily result in injury or death. A staff briefing was held on Wednesday morning and wellbeing staff were on campus. Simon Schluter Given the seriousness of the alleged conduct, were Mr Ramchen to snap, my view is that there is nothing his wife or brother could do to stop him. At this point in time, bail is refused. Ramchen sat in silence with his head down as the court heard he would remain in custody until his next appearance in January.

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Keysborough Secondary College was plunged into lockdown about 3pm on Tuesday following the incident, forcing some students to hide under desks. On Wednesday morning, Sykes was recovering at home as students arrived at the school in Melbournes south-east for classes as usual. Parent Liz Tsareva, who said she barely slept after Tuesdays incident. Simon Schluter No children were involved in Tuesdays alleged attacks. Parent Liz Tsareva said her husband arrived to pick up their son from school, but the teenager told them he was hiding under a table. She said she barely slept that night.

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Its horrible. Children should be safe in school, Tsareva said. I think the school should solve the problem. Another parent, Doris Anati, said she was scared after her daughter told her about the lockdown. Parent Doris Anati during school drop-off on Wednesday morning. Simon Schluter Im calm now knowing its not an outsider coming into the school, Anati said during school drop-off on Wednesday.

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Crime Principal stabbed at high school in Melbournes south-east In a letter to families, Acacia Campus principal Natalie Fode said Sykes was recovering well and in good spirits given the circumstances. The alleged perpetrator is with police and will not at any stage be back on school grounds, Fode wrote in the letter. Any form of violence within our school is entirely unacceptable. We are proud of the safe and supportive culture that is the norm at our school. Sykes was formerly principal at Melba College, which The Age recognised with a Schools That Excel prize in 2021.

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Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan described the incident as incredibly distressing. Its horrifying for this to happen in any workplace, but for it to happen in a school is deeply horrifying, Allan said. Our Breaking News Alert will notify you of significant breaking news when it happens. Get it here.
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NationalVictoriaEducation NAPLAN 2025: Victorias top-performing schools revealed Bridie Smith and Jackson Graham Updated December 3, 2025  6:46am ,first published December 3, 2025  4:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

One of Melbournes most disadvantaged schools has shrugged off its challenges to emerge as a top performer in this years NAPLAN exams. Albanvale Primary School, in the citys north-west, outperformed comparable schools in reading, writing and numeracy, despite more than half the students coming from a low socio-educational background and almost 80 per cent speaking English as a second language. Reaching high: Albanvale Primary School principal Michael Uzunovski with year 3 and 5 students. Joe Armao With the full results for the states schools published today, the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) has identified 41 stand-out performing schools from metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria. Albanvale principal Michael Uzunovski said the thing that made him most proud about his school was the students.

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I know that sounds corny, but it is, he told this masthead. We set high standards, and they meet them every time. This year, on the national stage, Albanvale Primary students exceeded Uzunovskis high bar with NAPLAN by making the ACARA-curated list of schools making a difference. Uzunovski said he was particularly proud because the result was a vindication of his ambitious approach. Most people, when working with disadvantaged students, come from a place of empathy, which can sometimes lower expectations unintentionally, he said.

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We have really high expectations of our kids, and we match it with equally high levels of support. Every year, the school holds four parent-teacher interviews and provides four school reports  double that of most schools. Its a practice that ensures every student stays on track. If a student hasnt made a terms worth of progress when measured against the curriculum, there is swift intervention, be it from speech pathologists, additional classes or a focus on attendance. Frequent updates also bring Albanvale parents, most of whom did not finish school, on board. Uzunovski said school families are determined that their children get all the educational opportunities they can.

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Related Article NAPLAN Search your schools results using our 2025 NAPLAN interactive guide The parents are very engaged. They want their children to thrive in school and thrive in life, Uzunovski said. Year 7 students at Box Hill High School  where two-thirds of students have a language background other than English  have also performed above peers from similar backgrounds across all categories. But it is the uplift in students writing in the past three years among year 9 students that principal Kellie Ind is most proud of. In 2023, the schools NAPLAN results highlighted writing as an area for improvement.

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Teachers gained more skills and worked together to target writing across all subjects, believing clear writing and clear thinking are two sides of the same coin. Students, meanwhile, learnt to plan what they wanted to say, construct more complex sentences, build their vocabulary and edit their work. Box Hill High School principal Kellie Ind with students Diya Aneesh, 14 (left), and Evie Kusserow, 15. Alex Coppel I think students often would just write to get things done, and so we made it clear by doing lots of low-stakes writing, that writing was to show how well you understood something, or to get across a point of view, Ind said. We have lots of challenges in our modern world around young people communicating on social media or text messages. Communicating well clarifies their thinking and helps them remember things more. The impact can be seen across almost all subjects, Ind said, from concise bullet points in science to layered arguments in humanities.

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Year 9 student Diya Aneesh said shed learnt how to structure a paragraph and relate back to the prompt in an essay. Through the writing process my vocabulary has improved, she said. If Im talking to a doctor I know what to say, and how to properly explain how Im feeling, or can join in during class when were talking about a pretty big question. Albanvale Primary and Box Hill High are among 17 metropolitan government schools to make ACARAs list of star performers. The list, which is not ranked for performance, includes two independent schools and one Catholic school.

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Exclusive NationalVictoriaExtremism Neo-Nazis chilling threats as government investigates homeschooling network Sherryn Groch December 2, 2025  6:00pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

The newly freed leader of Australias largest neo-Nazi group has vowed violent revenge, and one of his chief lieutenants has threatened a state MP, as the Victorian government investigates concerns the group is running an illegal homeschooling network. A government probe into the secretive mothers groups of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Network (NSN) has enraged the group  on Monday, a threat made against government minister Gabrielle Williams by group member Jimeone Roberts was reported to parliamentary security and will be referred to police after Williams expressed concern about NSN homeschooling. Thomas Sewell walks free on bail last month with partner Rebecca Konstantinou  both have worked with vulnerable children in residential care or schools. AAP On a livestream last week, NSN leader Thomas Sewell vowed to make an example of his enemies in Australia that would make the murderous rampage and planned race war of Charles Mansons cult look moderate, in some of his first public comments since he was released on bail last month. During his September bail hearing for assault charges, Sewell flagged that the NSN had expanded into building home school networks and running community events around the country.

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On his way to court that day, he gatecrashed a press conference held by Premier Jacinta Allan, forcing her to flee the park where she was speaking as he shouted insults and falsehoods. Further details of the neo-Nazi groups secretive homeschool network are revealed in NSN livestreams and chat logs obtained by this masthead, as former recruits and families of members accuse them of grooming children. Victorian Transport Minister Gabrielle Williams was targeted online after commenting about the NSNs activities. Chris Hopkins The Victorian government said it had asked the education regulator to investigate the matter. Nazis have absolutely no place in Victoria, a spokesperson said. Any suggestion that children are being exposed to hate-filled or extremist material through homeschooling is appalling. When Williams raised concerns about news of the NSNs homeschool network over the weekend, saying action might be needed, Roberts posted her photo online, with a warning: Gabrielle should be wary of the rhetoric that she engages in.

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Im still really angry and like when we win ... here in Australia, Im going to make an example, Sewell said. Im going to do shit thats never been done before. Im going to do crazy shit  I want to make [Mansons] Helter Skelter look like a moderate when we win. Im telling you, these people are going to suffer for what theyve done. In June, Sewell told another far-right podcast his Nazi group had already set up homeschool networks for the mums and bubs and all the young kids around the country, as the group looks to create what he calls a parallel economy and society for white people. In his online posts over the weekend, neo-Nazi Roberts accused those seeking to police how white Australians educate their children of being afraid that those kids may begin tearing down this corrupt and traitorous system alongside their parents. Members of the NSNs mothers groups in Melbourne celebrating summer solstice in December 2024. Telegram The NSNs mothers groups have been expanding, posting photos online of regular events, usually featuring more than half a dozen women and children in each state.

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Nazis Next Door Neo-Nazis quietly forming a political party to try to get around the law While many children are not yet of school age, a parent of a former recruit told this masthead that he knew of teens whose parents were established NSN members joining the groups actions as second-generation Nazis. Its terrifying to think they [could be] running anything like a school, he said. I only just got my son back in school after all this. Researchers at the anti-fascist White Rose Society have also tracked the rise of mothers groups, which they say are key to the NSNs tribe and train motto. They said they were concerned for women brought into the fold, then isolated with their children away from non-extremist loved ones. Children born to them will be brought up with extremist views and home-educated in an insular community to become Hitler soldiers, they said. New-Zealand-born Sewell used to work with some of the states most vulnerable children for his job in residential care, and has previously boasted of recruiting hundreds of autistic teenagers.

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His fiancee, Rebecca Konstantinou, works as a behaviour consultant in schools with children affected by trauma and disability, though she told a court last month she was currently on leave to care for her two children with Sewell. Related Article Investigation

Racism Dont mention Hitler and youre sweet: The great March for Australia deception Sewell laid out his vision for the homeschool network to followers last year, arguing a network of like-minded cliques homeschooling their kids would grow until you could found a school or a series of schools that subscribe to a certain curriculum  across the country and even across the world, and then its very hard for the government to shut down. The operation starts getting too big, he said, even if it still needs to be sneaky where it needs to be sneaky, to avoid government crackdowns. It is a crime to run an unregistered school in Victoria, and in February, the Allan government tightened laws even further, increasing penalties to $23,700 for those who dont comply with child safety rules and other standards.

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AFP Threats against politicians soar as second neo-Nazi charged In mid-2024, Sewell told followers that if the government started making threats to take the children of those in the NSN, there would be violence. Thats the line in the sand, he said. Thats when I become a terrorist. If you take my child off me, Im going to start killing people. And Im going to encourage every single person that I know to also start killing people that are responsible, starting with probably the police and the judges that ordered for a child to come off one of us. Sewells close friend, white supremacist leader Blair Cottrell, has also spoken online of homeschooling young children, complaining in a livestream in 2023 about the Holocaust content allocated to students while he said he was homeschooling a young girl in the family. Kids should opt for homeschooling because the school system is corrupt and dangerous, he said, but argued it would be better to get kids together in a group so they could still socialise. Cottrell has previously called for Australian students to read Adolf Hitlers Mein Kampf and for the Nazi dictators picture to hang in every classroom.

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A government spokesperson said: Parents who choose to home-school their children have a responsibility to do the right thing  to provide a safe and quality education. The AFP would not comment on its investigations into the group. Start the day with a summary of the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
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Exclusive NationalVictoriaCourts Prisons boss lays bare impossible situation of overcrowding caused by bail reforms Erin Pearson December 2, 2025  10:04am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

A prisons boss has been forced to admit the system is under massive pressure from Victorias bail reforms, as a rise in custody numbers causes dozens of inmates to miss hearings every day. Magistrate Samantha Poulter ordered representatives from Corrections Victoria and Victoria Police to appear at Heidelberg court every day until a plan could be hatched to ensure an Indigenous woman awaiting sentencing in the Koori Court was brought in. Full cells are seeing people on remand not being brought into court according to police and corrections. Wayne Taylor

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Poulters frustrations boiled over after Corrections Victoria twice failed to bring the woman to court to be sentenced. Corrections Victoria Assistant Commissioner Jenny Hosking told Poulter that on that particular morning, 325 people were already in police cells across the state, and there was no room to bring the woman in from the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre. This, she said, had been caused by changes to the bail laws placing the system under enormous pressure and causing unintended consequences, which were also resulting in costs orders being made against the state. Were making every effort, but its an impossible situation at the moment, Hosking told the magistrate. Its definitely not something any of us are blind to, nor is it something we want to happen. The system is under massive pressure.

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Were not uncaring about this. We hope to engage more with the courts, so were very aware who the priorities are for the court. It is a very difficult situation. Related Article Courts Magistrates furious as bail law changes fuel legal logjams Hosking said people arrested overnight were prioritised over people on remand and revealed meetings were regularly taking place between the deputy chief magistrate, senior police and her organisation to try and resolve the issue. But Hosking complained they were not receiving a list from the court to assist with ensuring priority people were transported between jail and court each day. In another case, accused Easey Street double killer Perry Kouroumblis, 66, was days into a preliminary hearing when one morning he didnt make the transport list.

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Court was delayed for almost two hours while the situation was rectified. The state amended the Bail Act in March to prioritise community safety and make it tougher to be granted bail for some offences, such as violent crimes. Perry Kouroumblis has pleaded not guilty to murdering two women on Easey Street, Collingwood, in 1977. This has seen bail applications given precedence over other types of cases, according to a Court Services Victoria document provided to a parliamentary inquiry. Senior Sergeant Tim Lawrence, from the police custody management division, told the court all 20 cells at the Heidelberg courthouse were full on the day the Indigenous woman was due to be sentenced.

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Lawrence said 24 people across the state were unable to be brought to court that day alone, with no short-term solution in sight. These are trying times. The figures are astronomically high, he said. Were all frustrated with the current system. Were trying to make it work the best we can. There is no short-term solution, unfortunately. There were 2547 unsentenced inmates on remand in Victorian jails in October. Paul Jeffers Id be reluctant to provide guarantees which, hand on heart, I know cannot be delivered at the moment.

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Poulter was scathing of the situation, saying it was the fourth time in her courtroom alone that the system had failed. A plan was eventually put in place for prison staff to drive the accused woman to court themselves on her next available court date in December. Corrections Victoria data shows theres been a 21 per cent rise in the number of unsentenced inmates in the first 10 months of this year, when compared to the same time last year. As of October 31, there were 2547 unsentenced inmates on remand. A further 4232 sentenced prisoners were also in the states jails.

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The average number of unsentenced inmates a decade ago was 1525. Last month, this masthead revealed magistrates were furious that bail law changes had fuelled legal logjams. Custody cells beneath Melbourne Magistrates Court were so full in November that corrections staff were being forced to choose who they could transport in from the states police stations and remand centres to face court in person. Those who werent given priority were left to appear on video links that didnt work or had their cases adjourned until they could appear.

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Law and Advocacy Centre for Womens Ellen Murphy said the delays in getting people to court were a completely predictable consequence of the states bail reforms. Murphy said the overcrowding in police cells was particularly concerning for Koori courts that require physical attendance so the accused can participate in a sentencing conversation with Aboriginal Elders and the magistrate. The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.
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NationalVictoriaMissing campers trial Secret diary detailed abuse, fear of camper killers wife before her death Erin Pearson December 2, 2025  11:01pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

The mother of Greg Lynns first wife blames the missing camper killer for her daughters death, with secret diary entries detailing the abuse she allegedly suffered during their marriage. Lisa Lynns grieving family say she wrote of death threats and verbal abuse in the months before she was found dead on the front lawn of the sprawling Mount Macedon home she had shared with husband Greg and their two children. Greg and Lisa Lynn. Marija Ercegovac As far as I am concerned, Greg is responsible for my daughters death by mental torture. I know she was living in absolute fear of Greg. Her actions were a combination of the fear and terror she lived under, Lisas mother wrote in a document read out during Lynns pretrial hearing. Lisa Lynns death in October 1999 was 25 years before the former airline pilot would be convicted of murdering a stranger in remote bushland in the High Country.

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The details of Gregory and Lisa Lynns relationship, his interactions with police after her death  which a coroner deemed non-suspicious  and a string of court hearings over allegations he committed offences against his wife before she died, can be revealed after a gag order expired overnight. It follows a fight lasting more than a year by media outlets to overturn the suppression order and reveal details that Justice Michael Croucher considered when sentencing Gregory Lynn to 32 years in prison for the March 2020 murder of Carol Clay, a 73-year-old camper. Russell Hill and Carol Clay. The Age He was found not guilty of killing Russell Hill, 74, at the same Wonnangatta Valley campsite before bundling Clay and Hills bodies into the back of his trailer and driving through the night to another remote area, where he hid the remains and later returned to burn them. Court records show Gregory Lynn was, without conviction, released on a $300 good-behaviour bond in May 1999 after pleading guilty to escaping lawful custody during a police-escorted visit back to his Mount Macedon home.

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During the same hearing, at the Melbourne Magistrates Court, he also pleaded guilty to breaching an intervention order twice in April 1999. Charges struck out by the court after Lisa Lynns death included making threats to kill her in April 1999 and breaching an intervention order during the same month. It came during what a court heard was a bitter break-up and custody dispute before Lisa Lynn was found dead on the front lawn of her home. A coroner found she died, out in the elements, from a combination of prescription drug and alcohol toxicity, while her two young sons remained alone inside the sprawling country home on Zig Zag Road in October 1999. No one was charged over her death. Following his conviction over the missing campers murder, the court heard Lisa Lynn was his most significant relationship. The pair met when she was 21 and working as an RAAF signals operator, and he was 19.

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The pair moved to Western Australia and then Tasmania together, where she was heavily involved in the church, before they moved back to Victoria in the mid to late 90s. The court heard that when their relationship fell into difficulties, Gregory Lynn moved out of the family home and began a relationship with another woman. Gregory Lynn arrives at the Supreme Court in September 2024. Joe Armao Court orders were then put in place, limiting his contact with Lisa and their two young sons. Lynn married his current wife, Melanie, in 2004.

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In May 2024, during courtroom conversations when the jury was not present, Crown prosecutor Daniel Porceddu raised calling the family of Lynns late wife to testify about his character and how they maintain Lisa Lynn died as a result of his persistent abusive ways. Porceddu said he had an unsigned statement from the accused, from police records, that had him accepting his prior conduct as allegedly including breaking into his family home, stealing keys and taking a car, and on one occasion, pushing his then wife, Lisa Lynn. Porceddu also read out a statement from Lisa Lynns family, who asked not to be identified. Lisa Lynn kept a diary from the day Greg left the marriage, her father said. In it, her father said his daughter feared repercussions from Lynn and lived in terror, so she did not pursue charges against him once they separated.

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When their relationship commenced, everything was good. For some time, Greg wandered in and out of employment with various jobs, her father wrote to the Supreme Court. I was aware of the verbal abuse Greg was always [putting] on Lisa since the marriage began. Before their separation  Greg had been making very serious death threats against her and they continued right through until her death. Lisa kept a diary from the day Greg left the marriage  threats and verbal abuse  to the children made by Greg. I am also aware the police had to assist Lisa with an [intervention order] as a result of the above and the fact Greg broke into the house and stole the car, leaving Lisa with two young children and no transport  no money. Family court, child maintenance, very messy and bitter from Gregs side. Greg asking for totally unreasonable demands. Porceddu also read a statement from Lisa Lynns mother, which said Lynn did not support his former partner after their separation and frequently subjected her to physical and psychological abuse.

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I made many trips to Mount Macedon  to help Lisa with the kids because she wasnt getting any support from Greg, she wrote. Related Article Missing campers trial What the jury wasnt told about the missing campers case In addition to not gaining any support from Greg, he would subject her to physical and psychological abuse on a frequent basis. Losing his temper for no reason, blaming Lisa for anything that went wrong. Hed yell  things, push her around. I was not inclined to interfere, Lisa pleaded with me not to interfere. Lisa would say to me if I got involved ... it would make it worse for me. He has a warped mind, he has done things in the past like to animals and neighbours pets, and refused to feed the children. One time, in an uncontrolled rage at the Macedon Hotel, he verbally attacked a man in the bar  then redirected that rage to Lisa when we left the hotel. The statements were withheld from the jury as Lynns defence team labelled them prejudicial.

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Earlier, Detective Senior Constable Brett Florence had been asked about Lynns past. He noted some things remained in the police file. Mr Lynns previous wife was located deceased and there was an inquest in relation to her death. The dossier for that investigation related to that ... he was  taken back to the property and while he was in custody escaped from their custody and later arrested, Florence told a pre-trial hearing. Florence said police records showed that after Lynn escaped custody, he allegedly hid in the nearby bush and attempted to locate something hidden in the Macedon area. He was rearrested a short time later, the officer said. [Police database] LEAP [also] indicated a breach of an intervention order.

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In January 2023, magistrate Brett Sonnet ordered a suppression of the information about the killers prior interactions with police, later bolstering the order in November 2024, after accusing one of the countrys largest media organisations of outrageous, unfair reporting. Lawyers for media outlets, including the Herald Sun, ABC and this masthead, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court to argue that a suppression order preventing publication should be lifted after Lynns conviction. Instead, Sonnet largely used the hearing to suggest it was the unified view of all magistrates and the court that a recent, unrelated Herald Sun story highlighting the topic of deportation at a recent training conference was in error and stooped to the lowest possible standard imaginable. Sonnet said the press had already engaged in extensive reporting of Lynns trial and on almost every matter youve been able to do so, before strengthening the suppression order. Gregory Lynn is awaiting a decision on his appeal against his conviction and sentence over Carol Clays murder. Start the day with a summary of the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
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Updated NationalWABushfires Farmer killed in WA bushfire identified as shire deputy president Hannah Murphy and Heather McNeill Updated December 2, 2025  4:40pm ,first published December 2, 2025  3:53pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

A farmer who died while trying to fight a bushfire on Western Australias south coast on Monday afternoon has been identified as Shire of Ravensthorpe deputy president Mark Mudie. Mudie had been responding to a bushfire emergency that was threatening properties in the agricultural region, and was operating a front-end loader to establish a firebreak on his West River farm, when his vehicle was engulfed by flames. Mark Mudie. Ravensthorpe Wildflower Show and Herbarium WA Police said he died at the scene. Detective Inspector Rhonda Alexander said Mudie was working with others to stop the blaze. Just after 2pm [Monday] afternoon, emergency services were called  to a large fire in the [Ravensthorpe] area, she said.

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People were working in and around that property and ... we believe a fire has started. The gentleman was operating a front end loader to try and create a fire break, as any farmer would do. Unfortunately, while he was doing that, the fire has come and engulfed the area that he was in, and he couldnt be saved. Alexander said Mudie was at the scene trying to protect crops and outbuildings with a fire break. [Mudie] was working as a farm owner, and to save crops and outbuildings and other people, hes gone to ... make a fire break, and unfortunately, hes lost his life doing it.

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Mudies farm and surrounding properties suffered some damage to crops from the fire, which detectives said was not believed to be suspicious. Related Article Tragedy Forever broken: Family of volunteer firefighter who died fighting Esperance blaze speak out Worksafe WA has been notified. Volunteer fire brigades and West Australian politicians have offered their condolences to the Mudie family. The Lower Chittering Fire Brigade, who were battling their own out-of-control fire at the weekend, said in a statement their thoughts were with all those impacted by Mudies death.

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In light of the tragic loss of the landowner in the West River bushfire yesterday, we extend our heartfelt condolences to the family, friends and the local community of West River, they said. This is an incredibly difficult time, and our thoughts are with all those affected by this devastating event. May you find comfort and support in one another as you navigate through this painful loss. We stand with you during this challenging time. WA Premier Roger Cook said the death was a desperately sad situation. Obviously, Ravensthorpe is a tight-knit and small community, he said.

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They will be impacted by this, and [this] will have a lasting impact on their community. A fire is a traumatic event for any community, but when its combined with a loss of life, thats devastating, so our hearts are going out to them today. Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas also spoke about Mudie in parliament on Tuesday. Id like to extend my condolences on behalf of everybody on this side of the house to the farmer who died in the Ravensthorpe bushfire, he said. We extend our sincere and profound condolences to a man who died trying to assist not only his family, but his community.

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It reminds us all of the perils of living in Western Australia at this time of the year in particular. Related Article Bushfires God, I hope its not mine: Geraldton man describes moment he found out his house had burnt down Nationals politician and Katanning farmer Peter Rundle offered his own condolences. Thinking of all those involved [and] many thanks to the emergency volunteers, he said. A tragic loss for this community, one of our own lost too soon.

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The shire also released a statement on Tuesday. The Shire of Ravensthorpe is devastated by the death of a local man at the West River fire yesterday afternoon, it read. Our thoughts are with his family and friends, and also all emergency services still working on the fire. Mudie worked on his 7000-hectare family sheep farm alongside his wife and son. He was elected to the shire as deputy president in 2023, and was also a member of the councils bushfire advisory committee.

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Mudie was well known for his contribution to the regions wildflower show, where he supplied Lambs Tail flowers for visitors to photograph. The fire is moving slowly in a north-east direction, and is contained but not controlled. Mark Mudie with the flowers he supplied to the local wildflower show. Ravensthorpe Wildflower Show and Herbarium More than 4000 hectares have been burnt so far, and a bushfire watch and act remains active for people bounded by South Coast Highway, Lake Road, Mallee Road, Fitzgerald Road and Koornong Road in West River and West Fitzgerald, in the Shire of Ravensthorpe and Shire of Jerramungup. About 60 firefighters are working to stop the blaze from spreading, and power has been cut to about 30 surrounding homes and properties.

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Mudies death comes two years after volunteer firefighter Harry Stead was fatally injured after falling from a private firefighting vehicle while conducting fire suppression activities on a farm near Esperance. The 2020 Hale School graduate was the son of prominent farmer and CBH Group chairman Simon Stead. Be the first to know when major news happens. Sign up for breaking news alerts on email or turn on notifications in the app.
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NationalWABushfires God, I hope its not mine: Geraldton man describes moment he found out his house had burnt down Hannah Murphy December 2, 2025  1:07pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

A West Australian man has described feeling helpless as he watched on from behind road blocks while his home was destroyed by an out-of-control bushfire on Monday. More than 200 firefighters worked throughout the weekend and Monday to control fires raging through the town of Geraldton, about five hours drive north of Perth. Geraldton man Nick Morgan has described the moment he found out his home had burnt down in a bushfire. ABC / 9 News Perth Fires in the Mid West region have been downgraded as conditions ease, and emergency services are assessing the damage. Nick Morgan spoke to ABC Radio on Tuesday morning, and said he first became aware of the blaze when he was out of town.

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I was about an hours drive south, and I got a call saying that a fire emergency had erupted, he said. I thought this is bad, so I headed back to town. By the time I got back everything was locked down. I couldnt even get to my home. I couldnt even go in and help fight or get stuff out. Tragically, Morgan said his pet cat was trapped inside when the fire engulfed his home. He said the moment he found out his home was gone on Monday morning was devastating.

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We were listening to the radio ... there was a caller that mentioned that somebody [on my street] had lost their home because the fire had got into a palm tree. I thought, my place has got palm trees. God, I hope its not mine. Sometime a little bit after, the phone was ringing, the police were trying to contact me, the shire was trying to contact me, and they confirmed that my place was the one that had gone up. Its a mixture of shock, disbelief, nothing sort of really sunk in at the moment. Its totally gone. Its destroyed. Theres nothing much that can be saved out of it. Morgans home was the only property lost in the blaze, with firefighters managing to save another 600 from the path of the fire.

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Bushfire alerts remain in place for the Geraldton suburbs and wider regions of Bluff Point, Spalding, Sunset Beach, Waggrakine and Moresby. Related Article Bushfires A decade on, the sight of smoke still brings back terrible memories of Esperance fires The arson squad, Department of Fire and Emergency Service investigators and Geraldton detectives are all investigating the blazes, which are believed to have been deliberately lit. Waggrakine Primary School remains closed as a precaution. Evacuation centres at QEII Seniors and Community Centre and Northam Recreation Centre have been closed.

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While Tuesdays fire danger rating remains high, firefighters said they were able to control the fires and have reopened the roads to traffic. Start the day with a summary of the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
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NationalWACourts Warnbro mother Erica was stabbed to death, then set on fire. Her killer claims it was self-defence Rebecca Peppiatt December 2, 2025  2:06pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

An alarming number of Australian women have been killed in recent years. Find out more about their lives. Some of the cases are still before the courts. See all stories .

A Perth man who was due to stand trial on Tuesday over the murder of his partner has pleaded guilty at the last minute  but claims he killed the 30-year-old mother in self-defence. The development in the murder case of Erica Hay has devastated her close friends, who are aghast she has been portrayed as a perpetrator. Victim Erica Hay had four children. Luke Sekkouah, 37, stabbed Hay multiple times in the head, body and legs on April 25, 2024 after a protracted argument at her Warnbro public housing property. The Supreme Court of Western Australia on Tuesday was told that after the violent killing, Sekkouah set Hays house on fire using a stolen bottle of turpentine.

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He and the mother-of-four had only been in a relationship for a few months, but he lived at her home with Hay and her youngest child, aged three at the time. Her other three children lived with their respective fathers. Sekkouah had been living in Kalgoorlie, and after they moved in together neighbours reported the mood of the house changed with doors closed all the time, prosecutors said. Around the time of her murder, there was an argument between Sekkouah and Hay about drugs, money and another woman. A neighbour heard Hay tell Sekkouah: Its about time you started treating me like a girlfriend.

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The argument escalated and became violent. Luke Sekkouah. Sekkouah admitted he stabbed Hay in the head, legs and body with a kitchen knife that punctured her heart and other vital organs. Her young daughter, who lives with autism and has developmental delays, was still in the house. Sekkouah then set the house on fire.

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He took Hays daughter and ran from the house to a neighbours, where he said the house was on fire and that he did not know where Hay was. Police found the victims body in the house and asked Sekkouah why he did not go back for her. He told them he was only a lodger and did not know she was in the property. Officers became suspicious when they noticed Sekkouah had no smoke damage or evidence of being in a burning house, and then discovered Hay had died from stab wounds. During an interview, Sekkouah repeatedly denied being in a romantic relationship with Hay and told them she was always yelling, that she was crazy, but claimed he did not yell back.

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Sekkouah pleaded not guilty, and the matter was set down for trial, but before it began he changed his plea  but did not accept the states facts of the matter, instead claiming he acted in self-defence. Sekkouahs lawyer Paul Bevilacqua told the court on Tuesday the argument between his client and Hay was one-sided and contained aggression of sorts. He armed himself because he was being attacked, Bevilacqua said. There were elements of provocation. On Thursday, a trial of issues will be held ahead of Sekkouahs sentencing that will hear from witnesses, including one of Hays former partners.

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Sekkouah himself will also give evidence. Outside court, Hays best friend Amanda Broad said she was devastated her friend was being painted as a perpetrator. To hear how she died, I couldnt imagine what she was feeling at that time and for him to turn around and blame her for everything  he wasnt the nicest person, she said. She was beautiful. She was into her spiritual stuff. She was into her music. Her kids meant everything to her. She just wanted someone to love her for her and, sadly, Luke took advantage of that.

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National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732). Start the day with a summary of the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
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PoliticsFederalExtreme weather How not to do something really important: BoM boss grilled over $96m website Mike Foley Updated December 2, 2025  10:38am ,first published December 2, 2025  9:10am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 223 View all comments

The Bureau of Meteorology has been accused of falling prey to a consultancy firms land and expand tactics as the agencys new chief defends the $96 million cost of its widely loathed website during a combative Senate estimates hearing. Less than one month into a new job, bureau chief executive Stuart Minchin fronted up with Environment Minister Murray Watt to a highly anticipated grilling in a late-night session in Canberra on Monday night. Bureau of Meteorology chief executive Stuart Minchin. Alex Ellinghausen The bureaus new website has been widely criticised by farmers, site designers and politicians for changes that made it difficult to navigate, with radar maps that made it difficult to read place names. The redesign gained national attention when it was revealed that the bureaus initial price tag of $4.1 million was actually $96 million, including design work by private consultancy Accenture Australia.

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The website upgrade was one component of the nearly decade-long Robust program, an $866 million security and technology overhaul that included forecasting and security upgrades to protect sensitive data from hacking following a serious cybersecurity breach in 2015. Related Article Exclusive

Extreme weather Minister puts BoM on notice over bungled $96m website upgrade Costs on the Robust program blew out by 15 per cent, Minchin told the hearing. Greens senator Barbara Pocock, a campaigner against contracting firms with questionable practices, said the initiative was a case study of how not to do something really important. Theres been a massive feeding on the public sector by the big consulting firms, Pocock said. This project has been a nightmare case study in contract failure, in management of contracts, failure of leadership and completely unacceptable and unethical behaviour by the big consultants who have been at the trough through the BoM.

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Pocock cited one example of a major contractor for the website, Accenture, where the cost of one tranche of work rose in value from $33 million to $77 million following 10 contract amendments. This contract was issued in 2019 and rose in value after a series of variations. Extra costs, additional to the $77 million contract, were incurred for security testing, launching the site and extra features, which took the total cost to $96 million. Minchin said people only view the website platform, but the BoMs forecasting system included 10,000 instruments in the field that feed into a supercomputer and weather models as well as operational systems. Our meteorologists pull those models together and create the forecasting, and that then makes it into the website, he said. It was actually that end-to-end chain that cost the $96 million, not just the front end.

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Pocock said the bureau had erred in issuing open-ended contracts that enabled blowouts and criticised the reliance on current staff to manage the new programs. This is a firm that is famous for land and expand, she said. Loading It might have been wise to spend a little bit of money employing public servants in the BoM, who could actually manage this project, rather than requiring the BoM to manage it with their existing resources. Minchin conceded the bureau needed to be more transparent and publicly admit mistakes.

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However, he rejected Pococks accusations of mismanagement: I do take umbrage to some degree that I dont think these contracts were as badly managed as you make out. Related Article Extreme weather Watt unaware of scope of $96m blowout of BoM website Minchin said the 15 per cent blowout in the cost of the Robust program was caused in part by unforeseen COVID-19 contingencies and was within the normal range for major technology programs that typically start with a 20 per cent contingency for cost increases. Robust had been subject to external government reviews, including eight assessments by the Finance Department. The most recent one finished last week, and the program received a green light from the external gateway review, Minchin said.

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Watt said the Albanese government was working to reduce reliance on external consultants. This [website] may well be a contract that demonstrates the need for greater oversight and of consultants and greater use of public sector capacity, Watt said. Environment Minister Murray Watt. Dominic Lorrimer Pocock fired back, accusing Watt and Minchin of ignoring the culpability of the bureau. I dont hear either of you saying that leadership failed, because I think it did, she said.

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Watt conceded the management of the Robust program needed greater scrutiny, stressing it was started under the former Coalition government. Related Article Opinion

Software The $4.1 million question: How did the BOM get its new website so wrong? David Swan Technology editor There are some questions about how this project has been managed  many of them predate Dr Minchins arrival, many of his team and this government, he said. Please dont be under any illusions about how seriously I, and other ministers, take these issues. In 2015, the bureaus site was infiltrated by malware associated with state-sponsored cyber agents.

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The incident raised fears that foreign actors could interrupt crucial weather forecasts and compromise military operations or infrastructure such as airports. The bureau has installed a new supercomputer and the website now runs off a more secure platform that replaces the old unencrypted HTTP version, which proved too easy to hack. Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.
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PoliticsFederalSecrecy Overpaid political hacks: Public trust lost over jobs for mates Brittany Busch and Nick Newling Updated December 2, 2025  4:18pm ,first published December 2, 2025  9:55am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

Australians fear the federal government is appointing overpaid political hacks to plum public service jobs and have lost faith in its capacity to make independent appointments, according to a long-hidden report that Labor released more than two years after it was finished. The Albanese government said it would introduce a framework for politically linked appointments to senior positions, but it has rejected several other recommendations in the review of Canberras jobs-for-mates culture by former public service commissioner Lynelle Briggs. Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher. Alex Ellinghausen Successive governments have been criticised for their public service and diplomatic appointments, but the review ordered by the Albanese government in 2023 was limited to examining board appointments, not plum postings or high-profile jobs. Labors long-delayed response was condemned by integrity experts, independent MPs and the Coalition as insufficient, with one MP saying a culture of cronyism would continue.

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The Briggs review found that between 6 and 7 per cent of board appointments were political in nature, that half were direct appointments by ministers, and that people were kept in roles even when they did not appear capable. Briggs wrote in her report that hardly anyone seems to be happy with the current system. Ministers are frustrated that officials seem unable to deliver new talent and high-quality fields in a timely manner, and that they are often advised to reappoint people whose capabilities are uncertain, she wrote. Public trust has been undermined to such an extent by the level of direct appointments in recent years that people fear that they are being landed with overpaid political hacks who cannot do these important jobs properly and that some of these bodies may not be operating in the public interest. The review recommended new laws to enforce independent standards for selecting board members, with fair and open recruitment processes except in exceptional circumstances under the discretion of the prime minister.

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Politicians and their staffers should be barred from holding government board positions within six months of leaving their roles, and 18 months for those previously working in ministerial portfolios, the review recommended. It also recommended stopping making appointments within six months of a federal election. Related Article Updated

Parliament House Minties wrapper necklaces and sledging: How Senate descended into the longest question time ever Briggs explicitly recommended the need for legislative response, said UNSW Professor Gabrielle Appleby, research director at the Centre for Public Integrity, adding that exemptions from the rules were hugely problematic. Theres an exemption for whenever the prime minister agrees there should be an exemption. Thats a pretty big discretion. Independent senator David Pocock, who forced the government to release the report by orchestrating a revolt in the Senate last month, said on Tuesday it was clear why the government had sat on the report for two years.

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It is no surprise there is such low trust in politicians. Communities constantly call for more integrity but are ignored, he said. Independent MP Sophie Scamps said unless new laws were passed, its unlikely this culture of cronyism will change. Theyre not walking their talk on the jobs-for-mates culture at all. The Albanese government has given dozens of people with ties to Labor, including from within the prime ministers own team of staffers, public service and diplomatic roles since coming to government. This masthead does not suggest any of the appointments were not made on merit, just that they are Labor figures. Some diplomatic positions have traditionally been political picks, including the ambassador to the United States  currently former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd  and former South Australian premier Jay Weatherill, newly appointed to the role as high commissioner to the UK.

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Other appointments, meanwhile, including former state Labor MP Mike Kaisers as the climate change department secretary, and Albanese advisor Kathy Klugman as director-general of the Office of National Intelligence, have raised eyebrows. Related Article Exclusive

Secrecy Albanese as bad as Morrison on integrity: Teal MPs and new report card slam Labor Albanese was accused of hypocrisy and undermining national security after he hand-picked Klugman, who had been his offices chief foreign policy advisor before taking on the role in October. Pocock said government-affiliated picks could be the right ones for the job, but without a merit-based appointment process, it was impossible to know. If everyone knew what the criteria was, knew how someone got appointed, youd go, okay, cool, theyve gone through the process, and you may not fully agree with who gets the job, but you know that at least its a merit-based appointment.

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Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher defended the governments response, saying it was an improvement on the existing system. Opposition public service spokesperson James Paterson told Gallagher in a Senate inquiry on Monday that the release of the report to select journalists was pretty cynical. I think it speaks volumes to the governments approach to transparency and scrutiny  You made much of that in the last couple of elections, Paterson told Gallagher before a Senate inquiry on Monday. Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.
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Australian Workers Union state secretary Stacey Schinnerl is walked through other elements of her witness statement.

She describes the CFMEUs stickering campaign of Labour Day march routes and cars, with counsel assisting Patrick Wheelehan getting Schinnerl to hold up examples.

I realise how ludicrous this is, she remarks when standing to show an A2 version of an anti-AWU sticker.

Wheelahan then asks Schinnerl about her evidence about being followed by a car while exiting a shopping centre with one of her children in her AWU-branded car.

While the vehicle and driver had no obvious CFMEU marking, Schinnerl says she and other AWU officials had also been followed on the road in their union branded cars, so she considered it was likely related to the CFMEU campaign.

Wrapping up now, Wheelahan tells the inquiry he expects Schinnerl will continue to give evidence until at least lunch tomorrow before any potential cross-examination from counsel for the CFMEU administrations, and ousted union leaders Michael Ravbar and Jade Ingham.

Thats a wrap on todays news. We will continue with another coverage of the inquiry tomorrow.
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Treating more children as adults in the criminal justice system under the Victorian governments proposed violent crime, adult time laws is incompatible with the states human rights charter. Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny conceded the legislation  which will include maximum penalties of life in prison for teenagers convicted of aggravated home invasions and carjackings  was in breach of the governments commitment to the rights of children. Premier Jacinta Allan on Tuesday. Alex Coppel In my view, the reforms serve a pressing and important purpose, where there is no less restrictive means available, Kilkenny wrote in a statement of compatibility that was tabled in parliament along with the legislation on Tuesday. However, on balance, I acknowledge that the reforms interfere with fundamental protective and criminal process rights of children to a significant extent, in circumstances where other jurisdictions and international bodies have deemed such an approach to be incompatible with childrens rights.

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The far-reaching changes to how the criminal justice system treats children charged with certain violence offences will be rushed through parliament with little scrutiny after the opposition derided the proposed laws as broken and flawed, but decided to vote for them anyway. The laws were introduced in the first day of a frantic final week of parliament, in which the government also received a report into controversial group voting tickets and was urged to publicly release evidence justifying its decision to demolish 44 public housing towers. The Queensland-inspired crime legislation means teenagers as young as 14 charged with carjacking, home invasions and other violent offences will be dealt with by adult courts and potentially attract far heftier sentences than they would receive in the Childrens Court. The plan has been widely condemned by social justice groups as a breach of human rights that lacked evidence and which would have a detrimental impact on vulnerable children. These concerns were confirmed by Kilkenny, who, in her compatibility statement, noted the proposed laws constitute significant limits on the fundamental rights of children who are by their nature a vulnerable cohort.

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Victorian Parliament Children to be tried as adults in youth justice overhaul But she said the legislation was necessary to address compelling and pressing community safety concerns heightened by serious and violent offending by children. She said children were disproportionately represented among perpetrators of rising crime in Victoria and that about half of all home invasions and carjacking over the past year had been committed by offenders under the age of 18. Opposition Leader Jess Wilson and shadow attorney-general James Newbury said the proposed laws were weak and being rushed through parliament to avoid proper scrutiny. However, a joint Coalition party room meeting on Tuesday morning voted to support the legislation. We wont be opposing Labors weak laws, Newbury said.

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The government also announced an expansion of the carjacking offence, which currently requires the theft of a vehicle through the use of fear or threats. The bill will expand this to include circumstances in which a baby or child under the age of 10 is in the vehicle alone, even if the offender was not aware of their presence. The law, as it stands, treats this as theft rather than carjacking. Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny. Wayne Taylor The government further announced funding for the states new violence reduction unit. Schools will be linked with programs  including those provided by sporting organisations such as Melbourne Storm, Melbourne Victory and the Western Bulldogs  to engage children. The changes came as an inquiry recommended the immediate end of group voting tickets, which could result in complex voter preference harvesting disappearing from Victoria.

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Victoria is the last state in Australia to use the controversial group tickets, which allow micro parties to pool preferences from those who vote above the line on the ballot paper for the upper house. Candidates can leapfrog more popular parties through backroom deals that have previously led to the election of MPs with less than 1 per cent of the vote. After years of debate over the practice, the states electoral matters committee has recommended that the voting system be scrapped as soon as possible so that it doesnt feature in the 2026 state election. Removing group voting tickets would result in Labor, the Greens and the Coalition all boosting their representation, and potential gains for One Nation, which has increased its popularity in recent polls. In its findings, the committee acknowledged their key recommendation would make it difficult for smaller parties to be elected without also restructuring the upper house.

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Related Article Victorian election Labor set to cap party war chests in donation law backflip However, its report argued that delaying their elimination would further erode trust in the system. It called for a two-step process in which group voting tickets were abolished by 2026, followed by consultation on a new-look upper house that could go to a referendum in 2028 or 2030. One option under consideration would be a statewide model in which MPs are elected depending on how many votes they get across Victoria, rather than within the current eight regions. Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell said that if Allan didnt abolish the regions at the same time, the result would be terrible for democracy and hamper the governments legislation.

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In another headache for the government, a year-long parliamentary inquiry found that the demolition of 44 public housing towers must halt immediately until it handed over key evidence justifying the multibillion-dollar project. Related Article City life A sewing circle, a home, a lifeline: the community under threat as older peoples homes to be torn down The final report, tabled in the upper house on Tuesday, recommends an independent legal arbiter be appointed to review 146 secret documents the government has blocked under executive privilege. The committee found the refusal to produce the documents meant it was impossible for parliament to verify if demolition, then rebuilding, was the most cost-effective option instead of infill and refurbishment. Transparency expert Dr Catherine Williams, of the Centre for Public Integrity, said the government was operating in blatant disregard for democratic accountability on this and other issues by repeatedly ignoring standing orders.

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[This] is not a mere technicality  It directly undermines the parliaments constitutional responsibility to hold the government to account. The report calls for a halt [to] all work  which has begun  until the government releases feasibility reports. 44 Flats United advocate R-Coo Tran said the report vindicated residents and made a mockery of the states treaty agenda by displacing First Nations people. Public housing activist R-Coo speaks on the steps of Parliament house after the final report from the parliamentary inquiry into the demolition was released. Chris Hopkins The report also found the government had used the term social housing to transfer public housing tenants into a privatised model, noting public housing was10 per cent more expensive for the state to build due to federal tax laws.

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Opposition housing spokesman David Southwick has committed to releasing the documents if the Coalition wins government next year. The public deserves to know what Labor are hiding and exactly what they have signed taxpayers up to, Southwick said. Victorian Greens housing spokesperson Gabrielle de Vietri said the report left Labor totally exposed, describing the plan as indefensible. However, Labor MPs on the non-government-controlled committee rejected the findings in a dissenting report, accusing the committee of ignoring irrefutable evidence that the towers were uninhabitable. Ryan Batchelor told parliament the inquiry ignored safety risks, including that 95 per cent of lifts across the estates could not fit an ambulance stretcher. We need a plan to replace these towers, he said. Start the day with a summary of the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
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PoliticsWALocal council City of Perth turmoil intensifies as lord mayor hands workplace probe to local government inspector Carla Hildebrandt December 3, 2025  8:45am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 4 View all comments

The City of Perth has been thrown into fresh turmoil, with the lord mayor requesting a state government investigation after abandoning a controversial workplace culture review he pushed through council last month. The move came during a tense agenda meeting on Tuesday evening, which attracted a packed gallery of ratepayers and residents. Perth Lord Mayor Bruce Reynolds. Carla Hildebrandt Their vocal support for one another prompted Lord Mayor Bruce Reynolds to label them a cheer squad. Reynolds opened the meeting with a 15-minute speech defending his November 18 urgent motion  which councillors were given six minutes to read before voting on  authorising a $125,000 review by a law firm.

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Reynolds said he acted out of concern for former staff who had raised serious concerns over safety and culture, including psychosocial hazards, and that there were concerning public reviews about the workplace. Related Article Local council Turmoil embroils City of Perth as acting CEO accuses lord mayor of unlawful motion There is a duty to act promptly, not sit on our hands, he said in his speech. This was about transparency, good governance and supporting staff. But Reynolds acknowledged the move had become the subject of competing legal commentary, public dispute and media noise, and he would vote in favour of its revocation.

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We cannot allow the city to be dragged into a governance crisis simply to prove I was right on a process point, Reynolds said. If the city is to be seen to be locked in open warfare between its governing body and its administration, the state will not only act, but it could be pressured to act, and that outcome will damage confidence in this council and in local government. Reynolds said he would formally ask incoming Local Government Inspector Tony Brown to conduct a full independent review of the citys workplace culture. Brown starts in the newly created state government role on January 1, 2026. The shift follows the dramatic resignation of the City of Perths acting chief executive Peta Mabbs, who, in a critical agenda item on the workplace motion, warned the decision was not a lawful decision and therefore cannot be implemented, citing insufficient notice and no opportunity for questions.

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A city spokesperson confirmed in the meeting Mabbs tendered her resignation late last week and would remain employed in her substantive role during her notice period. Related Article Gina Rinehart Rinehart likens Perth to New York, Tokyo in push for Hancock HQ helipad Deputy Mayor David Goncalves told the meeting Mabbs had already been transitioning toward retirement before the dispute, which he said should be made public. Senior executive Wendy Attenborough has been appointed acting chief executive for the next fortnight, until chief executive Michelle Reynolds returns from pre-approved leave. Reynolds speech was followed by a public deputation from East Perth ratepayer Vicki Raniszewski, who accused the lord mayor of pushing through the workplace review.

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Urgency provisions should only be used in genuine emergencies. Not in ways that compress timeframes, limit participation or undermine transparency, she said. Her remarks drew loud clapping and yeahs from the gallery. Reynolds replied: You have got the cheer squad in today, well done. Councillor Catherine Lezers husband, Dr Kevin McIsaac, also delivered a pointed deputation, describing the motion as ill-conceived and unlawful, urging new councillors not to be bullied into supporting motions in the future. Newly elected councillor Chris Patton responded directly, saying, I was not bullied, and argued he supported the review because he believed supporting staff was essential, and the cost was minor in the context of the citys budget. Fellow new councillor Lisa Ma agreed, thanking McIsaac but adding: It was from my own thinking and my own understanding.

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Councillors Lezer and Raj Doshi were openly critical of the process, asking multiple questions of both the mayor and the administration. Lezer pressed Reynolds on why Mills Oakley had been chosen, asking if he had used the firm before personally or professionally. Reynolds replied, definitely not, and said he contacted them for a preliminary estimate because they had conducted similar work for other local governments. Doshi asked whether Reynolds had checked on the wellbeing of all councillors and staff after the issue became public. Reynolds said he emailed everyone the next day, but Doshi questioned whether that met his duty of care and whether he should have contacted people individually. The revocation motion is expected to be voted on at next weeks ordinary council meeting.
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PoliticsWARetail Dog Swamp lockdown revelation as WA retailers get new powers to ban violent thugs Hamish Hastie December 2, 2025  12:52pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 1 View all comments

West Australian retail and fast food shop owners will be able to issue restraining order-style barring orders to stop badly behaved shoppers from entering their premises again. Woolworths has welcomed the introduction of the laws in parliament today, with state operations manager Lisa Rout revealing her staff were being subjected to increasing levels of abuse and violence. Attorney General Tony Buti. Hamish Hastie Speaking outside the Dog Swamp Woolworths, Rout said the store had recently been subjected to two confronting incidents  one of which forced the store into lockdown for half an hour. Last year alone, we saw just over 680 instances recorded of violence and aggression towards our team. Those instances range from verbal abuse right up to assault and theft with a weapon, she said.

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Just recently, unfortunately, the store behind us had to enter a lockdown period for 30 minutes because we had an offender who was vandalising our self-checkout area, was intimidating our staff and also intimidating other customers. Likewise, I have another team member who is still recovering at home after being punched in the face some week and a half ago. While these incidents are significant, they dont happen everywhere every day, but when they do, they have a really lasting impact. The retail barring laws were promised by the state government ahead of the March election, but will not pass parliament before the end of the year, meaning shop owners will have to face the upcoming Christmas season without the tool in their arsenal. Attorney General Tony Buti said the laws worked like restraining orders, in that shop owners or shopping centre managers could apply to the courts to put a retail barring order in place.

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They must provide evidence that someone has caused issues at stores in the past and will likely cause issues in the future, and the magistrate has discretion over how extensive the order will be. Related Article Exclusive

Crime Spat on, stolen from, screamed at, punched: WAs retail crimes revealed Buti said it could be applied across multiple stores, but would be unlikely to apply across all Woolworths or Coles locations. He said in country towns where there may only be one grocery store, the offender may have an altered order allowing them to attend the shop for essential services, or they may have to arrange for delivery of their groceries. The magistrate will have the discretion to ensure that people who need to access a particular store for essential services, for food ... there will be a variation allowed in the retail barring order to allow them to access essential services like food or maybe attending to a doctor or other essential services, he said.

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Breaches of an order could result in five years prison. The laws are modelled after similar legislation in the ACT, which Buti said had resulted in a big reduction in retail abuse. Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas said the laws were long overdue, and the Liberals supported them in principle. Weve been calling for these laws all year. Unfortunately, its not going to be in time for retail workers for Christmas, he said. Buti defended the time its taken to introduce the laws, saying they had to consult to ensure they were right.

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Retail workers union organiser Mark Murray was unfazed by the time it had taken to get to this point. If you expect anything to happen quickly, its obviously your first time dealing with politics, he said. Buti reflected on his own time working at Kelmscott Woolworths in his youth, and said abuse of retail workers had ramped up during COVID-19 but had not reduced. Asked how the government would address the societal issues driving retail violence, Buti said it was a community responsibility. Laws on their own do not solve all societys problems, but this is an important measure, so this provides a protection to retail workers. But of course, weve got a long way to go society, to educate each other, to show respect for each other, he said.

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That is beyond the legal system, that is us as a community having that discussion. Start the day with a summary of the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.

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Crime Hamish Hastie is WAtoday's state political reporter and the winner of five WA Media Awards, including the 2023 Beck Prize for best political journalism. or email. Connect via Twitter
Accused Australian drug smuggler likely to have avoided Bali death penalty

An Australian man has likely avoided the death penalty as Bali prosecutors drop the most serious drug charges against him.
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WorldEuropeRoyal family Andrew wont get $1m refund on Windsor home left in poor condition Victoria Ward and Amy Gibbons Updated December 3, 2025  11:47am ,first published December 3, 2025  9:06am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 111 View all comments

London: Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor can stay at his Windsor home until next October, it has emerged. The Crown Estate revealed on Tuesday that while Andrew had served notice on Royal Lodge on October 30, his lease allowed him to continue living there for at least another 12 months. Andrew is being evicted from Royal Lodge, the 30-room mansion near Windsor Castle where he has lived since 2003. However, a royal source insisted the current expectation was that he would move out in the first quarter of 2026. The London Telegraph understands that he plans to relocate to the Sandringham estate as soon as his new home is ready and appropriate security provision is in place. King Charles forced his brother to give up the lease to Royal Lodge in October and stripped him of his titles amid escalating anger over his friendship with the late American financier Jeffrey Epstein.

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There was further outcry when it emerged that for more than 20 years, Andrew had only paid a peppercorn rent on his home, prompting the House of Commons public accounts committee to demand answers from the Crown Estate about how the royal familys properties were managed. The lease details were published on Tuesday by the committee, whose chairman, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, has announced an inquiry into such arrangements and whether they offer value for money for the taxpayer. Loading Andrew could be summoned to give evidence before the committee, the Telegraph understands. However, MPs have no power to force him to attend should he refuse to comply. The public accounts committee published letters from both the Crown Estate and the Treasury explaining the various arrangements.

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The correspondence confirmed that Andrew would not receive any compensation for giving up Royal Lodge, owing to the extent of repairs needed. The Telegraph revealed last month that he would be denied any refund, having failed to meet requirements to maintain the vast estate, including ensuring the exterior stonework was in good condition every five years and the interior was painted every seven years. Andrew and Prince William attend the funeral of the Duchess of Kent on September 4. Alamy Stock Photo Under the terms of his 75-year lease, Andrew could have been entitled to 488,000 ($982,000) for an early surrender of his contract. But the Crown Estate said the property was so dilapidated that in all likelihood he would not be owed any compensation.

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It also admitted that an independent architect had been appointed to monitor the upkeep, but that inspections were carried out on a need-only basis. While Andrew is still living in sprawling Windsor property, he remains responsible for its ongoing costs of maintenance and repair. Andrew with his former wife, Sarah Ferguson, in April. WireImage Elsewhere, it was revealed that once Andrew and his former wife, Sarah Ferguson, have moved out of their home, it could be leased on the open market. The documents also show that Andrew retains a lease with the Crown Estate on a lodge in the grounds of Sunninghill Park, his marital home, which is occupied by a member of staff.

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Andrew sold the 12-bedroom mansion, which was a wedding gift from the late Queen Elizabeth, to Kazakh billionaire Timur Kulibayev, in 2007 for 15 million  3 million over the asking price  only for it to remain empty for almost a decade. The spending watchdog also published information about Prince William and Princess Catherines lease on Forest Lodge, the Wales new Windsor home. The committee said the couple, who moved into the property with their children in October, has a 20-year non-assignable lease with the Crown Estate that began on July 5 this year with open market rent. The agreement was made after the prince made an initial approach, following discussions with the royal household.

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The Crown Estate said: Negotiations were conducted on an arms length basis, to ensure appropriate market terms were agreed. It said independent valuers from Hamptons and Savills estate agents were appointed to value the property, while the prince and princess received independent legal and property advice. Prince Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh at his home in Bagshot Park. Buckingham Palace via Getty Images The documents also revealed that Prince Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh, who has leased the 20.6-hectare Bagshot Park in Surrey from the Crown Estate for the past 25 years, also pays a peppercorn rent. Like Andrew, who paid an initial outlay of 8.5 million between 2003 and 2005, the duke paid 5 million up front on a 150-year lease.

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Meanwhile, Princess Alexandra, Elizabeth IIs cousin, pays little more than 2700 a year to live in the Grade II-listed Thatched House Lodge within Richmond Park. Related Article Royal family His name shall be erased: Andrew stripped of last remaining royal titles Clifton-Brown said that, having reflected on the information provided, the committee had decided to launch an inquiry based on the information it had received from the Treasury and Crown Estate, as well as from the National Audit Office, which recently updated a report it produced in 2005 examining the royal familys leases. The date of its first evidence session will be announced in due course. Clifton-Brown said: We would like to thank the Crown Estate commissioners and HM Treasury for their considered responses to our questions.

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In publishing these responses, the public accounts committee fulfils one of its primary purposes  to aid transparency in public interest information, as part of its overall mission to secure value for money for the taxpayer. Having reflected on what we have received, the information provided clearly forms the beginnings of a basis for an inquiry. The National Audit Office (NAO) supports the scrutiny function of this committee. We now await the conclusions the NAO will draw from this information, and plan to hold an inquiry based on the resulting evidence base in the new year. Crown Estate chief executive Dan Labbad said: We very much welcome the news of the committees inquiry. We have provided detailed answers to the committees questions to date and look forward to working with the NAO and responding to further questions to support the inquiry process. The Crown Estate  a vast portfolio of land and property  belongs to the reigning monarch in right of the Crown but is not their private property.

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Analysis WorldEuropeRussia-Ukraine war The brutal reality that shows what Putin really thinks of Trumps peace plan David Crowe December 2, 2025  10:45am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 52 View all comments

Lviv, Ukraine: There are mobile apps to measure progress in the peace talks on Ukraine  and they are lighting up with warning signs. The apps tell people across the country when their city or region is likely to feel the blast of a missile strike or drone attack, giving them time to seek safety in a bomb shelter. The warning system is essential to saving lives and is based on the work of civil defence agencies tracking Russian missiles and drones through the air. It is like a weather forecast for impending terror, available on an iPhone screen. Fire rages after a Russian missile hit a multi-storey residential building in Vyshgorod, outside Kyiv, on Sunday. AP And for all the talk about a pathway to peace, the data displays an escalating war.

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Yaroslav Kolodiy felt the impact on November 19 when Russian missiles slammed into two apartment buildings in his home city of Ternopil, in western Ukraine. One of his friends, a mechanic, went to sleep that night as usual and died in the flames. His wife and children survived, badly injured. The attack was one of the worst of the war, killing at least 37 people, including seven children, and wounding more than 120 others. Kolodiy, safe in his house, heard the explosions and felt the destruction. You feel this freezing behind your chest, he tells me. It is a feeling like you are not in normal life. In the air, there is death. Black smoke and burning oil surrounded the buildings the next day, he says, and spread a physical as well as a psychological sickness over the city. One theory is that the missiles used infrared countermeasures to evade air defences. Smoke rises in the aftermath of Russian strikes on a building in Ternopil on November 19. AP

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Kolodiy is a patriot: his company, Koza Dereza, makes clothes with traditional designs, and his charity, Wheels of Victory, transports toughened 4WD vehicles to the front to help soldiers in battle. He worries that people do not really understand what is happening in Ukraine. He feels the Russian onslaught is destroying the world he knew. Composite of screenshots from app showing air-raid alerts in Ukraine SMH The records show that Russia is blasting Ukraine with a devastating intensity at the very time US President Donald Trump says a peace deal is close. Trumps personal envoy, Steve Witkoff, is expected in Moscow on Tuesday (early on Wednesday, AEDT) to encourage Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to end the war. There is no sign, however, that Putin will accept peace unless it comes with a capitulation from Ukraine. The tally shows a surge in strikes this year and new peaks in recent weeks, including 476 drones and 48 missiles in a single night on November 19, when Ternopil was struck. Russia launched 464 drones and 22 missiles on November 25. It attacked power systems around Kyiv on Saturday, leaving 600,000 without power for much of that day.

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In the latest attack, a Russian missile killed four people and wounded 40 others when a ballistic missile struck a civilian target in Dnipro, in eastern Ukraine. Most attacks are at night, but this one was on Monday morning. One study of the missile strikes, by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, shows a dramatic escalation in the second half of this year. Another study, reported by The Kyiv Independent based on work by Dragon Capital, found that Russia launched 359 missiles and more than 8000 drones in October and November. It said Ukrainian forces intercepted 80 per cent of drones but only 27 per cent of missiles.

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Ukraines former foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, says the attacks are part of a pattern that shows Putin is under insufficient pressure to sign a peace deal. The sequence of contrasting events captured the grim essence of the outgoing year, he writes in The Guardian about the latest attacks. Rescue workers at the site of a strike in Ternopil on November 19. AP By day, diplomatic battles are fought: hopeful statements are issued from Washington, London, Brussels and Kyiv. Immense energy is expended on containing Donald Trumps initiatives. By night, Putin brutally reminds the world that, for him, war remains the primary tool for achieving peace. Kuleba concludes that genuine peace will come only when there is a more forceful response from America and Europe to deter Russia.

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Putin is convinced that time is on his side  that Ukraine and its partners are approaching exhaustion, he writes. His motivation to sign a deal that does not give him the maximum possible gain is close to zero. Putins own words show Kuleba is right. The Russian leader last week said Russia was ready to keep on fighting until the last Ukrainian dies. Then, on Sunday, he expressed confidence in seizing the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk. Russian forces are advancing in practically all directions, he said. Calculating that Europe and America will not do enough to stop him, Putin increases his attacks while Trump and his aides try to negotiate a peace. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is trying to gain more support while Trump sends Witkoff to see Putin, given the risk that the White House will expect Ukraine to sacrifice its long-term security to secure a ceasefire.

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Zelensky met French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday in Paris (early on Tuesday, AEDT), and the two men joined a call with leaders from Britain, Germany, Poland, Italy, Norway, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands. The talks included NATO and the European Union. Related Article Blood Oil Blood oil on the ground: Ive seen first hand the devastation of war in Ukraine The next step for the Ukrainian leader is an official visit to Ireland on Tuesday with his wife, Olena, including an address to the nations parliament, the Oireachtas. European leaders are showing their support for Ukraine. Even so, their words are not enough to deter Putin, who feels he is on a historic mission to reclaim the Russian empire. Ukrainians see a weak peace deal as an invitation to Putin to wage war again later. And they see the missile and drone strikes as proof that Putin does not really want peace at all.

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The Russians are dangerous, says Kolodiy in Ternopil. They are saying that they are for peace, but they are killing. If somebody wants to understand the condition of the world, just talk to somebody who has survived in Ukraine. Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on whats making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.
NEW YORK, Dec. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ --

Why: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of American Depositary Shares ("ADS" or "ADSs") of WPP plc (NYSE: WPP) between February 27, 2025 and July 8, 2025, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important December 8, 2025 lead plaintiff deadline.

So what: If you purchased WPP plc ADSs during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.

What to do next: To join the WPP plc class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=46121 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than December 8, 2025. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.

Why Rosen Law: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources, or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm achieved, at that time, the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

Details of the case: According to the complaint, defendants provided overwhelmingly positive statements to investors while, at the same time, disseminating materially false and misleading statements and/or concealing material adverse facts concerning the true state of WPP's media arm; notably, that it was not truly equipped to handle the ongoing macroeconomic challenges while competing effectively and had instead begun to lose significant market share to its competitors. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.

To join the WPP plc class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=46121 call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] for information on the class action.

No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.

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DOHA, Qatar, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- WuXi Biologics (2269.HK), a leading global Contract Research, Development and Manufacturing Organization (CRDMO), today announced that it has signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Qatar Free Zones Authority (QFZ) to extend WuXi Biologics' global network and capabilities to the Middle East.

The MoU signing was witnessed by H.E. Sheikh Faisal bin Thani bin Faisal Al-Thani, Minister of Commerce and Industry  State of Qatar and Chairman of Qatar Free Zones Authority (QFZ), and was signed by H.E. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Hamad Bin Faisal Al-Thani, CEO of Qatar Free Zones Authority, and Dr. Chris Chen, CEO of WuXi Biologics.

The strategic collaboration paves the way for the establishment of WuXi Biologics' first integrated CRDMO center in the Middle East. By combining WuXi Biologics' globally recognized one-stop CRDMO solutions, innovative technologies, and expertise in complex biologics (such as bispecifics & multispecifics, antibody-drug conjugates) with Qatar's strategic vision for biopharmaceutical advancement, this collaboration aims to drive innovation, accelerate the growth of Qatar's biotechnology sector, while jointly propel the development of a robust Middle Eastern biopharmaceutical ecosystem.

Dr. Chris Chen, CEO of WuXi Biologics, commented: "This partnership is a pivotal step for WuXi Biologics. It marks the beginning of our journey in the region while extending our global network and capabilities. Qatar's forward-looking vision for the biopharmaceutical sector, underpinned by QFZ's integrated ecosystem and reliable connectivity, provides a compelling platform for innovation and advanced manufacturing. We look forward to contributing to this growing ecosystem while enabling our clients to deliver high-quality, life-saving treatments to patients around the world."

H.E. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Hamad Bin Faisal Al-Thani, CEO of Qatar Free Zones Authority (QFZ), said: "This partnership strengthens Qatar's position as one of the region's most reliable locations for biopharmaceutical growth. By combining WuXi Biologics' global expertise with Qatar's advanced healthcare ecosystem, supportive regulatory landscape, and exceptional logistics connectivity, we are creating an environment for sustained biopharmaceutical innovation and high-value manufacturing. We are committed to fostering strategic partnerships that expand global capacity, accelerate breakthroughs, and position Qatar as a hub for the industries of the future."

About WuXi Biologics

WuXi Biologics (stock code: 2269.HK) is a leading global Contract Research, Development and Manufacturing Organization (CRDMO) offering end-to-end solutions that enable partners to discover, develop and manufacture biologics  from concept to commercialization  for the benefit of patients worldwide.

With over 12,000 skilled employees in China, the United States, Ireland, Germany and Singapore, WuXi Biologics leverages its technologies and expertise to provide customers with efficient and cost-effective biologics discovery, development and manufacturing solutions. As of June 30, 2025, WuXi Biologics is supporting 864 integrated client projects, including 24 in commercial manufacturing.

Its subsidiary WuXi XDC (stock code: 2268.HK) is a globally leading CRDMO specializing in bioconjugates, focusing on antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and other bioconjugate modalities. WuXi XDC offers comprehensive one-stop services from preclinical to commercial manufacturing, empowering the development of next-generation ADCs through diverse innovative conjugation technologies. Its subsidiary WuXi Vaccines, is a leading CDMO that focuses on vaccine and preventive antibody's development and manufacturing.

WuXi Biologics regards sustainability as the cornerstone of long-term business growth. The company continuously drives green technology innovations to offer advanced end-to-end Green CRDMO solutions for its global partners while consistently achieving excellence in Environment, Social and Governance (ESG). Committed to creating shared value, it collaborates with all stakeholders to foster positive social and environmental impacts and promote responsible practices that empower the entire value chain.

For more information about WuXi Biologics, please visit: www.wuxibiologics.com.

About Qatar Free Zones Authority (QFZ)

Qatar Free Zones Authority (QFZ) was established in 2018 and launched soft operations in 2020 to oversee and regulate world-class free zones in Qatar and secure fixed investments within the zones. QFZ offers outstanding opportunities and benefits for businesses seeking to establish operations and expand regionally and globally, providing quality infrastructure, a skilled workforce, 100% foreign ownership, access to investment funds, tax exemptions and partnership opportunities with Qatari entities. For more information on QFZ, visit https://qfz.gov.qa/ .

Contacts

Business

[email protected]

Media

[email protected]

SOURCE WuXi Biologics
SPECIAL guest Santa Claus was on hand to kick off Christmas in Carlow this weekend with the launch of Feile Lonrach  Festival of Glow 2025, as families from all over Carlow came together to celebrate the start of the festive season.

The day began in Carlow Library, where children were able to immerse themselves in the specially-decorated Santa Room and write letters to the Big Man in anticipation of Christmas morning. Santa then embarked on a festive tour around the county aboard his iconic big red bus, while his reindeer got some much-needed rest before their upcoming journey across the world.

People gathered at roadsides and in village centres to greet Santa as he passed by, before he returned to Carlow town centre in time for the flagship event of the day  Lightfest.

Over 4,000 people gathered at Carlow Town Hall, where there were artisan food stalls, funfair rides, childrens activities and more. Music was provided by Maryann & Band, Abbaesque and DJ Matt, who led the official countdown to Santas arrival just after 6pm and the much-anticipated fireworks display.

Just after Santa appeared on stage in front of the crowd, the Christmas lights in the town were officially switched on, capping off a magical day for all in attendance.

Feile Lonrach  Festival of Glow 2025 will continue through the month of December with the next event taking place on Saturday 6 December, when Santas Big Red Bus rolls into Tullow. For the full programme of events, visit www.carlow.ie

xxx

Everly-Rose and Axel Dunphy

Santa Claus arrives at Carlow Town Hall along with minister Jennifer Murnane O'Connor, Carlow chamber president Norah Ryan and mayor of Carlow Paul Doogue

Abba tribute band ABBAesque performing at Lightfest

a Unfortunately, not all residents of Carlow town were able to join in the festive fun. A video posted to Facebook by Jackson Gafforelli on Sunday showed some visibly distressed swans as the nearby fireworks lit up the night sky above them. Swans are protected under Irish and European Union laws, which prohibit their hunting, trapping and disturbance.

Under section 22 of the Wildlife Act, 1976, it is illegal to wilfully disturb a protected wild bird on or near a nest containing eggs or unfledged young, with penalties for offences ranging from 500 to 5,000.

Carlow County Council and the National Parks and Wildlife Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Nationalist.

More pictures from Lightfest on page 17
Eva Osborne

A banned growth hormone that EU scientific authorities have deemed a complete carcinogen has been discovered in Brazilian beef imported into EU markets, triggering a recall and fuelling an escalating political storm over the proposed Mercosur trade agreement.

The EU has prohibited the use of hormones for growth promotion in livestock since 1981, including substances such as oestradiol-17, which was found in frozen Brazilian beef in Italy.

Scientific committees advising the EU have repeatedly concluded that oestradiol-17 must be considered a complete carcinogen with both tumour-initiating and tumour-promoting effects.

The discovery of such banned substances in Brazilian beef has now become the central flashpoint in the EUMercosur trade debate, with Irish MEPs and farm leaders warning that public health, environmental protections, and fair competition are at risk.

'A serious wake-up call

The recent recall, combined with the findings of a joint IFA/Irish Farmers Journal investigation into Brazilian production standards, has intensified industry alarm.

Deputy editor of the Irish Farmers Journal, Adam Woods, said farmers want a level playing field.

They want the beef that comes into the EU to be the very same as we produce any beef that comes into that market should be held to the same rigour as the beef that is produced here.

IFA President Francie Gorman said the findings should be a serious wake up call for what he described as the cheerleaders advocating for the Mercosur deal.

This was randomly discovered, to be clear, and it shows that the controls which we were told were in place, are not This beef needs to be stopped coming into the EU as a matter of urgency.

Gorman said the recall proves that assurances about safeguards will never be in place. He also called on Tanaiste and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris to clarify his partys stance.

The Programme for Government is very clear, he said, quoting its commitment to work against the current Mercosur trade deal.

He argued that food imports should be removed from the agreement entirely.

The so-called safeguards make no reference to public health The EU authorities cannot have any faith in the control systems in Brazil. Ignoring this is putting public and consumer health at risk.

Mercosur trade agreement

The EU and Mercosur countries, which include Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, reached a political breakthrough on the partnership agreement in December 2024.

The European Commission published proposals for the signature and conclusion of the deal in September 2025.

If ratified, the Mercosur partnership agreement would become one of the largest trade accords in the world.

However, resistance is mounting rapidly as Irish and European lawmakers cite environmental, agricultural, and now public-health concerns stemming from the hormone discovery.

The European Parliament is expected to vote on safeguard measures later this month, with the broader trade agreement facing uncertain prospects amid intensifying scrutiny.

Fianna Fail MEP Billy Kelleher said the beef component of the Mercosur deal is now not acceptable and confirmed he will vote against the agreement in the European Parliament later this month.

In recent weeks, we have seen recalls of Brazilian beef due to the use of prohibited hormones that have been proven to cause cancer, he said.

Kelleher added that recent media investigations had shown just how lax the controls on the use of antibiotics are in Brazil".

He warned that increased beef imports would drive further destruction of the Amazon rainforest and displace indigenous communities.

We need to be honest with ourselves  an increase in Brazilian beef exports to Europe will result in the further destruction of the Amazonian rainforest and the displacement of indigenous people. This is morally and ethically wrong in my opinion.

He criticised the EU Commission for sacrificing agriculture in exchange for benefits for other sectors, such as car exports.

Fundamentally, in order to reach an agreement, elements of the Mercosur trade deal, i.e. the beef important segment, have been compromised in order to secure an agreement which would benefit other parts of the economy, such as car exports.

This is not acceptable to me. While safeguards have supposedly been put in place, they ultimately rely on the national competent authorities in Mercosur countries to implement them and play by our rules.

"Quite frankly, I dont have enough trust in these authorities."
By Bairbre Holmes, PA

Ukraine is trying to reach every heart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy told TDs and senators in the Dail during an address to a joint session of both houses of the Oireachtas.

The Ukrainian president did not have to try hard with Labour leader Ivana Bacik, who sported two large glittering hearts pinned to her lapel, one in the colours of the Irish flag and the other the Ukrainian flag.

Her yellow and blue outfit was not the only show of sartorial support from those in the chamber and packed into the gallery.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy addresses a joint sitting of the Dail (Tony Maxwell/Maxwells/PA)

Most on the Government benches sported pins featuring the Irish and Ukrainian flags, while sunflowers, yellow ribbons and a yellow and blue scarf were scattered among the crowd.

Mr Zelenskiy received a rock star greeting as he entered, hands thrust out from every direction by politicians desperate for a handshake.

He took his seat by the Ceann Comhairle, watched by his wife Olena Zelenska, who sat with with the Taoiseachs wife Mary Martin and Ukrainian dignitaries.

She was described as a model for women worldwide by Verona Murphy in her opening remarks.

Mary Martin and Olena Zelenska in the Dail chamber (Tony Maxwell/Maxwells/PA)

Not everyone was as enthusiastic for the Ukrainian leader  People Before Profit TDs Richard Boyd Barrett and Paul Murphy stood but did not join in the repeated ovations.

The partys TDs were criticised for a similar move after his 2022 virtual address to the Dail.

They said it was because they disagreed with Mr Zelenskiys calls for Nato involvement in the war and a decision to ban opposition parties in Ukraine.

In a statement issued shortly after Tuesdays speech, Mr Boyd Barrett and Mr Murphy condemned Russia but criticised increased militarisation.

A Garda armoured vehicle in Dublin forms part of the security detail (Brian Lawless/PA)

During his speech Mr Zelenskiy drew parallels between Irish and Ukrainian history, while thanking Ireland for its support.

He said: Our peoples, Ukrainian and Irish, are among the few in Europe who spent centuries fighting for the right to remain themselves.

Ireland has stood firmly and clearly for our independence and for a just end to this war.

The weight of history was returned to time and again during the day, with the Good Friday Agreement, the Second World War and Irelands diaspora referenced in speeches and remarks.

Volodymyr Zelenskiys message in the visitor book (Tony Maxwell/Maxwells/PA)

The historic nature of the day was not lost on TDs, several of whom captured photos and videos of Mr Zelenskiys speech.

A heavy security operation saw imposing Ukrainian teams bolstered by the Gardas dramatic-looking armoured tactical truck, or battle wagons.

The cavalcade surrounded the Ukrainian president as he travelled to meet his Irish counterpart at Aras an Uachtarain, where he signed the visitors book.

In his message he thanked Catherine Connolly for hosting him, and the people of Ireland for hosting displaced Ukrainians.

It was then on to Government Buildings for engagements including an inspection of a guard of honour of Irish troops, an invitation rarely extended to foreign leaders.

Darragh OBrien watches from a window (Liam McBurney/PA)

Minister for Transport Darragh OBrien peered from an upper floor window to get a glimpse of proceedings.

They day also included the signing of a five-year road map for the Ukraine-Ireland Partnership, the launch of the Ireland-Ukraine Economic Forum, and a press conference with the countrys two leaders.

Despite a focus on history during the day, Mr Zelenskiys comments during the press conference were firmly focused on the future.

He said he hoped Ukraine would become a member of the EU in the next five years, that a tribunal would one day hold Russia legally accountable for its aggression, and that a decent, dignified peace will finally come to his country.
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Cement demand in El Salvador rose sharply this year, driven by accelerated construction activity across the country. According to Central Reserve Bank (BCR) data, companies required 34.3m bags of cement (42.5kg) between January and August 202522 per cent more than the 28.1m bags consumed in the same period last year. In August alone, demand reached 3.9m bags, up from 3.5m in August 2024.

Luis Rodriguez, director of the San Salvador Metropolitan Planning Office (OPAMSS), said cement producers are reinforcing production and distribution capacity to keep pace with demand. Holcim El Salvador reported a 20 per cent increase in sales volumes this year, with executive director Manuel Arrieta noting that the company achieved the historical record of production in the country in the second half of 2025. Holcim operates two plants in Metapan and expects to surpass current production records next year.

The company has sold more than 1.2Mt of cement in 2025 and has invested nearly US$80m over the past five years in capacity expansion and sustainable technologies.

Imports are also rising. From January to October, El Salvador imported 614,000t of hydraulic cement, mainly from Guatemala, Vietnam and Japanworth US$51.6m. Rodriguez said overall construction materials passing through Acajutla port have increased by 60 per cent.

The surge does not include informal retail sales, which remain substantial. Small-scale construction has expanded significantly, with OPAMSS recording 689 minor projects this year versus just 31 in 2023. This activity aligns with strong sector performance; construction grew 29.8 per cent in August, driven by more than 120 ongoing housing developments.
Zendesk also named AWS Customer Experience Partner of the Year (Technology) - Global for driving customer success while helping businesses adapt and grow

LAS VEGAS, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at AWS re:Invent, Zendesk announced a Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to accelerate AI-powered contact center innovation and joint go to market to support the global growth of Zendesk Contact Center . The collaboration will focus on integrating Amazon Connect voice capabilities, conversational analytics, and sentiment analysis with Zendesk Contact Center, advancing Zendesk's vision to power exceptional service for every person on the planet.

As customer expectations rise and contact centers require faster, seamless service, Zendesk and AWS will help businesses modernize their contact center operations with scalable, flexible voice and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solutions built on Amazon Connect  enhancing both customer and employee experiences. By combining Amazon Connect's proven voice technology with conversational analytics capabilities and Zendesk's AI for customer service powered by Amazon Bedrock, the collaboration creates a cohesive solution that unifies voice, digital channels, and AI automation.

"Our collaboration with AWS addresses a critical industry challenge: contact centers are drowning in fragmented systems that create friction instead of resolution," said Adrian McDermott, Zendesk CTO. "This collaboration helps Zendesk build the next generation of agent-centric solutions, where AI is seamlessly integrated  not bolted on  ensuring every interaction across channels, agents, and systems drives resolution."

"Zendesk's recognition as AWS' Customer Experience Partner of the Year (Technology) - Global showcases their commitment to contact center innovation on AWS," said Pasquale DeMaio, Vice President of Amazon Connect at AWS. "This Strategic Collaboration Agreement deepens our partnership by connecting Amazon Connect's AI capabilitiesincluding agents that reason and assist representativeswith Zendesk's automation platform. Together, we're empowering human-AI collaboration to enhance customer experiences, improve efficiency, and build trust."

This SCA builds on Zendesk's long-standing collaboration with AWS to help customers deliver the speed, responsiveness, and consistency they already expect. Zendesk Contact Center, built on Amazon Connect and powered by the AI-first Zendesk Resolution Platform, unifies AI, channels, and agent tools for customer service agents from day one. It seamlessly bridges systems and teams to resolve contacts faster across voice, self-service, and digital, while streamlining operations and retiring fragmented legacy stacks. With a single, scalable platform, organizations keep agents productive, customers delighted, and their contact centers ready for what's next.

This commitment to customer success is solidified with Zendesk's recognition as the AWS Customer Experience Partner of the Year (Technology) - Globalan award honoring the top AWS Technology Partner with a horizontal business area focus on Customer Experience. This underscores how Zendesk and AWS continue to collaborate to drive innovation and deliver outcomes for customers, such as TELUS, to transform their contact centers.

"Working with AWS and Zendesk, TELUS Digital recently transformed customer support for a leading telecommunications client by deploying 24/7 asynchronous messaging powered by Zendesk Contact Center on the AWS secure, global infrastructure," said Jamie Timm, SVP, Global Delivery and Operations, TELUS Digital. "The results included a five percentage point increase in First Contact Resolution and a 50 percent reduction in after-contact work time. Zendesk's AI-powered platform truly empowers agents and elevates service to the next level, and through this deepened collaboration with AWS, focused on Amazon Connect, we're excited to see how Zendesk Contact Center will continue to innovate."

As part of this collaboration, Zendesk will offer a cohesive, multi-product solution combining the Zendesk Resolution Platform with Amazon Connect in the AWS Marketplace in the coming months.

About Zendesk

Zendesk powers exceptional service for every person on the planet. As a leader in AI-powered service, we offer the Zendesk Resolution Platform, designed to redefine customer experience with advanced tools that integrate AI Agents, a comprehensive knowledge graph, actions and integrations, governance and control, measurement and insights, and human expertise. Our purpose-built platform enhances service by combining automation and human insight for seamless interactions. Easy to use, easy to scale, and easy to get value from, Zendesk helps companies strengthen relationships, improve efficiency, and grow. Learn more at www.zendesk.com .

SOURCE Zendesk, Inc.
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White Oak Bicycle Co-Op is transforming mobility for residents in need. After five years of groundwork, its vision is becoming reality with the launch of the Bike Box, a first-of-its-kind bicycle distribution hub.



In partnership with iFixit, WOBC converted a shipping container into a fully functional distribution facility. Since its grand opening in November 2024, the Bike Box has delivered more than 435 bicycles to local agencies serving unhoused individuals and vulnerable residents. Bikes are used for transportation, allowing individuals to access services and to and from work.



Agency staff can access inventory directly, ensuring bikes are available for immediate distribution without waiting for volunteer deliveries.



Today, we use technology to manage inventory and keep the Bike Box filled with bicycles for immediate access, said Ben Richard, director of Bicycle Operations.



Transportation needs remain significant across Hamilton County, officials said. The top three agencies utilizing the Bike Box include: Hamilton County homeless support and court systems, the City of Chattanooga and the Chatt Foundation.



WOBCs work complements the CARTA public transit network by bridging the first and last mile of transportation, officials said.



Our partnership with local agencies and organizations has been great. We appreciate the work CARTA does to provide public transportation. Our work supports the CARTA network by closing the gap in the first and last mile of transportation, added Blake Pierce.



WOBC invites community members to support its mission by donating used bicycles for refurbishment and repurposing. Donations can be dropped off at any of the 12 collection sites throughout the Chattanooga area.



For a full list of locations, visit: www.whiteoakbicycle.org.
County School Chairman Joe Smith said Monday he is concerned that the North River Family YMCA and the county schools are working on a joint project, but will have two different construction managers.

Justin Witt, county school facility manager, said at a meeting of the school board facilities committee that it may make the overall project more complex, but he felt it was manageable.

The new North River Elementary School is being built at the campus of the North River Y, with both facilities sharing a gymnasium.

Officials said earlier, "This unique partnership will offer expanded opportunities for students, staff, and families, including swim lessons, after-school activities, and summer camps."

Mr. Witt said the North River YMCA work appears to be behind schedule on starting construction. He said the hope is that the YMCA project will be completed by the time construction starts on the new school.

Mr. Smith said of the fact that one construction manager is not spearheading the entire project, "That worries me. It makes me concerned."

He asked Mr. Witt, "We've never used a construction manager before, and our partner is using a different construction manager, doesn't that concern you?"

Mr. Witt said the two projects are on different sides of the property and should be able to be worked out.

There are separate architects for the two projects.

The $48 million school will serve the current DuPont, Alpine Crest, and Rivermont school zones.

Mr. Witt said proposals are out for the school construction manager and one should be selected by January. The construction manager will then begin work with the architect on the final design - a process that will take 8-9 months, then estimates will be in hand and bids can begin to go out, it was stated.

There will also be construction managers for the Soddy Daisy Middle School project and Clifton Hills Elementary project.

Board member Steve Slater said the new configuration at Soddy Daisy Middle "should quadruple the number of parking spaces. There will also be more drive throughs, which should take a lot of traffic off Highway 27."

He said the construction manager should be in place by February or March.

An architect is in place for the Franklin-Roberts school at the former Gateway Building downtown and examinations are underway of how the existing building can be outfitted for school uses, the board was told.
Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel, P.C. announces the addition of attorneys McKinley Pitts and Aleksei Smith, who will support the firm's labor and employment, litigation and real estate practice areas."We are excited to welcome McKinley and Aleksei to Chambliss during a period of meaningful growth at our firm," said President and Managing Shareholder Steve Barham. "We look forward to seeing McKinley and Aleksei grow in their individual practices and are excited for the future as we continue to bring new talent to the firm.With their strong drive and shared commitment to our client-focused approach, they will make a significant impact at Chambliss."Ms. Pitts advises employers on compliance with Title VII, FMLA, ADA, ADEA and FLSA, and provides guidance on hiring and termination practices, employee accommodations, leave management and wage-and-hour matters. She also assists in developing employment policies, handbooks and training programs to promote positive work environments and minimize risk. Her experience spans diverse industries, including automotive, education, food and beverage, health care, manufacturing, municipal and government, startups, and transportation and logistics.After earning her bachelor's degree, cum laude, from the University of Kentucky, Ms. Pitts earned her J.D. from the University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law. While in law school, she served as notes editor for the Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture and Natural Resources Law. Before joining Chambliss, Ms. Pitts worked at a law firm in Lexington, Ky. She is a member of the American Bar, Tennessee Bar, and Chattanooga Bar Associations and the Chattanooga Bar Association's Young Lawyers' Division. Ms. Pitts is licensed to practice in Tennessee.Ms. Smith advises clients on a variety of commercial real estate matters, including acquisitions, dispositions, leasing and financing transactions. Her experience includes title review, due diligence and coordinating complex real estate projects."Ms. Smith's strong transactional background allows her to support clients through each stage of a matter with clarity and precision," officials said.After earning her bachelor's degree, cum laude, from the University of Tennessee, Ms. Smith received her J.D. from the University of Tennessee College of Law. During law school, she served as a student attorney in the Transactional Clinic and received the CALI Excellence for the Future Award in Real Estate Finance Law. Ms. Smith is a member of the Tennessee Bar and Chattanooga Bar Associations, and is licensed to practice in Tennessee and Georgia.
Tennessee public high school students currently need to earn two credits in the same world language to graduate with a standard diploma, part of the states 22-credit graduation requirement. This can be fulfilled through courses in languages like Spanish, French, German, Latin or other options available in their district. Since 2017, American Sign Language (ASL) has also been recognized as a modern language that satisfies this requirement.World language courses follow the Tennessee Academic Standards for World Languages, which were revised in 2017 and updated in 2024, with implementation planned for 2028.These standards emphasize key skills: communication, cultural understanding, connections, comparisons and community involvement. Also, middle school students can earn high school credit for introductory courses if they meet high school-level expectations.The foreign language requirement can already be waived with written consent from a parent or guardian, allowing students to replace language courses with other electives, such as more math, science or career and technical education credits. These waivers are often requested by students pursuing career paths where language studies are less relevant. So, in essence, there is no real problem in need of a solution here.The ongoing debate about the necessity of the two-credit requirement is gaining momentum. In 2025, Robert Eby, the chair of the Tennessee State Board of Education, suggested various alternatives, including the possibility of eliminating the requirement or reducing it to a single credit.Chairman Eby highlighted several factors: a 2.84 percent vacancy rate for world language teachers, the need for student flexibility in STEM and career-focused disciplines and the low utilization of language skills after graduation. The teacher shortage essentially reflects the state average.Supporters of these changes argue that this shift could free up space for classes in computer coding or fine arts, despite the well-documented benefits of language acquisition.This proposal seems to create a choice that isn't necessary when more electives can be added, and waivers already exist.It has encountered strong opposition from educators, students, parents and lawmakers alike. Critics warn that such changes could lead to program cutsespecially in rural districtsdiminished cultural awareness, and disadvantages in college admissions.Many universities in Tennessee, such as the University of Tennessee Knoxville, either encourage or require two language credits, as do numerous selective out-of-state institutions. Additionally, many districts highlight the importance of language proficiency for workforce readiness, citing more than 14,000 jobs in Tennessee that demand these skills.The potential elimination of the two-year foreign language requirement is fundamentally flawed. Learning foreign languages is crucial for preparing students for a diverse society. If you dont want to learn a foreign language, you simply request a waiver. While the State Board of Education may consider revisions, any approved changes likely won't be implemented until the 2026-27 or 2028 school year.Chairman Ebys proposal to shift credit hours towards STEM or fine arts may appear enticing, but it ignores a vital truth: language education is not a hindrance; it is an essential avenue to success. The cognitive and cultural benefits of learning a foreign language are invaluable and cannot be overstated. We do agree that the waiver provision must be highlighted for students who wish to opt out of the requirement.In 2025, Tennessee attracts substantial foreign investment, primarily from Japanese companies. Recent developments include a Canadian firm expanding in Hawkins County, a German company growing in Morristown, and a Japanese firm increasing manufacturing in Henderson County. These investments highlight Tennessee's appeal in the automotive, energy, and advanced manufacturing sectors.As Tennessee navigates its educational landscape, it is crucial to uphold a strong commitment to foreign language education. This commitment ensures that students are equipped to thrive in an increasingly diverse and interconnected world. The future of Tennessees economy and its position in the global marketplace hinges on this dedication.* * *JC Bowman, executive director of Professional Educators of Tennessee, a non-partisan teacher association located in Nashville
State Rep. Esther Helton-Haynes announced that she will seek re-election to the Tennessee House of Representatives, "continuing her record of dedicated service to the people of her district (30) and the state of Tennessee.

Rep. Helton-Haynes said, As I run for re-election, I am grateful for the trust youve placed in me and I am committed to making this term my most impactful yet.

Rep. Helton-Haynes currently serves as the chair of the Insurance Subcommittee and as a member of the Full Insurance Committee, Population Health Subcommittee, and Health Committee. Her work focuses on improving access to quality healthcare and advancing policies that protect families and communities. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Kidney Foundation of Chattanooga.

This summer, Rep. Helton-Haynes received three awards in recognition of her leadership and legislative accomplishments, adding to the numerous honors she has earned throughout her public service. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) presented her with the Guardian of Small Business Award for her steadfast support of Tennessees small business community. The Tennessee Association of Alcohol, Drug, and Other Addiction Services (TAADAS) honored her with the 2025 Voice of Recovery Award. Additionally, the Tennessee Primary Care Association (TPCA) awarded her the Caryl E. Carpenter Excellence in Community Support Award for her advancing community health and expanding access to primary care.

Her campaign said, "Together, these recognitions highlight Representative Helton-Hayness ongoing commitment to empowering small businesses, supporting recovery, and advancing quality healthcare for all Tennesseans.

"Esther is known for tackling complex and challenging issues, she carried legislation aimed at holding Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) and Big Pharma accountable and ensuring fairness for patients and providers alike. She also carried critical legislation to protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn, helping to ensure clarity and compassion in emergency medical care. The reforms uphold the intent of Tennessees Trigger Law while protecting good medical practice and reinforcing the states strong pro-life values.

"Looking ahead to the 2026 legislative session, Rep. Helton-Haynes plans to introduce legislation to ban both natural and synthetic forms of Kratom in Tennessee. Widely criticized for its opioid-like effects, Kratom, known as gas station heroin, has become an increasing public safety concern due to inconsistent product purity, the absence of reliable regulatory oversight, its ability to cause dependency, and the complete lack of FDA-approved medical use. Recognizing these risks and prioritizing the wellbeing of Tennessee Families, Rep.Helton-Haynes is taking decisive action to eliminate Kratom, and its derivatives, furthering her commitment to protecting public health and safety."

I am deeply honored to represent the people of Tennessee, said Rep. Helton-Haynes. Serving my community has been one of the greatest privileges of my life. I remain focused on solving problems, supporting families, and ensuring our state remains a great place to live, work, and raise a family.

District 30 encompasses the communities of Apison, Brainerd, East Lake, Collegedale, East Ridge, East Brainerd, Ooltewah, Missionary Ridge, and the City of Ridgeside. She remains dedicated to fighting for the values, safety, and prosperity of every neighborhood she represents, it was stated.

Esther and her husband, Marty, live in East Brainerd. They have five adult children and seven grandchildren.
A long journey of battling against AIDS in China

Xinhua) 09:45, December 02, 2025

Ouyang Yi, an infectious disease specialist from Xiangya Hospital, publicizes knowledge about HIV/AIDS in Huaihua, central China's Hunan Province, Dec. 1, 2024. (Xinhua)

CHANGSHA, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- When asked why she has been publicizing knowledge about HIV/AIDS in schools and local communities for years, Ouyang Yi, an infectious disease specialist from Xiangya Hospital in central China's Hunan Province, explained that it all traced back to those cases she encountered in her work.

Ouyang still remembered treating a girl with mother-to-child transmission of HIV in 2019, during a training program led by Cai Weiping, one of China's earliest experts specializing in HIV/AIDS.

"She was innocent. I couldn't bear to see her discriminated against because of this disease. During my ward rounds, she would always smile at me, and I would hold her in my arms," Ouyang recalled, adding that the girl could have been born healthy if her parents had received proper scientific guidance.

Although Ouyang had begun promoting HIV/AIDS knowledge within the hospital alongside her colleagues after starting her career in 1998, this experience convinced her of the urgent need to educate not only patients but also the public.

China reported its first AIDS case in 1985, marking the start of a long journey for medical workers like Ouyang in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Today, China has largely halted the spread of HIV through blood transfusions and blood products, while transmission from mother to child and among injection drug users has dropped to historic lows.

However, new HIV infections are rising among both younger and older demographics, with sexual transmission remaining the primary route of infection.

"Raising awareness and teaching self-protection among key groups is crucial to reducing transmission risks and preventing new infections," said Ouyang. "It also helps reduce the social stigma associated with HIV/AIDS."

Ouyang has traveled to many regions in Hunan to provide assistance. During a placement at a local hospital in Huaihua City last year, she provided guidance on AIDS treatment to grassroots doctors, enabling local residents to access treatment without undertaking long journeys to major cities.

The 38th World AIDS Day fell on Dec. 1 this year. Themed "Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response," this year's campaign aims to end AIDS by encouraging broader societal participation in prevention and control and seeking innovative methods.

AIDS is now one of the most effectively controlled infectious diseases in China. The country not only provides free treatment for AIDS patients but also offers living assistance to the infected individuals and their families who face financial hardship. Nearly 6,000 institutions in almost 90 percent of the county-level administrative regions nationwide provide these services.

"AIDS patients used to only go to specialized HIV/AIDS hospitals for treatment. But with medical advances, their life expectancy has increased. They now enjoy the same healthcare services as everyone else, including surgery, treatment for ENT diseases, and care for age-related illnesses. These services often cannot be fully provided in specialty hospitals," Ouyang explained, adding that many general hospitals like Xiangya are now qualified to offer comprehensive care.

Unlike some other infectious diseases, Ouyang believes healthcare workers should not only treat the illness but also provide humanistic care to patients and their families. In 2015, several major cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Wuhan, began recruiting and training case managers to support antiviral treatment for AIDS patients. This aims to support patients and help them access medical treatment, thereby curbing further spread of the disease.

Ouyang is currently treating a 21-year-old AIDS patient, who is about the same age as her own child. "How would I feel if my child were ill? That's what I always consider," she said.

"There was a communication gap between the patient and his family, so I started treating him as my own child. I communicated with his family to secure their support," said Ouyang, adding that she encourages him to continue his studies, helps him maintain a positive outlook, and advises him on how to avoid transmitting the disease.

On Nov. 25, UNAIDS released a report titled "Overcoming Disruption, Transforming the AIDS Response," which showed that 40.8 million people worldwide are living with HIV, with 1.3 million new infections in 2024.

"We still have a long journey ahead in the fight against HIV/AIDS, both in terms of treatment and public education," Ouyang said.

Ouyang Yi, an infectious disease specialist from Xiangya Hospital, imparts HIV/AIDS knowledge in Changsha, central China's Hunan Province, Dec. 1, 2025. (Xinhua)

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Pastor Ira L. Russell was the ninth child born to Rev. and Mrs. Napoleon Bonapart Cook in Brookside, Alabama. As a young woman, she was deeply influenced by the Christian teachings of her late grandmother and by Pastor Charlie Hill of Greensboro, Al. She later married the late Lehillard Russell, Sr., and together they shared 64 years of marriage. They were blessed with eight surviving children, who were her pride and joy: Patricia (James) Bailey, Julia Mathis of Conyers, GA, Geraldine Strong, Catherine Smith, Carolyn Davidson of Murfreesboro, TN, Lehillard Russell, Jr. (Sherrie), Kelvin Russell, Sr. (Cynthia), and Richard Russell, Jr. (Willene). She is also survived by 19 grandchildren, 41 great-grandchildren, and 15 great-great-grandchildren.

Pastor Ira was preceded in death by her husband, Lehillard Russell, Sr., and eight siblings: Hattie Cook, Napoleon Cook, Sara Cook, Willie White, Flora Rembert, George Cook, Donald Scott, and Clarence Harvey.

In 1953, Pastor Ira and her family moved to Chattanooga. She united with Walker Avenue First Church of God under the pastorate of the late Elders Theodore Wheeler, Joseph Robinson, Willie Davis, G. J. and Louise Batie, and Occie McLain. In 1960, she prepared herself for the ministry under the leadership of Elder O. L. McLain. In the 1970s, she attended Zion College Seminary and Chattanooga Bible Institute. She also earned an associate degree in Data Entry Operations from Chattanooga State Technical Community College. In November 1972, she began pastoring at Walker Avenue First Church of God and faithfully served there for 41 years.

The Brethren of the Tennessee State Ministerial Assembly licensed her to preach in 1980, and she was ordained in 1982. In Chattanooga, she was an active member of the Tri-Counties Chaplains Association. On May 20, 2021, Pastor Russell received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree at the Joseph Campau Church of God in Detroit, Mi.

Among Pastor Russells many accomplishments while pastoring most of her family members were the numerous Friday night prayer meetings held from house to house, reaching as far as Lafayette and Rome, and the many testimonies of deliverance, miracles, and healings. One of her greatest joys was seeing her 80-year-old brother saved and baptized under her ministry. Under her leadership, the church sanctuary was renovated, and a new fellowship hall and pastors study were built. As the congregation outgrew the facilities at Walker Avenue, they merged with Brainerd Chapel to become one congregation under new bylaws, taking the name Brainerd First Church of God, where she continued to serve as pastor. The churchs motto is: Love, action, and unity is practiced.

Pastor Russell also served her community as a member of the Chattanooga Community Development Board. Over the years, she received many honors, including a Den Leader Award from the Boy Scouts of America; an Award of Excellence for 18 years of ministry from the Tennessee State Ministerial Assembly; recognition from President Bill and First Lady Hillary Clinton in celebration of 50 years of marriage; and the Key to the City of Chattanooga from Mayor Jon Kinsey for her devoted service to local community projects, along with numerous other awards, plaques, trophies, and certificates.

Pastor Russell retired from Brainerd First Church of God in November 2013 and moved to Conyers, Ga., where she worshiped with Martin Street Church of God.

To God be the glory great things He has done.

Public viewing will be held on Thursday, Dec. 4, from 2-6 p.m. at the funeral home. The life of Pastor Ira will be celebrated on Friday, Dec. 5, at 10 a.m. in the chapel of John P. Franklin Funeral Home, 1101 Dodds Ave., Chattanooga, Tn. 423 622-9995.

Interment will follow at Chattanooga National Cemetery, with gate time at 12:30 p.m.
County Attorney Janie Parks Varnell told members of the local legislative delegation at a Tuesday breakfast that her office is overrun with "overly broad" open records requests.

She said some of the requests run into many thousands of pages, and she said she has to spend many hours checking them for possible redactions and other items. She said there are numerous exceptions to what can be released under the open records law.

Attorney Varnell said there is a copying charge per page that on some requests would run as high as $15,000 for a single request.

She said those requesting information instead often opt to personally inspect the records, which has no charge.

Attorney Varnell said a number of the recent requests have related to the Enterprise South Nature Park and to McDonald Farm. The county is proposing that a large section of the Sale Creek farm be preserved, while some of the ESNP be reclassified for industrial use.

Attorney Varnell said, since going into office, she has changed the process so that open records requests "start with our office and end with our office."

She said she was seeking any help from the legislators on the issue.




The Honorable Thomas A. Varlan of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee has announced that he will take senior status effective on Oct. 5, 2026.Judge Varlan has served as an active Article III district judge for over 22 years. He was nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate by a vote of 97-0. He took the oath of office on April 5, 2003, becoming only the twenty-first judge to serve the Eastern District of Tennessee and the first person of Greek descent to hold a federal judgeship in this district.He served as Chief Judge of the district from 2012 to 2019. Judge Varlan will continue to render substantial service to the court as a senior judge.Article III judges who meet certain age and service requirements set by federal statute are eligible to take senior status. Upon taking senior status, judges may choose to handle a reduced caseload. By taking senior status a judge creates a vacancy on the court, to be filled by the nomination and confirmation process for Article III judges.Judge Varian said, "It has been my honor and privilege to have served our community and nation as a district court judge. I look forward to continuing to render substantial service to the court as a senior judge. I am grateful to President Bush for his nomination and the United States Senate for its unanimous confirmation in 2003."During his service on the bench, Judge Varlan has presided over multiple criminal and civil trials and proceedings while consistently maintaining a high caseload of civil cases and criminal defendants. To date, he has handled more than 5,000 civil cases and over 3,000 criminal defendants.As a second generation Greek-American, whose grandparents emigrated from Greece to the United States and became citizens of this country, Judge Varlan has also been privileged to preside over many naturalization ceremonies, himself welcoming countless new citizens. These ceremonies have taken place in the federal courthouse and such locations as Blount Mansion, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the K-25 History Center in Oak Ridge, Webb School of Knoxville, and even St. Mary's Hospital.Some of the civil and criminal cases presided over by Judge Varlan over the years include:*The trial and conviction of Eric Boyd, charged in federal court as being accessory after the fact to a carjacking and with misprision of a felony in connection with the Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom murders, and varying upward from the guidelines to the statutory maximum penalties for the federal crimes (Boyd was later separately convicted in state court for the Newsom murder);*The trial and conviction of a defendant for multiple bank robbery, kidnapping, and gun charges in which defendant and his co-defendant would kidnap bank employees and their family members and force the employee to rob their bank as part of the plot while holding family members hostage in a case that received extensive publicity and was the subject of a Dateline NBC episode, "A Villainous Plan," that aired in May 2019;*A decision finding the Tennessee Valley Authority liable for the 2008 coal ash spill at the TVA plant in Roane County, the largest industrial spill in United States history and that drew national attention to the effects of coal ash on the environment, and the subsequent trial in which a federal jury ruled that TVA's contractor did not properly inform clean-up workers about the dangers of exposure to coal ash and had failed to provide them with necessary personal protective equipment;*Decisions in favor of Blount County and Anderson County High Schools, respectively, which had been sued by students contesting provisions of the schools' dress codes relating to the wearing of Confederate flag apparel;*A decision clearing the way for Lake City, Tennessee to change its name to Rocky Top, Tennessee;*A decision to impose an enhanced sentence on a Gatlinburg businessman convicted of a Ponzi scheme involving millions of dollars and more than 100 victims in both the United States and abroad;*Following a deadlocked jury trial, the entering of a judgment of acquittal in favor of a University of Tennessee engineering professor who had been accused of lying toNASA and trying to hide his ties to a Chinese university, in a case that garnered significant national attention;*The trial and convictions of eight defendants in a multiple weeks jury trial finding the defendants guilty of various crimes related to distribution of methamphetamine, fentanyl, heroin, and other drugs, as well as firearms and money laundering conviction, with subsequent sentences ranging from 42 months to life imprisonment plus;*The trial of a case involving a lengthy criminal prosecution of pain management clinic owners, managers, and providers, which trial spanned a four-month period and resulted in convictions and sentences ranging from 42 months to 400 months;*Numerous trials and the imposition of significant sentences for multiple individual defendants convicted of enticement of minor and child pornography-related offenses.From 2011 to 2013, Judge Varlan served on the Judicial Conference of the United States, the 26-member policymaking body for the federal judiciary, chaired by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. In 2013, he was appointed by Chief Justice Roberts as a member of the Judicial Conference's Committee on Judicial Resources, on which he served from 2013 to 2019.Judge Varlan has participated in many national and international conferences and training sessions as a judge, including lectures to law schools and universities in Poland and the training of judges and law enforcement officials in East Timor (Timor-Leste) and other national and international officials in Washington, D.C. He has also hosted judicial delegation visits to the Eastern District of Tennessee from Serbia and Uzbekistan.Judge Varlan received a B.A. in Political Science and Economics from the University of Tennessee in 1978, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi, and his J.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Law in 1981, where he was Order of the Coif.Judge Varlan and his wife Danni have four married children and six grandchildren. Both Judge Varlan and Mrs. Varlan are active members of Saint George Greek Orthodox Church in Knoxville.
With deep sadness we announce the passing of Dana Andrew Emborski, 75, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, who went home to be with the Lord on November 25, 2025, after a courageous battle with cholangiocarcinoma. Dana passed peacefully at home, surrounded by the singing, tears, and laughter of his wife, Kimberlea, and daughter, Tasha.

Dana was born on Jan. 3, 1950, in Salamanca, N.Y., to Daniel and Dolores Emborsky, both of whom preceded him in death. Dana proudly served his country in the U.S. Navy for six years.

He earned a Bachelor's degree from Michigan State, a Masters in Biblical Counseling, and a Master of Arts in Theological Studies. He walked out his faith as a teacher, computer programmer, residential childcare worker, and missions pastor.

Dana is survived by his wife, Kimberlea Emborsky, and his daughter, Tasha Emborsky. He leaves behind his siblings: Dan, Dennis, Dawn, Debra, Don, Doug, and Drew, along with many nieces and nephews, and his church family.

Dana's life was a reflection of the grace, mercy, and forgiveness of his Savior, Jesus Christ. Throughout his life he worked with prison, refugee, and at risk youth ministries and baking bread became a ministry later in life. A man of the Word, Dana loved to teach, disciple, and encourage others in their walk with Christ. His legacy of love, perseverance, and grace will live on in the hearts of all who knew him.

A celebration of Danas life will be held on Dec. 6, at New City Fellowship, 2412 E Third St., Chattanooga at 2 p.m. preceded by a visitation at 1 p.m. All are welcome.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Compassion International.

The funeral service will be on Saturday, Dec. 6, at New City Fellowship, 2424 East Third Street at 2 p.m.. Family will receive friends an hour prior to the service.
To strengthen its specialties business, German chemical company WACKER and Chinese specialty silane producer and joint-venture partner SICO Performance Material have opened a new application development center for organofunctional silanes in Jining, China. The approx. 2,300-square-meter facility features several laboratories where high-performance additives for the plastics, coatings and adhesives industries will be developed going forward. In addition, the technology center acts as an interface between research, technical support and production. For example, SICOs production and scale-up resources, which are likewise located in Jining, can be fully leveraged for development work. The technology center thus enables the rapid market launch of new products. Investments in the WACKER SICO Application Development Center (ADC) facility total a mid-six-figure euro sum.

German chemical group WACKER and Chinese specialty-silane manufacturer and joint-venture partner SICO Performance Material have opened a new organofunctional silanes application development center in China.

As a provider of innovative silicone specialties and solutions, we can use this development center to achieve a key milestone for our business in China. Our focus is on high-margin specialty silanes, for which demand in China is rising continuously. This investment together with our partner SICO strengthens our presence and commitment to the region, says Tom Koini, President of WACKERs Silicones business division.

Jining-based SICO Performance Material is one of Chinas leading producers of specialty silanes. WACKER has held a majority stake in the company since 2022. (Source: WACKER)

WACKER and SICO Performance Materials have decades of experience in organofunctional silanes. They are used, for example, as adhesion promoters for the production of high-performance adhesives, sealants and coatings, as binders for composite materials or as additives to enhance plastics. Because specialty silanes improve the mechanical and chemical properties of products, demand for such hybrid polymers has been rising for many years. The opening of our Application Development Center in Jining enables us to strengthen our position as a specialties manufacturer in China, said Koini. In partnership with SICO, we can now support customers even better in the development and marketing of innovative products.

Laurent Morineaux, head of the Energy & Industrial Business Unit at WACKERs Silicones division, and Kevin Qu, SICO Performance Materials General Manager (fourth and fifth from left) were among those who attended the opening of the WACKER SICO Application Development Center in Jining, China. (Source: WACKER)

At an opening ceremony, Kevin Qu, General Manager of SICO Performance Material, praised the new laboratories as an investment in the future and the cornerstone of a new era of cooperation between WACKER and SICO. We can now pool all of our silane expertise here at our application development center. This know-how ranges from chemical product properties and supply chain matters through to questions of process engineering and current marketing trends. We will leverage this in-depth knowledge to develop forward-looking innovations for our customers. This marks a new chapter of success in the history of our joint venture.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, speaks during a press briefing in the Brady Briefing Room on Dec. 1, 2025. | Screenshot: YouTube/ AP

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday underscored what she described as widespread exploitation of the U.S. asylum process, stressing the administrations support for mass deportations following a Washington, D.C., shooting that killed one National Guard member and critically injured another last week.

During her remarks, Leavitt also honored the two soldiers by invoking the words of Jesus Christ from the Gospel of John.

Turning to the two National Guard members shot by Afghan refugee Rahmanullah Lakanwal just blocks from the White House last Wednesday, Leavitt highlighted their character by quoting John 15:13.

U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died the following day, while U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolf remains in critical condition. Lakanwal was charged with first-degree murder last Friday.

Leavitt said, Sarah and Andrew represent the very best of America  two young patriots who were willing to put on the uniform and risk their lives in defense of their fellow Americans. Both of them truly embody the profound words spoken by Jesus Christ in the Gospel: Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.

She continued by calling for strict accountability: Sarah and Andrew are heroes, and we will never forget their sacrifice. That means ensuring the monster responsible for this atrocity is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and faces the most severe punishment possible. It also means reckoning with why this atrocity was allowed to happen in the first place, so that it may never occur again.

Leavitt attributed part of the blame for the shooting to former President Joe Biden, noting that Lawanafahlthe name associated with the suspects immigration fileentered the United States in 2021 under a program designed for Afghans who had assisted U.S. forces.

Responding to a question about American national identity, Leavitt said, I'll tell you what does not add to our nations character and integrity is refugees who come here under the alleged plight of asylum and fleeing persecution, and then come to the United States to abuse our system and rip off American taxpayers.

To illustrate her concerns, Leavitt pointed to a Nov. 29 New York Times report detailing an alleged large-scale fraud scheme in Minnesotas social services sector, in which individualsprimarily from the states Somali communityare accused of stealing as much as $1 billion over five years by billing state programs for nonexistent aid services.

She also noted that federal prosecutors led by Joseph H. Thompson have charged multiple defendants in connection with the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars from a program meant to feed children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Leavitt argued that failures across several presidential administrations have contributed to persistent challenges within the immigration system.

The hard truth is that even when it comes to our legal immigration system, past presidents have failed to ensure that all prospective citizens love America, will add value and contribute to our communities, and will assimilate into our culture, she said. Leaders have a duty to defend and advance the interests of their own people, not foreign nationals.
Home Books NT Wright: Western Christians have misread Heaven, the End Times, spiritual warfare

Many Christians in the West, N. T. Wright believes, have a fundamental misunderstanding of the very goal of their faith.

Instead of seeing Christianity as the story of God renewing the whole cosmos  Heaven and Earth united  they have been taught to think of salvation primarily as a private escape plan: the soul departing for Heaven when the body dies.

The result, according to the 77-year-old New Testament scholar, Pauline theologian and Anglican bishop, is not just a skewed theology of the afterlife, but a distorted understanding of everything from End Times prophecy to spiritual warfare.

"The problem is that most Western Christians today think that the whole point of Christianity is for our souls to go to Heaven when we die, whereas the New Testament concentrates on God coming to dwell with us," Wright told The Christian Post in an interview about his latest book, The Vision of Ephesians: The Task of the Church and the Glory of God.

"The direction of travel is wrong, and the result is wrong, and the intermediate stages are wrong."

That misdirection has shaped how generations of believers have read and misunderstood Scripture, according to Wright. In the ancient world into which Christianity emerged, the idea of the soul floating away into Heaven was already common, he said.

"These were the people we now call the middle Platonists, people like Philo of Alexandria, or Plutarch.  They talk happily about their souls going to Heaven. The early Christians really don't," Wright said.

Instead, the New Testament proclaims something vastly different; not human departure to Heaven, but divine arrival on Earth.

The former bishop of Durham pointed to the final chapters of Revelation, where "the dwelling of God is with humans," and Ephesians 1:10, where Paul says God's eternal purpose is "to sum up in the Messiah all things in heaven and on earth."

"But you'd have thought that God's plan from the beginning was to enable us to leave Earth and go to a place called Heaven instead," Wright said. "That's simply not what Ephesians, or indeed, the rest of the New Testament, is all about."

The misunderstanding extends even into Bible translations, he emphasized. The Greek word "psuche," often rendered "soul," is rooted in the Hebrew "nephesh," which does not denote an immortal, disembodied essence but the whole living person.

"A nefesh is one's whole self; a better translation will be 'person,'" Wright explained. Passages that have fueled Platonic readings, such as Jesus telling the thief on the cross, "Today you will be with me in Paradise," are frequently oversimplified.

"Jesus is going to be back in a couple of days' time  because He's going to be raised from the dead," Wright said. "There are many passages which routinely get misread."

What has occurred, he believes, is a "Western vision" that has shrouded biblical Christianity with Greek philosophy.

"You can cash out of Platonism in different ways, but that's basically what's been going on for hundreds of years," he said.

According to Wright, the assumption that the essential religious question is "How does my soul get to Heaven?" has governed Christian teaching even since the Reformation. That question, he said, Reformers answered differently than the medieval Church, but it was rarely challenged at its root.

In his book, Wright contends that Ephesians challenges the question itself. Paul's opening prayer, Ephesians 1:314, he said, is steeped in Jewish creation and Exodus imagery and culminates in the declaration that God's goal has always been the unity of Heaven and Earth under Christ.

"Ephesians 1:10 gives you this sense. This is where it's all going. This is what the purpose was from the beginning," Wright said. "And so the rest of the book kind of fleshes that out."

That theological reframing has direct implications for what many Western Christians call the "End Times," a phrase Wright claimed is "very American."

He traced its prominence to dispensationalism, a theology that popularized the rapture, timelines of prophetic fulfillment and expectations of an apocalyptic sequence culminating in Armageddon.

"The whole dispensationalist movement  generated this idea of a particular time which we can call the 'End Times,'" he said, adding that, in his opinion, the New Testament offers no support for this framework. The theologian added that, though diminishing among biblical scholars, dispensationalism continues to flourish at a popular level.

"I and others have written  showing that the New Testament does simply not validate or sustain anything like this combination of rapture, Armageddon, etc. These are misreadings."

Psychologically, Wright said, its appeal is understandable. "It has enabled people  to have a sense that even though the world is totally crazy, we sort of have the inside track. We know that there's a secret truth which is going to emerge," he said. "We love conspiracy theories  the whisper of, 'I know something you don't.'"

There is also the allure of drama, he said, comparing bestselling End-Times fiction, like the Left Behind series and Frank Peretti's books, to a Christian version of Harry Potter, allowing believers to imagine themselves in a heroic cosmic narrative.

"I'd much, much rather people came in by any door that's there  rather than they shunned the whole thing and all became atheists," Wright said. "But it is deeply misleading."

More troubling, he added, is when that theology becomes entangled with real-world politics and warfare. Wright recalled the years following 9/11, when some Christian groups framed Middle Eastern conflict in apocalyptic terms, viewing military engagement as hastening prophetic fulfillment.

"The rest of us from around the world, we look at it and think, please, I hope you guys can get your act together," he said, "because the world is too dangerous a place to have the most powerful country on Earth being taken over by this."

In his book, Wright returns to what he sees as the New Testament's central message: in Jesus' death, resurrection and ascension, God has already inaugurated the promised new creation.

"God has done what He said he would do, and He is doing it now until the time when Jesus does return," he said, citing 1 Corinthians 15, which describes Christ reigning until all enemies are subdued.

Ephesians, he added, frames the Church's role within that ongoing renewal. "The Church is called to be  the small working model of new creation," Wright said, a community animated by the Spirit that bears witness to God's future by living it now.

This perspective also frames the way Wright explains "spiritual warfare," another concept he believes has been badly distorted in popular Christianity.

Ephesians 6 famously exhorts believers to put on the "armor of God," but Wright places that passage alongside Ephesians 1 and 2, which say believers are already "seated in the heavenly places in Christ."

"The heavenly places is where the battle is going on right now," he explained. "God has won the battle in Jesus." The armor, he notes, is almost entirely defensive, "apart from the sword of the Spirit."

The real danger is not demonic forces alone but the misidentification of enemies, Wright stressed.

"Paul, like Jesus Himself, says  our battle is not against flesh and blood."

Humans may "instantiate evil," he acknowledged, but to demonize whole groups or nations is itself part of the spiritual problem.

"If you think you can fight this battle by fighting particular people or groups of people or ethnic groups, then that itself becomes part of the demonic problem, rather than the Christian solution."

Wright warned against subscribing to either extreme: theological skepticism that dismisses spiritual evil entirely and what he calls the tendency to see demons "behind every bush."

"As C.S. Lewis said in The Screwtape Letters, 'There's two equal and opposite errors. On the one hand, people who say that that's all just medieval mumbo-jumbo. On the other hand, people who see demons behind every bush,'" he said.

During his tenure as bishop of Durham, Wright said he supervised a discreet deliverance ministry that dealt with genuine cases of spiritual disturbance.

"They would pray with them and do what you could carefully call an exorcism," he said. "It's just very nasty, dirty, messy  and you end up feeling desperately sorry for people who are caught up in it."

Still, he said, dramatizing every setback as demonic breeds confusion and spiritual irresponsibility. He recalled watching the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.

"The television cameras focused on a woman who was sitting in a corner praying and saying, 'angels are coming, angels are coming.' I saw that and thought, 'you're living in a Left Behind novel,'" he said. "It was obvious that [she] was radically deluded."

He added, "One of the worst demonic delusions is the idea that everything you don't like is a demonic delusion."

For Wright, the Christian response should be continued faithfulness to Scripture, the "saying of the Lord's Prayer, the weekly attendance at the Lord's Supper."

"These are what we have to do day by day, week by week, in order to make sure that we're not being lured away into false visions of the warfare," he said.

At the heart of Ephesians, he emphasized, is a communal vision many churches have yet to fully embrace.

"All those who believe in Jesus belong in the same family and at the same table," he said, adding that Ephesians 2 shows God's intention to unite Jew and Gentile, symbolically healing humanity's deepest divides.

"When Judean and Gentile  come together in Christ, that is the sign of that new creation." The Church, in that unified diversity, becomes "the new temple where God dwells by the Spirit."

Modern congregations, however, often accept ethnic and cultural separation as normal. "Now we have black churches, white churches, Chinese churches, this, that, the other, and we don't think that matters," Wright said. "Paul would be absolutely horrified."

That vision, he emphasized, has nothing to do with political agendas. "Watch my lips. I'm one of the least woke people you could meet," he said. The early Christian Church, Wright said, was history's first truly multinational, multiethnic family and the visible proof that Jesus, not the "principalities and powers," is Lord.

"Our task now," Wright said, "is so to believe in the God of the Gospel that actually we can grow churches that exemplify this idea of the small working model of new creation."
Home News First trans mayor in Pa. stokes backlash for posting ICE agent location: 'I won't stop alerting you'

The first transgender-identifying mayor elected in Pennsylvania appears to have deleted his X account after stoking backlash for alerting people on Facebook to what he thought was the location of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers this week.

Erica Deuso, who was elected last month to lead the borough of Downingtown near Philadelphia, was shown to have been tipping off what he believed was the live location of ICE agents in the town of approximately 8,000 on Monday. The post was soon flagged by the influential Libs of TikTok account on X.

"Thanks to an intrepid Good Neighbor I am able to tell you that there is a fresh ICE delivery near the Wawa on Boot Road in Downingtown," Deuso wrote in a post on his campaign Facebook page. "If you see these guys in their masks, tell them that it's a little too cold right now in our town for ICE."

Deuso's X account, @EricaDeuso, appears to have been deleted since Libs of TikTok picked up his post. "This account doesn't exist," the account now says, as of Tuesday.

Meet Erica Deuso, the new mayor of Downingtown, PA.



Hes a man pretending to be a woman whos now doxxing ICEs live locations to warn illegals so they can evade ICE. He also encourages people to go harass ICE agents.



CHARGE HIM.



Cc @ICEgov@TheJusticeDeptpic.twitter.com/cHZGHFrael  Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) December 1, 2025

In a lengthy statement on Facebook on Tuesday, Deuso denied attempting to "dox" federal law enforcement and maintained his post was well within the scope of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

"I did not dox anyone. Doxing means posting private or identifying information about a person with harmful intent. I did not share names, addresses, photos, license plates, or anything personal," Deuso wrote.

"Alerting the public to possible law enforcement activity is protected free speech under Friend v. Gasparino, a federal court case that confirmed sharing information about police presence is lawful when you do not interfere or encourage harm."

Deuso noted that the "intrepid Good Neighbor" who reportedly served as his source was mistaken in identifying the presence of ICE agents in Downingtown.

"Fortunately, the report turned out to be incorrect. In a video taken by my source, the vehicle turned out to be a Pennsylvania State Police Motor Carrier Enforcement Officer checking landscaper trucks and trailers. I did not tell anyone to go there or confront them. There was no call for violence, no directions, and no incitement."

Deuso went on to claim that after Libs of TikTok promulgated his post, he has "received hundreds of abusive messages and threats toward me, my family, and members of our town." He added that local police are investigating the threats against him and that his top priority is the safety of Downingtown residents.

"I will always put the safety of our residents, all residents, first, and I won't stop alerting you all to potential issues happening in our area. Everyone deserves to feel secure and protected. That's what I will continue to provide to keep our town (and EVERYONE in it) safe, sustainable and strong," Deuso added.

The Christian Post has reached out to both Deuso and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for comment, and will update this article if they respond.

Deuso drew attention after his election last month for a September post on his since-deleted X account that warned ICE's immigration enforcement would potentially lead to a violent response from armed citizens.

"I forsee [sic] violent pushback from an armed citizenry in the future," Deuso tweeted Sept. 23 in response to an X post by DHS that featured a video of ICE raids cut with the Pokemon theme song, "Gotta Catch 'Em All!"

"The 2nd Amendment folx [sic] were very clear that weapons are meant to oppose a tyrannical government ..." Deuso added.

A day after Deuso's tweet, 29-year-old Joshua Jahn opened fire on an ICE facility in Dallas, Texas, on Sept. 24, killing two detainees and wounding another before taking his own life.

Deuso told CP last month that his September post was not a call to violence, but rather a warning regarding what can happen when a government acts tyrannically, citing the American Revolution.

"That post wasn't a call for violence. I don't support violence in any form," Deuso told CP. "Our government has too often ignored the rights of its own people, and history shows what happens when that disrespect goes too far; Boston Harbor once had tea floating in it for a reason. The point I was making is that trust and accountability matter."

"When leaders listen and take responsibility, tensions go down instead of up. My message was about preventing conflict, not causing it," Deuso added.

Violent threats against ICE law enforcement officers and their families have surged 8,000%, according to statistics released by DHS on Oct. 30.
Home News Gateway Churchs insurance company doesnt want to defend Cindy Clemishires defamation lawsuit

Church Mutual Insurance Company, Americas leading insurer of religious organizations, has asked a Texas court to issue a declaratory judgment that it has no duty to defend or indemnify Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, its founder, Robert Morris, and its independent elders against a $1 million defamation lawsuit filed by child-sex abuse survivor Cindy Clemishire.

The company filed the request in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas last month, arguing that it has disclaimed coverage for the church, Morris and other named defendants under Gateways primary insurance policies because Cindy Clemishires childhood sexual abuse by Morris first occurred in 1982.

Lawyers for the religious insurance giant argue that because it has only been covering Gateway through commercial general liability and umbrella insurance policies since December 2023, the injuries stemming from Clemishires abuse in the 1980s are excluded from coverage.

 [T]he Clemishires allege that Mr. Morriss sexual assault and rape of Ms. Clemishire first occurred in December 1982, which was many years prior to inception of the first policy issued by Church Mutual to Gateway Church. Accordingly, no coverage is available under the Sexual Misconduct Coverage Form, Church Mutual argues in its filing.

Morris was given a six-month prison term and a 10-year suspended sentence during a hearing in Osage County Court, Oklahoma, on Oct. 2, after he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing Clemishire, 55, for 4.5 years in the 1980s, beginning when she was 12. At the time, Morris, who founded Gateway Church in 2000, was serving as a traveling evangelist.

Clemishire and her father, Jerry Lee Clemishire, are not focused on the actions of the defendants from the 1980s. They are seeking more than $1 million in damages, alleging that Morris and Gateway Church leaders publicly mischaracterized the abuse she suffered as a consensual "relationship" with a "young lady" instead of the sexual assault of a child after the abuse was made public in 2024.

"On June 14, 2024, Robert Morris made a public statement to The Christian Post wherein he falsely minimized his rape of me, referring to it only as 'inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady,'" Clemishire writes in a Nov. 6 affidavit.

"Shortly thereafter in June of 2024, the Elders of Gateway Church issued their own statement to Gateway staff wherein they asserted that 'Pastor Robert has been open and forthright about a moral failure he had over 35 years ago when he was in his twenties' and republished Robert Morris's statement that he made to The Christian Post," she continues.

"These statements were false and misleading because they minimized Robert Morris's rape of me, a 12-year-old child, as something that was only 'inappropriate' rather than criminal and implied the sex acts were consensual by classifying me as a 'young lady.'"

As a result of the June 2024 statements, Clemishire says she has been harassed by Gateway's followers and members of the public, resulting in significant anxiety, grief, and mental anguish."

Church Mutual Insurance Company is seeking a declaratory judgment against Gateway's board of elders, the Robert Morris Evangelistic Association Inc., and media executive Lawrence Swicegood, along with Gateway Church, Morris and his wife, Deborah, and Clemishire and her father.

The lawsuit also names current and former elders of the church as individual defendants. They are: Thomas H. Miller, Jr., John D. "Tra" Willbanks III, Kevin Grove, Jeremy Carrasco, Kenneth W. Fambro II, Gayland Lawshe, Dane Minor and Steve Dulin.

Plaintiff Church Mutual Insurance Company prays that Defendants be cited to appear herein and that upon final trial hereof, Plaintiff has judgment against Defendants declaring that Plaintiff has no duty to defend or indemnify the Underlying Defendants with respect to the claims asserted in the Underlying Lawsuit, the insurance company states. Church Mutual also prays for the recovery of all other relief the Court deems appropriate.
Home News Jack Hibbs links rising antisemitism to End Times, says Trump peace deal will fail: 'Doctrine of demons'

Quick Summary AI Summary Jack Hibbs links rising antisemitism to demonic origins and the End Times.

Hibbs predicts Trump's Gaza peace deal will fail, citing biblical prophecy.

He claims increasing opposition to Israel is a satanic strategy. An artificial intelligence-powered tool created this summary based on the source article. The summary has undergone review and verification by an editor. See Summary

Pastor Jack Hibbs claimed during a recent interview that rising antisemitism across the political spectrum is demonic in origin and evidence of the End Times.

Hibbs, who pastors Calvary Chapel Chino Hills in Chino Hills, California, and adheres to a premillennial dispensationalist eschatology, also asserted that President Donald Trump's recent Gaza peace plan will fizzle to make way for the Antichrist.

"It's really an amazing time. First of all, we have to make sure that we put it in the proper context, as all things," Hibbs told the Christian Broadcasting Network last week in response to a question about alleged conspiracy theories and antisemitism from prominent voices on the political right, such as Candace Owens and Nick Fuentes.

"Number one, this is one of the signs of the End Times: an increasing antisemitic, anti-Israel view. How do we know this? Because the Bible tells, both in Ezekiel and in Zechariah, that in the last days, the world will turn against Israel."

Hibbs was apparently referencing Ezekiel 3839 and passages in Zechariah 12, the interpretation of which Christians disagree. Some who adhere to non-futurist interpretations believe such passages were fulfilled in antiquity or apply symbolically to an ongoing attack against the Church throughout history.

Many premillennials take a futurist view, interpreting such verses to refer to a modern time when the world will militarily oppose the present state of Israel. According to Hibbs, Ezekiel 38 prophesies that modern-day Israel will "prosper in unbelief" until a seismic battle that causes "the veil [to be] lifted from their eyes."

Hibbs went on to suggest that Owens and Fuentes, both of whom have been outspoken against Israel, are under demonic influence, though he later noted the Israeli government is "not sinless."

"When you hear people saying what they're saying, I immediately go to [1 Timothy 4:1], where, in the last days, there will be those propagating doctrines of demons and teachings that are spawned on by deceiving spirits. That's what's happening," he said.

He suggested the rising opposition against Israel is a satanic strategy to undermine the nation where he believes Jesus will be enthroned in Jerusalem.

"If Satan knows this, wouldn't it be advantageous, in his twisted thinking, to get an antisemitic flow to try to abolish the viability of the nation of Israel? To say that Israel is illegitimate, that it doesn't exist, that God didnt know what He was talking about?"

Hibbs also expressed his belief that Trump's recent peace deal is doomed to fail because the Antichrist is prophesied to rule for a time in Israel during the Tribulation.

"Over and over again, you name the president, they've all done it. The peace treaties don't last. This one's not going to last, either. I don't base that upon opinion, and actually don't even base it upon history. I base it upon Bible prophecy."

Hibbs offered his geopolitical predictions by citing the prophecy in Daniel 9 regarding the 70 weeks, which many of the early church fathers believed was fulfilled during the first century; Revelation 13, which mentions the beasts from the sea and earth, as well as 666; and Matthew 24, during which Christ speaks of the signs of the end of the age.

"There's going to be a peace treaty brokered by one that is of European descent, because it is the rise of the ancient Roman Empire," Hibbs said.

Christians have historically debated the nature of the Antichrist, which derives from a Greek word used only in the epistles of John to describe a spirit that denies God and denies that Jesus comes from God, according to 1 John 4:3.

The Antichrist is often modernly associated as a future figure symbolized as the beast from the earth in Revelation associated with the number 666, though Christians historically maintained such was a code to indicate Nero, who was the first Roman emperor to systematically persecute Christians using state authority.

Hibbs also provided a premillennial dispensationalist view of Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the statue in Daniel 2, which Daniel interpreted as a vision of four successive empires that would manifest before the advent of Gods Kingdom.

Christians generally agree that the statue's head of gold represented the Babylonians; its chest and arms of silver indicated the Medo-Persians; its middle and thighs of bronze indicated the Greeks; and the legs of iron symbolized the Roman Empire into which Christ was born.

Christians have disagreed for centuries regarding the meaning of the statue's iron feet that were mixed with clay, with some believing it was an image of the decay and dissolution of the Roman Empire, while others believe its symbolism extends into a future political system during the End Times.

Hibbs takes a futuristic view of the statue's feet, maintaining that one of its toes symbolize a leader who "will rise up and craft a seven-year peace treaty with the nation of Israel."

Hibbs also acknowledged the Israeli government exhibits the corruption inherent in any government, but suggested Israel nonetheless has God's special blessing.

"Of course it's not sinless," he said of Israel. "Listen, Israel is as messed up as America is, which is exactly how messed up Canada is. Nations are messed up. But there's only one nation that has a covenant that God says, 'I've made with them forever,' and it's not America  it's Israel."

A generational gulf appears to be widening among American Evangelicals over the eschatological role of modern-day Israel.

According to a recent study, the number of young Evangelicals in the United States who support Israel and view it as crucial to the End Times is declining as they increasingly move toward amillennial and postmillennial eschatology, neither of which emphasize the role of the Jewish people in the Second Coming of Christ.

Experts who spoke to The Christian Post last year offered various explanations for such trends, which included the growing influence of cultural Marxism on college campuses or greater exposure to various theological views because of the internet.
Home News Joe Rogan finds Bible 'fascinating,' notes Christian kindness: 'I don't think it's myth'

Podcaster Joe Rogan recently revealed more about his ongoing journey toward Christianity, explaining he has been moved by the kindness of Christians he knows at church and that he has grown convinced the Bible is not entirely mythical.

"I think they're relaying a truth," Rogan said of Christians during a Nov. 30 episode of the "American Alchemy" podcast.

"I don't think it's myth. I don't think the whole thing is myth, but I don't think it's entirely accurate either," he said.

Rogan went on to note that he was recently discussing the book of Revelation with his daughter, and that he told her nobody knows how the prophecies in that book will play out.

He went on to say he finds the Bible fascinating, even though he remains unsure how much of it is literally true. He also said he has taken note at how kind the Christians have been at the church he has been regularly attending, which is reportedly a non-denominational church in Austin, Texas.

"The Scripture, to me, is what's interesting; it's fascinating," he said. "Christianity, at least, is the only thing I have experience with. It works. The people that are Christians, that go to this church that I go to, that I meet, that are Christian, they are the nicest f---ing people you will ever meet."

"They're really kind, and they're even nice out of church. When you leave the church parking lot, everybody lets you go in front of them. There's no one honking in the church parking lot. It works."

"So regardless of whether or not it's based on an entirely true story, I think it is an ancient relaying of a real event and of the real history of human beings," he added.

Rogan has been increasingly outspoken about Christianity on his influential podcast within the past year.

He interviewed Christian apologist Wes Huff in January for an hours-long conversation about faith, Jesus and the supernatural claims of the Bible. Huff revealed in May that Rogan had begun attending church regularly.

"That has been a consistent thing," Huff said of Rogan's church attendance, noting the two have remained in touch. Rogan was mocked by fellow comedians on his podcast earlier this year when he revealed he's been going.

Rogan expressed skepticism last May about the Big Bang theory's claim that the universe created itself out of nothing, and said he finds the Resurrection to be more realistic.

"It's funny, because people will be incredulous about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, but yet, they're convinced that the entire universe was smaller than a head of a pin and that for no reason that anyone has adequately explained to me, instantaneously became everything? OK," he said.

"I'm sticking with Jesus on that one," he later added. "Jesus makes more sense. People have come back to life."

In October, Rogan pushed back against those who dismiss the Bible as myth, and implied such individuals are not as wise as they believe themselves to be.

"I hear that among self-professed intelligent people, like it's a fairy tale," he said. "I don't know that's true. I think I think there's more to it. I think it's history, but I think it's a confusing history. It's a confusing history because it was a long time ago, and it's people telling things in an oral tradition and writing things down in a language that you don't understand, in the context of a culture that you don't understand."
Home News US Merchant Marine Academy leadership steps down day after Duffy speech

The superintendent and deputy superintendent of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York, stepped down Tuesday, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Vice Adm. Joanna Nunan and Rear Adm. David M. Wulf announced their departures a day after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy delivered a commencement address at the school's graduation ceremony that emphasized humility before God.

"I have long believed that I am the luckiest admiral I know," Nunan recently said, according to the release. "I have been privileged to play a role in the lives of some of America's most inspiring young people as they became our finest future mariners."

The DOT also noted that Capt. Anthony J. Ceraolo, a retired U.S. Marine who served 34 years in the U.S. Coast Guard and had been USMMA's chief of staff since 2023, will serve as the acting superintendent while they search for new leadership.

Nunan, an appointee of former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, has served as USMMA superintendent since December 2022.

Her tenure was marked by allegations of increased "wokeness" at the academy, according to some midshipmen who spoke to Fox News in 2023. Midshipmen recounted a prominent LGBT mural on campus and the option to have rainbows emblazoned on their uniforms as evidence of left-wing ideology seeping into the institution.

Before leading USMMA, Nunan helped "spearhead efforts to expand diversity and inclusion in the Coast Guard," according to her official USMMA biography, which has since been removed from the school's website.

Controversy erupted in 2023 when Nunan moved "Christ on the Water," a historic painting of Jesus, from its prominent place in the administrative building to the flood-prone basement of the chapel. The move followed a complaint letter from Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

Duffy went viral on social media earlier this year and drew applause during his speech at the school's annual Battle Standard Dinner on April 3, when he called for the Jesus painting to be brought "out of the basement."

Jackson Tolle, a Christian midshipman in USMMA's Class of 2026 who spoke to The Christian Post in April about the Jesus painting controversy, told CP on Wednesday that he wishes Nunan "success and grace in her future endeavors."

Tolle hopes the academy's future leadership will be amenable to its many Christian midshipmen.

"It is my prayer that through this change in leadership, God is glorified on campus and we as a Christian community can move into the future as a family."

During Duffy's commencement address Monday, he urged midshipmen to "stay faithful to God" and "never underestimate the power of prayer." During his first visit to the academy in April, Duffy met with several Christian midshipmen to discuss the hope and motivation their faith provides them.

On Good Friday, we commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus. During my visit to the US Merchant Marine Academy, I spoke with an amazing group of young midshipmen about Jesus sacrifice for our sins.



A complaint from ONE concerned citizen got the Academys beautiful & historic pic.twitter.com/n66pgSLKOM  Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) April 18, 2025

Duffy also commended the USMMA Class of 2025 for their perseverance, noting that the COVID-19 pandemic presented unique challenges that trained them in invaluable ways. He also acknowledged the dilapidated condition of their campus, for which he has promised to fight.



Amid their discouragements, Duffy said he has been moved by midshipmen "whose spirits could not be broken."



"I saw a group that, despite being disrespected and uncared for, was more passionate than ever about serving their country," he said.
Home News NJ admits to Supreme Court it had no complaints against targeted pro-life center

An attorney representing New Jersey before the U.S. Supreme Court has admitted that a pro-life pregnancy care center the state subpoenaed had no complaints leveled against it.

The Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday morning in the case of First Choice Women's Resource Centers, Inc. v. Matthew J. Platkin, Attorney General of New Jersey.

At issue was whether New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin could require First Choice, a pro-life center network, to disclose its donor lists and donors' information under threat of legal penalties.

Sundeep Iyer, chief counsel to the New Jersey attorney general, argued the case on behalf of the state. He argued that the subpoena did not violate First Choice's First Amendment rights.

During the proceedings, Justice Clarence Thomas asked Iyer if he had complaints that formed the basis of your concern about the fundraising activities of First Choice.

When Iyer replied that we certainly had complaints about crisis pregnancy centers, Thomas interjected to ask if he had had complaints about First Choice specifically.

So, I think weve been clear from the outset that we havent had complaints about this specific crisis pregnancy center, Iyer responded.

Thomas immediately followed-up by asking, So you had no basis to think that they were deceiving any of their contributors?

I dont think thats correct, your honor, Iyer said. I think we had carefully canvassed all of the public information that is provided on the website of First Choice in making a determination that we wanted to initiate an investigation.

When Thomas reiterated that the state "had no complainants," Iyer acknowledged this, but added that state and federal governments initiate investigations all the time in the absence of complaints where they have a reason to suspect that there could be potential issues of legal compliance.

It could be the case, based on our investigation, when we look at documents, when we look at information, that ultimately well determine that First Choice isnt liable for any violations of law, said Iyer.

That just seems to be a burdensome way to find out whether someone has a confusing website, Thomas responded. It would seem that the obvious way to refute [First Choices arguments] was to say we have 100 complaints.

But you say you have no complaints, but rather you looked at the website and their materials and you think it could have been misleading.

Iyer replied that the subpoena issued to First Choice was based on four concerns, namely questions about potentially misleading donors, unlicensed practice of medicine, patient privacy practices and potentially misleading or untrue statements.

We had no complaints, he restated.

Iyer argued that the subpoena was non-self-executing, meaning that the state attorney general doesn't have the authority to enforce it, but rather it must be approved by a court.

As a result, according to Iyer, the subpoena requesting substantial donor information did not have an unlawful chilling effect on the First Amendment rights of First Choice.

Justice Elena Kagan asked Iyer, Whats an ordinary person supposed to think and whats an ordinary person supposed to do based on what an ordinary person is supposed to think?

Kagan said that an ordinary person who would be presented with this subpoena and then told but dont worry, it has to be stamped by a court is not going to take that as very reassuring.

Chief Justice John Roberts asked Iyer about the potential impact of future donations to First Choice, asking him, You dont think it might have an effect on future potential donors to the organization to know that their name, phone number, address, etc. could be disclosed as a result of this subpoena?

When Iyer insisted that there was no evidence of any donors being chilled by the subpoena, Roberts pressed him about how exactly he knows that no donors have been deterred by it.

Iyer noted that a group of unnamed donors said they would have been less likely, which he labeled a backwards-looking statement and not about prospective harm.

Really? interjected Justice Neil Gorsuch. Were going to now pick over the tense of the verb that they chose?

What if they had used the future tense? asked Justice Samuel Alito. If this information is disclosed, we will not donate.  That wouldnt be enough?

Ultimately, Iyer argued that since he believed the subpoena was not self-executing, that negated all the debates over tenses in the donor declaration of concern.

In November 2023, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin subpoenaed First Choice for records that included donor lists and private correspondence to investigate whether the network was violating the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act.

Platkin was one of 16 Democrat attorneys general who signed a letter in 2023 accusing pro-life pregnancy centers of spreading "misinformation and harm" by "misleading consumers and delaying access to critical, time-sensitive reproductive healthcare."

Before the subpoena deadline came, First Choice filed a complaint against Platkin in December 2023, claiming that the subpoena was too broad in its scope and was unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp, an Obama appointee, ruled against First Choice in January 2024, writing that the suit was "not ripe" and that the court "lacks subject-matter jurisdiction."

"Plaintiffs claims related to the Subpoena's enforceability in this matter would ripen only after the contingent future event that forms the basis of its alleged injury occurs," ruled Shipp.

"Because this Court cannot yet know whether the state court tasked by the New Jersey state legislature with overseeing subpoena enforcement proceedings like this will, in fact, enforce the Subpoena in its current form, this matter is not ripe for resolution because no actual or imminent injury has occurred."

In February of last year, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the centers' emergency request to block the subpoena, denying it "without prejudice to reconsideration by the merits panel and/or the filing of a request for an expedited briefing schedule."

Although the Supreme Court had initially refused without comment to take up the case in May 2024, the high court later agreed to hear oral arguments in the case in June.
Home News Supreme Court takes on subpoena demanding pro-life network donor information

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to a subpoena demanding information about donors to a network of pro-life pregnancy centers, as such organizations have become targets of pro-abortion politicians in recent years.

In an orders list published Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court included First Choice Women's Resource v. Platkin, Att'y Gen. of N.J. as one of two cases granted a writ of certiorari.

First Choice Women's Resource Centers is a network of pro-life pregnancy centers subjected to a subpoena from New Jersey's Democratic Attorney General Matthew Platkin seeking information about its donors.

The network filed a lawsuit challenging Platkin's demand for copies of all solicitations and advertisements published by First Choice as well as documents provided to clients and/or donors, documents identifying First Choice personnel, information about donations made to the ministry and information about where the business sends women seeking abortion pill reversals.

Platkin cited concerns that First Choice had violated the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, stemming from the business's promotion of abortion pill reversals, as the justification for his demand for the documents.

Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative legal nonprofit organization that represents First Choice, alleges that the demand for information about its donors violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

"New Jersey's attorney general is targeting First Choice  a ministry that provides parenting classes, free ultrasounds, baby clothes, and more to its community  simply because of its pro-life views," ADF Senior Counsel Erin Hawley maintained in a statement published Monday.

"The Constitution protects First Choice and its donors from unjustified demands to disclose their identities, and First Choice is entitled to vindicate those rights in federal court."

In recent years, pro-life pregnancy centers have been in the crosshairs of Democratic politicians at the state and federal levels following the May 2022 publication of the leaked draft of the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision determining that the U.S. Constitution does not contain a right to abortion.

Platkin was one of 16 Democratic state attorneys general to sign on to a letter accusing pro-life pregnancy centers of engaging in "misinformation and harm" by "misleading consumers and delaying access to critical, time-sensitive reproductive healthcare." Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., have called for pro-life pregnancy centers to be shut down nationwide.

Washington State opened an investigation into pro-life pregnancy centers in 2022, citing concerns about consumer fraud. The office of then-Democratic Attorney General Bob Ferguson closed the investigation in early 2024 without pressing charges.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health launched a $1 million campaign against pro-life pregnancy centers, which the state's Democratic Gov. Maura Healey accused of engaging in "deceptive and dangerous tactics."
Home News US military becoming more religious as nation remains more secular: study

The United States armed forces are seeing a rise in religious sentiment even as mainstream culture becomes more secular, according to a recent statistical analysis.

Ryan Burge, a professor of practice at the John C. Danforth Center at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, posted an article on his popular Substack page, Graphs About Religion, in which he analyzed data from the Cooperative Election Study, noting that the number of active-duty military personnel who attend church at least once a week has increased in recent years.

The number of military personnel who attended church weekly has increased from 21% in 2010-2012 to 28% in 2022-2024. Those who attended more than once a week increased from 15% in 2010-2012 to 17% in 2022-2024. In total, 45% of military respondents surveyed in 2022-2024 attended at least weekly.

During the same period, the number of surveyed civilians who attended church weekly stayed at 16%, while those who attended more than once a week declined from 9% in 2010-2012 to 7% in 2022-2024. In total, 23% of civilian respondents surveyed in 2022-2024 attended at least weekly.

A member of the military is about twice as likely as a civilian to be a weekly church attender. And remember: were comparing only 1845-year-olds in both samples here, wrote Burge.

There are two really noteworthy findings here: military folks have always been more religiously active than other Americans, and the devotion of military members has gone up while the rest of the population has secularized.

Burge also looked at whether respondents considered religion a vital part of their lives. The percentage of active military members who considered religion to be very important increased from 39% in 2010-2012 to 44% in 2022-2024. By contrast, the number of civilian respondents who considered religion very important dropped from 37% in 2010-2012 to 30% in 2022-2024.

Burge attributed this trend to selection effects, noting that the U.S. has an all-volunteer military and that states like Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina are disproportionately represented in the armed forces.

It doesnt take a whole lot of guesswork to figure out whats happening here: the military has an easier time recruiting in areas of the country that tend to lean right on Election Day, he wrote.

Those areas also tend to be more religiously active. Its not that the military is making its men and women more inclined toward a faith community  they were already that way before they swore the oath.

According to a 2019 congressional report, approximately 70% of the U.S. military identifies as Christian, while about one quarter are identified as other/unclassified/unknown.
Home News W.Va. must allow students with religious exemptions to vaccination law to attend school: judge

A judge has ruled that West Virginia must allow religious exemptions to the states mandatory vaccination law in what the states governor is touting as a win for every family forced from school over their faith.

In a ruling last Wednesday, Judge Michael Froble of the West Virginia Circuit Court of Raleigh County determined that the West Virginia Board of Educations policy offering no religious exemptions to the states Compulsory Vaccination Law violates the states Equal Protection for Religion Act.

Under West Virginia's vaccination law, a child cannot attend any of the schools of the state or a state-regulated childcare center until he or she has been immunized against chickenpox, hepatitis-b, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough and [n]o person shall be allowed to enter school without at least one dose of each required vaccine.

The ruling is in response to a lawsuit filed by Miranda Guzman, a parent residing in Raleigh County, West Virginia, who wanted to enroll her 4-year-old child in school.

Guzman, who has religious objections to the states Compulsory Vaccination Law, has been unable to send her child to school because of her inability to obtain a religious exemption. Wednesdays decision orders the West Virginia Board of Education not to prevent Guzman and other parents or guardians from enrolling their children in school or attending school.

Enacted in 2023, the Equal Protection for Religion Act forbids the state government from taking action that imposes one's religious beliefs, unless it is necessary in the interest of the state government.

In addition to the Equal Protection for Religion Act, West Virginias Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed an executive order earlier this year authorizing the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources to implement a religious exemption process for parents with religious exemptions to the vaccination requirements. While the Health Department granted the plaintiffs religious exemption certificates, the states Board of Education refused to honor them.

Todays ruling is a win for every family forced from school over their faith, Morrisey said in a statement reacting to last week's decision. I will always take a stand for religious liberty and for the children of this state. I applaud the court for upholding West Virginias Equal Protection for Religion Act.

As he celebrated the ruling, Morrisey called on West Virginias Republican-controlled Legislature to take additional action: Now is the time for the legislature to act. I am calling on every lawmaker to step forward and solidify this freedom for every West Virginian.

The West Virginia Board of Education also issued a statement announcing that it hereby suspends the policy on compulsory vaccination requirements. However, the body indicated that it might reinstate the requirements pending the outcome of further proceedings on the issue before the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.

As documented by the Religious Liberty in the States report, compiled earlier this year by the Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy at the First Liberty Institute, West Virginia is among a minority of states that do not have a religious exemption to childhood vaccination requirements on the books. The other states that lack this exemption are California, Connecticut, Maine, Mississippi and New York.
Trump Claims Democrat Hates Christianity, White House Blasts Asylum System, Wicked: For Good Sparks Spiritual Debate

link to download the audio instead. link to download the audio instead. 06:36 06:36

Top headlines for Tuesday, December 2, 2025

In this episode, we break down the White Houses renewed focus on asylum reform and mass deportations, President Trumps sharp criticism of a Democratic congressional candidate, and the cultural buzz around Wicked: For Good as audiences debate its spiritual and allegorical themes.

00:11 Karoline Leavitt blasts abuse of asylum system, quotes Gospel

00:57 Trump claims Democrat candidate Aftyn Behn 'hates Christianity'

01:43 'Wicked: For Good': 4 reactions to its spiritual concepts

02:29 Sudan: churches vandalized, Islamic Shahadah written on walls

03:16 Pope Leo honors Armenian Christian witness during Turkey visit

04:11 4 killed, several wounded at family gathering in California

04:55 Jelly Roll gives God the glory for 3 Grammy nominations
Home Opinion Make no mistake: Antisemitism is the smokescreen of Hell

Were watching a toxic lie race across the globe, infecting hearts and minds with astonishing speed. It claims humanitys problems can be traced to one people: the Jews. And its so-called cure? Cut them off, cripple Israel, and turn Zionism into a crime.

The interesting thing about Jew-haters, Russian author, Uri Kurlianchik observed, is that they don't hate Jews for something in particular; they hate them for everything: capitalism and communism, fanaticism and atheism, nationalism and globalism, insularity and meddling. They pin literally all the sins of the world on Jews.

The great Charlie Kirk said, There is a corner of the internet of people who want to point and blame the Jews for all their problems Everybody, this is demonic, and its from the pit of Hell, and it should not be tolerated, period.

Kirk described it perfectly as hyper-online brain rot.

Josh Hammer, senior editor-at-large at Newsweek and author of the 2025 book Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West, noted after Charlie Kirks assassination that Charlie had been holding back some really nasty stuff brewing in very young, far-right online circles - including increasingly open antisemitism. He said Kirk was doing more than maybe anyone in the country to contain it. And now, Hammer admitted, he worries what that energy does from here in his absence.

Make no mistake: antisemitism is the smokescreen of Hell. Its cover-fire for evil to advance. And, as surprising as this may sound, it actually undermines the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That is precisely why Christians must be the first to expose it and the loudest to oppose it.

What Christians must know to confront lies

To confront it clearly, Christians must understand six essential truths.

First: Antisemitism is not just prejudice and racist  it is antithetical to the Gospel. It attacks the very truth the Cross reveals about God, humanity and redemption. The Gospel says, Mankind is separate from God in sin. Antisemitism says, The problem is them  the Jews!

Second: It is Satans cover-fire. Pointing at them allows humanity to avoid looking in the mirror and confronting their own sin. The problem is the Jews becomes a shield against the truth: The real problem is me.

Third: Antisemitism is the ultimate anti-Gospel. It denies the universality of sin, resurrects ancient blame-shifting, refuses Gods grace, and even weaponizes Jesus  the most influential Jew in history  against His own people. It is a counterfeit ideology that violently rejects the truth of the Gospel and stands opposed to everything Christ revealed

Fourth: Antisemitism is an affront to Jesus Himself  after all, Jesus was a Jew, and He is returning as a Jew. Theologian Karl Barth rightly said, He who rejects and persecutes the Jews rejects and persecutes Him who died for the sins of the Jews  He who is a radical enemy of the Jews  shows himself  to be a radical enemy of Jesus Christ.

Fifth: Antisemitism provides ideological cover for Jihadism and Anti-Zionism because it fuels the lie that Jews  and the Jewish state  are oppressors who inhabit occupied Arab land, a lie that becomes the fertilizer for the false narrative that violence against Jews is a justified response.

Sixth: It thrives on lazy, brain-rotting THEY thinking. They control the banks. They own the media. They control the government. They start all the wars. Theyre greedy. They hate Christians. They exaggerate the Holocaust. They run the worlds economy.

Insane!

But the deadliest they of all is the claim that the Jews killed Jesus. This lie has smeared an entire people for centuries, staining a whole ethnicity with a crime they didnt have the power to commit, but the lie is still repeated over and over again today.

The truth about Jesus death

Lets be clear: Jesus was sentenced to be crucified by Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judea. Only Rome had the power to crucify, and crucifixion was a Roman execution. Yes, the High Priest Caiaphas was involved in Jesus arrest and in sending Him to Pilate  and yes, Caiaphas was a Jew. But his sin was his own! And one corrupt leader does not indict an entire nation, much less an entire people, for thousands of years.

Even though some Jews cried out, crucify Him, that does not take into account that Jesus was not killed by anyone. As He Himself said, No one takes My life from Me; I lay it down of My own accord. In this, God demonstrated His love toward us: at the Cross, the perfectly just God turned unjust men into righteous ones, simply by paying the debt of sin Himself  a gift offered to those who repent and believe!

So, the claim that the Jews killed Jesus is not only historically ignorant  it is a demonic slander from the pit of Hell!

Gods diagnosis and prescription

Heres Gods authoritative diagnosis of the human condition: every tribe, every tongue, every nation is separated from God by sin.

But God doesnt just diagnose  He prescribes. The prescription is the Cross. At the Cross Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world on Passover and opened the way for peace between God and man.

But hear this  the Cross doesnt stop at bringing us into a right relationship with God. The Cross is the only hope for peace with one another. At the Cross, God shatters the hostilities that fuel the inhumanity of man against man, starting with the arrogance of man toward God Himself. The Cross declares: There is a God, and you are not Him.

The Cross kills racism because Jesus shed His blood for all nations, gathering every tribe, language, and people into ONE new humanity (Revelation 7:9).

The Cross kills pride and arrogance because at the foot of the Cross, every one of us stands on level ground: sinners in need of the same Savior, broken people in need of the same grace.

You can better understand why Paul then said, May I never glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 6:14). Jeremiah understood it too: Let not the wise boast in wisdom, or the mighty in strength, or the rich in riches. But let the one who boasts boast in this: that he knows and understands Me (Jeremiah 9:2324).

When the glory of a person is their ethnicity, intellect, strength, wealth, or family, superiority rises, humility dies, and peace vanishes. But when the glory of a person rests in the divine peace plan of the Gospel of Jesus Christ at the Cross, peace is made.

Our call to Christian leadership

C.S. Lewis said, There is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan.

This means that the smokescreen of Hell  antisemitism  will not vanish on its own.

Every born-again Christian has a responsibility to stand firmly against the insidious lies that are manufactured and disseminated by the Father of Lies whose sole purpose is to destroy what God has planned  world redemption for all, through an unfolding plan in and thru Israel and the Messiah of Israel, who is the savior of the world.

Remember, a Christians identity is rooted in Passover, the master plan of Gods redemption: from the first Exodus, where God shattered the oppression of the Jews to set Israel free for His divine purpose, to Jesus first coming, when, during the Passover meal, He said, Do this in remembrance of Me and then, on that same day gave His life on the Cross for the sins of the world, and ultimately to His return, when He will judge the nations in a final confrontation with antisemitism and evil and establish His Kingdom in Jerusalem, with His law going forth from Zion to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 2).

Because this is our future, Christians are called to live as citizens of that Kingdom, now  and that means standing against evil, resisting antisemitism, loving the Jewish people, blessing Israel and proclaiming the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek (Romans 1:16-17).

This is the call of Christians. This is the responsibility of Christians  not someday, but today!
Home Opinion Oregon: Where 'common sense' children's books are censored

Once upon a time, there was common sense. It was plentiful. It took root and flourished in the most expected places, like churches and schools and even news outlets. It was passed down to our children and to our childrens children.

Until it wasnt.

Then came a co-opted rainbow and political movement that cloaked itself in tolerance. But it was never satisfied with mere tolerance. It demanded complete subservience. It required religious devotion. And its (mis)educator evangelists, part of the nations largest denomination (also known as Public Schools of America), preached its dogma and silenced dissent.

Tale as old as time

And this leads us to a tragic story taking place in a land not so far away, in a state called Oregon, in a place called InterMountain Education Service District (IMESD). There, common sense has shriveled and dried up in an education desert where free speech and disfavored ideas face the relentless heat of wokeism. Rod Theis, an employee of IMESD, did the unthinkable. The licensed clinical social worker displayed two illustrated (beautifully diverse) childrens books filled with common sense in one of his offices: She Is She and He Is He.

He was interrogated, censored, threatened with termination, and discriminated against for his religious and scientifically proven views on binary gender. He took this LGBT vs. First Amendment case to a district court which mostly ruled against him. So, hes appealed the unconstitutional decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals thanks to the help of Alliance Defending Freedom. Otherwise, hed have to settle being silenced and having permanent remarks on his employment record wrongfully claiming he violated school policy that doesnt even exist.

A good ole book banning

Keep in mind, schools served by IMESD contain books peddling porn and pedophilia, and those are perfectly fine to be displayed and read by children. Its funny how the folks decrying book banning are the ones who defend sexually explicit books as they demand biologically accurate books be purged. A 2024 bill, sponsored entirely by Democrats, tried to remove all local power from parents and school boards. The legislation (SB1583) made it illegal to remove any books pertaining to lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. It was so extreme that even uber-liberal Oregon lawmakers couldnt get a full vote on it.

Yet, Oregon educators are doing just that to books that dont comport with their gender spectrum worldview. IMESD Superintendent, Mark Mulvihill, tried to justify the authoritarian tactic by absurdly claiming that these books present a point of view that not everyone is going to agree with. So, thats the supposed standard in Oregon public schools? Everyone must agree with everything displayed or spoken? Good luck with that. So much for inclusion and diversity. Their actions are the most exclusionary, demanding complete and utter conformity or be harassed and hated.

The next chapter

IMESDs Assistant Superintendent and HR Director, Aimee VanNice, investigated Theis. She pulled a man filled with common sense into a room filled with no sense. I had to laugh when I read one of the many inane questions described in the opening brief: Does the [B]ible support they/them? Theis responded that the Bible supports the simple and biological truths that the books promote: She Is She and He Is He.

VanNice wasnt about playing nice. She pushed and prodded: Does this book [She Is She] support a she wanting to be a he? Theis responded, simply: No. And therein lies the crux of the issue. When it comes to all things LGBT in Public Schools of America, faculty, staff and students may only express one pro-LGBT view: Gender is fluid! The gods of wokeness will not allow anything else to be publicly uttered or displayed. To speak of boys and girls as known biological designations is heresy!

Theis was told, falsely, that while teachers and staff are at work, they are not allowed to express views and opinions on specific subjects. Never mind that many of the schools classrooms and faculty offices are littered with pro-Black Lives Matter, pro-illegal immigration, pro-LGBT symbols, posters and books. Those subjects are just fine if you toe the line.

I must admit I have a conflict of interest disclaimer: My wife and I are the authors of these adorable books, She Is She and He Is He, that celebrate biological and biblical binary gender. So, I am completely biased about this attack on common sense. My bias, however, is always toward the truth, something the district court that initially ruled on this case largely ignored.

Imagine this. An education service district, which serves many school districts in the eastern part of Oregon, is contesting any display of these two books because woke (mis)educators branded them transphobic and a hostile expression of animus for daring to hold an irrefutable and established binary view of gender. Its the exact same view that is taught in English and Science classes in the same schools served by taxpayer-funded IMESD.

Is this the end?

Common sense has been bludgeoned for decades by progressivism. The carnage is all around us. Too many parents pretend they dont see the collateral damage (our confused and depressed children), are duped by the doublespeak, or dont care. Public schools across the country arent touting the First Amendment rights that distinguish America from the rest of the world. Theyre slowly erasing them, one idea or fact at a time. Teachers or staff who dare to speak or show reality  well, theyre in for a world of hurt.

I know that fighting for common sense can be incredibly painful. Its worth it. Im praying for free speech and religious liberty victories at the Ninth Circuit. To all the Rod Theises out there who choose to do whats right even when youre the only one standing up for the truth  generations will benefit from your moral fortitude.

Courage doesnt need a crowd. It just needs someone with conviction to give these stories happy and just endings.
December 2, 2025: Vladimir Putin, has long had a difficult relationship with the internet. Putin wants to create a Sovereign, used in Russia only, internet. There are problems with this because the internet is essential for running the economy and the military. At the same time internet chatter is the primary source of criticism for the Ukraine War and the problems with the economic sanctions.

Internet chatter about what was going on in Ukraine made it more difficult for Russia to obtain soldiers. To avoid army service in Ukraine, several million Russians left the country, some for good. The government increased restrictions on who could leave, and military age men found ways to get past that, notably bribery. Those caught were forced to join the army, and their reluctance to fight resulted in officers receiving orders to shoot soldiers who refused to fight.

There were at least a hundred of these incidents, these soldiers and officers referred to as zeroing out a reluctant soldier by shooting him. The dead soldiers were called zeroes and the next of kin were simply told that their son died heroically in Ukraine. That explanation often failed when news of what actually happened arrived via the internet.

The internet made it easier to spread the bad news, even after the government made it illegal to say bad things about the war effort. A few complainers were prosecuted, but that backfired when online complaints and protests increased. There were not enough judicial resources available to handle all the complainers. Welcome to the internet paradox, too troublesome to tolerate, but too useful to lose.

But its not for lack of trying. Last year, Russia carried out a brief pre-dawn test of its ability to turn Internet access for Russians into a Sovereign Internet that is not connected to the worldwide Internet. That means Russians could only use the Internet within Russian and must use Russian based websites and network services, like search, messaging and social media. There are versions of all these services based in Russian as well as internationally popular versions like Google, Wikipedia, Twitter and Facebook.

The Sovereign Internet test revealed some problems, like interference with large scale Internet-based communications systems created for the Nationwide Railroad Network and other nationwide communications systems that also require some access to international systems. A long-term implementation of Russias Sovereign Internet would disrupt some portions of the Russian economy that depend on constant communication with foreign firms.

The Sovereign Internet is meant to be used for short periods. There are other uses of the Sovereign Internet that include remaining connected to neighboring nations like Iran, which is trying to develop a Sovereign Internet and China, which already has one. Internet pioneers predicted that some countries would seek to develop a Sovereign Internet in order to exercise government control over the Internet. This was something that early Internet developers feared would happen because the international free exchange of information was a threat to the power of totalitarian government. The totalitarians were expected to eventually strike back and now they have.

North Korea also has a Sovereign internet as well as restrictions on who can use this internet. Only a small number of government, commercial, and military are allowed to use the internet to communicate with people outside the country.

Two years ago Russia carried out a brief pre-dawn test of its ability to turn Internet access for Russians into a Sovereign Internet that is not connected to the worldwide Internet. That means Russians can only use the Internet within Russian and must use Russian based websites and network services, like search, messaging and social media. There are versions of all these services based in Russian as well as internationally popular versions like Google, Wikipedia, Twitter and Facebook.

The Sovereign Internet test revealed some problems, like interference with large scale Internet-based communications systems created for the Nationwide Railroad Network and other nationwide communications systems that also require some access to international systems. A long-term implementation of Russias Sovereign Internet would disrupt some portions of the Russian economy that depend on constant communication with foreign firms.

The Sovereign Internet is meant to be used for short periods. There are other uses of the Sovereign Internet that include remaining connected to neighboring nations like Iran which is also developing a Sovereign Internet and China, which already has one. Internet pioneers predicted that some countries would seek to develop a Sovereign Internet in order to exercise government control over the Internet. This was something that early Internet developers feared would happen because the international free exchange of information was a threat to the power of totalitarian government. The totalitarians were expected to eventually strike back and now they have.
Rapidly growing e-commerce and last-mile delivery services have contributed to significant increases in crashes, traffic, workplace injuries and air pollution, according to a report from New York City Comptroller Brad Lander.

The report estimates that roughly one-in-three New Yorkers receives packages daily. The negative effects of all these deliveries are concentrated in predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods, the report finds.

Weve become so accustomed to getting our toilet paper, socks, or butter cookies right away that weve stopped thinking about the consequences; but we all pay the price of more traffic crashes, worsening air quality, and worker injuries, said Lander.

He called the report a wake-up call for New York City to adopt regulations for delivery services.

The report attributes the problems to a regulatory situation where warehouses can open without public review, and major corporations use subcontracting models like Amazons Delivery Service Partner (DSP) program to evade liability for labor and safety standards.

Some findings from Landers report, Fast Shipping. Slow Justice, include:

Traffic Crashes

Traffic crashes: After last mile delivery facilities opened, 78% of nearby areas saw more injury-causing crashes, with injuries within a half-mile radius rising by an average of 16%. Truck-related crashes increased by 146%, and truck-injury crashes rose by 137%.

Hotspots: In Maspeth, Queens, crashes near two major FedEx and Amazon warehouses rose by 53% and 48%, respectively. A cluster of four East New York facilities also saw a sharp increase in crashes within a half-mile radius.

Worker Safety

Worker safety: Between 2022 and 2024, 38 of 50 facilities (76%) identified by the New York City Department of City Planning reported injuries to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), totaling more than 2,000 injuries, or an average of 678 per year. Injury rates per 100 employees at last mile facilities are more than triple the national average for all private employers (8.3 vs. 2.4).

Amazons subcontractors: Amazons Delivery Service Partner (DSP) program in 2023 and 2024 had an injury rate per 100 employees of 9.2 and a Days Away or Restricted, or Transferred (DART) rate of 8.1, exceeding those of the greater last mile and courier industries.

Air Quality & Environmental Justice

Environmental justice: About 68% of last mile warehouses are located in officially designated Environmental Justice Areas, including Red Hook, East New York, Maspeth, and Hunts Point. An estimated 65.8% of residents in these neighborhoods are Black or Latine, compared to 49.2% citywide, and the areas already face higher levels of air pollution.

Warehouse-dense areas: Health Department data show that neighborhoods like Newtown Creek, Red Hook, Sunset Park, and Hunts Point have notably higher air pollution levels, likely tied to truck congestion and industrial activity.

Upon releasing the report, Lander joined elected officials, workers rights advocates, street safety advocates, and environmental justice organizers in calling on City Hall to address the growing problem. The report urges the city to create a licensing program to establish essential labor standards, bring liability to facility operators via requiring direct employment, and to curb worker injuries and vehicle crashes.

The report also urges the city to require warehouse operators to reduce harmful truck emissions and prevent further concentration of facilities in overburdened neighborhoods.

We cannot allow the benefits of e-commerce to come at the expense of limbs, lungs, and lives, Lander said.
New York City will be soggy Tuesday as a fast-moving winter storm brings heavy snow north and east of the city, raising the risk of airline delays and snarling ground traffic across the interior Northeast.

Rains are likely to arrive in New York by 10 a.m. as the storm system overwhelms dry air hanging over the city. Some wet snow is possible earlier in the day, according to the National Weather Service, but its unlikely to accumulate on city streets and roads.

By contrast, a large area  including the central Hudson River Valley and New England  may get nine to 12 inches (23 to 30 centimeters).

The heavy snow will strike at some major highways across the region, as well as potentially delaying air travel in the larger cities. As of 9 a.m. in New York, 1,595 flights were delayed around the US, with another 123 canceled, according to FlightAware.

Winter weather advisories and storm warnings stretch from North Carolina to Maines border with New Brunswick, as the fast-moving system is forecast to run up along the coast. A yellow snowfall warning  indicating a moderate impact  has been issued across much of Nova Scotia, as well as parts of Ontario, by Environment and Climate Change Canada.

All the big cities are missing it today, Bob Oravec, a senior branch forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Center, said of the storms biggest effects. It is moving pretty quick. Even though it will snow hard today, it wont be a storm that lasts forever.

In New York City, the rain is forecast to taper off late Tuesday, and Wednesday will be sunny with a high of 41F (5C) expected before a blast of colder air arrives later in the week. Thursday nights low is expected to dip to 20F.

Boston will likely see snow overnight, turning to slush early Wednesday morning as gusty winds sweep the city.

Oravec said frigid air will push into the Great Lakes as the storm exits, and some of that will come east. Temperatures in Chicago are forecast to drop to 4F Thursday night, he said. There is a chance many cold records will be tied or broken at about 75 weather stations across the region on Thursday and Friday.

Top photo: Pedestrians cross the street during a snowstorm in Chicago, Illinois, on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. Bloomberg.

Copyright 2025 Bloomberg.
JOAO PESSOA, Brazil - A 19yearold man was killed Sunday after climbing into a lionesss enclosure at the Arruda Camara Zoobotanical Park, shocking visitors who witnessed the attack. Authorities identified the victim as Gerson de Melo Machado, and said he scaled a sixmeter wall, crossed security fencing, and slid down a tree to enter the restricted area.

Witnesses captured video showing the lioness, named Leona, resting near the glass viewing area before spotting Machado. She quickly charged, dragging him to the ground as horrified onlookers screamed. The zoo immediately closed following the incident and contacted authorities to begin an investigation.

Officials said Machado deliberately invaded the enclosure, bypassing multiple barriers designed to keep visitors safe. The municipal government emphasized that the zoo had followed safety protocols, but the teens actions left staff unable to intervene in time.

Local reports noted that Machado had long expressed fascination with lions and dreamed of becoming a lion tamer. Friends described him as troubled, with some suggesting mental health struggles may have influenced his decision to enter the enclosure.

The zoo confirmed that euthanizing the lioness is not being considered. Instead, administrators are reviewing security measures and visitor safety policies to prevent similar tragedies. The park remains closed while officials conduct forensic examinations and reassess protective barriers.
Apple's AI chief, John Giannandrea, has recently announced that he is stepping down from his post, letting go of his responsibilities in leading the team tasked to develop their next-gen tech.

Apple AI Chief Steps Down From His Post

Apple's senior vice president for Machine Learning and AI Strategy, John Giannandrea, is stepping down from his position, according to the latest official announcement by Apple.

The executive will take a step back to serve as an advisor to the company before his eventual retirement, which is slated for spring 2026.

"Since joining Apple in 2018, Giannandrea has played a key role in the company's AI and machine learning strategy, building a world-class team and leading them to develop and deploy critical AI technologies. This team is currently responsible for Apple Foundation Models, Search and Knowledge, Machine Learning Research, and AI Infrastructure," said Apple.

Despite the setbacks Apple is facing now with artificial intelligence and Siri, Apple credits Giannandrea's massive contributions to the company, which helped it deliver key AI experiences. Before he joined Apple, The Verge reports that Giannandrea was a previous executive over at Google and led its AI and Search team.

Read Also: New Studio Display Monitor Feature Reportedly Revealed by M5 iPad Pro Specs May Be Coming

AI, Siri Delays and Setbacks

Giannandrea's departure comes during challenging time over at Apple, particularly as the company is currently struggling to deliver its promised generative AI features and Siri's next-generation upgrades.

It is important to note that Apple's WWDC 2025 showcase saw it skipping discussions about Siri's next-generation upgrades, with the company needing more time for the tech.

Apple Intelligence may already be available on eligible devices and offer features that many users enjoy, but there are still key experiences that the Cupertino tech giant revealed before that have yet to debut.

Because of these setbacks, Apple faced a lawsuit over false advertising, which alleged that the company misled the public into buying the AI-powered iPhone 16, which lacked the said features.

Giannandrea hands over these responsibilities to his successor, Amar Subramanya, a distinguished AI researcher. Subramanya is also a Google alumnus, having served the company for 16 years before joining Microsoft as corporate vice president of AI in the division.
Harvard Medical School researchers have identified eight distinct trajectories that long COVID can take, offering the first comprehensive classification of how the debilitating condition affects millions of Americans differently over time, according to a study published Monday in Nature Communications.

The research, conducted through the National Institutes of Health's Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery initiative, tracked nearly 3,700 adults who contracted COVID-19 during the Omicron era after December 2021. The findings come as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates nearly 20 million Americans continue struggling with long COVID symptoms.

The Eight Trajectories

The study identified eight distinct patterns based on symptom severity, duration and whether conditions improve or worsen over 15 months. Researchers found that 5 per cent of patients experienced persistently high symptom burden throughout the observation period, whilst 12 per cent had non-resolving, intermittently severe symptoms that fluctuated dramatically.

Perhaps most concerning, 14 per cent of patients did not meet criteria for long COVID at three months post-infection but developed increasing symptoms by 15 months. This delayed onset trajectory suggests distinct pathophysiologic features that may require different treatment approaches.

Other trajectories included gradually improving symptoms, gradually worsening symptoms, and mild symptoms that only appeared after 15 months of initial infection.

'This study addresses an urgent need to define the differing long COVID trajectories', said senior author Dr Bruce Levy, chair of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and professor at Harvard Medical School. 'Our findings will help determine what resources are needed for clinical and public health support of individuals with long COVID and will also inform efforts to understand long COVID's biological basis'.

Why Trajectories Matter

Lead researcher Dr Tanayott Thaweethai, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and associate director of Massachusetts General Hospital Biostatistics, explained that identifying these distinct patterns enables more targeted research.

'The variability we identified will enable future studies to evaluate risk factors and biomarkers that could explain why patients vary in time of recovery, and help identify potential therapeutic targets', Thaweethai said in a Mass General Brigham statement.

The Symptom Landscape

According to the CDC, more than 200 long COVID symptoms have been identified. Fatigue, brain fog and post-exertional malaise rank amongst the most commonly reported, but the condition's presentation varies wildly. Other symptoms include coughing, chest pain, heart palpitations, headaches, sleep problems, light-headedness, changes in smell and taste, diarrhoea, constipation, joint or muscle pain and rashes.

Long COVID is defined as the continuation or development of new symptoms at least three months after initial SARS-CoV-2 infection without any other explanation. The condition affects an estimated 6 to 11 per cent of adults who have had COVID, according to the CDC.

The study population was 69 per cent female, and 99.6 per cent contracted COVID during the Omicron variant era, reflecting the current epidemiological landscape. This timing is significant as Omicron and subsequent variants have shown different clinical characteristics compared to earlier strains.

Originally published on IBTimes UK
Northwestern University has agreed to pay the Trump administration $75 million and revoke a controversial 2024 agreement with pro-Palestinian student protesterspromises made to end a campus encampment that are now being erased as the price of restoring hundreds of millions in frozen federal research funding.

The settlement, announced Friday by the Department of Justice, requires Northwestern to cancel the so-called Deering Meadow agreement, which the university signed in April 2024 in exchange for pro-Palestinian demonstrators dismantling their tent encampment on campus.

That agreement had promised increased support for Muslim, Middle Eastern, North African and Palestinian students, greater transparency about Northwestern's investments, and establishment of an advisory committee on university investmentsconcessions that drew intense congressional scrutiny and contributed to federal antisemitism investigations that ultimately led to the funding freeze.

Now, under pressure from the Trump administration and facing financial catastrophe from nine months of frozen grants, Northwestern is walking back those promises entirely.

The Deal That's Being Revoked

The Deering Meadow agreement, named after the campus location where protesters established their encampment in April 2024, represented Northwestern's attempt to resolve Gaza-related protests through negotiation rather than police action.

Under that agreement, Northwestern committed to:

Provide enhanced support and resources for Muslim, Middle Eastern, North African (MENA) and Palestinian students

Establish an Advisory Committee on Investment Responsibility to review the university's investment holdings

Increase transparency about Northwestern's financial investments

Create a full-time staff position focused on supporting MENA and Palestinian students

Fund scholarships for Palestinian students

Consider divestment questions through newly established processes

At the time, then-President Michael Schill defended the approach as balancing protesters' concerns with campus safety and operations. The encampment ended peacefully, and Northwestern avoided the violent confrontations that occurred at Columbia, UCLA, and other universities.

But the agreement immediately drew criticism from congressional Republicans and Jewish advocacy groups who argued Northwestern had capitulated to antisemitic protesters and rewarded disruptive behavior with policy concessions.

When Schill testified before a hostile House committee in May 2024, Republican lawmakers repeatedly questioned the Deering Meadow agreement, characterizing it as evidence that Northwestern tolerated antisemitism and failed to protect Jewish students.

That congressional testimony became a key factor in the Trump administration's decision to launch antisemitism investigations and ultimately freeze Northwestern's federal research funding in April 2025.

Now, as part of the $75 million settlement announced Friday, Northwestern must revoke the Deering Meadow agreement entirelyeffectively nullifying every promise made to the pro-Palestinian students who agreed to end their protest peacefully.

The $75 Million Settlement

The comprehensive agreement between Northwestern and three federal agenciesthe Department of Justice, Department of Education, and Department of Health and Human Servicesresolves multiple investigations and restores access to at least $790 million in frozen federal research grants.

Under the settlement terms, Northwestern agrees to:

Financial Payment: Pay $75 million to the U.S. Treasury over three years (through 2028), without using donor fundsthe second-largest university payment to the Trump administration after Columbia's $200 million settlement.

Revoke Deering Meadow Agreement: Cancel all commitments made to pro-Palestinian protesters in April 2024, including support for MENA students and investment transparency initiatives.

Antisemitism Training: Implement mandatory antisemitism training for all students, faculty, and staff across the university.

Free Speech Policies: Maintain "clear policies and procedures relating to demonstrations, protests, displays, and other expressive activities."

Anti-Discrimination Commitment: Adhere to federal anti-discrimination laws, ensuring the university does not give preferences based on "race, color, or national origin in admissions, scholarships, hiring, or promotion."

International Student "Socialization": Develop training materials to "socialize international students" with open debate norms and American free speech principles.

Gender Surgery Ban: Commit that Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine will not perform "hormonal interventions and transgender surgeries" on minor patientsthough university officials insist this merely codifies existing practice rather than representing policy change.

Title IX Compliance: Uphold Title IX commitments for women and maintain sex-based protections.

In exchange, the federal government will:

Restore eligibility for existing and future federal grants, contracts, and awards

Close all pending investigations into Northwestern

Treat the university as eligible for future federal funding

Attorney General Pam Bondi characterized the deal as "another victory in the Trump Administration's fight to ensure that American educational institutions protect Jewish students and put merit first."

Education Secretary Linda McMahon called it "a roadmap for institutional leaders around the country that will help rebuild public trust in our colleges and universities."

The Human Cost of the Standoff

The path to this settlement inflicted enormous financial and human costs on Northwestern's community.

When the Trump administration froze approximately $790 million in federal research funding in April 2025, the university faced an immediate crisis. According to Grant Witness data, more than $1.06 billion in awards from the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation have gone unpaid since the freeze begansuggesting the damage compounded as new grants were also withheld.

Northwestern responded by self-funding research operations from its own reserves, spending approximately $10 million per week to keep projects alive during the standoffan unsustainable burn rate even for a wealthy institution.

In July, facing what officials described as a "significant budget gap," Northwestern announced it would eliminate 425 positions, though nearly half had been vacant. University leaders called it "the most painful measure we have had to take" and "a drastic step" forced by federal pressure.

The funding crisis contributed directly to President Michael Schill's resignation in September. Though he didn't explicitly cite the freeze, Schill acknowledged "difficult problems" at the federal level and warned of "serious and often painful challenges" ahead.

His replacement, Henry Bienenwho previously served as Northwestern's president from 1995 to 2009inherited the task of negotiating with the Trump administration, ultimately striking the deal announced Friday.

Bienen's Defense: "Northwestern Runs Northwestern"

In a video message published on the Office of the President website following the settlement announcement, Bienen defended the agreement while insisting Northwestern maintained its autonomy.

"I would not have signed anything that would have given the federal government any say in who we hire, what they teach, who we admit or what they study," Bienen said. "Put simply, Northwestern runs Northwestern."

He characterized the settlement as "the best and most certain method to restore our federal funding both now and in the future," emphasizing that without an agreement, the university faced indefinite exclusion from federal research funding.

Bienen's statement echoes remarks he made at an October 15 Faculty Assembly meeting, when he expressed interest in reaching a deal but said he would not sign an agreement that "hinders the autonomy of the University."

However, the requirement to revoke the Deering Meadow agreementpromises made to students after extensive negotiationstests Bienen's claim that Northwestern retains full autonomy. The Trump administration effectively dictated that Northwestern must cancel specific student support initiatives and transparency commitments as a condition of restored funding.

Faculty Opposition and Community Betrayal

The settlement contradicts the overwhelming position of Northwestern's faculty. At that same October 15 Faculty Assembly meeting, 595 faculty members voted to reject the Trump administration's "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education" or any similar capitulation, with only four against and eight abstentions.

When news of potential negotiations emerged in August, hundreds of faculty members signed a statement calling the school "complicit in an assault on institutions of higher education."

The revocation of the Deering Meadow agreement represents a particular betrayal to the pro-Palestinian students who negotiated in good faith, agreed to dismantle their encampment, and relied on Northwestern's commitmentscommitments the university is now abandoning under federal pressure.

Those students had agreed to end their protest based on specific promises: support for MENA students, investment transparency, consideration of divestment questions through established processes. Northwestern's decision to revoke these promises sends a clear message: agreements with student protesters can be unilaterally canceled when politically expedient.

The settlement also affects Muslim, Middle Eastern, North African and Palestinian students who weren't necessarily involved in the protests but stood to benefit from the enhanced support and resources Northwestern had committed to provide. Those students now lose promised support as collateral damage in Northwestern's settlement with the federal government.

The Broader Pattern of University Capitulation

Northwestern's settlement follows an increasingly familiar pattern of elite universities paying substantial sums to the Trump administration and implementing policy changes to restore frozen federal funding.

Columbia University: Agreed to pay more than $200 million over three yearsthe largest university settlement to date.

Cornell University: Committed to a $30 million fine plus an additional $30 million investment in agricultural research programs.

Brown University: Agreed to steer $50 million into Rhode Island state workforce development programs.

University of Virginia: Accepted strict, multi-year reporting requirements through 2028 to regain federal funds without making direct payments.

University of Pennsylvania: Reached an agreement, though full financial terms have not been disclosed.

Northwestern's $75 million payment ranks as the second-highest among these settlements, exceeded only by Columbia's $200 million.

Notably, the Northwestern and Columbia settlements require direct payments to the U.S. Treasurymoney that doesn't support students, research, or any educational purpose but instead flows to federal coffers as what critics characterize as fines or extortion payments.

Brown's deal, by contrast, directed its $50 million toward workforce development programs that at least serve educational or economic purposes, rather than simply enriching the federal government.

Harvard's Resistance: The Alternative Path

Not all universities have capitulated to Trump administration pressure. Harvard, despite facing similar funding freezes and investigations, chose to fight in court rather than negotiate a settlement.

Harvard sued over the administration's cuts to its grant money and won a significant court victory in September when a federal judge ordered the government to restore funding, ruling that the blanket funding freeze was illegal.

Harvard's legal resistance demonstrates that universities with sufficient resources and institutional will can potentially resist federal pressure through litigation. The successful court ruling suggests Trump administration tactics may be vulnerable to legal challenges on administrative law grounds.

However, Harvard's approach carries its own costslegal fees, continued uncertainty, potential retaliation, and the risk that courts might ultimately rule against the university. Northwestern's leadership apparently concluded that settlement, despite its steep financial and political costs, represented a more certain path to restored funding.

The divergent approachesHarvard fighting, Northwestern settlingwill likely shape how other universities respond as the Trump administration extends its pressure campaign to additional institutions.

The Investment Transparency Question

Among the most significant aspects of the revoked Deering Meadow agreement is the cancellation of investment transparency commitments.

The original agreement established an Advisory Committee on Investment Responsibility and committed Northwestern to greater disclosure about its investment holdingsreforms that would have allowed students, faculty, and community members to better understand where the university's endowment is invested.

Questions about university investments in companies connected to Israeli military operations, weapons manufacturers, or other controversial industries have been central to campus protests. Transparency about these investments is a prerequisite for informed debate about divestment.

By revoking the investment transparency commitments, Northwestern eliminates the very mechanisms that would have allowed the community to evaluate divestment questions through established institutional processes.

This suggests the Trump administration's settlement demands weren't merely about combating antisemitism or protecting Jewish students, but also about preventing universities from even considering divestment from Israel-related investmentsessentially using federal funding leverage to dictate university positions on Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

What It Means for Campus Protest

The Northwestern settlement establishes a dangerous precedent: universities can make agreements with student protesters to peacefully resolve demonstrations, then revoke those agreements when federal pressure makes them politically inconvenient.

This undermines future protest negotiations at Northwestern and potentially at other universities. Why would student protesters trust university commitments and agree to peacefully dismantle encampments if those commitments can be canceled months later?

The obvious alternativerefusing to negotiate and maintaining protests indefinitelycreates the very campus disruptions and police confrontations that Northwestern's original negotiated settlement successfully avoided.

From the Trump administration's perspective, this may be precisely the point: punish universities that negotiated with pro-Palestinian protesters, reward those that took hardline approaches, and establish that capitulation to protest demands will result in federal investigations and funding cuts.

Looking Ahead

For Northwestern, the immediate future involves implementing the settlement requirements: developing antisemitism training, establishing new free speech protocols, canceling Deering Meadow commitments, and paying $75 million to the federal government over three years.

The university must communicate to Muslim, Middle Eastern, North African and Palestinian students that promised support and resources are being withdrawn. It must explain to the broader community how investment transparency initiatives are being abandoned. And it must navigate faculty disappointment over leadership's capitulation despite overwhelming faculty opposition.

Some terminated grants will not be reinstated, according to Northwestern's website, "specifically those the federal government has cut"suggesting permanent research losses beyond the temporary freeze.

For American higher education broadly, Northwestern provides another data point in the calculation institutions must make when facing Trump administration pressure. The $75 million settlement and revoked student agreement send a clear message: resistance is expensive, capitulation is costly but certain, and maintaining institutional principles may not be financially viable when federal funding is at stake.

Attorney General Bondi's characterization of the settlement as "another victory" suggests many more such "victories" are planned as the Trump administration extends its pressure campaign across American higher education.

The question for universities nationwide is whether any will maintain their commitments to students, transparency, and institutional autonomy when the federal government offers a simple choice: pay, comply, and surviveor resist, fight, and risk financial catastrophe.

Northwestern has made its choice. The Deering Meadow agreement that ended protests peacefully is now history, sacrificed to restore federal funding and end investigations into antisemitism that the settlement resolves without Northwestern admitting any wrongdoing.

For the students who negotiated that agreement in good faith, the message is clear: even when universities make commitments, federal pressure can erase them.
A teenage college student was deported to Honduras by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents despite a federal judge's orders blocking the 19-year-old's removal.

The teenager was identified as Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, who was about to board a plane from Boston Logan Airport to Texas to surprise her parents before being detained by ICE agents on Nov. 20. The incident was confirmed by her attorney, Todd Pomerleau.

College Student Deported to Honduras Against Judge's Order

Court documents showed that U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs had ordered that the teenager not be deported from the U.S. or transferred outside the state of Massachusetts. Despite this, Lopez Belloza was transferred to a detention facility in the southeast U.S.-Mexico border on Nov. 21, and subsequently deported to Honduras the day after.

Pomerleau said that what ICE did to the college student is "unconstitutional on so many levels." The attorney added that when Lopez Belloza went through TSA, she was surrounded, handcuffed, dragged out of the airport, thrown into a van, and taken to the Boston field office, according to People.

The attorney revealed that neither he nor his client had any idea about a removal order for the college student. Poemeleau noted that Lopez Belloza had protection from being removed from the country and that she was supposed to get her day in court. He argued that ICE agents violated his client's rights and denied her that opportunity.

Pormeleau is the founder of Mass Deportation Defense, which is serving immigrants in the Greater Boston area. The recently deported teenager is a business major at Babson College, who said she worked hard to be at Babson in her first semester, as it had been her dream.

A 2015 Removal Order

In response, a spokesperson for ICE confirmed that Lopez Belloza's removal was due to a deportation order that was issued in 2015. Now, Pomerleau said they are planning to take legal action to bring the college student back to the U.S., AA reported.

The situation comes after ICE detained an Oregon teenager, which sparked a walkout of students from McMinnville High School. They protested the government detaining 17-year-old Christian Jimenez, who was driving his father's car at the time he was detained.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that the teenage student tried to use his vehicle to "violently attack" ICE and border patrol agents. It added that the teenager colluded with another driver to "barricade" agents before fleeing the scene, as per Oregon Live.

Originally published on parentherald.com
India has expeditiously heeded to Pakistan's request to use Indian airspace to send humanitarian assistance to cyclone-hit Sri Lanka, people familiar with the matter said.They also described as "fake" reports in the Pakistani media that India has not granted an overflight facility to Pakistan to send aid to Sri Lanka.The official request for overflight was submitted by Pakistan at around 1300 hours (Indian time) on Monday, seeking permission to fly over Indian airspace, the people said.Given the fact that the request pertained to humanitarian assistance to Sri Lanka, India expeditiously cleared the request and intimated the same to Pakistan at 1730 hours (Indian time) on Monday through official channels, they said.It was processed at the shortest notice period of four hours, they added.This gesture from India, despite Pakistan having banned its airspace for Indian airlines, was considered purely on humanitarian grounds, the people said."Pakistani media, as usual, is indulging in propaganda and peddling fake news. These allegations are baseless and misleading. All requests for overflight or transit are processed strictly in accordance with established procedures and international norms," said one of the people.India's decisions on airspace permissions are governed by standard operational, technical and security assessments, not political considerations, the people said.Reports in the Pakistani media are both inaccurate and irresponsible, they said.Sri Lanka has been reeling under massive floods caused by a powerful cyclone. Over 390 people were killed due to the floods.
A Kuwait-Hyderabad IndiGo flight made an emergency landing at Mumbai Airport after a bomb threat on Tuesday (December 2).News18 reported that the threat, conveyed through a detailed email received at the Hyderabad airport, was assessed as specific by authorities.All precautionary measures were put in place. Security teams, including emergency responders, were on standby.An official statement by the IndiGo airlines was awaited.More details are awaited.
by Herbert Harris

Many years ago, I began a meditation practice, sparked by curiosity and vague, middle-aged worries about stress and blood pressure. To my surprise, it quickly became a regular part of my life. I restlessly explored many forms of meditation and meditation groups, eventually coming to the San Francisco Zen Center. Before long, I found myself seated on a black cushion in the meditation hall each morning at 5:30. Twenty years later, and 2,500 miles away, I have a much more relaxed schedule, but I am still at it.

What is it like to meditate? This is a question I am constantly asked. Would a philosopher or scientist say theres a distinct state of consciousness with its own special qualia? I dont know. Maybe Ive been doing it wrong, but meditation has never given me an experience that I would call altered consciousness. Ive come to think the more interesting question is not what meditation feels like moment to moment, but what it is like to be a meditator, to live a life punctuated by these quiet, unremarkable moments of sitting still.

There are many ways our minds can store the details of our experience. We put facts and figures in one place, sensory experiences in another, and skills and procedures in yet another. There is a special kind of memory, called episodic memory, that holds not just the information about an event, but also a sense of our being there. Recalling episodic memories gives us a faint sense of time travel. These are the memories we can reinhabit. We remember a beach vacation as if we can feel the warm sand between our toes, hear the gulls above, and sense the light breeze on our skin. They have a lived-through quality, a presence that feels like me.

I have a torrent of episodic memories from my time in San Francisco, where I had just started a new job. I felt like a tourist; every street, every cafe, every meeting at the new company introduced a parade of unfamiliar faces. My memory was overloaded with experiences and sensations. It felt like my life had entered a new incarnation, complete with a new cast of characters I had to learn. As I stepped into a new role, I became, to some extent, a different person as I adapted to meet new duties and responsibilities. I was surrounded by people who each had hopes and expectations that I would be a good employee, a respectable colleague, and a friend. These hopes and expectations exerted palpable influences on my sense of self.

In the meditation hall, expectations were few. Arrive on time, settle onto your cushion, and when the bell rings, participate in the stillness and silence that fill the hall. These simple expectations shaped my sense of self as much as those of my co-workers and friends. Unlike the sensory overload of the outside world, meditation offered almost nothing for memory to cling to. There were the bells signaling the start and end of each session. The blank wall I faced. The painful muscle memory of the half-lotus position my body reluctantly took. And the occasional passing car outside as the city gradually woke up. Still, the hundreds of hours I spent on the cushion merged into featureless moments of stillness. I know I was there, but where exactly was I?

The next twenty years would bring constant change in my outer life, punctuated by these moments of quiet presence. They are like beads without a string. Nothing seems to hold them together, yet they are connected somehow. They dont fit into any part of my personal narrative. To whom do they belong? Whose story do they represent? Perhaps no one.

Long before I discovered meditation, I struggled to understand the mysteries of consciousness and the nature of the self. They nudged me into a career in neuroscience and psychiatry. It was a long, winding road that led everywhere except to the answers I was searching for. But years later, I could see how my time in San Francisco had given me valuable clues.

That person who subtly changed himself to adapt to the expectations of his new friends and colleagues had gone through many incarnations before and since. There had been jobs, training programs, schools, family, and communities. Each with different roles and audiences going back to early childhood. He is anything but a good actor, so how did he pull off these performances?

Modern neuroscience has demonstrated that the brain is highly skilled at constructing predictive models of reality. Instead of directly experiencing things, we predict what the experience might be like, constantly updating our predictions as new information comes in. Our curiosity shapes our experience. The brain functions like a query machine that asks, Is my experience like my prediction? If not, it can adjust its predictive model or take action, such as a simple head tilt, to better align its experience with the prediction. Both agency and perception depend on these query acts.

At the top of its hierarchical structure, the brain might ask, Am I like my predicted self? Our actions and perceptions could rely on such query acts. Where do our predictive self-models come from? Some, like our predicted physiological states, may be built-in. But humans, from the start of our lives, are immersed in complex social systems and rely on the actions and perceptions of others.

How do babies develop predictive self models? Consider a three-month-old baby. She has no inner autobiography, no story about who she is or how she fits into her family. But she is already a careful observer of the emotional currents flowing toward her. Babies study faces with astonishing precision. They imitate expressions, cry strategically, and adjust their behavior in response to the reactions they receive. They learn what others expect of them, forming predictive models of their caregivers. The caregivers reciprocate, refining their sense of the babys developing personality through predictive modeling.

As children grow, developing language and mobility, they experiment with how their words and actions influence their caregivers emotional responses. They become very skilled at predicting how their behaviors will affect their caregivers mental models of the child. Essentially, the child is building predictive models of how they appear to caregivers. These models form the foundation of our social self. Our caregivers serve as social mirrors that reflect back to us the nature of our selves.

We face a lifelong challenge of being mirrored by many others. Who I am appears differently to different viewers. A child learns who she is in relation to her mother, father, siblings, and teachers. Adolescents figure out who they are through friends, rivals, and crushes. As adults, we gather even more perspectives: colleagues, supervisors, neighbors, strangers, partners, and audiences. Imagine attending a high school reunion as a confident, accomplished middle-aged adult, only to be unexpectedly pulled back into an awkward teenage version of yourself you thought was long gone. The vulnerabilities and shortcomings you spent years overcoming are suddenly put on display. Who is this awkward, embarrassing teenager youve become?

Throughout our lives, we try to unify these conflicting selves into a single person. It is impossible to define ourselves within a constantly changing frame of reference. There is no fixed ground, and our identity only exists relative to others and uncontrollable circumstances. This overwhelming instability of selfhood can be nearly unbearable. The vulnerability of the self drives many of our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Our most intense experiences of pride, shame, and guilt derive their power from how we imagine others see us. Many aspects of psychopathology may involve distortions and disruptions of predictive self-modeling.

It is little wonder that the Buddhist idea of no self often feels inconceivable and threatening. Zen master Dogen once advised his students to take the backward step and turn the light inward. This backward step is a shift in vantage point, a way of seeing the self as a process rather than a possession. We step back far enough to watch the recursive loops of self-modeling at work, to see the constant mirroring, predicting, performing, and adjusting through which a self is assembled moment by moment. Dogen goes on to say that in taking this backward step, our body and mind drop away and our original face appears. In our recursive self-consciousness, we can find the wonder of nature discovering itself.

***

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by Mark R. DeLong

People tell me that I could do much better, David McCullough said in an interview included in California Typewriter, a documentary about typewriters and the people who love them. I could go faster and have less to contend with if I were to use a computera word processorbut I dont want to go faster. If anything, I would prefer to go slower. He liked the straightforward mechanism of his Royal Standard Typewriter that he bought, used, in 1965 for about twenty-five dollars. To me, its understandable: I press the key and another key comes up and prints a letter on a piece of paper and then you can pull it out. Its a piece of paper upon which you have printed something.

Youve made that. Its tangible. Its real.

That tangible quality, that reality comes clear in Richard Polts Typewriter Manifesto, which concludes with a series of contrasts of typewriter life and digital life (using the red and black colors of some typewriter ribbons):

We choose the real over the representation,

the physical over the digital,

the durable over the unsustainable,

the self-sufficient over the efficient.

And then the manifesto concludes, THE REVOLUTION WILL BE TYPEWRITTEN of course.

Keyboards are keyboards, you might say. Its the fancy stuff behind them that matters. Typewriters also have had their incremental improvements, electrification being the most obvious and, less obvious perhaps, the improvements on font rendering. The old fashioned levered hammer bearing the inverse shape of letters gave way to ingenious balls as in the IBM Selectric and printwheels that look like a miniature, heavy-duty bicycle wheel with spokes that bear the letters. (My own old typewriter has this technology.) These innovation allowed for font changes and vastly improved print typesetting. That story about the ingenious QWERTY keyboard layout minimizing key jambs and speeding production of words? Id say, probably false. A more likely reason for that innovation was probably a simple marketing trick: a salesman who didnt know how to type could still peck out T-Y-P-E-W-R-I-T-E-R using only the letters on the top row.

Like the inventions of user-friendly handwriting, such as the famous Palmer Method of script, the invention of the typewriter was built for business. It is an almost sentient machine, a New York newspaper reporter put it. Its impact has been so complete, so overwhelming and withal so rapid that we who stand in the midst of it cannot properly realize its full import. Reading that statement, Im tempted to think that the almost sentient machine is the computer, probably a networked personal computer, though the prose seems a bit more formal than what youd read in the New York Times today. But the machine was a typewriter. The words were printed in the New York Daily Tribune back in 1901. A decade-and-a-half before that Tribune story, the Salt Lake Herald had pointed out the clear use case for typewriters in business. It vastly increased productivity in the office: An office boy, for instance, with but two month[s] practice on one of these machines can accomplish more work than two rapid penmen; besides do it in a neater, and more attractive and legible manner. With but little more practice he can perform more than three mens work.

Typewriters were simply tools for businesses and continued to be so for writers of a certain age. In general, they increased the writers strengtha pliers for the letter trade, in a manner of speaking. The typewriter stayed clear of the human process of writing, or at least much of it. It didnt suggest or correct; lucky writers had good editors to help with that, usually through an annoyingly human interaction. (I have also found that my word processing softwares autocorrect has only automated the annoyance without any of the restorative salve of human interactionwith the effect of actually increasing the annoyance  automatically.)

Today, of course, typewriters have been escorted out of the office, at least for the most part. But they have been welcomed by poets and writers. Typewriter poets offer spontaneous versification on sidewalks and at receptions and events. Down the road from my house, a typewriter poet named Poetry Fox regularly produces on-demand poetry in the city; he wears a fox costume as he plunks out poetry on a vintage typewriter. There are typewriter poets everywhere, it seems, and the machine itself has a certain artistic aura, oddly enough.

Richard Polt suggests a reason in The Typewriter Revolution: A Typists Companion for the 21st Century (2015): Online social media promise to provide human connections. And they dobut the connections are filtered, skewed, and spread thin. Beyond a certain level, sharing isnt care. Put a typewriter in front of people and theyll want to write from within. The typewriter doesnt push content at them; it draws words from them.

That curious drawing power might be the result of the contrast of typewriter machinery with the machinery of the whole algorithmic world that now surrounds it; that is, the power isnt emanating from the machine itself, by itself. The typewriter charms in some ways that it couldnt before, back when it was the norm of writing for sharing or for business. That ancient lump of metal in your attic has been preserved in dust, but its meaning has changed because of the new emerging context surrounding it. The modes and expectations of text have shifted. As a result, the old typewriters renewed clattering of letters comes strangely into the world.

Today, the typewriter does new and different stuff without being physically different from what it was decades ago.

The kids get it, Paul Lundy says. Theyre not trying to be nostalgic for something they never experienced. Theyre trying to escape what they experience every day. Lundy, owner of the Bremerton Typewriter Company, was profiled in a recent New York Times story, tellingly entitled How to Fix a Typewriter and Your Life. It is one of many articles that have cropped up in the past decade or so, ever since social media edged out the slow pleasures of reading and writing.

But the kids who use Old Skool Smith Coronas, IBM Selectrics, Royal Standards, or Remingtons are not mere escapists, either, at least after they crank out a few school papers. They are practitioners and discoverers of old toolsif not re-creators of toolsteasing out the strengths of their human creativity as they master the mechanical until  until the mechanical allows them to transmute their human strengths into new expression. The typewriter is not magical, but its clattering beat can give voice to new sounds. The old machines pace, once a marvel of productivity-enhancing speed, establishes a cadence and rhythm that some find useful, even pleasurable.

While once I cursed when I made a typoespecially in the last couple of lines of a more-or-less well typed pageand had to grab my Liquid Paper to blot out the sin, today the Xed out letter or the blob of obscuring paper paint points to a fallible human. Its not a big deal and may be even a bonus. Todays typewritten error, visibly corrected, somehow endears. Its worth noting how the cutesy modern electronic notion of striking out words itself conveys a fuckingly drastically different meaning. Striking out a word has achieved a rhetorical meaning on the digital display. Rather than obscuring or begging the poor slug who is doomscrolling reader to disregard a word or error, the strikeout intensifies readers attention. The struck out word often is the word that is actually meantpartially obscured only because it seems too damned impertinent or too cringe honest or, paradoxically, its a modern word-processing writers actually preferred and usually blunt word choice.

The electronic strikeout is an ironically flavored italic; it accentuates with attitude. Old fashioned typewriters with their Xed out words messily beg forgiveness for error and politely hide it, too. Xing out with real overstricken Xs is, unhappily, not a feature included with Microsoft Word.

Not your grandfathers typewriter?

Austin Kleon has done a series of typewriter interviews (I suspect he may have even coined the phrase) that leverage a new set of typewriter-borne powers of expression and its new set of charms. It actually may have been an accidental discovery; in his first typewriter interview, Kleon mentions that Mary Ruefle doesnt do Zoom interviews or use a computer, so we conducted this interview via our typewriters. I typed a bunch of questions on individual pieces of yellow paper and mailed them to her home in Bennington, Vermont. She typed her answers underneath and mailed them back to me. The yellow paper looks suspiciously like Post-It notes, which would be a useful thing to use. He might have had them on hand, typed up his questions at the top of each slip of paper, sent them, and thenwhen they returned in US Postrealized that the form itself was striking. (Or maybe, since he is after all Austin Kleon, he hatched the whole plan knowing what would come of it.)

In Kleons hands, the typewriter turns into a new form of paintbrush; he uses it to create imagesvisual evidence of human interactionand it functions because it is contrary to the formal expectations we readers of screens have internalized. The yellow sheets have a question cramped into the top of the slip thats separated by a line of hyphens. Left margins are often just irregular. No neat lines. Typos get the XXXX treatment. The form of the typewritten note carries human qualities; you know that flesh-and-blood was behind the words. Typos and crossouts transform from error to light amusement, and the underlying technologies are fairly primitive. This interview was conducted via our typewriters and the United States Postal Service, Kleon tells us in the introduction of his typewriter interview with Kelli Anderson which is, I think, among the best, since Anderson plays with her typewriter as an image-making device.

Kleons use of the typewriter in this way is not be entirely newsuch slow typewriter-mediated interviews have been around for some timebut in a world of uniform design of web pages and standardized electronic fonts and graphics (not to mention the pablum-like slop of AI), the human mess of typewritten notes represents a new authenticity. A physical reality we humans know quite well from the messiness of our livesand a reality that the boringly normalized gleam of computer screens tries to scrub away.

I try to put my finger on the charm of a typewriter interview, and I can only come up with the fact that the form somehow illumines human immediacy: the words are mechanically rough-hewn and often eloquent and energetic, the typography suggests an ease of speech, almost a banter, and its errors bring the interlocutors together. Its okay to err and be off-the-cuff here, the typewritten text implies, were humans chatting in a new way, clattering along our ancient keyboards with hammered letters from dies thatcome to think of itmight need a good cleaning.

Kleon has reclaimed the typewriter (or at least its graphical mode) as a tool of writing, magnifying a force for writers by running contrary to the slick and (mostly) error-free typefaces of processed text, Microsoft Word docs, and PDFs. But most of the power of Kleons typewriter interviews, unsurprisingly enough, is that fact that they look like typewritten exchanges. They do have a format, and they enforce brevity: there just isnt much room to type on. Some interviewees squeeze inked words in small blank corners or fix words with a pen.

Typewritten formats can renew playing with conventions

The typewriter interview re-expresses a tradition that is ancient and that has reasserted itself for centuries and that, in fact, has become so much a part of readers experience that it is obscured by familiarity. We readers abide by nearly invisible conventions of text; unconventional manipulations of textas with Kleons typewriter interviewsopen up new means of expression, some of which are truly show-offs on the page.

Among the show-offs, consider Calligrammes (posthumously published, 1918), in which Guillaume Apollinaire used typographical imagery for some of his poetry. The lettered images may have been a bridge to new expectations of the reading (viewing?) public, though they may also suggest a certain desperation. The Calligrammes are an idealisation of free verse poetry and typographical precision in an era when typography is reaching a brilliant end to its career, at the dawn of the new means of reproduction that are the cinema and the phonograph, Apollinaire wrote to Andre Billy. Apollinaire was so convinced of the emerging dominance of the image that at one point he wanted to title his book Et moi aussi je suis peintreI am a painter, too.

The play of imagery and textand text as imagerywasnt Apollinaires invention either. It goes back centuries, and in his case might have been inspired by Chinese ideograms. Concrete poetry had already pictorially embodied some of the meanings of a poems words. Two centuries before Apollinaires Calligrammes was posthumously published, English poet and priest George Herbert had mastered the form, and in my mind, its most memorable expression is Easter Wings (originally published sideways) which compresses the Fall and resurrection into two stanzas, both ordered and shaped into flying wings, the first relating generally to humankind and the second, more personally. The tying constraints of sin and then freedom of salvation show up even in the line lengths. And as a result the whole thing flies.

Shaping words to image goes back much farther than the English Renaissance. The British Museum holds the Harley MS 2506, part of which is Ciceros translation of Aratus Phenomena. In it, Ciceros translations are rendered into text in the shape of the mythological characters of constellations. That manuscript dates back to the ninth century.

But the force that particularly adds to the form of Austin Kleons typewriter interview is subtler, internalized in readers and writers and therefore less obviouspart of very familiar (and therefore practically invisible) landscape of literacy. In her interview with Kleon, Kelli Anderson points to Johanna Drucker as one of her artistic forebears, and Druckers work unpacks assumptions and embedded meanings of typesetting. That is, typesetting as a form and guide of book page-layout. Druckers Diagrammatic Writing (2013) explicates the effects of page layout, type sizes, and text placement, showing the ways that these common elements calibrate readers responses, even their emotions. When I looked through the work, I wondered whether the effects that her work elicits are the products of some internalized conventions or whether they are parts of the way that human consciousness works. (Im leaning toward convention, by the way).

Druckers work suggests to me that the playful and carefree qualities that I see in Austin Kleons typewriter interviews are artistic in the sense that they break the vessels, so to speak, of conventional cultural assumptions about, well, interviews, for one, and the forms of media that contain them. Kleon captures a new expressive medium in small and delightful parcels, and the delight in part comes from watching two people break the rules of the old traditional game of interviewinga game of media conventions like those Johanna Drucker revealed.

I mentioned that Austin Kleon didnt invent the typewriter interview. Ive made my very own contribution to the form.

In 1978, when my then girlfriend and I were in Duluth Typewriter searching for a cheap used typewriter, I conducted my own typewriter interview, which has had a profound influence on my life.

I tested out an old mechanical typewriter:

Will you marry me?

She, looking on, let my fingers drop from the keys and then typed:

YES

It was a very successful interview.

For the bibliographically curious: From 1901, an early history of the typewriter: The Art Preservative,New-York Daily Tribune (New York [N.Y.]), January 6, 1901, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA (LOC control number: sn83030214); https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1901-01-06/ed-1/. Cameron Knight did his own typewriter interview with Richard Polt in early 2023: Cameron Knight, Inside the World of Typewriters and the Niche Hold They Have on the Modern World, The Enquirer, April 26, 2023, https://www.cincinnati.com/in-depth/news/2023/04/26/vintage-typewriters-collector-richard-polt-cincinnati/69704726007/. From Richard Polt, too: TYPEWRITER REVOLUTION // Resist the Paradigm // 100% Human Made, Typewriter Revolution, https://typewriterrevolution.com/. Jillian Freyer and Scott Cacciola, A Type-In to Say Goodbye to a New England Institution, Style section, The New York Times, March 24, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/card/2025/03/24/style/cambridge-typewriter-company-party. David W. Dunlap, A Typewriter That Has Traveled the World, Times Insider, The New York Times, November 23, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/insider/olivetti-lettera-typewriter.html. Eric Lacitis, Typewriter Repairman, 94, Finds Apprentice to Buy Bremerton Shop, The Seattle Times, April 29, 2016, https://www.seattletimes.com/business/local-business/areas-last-typewriter-repair-shop-to-go-on-clicking/. A delightful documentary (skip the ads): California Typewriter  Tom Hanks & The People Who Love Typewriters, produced by John Benet and Doug Nichol, directed by Doug Nichol, 2022, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWfgpL1X_oE. Touching entry from Nina Riggs blog: Nina Riggs, The Poetry Fox (and Other Tales from the Cancer Center)., Suspicious Country, June 4, 2015, https://suspiciouscountry.wordpress.com/2015/06/04/the-poetry-fox-and-other-tales-from-the-cancer-center/. The Library of Congress is a treasure. I hope the Trump Administration doesnt completely screw it up: Ellen Terrell, The Typewriter  That Almost Sentient Mechanism, The Library of Congress, March 19, 2015, https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2015/03/the-typewriter-that-almost-sentient-mechanism. Guillaume Apollinaire, Calligrammes; poemes de la paix et da la guerre, 1913-1916 .., (Mercvre de France, 1918), http://archive.org/details/calligrammespo00apol.

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Hello and welcome to 2-Minute Tech Briefing from Computerworld. I'm your host Arnold Davick, reporting from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Here are the top IT news stories you need to know for Tuesday, December 2nd. Let's dive in! First up from NetworkWorld.

Microsoft is facing new pressure in its AI infrastructure push.

This comes after losing two senior leaders responsible for data center and energy strategy, Nidhi Chappelle, head of AI infrastructure, and Sean James, Senior Director of Energy and data center research, both announced their departures, while Chappelle has not announced her next move.

James is heading to Nvidia, intensifying competitive heat in the GPU arms race. Their exits come as Microsoft grapples with power constraints grid interconnection delays and the challenge of sourcing enough accelerators to meet skyrocketing demand. And from InfoWorld, Google has rolled out major updates to its Gemini API.

The changes are designed to support the newly released Gemini 3 model. The improvements include simpler controls for managing the model's thinking. A new parameter called thinking level lets developers choose how deeply Gemini reasons before responding.

It can be set to high for complex analysis or low for faster, lower cost tasks. The updates aim to strengthen Gemini 3's reasoning, autonomous coding and agentic intelligence capabilities. And finally, from CSO online, open AI is acknowledging a data breach.

This after attackers compromised its analytics partner mix panel through a targeted smishing attack. Hackers stole a variety of customer metadata, including account names and emails and user IDs. The incident began when mix panel staff received SMS phishing messages that bypassed traditional enterprise protections.

Mixpanel says all affected customers were contacted directly and that anyone who did not receive a notice was not impacted. That's today's 2-Minute Tech Briefing, for more enterprise tech news.

Visit NetworkWorld, InfoWorld and CSO online, and don't forget to like and subscribe to the show on the TechTalk YouTube channel.
Interview: German executive highlights China's rising appeal for investment

Xinhua) 10:00, December 02, 2025

FRANKFURT, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Despite global competition, China's strong demand and favorable business conditions are making it even more attractive to German companies, a senior German executive has said.

"China has become a market where not only demand is strong, but other conditions are now more attractive than before," said Christian Sommer, chief executive officer and chairman of the German Center Shanghai and chairman of the German Center in Taicang, in a recent interview with Xinhua.

As the head of organizations that support German business operations in China, Sommer said low industrial electricity costs, a stable energy supply, predictable production expenses, and access to skilled labor are the advantages that make China an appealing destination for German firms.

Although the supply chain in Asia, especially in China, tends to be self-sufficient, German companies remain highly interested in becoming part of it.

The German centers in Shanghai and Taicang serve as platforms to help small and medium-sized German companies gain a stronger foothold in China. There are over 500 German companies in Taicang, where "demand for supporting services like CPAs, legal, IT, and design firms is high."

As competition in China gets increasingly intense, German companies are adapting by shifting to the "local for local" strategy. Sommer considers "local for local" a necessary approach for German companies to remain competitive in China. Some German companies are moving parts of their research and development (R&D) to China in the belief that local teams are better positioned to understand and respond to the needs of the Chinese market.

One example is Gemue Group, one of the world's leading manufacturers of valves, measurement and control systems, which continues to invest in China by upgrading existing product lines and expanding into new sectors.

"This reflects a broader trend among German companies shifting from purely new investments to strategic upgrades of local operations."

He said that tackling major global challenges alone is "slower and harder," while partnership brings greater efficiency and resilience. Differences between countries, he emphasized, should not be viewed as obstacles but as foundations for deeper collaboration. He said China's proposal to build a community with a shared future for mankind had left a strong impression on him.

Sommer added that his perspective is not merely hopeful but confident: "If Germany and China understand and respect their differences, and build cooperation around them, that will be a real source of strength for both sides."

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Goodbye to our beloved British pubs. I honestly do not see how they can survive the hammer blow of last week's Budget.

Soon, the quirky, independent inns and public houses that were once a mainstay of our culture will cease to exist altogether. The only traditional boozers left will be on television  the Queen Vic and the Rovers Return.

In the real world we'll have the choice of drinking supermarket lager at home or sitting in soulless chain outlets with plastic tables, paying 10 for a pint of gassy gunge.

And the same is true for the whole of the UK's hospitality industry. In an act of shocking betrayal, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has sentenced countless restaurants, hotels, cafes and coffee shops to death, hiking rates by tens of thousands of pounds for individual businesses.

Some will see their business rates rise by 400 per cent or more. That spells immediate closure for many, with devastating effects for local economies.

One Lancashire publican contacted me in despair at the weekend. He doesn't want me to reveal his name, and I can understand why. The wretched man is facing complete wipeout, and his mental health is in tatters.

Already struggling with debts from the pandemic, he will have no choice but to shut his pub before the rates bill arrives. His chances of selling the business are slim. And when he hands back the keys to the brewery, he and his family will lose their home  because they live over the pub.

His marriage is buckling under the strain. He will almost certainly have to go on the dole, since few businesses are hiring middle-aged ex-publicans.

Nobody wins, because he will be costing the Treasury money instead of paying taxes. It's a personal calamity, and one being repeated on a massive scale across the country.

White Horse Holme-next-the-Sea in East Anglia. Owner James Nye says: 'It feels like the Government is piling on pressure at the very moment we need its backing most'

'Labour sold a pack of bare-faced lies to the hospitality industry at the last election,' says Sacha Lord. 'And I was one of those who fell for it'

In Cornwall, Lara Trubshaw of the Peterville Inn in St Agnes told me her business rates have gone from 18,500 to 73,000 in one shattering moment.

The Peterville was named as Visit England's number one pub in 2024. It has a loyal clientele, including many tourists who come from across the UK and far beyond. But even their enthusiasm is unlikely to keep the beer flowing behind the bar.

Very few small businesses can withstand on-the-spot increases in taxes of more than 50,000.

The fact is that Labour sold a pack of bare-faced lies to the hospitality industry at the last election. And I was one of those who fell for it.

Eighteen months ago, I was a Labour Party member. I was there at the manifesto launch in Manchester, when Ms Reeves stood up and proclaimed herself the Chancellor of Business and Growth.

Here was a politician, engaging with entrepreneurs who run hospitality businesses, and assuring us that she understood our needs.

And she had been doing that consistently for a couple of years.

In November 2022, Labour ran a campaign on social media, promising to 'scrap business rates and replace them with a fairer system to revitalise our high streets and drive economic growth'.

Last week's Budget gave the lie to that pledge.

We were expecting that increased levies would be targeted at high-value properties such as warehouses owned by international corporations like Amazon. And we were told that a lower percentage of rateable value would be levied on smaller sites in our towns and cities. That is not what happened.

Labour has already done terrible, lasting damage to the hospitality industry with last year's National Insurance increase, which was completely unexpected and has cost at least 100,000 jobs. The great majority of those jobs were for young people  the ones working in pubs and restaurants on Saturdays or a couple of evenings a week, trying to earn some cash while studying at college or university.

Rachel Reeves on a visit to the Sipsmith Distillery, Chiswick, in October

Casual employment on that scale has been swept away, and that's a catastrophe for businesses as well as thousands of young people who are desperate to work but cannot thanks to the Chancellor's indefensible policies.

I can't make up my mind whether Rachel Reeves simply doesn't understand how the hospitality industry works, or if she just doesn't care that she is driving thousands of businesses to the wall. Perhaps it's both  ignorance and apathy.

Yet hospitality is the third biggest employer in the UK economy. Growth is impossible unless our hotels, restaurants, pubs and clubs, bars and cafes are thriving.

We are already one of the most heavily taxed sectors in the UK. Take the price of a pint. It averages 6.50 in Greater Manchester and nearer 7.40 in London. The profit on that is tiny, just 12p  less than 2 per cent.

VAT, alcohol duty, the brewery's charges, staff costs, rent and all the other overheads such as utility bills leave the publican with just a handful of coppers. Yet the Chancellor believes pubs can afford to absorb a rise of several hundred per cent in rates. It's impossible.

As footfall slumps in the new year, I fear the toll will be terrible.

In the past 25 years, Britain has lost around a third of its pubs  about 15,000 of them. Once they close their doors, they are doomed  demolished, more often than not, to make way for housing.

With them we lose a crucial part of our communities. So much of the local economy relies on them  the piemakers, greengrocers and bakers who supply the kitchens, the delivery drivers, the laundries and much more.

Each pub is at the centre of its own ecosystem. Kill that and the economy for miles around suffers. It's self-destructive madness.

Sacha Lord is chairman of the Night Time Industries Association

'Labour has hurt us more than Covid': Hospitality firms reveal how Budget will leave them struggling to survive

By Kathryn Knight

Already struggling under the weight of increased national insurance and minimum wage costs, the hospitality sector was praying for help from the recent Budget.

Instead, pubs, restaurants, hotels and retailers were met with increases to the national minimum wage, and in many cases higher business rates, despite the Chancellor promising to provide relief.

Now Rachel Reeves faces a backlash over business rates raids from hospitality firms over her 'misleading' claims to have cut them to 1991 levels.

She announced she would 'permanently lower tax rates for over 750,000 retail, hospitality and leisure properties' and pay for it by hiking taxes on larger properties.

But after her speech, many small businesses realised that their bills would actually go up. Read more

For many businesses, not annihilated by Reeves's first Budget, this will mean a struggle to survive.

Here, four business owners tell the Daily Mail and This is Money about the scale of the challenges they now face.

Budget landed like the final body blow

Eddie Nelder, 61, from near Blackpool, is the owner of Choice Hotels, a family business overseeing five hotels in the North-West, that grew from a modest boarding inn in Birmingham at the end of the Second World War to establishments across Blackpool and the Lake District.

Mr Nelder said: 'We've seen our share of ups and downs in that time, but I can honestly say it's never felt tougher than it has over the last few years.

'We've told successive governments that we simply can't survive the way things are going  and this recent budget has landed like the final body blow.'

He points out that surviving the pandemic was challenging but since then, rising utility bills and wage pressures, including last April's NI and minimum wage increase, have left his business close to the edge.

'Last April's announcement cost us 600,000, pushing our operating costs up by 3.2million in the last five years. With a turnover of 20million, that increase has quite literally wiped out our profit.'

Tough times: Eddie Nelder, 61, from near Blackpool, is the owner of Choice Hotels, a family business overseeing five hotels in the North-West

The hotel owner explained that as a result, his initial reaction to the chancellor's announcement about a further increase to the minimum wage, was pure disbelief. 'That means finding another 300,000 a year.'

He said: 'We run at 90 per cent capacity year-round, so it can't realistically come from more guests.

'And it won't come from redundancies either  we've already made twenty staff redundant and are working on a shoestring, running lean. So the only option left is to cut whatever else we can, wherever we can.

'The future feels so bleak that I've been waking up asking myself what the point of it all really is. I work 80 hours a week, but more hours can't fix a business model that keeps being pulled apart from the outside in.

'We're proud of what we built, and we want to keep building  not just for us, but for the communities that grew with us.

'Right now, it feels like we're fighting for survival alone. I just wish the people making the decisions could see what we see: businesses like ours don't just serve people, we hold ecosystems together.

'If we fall, many fall with us. And that's not a future anyone should accept willingly.'

No choice but to pass on costs to customers

James Nye, 44 from Hitchin, oversees ten pubs in the East Anglia region, and with margins already razor thin, is concerned about the future under Rachel Reeves.

Mr Nye said: 'When we emerged from the Covid pandemic, we thought we'd endured the worst that could be thrown at us. We were wrong.

'What we're facing now is far harder, because at least during Covid we had recognition and meaningful government support through furlough and business loans.

'Now it feels like the government are piling on pressure at the very moment we need their backing most.'

Rising costs: James Nye from Hitchin, oversees ten pubs in the East Anglia region

The Managing Director of the thirty-year-strong family business explained: 'What will truly scupper us now is the 8.5 per cent uplift in the minimum wage for 18-to 20-year-olds to 10.85. We were already grappling with last year's National Insurance and minimum wage rises.'

He points out that like all responsible business owners, he wants to pay his teams as well as he can.

'But the reality is that shrinking margins mean this may end up disincentivising us from employing young people at all. That's a real shame, as pubs like ours are major employers of youngsters.

'We've had remarkable success stories, watching talent flourish to the point where twenty-somethings manage large budgets and lead thriving teams.'

A budget meeting this morning only served to underline his fears. 'I saw our costs will rise again next year,' Mr Nye explained.

'The only realistic way to absorb it is passing costs to customers  yet footfall is already falling, because people can't afford to go out as often.'

Meanwhile, he remains baffled by Rachel Reeves' claims that pubs will pay lower business rates. 'I honestly cannot understand how she can claim this, as everyone I know is paying more,' he says.

'We know what that means: pubs closing at a rate of two a day. That creates less revenue for government coffers and leaves a deeper hole in communities.'

'Labour doesn't understand rural communities'

Together with his wife Jane Tyler, 72, Mark Goodey, 69, runs two cafe-restaurants in the south-west, the Winking Prawn and the Cracking Crab.

Mr Goodney said, 'I've long believed that as a political party, Labour don't understand anything south of Bristol, particularly rural communities, and this latest budget has only reinforced that view.

Fresh challenges: Husband and wife team Mark Goodey and Jane Tyler run two cafe-restaurants in the south-west, the Winking Prawn and the Cracking Crab

A three generation family business  their son and daughter Lucy and Luke Culkin, 43 and 41 also work in the cafes, along with their 20-year-old granddaughter Bella  they say that having been in the trade for thirty years it's never been harder.

'Like many in hospitality, we've been battling ever-decreasing margins caused by spiralling rent, rates, and wage costs,' Mr Goodey explains.

'However, last year's rise in National Insurance was a real blow, not least because we had no chance to plan for it.

Heading into this year's budget, we clung to hope around the rumoured rates reduction, only to find that the rateable value of both our sites has increased.

So we're worse off, and that's before factoring in the minimum wage rise for 18- to 20-year-olds.'

In their case, while all staff aged 21 and over are already paid above the minimum wage, the expectation now is that 18 to 20-year-olds will receive the full minimum wage, regardless of capability or experience.

'That's a major challenge with new seasonal hires,' Mr Goodey says. 'It also makes protecting pay differentials for older staff far harder.

'I know the government wants to promote apprenticeships, but apprentices need twelve months of stable employment, which we simply can't offer.'

It has left both he and his wife worried about the challenges facing their children who will eventually take over altogether. 'We can't run it for ever and I do worry what the future holds,' he says.

'Minimum wage hike means we can't hire anyone'

Hasna and Shahid Vakkayil, run a convenience shop at a filling station near Sawtry, Cambs.

Mr Vakkayil, 43, said of his wife: 'Hasna worked as a research associate at a university before we decided to take on the lease of the shop.

No help: Hasna and Shahid Vakkayil, run a convenience shop at a filling station near Sawtry, Cambs

'We saw it as a challenge - the area is very quiet, and it looked like it was going to shut down which would have been a disaster for locals who would have to travel miles to get a pint of milk.

'We wanted to try and turn it around, but I didn't realise quite how hard it would be. While I have business experience, the margins are so small  we only earn around 40,000 a year between us.

'We can survive on that  just  but the hike in the minimum wage means we can't afford to employ anyone at all.'

The store owner points out that as parents to Dilawar, seven, and Dilhan, three, the couple are limited in terms of the hours they can put into the shop.

'We'd love to open more, but we have a family to look after, so that in turn affects what we earn,' he says.

'I wish the government would give people like us more support. We really want to contribute, but things just get harder.

'Our request for a bus stop near here to increase footfall is met with stonewalling. So it's a struggle, but we will do our best to open this shop for the public as much as we can.'
The massive billion-dollar fraud now spilling into public view in Minnesota shocks the conscience but not the instincts of experience.

You've read the details  torrents of taxpayer money were siphoned off from Covid-era programs meant to feed hungry children and support homeless and autistic Minnesotans  and you feel that old American ache: How could this have happened, and why did no one stop it?

The schemes  both alleged and proven  were not subtle. Dozens of members of Minnesota's Somali diaspora allegedly diverted state funds to buy themselves luxury homes, cars, designer goods, and foreign real estate. More than 80 have been charged; 59 have already been convicted.

Thousands of children went without meals they were promised. Vulnerable people who needed therapy were left waiting. A housing project pegged at $2.6 million somehow ballooned to $104 million in false billing. The scale of it is almost operatic  a jackpot of public money raided while no one in authority dared say, 'Enough.'

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, now running for a third term after his failed stint as Kamala Harris's 2024 running mate, has promised task forces and new monitoring technology. And he's engaged in stern talk about prosecuting fraud, as this travesty happened on his watch. But the chorus of disbelief is loud.

A group of 400 employees of the Minnesota Department of Human Services have publicly alleged that Walz ignored their warnings, retaliated against whistleblowers and undermined government auditors.

'We let Tim Walz know of fraud early on, hoping for a partnership in stopping fraud but no, we got the opposite response,' these public servants claim. 'Tim Walz systematically retaliated against whistleblowers using monitoring, threats, repression, and did his best to discredit fraud reports.'

The alleged failure to protect taxpayer dollars now even appears to be forming the defense strategy of at least one accused fraudster. 'No one was doing anything about the red flags,' the defendant's attorney Ryan Pacyga told the New York Times. 'It was like someone was stealing money from the cookie jar and they kept refilling it.'

Torrents of taxpayer money were siphoned off from Covid-era programs meant to feed hungry children and support homeless and autistic Minnesotans (Pictured: FBI raids Minnesota nonprofit Feeding our Future on January 20, 2022)

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, now running for a third term after his failed stint as Kamala Harris 's 2024 running mate, has promised task forces and new monitoring technology (Pictured: Walz and Harris at a campaign rally)

So, what purportedly stopped the government officials from doing their jobs? It may very well have been a toxic brew of misplaced empathy, craven politics and fear.

One group accused in the fraud  a non-profit called Feeding Our Future  reportedly threatened to smear a state agency with allegations of racism if 'minority-owned businesses' weren't approved for funding. And a Somali American investigator in the Minnesota Attorney General's Office said last year that elected Democrats in the state were scared of causing political backlash in his community  one of their 'core voting bloc[s].'

That timidity rings familiar.

It calls to mind the British scandal of the 2000s, when gangs of men  of mostly Pakistani backgrounds  targeted thousands of young Caucasian girls for sexual exploitation, as police and politicians allegedly ignored the systematic abuse for fear of being branded insensitive to immigrant communities. This summer, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced an injury into the controversy  though it's since been dogged down by dysfunction.

The scripts have the same feel: the soft-focus rhetoric of multicultural sensitivity standing in for the hard work of governing and conflicted leaders convincing themselves that enforcing basic law and order might somehow constitute a cultural affront. And so, the laws they were elected to uphold are treated as optional.

The result  whether through coincidence, incompetence or deceit  is the same: law-abiding citizens harmed, taxpayers betrayed, and the very communities that leaders claim to be protecting are cast under a shadow of suspicion.

The result  whether through coincidence, incompetence or deceit  is the same: law-abiding citizens harmed, taxpayers betrayed, and the very communities that leaders claim to be protecting are cast under a shadow of suspicion (Pictured: Somali-American voters in Minneapolis on November 3, 2020)

This is not what America is meant to do. We are supposed to welcome newcomers into a shared civic life, not strand them in separate moral universes. When leaders become so anxious about appearing enlightened that they abandon their duty, the damage spreads far beyond the offenders.

Minnesota's Somali community  some 80,000 strong  now bears the weight of a scandal that touches only a fraction of its members. Yet the stain is broad and the politics are brutal.

Donald Trump has already seized it, calling the Minnesota Somali community 'a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity' and urging deportations.

For pro-immigration advocates, pushing back against such rhetoric becomes infinitely harder when voters feel they've been taken for fools. Programs designed to help both immigrants and longtime Minnesotans are suddenly suspect, not because the idea is flawed, but because the stewards were careless.

Joseph H Thompson, the federal prosecutor overseeing the case, said what many Minnesotans feel: 'No one will support these programs if they continue to be riddled with fraud. We're losing our way of life in Minnesota in a very real way.' It is the quiet heartbreak of a place that prides itself on decency.

There is nothing compassionate about refusing to enforce the law, nothing noble about pretending cultural sensitivity means surrendering common sense. Celebrating an immigrant's heritage is one thing; encouraging balkanization is another. A society that cannot insist on shared rules will soon find it has no shared society at all.

Britain learned this through bitter experience. Minnesota is learning it now. The lesson is as old as governance itself: strength, applied fairly, is the real kindness. Weakness, dressed up as tolerance, is only the beginning of betrayal.
Christine Sentz's ordeal began with a simple prescription, but quickly escalated into a near-death medical crisis.

At the age of just 44, she suddenly developed intense joint pain in her arms and hands.

'It started out of the blue, basically one day I woke up with severe pain all the way through my arms and my hands,' she said.

Unsure of the cause, Sentz saw her doctor, who referred her to a rheumatologist. Tests suggested a possible autoimmune disorder, but, as she explains, 'nothing was certain.'

To ease her symptoms, she was prescribed Sulfasalazine, a disease-modifying antirheumatic drug known for its anti-inflammatory properties. About one million prescriptions are written for the drug, known as the brand name Azulfidine, each year in the US.

That was when everything went downhill.

Sentz, who works as a radiology technologist from Ohio, started the medication in early July 2017. By the end of the month, she had developed a rash across her stomach and a fever. She stopped taking the tablets immediately.

'The rash had gotten a lot worse,' she said. 'So I went to my hospital that I worked at and saw a doctor that I knew and trusted well. He said, "Yep, you've got a rash. You were taking a medication. Let's give you some steroids."'

Christine Sentz was blighted by DRESS syndrome, a severe drug-induced reaction that affects the skin, liver, kidneys and other internal organs

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The five-day steroid course initially helped, but the relief didn't last as headaches, back pain and chest pain followed.

Sentz returned to the hospital, was prescribed more steroids, and sent home, but before she could even collect the medication, her symptoms worsened.

'I went home, went to bed because I had to wait for the pharmacy to open up,' she said. 'And by the time I woke up just in that few hours, I was a lot worse.'

Her skin reddened from head to toe, and she passed out several times. Desperate, Sentz contacted the emergency room again, requesting intravenous steroids.

When the doctor saw her condition, he was stunned. 'This is the worst reaction I have ever seen,' he told her.

Doctors ran urgent tests but could not pinpoint the cause.

As her condition deteriorated, she was admitted to the hospital and assessed by a dermatologist, who immediately arranged for her transfer to the burn unit at Akron Children's Hospital.

They suspected Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a rare, blistering skin reaction.

But further testing revealed something even rarer: Sentz's kidneys and liver were failing.

A skin biopsy confirmed she had Drug Reaction with Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptoms (DRESS syndrome), a potentially fatal reaction to medication.

Sentz suspects that DRESS may be an autoimmune response to certain medications, though research is limited. (Pictured: Sentz on her wedding day)

DRESS syndrome causes a severe rash, swollen lymph nodes, fever and inflammation of internal organs. It typically appears two to six weeks after starting a new drug and affects an estimated one in every 1,000 to 10,000 people, with women at higher risk.

The death rate for DRESS syndrome is approximately ten percent. This can range depending on factors such as the degree of systemic involvement, particularly organ damage, and how quickly the condition is diagnosed and managed.

The underlying causes are poorly understood, but it is thought to involve an abnormal immune response and difficulty metabolizing certain drugs. Mortality is typically due to organ failure, making prompt recognition and intensive care essential.

Sentz didn't realize how close she came to dying until years later.

She said: 'My husband didn't share this with me for a couple of years, he said, "That first night that you were up there, they pulled me aside and they said they didn't know if you were going to make it through the night."

'I didn't realize that I was that sick. I just knew what it looked like. I knew what was going on on the outside, but I didn't know what was going on on the inside.'

And when Sentz returned to the hospital to work three months after her ordeal, she said the emergency room doctor told her: 'You were one of the sickest patients that I've sent out of here that's lived.'

Every day, she had to undergo agonizing baths where doctors debrided her wounds, which covered almost her entire body, removing damaged tissue. She was sewn into a protective suit that made her look, she says, 'like a mummy.'

Miraculously, the painful blisters spared her face, hands and feet, so she didn't need skin grafts.

DRESS syndrome causes a severe rash, swollen lymph nodes, fever and inflammation of internal organs. It typically appears two to six weeks after starting a new drug

Sentz's story underscores both the terrifying severity of DRESS syndrome and the gaps in medical awareness

Sentz credits the burn unit with saving her life. Staff told her they had 'never used so much bacitracin on any patient that's ever been in this burn unit.'

Twelve days after being admitted to the burn unit, Sentz was finally able to return home.

Nurses taught her how to change her own dressings, and she continued on a regimen of high-dose steroids and an immunosuppressant normally reserved for transplant patients.

Her recovery moved slowly; each attempt to taper the medication too quickly triggered another painful reaction from her body.

Sentz said it was almost three years before her life slowly, finally, began to feel normal again.

What shocked her most was how little was known about DRESS syndrome.

'When I was in the burn unit, the nurses would come in and they would say, "I had to Google what you have."' They'd never even heard of it,' she said.

'Even when I went back to my own physician, he said, "I don't even have a code to put in for any type of testing for you because it's not there. It doesn't exist."'

Although information on the condition has improved slightly in the eight years since her ordeal, Sentz says it remains vastly under-researched.

'I am seeing more now if I look at it that I am finding more information, but they don't say that it's an allergy to the medication,' she said.

'It's just that your body doesn't process it. So it kind of builds up in your system and they don't know why it happens.'

Since being in the burn unit, Sentz has undergone two separate surgeries, which led to an 'all-over body rash' that she believes was caused by the antibiotics she was prescribed.

Before she went into the surgeries, she explained that she had previously had DRESS syndrome, but the doctors didn't know anything about the condition.

Today, Sentz advocates for better recognition of the rare health condition, hoping that sharing her experience can save lives

'That is the first thing that I will mention, is that I've had DRESS syndrome. But to a lot of people, that doesn't really mean anything,' she said.

'When I had surgery in April, did the fact that I had DRESS syndrome even mean anything to the anesthesiologist or the surgeon?'

Sentz, now 52, still worries about long-term risks, and the uncertainty surrounding the condition means she fears it could affect others in her family.

The mother-of-two must ensure her children, who are now adults, monitor any medications and reactions closely.

Despite the severity of her illness, Sentz's organs have made a full recovery and currently show no lasting damage. But the traumatic experience has left her anxious about taking any new medication at all, terrified she could suffer another extreme reaction.

'I am very careful about what I take,' she said. 'There's going to have to be a good reason.'
A woman was told by doctors that her stomach problems, including nausea and vomiting, were likely due to food intolerances and irritable bowel syndrome, but they were actually symptoms of an incurable type of cancer.

Lauren Carey, 30, from Banstead in Surrey, was born with a rare condition called bladder exstrophy, meaning that her bladder developed outside of her body while she was in the womb.

This occurs when the skin over the lower abdomen does not form properly, so the bladder is open and exposed on the outside of the body.

As a result, babies born with the condition may have related problems affecting their urinary tract and pelvic bones.

This was the case for Ms Carey, and despite undergoing a series of operations over the first few years of her life, at just eight-years-old she was fitted with a catheter.

Heartbreakingly, the former supermarket manager was then diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the bladder in 2022a rare but aggressive cancer associated with long-term urinary catheter use and chronic infections.

Thankfully, surgeons were able to remove her bladder, replacing it with a stomaa new opening in the skin of the abdomen for urine to pass through and out of the bodywhich they believed would prevent the cancer from spreading.

However in November 2025, she was given the devastating news that not only had the cancer returned, it had spread to her pelvis and abdomen and was therefore incurable.

Lauren's cancer was dismissed by doctors twice before she was told it was incurable

Lauren was born with a rare condition which meant that her bladder developed on the outside of her body

Her sister, Megan, 28, is now urging others to advocate for their health after her sister's symptoms were initially dismissed.

She said: 'It was sort of like she was dairy intolerant, every time she would eat certain foods it would make her sick.

'But doctors just dismissed her and said it was IBS. Lauren didn't believe this, but she also didn't feel unwell at this point so she didn't believe it was cancer either.'

When Ms Carey first raised her concerns, she was told that she was likely suffering from a urinary tract infection (UTI) - a condition which has been linked to an increased risk of bladder cancer - and turned away.

'Every time she called the doctors, they wouldn't even see her, they would just put her on antibiotics and say it was a UTI,' her sister said.

But when Ms Carey started experiencing stomach problems, including abdominal pain, nausea, bloating and extreme fatigue, she pushed for a second opinion, where she was told her symptoms were probably being caused by food intolerances.

It wasn't until she found a lump on her stomach, which doctors initially dismissed as an infection, that she found out via the NHS app that she was being referred to palliative care for cancer.

'It was awful to hear,' her sister recalled. 'We were devastated. They said from the start that if this cancer returned there was nothing they could do.'

Lauren, pictured with her nephew, is now working through her bucket-list dreams in what could be her final years

Bladder cancer is cancer that is found anywhere in the bladder and has been linked with long term catheter use

Lauren, pictured with her siblings, was fitted with a catheter at just 8 years old

Both the NHS and private hospitals have informed the family that there are no appropriate treatment options available that wouldn't damage her organs or put untold strain on her immune system, that would likely kill her.

'Now we are just trying to make memories with her.'

But Megan feels that her sister has been let down by doctors, who didn't take their concerns seriously, and is now fundraising to help her sister live out her bucket-list dreams as they plan for what could be her final years.

She said: 'The doctors could definitely have done better. They have been awful. Lauren wanted to complain but it is not worth it now, because it takes years and she won't be here to see the outcome.'

She added that the family were never made aware that long-term catheter use can increase the risk of bladder cancer.

'So please, if something does not feel right with your body, just push and push, don't let the doctors fob you off.'

At the top of Ms Carey list is going to Port Lympne Safari Park to stay in a lodge surrounded by grazing animals.

Megan said: 'She really wants to go there so that is what we are trying to aim for. She has never wanted children, her animals are her children.

Lauren, pictured as a baby with her mother, was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the bladder three years ago

'I was very shocked when people started donating and when I told Lauren, she said: "no one is going to donate for me."

'So for her to see that people do actually care has been so nice,' the mother-of-one added.

In response, a spokesperson from Modality East Surrey Medical Practice, who are in charge of Ms Carey's GP surgery, said: 'As a practice, we have provided care for Ms Carey and her family and we will continue to support them during this very difficult time.

'We are truly sorry for what they are going through and our thoughts remain with them.

'If Ms Carey or her family have any questions or worries about the care they have received, the practice would gently encourage them to get in touch so that staff can listen, understand and offer further help.'

Around 21,000 people living in the UK are diagnosed with bladder cancer each year, according to Action Bladder Cancer UK.

If spotted early, it can usually be cured using a combination of surgery or drug therapies. However, if the disease spreads out of the bladder and into the surrounding organs, then it almost always becomes incurable.

But in August this year, it was announced that a new treatment for advanced bladder cancer that doubles life expectancy is set for use on the NHS.

Patients diagnosed with stage four bladder cancer, which accounts for around one in ten cases, will be offered a combination of an antibody drug called enfortumab, and pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy drug.

It is estimated that 1,250 people a year could benefit from the treatment.
Record numbers of patients face 'degrading' 12-hour trolley waits in A&E this winter as Labour is in 'total denial' of a crisis, a damning investigation reveals.

Over 452,000 people waited 12 hours or more for a bed from January to October after medics decided they were so sick they needed to be admitted to a ward.

This has hit an all-time high after soaring from just 1,590 in the first ten months of 2016 and is now 34,000 higher than the same period last year.

The country's top A&E doctor on Monday night warned these patients are being cruelly let down in their 'most vulnerable moment', with many dying as a result.

Dr Ian Higginson, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said politicians need to 'open their eyes' to what is happening in A&Es, which are at 'breaking point' going into what is expected to be a particularly difficult season.

He added: 'Hospital trusts must be supported to focus on getting people out of hospital when they are medically fit to do so to free up capacity for the large number of people in need of admission.

'For this to happen, hospitals need to work more effectively, we need more staffed beds, and social care and other supporting services must be improved.

'We need politicians from across the political spectrum to open their eyes to what's happening in Emergency Care.

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'I fear what's to come in the new year, when the worst of winter is expected to hit emergency departments, which will in turn mean even more long waits for my patients, more of whom will die as a result of this systematic failure.'

The stark message comes as the British Medical Association prepares to march its resident doctors out on strike again for five days from December 17 to 22, causing mayhem in the run-up to Christmas.

The medics, who have seen their pay increase by 28.9 per cent over the past three years, are demanding a further 26 per cent pay rise.

An early flu season and new variant has also left health leaders braced for an influx of infected patients, which will pile additional pressure on beds.

Analysis of NHS England figures, by the Liberal Democrats, shows long A&E waits are higher than ever so far this year, with a record 452,595 so-called 12-hour 'trolley waits' reported in the first ten months alone.

Following the Budget, they are now calling for an emergency package of extra hospital and care home beds to protect patients as winter bites and to arrest the rise in delays.

Twenty-three trusts have seen increases in excess of 100,000 per cent since 2016, with five trusts seeing increases in excess of 500,000 per cent.

Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals saw an increase in excess of 1000,000 per cent.

In September, pictures shared online of William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent showed how it was forced to turn its cafe into a makeshift ward for patients

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Meanwhile, 35 A&Es have already seen more than 5,000 patients wait more than 12 hours from decision to admit, with eight trusts seeing more than 10,000 waits of this length.

A report by the Royal College of Nursing earlier this year revealed the problem is now so bad that many patients do not even get to lie on a trolley while waiting for a bed on a ward  with some forced to sit for hours on a chair of lie on the floor.

Dr Vicky Price, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said: 'The number of people now waiting 12 hours or more in emergency departments  almost half a million in 10 months  is completely unacceptable.

'It is causing serious and avoidable harm yet, more worryingly, it is only the tip of the iceberg.

'Many more patients are enduring long delays before a decision to admit is made, waiting hours in triage or in waiting rooms, or being placed in temporary escalation areas, corridors or bays because hospitals are full.

'These waits are not captured in 'trolley-wait' statistics which is masking the full scale of delay, overcrowding and unsafe corridor care that is now normalised across the system.

'We and many others have been highlighting the dangers of this situation every month for a number of years.

'Yet 2025 is the worst year on record and the question is when the rise will stop.'

Pictured, patients sleep in beds lining a hospital corridor in overrun A&E department at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford

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Liberal Democrat MP Helen Morgan, the party's health spokesperson, said: 'The appalling delays at A&E are needlessly costing lives as patients are left waiting hours on end for the treatment they need.

'The Government should have used the Budget to save the NHS. Instead they are in total denial, as patients brace themselves for a historic crisis this winter.

'We need a proper plan right now to free up hospital beds, reduce A&E delays and bring the NHS back from the brink.

'That must start with extra staffed beds, and helping people to leave hospital and into social care.

'Our proposed package would also rebuild GP services so that people can get an appointment within a week, or 24 hours if urgent, and don't end up in A&E in the first place.'

Rory Deighton, acute and community care director at the NHS Confederation, said: 'This data is extremely worrying, particularly during another very challenging winter for the NHS.

'We know that rising demand and delays in discharge have created bottlenecks in A&Es.

'With the flu season starting earlier than usual and levels of flu expected to rise sharply over the next week, health service leaders are working incredibly hard and making difficult decisions about how best to manage this, with corridor care only ever used as a last resort.

'Car park care, where patients are waiting in ambulances outside A&E, is also not a solution to this problem.

'Healthcare leaders continue to work on the root causes to ensure improvements by improving patient discharge, working with local authorities to increase social care support, and prioritising vulnerable older patients at the front door through increased frailty screening.

'At the same time, patients should be encouraged to use urgent treatment centres, visit their local community pharmacy, use NHS 111, or see their GP, where appropriate, to free up A&E capacity for those with the most urgent needs.'

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: 'These figures lay bare the shocking inheritance we're working to turn around.

'That's why we've begun winter preparations earlier than ever before  pressure-testing hospital plans, coordinating closely with care homes and local leaders, and accelerating vaccinations to keep patients moving safely through the system.

'And with a 450million Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, we're taking decisive action to cut A&E overcrowding, free up beds, and ensure people who don't need to be in hospital get timely care in their community.'
Throughout his late teens and early 20s, Matthew Humphreys was prone to low moods. He ignored them until, in his mid-20s, the negative thoughts and feelings of emptiness became more pronounced.

Matthew, who had a well-paid job and was in a happy, stable relationship, struggled to make sense of why he felt this way.

I was looking at everyone enjoying life and thought, why am I not like that? says Matthew, now 35, a graphic designer, who lives in Kent. I felt rubbish, exhausted and had begun sleeping all weekend.

This overriding fatigue led to him seeing his GP, who diagnosed depression. Matthew was prescribed an antidepressant and started cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), a talking therapy designed to change how you feel and behave.

A year later with no improvement, he began searching for alternative treatments online  when he came across a video about lucid dreaming.

This is the phenomenon of becoming aware youre dreaming while in a dream  and sometimes then being able to direct the action: the idea is that you can use this to tackle problems, psychological and physical.

It might sound like fantasy but lucid dreaming, described for centuries  including by Aristotle  was proven possible scientifically back in the 1970s.

Psychologist Keith Hearne at Hull University asked a lucid dreamer to move their eyes in a pre-arranged pattern when they were lucid dreaming: he was able to check these eye movements using electrodes alongside monitoring that they were, in fact, in deep dream sleep.

Indeed, around 55 per cent of us have at least one lucid dream, according to a review of studies published in the journal Consciousness and Cognition in 2016.

Matthew Humphreys had a well-paid job and was in a happy, stable relationship, but struggled to make sense of why he was prone to low moods in his late teens and early 20s

However, those who do so regularly into adulthood are rare (its more common in children). Those who can do it often use it purely for fun  to fly, for instance, or indulge wild whims.

Yet its also now being used to address peoples mental health issues such as phobias, nightmares, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

When 100 adults with severe PTSD received lucid dreaming training and individual plans for what to do once lucid, to intentionally face a fear, after one month they saw significant reductions in their symptoms and nightmare distress, according to a study published this year in the European Journal of Trauma & Dissociation.

Scientists are now investigating whether lucid dreaming can help us problem-solve and help athletes practise a skill while asleep that then translates into waking life.

Some also believe lucid dreaming can promote physical healing, by helping reduce stress, enhancing the immune system and easing pain.

A small study in 2020, published in the journal Behavioral Sleep Medicine, even found that people with severe insomnia experienced significant improvement following two weeks of lucid dreaming training (to consciously change their distressing dreams and reduce anxiety).

Though evidence is limited, Professor Guy Leschziner, a neurologist at Guys and St Thomas Hospital in London, and author of The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience And The Secret World Of Sleep, believes lucid dreaming could be useful in the treatment of nightmare disorder, characterised by repeated or intense nightmares.

It is common in PTSD but also as a result of stress and can be a side-effect of medication.

Frequent nightmares can give rise to insomnia and poor quality sleep, he says. The theory is that by giving people agency in their nightmares, via lucid dreaming, and the ability to control or change the dream narrative, this might be an effective treatment. People could change the nature of their nightmares to more pleasant dreams.

Were only just scratching the surface of what lucid dreaming can influence, says Martin Dresler, a neuropsychologist and lead of the Sleep & Memory Laboratory at Donders Institute in the Netherlands. Many lucid dreamers report they use it for creativity; studies show that motor skills may also be trained during lucid dreaming, he says. The most difficult part is typically to become lucid in the first place.

But as Charlie Morley, author of Dreams of Awakening: Use Lucid Dreaming To Rewire Your Brain While You Sleep, explains: Lucid dreaming is a learnable skill, pointing to steps such as keeping a dream diary.

This encourages dream recall and noticing recurrent dream themes  in turn, this apparently helps you recognise the themes the next time they occur in a dream and that way become lucid. A lot of people initially wake up when they become lucid because it is exciting and there is a rush of adrenaline, which wakes us up naturally, says Charlie Morley. After a while we can learn to take better control of this response and not wake up.

He also suggests writing a dream plan for what you want to do when you lucid dream and making a conscious effort to remember your dreams.

Matthew decided to teach himself how to lucid dream, to ask his subconscious why he was depressed

Heather Sequeira, a consultant psychologist in London, explains that lucid dreaming 'helps people regain a sense of agency'

Matthew decided to teach himself how to lucid dream, to ask his subconscious why he was depressed. Within a few weeks, he started having fleeting moments of lucidity  knowing because he realised his hand didnt look right in a dream. I woke up straight away in excitement, he says.

In his next lucid dream he shouted up at the sky: Why am I depressed? Immediately, he recalls, he was shown a path on a gloomy beach leading to his grandmother, whod died with Alzheimers when he was ten. He had hated visiting her because the care home smelt and she didnt recognise him.

In the dream, he realised he carried guilt from not going or wanting to see her in her final days  and, in his lucid state, he approached and hugged her.

The guilt immediately lifted, he says. She looked well again. I stepped back and woke up.

Over the next few weeks, Matthew says his depression lifted: I havent felt depressed since.

Heather Sequeira, a consultant psychologist in London, sees lucid dreaming as similar to imagery re-scripting, where a therapist guides a patient to rewrite a distressing memory by creating a new narrative of it.

She describes the example of an Army veteran client with PTSD, who had nightmares of being chased, cornered and attacked, waking up sweating and petrified, several times a week for years.

He taught himself lucid dreaming, then together they practised a new response when he faced the figure chasing him, saying: You cant harm me. The nightmares stopped within days and he felt calmer, says Heather Sequeira.

Lucid dreaming helps people regain a sense of agency and rehearse a different response to distressing dreams which impact their waking lives, she explains.

It comes down to neuroplasticity [the brains ability to change] and relearning old threat responses  although research is in the very early days.

No one knows why exactly we lucid dream, although brain scans suggest it affects the prefrontal cortex. As Martin Dresler explains: During wakefulness, frontal brain regions are involved in thinking about ones own mental activities  however, they are typically deactivated in dreaming. During lucid dreaming, brain scans show they appear to become reactivated again. We still dont know in detail whats happening, as larger, more robust neuroscientific studies on the topic are difficult.

However, evidence for lucid dreaming is mounting. A small study in the International Journal of Dream Research in 2021 involving six participants concluded it may be an effective treatment for mental health issues, including clinical depression.

In other research, lucid dreamers asked to perform squats while dreaming experienced an increase in heart rate and breathing rate  a hint at the potential for training while you sleep.

Inevitably, the success from small studies and anecdotal reports has led to the development of devices, such as sleep masks or headbands, to help wearers lucid dream, using light, sound or electrical stimulation.

However, all the experts Good Health spoke to were reluctant to recommend any commercial devices given these are in early stages of development.

Could another route to lucidity be taking some supplements?

Higher levels of vitamin B6 have been shown to impact dreams, making them more vivid  though not directly linked to lucid dreaming. Similarly, magnesium is thought to influence chemical messengers in the brain related to sleep and dreaming.

However, Dr Tom Pennybacker, a consultant psychiatrist at The Chelsea Psychology Clinic, advises that while there may be some evidence for supplements making dreams more vivid, results are unpredictable.

Anyone considering supplements should check with a health professional first, as higher doses can have risks, he adds.

He also believes lucid dreaming is no substitute for evidence-based therapies. Theres no evidence that lucid dreaming consistently addresses the underlying causes of depression but it is intriguing, he says.

Some people find it a useful way to reflect on emotions or rehearse coping strategies  like a controlled space to confront fears or replay scenarios, which is somewhat similar to exposure therapy already used for treating phobias, says Dr Pennybacker.

He stresses it will not be suitable for some, advising anyone with a mental health issue to only attempt lucid dreaming healing alongside professional support.

Matthew remains depression free and continues to lucid dream. Hes begun asking himself other questions, including what will make him happiest.

The answer, drawn across a starry sky, was becoming a father (something he is working on).
Lyla Story was laughing excitedly as she and her older brother fed the animals at a local farm on her second birthday in April.

'The goats were tickling her hands and this made Lyla and Jack giggle their heads off,' says their mother Emma, 41, who works for the local authority.

'There were lambs and horses, too  Lyla was mad about animals, even creepy crawlies. It was such a happy family day out  and we finished off with ice-creams, which Lyla also loved.'

'On the way home, we were counting down the days until our family holiday in Crete, which was in a month's time,' adds her husband John, 44, who works with visually impaired people.

'The kids were so excited about flying in a plane and playing in the sea  everyone was looking forward to it,' he says.

But Lyla would never make it to the family holiday. Within three weeks of her birthday, the 'cheeky, sassy and caring' little girl was taken seriously ill.

Tragically, she died from complications of type 1 diabetes  a condition no one knew she had, nor did doctors recognise the classic symptoms she showed.

John's eyes fill with tears as he says: 'Lyla was a bright, independent little girl who was always jumping on her trampoline and barely had a day's illness. Yet 16 hours after Emma took her to the GP, she was dead.

'How was her condition missed? She was completely failed by the system.'

Lyla Story died aged two from complications of type 1 diabetes  which no one knew she had

Emma and John Story say that Lyla was 'completely failed by the system'. The symptoms they'd reported to their GP were classic signs of type 1 diabetes

Diabetes occurs when the body struggles to regulate blood sugar levels because it stops producing, or responding to insulin  a hormone that clears glucose from the bloodstream.

Type 2 diabetes affects more than four million Britons and typically develops gradually as the body stops responding to insulin  mostly due to lifestyle factors such as obesity. And type 1 is caused by the immune system mistakenly attacking insulin-producing cells in the pancreas so the body suddenly can't produce insulin.

Around 400,000 people have type 1, which can affect anyone at any age. Symptoms can appear suddenly and rapidly escalate, explains Dr Chris Cooper, a consultant paediatrician at Stockport Hospital. 'Because the insulin supply ceases quickly as the cells are destroyed, deterioration can be very rapid. This can be particularly true for very young patients.'

A study by the University of Exeter shed light on why this occurs with such devastation in small children. Researchers studied pancreas samples from 250 people of varying ages with and without type 1, and found that those diagnosed in adolescence and adulthood sometimes retained a few clusters of insulin-producing cells.

But the clusters were completely absent in children under seven who had type 1  suggesting their immature cells could not stand up to an immune system attack, reported the journal Science Advances.

'A small child who develops type 1 can quickly be in a very serious condition,' says Dr Cooper.

Certainly, the speed with which Lyla deteriorated was shocking.

John and Emma wipe their eyes as they think of the events in early May that so swiftly turned to tragedy.

Lyla was a bright, independent little girl who was always jumping on her trampoline, says John

At the start of the week, Lyla was a bit 'sniffly' and 'rosy-cheeked' which, along with a slight loss of appetite, her parents put down to teething. But over the next four days she had more wet nappies, was thirstier and 'just seemed tired and lethargic', says John.

Her parents were struck with how much weight she'd lost. 'Her face was gaunt and thin', says John. She was also being sick. Emma took her to the GP, who diagnosed tonsillitis, prescribing antibiotics. She said Lyla should be taken to A&E if she didn't improve within 24 hours. 'But she didn't last 24 hours,' says John.

The couple put Lyla to sleep in their bed; her mum beside her. 'She seemed comfortable,' Emma recalls. John fell asleep on the sofa and went to check on his daughter in the early hours.

He swallows hard and pauses.

'Lyla was freezing cold,' he remembers. 'Her lips had turned grey and her eyes were open. I knew she was gone.'

SIGNS TO WATCH FOR Health professionals advise parents to look for '4Ts' of type 1 diabetes in children: Toilet  peeing a lot Thirst  drinking a lot Tired  lacking energy Thinner  unexplained weight loss Other symptoms can include infections such as thrush, blurred vision and a pear-drop smell on the breath (due to high sugar levels). Symptoms may come on rapidly. If you suspect type 1 diabetes, seek immediate medical help. Advertisement

His scream woke Emma, who quickly put Lyla on the floor, called 999 and began CPR. 'I reacted on autopilot but I knew deep down that she wouldn't come back,' she says.

Meanwhile, John led four-year-old Jack, woken by the commotion, downstairs away from the scene.

An ambulance swiftly arrived, but resuscitation proved futile. Lyla was pronounced dead in hospital at 5.25am on May 3. The cause of death was undiagnosed type 1 diabetes.

Post-mortem blood tests revealed Lyla's HbA1c levels (a measure of the blood's 'sugariness') had been 89mmol/mol (normal is below 42).

She was also found to have had a gastrointestinal bleed and developed diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a sudden-onset life-threatening complication of diabetes where the body starts breaking down fat too quickly. This releases high levels of acidic ketones into the blood, which effectively poisons the body.

Her parents would later find out the symptoms they'd reported to their GP  vomiting, thirst, lethargy, weight loss  were classic signs of type 1 diabetes and DKA.

Dr Cooper explains: 'Without insulin, sugar builds up in the blood. The body tries to get rid of the excess sugar by peeing more frequently, but this results in loss of water and causes thirst.

'As sugar is not being stored for future energy, the person becomes more tired and lethargic. With no energy, the body quickly switches to starvation mode and begins burning fat and muscle for energy  which leads to weight loss.'

This can progress into DKA.

According to official guidelines, GPs should do a pin-prick blood test to measure glucose levels on any young person with these symptoms (known as the four Ts, see box) or refer them to a paediatric unit.

'There needs to be more awareness among parents, GPs and the public that these symptoms could be type 1 diabetes and can affect young children,' says Dr Cooper.

'It's vital to have this in mind if a child has them  particularly given the rapidity with which the condition can progress.'

Hilary Nathan, director of policy at charity Breakthrough T1D, adds: 'Another problem is children could be ill with these symptoms for many reasons, including normal stomach bugs or flu.'

Dr Cooper agrees: 'It can be hard for a parent to tell the difference between tiredness and normal toddler crankiness, or to clock that nappies are heavier than usual.' But he adds: 'The fact that small children can't communicate the severity of their conditions means they are reliant on adults to realise something is wrong.'

Around 38 per cent of children's type 1 diabetes cases in England and Wales are diagnosed after they're admitted to hospital with DKA, says Dr Cooper.

After Lyla's death, John posted about the tragedy on Facebook  and was astonished how many other parents had similar experiences of missed type 1 diabetes.

'We've had more than 300 emails and thousands of online comments from people whose children were only diagnosed in critical care with DKA  some ending in tragedy, as ours did,' he says.

'I realised then that something needed to change.'

The couple are campaigning for Lyla's Law  calling for babies, toddlers, children and adolescents to automatically get urine and/or blood tests for diabetes if they had any relevant symptoms. And they want GPs who don't adhere to this to be sent on awareness courses.

'We want to make sure no more children are lost due to delayed diagnosis of type 1 diabetes,' says John. 'Very small children cannot explain their problems, so the system needs to be fool-proof to ensure they are protected.'

To sign John's petition, visit: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/728677

breakthrought1d.org.uk
When Michael Swinn, an NHS consultant urological surgeon, blew the whistle on a colleague whose work was endangering cancer patients' lives, he thought the evidence so strong that the trust would promptly tackle the problem by suspending, disciplining or sacking the offender.

Instead, his initial complaint to managers at the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Trust in 2006 was only the start of a 16-year struggle by Mr Swinn to prevent the colleague harming any more patients.

He raised countless complaints, which led to three clinical investigations, but he says the results were ignored by senior managers. Shockingly, when in 2019 a coroner's court investigated the deaths of ten patients who suffered because of his colleague's actions, the trust managers tried to blame Mr Swinn and others for not warning them properly about the danger.

'Trust chiefs began to suggest in meetings that we as whistleblowers had not made our concerns clear, so the trust could not have acted sooner to stop the harm,' Mr Swinn, 59, told the Daily Mail. 'A narrative was being spun.'

The saga dragged on until 2021, when the surgeon, Paul Miller, was finally struck off by the General Medical Council (GMC) for dishonesty in relation to his treatment of cancer patients.

Mr Swinn has a surgeon's measured calmness and resists such labels as 'being traumatised'. But the married father of three has evidently been through an ordeal and is now calling for NHS trust bosses to be made legally accountable for protecting  or crucially, failing to protect  patients.

Michael Swinn, an NHS consultant urological surgeon, blew the whistle on a colleague whose work was endangering cancer patients' lives

This accountability, he says, should be overseen by an official body similar to the doctors' and nurses' professional regulators, with the power to discipline and even strike top hospital managers off a professional register so they can't work in healthcare again.

Shamefully, there is a long history of NHS trust bosses of 'closing ranks', as the former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has described it, ignoring warnings  and blaming whistleblowers.

One of the earliest examples to hit the headlines was in the early 1990s when Stephen Bolsin, a consultant anaesthetist, blew the whistle about serious problems with paediatric heart surgery at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, where poor care was blamed for the deaths of more than 30 children.

He told a public inquiry in 1999 that the hospital sacrificed patients to allow them to keep government funding.

The inquiry concluded that between 30 and 35 children undergoing heart surgery at Bristol Royal Infirmary between 1991 and 1995 would probably have survived if treated elsewhere. Dr Bolsin said he was subsequently ignored and ostracised by colleagues, with his career put under threat  he ended up moving to Australia.

Whistleblowing evidence was also overlooked for years in the case of breast surgeon Ian Paterson, now serving 20 years in prison after being found guilty on 17 counts of wounding with intent.

Surgeon Hemant Ingle, who worked alongside Paterson in the NHS and private sector, raised concerns about him performing unnecessary mastectomies at the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust in 2007.

He and two colleagues wrote to senior managers. They commissioned a report, but this was kept private and Mr Ingle was moved to another hospital.

Paterson was allowed to continue operating until 2011, when mounting reports from colleagues finally caught up with him.

Meanwhile, NHS managers continue to ignore, bully, ostracise and sack whistleblowers warning about patient care.

In 1991, Graham Pink, a nurse at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, had his career destroyed after he exposed appalling conditions at the elderly care ward where he worked.

Managers sacked him for 'breaching patient confidentiality'  even though he never identified any patients. At an employment tribunal two years later, his bosses withdrew their case against him. Graham Pink was awarded 11,000 compensation but did not get his job back. His nursing career was finished.

Since then, a litany of reports and policies has been published by NHS chiefs, health ministers and independent experts  urging the NHS to do more to protect whistleblowers. Little, it seems, has changed.

Last year, a survey by the Medical Protection Society of 61 doctors who had faced disciplinary charges found half had been accused of wrongdoing after raising concerns about patient safety where they worked.

That's the tip of the iceberg, suggests the whistleblowers' support organisation, Protect. 'Each year we speak to hundreds of healthcare staff,' a spokesman told the Daily Mail. 'It's the sector we hear from most. Patient safety is their top concern.

Health ministers are now in the process of closing down the very body that was set up to protect NHS whistleblowers in England, the National Guardian's Office

'Last year around three quarters of NHS whistleblowers calling our advice line said they were victimised, dismissed or felt they had to resign after raising concerns. Most said they believe their concerns have been ignored or denied.'

This comes as health ministers are now in the process of closing down the very body that was set up to protect NHS whistleblowers in England, the National Guardian's Office.

Michael Swinn's whistleblowing ordeal began in 2002, when he discovered that his colleague Mr Miller  who was in charge of deciding NHS prostate cancer patients' treatment  was diverting them from tried-and-tested treatment pathways to a new therapy called high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) in private hospitals.

The main treatments for prostate cancer are surgery, radiotherapy to kill cancer cells, or hormone therapy to block the action of testosterone, which causes prostate tumours to grow.

With HIFU, high-frequency ultrasound energy is used to heat and kill the cancer cells. Mr Swinn was not only concerned that HIFU had not proven its effectiveness for aggressive prostate cancer cases in clinical trials, he also had learned that Mr Miller had acquired a HIFU machine and owned a company that rented it to private hospitals.

Mr Miller was diverting patients from their NHS cancer-therapy pathways and sending them to be treated privately with his company's HIFU machine. He was also lobbying for the NHS to rent the machine, says Mr Swinn.

Having failed to persuade Mr Miller that this was a perilous conflict of financial interest, Mr Swinn first complained in 2006 to his senior line manager. This achieved nothing.

'I personally raised concerns about Mr Miller's inappropriate treatment of patients at least 30 times with everyone in the trust's chain of command above me,'

he says. 'On some of these occasions I was accompanied by nurses and consultant colleagues who shared my concerns. The nurses also raised concerns all the way up to the top managers.'

In response to Mr Swinn's repeated requests for an independent external investigation, in 2010  four years after he had first raised the issue  the trust commissioned an internal report by a hospital anaesthetist.

'The report found fault with Mr Miller. Despite this, the hospital did nothing,' says Mr Swinn.

He and his colleagues then compiled case notes of ten patients they suspected had been treated inappropriately by Mr Miller and asked a trust senior nurse to study them.

His report, released in October 2010, said patients were getting the wrong treatment and being harmed as a result, potentially with fatal consequences.

It concluded that Mr Miller should be suspended, referred to the GMC and an external investigation be conducted.

Mr Swinn says: 'Unbelievably to my mind, senior trust managers saw the report and decided not to act on it.

'We carried on giving more examples of patient harm and eventually they agreed to an external investigation by a professor of urology in 2011 whose report concluded, 'If the trust is minded to investigate these matters further, I would recommend an external, expert, impartial team.' Trust chiefs decided not to pursue the matter.

After that, Mr Swinn and colleagues provided more evidence at regular intervals, including the case of a urology patient in his 50s at the trust whose treatment under Mr Miller had been flagged by colleagues the year before as inappropriate, putting him 'in grave risk of harm'.

Management had emailed Mr Swinn saying his case was being looked into. 'Sadly, nothing happened,' says Mr Swinn.

A year later, the patient's new scans showed his bladder cancer had progressed to become terminal. 'Had he been treated conventionally using NHS-mandated treatments a year before, he'd have had a 95 per cent chance of survival,' Mr Swinn says.

'I went to the trust chief executive and I told him that if nothing was done I would take this case to the treatment watchdog, the Care Quality Commission.' The following week the trust suspended Mr Miller.

But on it went. Mr Miller was finally dismissed as a consultant by Sussex and Surrey Healthcare NHS Trust in October 2014 after an investigation by the Royal College of Surgeons concluded that 27 patients had been seriously harmed in his care.

In 2019, in an inquest into the deaths of ten of Mr Miller's patients, the coroner acknowledged that Mr Miller had been the subject of complaints from colleagues as long ago as 2008, but that managers had been slow to act. (Shortly before the inquest, trust managers told Mr Swinn that they were withdrawing his legal representation  he says he felt that he was effectively being put in the dock and accused of failing in his duty to protect patients from Mr Miller.)

The inquest returned verdicts of death from natural causes in the ten cancer patients, but the coroner highlighted 'suboptimal care' and 'missed opportunities' to prolong life.

Disciplinary proceedings at the GMC followed. Finally, in December 2021, Mr Miller was struck off the medical register for dishonesty and deliberate disregard for patient safety by not disclosing his financial interest when referring patients for HIFU treatment between 2004 and 2018 at a private hospital that rented the machine from his company.

Furthermore, his treatment with HIFU was wrong, either because patients' cancers were not appropriate for HIFU, or because radiotherapy or surgery offered better prospects of a cure.

(HIFU is available on the NHS but in specific circumstances  where prostate cancer has spread outside the gland, or if the cancer has returned after treatment; it can then be given in specific centres or as part of clinical trials.)

Mr Swinn  who's published a book, Hitting Your Head Against A Brick Wall, about his experiences  still works at the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Trust.

'The current medical director recently sent me the trust's new whistleblowing policy to look at and to suggest changes,' he says.

'Unfortunately you don't change the culture by changing the policy. I don't think anything has changed in any meaningful way since my experience. Colleagues tell me that they are reluctant to raise concerns.'

After the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust scandal, where hundreds of patient died due to poor care between 2005 and 2009, an inquiry report resulted

in a 'Freedom to Speak Up Guardian' being appointed in every NHS Trust to support staff raising concerns.

An independent national guardian was also appointed to help local guardians when cases went wrong.

But following a review of patient-safety organisations this year, which concluded there is 'considerable duplication' between different organisations', this role has been terminated and the National Guardian Office is due to close next spring.

Its work may be merged with the Department of Health and Social Care, however the move is the opposite of what's needed, warns the hospital doctors' union, the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA).

A spokesman told the Daily Mail: 'We need an independent statutory national whistleblowing body outside the NHS to register disclosures and protect individuals against reprisals.'

Mr Swinn says whistleblowing has taken its toll.

'I think about it in similar terms to having a bereavement,' he says. 'You adjust but life isn't the same afterwards. I still come to work every day and live my life. But there are times when I get flashbacks and feel very sad.

'It is difficult to come to terms with the shoddy behaviour of some people that led to more patients suffering carnage.

'Some managers' behaviour was disappointing in ways I find inexplicable. No one surely goes to work to do a bad job. But in the end there was no accountability.

'Current NHS management culture actually rewards miscreants for covering their own backs: if you're an NHS senior manager, nothing happens if you make mistakes  you're often just moved on to another role in the NHS.'

He says to achieve any real change 'we need a regulator for NHS senior managers'.

'They need to be accountable like nurses and doctors, with a professional code of conduct and a regulator. After all, they have just as much power over patient care as healthcare professionals.'

This type of approach is supported by organisations such as the HCSA, which is calling for 'a new criminal offence' for 'causing detriment to whistleblowers, to deter victimisation and ensure that patient safety is prioritised over reputation'.

Yet whatever happens, Mr Swinn warns: 'There will always be a dodgy doctor or financier among the thousands working at an

NHS trust. Most people would be surprised at the number of dangerous doctors out there in clinical practice.'

He adds: 'Before all this kicked off I was being touted as a future medical director. Things would have worked out differently if I hadn't blown the whistle.

'But I could not have been one of those who sat back and watched the carnage unfold around

Paul Miller. I believe we all have a duty to raise concerns. But still nowadays if you do, you are left between the devil and the deep blue sea.'

Dr Ed Cetti, Chief Medical Officer at Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, told the Daily Mail: 'It is absolutely vital that all NHS staff feel they can speak up without fear of consequence... with confidence that their concerns will be acted on.

'While we have acknowledged and apologised for the historic shortcomings in this case, in the years since we have taken decisive action to learn lessons, create the environment, systems and processes that ensures staff are supported to raise concerns.

'As well as introducing a new 24/7 Freedom to Speak Up Service, we have also worked with Michael Swinn to re-write our speaking up policy.'

The Daily Mail has been unable to reach Mr Miller for comment.
Christmas markets in the UK were once a great destination to find unique gifts from independent sellers - but now, they are more likely to sell 'overpriced tat' that can easily be found on Amazon, Temu and Etsy.

A quick sweep around the likes of Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland, Leeds and Manchester's festive stalls this year reveals tacky presents more at home on the websites of Chinese retail giants AliExpress or Shein.

Worse, some of the giftware costs almost seven times the price of its online counterparts.

In Leeds, one stall sells wooden presents including a duck ornament wearing brightly coloured polka dot wellies, priced at 19. However, a similar version can be found on Temu for just 2.74.

Popular gifts such as ceramic garlic grater plates, sun catchers and molten glass decorative bowls are also being sold in the Yorkshire city, despite being available online for the fraction of the cost.

One female shopper told the Daily Mail: 'The prices are outrageous for a mum like me who is struggling to pay for presents. When you think of how much it costs and times by four for an average family it makes you think.'

And on X, Britons further bemoaned the 'tat' now being sold at the markets, saying they're 'overpriced, underwhelming' and offer no 'real choice'. 'Cant seem to find a decent Christmas market anywhere these days,' one person insisted.

So, as festive stalls across the country are accused of selling 'rubbish' and 'tacky' gifts, read on to discover the market products that you can easily find online - and sometimes for a much cheaper price...

Christmas markets in the UK were once a great destination to find unique gifts from independent sellers - but now, they are more likely to sell 'overpriced tat' that can easily be found on Amazon, Temu and Etsy. Pictured, a stall at Leeds Christmas market

In Leeds, one stall sells wooden presents including a duck ornament (pictured left) wearing brightly coloured polka dot wellies, priced at 19. However, a similar version (pictured right) can be found on Temu for just 2.74

Leeds: Ornaments nearly seven times more expensive than Temu

Leeds' Christmas market opened its doors on November 21 - after last year's festive activities brought the city centre's busiest day for footfall in five years, according to the BBC.

But when the Mail visited the 'magical' Christmas fair we found outraged shoppers drowning under the price of festive essentials and begrudgingly shelling out for everything from 12 candles to 15 hashbrowns.

To add insult to injury, several of the presents on offer were up to nearly seven times more expensive than similar versions found on websites such as Temu and Etsy.

For instance, one craft stall sells wooden presents including a duck ornament wearing brightly coloured polka dot wellies.

Costing an eye-watering 19, the item is almost seven times the price of a similar version found on Temu for just 2.74.

Meanwhile, a wooden drunken duck wine holder will set customers back between 20 to 24 on Etsy and Amazon. But for Christmas market shoppers, it costs 29.

Snowmen ornaments, priced at 10, will also set customers back more at the stalls, with very similar versions online for just over 7.

A colourful decoration at Leeds Christmas market, pictured left. Pictured right, a version of the product available online at Temu

A decoration at Leeds Christmas market, pictured left. Pictured right, a version of the product available online at The Range

A decoration at Leeds Christmas market, pictured left. Pictured right, a version of the product available for cheaper on Amazon

London's Winter Wonderland:

Visitors from all over the world travel to London's annual Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, ready for a day of festive fun.

But the fair no doubt leaves many a wallet or purse suffering after customers shell out for rides, food, drinks and possibly a ticket into the event during peak times.

And let's not forget, there's also the gifts and souvenirs to think about - and they're not cheap.

One white faux fur coat on offer at the Christmas occasion costs 150. Yet, savvy customers could wait and buy the jacket online at Boohoo for just 85.20 in the sale.

Elsewhere, one stall sells fun, moving hats of unicorns, pandas and even Pokemon's Pikachu for 20.

But a quick search online reveals that they can be purchased elsewhere, on Temu, SHEIN and eBay for between 4.77 and 9.99.

Then there's the festive coasters - costing 12 for one, 19 for two or 27 for three - at one of the Winter Wonderland stalls.

One stall (pictured) at London's Winter Wonderland sells fun, moving hats of unicorns, pandas and even Pokemon's Pikachu for 20

But a quick search online reveals that the hats (pictured) can be purchased elsewhere, on Temu, SHEIN and eBay for between 4.77 and 9.99

Then there's the festive coasters - costing 12 for one, 19 for two or 27 for three - at one of the Winter Wonderland stalls (pictured). On Amazon, customers can purchase a beginner set to create their own for a fraction of the price. Six ready-to-make coasters cost 7.69

One white faux fur coat on offer at Winter Wonderland costs 150 (pictured left). Yet, savvy customers could wait and buy the jacket (pictured right) online at Boohoo for just 85.20 in the sale.

On Amazon, customers can purchase a beginner set to create their own for a fraction of the price. Six ready-to-make coasters cost 7.69.

Manchester: Fabric Christmas tree bauble for 14 (but only 7.99 online)

Boasting at least 270 stalls, shoppers likely expect Manchester Christmas market to tick off their festive to-do list and help them secure all the gifts they need this year.

However, it's unlikely to do so - at least not without breaking the piggy bank, with customers claiming the offerings in 2025 are a 'rip off'.

Retired photographer Steve Moss, 66, told the Daily Mail: 'I used to come a lot more but it's now become a bit of a rip-off. There's just very expensive stuff which you don't need.

'People will go through a lot of money here but I guess it's become a tradition for people. I think the big Ferris wheel ride is a good addition mind and it looks great by the town hall.'

For example, a fabric Christmas tree bauble costs 14 at one of the stalls - despite a version of the festive decoration being available on H&M for 7.99.

A fabric Christmas tree bauble costs 14 at one of the stalls at Manchester Christmas market - despite a version of the festive decoration being available on H&M for 7.99 (pictured left)

Handmade Gnorbit gnomes are available at Exeter market (pictured), priced at 12 each or two for 20. Yet similar offers online cost 9.99 for two of the gnomes

Birmingham: Yoga Santas at twice the price

Birmingham's Frankfurt Christmas Market supplies live music in the heart of Victoria Square, gallons of delicious mulled wine and plenty of mouthwatering food options - from traditional Bratwurst to must-have garlic bread and fried potatoes.

The festive offering is a firm favourite with both residents and visitors, boasting stalls filled with sweet treats, savoury delights and the perfect gifts, including jewellery, lights and ornaments.

However, like many of the markets in the UK now, Birmingham's Christmas extravaganza isn't without its 'tat', as some critics would describe the 'useless' items.

This year, customers looking for gifts that arguably make no sense at all can purchase yoga Santa decorations for their trees.

Priced at a reasonable 6, they capture Father Christmas posing up a storm, including performing the splits. Yet for savvy shoppers, the decoration is available online for 2.99 from Southwood Christmas Shop.

Meanwhile, an LED Reindeer, featuring a cute red scarf and embellished with stars, costs 16 at the market. The same one could at one time be purchased on Etsy for 9 (it's since sold out).

Elsewhere, a robin heart shaped metal bauble is thought to cost 8 at one of the stalls. Online customers pay just 3.99.

An LED Reindeer, featuring a cute red scarf and embellished with stars, costs 16 at Birmingham's Christmas market. The same one could at one time be purchased on Etsy for 9 (it's since sold out).

This year, customers looking for gifts that arguably make no sense at all can purchase yoga Santa decorations for their trees. Priced at a reasonable 6, they capture Father Christmas posing up a storm, including performing the splits. Yet for savvy shoppers, the decoration is available online for 2.99 from Southwood Christmas Shop (pictured right)

Elsewhere, a robin heart shaped metal bauble is thought to cost 8 at one of the stalls. Online customers pay just 3.99

Exeter: Gnomes for double the money

Exeter Cathedral Christmas Market - where bison and elk burgers cost 10 and 9 respectively - also didn't escape the accusation that it was too expensive for what it was offering.

Arabic and Politics university student Toby, 19, forked out 16 for a glass bauble for his girlfriend. 'It's lovely and I know she'll adore it, but it did feel like quite a lot of money for what it is.

'Overall, this isn't the place where I intend to do the bulk of my Christmas shopping because it's just too expensive. I'll be doing most of my buying on eBay this year.'

The student will perhaps recognise some items on the website - with the market also offering products that can easily be found online.

For instance, handmade Gnorbit gnomes are available at the festive fair, priced at 12 each or two for 20. Yet similar offers online cost 9.99 for two of the gnomes.

Playful 1 hooks from IKEA, in the shape of a dog's tail, were available at York Christmas market, sold on a plank of wood to spruce up the design (pictured left). But the reinvention costs 14 for a single hook and 28 for a double

Popular gifts such as ceramic garlic grater plates (pictured), sun catchers and molten glass decorative bowls are also being sold in the Yorkshire city, despite being available online for the fraction of the cost

York: 1 IKEA hooks for 14

A stall at York's award-winning Christmas Market - running from 13 November to 21 December 2025 - also sold items easily found online.

Playful 1 hooks from IKEA, in the shape of a dog's tail, were available at the market, sold on a plank of wood to spruce up the design. But the reinvention costs 14 for a single hook and 28 for a double.
Hundreds of diners are flocking to get a seat at a popular hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Sydney after the owners announced it would close its doors.

Chinese Noodle House, located on Thomas Street in Chinatown, has been the go-to hotspot for dumplings, stir-fries and its famous braised eggplant.

But the devastated owners have confirmed the family-owned restaurant will shut by the end of the year after the landlord chose not to renew the lease - ending 10 years in business.

Despite the unexpected news, loyal customers are racing to dine at the iconic restaurant before it shuts.

Huge crowds have gathered at the restaurant, with lines stretching down the road.

'The "closing-down-better-go" queue for Chinese Noodle House around the corner,' an eagle-eyed customer joked in a Reddit thread, along with a picture of the line.

Hundreds of diners are flocking to get a seat at a popular hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Sydney after the owners announced it would close its doors

Many were distraught over the news, with one sharing: 'I can't believe it's closing.'

'This place is pretty much everyones youth,' another shared.

'Farewell to an iconic Sydney institution,' one said.

'Oh man, this is so surreal. Only this week I was talking about this place. Years ago I dated a guy who lived in Newtown and he brought me here and we got the braised eggplant and I still think about it to this day,' another revealed.

'This is a dark day for humanity,' one added.

The news comes after the owners revealed they were 'sadly forced to leave' the location after the landlord's 'unilateral decision' not to renew their lease.

Popular Chinatown eatery Chinese Noodle House announced it will be closing in December

'It has been our honour and pleasure to serve you, and we are deeply grateful for your companionship along the way,' the owners' post read.

However, in promising news, the closure notice hinted at plans to reopen Chinese Noodle House in a new location.

'We hope that in the near future, we will once again have the opportunity to bring you delicious food and service.'

Speaking to Daily Mail, Eric, the son-in-law of the owner, confirmed the family were yet to find a new space to relocate the restaurant.

'We feel very sad to leave this place and are sorry for all our customers, as we're no longer able to provide good food and good service to them,' he told Daily Mail.
A popular ready-made Indian meal sold in Aldi Australia stores for $8.99 is feared to be disappearing from shelves.

In recent months, the budget supermarket has been stocking World Kitchen Chicken Biryani in the chilled section alongside other ready-made meal options.

One Aussie woman only recently tried the spicy rice dish after reading a recommendation and was so impressed that she felt compelled to rave about it online.

'This thing is too good to be true!' she wrote in a discussion forum.

But she quickly followed it up by voicing her concern that this Aldi find appeared to only be a limited-time item.

'Please tell me it's not a limited time thing and it's always there, otherwise I'm going to have a mental breakdown,' she jokingly wrote.

Daily Mail reached out to Aldi Australia who confirmed that they 'couldnt be happier ' that customers are enjoying the World Kitchen Chicken Biryani and can understand why 'it's become a real hit'.

'This fragrant feast went on sale earlier this year as part of the Limited Time Only range, and will be available in our stores across the next few months, while stocks last,' the spokesperson added.

An Aussie woman only recently discovered the Aldi Australia stocked World Kitchen Chicken Biryani $8.99 raving that it was 'too good to be true'

An online review from @aldieaterau rated the Aldi stocked ready made meal as 9 out of 10, but cautioned that it was 'spicier than I was expecting'

An Aldi superfan who reviews store items under the handle @aldieaterau had previously alerted followers to the excellent biryani five weeks ago, rating it a '9/10'.

The reviewer commented in October 2025 that the dish was 'spicier than I was expecting, however, I did enjoy it'.

They cautioned that those who aren't fans of spicy food may be left 'reaching for the milk'.

'Very flavourful, tender chicken (but not a heap of it),' the review concluded.

The meal photo accompanying the post also revealed a key detail about the product's availability - with 'limited time only' clearly printed in a red bubble on the top right-hand side of the packaging.

The woman who discovered the Chicken Biryani more recently and shared her discontinuation fears in a Reddit post received replies from other Aldi shoppers, who sadly confirmed it would likely soon be removed from shelves. There is also currently no listing for the product on Aldi's website.

However, many of the responses also noted that Aldi has a track record of bringing back formerly temporary items as permanent additions if there's enough customer demand for it.

'Seasonal product,' one person replied. 'Will likely be around for a few months, but if it's popular enough it might be added to the core range.'

An Aussie woman posted about the Aldi food find on Reddit, but feared it was a 'limited time' item - with many confirming, sadly, that it appeared so

Several Aldi shoppers suggested instead trying Aldi's 'amazing' World Kitchen Butter Chicken, which comes in a 350g size for $6.99 or an 800g size for $11.49

To this, the original poster enthusiastically responded: 'I might have to single-handedly buy every single one of them so they get added to the permanent range.'

Another person agreed, replying: 'Our household supports and will join you! We are equally obsessed and they are so convenient and tasty!'

A separate comment suggested, 'You should write to them through feedback. They'll take that seriously if enough people write.'

'Aldi take product feedback on board!' another agreed.

Other replies also praised the convenient Indian dish as a true Aldi find.

'It's SO GOOD!!! I buy 2 of them every time I see them,' one person responded.

'Best product Aldi has stocked in years!' another agreed.

Although this biryani isn't currently on Aldi's website, there are online listings for other World Kitchen ready-made Indian meals such as Butter Chicken in a 350g size for $6.99 or an 800g size for $11.49.

Discount supermarket Aldi Australia also sells the viral Indian inspired snack, The Butter Chicken 'naanwich' for $4.99 for a two-pack serving

Self-declared 'Aldi enthusiast' Gemma shared a viral TikTok video about the butter chicken 'naanwich'

The recent online discussion about the Aldi-stocked biryani saw several commenters confirm that their butter chicken is unmissable.

'The butter chicken is amazing,' one shopper confirmed. Another added that it also contains a good amount of chicken.

Other World Kitchen Indian foods currently listed on Aldi's website include a 3-pack of Garlic Naan Bread for $3.99 or the viral Butter Chicken Naanwich for $4.99.

Earlier this May, the discount supermarket chain sent foodies into a frenzy on social media after bringing back the beloved 'naanwich'.

A play on words, the 'naanwich' is a sandwich featuring lashings of creamy butter chicken served between pieces of naan bread.

The treat first hit shelves in 2019 and was an instant hit, snapped up by shoppers until sold out.

Described by Aldi as 'like a taco but better', the snack is priced at $4.99 and comes in a two-pack.

Self-declared Aldi enthusiast Gemma shared a viral TikTok video about the discovery, describing the butter chicken naanwich as 'a big slay'.
A Christian influencer has shot back at a liberal reporter who accused her of degrading women and rejecting humanity as part of her right-wing political agenda.

The clash erupted after Salon journalist Amanda Marcotte wrote an article about conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey, claiming she started 'MAGA's war on empathy.'

But author and podcaster Stuckey defended her stance - claiming that liberals have long encouraged women to turn their backs on logic and focus on emotions instead.

In the article - titled 'MAGAs war on empathy was started by a woman' - Marcotte asserts that Stuckey has used Christianity to paint empathy as a weakness and preach that women are lesser than men.

The journalist also alleges that Stuckey, the host of the Blaze Media-owned Relatable podcast, has 'weaponized her gender' to not only get women to act against their own best interests, but to spread what she describes as hateful ideas.

'Stuckey is just one of many far-right female commentators who have realized that they can use hyper-feminine aesthetics to conceal what would immediately register as dystopian, even fascistic sentiments if they came from a man,' Marcotte wrote.

In response to the jarring claims against her, Stuckey, who published a book called Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion in 2024, reacted to the article in a series of posts on her Instagram story on Monday.

'Can you believe it?' Stuckey wrote to her more than 878,000 followers. 'A woman using her brain instead of being led by her emotions?'

Allie Stuckey published a book called Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion

Salon senior writer Amanda Marcotte wrote a story about Stuckey titled MAGAs war on empathy was started by a woman

'We can't have that! We need women to mindlessly celebrate abortions and open borders!' Stuckey, a pro-lifer and Donald Trump supporter, sarcastically added.

The mother-of-three then spoke about Marcotte's description of her in the article that sparked the internet squabble.

In the piece, Marcotte wrote that Stuckey 'denies the scientific reality of prehistoric dinosaurs.'

Stuckey has spoken about the topic multiple times, including in a 2022 podcast episode titled I Don't Know if Dinosaurs Were Real.

In a separate episode from last year, My 'Relatable' Journey & 'Big Dinosaur' Exposed, she explored the idea that dinosaurs may have looked different from how they are depicted.

'Well, one thing is for sure,' Stuckey light-heartedly said in her Monday post. 'I am never going to stop talking about dinosaurs.'

She went on to say that she made 'one sarcastic comment' about not knowing what the prehistoric beings truly looked like, and 'all the right people got really triggered by that...and now it just makes me want to push the buttons.'

'In all seriousness, though, Toxic Empathy, my book that came out last year, has been living rent-free in the minds of journalists,' she continued.

Christian influencer Stuckey responded to claims against her in a Salon article

Stuckey reacted to the article on her Instagram story on Monday

'It is ceaselessly written about by the left as if they are uncovering this new phenomenon that's happening on the right.'

Stuckey said that liberals know 'that women are naturally compassionate' and they 'exploit that' for political gain.

'They can convince us that using our feelings to support abortion and unmitigated migration and soft on crime policies,' she said.

'And if we take that away from them, they lose a heck of a lot of power.'

The Daily Mail has reached out to Stuckey and Marcotte for comment.
Conservative CNN pundit Scott Jennings offered to apologize to actress Catherine Zeta-Jones after he humiliated her son on air.

The commentator appeared on Meghan McCain's 'Citizen McCain' podcast when he addressed the fiery debate he had with Dylan Douglas, 25, last month, which left the nepo baby stumbling over his words.

Zeta-Jones and Dylan's father, Michael Douglas, were reportedly left outraged by the debate, and were even considering blacklisting the entire network, according to gossip columnist Rob Shuter.

The actress had blasted the segment as 'unfair and exploitative' while Michael told people that CNN had 'crossed a line,' according to Shuter.

'Dylan's never been spoken to like that in his entire life. He's always been the golden boy - adored, protected,' an unidentified source said.

'CNN gave him a taste of the real world, and his parents hated every second of it.'

They have now even decided they will no longer give interviews to CNN or appear on the network, reportedly calling the debate a 'total betrayal.'

In his interview with McCain on Monday, Jennings said he was surprised that Zeta-Jones and her husband were reportedly left infuriated by the debate.

'I'm more than willing to apologize personally to Catherine Zeta-Jones over a nice seafood dinner if she wants to do it,' he cheekily remarked.

Conservative CNN pundit Scott Jennings offered to apologize to actress Catherine Zeta-Jones after he humiliated her and Michael Douglas's son on-air

Dylan's parents, actress Zeta-Jones and Douglas, were reportedly infuriated by the exchange

'Actually, I have to say Dylan was really nice off the air,' he continued. 'I think he was honored to be there.'

'We had what is relatively a normal exchange,' Jennings then insisted. 'He made his Democratic talking points. I dismantled him. Not an uncommon thing to happen on CNN.'

When he then saw that Zeta-Jones and Michael were livid about the segment, Jennings reiterated that he was 'surprised.'

'But I think that what happens with some of these folks is that they exist in a very tight little bubble. They never really talk to Republicans or conservatives. They don't really get outside of their bubbles, where people tell them how smart and good-looking they are.

'And then they wind up on television with someone of a different persuasion, and it's surprising to them.'

'I hope Dylan comes back,' Jennings added. 'I'm sure he'll get better at it.'

Earlier in the interview, McCain said she thought Dylan 'should not have been booked on a show with you because it's like bringing a knife to a gun fight, quite frankly.'

She then went on to say that the entire segment on November 10 made her feel 'so uncomfortable,' as she referred to herself as the 'queen of nepo babies' thanks to her father, the late Senator John McCain.

'I have been put on TV way too early as a nepo baby,' she said. 'And of all people, Paul Begala schooled the living s**t out of me the one and only time I went on Bill Maher,' McCain said of a former adviser to then-president Bill Clinton.

'I have been Dylan Douglas,' McCain continued. 'But what didn't happen is my parents didn't have a meltdown. My dad was like, "Buck up and move on."'

Dylan Douglas, 25, was left stuttering during a debate with Scott Jennings on November 10

Dylan spoke at a roundtable of the network's reporters discussing the Senate passing a funding bill to reopen the government

Dylan had appeared on CNN to discuss the Senate passing a funding bill to reopen the government.

During the discussion, the 25-year-old - who is following in his parents' footsteps as an aspiring actor - blamed Republicans for the record-long shutdown.

'Scott, with all respect, you cannot put on the American people that Democrats were the one [sic] that were hurting people, making this plight,' Dylan said.

Jennings responded by asking: 'Who was casting the votes against opening the government, Democrats or Republicans?'

The two then spoke over each other for a few seconds before Dylan countered Jennings's question with one of his own, asking: 'Who was wanting to cut SNAP benefits?'

Jennings said Republicans voted to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) 15 times, while Democrats voted against it in each instance - referencing the number of times the Senate voted on the shutdown, with each proposed bill including the food benefits.

Jennings also mentioned that eight Democratic senators broke rank and voted in favor of the bill to reopen the government.

As he spoke, Dylan started stuttering incomprehensibly about the expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits that Democrats said were the reason they would not pass the funding bill.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said he would hold a mid-December vote to extend those credits, which was among the small concessions Republicans made that got the eight senators to flip their positions.

Dylan has followed in the footsteps of his father, Michael, as an actor and film producer

Dylan is also a progressive political commentator and hosts a political talk show on SiriusXM

Dylan's parents worked together on the films The Mask of Zorro (1998) and Traffic (2000). Douglas is particularly well-known for his roles in Basic Instinct and Wall Street.

Like his father, Dylan has worked as an actor and producer, but he is also a progressive political commentator. He hosts a political talk show on SiriusXM called Young American with Dylan Douglas.

He is also a co-founder of the political action committee, Make Room, which supports young and progressive candidates and he has worked on political campaigns.

This was Dylan's second appearance on a TV network news program. The first was on MSNBC's Morning Joe in September.
Rachel Reeves has been blamed for leaving firms in 'limbo' amid intense pre-Budget speculation as private sector activity slumped at the fastest pace since the pandemic.

Figures from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) revealed the sharp slowdown came as businesses put plans on hold amid uncertainty over the Chancellor's tax plans.

Meanwhile a separate report showed a continued run of job losses in the 'worryingly weak' manufacturing sector, which was also affected by pre-Budget gloom.

And the Chancellor was criticised by a top City boss over the prolonged 'kite-flying'  selective leaking of policy ideas under consideration  ahead of last week's event.

Meanwhile, UK ten-year borrowing costs briefly spiked to more than 4.5 per cent yesterday as the fall-out from the Budget continued.

That followed the release of a report into a leak fiasco involving the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), Britain's fiscal watchdog.

The Chancellor is under pressure over the chaotic run-up to the Budget

The latest developments illustrated that the chaotic run-up to last week's event has had real world repercussions for businesses and the economy.

Ms Reeves is under pressure over false claims that she had faced a financial black hole of more than 20 billion  which might have meant she had to embark on a manifesto-breaching hike in income taxes. In fact, she had a surplus of several billion pounds.

Speculation about the fiscal situation  and the tax hikes that might result  has left businesses in stasis for months.

The CBI's latest monthly private sector growth survey revealed that activity suffered its biggest fall in November since August 2020.

And the poll  completed before the Budget  also showed firms expect a further decline in the next three months.

It extends a period of gloom going back to the autumn of 2024 and Rachel Reeves' first Budget.

CBI deputy chief economist Alpesh Paleja said some of the downturn in growth expectations 'may be down to jitters' ahead of the Chancellor announcing her plans last week.

'Businesses tell us that much of the month passed in limbo ahead of that, with big discretionary spending and investment on hold,' Mr Paleja said.

That piled on pressure for firms already being squeezed by a cautious mood among consumers and rising costs, Mr Paleja added.

Meanwhile, a closely-watched monthly survey of the manufacturing sector yesterday showed it barely grew last month.

A reading of 50.2  where the 50-mark separates growth from contraction  meant that Britain's factories were close to stagnation. That was at least a slight improvement after more than a year of decline for the sector.

But firms continued to shed jobs  for the thirteenth month in a row  as firms looked to cut costs, freeze hiring, and make redundancies.

Increases in the minimum wage and employer national insurance were also blamed as well as 'uncertainty in the lead up to the UK Budget', according to the purchasing managers' index (PMI) survey compiled by financial firm S&P Global.

Rob Dobson, director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said November had seen 'elevated levels of business certainty, and in some cases gloom, ahead of the autumn Budget'.

He added: 'Despite the improvement in the performance of the manufacturing sector, any growth is still worryingly weak.'

Meanwhile, Steven Fine, chief executive of City broker Peel Hunt criticised the Chancellor over the months of pre-Budget speculation that took place.

'I think it's probably fair to say kite-flying is never a good strategy over a prolonged period of time. Because the markets like certainty  either you are, or you aren't,' he told the Mail.

And on the Budget 'smorgasbord' of measures including dividend taxes and salary sacrifice raid, Fine said it 'normally means there's something for everyone to like what this one's done is there's something for everyone to probably dislike'.
Christine Kuehn had been digging into her family history for over 25 years when a photograph landed in her inbox and stopped her in her tracks.

The black and white picture from 1937 was of her uncle, Leopold, on his wedding day in Berlin. The bride wore a white flowing gown and carried a bouquet of flowers.

The 25-year-old groom wore something far more sinister: a black uniform, with a swastika proudly displayed on his arm.

'I'll be honest, I said to my husband: "I don't want to do this any more,"' said Kuehn, 62, speaking to the Daily Mail from her Maryland home. 'Before it had all just been words on a page; reading the National Archives; reading books.

'But to see my own family member in a Nazi uniform hit me at my core - to think that I could be related to someone that would think that way about other human beings. That was really, really hard for me.'

Yet something stronger than the revulsion and shame sparked by that photograph propelled her forward. It was the sense, Kuehn said, that it was finally time to lift the lid on her family's devastating past.

The result is 'Family of Spies,' published on November 25. In it, Kuehn, a journalist and mother to two sons and a daughter, chronicles her family's extraordinary Nazi past - and the devastating role her grandfather played in Pearl Harbor, America's 'Day of Infamy.'

Perhaps most astonishing is the story of her aunt Ruth, who she knew as an elderly woman - still striking-looking and rather intimidating - who lived in a retirement community in Charleston, South Carolina.

The black and white picture from 1937 was of her uncle, Leopold, on his wedding day in Berlin

For several months in 1935 Ruth, then just 19, was the mistress of Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda chief.

Her teenage entanglement with the married Nazi commander altered the course not only of her family's history but of America's as, along with other family members, she aided and abetted the Japanese strikes on Pearl Harbor.

Kuehn questioned her aunt about that history, but Ruth always shut her down.

'You have a good life. You don't want to ruin it with the past,' she told Kuehn during their first ever meeting, in 1987, when Ruth was 72.

Kuehn had caught sight of a black and white wedding photo, of the people she suspected were her grandparents, and asked Ruth to tell her more.

'You don't need to know about them,' said Ruth. 'Don't ask me any more. You have a good life. Nothing good can come from it. You don't need to know about the family, the past, or Pearl Harbor.'

Her words haunted Kuehn, who couldn't shake her need to know more. In 1994, she embarked on her 30-year quest for the truth.

Ruth's story began back in Berlin, Germany. Her mother, Friedel, was in a relationship with a well-known architect, and gave birth to Ruth in 1915. But they broke up, and in 1920 Friedel married a businessman, Otto Kuehn, who raised Ruth as his own.

By the time Ruth was in her mid-teens her stepfather and older brother Leopold had become passionate supporters of the recently elected Adolf Hitler.

Otto and Leopold saw Hitler speak in 1930 at Kiel, on the Baltic Coast: Otto joined the party the next day, while Leopold signed up to join the Storm Troopers. Friedel became a member of the women's league; Ruth followed suit and joined the Hitler Youth.

Leopold rose rapidly through the ranks and established the family on the Nazi social scene. It was he who invited his teenage sister to the 1935 gala hosted by Goebbels, where the 37-year-old propaganda chief was enchanted by the 'young, pretty, high-spirited' Ruth. The pair became lovers.

But, several months later, Goebbels discovered that Ruth's biological father was Jewish. He called off the relationship and needed her 'gone,' Kuehn writes: the Nazis were about to enact the Nuremberg Laws, which outlawed sexual relations between Germans and Jews.

By the end of the year, the family had vanished from Germany. Otto, Friedel, Ruth and her younger brothers Eberhard (Kuehn's father), then nine, and two-year-old Hans all traveled to Hawaii. Only Leopold, by then a high-ranking Storm Trooper, remained.

'You have a good life. You don't want to ruin it with the past,' Ruth (pictured in 1936) told Kuehn during their first ever meeting, in 1987

For several months in 1935 Ruth, then just 19, was the mistress of Joseph Goebbels (left), Hitler's propaganda chief

Pictured: Goebbels, right, with his wife and daughter

Kuehn had always known that her father grew up in Hawaii, but she had never known how he got there.

Her research revealed that Otto and Friedel had been dispatched to the American state on Nazi orders, to assist the Japanese with their spying on Pearl Harbor.

Over the course of three years, from 1936 to 1939, Kuehn's grandfather Otto was paid the equivalent today of over $1 million for his work.

He was committed to it - as were his wife and teenage daughter, Ruth.

In the early days of researching her family, Kuehn had come across a section on Ruth in a book entitled 'The World's 30 Greatest Women Spies.'

'There, in black and white, right next to Mata Hari, was aunt Ruth,' she writes. 'My sweet little old aunt Ruth? I thought. It was more than shocking.'

She discovered how her family hosted lavish gatherings at their Hawaiian home, milking their guests for gossip about the nearby military base.

Friedel and Ruth set up a hair salon, where they would listen intently while the wives of the military men chatted freely about the goings on at Pearl Harbor.

The FBI was monitoring their activity closely, wondering how the family with no discernible income could live so luxuriously.

And they were hardly subtle. In January 1941, the gossip column of The Hawaii Sentinel wondered 'when the deportation of the local Nazi family is going to be announced' and 'what the little lady of the trio [Ruth] was up to in her playing around with the local gold braid boys.'

Otto even built a dormer window on his house, looking out across the bay, so he could signal to the Japanese submarines when they came to launch their attack.

'She was such an enigmatic figure,' writes Kuehn of Ruth. 'It was tough to reconcile the woman I had come to know with the tales of her scandalous affairs with Nazi henchmen and femme fatalestyle espionage pursuits.'

The 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, orchestrated with Otto's help, brought all their worlds crashing down. His work contributed to the death of 2,400 Americans and forced the United States to enter the Second World War.

'I felt as if I was sinking into shock,' writes Kuehn of the discovery. 'My sweet aunt Ruth signaling to Japanese bombers from the house my father grew up in, and conspiring to kill American sailors, launching the United States into a horrific war that decimated millions? My grandfather plotting the downfall of my country? It couldn't be true.'

But as she plowed through hundreds of pages of FBI files and Justice Department documents, the truth was undeniable.

Otto was the only person ever tried for his role in the attack.

Kuehn's father, Eberhard, then 15, and his nine-year-old brother Hans were forced to testify against their father, who half-heartedly admitted his crimes but showed no remorse.

'I know I am in a certain sense guilty,' Otto told the court. 'I know I never should have done what I did. The thing is, I should have reported immediately to the United States authorities when I heard the Japanese were trying to contact me. I don't feel to be a criminal. That's all, sir.'

He was sentenced to death by firing squad, but found his sentence challenged on the grounds that America was not at war at the time he was spying, so the military tribunal was the wrong place to have tried him.

He was sent to Ellis Island for several years awaiting deportation to Germany but, in another twist, was released from the island in 1948 and lived and worked in New York City, before ultimately moving to Argentina: he died of cancer in 1955.

Pictured: Otto and Friedel aboard the SS Stuttgart shortly after leaving the family behind in Germany on their way to the United States in 1935

Christine Kuehn and her father at a sorority event in 1983

'Family of Spies' published on Thanksgiving

After Pearl Harbor, Ruth and Friedel were sent to a prison camp with Eberhard and his younger brother Hans.

Ruth, Friedel and Hans were eventually deported back to Germany  Kuehn's father Eberhard, by then 16, refused to go with them and instead joined the US Army.

Remarkably, by 1949 Ruth was back in the United States, married to a travel agent and living in New York City. How she managed to be granted permission remains a mystery.

Kuehn herself has never managed to make sense of the wild twist that saw Ruth returning to live in a country she had actively tried to destroy.

According to Kuehn, Ruth appeared haunted by the decisions she made as a young woman - constantly worried that the dark family secrets would be brought to light.

She was right to be concerned: J Edgar Hoover himself kept detailed files on her and her family.

Kuehn pauses when asked who from her family she'd most like to speak to now.

'I'd really like to have a panel discussion,' she said. 'I wouldn't want to talk to just one of them. I'd love to talk to my aunt Ruth; for her to be able to come clean and tell me, so did you really do this? I don't know if she knew she was Jewish when she was younger.

'I would like to talk to my grandmother Friedel, because she was the matriarch of the family. I think she knew everything. But honestly, I'd love to get them all in a room, lock the door and say, okay, let's move through this. I want to know how you got here, why you did it, good, bad, ugly, whatever it is. I would like to know that: the why.

'Was it really just for money? Was it for the Nazi agenda? I would like to ask them, looking back, if you could do it again, knowing what you know now, would you still have done it?'

Her father eventually came round to the idea of her interest in their story. He died in 2006, aged 80.

Her aunt Ruth, she is sure, would have vehemently disagreed. She spent her later years warning the younger generation not to look to the past, and died in 2010, aged 95.

Kuehn is unsure whether Ruth's reticence was the product of 'guilt or self-preservation' - although she is inclined to believe it was to save herself from the ignominy.

'This story for 30 years was stopped and started more times than I can even begin to talk about,' said Kuehn. 'Something terrible would come up, or I would find out some terrible history, and I would pause and say, okay, I can't go. I can't do this any more.

'But then I start thinking about what my dad went through, the sacrifice he made walking away from his family, and I felt like it was the right time. Several historians were beginning to reach out about books they wanted to write, and I thought if anyone is going to tell my family's story, it's going to be me. Because so many things have been written in the past that just weren't true.'

The writing was deeply painful, at times, but she is relieved the truth is finally out there.

'I can't tell you how many people read the book and the first words out of their mouths is, I didn't know the Nazis were elected into office. I think we move on, and history kind of loses the pieces we really need to remember.

'And I think uncovering my family's secrets, or any hidden secrets about a period of time, is really important to make sure that we don't repeat the transgressions of the past.'

Does she have any sympathy for her Nazi relations? Their story, after all, is tragic.

Otto lived out his days in exile, only returning to Germany at the very end.

Friedel, who died nine years after her husband, in 1964, never saw her son Eberhard after he joined the US Army; Leopold died fighting for the Nazis while the rest of the family were in prison in the US; Hans, who battled the shame of his family's actions for decades, took his own life in 1974.

'I don't know if sympathy is the right word,' said Kuehn, slowly. 'What I do look at is how quickly they got caught up in it. They went and listened to Hitler speak, who was very charismatic, and joined the Nazi Party the next day, and it bothers me that they would turn so quickly from being a normal family to all of a sudden becoming these die-hard Nazis.

'I think I have sympathy for my dad. I have sympathy for Hans, the life that they had to live and they had to testify against their father.

'Otto and Friedel and Ruth and Leopold were grown people, and they made decisions. And unfortunately for a lot of us, they made the wrong decisions.'
A love letter addressed to a 13-year-old girl from Utah was found in the trailer of a convicted sex offender who is accused of kidnapping the teenager after he allegedly fired a gun at the family.

Christopher Thomas Wiggins faces a charge of child kidnapping and was arrested on November 26 in Colorado, hours after an Amber Alert was released for the abduction of the young girl from Ogden.

The 34-year-old's trailer, which sat on the same property where the victim lived, was searched, where investigators discovered a note written by Wiggins, according to documents cited by ABC 4.

Wiggins allegedly wrote twisted messages such as: 'You are my everything,' 'I can't possibly live without you,' 'I will sacrifice everything to be with you forever,' and 'If it costs me my life, you are worth it to me.'

Along with the note, officials found condoms and bullets.

The victim's parents confronted Wiggins after finding an explicit image sent to their daughter's phone - he allegedly admitted to sending the photo.

Erica Francisco, the victim's mother, was speaking with her child several blocks away from their home about the relationship happening with Wiggins.

Wiggins found the pair and fired a shot at the back of the car, according to court documents.

Christopher Thomas Wiggins faces a charge of child kidnapping and allegedly wrote a twisted love letter to the girl he kidnapped

Erica Francisco, the victim's mother, (left) was shot at by Wiggins while talking to her daughter (Jesse Francisco, the victim's father, pictured right)

He allegedly apologized and gave the family the gun he had fired. The parents later returned the weapon to him.

A day before the girl was abducted she confessed to her parents about her relationship with Wiggins. They warned the sex offender to keep away.

The following day the mother contacted the police to report her child missing at 1.44pm.

The Francisco family told the authorities that their youngest daughter was believed to have been with the sex offender since 3am.

Wiggins allegedly left his own daughter in his trailer as the abduction was taking place.

Police issued an Amber Alert for Chris's vehicle and the victim.

A camera tracked his vehicle to Colorado not long after the pair was found not far from Wiggins' abandoned car around 7pm.

The neighborhood in Ogden where the Francisco family are from

Authorities tracked Wiggins vehicle after it was caught on a camera in Colorado not long after the pair was found around 7pm that same day

Erica told ABC 4 how she felt about Wiggins after her daughter was found: 'I hate him.'

'You took my little girl, my youngest of them all, the baby of the family, and I hate you. You lied to me, you misled me for a year and a half, and you took everything that meant something to me.'

The Francisco family told the outlet that Wiggins had been an acquaintance since they were kids. They helped the sex offender stay off the street and let him live on their property.

'We weren't going to let him and his daughter out on the streets and gave them a roof over his head. And his little girl is always welcome here, but he is never allowed around my family again,' said the mother.

'I hope he rots away.'

His previous victim was a 14-year-old girl.

The family thanked everyone who helped find their daughter and was so grateful for ensuring she got home safely.

Wiggins is currently being held without bail in the Weber County jail.
A female firefighter has been awarded 40k for unfair dismissal after she complained about a boyfriend colleague snooping through her private journal.

Kelly Rice struck up a romantic relationship with the senior firefighter who was her mentor in the Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service department.

The man - whose name has not been disclosed - was found by bosses to have 'bullied and harassed' Ms Rice.

A tribunal heard he was given a final written warning, which the female firefighter deemed not an 'adequate' punishment.

As a result Ms Rice refused to work in active duty, claiming the 'culture' caused her to suffer anxiety and depression.

She has now won claims of unfair dismissal and disability discrimination and has been awarded over 40,000 after an employment tribunal ruled she was forced out.

The tribunal heard she was subjected to disciplinary proceedings despite still dealing with 'trauma' and harshly refused the chance to work in non-active roles.

The treatment by Gloucestershire County Council, which oversees the fire service, 'exacerbated' the harassment she received from her ex-partner, it was found.

Kelly Rice (pictured) struck up a romantic relationship with the senior firefighter who was her mentor in the Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service department

Ms Rice refused to work in active duty, claiming the 'culture' caused her to suffer anxiety and depression

Bristol Employment Tribunal heard Ms Rice began working as an active duty firefighter at Stroud Fire Station, Gloucestershire, in January 2019.

Another firefighter - referred to only as 'KS' - became her mentor.

By April 2019, the pair had begun a romantic relationship, however it was troubled.

The tribunal heard Ms Rice had concerns about the man which she relayed to the Watch Manager, Richard Basham, in the summer and autumn of 2019.

This culminated in messages being exchanged between her and Richard Basham in January 2020 about her senior colleague.

On March 2, 2020 Ms Rice alleged the man had searched through her bag at the fire station and read her private journal.

That same day that she ended their relationship.

The senior firefighter was given a final written warning and it was found he had bullied and harassed Ms Rice with a series of text messages, causing her to lodge a grievance.

The tribunal heard Ms Rice had concerns about the man which she relayed to the Watch Manager, Richard Basham, in the summer and autumn of 2019

'She asserted that [she] did not believe that the investigation was fair or accurate', the tribunal heard.

'[Ms Rice said] there was further evidence that she... could provide.

'[Ms rice said] the sanction was inadequate and demonstrated in [her] view that the [fire service] regarded the behaviour as acceptable.'

Ms Rice was told she couldn't affect the disciplining of another firefighter.

She took a break from her role as an active firefighter due to stress and accepted a temporary post at its headquarters, which she said improved her mental health.

However, the Fire Service ordered her to return to her original role, and even said that if she wanted to continue non-operational work she would need to retire and reapply.

This was in contradiction to her doctor's occupational health advice - that a return to active service might cause a relapse in her mental health.

Dr Galey, who gave Ms Rice occupational health advice, told her manager: 'She feels that justice has not been served by the outcome and that returning to active firefighting duties because of her perceptions would simply result in further issues with her mood and anxiety.'

Ms Rice won claims of constructive unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal, discrimination and the failure to make reasonable adjustments because the council had not accommodated her mental illness

In May 2021 Ms Rice went off sick from working in active duty because of the stress of continually negotiating with higher-ups.

She cited her experience of 'coercive control' she suffered at work and the 'complex post-traumatic stress disorder' she suffered as a result.

She worked other jobs while off sick - which she had permission to do - but was given a final written warning.

Disciplinary proceedings started against her again in 2022 when she failed to attend meetings and comply with a return-to-work scheme.

She appealed, but her appeals were dismissed, and she resigned in August 2022.

Ms Rice told the tribunal: 'The behaviours I received have resulted in my having to seek support from counsellors, therapists, and doctors and I'm undergoing hypnotherapy to cope with the emotional trauma.

'I have found it difficult to concentrate both in my work and personal life due to the situation causing stressful thoughts and memories and the duration of the ordeal.

'This has at times affected my ability to perform even the simplest tasks.

'I have lost my sense of self-worth and the confidence I once had in my abilities has been shattered. This has not only impacted my career progression but has also strained my relationships with family and friends.'

Ms Rice won claims of constructive unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal, discrimination and the failure to make reasonable adjustments because the council had not accommodated her mental illness.

Employment Judge Paul Cadney said she was mistreated due to 'firstly the requirement to attend for operational duties; secondly in commencing and upholding disciplinary action for her failure to do so, and thirdly in the dismissal of the appeal'.

Judge Cadney said: 'It clearly did have the effect of prolonging and exacerbating in part the pre-existing consequences of the KS events.'

Ms Rice was awarded a total of 42,853.73.

Her claims of constructive dismissal regarding the male colleague were not upheld.

A Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service spokesman told the Daily Mail: 'We have received notification of the outcome of an Employment Tribunal heard in July 2025 in Bristol.

'It is deeply regrettable when any employee leaves our Service, and particularly in relation to the individual involved in this case.

'We are committed to learning from this experience. A full debrief will be undertaken to review the management of this complex case and to identify improvements in how we handle grievance and competency matters going forward.

'As part of our ongoing commitment to high standards and accountability, we have already taken steps to strengthen our processes by establishing a Professional Standards Unit, which provides greater oversight and consistency in managing such cases.'
Ukrainian officials have discussed what they are willing to concede to end Russia's invasion after hours-long negotiations with top US diplomats who will soon deliver the demands to Moscow.

The revelations come as Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to meet with Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff on Tuesday, following negotiations with the Ukrainians in South Florida over the weekend. Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, is flying to Moscow with Witkoff on Monday, an official told the Wall Street Journal.

Witkoff and Kushner have been central to the US's renewed negotiation efforts.

Alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the duo met with top Ukrainian officials over the weekend in Hallandale Beach, Florida.

The meeting, held near Witkoff, Kushner and Trump's residences - Rubio is also from the area - lasted about four hours and covered an array of details on how the Ukrainians want to wind down the nearly four-year war.

The two sides have worked to revise a U.S.-authored plan developed in negotiations between Washington and Moscow that was criticized as being too favorable for Russia.

During the latest round of talks, the officials discussed potential land swap deals between Russia and Ukraine, a senior US official told the WSJ. They also discussed another crucial sticking point: Ukrainian elections.

The US official disclosed that both sides discussed a timeline for when to hold elections next in Ukraine.

Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, left, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, center, and Jared Kushner attend a meeting with Ukrainian officials Sunday, November 30, 2025, in Hallandale Beach, Florida

President Donald Trump said on Sunday there's a 'good chance' of a deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Monday, December 1, 2025. Zelensky has indicated that he's open

President Volodymyr Zelensky has been in office since 2019, and his term officially ended in 2024, but Ukrainian law disallows elections during wartime.

Still much is to be determined, including the scope of any land swaps, whether the new borders would be recognized internationally, and specific security guarantees for Ukraine.

Following the discussions on Sunday, Trump said there is a 'good chance' a deal could be struck and the war could soon come to a close.

However, Trump has signaled for months that a deal is imminent, even after his August meeting with Putin in Alaska, though actual progress has been slow and contentious.

The Kushner-Witkoff duo dealt directly with Putin's negotiator Kirill Dmitriev in Florida last month, where they developed the initial version of the 28-point plan.

Though the plan caught some flak, it was later adjusted in Geneva between top US and Ukrainian officials, including Zelensky's top negotiator Andriy Yermak, the president's now-ex chief of staff.

Yermak resigned after anti-corruption investigators raided his home and offices in connection with the ongoing probe last week. The scandal has cast a shadow over the current regime's position in the negotiations.

Zelensky is under pressure at home as his administration is embroiled in a corruption scandal

Zelensky has signaled a willingness to go along with US-led negotiations with Russia as some chaos has gripped his administration.

Putin has ostensibly acted the same, showing an openness to the wind-down of the conflict that has claimed the lives of an estimated 300,000 soldiers. Still, Russia and Ukraine have been relentlessly exchanging blows.

'When Ukrainian troops leave the territories they hold, then the fighting will stop,' Putin said recently. 'If they don't, then we'll achieve that through military means.'

A Russian missile strike around midday on Monday killed four people and wounded 40 others, 11 in critical condition, in the eastern city of Dnipro, according to the head of regional administration Vladyslav Haivanenko.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday condemned Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil infrastructure over the weekend, including an attack on an oil terminal owned by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, CPC, and another that targeted two tankers in Turkish waters.
Ellen DeGeneres's farmhouse in the Cotswolds has been surrounded by floods again, five months after the American former talk show host put it on sale for 22.5million.

Ellen and her actress wife Portia De Rossi bought the seven-bedroom Kitesbridge Farm estate for 15million in June 2024 before moving in that November.

But just weeks later the property was surrounded by floodwater when Storm Bert struck the UK  and they began to look for a new place to live on higher ground.

The couple quickly put the 43-acre estate and property in Asthall, Oxfordshire, on the market this July for 50 per cent more at 22.5million - but it remains unsold.

Now, new photos show flooding is impacting the estate again after a tributary of the River Thames called the River Windrush burst its banks when Storm Claudia hit.

The couple have already bought and moved into another 25million property elsewhere in the Cotwolds where they have been living since.

Ellen did a one-woman show in Cheltenham in July during which she told the audience that the initial Cotswolds farmhouse in Asthall was now up for sale.

One day later it was revealed she had put the property in the rolling countryside on the market with Sotheby's International estate agents for 22.5million.

Flooding surrounds Ellen DeGeneres and Portia De Rossi's farmhouse in the Cotswolds today

Flooding around the seven-bedroom Kitesbridge Farm estate in Asthall, Oxfordshire, today

Flooding today after a tributary of the River Thames called the River Windrush burst its banks

American former talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and her wife Portia De Rossi in the Cotswolds

Ellen had interior decorating work and some landscaping done, but one estate agent said at the time that the listing was at 'an absolutely crazy price'.

They also pointed out that she had bought the home for 2.5million over the asking price of 12.5million  so 10million had been added to the price in a year.

When the flooding happened on surrounding fields last November, Ellen wrote on Instagram: 'For those of you concerned, our UK farmhouse did NOT flood.'

She previously told how she decided to settle in the Cotswolds the day after Donald Trump was re-elected US President because life 'is just better' in the UK.

But The Mail on Sunday revealed yesterday that Ellen had told friends she and her wife are planning to spend more time in sunny California because they 'miss their friends' and dread the thought of another British winter.

A source said: 'Ellen was adamant that she and Portia were going to stay in the UK while Trump was in the White House, but evidently she's changed her mind somewhat.

The seven-bedroom home went on sale in July with Sotheby's International estate agents

The for-sale price of 22.5million is a 50 per cent increase on the 15million asking price

Ellen bought the home for 15million last year, which was 2.5million over the asking price

Ellen had interior decorating work done on the home and there was also some landscaping

LAST NOVEMBER: Flooding previously affected fields around the home last year

'She's been telling friends they are coming home soon because they miss them and can't take the winters over there, and Portia wants to act again. They will be here for the holidays and longer by the sound of it.'

The couple, who married in 2008, now live in a hilltop mansion with enough land to keep horses. They also have two puppies, Sport and Jinx, and their older dog, Kid.

Ellen and her wife have been spotted in local pubs including The Farmer's Dog in Burford, owned by Jeremy Clarkson, and The Falkland Arms in Great Tew, Oxfordshire.

But the source added: 'Ellen was very clear that they're coming back to California sooner rather than later. They miss the warm weather and their friends.'

Ellen previously explained her transatlantic move by saying: 'We got here [to the UK] the day before the election and woke up to lots of texts from our friends with crying emojis, and I was like, 'He got in'. And we're like, 'We're staying here'.'

She also referenced her fears that 'the Baptist Church in America is trying to reverse gay marriage'. Ms DeGeneres made history when she came out as a lesbian in 1997 in her sitcom Ellen.

The couple have moved to a new property (above) which is perched on a hilltop in Oxfordshire

Ellen photographed her wife as they looked out at a double rainbow from the new property

She later hosted her eponymous talk show, which ended in 2022 amid accusations of bullying and a toxic on-set environment.

Ellen issued a written apology to staff and made an on-air statement, but later claimed the scandal felt 'misogynistic' and 'too orchestrated, too coordinated'.

She described the controversy as 'devastating' but, in a 2024 Netflix special, For Your Approval, joked that she 'got kicked out of show business' for being 'mean'.

The TV star built a fortune before her move to England, flipping homes in Montecito, California, a wealthy enclave where she counted the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as neighbours.

In March it was reported that the couple had liquidated their California real estate holdings, selling a small investment property for $5.2million.

A source close to the presenter has denied the move back to America was permanent. They confirmed the couple were returning there for the holidays but declined to disclose how long the visit would last.
Minnesota once prided itself on its Scandinavian-style safety net  high taxes, generous benefits and a shared belief that no child should ever go hungry.

But that image lies in ruins after a billion-dollar fraud spree that siphoned taxpayer money away from the needy and poured it straight into luxury mansions, high-end cars, overseas real estate and designer lifestyles.

What authorities first hoped was a one-off pandemic scam has now been exposed as something far bigger  and far uglier.

Federal prosecutors say that over the past five years, scores of scammers  many operating inside Minnesotas Somali diaspora  stole more than $1 billion intended for feeding children, helping homeless families and providing autism therapy.

Instead, the money bankrolled G-Wagons, Teslas, Porsches, lakefront homes, Dubai shopping sprees and beachside resorts abroad.

Minnesotans are livid - and scared. Because this wasnt a small-time hustle  it was a full-scale hijacking of the states famously trusting, famously generous social-services machine.

For decades, Minnesota welcomed immigrants, and poured taxes into the public good. The state drew tens of thousands of Somali refugees fleeing civil war. Most built families, careers and political influence.

But investigators say a small number saw something else: an open-tap of easy money.

Ahmed Naji Maalim Aftin Sheikh (left) and other alleged members of the Minnesota fraud ring

Fraudster Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, 24, spent his cut from the scam on high-end jewelry in Dubai

Over five years, they created companies that billed Minnesotas agencies for services that were wildly exaggerated  or never happened at all.

Fifty-nine people have been convicted so far, with more cases coming. The total haul now tops $1 billion, a sum so large it outstrips the states yearly prison budget.

IRS investigator Justin Campbell called it the 'epitome of greed.'

The scandal blew open in 2022.

A nonprofit called Feeding Our Future claimed it was feeding tens of thousands of children during the pandemic. State agencies reimbursed the group and its partner sites based solely on invoices  invoices that prosecutors say were almost entirely fiction.

Lists of children were fabricated. Meal counts were invented. And the money? It paid for luxury fleets and global real-estate ventures.

Cars included Porsches, G-Wagons, Teslas and tricked-out SUVs. Houses ranged from suburban McMansions to lakefront estates. Jewelry, designer bags and lavish foreign investments were all part of the haul.

One central figure, Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, 36, helped steal $47 million along with others. He spent his share on a $93,000 Porsche, a Tesla, a GMC truck, homes in Minnesota and Kentucky, and a condo in Nairobi. A judge handed him 28 years in August.

His business partner, Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, 24, was sentenced to ten years after spending his cut on high-end jewelry in Dubai, luxury vehicles and a Maldives honeymoon.

Aimee Bock, 44, the nonprofit leader at the center of the scam, awaits sentencing. Prosecutors say she used her share on a Mercedes, Vegas trips, exotic car rentals and designer goods from Gucci and Louis Vuitton.

Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, 24, (right) was in November sentenced to 120 months in prison for his role in the fraud

Investigators found wads of cash in the homes of alleged conspirators. Some was even allegedly used to try and bribe a juror

This property on Park Avenue South in Minneapolis was bought by a company involved in the fraud

Millions more were sunk into investments  including a $2.5 million commercial building in Minneapolis and real estate projects in Kenya and Turkey.

The meals were fake. The luxury lifestyle was not.

As investigators sifted through bank records, they realized the feeding-program fraud was only the beginning. Two more schemes quickly surfaced.

A housing-aid scam saw hundreds of 'providers' billing the state for helping homeless Minnesotans stay off the streets. Prosecutors say virtually nothing was actually done  except cashing checks. The program exploded from a projected $2.6 million to more than $104 million in one year.

Then came the autism-therapy scam, where providers allegedly recruited Somali children, falsely diagnosed them as needing treatment, and paid parents kickbacks for participating.

One provider, Asha Farhan Hassan, 29, is accused of stealing $14 million. Prosecutors say the money again funded lavish lifestyles instead of therapy for vulnerable kids. Her attorney has indicated she intends to plead guilty.

And the scandal keeps growing. On November 24, Minnesota 36-year-old Abdirashid Bixi Dool became the 78th defendant in the scheme, battling charges including wire fraud and money laundering.

Prosecutors say he fraudulently claimed more than $1.1 million in federal child nutrition program funds through two non-profits he controlled, including Bilaal Mosque.

Nearly all the defendants across the three schemes are of Somali ancestry  though the vast majority are US citizens.

Many Somali Americans say the scandal has cast a dark cloud over an entire community just as it was rising politically and economically. Leaders worry that every seized luxury SUV becomes another stereotype used against them.

Abdiaziz Shafii Farah spent some of his ill-gotten gains on this $93,000 Porsche Macan, a compact luxury crossover SUV

Aimee Bock ran the nonprofit Feeding Our Future at the heart of the scam. She's behind bars, awaiting her sentence

An FBI raid on the premises of Feeding our Future in May 2024

Scammer Abdimajid Mohamed Nur bought cars, jewelry and honeymooned in the Maldives

Tensions have spiked. And the political right has seized on the scandal as proof that Minnesotas welfare system is out of control.

President Donald Trump labeled Minnesota a 'hub of fraudulent money laundering activity' and called for offenders to be deported  comments that triggered protests, prayer gatherings, and blunt denunciations from Somali leaders.

Conservative activist Chris Rufo claimed stolen funds flowed back to Somalia and into the pockets of Islamist militants.

Behind the luxury purchases lies a more uncomfortable question: Did Minnesotas Democratic leadership hesitate to crack down out of fear of appearing racist?

Some former investigators say yes. They argue that officials worried that rejecting invoices or pausing funds for Somali-run organizations could trigger accusations of discrimination.

A nonpartisan legislative audit later found that state agencies were indeed influenced by fears of racial backlash.

At one point, Feeding Our Future threatened regulators directly  warning that delays in approving Somali-owned feeding sites would spark a public racism scandal 'sprawled across the news.'

The state backed off. Money kept flowing.

Prosecutors say racial accusations were even used in court. During one trial, defendants allegedly tried to bribe a juror with $120,000 and a note complaining that 'people of color and immigrants' were being unfairly targeted.

Democratic Governor Tim Walz now admits the system was exploited. He says the state erred on the side of generosity during the pandemic and that criminals slipped through loopholes.

Facing a tough 2026 reelection bid ahead, Walz has launched a fraud-hunting task force, expanded inter-agency data sharing, and approved new AI systems to detect suspicious billing.

But critics say its too late. The money is gone. The trust is shattered.

Democrats argue the state was overwhelmed. Somali community leaders say theyre being unfairly blamed. And ordinary Minnesotans are questioning whether their high-trust welfare model is collapsing under its own idealism.

Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, 36, was sentenced to 28 years behind bars in August as one of the key players in the fraud

Stolen funds were used to buy units in this apartment block in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital

Liban Yasin Alishire used his stolen money to buy the Karibu Palms Resort at Diani Beach, Kenya

Speaking to the New York Times, Federal prosecutor Joseph Thompson put it bluntly: 'No one will support these programs if they continue to be riddled with fraud. Were losing our way of life in Minnesota in a very real way.'

Longtime residents who championed Minnesotas multicultural vision now worry the scandal has handed ammunition to extremists.

Representative Ilhan Omar urged people not to blame an entire community for the actions of a few.

But Somali Americans far outside the social-services world say theyre being humiliated in public discourse  and fear the political fallout will linger for years.

Some Minnesotans blame the states overly generous benefits for attracting opportunists. Others blame officials too timid to enforce rules. Still, a few point to cultural norms imported from a country where corrupt government was the norm.

But everyone agrees on one thing: the fraud wasnt victimless.

Every seized luxury car represents a child who went hungry. Every mansion bought with stolen money represents an autistic child denied therapy  or a homeless family left out in the cold.

Minnesota built its identity on trust  trust in government, trust in immigrants, trust in a Scandinavian-style system designed to protect the vulnerable.

Now, as prosecutors seize cars and freeze bank accounts, residents are asking the question they never thought theyd face:

If criminals could turn a childrens feeding program into a personal luxury fund, is the system still sustainable?
An attention-seeking influencer handed out massive machetes and liquor to homeless people in an outrageous stunt that caused a social media uproar.

Keith Castillo, a Texas-based content creator, went viral for all the wrong reasons when he shared footage of himself handing out the dangerous weapons to people on the streets on Thanksgiving on Instagram and TikTok.

While his TikTok account appears to have been removed, The New York Post reported that the clip garnered more than 14 million views.

In the video, which is still posted on Instagram under his other account, Castillo is seen passing out the deadly gifts to his eager recipients.

'Keeping the homeless in the streets,' he captioned the bizarre video.

Castillo told The Post that he purchased the knives in bulk for less than $5 each.

In another video from the same day, Castillo is seen grabbing fistfuls of Fireball whiskey shooters and distributing them to the vulnerable population.

While these particular acts caught significant attention, Castillo's page is full of similarly unsettling clips of him giving out harmful gifts to homeless people in Austin, Texas, and in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Keith Castillo, a Texas-based content creator, said he is not concerned that his stunts may be threatening public safety

Castillo handed out machetes to homeless people in a video he shared on Thanksgiving

The videos all have 'keeping the homeless on the streets' as the caption.

Castillo, 29, has primarily gifted weapons and liquor to the homeless communities in these major cities, but he has also handed out loose cigarettes.

He told the Post that he embarked on a nationwide tour in October and is currently in Little Rock, Arkansas.

'I have like 30 machetes in my car right now,' he told the Post as he chuckled. 'Dude, they're cheap.'

He has been seemingly set off on this strange endeavor in an attempt to gain internet notoriety. He has about 53,000 followers on his Instagram account and more than 147,000 on another.

'I travel around, bulk record in one city and then for my safety go to another city, do the same thing there for like two weeks and kind of like travel around,' he told the outlet.

He has plans to visit Las Vegas and New York - and claimed he has even checked with law enforcement that he is doing nothing wrong.

Castillo told the Post that police told him it was fine to be handing out machetes.

'These are for, like, tool purposes. They have zero intent for what people are claiming they want to do with the [machetes],' he told the outlet, explaining that they are not for violence, but for safety.

He said the fact that he could be giving alcohol to substance abusers never crossed his mind.

'Honestly, I really dont care bro, its good for the clicks and views, you know. Gotta do what we have to do so we eat,' he bluntly told the Post.

Castillo has previously filmed himself handing out handles of vodka to homeless people

The possession of a machete is legal in most states - as there is no federal laws banning them because they are considered agricultural tools.

The same goes for alcohol. Castillo can hand it out, but in many states, including New York - where Castillo plans to visit - possessing an open container of alcohol in public spaces, like parks or on the street, is illegal.

This means that if a homeless person is seen drinking the liquor Castillo provided them, they could get in trouble with the law.

'That sounds like a cocktail for disaster - alcohol and machetes. Could we get any dumber?' retired NYPD Sergeant and John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor Joseph Giacalone told the Post.

Viewers had similar reactions to Giacalone.

'Keeping them safe [no], making them dangerous [yes],' one Instagram user commented on the machete video.

'How does this seem like a good idea?' another asked.

'Did you want them to be killing each other or killing people with the weapons you're sharing with them?' someone added. 'What's the purpose of this?'

In a statement to the Daily Mail, Castillo claimed that the videos he films are all skits and that he gets the machetes back from the homeless after he records.

He also said that the negative feedback his videos receive is the result of a negative public perception of homeless people.
A father alleged to have drowned his daughter in an 'honour killing' before fleeing to Syria was a terror to his family and often threatened to kill them if they disobeyed him, a court has heard.

The body of 18-year-old Ryan Al Najjar was found gagged, her hands tied behind her back and her ankles taped together, dumped in a swamp six days after she vanished from the family home in Joure in May last year.

Her brothers, Mohamed, 23, and Muhanad Al Najjar, 25, are now on trial for her murder, while their father, Khaled, has fled back to Syria.

Investigators found her father's DNA under Ryan's fingernails, but prosecutors say they cannot determine whether he, one of her brothers, or both of them carried out the killing.

According to their lawyers, the brothers were not involved in Ryan's death and could not have known their father intended to kill her.

Johan Muhren, representing Muhanad, said during today's hearing that his client would 'never have ended up in the dock without the role played by his father.'

Muhren said Khaled 'was a terror to his family, but no one dared to stand up to him. He is a grumpy, angry, and authoritarian man who tolerated no dissent.

Ryan's body was found in a swamp six days after she disappeared from her family home in the Netherlands. She was gagged and her hands were tied behind her back

A court sketch of suspects Mohammed, right, and Muhanad Al Najjar, accused of helping their father kill their sister. The men have insisted their father acted alone

'Anyone who did so faced abuse and death threats.'

Mohamed and Muhanad now face lengthy prison sentences, while the 'main perpetrator is still at large in Syria,' he added. 'That feels incredibly unjust and unfair.'

According to Muhren, Muhanad did not accompany his father and sister to the place where Ryan was killed, and there is no evidence he took part in smothering, strangling or drowning her.

He called the prosecution's reliance on data from the pedometer in Muhanad's phone 'fake guesswork.'

He also pointed out that only DNA from father Khaled was found on the tape used to bind Ryan and under her nails.

Muhren argued that the brothers' actions showed they had no intention of harming their sister.

He said Khaled repeatedly issued gruesome instructions during the trip - ordering them to find a deep lake, 'ditch Ryan,' and 'weigh her down by the legs' so 'the fish eat her' - but the brothers ignored every instruction and made no attempt to carry out the plan.

Khaled, the father accused of masterminding the killing, will be tried in absentia after he fled the country.

The teenager's body was discovered by a passerby in a swamp after prosecutors say her father orchestrated her murder

New details revealed by prosecutors over the weekend claim Ryan had violated her family's strict expectations by adopting a Western lifestyle, mixing with boys, refusing to wear a headscarf and using social media.

Prosecutors told the court the killing appears to have been triggered by a live TikTok video showing Ryan without a headscarf and wearing makeup.

They said chat messages suggest the video embarrassed Ryan's family as it did not fit within their traditional views.

Investigators allege the murder followed a long pattern of intimidation and control inside the household, with Ryan's behaviour viewed by her relatives as a humiliating betrayal that ultimately led to the fatal attack.

The brothers, whose trial began November 27, insist they were not involved and say their father carried out the murder alone.

Ryan disappeared on May 22, 2024. A passerby discovered her body on May 28 in Lelystad, about 25 miles north-east of Amsterdam.

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Investigators later found DNA belonging to her father under her fingernails, indicating that she had put up a fight.

Khaled allegedly sent two emails to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf claiming responsibility and saying his sons were innocent. Prosecutors, however, rejected that claim.

They argue that the father told his sons to collect Ryan, drive her to an isolated location, and meet him there.

But Muhren says Muhanad picked up his sister in Rotterdam 'to take her home. He told her to apologize to her father. Then everything would be okay.'

Shortly after midnight, Ryan was killed.

In court, the prosecutor described the fear Ryan must have felt - alone in the dark and far from help. 'What must she have feared,' the prosecutor said.

'In the middle of the night, in complete darkness, in a completely isolated place.'

The prosecution says Ryan's brothers carried out the plan knowing she would die.

Attorney Ersen Albayrak argued that Khaled did indeed kill his daughter, but that he acted impulsively rather than with premeditation.

'He was calm when he saw her, but lost his composure because of things Ryan said,' the lawyer told the court.

Albayrak said that while Khaled 'repeatedly threatened Ryan with death,' his anger 'always subsided quickly,' insisting there had been no planned murder.

Forensic investigations confirmed all three suspects were present at the crime scene, although it is unclear who performed specific acts. 'Khaled was the driving force, but without his sons, Ryan would not have been there at all,' prosecutors said.

The Prosecution Service demanded a 20-year prison sentence for the brothers, and a 25-year sentence for their fugitive father.

While the brothers blame their father for the murder, their sisters support them and also hold the father responsible.

Prosecutors, however, pointed to intercepted chat messages suggesting the brothers may have been actively involved.

Khaled reportedly sent emails to Dutch media confessing to his daughter's murder while claiming his sons were not involved.

Before her death, Ryan was being monitored by the police and was given protection, but that was ended prior to her murder. It has not been disclosed why the protection was withdrawn.

Both brothers were arrested shortly after the body was located and have remained in custody since then.

Defense lawyers presented arguments Monday. The court will issue its verdict on January 5.

Khaled fled the country and has not been tracked down.

According to the Dutch current-affairs programme Nieuwsuur, Khaled is believed to be living in northern Syria and has remarried since the killing.

The Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security told the programme that the Netherlands currently has no way to secure his return.

'The possibilities for criminal cooperation with Syria are currently not available,' the Ministry said. 'The criminal justice authorities required for this cooperation are not [yet] operational in Syria.'

However, Syria's own Ministry of Justice has disputed that assertion. Minister Mazhar al-Wais said the system had been rebuilt and was functioning.

'That may have been the case in the beginning when the regime had just fallen. Now the Syrian justice system has been fully restored,' he said.

He said the country was 'ready', adding that Syria has already received three legal-assistance requests from European nations.

'We will provide the necessary legal assistance in accordance with the regulations.'

The Syrian minister also said his government had never received a request from the Netherlands regarding this case.

The brothers' lawyers had earlier requested that they be released from pre-trial custody. But a judge ruled that they must be held behind bars until their trial.
A record number of Scots are taking out loans or raiding their life savings for private healthcare amid huge NHS waiting lists.

Thousands have forked out their own money to have vital procedures like cataract surgeries and hip replacements, while thousands more have turned to private health insurance to cover the fees which can be in excess of 15,000.

Private hospital and clinic admissions hit 13,455 in the second quarter of this year, new figures from the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) revealed, a rise of three per cent compared to the same period in 2024.

Scots are increasingly turning to private healthcare as nearly 850,000 are stuck on waiting lists for NHS treatment or tests, with more than 51,000 being forced to wait for more than a year.

Amid the lengthy waits there was a record 6,165 private admissions paid for directly by patients between April and June this year, the PHIN data revealed, with the number of self-pay Scots up four percent compared to last year.

Meanwhile admissions funded by private medical insurance were at the second highest level ever at 7,290, the network revealed, some three per cent above the same quarter in 2024.

Almost 850,000 Scots are stuck on waiting lists for NHS treatment or tests

Health Secretary Neil Gray has been warned he cannot ignore the crisis in the NHS 'a second longer'

Private hospital and clinic admissions hit 13,455 in the second quarter of this year - while more than 51,000 being forced to wait for more than 12 months for tests or treatment on the NHS

Dr Sandesh Gulhane, Scottish Conservative health spokesman, said the figures should be a source of shame for SNP ministers.

The MSP said: John Swinney and Neil Gray need to stop pretending everything is fine in our NHS when more and more patients are raiding their savings to go private for crucial treatment.

The failures by successive SNP health secretaries mean tens of thousands of patients have been languishing on waiting lists for over a year, despite the nationalists promising that these intolerable waits would be eradicated.

Neil Gray cannot ignore this crisis a second longer.

He needs to back our bold plan to cut bureaucracy and surge resources to the frontline to stop desperate patients having to raid their life savings.

The most common procedure was cataract surgery, for which there was 2,430 admissions. Meanwhile there were 655 admissions for hip replacements, 605 for upper endoscopies, and 530 for colonoscopies.

Going private can be prohibitively expensive for many. Cataract surgery can cost around 3,000 per eye, and hip replacements can cost more than 15,000.

In Scotland, the PHIN said, there have been 1,970 cataract procedures and 490 hip replacements which were self-paid during the second quarter.

It means those going under the knife have forked out the huge sums, funded either through raiding their life savings, taking out loans, or though another means of financing, to get ahead the huge waiting lists on the Scottish NHS.

Dr Nora Murray-Cavanagh, deputy chair of the BMAs Scottish Council, said: BMA Scotland has repeatedly warned of the divide in Scotland between those can afford to pay for private healthcare and those who cant.

She said there was a mismatch between resources and demand which is creating lengthy waiting lists and patients being unable to access the care they need leading to more people turning their back on the NHS.

The doctor added: The increase in private admissions and record number of self-pay patients reported in these figures is therefore not unexpected, but adds to our concerns that Scotland has already drifted into a two-tier health service where if you can find the money to pay, you are more likely to get the timely care you need.

Last week figures showed 702,986 people were waiting for an outpatient or inpatient appointment in Scotland at the end of October, while 146,005 were waiting for key diagnostic tests.

Dame Jackie Baillie, of Scottish Labour, said: It is shocking that a record number of patients are now turning towards private healthcare - all because of the failure of the SNP to manage our NHS responsibly.

Conservative health spokesman Sandesh Gulhane said the figures should be a source 'of shame' for SNP ministers

Unfortunately, the truth is that our NHS is no longer free and available at the point of need for Scots.

After 18 years in power, nowhere is the SNPs failure clearer than in the state of Scotlands NHS.

Richard Wells, of the PHIN, said: Self-pay has largely been declining in England, but its use has been continuing to grow in Scotland, and in Northern Ireland and Wales.

This pattern continues in Scotland in this latest quarter and self-pay levels were at an all-time high.

While there were still more admissions using private medical insurance, the difference between the two funding methods was much closer than is used to be.

The Scottish Government has been approached for comment.
Penny Wong has refused to walk back claims a Liberal minister attempted to cover-up Brittany Higgins' rape allegations, despite contrary findings of two courts.

During budget estimates on Monday, Senator Wong repeatedly evaded questions over allegations she and Minister for Women Katy Gallagher made against former Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds and her chief of staff Fiona Brown.

It comes two weeks after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese himself cast doubt on findings by two judges undermining claims of a cover-up.

Federal Court Justice Michael Lee found Bruce Lehrmann had on the civil balance of probabilities raped fellow staffer Ms Higgins but no evidence of a cover-up.

Western Australia Supreme Court Justice Paul Tottle also found the cover-up allegations had no basis in fact and that Ms Higgins had defamed Reynolds.

Asked whether his government should apologise in light of those findings, Albanese said he did not 'accept the characterisation' put forward by the reporter.

In a tense exchange on Monday, Liberal Senator Anne Ruston put the question again to Wong, asking whether the Prime Minister now accepted the findings.

'I will see if the Prime Minister has anything to add to the answer he gave on the day in question,' Wong answered.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong was grilled over findings knocking back claims of a Liberal party cover-up of former staffer Brittany Higgins' rape allegations during budget estimates (above)

Liberal Senator Anne Ruston is pictured during the tense exchange with Wong on Monday

Asked to comment specifically on Justice Tottle's finding the cover-up allegation had 'no foundation in fact', Wong said she would confirm with Albanese.

'I will check whether he, on notice, whether or not he has anything to add to the answers he has given,' the Senator answered.

'I would make a couple of observations though, Senator Ruston.

'The first is that the independence of the judiciary is an important and central feature of the Westminster system, the role of the opposition and ministerial accountability to parliament is also a central feature of the Westminster system.

'What I would also say is this... the heart of this matter was a young woman who a court found was raped in the office of a Liberal minister, and I would hope we can all reflect on the impact on her and, as importantly, all survivors of sexual assault in this country.'

Wong later added: 'You may not be asking questions about the issue, meaning a young womans sexual assault, but that is at the heart of this matter.'

Ruston said she took the matter of the alleged rape 'very, very seriously' but insisted 'that is not what I am asking about'.

'I draw to your attention your comments on several occasions where you made the accusation of a cover-up, and so I'm just asking on the basis of findings of these two courts, are you prepared to admit that those accusations made by you on many occasions were unfounded?'

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is pictured fielding a question about the cover-up allegations during a press conference in Melbourne last month

Senator Linda Reynolds is suing the Commonwealth over its $2.4m payout to Brittany Higgins, claiming she was excluded from negotiations. She is pictured outside court in August

Reynold's former chief-of-staff Fiona Brown is pursuing a fair work case against the Commonwealth over her time in the Morrison government for failing to protect her

Wong replied: 'I'd refer you to my previous answers, Senator.'

Trade Minister Don Farrell similarly refused to be drawn on the subject, stating: 'I just dont think its up to the government to have a running commentary on court cases.'

Senator Gallagher was asked on Sunday about her role in the cover-up allegations and the subsequent legal findings and replied simply: 'Im not answering any further questions on this.'

Reynolds, who is suing the Commonwealth over its handling of the $2.4million compensation payout to Ms Higgins, recently called on Coalition MPs to hold Labor to account during the last Senate estimates of the year.

On Sunday, she asked her former colleagues to 'ask the most obvious question of all' to Gallagher and Labor officials after they failed to support a push for an inquiry into the Higgins saga.

'It is disappointing that despite two court judgments, my Liberal colleagues are leaving two Liberal women to fight for justice on their own,' Reynolds told The Australian.

Ms Brown is pursuing a fair work case against the Commonwealth, claiming she was not afforded a duty of care under the Scott Morrison government.

Justice Lee said Brown was a reliable witness who had been unfairly vilified as an 'unfeeling apparatchik' looking to cover-up a crime.

A trial has been set down for four weeks in March 2027.

Lehrmann has consistently denied any wrongdoing and has not been found criminally liable.

Daily Mail has contacted the Prime Minister's office for comment.
It was Luigi Mangione's bushy eyebrows that made customers at a Pennsylvania McDonald's suspect he could be the man wanted for shooting dead United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, it was revealed in court on Monday.

The 27-year-old alleged shooter had been on the run for five days following the point-blank murder, when police in Altoona, Pennsylvania descended on a McDonald's and he was taken into custody in connection with Thompson's death.

The arrest came just minutes after the unidentified manager of the fast food joint called 911 to report that some of the other customers recognized Mangione's eyebrows as those of the suspected killer wanted in New York City.

'It's not really an emergency, but I have a customer here that some other customers were suspicious of, that he looks like the CEO shooter from New York,' the manager could be heard telling dispatchers at around 9.15am on December 9 in audio played at the Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday.

The manager then went on to say that an older female customer was 'really upset' and 'frantic' after seeing Mangione eating breakfast in the rear of the McDonald's, and noted that he was trying to be 'non-discreet,' ABC News reports.

'I can't approach him,' the female manager told a dispatcher at one point int he phone call, to which the dispatcher responded: 'He shot the CEO, I got you.'

At that point, the manager tried to identify Mangione by his size - 'mid-height' and 'mid-weight,' but seemed to struggle to list any identifiable characteristics beyond his clothing - a black sweater jacket with a medical mask and a tan beanie pulled down.

'The only thing you can see is his eyebrows,' the manager then revealed.

Luigi Mangione, 27, appeared in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday as his lawyers urged a judge to bar damning evidence from being heard at his murder trial

A 911 call played in court revealed that customers at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, recognized the suspect from images the NYPD released showing his bushy eyebrows

Mangione is facing murder charges for the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, nearly one year ago

She went on to tell dispatchers that the suspect was 'by the back of our lobby by the bathroom.'

'I don't know what to do here, guys,' she said, to which the dispatcher told her to just make sure the suspect did not leave the premises as she assured the manager that cops were on their way.

Officers arrived at the fast food restaurant just moments later, and were seen in body camera footage approaching the suspect, prompting him to pull down his mask.

The Pennsylvania cops then proceeded to ask Mangione several questions, before Patrolman Joseph Detwiler relayed information from a New Jersey driver's license under the name Mark Rosario to a dispatcher, in another recording played in court on Monday.

Prosecutors have claimed that Mangione gave police a fake ID, which he had earlier used when he checked into a New York City hostel ahead of the shooting.

After apparently determining that the license was fake, responding officers then called in the name Luigi Mangione and a birthdate.

'It came back with a response from Maryland that the license is valid with no warrants,' prosecutors argued.

But Mangione's attorneys are trying to bar that evidence from being heard at his upcoming trial, claiming that officers started asking their client questions before telling him he had a right to remain silent.

They also argued that some of the District Attorney's proposed witnesses should not be tasked with identifying him to the jury, as they were not eyewitnesses to the crime - and had only viewed surveillance footage that the New York Police Department released during the days-long manhunt for the suspect.

Mangione's lawyers have argued that some of the District Attorney's proposed witnesses should not be tasked with identifying him to the jury, as they were not eyewitnesses to the crime

They also claimed police started questioning Mangione before telling him he had the right to remain silent. Body camera footage shows Mangione at the Altoona McDonald's when he was confronted by a police officer on December 9, 2024

The now 27-year-old was taken into custody from the McDonald's

Mangione's lawyers have further claimed that the Pennsylvania cops improperly seized evidence from his backpack - including a 3D printed 9mm handgun that prosecutors say matches the one used in the killing, a silencer and a notebook in which they say he described his intent to 'wack' a health insurance executive.

Those items, they argue, should be excluded from Mangione's trial because police lacked a warrant to search the backpack in which they were found.

Body camera footage showing a cop rifling through Mangione's backpack, saying she was checking to ensure there 'wasn't a bomb' inside, was an excuse 'designed to cover up an illegal warrantless search of the backpack,' the lawyers have claimed.

Eliminating the gun and notebook would be critical wins for Mangione's defense and a major setback for prosecutors, depriving them of a possible murder weapon and evidence they say points to motive.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has quoted extensively from Mangiones handwritten diary in court filings including his praise for Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.

In the journal, prosecutors say, Mangione mused about rebelling against 'the deadly, greed fueled health insurance cartel' and said killing an industry executive 'conveys a greedy bastard that had it coming.'

Prosecutors allege Mangione is the suspect who was caught on surveillance footage shooting Thompson at point-blank range on December 4, 2024

Mangione's defense is seeking to bar admission of items found in his backpack when he was arrested at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, because cops didn't have a warrant - including a 3D printed gun and silencer (pictured) allegedly used in Thompson's shooting

Prosecutors seized a handwritten diary from Mangione's backpack during his arrest in Altoona, Pennsylvania that his attorneys are now trying to hide from jurors

Attorneys on both sides sparred in court Monday over whether to allow the evidence at Mangione's New York trial, where he faces charges of murder in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon.

The pre-trial hearings could last all week, meaning Mangione may be in court on December 4 - the first anniversary of the day Thompson was shot dead on the streets of Manhattan while walking to a hotel for his companys annual investor conference.

The crime and Mangione's ensuing arrest led him to become somewhat of a celebrity, with his fans saying that he had taken a 'bite out of corruption.'

They appeared en masse as the alleged assassin appeared in court on Monday, wearing a selection of merchandise supporting the alleged killer and vying for his attention.

Legions of young women were also seen gathered outside the courthouse for his latest appearance as State Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro hears from more than 20 witnesses before he makes a ruling on the admissibility of the evidence.
A group of Chicago lawmakers have proposed a $1.25 package delivery fee as they battle the mayor over his controversial budget plan - just months after the city dropped nearly $640 million on migrants.

With the 2026 spending plan's December 31 deadline rapidly approaching, Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson has been at odds with the sanctuary city's moderate and conservative council members.

Chicago is facing a roughly $1.15 billion projected shortfall for the upcoming year. In response to the staggering deficit, Johnson proposed a $16.6 billion budget to close the shortfall.

But a significant aspect of his plan - a proposed $21 monthly tax per employee for companies with 100 or more workers - was struck down by the Finance Committee last month over concerns that it would drive corporations out of the city.

For a budget to pass, a majority of Chicago's 50-person council must vote in favor.

Later this week, a small group of council members attempted to solidify an alternative budget, which does not include a corporate head tax, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

In response to Johnsons denied $21 employee head tax, council member Alderman Gilbert Villegas proposed an initiative that would potentially charge residents $1.25 for every package delivered.

Other local officials, including Finance Chair Alderman Scott Waguespack and Alderman Matt OShea, have joined Villegas in crafting a proposal different from Johnson's.

Chicago city council member Alderman Gilbert Villegas proposed the $1.25 fee to have packages delivered

The fee on delivered packages may be included in the financially-suffering city's 2026 budget (file photo: A UPS delivery in Chicago)

The mayor's office has rejected the $1.25 charge, claiming that it would need state approval to implement. But Waguespack has maintained that it does not, as per ABC 7.

Along with the ground-delivery fee, the group has suggested nearly doubling the city's garbage collection fee, which has been $9.50 per month since it was implemented in 2015.

The fee would be hiked up to $20 per month, but senior citizens would not have to pay, according to the draft alternative budget.

But even with this drastic garbage fee increase, it would cover only 55 percent of the city's total garbage collection costs, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

The alternative budget is still expected to include Johnson's proposed tax increase on cloud computing and equipment leases, but at a lesser rate than the 15 percent the mayor wants.

Johnson's proposal would require $449 million in loans to cover everyday operations, costing taxpayers more than $50 million in interest for those bonds.

'If the mayors budget proposal is passed, we will most certainly have a downgrade, which will make it harder in the years to come, laying more debt on our children to have to repay,' O'Shea told the Chicago Sun-Times.

These budget woes come after Johnson defended spending taxpayers' money on supporting the more than 50,000 migrants flooding the city since 2022.

From September 2022 to February, Chicago has paid about $638.7 million in vendor contracts to support the city's migrant residents, according to ABC 7.

Much of the migrant influx came when Texas transported tens of thousands of asylum seekers to sanctuary cities, including Chicago.

Tens of thousands of migrants have flocked to Chicago since 2022 (pictured: Migrants at a religious gathering outside of a Chicago shelter in 2024)

Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson has defended the city's spending on migrants

During a March interrogation by the House Oversight Committee in Washington DC, Johnson had admitted that supporting illegal aliens had cost the city about one percent of its budget since 2022.

ABC 7 reported that one percent of the budget equates to $625 million, which is lower than what vendor records showed.

About $850,000 in taxes had also been spent on moving immigrants out of the city.

'You're putting the interest of illegal immigrants above the interest of taxpayers in Chicago,' Illinois Republican Representative Darin LaHood told Johnson at the March meeting.

As a result of his handling of the city's migrant crisis, Johnson has been at odds with Donald Trump and his administration.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched Operation Midway Blitz in September, vowing to target migrants with criminal records who flocked to Illinois because of its sanctuary policies.

The Daily Mail has reached out to Johnson for comment.
A remorseless teenage thug who stabbed a beloved doctor to death after robbing his home has been sentenced to jail.

But the now 18-year-old killer will likely walk free while he is still younger than his victim was when he died in a pool of blood.

Dr Ashley Gordon was just 33 when the 16-year-old repeatedly stabbed him to death on January 13 last year on Eildon Street in Doncaster, in Melbourne's east.

On Tuesday, Justice Amanda Fox sentenced the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to 17 years in jail, setting a non-parole period of just 12 years.

Dr Gordon's family and friends let out a gasp and then cried as the sentence was handed down.

With 685 days already served by the boy in youth detention, the killer will likely still only be in his late 20s when he's released.

In a double blow for Dr Gordon's heartbroken family, Justice Fox urged the Adult Parole Board to keep the teen locked in youth detention for as long as possible in order to spare him the harshness of adult prison.

'Whether you are held in an adult jail or transferred to youth detention is a decision for the Adult Parole Board and not the court. I am, however, satisfied that it is appropriate to make such a recommendation,' she said.

Dr Ashley Gordon was aged just 33 when he was murdered in cold blood

'A key reason for this is it would allow you to continue your education, which in turn will enhance your prospects of rehabilitation.

'Additionally, you are immature and impressionable. An adult prison will likely expose you to undesirable influences.'

The court had been packed with Dr Gordon's friends and family, who just weeks ago laid bare their grief to the court through gut-wrenching victim impact statements.

Outside court, Dr Gordon's dad, Glen Gordon, said his family would serve life sentences.

'I was probably not expecting (him) to get that much,' he said.

'I was happy with it, but I'd like more, for sure.

'My son's been murdered, and he walks around in 13, 14 or 12 years.

'He's still walking around the streets and we've got our life sentence.'

The crime scene where Dr Gordon was brutally murdered

Mr Gordon took aim at his son's killer as he was taken away to youth detention.

'I called him a dog, and that's probably being nice,' Mr Gordon said.

Justice Fox defended her sentence, arguing she was not permitted under law to sentence the killer as she might an adult.

'As a matter of law, a child is significantly less blameworthy than a grown adult would be if they behaved in the same way,' she said.

'All of these considerations can and do lead to child offenders receiving sentences which would be regarded as inappropriate, in the case of older offenders.

'The law recognises that youth and rehabilitation are primary sentencing considerations when sentencing young offenders, particularly when dealing with first-time offenders who have no criminal history or entrenched patterns of offending.'

Justice Fox told the court the young killer remained completely remorseless over his offending and maintained his innocence.

The youth had pleaded not guilty to murder and tried to convince a jury he had acted in self-defence.

The quiet street where Dr Gordon was killed in cold blood

'You continue to maintain your innocence, and you have not developed any genuine remorse for murdering Dr Gordon,' Justice Fox said.

'Your lack of remorse is consistent with the fact that you do not accept the jury's verdict and you have not taken responsibility for your crime.

'These matters dampen your prospects of rehabilitation, but I am conscious that you are still young and capable of change.'

Dr Gordon had confronted the teen to perform a citizen's arrest after he caught him breaking into his home on nearby Sargent Street with three of his mates.

He had been in bare feet and unarmed when he confronted the youths, telling them 'hello boys' before they fled.

The court heard Dr Gordon pursued the thieves in his car before attempting to apprehend his eventual killer.

The teenager stabbed Dr Gordon 11 times, inflicting a 10.8cm deep chest wound that pierced his lung and heart and a forehead wound so severe it shaved off part of his frontal bone.

Yet the brazen killer claimed self-defence, running a cynical defence which tried to portray the helpless innocent doctor as the aggressor in the midst of 'roid rage'.

Dr Gordon and his family in happier times

'You had options. You could have surrendered. You could have left the knife in your pocket. You could have run. Physically, you were not trapped,' Justice Fox said.

The jury dismissed the teen's claims that Dr Gordon had 'smirked' at him and the killer's other lies about the doctor's fury fuelled by vials of steroids the teen claimed to have in the doctor's garage.

The heartless teen claimed the doctor shoulder-charged him into a garage door, prompting him to stab him repeatedly to free himself as he was held in a bear hug.

He said he feared for his life and never intended to kill or seriously injure Dr Gordon.

Justice Fox condemned the killer's cruel claims about Dr Gordon in his final moments alive.

'It defies common sense that anyone would rush headfirst towards the blade of a knife,' she said.

'It was not reasonable for you to do what you did, and it was not necessary for you to stab Dr Gordon repeatedly.

'I do not accept that you believed he was going to kill you or cause you really serious injury or cause you any real injury at all. At the most, you were at risk of being tackled and perhaps placed in a headlock until police arrived.'

Dr Gordon had just begun operating his own medical practice and was saving lives

The court heard one of the killer's co-accused kicked Dr Gordon in the face as he lay bleeding.

'A despicable act that cannot be attributed to you,' Justice Fox told the teen.

The court heard the killer and his mates had already been into Dr Gordon's home twice that night before they were caught in the act.

They had gained entry through the garage door, which had been left slightly open.

On the first occasion the teens made off with sneakers, headphones, laptop computers, a wallet, jewellery and the keys to a Mitsubishi Triton.

But it was Dr Gordon's Mercedes they were after.

When they returned a second time they peeked into the doctor's bedroom in the hope of finding his car keys.

'If your offending had ended there, you would have been dealt with in the Children's Court,' Justice Fox said.

Dr Gordon's family addressed media outside court on Tuesday

'However, it did not end there. You and your three co-offenders slid back under the garage door for a third time.'

This time they were greeted by Dr Gordon.

The heartbroken family of Dr Gordon told the young murderer what he did would not be forgotten - and would never be forgiven.

Tammy Gordon described the moment she pulled over while driving to Melbourne after learning her brother had been murdered.

She struggled to comprehend the meaning of her father's devastating message, before later seeing her brother's body which brought home the soul-crushing reality.

During a pre-sentence hearing last month she confronted the savage child killer face-to-face in court in a dramatic showdown.

'You stabbed him 11 times. I saw him at the coroner's, cold and rubbery - that wasn't my brother,' she said.

The parents of Dr Gordon leave the Supreme Court of Victoria after his killer's pre-sentence hearing last month

Sleepless nights and a heart filled with hate have left her unable to forgive.

'Murder is beyond forgiveness,' she said.

Ms Gordon said she was tortured by the thoughts of her brother's final moments, knowing as a doctor he would have been aware he was dying.

'Alone, in pain, scared. These thoughts keep me up at night, preventing restful sleep,' she said.

'To have taken a life so viciously with a knife, stabbing him over and over, and then to laugh about it, you laughed.'

Known for his infectious smile and tireless commitment to saving lives, Dr Gordon was a 'homegrown hero' whose loss shocked a city caught in a seemingly endless crime wave.

More than 600 mourners had attended Dr Gordon's funeral.
A Turning Point staffer and councilwoman made 'aggressive and explicit' sexual advances toward a male co-worker and abducted his daughter when he rejected her, according to an extraordinary new lawsuit.

Avondale City Councilwoman Jeannette Garcia was accused of offering the male employee a job in exchange for sex during a post-election celebration in November 2024 at a restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona.

The lawsuit alleges Garcia's conduct worsened throughout the night as a result of 'excessive consumption of alcohol', and that he felt so uncomfortable he left the venue shortly after midnight.

But when he arrived home 45 minutes later, the man, identified only as 'John Doe', realized his 14-year-old daughter was missing.

According to the lawsuit, Garcia misled the local sheriff's department in an effort to facilitate the kidnapping of the victim's daughter.

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office deputies told the man his daughter was safe with Garcia, according to the suit.

About 2am, he was finally able to speak with Garcia, who allegedly 'confirmed she had the girl.'

Garcia, who denies all the allegations, was allegedly 'extremely intoxicated' when she and two others 'manipulated' the young girl to leave her home by telling her that they were concerned about her father.

Avondale City Councilwoman Jeannette Garcia was accused of offering the male employee a job in exchange for sex during a post-election celebration in November 2024 at a restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona

She worked with employees who were hired to promote the group's preferred candidates in state and federal elections, including the complainant

The trio allegedly told the teenager that her father had been drinking and could become violent.

The distressed father stated in the lawsuit that his daughter was taken without 'permission or consent' and accused sheriff's deputies of being 'complicit' in her trauma.

He claimed she has since struggled with school work and leaving her bedroom, and that she was experiencing depression.

Garcia was never charged.

She categorically denied the allegations and rejected the premise of the lawsuit in a statement to AZFamily.

'I am aware of the outrageous and false accusations being made about me,' she said.

'Let me be very clear: these claims are untrue. I have never kidnapped anyone, never harmed anyone, and never solicited anything inappropriate, ever.

'The situation being referenced involved me helping a young girl. Anyone twisting an act of support into something malicious is spreading intentional misinformation.

The Councilwoman had been employed by the conservative youth organization, founded by the late Charlie Kirk, in Arizona

'Again, these accusations are false. I am preparing to pursue legal action against those responsible for spreading these lies and for the damage they are attempting to cause to my reputation.

'I will not be intimidated, I will not be smeared, and I will not allow false allegations to define my name or my work.'

The Councilwoman had been employed by the conservative youth organization, founded by the late Charlie Kirk, in Arizona.

She worked with employees who were hired to promote the group's preferred candidates in state and federal elections, including the complainant.

Garcia previously worked as a federal police officer and describes herself as a 'passionate advocate for domestic violence and sexual assault awareness.'

She courted controversy earlier this year when she referred to Hollywood A-lister Tom Hanks as a 'pedo' on X.

'Hey Pedo @tomhanks, not all MAGA hat wearing patriots are white. In fact, most racism comes from the elite democrats, you a-hole.'

She later claimed she meant the Spanish word for 'fart' in an extraordinary backflip.

Daily Mail has contacted Garcia for comment.
Woolworths has been accused of exploiting an affordable housing development scheme and creating a separate entrance dubbed a 'poor door'.

Under the 2022 National Housing Accord, the New South Wales and Victorian state governments introduced a fast-track scheme for housing developments.

The scheme was introduced to help state, territory and federal governments fulfil their pledge of building 40,000 social and affordable rental homes by 2029.

Developers can apply for approval directly with a state government if they allocate 10 per cent of the new build to affordable rental housing.

Woolworths has been accused of using a loophole to seek approval for at least 10 new developments across Australia - some of which had been previously blocked by local councils and even a state planning tribunal.

As part of the retail giant's push into the residential property market, it has proposed mixed-use developments combining a supermarket and apartments.

The development in Melbourne's Glen Iris was initially proposed as a five-storey apartment complex with 58 units as well as a new supermarket.

In a revised proposal, Woolworths added a separate annex building to the development which includes six affordable rental units with a separate entrance.

Woolworths has been accused of exploiting an affordable housing development scheme and creating a separate entrance dubbed a 'poor door' (stock image)

Woolworths has been accused of using a loophole to seek approval for 10 new developments across the country (pictured, rendering of development in Melbourne's suburb of Elsternwick)

Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Managing Director Michael Fotheringham has compared Woolworths' plan to developments in London and New York that received intense backlash for having a 'poor door'.

'It will have very clear visual signals to everyone in the community that this is lesser, that this is poorer housing, and therefore the people living in it are somehow not as worthy as the people living in the main building,' he told the ABC.

The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) and local councils have blocked two Woolworths projects for three years running.

The projects were rejected over concerns about traffic, that the development would overshadow existing buildings and was not in keeping with the suburb's character.

However, Woolworths was able to circumvent the decision for one of the projects after submitting minor changes to the development's original plans.

Dr Fotheringham accused Woolworths of taking advantage of the housing scheme.

'Using that to get fast-track approval seems exploitative,' he said.

'It's clearly not the intent of these schemes.'

Michael Fotheringham compared the project to buildings which faced harsh criticism for creating a 'poor door' for residents who lived in the affordable housing section of the build

In 2020, Woolworths' application for the Glen Iris complex was rejected by Stonnington Council.

Two years later, VCAT upheld the decision after a 12-day hearing which found the 'overall scale, form and massing of the built form' was 'unacceptable'.

Woolworths submitted a revised planning application to Victoria's Development Facilitation Program last June.

Victorian Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny approved the project in October.

If the minister approves a development it cannot be appealed through VCAT.

Woolworths' revised proposal showed the supermarket conglomerate addressed some of the concerns outlined by VCAT including including lowering the building height and cutting units from 80 to 58.

However, the rendered drawings showed the complex's main building towering over the separate three-storey affordable housing annex.

Planning permits stipulate that a community housing charity must own or manage the three-storey annex once it has been built.

Woolworths revised plan for a development in Glen Iris, Melbourne, was approved after adding a three-storey annexed building with six units devoted to affordable housing

In the plans, only three car spaces are allocated to the residents living in the six affordable units - that's one space for every two units.

Meanwhile, 120 parking spaces will be made available for the 58 units in the main building - about two spots per unit.

Developer Time and Place, which is Woolworths' partner in the projects, defended separating the main building from the affordable housing.

A spokesperson explained the affordable housing component was designed in 'consultation with community housing providers' in a statement to the ABC.

'We developed the design of the affordable housing component of this development in consultation with community housing providers,' it read.

'The feedback from these providers was that offering the affordable housing in the main building would increase their overheads - they would have to pay higher strata fees, insurance and other overheads.

'By separating these units onto another title, we have been able to keep those costs down for the community housing provider that will eventually operate them.'

Woolworths did not comment on the criticism it has faced with its proposed plans but told Daily Mail its main focus was to provide housing alongside a supermarket.

'Were always looking to deliver connected customer experiences through stores that are tailored to the needs of each community,' the spokesperson said.

'While our main focus is building for retail, across the country we own inner city sites that provide an opportunity for us to include housing alongside a supermarket.

'These mixed-use developments cater to increased demand for people to be able to shop, work and enjoy themselves all within a close proximity to where they live.

'In line with federal and state government policies, well continue to navigate the inclusion of affordable housing to unlock good urban infill development.'
Karoline Leavitt slammed New York Times reporter Katie Rogers over a shocking piece she wrote last week that claimed Donald Trump was showing 'signs of fatigue' in his second term.

The press secretary made an example of Rogers' piece about 79-year-old Trump's scaled back public appearances during Monday's White House briefing.

'I will point out one fake news story over the weekend before I let you all go from The New York Times, that took about one-third of the president's daily calendar and his daily schedule and said that he's doing less than he did in his first term, or he might not be fit for the job,' Leavitt said.

'That is unequivocally false, and it's deeply unfortunate that the story was written by the same outlet and the same reporter who wrote this: 'Biden is doing 100% fine after tripping while boarding Air Force One,' Leavitt continued.

She was referencing Rogers' 2021 story, written shortly after Biden tripped while boarding Air Force One.

'Oh, same outlet, same reporter who wrote that President Trump is not fit for the job. Are you kidding me? You all see him almost every single day. He is the most accessible president in history. He is taking meetings around the clock,' said Leavitt.

Leavitt singled out Rogers' piece as part of a new 'Media Offenders' portal of the White House website meant to shame what the White House considers the worst of the 'fake news' media.

'I think it goes to our original promise on day one to hold the media accountable because, unfortunately, and we deal with this all day, every day around here, there are so many fake stories that are unfortunately written, that have inaccurate characterizations of meetings that took place,' Leavitt said.

Karoline Leavitt slammed New York Times reporter Katie Rogers over a shocking piece she wrote last week that claimed Donald Trump was showing 'signs of fatigue' in his second term

Leavitt singled out Rogers' piece as part of a new 'Media Offenders' portal of the White House website meant to shame what the White House considers the worst of the 'fake news' media

When asked for comment, a spokesperson for the Times continued to defend the story.

'The Times's White House team, including Katie Rogers, the same reporter Ms. Leavitt singled out today, have reported without fear or favor across multiple administrations from both parties. Katie's reporting on President Biden was just as unflinching as it has been on President Trump, despite cherry-picked headlines attempting to prove something that simply isn't true.'

Trump himself eviscerated the piece when it was published last week.

'The Creeps at the Failing New York Times are at it again,' Trump told his followers on Truth Social on Wednesday morning. 'Radical Left Lunatics in the soon to fold New York Times did a hit piece on me that I am perhaps losing my Energy, despite facts that show the exact opposite.

'They know this is wrong, as is almost every thing that they write about me, including election results, ALL PURPOSELY NEGATIVE. This cheap 'RAG' is truly an 'ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE.

'The writer of the story, Katie Rogers, who is assigned to write only bad things about me, is a third rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out.'

Trump concluded his post by admitting that one day he will be 'low on energy' from old age - but that day is not today.

'There will be a day when I run low on Energy, it happens to everyone, but with a PERFECT PHYSICAL EXAM AND A COMPREHENSIVE COGNITIVE TEST ('That was aced') JUST RECENTLY TAKEN, it certainly is not now! GOD BLESS AMERICA & MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!'

The press secretary made an example of Rogers' piece about the 79-year-old Trump's scaled back public appearances during Monday's White House briefing

The New York Times piece written by Rogers and Dylan Freedman claimed that Trump on average would start scheduled events at 10.31am during his first tenure, in 2017.

However, this year, the President started attending events later in the afternoon, on average at 12.08pm.

The article claimed that the President's attempts to project 'round-the-clock energy, virility and physical stamina' were becoming difficult for him to maintain as he ages.

His packed schedule has included flying more than 12 hours nonstop to Israel to broker a Gaza cease-fire in October, attending dozens of public events each week and holding lengthy, energetic press conferences.

The overall number of Trump's official appearances at White House events has declined by 39 percent compared to his first term, according to the New York Times's analysis.

Throughout Biden's time in the White House, Trump and his Republican allies slammed the Democratic leader over his old age, lack of public appearances, and cognitive ability.

Earlier this year, pictures emerged from the Oval Office showing Trump with bruising on his hand, which was sometimes covered up by makeup. The White House claimed the bruising originates from the president shaking too many hands.

Trump asked a journalist on Thursday whether she was 'a stupid person'

After photos showed him with swollen legs and ankles, the White House revealed in July that he had been diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency - a condition where leg veins can't send blood back to the heart efficiently.

Trump was also accused of closing his eyes during an Oval Office event about cutting the price of weight-loss drugs earlier this month.

A White House spokesman said in response to the reports: 'The president was not sleeping; in fact, he spoke throughout and took many questions from the press.'

Trump has certainly kept up his back-and-forth with the liberal-leaning press at the same rate in his second term.

Last week, Trump sparked outrage when he called another female Bloomberg reporter a 'piggy' while aboard Air Force One after she pressed the president on his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Reporter Catherine Lucey appeared to ask Trump a question relating to Epstein before the President began waving a finger in her face.

'Quiet, quiet piggy!' Trump snapped at the journalist while she stood off camera.

The insult sparked backlash from Democratic political operatives and media pundits.

Earlier this month, Trump snapped at a journalist after being asked about the Epstein files on Air Force One

Leavitt said in response: 'He calls out fake news when he sees it and gets frustrated with reporters who spread false information.'

Trump, who has long gone after journalists for questioning the state of his health, is set to become the oldest living president by the end of his second term.

On Sunday, the president delivered a brutal insult to a reporter who probed the president over his recent MRI scan.

As he and Melania returned to the White House on Air Force One, Trump addressed last month's MRI in a press briefing after Minnesota Governor Tim Walz demanded the results be released publicly.

During the exchange with journalists, he was asked for his response to Walz's cries for transparency.

'They were perfect like my phone call where I got impeached. Absolutely perfect. If you want to have it released, I'll release it,' Trump said.

The president was referring to the phone call he had with Ukraine President Zelensky that led to his first impeachment attempt in 2019.

Trump was then questioned by CBS News' Weija Jiang what part of the body the MRI was looking at when he took a shot at her.

'I have no idea. It was just an MRI. It wasn't the brain because I took a cognitive test and aced it. I got a perfect mark which you would be incapable of doing,' he said, pointing straight at Jiang.

He then said 'goodbye everybody' to the media scrum before pointing at a second female reporter and saying 'you too.'
Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon used the codenames 'Marie and Matthew' when ordering their wedding bouquets from a local florist.

The high-profile couple tied the knot under clear blue skies in the backyard of The Lodge in Canberra on Saturday afternoon.

Braddon-based florist Loulou Moxom has revealed she had no idea her designs would end up being used at the Prime Minister's wedding.

'My brief was, I was doing flowers for Marie and Matthew, that's who I thought my bride and groom were,' she told The Canberra Times.

Ms Moxom said she had been arranging flowers for several weddings on Saturday so she only realised when a friend texted her: 'Is that your f***ing bouquet?'

Two months before the wedding, the florist said she was contacted by a man called 'David' who was helping his sister with a wedding.

He ordered bridal and flower girl bouquets, buttonholes and chair decorations, telling her the bride wanted cream and white flowers, wattle greenery, and 'nothing too big'.

'He said he was organising just a casual little backyard wedding for his sister, and that she was very busy and this was his gift for her,' she said.

Florist Loulou Moxom (pictured) said a friend told her the flowers were part of the wedding

The florist for their wedding was told she was doing flowers for 'Marie and Matthew'

Ms Haydon does not have a brother named David; however, her brother Patrick was one of the witnesses at the wedding.

The florist described how 'David' had contacted her consistently in the lead-up to the big day, including making a special request for a teardrop bouquet.

'I'd get emails from him and the odd phone call, and I was thinking to myself, 'Oh my God, dude. For a little quiet backyard wedding ... this just seems like a lot of communication for this little casual affair',' she said.

Regarding the special request for the teardrop design, she added: 'I was like, 'I don't make them, they're not my jam, I don't enjoy them'.

But she 'fell in love with him' after 'David' came into the shop with chocolates, who cried when he saw the flowers.

'If I'd known who I was doing flowers for, the anxiety, the imposter syndrome, the panic attacks would have set in,' she said.

Ms Moxom said Albanese, 62, and Ms Haydon, 46, were a 'gorgeous couple' and that her 'heart sang' because they had chosen a local small business.

The wedding celebration featured several personal and Australian touches.

Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon were married on Saturday in the backyard of The Lodge

Albanese and Ms Haydon sign their marriage certificate at The Lodge on Saturday

The bride wore a long-sleeved white gown, by Sydney designer Romance Was Born, while the Prime Minister's suit was from MJ Bale.

Guests were served beer in a special can made by Willie the Boatman, whose brewery is in Sydney's inner-west.

The Lodge also holds significant meaning for the couple, who got engaged on its balcony on Valentine's Day 2024 after a romantic dinner at an Italian restaurant.

In February, Haydon teased plans previously for a wedding 'before the year is out' in an interview with Australian Women's Weekly.

The couple said their dream day would be 'small, intimate possibly outdoors, in the second half of this year, with our family and loved ones'.

The newlyweds departed on Monday for a five-day interstate honeymoon.
In August, she was accused of burning a beauty customer

The degree would not be recognised in Australia

Convicted drug smuggler Cassandra 'Cocaine Cassie' Sainsbury has revealed she wants to study law in Colombia so she can help other drug traffickers like her.

Sainsbury spent three years in Bogota's El Buen Pastor prison after she was caught boarding a flight from Colombia to Australia in 2017 with 5.8kg of cocaine hidden in her luggage.

She was 22 at the time and initially said she was surprised by the discovery of the 18 bundles of cocaine, but later admitted she knew they were there and pleaded guilty.

Sainsbury then claimed she had been duped into drug smuggling, but couldn't access the proof she had on her phone because she had forgotten the passcode.

In an interview with Adelaide radio station FIVEAA on Monday, the now 30-year-old said she wants to return to Colombia and get a law degree to help others in her situation.

She already has a Colombian criminology degree, but it is not recognised in Australia, nor would any law degree she obtained there.

'I do plan to study law over there,' she said. 'I would want to be the lawyer that I didn't have over there.

'I will go back. Part of me still wants to come across a case which is very similar to mine and have a legal right to pursue it.'

Cassandra Sainsbury (pictured with her wife Tatiana) plans to return to Colombia to study law

Sainsbury became known as Cocaine Cassie when she was caught trying to smuggle 5.8kg of cocaine from Colombia to Australia (pictured after her arrest in 2017)

Her surprising career shift comes just months after she was accused of leaving a customer with welts following a procedure at her Adelaide beauty clinic, Luxe Body Contour.

The customer said she went to the clinic on the recommendation of a friend, but had no idea it was run by the convicted drug mule until she arrived for her appointment.

The woman claimed in August that the welts were so bad that she took antibiotics to stave off infection.

Sainsbury told The Advertiser that she stopped the treatment when she noticed the woman's skin was not reacting normally, although she claimed the customer wanted her to continue.

'We are talking about a treatment that has been performed on many clients and not once had an issue,' she said.

'However all treatments with heat can carry a risk unfortunately.'

She said she was fully qualified to perform the treatment, the client had signed documentation acknowledging potential skin sensitivity risks, and that no official complaint has been lodged with any regulatory authority.

Sainsbury was a personal trainer who owned an Adelaide gym for six months before her doomed Colombian jaunt, and also had a brief stint in a brothel in Sydney's west.

Sainsbury (pictured in Colombia following her arrest in 2017) now runs a beauty business in Adelaide, where she lives with her wife

Sainsbury was a personal trainer who owned a gym prior to her drug smuggling, but it shut down after six months

Sainsbury's book, Cocaine Cassie: Setting the Record Straight, was released in 2024 (pictured)

She has long claimed debt associated with her failed gym was the beginning of her spiral into sex work and drug trafficking, but has been criticised for inconsistencies in her story.

Following the release of her memoir, Cocaine Cassie: Setting the Record Straight, Sainsbury was blasted by Media Watch for apparently introducing key offenders in her book who had never been mentioned in her 17 previous interviews.

The book featured a woman named Wendy who had never previously been mentioned, with all other key figures in her story having been male up to that point.

She had also previously said her handler, Joshua, introduced her to running drugs in Sydney and then sent her to Colombia - describing him to 60 Minutes as 'tall but chubby, green eyes, brown hair'.

Two years later, on Channel 7's Spotlight show, Joshua was suddenly 'muscly, tanned, clear eyes (and) bald'.

There was also no mention of a drug lord named Angelo who she previously told media threatened to kill her family if she refused to traffic the drugs, but she did mention another man named Carlos who appeared to have the same role.

Sainsbury was sentenced to six years in jail, but was released in 2020 after serving two years, 11 months and 21 days.

She then spent 27 months on parole in Colombia, during which time she started teaching English as a second language and met her future wife, Tatiana.

The couple now live in Adelaide.
Australia's young employees are burning more than a combined 26 million workdays a year in leave because they are too stressed, a new report has found.

The Macquarie University study found workers aged between 18 and 29 made up the highest percentage of stressed workers in the country, despite making up the lowest percentage of the workforce.

The analysis of the working lives of 5,515 Australians found young workers were constantly taking 'mental health mini-breaks,' which has raised alarm bells for prospective employers.

According to research, employers are increasingly screening out workers they perceive as at risk of costly stress claims.

Career consultant Tammie Ballis said she wasn't 'surprised at all' when she heard Gen Zs took the most time off work due to stress.

'They think everything is stressful,' Ms Ballis told the Daily Mail.

'Schools aren't teaching them to work, they're teaching them to study and get high marks, but they aren't ready for the workforce, they don't understand that you've got to go to work, you've got to have a boss.'

Ms Ballis also said the majority of Gen Zs have trouble dealing with feedback from managers.

Career consultant Tammie Ballis (pictured) said she wasn't 'surprised at all' when she heard Gen Zs took the most time off work due to stress

'When you go to work, you're going to get feedback,' she said.

'If you're late or if your performance is below expectations and you are given feedback, Gen Z take that as bullying, but it's not really the case'.

Ms Ballis said some Gen Zs she has encountered in her professional career are hardworking and mature, but most often they lack a work ethic.

'The parents have bubble-wrapped them, they've been raised on social media, maybe forget about the expensive holidays, luxury cars and $300 make-up and instead put your heads down.

'Some are really mature, but a lot of other ones are not, and they complain that they can't get a job.'

She highlighted a case of a worker who had 15 employers in three years.

'You can't keep saying it's everyone else's fault. There's no self-awareness, no self-reflection, and somehow everyone else is always the problem except them.

'They get upset when someone else does well, I honestly think it's the whole social media which is the problem, they want to keep up with Joneses, they want everything to come so easy.'

Macquarie University researcher Kristy Burns penned the report

The report, based on Australian Bureau of Statistics National Health Survey data from 2020 and 2021, found that the most highly stressed workers miss more than 20 days of work a year compared to their more relaxed colleagues.

The study also found that employees aged 18 to 29 are 1.5 times more likely to be distressed than workers aged 50 to 64.

Victorian workers made up the largest number of employees to record 'high or very high stress rates' at 22 per cent compared to only 14 per cent of workers in Western Australia, which is the lowest in the country.

'These findings highlighted the enduring vulnerability to psychological distress experienced by female workers and younger workers, and the resulting lost productivity,' the report penned by lead author Kristy Burns stated.

'Workplace programs that aim to contribute positively to mental health should be developed with and for female workers and younger workers that take their specific needs into account.

'Such programs, if implemented successfully, could see both substantial improvements in the well-being of the workforce along with significant productivity gains.'

Ms Burns concluded the report with a recommendation to 'continue to monitor and identify emerging priority groups with respect to worker mental health'.

She said young workers are exposed more often to psychosocial risk factors such as workplace conflict, low job control, bullying, and precarious employment arrangements.

'The rise of the gig economy and heightened job insecurity suggests young workers will continue to face insecure, low quality, precarious jobs, leaving them particularly vulnerable to poorer mental health outcomes,' Ms Burns said.

The report found 'psychological conditions' accounted for almost 10 percent of serious injury claims and cost workplaces $17billion annually due to reduced productivity.

'With two-thirds of Australian adults employed, and workers spending around 50 per cent of their waking hours at work, the workplace is an obvious setting for action to deliver population-level mental health benefits,' the report states.

'And there are growing calls for policy-makers to focus on the workplace for opportunities to deliver improved mental health.'

The study also found that clerical and administrative workers were the highest to take days off work at 25.9 per cent, while mining was the lowest at 8.5 per cent.

The Macquarie University study also found women tended to be more stressed, with 21.9 per cent experiencing distress compared to 14.8 per cent of men.
Around half of women will avoid Christmas parties this year over safety fears, a study suggests.

Some 49 per cent of women and 31 per cent of men plan to stay in due to worries about their welfare when travelling home from work parties.

A fifth of men and women said they had been harassed on their commute to and from the office, the poll of 2,000 workers also revealed.

The study, from personal safety app WalkSafe, comes on the eve of an independent review into women's safety in public spaces following the murder of Sarah Everard by Metropolitan Police firearms officer Wayne Couzens, who targeted the 33-year-old as she walked home in 2021.

Lady Angiolini will publish part two of her report later today, focusing on whether other predators are lurking in forces as well as police culture and broader issues about the protection of women.

In the latest research, around 46 per cent of women and a third of men said drinking alcohol at work events increases their fear about travelling home.

A third of women were worried about their safety during Christmas shopping trips after it goes dark, the research also found.

Brighton topped the poll for the city where workers were most concerned about attending festive get-togethers, followed by Birmingham and London.

Some 49 per cent of women and 31 per cent of men plan to stay in due to worries about their welfare when travelling home from work parties (stock photo)

Younger people were the most fearful, with 49 per cent of those aged 18 to 27 saying they were worried about going to their Christmas parties.

Almost a third of respondents said a professional team should be set up by workplaces to check they get home safely during the party season, with one in six planning to order taxis in advance.

Emma Kay, WalkSafe's founder, said: 'Christmas and the party season that traditionally comes with it should be a time to be enjoyed, catch up with colleagues and friends and celebrate the year.

'People should be able to let their hair down without worrying about their safety.

'Sadly, this research shows women, men and especially young people do not feel safe at festive events or travelling to and from them in the darker, winter nights.

'This is simply not right and shows a failure in how employers are looking after their workers in some cases.'
Atlassian billionaire Scott Farquhar has stunned the well-heeled parents of Sydney's eastern suburbs with a surprise move after his historic win to allow girls into elite boys-only Cranbrook.

The tech boss led the charge for the Bellevue Hill private school - where fees are up to $60,000 a year - to end 130 years of strictly male education to become co-ed.

The high-profile campaign finally succeeded three years ago, with girls to be admitted for the first time from January next year, initially just for years 7 and 11.

The iconic institution will now become fully co-ed in 2029.

But Farquhar, one of Australia's richest men with an estimated personal fortune of $21billion, has now dropped a bombshell.

After battling fierce opposition from the likes of late Labor powerbroker Graham Richardson - who believed turning Cranbrook co-ed was like the Biblical end of days - Farquhar has pulled his own son out of the school.

The Australian has reported that Farquhar and his wife, Kim Jackson, are now moving their child to an all-boys school next year.

The bill for Farquhar's campaign to end the boys-only tradition at the alma mater of Sydney's rich and famous reportedly ran into millions, and was thought to be a doomed cause.

Atlassian billionaire and his wife Kim Jackson (pictured) have reportedly pulled their sons out of the elite Cranbrook school following years of passionate campaigning for the boys-only school to accept girls, which begins in January

Girls in Years 7 and 11 will finally walk through the gates to study inside the hallowed walls of the onetime all male Anglican college for the mega-wealthy

It was supported by James Packer's philanthropist sister Gretel Packer, who sent her two sons there, and billionaire property fund manager Will Vicars.

The Packers' late father, media mogul Kerry, was also a former pupil there, as was his son who met his one-time right-hand man Ben Tilley there, along with his former best friend and ex-Nine Network CEO David Gyngell.

It also boasts Olympians, athletes, politicians, actor Gary McDonald and Nobel prize-winner Patrick White, plus Farquhar's Atlassian co-founder, Mike Cannon-Brookes among its former pupils.

But throughout its history, it's been strictly boys only, apart from its two co-ed pre-schools which led to mockery and an old taunt from students at rival schools.

Heard across rugby fields and playgrounds for decades, and in various versions, it went something like: 'Get a girl, get a girl, get a girl if you can; if you can't get a girl, get a Cranbrook man'.

Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes, also an Old Cranbrookian with an estimated $12billion fortune, did not speak out about Farquhar's campaign.

He and Farquhar fell out last year, with the latter stepping down as Atlassian's co-CEO in August 2024.

Farquhar, who is not a Cranbrook old boy and attended the much more humble but selective James Ruse Agricultural High School at Carlingford, was an enthusiastic proponent of the co-ed plan and a generous donor.

Scott Farquhar (left) had waged a passionate campaign against bitter opposition to allow girls to attend Cranbrook, whose male establishment alumnus include the late media mogul Kerry Packer and his billionaire businessman son, James (right)

He became the face of the campaign waged while the schools governing council was engulfed by a virtual civil war over the issue and resignations ensued.

Farquhar and Jackson also offered to sponsor scholarships for girls whose parents could not afford six years of the annual $49,521 fees, or for girls coming from other schools who needed to board at Cranbrook, for a yearly fee of $93,627.

International students in Year 12 face an annual fee bill of $60,012.

Daily Mail has contacted Farquhar to determine if the sponsorship offer still stands, and to comment on the reported withdrawal of his son.
A charging station destroyed by vandals has left dozens of frustrated EV drivers stranded amid a rising wave of 'anti-Tesla' sentiment.

Five of six electric vehicle charging cables were severed at the Norwood site in North Adelaide in a video shared to the 'Tesla Owners Australia' Facebook page.

Tesla driver Joseph Mathew said he noticed the cables had been cut on Saturday morning while shopping at the nearby Coles with his wife Remya.

'The plan was to charge the car as well but when we got there, all the cables were found to be cut except for one which was being used by another Tesla owner,' Mr Mathew told the Daily Mail on Tuesday.

'It was frustrating as we had to wait for that car to finish before we could charge ours. We also saw [a] few cars turning up and leaving frustrated.'

Mr Mathew said it was the first time he had ever seen the Jeffcott Street site vandalised. It's the closest charging station the family relies on.

'We have done almost 55,000 kilometres in our Tesla and used chargers across the state and we've never had any issues,' he said.

Mr Mathew believes the vandalism is more likely part of an 'anti-Tesla' campaign than an opportunity to cash in the copper, which can be resold for $11 to $20 per kilogram.

Mr Mathew's wife and children rely on their family car (pictured behind at a charging station)

Five of the EV charging cables were reportedly destroyed last weekend by vandals

'One of the cables was cut from halfway through, that doesn't make sense for someone looking for copper,' he said.

'If someone had to steal copper they [wouldn't] target an isolated charging station. There are hundreds out there. It's pretty serious and dangerous too.'

It comes as 'anti-Tesla' sentiments appear to be on the rise, with attacks on the electric vehicles reported across Australia, United Kingdom and the United States.

In December last year, footage captured the moment an elderly man keyed a Tesla in Rose Bay, a ritzy suburb in Sydney's east.

Months later, Tasmania's only Tesla dealership was vandalised with graffiti branding the company's CEO, Elon Musk, a 'Nazi'.

SA Police said it was investigating the recent theft of copper cables in Norwood.

'Sometime between 9pm on Friday 28 November and 10am on Saturday 29 November, unknown suspects have cut and stolen electric cables at a car charging site on The Parade,' a spokesperson said.

'Incidents such as this are dangerous not only to the community but people that attempt to steal wire and other items from live electrical sites.'

Police have asked anyone who witnessed the incident to call Crime Stoppers.
A man from a high-profile family has vehemently denied he raped a woman as he gave evidence in his own trial.

The man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, testified before a Victorian County Court jury on Monday after pleading not guilty to two counts of rape.

It's alleged he digitally raped his friend's girlfriend at his Melbourne home in the early hours of January 14, 2024.

The jury was told the woman had consensual sex with her boyfriend at the house but then he organised an Uber and left the property shortly before 2am.

It's alleged the accused then lied, telling the woman her boyfriend would be returning upstairs because his Uber had been cancelled.

Prosecutors allege it was the accused who went into the dark bedroom a short time later and pretended to be the woman's boyfriend.

He allegedly digitally raped her but she managed to move away and ask directly if he was the accused.

A man from a high-profile family has denied raping a woman but admitted he created a fake Uber receipt in the days afterwards

The man claimed he was her boyfriend and he allegedly then grabbed both her hands before digitally raping her again while she told him to stop.

She managed to get a hand free and felt his hair, which was longer than her boyfriend's, and that's when the man allegedly stopped and ran from the room.

It's alleged he returned a few minutes later and acted as if nothing had happened, instead asking her if she was OK.

Under questioning from the prosecutor, the man repeatedly denied he ever raped the woman.

'I never went into that room and sexually assaulted (the complainant),' he said in his evidence.

The jury was told the man doctored an Uber receipt in the days after to make it look like the alleged victim's boyfriend had left the house after 2.30am.

The accused admitted in evidence that he forged the receipt but denied he did so to avoid taking responsibility for his crimes.

The trial before Judge Gregory Lyon continues.

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
'Shameless', 'nepotism' and 'patronage'.

Those are the scathing words of former public service commissioner Lynelle Briggs about how governments of both Labor and Liberal stripes have been handing out powerful, well-paid public positions to their political allies.

These withering conclusions are contained in a report the Albanese government sat on for more than two years - while making precisely the sort of appointments it was critical of. Think about the lack of ethics involved in doing that.

It then fought tooth and nail to keep the report secret, and is now only partially acting on its recommendations, and even then, only after being cornered by the Senate to do so.

Briggs' review of public sector board appointments, commissioned after Labor's 2022 victory as part of its pitch for greater integrity in government (how ironic!), is a quietly devastating document.

It finds that the current system is 'not fit for purpose', warning it has 'let down the Australian people'.

It also details how ministers repeatedly bypass proper processes to parachute favoured candidates into positions of patronage.

In some ministerial portfolios, appointments have been made directly by ministers with almost no transparency whatsoever.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made a big deal about bringing integrity back to government in 2022 but now a scathing report has taken aim at the practice of 'jobs for the boys' on public boards

If you strip away the bureaucratic language the picture is all too familiar: lucrative taxpayer funded public sector roles treated as political confetti.

The Morrison government stacked the now abolished Administrative Appeals Tribunal with former Liberal MPs, staffers and fellow ideological travellers, including on the eve of elections.

It was so brazen that Labor took the extreme step of scrapping the entire body and starting again, pointing to how it had been politicised.

But the uncomfortable truth for a government elected on a 'better standard of politics' mantra is that the culture hasn't changed.

Labor, too, has been all too willing to dip into the same trough.

When former Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was appointed to the Australia Post board, replacing former Liberal Party federal director Tony Nutt, both sides rushed to argue that the other was worse.

A race to the bottom where the acceptable standard, apparently, is being slightly less offensive than the other mob.

Whichever party wins power, their people seem to end up on almost all the boards funded by taxpayers.

Briggs is careful to say that not all appointees are political hacks, but she is blunt that 'too often' friends of the government have been rewarded, either for past loyalty or to ensure ideological alignment in organisations going forward. Merit is an afterthought.

Former Queensland Labor premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was appointed to the Australia Post board - replacing former Liberal party director Tony Nutt. That prompted both sides to argue the other was worse

Her proposed fixes are relatively modest, almost timid I would argue. Especially when considered against the anger voters have long felt towards jobs for the boys.

Of course the government has already ruled out adopting all of her modest recommendations. What a surprise.

Briggs wants roles properly advertised, an independent process to identify genuinely qualified candidates, and caps on the number of paid boards one person can sit on.

She recommends cooling off periods so ex-politicians and staffers can't simply stroll straight from Parliament House into a taxpayer funded berth.

Can you believe the above is even controversial? The conflict of interest in the government rejecting many of her suggestions - given its team expects the same patronage when out of parliament - knocks you over.

Briggs suggests a cooling off period of at least six months for former MPs and advisers, 18 months for ex-ministers.

And she wants a ban on 'last minute bequests' in the six months before an election, when outgoing governments have historically rushed to look after their mates.

Surprise, surprise, these recommendations are contested too.

Palaszczuk replaced former Liberal party director Tony Nutt on the board of Australia Post

Crucially, Briggs says these rules should be legislated, not left to goodwill which never seems to hold when snouts get shoved in the trough. That won't be happening according to Labor.

After waiting for this report to be made public for two years, the government's response has been carefully calibrated minimalism.

Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher has announced a new framework and a set of principles to apply from February next year.

Let's see how many dodgy appointments they make between now and then.

But ministers will still control appointments, not an independent commissioner. The changes are administrative, not legislative as Briggs recommended. And Cabinet has very deliberately stopped short of adopting all of her recommendations.

I can't tell you how many politicians have over the years lamented the cutting of their generous superannuation entitlements, suggesting that part-time appointments to public boards and commissions, offering six-figure salaries, will be the substitute they're keen to take advantage of.

And it's a gluttonous bipartisan feast.

The handling of this report tells its own story. Delivered back in 2023, it was initially buried under the label of 'cabinet in confidence' so that nobody could access it, including under freedom of information provisions.

Former public service commissioner Lynelle Briggs AO was scathing in her report - which was kept from the public until now

The opposition certainly hasn't been desperate to see it either.

It only saw the light of day after a Senate revolt, an extended question time that turned into a political spectacle, and sustained pressure from the crossbench.

Albo loves to talk about transparency, and to lecture his predecessor about integrity. But he doesn't walk that talk.

And the sick culture Briggs has identified doesn't just apply to public boards. It sits alongside the revolving door between Parliament and the lobbying industry, where former ministers and senior staff reappear as consultants in the very policy areas they once supervised.

In theory there are now cooling off rules for lobbying. In practice, however, they are weakly enforced and easily gamed.

The message to the public is clear enough: politics may be a contest at election time, but once the votes are counted there is a club of insiders across both major parties who look after each other, especially their own.

When Australians see former politicians, staffers and party donors gliding into cushy positions that are never properly advertised, they draw the obvious conclusion: the system is rigged in favour of those already on the inside.
California Governor Gavin Newsom is already getting major support from Hollywood megadonors for a potential presidential run in 2028.

The Democrat has been relishing in the spotlight after taking a stand against Donald Trump with scathing social media posts and for his recent redistricting victory, which could give Democrats an extra five congressional seats in the Golden State in the midterms and in 2028.

He proclaimed in the aftermath that the Democratic Party was 'in its ascendancy.'

Now, left-leaning film and television executives increasingly view Newsom as the future of the party, according to Deadline.

'I'll admit, I didn't see it in him and I've met him a number of times, but Newsom has really impressed me the way he's taken Trump on, the jabs,' one agency executive told the outlet of the governor and his apparent transformation since he originally made peace with the Trump administration to secure funding for wildfire relief.

'The ICE raids and the National Guard deployment changed everything.'

Another 'top-tier producer' and reliable Democratic donor proclaimed that Newsom is 'a fighter' and 'that's what we need.'

'I just wish more Democrats, like Schumer and the leadership [in Congress] would emulate him, not take any s**t from Trump.'

California Governor Gavin Newsom is already getting major financial support from Hollywood megadonors for a potential presidential run in 2028. He is pictured in October with former Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour

Left-leaning film and television executives increasingly see the California Democrat as the future of the party. He is pictured here with actor George Clooney, actor Don Cheadle and US Senator Laphonza Butler in 2023

Newsom has certainly curried favor with Tinseltown over the years, with $313 million being handed out to television applicants last month. The Democrat is pictured in 2008 with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Magic Johnson

Newsom has certainly curried favor with Tinseltown over the years, with $313 million being handed out to television applicants last month.

He also more than doubled California's film and television tax incentive program to $750 million annually this year.

'Enthusiasm by LA donors is very strong and very encouraging, big checks are being written,' Democratic insider James Costas said, noting that a major Democratic National Convention meeting is scheduled to take place in the city later this month.

'It was a slow build early on as we recovered from the loss in November, but there has been momentum building, No Kings events, legal wins, the Kimmel effect, resistance growing and it's turning into clear ways to fight back against the administration's overreach and win in 2026 and 2028,' added Costas, an HBO executive who served as ambassador to Spain under former President Obama.

Donna Bojarsky, a civic activist and political strategist, also told Deadline that Newsom has 'captured the zeitgeist and spirit of the voters,' crediting his willingness to take risks.

'No one wants to really dive into the presidential race yet, but I think people are deeply impressed and curious to see how the next months go.'

In the meantime, one major donor said, 'If you talk to anyone who really matters, they all want to make sure they are on the Newsom train if it takes off.'

Newsom has made a name for himself in recent months for his scathing social media posts aimed at President Donald Trump

Donna Bojarsky, a civic activist and political strategist, said that Newsom has 'captured the zeitgeist and spirit of the voters.' He is pictured here greeting supporters after speaking during a rally with the Harris County Democrats last month

The California Democrat confirmed in October that he has ambitions to become the president of the United States.

When he was asked in an interview on CBS News Sunday Morning whether he was seriously considering a campaign for the White House, Newsom replied: 'Yeah, I'd be lying otherwise. I'd just be lying. And I can't do that.'

But he is not the only Democrat eyeing the nation's most powerful position, with names like Squad Member Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and even former Vice President Kamala Harris being floated as possible candidates.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and Maryland Governor Wes Moore have even traveled to Southern California in recent weeks to meet with Hollywood executives on their own, Deadline reports.

And in the runup to next year's midterm elections, candidates are already lining up to succeed term-limited Newsom as the California governor.

James Costas, an HBO executive who served as the ambassador to Spain under former President Obama, proclaimed that 'big checks are being written' for Newsom. He is pictured with former First Lady Michelle Obama

Experts credited Newsom's handling of the National Guard deployment in Los Angeles as part of his growing appeal

It is also likely that Republicans will pounce on Newsom's history of scandals as the 2028 presidential race gears up.

He admitted in 2007 to having had an affair two years prior with his City Hall appointments secretary as the Mayor of San Francisco.

That employee, Ruby Rippey Gibney, was at the time married to his good friend and campaign adviser, Alex Tourk.

'I am deeply sorry,' Newsom said in a written statement the time. 'I humbly ask all of those I have hurt for their forgiveness. I will not let my personal failures impact my public duties.

'I believe the best way I can atone for what I have done is to focus every day on helping to make this a better city. That is what I intend to do.'

Later, when the #MeToo movement emerged, Gibney said the affair with her boss was not a case of sexual harassment.

'I fully support the #metoo movement,' she wrote on Facebook. 'In this particular instance, however, I am doubtful that it applies.

'Yes, I was a subordinate, but I was also a freethinking, 33-year-old old adult married woman & mother. [I also happened to have an unfortunate inclination towards drinking-to-excess & self-destruction].'

Newsom had an affair with his campaign adviser's wife Ruby Rippey Gibney in 2005

Following the scandal, Newsom announced that he would seek treatment at San Francisco's Delancey Street Foundation, which bills itself as a 'leading residential self-help organization for substance abusers, ex-convicts, homeless and others who have hit bottom.'

In his statement Newsom, who was 39 at the time, said: 'Upon reflection with friends and family this weekend, I have come to the conclusion that I will be a better person without alcohol in my life.

'My problems with alcohol are not an excuse for my personal lapses in judgment.'

However, Newsom later clarified that he had not entered rehab, instead undergoing counseling from Mimi Silbert, president of the Delancey Street Foundation, and then resumed drinking under her guidance.

A decade later, he told the San Francisco Chronicle that he 'enjoys a little wine again.'

'It was a reset.' he said. 'And Im glad I did it. It was a great thing to do. And it was easy to do. Theres ten years of evidence that, you know, thats not an issue. I literally, one day, just stopped for a couple of years.'

Newsom has more than doubled California's film and television tax incentive program to $750 million annually this year

Newsom sparked outrage when he and his wife dined at a Michelin star restaurant in Napa Valley during COVID shutdowns

More recently, Newsom sparked outrage when he and his wife dined at a Michelin star restaurant in Napa Valley during COVID shutdowns.

At first, Newsom said the gathering was held outdoors, but witnesses revealed that the group was completely inside.

In the aftermath, photos emerged of the California governor, his wife and two top officials from the California Medical Association sitting around a table not wearing masks.

Newsom then admitted he 'made a bad mistake.'

'I need to preach and practice, not just preach and not practice,' he acknowledged.

Despite the scandals, polls showed that Newsom is leading Harris as a potential Democratic candidate in 2028 by up to 16 points - though one poll found that California voters worried he was spending too much time increasing his national profile and not on state issues.
Pete Hegseth has been accused of throwing an 'American hero' under the bus after the White House identified the military officer responsible for ordering the second strike on a Venezuelan drug boat.

The Secretary of Defense has faced furious backlash and accusations of committing war crimes over missile strikes which were carried out in the Caribbean on September 2.

The initial hit on the drug-smuggling vessel allegedly killed all but two members of the suspected cartel on board, but a second strike reportedly eliminated the duo as they clung to debris in the water.

The White House on Monday identified Admiral Frank Mitchell Bradley as the man who ordered the second strike, sparking fury within the Pentagon as insiders maintain he was acting on direct orders from above.

'This is ''protect Pete bulls**t'',' one military insider told The Washington Post.

Another accused the White House of 'throwing us, the service members, under the bus' with the carefully crafted statement naming Bradley.

The critic said it had 'left it up to interpretation' who was ultimately responsible for the strike in question, sparking a revolt within the Pentagon.

Hegseth mounted an extraordinary defense of Bradley, commander of the United States Special Operations Command, whilst simultaneously appearing to imply that the Naval officer was to blame.

The Secretary of Defense has faced furious backlash and accusations of committing war crimes over strikes which were carried out in the Caribbean on September 2

Hegseth allegedly ordered the second strike with a demand that everyone on board be killed, but he has now shifted responsibility to Admiral Frank Mitch Bradley (pictured) in an X post insisting the official has his '100 percent support'

'Let's make one thing crystal clear: Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support,' Hegseth wrote on X.

'I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made  on the September 2 mission and all others since.

'America is fortunate to have such men protecting us. When this @DeptOfWar says we have the back of our warriors  we mean it.'

Hegseth's comments led to further fears he was looking to shift responsibility to Bradley for the second strike, which has sparked concerns from lawmakers about whether it breached international law.

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.

At the time of the strikes, Bradley was head of Joint Special Operations Command, and now serves as commander of the United States Special Operations Command.

The initial missile strike hit the alleged drug smuggling boat and set it on fire. Commanders watched from a live drone feed as the boat went up in flames, but reportedly noticed two survivors clinging onto the debris in the water.

The initial strike on the drug-smuggling vessel allegedly killed all but two members of the suspected cartel on board, but a second strike reportedly eliminated the duo as they clung to debris in the water

Commanders watched from a live drone feed as the boat went up in flames, but reportedly noticed two survivors clinging onto the debris in the water

Bradley allegedly ordered the second strike in an effort to comply with Hegseth's verbal order to leave no survivors.

He allegedly saw the survivors as targets and was concerned about whether they could alert other traffickers to come and collect the cargo.

In all, 11 people were killed in the strike.

Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have pledged to look into the circumstances surrounding the strikes.

The waters were muddied further on Monday when White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Hegseth had authorized Bradley to conduct the strikes.

'Secretary Hegseth authorized Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes,' she said.

'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 the strike was conducted in 'self defense' to protect US interests, took place in international waters and was in line with the law of armed conflict.

Trump said that he would not have wanted a second strike on the boat and said Hegseth denied giving such an order

'This administration has designated these narco terrorists as foreign terrorist organizations.'

The 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 since September.

On Sunday, Trump backed Hegseth after lawmakers from both parties said they support congressional reviews of US military strikes against the alleged terrorists, citing a published report that Hegseth issued a verbal order for all crew members to be killed as part of a September 2 attack.

The lawmakers said they did not know whether last week's Washington Post report was true, and some Republicans were skeptical, but they said attacking survivors of an initial missile strike poses serious legal concerns.

'The order was to kill everybody,' two people with direct knowledge of the operation told the paper.

Trump had Hegseth's back, saying: 'I don't know anything about it. He said he did not say that.'

When he repeated that Hegseth 'didn't do it,' he was then asked if he'd be okay with it if Hegseth had done it.

'He said he didn't do it, so I don't have to make that decision.'

However, Trump did also say the administration 'will look into' the matter and added, 'I wouldn't have wanted that - not a second strike.'

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.'

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At the time of the strikes, Bradley was head of Joint Special Operations Command.

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.

Despite drawing bipartisan concern and criticism in Congress, the Pentagon has not presented evidence to support the claims that the boats were carrying drugs or were operated by terrorist groups.

If proven that Hegseth ordered the second strike, both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill had agreed Sunday that Hegseth was in deep trouble.

'This rises to the level of a war crime if it's true,' said Democrat Tim Kaine of Virginia.

'Obviously, if that occurred, that would be very serious and I agree that that would be an illegal act,' said Ohio Republican Mike Turner.

The latest twist in the saga comes after Trump warned Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro to flee alongside his wife or face the consequences as the US loads up on warships and troops in the region.

The United States' presence in the region has only grown more menacing, with at least 11 warships and 15,000 troops deployed, including a unit capable of a land invasion to stop alleged 'narco-terrorists.'

The president even assured Maduro of safe passage for himself, his wife and son if he resigned immediately, The Miami Herald reported.

A source familiar with the call said that Maduro asked Trump for global amnesty, which the president rejected, before asking to keep his control of the Venezuelan armed forces in exchange for free elections.

Trump also said no to that idea before Maduro rejected the idea of resigning.

The president confirmed Sunday that the talks had occurred amid soaring tensions between the two countries.

'I wouldn't say it went well or badly. It was a phone call,' Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

He has flagged the possibility of US 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.

The Trump administration has been weighing options to combat what it has portrayed as Maduro's role in supplying illegal drugs that have killed Americans. Maduro has denied having any links to the illegal drug trade.

According to Reuters, Trump is weighing whether to attempt to overthrow Maduro, and has authorized covert CIA operations in the country.
Aussies have been urged to remain vigilant this summer after a deadly mosquito-borne virus was detected in regional Victoria.

The Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) has been found in mosquitoes caught in a monitoring trap at Horsham in the state's west.

It marks the first case of the virus in Australia this season.

Authorities are now working closely with the local council to treat mosquito breeding sites and reduce the risk to the public.

Most infected patients have no symptoms or only mild illness, but rare cases can result in serious brain infection (encephalitis), permanent damage and even death.

It is transmitted to humans through mosquito bites and cannot be spread directly from person to person.

At least 15 JEV fatalities have been recorded in Australia, including two in NSW earlier this year.

People working or camping in regional Australia have been urged to take precautions to reduce their risk of exposure.

The Japanese encephalitis virus has been detected in mosquitoes in Victoria's west

Rare cases can result in serious brain infection, permanent damage and even death

'Mosquito-borne diseases like Japanese encephalitis can have serious health impacts,' Victoria's Chief Health Officer Dr Caroline McElnay said.

'Simple actions like wearing repellent, covering up, and limiting outdoor activities at dawn and dusk can help reduce your risk.

'Anyone can be bitten by mosquitoes, but people living, working or spending time outdoors in northern Victoria - especially near rivers - may be at higher risk.'

Aussies are also advised to remove stagnant water around their homes and properties, which can act as mosquito breeding sites.

A free vaccine is available for eligible Aussies living in impacted regions and those at increased risk of exposure.

A booster dose is recommended every 1-2 years for those with ongoing risk.

JEV cases were previously contained to northern Australia before a 2022 deadly outbreak detected in domestic pigs spread to multiple states, including Victoria, NSW and South Australia.

Authorities are now working closely with the local council in Horsham to treat mosquito breeding sites and reduce the risk to the public

Symptoms typically can appear up to two weeks after exposure and may include fever, headache, or vomiting.

Severe cases can result in confusion, seizures and paralysis.
Premier hopes new regulations will be implemented

Speed limits for e-bikes could be halved in NSW within months to improve safety measures and save more lives.

Premier Chris Minns flagged 'significant' regulations on the same morning an e-bike rider was killed in horror collision with a garbage truck in Sydney's CBD on Tuesday.

The man aged in his 30s died at the scene in front of horrified passers-by on their way to work near a major transport interchange.

Currently in NSW, the speed limit for e-bikes is 60kmh, which would be slashed to 25-30kmh.

Minns also wants to halve the maximum power of e-bikes from 500 watts to 250, which only allows the vehicles to travel up to 30kmh.

The restrictions would bring NSW into line with other Australian states.

'We are contemplating a pretty serious change,' Minns told 2GB on Tuesday.

'NSW is the only state where you can legally purchase an e-bike with 500 watts of power, and we want to make a change to reduce that to 250 watts.

An e-bike rider died on the same morning NSW Police launched a crackdown. Pictured are officers examining the crash scene in Ultimo on Tuesday

NSW Premier Chris Minns wants to halve the speed limit and maximum power of e-bikes (stock image)

'There's the hotted up ones where the limit has been removed, and they can travel incredibly quickly, far faster than moving traffic.

'They're currently illegal, but even legally purchased in some cases, fat bikes have a 500-watt limiter, which means that they can go as fast as a car, and as a result, people are going to get hurt.'

The NSW government will also review the definition of an e-bike to close loopholes that allow motorcycle-type devices to be sold and used as bicycles.

Minns described the e-bike rider's death as a terrible tragedy as police launched an investigation into the crash.

It's understood the garbage truck had been emptying bins in a side street before colliding with the e-bike while pulling out onto George Street.

'It underlines the point  these [bikes] can be very dangerous,' Minns said.

'Young kids that are using them, we want to make sure that people are safe, particularly during the holiday period.'

The Premier's comments coincided with a NSW Police crackdown on modified bikes and dangerous riding on Tuesday.

The NSW government will also review the definition of an e-bike in the wake of Tuesday's tragedy in Ultimo

Police are investigating Tuesday's fatal collision between a garbage truck and e-bike

Police stopped 115 e-bikes during a two-day operation across Sydney last week, issuing 176 infringements and 111 rider cautions.

Aussies considering an e-bike for themselves or a loved one are urged to be aware of the type they are buying and ensure it is safe and compliant.

'If you are considering buying an e-bike for Christmas, make sure it complies with NSW law,' Traffic and Highway Patrol Commander, Assistant Commissioner David Driver said.

'Don't get pressured by your children, peers or salespeople into buying the most powerful bike.

'Police don't want someone to make a mistake that costs them their life or causes them serious injury.

'We don't want a Christmas present to become the ultimate buyer's regret.'
Kristi Noem has revealed her plans for a 'full travel ban' on countries that are sending 'killers, leeches and entitlement junkies' to the United States after a meeting with Donald Trump.

The Department of Homeland Security Secretary did not specify which countries she was calling for a ban from in the wake of the attack on two National Guard members in Washington DC last week.

'I just met with the President. I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies,' Noem wrote on social media.

'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. WE DON'T WANT THEM. NOT ONE.'

Trump has shared Noem's post to his own Truth Social page in an apparent endorsement.

Her plan comes after Trump announced a halt to all immigration from Afghanistan, including decisions on refugee status in the wake of the attack in the nation's capital on Wednesday.

Trump has also vowed to 'permanently pause migration' from all Third World countries and has announced that immigrants who hail from 19 countries covered by his travel ban will have their cases re-examined.

The countries include Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia, Haiti, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and Venezuela among others.

Kristi Noem told Donald Trump to institute a 'full travel ban' on several countries that are sending 'killers, leeches and entitlement junkies' to the United States

Noem announced the plan following a meeting with Donald Trump on Monday

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, has been named as the alleged gunman in custody over the horror shoot-out at Farragut West metro station in the center of Washington, DC, which has left two soldiers in a critical condition.

The dad-of-five is facing first degree murder charges after Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old member of the West Virginia National Guard, succumbed to her injuries on Thanksgiving Day.

Her colleague Andrew Woolfe, 24, was critically wounded in the ambush-style shooting and is still fighting for his life.

Law enforcement sources initially told NBC News the gunman has been identified as an Afghan national and the shooting is being investigated as a possible act of terror.

He allegedly came to the United States during the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 under Joe Biden's Operation Allies Welcome, sources told The New York Post.

The operation sought to resettle vulnerable Afghans, including those who assisted the US during the war. It is understood Lakanwal was residing in Bellingham, Washington.

Biden long defended the catastrophic withdrawal, which cost 13 Americans their lives and weakened the U.S.-backed Afghan government against the Taliban, ultimately allowing the terror group to seize control again.

Donald Trump vowed that 'the animal' who shot the troops 'will pay a very steep price.'

The Department of Homeland Security Secretary did not specify which countries she was calling for a ban from in the wake of the attack on two National Guard members in Washington DC last week

The suspect was shot during the shoot-out and is being treated in hospital, authorities said. Police have since recovered a handgun from the scene which they believe was used in the attack, according to CNN.

The FBI, ATF and Secret Service swarmed on the scene as a helicopter landed on the National Mall to evacuate one of the wounded National Guardsmen.

Trump has deployed 2,300 National Guard troops into DC since August as part of his promise to crack down on rampant crime in the nation's capital.

The president ordered an additional 500 troops to deploy following the shooting on Wednesday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said, calling it a 'cowardly, dastardly act, targeting the best of America.'

After the shooting, the president wrote on Truth Social: 'God bless our Great National Guard, and all of our Military and Law Enforcement.

'These are truly Great People. I, as President of the United States, and everyone associated with the Office of the Presidency, am with you!'

Law enforcement sources told CNN that the suspected shooter is not cooperating with cops.

Lakanwal appeared to target the soldiers, firing first at one of the guardsmen who was mere feet away, according to the sources.

The suspect then allegedly fired at the other guardsman who tried to get behind a bus stop shelter.
A man has died and a teenager is in hospital after a retaining wall collapsed at a Brisbane construction site, with fellow workers assisting emergency crews to free the young man trapped under concrete and rubble.

Emergency crews were called to the industrial property on Boundary Street around 8.30am following reports that two workers had been crushed in the collapse.

Police confirmed a 45-year-old man could not be saved and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Queensland Police Inspector Chris Pemberton praised the quick-thinking of emergency services and workers at the site, crediting them with saving the teenager's life.

He said the 19-year-old male worker remained pinned from the waist down for more than an hour before rescuers were able to free him.

Eight workers were on site at the time and helped officers clear 'a large amount of concrete' from the young man's chest, which had been preventing him from breathing properly.

'He was then left in situ due to the complexity of the entrapment for the fire service to extract him.'

Inspector Pemberton said it was believed the two people who became trapped were related to each other.

Emergency crews said it was a tricky exercise to free a teenager trapped at the scene of a workplace incident in Brisbane on Tuesday morning

The teenageconstruction worker was trapped for 75 minutes before emergency services and other workers were able to free him from the concrete and rubble

Police and construction workers helped to free a teenage boy after a retaining wall collapsed in Brisbane on Tuesday morning

'It's a tragic thing to have happened so close to Christmas,' he said.

It is understood that the men were working in a shallow trench and the retaining wall was on the boundary about a metre away from where they were working.

Marc O'Brien from the Queensland Fire Department said tools usually used at earthquake sites were used to extract the teenager out from beneath the wall.

He said laser monitoring, along with large sheets of plywood to further support the wall, were used to prevent a second collapse.

'The concrete is incredibly heavy,' he said.

'We had a number of resources ready to go, ranging from bare hands and sledgehammers, which we did apply to good effect, right through to concrete cutting tools.'

Firefighters inflated special airbags around the injured man to raise the concrete to drag him free of the rubble.

The meticulous rescue operation took more than 90 minutes before the worker could be released and taken to Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital in a stable condition with serious leg injuries.

Workplace Health and Safety Queensland is investigating the tragic incident and Queensland Police will prepare a report for the coroner

Queensland Ambulance Service operations supervisor Elly Rienks said eight paramedic units attended the scene, including the High Acuity Response Unit and a medical director.

'It was quite a difficult extrication,' Ms Rienks said.

Ms Rienks said paramedics had to move the man slowly to prevent him from going into shock, but were able to stabilise him in the ambulance.

'He was very lucky. His injuries were definitely severe,' she said.

Nearby resident Rhett told ABC Radio Brisbane he was advised to leave his house due to concerns it may also collapse.

'The police came knocking on all our doors and told us all to leave, get out of here,' he said.

Workplace Health and Safety Queensland is investigating, and Queensland Police will prepare a report for the coroner.

Boundary Street remains closed, with motorists advised to avoid the area.

A new eight-storey social housing development has been proposed for the site.
The CEO of a major bank has issued a company-wide warning after sacking an executive for allegedly staging a 'mock act of terrorism' with a junior colleague in a photo booth at their office Christmas party.

An unnamed staff member at Ubank, a digital offshoot of the National Australia Bank, shared details of the alleged incident with prominent business Instagram page The Aussie Corporate on Tuesday.

'At the Christmas function held at The Ivy, a Merivale Photo Booth captured a highly disturbing image involving an executive and a junior colleague' involving a mock terrorist or hostage situation,' they said.

The employee claimed a junior colleague wore a towel like a 'headdress' in what they believed was 'an attempt to depict a terrorist'.

'The executive was photographed kneeling upright, hands placed behind their back, suggesting they were a hostage or captive,' they said.

'The junior colleague stood over the executive, using both hands to form gun signs directed at the executive.'

The Aussie Corporate later published what appeared to be a terse warning about staff behaviour in a company Slack channel.

'At our recent All Hands (meeting), we talked about the importance of our brand and culture - they are the foundations of the trust our customers place in us,' he wrote.

An anonymous employee alleged staff were uncomfortable when they saw the mock scene

Mr Raja told staff that they have a 'responsibility to uphold' following the Christmas party

The Ubank Christmas party was understood to have been held at The Ivy in Sydney's CBD

Ubank CEO Kanishka Raja (pictured) confirmed an executive had left the company

'This is why we all have a responsibility to uphold our Code of Conduct. The standards and consequences it sets out apply to everyone without exception.

'Today I have been meeting teams to confirm (name redacted) has left Ubank. I will commence a recruitment (sic)...'

It comes after Mr Raja confirmed 'there was an executive departure yesterday' in a statement to Daily Mail.

'Senior leaders are expected to model appropriate behaviour consistent with our policies,' he said earlier on Tuesday.

Mr Raja said the company takes matters relating to its Code of Conduct 'extremely seriously', adding: 'We have investigated thoroughly and acted swiftly.'

The employee who reported the alleged photo booth incident to The Aussie Corporate claimed the executive involved had not been seen in the office since.

Another employee added: 'I was there (at the party)... Lots of uncomfortable people at the party when they saw a team member in a head (towel) and gown.'

'A few Jewish colleagues felt uncomfortable and left when they saw the mock terrorist act. No messaging from leadership yet.'

Ubank (pictured) is a digital offshoot of the National Australia Bank

On Monday, HR Legal lawyer Dan Feldman told the Daily Mail the holiday season is a busy time for employment lawyers.

'During December we often receive calls from clients that start with 'You wouldn't believe what happened last night at our end-of-year function',' he said.

Mr Feldman said the most common cases involve sexual harassment, sometimes crossing the line into sexual assault, bullying and violence.

'In almost every case, too much alcohol or taking illicit drugs is involved,' he said.

'In many cases there have been warning signs throughout the year, and the inclusion of alcohol or drugs into the mix has seen these bad behaviours exacerbated.'

He warned employers still owe a duty of care at off-site, after-hours work-sponsored functions and that liability can extend to after-parties if managers continue to pay for drinks.

Have you seen the picture in question? Email us: tips@dailymail.com.au
An Illinois Republican candidate for governor choked up when remembering the day he was forced to tell his grandson that their family had died in a helicopter crash.

Darren Bailey returned to the campaign trail after stepping away in October following the fatal accident which killed his son Zach, 37, who was piloting a helicopter, his daughter-in-law, Kelsey, 35, and their two children, 12-year-old Vada Rose and 7-year-old Samuel.

The only member of the family not on the chopper when it went down in Montana was his 10-year-old grandson Finn.

The hopeful governor was in Freeport, Illinois, when he found out the devastating news. Bailey and his wife, Cindy, then rushed to inform their grandson.

The heartbroken grandpa described the shock on Finn's face to ABC 7: 'He just looked up, and he said, "Papa, what are you doing here?"'

Bailey appeared emotional as he let out a deep sigh and continued remembering that terrible day.

'I said, "Well, Grandma and I wanted to come out and see you. Come outside and get your shoes, and she's waiting in the car for you."

'As soon as he opened the door and saw Cindy, he knew what was going on and just to watch those set of emotions that took place then. I'll just never forget that.'

Bailey's son Zachary and his wife Kelsey died alongside their daughter Vada Rose, 12, and son Samuel, 7. Their other son Finn [middle] was not aboard the helicopter

Bailey and Cindy will now be raising the orphaned boy with the help of other family members.

Finn was given a new puppy named Reagan, after his first pet dog was also killed in the crash.

The gubernatorial hopeful told the outlet that he is now using the tragedy as motivation to bring change to his state.

'Well, it's tough, and it has been life-changing. One of the biggest things that has taken place is just our renewed passion for life.'

Bailey added that he's gained a more profound sense of compassion since this was the first time he's lost someone very close to him, unexpectedly.

Bailey told NBC that losing his family has not only changed him but also his meaning behind his campaign: 'I realized that the messaging, the priorities to me in Southeastern Illinois werent necessarily the same for all of Illinois.'

Bailey lost to incumbent Governor JB Pritzker by more than 12 points in 2022.

Bailey and his wife Cindy are seen here alongside three of their grand children, two of whom died in the crash

FAA data points to Zachary owning a five seater 2015 Robinson R66 Helicopter, seen here

That same year, he was endorsed by Donald Trump.

As Bailey was grieving, he received a call from Trump, who offered his condolences and a letter, which he plans to have framed for his grandson.

Bailey is a strong supporter of the president and backs his decisions on soybean tariffs and on using the National Guard to battle crime in Chicago.

The candidate regularly described the city as a 'hellhole' in 2022.

Bailey will be one of seven running for the Republican nomination.

He told ABC 7 that he is sorry if anyone thinks he's trying to use this tragedy to help his campaign.

Zachary worked alongside his father and two brothers, Cole and Mason, at their family farm in Xenia, which primarily grows corn, soybeans, and wheat.

According to a website dedicated to the family farm, the siblings also run a freight company and a grain storage facility.

Bailey and Cindy also operate a private Christian school together.

FAA data indicated that Zachary owned a five-seater 2015 Robinson R66 Helicopter under his company, Bailey Aviation Management.

Bailey acknowledged his devastating family loss on social media in the aftermath of the accident.

A statement said: 'On Wednesday evening, Darren and his wife, Cindy, received the heartbreaking news no parent ever wants to hear.

Bailey and Cindy will now be raising the orphaned boy with the help of other family members

Bailey is seen here alongside Donald Trump at a rally in Illinois in June of 2022

'Their son, Zachary, his wife, Kelsey, and their two young children, Vada Rose, age 12, and Samuel, age 7, tragically lost their lives in a helicopter accident in Montana.

'Their other grandson, Finn, age 10, was not on the helicopter and is safe. Darren and Cindy are heartbroken by this unimaginable loss.

'They are finding comfort in their faith, their family, and the prayers of so many who love and care for them.

'The Baileys deeply appreciate the kindness and support they have received and ask for privacy as they grieve and hold their loved ones close during this difficult time.'

Cindy reshared their joint statement to her own social media on Thursday which was quickly inundated with tributes.

One person said: 'My heart is shattered for your family. We will be lifting your family up in prayer. I am so sorry, there are no words.'

Another added: 'Cindy, my heart is broken for your family and especially for Finn right now. Ive been up praying since I saw the news.

'I cannot imagine what you all are going through. I am so sorry! Praying God sends comfort in the way only he can.'
READ MORE: Student takes social media ban for teenagers to the HIGH COURT

Minister says more apps could be added to list

The minister responsible for the Albanese government's under-16s social media ban has taken the extraordinary step of warning she is prepared to use her powers against job-hunting website LinkedIn.

Australia's under-16 social media ban comes into force on December 10, with accounts belonging to under-16s to be deactivated on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X and YouTube.

But there is already evidence tech-savvy teens are finding their way around the ban by migrating to other messaging apps, with little known messaging app Lemon8 surging up the most-downloaded list this week.

Communications Minister Anika Wells on Tuesday said all platforms are 'on notice' that the government can designate other platforms - giving LinkedIn as an example.

'LinkedIn is currently an exempt platform,' Wells said on Tuesday.

'But if everybody ends up on LinkedIn, and LinkedIn becomes a place where there is online bullying, algorithms targeting 13 to 16-year-olds in a way that's deteriorating their mental and physical health, then we will go after LinkedIn.'

LinkedIn is a professional networking site primarily used for job searching, recruiting, and career development, and its core purpose is not social interaction.

With the legal working age in Australia set at 14, LinkedIn often attracts older teens seeking part-time jobs or internships.

Anika Wells (pictured) said LinkedIn could be added to the under-16 social media ban

The warning comes as the government braces for what Wells calls 'migratory patterns' teens determined to keep their digital lives alive despite the sweeping ban.

Wells stressed exemptions given to apps are not permanent and will be reviewed if platforms shift their primary purpose.

Authorities fear Lemon8 - a TikTok linked photo and video sharing platform - and Yope will be the next refuge for under-16s.

'If we find that because they've been locked out of Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, what have you, they end up on Lemon8, then we will look at whether the harm has transferred there and whether we need to add them to the list,' Wells said in Adelaide.

'We'll have more to say about Lemon8 this week, so stay tuned.'

Currently, several platforms remain exempt from the ban, including Discord, GitHub, Google Classroom, LEGO Play, Messenger, Pinterest, Roblox, Steam, WhatsApp, YouTube Kids, and LinkedIn.

Wells and Julie Inman-Grant (pictured) will monitor 'migration patterns' of social media users

LinkedIn is currently exempt from the under-16s social media ban, but could be added

But Wells made clear the government will act quickly if any platform becomes a breeding ground for bullying or harmful algorithms targeting teens.

'That's what big tech is like,' she said. 'We have to be agile and dynamic.'

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant echoed the warning, saying the list will be updated based on each platform's primary purpose - citing the example of Americans moving to the Chinese app 'Rednote' when TikTok was temporarily banned.

But not everyone is convinced the ban will work, and some are preparing to fight it in court.

Sydney high school student Noah Jones, 15, is launching a High Court challenge against the Albanese government, arguing the ban violates his right to free expression.

'As a free Australian I should be able to express myself and in the modern world, that's online through social media,' Noah told the Daily Mail.

'Kids will still use social media but in secret and they are (in) more danger by being scared of getting into trouble for using socials after the ban so they won't report bullies or predators.'

Noah, who turns 16 next August, said his friends plan to bypass restrictions by creating fake profiles on other platforms.

Noah Jones (right) has launched a High Court challenge against the teen social media ban

'Nearly everyone I know intends to get around the ban but not tell their parents,' he said, adding he is 'very confident' in his legal challenge.

'Democracy doesn't start at 16 on your birthday.'

His mother, Renee Jones, a former teacher turned lawyer, slammed the government's approach.

'We have deliberately raised these children to be digitally aware,' she said.

'I've heard Noah and his friends talk about, "Why are we being punished? We're not the ones doing the wrong thing?"'
An Amazon worker who was sacked via text message just days after she disclosed her pregnancy has won her job back and been handed $15,000 in compensation.

The Fair Work Commission said Adecco, a contractor of Amazon, had lacked decency when it told the pregnant worker it would put her shifts 'on hold'.

The employee had only been working at Amazon for seven months as a 'pick packing associate', earning $1,426 a week, before she disclosed she was pregnant.

Despite the woman providing medical evidence that she was fit to handle light lifting, Adecco stopped offering her shifts and cancelled her scheduled training.

The company told her via text message that 'no light duties are available and since you're not trained in other areas we cannot place you elsewhere'.

'After careful consideration of your safety and discussions with operations, there are no light duties to be offered, so your shifts will be put on hold,' the text continued.

The FWC said Adecco failed to communicate with the woman after she was sacked, and and dismissed claims it had tried to maintain the employment relationship.

The commission ruled in the worker's favour, who not only got her job back, but also received almost $15,000 in compensation plus superannuation.

An Aussie Amazon worker has won her job back after revealing she was pregnant before having her shifts cancelled

She was also awarded nearly $15,000 in compensation after winning her case

'The balance of the SMS, in which Adecco said its priority is to ensure [the worker's] safety and would "try our best to support you'" and so on, is a mixture of people and culture puffery and lawyerly disclaimers that there is "no guarantee of work" and that "we cannot guarantee you anything",' FWC deputy president Michael Easton said.

Mr Easton said Adecco made no attempts to reassure the woman that she still had a job, instead telling her she had misunderstood the meaning of the text.

He said the woman's inability to lift more than five kilograms was not a valid reason for her sacking.

Adecco provided almost no direct evidence about the events in the case, including who made the decision to terminate her employment.

The ruling comes as Amazon faces similar discrimination claims overseas.

Last month, the New Jersey Attorney-General launched legal action against Amazon in the United States over alleged discrimination against pregnant warehouse employees.

Daily Mail contacted Amazon and Adecco for comment.
A high school principal has been rushed to hospital after he was allegedly stabbed by a member of staff, triggering an emergency lockdown.

Police and paramedics rushed to Keysborough Secondary College's Acacia campus, in Melbourne's south-east, about 3pm on Tuesday following reports of a stabbing.

A male staff member was arrested at the scene.

'Officers quickly arrived on scene and arrested a man and will be interviewed,' a Victoria Police spokesperson said in a statement.

The principal was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The staff member is being interviewed by police. No charges have been laid.

Footage from the scene showed a man being led to an ambulance in what appeared to be handcuffs.

Ambulance Victoria confirmed it had taken two patients from the school to hospital.

Emergency services in attendance included advanced life support and mobile intensive care paramedics.

A staff member allegedly stabbed the principal of Keysborough Secondary College about 3pm on Tuesday (pictured, emergency services at the scene)

The school (pictured) was put under lockdown shortly after the end of school bell rang

Students allegedly saw a man carrying a knife before the lockdown was announced

The principal was taken from the school (pictured) to hospital with non-life threatening injuries

A man was seen being loaded onto an ambulance following the alleged stabbing

Students told the Herald Sun the school went into lockdown shortly after the end-of-school bell rang.

One teacher ordered their students to hide under their tables until the lockdown ended.

'We hid under the tables and didn't make a sound for 20 minutes,' a student said.

'It felt scary  I'm shocked.'

Another student claimed some students, who left the school just moments before the lockdown, saw the alleged attacker holding a knife.

Anyone who witnessed the incident, has footage, or has any information that could assist police is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
An 'investigative journalist' who pledged to report on child protection and expose institutional abuse is accused of controlling child abuse material in a satanic cult for two years before police swooped.

Landon Ashton Versace Germanotta-Mills, 26, was arrested at his government-owned unit in Waterloo on Thursday and hit with a string of charges relating to the possession and distribution of bestiality and child sexual abuse material.

His arrest, along with three others, was the result of a police investigation into the online distribution of child sexual abuse material involving ritualistic or satanic themes.

Germanotta-Mills had positioned himself as a vigilante reporter from about March this year when he launched the underground Media Network, which is a Substack blog with a number of posts about alleged police corruption and alleged paedophiles.

The Lady Gaga superfan was 'committed to exposing institutional abuse, systemic failures, and the misuse of power', according to the blog's 'about' section.

'The platform is survivor-led, trauma-informed, and legally aware - built by and for those impacted by the systems we investigate,' it read.

'We do not sensationalise, retraumatise, or exploit. Lived experience is treated with dignity, not as a headline.'

He also promised to 'prioritise stories often ignored or sidelined by mainstream media, including those deemed too risky, too complex, or too politically sensitive', but a number of posts appeared to come straight from mainstream news sites.

Now, court documents seen by the Daily Mail show Germanotta-Mills was allegedly transmitting lewd material involving animals and children well before he started publishing Substack posts about other alleged abusers.

Landon Ashton Versace Germanotta-Mills (pictured) positioned himself as a vigilante journalist

The 26-year-old was arrested on Thursday (pictured)

Landon Ashton Versace Germanotta-Mills is pictured being loaded into a police van on Thursday

According to the documents, he was allegedly storing and controlling child abuse material on an electronic storage device from about October 2023.

In one post, he falsely accused the former NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb of stopping a 12-year-old girl from pursuing a rape complaint because there wasn't enough evidence.

Germanotta-Mills wrote in April about the girl's trauma and how her life was forever changed.

A month earlier, he had allegedly been possessing or controlling child abuse material with his phone, and again a month later, according to the documents.

In July, he wrote a story about a police officer who allegedly had 200,000 images of child abuse and claimed the officer was part of an 'entrenched cultural pattern'.

'A pattern of institutional betrayal that privileges secrecy, reputational protection, and internal shielding over the safety of children and the public's right to know,' he wrote.

He also said the matter raised questions about individual accountability and the infrastructure that allowed 'such alleged conduct to go undetected and unchallenged for so long'.

Landon Ashton Versace Germanotta-Mills was allegedly in possession of child abuse material from 2023

Landon Ashton Versace Germanotta-Mills (pictured) was charged with 26 offences relating to bestiality and child abuse material

Germanotta-Mills wrote the story in July, when court documents allege he was disseminating bestiality and controlling child abuse material.

His full list of charges include one count each of accessing child abuse material and possessing bestiality, seven counts of using a carriage service to make child abuse available, and three counts of possessing child abuse data-use carriage service.

Further charges include two counts of disseminating bestiality material and possessing bestiality material.

All charges relate to alleged incidents that took place between October 10, 2023, and November 27 - the day before his arrest.

The Daily Mail previously revealed Germanotta-Mills claims on social media and LinkedIn to have graduated from Knox Grammar School - an elite, $42,000 a year Sydney boys' school.

However, a spokesperson for the school told the Daily Mail there are no records of him ever attending the institution.

He also changed his last name from Mills to pay tribute to his favourite artist, Lady Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, and was supposed to see her live in concert in Queensland for his birthday on December 9.

Germanotta-Mills faced court on Friday and was refused bail. He is set to appear in the Downing Centre on January 29.
David Lammy is facing a major backlash today after he insisted he had no choice but to scrap the centuries-old right to a trial by jury for thousands of defendants to avoid the collapse of the criminal justice system.

The Justice Secretary warned the courts are 'on the brink' today ahead of an announcement of a major overhaul of the justice system.

But he is facing huge anger from politicians and lawyers kickback over plans to drastically scale back the ability of some defendants to choose to be tried by their peers, a right going back 800 years.

Reports suggest jury trials could be limited to the most serious offences such as rape and murder, with crimes attracting shorter prison sentences heard by judges alone, or magistrates.

Mr Lammy this morning insisted juries remained 'fundamental' to the legal system, in a car-crash media round where he admitted a further 12 prisoners had been wrongly released in the past month.

But he suggested that allowing them to hear so-called 'either-way' cases - where defendants can choose to be tried in either a magistrates or crown court - was clogging up the system.

And he accused criminals of playing the system to avoid pleading guilty for as long as possible.

He told BBC Breakfast: 'If you steal an iPhone this afternoon from Currys, should you be able to opt to have a jury?

'The trial may take two days, and inevitably, that will cause further delay for more serious and egregious crimes like rape or murder.'

But both the Tories and the Lib Dems have attacked the proposal and called for it to be scrapped.

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick accused Mr Lammy of abandoning his principles while in Government, having previously defended juries when he was in opposition.

'This year alone 21,000 court sitting days have been missed and the court backlog is up 10 per cent on their watch,' he said.

'Instead of depriving British citizens of ancient liberties, David Lammy should get his own department in order.'

Justice Secretary David Lammy is expected to unveil plans to limit jury trials to serious offences such as murder, manslaughter, rape or terrorism

The Deputy Prime Minister will lay out his plan in parliament today to tackle the 'courts emergency' over a backlog of cases totalling more than 78,000.

It follows warnings from a senior barrister that judges could be at risk of intimidation by criminal gangs if the majority of trials are abolished.

Mr Lammy said: 'Today I am calling time on the courts emergency that has left victims of the most serious crimes waiting years for justice and pushed the justice system to the brink of collapse.

'For many victims, justice delayed is often justice denied.

'Some give up on the process, while others have no confidence justice will be served if they report a crime, and perpetrators never held to account.

'This simply cannot go on - we must be bold.

'I will set out a fast and fair justice plan that gives victims and survivors the swift justice they deserve.'

The Labour MP will reveal the Government's response to recommendations made by Sir Brian Leveson in July to reform the courts system.

These include diverting more offences to magistrates' courts or to a new intermediate court where a judge would hear cases with two lay magistrates.

The former senior judge had called for juries to be reserved to hear the most serious cases, of 'indictable-only' such as murder, rape and manslaughter, and lesser 'either way' offences when a judge deems it appropriate.

He also called for judge-only trials to be used in serious and complex fraud cases, or other complex cases determined by a judge.

In an interview with The Times, Mr Lammy insisted he was not preparing to announce the 'scrapping' of jury trials.

But he suggested he would back Sir Brian's proposals to limit them to indictable-only offences, arguing that many defendants were 'playing the system' by delaying guilty pleas in either-way cases to the last minute.

He said: 'This is about saving the jury system.'

Yesterday Riel Karmy-Jones KC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association - which represents criminal barristers - expressed fears the overhaul could leave judges more vulnerable.

Robert Jenrick, Shadow Justice Secretary, accused the Government of not trusting 'ordinary people' with law

'It's easier to intimidate one person than it is to intimidate 12,' she told the FT. 'It's easier to identify one person than it is to identify 12.'

Ms Karmy-Jones warned 'there could be risks' in cases where 'there's a lot at stake' for defendants.

She gave as one example fraud cases that 'may well have money behind them'.

A leaked memo sent to senior civil servants stated all criminal cases where there is a possible sentence of up to five years would be determined by a judge in future.

The only exceptions would be murder, rape, manslaughter or cases deemed to be in the 'public interest'.

The Government has insisted that 'no final decision has been taken' on the reforms - which have been mooted as a way to clear a record court backlog of nearly 80,000 cases.

The Justice Secretary is expected to set out plans to increase control for judges on how to handle cases, and create faster routes for lower-level cases like in Canada, which has judge-only trials and where courts minister Sarah Sackman KC visited last month.

Proposals to curb jury trials have faced opposition from MPs and legal professionals, including from the Criminal Bar Association and the Bar Council, which argued 'there is no need to curtail the right to a trial by jury - from both a principle and practical position'.

Reports of Mr Lammy considering restricting jury trials further than Sir Brian's recommendations have also faced backlash as an 'extreme measure' by the Law Society of England and Wales, which has not seen any 'real evidence' it will work to reduce the backlog.

According to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) nearly half of the cases in the backlog are over violent and sexual offences, and only about 3 per cent of criminal cases are currently heard with a judge and a jury.

As part of the announcement, 550 million will also be given to victim support services over the next three years to help survivors and witnesses through the justice process, such as through counselling and advice on attending court.

The late victims' commissioner Baroness Helen Newlove had repeatedly raised concerns over victims' services, and said in October that 'support can be the difference between a victim staying engaged or walking away from the justice process'.

An annual survey of victims by the watchdog found less than half of respondents were confident the criminal justice system is effective or that they could get justice by reporting a crime.

Incoming victims' commissioner Claire Waxman, who will take up the role in the new year, welcomed the MoJ funding as a 'necessary step', but added: 'The sums pledged are not a silver bullet for the wider crisis facing the sector.'

'Ultimately, these services are crucial to a victim's recovery - and they will be just as essential to the recovery of the justice system as a whole,' she said.

Former Law Society president Richard Atkinson said the extra funding was welcome but 'only papers over the cracks and doesn't address the fundamental problems'.

Elsewhere, Mr Lammy has committed to more sitting days in the crown court on top of a record number to help clear the backlog and a match-fund scheme to support more young people to begin their careers as criminal barristers.

Ahead of the full details for reform, Magistrates' Association chief executive Tom Franklin said measures that can speed up justice for victims, witnesses and defendants are 'worth considering - as long as they balance the efficiency with quality of justice'.

He said the independent body will be looking for more details on how changes will be brought for magistrates' courts in Tuesday's announcement, adding: 'To bring down the huge backlog in the crown courts, all parts of the courts system need to be resourced and supported, including the magistrates' courts, which barely merit a mention in this morning's announcement.'
Deported Albanian criminals are allegedly paying up to 20,000 so they can sneak back into the UK on the back of lorries or yachts.

Many are willing to face an extra five years behind bars for breaching their deportation orders, because life is more lucrative for them in Britain.

Albania is the only country where frequent, often weekly, deportation flights take place for criminals who have either completed their sentences or have volunteered to finish their jail terms in the Balkan country.

Court records have revealed that in multiple cases Albanian criminals are being sentenced for further offences after returning to the UK.

There have been a string of high profile Albanian criminals jailed or deported on numerous occasions, with some reportedly paying large sums to return to the UK.

Dorian Puka, 31, has been jailed twice and deported twice for a string of break-ins in Britain, but on each occasion he has managed to slip back into the country, where he is now claiming asylum and where he will remain for the foreseeable future.

Taking to social media, Puka flaunts his luxury lifestyle by posting videos of his 184,950 Lamborghini.

In one video he posted, a group of children see him parked up in his Lamborghini and ask him, 'How much money do you have?' to which Puka replies, 'I'm a millionaire.'

Dorian Puka, 31, has been jailed twice and deported twice for a string of break-ins in Britain

Emijron Gjuta, 34, was deported from the UK twice in three years after breaking immigration rules by returning illegally yet again last year

He is also a serial burglar and under UK law the Home Office is powerless to kick him out until his application is fully heard, even though, yes, he has been barred from the UK in the past.

Puka was first jailed in 2016 for nine months and then deported the following year for attempting to break into a home in Twickenham when the owner caught him on a webcam whilst on holiday in France.

However, within a year Puka managed to dodge border control and wormed his way back into Britain where he continued to raid and rob homes in Greater London.

He was eventually apprehended, wearing an expensive stolen watch, by a plain clothes officer in Surbiton, south-west London.

Puka was jailed for three-and-a-half years but his offending did not stop once behind bars as he gained notoriety posting photos on a smuggled phone with prisoners associated with organised crime groups.

He was deported in March 2020, but was back by the following January. Social media posts showed he had travelled via Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Despite this, the Home Office said he cannot be deported until his asylum claim has been fully considered.

This process could take months or even years due to the huge and ever-growing backlog of immigration tribunal appeals.

The Albanian burglar is seen wearing the same watch while driving his Lamborghini in another video on TikTok

Albanian burglar Dorian Puka, 29, who is living in the UK despite being deported twice, is seen here posing with his 45,000 Patek Philippe Aquanaut

Albanian drug dealer Emirjon Gjuta has been jailed for breaking immigration rules by returning illegally for a third time last year.

The 34-year-old was deported from the UK in August 2020 after being convicted and sentenced for drugs offences.

He was then arrested in March 2022 for being in the UK illegally and deported back to Albania a year later, after he was sentenced for breaching his deportation order and for possessing another person's identity document.

Last Friday, Gjuta was sentenced to 14 months in prison at Leeds Crown Court after admitting at a previous hearing to re-entering the UK in November 2024 - in breach of the 2020 deportation order.

A spokesperson for the defendant claimed he had 'not fully understood' the contents of the deportation order because he had not had an interpreter in court both in 2020 and 2022.

But the spokesperson added that documents signed by Gjuta confirmed he did not object to the 2020 deportation, nor did he ever seek to appeal against it.

They added it was not clear how Gjuta arrived in the UK in November 2024, but he was arrested in Leeds in September this year.

Nick Smith, from the CPS said: 'Emirjon Gjuta had no right to remain or work in the UK and has been deported twice already.

'It's clear he does not care about the rules and has committed crimes when he's been in the UK previously.

Albanian serial burglar Dorian Puka, 28, (pictured) has twice been jailed and deported

'The CPS will continue to work with the Home Office and police forces to prosecute those who have no right to be in the country.'

The CPS said Gjuta was jailed for four years and six months in September 2019 after admitting to conspiring to produce cannabis and two counts of possessing or controlling identity documents with intent.

In October 2019 he was served with a decision to deport letter and signed a disclaimer not to oppose his deportation. He was then deported in August 2020.

In March 2022, Gjuta was sentenced to eight months in prison after he was arrested for breaching a deportation order and false document offences. He was deported again in March 2023, the CPS said.

Ervin Karamuco, professor of criminology at Tirana state university in Albania, told the Daily Telegraph: 'These convicted criminals have close ties with people trafficking criminal groups based in Europe and UK, so it is very easy for them to return again in the UK.

'They know the contact points, the places where crossings happen, and people they need to pay. Sometimes the trafficking for them is done for free in exchange for various tasks carried out in the UK, in the interest of the criminal groups, or it is paid for by the criminal group they belonged to previously so they can return again as crime foot soldiers'.

A Government spokesperson said: 'This government is determined to crack down on abuse of our borders by foreign criminals and smuggling gangs.'

'We are scaling up removals of people with no right to be here  with nearly 50,000 already removed.'

'The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act allows law enforcement to go further and faster to target, disrupt and intercept criminal networks who undermine our border security.

'The Home Secretary has also announced the most sweeping reforms to tackle illegal migration in modern times which will make it easier to remove and deport those who have no right to remain here.'
Vladimir Putin has bragged about Russia's latest battlefield gains in Ukraine while celebrating the fall of another frontline town just hours before Donald Trump's envoys arrive in Moscow for the latest round of peace talks.

In a video released by the Kremlin, Putin praised commanders for what he claimed was the full capture of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, calling the advance an important step toward Moscow's wider military goals.

Dressed in uniform at a command centre, he told his generals: 'I want to thank you. This is an important direction. We all understand just how important. It will ensure solutions going forward to the tasks that we initially set at the beginning of the special military operation.'

Russian commanders informed him that troops were still carrying out 'clean-up operations' around Pokrovsk and the nearby town of Myrnohrad, where he said 2,000 Ukrainian troops had been trapped.

They also told him Russian forces had taken the frontline town of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region as part of a push to create a security buffer.

Ukraine has not confirmed the loss of either Pokrovsk or Vovchansk, and neither claim could be independently verified.

Both positions have been under pressure for weeks, and the fall of Pokrovsk, if confirmed, would be Russia's most significant territorial gain since the capture of Avdiivka in early 2024.

The Kremlin released Putin's comments late on Monday even though the briefing took place the previous day.

Russian state television led morning coverage with footage of soldiers raising a flag in what appeared to be the city centre, a move widely viewed as timed to strengthen Moscow's hand ahead of talks with Trump's representatives.

Dressed in military attire on Monday, Vladimir Putin bragged about Russia's latest battlefield win as Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, fell to his troops

Russian soldiers raise the country's flag in Pokrovsk after the city fell. Soldiers were seen in videos roaming about freely around the city

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Russian analysts have already suggested that securing Pokrovsk gives Putin added leverage, as it shows progress in the Donetsk region at a moment when he is demanding control of all of Donbas.

Hours after the Kremlin announcement, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner were preparing to meet Putin in Moscow.

A White House official confirmed both men are travelling for discussions aimed at exploring a possible settlement to end what Trump's administration now calls a 'bloodbath' and 'a proxy war.'

It will be their first meeting with Putin since the Alaska summit in August, which produced no breakthrough.

Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the meeting would take place on Tuesday afternoon but refused to outline Russia's red lines, cautioning against megaphone diplomacy.

Trump has repeatedly said he wants to end the war quickly, yet leaked draft American proposals last month alarmed Kyiv and European capitals.

The earlier 28-point outline included provisions that Ukrainian and European officials believed were tilted toward Moscow's demands, including limitations on Ukraine's army, acceptance of Russia's current territorial control, and new rules on NATO expansion.

European powers then produced their own counter-proposal, and Ukrainian and U.S. officials met in Geneva soon afterwards.

A screenshot from a video released by the Russian Defence Ministry shows the destruction after intense fighting at Pokrovsk

A residential building in a blaze in the aftermath of a Russian strike in Kramatorsk, in the Donetsk region on December 1

Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner and the president's envoy Steve Witkoff are due to meet with Putin later today to talk about a possible end to the

Both sides said they had created an 'updated and refined peace framework,' though no details have been published. Putin later said that current discussions are not yet about a draft agreement but about proposals that 'could be the basis for future agreements.'

Russia's core demands remain unchanged - Moscow insists Ukraine must never join NATO. It wants recognition of its control over Crimea, Donbas, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

It also seeks limits on the size and capability of Ukraine's military, and new protections for Russian speakers and Russian Orthodox believers.

Ukraine has said these terms amount to capitulation. Kyiv argues that giving up land would leave the country vulnerable to further Russian attacks and would break Ukraine's constitution, which prohibits ceding territory without a nationwide referendum.

In an interview with The Atlantic, Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak said: 'Not a single sane person today would sign a document to give up territory. As long as Zelensky is president, no one should count on us giving up territory.

'He will not sign away territory. The constitution prohibits this. Nobody can do that unless they want to go against the Ukrainian constitution and the Ukrainian people.'

Before the Moscow visit, Witkoff and Kushner held talks in Florida with Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine's national security council.

President Volodymyr Zelensky later said: 'We share the view that the war must be brought to a fair end.' Ukrainian and American officials are expected to meet again after the Moscow talks, though no timeline has been announced.

Russia currently occupies more than 19 per cent of Ukraine, according to widely used military maps, and has advanced in 2025 at the fastest pace since the first year of the invasion.

The remains of an apartment building and vehicles in Kherson after Russian strikes. In the lead up to the latest round of peace talks, Putin has intensified attacks on Ukraine.

Putin and Trump in August this year. The latest round of talks come after the meeting between the leaders in the US failed to produce a deal

U.S. officials estimate more than 1.2 million soldiers from both sides have been killed or injured since Russia launched its full-scale assault in February 2022.

The issues between the two countries intensified eight years earlier, with fighting in eastern Ukraine following the ousting of a pro-Russian president in Kyiv and Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Putin told commanders on Monday that Russian troops are pressing forward 'along the entire length of the frontline.'

General Valery Gerasimov, head of the Russian General Staff, said Moscow intends to capture the rest of the Donbas.

With Pokrovsk claimed and Vovchansk contested, Russian forces have been trying to exploit Ukrainian shortages in manpower and ammunition. Kyiv has been attempting to stabilise its lines while waiting for additional Western military aid.

Putin's battlefield messaging on the eve of the Trump envoys' visit appears designed to send a clear signal that Russia believes it holds the battlefield momentum.
Donald Trump's Homeland Security Secretary has revealed plans for a 'full travel ban' on countries that are sending 'killers, leeches and entitlement junkies' to the United States after a meeting with the president.

Kristi Noem did not specify which countries would be banned but her announcement follows an attack on two National Guard members in Washington DC last week.

'I just met with the President. I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies,' Noem wrote on social media.

'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. WE DON'T WANT THEM. NOT ONE.'

Trump has shared Noem's post to his own Truth Social page in an apparent endorsement.

Her plan comes after Trump announced a halt to all immigration from Afghanistan, including decisions on refugee status in the wake of the attack in the nation's capital on Wednesday.

Trump has also vowed to 'permanently pause migration' from all Third World countries and has announced that immigrants who hail from 19 countries covered by his travel ban will have their cases re-examined.

The countries include Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia, Haiti, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and Venezuela, among others.

Kristi Noem told Donald Trump to institute a 'full travel ban' on several countries that are sending 'killers, leeches and entitlement junkies' to the United States

Noem announced the plan following a meeting with Donald Trump on Monday

Noem is a close ally of Trump who previously served as Governor of South Dakota before joining Trumps administration in 2025. As head of Homeland Security, she oversees the agencies responsible for immigration control, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Since Trump returned to the White House in 2025, the agency has launched an intensified crackdown that has been described by officials as the toughest enforcement effort in years.

Arrest teams have been carrying out more workplace raids and neighbourhood sweeps, and there has been a significant increase in deportation flights to countries across Latin America, Africa and Asia.

According to investigations by US media and human rights groups, there has been a sharp rise in the number of migrants held for long periods in ICE facilities. There has also been concern over the growing use of solitary confinement, which watchdogs say has reached record levels.

Supporters of the policy argue that the crackdown is needed to restore control of the border and remove criminals

Meanwhile, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, has been named as the alleged gunman in custody over the horror shoot-out at Farragut West metro station in the centre of Washington, DC, which has left two soldiers in a critical condition.

The dad-of-five is facing first degree murder charges after Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old member of the West Virginia National Guard, succumbed to her injuries on Thanksgiving Day. Her colleague Andrew Woolfe, 24, was critically wounded in the ambush-style shooting and is still fighting for his life.

Law enforcement sources initially told NBC News the gunman has been identified as an Afghan national and the shooting is being investigated as a possible act of terror.

He allegedly came to the United States during the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 under Joe Biden's Operation Allies Welcome, sources told The New York Post.

The operation sought to resettle vulnerable Afghans, including those who assisted the US during the war. It is understood Lakanwal was residing in Bellingham, Washington.

Biden long defended the catastrophic withdrawal, which cost 13 Americans their lives and weakened the US-backed Afghan government against the Taliban, ultimately allowing the terror group to seize control again.

Donald Trump vowed that 'the animal' who shot the troops 'will pay a very steep price'. The suspect was shot during the shoot-out and is being treated in hospital, authorities said.

Police have since recovered a handgun from the scene which they believe was used in the attack, according to CNN. The FBI, ATF and Secret Service swarmed on the scene as a helicopter landed on the National Mall to evacuate one of the wounded National Guardsmen.

Trump has deployed 2,300 National Guard troops into DC since August as part of his promise to crack down on rampant crime in the nation's capital.

The president ordered an additional 500 troops to deploy following the shooting on Wednesday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said, calling it a 'cowardly, dastardly act, targeting the best of America'.

After the shooting, the president wrote on Truth Social: 'God bless our Great National Guard, and all of our Military and Law Enforcement.

'These are truly Great People. I, as President of the United States, and everyone associated with the Office of the Presidency, am with you!' Law enforcement sources told CNN that the suspected shooter is not cooperating with cops.

Lakanwal appeared to target the soldiers, firing first at one of the guardsmen who was mere feet away, according to the sources. The suspect then allegedly fired at the other guardsman who tried to get behind a bus stop shelter.
A man has been arrested following a stand-off with police that forced a school and strip of shops into lockdown.

NSW Police were called to a shopping centre in Telopea, western Sydney, about 12pm on Tuesday following reports of a man acting suspiciously.

Officers from the Ryde Police Area Command found the shirtless man on the roof of a strip of stores, armed with a metal pole. He allegedly refused to come down.

Nearby Telopea Public School and the stores beneath the man were locked down.

Dramatic footage of the arrest showed the tense stand-off finally came to an end when two heavily-armed officers climbed onto the roof and tackled the man.

Non-lethal bean bag rounds were used to subdue him.

The man was arrested and taken to Gladesville Police Station.

No injuries from the public were reported.

The man (pictured) had climbed onto the roof of a shopping centre and allegedly refused to come down

Police in tactical gear were called in and the area was closed off to the public

An armour-plated police vehicle was called in, with the shops located near a primary school
Denmark will end all national letter delivery at the end of December, marking a major shift in the country's postal services.

The Danish postal service is ceasing mail delivery due to a dramatic decline in demand, with letter volume falling by more than 90 per cent since the start of the century.

The decision also affects Denmark's traditional red mailboxes, with the country set to remove them and put them on display in museums.

In future, only parcels will be delivered as the postal operator shifts its business model toward parcel logistics.

With a sharp rise in online retail, there has been an increase in demand for faster parcel delivery.

PostNord says the change is designed to ensure the company's long-term viability.

'We want to become the preferred parcel service for Danes,' the company told Bild. This change in strategy is intended to make the company future-proof.

Anyone wishing to continue sending letters will have to use branches of other private providers.

The Danish postal service is ceasing mail delivery due to a dramatic decline in demand, with letter volume falling by more than 90 per cent since the start of the century

PostNord also confirmed that any postage stamps bought this year or in 2024 can be refunded for a limited period in 2026.

Danish MP Pelle Dragsted has previously blamed privatisation for the move and complained it would disadvantage people living in remote areas, and the elderly.

The introduction of a new Postal Act in 2024 opened up the letter market to competition from private firms and mail is no longer exempted from VAT, resulting in higher postage costs.

'When a letter costs 29 Danish krone (3.35) there will be fewer letters,' PostNord Denmark's Managing Director, Kim Pedersen, told local media in March.

Denmark's move reflects a broader global trend, with postal services worldwide facing financial pressure as digital alternatives replace traditional letters.

The shift is evident elsewhere in Europe. According to the Federal Network Agency letter report, the number of letters sent is steadily declining.

The vast majority, around 95 per cent, comes from business customers such as companies and government agencies.

Private correspondence now represents only a small portion of mail.

German postal officials, however, emphasise that the situation is not directly comparable.

Alexander Edenhofer, spokesman for the German DHL Group, told Bild: 'The Danish postal service is not the German postal service.

The introduction of a new Postal Act in 2024 opened up the letter market to competition from private firms and mail is no longer exempted from VAT, resulting in higher postage costs

'The two mail markets are only comparable to a limited extent. Despite declining volumes, letters remain important in Germany, and we expect to process and deliver letters for many years to come.'

Still, he acknowledges the challenges. 'The news from Denmark shows how challenging the mail business has become,' he added.

'Digitisation is progressing rapidly, and mail volumes in Europe are shrinking quickly. This is putting a strain on all European postal service providers'.

In March, Germany's Deutsche Post said it was axing 8,000 jobs, in what it called a 'socially responsible manner'.
Rachel Reeves is braced for the Budget lies storm to escalate again today after the head of the Treasury watchdog was ousted.

Speculation is swirling about Richard Hughes' intentions after he dramatically quit as the head of the OBR following months of tensions with the Chancellor.

The departure was ostensibly linked to the extraordinary early publication of Budget documents due to a tech glitch.

But the independent body has been at daggers drawn with Ms Reeves and her team over the way forecasts were deployed before the fiscal statement last week.

That culminated last week when Mr Hughes took the unusual step of spelling out the timetable of what economic forecasts were supplied when - exposing that Ms Reeves had talked up dire numbers even after being told the government was on track to run a surplus.

The Treasury responded by saying they had received assurances that such transparency would not be the 'usual' practice.

Speculation is swirling about Richard Hughes' intentions after he dramatically quit as the head of the OBR following months of tensions with the Chancellor

Rachel Reeves is braced for the Budget lies storm to escalate again today

Last week Mr Hughes took the unusual step of spelling out the timetable of what economic forecasts were supplied when - exposing that Ms Reeves had talked up dire numbers even after being told the government was on track to run a surplus

Ms Reeves is said to have regarded Mr Hughes as a 'brick wall' for refusing to include the minor effects of trade deals in forecasts, while Keir Starmer made clear yesterday he had been infuriated by the decision to stage a review of long-term productivity.

Remaining top officials at the OBR are due to give evidence to MPs this morning. Mr Hughes will not be attending, but could still choose to speak out.

The economist - who once observed he was right for the watchdog role because he 'knew where the bodies were buried' - could be devastating to Ms Reeves if he reveals anything about their behind-the-scenes wrangling.

The OBR's anger was signalled in the report on the Budget leak yesterday.

Non-executive directors Baroness Hogg and Dame Susan Rice launched a barb at 'deliberate' leaks, in an apparent nod to the perceived briefing campaign by the Treasury.

'In the run-up to the delivery of the Budget, any leaks concerning the OBR's forecasts, whether accurate (as in this case) or inaccurate, whether inadvertent (as in this case) or deliberate, are to be greatly deplored,' the foreword said.

'They must be taken very seriously by institutions from which leaks emerge. As evidence of the seriousness with which the OBR takes this issue, we have noted that throughout the preceding months the OBR had stuck rigidly to the principle of confidentiality.'

In a letter to the Chancellor and the House of Commons' Treasury Committee yesterday, Mr Hughes said he was taking 'full responsibility' for the embarrassing error.

Charlie Bean, former deputy governor at the Bank of England, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Ms Reeves should have prevented Mr Hughes from resigning.

He said it would have been 'difficult' for the chair not to offer to quit, but the Chancellor pointedly did not 'step in' to keep him.

Sir Charlie said Mr Hughes had been a 'very effective leader of the OBR' and was 'energetic, rigorous and fair'.

Tony Yates, a former BoE adviser who worked with Mr Hughes at the Resolution Foundation, told BBC Radio 5 Live's Wake Up to Money that there did appear to be 'tension between Richard Hughes and his team and Rachel Reeves at the moment'.

'Their reluctance to be swayed by the enthusiasm with which they have announced various supply side reforms, their reluctance to translate that into improvements in the growth forecasts and therefore in tax revenues... I really hope that didn't come into it,' he said.

'I do think it's kind of a shame the Chancellor didn't try to insist he stay at least for the investigation and improvement in web processes... she could have given them a slap on the wrists about that and backed him, but she chose not to.'

Following Mr Hughes' resignation, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch claimed Ms Reeves was using the outgoing OBR chief as her 'human shield'.

'Someone has resigned as a result of the Budget chaos... but it isn't Rachel Reeves,' Mrs Badenoch posted on X.

'The Chancellor is trying to use the chair of the OBR as her human shield. But I will not let her. Why is it ALWAYS someone else's fault with Starmer and Reeves?'

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage MP said: 'Whatever the failings of the OBR, they have not wilfully attempted to mislead the British public.

'The wrong person has resigned today, it should have been Rachel Reeves.'

The announcement of Mr Hughes' exit appeared to have been timed until after the close of financial markets on Monday, perhaps due to fears it could spark meltdown.

His exit also means he will no longer be grilled by MPs on the Treasury Committee on Tuesday morning about the Budget process.

In a letter to the Chancellor and the House of Commons' Treasury Committee on Monday, Mr Hughes said he was taking 'full responsibility' for the embarrassing error

Criticism of the Chancellor has spread beyond Opposition parties.

Veteran Labour MP Graham Stringer said the preparation for the Budget had been 'chaotic and appalling' - and he predicted that both the Prime Minister and Chancellor could be ousted next year if they fail to turn things round before vital local elections in May.

He told LBC radio: 'I think that if the elections are as bad as they are, and if there is no improvement in basically the day to day business of government, as well as the medium term assessment, I can't see how they can stay.

'This government entered office with high hopes from virtually every Labour MP, and those hopes have been dashed.'
Killer whales 'violently' attacked a yacht carrying a Dutch family in the middle of the night off the coast of Portugal.

The terrifying attack took place off the coast of Nazare, a municipality in the Portuguese district of Leiria, as the family were sailing from Lisbon to Porto.

It is the latest example in the increasing trend of orcas teaming up to attack sailing vessels and comes just weeks after a family of five including three children needed rescuing when their yacht was sunk in an attack around 55miles south-east of Peniche, Portugal.

Killer whale attacks are common in the area with reports of rammings making headlines in recent months (file image)

Speaking to Portuguese news outlet Correio de Manha, a member of the Dutch family who had been on board the vessel recalled: 'We were sailing at night. Suddenly, we felt our boat moving violently'.

She said the yacht was being rocked back and forth at around 5am before they realised they were being attacked by orcas.

The boat was left damaged during the ordeal and began taking on water, leaving the family scrambling to make it back to solid ground.

Despite the predators swarming around the boat, the family miraculously managed to steer their wrecked vessel back to shore before it capsized on the sand.

Miraculously, no injuries were reported and the vessel was taken away by authorities for inspection.

Killer whale attacks are common in the area with reports of rammings making headlines in recent months.

In November, a French family were rescued from their sinking sailboat after it was targeted by orcas.

The hull was breached and water flooded the cabin, leaving the rudder severely damaged.

And in September, a crew of sailors recounted how they survived their terrifying encounter with killer whales - before the same pod of orcas sank a tourist vessel nearby.

The 'Nova Vida' set out on a day trip to sail from Cascais, off the coast of Lisbon, to Sines when the boat was attacked.

On board were three 20-year-old Norwegians, currently planning an expedition around the world, and their captain.

Chilling video from their cockpit shared with the Daily Mail showed the 57ft boat's steering wheels spinning as killer whales rammed the hull and rudder repeatedly just after 12pm on September 13.

The crew could be seen struggling to stand, and panic broke out as the yacht was pummelled again and again.

Elise Wurschmidt, on board at the time, told the Daily Mail the orcas pushed against the autopilot until the steering mechanism broke in two.

'We turned on the engine and some minutes later the wheel just starts to spin uncontrolled, so we figured something might be wrong,' she said. 'And then on the side of the boat we could just see a huge orca.'

The crew slammed the boat into reverse when the whales suddenly attacked the helm. Having sustained heavy hits to the rudder, 'we quickly lost control', fellow crew-member Lisa Festervoll told Seilmagasinet.

The whole boat shook, 'hit hard and quickly'. They were 'in disbelief' as a six-metre long killer whale passed by the side of the vessel, Lisa said.

They used what they had to hand, thinking back to old sailor stories of fighting off whales with sand and vinegar. The women are seen pouring vinegar - 'the cheapest one from Carrefour', they say - into the water,in an effort to deter the whales.

'We really don't think that the vinegar did anything,' Elise stressed. 'But we just poured because it's better than to feel helpless in the situation'.
The father of the British soldier who was accused of helping Russia to kill Ukrainians has expressed his shock at the discovery about his son.

It comes after Ross David Cutmore was detained in Ukraine on suspicion of covertly working for the Russians to supply firearms for major assassinations.

He is accused of importing and distributing weapons used in the killings of three Ukrainians between 2024 and 2025.

Cutmore, from Scotland and in his early 40s, had military experience from service in the British Army, during which he was deployed to the Middle East.

Speaking to the Telegraph outside his home near Dunfermline, his father, Ross John, said: It came as a shock to me. Im just lost for words. Im just a normal person. I go to work. Just living my life - normal family.

He said his ex-wife, Ross Davids mother, Claire, sent him the news that their son had been detained in Ukraine on Tuesday morning.

Asked if he was shocked, Ross John said: Thats the understatement of the year.

Also a former soldier and now a crane operator at a set of docks, the father refused to answer questions about his sons politics prior to travelling to Ukraine, but said he was himself firmly against Vladimir Putins invasion of the country.

Theyre fighting their oppressors, he said, adding: Victory to Ukraine.

British military instructor in Ukraine, Ross David Cutmore, in his early 40s, has been detained on suspicion of covertly working as a 'Russian spy' to supply firearms for three major assassinations

He is suspected of providing firearms used to kill former Ukrainian parliament speaker Andriy Parubiy (pictured above), a key anti-Russian figure, according to Ukrainian Pravda which cited intelligence sources

The British trainer is also suspected of providing firearms for the murder of Ukrainian nationalist and former MP Irina Farion, 60

Ross John described the situation as embarrassing and said he was still trying to process the developments about his son.

He said: You make your own choices in life. There is a right path and wrong path.

Cutmore arrived in Ukraine in January 2024 as a military instructor, to assist in the training and preparation of Ukrainian army personnel in the southern city of Mykolaiv.

He later worked as a border guard unit.

After moving to Odesa in September 2024, he allegedly began offering help to the Russian special services and agreed to exchange military information for money.

Russian special services then provided him with firearms and ammunition 'to carry out targeted killings on the territory of Ukraine,' alleged the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU).

In one of three assassinations he is linked to, Cutmore is suspected of providing firearms used to kill former Ukrainian parliament speaker Andriy Parubiy, a key anti-Russian figure.

Parubiy was assassinated in Lviv - shot dead in broad daylight - on August 30, 2025.

Another assassination linked to the British military trainer was Demyan Hanul (pictured above), 31, a Ukrainian nationalist campaigner wanted by Russia, who was gunned down in Odesa in March

Servicemen of the 28th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine attend a military exercise between combat missions, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine December 1, 2025

He was earlier secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine.

The killing sparked widespread shock and condemnation across Ukraine - but was celebrated by hardline Russian war fanatics.

The SSU said it had enough evidence to prove that Russian intelligence agencies had ordered the killing.

The British trainer is also suspected of providing firearms for the murder of Ukrainian nationalist and former MP Irina Farion, 60.

Farion infuriated Moscow for years before she was killed in her home city Lviv in July 2025.

The professor died after she was rushed to hospital after being shot in the head by a gunman.

Viacheslav Zinchenko, 18, was arrested on suspicion of the former politician's murder but has denied direct involvement.

The third assassination linked to Cutmore was Demyan Hanul, 31, a Ukrainian nationalist campaigner wanted by Russia, who was gunned down in Odesa in March.

He was shot twice with a short-barrelled gun as he walked on a street in the Black Sea port, said reports at the time.

The 31-year-old was a blogger and founder of the NGO Street Front, and had taken part in the EuroMaidan Revolution and other anti-Russian demonstrations.

A 46-year-old Ukrainian soldier who had deserted his unit, Serhii Shalaiev, pleaded guilty to the killing two days later.

Cutmore allegedly passed information to Moscow on the coordinates of Ukrainian units, as well as photographs of a training facility, and intelligence about military personnel that could be used to identify them.

He also allegedly gathered information about facilities in Odesa, spoke about using explosive devices and tried to gain access to military unit commanders, even receiving 4,500 for one of these tasks.

He was detained with the help of the British secret services in October, although his identity was not made public at the time.

The SSU alleged that he had passed information about the Ukrainian armed forces to Russia and was preparing to commit terrorist attacks.

A Ukrainian security service source said: Cutmore is currently detained and in custody, and the investigation is ongoing.'

Ukrainian outlet Pravda reported: 'The SBU counterintelligence service, in cooperation with British special services, exposed Ross David Cutmore, a British citizen who, on behalf of Russian special services, carried out reconnaissance and sabotage activities in Ukraine in 2024-2025.'

He is believed to be from Dunfermline, but also to have lived in Rosyth.

Cutmore could face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property for his actions, Ukrinform said.

It comes as four people were killed and 40 wounded in a Russian missile attack on the eastern-central Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Monday.

A Russian solider walks through Pokrovsk as the Kremlin announced that Moscow's forces had taken control of the city in the Donetsk region and Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region on December 2, 2025

Eleven of those injured in the strike were in a serious condition.

The attack came amid an intensified diplomatic push to end the nearly four-year war, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visiting Paris on Monday, a day after his team held talks with U.S. officials.

Ukraine's emergency services said car service stations, other businesses, an office building and 49 cars were all damaged in the attack.

Vitalii Kovalenko was working in his car repair shop when the missile hit.

'Everyone fell to the floor, then we started to figure out where the employees were. I ran upstairs and saw that one guy was fine, but he was a bit covered in shrapnel,' he said, adding that luckily all his employees were alive.

Pictures posted on Telegram showed firefighters working at the site of the strike and emergency services workers evacuating people on stretchers as well as a body in a black bag.

The industrial city of Dnipro and the surrounding region have faced repeated Russian missile and drone attacks that have killed civilians and damaged housing, industry and infrastructure.

President Putin hailed what his commanders told him was the full Russian capture of the city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine as an important victory after a prolonged campaign, saying it would help Moscow fulfil its wider war aims.

Russia, which uses the Soviet-era name of Krasnoarmeysk to refer to the city, has faced fierce Ukrainian resistance in its battle since mid-2024 to capture Pokrovsk, once a strategic logistics hub for the Ukrainian army.

'I want to thank you. This is an important direction. We all understand just how important,' Putin, dressed in military uniform and sitting in a command centre, told the army's top brass in a video released by the Kremlin late on Monday.
Princess Anne's daughter Zara Tindall was a breath of fresh air as she joined her for a rare royal engagement last week in London - but not before stopping to munch on a biscuit.

Last week, the former Olympian, 44, was photographed leaving Horse Guards with Anne, 75, for the annual World Horse Welfare conference at the Royal Geographical Society in London.

Whether it was due to Zara or not, the Princess Royal appeared ebullient as she shook hands with aides, as royal watchers noted that Zara brings out a side to Anne that we don't often see.

Fans were 'delighted' to see the pair together, after a clip of them leaving for the event was shared on X/Twitter.

Social media users praised Zara for her 'down-to-earth' attitude after they noticed the mother-of-three dash out of Horse Guards with a snack for the road.

'Zara with the biscuit to go!' one fan wrote.

Another noted: 'Zara Tindall is her mother's daughter through and through.'

Zara's rare royal outing went down a treat, according to the Daily Mail's Diary Editor, Richard Eden, who added: 'Personally, I would like to see Zara taking on more public duties in the future.'

Princess Anne's daughter Zara Tindall was a breath of fresh air as she joined her for a rare royal engagement last week in London - but not before stopping to munch on a biscuit

Whether it was due to Zara or not, the Princess Royal appeared ebullient as she shook hands with aides, as royal watchers noted that Zara brings out a side to Anne that we don't often see

Noting how the Princess Royal supported the late Queen Elizabeth II during public engagements, Mr Eden felt Zara and Anne's relationship had evolved similarly over the years.

He also explained how Zara, who has previously praised her family's work ethic, could be a 'huge help' to Prince William when he ascends the throne.

'Look at the way that Queen Elizabeth was supported so well by her own cousins, such as the Duke of Kent, who is still working at the age of 90,' he added.

Although Zara rarely undertakes royal engagements, society bible Tatler noted that her 'impact' at these events is 'on par' with some of the Firm's most senior members when she does.

This was certainly the case when she urged fellow equestrians to see the world 'through the horse's eyes' while addressing the welfare conference in London on November 21.

Zara, who is a patron of the World Horse Welfare charity, also noted that equine transportation has become 'more stressful' post-Brexit as she added 'our travel time for horses and their welfare has definitely gone downhill'.

'I know people are doing it less and less now because it's such hard work. It's more stressful on the horses than it used to be. It's got worse,' the Olympic silver medallist shared her own experiences of bringing her horse abroad.

Days after she attended the conference with her mother, Zara stepped out again - but this time, to support her cousin Prince William at the 2025 Tusk Conservation Awards.

Although Zara rarely undertakes royal engagements, society bible Tatler noted that her 'impact' at these events is 'on par' with some of the Firm's most senior members when she does

Days after she attended the conference with her mother, Zara stepped out again - but this time, to support her cousin Prince William at the 2025 Tusk Conservation Awards

Conservation charity Tusk is one of Prince William's most significant patronages and the future King handed out several awards, including the eponymous Prince William Award for Conservation in Africa, at the award ceremony in London last week.

At one point, Zara - who attended the event with her husband Mike - appeared emotional when William paid tribute to wildlife rangers who tragically made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty'.

A photo of Zara in the audience showed her listening intently, as it appeared she was visibly moved by the future King's passion for the charity he has supported since 2005.

As commentators and fans alike will be hoping to see more of Zara at public events for the Firm, the mother-of-three has previously said she feels 'lucky' she wasn't given a royal title at birth.

Speaking to former rugby player Rob Burrow on his Total Sport podcast two years ago, Zara reflected on her and brother Peter's role in the Institution in a candid chat.

'From my point of view, I was obviously very lucky that my mother didn't give us any titles so I really commend her on that,' Zara said.

'We were very lucky that we got to do it a bit our own way.'

She praised her family for their 'great work ethic' that was also instilled in her and 'is still going to this day'.

As commentators and fans alike will be hoping to see more of Zara at public events for the Firm, the mother-of-three has previously said she feels 'lucky' she wasn't given a royal title at birth

'Hopefully, we can pass it onto our kids,' Zara continued. 'Now, my brother and my cousins love to go back and do the same things, and I hope that our children have the same experiences that we did when we were growing up.

'You don't really appreciate that until you're older and you've got kids.'

When Princess Anne welcomed her son Peter in 1977, she decided with her then-husband Mark Philips that they didn't want to give their children the HRH titles they were entitled to in a bid to give them as normal an upbringing as possible.

Listeners of Total Sport also learned the cheeky nickname Mike has for Prince William, when he revealed he calls the 43-year-old 'One Pint Willy' during the episode.

He is known to me as One Pint Willy because he is not the best of drinkers, coming from a sport where it is built on the social aspect and a couple of beers being sunk quite often. That is one I will give away for the Prince of Wales,' the former rugby player said.

Zara can be heard laughing before saying: Oh my god. You are in so much trouble.

It comes after Zara and Mike recently announced they were heading to the Magic Millions Carnival on the Gold Coast in Brisbane, Australia, in the New Year.

Speaking to the Daily Mail at the Beauty Awards in London last week, Zara confirmed they will be spending Christmas at Sandringham with King Charles and the rest of the Royal Family.
When King Charles III first embarked on plans to build an urban extension to the ancient market town of Poundbury, he was determined to break the mould of conventional housing development and create an attractive place for people to live, work and play.

Many people said that it could never succeed, but I am happy to say that the sceptics were wrong and it is now a thriving urban settlement alongside Dorchester, he added.

Charles was speaking as the 24th Duke of Cornwall about the town which was designed in accordance with the principles of architecture he advocated in his book A Vision of Britain.

However, there is one sceptic who disagrees with his assessment: Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud has compared the interiors of the houses on the Poundbury estate to a modern developer home and believes they are intolerable as an environment to put people in.

McCloud, 66, who graduated in the history of art and architecture from Cambridge University, and has since earned his living as a designer, author, and TV host was presenting a keynote lecture at the V&A Museum last week to celebrate the 50th anniversary of SAVE Britains Heritage.

Kevin McCloud who graduated in the history of art and architecture from Cambridge

King Charles visiting a Poundbury construction site with Peter Lacey the project manager

In his speech, entitled Reinventing Buildings: A Manifesto For The Imagination, he said: My general view is, and its a personal one Im exercising my taste here, that I cant bear the idea of reproducing an idea without it carrying the spirit of the age.

'Ill give you a very simple example of this.

Ive been to Poundbury quite a lot, and there are some very fine built Georgian houses with lime mortar joints, very correct, rubbed detailing and proper section glazing bars, lambs tongue, whatever. And its all great. But you go inside these buildings, and theyre dead because theyre built of breeze block.

I went inside a beautiful thatched cottage in Poundbury to visit a couple, and they werent allowed to stick a conservatory on the back or a sunroom or anything because there were all kinds of design conditions around the scheme.

'The interesting thing about a 17th-century thatched cottage is that it usually has the concomitant range you think of charming interior details, flagstone floor, a little bit of damp rising up the wall, big hearth, open fireplace, crooked beams and wonky ceilings.

And it was just horrible because it was like walking into a modern developer home, only the ceilings you banged your head on.

'It was intolerable as an environment to put people in, I thought from the experience of the architecture internally.

The inheritance of the Duchy of Cornwall has made the new Prince of Wales the biggest private landowner in Britain, with a a 1.2billion holding across 23 counties. Here, Poundbury reflects King Charles III's traditional approach to architecture and urban planning

'Of course, there are buildings there which are very high-status, and theyre the ones that you get shown around but I think there are other less comfortable aspects to it.

I have every respect for his Majestys tastes and views being the King.

'Obviously, his taste arrogates itself about mine or anybody elses, right? So that we understand. I think, as a social experiment, as an architectural experiment, great interesting. But no, not for me.

In his lecture, McCloud, who hosts the podcast Tim & Kev's Big Design Adventure with Tim Ross, also called for a moratorium on demolishing buildings within the first 100 years of their life.

The listing was granted on St Pancras, I think five days before the bulldozers were due to come in, he said, so it was an absolutely last-minute thing.

https://www.savebritainsheritage.org/news
A rare, diamond-encrusted Faberge egg crafted for Russian royalty is set to fetch an eye-watering 20million in a record-breaking Christie's auction that begins today.

One of the world's foremost authorities on Faberge, Kieran McCarthy, told the Daily Mail that the breathtaking, 112-year-old curio is 'the most iconic example of decorative art ever' for its exquisite craftsmanship as well as its legacy.

Of the 50 Imperial eggs crafted by the House of Faberge for Tsars Alexander III and Nicholas II, 43 remain in existence - but only seven of these are owned privately.

According to Mr McCarthy, however, only three Imperial Faberge eggs are in 'truly private' hands - making the auction of the delicate Winter Egg something of a milestone moment.

The first Imperial egg that Faberge created was commissioned by Russian emperor, Tsar Alexander III in 1885, as an Easter present for his wife, Tsarina Maria Feodorovna, sister of the future Queen Alexandra.

She was so enamoured by the white enamel egg, with a gorgeous gold interior and the tiny golden hen hidden inside, that the Emperor continued the tradition every year until his death from nephritis in November 1894.

Their son, Tsesarevich Nicholas, increased the Imperial commission when he became emperor, and ordered two eggs  one for his beloved mother, the dowager, and the other for his equally beloved wife, Empress Alexandra.

After the initial egg, Faberge had been declared goldsmith by special appointment to the Imperial Crown and given complete freedom to create whatever they so desired - as long as each egg contained a 'surprise'.

A rare, diamond-encrusted Faberge egg crafted for Russian royalty is set to fetch an eye-watering 20million in a record-breaking Christie's auction that begins today

And the Winter Egg really does 'eclipse almost all else', Mr McMcarthy said, while highlighting its 'incredible craftsmanship'.

It is one of two Imperial eggs that were designed by Alma Pihl, the granddaughter of Faberges workmaster August Holmstrom.

Mr McCarthy, who is the co-managing director at Wartski, the British antique jewellery dealer specialising in Faberge, told this newspaper that the Winter Egg was the climax of inspiration from a series of jewels that were, in fact, created for Swedish oil baron Emanuel Nobel.

In late 1912, Pihl was in the Faberge atelier in St Petersburg, trying to design a collection of jewellery for the nephew of Alfred Nobel, when she looked up and saw that the windows in the roof of the atelier were covered in ice and snowflakes.

Inspired, she created a series called the Winter Jewels, in which she used rock crystal encrusted with platinum and diamonds to create frost patterns.

She then repeated this idea, even more sumptuously, of course, with the 1913 Easter Imperial Egg for Tsar Nicholas's mother, Dowager Empress, Maria Feodorovna.

Margo Oganesian, the head of Christies Faberge and Russian Works of Art department, compared the four-inch tall egg with over 4,500 diamonds to a 'luxurious Kinder Surprise chocolate'.

Rock crystal is exceptionally difficult to carve without cracking and, as Ms Oganesian explained, the procedure of applying platinum set with thousands of diamonds 'would have been really hard to create'.

Alma Pihl, the granddaughter of Faberges workmaster August Holmstrom, designed the 1913 Easter Imperial Egg for Tsar Nicholas's mother, Dowager Empress, Maria Feodorovna (pictured)

Tsar Nicholas and his wife, Empress Alexandra, with their five children, before the Russian revolution

Margo Oganesian, the head of Christies Faberge and Russian Works of Art department, compared the four-inch tall egg with over 4,500 diamonds to a 'luxurious Kinder Surprise chocolate'

The effect is one of utter magnificence: minuscule rose-cut diamonds set in platinum are applied onto the crystal surface as sparkling snowflakes, while further diamonds are over the base as though the ice is melting in rivulets.

The surprise is a diamond and platinum basket, filled with a posy of finely carved white quartz wood anemones, rising from a bed of gold moss, to symbolise the beginning of spring.

Two years after Tsar Nicholas and his family were executed in 1918, the egg was sold for 450 to Wartski in London, who became the main dealers of the imperial jewellers objets dart.

In 1934, it went to Lord Alington of Crichel House in Dorset, for 1,500.

Since then, this intricate collector's item has changed hands many times. Most recently, it was acquired by a distant relative of the Emir of Qatar for $9.6million (around 7.2million) at a Christie's auction in New York in 2002.

But tonight, at Christies, the egg considered by the worlds foremost expert on Faberge to be 'the greatest of them all, the most iconic example of decorative art ever, with no comparables,' will be (metaphorically we hope!) under the hammer and potentially shatter all records.

What a Christmas present to be given this winter.
On the latest episode of the Daily Mail's Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things podcast, royal biographers Robert Hardman and Kate Williams describe the brutal execution of Anne Boleyn - and the conspiracy that saw her condemned.

Anne was King Henry VIII's second wife - and the first English queen ever executed, beheaded on trumped-up charges of incest, adultery and treason.

Henry famously split England from the Church of Rome to end his 24-year long marriage to Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne in 1533, pinning his hopes on the young noblewoman to provide him with a male heir and future King.

Anne Boleyn was King Henry VIII's second wife - and the first English queen ever executed, beheaded on trumped-up charges of incest, adultery and treason

Anne did give Henry a child who would change history - just not in the way he expected. Anne's daughter Elizabeth I would become one of England's greatest ever monarchs.

After her mother's execution and Henry's marriage to Jane Seymour just 11 days later, three-year-old Elizabeth was relegated from princess to Lady.

Throughout her adolescence, her position was perilous - removed from the line of succession and branded the bastard daughter of a woman convicted of high treason.

As a result, there is no historical record of what Elizabeth thought of her father ordering the execution of her mother.

On the podcast, historian Williams discusses one treasured item Elizabeth wore until her dying day, which may signal her lasting love for Anne and a secret act of rebellion against her tyrannical father.

The Chequers Ring

Kept at Chequers, the Prime Minister's country residence, is a delicate mother-of-pearl ring set with gold and rubies.

Called the Chequers ring, it has been dated to around 1570, made approximately 12 years into Elizabeth's reign.

Diamonds on the ring form the letter 'E' with a blue enamel 'R' beneath - Elizabeth Regina, confirming it belonged to the Queen herself.

The story goes that the ring was removed from Queen Elizabeth's finger on her deathbed in 1603.

Kept at Chequers, the Prime Minister's country residence, is a delicate mother-of-pearl ring set with gold and rubies

The story goes that the Chequers Ring was removed from Queen Elizabeth's finger on her deathbed in 1603

As Chequers is not open to the public, the ring is rarely displayed and has only been exhibited a handful of times.

'Elizabeth remembered her mother - we know this because of the Chequers ring', Williams told the podcast.

'She had been too politic to talk about Anne publicly - at the court of Henry VIII, she has to survive.

'But the ring has a locket inside. In the locket, there is a portrait of Anne Boleyn. So, for most of her reign, Elizabeth wore on her finger a ring containing her mother.

'To her death, she wore a secret miniature portrait of Anne. Elizabeth never forgot her mother.'

Legend has it that the ring was taken to Scotland to prove to James VI that the Queen had really died - such was its symbolic connection to Elizabeth's power and reign.

To listen to more stories like this one, search for Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things now, wherever you get your podcasts or on YouTube.
David Dimbleby has criticised the Royal Family for its 'snail's pace abandonment' of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

The veteran BBC royal broadcaster said Buckingham Palace can become 'behind the curve' when trying to judge the public mood, adding that this is 'notoriously difficult'.

Dimbleby, 87, linked the Andrew response to criticism of the family after the death of Princess Diana in 1997 when they were deemed aloof and uncaring for staying silent.

The former duke has for many years faced allegations that he sexually assaulted a teenage Virginia Giuffre after she was trafficked by convicted paedophile Epstein.

He stepped down from royal duties in 2019 after his disastrous Newsnight interview, before paying millions to Ms Giuffre to settle a civil sexual assault claim in 2022.

But Andrew continued to attend some royal events in recent years as he clung on to his diminishing status while strenuously denying accusations of wrongdoing.

In recent weeks the publication of Ms Giuffre's posthumous memoirs and the US government's release of papers from Epstein's estate brought fresh focus on him.

Now, Andrew has been stripped of his birthright to be a prince and an HRH and had his Duke of York title removed from the Roll of the Peerage by his brother King Charles III for his 'serious lapses of judgment' over his friendship with Epstein.

Veteran BBC broadcaster David Dimbleby is presenting new series What's the Monarchy For?

Andrew and Sarah at the Duchess of Kent's funeral at Westminster Cathedral on September 16

In an article for the Radio Times, Dimbleby explained how he had been investigating the evolution of royal finances for his new BBC series, What's the Monarchy For?

Writing about the Crown Estate, he said: 'Its declared aim is to maximise profit for the good of the whole nation. Whether leasing a huge house to Andrew for a peppercorn rent lasting 75 years maximises profit for the nation is for them to explain.'

The disgraced former prince is set to move from Royal Lodge in Windsor to the King's private Sandringham estate in Norfolk in the new year, completing his internal exile.

Dimbleby continued: 'The public mood is all important to monarchy, for obvious reasons. Once the monarchy had abandoned its executive role, gradually giving it up to Parliament (no more executions of opponents), it existed only with the consent of the public.

'Keeping in step with public feeling became a matter of pressing concern for the Sovereign and the Sovereign's advisers. But judging the public mood is notoriously difficult.

'It is subject to irrational shifts and, with their first response to the death of Diana and the snail's pace abandonment of Andrew in the face of his relationship with Epstein, the palace can get  as they put it  'behind the curve'.'

Yesterday, Charles officially stripped his brother of his prestigious Order of the Garter and Royal Victorian Order honours.

Andrew and Charles at Westminster Cathedral in September for the Duchess of Kent's funeral

The King directed that Andrew's titles should be 'cancelled and annulled' and his name 'erased' from the historic orders' registers.

Andrew was previously made a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter in 2006 and a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order in 2011 by his mother the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Last month politicians in the US criticised Andrew for his 'silence' after he missed a deadline last month to respond to their request to sit for an interview about Epstein.

Andrew remains a vice-admiral in the Royal Navy despite the Government pledging to remove the honorary rank.

Earlier this week in a BBC article also promoting his series, Dimbleby said Prince William was trying to save the monarchy by looking look like an 'ordinary Joe'.

Dimbleby believes William and Kate are working hard to halt the fall in popularity of the monarchy by appealing to young people who view the institution as old fashioned.

He cited William zipping around Windsor Castle on an e-scooter, Kate's moving videos during her battle with cancer and their 'off duty' social media posts of their young family as means of positively connecting with the public.

Dimbleby, whose brother Jonathan Dimbleby is a close friend of King Charles, believes that the Prince and Princess of Wales are succeeding in keeping the royal brand positive because they are consistently the most popular British royals.

Back in 1997, the royals drew scorn from the press and many ordinary Britons for perceived indifference when Diana died.

Virginia Giuffre photographed with Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell in London in 2001

That had been a rare misstep by Queen Elizabeth II and experts believe it marked a turning point in the Royal Family's relationship with the public.

Angry Britons openly criticised the royals for remaining silent when Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris aged 36, a year after she divorced Charles in a public and acrimonious split.

The Queen and her grandsons William and Harry, then aged 15 and 12 respectively, initially remained in Balmoral, a decision some saw as evidence of an over-privileged family, funded by the taxpayer, that was aloof and uncaring.

For others, it was seen a natural move by a family looking to protect the young princes - and the queen herself said that in an address to the nation about Diana.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people poured into London ahead of Diana's funeral, leaving a sea of flowers outside her residence - a reaction that appeared to catch the Queen off guard.

Eventually the Queen did travel to London, greeted crowds outside Buckingham Palace and made the rare address to the nation on the eve of the funeral. As Diana's horse-drawn coffin passed her and her family, she bowed her head in respect.

The Queen said in the televised address: 'We have all been trying in our different ways to cope.'

What's the Monarchy For? begins on BBC One at 9pm tonight
TikTok has revealed its pick of the hottest destinations for the coming year - and it throws up more than a few surprises.

The social media platform has become a go-to for travellers looking for inspiration, with TikTok reporting searches for holiday content is up 131 per cent year-on-year.

Revealing exclusively to the Daily Mail the destinations that look set to be on travellers' wish-lists in 2026, the platform says search data shows that lesser-known European escapes, including unexpected city breaks, are expected to soar next year.

Elsewhere classic Mediterranean destinations and alternative staycations look likely to be on people's travel wishlist.

Central Europe dominates the intel on potential city breaks, with Frankfurt, Germany's financial hub - officially known as Frankfurt-on-the-Main set to woo weekenders away from the likes of Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne.

And tiny Liechtenstein, which sits betwixt Switzerland and Austria, looks set to grab a slice of the tourism pie, thanks to its beautiful mountains, views of the Rhine and turreted castles.

TikTok says the rise of 'slow travel' has put the fairytale country on the map for tourists as they seek alpine relaxation.

In the UK, St Andrews Lakes in Kent has also seen a burst of interest, says the social media platform.

The waterscape is on the site of a former quarry and boasts blue water that wouldn't be out of place in the Med.

It's become a hit thanks to its sauna, lodge accommodation and activities; there's an aqua park, open water swimming, kayaking and paddleboarding.

In a former quarry in Kent, just an hour outside of London, St Andrew's Lakes - known for its blue waters - is on TikTok's list of popular staycations for 2026

Two Italian destinations could be on travellers' radars when peak booking season arrives in January.

Resort town Milano Marittima, on the less well-known Adriatic coast, is garnering interest, as is Bologna.

The birthplace of Spaghetti Bolognese, also home to the world's oldest university, is rivalling big hitters Venice and Rome thanks to low-cost flights with Ryanair and British Airways.

Plenty of favourites also look likely to continue to attract huge amounts of tourists with Spain's Malaga and the Costa Brava receiving plenty of attention.

When it comes to cities, TikTok says Copenhagen, Budapest, Florence and Naples also featured in the most popular destinations searched.

This week, the Daily Mail reported on another rising trend for 2026: Extreme Day Trips.

Who needs Venice? Bologna is also set for a bumper year according to the social media platform

TIKTOK'S 2026 TRAVEL TREND PREDICTIONS Milano Marittima, Italy

Liechtenstein

Frankfurt, Germany

Bologna, Italy

St Andrews Lakes, UK Advertisement

Fans of the 'Cinderella' style adventures, which see travellers jetting off at dawn to European beach or city destinations before turning on their heels and returning to their own bed at night, say the trips have all the highs of international holidays, without the financial outlay.

With a raft of low-cost carriers - including Ryanair, easyJet, WizzAir and Jet2, already offering flights from as little as 15 each way, it's feasible to see some of Europe's most famous tourist spots for around 30 to 50 return, provided you can handle an airport twice in one day.

While almost all airlines already allow travellers to search for such day trips, increased demand could see carriers promoting 'day return' destinations in the way the railway industry does.

Travel groups dedicated to swapping tips on Extreme Day Trips, known as 'EDTs', have emerged in recent years, with fans of the sub 24-hour breaks sharing tips, such as destinations with airports that are close to tourist centre

What sort of EDTs are currently available? A Ryanair flight that gives you nearly eight hours on the ground in Barcelona costs 48.98 return based on February flights departing London Stansted.

Or a day trip to the Christmas market in Nantes, France, costs just 35, based on travel on December 1st with easyJet from London Gatwick.

The Extreme Day Trip concept was the brainchild of Michael Cracknell, who started a private Facebook group dedicated to quick hops three years ago.

The private group now has more than 336,000 members, with thousands of posts clocked up every month.

Day trip destinations regularly mentioned include Alicante, Berlin and Venice, as well as Christmas market destinations across Europe - with one adventurous traveller touting Bahrain as a viable day return destination this week.

Fans of the brief adventures say they are 'low commitment and high buzz' and more cost effective for many because there are no accommodation costs involved - you get to sleep in your own bed at night.

The trend has also spawned a website, extremedaytrips.com, which is operated by Rick Blyth.

He told the Daily Mail this week: 'Extreme Day Trips work because they give people an exciting, low-cost escape without the faff of annual leave, hotel costs or extensive planning.

'With an early start, you can see so much in 10-12 hours on the ground at your chosen destination and you always get that "I cant believe we did that" feeling when you get home.'

The day tripper has been to destinations all over Europe including the icy summit of the Chamonix glacier and Lisbon with his mum.

He says it's possible to traverse international boundaries by the time most people have only had their morning coffee if you're prepared to get up early.

Does he think 'day return' tickets will happen anytime soon? Blyth says carriers may be happy to stick with their current model.

'Im not sure well see a formal day return ticket introduced by the airlines any time soon, as they already price flights dynamically.

'A fixed day return product might actually make less sense for them than simply continuing to offer those early out and late back rotations that already work perfectly for business travellers and Extreme Day Trippers alike.'
A weekend in Broadstairs, Kent, sounds great - classic seaside atmosphere, pretty beaches, lots of restaurants, easily accessible by train.

But what if you could spend an afternoon in Margate en route, without paying a penny more?

There's a simple travel hack that could help you get more for your money and visit three places for the price of just one.

Angus Cameron, 36, is head of industry strategy booking platform Trainline, and has worked in the industry for more than 10 years.

He shared his insights and expertise, encouraging train passengers to make the most of their journeys.

Angus explained: 'Customers sometimes don't realise they can break their journey without buying multiple tickets.

'If you have an Anytime ticket, which is the most flexible product that's available on routes in the UK, you can get off the train as many times as you want between your origin and destination, and then board again with the same ticket.'

In short, purchasing an 'Anytime' rail ticket could get you up to three trips for the price of one.

Angus Cameron, 36, is head of industry strategy at Trainline and has worked in the industry for more than 10 years

He shared his insights and expertise, encouraging train passengers to make the most of their journeys

Angus added: 'What is, of course, unfortunate to see is where customers have bought multiple tickets for that type of adventure.

'You can go from London to Broadstairs, breaking your journey in Whitstable and Margate for as long as you want within the duration of your ticket eligibility, and really have a proper adventure and a day out on the train for the price of one ticket, rather than taking on the complexity and the price of buying multiple fares.'

According to the Trainline website: 'To put it simply, Anytime train tickets allow for flexible outward and return travel between two stations, either on a single day or returning within a one-month period.

'There are no restrictions on the time of day you can travel with an Anytime ticket, meaning you can board a train during Peak, Off-Peak or Super Off-Peak hours.'

This tactic is always possible with Anytime tickets. With Off-Peak and Super Off-Peak tickets, it's permitted on some routes, depending on operator conditions - although it won't work with Advance tickets.

Travellers can check ticket conditions easily in the Trainline app by tapping the i icon before paying - look for the 'Break of Journey' section in the ticket details.

Trainline experts shared 10 top routes that can be completed with a single Off-Peak or Anytime ticket, allowing travellers to hop on and off freely at each stop.

1. Bristol to Salisbury (stops at Bath Spa and Bradford-on-Avon)  1 hour 15 minutes

Bath is an ancient Roman town known for its Roman Baths and the iconic Royal Crescent

Bath is an ancient Roman town known for its Roman Baths and the iconic Royal Crescent - and you can stop for free on this train journey.

Next, Bradford-on-Avon is a riverside gem ideal for summer strolls and picnics.

And Salisbury is one of the UK's most historic cities, home to Salisbury Cathedral and a copy of the Magna Carta.

2. London Victoria to Broadstairs (stops at Whitstable and Margate)  1 hour 50 minutes

Broadstairs is a quieter seaside town with sandy beaches and literary heritage at the Dickens House Museum

Whitstable is known for its fresh seafood, independent pubs and shingle beach - and makes for a great day out.

Margate offers a thriving art scene, the Turner Contemporary and the vintage amusement park, Dreamland.

For the end of your journey, Broadstairs is a quieter seaside town with sandy beaches and literary heritage at the Dickens House Museum.

3. Edinburgh to Pitlochry (stops at Stirling and Dunkeld & Birnam)  2 hours

Pitlochry is home to the Edradour Distillery and the Pitlochry Dam and Fish Ladder

Stirling, a great spot to stop if you take a slight detour, features major attractions including Stirling Castle and the Wallace Monument.

Dunkeld offers cathedral ruins beside the River Tay and forest walks linked to Scottish folklore.

And finally, Pitlochry is home to the Edradour Distillery and the Pitlochry Dam and Fish Ladder.

4. Exeter to Hayle (stops at Totnes and Truro)  3 hours

Totnes is a historic Devon town with castle views and peaceful riverside paths

Fancy a weekend away? Totnes is a historic Devon town with castle views and peaceful riverside paths, and is a great first stop on this route.

Truro is Cornwall's cathedral city, famous for its Victorian market and independent shops.

And to finish it off, Hayle offers beautiful beaches, coastal scenery and a rich industrial past.

5. Cardiff to Tenby (stop at Carmarthen)  2 hour 40 minutes

Tenby is a picture-postcard seaside destination with pastel houses, sandy beaches and a charming harbour

If you're looking for a stopping point on this route, Carmarthen is a market town steeped in Welsh legend and medieval history.

Tenby is a picture-postcard seaside destination with pastel houses, sandy beaches and a charming harbour.

6. Manchester to Sheffield (stops at New Mills Central and Edale)  1 hour 20 minutes

Sheffield combines industrial heritage with cultural attractions including Kelham Island Museum

Combine historic towns with one ticket, starting at New Mills, which provides access to dramatic Peak District views and traditional pubs.

Edale is the starting point for the popular circular walk to Mam Tor.

And Sheffield combines industrial heritage with cultural attractions including Kelham Island Museum.

7. Oxford to Worcester (stops at Charlbury and Moreton-in-Marsh)  1 hour 25 minutes

Worcester offers riverside views, a grand cathedral and centuries of local heritage

Charlbury is a quiet Cotswold village surrounded by woodland and walking routes - perfect for a quick pit stop.

Moreton-in-Marsh is a classic market town known for antiques, cafes and Cotswold charm.

Worcester offers riverside views, a grand cathedral and centuries of local heritage.

8. Leeds to Scarborough (stops at Knaresborough and Malton)  1 hour 55 minutes

Scarborough provides sandy bays, cliff-top walking routes and the ruins of a medieval castle

Knaresborough is known for its dramatic viaduct views over the River Nidd, and can easily be reached if you take a slightly windy and yet simple route.

Malton is Yorkshire's self-proclaimed 'food capital,' offering artisan producers and bustling markets - a great option to break up your journey.

When you arrive at your final spot, Scarborough provides sandy bays, cliff-top walking routes and the ruins of a medieval castle.

9. Glasgow to Oban (stops at Dumbarton and Crianlarich)  3 hours 15 minutes

Oban is regarded as the 'Seafood Capital of Scotland' and serves as a gateway to the Hebridean islands

Dumbarton features an imposing castle perched on volcanic rock above the River Clyde.

You can combine this with a visit to Crianlarich, a Highland village surrounded by mountains and scenic hiking routes.

Finally, Oban is regarded as the 'Seafood Capital of Scotland' and serves as a gateway to the Hebridean islands.

10. Newcastle to Carlisle (stops at Hexham and Haltwhistle)  1 hour 50 minutes

Hexham is a lively market town built around its historic Abbey

Hexham is a lively market town built around its historic Abbey - and you can visit on the way to Carlisle.

Haltwhistle provides easy access to some of the best-preserved sections of Hadrian's Wall.

The final destination on this route, Carlisle offers a medieval castle, cathedral and riverside walks.
Airbus has discovered a new issue with its A320 plane - just days after a software error grounded thousands of planes.

The company has confirmed it has identified a supplier quality issue affecting a limited number of A320 metal panels.

According to Airbus, all potentially affected aircraft would be checked.

However, it is hoped most will not need further action, the Telegraph reported.

An Airbus spokesperson said: 'Airbus confirms it has identified a supplier quality issue affecting a limited number of A320 metal panels.

'As it always does when faced with quality issues in its supply chain, Airbus is taking a conservative approach and is inspecting all aircraft potentially impacted - knowing that only a portion of them will need further action to be taken.

'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. And the issue was related to quality control rather than safety.

Airbus has discovered a new issue with its A320 plane - just days after a software error grounded thousands of planes

There were no indications that any of the issues had affected aircraft in service.

However, shares in Airbus fell 11 per cent following the update.

It comes just days after almost a thousand jets were grounded as Airbus admitted urgent repairs were needed.

This follows a horror incident last month aboard a JetBlue flight, which was attributed to a computer code error within Airbus's A320 planes.

At least 15 JetBlue passengers were injured when an aircraft suddenly dropped in altitude, forcing an emergency landing in Florida.

Thousands of jets were grounded last Friday as Airbus raced to issue a software update for 6,000 of its A320 planes.

It was hoped the issue would be resolved quickly.

However, approximately 900 older planes in the Airbus fleet require an entirely new computer, prompting further delays.

The company unearthed a 'quality issue' with metal fuselage panels on several models of the A320

Several UK airlines were forced to undergo safety checks in some Airbus A320 aircraft.

Passengers were warned to expect flight delays over the weekend as a result.

Gatwick, Wizz Air and easyJet issued updates after the firm announced it had discovered a potential vulnerability in its onboard software.

The Daily Mail has contacted Airbus for comment.
Simon Cowell's relationship with fiancee Lauren Silverman will come under scrutiny in his new Netflix docuseries, The Next Act.

The show, which will be released on Wednesday 10 December, will follow the music mogul, 65, as he tries to make a band.

Now, insiders have claimed fans can expect tense rows between the pair with the six-part series showing their relationship 'warts and all'.

Lauren, 48, was said to be initially reluctant to be a part of the series but 'fans will get to see first-hand just how big a part of Simons life she is'.

A source told The Sun: 'This will be the making of Lauren. Initially she was reluctant to be a part of it, but the crew were everywhere and in the end it was impossible to avoid.

'It was only fair to viewers to show the real Lauren and Simon - warts and all. Theres a scene in the show where you see them really bickering and it makes for very tense, uncomfortable viewing.

Simon Cowell's relationship with fiancee Lauren Silverman will come under scrutiny in his new Netflix docuseries, The Next Act (pictured with son Eric)

Now, insiders have claimed fans can expect tense rows between the pair with the six-part series showing their relationship 'warts and all'

'Everyone involved wanted the show to be real and authentic, not some hyper-stylised and heavily curated puff piece. People will get to see first-hand just how big a part of Simons life she is, and what a brilliantly real couple they actually are.'

Daily Mail has contacted Simon's representative for comment.

During the show, the pressure of the search for the band appears too much to handle for Lauren, who in one tense exchange demands for her microphone to be removed.

The socialite walks out on Simon while he is sat slumped in a chair and hooked up to an IV drip administering vitamins.

I never complain, she says. I'm just there for you because that's what you do when you love somebody.

As she leaves, Simon is heard saying: Oh Lauren.

The couple first met in Barbados in 2004 but didnt start dating until around 2012. They welcomed their son Eric in 2014 and got engaged in 2021.

Despite previously insisting that he 'didn't believe' in marriage, the father-of-one reassessed his views after falling in love with Lauren - who was left 'stunned' by the shock proposal.

The pressure of his latest attempt to find Britains next big boy band has proved difficult for Simon who was left hooked up to a drip in a first look at his Netflix show, The Next Act

The six-episode docuseries will follow Cowell, 65, as he searches for Britains next big boy band, from raw open casting calls to the release of the groups debut single

During the show, the pressure of the search for the band appears too much to handle for Lauren, who in one tense exchange demands for her microphone to be removed

Simon met Lauren when she was still married to millionaire property developer Andrew Silverman.

Their affair became public  and Simon's life changed  at the end of July 2013 when news broke of Lauren's pregnancy.

In 2015, Simon told Mail on Sunday Event magazine: 'I'm not proud of the circumstances, I can't hold my head up about it.'

And of the pregnancy, he admitted: 'This was not something I planned. But I remember going to the first scan with Lauren.

'I called him Tad because he looked like a tadpole. Something just kicked in. I felt unbelievably protective of both of them. I just absolutely wanted him. I just hadn't known that before.'

Simon had previously stated that he 'didn't believe in marriage' and worried about what would happen to his fortune if he tied the knot.

The X Factor creator - who has a net worth of approximately $600million - said in 2008: 'I don't believe in marriage, certainly not in this business.

'The truth is that you get married and in a year or two they clean you out! It's just not going to work.'

The father-of-one has previously enjoyed high profile relationships with the likes of Sinitta, Jackie St. Clair and Terri Seymour.

He was rumoured to have been secretly engaged to Page Three girl Louise Payne, after she split from husband and Right Said Fred star Fred Fairbrass, yet never confirmed the reports.

The pair met at a function in London in 1995 yet split three years later.
Stranger Things fans were left raging after Netflix issued an update on the hit series' newest instalment that's sure to disappoint fans in the UK.

The sci-fi series returned to screens earlier this month for its fifth and final series, which is being released across three drops to the streaming site.

And after a painstaking three-year wait between seasons, with the last episodes released in 2022, fans have been quick to tune into the first four episodes.

So far, viewers have been reintroduced to main character Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown, and her band of friends, Mike, Will, Lucas, Dustin and Max.

The action has also seen the return of show villain Vecna, played by Jamie Campbell Bower, and the Upside Down - the dark dimension where he resides.

The fourth episode, which was uploaded last week in the first drop for the streaming site, ended on a cliffhanger, with Noah Schnapp's Will at the heart of the story.

Stranger Things fans were left raging after Netflix issued an update on the hit series' newest instalment that's sure to disappoint fans in the UK (pictured: Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven)

The sci-fi series returned to screens earlier this month for its fifth and final series, which is being released across three drops to the streaming site (pictured: Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Joe Keery, Charlie Heaton and Gaten Matarazzo)

Now, fans will have to wait until December 26 to find out what unfolds in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, next - with the grand finale following on January 1, 2026.

While many had been hoping to head to the cinema for one of the official screenings of the final episodes, fans in the UK were left distraught to find out that it wouldn't be possible.

After marking the date in their diaries, the official Stranger Things social media account confirmed the special screenings would only be available in the US and Canada.

The official account penned: 'The plan? secure your seat TOMORROW for the fan screenings of the epic series conclusion of Stranger Things. *in US and Canada only.'

Responding to the news in the comments of the post, fans expressed their disappointment and outrage, as they hit out at Netflix for being 'cowardly'.

One penned: 'What a terrible day to be in England,' as another chimed in: 'Ugh, it's cool they're doing an epic screening but... US & Canada only? Seriously?'

A third added: 'This show is bigger than one continent, that's just a fact. Couldn't they do a simultaneous, free global stream for fans outside North America?'

While a fourth agreed: 'Make it worldwide you cowards, do you not think Europe wants this too?", as someone else wrote: 'Someone book me a flight right now.'

Fans will have to wait until December 26 to find out what unfolds in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, next - with the grand finale following on January 1, 2026 (pictured: Noah Schnapp as Will Byers)

Fans took to the comments section of the post to complain

'Stranger Things is number 1 in the UK as I type why would you not put in in cinemas here?' another viewer questioned.

It comes after Stranger Things fans were left furious after Netflix crashed following the release of the first four episodes of the hit series to their site.

Fans were shocked to find that they were unable to access the episodes with a 'something went wrong' message popping up on screens instead.

The temporary crash reportedly lasted for around three minutes, with fans of the hit series flocking over to X to voice their concern.

The full notification read: 'Something went wrong. Sorry, we're having trouble with your request. You'll find lots to explore on the home page.'

Some fans were sent into a meltdown with one penning on X, 'NETFLIX CRASHED HAHAHAHAHAHAHA #StrangerThings5.'

Another wrote, 'Did Netflix servers just crash? Stranger Things is going to break the whole internet tonight,' while one added, 'OH MY GOD NETFLIX PLS FIX YOURSELF I WANNA WATCH.'

'Billion dollar company can't even keep the servers from crashing,' a fan typed, and one shared, 'I feel like you guys should've known Netflix was gonna crash.'

It comes after Stranger Things fans were left furious after Netflix CRASHED following the release of the first four episodes of the hit series to their site

The series, which stars Winona Ryder (pictured) first hit screens in 2016

Stranger Things - a Netflix series created by The Duffer Brothers - first aired on the streaming site back in 2016.

The show garnered critical acclaim and popularity among viewers, which has since been followed by four additional seasons.

The fourth season premiered back in 2022 and three years later, fans have been gifted the first volume of the fifth and final season consisting of four episodes.

Three more episodes are slated to drop next month on Christmas Day with the finale being released on New Year's Eve.

The star-studded cast includes Millie Bobby Brown, Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Kerry and Maya Hawke.

But it is not the first time that Stranger Things fans have crashed the streaming site.

Back in July 2022 when season four, part two of the hit show dropped on Netflix - a similar crash occurred only minutes after the episodes became available.

And when the first part was also released, over 13,000 Netflix users reported outage.

The finale episode of Stranger Things will air on January 1 in the UK

During a recent interview with Backstage, both Millie Bobby Brown and Noah Schnapp talked about the show coming to an end and the final day on set.

'I think it's really hitting now, honestly, just like doing the press tour,' Brown expressed.

'It's very hard to think about doing this for one last time with your friends and reflecting on your childhood so intimately. Some of this feels like therapy in a way.'

Schnapp recalled going back to L.A. to audition for another project and while inside is hotel room, the actor thought to himself, 'Oh, my God, I don't want to work on anything else.

'I just want to do Stranger Things forever. I was just so devastated, like I'll never get that back, that experience on set. Then the next day I was fine.'

Brown chimed in to add, 'It's like a breakup. It's like the girls get over it quicker. But I honestly feel like it was one day of just crying, then I was like, OK, so what's next? Like, no, I gotta keep going.'

Stranger Things series five episodes 1-4 are available to stream now on Netflix.
Vogue Williams looked far from disappointed to be the latest celebrity evicted from the jungle as she arrived at a luxury hotel after her I'm A Celebrity departure.

The presenter and model smiled for the cameras as she arrived at the swanky Marriott Hotel in Surfers Paradise, Australia, following her axe.

Mother-of-three Vogue, 40, and Kelly Brook found themselves in the bottom two on Monday night's show, before it was revealed by hosts Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly that the TV star would be next to head home.

She was quick to admit to the hosting duo that she while she was 'sad' to leave her campmates, it was a big relief to be our of camp after finding it 'so hard' and being left 'so hungry' after days of eating rice and beans.

Vogue kept on beaming as she headed to the hotel where the celebrity stars are being housed before their return to the UK.

Still wearing her Jungle camp uniform, which includes bright red trousers, black boots and a navy vest top, she flashed her washboard abs.

Vogue Williams looked far from disappointed to be the latest celebrity evicted from the Jungle as she arrived at a luxury hotel after her I'm A Celebrity departure

The presenter and model smiled for the cameras as she arrived at the swanky Marriott Hotel in Surfers Paradise, Australia, following her axe

The star was greeted by her loved ones, including manager and pal Louisa McDonald who had flown out to support her on her exit from the show, shortly after.

Husband Spencer Matthews did not make it Down Under to greet his wife at the iconic show bridge due to commitments completing seven triathlons.

A source previously revealed that it was 'unfortunate but unavoidable' due to Spencer, 37, travelling to seven continents in 21 days for the sporting events.

Spencer is currently on his sixth of seven triathlons in Brazil, before heading to his final race in Antartica.

On Monday night, Vogue, who arrived six days after the rest of the campmates as a surprise late entry alongside Tom Read Wilson, got the boot after landing in the bottom two with fellow model Kelly Brook.

The TV personality, who shares three children Theodore, seven, Gigi, five, and Otto, two, with the Made in Chelsea star Spencer, was met off the bridge by her pal Louisa.

Upon her exit, Vogue admitted that while she was delighted to be leaving after struggling with the lack of food, she would miss her fellow celebs.

She also discussed simmering tensions within camp after viewers watched another cooking row erupt during the latest episode.

Vogue kept on her beaming smile as she headed to the hotel where the celebrity stars are being housed before their return to the UK to greet waiting pals

Her husband of seven years was unable to support the star in Australia because he is currently completing his sixth Iron Man in a row in Brazil before he heads to his final race in Antarctica

Vogue said: 'Ginge and Aitch are a bit resistant to their chores. I dont really understand the whole cup-gate. I just turned into what Im like at home'.

Before branding Kelly a 'snake' after being shown footage of the model, AngryGinge and Aitch stealing treats from Deals on Wheels challenge.

She later threw her support behind Ruby Wax, 72, for the win and claimed the comedian 'had it in the bag' to be crowned Queen of The Jungle.

Last week Spencer said he was 'so proud' of his wife during her time in the jungle and had been watching the show 'as much as he can' during his challenge alongside a gushing post about how much he misses the model.

He wrote on Instagram: 'Impossible to love this woman more So proud. Not just of what shes doing now, but generally.

'Admiring her when we first met and wanting to be more like her helped me become a better person. I probably wouldnt have achieved half the things Im now proud of if it werent for her.

'Every single banging tune that I listened to today reminded me of her. Sometimes I forget that we cant talk and think to myself that Ill call her and share the highs and lows of what were going through then remember that I cant and it immediately makes me feel sad I hate not speaking to her, it feels so weird.

'Im catching up when I can on her time in the jungle and just find myself grinning ear to ear watching her get more and more comfortable.

Vogue crossed the iconic bridge after being the third star voted out of the jungle

The TV personality, who shares three children Theodore, seven, Gigi, five, and Otto, two, with the Made in Chelsea star, Spencer, was met off the bridge by her agent, Louisa McDonald

'She is without a doubt the most extraordinary person Ive met and has always had a deeply positive impact on everyone she meets. Wishing her the absolute best of luck and sending love from afar.'

Their children are at home in London being looked after by Vogues mother Sandra while their parents are away, with Spencer due to finish his seven Iron Mans in seven continents challenge.

Explaining why her children werent flying out with the other families, she said: My kids are very young and they're in school and I will have to deal with the fallout of very little children flying that long for two days so I've asked for Spencer not to bring them out.

'Whether he changes his mind, I don't know. Also Spencer might not be there because he's doing his project Seven in Seven.

When Vogue signed up for I'm A Celebrity, the public were keen to see how she'd get on, with bookmakers giving her decent odds to be crowned Queen Of The Jungle before she'd even set foot in camp.

There was also talk that her show appearance could finally lift the dark cloud hanging over the Matthews household and the show - with Vogue's stint coming 10 years after Spencer was booted off for steroid use.

However, within days of entering the camp as a late arrival, Vogue's popularity had panned, with Ladbrokes suddenly making her the least favourite to win, with odds of 200/1.

Viewers took to X/Twitter to share their delight that she was going - although it was noted that the results may have been different for the Dublin native if the vote was open in Ireland.

Public opinion towards Vogue seemed to sway when former model Vogue claimed she felt 'so ugly'.

Viewers accused her of fishing for compliments when she turned to Ruby Wax and Lisa Riley in a heart to heart and claimed she felt insecure about her looks because everyone in camp was 'so good looking'.

Ruby went on to tell her: 'You're the prettiest person I've ever seen in my life'.

Vogue also ruffled feathers in camp when she clashed with AngryGinge and Aitch about the washing up.

Last week, viewers were left furious when Vogue avoided the first vote off after taking on Kelly Brook in a drinking challenge.

She was tasked with downing a blended drink of fish eyes and fermented fish, while Kelly opted for a concoction of pig vagina and bull penis.

While she was first to clear her glass, viewers noted that she spilt a lot of the contents, before promptly throwing it straight back up, and claimed that Kelly should have been declared the winner instead.

Eyebrows were also raised when it emerged that Spencer wouldn't be flying to Australia to greet Vogue after her Jungle stint.

The couple have been married since 2018 and they share three children together - Theodore, six, Gigi, four, and Otto, two.

Daily Mail revealed that Spencer isn't joining Vogue Down Under because he is on a mission to complete seven full Ironman triathlons on seven continents in just 21 days.

Instead, it was Vogue's manager and pal Louisa McDonald that jetted to Australia.

A source revealed that the timing is 'unfortunate' but unavoidable, with the pair's busy schedules clashing and neither commitment able to be moved.

They explained: 'The timing isn't ideal at all, but sometimes these things happen, and Vogue and Spencer's diaries just clash.

'Of course, Spencer would want nothing more than to support Vogue in Australia and be there waiting for her when she leaves the jungle but both committed to their own projects, and unfortunately, the schedules overlap.

'There's a small chance Spencer could finish his triathlon challenge ahead of schedule, but it's unlikely he would then fly to Australia.

'They'll both be missing their children, who will stay in London, continue attending school, and no doubt support their parents from afar - catching Vogue on TV whenever they can.'

I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! continues Tuesday at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
The soul of Hollywood starlet Natalie Wood is yet to find peace, museum staff and friends of the late actress have warned after a series of hair-raising incidents.

Zak Bagans, the host of HBO's Ghost Adventures, claims paranormal events involving artifacts connected to Wood's death have been taking place at his Haunted Museum in Las Vegas.

Wood famously drowned off the California coast on the night of November 29, 1981, after falling from her husband Robert Wagner's yacht while celebrating Thanksgiving weekend. She was 43.

The actress had been drinking aboard the Splendour that evening with Wagner, fellow actor Christopher Walken and the vessel's captain, David Davern.

Wagner later confessed he and Walken argued fiercely about Wood's career before the drowning.

The Oscar-nominated actress made her name as Maria in 1961's West Side Story, and drowned during a production break from her would-be comeback film Brainstorm, starring alongside Walken.

The investigation into her death was reopened in 2011. Wagner was named a person of interest in 2018 after it was revealed there were discrepancies in his version of events and Wood's autopsy discovered bruises on her arms and upper body.

Although the case was declared cold in 2022, meaning Wagner was officially cleared, conspiracy theories have continued to examine him to this day.

Ghost Adventures host Zak Bagans, whose museum contains artifacts from the night of Natalie Wood's (pictured) death, has insisted her soul is 'not at rest'

Wood (center) drowned in 1981 after falling from the yacht the Spendour. She, Wagner (left) and the captain David Davern (right) are pictured aboard the vessel weeks before

Now Bagans has reported feeling Wood's lingering presence in his museum, and has exclusively shared photos and footage with the Daily Mail purportedly showing the occurrence of unexplained phenomena.

The creepy occurrences are said to include a shadow on the wall, a page of a book flipping without being touched and a glass exhibit case falling apart.

'Her spirit is not at rest,' Bagans told the Daily Mail on the 44th anniversary of her death.

'We don't know everything, there's something that isn't out in the public - so her spirit is not at rest.'

The Daily Mail has contacted Wagner and Walken's representatives for comment, but has not heard back.

Bagans's museum contains a collection of goosebump-inducing relics from the Splendour, which he obtained after meeting with Davern and Wood's sister Lana nearly a decade ago.

One of them is a table on which Wagner slammed a wine bottle during an argument the night of Wood's drowning.

Davern told Bagans the force of the bottle upended two candles that are also on display in the museum.

In February 2017 shortly after Bagans procured the memorabilia, photographer Tom Knapp, who has been on Ghost Adventures, was alone in the museum when he claimed to have caught sight of a person's shadow.

Knapp was able to snap a picture of the shadow, which fell near a porthole-style window, in the room with the Wood artifacts.

Pictured: Bagans and Wood's sister Lana

Bagans is pictured at his museum's Natalie Wood exhibit, which includes a table on which Wagner slammed a wine bottle during an argument the night of Wood's drowning

In February 2017, photographer Tom Knapp, who has been on Ghost Adventures, was alone in the museum when he caught sight of an inexplicable shadow of a person in the right doorway

Knapp was able to catch a picture of the shadow (above), which fell right near the porthole-style windows - an eerie coincidence in light of the location of Wood's death

Pictured: A wall of one room in the museum is made to resemble the interior of a yacht

Wagner, pictured with Wood in 1980, was named a person of interest in 2018 after the case was reopened, but he was officially cleared in 2022 when it was declared cold

'There is poltergeist activity in that room,' said Bagans. 'A sealed case, a commercially graded case with heavy duty sealant, filled with items from the exhibition, fell apart. It broke like something was inside it trying to get out.'

Bagans has provided footage of another incident to the Daily Mail, showing a pane of glass as it detached from the table's display case tumbling to the floor.

In another bizarre video, museum visitors are seen milling around when a page of a book - untouched, sitting in a sealed display case - turns apparently by itself.

During the early days of the Covid pandemic, Bagans and his crew were at the museum preparing for their miniseries, Ghost Adventures: Lockdown, when he claimed Wood's ghost appeared.

'I will never forget, we were moving a mannequin figure into the Natalie Wood exhibit,' Bagans said. 'I was setting it down, I heard something, I felt something.'

He said he sensed Wood's presence around him, a heavy lingering feeling in the air - and just then, he got an email from Davern.

Writing from his home in the Philippines, a distraught Davern claimed items had started randomly flying out of his wardrobe.

Bagans has provided footage of another incident to the Daily Mail, showing a pane of glass coming detached from the display case containing the table from the Splendour (pictured)

Pictured: Among the artifacts is a clock Wood once gifted to Davern

Pictured: Items allegedly taken from the Splendour are interspersed with showbiz memorabilia of Wood

She had been drinking aboard the Splendour that evening with Wagner, Davern and Christopher Walken (Pictured: Wood and Walken in the 1981 film Brainstorm)

In another chilling moment, a clock gifted to Davern by Wood which had not worked in years started to chime while he and a friend were discussing the late actress.

'Dennis Davern messaged me saying the spirit of Natalie was in his living room, he was sobbing,' Bagans told the Daily Mail, adding he, too, felt like 'I was about to cry.'

Davern worked for Wagner for a year after the drowning, but has since claimed he believes Wagner was the one who pushed Wood from the yacht. Wagner did not respond publicly to Davern's accusations, and the Daily Mail did not receive a response when a representative was contacted for comment.

Now 95, Wagner wrote in his memoirs that the theories circulating about why Wood fell off the Splendour were nothing but 'conjecture.'

'Nobody knows,' he maintained. 'There are only two possibilities: Either she was trying to get away from the argument, or she was trying to tie the dinghy. But the bottom line is that nobody knows exactly what happened.'
Scarlette Douglas has opened up about her body dysmorphia as she revealed the cruel Weight Watchers gift her ex-boyfriend gave her for her 30th birthday.

The A Place in the Sun star, 38, revealed she has always 'had a weight issue' from being 'weighed all the time' as a professional dancer when she was younger.

Before finding fame as a presenter, Scarlette was a backing dancer for a number of stars including CeeLo Green, Paloma Faith, and Ant & Dec.

Now, Scarlette admitted she 'lost it' on her ex-boyfriend after he said he had a special surprise for her and gave her a Weight Watchers scale for her birthday.

Appearing on the latest episode of the Spent podcast alongside Matt Edmondson, in association with Nationwide, she said: 'I can remember what he gave me for my 30th birthday. We were all going to Barcelona for an Arsenal Barcelona game.

'I was like, "Come on, you've got to come. You've got to come", he's like, "I can't, can't afford it because I'm buying you your birthday presents".

Scarlette Douglas has opened up about her body dysmorphia as she revealed the cruel Weight Watchers gift her ex-boyfriend gave her for her 30th birthday

The A Place in the Sun star, 38, revealed she has always 'had a weight issue' from being 'weighed all the time' as a professional dancer when she was younger

So I was like, "Okay, gonna be pretty good. What's this gonna be."'

She continued: 'We're about to go out for dinner, the birthday dinner with my other brother and everyone. He's like, "No, I want to give you a present. I'm really excited to give it to you".

'I opened it and he had bought me a Weight Watchers scale.

'I have a weight issue. From being a professional dancer and from college, we used to get weighed all the time, so I always have an issue about my weight. I always feel like I'm overweight and have body dysmorphia.

'I said, "Get that out of my house. Get it out of my face. You're telling me you didn't come to Barcelona because you bought me a Weight Watchers scale". I lost it.'

Before finding fame on A Place In The Sun, Scarlette was a backing dancer for a number of stars including CeeLo Green, Paloma Faith, and Ant & Dec.

The TV star graduated from Laine Theatre Arts in 2006 with a diploma in musical theatre, where she trained extensively in acting, singing, and dancing.

After graduating, she performed in several West End and touring musicals, including, Little Shop of Horrors, Thriller  Live world tour, Hairspray, Fela! at the Royal National Theatre and I Can't Sing! (the X Factor musical).

As well as her dance experience as a backing dancer, Scarlette also choreographed shows and danced in feature films.

Now, Scarlette admitted she 'lost it' on her ex-boyfriend after he said he had a special surprise for her and gave her a Weight Watchers scale for her birthday

Appearing on Spent podcast alongside Matt Edmondson, she said: 'I can remember what he gave me for my 30th birthday. He had bought me a Weight Watchers scale. I lost it'

She said: 'I have a weight issue. From being a professional dancer, we used to get weighed all the time, so I always have an issue about my weight. I have body dysmorphia'

It comes after Scarlette revealed the powerful reason behind her decision to freeze her eggs, admitting it was the 'best thing' she's ever done.

She was initially reluctant to share the news with her fans last year when she underwent the procedure, but ultimately decided to open up in order to raise awareness about fertility.

In 2024, the presenter traveled to Barbados to visit a fertility clinic and explained why she felt compelled to take action as a black woman.

Speaking about her decision to open up about her journey, she told the Mirror: 'I'm in the public eye as it is anyway and if I have a profile, I need to make sure that there's an awareness, especially within the black community, because I think we don't really talk about medical issues that much. So as a black female, I guess I took it upon myself to document it.'

Reflecting on the procedure almost a year after having it done, she explained: 'It was two days before Ideal Home Show and I'm not going to lie, it was a very difficult two days of the show because of everything I had just been through.'

Yet despite the challenges, Scarlette admitted that freezing her eggs was the 'best thing' she could have done and that she feels like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders.

Hinting that being in her late 30s played a role in her decision, she added: 'It means that I can continue focusing on my career. I can be over in Los Angeles and not have to stress that I need to find a husband really quickly and I need to find a man so I can have a child.'

She also shared how she wished she had more information about how eggs can degrade with age before embarking on her fertility journey.

Scarlette revealed she underwent the procedure at Harley Street Fertility Clinic which took in total nearly two weeks.

Before finding fame as a presenter, Scarlette was a backing dancer for a number of stars including CeeLo Green, Paloma Faith, and Ant & Dec (pictured)

According to Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HEFA) egg freezing and thawing can cost an average between 7,000-8,000 and eggs can be stored for a maximum of 55 years.

HEFA states that the success rates for frozen egg numbers tend to be quite low but due to the technology for egg freezing improving over the years older data isnt comparable to current success rates.

Scarlette admitted it is an 'intense' few weeks but once the procedure is over their is nothing to 'worry' about and she urged more women to 'talk about' egg freezing.

The presenter previously told Daily Mail: 'Overall I would say book out about a month in your schedule, it took from injecting, to the eggs coming out about two weeks, maybe 10 days, it's not too bad exactly, but they do monitor you as you go.

'I got it done at the Harley Street Fertility Clinic and they were brilliant and they really took their time and they really made sure they kept monitoring me with different scans and blood tests.

'It sounds like it's a lot and it is intense, but it's just intense for that period of time you're doing it. Afterwards it kind of settles and your eggs are out and they're in the freezer and you don't have to worry about them.

'I know it's very expensive but there are ways that you can do it where there are payment plans, but if anybody's thinking about it, just ask the question.

'Reach out to me or have a look online and have a consultation with a nurse or a doctor because I think it's something that if we can do, we should or at least we should be talking about.'

Spent is available now on YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released every Tuesday.
Jackie 'O' Henderson was a no-show at KIIS FM on Tuesday morning  and it may have something to do with a new romance.

The radio star, 50, called in sick to The Kyle & Jackie O Show, with co-host Kyle Sandilands quick to reveal she recently found herself a 'boyfriend'.

He claimed to listeners at the opening of their radio show that she may have decided to stay in with her new man, rather than nurse a flu as she had said.

'No Jackie today, everyone,' Kyle, 54, began their successful radio broadcast, with newsreader Brooklyn Ross saying: 'Do we know what's up with her?'

'Yeah, she messaged at about midnight saying she has cold and flu symptoms, like fevers and stuff,' a producer explained.

'She must have had the boyfriend over,' Kyle joked, before addressing listeners.

Jackie 'O' Henderson, 50, was a no-show at KIIS FM on Tuesday morning  and it may have something to do with a new romance

'Now let me clear things up. If you've been listening to this show, Jackie seems to have got herself a fella on the sly. We all have to pretend like it doesn't happen,' he continued.

'I don't know why. Maybe she actually wants this one to work out. Because in the past, maybe I've piled onto these blokes who have come along.'

Brooklyn then chimed in to confess he pulled the same tactics with his husband Damien Dirienzo when they first began dating.

'I did the same with my husband Damien. I used to come in here on a Monday morning and tell you about all the s***ty behaviour I had over the weekend,' he said.

'But then when you find someone you're actually interested in, you just want to take it as slow as possible.'

Jackie was last linked to former toyboy Jack Tyerman  who has since announced his engagement to another woman.

The 30-year-old tradie shared the good news in a joint Instagram post in December, alongside his fiancee Asha Dillon.

The age-gap romance between Jackie and Jack allegedly fizzled out over the radio star's memoir, The Whole Truth.

The radio star called in sick to The Kyle & Jackie O Show, with co-host Kyle Sandilands, 54, quick to reveal she recently found herself a 'boyfriend'

Jackie was first romantically linked to the model in August 2023 when he was spotted at her luxury Sydney pad.

An insider suggested the 'hot tradie' was furious about the KIIS FM host mentioning him in her book, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Before that, Jackie's marriage to her ex-husband Lee Henderson fell apart in 2018. They share one daughter Kitty.

Speaking on The Kyle & Jackie Show, the mother-of-one hinted that a lack of spontaneous romance in their relationship was a catalyst for the split.
China film festival in Amman draws full-house audience

Xinhua) 10:01, December 02, 2025

Chinese Ambassador to Jordan Guo Wei delivers a speech at opening ceremony of the 2025 China Film Festival in Amman, Jordan, on Dec. 1, 2025. (Photo by Mohammad Abu Ghosh/Xinhua)

AMMAN, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- The 2025 China Film Festival kicked off Monday evening in the Jordanian capital Amman, attracting a full-house audience.

Running for four days until Thursday, the festival features four Chinese films: Dead to Rights, The Sinking of Lisbon Maru, I Am What I Am 2, and The Lychee Road.

In his opening speech, Chinese Ambassador to Jordan Guo Wei described cinema as "an art that transcends the boundaries of language and geography," noting that film cooperation has become a significant cultural bridge between China and Jordan.

The themes of the presented movies "encompass history, culture, and daily life in China, giving the Jordanian audience a deeper perspective on Chinese civilization," he added.

Speaking to Xinhua on the sidelines of the opening, Mohannad Al-Bakri, managing director of the Royal Film Commission of Jordan, underscored the long-running relationship between the two countries, saying the cooperation in filmmaking is both strategic and culturally rooted.

"This is a relationship that has existed for thousands of years," he said. "Today we are celebrating this relationship and the cinematic culture from China, which is also a pioneer in Jordan."

Al-Bakri noted the strong resonance between Chinese and Jordanian storytelling. "When we look at the cinema that is showing these stories, we are very similar. This is proof that there is understanding, love, and honesty in this relationship."

Mohannad Al-Bakri, managing director of the Royal Film Commission of Jordan, delivers a speech at opening ceremony of the 2025 China Film Festival in Amman, Jordan, on Dec. 1, 2025. (Photo by Mohammad Abu Ghosh/Xinhua)

Da Peng, director and lead actor of The Lychee Road, poses for photos at the 2025 China Film Festival in Amman, Jordan, on Dec. 1, 2025. (Photo by Mohammad Abu Ghosh/Xinhua)

People attend the opening ceremony of the 2025 China Film Festival in Amman, Jordan, on Dec. 1, 2025. (Photo by Mohammad Abu Ghosh/Xinhua)

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Sienna Miller announced she is expecting her third child at the Fashion Awards on Monday night.

It was only right for the actress, 43, to make her revelation with a statement look on the blue carpet outside the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Sienna, who became a style icon in the early noughties, wowed in a sheer Givenchy dress from the spring/summer 2026 runway that showcased her blossoming bump.

And it is not the first time Sienna has used the red carpet at a fashion event to announce she is expecting.

Back in September 2023, Sienna revealed she was pregnant with her second child at the star-studded Vogue World Show.

The actress walked the red carpet at London's Theatre Royal Drury Lane in a Schiaparelli puffball skirt and a cropped shirt which showcased her baby bump.

Sienna Miller announced she is expecting her third child at the Fashion Awards on Monday night

The actress walked the red carpet at London's Theatre Royal Drury Lane in a Schiaparelli puffball skirt and a cropped shirt to announce her second pregnancy (pictured 2023)

The brand's creative director Daniel Roseberry said at the time it was an 'honour' to be part of such a special announcement.

Vogue World served as a fundraiser for Britain's performing arts industry, with the magazine's Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour overseeing proceedings.

Sienna is set to welcome her second baby with her boyfriend of four years Oli Green, 28.

The actress also is mum to daughter Marlowe, 12, whom she welcomed with her ex-fiance Tom Sturridge.

On Monday night, Sienna and Oli put on a loved-up display as they made their announcement.

Previously speaking about Oli, Sienna told Harper's Bazaar: 'I didn't expect to take it seriously and then quite quickly, I fell in love.

'I wasn't like, "I'm gonna get a younger boyfriend." It was more, "F***! Why are you young? That's so annoying."

'There is a difference in the way that generation of men respect women. It's specific to him, he is very wise and well-adjusted, but I do believe it's also that generation.

It was only right for the actress, 43, to make her revelation with a statement look on the blue carpet outside the Royal Albert Hall in London

Sienna, who became a style icon in the early noughties and was trailblazer for the boho chic trend, wowed in a sheer Givenchy dress from the spring/summer 2026 runway

The actress, 43, and hunky actor Oli Green, 28, who welcomed a daughter in late 2023, could not keep their eyes off each as they cosied up on the red carpet

'They have grown up with a slightly more level playing field. I see it in his female friends as well as in the men.'

Sienna previously dated Tom, 39, for four years and split in 2015.

They are still on good terms, with Sienna calling Tom her 'best friend' whilst they co-parent their daughter.
Georgia Love has proudly shared footage of her 'ugly' Christmas tree and eyebrow-raising ornaments.

The former Bachelorette star, 36, posted a gallery of photos on social media on Monday night, capturing her getting into the festive spirit.

Georgia was quick to highlight one of her favourite decorations  a smiling Santa Claus figurine missing a hand.

'This is Derp Santa. I felt bad for him hanging all alone in Myer, presumably because it looks like it was made by a kindergartner,' she told fans.

'And that was before he lost a hand! I think he is my favourite.'

She also shared 'the ugliest Harrods bear you will ever see' and a grumpy cat ornament.

Georgia Love has proudly shared footage of her 'ugly' Christmas tree and eyebrow-raising ornaments. (Pictured)

The former Bachelorette star, 36, posted a gallery of photos on social media on Monday night, capturing her getting into the festive spirit

Georgia also posted a photo of her decorated Christmas tree in her living room, captioning it with some amusing words.

'My tree gives less "design aesthetic" and more "kids who has collected random decorations over the years". I couldn't love it more!' she quipped.

The former reality TV star has been living life to the fullest since confirming her split with Lee Elliot in February.

In September, she showed her ex-husband what he's missing as she turned heads at the opening night of Cirque du Soleil's Corteo in Melbourne.

Georgia flashed a glimpse of her lace bra as she showed off her toned physique in a striped dress and black stockings.

The event came just one day before Georgia appeared to take a thinly veiled swipe at Lee, 44, as she celebrated her birthday with her closest friends.

Georgia shared a photo to Instagram alongside three male friends and affectionately captioned it with a tribute to her 'men'.

The group wrapped their arms around each other as they smiled for the camera.

Georgia was quick to highlight one of her favourite decorations  a smiling Santa Claus figurine missing a hand

She also shared 'the ugliest Harrods bear you will ever see' and a grumpy cat ornament

This wasn't the first time Georgia has thrown subtle shade at Lee.

She took to Instagram earlier this year to share a photo of herself cuddled up with her 'soulmate', Abir Ahmed.

Abir, Georgia's best friend since she was 14 years old, could be seen with his arm wrapped around her shoulders as they took in the New York City skyline.

'Who says a soulmate has to be romantic?' she captioned the post, which appeared to be aimed at Lee and their nine-year marriage.

Georgia and Abir recently holidayed in the Caribbean together during the same week her ex moved out of their marital home.

Lee and Georgia met on the 2016 season of The Bachelorette.

They were married for four years and broke the news of their separation in February.
Married At First Sight veteran Domenica Calarco unveiled a glamorous new look on Monday.

The 32-year-old influencer, who welcomed her daughter Dove in August, stunned her followers by sharing a gallery of photos at her little girl's christening.

In the striking images, the Sydney-based reality TV star showed off her incredible post-baby figure alongside Dove's father and ex-partner, Jarod Bogunovich.

Dom looked radiant in a soft pink shift dress paired with matching heels, and kept her accessories to a minimum, adding a pair of statement drop earrings and some gold bangles to her look.

Her chic ensemble, styled locks, and glowing makeup made her almost unrecognisable compared to her more casual look on MAFS.

'My whole world. The most magical day celebrating my girl,' she wrote alongside her post.

Married At First Sight veteran Domenica Calarco unveiled a glamorous new look on Monday. (Pictured on MAFS)

The 32-year-old stunned her followers by sharing a gallery of photos at her daughter Dove's christening. (Pictured with Dove's father and ex-partner, Jarod Bogunovich)

Many of Dom's followers took to the comments section to gush over her chic new look.

'You look phenomenal! Such a beautiful fam,' one person wrote.

'The entire christening looked amazing. Congratulations to your beautiful family,' a second added.

Dom welcomed her baby girl in late August, taking to Instagram to reveal her adorable name.

She also shared a carousel of images on social media celebrating the glorious milestone.

In one sweet black and white image, Dom was every inch the cool mother in a pair of sunglasses as she tenderly cradled her daughter in bed.

She also shared a close-up of her newborn baby girl asleep on her chest, with the little one's arms reaching towards a strand of diamonds and a necklace that proudly reveals the word, 'mama'.

A third frame sees her baby girl resting in her cot during a Channel Nine news bulletin.

'Dove. 28/08/25,' Dom captioned the images.

The Sydney-based reality TV star showed off her incredible post-baby figure

Dom confirmed she would be a solo parent days after announcing her pregnancy in March.

Dom split from her former boyfriend Jarod and deleted all traces of the Bondi skater from her social media.

She exclusively confirmed to Daily Mail she will be raising her child as a single mum.

'I am incredibly excited about this next chapter in my life and feel truly empowered by my decision to step into motherhood on my own terms,' she said.

'While I will be welcoming this baby as a solo parent, I am grateful to have the support of the father in a co-parenting capacity.'

Domenica, who appeared on Married At First Sight in 2022, said she will be embracing the journey 'wholeheartedly'.
A Southern California mansion owned by late actress Diane Keaton has been placed on the market for around $27 million, following her passing at 79 less than two months ago.

The home is located in the exclusive Sullivan Canyon area of Los Angeles, and Keaton had previously tried to sell it for $28.9 million in March.

The Spanish Colonial home is 9,200 square feet and boasts panoramic 360 views of the greater Los Angeles area.

Other deluxe features include an outdoor pool; a wine storage area; numerous fireplaces; and skylights positioned near the kitchen.

The Academy Award-winning actress also wrote about the home in her 2017 book The House That Pinterest Built.

The dwelling was taken off of the market in the weeks prior to Keaton's death October 11 as result of primary bacterial pneumonia.

A luxury California mansion owned by late actress Diane Keaton has been placed on the market for around $27 million, following her passing at 79 less than two months ago. Pictured 2018

The home is located in the exclusive Sullivan Canyon area of Los Angeles , and the Annie Hall actress had previously tried to sell it for $28.9 million in March

Weeks after the passing of The First Wives Club star, the home was described in a listing as a 'rare architectural masterpiece' converted into 'something truly special' by Keaton over an eight-year renovation period.

A listing for the property read, according to Realtor, 'Nestled in the heart of prestigious Sullivan Canyon, one of L.A.'s most revered equestrian enclaves, the residence is not only grand but extremely private and eclectic.'

The listing mentioned the 2017 book by the publishing house Rizzoli, as well as the house's presence 'in numerous design publications' and reputation among people 'who recognize its artistry.'

'This residence is more than its architecture and craftsmanship. It is a reflection of care, creativity, and a life lived with intention.'

The home has a brick exterior while the interior has a black-and-white motif and is loaded with priceless knickknacks Keaton picked out, in addition to specifically-selected materials.

'The estate is adorned with thousands of hand-selected vintage Chicago bricks and a mix of reclaimed materials that define its unmistakable character,' a Zillow listing read. 'Cascading beams frame the kitchen and living spaces, setting the tone for a home that feels both distinctive and intimate.'

Keaton told the publication Wine Spectator in 2017 that she had a lifelong 'interest in homes and the concept of home,' but tended not to 'land and stay' after finding flaws with wherever she was  but not the Sullivan Canyon place.

'I always had an interest in homes and the concept of home, but the problem is I never really land and stay,' she said. 'Something's wrong - but something's right, because I love it.'

A bedroom in the Southern California home showed off Keaton's unique taste in art

'Archways, soaring truss ceilings, wrought-iron accents, and hardwood and terracotta floors create a dramatic yet inviting atmosphere,' a Zillow listing for the home read

A dining room in the home has wooden floors and a glass door allowing for natural light

The home's stylish motif has landed it on the cover of Architectural Digest

A living room in the opulent mansion was complemented by a fireplace and large pieces of art

Parts of the home provide a panoramic view of the surrounding area, according to the listing

Keaton left behind an amazing legacy in Hollywood, with some of her performances in the 1970's hailed as the decade's best.

They included the titular role in the 1977 comedy Annie Hall, which was written and directed by Woody Allen, who she collaborated with on a number of memorable projects.

Keaton in 1978 would claim the Best Actress in a Leading Role award for her work in Annie Hall, her first of four lifetime nominations. She would also receive nods for her work in movies such as 1981's Reds, 1996's Marvins Room and 2003's Somethings Gotta Give.

Other notable movies Keaton performed in throughout her decades-long career included 1987's Baby Boom; 1996's The First Wives Club; and the Father of the Bride film series.

The home's master bedroom is complemented by a fireplace and elegant chandelier

The backyard of the home includes a relaxation area and a pool, as well as a basketball court

Keaton past said that she had a lifelong 'interest in homes and the concept of home,' but tended not to 'land and stay' after finding flaws with wherever she was  but not the Sullivan Canyon place

The home has a brick exterior while the interior has a black-and-white motif

Following Keaton's passing less than two months ago, a who's who of Hollywood - including Leonardo DiCaprio, Bette Midler and Francis Ford Coppola, among others - released emotional statements paying memorial to the late star.

DiCaprio called the Oscar-winning star 'brilliant, funny and unapologetically herself,' adding that 'she will be deeply missed.'

Middler said of Keaton, 'She was hilarious, a complete original, and completely without guile, or any of the competitiveness one would have expected from such a star. What you saw was who she wasoh, la, lala!'

The Godfather director Coppola said in an Instagram post, 'Words cant express the wonder and talent of Diane Keaton,' adding, 'Endlessly intelligent, so beautiful...Everything about Diane was creativity personified.'
I can safely say this was not on my 2025 bingo card.

Oprah Winfrey, one of the richest, most powerful women on the planet, instructing her convoy of sleek black limousines to pull over at a tiny Sydney jet base so she could greet all four of us who showed up.

Yes. Four.

And I was one of them.

There we were, loitering like hopeful competition winners.

I'd even roped in a mate to hold up an extremely unplanned sign I begged him to write in the car. It read, 'Oprah plz buy me a car'.

Oprah Winfrey (left), one of the richest, most powerful women on the planet, instructing her convoy of sleek black limousines to pull over at a tiny Sydney jet base so she could greet all four of us who showed up

To be fair, subtlety has never been my strength.

When the door of her jet finally opened, Oprah emerged in the kind of travel outfit reserved for powerful women who do not know the meaning of economy class.

She wore loose grey loungewear, oversized sunnies and a sand-coloured, wide-brimmed hat. Effortless. Untouchable. Oprah.

We waved. She waved back. Then, in a twist none of us were expecting, she actually pointed at her drivers and told them to stop the cars.

She read it. Paused. Smiled.

'Buy you a car,' she laughed. 'I don't think I can do that today.'

It was the same energy as a parent saying no to a kid begging for a pony at Westfield. But honestly, I would have settled for a Kia Picanto.

Oprah then delivered the line that will live rent free in my head forever: 'You get a selfie but not a car' as she stepped out of the van to greet us.

'Buy you a car,' she laughed. 'I don't think I can do that today'

What surprised me most was her team of private security.

In the past, you would barely get within ten metres of her.

Yet instead of shooing us away, they were oddly gentle, almost protective of the moment.

One leaned in and said, 'She's just come off a flight, give her a little space. She loves her fans.' It set the tone instantly. Calm. Warm. Human.

This marks her first Australian visit in 10 years, touching down ahead of her Australia and New Zealand speaking series, Oprah In Conversation: Presented by Lilly, hosted by Melissa Doyle.

It promises a deeper look at the woman who built an empire out of empathy and conversation, fronting one of the most watched talk shows in US history before expanding into film, publishing and streaming.

Her last Sydney trip in 2015 was a whirlwind arena tour where she swept in like visiting royalty. Security everywhere. Controlled chaos.

A woman in a league of her own.

At 71, she remains one of the most influential people in the world, yet for those few minutes she felt genuinely grounded and present.

She did not buy me a car. But she did something far more unexpected.

She stopped the limo, softened the security, smiled at my cardboard madness and made one of the most powerful women alive feel wonderfully, unexpectedly relatable.

And yes, I got the selfie. Still no Pontiac.
Lindsay Lohan and husband Bader Shammas made a rare appearance with their young son Luai in Miami on Monday.

The 39-year-old actress  one of New York magazine's latest cover stars  was stylishly dressed in a white halter mini dress and cozy yellow cardigan.

Her waist-length blonde locks were parted down the middle and pulled into a low ponytail while she sported narrow brown sunglasses.

The fashionista, who carried her two-year-old son on her hip at one point, rounded out the look with white flats.

Meanwhile, 38-year-old Bader stepped out in white trousers, a white T-shirt, and a pale gray and green button-up plaid shirt.

Luai, who was born in July 2023, coordinated with his parents in a white outfit with black socks and gray, black, and red sneakers.

Lindsay Lohan and husband Bader Shammas made a rare appearance with their young son Luai in Miami on Monday

The 39-year-old actress was stylishly dressed in a white halter mini dress and cozy yellow cardigan

Bader, 38, stepped out in white trousers, a white T-shirt, and a pale gray and green button-up plaid shirt

The family-of-three, who are based in Dubai, was spotted on a lunch date with friends following the holiday weekend.

Over the summer Lindsay took to Instagram to mark her only child's second birthday with a gushing tribute.

She shared images from the tot's birthday celebration and added a heartfelt caption as she gave her 16 million followers a glimpse at family life.

'Happy Birthday to our sunshine, our sweetest boy, our heart, Luai!' the proud mom began the note.

She added, 'Watching you grow has been the greatest joy of our life. You light up every room (and keep us all on our toes), and we are so proud to be your mama and daddy.

'You are the deepest love we have ever known, the wildest adventure, and the most beautiful purpose. You have given our lives a whole new meaning, and we are grateful every single day.

'Here is to another year of cuddles, giggles, and magic. Me and Daddy love you more than words can say.'

The toddler's party was dinosaur themed and cleverly called 'Luai's 2Rex.'

The fashionista, who carried her two-year-old son on her hip at one point, rounded out her look with white flats

The doting mom pushed the youngster in a black stroller alongside a friend who also had a child

The couple quietly tied the knot in 2022 and celebrated their son's second birthday this past July

Lindsay relocated to Dubai in 2014.

In November 2021 the Herbie: Fully Loaded actress took to Instagram to announce her engagement to Bader.

She showed off her diamond ring as she posed with her new fiance, writing in the caption: 'My love. My life. My family. My future.'

Lindsay wed her partner in 2022 and revealed the news by referring to him as her 'husband' in an Instagram caption that she posted on her 36th birthday.

In May the lifelong entertainer told Elle magazine she'd like for her son to have a sibling to play with.

'I feel like we live in a different world now, where women make it such a point, especially in motherhood, to make time for ourselves.

'We make it important. But also, once you have one kid, youre like, "Oh, my kid needs a kid to play with,"' she shared.

She also noted, 'I dont know if its selfish  but Im like, I need more than one kid to take care of me when Im older.'
Lisa Rinna channelled style icon Lady Gaga at London's Royal Albert Hall on Monday evening, as she arrived for the 2025 Fashion Awards.

The former RHOBH star, 62, looked the spitting image of the fashion forward singer, 39, as she hid her dark hair under voluminous blonde wig that looked straight out of Gaga's wardrobe.

Adding bleached eyebrows for added drama, Lisa donned a kooky black and white plaid suit featuring another Gaga staple of dramatic shoulder pads, which engulfed her tiny frame.

The ensemble also featured frayed detailing as she slipped her feet into a pair of towering platform heels to strut her stuff on the red carpet.

Accentuating her features with make-up the actress also showcased her very plump pout which her lips slicked in nude gloss.

This year, the ceremony was hosted by actor Colman Domingo, who offered a nod to the awards' UK heritage by dressing in Burberry for the red carpet.

Lisa Rinna channelled style icon Lady Gaga at London's Royal Albert Hall on Monday evening, as she arrived for the 2025 Fashion Awards

The former RHOBH star, 62, looked the spitting image of the fashion forward singer, 39, as she hid her dark hair under voluminous blonde wig that looked straight out of Gaga's wardrobe (Lady Gaga pictured right in 2016)

Adding bleached eyebrows for added drama, Lisa donned a kooky black and white plaid suit featuring another Gaga staple of dramatic shoulder pads, which engulfed her tiny frame

Considered one of the biggest nights in the fashion calendar, the ceremony honours some of the most dazzling names and faces in the global fashion industry - celebrating household names and emerging designers.

The annual event, which started in 1989, was originally known as the British Fashion Awards until 2016, when the name changed to better reflect the global pool of talent being recognised.

First hosted at the iconic Royal Albert Hall, the awards have also been held at the Natural History Museum - four times - and three times at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

They returned to the Royal Albert Hall in 2016, and have stayed there ever since, becoming an annual hotspot for some of fashion's biggest names.

From Princess Diana and the Spice Girls, to Vivienne Westwood and Karl Lagerfeld, the awards have welcomed some of the worlds most famous faces from fashion and beyond.

Lisa's appearance comes following reports that her model daughter Amelia Hamlin, who she shares with actor husband Harry Hamlin, has a new love in her life.

And the 24-year-old is going public with her new boyfriend as they were seen cuddling on Tuesday evening at the FRAME & Amelia Gray Celebrate Collaboration at Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.

Hamlin is dating Nicolai Marciano, who is the heir to the Guess? Inc fashion empire as his father is Paul Marciano, 73, the co-founder of the glitzy brand.

Accentuating her features with make-up the actress also showcased her very plump pout which her lips slicked in nude gloss

Lisa pictured in October

FASHION AWARDS 2025: THE WINNERS Designer of the Year Rick Owens for Rick Owens Martine Rose for Martine Rose Willy Chavarria for Willy Chavarria Jonathan Anderson for Dior and JW Anderson - WINNER Miuccia Prada for Miu Miu Glenn Martens for Diesel and Maison Margiela British Womenswear Designer of the Year Simone Rocha for Simone Rocha Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena-Irons for Chopova Lowena Sarah Burton for Givenchy - WINNER Charlotte Knowles and Alexandre Arsenault for Knwls Erdem Moraloglu for Erdem British Menswear Designer of the Year Kiko Kostadinov for Kiko Kostadinov Craig Green for Craig Green Nicholas Daley for Nicholas Daley Foday Dumbuya for Labrum London Stefan Cooke and Jake Burt for Stefan Cooke Grace Wales Bonner for Wales Bonner - WINNER The Vanguard Award Aaron Esh for Aaron Esh Dilara Fndkoglu for Dilara Fndkoglu - WINNER Feben for Feben Steve O Smith for Steve O Smith Tolu Coker for Tolu Coker Torisheju Dumi for Torisheju Model of The Year Anok Yai The Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator Rei Kawakubo, Adrian Joffe and Dickon Bowden Special Recognition Award 15 Years of BFC Fashion Trust Special Recognition Award Delphine Arnault Special Recognition Award 25 Years of Fashion East Outstanding Achievement Award Brunello Cucinelli Cultural Innovator Award Little Simz Pandora Style Moment of The Year Award Sam Woolf Advertisement

Lisa Rinna and Harry's model daughter Amelia Hamlin has a new love in her life fellow nepo baby Nicolai Marciano

Marciano has already clearly met the family as Amelia's sister Delilah and her mother Lisa were also in attendance at the intimate affair

The 30-year-old wore a beige blazer over a rust-colored sweater as he was seen next to his new lady love at the event.

And Marciano has already clearly met the family as Hamlin's sister Delilah and her mother Lisa were also in attendance at the intimate affair.

This comes after they were spied together at the GQ event on Sunday.

Marciano is the Chief New Business Development Officer for Guess? Inc and has also worked in brand partnerships and specialty marketing for the massive company.

He is also 'juggling multiple tasks from oversight of the build-out of wholesale accounts to opening brand-dedicated concept stores to ensuring the brand line incorporates vintage Guess elements from the 1980s,' according to Sourcing Journal.

The executive told the site: 'Sustainability and performance will play a large part in the dialogue.'

Guess? Inc was founded in 1981 by brothers Paul, Maurice, and Armand Marciano. The company was established after the Marciano brothers left France to pursue the 'American dream' in the US.

The brand has been known for using celebrities such as Anna Nicole Smith, Claudia Schiffer, Jennifer Lopez and, more recently, Sydney Sweeney in their ads.

Hamlin split from Scott Disick in early September 2021 after nearly 11 months of dating.

The breakup followed drama surrounding DMs that Disick allegedly sent about his ex, Kourtney Kardashian. Disick and Kardashian have three children together: Mason, Penelope and Reign.
A demonstrator interrupted the Fashion Awards 2025 on Monday when they ran on to red carpet to hold up a PETA sign.

The animal rights activists stood beside actress Wallis Day while she posed for photos ahead of the ceremony.

Global animal charity PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is demanding that the fashion industry stop using leather.

Signs read: 'Leather is destroying the planet. Wear your own skin.'

The activist was swiftly taken away by security as celebrities continues to walk the red carpet for photographers.

PETA said: 'Cows form friendships, grieve, and dont want to be slaughtered yet the leather trade treats them like objects, and they may be skinned or dismembered while still conscious.'

A demonstrator interrupted the Fashion Awards 2025 on Monday when they ran on to red carpet to hold up a PETA sign

They added: 'The industry also fuels climate destruction, water contamination, and land devastation.

'Designers can choose innovative vegan leathers made from apples, grapes, mushrooms, pineapples, and more. Lets leave animals and the planet in peace. Go leather-free.'

First held in 1989, the annual event was originally known as the British Fashion Awards until 2016, when the name changed to better reflect the global pool of talent being recognised.

First hosted at the iconic Royal Albert Hall, the awards have also been held at the Natural History Museum - four times - and three times at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

They returned to the Royal Albert Hall in 2016, and have stayed there ever since, becoming an annual hotspot for some of fashion's biggest names.

From Princess Diana and the Spice Girls, to Vivienne Westwood and Karl Lagerfeld, the awards have welcomed some of the worlds most famous faces from fashion and beyond.

This year, the ceremony was hosted by actor Colman Domingo, who offered a nod to the awards' UK heritage by dressing in Burberry for the red carpet.

Considered one of the biggest nights in the fashion calendar, the ceremony honours some of the most dazzling names and faces in the global fashion industry - celebrating household names and emerging designers.

The animal rights activists stood beside actress Wallis Day while she posed for photos ahead of the ceremony

Global animal charity PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is demanding that the fashion industry stop using leather

During the ceremony, Cate Blanchett took to the stage to present the British Womenswear Designer Of The Year Award to Sarah Burton.

Sarah, who famously designed the Princess Of Wales' wedding dress in 2011, proudly accepted the honour.

Northern Irish fashion designer Jonathan Anderson scooped the biggest honour as he was crowned Designer of the Year. It was his third win.

The night also saw performances from Raye, who sang Where Is My Husband! and a cover of Justin Timberlake's Cry Me A River, as well as Tems and the English National Ballet company.
Spencer Matthews has revealed his 'disappointment' after missing wife Vogue Williams' I'm A Celeb exit On Monday amid his Iron Man challenge in the Antarctic.

The Irish model, 40, became the third star eliminated from camp after landing in the bottom two alongside Kelly Brook, 46.

After Vogue, who shares three children Theodore, seven, Gigi, five, and Otto, two, with her husband, was met off the bridge by her agent, Louisa McDonald, he took to Instagram with a gushing tribute.

Alongside a sweet snap of the couple, Spencer praised his 'courageous' and 'fearless' wife and said he could not wait to be reunited with her and their kids.

He penned: 'Disappointed to hear that my gorgeous Vogue is out of Im A Celeb but Im so proud of the brave stint she did in there. She showed heart, courage and fearlessness in challenges and, as always, was such a positive and pragmatic figure in camp!'

'I would have loved nothing more than to have been there for her when she came out and am sending so much love from Antarctica'.

Spencer Matthews has revealed his 'disappointment' after missing wife Vogue Williams ' I'm A Celeb exit On Monday amid his Iron Man challenge in the Antarctic

After Vogue, who shares three children Theodore, seven, Gigi, five, and Otto, two, with her husband, was met off the bridge by her agent, he took to Instagram with a gushing tribute.

Before adding: 'On the positive side, we can now all FaceTime - I know she will have missed the kids like mad and I cant wait to hear her voice and for us to all be reunited next week'.

Spencer is completed his sixth Iron Man in a row in Brazil before heading to his final race in Antarctica.

Their children are at home in London being looked after by Vogue's mum Sandra while their parents are away, with Spencer due to finish his seven Iron Mans in seven continents challenge next week.

Vogue, who arrived six days after the rest of the campmates as a surprise late entry alongside Tom Read Wilson, got the boot after landing in the bottom two with fellow model Kelly.

After hosts Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly revealed it was Vogue who had received the fewest viewer votes, she said her farewells before sitting down for her exit interview.

Upon her exit, Vogue admitted that while she was delighted to be leaving after struggling with the lack of food, she would miss her fellow celebs.

She also discussed simmering tensions within camp after viewers watched another cooking row erupt during the latest episode.

Vogue said: 'Ginge and Aitch are a bit resistant to their chores. I dont really understand the whole cup-gate. I just turned into what Im like at home'.

Alongside a sweet snap of the couple, Spencer praised his 'courageous' and 'fearless' wife and said he could not wait to be reunited with her and their kids

He penned: 'Disappointed to hear that my gorgeous Vogue is out of Im A Celeb but Im so proud of the brave stint she did in there. She showed heart, courage and fearlessness in challenges and, as always, was such a positive and pragmatic figure in camp!'

Spencer is completed his sixth Iron Man in a row in Brazil before heading to his final race in Antarctica

Before branding Kelly a 'snake' after being shown footage of the model, AngryGinge and Aitch stealing treats from Deals on Wheels challenge.

She later threw her support behind Ruby Wax, 72, for the win and claimed the comedian 'had it in the bag' to be crowned Queen of The Jungle.

Taking to X fans were viewers convinced that Vogue had had the chop after her numerous clashes with 'fan favourites' AngryGinge and Aitch.

'Vogue was bound to leave': 'The fact Vogue is gone cuz she called out Ginge for being lazy even tho yesterday Ruby and Ginge was talking about Vogue behind her back': Notice how Vogue didn't say she didn't dislike Aitch & Ginge? Think there's a dislike going on there'.

On Sunday nights episode, the campmates won letters from home and Vogue's was written by Spencer.

Upon her exit, Vogue admitted that while she was delighted to be leaving after struggling with the lack of food, she would miss her fellow celebs (with agent Louisa McDonald)

Vogue crossed the iconic bridge after being the third star voted out of the jungle

It read: The kids and I are so unbelievably proud of you. They are happy, healthy and looking forward to you being home. Watching you take on The Jungle with courage, humour and heart fills us with admiration.

At the time of writing this, Im about to head into the waters in Rio to start the sixth race and whenever things get hard on this challenge I immediately think of you and how incredible our reunion is going to be.

I couldnt love you more and am so proud of the woman you are.
Australian Foo Fighters fans could very soon have good reason to celebrate.

It appears that the announcement of a 2026 Down Under visit from the legendary US rockers is imminent.

Australian touring company Frontier took to Instagram on Monday to tease that 'big news' relating to the Dave Grohl-fronted rockers was on the way.

An image was shared that showed a large Foo Fighters billboard perched atop The Winston pub in Hobart, Tasmania.

The image was accompanied by the caption, 'Give me a reason, show me a sign,' a line from the band's latest single Asking For A Friend.

The caption also featured a link to a dedicated Foo Fighters page on the Frontier Touring website.

Australian Foo Fighters fans could very soon have a good reason to celebrate. (Pictured: Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl)

Australian touring company Frontier took to Instagram on Monday to tease that 'big news' was on the way. An image was shared that showed a large Foo Fighters billboard perched atop The Winston pub in Hobart, Tasmania

The link takes visitors to a black screen displaying the Foo Fighters logo with a countdown to 'big news incoming' at some stage on Wednesday.

The post was met with a flurry of excitement from Aussie Foo Fighters fans.

The location of the billboard was not lost on Tasmanians, either, with the band missing the Apple Isle on their last Australian tour.

'Excuuuuuuse me? This billboard is in Hobart of all places?? Not quite sure what it means but I know that logo when I see it,' one fan commented.

'Super excited for this announcement,' another offered, while a third chimed in with: 'Looks like we're off to Tasmania.'

While fans on the Australian mainland will have to wait until Wednesday for a potential tour announcement, a Foo Fighters show in Tasmania is pretty much a fait accompli.

Fan account Foo Fighters Live also shared a photo to Instagram on Monday night, showing promotional artwork for a 'one night only' Tasmanian show.

The purported gig is slated to go down at UTAS Stadium on January 24, 2026.

The caption also featured a link to a dedicated Foo Fighters page on the Frontier Touring website

Billed as a 'one night only event,' this gig will apparently see the band share the stage with Brisbane rockers The Full Flower Moon Band and Tasmanian acid-rock three-piece Spooky Eyes.

While there has yet to be any official confirmation from Frontier about the UTAS Stadium show, the artwork features the tour promoter's logo.

'A promotional image for a one-off Foo Fighters show in Tasmania, Australia for January 24, 2026 has been found, coinciding with a teaser and countdown from @frontiertouring,' the post read.

'Stand by and watch here and on frontiertouring.com/ff for further information.'
MasterChef Australia star Anna Polyviou has revealed a secret, debilitating health battle.

The famous foodie, 46, took to Instagram on Tuesday to reveal that she had been suffering from a mystery illness that left her unable to speak.

Anna shared a series of photos and clips showing her recuperating in hospital.

'12 months ago today, I woke up and I couldn't speak,' Anna admitted in the post's caption.

'I was told I had to go straight to hospital, in which I went five hours later. They thought I'd had a stroke.'

Anna added that she was in hospital for more than two weeks as doctors scrambled to discover the cause of her worrying symptoms.

MasterChef Australia star Anna Polyviou has revealed a secret, debilitating health battle. (Pictured)

Anna shared a series of photos and clips that showed her recuperating in hospital

'I ended up being in hospital for 16 days, getting jabbed, tested, scanned, you name it. I couldn't swallow. I couldn't talk properly. I had no answers at the start,' she said.

Anna continued, revealing that the cause was eventually found, with only two people in Australia suffering from the condition.

'Eventually they found it  an infection in my skull, in the bone marrow, and wasn't looking good, as there's only ever been two cases in Australia and I was one of them,' Anna revealed.

'One of the scariest discussions I've ever had to have in my life. I was off work for months. Restricted in so many ways.

'Forced to slow down when slowing down is the one thing I never do.'

Now recovered from her nightmare ordeal, Anna was quick to thank everyone responsible for her recovery.

'But today... I look back and I'm grateful,' she added. 'Grateful for the doctors and nurses, who helped me through it all and [are] now great friends and so special to me.

'Grateful for my loved ones, family and friends who showed up. That I'm here working, creating, laughing, living.'

'12 months ago today, I woke up and I couldn't speak,' revealed Anna. 'They thought I'd had a stroke'

'I ended up being in hospital for 16 days getting jabbed, tested, scanned, you name it. I couldn't swallow. I couldn't talk properly. I had no answers at the start,' she said

Reflecting on her health journey, Anna added that she was 'proud' to have come out the other side healthy.

'This year taught me strength I didn't know I had. It taught me to appreciate everything  my health, my voice, my passion, my people,' she said.

'I gave it my all to get back to where I am today. And I'm proud. So damn proud. Here's to a year of healing and to whatever magic comes next.'

Anna's shock post was met with an outpouring of support from friends and followers.

Channel Seven star Melissa Doyle offered: 'You my friend are magic. Here's to a fabulous & healthy year ahead.'

Fitness maven and former Biggest Loser star Michelle Bridges was also quick to offer her best wishes.

'Incredible! True resilience. Here's to a wonderful 2026, my love,' Michelle wrote.

The likes of fellow MasterChef star Julie Goodwin, MAFS groom Ryan Gallagher and Bachelor star Anna Heinrich also offered Anna supportive words.
Aussie Home Loans heiress Deborah Symond ONeil made quite an entrance when she arrived at Sydney Airport on Tuesday.

The 'it girl' of the Eastern Suburbs wore $17,000 worth of designer clothes as she caught a flight with her husband Ned O'Neil and their two children Beau, five, and Violet, four.

The 37-year-old was the picture of style as she made her way through the departures terminal, turning heads in a colourful ensemble that hid a mega price tag.

The mum-of-two wore a pair of pink silk trousers by French fashion house Hermes that are worth a whopping $7,310.

She paired the pricy pants with $1,375 Hermes sandals and a $1985 Hermes cardigan.

As for accessories, Deborah wore a $6,250 Tiffany HardWear necklace as well as an assorted array of scrunchies and bracelets on her wrist.

Aussie Home Loans heiress Deborah Symond ONeil made quite an entrance when she arrived at Sydney Airport on Tuesday

The mum-of-two wore a pair of pink silk trousers by French fashion house Hermes that are worth a whopping $7,310. She paired the pricy pants with $1,375 Hermes sandals and a $1985 Hermes cardigan

The wealthy heiress carefully balanced her hot pink Hermes Birkin bag on her suitcase, which she rolled through the terminal on her way to check-in.

Deborah coiffed her signature blonde locks in bouncy curls across her shoulders while going makeup-free for the travel day, showing off her naturally radiant skin.

She was seen busily checking her phone while trailing behind her brood as they walked through the airport.

The socialite rose to prominence after her elaborate wedding to Ned O'Neil became national news in April 2018.

Deborah walked down the aisle surrounded by 120 esteemed guests and the couple's very famous fathers, including Aussie Home Loans founder John Symond.

Hamilton Islands exclusive Qualia resort was reserved for the three-day celebration.

The couple exchanged vows in front of Symond and Ned's father Denis O'Neil, a superyacht broker and owner of Rose Bay Marina.

The couple flew 120 guests, including the 10 men and women in their wedding party, to North Queensland.

The 'it girl' of the Eastern Suburbs wore $17, 000 worth of designer clothes as she caught a flight with her husband Ned O'Neil and their two children Beau, five, and Violet, four

The socialite rose to prominence after her elaborate wedding to Ned O'Neil became national news in April 2018

Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald's Private Sydney, newly-married Ned could only gush about his bride.

'I am marrying the love of my life and I am the happiest man on earth to be able to share the rest of it with Deb.'

In 2020 Deborah gave birth to her first child, son Beau, in Sydney's leading private hospital, Mater.

A year later, she welcomed daughter Violet in October 2021.
Maura Higgins showed off her ripped six-pack in a barely-there bra top as she hit the 2025 Fashion Awards afterparty in London on Monday night.

The Love Island star, 35, failed to impress as she hit the red carpet in the bizarre look at the Royal Albert Hall earlier in the night.

And as she headed to the afterparty, Maura held onto her enormous pin striped headpiece as she battled the British winter weather.

She appeared half-undressed with her gown gathered around her waist and was forced to carry her train as she headed to the bash.

The reality star's outfit consisted of a black and white pinstriped skirt, a daring white pointed bralette, and towering black heels.

She styled her brunette tresses in a neat up do and showed off her neck tattoo down her back in the white bra.

Maura Higgins showed off her ripped six-pack in a barely-there bra top as she hit the 2025 Fashion Awards afterparty in London on Monday night

The Love Island star, 35, failed to impress as she hit the red carpet in the bizarre look at the Royal Albert Hall earlier in the night

Maura was keen to steal the show at the awards as she posed up a storm in the couture black and white outfit by Robert Wun.

The TV personality flaunted every inch of her figure, with the star previously sharing her excitement at wearing couture to this year's awards.

The annual event was first held in 1989 and was originally known as the British Fashion Awards until 2016, when the name changed to better reflect the global pool of talent being recognised.

First hosted at the iconic Royal Albert Hall, the awards have also been held at the Natural History Museum - four times - and three times at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

They returned to the Royal Albert Hall in 2016, and have stayed there ever since, becoming an annual hotspot for some of fashion's biggest names.

From Princess Diana and the Spice Girls, to Vivienne Westwood and Karl Lagerfeld, the awards have welcomed some of the worlds most famous faces from fashion and beyond.

The appearance comes after Maura admitted to using Botox in a recent Instagram post - after previously denying she uses the injectable cosmetic treatment.

She told followers: 'When I first got perioral dermatitis I stop getting facials altogether, now it's just skincare and of course with the help of Botox from the best @drroshoffical.'

And as she headed to the afterparty, Maura held onto her enormous pin striped headpiece as she battled the British winter weather

She appeared half-undressed with her gown gathered around her waist and was forced to carry her train as she headed to the bash

The reality star's outfit consisted of a black and white pinstriped skirt, a daring white pointed bralette, and towering black heels

She styled her brunette tresses in a neat up do and showed off her neck tattoo down her back in the white bra

The Love Island star previously spoke about her cosmetic work soon after appearing on the ITV2 reality dating show in 2021.

She said: 'I got my lips done three months after coming out of Love Island, and lip fillers last five to six months. I haven't had anything done since then; I just let it dissolve.

'But people still assume I've had my lips done, Botox. People are even saying I've had my nose done when I've not actually had any work.'

She added: 'I had braces on for a long time, and since my teeth have moved, they've actually pushed my lips out slightly.

'I feel like I don't need it. If I were to get my lips done now with my straight teeth, it just wouldn't be a good look.'

Maura will add another string to her TV bow in January after signing up for the second series of The Celebrity Traitors USA.

Despite being filmed with a predominantly American cast, the show is filmed at Ardross castle in the Scottish Highlands - the same venue used by BBC producers for the British version.

However, Claudia Winkleman plays no part in the US variant, with hosting duties handled by Scottish actor Alan Cumming.

Maura was keen to steal the show at the awards as she posed up a storm in the couture black and white outfit by Robert Wun

The TV personality flaunted every inch of her figure, with the star previously sharing her excitement at wearing couture to this year's awards

Maura will be joined on the upcoming season by many other well-known faces including Jason and Travis Kelce's mother, Donna, 74.

Discussing her forthcoming appearance on the show, which will also be streamed on BBC iPlayer, the TV personality described the events of the upcoming season as 'chaos'.

She told The Playlist: 'In this new season, there is chaos again, once more. There is chaos and it's brutal. It's brutal.

'About halfway through, there is a scene in it that is the greatest moment in Traitors' history. Honestly, I just cannot wait for the world to see it. It's utter carnage and utter just mad. It's just brilliant!'
Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe and Tom Felton put their differences aside to attend a screening of the former's new movie in New York on Monday night.

The duo, who appeared in all eight movies in the magical franchise, looked overjoyed to see one another, despite their publically contrasting views on Harry Potter creator JK Rowling's controversial anti-trans crusade.

Daniel, 36, who played the titular character from 2001 to 2011, beamed as he chatted fondly to Tom, 38, who starred as Harry's nemesis Draco Malfoy in the movies, ahead of The Cinema Society Special Screening of Daniel's new film Merrily We Go Along.

Despite their fond reunion, the duo's views have very publicly contrasted ever since Daniel opposed and Tom supported JK Rowling, 60, in her vocal opposition to the view that gender identity is different from birth sex.

In 2020 Daniel joined a host of other Harry Potter stars in publically hitting out at the author's trans exclusionary views, while Tom has remained loyal to JK - insisting he is 'not affected or attuned' to the views of the creator.

Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe and Tom Felton put their differences aside to attend a screening of the former's new movie in New York on Monday night

Daniel and Tom played mortal enemies Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy in all eight films in the franchise (pictured in 2001's Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone)

Despite their fond reunion, the duo's views have very publicly contrasted ever since Daniel opposed and Tom supported JK Rowling, 60, in her vocal opposition to the view that gender identity is different from birth sex

Looking worlds away from his Potter days, Daniel was sporting a rugged beard and showed off his indie style in a denim shirt and tee for the event.

Tom meanwhile, who has just reprised his role as Draco in Harry Potter And The Cursed Child on Broadway, was without his character's ice blond hair and instead had mussed mousy locks and rocked a stylish camel coat and twill trousers.

They were joined at the event by another Potter affiliate in the form of esteemed actress Noma Dumezweni, who played Hermione Granger in the original West End run of Harry Potter And The Cursed Child.

For her role as Harry's brainbox best friend, Noma won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in 2017.

Merrily We Roll Along stars Daniel alongside Lindsay Mendez and Jonathan Groff, with the story spanning three decades and following the turbulent relationship between a composer and his two lifelong friends.

The duo appeared to be getting on as famously as ever despite their views.

JK has caused ructions around the world with her stance on Trans rights - which have led to her being branded a trans-exclusionary radical feminism (TERF).

In 2020, Radcliffe released a statement through The Trevor Project, stating that transgender women are women and that any statement to the contrary 'erases the identity and dignity of transgender people'.

JK Rowling (second left) is pictured with Rupert Grint, Daniel and Emma Watson (L-R) in 2001. All of the lead stars of the movies have resoundingly slammed the author's views

They were joined at the event by another Potter affiliate in the form of esteemed actress Noma Dumezweni, who played Hermione Granger in the original West End run of Harry Potter And The Cursed Child

The duo looked a long way from their Hogwarts robes in their trendy ensembles

Rowling, 59, has faced intense criticism in recent years for her gender critical views, including from several stars of the Harry Potter films

The star issued an apology to the fans whose experience of the books was negatively impacted by JK's comments and insisted he wanted to help.

The author went on to suggest on social media that Daniel and co-star Emma Watson were 'celebrities who cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women's hard-won rights and who used their platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors'.

Daniel also revealed he has had no direct contact with JK since the controversy.

He said: 'It makes me really sad, ultimately, because I do look at the person that I met, the times that we met, and the books that she wrote, and the world that she created, and all of that is to me so deeply empathic.'

Tom meanwhile has remained on JK's side and kept his stance on her views guarded - something which has led to his remaining in the franchise.

Tom meanwhile was without his character's ice blond hair and instead had mussed mousy locks and rocked a stylish camel coat and twill trousers

Merrily We Roll Along stars Daniel alongside Lindsay Mendez (pictured) and Jonathan Groff, with the story spanning three decades and following the turbulent relationship between a composer and his two lifelong friends

When asked directly if the controversy around JK's views on trans rights affected his decision to star in The Cursed Child as his original character, Tom said earlier this year: 'No, I can't say it does. I'm not really that attuned...

'The only thing I always remind myself is that I've been lucky enough to travel the world. Here I am in New York. And I have not seen anything bring the world together more than Potter, and she's responsible for that. So I'm incredibly grateful.'

He maintained his support and has continued to promote Potter by attending fan conventions and events and previously explained why in an interview with The Times.

Tom has just reprised his role as Draco in Harry Potter And The Cursed Child on Broadway (pictured on-stage last month)

The duo caught up ahead of the release of Daniel's nbew film

He said: 'I couldn't speak for what others have said or what she said, to be completely honest, but I'm often reminded, attending Comic Cons in particular, that no one has single-handedly done more for bringing joy to so many different generations and walks of life...

'I'm constantly reminded of her positive work in that field and as a person. I've only had a handful of meetings with her but she has always been lovely. So I'm very grateful for that.'

He went on: 'I don't tend to pick sides. I won't talk specifics but I enjoy reminding myself and others that a lot of my good friends have ways of life or personal decisions that I don't necessarily agree with...

'We should enjoy celebrating each other's differences.'
Costco has sued the Trump administration in an effort to recoup the money it has paid in tariffs if the Supreme Court considers the policy unlawful.

In a complaint filed on Friday in the US Court of International Trade in Manhattan, the wholesaler said the President's use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose levies should be deemed illegal.

The Supreme Court is reviewing the legality of Trump's sweeping 'reciprocal tariff' policy, which he introduced as part of his far-reaching agenda to reorganize world trade by slapping huge tariffs on major allies and foes.

But Costco has argued it should receive a 'full refund' of all the duties it has paid as a result of the policy if it is ruled as not legally sound.

'Because IEEPA does not clearly authorize the President to set tariffs ... the Challenged Tariff Orders cannot stand and the defendants are not authorized to implement and collect them,' Costco's lawyer writes in the lawsuit.

Costco has not revealed how much the duties have cost the company since Trump introduced them but importers have paid nearly $90 billion in tariffs, according to US Customs and Border Protection data up to late September.

Oral arguments delivered by the administration's lawyers to the Supreme Court in early November received a lukewarm reception, offering an early indication that the justices were skeptical about the case.

Trump has long argued that the tariffs have bolstered the US economy and brought in more than $205 billion for the government.

But the policy also earned him the nickname 'TACO' - an acronym for 'Trump Always Chickens Out' after he repeatedly backflipped on grand statements about the amount certain nations would be charged.

Costco said Trump's use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs should be deemed illegal, in a complaint filed in the US Court of International Trade in Manhattan on Friday

Costco has sued the Trump administration in an effort to recoup the billions of dollars it has paid in tariffs if the Supreme Court considers the policy unlawful

He hit China with a whopping 145 percent tariff before lowering it to an average of 47.5 percent on most goods.

Even America's closest neighbor and ally, Canada, was at one stage set to be hit with a 45 percent tariff, sending the nation - and other allies - scrambling to negotiate deals with the President.

But American consumers have been hit the hardest, with soaring costs of everyday goods and products making the cost of living crisis an even more pressing concern for everyday households.

Gary Millerchip, Costco's chief financial officer, warned just a month after Trump won the election - before he'd even returned to the White House - that tariffs would hit hip pockets.

'When it rains, it rains on everybody,' he said. 'Of course, tariffs raise costs. That's not something that we see as a positive in general.'

He revealed back in May that the brand had held back on passing some price rises to consumers.

He said that 'key staple items', such as pineapples and bananas, have remained at the same cost.

'We essentially held the price on those to make sure that we're protecting the member,' he said.

Gary Millerchip, Costco's chief financial officer, warned just a month after Trump won the election that tariffs would hit hip pockets

But Millerchip said about a third of Costco's sales in the United States are from imported products, and about 8 percent of sales are items from China.

In September, he added: 'We continue to work closely with our suppliers to find ways to mitigate the impact of tariffs, including moving the country of production where it makes sense and consolidating our buying efforts globally to lower the cost of goods across all our markets.'

Costco is not the only brand suing Trump in an effort to guarantee refunds if his policy goes pear-shaped.

Global cosmetics powerhouse Revlon, along with Japanese auto supplier Yokohama Tire and motorcycle manufacturer Kawasaki are among a handful of brands that have already launched similar suits.

And Trump has taken a hit at the polls since the implementation of his tariff agenda.

Just last week, approval rating plummeted to 45 percent, according to the Daily Mail/JL Partners' latest exclusive polling.

Americans say their pockets are hurting as the price of goods surges with the sweeping tariffs

That's a drop of six points from the previous survey and a ten-point drop over the last two months.

Many of the elements that once made Trump - who has declared as recently as last month that his presidency will mark the dawn of a new 'golden age' - so appealing to voters now appear to be the reasons why they are abandoning him.

The president's economic and immigration policies, as well as his 'approach to governing' are the top three reasons voters are souring on him.

Trump has boasted about his tariffs and said that his economic policy is improving the lives of everyday Americans.

But voters in the Daily Mail/JL Partners November 19-20 poll disagreed.

Americans said their pockets were hurting as the price of goods surged with the sweeping tariffs.

Since Trump's tariffs took effect, apparel and textiles are up between eight and 17 percent and groceries and food are up between 1.6 percent 2.8 percent  with some products at a whopping 25 percent increase.

It got so bad that the President had to place some exceptions on consumables like coffee and bananas.

Now Trump is promising a $2,000 tariff stimulus check to help middle and lower income Americans  though it's unclear where the exact avenue in which this would be done.

And on Monday, the UK announced it had secured a 0 percent tariff rate for all UK medicines exported to the US for at least three years in return for Britain spending more on new drugs.
A Bangladesh court on Monday convicted and sentenced deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina to five years of imprisonment and her niece, British parliamentarian Tulip Siddiq, to a two-year jail term in a land scam case.

Judge Md Rabiul Alam of the Special Judges Court-4 of Dhaka also handed down a seven-year jail term to Hasinas sister, Sheikh Rehana, in the corruption case lodged against 17 people. The court handed down the verdict in a packed courtroom in the absence of the three accused.

The 14 other accused are former Government officials who were handed down a five-year prison term each, but only one of them was in jail and faced the trial in person. The court also imposed a fine of Tk 1 lakh each on all 17 convicts, including Hasina, Rehana, and Siddiq, failing which they will have to serve an additional six months in jail. Siddiq, a British-Bangladeshi Labour Party politician, is Rehanas daughter and has been the Member of Parliament for Hampstead and Highgate since 2015.

In a statement in London, Siddiq, 43, condemned the sentencing as unjustified and said she refused to be distracted by the dirty politics of Bangladesh. The outcome of this kangaroo court is as predictable as it is unjustified. I hope this so-called verdict will be treated with the contempt it deserves, she said.

The interim Government in April issued an arrest warrant for Siddiq as part of investigations into corruption during Hasinas premiership. She was found guilty of influencing her aunt, Hasina, to secure a plot of land for her mother, brother, and sister, on the outskirts of Dhaka, a charge she strongly denies. Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) prosecutor Khan Mainul Hasan claimed Siddiq called the then premiers principal secretary Salahuddin Ahmed via encrypted apps and even met him while she was in Dhaka. Tulip (Siddiq) insisted that her aunt Sheikh Hasina allocate plots for her mother and siblings, as she herself took three -- one for her and two for her children, the prosecutor said.

The ACC lawyer said the graft commission planned to seek Interpol assistance for the extradition of the high-profile convicts  Hasina, Rehana and Siddiq. This is the fourth verdict involving 78-year-old Hasina in graft cases filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), The Daily Star newspaper reported. The ACC filed the land scam case on January 13 against 15 people, including Hasina, Rehana and Siddiq, over allegations that they unlawfully obtained plot allocations during the former premiers tenure. The Investigating Officer later submitted a charge sheet against 17 accused on March 10.

According to The Dhaka Tribune, the ACC filed six separate cases between January 12 and 14 with its Dhaka Integrated District Office-1 over alleged irregularities in the allocation of plots under the Purbachal New Town project. The anti-graft body alleged that Hasina, in collusion with senior Rajuk officials, unlawfully secured six plots, each measuring 10 kathas (7,200 square feet), in the diplomatic zone of Sector 27 of the Purbachal New Town project for herself, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, daughter Saima Wazed Putul, sister Rehana, her son Bobby and daughter Azmina despite their ineligibility under existing regulations.

ACC officials said Siddiq used her power to get plots for Rehana, Bobby, and Azmina. Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) is the state-run agency responsible for monitoring compliance from planning to construction of Government-aided buildings in Bangladesh. Sheikh Hasina niece, British parliamentarian Tulip Siddiq to a two-year jail term in a land scam case.
A delegation from the West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS arrived in Guinea-Bissau on Monday for mediation talks with the leaders of a coup over the complete restoration of constitutional order. The ECOWAS mission, led by its chairman and the President of Sierra Leone Julius Maada Bio, arrived as the military government  which seized power last Wednesday  banned all demonstrations, strikes and activities regarded as threat to peace and stability. In a statement late Sunday, the military authorities also ordered public institutions and ministries to reopen. Soldiers seized power in the West African nation three days after a closely contested presidential election which the two main contenders claim to have won.
American Tower (NYSE: AMT) recently received a number of ratings updates from brokerages and research firms:

12/1/2025  American Tower had its equal weight rating reaffirmed by analysts at Barclays PLC. They now have a $200.00 price target on the stock, down previously from $203.00.

11/25/2025  American Tower had its hold (c) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

11/19/2025  American Tower had its hold (c) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

11/17/2025  American Tower had its price target lowered by analysts at Barclays PLC from $251.00 to $203.00. They now have an overweight rating on the stock.

11/13/2025  American Tower had its hold (c) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

10/30/2025  American Tower was given a new $210.00 price target on by analysts at Argus.

10/29/2025  American Tower had its buy rating reaffirmed by analysts at UBS Group AG. They now have a $260.00 price target on the stock.

10/29/2025  American Tower had its market outperform rating reaffirmed by analysts at Citigroup Inc..

10/29/2025  American Tower had its price target lowered by analysts at TD Cowen from $249.00 to $235.00. They now have a buy rating on the stock.

10/29/2025  American Tower had its price target lowered by analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. from $250.00 to $230.00. They now have a buy rating on the stock.

10/29/2025  American Tower had its price target lowered by analysts at HSBC Holdings plc from $235.00 to $205.00.

10/29/2025  American Tower had its price target lowered by analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $255.00 to $250.00. They now have an overweight rating on the stock.

10/29/2025  American Tower had its price target lowered by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $210.00 to $200.00. They now have an overweight rating on the stock.

10/29/2025  American Tower had its strong-buy rating reaffirmed by analysts at Raymond James Financial, Inc.. They now have a $231.00 price target on the stock, down previously from $250.00.

10/29/2025  American Tower had its price target lowered by analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $220.00 to $215.00. They now have an outperform rating on the stock.

10/20/2025  American Tower had its price target lowered by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $230.00 to $210.00. They now have an overweight rating on the stock.

10/17/2025  American Tower had its price target raised by analysts at Barclays PLC from $250.00 to $251.00. They now have an overweight rating on the stock.

10/17/2025  American Tower had its price target lowered by analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $245.00 to $220.00. They now have an outperform rating on the stock.

10/16/2025  American Tower had its price target lowered by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $270.00 to $235.00. They now have an overweight rating on the stock.

10/16/2025  American Tower had its price target lowered by analysts at Citigroup Inc. from $250.00 to $225.00. They now have a buy rating on the stock.

10/13/2025  American Tower had its price target lowered by analysts at Jefferies Financial Group Inc. from $281.00 to $226.00. They now have a buy rating on the stock.

10/12/2025  American Tower was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a sell rating to a hold rating.

10/8/2025  American Tower had its hold (c-) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

10/4/2025  American Tower was downgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a hold rating to a sell rating.

American Tower Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 20th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th were paid a dividend of $1.70 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 30th. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.9%. American Towers dividend payout ratio is presently 108.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Eugene F. Reilly bought 5,554 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 31st. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $178.99 per share, with a total value of $994,110.46. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 5,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,018,274.11. The trade was a 4,114.07% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.17% of the companys stock.

American Tower, one of the largest global REITs, is a leading independent owner, operator and developer of multitenant communications real estate with a portfolio of over 224,000 communications sites and a highly interconnected footprint of U.S. data center facilities.

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Sealed Air (NYSE: SEE) recently received a number of ratings updates from brokerages and research firms:

11/25/2025  Sealed Air had its hold (c) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

11/19/2025  Sealed Air had its hold (c) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

11/17/2025  Sealed Air had its hold rating reaffirmed by analysts at Stifel Nicolaus. They now have a $45.00 price target on the stock, up previously from $43.80.

11/16/2025  Sealed Air was downgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating.

11/13/2025  Sealed Air had its hold (c) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

11/10/2025  Sealed Air had its price target raised by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $31.00 to $41.00. They now have an equal weight rating on the stock.

11/8/2025  Sealed Air was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating.

11/5/2025  Sealed Air had its price target raised by analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $36.00 to $38.00. They now have an overweight rating on the stock.

11/5/2025  Sealed Air had its price target raised by analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada from $48.00 to $52.00. They now have an outperform rating on the stock.

11/5/2025  Sealed Air had its buy rating reaffirmed by analysts at Truist Financial Corporation. They now have a $45.00 price target on the stock, up previously from $40.00.

11/5/2025  Sealed Air had its price target raised by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $43.00 to $46.00. They now have an overweight rating on the stock.

10/17/2025  Sealed Air had its strong-buy rating reaffirmed by analysts at Raymond James Financial, Inc.. They now have a $50.00 price target on the stock, up previously from $39.00.

10/8/2025  Sealed Air was given a new $48.00 price target on by analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada. They now have an outperform rating on the stock.

10/8/2025  Sealed Air was upgraded by analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada from a sector perform rating to an outperform rating. They now have a $48.00 price target on the stock, up previously from $35.00.

10/8/2025  Sealed Air had its hold (c-) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

10/6/2025  Sealed Air had its price target raised by analysts at UBS Group AG from $40.00 to $42.00. They now have a buy rating on the stock.

10/3/2025  Sealed Air had its price target raised by analysts at Mizuho from $36.00 to $41.00. They now have an outperform rating on the stock.

Sealed Air Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 5th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. Sealed Airs dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.97%.

Sealed Air Corporation provides packaging solutions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. It operates through two segments, Food and Protective. The Food segment offers integrated packaging materials and automation equipment solutions to provide food safety, shelf life extension, reduce food waste, automate processes, and optimize total cost for food processors in the fresh red meat, smoked and processed meats, poultry, seafood, plant-based, fluids and liquids and cheese markets under the CRYOVAC, CRYOVAC Grip & Tear, CRYOVAC Darfresh, LIQUIBOX, Simple Steps, and Optidure brands.

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BQE Water Inc. (CVE:BQE  Free Report)  Equities research analysts at Atrium Research upped their FY2025 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for BQE Water in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, November 28th. Atrium Research analyst N. Cortellucci now forecasts that the company will post earnings per share of $5.81 for the year, up from their previous estimate of $5.49. Atrium Research also issued estimates for BQE Waters Q4 2025 earnings at $0.86 EPS, Q1 2026 earnings at $1.00 EPS, Q2 2026 earnings at $1.77 EPS, Q3 2026 earnings at $1.72 EPS, Q4 2026 earnings at $1.27 EPS and FY2027 earnings at $6.66 EPS.

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BQE Water Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of BQE Water stock opened at C$54.00 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of C$69.98 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.35 and a beta of 0.24. The company has a current ratio of 5.62, a quick ratio of 3.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 12.98. BQE Water has a 12-month low of C$46.02 and a 12-month high of C$67.00. The firms 50 day simple moving average is C$52.87 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$53.24.

BQE Water Company Profile

BQE Water Inc, a water treatment company, provides wastewater management and treatment solutions to the mining and metallurgical industry in Canada, the United States, Latin America, China, and internationally. It offers water treatment solutions for mine drainage, run-off, waste rock seepage, tailings water, groundwater, and lime plant influent and/or effluent streams for treating metals, sulphate, selenium, nitrate, ammonia, and cyanide in the mining sector; smelting and refining services for treating metals and sulphate; and hydrometallurgy services for the treatment of metals, cyanide, and acids.

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Black Stone Minerals, L.P. (NYSE:BSM  Get Free Report) has been assigned an average rating of Reduce from the five ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have issued a hold rating on the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $13.00.

A number of research firms have weighed in on BSM. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Black Stone Minerals from $14.00 to $13.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. KeyCorp reiterated a sector weight rating on shares of Black Stone Minerals in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. Weiss Ratings reissued a sell (d+) rating on shares of Black Stone Minerals in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Black Stone Minerals from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th.

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Black Stone Minerals Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BSM opened at $14.27 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 3.22 and a current ratio of 3.22. Black Stone Minerals has a 52 week low of $11.78 and a 52 week high of $15.66. The firm has a market cap of $3.02 billion, a PE ratio of 12.30 and a beta of 0.23. The firms fifty day moving average is $13.30 and its 200-day moving average is $13.00.

Black Stone Minerals (NYSE:BSM  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.12. Black Stone Minerals had a return on equity of 39.67% and a net margin of 61.21%.The business had revenue of $132.47 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $106.20 million. Sell-side analysts predict that Black Stone Minerals will post 1.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Black Stone Minerals Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 6th were paid a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 6th. Black Stone Mineralss payout ratio is currently 104.35%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Black Stone Minerals news, CEO Thomas L. Carter, Jr. bought 14,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 12th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $12.59 per share, for a total transaction of $176,260.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer owned 3,512,701 shares in the company, valued at $44,224,905.59. This trade represents a 0.40% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders purchased a total of 40,670 shares of company stock worth $498,917 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 17.80% of the companys stock.

Institutional Trading of Black Stone Minerals

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new stake in shares of Black Stone Minerals in the 2nd quarter valued at $175,721,000. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in Black Stone Minerals by 2.2% in the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,600,182 shares of the oil and gas producers stock worth $34,166,000 after purchasing an additional 56,368 shares during the period. Investment Management Associates Inc. ADV increased its stake in Black Stone Minerals by 22.6% in the third quarter. Investment Management Associates Inc. ADV now owns 1,934,739 shares of the oil and gas producers stock valued at $25,422,000 after purchasing an additional 356,852 shares in the last quarter. Penn Davis Mcfarland Inc. increased its stake in Black Stone Minerals by 3.6% in the third quarter. Penn Davis Mcfarland Inc. now owns 1,918,790 shares of the oil and gas producers stock valued at $25,213,000 after purchasing an additional 66,898 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Black Stone Minerals by 5.5% during the second quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 963,313 shares of the oil and gas producers stock valued at $12,600,000 after purchasing an additional 49,818 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 14.49% of the companys stock.

Black Stone Minerals Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Black Stone Minerals, L.P., together with its subsidiaries, owns and manages oil and natural gas mineral interests. It owns mineral interests in approximately 16.8 million gross acres, nonparticipating royalty interests in 1.8 million gross acres, and overriding royalty interests in 1.6 million gross acres located in 41 states in the United States.

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American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH  Get Free Report) and Sun Communities (NYSE:SUI  Get Free Report) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends and earnings.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

91.9% of American Homes 4 Rent shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.6% of Sun Communities shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.0% of American Homes 4 Rent shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Sun Communities shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

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Dividends

American Homes 4 Rent pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Sun Communities pays an annual dividend of $4.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. American Homes 4 Rent pays out 101.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Sun Communities pays out 52.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. American Homes 4 Rent has increased its dividend for 5 consecutive years and Sun Communities has increased its dividend for 8 consecutive years.

Earnings & Valuation

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio American Homes 4 Rent $1.73 billion 6.84 $412.43 million $1.18 27.00 Sun Communities $3.22 billion 4.92 $101.80 million $7.98 16.08

This table compares American Homes 4 Rent and Sun Communitiess gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

American Homes 4 Rent has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Sun Communities. Sun Communities is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Homes 4 Rent, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

American Homes 4 Rent has a beta of 0.8, suggesting that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sun Communities has a beta of 0.86, suggesting that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for American Homes 4 Rent and Sun Communities, as reported by MarketBeat.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score American Homes 4 Rent 0 7 8 0 2.53 Sun Communities 1 7 5 0 2.31

American Homes 4 Rent presently has a consensus target price of $38.14, suggesting a potential upside of 19.72%. Sun Communities has a consensus target price of $137.42, suggesting a potential upside of 7.12%. Given American Homes 4 Rents stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe American Homes 4 Rent is more favorable than Sun Communities.

Profitability

This table compares American Homes 4 Rent and Sun Communities net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets American Homes 4 Rent 24.70% 5.90% 3.46% Sun Communities 42.58% -4.51% -2.19%

Summary

American Homes 4 Rent beats Sun Communities on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About American Homes 4 Rent

(Get Free Report)

American Homes 4 Rent operates as a real estate investment trust. It engages in the acquisition, renovation, leasing, and operating of single-family homes as rental properties. The company was founded by Bradley Wayne Hughes, Sr. on October 19, 2012 and is headquartered in Las Vegas, NV.

About Sun Communities

(Get Free Report)

Established in 1975, Sun Communities, Inc. became a publicly owned corporation in December 1993. The Company is a fully integrated REIT listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol: SUI. As of December 31, 2023, the Company owned, operated, or had an interest in a portfolio of 667 developed MH, RV and Marina properties comprising 179,310 developed sites and approximately 48,030 wet slips and dry storage spaces in the U.S., the UK and Canada.

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Gran Tierra Energy Inc. (NYSE:GTE  Get Free Report) Director Equinox Partners Investment Ma acquired 4,100 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 26th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $4.36 per share, with a total value of $17,876.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,586,854 shares in the company, valued at $11,278,683.44. This trade represents a 0.16% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Equinox Partners Investment Ma also recently made the following trade(s):

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On Tuesday, November 25th, Equinox Partners Investment Ma bought 80,408 shares of Gran Tierra Energy stock. The stock was bought at an average cost of $4.23 per share, for a total transaction of $340,125.84.

On Monday, November 24th, Equinox Partners Investment Ma purchased 27,067 shares of Gran Tierra Energy stock. The shares were bought at an average price of $4.35 per share, with a total value of $117,741.45.

On Friday, November 21st, Equinox Partners Investment Ma purchased 50,000 shares of Gran Tierra Energy stock. The shares were bought at an average cost of $4.35 per share, with a total value of $217,500.00.

On Wednesday, November 19th, Equinox Partners Investment Ma acquired 30,400 shares of Gran Tierra Energy stock. The stock was purchased at an average price of $4.36 per share, for a total transaction of $132,544.00.

On Tuesday, November 18th, Equinox Partners Investment Ma bought 35,780 shares of Gran Tierra Energy stock. The stock was purchased at an average price of $4.23 per share, with a total value of $151,349.40.

On Monday, November 17th, Equinox Partners Investment Ma bought 126,126 shares of Gran Tierra Energy stock. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $4.21 per share, for a total transaction of $530,990.46.

On Friday, November 14th, Equinox Partners Investment Ma purchased 77,412 shares of Gran Tierra Energy stock. The shares were purchased at an average price of $4.32 per share, for a total transaction of $334,419.84.

On Thursday, November 13th, Equinox Partners Investment Ma purchased 22,900 shares of Gran Tierra Energy stock. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $4.39 per share, with a total value of $100,531.00.

On Wednesday, November 12th, Equinox Partners Investment Ma acquired 115,131 shares of Gran Tierra Energy stock. The stock was purchased at an average price of $4.32 per share, with a total value of $497,365.92.

On Tuesday, November 11th, Equinox Partners Investment Ma acquired 15,777 shares of Gran Tierra Energy stock. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $4.33 per share, for a total transaction of $68,314.41.

Gran Tierra Energy Stock Performance

NYSE GTE traded up $0.08 on Monday, hitting $4.61. 396,600 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 338,650. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.71, a current ratio of 1.31 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The firms 50-day moving average price is $4.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $4.42. Gran Tierra Energy Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $3.09 and a fifty-two week high of $8.19. The firm has a market cap of $162.71 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 0.71.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Gran Tierra Energy Company Profile

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GTE. Equinox Partners Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Gran Tierra Energy by 37.2% during the 2nd quarter. Equinox Partners Investment Management LLC now owns 5,097,688 shares of the companys stock worth $24,316,000 after purchasing an additional 1,381,574 shares in the last quarter. Encompass Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Gran Tierra Energy by 33.4% in the first quarter. Encompass Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,500,589 shares of the companys stock valued at $12,328,000 after purchasing an additional 625,562 shares during the period. LM Asset IM Inc. boosted its holdings in Gran Tierra Energy by 13.4% during the second quarter. LM Asset IM Inc. now owns 1,945,800 shares of the companys stock worth $9,281,000 after buying an additional 229,200 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in Gran Tierra Energy by 8.2% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,409,583 shares of the companys stock worth $6,724,000 after buying an additional 106,478 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bridgeway Capital Management LLC grew its position in Gran Tierra Energy by 1.1% during the first quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 558,374 shares of the companys stock worth $2,753,000 after buying an additional 6,219 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 31.70% of the companys stock.

(Get Free Report)

Gran Tierra Energy Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the exploration and production of oil and gas properties in Colombia and Ecuador. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

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Inspire Medical Systems, Inc. (NYSE:INSP  Get Free Report) Director Shawn Mccormick sold 2,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Friday, November 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.48, for a total value of $254,960.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 26,046 shares of the companys stock, valued at $3,320,344.08. This trade represents a 7.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

Inspire Medical Systems Trading Up 2.0%

INSP traded up $2.47 on Monday, reaching $126.88. The company had a trading volume of 943,979 shares, compared to its average volume of 840,866. Inspire Medical Systems, Inc. has a one year low of $70.77 and a one year high of $216.01. The company has a market capitalization of $3.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 86.31, a PEG ratio of 13.48 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a fifty day moving average of $85.31 and a 200-day moving average of $104.77.

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Inspire Medical Systems (NYSE:INSP  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 3rd. The company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of ($0.15) by $0.53. The business had revenue of $224.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $220.39 million. Inspire Medical Systems had a net margin of 5.05% and a return on equity of 9.41%. The businesss revenue for the quarter was up 10.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Inspire Medical Systems, Inc. will post 2.16 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Inspire Medical Systems

Inspire Medical Systems announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Monday, August 11th that allows the company to buyback $200.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase up to 8.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the companys board believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Inspire Medical Systems in the third quarter valued at $32,000. Quarry LP increased its holdings in Inspire Medical Systems by 2,127.3% in the 1st quarter. Quarry LP now owns 245 shares of the companys stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 234 shares during the period. Banque Transatlantique SA bought a new stake in Inspire Medical Systems in the 1st quarter valued at $46,000. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Inspire Medical Systems by 21,266.7% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 641 shares of the companys stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 638 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd bought a new position in shares of Inspire Medical Systems during the 3rd quarter worth about $49,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.91% of the companys stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on INSP shares. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price target on Inspire Medical Systems from $150.00 to $125.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Inspire Medical Systems from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $101.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $110.00 target price on shares of Inspire Medical Systems and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Piper Sandler restated an overweight rating and set a $135.00 price target (down from $150.00) on shares of Inspire Medical Systems in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Finally, UBS Group set a $89.00 price objective on Inspire Medical Systems and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $134.88.

Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on INSP

About Inspire Medical Systems

(Get Free Report)

Inspire Medical Systems, Inc, a medical technology company, focuses on the development and commercialization of minimally invasive solutions for patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in the United States and internationally. The company offers Inspire system, a neurostimulation technology that provides a safe and effective treatment for moderate to severe OSA.

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Lennar (NYSE:LEN  Get Free Report) was upgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Sunday.

LEN has been the topic of a number of other reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Lennar from $122.00 to $126.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Weiss Ratings restated a hold (c) rating on shares of Lennar in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup reiterated an outperform rating on shares of Lennar in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Lennar from $135.00 to $125.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 10th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price objective on Lennar from $133.00 to $125.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $121.75.

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Lennar Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of Lennar stock opened at $130.45 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 4.49. The company has a market capitalization of $33.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.89, a PEG ratio of 5.78 and a beta of 1.33. Lennar has a 1 year low of $98.42 and a 1 year high of $175.65. The companys fifty day moving average is $124.08 and its two-hundred day moving average is $120.47.

Lennar (NYSE:LEN  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 18th. The construction company reported $2.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.14 by ($0.14). Lennar had a net margin of 7.72% and a return on equity of 11.09%. The company had revenue of $8.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.01 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.90 EPS. The businesss revenue was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Lennar will post 12.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lennar

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lennar by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,278 shares of the construction companys stock valued at $141,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT raised its position in shares of Lennar by 8.3% in the 3rd quarter. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT now owns 1,127 shares of the construction companys stock worth $142,000 after buying an additional 86 shares during the period. RFG Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in Lennar by 2.1% in the third quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 4,255 shares of the construction companys stock valued at $536,000 after acquiring an additional 87 shares during the last quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in Lennar by 1.2% during the first quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 7,719 shares of the construction companys stock valued at $886,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the period. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in Lennar by 6.2% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,595 shares of the construction companys stock worth $201,000 after acquiring an additional 93 shares during the last quarter. 81.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Lennar

(Get Free Report)

Lennar Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a homebuilder primarily under the Lennar brand in the United States. It operates through Homebuilding East, Homebuilding Central, Homebuilding Texas, Homebuilding West, Financial Services, Multifamily, and Lennar Other segments. The companys homebuilding operations include the construction and sale of single-family attached and detached homes, as well as the purchase, development, and sale of residential land; and development, construction, and management of multifamily rental properties.

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PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Exchange-Traded Fund (NYSEARCA:MINT  Get Free Report) shares fell 0.3% on Monday . The stock traded as low as $100.29 and last traded at $100.30. 1,842,144 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 33% from the average session volume of 1,384,189 shares. The stock had previously closed at $100.65.

PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Exchange-Traded Fund Stock Down 0.3%

The stocks fifty day moving average price is $100.51 and its 200-day moving average price is $100.45.

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Institutional Investors Weigh In On PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Exchange-Traded Fund

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MINT. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. boosted its position in PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Exchange-Traded Fund by 11.4% during the third quarter. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. now owns 980 shares of the companys stock valued at $99,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Titleist Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Exchange-Traded Fund by 5.1% in the third quarter. Titleist Asset Management LLC now owns 2,095 shares of the companys stock valued at $211,000 after buying an additional 102 shares in the last quarter. White Pine Investment CO increased its holdings in PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Exchange-Traded Fund by 2.6% during the second quarter. White Pine Investment CO now owns 4,267 shares of the companys stock worth $429,000 after buying an additional 110 shares during the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC raised its position in PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Exchange-Traded Fund by 8.7% during the second quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 1,623 shares of the companys stock worth $163,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American National Bank & Trust raised its position in PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Exchange-Traded Fund by 77.2% during the third quarter. American National Bank & Trust now owns 459 shares of the companys stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter.

About PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Exchange-Traded Fund

PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity ETF (the Fund), formerly PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Strategy Fund, is an exchange-traded fund. The Fund seeks maximum current income, consistent with preservation of capital and daily liquidity. The Fund focuses on short maturity fixed income instruments. The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing at least 65% of its total assets in a diversified portfolio of fixed income instruments of varying maturities, which may be represented by forwards.

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Trilogy Metals Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:TMQ  Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus rating of Hold from the six research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $7.75.

TMQ has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. TD Securities reissued a hold rating on shares of Trilogy Metals in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Raymond James Financial raised Trilogy Metals from a hold rating to a moderate buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Trilogy Metals to a buy rating and set a $10.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. BMO Capital Markets restated a market perform rating and issued a $5.50 price target on shares of Trilogy Metals in a report on Friday, October 10th. Finally, Cormark cut Trilogy Metals from a moderate buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th.

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Read Our Latest Analysis on Trilogy Metals

Insider Activity

Institutional Trading of Trilogy Metals

In related news, Director Janice Stairs sold 50,613 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.56, for a total transaction of $332,021.28. Following the sale, the director directly owned 508,608 shares in the company, valued at $3,336,468.48. This trade represents a 9.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink . Also, CFO Elaine Sanders sold 449,599 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.84, for a total transaction of $3,075,257.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 3,149,561 shares in the company, valued at $21,542,997.24. This represents a 12.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,064,506 shares of company stock worth $7,275,194. Corporate insiders own 15.20% of the companys stock.

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Spire Wealth Management grew its position in Trilogy Metals by 55.1% in the third quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 18,774 shares of the mining companys stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 6,669 shares in the last quarter. Compass Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Trilogy Metals during the 3rd quarter worth about $63,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Trilogy Metals during the 3rd quarter worth about $105,000. Birchbrook Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Trilogy Metals by 25.0% in the 1st quarter. Birchbrook Inc. now owns 50,000 shares of the mining companys stock valued at $78,000 after acquiring an additional 10,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Trilogy Metals in the first quarter valued at about $83,000. Institutional investors own 16.75% of the companys stock.

Trilogy Metals Price Performance

Shares of NYSEAMERICAN:TMQ opened at $4.46 on Friday. The firms 50 day simple moving average is $4.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $2.59. Trilogy Metals has a fifty-two week low of $0.99 and a fifty-two week high of $11.29. The company has a market capitalization of $749.68 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -89.20 and a beta of 1.18.

Trilogy Metals Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Trilogy Metals Inc, a base metals exploration company, engages in the exploration and development of mineral properties in the United States. The company explores for copper, cobalt, lead, zinc, gold, and silver properties. It principally holds interests in the Upper Kobuk mineral projects that include the Arctic, which contains polymetallic volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits; and Bornite that contains carbonate-hosted copper  cobalt deposits covering an area of approximately 448,217 acres located in the Ambler mining district in Northwest Alaska.

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A number of firms have modified their ratings and price targets on shares of Dover (NYSE: DOV) recently:

11/25/2025  Dover had its hold (c+) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

11/19/2025  Dover was downgraded by analysts at Weiss Ratings from a buy (b-) rating to a hold (c+) rating.

11/14/2025  Dover had its price target raised by analysts at Oppenheimer Holdings, Inc. from $225.00 to $228.00. They now have an outperform rating on the stock.

11/13/2025  Dover had its buy (b-) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

11/8/2025  Dover was downgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a buy rating to a hold rating.

11/7/2025  Dover was upgraded by analysts at Weiss Ratings from a hold (c+) rating to a buy (b-) rating.

10/28/2025  Dover had its price target raised by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $185.00 to $195.00. They now have an equal weight rating on the stock.

10/25/2025  Dover was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a hold rating to a buy rating.

10/24/2025  Dover had its price target raised by analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada from $183.00 to $198.00. They now have a sector perform rating on the stock.

10/24/2025  Dover was given a new $235.00 price target on by analysts at Robert W. Baird.

10/24/2025  Dover was given a new $200.00 price target on by analysts at UBS Group AG.

10/24/2025  Dover was downgraded by analysts at Weiss Ratings from a buy (b-) rating to a hold (c+) rating.

10/24/2025  Dover had its price target raised by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $180.00 to $190.00. They now have an equal weight rating on the stock.

10/24/2025  Dover had its price target raised by analysts at Barclays PLC from $190.00 to $195.00. They now have an equal weight rating on the stock.

10/20/2025  Dover had its price target lowered by analysts at Oppenheimer Holdings, Inc. from $225.00 to $220.00. They now have an outperform rating on the stock.

10/15/2025  Dover had its price target raised by analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $217.00 to $220.00. They now have an overweight rating on the stock.

10/8/2025  Dover had its buy (b-) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

10/6/2025  Dover had its price target lowered by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $195.00 to $180.00. They now have an equal weight rating on the stock.

Dover Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 28th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 28th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Dovers payout ratio is currently 12.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Dover

In other news, CFO Christopher B. Woenker sold 1,627 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.04, for a total transaction of $302,687.08. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 2,553 shares in the company, valued at approximately $474,960.12. This trade represents a 38.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 1.30% of the companys stock.

Dover Corporation provides equipment and components, consumable supplies, aftermarket parts, software and digital solutions, and support services worldwide. The company's Engineered Products segment provides various equipment, component, software, solution, and services that are used in vehicle aftermarket, waste handling, industrial automation, aerospace and defense, industrial winch and hoist, and fluid dispensing end-market.

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Cencora, Inc. (NYSE:COR  Free Report)  Equities researchers at Zacks Research dropped their Q1 2026 earnings estimates for shares of Cencora in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, November 26th. Zacks Research analyst Team now anticipates that the company will post earnings per share of $4.02 for the quarter, down from their previous estimate of $4.10. The consensus estimate for Cencoras current full-year earnings is $15.37 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for Cencoras Q2 2026 earnings at $4.86 EPS, Q3 2026 earnings at $4.31 EPS, Q4 2026 earnings at $4.28 EPS, FY2026 earnings at $17.47 EPS, Q2 2027 earnings at $5.27 EPS, Q3 2027 earnings at $4.82 EPS, Q4 2027 earnings at $4.96 EPS, FY2027 earnings at $19.34 EPS and FY2028 earnings at $21.01 EPS.

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Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Cencora from $354.00 to $405.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Cencora from $344.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Cencora from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Friday. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Cencora from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Cencora from $340.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cencora presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $371.09.

Cencora Stock Down 2.3%

COR opened at $360.33 on Monday. Cencora has a 52 week low of $223.92 and a 52 week high of $377.54. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $337.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $308.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.64. The company has a market cap of $69.86 billion, a PE ratio of 37.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.63.

Cencora (NYSE:COR  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $3.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.05. Cencora had a net margin of 0.60% and a return on equity of 267.36%. The business had revenue of $83.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $83.36 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.34 earnings per share. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Cencora has set its FY 2026 guidance at 17.450-17.75 EPS.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cencora

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Cencora by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,395,547 shares of the companys stock worth $7,311,810,000 after purchasing an additional 916,506 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Cencora by 8.9% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 9,647,310 shares of the companys stock worth $2,682,821,000 after buying an additional 787,858 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Cencora by 9.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,190,316 shares of the companys stock worth $2,872,249,000 after buying an additional 782,911 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Cencora by 7.2% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,421,262 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,507,599,000 after buying an additional 363,402 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners grew its holdings in Cencora by 8.1% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,411,193 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,505,984,000 after buying an additional 404,093 shares during the period. 97.52% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cencora news, CEO Robert P. Mauch sold 5,096 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $366.64, for a total value of $1,868,397.44. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 65,746 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $24,105,113.44. This represents a 7.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Steven H. Collis sold 31,350 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.86, for a total value of $9,087,111.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman owned 305,913 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $88,671,942.18. This represents a 9.30% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 46,640 shares of company stock worth $14,099,338. Insiders own 10.80% of the companys stock.

Cencora Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 14th were paid a dividend of $0.60 per share. This is a positive change from Cencoras previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 14th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Cencoras dividend payout ratio is presently 30.19%.

Cencora Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Cencora, Inc sources and distributes pharmaceutical products. The company's U.S. Healthcare Solutions segment distributes pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter healthcare products, home healthcare supplies and equipment, and related services to acute care hospitals and health systems, independent and chain retail pharmacies, mail order pharmacies, medical clinics, long-term care and alternate site pharmacies, and other customers; provides pharmacy management, staffing, and other consulting services; supply management software to retail and institutional healthcare providers; packaging solutions to various institutional and retail healthcare providers; clinical trial support, product post-approval, and commercialization support services; data analytics, outcomes research, and additional services for biotechnology and pharmaceutical manufacturers; pharmaceuticals, vaccines, parasiticides, diagnostics, micro feed ingredients, and other products to the companion animal and production animal markets; and sales force services to manufacturers.

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Youdao (NYSE:DAO  Get Free Report) was downgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued on Sunday.

Separately, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a sell (d+) rating on shares of Youdao in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Reduce.

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Youdao Price Performance

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Youdao

Youdao stock opened at $9.56 on Friday. Youdao has a 1 year low of $6.03 and a 1 year high of $11.82. The firms 50 day moving average price is $10.22 and its 200-day moving average price is $9.35. The stock has a market cap of $1.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.24 and a beta of 0.24.

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lifted its position in Youdao by 34.8% in the second quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 21,557 shares of the companys stock valued at $185,000 after buying an additional 5,565 shares during the last quarter. Walleye Trading LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Youdao in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $115,000. Vident Advisory LLC raised its stake in shares of Youdao by 190.2% in the 1st quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 57,192 shares of the companys stock valued at $436,000 after acquiring an additional 37,485 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Youdao by 83.5% in the 1st quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 137,456 shares of the companys stock worth $1,049,000 after acquiring an additional 62,568 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Walleye Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Youdao by 226.1% during the 1st quarter. Walleye Capital LLC now owns 176,599 shares of the companys stock worth $1,347,000 after purchasing an additional 122,450 shares during the period. 21.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Youdao

(Get Free Report)

Youdao, Inc, an internet technology company, provides online services in the field of content, community, communication, and commerce in China. It operates through three segments: Learning Services, Smart Devices, and Online Marketing Services. The company provides various learning content, applications, and solutions, which cover topics and target people from various age groups for their learning needs through its websites and mobile applications.

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Shares of Banco Santander Brasil SA (NYSE:BSBR  Get Free Report) hit a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $6.49 and last traded at $6.4550, with a volume of 39040 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $6.37.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on BSBR shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a hold (c+) rating on shares of Banco Santander Brasil in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Banco Santander Brasil from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Saturday, November 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Banco Santander Brasil from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $4.70.

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Banco Santander Brasil Trading Up 2.6%

Banco Santander Brasil Increases Dividend

The stocks 50 day simple moving average is $5.74 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $5.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.28, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.37.

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 17th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 23rd were given a dividend of $0.0983 per share. This represents a $0.39 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.0%. This is a boost from Banco Santander Brasils previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 23rd.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Banco Santander Brasil

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of BSBR. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Banco Santander Brasil by 74.0% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,606,117 shares of the banks stock worth $7,565,000 after purchasing an additional 683,045 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in Banco Santander Brasil by 17.0% during the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,957,288 shares of the banks stock worth $16,531,000 after buying an additional 430,531 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC increased its position in shares of Banco Santander Brasil by 2,671.0% in the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 326,451 shares of the banks stock worth $1,825,000 after acquiring an additional 314,670 shares in the last quarter. Citadel Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Banco Santander Brasil by 821.9% in the 3rd quarter. Citadel Advisors LLC now owns 183,769 shares of the banks stock valued at $1,027,000 after acquiring an additional 163,835 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Banco Santander Brasil by 99.6% during the 3rd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 327,261 shares of the banks stock valued at $1,829,000 after acquiring an additional 163,314 shares in the last quarter. 14.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Banco Santander Brasil Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Banco Santander (Brasil) SA, together with its subsidiaries, provides various banking products and services to individuals, small and medium enterprises, and corporate customers in Brazil and internationally. The company operates through Commercial Banking and Global Wholesale Banking segments. It offers local loans, commercial financing options, development bank funds, and cash management services; export and import financing, guarantees, structuring of asset services.

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Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Brinker International, Inc. (NYSE:EAT  Free Report) by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 113,266 shares of the restaurant operators stock after acquiring an additional 1,832 shares during the quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. owned approximately 0.25% of Brinker International worth $20,425,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Allworth Financial LP increased its stake in Brinker International by 105.8% in the 2nd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 142 shares of the restaurant operators stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the period. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Brinker International by 52.1% in the second quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 219 shares of the restaurant operators stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Brinker International by 5.9% in the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,462 shares of the restaurant operators stock valued at $264,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System grew its holdings in Brinker International by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 13,043 shares of the restaurant operators stock valued at $2,352,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Yousif Capital Management LLC increased its position in Brinker International by 0.7% during the second quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 12,097 shares of the restaurant operators stock worth $2,181,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on EAT shares. Mizuho began coverage on shares of Brinker International in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. They set an outperform rating and a $155.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Brinker International from $161.00 to $160.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Brinker International from $215.00 to $200.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Bank of America upgraded Brinker International from a neutral rating to a buy rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $190.00 to $192.00 in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Brinker International from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $167.44.

Brinker International Price Performance

NYSE:EAT opened at $151.36 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $6.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.70, a P/E/G ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 0.35 and a quick ratio of 0.25. Brinker International, Inc. has a one year low of $100.30 and a one year high of $192.21. The firms fifty day moving average price is $125.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $149.61.

Brinker International (NYSE:EAT  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.17. Brinker International had a net margin of 7.94% and a return on equity of 164.66%. The company had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $1.32 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.95 earnings per share. Brinker Internationals quarterly revenue was up 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. Brinker International has set its FY 2026 guidance at 9.900-10.50 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Brinker International, Inc. will post 8.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Brinker International

In other Brinker International news, COO Douglas N. Comings sold 16,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.48, for a total transaction of $2,503,680.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 12,951 shares in the company, valued at $2,026,572.48. This represents a 55.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 1.43% of the companys stock.

About Brinker International

(Free Report)

Brinker International, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the ownership, development, operation, and franchising of casual dining restaurants in the United States and internationally. It operates and franchises Chili's Grill & Bar and Maggiano's Little Italy restaurant brands.

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Portfolio Design Labs LLC boosted its holdings in Bristol Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY  Free Report) by 17.4% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 59,200 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock after buying an additional 8,779 shares during the period. Portfolio Design Labs LLCs holdings in Bristol Myers Squibb were worth $2,740,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Bristol Myers Squibb in the second quarter worth approximately $1,554,154,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Bristol Myers Squibb by 297.0% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 23,728,443 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $1,447,198,000 after purchasing an additional 17,750,938 shares during the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Bristol Myers Squibb by 22,647.6% during the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 12,023,454 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $733,310,000 after buying an additional 11,970,598 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Bristol Myers Squibb during the 1st quarter worth $624,369,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Bristol Myers Squibb by 16.8% in the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 70,802,680 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $3,277,456,000 after buying an additional 10,195,775 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.41% of the companys stock.

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Bristol Myers Squibb Stock Performance

Bristol Myers Squibb stock opened at $49.14 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $100.04 billion, a PE ratio of 19.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.33. Bristol Myers Squibb Company has a one year low of $42.52 and a one year high of $63.33. The stocks 50 day moving average price is $45.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $46.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.54, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.21.

Bristol Myers Squibb Dividend Announcement

Bristol Myers Squibb ( NYSE:BMY Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.11. Bristol Myers Squibb had a net margin of 10.58% and a return on equity of 80.04%. The company had revenue of $12.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.75 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.80 earnings per share. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. Bristol Myers Squibb has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.400-6.600 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Bristol Myers Squibb Company will post 6.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 3rd were issued a $0.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 3rd. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.0%. Bristol Myers Squibbs payout ratio is currently 83.78%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on BMY shares. Scotiabank assumed coverage on Bristol Myers Squibb in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. They set a sector perform rating and a $45.00 price target for the company. Dbs Bank upgraded Bristol Myers Squibb to a moderate buy rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Bristol Myers Squibb from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Saturday, November 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a neutral rating on shares of Bristol Myers Squibb in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Bristol Myers Squibb from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fifteen have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $54.42.

Check Out Our Latest Research Report on Bristol Myers Squibb

Bristol Myers Squibb Profile

(Free Report)

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company discovers, develops, licenses, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products worldwide. It offers products for hematology, oncology, cardiovascular, immunology, fibrotic, and neuroscience diseases. The company's products include Eliquis for reduction in risk of stroke/systemic embolism in non-valvular atrial fibrillation, and for the treatment of DVT/PE; Opdivo for various anti-cancer indications, including bladder, blood, CRC, head and neck, RCC, HCC, lung, melanoma, MPM, stomach and esophageal cancer; Pomalyst/Imnovid for multiple myeloma; Orencia for active rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis; and Sprycel for the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia.

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Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY  Get Free Report) had its target price upped by Citigroup from GBX 84 to GBX 97 in a note issued to investors on Monday,Digital Look reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the financial services providers stock. Citigroups target price indicates a potential downside of 0.39% from the stocks previous close.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on LLOY. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an outperform rating and set a GBX 93 price objective on shares of Lloyds Banking Group in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on Lloyds Banking Group from GBX 100 to GBX 110 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Lloyds Banking Group from GBX 85 to GBX 98 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Shore Capital reissued a hold rating and issued a GBX 84 price objective on shares of Lloyds Banking Group in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a buy rating and set a GBX 105 target price on shares of Lloyds Banking Group in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of GBX 97.83.

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Lloyds Banking Group Price Performance

Lloyds Banking Group stock traded up GBX 1.88 during midday trading on Monday, reaching GBX 97.38. 456,714,188 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 155,065,078. Lloyds Banking Group has a 12 month low of GBX 52.44 and a 12 month high of GBX 97.42. The business has a 50 day moving average of GBX 87.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of GBX 81.88. The firm has a market capitalization of 57.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.23.

Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported GBX 1 earnings per share for the quarter. Lloyds Banking Group had a net margin of 16.66% and a return on equity of 11.22%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Lloyds Banking Group will post 7.3199528 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Lloyds Banking Group

In related news, insider Charlie Nunn acquired 217,494 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 19th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of GBX 84 per share, with a total value of 182,694.96. Also, insider William Chalmers bought 138,723 shares of Lloyds Banking Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 19th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of GBX 84 per share, with a total value of 116,527.32. 0.16% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Lloyds Banking Group

(Get Free Report)

We are the largest UK retail and commercial financial services provider with over 25 million customers and a presence in nearly every community.

The Groups main business activities are retail and commercial banking, general insurance and long-term savings, provided through the largest branch network and digital bank in the UK, with well recognised brands including Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Scottish Widows.

Our shares are quoted on the London and New York stock exchanges and we are one of the largest companies in the FTSE 100 index.

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Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL  Get Free Report) had its price objective cut by stock analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from $74.00 to $72.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,MarketScreener reports. The brokerage presently has a buy rating on the transportation companys stock. Jefferies Financial Groups price objective would suggest a potential upside of 12.72% from the stocks current price.

A number of other research analysts also recently weighed in on DAL. Wolfe Research decreased their price target on Delta Air Lines from $72.00 to $70.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Rothschild & Co Redburn increased their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $65.00 to $72.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Delta Air Lines from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Friday. HSBC upped their price target on shares of Delta Air Lines from $69.20 to $73.70 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines from $71.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, October 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and twenty have assigned a Buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Buy and an average target price of $71.58.

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Delta Air Lines Trading Down 0.4%

NYSE:DAL opened at $63.88 on Tuesday. Delta Air Lines has a twelve month low of $34.74 and a twelve month high of $69.98. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $59.00 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $55.91. The company has a market cap of $41.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.52. The company has a quick ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 15th. The transportation company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $8.40 billion for the quarter. Delta Air Lines had a net margin of 7.36% and a return on equity of 23.83%. As a group, analysts expect that Delta Air Lines will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP John E. Laughter sold 23,323 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.33, for a total value of $1,453,722.59. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 81,109 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $5,055,523.97. This represents a 22.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP William C. Carroll sold 14,010 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.25, for a total value of $858,112.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 15,816 shares in the company, valued at approximately $968,730. This trade represents a 46.97% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.88% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Delta Air Lines

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Investment Research Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Delta Air Lines during the third quarter worth approximately $295,000. Strategic Advocates LLC acquired a new position in shares of Delta Air Lines during the 3rd quarter worth $139,000. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Delta Air Lines by 17.3% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 26,364 shares of the transportation companys stock valued at $1,496,000 after purchasing an additional 3,884 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. acquired a new stake in Delta Air Lines in the third quarter valued at approximately $4,091,000. Finally, Sunbelt Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines by 19.2% during the 3rd quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 2,726 shares of the transportation companys stock valued at $155,000 after acquiring an additional 439 shares in the last quarter. 69.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Delta Air Lines Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Delta Air Lines, Inc provides scheduled air transportation for passengers and cargo in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Airline and Refinery. Its domestic network centered on core hubs in Atlanta, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit, and Salt Lake City, as well as coastal hub positions in Boston, Los Angeles, New York-LaGuardia, New York-JFK, and Seattle; and international network centered on hubs and market presence in Amsterdam, Bogota, Lima, Mexico City, London-Heathrow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Sao Paulo, Seoul-Incheon, and Tokyo.

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Eaton Vance California Municipal Bond Fund (NYSEAMERICAN:EVM  Get Free Report)s share price crossed below its 50-day moving average during trading on Monday . The stock has a 50-day moving average of $9.50 and traded as low as $9.46. Eaton Vance California Municipal Bond Fund shares last traded at $9.46, with a volume of 368,359 shares changing hands.

Eaton Vance California Municipal Bond Fund Stock Down 0.8%

The companys fifty day moving average price is $9.50 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $9.13.

About Eaton Vance California Municipal Bond Fund

(Get Free Report)

Eaton Vance California Municipal Bond Fund is a close-ended fixed income mutual fund launched and managed by Eaton Vance Management. The fund invests in the fixed income market of United States. It invests primarily in high grade municipal obligations comprising of various industries, such as general obligations, hospital, electric utilities, transportation, water and sewer, public education, and private education.

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Groupe la Francaise lifted its position in shares of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY  Free Report) by 66.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 180,811 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 72,332 shares during the period. Eli Lilly and Company comprises 2.3% of Groupe la Francaises portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest position. Groupe la Francaises holdings in Eli Lilly and Company were worth $141,115,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Eli Lilly and Company in the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Eli Lilly and Company in the second quarter valued at about $27,000. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. acquired a new stake in Eli Lilly and Company during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Bare Financial Services Inc increased its holdings in Eli Lilly and Company by 263.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bare Financial Services Inc now owns 40 shares of the companys stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blume Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Eli Lilly and Company by 46.7% in the 2nd quarter. Blume Capital Management Inc. now owns 44 shares of the companys stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. 82.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Eli Lilly and Company Stock Down 1.6%

NYSE:LLY opened at $1,057.73 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $895.42 and a 200-day moving average of $802.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $999.96 billion, a PE ratio of 69.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.43. Eli Lilly and Company has a 52 week low of $623.78 and a 52 week high of $1,111.99.

Eli Lilly and Company Dividend Announcement

Eli Lilly and Company ( NYSE:LLY Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $7.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $6.42 by $0.60. Eli Lilly and Company had a return on equity of 92.72% and a net margin of 25.91%.The business had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.18 EPS. The businesss revenue for the quarter was up 53.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Eli Lilly and Company has set its FY 2025 guidance at 23.000-23.700 EPS. Analysts predict that Eli Lilly and Company will post 23.48 EPS for the current year.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 10th. Investors of record on Friday, November 14th will be issued a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 14th. Eli Lilly and Companys dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.35%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Eli Lilly and Company from $1,038.00 to $1,182.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Eli Lilly and Company from $1,171.00 to $1,290.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Monday, November 24th. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Eli Lilly and Company from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on shares of Eli Lilly and Company from $1,010.00 to $900.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Finally, Loop Capital set a $950.00 price target on Eli Lilly and Company in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $1,058.86.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on LLY

Eli Lilly and Company Profile

(Free Report)

Eli Lilly and Company discovers, develops, and markets human pharmaceuticals worldwide. The company offers Basaglar, Humalog, Humalog Mix 75/25, Humalog U-100, Humalog U-200, Humalog Mix 50/50, insulin lispro, insulin lispro protamine, insulin lispro mix 75/25, Humulin, Humulin 70/30, Humulin N, Humulin R, and Humulin U-500 for diabetes; Jardiance, Mounjaro, and Trulicity for type 2 diabetes; and Zepbound for obesity.

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Equinox Gold (TSE:EQX  Get Free Report) received a C$24.00 price target from stock analysts at Stifel Nicolaus in a report issued on Tuesday,BayStreet.CA reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus price objective would suggest a potential upside of 23.65% from the companys current price.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on EQX. Cormark raised shares of Equinox Gold from a hold rating to a moderate buy rating in a research report on Friday, August 15th. National Bankshares lifted their price target on Equinox Gold from C$19.00 to C$23.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Equinox Gold from C$18.00 to C$20.00 in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Cibc World Mkts upgraded Equinox Gold from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded Equinox Gold from a hold rating to an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and six have given a Buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Equinox Gold presently has an average rating of Buy and an average target price of C$22.40.

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Equinox Gold Stock Down 1.1%

TSE EQX traded down C$0.22 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting C$19.41. 959,522 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,092,484. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 45.65, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a current ratio of 0.85. The businesss 50-day moving average is C$16.48 and its 200-day moving average is C$12.24. The stock has a market capitalization of C$15.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 194.10 and a beta of 2.41. Equinox Gold has a twelve month low of C$7.13 and a twelve month high of C$19.97.

Equinox Gold (TSE:EQX  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported C$0.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Equinox Gold had a return on equity of 8.67% and a net margin of 19.82%.The company had revenue of C$1.14 billion for the quarter. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Equinox Gold will post 1.3865979 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Equinox Gold

In related news, Director Blayne Barry Johnson sold 105,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$14.91, for a total transaction of C$1,565,550.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 1,706,616 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately C$25,445,644.56. This trade represents a 5.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Also, insider David Chester Schummer acquired 9,100 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 11th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of C$15.20 per share, with a total value of C$138,320.00. Following the acquisition, the insider directly owned 168,222 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$2,556,974.40. This trade represents a 5.72% increase in their ownership of the stock. Insiders own 6.40% of the companys stock.

About Equinox Gold

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Equinox Gold is a growth-focused gold producer operating entirely in the Americas, with projects in Canada, the USA, Mexico and Brazil. Equinox Gold has seven operating mines and a clear path to achieve more than one million ounces of annual gold production from a pipeline of development and expansion projects.

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Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF (NYSEARCA:EWL  Free Report) by 9,771.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,278,219 shares of the exchange traded funds stock after purchasing an additional 1,265,270 shares during the quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC owned about 5.27% of iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF worth $70,059,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Tiemann Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF in the 1st quarter worth $206,000. ABC Arbitrage SA purchased a new stake in iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF in the second quarter valued at about $635,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF by 4.6% in the second quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 7,695 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $422,000 after buying an additional 341 shares during the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich boosted its holdings in iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF by 6.7% in the second quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 168,171 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $9,217,000 after acquiring an additional 10,628 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning grew its stake in shares of iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF by 6.9% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 45,624 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $2,501,000 after acquiring an additional 2,953 shares during the last quarter. 68.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF Stock Down 0.7%

EWL opened at $57.42 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $1.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.82 and a beta of 0.81. The firms 50-day moving average price is $56.39 and its 200-day moving average price is $55.34. iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF has a 52-week low of $45.56 and a 52-week high of $58.35.

iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF Company Profile

iShares MSCI Switzerland Capped ETF (the Fund), formerly iShares MSCI Switzerland Capped Index Fund, is an exchange-traded fund (ETF). The Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the MSCI Switzerland 25/50 Index (the Index).

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Inv Vk Mun Tr (NYSE:VKQ  Get Free Report) announced a monthly dividend on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 16th will be given a dividend of 0.0628 per share by the investment management company on Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.9%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 16th.

Inv Vk Mun Tr Price Performance

VKQ traded down $0.03 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $9.52. 63,477 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 172,972. The companys fifty day moving average price is $9.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $9.35. Inv Vk Mun Tr has a 52-week low of $8.86 and a 52-week high of $10.33.

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Invesco Municipal Trust is a closed-ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Invesco Ltd. The fund is co-managed by Invesco Advisers, Inc, INVESCO Asset Management (Japan) Limited, INVESCO Asset Management Deutschland GmbH, INVESCO Asset Management Limited, Invesco Hong Kong Limited, INVESCO Senior Secured Management, Inc, and Invesco Canada Ltd.

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Shares of Invesco Large Cap Growth ETF (NYSEARCA:PWB  Get Free Report) saw an uptick in trading volume on Tuesday . 106,724 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 202% from the previous sessions volume of 35,359 shares.The stock last traded at $126.26 and had previously closed at $126.14.

Invesco Large Cap Growth ETF Price Performance

The firms 50 day simple moving average is $126.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $120.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.15 and a beta of 1.12.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On Invesco Large Cap Growth ETF

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Invesco Large Cap Growth ETF by 80.0% during the 2nd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,295 shares of the companys stock valued at $270,000 after buying an additional 1,020 shares during the last quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC grew its holdings in Invesco Large Cap Growth ETF by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 36,515 shares of the companys stock worth $4,299,000 after acquiring an additional 190 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position in shares of Invesco Large Cap Growth ETF by 22.6% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 25,908 shares of the companys stock valued at $2,488,000 after acquiring an additional 4,774 shares during the period. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Invesco Large Cap Growth ETF during the second quarter valued at about $241,000. Finally, Beacon Financial Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Invesco Large Cap Growth ETF by 2.5% during the second quarter. Beacon Financial Advisory LLC now owns 5,105 shares of the companys stock worth $600,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the period.

Invesco Large Cap Growth ETF Company Profile

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Invesco Senior Income Trust (NYSE:VVR  Get Free Report) declared a monthly dividend on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 16th will be given a dividend of 0.038 per share by the investment management company on Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 13.8%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 16th.

Invesco Senior Income Trust Stock Up 0.2%

VVR stock traded up $0.01 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $3.31. 315,153 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 912,476. Invesco Senior Income Trust has a 52 week low of $3.22 and a 52 week high of $4.21. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $3.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $3.55.

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About Invesco Senior Income Trust

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Invesco Senior Income Trust is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Invesco Ltd. It is co-managed by Invesco Advisers, Inc, Invesco Asset Management Deutschland GmbH, Invesco Asset Management Limited, Invesco Asset Management (Japan) Limited, Invesco Australia Limited, Invesco Hong Kong Limited, Invesco Senior Secured Management, Inc, and Invesco Canada Ltd.

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Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (OTCMKTS:IVPAF  Get Free Report) gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $10.4480, but opened at $10.89. Ivanhoe Mines shares last traded at $10.32, with a volume of 13,915 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on IVPAF. TD Securities restated a buy rating on shares of Ivanhoe Mines in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Morgan Stanley restated an overweight rating on shares of Ivanhoe Mines in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Scotiabank upgraded Ivanhoe Mines from a hold rating to an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a buy rating on shares of Ivanhoe Mines in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and four have assigned a Buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ivanhoe Mines currently has an average rating of Buy.

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Ivanhoe Mines Price Performance

The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $10.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $8.93.

Ivanhoe Mines (OTCMKTS:IVPAF  Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of ($0.02) by $0.04. The company had revenue of $129.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $128.95 million.

About Ivanhoe Mines

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Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. engages in the mining, development, and exploration of minerals and precious metals primarily in Africa. It explores for platinum, palladium, nickel, copper, gold, rhodium, zinc, silver, germanium, and lead deposits. The company's projects include the Platreef project located in the Northern Limb of South Africa's Bushveld Complex; the Kipushi project located in Haut-Katanga Province, Democratic Republic of Congo; and the Kamoa-Kakula project located within the Central African Copperbelt.

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J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of John Hancock Preferred Income ETF (NYSEARCA:JHPI  Free Report) by 15.3% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 19,222 shares of the companys stock after buying an additional 2,547 shares during the quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.s holdings in John Hancock Preferred Income ETF were worth $433,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. LPL Financial LLC lifted its position in John Hancock Preferred Income ETF by 564.7% during the 1st quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 73,591 shares of the companys stock worth $1,649,000 after buying an additional 62,520 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of John Hancock Preferred Income ETF in the first quarter worth about $513,000. Jane Street Group LLC lifted its position in shares of John Hancock Preferred Income ETF by 261.4% during the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 35,756 shares of the companys stock worth $801,000 after purchasing an additional 25,861 shares in the last quarter. Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of John Hancock Preferred Income ETF by 9.7% during the second quarter. Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC now owns 646,152 shares of the companys stock worth $14,568,000 after purchasing an additional 56,902 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quad Cities Investment Group LLC grew its stake in shares of John Hancock Preferred Income ETF by 6.4% during the second quarter. Quad Cities Investment Group LLC now owns 21,535 shares of the companys stock valued at $486,000 after purchasing an additional 1,295 shares during the last quarter.

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John Hancock Preferred Income ETF Price Performance

JHPI stock opened at $22.92 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $23.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $22.86. John Hancock Preferred Income ETF has a fifty-two week low of $21.57 and a fifty-two week high of $23.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $121.93 million, a PE ratio of 60.41 and a beta of 0.40.

John Hancock Preferred Income ETF Profile

The John Hancock Preferred Income ETF (JHPI) is an exchange-traded fund that mostly invests in broad credit fixed income. The fund is an actively managed fund that attempts to generate income by primarily investing in preferred securities in the US market. JHPI was launched on Dec 14, 2021 and is managed by John Hancock.

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RPG Investment Advisory LLC trimmed its position in shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) by 49.7% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 45,612 shares of the financial services providers stock after selling 44,989 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. comprises approximately 1.6% of RPG Investment Advisory LLCs portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest holding. RPG Investment Advisory LLCs holdings in JPMorgan Chase & Co. were worth $13,223,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in JPMorgan Chase & Co. by 11.0% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 48,732 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $11,682,000 after purchasing an additional 4,841 shares during the period. Acorns Advisers LLC grew its holdings in JPMorgan Chase & Co. by 6.9% in the first quarter. Acorns Advisers LLC now owns 1,547 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $379,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Waddell & Associates LLC raised its stake in shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. by 5.5% during the 1st quarter. Waddell & Associates LLC now owns 11,877 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $2,913,000 after buying an additional 617 shares during the period. Brio Consultants LLC purchased a new position in shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $247,000. Finally, Baldwin Investment Management LLC grew its stake in JPMorgan Chase & Co. by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. Baldwin Investment Management LLC now owns 49,336 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $12,102,000 after acquiring an additional 2,154 shares during the period. 71.55% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on JPM. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Citigroup boosted their price objective on JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $275.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $345.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. UBS Group boosted their price target on JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $339.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada restated a buy rating and issued a $343.00 price objective on shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Fifteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $326.38.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Robin Leopold sold 966 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $311.92, for a total value of $301,314.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 58,479 shares of the companys stock, valued at $18,240,769.68. This represents a 1.63% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Price Performance

NYSE:JPM opened at $308.89 on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. has a one year low of $202.16 and a one year high of $322.25. The stock has a market cap of $840.88 billion, a PE ratio of 15.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.86. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $306.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $293.74.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM  Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 14th. The financial services provider reported $5.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.83 by $0.24. JPMorgan Chase & Co. had a return on equity of 17.18% and a net margin of 20.90%.The company had revenue of $47.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $44.42 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $4.37 EPS. The firms quarterly revenue was up 8.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that JPMorgan Chase & Co. will post 18.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 6th were paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. This is a boost from JPMorgan Chase & Co.s previous quarterly dividend of $1.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co.s payout ratio is presently 29.72%.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Profile

(Free Report)

JPMorgan Chase & Co is a financial holding company, which engages in the provision of financial and investment banking services. It focuses on investment banking, financial services for consumers and small businesses, commercial banking, financial transaction processing, and asset management. It operates through the following segments: Consumer and Community Banking (CCB), Commercial and Investment Bank (CIB), Asset and Wealth Management (AWM), and Corporate.

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Laurentian Bank of Canada (TSE:LB  Get Free Report)s stock price was up 18.2% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as C$40.00 and last traded at C$39.92. Approximately 606,474 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 193% from the average daily volume of 206,895 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$33.76.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on LB. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Laurentian Bank of Canada from C$29.00 to C$31.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Scotiabank set a C$33.00 price target on shares of Laurentian Bank of Canada and gave the company a sector perform rating in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. CIBC upped their price objective on shares of Laurentian Bank of Canada from C$33.00 to C$35.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, August 20th. Raymond James Financial raised their target price on Laurentian Bank of Canada from C$28.00 to C$30.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Finally, National Bankshares decreased their price target on Laurentian Bank of Canada from C$27.00 to C$26.00 and set an underperform rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Laurentian Bank of Canada presently has a consensus rating of Reduce and a consensus target price of C$30.71.

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Laurentian Bank of Canada Trading Up 18.2%

The stock has a market cap of C$1.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.08, a P/E/G ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 1.47. The firms fifty day moving average is C$32.81 and its 200 day moving average is C$31.45.

Laurentian Bank of Canada (TSE:LB  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 29th. The company reported C$0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of C$0.72 by C$0.01. Laurentian Bank of Canada had a negative return on equity of 0.20% and a negative net margin of 0.30%.During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.88 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Laurentian Bank of Canada will post 3.8414986 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Laurentian Bank of Canada Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Saturday, November 1st were given a $0.47 dividend. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 1st. Laurentian Bank of Canadas payout ratio is currently 61.64%.

About Laurentian Bank of Canada

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Laurentian Bank of Canada provides personal banking, business banking and real estate and commercial financing to its personal, business, and institutional customers across Canada and the United States. The company reports three operating segments: personal, business services, and capital markets. The personal segment offers financial services to retail clients.

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Shares of Lumen Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:LUMN  Get Free Report) were up 8.7% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $8.78 and last traded at $9.0150. Approximately 2,112,241 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 85% from the average daily volume of 14,312,231 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.29.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on LUMN. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a sell (d-) rating on shares of Lumen Technologies in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Lumen Technologies from $4.25 to $8.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Lumen Technologies from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report on Sunday, November 9th. Citigroup lowered Lumen Technologies from a buy rating to a neutral rating and set a $11.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Lumen Technologies from $4.10 to $4.60 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $6.72.

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Lumen Technologies Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 59.98, a quick ratio of 2.13 and a current ratio of 2.13. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $7.95 and a 200-day moving average of $5.70. The company has a market cap of $9.33 billion, a PE ratio of -7.69 and a beta of 1.45.

Lumen Technologies (NYSE:LUMN  Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, January 27th. The technology company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $4.05 billion during the quarter. Lumen Technologies had a negative net margin of 9.19% and a negative return on equity of 158.40%. Equities analysts predict that Lumen Technologies, Inc. will post -0.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lumen Technologies

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D increased its holdings in Lumen Technologies by 9.8% in the second quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 490,480 shares of the technology companys stock valued at $2,148,000 after buying an additional 43,711 shares in the last quarter. Bryce Point Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Lumen Technologies during the 2nd quarter valued at about $169,000. Credit Capital Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Lumen Technologies by 150.0% in the 2nd quarter. Credit Capital Investments LLC now owns 150,000 shares of the technology companys stock valued at $657,000 after purchasing an additional 90,000 shares in the last quarter. Strs Ohio acquired a new position in Lumen Technologies in the 1st quarter worth about $1,073,000. Finally, Woodline Partners LP purchased a new position in Lumen Technologies during the first quarter worth approximately $5,006,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.19% of the companys stock.

About Lumen Technologies

(Get Free Report)

Lumen Technologies, Inc, a facilities-based technology and communications company, provides various integrated products and services to business and residential customers in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Business and Mass Markets. It offers dark fiber, edge cloud services, internet protocol, managed security, software-defined wide area networks, secure access service edge, unified communications and collaboration, and optical wavelengths services; ethernet and VPN data networks services; and legacy services to manage cash flow, including time division multiplexing voice, private line, and other legacy services, as well as sells communication equipment, and IT solutions.

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Several analysts have recently updated their ratings and price targets for Manulife Financial (NYSE: MFC):

11/24/2025  Manulife Financial had its buy (b) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

11/17/2025  Manulife Financial was downgraded by analysts at Weiss Ratings from a buy (a-) rating to a buy (b) rating.

11/14/2025  Manulife Financial had its outperform rating reaffirmed by analysts at BMO Capital Markets.

11/14/2025  Manulife Financial had its price target raised by analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada from $49.00 to $52.00. They now have an outperform rating on the stock.

10/16/2025  Manulife Financial is now covered by analysts at UBS Group AG. They set a buy rating on the stock.

10/8/2025  Manulife Financial had its buy (a-) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

10/7/2025  Manulife Financial was given a new $47.00 price target on by analysts at Morgan Stanley.

Manulife Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 26th will be issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 26th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.0%. This is an increase from Manulife Financials previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. Manulife Financials dividend payout ratio is presently 55.56%.

Manulife Financial Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides financial products and services in the United States, Canada, Asia, and internationally. The company operates through Wealth and Asset Management Businesses; Insurance and Annuity Products; and Corporate and Other segments. The Wealth and Asset Management Businesses segment offers investment advice and solutions to retirement, retail, and institutional clients through multiple distribution channels, including agents and brokers affiliated with the company, independent securities brokerage firms and financial advisors pension plan consultants, and banks.

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Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:MUFG  Get Free Report) shares reached a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $16.39 and last traded at $16.3150, with a volume of 410130 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $15.92.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report on Saturday, August 9th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a hold (c) rating on shares of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Tuesday, August 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Buy.

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Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Stock Up 2.0%

The firm has a 50-day moving average of $15.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $14.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86. The company has a market capitalization of $196.04 billion, a PE ratio of 15.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 0.37.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (NYSE:MUFG  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 14th. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $23.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $9.19 billion. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group had a return on equity of 9.35% and a net margin of 13.95%. Equities research analysts predict that Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. will post 0.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group in the third quarter valued at approximately $472,000. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 50,361 shares of the companys stock valued at $803,000 after buying an additional 917 shares during the period. Advisory Services Network LLC acquired a new position in shares of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group in the third quarter worth $162,000. Hancock Whitney Corp increased its position in shares of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group by 1.9% during the third quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 86,210 shares of the companys stock worth $1,374,000 after acquiring an additional 1,620 shares during the period. Finally, Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group by 113.8% in the third quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 3,894 shares of the companys stock valued at $62,000 after acquiring an additional 2,073 shares in the last quarter. 13.59% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group

(Get Free Report)

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc operates as the bank holding company, that engages in a range of financial businesses in Japan, the United States, Europe, Asia/Oceania, and internationally. It operates through seven segments: Digital Service, Retail & Commercial Banking, Japanese Corporate & Investment Banking, Global Commercial Banking, Asset Management & Investor Services, Global Corporate & Investment Banking, and Global Markets.

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Korea Investment CORP increased its position in Molson Coors Beverage Company (NYSE:TAP  Free Report) by 35.1% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 174,086 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 45,200 shares during the quarter. Korea Investment CORPs holdings in Molson Coors Beverage were worth $8,372,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of TAP. Elequin Capital LP bought a new position in Molson Coors Beverage during the 1st quarter worth approximately $30,000. Clearstead Trust LLC increased its holdings in shares of Molson Coors Beverage by 952.8% in the 2nd quarter. Clearstead Trust LLC now owns 558 shares of the companys stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 505 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Molson Coors Beverage by 32.9% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 800 shares of the companys stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd lifted its stake in Molson Coors Beverage by 735.5% during the first quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 1,153 shares of the companys stock worth $70,000 after purchasing an additional 1,015 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in Molson Coors Beverage in the first quarter worth $70,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.46% of the companys stock.

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Insider Activity

In related news, Director David S. Coors purchased 2,245 shares of Molson Coors Beverage stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $44.47 per share, with a total value of $99,835.15. Following the purchase, the director owned 30,586 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,360,159.42. The trade was a 7.92% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Andrew Thomas Molson acquired 7,500 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 10th. The stock was bought at an average price of $46.79 per share, with a total value of $350,925.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 22,654 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,059,980.66. This represents a 49.49% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Corporate insiders own 2.71% of the companys stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have weighed in on TAP shares. Needham & Company LLC dropped their target price on shares of Molson Coors Beverage from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Roth Capital reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $65.00 price objective (down previously from $67.00) on shares of Molson Coors Beverage in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Zacks Research raised shares of Molson Coors Beverage from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a report on Friday, November 14th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Molson Coors Beverage from $52.00 to $50.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on Molson Coors Beverage in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. They set a neutral rating and a $49.00 price target on the stock. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $53.59.

Check Out Our Latest Research Report on TAP

Molson Coors Beverage Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE TAP opened at $46.95 on Tuesday. Molson Coors Beverage Company has a 12-month low of $42.94 and a 12-month high of $64.66. The company has a market cap of $9.28 billion, a PE ratio of 9.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.65. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $45.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $48.82. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46.

Molson Coors Beverage (NYSE:TAP  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The company reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.72 by ($0.05). Molson Coors Beverage had a net margin of 7.81% and a return on equity of 8.61%. The business had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.02 billion. Molson Coors Beverage has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.360-5.360 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Molson Coors Beverage Company will post 6.35 EPS for the current year.

Molson Coors Beverage Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 19th. Investors of record on Friday, December 5th will be issued a $0.47 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 5th. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.0%. Molson Coors Beverages dividend payout ratio is presently -17.60%.

About Molson Coors Beverage

(Free Report)

Molson Coors Beverage Company manufactures, markets, and sells beer and other malt beverage products under various brands in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company offers flavored malt beverages including hard seltzers, craft, spirits and energy, and ready to drink beverages.

Further Reading

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding TAP? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Molson Coors Beverage Company (NYSE:TAP  Free Report).

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Nuveen Massachusetts Quality Municipal Income Fund (NYSE:NMT  Get Free Report) announced a monthly dividend on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be given a dividend of 0.064 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.7%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 15th.

Nuveen Massachusetts Quality Municipal Income Fund Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of Nuveen Massachusetts Quality Municipal Income Fund stock traded down $0.02 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $11.47. The companys stock had a trading volume of 542 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,361. The businesss 50-day moving average price is $11.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $11.58. Nuveen Massachusetts Quality Municipal Income Fund has a 52 week low of $10.90 and a 52 week high of $12.33.

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Nuveen Massachusetts Quality Municipal Income Fund Company Profile

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Nuveen Massachusetts Quality Municipal Income Fund is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments, Inc The fund is co-managed by Nuveen Fund Advisors LLC and Nuveen Asset Management, LLC. It invests in the fixed income markets of Massachusetts, United States. The fund primarily invests in undervalued municipal securities and other related investments which are exempt from regular federal and Massachusetts income taxes.

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Nuveen New York Quality Municipal Income Fund (NYSE:NAN  Get Free Report) announced a monthly dividend on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.072 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.5%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 15th.

Nuveen New York Quality Municipal Income Fund Stock Performance

Nuveen New York Quality Municipal Income Fund stock traded down $0.02 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $11.50. 19,950 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 67,746. The business has a fifty day moving average of $11.51 and a 200 day moving average of $11.32. Nuveen New York Quality Municipal Income Fund has a 1-year low of $10.69 and a 1-year high of $11.89.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nuveen New York Quality Municipal Income Fund

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Guggenheim Capital LLC grew its stake in Nuveen New York Quality Municipal Income Fund by 4.9% during the second quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 714,149 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $8,148,000 after buying an additional 33,635 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Nuveen New York Quality Municipal Income Fund by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 195,979 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $2,230,000 after purchasing an additional 908 shares in the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in Nuveen New York Quality Municipal Income Fund in the 3rd quarter valued at $2,018,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Nuveen New York Quality Municipal Income Fund by 89.6% in the third quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 174,370 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $1,993,000 after purchasing an additional 82,415 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Breakwater Capital Group grew its holdings in shares of Nuveen New York Quality Municipal Income Fund by 67.8% during the second quarter. Breakwater Capital Group now owns 72,455 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $827,000 after purchasing an additional 29,281 shares during the last quarter.

Nuveen New York Quality Municipal Income Fund Company Profile

Nuveen New York Quality Municipal Income Fund is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments, Inc The fund is co-managed by Nuveen Fund Advisors LLC and Nuveen Asset Management, LLC. It invests in the fixed income markets of New York. The fund invests in municipal bonds, with a rating of Baa or higher.

Further Reading

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Nuveen Virginia Quality Municipal Income Fund (NYSE:NPV  Get Free Report) declared a monthly dividend on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be given a dividend of 0.065 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th.

Nuveen Virginia Quality Municipal Income Fund Stock Performance

Shares of NPV traded up $0.05 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $11.31. The company had a trading volume of 579 shares, compared to its average volume of 42,160. Nuveen Virginia Quality Municipal Income Fund has a 12-month low of $10.68 and a 12-month high of $13.72. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.41 and a 200-day simple moving average of $11.28.

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Nuveen Virginia Quality Municipal Income Fund Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

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Nuveen Virginia Quality Municipal Income Fund is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments, Inc The fund is co-managed by Nuveen Fund Advisors LLC and Nuveen Asset Management, LLC. It invests in the fixed income markets of Virginia. The fund invests primarily in municipal securities rated Baa/BBB or better.

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Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY  Get Free Report) has earned a consensus recommendation of Hold from the twenty-three research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $50.5238.

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Melius initiated coverage on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a research note on Wednesday, August 20th. They issued a hold rating and a $64.00 price target on the stock. Bank of America increased their price target on Occidental Petroleum from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a positive rating in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an underperform rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised Occidental Petroleum from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd.

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Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on Occidental Petroleum

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Occidental Petroleum

Occidental Petroleum Stock Performance

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,201,540 shares of the oil and gas producers stock valued at $4,214,773,000 after purchasing an additional 697,521 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 1.6% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 39,044,478 shares of the oil and gas producers stock worth $1,649,147,000 after purchasing an additional 615,566 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Occidental Petroleum by 22.0% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 18,089,878 shares of the oil and gas producers stock valued at $756,796,000 after purchasing an additional 3,267,269 shares in the last quarter. H&H International Investment LLC increased its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. H&H International Investment LLC now owns 13,826,100 shares of the oil and gas producers stock valued at $682,456,000 after buying an additional 249,100 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 11.5% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,718,939 shares of the oil and gas producers stock valued at $412,045,000 after buying an additional 900,677 shares during the period. 88.70% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Shares of OXY stock opened at $42.32 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $41.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.04 and a beta of 0.91. The business has a 50 day moving average of $42.74 and a two-hundred day moving average of $43.75. Occidental Petroleum has a 52 week low of $34.78 and a 52 week high of $53.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 10th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $6.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $6.66 billion. Occidental Petroleum had a return on equity of 13.78% and a net margin of 8.79%.The businesss quarterly revenue was down 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.00 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Occidental Petroleum will post 3.58 EPS for the current year.

Occidental Petroleum Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 10th will be given a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 10th. Occidental Petroleums dividend payout ratio is 70.59%.

Occidental Petroleum Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Occidental Petroleum Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of oil and gas properties in the United States, the Middle East, and North Africa. It operates through three segments: Oil and Gas, Chemical, and Midstream and Marketing. The company's Oil and Gas segment explores for, develops, and produces oil and condensate, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and natural gas.

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Quantbot Technologies LP increased its holdings in shares of Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI  Free Report) by 973.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 32,689 shares of the communications equipment providers stock after purchasing an additional 29,644 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LPs holdings in Motorola Solutions were worth $13,744,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Signature Resources Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Motorola Solutions during the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. Saudi Central Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Motorola Solutions in the first quarter worth about $29,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Motorola Solutions by 289.5% in the second quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 74 shares of the communications equipment providers stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Rossby Financial LCC grew its holdings in Motorola Solutions by 148.6% during the second quarter. Rossby Financial LCC now owns 87 shares of the communications equipment providers stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the period. Finally, Cape Investment Advisory Inc. raised its position in Motorola Solutions by 3,300.0% during the first quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 102 shares of the communications equipment providers stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. 84.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on MSI. Piper Sandler restated a neutral rating and issued a $465.00 price objective (down previously from $495.00) on shares of Motorola Solutions in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Motorola Solutions from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, August 29th. Weiss Ratings restated a buy (b-) rating on shares of Motorola Solutions in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Motorola Solutions from $509.00 to $495.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Northcoast Research raised shares of Motorola Solutions from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $450.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $495.00.

Motorola Solutions Stock Performance

MSI opened at $373.45 on Tuesday. The firms fifty day simple moving average is $419.89 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $431.69. Motorola Solutions, Inc. has a 52-week low of $365.40 and a 52-week high of $500.86. The company has a market cap of $62.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.07, a PEG ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.86.

Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, October 31st. The communications equipment provider reported $4.06 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $3.85 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $2.99 billion. Motorola Solutions had a net margin of 19.08% and a return on equity of 134.30%. The companys quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.74 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Motorola Solutions, Inc. will post 13.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Motorola Solutions Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th. This is an increase from Motorola Solutionss previous quarterly dividend of $0.01. This represents a $4.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Motorola Solutionss payout ratio is currently 38.84%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Gregory Q. Brown sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $483.50, for a total value of $24,175,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 46,936 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $22,693,556. This represents a 51.58% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP James A. Niewiara sold 1,700 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $485.43, for a total value of $825,231.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 14,542 shares in the company, valued at $7,059,123.06. The trade was a 10.47% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 85,614 shares of company stock worth $41,278,417 over the last quarter. 1.44% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Motorola Solutions

(Free Report)

Motorola Solutions, Inc provides public safety and enterprise security solutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Products and Systems Integration, and Software and Services. The Products and Systems Integration segment offers a portfolio of infrastructure, devices, accessories, and video security devices and infrastructure, as well as the implementation and integration of systems, devices, software, and applications for government, public safety, and commercial customers who operate private communications networks and video security solutions, as well as manage a mobile workforce.

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ICICI Bank (NYSE: IBN) has recently received a number of price target changes and ratings updates:

11/28/2025  ICICI Bank was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a sell rating to a hold rating.

11/24/2025  ICICI Bank had its hold (c) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

11/17/2025  ICICI Bank had its hold (c) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

11/11/2025  ICICI Bank had its hold (c) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

10/22/2025  ICICI Bank is now covered by analysts at Weiss Ratings. They set a hold (c+) rating on the stock.

10/4/2025  ICICI Bank was downgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a hold rating to a sell rating.

ICICI Bank Limited provides various banking products and services in India and internationally. It operates through Retail Banking, Wholesale Banking, Treasury, Other Banking, Life Insurance, and Others segments. The company offers savings, salary, pension, current, and other accounts; and time, fixed, recurring, and security deposits services.

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Getty Realty (NYSE:GTY  Get Free Report) and Farmland Partners (NYSE:FPI  Get Free Report) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, earnings, risk and institutional ownership.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Getty Realty and Farmland Partnerss revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

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Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Getty Realty $214.19 million 7.64 $71.06 million $1.28 22.15 Farmland Partners $52.94 million 7.89 $59.91 million $1.20 8.08

Profitability

Getty Realty has higher revenue and earnings than Farmland Partners. Farmland Partners is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Getty Realty, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

This table compares Getty Realty and Farmland Partners net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Getty Realty 34.76% 7.60% 3.72% Farmland Partners 130.10% 14.15% 8.41%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

85.1% of Getty Realty shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 58.0% of Farmland Partners shares are held by institutional investors. 8.8% of Getty Realty shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.3% of Farmland Partners shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Getty Realty pays an annual dividend of $1.94 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.8%. Farmland Partners pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Getty Realty pays out 151.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Farmland Partners pays out 20.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Getty Realty has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Getty Realty is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Getty Realty and Farmland Partners, as provided by MarketBeat.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Getty Realty 0 3 3 0 2.50 Farmland Partners 1 0 0 0 1.00

Getty Realty presently has a consensus target price of $31.80, suggesting a potential upside of 12.17%. Given Getty Realtys stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Getty Realty is more favorable than Farmland Partners.

Risk and Volatility

Getty Realty has a beta of 0.83, meaning that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Farmland Partners has a beta of 0.88, meaning that its stock price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Getty Realty beats Farmland Partners on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Getty Realty

(Get Free Report)

Getty Realty Corp. is a publicly traded, net lease REIT specializing in the acquisition, financing and development of convenience, automotive and other single tenant retail real estate. As of December 31, 2023, the Companys portfolio included 1,093 freestanding properties located in 40 states across the United States and Washington, D.C.

About Farmland Partners

(Get Free Report)

Farmland Partners Inc. is an internally managed real estate company that owns and seeks to acquire high-quality North American farmland and makes loans to farmers secured by farm real estate. As of December 31, 2023, the Company owns and/or manages approximately 171,100 acres in 16 states, including Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas. In addition, the Company owns land and buildings for four agriculture equipment dealerships in Ohio leased to Ag Pro under the John Deere brand. The Company has approximately 26 crop types and over 100 tenants. The Company elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust, or REIT, for U.S. federal income tax purposes, commencing with the taxable year ended December 31, 2014.

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Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in Samsara Inc. (NYSE:IOT  Free Report) by 38.8% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 376,534 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 105,207 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd.s holdings in Samsara were worth $14,979,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co boosted its position in shares of Samsara by 44.5% during the 2nd quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 31,764 shares of the companys stock worth $1,264,000 after acquiring an additional 9,784 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Samsara by 129.2% during the second quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 6,926 shares of the companys stock worth $276,000 after purchasing an additional 3,904 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new position in Samsara in the second quarter valued at approximately $329,000. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its stake in Samsara by 15.5% in the second quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 10,612 shares of the companys stock valued at $422,000 after purchasing an additional 1,423 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Samsara during the second quarter worth approximately $745,000. 96.02% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Insider Buying and Selling at Samsara

In other Samsara news, insider Sanjit Biswas sold 160,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.36, for a total transaction of $6,137,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 36,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,380,960. The trade was a 81.63% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Horowitz Lsv Fund I. Andreessen sold 793,331 shares of Samsara stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.55, for a total transaction of $30,582,910.05. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders sold 3,488,365 shares of company stock worth $133,791,975. Insiders own 46.49% of the companys stock.

Samsara Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:IOT opened at $37.25 on Tuesday. Samsara Inc. has a one year low of $31.40 and a one year high of $61.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -232.79 and a beta of 1.61. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $38.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.89.

Samsara (NYSE:IOT  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 4th. The company reported $0.12 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $391.48 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $372.22 million. Samsara had a negative net margin of 6.16% and a negative return on equity of 7.53%. Samsaras quarterly revenue was up 30.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.05 EPS. Samsara has set its FY 2026 guidance at 0.450-0.470 EPS. Q3 2026 guidance at 0.110-0.12 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Samsara Inc. will post -0.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Craig Hallum upgraded shares of Samsara from a hold rating to a buy rating and upped their target price for the company from $42.00 to $48.00 in a report on Friday, September 5th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Samsara from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Samsara from $35.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Samsara from $54.00 to $47.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an overweight rating and set a $48.00 target price on shares of Samsara in a research report on Friday, November 14th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Samsara currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $49.55.

View Our Latest Report on IOT

Samsara Profile

(Free Report)

Samsara Inc provides solutions that connects physical operations data to its connected operations cloud in the United States and internationally. The company's Connected Operations Cloud includes Data Platform, which ingests, aggregates, and enriches data from its IoT devices and has embedded capabilities for AI, workflows and analytics, alerts, API connections, and data security and privacy.

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Shelton Capital Management boosted its holdings in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS  Free Report) by 217.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 24,885 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 17,045 shares during the period. Shelton Capital Managements holdings in Novartis were worth $3,011,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in NVS. Keybank National Association OH boosted its stake in Novartis by 13.2% during the 2nd quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 49,377 shares of the companys stock worth $5,975,000 after acquiring an additional 5,742 shares during the last quarter. Sonora Investment Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in Novartis in the second quarter worth $266,000. Cypress Capital Group boosted its position in shares of Novartis by 84.1% during the second quarter. Cypress Capital Group now owns 5,776 shares of the companys stock worth $699,000 after purchasing an additional 2,638 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth grew its holdings in shares of Novartis by 16.8% in the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 47,548 shares of the companys stock valued at $5,311,000 after buying an additional 6,849 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Novartis in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,909,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.12% of the companys stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

NVS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded Novartis from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Friday. Cowen reiterated a hold rating on shares of Novartis in a report on Monday, November 10th. Weiss Ratings reissued a buy (b) rating on shares of Novartis in a research note on Wednesday, November 26th. Cfra set a $126.00 target price on shares of Novartis and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Novartis from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $122.33.

Novartis Trading Down 1.1%

NYSE:NVS opened at $128.96 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $272.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.60. Novartis AG has a twelve month low of $96.06 and a twelve month high of $134.00. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $128.42 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $122.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The company reported $2.25 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $2.26 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $14.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.70 billion. Novartis had a return on equity of 41.21% and a net margin of 26.49%.The businesss revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.06 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Novartis AG will post 8.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Novartis Company Profile

(Free Report)

Novartis AG engages in the research, development, manufacture, and marketing of healthcare products in Switzerland and internationally. The company offers prescription medicines for patients and physicians. It focuses on therapeutic areas, such as cardiovascular, renal and metabolic, immunology, neuroscience, and oncology, as well as ophthalmology and hematology.

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Shelton Capital Management increased its stake in shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE  Free Report) by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 183,477 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock after acquiring an additional 4,951 shares during the period. Shelton Capital Managements holdings in Pfizer were worth $4,447,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital Advisory Group Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Pfizer by 2.9% in the second quarter. Capital Advisory Group Advisory Services LLC now owns 13,542 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $328,000 after buying an additional 388 shares in the last quarter. Citizens National Bank Trust Department raised its position in Pfizer by 0.9% during the second quarter. Citizens National Bank Trust Department now owns 46,103 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $1,118,000 after acquiring an additional 395 shares in the last quarter. Able Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Pfizer by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Able Wealth Management LLC now owns 21,128 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $512,000 after acquiring an additional 413 shares during the period. Trust Co of the South increased its stake in shares of Pfizer by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Trust Co of the South now owns 29,386 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $712,000 after purchasing an additional 441 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charter Oak Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 4.3% in the 2nd quarter. Charter Oak Capital Management LLC now owns 10,663 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $258,000 after purchasing an additional 444 shares during the period. 68.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on PFE shares. Scotiabank started coverage on Pfizer in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. They set a sector outperform rating and a $30.00 price target on the stock. Wall Street Zen cut Pfizer from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Sunday, September 28th. UBS Group reiterated a neutral rating and set a $28.00 target price on shares of Pfizer in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Bank of America lifted their price target on Pfizer from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Pfizer from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $28.39.

Pfizer Stock Performance

NYSE:PFE opened at $25.31 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $143.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.46, a PEG ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 0.54. Pfizer Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $20.92 and a fifty-two week high of $27.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.16. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $25.03 and a 200-day moving average price of $24.62.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $16.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.94 billion. Pfizer had a return on equity of 21.42% and a net margin of 16.84%. Pfizer has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.000-3.150 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pfizer Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 7th were given a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 7th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.8%. Pfizers dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 100.00%.

Pfizer Company Profile

(Free Report)

Pfizer Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products in the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company offers medicines and vaccines in various therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular metabolic, migraine, and women's health under the Eliquis, Nurtec ODT/Vydura, Zavzpret, and the Premarin family brands; infectious diseases with unmet medical needs under the Prevnar family, Abrysvo, Nimenrix, FSME/IMMUN-TicoVac, and Trumenba brands; and COVID-19 prevention and treatment, and potential future mRNA and antiviral products under the Comirnaty and Paxlovid brands.

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Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ cut its holdings in Weyerhaeuser Company (NYSE:WY  Free Report) by 6.8% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 143,375 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock after selling 10,488 shares during the quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publs holdings in Weyerhaeuser were worth $3,683,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. GKV Capital Management Co. Inc. bought a new position in Weyerhaeuser in the first quarter valued at $29,000. Costello Asset Management INC acquired a new position in shares of Weyerhaeuser during the 1st quarter worth about $32,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Weyerhaeuser by 86.3% in the 2nd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,125 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 521 shares in the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT bought a new position in shares of Weyerhaeuser in the 1st quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Private Wealth Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Weyerhaeuser by 135.2% in the second quarter. Private Wealth Asset Management LLC now owns 1,404 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 807 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.99% of the companys stock.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on WY. CIBC reduced their price target on Weyerhaeuser from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an outperformer rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 11th. Bank of America reiterated a neutral rating and set a $26.00 price objective (down previously from $29.00) on shares of Weyerhaeuser in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Zacks Research raised Weyerhaeuser from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, November 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Weyerhaeuser from $28.00 to $27.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 14th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a sell (d+) rating on shares of Weyerhaeuser in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $29.78.

Weyerhaeuser Price Performance

Shares of WY opened at $22.12 on Tuesday. The companys 50-day moving average is $23.31 and its 200-day moving average is $24.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 0.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.95 billion, a PE ratio of 58.22, a PEG ratio of 244.04 and a beta of 1.04. Weyerhaeuser Company has a fifty-two week low of $21.16 and a fifty-two week high of $32.70.

Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of ($0.07) by $0.13. The business had revenue of $1.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.71 billion. Weyerhaeuser had a net margin of 3.97% and a return on equity of 2.95%. Weyerhaeusers quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.05 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Weyerhaeuser Company will post 0.78 EPS for the current year.

Weyerhaeuser Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 28th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 28th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.8%. Weyerhaeusers dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 186.67%.

About Weyerhaeuser

(Free Report)

Weyerhaeuser Company, one of the world's largest private owners of timberlands, began operations in 1900. We own or control approximately 11 million acres of timberlands in the U.S. and manage additional timberlands under long-term licenses in Canada. We manage these timberlands on a sustainable basis in compliance with internationally recognized forestry standards.

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Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ reduced its holdings in shares of Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA  Free Report) by 11.4% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 75,547 shares of the industrial products companys stock after selling 9,749 shares during the period. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publs holdings in Mueller Water Products were worth $1,816,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Cetera Investment Advisers bought a new position in Mueller Water Products during the 1st quarter valued at about $900,000. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise bought a new stake in shares of Mueller Water Products in the first quarter worth approximately $73,000. Natixis Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Mueller Water Products during the first quarter valued at approximately $645,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Mueller Water Products by 430.1% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 21,320 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $542,000 after purchasing an additional 17,298 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP bought a new stake in Mueller Water Products in the 1st quarter worth approximately $53,854,000. 91.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Insider Transactions at Mueller Water Products

In related news, Director Brian C. Healy purchased 1,070 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 7th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $25.78 per share, for a total transaction of $27,584.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 16,800 shares in the company, valued at $433,104. This represents a 6.80% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Weiss Ratings reissued a buy (b) rating on shares of Mueller Water Products in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Mueller Water Products currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $29.00.

View Our Latest Research Report on Mueller Water Products

Mueller Water Products Trading Down 0.7%

Mueller Water Products stock opened at $24.07 on Tuesday. Mueller Water Products has a 12-month low of $21.35 and a 12-month high of $28.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.18. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $24.89 and a 200 day moving average of $25.02. The company has a current ratio of 3.86, a quick ratio of 2.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 24th. The industrial products company reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $237.40 million during the quarter. Mueller Water Products had a net margin of 10.67% and a return on equity of 20.89%. As a group, research analysts predict that Mueller Water Products will post 1.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Mueller Water Products Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 20th. Investors of record on Monday, November 10th were issued a dividend of $0.07 per share. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 10th. This is a boost from Mueller Water Productss previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. Mueller Water Productss payout ratio is currently 23.14%.

Mueller Water Products Profile

(Free Report)

Mueller Water Products, Inc manufactures and markets products and services for the transmission, distribution, and measurement of water used by municipalities, and the residential and non-residential construction industries in the United States, Israel, and internationally. It operates in two segments, Water Flow Solutions and Water Management Solutions.

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Smith Moore & CO. trimmed its holdings in Black Hills Corporation (NYSE:BKH  Free Report) by 7.6% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 12,777 shares of the utilities providers stock after selling 1,055 shares during the period. Smith Moore & CO.s holdings in Black Hills were worth $717,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Clearstead Trust LLC bought a new stake in Black Hills during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Spire Wealth Management grew its holdings in Black Hills by 4,115.4% during the 2nd quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 548 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 535 shares in the last quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Black Hills in the second quarter worth $31,000. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Black Hills during the second quarter worth $43,000. Finally, Hilltop National Bank purchased a new position in Black Hills during the second quarter valued at $50,000. Institutional investors own 86.71% of the companys stock.

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Black Hills Stock Performance

Shares of Black Hills stock opened at $72.45 on Tuesday. Black Hills Corporation has a 52 week low of $54.92 and a 52 week high of $74.02. The company has a market capitalization of $5.28 billion, a PE ratio of 18.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.76. The stocks fifty day moving average is $65.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $60.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06.

Black Hills Dividend Announcement

Black Hills ( NYSE:BKH Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts consensus estimates of $0.45. Black Hills had a net margin of 12.68% and a return on equity of 7.81%. The firm had revenue of $430.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $439.96 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.35 earnings per share. The businesss revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Black Hills Corporation will post 4.12 earnings per share for the current year.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 17th were paid a dividend of $0.676 per share. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 17th. Black Hillss payout ratio is currently 68.18%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Scotiabank raised shares of Black Hills from a sector perform rating to a sector outperform rating and increased their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $81.00 in a report on Friday, November 7th. Weiss Ratings restated a buy (b-) rating on shares of Black Hills in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Black Hills from an underperform rating to a neutral rating and increased their target price for the company from $57.00 to $64.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $71.00.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on Black Hills

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Kimberly F. Nooney sold 14,500 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.70, for a total value of $1,025,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 34,621 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,447,704.70. The trade was a 29.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.63% of the companys stock.

Black Hills Profile

(Free Report)

Black Hills Corporation, through its subsidiaries, operates as an electric and natural gas utility company in the United States. The company operates in two segments: Electric Utilities and Gas Utilities. The Electric Utilities segment generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to approximately 222,000 electric utility customers in Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming; and owns and operates 1,394 megawatts of generation capacity and 9,106 miles of electric transmission and distribution lines.

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Southern (NYSE: SO) recently received a number of ratings updates from brokerages and research firms:

11/25/2025  Southern had its hold rating reaffirmed by analysts at Jefferies Financial Group Inc..

11/20/2025  Southern had its underperform rating reaffirmed by analysts at Morgan Stanley. They now have a $97.00 price target on the stock.

11/20/2025  Southern had its price target lowered by analysts at Barclays PLC from $98.00 to $91.00. They now have an equal weight rating on the stock.

11/15/2025  Southern was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a sell rating to a hold rating.

11/6/2025  Southern was downgraded by analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. from a buy rating to a neutral rating. They now have a $98.00 price target on the stock.

10/28/2025  Southern was upgraded by analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada to a hold rating.

10/27/2025  Southern is now covered by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company. They set an equal weight rating and a $97.00 price target on the stock.

10/27/2025  Southern is now covered by analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada. They set a sector perform rating and a $107.00 price target on the stock.

10/27/2025  Southern is now covered by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company. They set an equal weight rating and a $97.00 price target on the stock.

10/22/2025  Southern had its outperform rating reaffirmed by analysts at Morgan Stanley. They now have a $99.00 price target on the stock.

10/21/2025  Southern is now covered by analysts at BTIG Research. They set a neutral rating on the stock.

10/17/2025  Southern had its neutral rating reaffirmed by analysts at LADENBURG THALM/SH SH. They now have a $102.50 price target on the stock, up previously from $99.50.

10/16/2025  Southern is now covered by analysts at TD Cowen. They set a buy rating and a $112.00 price target on the stock.

10/15/2025  Southern is now covered by analysts at Cowen Inc. They set a buy rating on the stock.

10/15/2025  Southern had its price target raised by analysts at KeyCorp from $78.00 to $87.00. They now have an underweight rating on the stock.

10/15/2025  Southern was upgraded by analysts at TD Cowen to a strong-buy rating.

10/14/2025  Southern was given a new $70.00 price target on by analysts at Barclays PLC.

10/14/2025  Southern had its price target raised by analysts at Barclays PLC from $91.00 to $98.00. They now have an equal weight rating on the stock.

10/10/2025  Southern had its price target raised by analysts at UBS Group AG from $100.00 to $104.00. They now have a neutral rating on the stock.

10/8/2025  Southern had its buy (b) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

10/6/2025  Southern is now covered by analysts at Evercore ISI. They set an in-line rating and a $103.00 price target on the stock.

10/6/2025  Southern was upgraded by analysts at Evercore ISI to a hold rating.

10/3/2025  Southern had its sector perform rating reaffirmed by analysts at Scotiabank. They now have a $99.00 price target on the stock.

10/3/2025  Southern was downgraded by analysts at Scotiabank from a sector outperform rating to a sector perform rating. They now have a $99.00 price target on the stock.

Southern Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 17th will be given a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 17th. Southerns dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 73.27%.

The Southern Company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. The company also develops, constructs, acquires, owns, and manages power generation assets, including renewable energy projects and sells electricity in the wholesale market; and distributes natural gas in Illinois, Georgia, Virginia, and Tennessee, as well as provides gas marketing services, gas distribution operations, and gas pipeline investments operations.

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Korea Investment CORP trimmed its position in Stantec Inc. (NYSE:STN  Free Report) (TSE:STN) by 69.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 32,845 shares of the business services providers stock after selling 75,900 shares during the quarter. Korea Investment CORPs holdings in Stantec were worth $3,567,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Simplex Trading LLC purchased a new position in Stantec during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $32,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Stantec in the 1st quarter valued at $26,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd increased its stake in shares of Stantec by 4,700.0% in the second quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 384 shares of the business services providers stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 376 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Stantec by 122.5% in the second quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 712 shares of the business services providers stock worth $77,000 after acquiring an additional 392 shares during the period. Finally, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise purchased a new position in shares of Stantec during the first quarter worth $99,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.86% of the companys stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

STN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a buy (b) rating on shares of Stantec in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Scotiabank restated an outperform rating on shares of Stantec in a research note on Friday, October 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an outperform rating on shares of Stantec in a report on Monday, November 17th. CIBC reissued an outperform rating on shares of Stantec in a report on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Desjardins reaffirmed a buy rating on shares of Stantec in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, Stantec currently has a consensus rating of Buy.

Stantec Stock Performance

NYSE STN opened at $95.24 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.76 and a beta of 1.03. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $106.75 and a 200 day moving average of $107.53. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. Stantec Inc. has a twelve month low of $73.18 and a twelve month high of $114.51.

Stantec (NYSE:STN  Get Free Report) (TSE:STN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 13th. The business services provider reported $1.11 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.11. The company had revenue of $1.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.71 billion. Stantec had a return on equity of 19.03% and a net margin of 5.62%. Stantec has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.784-3.880 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Stantec Inc. will post 3.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Stantec Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of $0.225 per share. This is a boost from Stantecs previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. This represents a $0.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 31st. Stantecs dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.05%.

About Stantec

(Free Report)

Stantec Inc provides professional services in the areas of infrastructure and facilities to the public and private sectors in Canada, the United States, and internationally. It offers evaluation, planning, and designing infrastructure solutions; solutions for sustainable water resources, planning, management, and infrastructure; environmental services; integrated architecture, engineering, interior design, and planning solutions for buildings; and energy and resources solutions.

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Intech Investment Management LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE:RGR  Free Report) by 55.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,692 shares of the companys stock after selling 9,746 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLCs holdings in Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. were worth $276,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ballentine Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. in the second quarter worth about $325,000. Ritholtz Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $427,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. by 9.2% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 154,872 shares of the companys stock worth $6,085,000 after purchasing an additional 13,099 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. in the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,223,000. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,105,000. 64.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a sell (d+) rating on shares of Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Sell rating, According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Sell.

Insider Transactions at Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc.

In other Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. news, Director Christopher John Killoy sold 8,776 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Monday, September 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.00, for a total value of $351,040.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 28,249 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,129,960. This represents a 23.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders have sold 10,500 shares of company stock worth $415,480 in the last three months. Insiders own 4.60% of the companys stock.

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. Stock Down 1.4%

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. stock opened at $29.71 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $39.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.12. The company has a market capitalization of $473.70 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 95.84 and a beta of 0.13. Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. has a 52 week low of $28.33 and a 52 week high of $48.21.

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE:RGR  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.26). Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. had a return on equity of 9.53% and a net margin of 1.07%.The business had revenue of $126.77 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $124.22 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.28 EPS. Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc.s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. will post 2.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 28th. Investors of record on Monday, November 17th were issued a dividend of $0.04 per share. This represents a $0.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 17th. Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc.s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 123.08%.

About Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc.

(Free Report)

Sturm, Ruger & Co, Inc engages in the business of designing, manufacturing, and selling firearms to domestic customers. It operates through the Firearms and Castings segments. The Firearms segment focuses on manufacturing and selling rifles, pistols, and revolvers principally to a number of federally licensed, independent wholesale distributors.

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Quantbot Technologies LP increased its holdings in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO  Free Report) by 3.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 28,212 shares of the medical research companys stock after purchasing an additional 1,024 shares during the quarter. Quantbot Technologies LPs holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific were worth $11,439,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Boston Family Office LLC increased its position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 3.0% in the second quarter. Boston Family Office LLC now owns 41,181 shares of the medical research companys stock worth $16,699,000 after acquiring an additional 1,182 shares in the last quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp increased its holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 25.3% in the 2nd quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 479,144 shares of the medical research companys stock valued at $194,274,000 after purchasing an additional 96,610 shares in the last quarter. Claret Asset Management Corp purchased a new position in Thermo Fisher Scientific in the second quarter valued at about $232,000. Orleans Capital Management Corp LA lifted its stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 20.7% during the second quarter. Orleans Capital Management Corp LA now owns 6,317 shares of the medical research companys stock worth $2,561,000 after purchasing an additional 1,085 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bristol Gate Capital Partners Inc. grew its stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 6.9% in the second quarter. Bristol Gate Capital Partners Inc. now owns 173,498 shares of the medical research companys stock valued at $70,347,000 after buying an additional 11,183 shares in the last quarter. 89.23% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Thermo Fisher Scientific from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a hold (c) rating on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. William Blair started coverage on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in a report on Monday, August 18th. They issued an outperform rating on the stock. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a buy rating on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Thermo Fisher Scientific has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $601.65.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Price Performance

TMO opened at $585.19 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.50. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a 1-year low of $385.46 and a 1-year high of $610.97. The company has a 50-day moving average of $550.75 and a 200-day moving average of $481.40. The company has a market capitalization of $219.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.81, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.82.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 22nd. The medical research company reported $5.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.50 by $0.29. Thermo Fisher Scientific had a return on equity of 16.97% and a net margin of 15.02%.The firm had revenue of $11.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.90 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $5.28 earnings per share. Thermo Fisher Scientifics quarterly revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. Thermo Fisher Scientific has set its FY 2025 guidance at 22.600-22.860 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. will post 23.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be issued a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th. Thermo Fisher Scientifics payout ratio is currently 9.94%.

Thermo Fisher Scientific declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, November 6th that authorizes the company to buyback $5.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the medical research company to reacquire up to 2.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the companys board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other Thermo Fisher Scientific news, COO Michel Lagarde sold 4,638 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $594.42, for a total transaction of $2,756,919.96. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 23,480 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $13,956,981.60. This represents a 16.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Michael D. Shafer sold 10,725 shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.00, for a total transaction of $6,435,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 18,731 shares of the companys stock, valued at $11,238,600. This trade represents a 36.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 51,800 shares of company stock valued at $30,003,027 over the last quarter. 0.33% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Thermo Fisher Scientific

(Free Report)

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc provides life sciences solutions, analytical instruments, specialty diagnostics, and laboratory products and biopharma services in the North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company's Life Sciences Solutions segment offers reagents, instruments, and consumables for biological and medical research, discovery, and production of drugs and vaccines, as well as diagnosis of infections and diseases; and solutions include biosciences, genetic sciences, and bio production to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agricultural, clinical, healthcare, academic, and government markets.

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Shares of Trilogy Metals Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:TMQ  Get Free Report) were down 4.4% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $4.23 and last traded at $4.2650. Approximately 706,780 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 83% from the average daily volume of 4,193,563 shares. The stock had previously closed at $4.46.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

TMQ has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Raymond James Financial upgraded Trilogy Metals from a hold rating to a moderate buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. BMO Capital Markets restated a market perform rating and issued a $5.50 price objective on shares of Trilogy Metals in a report on Friday, October 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Trilogy Metals to a buy rating and set a $10.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Cormark cut shares of Trilogy Metals from a moderate buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Cowen reissued a hold rating on shares of Trilogy Metals in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Trilogy Metals currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $7.75.

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Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on Trilogy Metals

Trilogy Metals Stock Performance

Insider Activity at Trilogy Metals

The company has a market capitalization of $749.18 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -89.10 and a beta of 1.18. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $4.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $2.59.

In other Trilogy Metals news, CFO Elaine Sanders sold 449,599 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.84, for a total value of $3,075,257.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 3,149,561 shares of the companys stock, valued at $21,542,997.24. This trade represents a 12.49% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director James Gowans sold 100,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.50, for a total transaction of $750,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 234,046 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,755,345. This trade represents a 29.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 1,064,506 shares of company stock worth $7,275,194 over the last 90 days. 15.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Trilogy Metals

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new position in Trilogy Metals in the third quarter valued at $1,050,000. Tidal Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Trilogy Metals by 33.0% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 3,625,129 shares of the mining companys stock valued at $7,613,000 after acquiring an additional 899,656 shares during the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Trilogy Metals in the 3rd quarter valued at about $105,000. Millennium Management LLC raised its position in shares of Trilogy Metals by 24.8% during the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 401,668 shares of the mining companys stock worth $844,000 after acquiring an additional 79,719 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Investments LP lifted its stake in Trilogy Metals by 52.3% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 326,721 shares of the mining companys stock worth $686,000 after purchasing an additional 112,127 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 16.75% of the companys stock.

Trilogy Metals Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Trilogy Metals Inc, a base metals exploration company, engages in the exploration and development of mineral properties in the United States. The company explores for copper, cobalt, lead, zinc, gold, and silver properties. It principally holds interests in the Upper Kobuk mineral projects that include the Arctic, which contains polymetallic volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits; and Bornite that contains carbonate-hosted copper  cobalt deposits covering an area of approximately 448,217 acres located in the Ambler mining district in Northwest Alaska.

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A number of research firms have changed their ratings and price targets for Kilroy Realty (NYSE: KRC):

12/1/2025  Kilroy Realty had its price target lowered by analysts at Barclays PLC from $43.00 to $42.00. They now have an equal weight rating on the stock.

11/25/2025  Kilroy Realty had its price target raised by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $40.00 to $41.00. They now have an equal weight rating on the stock.

11/24/2025  Kilroy Realty had its buy (b-) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

11/18/2025  Kilroy Realty was upgraded by analysts at BMO Capital Markets from an underperform rating to a market perform rating. They now have a $44.00 price target on the stock, up previously from $40.00.

11/17/2025  Kilroy Realty was upgraded by analysts at Weiss Ratings from a hold (c+) rating to a buy (b-) rating.

11/14/2025  Kilroy Realty had its price target lowered by analysts at Evercore ISI from $47.00 to $46.00. They now have an in-line rating on the stock.

10/17/2025  Kilroy Realty had its neutral rating reaffirmed by analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co.. They now have a $44.00 price target on the stock, down previously from $46.00.

10/13/2025  Kilroy Realty was upgraded by analysts at Jefferies Financial Group Inc. from a hold rating to a buy rating. They now have a $45.00 price target on the stock, up previously from $33.00.

10/13/2025  Kilroy Realty was given a new $45.00 price target on by analysts at New Street Research.

10/8/2025  Kilroy Realty had its hold (c+) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

Kilroy Realty Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 7th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be paid a $0.54 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.1%. Kilroy Realtys dividend payout ratio is currently 79.70%.

Kilroy Realty Corporation (NYSE: KRC, the company, Kilroy) is a leading U.S. landlord and developer, with operations in San Diego, Greater Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Greater Seattle and Austin. The company has earned global recognition for sustainability, building operations, innovation and design.

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XTX Topco Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Northern Dynasty Minerals, Ltd. (NYSEAMERICAN:NAK  Free Report) (TSE:NDM) by 232.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 636,134 shares of the mining companys stock after buying an additional 444,950 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd owned about 0.12% of Northern Dynasty Minerals worth $852,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of Northern Dynasty Minerals by 37.5% in the second quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 18,320 shares of the mining companys stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 5,000 shares during the last quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Northern Dynasty Minerals in the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Ballentine Partners LLC increased its stake in Northern Dynasty Minerals by 121.0% in the 2nd quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 28,237 shares of the mining companys stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 15,459 shares during the last quarter. Dakota Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Northern Dynasty Minerals during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Kingsview Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Northern Dynasty Minerals by 85.6% in the 2nd quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 32,525 shares of the mining companys stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 15,000 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 10.55% of the companys stock.

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Northern Dynasty Minerals Trading Down 3.6%

Shares of NAK opened at $1.85 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.82 and a beta of -0.60. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $1.76 and a 200 day moving average of $1.35. Northern Dynasty Minerals, Ltd. has a 12 month low of $0.44 and a 12 month high of $2.98.

About Northern Dynasty Minerals

Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. engages in the exploration of mineral properties in the United States. It holds a 100% interest in the Pebble Copper-Gold-Molybdenum-Silver-Rhenium project comprising 1,840 mineral claims that covers an area of approximately 274 square miles located in southwest Alaska, the United States.

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Boston Family Office LLC purchased a new position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG  Free Report) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 1,150 shares of the financial services providers stock, valued at approximately $368,000.

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A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 2.3% in the second quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,542 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $494,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,746 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $948,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,501 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $1,761,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the period. Tritonpoint Wealth LLC grew its stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Tritonpoint Wealth LLC now owns 3,222 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $1,032,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Finally, D.A. Davidson & CO. increased its position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 1.2% in the second quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 2,892 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $926,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.53% of the companys stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. news, VP Scott R. Hudson sold 12,855 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $297.60, for a total value of $3,825,648.00. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 85,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,569,792. The trade was a 13.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Richard C. Cary sold 6,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $261.00, for a total transaction of $1,566,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 50,668 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $13,224,348. This trade represents a 10.59% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 37,105 shares of company stock valued at $10,796,353. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AJG. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $340.00 to $295.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $365.00 to $366.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $370.00 to $353.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $315.00 to $275.00 and set a market perform rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $361.00 to $315.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $316.33.

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Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of NYSE:AJG opened at $246.32 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $274.78 and a 200-day moving average of $298.21. The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The firm has a market cap of $63.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.99 and a beta of 0.71. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a twelve month low of $239.47 and a twelve month high of $351.23.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.32 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $2.51 by ($0.19). The company had revenue of $3.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.34 billion. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. had a net margin of 14.54% and a return on equity of 13.17%. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.s revenue was up 20.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.26 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 11.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be paid a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 5th. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.s payout ratio is currently 38.86%.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Profile

(Free Report)

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co engages in the provision of insurance brokerage, reinsurance brokerage, consulting, and third-party claims settlement and administration services. It operates through the following segments: Brokerage, Risk Management, and Corporate. The Brokerage segment consists of retail and wholesale insurance brokerage operations.

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Boston Family Office LLC lowered its position in shares of AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO  Free Report) by 16.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 141 shares of the companys stock after selling 27 shares during the quarter. Boston Family Office LLCs holdings in AutoZone were worth $523,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. AlphaCore Capital LLC acquired a new stake in AutoZone in the 1st quarter worth about $27,000. Saudi Central Bank bought a new position in shares of AutoZone during the first quarter worth approximately $27,000. Aspect Partners LLC raised its position in shares of AutoZone by 700.0% in the second quarter. Aspect Partners LLC now owns 8 shares of the companys stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 7 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Jackson Hole Trust bought a new stake in shares of AutoZone in the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, NewSquare Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of AutoZone by 50.0% in the second quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 9 shares of the companys stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 3 shares during the period. 92.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AutoZone Stock Down 0.2%

AutoZone stock opened at $3,945.62 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $65.63 billion, a PE ratio of 27.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 0.37. AutoZone, Inc. has a 12-month low of $3,162.00 and a 12-month high of $4,388.11. The businesss 50-day moving average price is $3,938.43 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $3,906.00.

AutoZone ( NYSE:AZO Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, September 23rd. The company reported $48.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $50.52 by ($1.81). AutoZone had a net margin of 13.19% and a negative return on equity of 60.49%. The company had revenue of $6.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $51.58 earnings per share. The companys revenue for the quarter was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that AutoZone, Inc. will post 152.94 earnings per share for the current year.

AutoZone declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, October 8th that permits the company to repurchase $0.00 in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the companys management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on AZO. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their price objective on AutoZone from $4,300.00 to $4,700.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded AutoZone from a neutral rating to a buy rating and raised their price target for the stock from $4,090.00 to $4,262.00 in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of AutoZone from $4,504.00 to $4,499.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. BNP Paribas Exane increased their price objective on shares of AutoZone from $4,155.00 to $4,811.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of AutoZone from $4,925.00 to $4,800.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, AutoZone currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $4,547.56.

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Insider Activity at AutoZone

In other AutoZone news, CEO Philip B. Daniele sold 2,533 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4,020.88, for a total value of $10,184,889.04. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 55 shares in the company, valued at $221,148.40. This trade represents a 97.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP K. Michelle Borninkhof sold 300 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Monday, October 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,775.00, for a total transaction of $1,132,500.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 416 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,570,400. The trade was a 41.90% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 5,693 shares of company stock valued at $23,259,891 in the last quarter. Insiders own 2.60% of the companys stock.

AutoZone Profile

(Free Report)

AutoZone, Inc retails and distributes automotive replacement parts and accessories in the United States, Mexico, and Brazil. The company provides various products for cars, sport utility vehicles, vans, and light trucks, including new and remanufactured automotive hard parts, maintenance items, accessories, and non-automotive products.

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Brandes Investment Partners LP boosted its position in Mohawk Industries, Inc. (NYSE:MHK  Free Report) by 5.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 870,778 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 46,076 shares during the quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP owned 1.40% of Mohawk Industries worth $91,294,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

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A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MHK. Kinney Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Mohawk Industries by 87.7% in the 2nd quarter. Kinney Asset Management LLC now owns 164,244 shares of the companys stock worth $17,219,000 after purchasing an additional 76,754 shares in the last quarter. Claret Asset Management Corp bought a new stake in Mohawk Industries in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $233,000. New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its stake in Mohawk Industries by 0.3% in the second quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 194,481 shares of the companys stock worth $20,389,000 after buying an additional 561 shares in the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group grew its position in Mohawk Industries by 45.6% during the second quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 809,668 shares of the companys stock valued at $84,886,000 after acquiring an additional 253,590 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tejara Capital Ltd bought a new position in Mohawk Industries during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,017,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.98% of the companys stock.

Mohawk Industries Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MHK opened at $115.49 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.25, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The company has a market cap of $7.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.31. Mohawk Industries, Inc. has a 12 month low of $96.24 and a 12 month high of $143.13. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $118.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $116.88.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Mohawk Industries ( NYSE:MHK Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The company reported $2.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $2.68 by ($0.01). Mohawk Industries had a net margin of 3.93% and a return on equity of 6.97%. The business had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $2.73 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.90 EPS. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. Mohawk Industries has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 1.900-2.000 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Mohawk Industries, Inc. will post 9.8 EPS for the current year.

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Raymond James Financial restated a strong-buy rating and issued a $150.00 price objective (up from $140.00) on shares of Mohawk Industries in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Vertical Research assumed coverage on shares of Mohawk Industries in a research note on Monday, October 20th. They issued a buy rating for the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a hold (c-) rating on shares of Mohawk Industries in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Barclays lowered their target price on Mohawk Industries from $125.00 to $122.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Mohawk Industries from $124.00 to $118.00 and set an in-line rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Mohawk Industries has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $138.00.

Check Out Our Latest Research Report on MHK

Insider Activity at Mohawk Industries

In related news, insider Suzanne L. Helen sold 2,500 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $109.54, for a total value of $273,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 79,878 shares of the companys stock, valued at $8,749,836.12. This trade represents a 3.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders sold a total of 9,541 shares of company stock worth $1,140,653 in the last ninety days. 17.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Mohawk Industries

(Free Report)

Mohawk Industries, Inc designs, manufactures, sources, distributes, and markets flooring products for residential and commercial remodeling, and new construction channels in the United States, Europe, Latin America, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Global Ceramic, Flooring North America, and Flooring Rest of the World.

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Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Teekay Tankers Ltd. (NYSE:TNK  Free Report) by 4.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 361,609 shares of the shipping companys stock after acquiring an additional 14,052 shares during the quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC owned 1.05% of Teekay Tankers worth $15,086,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in TNK. TD Private Client Wealth LLC boosted its position in Teekay Tankers by 13.0% in the second quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 2,084 shares of the shipping companys stock valued at $87,000 after buying an additional 240 shares in the last quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P grew its position in shares of Teekay Tankers by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P now owns 64,789 shares of the shipping companys stock worth $2,479,000 after buying an additional 248 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Teekay Tankers by 77.0% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 906 shares of the shipping companys stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 394 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in Teekay Tankers by 4.5% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 14,263 shares of the shipping companys stock valued at $546,000 after acquiring an additional 610 shares during the period. Finally, Kendall Capital Management increased its stake in Teekay Tankers by 4.3% during the 2nd quarter. Kendall Capital Management now owns 20,215 shares of the shipping companys stock valued at $843,000 after purchasing an additional 825 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 52.67% of the companys stock.

Teekay Tankers Trading Down 3.7%

Teekay Tankers stock opened at $55.53 on Tuesday. Teekay Tankers Ltd. has a 1-year low of $33.35 and a 1-year high of $63.71. The firm has a market cap of $1.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.17 and a beta of -0.11. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $56.49 and a 200-day moving average of $49.80.

Teekay Tankers Dividend Announcement

Teekay Tankers ( NYSE:TNK Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The shipping company reported $1.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.04. Teekay Tankers had a net margin of 32.87% and a return on equity of 10.81%. The business had revenue of $229.02 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $133.65 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.23 earnings per share. The firms revenue for the quarter was down 16.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Teekay Tankers Ltd. will post 7.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 21st. Investors of record on Monday, November 10th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 10th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. Teekay Tankerss payout ratio is presently 11.11%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Teekay Tankers from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Clarkson Capital upgraded shares of Teekay Tankers to a strong-buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Teekay Tankers from $53.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, October 28th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a buy (b-) rating on shares of Teekay Tankers in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Teekay Tankers from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $65.00.

Read Our Latest Stock Report on TNK

Teekay Tankers Profile

(Free Report)

Teekay Tankers Ltd. provides crude oil and other marine transportation services to oil industries in Bermuda and internationally. The company offers voyage and time charter services; offshore ship-to-ship transfer services of commodities primarily crude oil and refined oil products; and tanker commercial and technical management services.

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Geode Capital Management LLC decreased its position in PROS Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRO  Free Report) by 2.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,018,439 shares of the software makers stock after selling 24,837 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC owned about 2.12% of PROS worth $15,950,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of PRO. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its stake in PROS by 44.4% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 451,378 shares of the software makers stock valued at $7,057,000 after purchasing an additional 138,865 shares during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its stake in shares of PROS by 27.1% in the second quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 486,120 shares of the software makers stock valued at $7,613,000 after buying an additional 103,596 shares in the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its stake in PROS by 46.9% during the 2nd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 32,319 shares of the software makers stock worth $506,000 after buying an additional 10,317 shares during the period. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd increased its holdings in PROS by 375.5% during the 2nd quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 139,741 shares of the software makers stock worth $2,188,000 after purchasing an additional 110,350 shares during the period. Finally, FNY Investment Advisers LLC acquired a new position in PROS during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $70,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.27% of the companys stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on PRO shares. KeyCorp cut shares of PROS from an overweight rating to a sector weight rating in a report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Weiss Ratings restated a sell (d-) rating on shares of PROS in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Needham & Company LLC lowered shares of PROS from a buy rating to a hold rating and set a $25.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Northland Capmk downgraded shares of PROS from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Finally, Northland Securities set a $23.25 target price on shares of PROS in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $21.65.

PROS Stock Performance

PROS stock opened at $23.23 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.12 billion, a PE ratio of -74.92 and a beta of 1.02. PROS Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $13.61 and a twelve month high of $29.84. The firms 50 day moving average price is $23.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $18.51.

PROS (NYSE:PRO  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 27th. The software maker reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of ($0.05) by $0.27. The business had revenue of $91.68 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.71 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.14 earnings per share. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that PROS Holdings, Inc. will post -0.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About PROS

(Free Report)

PROS Holdings, Inc provides software solutions that optimize the processes of selling and shopping in the digital economy in Europe, the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, and internationally. The company offers PROS Smart Configure Price Quote that improves sales productivity and accelerate deal velocity by automating common sales tasks; and PROS Smart Price Optimization and Management, which enables businesses to optimize, personalize, and harmonize pricing.

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Booking, Expedia Group, Travelers Companies, Trip.com Group, MakeMyTrip, Thor Industries, and OUTFRONT Media are the seven Travel stocks to watch today, according to MarketBeats stock screener tool. Travel stocks are shares of companies whose primary business is enabling or servicing travel and tourism  for example airlines, hotels and resorts, cruise lines, car-rental firms, online travel agencies, and tour operators. These equities tend to be cyclical and sensitive to consumer spending, seasonality, fuel and labor costs, and geopolitical or health events that affect demand for travel. These companies had the highest dollar trading volume of any Travel stocks within the last several days.

Booking (BKNG)

Booking Holdings Inc, formerly The Priceline Group Inc., is a provider of travel and restaurant online reservation and related services. The Company, through its online travel companies (OTCs), connects consumers wishing to make travel reservations with providers of travel services across the world. It offers consumers an array of accommodation reservations (including hotels, bed and breakfasts, hostels, apartments, vacation rentals and other properties) through its Booking.com, priceline.com and agoda.com brands.

Expedia Group (EXPE)

Expedia Group, Inc. operates as an online travel company in the United States and internationally. The company operates through B2C, B2B, and trivago segments. Its B2C segment includes Brand Expedia, a full-service online travel brand offers various travel products and services; Hotels.com for lodging accommodations; Vrbo, an online marketplace for the alternative accommodations; Orbitz, Travelocity, Wotif Group, ebookers, CheapTickets, Hotwire.com and CarRentals.com.

Read Our Latest Research Report on EXPE

Travelers Companies (TRV)

The Travelers Companies, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides a range of commercial and personal property, and casualty insurance products and services to businesses, government units, associations, and individuals in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Business Insurance, Bond & Specialty Insurance, and Personal Insurance.

Read Our Latest Research Report on TRV

Trip.com Group (TCOM)

Trip.com Group Limited, through its subsidiaries, operates as a travel service provider for accommodation reservation, transportation ticketing, packaged tours and in-destination, corporate travel management, and other travel-related services in China and internationally. The company acts as an agent for hotel-related transactions and selling air tickets, as well as provides train, long-distance bus, and ferry tickets; travel insurance products, such as flight delay, air accident, and baggage loss coverage; and air-ticket delivery, online check-in and seat selection, express security screening, real-time flight status tracker, and airport VIP lounge services.

Read Our Latest Research Report on TCOM

MakeMyTrip (MMYT)

MakeMyTrip Limited, an online travel company, sells travel products and solutions in India, the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Peru, Colombia, Vietnam, and Indonesia. The company operates through three segments: Air Ticketing, Hotels and Packages, and Bus Ticketing.

Read Our Latest Research Report on MMYT

Thor Industries (THO)

THOR Industries, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells recreational vehicles (RVs), and related parts and accessories in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The company offers travel trailers; gasoline and diesel Class A, Class B, and Class C motorhomes; conventional travel trailers and fifth wheels; luxury fifth wheels; and motorcaravans, caravans, campervans, and urban vehicles.

Read Our Latest Research Report on THO

OUTFRONT Media (OUT)

OUTFRONT Media, Inc. leases advertising space on out-of-home advertising structures and sites. Its inventory consists of billboard displays, which are primarily located on the most heavily traveled highways & roadways, and transit advertising displays operated under exclusive multi-year contracts with municipalities in large cities across the U.S.

Read Our Latest Research Report on OUT

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A quick look at our 13 topics for 2026

Gen AI inside existing search engines overtakes standalone gen AI

Gen AI, possibly one of the most consequential technologies of our decade, may see its user base widen faster through its incorporation into existing mainstream digital applications than through its usage on a standalone basis

Deloitte predicts that in 2026 and beyond, more people will use gen AI when its embedded within an existing applicationsuch as a search enginethan those using a standalone gen AI tool. In terms of daily use, accessing gen AI within a search engine (when a search yields a synthesis of results) will be 300% more common than using any standalone gen AI tool. Standalone gen AI may require skill in prompt engineering and persistence, whereas passive gen AI is less overt and the experience more familiar; as such, demand is greater because its more accessible. Going forward, standalone gen AI app owners will likely face a choice between embedding their tools capabilities within another application or remaining a standalone interface.

Why AIs next phase will likely demand more computational power, not less

The world is moving from just training gen AI models to using them at scale. Many believe this means more consumer edge computing and less data center computing. Neither is likely to happen in 2026.

Deloitte predicts that inferencerunning AI modelswill account for two-thirds of all AI computing power by 2026. Despite forecasts to the contrary, most inference will still take place in new data centers worth nearly half a trillion dollars and in on-premises enterprise servers using costly, power-intensive AI chips worth over $200 billion, rather than at the edge on inexpensive, lower-powered chips. There will be billions of dollars worth of specialized chips optimized for inference, but theyll sit in data centers and enterprise servers as well, and some will use as much or even more power than general-purpose AI chips do.



Unlocking exponential value with AI agent orchestration

Autonomous AI agents may be transformational, but orchestration can be key for intelligent automation. Open-source and proprietary communication protocols will compete to lead the way.

On average, market estimates suggest that the autonomous AI agent market could reach $8.5 billion by 2026 and $35 billion by 2030. Deloitte predicts that if enterprises orchestrate agents better and thoughtfully address the associated challenges and risks, this market projection could increase by 15% to 30%or as high as $45 billion by 2030. In 2026, businesses will likely work on their readiness to orchestrate agents with a specific degree of autonomy. Also, multi-agent systems will likely work for those businesses that focus on agent interoperability and management and redesign their workflows and talent effectively.

AI for industrial robotics, humanoid robots, and drones

Can more powerful AI models and chips catalyze what has been a relatively stagnant industry?

Deloitte predicts that the global cumulative installed capacity of industrial robots could reach 5.5 million by 2026, but annual new robot sales have stalled at just over half a million units since 2021. We could see an inflection point by 2030, with annual new robot shipments doubling from current levels to reach one million a year, driven by the following growth catalysts: (i) labor shortages in specialized industrial applications in developed countries and (ii) exponential advancements in computing power and the emergence of specialized foundational AI models. Robots can permeate multiple industries and applications, including autonomous drones, but unless the broader technology, AI, and robotics ecosystem addresses bottlenecks related to data quality, integration, and cybersecurity, the market for industrial robots may remain at its current level of relatively modest annual growth.

SaaS meets AI agents: Transforming budgets, customer experience, and workforce dynamics

As AI agents pervade the SaaS market, how businesses experience and leverage software will likely changeshifting business models, capabilities, and expectations

AI continues to disrupt the software as a service market. As agentic AI capabilities mature and vendors build out their platforms to create, integrate, and orchestrate AI agents, how organizations use and spend on SaaS could shift dramatically. In 2026, SaaS applications will likely become more intelligent, personalized, and autonomous, evolving toward a federation of real-time workflow services that can learn. Traditional pricing could shift away from seat-based and subscription licensing toward a more hybrid approach that blends consumption- and outcome-based models. In the longer term, some are even suggesting that sufficiently advanced agentic AI could replace existing enterprise SaaS. All these shifts will increase the complexity around financial planning, operations, ecosystem management, and value measurement.

New technologies and familiar challenges could make semiconductor supply chains more fragile

With escalating trade restrictions on critical next-gen AI chip technologies, leaders should adapt quickly to make supply chains more resilient

Making the most advanced chips has, for a long time, meant navigating fragile supply chains, but the stakes are much higher now. Extreme ultraviolet lithography has been restricted for years, but Deloitte predicts that in 2026, certain other advanced technologies and software tools that enable advanced AI models will become supply chain chokepoints. Many of these high-tech processes and materials rely on a handful of suppliers whose dominance in key regions has prompted governments to impose trade barriers to protect strategic interests and reduce dependency, underscoring the critical role they play in the global semiconductor supply chain.

Tiny episodes, massive appeal: Short-form serials are gaining viewers and empowering independent studios

From independent creators to major platforms, micro-series are helping redefine how viewers connect with and consume content worldwide

Micro-seriesscripted video series told in bite-sized, mobile-first episodesare reshaping global viewing habits. Micro-series apps now generate billions in revenue, with the United States leading growth. In 2026, Deloitte predicts that the revenue growth of in-app micro-series will more than double, reaching $7.8 billion. Deloitte also predicts that the United States will account for half of global revenue in 2025, but its share will decline to 40% as other markets convert more views and downloads into cash. Micro-dramas blend short-form convenience with serialized storytelling, appealing to fragmented, mobile audiences. Uplifted by new technologies, independent creators are building studios that are lean and nimble, potentially challenging larger and more traditional studios.

Video podcasts dominate: Opportunity for brands, competition for traditional video

Podcasting is becoming a video-first, multilingual medium with booming reach that may help brands reach global audiences while occupying a larger share of viewers screen time

Video podcasts (vodcasts) are transforming audience engagement by blending audio storytelling with visual appeal and may be competing directly with TV and streaming platforms. Deloitte predicts that annual global podcast and vodcast advertising revenues will reach approximately $5 billion in 2026a nearly 20% year-over-year rise. Emerging markets such as India, Nigeria, and Brazil are fueling this growth through localized and multilingual content. Overcoming challenges related to discoverability, monetization, and scalability will likely be key to sustained growth.

A new era of self-reliance: Navigating technology sovereignty

Countries and regional blocs are racing to build out their own sovereign tech and AI infrastructures. What are the implications, and how can global businesses prepare?

As the global geopolitical environment becomes increasingly complex and uncertain, businesses and policymakers are urging their countries and regions to take greater direct control of their digital infrastructure, especially those parts related to AI. The desire for sovereignty is not new, but the shift toward technology sovereignty will likely quicken in 2026. Over the next decade, significant investment will flow into cloud computing, semiconductors, data centers, AI models, connectivity, and satellite communication efforts. In an interconnected world, total sovereignty is unlikely to be achieved by any country or region, but many are aiming to become at least more sovereign.

Generative AI video is perfect for social media, but could disrupt social media companies

Approaching Hollywood quality, the latest gen AI video models appear to be supercharging independent video but could provoke a stronger regulatory response against social video platforms

Generative video could empower independent creators and boost platforms ad revenuesbut it also risks overwhelming audiences, eroding authenticity, and fueling misinformation, likely intensifying regulatory scrutiny. Deloitte predicts that in 2026, generative video could provoke a regulatory response in the United States, potentially driving broader age verification in more states, refreshing federal challenges to Section 230 protections established in 1996 under the Communications Decency Act, and requiring labeling for AI-generated content published on social platforms. Success will likely hinge on balancing innovation with moderation, as unchecked generative video could disrupt business models, accelerate misinformation, and further fragment societys shared sense of reality.

Public media partnerships with streaming giants could be a model for making traditional TV sustainable

Public service broadcasters are publishing to social platforms, co-producing with streamers, and forming partnerships with the largest video distributors. They can offer lessons to for-profit US media companies.

Public service broadcasters (PSBs) are adapting to the pressures facing many traditional networks by coproducing with streamers, promoting content on social platforms, and experimenting with staggered releases. These strategies help extend reach, attract younger audiences, and inject local content into global platforms. In 2025, there was an acceleration, with three notable deals between broadcasters and streamers in just a few months. In 2026, Deloitte predicts another handful of broadcaster-and-streamer deals. Further, we also expect to see more coproductions and other initiativesonce again led by PSBs. Their adaptability can offer lessons for US broadcasters and niche studios facing similar disruption from streaming and social video. However, PSBs should be careful when navigating for-profit relationships that could threaten their mandates to represent the public.

Next-gen satellite internet is transforming pricing, capacity, and regulation worldwide

Satellite connectivity sees direct-to-device growth but often faces monetization hurdles, while low-Earth-orbit data expansion and tech advancements help reshape deployment and resilience, and create regulation complexities

Deloitte predicted spending on direct-to-device (D2D) network infrastructuremainly satellitesat $3 billion in 2024, but it reached around $4 billion and is expected to rise to between $6 billion and $8 billion by 2026. Deloitte also predicts that around 1,000 D2D satellites will provide low-bandwidth connectivity services (SOS, text, and voice) in areas that may lack terrestrial cell coverage, with some D2D networks aspiring to provide higher-speed services. Adoption and willingness to pay for D2D remain uncertain, meaning monetization and business models for D2D are still unclear. We further predict that the number of communications satellites in low Earth orbit will reach between 15,000 and 18,000 satellites, connecting over 15 million global subscribers by the end of 2026. Another trend for 2026 in low Earth orbit will be new entrants that may disrupt emerging-market telcos with low-cost monthly broadband services, rather than partnering with terrestrial telcos as some other satellite providers are.

Gifts beat gigabits: Some mobile users rank rewards over network upgrades

Some consumers in developed markets struggle to perceive improvements in network performance. Telecom companies should consider more creative offerings to increase market share.

Deloitte predicts that in 2026, mobile operator reward schemes may matter to consumers in developed markets as much asor even more thannetwork performance. In the medium term (the next five years through 2030), there is a reasonable probability that no new fundamentally revolutionary devices connecting to mobile networks will emerge, nor will there be any transformative applications running on these networks. Over the remainder of the decade, as network upgrades continue, non-network benefits may become increasingly critical to attract users or suppress churn. Such perks may be more tangible to consumers than network infrastructure upgrades.
Unity Trust Bank has awarded 5,000 to In Your Space Circus as part of its 50,000 Unity Impact Grants programme.

IYSC is a circus school and performance company which promotes good physical and mental health and personal development for people across Derry.

Nearly 200 grant applications were received this year from Unity customers and IYCS is one of 10 organisations that were chosen by a panel of judges.

IYCS provides opportunities for people of all ages and targets those with disabilities, and those experiencing economic disadvantage or social isolation.

It aims to make arts engagement accessible and bring joy to participants and audiences.

It also strives to educate and inspire young people and provide opportunities which encourage creative experimentation.

In 2024-2025, IYCS engaged nearly 10,000 participants, attracted audiences of more than 386,000 and provided paid opportunities for 150 artists.

The Unity grant will be used to support the CircAbility outreach project for children aged 5-17.

Cath McBride, Company Director at In Your Space Circus, said: We are incredibly grateful for the generous support of Unity Trust Bank.

Our CircAbility project uses circus and play to engage children with disabilities and neurodiverse conditions.

This funding will allow us to reach more young people in special schools across the wider DerryLondonderry area. It will offer joyful, confidence-building activities that support self-esteem and physical development.

At a time when fundraising is increasingly challenging, particularly for arts organisations, this grant is a tremendous boost. It's a welcome affirmation of the value and impact of our work.

The Unity Impact Grant programme is part of the banks employee-led Unity & Me pillar. Unity & Me empowers staff to deliver positive outcomes for colleagues, communities and the planet.

As well as the 50,000 grants programme, Unity has also awarded 30,000 to good causes in 2025, through fundraising, volunteering and charitable donations.

Joshua Meek, Chief Impact Officer at Unity Trust Bank, said: We launched Unity Impact Grants last year to mark our 40th birthday and this year we doubled the amount of grant funding to 50,000.

We were highly impressed by the quality of applications from our customers and we are proud to support the 10 successful applicants because they are all providing such vital services in their communities.

As a social impact bank we are committed to delivering inclusive growth in communities across the UK, that's why the Impact Grants programme aims to support customers with funding they need.

We will continue to build on this momentum to support our customers in making a positive difference.

The other successful recipients of the Unity Impact Grant are Womens Aid In Luton, Break The Silence, North Sea Conservation, Orange Bow CIC, Health Psychology Management Organisation Services, Green Futures Greater Grimsby, Birmingham Playcare Network, The Twisting Ducks Theatre Company and The Canley Community Centre.

For more information, visit www.unity.co.uk/delivering-impact/.
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The Apprentice Boys of Derry 337th Shutting of the Gates takes place in Derry this Saturday (December 6).

The city centre is open and motorists driving through the city-side and Waterside areas, between 11.30am and 5.30pm, are advised to take extra care and of delays during parade times.

Signage advising of diversions/closures will be in place and officers will be on patrol.

Police work in partnership with the parade organisers and marshals to ensure minimum disruption to those going about their daily routine.

Visiting Branch clubs taking part in the parade will assemble at the Railway Station in the Waterside at about 11.00am and leave at 11.30am.The route will take the clubs and bands from Duke Street across the top deck of Craigavon Bridge and then onto Carlisle Road, Hawkin Street, London Street, Bishop Street and Palace Lane to the Memorial Hall.

1.15pm - Bands will leave Society Street, Bishop Street, The Diamond, Ferryquay Street, Wapping Lane, Carlisle Road, Kennedy Street, Hawkin Street, London Street into the grounds of St. Columb's Cathedral. This is estimated to take approximately 40 minutes.

3.15pm - The Parade reforms in Bishop Street, Society Street, and moves off via London Street, Hawkin Street, Kennedy Street, Kennedy Place, Wapping Lane, Carlisle Square, Carlisle Road, Ferryquay Street, The Diamond, Bishop Street, Society Street, Palace Street to Bishop Street for the burning of the effigy at 4.00pm.

When the parade is in Bishop Street for the burning; traffic - where possible - will be facilitated in the city, and this will be clearly signposted and officers will be on the ground to assist with traffic flow.

4.30pm - Following the burning, the parade will return to the Waterside across the top deck of Craigavon Bridge via London Street, Hawkin Street, Carlisle Road, Craigavon Bridge, and Duke Street for dispersal at Waterside Link at 5.15pm approximately.

The top deck of Craigavon Bridge (Waterside-bound) and Duke Street will be closed for a short time as the parade is underway.
Hospice Alliance NI, the group representing hospice care providers across Northern Ireland, has responded to the Northern Ireland Assembly Report on Access to Palliative Care Services, welcoming the Committee for Healths 27-point recommendation list to reform palliative and end-of-life care provision.

The alliance  which is made up of Evora Hospice, Foyle Hospice, Marie Curie, and the Northern Ireland Hospice & Childrens Hospice  now calls upon the Minister of Health to move decisively to implement the committees recommendations in full.

An immediate increase in funding to 50% of the actual cost of care, rising to 100% within five years, is among the recommendations set out by the committee, which the alliance says is an essential step toward safeguarding hospice services for patients with complex needs.

Commenting on the report, the alliance said: We would like to thank the committee for their time and effort as well as all those stakeholders who contributed to this inquiry. Your input has led to the publication of what we believe to be a landmark report and a line in the sand for the future of hospice care.

We stand united and ready to work. Palliative and end-of-life care is a right, not a privilege, and this report highlights long-standing gaps in provision. The funding model must be significantly improved to ensure equitable access to care when children and adults need it most. Our hospices are not simply providers, but an essential part of the healthcare system  and local communities  and they have long delivered enormous value for money through their impact.

We now need to work together to progress these recommendations, at pace, to ensure the vital role of hospice care in our health system is supported through a sustainable funding model and a supported workforce.

In 2024-25, hospices in Northern Ireland provided palliative and end-of-life care to 12,000 people and direct support services to 1,700 family members, friends, and carers. This included almost 80,000 visits made to patients at home by specialist palliative care nurses and doctors as well as generalist healthcare staff, some 14,000 outpatient appointments, and 19,000 days and nights of in-patient care.

Responding to the Report on Access to Palliative Care, Donall Henderson, Chief Executive of Foyle Hospice, said: Foyle Hospice welcomes the Health Committees report and its recognition of the crucial role hospices play.

"In Western Health and Social Care Trust area, and more widely across the North West, Foyle Hospice has supported over 23,000 patients and families since 1985, providing expert palliative care in our nine-bed in-patient unit, in peoples homes and through specialist bereavement support for both children and adults.

"We see the impact every day, but we also know it cannot be sustained with short-term, non-recurrent funding. Fair and realistic support is now essential if people in this region are to keep relying on hospices to provide dignified care to patients and their families when it matters most.

Paula Heneghan, Associate Director of Services at Marie Curie NI, said: Too many people spend their last weeks of life in hospitals, where many dont need or want to be. This puts additional strain on a health service which is already witnessing a tsunami of need and, across the UK, costs billions of pounds to fund. Shifting health expenditure on people at the end of life from hospital to community settings would ease the burden on the NHS and deliver better outcomes for patients.

"If the department were to embrace the recommendations in todays report, the hospice sector would be better supported to deliver its high quality, expert care to more people in Northern Ireland and provide additional value to the Health and Social Care system in the process.

Trevor McCartney, CEO of Northern Ireland Hospice and Childrens Hospice, said: If the Health Committees recommendations were enacted, it would be transformative for hospices like ours. Instead of focusing all our energy on simply keeping the lights on, we could look to sustain and develop our services and support many more people in need. It would allow us to become an integral part of the healthcare system, delivering compassionate, specialist care where its needed most.

I particularly welcome the committees recommendation to invest in childrens services. We operate Northern Irelands only Childrens Hospice, yet we receive only 30% funding, leaving a 700k annual shortfall. This is a position that is simply not sustainable, despite massive community support through fundraising. We have capacity for 10 beds, but funding means we can operate only six, limiting families to just six nights of respite a year when best practice shows they should receive at least twelve.

The alliance now calls upon policymakers to act now to deliver reform to address disparities and ensure equitable access to palliative care so that no one is left behind.
Ukraine will develop a national large language model (LLM) based on Googles Gemma, with operator Kyivstar acting as strategic partner and operational lead alongside the WINWIN AI Center of Excellence under the Ministry of Digital Transformation.

The planned Ukrainian LLM will underpin future digital public services and enterprise tools, with the government aiming to improve service quality, automate workflows and strengthen digital resilience. The project will adapt Gemma specifically for the Ukrainian language, including improvements to the tokenizer, training on curated Ukrainian-language datasets, and the development of local benchmark tests to fine-tune future applications.

Kyivstars Director of Digital Product Development, Mykhailo Nestor, said Gemma was selected for its strong multilingual support - covering 140 languages including Ukrainian - and its 128,000-token context window, which enables the model to analyse long-form content such as 200-page documents. Flexibility in model size and demonstrated performance in other LLMs also factored into the decision.

Danylo Tsvok, Chief AI Officer at the Ministry and CEO of the WINWIN AI Center of Excellence, said building on an open-source model allows Ukraine to focus on training with domestic datasets to minimise linguistic and ethical risks.

Krzysztof Kaziow, Director of Customer Engineering CEE at Google Cloud, said the selection of Gemma highlights its balance of performance and resource efficiency, and reaffirmed Googles support for Ukraines national AI initiative.
Japanese fishing vessel expelled after illegally entering territorial waters of China's Diaoyu Dao

Xinhua) 10:08, December 02, 2025

BEIJING, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- A Japanese fishing vessel was warned and expelled on Tuesday after illegally entering the territorial waters of China's Diaoyu Dao, a China Coast Guard (CCG) spokesperson said.

The CCG took necessary control measures in accordance with the law, issued warnings and drove the vessel away, according to CCG spokesperson Liu Dejun.

Stressing that Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated islands are China's inherent territory, Liu urged the Japanese side to immediately cease all acts of infringement and provocation in these waters.

"The CCG will continue to conduct rights-protection law enforcement operations in the waters of Diaoyu Dao to firmly safeguard China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests," the spokesperson added.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Member States of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) agreed on a roadmap to bring connectivity to everyone around the world as the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-25) closed last week in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The two-week conference brought together about 2,000 participants representing 153 member states and the State of Palestine under Resolution 99.

The ITU, the United Nations specialised agency for digital technologies, says that the Baku Action Plan agreed at WTDC-25 sets the agenda for human-centred digital development driven by telecommunications and information and communication technologies with a focus on the needs of developing countries, underserved communities and vulnerable populations.

With an estimated 2.2 billion people worldwide still offline, the ITU says the four-year plan  spanning 2026 to 2029  supports efforts to advance universal, meaningful and affordable digital connectivity for an inclusive and sustainable digital future.

But can these aims be achieved? During the conference, the ITU issued its Global Connectivity Report 2025, described as a comprehensive assessment of the evolution of global connectivity. As the report says, connectivity has undergone a profound transformation over the last thirty years. By 2025, some 6 billion people are online, representing approximately three-quarters of the worlds population.

There are still challenges of course. Unequal access, uneven quality, limited coverage, high costs, affordability and availability of devices, and limited digital skills play a part in the slow progress of some regions compared to others.

Indeed, regional differences remain stark: Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) are nearing the 95% universality target, while internet use in Africa stands at just over one in three.

As well as the digital divide, another problem is the gender divide, shown by a global parity score  the ratio between the proportions of women and men using the internet  of 0.92, and, apparently, progress has stalled. The gender gap is most significant in low and lower-middle-income countries, especially in Africa and South Asia, where women are far less likely to be online.

Other concerns addressed by the report include the health dangers of heavy screen use, problems of misinformation and disinformation, and the environmental costs of digitalisation, notably data centres and e-waste.

The report is free to download on the ITU website.
Madagascars Ministry of Digital Development has confirmed that the countrys operators will cut internet tariffs from this week, following talks aimed at boosting digital access, as reported by TechAfrica News.

Minister Mahefa Andriamampiadana said the scale of reductions will differ by operator, depending on their network and cost structures. He added that fixed-line pricing should move away from per-GB charging - which he argued penalises low-usage customers - and shift instead toward models based on speed, stability and overall service quality in line with international practice.

Operators have also renewed calls for the removal of excise duties. The Ministry said it would support such a step provided it does not harm state revenues, and stressed that any resulting savings must be invested into cheaper tariffs, improved speeds and continued infrastructure rollout.

The government said the tariff cuts form part of a broader effort to create a more accessible and competitive digital market.
As we prepare to bid adieu to 2025, expectations from the next year are already running high, especially for Apple fans who have been waiting for something big on the Mac front. And if the reports are anything to go by, 2026 could be the year Apple finally shakes up its entire laptop lineup. From an entry-level MacBook aimed at students to cutting-edge Pro machines with OLED displays and touch support, the next year seems stacked with announcements that cater to every kind of user. For anyone planning an upgrade or simply curious about where the Mac lineup is headed, 2026 is shaping up to be a milestone year. Lets take a closer look at all we know so far and what we can expect from the upcoming year.

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A budget MacBook

Apple is reportedly preparing its most wallet-friendly laptop yet, designed to pull users away from entry-level Windows machines and Chromebooks. This new 13-inch model is expected to come with a lightweight design, a lower-cost LCD panel and an A18 Pro chip that currently powers the iPhone 16 Pro.

The chipset sits below the M-series in raw performance but is said to match or even beat the original M1 in some areas, especially GPU output. The absence of Thunderbolt means standard USB-C ports instead, which aligns with its rumoured starting price between USD 699  USD 899. Apple may even offer the laptop in multiple colours to appeal to students and first-time buyers.

MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips

Apple launched the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 chip in October this year and the news took the internet by storm. Now, in 2026, the premium MacBook Pro lineup is expected to get its next refresh.

Apple will reportedly bring the more powerful M5 Pro and M5 Max chips to the 14-inch and 16-inch models. Built on TSMCs advanced third-generation 3 nm process, the new chips should unlock faster SSD speeds, higher memory bandwidth and improved efficiency. Apple is not expected to introduce design changes yet, with the big redesign reportedly held back for the generation that follows. If pricing stays similar, the M5 Pro laptops could start around USD 1,999 for the 14-inch and USD 2,399 for the 16-inch, while the Max configurations are expected to move into the USD 3,000-plus bracket.

M5 MacBook Air expected in early 2026

Even though the M4 MacBook Air is still fresh on the shelves, Apple is already working on its next iteration. The MacBook Air with the M5 chip is expected to deliver around 10 to 15 percent faster CPU performance, a more efficient architecture and a GPU that could see up to a 36 percent boost compared to the M4. Early benchmarks from the M5 iPad Pro give a good sense of this generational jump. The new Air models are expected to arrive in the first quarter of 2026, most likely around March, and Apple is expected to retain the current USD 999 base price to keep the Air attractive as its mainstream option.

OLED touch-screen MacBook Pro with M6 chipset

The most dramatic MacBook update is expected toward late 2026 or early 2027, when Apple might finally introduce a redesigned MacBook Pro with an OLED touch-screen display. Powered by next-generation M6 chips built on TSMCs 2 nm process, the new models could offer tighter integration between CPU, GPU and the Neural Engine, leading to better performance and battery life.

The OLED panels promise higher contrast, deeper blacks and superior power efficiency compared to mini-LED. Apple is also reportedly shrinking the bezels, adopting a hole-punch camera setup and making the chassis thinner and lighter. Due to these premium upgrades, prices are expected to climb a few hundred dollars above the current Pro lineup.

As the rumour mill continues to gather pace, one thing seems to be quite clear- Apple is gearing up for a MacBook lineup that has something for everyone. Whether you are waiting for an affordable entry point into the Mac ecosystem or holding out for a next-generation Pro machine with every cutting-edge feature imaginable, 2026 is shaping up to have something for everyone. And with Apples track record of surprising its users when they least expect it, the final reveals may end up being even more exciting than what the leaks suggest.

Also read: Google Aluminium OS explained: What it is and everything we know so far


Facing the rise of AI, how does Global Instrument Technology leverage Chunghwa Telecom's IDC for the manufacturing industry's AI-driven transformation

The manufacturing industry is facing major changes with the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, which has made computing power and AI application services the "new oil" that fuels the competitiveness of enterprises. However, simply stacking hardware is not enough to run AI models, which are highly dependent on a stable and secure computing environment with low latency. The only way to ensure enterprise-level power, cooling, network bandwidth, and cybersecurity for the deployment of AI applications at scale is to set up the AI model in a professional Internet data center (IDC).

Founded in 2009, Global Instrument Technology (GIT) initially provided instrument rental and automation solutions. However, its business expanded along with the upgrading of Taiwan's manufacturing industry, as it focused on optimizing networking, semiconductors, automotive electronics, and EMS production lines. It even expanded into surface defect detection for popular products, such as e-readers and Apple Watches. The company subsequently expanded to smart manufacturing solutions, such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and early warning of anomalies, under Industry 4.0, expanding from single-point improvement to system-level optimization.

GIT saw that the clearest trend in the manufacturing industry in recent years has been the rapid adoption of AI by factories. Its application scenarios include image inspection and IIoT. However, in addition to software capabilities, the support of a stable and high performance computing environment and network architecture are also needed to actually run AI models in production lines.

To help customers in the manufacturing industry adopt AI more quickly, GIT partnered with Chunghwa Telecom to provide enterprises with an "AI application verification platform" and integration services in a secure and high performance professional IDC environment. This architecture allows enterprises to verify AI image inspection models and analyze the quality of AI models without increasing the burden of hardware, thus shortening the time from proof of concept to implementation.

Professional IDC has become the foundation for stably running AI models with cooling, power, network, and cybersecurity all in place

Tsai noted GIT chose a professional IDC to deliver stable AI services and trusted commitment. Credit:GIT

The biggest difference between AI servers and regular servers is their power consumption, heat generation, and bandwidth requirements. "It would be very hard to let corporate customers feel at ease if we kept our servers at the company and managed them ourselves." Tsai Pei-Ying, IT Manager at the Head Office of GIT, got straight to the point: AI requires a trustworthy environment to ensure stable, high-performance, and secure processing.

Therefore, GIT set the goal to relocate into a professional IDC, and evaluated five key criteria: Is the power supply stable? Is the temperature under control? Is the bandwidth adequate and is the latency acceptable? Is cybersecurity good enough? Is the quality of professional services reliable? GIT evaluated numerous service providers, focusing on their ability to operate at full capacity for extended periods of time without interruption, as well as their scalability, so that new businesses would not be slowed down by infrastructure limitations once launched.

"From our perspective, IDC is not just a place to house servers, it is the foundation that enables AI applications to run stably," said Tsai Pei-Ying. GIT delivers more than just AI, it delivers a comprehensive system integration service that encompasses equipment, data transmission, security, and maintenance, offering a total solution for AI implementation.

From cold aisles to high bandwidth, the guardian safeguarding the stability of AI servers

In the end, GIT chose Chunghwa Telecom's IDC. "Chunghwa Telecom is able to fully meet all five of our requirements!" Tsai Pei-Ying pointed out that the instantaneous power consumption of a single AI server can reach up to 10 kW, so it has extremely high requirements on the stability of power supply.

Chunghwa Telecom's IDC has a complete power and temperature control plan in place to ensure that servers can operate safely for extended periods of time. Using environmental control as an example, AI servers need to operate between 10 and 35 degrees Celsius, so Chunghwa Telecom specially designed "cold aisles" for faster heat dissipation and cooling to maintain optimal conditions for equipment.

AI applications impose equally astonishing demands not only on power and cooling, but also on bandwidth. Using AI image inspection as an example, the size of a high-resolution image can reach several hundred megabytes, so high network latency can greatly lower the efficiency of training and inference. Chunghwa Telecom's IDC provides high bandwidth capable of instantly meeting massive data transmission demands, ensuring that customer services are not interrupted.

In terms of cybersecurity, Chunghwa Telecom has worked closely with GIT to tailor cybersecurity solutions. From hardware firewalls to "cybersecurity fleet" solutions, the comprehensive protection mechanisms not only allow GIT to provide AI services without any concerns, but also lay the foundation for future expansion.

"Chunghwa Telecom offers highly competitive one-stop services that have saved us great effort in resource integration." Manager Tsai Pei-Ying was straightforward when explaining the main reason why the company made the decision: They have never had to worry about the quality of Chunghwa Telecom's operation and maintenance. The value of providing one-stop services has been proven again and again in actual operations: All requests, no matter the scale, can be handled at a single window.

The top-tier quality of the IDC's operation and maintenance has made GIT more confident in its future development

The services of Chunghwa Telecom's IDC have gained the trust and confidence of GIT ever since it became a tenant. Stability is the top priority. In addition, the density of Chunghwa Telecom's resources across multiple locations throughout Taiwan and its backbone network allows service nodes to be located closer to demand, achieving lower latency and greater stability.

GIT is currently focused on assisting the manufacturing industry in developing scenarios for implementing AI, such as image defect detection, automated quality monitoring, and digital twin systems. With the support of stable computing capacity provided by the IDC, these AI applications will be able to move on from proof of concept to become a part of routine operations, gradually becoming the new normal for smart manufacturing.

Trust is key: Let a professional IDC handle strategic infrastructure

Wang Sin-Siang, Vice General Manager of GIT (right), and Tsai Pei-Ying, IT Manager of GIT (left).Credit:GIT

From the perspective of GIT, the AI application verification platform is not a short-term project. It is a long-term strategic direction to be simultaneously carried out by the manufacturing industry. Stable, flexible, and secure infrastructure is the key to letting enterprises experiment with AI and not be priced out by the initial cost.

"Trust" is the key that makes all of this possible. As mentioned by Manager Tsai Pei-Ying, moving into a professional IDC is a necessary condition. Letting a team that understands data centers, networks, and operation and maintenance provide capital-intensive infrastructure is the only way AI will have a chance to move forward from technical projects to a stable part of routine operations. Chunghwa Telecom's one-stop, single window is a catalyst for reducing friction and accelerating development. Stability, predictability, and scalability are what give customers peace of mind.

With the strong support of Chunghwa Telecom's IDC, GIT is driving the rapid adoption of AI in the manufacturing industry. When AI is no longer an experiment and is fully embedded into production processes, Taiwan's AI-enabled manufacturing industry will be able to move towards a replicable and sustainable future.

Learn more about Chunghwa Telecom's IDC solutions.
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Taiwan's scooter sales decline in November as electric segment faces challenges

Taiwan's scooter market recorded 54,311 units sold in November 2025, a 16% decrease from October and an 11% drop from November 2024, according to recent market data. SYM Motor led sales, followed by KYMCO, Yamaha, and the electric scooter brand Gogoro.

Yearly sales fall short of 2024 levels

Between January and November 2025, total scooter sales in Taiwan reached 644,856 units, down from 687,465 units sold during the same period last year. SYM Motor maintained its market dominance with 286,514 units sold, accounting for 44.4% of the total market share. KYMCO and Yamaha ranked second and third with 168,029 units (26.1%) and 112,493 units (17.4%), respectively. Gogoro, which specializes in electric scooters, came in fourth with 25,479 units, representing a 4% market share.

Seasonal trends and model performance shape market dynamics

Industry analysts attribute the November decline to seasonal off-peak trends, with affordable scooter models maintaining steady demand while sales of high-end, trendy scooters showed little growth or slight decreases. Yamaha's seventh-generation Cygnus-X 125cc, which had seen strong sales in its initial launch, experienced a more significant sales slump in November. However, Yamaha anticipates a sales boost with the launch of a new 155cc model expected in December. Despite the monthly dip, the overall market projection for 2025 remains around 705,000 units.

Subsidy shifts create headwinds for electric models

The electric scooter market exhibited particular instability amid shifting government subsidy policies and economic uncertainties impacting consumer behavior. November electric scooter sales totaled 4,120 units, down 10.2% from 4,587 units in October. Gogoro, a leading electric scooter manufacturer, reported a 25.4% reduction in November sales, falling to 2,093 units from 2,806 units the previous month.

Gogoro's Ezzy 500 proved the top-selling model among high-speed electric scooters for the second consecutive month, while the low-speed Ezzy continued as the best-selling electric scooter overall for six months in a row. In October's top ten white-plate electric scooter sales rankings, Gogoro held seven spots, with the Ezzy 500 and Viva Mix models occupying the top two positions.

Policy changes favor traditional scooters

The overall decline in electric scooter sales is attributed partly to recent policy changes that increased financial incentives for fuel-powered scooters under 150cc, including reductions in commodity tax and further benefits linked to trade-in programs. These new subsidies present additional competitive pressure on the electric scooter market. In response, electric scooter brands have implemented aggressive promotions to regain market share but remain concerned about potential setbacks in Taiwan's scooter electrification progress.

As 2025 nears its end, industry observers will closely monitor how electric scooter manufacturers stimulate consumer demand and whether the evolving policy landscape will significantly affect Taiwan's transition toward electrified two-wheelers.

Article edited by Jerry Chen
Ukraine is trying to reach every heart, Volodymyr Zelensky told TDs and senators in the Dail during an address to a joint session of both houses of the Oireactas.

The Ukrainian president did not have to try hard with Labour leader Ivana Bacik, who sported two large glittering hearts pinned to her lapel, one in the colours of the Irish flag and the other the Ukraine flag.

Her yellow and blue outfit was not the only show of sartorial support from those in the chamber and packed into the gallery.

Most on the Government benches sported pins featuring the Irish and Ukrainian flags, while sunflowers, yellow ribbons and a yellow and blue scarf were scattered among the crowd.

Mr Zelensky received a rock star greeting as he entered, hands thrust out from every direction by politicians desperate for a handshake.

He took his seat by the Ceann Comhairle, watched by his wife Olena Zelenska, who sat with with the Taoiseachs wife Mary Martin and Ukrainian dignitaries.

She was described as a model for women worldwide by Verona Murphy in her opening remarks.

Not everyone was as enthusiastic for the Ukrainian leader  People Before Profit TDs Richard Boyd Barrett and Paul Murphy stood but did not join in the repeated ovations.

The partys TDs were criticised for a similar move after his 2022 virtual address to the Dail.

They said it was because they disagreed with Mr Zelenskys calls for Nato involvement in the war and a decision to ban opposition parties in Ukraine.

In a statement issued shortly after Tuesdays speech, Mr Boyd Barrett and Mr Murphy condemned Russia but criticised increased militarisation.

During his speech Mr Zelensky drew parallels between Irish and Ukrainian history, while thanking Ireland for its support.

He said: Our peoples, Ukrainian and Irish, are among the few in Europe who spent centuries fighting for the right to remain themselves.

Ireland has stood firmly and clearly for our independence and for a just end to this war.

The weight of history was returned to time and again during the day, with the Good Friday Agreement, the Second World War and Irelands diaspora referenced in speeches and remarks.

The historic nature of the day was not lost on TDs, several of whom captured photos and videos of Mr Zelenskys speech.

A heavy security operation saw imposing Ukrainian teams bolstered by the Gardas dramatic-looking armoured tactical truck, or battle wagons.

The cavalcade surrounded the Ukrainian president as he travelled to meet his Irish counterpart at Aras an Uachtarain, where he signed the visitors book.

In his message he thanked Catherine Connolly for hosting him, and the people of Ireland for hosting displaced Ukrainians.

It was then on to Government Buildings for engagements including an inspection of a guard of honour of Irish troops, an invitation rarely extended to foreign leaders.

Minister for Transport Darragh OBrien peered from an upper floor window to get a glimpse of proceedings.

They day also included the signing of a five-year road map for the Ukraine-Ireland Partnership, the launch of the Ireland-Ukraine Economic Forum, and a press conference with the countrys two leaders.

Despite a focus on history during the day, Mr Zelenskys comments during the press conference were firmly focused on the future.

He said he hoped Ukraine would become a member of the EU in the next five years, that a tribunal would one day hold Russia legally accountable for its aggression, and that a decent, dignified peace will finally come to his country.
The Dundalk Branch of the Irish Red Cross took home two awards at the Irish Red Cross, National Volunteer Awards 2025 at a ceremony in Croke Park on Saturday.

Isabella Nordon (age 15) was awarded Young Volunteer of the Year 2025 and Ryan Hayes, First Aid & Ambulance Unit Member of the Year 2025.

The event was attended by Irish Red Cross volunteers as well as the organisations Chairman, Charlie Flanagan. Emceed by Deric Hartigan, the popular TV presenter and Ireland AM weather man, the ceremony celebrated the volunteers across the country who give their time and expertise to Irelands humanitarian organisation.

Isabella Nordon, Young Volunteer of the Year 2025 - Isabella has been an active volunteer for 11 years, since the age of four when she joined the Dundalk Irish Red Cross T-Bears, a group of young volunteers aged 4-9.

Isabellas contributions and leadership have far exceeded expectations of a youth member. Isabella has supported the branch in a wide range of activities including fundraising, first aid duty cover, youth classes, emergency responses and youth education.

Isabellas impact was especially evident during Storm Eowyn, when she helped establish the Happy Hub in Carrickmacross - a warm and welcoming mental health and support space for young people affected by power outages.

Ryan Hayes, First Aid & Ambulance Unit Member of the Year - In recognition of his outstanding leadership, strategic vision and success in building a thriving and inclusive unit, Ryan Hayes was awarded Unit Member of the Year 2025.

With 16 years of service across three different branches, Ryans two years in Dundalk have been marked by dramatic growth and professionalisation. Since taking on the Unit Officer role, Ryan has transformed the first aid unit into one of the most active and professional in the region.

He has substantially increased the number of first aid duties covered, expanded patient transfer operations, and secured consistent contracted duties, ensuring fair and thorough coverage of community events.

Speaking at the ceremony, Charlie Flanagan, Chairman, Irish Red Cross, said, Today is a really special day in the Irish Red Cross calendar. Our National Volunteer Awards is an opportunity to recognise the selfless commitment of our volunteers, all of whom deserve our gratitude and appreciation for everything they do in their communities.

"These are the first aiders who stand pitch side in all weather, these are the volunteer therapists who give hand therapy massages to residents in nursing homes, these are the community supporters who deliver essential supplies to those cut off due to storms, and extend a warm welcome to migrants fleeing war. They are the beating heart of the Irish Red Cross and the very best of us.

Charlie congratulated Isabella and Ryan on their award wins. Your commitment to volunteering, and supporting those most in need in your community is exceptional. Thank you sincerely for using your time and talents to make your locality a better, kinder place. You are a wonderful inspiration to all of us, and you truly deserve this recognition.

Liam Maguire, Chair, Irish Red Cross Volunteer Support and Development Working Group said, Congratulations to all our volunteer winners and our shortlisted volunteers.

"Today demonstrates how all Irish Red Cross volunteers go above and beyond the call of duty for their community. I want to thank all our volunteers across the country for their quiet but effective volunteering which has such a positive impact on their communities."
The local community is being asked by the Marine Institute, the State agency responsible for marine research, technology development and innovation in Ireland, to take part in a bird tagging and monitoring initiative in Dundalk Bay.

Every winter, tens of thousands of birds travel all the way from northern Europe to Dundalk Bay. Birds, like the oystercatcher, are an iconic part of our shoreline, and they are also early warning indicators of the Bays health.

Because they migrate long distances and rely on very specific habitats, even small changes in Dundalk Bays environment show up in their behaviour and numbers.

Dundalk Bay is a Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protected Area under EU law.

Its mudflats, salt marshes and eelgrass beds support rich marine life, including shellfish, worms and small crabs, which in turn feed wintering waterbirds and support local shellfisheries such as cockles.

Read also: Plans underway for 1,058 new homes beside Cu Chulainns Castle in Dundalk

Right now, scientists from the Marine Institute are studying how oystercatchers use the Bay and how their feeding overlaps with the cockle fishery.

This research will help protect vital food sources for wildlife while supporting sustainable shellfishing for local communities.

To do this, the researchers from the Marine Institutes Fisheries Ecosystems Advisory Services (FEAS) have fitted lightweight GPS trackers to 25 oystercatchers and added colour rings to another 50 birds.

The trackers show, hour by hour, how these birds move across the Bay, but the colour rings depend on people spotting and reporting them.

The Marine Institute is inviting local residents to get involved. If you see an oystercatcher with a coloured leg ring, please log your sighting on the European Colour-ring Birding platform, https://cr-birding.org/, or email Natasha Murphy, Scientific Technical Officer at the Marine Institute: natasha.murphy@marine.ie.

Every report helps build the scientific picture needed to protect Dundalk Bay and local livelihoods.
Louth County Councils Civic Offices in Drogheda is now home to Empower Her, an exhibition that honours trailblazing women from across Ireland, with four of them hailing from the town itself!

Created by Drogheda native Linda Hanlon, a retired psychotherapist and now photographer, Empower Her is a collection of portraits and stories of 54 women who have shattered glass ceilings and inspired change. It was officially opened on the 1st December by Cllr Michelle Hall, the Mayor of Drogheda, and will run until January 2026.

Originally launched at the Central Bank of Ireland in 2024, the exhibition features portraits of 54 women of Ireland who have each broken through personal barriers and professional glass ceilings and made significant contributions in their respective fields.

The participants hail from all corners of the country, representing a diverse cross-section of society and range in age from 19 to 95 years. Among those featured in the exhibition are Dr Linda Doyle, Provost, Trinity College Dublin; Mairead McGuinness, EU Commissioner and former MEP; Zainab Boladale, Journalist and Presenter; Prof Lydia Lynch, Immunologist, Harvard University; Commander Roberta OBrien, first woman to command an Irish Naval Ship; Ann Doherty, Chief Executive, Cork City Council; and Frances Fitzgerald, former Tanaiste, Minister, TD, Senator and MEP.

Read also: Dundalk Branch of the Irish Red Cross takes home two national awards

The exhibition also features four Drogheda women: Natalie Kelly, Deirdre Gogarty, Senator Alison Comyn and Joanna Byrne TD. Each portrait is accompanied by a personal quote offering advice to their younger selves, alongside key milestones in Irish womens rights from 1922 to 2018.

Speaking at the opening of the exhibition, Cllr Michelle Hall, the Mayor of Drogheda, said: "It is a privilege to welcome Empower Her to Drogheda, particularly as its creator, Linda Hanlon, is one of our own.

"This exhibition feels like a homecoming, and the inclusion of four portraits of Drogheda women adds a deeply personal and local significance. Its a celebration of achievement that resonates strongly within our community."

Moya Hodgers, Arts Officer with Louth County Council, added: "One of the core roles of the Councils Arts Office is to make art accessible to everyone in our community.

"Exhibitions like Empower Her spark conversations, inspire future generations, and bring important stories into public spaces where they can be experienced by all. I encourage everyone to take the time to visit this exhibition and be inspired by the incredible women whose portraits and words are on display."

Louth County Council is urging people not to miss this opportunity to experience an exhibition that celebrates courage, ambition, and progress. Visit Empower Her at the Civic Offices in Fair Street, Drogheda, until the 9th January 2026. Admission is free, and no booking is necessary.
Clogherhead RNLI responded to a Mayday on the evening of Saturday 29 November, after a fishing vessel with two people onboard began to sink south of the Drogheda Bar, within two miles of the shore.

The all-weather Shannon class lifeboat was requested by the Irish Coast Guard at 4.43pm and launched immediately under Coxswain Gerald Sharkey, with mechanic Kevin ORourke and crew members Tomas Whelahan, Barry Sharkey, and Barbara Kirk.

The lifeboat arrived on scene at 5.12pm to find that a nearby vessel had already rescued the two fishermen from the water. The Coast Guard confirmed that the men were in good condition, and Clogherhead RNLI proceeded to escort the vessel to Port Oriel, where the casualties were handed over to ambulance personnel for medical assessment.

Once the rescue was complete, the Michael OBrien was returned to Clogherhead lifeboat station, where it was readied for its next service. The shore crew, who played vital roles in both the launch and recovery, included Brian Boylan, Ray Butterly, Eve Robinson, Shane Doherty, James Kirk, and Andy McDonald.

Read also: Dundalk Bay bird tagging initiative seeks community involvement

Speaking after the call out, Clogherhead RNLI Coxswain Gerald Sharkey said: 'It was fortunate for these two casualties that another vessel was in the area when their boat sank and that they were able to be taken on board so quickly.

'Wed like to remind all members of the fishing community to ensure their vessels are well maintained and fully fuelled, and that every crew member has a serviced lifejacket or flotation aid. Carrying an EPIRB or other emergency communication device is essential. Should you get into difficulty, or witness someone in danger, dial 999 or 112 and ask for the Coast Guard.'
A convicted murderer who was unlawfully at large from prison for nine months has been ordered back into custody to serve the remainder of his sentence.

James Meehan, 56, failed to return to Magilligan Prison in Co Derry after being out on day release on December 9 2024.

Meehan was convicted in 2009 of murdering Jim McFadden, a father of four from Derry.

Mr McFadden died after being attacked outside his home in 2007 after he had attended a wedding reception in Co Donegal.

Meehan was arrested by gardai in the Republic of Ireland in September this year.

He was extradited back to Northern Ireland on Tuesday and was brought to Ballymena Magistrates Court where he appeared before district judge Nigel Broderick.

The judge was told that Meehan is set to face prosecution for an offence of being unlawfully at large.

He issued a warrant of committal to return Meehan to Magilligan Prison to serve the remainder of his sentence.

The prosecution, in all likelihood, will issue a summons in respect of any further alleged criminal offence, the judge added.

A solicitor for Meehan did not raise objections to the warrant of committal.
The last thing I remember is I got out of the water, and I was talking to a man who was walking his dog, I was rubbing the dog, and theres nothing after that.

Dinnie Kiely has been a volunteer with Cork Missing Persons Search and Recovery (CMPSAR) since its inception 25 years ago, and in that time he has helped bring peace to hundreds of families grieving missing persons.

On Tuesday, August 19, he was out with his fellow volunteers, searching the banks of the Lee at the request of the gardai, looking for the telephone of a missing person who had been found deceased.

We eventually found the phone, and I got out of the water, and rubbing the dog is the last thing I remember, he says, talking to The Echo in his home in The Glen.

I was after having a heart attack there at the back of the jeep and I collapsed into the ditch. The lads saw me collapsing and they came straight over to me and performed CPR [cardio-pulmonary resuscitation] on me.

They called an ambulance as well, and the first responders arrived before the ambulance, they were from West Cork, they were brilliant.

Mr Kiely collapsed, having suffered a sudden cardiac arrest and an aneurysm, which left him clinically dead for around four minutes. He doesnt remember, but the ambulance crew had to apply a defibrillator to him as they rushed him to Cork University Hospital (CUH), where he would remain in a coma for three weeks.

They brought me out of the coma then because they couldnt address the aneurysm because of the heart attack. They were going back and forth, and they tried one medication and I went downhill straight away.

Every time theyd do one thing, it would affect the brain aneurysm, and they couldnt give me blood thinners because of the bleed, and I ended up with a load of blood clots in my lungs then. I got pneumonia then.

They called the priest to anoint me, and they called the family over twice because they thought I only had a couple of hours.

Eventually then they stopped giving me something, and then, suddenly, bang, I was up then, and they were able to do the operation then on my brain. That was about seven hours.

He remembers experiencing horrific nightmares during the coma.

I could see myself on the stretcher, there was these two nurses trying to save me and there was all these people trying to take my life, trying to kill me.

I was putting them down to the Grim Reaper, and I was saying youre not getting me. The doctor said to my family one day that I was fierce agitated, that I was pointing invisible guns at people.

It was the worst experience ever, and the longest experience too. It was horrible.

His first real waking memory is after that operation, he says.

I remember waking up and the family was there, all around me, and I started crying.

Recovery

The Bakers Rd native remained in hospital until the end of September, missing out on his 60th birthday, before he could return to his home in The Glen, and his two children and his partner Teresa.

Almost four months on from that day by the river, he is facing a long road to full recovery, taking walks around The Glen that once would not have cost him a thought but now leave him exhausted.

As well as spending three weeks in a coma, he also lost two weeks' worth of memory as a result of the accident.

"I lost a load of my memory. I can't remember two weeks before what happened me.

"I can't remember a thing for two weeks. I can remember the dog, isn't that weird? That man called up to see me, the man with the dog. Wasn't that nice of him?"

He says he will always be grateful to everyone who saved his life.

"I have to thank the lads, of course, and the first responders and the ambulance crew.

"I have to say a special thanks to everyone in the Regional [CUH] intensive care unit, they were outstanding.

"I remember nights when I was burning up and they were all around me, sponging me down, I had the ice blanket on me and I couldn't hack the heat at all.

"A lot of them were student nurses from India and I'm telling ya, they were absolutely brilliant, they were outstanding, I couldn't praise them enough.

"I can't get it out of my head what they done for me."

He says he cant wait to get back to volunteering with CMPSAR.

The boredom is f**king killing me. Its really getting to me, he says with a guffaw.

Looking back at the day he collapsed, he thinks about his friends performing CPR on him by the riverside till help arrived.

That was the best days work we ever did, learning CPR, were training every single Wednesday night as first responders, working on different scenarios, and with all that training it was the boys who kept me alive.

In a quarter of a century of volunteering, he has helped to bring peace to many grieving families.

I like that, knowing that you helped give people a bit of peace. I dont like saying closure, I dont like that word. Theres no closure when you lose someone. You never get over that. You wouldnt want to. But I like the idea that you might get a small bit of peace.

Fundraising

This Saturday, December 6, The Harp Bar in Ballyphehane will host a waxathon, in which five brave locals will undergo a waxing by local beautician Laura Ahern from Salon 221, to raise funds to help Mr Kiely in his recovery.

He reacts to that with characteristic shyness and succinctness.

Im f**king mortified, he says, laughing again.

Aine McLaughlin, owner of The Harp Bar, has organised many fundraisers for CCMPSAR, having lost her brother in 2007, and this year alone she has raised 5,000 for the charity.

She told The Echo she was hoping to raise at least 1,000 to help Mr Kiely on his long road.

Mr Kielys friend Chris ODonovan, who is CCMPSAR search co-ordinator, said Mr Kiely was a decent and compassionate man who had given 25 years as a volunteer with the charity.

All his life, Dinnie has always put other people first, hes never asked for anything, so were asking for him, were asking people to give a few bob to help him, he said.
Coffee shops across Cork city were abuzz as the Cork Business Associations (CBA) Coffee House Lates campaign created a gorgeous atmosphere.

The two-day campaign, which saw dozens of daytime coffee shops, cafes, and restaurants across Cork city extend their opening hours on Thursday and Friday, was first trialled among city venues last year.

The initiative showcases Corks coffee culture, attracts new customers to city businesses, tests the night-time market, and strengthens the sense of community for people seeking a fresh, alternative night out in Cork.

Highlights from this years programme of events included a jazz night at Nadur Deli that spread out to the Nano Nagle Place courtyard; the launch of an inspiring art exhibition by Silvo Severino at Filter; a Knit Night with Stolen Stitches at Greenwich Cafe, and a choral performance by Cor Blath Oraiste, with warm drinks at The Lee Cafe.

Aaron Mansworth, president of the CBA, said this years campaign was a fantastic showcase of Corks vibrant coffee-and-tea scene, and shows how we can attract different people into our city.

We are delighted to partner with Cork City Council on Coffee House Lates, a Cork night-time economy initiative,

said Mr Mansworth.

Its a testament to whats possible when we work together to expand our evening economy.

Clare Condon, of Nadur Deli, said she loves the concept of Coffee House Lates. We were blown away by the turnout to our event at Nadur Deli on the plaza of Nano Nagle Place.

There was such a buzz, and guests were loving the whole experience of food, drinks, jazz, and shopping in the outdoors with sparkling festive lights, said Ms Condon.

It was a gorgeous atmosphere. Coffee House Lates is a great initiative, and its clear that people are looking for unique experiences in the evening.

Its certainly something we would like to do more of.

Fiona Collins, Cork City Councils night-time economy advisor, said the response to the campaign has been phenomenal.

The events highlighted the potential for Cork to embrace a more diverse evening scene, said Ms Collins.

We hope businesses will continue exploring extended hours to meet this demand.
Seven river projects across Co Cork are to benefit from State funding as part of Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) plans to remove weirs, dams, and other barriers.

The projects are among 103 such schemes around the country which will receive funding from a 13.6m investment by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

That investment aims, the department said, to restore free flowing rivers by addressing physical barriers such as dams and weirs impacting our waterways.

Funding recipients include State bodies and local authorities.

In Cork, the projects identified for funding are: Clondulane Weir, Glashaboy Weir, Ovens bridge, on the Bride river, two weirs in Doneraile, the Araglin bridge apron, and the Bride river bridge apron.

WEIR

Clondulane Weir is downstream on the Blackwater river from Fermoy Weir, which is a listed, protected monument situated in the heart of the town, and the property of Cork County Council.

Local activists in Fermoy have, for almost two decades, fought against IFI in an effort to retain the badly damaged weir.

Costings for the long-delayed repair of the weir, complicated by IFI demands that they must be accompanied by the building of a separate fish pass to run alongside the river, came in last August at an estimated 5.5m.

Fermoy Weir is not included among the projects to receive funding.

In a press release accompanying the announcement of the 13.6m investment in Department of Housing funding, IFI said its barrier mitigation division was working to improve fish migration by identifying and addressing barriers such as weirs, culverts, sluices, bridges or dams that obstruct natural water flow and fish movement in rivers, lakes, and streams.

A second round of funding is planned toward the end of 2025, IFI said.
Its the most sugar-fuelled night of the year, and this Friday a talented group of young, traditional Co Cork musicians will strike a high note on The Late Late Toy Show.

The members of the Ballinspittle Comhaltas U12 ceili band are already All-Ireland champions and now they are set to shine on the national stage for one of the most viewed shows of the year.

Their upcoming performance promises to bring a burst of youthful energy to the Toy Show stage.

The band features Ava ODonoghue and Shannon Galvin on flute, Conor ORiordain, Grace Kennedy, and Alannah Walsh on fiddle, Siofra OSullivan on concertina, Ellie Kennedy on button accordion, Diarmuid OSullivan on ceili drums, Muirne Collins on piano and harp, and Aaronn OSullivan on banjo.

Diarmuid Ward and Aine Teape, the bands dedicated music teachers, said they were proud of what the young musicians have already achieved.

Their commitment, teamwork, and love for traditional Irish music have been inspiring to witness and support, they said.

This opportunity is a testament to their hard work and passion.

The Late Late Toy Show will air on Friday, December 5, at 9:35 pm on RTE One and RTE Player.

For the first time on RTE, audio description will be available live during The Late Late Toy Show. Live Irish Sign Language (ISL) interpretation will be available on the RTE News Channel and on RTE Player.

The show will also be repeated on RTE One on Sunday, December 7, at 3.10pm with audio description.
A teenager who was caught with a 4,300 stash of cannabis for sale, together with 5,000 in cash, at his home in Douglas over four years ago, has been given a one-year suspended jail sentence.

Nikoden Jakubowska of Hollyville, Grange, Douglas, Cork, appeared at Cork Circuit Criminal Court where he pleaded guilty to the charges against him.

He admitted having cannabis for sale or supply at his home on May 4 2021 and on the same date he had more than 5,000 in cash, the proceeds of criminal conduct.

Garda Kenneth Lawton brought the charges against him.

Barrister Paula McCarthy said of the accused:

He was using a good deal of cannabis at the time. He has not come to adverse attention prior to this or since. He was 19 at the time and is 23 now.

He was fully co-operative with the investigation. This seems to have been an aberration.

Judge Sinead Behan imposed a total sentence of one year, which she suspended.
PepsiCo has confirmed a number of job losses at its Cork-based plants.

While a spokesperson for the company has not revealed the number of roles that are due to be cut, it is understood that impacted employees across its Carrigaline and Little Island locations have been informed of the decision in recent days.

Speaking to The Echo, a spokesperson for the company said that the losses come as part of an ongoing business transformation.

PepsiCo is proposing some limited organisational changes at its Cork business as part of an ongoing business transformation to position the company for efficiency and growth, the spokesperson said.

The company is working closely with employees who were impacted, ensuring they are fully supported and kept informed throughout this process.

Ireland remains a strategically important location for PepsiCo, and the company remains committed to maintaining a strong presence here.

PepsiCo has been operating in Cork since 1974, with its two bases across Carrigaline and Little Island staffed by up to 1,250 people.

The organisations global manufacturing operations is headquartered at the Little Island plant, which services the companys global customer base.

The food and beverage company's product portfolio includes Pepsi Cola, Lay's, Doritos, Cheetos, Gatorade, Mountain Dew and SodaStream.
Drugs unit gardai intercepted a car arriving in Cork city with a consignment of heroin and crack cocaine and the driver who did not cooperate with the investigation was jailed for eight years.

The 28-year-old man was sentenced for dealing heroin and crack cocaine in Cork city.

Judge Dermot Sheehan imposed a sentence of ten years with the last two years suspended at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

The most serious charge brought by Detective Garda Linda OKeeffe against Osarodion Alex Aghafekohian of Morans Terrace, Drogheda, County Louth, states that on March 31 2023 at Redemption Road, Cork, he had diamorphine at a time when its street value exceeded 13,000.

That is the threshold figure for a ten-year minimum sentence unless the judge finds there are exceptional circumstances.

The accused man pleaded guilty to that charge in respect of heroin when he was arraigned at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

He also admitted having cocaine for sale or supply to others on the same date.

Defence senior counsel Tom Creed said the 28-year-old had no previous convictions but that at the time of the offences more than two years ago he did have difficulties with drugs.

He stressed the plea of guilty entered by the accused which saved the state the time and expense of a trial by judge and jury.

BMW

Detective Garda OKeeffe testified that on March 31 2023, gardai from the divisional drugs unit of Cork city received confidential information that a white BMW 320 was travelling to Cork city to deliver a quantity of diamorphine and crack cocaine.

After 6pm this car was observed on Redemption Rd Cork with the male driver and one male front seat passenger. I moved to intercept this vehicle on Redemption Road and pulled an unmarked patrol car in front and facing directly at the white BMW with the blue lights and sirens activated.

The front seat passenger picked up a clear plastic bag and exited the BMW, attempting to run away with the drugs. He was apprehended by Gardai. The driver was Osarodion Aghafekohian, Det Garda OKeeffe said.

The package contained of 433g of Diamorphine (heroin) with a street value of 60,642, together with 103g of crack cocaine with a 7,252 street value.

The driver was arrested at 6.25pm that day on Redemption Rd and conveyed to Gurranabraher Garda Station where he was interviewed on three occasions.

In all of these interviews he was un-cooperative with Gardai and attempted to distance himself from the incident, Det Garda OKeeffe said.

When his phone was forensically analysed it contained tick lists and location data, including eircodes of known drug users.

He showed no remorse for his action. He was not an addict and alleged he received 350 for doing this. He refused to comment about doing this on any previous occasions, the detective said.
Its December, so its officially safe to talk about Christmas.

I have already witnessed trolleys teetering with towers of toys departing Smyths. Piles of plastic distraction, presumably heading into homes with entire wings as playrooms.

I simply cant fathom how all this stuff fits into ordinary houses. It is the true miracle of Christmas.

Most of us struggle to keep on top of all the possessions that accrue with living, and the thought of more stuff coming into my home at this time of year makes my neck itch!

But Im not a total grinch and realise that this is the season of gifting and some shopping will have to happen between now and the 25th

So, what are the best presents for people who really dont need them, and can we give something meaningful that will be joyfully unwrapped on Christmas morning without breaking the bank and the planet?

My goal for Christmas shopping is to find something for the people I love that they will appreciate, and applying the dual rule of buying local and avoiding plastic whittles down the endless choices nicely.

Vouchers are a popular fallback for those wary of bestowing an unwanted gift. No-one wants their recipient to think, Jeez, thanks, great just what I always never wanted and a voucher is a safe option.

But before you resign yourself to a generic gift card, just remember the company that sells One4All gift cards in Ireland reported a profit of 5.8 million last year with much of its revenue coming from inactive balances and other administration fees.

Imagine what that kind of unused money could do for small local businesses, cafes or restaurants instead!

Because Im someone who would squeal at a pair of 100% wool socks and the priceless promise of warm feet in winter, and I recognise that not everyone has such basic desires, I asked my most discerning friends for their top local-supporting, non-plastic, beautiful gift recommendations.

Ahemthis is also a handy list for any of my loved ones who might be reading!

Experiences

Theres nothing better to get you through the dark months of deep winter than having something pleasant to look forward to. For the kids, grandkids, and godkids in your life, consider the gift of a fun activity rather than a toy this year.

In our house, tickets for the panto are a generous and much-appreciated annual present for the whole family.

Vouchers for the cinema, Awesome Walls, Airtastic, Leisureworld (the waterslide in Churchfield swimming pool is great fun) or Zipit are all guaranteed to light up small faces on Christmas morning.

For the adults in your life, think about what they might like to do rather than what they might like to have.

Classes for something they like or have been meaning to try - yoga, painting, photography, Irish classes or woodwork?

Or how about a voucher for a massage or a facial - something to undo the stresses of the festive season at a later date.

Or a GAA season ticket for the sports-mad fan who will be grateful, depending on the scoreline, for your gift throughout 2026.

Another, less adrenaline-fuelled but equally valuable way to support independent media is a subscription for a magazine or newspaper. You could arrange to get anything from National Geographic to The Echo delivered to their door.

Local crafts, food, drink

A calendar from West Corks Kilcoe Studios is a lovely year-long gift that celebrates the beauty of native Irish plants.

Kinsales Wizard & Grace candles are made with rapeseed, coconut wax and 100% essential oils and no synthetic fragrances or ingredients.

Sawframed is a Cork craft business making handcrafted sterling silver jewellery - the adorable pendant necklace featuring a ball of wool with knitting needles would be ideal for any knitter in your life.

Future Forests in Kealkill is one of the most pleasant corners of the county, filled with beautiful trees and plants, and a delicious cafe with excellent grub. A plant, tree or voucher from there would be a splendid gift for your green-fingered friends.

Gifts for good

It can feel crass and indulgent to be talking about presents when we are all acutely aware that so many people are not experiencing the magic of Christmas.

There are so many ways your hard-earned euros can be spent productively for charity.

Irish card company Bold Bunny is selling colourful All I Want for Christmas is a Free Palestine Christmas cards, and Pickled PomPom, a small Irish design studio, is selling Palestinian keffiyeh-inspired prints - both companies are donating profits to Palestinian charities.

In Cork, there are a number of businesses who are selling products with profits going direct to Palestinian charities. Azure Jewellery on Georges Quay (and online) is selling beautiful sterling silver watermelon studs, and Izz Cafe, also on Georges Quay and online, has Save Handala t-shirts for sale.

Handala has been a powerful cartoon icon and symbol of Palestinian resilience since 1969 and all profits from these t-shirts are going to grassroots charity Gaza Go Bragh.

Another charitable gesture that caught my attention was from West Cork jam company Follain, which is donating 50% of the proceeds of all its online sales to the Simon Communities of Ireland from November 1 to December 31 to help end homelessness.

They offer a 12 days of Christmas preserves box filled with miniature jams ranging from passion fruit curd to Christmas spiced marmalade. It could be a lovely gift to someone sweet-toothed in your life.

Irish consumers spend more than 8 billion in December, so its well worth thinking about where your money goes this month.

Dont give it to the multi-million-euro chains - give it to the people who will appreciate it the most!
James Cox

Former president Michael D Higgins has said his dog Misneach is "settling in very well into his new Galway home" as he shared a snap of his post-presidential life.

Mr Higgins served two terms as President of Ireland and his Bernese Mountain Dogs caught the hearts of the nation and even made international news.

Brod and Sioda have sadly passed away but Misneach was with Mr Higgins and his wife Sabina as they departed Aras an Uachtarain.

In a heartwarming moment, members of the public brought their own Bernese Mountain Dogs to form a guard of honour as Mr Higgins departed the presidential residence.

In a post on Instagram, Mr Higgins shared a photo of himself with Misneach in their new home in his native Galway, captioned: "Misneach settling in very well into his new Galway home and looking forward to meeting with old friends and new. Casann an roth!"

Mr Higgins' successor, President Catherine Connolly, had her first major engagement today as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy made an official visit to Aras an Uachtarain.
Isabel Hayes and Fiona Ferguson

A young man who embarked on a string of knifepoint robberies across south Dublin, targeting teenage boys for their mobile phones and bank cards, has been jailed for seven years.

Alex Onuh (20) pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to 15 counts of robbery and four counts of attempted robbery on various dates between November 2023 and September 2024. The court heard he targeted teenage boys, sometimes alone but often as part of a gang.

Onuh, of Woodford Drive, Clondalkin, was recognised by gardai after he wore the same distinctive jacket during most of the attacks  a Moncler coat with the 'authentic' Moncler label still attached to the zip, the court heard. He has no previous convictions.

A number of victims in the case were threatened with a knife or told that they would be slashed if they did not hand over their mobiles. They were almost all made to reset their phone to factory settings so it could be sold online.

The majority of offences took place in Rathfarnham, Ballyboden, Ballycullen, Knocklyon, Ballinteer and Dundrum, with one incident also taking place in Coolock on the north side of the city, a number of garda witnesses told Joe Mulrean BL, prosecuting.

Video footage

In one attempted robbery incident on September 28th, 2024, a vulnerable teenager (17) was chased from a bus to his home by Onuh and a gang of other youths. He was kicked and assaulted as he lay on the ground before he managed to escape. Video footage of the young man screaming for his mother, which was captured on his home camera doorbell, was played in court.

This victim, who had previously suffered an acute brain injury and has additional needs, was left extremely shaken after the attack, the court heard.

On an occasion on November 22nd, 2023 at Ballinteer Road, Dundrum, two boys aged 15 and 16 were detained for a number of minutes by Onuh and another young man. They were forced to hand over their mobiles, told their faces would be slashed and made to reset their phones to factory settings.

A few days later at an address in Ballinteer, Onuh and the same co-accused used a similar modus operandi to rob three other teenagers, aged 16 and 17, of their mobiles. In this incident, the victims were followed off a bus and one of them had a flick knife pushed against his face, the court heard.

In another incident in Ballinteer on January 5th, 2024, a 17-year-old teenager had his mobile phone and bank card stolen by Onuh, who was alone on this occasion. The teenager recognised Onuh from the general area.

He was forced by Onuh to go to a number of ATMs under duress until he had withdrawn 250 and he was then made to transfer a further 1,000 to Onuh. Gardai arrested Onuh a few days later and interviewed him before he was released.

A further eight teenagers had their mobile phones stolen in similar circumstances, while one had his imitation Canada Goose jacket stolen. A further three were the victims of attempted robbery when Onuh, again operating on his own, tried to rob three teenagers who managed to run away.

Onuh was arrested by gardai a number of times during the offending period. A number of the stolen phones were found to have been sold on an online second-hand mobile phone site.

Diana Stuart SC, defending, said Onuh's family was originally from Nigeria and lived in the Netherlands before coming to Ireland, where he was homeless for a lengthy period as a child. Growing up in poverty, he was relentlessly bullied and racially abused, Ms Stuart said.

His mother has a consistent work history and worked hard to support the family, who eventually got their own home when Onuh was about 14. However, he got involved in a negative peer group and started robbing in order to get more money, defence counsel said. Effectively, the bullied became the bully, Ms Stuart said.

Sentence

Passing sentence, Judge Elma Sheahan said Onuh's offending demonstrated pre-planning, pre-meditation and was repetitive. She said the injured parties had been threatened, some with severe violence and some with a slash knife.

She said the offences demonstrated a lack of regard for the community at large and all those affected by the offending. She said the focus and attention brought to the case by the investigating gardai was impressive and to be commended.

Judge Sheahan said Onuh had played a leading role in at least one offence, noting a distressed young victim had been kicked om the ground outside his own home and followed to his front door while being threatened by Onuh, as he called for help from his mother inside.

In mitigation, she took into account Onuhs unsettled childhood, his pro-social family and lack of prior convictions. She also noted his early guilty pleas and that he has not come to further garda attention.

Judge Sheahan imposed consecutive sentences totalling eight years and suspended the final year on strict conditions. She said she hoped he would use his time in custody to rehabilitate, noting he would undoubtedly need support upon his release from custody.
CHONGQING, CHINA - SEPTEMBER 9: The Apple logo is illuminated at a retail store on September 9, 2025, in Chongqing, China. Apple is set to unveil its new products, including the iPhone 17 lineup, Apple Watch Series 11, and AirPods Pro 3, during its Awe Dropping launch event scheduled for September 10, 2025, Beijing time. (Photo by Cheng Xin/Getty Images)

CHONGQING, CHINA - SEPTEMBER 9: The Apple logo is illuminated at a retail store on September 9, 2025, in Chongqing, China. Apple is set to unveil its new products, including the iPhone 17 lineup, Apple Watch Series 11, and AirPods Pro 3, during its Awe Dropping launch event scheduled for September 10, 2025, Beijing time. (Photo by Cheng Xin/Getty Images) (Cheng Xin via Getty Images)

Apple has tapped AI researcher Amar Subramanya, a longtime Google exec who was most recently corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft, as its new VP of AI. The company also announced that current AI exec, John Giannandrea, will retire in 2026.

Subramanya, who Apple describes as a "renowned AI researcher," spent 16 years at Google, where he was head of engineering for Gemini. He left Google earlier this year for Microsoft. In a press release, Apple said that Subramanya will report to Craig Federighi and will "be leading critical areas, including Apple Foundation Models, ML research, and AI Safety and Evaluation."

It's not entirely surprising that Apple is shaking up its AI leadership. Giannandrea joined Apple in 2018 after a stint at Google that included VP of search. While his hiring was seen as a major coup for Apple at the time, the company has faced some significant setbacks since. Most notably, its failure to deliver a more personalized, AI-centric version of Siri that it previewed last year. Giannandrea, who oversaw Siri for years, has shouldered much of the blame for the delays. Bloomberg reported earlier this year that Apple CEO Tim Cook had "lost confidence in the ability of AI head John Giannandrea to execute on product development" and put other executives in charge of Siri instead.

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In a statement, Cook said he was "thankful" for Giannandrea's contributions to the company and credited Federighi with pushing the revamped Siri forward. "In addition to growing his leadership team and AI responsibilities with Amars joining, Craig has been instrumental in driving our AI efforts, including overseeing our work to bring a more personalized Siri to users next year.




Update December 3 2025, 10:43am ET: India has withdrawn its mandate requesting manufacturers to install the Sanchar Saathi app, according to reporting from Reuters. The text below has been left unaltered.

India has issued a mandate to all smartphone manufacturers and importers requiring them to install a state-owned cyber security app. But Apple is reportedly not going to comply, citing privacy and security concerns, according to Reuters.

The app, called Sanchar Saathi (meaning Communication Companion), is supposed to expedite the process of finding lost or stolen devices and stopping their misuse, according to a government press release on Monday. It further states that companies, including the likes of Samsung and Xiaomi, should "endeavor" to use software updates to download the app on previously purchased smartphones.

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The Sanchar Saathi app comes alongside an entire website designed for reporting fraudulent communication and tracking missing phones. However, critics worry that the app is a means for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to gain access to every smartphone in India.

The messages coming out of the Indian government have been mixed so far. In Monday's public announcement, it said companies must comply within 90 days and submit a report within 120 days. It also states that the app should be "readily visible and accessible to the end users at the time of first use or device setup and that its functionalities are not disabled or restricted."

Yet, today, India's Union Communications Minister Shri Jyotiraditya Scindia stated that the app is "completely democratic and fully voluntary." He added that users can deactivate or delete it "at any time."

At the same time, industry sources told Reuters that Apple will not comply with preinstalling the app. Whether that pushback lasts remains to be seen  Apple has bowed to government mandates in the past. Recently, it removed two of China's biggest LGBTQ+ dating apps, following orders from the country's internet regulator and censor.
You can tell a lot about a company by what they're willing to sue over. Take Instacart, which just filed a lawsuit against New York City. Its beef? The company doesn't like five new city laws, set to take effect in January. They would require Instacart to pay workers more and give customers a tipping option of at least 10 percent.

Reuters reports that Instacart's suit targets Local Law 124, which mandates that grocery delivery workers receive the same minimum pay as restaurant delivery workers. It also challenged Local Law 107, which mandates 10 percent or higher tipping options (or a place to enter one manually). The lawsuit also takes aim at other laws requiring extra recordkeeping and disclosures. The new rules are set to take effect on January 26.

As is typical of companies griping about regulations that hurt their bottom lines, Instacart framed the issue as a noble fight for what's right. "When a law threatens to harm shoppers, consumers, and local grocers  and especially when it does so unlawfully  we have a responsibility to act," the company proclaimed in a blog post. "This legal challenge is about standing up for fairness, for the independence that tens of thousands of New York grocery delivery workers rely on and for affordable access to groceries for the people who need it most."

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Instacart's suit reportedly claims that Congress banned state and local governments from regulating prices on platforms such as its own. It also alleges that New York's state legislature "has long taken charge" of minimum pay, and that the US Constitution doesn't allow states and cities to discriminate against out-of-state companies.

The company warns that everyone will lose if it's forced to comply. Should the laws take effect, "Instacart will be forced to restructure its platform, restrict shoppers' access to work, disrupt relationships with consumers and retailers and suffer constitutional injuries with no adequate legal remedy," it claimed in the filing.

Instacart CEO Chris Rogers, elevated to the post in May, has an estimated net worth of at least $28.6 million. His predecessor, Fidji Simo, who chairs the board and is now with OpenAI, is reportedly worth around $72.7 million. If NYCs minimum pay laws will be as catastrophic as Instacart claims, maybe they could chip in to help.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has opened an investigation into online fast fashion retailer Shein. The probe will examine whether the company violated state laws related to labor practices and product safety. According to a release, Paxton's office wants to know if Shein uses toxic or hazardous materials and whether it misleads consumers about product safety and ethical sourcing. The Texas investigation will also look into privacy concerns and data collection at Shein, which isn't the first time those topics have arisen for the business.

Shein also drew criticism last month after a French consumer protection watchdog discovered illegal weapons and childlike sex dolls available on its website. France is now taking steps to suspend Shein's business in the country. Last year, the US government also seemed ready to take action against Shein and fellow low-cost retailer Temu over issues of product safety.
Samsung has unveiled its newest smartphone, and it's the highly-anticipated Galaxy Z TriFold. During an interview in July, a Samsung exec confirmed that the company was working on a three-panel phone that it aimed to release by the end of the year. The company said it expects the phone to be available for purchase in Korea on December 12, with markets including China, Taiwan, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. For US shoppers, the TriFold will be available in the first quarter of 2026, but no specific date has been revealed yet.

The phone has an inward-folding design intended to protect the main display. If it has been folded incorrectly, the device will automatically vibrate and show an on-screen alert to notify its user. When fully extended, the TriFold has a 10-inch screen and the cover screen is 6.5 inches when folded up. It is 3.9mm at its thinnest point when unfolded and then 12.9mm while collapsed.

To give that some context, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is a traditional foldable that also has a 6.5-inch exterior screen and an internal display that opens to 8 inches wide diagonally. It has a profile of 8.9mm when folded and weighs 215 grams compared with the TriFold's 309 grams. With its two-hinge form, the TriFold makes it so you have basically a ten-inch tablet that folds down to a slightly heftier version of the Z Fold 7.

A side view of the Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold showing its thickness in the unfolded state (Samsung)

Foldables introduce some additional design demands, and Samsung said that the screen panels meet with minimal gap but no actual contact when they are closed. The hinges have been designed to resist wear and the screen received a new reinforced overcoat to improve resistance.

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The phone runs on a custom Snapdragon 8 chip. It has a 5,600mAh three-cell battery system and offers 45W super-fast charging. The rear camera lineup includes a 12MP ultra-wide lens, a 200MP wide-angle lens and a 10MP telephoto lens, which is identical to the setup on the Z Fold 7. The main screen and the cover screen both have 10MP front cameras.

No pricing information is currently available, but it seems like a safe assumption that this will be expensive. The Z Fold 7 starts at $2,000, so expect to pay a premium for that second hinge.
Todd Tucker has taken a major step in his divorce from "Real Housewives of Atlanta" star Kandi Burruss, filing for primary custody of their two young children and raising new questions about the couple's prenuptial agreement.

The filing, submitted on November 26, outlines Tucker's concerns about their parenting arrangements and how their assets should be divided.

According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly, Tucker, 52, said their children  9-year-old Ace and 6-year-old Blaze  are currently living with him in Georgia while Burruss works out of state.

He stated that her work schedule "will continue to require her to be away from the children for at least the next several months."

Tucker added that he hopes both sides can resolve matters peacefully, saying the two "have been working cooperatively" so far.

Still, he made it clear that if no agreement is reached, he will ask the court for primary physical custody, joint legal custody, and final decision-making power regarding the children.

He also acknowledged Burruss as "a loving and capable parent," noting that he wants her to have meaningful time with the kids.

   

Todd is demanding primary physical custody, joint legal custody, final decision-making authority - and even potential alimony as he challenges the prenup he says he was pressured to sign, per Us Weekly. #RHOA pic.twitter.com/Ikyh4q455l  @suttonsroller (@suttonsroller) December 1, 2025

Read more: Kandi Burruss Says Divorce From Todd Tucker Was Inevitable After Growing Apart

Todd Tucker Says Prenup Was Rushed and Unfair

A significant portion of Tucker's filing focuses on the couple's 2014 prenuptial agreement. He claims he signed the document under pressure and without proper legal support.

His lawyers argued that the final prenup was handed to him "immediately before the wedding ceremony," despite earlier talks between Burruss' legal team and Tucker's representatives.

They said the rushed timing "raises substantial questions concerning the enforceability" of the prenup. Burruss, however, has asked the court to fully enforce the agreement, PageSix reported.

Along with custody, Tucker is also requesting a fair split of all marital assets "both real and personal, tangible and intangible." If the prenup is thrown out, he may also seek alimony.

Burruss, 49, filed for divorce on November 21, listing their separation date as July 15, 2025. She stated that the marriage was "irretrievably broken" and proposed joint custody, saying it would serve the children best.

In a public statement, she shared that the decision came after "deep thought and a lot of prayer," and asked for privacy as they navigate the transition.

Despite their split, the former couple has remained civil. They recently came together to celebrate Blaze's 6th birthday and spent Thanksgiving with their children.

Tucker also has an adult daughter, Kaela, from a previous relationship, and Burruss shares her older daughter Riley with ex Russell Spencer.
5

La Complutense recuerda a la C. de Madrid que su deficit se da por "cuestiones externas" y no por "sobrecontratacion"
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Three children were among the four people killed in a shooting at a childs birthday party in Northern California. Police said that early indications suggested the shooting was a 'targeted incident'.
SALEM, Ohio  Cases of a highly contagious and potentially fatal equine disease have been detected in Pennsylvania, but officials say they are not connected to the outbreak that has impacted more than 30 horses across the country.

Equine herpesvirus myeloencephalopathy was reported Nov. 27 in horses at a farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. State ag officials said there were no known links to the EHM outbreak that began at a barrel racing event in Waco, Texas.

As of Dec. 1, the Equine Disease Communication Center confirmed 33 cases of EHM, the neurological condition linked to the equine herpesvirus-1, tied to the Womens Professional Rodeo Association World Finals and Elite Barrel Race event held in Waco, Texas, from Nov. 5 to Nov. 9.

Horses in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Colorado and New Mexico have been impacted. At least four horses have been euthanized as a result of this infection.

Another 13 cases of EHV-1 without neurological signs tied to the Waco outbreak have been detected in Washington, Arizona, Texas and Oklahoma.

In the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, case, three horses showed clinical signs, and one was euthanized due to the severity of the disease before it was tested. The other two horses later tested positive for EHM.

A case of EHV-1 was also confirmed in Madison County, Ohio, on Nov. 23, but it was not linked to the Waco outbreak.

Local stables and arenas in the tri-state area have tightened up their safety measures and canceled events until the outbreak is contained. Horses can shed the virus during the incubation period, 2-10 days, before developing clinical symptoms, and can continue shedding the virus after they recover.

Exposed horses should be isolated for 21 days after last-known exposure, and isolation should include restricted access to other horses, avoiding shared equipment or personnel, and using appropriate protective barriers, according to the Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center.

Equine herpesvirus commonly causes respiratory disease, but some strains cause outbreaks of the rare neurological disease known as EHM. Symptoms of EHV-1 can vary widely. Some horses may show mild signs like nasal discharge, a fever of 102.5 F or greater and coughing.

Other symptoms include becoming lethargic or developing worsening neurological issues, which occur as a result of a lack of blood flow and resulting damage to the brain or spinal cord.

Symptoms can include stumbling, incoordination, loss of tail tone, hind-limb weakness, head tilt, difficulty standing and urine dribbling.

In most cases, 60% to 70% of affected horses recover with treatment and supportive care, according to the Equine Disease Communication Center, but veterinary evaluation and isolation of exposed or affected horses is crucial.

Related content:

Concern grows as more horses test positive for neurological disease
Red Tractor has launched two new outdoor pig welfare modules alongside fresh on-pack logos, as the assurance scheme moves to strengthen its position in a market where both welfare credibility and audit demands are under increasing scrutiny.

The new Enhanced Welfare Outdoor Bred and Free Range options, introduced on 1 December, aim to give producers a clearer way to demonstrate higher-welfare systems.

They also offer retailers and processors a more consistent welfare message  though the changes arrive at a time when some farmers have questioned the complexity and cost of overlapping assurance requirements.

The modules have been developed over the past 18 months with industry input, following a similar model used in Red Tractors poultry welfare programme. They are benchmarked against existing market standards, but the scheme says they have been designed to remain workable within commercial pig production.

Stewart Houston, chair of the Red Tractor Pigs Sector, said the additions recognise greater freedom and comfort for the animals and that the logos will provide consumers with greater choice on the shelf. He also said they offer outdoor producers a chance to reduce repeated audit visits while maintaining access to existing markets.

Audit duplication has been a long-running frustration for many pig producers involved in multiple welfare schemes. Red Tractor says the new modules are intended to streamline assurance, but the announcement comes against a backdrop of wider debate over farm assurance transparency, consistency and enforcement.

For Red Tractor licensees, the modules create a pathway to show higher-welfare claims on packs, menus and promotional materials  something several retailers are expected to revisit as they update packaging over the coming months.

Outdoor-bred and free-range claims remain a relatively small part of the UK pig sector, but demand for clearly labelled welfare tiers has grown in some retail and foodservice segments.

Producers, meanwhile, will need to decide whether the new modules offer enough commercial advantage to justify participation. While higher-welfare labels can carry value, uptake typically depends on retailer demand and whether premiums materialise in practice.

Houston said farmers have been clear that they want fair recognition for the additional time, investment and care that goes into higher-welfare systems, adding that the modules and logos aim to provide a trusted route for making those commitments visible. He said the standards were shaped with broad industry input to ensure confidence across producers, licensees, customers and consumers.

The coming months will reveal how widely the modules are adopted and whether they help reduce assurance burdens or simply add another layer to an already complex landscape.
Scottish ministers were warned more than two years ago that new powers to intervene in deer management were unworkable, legally risky and unlikely to deliver environmental benefits, according to documents released after a long-running freedom of information battle.

The briefing note, written by civil servants in June 2023 for then Minister Lorna Slater MSP, was only disclosed after Scottish Land & Estates (SLE) appealed to the Scottish Information Commissioner, who ruled that NatureScot had wrongly withheld it.

The advice relates to Section 6ZB of the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill, which would allow NatureScot to reduce deer numbers for undefined nature restoration purposes.

Rural organisations argue the plan is vague, ignores the impact of other herbivores, and threatens the collaborative system under which about 80% of deer management is carried out voluntarily by private estates.

Civil servants warned ministers that reducing deer alone would not deliver the Governments objectives unless similar action was taken on sheep numbers. They stated that significantly reducing deer numbers, without corresponding reductions in sheep numbers will not produce the required results and will therefore be, in effect, a waste of public money and effort.

Yet Ministers have repeatedly insisted livestock numbers will not be cut. Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon told the 2025 Royal Highland Show: Let me be crystal clear: this government has no policy, and will have no policy, to cut livestock numbers.

Officials also highlighted legal risks, noting that expanding intervention powers beyond preventing damage could attract challenges under European human rights legislation, particularly on property rights.

Despite the warnings, the Scottish government included the powers when the Bill was introduced in February 2025. MSPs will debate amendments on Wednesday (3 December), with a contentious committee session expected. Rural groups say the FOI release confirms their long-standing concerns.

Tom Turnbull, chair of the Association for Deer Management Groups (ADMG), said the proposals take a one size fits all approach and fail to consider other grazing pressures, warning they could risk jobs and livelihoods in the deer sector.

Peter Clark, Scotland director of BASC, said the powers were wholly unworkable and that the Scottish government ploughed on regardless and put the powers in the Bill despite civil service advice.

Scottish Gamekeepers Association chair Alex Hogg said the measures would destabilise the voluntary deer sector and cost jobs at a time when deer managers need to be valued.

SLEs Ross Ewing said it was deeply concerning that Ministers were warned in 2023 yet proceeded anyway. To continue with these proposals would be to introduce legislation that their own officials say will waste public money and effort, while exposing the government to entirely avoidable legal challenges, he said.
The UK government is being urged to tighten its border controls after Spain confirmed its first case of African swine fever (ASF) in more than three decades, prompting serious concern across the British pig sector.

The disease was identified in two dead wild boar around 1km apart near the Autonomous University of Barcelona, with further suspected cases now under investigation in the region.

In response, Defra has ordered all fresh pork and other affected products from Spain to be held at Border Control Posts while officials assess the evolving situation, saying it will continue to monitor the situation and keep all measures under review.

The UK remains free of ASF, but government risk assessments continue to highlight the ongoing threat posed by contaminated or illegally imported meat  particularly given the diseases spread across multiple EU states in recent years.

Spain is a major global pork exporter, shipping around 2.7m tonnes of pigmeat in 2024 with a value of more than 8.8bn, according to Interporc. The UK imported 56,000 tonnes of Spanish pigmeat in the first nine months of 2025, up 11% on the previous year.

National Pig Association (NPA) chief executive Lizzie Wilson described the development as of real concern, warning that the outbreak could trigger major market disruption if Spanish exports face prolonged restrictions.

She stressed the wider implications for both EU and UK producers, noting ASFs continued ability to pop up anywhere at any time, often with human activity playing a role.

Wilson also pointed to earlier failings in disease control enforcement, recalling that during this years foot-and-mouth outbreak in Germany banned commercial products reportedly continued to enter the UK after the ban was imposed.

She urged the government to avoid any repeat this time and ensure that no Spanish product subject to restrictions slips through border checks.

The NPA continues to call for increased funding for port health authorities and Border Force to deal with illegal meat entering the UK  especially through Dover, which has become a target for criminal gangs shipping meat from ASF-affected areas.

Wilson said MPs had repeatedly highlighted the disparity between the relatively small resource required for robust enforcement and the huge cost of a notifiable disease outbreak like ASF or FMD.

The association is also urging the whole supply chain  producers, processors, hauliers and allied industries  to maintain strict biosecurity, warning that a UK outbreak of ASF is possible, but not inevitable if everybody plays their part.

Wilson raised a further concern over regionalisation agreements, which allow continued exports from disease-free areas when a country reports an outbreak. Spain has already secured such arrangements with key markets including China and operates under EU-wide regionalisation rules.

We have heard nothing official from the UK government about any attempt to forge vital regionalisation agreements, she said. It is clear that there are huge benefits from having these in place before notifiable diseases strike.

Lessons from past outbreaks across Europe underline the risks: persistent reservoirs of infection in wild boar, costly culling measures, long-term movement restrictions, and virus spread linked to contaminated vehicles, equipment and food waste.

Several EU countries, including Belgium and the Czech Republic, have eradicated ASF through intensive surveillance and control, while others have struggled with prolonged, costly outbreaks.
Wales is set to boost its animal disease testing capacity as the Welsh government invests in plans to establish a specialist diagnostic centre at Aberystwyth University  the first of its kind in the country.

Deputy First Minister Huw Irranca-Davies today confirmed 265,000 of government funding to begin the process of designating the university as Waless first high-throughput testing site for notifiable animal diseases, including bluetongue.

At present, all such samples from Welsh farms must be sent to laboratories outside the country, a process that slows diagnostic turnaround during outbreaks.

High-throughput testing will allow far larger volumes of samples to be processed quickly, helping officials identify disease spread earlier and issue movement restrictions or advice to farmers without delay.

The investment comes after a period of heightened disease pressure in Wales and neighbouring regions, including recent bluetongue detections in the UK and repeated avian influenza incidents in recent winters. The new facility will operate from VetHub1, which houses secure containment labs capable of handling high-risk pathogens.

Irranca-Davies said he was delighted to announce this funding which will begin building more resilience in our animal disease testing, adding that recent experiences with bluetongue and avian influenza had shown how enhanced capacity is crucial as we tackle future disease threats.

Aberystwyth University is currently the only institution in Wales with the infrastructure to carry out this type of diagnostic work. Professor Iain Barber, pro vice-chancellor for the Faculty of Sciences, said the funding would support an important early-stage scoping exercise.

"While this is an early stage in the process, it lays the groundwork for a facility that could play a vital role in protecting livestock and supporting biosecurity in the future, he said.

Minister for Further and Higher Education Vikki Howells said the development reflects the universitys growing strength in veterinary science. This centre will support and work closely with our farming communities, demonstrating how funding our universities delivers real benefits for Wales, she said.

Once designated, the facility will be able to carry out fully accredited testing under UKAS and Specified Animal Pathogens Order standards. The project is also expected to create skilled jobs and strengthen Waless contribution to UK-wide biosecurity.
Abhishek Bachchan has put to rest a long-standing curiosity amongst fans about whether he would ever remake one of his father Amitabh Bachchans iconic films. Speaking on the stage of IFP Season 15, the actor offered a reflection on his relationship with his fathers legacy. He asserted that he has no intention of recreating any of the superstars classics.







When asked about the possibility of stepping into Amitabh Bachchan's iconic roles, Abhishek gave a straightforward answer. He said, "I would never ever want to recreate any of my father's films, and the reason I say that is because I have grown up wanting to be Amitabh Bachchan." He went on to describe himself as "Bachchans biggest fan." He emphasised that his admiration for his father began long before he ever entered the acting world.



Abhishek shared memories from his childhood as well. He recalled how he watched his fathers films repeatedly. In fact, his friends and he would reenact scenes in their backyard. "There was a point in time in my childhood, I only watched my father's films, and afterwards me and my friends would go to the backyard and re-enact the entire film  the fight was 'who was going to play Bachchan,'" he said. According to him, an entire generation grew up idolising Amitabh Bachchan. "I am not talking as a son, I am talking as a fan," he enthusiastically noted. Abhishek showed immense respect for his fathers body of work and his belief that his classics should remain untouched.







On the professional front, the actor was last seen in Shoojit Sircar's I Want To Talk. He won the Best Actor in a Leading Role (Male) award at the 70th Hyundai Filmfare Awards 2025 With Gujarat Tourism for his performance in the movie.



Also Read: Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan attend Aishwarya Rai Bachchans fathers 13th day ritual


View this post on Instagram A post shared by Shilpa Reddy (@shilpareddy.official)

Bhutha Shuddi Vivaha

Wedding festivities

Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Raj Nidimoru entered into wedlock on Monday (December 1). Their ceremony had limited guests with only near and dear ones attending including her close friend Shilpa Reddy. The entrepreneur and fashion designer shared a series of photos and videos on Instagram giving fans a sneak peek about the intimate wedding.Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Raj Nidimorus wedding was described as Bhutha Shuddi Vivaha, a form of consecration of marriage rooted in an ancient yogic tradition. It is a purification or refinement of the five fundamental elements  earth, air, fire, water and space  within a human system. Shilpa adds that the beauty and profoundness of the ceremony is that it allows couples to enter into a union on an elemental level, beyond physical and emotional bonding seeker a deeper foundational unity. She describes that Bhutha Shuddi Vivaha is just not limited to first-time couples but people whether previously married or already married can also opt for such a ceremony to renew vows.According to Shilpa, Bhutha Shuddi Vivaha is an energetic process and has a subtle but powerful influence on everyone present. She says that the ancient yogic tradition of Vivaha (wedding) aligns the union of a couple on an elemental, energetic and spiritual level. One can experience a deep stillness, sense of expansion and emotion at such events, she adds.The wedding festivities kicked off from as early as 6 am on Monday. From the floral decorations to the rituals to be performed, Shilpa gave an inside view of how a wedding at Linga Bhairavi temple at Isha Foundation looked like. Shilpa also shared the wedding gifts (Vivaha Kanukalu in Telugu) for the people who attended the event. The box set consists of incense made from Ishas flowers, Sadhgurus message-card, chocolates and a perfume bottle.
Mohanlal is stepping into yet another exciting phase of his career, and this time he is returning to a space where he has delivered some of his most memorable performances. Ashiq Usman Productions has officially confirmed a new film that reunites the legendary actor with director Tharun Moorthy. The announcement arrived with a photo that featured Mohanlal alongside the creative heads, instantly sparking interest among fans and industry watchers. The collaboration follows the spectacular success of Thudarum, which cemented Tharun Moorthy as one of the most promising storytellers in Malayalam cinema.



The new film is written by Ratheesh Ravi, a screenwriter known for his ability to create emotionally grounded, socially aware stories. His works, including Pullikkaran Staraa, Ishq, and Adi, showcase a writing style rooted in realism and moral tension. This new collaboration is expected to carry the same narrative strength, although the makers are holding back details of the story for now. Early conversations around the film suggest that Mohanlal will once again step into the police uniform, a role that audiences have loved him in for decades. However, insiders insist that the storyline is entirely different from anything the actor has done recently.



Shaji Kumar has been brought on board as the cinematographer. His long association with Mohanlal has given Malayalam cinema some unforgettable frames. They have previously worked together on films such as Naran, Pulimurugan, and most recently Thudarum. His visual sensibilities have always meshed well with Mohanlals on-screen language, and their partnership has often resulted in rich, atmospheric storytelling. The team that has been assembled so far hints at a production that aims for both scale and emotional depth.





View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ashiq Usman Productions (@ashiqusmanproductions_)





A Previous Project Falls Away, Opening Space for a New Idea

This announcement comes right after a surprising development from the same production house. Earlier in the year, Ashiq Usman Productions had revealed another Mohanlal film written by Ratheesh Ravi, with debutant Austin Dan Thomas set to direct. The project, initially called L 365, was meant to showcase Mohanlal in a police officer role after a considerable gap. The film made headlines at the time, but new information suggests that the project has now been shelved entirely. The reasons have not been disclosed, but sources close to the team indicate that the creative direction shifted and the new Tharun Moorthy film will explore a different policing narrative.



It is a rare situation where a cancelled project ends up clearing the path for a collaboration that fans were already hoping to see. Mohanlal and Tharun Moorthy had expressed interest in reuniting earlier, and this new film seems to have arrived at the right moment. The two were also planning another project with producer M Renjith, which was revealed during the celebratory event for Thudarum. The status of that film remains unclear, leaving observers curious about which project will go into production first.





Tharun Moorthys Expanding Slate and What It Means for the Industry

Tharun Moorthy is steadily becoming one of the most sought after directors in Malayalam cinema. His upcoming schedule reflects a filmmaker in high demand. Apart from the new Mohanlal film, he is working on Torpedo, a star-studded venture that brings together Fahadh Faasil, Naslen, Arjun Das, and Ganapathi. He is also preparing Operation Cambodia, with Prithviraj Sukumaran in the lead. This project functions as the sequel to Operation Java, the film that announced Tharuns arrival as an exciting new voice in the industry.



The reunion with Mohanlal adds another layer of anticipation. Their first film together established a creative partnership that clearly resonated with audiences. The decision to return with a story that reportedly explores the police force once again suggests a synthesis of craft and star power. With Ashiq Usman Productions backing the venture, expectations for strong production values and a story with emotional weight are already taking shape.



As fans await further announcements, the industry is watching closely. This new collaboration feels like the beginning of another significant chapter for both Mohanlal and Tharun Moorthy, one that may shape the next season of Malayalam cinema.





Also Read: Pranav Mohanlals Dies Irae All Set to Bring Chills to Streaming Platform








Seoul Statement enshrines commitment to advance the wellbeing of humanity through standards in the AI revolution

SEOUL, South Korea, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at the International AI Standards Summit in Seoul, Korea, IEC, ISO and ITU issued the Seoul Statement on Artificial Intelligence (AI), reinforcing their shared commitment to advancing safe, inclusive, and effective International Standards for AI and to bridge the digital divide.

The statement sets out a joint vision and commitments from the three organizations for how International Standards will support the development and deployment of trustworthy AI systems that benefit society, drive innovation, and uphold fundamental rights.

AI provides a tremendous opportunity to advance the wellbeing of humanity. The Seoul Statement acknowledges the transformative impact of AI on society and the importance of an inclusive, responsible approach to its governance.

In issuing the Statement, IEC, ISO and ITU are highlighting the value of International Standards in advancing AI for an inclusive, open, sustainable, fair, safe, and secure digital future for all.

"AI has the potential to bring profound benefits to people and economies across the globe," said Dr Sung Hwan Cho, President of ISO. "But to ensure this potential is realized equitably and responsibly, International Standards are essential. This joint statement reflects our commitment to strengthening cooperation across our organizations to deliver relevant, robust and human-centric standards that guide the responsible design and use of AI technologies."

"The rapid rise of AI confirms a basic truth: technology is always about people" said Jo Cops, IEC President. "As AI becomes central to the global economy, we must urgently establish a guiding framework. This joint commitment underscores the value of international standards as the blueprint for safe, trustworthy, and people-centered AI development."

"Standards are technical tools to uphold the principles we want to live by," said Seizo Onoe, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau. "The vision set out by this joint statement calls for diverse expertise and global commitment to collaboration and consensus - exactly what drives our standards work and exactly the spirit needed to create the future we want."

The Seoul Statement outlines four key commitments. In order to advance sustainable development and allow all people and society to benefit from the AI revolution, IEC, ISO and ITU commit to:

Actively incorporate socio-technical dimensions in standards development. Deepen the understanding of the interplay between international standards and human rights, recognizing both their importance and universality. Strengthen an inclusive, dynamic multistakeholder community to develop and apply international standards for the design, deployment, and governance of AI. Enhance public-private collaboration on AI capacity building.

Through their complementary mandates and longstanding collaboration, IEC, ISO, and ITU are working to ensure that AI standards reflect global needs, support regulatory alignment, and foster interoperability, trust and inclusion in the digital age.

The International AI Standards Summit is a two-day global event hosted in Seoul. More information is available at aistandardssummit.org.

Contact:

Katie Clift

press@iso.org

+351 913 976 202

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/international-organizations-align-at-international-ai-standards-summit-302629226.html
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - December 1, 2025) - Pluto Ventures Inc. (CSE: PLTO) ("Pluto" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has The Company also entered into a debt settlement agreement with an arms-length party (the "Creditor") to settle an aggregate $33,750 in debt (the "Debt"). In settlement of the Debt, the Company will issue an aggregate of 100,000 common shares in the capital of the Company (the "Debt Shares") at a deemed price of $0.3375 per Debt Share (the "Debt Settlement"). The Debt will be completely satisfied and extinguished upon the issuance of the Debt Shares.

About the Company

Pluto Ventures Inc. is a forward-thinking mineral exploration company focused on uncovering high-grade polymetallic deposits in British Columbia. With a commitment to sustainability and innovation, the Company leverages advanced geological practices to unlock the potential of resource-rich formations, driving value for investors and fostering economic growth in the communities where it operates.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

"Lawrence Tsang"

Lawrence Tsang, President and Chief Executive Officer

Cautionary Statement Regarding "Forward-Looking" Information

This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this new release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements related to the Proposed Transaction, satisfaction of the conditions precedent to the Proposed Transaction, and the acquisition of the Union Bay Property and related matters. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/276570

SOURCE: Pluto Ventures Inc.
Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
BEIJING, Dec. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Valuable Capital Group, a leading global financial services provider with strong operational presence in both Asia and the Middle East, participated in the China Securities 2026 Global Investor Conference, held from November 11-13, 2025 in Beijing. The event, themed "Transform through Innovation, Win the Future with Quality," gathered senior policymakers, financial institutions, market leaders, and global investors to discuss future capital market development and international cooperation.

As part of the China-Saudi Arabia Cooperation Forum, Mr. Jess Cheung, Co-Founder and CEO of Valuable Capital Group, joined a high-level panel titled "Global Asset Allocation Outlook - China, Saudi Arabia, and the World." The panel explored the evolving dynamics of global capital flows and the deepening financial connectivity between Asia and the Middle East.

Highlighting an Exclusive Advantage: Dual-Market Presence

During the panel, Mr. Cheung highlighted Valuable Capital Group's exclusive strategic position as one of the few financial institutions with deep-rooted, regulated operations across both the Greater China capital markets and the Saudi market through its subsidiaries - including Valuable Capital Limited and Sahm Capital.

"Our Group is uniquely positioned to bridge investors between two of the world's most dynamic financial ecosystems," Mr. Cheung said. "We operate at institutional depth in both Great China and Saudi Arabia, giving us a comprehensive understanding of regulatory transformation, investor demand, and innovation trends across both regions."

He emphasized that Valuable Capital Group's dual presence is not symbolic - it is reinforced by operational infrastructure, regulatory strength, and technology capacity that enable seamless multi-market trading, cross-border data services, and institutional-grade compliance support.

Saudi Arabia's Growing Appeal to Global Investors

Mr. Cheung noted that Saudi Arabia's capital is undergoing historic transformation under Vision 2030, and international interest - particularly from Asia - is rising rapidly.

He highlighted that this momentum is increasingly visible across several fronts - from the deepening financial cooperation between Saudi Arabia and major Asian markets, to the growing participation of institutional investors moving capital in both directions. He noted that new cross-border product opportunities are also emerging, including dual-listed vehicles and ETF collaborations that further integrate the two regions' capital markets.

"Capital flows today are multidirectional. We are witnessing a realignment toward new regional power centers - and Great China and Saudi Arabia are at the heart of that shift," Mr. Cheung added.

Technology as the Core Enabler of Market Connectivity

Mr. Cheung also highlighted Valuable Capital Group's technology-driven approach, which powers cross-border trading, robust risk controls, compliance systems, and multi-market data delivery. He emphasized that the Group applies global-standard technology while developing solutions tailored for local investor needs.

"In Saudi Arabia, our proprietary trading platform - the Sahm App, developed by our subsidiary Sahm Capital - has reached more than one million users in under two years, supported by strong user feedback. Its success comes from a global-class technology foundation that is engineered and localized specifically for Saudi investors."

He noted that this global-standard yet locally built model is a core pillar of Valuable Capital Group's work to strengthen the financial bridge between Saudi Arabia and Asia.

Commitment to Long-Term Cooperation

Mr. Cheung concluded by affirming Valuable Capital Group's long-term commitment to fostering financial collaboration between China and Saudi Arabia:

"The partnership potential between Saudi Arabia and China is tremendous. Our mission is to serve as the bridge - providing access, trust, and capability on both sides so that capital can flow with confidence. We are fully committed to supporting the next stage of cross-market growth."

About Valuable Capital Group Limited

Established in 2016 in Hong Kong, VCGL is a leading technology-driven financial solution provider that has provided efficient, precise, comprehensive, and high-quality integrated financial services to millions of retail individuals, institutions, and corporate clients worldwide. The group has expanded its presence to major global financial markets, including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, the United States, and Saudi Arabia, through the establishment of branches in these regions.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/valuable-capital-group-showcases-cross-border-leadership-at-china-securities-2026-global-investor-conference-and-chinasaudi-cooperation-forum-in-beijing-302629461.html
Gross Revenue of US$32.4 Million and Cash Cost of US$888/Oz

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec. 01, 2025for full financial results).

President and CEO Cathy Zhai commented, "In Q1 FY2026, gold production continued its steady upward trend over the past eight months at the Selinsing Gold Mine in Malaysia, supporting healthy cash flow and a solid financial position. Revenue and earnings may vary quarter to quarter depending on production levels, operating costs, gold prices, and the timing of gold sales.

"During the first quarter, cash reserves increased by $16.9 million to $62.84 million from $45.94 million, providing strong liquidity to sustain and grow mining output, cash flow generation, and overall Company value. Exploration drilling is currently underway at Selinsing, targeting potential mine expansion areas that may increase Mineral Resources. In addition, an internal economic assessment was conducted for the Murchison Gold Project in Western Australia to evaluate potential gold production opportunities."

FIRST QUARTER OF FISCAL YEAR 2026 HIGHLIGHTS:

Net income of $10.50 million, or $0.03 per share for Q1 FY 2026, compared to net income of $3.00 million, or $0.01/share for Q1 FY 2025;

Gross margin of $22.43 million for Q1 FY 2026, a 93% increase compared to $11.61 million in Q1 FY 2025;

$62.84 million cash on hand at the end of Q1 FY 2026, a $16.90 million increase from $45.94 million during the three-month period;

$69.55 million working capital, $11.01 million increase from $58.54 million at the end of June 30, 2025;

Production performance: 13,092 ounces of gold produced during the three months period (Q1 FY 2025: 8,059 ounces); 11,227 ounces of gold sold at a record average realized price of $3,498/oz for gross revenue of $32.40 million (Q1 FY 2025: 9,270 ounces sold at an average realized price of $2,535/oz for gross revenue of $19.37 million); Cash cost of $888 per ounce sold (Q1 FY 2025: $837/oz), including higher royalties based on an increased average realized gold price; All in sustaining cost of $1,037 per ounce sold for Q1 FY 2026, a 7% decrease compared to $1,115/oz in Q1 FY 2025.

Exploration drilling programs continued at Selinsing, targeting a potential increase in mine life;

A conceptual economic assessment was completed and was under management review at Murchison Gold Project;

Heritage survey was completed at Murchison Gold Projects during the quarter by consultant recruited through the aboriginal corporation.



Summary of First Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 Production and Financial performance:

Three months ended September 30, 2025 2024 Production Ore mined (tonnes) 169,780 137,932 Waste removed (tonnes) 1,749,377 2,313,000 Gold Sulphide Production Ore processed (tonnes) 239,447 189,676 Average mill feed grade (g/t) 1.94 1.74 Processing recovery rate (%) 87.57 76.22 Gold produced (oz)(1) 13,092 8,059 Gold sold (oz) 11,227 9,270 Financial (expressed in thousands of US$) $ $ Revenue 32,400 19,371 Gross margin from mining operations 22,432 11,611 Net Income before other items 15,169 8,601 Net income 10,500 2,997 Cash flows provided by operations 19,186 9,676 Working capital 69,548 24,723 Earnings per share - basic and diluted (US$/share) 0.03 0.01 Weighted average gold price US$/oz US$/oz Realized price - sulphide production 3,498 2,535 Cash cost per ounce sold Mining 266 244 Processing 251 285 Royalties 295 231 Operations 76 77 Total cash cost per ounce sold(2) 888 837 Operation expenses 1 6 Corporate expenses - 2 Accretion of asset retirement obligation 5 6 Exploration and evaluation expenditures 45 1 Sustaining capital expenditures 98 263 Total all-in sustaining costs per ounce sold(3) 1,037 1,115

(1) Out of total 13,092 ounces of gold production reported in Q1 FY 2026, of which 572 ounces were production adjustments. (2) Total cash cost for sulphide plant production includes production costs such as mining, processing, tailing facility maintenance and camp administration, royalties, and operating costs such as storage, temporary mine production closure, community development cost and property fees, net of by-product credits. Cash cost excludes amortization, depletion, accretion expenses, capital costs, exploration costs and corporate administration costs. (3) All-in sustaining cost per ounce includes total cash costs, operation expenses, and adds sustaining capital expenditures, corporate administrative expenses for the Selinsing Gold Mine including share-based compensation, exploration and evaluation costs, and accretion of asset retirement obligations. Certain other cash expenditures, including tax payments and acquisition costs, are not included.



GOLD PRODUCTION RESULTS

The sulphide flotation plant produced 13,092 ounces of gold. The mill processed 239,447 tonnes of sulphide ore at an improved average recovery of 87.57% because of plant improvements and optimization also higher grade at 1.94 g/t of transition and fresh sulphide ore being treated compared to Q1 FY 2025.

During Q1 FY 2026, mining activities continued to focus on Buffalo Reef and Felda Block 7. Ore mined in the quarter was 23% higher than in Q1 FY 2025. Due to the increase in ore tonnages upon reaching the ore zone as expected, the stripping ratio decreased to 10.30 compared to 16.77 for Q1 FY 2025.

The ore processed during the quarter was 26% more than in Q1 FY 2025 due to more plant availability, optimization, and improved outputs of the new filter press, resolving the previous processing bottleneck.



FINANCIAL RESULTS

Q1 FY 2026 gold sales generated revenue of $32.4 million from 11,227 ounces gold sold at a record average realized price of $3,498 per ounce (Q1 FY 2025: 9,270 oz at $2,535 per ounce for gross revenue of $19.37 million) from the sulphide flotation plant.

Mining operations before non-cash amortization and depreciation generated a gross margin of $22.43 million, an increase of 93% from $11.61 million in Q1 FY 2025.

The cash cost from the sulphide gold production slightly increased to $888 per ounce for the first quarter of fiscal year 2026 from $837 per ounce in the first quarter of Q1 FY 2025, including higher royalties based on an increased average realized gold price.

Net cash generated from operating activities of $19.19 million in the first quarter of fiscal year 2026, an increase of $9.51 million compared to $9.68 million of net cash generation during Q1 FY 2025, which was mainly led by higher gross margin from more gold concentrate sales at higher realized gold prices.

The Company's cash and cash equivalents as at September 30, 2025 were $62.84 million, an increase of $16.90 million from $45.94 million as at June 30, 2025. And current assets exceeded current liabilities by $69.55 million (June 30, 2025: $58.54 million) demonstrating a strong net working capital position.



MINE DEVELOPMENT

Selinsing Gold Mine

Testwork related to the geotechnical site investigation conducted during Q4 FY 2025 was completed. Drone mapping of the TSF was conducted during Q1 FY 2026, and bathymetric survey work commenced at the end of the quarter. The results of the combined drone and bathymetric surveys will be used to compute the density of the settled tailings and help determine the life of the planned embankment raise.

Pre-stripping and cut-back

Mining at Buffalo Reef and Felda Block 7 continued during Q1 FY 2026. Pre-stripping and cut-back activities were undertaken, at the Buffalo Reef pit BRC4 to support ore continuity and production sustainability.

Tailing Storage Facility Upgrade

Having completed construction work for the stage 6 TSF main embankment raise to 540m RL, attention was focussed on the stage 7 raise to 545m RL. Geotechnical site investigation work continued, and the laboratory test work was completed. Drone mapping over the TSF was conducted and a bathymetric survey was initiated.

Flotation Plant and Related Facilities

As part of the ongoing plant maintenance, the primary ball mill feed conveyor, gearbox and discharge hopper were replaced. Concentrate thickener underflow and cleaner flotation tailings pumps were upgraded. The new filter press continued to operate well during the quarter and the original filter press was operated from time to time as part of the ongoing care and maintenance activities.

R&D Work

The bench and pilot plant testwork was conducted on samples collected from tailing storages facilities that received discharged tailing during commissioning phase of the flotation plant. Assay results have indicated that significant contained residual gold in samples were leachable. Additional bench-scale testwork was conducted using alternative flocculants for both the concentrate and water recovery thickeners. Based on these results, a further plant-scale trial will be initiated to evaluate whether commercial-scale recovery of certain tailings materials is economically viable. An operating plan has therefore been initiated to store plant tailings from future campaigns in a separate tailings' facility for potential CIL processing, subject to the outcomes of commercial testing.

Selinsing Warehouse Upgrade

The increased production of filter cake during Q1 FY 2026 highlighted the limited capacity of the concentrate shed, and plans were initiated to expand the shed by around 50% during FY 2026 and to provide storage space for the bagging system, which has been delivered to the Selinsing site, safely stored. Installation is pending specific concentrate shipping requirements. A contract was awarded for the concentrate shed expansion with construction work to commence during Q2 FY 2026. Foundation backfilling works were completed at the construction site using suitable pit waste materials.

Murchison Gold Project

Exploration and development activities at Murchison continued during Q1 FY 2026, focusing on both regional targets beyond known mineralization and potential extensions of existing Resources, while also evaluating early production opportunities. The Company further assessed options for a production restart, including the feasibility of increasing throughput of the Burnakura plant, which remains on care and maintenance.

A heritage survey was completed during the quarter. The Company has planed a drilling program to confirm and updated historical resources under a NI43-101 resource report at Gabanintha Gold Project. The drilling program will commence subject to completion of the heritage survey results and regulatory compliance.

A conceptual economic assessment was complete and was under management review at Murchison Gold Project. The validated dataset has been provided to SRK to support the internal Conceptual Economic Study. The dataset covers all historical and recent drillhole data at Gabanintha and was audited in fiscal 2025. In parallel, drill core samples were reorganized for geological inspection following the completion of a new core shed at Burnakura.

Engineering review and discussions were held with several engineering firms to obtain capital and operating expenditure estimates to support the recommencement of gold processing and camp operations.

Care & maintenance continued to ensure the processing plant, accommodation, catering, offices, and associated infrastructure in excellent condition; further upgrades during the quarter progressed so the site is ready to support production restart.

Exploration

Malaysia

The Buffalo Reef exploration drilling program progressed during this quarter with 14 holes completed and 1,444.70 meters drilled. The drilling program targeting on aimed mine expansion areas to identify additional oxide and sulphide mineralization, upgrade the resources outside of the current pit-shell, which may inform future life of mine planning subject to further studies. It was expanded into several phases targeting potential mineralized extension. At the end of Q1 FY 2026 a total of 2,236.70 metres had been drilled for resource expansion program, and 2,062 samples were prepared for despatch to a recognized third-party assay laboratory during the quarter.

Western Australia

At the Murchison Gold Project, the Company continued to review historical resources at Gabanintha and Burnakura during the quarter, including analysis of historical data. Initial planning was finalized to identify infill and extensional drilling targets at both locations, with the goal of potential resource extensions.

About Monument

Monument Mining Limited (TSX-V: MMY, FSE:D7Q1) is an established Canadian gold producer that 100% owns and operates the Selinsing Gold Mine in Malaysia and the Murchison Gold Project in the Murchison area of Western Australia. It has 20% interest in Tuckanarra Gold Project jointly owned with Odyssey Gold Ltd in the same region. The Company employs approximately 280 people in both regions and is committed to the highest standards of environmental management, social responsibility, and health and safety for its employees and neighboring communities.

Cathy Zhai, President and CEO

Monument Mining Limited

Suite 1580 -1100 Melville Street

Vancouver, BC V6E 4A6

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION visit the company web site at www.monumentmining.com or contact:

Richard Cushing, MMY Vancouver T: +1-604-638-1661 x102 rcushing@monumentmining.com

"Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release."

Disclaimer Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes statements containing forward-looking information about Monument, its business and future plans ("forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements are statements that involve expectations, plans, objectives or future events that are not historical facts and include the Company's plans with respect to its mineral projects, expectations regarding the completion of the ramp-up period to target production level at Selinsing and the timing thereof, expectations regarding the Company's continuing ability to source explosives from suppliers, expectations regarding completion of the proposed storage shed and ammonium nitrate depot and the timing thereof, and the timing and results of the other proposed programs and events referred to in this news release. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". The forward-looking statements in this news release are subject to various risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks and certain other factors include, without limitation: risks related to general business, economic, competitive, geopolitical and social uncertainties; uncertainties regarding the results of current exploration activities; uncertainties in the progress and timing of development activities, including those related to the ramp-up process at Selinsing and the completion of the proposed storage shed and ammonium nitrate depot; uncertainties and risks related to the Company's ability to source explosives from suppliers; foreign operations risks; other risks inherent in the mining industry and other risks described in the management discussion and analysis of the Company and the technical reports on the Company's projects, all of which are available under the profile of the Company on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Material factors and assumptions used to develop forward-looking statements in this news release include: expectations regarding the estimated cash cost per ounce of gold production and the estimated cash flows which may be generated from the operations, general economic factors and other factors that may be beyond the control of Monument; assumptions and expectations regarding the results of exploration on the Company's projects; assumptions regarding the future price of gold of other minerals; the timing and amount of estimated future production; assumptions regarding the timing and results of development activities, including the ramp-up process at Selinsing and the completion of the proposed storage shed and ammonium nitrate depot; expectations that the Company will continue to be able to source explosives from suppliers in a timely manner; costs of future activities; capital and operating expenditures; success of exploration activities; mining or processing issues; exchange rates; and all of the factors and assumptions described in the management discussion and analysis of the Company and the technical reports on the Company's projects, all of which are available under the profile of the Company on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
PlatformPay.io will Host TTMeetup's Flagship Annual Event

BANGKOK, TH / ACCESS Newswire / December 1, 2025 / PlatformPay.io is proud to announce that it has been invited to host the upcoming TTMeetup Bangkok event on December 2, 2025, the organization's flagship and largest event of the year. Following a highly successful tour in Europe, the event will be held now in Bangkok, Thailand, at the Moxy Bangkok Ratchaprasong, and acts to further deepen PlatformPay.io's relationship with TTMeetup.

Platformpay.io x TTMeetup



PlatformPay.io is honored to be asked to host again, following successful engagements in Budapest and Bucharest. This invitation to co-host what is anticipated to be TTMeetup's largest event ever is a direct testament to PlatformPay.io's recognized leadership and expertise in the digital business and payments ecosystem.

The TTMeetup Bangkok event is expected to be the biggest in TTMeetup's history, bringing together a premiere crowd of media buyers, affiliates, advertisers, and e-commerce professionals for a day of top-tier networking and education in Asia.

Michael Maurer, Head of Business Development for PlatformPay.io, will once again serve as the Master of Ceremonies (MC) for the event, guiding attendees through the day's sessions to achieve "real ad strategies, real growth, real connections." In addition to his MC duties, Michael will also present as a key speaker on the topic: "How One Ecom Vendor Added $2.1M in Net Revenue-with Zero Extra Ad Spend." In this session, he will share the real-world strategies behind maximizing back-end revenue and driving significant net profit through subscription models without increasing ad spend.

In addition, Patrick Downes, General Counsel for PlatformPay.io, will take the stage to address one of the industry's most critical regulatory shifts. His speech is titled: "VAMP Update: Merchant Recurring Revenue with less Risk: How to Make MORE with subscriptions BECAUSE of VAMP." This session will provide actionable insights into how businesses can maintain sustainable revenue growth through subscription models while navigating the evolving landscape of payments and the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP), and what it means for merchants to conduct business in a compliant manner.

July, Co-Founder and CEO of TTMeetup, expressed her delight in deepening the relationship with PlatformPay.io:

"We are absolutely thrilled to have PlatformPay.io hosting our flagship Bangkok event. Michael's energy and expertise in Budapest and Bucharest were exceptional, and their deep insight into payments and compliance was exactly what our attendees needed most. PlatformPay.io continues to be a crucial partner in the success of our events."

Ilano, Co-Founder and COO of TTMeetup, also added:

"TTMeetup's mission is to deliver actionable insights and real-world strategies. Having Patrick Downes speak on turning VAMP compliance into an opportunity for revenue growth is incredibly relevant. PlatformPay.io is helping us shape the future of our industry."

For more details, please visit https://ttmeetup.com/

TTMeetup Bangkok Details:

Date: December 2, 2025

Location: Moxy Bangkok Ratchaprasong

Contact Information

Platform Pay.io

Public Relations

info@platformpay.io

+1 (855) 630-3452

SOURCE: PlatformPay.io

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/platformpay.io-invited-to-host-ttmeetup-bangkok-2025-1104174
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - December 2, 2025) - Silver One Resources Inc. (TSXV: SVE) (OTCQX: SLVRF) (FSE: BRK1) ("Silver One" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update to our shareholders on ongoing activities and work planned at its Candelaria and Phoenix Silver projects.

Highlights

Economic study at Candelaria to advance directly to Pre-feasibility ("PFS").

Drilling of heap leach pads to upgrade resource to Measured and Indicated.

Induced Polarization ("IP") survey at Phoenix Silver nears completion.

Ground Penetrating Radar ("GPR") and drone magnetometer surveys over "417" high-grade silver target area at Phoenix Silver. Results may warrant a detailed gravity survey to follow.

Gregory Crowe, President and CEO, commented: "Advancing toward the completion of a pre-feasibility study at Candelaria marks a very significant step in moving the project to the Development stage. This more robust and detailed study will provide greater confidence than a Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA"), and will enable the Company to proceed with a Plan of Operations to facilitate the updating of existing permits. The Company also continues to enhance the merits of its Phoenix Silver project in Arizona, which hosts both high-grade silver and porphyry copper-silver prospects. Management looks forward to what could be a momentous year in 2026."

Candelaria

The Company continues to advance its flagship Candelaria past producing mine in Nevada, with the aim of advancing it to the development stage. In May of this year (see News Release of May 6, 2025), an in-ground mineral resource was announced and earlier, a leach pad resource (see News Release of August 18, 2020) was reported. The property now hosts 108.18 million ounces of silver equivalent in the Measured and Indicated categories and 29.46 million ounces of silver equivalent in the Inferred category (see News Release of May 6, 2025 for complete technical details on the resource). The mineralization is open down-dip and along strike, and continued drilling could potentially identify additional zones of mineralization.

The above resource was used to commence mine planning, production scheduling and economic evaluation. Mine planning and production schedules, preliminary engineering and costing have been mostly completed. The Company was moving towards the completion of a Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") by late 2025. However, Silver One will now be able to proceed directly to a Pre-Feasibility ("PFS") level study as confirmed by our study Qualified Persons ("QP's"). Additional metallurgical testing is needed to optimize gold and silver recoveries and validate previous results. The upgrading of the heap leach pad resources to Measured and Indicated will also be undertaken. This will result in a more accurate study and will allow for the Company to proceed with a Plan of Operations ("PoO"), which will be required to update existing permits.

Work planned Candelaria

Auger drilling in leach pads (LP1 and LP2) - estimated to be completed in early 2026.

Resource update of leach pads - estimated to be completed in Q1 2026.

Pilot Tests: Large columns using non-cyanide Extrakt's solutions H1 2026.

Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS): estimated to be completed Q2-Q3 2026.

Plan of Operations: scheduled H2 2026.

Phoenix Silver, Arizona

Potential Porphyry Copper-Silver Exploration

On September 22, 2025, the Company announced the commencement of a ground IP/MT survey to investigate and better define ZTEM (electromagnetic) copper-silver targets identified on the property. The survey has proceeded slowly due to unexpected catastrophic rains that affected the area in late September 2025. These storms severely damaged roads and made access to survey sites difficult. Rain and electric storms continued in early November, further delaying the work. The fieldwork is now estimated to be completed by the end of December with the interpretive report to follow.

The IP/MT survey is designed to test two priority porphyry targets that are in the southern part of the property, where multiple select rock samples returned strongly elevated copper and silver values (see News Release of Feb 20, 2025). This area is along strike and 5 km from Freeport McMoRan's Miami-Inspiration copper mining complex and BHP's new Ocelot copper porphyry prospect. All occur within a 50+ long mineralized belt hosting multiple copper and silver properties including BHP-Rio Tinto's Resolution project, Capstone's Pinto Valley Mine and KGHM's Carlota project, among others.

High-Grade Silver Exploration

An east-west structure thought to be the host of the large silver vein fragments was drilled in late 2024 at the 417 area (see News Release Feb 24, 2025). Anomalous silver with copper, lead and zinc values were encountered in many of the holes drilled. Although the mineralized structure was intersected, extremely high-grade massive silver was not encountered. This suggests that the targeted massive silver may occur in discontinuous ore shoots in-between drill intercepts, and/or at deeper depths.

A ground penetrating radar ("GPR") and a drone-operated detailed magnetometer survey are planned in the 417 area with the goal to potentially better define silver targets. If successful, a close-spaced gravity survey may be undertaken over specific targets. These surveys may also be extended to other silver targets including the Mexican Mine and the Nuggets North target (see News Releases of September 22, and Feb 20, 2025).

Ongoing and planned work Phoenix Silver

IP/MT survey in progress and estimated to be completed by year end, with final interpretation early 2026.

Rock sampling of veins, structures, dumps and altered areas over the IP/MT area was completed in October 2025. Assays are pending.

GPR and drone magnetometer surveys over the 417 area - surveys estimated to be completed in late 2025 to early 2026, with interpretation to follow.

Gravity test over 417 area if warranted - survey intended to assist in the definition of silver targets for future drilling scheduled to follow-up on targets identified by the GPR and magnetometer surveys.

Qualified Person

The technical content of this News Release has been reviewed and approved by Robert M. Cann, P. Geo, a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and an independent consultant to the Company.

About Silver One

Silver One is focused on the exploration and development of quality silver projects. The Company owns a 100%-interest in its flagship project, the past-producing Candelaria Mine located in Nevada. Potential reprocessing of silver from the historic leach pads at Candelaria provides an opportunity for possible near-term production. Additional opportunities lie in unmined historic resources as well as in previously identified high-grade silver intercepts down-dip, which can potentially increase the substantive silver mineralization along-strike from the two past-producing open pits.

The Company owns 636 lode claims and five patented claims on its Cherokee project located in Lincoln County, Nevada, host to multiple silver-copper-gold vein systems, traced to date for over 11 km along-strike.

Silver One also has 100% interest in the Silver Phoenix Project. The Silver Phoenix Project is a very high-grade native silver prospect, recently permitted for drilling, which lies within the "Arizona Silver Belt," immediately adjacent to the prolific copper producing area of Globe, Arizona.

Forward-Looking Statements

Information set forth in this News Release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this News Release. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions, and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. Silver One cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond Silver One's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to Silver One's limited operating history, ability to obtain sufficient financing to carry out its exploration and development objectives on the Candelaria Project, obtaining the necessary permits to carry out its activities and the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, Silver One undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/276577

SOURCE: Silver One Resources Inc.
The point-of-care test delivers PCR-accurate results in just 15 minutes, enabling healthcare providers to act quickly and prevent severe complications and onward transmission.

Detects and differentiates between three types of Bordetella infection that can cause similar cough symptoms, ensuring patients receive the right diagnosis at the earliest opportunity.

Early diagnosis can reduce the risk of complications and severe disease in vulnerable groups such as infants and the elderly, by enabling faster, more precise care decisions.

Basel, 2 December 2025 - Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced today that its first point-of-care test for the diagnosis of whooping cough (pertussis) and other Bordetella infections, has been granted U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) clearance and Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA) waiver, in addition to CE IVDR certification. The groundbreaking PCR test uses the cobas liat system to deliver results in just 15 minutes in GP practices and Emergency Rooms. This speed enables physicians to diagnose patients during their consultation and take immediate action to provide appropriate antibiotics that can prevent severe complications and onward transmission.

Pertussis affects people of all ages but can be more severe in children, causing an estimated 24.1 million cases and 170,000 deaths annually.1 A major diagnostic challenge is that early symptoms are often indistinguishable from other respiratory illnesses. This lack of rapid, accessible diagnostics causes clinicians to treat based on symptoms, a delay that allows the disease to progress and leads to severe outcomes, especially for vulnerable groups.

"Faster and more accurate clinical decisions are critical for reducing the risk of severe complications and ultimately stopping the transmission of Bordetella infections." said Matt Sause, CEO of Roche Diagnostics. "This new test allows clinicians to quickly make a definitive and precise diagnosis to ensure patients get the right treatment earlier."

The test not only detects Bordetella infections but also differentiates between three key species: B. pertussis, the cause of classic whooping cough; B. parapertussis, which causes a milder pertussis-like illness that may not respond to standard treatments; and B. holmesii, an emerging pathogen increasingly associated with pertussis-like symptoms and potential diagnostic challenges.

Whooping cough is a cyclical disease that typically peaks in severity every three to five years.2 With a surge underway3, the increase in cases has been further amplified by interruptions in routine vaccinations during the pandemic, along with waning immunity and vaccine hesitancy. These factors have driven infections across all age groups, including older children and adults, where symptoms can be less typical and harder to recognise.

Bordetella infections, including whooping cough, are a significant challenge for clinicians due to the similarity of early symptoms to other respiratory infections. Accurately identifying Bordetella among these conditions is essential to delivering the right treatment and ensuring timely intervention.

About the cobas liat system

The test is delivered using the cobas liat system, already used by healthcare professionals worldwide for point-of-care diagnostics. The compact system delivers PCR-accurate definitive results in 20 minutes or less to aid in patient care decisions. This new assay expands the cobas liat system's capabilities, complementing existing respiratory assays for the detection of SARS-CoV-2, Influenza A, Influenza B, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), and Group A Streptococcus (Strep A). By enabling clinicians to test for a range of conditions during the patient consultation, the system empowers faster, more decisive care decisions and reduces reliance on central laboratory facilities.

About Roche

Founded in 1896 in Basel, Switzerland, as one of the first industrial manufacturers of branded medicines, Roche has grown into the world's largest biotechnology company and the global leader in in-vitro diagnostics. The company pursues scientific excellence to discover and develop medicines and diagnostics for improving and saving the lives of people around the world. We are a pioneer in personalised healthcare and want to further transform how healthcare is delivered to have an even greater impact. To provide the best care for each person we partner with many stakeholders and combine our strengths in Diagnostics and Pharma with data insights from the clinical practice.

For over 125 years, sustainability has been an integral part of Roche's business. As a science-driven company, our greatest contribution to society is developing innovative medicines and diagnostics that help people live healthier lives. Roche is committed to the Science Based Targets initiative and the Sustainable Markets Initiative to achieve net zero by 2045.

Genentech, in the United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche is the majority shareholder in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan.

For more information, please visit www.roche.com.

All trademarks used or mentioned in this release are protected by law.



References

[1] Yeung KHT, Duclos P, Nelson EAS, Hutubessy RCW. An update of the global burden of pertussis in children younger than 5 years: a modelling study. Lancet Infect Dis. 2017;17

Roche Global Media Relations

Phone: +41 61 688 8888 / e-mail: media.relations@roche.com

Hans Trees, PhD

Phone: +41 79 407 72 58 Sileia Urech

Phone: +41 79 935 81 48



Nathalie Altermatt

Phone: +41 79 771 05 25 Lorena Corfas

Phone: +41 79 568 24 95



Simon Goldsborough

Phone: +44 797 32 72 915 Karsten Kleine

Phone: +41 79 461 86 83



Kirti Pandey

Phone: +49 172 6367262 Yvette Petillon

Phone: +41 79 961 92 50



Dr Rebekka Schnell

Phone: +41 79 205 27 03

Roche Investor Relations

Dr Bruno Eschli

Phone: +41 61 68-75284

e-mail: bruno.eschli@roche.com Dr Sabine Borngraber

Phone: +41 61 68-88027

e-mail: sabine.borngraeber@roche.com (mailto:sabine.borngraeber@roche.com)



Dr Birgit Masjost

Phone: +41 61 68-84814

e-mail: birgit.masjost@roche.com

Investor Relations North America

Loren Kalm

Phone: +1 650 225 3217

e-mail: kalm.loren@gene.com







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Kuros Biosciences announces enrollment of first patient in ASTRA study -

A global, prospective, randomized, multi-center clinical trial in foot and ankle fusion

Schlieren (Zurich), Switzerland, December 2, 2025 - Kuros Biosciences ("Kuros" or the "Company") a leader in innovative biologic technologies, today announced that the first patient has been enrolled in its global ASTRA (Ankle Subtalar arThrodesis Randomized Assessment) study. ASTRA is a prospective, randomized, single-blinded, controlled, multi-center study to assess the safety and performance of MagnetOsTM compared to autograft (patient's own bone) in patients undergoing hindfoot or ankle fusions. Subtalar fusion will be one of many surgical approaches included in the study.

The ASTRA study is part of Kuros' expanding global extremities strategy and represents the company's continued commitment to building high-quality clinical evidence across a variety of surgical applications. This international study will include sites in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Europe and/or the Middle East.

Approximately 126 patients undergoing hindfoot or ankle fusions will be prospectively enrolled and randomized to receive treatment in either the MagnetOs arm.

Chris Fair, Chief Executive Officer of Kuros Biosciences, stated: "Enrollment of the first patient in the ASTRA trial marks another important milestone in our Kuros mission to expand the clinical reach of MagnetOs. Building on the strength of our ongoing Level I PROOFand PRECISEclinical trials in posterolateral spine fusion, ASTRA extends our clinical evidence portfolio into foot and ankle. We're proud to continue advancing the science of bone healing into new anatomical regions where surgeons need reliable solutions for their patients."

"We're excited to participate and get the enrollment underway in this important global study," said Dr. Jesse Doty, Orthopedic Surgeon and Principal Investigator at Erlanger Orthopaedics in Chattanooga, Tennessee. "Successful bone fusion in complex hindfoot and ankle procedures can be challenging, especially when autograft availability or quality is limited. I'm excited to be a part of this Level I study looking at the efficacy of a novel advanced bone graft in my hindfoot fusion patients."

The study name ASTRA was inspired by astragalus, the historical term for what is now known as the talus or ankle bone, underscoring the study's focus on improving outcomes in ankle and hindfoot fusion procedures.

For further information, please contact:

Alexandre Muller Daniel Geiger Investor Relations Chief Financial Officer Tel +41 43 268 32 31 Tel +41 44 733 47 41 IR@kurosbio.com (mailto:IR@kurosbio.com) daniel.geiger@kurosbio.com (mailto:daniel.geiger@kurosbio.com)

About MagnetOs

Growing bone with MagnetOsTM gives surgeons confidence where it matters most - delivering predictable fusion outcomes.1 In a Level I human clinical study published in Spine, MagnetOs achieved nearly twice the fusion rate of autograft (79% vs. 47%) in posterolateral fusions (PLFs).1Among active smokers - who made up 1 in 5 patients - the fusion difference between MagnetOs and autograft was even more dramatic.*1,2MagnetOs grows bone on its own thanks to NeedleGripTM - a proprietary submicron surface technology that harnesses the immune system to stimulate bone growth, without added cells or growth factors.4-6Ready-to-use, easy to mold, and reliably staying put, MagnetOs carries no intrinsic risk of human tissue-related disease transmission and is FDA cleared for use throughout the spine, including interbody procedures. 7-12

Indications Statement

Please refer to the instructions for use for your local region for a full list of indications, contraindications, warnings, and precautions.

About Kuros Biosciences

Kuros Biosciences is on a mission to discover, develop and deliver innovative biologic technologies. With locations in the United States, Switzerland and the Netherlands, the company is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. The company's first commercial product, MagnetOsTM, is a unique advanced bone graft that has already been used across five continents. For more information on the company, its products and pipeline, visit kurosbio.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This media release contains certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially different from historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. You are urged to consider statements that include the words "will" or "expect" or the negative of those words or other similar words to be uncertain and forward-looking. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements include scientific, business, economic and financial factors. Against the background of these uncertainties, readers should not rely on forward-looking statements. The Company assumes no responsibility for updating forward-looking statements or adapting them to future events or developments.

* 19 of initial 100 patients were active smokers.

 Radiographic fusion data of the smoker subgroup were not statistically analyzed as a subgroup and were not included in the peer-reviewed publication of the study.

 Results from in vitro or in vivo laboratory testing may not be predictive of clinical experience in humans. For important safety and intended use information please visit kurosbio.com.

 MagnetOs is not cleared by the FDA or TGA as an osteoinductive bone graft.

 MagnetOs must also be used with an intervertebral body fusion device cleared by FDA for use with a bone void filler. MagnetOs Flex Matrix must be hydrated with BMA & mixed with autograft in posterolateral spine & intervertebral disc space. MagnetOs Granules must be hydrated with blood in the intervertebral disc space.

Stempels, et al. Spine. 2024;49(19):1323-1331. Van Dijk, LA. 24th SGS Annual Meeting (Swiss Society of Spinal Surgery). Basel, Switzerland. Aug 2024. Data on file. MagnetOs Putty and MagnetOs Easypack Putty. Van Dijk, et al. eCM. 2021;41:756-73. Van Dijk, et al. J Immunol Regen Med. 2023;19:100070. Duan, et al. eCM. 2019; 37:60-73. Instructions for Use (IFU) MagnetOs Granules. Instructions for Use (IFU) MagnetOs Putty. Instructions for Use (IFU) MagnetOs Easypack Putty. Instructions for Use (IFU) MagnetOs Flex Matrix. Instructions for Use (IFU) MagnetOs MIS. Data on file. MagnetOs Putty and MagnetOs Easypack Putty.

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U.S. Registration Marks a Significant Milestone as the First Protein-Based Biofungicide of its Kind to be Approved by the EPA

Ghent, BELGIUM, Dec. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Press release - inside information

Biotalys) is excited to announce it has received regulatory approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its first biofungicide, EVOCA*. This product was developed using Biotalys' AGROBODY technology platform and is the first protein-based biofungicide of its kind to be approved by the EPA.

EVOCA is a precision biocontrol solution with a new mode of action** that targets the fungal pathogens botrytis (grey mold) and powdery mildew in high-value fruits and vegetables while minimising the risk to beneficial organisms or the environment.

With this approval in hand, Biotalys can proceed with the dossiers for state registrations in California and Florida, two of the most important growing regions for fruit and vegetables in the United States***. In Europe, EVOCA has entered the peer review phase, and the Netherlands - as the rapporteur member state - has proposed approval in Europe, subject to the provision for certain additional data as requested during the peer review phase.

Additionally, the company can move forward with building up the U.S. regulatory submission for EVOCA NG - its next-generation product - currently in the final phases of development. The regulatory review process for EVOCA NG is expected to be significantly shorter, as the product contains the same active ingredient as EVOCA and features enhanced formulation and production methods. Biotalys envisages obtaining registration of EVOCA NG in the U.S. in 2028-29 and in the EU and Brazil in 2029-30, and subsequently launching it commercially in these markets worth around USD 1.2 billion combined1.

"This approval marks a major regulatory milestone for EVOCA and moves us closer to delivering a new, sustainable tool for farmers to protect their crops," said Kevin Helash, CEO of Biotalys. "The product has an entirely new mode of action to target fungal diseases, highlighting the uniqueness of Biotalys' technology platform as a pathway to discovering many new modes of action in the coming years. The EPA's decision reinforces the potential of our technology to help shape the future of agriculture and is a testament to the dedication of our entire team."

EVOCA is developed to provide growers with a novel solution that bridges the efficacy and scale of commonly used chemistries with the environmental advantages of biological solutions. Benefits to growers include:

Flexibility for use in both pre- and post-harvest applications across a wide range of food and non-food crops in both greenhouse and outdoor growing conditions;

Compatibility with an array of application methods and easy integration into existing farm management practices; and

A new mode of action to manage resistance build up, when compared with existing fungicides.





End of October 2025, the EPA also posted a final rule exempting EVOCA's active ingredient residues on treated crops from tolerance requirements. No maximum residue limits will apply given EVOCA's exemplary safety profile.

To read the full EPA documents please visit: https://www.regulations.gov/docket/EPA-HQ-OPP-2021-0165

* EVOCA: Registered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States. This product candidate is not currently registered for sale or use in other jurisdictions such as the European Union and is not being offered for sale.

** This was recognised by the Fungicide Resistance Action Committee (FRAC), a panel of renown industry experts. EVOCA obtained FRAC-code F10, one of only 8 new codes granted in the last decade.

*** Biotalys already submitted a dossier for approval in California, as this State performs its own in-depth review parallel to the EPA review.

About EVOCA

EVOCA is a novel protein-based biofungicide that helps control the fungal diseases botrytis (grey mold) and powdery mildew in fruits and vegetables. EVOCA has demonstrated strong performance in trials across various regions, climates, soil types, production types, pathogen pressure and crops. EVOCA contains the same active ingredient as EVOCA NG, expected to be the first commercial product of the company.

About Biotalys

Biotalys is an Agricultural Technology.

For further information, please contact:

Toon Musschoot, Head of IR & Communication

T: +32

Important Notice

Biotalys, its business, prospects and financial position remain exposed and subject to risks and uncertainties. A description of and reference to these risks and uncertainties can be found in the annual reporton the consolidated annual accounts published on the company's website.

This announcement contains statements which are "forward-looking statements" or could be considered as such. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the words 'aim', 'believe', 'estimate', 'anticipate', 'expect', 'intend', "have the potential", 'may', 'will', 'plan', 'continue', 'ongoing', 'possible', 'predict', 'plans', 'target', 'seek', 'would' or 'should', and contain statements made by the company regarding the intended results of its strategy. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and readers are warned that none of these forward-looking statements offers any guarantee of future performance. Biotalys' actual results may differ materially from those predicted by the forward-looking statements. Biotalys makes no undertaking whatsoever to publish updates or adjustments to these forward-looking statements, unless required to do so by law.

1 Source: Kynetec 2020; Biotalys

Attachments
A surreal Christmas 'Hygge' experience in Bergen: This December, the University of Bergen invites the public to experience a unique blend of festive cheer and powerful values with the opening of The Academic Gingerbread Town a celebration of academic freedom, diversity, and democratic principles.

The Academic Gingerbread Town is located in the beloved University Museum of Bergen, Norway and represents a fantasy version of the University campus. It includes both lifelike models of well-known UiB buildings and also gingerbread models of universities in ruins, Sauron's eye paired with the EU Parliament, the storming of the U.S. Capitol, and flood-damaged houses due to climate change. The town consists of nearly 200 gingerbread creations.

The structures are peppered with slogans such as "pussy power", "censorship", "freedom of speech", "trans rights", "Palestine", "women's health", "climate change", "sexual freedom", and "animal welfare".

The town is built by students and staff and is meant to be much more than just seasonal decorations. It's an edible expression of the values that define the university and its global academic community.

According to the Academic Freedom Index, academic freedom has declined in a number of countries over the past 10 years. The Academic Gingerbread Town aims to highlight this issue.

"Academic freedom has never been more important. We stand in solidarity with everyone experiencing restrictions on their academic freedom. We also want to show that academic freedom will always have a home with us," says Rector at the University of Bergen, Margareth Hagen.

The university has distributed nearly 300 kilos of dough, gingerbread building kits, icing sugar, and decorations to students and staff.

Visitors of all ages are welcome to explore The Academic Gingerbread Town throughout December, enjoy the festive atmosphere, and reflect on the importance of academic freedom, all while soaking in the cozy charm of Bergen's Christmas season.

Location: The University Museum of Bergen

Opening Date: December 1st, 2025

Here you find pictures of The Academic Gingerbread Town free to use. All photos must be credited: Eivind Senneset UiB. https://uib.mediebank.no/p/kommunikasjonsavdelingen/album/z9pJr4gIMdQpFbdJh2DO

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251201581186/en/

Contacts:

Press office, UiB: desk@uib.no
Progress on share buyback programme

ING announced today that, as part of our 1.1 billion share buyback programme announced on 30 October 2025, in total 1,772,739 shares were repurchased during the week of 24 November up to and including 28 November 2025.

The shares were repurchased at an average price of 22.02 for a total amount of 39,040,724.40. For detailed information on the daily repurchased shares, individual share purchase transactions and weekly reports, see the ING website at share buyback programme.

In line with the purpose of the programme to reduce the share capital of ING, the total number of shares repurchased under this programme to date is 9,671,941 at an average price of 22.02 for a total consideration of 212,990,931.37. To date approximately 19.36% of the maximum total value of the share buyback programme has been completed.

Note for editors

For further information on ING, please visit www.ing.com. Frequent news updates can be found in the Newsroom. Photos of ING operations, buildings and its executives are available for download at Flickr.

Press enquiries Investor enquiries ING Group Media Relations ING Group Investor Relations +31 20 576 5000 +31 20 576 6396 media.relations@ing.com (mailto:media.relations@ing.com) Investor.Relations@ing.com (mailto:Investor.Relations@ing.com)



ING PROFILE

ING is a global financial institution with a strong European base, offering banking services through its operating company ING Bank. The purpose of ING Bank is: empowering people to stay a step ahead in life and in business. ING Bank's more than 60,000 employees offer retail and wholesale banking services to customers in over 100 countries.

ING Group shares are listed on the exchanges of Amsterdam (INGA NA, INGA.AS), Brussels and on the New York Stock Exchange (ADRs: ING US, ING.N).

ING aims to put sustainability at the heart of what we do. Our policies and actions are assessed by independent research and ratings providers, which give updates on them annually. ING's ESG rating by MSCI has been upgraded from 'AA' to 'AAA' in October 2025. As of June 2025, in Sustainalytics' view, ING's management of ESG material risk is 'Strong' with an ESG risk rating of 18.0 (low risk). ING Group shares are also included in major sustainability and ESG index products of leading providers. Here are some examples: Euronext, STOXX, Morningstar and FTSE Russell. Society is transitioning to a low-carbon economy. So are our clients, and so is ING. We finance a lot of sustainable activities, but we still finance more that's not. Follow our progress on ing.com/climate.

IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION

Elements of this press release contain or may contain information about ING Groep N.V. and/ or ING Bank N.V. within the meaning of Article 7(1) to (4) of EU Regulation No 596/2014 ('Market Abuse Regulation').

ING Group's annual accounts are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union ('IFRS- EU'). In preparing the financial information in this document, except as described otherwise, the same accounting principles are applied as in the 2024 ING Group consolidated annual accounts. All figures in this document are unaudited. Small differences are possible in the tables due to rounding.

Certain of the statements contained herein are not historical facts, including, without limitation, certain statements made of future expectations and other forward-looking statements that are based on management's current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to di?er materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Actual results, performance or events may di?er materially from those in such statements due to a number of factors, including, without limitation:

This document may contain ESG-related material that has been prepared by ING on the basis of publicly available information, internally developed data and other third-party sources believed to be reliable. ING has not sought to independently verify information obtained from public and third-party sources and makes no representations or warranties as to accuracy, completeness, reasonableness or reliability of such information. This document may also discuss one or more specific transactions and/or contain general statements about ING's ESG approach. The approach and criteria referred to in this document are intended to be applied in accordance with applicable law. Due to the fact that there may be different or even conflicting laws, the approach, criteria or the application thereof, could be different.

Materiality, as used in the context of ESG, is distinct from, and should not be confused with, such term as defined in the Market Abuse Regulation or as defined for Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC') reporting purposes. Any issues identified as material for purposes of ESG in this document are therefore not necessarily material as defined in the Market Abuse Regulation or for SEC reporting purposes. In addition, there is currently no single, globally recognized set of accepted definitions in assessing whether activities are "green" or "sustainable." Without limiting any of the statements contained herein, we make no representation or warranty as to whether any of our securities constitutes a green or sustainable security or conforms to present or future investor expectations or objectives for green or sustainable investing. For information on characteristics of a security, use of proceeds, a description of applicable project(s) and/or any other relevant information, please reference the offering documents for such security.

This document may contain inactive textual addresses to internet websites operated by us and third parties. Reference to such websites is made for information purposes only, and information found at such websites is not incorporated by reference into this document. ING does not make any representation or warranty with respect to the accuracy or completeness of, or take any responsibility for, any information found at any websites operated by third parties. ING specifically disclaims any liability with respect to any information found at websites operated by third parties. ING cannot guarantee that websites operated by third parties remain available following the publication of this document, or that any information found at such websites will not change following the filing of this document. Many of those factors are beyond ING's control.

Any forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of ING speak only as of the date they are made, and ING assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or for any other reason.

This document does not constitute an o?er to sell, or a solicitation of an o?er to purchase, any securities in the United States or any other jurisdiction.

Attachment
Swiss-regulated bank expands stablecoin offering for professional and institutional clients with custody, trading, and rewards programme

AMINA Bank AG ("AMINA Bank"), a Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA)-regulated crypto bank with global reach, today announces the addition of Paxos' USDG stablecoin to its custody, trading, and rewards offerings. As part of this expansion, AMINA Bank becomes a member of the Global Dollar Network (GDN), a network of leading enterprises working to advance digital dollar adoption worldwide.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251201735324/en/

AMINA Bank Joins Paxos' Global Dollar Network

USDG is a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Paxos Digital Singapore, an affiliate of Paxos. Paxos is the leading regulated global blockchain infrastructure provider, with deep experience in stablecoin issuance and operations. Paxos Digital Singapore is a Major Payments Institution supervised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

By joining the Global Dollar Network, AMINA Bank connects its professional and institutional client base to a global ecosystem of regulated financial institutions, enabling seamless interoperability and deeper liquidity across digital dollar infrastructure. The network includes major global platforms such as Robinhood, Kraken, OKX, Galaxy, Anchorage, and Bullish.

Myles Harrison, Chief Product Officer of AMINA Bank, said: "USDG custody, trading, and rewards represent the latest expansion of our regulated stablecoin offering, continuing our leadership in bringing institutional-grade digital dollar access to professional investors. Our stablecoin rewards programme enables clients to earn up to 4% annual rewards on USDG holdings, reflecting our commitment to delivering value through compliant innovation. Joining the Global Dollar Network connects AMINA to the financial institutions building the rails for stablecoin adoption at scale."

AMINA Bank's USDG integration reflects growing client demand for regulated stablecoin access within traditional banking frameworks. The bank currently supports multiple stablecoins including USDT, USDC, EURC, and RLUSD, providing clients with diversified access to digital dollar and euro infrastructure. USDG's transparent reserve backing primarily U.S. government bonds held one-to-one against circulating supply aligns with AMINA's institutional-grade risk management standards.

Nick Robnett, Head of Crypto Business Development at Paxos, commented on behalf of Global Dollar Network: "We're excited to welcome AMINA Bank to the Global Dollar Network. We're building infrastructure that enables financial institutions to offer clients secure, compliant access to digital dollars, and AMINA's integration demonstrates the growing institutional demand for trusted stablecoin services."

Certain products and services may not be available to all clients based on legal and regulatory considerations.

About AMINA Bank Crypto. Banking. Simplified.

Founded in April 2018 and established in Zug (Switzerland), AMINA Bank AG is a pioneer in the crypto banking industry. In August 2019, AMINA Bank AG received the Swiss Banking and Securities Dealer License from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority ("FINMA"). In February 2022, AMINA Bank AG, Abu Dhabi Global Markets ("ADGM") Branch received Financial Services Permission from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority ("FSRA") of ADGM to Advise on Investments or Credit, Arrange Deals in Investment, Arrange Credit and Arrange Custody for Professional Clients as defined in the Conduct of Business ("COBS") Rulebook. In November 2023, AMINA (Hong Kong) Limited received its Type 1 (Dealing in Securities), Type 4 (Advising on Securities) and Type 9 (Asset Management) licenses from the Securities and Futures Commission ("SFC"). In October 2025, the firm's Type 1 license was approved for uplift to include digital asset dealing services for Professional Investors under Hong Kong's digital asset regulatory framework. In October 2025, AMINA (Austria) AG ("AMINA EU") received its CASP license from Austria's Financial Market Authority ("FMA") under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCAR) framework, authorising AMINA EU to provide: (i) custody of crypto assets, (ii) exchange of crypto assets for fiat currencies or other crypto assets, (iii) transfer services, and (iv) portfolio management of crypto assets.

CVVC Global Report and CB Insights named AMINA Bank AG as one of the Top 50 Companies within the blockchain ecosystem. In 2023, AMINA Bank AG won the European WealthBriefing Award in the Digital Assets Solution, Fund Manager category. AMINA Bank AG was recently recognised as Institutional Digital Asset Innovation of the Year at the Hedgeweek Global Digital Assets Awards 2025.

To learn more about AMINA Bank AG, visit www.aminagroup.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251201735324/en/

Contacts:

Wachsman

aminabank@wachsman.com
Highlights:

Significant mineralized sections have been intercepted within N2-25-003 and N2-25-008 , drilled in the "A" and "RJ" zones. Formation is presently undertaking the first drill campaign at N2 since 2008, when Agnico drilled the "RJ" Zone where historical drilling identified high-grade intercepts as high as 51 g/t Au over 0.8 metres. N2-25-003: 152.9 metres of target mineralization was intercepted beginning at 23.1 metres downhole, with multiple intervals over 30 metres in width up to 37.9 metres. N2-25-008: 208.8 metres of target mineralization was intercepted beginning at 28.6 metres downhole, with multiple intervals over 40 metres in width including up to 70.0 metres. The intense quartz-carbonate veining, silicification, and sulfide mineralization (pyrite/arsenopyrite) observed visually in the core of N2-25-003 and N2-25-008 are directly comparable to the material that yielded long gold intervals in historical drilling within these zones including 245-91-151, which intercepted 1.7 g/t Au over 35.0 metres.

N2-25-003 and N2-25-008 build on the Company's findings at N2-25-001 and N2-25-013, where the Company identified visible gold including within a 30.8 metre interval (see press release dated November 26, 2025).

Formation is targeting a multi-million ounce resource in a combination of conceptual open-pit and underground mining scenarios; the Company's maiden drill program is focused on assessing the first three hundred metres vertical.

The Company is undertaking a fully funded 30,000 metre drill program at its flagship N2 Gold Project in Quebec, host to a global historic resource of ~871,000 ounces comprised of 18 Mt grading 1.4 g/t Au (~810,000 oz Au) across four zones (A, East, RJ-East, and Central) 2,3 and 243 Kt grading 7.82 g/t Au (~61,000 oz Au) across the RJ zone 2,4 . Phase 1, consisting of 10,000 metres, commenced on September 25, 2025. In addition to the "RJ" Zone, Phase 1 targets the "A" zone, a shallow, highly continuous, low-variability historic gold deposit with ~522,900 ounces of which only ~35% of strike has been drilled (>3.1 km open).

The Company has working capital of ~C$13.5M with zero debt. Inclusive of provincial tax credits from the Quebec government, Formation's exploration budget for 2025-2026 is set at ~$8.1M.

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / Formation Metals Inc. ("Formation" or the "Company") (CSE:FOMO)(FSE:VF1)(OTCQB:FOMTF), a North American mineral acquisition and exploration company, is pleased to provide an update from the drilling campaign underway at its flagship N2 Gold Property ("N2" or the "Property"), located 25 km south of Matagami, Quebec.

The Company is pleased to announce that it has intercepted significant sections of target mineralization during Phase 1 of the drill campaign at N2 as part of its fully funded multi-phase 30,000 metre drill program at N2. The long sections of mineralization correlate with the findings of the 55,000 plus metres of historical drilling at N2, positively increasing the potential of intercepting long auriferous intervals, and the Company looks forward to releasing assay results in the near-term following compilation and interpretation.

Deepak Varshney, CEO of Formation Metals, stated, "We couldn't have asked for a better start to our maiden drill program at N2. These intercepts represent some of the thickest continuous zones of mineralization ever drilled at N2 and significantly expand the potential for a large-scale, low-strip multi-million ounce open pit development. With 30,000 metres fully funded and nearly 14 million in working capital, Phase 1 is the first step on our journey to realizing this conceptual model and we look forward to sharing further updates in the coming weeks."

Drillhole N2-25-003: Intercepted 152.9 metres of mineralized section, 67.95% of the 225-metre drillhole.

Drillhole N2-25-008: Intercepted 208.8 metres of mineralized section, 69.59% of the 300-metre drillhole.

Both drillholes were found to have a significant correlation in terms of lithological intervals and sequences, alteration products and mineralization forms and variety between the geological features along these holes and those of surrounding historic drill holes.

Hole ID From (m) To (m) Length (m) Zone Comments N2-25-003 23.1 55.7 32.6 RJ 58.1 70.0 11.9 RJ 74.5 112.4 37.9 RJ Longest continuous interval 139.3 157.5 18.2 RJ 179.6 192.0 12.4 RJ 196.8 225.0 28.2 RJ Hole ended in mineralization Total ? 152.9 m 67.95% of hole mineralized N2-25-008 28.6 62.2 33.6 A 81.0 151.0 70.0 A Longest continuous interval 153.1 169.6 16.5 A 171.1 226.7 55.6 A 255.2 300.0 44.8 A Hole ended in mineralization Total ? 208.8 m 69.6% of hole mineralized

The mineralized sections of N2-25-003 was within the sheared and deformed fine to medium grained graphitic clastic sediments (mudstone and wake) and intermediate volcanic rock formations associated with quartz and quartz carbonate veins and veinlets (partly as stockworks) and the main alteration products of sericitization, carbonatization and silicification dominantly including pyrite and less arsenopyrite and sphalerite mineralization in forms of disseminated, stringer and massive (Fig. 1).

Figure 1 - Forms of Mineralization intercepted along the drill hole N2-25-003.

The longest mineralized section along this hole is a 37.9 metre section from 74.5 to 112.4 metres downhole within graphitic clastic sediments and andesite intervals in which pyrite is the dominant mineralization in forms of disseminated, stringer, fracture filling and semi massive associated with primarily quartz and less quartz carbonate veins and veinlets and the main alteration products of sericitization, silicification and carbonatization (Ankerite). Sphalerite is the minor sulfide in this mineralized section (Fig. 2).

Figure 2 - The longest Mineralized Section along the drill hole N2-25-003.

The mineralized sections of N2-25-008 was within the sheared and deformed intermediate to mafic volcanic and fine to medium grained less graphitic clastic sediments (mudstone and wake) rock formations associated with quartz and quartz carbonate veins and veinlets and the main alteration products of chloritization, sericitization, carbonatization and silicification dominantly including pyrite, arsenopyrite and less pyrrhotite mineralization in different forms of disseminated, cluster, stringer and semi massive sulfide which is dominantly are associated with veining formation process (Fig. 3).

Figure 3 - Forms of Mineralization intercepted along the drill hole N2-25-008.

The longest mineralized section along this hole is a 70.0 metre section from 81.0 to 151.0 metres within basalt and andesite intervals in which pyrite is the dominant mineralization in forms of disseminated, stringer and fracture filling associated with quartz and quartz carbonate veins and veinlets and the main alteration products of chloritization, sericitization, silicification, carbonatization and less epidotization. Arsenopyrite is the minor sulfide in this mineralized section (Fig. 4).

Figure 4 - The longest Mineralized Section along the drill hole N2-25-008.

Project Summary

Comprising 87 claims totaling ~4,400 ha within the Abitibi sub province of Northwestern Quebec, Formation's flagship N2 Gold Project is an advanced gold project with a global historic resource of ~871,000 ounces comprised of 18 Mt grading 1.4 g/t Au (~810,000 oz Au) across four zones (A, East, RJ-East, and Central)2,3 and 243 Kt grading 7.82 g/t Au (~61,000 oz Au) across the RJ zone2,

There are six primary auriferous mineralized zones in total, each open for expansion along strike and at depth (Figure 6) Compilation and geophysical work by Balmoral Resources Ltd. (now Wallbridge Mining) from 2010 to 2018 generated numerous targets that have not yet been investigated with diamond drilling.

Figure 5 - Property overview summarizing historical work completed at each of the six mineralized zones and their respective historical resource.

The drilling at N2 is designed to focus on discovery drilling at new high-potential targets along the mineralization strikes at the "A", "RJ" and "Central" zones in the northern part of the Property in order to discover new auriferous trends and unlock new zones of gold mineralization. The program will also focus on high-priority infilling and expansion targets in these zones to significantly enhance the auriferous zones identified to-date.

Historical highlights from the top two priority zones include:

A Zone: A shallow, highly continuous, low-variability historic gold deposit with ~522,900 ounces identified at a grade of 1.52 g/t Au. ~15,000 metres have been drilled historically across 1.65 km of strike, with over 3.1 km of strike remaining to be tested. 84% of historical drillholes intercepted auriferous intervals including up 1.7 g/t over 35m.

RJ Zone: a high-grade historic gold deposit with ~61,100 ounces identified at a grade of 7.82 g/t Au, with high-grade intercepts from historical drill holes as high as 51 g/t Au over 0.8 metres and 16.5 g/t Au over 3.5 metres2. This zone was the target of the most recently drilling at the Property by Agnico-Eagle Mines in 2008, when the price of gold was ~US$800/oz. Only ~900 metres of strike has been drilled, with 4.75+ km of strike remaining to be tested.

Figure 6 - PDDH design for the complete 30,000 metre Drill Program.

The Company also believes that N2 has significant base metal potential, where it recently completed a revaluation process which revealed significant copper and zinc intercepts within historic drillholes known to have significant gold grades (>1 g/t Au). Assay results range from 200 to 4,750 ppm and 203 ppm to 6,700 ppm, for copper and zinc, respectively, indicating strong potential for elevated base metal (Cu-Zn) concentrations across the property, specifically at the A and RJ zones. Property wide geology at N2 features volcanic and sedimentary rocks formed in regional anticlinal and synclinal flexures. Three principal deformation structures (Figure 3), oriented along the known NW-SE to WNW-ESE structural trends typical of VMS deposits in the Matagami region, function as critical geologic controls for mineralization on the property.

For the 2025 exploration season, Formation plans to concentrate its efforts on the northern part of N2, targeting gold deposit expansion and discovery along identified zones and fault systems associated with the main deformation features (specifically WNW-ESE trend), with IP surveys and drilling planned to model mineralized zones that will hopefully contribute to an updated NI-43 101 compliant resource. Formation will also look to further review historic base metal assays from older drill core and undertake additional work in 2025 to assess the property's copper and zinc potential.

Qualified person

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Mr. Babak Vakili Azar, P.Geo., geo (OGQ#10876) an independent contractor and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Historical reports provided by the optionor were reviewed by the qualified person. The information provided has not been verified and is being treated as historic.

About Formation Metals Inc.

Formation Metals Inc. is a North American mineral acquisition and exploration company focused on the development of quality properties that are drill-ready with high-upside and expansion potential. Formation's flagship asset is the N2 Gold Project, an advanced gold project with a global historic resource of ~871,000 ounces (18 Mt grading 1.4 g/t Au (~810,000 oz Au) across four zones (A, East, RJ-East, and Central)2,3 and 243 Kt grading 7.82 g/t Au (~61,000 oz Au) across the RJ zone2,4) and six mineralized zones, each open for expansion along strike and at depth including the "A" zone, of which only ~35% of strike has been drilled (>3.1 km open), and the "RJ" zone, host to historical high-grade intercepts as high as 51 g/t Au over 0.8 metres.

FORMATION METALS INC.

Deepak Varshney, CEO and Director

For more information, please call 778-899-1780, email dvarshney@formationmetalsinc.com or visit www.formationmetalsinc.com.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Notes and References:

Readers are cautioned that the geology of nearby properties is not necessarily indicative of the geology of the Property. The above referenced resource estimates do not have a category, are considered historical in nature, and are based on prior data prepared by a previous property owner, and do not conform to current CIM categories. While the Company considers the estimates to be reliable, a qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimates as current resources in accordance with current CIM categories and the Company is not treating the historical estimates as a current resource. A 0.5 g/t Au cut-off was used in the preparation of the historical estimates with a minimum 2.5 metre mining width. Significant data compilation, re-drilling, re-sampling and data verification may be required by a qualified person before the historical estimates can be classified as current resources. There can be no assurance that any of the historical mineral resources, in whole or in part, will ever become economically viable. In addition, mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. The Company is not aware of any more recent estimates prepared for the N2 Property. Needham, B. (1994), 1993 Diamond Drill Report, Northway Joint Venture, Northway Property; Cypress Canada Inc.; 492 pages. Guy K. (1991), Exploration Summary May 1, 1990 to May 1, 1991 Vezza Joint Venture Northway Property; Total Energold; 227 pages.

Forward-looking statements:

This news release includes "forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadian securities legislation, including statements respecting: the Company's plans for the Property and the expected timing and scope of the drilling program at the Property; the Company's goal of delivering a near-surface multi-million-ounce deposit the Property; the Company's view that the Property has the potential for over three million ounces of gold; the Company's planned 30,000-metre drilling program; and statements respecting the Offerings, the timing thereof and the expected use of proceeds therefrom. Such forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on a number of estimates and/or assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that such forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees and are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties, uncertain and volatile equity and capital markets, lack of available capital, actual results of exploration activities, environmental risks, future prices of base and other metals, operating risks, accidents, labour issues, delays in obtaining governmental approvals and permits, and other risks in the mining industry.

The Company is presently an exploration stage company. Exploration is highly speculative in nature, involves many risks, requires substantial expenditures, and may not result in the discovery of mineral deposits that can be mined profitably. Furthermore, the Company currently has no reserves on any of its properties. As a result, there can be no assurance that such forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.

SOURCE: Formation Metals

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/metals-and-mining/formation-metals-intercepts-152.9-and-208.8-metres-of-target-mineralization-near-1113619
Fund III is Expedition's third consecutive fund closed at the hard cap

The London and Boston-based firm specialises in minority growth equity investments in domain-expert software AI companies with a use but not a need for capital

Expedition Growth Capital ("Expedition"), a software-specialist growth equity firm, today announced that it has raised its third fund of $375 million, continuing its focus on partnering with rapidly growing companies from across Europe that have built high-quality products and customer bases, without venture capital. The oversubscribed raise was completed in four months, with more than half of commitments from US investors, including leading endowments and foundations.

Since its founding in late 2020, Expedition has built a portfolio of 17 bootstrapped software leaders from nine European countries, the majority already operating in North America. Portfolio companies include Dougs, a Lyon-based AI-powered accounting solution used by over 30,000 businesses, epilot, a Cologne-based vertical AI solution driving digital workflows in the energy and utilities industry, Factbird, a Copenhagen-based software platform improving production efficiency at some of the world's largest manufacturers, and Omilia, an Athens-based agentic AI solution for regulated enterprise contact centers.

Backing Europe's bootstrapped leaders

Expedition focuses on Europe's founder-led, capital-efficient software companies with a use, but not a need, for capital. Its mission is to empower portfolio companies to scale with ambition and durability, rather than pursuing "growth at all costs" strategies.

Expedition specialises in supporting companies to grow from $5m+ Annualised Recurring Revenue towards $50m+ with hands-on support in go-to-market expansion, strategic hires, and operational excellence from the firm's value creation team, Expedition Operations Group. Typical initial investments are $10-25m in size, providing capital for growth initiatives and shareholder liquidity.

Technology-enabled sourcing, human-led partnership

Expedition uses a proprietary AI-powered sourcing platform to identify high-quality, non-venture-backed software companies. Two of the firm's last three investments were identified through this platform. Expedition is typically the first institutional investor, helping founders to evolve their organization for scale, while keeping culture and customers at the heart of their journey.

Oliver Thomas, Founder and Managing Partner at Expedition, said: "We are grateful to our existing and new LPs for their trust and support. They share our conviction that Europe's domain-expert, bootstrapped founders are ideally placed to build durably valuable companies fusing the power of software and AI with a deep understanding of the industries they serve. The drive, creativity and resilience of the founders we work with is at the heart of what we are building as a firm we thank them for choosing Expedition as their partner."

Macfarlanes LLP and Carey Olsen Jersey LLP served as legal counsel to the fund.

About Expedition Growth Capital

Expedition is a software specialist growth equity firm with offices in London and Boston. Expedition partners with ambitious, rapidly growing software companies that have achieved significant traction with little or no external funding. The firm brings capital for growth initiatives and shareholder liquidity, highly relevant operational expertise, and a trusted track record of respectfully partnering with founders on their path to category leadership. For more information, visit Expedition.capital.

Notes to editors:

Expedition's 17 portfolio companies are located across Cologne, Copenhagen, Athens, Prague, Lyon, Paris, Stockholm, Utrecht, London, and Jersey, among other hubs.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251202332909/en/

Contacts:

Gina Dyce gina@burlington.cc
DUBAI, UAE, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Equiti Group, a global fintech provider, has partnered with TraderEvolution, a multi-market trading platform provider known for its modular, customisable solutions for brokers and banks worldwide. The partnership marks a key step in the Group's work to deliver faster and more flexible trading across regions, giving clients greater responsiveness in rapidly changing markets and the tools they need to make informed decisions in different trading environments.

TraderEvolution's technology enables broader product access, stronger execution and a smoother operational flow. The partnership will support new asset classes and improved platform performance, allowing Equiti to deliver a more advanced trading offering and maintain world-class solutions for clients worldwide.

Commenting on the agreement, Husam Al Kurdi, Equiti Cyprus CEO, said: "This partnership with TraderEvolution aligns with our ambition to widen the product range and market access available to our clients. It complements the strong foundation we already have in place and supports our ongoing work to provide a seamless and adaptable trading experience across regions. Our priority is to ensure clients have the reach and usability required to navigate global markets confidently."

Roman Nalivayko, CEO, TraderEvolution Global said: "We are delighted to see a growing number of well-established brokerages selecting TraderEvolution as their core trading engine. TraderEvolution's multi-asset strengths and back-end-first architecture give brokers unparalleled control and flexibility, empowering them to efficiently manage operations across all asset classes and deliver a seamless, customizable trading experience for their clients."

The agreement lays the foundation for continued collaboration, strengthening Equiti's commitment to delivering innovative, high-performance trading solutions that empower clients worldwide.

About Equiti

Equiti Group is a global leader in advanced trading technology, payment software, virtual assets, asset management and physical commodity solutions. With a presence across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, the Group is licensed in major financial jurisdictions including the UK, UAE and Cyprus. The Group delivers a best-in-class financial experience to clients across retail, professional, and institutional segments. Learn more at www.equiti.com

About TraderEvolution Global

TraderEvolution is a multi-market trading platform provider offering modular, customisable solutions for brokers and banks worldwide. The system includes a powerful back-end with connectivity to dozens of global exchanges and a versatile front-end suite - supporting native interfaces, third-party front-ends, and a Client API. Built to handle multiple asset classes across diverse market structures, TraderEvolution goes beyond the typical "multi-asset" claim, delivering true flexibility in both instrument coverage and market adaptability. The platform is liquidity-neutral and infrastructure-independent, enabling firms to run core brokerage operations or enhance existing setups.

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LONDON and MIAMI, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Anderson Global is pleased to announce the acquisition of Woodside Corporate Services Limited and its parent companies. This transaction further strengthens our investment in the Kin Group earlier this year, enhancing our custodial services offering with the addition of a highly experienced company secretarial team dedicated to supporting early-stage companies across the UK.

Woodside will continue to operate as a standalone entity, the acquisition will enhance service provision to clients by integrating with the Kin Group technology platform, which has seen significant investment since becoming part of Anderson Global.

John Rowe from Woodside commented, "Anna and I are delighted to be joining the Anderson Group and become their latest acquisition in the fund services industry. Having spoken to clients over the last year and analysed the marketplace, we believe that the Anderson Group, through the technology platform developed by Kin, can greatly improve our internal systems and provide a client-facing solution. In addition, the services provided by the Anderson Group including fund management and wide array of fund administration services will be of interest to many of our client base and our company secretarial function can enhance their client offering for both domestic companies and overseas companies looking to expand in the UK."

Christian Elmes the Co-Principal of the Kin Group shared, "I am so excited to be welcoming Anna, John and the Woodside Team into the Anderson Global Fund Services team. Together with Kin we will be uniquely positioned to leverage new technologies to offer clients more flexible and efficient fund services. We have an exciting opportunity ahead of us to drive through positive change in the UK early-stage funds industry for all stakeholders, at never a more important time."

Dennis Day, CEO, remarked, "The acquisition of Woodside Corporate Services Limited marks another important milestone in Anderson Global's strategy to build a world-class platform in corporate services and fund administration. By combining Woodside's deep expertise with Anna and John's immense experience in the industry with our technology-driven approach, we are creating a stronger, more integrated offering for clients. This partnership reinforces our commitment to delivering innovative solutions and exceptional service across the entire entity lifecycle. We are delighted to welcome Anna, John, and the Woodside team to Anderson Global and look forward to working together to drive growth and deliver value for our clients worldwide."

Anderson Global is a buy and build platform in the corporate services and fund administration sector offering a comprehensive set of incorporation, registered agent and ancillary services covering the entire lifecycle of entities with +600 employees, 15 office locations across 8 countries. The strategic acquisition of the Woodside Group continues the expansion of Anderson Global's customer base, enhance its service offering and strengthen its presence in the UK.

To date, Anderson Global has completed eleven bolt-on acquisitions that are key to accelerating the Group's growth trajectory and enabling it to deliver even greater value to clients. For more information, visit https://anderson-global.com/

About Kin Group

Kin offer a variety of services to Venture Capital firms, including Fund Management offerings to GP/LPs, ECFs, SPVs, EIS and SEIS funds and a range of Regulatory Umbrella Services through appointed representative and secondment arrangements to reduce regulatory burden on VCs enabling them to be laser focused on achieving positive outcomes for investors. Alongside these services, Kin also provides full fund administration and custody services that are enhanced by their digital software tools leading to a better experience for VCs and their investors. For more information, visit https://www.kin-group.com/

About Woodside

Woodside Corporate Services Limited is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to provide safe custody and fund administration services to funds and companies predominantly operating within the alternative investment industry. We work with a wide range of clients large and small, with particular expertise in the EIS, SEIS, VCT and BR markets. We can take care of the back-office investment operations including processing applications, allocating investments, fund administration, investor reporting and administering tax reliefs, leaving our clients to focus on what they do best. For more information, visit https://woodsidecorporateservices.co.uk/

About Anderson Global

Anderson Global is an international corporate and fund services provider with more than 600 professionals across 15 offices worldwide. We deliver comprehensive solutions in entity formation, tax and accounting, fund administration, and business advisory, helping entrepreneurs and investors build and scale businesses globally.

Anderson Global was formed in 2023 by an affiliate of Sun European Partners, LLP, a London-based private investment advisory firm. To learn more about Anderson Global please visit: https://www.andersonglobal-group.com/

Media Contact:

Pia DeSousa

pdesousa@suncappart.com

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Joining from Kaizen, Jean-Marie Mamodesen will drive Droit's European growth

LONDON, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Droit, a technology firm at the forefront of computational law and regulation, has appointed Jean-Marie Mamodesen as Regional Sales Director, tasked with driving growth within Continental Europe. Jean-Marie Mamodesen joins the Droit team in London.

Jean-Marie brings over 20 years of experience in sales and leadership roles specifically focused on regulatory reporting. He joins Droit from Kaizen, where he most recently served as Managing Director and Head of European Sales. Before that, he served as Head of Sales, Regulatory Services at Deutsche Borse; Head of Sales at Xtrakter (part of Euroclear), Client Service Management roles at the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA) and Technical Analyst at the International Securities Market Association (ISMA).

"Jean-Marie has a proven track record of scaling regulatory technology solutions and a deep understanding of the European transaction reporting landscape. His expertise will be invaluable as we further expand our footprint across Europe to meet the need for automating regulatory compliance," said Craig Butterworth, Chief Commercial Officer.

This appointment comes at a critical time as financial institutions implement updated regulatory reporting obligations across the globe. Droit's Trade and Transaction Reporting product, powered by its patented Adept platform, provides institutions with the assurance, transparency, and precision needed to manage the changing rulesets and validate reports. In this era of increasing regulatory change, firms are striving to stay ahead of ever-changing rules and expectations. Yet, as these requirements multiply, the task of managing and interpreting them is becoming increasingly challenging.

"What drew me to Droit is its ability to bring clarity and control to the increasing regulatory complexity. Through technology designed by the market and built by experts, Droit's market-leading decision-making engine provides firms with the assurance, transparency, and precision they need to operate with confidence and stay on the right side of the rules," said Jean-Marie Mamodesen, Regional Sales Director - Continental Europe.

About Droit

Droit is a technology firm at the forefront of computational law and regulation within finance and other domains. Founded in 2012, Droit counts many of the largest financial institutions as its clients. Its award-winning, patented platform Adept provides an implementation of regulatory rules reflecting industry consensus. The Adept platform processes tens of millions of inquiries a day, deciding in real-time which interactions are legally permissible across the globe. Adept is used by institutions to evaluate, with sub-millisecond latency, the full regulatory implications of any given interaction within their transactional infrastructure.

For more information visit droit.tech. To obtain more information about Droit's products, please contact sales@droit.tech .

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Up to 37.5m investment from the EIB, consisting of 10m upfront with optionality to further increase by an additional 27.5m

10m investment from existing shareholders including EQT Life Sciences (EQT) and Invest-NL

Follows the announcement of excellent EU pivotal trial data highlighting the transformative potential of aXess in hemodialysis treatment

European market approval and US pre-market approval of aXess expected in 2026

EINDHOVEN, Netherlands, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Xeltis, a leading developer of transformative implants that enable the natural creation of living and long-lasting vessels, today announces that it has secured nearly 50m of new financing, consisting of up to 37.5m from the EIB, supported under the European Commission's Invest EU programme, and 10m from existing investors, including EQT, investing from its LSP Health Economics Fund 2, and Invest-NL. The proceeds raised will be used to advance aXess into commercialization, including upscaling production and hiring, and supporting the continued development of its broader pipeline.

The financing follows the announcement of exceptional clinical data from Xeltis' EU pivotal trial investigating the patency, safety, and performance of aXess in adult patients with end-stage renal disease requiring vascular access to start or maintain hemodialysis therapy. The study successfully met its primary endpoints, demonstrating standout sustained patency rates and significant improvements across all key measures, such as reduced infection rates and fewer interventions, compared to standard of care. A US pivotal trial for aXess is also well underway, and is heading towards pre-market approval, with interim data expected in 2026.

Together, these results and the investment from the EIB, position Xeltis to advance confidently toward commercialization, bringing aXess - a revolutionary, first of its kind treatment - to market.

Eliane Schutte, Chief Executive Officer, Xeltis, commented: "We are deeply grateful for the continued support of the EIB and our existing investors and proud of the confidence they have shown in Xeltis at this key moment for the company. The EU pivotal trial for aXess has delivered exceptional data, and with this new financing, we now have both the validation and resources to move forward toward commercialization. We are now looking to expand our production facilities and hire the critical staff that we will need to bring aXess to the market and transform vascular access treatment for hemodialysis patients."

Robert de Groot, Vice President, European Investment Bank, said: "Xeltis is at the cutting-edge of their field, directly contributing to improved outcomes for dialysis and cardiovascular patients. As such, we are proud to back Xeltis with 37.5m of venture debt, helping it move from breakthrough science to real world treatment across Europe. This partnership shows how targeted European innovation investment accelerates medical progress and strengthens Europe's MedTech leadership."

Alexander Goemans, Chief Financial Officer, Xeltis, added: "The EIB is a valued partner for Xeltis and we sincerely appreciate their ongoing support. Momentum is building rapidly, and the EIB's commitment, along with the continued support of our existing investors, provides a strong foundation for Xeltis to move confidently towards commercialization."

The financing will also be used to further develop Xeltis' broader pipeline of transformative implants, developed using Xeltis' proprietary Endogenous Tissue Restoration (ETR) platform technology, which incorporates Nobel-prize winning breakthroughs in PFAS free polymer technology. Xabg, Xeltis' coronary artery bypass conduit and second product in clinical development, has demonstrated exceptionally positive 24-month follow-up results, outcomes unprecedented for an artificial bypass surgery conduit. Xeltis is also making significant progress across other indications in its pipeline.

Notes to Editors

About Xeltis

Xeltis is a medtech company developing transformative implants that enable the natural creation of living and long-lasting vessels. Xeltis seeks to address the limitations of currently available options for the millions of people requiring hemodialysis access grafts or cardiovascular replacements every year. The Company's proprietary endogenous tissue restoration (ETR) platform utilizes an advanced polymer implant which regenerates the patient's own tissue before gradually being absorbed and leaving new, living, and long-lasting vessels in place. Xeltis' most advanced product currently under clinical development is aXessTM, an implantable blood vessel for hemodialysis vascular access. Xeltis' groundbreaking technology has high potential to be applied to other major vascular and cardiovascular diseases.

Xeltis is based in The Netherlands and the USA. Its investors include DaVita Venture Group, EQT Life Sciences, Kurma Partners, VI Partners, Ysios Capital, Grand Pharma Group, the European Innovation Council and Invest-NL, in addition to other public and private investors.

Visit the Xeltis website for more details: https://xeltis.com/

EIB

The European Investment Bank (ElB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. The EIB finances investments in eight core priorities that support EU policy objectives: climate action and the environment, digitalisation and technological innovation, security and defence, cohesion, agriculture and the bioeconomy, social infrastructure, a stronger Europe in a more peaceful and prosperous world and Europe's capital markets union.?? The EIB Group, which includes the European Investment Fund (EIF), signed nearly 89bn in new financing for over 900 high-impact projects in 2024, boosting Europe's competitiveness and security.????Approximately half of the EIB's financing within the EU targets cohesion regions, where per-capita income is below the EU average, while almost 60% of annual EIB Group investments support climate action and environmental sustainability.

Through the TechEU programme, the EIB Group is further stepping up support for innovators, making it easier and faster for pioneering companies like Xeltis to access the financing they need to grow and lead in Europe. With this initiative EIB Group is set to provide 70bn in financing throughout the EU, mobilising up to 250bn in investments into Europe's future prosperity and resilience.

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The innovative approach works from the inside of the stomach to help reduce hunger and to support weight loss

Just a few months after the world's first Gastric Mucosal Ablation (GMA) case using MOVIVA at the Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli in Rome, clinical experience is rapidly expanding across Europe. With around 80 procedures performed within a short timeframe in eight countries, MOVIVA is helping to establish a new era of endoscopic bariatric treatment offering a less invasive option as obesity rates continue to rise worldwide.

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GMA with MOVIVA

A promising alternative for bariatric patients: GMA with MOVIVA

GMA is an incisionless, minimally invasive endoscopic procedure. It targets the gastric fundus, the main site of ghrelin production the so-called hunger hormone. By reducing ghrelin levels, patients experience less hunger. At the same time, the ablated tissue shrinks the fundus, which reduces stomach capacity. Together, these effects can support controlled weight reduction.

MOVIVA is a dedicated hybrid probe developed specifically for GMA. It combines high-pressure, needle-free injection to create a protective submucosal fluid cushion with superficial thermal ablation via argon plasma coagulation (APC). MOVIVA's dedicated moveAPD mode ensures broad and consistent argon plasma coagulation. Another strength of MOVIVA lies in its enhanced injection capabilities, particularly in tangential positions, which are often challenging in endoscopic settings.

According to Prof. Ivo Boskoski, who led the first case in Rome: "Minimally invasive endoscopic techniques that target appetite regulation through precise ablation of the gastric fundus offer patients an effective pathway to weight loss without the risks associated with surgery. MOVIVA's innovative injection and ablation capabilities simplify the GMA procedure and could set a new standard in endoscopic bariatric care."

GMA can be performed as a stand-alone treatment or in combination with Endoscopic Sleeve Gastroplasty (ESG). In combination with ESG, the approach achieves weight loss outcomes comparable to vertical sleeve gastrectomy, while being less invasive.

"MOVIVA sets new standards by addressing ghrelin, the hunger hormone, and has been shown to effectively manage hunger and cravings, supporting weight loss in people living with obesity. We are really looking forward to the commercial launch of MOVIVA in 2026," says Marcus Felstead, Chief Commercial Officer at Erbe Elektromedizin.

MOVIVA is currently available in CE and CE-related markets.

Register for the free webinar "Advancing bariatric endoscopy"

Join Prof. Ivo Boskoski, MD, Christopher McGowan, MD and Abdullah AlMousa, MD on 11 December for a live online session on the latest developments in bariatric endoscopy and GMA with MOVIVA: Webinar Registration Zoom [https://erbe-med.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_10nhAgt8TlOR4eu5qf51ZQ#/registration].

About Erbe Elektromedizin

Erbe Elektromedizin develops, manufactures, and distributes surgical instruments and devices worldwide, while providing services for professional use of these products in a diverse range of medical disciplines. Surgeons, OR teams and patients around the world rely on Erbe medical technology. The surgical instruments and devices find use in almost all specialist areas. They are based on electrosurgery combined with other Erbe technologies. Hybrid solutions enable us to provide new, innovative applications in medicine.

Fields of activity

Imaging

Endoscopy

Electrosurgery

Plasma surgery

Thermofusion

Hydrosurgery

Cryo technology

An international network

20 international sales and service units

5 production sites

Erbe is active in 110 international markets.

The Erbe workforce

2,100 employees worldwide

Some 1,100 of them in Germany

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Contacts:

Erbe Elektromedizin GmbH

Waldhoernlestrasse 17

72072 Tuebingen

erbegroup.com

info@erbegroup.com

Editorial contact

Lisa Viergutz

Phone +49 7071 755-2731

lisa.viergutz@erbegroup.com
2025 has been a transformative year for global technology. Rapid deployment of advanced connectivity infrastructure, AI-driven solutions and increased focus on data sovereignty have all redefined how enterprises operate.

Looking ahead, 2026 promises another fast-paced year of change. Expereo's leadership team shares their predictions on the technology trends that will most influence business strategy, decision-making and resilience in the year ahead.

Security Moves to the Top of the C-Suite Agenda

After several high-profile outages in 2025, enterprise leaders are placing security and resilience at the forefront of their priorities. Ben Elms, CEO at Expereo, explains why:

"CEOs are feeling more pressure than ever when it comes to security and resilience. The threat landscape has become too complex, too targeted and too relentless for reactive strategies.

"Cybercriminals are increasingly going after executives directly, exploiting devices, accounts and personal data to bypass corporate defences. CEOs can no longer delegate responsibility when it comes to security, they must embed digital security into every decision and across every layer of the business. Companies that fail to protect both their people and their systems will face immediate financial, reputational and operational consequences."

NaaS Moves Into the Mainstream

Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) is poised to become a core component of enterprise connectivity strategies. Julian Skeels, CDO at Expereo, highlights its strategic significance:

"In 2026, NaaS will no longer be a niche concept, it will be a cornerstone of enterprise connectivity strategies.

"As organisations embrace cloud-native architectures, hybrid work and AI-driven automation, NaaS delivers the flexibility and security, technology leaders need to remain competitive. Moving from Capital expenditure-heavy models to flexible, subscription-based services isn't just a cost decision, but a strategic shift that enables CIOs and CTOs to focus on experience and policy, rather than infrastructure. In a world where the network truly becomes the computer, NaaS is the future."

Connectivity Becomes a Strategic Priority

Reliable connectivity is no longer a background concern it is a key business differentiator. Jean-Philippe Avelange, CIO at Expereo, explains the impact for 2026:

"Connectivity is no longer a background service it's now a boardroom issue. By 2026, a single outage could wipe out billions in market value and trigger extremely public and disruptive scandals. Networks have often been overlooked, only drawing attention when a failure causes significant disruption.

"In a cloud-first economy, resilience isn't optional it's a measure of leadership credibility. Global CIOs will be expected to set direction for businesses to take particularly when it comes to maintaining resilience and competitiveness through connectivity and AI. CEOs and boards must learn to recognise that digital infrastructure is now a strategic asset, not an IT afterthought."

Data Sovereignty Shapes APAC Strategies

In APAC, regulatory requirements will increasingly shape IT and cloud strategies. Eric Wong, President of APAC at Expereo, emphasises the need for tailored approaches:

"In 2026, regulatory break-up will hinder global-first transformation projects. With India's DPDPA mandating in-country data storage and Vietnam's PDPL taking full effect on January 1, the global-first cloud strategy is no longer practical. Geopatriation will force CIOs to adopt hybrid, in-country architectures, dividing their global IT footprint as a result digital sovereignty will continue to impact enterprise's infrastructure strategy on a global scale. Enterprises must find partners who can navigate this regulatory maze effectively, because failure to comply with local data laws is no longer just a business risk, it will become a direct barrier to market access and revenue."

2026: The Year Enterprises Must Adapt or Get Left Behind

As 2025 draws to a close, one thing is clear: technology is no longer just an enabler it is central to business resilience, credibility, and competitiveness.

From the rise of NaaS to the increasing scrutiny of connectivity and security, 2026 will challenge leaders to embed responsiveness, resilience, and trust into every layer of their digital strategy. The companies that act decisively now will define the next era of global business.

About Expereo

Expereo is a world-leading Managed Network as a Service provider that connects people, places, and things anywhere. Solutions include Global Internet, SD-WAN/SASE, and Enhanced Internet. With an extensive global reach, Expereo is the trusted partner of 60% of Fortune 500 companies. It powers enterprise and government sites in more than 190 countries, with the ability to connect to any location worldwide, working with over 2,300 partners to help customers improve productivity and empowering their networks and cloud services with the agility, flexibility, and value of the Internet, with optimal network performance.

Expereo was acquired in Feb 2021, by Vitruvian Partners which acquired a majority shareholding from Seven2.

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Contacts:

Scarlett King

+44 7534252295
PARIS, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Three companies owned by groupe Dubreuil - French bee, Air Caraibes, and Air Caraibes Atlantique, have selected IBS Software to transform flight operations and crew management, through its iFlight Core solution.

The partnership with IBS Software, a leading SaaS solutions provider to the travel industry globally, will see this airline group replace their fragmented legacy IT infrastructure with the integrated, cloud-based iFlight Core platform. They will unify operations across both regional and long-haul operations, spanning the USA, Indian Ocean, Pacific, French West indies and more largely the Caribbean regions. Air Caraibes and French bee will be among Europe's first multi-AOC airlines to deploy unified, AI enhanced operations management, at scale.

The implementation of advanced crew planning tools will boost operational stability across all three companies. The solution will also enable data-driven decision making, and shall enhance satisfaction for pilots, cabin crew and controllers operating across multiple time zones and operational models.

Through iFlight Core, IBS Software will deliver an integrated, expandable platform built on modern cloud architecture. The system's comprehensive API framework enables seamless connectivity with Air Caraibes and French bee's ecosystem partners ensuring optimal compatibility throughout the airline group's operations.

The solution's open architecture specifically supports Air Caraibes and French bee's hybrid operational model, accommodating both leg-based and pairing-based crew planning approaches across their diverse route networks, from short-haul Caribbean routes to long-haul transoceanic operations.

"Pooling flight operations and crew management across French bee, Air Caraibes, and Air Caraibes Atlantique through a single, modern platform represents a strategic milestone in our digital transformation journey," states Paul-Henri Dubreuil, Chairman of the Board at groupe Dubreuil and at Groupe Dubreuil Aero. "IBS Software's collaborative approach and iFlight Core's ability to integrate with specialized eco-system partners shall give us the flexibility to optimize operations while maintaining the distinct characteristics that make each of our airlines successful."

"Our partnership with the airlines of Group Dubreuil Aero demonstrates how modern, unified solutions can serve complex, multi-airline operations across diverse markets,"commented Ben Simmons, SVP and Regional Head Europe & Africa at IBS Software. "Supporting airlines such as French bee and Air Caraibes aiming to enhance their crew efficiency, reduce operational costs and increase competitiveness with iFlight Core is a privilege for us."

This partnership marks a significant milestone for iFlight Core's market expansion, and the second major European airline group partnership.

iFlight Core is the first purpose-built platform targeted at agile, resource-efficient small and mid-sized airlines, delivering measurable value and preparing carriers for a future of intelligent, data-driven processes.

To learn more about IBS Software's iFlight Core platform, visit https://www.ibsplc.com/product/airline-operations-solutions/iflight-core.

About Group Dubreuil Aero

Group Dubreuil Aero - the aviation branch of a French family-owned group - is operating three distinct airlines and company brands: French bee (long-haul low-cost), Air Caraibes (regional Caribbean operations) and Air Caraibes Atlantique (operating business and leisure long-haul for Air Caraibes). Based in France with main operations in the French Caribbean, North America and Indian Pacific, the group focuses on operational excellence and passenger-centric service across diverse market segments.

Group Dubreuil Aero's growth strategy emphasizes digital transformation and optimized operations management, positioning the group as an agile competitor in its markets. Through strategic technology partnerships and investment in modern, integrated infrastructure, Group Dubreuil Aero is investing for long-term growth and operational excellence across its portfolio. For more information, visit [www.groupedubreuil.com]

About IBS SOFTWARE

IBS Software is a leading SaaS solutions provider to the travel industry globally, managing mission-critical operations for customers in the aviation, tour & cruise, hospitality, and energy resources industries. IBS Software's solutions for the aviation industry cover fleet & crew operations, aircraft maintenance, retailing solutions, passenger services, loyalty programs, staff travel, and air cargo management. Across the hospitality sector, IBS Software offers a cloud-native, unified platform for hotels and travel sellers, including central reservation (CRS), property management (PMS), revenue management (RMS), call centre, booking engine, loyalty, and distribution. For the tour & cruise industry, IBS provides a comprehensive, customer-centric, digital platform that covers onshore, online and on-board solutions. Across the energy & resources industry, we provide logistics management solutions that cover logistics planning, operations & accommodation management. The Consulting and Digital Transformation (CDx) business focuses on driving digital transformation initiatives of its customers, leveraging its domain knowledge, digital technologies and engineering excellence. IBS Software operates from 17 offices across the world.

Further information can be found at www.ibsplc.com Follow us: Blog | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram

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BARCELONA, Spain, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Alimentaria+Hostelco, the leading international platform for food, beverages, food service and hospitality equipment, and one of the main international benchmarks for the sector, will return to Fira de Barcelona's Gran Via venue from 23 to 26 March 2026, with a 41% increase in the space of international participation compared with the previous edition. More than 3,300 companies will take part as exhibitors, including nearly 1,000 international firms from more than 70 countries, with particularly strong representation from European, Asian and Latin American markets.

With just over four months to go before Alimentaria+Hostelco 2026, nearly 1,000 international companies have already confirmed their participation. They account for more than 30% of all exhibitors and represent an 11% increase compared with the previous edition. In addition, the exhibition space allocated to these companies is increasing by 41%.

Italy again leads international participation with more than 200 firms. Following Italy, the countries with the highest number of exhibitors will be Poland, China, Turkey, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, France, the Netherlands and Greece.

According to J. Antonio Valls, managing director of Alimentaria Exhibitions, the company of Fira de Barcelona organizer of Alimentaria+Hostelco, "The increase in international participation confirms that the show remains a global benchmark, able to attract the world's leading producers and exporters and generate new business opportunities for the food industry as a whole".

Alimentaria+Hostelco estimates that 25% of the more than 110,000 visitors expected for the next edition will come from abroad. To promote business opportunities in foreign markets, the event has a major buyer invitation programme through which it will bring together more than 1,500 importers, distributors, directors and international purchasing managers from more than 80 countries of strategic importance for exhibitors.

The programme aims to connect the sector's main decision-makers: importers, distributors and Horeca operators across hotels, restaurants, retail, cruises and travel services, both in Spain and internationally. One of the event's core features is the matchmaking meetings between invited buyers and exhibitors, which are expected 14,000.

In addition, the event will welcome buyers and importers from the United States, Mexico, China and Hong Kong, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, South Korea, Singapore, Germany and Chile, followed by the main destination markets for Spanish exports in Europe and Latin America.

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Escalent study reveals one in three car buyers regards Tesla brand as mainstream rather than premium

Chinese car brands enjoy growing consumer trust, confidence and interest

LONDON, Dec. 02, 2025reveal that Tesla, once a symbol of market disruption and battery electric vehicle (BEV) innovation, is losing its appeal among new-car buyers in Europe as a wave of Chinese entrants reshapes the car market.

While Tesla's advanced technology, design and BEV charging infrastructure set it apart in a market dominated by legacy players, Escalent's 2025 EVForward Europe Tesla Brand Sentiment Studyshows that the brand's appeal is fading. Sentiment towards Tesla among new-car buyers overall is now more negative than positive, with 38% agreeing that the brand's novelty has worn off. Almost half (44%) disagree that the number of people they see driving a Tesla makes them more likely to buy one.

Although it still leads on charging infrastructure and charging speed, Tesla trails competitors on design, quality and emotional appeal-the traits that made it disruptive almost two decades ago. One-third of buyers agree that 'compared to other brands, it is not as far ahead as it used to be' while a further 26% believe Tesla products are not as competitive. Tesla's positioning is also under threat, with one in three buyers now regarding the brand as mainstream rather than premium.

Perception of Chinese BEV Brands Jumps Among New-Car Buyers

As the shine fades for Tesla, momentum for Chinese automakers is growing, according to the second edition of Escalent's Chinese Automotive Brand Impact Study, which highlights how quickly perceptions are shifting among European consumers.

The study of 1,600+ new-car buyers in Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK) shows that in terms of consumer consideration to buy cars from brands based in other countries, automakers from Germany (89%) and Japan (76%) dominate, followed by France (69%). Jumping 16% year-on-year, cars from China have the biggest increase in consideration, from 31% last year to 47% in 2025.

Trustworthiness in Chinese brands has also improved, rising from 22% in 2024 to 28% in 2025. BYD ranks eighth overall among all brands measured for 'moving in a positive direction', behind well-established auto brands such as Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Toyota, while Tesla sits in 50th place. Chinese brands such as BYD, Zeekr and Leapmotor are closing the gap on innovation and quality, often matching or surpassing European cars in technology, software and design, but at significantly lower prices.

Commenting on the two studies, Mark Carpenter, managing director of Automotive & Mobility Europe at Escalent, said, 'Once a badge of progressiveness, the Tesla brand now risks being seen as uninspiring and faces the same complacency that it once disrupted.'

'In our first Chinese Auto Brand Impact report in 2024, we highlighted that attitudes to Chinese cars were starting to change, but that price was a critical motivator, turning consumers from "biased to buyer" with little effort. But it's clear from our latest data that these brands are now making significant inroads in a short period of time. From being some way behind, Chinese car brands are accelerating into consumers' hearts and minds with consideration higher than ever. While this comes at the expense of a public cooling of positive feeling towards Tesla, it's also putting pressure on established brands in Europe that have dominated but are at risk of declining market share.'

Faced with a triple threat-electrification, new business models and shifting consumer expectations-Carpenter warned that traditional automakers need to do more than just electrify existing nameplates if they want to maintain their leadership. 'European automakers need to be daring and come up with something bold and innovative, and they need to justify their premium pricing through genuine technological and design leadership. The road ahead demands both courage and creativity. Standing still is no longer an option.'

Additional Data and Insights

Evaluating Tesla against other mainstream and premium brands

Escalent asked car buyers to evaluate Tesla against other specific brands in head-to-head comparisons and indicate whether they consider Tesla or the other brand to be better across a range of vehicle characteristics. Owners of premium vehicles evaluated Tesla against premium car brands such as Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, while mainstream car owners compared Tesla with mainstream brands such as Hyundai, Kia, Nissan and Peugeot.

Nearly 60% of premium vehicle owners consider German premium brands to have better interior and exterior vehicle styling and better build quality.

When compared with mainstream brands, Tesla competes better. Although mainstream owners consider Tesla to have better in-vehicle technology and charging speed compared with other mainstream brands, Tesla still trails mainstream brands on interior and exterior styling as well as build quality.





Perceptions of Chinese vehicle origin are evolving

When consumers realise established names such as Volvo, MG or Smart are Chinese-owned, interest dips slightly. Yet when new Chinese brands are introduced and their origin revealed, appeal increases. This suggests growing confidence in Chinese engineering and design, especially when the product stands on its own merits.

According to Escalent's research, 42% of consumers indicate that Chinese ownership of a European car brand 'doesn't matter as long as the product quality is good'.





For information on Escalent Automotive & Mobility market research and insights, visit: https://escalent.co/industries/automotive-and-mobility/

About Escalent's Chinese Automotive Brand Impact Study-Second Edition

Escalent's second edition of its Chinese Automotive Brand Impact Study was conducted across a market-representative sample of 1,692 respondents ages 18 to 80 with a primary vehicle model 2017 or newer and who are planning to purchase a new vehicle within the next five years. The respondents were from five European countries: Italy (n=353), Spain (n=348), France (n=343), Germany (n=330) and the United Kingdom (n=318). The survey was fielded from 21 May to 31 July 2025. Data were weighted by age and gender to match the demographics of the new-vehicle buyer population and by vehicle segment to match current vehicle sales. The sample for this research comes from an opt-in, online panel. As such, any reported margins of error or significance tests are estimated and rely on the same statistical assumptions as data collected from a random probability sample. Escalent will supply the exact wording of any survey question upon request.

About Escalent's EVForward Europe Tesla Brand Sentiment Study

The EVForward Europe Tesla Brand Sentiment Study was conducted across five European countries: France (n=433), Italy (n=430), Germany (n=418), the United Kingdom (n=417) and Spain (n=401). The study included a survey that was fielded in April and May 2025. The respondents were ages 18 to 80 with a primary vehicle model 2019 or newer and planning to purchase a new vehicle within the next five years. Data were weighted by age and gender to match the demographics of the new-vehicle buyer population and by vehicle segment to match current vehicle sales. The sample for this research comes from an opt-in, online panel. As such, any reported margins of error or significance tests are estimated and rely on the same statistical assumptions as data collected from a random probability sample. Escalent will supply the exact wording of any survey question upon request.

About Escalent

Escalent is an award-winning data analytics and advisory firm specialising in industries facing disruption and business transformation. As catalysts of progress for more than 40 years, we accelerate growth by creating a seamless flow between primary, secondary, syndicated, and internal business data, providing consulting and advisory services from insights through implementation. We are 1,600 team members strong, following the acquisition of C Space and Hall & Partners in April 2023. Escalent is headquartered in Michigan, United States, with locations across the US and in Australia, Canada, China, India, Ireland, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, UAE and the UK.

Visit escalent.co to see how we are helping shape the brands that are reshaping the world.

For further information, please contact:

Amanda Hassall

Eureka Communications

M: amanda@eurekacomms.co.uk

Tel: +44(0)1420 564346

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4a303a46-e0ad-4b36-958f-cef6fdc2df51
Assays are still pending for 70 holes from this year's exploration campaign, of which 55 (representing 79% of the total pending) contain up to 12 occurrences of visible gold to the naked eye (VG-NE); see images and table below. Four accompanying infographics are available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/648a0019-0487-4843-9eea-5e385eb74e29

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/40967cab-ddb9-40b8-b0df-d6eed1fae6ea

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1eb0838d-5b84-4770-8bf0-86f4d39830cf

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c6b6c798-36c8-4c07-9e2a-6729c125badc



The high-grade gold-mineralization seen in the Bonanza Zone (a series of stacked veins dipping to the southeast) has been expanded by drilling to 1.25 km along its east-west orientation that remains open for expansion, and to the northwest where Bonanza extends for 580 meters that also remains open for expansion. Continuity of strong gold mineralization (as can be seen in the widespread distribution of VG-NE heat map below), has also been confirmed by drilling in the higher up Surebet Zone (a series of stacked veins dipping to the southwest) that extends for 1.2 km in a southwest-northeast direction and remains open for expansion. Desirable continuity, widths and grades demonstrated by drilling in multiple lodes shows this extensive 1.8 km 2 gold system continues to demonstrate strong potential to become one of the most significant gold discoveries in British Columbia's Golden Triangle in many years. Positive results received to date vector to targets that remain open with excellent expansion potential.

An accompanying infographic is available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2115fbc6-cd83-47bd-8421-b3bc417da309



Drill hole GD-25-383 intersected 7.28 g/t Au over 8.00 meters, within 5.85 g/t Au over 10.00 meters. The same interval also includes 9.20 g/t over 5.92 meters as well as 12.75 g/t Au over 4.02 meters, containing multiple occurrences of VG-NE within an Eocene-aged Reduced Intrusion Related Gold (RIRG) dyke that remains open. The intercepts are approximately true width, and these assays reflect gold only (AuEq value in the interval will be adjusted accordingly once Ag, Cu, Pb and Zn are received); see image below. An accompanying infographic is available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cf41605b-483a-4c68-9e04-4e091f0dc7ef

Drill hole GD-25-311 intersected two gold-rich veins, including 15.13 g/t Au over 3 meters from a section of quartz-sulphide veining with multiple occurrences of VG-NE corresponding to the Bonanza Zone that remains open, as well as 2.6 g/t Au over 4.01 meters corresponding to the Surebet Zone that remains open. The intercepts are approximately true width, and these assays reflect gold only (AuEq value in the interval will be adjusted accordingly once Ag, Cu, Pb and Zn are received); see image below. Three accompanying infographics are available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a1534009-6472-4d37-8de5-cf11e4b4e857

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/fae6ef9d-3c71-4f33-8972-0353ad39ea14

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8a3279ab-b7ba-4577-8e23-d61734fdf4f4



Drill hole GD-25-370 intersected three gold-rich veins in the Bonanza Zone that remains open assayed up to 5.66 g/t Au over 5.05 meters, including 9.24 g/t Au over 3.05 meters from a zone of strong quartz sulphide veining and breccia with numerous occurrences of VG-NE. The intercepts are approximately true width, and these assays reflect gold only (AuEq value in the interval will be adjusted accordingly once Ag, Cu, Pb and Zn are received); see image below.

Two accompanying infographics are available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/982d4f1b-72b9-42ad-8867-295a273b86d7 https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0341525c-7912-40d3-bfce-bfaa645762c7





Drill hole GD-25-387 intersected 4.05 g/t Au over 6.13 meters, including 5.36 g/t Au over 4.15 meters from a zone containing substantial quartz-sulphide mineralization corresponding to the Bonanza Zone that remains open. The intercepts are approximately true width, and these assays reflect gold only (AuEq value in the interval will be adjusted accordingly once Ag, Cu, Pb and Zn are received); see image below. An accompanying infographic is available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/769b6ea1-9e76-4344-b253-25bfb714c0e9

Drill hole GD-25-385 intersected 6.59 g/t Au over 4 meters, including 8.4 g/t Au over 3.13 meters from a series of quartz-sulphide veins and breccias belonging to the Surebet Zone that remains open. The intercepts are approximately true width, and these assays reflect gold only (AuEq value in the interval will be adjusted accordingly once Ag, Cu, Pb and Zn are received).



Drill hole GD-25-398 intersected two gold rich veins corresponding to the Bonanza Zone that remains open. The first interval assayed 5.41 g/t Au over 4.64 meters within 3.73 g/t Au over 6.77 meters and the second interval assayed 2.68 g/t Au over 3.00 meters. These intercepts are approximately true width, and these assays reflect gold only (AuEq value in the interval will be adjusted accordingly once Ag, Cu, Pb and Zn are received).

Drill hole GD-25-378 intersected two gold rich veins. The first assayed 4.83 g/t Au over 4.54 meters, including 6.28 g/t Au over 3.44 meters part of the Bonanza Zone that remains open where multiple occurrences of VG-NE were observed. The second interval was in the Surebet Zone that remains open that assayed 2.49 g/t Au over 9.12 meters. The intercepts are approximately true width, and these assays reflect gold only (AuEq value in the interval will be adjusted accordingly once Ag, Cu, Pb and Zn are received).

Drill hole GD-25-410 intersected 4.18 g/t Au over 5.14 meters, including 5.28 g/t Au over 4.06 meters in an interval of strong quartz-sulphide mineralization containing multiple occurrences of VG-NE located in the eastern most part of the system which extends the Bonanza Zone to 1.25 km and remains open. The intercepts are approximately true width, and these assays reflect gold only (AuEq value in the interval will be adjusted accordingly once Ag, Cu, Pb and Zn are received).

Drill hole GD-25-356 intersected part of the Bonanza Zone that remains open where multiple occurrences of VG-NE have been observed in an interval that assayed 4.98 g/t over 3.87 meters. The intercepts are approximately true width, and these assays reflect gold only (AuEq value in the interval will be adjusted accordingly once Ag, Cu, Pb and Zn are received).

Drill hole GD-25-376 intersected 4.32 g/t Au over 4.2 meters, including 5.47 g/t Au over 3.2 meters corresponding to the Surebet Zone that remains open where multiple occurrences of VG-NE were observed, as well as 3.55 g/t Au over 3.93 meters corresponding to the Bonanza Zone that remains open. The intercepts are approximately true width, and these assays reflect gold only (AuEq value in the interval will be adjusted accordingly once Ag, Cu, Pb and Zn are received).

High-grade gold has been identified in three distinct rock packages discovered to date at the Surebet Discovery. This includes the gently dipping gold-rich stacked quartz-sulphide breccias/stockwork veins; the gold-rich intermediate to felsic Eocene-aged Reduced Intrusive Related Gold (RIRG) dykes; and the recently discovered broad gold-rich zones of calc-silicate altered breccia. All mineralized rock types contain substantial amounts of VG-NE (from fine-grained to coarse-grained gold) and remain open for expansion. This confirms the presence of a Motherlode magmatic source at depth, a causative intrusion responsible for the extensive 1.8 km 2 high-grade gold system at Surebet.

The recently completed 2025 drill campaign significantly exceeded the initial plans of 40,000 meters for a total of 64,364 meters of systematic drilling with 9 drill rigs. 100% of the drilling was focused on the Surebet Discovery, where the Company designed a detailed campaign that tested for the Motherlode intrusive gold source, the mineralized RIRG Eocene-aged dykes, infill drilling within the known stacked veins, as well as expanding the known mineralized veins laterally and to depth.

100% of the drill holes completed to date on Surebet have intersected substantial quartz-sulphide mineralization. VG-NE was observed in 83 drill holes out of 110 (or 76%) completed in 2025. 92% of the holes (355 out of 386) drilled to date at the Surebet Discovery contain VG-NE (see heat map below). An accompanying infographic is available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2c6f1ddb-2fa2-4f6c-8841-a483b7e87fc9



The Surebet Discovery has widespread drill holes representing more than 600 pierce points over an area of 1.8 km2 within 12 gold-mineralized veins, returning high metal values showing it has the potential to become one of the most significant gold discoveries in British Columbia's Golden Triangle in many years.



TORONTO, Dec. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Goliath Resources Limited (TSX-V: GOT) (OTCQB: GOTRF) (FSE: B4IF) (the "Company" or "Goliath") is pleased to announce 10 additional assay results from its 2025 drill program where drill hole GD-25-383 intersected 7.28 g/t Au over 8.00 meters, within 5.85 g/t Au over 10.00 meters in Eocene-aged granitoid dyke. The same interval also includes 9.20 g/t over 5.92 meters as well as 12.75 g/t Au over 4.02 meters, containing multiple occurrences of VG-NE that remains open at the Surebet Discovery on its 100% controlled Golddigger Property (the "Property"), Golden Triangle, British Columbia. Assays are still pending for 70 holes from this year's exploration campaign, of which 55 (representing 79% of the pending holes) contain up to 12 occurrences of VG-NE; see images above and table below.

The high-grade gold-mineralization seen in the Bonanza Zone has been expanded by drilling to 1.25 km along its east-west orientation that remains open for expansion, and also to the northwest where Bonanza extends for 580 meters and remains open for expansion. Continuity of strong gold mineralization has also been confirmed by drilling in the higher up Surebet Zone that extends for 1.2 km in a southwest-northeast direction and remains open for expansion. The continuity, widths and grades demonstrated by drilling in multiple lodes shows this extensive 1.8 km2 gold system continues to demonstrate strong potential to become one of the most significant gold discoveries in British Columbia's Golden Triangle in many years. The strong results received to date vector to targets that remain open with excellent expansion potential.

The strong gold-mineralization in the Bonanza Zone has been expanded in the third dimension to 1.25 km along its east-west orientation, while the northwest extent of 580 meters has been confirmed with additional drill holes in the third dimension and remains open, the series of stacked veins (at the Bonanza Zone and Surebet Zone) has a vertical relief of 800 meters and contains widespread VG-NE. Continuity of strong gold mineralization has been confirmed in the Surebet Zone that extends for 1.2 km in a southwest-northeast direction and remains open. The continued extent, continuity and grade of mineralization in the Surebet System shows it has the potential to become one of the most significant gold discoveries in British Columbia's Golden Triangle in many years, providing for strong expansion potential in 2026. Remaining drill results from the 2025 drill season have the potential to provide desirable widths, grades and continuity observed thus far.

100% of the drill holes completed to date on Surebet have intersected substantial quartz-sulphide mineralization as well as 83 of the 110 drill holes (or 76%) from 2025 contain gold visible to the naked eye (VG-NE) clearly demonstrating the discovery potential remaining on the property.

Dr. Quinton Hennigh, Geologic & Technical Advisor to Crescat Capital, a strategic investor in Goliath, states: "With every newly reported gold intercept, the picture that is emerging at Goliath's Surebet project is continually being enhanced with respect to both consistency and scale of this remarkable quartz-sulfide lode system. Over and over, we are seeing strong gold grades across stout lode thickness, commonly exceeding 4 meters true width. This bodes well for potentially employing bulk, cost effective mining techniques. Also important, given that the Surebet gold system is comprised of a network of stacked quartz-sulfide lodes, tonnages can build up quickly with these sorts of lode thicknesses. Updated models of the Surebet lode network such as those presented in this news release illustrate this potential quite well. The 2025 drill program continues to strengthen the Surebet story in every respect."

Mr. Roger Rosmus, Founder & CEO of Goliath states: ""The Surebet discovery is rapidly emerging as a high-grade gold system in the Golden Triangle. As can be seen by the widespread VG-NE over a vast area, contained within a series of stacked, gently dipping veins that remain open and are expanding with every drill hole. One series of stacked veins in the Surebet Zone dip in the southwest direction, while the series of stacked veins at the Bonanza Zone dip in the southeast direction. Which opens up the possibility that they are coming from two separate sources approximately 4,000 metres, or more, apart. Additionally, the vertical RIRG Eocene-aged dykes could be coming off a large magma chamber underlying the entire gold mineralizing system. In future drilling we need to continue following the Surebet Zone stacked veins to the southwest and the Bonanza Zone to the southeast, plus explore deeper for the magmatic source to determine if there are more than one source or one common source. What we have discovered through drilling, so far, is located within a mountain and as we follow the high-grade gold system deeper we can drill from the valley floor to drill for the source of the stacked gently dipping veins and vertical RIRG Eocene-aged dykes. Another exciting element is that at the top of the mountain the VG-NE is fine-grained and sporadic, it then quickly transitions into abundant fine-grained VG-NE, then deeper transitions into coarse-grained and abundant VG-NE. Which helps us to follow the system deeper for the source to assess the abundance of coarse-grained VG-NE. More work is needed to expand toward the limits of the various zones, but our team couldn't be more enthusiastic with what we have found which is emerging as a rare high-grade gold discovery. Once we have all the assays from this year's campaign, we will continue to update our 3D models along with advanced analysis at the Colorado School of Mines. We believe the Surebet discovery continues to demonstrate it's quickly becoming one of the most significant high-grade gold discoveries in British Columbia's Golden Triangle in many years."

Drill hole GD-25-383 intersected 7.28 g/t Au over 8.00 meters, within 5.85 g/t Au over 10.00 meters. The same interval also includes 9.20 g/t over 5.92 meters as well as 12.75 g/t Au over 4.02 meters, containing multiple occurrences of VG-NE within an Eocene-aged Reduced Intrusion Related Gold (RIRG) dyke that remains open. Drill hole GD-25-311 intersected multiple gold-rich veins, including 15.13 g/t Au over 3 meters from a section of quartz-sulphide veining with multiple occurrences of VG-NE corresponding to the Bonanza Zone that remains open, as well as 2.6 g/t Au over 4.01 meters corresponding to the Surebet Zone that remains open. Drill hole GD-25-370 intersected the Bonanza Zone that remains open in an interval that assayed 5.66 g/t Au over 5.05 meters, including 9.24 g/t Au over 3.05 meters from a zone of strong quartz sulphide veining and breccia with numerous occurrences of VG-NE. Drill hole GD-25-387 intersected 4.05 g/t Au over 6.13 meters, including 5.36 g/t Au over 4.15 meters from a zone containing substantial quartz-sulphide mineralization corresponding to the Bonanza Zone that remains open. Drill hole GD-25-385 intersected 6.59 g/t Au over 4 meters, including 8.4 g/t Au over 3.13 meters from a series of quartz-sulphide veins and breccias belonging to the Surebet Zone that remains open. Drill hole GD-25-398 intersected mineralization corresponding to the Bonanza Zone that remains open in an interval that assayed 5.41 g/t Au over 4.64 meters within 3.73 g/t Au over 6.77 meters. An additional interval of Bonanza Zone mineralization assayed 2.68 g/t Au over 3.00 meters. Drill hole GD-25-378 intersected 4.83 g/t Au over 4.54 meters, including 6.28 g/t Au over 3.44 meters part of the Bonanza Zone that remains open where multiple occurrences of VG-NE were noted. Additionally, gold mineralization was also intercepted in an interval of the Surebet Zone that remains open and assayed 2.49 g/t Au over 9.12 meters. Drill hole GD-25-410 intersected 4.18 g/t Au over 5.14 meters, including 5.28 g/t Au over 4.06 meters in an interval of strong quartz-sulphide mineralization containing multiple occurrences of VG-NE located in the easternmost part of the system which extends the Bonanza Zone to 1.25 km and remains open. Drill hole GD-25-356 intersected part of the Bonanza Zone that remains open where multiple occurrences of VG-NE have been observed in an interval that assayed 4.98 g/t over 3.87 meters. Drill hole GD-25-376 intersected 4.32 g/t Au over 4.2 meters including 5.47 g/t Au over 3.2 meters corresponding to the Surebet Zone that remains open where multiple occurrences of VG-NE were observed, as well as 3.55 g/t Au over 3.93 meters corresponding to the Bonanza Zone that remains open.

All intercepts are approximately true width, and these assays reflect gold only (AuEq value in the interval will be adjusted accordingly once Ag, Cu, Pb and Zn are received). The gold grades, coupled with VG-NE within substantial quartz-sulphide veins, stockworks, and breccias, which are mineralized with sphalerite, pyrrhotite, and chalcopyrite, highlight the potential for further expansion.

Table 1: Collar information for VG-NE drill holes reported in this news release.

Hole ID CRS Easting Northing Elevation (m) Azimuth Dip Length (m) Number of VG-NE occurrences GD-25-102 NAD83 UTM 9N 457699 6162437 1133 230 65 214 5 GD-25-244 NAD83 UTM 9N 457381 6162945 1623 165 80 745 1 GD-25-254 NAD83 UTM 9N 457256 6162711 1474 110 74 828 2 GD-25-267 NAD83 UTM 9N 457938 6162554 1137 195 60 450 1 GD-25-301 NAD83 UTM 9N 457445 6162773 1513 168 58 702 2 GD-25-303 NAD83 UTM 9N 457364 6162754 1508 157 61 676 5 GD-25-305 NAD83 UTM 9N 457447 6162774 1513 155 54 687 2 GD-25-306 NAD83 UTM 9N 457214 6162332 1220 342 58.5 346 4 GD-25-308 NAD83 UTM 9N 457364 6162756 1509 160 67 705 4 GD-25-310 NAD83 UTM 9N 457214 6162332 1219 28 62 509 1 GD-25-312 NAD83 UTM 9N 457365 6162756 1509 150 71 681 5 GD-25-315 NAD83 UTM 9N 457218 6162331 1219 63 63 486 1 GD-25-316 NAD83 UTM 9N 456927 6163020 1651 150 76 723 5 GD-25-319 NAD83 UTM 9N 457365 6162754 1505 141 62 629 3 GD-25-322 NAD83 UTM 9N 457214 6162332 1219 250 70 594 2 GD-25-323 NAD83 UTM 9N 456927 6163020 1652 90 80 620 5 GD-25-325 NAD83 UTM 9N 457365 6162755 1509 128 88 669 3 GD-25-326 NAD83 UTM 9N 457236 6162867 1586 23 80 734 2 GD-25-327 NAD83 UTM 9N 457016 6162593 1388 5 65 459 1 GD-25-329 NAD83 UTM 9N 457444 6162778 1515 330 80 685 1 GD-25-330 NAD83 UTM 9N 457326 6162856 1582 206 73 681 1 GD-25-331 NAD83 UTM 9N 457815 6162506 1144 194 83 360 2 GD-25-333 NAD83 UTM 9N 457365 6162757 1509 127 71 798 4 GD-25-335 NAD83 UTM 9N 457015 6162587 1387 180 60 498 3 GD-25-336 NAD83 UTM 9N 456710 6162961 1639 315 75 606 1 GD-25-339 NAD83 UTM 9N 457236 6162865 1586 120 70 792 3 GD-25-341 NAD83 UTM 9N 456927 6163020 1652 310 75 615 1 GD-25-342 NAD83 UTM 9N 457815 6162511 1146 335.5 70 350 2 GD-25-344 NAD83 UTM 9N 457319 6162857 1585 265 77 705 1 GD-25-348 NAD83 UTM 9N 457413 6163252 1733 115 65 1001 1 GD-25-349 NAD83 UTM 9N 457817 6162512 1145 50 65 756 2 GD-25-351 NAD83 UTM 9N 457235 6162738 1489 170 57 723 4 GD-25-352 NAD83 UTM 9N 457038 6162952 1604 42 76 847 3 GD-25-357 NAD83 UTM 9N 456865 6162628 1451 135 65 525 1 GD-25-361 NAD83 UTM 9N 457191 6163128 1712 160 85 699 2 GD-25-363 NAD83 UTM 9N 457411 6163251 1733 175 68 901 1 GD-25-366 NAD83 UTM 9N 457399 6162901 1606 210.5 69 705 5 GD-25-367 NAD83 UTM 9N 457235 6162864 1585 213 74 651 11 GD-25-368 NAD83 UTM 9N 457485 6163165 1706 250 77 690 2 GD-25-369 NAD83 UTM 9N 457319 6162859 1585 310 85 738 1 GD-25-371 NAD83 UTM 9N 457190 6163130 1712 40 86 681 1 GD-25-375 NAD83 UTM 9N 457486 6163164 1706 250 85 747 1 GD-25-379 NAD83 UTM 9N 457189 6163129 1712 268 85 614 1 GD-25-381 NAD83 UTM 9N 457511 6163074 1660 115 65.9 360 1 GD-25-382 NAD83 UTM 9N 457591 6162372 1119 215 45 160 1 GD-25-386 NAD83 UTM 9N 457512 6163073 1660 129 56 459 3 GD-25-389 NAD83 UTM 9N 457849 6162680 1209 170 70 483 1 GD-25-392 NAD83 UTM 9N 457757 6162595 1200 280 55 423 1 GD-25-393 NAD83 UTM 9N 457322 6162859 1585 5 68 702 2 GD-25-395 NAD83 UTM 9N 457402 6162902 1606 105 65 801 1 GD-25-400 NAD83 UTM 9N 457598 6162374 1119 147 83 309 2 GD-25-401 NAD83 UTM 9N 457881 6162620 1179 210 80 600 1 GD-25-403 NAD83 UTM 9N 457467 6163017 1633 147 83 600 3 GD-25-405 NAD83 UTM 9N 457763 6162595 1200 82 74.5 312 5 GD-25-407 NAD83 UTM 9N 457399 6162904 1608 350 82 395 2

Table 2: Assay highlights from 2025 drill holes reported in this news release.

Hole ID From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Au (g/t) GD-25-383

Interval 417.00 432.00 15.00 4.05 including 417.00 427.00 10.00 5.85 including 417.00 425.00 8.00 7.28 including 418.10 424.02 5.92 9.20 including 420.00 424.02 4.02 12.75 GD-25-311

Interval 277.97 282.00 4.03 2.83 including 277.97 281.02 3.05 3.15 including 361.09 365.10 4.01 2.60 Interval 580.00 583.00 3.00 15.13 GD-25-370

Interval 313.00 316.00 3.00 4.94 Interval 319.00 324.05 5.05 5.66 including 321.00 324.05 3.05 9.24 Interval 445.00 449.00 4.00 2.04 GD-25-387

Interval 76.00 85.20 9.20 2.91 including 77.02 84.32 7.30 3.66 including 77.02 83.15 6.13 4.05 including 79.00 83.15 4.15 5.36 including 80.00 83.15 3.15 6.36 GD-25-385



Interval 138.00 141.00 3.00 3.59 Interval 257.00 261.00 4.00 6.59 including 257.00 260.13 3.13 8.40 GD-25-398



Interval 73.30 80.07 6.77 3.73 including 74.39 79.03 4.64 5.41 Interval 132.00 135.00 3.00 2.68 GD-25-378



Interval 583.95 593.07 9.12 2.49 including 587.56 592.10 4.54 4.83 including 587.56 591.00 3.44 6.28 GD-25-410

Interval 183.32 188.46 5.14 4.18 including 183.32 187.38 4.06 5.28 GD-25-356 Interval 522.13 526.00 3.87 4.98 GD-25-376

Interval 388.00 391.93 3.93 3.55 Interval 252.05 258.00 5.95 3.06 Including 252.80 257.00 4.20 4.32 Including 252.80 256.00 3.20 5.47

High-grade gold mineralization has been confirmed in three distinct rock packages at the Surebet Discovery, which include: gently dipping gold-rich mineralized stacked quartz-sulphide breccias/stock work veins; gold-rich intermediate to felsic Eocene-aged RIRG dykes that crosscut the veins; and the broad zones of calc-silicate altered breccia. All three rock packages contain substantial amounts of VG-NE (from fine-grained to coarse-grained gold) and remain open. Which strongly indicates the presence of a Motherlode magmatic causative source at depth responsible for the widespread high-grade gold mineralization at the Surebet Discovery.

Table 3: Collar information for drill holes reported in this news release.

Hole ID CRS Northing (m) Easting (m) Elevation (m) Azimuth (deg) Dip (deg) Length (m) GD-25-410 NAD83 / UTM zone 9N 6162659 457976 1174 23 66 216 GD-25-398 NAD83 / UTM zone 9N 6162373 457596 1119 140 50 273 GD-25-387 NAD83 / UTM zone 9N 6162372 457594 1119 190 70 408 GD-25-385 NAD83 / UTM zone 9N 6163163 457488 1705 140 70 504 GD-25-383 NAD83 / UTM zone 9N 6162902 457401 1607 147 66 828 GD-25-378 NAD83 / UTM zone 9N 6163019 457465 1634 260 85 603 GD-25-376 NAD83 / UTM zone 9N 6162864 457235 1585 217 81 640 GD-25-370 NAD83 / UTM zone 9N 6162741 457231 1488 275 65 477 GD-25-356 NAD83 / UTM zone 9N 6162865 457235 1586 181 71 643 GD-25-311 NAD83 / UTM zone 9N 6162775 457446 1514 143 65 810

The 2025 drill consisted of 64,364 meters of systematic drilling with 9 drill rigs. The campaign was aimed at expanding the geometry of the Surebet Discovery laterally and to depth. 100% of the drilling was focused on the Surebet Discovery. The Company designed a detailed drill plan that consisted of: testing for the Motherlode Magmatic intrusive gold source; testing an additional 13 Eocene-aged dykes observed on the surface that had never been drill tested for RIRG mineralization; infill drilling with the goal of increasing pierce points density in all known stacked veins. With a particular focus on the highest-grade areas from the Bonanza Zone and Surebet Zone intersection domain; testing zones where the RIRG dykes and gently dipping veins crosscut which are being called Goldilocks Zones (as they are key locations where there are two styles of gold mineralization enriching the zones) and expanding the known mineralized veins laterally and to depth where they currently remain open.

Surebet Discovery Highlights

83 out of 110 holes (or 76%) drilled in 2025 contain VG-NE and 100% of drill holes have intersected substantial quartz-sulphide mineralization. Assays are still pending for 70 holes from this year's exploration campaign, of which 55 (representing 79% of the total pending) contain up to 12 occurrences of visible gold to the naked eye VG-NE. See news releases dated: November 17, 2025, October 27, 2025, September 22, 2025, September 8, 2025, August 26, 2025, and July 28, 2025.



See news releases dated: November 17, 2025, October 27, 2025, September 22, 2025, September 8, 2025, August 26, 2025, and July 28, 2025. 60 out of 64 holes (or 94%) drilled in 2024 contain VG-NE up to 11.5 mm (7/16 inches) in size, all of which returned high-grade gold.



92% of the holes (355 out of 386) drilled to date at Surebet contain VG-NE (see heat map above).



The best hole drilled to date is GD-24-260 previously reported from the Bonanza Zone assayed 34.52 g/t AuEq (34.47 Au and 3.96 Ag) over 39.00 meters, including 132.93 g/t AuEq (132.78 Au and 12.98 Ag) over 10.00 meters, and 166.04 g/t AuEq (165.84 Au and 16.07 Ag) over 8.00 meters (see news release dated January 13, 2025). More details on the QA/QC protocol can be found in the section titled "QA/QC Protocol" below.



The best hole drilled to date from the RIRG Eocene-aged dykes is GD-22-58 that assayed 12.03 g/t AuEq (11.84 g/t Au and 15.61 g/t Ag) over 10.00 meters including 19.91 g/t AuEq (19.62 g/t Au and 25.61 g/t Ag) over 6.00 meters, including 23.82 g/t AuEq (23.47 g/t Au and 30.54 g/t Ag) over 5.00 meters, plus a second separate interval down hole of 8.59 g/t AuEq (8.35 g/t Au and 20.74 g/t Ag) over 5.00 meters (see news release dated March 13, 2025).). More details on the QA/QC protocol can be found in the section titled "QA/QC Protocol" below.



The best hole drilled to date from the calc-silicate altered breccia is drill hole GD-25-337, which intersected 10.60 g/t Au over 22.82 meters, including 15.19 g/t Au over 15.71 meters, including two separate intervals consisting of 37.28 g/t Au or 1.20 oz/t Au over 3.36 meters and 36.11 or 1.16 oz/t Au over 3.08 meters. The intercept is approximately true width, and these assays reflect gold only (AuEq value in the interval will be adjusted accordingly once Ag, Cu, Pb and Zn are received). More details on the QA/QC protocol can be found in the section titled "QA/QC Protocol" below.



Multiple gently dipping gold-mineralized stacked veins have been identified every year on the Surebet high-grade gold discovery. Recent discoveries include RIRG Eocene-aged dykes, Goldilocks Zones where the veins and vertical RIRG dykes crosscut (which are characterized by having high-grade gold in two temperature regimes) and recently discovered high-grade gold in a third distinct rock package, which increases potential tonnage and gold content of the high-grade gold system at the Surebet Discovery.



A total of 12 stacked gently dipping high-grade gold veins extend for 1.2 kilometers at the Surebet discovery, have been enhanced by four high-grade RIRG Eocene-aged dykes that are up to 25 meters wide and exposed along strike at surface for up to 1,500 meters have been discovered and modelled to date (see news release dated June 23, 2025).

The footprint of the mineralization discovered to date at Surebet is 1.8 km 2 and remains open in all directions.



and remains open in all directions. Thanks to the mountainous topography, mineralization in the veins is exposed on the surface for 2.1 km of strike (1.0 km on the south slope and 1.1 km on the north slope) with a vertical relief of 700 meters.



A study completed by the Colorado School of Mines confirms a new interpretation of the ore forming process of high-grade gold mineralization at Surebet and outlines a common magmatic source for the high-grade gold system, now in three distinct rock packages. Which gives the Surebet untapped discovery potential to increase tonnage and gold content in the various known rock packages. Until this study, researchers and explorers in the Golden Triangle had not recognized the high-grade gold discovery potential in the Eocene-aged RIRG dykes (see news release March 13, 2025), which is showing the potential that these discoveries could be a geological breakthrough in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia.



Goliath has drilled over 156,000 meters with over 600 pierce points in the Surebet Discovery located at the Golddigger property between 2021 and 2025.



The Surebet Discovery has predictable continuity and good metallurgy with gold recoveries of 92.2% from gravity and flotation at a 327-micrometer crush including 48.8% free gold recovery from gravity alone (no cyanide required to recover the gold). The metallurgy completed to date shows a benign rock composition without deleterious elements (see news release March 1, 2023).



Based on positive grassroots exploration and drill results in recent years, Goliath significantly increased its land package from 66,608 hectares to 91,518 hectares (226,146 acres) and now controls 56 kilometers of key terrain of the Red Line geologic trend providing for additional discovery potential.



The Golddigger Property is located on tidewater with a barge route to Prince Rupert (190 km south) and close to infrastructure including the town of Kitsault adjacent to a permitted mine site on private property.



About Golddigger Property

The Golddigger Property is 100% controlled and covers an area of 91,518 hectares in a highly prospective geological setting of the Eskay Rift, within 3 kilometers of the Red Line in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia. This area, in close proximity to the Red Line, has hosted some of Canada's greatest gold mines including Eskay Creek, Premier and Snip. Other significant and well-known deposits in the Golden Triangle include Brucejack, Copper Canyon, Galore Creek, Granduc, KSM, Red Chris, and Schaft Creek. Goliath controls 56 kilometers of the Red Line which is a geologic contact between Triassic age Stuhini rocks and Jurassic age Hazelton rocks used as key markers when exploring for gold-copper-silver mineralization.

The Surebet discovery has predictable continuity and good metallurgy with gold recoveries from gravity and flotation at a 327-micrometer crush of 92.2% including 48.8% free gold from gravity alone (no cyanide required to recover the gold). The metallurgy completed to date shows no deleterious elements are present (see news release dated March 1, 2023).

The Property is in a well positioned location in close proximity to the communities of Alice Arm and Kitsault where there is a permitted mill site on private property. It is situated on tide water with direct barge access to Prince Rupert (190 kilometers via the Observatory inlet/Portland inlet). The town of Kitsault is accessible by road (190 kilometers from Terrace, 300 kilometers from Prince Rupert) and has a barge landing, dock, and infrastructure capable of housing at least 300 people, including high-tension power.

Additional infrastructure in the area includes the Dolly Varden Silver Mine Road (only 7 kilometers to the East of the Surebet discovery) with direct road access to Alice Arm barge landing (18 kilometers to the south of the Surebet discovery) and high-tension power (25 kilometers to the east of Surebet discovery). The city of Terrace (population 16,000) provides access to railway, major highways, and airport with supplies (food, fuel, lumber, etc.), while the town of Prince Rupert (population 12,000) is located on the West Coast of British Columbia and houses an international container seaport also with direct access to railway and an airport.

About CASERM (Center to Advance the Science of Exploration to Reclamation in Mining)

Goliath Resources is a paying member and active supporter of the Center to Advance the Science of Exploration to Reclamation in Mining (CASERM), which is one of the world's largest research centers in the mining sector. CASERM is a collaborative research venture between Colorado School of Mines and Virginia Tech that is supported by a consortium of mining and exploration companies, analytical instrumentation and software companies, and federal agencies aiming to transform the way geoscience data is acquired and used across the mining value chain. The center forms part of the I-UCRC program of the National Science Foundation. Research focuses on the integration of diverse geoscience data to improve decision making across the mine life cycle, beginning with the exploration for subsurface resources continuing through mine operation as well as closure and environmental remediation. Over the past three years, Goliath Resources' membership in CASERM has allowed a high level of research to be performed on the Surebet Discovery.

Qualified Person

Rein Turna P. Geo is the qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, for Goliath Resource Limited projects, and supervised the preparation of, and has reviewed and approved, the technical information in this release. Mr. Turna is an Independent Director of the Company.

About Goliath Resources Limited

Goliath Resources is an explorer of precious metals projects in the highly prospective Golden Triangle of Northwestern British Columbia. All of its projects are in high quality geological settings and geopolitical safe jurisdictions amenable to mining in Canada. Goliath is a member and active supporter of CASERM which is an organization that represents a collaborative venture between Colorado School of Mines and Virginia Tech. Goliath recently completed its largest fully funded drill campaign to date for a total of 64,364 meters in 2025 and is fully funded for a large (40k - 50k meter) drill program in 2026. The Company's key strategic cornerstone shareholders include Crescat Capital, a Global Commodity Group (Singapore), McEwen Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX), Waratah Capital Advisors, Mr. Rob McEwen, Mr. Eric Sprott and Mr. Larry Childress.

For more information please contact:

Goliath Resources Limited

Mr. Roger Rosmus

Founder and CEO

Tel: +1.416.488.2887

roger@goliathresources.com

www.goliathresourcesltd.com

QA/QC Protocol & Disclaimer

Oriented HQ-diameter or NQ-diameter diamond drill core from the drill campaign is placed in core boxes by the drill crew contracted by the Company. Core boxes are transported by helicopter to the staging area and then transported by truck to the core shack. The core is then re-orientated, meterage blocks are checked, meter marks are labelled, Recovery and RQD measurements taken, and primary bedding and secondary structural features including veins, dykes, cleavage, and shears are noted and measured. The core is then described and transcribed in MX DepositTM. Drill holes were planned using Leapfrog GeoTM and QGISTM software and data from the 2017-2024 exploration campaigns. Drill core containing quartz breccia, stockwork, veining and/or sulphide(s), or notable alteration is sampled in lengths of 0.5 to 1.5 meters. Core samples are cut lengthwise in half: one-half remains in the box and the other half is inserted in a clean plastic bag with a sample tag. The bagged samples are then weighed and secured with a zip tie. Certified reference materials (CRMs), blanks and duplicates are added in the sample stream at a rate of 10%. To ensure analytical anonymity, CRM identification labels are removed prior to submission to the laboratory. Additional out-of-sequence blanks are introduced immediately following core samples that contain VG-NE or high-grade sulphide mineralization.

Grab, channels, chip and talus samples were collected by foot with helicopter assistance. Prospective areas included, but were not limited to, proximity to MINFile locations, placer creek occurrences, regional soil anomalies, and potential gossans based on high-resolution satellite imagery. The rock grab and chip samples were extracted using a rock hammer, or hammer and chisel to expose fresh surfaces and to liberate a sample of anywhere between 0.5 to 5.0 kilograms. All sample sites were flagged with biodegradable flagging tape and marked with the sample number. All sample sites were recorded using hand-held GPS units (accuracy 3-10 meters) and sample ID, easting, northing, elevation, type of sample (outcrop, subcrop, float, talus, chip, grab, etc.) and a description of the rock were recorded on all-weather paper. Samples are then inserted in a clean plastic bag with a sample tag for transport and shipping to the geochemistry lab. QA/QC samples including blanks, certified reference materials, and duplicate samples are inserted regularly into the sample sequence at a rate of 10%.

All samples are transported in rice bags sealed with numbered security tags. The rice bags are transported from the core shacks to the MSALABS facilities in Terrace, BC. MSALABS is certified with both AC89-IAS and ISO/IEC Standard 17025:2017. The core samples undergo preparation via drying, crushing to ~70% of the material passing a 2 mm sieve and riffle splitting. The sample splits are weighed and transferred into three plastic jars, each containing between 300 g and 500 g of crushed sample material. A 250 g split is pulverized to ensure at least 85% of the material passes through a 75 m sieve. The crushed samples are transported to the MSALABS PhotonAssayTM facility in Prince George, where gold concentrations are quantified via photon assay analysis (method CPA-Au1). Samples that result in gold concentrations =5 ppm are analyzed to extinction. Photon assay uses high-energy X-rays (photons) to excite atomic nuclei within the jarred samples, inducing the emission of secondary gamma rays, which are measured to quantify gold concentrations. The assays from all jars are combined on a weight-averaged basis. Multielement analyses are carried at the MSALABS facilities in Surrey, BC, where 250 g of pulverized splits are analyzed via ICF6xx and IMS-230 methods. The IMS-230 method uses 4-acid digestion (a combination of hydrochloric, nitric, perchloric and hydrofluoric acids) followed by inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometry to quantify concentrations of 48 elements. Samples with over-limit results for Ag, Cu, Pb and Zn undergo ore-grade analysis via the ICF-6xx method (where 'xx' denotes the target metal). This method employs 4-acid digestion followed by inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometry.

Widths are reported in drill core lengths and the true widths are estimated to be 80-90% and Gold Equivalent (AuEq) metal values are calculated using: Au 2797.16 USD/oz, Ag 31.28 USD/oz, Cu 4.25 USD/lbs, Pb 1955.58 USD/ton and Zn 2750.50 USD/ton on January 31st, 2025. There is potential for economic recovery of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc from these occurrences based on other mining and exploration projects in the same Golden Triangle Mining Camp where Goliath's project is located such as the Homestake Ridge Gold Project (Auryn Resources Technical Report, Updated Mineral Resource Estimate and Preliminary Economic Assessment on the Homestake Ridge Gold Project, prepared by Minefill Services Inc. Bothell, Washington, dated May 29, 2020). Here, AuEq values were calculated using 3-year running averages for metal price, and included provisions for metallurgical recoveries, treatment charges, refining costs, and transportation. Recoveries for Gold were 85.5%, Silver at 74.6%, Copper at 74.6% and Lead at 45.3%. It will be assumed that Zinc can be recovered with the Copper at the same recovery rate of 74.6%. The quoted reference of metallurgical recoveries is not from Goliath's Golddigger Project, Surebet Zone mineralization, and there is no guarantee that such recoveries will ever be achieved, unless detailed metallurgical work such as in a Feasibility Study can be eventually completed on the Golddigger Project.

The reader is cautioned that grab samples are spot samples which are typically, but not exclusively, constrained to mineralization. Grab samples are selective in nature and collected to determine the presence or absence of mineralization and are not intended to be representative of the material sampled.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange), nor the OTCQB Venture Market accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words "could", "intend", "expect", "believe", "will", "projected", "estimated" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on Goliath's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially. In particular, this release contains forward-looking information relating to, among other things, the ability of the Company to complete financings and its ability to build value for its shareholders as it develops its mining properties. Various assumptions or factors are typically applied in drawing conclusions or making the forecasts or projections set out in forward-looking information. Those assumptions and factors are based on information currently available to Goliath. Although such statements are based on management's reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that the proposed transactions will occur, or that if the proposed transactions do occur, will be completed on the terms described above.

The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date hereof and Goliath is not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein.

This announcement does not constitute an offer, invitation, or recommendation to subscribe for or purchase any securities and neither this announcement nor anything contained in it shall form the basis of any contract or commitment. In particular, this announcement does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, securities in the United States, or in any other jurisdiction in which such an offer would be illegal.

The securities referred to herein have not been and will not be will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to or for the account or benefit of a U.S. person (as defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act) unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.
TotalEnergies (Paris:TTE) (LSE:TTE) (NYSE:TTE), TES, Osaka Gas, Toho Gas, and ITOCHU have signed a Joint Development and Operating Agreement, granting the Japanese companies a combined 33.3% stake in the Live Oak project a large-scale facility to produce electric natural gas (e-NG) also known as e-methane, initiated by TotalEnergies and TES and currently under development in Nebraska, United States. Following the agreement, TotalEnergies and TES will each maintain a 33.35 stake in the project.

The partners are now preparing the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) phase, targeting a capacity of approximately 250 MW of electrolysis and 75 ktpa of methanation. The project, subject to a Final Investment Decision in 2027, is scheduled to begin commercial operations by 2030, with plans to export e-NG to Japan. Osaka Gas and Toho Gas will be the primary offtakers. This project helps the Japanese gas majors in achieving their goal of injecting 1% carbon neutral gas (such as e-NG) into the gas grid by 2030.

The agreement builds on the strategic partnership established between TotalEnergies and TES in 2023 to pioneer at scale production of e-NG. The Live Oak project will leverage Nebraska's abundant biogenic CO2 resources, captured from bioethanol plants, and the growing renewable power generation capacity in the United States.

The participation of Osaka Gas, Toho Gas, and ITOCHU (as a coordinator of Japanese companies), underscores their commitment to decarbonization with the adoption of e-NG and positions Live Oak as the leading project for carbon-neutral gas production for Japan.

e-NG is a synthetic gas produced from renewable hydrogen and CO2. Chemically identical to conventional natural gas, e-NG can be seamlessly integrated into existing LNG infrastructure-liquefaction, transport, regasification, and distribution-without any alterations to consumer equipment.

About TotalEnergies

TotalEnergies is a global integrated energy company that produces and markets energies: oil and biofuels, natural gas, biogas and low-carbon hydrogen, renewables and electricity. Our more than 100,000 employees are committed to provide as many people as possible with energy that is more reliable, more affordable and more sustainable. Active in about 120 countries, TotalEnergies places sustainability at the heart of its strategy, its projects and its operations.

About TES

TES is a global green energy company developing giga-scale projects to accelerate the energy transition. In Europe, TES' projects strengthen energy security and the diversification of energy imports, as well as support the European Union's decarbonisation efforts. In Wilhelmshaven, Germany, TES is developing a green energy terminal, that will serve as a major hub for sustainable molecules. The already operating floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) will be followed by a large-scale onshore LNG terminal and a CO2 export terminal. Globally, TES leverages renewable energy solar, wind, and hydro, along with climate-neutral CO2 for the production of e-NG (electric natural gas). Large-scale e-NG projects are underway in the US (Live Oak), Canada (Project Mauricie), and across Europe, and the Middle East. These green molecules support the shift to real zero emissions across industries and help win the race against climate change.

About Osaka Gas

The Daigas Group is dedicated to realizing a carbon-neutral future through its Carbon Neutral Vision and Energy Transition 2050 initiative. As part of this effort, the Group aims to integrate 1% e-methane into its gas grid by 2030, paving the way for broader adoption across society. To achieve this goal, the Group is actively advancing e-methane technologies, conducting demonstration projects, and building supply chains both in Japan and overseas-driving progress toward carbon neutrality by 2050.

About Toho Gas

Toho Gas aims to make its entire supply chain including its customers' sites carbon neutral by 2050. To this end, Toho Gas is currently accelerating initiatives that contribute to the low-carbon transition and further decarbonization of its customers. Toho Gas will devote itself to realizing a decarbonized society and further development of Chubu region by securing and providing diverse and optimal decarbonized energy sources, including e-methane and biogas.

About ITOCHU

ITOCHU is involved in domestic trading, import/export, and overseas trading of various products, as well as business investment in Japan and overseas.

ITOCHU, with the group's corporate mission "Sampo-yoshi" (good for the seller, good for the buyer and good for society), is pursuing a policy of enhancing its contribution to and engagement with the SDGs through business activities, including promoting e-NG, as a member of the e-NG Coalition.

@TotalEnergies TotalEnergies TotalEnergies TotalEnergies

Cautionary Note

The terms "TotalEnergies", "TotalEnergies company" or "Company" in this document are used to designate TotalEnergies SE and the consolidated entities that are directly or indirectly controlled by TotalEnergies SE. Likewise, the words "we", "us" and "our" may also be used to refer to these entities or to their employees. The entities in which TotalEnergies SE directly or indirectly owns a shareholding are separate legal entities. This document may contain forward-looking information and statements that are based on a number of economic data and assumptions made in a given economic, competitive and regulatory environment. They may prove to be inaccurate in the future and are subject to a number of risk factors. Neither TotalEnergies SE nor any of its subsidiaries assumes any obligation to update publicly any forward-looking information or statement, objectives or trends contained in this document whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Information concerning risk factors, that may affect TotalEnergies' financial results or activities is provided in the most recent Registration Document, the French-language version of which is filed by TotalEnergies SE with the French securities regulator Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF), and in the Form 20-F filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

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Contacts:

TES Contacts

Media Relations: +32 490 11 36 45 l pr@tes-h2.com

Osaka Gas Contacts

Media Investor Relations: https://www.osakagas.co.jp/ssl/form/mailshori_en/

Osaka Gas

Toho Gas Contacts

Media Investor Relations: https://www.tohogas.co.jp/lang/en/contact/

ITOCHU Contacts

Media Public Relations: +81 3 3497 7270 l tokoj-mr@itochu.co.jp

TotalEnergies Contacts

Media Relations: +33 (0)1 47 44 46 99 l presse@totalenergies.com l @TotalEnergiesPR

Investor Relations: +33 (0)1 47 44 46 46 l ir@totalenergies.com
Study by EU regulatory expert Prof. Andrea Minto and ThetaRay VP Regulatory Affairs Yaron Hazan finds legacy AML tools unfit for Europe's new regulatory era

ThetaRay, a global leader in Cognitive AI financial crime compliance, today released a landmark study on the future of anti-money laundering in Europe. The study warns that Europe's anti-money laundering (AML) system is approaching structural failure, and that financial institutions will be unable to meet upcoming supervisory expectations without advanced AI-driven monitoring and customer screening systems.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251202058684/en/

Next Generation AML Solutions

The report, "Next-Generation AML Solutions: An Analysis of AI-Based Tools vis-a-vis the Reform of the European AML Institutional and Substantive Architecture," offers some of the most comprehensive examinations to date of how the EU's sweeping AML reform package and the Artificial Intelligence Act will reshape compliance across the region.

Co-authored by Prof. Andrea Minto, a leading authority on EU financial regulation at Ca' Foscari University of Venice and the University of Stavanger, and Yaron Hazan, ThetaRay's Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Advisory board member at the AI APAC Institute and former Head of Compliance at HSBC Israel, the study blends academic rigor with supervisory and operational expertise rarely found in a single publication.

The report finds that despite rising budgets and stronger enforcement, Europe's AML framework continues to underperform:

The FATF reports that 97% of 120 assessed countries show only low to moderate effectiveness in preventing money laundering and terrorist financing.

of 120 assessed countries show only effectiveness in preventing money laundering and terrorist financing. FIUs across Europe report extremely low intelligence yield: the Netherlands identified <3.5% of 3.48 million 2024 reports as suspicious, while France's Tracfin reports only ~5% actionable SARs.

of 3.48 million 2024 reports as suspicious, while France's Tracfin reports only actionable SARs. Germany's FIU data shows that only 15% of SARs are investigated by law enforcement, with 95% of forwarded cases ending without prosecution.

of SARs are investigated by law enforcement, with of forwarded cases ending without prosecution. One operational risk study found that rules-based detection scenarios produced reporting in just 2% of cases.

According to the study, the global AML system suffers from persistent structural inefficiencies, high false-positive rates, and poor conversion from alerts to meaningful intelligence, the result of legacy rule-based systems that generate low-quality alerts, rely on siloed architectures, and lack the cross-border visibility required to detect modern networked financial crime.

"The data is clear: Europe's AML system is no longer keeping pace with financial complexity," said Yaron Hazan, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at ThetaRay. "For years, institutions have been trapped in a cycle of rule tuning, manual investigations, and defensive reporting, without materially improving outcomes. Under the new regulatory regime, failing to adopt AI will become a compliance vulnerability."

The report highlights how the EU's two major regulatory initiatives, the AML Package and the AI Act, together represent the most consequential shift in AML expectations in decades. The AML Package strengthens due diligence obligations, expands governance requirements, and establishes a new EU-level Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA), harmonizing obligations across Member States. At the same time, the AI Act classifies transaction monitoring and sanctions screening as "high-risk" uses of AI, imposing strict requirements on transparency, human oversight, data governance, and model lifecycle management.

The authors also highlight heightened vulnerabilities in correspondent banking and crypto-asset flows, where traditional rule engines struggle to detect hidden network behaviour across complex cross-border transaction chains. The study further identifies growing friction between the AML Regulation (AMLR) and GDPR data processing constraints, warning that without clearer guidance, institutions could face overlapping regulatory and legal risks.

"Europe's new AML framework fundamentally raises the standard for what effective compliance means," said Andrea Minto, Professor of Law and Regulation of Financial Markets at Ca' Foscari University of Venice and the University of Stavanger. "The AML Package and the AI Act make clear that the integration of AI into customer due diligence and AML monitoring is inevitable. Financial institutions must now prepare for a world in which technological capability and legal obligation are inseparable."

The report ultimately calls for a fundamental shift from volume-driven alerting to intelligence-led detection, emphasizing hybrid human-AI oversight, robust data governance aligned with the AI Act, transparent and explainable models, integrated customer and transaction screening workflows.

Read the report here.

About ThetaRay

ThetaRay harnesses the power of Cognitive AI for financial crime compliance, enabling financial institutions to precisely identify legitimate customers while flagging bad actors. The SaaS solutions overcome the limitations of traditional rule-based systems by shortening long implementation lifecycles, enabling efficient, risk-aware compliance operations. By transforming compliance from a regulatory obligation into a driver of growth, ThetaRay allows institutions to scale faster and expand confidently into new markets. By uncovering hidden criminal networks and delivering actionable insights, ThetaRay empowers organizations to combat evolving threats, maintain positive regulator relationships, and enhance customer experiences. Implemented at some of the world's leading financial institutions including Santander, Clear Bank, Mashreq Bank, Payoneer, Onafriq and Travelex, ThetaRay helps financial institutions thrive, fostering trust and confidence across the global financial ecosystem. For more information, visit www.thetaray.com.

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Contacts:

Media:

pr@thetaray.com
HANGZHOU, China, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Natural Field, a leading developer of botanical active ingredients and advanced liposomal delivery systems, announced a series of important research releases and industry recognitions at the 2025 Very Food Innovation Conference, where the company presented Ashwagandha White Paper, delivered expert-level technical talks, and received multiple awards for innovation in functional nutrition.

At the conference's main forum, Mr. Haiying Yang, Founder of Natural Field, officially unveiled the Ashwagandha White Paper. The report consolidates current global findings on active constituents, mechanism insights, adaptogen pathways and market development, establishing a structured research framework for the industry. The release drew significant attention from attending R&D institutions, brands, and functional food companies.

During the specialized sub-forum, Dr. Duan, Head of Liposome Technology at Natural Field, delivered a technical presentation on liposomal delivery systems and the company's upgraded Co-loading Liposome Technology. His talk outlined key challenges in ingredient stability and absorption, highlighted data from ongoing technology research, and demonstrated how co-loading enables coordinated encapsulation and enhanced delivery efficiency. The session attracted strong engagement from technical leaders and formulation scientists.

In addition to research releases, Natural Field's Co-loading Liposome products received notable recognition from the 2025 Very Food Awards program:

NF Co-loading Liposomal Coenzyme Q10 (Raw Material) was honored with the Cardiovascular Health Award , acknowledging its potential in targeted functional applications.

was honored with the , acknowledging its potential in targeted functional applications. NF Co-loading Liposomal Coenzyme Q10 (Capsule Finished Product) received the Most Promising New Product Award, recognizing its formulation design and application prospects.

Natural Field also showcased its Co-loading Liposomal Curcumin, which previously received the 2025 CPHI Natural Ingredients Application Innovation Gold Award, further demonstrating the company's progress in high-efficiency delivery technologies.

The conference served as a key milestone for Natural Field, marking the public release of two technical white papers, the presentation of updated liposome research, and industry-wide acknowledgment of its co-loading delivery innovations. The company will continue expanding research in botanical actives and next-generation delivery systems, supporting partners worldwide in developing more effective functional products.

About Natural Field

Natural Field Co., Ltd. specializes in the research, development, and production of nutritional health ingredients and liposomal delivery technologies. With nearly 20 years of industry experience, the company provides standardized raw materials, co-loading liposome platforms, and integrated development services for global nutrition, beauty, and functional food brands.

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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / MainStreetChamber Holdings, Inc. (OTCID:MSCH) is pleased to announce its 2026 Annual Convention, taking place January 30-February 1, 2026, at The Ahern Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada . This flagship gathering will bring together licensees, partners, investors, and entrepreneurs from across the country to celebrate a landmark year of growth and to unveil the company's bold roadmap for 2026-2027.

The upcoming convention arrives at a defining moment for MSCH, which has experienced one of the most dynamic periods of expansion in its history. With new brands launching, licensing activity intensifying nationwide, and recurring-revenue business units gaining momentum, MSCH enters the new year with exceptional strength and an expanding national footprint. Attendees will hear firsthand from MSCH's leadership, celebrity brand ambassadors, and partners who continue to elevate the company's visibility and drive its mission forward.

"This past year has been one of the most extraordinary periods of growth in our company's history," said Larry Kozin, Chairman and CEO of MainStreetChamber Holdings, Inc. "At MSCH, we are building durable, scalable brands with real-world application-and creating accessible ownership pathways for entrepreneurs nationwide. Our 2026 Annual Convention is not only a celebration of what we've achieved but also a launchpad for the next chapter of our expansion."

Throughout the three-day event, attendees will participate in keynote sessions, brand deep dives, training workshops, and conversations with the leaders who are driving MSCH's national acceleration. The program will highlight new licensing and territory openings, expanded equity participation opportunities, updated compensation models, and the strategic synergy among MSCH's diverse and growing portfolio.

"Everything we are building at MSCH is rooted in scalability, sustainability, and opportunity," said John Bellave, CEO of Advanced Licensing, a wholly owned subsidiary of MainStreetChamber Holdings, Inc. "Whether someone joins our organization as a pickup-and-delivery operator, a regional owner, or an equity partner, our goal is the same: to deliver the tools, support, and business models that empower them to succeed. This conference will set the tone for a powerful new phase of national expansion."

As MSCH continues to attract mission-driven operators from across the country, the Annual Conference will focus on collaboration, innovation, and the real-world success stories emerging from the company's expanding network. It will also provide an opportunity for entrepreneurs and investors to engage directly with MSCH leadership and explore the brand ecosystem shaping the company's future.

"This year has clearly demonstrated what's possible when passionate entrepreneurs, strong leadership, and high-caliber brands come together," said Tommy Meharey, President of MainStreetChamber Holdings, Inc. "I've witnessed incredible success stories across our network-stories fueled by hard work, purpose, and belief in what we're building. The momentum we're carrying into 2026 is just the beginning, and I couldn't be more excited for what's ahead."

The 2026 Annual Convention is open to current licensees and partners, prospective regional owners and equity partners, investors and advisors watching the MSCH growth trajectory, and entrepreneurs seeking alignment with a public holding company built on scalable, recurring-revenue brand models. Registration is now open, and the first 50 attendees to register will receive complimentary admission.

Attendees may reserve their spot here

ABOUT MAINSTREETCHAMBER HOLDINGS, INC.

MainStreetChamber Holdings, Inc. (OTCID:MSCH) is a leading global provider of intellectual property and brand licensing solutions. The company develops and markets innovative licensing opportunities for organizations of all sizes, from emerging entrepreneurs to established enterprises. Its diverse portfolio includes Advanced Licensing, kathy ireland Laundry, kathy ireland Furniture, kathy ireland Logistics, the MainStreetChamber of Commerce, the Perfect 10 mattress & furniture brand in partnership with Bo Derek, and multiple sustainable building, wellness, and consumer lifestyle ventures.

Media Contact:

Rona Menashe | Guttman Associates

Email: Rona@guttmanpr.com | Phone: (310) 246-4600

Industry Contact:

info@msch.com

SOURCE: MainStreetChamber Holdings Inc.

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/mainstreetchamber-holdings-inc.-announces-its-2026-annual-conven-1112318
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - December 2, 2025) - Nexus Uranium Corp. (CSE: NEXU) (OTCQB: GIDMF) (FSE: JA7) ("Nexus" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has executed a mineral property purchase agreement (the "Agreement") to immediately acquire a 100% interest in the Chord uranium project (the "Chord Property"), located in Fall River County, South Dakota. The Agreement replaces a previous option agreement and will provide Nexus with full ownership of the Chord Property, including State Section 36, currently being permitted. In total, the Chord Property now consists of 3,640 wholly owned acres.

Strategic Rationale

The Chord Property consolidates Nexus's land position in Fall River County, which lies within the southern Black Hills uranium district. The district has a history of uranium production and hosts geology favorable for sandstone-hosted uranium mineralization. The Chord Property alone contains total inferred mineral resources of 2.75 Mlb U3O at an average grade of 810 ppm over an average thickness of 8.5 feet (Chord Uranium Project NI 43-101, updated September 2025, prepared by BRS Inc.), with significant exploration upside potential. The Company aims to demonstrate the extension of mineralization south of the known October-Jinx mineralization onto the State Section 36 and evaluate the potential for in-situ recovery (ISR) with an upcoming exploration and drilling program anticipated to commence in early 2026 pending permitting.

"This acquisition represents an important step in consolidating our South Dakota uranium portfolio," said Jeremy Poirier, CEO of Nexus Uranium. "With uranium recently designated as a critical mineral by the U.S. Government, we believe domestic uranium projects in established mining jurisdictions will play an increasingly important role in meeting America's energy security needs."

The Chord Property acquisition follows the Company's September 2025 completion of its arrangement with Basin Uranium Corp., through which Nexus acquired Basin's existing uranium project portfolio.

Transaction Highlights

Under the terms of the Agreement, Nexus agreed to acquire a 100% interest in the Chord Property by paying aggregate consideration of US$100,000 cash and issuing 250,000 common shares to the vendors upon closing. The vendors will retain a 1.0% net smelter returns royalty (NSR) on future production, of which Nexus holds the right to repurchase 50% (being 0.5% NSR) for US$1,000,000 at any time prior to commencement of commercial production.

The transaction is subject to acceptance by the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "Exchange"). Closing is expected to occur within two business days following Exchange acceptance. Any shares issued pursuant to the Agreement will be subject to a statutory hold period of four months.

About Nexus Uranium Corp.

Nexus Uranium is a Canadian uranium exploration company focused on mineral exploration and development in the green energy sector. The Company holds five uranium projects in the United States: Chord and Wolf Canyon in South Dakota; South Pass and Great Divide Basin in Wyoming; and Wray Mesa in Utah. These projects have seen extensive historical exploration and are located in prospective development areas. Nexus also holds the Mann Lake uranium project in the Athabasca Basin of northern Saskatchewan, Canada.

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Carl D. Warren, P.E., P.G. Senior Engineer BRS Inc., a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101.

--

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". These forward-looking statements or information may include statements regarding Nexus acquiring full ownership and a 100% interest in the Chord Property; the Company demonstrating the extension of mineralization, the Company evaluating the potential for in-situ recovery; timing for exploration and the drilling program; domestic uranium projects playing an important role in meeting America's energy security needs; and the closing of the acquisition and timing thereof. Such statements are based on assumptions and factors considered reasonable as of the date they are made, including management's current expectations, exploration plans, geological interpretations, and market conditions. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied. These risks include, but are not limited to: delays in obtaining necessary permits and Exchange approvals, changes in exploration or project plans, the accuracy of historical geological information, the potential that mineralization does not extend as expected, the technical or economical viability of ISR at the Chord Property, availability of capital and financing, regulatory developments, adverse weather or logistical challenges, and risks inherent to the mineral exploration industry, such as changes in uranium markets, commodity prices, or general economic and regulatory conditions. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. Nexus undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by law.

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed this press release and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/276433

SOURCE: Nexus Uranium Corp.
EASTERN EXPANSION PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS:

At least three mineralized northwest oriented structures have been identified within the 1.2 kilometre eastern expansion trend running parallel to the Pittsburg-Monarch fault that suggest a series of footwall fault splays as opposed to a singular east-west structure;

TXC25-173 cut 0.92 metres of 2,122.7 grams per tonne (g/t) silver equivalent (AgEq) (1,162 g/t silver (Ag) & 8.79 g/t gold (Au)) from 220.9 metres, and a separate zone of 1.04 metres grading 534.8 g/t AgEq (189.8 g/t Ag & 3.16 g/t Au) from 215.5 metres;

TXC25-178 drilled 6.4 metres of 296.6 g/t AgEq (135.7 g/t Ag & 1.47 g/t Au), including 0.46 metres of 3,853 g/t AgEq (1,771 g/t Ag & 19.06 g/t Au) from 183.8 metres in a north-south oriented structure within the M&I Conversion Area at DPB South; and

Results from the Company's drill program targeting expansion potential across a one kilometre trend of vein corridor between the DPB and Northwest Step Out resource areas (the "Northwest Expansion Program") and the Eastern Expansion Program will be incorporated into an updated mineral resource estimate and preliminary economic assessment on Tonopah West estimated to be completed in February 2026.

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - December 2, 2025) - Blackrock Silver Corp. (TSXV: BRC) (OTCQX: BKRRF) (FSE: AHZ0) ("Blackrock" or the "Company") announces the final results from its fully-funded eastern expansion drill program (the "Eastern Expansion Program" or the "Program") at its 100% owned Tonopah West project located in Nye and Esmeralda Counties, Nevada, United States ("Tonopah West").

The Eastern Expansion Program was a follow up to the Company's successful Scout drilling program completed at Tonopah West in February 2025 (see March 31, 2025 news) which shows additional upside for the shallow southern portion of the Denver-Paymaster and Bermuda-Merten vein groups ("DPB South") resource area (the "M&I Conversion Area") to expand the resource area 1,200 metres in an easterly direction (the "Eastern Expansion Zone").

The Company commenced the Eastern Expansion Program in July 2025 within the Eastern Expansion Zone, utilizing reverse circulation (RC) drilling with RC pre-collars to establish initial holes, which were then deepened using diamond core drilling (core tails) for more detailed geological analysis. The Program drilled a total of 6,798 metres (22,896 feet) in twenty-four drillholes, however, only 22 drillholes were completed, as two pre-collar holes were not usable for core tails. Of the 22 completed drillholes, three were core holes completed from surface.

Andrew Pollard, Blackrock's President and CEO, stated, "Whereas we set out to target a single east-west mineralized structure, drilling from our Eastern Expansion Program has defined at least three distinct, parallel mineralized zones oriented northwest. These structures appear to be splays off the Pittsburgh-Monarch fault system. Each of these zones has intersected shallow, high-grade, and thick mineralization, indicating significant potential for further expansion in the area. Additionally, drilling in the M&I Conversion Area at DPB South has successfully connected previously isolated intercepts, confirming the presence of north-south trending structures and suggesting additional tonnage potential. Work on our upcoming mineral resource estimate and preliminary economic assessment is now underway and on track for a targeted completion date in February 2026. These will incorporate data from both our Northwest and Eastern Expansion drill programs."

Table 1 summarizes the final results of the Eastern Expansion Program using a cut-off grade of 150 g/t AgEq.

Table 1: Eastern Expansion Drill Program Significant Results Using a 150 g/t AgEq Cut-off Grade

Drillhole

ID Program Area Hole

Type From (m) To (m) Drillhole

Interval

(m) Ag g/t Au g/t AgEq g/t TXC25-168 E Expansion DPB South RC/Core 298.03 299.86 1.83 73.7 0.754 156.1 Including 298.03 298.34 0.31 353.0 3.680 754.8 TXC25-171 M&I Conversion DPB South RC/Core 185.99 186.69 0.70 122.0 1.100 242.1 TXC25-171 M&I Conversion DPB South RC/Core 247.19 249.33 2.13 85.7 0.855 179.1 TXC25-173 E Expansion DPB South RC/Core 215.53 216.56 1.04 189.8 3.159 534.8 TXC25-173 E Expansion DPB South RC/Core 220.98 221.90 0.92 1,162.0 8.798 2,122.7 TXC25-178 M&I Conversion DPB South RC/Core 161.54 162.61 1.07 158.5 2.126 390.6 TXC25-178 M&I Conversion DPB South RC/Core 183.80 190.20 6.40 135.7 1.474 296.6 Including 188.37 188.82 0.46 1,771.0 19.067 3,853.0 TXC25-178 M&I Conversion DPB South RC/Core 270.36 271.43 1.07 108.9 1.439 266.0 Including 271.12 271.43 0.31 375.0 4.750 893.7 AgEq = Ag + Au/(Factor); where Factor = (Ag Price/Au Price)*(Ag Recovery/Au Recovery) or Factor=($27/$2,700)*(87%/95%)=0.009157; True thickness is 75% to 85% of drill interval; NSV=No values above cut off; Cut-off grade is 150 gpt AgEq; RC/Core = RC pre-collar with core tail; Core is core from the surface.

The Eastern Expansion Program encountered at least three northwest oriented structures which appear to be mineralized and offset the southern caldera margin to the northeast. The structures are parallel to the Pittsburg-Monarch fault and suggest a series of footwall fault splays associated with the main Pittsburg-Monarch fault. Figure 1 below shows the approximate location and orientation of the northwest fault system.

Drilling to date shows shallow, high-grade, and thick zones of mineralization in each of these structures and suggest increased expansion potential along this northwest structural corridor. Historically, the Pittsburg-Monarch fault was considered an ore control within the district with the thickest historically mined veins at Victor and Ohio abutting the main fault. The Company's drilling in the Eastern Expansion Zone has returned thick vein intervals of gold and silver along the parallel structures confirming the importance of the Pittsburg-Monarch and its footwall fault splays.

Two drillholes, TXC25-171 and TXC25-178, were drilled in the M&I Conversion Area. These drillholes were directed to the west to understand several north-south structures encountered in the previous drilling. The Program was successful in capturing high-grade drill intervals from the north-south structures and shows there are multiple mineralized structures with similar orientation in the area.





Figure 1: Leapfrog model showing northwest oriented structures in the Eastern Expansion area

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/676/276546_9dcdee45e417e956_001full.jpg

Although below the cut-off grade of 150 g/t AgEq, drillholes TXC25-167, -168, -175, -176, -177 and TXC25-179 were mineralized with silver equivalent values ranging between 31 and 133 g/t AgEq. Table 2 shows the range of gold and silver values encountered along the northwest oriented structures.

Table 2: Mineralized Drillholes from the Eastern Expansion program that are below the 150 g/t AgEq cut-off

Drillhole

ID Program Area Hole

Type From (m) To (m) Drillhole

Interval

(m) Ag g/t Au g/t AgEq g/t TXC25-167 E Expansion Ohio RC/Core 368.96 372.01 3.05 133.0 0.002 133.2 TXC25-169 E Expansion DPB South RC/Core 196.90 199.95 3.05 1.2 0.480 53.6 TXC25-175 E Expansion Ohio RC/Core 277.98 279.69 1.71 14.2 0.155 31.2 TXC25-176 E Expansion Ohio Core 192.51 194.46 1.95 13.9 0.173 32.8 TXC25-177 E Expansion Ohio Core 177.09 178.31 1.22 2.5 0.467 53.5 TXC25-179 E Expansion Ohio Core 235.55 236.46 0.91 23.3 0.270 52.8 TXC25-179 E Expansion Ohio Core 262.28 263.35 1.07 16.9 0.167 35.1 AgEq = Ag + Au/(Factor); where Factor = (Ag Price/Au Price)*(Ag Recovery/Au Recovery) or Factor=($27/$27,00)*(87%/95%)=0.009157; True thickness is 75% to 85% of drill interval; NSV=No values above cut off; Cut-off grade is 150 gpt AgEq; RC/Core = RC pre-collar with core tail; Core is core from the surface.

Figure 2: Drillhole location map for the Eastern Expansion drillholes reported in this news release

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/676/276546_9dcdee45e417e956_002full.jpg

Below are all the drillhole intervals above the 150 g/t AgEq cut off from the program showing the upside potential of the Eastern Expansion Zone.

Table 3: Eastern Expansion Program Significant Results Using a 150 g/t AgEq Cut-off Grade (TXC25-156 to TXC25-166 released on October 27, 2025)

Drillhole

ID Program Area Hole

Type From (m) To (m) Drillhole Interval

(m) Ag g/t Au g/t AgEq g/t TXC25-158 E Expansion DPB South RC/Core 146.30 147.83 1.52 123.0 0.852 216.0 TXC25-158 E Expansion DPB South RC/Core 272.83 273.86 1.04 17.9 2.353 274.8 Including 273.56 273.86 0.30 59.8 7.970 930.1 TXC25-158 E Expansion DPB South RC/Core 340.31 341.13 0.82 56.9 0.671 130.2 TXC25-159 E Expansion DPB South RC/Core 234.18 242.93 8.75 90.3 0.943 193.3 Including 241.65 242.47 0.82 567.7 5.953 1,217.8 TXC25-160 E Expansion DPB South RC/Core 146.30 147.83 1.52 79.4 6.660 806.6 TXC25-164 E Expansion DPB South RC/Core 180.44 186.11 5.67 3.6 2.379 263.4 Including 185.01 186.11 1.10 9.2 8.670 955.9 TXC25-166 E Expansion Ohio RC/Core 160.17 160.78 0.61 114.9 1.658 296.0 TXC25-166 E Expansion Ohio RC/Core 165.20 170.23 5.03 306.8 4.062 750.3 Including 166.73 168.56 1.83 724.1 8.577 1,660.6 TXC25-168 E Expansion DPB South RC/Core 298.03 299.86 1.83 73.7 0.754 156.1 Including 298.03 298.34 0.31 353.0 3.680 754.8 TXC25-171 M&I Conversion DPB South RC/Core 185.99 186.69 0.70 122.0 1.100 242.1 TXC25-171 E Expansion DPB South RC/Core 247.19 249.33 2.13 85.7 0.855 179.1 TXC25-173 E Expansion DPB South RC/Core 215.53 216.56 1.04 189.8 3.159 534.8 TXC25-173 E Expansion DPB South RC/Core 220.98 221.90 0.92 1,162.0 8.798 2,122.7 TXC25-178 M&I Conversion DPB South RC/Core 161.54 162.61 1.07 158.5 2.126 390.6 TXC25-178 M&I Conversion DPB South RC/Core 183.80 190.20 6.40 135.7 1.474 296.6 Including 188.37 188.82 0.46 1,771.0 19.067 3,853.0 TXC25-178 M&I Conversion DPB South RC/Core 270.36 271.43 1.07 108.9 1.439 266.0 Including 271.12 271.43 0.31 375.0 4.750 893.7 AgEq = Ag + Au/(Factor); where Factor = (Ag Price/Au Price)*(Ag Recovery/Au Recovery) or Factor=($27/$2,700)*(87%/95%)=0.009157; True thickness is 75% to 85% of drill interval; NSV=No values above cut off; Cut-off grade is 150 gpt AgEq; RC/Core = RC pre-collar with core tail; Core is core from the surface.

Figure 3: Tonopah West expansion potential

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/676/276546_9dcdee45e417e956_003full.jpg

Figure 4: Tonopah West Drillhole Location Coordinates (based on GPS readings in the field, Datum UTM, NAD 1927, Zone 11)

Drillhole ID Area Program Type UTM_NAD27 E UTM_NAD27 N Elevation

(m) Depth

(ft) Depth

(m) Azimuth Dip TXC25-167 Ohio E Expansion RC/Core 478778.0 4213176.0 1824.5 1302.0 396.8 25 -60 TXC25-168 DPB South E Expansion RC/Core 478600.0 4213250.0 1800.0 1072.0 326.7 180 -65 TXC25-169 DPB South E Expansion RC/Core 478460.0 4213340.0 1800.0 939.0 286.2 180 -65 TXC25-170 Ohio E Expansion RC/Core 478910.0 4213200.0 1835.0 894.0 272.5 230 -70 TXC25-171 DPB South M&I Conversion RC/Core 478105.0 4213222.0 1789.0 1315.0 400.8 270 -50 TXC25-172 Ohio E Expansion RC/Core 478778.0 4213176.0 1824.5 898.5 273.9 225 -65 TXC25-173 DPB South E Expansion RC/Core 478540.0 4213310.0 1800.0 903.0 275.2 180 -75 TXC25-174 Ohio E Expansion RC/Core 479014.0 4213300.0 1822.0 921.0 280.7 40 -70 TXC25-175 Ohio E Expansion RC/Core 479046.0 4213457.0 1820.0 1232.0 375.5 40 -50 TXC25-176 Ohio E Expansion Core 478540.0 4213310.0 1800.0 1060.0 323.1 210 -75 TXC25-177 Ohio E Expansion Core 478495.0 4213405.0 1791.0 732.0 223.1 0 -90 TXC25-178 DPB South M&I Conversion RC/Core 478113.0 4213139.0 1791.0 1728.5 526.8 270 -50 TXC25-179 Ohio E Expansion Core 478460.0 4213340.0 1800.0 922.0 281.0 0 -90

Quality Assurance/ Quality Control

All sampling is conducted under the supervision of the Company's project geologists, and a strict chain of custody from the project to the sample preparation facility is implemented and monitored. The RC samples are hauled from the project site to a secure and fenced facility in Tonopah, Nevada, where they are loaded on to American Assay Laboratory's (AAL) flat-bed truck and delivered to AAL's facility in Sparks, Nevada. A sample submittal sheet is delivered to AAL personnel who organize and process the sample intervals pursuant to the Company's instructions.

The RC samples are lined out at the lab and logged into AAL's system. The samples are dried, crushed to 85% passing 10 mesh (2mm) and a 250-gram sub-sample split is collected and pulverized to 200 mesh (74 micron) in a ring and puck pulverizer. Then the pulverized material is digested and analyzed for gold using fire assay fusion and an Induced Coupled Plasma (ICP) finish on a 30-gram assay split (FA-PB30-ICP). Silver is determined using five-acid digestion and ICP analysis (ICP-5AM48). Over limits for gold and silver are determined using a gravimetric finish (GRAVAU30 and GRAVAG30). Data verification of the assay and analytical results are completed to ensure accurate and verifiable results. Blackrock personnel insert a blind prep blank, lab blank or a certified reference material approximately every 15th to 20th sample.

Qualified Persons

Blackrock's exploration activities at Tonopah West are conducted and supervised by Mr. William Howald, Executive Chairman of Blackrock. Mr. William Howald, AIPG Certified Professional Geologist #11041, is a Qualified Person as defined under National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. He has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.

About Blackrock Silver Corp.

Backed by gold and silver ounces in the ground, Blackrock is a junior precious metal focused exploration and development company driven to add shareholder value. Anchored by a seasoned Board of Directors, the Company is focused on its 100% controlled Nevada portfolio of properties consisting of low-sulphidation, epithermal gold and silver mineralization located along the established Northern Nevada Rift in north-central Nevada and the Walker Lane trend in western Nevada.

Additional information on Blackrock Silver Corp. can be found on its website at www.blackrocksilver.com and by reviewing its profile on SEDAR at www.sedarplus.ca.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements and Information

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of Canadian and United States securities legislation, including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this news release relate to, among other things: the Company's strategic plans; the anticipated objectives and results from the Company's drill programs at Tonopah West; the timing of completion of an updated mineral resource estimate and preliminary economic assessment on Tonopah West; the Company's de-risking initiatives at Tonopah West; estimates of mineral resource quantities and qualities; estimates of mineralization from drilling; geological information projected from sampling results; and the potential quantities and grades of the target zones.

These forward-looking statements reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant operational, business, economic and regulatory uncertainties and contingencies. These assumptions include, among other things: conditions in general economic and financial markets; accuracy of assay results; geological interpretations from drilling results, timing and amount of capital expenditures; performance of available laboratory and other related services; future operating costs; the historical basis for current estimates of potential quantities and grades of target zones; the availability of skilled labour and no labour related disruptions at any of the Company's operations; no unplanned delays or interruptions in scheduled activities; all necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals for operations are received in a timely manner; the ability to secure and maintain title and ownership to properties and the surface rights necessary for operations; and the Company's ability to comply with environmental, health and safety laws. The foregoing list of assumptions is not exhaustive.

The Company cautions the reader that forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements contained in this news release and the Company has made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation: the timing and content of work programs; results of exploration activities and development of mineral properties; the interpretation and uncertainties of drilling results and other geological data; receipt, maintenance and security of permits and mineral property titles; environmental and other regulatory risks; project costs overruns or unanticipated costs and expenses; availability of funds; failure to delineate potential quantities and grades of the target zones based on historical data; general market and industry conditions; and those factors identified under the caption "Risks Factors" in the Company's most recent Annual Information Form.

Forward-looking statements are based on the expectations and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. The assumptions used in the preparation of such statements, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date the statements were made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements included in this news release if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as otherwise required by applicable law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/276546

SOURCE: Blackrock Silver Corp.
China's major economic regions post strong foreign trade growth in first 10 months

People's Daily Online) 10:36, December 02, 2025

Containers are neatly placed in the eastern area of Yantian Port in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province. (Photo/Yin Haixiang)

Foreign trade in the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region remained resilient and continued to move toward higher quality in the first 10 months of this year, according to data from China's General Administration of Customs.

The Yangtze River Delta recorded 14 trillion yuan ($1.98 trillion) in imports and exports, up 6 percent year on year. The nine mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area posted 7.52 trillion yuan in foreign trade. At the same time, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region registered 3.91 trillion yuan, extending its growth streak to seven consecutive months.

In the first 10 months, private enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta handled 7.83 trillion yuan in imports and exports, up 9.7 percent year on year. They accounted for 55.9 percent of the region's total foreign trade.

At a hardware shop in Yiwu International Trade City in Yiwu, a city in east China's Zhejiang Province, buyers from Australia, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, and other countries were carefully inspecting samples, exchanging business cards, and negotiating prices with shop owner Zhang Cuiyan.

"We've definitely seen more foreign faces this year," Zhang said. "In the first three quarters alone, new clients increased by 20 percent compared with last year."

In the Greater Bay Area, electromechanical products have become the backbone of exports.

In the first 10 months, electromechanical products accounted for nearly 70 percent of total exports from the nine mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area. Meanwhile, electronic components and the "new trio" products  namely electric vehicles, solar cells, and lithium-ion batteries  saw export growth of 19.5 percent and 32.2 percent, respectively.

During the same period, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region maintained stable trade relations with over 240 countries and regions. By leveraging pilot free trade zones, comprehensive bonded zones, and other platforms, the region has steadily expanded its export capacity.

A foreign businessman (middle) negotiates with exhibitors at the 31st China Yiwu International Commodities Fair-Export Goods Exhibition at the Yiwu International Expo Center in Yiwu city of Jinhua, east China's Zhejiang Province. (Photo/Shi Bufa)

Yu Xinchuang, from the Institute of Industrial and Technological Economics under the National Development and Reform Commission, noted that the resilience of foreign trade in these regions is not just due to orders coming back to China; it reflects a structural upgrade in China's role within the global industrial chain.

Li Qing, deputy director of the Institute of Public Finance and Public Policy at the School of Public Administration and Policy, Renmin University of China, explained that the strong foreign trade performance of the three regions stems from a set of advantages.

According to Li, these regions have shifted their economic growth drivers from traditional cost advantages to innovation-led development.

"High-end manufacturing, including the 'new trio' products, high-tech industry clusters, aerospace and integrated circuits, has become a key driving force for China's rise in the global industrial chain. This early shift toward advanced industries and a more refined industrial structure has given these regions a distinct competitive edge in global markets," Li said.

As major hubs of China's global economic engagement, the three regions are deeply integrated into global industrial and supply chains. They have long cultivated traditional markets in Europe and the U.S. while remaining highly responsive to shifts in the global landscape.

From the Greater Bay Area's push to build a world-class bay area, to the Yangtze River Delta's drive for deeper regional integration, and to the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, all three regions have benefited from strong, top-level policy support. By removing administrative barriers and improving the flow and allocation of resources, they have fostered greater synergy for development.

Li noted that the Yangtze River Delta, the Greater Bay Area, and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region are China's most economically vibrant and most open regions. Their steady foreign trade performance plays a direct role in stabilizing the country's overall foreign trade, providing strong support for GDP growth, employment, and foreign exchange earnings.

Workers are busy fulfilling export orders at Tangshan Haoyu Tent Co., Ltd. in Woluogu town, Yutian county, Tangshan city, north China's Hebei Province. (Photo/Yao Wenhai)

More importantly, the differentiated development paths of these regions have created a multi-pillar structure that reduces dependence on any single region or product.

"The Yangtze River Delta leads in sci-tech innovation and advanced manufacturing, the Greater Bay Area excels in cross-border services and financial support, and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region focuses on coordinated development and institutional reform. This diversified growth model has strengthened the resilience and sustainability of China's economy," Li said.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - December 2, 2025) - Group Eleven Resources Corp. (TSXV: ZNG) (OTCQB: GRLVF) (FSE: 3GE) ("Group Eleven" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the latest two step-out drill holes from its Ballywire discovery ("Ballywire") at the 100%-owned PG West Project ("PG West"), Republic of Ireland.

Highlights:

25-3552-47 (approx. 100m step-out SSE of 25-3552-40, initial test of the Deeper Cu-Ag target; announced 22-Sep-25) intersected four zones of mineralization, including: New Mineralized Zone (South) - Waulsortian Hosted (starting from 313.1m downhole) 20.3m of 2.6% Zn+Pb (1.5% Zn and 1.1% Pb), 6 g/t Ag, including 7.3m of 5.2% Zn+Pb (2.5% Zn and 2.7% Pb), 10 g/t Ag, including 3.8m of 7.3% Zn+Pb (3.7% Zn and 3.6% Pb), 14 g/t Ag , including 1.9m of 10.7% Zn+Pb (5.7% Zn and 5.0% Pb), 19 g/t Ag New Mineralized Zone (South) - Base of Waulsortian (starting from 355.9m downhole) 2.6m of 2.7% Zn+Pb (0.1% Zn and 2.5% Pb) and 19 g/t Ag , including 0.8m of 6.7% Zn+Pb (0.3% Zn and 6.5% Pb) and 37 g/t Ag Deeper Cu-Ag Zone (starting from 490.7m downhole) 11.3m of 0.26% Cu and 8 g/t Ag, including 4.7m of 0.46% Cu and 14 g/t Ag , including 1.8m of 0.83% Cu and 24 g/t Ag Deeper Cu-Ag Zone (starting from 616.6m downhole) 9.4m of 0.25% Cu and 7 g/t Ag, including 3.7m of 0.32% Cu and 8 g/t Ag, including 0.8m of 0.62% Cu and 16 g/t Ag

(approx. 100m step-out SSE of 25-3552-40, initial test of the Deeper Cu-Ag target; announced 22-Sep-25) intersected four zones of mineralization, including:

"Today's results represent a positive surprise given we were not expecting robust Zn-Pb-Ag mineralization south of the main discovery trend at this particular location," stated Bart Jaworski, CEO. "In addition to successfully extending significant Deeper Cu-Ag mineralization down dip by over 200m from previous drilling, today's hole intersected strong Zn-Pb-Ag mineralization in a new part of the discovery. Long theorized, new zones of mineralization parallel to the main discovery trend at Ballywire were evidenced this September by hole 25-3552-44 which discovered a new Cu-Ag bearing feeder structure to the north of the main discovery. Today's results show a similar situation, but to the south, enhancing the potential for at least two additional mineralized zones. If borne out, this greatly expands Ballywire's tonnage potential."

"Driven by new zones of mineralization, growing momentum at our Deeper Cu-Ag zone and the fact that the majority of our 6km long prospective trend is yet to be drilled, Ballywire's exploration upside continues to ramp up. With a robust treasury and our most ambitious drilling campaign to date - four rigs turning in Ireland - we are poised to continue unlocking Ballywire's full potential over the coming months."





Exhibit 1. Cross-Section Showing 25-3552-47 Testing Deeper Cu-Ag Zone at Ballywire.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/5685/276566_d7aa5ace04d3b85a_002full.jpg

Note: True thickness of the mineralized intervals in hole 25-3552-47 as a percentage of the down-hole interval, is estimated to be approx. 90-100% for Waulsortian-hosted zones, and 60-80% for sub-Waulsortian zones.





Exhibit 2. Plan Map of Main Ballywire Discovery Corridor, Showing New Holes 25-3552-45 and -47.

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Note: "New Min'zd Zone (S)" means New Mineralized Zone (South); "Potential Zone (N)" means Potential Mineralized Zone (North).





Exhibit 3. Cross-Section of 25-3552-45 (and Previously Reported Holes -35 and -39).

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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Note: True thickness of the mineralized intervals in hole 25-3552-45 as a percentage of the down-hole interval, is estimated to be approx. 80-100%.

Ballywire Drill Update

The Ballywire prospect at the Company's 100%-owned PG West Project in Republic of Ireland, represents the most significant mineral discovery in Ireland in over a decade. First announced in Sept-2022, the discovery has 64 holes drilled and reported by Group Eleven to date, including the most recent two holes (25-3552-45 and -47) reported today (see Exhibits 1 to 6).

Assays from today's drill holes are summarized above and below (and in Exhibits 4 and 5). Mineralization consists predominantly of sphalerite, galena and pyrite, with the Cu-Ag bearing zones also containing chalcopyrite and suspected tennantite-tetrahedrite.

In addition to results from 25-3552-47, described above, hole 25-3552-45 intersected two zones of significant mineralization along a fault structure (see Exhibits 3 and 5). Strong exploration upside remains further to the NNW and SSE along this section.

Exhibit 4. Summary of Assays from 25-3552-47 at Ballywire

Item From

(m) To

(m) Int

(m) Zn

(%) Pb

(%) Zn+Pb

(%) Ag

(g/t) Cu

(%) 25-3552-47 313.14 333.42 20.28 1.49 1.14 2.63 5.7 - Incl. 313.14 319.60 6.46 1.45 0.47 1.92 5.2 - And 326.11 333.42 7.31 2.51 2.65 5.16 10.1 - Incl. 329.63 333.42 3.79 3.71 3.60 7.31 13.7 0.01 Incl. 330.59 332.52 1.93 5.73 5.01 10.75 18.7 0.01 Incl. 330.59 331.56 0.97 6.45 5.39 11.84 18.7 0.01 And 355.85 358.45 2.60 0.13 2.54 2.67 18.8 0.04 Incl. 356.73 357.56 0.83 0.28 6.46 6.74 36.7 0.08 And 490.74 502.02 11.28 0.01 0.01 0.02 7.5 0.26 Incl. 494.50 502.02 7.52 0.01 0.01 0.03 10.5 0.35 Incl. 497.32 502.02 4.70 0.02 0.01 0.03 13.8 0.46 Incl. 499.22 502.02 2.80 0.02 0.01 0.03 19.1 0.67 Incl. 500.17 502.02 1.85 0.02 0.01 0.03 23.8 0.83 And 616.56 625.94 9.38 0.01 - 0.02 6.6 0.25 Incl. 619.52 623.26 3.74 0.01 - 0.02 8.5 0.32 Incl. 619.52 620.48 0.96 0.02 - 0.03 10.8 0.35 And 622.46 623.26 0.80 0.02 - 0.02 16.3 0.62

Note: True thickness of the mineralized intervals in hole 25-3552-47 as a percentage of the down-hole interval, is estimated to be approx. 90-100% for Waulsortian-hosted zones, and 60-80% for sub-Waulsortian zones; "-" means less than 0.01% (<100 ppm).

Exhibit 5. Summary of Assays from 25-3552-45 at Ballywire

Item From

(m) To

(m) Int

(m) Zn

(%) Pb

(%) Zn+Pb

(%) Ag

(g/t) 25-3552-45 145.37 162.47 17.10 1.75 0.17 1.91 3.0 Incl. 147.14 156.17 9.03 2.58 0.24 2.81 4.3 Incl. 147.14 151.66 4.52 2.66 0.32 2.98 5.9 Incl. 149.00 151.66 2.66 3.12 0.36 3.48 6.9 Incl. 150.73 151.66 0.93 4.79 0.61 5.40 11.6 And 153.41 156.17 2.76 3.38 0.17 3.55 3.5 And 181.49 202.40 20.91 1.41 0.63 2.04 10.0 Incl. 181.49 183.24 1.75 5.94 0.31 6.25 24.1 Incl. 181.49 182.39 0.90 8.69 0.31 9.00 32.9 And 192.27 194.97 2.70 1.50 2.68 4.18 21.6 Incl. 192.27 193.16 0.89 2.13 3.86 5.99 30.3 And 201.52 202.40 0.88 7.03 2.18 9.21 32.5 And 213.38 214.35 0.97 0.12 0.74 0.86 19.4

Note: True thickness of the mineralized intervals in hole 25-3552-45 as a percentage of the down-hole interval, is estimated to be approx. 80-100%.

Drilling at Ballywire continues with three rigs. Currently, thirteen (13) new holes are completed or near completed (and in the process of being logged, sampled and assayed). These are shown in Exhibit 2, including: (i) four holes collared approx. 200m E of G11-3552-08; (ii) two holes testing approx. 780m SE of G11-3552-08; (iii) six holes drilled along a drill fence hosting G11-468-01; and (iv) one hole testing approx. 80m SW of G11-3552-12. Note, one additional rig is active at the Company's Stonepark Project.

Exhibit 6. Regional Gravity Map Showing 6km Long Prospective Trend at Ballywire.

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Note: Of the four gravity-high anomalies above, only the 'C' anomaly has been systematically drilled to date.





Exhibit 7. Regional Map of Ballywire Discovery and Surrounding Prospects.

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Notes to Exhibit 7: (a) Pallas Green MRE is owned by Glencore (see Glencore's Resources and Reserves Report dated December 31, 2024); (b) Stonepark MRE: see the 'NI 43-101 Independent Report on the Zinc-Lead Exploration Project at Stonepark, County Limerick, Ireland', by Gordon, Kelly and van Lente, with an effective date of April 26, 2018, as found on SEDAR+; and (c) the historic estimate at Denison was reported by Westland Exploration Limited in 'Report on Prospecting Licence 464' by Dermot Hughes dated May, 1988; the historic estimate at Gortdrum was reported in 'The Geology and Genesis of the Gortdrum Cu-Ag-Hg Orebody' by G.M. Steed dated 1986; and the historic estimate at Tullacondra was first reported by Munster Base Metals Ltd in 'Report on Mallow Property' by David Wilbur, dated December 1973; and later summarized in 'Cu-Ag Mineralization at Tullacondra, Mallow, Co. Cork' by Wilbur and Carter in 1986; the above three historic estimates have not been verified as current mineral resources; none of the key assumptions, parameters and methods used to prepare the historic estimates were reported and no resource categories were used; significant data compilation, re-drilling and data verification may be required by a Qualified Person before the historic estimates can be verified and upgraded to be compliant with current NI 43-101 standards; a Qualified Person has not done sufficient work to classify them as a current mineral resource and the Company is not treating the historic estimates as current mineral resources. 'Rathdowney Trend' is the south-westerly projection of the Rathdowney Trend, hosting the historic Lisheen and Galmoy mines.

Qualified Person

Technical information in this news release has been approved by Professor Garth Earls, Eur Geol, P.Geo, FSEG, geological consultant at IGS (International Geoscience Services) Limited, and independent 'Qualified Person' as defined under Canadian National Instrument 43-101.

Sampling and Analytical Procedures

All core drilled at Ballywire is NQ (47.6mm) and is cut using a rock saw. Sample intervals vary between 0.22m to 1.19m with an average (over 211 samples) of 0.90m. The half-core samples are bagged, labelled and sealed at Group Eleven's core store facility in Limerick, Ireland. Selected sample bags are examined by the Qualified Person. Transport is via an accredited courier service and/or by Group Eleven staff to ALS Laboratories in Loughrea Co. Galway, Ireland. Sample preparation at the ALS facility comprises fine crushing 70% < 2mm, riffle splitter, pulverise up to 250g 85% < 75um. Analytical procedures are 34 element four acid ICP-AES (codes ME-ICP61 and ME-OG62). Other than paying for a professional analytical service, Group Eleven has no relationship with ALS.

Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) Information

Group Eleven inserts certified reference materials ("CRMs" or "Standards") as well as blank material, to its sample stream as part of its industry-standard QA/QC programme. The QC results have been reviewed by the Qualified Person, who is satisfied that all the results are within acceptable parameters. The Qualified Person has validated the sampling and chain of custody protocols used by Group Eleven.

About Group Eleven Resources

Group Eleven Resources Corp. (TSXV: ZNG) (OTCQB: GRLVF) (FSE: 3GE) is drilling the most significant mineral discovery in the Republic of Ireland in over a decade. The Company announced the Ballywire discovery in September 2022, demonstrating high grades of zinc, lead, silver, copper, germanium and locally, antimony. Key intercepts to date include:

10.8m of 10.0% Zn+Pb and 109 g/t Ag (G11-468-03)

10.1m of 8.6% Zn+Pb and 46 g/t Ag (G11-468-06)

10.5m of 14.7% Zn+Pb, 399 g/t Ag and 0.31% Cu (G11-468-12)

11.2m of 8.9% Zn+Pb and 83 g/t Ag (G11-3552-03)

29.6m of 10.6% Zn+Pb, 78 g/t Ag and 0.15% Cu (G11-3552-12) and

11.8m of 11.6% Zn+Pb, 48 g/t Ag (G11-3552-18)

15.6m of 11.6% Zn+Pb, 122 g/t Ag and 0.19% Cu (G11-3552-27)

12.0m of 1.4% Zn+Pb, 560 g/t Ag, 2.30% Cu and 0.17% Sb (25-3552-31), including

6.4m of 2.1% Zn+Pb, 838 g/t Ag, 3.72% Cu and 0.27% Sb (25-3552-31)

39.7m of 9.5% Zn+Pb, 131 g/t Ag and 0.27% Cu (25-3552-35)

25.6m of 9.2% Zn+Pb, 28 g/t Ag (25-3552-39)

Ballywire is located 20km from Company's 77.64%-owned Stonepark zinc-lead deposit1, which itself is located adjacent to Glencore's Pallas Green zinc-lead deposit2. The Company's two largest shareholders are Michael Gentile (14.1% interest) and Glencore Canada Corp. (13.9%). Additional information about the Company is available at www.groupelevenresources.com.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Technical and scientific information disclosed from neighbouring properties does not necessarily apply to the current project or property being disclosed. This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Such statements include, without limitation, statements regarding the future results of operations, performance and achievements of the Company, including the timing, content, cost and results of proposed work programs, the discovery and delineation of mineral deposits/resources/ reserves and geological interpretations. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, variations in the nature, quality and quantity of any mineral deposits that may be located. All of the Company's public disclosure filings may be accessed via www.sedarplus.ca and readers are urged to review these materials, including the technical reports filed with respect to the Company's mineral properties.

1 Stonepark MRE is 5.1 million tonnes of 11.3% Zn+Pb (8.7% Zn and 2.6% Pb), Inferred (Apr-17-2018) .

2 Pallas Green MRE is 45.4 million tonnes of 8.4% Zn+Pb (7.2% Zn + 1.2% Pb), Inferred (Glencore, Dec-31-2024).

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/276566

SOURCE:
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - December 2, 2025) - Happy Belly Food Group Inc. (CSE: HBFG) (OTCQB: HBFGF) ("Happy Belly" or the "Company"), a leading consolidator of emerging food brands is happy to announce that, as of November 30th, 2025 it has signed an area development agreement for the province of Ontario to open 20 new franchised locations of its Smile Tiger Coffee Roasters brand. Smile Tiger Coffee Roasters ("Smile Tiger"), an emerging brand in the quick service coffee and beverage industry.





Happy Belly 1

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"As we continue to scale Happy Belly through an asset-light franchising model, extending Smile Tiger's footprint in Ontario is a natural next step," said Sean Black, Chief Executive Officer of Happy Belly. "This agreement brings Smile Tiger's committed development pipeline to 45 units - 25 in British Columbia and now 20 in Ontario - while increasing Happy Belly's total contracted units in development across all brands to 646. It's a strong validation of Smile Tiger's potential as an expanding quick service beverage brand as it starts to expand its footprint across Canada."





Happy Belly 2

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Smile Tiger's in-house roasting capabilities, combined with its consumer-packaged goods (CPG) and white-label offerings, position the brand as a platform asset that can support both its own retail growth and broader coffee needs across the Happy Belly portfolio. As the Smile Tiger footprint expands in British Columbia and Ontario, Happy Belly intends to further integrate the brand into its existing breakfast, lunch, and dinner concepts, creating cross-selling opportunities and incremental revenue streams.

Happy Belly 3

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"We are just getting started," said Sean Black.



About Smile Tiger Coffee Roasters Inc.

Our coffee brand is built on the art of unique, in-house roasting. By sourcing premium, ethically grown beans from around the globe, we ensure every cup delivers unparalleled freshness and flavor. Our expert roasters meticulously craft each batch, unlocking the distinct profiles and aromas that set us apart. From rich, bold blends to delicate, nuanced single origins, our roasting process is a celebration of coffee's diversity. Committed to sustainability and quality, we bring you an exceptional coffee experience, roasted to perfection and tailored to delight even the most discerning coffee enthusiasts.

Smile Tiger's coffee roasting capabilities, including consumer-packaged goods (CPG) and white-label products, provide large-scale commerce capabilities. This strategic advantage, combined with delivering exceptional coffee and outstanding service, positions us to capitalize on the growing demand in the coffee, tea, bubble tea, energy drink, and refresher markets-categories transforming the quick serve beverage industry across North America.

Franchising

For franchising inquiries please see www.happybellyfg.com/franchise-with-us/ or contact us at hello@happybellyfg.com.



About Happy Belly Food Group

Happy Belly Food Group Inc. (CSE: HBFG) (OTCQB: HBFGF) ("Happy Belly" or the "Company") is a leader in acquiring and scaling emerging food brands across Canada.

Happy Belly 4

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Sean Black

Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer

Shawn Moniz

Co-founder, Chief Operating Officer

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release, which has been prepared by management.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, are "forward-looking information" with respect to the Company within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-Looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur and include the future performance of Happy Belly and her subsidiaries. Forward-Looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates at the date the statements are made and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. There are uncertainties inherent in forward-looking information, including factors beyond the Company's control. There are no assurances that the business plans for Happy Belly described in this news release will come into effect on the terms or time frame described herein. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. For a description of the risks and uncertainties facing the Company and its business and affairs, readers should refer to the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis and other disclosure filings with Canadian securities regulators, which are posted on www.sedarplus.ca.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/276596

SOURCE: Happy Belly Food Group Inc.
Oman Arab Bank is the latest investor in a major polysilicon manufacturing facility currently under development in Oman, after signing a $220 million financing agreement with project developers United Solar Polysilicon.Oman Arab Bank has signed a $220 million financing agreement with United Solar Polysilicon to help establish a polysilicon manufacturing facility in Oman. The signing took place at the bank's CEO Summit 2025 held in Omani capital Muscat in November, with the country's Minister of Energy and Minerals, Salim bin Nasir bin Said Al Aufi, in attendance. Work on the polysilicon facility, ...

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Experian releases its 13th Annual Data Breach Industry Forecast highlighting six predictions for 2026 that include several ways AI may have an impact

Experian today released its 2026 Data Breach Industry Forecast offering a look at the evolving cyber threat landscape. The predictions address how the coming year could usher in a new wave of sophisticated attacks driven by artificial intelligence along with other threats and vulnerabilities including quantum computing.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251202474758/en/

Experian's 2026 Data Breach Industry Forecast

Now in its 13th year, the forecast offers six insights into how cybercriminals are leveraging emerging technologies to create more convincing identities, evade detection, and exploit new digital frontiers. From synthetic profiles and autonomous AI agents to shape-shifting malware and even brain-computer interface vulnerabilities, the 2026 predictions point to a future where cyberattacks are more personalized, persistent, and technologically advanced than ever before.

To download the complimentary paper, go here.

"Technology is evolving at breakneck speed, and cybercriminals are often the first to adopt tools like AI to outpace defenses and exploit vulnerabilities," said Michael Bruemmer, vice president of Global Data Breach Resolution at Experian. "It's an uphill battle but organizations can also harness these same innovations to strengthen their security posture. With the right preparation and use of technology, companies can be in a solid position to combat attacks, but they should also be ready to deal with the fallout of a security incident."

There have been more than 8,000 global data breaches in the first half of 2025 with approximately 345 million records exposedi. Among Experian clients, the top countries hit hardest are the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada.

"We're entering a new era where cyberattacks are no longer just about stealing data, they're about manipulating reality," said Jim Steven, Head of Crisis and Data Response Services at Experian Global Data Breach Resolution in the United Kingdom. "Organizations must prepare for threats that are faster, smarter, and harder to detect. The time to act is now."

To learn more about Experian Data Breach Resolution, attendees at the Financial Times Cyber Resilience Summit: Europe held at Convene in London can visit the Experian table and attend the panel discussion, "How can leaders combat emerging cyber security threats?" including Steven on December 3, 2025, at 4:50-5:30pm GMT.

Consumers Concerned about AI Impact

Experian research among consumers in the United States and United Kingdom shows that many are feeling the impact of savvy attacks and anxious about cyber threats worsening.

Additionally, findings reveal that younger generations are increasingly vulnerable to scams, while many victims feel unsupported after their data is compromised. Consumers question whether the companies they trust are ready to defend against sophisticated cyber threats. Overall, key findings include:

1 in 4 millennial adults surveyed say they've been a victim of identity theft in the past year.

Nearly a quarter say they've fallen for a phishing attack at home or work in the past 12 months.

More than 4 in 5 are concerned about AI being used to create fake identities that are indistinguishable from real people.

Key U.S. findings:

More than one in three (35%) adults worry about being found personally liable for monetary loss as a result of a cybersecurity mistake at work.

69% do not believe their bank or retailer is adequately prepared to defend against AI-driven cyberattacks or they're unsure.

Over three-quarters (76%) believe that cybercrime will continue to increase and be impossible to slow down because of AI.

Top UK results:

A quarter of millennial adults (25%) say they've been a victim of identity theft in the past year.

One in three (33%) UK adults worry about damaging their professional reputation due to a cybersecurity mistake at work.

Among those who've had their data stolen or exposed in a data breach, more than 3 in 5 (62%) did not say the organization provided adequate support.

Experian Data Breach Resolution helps organizations respond swiftly and confidently to data breaches with over 21 years of crisis management expertise and more than 69,000 incidents served. Its comprehensive services include global consumer notifications, multilingual call centers, and identity protection tools like credit monitoring and dark web surveillance. Experian's Reserved Response ensures readiness with guaranteed staffing and infrastructure, while its international capabilities support breach response across 100+ countries. Whether facing a live breach, third-party incident, or class action crisis, Experian delivers tailored solutions to protect customer trust and minimize reputational risk.

For more information about Experian Global Data Breach Resolution, go to https://www.experian.com/business/solutions/fraud-management/global-data-breach-services.

About Experian

Experian is a global data and technology company, powering opportunities for people and businesses around the world. We help to redefine lending practices, uncover and prevent fraud, simplify healthcare, deliver digital marketing solutions, and gain deeper insights into the automotive market, all using our unique combination of data, analytics, and software. We also assist millions of people to realise their financial goals and help them to save time and money.

We operate across a range of markets, from financial services to healthcare, automotive, agrifinance, insurance, and many more industry segments.

We invest in talented people and new advanced technologies to unlock the power of data and to innovate. A FTSE 100 Index company listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN), we have a team of 25,100 people across 32 countries. Our corporate headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland. Learn more at experianplc.com.

i Data Breach Statistics 2025: Key Trends, Costs Risks Revealed, SQ Magazine, October 6, 2025

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251202474758/en/

Contacts:

MEDIA CONTACTS

Sandra Bernardo

Experian

1 949 529 7550

sandra.bernardo@experian.com
ioCells portfolio of human iPSC-derived products accelerate the global shift from animal testing to human-relevant research models

Platinum Green Impact Award and new lab efficiency protocols deliver measurable, year-on-year sustainability improvements

Male and female donor-derived cell lines and enhanced governance frameworks strengthen ethical and scientifically relevant research practices

CAMBRIDGE, England, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- bit.bio , the global leader in cell programming technology, today announces the publication of its 2025 Corporate Sustainability Report , reaffirming its commitment to measurable progress across ethics, sustainability, and operational impact.

The report provides evidence-based metrics aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), highlighting year-over-year improvements. It demonstrates how sustainability is integrated across all aspects of bit.bio's operations, from its scientific platform, laboratory operations and corporate governance, while reinforcing the company's commitment in transparency and accountability to customers, partners, investors and employees.

This report builds on bit.bio's inaugural 2024 Sustainability Report, which established bit.bio's baseline commitments across three primary SDGs, including Good Health & Well-Being (SDG 3), Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure (SDG 9), and Life on Land (SDG 15) alongside seven secondary SDGs guiding daily operations. The 2025 report demonstrates how those commitments have translated into measurable progress and operational change over the past year.

The report is published at a time when governments and regulators in the UK and US are taking concrete steps to reduce reliance on animal testing and accelerate the use of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs). New UK policy commitments to phase out specific animal tests, together with the US Food and Drug Administration's roadmap to replace parts of preclinical safety testing with NAMs signal a global shift towards models based on human cells, advanced in vitro assays and in silico tools. bit.bio's ioCells portfolio of human iPSC-derived products and its focus on making these tools more affordable and accessible is directly aligned with this policy direction.

"I'm excited to share our latest Sustainability Report, which reflects the values that make bit.bio unique," said Przemek Obloj, CEO of bit.bio. "Sustainability and ethics are not separate initiatives for us, but are core to how we operate, innovate, and grow. As regulators move away from animal testing and towards more human-relevant methods, our mission is to make high-quality human cells accessible at scale, so that non-animal choices also become practical choices for researchers."

Key Highlights included in the 2025 Sustainability Report

Enabling a global shift away from animal testing: bit.bio's ioCells have the potential to reduce reliance on animal testing in preclinical research. While not yet a replacement for large-scale animal studies, ioCells offer human-relevant alternatives at scale that can improve reproducibility and support evolving UK and FDA regulatory frameworks.



Over the past year, bit.bio has expanded the breadth of its ioCells offering and introduced pricing and access strategies designed to remove cost as a barrier to adoption of its cells. These initiatives are making it easier for pharma, biotech and CRO partners to integrate human iPSC-derived products into their discovery and safety workflows as NAMs become more widely accepted by regulators.





have the potential to reduce reliance on animal testing in preclinical research. While not yet a replacement for large-scale animal studies, ioCells offer human-relevant alternatives at scale that can improve reproducibility and support evolving UK and FDA regulatory frameworks. Over the past year, bit.bio has expanded the breadth of its ioCells offering and introduced pricing and access strategies designed to remove cost as a barrier to adoption of its cells. These initiatives are making it easier for pharma, biotech and CRO partners to integrate human iPSC-derived products into their discovery and safety workflows as NAMs become more widely accepted by regulators. Gender equity in science: Biomedical research has historically relied on male-derived cell models, limiting the ability to interrogate sex-based differences in health and disease. bit.bio has expanded development of female donor-derived cell lines , with one now fully available and more in the pipeline. This effort not only strengthens scientific relevance but also represents a unique, measurable contribution to SDG 5 (Gender Equality), ensuring that human cell models better reflect the diversity of patients.





Biomedical research has historically relied on male-derived cell models, limiting the ability to interrogate sex-based differences in health and disease. bit.bio has expanded development of , with one now fully available and more in the pipeline. This effort not only strengthens scientific relevance but also represents a unique, measurable contribution to SDG 5 (Gender Equality), ensuring that human cell models better reflect the diversity of patients. Green Impact Award: bit.bio has been recognised with Platinum status in the Green Impact Awards for the second year in a row, following earlier Bronze and Gold levels. This independent accolade reflects continued improvements in sustainable laboratory practices and responsible consumption (SDG 12), demonstrating year-on-year progress and establishing bit.bio as a benchmark for operational sustainability in life sciences.





bit.bio has been recognised with Platinum status in the Green Impact Awards for the second year in a row, following earlier Bronze and Gold levels. This independent accolade reflects continued improvements in sustainable laboratory practices and responsible consumption (SDG 12), demonstrating year-on-year progress and establishing bit.bio as a benchmark for operational sustainability in life sciences. Energy efficiency in the lab: Ultra-low freezers are among the most energy-intensive pieces of equipment in biomedical research. The typical ultra-low freezer temperature across the industry is -80 C, yet there is limited evidence that this lower setting provides any additional benefit to sample integrity compared with -70 C.



In 2025, bit.bio scientists began trialling a new freezer management protocol in which one freezer is maintained at -70 C full-time. The intention is to transition additional freezers to this higher, less energy intensive temperature once full confirmation of sample integrity has been achieved. This employee-driven innovation is cutting electricity use and emissions significantly while preserving scientific integrity, and it showcases how small operational changes can deliver measurable sustainability gains.





Ultra-low freezers are among the most energy-intensive pieces of equipment in biomedical research. The typical ultra-low freezer temperature across the industry is -80 C, yet there is limited evidence that this lower setting provides any additional benefit to sample integrity compared with -70 C. In 2025, bit.bio scientists began trialling a new freezer management protocol in which one freezer is maintained at -70 C full-time. The intention is to transition additional freezers to this higher, less energy intensive temperature once full confirmation of sample integrity has been achieved. This employee-driven innovation is cutting electricity use and emissions significantly while preserving scientific integrity, and it showcases how small operational changes can deliver measurable sustainability gains. Carbon footprint reporting: The 2025 report includes detailed metrics on electricity, gas, travel, and waste, presented in a way that is rigorous and transparent while protecting confidential business data (e.g., using percentage changes rather than absolute figures). By aligning progress with COP26 commitments and the UN Race to Zero campaign, bit.bio demonstrates evidence-based accountability that meets investor expectations, strengthens employee trust, and ensures credibility in a field where sustainability claims are under increasing scrutiny.





The 2025 report includes detailed metrics on electricity, gas, travel, and waste, presented in a way that is rigorous and transparent while protecting confidential business data (e.g., using percentage changes rather than absolute figures). By aligning progress with COP26 commitments and the UN Race to Zero campaign, bit.bio demonstrates evidence-based accountability that meets investor expectations, strengthens employee trust, and ensures credibility in a field where sustainability claims are under increasing scrutiny. Employee-driven improvements: bit.bio's sustainability focus has led directly to operational changes, such as revising lab glove procurement. An initial shift to reduce waste uncovered problems with usability and safe disposal. By listening to staff feedback, bit.bio adopted an alternative solution that improved both sustainability and day-to-day lab experience. This example highlights the importance of employee-led innovation, delivering not only reduced waste but also improved scientific practice, stronger workplace safety, and a deeper sense of employee ownership in the company's mission.





bit.bio's sustainability focus has led directly to operational changes, such as revising lab glove procurement. An initial shift to reduce waste uncovered problems with usability and safe disposal. By listening to staff feedback, bit.bio adopted an alternative solution that improved both sustainability and day-to-day lab experience. This example highlights the importance of employee-led innovation, delivering not only reduced waste but also improved scientific practice, stronger workplace safety, and a deeper sense of employee ownership in the company's mission. Talent attraction and retention: bit.bio's commitment to ethics and sustainability is a decisive factor for employees choosing to join and stay with the company. New hires have cited the company's ethical framework and sustainability policies as reasons for selecting bit.bio over competing offers. By embedding ethical conduct, environmental responsibility, and a purpose-driven mission into daily operations, bit.bio not only strengthens its culture but also enhances its ability to attract world-class talent in a highly competitive sector.

"This report reflects bit.bio's commitment to shaping a future where science, ethics and sustainability advance together," said Prof. Marie Claire Cordonier Segger, Chair of the Ethics and Sustainability Board at bit.bio. "By reporting with clarity and setting high standards for the responsible use of human cells, we are building the foundations for long term impact in our industry."

About bit.bio

bit.bio, the global leader in deterministic cell programming, is creating functional, human-relevant cells and models at industrial scale to accelerate research, drug discovery and development, while facilitating the adoption of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs). Product development is fueled by our AI-enabled discovery platform that identifies unique transcription factor combinations to program desired cell types, and our patented opti-ox technology that precisely converts induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into these cell types assuring unprecedented purity, consistency, and scalability. Our expanding ioCells portfolio comprises more than 50 products, including ioWild Type Cells, ioDisease Model Cells, ioCRISPR-Ready Cells, and ioTracker Cells.

Since spinning out from the University of Cambridge in 2016, we have raised over $200m from leading investors including Arch Venture, BlueYard Capital, Charles River Laboratories, Foresite Capital, M&G, Milky Way, National Resilience, and Tencent.

For more information, please visit: www.bit.bio LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bitbioltd/

Media Contact:

Amy Flores

Spark Public Relations

amy.flores@sparkpr.com

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MILAN, Dec. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Politecnico di Milano today held an inauguration ceremony for its 163rd academic year,where it focused on the values of responsibility, knowledge and cohesion in a highly polarised global context marked by tensions and profound change. The inauguration speech centred around the Politecnico's role as an intermediary, a body with the ability to piece together the bigger picture; an institution that can turn change into something meaningful, through critical thinking and measured reflection on the role of technology. A 'global vision', European identity and science diplomacy feature prominently in the forthcoming Strategic Plan 2026-28. The most significant new steps include the launch of three BSc courses in English in the field of engineering.

The speakers were: Mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala, Lombardy Region's Councillor for University, Research and Innovation Alessandro Fermi, President of the Student Council Michele Gaetano Giussani, Rector of the Politecnico di Milano Donatella Sciuto, President Mario Draghi.

The Politecnico: the single thread that binds responsibility and critical thinking

The Rector reminded the audience that civilisation becomes fragile when it fails to hold itself to account, warning that polarisation, disinformation and geopolitical tensions risk weakening mutual trust.

'Today, more than ever, we need free spaces in which to exercise our autonomy, far from autocratic ideologies,' the Rector said, reaffirming the Politecnico's role as a garrison of critical thinking, dialogue and civic responsibility.

Scientific diplomacy and the Politecnico's global role

The Rector outlined the main objectives for the next three years, indicating scientific diplomacy as a crucial strategic lever. Between 2023 and 2025, the Politecnico promoted over 60 research and international cooperation initiatives, consolidated projects with African countries (a 25% increase), and launched eight partnerships with UN agencies. It has also been confirmed that the two UNESCO Chairs (first established in 2012) will be renewed for the fourth time.

'The Politecnico di Milano stands at the centre of a new scientific diplomacy, contributing our expertise to peace and international collaboration,' said Professor Sciuto.

Europe: common identity, shared responsibility

Europe sits at the forefront of this 'global vision'. The Politecnico will set up a permanent seat in Brussels in 2026 to strengthen dialogue with European institutions, which is also a strategic move with the FP10 Framework Programme due to launch in the next few years.

Tech Europe Foundation (TEF) is a key example of the Politecnico's actions in response to Europe's need to close the innovation gap that Draghi mentions in the Competitiveness Report. This joint venture with Universita Bocconi, Fondazione ION, FSI and the Chamber of Commerce of Milan Monza Brianza Lodi has already raised 120 million euros, financed over 50 researchers and launched programmes dedicated to the development of scientific entrepreneurship.

Europe was, in fact, a core theme, described as a cultural horizon and shared identity, as well as a political and scientific space. The Rector noted that if Europe is to compete in technological transitions, it must reduce internal divisions: 'A Europe founded on Enlightenment notions and ideals today finds itself having to reflect on its own fractures; it is the victim of internal dissent that has never been healed, incapable of decisively tackling global challenges that, on a scientific and technological level, see it pushed into a difficult position on the world chessboard.'

International education: three new undergraduate degrees in English from 2026

In 2025, the Politecnico recorded an all-time high in the number of international students: almost 9,000 enrolled, including more than 6,000 master's students. From September 2026, three new BSc courses will be offered, in English: Engineering Science (in Milan), Industrial Engineering (in Piacenza), Process Engineering (in Cremona). They will be unique, on account of their multidisciplinary nature and their focus on global collaboration.

'These degrees are a sign of our responsibility towards the new generations, fitting into the wider framework of international competition and providing the tools that will allow them to navigate a complex world and enhance the value of our communities,' added the Rector.

Inclusion and the right to study

The Politecnico has reaffirmed its inclusive approach of guaranteeing the right to study for every single one of 7,000+ eligible students, by putting 9.5 million euros of its own funds behind it. Donatella Sciuto also mentioned UNICORE (University Corridors for Refugees), a two-year project with UNHCR under which nine refugee students were admitted, as well as scholarships that were offered to students from war zones.

'The most authentic sense of our mission lies in the individuals and the journeys they make, that intersect and find new life in our classrooms,' the Rector emphasised.

Teams and competitions: talent and design workshops

The ceremony highlighted the 20 student teams engaged in international competitions involving some 900 students each year. An exemplar of collaboration, creativity and interdisciplinary vision, they span 16 nations and four continents. Student competitions are a fitting metaphor for the Politecnico's investment in young people and young people's ability to get stuck into new challenges on a global stage.

The speech cited the achievements of the PolimiSailing Team, the Polimi ACMTeam, the Polimi Trust Onrust Team and PoliMove as being symbolic of what the student community is able to achieve through its projects.

'The Politecnico community is united by a common thread that weaves its way across generations, ideas and responsibilities,' concluded the Rector. 'The future is not simply the fate that awaits us; rather it is that thread - it is the ideas and hands of those who choose to build it, binding together generations. Where thought unites us, nothing is lost.'

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AUSTIN, Texas and TOKYO, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- According to DataM Intelligence, the Immersive Technology in Advertising Market Size was valued at US$21.2 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach US$153.8 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 28.1% during the forecast period (2025-2032).

Surging demand for interactive brand experiences, rapid consumer adoption of AR&VR devices, and rising digital transformation in marketing are accelerating market expansion. With advertising budgets increasingly shifting toward experiential formats, immersive technologies are becoming essential tools for brand differentiation, audience engagement, and real-time content personalization.

The market is undergoing a major transformation driven by technological innovation. Brands are integrating augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, spatial computing, and 3D content platforms into campaigns to create hyper-personalized and memorable experiences. Growing investments in AI-driven content generation, cloud-based 3D asset management, and real-time rendering engines are further elevating immersive capabilities.

IKEA pioneered immersive technology in advertising with its 2017 IKEA Place app, leveraging augmented reality (AR) to let users visualize furniture in their real-world spaces via smartphones. By 2025, the app will have amassed over 2 million downloads, driving a 7.5x increase in conversion rates compared to traditional catalogs. Shoppers scan rooms to 'place' sofas or lamps, reducing purchase hesitation and returns by 25%. This AR strategy not only boosted online sales by 20% during peak seasons but also positioned IKEA as a tech-forward brand, blending e-commerce with experiential marketing.

Download PDF Brochure: https://www.datamintelligence.com/download-sample/immersive-technology-in-advertising-market

Browse in-depth TOC on "Immersive Technology in Advertising Market"

69 - Tables

64 - Figures

192 - Pages

AR & VR Ignite the Era of Hyper-Interactive Consumer Engagement

Immersive technology in advertising is rapidly transforming brand engagement by using augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) to create interactive consumer experiences. The demand is supported by rising digital adoption; 71 percent of consumers prefer ads that offer interactive or personalized elements, while Two-thirds of Gen Z and millennials want hyper-personalized content and product recommendations, powered by Gen AI.

The growth of AR-enabled smartphones, which now exceed 1.4 billion active devices globally, and the increasing affordability of VR headsets, are fueling accessibility. Social media platforms are also driving adoption, with over 600 million monthly active users engaging with AR filters on Instagram and Snapchat, highlighting consumer appetite for immersive content.

Advertisers are leveraging these technologies to deliver gamified experiences, virtual product trials, and metaverse-based campaigns that strengthen loyalty and differentiate brands in competitive markets. As 5G networks expand, enabling faster and more reliable immersive experiences, and AI enhances personalization, immersive advertising is evolving from experimental campaigns into mainstream strategies. This positions AR and VR as central tools for future advertising ecosystems, blending digital and physical worlds to meet consumer demand for engagement, convenience, and authenticity.

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North America as a Catalyst for Immersive Technology in Advertising

North America stands as one of the leading regions in immersive technology in the advertising market, propelled by high digital ad spending, advanced infrastructure, and strong consumer appetite for interactive experiences.

AR adoption is mainstream in 2025, with nearly 60% of the U.S. population and almost all users of social and messaging apps expected to be frequent AR users. Over 90% of American shoppers already use AR or are open to using it for shopping, and 98% of those who have tried AR found it helpful in making purchase decisions. Younger consumers are leading the way, with 92% of Gen Z saying they want to use AR tools for e-commerce. Retailers such as Walmart and Nike have embraced AR-powered product visualization, while automotive companies like Ford and GM deploy VR showrooms to enhance customer journeys.

Technological infrastructure further supports adoption. North America leads in 5G penetration, with more than 200 million 5G connections in the U.S. by the end of 2025, enabling faster, more reliable immersive experiences. The region also benefits from widespread VR headset adoption, with shipments exceeding 8 million units globally, and AR-enabled smartphones forming the majority of mobile devices in circulation.

Additionally, the strong presence of global tech giants headquartered in the U.S., including Meta, Google, Apple, and Microsoft, ensures continuous innovation and investment in immersive advertising platforms. Their partnerships with advertisers and agencies are accelerating mainstream adoption. With robust spending power, advanced connectivity, and consumer readiness, North America is positioned as a critical driver of immersive advertising, setting global benchmarks for interactive brand engagement.

AR Advertising: Where Engagement Meets Innovation

Augmented Reality (AR) has become the most widely adopted segment of immersive technology in advertising, offering interactive overlays that blend digital content with real-world environments. Unlike VR, which requires headsets, AR is accessible through smartphones and tablets, making it more scalable. Global smartphone penetration has surpassed 4.8 billion devices by the end of 2024, and with most new models being AR-enabled, advertisers can reach audiences instantly. This accessibility has positioned AR as a mainstream tool for brand engagement.

Consumer demand for AR advertising is strong, particularly in retail and fashion. Major retailers like IKEA and Sephora have successfully deployed AR apps, allowing customers to preview furniture in their homes or test cosmetics virtually. These campaigns demonstrate AR's ability to reduce purchase hesitation and drive conversion rates.

Social media platforms are accelerating AR adoption by integrating filters and branded experiences. TikTok and Instagram have introduced AR-powered ads that boost interaction rates by more than 40 percent compared to static formats. This trend highlights AR's role in creating viral, shareable content that strengthens brand visibility. Advertisers are increasingly leveraging these platforms to deliver gamified experiences and interactive storytelling.

The AR segment is also benefiting from advancements in 5G and AI. Faster connectivity enables real-time rendering of complex AR ads, while AI enhances personalization by tailoring experiences to user preferences.

Competitive Landscape and Strategic Initiatives

The immersive technology in the advertising market features intense competition among industry leaders, including Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.), Meta Platforms, Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Apple Inc., Snap Inc., Unity Technologies, Sony Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., and NVIDIA Corporation.

Key Competitive Strategies Include:

Investing in R&D to accelerate next-generation AR, VR, and MR technologies.

Building closed or semi-closed XR ecosystems combining hardware and software.

Integrating AI to automate 3D content creation and real-time personalization.

Forming partnerships with advertising agencies and global brands to scale adoption.

Acquiring XR studios and tech startups to expand capabilities and portfolios.

Ensuring cross-platform compatibility across mobile, webAR, and headset devices.

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Why Choose This Global Immersive Technology in Advertising Market Report?

Latest Data and Forecasts : Covers market size, growth trends, and technology adoption trajectories across AR, VR, MR, and spatial advertising through 2032.

: Covers market size, growth trends, and technology adoption trajectories across AR, VR, MR, and spatial advertising through 2032. Regulatory Intelligence : Includes analysis of global data privacy laws, digital advertising standards, AI content regulations, and XR safety guidelines.

: Includes analysis of global data privacy laws, digital advertising standards, AI content regulations, and XR safety guidelines. Competitive Benchmarking : Provides profiles, strengths, and strategic moves of top players and emerging innovators in immersive advertising.

: Provides profiles, strengths, and strategic moves of top players and emerging innovators in immersive advertising. Emerging Market Coverage : Highlights adoption opportunities across Asia Pacific, Middle East, Latin America, and rapidly digitizing markets.

: Highlights adoption opportunities across Asia Pacific, Middle East, Latin America, and rapidly digitizing markets. Actionable Strategies : Offers guidance on deploying AR-driven campaigns, VR brand experiences, spatial ads, and AI-powered 3D content pipelines.

: Offers guidance on deploying AR-driven campaigns, VR brand experiences, spatial ads, and AI-powered 3D content pipelines. Pricing and Cost Analysis : Breaks down costs for AR ad production, VR experience development, hardware integration, and immersive campaign deployment.

: Breaks down costs for AR ad production, VR experience development, hardware integration, and immersive campaign deployment. Expert Analysis: Delivers insights from specialists in XR marketing, digital advertising, AI-driven content creation, and real-time 3D experience design.

The Future of Advertising: The Next Leap Toward Hyper-Personalized Immersive Experiences

By 2032, immersive advertising will enter a new phase defined by:

AI-enhanced real-time personalization

Digital humans as brand ambassadors

Spatial computing-driven retail experiences

5G & 6G-enabled holographic advertising

Metaverse-native commerce and ad monetization

AR smart glasses as mainstream marketing surfaces

Full-funnel immersive customer journeys

Related Report:

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) Technology for Healthcare Market to Jump from US $4.10 B in 2024 to US $15.06 B by 2033 - CAGR 15.4% Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) Market to Explode at 43.8% CAGR Through 2031 - Immersive Tech Redefines Business & Consumer Experiences. Head-Mounted Display (HMD) Market Share to Surge at 21% CAGR Through 2031 on AR/VR Boom. Smart Glass Market Size to Grow from US$5.8 B in 2023 to US$13.4 B by 2031 - CAGR 10.9%.

About DataM Intelligence

DataM Intelligence is a renowned provider of market research, delivering deep insights through pricing analysis, market share breakdowns, and competitive intelligence. The company specializes in strategic reports that guide businesses in high-growth sectors such as nutraceuticals and AI-driven health innovations.

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New investment and leadership team to drive international expansion

Primecore, a program management consultancy serving the science and technology sectors, has announced a new leadership team and a significant investment that will see the company grow by over 100 people within three years.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251202449769/en/

Pictured are (from l-r) Eddie Kent, newly appointed Primecore CFO; Aidan O'Dwyer, newly appointed Primecore CEO; Dara Kernan, Primecore Managing Partner; and Donal Roche, newly appointed Chair of Primecore board. Primecore, a program management consultancy serving the science and technology sectors, has announced a new leadership team and a significant investment that will see the company grow by over 100 people within three years. Photographer: Naoise Culhane

The announcement follows the acquisition of Primecore by a new ownership group comprising experienced business executives; Aidan O'Dwyer, Eddie Kent, and Donal Roche. The new team previously served together as senior executives and Board members at DPS Group, where they played leading roles in the growth and eventual sale of that company.

The new leadership team are also planning for growth at Primecore, where they expect to grow revenues from $12m per annum currently to $30M by 2028. With existing offices in Philadelphia, Boston, Cork and Dublin, 80% of Primecore's current revenue originates from the U.S. While the new investment will be heavily weighted in favor of the U.S. the new owners also intend growing their presence in Ireland and Europe.

As part of this next phase of growth, Aidan O'Dwyer, formerly President, US Project Operations at DPS Group, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer, with Eddie Kent, former CFO of DPS, joining as Chief Financial Officer. Donal Roche, a blueblood of Irish Boardrooms and former chair of DPS Group joins the Primecore board as Chair. Dara Kernan, Managing Partner of Primecore, will remain in his current role, ensuring continuity and stability for clients and staff teams alike.

Speaking about the announcement, Aidan O'Dwyer, CEO of Primecore, said: "We acquired Primecore because it has an outstanding reputation and represents everything we value; trusted client relationships, exceptional staff, and a proven record of delivery.

"At the company's core is a deep conviction that adherence to best-practice, coupled with industry leading expertise translates capital investments into commercial success for our clients. We are truly excited about our partnership with Dara and the rest of the team, and we are confident this investment will allow Primecore reach its full potential in the years to come."

Dara Kernan, Managing Partner of Primecore, added: "Our clients depend on us to manage high-stakes programs that are critical enablers to their business performance. This investment allows us to strengthen our capabilities, attract top talent, and expand internationally while maintaining the same quality and trust that Primecore is known for."

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New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - December 2, 2025) - After SE01 achieved the world's first natural gait and PM01 executed the inaugural humanoid robot front flip stunt, defining industry benchmarks through groundbreaking solutions, EngineAI continues to focus on embodied intelligence. With the core mission of 'transforming technological exploration into industrial applications,' the company is steadily advancing the commercialization of general-purpose humanoid robots.

Nearly a year after its initial unveiling, Zhao Tongyang has redesigned the product three times. Now, with 150 top-tier R&D engineers at EngineAI working tirelessly, the industry-defining masterpiece-the full-size, ultra-efficient universal humanoid robot EngineAI T800-has been officially launched today.





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The product launch campaign was promptly initiated, with the T800 priced from 180,000 yuan. A tiered product lineup-comprising the base, ecosystem (open-source), sharpened (Pro), and flagship (Max) versions-was simultaneously unveiled, precisely addressing diverse scenario-specific requirements. This achievement demonstrates how EngineAI's full-size universal humanoid robot has overcome the critical transition from "technically viable" to "market-ready", marking the official commencement of a new phase for large-scale industrial deployment across all scenarios.

The launch of T800 represents not only a strategic expansion of EngineAI's product portfolio and an upgrade of its technical framework, but also a breakthrough in exploring the technological pathways and application boundaries of "full-size universal humanoid robots." Leveraging its self-developed full-stack core technology system, the product achieves a precise integration of power performance and biomimetic aesthetics, creating a new generation of intelligent carriers with exceptional practical capabilities in various scenarios. This lays a solid foundation for embedding humanoid robots in complex environments, continuously driving the industrial application of embodied intelligence technology and setting a new benchmark for industry development.

Bionic Aesthetics and Scene Adaptation: Reconstructing the Value Dimension of Humanoid Robot Appearance

The EngineAI T800, engineered with ergonomic principles and multi-scenario operational needs, features precisely calibrated parameters. Designed for the average adult height of 1.73m and an optimized self-weight of 75kg, it achieves a human-like form that aligns with mainstream aesthetics. While maintaining the approachability of humanoid robots, its proportionally optimized design ensures versatility for industrial collaboration and service scenarios.





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The design masterfully blends power aesthetics, cutting-edge technology, and practicality for real-world applications. Its streamlined body is cast from aerospace-grade high-strength aluminum alloy, with precision CNC machining ensuring structural accuracy. This achieves a perfect balance of lightweight design and structural stability, while delivering industry-leading impact resistance, weather resistance, and long-term durability.

The design integrates technical sophistication with human-centric features: The dynamic interactive light strip employs multi-mode lighting language, using color and flashing frequency to intuitively display device status and interaction commands, enhancing human-machine collaboration. Its biomimetic noise-resistant foot replicates human foot mechanics, featuring high-elasticity shock-absorbing materials and anti-slip wear-resistant components for versatile floor conditions.

From material selection and precision polishing to meticulous detail optimization, the EngineAI T800 consistently embodies its core design philosophy: "harmonizing aesthetics, performance, reliability, and human-machine compatibility." Its visual appeal aligns with mainstream aesthetics and contextual needs, while its robust capabilities meet demanding operational requirements. Through rigorous testing, the product's reliability has been validated. The human-centric design features anthropomorphic forms and intuitive interfaces to minimize operational barriers, ultimately achieving the core mission of "technology empowering scenarios, design serving practicality."

Full-Stack Self-Developed Core Empowerment: Forging the Ultimate Player with Full-Dimensional Dynamic Performance in the Same Height Segment

Powered by its proprietary full-stack core technology, the EngineAI T800 is designed to dominate the field of full-range dynamic performance among humanoid robots in its class.

Powered by a full-stack integrated joint module, the system delivers a peak torque of 450N,m through coordinated output. Its instantaneous 14,000W peak power joint, combined with multi-degree-of-freedom joints in critical areas like the neck, waist, and hands, enables highly anthropomorphic flexibility. This configuration demonstrates industry-leading dynamic explosive power and load capacity in high-impact scenarios such as combat and running, making it easily adaptable to various industrial applications.

The T800 integrates its proprietary micro-joint electromechanical technology with a 360 omnidirectional LiDAR system, enabling millisecond-level environmental modeling and AI-powered intelligent path planning. This allows precise obstacle avoidance and agile maneuvering even in complex dynamic environments.





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Full-Stack Self-Developed Perception Dexterous Hand: Unlocking a New Dimension of Precise Control in All Scenarios

The EngineAI T800 is equipped with a fully self-developed multi-dimensional sensing dexterous hand, providing core technical support for precision operations. Featuring a biomimetic design that closely replicates human hand movement patterns, it integrates tactile sensing systems and precise force control technology. The robot can seamlessly switch between heavy-duty tasks like heavy object grasping and high-precision operations such as fine sorting and item delivery.

The Dexterous Hand, powered by its highly humanized control logic, delivers full-scenario coverage from force output to precision operations. It provides industry-specific "ready-to-use" solutions, fully demonstrating T800's core technological edge in humanized control.





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Energy Cornerstone for All-Weather Operation: Solid-State Battery and Intelligent Heat Dissipation Technology Synergize

To meet the demands of prolonged, high-intensity safety operations, the EngineAI T800 features the industry's first high-performance solid-state power battery specifically designed for humanoid robots. This innovation enables a stable 4-5 hour runtime, effectively overcoming the endurance limitations of conventional batteries in this field.

The product features a full-joint active cooling system for the legs, which employs high-precision temperature control technology to dynamically regulate core components' operating temperature. This system works in tandem with high-performance solid-state power batteries, ensuring stable performance output throughout continuous operation. The dual-core synergy of "energy + cooling" provides a robust energy foundation for all-weather continuous operation scenarios, while also delivering reliable endurance support and performance assurance for large-scale deployment across various environments.





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Intelligent Manufacturing Base and Ecological Synergy: Accelerating the Process of Full-Scale Implementation of High-Efficiency Universal Humanoid Robot

The official launch of the EngineAI T800 marks not only an advanced demonstration of EngineAI's core technology system in embodied intelligence but also signifies a quantum leap in the company's large-scale production capabilities. Leveraging EngineAI's robust high-end manufacturing ecosystem and supply chain synergy, EngineAI's end-to-end digital smart manufacturing base is set to commence full-scale production. By establishing professional-grade automated production lines, integrating premium supply chain partners, and upgrading its refined quality control system, the company has built a comprehensive collaborative framework covering material scheduling, production line optimization, and finished product inspection. This fully prepared system ensures the successful mass production of the T800.

The T800 has now completed technical validation across multiple core application scenarios, meeting all requirements for industrial deployment. It is poised for mass production and frontline industrial adoption, transforming cutting-edge technologies and algorithms into replicable, scalable industrial productivity.





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Guided by the philosophy of "Quality is our promise; Excellence is our pursuit," EngineAI focuses on three core domains: body design, motion algorithms, and embodied intelligence. With a relentless pursuit of perfection, we continuously innovate in the technical development and product evolution of humanoid robots.

Under Zhao Tongyang's leadership, EngineAI successfully launched the world's first truly commercially mass-produced full-size general-purpose humanoid robot. Built on a decade of technical expertise and product refinement, this groundbreaking achievement demonstrates unparalleled technical prowess that can compete with a hundred teams. Guided by its core values of rejecting low-quality homogenization and prioritizing quality over quantity, the product delivers exceptional performance, propelling the Fourth Industrial Revolution to new heights. Leveraging proprietary core technologies and extensive real-world implementation experience, it achieves a revolutionary breakthrough in physical capabilities-surpassing 90% of adult male performance metrics. More importantly, it breaks free from the industry's "toy-like" development constraints, truly embodying the attributes of a productivity tool and laying a solid foundation for the large-scale commercialization of humanoid robots.





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Looking ahead, EngineAI Robotics will continue advancing core technologies in embodied intelligence and developing scenario-specific solutions for vertical industries. Guided by the philosophy of "connecting, serving, and co-creating ecosystems", the company will collaborate with industry partners to drive innovation, accelerating the transition of humanoid robots from technical validation to large-scale commercialization. By leveraging cutting-edge technologies to empower diverse industries, EngineAI Robotics is injecting strong momentum into the rapidly approaching era of General Artificial Intelligence (AGI).





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SOURCE: Global News
NEW YORK, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Global Prefilled Syringes Market is entering a transformative era driven by biologics expansion, injectable self-administration, automation in fill-finish operations, and strong regulatory push for safety-engineered devices. Valued at USD 8.01 Billion in 2024, the market is projected to reach USD 32.98 Billion by 2035, growing at a CAGR of 13.75%.

As pharmaceutical pipelines shift toward high-value biologics, vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, and long-acting injectables, prefilled syringes are rapidly becoming the preferred container-closure system for accurate dosing, sterility assurance, and patient-friendly administration.

The landscape is transitioning from conventional vials to smart, polymer-based, safety-engineered, and auto-injector-compatible prefilled formats, enabling enhanced drug stability, reduced contamination risk, and superior usability across home-care and clinical settings.

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Free Sample Includes:

Global & regional market size forecasts through 2035.

Competitive benchmarking and SWOT analysis of top providers.

Segmentation insights.

Regulatory and sustainability landscape mapping.

Porter's Five Forces and value chain assessment.

Regional investment and technology adoption opportunities.

Prefilled Syringes are Accelerating Toward a Connected, Ready-to-Inject, and Patient-Centric Delivery Model

Key innovation forces shaping the next decade include:

Rise of biologics & biosimilars demanding high-precision, contamination-free delivery systems

Shift to self-injection therapies for diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, oncology, and chronic autoimmune diseases

Advanced cyclic olefin polymer (COP/COC) syringes supporting sensitive biologics requiring low extractables & break resistance

Integrated needle-safety technologies aligned with EU Sharps Directive & US Needlestick Safety Act

Connectivity-enabled PFS pairing with digital health, adherence monitoring, and smart auto-injectors

Automation in fill-finish lines, ensuring sterility, high throughput, and reduced human error

Rising vaccine demand (influenza, COVID boosters, RSV, pediatric immunization) driving large-volume procurement

Expansion of contract manufacturing (CMO/CDMO) for high-volume sterile production

Why the Prefilled Syringes Market Is a Strategic Imperative for CEOs & CXOs

Biologics now represent >50% of global pharma R&D, requiring advanced delivery systems

High-value margins in ready-to-administer (RTA) and ready-to-use (RTU) injectable formats

Global push for needle-safety compliance unlocking replacement of legacy vials

Explosive growth in home-based care, chronic disease management & wearable injectors

Rising contamination concerns encouraging pharma to shift toward closed-system PFS

Strong governmental demand for PFS-based vaccination programs

Automation & robotics in fill-finish enabling scale expansion and cost competitiveness

Technology & Market Drivers Shaping Next-Generation Prefilled Syringes

Polymer-based syringe evolution (COP/COC): solving breakage, temperature sensitivity & leachable concerns

AI-enabled visual inspection for particle detection & fill-level precision

Integrated auto-injector platforms improving dosing accuracy for high-viscosity biologics

Silicone-free & low-silicone syringe barrels improving biologic stability

Advanced barrier coatings minimizing protein aggregation & adsorption

Robotic filling lines improving sterility assurance and reducing batch failures

Adoption of dual-chamber PFS for lyophilized drugs and on-demand reconstitution

Strategic Opportunities for Pharma Leaders, Device Innovators & Investors

Scale large-volume PFS manufacturing for vaccines, biosimilars & ophthalmic drugs

Develop next-generation polymer syringes with ultra-high purity profiles

Expand smart auto-injector ecosystems compatible with standard PFS

Strengthen CDMO partnerships for high-speed fill-finish operations

Build regional PFS production hubs in APAC & MEA to reduce cold-chain dependency

Innovate safety-engineered needles, passive shields & reuse-prevention devices

Enhance digital integration connectivity modules for adherence monitoring

Optimize supply chain resilience for plungers, rubber stoppers & barrier coatings

Expert Perspectives

"Prefilled syringes are redefining sterile drug administration with superior safety, accuracy, and biologic compatibility. Their rise is directly linked to the global biologics boom." Nneha Rathod Godbole, CEO, Vantage Market Research

Email Directly Here with Detailed Information: sales@vantagemarketresearch.com

Executive Priorities for Market Leadership

Accelerate polymer syringe innovation for biologics & cold-chain stability

Expand auto-injector & wearable injector compatibility

Strengthen global fill-finish capacity through robotics & automation

Enhance safety-compliant needle systems

Build regional supply chains for plungers, elastomers & sterilization

Invest in home-care friendly designs to enable self-administration

Strengthen workforce training for sterile manufacturing & regulatory compliance

Market Momentum: Why Now

Surging chronic disease prevalence requiring frequent injections

High global uptake of biologics, including oncology & auto-immune therapies

Strong vaccination demand and government stockpiling

Movement toward unit-dose formats improving dosing accuracy & reducing waste

Reduced medical errors & contamination risk compared to vials

Growing preference for ready-to-inject systems across hospitals and home care

Growth Levers & Strategic Priorities Prefilled Syringes Market 2035

Scale Advanced Drug-Delivery Automation & Integrated Fill-Finish Platforms: High-speed, fully automated fill-finish lines, inline vision inspection, and robotics are becoming mission-critical to reduce contamination risks, enhance sterility assurance, and support large-volume biologics production.

Accelerate Transition to Polymer-Based & Safety-Engineered Syringes: Shift from traditional glass to cyclic olefin polymer (COP/COC), safety needles, and retractable systems will drive adoption by improving break resistance, drug compatibility, and needlestick injury prevention.

Expand Biologics-Ready Syringe Systems & Customized Assemblies: With rapid biologics and biosimilar growth, demand is rising for silicone-oil-optimized plungers, low-extractable materials, barrier-coated stoppers, and tight container-closure integrity solutions.

Foster Ecosystem Partnerships Across Pharma, CDMOs & Device Innovators: Strategic collaboration for co-development of combination products, integrated autoinjector platforms, and regulatory-ready device-drug solutions is becoming the competitive backbone of the industry.

Localize Prefilled Syringe Component Manufacturing in Emerging Markets: Establishing regional production hubs for plungers, barrels, needles, and safety mechanisms reduces lead times, mitigates supply chain risks, and supports small-batch sterile manufacturing for local pharma.

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Benefits of Purchasing Prefilled Syringes Market Reports

Analyst Support - Direct access to our experts before and after purchase for tailored insights and clarifications.

- Direct access to our experts before and after purchase for tailored insights and clarifications. Data Accuracy - Forecasts and trends validated through a combination of primary industry interviews, end-user surveys, and advanced statistical modeling.

- Forecasts and trends validated through a combination of primary industry interviews, end-user surveys, and advanced statistical modeling. Decision-Making Tools - Interactive dashboards, granular segment forecasts, competitor benchmarking, and adoption roadmaps to guide strategy.

- Interactive dashboards, granular segment forecasts, competitor benchmarking, and adoption roadmaps to guide strategy. Quality & Credibility - Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, healthcare innovators, and technology leaders for reliable market intelligence.

Recent Industry Developments

Jan 2025 : Introduction of ultra-low-silicone polymer syringes designed for high-viscosity biologics and cell/gene therapies.

: Introduction of ultra-low-silicone polymer syringes designed for high-viscosity biologics and cell/gene therapies. Mar 2025 : Global pharma-CDMO partnerships expand integrated fill-finish capacity for vaccines and monoclonal antibodies.

: Global pharma-CDMO partnerships expand integrated fill-finish capacity for vaccines and monoclonal antibodies. Jun 2025 : Rollout of next-generation safety-engineered prefilled syringes with passive needlestick protection.

: Rollout of next-generation safety-engineered prefilled syringes with passive needlestick protection. Aug 2025 : Growth of digital QC and inline vision analytics for real-time defect detection in syringe assembly lines.

: Growth of digital QC and inline vision analytics for real-time defect detection in syringe assembly lines. Oct 2025: Expansion of prefilled syringe manufacturing hubs in India, Singapore, and UAE to strengthen regional supply security.

Top Key Players for Prefilled Syringes Market

BD

Gerresheimer AG

SCHOTT Pharma AG

Stevanato Group

Nipro Corporation

Terumo

West pharmaceuticals

Fresenius

Catalent

Aptar Pharma

To Know an Additional List of Key Players, Request Here to Download a Free Report PDF Brochure: https://www.vantagemarketresearch.com/prefilled-syringes-market-1646/request-sample

Regional Market Dynamics

North America : Leadership in biologics manufacturing, strong uptake of safety syringes, advanced fill-finish technologies, and high regulatory compliance standards (FDA 21 CFR Part 820, USP <1207>).

: Leadership in biologics manufacturing, strong uptake of safety syringes, advanced fill-finish technologies, and high regulatory compliance standards (FDA 21 CFR Part 820, USP <1207>). Europe : Largest hub for prefilled syringe production; strong adoption in vaccination programs, chronic disease therapies, and self-injection devices across Germany, Switzerland, and Nordic countries.

: Largest hub for prefilled syringe production; strong adoption in vaccination programs, chronic disease therapies, and self-injection devices across Germany, Switzerland, and Nordic countries. Asia Pacific : Fastest-growing region driven by biopharma expansion, government-backed vaccine initiatives, contract manufacturing growth, and large-scale polymer syringe production in India, China, and South Korea.

: Fastest-growing region driven by biopharma expansion, government-backed vaccine initiatives, contract manufacturing growth, and large-scale polymer syringe production in India, China, and South Korea. Latin America : Steady demand rise due to national immunization programs, adoption of safety syringes, and growing biologics fill-finish outsourcing in Brazil and Mexico.

: Steady demand rise due to national immunization programs, adoption of safety syringes, and growing biologics fill-finish outsourcing in Brazil and Mexico. Middle East & Africa: Increasing investment in healthcare infrastructure, expansion of vaccine manufacturing partnerships, and rising procurement of safety auto-disable and prefilled syringe systems for public health programs.

Segment Insights

By Type

Conventional Prefilled Syringes: Conventional prefilled syringes dominate the market due to their widespread use in chronic disease management, established manufacturing ecosystem, and lower cost. High adoption in vaccines, biologics, and fixed-dose injectables continues to sustain their leadership.

Safety Prefilled Syringes: Safety variants are gaining traction as needlestick injury prevention regulations strengthen. Increasing hospital preference, rising biologics usage, and growing shift toward patient-administered injectables at home are accelerating demand for retractable and shielded safety systems.

By Material

Glass Prefilled Syringes: Glass remains the standard material for biologics and vaccines owing to its strong chemical resistance, barrier properties, and regulatory acceptance. Growth is supported by the surging pipeline of sensitive biologics that require high-purity containment.

Plastic Prefilled Syringes: Plastic syringes are expanding steadily due to their break-resistance, compatibility with high-volume manufacturing, and suitability for emergency care and home-use settings. Increasing interest in cyclic olefin polymers (COP/COC) is driving innovation.

By Design

Single-Chamber Prefilled Syringes: Single-chamber systems lead the segment with broad adoption in routine injections, vaccines, anticoagulants, and specialty drugs. Their simplicity, low cost, and ease of filling make them the preferred choice for mass-market therapeutics.

Dual-Chamber Prefilled Syringes: Dual-chamber formats are rising in demand for lyophilized biologics requiring reconstitution at the point of use. Growing commercialization of complex biologics and personalized formulations is boosting this segment.

Customized Prefilled Syringes: Customized syringes are increasingly utilized for niche therapies, drug-device combinations, and pharma-OEM co-development programs. Demand is driven by lifecycle management strategies, patient-centric designs, and brand differentiation.

By Application

Diabetes: A major application segment due to the global rise in insulin users and preference for ready-to-inject formats. Prefilled insulin pens and syringes ensure dosing accuracy and enhance patient adherence.

Rheumatoid Arthritis: The surge in self-injectable biologics such as TNF inhibitors supports strong adoption of prefilled syringes in rheumatology. Patient-friendly autoinjector-compatible syringes are shaping growth.

Anaphylaxis: Prefilled epinephrine syringes and autoinjector cartridges play a critical role in emergency response. The increasing prevalence of severe allergies and demand for reliable, rapid-use formats sustains market expansion.

Cancer: Cancer biologics, monoclonal antibodies, and supportive care injectables are increasingly being delivered through prefilled systems to reduce dosing errors and streamline oncology workflows.

Thrombosis: Anticoagulants such as low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) are major contributors, supported by high hospital usage and at-home post-surgical care management.

Ophthalmology: Rising incidence of retinal disorders and growing use of intravitreal injections drive uptake of precision-engineered prefilled syringes designed for ophthalmic dosing accuracy.

Others: Includes vaccines, hormone therapies, pain management drugs, and emergency medicines where prefilled formats enhance safety and convenience.

By Distribution Channel

Hospitals: Hospitals account for significant demand due to high-volume usage in acute care, oncology, emergency medicine, and chronic disease injections. Preference for safety-engineered syringes is rising.

Mail Order Pharmacies: This channel is experiencing strong growth propelled by rising chronic disease prescriptions, home therapy adoption, and subscription-based medicine refill models.

Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs): ASCs increasingly prefer prefilled syringes for infection control, procedural efficiency, and dose precision across anesthetics, anticoagulants, and ophthalmic injections.

Browse market data Tables and Figures spread through 249 Pages and in-depth TOC on Prefilled Syringes Market trends 2025 Forecast Report (2025-2035).

Segments Covered in the Report

By Type

Conventional Prefilled Syringes

Safety Prefilled Syringes

By Material

Glass Prefilled Syringes

Plastic Prefilled Syringes

By Design

Single-Chamber Prefilled Syringes

Dual- Chamber Prefilled Syringes

Customized Prefilled Syringes

By Application

Diabetes

Rheumatoid Arthritis

Anaphylaxis

Cancer

Thrombosis

Ophthalmology

Others

By Distribution Channel

Hospitals

Mail Order Pharmacies

Ambulatory Surgery Centers

By Region

North America U.S. Canada Mexico

Europe Germany France U.K. Italy Spain Nordic Countries Benelux Union Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific China Japan India New Zealand Australia South Korea South-East Asia Rest of Asia Pacific

Latin America Brazil Argentina Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa (MEA) Saudi Arabia UAE Egypt Kuwait South Africa Rest of MEA



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Key Questions Answered in The Report:

Which regional markets are expected to witness the strongest growth in prefilled syringe adoption through 2035, and what healthcare, economic, and pharmaceutical manufacturing factors are driving this expansion?

How are evolving regulatory frameworks such as FDA guidance for combination products, EMA material compatibility standards, and national needlestick safety rules shaping product approvals, influencing design choices, and accelerating market penetration?

Who are the leading players in the global prefilled syringes market, and how do their strategies differ in terms of innovation, material selection, geographic expansion, and drug-device integration capabilities?

Which emerging companies and startups are introducing breakthroughs in polymer-based syringes, high-viscosity drug delivery systems, connected injection technologies, or silicone-free syringe platforms?

What technological advancements such as dual-chamber reconstitution systems, advanced fill-finish automation, smart/trackable syringe formats, or innovations supporting biologics stability will transform competitive positioning by 2035?

How are strategic collaborations among pharmaceutical companies, CMOs, material science innovators, device engineering firms, and regulatory bodies accelerating commercialization and expanding adoption of prefilled syringe solutions?

Which therapeutic areas such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, anaphylaxis, and oncology will drive the highest shift toward prefilled formats, and how will patient-centric delivery models influence this demand?

How will investments in automated fill-finish capacity, regional CMO expansions, and resilient supply chain strategies impact the availability, quality, and scalability of prefilled syringe production over the next decade?

Gain instant access to our exclusive, data-driven dashboard designed for healthcare industry decision-makers, strategists, and market leaders. The platform delivers in-depth statistical insights, segment-wise breakdowns, regional market performance, competitive landscape mapping, company profiles, annual updates, and more. From market sizing to trend analysis and competitive intelligence, this powerful tool serves as a comprehensive solution for informed business decisions.

Browse the Full "Prefilled Syringes Market Size, Share & Growth Forecast by 2035 by Type (Conventional Prefilled Syringes, Safety Prefilled Syringes) by Material (Glass Prefilled Syringes, Plastic Prefilled Syringes) by Design (Single-Chamber Prefilled Syringes, Dual- Chamber Prefilled Syringes, Customized Prefilled Syringes) by Application (Diabetes, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Anaphylaxis, Cancer, Thrombosis, Ophthalmology, Others) by Region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East & Africa" Report at https://www.vantagemarketresearch.com/industry-report/prefilled-syringes-market-1646

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Annual list spotlights companies and leaders delivering meaningful results for their industries, customers and future growth

Armis, the cyber exposure management security company, today announced that it has once again been named to Inc.'s Best in Business list, specifically highlighted in the Best in Innovation category for 2025. Inc.'s annual Best in Business Awards celebrate the exceptional achievements and contributions of companies that have made a profound impact on their industries and on society at large.

"Armis rapidly innovates and continuously enhances our comprehensive Cyber Exposure Management Platform so that global organizations can proactively protect against cyber threats before there's any impact," said Yevgeny Dibrov, CEO and Co-Founder of Armis. "Unlike other solutions on the market, Armis addresses the entire lifecycle of managing cyber threats so that security teams no longer reactively respond to breaches. This is a strategic and monumental shift for the industry to stay a step ahead of threat actors and hugely beneficial to keeping society as we know it safe from disruptions."

Since being recognized on this list in 2024, Armis has continuously enhanced its already robust product capabilities and expanded its ability to reach new market segments in need of its solutions. Armis launched Armis Federal, a dedicated division to support the unique cybersecurity challenges of U.S. government entities, and completed its third acquisition in 12 months to fuel further product innovation. In the past year, Armis has also expanded its partner ecosystem, deepening integrations with NVIDIA and Fortinet.

Additionally, Armis has received a number of accolades for its Cyber Exposure Management Platform, Armis Centrix. For its platform impact, Armis was named a Leader in The Forrester Wave: IoT Security Solutions, Q3 2025, on the heels of its recognition in The Forrester Wave: Unified Vulnerability Management Solutions, Q3 2025. Both evaluations followed Armis being named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for CPS Protection Platforms earlier this year.

Armis recently completed a pre-IPO funding round of $435 million, bringing the company's valuation to $6.1 billion. The investment round comes amid Armis' rapid growth and will support continued product innovation, go-to-market expansion and strategic acquisitions to benefit Armis customers, including over 40% of the Fortune 100 and 7 of the Fortune 10.

This recognition honors companies that, through exceptional execution, have achieved significant milestones and core business wins, like customer expansion, key product launches, increased market share, and industry-defining accomplishments. Companies from a wide range of industries such as technology, health care, finance, and retail have been recognized for their success and their positive influence on the business world.

Read additional information about Inc.'s 2025 Best in Business list here.

Learn more about Armis Centrix and each of the solutions offered by Armis here.

About Armis

Armis, the cyber exposure management security company, protects the entire attack surface and manages the organization's cyber risk exposure in real time. In a rapidly evolving, perimeter-less world Armis ensures that organizations continuously see, protect and manage all critical assets from the ground to the cloud. Armis secures Fortune 100, 200 and 500 companies as well as national governments, state and local entities to help keep critical infrastructure, economies and society stay safe and secure 24/7. Armis is a privately held company headquartered in California.

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Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - December 2, 2025) - Tudor Gold Corp. (TSXV: TUD) (FSE: H56) (the "Company" or "Tudor Gold") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with Research Capital Corporation as the lead agent and sole bookrunner, on behalf of a syndicate of agents, including Roth Canada, Inc. (together, the "Agents"), in connection with a brokered, best-efforts listed issuer financing exemption private placement offering (the "Offering") of units of the Company (the "Units") at a price of $0.80 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds to the Company of up to $10,000,000.

Each Unit will consist of one common share of the Company (a "Common Share") and one-half of one Common Share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant shall entitle the holder thereof to purchase one Common Share at an exercise price of $1.20 per Common Share for a period of 24 months following the closing of the Offering.

The Company will grant the Agents an option (the "Agents' Option") to increase the size by up to an additional 15% of the number of Units sold in the Offering, by giving written notice of the exercise of the Agents' Option, or a part thereof, to the Company at any time up to two (2) business days prior to closing of the Offering.

The net proceeds from the Offering will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes.

The Units will be offered for sale pursuant to the listed issuer financing exemption under Part 5A of National Instrument 45-106 - Prospectus Exemptions, as amended by CSA Coordinated Blanket Order 45-935 - Exemptions from Certain Conditions of the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption (collectively, the "Listed Issuer Financing Exemption"), in all provinces of Canada, except Quebec, and other qualifying jurisdictions, including the United States. The Units offered under the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption will be immediately "free-trading" upon closing of the Offering under applicable Canadian securities laws.

There is an offering document (the "Offering Document") related to this Offering that can be accessed under the Company's profile at www.sedarplus.ca and at the Company's website at www.tudor-gold.com. Prospective investors should read this Offering Document before making an investment decision.

The closing of the Offering is expected to occur on or about the week of December 15, 2025 (the "Closing"), or on such date as the Agents and Company may agree upon. Closing is subject to the Company receiving all necessary regulatory approvals, including the conditional approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

The Agents will receive a cash commission of 6.0% of the aggregate gross proceeds of the Offering and such number of broker warrants (the "Broker Warrants") as is equal to 6.0% of the number of Units sold under the Offering (in each case, subject to reduction for certain subscribers on a president's list of purchasers identified by the Company). Each Broker Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Common Share at an exercise price equal to $1.20 for a period of 24 months following the Closing.

This press release is not an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the securities in the United States or in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to qualification or registration under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. The securities being offered have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and such securities may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons absent registration or an applicable exemption from U.S. registration requirements and applicable U.S. state securities laws.

About Tudor Gold

Tudor Gold Corp. is a precious and base metals exploration and development company with claims in British Columbia's Golden Triangle (Canada), an area that hosts producing and past-producing mines and several large deposits that are approaching potential development. The 17,913 hectare Treaty Creek Project (in which Tudor Gold has an 80% interest) borders Seabridge Gold Inc.'s KSM property to the southwest and borders Newmont Corporation's Brucejack Mine property to the southeast.

For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.tudor-gold.com or contact:

Joseph Ovsenek

President & CEO

(778) 731-1055





Tudor Gold Corp.

Suite 789, 999 West Hastings Street

Vancouver, BC

V6C 2W2

info@tudorgoldcorp.com

(SEDAR+ filings: Tudor Gold Corp.) Chris Curran

Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Development

(604) 559 8092

chris.curran@tudor-gold.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This news release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements." Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements, or developments to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "could" or "should" occur. These forward-looking statements or information relate to, among other things: receipt of all approvals related to the Offering; the closing of the Offering; and the intended use of proceeds from the Offering.

By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors and risks include, among others: the conditions to closing of the Offering may not be satisfied, management's broad discretion regarding the use of proceeds of the Offering, the Company may require additional financing from time to time in order to continue its operations which may not be available when needed or on acceptable terms and conditions acceptable; compliance with extensive government regulation; domestic and foreign laws and regulations could adversely affect the Company's business and results of operations; and the stock markets have experienced volatility that often has been unrelated to the performance of companies and these fluctuations may adversely affect the price of the Company's securities, regardless of its operating performance.

The forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the expectations of the Company as of the date of this news release and, accordingly, is subject to change after such date. Readers should not place undue importance on forward-looking information and should not rely upon this information as of any other date. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

THIS NEWS RELEASE IS NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/276647

SOURCE: Tudor Gold Corp.
GOLD BASIN REMAINS CEASE TRADED AND NON-COMPLIANT AND RISKS POTENTIAL DISSOLUTION

TIME SENSITIVE: GOLD BASIN SHAREHOLDERS URGENT ATTENTION AND ACTION REQUESTED

Highlights

Well over 30% of Gold Basin Shareholders have deposited or made formal contractual commitments to tender to the Offer

Gold Basin Shareholders are warned of potential dissolution of Gold Basin due to another basic, but critical disclosure failure

Gold Basin Resources and Helix Resources Ltd. (ASX:HLX) have been named as defendants in a petition brought by Gold Basin Shareholders in the BC Supreme Court. Consistent with their track record, Gold Basin failed to enter a response to the petition by the court's deadline, and has failed to disclose the petition to its shareholders

CANEX reminds Gold Basin Shareholders of key upcoming deadlines that are critical for the future of their investment - CANEX's offer to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Gold Basin Resources expires on December 12 th , 2025

CANEX has released a new video presentation outlining its projects, the advantages of consolidating the Arizona district, and highlighting superior value for Gold Basin shareholders in the CANEX Offer relative to current alternatives <Video Presentation link>

CANEX thanks the many Gold Basin Shareholders around the globe for the overwhelming support for the Offer and urges those not yet tendered to take action and join them immediately

CALGARY, AB / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / CANEX Metals Inc. ("CANEX" or the "Company") (TSXV:CANX) today issued a reminder of the upcoming expiry of its offer to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Gold Basin Resources Corporation ("Gold Basin") (TSX.V:GXX) on December 12, 2025. Relatedly, the Company also issued a reminder to shareholders of Gold Basin ("Gold Basin Shareholders") that the partial revocation of the cease-trade is set to expire on January 31, 2026 and that Gold Basin faces potential dissolution without the filing of its 2024 Annual Report by January 24, 2026. Further, CANEX is pleased to release a video with the President of the Company, Shane Ebert, highlighting the advantages of district consolidation and the value for shareholders.

Gold Basin Shareholders with question or who need assistance tendering their shares should contact Laurel Hill Advisory Group by calling 1-877-452-7184 (toll-free in Canada and the United States), or 1-416-304-0211 (collect call outside of Canada and the United States), by texting "INFO" to either number, or by email at assistance@laurelhill.com.

CANEX Offer Continues to Build Momentum

CANEX is pleased to announce that well over 30% of the shares of Gold Basin ("Gold Basin Shares") have entered into contractual lock-up agreements to support the offer to acquire Gold Basin Shares (the "Offer") or have otherwise been deposited under the Offer. This total does not include other indications or intentions of support. In addition, approximately 53% of Gold Basin shareholders hold their shares as beneficial shares (through a broker) and it is common for beneficial shares to be tendered closer to the Offer expiry date.

Shane Ebert, President of CANEX and a member of the Company's board of directors, commented: "We would like to thank the many Gold Basin Shareholders around the globe for their overwhelming support for the Offer. We've been fortunate to have many constructive conversations with Shareholders and are more convinced than ever that this business combination is the best path forward for both CANEX and Gold Basin Shareholders. To Gold Basin Shareholders who have not yet tendered, we invite you to join the other supportive Gold Basin Shareholders and deposit today to support our shared vision for our combined companies."

To further demonstrate the value of a consolidated company, CANEX also released the below video, which is geared toward overseas Gold Basin Shareholders and provides a summary of CANEX Metals, highlights the advantages of consolidating the Arizona district, and shows the superior value CANEX is offering to Gold Basin shareholders relative to other alternatives.

Critical Upcoming Deadlines with Serious Implications to Gold Basin Shareholders' Investment

Gold Basin Shareholders are reminded of three approaching dates with potentially critical implications for their investment in Gold Basin.

Firstly, CANEX's offer to purchase all of the issued and outstanding shares of Gold Basin (the "Offer") is set to expire at 5:00 p.m. (Toronto time) on December 12, 2025. Beneficial Gold Basin Shareholders (Beneficial Shareholders"), being those who hold their shares of Gold Basin ("Shares") with a bank or broker, are encouraged to provide deposit instructions well in advance of the deadline, as their bank or broker may impose an earlier internal deadline.

The many registered Gold Basin Shareholders ("Registered Shareholders"), being those who hold their Shares with a physical share certificate or DRS Advice Statement, located in Australia and New Zealand who are depositing to the Offer should note that if a physical certificate is being submitted it will need to be mailed to the depositary in Canada, may have lengthy transit times, and should be submitted immediately. For more details on how to tender your shares, please refer to the below section "ACT NOW to Save Your Gold Basin Investment - How to Tender to the Offer"

Secondly, as previously announced, the British Columbia Securities Commission issued a partial revocation order of the cease-trade order issued against Gold Basin (the "Modified Cease-Trade Order") for failing to file continuous disclosure documents under applicable securities laws that expires on January 31, 2026. The Modified Cease-Trade Order allows for, among other things, the take-up of Shares under the Offer, but otherwise Gold Basin Shareholders have no prospect of liquidity for their Shares. Should the Offer expire unsuccessfully, Gold Basin shares will again be subject to a full cease-trade order and Gold Basin Shareholders will have no means to realize value for their Shares for the foreseeable future, with the possibility of their Shares being delisted altogether.

Thirdly, CANEX has become aware that Gold Basin is also deficient in filing both its 2024 and 2025 annual reports, and if it fails to file the 2024 report by January 24, 2026 it risks dissolution of the corporation by BC Registries and Online Services which is the government body responsible for registering and maintaining records for British Columbia businesses.

Gold Basin Shareholders are encouraged to act now to salvage their investment; unfortunately, Gold Basin has been left with a myriad of deficiencies of basic securities law and listing requirements (no financial statements in over a year, no shareholder meeting in over 18 months, no auditors engaged, no transfer agent engaged, no CFO, no Corporate Secretary, insufficient independent directors, insufficient audit committee, among other failings) that Gold Basin has not only made no progress on remedying since the original cease-trade order was issued on May 6, 2025 ("Cease-Trade Order"), but has only exacerbated and left its shareholders in an extremely vulnerable position. In addition to the risk of dissolution, CANEX believes there is a serious risk that Gold Basin will be delisted from the TSX Venture Exchange, which would only further jeopardize Gold Basin Shareholders' investment.

Based on the direction of these events and the unlikely path to remediation, Gold Basin Shareholders should reasonably question the prospect of restoring any value to their Shares, and even if such a path were practically available - ignoring all evidence to the contrary - the considerable amount of time to achieve remediation would make it an unappealing choice.

Gold Basin and Helix Resources Ltd. (ASX:HLX)have recently been subject to a petition filed in the British Columbia Supreme Court by Gold Basin shareholders. Gold Basin not only failed to enter a response to the petition by the court's deadline but consistent with their abysmal disclosure record they also failed to disclose this petition to their shareholders.

Contrasted with the significant downside risk of the status quo, the CANEX Offer provides Gold Basin Shareholders with an excellent opportunity, with key benefits of:

Significant Upfront Premium: the Offer represents an implied premium of 58% to the last closing price of the Shares prior to the imposition of the Cease-Trade Order. This substantial premium does not factor in the ongoing value destruction at Gold Basin since the cease-trade order, the high level of debt accumulated, and the multiple legal actions faced by the company.

Consolidation of the District and Near-Term Exploration and Expansion: The Offer consolidates an advanced oxide gold exploration camp in Mojave County, Arizona, hosting multiple zones of gold mineralization with strong drill results across an eight kilometre by eight kilometre area, opening up potential near-term exploration on favourable targets, several of which are fully permitted for near-term drill testing and expansion.

Access to CANEX's stable balance sheet: With no debt and access to capital, Gold Basin Shareholders have an opportunity through the CANEX Offer to move from a highly precarious financial situation to the stable and managed underpinnings of CANEX's prudent financial management.

Professionally Managed Exploration with Experience in the Belt: The CANEX Team has six years experience working in the Arizona district and has developed a geologic understanding and exploration model that can help fast track new discovery and deposit expansion and unlock value across the combined district.

Improved Governance Profile: Contrasted with Gold Basin's serial non-compliance with the most fundamental of securities laws, let alone basic corporate governance, CANEX recently held it's annual general meeting on October 30, 2025 with a full endorsement of all items of business by Institutional Shareholder Services, the leading independent proxy advisor.

ACT NOW to Save Your Gold Basin Investment - How to Tender to the Offer

For Registered Shareholders (meaning you hold your shares with a physical certificate or DRS Advice Statement):Complete the Letter of Transmittal and submit, along with your certificate or DRS Statement to:

Computershare Investor Services Inc.

By Mail:

P.O. Box 7021

31 Adelaide St E

Toronto, ON M5C 3H2

Attention: Corporate Actions

By Registered Mail, Hand or by Courier

320 Bay Street

14th Floor

Toronto, ON

M5H 4A6

Attn: Corporate Actions

For submissions for holders with DRS Statements, you may also submit your documents by email to corporateactions@computershare.com.

If you have misplaced your certificate or DRS Statement and are unable to obtain a replacement but wish to tender to the Offer, you should submit the Letter of Transmittal along with a written explanation as to why the certificate or DRS is not available.

For Beneficial Shareholders (meaning you hold your shares at a bank, brokerage, or other intermediary): You need only to provide instructions to the Corporate Actions Department at your bank, brokerage, or other intermediary to deposit to the Offer. The manner in which you do provide these instructions will vary between institutions.

Gold Basin Shareholders with question or who need assistance tendering their shares should contact Laurel Hill Advisory Group by calling 1-877-452-7184 (toll-free in Canada and the United States), or 1-416-304-0211 (collect call outside of Canada and the United States), by texting "INFO" to either number, or by email at assistance@laurelhill.com.

Advisors

CANEX has retained Borden Ladner Gervais LLP as its legal advisor and Laurel Hill Advisory Group as its information agent.

About CANEX Metals

CANEX Metals (TSXV:CANX) is a Canadian junior exploration company focused on advancing its 100% owned Gold Range Project in Northern Arizona. With several near surface bulk tonnage gold discoveries made to date across a 4 km gold mineralized trend, the Gold Range Project is a compelling early-stage opportunity for investors. CANEX is also advancing the Louise Copper-Gold Porphyry Project in British Columbia. Louise contains a large historic copper-gold resource that has seen very little deep or lateral exploration, offering investors copper and gold discovery potential. CANEX is led by an experienced management team which has made three notable porphyry and bulk tonnage discoveries in North America and is sponsored by Altius Minerals (TSX: ALS), a large shareholder of the Company.

Dr. Shane Ebert P.Geo., is the Qualified Person for CANEX and has verified the data disclosed in this news release against historical and current data sources and has approved the technical disclosure contained in this news release.

"Shane Ebert"

Shane Ebert

President/Director

For Further Information Contact:

Shane Ebert at 1.250.964.2699 or

Jean Pierre Jutras at 1.403.233.2636

Web: http://www.canexmetals.ca

Gold Basin Shareholders :

Laurel Hill Advisory Group

North American Toll Free: 1-877-452-7184

Outside North America: 1-416-304-0211

Email: assistance@laurelhill.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

Except for the historical and present factual information contained herein, the matters set forth in this news release, including words such as "potential", "believes", "prospect", "risks", "opportunities" and similar expressions, are forward-looking information that represents management of CANEX Metals Inc.'s internal projections, expectations or beliefs concerning, among other things: the Offer; the satisfaction of the conditions of the Offer; Gold Basin Shareholder support for the Offer; whether the Gold Basin board will make a recommendation to Shareholders in respect of the Offer; the anticipated successful completion of the Offer; the anticipated effect of the Offer; CANEX's plans for Gold Basin if the Offer is successful; the expected benefits to Gold Basin shareholders of tendering their Gold Basin Shares to the Offer; whether the Cease Trade Order and the Halt will be revoked; whether Gold Basin will be dissolved by BC Registries and Online Services; whether Gold Basin will be delisted from the TSX Venture Exchange: and future operating results and various components thereof or the economic performance of CANEX. The projections, estimates and beliefs contained in such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause CANEX's actual performance and financial results in future periods to differ materially from any projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the risk that the transactions contemplated by the Offer will not be consummated; the risk that the conditions of the Offer will not be met or met or a timely basis; and those risks described in CANEX's filings with the Canadian securities authorities. Accordingly, holders of CANEX Shares and potential investors are cautioned that events or circumstances could cause results to differ materially from those predicted. CANEX disclaims any responsibility to update these forward-looking statements.

SOURCE: CANEX Metals Inc.

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/metals-and-mining/canex-continues-to-gain-support-for-gold-basin-offer-as-the-deadline-approaches-1113678
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - December 2, 2025) - Lodestar Metals Corp. (TSXV: LSTR) (OTC Pink: SVTNF) ("Lodestar" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that, following the completion of a soil geochemistry and high-resolution UAV magnetic survey across the Gold Run Project in Nevada, the company is finalizing plans for both:

A maiden diamond drill program, and

A project wide DDIP (dipole-dipole induce polarization) geophysical survey.

Both of which to commence during Q1/Q2 2026.

"Our team has taken a disciplined, data-driven approach to advancing Gold Run, and we are now in a strong position to begin drilling our most compelling targets," said Lowell Kamin, President and CEO of Lodestar. "The combination of a maiden drill program and a property-wide DDIP survey gives us an exceptional opportunity to create meaningful value for shareholders by both testing known mineralized trends and expanding the pipeline of high-quality targets for follow-up in 2026."

The combined programs represent the next major phase of systematic exploration intended to refine known targets, generate new drill-ready anomalies, and evaluate district-scale potential for gold-silver mineralization associated with epithermal and Carlin-style systems across the entire property.

Highlights:

Property-wide DDIP survey designed to: Expand geophysical coverage beyond current prospect areas Identify additional chargeability and resistivity anomalies Refine target prioritization for follow-up drilling through 2026

Maiden drill program targeting four priority prospects: Independence Trend Gomes Robbers Knob Crown North

Targets all supported by: Multi-element soil geochemistry Historical surface and drill intercepts Structural analysis and magnetic interpretation Historical DDIP chargeability anomalies



Having completed the soils and magnetics, Lodestar has now completed planning of its maiden drill program for Q1 2026 which will focus on 4 of the most highly ranked target areas on the project (Figure 4). Summary details of each prospect targeted are outlined below:

INDEPENDENCE TREND:

Strong gold-, silver- and arsenic-in-soil geochemistry (See Lodestar announcement October 18, 2025) possibly indicative of epithermal style.

High grade silver plus gold (up to 3,307g/t Au, 2.4 g/t Au* ) from rock sampling at surface.

) from rock sampling at surface. Significant silver and gold from historical shallow drilling including 10.7m at 55 g/t Ag, 0.4 g/t Au* from 47.2m.

from 47.2m. New drilling aims to target the structure interpreted for 650m strike with particular focus on 3 undrilled DDIP drill targets (See Lodestar announcement 18 August 2025) down-dip from encouraging surface drilling intersections (Figure 1).

These targets aim to test for an increase in width and grade of silver and gold at depth as suggested by the IP which is indicative of disseminated sulphide often associated with gold along an extensive 1km length structure (Figure 4).

Figure 1: 3D view looking northwest showing three DDIP Chargeability Sections at the eastern Independence Trend in relation to significant drilling intersections and recent 2024 rock sampling (stars). Three drill targets defined in dash-black circles.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/3029/276576_92af4c7ee4b24938_001full.jpg

GOMES:

Strong gold-, silver- and arsenic-in-soil geochemistry possibly indicative of epithermal style which is significant given the Adelaide Crown deposits are located directly along strike to the south approximately 600m away (Figure 4).

Previous drilling intersected significant zones of gold and silver including up to 13.7m at 1.3 g/t Au* and 19.8m at 26.2 g/t Ag, 0.3g/t Au* both intersected in GAD-04 (Figure 2).

and both intersected in GAD-04 (Figure 2). The drilling focuses on targeting one very large and strong DDIP anomaly 200m wide located 140m along strike from significant intersections GAD-02 and GAD-04 (Figure 2).

New drilling aims to target the large IP anomaly interpreted to be related to disseminated sulphide and associated gold-silver mineralisation along strike from previous drilling that could represent a new deposit.

Figure 2: 3D view (looking north and down) of two DDIP Chargeability Sections at the Gomes Prospect that occur north and south of Drillholes GAD-02 & 04. Drill Target defined in dash-black circle.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/3029/276576_92af4c7ee4b24938_002full.jpg

ROBBERS KNOB:

Strong gold- and mercury-in-soil geochemistry indicative of Carlin Style with a possible silver-rich epithermal overprint toward the southeast.

Area is characterised by a very large topographic high feature 600m by 250m of widespread jasperoid silica alteration typically observed at surface above concealed Carlin-style deposits at depth.

Several significant historical gold intersections such as 13.7m at 2g/t Au* and 18.3m at 1.9 g/t Au* in RS-18 remain open and represent drill-ready targets to expand the deposit at depth (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Cross Section at Robbers Knob illustrating example of drill-ready target defined in dash-black circle.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/3029/276576_drilltarget.jpg

CROWN NORTH:

Prospect is highlighted by high grade gold intersection 27.4m at 9.7 g/t* located on the north end of the structure extending from the Crown Deposit (Figure 4).

located on the north end of the structure extending from the Crown Deposit (Figure 4). Surprisingly, this drilling intersection has never been followed up at depth to the east.

Strong gold-, silver- and arsenic-in-soil geochemistry possibly indicative of epithermal style which supports the northern extension of the epithermal Adelaide-Crown deposits.

Drilling aims to test the down-dip extension with the aim to highlight potential for a new zone of gold-silver mineralisation.

Figure 4: Interpreted bedrock geology map by Cambior in 1997 showing maximum assay from historical drilling, highlight drill intersections at each of the main prospect areas and the location of the DDIP lines illustrated in Figure 1 and Figure 2.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/3029/276576_92af4c7ee4b24938_006full.jpg

PROJECT-WIDE DDIP SURVEY

Prior to the drilling activities, Lodestar will conduct a systematic, property-wide DDIP geophysical survey during Q1 2026.

The Survey, contracted to ZongeInternational, will:

Expand IP coverage beyond currently survey prospect corridors.

Potentially generate new chargeability anomalies (indicative of disseminated sulphides) for ranking and additional targeting.

Provide a 3D property scale to enhance on subsurface vectoring and to guide future drilling campaigns.

Results will be integrated into the Company's targeting workflow to support expansion drilling during the 2026 field season.

ONGOING WORK:

In parallel with finalizing drill targets and executing the project-wise DDIP geophysical survey, Lodestar is actively advancing all operational preparations required to support the commencement of drilling the first half of 2026. This work includes:

Initiation of drilling permit applications, including preparation of regulatory submissions, environmental documentation (if required).

Engagement with drilling contractors, availability and scheduling alignment upon permit issuance and reviewing staging and logistics.

Qualified Person

Ty Magee, P. Geo., a Qualified Person, as defined by NI 43-101, and a consultant to the Company, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information contained in this news release.

*Additional information relating to historical drilling is contained in the Company's Technical Report dated May 12, 2025, prepared by Ty Magee, and filed on SEDAR+ on August 12, 2025.

**The drill results disclosed are of a historical nature. While this historical data provides valuable context, the Company has not conducted a detailed validation or verification process and, therefore, cannot ensure their accuracy or completeness. The Company intends further exploration, including twinning historical holes to verify these results in accordance with NI-43-101 regulatory standards.

ABOUT LODESTAR METALS

Lodestar Metals Corp. is a Canadian gold exploration company focused on advancing the drill-ready Goldrun Project in Nevada, strategically located on a major Carlin-style gold trend and adjacent to some of the largest gold deposits in North America. With decades of combined geological and capital markets expertise, Lodestar follows a disciplined, step-by-step approach to discovery. The Company's strategy is clear: focus capital on high-value targets, move quickly on known mineralization, and build a compliant gold resource that delivers lasting shareholder value. For more information, please visit www.lodestarmetals.ca.

Forward-Looking Statements

The information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions, and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. Lodestar cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by several material factors, many of which are beyond Lodestar's control. Such factors include, among other things, risks and uncertainties relating to Lodestar's limited operating history and the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates.

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/276576

SOURCE: Lodestar Metals Corp.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - December 2, 2025) - American Tungsten Corp. (CSE: TUNG) (OTCQB: TUNGF) (FSE: RK90) ("American Tungsten" or the "Company) announces the commencement of its Phase 1 diamond drill program at the IMA Mine, as previously announced by the Company on November 12, 2025.

"The commencement of this Phase 1 drill program marks the next step in advancing the IMA Mine toward commercial production. By systematically testing multiple tungsten vein systems and validating an established historical resource base, we are building confidence in the asset while positioning American Tungsten to become the first commercial tungsten producer in the United States. Our contractors are progressing at an accelerated pace, and we are committed to delivering tangible milestones: from drill results to infrastructure development, demonstrating value creation and keeping shareholders closely aligned with our path to production throughout the first quarter of next year," said Ali Haji, CEO of American Tungsten Corp.

Following a detailed review of historical mining and drillhole data, American Tungsten has identified five priority exploration targets for Phase 1 drilling, as described in the Company's press release on June 10, 2025 consisting of the No. 5 and No. 7 Vein system, the IMA West Vein, the Eastern Vein, and the Main IMA Vein. (Illustrated in Figure 1). The objective of the Company's Phase 1 program is to further delineate these historically identified tungsten vein systems and address compelling low-risk targeted areas for expansion of known mineralization by the end of Q1 2026.

Program Objectives:

Approximately 12,100 feet of drilling across three stations on the D Level and two stations on the Zero Level;

Establish geological continuity of the polymetallic tungsten-silver quartz vein system up-dip of the D Level and along strike to the north; and

Test additional vein systems and molybdenum mineralization from the Zero Level previously intersected by past operators.

Current Deliverables:

Drilling has commenced at the first station on the D Level, with at least five holes planned totaling ~1,950 feet to validate and extend the No. 5 and No. 7 Veins;

The first drill station is established from a new crosscut driven 195 feet into the footwall of the No. 5-7-9 vein system where planned drillholes are projected to intersect multiple veins;

Continued drift development (approx. 325 ft. remaining) is ongoing to prepare the second and third D level drill stations. During late December and January further 3,500 feet of additional drilling will be carried out from those two stations; and

Rehabilitation and infrastructure upgrades at the Zero Level are progressing to support further diamond drilling, currently planned to entail approximately 6,7000 feet.





Figure 1: IMA Mine Exploration Target Location Map

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/11701/276511_8ca3d9bad48128ff_001full.jpg





Figure 2: IMA Mine Planned Drifts and Drill Station Location Map

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/11701/276511_8ca3d9bad48128ff_002full.jpg





Figure 3: New 150 KW gen set being transported to site to power the diamond drilling program

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/11701/276511_8ca3d9bad48128ff_003full.jpg





Figure 4: Diamond drill set up in the 1st diamond drill station on the D Level, ready to drill

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/11701/276511_8ca3d9bad48128ff_004full.jpg

ABOUT THE IMA MINE

The IMA Mine is a past producing underground tungsten mine situated on 22 patented claims located in East Central Idaho. Between 1945 and 1957, the property produced approximately 199,449 MTUs of WO3 and was subsequently explored for molybdenum and tungsten by various operators between 1960-2010.

Between 1978 and 1982, Inspiration Development Corporation focused exploration on development of the quartz-tungsten-vein system, rehabilitating upper levels of the mine to complete underground resource delineation drilling, and conducting metallurgical work. Inspiration planned a 300 tpd underground operation using inclined slot methods targeting the vein systems in the upper levels of the IMA Mine. Development work ceased in 1982 prior to recommencement of mining associated with the deterioration of tungsten prices at the time. American Tungsten Corp is actively assessing potential for re-start of underground tungsten mining operations at the Ima Mine.

ABOUT AMERICAN TUNGSTEN CORP.

American Tungsten Corp. is a Canadian exploration company focused on high-potential tungsten and magnetite assets in North America. The Company is advancing the Ima Mine Project in Idaho to commercial production, addressing critical metal scarcity in North America. The Company's Ima Mine Project is a historic and high-quality underground tungsten past-producing property on private-patented land well above the water table with significant infrastructure. The Company holds an exclusive option to acquire full ownership (subject to a 2% royalty) and has expanded its land position with 113 additional federal claims covering nearly 2,000 acres.

For further updates, visit www.americantungstencorp.com or investor relations, Joanna Longo at ir@americantungstencorp.com.

Social media links:

LinkedIn: https:// www.linkedin.com/company/americantungstencorp/

X: https://x.com/amtungsten

Facebook: https:// www.facebook.com/americantungstencorp/

Instagram: https:// www.instagram.com/americantungstencorp/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@americantungstencorp

CSE:TUNG

OTCQB:TUNGF

FSE: RK90

The Canadian Securities Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

This news release includes "forward-looking information" that is subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. Forward-looking statements may include but are not limited to, statements relating to the completion of the Offering on the terms described herein or at all, and the use of proceeds and available funds following the completion of the Offering and are subject to all of the risks and uncertainties normally incident to such events. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future events and that actual events or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements represent management's best judgment based on information currently available. No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this news release. The Company undertake no obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking statements, except as may be required by law.

Historical production and exploration data discussed in this news release include historical information which has not been verified. There has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the exploration target being delineated as a mineral resource.

Technical information in this news release has been prepared in accordance with Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI-43-101"). Austin Zinsser, P.G., SME-RM, Vice President, Exploration for the Company, and a Qualified Person as defined by NI-43-101, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information in this Presentation.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/276511

SOURCE: American Tungsten Corp.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - December 2, 2025) - Kenorland Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: KLD) (OTCQX: KLDCF) (FSE: 3WQ0) ("Kenorland" or the "Company") is pleased to announce results from its 2025 geochemical and prospecting surveys targeting gold systems at the Western Wabigoon and Flora projects (the "Projects") in northwestern Ontario. The Projects are currently held under an option agreement with a subsidiary of Centerra Gold Inc. ("Centerra").

Western Wabigoon and Flora Highlights:

Multiple km-scale gold-in-till anomalies across both Projects (see Figures 2 and 3)

Complex structural and geologic settings, prospective for orogenic gold systems

Limited historical exploration within the target areas

Maiden drill program planning for 2026 underway

Figure 1. Regional geology of the Western Wabigoon subprovince with Western Wabigoon and Flora Project locations





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Western Wabigoon Project

Large-scale systematic geochemical surveys have defined a ~19 kilometre gold-in-till trend along a major structural corridor. Within this corridor, infill sampling completed in 2025 further refined multiple coherent, high-tenor gold-in-till anomalies across the W1, W2 and W3 target areas. Gold grain analysis from heavy mineral concentrate (HMC) till sampling has reinforced this interpretation, with the W2 target producing a strong, continuous gold-grain anomaly, including normalised counts of up to 251 grains per sample, along a 4km trend open to the southwest. Together, these results highlight W2 as a priority for follow-up exploration in 2026 including diamond drilling. The W2 Target area encompasses an area of numerous multi-gram per tonne Au showings from trenching and shallow drilling within an area historically known as the Sorry Mac trend. Surface work conducted by Kenorland has confirmed gold mineralisation along the trend with rock samples up to 7.75 g/t Au, and significantly expanded the historical footprint into what is now referred to as the W2 Target.

During the 2025 program, the Company completed an infill soil sample survey on a 100 m x 200 m grid, HMC till samples collected at 250 m x 500 m spacing, mapping and prospecting, and a heliborne magnetic, VLF-EM, and radiometric survey to enhance structural interpretation and guide ongoing target development.

Figure 2. Map of the W1, W2 and W3 target areas of the Western Wabigoon Project: Left hand side - Au in fine fraction soil geochemistry; right hand side - normalized gold grain counts from HMC till sampling





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Flora Project

Geochemical surveys completed in 2024 and 2025 have outlined the F1 target as a large-scale, high-tenor gold-in-till anomaly extending over 7 kilometres within a sheared diorite, coincident with a coherent 7 kilometre trend of strong gold grain results from HMC till sampling. Mapping and prospecting within the F1 area identified high-grade gold mineralisation, with rock samples returning up to 31.70 g/t Au in the central portion of the target area and up to 17.40 g/t Au approximately 3 kilometres to the northeast. No historical drilling has been completed in the F1 area.

The Company completed extensive follow-up work during the 2025 exploration program, including infill soil samples on a 100 m x 200 m grid across both the F1 and F2 target areas, along with mapping and prospecting. In addition, HMC till samples were collected at 250 m x 500 m spacing for gold grain analysis, and a heliborne magnetic, VLF-EM, and radiometric survey was flown over the F1 target to refine structural and lithological interpretation and support ongoing target development.

Figure 3. Map of the F1 target area within the Flora Project: Left hand side - Au in fine fraction soil geochemistry; right hand side - normalised gold grain counts from HMC till sampling





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2026 Exploration Program Planning

Planning for the 2026 field campaign is under way with up to 5,000m of diamond drilling proposed, designed as a series of fences to test key structural intersections associated with strong gold-in-till and gold grain anomalies, focusing on the priority W2 target of the Western Wabigoon Project.

At the Flora Project, 2026 work will focus on additional surface exploration, including mapping and prospecting to help refine targets intended to position Flora for a future drill program.

About The Projects

The Western Wabigoon Project is situated within the Western Wabigoon subprovince and covers key intersections of major deformation zones within the Archean greenstone belt. In the northern portion of the property, the Pipestone-Cameron Deformation Zone (PCdz) intersects both the Manitou-Dinorwic Deformation Zone (MDdz) and the Helena-Pipestone Deformation Zone (HPdz). The PCdz hosts the Cameron orogenic gold deposit 30 km to the northwest, while the HPdz hosts the Rainy River deposit 50 km to the southwest. These high-strain structural corridors also host numerous gold showings associated with iron carbonate veins, altered shear zones, and porphyry dykes.

The Flora Project is located within the Western Wabigoon subprovince of the Archean Superior Province. The major Wabigoon Fault (WF) transects the 80-km strike length of the property, juxtaposing Warclub assemblage rocks in the north against Populus Lake Group mafic volcanic and ultramafic intrusive rocks to the south. The region hosts multiple mineralisation styles, including orogenic gold deposits such as the Cameron deposit 15 km to the south along the northwest-trending Pipestone-Cameron Deformation Zone (PCdz) and the Goliath deposit 50 km to the northeast along the Wabigoon Fault, as well as magmatic Ni-Cu sulphide systems such as the Kenbridge deposit located 3 km east of the property.

The Projects are held under an earn-in agreement with a subsidiary of Centerra Gold (see press release dated June 25, 2025), whereby Centerra can earn up to a 70% interest in each project by funding staged exploration and delivering a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA). Upon earn-in, a joint venture will be formed, with Kenorland retaining the right to a carried interest through to completion of a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS), after which both parties will contribute pro-rata to development.

In addition to its carried interest, Kenorland retains a 2% NSR royalty covering its 100%-owned claims within the Project areas.

Figure 4. Kenorland western Superior Province gold project portfolio overview





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QA/QC and Sampling Protocols

Soil Samples

All 2025 soil samples were collected under the supervision of Kenorland employees. Soil samples were hand dug in the field targeting the 'C' or 'B' horizon soil, bagged and then transported from the field to the crew facilities where blanks and certified reference materials were inserted at regular sample intervals. Groups of samples were placed in large bags, sealed with numbered tags in order to maintain a chain-of-custody, and transported to Bureau Veritas Commodities ("BV") laboratory in Timmins, Ontario.

Sample preparation and analytical work for this soil sampling program were carried out by BV. Samples were prepared for analysis according to BV method SS230: individual samples were dried at 60oC, and then sieved up to 100g to -230 mesh (-63 m) for analysis. Samples were analyzed using BV method AQ252_EXT where a 30g split is analyzed by Aqua Regia digestion with ultratrace ICP-MS finish for both gold and multi-element geochemistry (52 elements). All results passed the QA/QC screening at the lab, all company inserted standards and blanks returned results that were within acceptable limits.

Gold Grain Counts

All 2025 HMC till samples were collected under the supervision of Kenorland employees. 10kg of C-horizon till was extracted using augers and shovels and placed into Hubco bags. Groups of samples were placed in large bags and sealed with numbered tags to maintain a chain-of-custody and transported to Overburden Drilling Management (ODM) in Ottawa, Ontario.

ODM weighed the till samples, and then removed a 300-gram split for archive. Samples were sieved to +/- 2mm: the +2mm fraction was logged for pebble lithology and the -2mm size fraction was sent to a shaker table for heavy mineral concentration. After the shaker table, concentrates were micro-panned for additional concentration of the heavy minerals. At this point, visible gold grains were counted by ODM staff, as well as other metallic minerals.

Qualified Person

Mr. Janek Wozniewski, B.Sc., P.Geo. (EGBC #172781, APEGS #77522, EGMB #48045, PGO #3824, APEGNB L7273), Vice President of Operations at Kenorland, a "Qualified Person" under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information in this press release.

About Kenorland Minerals Ltd.

Kenorland Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: KLD) is a well-financed mineral exploration company focused on project generation and early-stage exploration in North America. Kenorland's exploration strategy is to advance greenfields projects through systematic, property-wide, phased exploration surveys financed primarily through exploration partnerships including option to joint venture agreements. Kenorland holds a 4% net smelter return royalty on the Frotet Project in Quebec which is owned by Sumitomo Metal Mining Canada Ltd. The Frotet Project hosts the Regnault gold system, a greenfields discovery made by Kenorland and Sumitomo Metal Mining Canada Ltd. in 2020. Kenorland is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Further information can be found on the Company's website www.kenorlandminerals.com

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Zach Flood

President, CEO & Director

For further information, please contact:

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (together, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, are forward-looking statements. Generally, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of terminology such as "plans", "expects", "estimates", "intends", "anticipates", "believes" or variations of such words, or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in the Company's filings with Canadian securities regulators, that could cause actual results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing these forward-looking statements are reasonable based upon the information currently available to management as of the date hereof, actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. Readers are therefore cautioned not to place undue reliance on these statements, which only apply as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed times frames or at all. Except where required by applicable law, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/276578

SOURCE: Kenorland Minerals Ltd.
Highlights:

Total revenue of $8.7 million for the Three Months Ended 2026 Total System-Wide Revenue of $10.4 million for the Three Months Ended 2026 31% gross profit margin for the Three Months Ended 2026

Total revenue of $18.7 million for the Six Months Ended 2026 Total System-Wide Revenue of $21.0 million for the Six Months Ended 2026 34% gross profit margin for the Six Months Ended 2026

Segmented revenue for the Six Months Ended 2026: Vape - B2C: $12.2 million, B2B: $4.5 million Cannabis - B2C: $2.0 million

Customer base of over 325,000 registered accounts across online and brick-and-mortar platforms

Vaughan, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - December 2, 2025) - Delota Corp. (CSE: NIC) (FSE: S62) ("Delota" or the "Company"), a leading Canadian omni-channel retailer of nicotine vape and alternative tobacco products, is pleased to report it has filed its interim consolidated financial statements, management discussion and analysis, and associated certifications (collectively, the "Q2 2026 Filings") for the three and six months ended September 30, 2025. The Q2 2026 Filings may be accessed under the Company's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca.

Cameron Wickham, CEO of Delota, commented, "As anticipated, our second quarter results reflect the short-term impact of the operational restructuring initiatives we have implemented during the last six months, resulting in an Adjusted EBITDA loss and lower consolidated revenues in comparison to prior periods. Importantly, we have now included System-Wide Revenue figures which provide additional insight into total sales activity across the Company's retail network, including sales generated through franchise and licensing agreements where the Company recognizes royalty or fee income rather than gross revenue. Our System-Wide Revenue figures have remained stable, demonstrating the underlying resilience of our brand and omni-channel platform. Our restructuring efforts have created a more agile operational structure poised for scalable growth. Moving forward, we are strategically focused on organic customer acquisition strategies to complement our historically successful customer retention strategies to drive meaningful incremental revenue growth and profitability. With our strengthened balance sheet, stable recurring revenue and a clear focus on disciplined growth and operational efficiency, the Company is well-positioned to create long-term value for shareholders."

Financial Highlights:

Total revenue of $8,672,936 for the three months ended September 30, 2025 (" Three Months Ended 2026 ") as compared to $9,757,783 for the three months ended July 31, 2024 (" Three Months Ended 2025 ") Total System-Wide Revenue of $10,419,383 for the Three Months Ended 2026 as compared to $10,436,279 for the Three Months Ended 2025 31% gross profit margin for the Three Months Ended 2026 as compared to 42% for the Three Months Ended 2025 Adjusted EBITDA of negative $357,801 for the Three Months Ended 2026 as compared to positive $302,233 for the Three Months Ended 2025

Total revenue of $18,716,606 for the six months ended September 30, 2025 (" Six Months Ended 2026 ") as compared to $19,641,666 for the six months ended July 31, 2025 (" Six Months Ended 2025 ") Total System-Wide Revenue of $20,969,323 for the Six Months Ended 2026 as compared to $20,944,034 for the Six Months Ended 2025 34% gross profit margin for the Six Months Ended 2026 as compared to 41% for the Six Months Ended 2025 Adjusted EBITDA of negative $6,001 for the Six Months Ended 2026 as compared to positive $420,940 for the Six Months Ended 2025

Segmented revenue for the Six Months Ended 2026: Vape - B2C: $12.2 million, B2B: $4.5 million Cannabis - B2C: $2.0 million



Other Highlights:

On July 15, 2025, the Company changed its auditor to Horizon Assurance LLP.

On July 7, 2025, the Company announced it had entered into agreements with 180 Global relating to the licensing of the 180 Smoke Vape Store brand for retail online sales in Eastern Canada. 180 Global assumed operational functions in Eastern Canada as a result of the retail partnership in exchange for certain service fees and a royalty fee payable to the Company.

On April 22, 2025, the Company completed the early redemption of senior secured convertible debentures in the amount of $900,000 plus accrued interest and the security interests and obligations of the Company and its guarantors have been discharged and all pledged securities have been returned to the Company.

On February 3, 2025, the Company opened a 180 Smoke Vape Store located at 1530 Albion Road, Unit 51A, Albion Mall, Etobicoke, expanding its retail footprint to 32 locations.

On January 22, 2025, the Company announced a change to its fiscal year end from January 31 st to March 31 st .

On August 26, 2024, the Company opened a 180 Smoke Vape Store located at 499 Main Street South, Unit 60D, Shoppers World, Brampton.

On July 25, 2024, the Company opened a 180 Smoke Vape Store located at 70 Joseph Street, Parry Sound.

Select Financial Information

The following selected financial information as at and for the six months ended September 30, 2025 and six months ended July 31, 2024 are derived from the Company's interim consolidated financial statements.





Six Months Ended

September 30, 2025



Six Months Ended

July 31, 2024





$



$















Revenue

18,716,606



19,641,666

Net income (loss) for the period

(222,670 )

(167,016 ) Net earnings (loss) per share - basic and diluted

(0.01 )

(0.01 )









Working capital (deficit)

(985,095 )

(854,417 )









Total assets

13,445,595



14,423,833

Total non-current liabilities

4,638,708



6,106,756

Total liabilities

12,344,404



13,969,884











Share capital

7,832,560



7,832,560

Warrant reserve

99,398



99,398

Contributed surplus

507,513



503,493

Accumulated deficit

(7,338,280 )

(7,981,502 ) Shareholders' equity

1,101,191



453,949



System-Wide Revenue

The Company's "System-Wide Revenue" is a non-IFRS financial measure that does not have a standardized meaning under IFRS and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. This measure is presented to provide readers with additional insight into total sales activity across the Company's network, including sales generated through franchise and licensing arrangements where the Company recognizes royalty or fee income rather than gross revenue. System-Wide Revenue should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for revenue prepared in accordance with IFRS.

The following table presents System-Wide Revenue for the six months ended September 30, 2025 and July 31, 2024. Following the Company's change in fiscal year-end, comparative periods are not directly aligned.





Six Months Ended

September 30, 2025



Six Months Ended

July 31, 2024





$



$

180 Smoke - Vape B2C

12,241,581



15,472,965

180 Smoke - Vape B2B

6,777,658



3,727,705

Offside Cannabis - Cannabis B2C

1,950,084



1,743,364

Total System-Wide Revenue

20,969,323



20,944,034



System-Wide Revenue includes gross sales generated by franchisees and third-party operators under licensing arrangements with the Company. Under these arrangements, the Company earns income through royalty fees, service fees, and related wholesale revenue rather than recording gross sales as revenue. As a result, System-Wide Revenue will not agree to IFRS revenue recognition, which reflects only the fees recognized by the Company under IFRS 15.

Adjusted EBITDA

The Company's "Adjusted EBITDA" is a non-IFRS metric used by management that does not have any standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and may not be fully comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. Management defines Adjusted EBITDA as the net income (loss) reported, before income taxes and other expense (income) items such as finance costs, finance income, gains and losses related to derivative liability valuations, and adjusted for share-based compensation, depreciation and amortization expenses, gains and losses related to the revaluations of its right-of-use assets and lease liabilities and foreign exchange differences.

The reconciliation of net income (loss) to Adjusted EBITDA is presented below.





Six Months Ended

September 30, 2025



Six Months Ended

July 31, 2024





$



$

Net income (loss) for the period - as reported

(222,670 )

(167,016 ) Depreciation and amortization

253,245



263,892

Interest and accretion expenses

134,591



407,845

Stock-based compensation

-



7,817

Fair value adjustment of derivative liabilities

(68,977 )

(47,139 ) Deferred tax recovery

(31,888 )

(31,888 ) Lease adjustments

(75,776 )

(28,800 ) Foreign exchange loss

5,474



16,229

Adjusted EBITDA

(6,001 )

420,940



About Delota Corp.

Delota is the largest omni-channel specialty vape retailer in Ontario with a mission of becoming one of the largest national specialty retailers of nicotine vape and alternative tobacco products. The Company's growth strategy includes aggressively growing its flagship brand, 180 Smoke Vape Store, by expanding its retail footprint organically in Ontario and select provinces across Canada, strengthening its national e-commerce platform, and through strategic M&A to accelerate growth and market consolidation. The Company is committed to expanding its nicotine product assortment, enhancing customer experience, and growing its registered customer base, which now exceeds 325,000 accounts.

Investors interested in learning more about Delota can visit www.delota.com.

Cautionary Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements or information". Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as: anticipate, intend, plan, goal, seek, believe, project, estimate, expect, strategy, future, likely, may, should, will and similar references to future periods. Examples of forward-looking statements in this press release include statements made regarding information about future plans, expectations and objectives of the Company overall.

Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. Instead, they are based only on our current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of our business, future plans and strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control. Our actual results and financial condition may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. The Company may not actually achieve its plans, projections, or expectations. The forward-looking statements and information are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the Company. Important factors that could cause our actual results and financial condition to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements include, among others, the following: the adequacy of our cash flow and earnings, the availability of future financing and/or credit, developments and changes in laws and regulations, consumer sentiment towards the Company's products, failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations, government regulations, competition, loss of key employees and consultants, and general economic, market or business conditions, the impact of technology and social changes on the products and industry, as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in disclosure documents filed by the Company with the securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedarplus.ca. Given these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Any forward-looking statement made by us in this press release is based only on information currently available to us and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, we undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

The CSE has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Neither the CSE nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/276585

SOURCE: Delota Corp.
EQS-News: Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) / Key word(s): Financing

Africa Finance Corporation Raises Record US$524m in Dual-Currency Samurai Loan Facility



02.12.2025 / 14:10 CET/CEST

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





Africa Finance Corporation Raises Record US$524m in Dual-Currency Samurai Loan Facility

The transaction marks AFC's largest Samurai loan to date and reinforces the Corporation's growing footprint in Japan's capital markets

Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) ( www.AfricaFC.org ), the continent's leading infrastructure solutions provider, has closed a landmark US$524 million equivalent dual-currency Samurai term loan facility.

The transaction marks AFC's largest Samurai loan to date and reinforces the Corporation's growing footprint in Japan's capital markets amid rising investor confidence in its credit fundamentals. The three-year syndicated facility, comprising US$505 million and JPY 3 billion, was significantly oversubscribed following strong demand from Japanese lenders.

AFC's strong traction in Japan has been supported by a series of milestones, including its 2019 debut samurai loan, its 2023 guarantee of the Arab Republic of Egypt's JPY75 billion Samurai Bond, and the award of an A+ (Stable) long-term issuer credit rating by the Japan Credit Rating Agency (JCR) earlier this year. AFC's 2022 Samurai facility of US$419 million equivalent (US$412 million and JPY 1 billion) matured in October 2025 and was fully repaid by AFC.

AFC maintains a strong presence in Asian capital markets, where it has raised over US$1.3 billion in the past decade across Chinese, Indian and Korean loan facilities.

"Japan continues to be an important and strategic market for AFC," said Banji Fehintola, Executive Board Member and Head of Financial Services at AFC. "The strong support from Japanese lenders in our latest Samurai loan underscores the depth of confidence in AFC and the trust we have built with investors over the past few years. This successful transaction strengthens our funding base and expands our global investor reach as we continue mobilising capital to address the infrastructure deficit in Africa."

The new facility was arranged by long-standing relationship banks, Mizuho Bank, MUFG Bank and SMBC Bank International, which acted as Mandated Lead Arrangers and Bookrunners. The transaction drew strong momentum from AFC's lender roadshow held during the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 9) in August.

In a further demonstration of deepening engagement with Japanese and Asian investors, the facility welcomed several first-time lenders to AFC, including Bank of Taiwan, China Construction Bank Corporation, First Commercial Bank, Taiwan Business Bank, The Chiba Bank, The Shizuoka Bank, and The Yamanashi Chuo Bank.

Proceeds from the facility will be used for general corporate purposes, supporting AFC's mandate to drive sustainable development through infrastructure investment across Africa.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Africa Finance Corporation (AFC).

Download Image: https://apo-opa.co/4itEOzg (AFC closes a landmark US$524 million-equivalent dual-currency Samurai term loan - its largest to date - underscoring rising Japanese investor confidence in Africa's growth story)

Media Enquiries:

Yewande Thorpe

Communications

Africa Finance Corporation

Mobile: +234 1 279 9654

Email: Yewande.thorpe@africafc.org

About AFC:

Africa Finance Corporation was established in 2007 to be the catalyst for pragmatic infrastructure and industrial investments across Africa. AFC's approach combines specialist industry expertise with a focus on financial and technical advisory, project structuring, project development, and risk capital to address Africa's infrastructure development needs and drive sustainable economic growth.

Eighteen years on, AFC has developed a track record as the partner of choice in Africa for investing and delivering on instrumental, high-quality infrastructure assets that provide essential services in the core infrastructure sectors of power, natural resources, heavy industry, transport, and telecommunications. AFC has 47 member countries and has invested over US$17 billion in 36 African countries since its inception.
DALLAS, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- TERREPOWER today announced that Brandon Handy has been appointed Chief People Officer, effective immediately. This appointment marks a new level of senior leadership in a distinguished career.

"I am delighted to announce Brandon Handy's appointment to Chief People Officer," said Duncan Gillis, CEO of TERREPOWER. "Brandon has excelled in driving functional initiatives, ensuring strong governance, and elevating collaboration across both our corporate functions and business units. He has an unwavering commitment to our people-first culture."

Based at TERREPOWER's Dallas, TX Corporate Center, Brandon joined the company as Vice President of Talent Management in 2022, bringing more than 16 years of experience in strategic HR leadership. Prior to joining TERREPOWER, he served as director of global human resources at Owens Corning, where he led HR process standardization, optimized talent initiatives, and developed inclusion and diversity programs. His extensive background also includes leadership roles at Trinity Industries, Kohl's Department Stores and Pfizer, where he gained valuable experience in HR strategy, safety and business alignment.



Brandon earned both his bachelor's degree in business administration and his MBA from Florida A&M University. He has earned HR certifications through both the HR Certification Institute and the Society for Human Resource Management, as well as a certification in Industrial Health and Safety from Georgia Tech.

"Brandon's promotion to Chief People Officer is well-deserved," said Gillis. "This appointment reflects our confidence in Brandon's capacity to foster an inclusive, high-performing workplace in our facilities worldwide. His dedication to serving his internal customers has set a high standard, earning him a reputation for both excellence and reliability."

About TERREPOWER

TERREPOWER, formerly BBB Industries, is the largest sustainable manufacturer in the world by volume. Founded in 1987 on a legacy of innovation, TERREPOWER is a global pure-play aftermarket leader specializing in providing high-quality components to the automotive and industrial markets. Based in Daphne, Alabama, TERREPOWER has a dedicated global workforce of over 10,000 employees and an extensive operational footprint throughout North America and Europe, including 19 sustainable manufacturing facilities, 14 distribution centers, and 28 brands with products sold in more than 90 countries. TERREPOWER is committed to strengthening supply chain resilience, reducing waste and advancing the circular economy. Learn more at www.terrepower.com .

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New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - December 2, 2025) - MiMedia Holdings Ltd. (TSXV: MIM) (OTCQB: MIMDF) (FSE: KH3) ("MiMedia", "Company"), is pleased to provide a brief business update heading toward the end of the 2025 calendar year.

Management is excited to announce that, for the first time in the Company's history, all MiMedia partners are shipping devices or readying device shipments for the end of the year. The Company has never had this many partners shipping devices at the same time to contribute to our revenue funnel.

MiMedia's dashboard is ready to receive this influx of revenue generating devices, as all of the systems required to support the Company's two revenue streams, mobile advertising and storage subscriptions, are already running and generating revenue.

In addition, underlying metrics in our dashboard are looking stronger than ever. In particular, CPM mobile advertising rates in the US have been consistently above USD $20 in MiMedia's dashboard, the highest levels recorded by the Company and more than double management's projection, reflecting the robust mobile advertising market in the US. As several of MiMedia's partners ship devices into the US region, the Company will benefit from the multiples higher CPM rates in the US vs other regions such as LATAM.

Chris Giordano, MiMedia's CEO, stated: "2025 has been an extraordinary year for our partners. In Q1, higher tariffs severely disrupted the smartphone ecosystem and supply chains and paused device shipments of many OEMs, including our partners. Our partners responded to this major challenge by moving device production out of highly affected countries such as China and into less affected places like Vietnam and the Philippines - a process that generally takes years to execute but instead, with great effort, only took months. Now in Q4, our partners have multiple production centers firing, insulating their device production from further tariff disruption (should there be any) while adding scalability."

Mr. Giordano continued: "While we hoped for a breakthrough year with our partners in 2025, we are entering 2026 with the same expectation if not better. We mention the potential for higher expectations because the Company signed more partners to our device funnel this year, while adding greater capability and scale to our underlying revenue engines. Our partners and the Company expect a solid rebound in 2026, as demand appears to be returning strongly across the globe."

Mr. Giordano finally noted: "We plan to provide specific partner device announcements in the coming weeks. We look forward to these device shipments turning into engaged users in our revenue funnel which will then propel the Company forward to key revenue and cash flow thresholds in 2026."

About MiMedia: MiMedia Holdings Inc. provides an AI and data powered, next-generation consumer cloud platform that enables all types of personal media to be secured in the cloud, accessed seamlessly at any time, across all devices and on all operating systems. The Company's platform differentiates with its rich media experience, robust organization tools, private sharing capabilities and features that drive content re-engagement. MiMedia partners with smartphone makers and telecom carriers globally and provides its partners with recurring revenue streams, improved customer retention and market differentiation. The platform services engaged users all around the world.

Notice regarding forward-looking statements:

Certain statements in this press release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking statements in this press release include statements regarding the ability of the Company's distribution partners to manufacture, ship and sell the anticipated number of devices with the Company's platform integrated as the embedded media gallery, the ability of the Company's platform to generate high-margin revenue, interest in the Company's services and products from prospective partners, improvements in the Company's platform and the resulting impact on the scalability of the MiMedia network, updates to the Company's investor relations portals and activities and its attendance at investor conferences. Such forward-looking statements are based on the current expectations of management of MiMedia. Actual events and conditions could differ materially from those expressed or implied in this press release as a result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting MiMedia, including risks regarding the industry in which MiMedia operates, economic factors, the equity markets generally and risks associated with growth and competition. Additional risk factors are also set forth in the Company's management's discussion and analysis and other filings available via the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval+ (SEDAR+) under the MiMedia's profile at www.sedarplus.ca. Although MiMedia has attempted to identify certain factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. No forward-looking statement can be taken as guaranteed. The forward-looking information contained in this press release is made as of the date hereof and the Company is not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, readers should not place any undue reliance on forward looking information.

NEITHER THE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/276609

SOURCE: MiMedia Holdings Inc.
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - December 2, 2025) - BrandPilot AI Inc. (CSE: BPAI) (OTCQB: BPAIF) ("BrandPilot" or the "Company"), a leading innovator in AI-powered marketing and advertising technology, is pleased to announce the continued expansion of its customer portfolio, welcoming a diverse group of new customers across industries including retail, telecommunications, financial services, beauty, and non-profit.

In recent months, BrandPilot has onboarded several top-tier North American and global organizations who are now leveraging the Company's core offering to reduce media waste, increase efficiency, and unlock untapped budget within their digital advertising programs. This sustained momentum underscores BrandPilot's growing reputation as a trusted performance partner for enterprise brands seeking to optimize spend, improve ROI, and make data-driven decisions in an increasingly complex advertising landscape.

Customer Success Highlights

Leading North American Telecom Provider

Within the first 29 days of using AdAi across two major regions, this telecom organization achieved more than 58,000 optimized clicks and reduced its cost-per-click (CPC) by 78-79%. The program identified approximately $28,000 in monthly savings, enabling over $21,000 in potential reinvestment toward digital growth initiatives.

National Financial Services Firm

In the first 13 days post-activation, this financial services leader generated 7,146 AdAi-driven clicks, representing 91% of total campaign traffic. CPC dropped by 80%, from $0.26 to $0.05, resulting in $871 in immediate savings and more than $2,000 in projected monthly efficiencies.

Global Beauty & Personal Care Brand

Over the first 26 days, this beauty brand recorded 15,768 clicks, representing 81% of all campaign traffic, while reducing CPC by 66%. The campaign delivered $3,599 in immediate savings and an estimated $4,200 in ongoing monthly cost reduction.

International Non-Profit Organization

After launching in early September, this mission-driven organization secured 1,606 optimized clicks and reduced CPC by 55% within the first 12 days. The initiative generated $530 in early savings, with more than $1,300 in projected monthly efficiency available for reinvestment into outreach programs.

Revenue Expansion Through Progressive Adoption

Early monthly revenue figures will often be modest on a per-customer basis as engagements typically begin with a narrow diagnostic scope-focused on a limited number of branded keywords or pilot segments. As customers validate that there is no drop in click-throughs, traffic quality, or revenue-and often an increase in efficiency and conversion consistency-they expand coverage steadily. This expansion, combined with our variable-fee model tied to a portion of verified savings, causes revenue per customer to grow meaningfully over time. In many cases, we expect that revenue from a customer in month six will be several multiples of the initial first-month contribution.

"Our revenue model is simple-we only earn when we deliver verified savings. Customers start with small tests, but once they see stable performance and real cost reductions, they expand quickly, and that growth compounds our revenue over time. The steady increase in our customer base, paired with strong post-audit adoption, shows our growing position in enterprise performance marketing. Because our fees scale directly with validated savings, each engagement becomes a long-term compounding opportunity. As more organizations move from evaluation to activation, we expect recurring revenue per customer to rise through broader keyword coverage, higher optimization volumes, and deeper integration into their digital workflows." said John Beresford, Chief Revenue Officer at BrandPilot AI.

Continued Growth in Platform Demand

BrandPilot's commercial pipeline also continues to accelerate. As previously disclosed, the Company's evaluation cohort included 43 organizations actively assessing AdAi; this group has now expanded to more than 65 companies across North America, Europe, and APAC, representing substantial category diversity and growing global interest in BrandPilot's technology. In addition, the Company has initiated a significant number of formal audits over the past 60 days, reflecting heightened demand from enterprise brands seeking independent verification of media waste, efficiency gaps, and savings opportunities within their advertising programs.

New Customers Advancing Into Live Trials

In addition to the expanding evaluation pipeline, two organizations-a national home furnishings retailer and a fast-growing education technology company-have recently advanced from preliminary assessment into full live trials of the AdAi solution. These transitions reflect the strength of early diagnostic findings and the clear financial upside identified during initial evaluations. Both companies are now running active campaigns through AdAi, further validating the platform's ability to uncover measurable efficiency gains across diverse industry sectors.

Across BrandPilot's commercial pipeline, a significant percentage of organizations that complete an AdAi audit transition into an active trial or full deployment. Over the past 60 days, the Company has seen one of its highest conversion periods to date, with a growing portion of evaluated keywords being added into managed campaigns each week. In many cases, clients initially test fewer than 25 keywords, but quickly scale to hundreds or thousands as efficiency gains are validated and internal teams gain confidence in AdAi's automation.

About BrandPilot AI

BrandPilot AI (CSE: BPAI) is a performance marketing technology company headquartered in Toronto, specializing in innovative solutions that deliver exceptional ROI for global enterprise brands. Its core platform, AdAi, identifies hidden inefficiencies in digital advertising campaigns and helps brands recover wasted ad spend in real time. Additional products, including Spectrum IQ and Social Runway, support AI-powered influencer marketing and paid social performance.

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating to the business of BPAI. Any such forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "projects", "plans" and similar expressions. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Statements about, among other things, BPAI's strategic plans, including words to the effect that the Company or management expects a stated condition or result to occur, are all considered forward-looking information. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. BPAI assumes no responsibility to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect new events or circumstances unless required by applicable law.

Forward-looking statements involve significant risk, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from the results discussed or implied in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the rate of adoption of AdAi for Google Shopping Ads, the performance and effectiveness of the AdAi platform in reducing wasted spend and improving ROAS, the growth and size of the retail search advertising market, changes to Google's advertising products or policies, competitive pressures in AI-powered marketing solutions, and the Company's ability to achieve its proposed business objectives. These factors should be considered carefully and readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management believes to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure readers that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances, except as required by law.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange, nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/276616

SOURCE: BrandPilot AI Inc.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - December 2, 2025) - Glenstar Minerals Inc. (CSE: GSTR) (OTCQB: GSTRF) (FSE: VO20) ("Glenstar" or the "Company") announces that, further to the Company's news release of November 24th regarding the granting of a permit by the Bureau of Land Management (the "BLM") to conduct the Phase 2 drill program at its Green Monster Project in southwestern Nevada, Glenstar has hired Alloy Drilling ("Alloy") of Elko, Nevada to conduct the drill program.

Alloy will utilize a track mounted reverse circulation drill to execute the Company's plan to drill nine (9) holes over four (4) locations on the property, which will be comprised of approximately 300 metres of strike length exploration. As currently planned, Glenstar will collar two (2) holes in the area of the primary drilling undertaken in the Phase 1 drill program; three (3) holes will focus on the area that is considered the "discovery" zone 150 metres to the west of the primary Phase 1 drill site, and two (2) holes each at two (2) sites will be situated further west along what is believed to be the mineralized east-west trending belt (see news release dated November 24, 2025).

Determination of each drill hole location in Phase 2 will be finalized in consultation with Hasbrouck Geophysics, Inc. ("Hasbrouck") upon the provision of their report relating to the Hybrid-Source Audio-Magnetotellurics Survey (the "HSAMT" or "Survey") that was conducted in mid November. The survey data was acquired at intervals of 50 metres along 13 lines over the greater target zone and the final report will detail the methodology, data acquisition, processing, modeling, and interpretation of the data (see news release dated October 29, 2025). The HSAMT is an electromagnetic geophysical method that combines naturally occurring electromagnetic field measurements with signals from a portable, controlled-source transmitter. This information will significantly aid in determining exact drill hole location, angle, and depth in order to maximize the potential for discovering additional high-grade mineralization.

Glenstar CEO, Dave Ryan, stated, "The Company is very much looking forward to getting the results of the HSAMT survey, which will be incorporated into our process of determining the final drill location plan. Alloy Drilling will mobilize their equipment to the property in mid December, and the program is expected to be completed before the Christmas holiday."

The Company also announces that it has extended the engagement with Altura Media Co Inc. (see news release dated August 13, 2025) for an additional CDN$250,000. The Company has agreed to continue the engagement of Altura Media Co. Inc. ("Altura") of Vancouver, British Columbia to provide certain marketing and investor awareness services in accordance with the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange and applicable legislation. Under the terms of the continuation of the agreement, announced July 14, 2025, Altura will continue to deliver strategic advertising, public relations and investor communications services for the company. These services will be focused on enhancing Glenstar's visibility and engagement within domestic and foreign markets and include a full suite of services including digital advertising, content creation, and shareholder communications support. The agreement includes provisions for fee adjustments, early termination, and extensions of the engagement, should it be determined to be in the best interests of the Company. Altura (including its directors and officers) is an arm's length party to Glenstar, and to the best of the Company's knowledge, neither Altura nor any related parties hold or have the right to acquire securities of Glenstar Minerals Inc., and the Company will not issue any securities to Altura as compensation for its services. Altura has a business address at 1055 West Georgia Street Suite 1500, Vancouver BC V6E 4N7 and may be contacted via email at contact@alturamedia.co, or by telephone at 778-988-5503.

Project Background & Recent Exploration Work

The Green Monster Property is comprised of 35 federal lode claims covering ~700 acres located in Clark County, Nevada, on the west trending spur of the Spring Mountains and is approximately 40 miles southwest of Las Vegas. Until the recent drill program in May of 2025, no drilling was ever conducted on the property, but the Company's previous identification of robust nickel-copper with anomalous cobalt from sampling work done in 2022 indicated that several targets were ideal for shallow RC drilling (see news releases dated May 28, 2025, and July 16, 2025).

Glenstar acquired the Green Monster Property and conducted initial groundwork in 2022 that included reconnaissance geologic mapping, surface rock sampling, soil sampling, and a drone magnetic survey. Channel sampling across the exposed back of a raise off the main shaft returned 1.18 meters of 3.77% Cu (Copper), 3.06% Ni (Nickel), 0.21% Co (Cobalt) and 6.83% Zn (Zinc). These values are well in excess of select dump samples from historical underground workings and represent in-place, vein style mineralization. Sampling of oxide and sulfide bearing boulders directly downhill of the patented workings has confirmed the presence of very high zinc (>10%) and silver (>200ppm), as well as copper, uranium, and lead. (Sampling results provided above were previously published in the Green Monster Project NI 43-101 Technical Report dated June 20, 2023, Section 7.5).

About Glenstar Minerals Inc.

Glenstar is a mineral exploration company with a focus on polymetallic minerals. These elements are classified as critical minerals and are essential in the manufacturing of sophisticated electronics and other vital energy technologies. The Company's mission is to leverage its knowledge and connections to explore, acquire, and develop critical mineral and energy metal properties throughout the world.

Glenstar's shares trade on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) under the symbol "GSTR", on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol "VO20", and on the Over-the-Counter market (OTCQB) in the United States under the symbol "GSTRF".

Robert Marvin, P.Geo (ONT) is the qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and is the independent consulting geologist for Glenstar Minerals Inc., who has examined the Green Monster and Wildhorse properties on the ground numerous times since 2022 and 2024 respectively. All fieldwork relating to geologic observations and sampling as reported herein, has been directly overseen by Mr. Marvin who supervised the preparation of, and has reviewed and approved, the technical information in this release.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"David Ryan"

President & CEO

Neither Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information Certain information contained in this news release constitutes "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward- looking information"). Without limiting the foregoing, such forward-looking information includes statements regarding the process and completion of any Offering, the use of proceeds of the Offering and any statements regarding the Company's business plans, expectations and objectives. In this news release, words such as "may", "would", "could", "will", "likely", "believe", "expect", anticipate", "intend", "plan", "estimate" and similar words and the negative form thereof are used to identify forward-looking information.

Forward-looking information should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether, or the times at or by which, such future performance will be achieved. Mineral exploration is subject to risks and uncertainties and there is no assurance that any potential results or findings that may be suggested in this press release will ultimately happen. Forward-looking information is based on information available at the time and/or the Company management's good faith belief with respect to future events and is subject to known or unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other unpredictable factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control. For additional information with respect to these and other factors and assumptions underlying the forward-looking information made in this news release, see the Company's most recent Management's Discussion and Analysis and financial statements and other documents filed by the Company with the Canadian securities commissions and the discussion of risk factors set out therein. Such documents are available at www.sedarplus.ca under the Company's profile and on the Company's website. The forward-looking information set forth herein reflects the Company's expectations as at the date of this news release and is subject to change after such date.

This release may contain certain forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations and business of the Company and certain of the plans and objectives of the Company with respect to the same. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future and there are many factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any state in the United States in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements. This release may contain statements within the meaning of safe harbour provisions as defined under securities laws and regulations. We seek safe harbour.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/276589

SOURCE: Glenstar Minerals Inc.
TORONTO, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Maropost, the leading unified commerce platform, announced the appointment of three new members - Marcelo Cortes, Michael Litt, and Loren Padelford - to its advisory board to help guide the company's strategic direction!

Together, they bring world-class experience across engineering innovation, customer engagement, and high-velocity SaaS growth - expertise that will play a central role in shaping the next era of Maropost's unified commerce platform and global expansion.

Marcelo Cortes helped propel Faire to a $5B+ valuation, driving its technical vision as co-founder and Chief Architect. Bringing together the mindset of an entrepreneur and the skill of a world-class engineer, Marcelo knows how to scale groundbreaking products fast. Before Faire, he built his engineering skills at Square and Google.





helped propel Faire to a $5B+ valuation, driving its technical vision as co-founder and Chief Architect. Bringing together the mindset of an entrepreneur and the skill of a world-class engineer, Marcelo knows how to scale groundbreaking products fast. Before Faire, he built his engineering skills at Square and Google. Michael Litt is the co-founder and CEO of Vidyard, the powerhouse video platform trusted by more than 250,000 companies. A serial entrepreneur and bold industry visionary, he's reshaping how businesses communicate, market, and sell with video. Michael has been recognized as Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year and Marketing Magazine's Top 30 Under 30.





is the co-founder and CEO of Vidyard, the powerhouse video platform trusted by more than 250,000 companies. A serial entrepreneur and bold industry visionary, he's reshaping how businesses communicate, market, and sell with video. Michael has been recognized as Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year and Marketing Magazine's Top 30 Under 30. Loren Padelford is a growth-driven SaaS executive with a reputation for scaling companies to extraordinary heights. He is currently the CRO at Slice, and earlier in his career held key roles at BILL, Podium, and Shopify - where he helped build Shopify Plus and turn it into a billion-dollar global success.

Maropost is rewriting the future of ecommerce and retail. That's why we need leaders who've not only built great companies, but have grown them into something legendary," said Ross Andrew Paquette, CEO of Maropost. "Marcelo, Michael, and Loren are here to shape Maropost's next chapter and help us rise to the top of the industry."

About Maropost

Maropost offers a truly unified commerce platform for ecommerce merchants and retailers. Built on unified customer data and enterprise-grade infrastructure, it provides a fully connected suite of solutions for ecommerce, merchandising, retail, marketing automation, and helpdesk.

Since its founding in 2011, Maropost has supported ecommerce and retail businesses across North America, Australia, and Europe. Trusted by over 5,000 global brands - including Luxottica, Mercedes-Benz, Seiko, Intersport, and Fujifilm - Maropost has earned recognition on Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 and G2's industry leaderboards.

Learn more at www.maropost.com .

CONTACT:

Maryna Shulzhenko,

Marketing Content Specialist, Maropost,

jason@maropost.com

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Step out drilling at Eiger continues to return broad intervals of significant gold mineralization beyond the current Mineral Resource Estimate ("MRE") boundary at the Eiger deposit, which remains open in all directions

Drill hole DDRCCC-25-109 intersected 121.0 m of 0.75 g/t Au and 26.0 m of 1.28 g/t Au within 249.9 m of 0.58 g/t Au, further expanding the Eiger Deposit

Recent results suggest a higher-grade component to the Eiger deposit is emerging at depth which is a characteristic of the more advanced Blackjack deposit located approximately 1.5 km to the west

Drilling continues to define a robust gold system within the Blackjack - Saddle - Eiger extensional corridor where recently released assay results returned 44.4 m of 1.33 g/t Au at the Saddle target, approximately 1,000 m to the west of Eiger

Additional results pending for 38 drill holes, including 26 holes from the new Rhosgobel discovery and the remainder from Pukelman, Contact, Bearpaw, and May-Qu.

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - December 2, 2025) - Sitka Gold Corp. (TSXV: SIG) (FSE: 1RF) (OTCQB: SITKF) ("Sitka" or the "Company") is pleased to announce additional analytical results from drilling completed at its 100% owned, road accessible RC Gold Project ("RC Gold" or the "Project") located within the Yukon's prolific Tombstone Gold Belt. Drilling at the Eiger gold deposit has expanded the mineralized envelope beyond the current MRE boundary, with drill hole DDRCCC-25-109 intersecting 121.0 m of 0.75 g/t gold and 26.0 m of 1.28 g/t gold within 249.9 m of 0.58 g/t gold from 325.0 m outside of the current MRE. Analytical results are currently pending for 38 drill holes at RC Gold, including 26 from the new Rhosgobel discovery and the remainder from Pukelman, Contact, Bearpaw, and May-Qu.





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"Drilling continues to outline a large, robust gold system at Eiger, which remains open in all directions, while expanding the mineralized footprint beyond the current deposit model," stated Cor Coe, CEO and Director of Sitka Gold. "This year marked the first follow up drilling completed at Eiger since the initial MRE, based on just 13 drill holes, was published in 2021. Strong gold intercepts such as the 121.0 metres of 0.75 g/t gold and 26.0 metres of 1.28 g/t gold within 249.9 metres of 0.58 g/t gold in hole 109, which included, which was intercepted 325 metres beyond the current MRE boundary, underscore the potential to add significant ounces to the Eiger deposit where a higher-grade component appears to be developing. As additional drilling is completed, our understanding of the controls of mineralization at Eiger continue to evolve in a similar way as it did at the neighbouring Blackjack deposit where much more drilling has delineated a substantial, higher-grade resource. There is still plenty of untapped potential at Eiger and we anticipate ramping up drilling efforts there as part of next year's expanded exploration program with up to 60,000 metres of drilling planned."

"Eiger is just one of multiple intrusion-related gold deposit targets within the broader Clear Creek Intrusive Complex where the robust scale and continuity of gold mineralization across this district-scale land package is becoming increasingly evident. As assays continue to be received, we look forward to releasing additional pending results from the many other target areas that were drilled at RC Gold this year, including Pukelman, Contact, Rhosgobel, Bearpaw and May-Qu."

Figure 1: A plan map of the Eiger deposit showing the location of 2025 drilling. Step out drilling completed in 2025 has significantly expanded known gold mineralization beyond the current MRE boundary.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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Figure 2: A cross section of the Eiger Deposit showing the location of DDRCCC-25-109 which returned 121.0 metres of 0.75 g/t gold and 26.0 metres of 1.28 g/t gold within 249.9 metres of 0.58 g/t gold, intercepted 325 metres beyond the current MRE boundary. These results underscore the potential to add significant ounces to the Eiger deposit and suggest a higher-grade component appears to be developing at depth.

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Figure 3: A 3D cross section of the Eiger Deposit showing the location of new drilling with respect to the current mineral resource estimation block model. The Eiger deposit remains open in all directions and results from this news release have significantly expanded mineralization beyond the current MRE boundary. Results such as the 121.0 m of 0.75 g/t Au from 248.0 m and 26.0 m of 1.28 g/t Au from 325.0 m intercepted in DDRCCC-25-109 also suggest a higher-grade component to the deposit could be emerging at depth, which is a characteristic of the more advanced Blackjack deposit located 1.5 km to the west.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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Figure 4: Plan map of the Blackjack-Saddle-Eiger extensional corridor (dashed line) where large gold-in-soil anomalies have been found to strongly correlate with in-situ gold mineralization.

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Figure 5: Examples of visible gold (VG) observed in drill core at the Eiger Deposit. Click the following link to see additional images of VG from the EIGER zone.

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Figure 6: Core from DDRCCC-25-109 of sheeted quartz veins in diorite showing part of the 26.0 m interval of 1.28 g/t Au, including 2.0 m of 7.09 g/t Au from 337.0 m.

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Eiger Deposit

Drilling at the Eiger in 2025, which included 10 holes for 4,401 meters, was successful in extending the known mineralization at the Eiger deposit. Drilling intersected reduced intrusion-related gold style mineralization including centimetre scale quartz veins with visible gold often associated with bismuthinite, arsenopyrite, and occasionally scheelite and extended mineralization to the east, west, and down dip. The current mineral resource estimation at Eiger is 440,000 ounces of gold in 27,362,000 tonnes grading 0.50 g/t gold in an inferred category. Recently completed drilling at Eiger, including the 121.0 m of 0.75 g/t Au from 248.0 m and 26.0 m of 1.28 g/t Au from 325.0 m intercepted in DDRCCC-25-109, suggest a higher-grade component to the deposit could be emerging at depth, which is a characteristic of the more advanced Blackjack deposit located 1.5 km to the west. The Eiger deposit remains open in all directions.

Previous mapping by US Geological Survey and the Yukon Geological Survey (Marsh et al, 1998, Marsh et al, 1999) has demonstrated that the gold mineralization identified at the Blackjack Deposit, the Saddle Zone and the Blackjack deposit occurs within a 1 km by > 4 km extensional corridor (Figure 4). Such corridors can create structural conditions favourable for the emplacement of intrusive rocks and associated gold mineralization.

* While visible gold observations are very encouraging and confirm the presence of gold mineralization, they are not intended to imply potential gold grades. Gold assays will be published after they are received from the lab for mineralized intervals in which visible gold particles were noted.





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To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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Figure 7: A plan map of the Clear Creek Intrusive Complex (CCIC) showing the updated resource areas at Blackjack and Eiger, along with the newly discovered Rhosgoble zone and several other high-priority drill targets and multiple exploration targets. . The map highlights the numerous drill targets that Sitka has outlined within the CCIC which all are connected by the road network on the project and occur in an area measuring five (5) km north-south and twelve (12) km east-west. Additional areas highlighted by strong gold in soil anomalies are being advanced to the drill ready stage with additional geological work in 2025.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/6144/276604_9e84119d549e4a7b_011full.jpg

Figure 8*: A plan map of the Clear Creek Intrusive Complex (CCIC) showing the updated resource areas at Blackjack and Eiger, and the six additional areas that have drill targets indicated by the mauve hatched areas. The map highlights the numerous drill targets that Sitka has outlined within the CCIC which all are connected by the road network on the project and occur in an area measuring five (5) km north-south and twelve (12) km east-west. Additional areas highlighted by strong gold in soil anomalies are being advanced to the drill ready stage with additional geological work in 2025.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/6144/276604_9e84119d549e4a7b_012full.jpg

* References for Figure 7 drilling intervals:

Rhosgobel Intervals: Sitka Gold News Release dated November 25, 2024

Pukelman Intervals: Sitka Gold News Release dated January 7, 2025

Contact Intervals: O'Brien, 2010; Assessment Report, 2010 Diamond Drilling Program, Clear Creek Property (Assessment report 095539)

Shutty, 2011; Assessment Report, 2011 Exploration Program, Clear Creek Property (Assessment Report 095984)

Bear Paw Intervals: Shutty, 2011; Assessment Report, 2011 Exploration Program, Clear Creek Property (Assessment Report 095984)

Figure 9: Regional map of the RC Gold Project located in the western portion of Yukon's prolific Tombstone Gold Belt.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/6144/276604_9e84119d549e4a7b_013full.jpg

Quality Assurance/Quality Control

On receipt from the drill site, the HTW/NTW-sized drill core was systematically logged for geological attributes, photographed and sampled at Sitka's core logging facility. Sample lengths as small as 0.3 m were used to isolate features of interest, otherwise a default 2 m downhole sample length was used. Each sample is identified by a unique sample tag number which is placed in the bag containing the core to be assayed. Core was cut in half lengthwise along a predetermined line, with one-half (same half, consistently) collected for analysis and one-half stored as a record. Standard reference materials, blanks and duplicate samples were inserted by Sitka personnel at regular intervals into the sample stream. Bagged samples were placed in secure bins to ensure integrity during transport. They were delivered by Sitka personnel or a contract expeditor to ALS Laboratories' preparatory facility in Whitehorse, Yukon, with analyses completed in North Vancouver.

ALS is accredited to ISO 17025:2005 UKAS ref. 4028 for its laboratory analysis. Samples were crushed by ALS to over 70 per cent passing below two millimetres and split using a riffle splitter. One-thousand-gram splits were pulverized to over 85 per cent passing below 75 microns. Gold determinations are by fire assay with an inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-AES) finish on 50 g subsamples of the prepared pulp (ALS code: Au-ICP-22). Any sample returning over 10 g/t gold was re-analyzed by fire assay with a gravimetric finish on a 50 g subsample (ALS code: Au-GRA21). In addition, a 51-element analysis was performed on a 0.5 g subsample of the prepared pulps by an aqua regia digestion followed by an inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) finish (ALS code: ME-MS41).

About Sitka's Flagship RC Gold Project

Sitka's 100% owned RC Gold Project consists of a 431 square kilometre contiguous district-scale land package located in the heart of Yukon's Tombstone Gold Belt. The project is located approximately 100 kilometres east of Dawson City, which has a 5,000 foot paved runway, and is accessed via a secondary gravel road from the Klondike Highway which is usable year-round and is an approximate 2 hour drive from Dawson City. It is the largest consolidated land package strategically positioned mid-way between the Eagle Gold Mine and the past producing Brewery Creek Gold Mine.

The RC Gold Project now has pit-constrained mineral resources that are contained in two zones: the Blackjack and Eiger gold deposits with 1,291,000 ounces of gold in 39,962,000 tonnes grading 1.01 g/t gold in an indicated category and 1,044,000 ounces of gold in 34,603,000 tonnes grading 0.94 g/t in an inferred category at Blackjack and 440,000 ounces of gold in 27,362,000 tonnes grading 0.50 g/t gold in an inferred category at Eiger. These resource estimate numbers are supported by the recently updated technical report for RC Gold, prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 standards, entitled "Clear Creek Property, RC Gold Project NI 43-101 Technical Report Dawson Mining District, Yukon Territory", prepared by Ronald G. Simpson, P. Geo., of GeoSim Services Inc. with an effective date of January 21, 2025. This report is available on SEDAR+ (http://www.sedarplus.ca) and on the Company's website (www.sitkagoldcorp.com).

Both of these deposits begin at surface, are potentially open pit minable and Initial bottle roll metallurgical testing confirmed the non-refractory characteristics of the gold mineralization and returned gold extraction rates averaging around 85%. Further metallurgical testwork in 2024 returned recoveries ranging from 77.6 to 93% for gravity followed by cyanidation.

For the purposes of the current resource model, it is assumed that a likely mill flowsheet would consist of a gravimetric, flotation, and cyanidation circuit.

The company has now completed 165 diamond drill holes for a total of 59,770 metres across the Clear Creek Intrusive Complex (CCIC), and an additional 3 holes for 858 metres in the May-Qu Intrusion. Drilling continues to outline higher grade mineralization at all zones including hole DDRCCC-24-068 at Blackjack which intersected 678.1 metres of 1.04 g/t gold starting from surface (see news release dated October 21, 2024), and hole DDRCCC-25-075 which intersected 352.8 metres of 1.55 g/t gold including 108.9 metres of 3.27 g/t gold and 45.0 metres of 4.52 g/t gold (see news release dated April 22, 2025). Drilling in 2024/2025 has resulted in the discovery of a new higher grade zone at Rhosggobel including hole DDRCRG-25-010 at Rhosgobel which intersected 235.9 metres of 1.11 g/t gold, including 40.0 m of 2.01 g/t gold and 10.0 m of 5.29 g/t gold, from surface (see news release dated September 18, 2025).

RC Gold Deposit Model

Exploration on the Property has mainly focused on identifying an intrusion-related gold system ("IRGS"). The property is within the Tombstone Gold Belt which is the prominent host to IRGS deposits within the Tintina Gold Province in Yukon and Alaska. Notable deposits from the belt include: Fort Knox Mine in Alaska with current Proven and Probable Reserves of 230 million tonnes at 0.3 g/t Au (2.471 million ounces; Sims 2018)(1); Eagle Gold Mine with current Measured and Indicated Resources of 233 million tonnes at a grade of 0.57 g/t Au at the Eagle Main Zone (4.303 million ounces; Harvey et al, 2022)(2); the Brewery Creek deposit with current Indicated Mineral Resource of 22.2 million tonnes at a gold grade of 1.11 g/t (0.789 million ounces; Hulse et al. 2020)(3); the AurMac Project with an Indicated Mineral Resource of 112.5 million tonnes grading 0.63 gram per tonne gold (2.274 million ounces)(4) plus an Inferred resource of 280.6 million tonnes grading 0.60 g/t gold (5.454 million ounces)(4), the Valley Deposit, with a current Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource of 7.94 million oz gold at 1.21 g/t and an additional Inferred Mineral Resource of 0.89 million oz at 0.62 g/t gold(5), and the Raven deposit with an inferred mineral resource of 1.1 million oz (19.96 million tonnes at 1.67 g/t gold)(6). The QP has been unable to verify the information regarding the above resource estimations and the information is not necessarily indicative of the mineralization on the property that is the subject of the disclosure.

(1) Sims J. Fort Knox Mine Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, USA National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report. June 11, 2018. https://s2.q4cdn.com/496390694/files/doc_downloads/2018/Fort-Knox-June-2018-Technical-Report.pdf

(2) Harvey N., Gray P., Winterton J., Jutras M., Levy M.,Technical Report for the Eagle Gold Mine, Yukon Territory, Canada. Victoria Gold Corp. December 31, 2022. https://vgcx.com/site/assets/files/6534/vgcx_-_2023_eagle_mine_technical_report_final.pdf

(3) Hulse D, Emanuel C, Cook C. NI 43-101 Technical Report on Mineral Resources. Gustavson Associates. May 31, 2020. https://minedocs.com/22/Brewery-Creek-PEA-01182022.pdf

(4) July 8, 2025,Banyan Gold Corp., News Release. https://banyangold.com/news-releases/2025/banyan-announces-first-indicated-mineral-resources-and-identifies-high-grade-continuous-zones-at-its-aurmac-project-yukon-canada/

(5 )https://snowlinegold.com/2025/05/15/snowline-gold-expands-measured-and-indicated-gold-ounces-by-96-in-updated-mineral-resource-estimate-at-its-valley-gold-deposit-yukon/

(6) Jutras, M. 2022. Technical Report on the Raven Mineral Deposit, Mayo Mining District Yukon Territory, Canada, prepared for Victoria Gold Corp and filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) with an effective date of September 15, 2022

About Sitka Gold Corp.

Sitka Gold Corp. is a well-funded mineral exploration company headquartered in Canada with over $43 million in its treasury and no debt. The Company is managed by a team of experienced industry professionals and is focused on exploring for economically viable mineral deposits with its primary emphasis on gold, silver and copper mineral properties of merit. Sitka is currently advancing its 100% owned, 431 square kilometre flagship RC Gold Project located within the Tombstone Gold Belt in the Yukon Territory. The Company is also advancing the Alpha Gold Project in Nevada and currently has drill permits for its Burro Creek Gold and Silver Project in Arizona and the Coppermine River Project in Nunavut, all of which are 100% owned by Sitka.

*For more detailed information on the Company's properties please visit our website at www.sitkagoldcorp.com.

Upcoming Events

Sitka Gold will be attending and/or presenting at the following events*:

Scotiabank Mining Conference: Toronto, Ontario : December 2-3, 2025

: December 2-3, 2025 Metals Investor Forum (MIF): Vancouver, BC : January 23 - 24, 2026

: January 23 - 24, 2026 Vancouver Resource Investment Conference (VRIC): Vancouver, BC: January 25 - 26, 2026

January 25 - 26, 2026 AME Roundup: Vancouver, BC: January 26 - 29, 2026

*All events are subject to change.

The scientific and technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Gilles Dessureau, P.Geo., V.P. Exploration of the Company, and a Qualified Person (QP) as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF

SITKA GOLD CORP.

"Donald Penner"

President and Director

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary and Forward-Looking Statements

This release includes certain statements and information that may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect the expectations or beliefs of management of the Company regarding future events. Generally, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "intends" or "anticipates", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "should", "would" or "occur". This information and these statements, referred to herein as "forward-looking statements", are not historical facts, are made as of the date of this news release and include without limitation, statements regarding discussions of future plans, estimates and forecasts and statements as to management's expectations and intentions and the Company's anticipated work programs.

These forward-looking statements involve numerous risks and uncertainties and actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, market uncertainty and the results of the Company's anticipated work programs.

Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, forward-looking information or financial out-look that are incorporated by reference herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. We seek safe harbor.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/276604

SOURCE: Sitka Gold Corp.
As Hollywood icons such as McConaughey and Caine sign AI-voice deals and global brands like Coca-Cola spark consumer backlash with AI-generated ads, it's clear that the debate around AI, creativity and human identity has reached a critical moment.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251127666620/en/

Fashion now faces the same questions: How do we innovate without losing authenticity? How do we protect talent while embracing technology?

Hannelore Knuts has shaped one of fashion's most distinctive careers. Known for her androgynous, instantly recognisable look, she became a global runway force for Alexander McQueen, Prada, Chanel, Dior, Gucci, Balenciaga and Comme des Garcons. Her image has appeared in Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, W Magazine, Numero, Dazed and i-D, securing her status as one of Belgium's most iconic international models. Her career later expanded into wider artistic areas, cementing her influence far beyond the catwalk.

Today, Hannelore Knuts and BetterStudio present a new, ethical blueprint for AI in fashion. Powered by verified Digital Twins that prioritize the model's identity above all.

In a pivotal new podcast episode, internationally renowned top model Hannelore Knuts joins Severine Nijs, Head of Human Identity at BetterStudio and Founder/CEO of Jackie Lee Model Agency. Together, they explore how Artificial Intelligence and ethical, verified Digital Twins are redefining the global fashion industry.

As AI accelerates across the creative industries, the episode examines how technology will influence production, model careers, content efficiency, and the evolution of visual storytelling. Most importantly, it also highlights the need to protect the human identity behind every image.

AI Will Not Replace Real People in Fashion. It Will Redefine the Industry's Ways of Working.

While skepticism still exists across the industry, Knuts and Nijs agree: AI is not a threat, but the next major evolution in fashion.

"AI is here to stay. It will not replace real people. It will become another essential tool, the way Photoshop once did." Hannelore Knuts

The episode highlights how AI will streamline and automate high-volume workflows, especially ecommerce imagery, where brands are actively demanding efficiency and automation first.

Meanwhile, human models can shift toward creativity-driven, emotional and premium campaigns where their presence truly matters.

Digital Twins: A New Creative Workforce for Fashion

As content demands increase, Digital Twins offer:

scalable ecommerce production

24/7 availability

reduced environmental impact

consistent brand identity

creative extension beyond physical limits

Nijs explains how Digital Twins enhance the industry without sacrificing authenticity:

"Brands need efficiency, but not at the cost of authenticity. Digital Twins deliver both: speed for production, and protection for the human behind the model." Severine Nijs

AI Transparency Required from August 2026, with the Power of the Verified Label

From August 2026, every brand operating in the EU will be legally required to disclose when AI has been used in their imagery. This marks a major shift toward transparency: a standard consumers increasingly expect.

BetterStudio has developed, together with Jackie Lee, the Verified Label, a pioneering ethical framework that ensures:

Digital Twins are created with full consent

the model's identity is protected

fair compensation is guaranteed

usage is traceable, transparent, and compliant

In recent years, the fashion industry has had to invest heavily in sustainability and environmentally conscious initiatives. Now, ethical AI is becoming the next essential pillar. A pillar that consumers now expect their favourite brands to actively implement.

A Turning Point for the Fashion Industry

AI will reshape key elements of the industry:

For brands: greater speed, lower costs, and expanded creative possibilities

For models: new revenue streams, protection and longer-lasting careers

For agencies: future-proof business and service models

For consumers: trust, clarity and verified transparency

For creatives: elevated tools and limitless storytelling opportunities

A Call to the Industry

Knuts and Nijs emphasize that fashion must actively shape this change.

"Fashion has always evolved. AI is simply the next chapter, and we need to write it together." Hannelore Knuts

The podcast episode "The Future of AI in Fashion with Hannelore Knuts" is available now. Link: https://betterstudio.io/podcast-hannelore-knuts

Company info BetterStudio:

BetterStudio is a company of BETTERGROUP HOLDING INC (1111B S Governors Ave, STE 37790, Dover, Delaware 19904, United States)

The company has offices in Ghent, Belgium (Wintercircus) and Lisbon, Portugal.

Venture-backed by MOC capital Shilling VC.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251127666620/en/

Contacts:

Severine Nijs Head of human identity at BetterStudio and CEO at Jackie Lee model agency.

Email: severine@betterstudio.io and +32474 49 37 17

Hannelore Knuts https://www.hanneloreknuts.com

Email: HK@hanneloreknuts.com

BetterStudio: https://betterstudio.io

Founder Ricardo Ghekiere +32 496 12 86 30

Bettermodels Verified Label: bettermodels.ai
MILAN, Dec. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BetaGlue Therapeutics ("BetaGlue" or the "Company") a pioneering Italian clinical-stage oncology company developing an innovative radiotherapy solution for the targeted treatment of solid tumours, is proud to announce that the Italian Ministry of Health (MOH) has approved its Clinical Trial Application for YntraDose in the treatment of unresectable Locally Advanced Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (LA-PDAC). This authorization follows the recent Clinical Trial Approval from the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

The clinical study, which is expected to begin enrolling patients in early 2026, with preliminary results expected by the end of the year, is an early feasibility clinical investigation designed to evaluate safety, usability and feasibility of YntraDose administration in patients with unresectable LA-PDAC which remains a significant health concern with limited effective treatment options and a pressing unmet medical need. YntraDose represents an innovative locoregional radiotherapy, utilizing Yttrium-90 microspheres embedded in a quickly polymerizing matrix to deliver targeted radiation directly to solid tumours. This approach has been designed with the aim to maximize therapeutic efficacy while minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue, offering new hope for patients facing unresectable locally advanced pancreatic cancer - one of the most aggressive and difficult-to-treat malignancies.

"As an Italian company, deeply committed to advancing cancer care, we are honoured to announce that the Italian Health Authorities have approved our clinical study in Italy, which will be conducted at the Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS in Rome. This achievement marks a fundamental step in our commitment to innovation in oncology and demonstrates the trust of Italian institutions in our technology and the therapeutic potential of YntraDose for patients with unresectable locally advanced pancreatic cancer" said Alexis Peyroles, CEO of BetaGlue Therapeutics. "We are grateful for the support of the Italian institutions and look forward to collaborating with the Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS in Rome bringing new hope to patients with unresectable locally advanced pancreatic cancer, one of the most challenging diseases worldwide. Looking ahead, we are actively planning to expand our clinical trials internationally, with the goal of making YntraDose available to patients in more countries and addressing unmet needs in cancer care worldwide."

About BetaGlue Therapeutics

BetaGlue Therapeutics is a clinical-stage oncology company developing a novel radiotherapy platform technology for the localised and targeted treatment of unresectable solid tumours called YntraDose which is currently being evaluated for LA-PDAC and has further potential in other indications.

About YntraDose

YntraDose device is a locoregional therapy (LRT) intended for the percutaneous radio-ablation of unresectable solid tumors. It represents a novel technology that aim to deliver a targeted radiation dose using Yttrium-90 microspheres injected directly into the tumour site, within a glue matrix holding the Y-90 microspheres in place.

Website: https://betaglue.com// Contact us: info@betaglue.comLinkedIn: Here
New partnership leverages Multiverse's quantum-inspired AI compression technology with Cerebrium's serverless scaling infrastructure to deliver 12x faster inference and 90% smaller AI models, reducing infrastructure overhead

SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain, Dec. 02, 2025, the leader in quantum-inspired AI model compression, and Cerebrium , an elastic, serverless AI infrastructure platform, announced a strategic partnership designed to alleviate this burden and create a new foundation for economically sustainable AI. Together, the technologies form a unified system that optimizes GPU utilization, minimizes latency, and lowers cost per inference across the full AI deployment lifecycle, from prototyping to production.

"Compute costs remain one of the biggest barriers to AI progress, setting artificial limits on its societal impact," said Enrique Lizaso, cofounder and CEO of Multiverse Computing. "We're fusing efficiency and scale so innovation can finally take off without running into a cost wall. Together, our partnership proves that performance and affordability can coexist, unlocking faster, more accessible, and more sustainable AI for everyone."

At the heart of the partnership is a seamless pipeline between Multiverse's CompactifAI model compression engine and Cerebrium's dynamic container scaling, which can expand to thousands of GPUs near-instantly. The joint solution enables enterprises to deploy high-performance models that run up to 12x faster, consume up to 80% fewer compute resources, and scale globally in seconds, without sacrificing accuracy or availability.

"Organizations around the world want to take advantage of AI, but very few can actually afford to do it at scale," said Michael Louis, founder and CEO of Cerebrium. "With Multiverse's compression engine shrinking the computational footprint and our infrastructure expanding elastically to meet demand, we're chipping away at the last technical and economic barriers between innovation and real-world deployment."

The partnership also reflects a broader shift in how the AI industry defines progress, moving from sheer scale and parameter counts to a new standard that values efficiency, speed, and economic viability as a measure of performance.

Customers can now leverage Cerebrium's elastic orchestration engine and CompactifAI models through private deployments. To learn more, reach out to Multiverse Computing at sales@multiversecomputing.com .

About Multiverse Computing

Multiverse Computing is the leader in quantum-inspired AI model compression. The company's deep expertise in quantum software and AI led to the development of CompactifAI, a revolutionary AI model compression engine. CompactifAI compresses LLMs by up to 95% with only 2-3% precision loss. CompactifAI models reduce computing requirements and unleash new use cases for AI across industries.

Multiverse Computing is headquartered in Donostia, Spain, with offices across Europe, the U.S., and Canada. With over 160 patents and 100 customers globally, including Iberdrola, Bosch, and the Bank of Canada, Multiverse Computing has raised c.$250M to date from investors including Bullhound Capital, HP Tech Ventures, SETT, Forgepoint Capital International, CDP Venture Capital, Toshiba, and Santander Climate VC. For more information, visit multiversecomputing.com .

About Cerebrium

Cerebrium is a serverless infrastructure platform that makes it easy for engineering teams to build and scale AI applications. The platform delivers low startup times, multi-region deployments for low latency and data residency, support for over a dozen GPU types, and can scale to thousands of containers in seconds. Backed by Gradient (Google's AI fund) and Y Combinator, Cerebrium powers real-time AI workloads for leading teams such as Tavus, Deepgram, and Vapi.

Media Contact

LaunchSquad for Multiverse Computing

multiverse@launchsquad.com
MUSASHI JAPAN by TAIMATSU announces the return of its year-end celebration, Gift Campaign 2025, a seasonal tradition that transforms holiday shopping into an experience of appreciation, craftsmanship, and cultural generosity.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251202812444/en/

Rather than focusing on discounts, MUSASHI embraces the philosophy that true value lies in tools that last and in the gestures that accompany them. This year's campaign invites customers to discover gifts that enrich their craft in the kitchen, each thoughtfully chosen to support the longevity and performance of every Musashi blade.

Inspired by the Japanese principle of omotenashi, the campaign offers customers tiered gifts based on their total purchase amount, ensuring that every contribution is met with gratitude and purpose.

From December 2 to December 25, 2025, customers shopping in MUSASHI JAPAN stores will receive:

Tier 1: Oil and Rust Eraser

Practical maintenance tools that keep blades clean and protected for daily use.

Tier 2: Musashi Sharpening Stone

A premium whetstone that restores precision to every edge and encourages customers to care for their knives.

Tier 3: Musashi Japan Cutting Board

A carefully crafted cutting board created to support the balance and finesse of Musashi knives and to serve as the foundation of a focused kitchen environment.

The campaign is unified globally with localised expressions for each region:

Global US: Gift Campaign 2025

* Germany: Geschenkaktion 2025

* France: Campagne Cadeaux 2025

* Spain: Campana de Regalos 2025

Across all markets, the message remains steady. Giving a Musashi gift is providing the tools that inspire skill, confidence, and commitment to the craft.

Creative Director Stefan Kitanovikj reflects on the intention behind the initiative:

"Choosing a MUSASHI JAPAN knife is a commitment to skilled mastery. These campaign gifts honour that journey. They encourage our customers to cook with intention, respect their tools, and elevate their craft of cooking."

For more information, visit: www.musashihamono.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251202812444/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact

TAIMATSU Inc.

Email: help@tai-matsu.jp
Expanding energy and infrastructure training slots will connect more career seekers to high-quality jobs across Southeastern Pennsylvania through the Regional Good Jobs Challenge.

PHILADELPHIA, PA / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / Philadelphia Works, Inc., along with the Good Jobs Challenge Steering Committee in Southeastern PA, are excited to announce a diverse, regional set of selected training providers who will empower individuals with the skills necessary for in-demand jobs in Energy and Infrastructure. These fully funded training opportunities will help drive the Good Job Challenge's efforts to connect up to 3,000 residents to quality jobs across Bucks, Berks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties.

"This expansion marks a pivotal moment for Southeastern Pennsylvania's workforce," said Patrick Clancy, President & CEO of Philadelphia Works. "Through the Good Jobs Challenge, we're not only preparing individuals for family-sustaining careers in energy and infrastructure, we're also strengthening the regional economy by ensuring employers have access to a skilled and diverse talent pipeline."

Newly awarded Good Jobs Challenge training partners include:

Beyond Literacy : Keystone Energy Employment Program

Collegiate Consortium for Workforce and Economic Development (CCWED):

Industrial Maintenance Mechanic - Electromechanical Technician Training

Congreso De Latinos Unidos : Careers in Trucking

Connections Work : Rebuilding Re-entrants and Reading Training Program

Finishing Trades Institute : Women in Nontraditional Careers (WINC)

I-LEAD : Infrastructure Pre-Apprenticeship Training

JEVS : Air Conditioning, Refrigeration & Heating Training

PowerCorps PHL : Green Skilled Trades Academy

Tiger Electrical Academy:Electrical Skills Training

"The Finishing Trades Institute of the Mid-Atlantic Region (FTI) is committed to advancing equitable access to high-quality careers in the union construction finishing trades. Our Women in Non-Traditional Careers (WINC) Pre-Apprenticeship Program reflects this mission by opening pathways for women to succeed in trades where they have been historically underrepresented. WINC graduates are able to successfully apply and thrive in the Philadelphia Union Building Trades. Aiming to serve Philadelphia residents, WINC not only uplifts participants but strengthens families, supports local economies, and addresses critical labor shortages."

- Erin O'Brien-Hofmann, Director of Member Engagement at the Finishing Trades Institute

"At Beyond Literacy, we see every day how access to career preparation transforms lives. Thanks to the Good Jobs Challenge grant, our learners are not only gaining the skills to succeed in high-demand energy careers, but they're also connecting directly with employers who are eager to hire them. This partnership creates a win-win - our learners achieve stability and growth, while regional employers gain a skilled and diverse workforce."- Kimmell Proctor, Beyond Literacy CEO

This high-impact investment to expand training capacity in the region is funded by the Economic Development Administration (EDA), U.S. Department of Commerce. To learn more about the Good Jobs Challenge in Southeastern PA, along with details on training providers and participation opportunities for employers and job seekers, please visit www.pagoodjobs.org.

This press release was prepared by Philadelphia Works, Inc., using Federal funds under award ED22HDQ3070127 from the Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Economic Development Administration or the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Media Contact:

Jillian Mikolaizyk

jillian@logos-communications.com

SOURCE: Philadelphia Works, Inc.

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/philadelphia-works-inc.-announces-energy-and-infrastructure-trai-1112893
MISSISSAUGA, ON / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / Konica Minolta Business Solutions (Canada) Ltd. (Konica Minolta) today announced it has been named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide High-Speed Digital Label Printers 2025 Vendor Assessment (Doc US51812724e, August 2025).

The report notes, "The high-speed digital label printer market is undergoing the same type of digital transformation we have seen in other segments of the printing market, with a portion of the total label volume moving from analog to digital production based on digital printing's economic advantages for short runs. The demand for digital production is based on a move to shorter runs and on-demand production to impact consumer decisions and eliminate waste."

According to the IDC MarketScape, "Over that time, Konica Minolta has placed more than 1,700 of its toner-based label presses, which have found a "sweet spot" in the digital label press market with their combination of quality and productivity." In North America, the company is on target to reach 2,000 installations in FY2025. The report recognized Konica Minolta for the following strengths:

Konica Minolta offers ongoing business development support through its Marketing Assurance Program, which helps print service providers identify and expand into new markets.

The Konica Minolta AccurioLabel is a simple device, configurable with optional finishing for more automated production.

Konica Minolta offers its own IC-605 digital front end and partners to offer a Creo controller as an option for either the AccurioLabel 230 or AccurioLabel 400.

The AccurioLabel is a smaller device, requiring less of a footprint while maintaining robust production capabilities.

The AccurioLabel presses offer low power consumption through Konica Minolta's advanced HDE toner, which lowers fusing temperature, also saving on energy costs.

"Being named a Leader by the IDC MarketScape reaffirms our commitment to driving innovation and customer success," said Frank Mallozzi, President, IPP, Konica Minolta. "Our AccurioLabel portfolio continues to empower print providers to achieve higher productivity, superior quality and more sustainable, profitable growth."

Konica Minolta AccurioLabel 400 digital label press

Konica Minolta's AccurioLabel 230 and AccurioLabel 400 presses are designed to meet these demands with exceptional productivity, precision, and energy efficiency. The AccurioLabel 400 delivers resolutions up to 3,600 x 2,400 dpi, supports white toner printing and features low power consumption through Konica Minolta's advanced HDE toner technology.

"We continue to engineer solutions that make digital production smarter and more accessible," added Mallozzi. "With the AccurioLabel's trusted performance and advanced design, we're enabling printers to innovate faster and capture new business opportunities."

Visit Konica Minolta online to download an excerpt of the IDC MarketScape report.

About Konica Minolta

Konica Minolta's journey started more than 150 years ago, with a vision to see and do things differently. The company partners with clients to Give Shape to Ideas by supporting their digital transformation. Its business technology offerings include IT Services, intelligent information management, video security solutions, and managed print services, as well as office technology and industrial and commercial print solutions. 2025 marks Konica Minolta's 20th anniversary in production print, for which it celebrates "20 Years of Excellence, Innovation and Impact," and continues to lead the way in digital commercial printing. This year also commemorates 20 years of Konica Minolta's bizhub brand. Over the past two decades, the bizhub series has revolutionized office technology and redefined how businesses operate. It has continuously evolved to meet the needs of modern workplaces, fueled by advances in technology and a commitment to innovation. Konica Minolta is proud to be included on CRN's MSP 500 list numerous times; recognized as the #1 Brand for Customer Loyalty in the MFP Office Copier Market by Brand Keys for eighteen consecutive years, and presented with Keypoint Intelligence's BLI 2025 and 2021 A3 Line of The Year and BLI 2021-2023 Most Colour Consistent A3 Brand Awards for its bizhub i-Series. For more information, please visit Konica Minolta online and follow its accounts o nLinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, X (@KonicaMinoltaCA), and Instagram!

About IDC MarketScape

The IDC MarketScape vendor assessment model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of ICT (information and communications technology) suppliers in a given market. The research methodology utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each vendor's position within a given market. IDC MarketScape provides a clear framework in which the product and service offerings, capabilities and strategies, and current and future market success factors of IT and telecommunications vendors can be meaningfully compared. The framework also provides technology buyers with a 360-degree assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current and prospective vendors.

Konica Minolta Contact

Konica Minolta Media Relations - Canada

Marketing Department, Konica Minolta Business Solutions (Canada) Ltd.

info@bt.konicaminolta.ca

SOURCE: Konica Minolta Business Solutions (Canada) Ltd.

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/konica-minolta-positioned-as-a-leader-in-2025-idc-marketscape-fo-1113594
Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - December 2, 2025) - Hemostemix (TSXV: HEM) (OTCQB: HMTXF) (FSE: 2VF0) is proud to announce its participation in DFCon 2025, hosted by the American Limb Preservation Society in San Antonio, Texas - the global epicentre for innovation in diabetic foot care, vascular medicine, and limb preservation. With more than 500 delegates expected, DFCon gathers the widest spectrum of professionals shaping the future of diabetic limb salvage: podiatrists, vascular surgeons, wound-care experts, infectious disease specialists, endocrinologists/diabetologists, cardiovascular and endovascular specialists, nurses, NPs, PAs, residents, fellows, physical therapists, and industry innovators.

"VesCell saves diabetic limbs from amputation, and that saves lives," stated Thomas Smeenk CEO. DFCon remains the world's leading interdisciplinary diabetic foot conference, and we are delighted to be a solution-based participant. Here is why: as compared to a 50% mortality rate within five years for no option patients, the University of Toronto published our treatment generated 0% mortality and limb preservation in 83% of subjects followed for 4.5 years as a midpoint result in our phase II clinical trial! Unblinded the 83% received VesCell. As published, looking at only the patients who presented with wound ulcers before administration of ACP-01, (21 treatment, 8 placebo), Ulcer size in the treated group decreased from a mean of 146 mm2 to 0.48 mm2 (p = 0.01) by 3 months (wounds decreased from the size of a wild strawberry to the size of a grain of sand). There was no significant decrease in the size of the ulcers of the placebo group (p < 0.54). At one year there were no complications related to treatment. The treatment group had one amputation (4.8%) and one death (4.8%); the placebo group had 2 amputations (25%) and 1 death (12.5%)," and that story needs to be told," Smeenk said.

Across three high-intensity days - Friday, Saturday, and Sunday - Hemostemix will meet with clinicians, researchers, and innovators to highlight the significant outcomes following treatment with ACP-01 (VesCell), for vascular and ischemic conditions that underpin chronic wounds and diabetic limb-threatening ischemia.

Financing

The TSXV has approved a non brokered private placement of $518,440, adding 520,090 units ("Units") to the previously announced closing of 4,193,000 units ("Units"), each at a price of $0.11 per Unit. Each Unit consists of one common share in the capital of the Company (a "Common Share") and one common share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each full Warrant entitles the holder to acquire one additional Common Share at a price of $0.15 per share for a period of two (2) years from the closing date of the Offering, subject to the accelerated expiry provision described as follows. If, on any 10 consecutive trading days occurring after four months and one day has elapsed following the closing date, the closing sales price of the Common Shares (or the closing bid, if no sales were reported on a trading day) as quoted on the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange") is greater than a weighted average price of $0.185 per Common Share, the Company may provide notice in writing to the holders of the Warrants by issuance of a press release that the expiry date of the Warrants will be accelerated to the date that is 30 days following such press release.

ABOUT HEMOSTEMIX

Hemostemix is an autologous stem cell therapy platform company, founded in 2003. A winner of the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer Award, the Company has developed, patented, is scaling and selling autologous (patient's own) blood-based stem cell therapy, VesCell (ACP-01). Hemostemix has completed seven clinical studies of 318 subjects and published its results in eleven peer reviewed publications. ACP-01 is safe, clinically relevant and statistically significant as a treatment for peripheral arterial disease, chronic limb threatening ischemia, non ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy, ischemic cardiomyopathy, congestive heart failure, and angina. Hemostemix completed its Phase II clinical trial for chronic limb threatening ischemia and published its results in the Journal of Biomedical Research & Environmental Science. As compared to a five year mortality rate of 50% in the CLTI patient population, UBC and U of T reported to the 41st meeting of vascular surgeons: 0% mortality, cessation of pain, wound healing in 83% of patients followed for up to 4.5 years, as a midpoint result. For more information, please visit www.hemostemix.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined under the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Information: This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward-looking information. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking information in relation to the Phase I clinical trial of ACP-01 as a treatment for Vascular Dementia, and the treatment of pain related to CLTI in Florida and other jurisdictions related to angina, peripheral arterial disease, chronic limb threatening ischemia, ischemic cardiomyopathy, non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy, congestive heart failure, and total body ischemia with Angiogenic Cell Precursors (ACP-01) in furtherance of sales of VesCell (ACP-01), and the commercialization of ACP-01 via the sale of compassionate treatments under Florida SB 1768. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. This forward-looking information reflects Hemostemix's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to Hemostemix and on assumptions Hemostemix believes are reasonable. These assumptions include, but are not limited to: the underlying value of Hemostemix and its Common Shares; the successful resolution of any litigation that Hemostemix is pursuing or defending (the "Litigation"); the results of ACP-01 research, trials, studies and analyses, including the analysis being equivalent to or better than previous research, trials or studies; the receipt of all required regulatory approvals for research, trials or studies; the level of activity, market acceptance and market trends in the healthcare sector; the economy generally; consumer interest in Hemostemix's services and products; competition and Hemostemix's competitive advantages; and, Hemostemix obtaining satisfactory financing to fund Hemostemix's operations including any research, trials or studies, and any Litigation. Forward-looking information is Subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Hemostemix to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: the ability of Hemostemix to complete clinical trials, complete a satisfactory analyses and file the results of such analyses to gain regulatory approval of a phase II or phase III clinical trial of ACP-01; potential litigation Hemostemix may face; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; general capital market conditions and market prices for securities; delay or failure to receive board or regulatory approvals; the actual results of future operations including the actual results of future research, trials or studies; competition; changes in legislation affecting Hemostemix; the timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; long-term capital requirements and future developments in Hemostemix's markets and the markets in which it expects to compete; lack of qualified, skilled labour or loss of key individuals; and risks related to the COVID-19 pandemic including various recommendations, orders and measures of governmental authorities to try to limit the pandemic, including travel restrictions, border closures, non-essential business closures service disruptions, quarantines, self-isolations, shelters-in-place and social distancing, disruptions to markets, disruptions to economic activity and financings, disruptions to supply chains and sales channels, and a deterioration of general economic conditions including a possible national or global recession or depression; the potential impact that the COVID-19 pandemic may have on Hemostemix which may include a decreased demand for the services that Hemostemix offers; and a deterioration of financial markets that could limit Hemostemix's ability to obtain external financing. A description of additional risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in Hemostemix's disclosure documents on the SEDAR+ website at www.sedarplus.ca. Although Hemostemix has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the expectations of Hemostemix as of the date of this news release and, accordingly, it is Subject to change after such date. However, Hemostemix expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/276563

SOURCE: Hemostemix Inc.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / StimCell Energetics Inc. (OTCQB:STME) ("StimCell" or the "Company"), a biotech pioneer targeting cellular energy to enhance wellness, anti-aging, and longevity, today announced the signing of a service agreement with the St. Boniface Hospital Albrechtsen Research Centre, affiliated with the University of Manitoba, and Principal Investigator, Professor Paul Fernyhough. This collaboration will explore the effects of StimCell's proprietary eBalance device on mitochondrial function in cultured sensory neurons to further define the physiological action of microcurrents.

Under the agreement, effective December 1, 2025, Dr. Fernyhough's team will conduct a series of experiments to assess how eBalance stimulation influences key aspects of cellular energy production by mitochondria. Using established biological assays in Dr. Fernyhough's laboratory, the study will measure oxygen consumption rates (OCR) to evaluate impacts on the electron transport chain, ATP production, glycolysis, basal respiration, maximal respiration, spare respiratory capacity, coupling efficiency, and proton leak. Additional analyses will quantify enzyme activities such as AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and levels of respiratory proteins through Western blotting. The project, expected to span approximately three months, involves acute and longer-term stimulation of dissociated adult rat dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons under controlled conditions. Replicates will ensure robust statistical analysis, with a comprehensive report provided at the study's conclusion.

"We are thrilled to partner with Dr. Fernyhough and the esteemed St Boniface Hospital Albrechtsen Research Centre to rigorously test eBalance's capabilities," said David Jeffs, CEO of StimCell Energetics. "This research represents a significant step forward in understanding how our technology may enhance mitochondrial performance, potentially opening new avenues for therapeutic applications in neurology and beyond."

Dr. Paul Fernyhough, www.sbrc.ca/fernyhough, a renowned expert in neuronal bioenergetics and peripheral neuropathy, brings decades of experience to the project. His prior work, including studies on bioenergetic parameters in diabetic models, aligns closely with StimCell's mission to advance cellular energy solutions. This agreement underscores the Company's commitment to evidence-based innovation.

About StimCell Energetics Inc.

StimCell Energetics Inc. is a biotech company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of therapeutic and non-therapeutic products that enhance cellular function, promote general wellness and alleviate health complications including, but not limited to: aging, insulin sensitivity, high blood pressure, neuropathy and kidney function. The Company's main focus is on continued research and development of its eBalance Technology and its eBalance Home System.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of StimCell Energetics Inc.

David Jeffs

CEO, Director

For further information:

info@stimcell.com

www.StimCell.com

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions and are identified by words such as "expects", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "anticipates", "believes", "could", and other similar words. All statements addressing product performance, events, or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will occur in the future are forward-looking statements. Because the statements are forward-looking, they should be evaluated in light of important risk factors and uncertainties, some of which are described in the Company's Quarterly, Annual and Current Reports filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of the Company's underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those currently anticipated. In addition, undue reliance should not be placed on Company's forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, StimCell Energetics Inc. disclaims any obligation to update or publicly announce any revisions to any of the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory body has reviewed nor accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Investors are advised to carefully review the reports and documents that StimCell Energetics Inc. files from time to time with the SEC, including its Annual, Quarterly and Current Reports.

SOURCE: StimCell Energetics

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/healthcare-and-pharmaceutical/stimcell-energetics-inc.-announces-study-into-ebalancer-devices-impac-1113617
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / Sara Rosner| Director-Responsible Investing Research

James Russo| Senior Research Analyst-Strategic Core Equities

Henna Nordqvist, CFA| Corporate Credit Analyst-Fixed Income

AI's rapid growth is driving demand not only for electricity but also for the clean water needed to run its physical infrastructure. As data centers expand, rising water intensity is straining supplies and testing long-term sustainability. In our analysis, these pressures create both risks and opportunities for active investors.

How Cool Is AI?

AI's explosive growth shows little sign of ebbing, with a record $350 billion projected for AI-focused business investment in 2025 alone. As a result, global capacity for AI's server-housing facilities, or data centers, is expected to rise 23% in each of the next five years, with the US dominating.

The build-out is expected to spike data-center electricity demand by 160% in the US, contributing to a 25% increase in overall power demand through 2030, according to the International Energy Agency. Meeting greater global power needs will have distinct challenges. But we also see a variety of potential risks stemming from water becoming either more scarce or less pure.

This is because AI's powerful data centers tend to run extra hot, and many of them require a lot of ultrapure water to constantly chill them. Consequently, a data center's success will likely depend as much on access to ample and clean water as on reliable power sources.

Rising Water Risk as a Market Disrupter

Data centers aren't the only AI boom participants in search of water. Semiconductor manufacturers and utilities are also intensive water users and are likely to need even more of it (Display). US power generation-particularly coal and nuclear-accounts for about 70% of all freshwater withdrawals, though most is returned to its source after cooling.

Research we conducted with the Columbia Climate School shows that these three areas combined are expected to grow demand for clean water by 33% through 2030. Location can also add material risk, since many data centers are either situated in or planned for regions already stressed for water, our findings show.

We see a continued ramp-up in data center build-out, chip production and power generation in the near term. And water risk is emerging as a key constraint for these and other industries-potentially more disruptive than climate change itself. For instance, a Bloomberg study found that about $70 trillion in global GDP could be directly exposed to high water stress by 2050.

We're already seeing companies change up their long-term playbooks due to near-term water concerns-Constellation Brands' now-abandoned beer plant in Mexico and Google's nixed plans for a data center in Chile, for example.

That's why we believe water stewardship is integral to active investment selection. By the same token, company engagement is crucial to determining a business's water-risk exposure and whether it's helping to solve the problem for its own benefit and in some cases for others.

Assessing a Company's Chill Factor

Many companies outside of the tech industry-whether household names or unfamiliar start-ups-are participating in the AI boom in some fashion. But we think progress will come more readily to innovators that share lasting solutions to AI's biggest challenges, including water scarcity (Display).

We see a significant milestone in harnessing the ocean for cooling solutions. Though costlier than purifying water from municipal sources, desalinating seawater is very effective in semiconductor fabrication. The process uses either evaporation or membrane filters to remove minerals that harm equipment and microchips. Companies such as DuPont Water Solutions, LG Chem and Flowserve are among the key enablers in this growing market, which is expected to top $50 billion by 2032.

Direct-to-chip liquid cooling also has potential in a water-stressed world. This method places metal cooling plates in direct contact with processors to dissipate heat while low amounts of water carry the heat off through grooves. Asetek is one of the leading public companies in this space, which is currently dotted with private firms.

Yet another innovation is closed-cycle cooling, which is highly water efficient and environmentally friendly. The process lowers heat by circulating liquid coolant-mostly water-throughout a system that can range from evaporative towers to condensers. SPX Technologies stands out as a global pioneer in the public markets. However, numerous privately held companies are also leading advancement in this space, such as Kelvion and Hamon Group.

Global water scarcity isn't a risk unique to AI, but the race for AI domination is increasingly revealing its hidden dangers and potential costs. And with so much of today's market value tied to a handful of AI leaders, responsible investing requires recognizing water-risk exposure at every level-as well as the opportunities created by it.

The authors would like to thank Maxwell Lulavy, Responsible Investing Research Analyst at AB, for his significant contributions to the research behind this blog.

The views expressed herein do not constitute research, investment advice or trade recommendations, do not necessarily represent the views of all AB portfolio-management teams and are subject to change over time.

References to specific securities discussed are for illustrative purposes only and should not to be considered recommendations by AllianceBernstein L.P. It should not be assumed that investments in the securities mentioned have necessarily been or will necessarily be profitable.

Learn more about AB's approach to responsibility here.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from AllianceBernstein on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: AllianceBernstein

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/alliancebernstein

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: AllianceBernstein

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/banking-and-financial-services/alliancebernstein-ais-hidden-cost-why-water-risk-belongs-on-every-in-1113724
JACKSONVILLE, FL / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / Propelus , a provider of industry-leading healthcare solutions for human capital management, has announced a strategic partnership with MAVEN Project , a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving healthcare access and quality for underserved populations across the United States.

Propelus and MAVEN Project Partner to Advance Health Care and Support Frontline Providers

New Partnership announcement with Propelus & MAVEN Project

The partnership connects Propelus' solution, Propelus EverCheck , with MAVEN Project's mission to support safety net clinics and frontline providers across the country. Through this collaboration, EverCheck now helps strengthen MAVEN Project's physician volunteer management and compliance processes. By improving how volunteer credentials are monitored and maintained, MAVEN Project can dedicate more time and resources to supporting providers and expanding access to specialty care in underserved communities.

"At Propelus, our mission has always been to back the people powering healthcare," said Julie Walker, CEO at Propelus."It is an honor to partner with MAVEN Project, as part of our mission is to serve providers and vulnerable communities by removing barriers to care. Together, we are helping create a connected, equitable, and deeply human healthcare ecosystem."

Through the partnership, EverCheck will streamline physician volunteer credential verification and monitoring for MAVEN Project's network of physicians. This includes potential enhancements such as moving from monthly to daily license monitoring, improving accuracy, and reducing administrative effort.

Expanding access to care

The United States faces a growing shortage of healthcare workers and significant gaps in access to specialty care. Millions of Americans who rely on safety net clinics struggle to receive timely treatment, especially in rural or underserved areas.

MAVEN Project helps close that gap. The organization currently supports 245 volunteer physicians across 70 specialties, connecting them with providers at nearly 700 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and free clinics nationwide. Through telehealth, volunteers offer consultations, mentorship, and education to frontline providers, allowing clinics to manage complex cases locally and reduce external referrals by over 75 percent.

"The healthcare workforce is stretched thin, and access to specialty care is one of the biggest barriers to optimal health," said Dr. Jessica Lee, Chief Executive Officer, at MAVEN Project. "With improved administrative workflows through Propelus, we can focus more time on empowering the providers who deliver care every day."

Beyond credentialing support, Propelus and MAVEN Project are exploring ways to collaborate on continuing education and recognition programs.

Future initiatives may include:

Continuing education content collaboration , connecting MAVEN Project's robust webinar series and learning programs with Propelus CE Broker.

License support for volunteers through CE Broker's educational platform.

Recognition programs celebrating MAVEN Project's volunteer physicians who donate their time and expertise to underserved populations.

This collaboration underscores a shared commitment to limitless connectivity, health equity, and the empowerment of the healthcare workforce.

In the spirit of giving back this holiday season, Propelus will also donate to MAVEN Project for every engagement on our Propelus LinkedIn "gratitude" posts and/or a new Propelus CE Broker subscription. Visit the Propelus LinkedIn page to learn more and share gratitude with a healthcare professional.

About Propelus

Propelus streamlines workforce compliance management for healthcare. Through market-leading solutions like Propelus CE Broker, Propelus EverCheck, Propelus Immuware, and Propelus Data Solutions, our innovative technology and strategic partnerships empower millions of professionals and their employers, regulators, and partners to work together, ensuring a better-connected and more efficient healthcare ecosystem. Learn more at propelus.com.

About MAVEN Project

MAVEN Project is a 501c3 nonprofit expanding access to high-quality comprehensive health care in under-resourced communities across the U.S. MAVEN Project virtually connects its network of volunteer medical experts across 70+ specialties to provide immediate and long-term support for clinicians working in safety net clinics and community health centers - resulting in higher-quality, lower-cost care delivered locally to under-resourced patients. Learn more at mavenproject.org .

SOURCE: Propelus

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/computers-technology-and-internet/propelus-and-maven-project-partner-to-advance-health-care-and-sup-1113393
The acquisition strengthens Kraken's leadership in tokenized assets and marks a key milestone toward making global capital markets open, accessible, and borderless.

Kraken, one of the world's longest-standing, most liquid and secure cryptocurrency platforms, has agreed to acquire Backed Finance AG, the company driving the issuance of xStocks, the leading industry standard for tokenized equities. The acquisition will accelerate the global adoption of xStocks, unifying issuance, trading, and settlement to power open capital markets infrastructure for everyone.

xStocks has seen exceptional adoption since its debut earlier in 2025, surpassing $10 billion in combined exchange and onchain trading volume within six months. The acquisition gives Backed access to the capital and resources needed to scale faster and capitalize on surging adoption and growing institutional demand for tokenized equities. Bringing Backed fully into the Kraken ecosystem also allows greater alignment on strategy and investment priorities, unlocking the full economic potential of xStocks' success.

Together, Kraken and Backed will accelerate xStocks' expansion, bring tokenized equities to new markets, and extend their reach into everyday financial experiences. The acquisition lays the groundwork for future innovation in tokenized assets beyond equities, advancing Kraken's leadership in building open, interoperable financial infrastructure.

xStocks currently offers exposure to more than 60 tokenized equities and ETFs backed 1:1 by the underlying asset. The tokens are live on Solana and Ethereum, with integrations on TON, Tron, Mantle and BNB Chain coming soon. Investors can trade xStocks 24/7, on Kraken or directly onchain, creating a seamless, continuous bridge between traditional and crypto markets. xStocks can be self-custodied and were designed for multi-chain composability, keeping the infrastructure open and usable across the broader ecosystem.

Through the xStocks Alliance, Kraken and Backed have built a thriving ecosystem of partners spanning blockchain foundations, trading venues, and consumer applications. With this acquisition, Kraken plans to further expand this ecosystem, enhancing interoperability and liquidity for tokenized equities across the industry.

"Integrating Backed into Kraken strengthens the core architecture required for open and programmable capital markets. Unifying issuance, trading and settlement under one framework ensures the infrastructure for tokenized assets remains transparent, reliable and globally accessible. This is foundational work for the next era of market structure," said Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Kraken.

Backed's team and infrastructure will become part of Kraken, strengthening issuance and compliance capabilities while expanding the reach and utility of tokenized assets beyond the crypto ecosystem. Kraken plans to integrate xStocks more deeply into its broader product suite including Krak, its global money app allowing customers to hold and spend in tokenized equities.

Sethi continued: "This is bigger than giving people exposure to U.S. equities, it's about redefining what it means to own assets in the digital era."

"Backed's rise to becoming the industry standard for tokenized equities is a testament to unwavering focus, efficiency, and execution. Founded in 2021, the team built a compliant and scalable solution that seamlessly bridges crypto and traditional finance. Today, with Kraken's scale elevating that vision, we can accelerate the expansion of infrastructure designed to democratize financial access across the world," said Adam Levi, co-founder of Backed.

The acquisition of Backed builds on Kraken's recent strategic expansion through acquisitions such as Breakout, Small Exchange, and NinjaTrader. Kraken's vertically integrated architecture, covering exchange matching, custody, clearing, settlement, market data and wallet services, allows rapid deployment of new asset classes and features while maintaining industry-leading security and regulatory rigor. With this structure in place, Kraken is uniquely positioned to expand tokenized equities and other real-world assets globally on open, interoperable rails.

This combination represents a decisive step in Kraken's strategy to bring real-world assets onchain and make capital markets work for everyone, everywhere.

xStocks have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or any U.S. state securities laws. xStocks are not available in the United States or to U.S. persons and may not be offered, sold or delivered, directly or indirectly, in the United States or to U.S. persons. This communication does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy xStocks in any jurisdiction in which the offering or sale is not permitted.

About Kraken

Founded in 2011, Kraken is one of the world's longest-standing and most secure crypto platforms globally. Kraken clients trade more than 500 digital assets, traditional assets such as U.S. futures and U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs, and 6 different national currencies, including GBP, EUR, USD, CAD, CHF, and AUD. Trusted by millions of institutions, professional traders and consumers, Kraken is one of the fastest, most liquid and performant trading platforms available.

Kraken's suite of products and services includes the Kraken App, Kraken Pro, the Krak App, Kraken Institutional, Kraken's onchain offerings and the Ninja Trader retail trading platform. Across these offerings, clients can buy, sell, stake, earn rewards, send and receive assets, custody holdings, and access advanced trading, derivatives, and portfolio management tools.

Kraken has set the industry standard for transparency and client trust, and it was the first crypto platform to conduct Proof of Reserves. It complies with regulations and laws applicable to its business, while actively protecting client privacy and maintaining the highest security standards.

For more information about Kraken, please visit www.kraken.com.

About Backed

Founded in 2021, Backed is the first and leading company enabling compliant tokenized equities and ETFs, setting the industry benchmark through its pioneering xStocks product line. Backed was the first to introduce freely transferable, 1:1-collateralized real-world assets engineered for seamless composability across major blockchain ecosystems. As a trailblazer bridging traditional finance and decentralized markets, Backed continues to redefine on-chain capital markets with institutional-grade transparency, regulatory rigor, and uncompromising innovation.

For more information, visit https://backed.fi/.

About xStocks

xStocks is the next-generation framework for tokenized equities, developed through a partnership between Kraken and Backed. Fully collateralized and 1:1-backed by underlying equities and ETFs, xStocks brings publicly-listed companies and ETFs onto blockchain rails, giving global investors access to U.S. capital markets even when traditional exchanges are closed. Built for interoperability, xStocks enables the seamless transfer of real-world assets between centralized and decentralized environments, unlocking new utility across exchanges, wallets, and on-chain applications. Since launching in June 2025, xStocks has rapidly become the industry benchmark for real-world asset tokenization, powering billions in transaction volume and supporting a growing ecosystem of platforms building the future of tokenized markets.

For more information, visit https://xstocks.fi/.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251202666578/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact:

Lauren Post

press@kraken.com
Through this annual program, TraceLink champions global health equity, community resilience, and shared purpose

Summary

TraceLink announced the eight global nonprofit recipients of its 2025 corporate grant program, supporting organizations in the U.S., India, and Spain and providing volunteer opportunities for employees. Built on its mission to enhance health, safety, and the greater good by giving back, the program empowers nonprofits creating healthier, more equitable communities worldwide.

BOSTON, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- TraceLink, the largest end-to-end digital network platform for intelligent orchestration of the supply chain, has announced the recipients of its 2025 corporate grant program. Eight nonprofit organizations across the United States, India, and Spain were selected for their alignment with TraceLink's values of equitable access to care, community health, and sustainability.

For more than 15 years, TraceLink has worked to protect patients by ensuring that critical medicines reach them safely, securely, and on time. That same commitment extends beyond the supply chain and into the communities where TraceLink operates. Through the corporate grant program and community involvement initiatives, the company supports organizations working to improve the quality of life and build healthier, more resilient communities around the world.

"Every year, we're reminded that meaningful impact comes from partnership," said Shabbir Dahod, President and CEO of TraceLink. "These organizations are doing the hard, hands-on work to support families, expand access to resources for those in need, and strengthen resilience at the local level. Our role is to stand beside them, amplify their efforts, and help create the conditions for healthier communities to thrive."

TraceLink's 2025 Grant Recipients

U.S. Recipients

Boston Alliance of LGBTQ+ Youth (BAGLY) : A youth-led, adult-supported organization committed to social justice, BAGLY works to create, sustain, and advocate for programs, policies, and services for the LGBTQ+ youth community in Massachusetts. The grant will support wellness programs, inclusive clinical services, and peer-led mental health initiatives such as the Trans Youth Summit and Youth Pride.



"We're thrilled to be a recipient of funding through TraceLink to support BAGLY's Health and Wellness Program," said Grace Sterling Stowell, Executive Director, BAGLY. "BAGLY has been working with TraceLink for several years now, and we look forward to deepening our relationship through this opportunity. TraceLink's commitment to equity and community health aligns deeply with BAGLY's mission to ensure that every LGBTQ+ young person can lead healthy, authentic lives. With TraceLink's support, more LGBTQ+ youth in Massachusetts will have access to free, no-insurance-required mental health services and so much more. We're grateful for their partnership and belief in the power of community to make lasting change."





: A youth-led, adult-supported organization committed to social justice, BAGLY works to create, sustain, and advocate for programs, policies, and services for the LGBTQ+ youth community in Massachusetts. The grant will support wellness programs, inclusive clinical services, and peer-led mental health initiatives such as the Trans Youth Summit and Youth Pride. "We're thrilled to be a recipient of funding through TraceLink to support BAGLY's Health and Wellness Program," said Grace Sterling Stowell, Executive Director, BAGLY. "BAGLY has been working with TraceLink for several years now, and we look forward to deepening our relationship through this opportunity. TraceLink's commitment to equity and community health aligns deeply with BAGLY's mission to ensure that every LGBTQ+ young person can lead healthy, authentic lives. With TraceLink's support, more LGBTQ+ youth in Massachusetts will have access to free, no-insurance-required mental health services and so much more. We're grateful for their partnership and belief in the power of community to make lasting change." Immigrant and Refugee Health Center (IRHC) at Boston Medical Center (BMC) : The Immigrant and Refugee Health Center works to eliminate immigration-related barriers to healthcare by integrating BMC's services into a centralized medical home model, ensuring that migration status does not affect access to care. The grant will help expand trauma-informed care and strengthen case management and patient navigation programs.



"Boston Medical Center wishes to thank TraceLink for selecting our hospital as a recipient of your 2025 Corporate Grant opportunity," said Dr. Sarah Kimball, Director, Immigrant & Refugee Health Center at BMC. "Your generous gift helps protect the critical roles and services that keep immigrant and refugee families connected to care, allowing our team to meet evolving needs without fear of disruption."





: The Immigrant and Refugee Health Center works to eliminate immigration-related barriers to healthcare by integrating BMC's services into a centralized medical home model, ensuring that migration status does not affect access to care. The grant will help expand trauma-informed care and strengthen case management and patient navigation programs. "Boston Medical Center wishes to thank TraceLink for selecting our hospital as a recipient of your 2025 Corporate Grant opportunity," said Dr. Sarah Kimball, Director, Immigrant & Refugee Health Center at BMC. "Your generous gift helps protect the critical roles and services that keep immigrant and refugee families connected to care, allowing our team to meet evolving needs without fear of disruption." Village Food Hub : The mission of Village Food Hub is to strengthen and increase equity in the Lower Merrimack Valley's food system by increasing access to healthy, nutritious food, reducing food waste, and promoting environmental sustainability. The grant will support logistics operations and staff resources to recover and distribute nutritious food to families in need, expanding local access to healthy meals.



"Village Food Hub is thankful to be a grant recipient of TraceLink, especially during this unprecedented time of need," said Shari McLeod, Executive Director, Village Food Hub. "Village Food Hub aims to increase the number of people we serve in order to provide relief from food insecurity, and support from the greater community is vital to our work. This grant from TraceLink will propel us towards meeting this goal. We are so appreciative of our partnership."

India Recipients

Muskaan Foundation for Child Protection : Muskaan is dedicated to preventing child sexual abuse and supporting survivors through education, counseling, and reintegration services. The grant will fund a new social worker position to provide post-release follow-up and educational support for children from the Boys Observation Home in Pune.



"This grant will help us continue empowering children in conflict with the law to build courage, confidence, and emotional resilience through individualized counseling, life skills education, and creative therapies," said Shubhada Ranadive, Founder Director, Muskaan Foundation for Child Protection. "With TraceLink's support, we can expand our holistic, family-centered approach to help more children heal, grow, and reintegrate into society with hope and strength."





: Muskaan is dedicated to preventing child sexual abuse and supporting survivors through education, counseling, and reintegration services. The grant will fund a new social worker position to provide post-release follow-up and educational support for children from the Boys Observation Home in Pune. "This grant will help us continue empowering children in conflict with the law to build courage, confidence, and emotional resilience through individualized counseling, life skills education, and creative therapies," said Shubhada Ranadive, Founder Director, Muskaan Foundation for Child Protection. "With TraceLink's support, we can expand our holistic, family-centered approach to help more children heal, grow, and reintegrate into society with hope and strength." Niwant Andh Mukta Vikasalay : The mission of Niwant Andh Mukta Vikasalay is to empower visually challenged students by providing holistic development, enabling them to pursue higher education, gain independence, and contribute to society. The grant will fund the development of a multilingual typing tutor and cover system maintenance costs for Niwants' digital learning ecosystem.



"We are very excited that TraceLink believes in the revolution that Niwant Andh Mukta Vikasalay is creating in the lives of visually impaired individuals in India," said Uma Badve, Trustee, Niwant Andh Mukta Vikasalay. "Niwant has been working towards the holistic development of blind students pursuing higher education for the past 30 years, and we are very happy to receive the support of TraceLink to further our work. With this support, we will be able to take Swalekhan Typing Tutor, India's only accessible multilingual typing tutor, created by Niwant Andh Mukta Vikasalay, to many more blind students across the country, making them truly independent."





: The mission of Niwant Andh Mukta Vikasalay is to empower visually challenged students by providing holistic development, enabling them to pursue higher education, gain independence, and contribute to society. The grant will fund the development of a multilingual typing tutor and cover system maintenance costs for Niwants' digital learning ecosystem. "We are very excited that TraceLink believes in the revolution that Niwant Andh Mukta Vikasalay is creating in the lives of visually impaired individuals in India," said Uma Badve, Trustee, Niwant Andh Mukta Vikasalay. "Niwant has been working towards the holistic development of blind students pursuing higher education for the past 30 years, and we are very happy to receive the support of TraceLink to further our work. With this support, we will be able to take Swalekhan Typing Tutor, India's only accessible multilingual typing tutor, created by Niwant Andh Mukta Vikasalay, to many more blind students across the country, making them truly independent." Vasuandhara Abhiyan, Baner : Vasudhara Abhiyan, Baner, promotes tree planting, soil and water conservation, and rainwater harvesting to boost urban biodiversity and inspire citizens, schools, and businesses to build a greener future. The grant will fund the installation of a new irrigation pipeline to sustain 40,000+ native trees planted through community volunteer efforts on Baner-Pashan Hill.



"Since 2006, Vasundhara Abhiyan has transformed Baner Hill in Pune from barren land into a thriving green ecosystem, home to more than 50,000 native trees and 55 bird species," said Amit Pitre, Board Member, Vasundhara Abhiyan, Baner. "The grant will fund installation of an irrigation pipeline to sustain 40,000+ trees and advance the organization's reforestation and community education efforts."

Spain Recipients

Provincia San Juan de Dios Espana : Provincia San Juan de Dios Espana is dedicated to healing, caring for, and supporting vulnerable populations such as hospitalized children, individuals with mental illness or disabilities, the homeless, migrants, and refugees. The grant will help launch a dog-assisted therapy program near Barcelona to support patients' emotional and social well-being.



"Many thanks to TraceLink for helping us fund dog-assisted therapy for people with mental health disorders," said Maite Prieto, Strategic Alliances, Provincia San Juan de Dios Espana. "The bond that patients create with dogs helps maintain high levels of motivation and involvement with the therapeutic process, making their recovery much faster."





: Provincia San Juan de Dios Espana is dedicated to healing, caring for, and supporting vulnerable populations such as hospitalized children, individuals with mental illness or disabilities, the homeless, migrants, and refugees. The grant will help launch a dog-assisted therapy program near Barcelona to support patients' emotional and social well-being. "Many thanks to TraceLink for helping us fund dog-assisted therapy for people with mental health disorders," said Maite Prieto, Strategic Alliances, Provincia San Juan de Dios Espana. "The bond that patients create with dogs helps maintain high levels of motivation and involvement with the therapeutic process, making their recovery much faster." Sonar Despiertos : Sonar Despiertos supports children in foster homes and residential centers who have been separated from their families. Funding will enable summer camps, educational enrichment, and social inclusion programs designed to promote confidence, stability, and equal opportunity.



"Our goal is to ensure every child living in a care center has the same opportunities as any other child," said Chantal Gomez, Director of Fundraising, Sonar Despiertos. "We're so grateful for this support-it helps make that vision a reality."

Each year, TraceLink's grant program follows a thorough review and selection process to identify and support verified, financially responsible nonprofit organizations creating meaningful impact. These partnerships also offer opportunities for TraceLink employees to volunteer directly, strengthen community connections, and make a difference where they live and work.

Learn more about TraceLink's Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives .

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is TraceLink's corporate grant program?

A: TraceLink's corporate grant program is an annual initiative that provides funding to nonprofit organizations making measurable impact within their communities.

Q: How were the 2025 recipients selected?

A: Organizations were evaluated through a review process based on mission alignment and opportunities for TraceLink employees to volunteer directly.

Q: How many nonprofits received grants in 2025 and where are they located?

A: Eight nonprofit organizations were selected-three in the U.S., three in India, and two in Spain.

Q: Why does TraceLink invest in these community programs?

A: The company's mission to protect patients and strengthen supply chains extends to supporting healthier, more equitable communities where its employees live and work.

About TraceLink

TraceLink Inc. is the largest end-to-end intelligent supply chain platform for life sciences and healthcare, enabling end-to-end orchestration by linking more than 291,000 healthcare and life sciences entities through its Business-to-Network Integrate-Once network. Leading companies trust TraceLink to deliver complete global digitalization, visibility, and traceability of healthcare products, ensuring that every patient receives the medicines they rely on, safely, securely, and on time.

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ISS A/S (ISS Group) extends our deepest condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the Wang Fuk Court fires, and our heartfelt sympathies to the Hong Kong community and to all who were injured or otherwise affected by this terrible tragedy.

Copenhagen , Dec. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ISS EastPoint Properties Limited's (ISS EPPL) role at Wang Fuk Court

ISS EPPL is contracted by the Incorporated Owners (owners' association) of Wang Fuk Court. ISS EPPL provides administrative support and some on-site services for the estate and arranges for specialist services to be carried out by third parties. These third parties are selected and appointed by the owners, not by ISS EPPL.

ISS EPPL did not conduct the installation, maintenance and inspection of fire safety equipment at Wang Fuk Court. In Hong Kong, by law, these services must be undertaken by a licensed registered contractor. As the service agent ISS EPPL arranged for these services to be completed by the contractor in compliance with the relevant laws and regulations.

With regards to the major renovation work, ISS EPPL was not involved in the appointment of the construction contractor and was not responsible for the oversight of the renovation; that responsibility rests with the appointed professional consultant and the registered construction contractor.

Incident and Inquiry

ISS EPPL's on-site teams supported the emergency response during the incident by facilitating assistance and liaising with authorities. All facts regarding the cause of the fire are subject to the ongoing investigation being conducted by the local authorities. ISS EPPL is cooperating fully with the authorities and providing access to relevant information. This remains our immediate priority along with support for residents.

For media enquiries:

press@group.issworld.com

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ir@group.issworld.com

For media enquiries: press@group.issworld.com For investor enquiries: ir@group.issworld.com
Collaboration would add high-volume, cost-optimized, worldwide GaN manufacturing for faster market deployment of energy-efficient power devices

Summary:

onsemi announced it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Innoscience to explore expanding production of gallium nitride (GaN) power devices using Innoscience's proven 200mm GaN-on-silicon process. The collaboration would combine onsemi's system integration, drivers, and packaging expertise with Innoscience's GaN wafers and high-volume manufacturing leadership in an effort to bring cost-effective, energy-efficient solutions to market faster and accelerate GaN adoption.

News Highlights:

Collaboration would expand onsemi's low and medium-voltage GaN power portfolio and scale GaN manufacturing worldwide for faster market availability and greater adoption.

The non-binding MOU outlines a strategic partnership, including wafer procurement and extended collaboration, leveraging onsemi's GaN power solutions and Innoscience's leading wafer manufacturing to target the projected $2.9 billion total addressable market 1 by 2030 for GaN power devices, with the potential value in the hundreds of million dollars for both companies.

by 2030 for GaN power devices, with the potential value in the hundreds of million dollars for both companies. The arrangement would assist onsemi and Innoscience in their efforts to deliver significant customer value, specifically by combining onsemi's expertise in packaging, drivers, and systems integration with Innoscience's proven wafer manufacturing capabilities.

The two companies' technologies together are expected to enable smaller, more efficient GaN solutions for industrial, automotive, telecom infrastructure, consumer, and AI data center markets.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., and SUZHOU, China, Dec. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- onsemi and Innoscience today announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to evaluate opportunities to accelerate deployment of GaN power devices, starting with 40-200V, and significantly broaden customer adoption. The collaboration outlined in the MoU brings together onsemi's leadership in integrated systems and packaging with Innoscience's proven GaN technology and high-volume manufacturing to enable delivery of cost-effective, highly efficient GaN products for industrial, automotive, telecom infrastructure, consumer and AI data center markets.

GaN semiconductor devices offer higher switching speeds, smaller form factors, and lower energy losses to deliver more power in less space. Until now, limited offerings and manufacturing capacity have slowed GaN adoption in the low and medium-voltage segment. Through this collaboration, onsemi and Innoscience will seek to overcome these barriers to quickly bring high-volume, worldwide deployment of optimized GaN solutions for mainstream markets:

Industrial : motor drives for robotics, solar microinverters, and optimizers

: motor drives for robotics, solar microinverters, and optimizers Automotive : DC-DC converters, synchronous rectification

: DC-DC converters, synchronous rectification Telecom Infrastructure: DC-DC and point-of-load converters

DC-DC and point-of-load converters Consumer and Mass Market : power supplies, adaptors, DC-DC converters, motor drives, audio, light e-mobility, power tools, robotics

: power supplies, adaptors, DC-DC converters, motor drives, audio, light e-mobility, power tools, robotics AI Data Center: intermediate bus converters, DC-DC converters, battery backup units



For onsemi customers, the collaboration with Innoscience would enable:

Faster Time to Market : Rapid prototyping, accelerated design-in, and swift entry into mainstream markets with onsemi's system expertise and Innoscience's proven GaN technology and manufacturing

: Rapid prototyping, accelerated design-in, and swift entry into mainstream markets with onsemi's system expertise and Innoscience's proven GaN technology and manufacturing Scalable Manufacturing : True mass-market scalability to handle large-volume ramps, leveraging onsemi's global integration and packaging experience and Innoscience's established GaN capacity

: True mass-market scalability to handle large-volume ramps, leveraging onsemi's global integration and packaging experience and Innoscience's established GaN capacity Lower System Cost: Optimized package, fewer components and simplified thermal management deliver more compact designs and lower total system cost



"As power demands rise across every sector, GaN offers higher efficiency, smaller size, and lower energy losses compared to other materials. Until now, in the low and medium voltage segments, cost and supply constraints have limited its widespread adoption. Through a collaboration with Innoscience, we expect to be able to access the industry's largest GaN production footprint and quickly scale our GaN offerings for customers worldwide to enable broader adoption in mainstream power applications." - Antoine Jalabert, Vice President of Corporate Strategy, onsemi

"GaN technology is essential to improving electronics, creating smaller, more efficient power systems, saving electric power, and reducing CO2 emissions. Innoscience is excited to explore a strategic collaboration opportunity with onsemi, to expand and accelerate the adoption of GaN power worldwide, and to create a system integration platform with onsemi's broad portfolio." - Yi Sun, Senior Vice President, Product & Engineering

A Complete Intelligent Power Portfolio

GaN is projected to capture an estimated $2.9 billion, or 11% share, of the global power semiconductor market by 2030, with a projected compound annual growth rate from 2024-2030 of 42%1. This collaboration with Innoscience would build on onsemi's comprehensive intelligent power portfolio, which now spans silicon, silicon carbide (SiC), and GaN technologies. Together, these technologies enable onsemi to deliver the optimal power system for application across AI data center, automotive, industrial, and consumer. This complete low and medium voltage portfolio strengthens onsemi's position as a leading provider of fully integrated power systems to help customers maximize performance and energy efficiency as global electrification and AI-energy demand continues to surge.

Timing and Availability

onsemi expects to begin sampling in the first half of 2026.

1 Source: Yole Power GaN 2025

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

This press release includes "forward-looking statements," as that term is defined in Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included or incorporated in this press release could be deemed forward-looking statements, particularly statements about the state and potential impacts of any collaboration between onsemi and Innoscience. Forward-looking statements are often characterized by the use of words such as "believes," "estimates," "expects," "projects," "may," "will," "intends," "plans," "anticipates," "targets," "should," "would" or similar expressions or by discussions of strategy, plans, expectations, projections or intentions. All forward-looking statements in this document are made based on onsemi's current expectations, forecasts, estimates and assumptions and involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause results or events to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. Certain factors that could affect onsemi's future results or events are described under Part I, Item 1A "Risk Factors" in the 2024 Annual Report on Form 10-K that onsemi filed with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission ("SEC") on February 10, 2025 (the "2024 Form 10-K") and from time to time onsemi's other SEC reports. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. onsemi assumes no obligation to update such information, which speaks only as of the date made, except as may be required by law. Investing in onsemi's securities involves a high degree of risk and uncertainty, and you should carefully consider the trends, risks and uncertainties described in this document, the 2024 Form 10-K and other reports filed with or furnished to the SEC by onsemi before making any investment decision with respect to onsemi's securities. If any of these trends, risks or uncertainties actually occurs or continues, onsemi's business, financial condition or operating results could be materially adversely affected, the trading prices of onsemi's securities could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment. All forward-looking statements attributable to onsemi or persons acting on onsemi's behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

About onsemi

onsemi.

onsemi and the onsemi logo are trademarks of Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC. All other brand and product names appearing in this document are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective holders. Although the Company references its website in this news release, information on the website is not to be incorporated herein.

About Innoscience

Innoscience.

Contact:

onsemi

Michael Mullaney

michael.mullaney@onsemi.com

+1 838-289-7314
Offering immersive safari adventures in Zambia and Botswana, these properties mark a natural extension of Viceroy's growing global footprint.

Viceroy Hotels announces its expansion into Africa with the introduction of three luxury safari lodges across Zambia and Botswana. This expansion represents a defining step in the brand's evolution toward immersive, transformative travel experiences that connect guests to nature, culture, and adventure in a way only Viceroy can deliver.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251201895654/en/

The new lodges Thorntree River Lodge in Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park, Zambia; Lolebezi in Lower Zambezi National Park, Zambia; and Atzaro Okavango Camp in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, each offer elevated accommodations and carefully curated experiences unique to their landscapes. These lodges are managed by leading luxury safari operator, African Bush Camps. Thoughtful, contemporary vernacular design blends seamlessly within the natural surroundings, creating retreats where luxury meets the raw beauty of Africa.

Located on the banks of Zambia's Zambezi River in Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park, Thorntree River Lodge offers a front-row seat to the dramatic beauty of Victoria Falls. Guests can track rhinos on foot, embark on river cruises at sunrise or sunset, or explore the falls with expert guides. Elegant suites with private plunge pools, a spa, swimming pool, and library provide a sophisticated retreat, balancing thrilling adventure with tranquil luxury.

In Zambia's Lower Zambezi region, Lolebezi immerses travelers in five hectares of protected riverfront. Walking safaris, canoeing expeditions, and boat cruises reveal elephants, leopards, and abundant birdlife, while air-conditioned suites with private plunge pools, an open-air cinema, and a yoga deck offer moments of serenity. The property is designed for both intimate escapes and family adventures, offering contemporary comfort and the excitement of the wild.

Atzaro Okavango Camp, in Botswana's UNESCO World Heritage-listed Okavango Delta, places guests at the heart of one of Africa's most biodiverse landscapes. Walking safaris, mokoro (a traditional Botswana-style dug-out canoe) and morning, afternoon, and night game drives allow for unrivalled encounters with delta wildlife. Suites with private plunge pools, an elevated viewing deck, swimming pool, wellness spa, and yoga deck create a luxurious sanctuary amid the untamed bush.

These lodges bring Viceroy's signature experiential hospitality to Africa's beating heart, offering travelers immersive encounters with authentic culture, wildlife and landscapes, curated for the modern traveler.

"Expanding into Africa is a defining milestone in Viceroy's continued global growth," says Arash Azarbarzin, CEO of Viceroy Hotels Residences. "Like all Viceroy Hotels, each African lodge is a gateway that connects you to the essence of the destination, its people, landscape, and culture. We're inviting travelers to discover Africa in way that truly moves them, where every moment offers depth, beauty, and a true sense of wonder."

ABOUT THORNTREE RIVER LODGE, A VICEROY RESORT

Perched on the banks of the Zambezi River, just minutes from Victoria Falls, Thorntree River Lodge offers an unparalleled combination of adventure and luxury. The lodge features eight luxury suites and two-family suites, each with private plunge pools, indoor and outdoor bathrooms, and riverfront views. Guests can enjoy rhino tracking on foot, sunrise and sunset river cruises, guided visits to Victoria Falls, canoeing safaris, game drives, and cultural excursions. On-site amenities include a spa, swimming pool, riverside lounge, library, and gift shop, providing a sophisticated retreat amid Africa's wild landscapes.

ABOUT LOLEBEZI, A VICEROY RESORT

Set across five hectares of protected riverfront, Lolebezi offers an intimate luxury experience in the heart of the Lower Zambezi. The lodge comprises four luxury suites, one family suite, and one exclusive-use villa, all with private plunge pools and air-conditioning. Guests can enjoy walking safaris, canoeing and boat excursions, game drives, and seasonal birding, encountering elephants, leopards, and abundant wildlife. On-site amenities include a swimming pool, spa, yoga deck, open-air cinema, boma, and gift shop, balancing contemporary comfort with immersive African adventure.

ABOUT ATZARO OKAVANGO CAMP, A VICEROY RESORT

Located in the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Okavango Delta, Atzaro Okavango Camp blends eco-conscious design with elevated luxury. The camp features eight luxury suites, one family suite, and one exclusive-use villa, each with private plunge pools, air-conditioning, and river or delta views. Guests can experience walking safaris, mokoro, and day-to-night game drives, observing elephants, lions, leopards, giraffes, and more. On-site facilities include a wellness spa, swimming pool, yoga deck, elevated viewing deck, central lounge with dining and bar, boma, and gift shop-creating a sanctuary of comfort amid the wilds of the Delta.

ABOUT AFRICAN BUSH CAMPS

Founded by Zimbabwean guide Beks Ndlovu in 2006, African Bush Camps is a leading luxury safari operator dedicated to authentic, conservation-focused travel. Their Experiences offer unique, bespoke safaris that celebrate Africa's diverse landscapes, wildlife, and communities. African Bush Camps Foundation, their non-profit working alongside African Bush Camps since 2006, leads a range of sustainable development initiatives in the areas surrounding our Experiences. These initiatives support local communities, conserve wildlife, and celebrate the diverse landscapes, cultures, and people that make Africa so extraordinary.

ABOUT VICEROY HOTELS RESIDENCES:

With hotels and residences in Algarve (Portugal), Los Cabos (Mexico), Snowmass (Colorado), and St. Lucia (West Indies), and hotels in Riviera Maya (Mexico), Kopaonik (Serbia), Santa Monica (California), Chicago (Illinois), and Washington, D.C. Viceroy offers a fresh take on hospitality, centered on the richness of experiences and cultural connection. Viceroy is committed to creating unique and immersive experiences that allow guests to craft unforgettable narratives during their travels. Viceroy is a member of the Global Hotel Alliance (GHA) DISCOVERY, aunique loyalty program offering exclusive benefits and experiences to its members at over 550 hotels around the world. Learn more at www.viceroy.com, facebook.com/viceroyhotelgroup, and @viceroyhotels.

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Contacts:

MEDIA CONTACTS:

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G&A's Sustainability Highlights ( 11.15.2025 )

NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / In the absence of U.S. federal climate disclosure rules, states are stepping up more than ever to deal with the climate crisis. California is a prime example, with the potential to play a particularly important role, and it showed up with muscles flexed (com forca) at the year's biggest global climate event - the annual COP meeting.

The 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference - known as COP 30 - is convening in Belem, Brazil from November 10-21. Tens of thousands of political officials and negotiators, scientists, advocates, and activists attend each COP meeting in person, and millions more look on from around the world.

But this year, not a single official from the U.S. administration - the world's biggest carbon emitter historically - is attending. As California Governor Gavin Newsom and his delegation of state leaders draw the spotlight in Belem, we are reminded of California's economic power. The state's economy is the fourth-largest in the world, following just three countries (the U.S., China, and Germany), and far larger than Texas or New York.

In Brazil, Newsom announced that his state is "going to compete" in the world economy by leaning into climate-smart policies and investments, signaling there are economic and political winnings to be reaped from climate leadership. Any other direction is "dumb," he said, citing President Donald Trump's efforts to encourage other countries to increase investment in fossil fuels. This "is about our economic competitiveness, period, full stop," Newsom has said.

Described by Bloomberg News as sweeping into COP 30 "with all the fanfare of a head of state," Newsom has "effectively become the highest-ranking US emissary" in Belem. His presence has underscored the "growing influence of state-level leadership" for climate action on the world stage, Reuters wrote. Asked whether California is standing in for the U.S., Newsom said "absolutely," per the LA Times.

It is worth watching whether other U.S. states - and even cities - can build on CA's momentum and position themselves as added counterweight to the U.S. federal administration's absence. Wisconsin's and New Mexico's governors were also in attendance at COP 30; the three states are members of the U.S. Climate Alliance, a coalition of bipartisan state leaders.

At the same time, Newsom is widely discussed as a leading candidate for the Democrats' presidential ticket in 2028. It is from this elevated platform that he demands attention for climate action as key to the U.S.' economic success and physical security.

We will see if a climate-forward strategy returns political strength to Newsom. If so, it may embolden the Democratic Party to make climate change a bigger issue in their strategy over the next several years.

Linking climate action with affordability is beginning to emerge as a Democratic talking point. Newsom has said Democrats should consider climate change a "cost of living issue," the New York Times reported. At least one U.S. city leader is sending the same message: the incoming mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, reportedly considers climate and quality of life "in fact, one and the same" concern.

If the Brazil trip boosts Newsom's global profile and his favorability at home, it could point to climate leadership as a political strength as the country moves forward.

This is just the introduction of G&A's Sustainability Highlights newsletter this week. Click here to view the full issue

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Governance & Accountability Institute on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: Governance & Accountability Institute

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/governance-accountability-institute-inc

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: Governance & Accountability Institute

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/cop-meetings-welcome-ca-governor-newsom-and-his-message-1113739
Retirement-focused team launches RIA with assets remaining under custody with Wells Fargo Clearing Services

MISSION VIEJO, CA / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / The team behind Ticino Wealth has formally launched as a Registered Investment Adviser (RIA) firm, with a continued focus on helping clients plan for and manage their retirement. Based in Mission Viejo, California, the firm's transition reflects a structural change, not a shift in philosophy or service.

The advisory team is led by Michael Masciorini, a veteran advisor with more than 35 years of experience helping clients pursue their financial goals. He has been named to the Forbes Best-In-State Wealth Advisors1 list for six consecutive years. He is joined by his son and fellow adviser, Jordan Masciorini, who became part of the practice in 2018. Both serve as financial advisers and are Certified Retirement Counselors, working primarily with individuals preparing for or currently living in retirement.

As fiduciaries, Michael and Jordan manage client portfolios with a high level of care and customization - building investment strategies tailored to each client's needs, goals, and risk tolerance.

The full team also includes Ivanna Berrio, who has been with the Masciorini team since 2020 and will serve as Operations Manager at Ticino Wealth. Stephanie Djuran, a recent graduate of California State University, Fullerton, has joined as Client Associate. For clients, the transition was designed to be seamless. All accounts remain with Wells Fargo Clearing Services (operating under the trade name First Clearing2), allowing clients to retain their account numbers, login credentials, and access to the Wells Fargo app and website.

"This move was about creating the right structure for the future without disrupting what works," said Michael Masciorini. "Our clients didn't have to open new accounts or learn new systems. Their online access didn't change. And on our end, we had full support from both local and regional Wells Fargo Advisors leadership throughout the process. That made a big difference."

While client-facing access remained consistent, the team did make improvements to its internal operations and advisor platform. Ticino Wealth collaborated with TradePMR, an introducing broker-dealer, to support day-to-day operations. The relationship was made possible through an existing strategic relationship between TradePMR and First Clearing, which helped facilitate a smoother setup and integration.

"TradePMR brings us a much stronger set of tools and resources behind the scenes," Masciorini added. "From reporting and planning to client communication and efficiency - it's a big upgrade. But none of that came at the expense of client familiarity, which was a key objective from the beginning."

The firm's name, Ticino Wealth, is a reference to the Ticino region of Switzerland, specifically Lavertezzo, a small town in the southern canton where the Masciorini family traces its roots. While the origin of the name is personal, it also shaped the visual identity of the firm. The entire brand including the logo, color palette, and website photography was built around the imagery, design, and natural elements of Lavertezzo.

"Our goal was to create a firm with a brand that reflects our values - personal service, long-term perspective, and commitment to clients," said Masciorini. "We didn't just want to name a firm. We wanted to build one that clients and future generations of advisors could be proud of."

Ticino Wealth is now operating out of its new office in Mission Viejo. The firm's website, www.ticinowealth.com, includes team bios, firm information, and a visual showcase of the region that inspired its name.

1The Forbes ranking of Best-In-State Wealth Advisors, developed by SHOOK Research, was awarded to Michael Masciorini in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 for each previous respective calendar year during the period of 1/1/2019 - 12/31/24.

Being a Forbes Best-In-State Wealth Advisor does not mean Michael Masciorini is ranked the top advisor in the state. The ranking includes many advisors in the state that have been awarded the "best-in-state" distinction.

The ranking is based on an algorithm of qualitative criteria, mostly gained through telephone and in-person due diligence interviews, and quantitative data. Those advisors that are considered have a minimum of seven years of experience, and the algorithm weighs factors like revenue trends, assets under management, compliance records, industry experience and those that encompass best practices in their practices and approach to working with clients. Portfolio performance is not a criterion due to varying client objectives and lack of audited data. Rankings are based on the opinions of SHOOK Research, LLC and are not indicative of future performance or representative of any one client's experience; the firm's research and rankings provide opinions for how to choose the right financial advisor. Investors must carefully choose the right advisor for their own situation and perform their own due diligence. Ratings should not be considered an endorsement of the adviser by any client.

Additional information on the ranking methodology can be found at forbes.com and SHOOKresearch.com

About Ticino Wealth

Ticino Wealth helps individuals and families navigate the transition from work to retirement with confidence and clarity. Specializing in financial planning and wealth management for those already retired or nearing retirement, Ticino Wealth provides personalized guidance through every stage of retirement.

Ticino Wealth, TradePMR and First Clearing are unaffiliated companies.

About Certified Retirement Counselor

Candidates for the Certified Retirement Counselor (CRC) designation must meet established eligibility requirements and pass a comprehensive examination. To maintain the CRC, certificants are required to submit 15 hours of professional continuing education credits annually and adhere to high ethical standards. The CRC designation is independently accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA).

About TradePMR

For more than two decades, TradePMR has worked with growth-minded independent registered investment advisors (RIAs), providing innovative technology tools and support designed to transform their businesses. The brokerage and custodian services provider (Member FINRA/SIPC), based in Clearwater, Fla., works to streamline investment advisors' operations through comprehensive custodial, operational, and trading support. For more information, visit www.TradePMR.com.

TradePMR is a wholly owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc.

About First Clearing

2First Clearing is a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC, Member SIPC, a registered broker-dealer and non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company. First Clearing provides correspondent services to broker-dealers and registered investment advisors and does not provide services to the general public. Learn more at: www.firstclearing.com.

TradePMR and First Clearing are not affiliated.

Jordan Masciorini

jordan@ticinowealth.com

SOURCE: Ticino Wealth

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/banking-and-financial-services/ticino-wealth-announces-launch-as-ria-1113423
EDMONTON, AB / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / Agereh Technologies Inc. ("Agereh" or the "Company") (TSXV:AUTO)(OTCQB:CRBAF) is pleased to announce the appointment of Rosemin (Rosy) Amlani as a member of the Board of Directors, effective immediately. The Company also announces that it has entered into marketing agreements with Think Ink Marketing Data & Email Services to provide corporate awareness and digital marketing services as well as Guerilla Capital, providing the Company with investor outreach, community building and capital markets consulting and advisory services.

Rosy Amlani

Rosy brings more than 20 years of experience in government commercialization, economic development, and private-sector accounting, with a proven track record of supporting innovation-driven organizations across Alberta and Western Canada.

During her tenure in a management role with the Government of Canada, Rosy was responsible for analyzing business cases for innovation funding, overseeing targeted support through Western Economic Diversification, and developing commercialization organizations and initiatives. She supported more than $200 million in Alberta-focused economic diversification investments, directly contributing to growth across multiple strategic sectors.

In 2005, Rosy played an active role in the creation of ACAMP, where she was instrumental in strengthening relationships with industry and government. Her efforts helped secure critical grant funding and development resources for ACAMP and its clients, supporting commercialization and revenue growth for Alberta technology companies.

Rosy is a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) and has dedicated her career to building impactful partnerships across the innovation community. Her deep experience and network will be invaluable as the Company advances its strategic objectives.

Marketing and Advertising Agreements

Think Ink Marketing Data and Email Services Inc. ("Think Ink"), of Santa Ana, California has been engaged by the Company. Think Ink will leverage its expertise in native and display advertising, video content distribution, social media coverage, and targeted email marketing to enhance the Company's digital presence and expand market awareness. The Company has budgeted up to USD $150,000 (the "Compensation") for the 6 month agreement. The Compensation is payable in monthly installments of a minimum of USD $15,000 per month following the date of signing the agreement. Either party may terminate the agreement with thirty (30) days' written notice. Compensation to Think Ink does not include any securities of the Company, and Think Ink does not hold any interest, directly or indirectly, in the Company. Think Ink is at arm's length to the Company and has no relationship with the Company outside of this engagement.

2855322 Ontario Inc., operating as Guerilla Capital ("Guerilla"), of Dundas, Ontario, has been engaged by the Company. Guerilla will provide the Company with investor outreach, community building and capital markets consulting and advisory services. The Company has budgeted up to CAD $90,000 (the "Compensation") for the 6 month agreement. The Compensation is payable in equal monthly installments of CAD $15,000 per month following the date of signing the agreement. The Company may terminate the agreement with two (2) weeks days' written notice. Compensation to Guerilla does not include any securities of the Company, and Guerilla does not hold any interest, directly or indirectly, in the Company. Guerilla is at arm's length to the Company and has no relationship with the Company outside of this engagement.

About Agereh Technologies Inc.

Agereh is a Canadian-based AI technology company whose platforms target advanced technology solutions for the transportation industry. The first application developed is harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence to accurately predict the best financing scenario for consumers, all while keeping the consumer anonymous. Upcoming products will continue to deliver advanced technology solutions that address critical challenges in the transportation industry.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF Agereh Technologies INC.

Ken Brizel, CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For further information please contact:

Ken Brizel

CEO

info@agereh.com

Website: www.agereh.com

Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Information:

This news release contains forward-looking statements including but not limited to statements regarding the Company's business, assets or investments, as well other statements that are not historical facts. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not occur, which may cause actual performance and results in future periods to differ materially from any estimates or projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These assumptions, risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the state of the economy in general and capital markets in particular, investor interest in the business and prospects of the Company.

The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities law. Additionally, the Company undertakes no obligation to comment on the expectations of, or statements made, by third parties in respect of the matters discussed above.

SOURCE: Agereh Technologies Inc.

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/computers-technology-and-internet/agereh-technologies-announces-board-appointment-and-engages-think-1113634


EQS Newswire / 02/12/2025 / 17:15 CET/CEST

HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach Newswire - 2 December 2025 - The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government is going all out to support victims and investigate the cause of a massive fire that engulfed seven out of eight high-rise residential blocks at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, Hong Kong, on November 26.



The tragedy prompted an outpouring of support from the public and urgent actions from the HKSAR Government to provide all-round assistance to the victims while launching a thorough investigation into the cause of the blaze.



Government support across multiple areas



John Lee, Chief Executive of the HKSAR, emphasised that the Government attaches high importance to the well-being of affected residents, focusing not only on immediate relief aid but also their various long-term living needs.



As a top priority, the Government immediately started providing support across multiple areas, including financial aid, accommodation, medical assistance, and counselling.



Regarding financial support, the Government has been offering an emergency cash subsidy of HK$10,000 (US$1,282) per affected household, with more than 1,900 households registering for the subsidy.



Moreover, the Support Fund for Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po has been set up with an initial HK$300 million (US$38 million) injection from the Government. The fund has so far raised a total of HK$2.3 billion (US$294 million), including HK$2 billion (US$256 million) from donations. The fund will be used to assist the residents in rebuilding their homes and providing long-term and sustained support, including families of each deceased victim receiving HK$200,000 (US$25,641) as a token of solidarity as well as HK$50,000 (US$6,410) to cover funeral costs.



As for foreign domestic helpers who lost their life in the incident, the next of kin of each deceased helper will receive roughly HK$800,000 (US$102,564) from the Government, including a one-off financial assistance of HK$250,000 (US$32,051) and the statutory compensation of over HK$500,000 (US$64,102).



The Government will also provide four special subsidies, namely the injury grant (HK$50,000 to HK$100,000, i.e. US$6,410 to US$12,820), the student grant (HK$20,000, i.e. US$2,564), the subsidy for workers (HK$20,000, i.e. US$2,564) and the subsidy for foreign domestic helpers (HK$20,000, i.e. US$2,564).



So far, more than 1,000 residents have been accommodated in youth hostels/camps or hotel rooms and another 1,600 residents have moved into transitional housing units. Furthermore, two shelters remain in operation for residents in need.



HKSAR's Chief Executive John Lee (third left) visits affected residents being accommodated in transitional housing

Criminal and fire investigations



Initial investigations have raised serious concerns in a number of areas with more than a dozen individuals from various construction and engineering consultancy companies arrested on suspicion of manslaughter in connection with the tragedy.



Various building materials, including scaffolding netting, foam boards and canvas, have been seized from the scene for further testing and investigation. The Police and the Independent Commission Against Corruption have established a joint task force to conduct a comprehensive criminal investigation.



Independent committee to conduct review



Mr Lee has also announced the establishment of an independent committee, headed by a judge, to conduct a comprehensive and in-depth review.



"I call for a thorough investigation and serious reform. We'll overcome the obstacles of vested interests, pursue accountability, regardless of who he or she is. We must uncover the truth, ensure that justice is served, let the deceased rest in peace and provide comfort to the living.



"While criminal and fire investigations are proceeding continuously, I will establish an independent committee to conduct a comprehensive and in-depth review to reform the building works system and prevent similar tragedies from occurring in the future. To ensure the committee's independence and credibility, I will invite a judge to lead its work. I shall liaise with him to define its detailed terms of reference, and at the same time, I will explore ways to assist in supporting the committee's operational efficiency such that the Government can provide more detailed information or carry out some work on its direction so as to enable it to complete its task efficiently and submit a report early to the Chief Executive with recommendations to assist the Government to make the reform," Mr Lee said on December 2.



Meanwhile, the Chief Executive announced that the upcoming Legislative Council General Election would go ahead as planned on December 7.



"Only by enabling the new Legislative Council members to assume their duties promptly can we advance post-disaster reconstruction, follow-up support, recovery efforts, and the necessary legislative reviews and reforms more swiftly and effectively," Mr Lee said. "Many initiatives require Legislative Council deliberation, funding approval, and law-making before implementation. This represents the most responsible approach towards Hong Kong's future."









Hashtag: hongkong support investigations recovery review reforms

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

News Source: Information Services Department, Hong Kong SAR Government

02/12/2025 Dissemination of a Financial Press Release, transmitted by EQS News .

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



Media archive at www.todayir.com

View original content: EQS News
FAA-approved third-party infrastructure proves ready for national deployment as Task Force priorities take shape

SYRACUSE, N.Y., Dec. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a demonstration directly aligned with the White House Task Force to Restore American Airspace Sovereignty, the 174th Attack Wing of the New York Air National Guard successfully operated its MQ-9 Reaper using NUAIR's FAA-approved surveillance network. Building on its recent Letter of Acceptance (LOA) from the FAA, this historic flight validates a critical capability at a pivotal moment for national airspace security and modernization.

The timing could not be more significant. As FAA Administrator Mike Duffy pushes for a revolutionary new air traffic control system and the Department of Transportation accelerates its modernization agenda, NUAIR's FAA-accepted network demonstrates that third-party surveillance providers can deliver both the security and scalability America needs - today.

Answering the White House Call for Airspace Sovereignty

"This demonstration directly addresses the White House mandate to restore American airspace sovereignty," said Ken Stewart, President and CEO of NUAIR. "Our surveillance network doesn't just integrate unmanned aircraft - it actively identifies and tracks both cooperative and non-cooperative aircraft, providing the comprehensive domain awareness that national security demands."

The network's dual capability addresses an urgent national need. As the country prepares for major international events and faces evolving security challenges, NUAIR's technology offers a proven solution for counter-UAS operations that has become a top federal priority.

From Military Operations to National Infrastructure

"The 174th has a long-standing history in the Central New York region and is proud to be a part of the innovation legacy here," said Brigadier General John O'Connor, Commander of the 174th Attack Wing. "We look forward to working together with NUAIR to keep Syracuse's airspace safe."

"The recent MQ-9 flight from the 174th Attack Wing on NUAIR's Airspace Awareness-as-a-Service platform is a perfect example of over a decade of innovative integration of unmanned aircraft into the commercial airport environment here at Syracuse Hancock International Airport (SYR)," said Syracuse Regional Airport Authority Executive Director Jason Terreri.

The success of the MQ-9 flight goes beyond the significance of a demonstration - it's a blueprint for Administrator Duffy's vision of a reimagined air traffic control system. NUAIR's FAA Letter of Acceptance authorizes the organization to provide surveillance services traditionally reserved for government systems, demonstrating how third-party providers can rapidly deploy advanced capabilities at scale. Together, these milestones illustrate how this innovation can scale to meet national priorities.

"The 174th Attack Wing's trust in our network sends a powerful message," said Stewart. "If this infrastructure can safely manage a 10,000-lb military aircraft in complex airspace, it's ready to support the full spectrum of national airspace modernization."

Real-Time Threat Detection for National Events

NUAIR's airspace awareness-as-a-service platform represents a fundamental shift in how America secures its airspace. The system provides comprehensive detection of both cooperative aircraft with transponders and non-cooperative "dark" aircraft that pose potential threats. This real-time intelligence delivers instant airspace awareness for security forces protecting critical infrastructure and major events, while offering the scalability to rapidly expand coverage as national priorities demand.

Unlike traditional government procurement cycles that can take decades, this FAA-accepted infrastructure can deploy in months. The platform seamlessly connects military, law enforcement, and civil aviation in a unified operating picture - a capability that becomes increasingly vital as drone threats evolve and major international events approach.

Accelerating DOT's Modernization Timeline

The Department of Transportation's push for airspace modernization has emphasized the need for new approaches to old challenges. NUAIR's demonstration proves that waiting for traditional government procurement cycles is no longer necessary.

"FAA-authorized third-party networks can deploy in months, not decades," Stewart emphasizes. "With drone threats evolving daily and national security imperatives mounting, we can't afford to wait. This infrastructure exists now, it's proven with military operations, and it's ready to scale nationally."

Building the Foundation for Economic Growth

Beyond security applications, NUAIR's network enables the low altitude economy that the White House has identified as crucial for American competitiveness. The same infrastructure protecting against threats also enables commercial drone deliveries, emergency medical transport, infrastructure inspection, agricultural operations, and future passenger air taxi services - demonstrating how security and economic development can advance hand in hand.

Immediate National Impact

As federal agencies work to implement Task Force recommendations, NUAIR's successful military demonstration offers a clear path forward. The technology provides deployable surveillance networks that protect high-value venues while enabling authorized commercial operations. It delivers the persistent monitoring capabilities needed to detect and track all aircraft - not just those choosing to cooperate - which forms the foundation of true airspace sovereignty.

This proven model exemplifies the third-party surveillance services Administrator Duffy envisions for FAA modernization, while simultaneously creating infrastructure that enhances security and enables new economic opportunities through Advanced Air Mobility.

The Path Forward

With this demonstration, NUAIR has proven that FAA-authorized third-party providers can deliver the airspace transformation the White House demands. The question is no longer whether non-government surveillance networks can handle critical national infrastructure - it's how quickly they can be deployed to protect American interests.

"The Task Force called for restoring American airspace sovereignty," Stewart concludes. "Today, we've shown that the technology exists, it's military-grade, and it's ready. The future of American airspace isn't years away - it's flying over Syracuse right now."

Stewart adds, "All of this would not be possible if it weren't for the financial support of Empire State Development, and the members of the NUAIR Alliance."

Note: This demonstration was conducted under approved safety protocols with full coordination between NUAIR, the 174th Attack Wing, and relevant federal authorities.

About the 174th Attack Wing

The 174th Attack Wing, based at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse, New York, operates the MQ-9 Reaper in support of national defense objectives. The Wing maintains a deep connection to the Central New York region and plays a critical role in both state and federal missions.

About NUAIR

NUAIR is a nonprofit driving economic development through innovations in UAS and Advanced Air Mobility to safely integrate into the national airspace. With support from Empire State Development and the State of New York and as one of the nation's only FAA-accepted, NTAP-complete surveillance networks, NUAIR provides airspace awareness and safety assurance services enabling public, private, and defense operations.

With a rich history performing UAS testing and validation, investing in local and state economic development, and training public safety elite, the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance, Inc..

Media Inquiries | Marketing@NUAIR.org
Rachel Marouani and Albin Jacquemont join Showroomprive's Board of Directors

La Plaine Saint Denis, France, December 2, 2025, 05:45 pm CET - Showroomprive ("SRP Group" or the "Company"), a European group specialized in flash sales, announces the co-optation of Rachel Marouani and Albin Jacquemont as independent Board members. Rachel Marouani, now Chair of the Nominations & Remuneration Committee, succeeds Cyril Vermeulen, while Albin Jacquemont takes over the position previously held by Olivier Marcheteau.

Rachel Marouani has outstanding expertise in the retail, hospitality, luxury, and digital sectors. Chair of the Board of the AFFLELOU Group, and a Board member at major companies such as Adeo and Pierre Fabre, she leverages more than 25 years of experience in brand redeployment, omnichannel and international customer strategy deployments, and the management of diversified shareholding environments. She has held several senior positions within LVMH Group, notably SVP Marketing of Sephora, Chief Executive Officer of Make Up For Ever and FRED Joaillier where she led large-scale strategic transformations as well as organizational, commercial, and digital programs. Her knowledge of e-commerce, tourism, beauty, and luxury goods brings significant added value to Showroomprive.

Albin Jacquemont brings to the Board recognized financial expertise, developed over a successful career within various groups and companies owned by investments funds. Currently Group CFO of Soitec, he has distinguished himself through his ability to lead complex financial organizations, strengthen performance discipline, and drive large-scale strategic operations. Previously, he was CFO of several service groups, particularly in the IT sector, and spent a large part of his career in the retail sector at Darty and Carrefour, where he led major transformational programs, including divestments and acquisitions at an international scale. His deep understanding of operational challenges, as well as the expectations of financial markets, represents an asset to guide Showroomprive in consolidating its trajectory and rigorously executing its strategic plan.

These appointments come at a pivotal time for Showroomprive, as the Group implements its operational reorganization plan announced on November 4. They strengthen the Board's capabilities to best support the evolution of the organization, uphold ongoing modernization initiatives, and ensure the execution of the strategic roadmap defined for the coming years, in an evolving competitive and technological environment.

David Dayan, Chief Executive Officer of Showroomprive, states: "We would first like to warmly thank Cyril Vermeulen and Olivier Marcheteau for their commitment and contribution to the work of the Board of Directors. Their support has been invaluable throughout the key stages of the Group's development. We are now delighted to welcome Rachel Marouani and Albin Jacquemont to the Board. Their distinguished careers, combining strategic vision, transformation experience, and mastery of operational challenges, represent a decisive asset to support Showroomprive's ambition, not to mention the complementarity of their profiles, which further strengthens our governance."

These appointments will be submitted for ratification at the next general meeting.

Composition of the Board of Directors following the appointments

David Dayan (Founder and Chairman & Chief Executive Officer);

Brigitte Tambosi;

Emilie Patou;

Michael Dayan;

Eric Dayan;

Eric Sitruk;

Rachel Marouani (independent Board member);

Sophie Moreau-Garenne (independent Board member);

Clemence Gastaldi (independent Board member);

Albin Jacquemont (independent Board member);

Benoit Camps (non-voting Board observer).

ABOUT showroomprive

Showroomprive is an innovative European player in the online private sales industry, specializing in fashion. Showroomprive offers a daily selection of more than 3,000 brand partners via its mobile apps or website in France and six other countries. Since its launch in 2006, the Company has enjoyed quick growth.

Listed on the Euronext Paris market (code: SRP), Showroomprive achieved a gross business volume including tax of nearly 1 billion in 2024, and net sales of 650 million. The Group is led by founder David Dayan and employs more than 1,100 people.

For more information: http://showroomprivegroup.com

ContactS

Showroomprive NewCap Benoit Jacheet, Group CFO investor.relations@showroomprive.net Financial communication

Thomas Grojean, Louis-Victor Delouvrier Anthony Alfont

Relations.presse@showroomprive.net Media relations

Gaelle Fromaigeat, Nicolas Merigeau

showroomprive@newcap.eu

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Rightmove Plc - Transaction in Own Shares

PR Newswire

LONDON, United Kingdom, December 02

2 December 2025

Rightmove plc

Share buy-back programme

Rightmove plc - transactions in own shares

Rightmove plc ('Rightmove'), announces that today it purchased 200,000 of its 0.1p ordinary shares at a volume weighted average price paid per share of 535.631p. The highest price paid per share was 541.600p and the lowest price paid per share was 532.200p. Rightmove purchased these shares through UBS AG London Branch.

The number of shares purchased represented 0.0261% of the voting rights attributable to the total ordinary shares in issue prior to such purchase. The purchased shares will be cancelled.

Since announcing a share buy-back programme on 28 December 2007, Rightmove has purchased in aggregate 542,282,476 ordinary shares.

The total number of ordinary shares in issue (excluding treasury shares) following this announcement is 766,018,110. Rightmove holds 10,753,494 shares in treasury.

In accordance with Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (the 'Market Abuse Regulation') as amended by The Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (the 'UK MAR'), the schedule below contains detailed information about the purchases made by UBS AG London Branch on behalf of the Company as part of the buyback programme.

Contact: Michelle Palmer, Assistant Company Secretary

CompanySecretary@rightmove.co.uk

Schedule of Purchases - Individual Transactions




Historic Release Pays Tribute To The Enduring Legacy Of America's "Wild West" Mint

EAGAN, MN / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / GOVMINT has announced an exclusive partnership with the Nevada State Museum to release limited-edition Carson City Mint 155th Anniversary Commemoratives in gold and silver. These dual-dated 1870-2025 pieces replicate the original designs of the first coins struck at the Carson City Mint in 1870 and feature a special anniversary privy mark. Some were even struck on the historic Coin Press No. 1-the same press that powered the Mint's earliest coinage.

CC Mint 155th Anniv. Commemoratives



Historic First Strike Ceremony

On October 6, GOVMINT hosted a First Strike Ceremony at the Carson City Mint attended by GOVMINT Ambassador David J. Ryder, former U.S. Mint Director, and Congressman Mark Amodei. Ryder reflected:

"Standing at Coin Press No. 1 as it struck these medals reminded me why the Carson City Mint holds such a sacred place in American numismatics. These medals aren't just collectibles-they're living history."

Celebrating a Milestone

The official release reception took place November 13 at the Nevada State Museum's Numismatic Exhibit, with Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo in attendance. He praised the partnership for honoring an important chapter in Nevada's history.

Commemorative Details

The collection includes designs from the original 1870 Seated Liberty Silver Dollar, $10 Gold Liberty Eagle, and $20 Gold Liberty Double Eagle-coins that marked the Mint's opening. Each piece bears the Carson City mintmark and a 155th Anniversary privy mark depicting the Mint building with "CC" and "155."

Gold Options: Half-ounce and one-ounce pieces in 99.99% pure gold

Silver Option: One-ounce piece in 99.9% pure silver

Historic Touch: The half-ounce gold piece was struck on Coin Press No. 1, built in 1869 and used for the Mint's first coinage.

Design Legacy

Gold pieces feature Christian Gobrecht and James B. Longacre's iconic Liberty designs, while the silver piece revives Gobrecht's Seated Liberty Dollar. These commemoratives allow collectors to hold a tangible link to the Wild West era.

Collection & Grading

Available individually or in multi-piece sets, select specimens are graded by Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC) as MS70 or Gem Uncirculated, with First Strike or First Day of Issue designations. Pieces are sealed in acrylic holders with exclusive anniversary labels signed by David Ryder, adding further prestige.

About the Carson City Mint & Coin Press No. 1

Founded in 1870 to convert silver from Nevada's Comstock Lode into U.S. currency, the Carson City Mint produced coins marked with the distinctive "CC" until 1893. Coin Press No. 1, built in 1869, struck the first CC Seated Liberty Dollar and now resides at the Nevada State Museum.

Availability

Collectors can secure these historic pieces by calling 1-800-510-6468 or visiting www.govmint.com/155-carson-city.

Contact Information

Brian Johnson

VP of Marketing

media@amsi-corp.com

SOURCE: GOVMINT

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/consumer-and-retail-products/govmint-announces-exclusive-partnership-with-nevada-state-museum-for-c-1112537
Exit Factor arrives in Chicago Downtown, empowering owners to grow stronger companies and achieve successful exits on their terms.

CHICAGO, IL / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / Exit Factor, a business consulting franchise that specializes in exit planning for small- to mid-sized companies, announced today the opening of its newest location in Chicago, IL. Owner Erin Guthrie, a fifteen-year strategy and M&A executive from the technology industry, will serve as the owner and operator of Exit Factor of Chicago Downtown.

The Exit Factor program is a proven process with tailored exit plans that safeguard the long-term value of a business now and in the future, no matter the size. Designed to help owners take control of their business by maximizing profit, efficiency, and value from day one, even if a sale isn't uppermost on the owner's mind.

"Too many business owners miss out on value simply because they don't have a long-term plan. Exit Factor gives Chicago entrepreneurs the strategy and support to grow stronger companies and achieve successful exits on their terms," said Erin Guthrie, franchise owner. "I see an opportunity to create lasting impact and generational wealth for our community when we partner together."

The company was founded by best-selling author, speaker, and small-business advocate Jessica Fialkovich. Her passion for helping business owners maximize their company's value, grew from her experience as a business broker and owner of a Transworld Business Advisors franchise. For businesses that were not quite ready to sell, or had potential to increase their value prior to listing, Fialkovich developed a program, teaching strategies on ways to build value, profitability, and salability.

"We're very proud of the success Exit Factor has had in helping businesses plan for profitability to ensure business owners maximize their company's value when it's time to sell," Jessica Fialkovich said. "We look forward to bringing Exit Factor of Chicago Downtown on board to help even more business owners."

Participants in Exit Factor's program earn back an average of $2,700 in exit value for every hour they spend in the program. Within the first year, clients have seen a 25% increase in profit and a 56.7% increase in business value. For those who have decided to sell, the program has helped them achieve successful exits.

About Exit Factor

Exit Factor offers a proven method that helps small to mid-size business owners maximize their company's value. It's among the United Franchise Group (UFG) family of affiliated brands and consultants, representing the very best in their industries. Through one-on-one consulting services and online programs, the trusted advisors at Exit Factor teach entrepreneurs how to successfully improve their company's efficiency, value and ultimately ability to exit. For more information, visit www.ExitFactor.com and for more information on owning a Exit Factor franchise, visit www.exitfactorfranchise.com .

SOURCE: Exit Factor

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/banking-and-financial-services/exit-factor-expands-territory-with-new-location-in-chicago-illinois-1113747
On December 2, 2025, Wavestone's Board approved the consolidated half-yearly accounts as of September 30, 2025, which are summarized below. These accounts have been subject to a limited review by the statutory auditors, who are in the process of issuing their report.

Limited review

at 09/30 (in m) H1 2025/26 H1 2024/25 Change Revenue 458.1 457.8 0% Recurring operating profit (ROP)1

Recurring operating margin 47.1

10.3% 46.4

10.1% +1% Amortization of customer relationships

Other operating income and expenses

Operating profit (3.6)

(0.7)

42.8 (4.4)

(0.5)

41.6



+3% Cost of net financial debt

Other financial income and expenses

Tax expense (0.6)

(1.3)

(10.5) (1.6)

(1.7)

(11.0) Net income

Net margin



Net income - group share

Net income - group share, per share after dilution (in ) 30.4

6.6%



30.3

1.24 27.3

6.0%



27.2

1.11

+12%



+11%

+12%

1 Wavestone uses an alternative performance measure named Recurring Operating Profit (ROP), the definition of which is provided at the end of this press release.

Stable revenue in H1 2025/26 at 458.1m

Over the whole of H1 2025/26, revenue amounted to 458.1m, stable compared with H1 2024/25.

As a reminder, Wavestone has consolidated Wivoo, a French consulting firm, since June 1, 2025.

On a constant scope and forex basis, half-yearly revenue has decreased by -0.5%. For the record, there was an unfavorable working day impact of -0.9% over the period.

Consultant utilization rate under pressure at 71%; robust average daily rate of 939

Over H1 2025/26, the consultant utilization rate was under pressure and stood at 71%, versus 73% for the whole of the 2024/25 fiscal year.

At the mid-point of the 2025/26 fiscal year, the average daily rate was solid at 939, equivalent to the one of the previous fiscal year, despite the consolidation of Wivoo, whose prices are lower than the rest of the group. On a constant scope and forex basis, daily rates increased by +1%.

With regard to business development, the order book stood at about 3.6 months of work at the end of September 2025, versus 4.2 months on March 31, 2025, and 3.7 months one year earlier.

Staff turnover rate of 13% on a rolling 12-month basis

On September 30, 2025, on a rolling 12-month basis, the staff turnover rate stood at 13%, compared with 12% over the 2024/25 fiscal year.

Wavestone had 6,042 employees on September 30, 2025, including 98 employees coming from the acquisition of Wivoo, compared with 6,076 on March 31, 2025, a decline consistent with the firm's usual seasonality.

10.3% recurring operating margin in H1 2025/26

Over H1 2025/26, recurring operating profit amounted to 47.1m, up by +1%. For the record, this recurring operating profit is computed after taking into account 4.2m linked to share-based payments to employees (versus 3.1m in H1 2024/25).

The recurring operating margin stood at 10.3%, compared with 10.1% in H1 2024/25.

As a reminder, profitability in H1 2024/25 had been impacted by the costs linked to the integration program between Wavestone and Q_PERIOR, notably the "Together as One" event organized in Paris in May 2024.

Net income up by +12%, representing a net margin of 6.6%

After taking into account the amortization of customer relationships (3.6m entirely consisting of Q_PERIOR's customer relationships), and other operating income and expenses (-0.7m), operating profit was 42.8m, showing an increase of +3.0%.

The cost of net financial debt was reduced to 0.6m, compared with 1.6m a year earlier, due to the strengthening of the firm's financial situation.

The tax expense amounted to 10.5m, a decrease of -4% compared with H1 2024/25.

Net income stood at 30.4m in H1 2025/26, showing a growth of +12% compared with the first half of the previous fiscal year and representing a net margin of 6.6%, compared to 6.0% a year earlier.

Earnings per share (fully diluted) came to 1.24 in H1, compared to 1.11 a year earlier[1].

Cash flow from business activities up to 21.8m in H1 2025/26

On September 30, 2025, self-financing capacity amounted to 55.2m, compared with 54.3m for the same period of the previous year.

Change in trade receivables and trade payables generated 7.5m of cash over the period (versus a consumption of -1.0m in H1 2024/25), notably linked to a slight decrease of -2% in DSO (Days Sales Outstanding). Change in other items of the working capital consumed 30.5m of cash (versus 28.8m last year), a variation linked to the usual reduction in employee-related liabilities in the first half of the fiscal year (paid leaves, payment of bonuses and profit sharing).

After tax payments of 10.4m, Wavestone's operating cash flow improved year-over-year to 21.8m, compared with 2.5m in H1 of the previous fiscal year.

Investment operations consumed -12.0m in H1 2025/26 (-37.8m a year earlier), including -10.6m for the acquisition of Wivoo and -1.4m in current investments.

Financing flows consumed -55.6m, mainly consisting of:

-11.5m in dividends paid to shareholders for the 2024/25 fiscal year,

-37.7m in net repayments of financial loans, including the early repayment of -52.8m in bank debt during H1,

-4.8m in lease liability repayments (under IFRS 16).

Net cash of 18.0m on September 30, 2025

On September 30, 2025, Wavestone's consolidated equity was 645.4m.

On the same date, net cash (excluding IFRS 16 lease liabilities) stood at 18.0m. This compares with net cash of 25.6m at the end of March 2025.

Limited review

(in m) (9/30/25) (3/31/25) Limited review

(in m) (9/30/25) (3/31/25) Non-current assets 628.3 629.5 Shareholders' equity

of which minority interests 645.4

1.4 633.4

1.4 of which goodwill 519.1 512.5 of which customer relationships 62.6 66.2 of which rights-of-use assets 22.5 25.3 Financial liabilities

of which less than 1 year 15.6

14.9 52.8

7.8 Current assets

of which trade receivables 272.7

245.1 272.1

250.2 Lease liabilities 25.0 28.0 Cash & cash equivalents 33.5 78.3 Non-financial liabilities 248.5 265.8 Total 934.5 979.9 Total 934.5 979.9

Market environment

Since the beginning of the 2025/26 fiscal year, the market environment has been challenging in almost all Wavestone geographies except for North America. The demand has remained at a low level overall, with the reluctance of decision-makers to move forward with their investment plans, in the context of high geopolitical uncertainty.

From a sectoral perspective, banking, transport, automotive and retail have been difficult. On the other hand, though, insurance has remained resilient, while energy and luxury have shown a positive trend as well as some accounts in the industry sector.

Since the start of Q3 2025/26, business demand has begun to pick up. Previously postponed projects are finally moving forward, and there is growing momentum on AI, cybersecurity, cloud, and SAP.

Visibility however remains limited and it is too early to assess whether this positive trend will continue during Q4 2025/26.

Priorities for H2

Wavestone aims to rapidly improve its operational performance by leveraging the current business momentum and maintaining strong investment in business development. As a result, the utilization rate is expected to show a significant increase in Q3.

The firm also focuses on preparing and managing as effectively as possible the start of the 2026 calendar year.

Lastly, Wavestone is gradually increasing its hiring pace, focusing on the business units and the countries experiencing the best business momentum. For the record, since the beginning of the 2025/26 fiscal year, Wavestone has remained cautious in terms of recruitment, which should lead to a very limited headcount increase over the fiscal year.

Growing momentum in AI-driven transformations

The AI wave continues to accelerate, reshaping industries and redefining strategic priorities across all sectors.

Wavestone is increasingly supporting its clients around three major challenges: building the technological and operational foundations needed to scale AI across the enterprise, structuring AI initiatives with tangible value creation, and entering the agentic era to transform core-business processes.

Wavestone's expertise is trusted by leading organizations in multiple industries. More than ever, the firm is committed to being the champion of AI-driven transformation, helping clients unlock measurable value and scale their AI ambitions.

Wavestone anticipates growing further its AI-related revenue in 2025/26, reaching 14% of its total revenue, compared with 8% in the previous fiscal year.

2025/26 annual objectives

Regarding its annual guidance, Wavestone reaffirms aiming at generating a positive organic growth in 2025/26.

In terms of profitability, the firm confirms targeting an annual recurring operating margin of around 13%.

These objectives are calculated on a constant forex basis and exclude any new acquisition.

Next event: publication of Q3 2025/26 revenue: Monday, February 2, 2026, after Euronext market closing.

About Wavestone

Wavestone was founded amid the rise of new technologies and digital innovation, growing with a strong entrepreneurial spirit. Expanding from France and Germany into Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and North America, Wavestone has become a leading consulting partner, supporting the world's largest companies in their most ambitious strategic transformations. Drawing on expertise at the intersection of technology and business, Wavestone's 6,000 employees deliver a 360 portfolio of high-value, tailored consulting services, from redesigning business models to implementing cutting-edge technologies, while helping clients advance sustainable transitions.

Wavestone is listed on Euronext Paris and has been certified as a Great Place to Work.

Wavestone

Pascal IMBERT

CEO

Tel.: +33 (0)1 49 03 20 00

Benjamin CLEMENT

Financial Communication

Tel.: +33 (0)1 49 03 20 00 Actus

Mathieu OMNES

Investor and Analyst Relations

Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 92

Deborah SCHWARTZ

Press relations

Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 35

Appendix 1: alternative performance measure

Recurring Operating Profit (ROP) is an alternative performance measure obtained by deducting from revenue the operational expenses related to current activities, including share-based payments to employees. Amortization of customer relationships is not deducted from ROP, nor are non-recurring income and expenses. The latter includes, in particular, income or expenses related to business acquisitions or divestitures, as well as income or costs associated with unoccupied premises.

Recurring operating margin is obtained by dividing ROP by revenue.

Appendix 2: consolidated income statement as of Sep. 30, 2025 In thousands of euros - Limited audit in progress - IFRS standards Sep. 30, 2025 Mar. 31, 2025 Sep. 30, 2024 Revenue 458,092 943,666 457,820 Subcontracting purchases (67,517) (144,953) (74,994) Personnel expenses (304,650) (595,367) (289,522) External expenses (28,919) (66,390) (38,519) Taxes and duties (3,612) (8,198) (3,375) Depreciation, amortization and provisions (6,786) (10,925) (5,937) Other current income and expenses 474 1,224 975 Recurring operating profit 47,083 119,057 46,448 Amortization of customer relationships (3,611) (8,371) (4,357) Other operating income and expenses (661) (1,122) (526) Operating profit 42,811 109,564 41,565 Financial income 581 701 361 Costs of gross financial debt (1,162) (3,932) (2,003) Costs of net financial debt (581) (3,232) (1,643) Other financial income and expenses (1,257) (3,115) (1,685) Net income before tax 40,973 103,217 38,237 Tax expense (10,545) (27,296) (10,952) Net income 30,428 75,921 27,286 Non-controlling interests (106) (362) (47) Net income - group share 30,321 75,558 27,238 Basic earnings per share () (1) 1.24 3,09 1.11 Diluted earnings per share () (2) 1.24 3,09 1.11

(1) Average number of shares outstanding during the period

(2) Diluted average number of shares outstanding during the period

Appendix 3: consolidated balance sheet as of Sept. 30, 2025 In thousands of euros - Limited audit in progress - IFRS standards Sep. 30, 2025 Mar. 31, 2025 Goodwill 519,116 512,485 Intangible assets 62,598 66,209 Tangible assets 11,357 11,561 Right-of-use assets 22,510 25,305 Non-current financial assets 2,228 1,906 Other non-current assets 10,467 12,000 Non-current assets 628,276 629,466 Trade receivables and related accounts 245,080 250,176 Other receivables 27,601 21,960 Cash and cash equivalents 33,524 78,346 Current assets 306,204 350,481 Total assets 934,480 979,948 Capital 623 623 Additional paid-in-capital 265,432 265,432 Consolidated retained earnings and net income 382,888 361,853 Currency translation differences (4,871) 4,050 Equity - group share 644,071 631,957 Non-controlling interests 1,350 1,443 Total equity 645,422 633,401 Long-term provisions 26,242 23,627 Non-current financial liabilities 639 44,930 Non-current lease liabilities 15,965 19,173 Other non-current liabilities 22,381 24,054 Non-current liabilities 65,227 111,785 Short-term provisions 3,200 3,124 Current financial liabilities 14,935 7,830 Current lease liabilities 8,986 8,839 Trade payables and related accounts 34,775 34,150 Tax and social liabilities 127,039 145,915 Other current liabilities 34,897 34,904 Current liabilities 223,832 234,762 Total liabilities 934,480 979,948

Appendix 4: consolidated cash flow statement as of Sept. 30, 2025 in thousands of euros - Limited audit in progress - IFRS standards Sep. 30, 2025 Mar. 31, 2025 Sep. 30, 2024 Consolidated net income 30,428 75,921 27,286 Elimination of non-cash items: Net depreciation, amortization and provisions (1) 10,724 19,569 10,939 Expenses / (income) related to share-based payments 3,179 5,651 2,599 Losses / (gains) on disposals, net of tax (31) (47) (3) Other calculated income and expenses (1,266) 620 366 Costs of net financial debt (incl. interest on lease liabilities) 1,629 4,351 2,167 Tax expense / (income) 10,545 27,296 10,952 Self-financing capacity before costs of net financial debt and tax 55,207 133,362 54,305 Tax paid (10,419) (38,163) (22,117) Change in trade receivables and trade payables 7,512 (11,894) (974) Change in other working capital items (30,537) 5,972 (28,753) Net operating cash flow 21,763 89,277 2,462 Purchase of tangible and intangible assets (1,436) (4,838) (2,169) Disposal of assets 23 46 24 Change in financial assets (62) 52 (67) Impact of changes in consolidation scope (10,558) (44,005) (35,577) Net investing cash flow (12,033) (48,744) (37,789) Sale / (purchase) of treasury shares (2) 74 (12,155) (6,415) Dividends paid to parent company shareholders (11,295) (9,380) (9,380) Dividends paid to non-controlling interests (193) (845) (750) Loan subscriptions 15,072 40,000 40,000 Loan repayments (52,803) (45,642) (8,821) Repayments of lease liabilities (4,789) (8,084) (4,065) Net financial interest paid on loans (1,139) (3,028) (1,521) Net interest paid on lease liabilities (547) (1,065) (452) Other financing cash flows (9) 20 9 Net financing cash flow (55,629) (40,179) 8,606 Net change in cash and cash equivalents (45,899) 354 (26,721) Impact of translation differences 1,100 503 212 Opening cash position 78,309 77,452 77,452 Closing cash position 33,509 78,309 50,943

(1) Including 4,469k in respect of the amortization of right-of-use assets (IFRS 16) as of September 30, 2025 (vs 4,159k as of September 30, 2024) and 3,611k in respect of the amortization of customer relationships as September 30, 2025 (vs 4,357k as of September 30, 2024).

(2) For information, the company delivered treasury shares worth 5,559k during the semester.

[1] taking into account the weighted average number of outstanding shares

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Villepinte, December 2, 2025

DRONE VOLT, a French manufacturer of professional drones and a leading technology player in aerial robotics, is proud to announce that it has won the 2025 Partnership Award at the prestigious ADRIQ (Association pour le developpement de la recherche et de l'innovation du Quebec) Innovation Awards Gala, alongside Hydro-Quebec and Nucleom.

The jury highlighted the strategic impact of this three-way partnership, which led to the development of LINEDRONE , an advanced robotic platform for inspecting live power lines up to 315,000 volts certified, a world first in the industry.

This award positions DRONE VOLT among Quebec's most innovative industrial players, alongside major winners such as Pratt & Whitney Canada for digital transformation.

An award that recognizes a transformative partnership

The Partnership Award recognizes the most emblematic collaborations between a company and one or more organizations.

The jury evaluates, in particular:

the sharing of expertise and the effectiveness of collaborative work;

and the effectiveness of collaborative work; the success of a comprehensive R&D program ;

; the transfer of skills and technologies;

of and technologies; the impact in terms of technological advancement, productivity, competitiveness, and commercialization.

The LINEDRONE project stood out for its uniqueness, immediate operational impact, and direct contribution to energy and industrial sovereignty.

A must-attend event for innovation in Quebec

For its 35th edition, the ADRIQ Gala, Quebec's most prestigious innovation event, brought together more than 500 decision-makers, executives, researchers, and institutional players, in the presence of:

Ms. Chantal Renaud-Landry , President of the Cercle des Amis de Bernard-Landry;

, President of the Cercle des Amis de Bernard-Landry; Mr. Eric Girard , Member of Parliament for Lac-Saint-Jean and Minister for Regional Development; Economic

, Member of Parliament for Lac-Saint-Jean and Minister for Regional Development; Economic Mr. Carlos J. Leitao , Member of Parliament and Parliamentary Secretary;

, Member of Parliament and Parliamentary Secretary; Mr. Alexandre Teodoresco , City of Montreal;

, City of Montreal; Mr. Luc Sirois, Chief Innovation Officer of Quebec.

This recognition reflects DRONE VOLT's central role in Quebec's ecosystem and in the development of critical technologies.

A symbol of technological mastery

The LINEDRONE , developed jointly by DRONE VOLT, Hydro-Quebec, and Nucleom, enables:

inspection under voltage up to 315,000 volts -certified ;

; a drastic reduction in human risk;

a major acceleration of maintenance operations;

unprecedented productivity for electrical network managers.

Marc COURCELLE, CEO of DRONE VOLT, states:

"This award is a symbol of technological mastery and industrial know-how.

The LINEDRONE ushers in a new era of safe, fast, and cost-effective operations for global power grids."

The DRONE VOLT Canada team honored

The DRONE VOLT Canada team, led by Martin LAPORTE, Program Director, played a key role in this highly technical project.

Martin LAPORTE states:

"This project demonstrates the real impact that a structured and reciprocal partnership can generate: innovation, operational technology, industrialization, and value creation.

We are honored by this recognition and determined to continue developing technologies in Quebec and internationally."

Outlook and impact for investors

This award reinforces DRONE VOLT's position as a key player in technological sovereignty and its position as a central player in technological sovereignty and its position as a key player in technological sovereignty and its position as a key player in technological sovereignty and its position as a key player in technological sovereignty and its position as a key player in technological sovereignty and its positiona key player in technological sovereignty and its position as a strategic industrial partner in Canada, exporting solutions developed in Quebec to the international market.

DRONE VOLT is thus establishing itself as a fast-gro player in the Energy, Critical Infrastructure, and Advanced Robotics markets.

The Group is currently deploying high value-added robotic platforms and aerial solutions, consolidating a model based on:

technological; innovation

sovereign industrialization;

the creation of sustainable value;

international expansion.

Next press release: 2025 annual revenue, January 2026.

All DRONE VOLT press releases are available

at www.dronevolt.com / Investors

To receive all press releases free of charge, sign up on Actusnews

To receive the company's newsletter, write to: finance@dronevolt.com

About DRONE VOLT

Founded in 2011, DRONE VOLT is an aeronautical manufacturer specializing in professional civilian drones and artificial intelligence. DRONE VOLT has operations in France, Benelux, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, the United States, and Switzerland. As a global partner, DRONE VOLT offers its customers turnkey business solutions including various services and drone pilot training.

The DRONE VOLT Group, a member of GICAT, achieved a turnover of 32.7 million in 2024, representing annual growth of 36%.

DRONE VOLT supplies government agencies and industrial companies such as the French Army, the Ministry of the Armed Forces, Engie, Total, Bouygues ES, ADP, the Air Transport Gendarmerie (GTA), international government agencies, and others.

DRONE VOLT is certified as an "Innovative Company" by Bpifrance.

DRONE VOLT is listed on the Euronext Growth market in Paris:

Share: Mnemo: ALDRV - ISIN code: FR001400SVN0 - Eligible: PEA, PEA-PME

Subscription warrant: Ticker: BNBS - ISIN code: FR0014007951

For more information, visit www.dronevolt.com



Contacts:

Investor Relations

DRONE VOLT

Sylvain Navarro - T: +33 7 88 87 50 88

finance@dronevolt.com Media Relations FINANCE

ACTUS finance & communication

Manon Clairet - T: +33 1 53 67 36 73

dronevolt@actus.fr Media Relations GENERAL PUBLIC AND BUSINESS AYA communication

Antonin Violette - T: +33 6 47 48 63 25

aviolette@aya-communication.fr

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NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / 3BL has committed $10,000 in matching funds to support Berkshire Bounty's End of Year Fundraising Campaign, launching today on GivingTuesday. The challenge grant will match all donations received during the campaign period, supporting the immediate impact for this critical food security initiative serving Berkshire County residents facing food insecurity.

More here.

In 2025, Berkshire Bounty has already distributed 603,000 lbs. of food to 32 emergency food sites, serving 21,000 individuals per week. The organization recently presented at a meeting with the Secretary of the Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Services to coordinate response efforts to the food insecurity crisis caused by SNAP benefits changes.

Through this challenge grant, 3BL is helping Berkshire Bounty reach its $175,000 goal, funding critical to sustaining operations through 2026 and meeting the growing demand for food assistance across the county.

Our CEO, Charlie Wilkie, shares why supporting this work matters:

"3BL might be a remote company today, but we were founded in Massachusetts, and we haven't forgotten those roots. Berkshire Bounty is doing the kind of practical, quietly effective work that really matters - moving good food to the people who need it most. At a time when so many families are feeling the strain, supporting an organization that strengthens its own community feels like the right call."

About Berkshire Bounty

Berkshire Bounty is a 501(c)(3) food access organization dedicated to addressing food insecurity in Berkshire County. Through strategic collection, purchasing, and distribution partnerships, Berkshire Bounty ensures emergency food sites across the region can meet growing community needs.

About 3BL

3BL is the leading sustainability and social impact communications partner, connecting organizations' stories of purpose and progress with the audiences who matter most.

3BL partners with over 1,500 companies - from global corporations and mid-sized enterprises to NGOs and nonprofits - to elevate their reputations as players in the world of responsible business. We do this through unrivaled news and content distribution, bespoke storytelling support, and our digital media division, TriplePundit.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from 3BL on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: 3BL

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/3bl

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: 3BL

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/3bl-supports-berkshire-bountys-fight-against-food-insecurity-wit-1113909
BH Macro Limited - Transaction in Own Shares

PR Newswire

LONDON, United Kingdom, December 02

BH Macro Limited (the "Company")

(a closed-ended collective investment scheme established as a company with limited liability under the laws of Guernsey with registered number 46235)

Transaction in Own Shares

02 December 2025

BH Macro Limited (the Company) announces today it has purchased the following number of its ordinary shares on the London Stock Exchange from J.P. Morgan Securities plc:

Ordinary Shares: - Share Class Sterling Date of purchase: 02 December 2025 Number of ordinary shares purchased: 235,361 Weighted average price (Sterling/US Dollars as applicable): 3.9649

The Company intends to hold the purchased shares in treasury.

Following the above share transactions of the relevant US Dollar and/or Sterling Shares, the total number of shares in issue in each share class of the Company will be as follows:

Ordinary Shares in issue (excluding Treasury) Ordinary Shares held in Treasury 318,948,971 Sterling Shares 59,108,635 Sterling Shares 23,901,261 US Dollar Shares 215,496 US Dollar Shares

From 02 December 2025, the total number of voting rights in the Company (rounded up to the whole number) is 487,353,235.

Enquiries:

Company website: www.bhmacro.com

William Simmonds

JPMorgan Cazenove

Tel: 020 7588 2828

The Company Secretary

Northern Trust International Fund Administration Services (Guernsey) Limited

Tel: 01481 745001
EQS-Ad-hoc: Vulcan Energy Resources Limited / Key word(s): Financing/Capital Increase

Vulcan Energy Resources Limited: 2,200 million (A$3,929 million) financing package secured to fully fund Vulcan Ener-gy's Phase One Lionheart Project



02-Dec-2025 / 19:28 CET/CEST

Disclosure of an inside information acc. to Article 17 MAR of the Regulation (EU) No 596/2014, transmitted by EQS News - a service of EQS Group .

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





Ad-hoc Notice: Disclosure of inside information acc. to Article 17(1) Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 Project Financing; Share capital increase 2 December 2025 NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH THE DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE WOULD BE UNLAWFUL.

2,200 million (A$3,929 million) financing package secured to fully fund Vulcan Energy's Phase One Lionheart Project Today, Vulcan Energy Resources Limited, Perth, Australia (ISIN AU0000066086) (the "Company" and together with its subsidiaries, "Vulcan Group") secured a comprehensive financing package (the "Project Financing Package") to fully fund the construction and development of phase one ("Phase One") of its integrated lithium chemicals and renewable energy production project in the Upper Rhine Valley (Lionheart Project) and Vulcan Group entered into binding agreements in connection with the Project Financing Package. The Project Financing Package includes the following components: 1,185m (A$2,116m) in senior debt funding from a 13 financier syndicate comprising the European Investment Bank, 5 Export Credit Agencies and 7 commercial banks

204m (A$364m) in German Government grants as already announced with the Company's Ad-hoc notices released on 12 November 2024 and 23 July 2025 respectively.

150m (A$268m) equity investment in Vulcan's primary German holding subsidiary, Vulcan Energie Ressourcen GmbH (" GermanSubCo "), by the KfW Raw Materials Fund (" KfW ") to acquire a 14% interest in GermanSubCo

"), by the KfW Raw Materials Fund (" ") to acquire a 14% interest in GermanSubCo 133m (A$238m) investment in Vulcan's Phase One project entity VER GEO LIO GmbH (" PhaseOneCo ") by a consortium of strategic investors comprising Siemens, Demeter and Hochtief to acquire a 15% preferred equity interest in the project entity

") by a consortium of strategic investors comprising Siemens, Demeter and Hochtief to acquire a 15% preferred equity interest in the project entity 528m (A$943m) in underwritten proceeds from an equity raising by Vulcan at 2.24 / (A$4.00) per share, comprising: 137m (A$245m) institutional placement 261m (A$465m) 1-for-1.128 accelerated non-renounceable entitlement offer 130m (A$232m) underwritten component of the non-accelerated retail 1-for-1.128 entitlement offer

Debt Financing Today, PhaseOneCo, an indirect subsidiary of the Company, has entered into formal binding documentation for a 1,185m (A$2,116m) debt financing package with a syndicate of 13 leading financiers, including the European Investment Bank, five Export Credit Agencies, and seven major commercial banks. The package comprises: 250m (A$446m) direct lending facility from the European Investment Bank as cornerstone lender;

200m (A$357m) direct lending facility from Export Development Canada (to be funded in US Dollars, up to a maximum of US$235m);

120m (A$214m) direct lending facility from Export Finance Australia (to be funded in US dollars);

100m (A$179m) direct lending facility from the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark;

373m (A$665m) from ECA-Covered facilities (supported by cover from Bpifrance AE for a 313m (A$558m) facility and SACE for a 60m (A$107m) facility);

34m (A$61m) from a Commercial Base Facility, and

108m (A$193m) from a Commercial Standby Facility. This debt package is structured to provide flexibility and resilience, with a 13-year tenor, deferred repayments, and robust service accounts to navigate the Phase One project ramp-up and commodity price cycles. In addition, the commercial lenders will provide 154m (A$275m) of ancillary facilities, comprising a 125m (A$223m) Working Capital Facility and a 29m (A$52m) VAT Facility. Equity Funding - GermanSubCo and PhaseOneCo Today, an investment agreement was concluded between KfW and GermanSubCo to invest 150m (A$268m) by subscribing for a 14% equity interest in GermanSubCo. Further today, an investment agreement was concluded between PhaseOneCo and a consortium of strategic investors comprising Siemens (investing 67m), Demeter (investing 28m), and Hochtief (investing 39m) to invest an aggregate of 133m (A$238m) for a 15% preferred equity interest in PhaseOneCo. Capital Increase of the Company The Company's board of directors resolved today to increase the share capital of the Company against contributions through an institutional placement ("Placement") in combination with a 1-for-1.128 accelerated non-renounceable entitlement offer ("Entitlement Offer"), comprising the issue of up to approximately 269 million new fully paid ordinary shares ("New Shares") to raise up to 603m (A$1.08 billion) (the Equity Raising). The Equity Raising consists of: An underwritten 528m (A$943m) component comprising: 137m (A$245m) Placement of 61 million New Shares; 261m (A$465m) accelerated institutional component of the Entitlement Offer of 116 million New Shares (" Institutional Entitlement Offer "); and 130m (A$232m) of the non-accelerated retail component of the Entitlement Offer (" Retail Entitlement Offer ") of 58 million New Shares.

A non-underwritten component comprising 75m (A$134m) of the Retail Entitlement Offer of up to 33 million New Shares. The Equity Raising will be at a fixed price of 2.24 / A$4.00 per New Share. Up to approximately 269 million New Shares in the Company will be issued under the Equity Raising (assuming no Conditional Placement as defined below), equivalent to approximately 115% of existing Company shares on issue. The Equity Raising is supported by Hochtief which has committed to a cornerstone investment of 130m (A$232m) under the Equity Raising to increase its ownership in the Company from 6.7% to a maximum of 15.7% (assuming no take-up under the Retail Entitlement Offer) ("Hochtief Investment Amount"). Hochtief has signed a subscription agreement with the Company and a sub-underwriting agreement with the underwriters to the Equity Raising, pursuant to which it has agreed to subscribe for up to 130m (A$232m) of shortfall under the Retail Entitlement Offer. In the event the shortfall available under the Retail Entitlement Offer is not sufficient to increase Hochtief's ownership in Vulcan to at least 10% following completion of the Retail Entitlement Offer, Hochtief will participate in a conditional top-up placement (subject to Vulcan shareholder approval for purposes of ASX Listing Rule 7.1) to increase its ownership in Vulcan to 10% (Conditional Placement). The Company may issue up to an additional 38.6 million New Shares under the Conditional Placement. There will not be a public offer of the New Shares in Germany. The launch of the Placement and the Institutional Entitlement Offer is scheduled for 2 December 2025. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the Equity Raising to fully fund the construction and development of Phase One of its lithium and renewable energy project. The New Shares will be applied to be admitted to trading on the regulated market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange ("FSE") (Prime Standard) on the basis of an exemption document prepared by the Company. The New Shares are expected to be simultaneously admitted to trading on the securities exchange operated by the Australian Stock Exchange ("ASX"). Commencement of trading of the New Shares issued under the Placement and Institutional Entitlement Offer is expected to occur on or about 12 December 2025. Commencement of trading of the New Shares issued under the Retail Entitlement Offer is expected to occur on or about 31 December 2025. Vulcan Energy Resources Limited Board of Directors Disclaimers This publication may not be published, distributed or transmitted in the United States, Canada, Japan or South Africa. This publication does not constitute an offer of securities for sale or a solicitation of an offer to purchase securities (the "Securities") of Vulcan Energy Resources Limited (the "Company") in the United States, Canada, Japan or South Africa or any other jurisdiction in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful. The Securities of the Company may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"). The Securities have not been, and will not be, registered under the Securities Act. The securities referred to herein may not be offered or sold in Canada, Japan or South Africa or to, or for the account or benefit of, any national, resident or citizen of Canada, Japan or South Africa, subject to certain exceptions. This publication constitutes neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation to buy securities. In member states of the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom this publication is only addressed to and directed at persons who are "qualified investors" within the meaning of Article 2(e) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129, in the case of the United Kingdom, as it forms part of domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. In addition, in the United Kingdom, this document is only being distributed to and is only directed at persons who (i) are investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005, as amended (the "Order"), (ii) are persons falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order (high net worth companies, unincorporated associations, etc.), or (iii) are persons to whom an invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity (within the meaning of section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000) in connection with the issue or sale of any securities may otherwise lawfully be communicated or caused to be communicated (all such persons together being referred to as "Relevant Persons"). This document is directed only at Relevant Persons and must not be acted on or relied on by persons who are not Relevant Persons. Any investment or investment activity to which this document relates is available only to Relevant Persons and will be engaged in only with Relevant Persons. Certain statements contained in this publication may constitute "forward-looking statements" that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by the use of the words "may", "will", "should", "plan", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "intend", "project", "goal" or "target" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions, forecasts, estimates, projections, opinions or plans that are inherently subject to significant risks, as well as uncertainties and contingencies that are subject to change. No representation is made or will be made by the Company that any forward-looking statement will be achieved or will prove to be correct. The actual future business, financial position, results of operations and prospects may differ materially from those projected or forecast in the forward- looking statements. Neither the Company nor any other person assumes any obligation to update, and do not expect to publicly update, or publicly revise, any forward-looking statements or other information contained in this publication, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law. Vulcan Energy Resources Limited

Unit 1, 11/1 Spring Street

6000 Perth

Australia - End of ad-hoc-announcement -



End of Inside Information



02-Dec-2025 CET/CEST The EQS Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.

View original content: EQS News
LONDON, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Christmas may be the most wonderful time of the year, but for many Brits it's also the most stressful time of the year. New research conducted by Ragdale Hall Spa has revealed that over half of the nation (55%) find the festive season stressful, with buying gifts (13%), Christmas cooking (12%), and last-minute shopping (also 12%) topping the list of stressors.

Amongst Brits, it's the younger generations feeling the stress the most, with over half of Gen Z (64%) and Millennials (64%) revealing they find Christmas time stressful, compared to 56% of Gen X and just 41% of Baby Boomers.

When asked what - or who - causes the most festive stress, 13% of Brits say their children, 9% their partners, and another 9% confess they're their own biggest source of stress. Meanwhile, gift wrapping tops the list of Christmas traditions that secretly drive people mad (19%), followed by the post-Christmas clean up (19%) and gift buying (17%).

The Top Ten Christmas Traditions Driving Brits Mad

Christmas gift-wrapping - 19% Post-Christmas clean up - 19% Christmas gift buying - 17% Cooking for everyone - 16% Decorating the tree - 14% Visiting multiple relatives in one day - 13% Matching pyjamas or outfits - 11% Early wake ups (due to kids or travel commitments) - 9% Office or neighbourhood parties - 8% Christmas board games - 6%

When it comes to gift giving, a third of Brits (34%) have revealed they would prefer to receive the gift of time - either for themselves or with loved ones - instead of physical gifts. And while 7% of men admit to leaving their gift shopping until the week before Christmas, only 3% of women do the same. Interestingly, it's Gen Z who are the most organised, with 8% getting their gifts sorted as early as six months in advance.



Ragdale Hall Spa's top tips for reducing festive stress...

The Double Inhale Reset - "Take one deep inhale through your nose - then a second, tiny top-up breath before a long, slow exhale. This simple 'physiological sigh' instantly signals safety to the body. It's like a micro massage for your nervous system."

Palm-to-Forehead Press - "Warm your hands, place one on your forehead, the other at the base of your skull. Close your eyes for a few slow breaths. It quiets the overthinking zone of the brain - a secret spa hold you can do in the bathroom at Christmas lunch."

Herbal Inhale - "Keep a small sachet of dried rosemary, chamomile, or lavender in your pocket or bag. When things feel tense, inhale deeply. This works because scent directly accesses the limbic system (your emotional centre in the brain) grounding you faster than words."

Ragdale Hall Spa offers gift vouchers for those looking to give the gift of relaxation this Christmas.

Ragdale Gift Vouchers - Ragdale Hall Spa

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/festive-freak-out-over-half-of-brits-say-christmas-is-more-stress-than-sparkle-302630800.html
They provided risk projections for managers to choose, the chosen 20% TAC reduction yields 0% probability of overfishing

Under the 2020 ERP definitions, Atlantic menhaden are not overfished and overfishing is not occurring. For 2023, fecundity is on the order of 1.2 quadrillion eggs (above the ERP fecundity threshold but below the target) and fishing mortality is about 0.26 (above the ERP F-target but still below the ERP F-threshold). The overview also makes clear there is no single "right" ERP; selecting ERP targets and thresholds is a management choice that balances objectives for menhaden and their predators.

The 2025 single-species update applied a lower estimate of natural mortality (M). That change lowers the back-calculated biomass, fecundity, and recruitment across the time series and raises the corresponding fishing mortality (F) estimates, even though the underlying population did not suddenly decline. Because of the revised M, the 2025 assessment's long-term average biomass is about a third lower than the 2022 update's average; this reflects an improved understanding of the stock rather than a real-time drop in the stock itself.

The 2025 update shows that the biomass of age-1+ menhaden is just below its 20-year average but has been trending up since 2021.

Adult abundance in 2023 was 14.8 billion age-1+ fish, above the average of the past 20 years.

Recruitment in 2023 was 44.5 billion age-0 fish, above the average of the past 20 years.

WASHINGTON, DC / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / In the weeks since the 2025 ASMFC Annual Meeting, there's been a widespread misconception circulated by environmental and recreational fishing groups that the ASMFC Menhaden Board's technical and scientific advisors "recommended" a 50% or 54% cut" (to 108,450 mt) to the Atlantic menhaden total allowable catch (TAC), and that the Commission ignored those recommendations. That is not the case. Rather, scientists ran a set of "if-then" scenarios for managers. There were no recommendations of preferred TAC made. The Technical Committee and the ERP Working Group supply projections and risk information; the commissioners decide policy.

The American Sportfishing Association (ASA), in an article by Rob Shane titled "Mixed Results from 2025 ASMFC Annual Meeting," states that "recent peer-reviewed science recommended a 54% quota cut" for Atlantic menhaden.

The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) press release "Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's Annual Meeting Ends with Mixed Results for Recreational Anglers" similarly says the Board implemented only a 20 percent reduction "despite peer-reviewed research recommending a 54% cut to the commercial quota".

The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership has repeatedly asserted that "slashing the coastwide catch limit by more than half" or "more than 50 percent" is needed to follow the science in "Menhaden Stock Assessment Indicates Catch Must Be Reduced to Benefit Striped Bass" and again in "Marine Fisheries Board Declines to Make Science-Based Reduction to Atlantic Menhaden Catch Limit" .

The American Saltwater Guides Association went further, urging "massive reductions" and telling readers that "the bottom line is we need a 55% reduction in the TAC for Atlantic menhaden" in "Take The Cut: Massive Reductions for Menhaden Industry Necessary").

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation , in a press release by Vanessa Remmers titled "Menhaden Management Meeting Results in Lackluster Coastwide Catch Reductions" , told supporters that "The ASMFC menhaden stock assessments resulted in forecasts indicating the need for a 54 percent cut to the menhaden harvest to meet the needs of predators like striped bass, osprey, and marine mammals."

Jim McDuffie, President and CEO of Bonefish and Tarpon Trust , in a press statement said: "While today's vote resulted in a 20% reduction, it was far short of the reduction recommended by the Commission's own scientists.

The International Game Fish Association inaccurately stated in a press release that "scientists said that a quota of 108,000 MT was necessary to have a 50% chance of success of rebuilding the striped bass fishery."

Sport Fishing magazine amplified the same narrative, reporting that ASMFC "implemented a 20 percent cut to the Atlantic commercial menhaden harvest, when peer-reviewed science recommended a 54 percent quota cut, according to an ASA press release" in Nick Carter's "Anglers Frustrated with Menhaden Management".

A Washington Post guest essay "It's the 'most important fish in the sea.' And it's disappearing." by Mark Robichaux, framed the controversy around the idea that managers failed to adopt the deep cuts "scientists recommend" to protect striped bass and other predators (Washington Post Opinions: Guest Opinions, Nov. 20, 2025 - a full-text mirror is here .

A thorough review of all the meeting materials and reports, and of the entire recording of the meeting available online, shows there is nowhere where the Technical Committee (TC) or the ERP Working Group "recommends" a 54% cut, or any specific TAC. Staff consistently present options and risks at the Board's request, not a recommendation. The only time a 54% cut is presented as a recommendation is when Commissioner Matt Gates of Connecticut incorrectly described the option provided at the Board's request as a recommendation. His motion reads: "I would like to make the motion for the TAC recommended in the TC and working groups memo that achieves a 50% probability of achieving the ecological reference point F target move to set the TAC at 108,450 metric tons."

The TC and Working Group staff members produced exactly what the Board asked for. At the Spring 2025 meeting of the Menhaden management board, "The Board requested the projections include the TACs associated with a 40-60% probability of exceeding the ERP F target for 2026-2028 combined and as separate years, and the percent risk of exceeding the ERP F target and threshold for nine different TACs ranging from -20% to +20% of the current TAC in 5% increments when it considers specifications for the next one to three years at the Annual Meeting." ( 2025 Spring Meeting Summary p.15 ).

This request resulted in tables showing TAC options tied to specified probabilities of exceeding the ERP F-target (and the chance of exceeding the overfishing threshold) across TACs. Those summary tables were explicitly referenced during debate as "tables four and five PDF pages 68, 69 of the board material." Those tables included all the projections requestedincluding the TACs associated with a 40-60% probability of exceeding the ERP F target for 2026-2028 one of which was the projection for a TAC of 108,450. None of those projections were "recommended"

Responding to what they referred to as "a lot of stakeholder discussion," including the false claim that the biomass decreased, the ASMFC issued a fact-check "FAQ" shortly after the meeting noting that what changed was the understanding of natural mortality - how many fish die in a year - not the size of the stock.

"The difference in the population estimates from the 2022 and 2025 assessments is primarily due to a change in the estimate of natural mortality, which affects our estimates of the overall size of the stock. .... The average menhaden biomass over the whole time-series [since 1955] from the 2025 assessment update is 37% lower than the average biomass from the 2022 update. However, the 2025 update indicates total biomass has slightly increased since 2021. The lower estimate of biomass from the current assessment compared to the previous assessment is a result of a change in our understanding of the stock rather than a change in the stock itself." (ASMFC, November 2025, Menhaden FAQ)

Several recreational and environmental groups criticized the consideration of economic factors and potential job loss in the decision made by the Menhaden Management Board. This ignores the fact that Section 6(a) of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Interstate Fisheries Management Program Charter requires that social and economic factors be considered.

"The Commission recognizes that an effective fishery management program must be carefully designed in order to fully reflect the varying values and other considerations that are important to the various interest groups involved in coastal fisheries. Social and economic impacts and benefits must be taken into account (ASMFC, 2019, ISMFP Charter)

This analysis examines what actually happened in the meeting, and reviews what the Technical Committee and ERP Working Group actually did and said. These are the documents and recordings used in the preparation of this analysis, and we invite any journalist, scientist or member of the public to review the documents and our analysis for factual accuracy.

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. (2025, May). 2025 spring meeting summary . https://asmfc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025SpringMeetingSummary.pdf

ASMFCvideos. (2025, October 31). Atlantic Menhaden Board Proceedings October 2025 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNB2rnpoqJc

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. (2025, November). 2025 Atlantic menhaden single-species assessment update (October 2025) . https://asmfc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/2025AtlMenhadenSingleSpeciesAssmtUpdate_October2025.pdf

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. (2025, November). Menhaden FAQ (October 2025) . https://asmfc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Menhaden-FAQ-Oct2025.pdf

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. (2025, November). Atlantic menhaden assessments overview (October 2025) [Word document]. https://asmfc.org/resources/stock-assessment/overview-of-atlantic-menhaden-assessment-update-erp-benchmark-stock-assessment-2025/

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. (2020, February). Atlantic Menhaden Board proceedings (February 2020) . https://asmfc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/AtlMenhadenBoardProceedingsFeb2020.pdf

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. (2019, August). Interstate Fisheries Management Program (ISFMP) charter. https://asmfc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/ISFMPCharter_Aug2019-2.pdf

We express our appreciation to the ASMFC for issuing the above-referenced Menhaden FAQ and Atlantic Menhaden Assessments Overview to address misunderstandings of the findings of the single-species assessment update and Ecological Reference Point Benchmark Stock Assessment, as well as the Board's response to the assessments' findings.

What happened in the meeting

During the meeting neither the Technical Committee (TC) nor the ERP Working Group members or staff recommend a specific TAC. In the meeting, the representatives repeatedly framed their role as providing the projections the Board asked for so commissioners could choose their acceptable risk. Ms. Caitlin Craig, Chair, Menhaden Technical Committee, explained this work was performed at the Board's direction: "At the spring meeting, the board requested that the projections include the TACs associated with a 40 to 60% probability of exceeding the ERP target and then the percent risk of exceeding the ERP target and threshold for nine different TACs ranging from negative 20% to positive 20% of the current TAC." She reminded commissioners "In setting TAC, the board should consider what level of risk they are willing to accept."

Technical Committee (TC) members and staff also explained exactly how to read the tables, again, as options the Board could pick from, not recommendations. Ms. Craig told the Board, "You would pick the TAC that would result in no more than X percent probability of exceeding the F target in any year and the 50 percent probability is bolded for reference." In the same presentation, she reiterated these were the "scenario runs that were requested by the board," after which "we'll present the table of results of all the scenarios." Commissioners themselves pointed to the packet tables as reference material, "tables four and five in the projections memo PDF pages 68, 69 of the board material", further underscoring that staff were furnishing information, not prescribing an action.

The only place staff used "recommend" in this meeting was about which model to use for developing advice, not about any TAC. Dr. Matt Cieri, Marine Scientist, Stock Assessment Subcommittee, reviewed model choices and said the NWACS-MICE "is the model that we're recommending for developing management advice," and described other models as not recommended or only for support.

Against that backdrop, when Commissioner Gates of Connecticut, made his motion and referred to the "TAC recommended in the TC", he misspoke. The meeting recording shows the TC did not recommend a TAC; they provided risk-based choices including the 50% option.

Put simply: the TC and Working Group supplied a menu of TAC options and the associated probabilities the Board requested; they did not tell the Board which TAC to choose. Commissioner Gates' phrasing ("TAC recommended") does not match what staff said or did in the meeting record.

The ERP toolkit, NWACS-MICE alongside the single-species BAM model, lets managers and stakeholders weigh trade-offs between menhaden harvest, predator harvest, and resulting predator biomass to set final ERP targets/thresholds and, from there, the TAC. The familiar "rainbow" surface plot is simply a visualization of those trade-offs: if striped-bass F rises, menhaden F typically must fall to deliver the same striped-bass biomass outcome, and vice versa.

Ms. Caitlin Craig, Chair, Menhaden Technical Committee, framed choices and risk tolerance

Ms. Craig opened the projections item by reiterating how TACs are set and where the Board's judgment comes in: "the board has used the best available science In setting TAC, the board should consider what level of risk they are willing to accept." She immediately linked the analysis to prior Board direction: "At the spring meeting, the board requested that the projections include the TACs associated with a 40 to 60% probability of exceeding the ERP target and then the percent risk of exceeding the ERP target and threshold for nine different TACs ranging from negative 20% to positive 20% of the current TAC."

To help commissioners use the packet, Ms. Craig explained, "you would pick the TAC that would result in no more than X percent probability of exceeding the F target in any year and the 50 percent probability is bolded for reference," and reminded them these were "scenario runs that were requested by the board," followed by a table "of all the scenarios." During debate, packet locations were cited, "tables four and five in the projections memo PDF pages 68, 69 of the board material", underscoring these were reference materials, not prescriptions.

Why it matters: Staff plainly presented options with associated probabilities and told the Board to choose its acceptable risk; that is not a staff TAC "recommendation."

Dr. Katie Drew, Stock Assessment Scientist, Stock Assessment Subcommittee, ASMFC staff, explained ERPs are long-term reference points; striped bass are being fished below F-target while rebuilding

Dr. Drew clarified that ERP tools are "at equilibrium" and not designed for short-term status triggers: "This isn't short-term sort of decision-making. And that's why the ERPs are designed to be your reference points, not your stock status determination criteria." She detailed why striped bass must be fished more conservatively while rebuilding: "we actually have to fish them below their F target we have a deadline of 2029 your F rebuild can be different than your F target."

On current conditions, Dr. Drew added: "Right now we are, for menhaden, we're a little bit above that fecundity threshold. So that suggests that there is currently enough menhaden to sustain striped bass where they are right now The fishing mortality on striped bass is lower in 2024 and probably 2025 below that F target."

Why it matters: If ERPs are long-term tools and striped bass are being fished below their F-target during rebuild, a one-year 54% menhaden cut aimed at the ERP F-target would have been a policy choice, not a scientific requirement to prevent overfishing.

Dr. Matt Cieri, Marine Scientist, Stock Assessment Subcommittee, showed multiple pathways to the striped-bass goal; model recommendation was about methods, not TACs

Dr. Cieri walked commissioners through the "rainbow plot," emphasizing there are many menhaden/striped-bass F combinations that reach the striped-bass objective: "there's many different combinations of striped bass F and menhaden F that can get you to your goal of striped bass at its target or above. Higher menhaden Fs require, therefore, lower striped bass Fs and vice versa." He noted striped-bass F was already reduced in 2024 and that holding both species at those equilibrium Fs would place "striped bass at its target or above."

He also reiterated control-rule definitions: an ERP "target allows striped bass to stay at their biomass target when striped bass are fished at their F target You can also define an ERP threshold that keeps striped bass at its threshold when fished at its target." Regarding methods, he said the NWACSMICE model "is the model that we're recommending for developing management advice," while other models were not recommended or only for support.

In implementation, NWACS-MICE is used together with BAM to translate ERP risk choices into an annual TAC and to check status relative to ERP targets and thresholds. The "rainbow" surface plot visualizes those trade-offs; if striped-bass F goes up, menhaden F generally must come down to reach the same striped-bass biomass outcome (and the reverse is also true).

Why it matters: The "recommendation" language was about modeling tools, not a TAC. And the trade-off plot shows a spectrum of viable TAC choices depending on striped-bass fishing policy, again, options, not a mandate for a 54% cut.

Ms. Craig read the headline probabilities into the record; staff later "filled the gap" with 30% and 40% cuts, still 0% overfishing risk

On status-quo TAC, Ms. Craig reported "100% probability of being above the F target and a 4% chance of exceeding the F threshold by 2028," plus "50% probability of being below the fecundity target and an 8% chance of being below the fecundity threshold." She described the "50%-probability" band as "108,450 to 124,800 metric tons 50% probability of exceeding the ERP F target and a 0% probability of exceeding the F threshold." She then walked the Board through how to use the table: "you would pick the TAC that would result in no more than X percent probability of exceeding the F target the 50 percent probability is bolded for reference."

At commissioners' request to "fill the gap" between tables, staff presented additional slides: for a 30% reduction, "0% probability of exceeding the F threshold across all three years," and for a 40% reduction, "again, a 0% probability of exceeding the F threshold [with] the probability of falling below the ERP fecundity threshold about 1 or 2%." Ms. Craig also noted: "in some scenarios, striped bass can rebuild above their SSB target even under higher levels of menhaden F."

Why it matters: Even 30-40% cuts have 0% overfishing risk; the issue is how much extra risk reduction the Board wants relative to the target. The threshold (overfishing line) wasn't being crossed in these scenarios, underscoring that a 54% cut was not biologically necessary to avoid overfishing.

What the adopted 20% reduction does (and how it compares), Mr. Joe Grist, Commissioner, Virginia

When Mr. Joe Grist made the motion for a 20% reduction, he framed it as a balanced policy choice. He underscored the stock's assessment pedigree and status: "Overfishing is not occurring. The stock is not overfished. Both the single species assessment and ecosystem assessment have passed the peer review for this."

He then read the projection results into the record to show why a 20% reduction was sufficient on biological risk: "the proposed TAC is associated with a 0% probability of exceeding the ERP fishing mortality threshold in 2026 through 2028, and a low 2% to 4% probability of falling below the ERP fecundity threshold during the same period." For packet navigation he added, "For reference, you can see tables four and five in the projections memo or the PDF pages 68, 69 of the board material."

Mr. Grist also described the federal risk-policy context and contrasted the 20% motion with the ~54% ("50%-to-target") option: even at ~54%, the fecundity-threshold probabilities would be "2% in 2026 and 1% in 2027 and 2028, which is only a 3% change from the 20% [reduction]."

Finally, he described the socioeconomic stakes and his intent to balance them with ecological risk: "To reduce any further than 20% [would] put at risk directly or indirectly, hundreds if not thousands of American jobs across several states. It will also result in the decrease of supply and increase in prices This motion is made to balance the ecological concerns as well as the socioeconomic issues."

Why it matters: The adopted TAC (-20%) yields 0% probability of overfishing (ERP F-threshold) and nearly identical fecundity-threshold risk to a ~54% cut, while avoiding disproportionate socioeconomic harm. That is consistent with Dr. Drew and Dr. Cieri's explanation that ERPs are long-term tools and multiple policy paths exist to achieve striped-bass objectives. The consideration of socioeconomic stakes takes into account the requirement under Section 6(a) of the ASMFC ISFMP Charter to consider "social and economic factors".

Understanding the Reports of the Technical Committee and the ERP Working Group

Targets vs. Thresholds: What Really Tells You If You're Managing "Right"?

Much of the confusion comes from mixing up four different reference points used in modern fisheries management:

The ERP F and FEC target, and

The ERP F and FEC threshold.

They are not the same thing, and they don't play the same role.

ERP Target: The "Ideal World" Goal

The Ecosystem Reference Point (ERP) target for menhaden is:

Precautionary and aspirational by design.

It assumes that predators, especially striped bass, are at or near their own biomass targets , even though striped bass are currently overfished.

It's essentially a benchmark for a fully rebuilt, future ecosystem where everything is in good shape.

In other words, the target answers the question: "If predators were fully recovered and we wanted to be very conservative, where would we like menhaden to be?" Many well-managed fisheries around the world have similar "targets", they are something to aim toward over time, and a signal that things are going well. But you don't shut down a fishery every time the stock sits somewhere below the ideal target but still safely above the danger zone.

ERP F Threshold: The "Danger Line" That Actually Governs Risk

The ERP F Threshold, by contrast, is the critical line:

It is the minimum level needed to make sure there are enough menhaden in the water to feed the predators that exist today, not a hypothetical future predator population.

It's the point above which managers say, "We are not comfortable going."

So, if you want to know whether the fishery is being managed responsibly, in terms of both the menhaden stock and the predators that depend on it, the threshold is what matters most.

Staying below the ERP F threshold means the stock is being managed correctly for predators and for the fishery (overfishing is not occurring).

Crossing below the ERP FEC threshold is when you are in the danger zone the stock is overfished).

This targets-and-thresholds framework is not unique to menhaden. Other successfully managed fisheries, like major U.S. groundfish and scallop fisheries, use a very similar system:

A target where they'd like to operate under good conditions, and

A threshold or limit reference point they must not cross.

No one claims that every time the stock isn't right on the target, managers have "failed." The focus is on staying safely below the ERP F threshold and above the ERP FEC threshold.

So, What Did Managers Actually Do with Menhaden?

The Commission has been managing menhaden for years under an ecosystem approach that explicitly considers striped bass as the key predator and a stand-in for the wider predator community. Within that framework, managers recently adjusted their policy about how close to the ERP target they want to manage, based on new scientific information and updated estimates of natural mortality. That policy change has been mischaracterized as "ignoring a 50% cut recommendation," but that's not what happened.

Here's the important part:

They did not abandon conservative management.

They chose a TAC that keeps menhaden safely below the ERP F threshold, the line that tells you whether you're providing enough forage for predators and maintaining a healthy stock.

Put bluntly:

The current TAC is not scraping the bottom. It is set so the fishery operates with a 0% modeled probability of crossing the ERP F threshold. That's a very strong standard of protection for predators and the stock.On top of this, the TAC also passes other biological tests, including fecundity (egg production). The probability of falling below the fecundity threshold is very low, which means the stock remains capable of replacing itself and sustaining harvest into the future through sufficient egg production.

Still Enough Menhaden to Feed Striped Bass

A key question for reporters, policymakers, and the public is: "Are we leaving enough menhaden in the water to feed striped bass and other predators?" Under the current TAC, the answer, according to the same ecosystem model everyone cites, is yes:

The fishery is managed so that menhaden biomass remains above the ERP FEC threshold, which is expressly designed to ensure adequate forage for current predator populations.

That threshold is what tells you whether you are managing correctly for predators.

The ERP target assumes a world where striped bass themselves have been rebuilt and are being managed conservatively. Right now, that is not the world we live in. Striped bass are overfished. In that context, the menhaden fishery is being managed more conservatively than the predator fishery. Under that precaution, the science says we are:

Protecting predators by staying above the ERP FEC threshold, or below the ERP F threshold and

Allowing a responsible, working menhaden fishery to continue supporting coastal jobs and communities.

What the "Rainbow Plot" Actually Shows

A lot of confusion has also centered on the so-called "rainbow plot" from the ERP assessment. That plot has been waved around as if it proves menhaden fishing is too high. The Technical Committee's own explanation makes clear that it shows something much more basic: for striped bass to reach their own biomass goals, striped bass fishing mortality must come down, no matter what you do with menhaden.

In simple terms, the rainbow plot is a three-dimensional picture flattened into two dimensions:

The x-axis is fishing mortality on menhaden.

The y-axis is fishing mortality on striped bass.

The colors (and the two heavy black curves) represent the third dimension: the long-term striped bass spawning stock biomass (SSB).

The Technical Committee explained that the two heavy black lines trace the combinations of striped bass F and menhaden F that would, over the long term, produce:

Striped bass at their SSB target (the lower heavy line), or

Striped bass at their SSB threshold (the upper heavy line).

A few examples from their explanation make the point very clearly:

If you set menhaden F = 0 (no menhaden fishing at all), striped bass F still must be around 0.18-0.21 to reach their SSB target or threshold.

If you allow higher menhaden F (for example, around 1.3, toward the right side of the plot), striped bass F must be even lower, around 0.10-0.13, to reach the same striped bass SSB target or threshold.

In other words, the plot is not saying, "Menhaden fishing is too high." It is saying: "For striped bass to get back to their biomass target or threshold, you must reduce striped bass fishing mortality. Cutting menhaden alone, even to zero, does not magically fix striped bass." That is perfectly consistent with what Dr. Katie Drew told the Board in 2020: you have to adjust all of them at once, and "if you don't adjust the striped bass fishing mortality nothing you do to menhaden will bring that population back." The rainbow plot is a visual representation of that same point. So, when you put the ERP framework and the rainbow plot together, the message is straightforward:

Menhaden is already being kept safely below its ERP F threshold, ensuring there is enough forage in the water and overfishing is not occurring.

The rainbow plot confirms that striped bass rebuilding hinges on striped bass management, not on ever-deeper cuts to a well-managed menhaden fishery.

Striped Bass: A Different Level of Risk-Averse Management

One piece that often gets left out of the public discussion is striped-bass and menhaden are managed with different levels of risk-averse management. At the time ASMFC adopted the ecosystem reference point (ERP) framework, striped bass was both overfished and experiencing overfishing, while Atlantic menhaden was not overfished and not experiencing overfishing. That is not a menhaden-industry talking point; it is what the Commission's own scientists told the Menhaden Board.

During the February 2020 ERP presentation, Dr. Katie Drew, the ASMFC scientist leading much of the ERP work, explained to the Board that you cannot fix striped bass simply by cutting menhaden harvest while leaving striped bass fishing mortality untouched. As she put it, the key is that "you have to adjust all of them at once. Right now, part of the reason striped bass is experiencing overfishing, and as the heat map showed, that rainbow plot showed, if you don't adjust the striped bass fishing mortality nothing you do to menhaden will bring that population back. I think we need to adjust both of them together." That is the opposite of the narrative being pushed in many press releases and op-eds. The science says:

Striped bass is overfished and has been overfished because of striped bass fishing mortality and weak recruitment.

Menhaden is not driving striped bass problems, and no amount of menhaden cuts can rebuild striped bass unless managers elect to bring striped bass fishing mortality down.

In plain language: The problem in the striped bass fishery is striped bass fishing, not a shortage of menhaden, coupled with poor recruitment, which is due to environmental factors. Yet in practice, ASMFC has applied maximum precaution to menhaden, keeping the menhaden stock safely below its ERP F threshold and maintaining very low odds of breaching biological limits, while allowing much higher risk in striped bass management, even as their own scientists have made critical suggestions for management with a 50% probability of the species being restored by 2029.

This creates a basic inconsistency:

Menhaden is being held well below its ERP F threshold (no overfishing) and above its ERP FEC threshold (not overfished), the line that tells you whether predators will have enough to eat.

Striped bass, the predator that is supposedly "protected" by cutting menhaden, has not been managed to the same conservative standard and has repeatedly exceeded its own fishing mortality benchmarks.

If you are going to claim an ecosystem-based approach, you cannot use menhaden as the only safety valve. The whole logic of the ERP model is that menhaden and striped bass are linked. That means:

You cannot run a "hyper-precautionary" policy for menhaden while tolerating high risk for striped bass and then blame menhaden for striped bass problems.

To be scientifically consistent, both species need to be managed in line with their thresholds and rebuilding plans, not just menhaden.

The bottom line is simple:

The menhaden fishery is already being managed with strong precaution below the ERP F threshold, ensuring enough forage for predators.

Striped bass management is not as risk-averse, and ASMFC's own scientists have said that without reducing striped bass fishing mortality, changes to menhaden alone cannot rebuild striped bass.

Any claim that "saving striped bass" requires massive new cuts to a well-managed menhaden fishery, while leaving striped bass management largely unchanged, is not ecosystem science, its politics dressed up as science.

How Uncertainty Is Accounted For, and Why That's Good News for Menhaden and Predators

Fisheries science is never 100% certain. That's why the menhaden framework builds layers of precaution into the system:

Conservative reference points The ERP threshold itself is designed conservatively to protect predators under uncertainty.

The target is even more conservative, essentially an "ideal case" for a future, fully rebuilt predator community. Probability-based decision tools Instead of pretending they know everything exactly, scientists provide ranges of TAC options tied to different probabilities.

Managers can then choose how cautious they want to be, for example, ensuring 0% modeled probability of crossing the threshold. Multiple biological safeguards Managers don't rely on just one signal. They cross-check TAC decisions against fecundity, stock status, and other reference points.

The current TAC keeps menhaden well within safe biological limits across these measures.

The takeaway is this:

The menhaden fishery is not being pushed to the edge.

The TAC is set inside a clearly defined safety zone, with explicit buffers to account for uncertainty.

The system is constructed so that if we ever do start approaching the ERP F threshold, there are clear signals to adjust course.

Bottom Line: For anyone trying to make sense of the noise around menhaden:

No ASMFC scientist or staff member ever recommended a 50% or 54% cut to the TAC. They provided Board-requested projections with risk bands so commissioners could choose their acceptable risk; the ~54% figure came from one hypothetical scenario, not a recommendation.

That ~54% figure was a policy motion to target a 50% chance of meeting the ERP F-target, not a scientific requirement to avoid overfishing.

Management is via ERPs that protect predators (especially striped bass), and the key line is the threshold.Operating between target and threshold is normal in well-managed fisheries; the current TAC stays safely below the ERP F-threshold (avoiding overfishing) and safely above the ERP FEC threshold (not overfished).

The adopted 20% TAC (186,840 mt) is biologically conservative: 0% probability of exceeding the ERP F-threshold (no overfishing) in 2026-2028, and only 2-4% risk of dipping below the fecundity threshold, nearly indistinguishable from a ~54% cut on that metric.

ERPs are long-term, equilibrium tools. Striped bass are rebuilding with F below target, and staff noted there is "currently enough menhaden to sustain striped bass where they are right now," with rebuild possible "even under higher levels of menhaden F" in some scenarios.

Managers retain flexibility: the Board can revisit ERP targets/thresholds using the 2025 benchmark tools if objectives or conditions change.

Glossary

Models

NWACS MICE model , A model-of-intermediate-complexity ecosystem tool used to develop menhaden management advice while capturing key predator-prey dynamics.

NWACS full model , A more complex, comprehensive ecosystem model used mainly for support and sensitivity checks because of its size and data demands.

VADER , An alternative multispecies model that wasn't adopted for advice because it struggled to represent productivity ("bottom-up") effects reliably.

BAM , The single-species Atlantic menhaden stock assessment model used for status determinations and short-term projections.

Technical terms

TAC (Total Allowable Catch) , The coastwide catch cap (in metric tons) that managers set for a given period.

ERP (Ecological Reference Points) , Ecosystem-aware benchmarks (targets and thresholds) that account for predators and the broader food web to guide TAC decisions.

ERP F-target , The ecosystem fishing-mortality level on menhaden intended to keep striped bass at their biomass target (assuming bass are fished at their own F-target).

ERP F-threshold , The ecosystem fishing-mortality level on menhaden associated with striped bass staying above their biomass threshold (again assuming bass at their F-target).

F (fishing mortality) , The share of fish lost to fishing; a measure of fishing pressure.

Striped bass F-target , The long-term fishing-mortality level managers aim to apply to striped bass under normal (non-rebuilding) conditions.

Fecundity target / fecundity threshold , Benchmarks for expected egg production (long-term average) corresponding to the ERP F-target and F-threshold, respectively.

SSB target (spawning stock biomass target) , The biomass goal for mature striped bass that management aims to achieve or exceed.

Control rules / ABC framework , Risk-based guidelines that translate stock status and uncertainty into allowable catches to control the probability of overfishing.

Equilibrium (ERP context) , A long-run steady state where fishing mortality and stock size are held constant to evaluate outcomes.

"Rainbow plot" , A visual showing many combinations of striped-bass F and menhaden F that achieve different targets/thresholds, highlighting trade-offs.

Bottom-up processes , Changes in lower-trophic-level productivity (e.g., plankton/forage availability) that ripple upward to affect predator populations.

Predator-prey sensitivity (spiny dogfish-striped bass) , The model's responsiveness to assumptions about how predators (e.g., dogfish, striped bass) consume menhaden.

F rebuild , A temporarily lower fishing-mortality level applied to a stock so it can recover to its biomass target by a set deadline.

SEDAR (Southeast Data, Assessment, and Review) , The cooperative process used to develop and peer-review stock assessments.

Biomass , The total weight of fish in the water.

M (natural mortality) , The share of fish lost to non-fishing causes (predation, disease, etc.).

Recruitment , The number of young fish that survive to join the fishable population.

About the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition

The Menhaden Fisheries Coalition (MFC) is a collective of menhaden fishermen, related businesses, and supporting industries. Comprised of businesses along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition conducts media and public outreach on behalf of the menhaden industry to ensure that members of the public, media, and government are informed of important issues, events, and facts about the fishery.

Press Contact

Menhaden Fisheries Coalition

(202) 595-1212

www.menhaden.org

SOURCE: Menhaden Fisheries Coalition

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/food-and-beverage-products/scientists-did-not-recommend-a-54-cut-to-the-atlantic-menhaden-fishery-1113951
Victoria, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - December 2, 2025) - ALUULA Composites .Inc. (TSXV: AUUA) ("ALUULA" or the "Company") today announced the execution of a binding supply purchase agreement, effective January 1st, 2026, with OCEANICWING SAS, operating under the commercial name Airseas and owned by a major international shipping company. The twelve-month purchase agreement guarantees Airseas a continued supply of ALUULA's composite materials for constructing Airseas' Seawing system to meet key objectives and deadlines in the next phase of its development.

Airseas is a leading company developing and commercializing a towing kite system to harness wind power for cargo vessel transportation. The Seawing uses automated parafoil kite wings to tow cargo ships and can reach dynamic flight speeds of 150 km/h, with an estimated 20% fuel savings and associated emission reductions. During Phase 1 of Seawing's development and verification, ALUULA's materials were used to construct a 300-square-meter kite, which was successfully tested in June 2025. Phase 2 is now underway, and the size of a Seawing kite has been scaled to 600 square meters, with the first large kite having been successfully constructed. The kite will be tested and verified for strength, reliability, operability, and safety. Following successful land-based testing, sea trials are planned in 2026 with a large bulk carrier.

The companies have entered into a supply agreement to secure ALUULA's composite fabrics for the next phase of the Seawing system's development. The purchase agreement sets fixed prices for Airseas and covers minimum material purchase volumes while also including updated payment terms. The agreement enables better coordination in ordering input materials and scheduling ALUULA's production. This ensures Airseas can meet its timelines during this critical development stage as it progresses toward full-scale commercialization.

Building on sustainable innovation

"We are proud to be able to work with Airseas, united by a joint vision to accelerate sustainable innovation. By pioneering high performance, ultra-light, and recycle-ready composite fabrics, we are helping Airseas, and other companies, to establish new standards that will shape the future of the shipping industry, towards decarbonization" said Sage Berryman, CEO and President of ALUULA.

Cutting-edge materials engineered for the ocean

ALUULA's patented materials are built around ultra-high molecular weight fibers that are known to be eight times stronger than steel for equivalent weight and are recycle-ready. They are designed to meet the rigorous demands of wind propulsion at sea-strong, lightweight, and high performance even under extreme UV exposure and saltwater conditions. Unlike traditional glued composites that risk delamination, ALUULA's materials are engineered for durability and long-lasting use. They are recyclable at the end of their lifespan, supporting the global need for fully circular maritime solutions.

About Airseas

Airseas, now owned by OCEANICWING SAS (a subsidiary of a major shipping company) a pioneering maritime technology company specializing in wind propulsion for the shipping industry. Airseas was founded in 2016 by aeronautical engineers with the mission to accelerate the decarbonization of global maritime transport through technological innovation. The company's flagship Seawing system, a fully automated kite propulsion technology, dramatically reduces fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by harnessing wind power for both newbuild and retrofit commercial ships.

About ALUULA Composites

ALUULA is an ultra-light, high performance and recycle-ready composite materials brand that enhances the performance of outdoor gear. Proudly manufactured on the Canadian west coast, ALUULA's innovation is driven by a deep understanding that equipment does not need to sacrifice performance for sustainability. ALUULA's materials are known for their unique construction capabilities and their ability to make products lighter, stronger, and more sustainable.

aluula.com | TSXV: AUUA

ALUULA's Brand Partners

The term "brand partners" does not refer to formal partnerships with our customers. The term refers to marketing relationships with our customers who use ALUULA's technology as a brand ingredient in their products.

TSX Venture Exchange

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

The information in this news release includes certain information and statements about management's view of future events, expectations, plans, and prospects that constitute forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to the agreement with Airseas, Phase 2 development of Seawing, and purchases by Airseas of ALUULA'S materials. These statements are based on assumptions subject to risks and uncertainties as described in the Company's management discussion and analysis. Because of these risks and uncertainties, and because of a variety of factors, including the project's actual results, expectations, achievements, or performance, may differ materially from those anticipated and indicated by these forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurances that the expectations of any forward-looking statement will prove to be correct. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, changes in factors affecting such forward-looking statements, or otherwise.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/276648

SOURCE: ALUULA Composites Inc.
Strengthens Trane Technologies' leadership in data center thermal management solutions, while accelerating growth, innovation, and scale for Stellar Energy Digital

Trane Technologies (NYSE: TT), a global climate innovator, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Stellar Energy International, Ltd. to acquire the Stellar Energy Digital business ("Stellar Energy"), a leading provider of turnkey liquid-to-chip data center cooling solutions.

Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, Stellar Energy designs and builds modular cooling plants, central utility plants and coolant distribution units for liquid-cooled data centers and other complex corporate enterprises. Stellar Energy's expertise in modular data center solutions is well-positioned to address the growing demand for pre-fabricated cooling systems and other critical equipment, which reduce supply chain constraints and enable rapid, scalable deployment.

The acquisition will include Stellar Energy's existing Digital business operations, including two assembly operations in Jacksonville, Florida, and its highly skilled team of approximately 700 employees.

The acquisition further bolsters Trane Technologies' leadership and capabilities in the high growth data center thermal management solutions market and creates opportunities to grow and scale the Stellar Energy business and leverage their expertise in modular design, engineering and assembly across numerous core commercial verticals.

"The data center ecosystem is growing rapidly and evolving toward more agile, sustainable solutions, which is where Stellar Energy excels with leading co-engineered, modular solutions and a proven business model," said Karin De Bondt, Chief Strategy Officer, Trane Technologies. "We are delighted to welcome the talented Stellar Energy Digital team as we jointly expand our leadership and commitment to this critical sector and other commercial applications. Together we are well-positioned to expand our capabilities and offerings and create long-term customer and shareholder value."

Upon completion, Stellar Energy's Digital business will operate within the Commercial HVAC business unit of the Trane Technologies Americas segment, retaining its brand, OEM-agnostic direct-to-customer sales model, and existing customer relationships.

"We look forward to welcoming the Stellar Energy Digital team as we serve the critical and fast-growing data center market as a trusted, long-term partner for holistic and sustainable thermal management solutions," said Holly Paeper, President, Commercial HVAC Americas, Trane Technologies. "Together we will continue to deliver innovative, industry-leading thermal management solutions and services that help our respective customers achieve their growth, efficiency, and sustainability objectives."

"This marks an exciting next chapter for Stellar Energy and our talented teams," said Peter Gibson, Executive Chairman, Stellar Energy International, Ltd. "Transitioning the Digital business to Trane Technologies positions the business for significant growth and continued excellence, while our existing customers will benefit from expanded services and resources. We've worked closely and successfully with Trane Technologies for many years, and I am confident Stellar Energy's powerful combination of bespoke solutions and scalable expertise will thrive within Trane Technologies."

This bolt-on acquisition follows Trane Technologies' proven model of adding leading technologies that augment its core business and scaling them to deliver strong returns over time.

The transaction is expected to be completed in early 2026, subject to closing conditions and regulatory approval. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Morgan Stanley Co. LLC served as the financial advisor to Trane Technologies on the transaction.

About Trane Technologies

Trane Technologies is a global climate innovator. Through our strategic brands Trane and Thermo King, and our environmentally responsible portfolio of products and services, we bring efficient and sustainable climate solutions to buildings, homes, and transportation. Learn more at tranetechologies.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of securities laws, which are statements that are not historical facts, including statements that relate to the acquisition of Stellar Energy Digital and the anticipated impact of the transaction on the Company's strategic initiatives and sustainability commitments. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. Factors that could cause such differences can be found in our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024, as well as our subsequent reports on Form 10-Q and other SEC filings. New risks and uncertainties arise from time to time, and it is impossible for us to predict these events or how they may affect the Company. We assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251202318183/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact:

Travis Bullard

+1 919-802-2593

Media@tranetechnologies.com

Investors Contact:

Zachary Nagle

+1-704-990-3913

InvestorRelations@tranetechnologies.com
Burlington, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - December 2, 2025) - Evertz Technologies Limited (TSX: ET) will release its second quarter 2026 financial results on December 10, 2025 at approximately 4:00 p.m. (EDT).

The Company will hold a conference call with financial analysts to discuss the results on December 10, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. (EDT). Media and other interested parties are invited to join the conference call in listen-only mode. The conference call may be accessed by dialing 1-289-514-5100 or Toll-Free (North America) 1-800-717-1738.

For those unable to listen to the live call, a rebroadcast will also be available until

January 10, 2026. The rebroadcast can be accessed at 1-289-819-1325 or Toll-Free 1-888-660-6264.

The pass code for the rebroadcast is 56182.

About Evertz

Evertz Technologies Limited (TSX: ET) designs, manufactures and markets video and audio infrastructure solutions for the television, telecommunications and new-media industries. The Company's solutions are purchased by content creators, broadcasters, specialty channels and television service providers to support their increasingly complex multi-channel digital, and high and ultra-high definition television ("HDTV" and "UHD") and next generation high bandwidth low latency IP network environments and by telecommunications and new-media companies. The Company's products allow its customers to generate additional revenue while reducing costs through efficient signal routing, distribution, monitoring and management of content as well as the automation and orchestration of more streamlined and agile workflow processes on premise and in the "Cloud".

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/276689

SOURCE: Evertz Technologies Limited
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - December 2, 2025) - VIQ Solutions Inc. (TSXV: VQS) ("VIQ or the "Company") today announced the development of VIQ SmartAudit, an advanced verification and quality-assurance technology in development, which is scheduled for release in mid-2026. VIQ SmartAudit is designed to enhance the accuracy of transcriptions and multi-speaker content across all VIQ business lines, including justice, insurance, law enforcement, government, and corporate compliance. It introduces a more consistent, data-driven approach to reviewing and validating digital and recorded content.

"VIQ SmartAudit reflects our commitment to elevating accuracy and transparency across every industry we serve," said Larry Taylor, Interim CEO of VIQ. "This technology is expected to support human expertise by identifying areas that may require review, enable more consistent workflows, and strengthen overall confidence in the transcriptions and final work products we deliver."

What VIQ SmartAudit Is Designed to Provide

When launched in 2026, VIQ SmartAudit is expected to offer capabilities such as:

Detection of potential omissions, mistranscription, discrepancies or unclear dialogue, articulated to each individual vertical in which VIQ operates

Immediate quality scoring for each document and routing to appropriate resources based on need

Verification indicators to guide focused reviews by human editors

Blanket audit review of all VIQ text work products

SmartAudit will ensure full verification on 100% of transcriptions, enabling a more consistent quality standard, while supporting increased accuracy and faster delivery of completed transcripts.

Part of VIQ's Multi-Year Technology Roadmap

VIQ SmartAudit is a core initiative within VIQ's long-term strategy to build on its proven architecture, improve verification, workflows, increase accuracy, and strengthen the quality and consistency of customer service across its global operations. The Company will continue to provide updates as SmartAudit progresses toward its release.

"Because VIQ operates on a structured, global architecture, we are able to continually learn from best practices across all regions and apply those insights to every account we serve," said Elizabeth Pennell, Global Head of Operations at VIQ. "Our global footprint enables us to bring forward the most effective practices from around the world, benefiting each client with enhancements informed by real-world experience, technology depth and cross-regional experience - delivered in a more efficient and cost-effective manner."

For more information about VIQ, please visit viqsolutions.com

About VIQ Solutions

VIQ Solutions is a global provider of secure, AI-driven, digital voice and video capture technology and transcription services. VIQ Solutions offers a seamless, comprehensive solution suite that delivers intelligent automation, enhanced with human review, to drive transformation in the way content is captured, secured, and repurposed into actionable information. The cyber-secure, AI technology and services platform are implemented in the most rigid security environments including criminal justice, legal, insurance, government, corporate finance, media, and transcription service provider markets, enabling them to improve the quality and accessibility of evidence, to easily identify predictive insights and to achieve digital transformation faster and at a lower cost.

Forward-looking Statements

Certain statements included in this press release constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") under applicable securities legislation. Such forward-looking statements or information are provided for the purpose of providing information about management's current expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes.

Forward-looking statements typically contain statements with words such as "anticipate", "believe", "expect", "plan", "intend", "estimate", "propose", "project" or similar words, including negatives thereof, suggesting future outcomes or that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These statements are only predictions. Forward-looking statements in this press release include but are not limited to statements with respect to the launch of VIQ SmartAudit and the timing thereof, Company's ability to accelerate automation and optimize costs and efficiencies.

Forward-looking statements are based on several factors and assumptions which have been used to develop such statements, but which may prove to be incorrect. Although VIQ believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements because VIQ can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. In addition to other factors and assumptions which may be identified in this press release, assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, recent initiatives, cost savings from workforce and product optimization, cost reductions from the Company's workflow solutions and that sales and prospects may increase revenue. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive of all factors and assumptions that have been used.

Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on a number of opinions, assumptions and estimates that while considered reasonable by the Company as of the date of this press release, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to the factors described in greater detail in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's annual information form and in the Company's other materials filed with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities.

These factors are not intended to represent a complete list of the factors that could affect the Company; however, these factors should be considered carefully. Such estimates and assumptions may prove to be incorrect or overstated. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release and the Company expressly disclaims any obligations to update or alter such statements, or the factors or assumptions underlying them, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange, nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the exchange), accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/276629

SOURCE: VIQ Solutions Inc.
Carlingford, New South Wales--(Newsfile Corp. - December 2, 2025) - Aussie Oncall Plumbing Carlingford has announced the opening of its new office in Carlingford, marking a key step in the company's continued development in the region and its focus on meeting rising demand for high-quality plumbing services. By opening the new location, the Carlingford Plumbing Company has expanded its operational capacity and strengthened its presence within the local infrastructure network.

As Carligford continues to attract home and business owners, the need for reliable plumbing solutions has risen across the suburbs. Establishing a local base in this area allows Aussie Oncall Plumbing Carlingford to scale its services and reinforce its long-term commitment to the community. This move further qualifies the company to take on more residential and commercial projects, respond with more speed, and maintain the workmanship that has defined its reputation.

For internal teams, opening the Carlingford location is part of Aussie Oncall Plumbing's broader plan to support growth and improve staff coordination across departments. With a central hub now in place, the company can manage daily operations more smoothly, including scheduling, dispatch, and communication between field and office staff.

The Carlingford site also supports quicker assignment of plumbing teams to nearby homes and businesses. This allows for more consistent response times for urgent repairs, routine maintenance, and installation work across the area.

The new location also supports day-to-day operations by providing access to tools, training, and on-site resources. By improving how the team prepares and carries out work, the office is helping maintain consistent service across jobs, while keeping up with the region's demand for reliable plumbing support.

Beyond ease of operations, Aussie Oncall Plumbing Carlingford is connecting with the local community by establishing roots, providing dependable services to residents, and supporting ongoing infrastructure needs.

The new Carlingford office is a defining step for the company, laying out a path to expand its capabilities and define its operations. As Aussie Oncall Plumbing Carlingford enters this defining chapter and continues to evolve, the team stands as a symbol of sustained growth, community presence, and service excellence across the region.

About Aussie Oncall Plumbing Carlingford

Aussie Oncall Plumbing Carlingford provides plumbing services to residential and commercial clients throughout Carlingford and the surrounding areas in New South Wales. The company coordinates scheduled and urgent plumbing work, including repairs, maintenance, and installation. With a focus on operational reliability and local responsiveness, Aussie Oncall Plumbing Carlingford manages day-to-day service delivery from its dedicated location to support households and businesses in the region.

Media Contact





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SOURCE: GetFeatured
Elgin, South Carolina--(Newsfile Corp. - December 2, 2025) - Evans Heating & Cooling has announced its participation in the 50th Annual Catfish Stomp Parade in Elgin SC, taking place on Saturday, December 6, 2025, beginning at 10:00 a.m. To mark the occasion, the company will unveil a Winter Wonderland-themed float as part of the parade lineup. The route will begin at the corner of Bowen Street and Main Street and continue to Potter Community Park.





Evans Heating & Cooling Brings Holiday Cheer to Elgin's 50th Annual Catfish Stomp Parade with Winter Wonderland Float



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The Catfish Stomp Parade is a long-running community event that began as a small local gathering. Now entering its 50th year, it has grown into a notable seasonal tradition expected to bring together residents, families, businesses, and visitors for a day of holiday-themed activities. By contributing a float, Evans Heating & Cooling will take part in the parade alongside marching groups, performers, and community organizations, helping to shape this established event.

Evans Heating & Cooling views its participation in the parade as an opportunity to strengthen its connection with residents in Elgin and the surrounding areas. As a local HVAC service provider, the company works with homeowners and businesses to deliver heating and cooling services throughout the year. Visibility at a longstanding community event such as the Catfish Stomp Parade offers additional exposure to attendees who may be seeking AC and heating repair service, maintenance, or installation support.

Participation in the parade also aligns with the company's continued interest in local engagement. Events like the Catfish Stomp provide a platform for local businesses to engage directly with residents in a public setting while contributing to a broader community effort.





Evans Heating & Cooling has announced its participation in the 2025 Elgin SC Catfish Stomp Christmas Parade



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Evans Heating & Cooling has expressed appreciation for the support it has received from the community throughout the year and looks forward to joining fellow participants in this year's celebration. Attendees of the Catfish Stomp Parade are encouraged to view the Winter Wonderland float along the parade route as part of the event's lineup.

About Evans Heating & Cooling

Evans Heating & Cooling is a family-owned HVAC company based in Elgin, South Carolina, serving residential and commercial clients in the region. The company provides heating and cooling repair, installation, and maintenance services, with a focus on efficiency and current HVAC technologies.

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SOURCE: GetFeatured
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - December 2, 2025) - Rusoro Mining Ltd. (TSXV: RML) (the "Company" or "Rusoro") announces that on November 29, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, acting through U.S. Circuit Judge Leonard P. Stark, issued an order ("Sale Order") authorizing the sale of the shares of PDV Holding, Inc. ("PDVH"), a U.S. subsidiary of the Venezuelan national oil and gas company, Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. ("PDVSA") and the indirect 100% owner of Citgo Petroleum Corp. ("Citgo"), to Amber MSub LLC ("Amber"). The order authorizing the sale of PDVH stock to Amber represents the culmination of several years of litigation concerning the auction sale of those shares under federal and Delaware law to satisfy several billion dollars in judgments rendered against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ("Republic") and PDVSA. The Sale Order directs a court-appointed special master to sell the shares, which were attached by court order, in accordance with the terms of the bid submitted by Amber. Under that bid, the sale of the shares will generate proceeds sufficient to extinguish US$5.892 billion in judgments against the Republic and Venezuela.

Upon closing, the sale will pay several - but not all - parties holding judgments and attachments against PDVH shares, with payment to be made in accordance with a court-ordered priority waterfall. Rusoro's judgment against the Republic - which, with the accrual of interest, is worth approximately US$1.550 billion as of today - will be satisfied by the sale. Specifically, Rusoro will receive US$400 million in cash at closing, and US$650 million of a debt instrument in the form of convertible notes ("Notes")), also at closing. The Notes carry an initial principal amount of US$3.65 billion (subject to flex as detailed further in the referenced additional detail below) and liquidation preference equal to the greater of (i) an agreed multiple on initial principal amount and (ii) an agreed IRR. Rusoro will also receive warrants for equity in Amber. Additional detail concerning the consideration to be paid to Rusoro (including the flex terms for the Notes) can be found in pertinent pages of the agreements between Rusoro and Amber, which can be found at pages 436 and 455 of the Special Master's Updated Final Recommendation (Document 2123-1 on the case docket for Crystallex International Corp. v. Bol. Rep. of Venezuela, Misc. No. 17-151-LPS (D. Del.)). Management believes that the package of consideration provided by the sale provides Rusoro with the potential to recover the full value of its judgment against the Republic. Rusoro notes that its recovery through the sale will only satisfy its U.S. judgment confirming its arbitration award against the Republic; that judgment is approximately US$650 million less than the arbitration award itself, as a result of the fact that the judgment earns interest at a significant lower rate. Rusoro remains committed to collecting the full amount of the award through all lawful means.

The Republic, PDVSA, PDVH, and Citgo have appealed the Order on December 1. Further, the sale remains subject to approval by the Office of Foreign Asset Control of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Andre Agapov"

Andre Agapov, President & CEO

For further information, please contact:

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information and Statements:

"This press release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. This information and statements address future activities, events, plans, developments and projections. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. Such forward-looking information and statements are frequently identified by words such as "may," "will," "should," "anticipate," "plan," "expect," "believe," "estimate," "intend" and similar terminology, and reflect assumptions, estimates, opinions and analysis made by management of Rusoro Mining Ltd. in light of its experience, current conditions, expectations of future developments and other factors which it believes to be reasonable and relevant. Forward-looking information and statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause Rusoro's actual results, performance and achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information and statements and accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed thereon.

Risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to vary include but are not limited to the availability of financing; fluctuations in commodity prices; changes to and compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including environmental laws and obtaining requisite permits; political, economic and other risks; as well as other risks and uncertainties which are more fully described in our annual and quarterly Management's Discussion and Analysis and in other filings made by us with Canadian securities regulatory authorities and available at www.sedarplus.ca. Rusoro Mining Ltd. disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information or statements except as may be required."

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/276728

SOURCE: Rusoro Mining Ltd.
Singh had imitated on stage the divine form of a deity portrayed in the Kannada film Kantara-Chapter 1 and referred to Chamundi Daiva, revered by the Kotitulu community, as a female ghost

The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) on Monday submitted a complaint to police against actor Ranveer Singh alleging he insulted Goddess Chamundadevi during the closing ceremony of the 56th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) held in Goa.

What does the complaint say?

According to the complaint, Singh had imitated on stage the divine form of a deity portrayed in the Kannada film  _Kantara-Chapter 1_ and referred to Chamundi Daiva, revered by the Kotitulu community, as a female ghost.

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HJS representatives Pramod Tuyekar and Dilip Shetye submitted a memorandum to Panaji police station sub-inspector Sahin Shetye seeking the registration of an offence under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for allegedly hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus.

Chamundi Daiva is considered a sacred family deity of the Tulu community, and depicting or describing the deity in a derogatory manner amounts to disrespect. Such acts may cause public resentment and disturb peace, the HJS said.

An apology from the Dhurandhar star

While seeking a thorough investigation, the outfit also urged IFFI organisers to frame a code of conduct to ensure no religious deity is depicted in an insulting manner at future events.

Ranveer Singh should issue a public apology and assure he would refrain from making such remarks or performances in the future, the HJS said while appealing to its supporters to register their protest in a peaceful and lawful manner.

Singh was not available for comment.

Another report says that Shetty had warned the actor as he went on to the stage to talk about his 2025 directorial and the world he portrays in the blockbuster.

Ranveer Singh, Rishab Shetty, and Kantara

The actor imitated a scene from the 2025 blockbuster and told Shetty how much he loved the film. But the imitation didnt go down well with some people on social media.

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Social media furious

One user said, How can actors lack basic understanding of what should and shouldnt be said? It is extremely disrespectful for people from the South that their goddess is being referred to as a female ghost.

A second wrote- This is so disrespectful. She is not a ghost but a goddess herself. Another wrote, What an unaware and disrespectful man. His wife belongs to the same geographical region as the daiva tradition. At least show some respect.

More about Dhurandhar

Speaking about Dhurandhar's director Aditya Dhar, he hailed the National-Award winning filmmakers intense creation, URI: The Surgical Strike, excitedly asking the audiences if theyve experienced the grand spectacle! The actor also opened up about director Aditya Dhars intention behind creating Dhurandhar and shared that the intent was to take an Indian movie to the world, following the classic international creations like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (China) and Parasite (Korea)

With added inputs from agencies
Aditya Dhar recently tweeted- Our film Dhurandhar is not based on the life of braveheart Major Mohit Sharma AC(P) SM. This is an official clarification.

With Dhurandhar, Aditya Dhar once again turns to the intersection of history and national security, but this time he uses the grammar of a big-budget action thriller to explore how Pakistans intelligence establishment imagines its long confrontation with India. The films trailer suggests that Dhar isnt just staging a cross-border conflict; hes trying to dramatise the worldview that has shaped decades of covert operations.

But as per a report, Major Mohit Sharma has approached the Delhi High Court and asked for a stay on the release of this action drama. Sharma has stated that the films portrayal of his covert operations could put the nations security at jeopardy, and no consent of his or his family was taken. The plea has the names of Jio Studios, Aditya Dhar, Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the Central Board of Film Certification.

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Major Mohit Sharmas brother breaks silence

Mohit Sharmas brother Madhur, speaking to Hindustan Times, spoke about the controversy around _Dhurandhar_ and said, Ever since the film was announced, there is a lot of information on social media suggesting it is based on my brother. Reputed media channels and influencers with millions of followers have drawn correlations. We just want the producers to clarify and tell us the reality.

Ranveer Singh not playing Major Mohit Sharma?

Aditya Dhar recently tweeted- Our film Dhurandhar is not based on the life of braveheart Major Mohit Sharma AC(P) SM. This is an official clarification."

I assure you, if we do make a biopic on Mohit sir in the future, we will do it with full consent and in complete consultation with the family, and in a way that truly honors his sacrifice for the nation and the legacy it has left for all of us."

Rather than retelling historical events, _Dhurandhar_ traces the intellectual lineage of this strategy. Dhar situates the ISIs worldview in the rhetoric of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whose speeches in the late 1960s and during the 1965 war articulated a vision of perpetual struggle with India. Bhuttos insistence on a thousand-year war and his argument that confrontation was a form of self-preservation formed the seed of what would later harden into a covert, attritional doctrine.
The actor imitated a scene from the 2025 blockbuster and told Shetty how much he loved the film. But the imitation didnt go down well with some people on social media

The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) on Monday submitted a complaint to police against actor Ranveer Singh alleging he insulted Goddess Chamundadevi during the closing ceremony of the 56th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) held in Goa.

What does the complaint say?

According to the complaint, Singh had imitated on stage the divine form of a deity portrayed in the Kannada film  _Kantara-Chapter 1_ and referred to Chamundi Daiva, revered by the Kotitulu community, as a female ghost.

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Ranveer Singh, Rishab Shetty, and Kantara

The actor imitated a scene from the 2025 blockbuster and told Shetty how much he loved the film. But the imitation didnt go down well with some people on social media.

Social media furious

One user said, How can actors lack basic understanding of what should and shouldnt be said? It is extremely disrespectful for people from the South that their goddess is being referred to as a female ghost.

A second wrote- This is so disrespectful. She is not a ghost but a goddess herself. Another wrote, What an unaware and disrespectful man. His wife belongs to the same geographical region as the daiva tradition. At least show some respect.

What is Bhoota Kola ritual shown in Rishab Shettys  Kantara: Chapter 1?

Bhoota Kola is an annual folk ritual of Tulu-speaking people in Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada and Udupi in Karnataka and some Kerala districts where local spirits or deities are worshipped. As per Tulu Adivasi tradition, Bhoota Kola or Daiva Kola is a non-vedic ritual where Bhootas or Daivas (guardians and ancestors) are worshipped, as per a report in The Quint.

Idols representing bhoothas are taken out in a procession to the beating of drums and bursting of firecrackers. Bhoota Kola is practised by Tulu-speaking people in coastal districts of Karnataka. It is widely believed these spirits protect the village from unfortunate incidents, as per Deccan Herald.

The dancing and pooja ritual is accompanied by drums and music. The performer carrying a sword and jingling bells imitates the devil they represent, says a Karnataka Tourism website.

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India and Russia enjoy an enduring defence partnership, with both sides looking to boost this cooperation when Vladimir Putin visits India on December 4-5. A possible deal on the S-500, the more advanced version of the S-400, is on the cards. This comes after the air defence system proved its worth during Operation Sindoor when it struck down Pakistani jets

Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile launching system displayed at the exposition field in Kubinka Patriot Park outside Moscow. This defence system proved its mettle during Operation Sindoor against Pakistan. File image/AFP

Time is counting down for Russian President Vladimir Putins visit to India  the Russian strongman is scheduled to visit the Indian Capital on December 4 and 5. This will be the Russian leaders first visit to the country since the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war, and one of the main agendas of the visit will be to strengthen defence ties that date back to pre-Independence.

It is reported that a new S-400 weapons system (dubbed the S-500) contract will be at the forefront of discussions when Prime Minister Narendra Modi sits down with Russias Vladimir Putin in the Indian capital. Sources close to the Indian establishment note that New Delhi is expected to press for a fresh procurement of more advanced S-400 air-defence regiments.

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But what exactly is this weapon and why does India covet it?

The S-400 weapons system, explained

The S-400 is a long-range surface-to-air missile system developed by Russias Almaz Central Design Bureau. Also known as the SA-21 Growler by Nato troops, it is considered among the most advanced air defence systems across the globe with capabilities of detecting, tracking, and engaging a variety of aerial threats including drones, stealth aircraft, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles.

This weapon was made operational in 2007, and defence experts note it to be even more dangerous than the US-developed Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system (THAAD). The S-400 boasts of various features, making it a deadly weapon to have in ones arsenal:

It can engage aerial threats at ranges up to 400 kilometres and altitudes up to 30 kilometres. The system can track up to 160 targets and engage 72 simultaneously. The S-400 can be deployed within five minutes unlike US-made systems that take longer to deploy.

A Russian S-400 air defence system seen in Moscow. It is considered among the most advanced air defence systems across the globe. File image/Reuters

The S-400 is made up of four components  a long-range surveillance radar, a command and control post mounted on a vehicle, an engagement radar and a launch vehicle carrying missiles. When it comes to the missiles, the S-400 has four types  the short-range missile with a 40-km range, the medium-range missile having a 120-km range, the long-range missile having a 250-km range and the very long-range missile with a range of 400 km.

The S-400 is believed to be highly lethal  in exercises and trials, the weapons system has an 80 per cent kill rate against enemy aircraft.

Countries that possess the lethal S-400

Besides Russia, the S-400 has been sold to many countries with China being the first foreign buyer back in 2014.

In 2017, Turkey also purchase the S-400 weapons system, resulting in a row with its Nato partners. Algeria has also reportedly acquired and deployed the S-400, though details remain sparse. Belarus also received units from Russia, with some managed directly by Russian personnel.

China was the first foreign buyer of Russias S-400. India first purchased the weapons system in 2018. Image Courtesy: X

Indias purchase of Russias S-400

It was in 2018 that India bought five squadrons of the S-400  each comprising 16 vehicles  from Russia at a cost of $5 billion (Rs 35,000 crore). Deliveries for the same began in 2021.

However, Indias purchase of the weapons system was far from smooth sailing, all thanks to the United States.

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In 2017, Donald Trump in his first term signed into law the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). The legislation, a punitive measure against Russia for its annexation of Crimea in 2014 and alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections, allowed for sanctions to be levied on Iran, Russia, and North Korea and countries doing business with them.

When it came to Russia, it specifically imposed sanctions on those buying major hardware from Moscow. As a result, Indias deal for the S-400, thus, potentially fell foul of the Act.

But New Delhi refused to bow down to US demands with officials noting that the S-400 would be key to India protecting and controlling its airspace. It was after much negotiations that in January 2022, the US House of Representatives passed an amendment, granting India a waiver from the CAATSA sanctions.

The Russian S-400 missile air defence system, known as the Sudarshan Chakra in India, was successfully deployed during Operation Sindoor in May against Pakistan. File image/Reuters

Indias successful use of the S-400 during Operation Sindoor

India first used the S-400 successfully in Operation Sindoor, Indias military action against terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in May.

Known as the Sudarshan Chakra in India, the S-400 was deployed when Pakistan retaliated during Operation Sindoor. According to defence analysts, the S-400 successfully neutralised incoming drones and aircraft, effectively thwarting Pakistans attempts to escalate the conflict. According to ANI, it created a record of sorts by successfully hitting an aircraft at a range of over 300 kilometres.

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Later, in August, Indian Air Force Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh confirmed that India shot down five Pakistani fighter jets using it. He called it a game-changer, saying: Our air defence systems have done a wonderful job. The S-400 system, which we had recently bought, has been a game-changer. The range of that system has really kept their aircraft away from their weapons like, those long-range glide bombs that they have, they have not been able to use any one of those because they have not been able to penetrate the system.

India eyes more advanced version of S-400

Now, with Putin expected in India, New Delhi is looking not only to expand its S-400 regiments, but also looking to purchase the more advanced version of it known as the S-500 Prometheus.

The S-500 is considered the next generation variant of the S-400; it boasts of a range of up to 600 km and can engage threats at altitudes up to 200 km, giving it a coverage envelope much broader than most existing air-defence platforms.

Russias all new S-500 air defence systems. Image Courtesy: Russian Ministry of Defence

Moreover, the S-500 is believed to counter not just aircraft, drones and cruise missiles, but also long-range ballistic missiles as well as hypersonic glide vehicles. Experts also note that Russias S-500 deploys the 77N6-N1 missiles, which has the ability to shoot down Chinas J-20 fighter aircraft.

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But as a result of its advancements, the S-500 is way more expensive than the S-400 as well as more difficult and expensive to maintain.

We will just have to wait and watch as to how talks unfold between Modi and Putin to see if India secures a deal for the S-500. But one thing is certain: India already has a substantial capability as a result of the S-400.

With inputs from agencies
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken into custody a man from Srinagar in the 1989 Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping. Rubaiya is the third daughter of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and sister of PDP president Mehbooba Mufti. Shafat Ahmad Shangloo is accused of conspiring with Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik to kidnap Rubaiya. But what happened back then?

Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and sister of Mehbooba Mufti. PTI

An arrest has been made in a decades-old case in which the daughter of the then home minister was abducted. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken into custody a Srinagar man in the 1989 Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping. Rubaiya is the third daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and sister of PDP president Mehbooba Mufti.

The arrested individual, Shafat Ahmad Shangloo, hails from Srinagars Nishat. The CBI has accused Shangloo of conspiring with Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik to kidnap Rubaiya. The authorities had announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for Shangloos capture. Shangloo is a member of the JKLF and was allegedly looking after its finances.

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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested an absconder, Shafat Ahmed Shangloo, wanted in a 35-year-old CBI case relating to the kidnapping of Dr Rubiya Sayeed, D/o Shri Mufti Mohd. Sayeed, ex-Home Minister, CBI said in a press release. He will be produced before the TADA Court, Jammu, within the stipulated time as per law.

But what happened when the then home ministers daughter was abducted 35 years ago? Lets take a closer look.

The kidnapping

The incident occurred on December 8, 1989. It came just days after Sayeed was sworn in as a Union Minister in the then VP Singh Janata Dal government. Sayeed had made history as Indias first Muslim home minister. Rubaiya, then a 23-year-old intern at Srinagars Lal Ded Maternity Hospital, was kidnapped while heading to her Nawgaon home on the outskirts of the city.

Rubaiya, who was on a minibus, was just a few hundred metres away from home when four gunmen stopped the vehicle. The gunmen then abducted Rubaiya, put her into a waiting Maruti vehicle and took her to an undisclosed location.

Sayeed, a few hours later, received a phone call from an unidentified individual confirming that his daughter had been kidnapped. The terrorists, who were linked to the JKLF led by Malik, who planned the operation, demanded that five of their associates be set free.

A case into the abduction was registered at Srinagars Saddar Police Station the same day under Section 364 of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC), Section 3 of TADA and Section 3/25 of the Arms Act.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed

An under-pressure VP Singh government tried to negotiate for a few days. However, seeing that it had no choice, the government acceded to the kidnappers demands on December 13. The kidnappers then released Rubaiya. This was reportedly the first time the Indian government had made such an exchange.

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However, not everyone concurred with this decision by the central government. The then chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah, made his opposition known to the hostage exchange.

Some of those released later participated in the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 to Kandahar in 1999. Incidentally, Abdullah was also chief minister during the IC-814 hijacking when the Indian government handed over three prisoners  Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Masood Azhar and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar  to the Taliban.

Omar Abdullah, National Conference leader and son of Farooq Abdullah, said, This is the second time my father was forced to release people.

With Rubaiya Syed freed, the families of the hijacked victims [of IC-814] used the Rubaiya Syed incident as a benchmark. They said when you could release terrorists for a home ministers daughter, is our family not precious? Why is it only that she is precious to the country?

Omar claimed that this case had a bearing on the demands made during the IC-814 hijacking. Even if they had taken my daughter hostage, I would not have released a single terrorist, Farooq insisted in 2015.

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The aftermath

The case is still ongoing in the TADA court in Jammu. The court was set up to handle cases under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) of 1987. Rubaiya, who now lives in Tamil Nadu, remains listed as a witness for the prosecution.

However, charges in the case were framed in 2019, decades after the incident.

The TADA court had in January 1999 ordered the release of three accused in the case  Showkat Ahmad Bakhshi, Manzoor Ahmad Sofi and Mohammad Iqbal Gundroo  on bail. The court said this was because the accused had been in jail for nearly a decade without trial. By then, Malik had already received bail.

Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik is lodged in Tihar Jail.

In 2009, Malik petitioned the J&K High Court to transfer the case from Jammu to Srinagar. The J&K High Court then stayed proceedings against Malik in the designated TADA court in Jammu. However, the CBI successfully petitioned against the stay. The TADA court in 2021 then framed charges against 10 people, including Malik.

Malik, who is the prime accused in the kidnapping case, is lodged in Tihar Jail. Malik was sentenced by a special NIA court in May 2023 in a terror-funding case. Rubaiya has identified Malik as one of the men who kidnapped her. Another eyewitness identified Mohammad Zaman as one of the kidnappers.

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With inputs from agencies
Pakistans relief shipment to Sri Lanka, which is battling the aftermath of Cyclone Ditwah, has sparked a controversy. Images circulating online showed cartons of food and supplies that appear to be past their expiry date. The pictures have unleashed a wave of criticism on social media, with flood-hit Colombo reportedly conveying its displeasure to Islamabad through formal and informal channels

Pakistan High Commission posted photos of its relief shipment to Sri Lanka on X. It showed cartons of food and supplies that appear to be past their expiry date. Image courtesy: X

As Sri Lanka picks up the pieces after Cyclone Ditwah, a fresh controversy has taken centre stage. Pakistans relief shipment, sent as a gesture of support, has come under fire after photos surfaced online showing cartons of food and supplies that appear to be past their expiry date.

The images quickly set off anger on social media, and Colombo has reportedly conveyed its displeasure to Islamabad through formal and informal channels, reports News18.

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Sri Lanka is already battling a massive humanitarian crisis, over 400 lives lost, more than 350 people still missing, and a state of emergency declared by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who called the cyclone the most challenging natural disaster in our history.

India, meanwhile, has launched Operation Sagar Bandhu to support its neighbour with aid and relief assistance.

Heres a closer look at what happened and how Pakistans aid has sparked such strong reactions.

Pakistan sends expired flood relief to Sri Lanka

The backlash began almost immediately after the Pakistan High Commission posted photos of its relief shipment to Sri Lanka on X. The images showed cartons of water, milk and biscuits being sent as assistance for communities battered by Cyclone Ditwah.

But what caught everyones attention were the labels. Several boxes appeared to carry the marking EXP: 10/2024, leading to a flood of criticism online and claims that Pakistan had sent expired food to a country in crisis.

Pakistan is sending expired food items for the cyclone struck Sri Lankans.



(Picture by the Pakistani High Commission in Sri Lanka) pic.twitter.com/r5YKkh6MRC  Shubhangi Sharma (@ItsShubhangi) December 2, 2025

According to a News18 report, Sri Lankan officials were taken aback by the discovery and conveyed their displeasure to Pakistan through both formal and informal diplomatic channels. They also said this incident has pushed Colombo to rethink how incoming relief supplies are screened, especially from countries that have previously sent unsuitable or substandard aid.

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Pakistan has faced similar criticism before. During the 2015 Nepal earthquake, it drew outrage for sending beef-based ready-to-eat meals to the Hindu-majority nation, a move that was widely slammed as insensitive.

This latest episode has sparked anger among Sri Lankans. Many have called the expired goods an insult and a mockery of aid diplomacy, with some urging their government to hold Pakistan accountable.

Islamabad has not commented on the allegations yet. Theres been no clarification on whether the dates were misprinted, misinterpreted or applied only to certain items in the shipment.

India steps up relief under Operation Sagar Bandhu

While Pakistan faces scrutiny over its relief supplies, India has launched a large-scale humanitarian mission to help Sri Lanka recover from Cyclone Ditwah.

As part of Operation Sagar Bandhu, India has sent more than 53 tonnes of relief materials since November 28, everything from food, tents and blankets to hygiene kits, essential medicines and surgical supplies. Teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Indian medical units have also been deployed to provide support on the ground.

The assistance has been delivered through both air and sea routes. Indian Air Force transport aircraft and Navy ships, including INS Vikrant, INS Udaygiri and INS Sukanya, have carried the bulk of the supplies. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar even shared a photo of INS Sukanya reaching Trincomalee with humanitarian aid.

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India has also evacuated more than 2,000 stranded Indians from flood-hit parts of Sri Lanka, according to the Ministry of External Affairs. IAF helicopters have been crucial in rescue efforts, airlifting 57 Sri Lankan Army personnel from blocked hill regions like Kotmale, where landslides had cut off road access.

Among those rescued by the Mi-17 choppers were citizens from Germany, South Africa, Slovenia, the UK, Poland, Belarus, Iran, Australia and Bangladesh, and even a Pakistani national. Four infants were also evacuated.

Together in times of need.



As part of Indias ongoing #OperationSagarBandhu, the Mi-17 helicopters of @IAF_MCC evacuated stranded people in Sri Lanka, including citizens from Germany, South Africa, Slovenia and United Kingdom.



      . https://t.co/z9OZ5p7691  Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) November 30, 2025

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences to Sri Lanka, calling the cyclones impact devastating and reaffirming Indias support.

He said India had urgently dispatched relief materials and vital HADR support under Operation Sagar Bandhu, and added that New Delhi is ready to send more help as needed.

With input from agencies
Much has been written about the 1962 war between India and China. However, a new study argues that the United States played a crucial role in laying the base for the conflict between the two nations. It comes as New Delhi and Beijing are taking gradual steps to improve relations

Much has been written about the 1962 war between India and China.

The conflict, which began on 20 October 1962, also known as the SinoIndian War, came after years of tension between the two countries over the Himalayan border, particularly the McMahon Line.

It ended with China announcing a unilateral ceasefire on 20 November 1962, and withdrawing from the territory it had occupied under the government of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

However, a new study is arguing that the United States played a crucial role in laying the base for the conflict between India and China. The study comes as the two countries are taking gradual steps to improve relations.

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Lets take a closer look at what we know.

About the study

The study was undertaken by Dr Lakshman Kumar of the Jindal School of International Affairs. Entitled Unravelling the Geopolitical Dimensions of the 1962 SinoIndian Conflict: How the US Shaped the SinoIndia Split, it was published in the Journal of Public Affairs (Wiley) this past April.

The study relies on top-secret CIA records that have been declassified, diplomatic archives from the Prime Ministers Museum & Library (PMML), the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), documents from the Cold War International History Project, and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

The study argues against the conventional wisdom that the long-running tension between India and China culminated in the 1962 war. It claims that policies pursued by the United States and the Soviet Union during the late 1950s and early 1960s had a mix of intended and unintended consequences on India and China.

The 14th Dalai Lama fleeing Tibet into exile with Khampa (men from the Eastern province of Kham) bodyguards Image Courtesy: dalailama.com

It claims that the US elevated Tibet into an issue between India and China  essentially the old divide and conquer method so perfected by Britain  in order to exert influence over New Delhis foreign policy. This came in the aftermath of an independent India, under its first Prime Minister Nehru, choosing the path of non-alignment. Washington did so in order to draw both India and China closer to its Cold War goals.

While the Soviets wanted to collaborate with India and China, the United States desired a clear split, Kumar wrote.

The study claimed that the US sought to take advantage of the Tibetan uprising in 1956. The documents revealed that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) offered support to resistance groups inside Tibet, including funds, supplies, and reconnaissance missions.

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Used critical theory

Kumar said he had used critical theory  to examine the sudden downturn in relations between India and China in the late 1950s and the subsequent conflict of 1962, as well as the critical role played by the US in shaping the events.

He quoted a 1951 US State Department document that stated, Diplomatically, the US should endeavour to use Tibet as a weapon for alerting [India] to the danger of attempting to appease any Communist government.

The study claims that Washington capitalised on the goings-on after the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959. It says that the CIAs actions were not meant to help Tibet but rather to increase the divide between the two nations and scuttle any chance of an agreement over the region being reached.

Kumar wrote that Beijing became convinced that [New Delhi] was conspiring to seize Tibet by inciting rebellion. The US intelligence community was satisfied with the results of the Tibetan revolt in March 1959, as it caused enormous friction in SinoIndia relations, he added.

Ex-US Ambassador John Kenneth Galbraiths memoirs have spoken about how the CIA conducted intelligence operations to shape public opinion within India.

The covert operations of the [US] achieved much more than they desired. It indeed led China and India on a collision course while further deepening the SinoSoviet split.

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The study also quoted a note from the JFK Presidential Library that said the United States must restrain expressions so as to give the Chinese no pretext for alleging any American involvement.

The study said the development forced Nehru to seek military aid from Washington despite his non-aligned stance, which was much to the satisfaction of the US. It added that the US received much more than they desired.

While this may sound far-fetched to some, ex-US Ambassador John Kenneth Galbraiths memoirs have already spoken about how the CIA conducted intelligence operations to shape public opinion within India.

Kumar in September co-authored another study alongside Pankaj Jha and Jyoti M. Pathani, which was published in India Quarterly.

[India] must remain vigilant against external influences that may seek to exploit SinoIndian disputes for their own interests, the paper said. China, on the other hand, needs to acknowledge the heavy price it paid in initiating the conflict despite being conscious of the imperialistic conspiracy in Tibet.

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With inputs from agencies
Russian President Vladimir Putin will be meeting US envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow today. The meeting comes after American and Ukrainian officials held key negotiations regarding a peace proposal. Meanwhile, US Federal Chair Jerome Powell will participate in a panel discussion at Stanfords George P Shultz Memorial Lecture Series

It is set to be a busy Tuesday with several events lined up for the day.

Firstly, Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to meet US envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow today. Meanwhile, US Federal Chair Jerome Powell will be participating in a panel discussion at Stanford.

Several French unions are calling for an interprofessional strike in Paris, France, today, with disruptions expected in transportation, schools, airports, and government offices. Meanwhile, the local body elections will take place in Maharashtra today. The Imperial Winter Egg is set to go under the hammer today at Christies Auction House, London.

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Here is all that will take place across the world.

Putin to meet US envoy Witkoff

Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks on Ukraine with US envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow today. The meeting comes after American and Ukrainian officials held key negotiations regarding a peace proposal. The entire goal of these talks was to get a US-drafted plan adopted as the official starting point for ending the war between Russia and Ukraine.

The meeting with Witkoff is planned for tomorrow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a briefing on Monday (December 1), adding that it will take place in the second half of the day. This comes after Putin stated his demands for Kiev to surrender territories Moscow claims as its own and warned that if Ukraine fails to comply, the Russian military will take them by force.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to give speech at Stanford

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to participate in a panel discussion at Stanford University today. The event is part of the Hoover Institutions George P Shultz Memorial Lecture Series.

US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell holds a press conference in Washington, DC. File photo/Reuters

Powell will be joined by Michael Boskin and Condoleezza Rice for a discussion on George Shultz and his economic policy contributions. The panel will focus on the legacy of George Shultz, who served in four different US cabinet positions, including as Treasury Secretary and Secretary of State.

The speech and panel discussion fall during the blackout period preceding the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting scheduled for December 17-18. During this period, Fed officials are prohibited from making public comments about the economic outlook or potential policy decisions.

French unions call for strikes and demonstrations

The CGT, FSU, and Solidaires unions are calling for a nationwide interprofessional strike in France today. People can expect some disruptions in transportation, schools, airports, and government offices.

This strike comes in the middle of the 2026 Finance Bill. The three trade unions are focusing their demands on social and fiscal justice, the withdrawal of job cuts, and a general increase in wages to compensate for the index point freeze. While the call is aimed at all employees in the public and private sectors, as well as retirees, young people, and job seekers, the notices filed mainly concern the civil service.

Rallies and marches are planned throughout France, according to the trade unions. The first demonstrations have already been announced in many cities, including Bordeaux, La Rochelle, Chateaubriant, Lens, Douai, Dijon, Millau, Le Havre, and Rouen.

Maharashtra local body polls

The state of Maharashtra is finally complying with the Supreme Courts mandate, kicking off a major three-tier election process today, December 2. The first phase alone covers a massive scope, including elections for 246 municipal councils and 42 nagar panchayats.

The polls are seen as a key indicator of political sentiment following the BJP-led Mahayutis landslide victory in the November 2024 assembly elections. According to the Election Commission, there are more than one crore registered voters for these elections, with nearly 53 lakh male voters.

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The Winter Egg auction at Christies

The Faberge 1913 Winter Egg is being auctioned at Christies in London, as part of the Classic Week sales. This is the centrepiece of the auction, titled The Winter Egg and Important Works by Faberge from a Princely Collection.

The egg is estimated to sell for more than $26 million (Rs 232.8 crore). The egg, designed by Alma Theresia Pihl, was commissioned by Tsar Nicholas II as an Easter gift for his mother in 1913. It is made of carved rock crystal, giving it a translucent appearance like ice. The egg is decorated with intricate snowflake patterns made from platinum and features over 3,000 diamonds. It rests on a base carved to look like a block of melting ice.

The Winter Egg has been sold at Christies twice before, setting world auction records on both occasions - in Geneva in 1994 and New York in 2002.

With inputs from agencies
One of the worst industrial disasters in India, the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, took place on December 2, 1984. As per official reports, around 3,000 people died while thousands of others died from the effects of the gas over the following years. On this day in 1993, notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar was killed in Colombia

One of the worst industrial disasters in India took place on the night of December 2, 1984. It was shortly after midnight that a massive leak of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas escaped from a storage tank, leading to more than 40 tonnes of toxic gas into the air.

If you are a history geek who loves to learn about important events from the past, Firstpost Explainers ongoing series, History Today will be your one-stop destination to explore key events.

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On this day in 1993, one of the most notorious drug leaders, Pablo Escobar, was killed in Colombia. Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was officially formed on this day in 1971.

Here is all that took place on this day across the world.

Bhopal Gas Tragedy occurred in India

A massive leak of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas escaped from a storage tank at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant on the night of December 2-3. A combination of poor maintenance, faulty safety systems, and cost-cutting measures allowed water to seep into the tank, triggering a violent chemical reaction. Pressure built rapidly, and the tanks safety valves burst and released more than 40 tonnes of toxic gas into the air.

As the dense cloud drifted over nearby residential areas, residents woke up coughing, choking, and gasping for breath, with many getting blinded temporarily or permanently. Within hours, thousands lay dead on the streets, in hospitals, and in their homes.

This image shows the abandoned factory site in Bhopal where the chemical disaster took place. Wikimedia Commons

Official figures reported around 3,000 immediate deaths, but later estimates suggest that 15,00020,000 people may have died from the effects of the gas over the following years. More than half a million people were exposed, leading to the development of chronic respiratory illnesses, eye disorders, neurological damage, and reproductive health issues.

Investigations found that critical systems like alarms, scrubbers, and refrigeration units had been shut down or were malfunctioning. Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) faced global outrage, and in 1989, it reached a settlement of $470 million with the Indian government, a sum widely criticised as inadequate given the scale of suffering.

Pablo Escobar was killed

One of the most notorious drug lords in the world, Pablo Escobar, was killed on December 2, 1993. Escobar had dominated the global cocaine trade throughout the 1980s, amassing billions of dollars in wealth and building a violent empire that challenged the Colombian state. His cartel orchestrated assassinations, bombings, kidnappings, and political intimidation, leaving thousands dead.

Escobar went on the run in 1992 after escaping from his self-designed luxury prison, La Catedral. His disappearance triggered an intense pursuit by a coalition of forces: the Colombian National Polices elite Search Bloc, US intelligence agencies, and a vigilante group known as Los Pepes, made up of his rivals and victims families. The pressure around Escobar tightened as authorities dismantled his cartel and captured or killed his top lieutenants. Constant surveillance, intercepted phone calls, and betrayals from former allies slowly boxed him in.

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It was on his 44th birthday on December 2, 1993, that Escobar was tracked to a middle-class neighbourhood in Medellin after he made a brief call to his son. Search Bloc forces quickly surrounded the house. However, Escobar attempted to escape across the rooftops but was shot and killed on a rooftop.

Escobars death marked the collapse of the Medellin Cartel and a turning point in Colombias bloody drug war. It brought temporary relief to the nation, although violence later shifted to the Cali Cartel and other traffickers.

The formation of UAE

History was made on December 2, 1971, when the seven emirates united to create a single and sovereign nation, called the United Arab Emirates.

Before unification, the region was known as the Trucial States, a collection of sheikhdoms that had signed protection treaties with Britain in the 19th century. For decades, Britain managed their foreign affairs, but by the late 1960s, the British government announced its intention to withdraw from East of Suez, leaving the emirates to determine their political future.

A general view of the Abu Dhabi skyline is seen. File image/Reuters

Recognising the need for stability and collective strength, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi and Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum of Dubai spearheaded efforts to form a federation. Their vision emphasised cooperation, modernisation, and economic development. The emirates of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al-Quwain, and Fujairah agreed to unite with Ras Al Khaimah joining shortly afterwards in February 1972, thus completing the seven-emirate federation known today.

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So, on December 2, 1971, the rulers formally signed the Provisional Constitution in Dubai, establishing the UAE as an independent federal state. Sheikh Zayed was elected the first President, laying the foundation for a nation built on unity, resource development, and international cooperation. The UAE immediately began forging diplomatic ties and developing its infrastructure, banking on its oil wealth to drive rapid modernisation.

This Day, That Year

The music video of Michael Jacksons Thiller aired on MTV in 1983.

The first permanent artificial heart was implanted on this day in 1982.

In 1804, Napoleon crowned himself emperor of France in the presence of Pope Pius VII.
Pakistans Rawalpindi is on edge, as supporters of Imran Khans Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party have announced a mega protest outside Adiala Jail today (December 2), demanding to meet their leader. Bracing for the worst, authorities have imposed Section 144, restricting all gatherings and assemblies of people. This comes days after rumours linked to the former Pakistan PMs health started circulating

Supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party chant slogans during a protest over concerns about their leader's health in Karachi, Pakistan. File image/Reuters

Tension is rife in Pakistan as incarcerated Imran Khan remains inaccessible to party leaders and his family members from jail. Rumours of the former Pakistan prime ministers ill-health continue to spread like wildfire, prompting his supporters and family members to organise large-scale protests in Rawalpindi, where the Adiala Jail is located, and Islamabad, the countrys capital, today (December 2).

And amid this news of planned protests by Imran Khans party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), some reports state that the Adiala Prison authorities have granted permission to Imran Khans sister, Uzma, to meet him in an attempt to quell the speculation and anger over his disappearance.

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So, whats going on in Pakistan? Whats the latest in the Imran Khan death rumours saga?

PTI protests planned for Rawalpindi and Islamabad

As speculation over Imran Khans death continues to circulate, supporters of the PTI announced their decision of holding peaceful protests outside the Islamabad high court and Adiala jail in Rawalpindi on Tuesday (December 2).

PTI leader Asad Qaiser was quoted as telling Dawn that opposition lawmakers from both houses of parliament will protest outside the Islamabad high court before taking their demonstration to Adiala jail in Rawalpindi. It has been decided to hold protests because IHC has failed to implement its order and the Adiala jail administration is not willing to implement the court orders, he said.

Moreover, the PTIs Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa unit, as per a Dawn report, has also announced that it will assemble at the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway Interchange for a rally that will culminate at the Swabi interchange. Another PTI leader told Dawn that they might suspend the traffic between Islamabad and Peshawar by blocking the motorway.

A supporter of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khans Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party holds a poster amid rumours of the PMs health. File image/Reuters

The move comes amid Khans so-called disappearance from the prison where he is serving a 14-year sentence on corruption charges, one of the numerous cases he claims were fabricated to keep him out of politics  a charge the military denies.

According to the former Pakistan PMs family, the last time they saw Khan was over a month ago, with his one of his sons, Kasim, even demanding for proof of life. Kasim has even alleged that authorities are concealing something irreversible about Khans condition.

My father has been under arrest for 845 days. For the past six weeks, he has been kept in solitary confinement in a death cell with zero transparency. His sisters have been denied every visit, even with clear court orders allowing access. There have been no phone calls, no pic.twitter.com/VZm26zM4OF  Kasim Khan (@Kasim_Khan_1999) November 27, 2025

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Moreover, Imran Khans ex-wife and mother of Kasim and Sulaiman Khan, Jemima Goldsmith, even claimed on X: Theyre not even allowed to speak to him on the phone. No one is.

Khans sisters have also claimed the same, saying authorities are barring them from meeting him for the past few months. One of Khans sister, Aleema Khanum, told NDTV, For the last six to seven months, they have caused a lot of trouble; sometimes they let me meet him, sometimes they let one of my sisters meet him, sometimes they dont let anyone meet him. Many times, we wait outside for hours.

She even filed a contempt of court petition in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) last Friday, alleging that the Adiala Jail superintendent and others were not allowing her to meet the former Pakistan prime minister.

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In her petition, she stated that the court had reinstated the twice-a-week meeting schedule for Khan, who has been languishing in Rawalpindis Adiala Jail since August 2023. It added that despite directions for allowing visits on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the respondents did not comply with or implement the same.

Another sister, Noreen Niazi, speaking to Indian news agency ANI, said relatives have again been refused visits for the past four weeks. We dont know anything. They are not telling us anything, nor are they letting anybody meet him, she said, adding that even PTI leaders with scheduled appointments had been turned away.

Sohail Afridi, chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province, reacts amidst party supporters of Pakistans jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, as they gather to visit him, outside Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. File image/Reuters

Pakistan imposes ban on gatherings

Fearful of the scale of the PTI protests, the Pakistan government has imposed Section 144  a ban on gatherings. An order signed by Rawalpindis Deputy Commissioner, Dr Hassan Waqar Cheema, states that Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Act, 2024, will be in place for three days  from December 1 to 3.

And as per the law, the following activities will be banned:

 All kinds of assemblies, gatherings, sit-ins, rallies, processions, demonstrations, jalsas, dharnas, protests, and similar gatherings of five or more people.

 Carrying of weapons, spikes, ball bearings, petrol bombs or any other instrument that can be used for violence has been banned.

 Objectionable or hate speeches have also been banned.

 Pillion riding on two-wheelers has also been restricted by the government.

 The use of loudspeakers in Rawalpindi has been banned as well.

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The order states that there exists an imminent threat within the limits of District Rawalpindi and the restrictions are being imposed to ensure public safety, security, peace, and tranquillity.

Aleema Khanum, sister of Pakistans former Prime Minister Imran Khan, speaks to the media outside Adiala jail in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. File image/Reuters

Imran Khans sister likely to meet him

Amid this fraught situation, there are reports emerging that the Pakistan government, which has remained more or less mum on Imrans death rumours, will give into the demands of PTI supporters and family.

Citing sources, News18 has reported that jail authorities are allowing one of Imrans sisters, Uzma, and one vetted lawyer to meet the former PM under a strict gag order that bars any discussion related to social media.

This comes as his sisters, PTI members and eve Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CM Sohail Afridi have been camping outside the Adiala jail for the last few days pressurising the Shehbaz Sharif government to allow his family members to meet him.

With inputs from agencies
Iran has had six straight years of drought. Temperatures, meanwhile, have risen to over 50 degrees centigrade this past summer. Now, satellite images show four out of five major reservoirs that feed Tehran are running low on water. Lets take a closer look

Tehran, which used 346 million cubic metres of water in 1976, uses around 1.2 billion cubic metres of water in 2025. Reuters

Iran has long been warned that it is facing a water crisis.

So much so that there have been discussions about moving the capital from Tehran to the southern region of Makran.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, during a speech in November, said the city, which is home to 15 million people, could soon be evacuated and that we no longer have a choice.

However, satellite images are now showing the extent of the catastrophe that the country is facing.

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But what do we know about the water crisis in Iran? How bad is the situation?

Lets take a closer look.

What we know about the water crisis

Iran has had six straight years of drought. Temperatures, meanwhile, have risen to over 50 degrees centigrade this past summer. Lets begin with the capital of Tehran, which is home to millions of people  around 10 per cent of the countrys population of 92 million.

Tehran, since the 1979 revolution, has grown leaps and bounds  in both its population as well as its hunger for water. Though Tehran only has a third of the countrys freshwater resources, its thirst for water remains ravenous. The city, which used 346 million cubic metres of water in 1976, uses around 1.2 billion cubic metres of water in 2025.

The city gets most of its water from five major dams  the Lar, Latyan, Karaj (Amir Kabir), Taleqan and Mamloo. A study examining surface-water extent between June and November 2025 showed that four out of five major reservoirs showed steep decreases in the surface-water area.

The study utilised the Normalised Difference Water Index  a standard measurement for detecting water vs land via satellite images. The surface-water extent fell by over 70 per cent in Lar Dam and Latyan Dam; Taleqan Dam fell by around 28 per cent, and Amir Kabir Dam by around 20 per cent. Only the Mamloo Dam, which saw about an 8.5 per cent decrease, remained relatively stable.

It must be noted that the analysis is limited to surface area and not volume lost. So, while the decrease might look bad, the satellite images might in fact be underplaying the seriousness of the issue.

A small amount of water pours out of the faucet following a drought crisis in Tehran. Reuters

The data show that much of this water supplied to the capital is lost via leaks, theft and mismanagement prior to even reaching consumers. Irans Water and Wastewater Company has said around a third of all water is just frittered away. Of this, physical losses account for 15 per cent while 16 per cent comprises illegal consumption, free public use, and meter error.

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Another problem is that Iran continues to subsidise water for its citizens.

As of 2024, those living in urban areas paid just 52 per cent of the actual cost of bringing the water to them. While the government has allotted the city around 130 litres a day per capita, a majority of citizens, around 70 per cent, are using as much as 200 to 400 litres.

The country also relies heavily on agriculture, which further burdens its water resources. This is due to a law that mandates around 85 per cent of food be produced domestically. Little wonder then that agriculture comprises 90 per cent of the countrys total use of water. This even as agriculture comprises just 12 per cent of Irans GDP and around 14 per cent of employment as of March 2025.

Here too, overexploitation and illegal wells have left their mark, with Tehran losing around 101 million cubic metres of groundwater annually.

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But the crisis is not limited to the capital. Nearly two dozen provinces have not witnessed a drop of rain since the beginning of the rainy season, which starts at the end of September.

Around 10 per cent of the countrys dams have effectively run dry. In November, it was reported that nearly two dozen dams had less than a five per cent water capacity and dozens of others were on the verge of running out. Hundreds of villages in Iran are reportedly dependent on tanker trucks after local wells have run dry.

Scientists for nearly two decades have also been warning that parts of Iran are sinking due to overpumping of groundwater. This phenomenon, known as subsidence, can be lethal to aquifers, which once destroyed can never recover. Data show Iran is losing around 1.7 billion cubic metres of water annually.

How bad is the situation?

Experts say the situation is dire.

Michael Rubin, a political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, speaking to CSIS, called the scenario a perfect storm of climate change and corruption.

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Amir AghaKouchak, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, told CNN that the situation in Iran is the worst it has been in decades. AghaKouchak added that water levels are declining at a time of year when you would normally expect storage to be recovering, not collapsing further.

Experts lay much of the blame on the decisions made by the Iranian government over the years. Reuters

Kaveh Madani, director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, said the situation has the hallmarks of a long-term catastrophe. Madani, who previously served as the deputy head of Irans Department of Environment, said the country is in water bankruptcy.

They lay much of the blame on the decisions made by the Iranian government over the years.

For decades, policies have encouraged the expansion of irrigated agriculture in arid regions, AghaKouchak said.

Rubin said that it would be a mistake to look at this only through the lens of climate change, and that wastewater mismanagement and corruption have only exacerbated things.

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Officials, meanwhile, have a solution  prayer.

In the past, people would go out to the desert to pray for rain, said Mehdi Chamran, head of Tehrans City Council. Perhaps we should not neglect that tradition.

Experts say moving to Makran, a remote area in the south near the Gulf of Oman, is no real solution either. Makran itself does not have rich and plentiful access to freshwater  most of the ideas involve desalination, which remains an expensive proposition.

They also peg the cost of uprooting the population to Makran in excess of over $100 billion (Rs 9 lakh crore). Is it too late for Tehran? For the sake of millions of people, let us hope that is not the case.

With inputs from agencies.
Russian President Vladimir Putins State visit to New Delhi on December 4-5 is another milestone in the enduring India-Russia partnership. At the moment, both nations are navigating geopolitical fractures as the upcoming summit looks to renew a relationship that has only deepened under Prime Minister Narendra Modi despite sustained Western pressure

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) meets with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the sixth Brics Summit in Fortaleza, July 15, 2014. This was the duo's first official meeting after Modi took office. File Image/Reuters via RIA Novosti

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in New Delhi on December 4 on a State visit for the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit that can only be described as a high-stakes display of partnership in the face of continued Western pressure on New Delhi to diversify and look elsewhere for partners. Well, perhaps that is what it means when two global powers are in a Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership.

Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office in 2014, he and Putin have met numerous times, consistently cementing a relationship defined not by personal fondness alone, but by a deep, strategic interdependence that has been tested time and again.

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Modi even broke protocol to personally receive Putin on the tarmac Thursday evening at Palam airport after which they took a car ride together for their dinner.

The foundation of this relationship is Indias doctrine of strategic autonomy, which dictates that New Delhis foreign policy and procurement choices are driven solely by national interest, irrespective of pressure from any major power bloc.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speak during a meeting at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025. File Image/Reuters via Sputnik

Russia, for its part, respects this autonomy, offering consistent support for Indias multilateral ambitions  such as a permanent seat on the UN Security Council  and maintaining a policy of non-interference in Indias domestic affairs.

This foundational trust has enabled the two leaders to maintain strong personal rapport, with Modi describing Russia as Indias all-weather friend and trusted ally and Putin referring to Modi as a dear friend.

How defence & energy have been indispensable anchors

Since 2014, the India-Russia partnership has systematically upgraded its military-technical cooperation from a simple buyer-seller dynamic to one involving joint development and production under the Make in India initiative.

Russia remains Indias largest, though diversifying, supplier of sophisticated military equipment. A key indicator of the partnerships depth is the $5.43 billion deal for the S-400 Triumf long-range surface-to-air missile system, signed in 2018.

India proceeded with the deal and has been receiving deliveries despite the threat of secondary sanctions under the US Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).

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The move highlights the strategic value New Delhi places on Russian technology for its national defence architecture.

Even military-technical cooperation between the two nations has been extended until at least 2031, ensuring the sustained supply of critical spares, maintenance, and joint production components for Indias massive inventory of Russian-origin platforms, including Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jets, T-90 tanks, and the BrahMos cruise missile joint venture.

In the energy sector, Russia is a vital partner in Indias civilian nuclear power programme, as witnessed by the ongoing commissioning of units at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant.

This long-term commitment in nuclear energy provides a stable, non-hydrocarbon component to Indias rapidly growing power requirements.

How a post-2022 reality tested Modi-Putin bonhomie

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 represented the most lethal stress test for the Modi-Putin partnership, forcing India to perform a delicate diplomatic balancing act.

Factually, India has maintained a neutral stance in multilateral forums, notably abstaining from all UN votes condemning Russias actions.

However, the most significant and most visible diplomatic intervention occurred on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in September 2022.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attend a meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, September 16, 2022. File Image/Reuters via Sputnik

During the summit, Modi publicly told Putin, Todays era is not an era of war.

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This statement was widely viewed as Indias sharpest public critique of the conflict and was acknowledged by Putin.

Despite this public disagreement on the conflict, the leaders have continued their frequent engagements, including a bilateral visit by Modi to Moscow in July 2024 and their most recent meeting on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Tianjin, China, in September 2025, where Modi reiterated his call for an expedited cessation of the conflict.

The Ukraine war also dramatically deepened the economic relationship of the two countries.

Leveraging steep discounts offered by Russia following Western sanctions, India significantly ramped up its crude oil imports.

Before 2022, Russian crude accounted for less than 1 per cent of Indias total imports; by mid-2025, Russia had become Indias single largest supplier, accounting for approximately 40 per cent of its crude oil imports.

This strategic move ensured energy security and saved India billions of dollars, directly contributing to Indias record bilateral trade volume.

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How Modi and Putin need to deal with the rupee-rouble challenge

Bilateral trade reached an unprecedented $68.72 billion in the Financial Year 2024-25.

However, this figure is heavily skewed by Indian imports of Russian crude, gas, and fertilisers ($63.84 billion), resulting in a massive 13:1 imbalance against Indias exports ($4.88 billion).

This has led to a significant accumulation of Indian Rupees in Special Rupee Vostro Accounts (SRVAs) in India  a system established to bypass Western sanctions and the SWIFT exclusion.

Officials, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, attend the Brics summit in Kazan, Russia, October 23, 2024. File Image/Reuters via Brics

The stranded rupee surplus presents a liquidity crisis for Russian entities, who have been unable to effectively repatriate or invest these funds, thus undermining the long-term sustainability of the discounted energy trade.

To address this, the leaders are expected to focus on two major financial solutions.

First, implementing the Reserve Bank of Indias regulatory changes that permit Russian entities to invest their accumulated rupee balances into Indian assets, including Government Securities (G-Secs), equities, and infrastructure projects.

This would convert a short-term liquidity issue into long-term Russian investment in India, potentially helping to achieve the ambitious bilateral investment target of $50 billion set by the two countries.

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Second, discussions will focus on activating new financial tools, such as integrating Indias RuPay and Russias MIR card payment systems for easier bilateral tourism and trade settlement, as well as finalising a mechanism to facilitate increased Indian exports, particularly in pharmaceuticals, agricultural products, and IT services, to correct the trade deficit.

The full operationalisation of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) is also viewed as a crucial structural solution to facilitate this trade diversification.

How Putin-Modi have continuously engaged

Since 2014, the consistent pattern of high-level engagement has been a defining characteristic of the Modi-Putin dynamic. The duo has met over 20 times in both bilateral and multilateral settings.

The most notable meetings include:

July 16, 2014: Brics summit sidelines in Fortaleza, Brazil (their first official meeting)

December 10-11, 2014: 15th India-Russia annual summit in New Delhi, India

July 8-10, 2015: Brics and SCO summits sidelines in Ufa, Russia

December 23-24, 2015: 16th India-Russia annual summit in Moscow, Russia

October 15-16, 2016: 17th India-Russia annual summit & the 8th Brics summit in Goa, India

May 31-June 2, 2017: 18th India-Russia annual summit & the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in St Petersburg, Russia

May 21, 2018: Informal summit in Sochi, Russia

October 4-5, 2018: 19th India-Russia annual summit in New Delhi, India

September 4-5, 2019: 20th India-Russia annual summit in Vladivostok, Russia

December 6, 2021: 21st India-Russia annual summit in New Delhi, India

September 16, 2022: SCO summit sidelines in Samarkand, Uzbekistan

July 8-9, 2024: 22nd India-Russia annual summit in Moscow, Russia (Modis first visit since invasion of Ukraine)

October 22-23, 2024: 16th BRICS Summit sidelines in Kazan, Russia

September 1, 2025: SCO summit sidelines in Tianjin, China

And now upcoming, December 4-5, 2025: 23rd India-Russia annual summit in New Delhi, India (Putins first visit since invasion of Ukraine)

Beyond the annual summits, the leaders have used informal settings to deepen their understanding.

Notable instances include the informal summit in Sochi, Russia, in May 2018, and their frequent and famous "chit-chats" during multilateral gatherings.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi walks next to Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit 2025 at the Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Centre in Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025. File Image/Reuters via Pool

Modis gesture of visiting Putin in Moscow in July 2024, shortly after being re-elected for a third term, served as a powerful signal of the relationships continuing high priority for New Delhi.

The upcoming Putin visit will follow this established pattern as the partnership navigates Western sanctions and Indias growing defence ties with the US and France, to resolving the rupee payment impasse and ensuring the sustained flow of discounted Russian energy.

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In a move to boost Indias cybersecurity, the telecom ministry has told smartphone companies to pre-install a government-developed Sanchar Saathi app on every new device and also roll out a software update to add the app on existing devices. The mandate had triggered strong pushback from Opposition leaders, who say the move could open the door to state surveillance. However, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has now clarified that the app can be deleted by the user

As of now, the Sanchar Sarthi has more than 1.14 crore registrations, with more than 1 crore downloads from Google Playstore, and more than 9.5 lakh downloads from Apple Store. AI-generated Image for Representation.

In a fresh push to tighten Indias cybersecurity, the telecom ministry has told smartphone companies to pre-install a government-developed Sanchar Saathi app that allows users to report stolen phones, track unauthorised mobile connections, and flag suspicious or fraudulent calls and messages.

Earlier, a directive issued by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on November 28 required all new smartphones sold in the country to come with Sanchar Saathi already built in. For phones already in the market, manufacturers must roll out a software update to add the app.

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The move had triggered strong pushback from Opposition leaders, who argued that making an undeletable app compulsory is unconstitutional and could open the door to state surveillance.

Following the massive backlash, Union Minister for Telecommunications Jyotiraditya Scindia has now clarified that the app can be deleted by the user.

If you dont want Sanchar Saathi, you can delete it. It is optional, Scindia told ANI. It is our duty to introduce this app to everyone. Keeping it in their devices or not, is up to the user, he further clarified.

So what exactly does this Sanchar Saathi app do? And what features does it offer users? And why did it become the centre of political debate? Heres a simple breakdown.

All about the Sanchar Saathi app

The Sanchar Saathi app builds on the governments earlier web portal launched in May 2023. In January this year, the DoT rolled out the Sanchar Saathi mobile app for Android and iOS, giving users an easier way to report mobile-related fraud and theft.

Once the app is installed, users can request the blocking of a lost or stolen phone across all telecom networks in India. This allows law enforcement agencies to track the device, using its unique International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number, a 15-digit code that helps networks identify and authenticate phones.

According to the Sanchar Saathi website, 42.14 lakh mobiles have been blocked, and over 26.11 lakh lost or stolen mobile handsets have been traced using the app.

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Once the app is installed, users can request the blocking of a lost or stolen phone across all telecom networks in India. Image courtesy: Sanchar Saathi

The app also includes a feature called Chakshu, which is used to flag malicious links or harmful communication that pose cybersecurity threats. This covers everything from phishing links and financial scams to unverified APK files, cloning attempts, or spam messages received through SMS, RCS, iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, and other platforms.

Another feature inside the app allows users to view all mobile numbers registered under their name and report any connection they dont recognise.

Sanchar Saathi also comes with the KYM (Know Your Mobile) feature, which helps users verify whether their smartphone is genuine and safe to use.

As of now, the app has more than 1.14 crore registrations, with more than 1 crore downloads from Google Playstore, and more than 9.5 lakh downloads from Apple Store.

What did the government directive say?

According to the new directive, the DoT has asked all mobile manufacturers and importers to make sure the Sanchar Saathi app comes pre-installed on every device made or brought into India.

They must also ensure the app is clearly visible and easy to access when a user first sets up their phone, and that none of its features can be removed, disabled, or restricted.

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For devices that have already been manufactured and are currently sitting in sales channels, companies were expected to push the app through a software update on a best-effort basis.

Smartphone brands were given 90 days to fully roll out the app on new devices and 120 days to submit a compliance report. This order applied across the board, from Apple and Samsung to Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and others.

Also read: Why you might get logged out of WhatsApp Web every 6 hours in India

Uproar over the Sanchar Saathi app

The governments directive had triggered strong political pushback, with Opposition parties calling the move unconstitutional and warning that it opens the door to state surveillance.

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi had compared the mandate to a BIG BOSS surveillance moment, alleging that the government was trying to get into individual phones through shady ways."

She said such steps will be protested and opposed," arguing that instead of strengthening grievance-redressal systems, the IT Ministry was creating surveillance systems."

Sanchar Saathi mobile Application mandate to every mobile phone manufacturer as a permanent mobile feature by the GoI is nothing but another BIG BOSS surveillance moment.

Such shady ways to get into individual phones will be protested and opposed & if the IT Ministry thinks that  Priyanka Chaturvedi (@priyankac19) December 1, 2025

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The government, however, had insisted that the app does not access anyones personal data and is only meant to stop the misuse of illegal or fraudulent devices. The Opposition has rejected this claim.

Congress general secretary KC Venugopal had also condemned the move, calling it beyond unconstitutional." In a post on X, he wrote, Big Brother cannot watch us," stressing that the right to privacy is part of the fundamental right to life under Article 21.

He described Sanchar Saathi as a dystopian tool to monitor every Indian," alleging that it would track every movement, interaction and decision" of citizens. The Congress has demanded that the order be withdrawn immediately, saying it fits into a pattern of relentless assaults" on constitutional freedoms.

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With input from agencies
A September 2 operation involved two US strikes on a suspected narcotics vessel, part of a wider campaign that has produced at least 19 to 21 maritime attacks since September, killing more than 70 people. Legal experts note that international law forbids firing on shipwrecked individuals, and congressional committees are now conducting bipartisan investigations

US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth gestures as he speaks aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, on the day of US President Donald Trump's visit to the US Navy's Yokosuka base in Yokosuka, Japan, October 28, 2025. File Image/Reuters

A United States military operation targeting a suspected Venezuelan drug-smuggling vessel was conducted in early September.

The mission, carried out by American naval forces, involved an initial precision strike that destroyed a boat believed to be ferrying narcotics, followed by a second strike that allegedly targeted survivors still in the water.

That follow-up attack is now resulting in inquiries from lawmakers of both major parties which are questioning the legality of lethal force at sea.

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Although the Trump administration has defended the overall counter-narcotics campaign as necessary to protect US interests, experts have raised alarms about whether the actions undertaken  especially the alleged strike on men who survived the initial blast  may constitute violations of both peacetime and wartime law.

The issue has become even more charged when allegations were reported that US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a direct instruction to eliminate all individuals on the vessel, an assertion he denies.

How has the White House reacted?

The administrations public defence of the chain of command began on Monday, when White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt addressed questions about the September 2 operation involving US Admiral Frank Bradley.

Responding to media reports alleging that Hegseth had pushed for a policy of leaving no survivors, she clarified that Bradley had explicit approval to execute the strike.

Leavitt stated, Secretary Hegseth authorised 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.

She also argued that the mission was aligned with both domestic and international law, noting that it occurred in open waters and that the administration categorises the targeted groups as foreign terrorist entities.

US President Donald Trump, however, distanced himself from one aspect of the operation. Speaking on Sunday, Trump said he would not have preferred a second attack on the vessel and explained that he had been told directly by Hegseth that he did not instruct anyone to kill the two survivors.

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Despite that, a Washington Post report indicated that Bradley authorised a follow-up strike after two men were spotted clinging to remnants of the vessel destroyed in the first attack.

The newspaper also reported that this was done to comply with an alleged verbal directive from Hegseth to kill everybody.

The Trump administration has stated that the overall campaign is part of an effort to cut off narcotics shipments originating from or passing through Venezuelan waters.

Since September, at least 19 confirmed strikes have taken place in the Caribbean and off the Pacific coast of Latin America, with fatalities exceeding 70 people.

Other reports suggest the total number of such operations may have reached at least 21, with more than 80 people killed.

Could the strike on survivors be a war crime?

The most serious aspect of the September 2 incident, according to multiple legal specialists, is the alleged decision to attack men who were no longer able to defend themselves.

International humanitarian law has for more than a century made clear that individuals who are shipwrecked or otherwise incapacitated at sea must not be attacked, and are entitled to medical assistance unless they engage in hostile behaviour.

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The US Department of Defenses own manual reiterates this principle, explicitly stating that firing on the shipwrecked constitutes a clearly illegal act.

George Washington University law professor Laura Dickinson, argued that the situation does not meet the threshold for armed conflict  a classification necessary for lethal action to be broadly permissible.

She explained that the operations against suspected drug vessels fall under a different legal framework, telling Reuters, It would be murder outside of armed conflict.

She also warned that, even in wartime, killing survivors would likely be a war crime.

Michael Schmitt, a former US Air Force lawyer and retired Naval War College professor, expressed disbelief that such an act could ever be justified.

I cant imagine anyone, no matter what the circumstance, believing it is appropriate to kill people who are clinging to a boat in the water, he told AP. That is clearly unlawful.

Experts on the law of armed conflict point out that for the United States to claim it is engaged in an armed conflict with drug cartels, the groups in question would need to be operating at levels of violence that pose an imminent and sustained threat to the country.

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Schmitt noted that the mere trafficking of narcotics, even if those drugs later cause fatal overdoses, does not constitute the kind of violent behaviour needed to meet the threshold of war.

Brian Finucane, a former US State Department lawyer now with the International Crisis Group, reinforced the point by describing the legal consequences of acting outside wartime norms.

The term for a premeditated killing outside of armed conflict is murder, he told AP, adding that US personnel could face charges domestically.

He pointed out that Murder on the high seas is a crime, that conspiracy to commit murder overseas is prosecutable and that the Uniform Code of Military Justice includes murder under Article 118.

Matthew Waxman, a professor at Columbia University and former national security official, told AP that the US could face diplomatic fallout if allies perceive the strikes as unlawful.

Countries cooperating with the United States may be unwilling to share intelligence or participate in joint missions if those activities expose them to liability under their own laws or international legal frameworks.

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The alleged directive to kill everybody, if substantiated, would constitute what is known as a declaration of no quarter, an action long prohibited in warfare.

The JAGs Working Group described the alleged instruction as patently illegal, and has argued that service members would have been obligated to refuse to carry it out.

The Pentagons law-of-war manual itself provides an example directly relevant to the September 2 incident: service members must refuse commands to fire on shipwrecked individuals.

How has US Congress reacted?

Members of both chambers of Congress have demanded thorough investigations into the September 2 incident.

The Senate Armed Services Committees chairman, Republican Roger Wicker, and its ranking Democrat, Jack Reed, issued a joint statement announcing that their committee would undertake vigorous oversight to establish the facts.

Their counterparts on the House side have also signalled their intent to probe the matter.

The controversy comes at a time when Democratic legislators with military and intelligence backgrounds have recently encouraged service members to resist unlawful commands.

Among these lawmakers is US Senator Mark Kelly, a former Navy aviator. His public comments have not only questioned the legal grounding of the counter-narcotics operations but also triggered a Pentagon investigation into whether he breached military law by participating in a video about resisting illegal orders.

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Kelly has voiced deep concern about the September 2 reports, saying, If what seems to have happened, actually happened, Im really concerned about our service members.

Not all Republicans have taken a defensive posture. North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis said he was troubled by the allegation of a deliberate second shot intended to kill survivors, noting, Obviously, if there was a direction to take a second shot and kill people, thats a violation of an ethical, moral or legal code. We need to get to the bottom of it.

However, other senior Republicans, such as Senate Majority Leader John Thune have urged patience, stating that the strikes were designed to disrupt the drug trade and asserting that full reviews must conclude before any judgments are made.

For his part, Hegseth has firmly rejected the claim that he ordered the elimination of survivors. On social media, he denounced the reporting as fake news, arguing that all strikes were conducted according to the law and approved by qualified legal experts at multiple levels.

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He also endorsed Bradley as an American hero and affirmed that he has his 100% support for decisions made during the September 2 operation and others.

What next for US-Venezuela tensions?

In recent months, the United States has increased its pressure on Venezuela, citing what it alleges is the role of President Nicolas Maduros government in enabling the flow of illegal drugs to the United States.

Maduro strongly denies any involvement in narcotics trafficking, insisting that Washingtons accusations are politically motivated.

On Saturday, Trump declared that the airspace over and around Venezuela should be regarded as closed in its entirety, a statement that caused unease in Caracas and raised questions about potential military escalation.

A day later, he acknowledged speaking with Maduro but provided no insight into their exchange.

Behind the scenes, senior national security officials have discussed a range of strategies aimed at increasing pressure on Maduros government.

According to Reuters, options under consideration have included attempts to undermine or remove the Venezuelan leader from power, greater reliance on military assets already deployed in the Caribbean and the authorisation of covert CIA operations in the country.

The recent strikes represent a dramatic escalation for what White House officials continue to describe as a counter-drug mission.

Some experts have questioned whether the sheer level of firepower arrayed in the region aligns with the goals typically associated with narcotics interdiction.

Earlier this week, Trump met in the Oval Office with senior security advisers to discuss Venezuela policy and other foreign policy matters.

Although the administration has provided no public details of the meeting, officials familiar with the session said that the campaign to increase pressure on Caracas was among the topics.

With inputs from agencies
Apple is expected to reject Indias directive to preload the Sanchar Saathi app on all smartphones, fuelling a nationwide row over privacy and digital surveillance

Apple does not plan to comply with an Indian government directive requiring smartphone makers to preload a state-owned cyber safety app, _Sanchar Saathi_, according to three sources familiar with the matter. The confidential order instructs Apple, Samsung, and Xiaomi to install the app within 90 days, with manufacturers told to ensure it cannot be disabled. Devices already in the supply chain are expected to receive the app through software updates.

The telecom ministry later confirmed the move, calling it a security measure to address serious endangerment of cybersecurity. Critics, including opposition leaders and privacy advocates, warned that the mandate could give the government access to Indias 730 million smartphones. Two industry sources said Apple will tell New Delhi that it does not follow such mandates anywhere, as they pose privacy and security issues for its iOS ecosystem, reported Reuters.

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Political backlash and industry implications

The order prompted uproar in and outside Parliament on Tuesday, with lawmakers accusing the government of introducing what they described as a potential snooping tool. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said he planned to address the matter in Parliament, while KC Venugopal wrote on X: Big Brother cannot watch us. Officials said the app would help counter duplicated or spoofed IMEI numbers and the resale of stolen devices, noting Indias sizeable second-hand mobile market.

Apple, which strictly controls its App Store and iOS platform, is also fighting an antitrust penalty case in India that could carry fines of up to $38 billion. A second source said Apple will not take the issue to court but will stress that it cannot comply because of security vulnerabilities, reported the news agency. Other manufacturers, including Samsung, are reviewing the order. Industry sources said the government issued the directive without prior consultation.

Can you delete it?

Indian Union Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia has clarified that the Sanchar Saathi app, which the government has directed be pre-loaded on all phones, can be deleted by users. His remarks came a day after the directive to smartphone makers triggered privacy concerns.

If you dont want Sanchar Saathi, you can delete it. It is optional, Scindia told news agency ANI on Tuesday, December 2. It is our duty to introduce this app to everyone. Keeping it in their devices or not, is up to the user, he further said.
IG Ashok Yadav said Pakistan moved several launch pads deeper inside its territory after Indian air and artillery strikes conducted between May 7 and May 10, when Operation Sindoor targeted terrorist sites in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians

Around 120 terrorists positioned on 69 launch pads along the Line of Control are under close monitoring, and the next phase of Operation Sindoor will be activated without hesitation if Pakistan attempts any misadventure, BSF Kashmir frontier IG Ashok Yadav said Monday.

Speaking at the border forces annual briefing, Yadav said Pakistan moved several launch pads deeper inside its territory after Indian air and artillery strikes conducted between May 7 and May 10, when Operation Sindoor targeted terrorist sites in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians.

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We caused heavy damage during Op Sindoor. Some launch pads were moved from forward areas so they remain out of firing range of the Indian Army and BSF, Yadav said, adding that even after relocation, these sites remain under surveillance. Whenever there is any misadventure from Pakistan, we are ready to give a befitting reply.

During the May offensive, he said BSF units and Army formations carried out heavy and accurate fire assaults on Pakistani posts and launch pads. Our units, including artillery regiments, inflicted huge casualties on Pakistani troops, damaged forward posts and destroyed several terrorist pads along the LoC.

When asked why the 69 launch pads were not struck earlier, he explained that although the sites had been tracked for some time, their distance and the terrain made it difficult to successfully target every pad from available firing positions.

Yadav reported a sharp drop in infiltration attempts. Four attempts were recorded this year in the Kashmir frontier, two before and two after Operation Sindoor, involving 13 infiltrators. Eight were eliminated by the Army, five retreated, he said. While overall infiltration patterns have remained consistent, he noted the emergence of new routes. We receive inputs on new routes and cover them with the Army, he added.

Within the Kashmir Valley, BSF has 13 companies working alongside the Army and police. Yadav flagged silent recruitment of terrorists and said the force is focusing on institutions functioning as radicalisation centres. Alerts are passed to agencies responsible for the hinterland, he said, adding that complete synergy exists among security forces.

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Following the Pahalgam attack, specialised BSF teams were deployed in the Gulmarg bowl to reinforce tourist security. Our teams are operating professionally and effectively, Yadav said.

Despite harsh terrain, snowbound stretches, threats of sneaky strikes by Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT), sniping, ceasefire violations and fidayeen attacks, BSF personnel continue LoC duties with full zeal and devotion, he added.
India is set to induct its third nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, INS Aridhaman, with Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh Tripathi confirming that the vessel has entered the final stage of trials and is nearing commissioning.

Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh Tripathi has said that India will soon induct its third nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN), INS Aridhaman. The submarine, Indias third indigenously built nuclear-powered platform, is nearing commissioning and has entered the final phase of its trials.

This follows the formal commissioning of the second SSBN, INS Arighaat, into the Strategic Forces Command in Visakhapatnam in August, strengthening Indias sea-based nuclear deterrent.

With INS Aridhaman joining service, India will, for the first time, have three operational ballistic missile submarines at sea.

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Enhanced capability and expanded deterrent

The upcoming SSBN, now in advanced trials, is built to carry more long-range nuclear-tipped missiles than INS Arihant and INS Arighaat. Its larger configuration increases strike reach and enhances survivability, key elements of Indias nuclear doctrine.

A fourth SSBN is also under construction and will add further depth to Indias deterrent capability. Both upcoming submarines are designed to accommodate additional K-4 missiles due to their larger build, according to an earlier Times of India report.

Navy chief highlights new initiatives

Admiral Tripathi also spoke about the Navys recent initiatives. I also want to highlight three maiden initiatives in the last year Indian Ocean Ship Sagar was a maiden initiative by the Navy wherein INS Sunayna IOS SAGAR was flagged off on the 5th of April from Karwar by our defence minister and embarked 44 crews from nine IOR nations navies and Coast Guard and stayed for over a month, visiting five ports and drew great appreciation from all the participating countries as also whenever she made a port call. All that is there in the open domain, Admiral Tripathi said.

The second initiative we did was Africa-India Key Maritime Engagement, which also means unity in Sanskrit. where we partnered with 9 African countries and assembled in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Our defence minister was present there along with the defence minister of Tanzania, and we had great camaraderie and an exchange of best practices among 9 African countries, he added.

Four Rafale jets expected by 2029

Admiral Tripathi said the Navy expects to receive its first batch of four Rafale fighter jets by 2029. He added that Project 75 India, which involves the procurement of six advanced submarines, has made significant progress and a formal agreement is likely soon.

Operation Sindoor: posture that deterred Pakistan

Speaking about Operation Sindoor, Admiral Tripathi said the Navys firm stance and deployment of key warships kept Pakistans vessels close to their ports.

The aggressive posturing and immediate action during Op Sindoor, of deployment of the carrier battle group forced the Pakistan Navy to remain close to their ports or near the Makran coast, he said.
A KuwaitHyderabad IndiGo flight made an emergency landing at Mumbai Airport on Tuesday, December 2, following a bomb threat received at Hyderabad airport

An IndiGo flight on the KuwaitHyderabad route was forced to make an emergency landing (File)

An IndiGo flight operating on the KuwaitHyderabad route made an emergency landing at Mumbai Airport on Tuesday after a bomb threat was received, news agency ANI reported. Authorities began security checks immediately, with further details yet to be released.

According to a News18 report, officials considered the threat credible after Hyderabad airport received a detailed warning email. The aircraft was subsequently diverted to Mumbai and moved to an isolation bay for a full inspection. Precautionary measures were activated, with security personnel and emergency teams placed on standby as officials monitored the situation closely.

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The premier engineering institute has a norm of putting students off the placement list after they accept an offer from a company. However, since several firms rescinded their offers as early as June or July this year, students were left hanging without any offer at hand

More than 20 companies have been banned from the placement drive of IITs after they rescinded job offers made to students in the last academic year. Some of these offers were taken back just days before the joining date, jeopardising their career prospects.

The premier engineering institute has a norm of putting students off the placement list after they accept an offer from a company. However, since several firms rescinded their offers as early as June or July this year, students were left hanging without any offer at hand, affecting their mental well-being. IIT authorities, reportedly from more than one campus, unanimously decided to bar those companies from participating in this years placement drive.

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While the list of the banned companies is not known yet, a report by the Times of India says it includes data analytics and software-based firms. The companies, however, are allowed to hire students through an off-campus process.

We looked at their past records too. Some of these companies had a history of revoking offers and six to seven IITs had already banned them from participation," an IIT professor involved in the placement process told TOI.

Some companies have revoked offers for alumni who were supposed to join them, while a few others have reduced the salary packages mentioned in the offer letters. According to the professor, the placement cells are trying to engage with higher authorities in these companies.

Sharing his experience of getting hired only to have a job offer rescinded, a computer science graduate said he bagged a job with a trading company last December and the joining date was June 1, 2025. My offer was revoked on May 29. The company made me an offer of nearly Rs 30 lakh and I was more than happy to join. They revoked my offer just two days before I was supposed to join, but fortunately, I got a better offer through an alumnus in some time. Though IIT-Bombay extended help, I did not need it at that time.

The professor said that IITs are now trying to involve more companies and start-ups promoted by the Centre under the Viksit Bharat programme. He said, The job market is slow, but we are trying to reach out to many more companies and encourage start-ups incubated on prominent campuses to reach the best targets.

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The India-Russia relationship today isnt simply a replay of the Soviet-era script. It is leaner, less sentimental and far more transactional and also sturdier than most expected.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin awards India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle the First-Called at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on July 9, 2024. (Photo: Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters)

When Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives in New Delhi on December 4-5 for the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit, it will be more than simply a routine diplomatic engagement. It will be his first visit in four years, and one that signals a deliberate attempt by both nations to restore the rhythm of a once institutionalised partnership that had gone uncharacteristically quiet since the war in Ukraine had begun.

The visit comes at a time when the worlds geopolitical compass is spinning fast and furiously, with the US tightening sanctions against Moscow, China trying to deepen its grip over Eurasia and India positioning itself as the swing state in an increasingly bipolar order. For both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Putin, the significance of the meeting may also be beyond trade figures or defence contracts. A message to the world, that despite turbulence, the old Moscow-Delhi axis still holds considerable value and weight.

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After the war in Ukraine began in 2022, New Delhi found itself walking a diplomatic tightrope, which it did with much aplomb. India refused to condemn Moscow at the United Nations, yet maintained close dialogue with Washington and Europe. While the political optics were subdued, the economic partnership quietly continued to flourish.

Bilateral trade ballooned from $13 billion in FY 2021-22 to $68.7 billion in FY 2024-25, according to official data. Discounted Russian crude oil championed this boost, which now makes up for about one-third of Indias total oil import. The result was one of those rare win-wins. India gained cheaper energy and fiscal breathing room while Russia found a dependable buyer as Europes doors closed.

However, now that the US has imposed fresh sanctions on Russian giants like Rosneft and Lukoil, and Indian private refiners are anxious about secondary sanctions, the future of this oil bonanza might be uncertain. The New Delhi summit is expected to pivot this relationship beyond oil and towards new deals in defence, civil aviation, critical minerals and high-tech cooperation.

Indias military ecosystem does still lean heavily on Russian hardware. Nearly 60 per cent of Indias legacy platforms trace their origins to Russia. After a period of caution triggered by US sanction threats under CAATSA, India is quietly reopening defence cooperation.

Reports indicate discussions around co-developing the Pantsir air-defence system, the possible procurement of the Voronezh radar system, and additional batches of the S-400 Triumf system. Although delivery delays have pushed some timelines to 2026, the intent to keep Russia as a central node in Indias strategic defence supply system is absolutely clear. A decision behind which the logic is brutally pragmatic. A close friendship with Moscow ensures reliability in defence partnerships for New Delhi, even if it may occasionally annoy Washington.

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The significance of this summit is not only limited to Russia and India. There is, of course, the Chinese shadow and the Eurasian balance. As Russia grows increasingly dependent on China, particularly when it comes to trade, tech and finance, Putins outreach to India may be read as strategic self-preservation. A China-centric foreign policy makes Russia vulnerable to Chinas economic dominance and India offers Moscow an Asian counterweight. A partner that gives Russia leverage in balancing Chinas influence within frameworks like BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and even the Eurasian Economic Union. For India, the equation is equally nuanced. A close friendship with Russia helps India avoid being boxed into a purely Western bloc. It also allows India to retain back-channel influence in Central Asia stretching to the Arctic. In todays day and age, this is pure geopolitical currency.

When it comes to energy in the global South, even with sanctions tightening, Russian oil continues to flow because of buyers like India and China. This trade can be interpreted in ways other than transactional. It may also represent the global Souths quiet defiance of Western price diktats. For many developing economies watching from the sidelines, Indias balancing act is proof that it is indeed possible to protect national interests without succumbing to any blocs pressure.

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The timing of Putins visit is also significant. Trumps return to the White House has, of course, had the world raging over trade wars and what may sometimes be seen as coercive diplomacy. Washington has already floated the Sanctioning Russia Act 2025, which proposes punitive tariffs of up to 500 per cent on nations that are knowingly buying Russian energy or raw materials.

India, despite being courted as a key Indo-Pacific partner, now finds itself under a renewed with us or against us test. Again. India has responded with calibrated practicality, trimming US trade imbalances and increasing American energy imports while refusing to abandon Russian oil entirely. Putins visit may be read as more than just bilateral cooperation. A subtle assertion of Indias strategic autonomy in the face of US overreach. For Russia, of course, this trip is an opportunity to reaffirm its relevance outside the Western orbit. India remains one of the few major economies that still deals with Russia openly, giving Moscow not just economic oxygen but also geopolitical legitimacy.

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For India, the visit highlights its foreign policy mantra of multi-alignment over non-alignment. As US-China rivalry intensifies, Indias balancing act between the US and Russia is not a contradiction but a carefully cultivated strategy to maximise national leverage. Also, Putins New Delhi visit is a signal to the global South that the world is no longer unipolar. Sanctions, tariffs and coercive diplomacy are losing their bite in an age where new power centres such as India, Brazil, the Gulf and ASEAN are asserting fresh agency.

In the end, this summit isnt simply about memoranda or trade figures. It showcases Indias ability to talk to all sides. Hosting the Russian President one week to a US trade delegation the next. The India-Russia relationship today isnt simply a replay of the Soviet-era script. It is leaner, less sentimental and far more transactional and also sturdier than most expected. In a world that is currently divided by sanctions and suspicion, this summit is worth watching.

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(The author is a freelance journalist and features writer based out of Delhi. Her main areas of focus are politics, social issues, climate change and lifestyle-related topics. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views.)
Taking charge of a peace mission in the Caucasus would promote peace more than Donald Trumps empty ceremonies, bolster Indias diplomatic influence, and further cement its markets as its influence grows in Armenia

On August 8, 2025, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. According to the White House press release, the three leaders signed a historic joint declaration for peace after decades of bitter conflict and scores of lives lost  a landmark achievement for international diplomacy that only President Trump could deliver.

In reality, peace remains distant. Whether his Gaza peace plan, the peace between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, or his much-ballyhooed claim that he ended the 1,000-year-old India-Pakistan conflict in a mere 24 hours, the reality is that Trumps declarations of peace are akin to holding a grand opening ribbon-cutting for a building whose foundation is not even completely dug.

Trumps antics can cost lives. Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijans pro-Turkey dictator, uses the mantle of peace to launder his image, but he appears to be prepping for war. To drive along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, adjusted after the Nagorno-Karabakh War, is to witness not an embrace of peace but preparations for war. While Armenia constructs simple two-story border posts  the ground floor for passport and customs processing and the second floor as lodging for officials assigned to those sometimes-remote areas  Azerbaijani posts less than a kilometre away come with helicopter landing pads, soldiers dormitories, and mortar emplacements. Despite border demarcation using Soviet maps, Azerbaijan still occupies more than 200 kilometres of Armenian land. Azerbaijan has shown hostile intent with cross-border sniping and artillery attacks, sometimes even targeting American investment projects and wounding Indian workers.

To protect itself from further Azerbaijani encroachment, Armenia invited European Union observers to monitor its borders and document Azerbaijani violations. In Kapan, capital of the Syunik province, the monitors observe the landing and take-off of aircraft at the airport which abuts the province, lest Azerbaijan shoot down a passenger plane, claiming it strayed a meter or two into its airspace.

The presence of observers there has likely saved dozens of lives and prevented an incident that could have quickly become a pretext for war. Nevertheless, Aliyev has complained that such border and air traffic monitoring missions are illegal because they occur without his approval, but this just shows his disdain for Armenian sovereignty. After all, why should Armenia seek Azerbaijans permission for unarmed activity that occurs within its sovereign territory? Nevertheless, Aliyev has demanded Pashinyan remove European monitors as a condition for peace.

Here, India can play a role befitting its readily coalescing status as a global diplomatic and economic superpower. If European monitors must depart, Delhi should send Indian peacekeepers in their place. No United Nations mandate is necessary. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi deployed the Indian Peace Keeping Force to Sri Lanka in 1987 solely with the agreement of Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayewardene.

Perhaps the most successful peacekeeping force of the late 20th and early 21st centuries has been the Multinational Force of Observers in the Sinai Peninsula, monitoring the 1978 Camp David Accords that cemented peace between Israel and Egypt. This too had no United Nations mandate due to the recognition at the time that a UN mandate would require involving the Soviet Union in the peace, and that, in the Cold War context, Moscow was more likely to act as a spoiler.

India would be a natural partner for observation. Indians are among the most capable and practiced peacekeepers on earth. India fields approximately 5,400 peacekeepers in UN missions at any given time, making it the fourth-largest contributor of UN peacekeepers, after Nepal, Rwanda, and Bangladesh. Alongside Nepalese, Indians are best suited for Armenias mountainous terrain. Patrolling the Armenia-Azerbaijan border is remarkably similar to the India-Pakistan frontier and would be easy for those accustomed to even higher altitudes alongside Indias Line of Actual Control with China.

Diplomatically, Indians alone can win trust in a region of conflicting superpower interests. While Trump, rather hypocritically, can castigate Prime Minister Narendra Modi for Indias trade with Russia, the fact remains that India is one of the few countries whose presence in Armenia does not and will not upset Russia. Indeed, India is already increasingly involved in Armenias military supply, a trade for which it has both US and Russian support.

Azerbaijan and Turkey, of course, will complain, but they should not. A desire for peace does not motivate Turkeys growing involvement with Pakistan in the run-up to the Pahalgam massacre. Pakistan, meanwhile, did not ask Armenias permission as it began training Azerbaijani forces. Indeed, Pakistan is the only country in the world that does not recognize Armenias statehood.

From its days leading the Non-Aligned Movement until today, India has long viewed itself as a force for peace in the world, and it has proven a willingness to bleed for that goal. Augmenting or even taking charge of an Armenia peace mission would promote peace more than Trumps empty ceremonies, bolster Indias diplomatic influence, and further cement its markets as its influence grows in Armenia, which itself has long been the crossroads between empires and a civilisational state in its own right.

(Michael Rubin is director of policy analysis at the Middle East Forum and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views.)
On November 26, a shocking incident occurred just blocks away from the White House, as two members of the National Guard were shot by a man, who turned out later to be Afghan. One of them is dead, and the other is fighting for his life. President Donald Trump predictably used the tragedy to hit out at his predecessor Joe Biden and Biden-era policies that allowed Afghans in, and announced a review of all aliens in the country and the ending of all immigration from Afghanistan, which he termed a hellhole.

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Rather conveniently, Trump also announced another 500 troops to guard the national capital, further cementing a policy that has drawn ire across the country. All in all, a typical Trumpian reaction. But the mystery of the Washington shooting lies elsewhere.

Sordid Background

First, the attacker himself is now known to be Rahmanullah Lakanwala, who had come into the country under a policy that sought to shield those who had cooperated with US forces from Taliban revenge. More than 190,000 Afghans have been resettled in the United States, most under Special Immigrant Visas, due to the extreme risks they took in helping its forces. Lakanwala was in a different category. He joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) around 2011 and would have been extensively vetted before that, which makes the attack even more surprising.

An astonishing and thorough report on the unit documented widespread cruelty and indifference in raids on Afghan villages that were based on faulty intelligence and where Afghan and Special Operations soldiers accompanied by CIA officials barged into houses in dead of night raids. The whole thing was classified, so it was not codenamed Zero Units for nothing. Accountability was predictably zero as well. More importantly, it alienated the Afghans from the US more than any other aspect of operations.

Pakistans Self-Serving Intel Role

The critical point here is that during that period, much of the intelligence came from Pakistan in trade-offs and also involved the US targeting top leaders of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in a bid to gain Rawalpindis critical support. That relationship ended, for all intents and purposes, when US troops pulled out on a hurried timetable that was of Trumps making.

One of the most poignant images of that period is that of Afghans clinging to departing US aircraft in a desperate bid to leave the country. Few acts defined the utter failure of US strategy in handing over the state to the Taliban, with the equally famous image of the then Director General ISI Lt Gen Faiz Hameed celebrating Pakistans win over a cup of tea at the Serena hotel. Pakistan apparently triumphed, but since then matters have cartwheeled to an unimaginable extent.

Pakistan is Taking a Beating

A day before the attack in the US, Pakistans Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, in a briefing to the media, yet again warned that the Afghan Taliban regime has become a threat not only to Pakistan but to the entire region and the world, a complaint that Islamabad has been making ever since the TTP restarted its ferocious attacks against Pakistan. That the Pakistanis are equally supporting a faction of the Islamic State-Khorasan in the area of Nangarhar and beyond is also equally well known among the intelligence agencies of all countries.

Pakistan launched its first air strikes on Afghanistan in mid-2024, and they have escalated since October 2025, with Kabul included in targeted operations. Since then, according to the Pakistani military, it has carried out 67,023 intelligence-based operations (IBOs) nationwideincluding 12,857 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 53,309 in Balochistaneven as Afghanistan retaliated by striking numerous Pakistan army posts, even as the TTP struck repeatedly.

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A reputed Pakistani think tank put violence as the worst ever in a decade, with 2025 being the worst year, as of October. With an entire quarter still remaining, data indicates 2414 fatalities recorded compared to the entire tally of 2024 (2546). There is no sign at all that this trend is going to reverse.

Meanwhile, Pakistans Foreign Minister has declared that at least 4000 military personnel have died since 2021a conservative estimate since the prevailing violence involves the killing of at least 30 security personnel every monthand also that 20,000 have been injured since then. Considering that border clashes have spanned the entire length of the border, from Baramcha in the southwhere the Islamic State shelters inside Pakistanto Chitral in the north, there is no question but that the border is entirely on fire.

Taliban Digging Heels

Meanwhile, all statements by Afghanistans leadership indicate that they are on the war path. Recently, the Taliban Commerce Minister had declared their intention of stopping all trade through Pakistans Karachi and into Pakistan itself, shifting instead to Chabahar. Afghan border forces have officially declared that the Durand Line is a fictitious one, while Mullah Beradar issued a strong warning to Pakistan, calling upon Islamabad not to disrespect our airspace and land, and not to target innocent women, children, and Afghans contrary to all principles.

The closing of the border by Pakistan has boomeranged badly on Pakistan, as produce lies unsold, and Pakistani businessmen, particularly in the tribal areas, have been appealing to leaders like Maulana Fazlur Rehman to get the border reopened for trade. That, in turn, has led to a political outcry in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with the new Chief Minister Suhail Afridi railing against the Pakistan army and getting beaten severely by security forces as a result. This is a powder keg of unimaginable proportions, and Rawalpindi knows it.

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As the foreign minister alleged that a heavy clean up operation of terrorist hideouts in Afghanistan was stopped due to the intervention of Qatar, it seems Pakistan is running out of options. Despite the bravado among officials, there is strong awareness that a full-on attack on Afghanistan could be suicidal. Islamabads only recourse is to outsource the operation to an external power. While it is now repeatedly asking for external mediation from Saudi Arabia or Qatar, the reality, however, is this.

For years now, Rawalpindi has been using every trick in the book to lure the US back into Afghanistan, thereby giving itselfyet againnot just a large role in that unfortunate country, but also the funds that it desperately needs. The War on Terror brought in billions in unaccountable fundsmost of it to Corps Commandersfor years, and the stoppage of those funds has been severely felt.

Meanwhile, the near-daily attacks have severely depleted Pakistans security forces in strength and morale and caused what it most dreadsthe complete alienation of the tribal areas. To stop this cycle of events, it needs a heavy hand with powerful leverage. The US fits the bill. The terror attack against US servicemen may be just that, the prod that gets a reluctant Trump to at least up the ante, even if only from Pakistani soil. Its a long haul.

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(The writer is Director [Research and Analysis] at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views.)
Mass flight cancellations, plunging tourism and a fresh Senkaku/Diaoyu maritime clash highlight deepening political and security strains between Beijing and Tokyo

Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (left) shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of the Japan-China summit on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Gyeongju. AFP File

More than 1,900 flights between China and Japan have been cancelled for December, according to Chinese state media and travel analysts, even as fresh maritime standoff over disputed islands added fuel to an escalating political row between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan.

According to a South China Morning Post report, the cancellations  over 40 per cent of all scheduled mainland ChinaJapan routes this month  mark one of the most significant disruptions to bilateral travel in years.

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Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported the figures on Monday, citing data from major online travel platforms.

Aviation analyst Li Hanming confirmed the estimates, noting that scrapping outbound flights effectively wipes out the corresponding return routes too.

The crisis traces back to comments last month by Japans new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who suggested Japan could deploy military forces in the event of a conflict in the Taiwan Strait.

Beijing retaliated swiftly, issuing a travel warning on November 14 and prompting airlines to offer refunds on all Japan-bound bookings through years end. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese travellers have since cancelled trips, forcing carriers to axe a growing number of flights.

Cultural events featuring Japanese artists have also been postponed or cancelled in mainland China.

According to the report, travel firms say the fallout is already severe.

Bookings by Chinese tourists to Japan in December are down 35 per cent from October, with cancellations continuing to climb. If the dispute persists, Chinese tourism to Japan could plunge 4050 per cent from January to April 2026, Subramania Bhatt of China Trading Desk told SCMP. The rift looks entrenched now, he was quoted as saying.

Japan, which relies heavily on Chinese visitors  spending that accounts for about 0.4 per cent of its GDP  could feel the economic sting, though analysts at Gavekal Research believe a total collapse in tourism is unlikely.

A prolonged diplomatic chill could also pressure the already weak yen, potentially sliding it toward 160 per US dollar, they said.

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Meanwhile, Chinese tourists are redirecting travel to Russia, South Korea and Southeast Asia, with Russia especially benefiting from low prices and visa-free entry.

On Monday, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree allowing Chinese citizens to enter Russia visa-free for up to 30 days until September 2026.

Fresh standoff at sea

The travel shock comes as the two countries coast guards engaged in a new confrontation near the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands on Tuesday.

According to AFP, Japan reported that two Chinese patrol vessels entered its territorial waters in the early hours before approaching a Japanese fishing boat, prompting Japanese coast guard warnings.

Tokyo condemned the move as a violation of international law. Beijing countered that the Japanese fishing vessel had illegally entered Chinas territorial waters and said its coast guard took necessary control measures.

Chinese vessels have returned to the area repeatedly, including an incident on November 16 shortly after Takaichis Taiwan comments. The islands remain one of the most enduring flashpoints in Asia, with China insisting it will resolutely safeguard its maritime claims.

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The dispute has widened beyond diplomacy. Beijing has urged citizens to avoid Japan, cultural events have been halted, and China is reportedly renewing restrictions on Japanese seafood  though it has stopped short of broader economic retaliation.

Tensions show few signs of easing, and with travel, trade and security all now entangled, the fallout is expected to ripple well beyond December.

With inputs from agencies
After holding talks with the Ukrainian delegation, US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trumps son-in-law, will today meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin to discuss a plan endorsed by US President Donald Trump to end the war between Ukraine and Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff shake hands during their meeting in Moscow. File image/AP

After holding talks with the Ukrainian delegation, US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trumps son-in-law, will on Tuesday discuss with Russian leader Vladimir Putin a proposal to end the ongoing war.

While only Witkoff was originally scheduled to meet Putin, the Kremlin on Tuesday said that Kushner will also be part of talks.

Witkoff and Kushner are expected to present Putin with a proposal to end the war that has been endorsed by US President Donald Trump. The proposal stems from the infamous 28-point proposal and has been revised during several rounds of talks between American and Ukrainian officials.

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Ahead of the meeting with Putin, Witkoff joined Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Kushner to hold talks with a Ukrainian delegation on Sunday.

Even as Trump has pressed Ukraine to accept Russian terms and floated proposals that contain most of Putins maximalist demands, the Russian leader has so far rejected all proposals and has stressed that he wants Ukraines absolute surrender and acceptance of all of his maximalist terms.

ALSO READ: With Russias terms to Ukraine, Putin seeks surrender  not a peace deal

Trumps original proposal essentially did just that. The acceptance of such a proposal would have meant Ukraines surrender and loss of sovereignty.

In recent weeks, Putin has repeated his longstanding maximalist demands and has essentially rejected Trumps proposal that has been reworked after repeated consultations with Ukraine that has been backed by its European partners.

Trumps original 28-point plan had most of Putin's maximalist terms such as the surrender of territories, a cap on the military, a ban on Ukraines membership of Nato, granting official status to Russian language, and legalising the pro-Russian branch of the Orthodox Church. Such terms would have meant an outright surrender for Ukraine and a loss of sovereignty. But Putin appeared to reject even such a proposal and instead stuck to his original demands.

Putin threatens annihilation ahead of talks

Last week, ahead of talks with Witkoff, Putin delivered an ultimatum to Ukraine and said he would annihilate the nation if President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would not surrender all territories that he desires.

Claiming that the Russian army was practically impossible to hold back, Putin said that some people demand to keep on fighting until the last Ukrainian dies and Russia is ready for that.

Putin further said, If Ukrainian forces leave the territories they hold, then we will stop combat operations. If they dont, then we will achieve it by military means.

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Putin will meet Witkoff and Kushner at a time when Russian advance has picked up pace on the ground. Russia has announced capturing the crucial city of Pokrovsk. The city has been described as a potential gateway that could allow Russian to capture the rest of the Donbas province in the countrys east.
Begum Khaleda Zia (80) is on a ventilator at Evercare Hospital as she battles a serious lung infection along with chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and liver cirrhosis. Doctors have described her condition as very critical.

A file image of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Prime Minister of Bangladesh Khaleda Zia. (X)

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has extended sincere gratitude to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he publicly expressed deep concern and offered medical assistance for the partys critically ill chairperson and former Prime Minister, Begum Khaleda Zia.

Terming the move a crucial gesture of goodwill, the BNPs positive reception marks a rare moment of bilateral warmth and humanitarian politics across the South Asian neighbours.

PM Modi voiced his concern in a post on X, saying he was deeply concerned about Begum Khaleda Zias health, noting her long-standing role in Bangladeshs public life. Importantly, he made it clear that India is prepared to offer all possible support, including New Delhis willingness to step in with advanced medical assistance for the former Bangladeshi PM.

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Deeply concerned to learn about the health of Begum Khaleda Zia, who has contributed to Bangladeshs public life for many years. Our sincere prayers and best wishes for her speedy recovery. India stands ready to extend all possible support, in whatever way we can.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 1, 2025

In its official response, the BNP acknowledged the message, saying it deeply appreciates this gesture of goodwill and the expression of readiness to extend support. This kind of praise for the Indian PM is striking, especially given Dhakas usually complicated politics.

BNP expresses its sincere gratitude to the Honourable Prime Minister of India, @narendramodi, for his thoughtful message and kind wishes for the speedy recovery of BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia.



BNP deeply appreciates this gesture of goodwill and the expression of readiness  Bangladesh Nationalist Party-BNP (@bdbnp78) December 1, 2025

Eighty-year-old Zia is currently on ventilation at Evercare Hospital due to a severe lung infection and chronic ailments including heart disease, diabetes, and liver cirrhosis, with her condition confirmed as very critical by the partys Secretary General, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

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Begum Zia, a towering figure in Bangladeshi politics and the primary rival of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, served as Bangladeshs first woman Prime Minister across two terms (19911996 and 20012006).

The concern for the former Prime Minister extends beyond India; Bangladeshs interim government, led by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, also acknowledged her deteriorating health by sending an adviser to the hospital to assess her condition.
Australias Foreign Minister Penny Wong has raised concerns about Chinas increasing military presence in the Pacific region, emphasising the impact on regional security and the competition for influence. She underlined the importance of regional cooperation through forums like the Pacific Islands Forum to help smaller nations maintain their sovereignty and resist external pressures.

Chinas expanding military presence in the Pacific poses new challenges for Australia and regional partners.

Australias Foreign Minister Penny Wong recently highlighted Chinas growing projection of military power into the Pacific region, emphasising the challenges this poses to Australias influence and the broader regional balance. China is increasingly asserting its strategic presence through both economic and security measures, often without the transparency expected by regional nations.

Chinas expanding military reach

Wong pointed out that China is frequently deploying military assets deeper into the Pacific Islands, a move that is reshaping the security landscape and raising concerns among neighbouring countries. This military expansion is complemented by increased economic engagement, which together serve to extend Chinas strategic influence across the region. However, these actions often lack openness and clear communication, causing unease among Australia and its partners.

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Regional unity as defence

The Foreign Minister stressed that cooperation through regional organisations like the Pacific Islands Forum is crucial for smaller and medium-sized countries to balance the influence exerted by larger powers. Regional solidarity is seen as the key to empowering these nations, ensuring they can maintain autonomy and have choices when faced with external pressures.

Australias experience with coercion

Australias own experience with economic sanctions imposed by China, which amounted to tens of billions of Australian dollars during political disputes between 2020 and 2023, serves as a cautionary tale for Pacific nations. Wong warned that Australia can no longer presume it will be the sole preferred partner in the Pacific, acknowledging the increasing competition from China for influence.

Diplomatic ties and aid commitments

Currently, eleven Pacific Island countries recognise Beijing diplomatically, with some facing significant debt burdens to Chinese state banks. Meanwhile, three nations continue to maintain relationships with Taiwan. In this complex landscape, Australia remains committed to supporting Pacific nations, providing substantial development aid and dedicated climate finance to address urgent challenges.

Beijings official position

Despite these concerns, China maintains that its activities in the Pacific are not militaristic and should not be viewed as threatening. Chinese officials, including the Ambassador to Australia, have asserted that Beijings objectives focus on peaceful cooperation and development rather than military dominance, though scepticism remains among regional actors.

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Several minors from countries including the United States and Guatemala were also transferred to the United States on the same flight to be placed under child protective services

members of the Lev Tahor community being expelled from the country to later be handed to US authorities in Medellin, Colombia on December 1, 2025. (AFP)

Colombian authorities on Monday announced the expulsion of nine members of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect accused of child sex abuse just over a week after its immigration services said they had rescued 17 minors from the group.

The Lev Tahor sect, which practices a form of Judaism in which women wear black tunics covering them from head to toe, has been the subject of investigations for the mistreatment of minors in several countries, including Mexico and Canada.

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Images released by Colombian authorities showed sect members dressed in black tunics and walking through security checkpoints at the Medellin airport to board a New York-bound flight to be received by US authorities.

A spokesperson for Colombias migration agency said some of the minors, who were from various places including the US and Guatemala, were also transferred back to the United States on the same flight to be entrusted with US child protective services.

Lev Tahor  Hebrew for pure heart  was formed in the 1980s, and some members settled in Guatemala in 2013.

Authorities estimate that the community is made up of roughly 50 families from Guatemala, the United States, Canada and other countries. Interpol has issued red notices for the arrest of some of the groups leaders.

In December 2024, Guatemalan authorities rescued 160 minors from a farm occupied by Lev Tahor, with public prosecutors alleging they were subjected to forced pregnancy, mistreatment of minors and rape.

(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by Firstpost staff.)
The Trump administration has widened its crackdown on migrants in the US after the Washington shooter was identified as an Afghan national. Last weekend, the State Department paused issuing visas to people with Afghan passports

Kristi Noem made a startling claim that during a deportation flight, a detainee described as a "cannibal" had begun eating himself mid-air. Reuters/File Photo

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has called for a full travel ban on people coming from countries that flood our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies. Her assertion comes after an Afghan national shot at two National Guard members in Washington, DC.

I just met with the President. I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country thats been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies, Noem said on X.

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Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedomnot for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS.WE DONT WANT THEM. NOT ONE, she added.

The Trump administration has widened its crackdown on migrants in the US after the Washington shooter was identified as an Afghan national. Last weekend, the State Department paused issuing visas to people with Afghan passports.

US goes after migrants

President Donald Trump said last week that he would permanently pause immigration from what he described as third-world countries and called for a policy of reverse migration, escalating his rhetoric following the National Guard shooting in Washington, DC.

In a lengthy Thanksgiving night social media post, Trump offered few specifics while criticising migrants and pledging to remove millions of people living in the U.S. His comments came hours after he confirmed the death of 20-year-old National Guard soldier Sarah Beckstrom in the shooting.

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 Bidens Autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, Trump said.

The US government has also announced that it would re-examine green card holders issued to people who came to the US from 19 specific countries.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) chief Joseph Edlow said that President Donald Trump has instructed the agency to conduct a full-scale, rigorous re-examination of every green card for every alien from every country of concern.

USCIS has also suspended all immigration requests from Afghan nationals indefinitely.

Trump has labelled the Washington as an act of terror, saying that the suspect who shot the National Guard soldier was from hellhole Afghanistan.
European airports have faced repeated disruptions in recent months due to drone sightings, with Vilnius airport forced to shut down temporarily at least 10 times since early October

A border officer inspects a balloon in a photo issued earlier this month. Lithuanias crisis management centre said tens of balloons were detected by radar on Friday. AP file

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said that Belarusian incursions into the Lithuanian airspace are hybrid attacks, as Belarus representative in Brussels was summoned.

The situation at the border with Belarus is worsening, with the growing incursions of smuggling balloons into Lithuanias airspace, von der Leyen said, as she met Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda.

Lithuanias airport shuts down

Her comments follow an announcement from Lithuanias Vilnius airport on Monday that temporary airspace restrictions had been imposed over the weekend because of navigation signals characteristic of balloons moving in the direction of Vilnius Airport.

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European airports have faced repeated disruptions in recent months due to drone sightings, with Vilnius airport forced to shut down temporarily at least 10 times since early October, according to Reuters. The airport said in a statement that the restrictions were lifted on Monday.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said that Belarus is deliberately targeting the Lithuanian airport, forcing it to shut down several times last week. Over 7,400 passengers and 50 flights were affected by these restrictions over Sunday night alone, with 31 flights cancelled, 10 diverted, and nine delayed, Budrys said.

In October, authorities reported that dozens of small hot-air balloons had entered Lithuanian airspace, some carrying smuggled cigarettes, though it remained unclear where the balloons originated.

EU mulls sanctions

The EU is drawing up new sanctions against the government of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. In turn, Belarus summoned a Lithuanian envoy for a dressing down over a drone crash, the latest in a swirl of diplomatic standoffs between the neighbouring post-Soviet states.

The EU has imposed repeated sanctions on Minsk since 2020  including targeting Lukashenko and his family  for the brutal repression of dissent and support of Moscows war in Ukraine.

The long-serving strongman is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who allowed Moscow to use his country as a launchpad for its 2022 invasion.

With inputs from agencies
Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was freed from a US prison on Monday, where he had been serving a 45-year sentence for drug trafficking and firearms offenses, according to a report, citing the Federal Bureau of Prisons

Honduras former President Juan Orlando Hernandez is escorted by authorities as he walks towards a plane of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for his extradition to the United States, to face a trial on drug trafficking and arms possession charges, at the Hernan Acosta Mejia Air Force base in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on April 21, 2022. Reuters File

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was freed from a US prison on Monday, where he had been serving a 45-year sentence for drug trafficking and firearms offenses, according to a Reuters report, citing the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

His wife, Ana Garcia, announced on social media that Hernandezs release came after he was granted a pardon by US President Donald Trump.

After nearly four years of pain, waiting, and difficult trials, my husband Juan Orlando Hernandez RETURNED to being a free man, thanks to the presidential pardon granted by President Donald Trump, Reuters quoted Garcia as saying.

The release came days after a presidential election in Honduras, in which Trump has backed presidential candidate Nasry Asfura of the conservative National Party, who is facing off with liberal Salvador Nasralla.

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The latest vote count showed both candidates practically tied holding just under 40% of the vote.

Asfuras party forged a close partnership with Washington under Hernandez, who governed from 2014 to 2022 and was arrested shortly after leaving office.

Hernandez was sentenced in June last year and called his conviction wrongful.

With inputs from agencies
In his second term, US President Donald Trump has interfered in nearly every election in the West like never before. From Germanys neo-Nazi AfD party to Polands President Karol Nawrocki and Honduran right-wing candidate Nasry Asfura, he has sought to prop far-right friendly figures abroad

Donald Trump speaks to members of the media at Manhattan Supreme Court amid his hush money trial, in New York, US, May 7, 2024. (Photo: Curtis Means/Pool via Reuters)

The United States has meddled for decades in elections around the world. But no modern president has done so as brazenly as Donald Trump.

Forget shady CIA-hatched plots or surreptitious media campaigns. Trump has openly called on other countries electorates to vote for his right-wing friends, often deploying his favorite tool of social media.

Most recently, Trump on his Truth Social platform endorsed Honduran right-wing candidate Nasry Asfura as the only real friend of Freedom and vowed to work with him. Asfura held a narrow lead after voting Sunday.

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I cannot think of a time when a US president was willing to just openly state his preferences in foreign elections in this way, at least in modern history, said Thomas Carothers, director of the democracy, conflict and governance program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Trump has felt especially emboldened in Latin America, where the United States has long intervened.

Trumps secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has belittled Colombias elected left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, as a lunatic, and imposed sanctions on a Brazilian judge who prosecuted former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro for trying to overturn election results.

In Argentina, Trump promised $20 billion to prop up the struggling economy but warned it would vanish if voters rejected President Javier Milei in legislative elections. The firebrand libertarians party ultimately triumphed.

Its a consistent attempt to influence the politics, to reinforce what I think they see as already a shift towards the right thats gaining force across the region, said Will Freeman, a fellow on Latin America at the Council on Foreign Relations.

In Venezuela, where there is no election to influence, Trump has suggested the use of US military might to remove leftist leader Nicolas Maduro.

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Eye on Europe

Trump has also sought to tip the scales in Europe. His homeland security chief, Kristi Noem, on a visit to Poland openly endorsed Karol Nawrocki, the conservative candidate for president who went on to win.

Trump had less success in Romania, where a far-right ally lost the presidential election, but only after a previous vote was controversially annulled.

Vice President JD Vance on a trip to Germany publicly attacked restrictions on the far-right AfD party. Trump or his aides have heaped praise on British anti-migrant lawmaker Nigel Farage and criticized a court ruling in France against far-right leader Marine le Pen.

The Trump administration has also stripped back decades of efforts to promote democracy overseas, with Rubio issuing a cable instructing embassies to avoid most commentary on the legitimacy of elections abroad.

The stance mirrors Trumps approach to elections at home. He refused to accept his 2020 loss and was charged with trying to overturn results in the state of Georgia  a case dropped last week in light of his 2024 election victory.

Trump, perhaps mindful of his own experience, has publicly urged Israels president to pardon scandal-tainted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Unique Trump approach

Ironically, Trump in a speech in Riyadh in May denounced interventionism, at least in the Middle Eastern context, saying that past US efforts had turned into disasters.

Political scientist Dov Levin in a 2021 book found that the United States had intervened in foreign elections more than 80 times since the end of World War II  more than any other country.

Still, Carothers said that Trump was unique not only in his public methods but in his apparent motivations.

Its different than during the Cold War when the United States often favored a particular person, but they did so for geostrategic reasons, he said.

What we have here is more that Donald Trump feels he has a group of friends out there in the world whom he wants to help, he said.

Carothers said that only Russia came close in tactics, with the Kremlin weighing in heavily to make known its preferences in former Soviet bloc countries, such as recently in Moldova where its candidate lost.

A very high percentage of European leaders would like to see Viktor Orban lose the next election, but theyre not going to say so out loud, he said, referring to Hungarys right-wing populist prime minister.

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Trump welcomed Orban to the White House last month. Speaking together to reporters, Trump said that European leaders needed to appreciate Orban more.

(This is an agency story. Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Firstpost staff.)
Hong Kong banned two pro-democracy groups from operating locally as they posed a threat to the state and aimed to subvert the democratic mindset by promoting self-determination and undermining the basic principles of the government.

Hong Kong banned the operations of two pro-democracy groups from operating locally  named Hong Kong Parliament and the Hong Kong Democratic Independence Union  the government said on Tuesday. The government believes that these organisations aim to subvert state power and damage the democratic mindset by promoting self-determination for Hong Kong and undermine the basic principles of the Hong Kong SAR government.

The order was issued by the citys security chief under Hong Kongs Article 23 which passed last year. Both the organisations have been fined up to $128,000 and imprisonment for 14 years.

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Protecting national security

A statement said the prohibition was necessary for safeguarding national security. But what remains unclear is the impact of the ban. Since both the groups were active on social media. This may be seen as Beijings control over the activist movement by challenging the political status and undermining the status quo that once existed in Hong Kong.

Many pro-democracy groups have already faced legal prosecution, disbandment, and harsh sentences under the national security framework.

Any activists affiliated with them, or who give them money, face a maximum fine of HK$1 million ($128,000) and imprisonment for 14 years, according to the ban published in the citys law gazette.

National Security law

Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law in 2020 to protect the acts of criminalism, succession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with the help of foreign forces.

A 19-year-old woman who took part in two videos to promote the Hong Kong Parliament pleaded guilty to sedition and last month received a one-year prison term.

Under the national security crimes, Hong Kong convicted about 172 people and arrested 348, radicalising tough stands.
In his first statement in weeks, former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan called Army chief Asim Munir a mentally unstable tyrant and said the only thing left for him to do was to get him murdered. He said he had been tortured in a cage in Rawalpindis Adiala jail at Munirs order.

Supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party chant slogans during a protest over concerns about their leader's health in Karachi, Pakistan, on November 28, 2025. (Photo: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)

In his first statement in weeks, former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday called Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir a mentally unstable tyrant and alleged that his regime was after his life.

In a statement released by his party Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI), Imran said that he had been tortured in a cage in Rawalpindis Adiala jail and the only thing left for Munir was to get him murdered.

There is no rule of law or constitution in our country. Instead, it is under the rule of Asim Law. Asim Munir is the most tyrannical dictator in history and is mentally unstable. The level of oppression during his tenure is unparalleled. Asim Munir is capable of doing anything to satisfy his lust for power, said Imran.

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The PTI released the statement after rumours of death swirled for weeks amid allegations of torture and concerns about his health from his family and supporters. Such speculation and concerns were fuelled by prison authorities refusal to grant family and PTI leaders court-mandated access to Imran. They did not cite any reason for their refusal visitation.

After PTI mobilised cadres in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and gathered for mass protests, prison authorities on Tuesday allowed Uzma Khanum, sister of Imran, to meet him in the prison. After their meeting, she said her brother was physically fine but had been tortured mentally.

Imran Khans health is perfectly fine. However, he was very angry and said that they are subjecting him to mental torture, Uzma told the media and supporters of PTI, according to Dawn.

In his statement, Imran said that he had been kept in solitary confinement and was treated like an animal and was put in a cage.

My cell heats up like an oven. I am not allowed to speak with my children. I have the same facilities that an inmate on death row hasI was tortured by being confined in a cage and treated worse than animals. Electricity to my cell was shut off for five days. I was confined to the cell for ten days. For several weeks, any visits by family members, doctors, or lawyers were blocked, said Imran.

Asim Munir & ISI will be responsible: Imran Khan says he could be killed

Imran said that Munir-led military-intelligence establishment has gone to all possible lengths to torture him and the only thing left was his murder.

Imran said, The military establishment has done all they could against me. All that is left for them is to now murder me.

Imran said that Munir and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Asim Malik would be responsible if he would be harmed physically in jail.

The ISI controls all administrative matters related to my imprisonment. Im saying it again: if anything happens to me, the Army Chief and DG-ISI [Director General of ISI] will be responsible," said Imran.

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But Imran stressed he will never accept this dictatorship.

Imran said, I am prepared to remain in a prison cell for as long as it takes in the struggle against this tyranny. I will not compromise on my principles for the true freedom of the nation.

Imran has been in jail since 2023. He and his supporters have dubbed his incarceration and cases against him as politically motivated. He has more than 100 cases against him that range from corruption cases in which he has been convicted to cases related to the May 9 violence when his supporters had gone on a nationwide rampage against the all-powerful Pakistan Army and stormed its headquarters in Rawalpindi and vandalised houses of senior commanders.

Imran has directly blamed Pakistan Army for plotting his ouster in 2022 in league with then-US government and then-Opposition parties like Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). He and his supporters have since been in an unprecedented open confrontation with the Army.

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Uzma Khanum, sister of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, said he was physically fine but had been tortured mentally in jail. She visited her brother after 29 days amid rumours of death, allegations of torture, and concerns about his health.

A supporter of jailed former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan holds his poster during a gathering by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to observe Martyrs' Day to honour those who allegedly died during last month's protest, in Peshawar on December 15, 2024. (Photo: Abdul Majeed/AFP)

Uzma Khanum, sister of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, met him on Tuesday and said he was physically fit but had been tortured mentally.

Imran Khans health is perfectly fine. However, he was very angry and said that they are subjecting him to mental torture, Uzma told the media and supporters of Imrans Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) after the meeting, according to Dawn.

Amid swirling rumours of death, allegations of torture, and concerns about his health, Uzma was on Tuesday allowed to meet Imran at Rawalpindis Adiala jail.

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Uzma went inside the jail to meet Imran as scores of supporters gathered outside the jail. She was the first person to meet Imran in 29 days. Authorities had not provided any reason to deny court-mandated visitation, leading to speculation about his health and condition in jail.

Uzma was allowed to meet Imran as PTI supporters had gathered in scores in Rawalpindi in protest against the authorities repeated denials to grant access to him.

Last week, sources close to Imran in PTI told CNN-News 18 that Imran has been tortured in jail and kept in near-complete isolation. They said that has been beaten and subjected to high-intensity confinement.

Separately, Imrans former aide, Zulfi Bukhari, previously said that Imran has not been seen by anyone since November 4 and there had been no update about his whereabouts or health. He further said that no reason has been provided for denying meetings to his family and party members.

PTI mustered street power

Amid prohibitive orders, PTI held protests in Rawalpindi and nearby Islamabad.

Dawn reported PTI leader Asad Qaiser as saying that Opposition lawmakers from both houses of parliament had planned to hold protest outside the Islamabad High Court (IHC) before taking their demonstration to Adiala jail.

It has been decided to hold protests because IHC has failed to implement its order and the Adiala jail administration is not willing to implement the court orders, said Qaiser.

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Separately, PTIs unit in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, where the party runs the provincial government, announced the blockade of the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway Interchange for a rally in Imrans support.

Another PTI leader told Dawn that the party might suspend the traffic between Islamabad and Peshawar by blocking the motorway in protest against blocking access to Imran.
Indonesia lost more than 240,000 hectares of primary rainforest in 2024 alone, as part of a decades-long pattern of land clearing for plantations, mining, fires, and logging

This aerial picture shows a truck and a car trapped in muds from flash floods on a main road connecting Aceh and North Sumatra in Meureudu, Pidie Jaya district Indonesia's Aceh province on November 28, 2025. Image- AFP

The deadly floods that swept across parts of Indonesia this month were intensified by years of deforestation that stripped away natural protections.

Environmental researchers told AFP that upstream forest loss dramatically increased runoff during intense rainfall. David Gaveau, founder of The TreeMap, a geospatial company safeguarding tropical forests through scientific investigations, said forests normally act as a buffer during storms.

Forests upstream act as protective barrier, a bit like a sponge, he told AFP. The canopy captures some of the rain before it reaches the ground. The roots also help stabilise the soil. When the forest is cleared upstream, rainwater runs off rapidly into rivers creating flash floods, he added.

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Indonesia lost more than 240,000 hectares of primary rainforest in 2024 alone, as part of a decades-long pattern of land clearing for plantations, mining, fires, and logging.

As water levels began to recede, huge piles of timber washed ashoreevidence of the degraded slopes swept away by the floods.

President Prabowo Subianto acknowledged the scale of the problem. We must truly prevent deforestation and forest destruction. Protecting our forests is crucial, he said.

The Ministry of Environment and Forestry has opened investigations into suspected illegal logging in the worst-hit areas. Minister Raja Juli Antoni described the disaster as a chance to evaluate our policies, adding that The pendulum between the economy and ecology seems to have swung too far towards the economy and needs to be pulled back to the centre.

Environmental activists cited by AFP pointed to major land-use projects in Batang Toru, where at least seven companies operate upstream in areas cleared for mining, hydropower and plantations. One warned that such clearing is increasing our vulnerability.

They said restoration of degraded land is critical, warning that erosion is raising riverbeds and diminishing river capacity, worsening the impact of extreme rainfall.
In a brief statement, Israeli police announced they were currently escorting, with reverence, the coffin of the fallen hostage to the National Centre of Forensic Medicine.

A convoy transporting the bodies of deceased hostages, kidnapped during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, arrives at Abu Kabir forensic centre, as part of a prisoner-hostage swap and a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel October 15, 2025. Reuters

Israeli authorities confirmed on Tuesday that they have received the presumed remains of one of the final two deceased hostages held in the Gaza Strip, and the remains are currently being transported for formal identification.

In a brief statement, Israeli police announced they were currently escorting, with reverence, the coffin of the fallen hostage to the National Centre of Forensic Medicine.

The remains were handed over inside the Gaza Strip through the Red Cross to an Israeli military and security force, according to an earlier statement from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Netanyahus office confirmed that upon the completion of the identification process, formal notification will be delivered to the family. The statement did not specify whether the findings belonged to Israeli Ran Gvili or Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak, the last two known deceased hostages, but noted that authorities are in continuous contact with their families.

The handover comes as part of the mechanisms established under the US-brokered ceasefire that took effect in October. Under the terms of that agreement, Palestinian militants have returned the last 20 living hostages and, previously, the remains of 26 of the 28 deceased hostages abducted during Hamass October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

While Hamas had not formally confirmed the handover by Tuesday afternoon, a Hamas official told AFP that a joint team from its armed wing and Islamic Jihad had been conducting search operations for several days in northern Gaza, including Jabalia and Beit Lahia.

A number of bodies were found under the rubble and are being examined, the official said, adding that search operations were continuing and that there was no confirmation that any of these bodies found belong to an Israeli prisoner. The official added that mediators were informed that if the two bodies are conclusively found, they will be handed over immediately to the Israeli side through the established mechanism.

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Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one of four sons of the jailed Sinaloa cartel leader, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and continuing criminal enterprise  reversing the original not guilty stance he took after his July 2024 arrest in Texas, court filings showed

This combination of pictures created on July 26, 2024, shows and undated image obtained from the US Department of State of Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada Garcia (L), cofounder of the Sinaloa Cartel; and an undated image obtained from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement of Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of the cartel's other co-founder, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. AFP

A son of the infamous Mexican drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman pleaded guilty Monday in a Chicago court to drug trafficking charges in a deal that would see him cooperate with US prosecutors for a reduced sentence.

Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one of four sons of the jailed Sinaloa cartel leader, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and continuing criminal enterprise  reversing the original not guilty stance he took after his July 2024 arrest in Texas, court filings showed.Under the plea deal filed with the court and seen by AFP, prosecutors agreed that the judge could spare him life imprisonment on the drug charges  depending on his level of cooperation.

Defendant understands that the decision to depart from the applicable guideline sentencethe mandatory minimum sentence of life imprisonment, rests solely with the Court, the filing said.

Guzman Lopez, who will be sentenced by the judge in the case at a later date, must also pay an $80 million charge representing the proceeds of his crimes.

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Another of his three brothers, Ovidio Guzman  as part of a plea deal struck in exchange for a reduced sentence  pleaded guilty in July 2025 to conspiracy related to drug trafficking and two counts of participating in the activities of a criminal enterprise.

Ovidio Guzman also admitted that he and his brothers, known as Los Chapitos, had taken over their fathers operations within the cartel.

The 68-year-old El Chapo is serving a life sentence at a supermax federal prison in Colorado following his 2016 arrest and 2019 conviction.

Based upon facts now known to the government, defendant has clearly demonstrated a recognition and affirmative acceptance of personal responsibility for his criminal conduct, the plea deal said.

Guzman Lopez was involved in the shipment of hundreds or thousands of kilograms of cocaine, heroin, meth and marijuana from Mexico to the United States, the filing added.

- Trump war on drugs -

In July 2024, Joaquin Guzman Lopez initially pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking, money laundering, and weapons possession.

He was taken into custody that month when he arrived in Texas aboard a small private plane, along with the co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel, Ismael Mayo Zambada.

Zambada claimed to have been misled about the destination and abducted by Guzman Lopez to be handed over against his will to the United States.

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Following the arrest, clashes intensified between two factions of the cartel, headed respectively by the Guzman brothers and Zambada.

The infighting led to approximately 1,200 deaths in Mexico and around 1,400 disappearances, according to official figures.

Washington accuses the Sinaloa cartel of trafficking fentanyl to the United States, where the synthetic drug has caused tens of thousands of overdose deaths in recent years, straining relations with Mexico.

The Sinaloa cartel is one of six Mexican drug-trafficking groups that US President Donald Trump has designated as global terrorist organizations.

In its aggressive policy against drug cartels, the Trump administration announced additional sanctions against Los Chapitos in June for fentanyl trafficking and increased the reward to $10 million for each of the fugitive brothers.

The two other Chapitos  Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar and Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar  have also been indicted on drug trafficking charges in the United States but remain at large.
First People's BRICS Summit opens in Brazil to strengthen Global South cooperation

Xinhua) 10:54, December 02, 2025

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- The first People's BRICS Summit opened here on Monday, aiming to expand the participation of member countries' civil societies in global governance and strengthen cooperation across the Global South.

The meeting, as part of the BRICS Civil Council's agenda, brings together BRICS social movements to discuss economic cooperation, multilateralism, global geopolitics, governance challenges and ways to reduce emerging economies' dependence on the U.S. dollar.

Created in 2024 at the Kazan Summit in Russia, the BRICS Civil Council seeks to establish a permanent dialogue between civil society and bloc governments.

Organizers said the council marks "a milestone" in expanding the role of organized social groups, including grassroots movements, students, teachers and NGOs in BRICS discussions.

The summit is the last major BRICS event under Brazil's presidency before India assumes leadership next year.

Dilma Rousseff, former Brazilian president and president of the New Development Bank, said in a video message that the summit gives BRICS populations "a permanent channel of dialogue" with the bloc's decision-making bodies.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
At least five people were killed when TTP militants ambushed a government vehicle in Pakistans Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Tuesday, targeting the convoy of a senior district official.

Pakistani soldiers stand guard as people, who fled the military offensive against militants in North Waziristan, receive food supply from the army in Bannu in Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province July 2, 2014. (Photo: Haji Mujtaba/Reuters)

At least five people were killed after Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants attacked a government vehicle in Pakistans Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Tuesday.

The assault in Bannu district targeted the vehicle of Shah Wali, the assistant commissioner of North Waziristan. Wali was among those who died, along with two policemen, News18 reported citing sources.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, referred to by the Pakistani state as Fitna-al-Khawarij, is a banned organisation.

The attack came a day after three TTP militants were killed in retaliatory action by Pakistani security forces in Balochistan.

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According to a statement issued by the Frontier Corps Balochistan South spokesperson, the action followed an incident in which one of the suicide attackers blew himself up at the main gate of the FC headquarters in Nokkundi, as reported by Dawn. The report said that at least six armed attackers entered the headquarters after the blast.

A checkpost in the Gurmakan area of Panjgur district was also reportedly targeted.

TTP violence has intensified since the group ended its ceasefire with the Pakistan government in November 2022, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

Dawn also reported that seven blasts hit Quetta and Dera Murad Jamali in Balochistan on November 29, including one that destroyed part of a railway track and disrupted train services.
The supreme pontiffs debut trip abroad closed on a soaring note, with an open-air mass along the Beirut waterfront that pulled in nearly 150,000 people

Pope Leo XIV concluded his three-day trip to Lebanon on Tuesday with an impassioned plea for an immediate end to hostilities and a rejection of division, telling a massive crowd that the Middle East must adopt new approaches to secure a lasting peace.

The supreme pontiffs inaugural foreign trip culminated in an open-air mass on Beiruts waterfront, which drew an estimated 150,000 people, including senior officials like President Joseph Aoun. The visit came at a critical time for Lebanon, a nation grappling with a crippling economic collapse and the fear of renewed conflict following last years war between Israel and Hezbollah.

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Addressing the vast assembly, the Pope made an emotional appeal to world leaders. He urged those who hold political and social authority here and in all countries marked by war and violence. Listen to the cry of your peoples who are calling for peace. He also specifically addressed the ongoing tensions, expressing his aspiration for peace, along with a heartfelt appeal: may the attacks and hostilities cease.

The pontiff acknowledged the complex challenges facing the entire region, stating that the Middle East needs new approaches in order to reject the mindset of revenge and violence, to overcome political, social and religious divisions, and to open new chapters in the name of reconciliation and peace.

Later, before departing from Beirut airport, the Pope offered a final message: While weapons are lethal, negotiation, mediation and dialogue are constructive. Let us all choose peace as a way, not just as a goal!

The Popes itinerary also included a deeply moving stop at the site of the catastrophic August 2020 port explosion, which devastated the capital and for which no one has been held accountable. Near the ruined grain silos, he spoke with grieving families. I carry with me the pain, and the thirst for truth and justice, of so many families, of an entire country, he said.

Sending a message of hope to Christians whose numbers have diminished in the region, the Pope said, Christians of the Levant, citizens of these lands in every respect, I repeat, have courage. The whole Church looks to you with affection and admiration. As the Pope departed, President Aoun thanked him, saying the visit reminded us that the world has not forgotten Lebanon.

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Putin has praised what his commanders claim is the full Russian capture of the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, calling it a major achievement after a prolonged battle and saying it would support Moscows wider war goals.

President Vladimir Putin praised what his commanders described as the full Russian capture of the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, calling it a major achievement after a prolonged campaign and saying it would help advance Moscows wider war goals.

Russia, which refers to the city by its Soviet-era name, Krasnoarmeysk, has been fighting to take Pokrovsk since mid-2024, facing strong Ukrainian resistance in what had been a crucial logistics hub for Kyivs forces.

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I want to thank you. This is an important direction. We all understand just how important, Putin, wearing military uniform and seated in a command centre, told senior military officials in a video released by the Kremlin late on Monday. It will ensure solutions going forward to the tasks that we initially set at the beginning of the special military operation, he said, repeating Moscows term for its nearly four-year campaign in Ukraine.

If confirmed, the capture would give Russian forces a platform to push north towards Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the two biggest Ukrainian-held cities left in the Donetsk region.

Russia seeks full control of Donbas

Moscow aims to seize the entire Donbas region, which includes the provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk where Pokrovsk is located. Kyiv and its Western allies reject Russias claims as an unlawful land grab they remain committed to resisting.

Ukraine has not yet commented. In recent weeks, it said its forces were holding back Russian advances in the northern part of the city, which had a pre-war population of more than 60,000 and lies near Ukraines only source of coking coal minerals.

Reuters could not independently verify claims from either side. Maps issued by both Russia and Ukraine have long shown Pokrovsk under severe Russian pressure, with Moscows forces embedded deep inside the city.

The announcement comes as the United States accelerates efforts to broker a peace agreement for Ukraine, with Putin due to meet in Moscow on Tuesday with US President Donald Trumps special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

Capture may strengthen Moscows negotiating leverage

Russian analysts say that securing Pokrovsk  Moscows most significant territorial gain in Ukraine since the fall of Avdiivka in early 2024  could bolster Russias position in any future talks. They argue it demonstrates meaningful progress in Donetsk at a time when Putin is urging Kyiv to give up the remaining territory.

They also warn that Ukraines Dnipropetrovsk region, to the west of Pokrovsk, could become more vulnerable to further Russian moves, given Russian claims of a foothold there.

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The development led Russias morning news coverage on state-run Channel One, which aired video of soldiers calmly raising a Russian flag in what appeared to be the city centre, with wider shots showing heavy destruction. A time stamp indicated Putins statement and command-centre visit took place on Sunday. Its release late on Monday appeared timed ahead of talks in Moscow with US negotiators.

Russian commanders report clean-up operations

Valery Solodchuk, commander of the Centre group of forces, told Putin that Russian troops were conducting clean-up operations around Pokrovsk and in nearby Myrnohrad, where he claimed up to 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers were trapped.

Commanders also informed Putin that Russian troops were advancing along the entire frontline and had taken the frontline town of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region as part of efforts to establish a security zone. Ukrainian officials have not confirmed the fall of Vovchansk, known in Russian as Volchansk.

Valery Gerasimov, chief of Russias General Staff, told Putin that Russian forces were determined to push ahead with capturing the entire Donbas region.
Russian President Putin met President Trumps special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner at the Kremlin on Tuesday for talks aimed at exploring a path to end the war in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin, presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev and foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov attend a meeting with US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday. Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin met US President Donald Trumps special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner at the Kremlin on Tuesday for talks aimed at exploring a path to end the war in Ukraine  Europes deadliest conflict since World War Two.

The high-stakes meeting came shortly after Putin issued a stark warning to European governments, saying the continent would face a swift defeat if it entered into a military confrontation with Russia.

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He also rejected newly proposed European counter-plans for peace, calling them absolutely unacceptable to Russia.

Trump has repeatedly vowed to bring the war to an end, though his diplomatic pushes  including an August summit with Putin in Alaska and multiple meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy  have yet to deliver a breakthrough.

Tensions spiked last week after the leak of 28 US draft peace proposals that alarmed Kyiv and several European capitals.

Critics said the document appeared to concede to key Russian demands, including curbs on Nato, recognition of Moscows control over roughly one-fifth of Ukraine, and limits on the size and capabilities of Ukraines armed forces.

In response, European governments put forward their own counter-proposal.

After subsequent talks in Geneva, the United States and Ukraine announced they had produced an updated and refined peace framework intended to move negotiations forward.

I am so pleased to see you, Reuters quoted Putin as telling Witkoff and Kushner when they met on Tuesday.

It is a magnificent city, Witkoff told Putin after earlier strolling with Kushner and the Russian leaders envoy Kirill Dmitriev on Red Square near the mausoleum of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin.

Dmitriev and Putin aide Yuri Ushakov were also at the Kremlin meeting, along with interpreters.

After the initial pleasantries of the meeting, the Kremlins broadcast of the meeting turned off, as expected. It wont be until after the closed-door meeting ends that details emerge regarding what the negotiation teams discussed.

With inputs from agencies

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The MEA dismissed Pakistans allegation that India delayed overflight clearance for an aid flight to Sri Lanka, calling the charge ridiculous and reiterating that the request was received and approved the same day.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Tuesday dismissed Pakistans allegation that India delayed overflight clearance for an aid flight to Sri Lanka, calling the claim ridiculous.

According to the MEA, Pakistan submitted a request at around 1 pm (IST) on 1 December 2025, seeking permission for an aircraft to transit Indian airspace the same day as part of a humanitarian mission to Sri Lanka. Pakistani media had claimed that India did not approve the request in time, causing delays to relief efforts for flood-hit Sri Lanka.

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Responding to queries, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said: We reject the ridiculous statement made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan which is yet another attempt of spreading anti-India misinformation. The request for overflight clearance for Pakistani aircraft carrying humanitarian assistance to Sri Lanka was received by the High Commission of India in Islamabad at around 1300 hrs on December 1, 2025.

Given the urgency of humanitarian assistance, the Government of India processed the request expeditiously the same day and granted the overflight permission as per the itinerary proposed at 1730 hrs on December 01, 2025. India remains committed to assisting the people of Sri Lanka in these challenging times through all available means," he added.

India also pointed to a pattern of misinformation emerging from Pakistan, noting that this episode follows recent attempts by Pakistani media and diplomatic handles to circulate false claims  including incorrect reports about Indias participation in an Oxford Union debate. Sources reiterated that Indias handling of airspace permissions is professional, rule-based and consistent with international aviation norms.

Earlier, Pakistani media falsely reported that India had refused airspace access to Islamabad for humanitarian flights to Sri Lanka, allegedly delaying assistance to affected communities.
Moscows assertion follows months of intense fighting for control of the strategic hub, during which Russian forces have suffered thousands of dead and wounded

An artilleryman of the 152nd Separate Jaeger Brigade fires a howitzer towards Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the frontline town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Ukraine October 15, 2025. (Image: Reuters)

Russia has claimed to have captured the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, a move that would mark a significant gain for its forces. Ukraine, however, dismissed what it described as Moscows loud statements aimed at shaping ongoing negotiations over ending the war.

Moscows assertion follows months of intense fighting for control of the strategic hub, during which Russian forces have suffered thousands of dead and wounded.

The claim also comes shortly after high-level talks in Florida between US and Ukrainian officials on ending the conflict, and just one day before the US. President Donald Trumps special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is due in Moscow for a meeting with Vladimir Putin.

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Ukraine has not directly addressed the claim, but Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation, warned Monday that Russia would make many attempts to apply pressure on the front line over the next weeks and accompany this with loud statements. He said such efforts were aimed exclusively for the Western audience and to raise diplomatic stakes during renewed talks on how to end the war.

Earlier Monday, the Ukrainian Armed Forces said that despite the difficult situation in Pokrovsk and nearby areas, Ukrainian troops continue to hold back the enemys offensive.

Moscows announcement comes a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin visited frontline troops.

According to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff, told Putin during a Sunday visit to a command post that Russian troops had captured Pokrovsk.

Video released by the Kremlin on Monday and geolocated by CNN shows Russian soldiers raising a Russian flag in Pokrovsks city centre, an area long under Moscows control, as Russian units have gradually advanced from the south.

Pokrovsk had been a key logistics hub for Ukraine due to its road and rail links, but repeated drone and artillery strikes on the main highway and rail line forced Kyiv to establish alternative supply routes, reducing the citys strategic value.

During Sundays visit, Putin thanked commanders and troops for their successful actions, according to Peskov. I would like to thank you for the results of the operations in Pokrovsk  both you, the entire command and personnel of the group, and, of course, the fighters, our guys who are carrying out these combat missions, Putin said.

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He added that progress in Pokrovsk would ensure steady progress toward achieving all of Moscows objectives in the war.
Russia has praised India for taking what it called a very friendly stand towards Moscow and lauded New Delhis approach to the Ukraine conflict, ahead of President Vladimir Putins two-day visit to India.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shake hands during a meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China. Reuters

Russia has thanked India for what it called a very friendly stand towards Moscow and praised New Delhis position on the Ukraine conflict.

The remarks by Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov come ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putins two-day visit to India.

They also carry weight as India has continued purchasing oil and other energy supplies from Russia despite pressure from the US, which has imposed 50 percent tariffs on India, including 25 per cent linked to Russian oil purchases.

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Peskov said the bilateral relationship is built on a deep historical foundation of mutual understanding, partnership, and a shared view of global affairs based on international law, the rule of law, and respect for each others interests.

This is a very important characteristic of our relationship. We are proud to have been shoulder to shoulder next to our Indian friends during their historic growth. We are very grateful to India for a very friendly stand nowadays, very friendly stand towards our country," he said.

He added that it is crucial for Moscow and New Delhi to organise bilateral trade and economic engagement in a way that remains insulated from pressure by third countries.

We appreciate Indias position on the Ukraine conflict. We respect Prime Minister Modis stance and value the exchange of information between him and President Putin. Prime Minister Modi and his Indian counterparts are willing to listen to our position, which ensures mutual understanding. Unfortunately, we do not have such dialogue with Europeans  how can you understand a position if you do not engage in talks? India listens to us, India hears us, and we truly appreciate that," Peskov said.

Acknowledging the imbalance in bilateral trade, Peskov said Russia is exploring ways to increase imports from India.

Were selling much more than we buy from India. We know that our Indian friends are concerned about that. By the way, were jointly looking for possibilities of increasing import, imports from India to Russia. So we want to buy more from India," he said.

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India and Russia are working together to increase New Delhis exports, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, ahead of President Vladimir Putins visit for summit talks with PM Modi.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speak during a meeting at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025. File Image/Reuters via Sputnik

India and Russia are working together to boost New Delhis exports, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, noting that Moscow remains a key energy supplier for India even though oil volumes may see a temporary dip.

Speaking at an online media briefing ahead of President Vladimir Putins upcoming visit to India for summit talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Peskov stressed the need for trade mechanisms that are insulated from third-country influence.

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Tariff between India and then the United States is rather a question of bilateral relations between India and the US, what concerns us is the way were going to continue and enlarge the volume of our bilateral business with India, not letting anyone interfere, he said.

Peskov added that settling a large share of bilateral trade in national currencies plays an important role in safeguarding economic ties. Russia has also thanked India for what it described as a very friendly stand towards Moscow and praised New Delhis position on the Ukraine conflict.

Previously, Firstposts Madhur Sharma reported that India has leveraged its historic ties with Russia, along with a recent thaw in relations with China, to cushion the economic impact. Indian exporters are now expected to compete directly with some Chinese rivals in the Russian market.

His remarks come just days before Putin begins a two-day visit to India. They also underline Moscows view that India has continued to buy Russian oil and other energy supplies despite pressure from the US, which has imposed 50 percent tariffs on India, including 25 percent linked to Russian oil purchases.

Peskov said the IndiaRussia partnership rests on a deep historical foundation marked by mutual understanding, shared perspectives on global issues, and respect for each others interests based on international law.

This is a very important characteristic of our relationship. We are proud to have been shoulder to shoulder next to our Indian friends during their historic growth. We are very grateful to India for a very friendly stand nowadays, very friendly stand towards our country," he said.

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He emphasised that it is essential for both countries to structure their trade and economic engagement so that it remains shielded from external pressure.

We appreciate Indias position on the Ukraine conflict. We respect Prime Minister Modis stance and value the exchange of information between him and President Putin. Prime Minister Modi and his Indian counterparts are willing to listen to our position, which ensures mutual understanding. Unfortunately, we do not have such dialogue with Europeans  how can you understand a position if you do not engage in talks? India listens to us, India hears us, and we truly appreciate that," Peskov said.

On the issue of trade imbalance, Peskov acknowledged that Russia sells far more to India than it buys, and said both sides are looking for ways to address this.

Were selling much more than we buy from India. We know that our Indian friends are concerned about that. By the way, were jointly looking for possibilities of increasing import, imports from India to Russia. So we want to buy more from India," he said.

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A Russian-flagged tanker carrying sunflower oil reported coming under drone attack off the Turkish coast on Tuesday, though all 13 crew members escaped unharmed, according to a report, citing Turkeys maritime authority and the Tribeca shipping agency

A Russian-flagged tanker carrying sunflower oil reported coming under drone attack off the Turkish coast on Tuesday, though all 13 crew members escaped unharmed, according to a Reuters report, citing Turkeys maritime authority and the Tribeca shipping agency.

The incident comes amid rising tensions in the Black Sea after Ukrainian naval drones struck two tankers last week that were sanctioned by Kyiv and several Western allies. Those vessels were en route to a Russian port to load oil for export  part of Ukraines effort to pressure Moscows energy sector.

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Ukraine, however, denied any role in Tuesdays attack.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi told Reuters it made no sense to target a ship bound for Georgia and suggested the incident could have been orchestrated by Moscow.

Russia may have staged the whole thing, he was quoted as saying.

The attack follows renewed threats from President Vladimir Putin, who vowed to cut off Ukraines access to the sea in response to recent strikes on Russias so-called shadow fleet.

He warned that Moscow would escalate attacks on Ukrainian facilities and vessels, and could take action against tankers belonging to countries assisting Kyiv.

Meanwhile, Turkeys Besiktas Shipping  owner of a tanker damaged by explosions near Senegal last week  said it has suspended all Russia-related operations, citing mounting security dangers in waters around Russian-linked shipping.

Attacks on Black Sea shipping

The vessel targeted on Tuesday, the MIDVOLGA-2, reported coming under attack about 80 miles (130 km) off the Turkish coast but did not request help and continued on course toward the port of Sinop, Turkeys Maritime Affairs Directorate said on X.

The Tribeca shipping agency said the tanker had been struck by a drone, though it remained unclear who was responsible for the attack.

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Turkeys maritime authority stated that the ship was travelling from Russia to Georgia, while Tribeca said it was bound for Mersin. Both confirmed the vessel was now heading to Sinop without assistance.

The necessary messages were conveyed to the relevant parties, including Ukrainian authorities, a Turkish official said when asked for comment.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that attacks on commercial ships in the Black Sea were unacceptable, issuing a warning to all related sides.

Besiktas Shippings tanker was hit while anchored near Dakar a day after the Ukrainian naval drone attacks. It was not clear what had caused the explosions.

Nato member Turkey has maintained cordial ties with Kyiv and Moscow, providing military support to Ukraine while refusing to join Western sanctions on Moscow.

It has previously hosted three rounds of peace talks between the warring sides.

Ankara has demanded navigational safety in the Black Sea, where it shares maritime borders with Russia and Ukraine.

With inputs from agencies
Starmer has cautioned that China poses national security threats to Britain, while defending his governments push to strengthen business ties with Beijing, saying closer economic engagement serves the national interest.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has warned that China poses national security threats to Britain, even as he defended his governments efforts to deepen engagement with Beijing, saying stronger business ties are in the national interest.

Starmers Labour government has prioritised stabilising relations with China, though tensions remain over British accusations of Chinese spying.

In one of his clearest explanations of his approach, Starmer told business leaders on Monday that the UKs relationship with China had for too long blown hot and cold.

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Starmer urges serious approach to China

Britains stance on China has shifted sharply over the past decade  from the so-called golden era, when London sought to be Beijings strongest partner in Europe, to a much more confrontational posture.

Its time for a serious approach, to reject the simplistic binary choice, neither golden age nor ice age, and recognise the plain fact that you can work and trade with a country while still protecting yourself, Starmer said.

His choice to publicly state that China poses national security threats follows the collapse of a spying trial in September, after prosecutors noted the government had not previously used such terminology.

The Chinese embassy in London criticised what it called Starmers groundless accusations about Beijing.

Starmer also accused the former Conservative government of letting the relationship deteriorate, calling it a dereliction of duty. He pointed out that since 2018, Emmanuel Macron has visited China twice and German leaders four times, while no British prime minister has travelled there since Theresa May in 2018.

PM preparing for China visit in 2026, say sources

Sources say Starmer is preparing to visit China next year, following visits by several cabinet ministers since Labours election victory.

Rejecting the notion of trading security concerns for economic benefits, Starmer said his government would not compromise Britains safety.

Protecting our security is non-negotiable  our first duty, he said. But by taking tough steps to keep us secure, we enable ourselves to cooperate in other areas.

Support for business ties where security risks are low

Starmer said he would encourage British businesses to expand ties with China in sectors where security risks are limited.

In areas like financial and professional services, creative industries, pharmaceuticals, luxury goods and more  great British success stories  the export opportunities are huge and we will back you to seize them, he said.

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Authorities confirmed that the four victims killed included children aged 8, 9, and 14, alongside a 21-year-old adult. Additionally, 11 other people were injured, with at least one reported to be in critical condition

Stockton banquet hall mass shooting: The mother of the birthday girl expressed confusion and sorrow over the senseless violence at such an event

Chilling details have emerged from a mass shooting at a two-year-olds birthday party in Stockton, California, that left four people dead, including three children. The mother of the birthday girl, Patrice Williams, described the confusion and terror on the day of the celebration, expressing her shock and fury over the senseless violence.

The incident took place at a crowded banquet hall on a Saturday as the two-year-old was cutting her birthday cake. Williams recounted the moment the gunfire started, initially mistaking the fatal shots for decorations. I actually thought it was my balloons popping. It was gunshots, she told the Associated Press.

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As the realisation hit, party guests immediately dropped to the floor in panic. Williams, whose daughter was unharmed in the incident, described her shock, adding, It was just unexpected. I dont know what happened, and Im just so shocked and lost.

Authorities confirmed that the four victims killed included children aged 8, 9, and 14, alongside a 21-year-old adult. Additionally, 11 other people were injured, with at least one reported to be in critical condition.

While investigators have yet to identify any suspects, Sheriffs spokesperson Heather Brent stated that authorities believe the incident was a targeted incident linked to gang activity. However, officials did not provide specific details on the intended targets.

Patrice Williams, unable to comprehend why anyone would attack a childrens party, delivered an enraged message to the perpetrators. They deserve to be in jail. They deserve to go to hell, she stated, demanding accountability for the violence.

The local sheriff has urged the community to step forward with any information, including tips, cellphone footage, or eyewitness accounts, to help solve the crime.
The announcement was made during a visit by Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Youssef Ahmed al-Sharif to Moscow, where he met with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov

In this pool photograph distributed by Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) attends a meeting with members of foreign delegations following the main naval parade marking the Russian Navy Day in Saint Petersburg on July 28, 2024. (Photo by Sergei SAVOSTYANOV / POOL / AFP)

Sudan has confirmed its agreement to allow Russia to establish its first naval base in Africa on the Red Sea coast, finalising a long-delayed deal that grants Moscow a crucial logistical and military foothold on one of the worlds most critical maritime trade routes, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

The announcement was made during a visit by Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Youssef Ahmed al-Sharif to Moscow, where he met with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

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Confirming that years of on-off negotiations have concluded, al-Sharif stated the two nations were in full accord on the arrangement.

We are in complete agreement on this matter, and there are no obstacles, the Sudanese Foreign Minister told reporters.

The matter is very simple. We have agreed on everything, he added.

Trade, tactics, triumph

The facility, which will be a logistics support centre located near Port Sudan, is a big geopolitical win for Moscow.

The Red Sea is a crucial waterway, connecting the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal and handling approximately 12% of global maritime trade. By establishing a presence here, Russia joins the United States and China, which already operate bases in nearby Djibouti.

The initial deal, which was first mooted in 2017 and signed in 2020, allows Russia to deploy up to 300 military personnel and simultaneously accommodate up to four naval ships, including nuclear-powered vessels. The agreement is set to last for 25 years, with the option for automatic 10-year extensions.

The revival of the deal comes at a pivotal time for Russia, particularly following the overthrow of the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, which cast uncertainty over the future of Russias long-standing naval base in Tartus, Syria.

Pressure on the inside, alarm on the outside

While the Sudanese military government has pushed the deal forward, analysts quoted by the WSJ caution that the countrys deep political instability and ongoing civil conflict could threaten its long-term viability.

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Samuel Ramani, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, highlighted Russias complicated involvement in Sudans internal conflicts. He noted that while the Kremlin has officially sought deeper ties with the Sudanese army, the Russian-backed Wagner Group had previously supported the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Russia was playing both sides, Ramani commented, though he suggested the Kremlin has incrementally deepened ties with the army since the death of Wagners leader.
Tajikistan is exploring the possibility of Russian troop deployments to help secure its volatile border with Afghanistan, according to a report, citing three Tajik security sources on Tuesday

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon attend a meeting at the Palace of the Nation in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on October 9, 2025. Reuters File

Tajikistan is exploring the possibility of Russian troop deployments to help secure its volatile border with Afghanistan, according to a Reuters report, citing three Tajik security sources on Tuesday.

Discussions are reportedly taking place with Russia and a Moscow-led regional security bloc.

The move comes after a week of cross-border violence in which five Chinese citizens were killed and another five wounded near the Tajik-Afghan frontier.

China has urged its citizens, who are involved in mining and business operations in the area, to leave the border region immediately.

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Tajik President Emomali Rahmon met with senior security officials on Monday to review the situation.

One source within the Tajik Security Council said authorities have discussed the potential deployment of forces from Russias largest overseas military base, located near the capital, Dushanbe, to jointly patrol the border.

We are currently in talks. I think a decision will be made this week, the source told Reuters.

According to the report, two sources from Tajikistans State Committee for National Security confirmed that the discussions with Russia could involve Moscow deploying helicopters to help patrol the countrys 1,344-kilometre (835-mile) border with Afghanistan, which passes through rugged mountainous terrain.

Taliban authorities in Afghanistan have indicated they will cooperate with Tajikistan on security measures along the border.

Historically, until the early 2000s, the Russian base and Russian border troops in Tajikistan were responsible for securing the frontier. Since 2005, Tajikistan has been independently guarding the border.

With inputs from agencies
Putin warned that if Europe chose to enter a conflict with Russia, it would end so swiftly for Europe that there would be no one to negotiate with in Europe

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday issued a stark warning to Europe, saying the continent would face a rapid and crushing defeat if it went to war with Russia.

His remarks came just hours before he was scheduled to meet two of US President Donald Trumps most influential envoys at the Kremlin.

Trump has repeatedly said he intends to end the conflict in Ukraine  Europes deadliest since World War Two  but despite a summit with Putin in Alaska in August and multiple meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, his efforts have yet to yield a settlement.

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Tensions escalated last week after the leak of 28 US draft peace proposals, which alarmed officials in Kyiv and across Europe.

Critics said the document conceded to several of Moscows core demands, including curbs on Nato, recognition of Russian control over roughly a fifth of Ukraine, and limits on Ukraines military.

In response, European governments produced a counter-proposal.

Following talks in Geneva, the United States and Ukraine announced they had crafted an updated and refined peace framework aimed at ending the war.

Putin on Tuesday accused European capitals of trying to sabotage the diplomatic process by introducing terms they knew Moscow would reject.

Putin accuses Europeans of blocking peace

They are on the side of war, Putin said of European powers.

We can clearly see that all these changes are aimed at only one thing: to block the entire peace process altogether, to make such demands which are absolutely unacceptable to Russia, he added

He warned that if Europe chose to enter a conflict with Russia, it would end so swiftly for Europe that there would be no one to negotiate with in Europe.

Putin also threatened to cut Ukraine off from the sea in retaliation for recent drone attacks on tankers belonging to Russias so-called shadow fleet operating in the Black Sea.

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As Putin made the remarks, Trumps special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner were seen walking across Red Square with Kremlin investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

Witkoff and Kushner were expected to meet Putin later in the day.

Speaking in Dublin, Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the outcome of the Moscow meetings would be crucial.

There will be no easy solutions It is important that everything is fair and open, so that there are no games behind Ukraines back, Reuters quoted Zelenskyy as saying.

Basis for future agreements

Putin, who ordered troops into Ukraine nearly four years ago, has said the discussions so far are not about a draft agreement but about a set of proposals that he said last week could be the basis for future agreements.

Putin has said he is ready to talk peace but that if Ukraine refuses an agreement, then Russias forces will advance further and take more Ukrainian territory.

A Russian source said the Trump administrations attempts to find peace represented the best chance to end the war since talks with Kyiv broke down shortly after Moscows 2022 invasion.

Conflict first erupted in eastern Ukraine in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraines Maidan Revolution. Russia annexed Crimea and Moscow-backed separatists battled Kyivs armed forces in eastern Ukraine.

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Russian forces now control more than 19% of Ukraine, or 115,600 square km (45,000 square miles), up only one percentage point from two years ago, though they have advanced in 2025 at the fastest pace since 2022, according to pro-Ukrainian maps.

Russia says it has captured eastern city of pokrovsk

Putin, in video footage released on the eve of Witkoffs visit, hailed what his commanders said was Russias capture of the city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine as an important victory after a prolonged campaign.

Ukraines military told Reuters that its forces were still holding the northern part of the city and had attacked Russian forces in southern Pokrovsk.

U.S. officials have put the casualty toll in the war at more than 1.2 million killed or wounded. Neither Ukraine nor Russia discloses their losses. The conflict has also caused widespread destruction in Ukrainian towns and cities and forced many people from their homes.

Since the U.S. draft proposals emerged late last month, European powers have been trying to bolster Ukraine against what they see as a punitive pro-Russian peace deal that could open up Russia to U.S. investment in oil, gas and rare earths and return Moscow to the G8.

Key Russian demands include a pledge that Ukraine would never join NATO, caps on the Ukrainian army, Russian control of the whole of Donbas, recognition of Russian control of the regions of Crimea, Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, and protection for Russian speakers in Ukraine.

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Ukraine says these would amount to capitulation, and leave it vulnerable to eventual Russian conquest, though Washington has also floated a 10-year security guarantee for Kyiv.

Witkoff, Kushner, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraines national security council, for talks on Sunday near Miami.

Ukraine and European powers see the war as an imperial-style land grab by Moscow and have warned that if Russia wins, then it will one day attack Nato members. Zelenskiy says Russia must not be rewarded for a war it started.

Russia has denied any plans to attack Nato, as it denied any plan to attack Ukraine before its full-scale invasion.

With inputs from agencies
The meeting comes at a time when the Trump administration is facing renewed calls from lawmakers to release more information on a controversial decision in September to strike a boat in the Caribbean twice to kill remaining survivors

Trumps administration is ramping up pressure on Venezuela with a major Caribbean military deployment that includes the worlds largest aircraft carrier. (AFP)

US President Donald Trump and his top national security officials have met in White House to discuss the governments next steps in Venezuela as tensions soar between the two countries.

The meeting comes at a time when the Trump administration is facing renewed calls from lawmakers to release more information on a controversial decision in September to strike a boat in the Caribbean twice to kill remaining survivors.

Key members of Trumps Cabinet and national security team, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, were expected to attend, along with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, according to a CNN report.

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Who ordered the second strike?

A US admiral acting under the authority of Hegseth ordered a double-tap military operation that targeted survivors of an initial attack on an alleged drug smuggling boat, the White House said Monday.

A total of 11 people were killed in the two strikes in early September, the first in a months-long military campaign that has so far left more than 80 dead.

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, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told journalists.

Hegseth authorised Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes, she said.

Dont want slave peace

Meanwhile, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has rejected a slaves peace, as his leadership comes under increasing pressure from the Trump administration.

We want peace, but peace with sovereignty, equality, freedom! We do not want a slaves peace, nor the peace of colonies! Maduro said at a rally in Caracas, even as Trump was set to meet his top national security officials to discuss Venezuela.

We have endured 22 weeks of aggression that can be described as psychological terrorism, 22 weeks during which they have tested us. The people of Venezuela have demonstrated their love for the homeland, Maduro added.

Trump said Sunday he had recently spoken with Maduro for the first time since returning to office in January, but would not give details. Maduro has repeatedly said he is ready to talk to Trump face-to-face.

Hundreds of Venezuelan government supporters marched in Caracas on Monday, denouncing US threats against the country, torn by economic strife and political unrest.

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With inputs from agencies
A last-minute threat to cut aid and a controversial pardon helped propel Trump-backed Nasry Asfura into a razor-thin technical tie, reshaping Honduras election and highlighting Washingtons new interventionist posture in Latin America

Presidential candidate Nasry Asfura of the National Party of Honduras arrives to hold a press conference following the general election, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on Monday. Reuters

In a dramatic, last-minute intervention that echoed his recent role in Argentinas elections, US President Donald Trump warned Honduras that US support would dry up if his preferred candidate lost  and announced he would pardon a disgraced former Honduran president.

By Monday morning, the impact was visible as Trumps endorsed contender surged into a virtual tie in one of the countrys tightest races in years.

According to The New York Times report, about 36 hours before polls opened, Trump declared online that the United States would not be throwing good money after bad if Nasry Asfura  a right-wing former mayor  failed to win.

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In the same post, he said he would pardon Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former Honduran president convicted in the US of conspiring with drug cartels, added the report.

Hernandez belongs to Asfuras National Party.

Early results suggested that the message landed. With 57% of ballots counted by Monday afternoon, Asfura, 67, and fellow right-wing candidate Salvador Nasralla, 72, were tied at 40% each, separated by only 515 votes. The governing left-wing party languished far behind.

The race isnt over, NYT quoted Ricardo Zuniga, a former senior US State Department official, as saying. But I think the endorsement clearly tilted the undecideds toward Asfura, Zuniga added.

According to a France 24 report, election officials labeled it a technical tie and began a manual recount amid growing tensions.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) urged patience as it reviewed the November 30 vote.

But Trump quickly escalated his involvement.

Looks like Honduras is trying to change the results of their Presidential Election. If they do, there will be hell to pay! he claimed on Truth Social offering no evidence.

CNE president Ana Paola Hall maintained that the count remained too close to call.

Hondurans, already disenchanted with the governing Libre party, had been split between Asfura and Nasralla.

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Trumps barrage of messages  branding Nasralla a borderline Communist and threatening Honduras with consequences if Asfura lost  dominated the national conversation heading into Election Day.

Hondurans as a society do not want conflict with the United States, Zuniga said.

According to The New York Times, citing analysts, polls days earlier showed Nasralla with a lead and a large pool of undecided voters.

It changed in the last four days, NYT quoted Carlos Hernandez of Transparency International. You know the reason why.

Both candidates had sought Trumps favour in Washington. But Trump ultimately turned against Nasralla, calling him no friend of Freedom despite his previous alliance with the governing party  a partnership he ended years ago.

The razor-thin margin now opens the door to a possible power struggle between the two right-wing contenders, each of whom has spent weeks warning of fraud.

US new Latin strategy

The episode underscores a dramatic shift in US posture in Latin America. While previous administrations emphasised neutrality and election integrity, Trump has sought to build an ideological bloc of allied leaders, backing figures like Argentinas Javier Milei, El Salvadors Nayib Bukele and others.

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Trump had previously threatened to cut aid to Argentina. In October, the Trump administrations $20 billion bailout of Argentina helped Mileis party take control of the countrys Congress in midterm elections, and U.S. officials celebrated when Bolivia ended two decades of leftist rule.

Honduras was next on the 202425 electoral map. Trump endorsed Asfura on Wednesday, praising his record as the former mayor of Tegucigalpa and portraying him as a bulwark against Venezuelas Nicolas Maduro.

The US Embassy in Tegucigalpa had been strictly neutral.

Like everything else, it wasnt until Trump became personally involved that the policy changed dramatically, Zuniga said. The policy is whatever the president decides it is.

How Asfura secured Trumps nod remains unclear, but the simultaneous pardon of Hernandez cut both ways.

It brought renewed attention to the National Partys history of corruption and cartel ties. Opponents quickly seized on the association; Asfura responded only to say the pardon ended the familys suffering.

Known as Tito and Papi, Asfura campaigned as a populist, dancing in jeans and accusing the governing party of plotting to steal the election.

Nasralla pitched himself as the anticorruption candidate but faced lingering doubts over his political shifts. A well-known television personality, he campaigned with his wife  a congresswoman and former beauty queen  and projected confidence just days before Trumps intervention.

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Its now or never, Nasralla said in an interview before the vote.

Days later, Trump entered the race  and the playing field shifted.

With inputs from agencies
Sean Barbabella said that the 79-year-old presidents advanced imaging of the heart and abdomen came back perfectly normal

The public scrutiny over President Trump's health intensified not only due to his MRI but also following the White House's disclosure in July that he had been diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency (CVI).

US President Donald Trump remains in excellent overall health, his physician, Captain Sean Barbabella, announced after the Republican leader underwent a preventative MRI, as concerns over his health grow.

Barbabella said that the 79-year-old presidents advanced imaging of the heart and abdomen came back perfectly normal. He also explained that Trumps MRI was taken in October because men of his age group benefit from thorough evaluation of cardiovascular and abdominal health.

The release comes as Democrats, including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, press for the scan results amid concerns about Trumps age heading into a second term. His sudden October 10 trip to Walter Reed Medical Center, outside the usual annual exam, spurred speculation about what prompted the check-up.

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Excellent health

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.

No idea

The White House had earlier declined to clarify why Trump underwent an MRI during an October physical exam or what part of his body was scanned.

Aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump told reporters it was OK with me to release the MRI results.

When a reporter pressed him on which body part had been examined, Trump replied: I have no idea. It was just an MRI  what part of the body? It wasnt the brain, because I took a cognitive test and I aced it.

Trump had his annual physical in April. In October, he said he received an MRI at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center during a visit the White House described as part of his routine yearly checkup.

With inputs from agencies
The vessel involved in the latest incident was the Midvolga 2, a tanker laden with sunflower oil and travelling from Russia.

Turkeys maritime affairs directorate said on Tuesday that another commercial tanker had come under attack in the Black Sea while sailing towards Georgia.

The incident, which did not result in any injuries, is the third such reported attack in recent days, raising severe concerns in Ankara about the widening threat the Russia-Ukraine conflict poses to international navigation.

The vessel involved in the latest incident was the Midvolga 2, a tanker filled with sunflower oil and travelling from Russia. The attack occurred approximately 80 nautical miles off the Turkish coast in the central Black Sea region.

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According to a post by the Turkish directorate on X, all 13 crew members on board were safe, and the ship did not require assistance, continuing its journey towards the Turkish port of Sinop.

This new attack follows two earlier, similar incidents on Friday, where commercial vessels were hit by explosions off the Turkish coast. For those prior strikes, a Ukrainian security source claimed responsibility, telling news outlets that drones had successfully targeted vessels that were covertly transporting Russian oil.

The string of incidents has drawn sharp criticism from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

On Monday, following the first two strikes, he denounced the attacks as a worrying escalation. Erdogan said that Turkey cannot under any circumstances accept these attacks, which threaten the safety of navigation, the environment and lives in our exclusive economic zone, adding that the ongoing war has clearly reached a stage where it now threatens the safety of navigation in the Black Sea.

From Ports to premiums

The recent Ukrainian naval drone attacks on tankers sailing to Russian ports have caused a sharp surge in war risk insurance premiums for commercial shipping across the Black Sea, as reported by Reuters.

Industry sources confirm the cost of cover, which is calculated as a percentage of a vessels value for a standard seven-day voyage, has upped significantly as underwriters reassess the escalating risk profile.

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For vessels calling at Ukrainian ports, war risk rates have increased to approximately 0.5% of the ships value, rising from around 0.4% previously. For Russian Black Sea ports (like Novorossiysk), which traditionally face higher premiums, rates have been quoted between 0.65% and 0.8%, up from about 0.6%.

Insurers say Kyivs decision to hit non-military ships looks like a clear, sustained push to squeeze Russias oil money.
British police will soon be allowed to search illegal migrants clothing and mouths for phones or SIM cards as part of efforts to dismantle Channel smuggling gangs.

Migrants disembark from a British Border Force vessel as they arrive at the Port of Dover, in Dover, Britain. (File/REUTERS)

Police in Britain will soon be able to require illegal migrants to remove coats and undergo mouth searches at ports so officers can look for mobile phones or SIM cards and gather intelligence on their journeys. The Home Office said on Monday that the expanded powers are intended to support investigations focused on dismantling criminal gangs suspected of smuggling people across the Channel.

Officials said such gangs often rely on phone contacts and social media to recruit migrants for small-boat crossings from France, which have reached record levels this year. The Labour government has been tightening its immigration policies, particularly on illegal entry, in an effort to curb the rising popularity of the populist Reform UK party, which has placed immigration at the centre of national debate.

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The law is expected to receive Royal Assent in the coming days. The Home Office, led by Shabana Mahmood, noted that officers will be able to make migrants remove coats, jackets or gloves to search for devices and inspect mouths for concealed SIM cards or small electronics. Previously, mobile phone searches were only possible after an arrest, and the department said the new powers would allow officers to collect information more quickly.

Public concern and rights-group criticism

Polls indicate that immigration has overtaken the economy as the leading concern among British voters. Over the summer, protests were held outside hotels accommodating asylum seekers at public expense.

Some rights organisations have criticised the governments tougher stance, arguing that certain measures scapegoat migrants and contribute to racism and violence. Sile Reynolds, Head of Asylum Advocacy at Freedom from Torture, said, Using invasive powers to search through the clothing  and even inside the mouths  of desperate and traumatised people when they have just survived a terrifying journey across the Channel is a dystopian act of brutality.
Amid mounting controversy, the White House on Tuesday clarified that a second US airstrike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat on September 2 was ordered by a senior Navy commander and not Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaking with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Wednesday. AP File

Amid mounting controversy, the White House on Tuesday clarified that a second US airstrike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat on September 2 was ordered by a senior Navy commander and not Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The Washington Post had reported that a second strike was ordered to take out two survivors from the initial strike and to comply with an order by Hegseth that everyone be killed.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back on that characterisation, saying Hegseth authorised the strikes but did not instruct forces to kill everybody.

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Secretary Hegseth authorised 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, The Guardian quoted Leavitt as saying.

When asked whether the strike could constitute a war crime, Leavitt defended the operation, emphasising it was conducted in international waters and in accordance with the law of armed conflict.

Vice Admiral Frank Bradley, who commanded Joint Special Operations Command at the time of the attack, is scheduled to provide a classified briefing to lawmakers on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Hegseth expressed support for Bradley in a social media post, framing the decision as one made by the Navy commander.

Lets make one thing crystal clear: Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support. I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made  on the September 2 mission and all others since. America is fortunate to have such men protecting us, Hegseth wrote.

Both the Senate and House Armed Services Committee chairs have announced probes into the September strikes, though few details have been released regarding the vessel or those aboard.

Since September, US airstrikes have targeted suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, resulting in at least 83 deaths.

Trumps administration has not provided concrete evidence supporting the strikes, and numerous experts have questioned the legality of the operations.

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With inputs from agencies
A US House committee and the Treasury Department have launched parallel probes into claims that over $1 billion in Minnesota food aid was diverted, with some funds allegedly reaching Al Shabaab

A US House committee and the Treasury Department have launched separate investigations into allegations that more than $1 billion was siphoned from Minnesotas pandemic-era food aid and other state programmes, with some of the money allegedly ending up with Al Shabaab, a Somalia-based terrorist group.

House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer told the New York Post that his panel would investigate what he described as Governor Tim Walzs failure to protect taxpayer funds. Comer claimed that Minnesota had been warned of large-scale fraud and alleged that criminals, including Somali terrorists stole nearly $1 billion while children suffered.

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a parallel federal probe on Monday, stating on X that investigators were examining claims that, under what he called mismanagement by the Biden administration and Governor Walz, state tax dollars may have been diverted to the terrorist group.

Prosecutions, whistleblower claims and political fallout

The inquiries follow federal prosecutions linked to the Feeding Our Future scandal, in which US authorities say 78 people, many of Somali origin, were charged with diverting federal and state food programme funds for personal spending between 2020 and 2022. The Department of Justice has so far secured convictions against 59 defendants. A whistleblower group claiming to represent Minnesota Department of Human Services staff alleged on X that Walz was 100 per cent responsible for ignoring warnings and said whistleblowers faced monitoring, threats, repression. The account was suspended on Monday.

A June 2024 audit by Minnesotas Office of the Legislative Auditor found that the states Department of Education had created opportunities for fraud and exercised inadequate oversight in its payments to Feeding Our Future. A recent Manhattan Institute report cited by Fox News stated that federal counterterrorism sources had confirmed that millions of dollars in stolen funds were sent back to Somalia, where Al Shabaab allegedly received a portion. Those details form a central part of the Treasury probe.

Walzs office told Fox News Digital that the governor welcomed an investigation should any link be found between Minnesota tax dollars and Al Shabaab. Walz, now seeking a third term, has said he attempted to halt payments to Feeding Our Future in November 2020 but was limited by litigation. He later said he tried again in 2021 and blamed a Minnesota district judge for allowing payments to continue. Judge John Guthmann rejected that account, stating that payments were made voluntarily by the state.

Walz has maintained that he took responsibility for ensuring people were prosecuted, while criticising Donald Trump, telling NBCs Meet the Press: My God, theres a big difference between fraud and corruption. And corruption is something he knows about. Trump subsequently called Minnesota a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity following recent disclosures.

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The White House maintained that the September strikes on a Venezuelan vessel were authorised and lawful despite mounting scrutiny from legal experts and lawmakers

The White House on Monday defended a US admirals decision to carry out multiple strikes in September on an alleged Venezuelan drug-smuggling vessel, saying the action was authorised by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. The response came after critics questioned the legality of a reported second strike targeting survivors of the initial attack.

According to The Washington Post, the second strike was ordered to kill two survivors and to comply with an alleged instruction from Hegseth that no one should remain alive.

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President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he would not have supported a second strike and stated that Hegseth denied issuing such an order. However, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that Hegseth had authorised Admiral Frank Bradley to conduct the 2 September operation.

Leavitt said, Secretary Hegseth authorised 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.

She added that the strike was carried out in self defence, occurred in international waters and complied with the law of armed conflict. She also noted that the administration has designated these narco terrorists as foreign terrorist organisations.

Beginning in September, the US military has conducted at least 19 strikes against suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and off the Pacific coasts of Latin America, resulting in at least 80 deaths.

Lawmakers and experts raise concerns over legality of second strike

Critics have questioned the legality of these operations, and both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have pledged to investigate. International humanitarian law prohibits attacks on incapacitated combatants, and the Defence Departments Law of War Manual states that shipwrecked individuals cannot be knowingly attacked and must receive medical care unless they show hostility or attempt escape.

George Washington University law professor Laura Dickinson said most legal experts do not consider the boat strikes to fall under armed conflict, meaning lethal force would only be permissible as a last resort. It would be murder outside of armed conflict, she said. She added that even in wartime, killing survivors would likely be a war crime.

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A group of former military lawyers known as the JAGs Working Group described the alleged order as patently illegal, saying service members have a duty to disobey it and that anyone who complies should face prosecution for war crimes.

On X, Hegseth defended Bradley, calling him an American hero and expressing his 100% support, adding that he stands by Bradleys combat decisions on the September 2 mission and all others since.

A senior US official said Trump on Monday discussed the pressure campaign against Venezuela with top advisers.

US weighs next steps in Venezuela strategy

Trump has raised the possibility of US military intervention in Venezuela. On Saturday, he said the airspace above and around the country should be regarded as closed in its entirety, though he did not elaborate, causing anxiety and confusion in Caracas. On Sunday, he confirmed that he had spoken to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom the US considers an illegitimate leader, but did not disclose details of the conversation.

The administration has been evaluating options to address what it says is Maduros role in supplying illegal drugs that have killed Americans. Maduro has denied any links to the illegal drug trade. Reuters has reported that US options under consideration include an attempt to remove Maduro and that the US military is preparing for a new phase of operations after a major buildup in the Caribbean and nearly three months of strikes on suspected drug vessels off Venezuelas coast. Trump has also authorised covert CIA operations in the country.

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In a disaster, there are often massive network outages. When the Ahr, a small river in Rhineland-Palatinate, burst its banks in July 2021, the entire telephone and mobile network quickly collapsed as the floodwaters and mud destroyed many exchanges. For emergencies like this, researchers at Fraunhofer FIT have developed smart communication solutions for civil protection and disaster relief to address the congestion of public networks. In the 5G Opportunity project, they joined forces with Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg and Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences to develop and test a software-based, wireless and ad-hoc-capable communication system for emergency services. The project was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation (BMDS).

The mobile, self-organizing communication network, based on Fraunhofer WiBACK (wireless backhaul) technology, enables emergency services to connect with each other, the incident command and the internet. The WiBACK communication network uses 5G/Open RAN (radio access network) and WiFi for smartphone access and multi-hop routing for backhaul. A WiBACK network can be set up in a very short time and be operated immediately in compliance with regulations, says Mathias Kretschmer, a research scientist at Fraunhofer FIT in Sankt Augustin who leads the project. The hardware consists of self-sufficient, portable components. All you need to do is connect the batteries, align the antennas, and the network is ready to go.

The foundations for WiBACK technology were established ten years ago to connect rural areas with limited or no internet connection to remote network infrastructure. At its core, WiBACK is a self-organizing, self-sufficient multi-hop routing technology. The cost-effective, wireless backhaul solution comprises small, solar-powered radios equipped with a motherboard, an antenna and a solar-powered charge controller, which connect the emergency vehicles and are characterized by low energy consumption. The portable radio nodes configure themselves, eliminating the need for IT specialists or network technicians. This makes them ideal for use in disaster-stricken areas, where relief organization staff must quickly establish an alternative communication network in chaotic situations.

Bypassing congested public networks with private 5G cells

Multi-hop routing is a method for extending the range of radio-relay links. It uses several intermediate nodes (hops) to exchange data between distant points. Once a hop or radio receives a signal, it bundles it and then transmits it to the next node, eliminating the need for a direct line of sight and allowing greater distances to be covered, Kretschmer explains. We connect the smartphones through our own small 5G cells and use WiBACK for the vehicles.

Metal festival as a test environment

The project partners and Malteser Hilfsdienst e. V. successfully tested the innovative communication solution at the Summer Breeze Open Air 2024 metal festival. A 5G campus network was set up to enable network access at the festival site. The use of this frequency band can be applied for in order to operate a private 5G network. These frequencies are currently underused and could be made available to the emergency services in the event of a disaster. The radio and network nodes at the festival were reliably powered with solar panels and batteries, highlighting the potential for energy-self-sufficient communication networks in disaster-stricken areas.

The future of crisis communication

In the meantime, the follow-up project HiLeit has already been launched. It is coordinated by Fraunhofer FIT and involves Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, Malteser Hilfsdienst e. V. and Deutsche Funktechnik UG (DeFuTech). The German Federal Agency for Public Safety Digital Radio (BDBOS) is funding the project. Plans call for HiLeit to use modular network nodes to enable rapid deployment and adaptation of communication according to the situation at hand. The researchers want to expand the WiBACK architecture to include a LEO (low earth orbit) satellite interface for internet connectivity. In HiLeit, the project partners aim to combine several technologies, including public communication networks, fiber optics, LEO/IRIS2 terminals, field cables and WiFi radio-relay systems to create a flexible, highly available network that can be configured according to the location and requirements. Kretschmer: The focus here is on intuitive operation so that emergency services can quickly put the system into operation without in-depth technical knowledge.
From left: Georg Maier (Minister for the Interior, Local Government and Regional Development of Thuringia), Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Mario Voigt (Minister-President of Thuringia), Katja Wolf (First Deputy Minister-President and Minister of Finance of Thuringia), Prof. Holger Hanselka (President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft), Prof. Andreas Tunnermann (Director of Fraunhofer IOF).

Following an invitation from Thuringias minister-president Mario Voigt, Chancellor Friedrich Merz stopped at Fraunhofer IOF in Jena during his inaugural visit to the Free State. During a tour of the laboratory, Merz gained insights into current future research with a focus on quantum technologies made in Thuringia.

The Chancellor was impressed by the innovative strength of Thuringia as a location: I gained impressive insights today at the Fraunhofer institute for Optics and Precision Engineering. Quantum computing and quantum communication have enormous potential. I was also able to see for myself how valuable the support of the German federal government for the university landscape and non-university research institutions here is in providing the local industry with highly qualified specialists. This makes Jena international and successful beyond the borders of Thuringia and Germany.

Thuringias minister-president Mario Voigt added: Fraunhofer IOF impressively demonstrates the future potential of Thuringia. Jena is setting standards, particularly in quantum research, which is internationally regarded as a key technology for the coming decades. The approaches developed here strengthen our digital and technological sovereignty and create prospects that extend far beyond the scientific community  for new value creation, highly qualified jobs, and Thuringia as a strong location for innovation.

I am very pleased to be able to show the Chancellor this center for future research today. Close cooperation between the federal and the state governments, combined with the pioneering spirit of our research scientists, puts Thuringia at the forefront of technological competition. Jena generates ideas that attract worldwide attention and are directly transferred to the economy.

We want to continue along this path  so that Thuringia remains a reliable, creative, and leading engine for innovation: with strong research institutions, competitive companies, and the bright minds we need to achieve this.

High-tech agenda emphasizes the importance of quantum technologies

Quantum technologies have great potential for Germany's innovative and economic strength. Anchoring this key technology in the high-tech agenda recently adopted by the German government is therefore exactly the right thing to do. Thanks to excellent research, such as here at Fraunhofer IOF, Germany can tap into future markets in this sector at an early stage and take on a long-term leading role in global competition, said Prof. Holger Hanselka, president of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. It is now important that industry, politics, and science continue working together consistently and use the favorable starting position to more quickly turn research into innovation and innovation into value creation. As a systematically important partner to industry, Fraunhofer is ready to support this effort, Hanselka affirms: We will play a key role in ensuring that our location can sustainably utilize and expand its strengths  from quantum technologies to artificial intelligence and microelectronics to biotechnology. The visit by the Chancellor and the minister-president of Thuringia emphasizes how important applied research is for the location  and how Fraunhofer is demonstrating with concrete projects how scientific excellence can be directly translated into innovation.

Chancellor visits systems for quantum computing and communication

The visit is also a significant commendation according to Andreas Tunnermann, Director of Fraunhofer IOF: The Chancellors visit is a great honor for our institution and the achievements of our employees. During a tour of a quantum laboratory in our newest research building, our researchers presented him with, among other things, the heart of a photonic quantum computer: a photonic integrated chip. This was developed in cooperation with partners from Germany as part of the PhoQuant project funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space.

The PhoQuant project aims to build Germanys first photonic quantum computer. Quantum computers are the next generation of high-performance computers. They will far exceed the computing power of conventional computers in solving complex problems and herald a new digital age. A photonic quantum computer is a special form of quantum computer. Unlike other quantum computers, which require complex cooling, a photonic quantum computer can operate at room temperature. As a result, this technological approach is more user-friendly, easier to integrate, and more scalable.

The Chancellor also visited Fraunhofer IOFs new optical ground station. It plays an important role in the development of new, highly secure communication systems based on light quanta. With their enormous computing power, quantum computers open up new possibilities, for example in the simulation of molecules and thus the development of new materials or medicines, Andreas Tunnermann continued. At the same time, however, they also lead to a paradigm shift in the security of our data. Conventional encryption methods will no longer be sufficient to protect our data in the long term.

This challenge is being addressed by the QuNET initiative, a major offensive to develop state-of-the-art quantum communication, which is also funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space with 125 million euros. This initiative has been implemented since 2019 under the coordination of Fraunhofer IOF. Recent QuNET experiments have successfully demonstrated the integration of mobile platforms such as aircraft into a quantum network. The new optical ground station takes this research to the next level and will enable quantum communication via satellite in the future. Thanks to funding from the Free State of Thuringia, the ground station in Jena is the only optical ground station in Germany, alongside a station in Oberpfaffenhofen, to research and test satellite-based quantum key distribution and thus the foundations of a prospective global quantum network, said Tunnermann.

About Fraunhofer IOF

The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF in Jena conducts application-oriented research in the field of photonics and develops innovative optical systems for controlling light - from its generation and manipulation to its application. The institute's range of services covers the entire photonic process chain from opto-mechanical and opto-electronic system design to the production of customer-specific solutions and prototypes. At Fraunhofer IOF, about 500 employees work on the annual research volume of 40 million euros.
Water present in hydrogen, natural gas or biomethane can cause corrosion in pipelines and jeopardize the functionality of valves or sensors. Until now, the practice has been to expose these gases to triethylene glycol (TEG) so that water is absorbed from them before they are fed into the network. The absorbed water is then removed by distillation at approximately 200 degrees Celsius before the chemical is reused. However, the high temperatures induce cracking in the TEG, generating undesirable gases, which must be burned offan extremely energy-intensive process that also generates carbon emissions.

Researchers at the Hermsdorf location of the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS have now developed an innovative method that uses membrane technology to extract the water from the gas. The gas passes through a ceramic tube, the inner surface of which is coated with an ultra-thin, nanoporous layer that acts as a membrane. Since the water molecules are smaller than the gas molecules, they pass through the pores and are conducted through the porous ceramic carrier to the outside.

Hannes Richter, Head of Nanoporous Membranes, lists the advantages: This process dispenses with TEG and therefore eliminates the need for distillation and residue incineration. We save up to 90 percent of the energy used by conventional gas-drying technology, and there are no carbon emissions whatsoever.

Nanopores for water molecules

The Fraunhofer researchers had to develop a nanoporous membrane that would allow the water to separate from the gases. The layer thickness is measured in micrometers, while the pores are 0.4 nanometers in size. This membrane is applied to a ceramic carrier. Water molecules are 0.28 nanometers in size and can therefore pass through the pores. Adrian Simon, Group Manager for Zeolite and Carbon Membranes, describes the challenge: The nanoporous material covering the ceramic carrier must form a perfectly sealed layer, otherwise it cannot function as a membrane for water molecules and would also allow larger molecules to pass through.

The research team has developed two types of membrane: one a carbon-based membrane for drying biomethane, the other a zeolite-based membrane for natural gas and hydrogen. Zeolite is a crystalline material consisting of silicon, aluminum and oxygen. The membrane is created by pouring a zeolite suspension into the ceramic tube, where it adheres to the inner surface. After heating the tube in a synthesis solution, the zeolite crystals grow and merge into a closed layer.

The carbon-based version is produced from an organic precursor, which is likewise poured into the tube. This results in the formation of a thin polymer layer with defined properties, which is then heated in the absence of oxygen. At temperatures above 700 degrees Celsius, the polymer converts into a non-porous carbon layer.

The research team succeeded in optimizing the production process after numerous tests and development steps, during which the Fraunhofer institute in Hermsdorf was able to draw on years of expertise in high-end membrane technology and the handling of ceramic materials.

Cutting the cost of renewable energy

Fraunhofer researcher Richter describes the next step: We are currently scaling up the technology from pilot plant dimensions to industrial implementation.

The Fraunhofer technology offers pipeline operators the opportunity to dry biomethane, natural gas or hydrogen quickly and cleanly while minimizing energy consumption, thus protecting their systems and cutting costs. The experts at Fraunhofer IKTS can advise energy suppliers, grid operators and plant manufacturers on pilot plant construction or work with them to develop corresponding concepts.

The research work was funded by Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) as part of the Hybiodirect project. DBI Gas- und Umwelttechnik GmbH (DBI GUT) was involved as a project partner. The technology has already been tested as part of the H2well-COMPACT initiative, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), which aims to advance the development of a decentralized hydrogen economy in the Main-Elbe region.
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2024.
When it Comes to Security, There is Only One Party - Poland

Republic of Poland

19.11.2025

"This year may prove decisive for our security and must become a year of full solidarity among Polish women and men, as well as among politicians, around the issue of security. When it comes to security, there is only one party - Poland," said Prime Minister Donald Tusk in his address during the first "Science for Business" Congress. The head of government appealed to the Polish political class to refrain in the coming year from quarrels and political skirmishes. He reminded that Poland will be safe only if all of us, without exception, serve the security of our state. Recent events involving acts of sabotage on the railways, the hybrid war conducted by Russia, and the armed conflict in Ukraine show how important unity should be for all Poles. In this context, science and business must also act hand in hand, because modern conflicts are decided not only on the battlefield, but also in cyberspace and in outer space.

Business and science for Poland's security

Prime Minister Donald Tusk participated in the opening of the first edition of the "Science for Business" Congress, organized by the ukasiewicz Research Network and initiated by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

"I would like the 'Science for Business' congress to carry the motto: 'Science and business for Poland's security.' You  practical people, people of business and research  do not like to abstract from facts. Today everyone in Poland, without exception, wakes up and goes to sleep with one thought: is Poland safe now, and will it be safe in the future?"- said Prime Minister Tusk addressing the participants.

The discussion on security takes on a particular dimension in the context of the events happening across our eastern border, as well as Russia's hybrid warfare.

"We are facing a special year - 2026. Special because I have reasons to believe that it may be a decisive year for the war between Ukraine and Russia, for Poland's strategic security, and for the future of our nation and our state,"

- said the head of government.

Polish citizens feel the consequences of the war and of receiving a large number of refugees, which in turn creates tensions, as it does across all of Europe. That is why it is important to develop common solutions to prevent these tensions.

2026 must be the year of ceasefire

According to the Prime Minister, Poland will be safe only when everyone, without exception, serves the security of our state. In his speech, he presented five principles for the Polish political class.

The first is that no one may attack Polish services, the Polish army, or the actions securing our border, regardless of political views.

The second principle  directed at politicians  is to stop repeating Russian propaganda.

"This absolutely must end. It is not difficult, it does not require detailed analysis. You simply need to have your eyes open, use common sense and patriotism to distinguish what is Russian propaganda and disinformation,"

- said Donald Tusk.

Third, political sabotage of legislative actions  such as vetoes or endless parliamentary quarrels  must end.

"It cannot be that for party interests or due to some political ambitions or aspirations, some will block the actions of others. Legislative and parliamentary sabotage cannot take place, at least for this one year,"

- appealed the Prime Minister.

Fourth, anyone engaged in politics, including foreign policy, who speaks publicly must have no doubt that we are aligned with the West and the European Union, not with Russia. We must not undermine our membership in the EU.

The final point concerns the war between Russia and Ukraine  in this conflict, Poland stands on the side of Ukraine.



Talks with President Zelensky on acts of sabotage in Poland

Prime Minister Donald Tusk also referred to the recent acts of sabotage on the railway line between Warsaw and Lublin.

"A moment ago I spoke with President Zelensky about what happened in Poland  about the acts of sabotage and about the fact that it is the joint task of Poland and Ukraine to prevent, eliminate, and identify threats resulting from this modus operandi for which Russia is known, not only in Poland,"

- said the Prime Minister.

Poland expects the immediate transfer of all data that will help identify threats stemming from cooperation between Russian intelligence services and certain Ukrainian citizens. In line with President Zelensky's commitment, Polish and Ukrainian railway services will cooperate closely.

Our security depends on the success of Polish scientists

Modern conflicts are not limited to frontline operations. Their outcomes largely depend on the technological capabilities of states  from drones, satellite systems, and the use of artificial intelligence, to the level of cybersecurity.

"The war is decided not only directly on the front. It is above all decided in laboratories, research facilities, factories, and micro-enterprises. Our security will directly depend on the successes of Polish scientists and Polish entrepreneurs,"

- stated Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

The head of government reminded that Poland funds Ukraine's access to Starlink services, being fully aware of their crucial role on the front.

The Prime Minister also expressed appreciation for the work of Polish specialists, including astronaut Sawosz Uznanski, who  as he emphasized  actively supports the development of Polish space competencies and cooperates with the government.

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Deputy prime minister W. Kosiniak-Kamysz: There is no strong Europe without a strong Poland and strong France

Poland - Ministry of National Defence

25.11.2025

Aid for embattled Ukraine and a path to just peace, cooperation of defence industries, joint military exercises and collaboration within the SAFE programme - those were the main topics of the meeting of the ministers of defence of Poland - Wadysaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, and France - Catherine Vautrin, which took place in Warsaw, on 25 November, 2025.

We are faithful and loyal allies. We are economic partners, the strongest European states building our deterrence and defence potentials. Together with the E5 countries we are the strength and safety of Europe. The cooperation of our countries - Poland and France - is embedded in the main principle of building European strength. There is no strong Europe without a strong Poland and strong France, without the cooperation of our countries, our governments and our citizens. - said the Polish minister of national defence

During the meeting, the Polish minister of national defence has thanked the French minister of defence Catherine Vautrin for the assistance, that France lent Poland in September 2025.

I would like to personally thank the minister for the swift and solidaric reaction after the violation of the Polish airspace by Russian drones. It was the first operation of this kind, where unmanned aerial vehicles from the Russian Federation have been shot down over the territory of a NATO country. I am also grateful for the bolstering of operation Eastern Sentry. - said the deputy prime minister Kosiniak-Kamysz.

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Contracts

Contracts For Dec. 1, 2025

ARMY

Akima Facilities Operations LLC, Herndon, Virginia, was awarded a firm-fixed-price, labor hours, and time-and-materials contract to support the repair, reset, and recapitalization of military equipment. The amount of this action is $184,882,445. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of May 31, 2029. Army Contracting Command, Letterkenny Army Depot, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity (W911N2-26-F-A049).

State of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Salem, Oregon, was awarded a firm-fixed-price to operate and maintain fish hatcheries for the production and release of salmonids in the Columbia, Willamette, and Rogue River Basins, and to conduct research, monitoring, and evaluations of bull trout in the Willamette River Basin. The amount of this action is $99,000,000. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 29, 2030. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District, is the contracting activity (W9127N-26-D-A002).

Lockheed Martin Corp., Grand Prairie, Texas, was awarded a $52,000,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price contract for maintaining and operating and configuration of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, Multiple Launch Rocket System Launcher Fleet, and the respective repair parts storage and distribution center. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, Texas, with an estimated completion date of May 14, 2031. Fiscal 2025 procurement, Army funds in the amount of $342,393, $1,412,854, and $2,189,923, were obligated at the time of the award. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-26-C-0007).

AECOM International Inc., Frankfurt am Main, Germany (W912GB-26-D-0017); AE Alliance JV, Lynchburg, Virginia (W912GB-26-D-0018); Alberto Izzo & Partners SRL, Napoli, Italy (W912GB-26-D-0019); CDM Federal Services Europe JV, Bickenbach, Germany (W912GB-26-D-0020); HDR-Stanley Italy IDC JV, Omaha, Nebraska (W912GB-26-D-0021); and WSP USA Solutions Inc., Washington, D.C. (W912GB-26-D-0022), will compete for each order of the $45,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for architecture-engineering services. Bids were solicited via the internet with 16 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2030. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Europe District, is the contracting activity.

AECOM International Inc., Frankfurt am Main, Germany (W912GB-26-D-0012); Alberto Izzo & Partners-Benham Design, Napoli, Italy (W912GB-26-D-0013); HDR-Stanley Italy IDC JV, Omaha, Nebraska (W912GB-26-D-0014); and CDM Federal Services Europe JV, Bickenbach, Germany (W912GB-26-D-0015), will compete for each order of the $45,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for architecture-engineering services. Bids were solicited via the internet with 13 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2030. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Europe District, is the contracting activity.

Federal Contracting Inc., Colorado Springs, Colorado, was awarded a firm-fixed-price contract to construct a large child development center utilizing the standard facility design, including areas for infants through preschoolers, administrative and public spaces, kitchen, playgrounds, and all supporting site work and utilities. The amount of this action is $42,430,433. Bids were solicited via web with 11 received. Work will be performed in San Antonio, Texas, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 9, 2027. Fiscal 2026 military construction, defense-wide funds in the amount of $42,430,433 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District, is the contracting activity (W9126G-26-C-0003).

Kokosing Alberici Traylor LLC, Westerville, Ohio, was awarded a $30,234,166 modification (P00022) to contract W911XK-22-C-0006 for an in-scope change to the New Lock Chamber project, which involves constructing a 1,200-foot-long, 110-foot-wide chamber in Sault Saint Marie, Michigan. The modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $1,921,322,786.65. Work will be performed in Sault Saint Marie, Michigan, with an estimated completion date of July 9, 2029. Fiscal 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2025 construction, Corps of Engineers, civil funds in the amount of $2,022,868, $3,046, $21,699, $3,105,155, $360,637.15, and $24,720,760, were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District, is the contracting activity.

Interdyne Corp.,* Cornelius, North Carolina, was awarded a firm-fixed-price contract for providing preventative maintenance, corrective maintenance and ancillary actions to the Egyptian Armament Air Defense facilities. The amount of this action is $9,777,722. Bids were solicited with one received. Work will be performed in Cario, Egypt, with an estimated completion date of July 16, 2029. Fiscal 2010 Foreign Military Sales (Egypt) funds in the amount of $9,777,722 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Middle East District, is the contracting activity (W912ER-26-C-A001).

NAVY

BAE Systems Land & Armaments LP, Sterling Heights, Michigan, is awarded a $184,400,905 firm-fixed-price modification to a previously awarded contract (M67854-16-C-0006) for amphibious combat vehicles (ACV). The total value of the contract, if all options are exercised, is $3,859,806,117. This contract modification provides for the exercise of options for the procurement of 30 full rate production ACV medium caliber cannon mission role variants and associated production, fielding and support costs, and spares. Work will be performed in York, Pennsylvania (60%); Aiken, South Carolina (15%); San Jose, California (15%); Sterling Heights, Michigan (5%); and Stafford, Virginia (5%) with an expected completion date of March 2028. Fiscal 2026 procurement (Marine Corps) funds in the amount of $184,400,905 will be obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, Virginia, is the contracting activity (M67854-16-C-0006).

Boeing Co., St. Louis, Missouri, was awarded $104,432,672 for a ceiling-priced delivery order (N00383-26-F-0YY0) under a previously awarded basic ordering agreement (N00383-22-G-YY01) for the repair of large are display and low profile head-up display used in the advanced cockpit system on the F/A-18 E/F and EA-18G aircraft. The delivery order does not include an option period. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (70%); Talladega, Alabama (20%); and St. Louis, Missouri (10%), and work is expected to be completed by April 2028. Fiscal 2026 working capital (Navy) funds; fiscal 2025 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds; and fiscal 2024 procurement (Air Force) funds in the amount of $53,241,552, will be obligated at the time of award as an undefinitized contract action, all funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. One company was solicited for this sole-source requirement pursuant to the authority set forth in 10 U.S. Code 3204 (a)(1), with one offer received. Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity.

Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc, Newport News, Virgina, was awarded a $91,891,302 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide Aircraft Carrier Engineering Support for the Nimitz-class and Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers. The scope includes but is not limited to engineering, technical, design, integrated logistics support, configuration management, database management and modernization, and ship change document development. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $471,969,850. Work will be performed in Newport News, Virginia (96%); Portsmouth, Virginia (2%); and Bremerton, Washington (2%), and is expected to be completed by November 2030. If all options are exercised, work will continue through November 2030. Fiscal 2024 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $10,800; fiscal 2026 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $4,370,000; and fiscal 2026 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $1,300,000, will be obligated at time of award, of which $4,370,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. In accordance with 10 U.S. Code 3204 (a)(1), this contract was not competitively procured (only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements). Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-26-C-2100).

Total Concepts of Designs Inc.,* is awarded a $30,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the manufacturing of various metal parts for use in the manufacture, assembly, packaging, and shipping of All Up Round five inch projectiles and propelling charges, and the Mk14 MOD4 tank assembly. Work will be performed in Scottsburg, Indiana (60%); Cincinnati, Ohio (20%); and Hammond, Indiana (20%), and is expected to be completed by October 2030. Fiscal 2024 procurement of ammunition (Navy and Marine Corps) funds in the amount of $1,453,302 (97%); and fiscal 2025 procurement of ammunition, Navy and Marine Corps (Navy) funds in the amount of $47,220 (3%), will be obligated at time of award, of which $1,453,302 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the SAM.gov website with two offers received. Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division, Indian Head, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00174-26-D-0002).

CGI Federal Inc., Fairfax, Virginia, is awarded a $17,653,994, firm-fixed-price, with cost reimbursable travel and other direct costs, task order (M6700425F3002) under a multiple award contract (N0017819D7431) via Seaport Next Generation (NXG) for Plans and Data Support Services. This contract provides the full range and depth of logistics services and software systems support for the Marine Corps Preposition Program which includes the Maritime Preposition Forces Program, Marine Corps Preposition Program -Norway, Marine Corps Preposition Program -Philippines, and other locations to be determined in support of the future Prepositioning Network. Work will be performed at Jacksonville, Florida, with an expected completion date of Dec. 31, 2030, if all options are exercised. This task order includes a one-year base and four twelve-month option periods which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $17,653,994. Fiscal 2026 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $2,900,000 has been provided for the base year period. This contract was competitively solicited and procured via the Seaport NXG with three offers received. Blount Island Command, Jacksonville, Florida, is the contracting activity.

Delphinus Engineering Inc.,* Newtown, Pennsylvania, is awarded a $14,549,938 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract for the development, fabrication, production, integration, and testing of the Victoria-class bow array and lift system. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $36,979,203. This contract involves Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to Canada (100%). Work will be performed in Newtown, Pennsylvania, and is expected to be completed by July 2030. FMS funds in the amount of $14,549,938 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to 10 U.S. Code 2304 (a) (4), (International Agreement). Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-26-C-6103).

Charles Stark Draper Laboratories Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, is being awarded a $9,635,327 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification (P00005) under a previously awarded and announced contract (N0003023C6008) for production of the Trident (D5) Guidance Subsystem. This requirement includes design analysis, testing, procurement, and manufacturing of Alternate Pendulous Integrating Gyroscopic Accelerometer repairs and associated material. Work will be performed in Cambridge, Massachusetts (50%); Pittsfield, Massachusetts (25%); and Clearwater, Florida (25%). Work is expected to be completed Nov. 30, 2028. Fiscal 2025 Weapons Procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $9,635,327 will be obligated at time of award. No funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was awarded as a sole-source acquisition pursuant to 10 U.S. Code 3204(c)(1) and was previously synopsized on the System for Award Management (SAM.gov) online portal. Strategic Systems Programs, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.

Defense Logistics Agency

Tri-State Government Services Inc., Chattanooga, Tennessee, has been awarded a maximum $20,861,015 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for hazardous waste removal, transportation and disposal services. This was a competitive acquisition with three responses received. This is a two-year six-month base contract with one two-year six-month option period. Location of performance is Alabama, with a June 1, 2028, ordering period end date. Using customers are Army, Air Force, Army National Guard, and Air National Guard. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2026 through 2027 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services, Battle Creek, Michigan (SP4500-26-D-0003).

Lion Vallen Industries,* Pendergrass, Georgia, has been awarded an estimated $10,117,070 modification (P00022) exercising the fourth oneyear option period of a twoyear base contract (SPE1C121D1417) with five oneyear option periods for warehousing, storage, logistics and distribution functions. This is a firm-fixedprice with economicpriceadjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. The ordering period end date is Dec. 1, 2026. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2026 through 2027 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

https://www.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract/Article/4345564/

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AFRICOM Commander makes high-level visits to East Africa

Gen. Dagvin Anderson, the Commander of U.S. Africa Command, began the first leg of a series of high-level visits to Africa this week, with stops in Ethiopia and in Somalia's member states of Somaliland and Puntland.

By U.S. Africa Command Public Affairs , United States Africa Command Stuttgart, Germany Dec 01, 2025

Gen. Dagvin Anderson, the Commander of U.S. Africa Command, began the first leg of a series of high-level visits to Africa this week, with stops in Ethiopia and in Somalia's member states of Somaliland and Puntland.

His message was clear: the United States supports maximum pressure on ISIS, al-Shabaab, and other violent terrorist organizations.

The trip - aligned with President Trump's priorities and Secretary of War Hegseth's guidance - is part of a deliberate push to reinforce America's commitment to countering terrorist groups across the continent, in support of a focus on protecting the United States homeland.

"The whole reason I came here is because we have shared threats," Anderson said. "I'm not new to this region; I understand what the issues are, and we're here to help empower our African partners to address these threats in a united way."

Anderson met with government leaders to strengthen America's laser-focused approach to confronting terrorism through burden sharing, stronger cooperation, and aligned security priorities.

In Ethiopia, he met with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the Chief of Defense, Field Marshal Birhanu Jula Gelelcha, to discuss the growing threat posed by ISIS and al-Shabaab.

In Somaliland, Anderson met with President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, Brig. Gen. Niman Yusuf Osman, chief of general staff of the Somaliland Armed Forces, and Adm. Ahmed Hurre Hariye, commander of the Somaliland Coast Guard. He also traveled to the port city of Berbera to assess the security environment and review the port's operational capacity.

His final stop was Puntland, where he met with Vice President Ilyas Osman Lugatoor and Gen. Adan Abdi Hashi, chief of Puntland Defense Forces and other senior leaders to accelerate efforts against terrorism in the region. He praised Puntland's maximum-pressure campaign against ISIS in the Golis Mountains - acknowledging their success while stressing the need to intensify operations.

Across all of his engagements, Anderson emphasized that countering terrorism is a shared responsibility that no single nation can shoulder alone. He noted that the United States remains committed to supporting African partner forces that are achieving real, measurable gains.

"As we face the growing security threats, including the rise of terrorist activities in East Africa, the Sahel, and West Africa's coastal regions, the collective efforts are more important than ever." Anderson said. "Together we can build a more prosperous and secure future for the United States, for Africa and most importantly, for our children."

Africa remains a theater the U.S. cannot shift its focus on. It's an evolving and diverse theater with security efforts that transcends the African borders to support European and global security and stability - including the U.S. homeland.

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December 1, 2025

By U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area

Coast Guard Heavy Icebreaker Departs Seattle for Antarctic Deployment

The Coast Guard cutter Polar Star departed Seattle, Nov. 27, commencing its 29th deployment to Antarctica in support of Operation Deep Freeze.

The operation is an annual joint military mission to resupply the U.S. Antarctic stations in support of the National Science Foundation, the lead agency for the U.S. Antarctic Program. Historic investment in the "One Big Beautiful Bill" of nearly $25 billion includes $9 billion specifically for icebreakers and infrastructure in the Arctic and Antarctic. This massive investment in icebreakers will secure U.S. access, security and leadership in the polar regions.

As the Coast Guard prepares to revitalize its icebreaking fleet, the Polar Star remains the only U.S. vessel capable of breaking a navigable channel through the ice to reach McMurdo Station, the largest Antarctic station and the logistics hub of the U.S. Antarctic Program.

Each year, the cutter serves a vital role in ensuring surface access for fuel and supply ships through the Ross Sea to resupply U.S. Antarctic bases. The Polar Star's mission directly protects the security, freedom and prosperity for the U.S., our allies and partners.

"[The] Polar Star's crew does remarkable work maintaining and operating this ship," said Coast Guard Capt. Jeff Rasnake, commanding officer of the ship. "Each year brings unique challenges, and I'm proud to say this crew has risen to meet them all. The way we've come together over the course of maintenance, and our logistical preparations is exciting as we enter the operational phase of our annual deployment cycle."

Commissioned in 1976, the Polar Star is 399 feet long and weighs 13,500 tons with a 34-foot draft. Despite reaching nearly 50 years of age, it remains the world's most powerful nonnuclear icebreaker with the ability to produce up to 75,000 shaft horsepower.

The continuous effort the crew commits to maintaining the aging cutter ensures the nation's access to the continent and the economic, environmental and national security interests in the polar regions. The Polar Star will continue to support Operation Deep Freeze until new polar and Arctic security cutters enter service in the coming decade.

Since 1955, members of the Coast Guard, Air Force, Navy and Army have proudly supported the U.S. Antarctic Program by providing supplies to McMurdo Station.

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Bahrain - F-16 Sustainment

NEWS | Dec. 1, 2025

Media/Public Contact: T_Outreach_PM@state.gov

Transmittal No. 25-84

WASHINGTON, December 01, 2025 -- The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Bahrain of F-16 Sustainment and related equipment for an estimated cost of $445 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale today.

The Government of Bahrain has requested to buy aircraft components; missile containers; radar receiver component parts; guidance and control section spares; weapons system support; ground handling equipment; and instruments and lab equipment that will be added to a previously implemented case whose value was under the congressional notification threshold. The original Foreign Military Sales case, valued at $47 million ($0 in major defense equipment), included major and minor modifications; Computer Program Identification Numbers (CPINs); aircraft maintenance support equipment; launcher spare parts and support equipment; spare parts, consumables and accessories, and repair and return support; classified and unclassified software delivery and support; classified and unclassified publications and technical documentation; studies and surveys; transportation support; U.S. Government and contractor engineering, technical, and logistics support services; and other related elements of logistics and program support. The estimated total cost is $445 million.

This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a major non-NATO ally that is an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East.

The proposed sale will improve Bahrain's capability to meet current and future threats by providing a credible force that can deter adversaries and provide the capability to participate in regional operations with the United States and other U.S. partner nations. Bahrain will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces.

The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region.

The principal contractors will be General Electric Aerospace, located in Evendale, OH; and Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, located in Fort Worth, TX. At this time, the U.S. Government is not aware of any offset agreement proposed in connection with this potential sale. Any offset agreement will be defined in negotiations between the purchaser and the contractor.

Implementation of this proposed sale will not require the assignment of additional U.S. Government and U.S. contractor representatives to Bahrain.

There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale.

The description and dollar value are for the highest estimated quantity and dollar value based on initial requirements. Actual dollar value will be lower depending on final requirements, budget authority, and signed sales agreement(s), if and when concluded.

All questions regarding this proposed Foreign Military Sale should be directed to the State Department's Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, Political-Military Affairs Outreach, at T_Outreach_PM@state.gov.

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EU Member States and Switzerland agree to expand defence cooperation through EDA

European Defence Agency

01 December 2025

The European Defence Agency (EDA) and Switzerland have updated the terms of their cooperation, allowing Bern to participate in a wider range of defence-related projects with EU Member States. This is in full respect of Switzerland's neutrality policy. Until now, cooperation was primarily focused on research and innovation.

The revised framework, known as an Administrative Arrangement, will enable a greater scope of cooperation between EU Ministries of Defence and Switzerland's Federal Department of Defence, Civil protection and Sport, allowing structured access to the full range of EDA programmes. These cover research, innovation, capability development, joint procurement, and training. The framework also includes industrial cooperation.

In addition, some areas of cooperation were not possible under the original arrangement, signed in 2012, for example joint procurement.

"The signing of the updated Administrative Arrangement marks an important milestone in Switzerland's cooperation with EDA that has started 13 years ago", said Swiss Federal Councillor Martin Pfister.

"This update opens new opportunities for Switzerland to contribute to European defence innovation and allows us to learn from our partners," said EDA Chief Executive Andre Denk. "It also reflects EDA's commitment to strong defence cooperation beyond EU borders. It enables closer collaboration on capability development, research and innovation, while respecting Swiss neutrality."

Participation in individual EDA activities will continue to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. The arrangement remains non-binding and is based on the mutual willingness of Member States and Switzerland to cooperate. EDA will also integrate a Swiss seconded national expert among its staff.

Switzerland was among the first non-EU countries to conclude an Administrative Arrangement with EDA over a decade ago. Since then, cooperation has expanded significantly, including Swiss involvement in the Hub for European Defence Innovation (HEDI), EDA's incubator that helps develop, test and prototype new technologies.

In October 2024, EDA Member States called for the arrangement with Switzerland to be updated to reflect this broader collaboration.

EDA's broader role

Founded in 2004, the Agency helps foster defence cooperation across Europe. It serves as the place for EU countries to develop their defence capabilities together. EDA's activities span from training and developing military capabilities to research, technology, innovation and supporting EU military operations. The Agency also works closely with the European defence industry to strengthen the EU's technological and industrial base.

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Foreign Affairs Council (Defence): Press remarks by High Representative/Vice-President Kaja Kallas

European External Action Service (EEAS)

01.12.2025

Brussels, Belgium

EEAS Press Team

Check against delivery!

Good afternoon, everybody.

We had the EU Defence Ministers meeting today to discuss two pressing issues: Russia's war on Ukraine and European defence. We also had Ukrainian Minister Shmyhal with us and NATO Deputy Secretary General Shekerinska that joined part of our discussions.

This could be a pivotal work week for diplomacy, intense talks on ending Russia's war continue. Everyone welcomes the push for peace, except Russia. Over the weekend, Russia launched again another massive aerial assault on Ukraine.

In this war, there is one aggressor and one victim. Our job is to do all we can to support the victim and not reward the aggression.

The goal is to have a just and durable peace, not a deal that lays ground for a next war. Solid funding for Ukraine is key. In October, EU leaders agreed to fund Ukraine for the next two years. Ministers today insisted that we need to agree on the funding options as a matter of urgency. Multiyear funding would be a game changer for Ukraine's defence. A stronger Ukraine means a faster end to Putin's war, because the sooner Putin realises that it cannot outlast us, the sooner this war will end. Our work to build consensus and funding continues. Risks need to be shared - that is very clear - the European Council in December will be crucial in this regard.

Ministers also discussed increasing our military support to Ukraine. Europe has already provided over 187 billion to Ukraine, more than anybody else. We need to continue to step up. The logic is very simple: the stronger Ukraine is on the battlefield, the stronger they are behind the negotiation table.

Today, we also discussed what our two missions could do more to strengthen Ukraine. They are part of the European Union's support to the Security Guarantees. We aim to conclude planning for expanding missions as soon as possible.

On defence industrial cooperation with Ukraine, we discussed how to mobilise additional private financing, also through the European Investment Bank. Europe and Ukraine must build together, produce together and innovate together. It is a win-win for both sides. Ukraine has the battlefield experience, and we also need this for our defence industry. I am glad that more Member States are doing so. Today, for instance, the Netherlands signed an agreement with Ukraine to set up a production line on its territory.

I also want to address the corruption probes in Ukraine, especially in wartime, trust matters. Ukraine's fight for freedom and its path towards Europe should not be tainted by this. However, the fact that investigations take place shows that anti-corruption bodies in Ukraine work. Also, the public outcry for this has been very, very strong.

Ministers also discussed European defence. Everyone agreed that Europe must continue to boost its own defences. We do not have much time to act. Putin is unlikely to honour any agreement for long. And, if we are not strong, it is going to happen sooner. Leaders have given clear direction with the Defence Readiness Roadmap. Capability coalitions are being set up now. Some have already met on air defence and drones, for example. Others will follow soon. Concrete projects are expected in the first half of next year.

Today, we also address the flagship initiatives to help coordinate investment in areas where no Member State can do it alone. Here, I would like to commend Finland for taking steps to advance the Eastern Flank Watch initiative.

And finally, Ministers also discussed the Military Mobility Package, which we presented with the Commission in the previous month. The ability to move troops where we need them, when we need them, is paramount for deterrence. Military mobility is a crucial insurance policy for European security, and we need to speed up.

Thank you.

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/media/video/I-281398



Q&A

Q. I need to ask you, of course, about the letter that the Belgian Prime Minister has sent to the European Commission. We all read it, it has many concerns, many reservations about the Reparations Loan. But, at the very end, the Prime Minister says: 'Hastily moving forward on the proposed reparations loan scheme would have as a collateral damage that we as the European Union are effectively preventing reaching an eventual peace deal to end the war in Ukraine.' Do you agree with this assessment? Do you think the reparations loan is an obstacle in the negotiation? Or do you think it would strengthen the European leverage vis-a-vis Moscow?

It will definitely strengthen the European position vis-a-vis Moscow, that is very clear. We need to move on with this. This is clear that Russia owes reparations for the damages that they have caused to Ukraine, and the Reparations Loan based on the frozen sovereign assets of Russia, is actually the right basis for it. I do not, in any way, diminish the risks or the worries that Belgian government has. When we had the discussions in the European Council, everybody was saying that we are ready to share all the risks and the burden. Therefore, we need to work on this, on the legislative proposal to address all the risks, or mitigate all the risks, and to shoulder the burden regarding those risks. But we definitely need to move on. Because, if I would be Russia, I would also try to outlast us to see whether we get the funding for Ukrainian defense or not. If not in the short term, then, I would come to the negotiation table and ask even more. I think again, let us come back to the first point, which is that Ukraine has not attacked anybody. It is Russia that has attacked, and we need to make sure that this stops and it does not happen again.

Q. Two questions, if I may. The first one on your ammunition initiative: what is the state of play, and are you satisfied with the answer? We are at the end of the year, so basically, of the answer of Member States. The second question is, what is your message to the Member States that are lagging behind in terms of military or financial aid for military support to Ukraine? Some Member States are taking much of the burden, others are not participating. For example, in the PURL initiative or in other initiatives. So, what is your message to those Member States?

On the ammunition initiative, I regret to say that we are not there yet, although today, one Member State told me that in the coming weeks, they will have another decision that will also contribute to the ammunition initiative. Today, we were also listening to the Defence Minister Shmyhal regarding the needs that they have, and also his call for Member States to do more. Of course, they also need drones and other capabilities, but they still need ammunition, so the work is still ongoing in this regard. When it comes to the overall support to Ukraine, then, of course, like you rightly say, the burden is not equally shared. So, those Member States who are doing more were also calling on those Member States who are not doing that much. Helping Ukraine now is much cheaper than [if] this war will continue. If we all make a collective effort to help Ukraine, to pressure Russia, the sooner this war will end and sooner the costs will stop as well.

Q. On the reparations loan again. After reading the letter of Prime Minister Bart De Wever, one could come to the conclusion that this option is actually quite dead, or the chances are slim, at least, to have an agreement this year. Basically he is coming up with new arguments why he is against it. And he did not wait for the legal texts that, as I understand, are ready. So, he could have waited for this and then written his letter, but he did not do it. He sent a letter before it looks like he wants to kill this option, I would say. But maybe you have another view on this. But would it not be time to discuss other options to be prepared? I mean, we know that Ukraine needs funds in the next spring, so would it not be time to discuss this idea of a bridge loan, for example?

We must understand that Belgium is under a lot of pressure. This is very clear. There has been options paper provided, but if you look at those options, the reparations loan is the most viable option, because bilateral contributions are not covering this, like in the previous question, it was also seen that not all Member States are carrying the burden. Eurobonds or raising capital together is also out of question for some Member States to do it all together and the reparations that Russia owes to Ukraine - actually, it is really Ukrainian money - if you think about the damages that Russia has caused, this is the best solution. Again, I want to stress that I do not, in any way, diminish the worries that Belgium has, but we can address those. We can shoulder those risks together, and we need to work on a viable solution to go on with the reparations loan. It sends a three-way message - a very strong message - to Ukraine that we are there to help them to defend themselves. The second message to Moscow, that they cannot outlast us, and a third message also to Washington, that we are taking very strong and very credible steps.

Q. I want to ask you a broader question, because I think that we can all agree that last week was extraordinary, and if what we read is correct, and the Americans are indeed negotiating with Russia for access to their market, to the Russian market, to the exclusion of Europe, we would be facing the sum of all fears, in a way: because possibly a bad deal on one side, and something very worrying on the other. So would it not be, at this point, perhaps useful to open direct negotiations with Moscow and send there a kind of a European Witkoff?

Everybody has been very clear, especially the Russians, that they have no interest in peace right now. Again, we need to put them in the position where they need to negotiate. Right now, they are not in that position because they think that they can outlast us, and they also hope that there is a very good offer made, because they see that there is a lot of pressure to put on the victim, but no sacrifices asked from them, at least we do not know that any of the sacrifices have been asked to of them. So clearly, they want to negotiate with those who are just offering them something on top of what they already have. This is clearly their interest, but it should not be ours.

Q. I have a question regarding SAFE. Mr Kubilius, said that 15 countries want to have some programmes with Ukraine. Others without. Are there some kind of priorities for those who are doing their projects with Ukraine? That is my first question. And second one goes to specifically Hungary, which probably is one of the four countries, I assume, which is not doing anything with Ukraine. For Hungary, the pre-allocated funds of 16 billion is a huge amount. And while the European Commission, in other cases, froze EU funds around 18 billion for Hungary because of the rule of law and other concerns, this time, there is so much money going there with kind of no strings attached. So, do you see some kind of concerns, maybe that Hungary, if Hungary gets this money, or a part of this money, of this allocation, it is going to be maybe going to the wrong hands and for wrong pockets, and how do you want to avoid this?

Right now, 19 countries have applied for the SAFE loans. What happens now is that the Commission will evaluate all the plans and then Council adopts the financing plan. Basically, it is the same way, like it was with the Next Generation EU. In the Next Generation EU, you needed to show the reforms, the things that you do, so that you get also the funding. And that is why the plans are there, and the funding goes to the defence plans. And that is also the answer that there are safeguards for guarding that this money goes for defence plans and defence plans only.

Q. I would like to ask about hybrid attacks. We heard the chair of NATO's Military Committee saying that they are considering being more aggressive, more proactive in response to Russian hybrid attacks. I just spoke to the Polish Minister who was here today. You will not be surprised to hear very supportive of a more aggressive, more proactive approach from European powers when it comes to hybrid attacks. Would you support a more aggressive European Union approach to these attacks, not just reactive, but perhaps a pre-emptive strike, as it was described?

Today, also the Lithuanian Minister raised this issue when it comes to the Belarus hybrid attacks and meteorological balloons that come from the Belarus side. We are having discussions right now. What more can we do in this regard? Because it is true that they are getting more aggressive in different parts and we have the hybrid sanctions toolbox for Russia, but we have not had it for Belarus, for example. But all these actions, what the Member States take, we need to coordinate. Of course, it is up to the Member States then to really use those tools, in order to counter those hybrid attacks. But it is clearly becoming a bigger problem, that is for sure.

Q. Discussions about the peace plan are ongoing, but the question is whether the issue of Russian troops on Transnistrian territory is being considered, and whether this is a threat to Ukraine or not. Is this the right moment, maybe, to solve this problem? And the second question on SAFE, if you know if Moldovan authorities applied to be part of this programme? Because before the European Union and our authority said that Moldova can be a part of SAFE as well.

Yes, this is one of the examples of the 19 countries that Russia has attacked previously, or where there are somehow still Russian troops present. This is a very good question. If the negotiators want the war to stop and not continue in any other territories - how can we make sure that Russia will never invade again and withdraws its troops from different parts of Europe where they still are? Then that would be one point to negotiate again, putting the point on Russia. What are they conceding? What they are contributing to have long lasting peace, not only in Ukraine, but also in other countries. So, this could be part of it. When it comes to SAFE, then we have an agreement with Moldova regarding a Security and Defence partnership. So, we are trying to also have Moldova take part where they can take part. But the deadline for SAFE was the end of November, and today we are the first of December.

Q. We know that Europe wants to be in a good relationship with the United States and wants to be respected by the United States and also wants to help Ukraine. So, in your opinion, how will Europe look to United States and to Ukraine if, after months of talks about a reparations loan, about using frozen Russian assets, we will have no solution, or that the solution will be that Europe is afraid to use these assets.

Well, Russia will definitely look at it. They do not want this reparations loan to happen. So, our response should do the exactly opposite, because this is something that we need to move on with, and to send a strong signal to Moscow that they cannot outlast us and Ukraine can defend itself.

Q. Just coming back to the negotiations that are going on between the US, Russia and Ukraine. When the first peace plan came out, Europe scrambled and managed to somehow get back involved in the negotiation process, but now it seems that Europe is once again being excluded and being purposefully excluded by the US. So, do you get the sense that the US is cutting out Europe from this latest round of negotiations? Do you have any idea what Mr Witkoff is going to negotiate with Putin in Moscow, and are you fearful that he will once again try to force Ukraine to make more concessions?

I am afraid that all the pressure will be put on the victim, which is that Ukraine has to make concessions and obligations, whereas, in order to have peace, we should not lose focus that it is actually Russia who has started this war, and Russia that is continuing this war, and Russia that is really targeting civilian infrastructure every single day to cause as much damage as possible. Yes, I am afraid that all the pressure will be put on the weaker side, because that is the easier way to stop this war when Ukraine surrenders. But this is not in anybody's interest, not in the interest of Ukraine, not in the interest of European Union, also not in the interest of the global, overall security because it is the United Nations' Charter that says that you cannot change borders by force. If this pays off, we will see this elsewhere, all around the world. Then we see that whoever has the power gets to take what they want, which is not good for the majority of countries in the world.

Q. You are saying: "I am afraid the pressure will be put on the victims regarding the week of talks in Moscow". Just a quick question, do you trust the US in this negotiation?

It is not a question of trust. It is a question of, again, if we want a long-term peace, then we need to understand the starting point of this war. And the starting point of this war is that Russia just decided to start the full-scale war and aggression on its neighbouring country. If we want this war to stop, so that it does not continue in a few years, if we want this war not to expand, then we should put all the pressure on the one who is doing the aggression, which is Russia.

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/media/video/I-281728

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Foreign Affairs Council - Defence: Press remarks by High Representative Kaja Kallas upon arrival

European External Action Service (EEAS)

01.12.2025

Brussels, Belgium

EEAS Press Team

Check against delivery!

Good morning!

Today we meet with the Defence Ministers of the European Union, and we have two broad topics: one is how to further support Ukraine, and the other one is on our own defence readiness and defence capabilities that we need to build up.

It is clear that Russia does not want peace, and therefore we need to make Ukraine as strong as possible, in order for them to be ready to stand up for themselves in this very difficult time.

It could be a pivotal week for diplomacy. We heard yesterday that talks in America were difficult but productive. We do not know the results yet, but I will talk to the Defence Minister of Ukraine and as well as Foreign Minister of Ukraine today.

Thank you.



Q&A

Q. Do you trust the Americans that they can find a good solution for Ukraine?

Ukrainians are there alone. If they would be together with the Europeans, they would definitely be much stronger, but I trust that Ukrainians stand up for themselves.

Q. What exactly can the Europeans do to reinforce Ukraine's position at the negotiating table?

Well, the two things that we do. One is to put the pressure on Russia on further sanctions, reparations loan that they are very much afraid of, and the other is also to give them military, financial and humanitarian support that they can last and outlast Russia.

Q. Why do you believe that reparations loan is still an option because Belgium still seems to resist?

Belgium has legitimate concerns about the risks, but all the other Member States have said that they are willing to share those risks, so we are discussing those things. As it was said, we are not going to leave the Council in December without the result for the financing of Ukraine.

Q. Have you reflected about constraints for Russian Army. What you said last week, how small should the Russian army to feel Estonia and Europe safe according to a possible deal?

In general, we do not think it is right to go into sovereign countries' decisions - how big is their army. But my point was that if there is going to be a pressure on Ukraine's army that has not invaded anybody, then there should also be pressure on Russian army. And really, the Russian army is the one that is actually a risk to everybody. And I am not talking about European countries, but all the neighboring countries of Russia. If you look at those 19 countries that they have invaded in the last 100 years, I mean, they are all at risk. If Russia's army is big, if their military budget this is as big it is right now, they will want to use it again.

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/media/video/I-281371

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Minister of Defence Antti Hakkanen: We will facilitate the operation of international military headquarters in Finland with a new agreement

Finnish Ministry of Defence

Ministry of Defence

Publication date 1.12.2025

Type:Press release

Finland has recently concluded negotiations with NATO's strategic commands on an agreement to supplement the Paris Protocol, facilitating the operation of international military headquarters in Finland. The Ministry of Defence led the negotiations team on the Finnish side.

This is Finland's first NATO-related international agreement prepared under the lead of the Ministry of Defence. The agreement is scheduled for signing in 2025.

The supplementary agreement will strengthen the status of NATO's international military headquarters and facilitate their operation in Finland. It will apply to all NATO's military headquarters in Finland as well as to other military organisations, such as NATO's centres of excellence (COEs), that are considered international military headquarters under the Paris Protocol. The Multi-Corps Land Component Command North (MCLCC-N) in Mikkeli and its personnel and their dependents will be the first headquarters covered by the agreement.

"We will facilitate the operation of international military headquarters in Finland with a new agreement. First, we achieved our defence policy objectives with regard to the MCLCC-N in Mikkeli, and now with this agreement we will ensure that not only the MCLCC-N but also any other international military headquarters later established in Finland can operate and perform their duties to the fullest. The agreement is also a concrete sign that Finland's NATO integration is making good progress," said Minister of Defence Antti Hakkanen.

Establishing an international military headquarters in Finland and adjusting the number of their personnel remain subject to approval by Finland. In addition, Finland will approve any headquarter activities that, for example, require an increase of personnel strength.

The supplementary agreement contains provisions on various matters such as taxation, environmental protection, health and safety, telecommunications, vehicles and education. The basic principle is that NATO military headquarters enjoy the same opportunities and conditions in Finland as the Finnish Defence Forces.

For the duration of their NATO missions, NATO general and flag officers will be accorded immunities and privileges comparable to those enjoyed by foreign diplomats.

A draft government proposal on the agreement is scheduled to be circulated for comments on the Lausuntopalvelu.fi website in January 2026. The Government plans to submit its proposal on the agreement to Parliament in mid-April 2026.

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ICC Office of the Prosecutor launches Annual Report 2025: 'Resilient Justice in Every Step' reporting significant progress amid unprecedented challenges

International Criminal Court (ICC) / Cour penale internationale (CPI)

Statement: 1 December 2025

Operational Resilience in Challenging Contexts

Today, the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) launched its Annual Report 2025, providing a holistic view of the Office's activities, while highlighting substantial achievements made throughout a year defined by escalating conflicts, urgent investigative demands, and attempts to undermine its independent mandate.

"Over the past year, our Office has faced unprecedented challenges, yet our commitment to justice has never wavered," said Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan at the launch event. "Through strengthened investigations, more arrests, and landmark courtroom milestones, we have continued to deliver accountability for the most serious crimes."

Increased Output and Landmark Developments

32 current outstanding warrants of arrest known to the public, including 17 warrants during the period 2023-2025, illustrate a meaningful rise in the Office's operational output. Strengthened strategies on arrest and tracking fugitives, implemented in close cooperation with the Registry and supported by States Parties and a wide range of partners, have resulted in more suspects being arrested and more cases advancing before the Court.

Following the arrest of Mr Rodrigo Roa Duterte in March 2025, the Office has been preparing intensively for the related confirmation of charges hearing. The arrest of Mr Khaled Mohamed Ali El Hishri in the Situation in Libya similarly marked an important step forward in advancing justice efforts.

Several landmark moments in the courtroom including the convictions in the Abd-Al-Rahman case in the Situation in Darfur, Sudan, the first conviction pursuant to a United Nations Security Council referral to the ICC, and in the Yekatom and Ngaissona case in the Situation in the Central African Republic II, as well as the first confirmation of charges hearing in the absence of the suspect in the Kony case in the Situation in Uganda defined the year.

Equally notable was the sustained trust expressed by victims and affected communities. In receiving 83,119 submissions, including more than 570,000 electronic files through its secure evidence submission platform OTP Link, the Office recorded a further increase in Article 15 communications, while its evidence holdings expanded substantially thanks to upgraded technologies and new evidence-processing systems. These improvements have significantly bolstered the Office's capacity to respond with speed and precision as crises evolve.

Strengthened Systems, Innovation, and Partnerships

Throughout the year, the Office invested in reinforcing its internal systems and enhancing collaboration across the Court and with external partners.

Deeper and more innovative cooperation with State authorities, civil society organisations, and other stakeholders has led to the successful rollout of new initiatives including the OTP Forum on Complementarity and Cooperation and the OTP-CSO Structured Dialogue, supporting enhanced understanding with partners and identifying new opportunities for collaboration.

Ensuring adaptability in applying the Statute's legal framework remained a core priority. This was reflected in the development and launch of the new Policies on Addressing Environmental Damage through the Rome Statute and Cyber-enabled Crimes under the Rome Statute.

After the launch and the implementation of the Policies on Gender Persecution (2022), on Gender-based Crimes (2023), on Children (2023), on Complementarity and Cooperation (2024) and on Slavery Crimes (2024), this concludes a significant policy development cycle of seven key policy initiatives over the last three years, which helps to respond to modern challenges and better deliver results in the courtroom.

A Foundation for Continued Progress

The achievements detailed in the Report lay a strong foundation for further progress in the year ahead. The Office emphasises that sustained solidarity and dialogue among the Court, States Parties, civil society organisations, and affected communities remain indispensable in advancing the global fight against impunity.

"We are proud of the resilience of our staff and deeply grateful to all our partners whose support made this year's achievements possible," concluded Deputy Prosecutor Khan.

"Despite considerable challenges, we continued to reach crucial milestones, and we reaffirm to all survivors and affected communities that we remain fully committed to advancing our work across all situations in 2026."

Watch the OTP Annual Report 2025 video here.



Find the full report here.

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Budrys had a telephone conversation with Kallas

Republic of Lithuania - Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Updated 2025-12-01

On 1 December, Kestutis Budrys, Minister of Foreign Affairs, had a telephone conversation with Kaja Kallas, European Commission Vice-President and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Budrys and Kallas discussed the Belarusian hybrid attack against Lithuania and the necessary EU response measures to stop it.

Budrys informed Kallas about the intensifying actions of the hybrid attack against Lithuania by Belarus in recent days. The Minister said that when Belarusian authorities have been deliberately targeting Vilnius Airport, Lithuania was forced to temporarily impose airspace restrictions several times last week alone. According to Budrys, over 7400 passengers and 50 flights were affected by these restrictions over Sunday night alone, with 31 flights cancelled, 10 diverted, and 9 delayed. The Minister also emphasised that the Lukashenka regime continues to hold EU companies' property on its territory and is using it as a blackmail tool to force Lithuania to open a political dialogue.

"It is not the first time that the Belarusian regime has resorted to hybrid measures against EU countries. A few years ago, it instrumentalised migration; now it uses smuggler balloons. By blackmailing Lithuania and demanding that the country open a political dialogue, the Lukashenka regime seeks to break the EU's firm stance, escape international isolation and lift sanctions. We cannot allow this to happen," said Budrys.

The Minister and Kallas discussed progress in the preparation of the EU's response to Belarus. Budrys stressed that the EU must take action to protect its citizens, show determination and unity not only through statements of solidarity, but through concrete actions. The Minister underlined that Lithuania had submitted proposals to the European Commission on 28 October to impose additional sanctions against Belarus and expects progress on this issue soon.

"Tighter sanctions against the Belarusian regime are a necessary response to the ongoing actions. The EU cannot silently observe and tolerate how the Lukashenka regime indiscriminately terrorises an EU member state, seizes property and purposefully poses risks to the security of citizens. This is an attack not only against Lithuania, but against the EU as a whole. The EU needs to show a strong backbone," said the Minister.

At the end of October, Lithuania submitted proposals to the European Commission for the inclusion of an additional criterion for hybrid attacks against Belarus in the EU sanctions regime. Lithuania also proposes that the EU impose additional sectoral sanctions on Belarus.

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Lithuania continues strengthening air defence with yet another short-range air defence system purchase

Republic of Lithuania - Ministry of National Defence

2025-12-01

Acquisitions and infrastructure development | Development and Strengthening of the Armed Forces

Lithuania continues strengthening air defence: order has been placed for the third Mobile Short Range Air Defence System (MSHORAD) with Sweden's Saab Dynamics. The purchase stands at over EUR 119 million.

The acquired system comprises Giraffe 1X radars, RBS70 NG missile launchers and a C2 node. Separate elements of the system will be delivered to Lithuania in 2026-2029 m.

"We are strengthening Lithuania's air defence. The acquired MSHORAD system features Giraffe 1X radars which locate low-flying aerial targets. This significantly increases the Lithuanian Armed Forces' capability to detect Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and other low altitude objects. The whole MSHORAD was developed for protection of specific sites, territories and critical infrastructure. One of its most important advantages is mobility - this critical capability will significantly boost the Lithuanian Armed Forces' defensive capacity," said Minister of National Defence Robertas Kaunas.

Lithuania will also sign a contract with Saab Dynamics on integration of the purchased elements with the JLTVs of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. The estimated contract stands at approx. EUR 11 million.

Key advantages of the MSHORAD system are mobility. Resilience to electromagnetic jamming and compatibility with the missiles and air defence system Lithuania already has.

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The President discussed the situation on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border with the President of the European Commission by phone

President of the Republic of Lithuania

December 01, 2025

On Monday, President Gitanas Nauseda spoke by telephone with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. During the conversation, the President thanked the Commission and its President personally for their support in responding to the latest developments on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border and to Belarus' ongoing hybrid attacks using weather balloons and threats to confiscate trucks registered in the European Union.

The President stressed that Belarus' inability to control its airspace, state border and territory, as well as to prevent organized criminal activity, poses a clear destabilizing and hybrid threat that cannot be tolerated.

President Nauseda informed the Commission President that Lithuania is currently facing systematic Belarusian hybrid attacks and deliberate large-scale violations of its airspace, including weather balloons that endanger civil aviation safety and disrupt airport operations. Belarus consistently releases balloons in critical traffic points around Vilnius Airport, creating risks to flight safety.

According to the President, given the rapidly changing situation and its impact on the airspace of the entire European Union, the support of the European Commission is especially important.

The President emphasized the need to employ advanced technologies capable of detecting and neutralizing threats of this nature, as well as to strengthen the exchange of best practices with allies, including the United States. Lithuania is ready to offer its territory for testing such technologies.

The President noted that these irresponsible actions by Belarus should be regarded as a hybrid attack for which the regime must be held accountable. In view of Belarus' deliberate escalation on Lithuanian territory, the President underlined that the European Union's collective response should be stronger.

The President also drew attention to the situation involving Lithuanian carriers' trucks: up to 1,000 trucks remain stranded in Belarusian territory. Belarusian authorities have so far rejected all Lithuanian requests to allow the trucks to return to the European Union.

Despite the measures applied by Lithuania, the regime continues its provocations - just yesterday, they affected more than 7,400 passengers. Since October, Belarus' actions have caused cancellations, diversions or significant delays for two international airports and more than 320 flights, affecting nearly 45,000 passengers across Europe.

The President asked the European Commission to further strengthen its support and to take action on behalf of the European Union.

The President's Communication Group

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US strengthens NATO medical readiness at Ramstein

NATO Allied Air Command

Dec 1 2025

RAMSTEIN, Germany -- Airmen from the U.S. 86th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron (AES) at Ramstein Air Base enhanced NATO's medical readiness by configuring a C-130H Hercules aircraft for a NATO medical evaluation exercise, 20 November 2025.

Supported by a Critical Care Air Transport Team (CCATT) from Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and a field ambulance unit from the U.S. Army's 16th Sustainment Brigade, the 86th AES enabled the NATO Centre of Excellence for Military Medicine to conduct its culminating mock assessment as part of the Medical Evaluation (MEDEVAL) Course.

The week-long course develops certified evaluators who assess Alliance medical units against NATO standards. During the final scenario, 86th AES Airmen prepared the Hercules for a simulated large-scale medical evacuation, demonstrating how NATO aircrews operate in multinational environments. "Really, this is what we do every day," said U.S. Major Amanda Peterson, assistant director of operations for the 86th AES, "So it didn't take much prep beyond the setup and making sure the crew understood NATO's objectives for the evaluation."

Throughout the mock assessment, the 86th AES worked alongside NATO students, sharing aeromedical evacuation procedures and best practices for patient movement. The collaboration deepened understanding of NATO's shared medical standards and improved interoperability. "By the end of the day, everyone was exchanging experiences," Peterson added. "Those relationships make it easier to work together on future missions."

U.S. Major Justin Stein, a flight nurse evaluator, said the exercise underscored the importance of alignment and cooperation among NATO medical teams, noting that by certifying new evaluators and harmonising standards, the Alliance strengthens its collective readiness for future missions.

Through hands-on cooperation and shared learning, the activity reinforced NATO's commitment to medical readiness, interoperability and collective defence, ensuring Allied aircrews can provide critical care and rapid evacuation whenever and wherever needed.

Story by Allied Air Command Public Affairs Office

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SNMG1 launches High North mission, boosting NATO presence in the Norwegian Sea

NATO Allied Maritime Command

Dec 1 2025

High North -- Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 has kicked off its second High North deployment of 2025, reinforcing Allied vigilance and maritime awareness in the strategically vital Norwegian Sea. The task group, led by flagship HNLMS Van Amstel alongside HMCS St. John's and FGS Hamburg, will strengthen NATO's presence in the region amid increasing operational demands.

Operating in the High North allows SNMG1 to hone its skills in one of the world's most challenging maritime environments while maintaining a strong, visible NATO presence.

Commander of SNMG1, Royal Netherlands Navy Commodore Arjen Warnaar, highlighted the continued importance of regular Allied operations in the region.

"The High North is a very important area of interest for the Alliance," said Commodore Warnaar. "Our second deployment here this year demonstrates NATO's commitment to readiness, cohesion and stability. The cooperation and professionalism of our multinational task group  with units from The Netherlands, Canada and Germany  ensure we remain prepared to operate effectively across the full spectrum of maritime tasks."

During the deployment, the task group will conduct multiple maritime exercises, including anti-submarine warfare, air defence training and flight operations. The group is also integrating with Allied forces by participating in the Norwegian exercise Arctic Advance 2025.

Before heading north, SNMG1 supported the Norwegian Submarine Commanders Course, giving all crews a valuable opportunity to sharpen their Anti-Submarine Warfare skills along the Norwegian coast. Throughout the training, the task group maintained vigilant situational awareness  including the monitoring of international maritime traffic.

SNMG1 is one of four standing NATO maritime groups providing continuous maritime presence and readiness in peacetime, crisis and conflict. Deployments like this contribute to Allied assurance measures, enhance interoperability and demonstrate NATO's ability to operate across the entire North Atlantic, in the Baltic sea and the Arctic approaches.

Story by Public Affairs Office at MARCOM

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Southern Ocean Surveillance Patrols: New Zealand's commitment to upholding Antarctic conservation rules

New Zealand Defence Force

This summer, the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF), in partnership with the Ministry for Primary Industries, will conduct maritime patrols in the Southern Ocean to help protect Antarctic marine ecosystems and economically important fish stocks.

01 December, 2025

The Royal New Zealand Air Force will deploy P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft to the Ross Sea to detect and deter any illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and check compliance of licensed fishers.

Steve Ham, Director of MPI Fisheries Compliance, says these efforts are critical.

"Without monitoring fishing activity in high value fisheries such as this there is a real risk of vessel operators flouting the rules to secure financial advantages over compliant fishers".

The NZDF's Air Component Commander, Air Commodore Andy Scott, said aircrew would track and observe vessels, monitor fishing activity, check compliance, collect evidence of any suspected IUU fishing, and monitor for by-catch of protected species such as seabirds.

"Any suspected breaches identified during patrols are reported to relevant flag state authorities for investigation and appropriate action," he said.

These patrols reinforce New Zealand's commitment to protect the ecologically sensitive Southern Ocean environment, support sustainable fishing practices, and uphold the international rules that govern this region.

New Zealand is an active member of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) - the international body dedicated to safeguarding the unique marine ecosystems in Antarctic waters. Under CCAMLR rules, the Ross Sea fishery which opens on 1 December, is strictly limited to vessels flagged to member nations, operating under approved permits, and in compliance with conservation measures, including agreed catch limits.

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Continue to defend PH sovereignty, rights over WPS - Marcos

Philippine News Agency

By Darryl John Esguerra

December 1, 2025, 1:05 pm

MANILA -- President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Monday underscored the critical role of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in safeguarding the country's sovereign rights amid growing security challenges in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

Addressing 638 graduates of the Major Services Officer Candidate Course at Villamor Air Base in Pasay City, Marcos called on the newly commissioned officers to remain vigilant amid escalating regional tensions.

"We must continue to defend our rights in the West Philippine Sea, where our fishermen and our soldiers stand their ground amidst growing challenges. We will stay vigilant against any attempt to weaken our sovereignty or test our resolve," the President said.

He said global shifts and emerging threats have increased the demands on the AFP, emphasizing the need for a new generation of officers capable of "thinking fast" and "acting smart."

"The world is changing fast. These changes can create new risks for our country... This is why your training will matter even more," he added.

Marcos reiterated the AFP's important role in national security and disaster response, saying their mission goes beyond completing operations.

"Ultimately, it will be about maintaining peace and building a nation," he added.

The graduates, belonging to the Philippine Air Force Kahimdaliyan Class 2025, Philippine Navy Sagmaraya Class 2025, and Philippine Army Bumannawag Class 2025, completed the intensive one-year training program that prepares officers to serve as second lieutenants and ensigns.

The President reaffirmed the government's commitment to AFP modernization, citing ongoing investments in equipment, platforms and defense partnerships with Japan, the United States and Australia.

Marcos awarded the top graduates from the major service classes and presented diplomas to the class presidents during the ceremony. (PNA)

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Top Hezbollah cmdr. vows resistance group won't give up weapons

Iran Press TV

Monday, 01 December 2025 6:22 PM

A senior Hezbollah military commander has vowed that the resistance movement will never lay down its weapons, rejecting disarmament plans as the Israeli enemy's attacks persist in violation of the ceasefire.

Hussein al-Nimr, a high-ranking Hezbollah official in the Beqaa Valley, announced that the movement is not seeking war, but will display a good image of its capabilities and might in case an act of aggression is unleashed against Lebanon.

Highlighting the various forms of pressure that Hezbollah faces, Nimr said enemies threaten to launch land, sea, and air bombardments at one time, and at another make threats of assassination, persecution, and wiretapping.

"Sometimes they threaten to exert political and financial pressures, and on occasions they convey implicit hostile messages through international envoys," the Hezbollah commander said.

Nimr noted that the core issue of proposals submitted to Hezbollah revolves around three points: Disarmament of the resistance group, withdrawal from military positions and full integration into the political process, and abandoning confrontation with the Zionist regime.

He described the conditions as "complete surrender with hands up," emphasizing that such a matter is "totally and categorically rejected."

Israel and Hezbollah struck a ceasefire agreement, which came into effect on November 27, 2024.

Tel Aviv was obligated under the deal to completely withdraw from Lebanese territory. However, it has maintained a military presence at five locations, openly breaching both UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and the provisions of the agreement reached last November.

Since the implementation of the ceasefire, Israel has repeatedly breached the agreement with ongoing assaults on Lebanese territory.

Lebanese authorities have cautioned that breaches of the ceasefire by the Israeli regime pose a risk to the nation's stability.

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ICC president vows resistance to US sanctions amid Gaza genocide investigation

Iran Press TV

Monday, 01 December 2025 3:45 PM

The president of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Tomoko Akane, has vowed the tribunal will not yield to US pressure after Washington imposed sanctions on senior court officials over investigations into Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

"We never accept any kind of pressure from anyone on issues of interpretation of the statutory framework and adjudication of cases," Judge Akane told delegations from the ICC's 125 member states on the first day of the institution's annual meeting on Monday.

Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump sanctioned nine ICC staff members, including six judges and the chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, for pursuing cases involving American and Israeli officials.

Washington is now considering extending sanctions to the court as a whole.

The ICC chief noted that the sanctions, which include asset freeze and exclusion from the US financial system, have unsettled the family lives of targeted officials and disrupted their financial transactions, even in ICC member states in Europe.

Headquartered in The Hague, the ICC drew global attention in November last year when it ruled that there were "reasonable grounds" to conclude that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former war minister Yoav Gallant bear "criminal responsibility" for "systematic war crimes and crimes against humanity" in Gaza.

Israel has so far killed over 70,000 Palestinians since launching the genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, before a ceasefire deal, brokered by the United States, was reached in the besieged strip last October.

Last month, the ICC refused Israel's appeal to rescind arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant. In a statement, the court said Israel's request to appeal the warrants is "not an appealable issue."

The US has previously imposed sanctions on court officials for their role in an investigation into crimes committed in Afghanistan that have been linked to US military actions.

Established in 2002, the ICC operates under a treaty that grants it the jurisdiction to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

Notably, neither Israel nor the US is a member of the court, which recognizes the state of Palestine as a member and asserts jurisdiction over actions in Palestinian territories.

The court has no police force and relies on member states to execute arrest warrants.

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IRGC hosts Shanghai bloc's Sahand-2025 anti-terrorism drill in NW Iran

Iran Press TV

Monday, 01 December 2025 2:11 PM

Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has hosted a major counter-terrorism drill involving various military units from member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the northwestern province of East Azarbaijan.

The extensive exercise, codenamed Sahand-205 and hosted by the IRGC Ground Force, kicked off in the operational area of the Imam Zaman Mechanized Brigade in Shabestar County on Monday, and is scheduled to wrap up on December 5.

Colonel Shahram Askariyan, deputy head of the Public Relations Department of the IRGC Ground Force, said the five-day drill has been organized in accordance with directives from the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Executive Committee of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (SCO-RATS).

He said the counter-terrorism exercise holds special strategic importance as it seeks to enhance regional security cooperation.

Askariyan highlighted Iran's long-standing record in combating terrorism, saying the Islamic Republic has consistently been at the forefront of the fight against terrorist groups.

More than 17,000 Iranian citizens, including women and children, have been killed in terrorist attacks over the past years, he said.

The SCO, which has its headquarters in China, is the world's largest regional organization in terms of area and population.

It has nine member states, namely, Iran, China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

In July 2023, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization officially approved Iran's full-fledged membership in the organization.

The SCO is one of the world's largest regional organizations, accounting for around one-third of the global gross domestic product (GDP), roughly 40 percent of the world's population, and nearly two-thirds of the entire Eurasian landmass.

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Trump confirms phone conversation with Maduro as tensions escalate

Iran Press TV

Monday, 01 December 2025 11:25 AM

US President Donald Trump has confirmed that he held a phone call last week with Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, but declined to provide further details.

"I don't want to comment on that - the answer is yes," Trump told reporters when asked aboard Air Force One -- while he was returning to Washington, DC from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

"I wouldn't say it went well or badly. It was a phone call," Trump said.

"We consider Venezuela to be not a very friendly country. They sent millions of people, and a lot of those people shouldn't be in our countryfrom jails, from gangs, from drug dealers," he said.

Asked whether his recent warning about Venezuelan airspace meant an airstrike is imminent, Trump responded: "Don't read anything into it."

Trump announced on Saturday that Venezuelan airspace would be "completely shut down."

The New York Times reported multiple sources with knowledge of the matter saying the phone call, which included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, included a discussion about a possible meeting between the two men in the United States.

Caracas has mobilized its defensive forces as the US military has deployed a huge presence in the Caribbean aimed at Venezuela.

Trump administration officials claim the goal of the deployment of forces is to deter drug smuggling, but have also made clear that they want to see "regime change" in Venezuela, and Maduro removed from power.

Trump claimed on Thursday that the US will "very soon" take action against Venezuelan drug traffickers on land following 21 military attacks at sea since September that killed at least 83 people.

Maduro has condemned the repeated US threats of using force against Caracas, asserting that Trump's scheme to gain control over Venezuela's vast oil reserves through military force and psychological warfare is doomed to fail.

Speaking at a coffee event in Caracas on Sunday, he assured Venezuelans that the country is "indestructible, untouchable, and unbeatable."

Venezuela on Sunday sought the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its member countries' support to work together against the US aggression, which aims to seize the country's vast oil reserves.

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Palestinian man killed in latest Israeli drone strike on Gaza in breach of ceasefire

Iran Press TV

Monday, 01 December 2025 10:54 AM

A Palestinian man has been killed in an Israeli drone strike near the so-called yellow zone in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood, in breach of the ceasefire agreement between the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas and the occupying regime.

Medical sources in Gaza reported that the young man, Muhammad Nasr Siam, was killed by gunfire from an Israeli drone east of the Zeitoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, on Monday.

The so-called yellow line in Gaza demarcates the area where Israeli forces are permitted to stay as per the ceasefire agreement. This operational boundary, set by the Israeli military, has become a restricted movement zone since the US-brokered ceasefire took effect last month.

Israeli artillery also targeted the eastern part of the Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Israel violates ceasefire deal about 591 times in 50 days

The Gaza Government Media Office said on Sunday that Israel has violated the ceasefire agreement at least 591 times in 50 days, killing hundreds of Palestinians since the truce came into effect on October 10.

It added that some 357 civilians have been killed and 903 others wounded due to the violations, with the majority of the victims being children, women, and the elderly.

The Office condemned "in the strongest terms the continued serious and systematic violations of the ceasefire agreement by the Israeli occupation."

It emphasized that the violations constitute a "flagrant breach of international humanitarian law and the humanitarian protocol" associated with the agreement.

According to the office, Israel fired at civilians 164 times, conducted raids in residential areas beyond the "yellow line" 25 times, bombed and shelled Gaza 280 times, and destroyed properties on 118 occasions.

It added that Israel has also abducted 38 Palestinians from Gaza in 50 days.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 70,100 Palestinians have been killed and more than 170,900 wounded since the start of Israel's genocidal war in October 2023.

Israel has also continued to block vital humanitarian aid and destroy infrastructure across the Strip.

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NATO commander says members must be 'more aggressive' toward Russia

Iran Press TV

Monday, 01 December 2025 9:05 AM

A top commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has said members must be "more aggressive" toward Russia.

In an interview with the Financial Times published on Sunday, Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, who currently serves as Chair of the NATO Military Committee, said member states are studying "proactive" actions against Moscow.

The Italian head of the bloc's military committee said NATO member states were weighing options to respond to what he described as Russia's "hybrid war."

"We are studying everything ... being more aggressive or being proactive instead of reactive is something that we are thinking about," Dragone said.

The admiral also pointed out that a "pre-emptive strike" by NATO's forces could also be considered as a "defensive action," though it would be "further away from our normal way of thinking and behavior."

Eastern European diplomats, according to the report, have been especially vocal about demanding tougher measures and military action against Russia, including retaliatory cyberattacks.

However, the admiral claimed NATO's decision-making process was slow and had been delayed by legal and ethical concerns, as well as jurisdictional issues.

Nonetheless, NATO member states have increased their air patrols in Eastern Europe and the Baltic states since September.

The move was in response to alleged airspace violations linked to Russia.

Russian officials, however, rejected the claims, criticizing US-led Western leaders for warmongering.

NATO members were reportedly considering launching a retaliatory joint cyber offensive targeting Moscow.

Moscow has also rejected claims of hacking any Western institutions, saying that it has already been targeted in numerous cyberattacks, including some by pro-Ukrainian groups.

According to Denis Gonchar, Russia's Ambassador to Belgium, US-led NATO member states are pursuing a "rampant militarization" of the European continent under the pretext of defending themselves against the "non-existent" Russian plan to attack them.

Gonchar said that NATO, "by intimidating its population with the Kremlin's non-existent plans to attack the alliance countries," had begun "preparing for a major war with Russia, as strange as it might seem."

He said that Moscow is not seeking confrontation with other countries, neither in Europe nor in Asia, but instead has been "working with like-minded partners to create a common security architecture in Eurasia."

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Azerbaijan Opposition Leader Ali Karimli Detained Amid Political Crackdown

By RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service December 01, 2025

A court in Baku has ordered pre-trial detention for the leader of Azerbaijan's main opposition Popular Front Party (AXCP), three days after he went missing following a police raid of his apartment.

The Sabail District Court on December 1 remanded Karimli in custody until February 13, 2026, after he was charged with plotting to overthrow President Ilham Aliyev - a crime that carries a potential life sentence, his lawyers report.

Mammad Ibrahim, a member of the party presidium, has also been arrested. Other party officials say their homes have been searched and several colleagues have gone missing.

National Council Chairman Jamil Hasanli said in a post on Facebook that he was summoned for questioning by the State Security Service over an ongoing criminal case against Ramiz Mehdiyev, head of the presidential administration from 1994 to 2019.

Mehdiyev was placed under house arrest in October on various charges, including for an attempt to illegally seize power. The arrests of Karimli and Ibrahim are reportedly tied to that investigation.

The AXCP strongly denies any connection to Mehdiyev, who was a longtime ally of the late President Heydar Aliyev, who led Azerbaijan until shortly before his death in 2003.

"The government understands that they themselves worked with Ramiz Mehdiyev, and this accusation can't be pinned on us," Seymur Hazi, Karimli's deputy, told RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service.

"The purpose of these arrests is clearly to damage Ali Karimli's reputation. Criticizing this government requires risk and bravery -- and society sees those who do it as defenders."

In a statement on November 30, the AXCP condemned what it called a "new large-scale repression campaign launched by the family-based ruling power against national-democratic forces."

Karimli, 60, has been barred from leaving Azerbaijan due to a longstanding refusal by the authorities to issue him an international passport. He also says his Internet connection is completely restricted.

Meanwhile, the whereabouts of Gultakin Hajibeyli, an Azerbaijani activist and member of the National Council's Coordinating Center, remain unclear after she reported being detained in Istanbul on November 28. Pro-government media have suggested she may be deported to Azerbaijan.

Aliyev's Crackdown On Dissent

Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father in 2003 in oil-rich Azerbaijan, has been widely accused of suppressing dissent, jailing journalists, opposition figures, and civil society activists.

Rights activists outside the country have warned that government moves to curb freedoms are being ignored by the international community, making it easier for officials to clamp down on the opposition.

"Inaction by the international community leads to further repression," said Florian Irminger, president of Progress & Change Partnerships and manager of the Campaign to End Repression in Azerbaijan.

The government insists, however, that fundamental freedoms are respected and that no one faces persecution for their political views.

"The president has strong will, global leadership, and the status of the victorious leader," said Zahid Oruj, a pro-government member of parliament.

Media close to the ruling party have recently floated the idea of suspending AXCP and Musavat, another major opposition party.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/azerbaijan-opposition-leader- karimli-detained-political-crackdown/33610071.html

Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Press statement by minister Luminita Odobescu

Romania - Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Date: 01/12/24

Event: Meeting of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Luminita Odobescu with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania, Gabrielius Landsbergis

Dear minister, dear Gabrielius,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation for your invitation to the 2024 Snow Meeting, a highly appreciated annual event. I am looking forward later today to its traditionally insightful and fruitful discussions!

This context offered us also the opportunity for an in-depth bilateral exchange at the beginning of this year.

And this year is of particular importance, as the minister underlined, for our bilateral relations, as Romania and the Republic of Lithuania celebrate the 100th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations.

Therefore, it is an excellent opportunity to take stock of our excellent bilateral relations, effective coordination between the two Foreign Ministries, but also in the EU, NATO and in regional formats such as Bucharest 9 and the Three Seas Initiative.

Today's discussion has been a continuation of our consistent bilateral dialogue at all levels. In this context, I also want to thank the Minister for Lithuania`s support for our accession to Schengen. I also welcomed our mutual resolve to increase efforts for our bilateral economic and sectorial cooperation to reach full potential, thus mirroring the level of our political relations.

I highlighted in our conversation not only the good cooperation on defence, but also I expressed our readiness to step up cooperation in fields such as high technologies, energy security, cyber security, health, education and culture.

We had an in-depth exchange of views on the deteriorating security environment in Europe and beyond. Sadly, we are witnessing a complicated international situation with conflicts and crises, both in our immediate neighbourhood and globally.

I reaffirmed Romania's unwavering commitment to continue its consistent and multidimensional support for Ukraine. We will continue to support Ukraine's fight for its independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty for as long as it takes.

Moreover, allowing Ukraine to achieve its objectives according to its own choosing, rendering justice to the victims, and fighting against impunity, all these remain fundamental objectives not only for Ukraine, but also for us. Peace and justice cannot be decoupled.

Romania's position on negotiations remains firm: Ukraine alone has the political and moral legitimacy to decide if, when, and on what terms it wants to engage with Russia.

I have highlighted Romania's efforts to increase transit capacity for Ukrainian grains and goods, and presented the measures in support of the Ukrainian refugees.

I also pointed out that we must continue focusing on the adoption, implementation and combating the circumvention of sanctions.

I also underlined that the Republic of Moldova is Ukraine's most affected neighbour, as Russia continues its war of aggression in Ukraine and practically its actions are affecting also its vicinity.

Romania will continue to make efforts in providing bilateral assistance to the Republic of Moldova, adapted to the needs of its authorities and citizens. In addition, we are committed to further support the mobilization of international political, financial and technical support for Chisinau. Through coordinated diplomatic cooperation with our partners, we can meet efforts to combat these vulnerabilities and help the Republic of Moldova strengthen its resilience.

We also discussed and had an in-depth exchange of views on the security situation on NATO's Eastern Flank. I have underlined Romania`s appreciation for the results of the NATO Summit in Vilnius, when we took another step towards strengthening NATO's focus on the Black Sea region. Strengthening the Allied presence on the Eastern Flank, in a coherent and unitary manner, from the Baltic to the Black Sea, remains a top priority for the Alliance.

Of course, we exchanged views on our priorities for the upcoming Summit of the Alliance, that will take place in Washington. I mentioned that making the Regional defence plans fully operational is a critical step for our posture and our commitment to ensure defence of every inch of Allied territory.

We also exchanged ideas on the EU agenda for the forthcoming period, also taking into account that we are approaching the end of the legislative cycle and we expect the rhythm of the decision-making process to be accelerated in the first semester. In this context, of course, we have discussed about advancing the EU enlargement process in the light of the historic decision taken at the European Council in December last year. For us, for Romania, and for Lithuania as well, it is important to maintain a positive dynamic of the process based on the quality of the reforms and attachment to the European values of our candidates. And this is equally valid for the Western Balkans candidates and for the Eastern Partners.

So, minister, dear colleagues, thank you very much again for the invitation. I also want to thank you for the very substantial exchange of views, for your openness to deepen our bilateral relation, as well as for our strong coordination on important topics we have on EU and NATO agenda.

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Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General

Department of Public Information . News and Media Division . New York

1 December 2025

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's briefing by Stephane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

** Briefing and Guest

Good afternoon. As a reminder, at 1 p.m., there will be a briefing here by Ambassador Samuel Zbogar, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Slovenia to the United Nations, and he will be here because he will be presiding over the Security Council for the month of December. He will, of course, brief you on the Programme of Work.

Just after I am done with you and you are done with me, we will be joined by our friend Cesar Nunez, who, as you know is the Director of the Joint United Nations Programme against HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Office here in New York. And he is joining us because today is World AIDS Day. He will brief you on the launch of the World AIDS Day report entitled "Overcoming Disruption: Transforming the AIDS Response".

** World AIDS Day

You will hear more, of course, on that topic from our guest, but I did want to flag that in his message for World AIDS Day, the Secretary-General noted major progress, including a 40 per cent drop in new infections since 2010, and significant improvements in treatment access. Yet, he says, millions still lack prevention and care due to inequality and stigma. To end AIDS, Mr. [Antonio] Guterres urges greater investment in prevention, expanding treatment for all and a human rights-based approach.

** Fifth Committee

This morning, the Secretary-General spoke to the General Assembly's Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) and formally introduced the revised estimates report relating to the proposed programme budget for 2026 and the support account for peacekeeping operations for the 2025/26 period. Those revisions take into account initial measures to improve the management and operations of the Secretariat, resulting from the first workstream of the UN80 Initiative, as well as targeted efficiencies and cost reductions to the proposed programme budget for 2026 and the support account for 2025/26.

Overall, for the regular budget, the Secretary-General is proposing to bring the resource requirements for 2026 down to $3.238 billion  that is a reduction of $577 million, or 15.1 per cent, compared to the 2025 appropriation. The proposed staffing table is revised to 11,594 posts  including special political missions  that is a reduction of about 18.8 per cent, compared to the approved staffing table for 2025. The Secretary-General added that the proposed reduction for special political missions compared to 2025 comprises a net decrease of $84.7 million due to the closure of missions, and a net decrease of $64.8 million for continuing missions.

** Ottawa Convention

Today, the Secretary-General also addressed by pre-recorded video message the opening of the twenty-second meeting of the States Parties to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, also known as the Ottawa Convention. He reminded participants that anti-personnel landmines are among the cruellest and most indiscriminate weapons ever created. They kill and the maim long after a conflict has ended. Yet, today, as conflicts rage, some States waver in their commitment, Mr. Guterres said. So, let's be clear, he added: Any weakening of the Ottawa Convention could spark a dangerous race to the bottom, and civilians would pay the highest price.

This twenty-second Meeting of the States Parties must strengthen our resolve to curb these vicious weapons, he added. It must rally new Parties and inspire the compliance of existing Parties. He called on all to recommit to protecting lives, respecting international law and restoring hope to communities threatened by landmines.

** Occupied Palestinian Territory

Turning to the situation in Gaza, our colleagues with the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) tell us that humanitarian conditions remain extremely dire even as aid operations continue across the Strip. Yesterday, the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ramiz Alakbarov, concluded a four-day visit to Gaza, where he met with our partners, visited humanitarian project sites, and spoke to people struggling to cope with already appalling conditions as winter fast approaches. He stressed the importance of unfettered humanitarian access and the need for our NGO partners to be able to bring supplies into Gaza.

Meanwhile, our partners leading the health response report that they continue to restore services across the Strip  with 234 health service points now operational, compared to 197 before the ceasefire. While this is a significant improvement, efforts to expand access to healthcare continue to face challenges due to the lack of critical supplies and the vast destruction of infrastructure during two years of war.

Our partners leading on logistics warn that Salah ad Deen Road remains closed for the movement of humanitarian cargo from Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem crossing, and the Al Rasheed Road and the Philadelphi corridor remain the only available routes. This leads to congestion and exposes any convoy to looting and security risks.

Meanwhile, our partners leading the shelter response warn that needs remain very high  with some 1.5 million people in need of urgent support. We and our partners continue to provide shelter assistance across the Gaza strip. Between Wednesday and Thursday, our partners distributed tents, tarpaulins, bedding and kitchen sets, as well as winter clothing vouchers, to some 4,300 households. That includes 2,500 families in southern Gaza and nearly 1,800 in the north. Our partners were able to reopen 18 out of 31 temporary learning spaces affected by the rainstorms. This has allowed some 8,000 children to resume some form of learning.

Over the weekend, 160 high-performance tents arrived in Gaza for learning activities. This is the highest number of such tents received by our education partners to date. However, they warn that stationery and other education supplies continue to be rejected, hampering efforts to scale up the response. So far, fewer than 3,200 individual learners' kits have been able to enter Gaza. Finally, our partners working on cash assistance say they've completed transfers to 123,000 families since the ceasefire  which is already exceeding the target of 120,000 under the 60-day ceasefire plan.

** Media Seminar

The 2025 United Nations International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East is taking place in Conference Room 6, right now, as we speak. The theme of this year is "Breaking Barriers: Navigating the Dangers and Complexities of Reporting from Gaza and the West Bank". The Secretary-General, in a message to today's seminar, said that journalists in Gaza have been facing the same risks and realities as the people they cover  including displacement, famine and death. Since the appalling attacks on 7 October 2023, more than 260 media workers have been killed in Gaza and in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, making this the deadliest conflict for journalists in decades, the Secretary-General underscored.

He emphasized that the rules of war are clear: Civilians and civilian infrastructure are not to be a target. Journalists must be able to perform their essential work without interference, without intimidation and of course without harm. This includes the unacceptable ban that prevents international journalists from actually entering Gaza freely.

** Sudan

Moving to Sudan, I just wanted to make sure you had seen that Ramtane Lamamra, the Secretary-General's Personal Envoy, is currently in Port Sudan. There, he held meetings with General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the President of the Transitional Sovereign Council of Sudan, as well as with other senior officials, including Kamil Idris, the Transitional Prime Minister, and Mohieldin Salim Ahmed Ibrahim, the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Mr. Lamamra will travel tomorrow to Addis Ababa for further consultations with key stakeholders, including senior African Union and Ethiopian officials. The urgent need for better protection of civilians is at the forefront of all his discussions during these visits.

On the humanitarian front, a bleak picture continues to be painted as needs continue to rise, mainly across the Darfur and Kordofan regions, as well as in Northern and River Nile States. OCHA reports that aid organizations still cannot reach civilians inside El Fasher. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that as of last week, more than 106,000 people had been displaced from the city and surrounding villages since late October. Nearly 80 per cent of those displaced remain in rural villages west and north of the city, without adequate support or safe passage for those wishing to travel onward.

Meanwhile, displacement from North Darfur and the Kordofan region is deepening needs in Northern and River Nile States. Over the weekend, our humanitarian colleagues met with local officials and displaced families who fled to these States. Their assessment showed that these families urgently need shelter and other essential items, as well as health services and water, sanitation and hygiene assistance.

In Northern State alone, local authorities estimate that 7,000 people who sought refuge there in recent weeks are scattered across rural Dabbah, with more than 300 people arriving each and every day. We and our partners are providing primary healthcare, are providing food assistance, safe water and psychosocial support, but funding shortfalls have left critical gaps, including on our ability to provide latrine coverage.

We once again call on all parties to urgently guarantee safe, unhindered humanitarian access and protect civilians, including, of course, aid workers. It is equally vital that donors commit additional resources to reach people in greatest need across Sudan, including support for the local organizations and networks on the front lines of the response.

** Peace Operations

Our colleague Jean-Pierre Lacroix, who as you know is the Head of our Peace Operations Department, is in Algeria today, where he is taking part in the twelfth High-Level Seminar on Peace and Security in Africa. In a tweet on his activities, Mr. Lacroix welcomed Algeria's role in the Security Council and its continued support for peace operations.

Prior to this visit, the Under-Secretary-General wrapped up a four-day visit to the Central African Republic. He said the country is following a positive trajectory with significant progress achieved, giving credit first and foremost to the Central African Republic and its people. During the visit, Mr. Lacroix had meetings with the President of the Central African Republic, the Prime Minister and other senior Government authorities, women's organizations, civil society groups and the diplomatic community.

With elections scheduled for the end of the month, Mr. Lacroix reaffirmed that the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) remains fully committed to supporting the organization of the polls so that they can take place under the best possible conditions. He also noted that challenges remain and that efforts need to continue to protect civilians, to further implement the peace process, including disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of combatants, and also to enhance State authority throughout the territory.

Referring to the peacekeeping liquidity crisis, Mr. Lacroix said the department paid tribute to all mission personnel and to the Special Representative, Valentine Rugwabiza, for the exceptional work they are carrying out, and will continue to carry out, despite constraints and challenging financial circumstances.

** Democratic Republic of the Congo

In the nearby Democratic Republic of the Congo, our United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) said they have assisted the Congolese Army in screening some 9,500 prospective recruits who were seeking to join the Armed Forces at the Kamina military training centre in Haut-Lomami. This took place on 27 and 28 November, and we can tell you that, because of this screening, 25 boys under the age of 18 were identified and separated before they could be formally inducted.

These efforts were first put in place as part of the Action Plan signed in 2012 by the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo with the UN to end the recruitment and use of children in the country's armed forces. The Congolese armed forces completed the measures included in the action plan in 2017. These ongoing screenings to prevent child recruitment reflect the constructive collaboration between the Government, the peacekeeping Mission's Child Protection Section, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Joint Technical Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict in the area of security sector reform.

And also to flag that today, the Ministry of Health in the Democratic Republic of the Congo declared an end of the Ebola outbreak which had been declared in early September in the Kasai Province, and that is good news. The World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners provided technical, operational and financial support to the Government to contain this outbreak. This was the country's sixteenth Ebola outbreak, and needless to say, although the outbreak has been declared over, health authorities are maintaining surveillance to rapidly respond to any re-emergence of the Ebola virus.

** Ukraine

Turning to Europe and Ukraine, our colleagues at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tell us that the city and region of Kyiv were hit by large-scale drone and missile strikes over the weekend, killing and injuring several civilians. Hundreds of residential buildings and other civilian facilities were damaged. Up to 500,000 families in the Kyiv lost electricity, with water and heating services also disrupted. According to a private energy company, power has since been restored to about 590,000 families, and repair is ongoing.

In the city of Dnipro, authorities and aid workers report that an attack this morning also killed and injured civilians. Additional casualties were reported in the regions of Chernihiv, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia. The attacks in these regions also caused widespread damage to civilian infrastructure. For its part, our friends at UNICEF say that 4.6 million children in Ukraine continue to face major disruptions to education as the war enters its fourth academic year.

** Sri Lanka

Turning to Sri Lanka, we are closely following the situation after Cyclone Ditwah made landfall on Friday, bringing heavy rainfall and destruction across the country. The storm triggered widespread flooding and landslides and is believed to be the worst flood in the country's recent history.

Our colleagues on the ground are coordinating closely with Sri Lanka's disaster-management authorities. As of today, the authorities have reported 366 people killed, 367 missing and over 1.1 million people impacted across all 25 districts of the country. More than 215,000 people are sheltering in over 1,500 Government-run safety centres. Initial assessments report over 15,000 homes destroyed and widespread disruptions to infrastructure, including the rail network and the power grid.

The Government is taking the lead in search-and-rescue operations. But, our humanitarian country team is preparing a joint response plan, supported by the OCHA Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. And that team was activated by our Resident Coordinator on the ground, Marc-Andre Franche. The UN in Sri Lanka is rapidly mobilizing to provide immediate and life-saving support, including food, safe drinking water and hygiene and shelter items, as well as maternity and dignity kits. We, along with the national authorities, are carrying out a joint needs assessment so that support reaches all those who need it.

** World's Land Resources

Just to flag a report released today by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that warns that feeding a projected 10 billion people by 2050 will require bold and smarter choices in how the world manages its land, soil and water. The report notes that over the past 60 years, global agricultural production tripled with only an 8 per cent increase in agricultural land, but at high environmental and social costs. According to FAO, today, more than 60 per cent of human-induced land degradation occurs on agricultural land. The report is online.

** New Resident Coordinators

Lastly, a few new UN resident coordinators to welcome. On 30 November, Fatou Aminata Lo Diop of Senegal assumed her post as UN Resident Coordinator in Gabon. She brings over 20 years of experience in the UN, including 12 in leadership roles.

Also, on 30 November, Hanny Cueva-Beteta of Peru took up her role as UN Resident Coordinator in Paraguay. She brings over 15 years of experience within the United Nations at Headquarters, regional and country levels.

And lastly, but not last, on 1 December, which is today, Stefan Priesner of Austria began his assignment as UN Resident Coordinator in India. He brings extensive experience in international development and multidisciplinary programme leadership, having previously served as Resident Coordinator in Iran. That's it for me. Dezhi?

** Questions and Answers

Question : I know I asked you this question several times, but there seems have been another escalation between US and Venezuela, especially President [Donald J.] Trump announced the closing of the airspace of Venezuela. What is the United Nations' position on the latest development?

Spokesman : Our position remains consistent. I mean, we've seen the reports about the airspace, and I can tell you  and it won't surprise you  that we call for the full respect of states' obligations under international law, including the Charter and all other applicable legal frameworks, as well as the use of existing mechanisms to address any issue including these issues peacefully, ensuring the safety and security and connectivity of international civil aviation. I think any other detailed question about the airspace issues should be directed to our friends in Montreal at ICAO [International Civil Aviation Organization].

Question : Can a leader of a country announce the closing of the airspace of another country?

Spokesman : People say what they say. Any issue dealing with airspace and air travel should be dealt with through ICAO. [...] Why not? It's your microphone.

Question : Okay. Still on vacation. Just a quick follow-up to that. Given the UN has staff in Venezuela and whatnot, have you sought any more information from the United States about what the president meant?

Spokesman : Listen, we don't have any further details. Our friends in ICAO are taking the lead on that. Our staff remains in Venezuela. Stefano Vaccara?

Question : It's a follow-up. For the UN, because there is in this case, there is another accident. There has been an article from the Washington Post where basically, it's alleged that the United States military killed some people that should have been saved during bombing one of those boats. So, the question here is, somebody said that this is a war crime, but Venezuela and United States, at least officially, they are not at war. So, what for the UN  a case like this, if they could be proven that this accident really happened, for the UN... is what is it? Is it war crime? Is it homicide? What is this?

Spokesman : I'm not going to get into hypotheticals. We read the article in the Washington Post and subsequent reporting, the contents of which are very troubling indeed. I can tell you that the Secretary-General remains gravely concerned about the strikes on vessels allegedly involved in drug trafficking in the region. I would remind you and refer to what our High Commissioner [for Human Rights] Volker Turk said recently, which he says he found that these strikes may violate international human rights law and called for investigations that are transparent into these attacks.

Question : Thank you, Stephane. So, today, the Chinese ambassador sent another letter to the UN Secretary-General about the argument made by Japan's Permanent Representative to the UN in his recent letter to the SG. And can you confirm that does the SG had have received the letter? And what is his comment on China's response to Japan's letter?

Spokesman : I can't confirm that he's gotten the letter. I'm sure the letter is, if he hasn't received it, it's in the process, and it will be shared with Member States, as these letters are. As we've said before, we're very aware about the rising tensions and continued tensions between the People's Republic of China and Japan, and we want these tensions to be addressed through dialogue in a way to lower the existing tensions. Alex?

Question : Thanks, Steph. Do you have any comments on the attacks on commercial ships in Black Sea?

Spokesman : Yes. I can tell you that our position again remains the same  that we reiterate that attacks against civilians, civilian infrastructure, including energy infrastructure, are prohibited under international law wherever they occur. Again, we all urge de-escalation and reiterate our position, which is consistent, to say the least, in support for an immediate, full and unconditional ceasefire that could pave the way towards a just, lasting, comprehensive peace in Ukraine in line with the Charter, international law and relevant UN resolutions.

Question : You mind if I have one more?

Spokesman : What?

Question : Do you mind if I have one more?

Spokesman : I do not mind.

Question : Any comments on the negotiation process about on Ukraine?

Spokesman : Look, I mean, obviously, I think, it's in an intense phase, right? We hope that it will lead to what we've been calling for, and I think it's important that it continue.

Question : And you still haven't seen the peace plan?

Spokesman : No. All right.

Question : Thank you, Steph. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) issued a report today that shows the world's 100 largest arms export companies hit a record arms sale last year. That's $6.79 billion, and that is driven by conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. So, is the SG concerned about the record sales, arms sales? And does he have any comments on that?

Spokesman : You know, I think the Secretary-General, if I'm not mistaken, sometimes I am, was here not too long ago to talk about this obscene amount of money that is going to weapon sales compared to the struggle that we face every single day trying to fund our humanitarian operations. We understand that Member States need to defend themselves and need for military. But, I think, if you do a compare and contrast of the amount of money that is flowing into that sector as opposed to the amount of money that is being sucked out of the humanitarian and development sectors, it should give us all food for thought. Pam Falk, US News and World Report.

Question : Well, thank you for the introduction, Steph. My question is about the European Union has raised some alarms about Belarus' smuggling balloons going into Lithuania. And as of 45 minutes ago, [Ursula] von der Leyen was saying the situation is terrible and this has to stop. Is there anything the UN says about it?

Spokesman : I had not seen those reports because, 45 minutes ago, I was actually trying preparing to answer... so I could answer your questions here. Obviously, I failed in that. So, let me see what we can get on that.

Question : Okay. Thank you. And just a follow-up on the Ukraine peace plan. Is there any role, given what you've seen about borders being laid out in the peace plan, Ukraine's borders, is there any role the UN can have on talking about those borders or about monitoring borders?

Spokesman : Well, I mean, listen. Let's be clear. As I told Alex a few minutes ago, we have not seen the peace plan. We've obviously read about it, like you, in the media. Obviously, the Secretary-General has always said the UN is willing and ready to support a peace initiative that leads to what I've said probably 1,005 times in this room, right? Which includes the respect for Ukraine's sovereignty within its internationally recognized borders. Lenka?

Question : Thank you, Steph. So, the Russian Ambassador... Russian Ambassador [Vassily A.] Nebenzia, told us that he doesn't think the UN will have any formal role in the Ukraine negotiations. Has anyone else maybe contacted you, like the United States or the Ukrainian delegations was just now in Florida? Maybe they have contacted you in this regard. Thank you.

Spokesman : Look, when we have something official to announce, we will share that with you. But, as I mentioned to Alex, I'm not aware that we've actually officially been shared the peace plan. Like anything, if there's anything, will let you know, Lenka. Let me go to people who haven't asked a question first. Ms. Fasulo?

Question : Thank you, Steph. This is apropos of Yemen. I was just wondering what the current state of affairs is there in regard to detentions?

Spokesman : Sadly, they continue, and we continue to engage with the Houthis in trying to secure the release of our 59 colleagues. I'm going... yes, please go ahead, Nemo.

Question : Thank you, Stephane. A few days ago, during the holidays, armed groups attacked Iraqi Kurdistan's biggest gas refinery and then effectively shutting off 80 per cent of the region's electricity supply. Do you have a statement on that from the Secretary-General?

Spokesman : Well, I mean, as I can tell you, we stand against any attacks on civilian infrastructure, including energy infrastructure, which contravene international law. Yes, go ahead, then I'm going go online.

Question : Thank you, Steph. The United Nations officially kicked off the process of selection of the next Secretary-General last week. So, do you have any idea if any Member States have nominated any candidates?

Spokesman : You know who's not involved in the selection process for the next Secretary-General? The current Secretary-General and his Spokesperson. So, I would encourage you to reach out to my esteemed colleague, LaNeice Collins, who works with the President of General Assembly, who will be able to speak freely on who our next boss will be. I see two gentlemen online. Iftikhar, go ahead.

Question 2: Thank you, Steph. Do you have any rough or preliminary estimate of the damage caused by the cyclone in Sri Lanka?

Spokesman : By the...? The flight?

Correspondent : By the cyclone. Cyclone.

Spokesman : Oh, the cyclone. Yes, I read it out in the beginning. We'll send the notes around. But, it was about 366 [people killed], if I'm not mistaken. But, you'll see it in the notes. I just shared it a few minutes ago. Mr. Klein, I see you, which means you probably have a question for me.

Question : I do indeed. Actually, they're related budgetary questions. First of all, what does the 11,594 posts and Secretary-General's remarks today cover? Given the fact that at least as of 2024, the Secretariat alone had approximately 33,000 employees. So, could you clarify what it is we're talking about to which these reductions were applied?

Spokesman : They reflect posts on the regular budget, not posts on extra-budgetary resources. This is about the regular budget. Some posts in the Secretariat are funded through extra-budgetary means by Member States. This is all about the regular budget. The cuts have impacted every department. I mean, in the Spokesperson's Office alone, we lost two posts. They impacted the Secretary-General's Executive Office and every department in the Secretariat.

Question : So, there were... so just to clarify, there weren't any reductions so far proposed to the balance of the Secretariat's employee roster, even the those funded by voluntary...?

Spokesman : I mean, there's a reduction in posts. So, I don't have the full figures on how many people took up the voluntary, the opportunity to leave voluntarily through so-called buyouts, but the Secretary-General outlined the reduction of posts in the regular budget. We can speak offline to kind of do the math if you want.

Question : Okay. All right. I would appreciate that, or you can send me some figures. But, related, could you tell me or maybe you can send me later, how many UN system employees attended the COP30 [thirtieth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change] conference in person, and how much did this cost the UN?

Spokesman : I would first, would encourage you to talk to our colleagues at UNFCCC [United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change] who provide the secretariat. I don't have an overall figure, but I would start your hunt for numbers with UNFCCC and then come back to us if you are not satisfied.

Question : You don't have a range?

Spokesman : I do not have... my range itself is extremely limited.

Correspondent : Okay. Fair enough. Thank you.

Spokesman : Thank you. Dezhi, then Stefano.

Question : Back-to-back to Venezuela. Venezuela yesterday announced that they have filed a complaint with ICAO, the agency you just mentioned. Has that complaint also been received by the Secretary-General?

Spokesman : I haven't seen it. I can check if we were copied.

Question : But on... what is the standard process...?

Spokesman : It's ICAO. ICAO is an independent specialized agency. For anything having to do with things that fly in the air, planes, that would go to ICAO.

Question : Of course. But, has the Venezuelan mission here had any communication with the Secretariat?

Spokesman : I do not know at this very moment, but I will check.

Question : Thank you, Stephane. After the attack a few days ago in Washington, D.C., of an Afghan national that killed a National Guard and severely wounded another one, President Trump say that he will stop immigration for all the third-world countries, but, also, he will pause forever, use the expression like this, all the refugees from Afghanistan. Now my question is, what does Secretary-General think about it? Because I think there is a Security Council resolution presented by the United States at the time, where actually the Afghani civilians should be accepted at any country, they you know, they try to reach going out of Afghanistan. So, what does the Secretary General...?

Spokesman : A couple of things. First of all, we of course, unequivocally condemn the attack that took place in in Washington. Countries and leaders of countries have a right and responsibility to determine who comes into their country. And I think I would echo what the Office of the [United Nations] Commissioner for Refugees said, which is  and this applies across the board  that no one should scapegoat all communities for the actions of one person. That remains very important. And that Member States have obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention. Okay. On that note, I will leave you with our guest.

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Today's top news: Occupied Palestinian Territory, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Ukraine

UNOCHA - United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Occupied Palestinian Territory

Humanitarian Coordinator visits Gaza, urges unfettered access amid aid scale-up

OCHA reports that humanitarian conditions in Gaza remain extremely dire and aid operations continue across the Strip, with critical supplies - including food, water, medicine and nutrition assistance - delivered each day to people in need.

Yesterday, the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Dr. Ramiz Alakbarov, concluded a four-day visit to Gaza - where he met with partners, visited humanitarian project sites, and spoke with people struggling to cope with already appalling conditions as winter looms.

Dr. Alakbarov thanked the humanitarian community for the ongoing effort to serve people in need despite persistent obstacles. He stressed the importance of unfettered humanitarian access and the need for NGO partners to be able to bring supplies into Gaza.

Meanwhile, partners leading the health response report that they continue to restore services across the Strip - with 234 health service points now operational, compared to 197 before the ceasefire. While this is a significant improvement, efforts to expand access to healthcare continue to face challenges due to the lack of critical equipment and the vast destruction of infrastructure during two years of war.

Partners leading on logistics warn that Salah ad Deen Road remains closed for the movement of humanitarian cargo from Kerem Shalom crossing, and Al Rasheed Road and Philadelphi corridor remain the only available routes. This leads to congestion and exposes convoys to looting and security risks.

Meanwhile, partners leading the shelter response warn that needs remain extremely high - with some 1.5 million people in need of urgent support. The UN and its partners continue to provide shelter assistance across Gaza. Between Wednesday and Thursday, partners distributed tents, tarpaulins, bedding and kitchen sets, as well as winter clothing vouchers, to some 4,300 households, including 2,500 families in southern Gaza and nearly 1,800 in the north. On education, partners were able to reopen 18 out 31 temporary learning spaces affected by the rainstorms. This has allowed some 8,000 children to resume learning.

Over the weekend, 160 high-performance tents arrived in Gaza for learning activities. This is the highest number of such tents received by education partners to date. However, they warn that stationery and other education supplies continue to be rejected, hampering efforts to scale up the response. So far, fewer than 3,200 individual learners' kits have entered Gaza.

Partners working on cash assistance say they have completed transfers to 123,000 families since the ceasefire - already exceeding the target of 120,000 under the 60-day plan.

Sudan

Insecurity, displacement heighten humanitarian needs

OCHA warns that humanitarian needs are rising in Sudan's Darfur and Kordofan regions, as well as across Northern and River Nile states.

Although hostilities have decreased in El Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur, since late October, when the Rapid Support Forces took control of the city, the situation remains highly volatile. Local sources report that insecurity continues to affect civilians, including deadly armed robberies.

OCHA notes that aid organizations still cannot reach civilians inside El Fasher. As of a week ago, more than 106,000 people had been displaced from the city and surrounding villages since late October, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Nearly 80 per cent of those displaced remain in rural villages west and north of the city, without adequate support or safe passage for those wishing to travel onward.

In South Kordofan State, violence continues to drive new displacement. IOM reports that on Friday, more than 1,600 people fled Kortala village in Habila locality due to ongoing hostilities.

Meanwhile, displacement from North Darfur State and the Kordofan region is deepening needs in Northern and River Nile states, where over the weekend, OCHA met local officials and led assessments. Displaced families say they urgently need shelter and other essential items, as well as health services and water, sanitation and hygiene assistance.

In Northern State alone, local authorities estimate that 7,000 people who sought refuge there in recent weeks are scattered across rural Ad Dabah, with more than 300 people arriving each day. The UN and its partners are providing primary healthcare, food assistance, safe water and psychosocial support, but funding shortfalls have left key gaps, including in latrine coverage.

OCHA once again calls on all parties to urgently guarantee safe, unhindered humanitarian access and protect civilians, including aid workers. It is also critical that donors commit additional resources to reach people in greatest need across Sudan, including for the local organizations and networks that remain at the forefront of the response.*

*Donations made to UN Crisis Relief help UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs reach people in Sudan with urgent support.

Sri Lanka

UN mobilizes to support response to Cyclone Ditwah

The UN is closely following the situation in Sri Lanka after Cyclone Ditwah made landfall on Friday, bringing heavy rainfall and destructive winds across the country.

The storm triggered widespread flooding and landslides and is believed to be the worst flood in its recent history.

The UN is coordinating closely with Sri Lanka's disaster management authorities, who as of today report that 366 people have been killed, 367 are missing, and over 1.1 million have been affected across all 25 districts of the country.

The Government is taking the lead in search-and-rescue operations. More than 215,000 people are sheltering in over 1,500 Government-run safety centres.

Initial assessments have found that over 15,000 homes have been destroyed - with widespread disruption to infrastructure, including the rail network and power grid.

The Humanitarian Country Team was activated by the UN Resident Coordinator and is preparing a joint response plan, supported by the OCHA Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.

The UN in Sri Lanka is rapidly mobilizing to provide immediate and life-saving support, including food, safe drinking water and hygiene and shelter items, as well as maternity and dignity kits.

The UN and authorities are carrying out a joint rapid needs assessment so that support reaches those who need it most.

Ukraine

Dozens of casualties reported following latest attacks

OCHA says that attacks and hostilities continued over the weekend and into this morning, resulting in dozens of casualties across Ukraine.

Authorities report that 17 civilians were killed and more than 150 injured, including several children.

The city and region of Kyiv were hit by large-scale drone and missile strikes over the weekend. In the capital, two civilians were killed and 35 injured, while one civilian was killed and 33 others injured across the Kyiv region. Hundreds of residential buildings and other civilian facilities were damaged. Up to 500,000 families in the city of Kyiv lost electricity, with water and heating services also disrupted. According to a private energy company, power has since been restored to about 590,000 families, and repair work is ongoing.

In the city of Dnipro, authorities and aid workers report that an attack this morning killed at least four people and injured more than 20 civilians. Residential areas were also hit, and the office of a national NGO was damaged.

Additional casualties were reported in the regions of Chernihiv, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia. The attacks also caused widespread damage to civilian infrastructure, including energy facilities and a school.

Meanwhile, UNICEF says that 4.6 million children in Ukraine continue to face major disruptions to education as the war enters a fourth academic year. Since February 2022, the UN has verified about 2,800 attacks on schools, including more than 340 this year. National authorities report that more than 4,300 educational institutions have been affected and 400 completely destroyed.

In 2025, humanitarian partners have supported 445,000 schoolchildren and teachers with education services and psychosocial support. Nearly 320,000 children received mental health and psychosocial assistance and psychological first aid in schools. Some 120,000 children received educational kits and equipment for school shelters, and about 80,000 participated in catch-up learning programmes.

Posted on 1 December 2025

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Secretary-General's video message to the Ceremonial Opening of the twenty-second meeting of the States Parties to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (Ottawa Convention)

United Nations Secretary-General

1 December 2025

Geneva, Switzerland

Statements | Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General

Anti-personnel landmines are among the cruellest and most indiscriminate weapons ever created.

They kill and maim long after conflicts end.

And four out of every five victims are civilians - often children.

But in 1997, world leaders met in Ottawa to sign the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention.

There they pledged to protect human life - and vowed that humanitarian norms must never yield to military objectives.

Yet today, as conflicts rage, some States waver in their commitment.

So let's be clear:

Any weakening of the Ottawa Convention could spark a dangerous race to the bottom.

And civilians would pay the highest price.

The Twenty-Second Meeting of States Parties must strengthen our resolve to curb these vicious weapons.

It must rally new Parties and inspire the compliance of existing ones.

We must recommit to protecting lives, respecting international law and restoring hope to communities threatened by landmines.

Let us work together, with urgency and determination, to achieve our vision of a mine-free world.



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Secretary-General's message to the 2025 United Nations International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East

United Nations Secretary-General

1 December 2025

New York, UN

Statements | Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General

Today's dialogue on the dangers and complexities of reporting from the Occupied Palestinian Territory holds tragic relevance. Journalists in Gaza have been facing the same risks and realities as the people they cover - including displacement, famine and death. Since the appalling attacks on 7 October, more than 260 media workers have been killed there, making this the deadliest conflict for journalists in decades.

The rules of war are clear: Civilians and civilian infrastructure are not a target. Journalists must be able to perform their essential work without interference, intimidation or harm. This includes the unacceptable ban that prevents international journalists from accessing Gaza.

The UN is unwavering in its commitment to the only sustainable solution: a credible, irreversible pathway to ending the occupation and to two States, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace and security within their secure and recognized borders on the basis of pre 1967-lines, with Jerusalem as the capital of both States, in line with international law, UN resolutions and other relevant agreements.

Your work as journalists - bearing witness, reporting the facts - is vital in building the informed global consensus required to realize this goal.

May your dialogue today strengthen respect for press freedom and the protection and safety of journalists in the Middle East. And may your work in the months ahead strengthen the foundation for a just and lasting peace.





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USS Gerald R. Ford Arrives in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

US Navy

01 December 2025

ST. THOMAS, U.S. Virgin Islands -- The first-in-class aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), currently deployed in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility, arrived in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, for a scheduled port visit, Dec. 1, 2025.

Gerald R. Ford's visit to St. Thomas is the first port visit since entering U.S. Southern Command in support of Operation Southern Spear, operating under U.S. Fourth Fleet.

"The Sailors in our carrier strike group team have been extremely adaptable, taking our U.S. Southern Command tasking as priority number one and each doing their part to support the defense of our Homeland," said Rear Adm. Paul Lanzilotta, commander of Carrier Strike Group Twelve. "Our port visit in St. Thomas gives us the rest and recuperation we need to continue the mission of upholding law and order across the Western Hemisphere in support of the President's priorities."

The Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group transited the Anegada Passage and entered the Caribbean Sea, Nov. 16, 2025. As part of Joint Task Force Southern Spear, the carrier strike group and additional joint forces, like the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, defeat and dismantle criminal networks that exploit our shared borders and maritime domains.

After departing on deployment from Naval Station Norfolk, June 24, 2025, the carrier strike group conducted multi-domain strike group operations in the Atlantic Ocean before transiting east into the U.S. Sixth Fleet area of operations, sailing above the Arctic Circle and throughout the Mediterranean Sea with multiple Allies and partners, participating in NATO's Neptune Strike 25-2 and 25-3 enhanced vigilance activities, and conducting port calls in Croatia, France, Germany, Norway, and Spain. The force arrived in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility after a westbound transit through the Strait of Gibraltar, Nov. 4, and a transoceanic voyage.

U.S. military forces are deployed to the Caribbean in support of the U.S. Southern Command mission, Department of War-directed operations, and the President's priorities to disrupt illicit drug trafficking and protect the Homeland.

Operation Southern Spear is a Department of War mission to enhance security and stability across the Western Hemisphere by detecting, disrupting, and degrading transnational criminal and illicit maritime networks. This operation enhances maritime domain awareness, supports regional stability, and helps prevent illicit activity from reaching the U.S. Homeland. These efforts reflect the Department's commitment to maintaining a safe, stable, and secure hemisphere.

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China Coast Guard lawfully drives away Japanese vessel from Diaoyu Dao territorial waters

Global Times

By Global Times Published: Dec 02, 2025 09:17 AM

On Tuesday, a Japanese fishing boat illegally entered the territorial waters of China's Diaoyu Dao. China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels took necessary law enforcement measures in accordance with the law and warned the boat to leave, said CCG spokesperson Liu Dejun.

He said the Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated islets are China's inherent territory and urged the Japanese side to immediately stop all acts of infringement and provocation in these waters.

The CCG will continue to carry out law enforcement operations in the Diaoyu Dao area and will firmly safeguard China's national territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, Liu said.

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Chinese FM refutes Japan's so-called documents on Diaoyu Dao sovereignty, saying its illegal claims untenable

Global Times

By Global Times Published: Dec 01, 2025 04:31 PM

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian stated at Monday's regular press conference that the Diaoyu Dao and their affiliated islands are China's inherent territory since ancient times. The historical context and legal basis for China's sovereignty over the Diaoyu Dao are clear and well-established.

These remarks were made in response to a media inquiry over the Japanese government's addition of three so-called "historical documents proving the Diaoyu Dao's sovereignty" at the "National Museum of Territory and Sovereignty" in Tokyo in an attempt to justify its illegal claim over the Diaoyu Dao.

Evidence on this matter  including diplomatic archives, maps, and articles by historians within Japan itself  is abundant. Japan went to great lengths to collect selective and unconvincing so-called historical materials, which only underscores the fact that its illegal claims are fundamentally untenable, said the spokesperson.

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Trump's remarks on Venezuelan airspace closure spark wide condemnation

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 09:16, December 02, 2025

BEIJING, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump's remarks on the closure of Venezuelan airspace have sparked condemnation wide for endangering global air travel security, regional stability and peace.

Trump said in a post on social media Saturday that the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela should be considered to be closed "in its entirety." His remarks came after Washington had strengthened its military buildup in the Caribbean Sea on the grounds of "fighting drug trafficking."

Amid escalating tensions between the two countries, Trump confirmed on Sunday a phone call with his Venezuelan counterpart, without revealing any details of their conversation.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who had denied any involvement in drug dealing, sent a letter to Haitham Al Ghaism, secretary general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, warning that the U.S. military threat in the Caribbean could jeopardize global energy market stability.

Venezuela, claiming that Washington has been seeking regime change in the South American country and the control of its vast oil reserves, vowed in a government statement on Saturday to respond with legality and dignity.

President of Venezuela's National Assembly Jorge Rodriguez said on state television Sunday that they would form a special commission to investigate the U.S. military's deadly attacks on the alleged "drug trafficking boats" off the Venezuelan coast and in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Trump's latest remarks, the recent U.S. military buildup and attacks on these boats in the Caribbean have raised concern and ignited criticism from regional governments for potential risks to peace and stability.

The Colombian foreign ministry said in a statement that the U.S. move to close Venezuelan airspace is creating "unnecessary tension" and undermining Latin America's stability.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro urged Trump to "go back to respecting the international legal order" in a post on social media on Sunday.

Petro also called on Latin American countries to demand respect for regional sovereignty, stressing that only Venezuelans have the right to choose their government.

On Saturday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez warned of "persistent electromagnetic interference" caused by the United States in the Caribbean region, particularly affecting Venezuela's airspace.

"It is part of an escalation of military aggression and psychological warfare" against the Venezuelan territory, aiming to "forcibly overthrow the legitimate government" of Venezuela and endangering stability across the Caribbean, said Rodriguez.

Political and social organizations in the Dominican Republic, including the left-wing Broad Front party, issued a joint statement on Sunday, slamming Washington for closing the Venezuelan airspace, turning the Caribbean into a venue for its military experiment, and harming the safety of air travel and people's lives.

Trump's statement is a blatant violation of international norms and fundamental rules of international law, including those governing international air transport, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement on Sunday.

He denounced the move as an "arbitrary act and an unprecedented threat" to the safety and security of international aviation.

Since early September, the United States has carried out more than 20 military strikes on alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing over 80 people. Its military presence was further enhanced in mid-November with the deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford, a major aircraft carrier, to a level unseen in at least three decades.

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Manned spacecraft system chief designer discloses Shenzhou-20 porthole crack details: report

Global Times

By Global Times Published: Dec 01, 2025 01:14 PM

It was a crack - measuring less than 1 millimeter - that went through all the way on the porthole of the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft reentry module, and the most likely cause of the crack was space debris, Jia Shijin, chief designer of the manned spacecraft system, with the China Academy of Spacecraft Technology under the state-owned space giant China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), revealed details of the space emergency response of Shenzhou-20 spaceflight mission in an recent interview with the China Central Television (CCTV.)

The three astronauts of China's Shenzhou-20 mission landed safely on Earth aboard the Shenzhou-21 spacecraft on November 14, marking the first successful implementation of an alternative return procedure in the country's space station program history.

And on November 25, China launched the Shenzhou-22 spacecraft from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China, marking the first emergency launch mission in the country's manned space program.

On November 5, the return mission of Shenzhou-20 was hit with an emergency pause button. During a routine inspection of the spacecraft's reentry module the day before the planned return, the crew discovered a localized anomaly at the edge of the porthole. Jia received the on-site photos immediately after the astronauts reported this sudden situation.

At that time, it was not called a "crack" yet, Jia told the CCTV. "There was just a triangular mark, size of which was not very big. After an initial review of the downloaded images, it proved difficult to identify what exactly they depicted. It looked as if some kind of paint or lacquer sticking on top of it."

According to the CCTV report, the Shenzhou-20 crew took pictures of the mark from different angles and under different light conditions, and they also used the camera attached to the space station robotic arm to take pictures from outside of the cabin.

After the images were sent back to Earth, the ground system organized domestic experts on glass materials to study and evaluate such damage, according to the report.

First of all, we had to make a judgement on whether it was a crack. And if it was a crack, is it a through one or just a surface one. Finally, we reached a consensus that it was a through crack - the entire glass has been fully penetrated from its inner surface to its outer surface, the chief designer said.

We were astonished and could not even believe it. The probability of our spacecraft being hit is already extremely low  let alone the porthole, which is even more unlikely, Jia said.

According to the CCTV report, the spacecraft's porthole features a three-layer structure, with the outermost layer serving as a thermal protection shield. During reentry into the atmosphere, the porthole endures frictional temperatures exceeding 1,000 C, and the thermal protection shield acts as the first line of defense. This crack has essentially created a breach in the safety system, said the report.

Within 12 hours after determining the crack, the mission command decided to postpone the return.

Next, a most important task facing the project is to conduct a safety assessment of this crack, reviewing the entire development and production process of the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft's porthole, including test data, photos and all related materials, Jia stated.

After thorough review, we have even greater confidence in our product, its original design philosophy, the design solution, or the ground-based test and verification work we had conducted, Jia said. The most likely cause of this crack is space debris, because this glass has extremely high hardness and is also very thick.

When we conducted ground tests trying to simulate a crack in the glass, ordinary tools couldn't produce one at all, and we had to use a hammer, he said.

Jia revealed that our preliminary judgment is that the space debris was smaller than 1 millimeter in size, but its speed was extremely high.

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Reforming Defence capability development and delivery

The Hon Richard Marles MP

Deputy Prime Minister

Minister for Defence

1 December 2025

The Albanese Government is taking the next significant step towards ensuring Defence delivers the capabilities, skills and workforce it needs to meet Australia's strategic circumstances. These reforms will include the establishment of a dedicated agency designed to strengthen and streamline acquisition and sustainment activities.

Since May 2022, the Government has provided the biggest increase in defence spending in Australia's peacetime history, with what is now an additional $70 billion over the next decade. This includes record spending on acquisition and sustainment.

With this record funding comes the need to ensure that Defence continues to demonstrate value for money.

Once fully established, the new Defence Delivery Agency will integrate three existing Defence capability delivery groups: Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group; Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Group; and Naval Shipbuilding and Sustainment Group. The agency will report directly to Ministers and have control over its budget, enabling coordinated and holistic delivery of defence capability and growing our sovereign defence industrial base.

The Government will appoint a National Armaments Director to lead the new agency, who will be responsible for providing advice to the Government on acquisition strategies and the delivery of acquisition and sustainment projects following Government approval.

In parallel, Defence will also centralise capability development functions to support clearer prioritisation, streamlined decision-making and accountability for new capability proposals to ensure capabilities support an integrated, focused Australian Defence Force.

These reforms will support greater project and budget management, cost estimation and assurance right across the life of a project.

Work to implement these reforms, including work to design and develop the Defence Delivery Agency, will begin immediately and include consultation with relevant stakeholders, including industry.

These reforms build on a series of targeted improvements already delivered by the Albanese Government, to ensure the ADF has the capabilities it needs to safeguard Australia and its interests.

Quotes attributable to the Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles:

"As the Albanese Government makes the biggest ever peacetime investment in Defence, it is important that we put in place the structures and systems to ensure Australia's Defence Force can deliver the capabilities we need at speed and within budget.

"The establishment of the Defence Delivery Agency will elevate the professionalism and strategic focus of Defence capability acquisition and sustainment. It will drive stronger contestability, more accurate cost estimation, and clearer accountability for the delivery of major projects."

Quotes attributable to Minister for Defence Industry, Pat Conroy:

"The increasing complexity of Defence capabilities, systems and platforms requires a systematic rethink of the capability development and delivery system. This is about setting Defence up for success so we can modernise the ADF in line with the National Defence Strategy, while ensuring we spend taxpayers' money wisely.

"The new agency will help ensure our industrial base is resilient, innovative and aligned with our strategic priorities. It will create more opportunities for Australian businesses and workers to contribute to Australia's national security."

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Xi extends congratulations on 50th founding anniversary of Lao People's Democratic Republic

Xinhua) 13:04, December 02, 2025

BEIJING, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday sent a congratulatory message to Thongloun Sisoulith, general secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) Central Committee and Lao president, on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said the LPRP has united and led the Lao people in persevering through hardships and forging ahead, and achieved gratifying results in the cause of reforms and opening-up, with people's livelihoods continuously improving and the country's international and regional influence significantly enhanced.

As comrades and brothers, China is sincerely pleased with those progress, Xi added.

The Chinese side is firmly convinced that Laos will continue on a socialist path suited to its national conditions, ensure the successful convening of the upcoming 12th National Congress of the LPRP, and continuously open up new prospects for the cause of party and state development, Xi added.

Xi noted that Thongloun paid a successful visit to China in September, during which they reached new strategic consensus on deepening the building of the China-Laos community with a shared future.

China has always regarded Laos as a priority in its neighborhood diplomacy and stands ready to work with Laos to take the 65th anniversary of diplomatic ties in the next year as an opportunity to carry forward traditional friendship, strengthen solidarity and cooperation, as well as deepen and substantiate the China-Laos comprehensive strategic cooperation in the new era, to bring more benefits to the two peoples and make greater contributions to peace and development in the region and the world, he said.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Product of Concern Summit for Collins class sustainment

The Hon Richard Marles MP

Deputy Prime Minister

Minister for Defence

1 December 2025

The Australian Government today convened the third Product of Concern Summit in Canberra, reaffirming its commitment to improving the sustainment performance of Australia's Collins class submarines.

Minister for Defence Industry, the Hon Pat Conroy MP led the summit alongside Minister for Finance, Senator the Hon Katy Gallagher, and senior representatives from government and industry.

This summit builds on progress made since Collins class sustainment was listed as a Product of Concern in December 2024. Defence and ASC Pty Ltd continue to work collaboratively under the Australian Submarine Enterprise to implement a comprehensive remediation plan.

Key achievements to date include workforce initiatives and productivity enhancements. These efforts are critical to ensuring the Collins class remains among the world's most capable conventionally powered submarines.

The Product of Concern framework has proven effective in driving accountability and collaboration across government and industry.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Defence Industry, Pat Conroy MP:

"These summits bring together government, industry and Defence officials to collaborate and agree on plans to improve the sustainment performance of Collins class submarines."

"Regular Product of Concern summits ensure that Defence and industry officials are coming together to improve capability delivery for the Australian Defence Force.

"These efforts are critical to ensuring the Collins class remain among the world's most capable conventionally powered submarines."

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The last run of the Armidales

By Lieutenant Commander Anthony Martin

1 December 2025

Sailing into Darwin Harbour on a sunny day with smooth seas, the last of the Armidale-class patrol boats - HMA Ships Albany, Bathurst and Childers - made a final group entry into the basin at HMAS Coonawarra.

Captain Ross Upton, the patrol boat capability manager representative, was there to meet the three vessels and mark this final milestone.

"For 20 years, the Armidale-class patrol boats have made a critical contribution to the security of our maritime approaches and the protection of our national interests," he said.

Childers had recently returned from an Operation Resolute patrol and both Albany and Bathurst were returning from deployments to the south-west Pacific, conducting regional engagement.

"The Armidale-class patrol boats and their officers and sailors have provided outstanding service to our nation, frequently in challenging circumstances and conditions," Captain Upton said.

The Armidale-class were built by Austal at Henderson in Western Australia, with all 14 ships commissioning between 2005 and 2008.

The Armidale-class patrol boats served valiantly, protecting Australia's borders and promoting maritime security with our regional friends and partners. They have ventured into South-East Asia, across the Indian Ocean to the Cocos and Christmas Islands, and into the South Pacific to show the flag.

"All who have served in this class can be very proud of their achievements," Captain Upton said.

All three ships will hold their decommissioning ceremonies in early December at Coonawarra.

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Cutting-edge drone tech expands patrol boat reach

1 December 2025

The Royal Australian Navy has marked a significant milestone in maritime innovation with the successful first-of-class trials of the Edge 130 tri-copter drone on HMAS Cape Pillar.

Conducted throughout September in Darwin Harbour and surrounding littoral zones, the trials represent a leap forward in the operational capability of minor war vessels.

Weighing just 1.2 kilograms, the Edge 130 drone offers unmatched agility and endurance. Capable of beyond visual line-of-sight operations, its modular design supports a range of optics and sensors. Its lightweight lithium-ion batteries can be swapped in seconds, minimising downtime and maximising patrol efficiency.

Commanding Officer Cape Pillar Lieutenant Commander Ben Couch led the integration effort, supported by drone pilots Petty Officer Russel 'Rusty' Lamont and Able Seaman Janu Phillips.

The trials began with remote pilot training and onboard materiel integration, followed by the development of standard operating procedures and rigorous alongside testing at HMAS Coonawarra.

The uncrewed systems proved their worth during underway trials in Darwin Harbour, supported by naval aviation experts from the Maritime Warfare Centre. Flying under Flag Foxtrot, meaning Cape Pillar is operating fixed-wing aircraft, the drones conducted successful sorties over complex terrain, including mangroves and shallow waters where traditional patrol methods pose risks to personnel and vessels.

The trials culminated in a dramatic aerial photoshoot near Charles Point, showcasing the drone's stability and imaging capability in offshore conditions. One standout image captured a line abreast formation of HMA Ships Cape Pillar, Albany and Cape Woolamai - a testament to the drone's operational value.

"The Edge 130 drones allow us to exploit the air domain in ways previously unavailable to minor war vessels," Lieutenant Commander Couch said.

"This capability enhances our ability to patrol Australia's northern approaches with greater safety, speed and precision."

The successful integration of the Edge 130 drones sets a new benchmark for uncrewed systems in the Navy and lays the foundation for future drone operations across the fleet.

Since their introduction into service, the uncrewed aerial systems have been deployed on board Cape Pillar to support Joint Task Force 639, clearing dense mangroves of illegal fishing incursions.

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Secretary Rubio's Call with German Foreign Minister Wadephul

US Department of State

Readout

Office of the Spokesperson

December 1, 2025

The below is attributable to Principal Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott:

Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke today with German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul. The Secretary and the Foreign Minister discussed ongoing efforts to facilitate an end to the war in Ukraine. The Secretary reaffirmed the United States' goals are to end the conflict as soon as possible and achieve a lasting peace.

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IRGC hosts SCO member states' Sahand-2025 anti-terrorism exercise

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Dec 1, 2025

Tehran, IRNA -- The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps' (IRGC) Ground Forces are hosting a significant anti-terrorism exercise titled Sahand-2025 in East Azarbaijan Province, northwest Iran, which is also participated by member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Colonel Shahram Asgari, deputy head of Public Relations Department of the IRGC Ground Forces, announced on Monday that the Sahand-2025 exercise has been designed in accordance with directives from the General Staff of the Armed Forces, in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Executive Committee of Shanghai Cooperation Organization Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (SCO-RATS).

He emphasized the strategic importance of this exercise in enhancing regional security cooperation.

Colonel Asgari highlighted Iran's longstanding commitment to combating terrorism, noting that the country has been a central figure in the fight against terrorist groups.

He pointed out that over 17,000 Iranian citizens, including women and children, have fallen victim to terrorist attacks over the past decades.

The exercise commenced on December 1 and will last for five days at the military operations area (MOA) in Shabestar County.

The exercise is expected to strengthen international cooperation against terrorism and enhance the capabilities of participating nations in addressing security challenges in the region.

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IRGC seizes foreign ship smuggling fuel from Iran in Persian Gulf

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Dec 1, 2025

Bushehr, IRNA -- The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has seized an Eswatini-flagged ship carrying smuggled fuel in the Persian Gulf.

Heidar Honarian-Mojjard, commander of IRGC Navy's Second Naval Zone, told reporters on Sunday that the vessel, carrying 350,000 liters of smuggled gasoline, was identified and transferred to the coast of Bushehr Province under a judicial order.

He said the vessel had been smuggling fuel from Iran, adding that the seized cargo was returned to the country under a judicial decree and handed over to the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company's department in Bushehr.

The commander did not specify the total number of people on board the vessel. He said 13 of the sailors were Indian nationals and another was from a neighboring country of Iran.

All 14 individuals were detained, he added.

4194**7129

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Japan-Iran Foreign Ministers' Telephone Talk

Ministry of Foregn Affairs of Japan

December 1, 2025

On December 1st, commencing from around 5:15 p.m. (Japan Time) for approximately 30 minutes, Mr. MOTEGI Toshimitsu, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, held a telephone talk with H.E. Dr. Seyyed Abbas ARAGHCHI, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The overview is as follows.

At the outset, Minister Araghchi offered his congratulations once again to Minister MOTEGI on his appointment as Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Minister MOTEGI expressed his gratitude. Minister MOTEGI emphasized the importance of the early resumption of talks between the United States and Iran toward a resolution of Iran's nuclear issue through dialogue, and urged Iran to immediately resume full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In response, Minister Araghchi explained the position of Iran. Both Ministers affirmed to continue close communication at various levels between Japan and Iran for the peace and stability of the region.

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Iran may replace Russian contractor in Sirik power plant project

Iran Press TV

Monday, 01 December 2025 7:40 PM

Iran is considering replacing a Russian contractor selected to build a major power plant in the country's south.

A report published Monday by the semi-official ISNA news agency said Iranian engineering conglomerate MAPNA may take over from Russia's Technopromexport in the construction of the Sirik power plant on the Persian Gulf coast.

The report quoted MAPNA's head of public relations as saying that Iran's Thermal Power Plants Holding Company (TPPH) is reviewing the option of assigning the project to MAPNA.

Ehsan Aghaee said Technopromexport had failed to meet its obligations for the Sirik project despite repeated efforts by the Iranian government to urge the company to begin work on what he described as a "nationally important project."

Aghaee added that MAPNA is prepared to start construction immediately if awarded the contract by the TPPH. However, he said that replacing Technopromexport would require Iran and Russia to first resolve outstanding financial matters related to the project.

Iran signed a memorandum of understanding with Russia in August 2016 to build the 1,400-megawatt Sirik power plant in the southern province of Hormozgan. Russia had pledged up to 1.4 billion in financing for the project.

The power plant is one of several major energy and transportation ventures in Iran to which Russia has committed investment and technical support.

On Sunday, Iranian media reported that the CEO of Russia's Caspian Service, a firm tasked with constructing a strategic railway in northern Iran, was in Tehran to finalize preparations for a contract signing.

The reports said that Iran and Russia are expected to conclude a 1.6 billion agreement for the Rasht-Astara railway in Moscow in the coming weeks.

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Araghchi: US must regain Iran's trust to restore diplomacy

Iran Press TV

Monday, 01 December 2025 2:30 PM

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says it is the United States that must return to diplomacy with the Islamic Republic by regaining its trust.

During a phone conversation on Monday, Araghchi and Japan's Minister for Foreign Affairs Motegi Toshimitsu discussed the latest developments in bilateral relations and international issues.

The Iranian minister informed his Japanese counterpart on Tehran's stance regarding its peaceful nuclear program and the moves by the United States and European troika - Britain, France, and Germany - in this regard.

Iran had held five rounds of talks on a replacement for the 2015 nuclear deal before the US-Israeli airstrikes on the country and its nuclear facilities in mid-June.

The United States and its European allies have repeatedly called for any future agreement to address not only Iran's nuclear activities but also its ballistic missile program. Tehran has consistently rejected that demand, insisting its military capabilities are non-negotiable.

On August 28, the European trio invoked the "snapback" mechanism to restore UN sanctions, further complicating diplomacy to resolve tensions.

Araghchi also offered his congratulations once again to Motegi on his appointment as Japan's foreign minister and expressed hope that Tehran and Tokyo would continue close and effective cooperation, given the history of constructive mutual ties.

The Japanese foreign minister, for his part, reiterated his country's commitment to playing a constructive role in promoting peace and stability in West Asia.

Motegi said Japan supports political initiatives to resolve international issues.

According to a press release by Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Motegi emphasized the need for the resumption of talks between the United States and Iran toward a resolution of Iran's nuclear issue.

He called on Iran to immediately resume full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

On September 9, the Iranian foreign minister and IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi reached an agreement on practical modalities to resume cooperation after a meeting in the Egyptian capital of Cairo.

It came after the Iranian Parliament unanimously passed legislation requiring the administration to suspend all cooperation with the IAEA following the Israeli-US aggression against three nuclear sites in a grave violation of the United Nations Charter, international law, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

However, the IAEA's Board of Governors narrowly approved an anti-Iran resolution on November 20, prompting Tehran to declare the Cairo agreement null and void.

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Drone Challenge at Borders Moving Toward Solution - Technological Breakthrough in Enemy Drone Detection Achieved

Israel Ministry of Defense

1/12/2025

These remarks were delivered by Brig. Gen. Benny Aminov, Head of the Israel Ministry of Defense (IMOD) Directorate of Defense Research & Development (DDR&D)'s Military R&D Unit, at the International DefenseTech Summit led by the IMOD's DDR&D, in collaboration with the Yuval Ne'eman workshop for Science, Technology & Security at Tel Aviv University at Tel Aviv University.

Brig. Gen. Aminov further stated: "The drone challenge at our borders is moving toward a solution. In recent weeks, we have achieved a technological breakthrough in enemy drone detection, and we are now working on interception solutions using drone-based systems that enable response to swarm scenarios while accelerating the development of new directed-energy weapons.

"The issue of low-altitude threats is an example of a challenge that requires our defense establishment to fundamentally change its operational approach - responding within compressed timeframes, spiral development, accelerating testing during the development process, and bridging small defense-tech companies with major defense contractors.

"Or enemies continue to evolve in this learning competition. This drives us to develop robust solutions, and it is here that directed-energy weapons demonstrate their unique strength. Their distinctive characteristics enable us to address even the unknown unknowns - threats we don't yet know we face."

Drawing lessons from Israel's ongoing military operations and real-world scenarios, the International DefenseTech Summit showcases cutting-edge advances in emerging technologies that are shaping the future of global security.

Key participants include: Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amir Baram, IMOD Director General; Brig. Gen. (Res.) Dr. Daniel Gold, Head of the DDR&D; Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Prof. Isaac Ben-Israel, Conference Chairman and Director of the Blavatnik ICRC at Tel Aviv University; Brig. Gen. Benny Aminov, Head of the DDR&D's Military R&D unit; Avi Berger, Head of the DDR&D's Space Program Office; Maj. Gen. (Res.) Nitzan Alon, Managing Partner at Elements Venture Capital; Michael Dodd, U.S. Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies and Acting Deputy Director of the Defense Innovation Unit; Dame Fiona Murray, Associate Dean of Innovation at MIT School of Management; Shaun Maguire, Partner at Sequoia Capital; Dr. Christian Steinborn, Head of Business Development Start-Up Activities at Rheinmetall AG; Francois Chopard, CEO & Founder of Starburst; and many other senior officials from Israel and worldwide.

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Israel MOD and Tel Aviv University Open International DefenseTech Summit: "Israel Evolved Into a True 'Defense-Tech Nation' - We are Developing Next-Generation Technologies for Future Confrontations With Iran"

Israel Ministry of Defense

1/12/2025

These remarks were delivered by Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amir Baram, Director General of the Israel Ministry of Defense (IMOD), as he opened the second International DefenseTech Summit this morning (Monday), led by the IMOD's Directorate of Defense Research & Development (DDR&D), in collaboration with the Blavatnik Cyber Research Center at Tel Aviv University. The summit, taking place over the coming days, focuses on technological innovation in light of lessons learned from the recent war.

In his remarks, Director General Baram addressed Israel's uniqueness in advanced defense technologies and noted: "For years, Israel was known worldwide as a 'Cyber Nation.' Today, we have evolved into a true 'Defense-Tech Nation.' Our innovation portfolio now spans the full spectrum of advanced capabilities: Aerial Defense Systems, Unmanned Vehicles, Electronic Warfare, Quantum-Resistant Communications, Intelligence and Surveillance Systems, Cyber Defense, and Space Technologies. In 2024 alone, we signed 21 Government-to-Government agreements worth billions, and the Ministry invested 1.2 billion shekels in startups alone. Of the 300+ startups working with the DDR&D, remarkably, over 130 joined operations during this war. Tel Aviv now ranks as the world's third leading Defense-Tech hub. Israel's major defense companies have secured significant international contracts across Europe, Asia, and North America. Small and mid-sized companies have achieved remarkable growth, with contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars each."

Addressing Israel's geopolitical and security situation, he stated: "All fronts are still open, and our enemies are learning and preparing. This transitional period brings uncertainty and risks, but also significant strategic opportunities for those who understand the moment. Reality never stands still, both in strategy and in technology, and anyone who fails to adapt is eventually left behind. We are deeply engaged in developing next-generation breakthrough technologies for potential future confrontations with Iran, in both defensive and offensive capabilities, while advancing additional operational capacities. Today, as we gather here, Israeli defense technologies are protecting lives worldwide. This is not just talk; it is reality. In Israel, necessity has created something distinctive: an innovative Defense-Tech Ecosystem that only a few are able to replicate, born from existential security challenges and shaped over decades of operational experience. Direct feedback loops connect the frontline, engineers, and industry partners - creating a robust chain from battlefield needs to deployed solutions. These are combat-proven systems. This is what Defense-Tech means in Israel."

Drawing lessons from Israel's ongoing military operations and real-world scenarios, the International DefenseTech Summit showcases cutting-edge advances in emerging technologies that are shaping the future of global security.

Key participants include: Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amir Baram, IMOD Director General; Brig. Gen. (Res.) Dr. Daniel Gold, Head of the DDR&D; Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Prof. Isaac Ben-Israel, Conference Chairman and Director of the Blavatnik ICRC at Tel Aviv University; Brig. Gen. Benny Aminov, Head of the DDR&D's Military R&D unit; Avi Berger, Head of the DDR&D's Space Program Office; Maj. Gen. (Res.) Nitzan Alon, Managing Partner at Elements Venture Capital; Michael Dodd, U.S. Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies and Acting Deputy Director of the Defense Innovation Unit; Dame Fiona Murray, Associate Dean of Innovation at MIT School of Management; Shaun Maguire, Partner at Sequoia Capital; Dr. Christian Steinborn, Head of Business Development Start-Up Activities at Rheinmetall AG; Francois Chopard, CEO & Founder of Starburst; and many other senior officials from Israel and worldwide.

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PM Netanyahu Speaks with US President Donald Trump

Israel - Prime Minister's Office

Type: Media Statements

Government: The 37th Government

Publish Date: 01.12.2025

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this evening spoke with US President Donald Trump.

The two leaders stressed the importance and obligation of disarming Hamas and demilitarizing the Gaza Strip, and discussed expanding the peace agreements.

US President Trump invited Prime Minister Netanyahu to a meeting at the White House in the near future.

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Netanyahu appears in court after seeking pardon in corruption trial

Iran Press TV

Monday, 01 December 2025 4:42 PM

The Israeli regime's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, appeared in court for the first time since requesting a presidential pardon in his ongoing corruption trial.

According to Israeli Channel 12, the trial session commenced on Monday without the judges addressing the pardon request.

Netanyahu requested that his court appearance on Tuesday be canceled, citing "diplomatic and security schedules." The judges said they would consider this request.

Netanyahu has repeatedly sought to shorten or cancel his court sessions, claiming that they interfere with his management of Israel's two-year genocidal war in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Outside the Tel Aviv court, demonstrators gathered, some in orange prison-style jumpsuits, demanding that Netanyahu be imprisoned.

The protesters expressed outrage over his pardon request without an admission of guilt or accountability.

In a letter to Israeli President Isaac Herzog released on Sunday, Netanyahu's lawyers argued that frequent court appearances impede his ability to govern Israel, suggesting that a pardon would benefit the regime.

This request has polarized public opinion, with many opposing a pardon unless Netanyahu admits guilt and withdraws from political life.

Allies from Netanyahu's right-wing coalition support the request, which surfaced two weeks after a similar appeal by US President Donald Trump.

Opposition politicians argue that any pardon should depend on Netanyahu retiring from politics and admitting guilt, while others insist he must call elections, due by October 2026, before seeking a pardon.

Naftali Bennett, a former prime minister, said he would back ending the trial if Netanyahu agrees to step back from politics "to pull Israel out of this chaos."

Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, was indicted in 2019 on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust following extensive investigations.

His trial began in 2020, marking him as the first sitting Israeli prime minister to testify as a criminal defendant in the regime's history. He faces three separate corruption cases.

The Israeli premier also faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, with the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for him and former war minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024 over atrocities in Gaza, where more than 70,000 people, mostly women and children, have been killed since October 2023.

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Israeli general warns army facing 'worst manpower crisis in its history'

Iran Press TV

Monday, 01 December 2025 7:37 AM

Israeli reserve general and military analyst Itzhak Brik has warned that the regime's army is wrestling with "the worst manpower crisis in its history" amid a severe shortage in personnel.

In an opinion piece published in the Hebrew-language daily Maariv, Brik stated that thousands of officers and non-commissioned officers had opted to avoid service in recent months by either refusing call-up orders or choosing not to renew their contracts.

Over the course of two years of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, the army claims that it has lost 923 troops and recorded 6,399 injuries.

Amid strict military censorship, reports indicate that the Israeli army is hiding greater losses to maintain morale.

Additionally, around 20,000 soldiers are estimated to be dealing with post-traumatic stress, as reported by Israeli media referencing data from the military.

Brik noted that numerous officers sought immediate discharge, while younger recruits were unwilling to commit to long-term contracts, leading to a significant shortage of professional personnel throughout the military.

The significant drop in manpower is now hindering equipment maintenance and the functioning of combat systems, he added.

The military analyst cautioned that the situation might soon render the army incapable of operating effectively.

He attributed the issues to a series of chiefs of staff over the years, criticizing them for poor decisions.

These included significant personnel reductions and the implementation of shorter service durations  three years for men and two years for women  which he said had resulted in substantial gaps that cannot be swiftly remedied.

Brik stated that these gaps forced experienced professionals out of service, placing unprepared individuals in sensitive roles who are unable to tackle the challenges of the current battlefield.

He highlighted that the army's manpower division has been functioning for years with a lack of professionalism and responsibility, neglecting fundamental issues in managing human resources and evaluating its requirements.

The military faces challenges with "information blindness" due to outdated systems and disjointed databases, he noted.

Brik cautioned that the manpower crisis might escalate into a total paralysis of the Israeli army.

Since October 2023, the Israeli army has killed at least 70,103 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and injured 170,985 others in a two-year war in Gaza that has reduced much of the coastal sliver to rubble.

The onslaught has also led to the widespread destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure, creating a dire situation for the territory's surviving inhabitants.

International bodies, including the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and other rights groups, have concluded that the Israeli offensive in Gaza amounts to genocide.

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Telephone meeting between Prime Minister TAKAICHI and NATO Secretary General Rutte

Ministry of Foregn Affairs of Japan

December 1, 2025

On December 1, commencing at 6:15 p.m. for approximately 20 minutes, Ms. TAKAICHI Sanae, Prime Minister of Japan, held a telephone meeting with H.E. Mr. Mark RUTTE, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The overview of the meeting is as follows;

At the outset, Secretary General Rutte congratulated Prime Minister TAKAICHI on her appointment. Prime Minister TAKAICHI highlighted that the security of the Euro-Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific is inseparable and cooperation between Japan-NATO and NATO-IP4 (Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea) is strategically important. In response, Secretary-General Rutte supported such views, and both leaders concurred on working together to elevate our cooperative relationship to new heights through concrete cooperation. Both leaders also exchanged views on regional situations including the situations in Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific and confirmed that they will continue to cooperate in addressing security challenges across regions.

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The Special Assistant to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador in charge of Gaza Rebuilding Assistance Mr. OKUBO's Vist to Jordan

Ministry of Foregn Affairs of Japan

December 1, 2025

On November 30 (local time), Mr. OKUBO Takeshi, the Special Assistant to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador in charge of Gaza Rebuilding Assistance, visited Amman, the capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The overview is as follows:

Courtesy Call on H.E. Mr. Ayman Al Safadi, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

During the courtesy call, which is set to follow up on the discussions at the recent Japan-Jordan summit working dinner during King Abdullah II's visit to Japan, Ambassador OKUBO explained Japan's position on the situation in Gaza.

Ambassador OKUBO also expressed his willingness to engage in information-sharing and exchange of views with regional countries, including Jordan, in order to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, achieve early recovery and reconstruction, and realize a two-state solution.

In response, Deputy Prime Minister Safadi explained Jordan's efforts to support Palestine and expressed appreciation for Japan's support for Palestine, including its response to the situation in Gaza.

Through the courtesy call, they reaffirmed future cooperation and collaboration between the two countries. Ambassador OKUBO also exchanged views with other officials from Jordan and international organizations on the occasion of this visit and confirmed that they will work together towards the reconstruction of Gaza.

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China urges Japan to retract erroneous remarks, stop fobbing off

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 16:26, December 01, 2025

BEIJING, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- China urges the Japanese side to learn the lessons of history, do soul-searching, take seriously what it has heard from the Chinese side, simply retract the erroneous remarks as it should and take practical steps to honor its political commitments to China, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Monday.

"On issues of principle, an evasive attitude will not get the Japanese side anywhere," Lin said at a regular news briefing.

Lin said the Japanese side keeps hiding and fudging its position on the Taiwan question. Whenever asked, the Japanese side simply would not mention the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Proclamation and the Japanese Instrument of Surrender -- all of which made clear that Taiwan be restored to China, nor the four political documents that serve as the political foundation of China-Japan relations, nor the political commitment made by the Japanese government to the one-China principle, he said.

Lin said all the Japanese side has done is dodging the issue by claiming that its position "remains unchanged," adding that not even once has the Japanese side fully articulated what exactly that position is.

He said perhaps what the Japanese side would not clarify is not just its position on the Taiwan question. Dec. 1 marks the 82nd anniversary of the Cairo Declaration. This document, together with a series of other international legal instruments, stipulate China's sovereignty over Taiwan, and are vital outcomes of the World Anti-Fascist War and an integral part of the postwar international order.

"Japan has an obligation under international law to observe those documents, which is the prerequisite for Japan to be readmitted to the international community after the war. But the Japanese side does not even mention a word about those instruments with full effect under international law, and instead keeps quoting a document that excludes China and some other Asian countries who suffered the most from Japanese aggression and colonialism," he said.

"That is a clear sign of oblivion to the tragic memory of Japan's militarist aggression, a serious disregard for the history of the World Anti-Fascist War, and a blatant challenge to the UN's authority and the postwar international order," he said.

Lin said the Japanese side has in recent years been revamping the security and defense policies, beefing up the defense budget year after year and seeking to revise its three non-nuclear principles, and some forces in Japan have been trying hard to break free from the Pacifist Constitution and Japan's legal obligations as a defeated country in WWII.

"They never truly learned the lessons from history, never truly did any soul-searching about Japan's war atrocities or looked at them squarely, and never truly sought to prevent the revival of militarism in Japan. They hope that by whitewashing and not mentioning the true history, they could somehow make the world forget and release Japan from its obligations, but the world will not be deceived," Lin said.

"The course of history must not be reversed, and the bottom line of peace must not be crossed. Japan prevaricated to downplay the situation while continuing down the wrong path. China would absolutely not accept that," the spokesperson said.

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EU-Kazakhstan Cooperation Council: Press remarks by High Representative Kaja Kallas upon arrival

European External Action Service (EEAS)

01.12.2025

Brussels, 01.12.2025

EEAS Press Team

Check against delivery!

Good evening, everybody.

Dear Minister Kosherbayev, dear Yermek, congratulations on your recent appointment, and it is really my pleasure to welcome you here in Brussels, for the Cooperation Council.

It is the first time we held the Cooperation Council at such a senior level, and it says a lot about our growing importance of the EU's relationship with Kazakhstan. Over the last 20 years, the EU has collectively invested more than 200 billion in Kazakhstan. We are your main trading partner and main investor. Last year, over 45% of Kazakh exports came to the EU. But likewise, Kazakhstan is truly a vital partner for the European Union, especially for our energy security. Ninety percent of Kazakh exports to the EU are oil, gas and uranium. And Kazakhstan is home to many critical raw materials, lithium for batteries, nickel for steel, wires, turbines, amongst others.

At the first EU Central Asia Summit in April, we announced 12 billion for investments in the region under the Global Gateway strategy. Five billion euros could benefit Kazakhstan, including the finance projects related to the critical raw materials. Trade requires reliable transport. This is why the EU is investing heavily in the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor.

Russia's war in Ukraine has woken us all up to the need for diversified trade routes. This need will remain even if the war is over. But the EU's partnership with Kazakhstan is, of course, more than energy and critical raw materials. First and foremost, it is about bringing our people closer together.

Today, I am happy to announce that tomorrow we will officially begin negotiations on the Visa Facilitation Agreement and the readmission agreement between the European Union and Kazakhstan. And Kazakhstan already participates in Horizon Europe and Erasmus+, there is a lot of interest from Kazakh citizens to travel to the European Union. And once in force, a formal agreement would reduce visa processing times, lower admin fees, reduce paperwork and make it easier to visit the European Union.

Ten years of our Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement has given us direction, but I think we both agree that the next 10 years must be defined by results: solid projects, modern infrastructure, and stronger value chains.

Dear Yermek, thank you once again for being here, and over to you.

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/media/video/I-281574

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Deputy Secretary Landau's Meeting with Republic of Korea First Vice Foreign Minister Park

US Department of State

Readout

Office of the Spokesperson

December 1, 2025

The below is attributable to Principal Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott:

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau met today with Republic of Korea (ROK) First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoonjoo in Washington. The Deputy Secretary and the First Vice Foreign Minister celebrated the success of President Trump's historic October 29-30 state visit to Gyeongju that included the APEC Summit. They discussed the implementation of the U.S.-ROK Joint Fact Sheet, which includes modernizing the U.S.-ROK Alliancethe linchpin of peace, security, and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula and throughout the Indo-Pacific region for more than 70 years.

Deputy Secretary Landau welcomed the ROK's unprecedented commitment to investment in American manufacturing across key strategic sectors such as shipbuilding. The Deputy Secretary and the First Vice Foreign Minister also noted the recent achievements of the U.S.-ROK Business Travel and Visas Working Group. The Deputy Secretary reiterated that Korean investment contributes significantly to U.S. reindustrialization efforts.

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Resumption of Russia-US Cybersecurity Cooperation Depends on Washington - Moscow

Sputnik News

20251201

MOSCOW, December 1 (Sputnik) - Cooperation in the area is possible if Washington has an appropriate attitude to the matter, Russian Security Council Deputy Secretary Oleg Khramov says.

"The resumption of cooperation with the United States in this area and further cooperation are possible if Washington has the appropriate attitude based on the implementation of the provisions of the current Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters between Russia and the United States of America dated June 17, 1999," Khramov told Russia's Kommersant newspaper.

The situation in field of international cybersecurity is of increasing concern, as the West is trying to impose its own rules, Khramov added.

The US unilaterally terminated cooperation with Russia in February 2022, withdrawing from talks on the matter and closing the communication channel created after the Putin-Biden summit in Geneva in 2021. Even before the collapse of ties, the Biden White House accused Russia of 'stonewalling' on cyber crime, and 'exploring' cyberattacks against the US. Moscow rejected the charges.

The Trump administration paused some US cyber activities against in Russia in the spring amid the Ukraine peace push.

 Sputnik

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EU Members Unwilling to Share Risks of Using Russia's Frozen Assets - Belgian Minister

Sputnik News

20251201

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - EU countries are unwilling to share in the potential legal fallout associated with the use of immobilized Russian assets, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot has said.

"The best way to provide Ukraine with the rapid financial assistance it needs is through a joint European loan, rather than trying to follow a path that provides neither the required legal certainty nor the elimination of systemic financial risks," Prevot wrote in a social media post Monday.

"It is for a good reason the European countries do not want to assume joint obligations and share risks - something that we have been rationally calling for for many months. Otherwise, why do they refuse such risk mutualization?" Prevot asked.

Earlier in the day, hawkish EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas confirmed that the EU still lacks a consensus on funding for Ukraine.

Prevot separately warned that European officials' obsession with tapping into Russia's frozen assets could threaten the Trump-led peace push.

Nearly $350 billion in Russian foreign currency reserves were trapped abroad at the start of the Ukraine crisis in 2022, with as much as $232 billion held in European accounts. European officials have already started using interest earned on the funds to send aid to Ukraine, and hawks have urged more drastic measures, including seizing the funds outright. Skeptics have warned that doing so would forever undermine Europe's reputation as a safe haven for foreign wealth, particularly among developing countries.

 Sputnik

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NATO Suggests 'Preemptive Strikes' Against Russia Could Be 'Defensive'

Sputnik News

20251201

NATO may consider launching a preemptive strike in the face of Russia's alleged actions against the alliance, Adm. Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, the chair of NATO's military committee, told the Financial Times.

Dragone stated that a "preemptive strike" could be considered a "defensive action," according to the publication.

However, the admiral said "it is further away from our normal way of thinking and behaviour," adding that there are legal questions regarding such a potential move.

In recent years, Russia has seen unprecedented NATO activity along its western borders. The alliance is expanding its initiatives and calling it "deterring Russian aggression." Moscow has repeatedly expressed concern about the alliance's buildup of forces in Europe. The Kremlin has noted that Russia posed no threat to anyone, but would not ignore actions potentially dangerous to its interests.

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously explained in detail in an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson that Russia had no intention of attacking NATO countries; there was no point in doing so. The Russian leader noted that Western politicians regularly frighten their populations with an imaginary Russian threat to distract attention from domestic problems, but that "smart people understand perfectly well that this is a fake."

 Sputnik

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Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - Blanket Order Training

NEWS | Dec. 1, 2025

Media/Public Contact: T_Outreach_PM@state.gov

Transmittal No. 25-78

WASHINGTON, December 01, 2025 -- The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia of Blanket Order Training and related equipment for an estimated cost of $500 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has requested to buy blanket order aviation training services for the Royal Saudi Land Forces Aviation Corps (RSLFAC) from the U.S. Army. The following non-MDE items will be included: initial through advanced rotary-wing flight and maintainer training for personnel of the (RSLFAC) under sponsorship of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). The training will be conducted by U.S. Army instructors on the AH-64E Apache, CH-47F Chinook, UH-72A Lakota, and UH-60L/M Black Hawk Helicopters. The estimated total cost is $500 million.

This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a partner country that is a force for political stability and economic progress in the Gulf Region.

The proposed sale will enhance Saudi Arabia's capability to meet current and future threats by providing initial through advanced aviation operator and maintainer training for the safe and professional operation of the RSLFAC's U.S.-procured helicopter fleet. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will have no difficulty absorbing the training into its armed forces.

The proposed sale of this training will not alter the military balance in the region.

This training will be provided at various CONUS based U.S. Army training sites under sponsorship of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). At this time, the U.S. government is not aware of any offset agreement proposed in connection with this potential sale. Any offset agreement will be defined in negotiations between the purchaser and the contractor.

Implementation of this proposed sale will not require the assignment of any additional U.S. government or contractor representatives to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale.

The description and dollar value are for the highest estimated quantity and dollar value based on initial requirements. Actual dollar value will be lower depending on final requirements, budget authority, and signed sales agreement(s), if and when concluded.

All questions regarding this proposed Foreign Military Sale should be directed to the State Department's Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, Political-Military Affairs Outreach, at T_Outreach_PM@state.gov.

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Israeli forces launch fresh ground incursions into Syria, violating sovereignty

Iran Press TV

Monday, 01 December 2025 7:11 PM

The Israeli military has launched two new ground incursions into Syria, marking yet another breach of the country's sovereignty.

According to the SANA news agency, Israeli forces advanced towards the western side of Saida al-Hanout village in southern Quneitra on Monday.

Three Israeli vehicles took positions in the village, while a military drone operated by the regime conducted surveillance over the area.

A second incursion also took place on Monday in the southern Quneitra countryside, according to the report.

During the raid, Israeli forces, accompanied by two Humvees and two personnel carriers, moved to the top of Tel Abu Qubays hill on the outskirts of Ein Zivan village.

On Friday, an Israeli attack on the town of Beit Jinn in the Damascus countryside killed 13 people and injured 25 others, sparking widespread condemnations.

After the collapse of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government in December 2024, Israel has launched frequent aerial assaults across Syria and ground incursions in the southern part of the country.

Israel has also set up numerous checkpoints in the Arab country and abducted Syrian citizens.

The regime has further expanded control over the occupied Golan Heights, taking over a demilitarized buffer zone in violation of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement.

Analysts say the Israeli deployments serve as a cover for a broader strategy of territorial expansion.

The Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)-led Syrian regime's inaction and normalization efforts towards Tel Aviv have emboldened Israeli forces to intensify their occupation campaign.

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Iran warns about regional implications of Israeli incursions into Syria

Iran Press TV

Monday, 01 December 2025 10:10 AM

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman cautions about the implications of the Israeli regime's rampant incursions into Syria and Tel Aviv's territorial ambitions in the Arab country for the broader West Asia region's security.

Esmaeil Baghaei was speaking at a press conference on Monday, identifying the issue as a "shared regional concern," and underlining the importance of stability as a region-wide imperative.

The official explained that Syrian security was inseparable from that of the wider West Asian stability, singling out the continued Israeli "acts of aggression" and the recent appearance of senior Israeli officials inside Syria's occupied parts.

"One of the key, shared anxieties among regional nations is the continuation of attacks by the Zionist regime against Syria," Baghaei said, adding that Tel Aviv had pushed deeper into the country "over recent weeks."

Baghaei underscored that "the issues in the region are all interconnected," naming "tragic [Israeli-manufactured] crises" in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon as cases in point.

Last year, the regime backed up increasingly ferocious onslaughts throughout Syria by the so-called Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Takfiri terrorist group with airstrikes targeting the country's civilian and defensive infrastructure. The HTS-led militants topped the government of President Bashar al-Assad as a result.

Various reports have shown that, during the escalation, the regime conducted more than 1,000 airstrikes on the Syrian territory and over 400 ground raids into the south.

Following the collapse of the Assad government, Tel Aviv also widened its grip over the occupied Golan Heights by taking control of a demilitarized buffer zone, in defiance of a 1974 Disengagement Agreement. Earlier this month, senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visited the buffer zone, prompting expressions of alarm on the part of the United Nations.

'Saudi Arabia not a mediator between Iran, Syria'

The spokesman dismissed the idea that Saudi Arabia was acting as a mediator between Iran and the new regime in Syria.

Tehran rather consults with Riyadh on issues concerning Syria, not in order to open "new [communication] channels," but rather towards fostering regional security awareness and collective solutions.

"Our dialogue is not about creating a bilateral conduit, but about contributing to regional and security conditions and ensuring mutual understanding of emerging perspectives," Baghaei said.

He emphasized that such diplomatic engagement has become "a fixed agenda within Iranian diplomacy," involving Saudi Arabia as well as other member states of the Arab League.

In the same context, the official stated, Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Saud bin Mohammed Al-Sati recently traveled to Tehran, holding talks with Iranian officials that focused on Syria.

'US coercive diplomacy a global security flashpoint'

Baghaei described the United States as the "largest threat to international peace," citing repeated coercive pressure against Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua as well as American rhetoric targeting Brazil and Mexico.

He highlighted unprecedented US demands such as closure of Venezuela's national airspace, which he called a breach of global aviation safety norms

The official also denounced diplomatic threats towards South Africa, including attempts to influence its participation in the G20 Summit.

He, meanwhile, condemned Washington for enabling the Israeli regime's aggression in Syria, Gaza, and Lebanon, warning that "the US's law-breaking is becoming a global template for some other actors."

Australia's IRGC designation 'driven by Israeli disinformation'

Baghaei also condemned Australia for labeling the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as a "terrorist entity," calling the decision "legally baseless and shaped by Israeli intelligence inputs."

He pointed to statements by regional police authorities in Sydney confirming no Iranian link to attacks on Jewish community sites, and referenced similar claims previously rejected by officials in Mexico as well as recent cases in Africa.

"We urge all nations to be alert to Israel's systematic efforts to poison Iran's foreign relations," he said.

Iran signals full readiness against 'Israeli crisis engineering'

The spokesman addressed the Israeli regime's constant warnings about alleged potential of emergence of an additional regional crisis, saying the nature exhibited by the regime over the past eight decades had featured constant crisis-engineering.

He added that the Islamic Republic draws on the strategic legacy of the 12-day-long defensive and retaliatory operations staged by the country against an imposed and illegal war by Tel Aviv and Washington in June, stressing that Tehran was "fully prepared for any contingency and will prevent Israel from exporting insecurity into Iran."

Iran-China rail corridor a 'strategic economic priority'

Baghaei affirmed the importance of the rail route linking Iran and China, saying the project enjoyed "shared political will among all involved states for fast operationalization."

He confirmed active coordination between Iran's Ministry of Roads and Urban Development and Beijing, noting "productive recent talks" and expressing hope for a near-term breakthrough on relevant implementation.

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Defense minister denies anchor-free submarine tests endangered crew

ROC Central News Agency

12/01/2025 06:52 PM

Taipei, Dec. 1 (CNA) Defense Minister Wellington Koo () on Monday denied that testing Taiwan's submarine prototype without its anchor endangered the crew, or that the move was driven by pressure to meet a delayed delivery deadline.

Koo told a legislative session that the Narwhal, or Hai Kun (), "did not require" an anchor system during successful floating navigation tests on Thursday and Friday last week.

"Making sure sea trials are conducted safely has always been our top priority," Koo said.

At the same session, Navy Chief of Staff Chiu Chun-jung () said that the Narwhal's anchor was not on the prototype during the recently concluded sea trials because some components needed to be replaced.

After fine-tuning, the anchor will be reinstalled around mid-December in time for subsequent sea trials, Chiu said.

The Navy is now levying daily fines of NT$190,000 (US$6,043) on Kaohsiung-based shipbuilder CSBC Corp. for failing to meet the original November delivery deadline for the Narwhal prototype, according to Koo.

In a statement issued on Friday, CSBC said crew safety is its top priority and that each test is reviewed by project staff and foreign consultants and carried out only after meeting safety requirements, with escort vessels accompanying the trials.

CSBC said the submarine will next undergo shallow-depth tests to verify basic systems, followed by progressively deeper trials to check performance under increasing pressure and confirm it meets combat requirements.

The Narwhal's sea trials were originally slated to begin in April and finish by Sept. 30.

(By Matt Yu and Joseph Yeh)

Enditem/ASG

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Taiwan island's first 'indigenous' submarine revealed to have sea trial without anchor; repeated problems expose boat's vulnerability: expert

Global Times

By Chen Yang and Ma Jun Published: Dec 01, 2025 07:14 PM

The island of Taiwan's "indigenous" submarine Hai Kun, which the armed forces on the island had confidently claimed would be delivered in November, has not only failed to complete basic underwater navigation tests but has recently been reported to have problems such as "uninstalled anchors" and "unintegrated watertight door systems." This has drawn sharp criticism within the island for "endangering crew members' lives."

A military affairs expert told the Global Times that whether it is the severe delays in the testing progress or the continuous problems with its onboard equipment, these issues have fully exposed the vulnerability of the island's so-called "indigenous" submarine.

According to reports by media outlets on the island, after completing its third surface test in July this year, the Hai Kun submarine immediately underwent over four months of dock and port maintenance, adjustments, and calibrations, finally setting out to sea for its fourth surface test on Thursday. CSBC Corporation, Taiwan, the company responsible for constructing the submarine, claimed that the main objective of this sea trial was to test systems such as power, navigation instruments, periscopes, and sonar. However, contrary to expectations, on Friday morning the Hai Kun departed from the second port of Kaohsiung Harbor for another sea trial, marking the first time and an unusual move of going out to sea for two consecutive days.

According to the original plan, the submarine was supposed to complete sea trials in September and be delivered by the end of November, but it is still undergoing the most preliminary surface tests. There is speculation that due to the confirmed delay in delivery, CSBC Corporation, Taiwan may be accelerating its tests in response to potential breach-of-contract issues, according to Taiwan media.

Media on the island reported that the next sea trial of the Hai Kun is expected to move into the underwater navigation test phase, yet it is far behind the schedule. Military observers on the island noted that the tight schedule of two consecutive days of sea trials indicates the Hai Kun is getting ready for subsequent underwater tests, but the scenarios are unprecedented - returning to port by dusk or conducting trials for two consecutive days. As a result, opinions divided over whether the previous surface navigation test phase is drawing to a close or if it is in need of further system integration.

A report by the island's Mirror Daily revealed on Saturday that the anchor windlass system of the Hai Kun submarine malfunctioned during tests in the dry dock. Consequently, for the first five sea trials, the submarine set sail without an anchor installed. "The Taiwan naval authorities were fully aware of this situation yet insisted that the shipbuilding company proceed with sea trials without the anchor, in violation of relevant regulations."

Mirror Daily further disclosed that the watertight doors of the Hai Kun had not undergone complete system integration testing, leaving uncertainty as to whether each compartment could maintain watertight isolation under extreme pressure conditions.

The report said that relevant regulations within the island explicitly require vessels to be equipped with anchors, anchor chains, and mooring lines, among other necessary equipment. However, the naval authorities on the island have demanded CSBC Corporation, Taiwan proceed with testing "even without anchors," in an attempt to create the illusion that the Hai Kun project is proceeding normally. Sources also revealed that the naval authorities claimed those regulations only apply to civilian vessels, arguing that submarines, as military vessels and specialized ships, are exempt from such restrictions - a stance described as "utterly lawless."

Apart from numerous problems during its sea trials, the Hai Kun submarine has also faced a variety of other issues. The island's Liberty Times revealed on Sunday that the diesel engines selected for the Hai Kun are not specialized models for submarines. Citing analysis by a military observer on the island, the report said that due to Taiwan's inability to procure high-power main engines suitable for submarines, it ultimately opted for a "commercial diesel generator manufactured by a Nordic factory," whose output power falls below a certain level and is therefore not subject to export controls. As a result, the Hai Kun submarine relies on six commercial diesel generators connected in parallel to meet the requirement for originally designed power output, charging capacity, and charging speed. Should Taiwan's naval authorities seek to mass-produce submarines of the same model in the future, they would have to switch to high-power generators and redesign the system, essentially starting from scratch.

A military affairs expert told the Global Times that the Hai Kun has, from the very beginning of its construction, faced challenges including the lack of core technologies and heavy reliance on imported main equipment. Photos taken during the vessel's launch have revealed numerous issues in the submarine construction techniques. More importantly, frequent interruptions to planned sea trials and repeated returns to dry dock for repairs during the testing phase have exposed significant discrepancies between the submarine's actual performance and its original design, demanding major modifications.

This has not only delayed the development timeline of the Hai Kun but also introduced various risks that are difficult to eliminate. That is fundamentally why concerns have arisen within the island about the submarine's ability, the expert said, noting that the island of Taiwan lacks both the capability to develop core equipment - forcing reliance on overseas procurement - and the essential system integration skills needed to effectively coordinate equipment from diverse sources.

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Russia's Lavrov: Europe disqualified itself from Ukraine negotiations with repeated interference

Iran Press TV

Monday, 01 December 2025 6:55 AM

Europe has removed itself from Russia-Ukraine negotiations after consistently discrediting itself by obstructing agreements designed to end the conflict, Russia's foreign minister says.

Sergei Lavrov made the remarks on Sunday during an interview when asked whether Europe had the right to "outrageously" demand a role in negotiations to settle the Ukraine conflict.

"We proceed from the premise ... which I believe is obvious to everybody ... that Europe has already removed itself from the negotiations," he said.

Lavrov stressed that Europe had long "exhausted its chances" to influence the settlement process, citing its repeated interference since the very beginning of the Ukraine crisis, starting with a 2014 turmoil that culminated in a coup and the removal of President Viktor Yanukovych.

"Europe spoiled the initial agreement of February 2014, when it acted as guarantor between Viktor Yanukovych and the opposition. It did nothing when the opposition seized all government agencies the morning after the agreement was signed," he stated.

He also pointed to admissions by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French President Francois Hollande, who acknowledged "that nobody had intended to fulfill" the Minsk agreements aimed at ending the civil conflict in the eastern Donbass region.

The Minsk agreements were a series of international accords designed to end the war between pro-Russia forces in Donbass and the Ukrainian military.

"The most recent case occurred in April 2022 when, at the demand of the then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and with Europe's full acquiescence, if not connivance, the Istanbul agreements were derailed," the foreign minister said.

The Istanbul agreements refer to prisoner exchange protocols established with Turkish mediation in 2022. However, the swaps have been the only progress of any note in talks between the two sides as the war rages on.

Meanwhile, multiple European leaders and institutions continue to insist that any potential peace agreement on Ukraine must include the EU, intensifying such rhetoric after the US proposed its latest plan to resolve the crisis.

The US proposal reportedly involves Kiev abandoning NATO ambitions and capping the size of its armed forces.

Germany, France, and the UK have drafted their version of the plan, making it heavily pro-Ukraine by removing or softening several points. Russia, however, has already described the European proposals as "completely unconstructive."

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Zelenskyy In Paris, Witkoff To Moscow, In 'Pivotal Week' For Ukraine Talks

By Ray Furlong and Current Time December 01, 2025

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was at the Elysee Palace in Paris on December 1 for talks with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, kicking off another week of intense diplomacy aimed at ending nearly four years of fighting in Ukraine following Russia's full-scale invasion.

The visit, aimed at finding "conditions for a just and lasting peace," came a day after talks in Florida between US and Ukrainian delegations that both sides praised as productive without providing further details.

After the Paris meeting, Zelenskyy said the two leaders had also spoken with US special envoy Steve Witkoff, who is due to hold talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 2. It will be Witkoff's sixth meeting with Putin since January.

"It was an important briefing, and we agreed to discuss more details in person," Zelenskyy wrote on social media. Speaking at a news conference, Zelenskyy said he also expected to discuss key issues with US President Donald Trump.

Macron said US mediation was "a very good thing" but indicated he believed it still had a long way to go. "It's not a complete peace plan. A complete peace plan will require Ukraine at the table, Russia at the table, and the Europeans at the table. It will happen," he said.

'Pivotal Week' For Peace Efforts

"The idea of ending the war by making some concessions to Russia will not work. On the contrary, it would only encourage Russia to continue its expansion in various directions," Mykhaylo Podolyak, an adviser in the Ukrainian presidential office, told Current Time on December 1.

"Some more or less clear compromise version of [US President Donald] Trump's peace initiative will be on the table," he added, referring to a plan proposed by the White House in mid-November that has led to the current burst of diplomacy.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on December 1 that "it could be a pivotal week" for peace efforts.

The initial 28-point US proposal alarmed Ukrainian officials -- and reportedly angered Zelenskyy -- who then held their own talks with Rubio and other US officials in Geneva on November 23.

Those talks resulted in a 19-point plan that leaves several major issues on the table, including the fate of a chunk of Ukraine's Donbas region, Ukraine's NATO aspirations, and a potential cap on the size of Kyiv's armed forces. They were followed by the talks in Florida a week later.

Russian 'Pleasure' At Ukraine Scandal

For Ukraine, an added complication has been the controversy surrounding Zelenskyy's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, who has been a key figure in talks.

Yermak -- who has not been charged by investigators and has said he has done nothing wrong -- resigned on November 28 amid an ongoing corruption investigation. He led the Ukrainian delegation in Geneva but was no longer part of the team in Florida.

Podolyak, who was Yermak's adviser, told Current Time that Russia was benefitting from the corruption scandal.

"They always invest in provoking internal conflict in Ukraine, inflating it as much as possible. They understand how to do this, have many information platforms, social networks that they use for this. And, of course, they now watch this internal conflict with pleasure," he said.

Trump on November 30 cautioned that the scandal was not helpful to the peace process, adding that "Ukraine's got some difficult little problems."

Even as the diplomacy ramps up, the killing has raged on.

Ukrainian authorities reported on December 1 that four people were killed and at least 40 injured in a Russian missile attack on Dnipro.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Peskov complained about Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil infrastructure.

He said a weekend attack on Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) infrastructure was "outrageous given its international significance and the involvement of international partners," including US oil major Chevron.

Kazakhstan, a partner in the project, lodged an official protestwith the Ukrainian government over the strike, which it said was "the third act of aggression against an exclusively civilian facility."

In the past, Kyiv has said it has targeted the oil industry in order to deny revenues that finance the Russian war effort.

For its part, Moscow has denied aiming at civilian targets in Ukraine, despite overwhelming evidence of attacks on schools, hospitals, housing, and other facilities since launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/zelenskyy-witkoff-moscow-ukraine- talks-russia/33609899.html

Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Could Frozen Russian Assets Be Europe's Ticket To US Peace Talks For Ukraine?

By Rikard Jozwiak December 01, 2025

Summary

The EU aims to leverage 176 billion euros in frozen Russian assets to secure influence in Ukraine's post-war settlement.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed three funding options for Ukraine, with a reparations loan being the most popular.

Belgium opposes the reparations loan without legal guarantees, fearing retaliation from Moscow.

The US peace plan and its focus on frozen Russian assets have caused tensions with EU officials.

If there's one way European Union officials feel they can get a seat at the table when it comes the settlement of the war in Ukraine, it is via the 176 billion euros ($204 billion) of Russian frozen assets currently held inside the bloc and how that can be leveraged both politically and economically.

Last month, the EU saw itself largely bypassed when the United States presented a peace plan that was "refined" once US and Ukrainian diplomats met in Geneva a few days later.

European officials, speaking to RFE/RL under condition of anonymity, say they have succeeded in removing some of the original text's ideas related directly to Ukrainian membership in the EU and NATO.

But Europe has a golden ticket up its sleeve that could secure it a spot at the negotiating table: funding for Ukraine.

Having committed "to covering the financial needs of Ukraine for 2026 and 2027," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently gave member states three options for getting an estimated 140 billion euros to Kyiv over the next two years.

With the United States reluctant to commit any new money for Ukraine, the EU's willingness to step up has become crucial for Kyiv as Russia's full-scale invasion nears its four-year anniversary.

The first option spelled out by von der Leyen in the paper is for individual member states to give Ukraine the cash. In the second, the European Commission would raise the necessary funds on the financial markets. But it's the third option -- a reparations loan leveraging frozen Russian sovereign wealth assets in the EU -- that is the most popular, as it wouldn't directly hit the pockets of EU taxpayers.

It's not that straightforward, however.

Firstly, time is running out to decide, and Belgium, where most of these assets are frozen, still opposes the move. Then there's the United States, which in its original proposal also expressed interest in obtaining a large part of the funds.

Von der Leyen told the European Parliament on November 26 that she couldn't "see any scenario in which the European taxpayers alone will pay the bill" for Ukraine and that she was ready to present the legal text for the reparations loan.

Securing Backing For A Reparations Loan

According to RFE/RL sources, the European Commission is currently working on as many as 11 legal acts when it comes to the loan, and there is plenty of frustration in EU capitals that have yet to see concrete details of how the plan would work.

A European Commission official told RFE/RL that the original idea was to first secure political backing for the reparations loan when EU leaders gather at an EU summit in Brussels on December 18. The finer points would be ironed out early next year to allow the money to start flowing to Kyiv by the second quarter of 2026.

There's also a fear that national diplomats and lawyers would get bogged down in details and derail any chances of a deal if the legal acts are presented too soon.

Belgium, which hosts the financial markets company Euroclear where most Russian bonds are frozen, wants to see proper guarantees from other EU member states as it expects a legal retaliation from Moscow. To shoulder claims of 140 billion euros from Russia -- an amount that is one-third of Belgium's annual GDP -- would be a disaster for the country.

In a letter seen by RFE/RL addressed to von der Leyen on the topic by Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, he once again spelled out his concerns.

"While l have full sympathy for the argument that the European taxpayer should not be the only one picking up the tab for the financial support of Ukraine, the brutal legal reality isthat at no moment in history have immobilized sovereign assets been 're-purposed' during an ongoing war," he wrote.

"Such assets have been the object of decisions during post-war settlements, usually in the context of war reparations by the losing party."

The European Commission, however, still believes an agreement can be made in December if enough EU member states make legally binding guarantees to back the reparations loan based on their gross national income (GNI). This means smaller -- and more skeptical -- countries such as Hungary and Slovakia can opt out as their total share of EU GNI is miniscule.

But the other wealthier and larger European countries need to be onboard to share the costs. And Brussels hopes other non-EU G7 countries could chip in, as well.

"If the European Council were to be called upon to decide on a reparations loan scheme at its upcoming meeting, it will only be possible on the basis that all the concerns expressed above are adequately and fully covered," De Wever wrote at the end of his letter to Von der Leyen.

"This includes a full guarantee to be provided by willing member states enabling Euroclear to maintain liquidity of the assets for their total amount."

'The American Angle'

But the Belgians aren't the only obstacle to be overcome.

There's also the "American angle," as some EU officials put it.

The original 28-point US peace plan noted "$100 billion in frozen Russian assets will be invested in US-led efforts to rebuild and invest in Ukraine" and that "the US will receive 50 percent of the profits from this venture."

This wording truly rattled European politicians and diplomats alike, especially as they had envisioned that the money given to Ukraine in the shape of a reparations loan to a large extent would be used by Kyiv to buy European-produced weapons.

EU officials say most parts of the original US proposal have been watered down or taken out completely, but they admit that any final document could change considerably and they aren't privy to the latest discussions on the wording.

While the EU would want the reparation loan to be a European project, most diplomats concede it is essential to keep Washington onboard -- and happy. That could mean being open to the idea of the United States getting some of the funds or at least Ukraine using the cash to buy American arms.

Crucially, though, Brussels also has to ensure that the United States continues to pressure Hungary into agreeing to the rollover of EU sanctions, which include the frozen Russian assets, every six months.

In July, when it was time to renew the measures, Hungary didn't threaten a veto, and this was largely due to American pressure. Brussels hopes the United States will play that same role when the sanctions need to be extended again in January.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-frozen-assets-europe- us-peace-talks-ukraine/33609999.html

Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Ukraine Faces Labor Shortage As Russia's War Empties Factories And Farms

By Ulviyya Asadzade and Borys Sachalko December 01, 2025

Summary

The Ukrainian economy is facing severe manpower shortages due to conscription, desertions, and mass emigration.

Key sectors like education, transport, and agriculture are struggling to fill jobs traditionally held by men, with some businesses turning to foreign workers.

Around 6-7 million Ukrainians have left since the invasion began, and efforts are under way to encourage their return when the war ends.

MAKIV, Ukraine -- Desertions, draft dodging, and a minimum conscription age of 25 have contributed to a manpower problem that hampers Ukraine's defense against a full-scale Russian invasion that will hit the four-year mark in February if peace is not achieved.

But Kyiv's need to get people to the front is also creating a manpower problem nationwide, with labor shortages hitting many industries and some towns virtually empty of conscription-age men.

It's a phenomenon fueled by both conscription and flight as millions of Ukrainians have left the country. Some of them are men of conscription age who have gotten out despite what is now a bar on most men aged 23-60 from leaving Ukraine.

"The shortage of people with technical skills and education is catastrophic," Oleh Penzin, a Ukrainian economist, told RFE/RL.

According to the State Employment Center, the sharpest labor shortages are seen in education, ground transport, metal-product manufacturing, furniture production, and energy supply industries.

Strategic enterprises such as defense industry companies and railways remain largely exempt from conscription, but businesses across Ukraine are struggling, political analyst Kostyantyn Batozskiy said.

"Your employee can be drafted at any time, and that's a problem," he told RFE/RL.

'No Man To Dig A Grave For The Dead'

In Makiv, a small town in the Khmelnytskiy region in western Ukraine, draft-age men are a rare sight. Most have been drafted or left the country, and those who remain keep a low profile to avoid mobilization, sometimes carried out by groups of recruitment officers, police, or military personnel that apprehend men on the street and bring them in for service.

"Guys who work at a computer can work in their apartment. But laborers...go out to work, trying to earn money for their families -- and they are rounded up like cattle," Kateryna, a Makiv resident who gave only her first name, told Current Time.

There's "no man to dig a grave for the dead," Kateryna said. She said she learned to use a chainsaw and other tools she had never used in the past in order to get along day-to-day.

Conscription has made it difficult to fill jobs traditionally held by men, according to the State Employment Center, and agriculture is among the sectors that have been hit.

"With increased mobilization, tractor drivers and machinists have changed their professions to military ones," said Oleh Khomenko, director of the Ukrainian Agrarian Business Club. "We're now facing a shortage of qualified personnel of up to 15 percent."

Millions Have Left. Will They Return?

Some farmers are hoping to recruit teenagers, who are well below conscription age, for seasonal work -- a practice that goes back to the Soviet era.

"I used to take part myself --- it was called an internship, but it was really work," Khomenko said.

While many men and some women are serving in the army, around 6-7 million Ukrainians have left the countrysince Russia launched the full-scale invasion in February 2022. According to the International Labor Organization, about 1.6 million adults of working agehave left Ukraine, the majority of them women.

"If we manage to bring back at least 40 percent of them, that would be a huge help for the economy," Penzin told RFE/RL, referring to men and women.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke of the labor problem in August 2024. "We cannot afford to lose our army and its reserves, but we also very much need workers for our jobs," he said. "We must find balance."

The government and businesses have been scrambling for solutions.

In European countries with large Ukrainian communities, Ukraine has been setting up Unity Hubs to provide support and advice both for Ukrainians integrating abroad and for those considering voluntary return when it becomes possible.

"This is a new project, and there isn't much to say yet," Batozskiy told RFE/RL.

Danylo, a 17-year-old refugee who lives in Germany and gave only his first name, said he has no plans to returnto Ukraine.

"If I go back to my hometown, I'll have to start from scratch," he told RFE/RL. "I literally have nothing there."

Foreign Workers

Back home, some Ukrainian businesses are bringing in foreign workers or considering doing so.

In March, Lamella, a furniture manufacturer in Tyachiv, on the Romanian border in the western Transcarpathia region, far from the front lines, hired workers from Bangladesh.

"We have many women -- about 60 percent -- working on small-part machines, but there are positions that require male strength," Yaroslav Shcherban, Lamella's commercial director, told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service.

Former Economy Minister Tymofiy Mylovanov told the news outlet Ukrayinska Pravdathat Ukraine could need up to 10 million migrants to bring positive changes to the Ukrainian economy. In his opinion, they will be mostly blue-collar professionals.

Batozskiy believes it's too early to make such an estimate. "We need to survive the war first and then assess what we need," he said.

Penzin also said peace may be the only thing that will really rectify the situation.

"The first thing needed to fix the labor shortage is to end the war, then everything will be sorted with time," he said.

Borys Sachalko reported from Makiv and other locations in Ukraine; Ulvyyia Asadzade reported from Prague. RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service and Current Time contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-war-creates-labor- shortages-in-ukraine/33606226.html

Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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EU's Ukraine Loan Backed by Frozen Russian Assets May Hinder Peace Talks - Belgian Minister

Sputnik News

20251201

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The European Union's push to use frozen Russian state assets to issue a "reparation loan" to Ukraine may hinder peace negotiations, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said.

"It is now clear that the assets can play an important role in a peace plan ... Our actions must nor create obstacles to a peace plan," Prevot said in a comment to a European newspaper on Monday.

Prevot called the initiative a problem for the ongoing peace talks. A spokesperson for the European Commission confirmed to the paper that the Commission was working on the loan despite Belgium's objections.

On November 25, Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken said that Belgium did not want to use Russia's frozen assets to fund Ukraine's war effort without securing EU guarantees.

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has repeatedly said that Belgium needs "concrete and reliable" guarantees to implement the EU Commission's plan. He argued in a letter to the Commission that a hasty decision to seize Russian funds to use them for financing Ukraine could destroy all chances for a peaceful resolution.

On November 8, Belgian news agency Belga reported that around $162 billion in Russian money could be used to issue a so-called reparations loan, which Ukraine would only repay if it receives "compensation for material damage" from Russia.

Following the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine in 2022, the European Union and the G7 nations froze nearly half of Russia's foreign currency reserves, totaling approximately $349 billion. Around $232 billion are held in European accounts, predominantly in Euroclear, a Belgium-based securities depository.

 Sputnik

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Russian Forces Liberate Klinovoye Settlement in Donetsk People's Republic

Sputnik News

20251201

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian forces have liberated Klinovoye in the DPR, inflicted heavy losses on Ukrainian troops, and are targeting military and energy infrastructure in response to UAF attacks on civilian areas.

"Units of the Yug group of forces advanced deep into enemy defenses and liberated the settlement of Klinovoye in the Donetsk People's Republic," the ministry said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Russian forces from the Tsentr Battlegroup inflicted losses on the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) in Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk) and Dimitrov, destroying up to 480 soldiers, three armored vehicles, three cars, and an artillery piece within 24 hours.

"Units of the Tsentr group of forces improved their position along the front line, defeating personnel and equipment from six mechanized, infantry, aeromobile, airborne assault, assault brigades, a marine brigade, two territorial defense brigades, and three national guard brigades in the areas of Artemovka, Rodinskoye, Belitskoye, Marievka, Gruzskoye, Belozerskoye, Krasnoarmeysk, and Dimitrov in the Donetsk People's Republic. The losses of the Ukrainian forces amounted to up to 480 soldiers, three armored vehicles, three cars, and an artillery piece," the Ministry of Defense's statement said.

Russian forces also struck Ukrainian energy infrastructure used by the UAF, the Ministry of Defense reported.

"Operational-tactical aviation, strike drones, missile troops, and artillery inflicted damage on fuel and energy infrastructure objects used for the benefit of the UAF," the statement added.

Additionally, Russian troops attacked ammunition and fuel depots, UAV storage and launch sites, and temporary deployment points for Ukrainian fighters and foreign mercenaries in 136 locations.

Anti-aircraft systems downed three long-range Neptune missiles and 97 aircraft-type drones, the ministry added.

 Sputnik

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US-Ukraine Negotiations Mainly Focused on Territorial Issue - Reports

Sputnik News

20251201

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The negotiations between the US and Ukrainian delegations in Florida were almost entirely focused on where the de facto border with Russia would be drawn under a peace deal, the Axios portal reported on Monday, citing two Ukrainian officials.

On Sunday, US-Ukraine negotiations took place in Florida. The US delegation was headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the Ukrainian delegation was led by Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Rustem Umerov.

The report said the US side hoped to make progress on the territorial issue, which US special envoy Steve Witkoff could then present to Russian President Vladimir Putin. After roughly an hour in a larger group, the meeting narrowed to three officials from each side, and the line of demarcation for controlled territories was virtually the only topic of discussion, the portal reported.

Axios reported that Washington was represented by Rubio, Witkoff, and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner during small format talks, while Kiev was represented by Umerov, Chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Andriy Ignatov, and Deputy Head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry Vadym Skibitsky. After the negotiations, Umerov held a one-on-one meeting with Witkoff, after which he called Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky to report on the meeting's results.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Sunday that Witkoff would come to Russia at the beginning of the week, ahead of the Russian leader's visit to India. Later, US President Donald Trump also confirmed this, stating that Witkoff plans to meet with Putin in the coming days.

Since mid-November, the United States has been promoting a new peace proposal for Ukraine and sent negotiators to Geneva on Sunday for talks. News outlets reported that the original 28-point peace plan was subsequently revised down to 19 points, eliminating some of the initial proposals, such as downsizing the Ukrainian armed forces, reducing US military aid and banning foreign military presence in Ukraine, as well as the recognition of Crimea and Donbas as legitimate Russian territories.

On November 21, Putin said that Trump's new peace plan could form the basis for a final settlement in Ukraine.

 Sputnik

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Ukraine-Ordered Assassination of Senior Russian Military Officer Foiled in Crimea - FSB

Sputnik News

20251201

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia's Federal Security Service said on Monday it had prevented an assassination of a senior Russian Defense Ministry officer in Crimea ordered by the Ukraine regime

"The Federal Security Service (FSB) has prevented a terrorist attack planned by the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense in the Republic of Crimea against a senior officer of the Russian Ministry of Defense," the FSB statement says.

According to the FSB, on orders from the GUR, "a Ukrainian citizen recruited by the intelligence services was to blow up a Russian serviceman in his personal car using an explosive device given to him."

The organizer of the foiled assassination attempt on the Russian Defense Ministry officer in Crimea was Rustem Fakhriev, an officer of Ukrainian military intelligence, the FSB said.

A Ukrainian military intelligence agent in Crimea planted a bomb under the car of a Russian Defense Ministry officer, resisted security forces, and was eliminated, it said.

"The perpetrator's means of communication with his handler and components of a Western-made explosive device were seized," the statement says.

One of the accomplices in the foiled assassination attempt on a Russian Defense Ministry officer in Crimea has been arrested, the FSB added.

 Sputnik

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PM call with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine and President Macron of France: 1 December 2025

Press release

The Prime Minister spoke to President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, this afternoon.

From: Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street and The Rt Hon Sir Keir Starmer KCB KC MP

Published 1 December 2025

The Prime Minister spoke to President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, this afternoon.

The leaders began by reflecting on the intensive diplomacy that had been done in recent days, including by the Ukrainian delegation currently in the United States.

The Prime Minister also updated on his recent discussions, including with the NATO Secretary General yesterday, and the leaders agreed on the importance of working towards a deal that delivered long term security and a just peace for Ukraine.

Turning to ensuring Ukraine gets the equipment and support it needs for as long as it takes, the leaders also discussed using the value of immobilised Russian Sovereign Assets to support the regeneration of Ukraine and its Armed Forces.

The leaders agreed to stay in close touch as intensive diplomatic discussions continued in the coming days.

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Andrii Sybiha held talks in Paris with Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France Jean-Noel Barrot

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine

01 December 2025 16:17

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andrii Sybiha: "Together with my French colleague and friend Jean-Noel Barrot, we held comprehensive talks on our bilaretal agenda and current diplomatic activities to achieve a just peace. I thank France for being our close ally and reliable partner.

I highly value Minister Barrot's personal leadership and confirmation that France remains committed to supporting Ukraine and increasing pressure on Russia. I informed in detail about the battlefield situation and damage to our energy system following Russia's recent massive terror attacks.

I outlined Ukraine's priority defense needs, above all in air defense. We focused on further joint efforts to advance peace process, including the future system of security guarantees for Ukraine.

I emphasized the Ukraine considers EU membership as an important element of future security guarantees. We also exchanged views on steps to increase sanctions on Russia, in particular its shadow fleet, and on the long-awaited decision to enable the full use of Russia's frozen assets as soon as possible.

Grateful to France and the French people for their steadfast military, humanitarian, and energy support, as well as strong backing for Ukraine in international organizations.

I expressed special gratitude for my counterpart's engagement in efforts to return the deported Ukrainian children and support the opening of the children's rights protection centers in Kharkiv and Dnipro. Together, we shape a just peace for Ukraine and a secure future for the whole of Europe".

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Andrii Sybiha held a meeting with Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France Jean-Noel Barrot

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine

01 December 2025 13:07

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andrii Sybiha: "As part of Ukraine`s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visit to France and talks with President of France Emmanuel Macron, I was glad to meet with my colleague Jean-Noel Barrot.

We had as always meaningful and important discussion focused on peace efforts, the Coalition of the Willing, and the Ukrainian-French defense cooperation.

We coordinated steps in European affairs, including the effective use of the SAFE mechanism to develop joint projects with Ukraine, further contributions to NATO's PURL initiative, and the decision to enable the full use of frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine.

I am grateful to France for its remarkable support and leadership  and anticipate a very successful visit by President Zelenskyy today".

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We Are Working to Ensure That There Will Be No Third Russian Invasion - President

President of Ukraine

1 December 2025 - 19:46

Principled positions now, in preparing the relevant agreement, are what will ensure the long-term peace after this war. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated this during the joint press conference with President of France Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris.

The Head of State thanked all partners - and in particular U.S. President Donald Trump - for their constant attention, support, and efforts to bring an end to the war.

Today, the Presidents of Ukraine and France held a joint conversation with European leaders, with the participation of the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Italy, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, the European Commission, the European Council, and the NATO Secretary General. A separate conversation also took place with the head of the Ukrainian negotiating delegation, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov, U.S. President's Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

"These are special days, when a great deal can truly change - and change every single day. Yesterday, the Ukrainian delegation held negotiations in the United States. Tomorrow, as we all already know, the Envoy of the President of the United States will be in Russia. We are making every effort to bring this war to an end - and it must be ended with dignity," Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized.

According to the Head of State, active and honest work by Ukraine, Europe, and the United States for the sake of peace and guaranteed security can safeguard the long-term interests of the democratic world.

"Although at times it may seem that everybody is on their own - the United States, Europe - we all equally need security and normal economic development, believe me. And that is our shared interest. And therefore our shared interest is to live without war," the President stressed.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that Russia must end the war it alone started, and the joint actions of partners contribute to this.

The Head of State also reported on the consequences of the Russian missile strike on Dnipro. The President of France expressed condolences to Ukrainians who lost their loved ones as a result of this attack. Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed that Russia carries out such strikes every day. It is important to ensure effective protection and reliable security guarantees for Ukraine to prevent a third Russian invasion.

"When we speak about peace, it is absolutely clear that everyone must play their role. Russia must stop its aggression - and so far it has shown no sign of doing so. Ukraine is the only party that can negotiate over territories, because these are its territories, recognized under international law," Emmanuel Macron added.

The President of Ukraine underscored that war must not become a profitable venture, and this is precisely why there are principled stances on sanctions, accountability for war crimes, the legal status of Ukrainian territories currently occupied by Russian forces, Russian assets, and the obligation of reconstruction.

"The stronger the international community's shared positions on these points, the more reliable and lasting peace will be. And this depends not only on Ukraine - it depends on our unified position in Europe and on the position of the United States. It determines not only when this war will end, but also how long the next war will not pose a threat. Principled positions now, in preparing the relevant agreement, are what will ensure the long-term peace after this war," Volodymyr Zelenskyy concluded.

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Statement by the President of Ukraine During the Joint Press Conference with the President of France

President of Ukraine

1 December 2025 - 18:58

Thank you, Emmanuel, for our truly friendly relationship, and thank you for France's support for Ukraine!

I greatly appreciate our meetings, our cooperation, and your personal support. Thank you!

Dear Mr. President,

Dear journalists,

I want to thank all of you separately for your attention to Ukraine and for the strong, unwavering support that continues. Unfortunately, the war continues as well, and that is why we count on this support to continue.

We had a thorough conversation today with the President of France, with Emmanuel. I briefed him on the work of our delegation and on the reports from Florida. Emmanuel shared his assessment, and I value all of your advice, thank you very much. We spoke with European leaders, as the President has already mentioned: the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Italy, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, the European Commission, the European Council, and the NATO Secretary General. And I am grateful for this assistance and for organizing today's discussion - it was important, very important. We also thank President Trump for his assistance and for the work of his team with our delegation. Together with Emmanuel, we also spoke today with our delegations. We were in contact with Rustem Umerov, a Ukrainian representative, and Steve Witkoff, on the American side. Keir Starmer was also with us on that call. There will be more contacts and more meetings.

These are special days, when a great deal can truly change - and change every single day. Yesterday, the Ukrainian delegation held negotiations in the United States. Tomorrow, as we all already know, the Envoy of the President of the United States will be in Russia. We are making every effort to bring this war to an end - and it must be ended with dignity. And if everyone now works not only actively but also honestly for the sake of peace and guaranteed security, we may achieve exactly the result that is needed for Ukraine, for Europe, and also, I am certain, for America - for the long-term interests of the democratic world. Although at times it may seem that everybody is on their own - the United States, Europe - we all equally need security and normal economic development, believe me. And that is our shared interest. And therefore our shared interest is to live without war. Russia must end this war - the war it alone started and continues. It is solely Russia's war, and it is Russia that must put an end to its aggression. Our joint actions contribute to this.

Ukraine's priorities are clear. First and foremost - defense and security guarantees, guarantees of preserving Ukraine's independence and our sovereignty. We will defend this. We are working to ensure that there will be no third Russian invasion and no disruption of agreements to end the war. Russia has broken its promises so many times, violated every agreement, and disrupting peace is very easy for Russia. That is why Ukraine needs reliable security guarantees, for all of us, for all Ukrainians. You can all see how the war has changed over these nearly four years of Russia's full-scale invasion. Strike drones, missiles - far more powerful, far more massive. And you know that the Russians keep targeting Ukraine every day. Today, there was a brutal missile strike on our city, on Dnipro - unfortunately, people were killed. My condolences to the families and loved ones. This threat of strikes must be eliminated. And therefore, security oversight is also a critical issue - one that must be resolved.

I am grateful to France and to all our partners who, within the Coalition of the Willing, are preparing this - real security. We also must make sure that Russia itself does not feel that it is receiving anything that could be perceived as a reward for this war. War must not become a profitable venture, so that others do not want to repeat such actions. That is why we take principled stances on sanctions, on accountability for war crimes, on the legal status of our territories currently occupied by Russian forces, on Russian assets, and on the obligation of reconstruction - the aggressor must pay for its aggression. The stronger the international community's shared positions on these points, the more reliable and lasting peace will be. And this depends not only on Ukraine - it depends on our unified position in Europe and on the position of the United States. It determines not only when this war will end, but also how long the next war will not pose a threat. Principled positions now, in preparing the relevant agreement, are what will ensure the long-term peace after this war. All partners must understand this equally - all the challenges and risks.

One more thing. Now, in December, in France - and Emmanuel mentioned this - the time of Ukraine begins in the cultural dimension: Ukraine's cultural season is kicking off, and this highlights the importance of our relations and the significance of Ukraine for all of Europe. The First Ladies of Ukraine and France are working toward this. I am grateful to every university in France - twelve universities have joined Ukrainian studies. I thank all other French educational and cultural institutions for their support and assistance, for taking on Ukrainian educational and cultural projects. This is very important for us. Culture always strengthens politics, and we are working for the strongest possible relations with France - the strongest possible. That is exactly how it will be, I am certain.

Of course, the main topic we discussed today was ending the war and the support of our partners, including, unquestionably, the support of France. But we also raised issues of our bilateral relations. I am very grateful for the latest package - the defense package, as I said. It is very important for us. And the deliveries have begun. I am very grateful to you, Emmanuel, and to all the institutions that are accelerating this process. We discussed aircraft and air defense systems, and, of course, these issues are always on our agenda. We also spoke a bit about our economic relations and raised the topic of recognizing our driver's licenses. There are many issues in progress.

I thank you for such strong support from your country for our people. Thank you once again.

Glory to Ukraine!

Thank you, Emmanuel!

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Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Emmanuel Macron Agreed on Next Steps Toward Achieving a Real Peace

President of Ukraine

1 December 2025 - 16:52

At the Elysee Palace in Paris, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a several-hour meeting with President of France Emmanuel Macron in a tete-a-tete format.

The main focus was on negotiations to end the war and on security guarantees. The Head of State briefed President Macron on the details of yesterday's meeting with the American side in the United States.

"Peace must become truly durable. The war must end as soon as possible. Much now depends on the involvement of every leader," Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized following the meeting.

The President of Ukraine noted that talks with other leaders will also take place today.

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Presidents of Ukraine and Finland Coordinated Joint Positions

President of Ukraine

1 December 2025 - 11:57

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a phone call with President of Finland Alexander Stubb to continue coordinating their positions.

The Head of State briefed his counterpart on the constructive work of the Ukrainian delegation in the United States yesterday. The President of Ukraine noted that there are some tough issues that still have to be worked through. The Ukrainian representatives will return to Europe in the coming days, and following a full report on the course of the negotiations, further actions by Ukraine will be determined.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized that today, December 1, negotiations are planned with friends in Europe. It will be a very substantive day with clear priorities: diplomacy, defense, and energy.

The Head of State expressed his gratitude to everyone who is supporting Ukraine.

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European leaders reject Russia-Ukraine peace deal shaped without Ukrainians, Europeans

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 08:07, December 02, 2025

PARIS/BERLIN, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and other European leaders on Monday rejected any Ukraine peace deal negotiated "without Ukrainians and Europeans."

Macron said Monday that any "peace plan" concerning the Russia-Ukraine conflict could only be finalized with both Ukraine and Europe involved in negotiations.

Macron made the remarks at a joint press conference at the Elysee Palace after meeting with visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

On issues including frozen Russian assets, security guarantees and Ukraine's potential accession to the European Union, Macron said agreements "can only be finalized with the Europeans around the table."

The French president also stressed that "there is no finalized peace plan as such today."

Zelensky said Ukraine sought to end the conflict "in a dignified manner," calling for "solid" security guarantees, and noted that the "territorial issue will be the most difficult" in future talks.

According to the Elysee Palace, Macron and Zelensky also held discussions with European leaders as well as U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators on Monday.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also said on Monday that Germany stands against any "dictated peace" over the heads of Ukraine.

"No decision about Ukraine and Europe without Ukrainians and without Europeans," Merz told a press conference following his meeting with visiting Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Berlin.

Tusk voiced support for Ukraine, noting efforts by Poland and Germany to jointly strengthen the security of Europe.

Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said on Monday that Europe must also be at the negotiating table, commenting on a possible peace agreement in Ukraine.

Foreign policy makers in Latvia and the Nordic-Baltic region, as well as leaders of the EU and most NATO member states, agree that three principles should be respected, namely the territorial indivisibility of Ukraine, sovereignty and security interests, Rinkevics told Latvian Radio programme "Krustpunkta."

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with U.S. presidential special envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss ending the conflict with Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.

A U.S.-proposed 28-point "peace plan" was unveiled two weeks ago. Following its release, representatives from the United States, Ukraine and several European countries met in Geneva on Nov. 23 to discuss the plan.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Witkoff held talks on Sunday with a Ukrainian delegation in Hallandale Beach, Florida.

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Russia Claims Capture Of Key Donbas City Ahead Of Kremlin Meeting With US Envoy

By RFE/RL December 02, 2025

Russia claimed it had captured a strategic city in Ukraine's Donbas region, an announcement that appeared timed to a critical Kremlin meeting with visiting US officials trying to finalize a peace deal.

Ukrainian officials denied the claim, made by Russia's top military commander to President Vladimir Putin in a video released on December 1.

The Ukrainian military corps fighting in Pokrovsk told Reuters on December 2 that Ukrainian forces were holding the northern part of the city, while carrying out attacks in the south, where Russian troops prevail.

Putin was scheduled to host White House special envoy Steve Witkoff later on December 2, amid a flurry of efforts to find a resolution to end Russia's nearly four-year war on Ukraine.

The meeting -- Witkoff's sixth with Putin since January -- followed the release of a US-drafted peace plan that was seen as heavily favorable to Russia. Ukrainian officials have scrambled, meeting top US officials in Geneva and trying water down Russian hard-line positions.

In the video released by the Kremlin, Russia's top military commander, General Valery Gerasimov, was shown detailing recent battlefield gains by Russian forces. For months now, Ukraine has been struggling to hold back Russian troops, in particular around the cities of Kupyansk, in the north; and Pokrovsk, in the south.

Using the old Russian name for Pokrovsk, Gerasimov asserted that Russian forces had finally taken the city.

"I want to thank you for the results of your work regarding Krasnoarmeysk, both you and the entire command and personnel of the battlegroup," Putin told Gerasimov.

Their meeting reportedly took place on November 30, but the video was released on December 1 -- the eve of Witkoff's visit.

Russia has routinely claimed key battlefield victories in Ukraine, claims that have turned out to be either premature or outright false. Gerasimov recently declared Russia had encircled forces in Kupyansk, something that was untrue.

One of the primary Ukrainian units defending Pokrovsk, the Air Assault Forces' 7th Rapid Response Corps, said Kyiv's troops "continue to hold back" the Russian offensive.

Earlier on December 1, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meeting in Paris with French leader Emmanuel Macron, acknowledged Russian advances.

"Certainly, Russia is making progress; certainly, Russia is carrying out several offensive actions and operations. None of these operations have been successful," he said at a press conference.

"There are heavy battles going on in Pokrovsk and other areas. For example, our guys are having more success in the Kupyansk area. Although Russia claims to have captured Kupyansk, we've cleared almost everyone out of the city," he said.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-putin-pokrovsk- witkoff-kremlin-ukraine/33610717.html

Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Statement to the 30th Session of the Conference of States Parties of the OPCW

Speech

Statement to the 30th Session of the Conference of States Parties of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

From: Ministry of Defence, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and Damian Johnson MBE, Director Home Defence and Strategic Threats, Defence and Security Policy, UK Ministry of Defence

Published 1 December 2025

Location: The Hague, The Netherlands

Delivered on: 24 November 2025 (Transcript of the speech, exactly as it was delivered)

Mr Chair, Director General, Distinguished Delegates,

I would like to begin by thanking the Director-General and the Technical Secretariat for their work to prepare for this Conference. I would also like to thank the Director General for his comprehensive overview of the work he has led this year to strengthen this organisation.

Many thanks also to our outgoing Chair, Ambassador Almir Sahovic for effectively steering this Conference this past year. My congratulations to Ambassador Agustin Vasquez Gomez of El Salvador on your appointment as Chair of this Conference - you have the UK's full support.

Mr Chair,

The Chemical Weapons Convention remains a fundamental pillar of international security. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has overseen the complete destruction of all declared chemical weapon stockpiles. Countries are better prepared to detect and respond to the use of chemical weapons. Yet, while the safety and security of so many of us sat here today has increased due to the OPCW's tireless work, the threat posed by chemical weapons remains. We must continue our work to rid the world of chemical weapons and hold to account those who continue to use them.

Mr Chair,

In pursuit of this goal, the UK is fully committed to supporting Syria and the Technical Secretariat to finally eradicate Assad's legacy chemical weapons programme. The UK has committed 2.8m to the OPCW Syria Voluntary Trust Fund since December 2024. I am pleased to announce that, in the coming months, the UK will be committing a further multi-million pound funding effort for Syrian led destruction operations.

At the time of the Assad Regime's collapse last December, there remained concerns that large quantities of potentially undeclared or unverified chemical weapons agents and munitions remained in Syria. The current status, quantities, and locations of such agents and materials remain unknown.

But, as we meet today, Syria and the Technical Secretariat are working together to account for Assad's chemical weapons, and to pave the way for their final, complete and verified destruction - thereby protecting the Syrian people and contributing to regional security. We welcome the re-establishment of a Syrian National Authority and the appointment of a new Permanent Representative.

States Parties must now capitalise on the recently agreed Qatari-Syrian Executive Council Decision on Expedited On-Site Destruction and the progress made to date, to help Syria accelerate its operations in-country. This includes ongoing efforts to identify, locate and secure Assad's chemical weapons, in parallel to addressing discrepancies in the former regime's declaration. The OPCW Office for Special Missions will also continue its work to attribute numerous chemical weapon attacks that took place in Syria since 2013. The task ahead is considerable. We encourage all States Parties to support the Secretariat and Syria to close this file through financial and in-kind contributions. The UK is fully committed to supporting Syria and the Secretariat in this endeavour.

Mr Chair,

This Conference will elect three members of the Eastern Europe Group on to the Executive Council. The Russian Federation has once again submitted its candidacy to represent the Eastern European Group on the Executive Council. The overwhelming majority of the Eastern European Group do not support this candidacy. Their opposition is rooted in a simple but fundamental truth: Russia is a State Party that repeatedly violates the Chemical Weapons Convention and consistently undermines the credibility of this Organisation.

We cannot permit a State that breaches the Convention to make decisions on how it is implemented. The Executive Council must be a body of integrity - one that upholds the Convention's principles and strengthens the OPCW. We urge all Member States to respect the wishes of the Eastern European Group and, in doing so, defend the credibility of this organisation.

Ukraine has reported over 11,000 Russian uses of toxic chemicals since Russia launched its war of aggression in 2022. Dutch and German security services have concluded that Russia is escalating its use of chemical weapons. The Secretariat has now independently confirmed the presence of CS gas in samples from multiple incidents in Ukraine and these incidents must now be attributed. We will continue to support Ukraine to protect its people against these attacks, and hold Russia to account for it's actions.

We are pleased to have worked once again with Canada on the joint procurement of respirators for Ukraine, with the first batch of these having already been delivered to the Ukrainian front-line. This is in addition to the 950,000 that the UK has contributed to the OPCW Assistance to Ukraine fund.

Russia's disregard for its obligations under the Convention is well established. Russia used the highly toxic nerve agent, a Novichok on British soil in 2018, leading to the death of Dawn Sturgess. It used a Novichok again to poison Alexei Navalny in 2020. These are appalling examples of flagrant breaches of the convention.

And they have set a damaging example. We remain deeply concerned by reports of chemical weapon use in Sudan. Sudan has committed to investigate reports of use of chemical weapons by the Sudanese Armed Forces thoroughly. We expect the outcomes of these investigations soon.

Mr Chair,

The UK remains committed to supporting international cooperation and assistance as a central pillar of the OPCW's work. The UK has supported capacity building in East Africa and the Caribbean and I am pleased to highlight that the UK and Ghanian national authorities are now working closely together. This builds on the success of historical UK national authority mentoring initiatives including, most recently, with Zambia. And on the subject of building success - the UK looks forward to being involved and supporting CHEMEX Africa 2 in 2026, which will build on the lessons learned from the first such exercise in 2023.

The UK was delighted to join last year's CSP side-event with Czechia, Switzerland, and the OPCW, which highlighted our work on assistance and protection, and the ongoing value of member states working together on this vital issue. We strongly encourage the continuation of this, both with the OPCW and with partners such as the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction, led positively and proactively by Canada this year.

Industry verification is a cornerstone of the Convention, ensuring compliance and building the foundation for trust among States Parties. The UK therefore welcomes the return to 241 Article VI inspections in 2027 agreed in the budget and calls for adequate resources to be devoted to the verification regime on an ongoing basis.

We commend the Director-General's leadership on emerging technologies, and we look forward to the outcome of the Scientific Advisory Board's review. We also applaud the OPCW's work to increase geographical representation, enhance engagement with civil society and promote gender equality - especially as we mark the 25th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.

Mr Chair,

This occasion is tinged with sadness. For the last time at this Conference, the UK thanks his Excellency, Director General Arias, for leading the Secretariat through a period of significant challenge and change. We recognise his deft diplomacy and applaud his commitment to the Convention. He leaves the Secretariat stronger and better prepared for the future. In the Chem Tech Centre, he leaves tangible proof of his legacy.

We congratulate Ambassador Dallafior Matter on securing the Executive Council's recommendation for appointment as the next Director General of this organisation. You can count on the UK's full support.

Thank you.

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Torex Gold Resources Inc. (the "Company" or "Torex") (TSX: TXG) (OTCQX: TORXF) is pleased to provide results from the 2025 drilling program at Media Luna West, which support the Company's strategy to target near-mine opportunities in the Media Luna Cluster in order to further enhance and extend the production profile of the Morelos Complex.

Jody Kuzenko, President & CEO of Torex, stated:

"The results from this year's drilling program at Media Luna West defined a mineralized footprint of 400 x 300 metres ("m") situated in very close proximity to the main Media Luna deposit. Drilling continued to return impressive, high-grade results, most notably 12.25 grams per tonne gold equivalent ("gpt AuEq") over 11.0 m in drill hole ML25-1088D and 17.79 gpt AuEq over 12.9 m in ML25-1095D. Based on these results and ongoing modelling work, we expect to declare an inaugural Inferred Resource with our annual mineral reserves and resources update in March 2026. Future drilling at Media Luna West will be focused on expanding the resource footprint towards the north along the main north-south corridor and to the south towards the highly prospective San Miguel fault, as well as upgrading resources from the Inferred to the Indicated category.

"These latest results build on the drilling success we have had within the Media Luna Cluster and reinforce the quality of the mineralization we see on the south side of the property. We believe Media Luna West could be a potential new mining front should the area be evaluated as economically viable, which becomes more likely now that we can leverage the infrastructure constructed at Media Luna.

"The results from Media Luna West are part of the investment we made this year to expand the resource footprint more broadly across the Morelos Property. We look forward to sharing the results from drilling conducted at other targets across the Media Luna Cluster and Atzcala over the coming months as we believe they will further showcase the true exploration potential at Morelos and our ability to sustain production above 450,000 gold equivalent ounces at reserve metal prices well beyond 2030."

MEDIA LUNA WEST DRILLING & EXPLORATION PROGRAM

Drilling and exploration programs at the Media Luna Cluster support the Company's objective of enhancing and extending the production profile of Morelos by expanding resources and increasing reserves. Progress continues to be made across the Media Luna Cluster in the mission to refine the new structural framework through the identification of multiple alteration events, various and distinct mineralization styles, and main mineralization controls.

The deeper understanding of the structural controls across the Morelos Property has reoriented exploration at Media Luna West to focus on the intersection of the north-south structural corridor with west-northwest-striking faults linked to the San Miguel fault. The fault is thought to be the structure that provided the mineralizing fluids to the north-south structural corridor at Media Luna West during the mineralization events (Figure 1).

Drilling at Media Luna West in 2025 has been aimed at declaring an inaugural Inferred Resource with the ultimate goal of potentially establishing a new mining front within the Media Luna Cluster should the resources prove to be economically viable through future infill drilling as well as technical and commercial evaluation. Drilling has primarily been focused on exploring the mineralized continuity of the high-grade intercepts encountered in the previously drilled holes ML24-1043DB (13.40 gpt AuEq over 28.4 m) and ML23-986A (29.78 gpt AuEq over 14.1 m), and to define the mineralized footprint (Table 3). A total of 10,744 m of drilling was conducted across 23 drill holes (including eight parent holes) during 2025. This release contains all drilling completed during 2025 and one drill hole from 2024's program that was not previously reported, totaling 11,303 m over 24 drill holes.

Drill hole intercepts for Media Luna West are core lengths and not true widths, as true widths will be determined once the geological modelling is completed. The gold equivalent grade calculations reported for each intercept use the same metal prices ($1,650/oz gold ("Au"), $22/oz silver ("Ag"), and $3.75/lb copper ("Cu")) as well as metallurgical recoveries (90% Au, 86% Ag, and 93% Cu) used in the current mineral resource estimate for the Media Luna deposit (effective date of December 31, 2024) and have been applied to the assay results for newly published drill holes as well as previously published drill holes. The gold equivalent grade calculation used is as follows: AuEq = Au (gpt) + (Ag (gpt) * 0.0127) + (Cu (%) * 1.6104). Further information on drill results and gpt AuEq calculations can be found in Table 2. Previously reported drill holes are reported in Table 3.

References to future gold equivalent production is based on forecast Au, Ag, and Cu production based on the metal price ratios implied by metal prices used to estimate mineral reserves ($1,500/oz Au, $19/oz Ag, and $3.50/lb Cu).

Figure 1: Plan view of Media Luna Cluster showing Media Luna West drill intercepts, the resource footprints for EPO and Media Luna, and the Media Luna East target area.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/1863/276437_7121c8e7b4cdcaca_001full.jpg

North-south faults define structural blocks in which mineralization is found at different elevations depending on whether it lies in the hanging wall or footwall of the structures (Figure 2). Drill holes ML25-1080A and ML25-1088D testing for mineralization at the hanging wall of the reverse fault portray relevant intercepts at elevations over 400 m above sea level ("m.a.s.l"), while drill hole ML24-1043DB, drilled at the footwall, intercepted mineralization at elevations below 400 m.a.s.l. (Figure 3).

Results from drill holes ML25-1080A and ML25-1088D confirm that the local-scale mineralization controls are the fringes of the diatreme breccias and the contact between the granodiorite stock and the overlying limestones within the calc-silicate alteration envelope (Figure 3). Based on the current observations, the mineralization sequence commenced with a copper-rich mineralization event hosted in the calc-silicate alteration that developed along the contact of the granodiorite intrusive and the limestones. Later reactivation of the north-south and north-west faults allowed for the intrusion of phreatomagmatic breccias, providing ground preparation for a late gold-rich fluid that preferentially mineralized the fringes of the breccias and enriched the previous copper-bearing mineralization with gold. The latter explains the gold-rich intercepts at the fringes of the breccias, and the gold-copper mineralization more commonly found within the calc-silicate alteration.

A mineralized footprint of 400 x 300 m has now been defined. The system remains open to the north along the north-south mineralized corridor and to the south as surface mapping shows continuity of the breccia bodies towards the San Miguel fault.

The advanced exploration program for Media Luna West in 2025 was successfully completed with compelling results that could support the delivery of an inaugural Inferred Resource with the annual mineral reserve and resource update in March 2026. Once declared, Media Luna West is expected to advance to the next stage of the exploration pipeline through a resource categorization program that will commence in 2026 with a target of upgrading Inferred Resources to the Indicated Resources category.

Table 1: Highlights from the 2025 drilling program at Media Luna West

Drill Hole From

(m) To

(m) Core Length

(m) Au

(gpt) Ag

(gpt) Cu

(%) AuEq

(gpt) ML25-1080A 652.3 702.0 49.7 2.47 0.9 0.01 2.50

724.0 744.4 20.4 7.42 6.2 0.20 7.81 incl. 730.0 734.0 4.0 20.22 9.0 0.12 20.53

751.9 761.9 10.0 4.23 3.5 0.12 4.47 ML25-1083D 718.7 722.9 4.2 6.22 2.8 0.01 6.27

752.6 757.8 5.1 2.43 35.9 0.97 4.45 incl. 753.9 755.1 1.2 6.68 95.7 2.43 11.80

770.0 777.3 7.3 1.31 9.2 0.52 2.28 ML25-1088D 647.0 658.0 11.0 11.70 10.3 0.26 12.25 incl. 652.6 656.6 4.0 26.33 11.3 0.24 26.85 ML25-1095D 703.6 716.5 12.9 17.25 8.7 0.27 17.79 incl. 705.7 710.4 4.7 36.35 14.3 0.27 36.97

763.5 773.1 9.6 0.87 37.4 1.46 3.69



Notes to Table:

1) Intercepts are reported as core length (not true width/thickness). True width/thickness will be determined once the geological modelling is completed.

2) Core recovery is shown in Table 2.

3) The gold equivalent grade calculation used is as follows: AuEq = Au (gpt) + (Ag (gpt) * 0.0127) + (Cu (%) * 1.6104) and use the same metal prices ($1,650/oz Au, $22/oz Ag, and $3.75/lb Cu) and metallurgical recoveries (90% Au, 86% Ag, and 93% Cu) used in the year-end 2024 mineral resource estimate for Media Luna.

4) All assay results are uncapped. Core lengths subject to rounding.

MEDIA LUNA WEST GEOLOGY

The Media Luna West target is part of the Media Luna Cluster, which also includes Media Luna, Media Luna East, EPO, and Todos Santos. They are hosted within the Mesozoic carbonate-rich Morelos Platform, overlayed by Cuautla and Mezcala formations and have been intruded by Paleocene stocks, sills, and dikes of granodioritic to tonalitic composition.

The north-south thick-skin deep-seated faults control the architecture of the mineralized zones with sub-parallel second-order faults generating favourable traps for the different mineralizing fluids during the multiple stages of deformation.

Cu-Ag and later Au mineralization is hosted within the intense extension fractures in the footwalls and hanging walls of the faults related to the emplacement of the approximately north-south-striking dikes and breccias. Mineralization is better developed along the contact of Morelos formation limestones and Media Luna granodiorite. The margins of altered dikes and sills of the calc-silicate envelope also act as a secondary control of mineralization.

The mineral assemblage is characterized by pyroxene, garnet, and magnetite. Metal deposition occurred during hydrated minerals alteration and is associated with a mineral assemblage comprising of amphibole, phlogopite, chlorite, and calcite  quartz  epidote as well as variable amounts of magnetite and sulfides, primarily pyrrhotite. The style of mineralization at both Media Luna West and Media Luna East is characterized by Au with locally high Ag and Cu grades. Given that Au precipitates due to the buffer exerted by the early stage of calc-silicate alteration and sulfide mineralization, it occurs as free Au and is generally dissociated from the earlier Cu mineralization event that is mainly represented by chalcopyrite.

QA/QC

Torex maintains an industry-standard analytical quality assurance and quality control ("QA/QC") and data verification program to monitor laboratory performance and ensure high-quality assays. Results from this program confirm the reliability of the assay results.

The exploration program and analytical QA/QC program for Media Luna Cluster drilling is currently overseen by Jose Antonio San Vicente Diaz, Chief Exploration Geologist for Minera Media Luna, S.A. de C.V. All samples reported have been checked against Company and Lab standards and blanks. No core duplicate samples are taken.

HQ-size core is sawn in half with half the core retained in the core box and the other half bagged and tagged for shipment to the sample preparation facility. Sample preparation is carried out by Bureau Veritas ("BV"), an accredited laboratory, at its facilities in Durango, Mexico and consists of crushing a 1 kg sample to >70% passing 2 mm followed by pulverization of 500 g to >85% passing 75 m. Au is analyzed at the BV facilities in Hermosillo, Mexico following internal analytical protocols (FA430) and comprises a 30 g fire assay with an atomic absorption finish. Samples yielding results >10 gpt Au are re-assayed by fire assay with gravimetric finish (FA530). Cu and Ag analyses are completed at the BV facilities in Vancouver, Canada as part of a multi-element geochemical analysis by an aqua regia digestion and/or four acid digestion with detection by ICPES/MS using BV internal analytical protocol AQ270/AQ370. Overlimits for the multi-element package are analyzed by internal protocol AQ374. External pulp check assays for QA/QC purposes are performed at ALS Chemex, de Mexico S.A. de C.V., an accredited laboratory. The pulp check samples are analyzed for Au, Ag, and Cu. Overall comparability between Bureau Veritas and ALS Chemex is good to excellent with high correlation.

Additional information on sampling and analyses, analytical labs, and methods used for data verification is available in the Company's technical report entitled the "Morelos Property, NI 43-101 Technical Report, ELG Mine Complex Life of Mine Plan and Media Luna Feasibility Study, Guerrero State, Mexico", dated effective March 16, 2022 filed on March 31, 2022 (the "2022 Technical Report") and in the annual information form ("AIF") dated March 21, 2025, each filed on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca and the Company's website at www.torexgold.com.

QUALIFIED PERSON

Scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Rochelle Collins, P.Geo. (PGO #1412), Principal, Mineral Resource Geologist with Torex Gold Resources Inc. and a "qualified person" ("QP") as defined by NI 43-101. Ms. Collins has verified the data disclosed herein, including sampling, analytical, and test data underlying the drill results. Verification included visually reviewing the drill holes in three dimensions, comparing the assay results to the original assay certificates, reviewing the drilling database, and reviewing core photography consistent with standard practice. Ms. Collins consents to the inclusion in this release of said information in the form and context in which it appears.

ABOUT TOREX GOLD RESOURCES INC.

Torex Gold Resources Inc. is a Canadian mining company engaged in the exploration, development, and production of gold, copper, and silver from its flagship Morelos Complex in Guerrero, which is currently Mexico's largest single gold producer. The Company also owns the advanced stage Los Reyes gold-silver project in Sinaloa, Mexico and recently acquired a portfolio of early-stage exploration properties, including the Batopilas and Guigui projects in Chihuahua, Mexico, and the Gryphon and Medicine Springs projects in Nevada, USA.

The Company's key strategic objectives are to: deliver Media Luna to full production and build EPO; optimize Morelos production and costs; grow reserves and resources; pursue disciplined growth and capital allocation; retain and attract best industry talent; and be an industry leader in responsible mining. In addition to realizing the full potential of the Morelos Property, the Company continues to seek opportunities to acquire assets that enable diversification and deliver value to shareholders.

CAUTIONARY NOTES ON FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" (collectively, "Forward-Looking Information") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Generally, Forward-Looking Information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "objective", "target", "continue", "potential", "focus", "demonstrate", "belief" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will", "would", "could" or "is expected to" occur. Forward-Looking Information also includes, but is not limited to, statements that drilling results disclosed herein: support the Company's strategy to target near-mine opportunities in the Media Luna Cluster and the Company's objective of enhancing and extending the production profile of Morelos by expanding resources and increasing reserves; support the declaration of an inaugural Inferred Resource in March 2026 with an ultimate goal of potentially establishing a new mining front within the Media Luna Cluster should the resources prove to be economically viable; showcase the true exploration potential of Morelos and the ability to sustain production above 450,000 gold equivalent ounces well beyond 2030; and the expectation that a resource categorization program will commence in 2026 with a target of upgrading Inferred Resources to the Indicated Resources category. Forward-Looking Information also include the Company's key strategic objectives to: deliver Media Luna to full production and build EPO; optimize Morelos production and costs; grow reserves and resources; pursue disciplined growth and capital allocation; retain and attract best industry talent; and be an industry leader in responsible mining. Forward-Looking Information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such Forward-Looking Information, including, without limitation, risks and uncertainties associated with: the ability to upgrade mineral resources to categories of mineral resources with greater confidence levels or to mineral reserves; risks associated with mineral reserve and mineral resource estimation; and those risk factors identified in the 2022 Technical Report, the AIF, and the Company's management's discussion and analysis for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2025 (the "MD&A") or other unknown but potentially significant impacts. Forward-Looking Information is based on the assumptions discussed in the 2022 Technical Report, AIF, and MD&A, and such other reasonable assumptions, estimates, analysis and opinions of management made in light of its experience and perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, and other factors that management believes are relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date such statements are made. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the Forward-Looking Information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on Forward-Looking Information. The Company does not undertake to update any Forward-Looking Information, whether as a result of new information or future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities laws. The 2022 Technical Report, AIF and MD&A are filed on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca and the Company's website at www.torexgold.com.

Figure 2: Plan view of Media Luna West showing high-grade drilling intercepts over different structural blocks at distinct elevations. Mineralization remains open to the north along the main north-south corridor and to the south towards the San Miguel fault.





To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/1863/276437_7121c8e7b4cdcaca_002full.jpg

Figure 3: Media Luna West section view showing high-grade intercepts of over 30 m of vertical continuity within the favourable alteration zone and notably at the fringes of a diatreme breccia as main mineralization controls.





To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/1863/276437_7121c8e7b4cdcaca_003full.jpg

Table 2: Media Luna West drill results

















Intercept

Drill Hole Program UTM-E (m) UTM-N (m) Elevation (m) Azimuth () Dip

() Final Depth (m) From

(m) To

(m) Core Length

(m) Au

(gpt) Ag

(gpt) Cu

(%) AuEq

(gpt) Core

Recovery

(%) ML24-1051D Adv. Expl. 421015.7 1984856.4 1093.1



786 677.5 681.0 3.5 2.17 11.6 0.44 3.01 100.0%















696.0 698.0 2.0 3.13 10.9 0.22 3.63 100.0% ML25-1059 Adv. Expl. 421097.7 1984931.3 1134.0 270 -75 407 Parent hole ML25-1062D Adv. Expl. 421097.7 1984931.3 1134.0



1013 956.4 958.5 2.1 0.22 38.4 1.78 3.57 100.0% ML25-1066D Adv. Expl. 421097.7 1984931.3 1134.0



980 No significant values ML25-1068 Adv. Expl. 421150.0 1984902.5 1119.2 260 -80 600 Parent hole ML25-1068A Adv. Expl. 421150.0 1984902.5 1119.2



867 692.0 694.0 2.0 4.47 0.7 0.00 4.48 100.0% ML25-1069 Adv. Expl. 421168.2 1985019.8 1183.7 270 -77 506 Parent hole ML25-1072D Adv. Expl. 421168.2 1985019.8 1183.7



909 718.0 722.0 4.0 1.90 3.5 0.21 2.29 100.0%















728.0 731.0 3.0 10.72 4.2 0.22 11.12 100.0%















758.0 762.9 4.9 3.33 4.4 0.07 3.51 100.0%















770.0 772.0 2.0 7.02 4.0 0.18 7.35 100.0% ML25-1073 Adv. Expl. 421113.2 1985076.8 1190.9 259 -80 356 Parent hole ML25-1073A Adv. Expl. 421113.2 1985076.8 1190.9



941 815.6 821.4 5.9 3.78 2.2 0.09 3.95 100.0% ML25-1074D Adv. Expl. 421168.2 1985019.8 1183.7



936 No significant values ML25-1080 Adv. Expl. 421157.8 1984959.8 1152.0 272 -81 356 Parent hole ML25-1080A Adv. Expl. 421157.8 1984959.8 1152.0



866 652.3 702.0 49.7 2.47 0.9 0.01 2.50 86.3%















724.0 744.4 20.4 7.42 6.2 0.20 7.81 100.0% incl.













730.0 734.0 4.0 20.22 9.0 0.12 20.53 100.0%















751.9 761.9 10.0 4.23 3.5 0.12 4.47 100.0% ML25-1083D Adv. Expl. 421113.2 1985076.8 1190.9



860 718.7 722.9 4.2 6.22 2.8 0.01 6.27 100.0%















752.6 757.8 5.1 2.43 35.9 0.97 4.45 100.0% incl.













753.9 755.1 1.2 6.68 95.7 2.43 11.80 100.0%















770.0 777.3 7.3 1.31 9.2 0.52 2.28 100.0%



Notes to Table

1) Intercepts are core lengths and do not represent true thickness of mineralized zones. True width/thickness will be determined once the geological modelling is completed.

2) Core lengths subject to rounding.

3) Coordinates are WGS 1984 UTM Zone 14N

4) Torex is not aware of any drilling, sampling, recovery, or other factors that could materially affect the accuracy or reliability of the data.

5) The gold equivalent grade calculation used is as follows: AuEq = Au (gpt) + (Ag (gpt) * 0.0127) + (Cu (%) * 1.6104) and use the same metal prices ($1,650/oz Au, $22/oz Ag, and $3.75/lb Cu) and metallurgical recoveries (90% Au, 86% Ag, and 93% Cu) used in the year-end 2024 mineral resource estimate for Media Luna.

6) All assay results are uncapped.

Table 2 (continued): Media Luna West drill results

















Intercept

Drill Hole Program UTM-E (m) UTM-N (m) Elevation (m) Azimuth () Dip

() Final Depth (m) From

(m) To

(m) Core Length

(m) Au

(gpt) Ag

(gpt) Cu

(%) AuEq

(gpt) Core

Recovery

(%) ML25-1084 Adv. Expl. 421034.2 1985188.4 1192.9 262 -82 452 Parent hole ML25-1084A Adv. Expl. 421034.2 1985188.4 1192.9



881 No significant values ML25-1086 Adv. Expl. 421112.8 1985080.1 1191.0 93 -79 800 684.0 710.0 26.0 1.58 35.9 1.51 4.47 100.0% incl.













692.3 697.6 5.3 5.93 60.4 2.55 10.81 100.0% ML25-1088D Adv. Expl. 421157.8 1984959.8 1152.0



758 647.0 658.0 11.0 11.70 10.3 0.26 12.25 100.0% incl.













652.6 656.6 4.0 26.33 11.3 0.24 26.85 100.0% ML25-1091 Adv. Expl. 421113.2 1985078.5 1191.0 360 -84 446 Parent hole ML25-1094D Adv. Expl. 421034.2 1985188.4 1192.9



882 838.2 840.4 2.2 0.80 29.9 1.09 2.93 100.0% ML25-1095D Adv. Expl. 421113.2 1985078.5 1191.0



839 703.6 716.5 12.9 17.25 8.7 0.27 17.79 100.0% incl.













705.7 710.4 4.7 36.35 14.3 0.27 36.97 100.0%















763.5 773.1 9.6 0.87 37.4 1.46 3.69 100.0% ML25-1102D Adv. Expl. 421113.2 1985078.5 1191.0



887 774.6 782.2 7.6 0.21 29.0 1.16 2.45 100.0% ML25-1106 Adv. Expl. 421037.1 1985186.9 1192.9 119 -78 392 Parent hole ML25-1112D Adv. Expl. 421037.1 1985186.9 1192.9



935 882.0 883.7 1.7 0.80 42.4 0.88 2.76 100.0%



Notes to Table

1) Intercepts are core lengths and do not represent true thickness of mineralized zones. True width/thickness will be determined once the geological modelling is completed.

2) Core lengths subject to rounding.

3) Coordinates are WGS 1984 UTM Zone 14N

4) Torex is not aware of any drilling, sampling, recovery, or other factors that could materially affect the accuracy or reliability of the data.

5) The gold equivalent grade calculation used is as follows: AuEq = Au (gpt) + (Ag (gpt) * 0.0127) + (Cu (%) * 1.6104) and use the same metal prices ($1,650/oz Au, $22/oz Ag, and $3.75/lb Cu) and metallurgical recoveries (90% Au, 86% Ag, and 93% Cu) used in the year-end 2024 mineral resource estimate for Media Luna.

6) All assay results are uncapped.

Table 3: Previously reported drill results

















Intercept

Drill Hole Program UTM-E (m) UTM-N (m) Elevation (m) Azimuth () Dip

() Final Depth (m) From

(m) To

(m) Core Length

(m) Au

(gpt) Ag

(gpt) Cu

(%) AuEq

(gpt) Core

Recovery

(%) ML23-986 Drill Test 421112.8 1985080.1 1190.8 321 -88 166 Parent hole ML23-986A Drill Test 421112.8 1985080.1 1190.8



870 784.5 798.6 14.1 27.50 27.9 1.20 29.78 100.0% MLW-02 Drill Test 421168.8 1985018.2 1183.4 220 -75 838 676.3 713.6 37.3 4.08 2.1 0.00 4.11 100.0%















721.5 732.9 11.4 2.98 0.7 0.00 2.99 100.0%















752.1 761.1 9.1 10.31 2.2 0.04 10.41 100.0% ML24-1039 Drill Test 421099.8 1984933.8 1135.8 87 -85 700 616.6 622.7 6.1 0.65 24.2 1.04 2.63 100.0%















635.8 637.5 1.7 2.73 2.4 0.08 2.89 100.0% ML24-1043DB Drill Test 421099.8 1984933.8 1135.8 87 -85 925 765.7 767.2 1.3 3.16 2.5 0.04 3.25 80.6%















796.4 830.0 28.4 13.36 1.7 0.01 13.40 84.4% incl.













806.3 820.0 13.1 22.66 2.7 0.02 22.73 95.3% incl.













825.0 826.0 1.0 20.20 1.3 0.00 20.22 100.0% incl.













829.0 830.0 1.0 23.70 2.7 0.03 23.79 100.0%



Notes to Table

1) Intercepts are core lengths and do not represent true thickness of mineralized zones. True width/thickness will be determined once the geological modelling is completed.

2) Core lengths subject to rounding.

3) Coordinates are WGS 1984 UTM Zone 14N

4) Torex is not aware of any drilling, sampling, recovery, or other factors that could materially affect the accuracy or reliability of the data.

5) The gold equivalent grade calculation used is as follows: AuEq = Au (gpt) + (Ag (gpt) * 0.0127) + (Cu (%) * 1.6104) and use the same metal prices ($1,650/oz Au, $22/oz Ag, and $3.75/lb Cu) and metallurgical recoveries (90% Au, 86% Ag, and 93% Cu) used in the year-end 2024 mineral resource estimate for Media Luna.

6) All assay results are uncapped.





(All amounts expressed in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated)


VANCOUVER, Dec. 01, 2025 - Ascot Resources Ltd. (TSXV: AOT.H; OTCID: AOTVF) ("Ascot" or the "Company") announces, further to its news release of October 23, 2025, that it has entered into an agreement with a syndicate of agents co-led by Canaccord Genuity Corp. and Raymond James Ltd. and including Desjardins Capital Markets (the "Agents") to market on a best-efforts basis by way of private placement up to C$150 million of common shares (the "Offering") of the Company (the "Shares"). The Company also announces certain terms relating to the restructuring with a secured creditor, as described below.

The Agents will have an option, exercisable in whole or in part up to 48 hours prior to the Closing (as defined herein), to raise up to an additional C$25 million in gross proceeds.

Offering

Other than as noted below, the Shares will be sold at a price of C$0.60 per Share (after giving effect to the previously announced 50:1 share consolidation) (the "Offering Price").

Ccori Apu S.A.C, a significant shareholder of the Company, has indicated they will participate in the Offering to maintain their 32% pro rata ownership of the Company, in accordance with their existing investor rights agreement with the Company.

Up to C$15 million of the Offering may be sold as flow-through shares of the Company (the "CDE Shares") at a price of C$0.73 per CDE Share (after giving effect to the previously announced 50:1 share consolidation).

In consideration of the services to be rendered by the Agents, the Company shall agree to pay the Agents, a cash commission equal to 6.0% of the aggregate proceeds raised pursuant to the Offering, reduced to 2% in respect of sales to those purchasers on the president's list and significant shareholders of the Company, including Ccori Apu S.A.C.

The Company shall agree to issue to the Agents warrants, exercisable at any time from the closing date to the day that is 24 months from the closing date, to acquire in aggregate that number of Shares of the Company which is equal to 6.0%, reduced to 2.0% in respect of sales to those purchasers on the president's list and significant shareholders of the Company, including Ccori Apu S.A.C, of the number of Shares sold pursuant to the Offering exercisable at the Offering Price.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering to further develop the Premier Gold Mine and Red Mountain project and for general corporate purposes, provided that the gross proceeds raised from the sale of the CDE Shares will be used by the Company to incur eligible "Canadian development expenses" (within the meaning of the Income Tax Act (Canada)).

Closing of the Offering is conditional on receipt of the necessary stock exchange approvals and exemptions, completion of the previously announced rights offering and completion of the previously announced share consolidation.

The Shares and CDE Shares will be offered on a "best efforts" fully marketed agency basis to: (i) "accredited investors" resident in the Provinces and Territories of Canada by way of private placement in accordance with National Instrument 45- 106 - Prospectus Exemptions; (ii) investors resident in the United States by way of private placement pursuant to the exemptions from the registration requirements of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended; and (iii) investors outside of Canada and the United States by way of private placement or on an equivalent basis in accordance with applicable laws, provided that such laws permit offers and sales of the Shares without any obligation on the part of the Company to prepare or file any registration statement, prospectus or other disclosure document and without triggering any disclosure obligations or submission to the jurisdiction on the part of the Company.

The securities issued pursuant to the Offering will be subject to a four month hold period in accordance with Canadian securities law. The securities offered have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any U.S. state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, United States persons absent registration or any applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable U.S. state securities laws. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities in the United States, nor will there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Secured Creditors

The Company also announces the following indicative terms of its restructuring with Nebari Gold Fund 1, LP, Nebari Natural Resources Credit Fund II, LP and Nebari Collateral Agent LLC (collectively, "Nebari") (all numbers are stated on a post 50:1 consolidation basis), which will apply after the execution of definitive documents (the "Closing")

Existing Cost Overrun Facility All outstanding interest and principal is converted to principal at Closing Maturity extended to five years from Closing Amortization occurs in 8 equal quarterly payments over the final two years of the loan The exercise price of all Warrants issued in connection with the Cost Overrun Facility reset to C$0.75 per Share Interest paid in Shares over the life of the loan (subject to stock exchange approval or otherwise in cash)

Existing Convertible Facility All outstanding interest and principal is converted to principal at Closing All new principal amount becomes convertible into Shares Maturity extended for 3 years from Closing The exercise price of all Warrants issued in connection with the Convertible Facility reset to C$0.75 per Share All Warrants immediately vest with no other terms or conditions on their exercise Interest paid in Shares over the life of the loan (subject to stock exchange approval or otherwise in cash) Conversion Price 50% at C$1.00 50% at C$2.00

Bonus Warrants Nebari will receive 10,250,000 additional Warrants with an exercise price of C$0.75, notwithstanding the prior announcement by the Company that such warrants would be priced at the Offering Price







Additional Information

This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in the United States. The securities being offered have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or under any state securities laws in the United States, and such securities may not be offered or sold within the United States absent registration under U.S. federal and state securities laws or an applicable exemption from such U.S. registration requirements.

Neither the NEX or the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Ascot Resources Ltd.

James A. (Jim) Currie

CEO and Director

For further information contact:

Email: info@ascotgold.com

Phone: 778-725-1060

and:

Robert McLeod

Email: rmcleod@fioreconsultants.com

Phone: 604-617-0616

About Ascot

Ascot is a Canadian mining company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, and its shares trade on the NEX under the ticker AOT.H and on the OTCID under the ticker AOTVF. Ascot is the 100% owner of the Premier Gold mine which is located on Nisga'a Nation Treaty Lands, in the prolific Golden Triangle of northwestern British Columbia.

For more information about the Company, please refer to the Company's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca or visit the Company's web site at www.ascotgold.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

All statements and other information contained in this press release about anticipated future events may constitute forward-looking information under Canadian securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "targeted", "outlook", "on track" and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may", "will", "should", "could", "would" or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward-looking statements, including statements in respect of the terms and conditions of the Offering, the anticipated use of proceeds from the Offering; the ability of the Company to accomplish its business objectives and the intentions described herein; and future plans, development and operations of the Company. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements, including uncertainty relating to the closing of the Offering, delays in obtaining or failure to obtain required approvals to complete the Offering; discretion in the Company's use of available funds from the Offering; the uncertainty associated with estimating costs to completion of the Offering; risks relating to negative operating cash flows of the Company; business and economic conditions in the mining industry generally; fluctuations in commodity prices and currency exchange rates; environmental compliance; risks related to outstanding debt; uncertainty of estimates and projections relating to development, production, costs and expenses, and health, safety and environmental risks; uncertainties relating to interpretation of drill results and the geology, continuity and grade of mineral deposits; the need to obtain additional financing to finance operations and uncertainty as to the availability and terms of future financing; social media and reputation; negative publicity; human rights; business objectives; shortage of personnel; health and safety; the possibility of delay in future plans and uncertainty of meeting anticipated program milestones; claims and legal proceedings; information systems and cyber security; internal controls; violation of anti-bribery or corruption laws; competition; tax considerations; compliance with listing standards; enforcement of civil liabilities; financing requirement risks; market price volatility of Shares; uncertainty as to timely availability of permits and other governmental approvals; the need for exchange approval, and other regulatory approvals and other risk factors as detailed from time to time in Ascot's filings with Canadian securities regulators, available on Ascot's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca including the Annual Information Form of the Company dated March 24, 2025 in the section entitled "Risk Factors". Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions made with regard to: the completion of the Offering; the estimated costs associated with the care and maintenance plans; the tax rate applicable to the Company; future commodity prices; the grade of mineral resources and mineral reserves; labor and materials costs increasing on a basis consistent with the Company's current expectations, the ability of the Company to convert inferred mineral resources to other categories; the ability of the Company to reduce mining dilution; the ability to reduce capital costs; the ability of the Company to raise additional financing; currency exchange rates being approximately consistent with current levels, compliance with the covenants in Ascot's credit agreements; exploration plans; and general marketing, political, business and economic conditions. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and opinions of management at the date the statements are made. Although Ascot believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements and/or information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements since Ascot can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Ascot does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements, other than as required by applicable laws. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.
Power Metallic Mines Inc. (the "Company" or "Power Metallic") (TSXV: PNPN) (OTCBB: PNPNF) (Frankfurt: IVV1) is pleased to provide a release of assays from its summer drill program, an update on its land assembly activities together with an outlook to the fall and winter key exploration objectives.

Summer Drilling Release 3 - Lion - Nisk East

The summer drilling program was designed to search for extensions to the Lion Zone, specifically down plunge from known mineralization, and to infill drill on the Lion deposit to define the zone geometry to a confidence level that would allow a future mineral resource estimate to be carried out to an Indicated Resource classification.

Lion Resource Drilling (Table 1, Figure 1)

Drilling has successfully defined mineralization extending down-plunge some of the high-grade shoots that are internal to the Lion zone for future MRE modelling. Drilling reported here intersected mineralization below the central high-grade zone of Lion, including High-grade sulphide intersections of 4.40m @ 14.34% CuEqRec1 in hole PML-25-029b included within 20.40m of 3.58% CuEqRec1), and 1.59m @ 27.92% CuEqRec1 in hole PML-25-025, included in 19.8m of 2.71% CuEqRec1). Extensional intersection on the west side of Lion included 2.65m @ 17.79% CuEqRec1 in hole PML-25-31 included within 8.10m of 7.13% CuEqRec1). These holes have largely confirmed the grade of the Lion zone as well as increasing the size of the interpreted high grade lodes.

Hole From To Length Au Ag Cu Pd Pt Ni CuEq Rec* (m) (m) (m) (g/t) ( g/t ) ( %) (g/t) ( g/t ) ( %) ( %) LION PML-25-025a 355.00 374.80 19.80 1.50 8.25 0.98 1.52 0.19 0.10 2.71 Including 369.46 371.05 1.59 18.06 82.45 10.55 15.74 0.32 0.34 27.92 and 390.60 391.60 1.00 6.09 20.10 3.50 12.10 0.10 0.30 12.10 PML-25-029b 499.00 519.40 20.40 0.39 19.79 2.91 0.93 0.10 0.21 3.58 Including 514.00 518.40 4.40 0.69 73.25 12.18 3.77 0.48 0.95 14.34 PML-25-031 483.40 491.50 8.10 4.38 11.32 1.12 5.68 2.76 0.14 7.13 Including 484.35 487.00 2.65 13.12 10.13 1.80 13.84 6.36 0.23 17.79 NISK EAST PMN-25-005 411.00 412.00 1.00 0.02 0.90 1.54 0.20 0.02 0.39 2.25 and 425.70 431.70 6.00 0.03 0.46 0.18 0.53 0.02 0.64 1.86 including 425.70 429.70 4.00 0.04 0.55 0.20 0.68 0.03 0.81 2.34 PMN-25-006 no significant results PMN-25-007 no significant results PMN-25-008 no significant results PMN-25-009 441.00 442.00 1.00 0.01 0.90 0.19 0.32 0.04 0.78 2.10 PMN-25-010 no significant results PMN-25-011 398.00 406.00 8.00 0.01 0.44 0.05 0.11 0.03 0.21 0.58

Note: Reported length is downhole distance; true width based on model projections is estimated as 85% of downhole length

1Copper Equivalent Rec Calculation (CuEqRec1)

CuEqRec represents CuEq calculated based on the following metal prices (USD): 2,360.15 $/oz Au, 27.98 $/oz Ag, 1,215.00 $/oz Pd, 1000.00 $/oz Pt, 4.00 $/lb Cu, 10.00 $/lb Ni and 22.50 $/lb Co., and a recovery grade of 80% for all commodities, consistent with comparable peers.

Terry Lynch, CEO of Power Metallic states "another good round of results showing very solid increases in the known mineralized area in the Lion Zone. At the moment even as we continue to test the extension of Lion and grow its mineralized area we have three strategic target areas supported by geology and borehole EM that look promising to deliver our next big breakthrough. Hole 64 which we talk about below and the very promising large off hole anomaly that sits in our interpreted fold hinge will be targeted by a series of holes as soon as drilling commences in 2026. This delay is to enable the heavier land rigs to be mobilized for this deep drill target. Tiger Deep the anomaly we discussed in our last release is being targeted prior to the Christmas break as are initial holes on the Hydro Lands.

Our integrated geophysical and geochemical toolkit has delivered for us in the past, and our exploration team has never been more optimistic than it is today. We are well funded for our 2025-2026 work programs and have announced our plan to list on the NYSE to access deeper U.S. capital markets. As we move into the upcoming winter and summer 2026 drill campaigns across the district, we've asked the team to systematically pursue the highest-priority targets, and while we haven't yet defined a second Lion or Nisk-style zone, we believe this is one of the most target-rich exploration opportunities over the next 12 months."

Nisk East Drilling (Table 1)

Drilling at the Nisk East target includes holes PMN-25-005 thru PMN-25-011. Modest intersections of Ni-Cu-Pd mineralization was intersected in holes PMN-25-005, 008 and 011, including 4.00m of 2.34% CuEqRec1 in hole PMN-25-005. The Nisk East area is now being re-assessed with the recent land acquisition to the west (see news release November 4, 2025) which now allows Power Metallic to effectively target the extension of the geology that hosts this Ni-Cu system (Figure 2) and is on strike with the Lion and recently intersected Lion West zone (assays pending).

Power Metallic has also received assay results from the first 7 holes on the recent Li-FT acquisition (PMX-25-001 thru PMX-25-007). All holes were targeting airborne EM anomalies, and all holes intersected semi-massive to massive sulphides explaining the EM conductors. No significant metal values were intersected. Currently the PMX program is focusing on the recently acquired 'Hydro Lands' which is interpreted to be the folded extension of the Nisk-Lion system (see news release November 4, 2025). Drill permits have now been granted for this area allowing drilling to commence on this important target area.

Lion-Tiger Deep Target

'Deep Tiger' is a target that is based on reinterpretation of previous Tiger drilling that suggests Tiger is made up of 'rip-up' blocks of massive Ni-Cu sulphides carried in a tonalitic intrusion from a deeper larger deposit (Figure 3). This is supported by the fact that Tiger massive sulphides are hosted in a late tonalitic intrusion, and that recent surface mapping in the area discovered similar 'rip-up' blocks in outcrop (Figure 4) of both massive sulphides, and ultra-mafic in tonalite intrusions. Using various vectoring techniques Power Metallic believes it is directing exploration proximal to the source of this mineralization.

As reported on November 4, 2025, three holes (PML-25-021, 026a, 030) were drilled below the depth resolution of the recent 2025 airborne VTEM survey completed by Power Metallic. These holes were testing the area between Lion and Tiger to intersect the mineralized horizon and provide drill holes for BHEM surveys.

As previously reported hole PML-25-026, drilled closest to Lion returned no significant assays, while the BHEM survey off-hole conductors were pointing to the presence of the Lion deposit. Hole PML-25-021 intersected Lion style mineralization (3.70m @ 1.48% CuEqRec1) and indicated an off-hole anomaly (Figure 2) east of the Lion deposit. Subsequent drilling of this BHEM off-hole target (PML-25-038) intersected more Lion style mineralization (assays pending) and BHEM surveys are currently being conducted on this hole.

The most easterly hole, PML-25-030 (assays pending) did not intersect significant visual mineralization, but the BHEM survey produced a large, possibly thick bodied anomaly deeper and to the east of the hole. This BHEM panel was tested by hole PML-25-035 (assays pending), which intersected sulphide mineralization in ultra-mafic host rock. This better refined the off-hole BHEM anomalies (Figure 2) which are currently being tested with drilling.

Lion-Tiger Deep Target - Hole PN-24-064

During drilling in 2024 on the Lion deposit, one hole, PN-24-064 was extended well beyond the Lion Zone and the hole ended at 1046 meters. Subsequent BHEM surveys indicated a very large off-hole anomaly, but the full anomaly couldn't be modelled as the conductor was below and in front of the end of the hole. This hole was subsequently extended 300 meters (end at 1347 meters) and resurveyed with BHEM. This has resulted in the largest off-hole conductor to date on the project.

This conductor stretches in front of the mineralization and conductors developed in holes PML-25-021, 030, 035 and 038 (Figure 1). It sits on both our original Nisk lands and the Li-FT acquisition claims which Power Metallic own 100% (Figure 2). The BHEM panel is on strike with the newly acquired 'Hydro Lands'. It occurs in the interpreted location of a fold hinge which has developed into a priority target area for Power Metallic to find more Cu-Ni mineralization.

The location of the anomaly, its large size, its proximity to subsidiary BHEM anomalies, and indications of mineralization (Holes PML-25-021, 035, and 038) are all positive supporting evidence for advancing this target. Power Metallic is currently assessing the logistically options for drilling into this anomaly, with the extension of PML-25-021, that sits at approximately 700m depth already, as a prime candidate for extension and testing of the BHEM panel. Power Metallic will update this target's advancement in the coming weeks.

QAQC and Sampling

GeoVector Management Inc ("GeoVector") is the consulting company retained to perform the actual drilling program, which includes core logging and sampling of the drill core.

All samples were submitted to and analyzed at Activation Laboratories Ltd ("Actlabs"), an independent commercial laboratory for both the sample preparation and assaying. Actlabs is a commercial laboratory independent of Power Metallic with no interest in the Project. Actlabs is an ISO 9001 and 17025 certified and accredited laboratories. Samples submitted through Actlabs are run through standard preparation methods and analysed using RX-1 (Dry, crush (< 7 kg) up to 80% passing 2 mm, riffle split (250 g) and pulverize (mild steel) to 95% passing 105 m) preparation methods, and using 1F2 (ICP-OES) and 1C-OES - 4-Acid near total digestion + Gold-Platinum-Palladium analysis and 8-Peroxide ICP-OES, for regular and over detection limit analysis. Pegmatite samples are analyzed using UT7 - Li up to 5%, Rb up to 2% method. Actlabs also undertake their own internal coarse and pulp duplicate analysis to ensure proper sample preparation and equipment calibration.

GeoVector's QAQC program includes regular insertion of CRM standards, duplicates, and blanks into the sample stream with a stringent review of all results. QAQC and data validation was performed, and no material errors were observed.

Qualified Person

Joseph Campbell, P.Geo, VP Exploration at Power Metallic, is the qualified person who has reviewed and approved the technical disclosure contained in this news release.

About Power Metallic Mines Inc.

Power Metallic is a Canadian exploration company focused on advancing the Nisk Project Area (Nisk-Lion-Tiger)-a high-grade Copper-PGE, Nickel, gold and silver system-toward Canada's next polymetallic mine.

On 1 February 2021, Power Metallic (then Chilean Metals) secured an option to earn up to 80% of the Nisk project from Critical Elements Lithium Corp. (TSX-V: CRE). Following the June 2025 purchase of 313 adjoining claims (~167 km) from Li-FT Power, the Company now controls ~212.86 km and roughly 50 km of prospective basin margins.

Power Metallic is expanding mineralization at the Nisk and Lion discovery zones, evaluating the Tiger target, and exploring the enlarged land package through successive drill programs.

Beyond the Nisk Project Area, Power Metallic indirectly has an interest in significant land packages in British Columbia and Chile, by its 50% share ownership position in Chilean Metals Inc., which were spun out from Power Metallic via a plan of arrangement on February 3, 2025.

It also owns 100% of Power Metallic Arabia which owns 100% interest in the Jabul Baudan exploration license in The Kingdon of Saudi Arabia's JabalSaid Belt. The property encompasses over 200 square kilometres in an area recognized for its high prospectivity for copper gold and zinc mineralization. The region is known for its massive volcanic sulfide (VMS) deposits, including the world-class Jabal Sayid mine and the promising Umm and Damad deposit.

For further information, readers are encouraged to contact:

Power Metallic Mines Inc.

The Canadian Venture Building

82 Richmond St East, Suite 202

Toronto, ON

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This message contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements" concerning the Company within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "potential," "indicates," "opportunity," "possible" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results or realities may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such material risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, among others; the timing for various drilling plans; the ability to raise sufficient capital to fund its obligations under its property agreements going forward and conduct drilling and exploration; the timing for potential listing on NYSE; maintaining its mineral tenures and concessions in good standing; to explore and develop its projects; changes in economic conditions or financial markets; the inherent hazards associates with mineral exploration and mining operations; future prices of copper, nickel and other metals; changes in general economic conditions; accuracy of mineral resource and reserve estimates; the potential for new discoveries; the ability of the Company to obtain the necessary permits and consents required to explore, drill and develop the projects and if accepted, to obtain such licenses and approvals in a timely fashion relative to the Company's plans and business objectives for the applicable project; the general ability of the Company to monetize its mineral resources; and changes in environmental and other laws or regulations that could have an impact on the Company's operations, compliance with environmental laws and regulations, dependence on key management personnel and general competition in the mining industry.



SOURCE Power Metallic Mines Inc.







Contact

For further information on Power Metallic Mines Inc., please contact: Duncan Roy, VP Investor Relations, 416-580-3862, duncan@powermetallic.com


/NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES/

Fuerte Metals Corp. (TSXV: FMT) (OTCQB: FUEMF) ("Fuerte" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with Stifel Nicolaus Canada Inc. ("Stifel Canada") and BMO Nesbitt Burns ("BMO"), to act as co-lead agents and joint bookrunners on their own behalf and on behalf of a syndicate of agents including National Bank Financial Inc., Desjardins Capital Markets and Ventum Financial Corp. (collectively, the "Agents") in connection with a "best efforts" private placement offering by the Company of securities for aggregate proceeds of up to C$15,000,000 (the "Offering"). The Offering will consist of:

up to 952,380 flow-through common shares of the Company, each of which will qualify as a "flow-through share" (within the meaning of Income Tax Act (Canada) (the "FT Shares")) at a price of $5.25 per FT Share for aggregate gross proceeds of $5,000,000; and up to 1,655,620 special flow-through common shares of the Company, each of which will qualify as a "flow-through share" (within the meaning of the Income Tax Act (Canada) (the "Special FT Shares")) at a price of $6.04 per Special FT Share for aggregate gross proceeds of $10,000,000.

The FT Shares and the Special FT Shares are collectively referred to as the Offered Securities.

The Company has granted the Agents an option to sell additional FT Shares of up to an additional 15% of the aggregate amount of the Offered Securities (the "Over-Allotment Option"), on the same terms and conditions. The Over-Allotment Option will be exercisable, in whole or in part, at any time up until 48 hours prior to the closing of the Offering.

The Offering is expected to close on or about December 18, 2025, and is subject to certain conditions including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary approvals including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange") and the relevant securities regulatory authorities. The Offered Securities will be subject to a hold period of four months and one day from the closing of the Offering.

The Company agrees and covenants that it will use an amount equal to the gross proceeds received by the Company from the sale of the Offered Securities, pursuant to the provisions in the Income Tax Act (Canada) (the "Tax Act"), to incur eligible "Canadian exploration expenses" as defined in s. 66.1(6) of the Tax Act that qualify as "flow-through mining expenditures" as defined in subsection 127(9) of the Tax Act (the "Qualifying Expenditures") related to the Company's Coffee Gold Project, on or before December 31, 2026 (or such other period as may be permissible under applicable tax legislation), and to renounce all the Qualifying Expenditures in favour of the subscribers of the Offered Securities effective December 31, 2025.

In the event the Company is unable to renounce Qualifying Expenditures effective on or prior to December 31, 2025 for each Offered Security purchased in an aggregate amount not less than the gross proceeds of the sale of such Offered Security and/or the Qualifying Expenditures are reduced by the Canada Revenue Agency, the Company will indemnify the subscriber for the additional taxes payable by such subscriber as a result of the Company's failure to renounce the Qualifying Expenditures as agreed or as a result of the reduction.

The securities described herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "1933 Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for account or benefit of, U.S. Persons (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) unless registered under the 1933 Act and applicable state securities laws, or an exemption from such registration requirements is available.

The Coffee Gold Project

Coffee hosts 3.0 million ounces of open-pit heap-leach Measured and Indicated resource and an Inferred Resource of 0.8 million ounces. Coffee is located approximately 130 km south of Dawson in Canada's Yukon Territory. The project is on a clear path to complete permitting and has strong financial and technical partners who have the vision to advance the project to safety-focused production and build the next great Canadian gold producer. We respectfully acknowledge that protection of the water and lands around the Coffee Creek and mine project areas is of high importance to First Nations. Through cooperation, transparency, and respect, we pledge to continue to build on relationships with Tr'ondek Hwech'in, White River First Nation, Selkirk First Nation, and the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun on whose Traditional Territories exploration and mining activities will be carried out.

Details of the Coffee Gold Project can be found in the Company's press release of September 15, 2025, and in the technical report titled "NI 43-101 Technical Report for the 2025 Mineral Resource Estimate Update on the Coffee Gold Project, Yukon, Canada" with an effective date of August 21, 2025 and prepared by Messrs. Alan J. San Martin, P.Eng and Charley Murahwi, P.Geo from Micon International Limited (the "Coffee Technical Report"). The Coffee Technical Report is available on the Company's website at www.fuertemetals.com and on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

About Fuerte Metals Corporation

Fuerte Metals is a Canadian exploration and development company focused on advancing high-potential base and precious metals projects across the Americas. Our flagship asset is the 100%-owned Coffee Project in the Yukon, Canada - a high-quality gold project advancing through the final stages of permitting, engineering, and resource expansion drilling in preparation for a construction decision. In addition to Coffee, Fuerte holds a portfolio of copper and gold assets, including the Placeton-Caballo Muerto Project in Chile and the Cristina and Yecora Projects in Mexico, offering additional growth and exploration upside. At Fuerte, we are committed to building value through disciplined project development, responsible stewardship of the land, a safety-focused culture, and creating long-term returns for shareholders.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

The information contained herein contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. "Forward-looking information" includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the activities, events or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future, including, without limitation, statements with respect to, the completion of the Offering; the expected gross proceeds of the Offering; the use of proceeds from the Offering; the anticipated date for closing of the Offering; the receipt of all necessary regulatory and other approvals, including approval of the Exchange; the expected incurrence by the Company of eligible Canadian exploration expenses that will qualify as flow-through mining expenditures; and the renunciation by the Company of the Canadian exploration expenses (on a pro rata basis) to each subscriber by no later than December 31, 2025. Generally, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or the negative connotation thereof or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative connotation thereof.

Such forward-looking information is based on numerous assumptions, including among others, that the results of planned exploration activities are as anticipated, the price of gold, the anticipated cost of planned exploration activities, that general business and economic conditions will not change in a material adverse manner, that financing will be available if and when needed and on reasonable terms, that third party contractors, equipment and supplies and governmental and other approvals required to conduct the Company's planned exploration activities will be available on reasonable terms and in a timely manner. Although the assumptions made by the Company in providing forward-looking information are considered reasonable by management at the time, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be accurate.

Forward-looking information and statements also involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual events or results in future periods to differ materially from any projections of future events or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking information or statements, including, among others: negative operating cash flow and dependence on third party financing, uncertainty of additional financing, no known mineral reserves, the limited operating history of the Company, the influence of a large shareholder, aboriginal title and consultation issues, reliance on key management and other personnel, actual results of exploration activities being different than anticipated, changes in exploration programs based upon results, availability of third party contractors, availability of equipment and supplies, failure of equipment to operate as anticipated; accidents, effects of weather and other natural phenomena and other risks associated with the mineral exploration industry, environmental risks, changes in laws and regulations, community relations and delays in obtaining governmental or other approvals and the risk factors with respect to the Company set out in the Company's filings with the Canadian securities regulators and available under Fuerte's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information or implied by forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or reissue forward-looking information as a result of new information or events except as required by applicable securities laws.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the Policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE Fuerte Metals Corporation
VANCOUVER, December 2, 2025 - Grafton Resources Inc. (CSE: GFT; OTCQB: PMSXF) ("Grafton" or the "Company") announces that Jesse Hahn has resigned as a director and the Chief Executive Officer of the Company. The Company thanks Mr. Hahn for his dedication and service over the period of his employment and wishes him the best in his future endeavors.

With the resignation of Mr. Hahn, Mr. John Campbell Smyth has been appointed as interim Chief Executive Officer of the Company. Also, Mr. John Seaman will be joining the Company's board of directors and become the audit committee chair.

Mr. Seaman is currently a director of Fitzroy Minerals Inc. Previously, Mr. Seaman was the Chief Financial Officer of Premier Gold Mines from August 2006 to June 2012, Chief Financial Officer of Pediment Gold Corp. from April 2007 to February 2007 and Chief Financial Officer of Wolfden Resources Inc. from October 2002 to May 2007. In addition, Mr. Seaman has been a director and/or officer of various other public companies.

On behalf of the board of Grafton Resources Inc.

"John Campbell Smyth"

Chairman & Director

For more information, please contact the Company at +61403203402

Copyright (c) 2025 TheNewswire - All rights reserved.
Super Copper Corp. (CSE: CUPR) (OTCQB: CUPPF) (FSE: N60) ("Super Copper" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce the completion of its first exploration program at the recently acquired Castilla Gold-Copper Project, located in Chile's Atacama Desert.

The Castilla project represents a new foundation for Super Copper, complementing its flagship Cordillera Cobre property with an emerging gold-copper system characterized by multiple historical workings, high-grade surface samples, and strong geological signatures consistent with iron-oxide copper-gold (IOCG) style mineralization.

Program Highlights:

The 2025 first-pass prospecting program focused on evaluating historical mineral occurrences, mapping alteration zones, and collecting systematic samples to establish a modern geochemical baseline across the property.

Highlights include:

Systematic Fieldwork: Super Copper's technical team conducted site visits to more than 15 historical mineral occurrences distributed across the Castilla claim block.





Rock Sampling: A total of 93 rock samples were collected from outcrops, historical mine workings, and surface veins exhibiting visible copper and iron-oxide mineralization.





Geological Observations: Mineralization was observed in quartz veins with sulphides, copper-bearing carbonates, and iron-oxide veins containing specular hematite and magnetite. Vein thickness ranged from a few centimetres up to 3 metres, hosted primarily within Cretaceous quartz diorite and tonalite intrusions.





Historical Grades: Previous surface sampling from 2023 returned values of up to 5.53% copper with 1.7 g/t gold from limited sampling, confirming the potential for significant polymetallic mineralization at shallow levels.

Geological Context

The Castilla property hosts a network of sub-vertical veins trending north-south to north-northwest, with historical underground workings reaching depths of more than 50 metres. The combination of copper-gold mineralization, iron-oxide alteration, and structural control strongly supports an IOCG-style model, similar to deposits found throughout Chile's coastal range belt.

Zachary Dolesky, CEO of Super Copper, stated: "Castilla is a powerful addition to our copper-gold pipeline. It sits in one of the most favorable geological belts in the Atacama and displays the structural and mineralogical features we like to see in early-stage IOCG systems. This first program has already identified multiple zones of interest, and we're eager to review the analytical results and advance toward defining our next phase of work."

Next Steps:

All samples from the current program have been sent to ALS Laboratories in Chile for geochemical analysis, with results expected in the coming weeks. The Company is also incorporating field observations and mapping data into a new 3D geological model to refine priority targets for follow-up exploration and potential drilling.

Super Copper plans to release the complete geochemical results and geological interpretation once analysis and modeling are finalized.

QP Statement

All scientific and technical information in this news release has been prepared by, or approved by Michael Dufresne, M.Sc., P.Geol., P.Geo. Mr. Dufresne is an independent qualified person (QP) for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

About Super Copper Corp.

Super Copper is a mining exploration company focused on acquiring, advancing and consolidating global copper assets from early discovery through late-stage development. The company is currently advancing its copper projects in Atacama, Chile, a region with world-class infrastructure and the presence of global majors. By operating a single, integrated technical team and a milestone-driven acquisition strategy, Super Copper aims to build a portfolio of scalable projects capable of supplying the world's accelerating demand for copper. | www.supercopper.com

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed this press release and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, that address activities, events, or developments that Super Copper Corp. ("Super Copper" or the "Company") anticipates or expects may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this release include, but are not limited to: the expected timing, scope, and results of current and planned exploration activities at the Castilla Project; the potential to further define the relationship between gold and copper mineralization; the interpretation of geological, geochemical, and geophysical data; and the Company's plans to prioritize and advance drill targeting as part of future exploration programs.

Forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs, expectations, and assumptions as of the date of this news release and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: exploration results not meeting expectations; inaccuracies in geological models or interpretations; delays or difficulties in obtaining permits or financing; fluctuations in commodity prices; and broader economic, regulatory, and industry conditions.

Forward-looking statements are often identified by words such as "anticipate," "believe," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "plan," "may," "will," "should," "potential," and similar expressions, or statements that events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Although Super Copper believes that the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, no assurance can be given that they will prove correct, and actual results may differ materially.

Except as required by applicable law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements in this release as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Investors are encouraged to review the risk factors described in the Company's public filings before making any investment decisions.

SOURCE Super Copper Corp.
Samsung is offering some valuable perks to customers planning to shell out thousands of dollars on its first tri-folding smartphone, the Galaxy Z TriFold. The foldable will be available for purchase in South Korea starting December 12.

The company has announced a special program for Galaxy Z TriFold customers, offering an exclusive benefit in the event of display damage. Samsung will provide a one-time 50% discount on display repair costs.

Its unclear whether the benefit applies to both the inner and outer displays. The Galaxy Z TriFold features a 10-inch flexible inner screen, which is more susceptible to damage than the 6.5-inch external panel protected by Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2.

Additionally, Samsung has not revealed the display replacement costs, so the actual value of the 50% discount remains unknown. However, more details about the program are expected to emerge in the coming weeks as the phone goes on sale.

Samsung also ships a 45W charger and a case with the Galaxy Z TriFold. It is priced at around $2,450 (KRW 3,594,000) in South Korea. The foldable is available in a Crafted Black color option and will eventually make its way to China, Taiwan, Singapore, the UAE, and the US.

Source
Redmi Note 15 4G gets listed in Europe, here are its specs and pricing

Mere hours ago a mega leak brought us the specs, official images, and prices for the upcoming global Redmi Note 15 family - that is, the 5G models. But the Redmi leak bonanza continues today with the Redmi Note 15 4G, which has been listed by one German retailer despite the brand not announcing it yet.

As per the listing in question, the Redmi Note 15 4G will set you back 199.90, and you can have it in Black, Forest Green, and Glacier Blue colorways. So what do you get for that amount of money?



Redmi Note 15 4G official images

The phone comes with a 6.77-inch AMOLED screen with 1080x2392 resolution, the MediaTek Helio G100 SoC at the helm, 6/8GB of RAM, 128/256GB of storage, a 108MP main camera, a 2MP depth sensor, a 20MP selfie camera, and a 6,000 mAh battery with support for 33W wired charging.

The Redmi Note 15 4G is IP64 rated for dust and splash resistance, and it runs HyperOS 2 out of the box, which is disappointing considering the fact that HyperOS 3 is already out. This means the underlying Android version is most likely Android 15, even though Google released Android 16 back in June.

This listing makes it seem like the phone has already become official, which is weird since we haven't heard anything from Xiaomi or Redmi on the matter. You can apparently even purchase one, with or without a contract.

Thanks for the tip!

Source (in German)
Sen. Jesse Lujan on Monday formally asked that Joint Region Marianas work closely with the government of Guam and the University of Guam to ensure that the Navys expansion of its Family Child Care program does not drive up child care costs or limit access for local families.

This is not about stopping the Navy from helping its families, Lujan said. Its about making sure that when new federal dollars enter our childcare market, we arent leaving Guams civilian families behind.

In a letter sent on Monday to JRM commander Rear Adm. Brett Mietus, the senator expressed strong support for improving childcare access for service members, while warning that federal subsidies flowing into Guams small and already strained child care market could unintentionally push prices higher for civilian families.

I fully support our men and women in uniform and recognize that child care is critical for readiness and family stability, Lujan wrote. But while I support the economic gains that may come from allowing off-base childcare providers to participate in this program, I cannot risk that the already expensive cost of care for Guams families will skyrocket.

He said Guams childcare providers already currently face chronic worker shortages; enrollment caps and long waitlists; high operating costs; and middle-income families who do not qualify for assistance but still struggle to afford care.

Overlaying substantial federal childcare subsidies for off-base military families on top of this fragile system could intensify competition for limited slots and push prices even further out of reach for many local parents, he said.

Lessons from other military communities

In his letter, Lujan pointed to experiences in other U.S. communities that host large military installations such as Joint Base LewisMcChord in Washington, the San Diego Navy and Marine Corps cluster, Oahus bases in Hawaii, and the Norfolk/Hampton Roads region in Virginia, where heavy demand and generous fee-assistance programs have coincided with very high child care costs and long waitlists for both military and civilian families.

In many of these locations, the military has designated them as high-cost child care areas and authorizes higher reimbursement rates to purchase slots in the civilian market.

While those subsidies are vital for service members, they can also create strong incentives for providers to price toward the highest reimbursable rate, making it harder for unsubsidized local families to keep up.

We have a responsibility to learn from what has happened in other military communities, Lujan said. Guams market is much smaller and more fragile. If we dont plan this carefully, we could see waitlists grow and prices climb even further for parents who are already stretching every dollar.

5 key requests to JRM

Lujans letter to Mietus includes five specific requests intended to safeguard both military and civilian families:

A formal briefing for the Guam Legislature on how the expanded Family Child Care program will be implemented on Guam;

Data and impact analyses used to assess potential effects on childcare capacity, civilian access, and market pricing;

Clarification on monitoring, specifically whether the Department of War will track impacts on pricing, availability, and provider enrollment patterns in the civilian market;

Ongoing coordination between JRM and GovGuam agencies, especially the Department of Public Health and Social Services and the Child Care Development Fund Office; and

A joint commitment that JRM, DPHSS and UOG will undertake a comprehensive childcare market impact study to evaluate how the expanded Family Child Care program affects pricing, workforce, and access for both military and civilian families.

This effort is about fairness and balance in a shared system, Lujan said.

Our service members are part of our community, and we want them to have the support they need, he said. At the same time, Guams civilian families, teachers, nurses, small business owners, public servants, are just as essential to our islands future. We have to make sure that policy decisions, even well-intended ones, dont unintentionally price them out of access to quality child care.
A woman who was accused of trying to bring a syringe with methamphetamine to a detainee at the Department of Corrections faced additional charges when more drugs were found in her car, according to a magistrates complaint filed in Superior Court.

Dolores Lynn Meno, 40, was charged Tuesday with possession of a Schedule II controlled substance with intent to deliver as a first-degree felony, promoting major prison contraband as a second-degree felony, possession of a Schedule II controlled substance as a third-degree felony and promoting prison contraband as a misdemeanor.

At 12:23 p.m. Monday, Meno went to the visitor center at the prison to deliver items to a detainee.

An officer searched a pair of shoes shed brought and found a medical syringe containing methamphetamine, according to the complaint.

Corrections officers used a canine to conduct a free-air sniff of her car, and the dog alerted to the presence of drugs, according to the complaint.

Officers searched the vehicle, which had a minor child inside, and found a purse containing two pipes with drug residue and three smaller resealable bags that were turned over to the Guam Police Department.

Meno was released on a $10,000 personal recognizance bond.

If found guilty of all charges, she faces 36 years in prison.




Haiti - Elections : The electoral decree unanimously adopted by the Council of Ministers.





On Monday, December 1st, Laurent Saint Cyr, President pro tempore and Coordinator of the Presidential Transitional Council (CPT), chaired the Council of Ministers, in the presence of Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime, members of the Transitional Council, and members of the Government.



This adoption constitutes a decisive step in the CPT's commitment to organizing elections, despite the notable absence of Councilors Fritz Alphonse Jean, Edgard Leblanc Fils, and Leslie Voltaire (who support the Prime Minister's resignation).



"I congratulate my colleagues on the Presidential Transitional Council (CPT) and the Government for the Council of Ministers meeting this Monday, December 1st, which ratifies major decisions for the country, including the adoption of the Electoral Decree. We must finally offer the Haitian people the opportunity to freely and responsibly choose those who will lead them. By taking this decisive step, while remaining fully committed to restoring security, we reaffirm our commitment to putting Haiti back on the path to democratic legitimacy and stability," declared Laurent Saint Cyr.



Prime Minister Fils-Aime and members of the Government strongly emphasized their determination to implement "all necessary measures to guarantee a transparent, inclusive, and secure electoral process." The adopted decree precisely defines the procedures, deadlines, and mechanisms essential for the country to quickly elect its representatives, thus consolidating the foundations of democracy.



The Prime Minister reiterated that the course is now clearly set : "The absolute priority is the organization of elections. All State resources will be mobilized to achieve this objective. The publication of the Electoral Decree in Le Moniteur, the official gazette of the Republic of Haiti, constitutes a strong signal to the nation and the international community for a return to fully democratic governance."



The official publication of the Electoral Decree will allow the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) to publish the electoral calendar in the official gazette, "Le Moniteur".



The Council of Ministers concluded by affirming that the path to elections is "irreversible" and that the government will continue its cooperation with all national institutions and partners "in order to scrupulously respect the electoral calendar."



HL/ HaitiLibre


















John Lee orders full investigation into Hong Kong's residential fire

Xinhua) 13:07, December 02, 2025

HONG KONG, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government will set up an independent commission chaired by a judge to conduct a thorough investigation into the recent residential fire and ensure full accountability for those responsible, John Lee, HKSAR chief executive, told reporters on Tuesday.

The fire has claimed 151 lives and injured 79 people, said Lee, adding that the police are following up on approximately 30 remaining cases of missing individuals.

Three task forces established earlier are working relentlessly to pursue accountability, investigating all relevant parties and leaving no responsible person unpunished, Lee noted.

He emphasized that the HKSAR government is sparing no effort to support those affected. Measures include activating temporary shelters and arranging for some 2,500 people to take up temporary residence in transitional housing and hotels in phases.

The chief executive pointed out that the blaze has exposed failures across multiple links, making systemic reforms imperative. An independent commission will be set up to probe the fire, Lee said, adding that the HKSAR government will provide all necessary data and other support required for the investigation, and the commission will submit recommendations and reports to him.

Lee stressed that rescue operations will not cease, and no affected family will be abandoned. The HKSAR government will assist these families in rebuilding their homes.

He added that it is essential to adopt a long-term perspective and steadily restore the normal operation of society.

The Legislative Council (LegCo) election scheduled for Dec. 7 will proceed as planned, Lee said.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Kelas board chair Vertti Kiukas confirmed to both Helsingin Sanomat and Yle that Lehtonen is officially on sick leave. He added that Lehtonen is as far as I understand, both on sick leave and on a work trip, but declined to explain how this was possible.

Kela Director General Lasse Lehtonen is on sick leave this week, but is also reported to be on a work trip to Brussels, raising questions about his current status and the leadership of Finlands social insurance agency.

The agencys communications department told multiple media outlets that Lehtonen is off work for a few days, without confirming the reason or exact timing of his absence. He is currently being substituted by Director Kari-Pekka Maki-Lohiluoma.

The situation was first reported by Iltalehti, which has also published details of missed meetings, unexplained delays, and confusion around Lehtonens availability in recent weeks. According to the paper, Lehtonen failed to attend Kelas management team meeting on Monday and skipped other official duties, including a planned appearance at the Finnish Dental Associations council session last Friday.

Kelas board has commissioned an independent review of the agencys leadership. The review is expected to be completed in mid-December.

Questions about Lehtonens leadership have mounted in recent months following controversial comments about remote work and low internal satisfaction scores. A staff survey by Yle in November found only 23 percent of respondents considered Kela management decisions clear and well-justified.

In late November, Kelas oversight council held a meeting with Lehtonen to address internal concerns. After the meeting, Kiukas stated that Lehtonen still enjoys the boards confidence.

Lehtonen has stayed out of the public eye since the controversy began and has removed his profile from several social media platforms.

HT
We know where the bad ones live, and were going to start that very soon, Trump said during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. The announcement follows months of US naval operations targeting suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean. US forces have already destroyed over 20 boats and killed more than 80 people since September, according to the Pentagon.

President Donald Trump has confirmed that the United States will soon begin military strikes on land targets inside Venezuela, marking a major escalation in his administrations anti-drug campaign.

Until now, the campaign has remained maritime. Trump now says land operations are much easier and suggested that similar actions could follow in other countries if they are linked to drug trafficking.

Anyone sending drugs into our country is subject to attack, he said.

Trump accused the Venezuelan government of leading a drug cartel and claimed it is flooding the United States with narcotics. He specifically named President Nicolas Maduro, calling him a narco-terrorist and alleging he is tied to the so-called Cartel de los Soles, a loose network of Venezuelan officials long accused of profiting from cocaine trafficking. The US recently designated the group as a foreign terrorist organisation.

Trumps administration has not provided public evidence linking Maduro to direct cartel leadership. Maduro has denied all allegations and called the US campaign a pretext for regime change.

News agency Reuters reported that Trump gave Maduro a private ultimatum by phone on 21 November, demanding he leave Venezuela within a week. Maduro reportedly rejected the offer of safe passage. The following day, Trump declared Venezuelan airspace entirely closed.

The US has deployed over 15,000 troops and several naval vessels to the region, including the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford. The military presence, the largest since the 1989 invasion of Panama, has drawn comparisons to past regime-change operations. The White House denies oil is a motive, though Venezuela holds the largest proven crude oil reserves in the world.

The country holds over 300 billion barrels of heavy crude. US refiners, which rely on this type of oil for producing diesel and industrial fuels, have faced shortages due to long-standing sanctions.

The Trump administration insists the operation is focused solely on stopping the flow of drugs and undocumented migrants from Venezuela.

Airlines have already responded to the deteriorating security situation. Iberia and Avianca have cancelled flights to Venezuela for the rest of the year. Finlands Foreign Ministry updated its travel advice, urging citizens to avoid all travel to the country.

HT
Bag charms gain popularity among young consumers, fueling a booming industry

People's Daily Online) 13:22, December 02, 2025

Recently, the trend of decorating bags with charms has taken off among young consumers. On social media, topics such as "bag charms" and "bag buddies" have attracted hundreds of millions of views, with users actively sharing their styling ideas, creative combinations, and DIY tutorials.

Statistics show that in the first half of this year, sales of plush bag charms on one e-commerce platform jumped 164 percent year on year. Meanwhile, Chinese pop culture brand Pop Mart reported an astonishing 1,276.2 percent surge in revenue from plush bag charms.

Affordability is one reason young people are drawn to bag charms. Priced under 100 yuan (about $14), they add a touch of fun and freshness to everyday life.

A girl selects bag charms at the BearHans store in MixC Mall, Hefei, east China's Anhui Province. (Photo/People's Daily Online)

Yang, a young professional born after 1995 who works at an internet company in Beijing, sees bag charms as a personal statement. He decorates his bag with two charmsone reflecting the creative cultural elements of his hometown, Datong in north China's Shanxi Province, and the other inspired by the Chinese animated film "Ne Zha."

For many people, bag charms are more than just accessoriesthey express personal taste and interests, and even serve as emotional companions.

Xiaomeng, an anime fan, said, "Bag charms create a connection between me and my favorite characters and stories." Whenever she sees them, she's reminded of scenes and lines from the shows, which gives her a sense of encouragement and companionship.

Wang Yan, a professor at the School of Psychology and Cognitive Science at East China Normal University, noted that young people don't buy bag charms for their practical use. "They see them as sources of emotional comfort. This kind of emotional spending is a way to relieve stress."

Bag charms also satisfy young people's need to connect with others. A woman surnamed Wang said she's even made friends with others who share her love for bag charms.

Bag charms are increasingly serving as a social icebreaker among young people. On social media, hashtags like "bag charm buddies" and "bag charm friendships" are gaining traction, as young people share photos, styling tips, and other posts that help them continue interest-based socializing in virtual spaces.

Li Yongjian, a researcher at the National Academy of Economic Strategy under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, noted that bag charms allow for far more creative freedom than the bags themselves. They offer a stronger outlet for personal expression, helping people find others who share similar emotional needs and values.

At the cultural and creative store of the Hubei Provincial Museum in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Suan Niao (Garlic Bird), an IP featuring a small bird with garlic on its head, has become a bestseller. The character's name is a play of a high-frequency expression in the daily life of Wuhan locals"suan le" (let it be), which, in the local language, sounds like "Suan Niao," nodding to a relaxed and easy-going attitude.

Building on this IP, the museum incorporated design elements from historical artifacts such as the Sword of Goujian and the Spear of Fuchai to launch a co-branded "Suan Niao" series.

Small bag charms are driving the growth of a vibrant new industry. In Dongguan, south China's Guangdong Province, the entire ecosystemfrom design and R&D to manufacturing, IP licensing, and distributionhas become increasingly mature, gradually forming a complete industrial chain.

Dongguan is a toy export hub, home to more than 4,000 toy manufacturers and nearly 1,500 supporting enterprises.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
China's "little giant" firms surge amid innovation drive

Xinhua) 15:14, December 02, 2025

BEIJING, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- China has seen a surge in its "little giant" enterprises over the past years, underscoring the country's accelerating push to foster innovation-driven companies.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the number of such enterprises -- a designation of top-tier small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with high growth potential, advanced technology and strong market competitive edge -- rose from over 5,000 to more than 17,600 during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025).

"Little giant" enterprises stand out for their deep focus on innovation. In 2024, these firms on average invested more than 30 million yuan (over 4.24 million U.S. dollars) in research and development.

Often described as champions of single-product niches and specialized suppliers, the firms play an important role in improving the resilience and competitiveness of industrial and supply chains.

More than 60 percent of these firms are rooted in industrial fundamentals, and nearly 80 percent operate at critical points along supply chains. Around 90 percent directly supply at least three major domestic or international enterprises, and nearly 6,000 are expanding into frontier fields such as quantum technologies.

Experts believe that the rise of these specialized and sophisticated SMEs reflects how innovation has become their core competitive foundation and a crucial engine for China's broader economic growth.

Despite accounting for only 3.5 percent of China's industrial SMEs above designated size, they contribute 9.6 percent of total operating revenue and 13.7 percent of profits.

Looking ahead, "promoting the growth of SMEs that use specialized and sophisticated technologies to produce novel and unique products" is written into the Communist Party of China Central Committee's recommendations for formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) unveiled in October.

Li Lecheng, minister of industry and information technology, said the government will further strengthen the role of enterprises as primary innovators, enhance the contribution of high-quality firms to supply-chain resilience, and improve the business environment.

Policy priorities include better aligning innovation and industrial ecosystems, leveraging fiscal policies, and expanding targeted financial support, according to Li.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
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MGallery Collection, the boutique hotel collection within Accor Group's luxury division, is proud to announce the signing of V Villas Maldives at Mirihi - MGallery Collection, a distinctive all-villa resort scheduled to open by the beginning of 2026 in the heart of the Maldives, located on the secluded and natural island of Mirihi in the South Ari Atoll. This inspiring transformation will mark MGallery's debut in the Maldives, adding to the brand's global collection of singular, story-inspired hotels.

The property, formerly known as Mirihi Island Resort, will undergo an extensive renovation and expansion before reopening under the MGallery Collection flag beginning of 2026. Designed by the award-winning Studio Gronda, an international architecture and design firm, V Villas Maldives at Mirihi - MGallery Collection will feature 42 luxurious villas, including a mix of beach villas, overwater villas, and expansive multi-bedroom suites with private pools  all conceived to immerse guests in the beauty of the Indian Ocean while embodying the intimacy and personality for which MGallery is renowned.

Embracing the art of quiet luxury, the resort is deeply rooted in Maldivian heritage. Shaped by ocean rhythms and named after the delicate Mirihi flower, the island offers a serene return to simplicity and an intentional pause that reconnects guests with themselves. Nestled amid vibrant coral reefs and a tranquil protected lagoon, V Villas Maldives at Mirihi - MGallery Collection harmonizes with its natural surroundings to create an atmosphere of elegance and effortless comfort.

Owned by VIE Maldives Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Thailand's Major Cineplex Group, the resort reflects the Group's continued commitment to creating extraordinary hospitality experiences in Asia's most iconic destinations. The owner, Vicha Poolvaraluck, is also behind several celebrated MGallery Collection properties in Thailand, including VIE Hotel Bangkok - MGallery Collection, V Villas Hua Hin - MGallery Collection, and V Villas Phuket - MGallery Collection.

Guests arriving at the resort will enjoy a seamless 25-minute seaplane journey from Male International Airport, before being welcomed into a setting that balances relaxed sophistication with elevated design. The renovation project will include new interior concepts for all villas with coral-stone textures, the addition of a signature spa and wellness sanctuary, a new indoor and outdoor gym and yoga pavilion, upgraded F&B venues including an overwater restaurant, a brand new bar concept and the introduction of a main pool area.

The rebranding plan emphasizes a deep respect for the island's ecology, as well as meaningful guest experiences. It is curated for stillness and wonder, from immersive wellness journeys to the resort's acclaimed diving and snorkeling excursions among manta rays and whale sharks. The project is also part of Accor's ESG pilot program, with sustainability deeply embedded into its design, operations, and guest journey.

MGallery Collection currently comprises over 120 boutique hotels worldwide, each with its own unique story. With the upcoming addition of V Villas Maldives at Mirihi, the brand continues to grow its presence in exceptional leisure resort destinations.

Hotel website
Two of Florida's most iconic names unite to celebrate a shared heritage of timeless resort glamour. Casa Marina Key West, Curio Collection by Hilton - one of Florida's most storied resorts, originally opened in 1920 - announces the debut of its "Stay Like Lilly" suites in collaboration with Lilly Pulitzer, the originator of American Resort Wear.

Set on Key West's largest private beach, Casa Marina invites guests to immerse themselves in Lilly's joyful world through two newly redesigned oceanfront suites. Each features hand-painted art, and original prints from the designer's archival collection, complemented by exclusive beach and retail experiences that evoke the barefoot glamour of Florida from the 1960s to today.

This partnership marks a full-circle homecoming for Lilly Pulitzer's fashion house, honoring the designer's deep ties to Key West - the vibrant island that inspired the first prints and color-soaked lifestyle. Coinciding with the debut of Lilly Pulitzer's Vintage Vault, which reintroduces archival prints from 1962-1985, Casa Marina becomes the first Hilton property to showcase these revived designs in handpainted walls, fabrics adorning the suites, and original artwork framed as fine art in each suite.

Rooted in Hilton's "It Matters Where You Stay" campaign, the "Stay Like Lilly" suites are inspired by Hilton's "Stay Like" programming, which invites guests to experience immersive stays inspired by cultural icons across Hilton's award-winning portfolio.

Stay Like Lilly: Where Whimsy Meets the Waves

Celebrating the carefree glamour of barefoot island living, the suites capture the sun-kissed spirit of Key West in its mid-century heyday with heritage prints. Just steps from the turquoise sea, the "Stay Like Lilly" suites transport guests into a dreamscape of color and charm.

Revival prints like Chicken Check and Rosie's Petals dance across the interiors, infusing each room with motifs of Key Westchickens, sunshine, fish, and sea life.

Suite Details

The Double Queen Suite: A vibrant mix of pink and green patterns, rattan cane furniture provided by Circa Who, and whimsical motifs including butterflies, sun faces, and florals. Classic prints like Sarasota Weave and Coastal Cane from the Lilly Pulitzer x Lee Jofa textile collection appear alongside revived archival designs.

The King Suite: A cooler palette of greens and blues, accented by custom watercolor stripe prints across banquettes and bolster pillows. Each space features bespoke trim paint, decorative ceilings, and Lilly-inspired motifs.

Each suite is dripping in bright Benjamin Moore colors such as Splash, Sea Isle, and Blushing Bride, imagery from Lilly Pulitzer's archival prints, and select fine art from Nick Mele and the brand's photography decorate the walls. Day or night, playful touches can be found throughout including an issue of Lilly Pulitzer by Assouline, and thoughtfully selected Circa Who Furniture pieces. Finally, senses are awakened with a bright citrus and crisp ocean mist scent while a curated Palm Beach-inspired playlist is available to play in the background.

Reservations for the "Stay Like Lilly" suites will open to the public on Dec. 1, 2025, and will be available for stays through Nov. 15, 2026, via Hilton.com and ResortPass.com.

Hotel website
Maroma, a Belmond Hotel, is pleased to announce the appointment of Renata Portes as its new General Manager, effective November 24, 2025.

Renata is responsible for the strategic management and operations of Maroma, further enhancing the distinguished guest experience and upholding Belmond's commitment to its ethos of Slow Luxury, which invites guests to connect deeply with the rich culture and stunning natural beauty of the Riviera Maya. She will report directly to Tiago Sarmento, Area Managing Director, Mexico.

Renata brings two decades of exceptional experience within the luxury hospitality sector, having started her career with Belmond twenty years ago at the iconic Copacabana Palace, Rio De Janeiro, as a trainee. She progressed through various roles in Spa, Guest Relations, and Events, building a strong foundation in bespoke guest experiences and operational excellence. After gaining valuable international experience in the Maldives, Renata returned to Copacabana Palace, serving as Rooms Division Manager and later as Assistant Manager, Rooms.

In early 2023, Renata was appointed Hotel Manager at Hotel das Cataratas, a Belmond Hotel, and was subsequently promoted to General Manager in 2024. During her leadership tenure at Hotel das Cataratas, she guided her team through an impressive period of growth and achievement. Highlights under her direction include the successful launch of Y Restaurant, the property's sustained recognition as the only Forbes 5-Star hotel in South America, placement on the extended World's 50 Best list, the attainment of Three Michelin Keys, and recognition on the prestigious Forbes Edge list.

Beyond operational successes and industry accolades, Renata is also recognised for her impactful contributions to community and team engagement. During her time at Hotel das Cataratas, she significantly strengthened the property's dedication to local initiatives, including active support for the "Oncas do Iguacu" project, a vital jaguar conservation initiative in Brazil's Atlantic Forest.
At BTO 2025 in Florence, the air had that familiar charge that makes this event unlike anything else in Italy. BTO has spent more than fifteen years turning digital tourism into a living organism, a place where ideas collide, where people learn by exposure rather than instruction, and where new projects seem to appear almost by spontaneous combustion. It is the moment of the year when researchers, operators, and the usual tribe of innovators gather to compare notes, test intuitions, and understand where the industry is actually heading. It is also the main Italian meeting ground for anyone working in digital tourism who wants real conversations rather than polite showcases.

Inside this atmosphere, one session in particular drew the rooms attention. It appeared near the end of the program and carried the energy of something that wanted to open a new chapter rather than signal that the day was closing. Under the title Zero Click, Zero Friction, Romy Abbrederis, Founder and CEO of Lobby, set the stage by describing how her platform quietly automates quotes, bookings, room blocks, and a good portion of a hotels back-and-forth, using a direct bridge between the PMS and the inbox. At her side were Alessio Re and Simone Puorto, who had just introduced Elegia, the first AI orchestrator for hospitality, a layer meant to disappear into the background and change the way operations breathe without demanding attention.

Together, they looked at why the old way of running hotels is breaking down. They laid out a blueprint for a world where finding hotels and running them are completely changing. The group presented a vision that challenges the way the industry has operated for decades. Hotels are still running on workflows designed for an older version of the internet, based on clicks and manual searches. But guests have moved on. They now live in a world where they expect instant answers and immediate action. The panel took a hard look at this disconnect and treated it with the precision of a diagnostic session.

They started with a simple truth. The struggle of being a traveler and the struggle of being a hotelier are connected. Discovery and operations are both fragile right now. Simone Puorto explained that classic search has collapsed into the "zero click" era. Over 60% of searches now end without anyone clicking a link to a website. This isn't just a dip in traffic. It is a total change in how information moves. Being visible isn't about SEO ranking anymore. It is about being "readable" by AI models that don't give you a list of links but provide a direct answer. Your website isn't a destination anymore. It is a data source, and if machines can't read your hotel, humans won't find it.

From there, Alessio Re shifted the focus to the plumbing behind the scenes. He pointed out that even if you are visible, the hidden machinery of hotel tech is often too slow to keep up. Most systems update availability at intervals of 30 minutes or more. That makes hotels invisible to AI tools that expect real-time responses. The message was blunt: without digital architecture that works in real-time, even the best marketing story is irrelevant.

From there, the discussion shifted to hotel operations, where much of the daily pressure continues to fall on reservation teams. Romy Abbrederis outlined how intelligent automation can address the structural issues behind this workload without reducing human oversight. Drawing on her operational experience in her family's 4-star hotel, she emphasized that email remains the primary channel for complex, high-value interactions such as group inquiries and corporate travel. She noted that meaningful automation in this area depends on deep, real-time integrations with property management systems, making interoperability and connectivity more important than ever.

This focus on connected, real-time operations set the stage for the broader conclusion of the session: the challenges facing hotels are no longer isolated within individual workflows but are symptoms of a system that must function as a unified whole.

The session wrapped up with a clear vision: a frictionless future isn't sterile or automated just for the sake of it. It is a landscape where machines finally do the mechanical work they were meant to do. This leaves humans to handle the nuance and empathy.

The industry has a window of opportunity to adapt, but it won't stay open forever. Those who clean up their data and update their culture now will define the standards for everyone else.

Romy Abbrederis

Romy Abbrederis is the CEO and Co-founder of Lobby. Her company builds AI agents to help hotel staff work smarter rather than harder. By automating time-consuming tasks like answering emails and entering bookings, Lobby lets hotels process requests in seconds. Her drive to improve operations is personal because she grew up in her family's 4-star hotel in Liechtenstein. She worked in nearly every role, from housekeeping to management. Before founding Lobby, Romy worked as a software engineer in the gaming and banking industries. She is also the founder of the Vaduz Light Festival, which was the first of its kind in Liechtenstein and the first to be held in the Metaverse.

Alessio Re

"Data First, Talk Later" is the guiding principle for Alessio Re. Based in Zagreb, he is the founder of Klartika and the co-founder of Elegia, a new independent AI orchestrator for hospitality. Alessio specializes in marketing technology and AI solutions to help hotels navigate the messy world of data tracking and privacy. He views himself as an architect of tech ecosystems and cuts through vendor noise to build systems that actually work for the hotelier rather than the software companies. A true global citizen, he has lived in seven countries and visited over eighty. When he's not fixing hotel data pipelines, you'll usually find him hunting for Zagreb's best specialty coffee or craft beer.

Simone Puorto

Simone Puorto is a techno-philosopher, consultant with over 25 years of international experience, and the prolific author of five best-selling books exploring the intersection of technology and the travel industry. He is Head of Emerging Trends & Strategic Innovation at Hospitality Net, the leading global platform for hospitality professionals. Simone also serves as a board advisor to more than a dozen global tech companies, including BWG Global, RobosizeME, Sleap, and E23. He is the founder of several innovation-driven ventures at the forefront of hospitality and technology, including Travel Singularity, Elegia, and Rebyu. Simone made history by organizing Polybius, the world's first hospitality event held entirely in the metaverse. In the academic sphere, he is a respected MBA lecturer, and his written work includes over 300 published articles featured on leading platforms, in addition to more than 100 others published under pseudonyms or as a ghostwriter. He describes himself as a "digital bodhisattva," blending philosophical inquiry with technological advocacy to relentlessly explore and expand the boundaries of human potential.

About Elegia

Elegia is the independent AI orchestrator for hospitality. Founded by industry innovators Simone Puorto and Alessio Re, the company designs and implements bespoke technology ecosystems that optimize operations, enhance guest experience, and drive sustainable growth. With independence as its core value and foresight as its guiding principle, Elegia empowers hoteliers to navigate the complexity of AI adoption and transform innovation into measurable competitive advantage. Learn more at elegia.io.

General Info Elegia

Elegia
Sofidy acquires two Korner hotels in Paris from private investor

French real estate investment company Sofidy has acquired the three-star, 23-room Hotel Korner Opera and the three-star, 35-room Hotel Korner Eiffel in Paris from a private investor through a sale-and-leaseback transaction, for an amount reported to be around 10 million (172,400 per room). The Korner Opera is situated in Paris 2nd district between the Louvre Museum and the Palais Garnier and was renovated in 2018. The Korner Eiffel is located in the 15th district about 1.5 kms south of the Eiffel Tower and was renovated in 2015. Both properties are leased back to French operator Korner Hotels on a 12-year term.

Extendam acquires Le Chatelain Brussels Hotel in Belgium

French private equity firm Extendam has acquired the five-star, 107-room Le Chatelain Brussels Hotel in Belgium. The property is situated in the Chatelain district by the luxury shopping street Avenue Louise. The hotel includes a restaurant, bar and nine meeting rooms. Extendam plans to begin an extensive refurbishment of the hotel in summer 2026, modernising the bedrooms and renovating the public areas. The property will be rebranded under the Yalo brand and is scheduled to reopen in spring 2027.

Maven Capital Partners sells Ibis Styles Glasgow Centre George Square

UK private equity firm Maven Capital Partners has announced the sale of its three-star, 101-room Ibis Styles Glasgow Centre George Square in Scotland to an undisclosed international hotel group for 7.5 million (74,300 per room). The property is situated in central Glasgow between George Square and the central train station and includes a restaurant and bar. Maven clients developed the hotel and opened it in September 2015. The new owner will continue to operate the hotel under the franchise agreement with Accor.

Somnoo acquires 123 IMs shares in four French hotels

French owner-operator Somnoo has acquired the shares held by its partner-investor, French real estate management company 123 Investment Managers, in four hotels in France. The portfolio includes the four-star, 37-room Hotel de lUnivers Arras, the three-star, 80-room Ibis Styles Arles Palais des Congres, the two-star, 64-room Ibis Budget Arles Palais des Congres and the three-star, 56-room Kyriad Grenoble Centre. All hotels include a restaurant and have city centre locations. Somnoo had previously acquired 123 IMs shares in six other French hotels in April 2025, as reported in this newsletter.

New World Hospitality acquires Bloc Hotel Birmingham from Arora

UK owner-operator New World Hospitality has acquired the three-star, 105-room Bloc Hotel Birmingham, UK, from another UK owner-operator, Arora Group. The freehold hotel opened in 2011 and is situated in central Birmingham near the Jewellery Quarter. New World plans to strengthen the hotels position in the local market through further investment in the property. Arora acquired the property in July 2025 as part of its acquisition of Bloc Hotels.

Mont-Blanc Collection acquires Les Airelles hotel in Morzine, France

French owner-operator Mont-Blanc Collection has acquired the four-star, 55-room Les Airelles hotel in Morzine, France from the French Plagnat family. The property includes a restaurant and is situated in central Morzine in the French Alps, about an hours drive east of Geneva. Mont-Blanc plans to undertake an extensive 12-month renovation, increasing the propertys room count to 65 and introducing a restaurant, bar, and spa. The hotel is scheduled to reopen in December 2026.

About HVS

HVS, the world's leading consulting and services organization focused on the hotel, mixed-use, shared ownership, gaming, and leisure industries, was established in 1980. The company performs 4,500+ assignments each year for hotel and real estate owners, operators, investors, banks and developers worldwide. HVS principals are regarded as the leading experts in their respective regions of the globe. Through a network of some 60 offices and more than 300 professionals, HVS provides an unparalleled range of complementary services for the hospitality industry. hvs.com.

Russell Kett

Chairman, HVS London

+44 20 7878 7701

HVS
WATERFORD, Conn. - Waterford Hotel Group, a premier hospitality management company, and Maverick Hotels & Restaurants, a nationally recognized hotel developer and operator, have merged in a strategic partnership to accelerate growth, enhance operational efficiencies, and drive long-term value for hotel owners, investors, and guests. This move brings the combined portfolio to more than 50 properties, strengthening the combined company's position as a leading hospitality management firm and setting the stage for continued expansion.

Last year, we set an ambitious goal to reach 50 hotels within two years  a milestone we have now surpassed. This merger marks an exciting new chapter for Waterford and Maverick, strengthening our ability to drive performance, expand recognition, and fuel long-term growth. Len Wolman, Chairman and CEO of Waterford Hotel Group

Maverick properties span New England to the Midwest, with a significant concentration in Chicago. Waterford already has a well-established presence in the Eastern U.S. and a growing footprint in the South Central and Midwest regions. The newly added properties complement the company's existing portfolio, which includes full-service hotels, convention centers, and boutique inns. Notable additions include premium Marriott and Hilton-branded hotels, and charming New England inns, further diversifying Waterford's managed properties.

The merger enhances the combined company's ability to compete with leading hospitality management firms, expanding its operational scale, brand diversity, and geographic reach. With a strong development pipeline, the company is actively pursuing new acquisitions, management contracts, and redevelopment projects in high-demand markets.

This merger allows us to build on our collective achievements while unlocking even greater opportunities. Waterford's proven track record in hospitality management, combined with our shared commitment to excellence, makes this a powerful combination. We are well-positioned to expand our footprint, strengthen our competitive edge, and create greater value for owners and investors. Robert Habeeb, Founder and CEO of Maverick Hotels & Restaurants

The merger also brings new career growth and leadership development opportunities for associates across both organizations. Waterford and Maverick share a people-first philosophy, recognizing that engaged, well-trained teams drive exceptional guest experiences. Together, the companies are positioned for sustained growth in the evolving hospitality landscape.

About Maverick Hotels & Restaurants

Maverick Hotels & Restaurants, based in Chicago, Illinois, is known for its innovative, results-driven approach to hospitality, particularly in culinary programming, boutique hotels, and full-service resorts. Maverick specializes in maximizing property value and delivering unique guest experiences. For more information, visit www.maverickhotelsandrestaurants.com.

About Waterford Hotel Group

Waterford Hotel Group, headquartered in Waterford, Connecticut, has a nearly 40-year track record of success, managing properties ranging from full-service hotels and convention centers to boutique New England inns. The company is recognized for its results-driven approach, combining operational expertise with a commitment to delivering outstanding guest experiences and strong financial performance for owners. For more information, visit www.waterfordhotelgroup.com.
RIU Hotels & Resorts celebrated the eighth edition of the RIU Awards, which recognize the work of the most important travel agents from the USA and Canada for the chain. This year, the event was held at the Riu Palace Pacifico hotel in Riviera Nayarit, Mexico. Representatives from the most important agencies in the two main source markets for RIU in the Americas attended. The celebration, with a "Fiesta Mexicana" theme and details inspired by Otomi art, rewarded these professionals for their trust in the chain, whose work consolidates the brand's presence in both countries. During the gala, which gathered 90 people, RIU's Marketing and Sales team presented the latest news, such as renovations, openings, and new services.

This year, the work of the TOP Producers from both markets was recognized and special awards were presented. For Canada, the special acknowledgments were:

#1 Host Agency: The Travel Agent Next Door

The Travel Agent Next Door #1 Travel Agency: Red Label Vacations

Red Label Vacations Host Agency of the Year  Outstanding Growth: The Travel Agent Next Door

The Travel Agent Next Door Travel Agency of the Year  Outstanding Growth: Les Voyages Simon Pelletier Inc

For the United States, the special awards went to:

#1 Host Agency: Inteletravel

Inteletravel #1 Travel Agency: Vacations To Go

Vacations To Go Host Agency of the Year  Outstanding Growth: Travel Planners International

Travel Planners International Travel Agency of the Year  Outstanding Growth: Magnum Travel

All award winners enjoyed a program that included special activities, surprises, and destination experiences, designed to thank them for their commitment to the chain. Throughout the event, the guests were accompanied by representatives from RIU's Business Development team: Armin Kaestner (VP Sales, Contracting & Business Development, USA & Canada), Magnolia Crisostomo (MICE Director America), Celia Casado (Riu Partner Club Director), Nicole Brown (Sr. Manager, Partner Marketing  Romance & Business Development), as well as the BDMs team from the USA and Canada. Martina Peuser, Sales Director Pacific and Central America, and Carolina Osuna, Sales Manager Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta, also participated. RIU makes a special mention of the Operations team, led by Daniel Camponovo and Raul Pedregal, for their support throughout the weekend.

The winners of the RIU Awards are chosen from the agents with the highest production throughout the previous year. Partners interested in participating in the 9th edition of the RIU Awards in 2026 only need to continue working with RIU and their mutual clients in planning their holidays, registering their sales in the RIU Partner Club.

For more information or reservations:www.riu.com

About RIU Hotels & Resorts

The international RIU chain was founded in Mallorca by the Riu family in 1953 as a small holiday firm and is still owned by the family's third generation. The company specialises in holiday resorts and over 74% of its establishments offer its acclaimed All Inclusive by RIU service. With the inauguration of its first city hotel in 2010, RIU is expanding its range of products with its own line of city hotels called Riu Plaza. RIU Hotels & Resorts now has 98 hotels in 21 countries. In 2024, the chain welcomed 6,7 million guests and provided jobs for a total of 38.055 employees. RIU is currently the world's 40th ranked chain, one of the Caribbean's most popular, and the fourth largest in Spain in number of rooms.

For further information please visit: www.riu.com.

RIU Press Department

+34 971 743 030

RIU
In 2026, heres the ultimate digital marketing playbook that I think hotels should adopt: The Trust-led Multichannel Growth (TMG) approach. Heres the breakdown:

1. Trust and authenticity

Over the past decade, hotels have mastered the mechanics of digital channels, from OTAs to metasearch to paid media. Yet the landscape has reached equilibrium. Every channel is crowded. Every dollar is measured. Every campaign is optimized.

And yet, many hotels continue to struggle to grow sustainably. Thats because the real bottleneck isnt traffic or technology. It's trust. The next S growth curve of hotel marketing has to be supercharged by trust. This TMG approach is based on a simple but powerful principle: when travelers trust your brand, every channel performs better. Trust amplifies conversion, strengthens loyalty, and stabilizes revenue across uncertain market cycles.

As a 10-year SEO professional, I think this is exactly the hotel marketing trend leading into 2026. AI isnt just evolving SEO into search everywhere optimization. Its reshaping the very paradigm of digital marketing as a whole. For the past 20 years, our logic was simple: ranking = trust. If you ranked high on Google, you were seen as the best. However, the new equation is now: authenticity = trust. Thats why programmatic SEO doesnt work as it did before. Its trapped in path dependency: built for algorithms, not humans.

Authenticity means showing who you really are:

in a multifaceted, multichannel, and proactive way

living in your texts, images, videos, UGC, and CGC

with deeper and more emotional storytelling, beyond features and into identity

Whether youre a hotel or any other business, the goal is the same: build trust and reputation on every channel where your audience lives ("Fish where the fish are" - Charlie Munger). Then, let the guest choose how to reach you "their way," after having known you as easily and comprehensively as possible.

Direct-minded travelers may still check OTAs for verified reviews - they just prefer to "book" direct. Likewise, OTA-minded travelers may still visit your website to see who you are - they just prefer to "book" with OTAs. The new world is blended, not binary.

The essence of hotel marketing - and really any business - lies in systems and leverage. You should build a positive flywheel that doesnt break even when youre not in the room. It should be simple and intuitive. If its too complex, its probably wrong.

Naval Ravikant lists 4 levers of growth: labor, capital, code, and media. Hotels often underestimate the media, but it may be the most powerful leverage in 2026. Because, as Naval puts it, the media is permissionless - unlike labor or capital. No one (but yourself) can stop you from using it to get a competitive edge quickly.

Source: Travel Media Group

2. Rented vs owned channels?

As a 10-year SEO, I have to say, it's a myth that there's an "unspoken agreement" between Google and publishers: publishers give Google content in return for "clicks" to their websites. It is not the "unspoken agreement" that drives the partnership between publishers and search engines, or operators and distribution channels. It is always the customer behaviors and preferences, period. All other metrics are not unimportant, but secondary. There used to be "clicks" generated, but now they're shrinking because underneath the consumption paradigms have changed, and the intermediaries are adapting to it.

This is why in 2026, hotels should rethink their strategies to rebalance buying fish from grocery stores (OTAs) vs catching their own fish with more expensive bait. Dont overthink if it's a rented channel or not. In fact, other than reputation, mindshare, and loyalty (which bring you direct traffic), nothing is really owned - not Google organic traffic, not AI citations, certainly not PPC traffic (because its paid).

Last month, Booking Holdings announced a $457 million writedown on the Kayak brand, citing Googles push for AI-driven overviews and paid links over organic clicks, which squeezed customer acquisition costs. For the same reason, the brand value of Trivago and Tripadvisor fell to $53M and $36M at year's end 2024, down from $88M and $43M a year ago. Just because your brand and website are owned does not mean the (organic) traffic is.

Marketers would have a bigger problem if they put the secondary metrics (traffic obsession, data ownership, conversion attribution, etc) ahead of customers.

Source: Travel Media Group

3. Summary

In sum, my 2026 hotel marketing playbook would be:

A) Social media = TOFU reach + meaningful trust building

Social media informs and inspires travel, and more importantly, it builds brand equity in ways no other channel can do at a similar level. Social wins on most aspects, including content authenticity, targeting precision (interest-based algorithms), reach, quality, and cost effectiveness (CPM)

B) Multichannel distribution (direct + OTA + metasearch) + reviews responding = BOFU reach + improved OTA rankings + efficient acquisition

Review reading is almost always an "in-market" buying signal (especially critical for big group accounts in the RFP season). Review responding is one of the most underestimated content strategies to influence booking decisions at scale. It helps increase your OTA rankings and the hotel's conversion rates on ALL channels. It's an efficient yet powerful lever.

C) Let AI do the heavy lifting of content syndication and trust scaling

AI will only amplify the leveraged influence of the TMG approach, thanks to the scaling law, at virtually zero cost to you. For example, more review responses mean a disproportionately higher chance of being cited in AI outputs. This is exactly the concept of the scaling law, which describes predictable nonlinear growth patterns and explains why some systems get much better with size. In AI, performance improvements follow clean scaling laws. This is why bigger models + more data work so well for LLMs. Guess how LLM originally got its name?

Laozi said, The way never acts, yet nothing is left undone . Marketing that tries to force outcomes often burns out. Marketing that aligns with the natural flow of traveler behavior, i.e., meeting them where intent already exists, compounds.

The TMG approach isnt about chasing attribution. Its about striking a balance - between short-term performance and long-term brand growth, between pouncing and preserving, and between doing less yet achieving more. When your hotels marketing becomes trust-led, growth follows naturally.

About Travel Media Group (TMG)

Travel Media Group (TMG) is a hospitality marketing partner for brands, hotel management groups, and individual properties. Services include custom social media marketing, professional review response, online reputation management, and more. TMG is responsible for elevating our hotel partners' online presence while helping hotels manage real-time guest feedback. Travel Media Group is a business that is a part of the Dominion Enterprises Family.
Googles Performance Max (PMax) campaign type offers a highly automated way to reach customers across all of Googles channels, including Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Discovery, and Maps.

What is Performance Max (PMax)?

PMAX is a separate Google Ads campaign type that uses Googles AI to optimize ad delivery across nearly every part of the Google ecosystem. Unlike traditional campaigns, PMax operates without needing keywords. Instead, the advertiser provides two main things:

Creative Assets: The text, images, and videos that form the ads. Audience Signals: Hints about who the ideal customer is.

With these inputs, Googles algorithms handle the heavy lifting of targeting, bidding, and ad placements. PMax is an ideal solution for businesses looking to maximize their reach and conversions with minimal manual management efforts.

Key Requirements for Launching a PMax Campaign

Google requires a minimum set of assets. For a successful launch, the following should be uploaded:

Maximize Conversions (total volume of conversion events), or Maximize Conversion Value (max value of a conversion regardless of volume)

(total volume of conversion events), or (max value of a conversion regardless of volume) Search Themes: Contextual information about what people are searching for.

Contextual information about what people are searching for. Audience Signals: Competitors, Customer match lists, Existing customers, etc.

Competitors, Customer match lists, Existing customers, etc. 20 Images: A robust library of high-quality visuals.

A robust library of high-quality visuals. 1 Video: A minimum of one video asset, which must be uploaded to YouTube . If no video is added, Google auto-generates videos from images/text.

A minimum of one video asset, which . If no video is added, Google auto-generates videos from images/text. Square Logo

Googles automation generates asset combinations and optimizes delivery in real time. Provide as many relevant search themes and audience signals (especially first-party data) as possible. We highly recommend disabling automatically created assets, as these often contain major inaccuracies, especially for major hotel brands.

The Downsides and Concerns of Running PMax

While PMax excels at driving volume, its automated nature introduces specific drawbacks and risks that advertisers must consider:

1. Audience Signals Are Not Direct Targeting

One of the most critical aspects of PMax is understanding the role of Audience Signals. While you provide signals to guide Googles algorithm toward your ideal customer segments, these signals are not a strict targeting mechanism. Google can, and often will, go beyond your defined signals to find new potential customers if its algorithm determines this will maximize performance. This can lead to your ads showing in placements or to users you might not have initially intended.

2. Risk of Campaign Cannibalization

The expansive reach of PMax can create conflicts with other active Paid Search efforts.

Cannibalization of Paid Search: PMax utilizes search terms that can heavily overlap and, therefore, cannibalize other Paid Search campaigns , particularly valuable brand campaigns, because they are low-hanging fruit. This means PMax can draw clicks that would have otherwise gone to a more controlled, lower-cost brand campaign.

PMax utilizes search terms that can heavily overlap and, therefore, , particularly valuable because they are low-hanging fruit. This means PMax can draw clicks that would have otherwise gone to a more controlled, lower-cost brand campaign. Conversion Attribution: PMax is highly aggressive in attempting to take credit for conversions. It is known to heavily cannibalize other campaigns you are running and take credit for every single conversion if possible. This can distort reporting, making it difficult to accurately assess the incremental value of PMax versus your other Paid Search campaigns.

Key Differences Between PMax and Paid Search

PMax is more automated and hands-off than traditional search and currently has more limited transparency and reporting when compared to Paid Search. While it can use search themes and audience signals to find high-converting users, Paid Search offers keyword-level control (bids, search terms report, negative keywords) and granular targeting at account/campaign/ad group.

PMax requires a broader asset set than search: headlines/text plus images, logos, and videos for multi-channel placements.

PMax can be cost-effective with lower CPCs and increased impressions, clicks, bookings, and revenue in many cases, since these campaigns are distributed across every part of the Google ecosystem, which supports full-funnel presence.

PMax does require a larger and consistent budget to fully optimize across all channels. We recommend testing it for at least 3 months to give automation sufficient learning data.

Future of PMax

PMax is constantly learning, and Google continues to address the transparency and reporting gaps by rolling out significant new features. Here are some new features we have observed:

Increased number of negative keywords: previously, it was up to 100, but now it can be up to 10,000.

was up to 100, but now it can be up to 10,000. Search Terms Report: shows the actual search queries users typed into Google that triggered a PMax ad.

shows the actual search queries users typed into Google that triggered a PMax ad. Asset Reporting: this report was upgraded to break down the performance data by individual assets (headlines, images, videos) so you can see how an asset performs specifically on YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, or Gmail.

this report was upgraded to break down the performance data by individual assets (headlines, images, videos) so you can see how an asset performs specifically on YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, or Gmail. Impression Share Reporting: this was previously only available for Paid Search and Shopping campaigns.

PMax is an ideal type of campaign for those looking to automate their campaigns and be more hands-off than traditional Paid Search campaigns. PMax is also constantly learning, and so should your negative keyword lists be a living document to ensure its not cannibalizing on current Paid Search campaigns or being advertised through irrelevant search queries.

About Cogwheel Marketing

Cogwheel Marketing is a full service digital marketing agency specializing in branded hotels, first leveraging brand systems then coupling that with supplemental strategies to maximize total online presence. Their reporting and business intelligence tool, Cogwheel Analytics, aggregates data from multiple sources to allow companies to identify trends and opportunities in their online presence. Our defined processes ensure the best positioning for your hotel against the competitive set and against other hotels of the same brand. Let us work with your sales and revenue management teams to identify and close the gaps and target your ideal guests.

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Mobile ordering has fast evolved from a convenience to an expectation. Guests increasingly want the freedom to order when and how they wish, and hotels are reaping the rewards. From higher guest spend to smoother operations, mobile ordering has become an essential ingredient in delivering modern, seamless hospitality.

IRIS, the global provider of mobile F&B and guest experience platforms for the hospitality sector, has reported a 42% year-on-year increase in mobile orders across its client base. Drawing on insights from over 4 million orders (processed annually through their platform from a sample of 2,000 participating hotels worldwide), IRIS unveils trends that reveal how guest habits are shifting and how hotels can harness these insights to drive profitability.

Personalisation enables hoteliers to accelerate upsell revenue

Guests are increasingly customising their meals, showing a strong preference for control and personalisation. Popular features include:

Allergen and preference filters to tailor meals safely

Order modifications such as bread type or cooking style

Personal notes for the kitchen team

Multi-language options so guests can view content in their own language

These small touches translate to big wins for hotels. Guests are more engaged - and more likely to spend extra. Upsells on sauces, sides, alcoholic beverages, and protein additions were among the most popular, helping hotels boost average order values significantly.

In-room dining remains popular whilst mobile ordering also extends appeal to wider outlets

In-room dining and room service remain the top-performing outlets for mobile orders, confirming their enduring appeal. Solo travellers, families and corporate guests enjoy the comfort and privacy of dining in-room - and theyre willing to spend.

Last year, IRIS largest single mobile order exceeded $1,500 with one hotel processing over 8,000 orders in a single month. This highlights how effortless ordering can directly translate into increased guest activity and revenue.

Alongside this, increasingly properties are growing the number of mobile ordering outlets across their hotels, providing guests with a consistent, convenient service irrespective of location.

The top five most popular outlets for mobile ordering are:

In-room dining Pool bars Lobbies / reception Cafes/coffee shops Restaurants

New revenue streams: Grocery & amenity ordering on the rise

Hotels are diversifying their service offering beyond traditional dining. IRIS data shows that amenity and grocery ordering (where guests pre-order groceries, amenities and toiletries before or during their stay) is gaining momentum.

IRISs largest grocery order this year reached almost $500, highlightingthis innovation satisfies guest demand and enables hotels to generate incremental revenue pre-arrival.

And whilst hotels are getting creative with menu items and often replicating the choices that are in their main restaurants, the top 5 most ordered items last year stayed as burgers, coffee, soft drinks, fries and juice!

Operational efficiencies enhance guest experience

Beyond revenue, mobile ordering is delivering measurable efficiency gains for hotels.

On average, guest wait times are reduced by 10 minutes, and operators report re-directing stafffrom order-taking to guest engagement. The result: faster service, happier guests, and smarter labour deployment - a crucial advantage amid ongoing staffing challenges and rising labour costs.

When guests spend the most

Insights from IRIS also reveal when guests are most likely to indulge. The biggest day for mobile ordering revenue this year was Saturday 15th February, as couples celebrated Valentines Day weekend with indulgent in-room dining - proving that love (and luxury) is best served via room service!

The second-highest revenue day was 30th August, coinciding with national holidays in both the US and UK, as leisure guests embraced staycations and long weekends to treat themselves.

Mobile ordering: A global movement

IRIS data reveals that mobile ordering has gained strong traction in key international destinations. The highest number of hotel clients using IRISs mobile ordering technology are in USA, Canada, UK, Australia, Japan, Mexico, Spain, UAE, Germany and Saudi Arabia.

This global spread highlights the universal appeal of digital convenience - from luxury resorts in Dubai, Bali and California, to city centre hotels in New York, Sydney and London. Operators worldwide are embracing mobile solutions to meet growing guest expectations.

Group consistency is key

More groups are benefiting from brand consistency and operational efficiencies across their portfolios with mobile ordering. Groups can centrally manage menus, templates, colours, and content within one CMS. Branded assets can be pushed down to all properties instantly, ensuring every outlet reflects the same standards.

This ensures uniformity, reduces manual work at property level, and helps maintain a consistent guest experience group wide.

It is encouraging to see the marked growth in the popularity of mobile ordering and the scale at which guests are adopting it. Hotels are recognising its dual benefit - improving service efficiency and increasing average spend. Even more exciting is how operators are investing in diversifying their mobile ordering offer to guests. Both in terms of menu options, outlet availability, and retail and grocery items.Were seeing operators expand their in-room dining menus to offer a wider choice of items from their main restaurant, extend mobile ordering beyond the guestroom across their properties, and even introduce grocery pre-ordering to capture revenue before guests arrive. These innovations are not only boosting revenue but also enhancing guest satisfaction - particularly for travellers who prefer private dining, multi-generational families who enjoy convenience, and business guests who want flexibility. Mobile ordering has proven itself as an agile, scalable solution for hoteliers. As guest expectations continue to evolve, we expect even greater innovation and adoption across the next 12 months. Graham Rushin, VP Sales and Marketing at IRIS

For more information on IRIS or to request a demo please visit iris.net/demo

Kate Fuller

Senior Marketing Manager

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ARIA Resort Las Vegas - Image Credit MGM Resorts International

Realty Income Corporation will make an $800 million preferred equity investment in the real estate assets of CityCenter Las Vegas, including ARIA Resort & Casino and Vdara Hotel & Spa.

Realty Income Corporation has entered into a definitive agreement to invest $800 million in the real estate assets of CityCenter Las Vegas. The investment involves a perpetual preferred equity stake in the ARIA Resort & Casino and Vdara Hotel & Spa, properties owned by funds affiliated with Blackstone Real Estate. Blackstone will maintain full common equity ownership, with MGM Resorts International continuing to operate the properties.

This transaction marks Realty Income's second collaboration with Blackstone Real Estate, following a joint venture involving Bellagio Las Vegas completed in 2023. As part of this announcement, Realty Income has increased its 2025 investment volume guidance to over $6 billion.

The preferred equity investment is expected to yield an initial unlevered return of 7.4%, with annual capped escalators beginning on the fifth anniversary of the closing. An early redemption premium is applicable if the investment is redeemed before the fourth anniversary. Realty Income will also have a right of first offer on any future sale of Blackstone's common equity interests in the properties.

The ARIA Resort & Casino and Vdara Hotel & Spa are located on the Las Vegas Strip and include approximately 5,500 rooms and 500,000 square feet of convention space. The properties are subject to an existing triple net lease with annual rent escalators and have about 26 years remaining on the initial term, plus options for three 10-year extensions.

The transaction is expected to close on December 9, 2025, subject to customary closing conditions. Financial advisors for Blackstone include J.P. Morgan, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, and Evercore. Legal counsel for Blackstone is provided by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, while Latham & Watkins LLP represents Realty Income.
Hotel de Rome in Berlin - Image Credit Four Seasons Hotels



Four Seasons and Gruppo Statuto plan to open a Four Seasons hotel in Berlin in late 2027, following a renovation of the historic Hotel de Rome.

Four Seasons, in partnership with European hotel developer Gruppo Statuto, has announced plans to open a hotel in Berlin by late 2027. The new establishment will be located in the historic Hotel de Rome, which will undergo a significant renovation before reopening under the Four Seasons brand.

The property, situated in Berlin's Mitte district on Bebelplatz, will feature approximately 140 guest rooms and suites. The renovation will maintain the building's original facade while updating the interior to blend historical and modern design elements. The hotel will include three restaurants and bars, with a rooftop terrace offering views of the city.

The Hotel de Rome, originally the Dresdner Bank headquarters, built in the late 1800s, was converted into a hotel in 2006. It will continue to operate under its current name until 2026, after which it will transition to the Four Seasons brand. During the renovation period, select services and amenities will remain available to guests.

The hotel will be managed by Christian Poda, who has been with Four Seasons since 1999. Poda, a Berlin native, will oversee the hotel's transition and operations. The renovation will be led by architectural firm Humbert & Poyet, focusing on preserving the building's historical features while introducing contemporary design elements.

The hotel's location places it near several cultural and historical landmarks, including St. Hedwig's Cathedral, the State Opera Unter den Linden, the Brandenburg Gate, and Museum Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The property is also accessible from Berlin Brandenburg Airport and Berlin Central Station, facilitating travel to other major cities in Germany and Europe.

Four Seasons and Gruppo Statuto have previously collaborated on projects in Italy, including properties in Taormina and Milan. This Berlin project marks Four Seasons' return to the city after a 20-year absence, expanding its presence in the European market.
Sandblu Santorini in Kamari, Greece - Image Credit Hilton



LXR Hotels & Resorts will open Sandblu Santorini in Kamari, Greece, in summer 2026, featuring 66 accommodations.

LXR Hotels & Resorts, in partnership with RMKA Private Company, has announced the upcoming opening of Sandblu Santorini in Kamari, Greece. The property is scheduled to begin operations in the summer of 2026. This development marks the debut of the LXR Hotels & Resorts brand in Greece.

The Sandblu Santorini will be located on the eastern coast of Santorini, near the historical site of Ancient Thira. The resort will feature 66 rooms, suites, and villas. Of these accommodations, 29 will include private pools. The resort will offer a range of amenities, including a beach area, two infinity pools, a spa, a fitness center, a kids club, two restaurants, a wine bar, a wine cellar, a bakery, and retail spaces.

The resort is designed to integrate indoor and outdoor living spaces, with each room providing access to a private terrace with views of either the pool or the Aegean Sea. The property will also include three villas designed for privacy.

Sandblu Santorini will be situated near Kamari Beach and will provide access to hiking trails leading to Ancient Thira. The location is a short distance from Santorini International Airport and the port, facilitating travel connections to European cities and the Cycladic islands.

This project is part of LXR Hotels & Resorts' expansion strategy, which includes nearly 40 properties operating or under development globally. The brand recently opened SAX Paris and plans further developments in Europe.
Le Chatelain Brussels



A summary of European hotel transactions provided by HVS

Sofidy acquires two Korner hotels in Paris from private investor

French real estate investment company Sofidy has acquired the three-star, 23-room Hotel Korner Opera and the three-star, 35-room Hotel Korner Eiffel in Paris from a private investor through a sale-and-leaseback transaction, for an amount reported to be around 10 million (172,400 per room). The Korner Opera is situated in Paris 2nd district between the Louvre Museum and the Palais Garnier and was renovated in 2018. The Korner Eiffel is located in the 15th district about 1.5 kms south of the Eiffel Tower and was renovated in 2015. Both properties are leased back to French operator Korner Hotels on a 12-year term.

Extendam acquires Le Chatelain Brussels Hotel in Belgium

French private equity firm Extendam has acquired the five-star, 107-room Le Chatelain Brussels Hotel in Belgium. The property is situated in the Chatelain district by the luxury shopping street Avenue Louise. The hotel includes a restaurant, bar and nine meeting rooms. Extendam plans to begin an extensive refurbishment of the hotel in summer 2026, modernising the bedrooms and renovating the public areas. The property will be rebranded under the Yalo brand and is scheduled to reopen in spring 2027.

Maven Capital Partners sells Ibis Styles Glasgow Centre George Square

UK private equity firm Maven Capital Partners has announced the sale of its three-star, 101-room Ibis Styles Glasgow Centre George Square in Scotland to an undisclosed international hotel group for 7.5 million (74,300 per room). The property is situated in central Glasgow between George Square and the central train station and includes a restaurant and bar. Maven clients developed the hotel and opened it in September 2015. The new owner will continue to operate the hotel under the franchise agreement with Accor.

Somnoo acquires 123 IMs shares in four French hotels

French owner-operator Somnoo has acquired the shares held by its partner-investor, French real estate management company 123 Investment Managers, in four hotels in France. The portfolio includes the four-star, 37-room Hotel de lUnivers Arras, the three-star, 80-room Ibis Styles Arles Palais des Congres, the two-star, 64-room Ibis Budget Arles Palais des Congres and the three-star, 56-room Kyriad Grenoble Centre. All hotels include a restaurant and have city centre locations. Somnoo had previously acquired 123 IMs shares in six other French hotels in April 2025, as reported in this newsletter.

New World Hospitality acquires Bloc Hotel Birmingham from Arora

UK owner-operator New World Hospitality has acquired the three-star, 105-room Bloc Hotel Birmingham, UK, from another UK owner-operator, Arora Group. The freehold hotel opened in 2011 and is situated in central Birmingham near the Jewellery Quarter. New World plans to strengthen the hotels position in the local market through further investment in the property. Arora acquired the property in July 2025 as part of its acquisition of Bloc Hotels.

Mont-Blanc Collection acquires Les Airelles hotel in Morzine, France

French owner-operator Mont-Blanc Collection has acquired the four-star, 55-room Les Airelles hotel in Morzine, France from the French Plagnat family. The property includes a restaurant and is situated in central Morzine in the French Alps, about an hours drive east of Geneva. Mont-Blanc plans to undertake an extensive 12-month renovation, increasing the propertys room count to 65 and introducing a restaurant, bar, and spa. The hotel is scheduled to reopen in December 2026.

HVS is the world's leading consulting and valuation services organization focused on the hotel, restaurant, shared ownership, gaming, and leisure industries. Established in 1980, the company performs more than 4,500 assignments per year for virtually every major industry participant. HVS principals are regarded as the leading professionals in their respective regions of the globe. Through a worldwide network of over 50 offices staffed by 300 experienced industry professionals, HVS provides an unparalleled range of complementary services for the hospitality industry. For further information regarding our expertise and specifics about our services, please visit www.hvs.com.
Scandic Opens First Hotel in Flor, Norway - Image Credit Scandic



Scandic has opened its first hotel in Flor, marking a strategic expansion with the Scandic Victoria Flor, previously known as Comfort Hotel Victoria.

Scandic has opened its first hotel in Flor, Norway, under the name Scandic Victoria Flor. This hotel, which was formerly Comfort Hotel Victoria, is part of Scandic's strategy to expand its franchise operations. The facility includes 97 rooms and meeting spaces that can accommodate up to 150 participants. This opening is part of Scandic's broader plan to strengthen its presence in western Norway and the Nordic region.

The hotel will be operated by the Helle family under the Scandic brand, indicating a long-term partnership. This move aligns with Scandic's growth strategy, which aims to add approximately 10,000 new rooms by 2030. Half of these rooms are expected to be under the Scandic Go brand, targeting the economy segment. Additionally, Scandic plans to open 30-40 new franchise hotels to expand its Nordic reach.

Earlier in the year, Scandic expanded its portfolio with the opening of The Dock 6939 by Scandic in Troms, its sixth signature hotel. The company has also signed agreements for five additional hotels, adding over 1,400 rooms to its offerings.
Suno has acquired Songkick: What it means for Artists

Controversial AI music platform Suno acquired Songkick as part of its new deal with Warner Music Group. But why would an AI music creation tool want to own a struggling concert listing service?

Since acquiring Songkick in 2017 WMG has been unable to grow the platform. In 2024, when selling off other content and media assets, WMG failed to find a buyer for Songkick.

In 2018, Songkick reported a total monthly reach of 15 million users.

As Songkick struggled, Bandsintown blew passed it. 100 million registered fans and partnerships with Spotify, YouTube, Apple, Shazam, and Google give Bandsintown a monthly reach of more than 4 billion.

All this led many to ask why Suno would want to acquire Songkick, or as CMUs Chris Cook wrote take Songkick off Warners hands. After all, most Suno creators have no intention of ever performing their AI generated music live.



Sunos Plans For Songkick

The combination of Suno and Songkick will create new potential to deepen the artist-fan connection. the AI music platform said in a statement. The combination of Suno and Songkick will create new potential to deepen the artist-fan connection.

But how? The answer lies in Songkicks data and how Suno can use it.

Suno is buying an additional layer of actionable fan insights, wrote MBWs Murray Stassen. The platform now possesses behavioral data for millions of users spanning the entire fan journey: what music people want to create, which artists inspire their ideas, and crucially; which live shows theyre tracking and planning to attend.

Murray speculates that Suno could also make part of yet another Superfan app. If true, Sunos joins the long list of music platforms telling artists they cant pay more, but will help them make money in other ways  like selling tickets and merch.

At minimum, alongside the song and artist data that Suno ingests, Songkick adds fan behaviors which AI will be used to generate music. Suno users are not just consuming content, said MIDiAs Mark Mulligan, they might be trying to co-create within the musical universe of artists they admire.

Should Artists Trust Suno With Their Fan Data?

Most music platforms collect and use fan data. A handful, like Bandsintown, also give Artists direct access to those fans.

Most music platforms use that data to improve the user experience, as Spotify does with personalized playlists. Using data to create songs that compete with the artists themselves is something entirely different.

Should artists trust Suno with all that fan data?

With its new deal WMG believes it has created guardrails that protect its artists. Other creators will not be so fortunate.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) last year filed a lawsuit accusing Suno and peer Udio of widespread copyright infringement. It claims that Suno trained its AI on copyrighted sound recordings without permission, and that its output undercuts human artists.

Sunos unlicensed copying sets back the promise of genuinely innovative AI for us all, said the RIAA.

The UK songwriter trade group Ivors Academy was more blunt. It issued a sharp public warning saying Suno was stealing the work, art and livelihoods of lyricists, songwriters and composers.

Bruce Houghton

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Berkshire Bounty Conducts Crowdfunding Campaign

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.  Berkshire Bounty, a 501(c)(3) food recovery organization, will conduct a crowdfunding campaign from Dec. 2 through Dec. 16 to raise funds to address an urgent and growing community need.

"Food pantries are serving more people than ever. Berkshire Bounty receives calls daily for more food," said Morgan Ovitsky, Executive Director of Berkshire Bounty. "Our goal is to raise $175,000 by the end of 2025 in order to ensure that we can serve Berkshire County through 2026."

Despite considerable challenges, Berkshire Bounty continues to make strides in mitigating food insecurity. In 2025, the organization:

Presented in November at a meeting with the Secretary of the Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Services and several county leaders to help coordinate action steps for the food insecurity crisis caused by the cessation of SNAP benefits.

Maintained communication with organizations across the emergency food network to strategically and effectively serve people who are food insecure

To date in 2025, distributed 575,000 lbs. of food to 32 emergency food sites, serving 21,000 individuals per week.

Berkshire Bounty will be raising the needed funds with the help of a challenge grant from 3BL, Berkshire Money Management, the Neil & Kathleen Chrisman Fund, John W. Field Tree Service, Inc., community members Eric and Laura Jordahl, and the Buchwald Family Foundation.

"We are so pleased to be able to give back to our community! Berkshire Money Management is proud to support Berkshire Bounty as they help our neighbors in a time of need," said Lusha Martin, Client Growth Strategist with Berkshire Money Management.

"Donations from individuals and local businesses comprise a huge portion of our support. Our community really pulls together, and we are grateful," said Mark Lefenfeld and Jay Weintraub, co-founders and Board members.

Donations for Berkshire Bountys end-of-year campaign can be made online on this dedicated page. For more information or to inquire about making an online or offline donation, contact Sara Haimowitz, Berkshire Bounty Director of Development, at sara@berkshirebounty.org.
Community members weigh in on their visions for Pittsfield at the first public forum on the new master plan last month. Another forum will be held in early winter with the goal of having the plan completed by June. PreviousNext

Pittsfield Queries Community Before Master Plan Update



The session had stakeholders writing down the important areas that the plan should address.

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  What should the city look like in the next 15 years?



That is what community members weighed in on during the first master plan workshop, held on Nov. 18 at City Hall.



The Pittsfield Master Plan is the policy guide for physical development, covering land use, infrastructure, sustainability, and more. The plan was last updated in 2009, and Pittsfield has engaged VHB engineering firm for a yearlong process of bringing it to the 2020s and beyond.



Director of Community Development Justine Dodds explained, "It's basically a roadmap for where the city wants to go in the next 15 years."



Community members transcribed their visions for Pittsfield on whiteboards corresponding with the eight chapters: land use, housing, economic development, historic and cultural resources, public facilities and services, open space and recreation, sustainability and climate resiliency, and transportation.



On both housing and land use boards, residents asked that vacant buildings in the West Side and beyond be rehabbed for housing or business.



"Less single [family] development, encourage more infill," the land-use board read.



Similarly, community members asked for more mixed-use and income community buildings and centralized services. "Build, build, build," the housing board read.


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Hong Kong leader John Lee says a judge-led committee will investigate last weeks devastating apartment complex fire, as officials sought to counter rising public frustration over the tragedy.

Mr Lee pledged systemic changes to the construction industry after the death toll in the Wang Fuk Court complex fire rose to 151.

The fire burnt seven of the eight towers in the Tai Po residential complex, home to more than 4,600 people, last Wednesday and over 30 people are still considered missing.

We must uncover the truth, ensure that justice is served, let the deceased rest in peace and provide comfort to the living, Mr Lee told reporters at a weekly press conference.

We want to ensure that we will prevent such a tragedy from happening again.

Authorities have so far arrested 14 people on charges of manslaughter and corruption  including scaffolding contractors, company directors and an engineering consultant  as part of their investigation into negligence and suspected corruption in a renovation project at the housing complex.

The initial investigation has focused on why the blaze expanded so rapidly, overwhelming firefighting efforts.

Security secretary Chris Tang said that seven of the 20 samples of safety netting, installed around scaffolding for the renovations, failed laboratory fire safety tests.

We have to expose the truth, do everyone justice and make sure the deceased can rest in peace, Mr Lee said.

He alluded to mounting public outrage over the fire that has also resulted in high-profile arrests. On 29 November, police detained a university student, Miles Kwan Ching Fung, who had started an online petition demanding an independent investigation into the fire.

Mr Kwan was arrested on suspicion of seditious intention, according to news reports. He was seen leaving a police station on Monday, but authorities did not release any information about his case.

We should turn our anger and sorrow into the power of reform, Mr Lee said, saying a judge would lead a committee to review systemic causes behind the fire and the findings would be made public. But an independent committee could carry less weight and accountability than a Commission of Inquiry with subpoena powers similar to a court.

open image in gallery Smoke rises a major fire engulfs the Wang Fuk Court residential estate in Hong Kong ( AFP via Getty )

When asked about the arrests made to quell dissent against his administration, the citys leader said only that he will not tolerate any crimes, particularly crimes that exploit the tragedy that we are facing now.

The inferno, which firefighters battled for 43 hours, has sparked a wave of public mobilisation unmatched since the 2019 anti-government demonstrations, which were crushed under a sweeping crackdown directed by Beijing.

In response, Hong Kong and Chinese authorities have threatened action against people creating unrest in the city.

Mistakes were made and we need systemic reform, Mr Lee said. Anybody who dares to sabotage this commitment to society, we will do anything that we can to ensure justice.

Across Hong Kong, thousands have visited makeshift memorials to pay their respects to those killed in the fire. But in some cases the authorities have stepped in to disperse large gatherings, seemingly to prevent spontaneous demonstrations.

On 28 November, hundreds of people gathered near Wang Fuk Court to donate and distribute supplies to the victims. Yet as the initiative gained popularity, the government sent in police and demanded that the volunteers leave, according to Human Rights Watch.

It was a day later that police arrested the university student, Miles Kwan Ching Fung. His petition, which made four basic demands of the government, gained momentum and collected over 10,000 signatures before being shut down. If these ideas are deemed seditious or crossing the line, then I feel I cant predict the consequences of anything anymore, he told AFP news agency. I can only do what I truly believe.

open image in gallery People react after a fire breaks out at the Wang Fuk Court ( Getty )

China s national security office in Hong Kong issued a sharp warning last week and threatened a hard stance against any protests. It warned individuals not to use the fire to plunge Hong Kong back into the chaos of 2019.

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, it said.

Elaine Pearson , Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said the blaze raises serious concerns about the Chinese governments crushing of what had been Hong Kongs free press, democratic legislature, and vibrant civil society, and the impact on government oversight and safety.

Its crucially important not to treat those demanding answers for the tragic fire as criminals, she said.
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Vladimir Putin was due to arrive in Delhi on Thursday evening to hold talks with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi at a delicate juncture for the long and largely warm relations between the two countries.

The tension around the Russian presidents trip was exemplified by not one but two rare op-eds run by a major Indian newspaper from serving envoys of foreign powers.

In a joint article for the Times of India, British high commissioner Lindy Cameron, French ambassador Thierry Mathou and German ambassador Philipp Ackermann denounced Mr Putin over the war in Ukraine, putting Delhi in an awkward position ahead of the presidents trip.

In his first visit to one of Moscows key traditional allies since the Ukraine war began in early 2022, Mr Putin was expected to pitch increased sales of Russian oil, missile systems and fighter jets.

Accusing the Russian leader of escalating the war in Ukraine even while peace talks were underway, the European envoys claimed Moscow had launched 22 of the largest air attacks of the entire war since the talks began.

These are not the actions of someone thats serious about peace. Neither are these indiscriminate attacks mere accidents, they said, they are a systematic choice by Russia to wage its war of aggression with absolute ruthlessness. And it must end.

Mr Putin, the European diplomats argued, was the one leader who could end the war any time he so wishes.

They also accused Russia of making incursions into European airspace, sparking concern in Nato countries.

In the wake of drone sightings near sensitive facilities, such as airports, in multiple European nations in recent months, a senior Nato military official warned that the alliance was considering pre-emptive action against Russia.

Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chief of the Nato Military Committee, accused Russia of conducting a campaign of drone incursions and cyber attacks in Europe and said that the alliance, led by the US, could adopt a more aggressive approach to deter the hybrid attacks.

Financial Times reported recently that Nato had been put on high alert after three vessels in the Baltic Sea were suspected of dragging their anchors in an attempt to damage energy and communication cables.

In another swipe, the envoys claimed that Russia continued to try to exploit and undermine trust in key democratic institutions, including elections, independent media, civil society and the rule of law, to further their own interests.

Russias malign global activity, including through cyberattacks and disinformation, shows us that the Russian leaderships appetite for territorial expansion and global destabilisation goes well beyond Ukraine, they wrote.

The op-ed and its timing alarmed Indian strategic affairs analysts. This vicious article against Russia just before Putins state visit to India breaches diplomatic norms, is a diplomatic insult to India as it questions Indias close ties with a very friendly third country, Kanwal Sibal, former Indian foreign secretary, said on X.

The Independent contacted the Indian foreign ministry for comment but did not receive a response.

Suhasini Haidar, diplomatic affairs editor for The Hindu newspaper, said that foreign ministry officials expressed their displeasure to the media, saying it was not acceptable for envoys to comment publicly on a third country, but did not demarche the envoys themselves.

Not long after, the Times of India published another op-ed, this time by Russian ambassador Denis Alipov, who said it was necessary to set the record straight on grossly distorted account of the conflict in Ukraine.

Mr Alipov described the piece by his European counterparts as yet another attempt to mislead the Indian public about the origins and context of the crisis.

It was Russia, in fact, that never sought this war, the envoy wrote. By contrast, it was Europe and the Obama administration that precipitated the Ukrainian conflict in 2014 by supporting a coup detat that overthrew the legitimate president, Viktor Yanukovych, in order to turn Ukraine into a bulwark against Russia.

He said the former Ukrainian president had negotiated a settlement with the violent street protesters seeking to overthrow him and that it was an agreement guaranteed by high European representatives.

They betrayed that commitment before the ink on the document had even dried, the ambassador said. Yanukovych was forced to flee for his life to avoid being lynched by neo-Nazi mobs. This was the first act of European treachery in the unfolding Ukrainian tragedy.

Mr Alipov also levelled serious allegations against former British prime minister Boris Johnson.

Immediately after the outbreak of hostilities, Russia sought negotiations with Ukraine to reach an early settlement, he wrote. Delegations from both countries met in Istanbul to finalise an agreement. When the talks were nearing completion in April 2022, then British PM Boris Johnson arrived in Kiev and dissuaded Zelenskyy from signing the deal. This was the third European treachery.

The ambassador decried Europes hypocrisy, which he said was on full display in its efforts to sabotage the peace plan proposed by US president Donald Trump.

Against the backdrop of Trumps outreach to President Putin and their Alaska meeting in August for peace negotiations, Europe has exposed itself as the true warmonger  and the chief obstacle to peace in Ukraine, Mr Alipov said. This was the fourth European treachery.

A man cycles past a hoarding with images of Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi in Delhi on 4 December 2025 ( Reuters )

Mr Putin is arriving with defence minister Andrei Belousov and a sizeable delegation of business leaders.

Michael Kugelman of the American think tank Atlantic Council said the visit offers an opportunity for Delhi to reassert the strength of its special relationship with Moscow, despite recent developments, and make headway in new arms deals.

Delhi is likely to discuss the purchase of more S-400 air defence systems among a raft of energy and defence deals.

Indian officials, though, worry that any energy or defence deal may trigger a reaction from the US.

In August, president Donald Trump doubled import levies on India as punishment for its purchases of Russian crude.

Ahead of Mr Putin's visit, Indian and Russian officials held discussions for deepening cooperation in areas from defence to shipping and agriculture.

The two sides had agreed in August to start talks on a free trade deal between India and the Eurasian Economic Union led by Russia. They are also in talks to expand the partnership in civilian nuclear energy, Indian analysts say.

Recent US-Russia talks to end the Ukraine war could make it easier for New Delhi to engage with Moscow, said Harsh Pant, head of foreign policy studies at the Observer Research Foundation think tank.

A large part of the trading relationship was based on energy, which is now losing traction under the threat of sanctions from the US," he added.

"And at the end of the day, only defence remains, which continues to bind the two together.
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India appears to have backtracked on an order for all smartphones to run a government-launched cybersecurity app, after a backlash over privacy concerns.

The directive was issued to leading manufacturers including Apple and Samsung, giving them 90 days to make sure all new phones are sold with the Sanchar Saathi app pre-installed.

They were also ordered to ensure the app could not be deleted by users, and that future software updates would roll the app out to owners of older phone models as well.

After a backlash from experts, opposition parties and members of the public, who called the move dystopian and said forcing a government app on users in this way put India on a par with North Korea and Russia, Indias telecoms minister said on Tuesday that the app would remain completely optional.

If you want to delete it, you can. If you dont wish to register, you shouldnt register and can remove it anytime, he told reporters outside parliament, contrary to the orders issued in the directive.

The Sanchar Saathi app allows users to block or track a stolen phone across networks and to weed out mobile numbers fraudulently registered under their name.

Government data shows the app  launched in January  has supported the recovery of more than 700,000 lost phones, including 50,000 in October alone, and helped cut access to millions of fraudulent mobile connections.

Authorities say Sanchar Saathi aims to prevent what they call serious endangerment to telecom cybersecurity stemming from spoofed or duplicated IMEI numbers  the unique 14- to 17-digit identifier embedded in every handset.

The government had argued that rolling the app out more broadly was a necessary defence against expanding cyber threats.

But the order prompted alarm among privacy advocates and risked a confrontation with Apple in particular, with the US companys policies prohibiting countries from forcing it to pre-install apps, including government-run ones.

The order, first reported by Reuters and since widely shared online, was not made public and was shared privately with select brands, including Apple, Samsung, Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi.

The opposition Congress party demanded an immediate rollback and said the move violated citizens right to privacy. KC Venugopal, Congress general secretary, said: Big Brother cannot watch us. This DoT (Department of Telecommunications) Direction is beyond unconstitutional

The Right to Privacy is an intrinsic part of the fundamental right to life and liberty, enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution.

A pre-loaded government app that cannot be uninstalled is a dystopian tool to monitor every Indian. It is a means to watch over every movement, interaction and decision of each citizen.

This is part of the long series of relentless assaults on the constitutional rights of Indian citizens and will not be allowed to continue.

We reject this direction and demand an immediate rollback.

However, critics said the policy outlined in the directive undermined a fundamental principle of digital autonomy. The government effectively removes user consent as a meaningful choice, said technology lawyer and internet-policy specialist Mishi Choudhary earlier.

Privacy activists previously criticised Russia for imposing a similar requirement earlier this year for its own state-backed messenger service.

Priyanka Chaturvedi, member of parliament, wrote on X: Sanchar Saathi mobile application mandate to every mobile phone manufacturer as a permanent mobile feature by the GoI (government of India) is nothing but another BIG BOSS surveillance moment. Such shady ways to get into individual phones will be protested and opposed & if the IT Ministry thinks that instead of creating robust redressal systems it will create surveillance systems then it should be ready for a pushback!

Another X user, Tehseen Poonawalla, wrote: Outrageous! Wake up INDIA! The Govts Sanchar Saathi app mandate is a blatant assault on our privacy & freedom! By forcing it pre-installed on every new phone, not allowing us to uninstall the app, all under the guise of safety, the government will potentially have the power to spy on our calls, texts & location. This is surveillance at its worst, & the government will have the power to track us like criminals!

We need to fight this.

Apple occupies a small but growing share of Indias smartphone market  about 4.5 per cent of 735 million devices as of mid-2025  according to Counterpoint Research. The company has previously locked horns with the telecoms regulator over development of a government anti-spam mobile app.

While Apple typically pre-loads its own suite of applications, internal policy explicitly prohibits pre-installation of any government or third-party software before sale. A person familiar with the companys stance told Reuters that exception requests have consistently been denied around the world.

Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint, said Apples position is unlikely to shift quickly: Apple has historically refused such requests from governments. He noted that the company might pursue a compromise such as adding an on-screen prompt encouraging  rather than forcing  users to download the app.

Its likely to seek a middle ground: instead of a mandatory pre-install, they might negotiate and ask for an option to nudge users towards installing the app.

The Independent has reached out to Indias telecom ministry and Apple, Samsung, Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi for comments.

India is the worlds second-largest mobile phone market, with more than 1.2 billion telecom subscribers. Sanchar Saathi has been downloaded more than 5 million times, according to official figures, and has been used to block over 3.7 million stolen or lost phones and terminate more than 30 million fraudulent mobile connections.

To digital rights campaigners, mandatory, non-removable state software sets a troubling precedent. They warn that the lack of public consultation over the move raises deeper questions about monitoring and data security at a time when smartphone-based identification, banking and communication tools are woven into daily life.

An X user who goes by the name Mohit Chauhan wrote: Countries with non-deletable govt mobile application on citizens phones:  Russia  North Korea.

Now the Modi government has asked smartphone makers to preload all new devices in India with the non-deletable, state-owned Sanchar Saathi app.
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Supporters of Pakistans jailed former prime minister Imran Khan are preparing for a fresh stand-off with the police as concerns grow about his wellbeing.

Khans Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party plans to hold peaceful protests on 2 December in front of the Islamabad High Court and outside the Adiala jail in Rawalpindi to demand access to him.

But authorities appear determined to thwart the demonstrations, likely setting the stage for a stand-off.

Khan has been incarcerated in the Adiala jail since August 2023. He and his wife were sentenced earlier this year to 14 and seven years in jail, respectively, on corruption charges they said were fabricated.

The former leader maintains that the dozens of cases filed against him are designed to prevent his political comeback.

Khan was elected prime minister in 2018 and ousted four years later through a parliamentary vote, which he accused the countrys powerful military of orchestrating at the behest of the US.

open image in gallery Khan has been incarcerated in the Adiala jail since August 2023 ( Reuters )

An order by Rawalpindi deputy commissioner Hassan Waqar Cheema bans all forms of public assembly  rallies, sit-ins, protests, processions  as well as the use of loudspeakers, display of weapons or potentially violent items and any attempt to breach police restrictions from 1 to 3 December.

In spite of the order, Asad Qaiser, a senior member of Khans party, said opposition lawmakers would gather outside the High Court before marching toward the jail.

The protests have been planned because the Islamabad High Court has failed to enforce its order and the Adiala jail administration is unwilling to implement the court directives, Mr Qaiser told Dawn newspaper.

Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari, a senior aide to Khan, said the restrictions imposed to thwart the protests shows you not only the oppressive nature of this set-up but also the fear of Imran Khan.

We have the right to peaceful protest. Today, according to the law, his family and legal counsel should be able to meet Imran Khan. Lets see how the authorities handle his family and his partys leaders, he said. Only further brutality is expected from them.

open image in gallery Supporters of Imran Khan at a protest demanding an update on his wellbeing ( Reuters )

The jailed prime ministers sons and sisters recently voiced concern for his safety after the family were denied access to him. In spite of a court order guaranteeing weekly visits, Khans family said they hadnt been allowed contact for several weeks.

Khans sons said they feared authorities were concealing something irreversible about his condition.

Not knowing whether your father is safe, injured or even alive is a form of psychological torture, one of his children, Kasim Khan, told Reuters. Today, we have no verifiable information at all about his condition. Our greatest fear is that something irreversible is being hidden from us.

He had earlier alleged that Khan was kept alone in a death cell in an environment of complete isolation.

Khans sisters said they had been denied access to him for weeks, despite multiple formal requests to prison authorities.

They said every attempt to meet the former leader in the Adiala jail had been blocked without explanation, forcing them to rely on second-hand updates about his condition that they claimed were neither transparent nor verifiable.

Their frustration boiled over last week when they staged a protest at the jail where they alleged that police had manhandled them. The episode intensified public scrutiny of the governments handling of Khans detention.

open image in gallery Police escort a vehicle carrying Sohail Afridi, chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, outside Adiala Jail in November ( Reuters )

The concerns only grew after members of Khans party revealed that he had been denied access to his personal physician for over a year. They said this could be because authorities were hiding serious developments regarding his health.

The Independent has reached out to prison authorities for comment.

Tension over Khans wellbeing had been building up since rumours began circulating, stoked by social media and some foreign outlets, that he may have died in custody. Though the claim remains unverified, it has caused outrage among supporters who have demanded transparency and proof of life.

Senior members of Khans party have shared similar concerns. Mr Bukhari said last week that the rumours about the leaders health were gaining traction because of the prolonged blackout. We should just be allowed to meet him, he told The Independent, arguing that a single visit would dispel speculation.

Adiala jail authorities have rejected the allegations, insisting the former leader was in good physical condition.

For supporters of Khans party who are on edge from years of political struggle and crackdowns, the coming standoff may prove a tipping point.
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Authorities in Sri Lanka are racing against time to rescue hundreds of missing people as death toll from rain and flooding caused by Cyclone Ditwah rose to 366 in one of the worst disasters the island has ever witnessed.

Satellite images captured by Planet Labs revealed the vast trail of devastation as the Kelani River spilled its banks, submerging the low-lying basins around it. The images from 30 November showed Sri Lankas fourth-largest river swollen far beyond its usual course, with floodwaters engulfing nearly the entire catchment area, mostly in the northern parts.

More than one million people were impacted by heavy rains and floods that swept through large parts of the island nation on the Indian Ocean, forcing nearly 218,000 people into 1,275 shelters, the Disaster Management Centre said.

Sri Lankan president Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Monday said the economically battered island was facing the largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history, far exceeding the damages caused by the devastating 2004 tsunami.

"With the nation affected from end to end, this is a highly challenging exercise that needs to be conquered," Mr Dissanayake said, requesting international aid efforts. "The estimated scale of destruction is severe".

open image in gallery A youth carries an elderly man as they wade through a flooded street after heavy rainfall in Wellampitiya on the outskirts of Colombo on November 30, 2025 ( AFP via Getty Images )

Three cyclones tore through South and Southeast Asia this week leaving at least 1,200 people dead, hundreds missing and millions displaced, with most number of deaths recorded in Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

Flooding and landslide related deaths were reported in more than half of the country's 25 districts, prompting the Sri Lankan government to deploy military to rescue people.

Over 24,000 police, army and air force personnel, aided by aircraft sent by the Indian government, are still trying to reach families stranded by floods with additional 367 people still missing, the authorities said.

More than 120 people were airlifted to safety in helicopters by the air force after water breached the dam of the Mavil Aru Reservoir in the eastern part of the island. About another 2,000 people were moved to higher ground for safety, the military said in a statement.

open image in gallery Before the floods: Colombo and Kaduwela, Sri Lanka, seen here on 21 February 2025 ( Planet Labs PBC )

open image in gallery Destruction caused by the flooding of River Kelani in Colombo and Kaduwela, Sri Lanka, due to Cyclone Ditwah ( Planet Labs PBC )

Dozens of families were trapped in their homes by flood waters in the commercial capital of Colombo, which is one of the worst affected places.

Sri Lanka's irrigation department on Tuesday said the water level of the Kelani River was receding, but warned residents living in lower catchment areas to remain extremely vigilant and adhere strictly to the safety and evacuation directives.

The department added that the flood situation that affected the low-lying areas of the Kelani River basin was also decreasing, Ada Derana reporterd. The flood situation is expected to improve later this week as the cyclone moves north to batter India.

Siriyalatha Adhikari, 74, said she had lost everything in the cyclone. We didnt have time to remove anything from the house. Everything happened so fast. Our whole house was under water, we didnt think it would flood so quickly, the resident of Biyagama in western Sri Lanka, told The Guardian.

open image in gallery An aerial view shows houses partially submerged in floodwaters after heavy rainfall in Kaduwela on the outskirts of Colombo on November 29, 2025 ( AFP via Getty Images )

The cyclone has dealt a heavy blow to Sri Lanka, still reeling from the 2022 economic crisis that left its entire population scrambling for basic food and medicine. With the islands recovery hinging on Western tourism, the storms damage is expected to further threaten an already fragile industry.

In the Colombo suburb of Kelaniya, as in many other parts of the country, cooked food is supplied by state agencies and through donations but many told Reuters they are yet to receive adequate help. More than 17,000 people are living in shelters waiting for the flood waters retreat from their homes.

"My sister and I were trapped on the upper floor of our home with our four children for two days. We slowly ran out of food. We only had biscuits and water to give them last night," Sunethra Priyadarshani, 37, told Reuters.

The family was rescued by a boat that delivered lunch to them. "We only have the clothes we were wearing. We will go stay at an aunt's house for now. But we really need help".

open image in gallery A man with his belongings wades through floodwaters outside his house in Wellampitiya on the outskirts of Colombo on November 30, 2025 ( AFP via Getty Images )

In Indonesia, president Prabowo Subianto on Monday pledged to rebuild infrastructure while visiting areas impacted by floods and landslides on Sumatra island that left thousands homeless and 474 people missing.

Flooding displaced 290,700 people in North Sumatra, West Sumatra and Aceh provinces, the National Disaster Management Agency said.

"We need to confront climate change effectively," Mr Prabowo told reporters. "Local governments must take a significant role in safeguarding the environment and preparing for the extreme weather conditions that will arise from future climate change."
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Indonesia says at least 753 people have died and 504 are missing after floods and landslides tore through several provinces in one of the countrys worst disasters in recent years.

Entire communities in the provinces of North Sumatra, West Sumatra and Aceh remained cut off after bridges collapsed, roads were washed away and communication lines failed.

The Southeast Asian countrys disaster management agency said nearly 3.3 million people had been affected and almost a million evacuated, including 290,700 in Sumatra and Aceh. At least 28,000 houses were damaged as the government continued efforts to restore roads, bridges and communication services.

Soldiers and volunteers dug through knee-deep mud and debris to pull bodies from ruined homes as President Prabowo Subianto toured some of the affected areas and promised to rebuild basic services.

open image in gallery This satellite image released by Vantor shows during floods in Peusangan river and weir at Bireuen district in Aceh, Indonesia ( AP )

open image in gallery A truck is stranded in the river at an area hit by deadly flash floods following heavy rains in Padang, West Sumatra province, Indonesia, 30 November 2025 ( Reuters )

He also warned local authorities to prepare for harsher climate-driven weather patterns.

We need to confront climate change effectively, the president told reporters. Local governments must take a significant role in safeguarding the environment and preparing for the extreme weather conditions that will arise from future climate change.

open image in gallery A couple sits in front of their house, which is half-submerged in mud following a flash flood that struck their village in Tukka, Central Tapanuli Regency, North Sumatra province ( AFP via Getty Images )

In Palembayan in West Sumatra, where landslides levelled rows of houses, families searched for missing relatives in the mangled rubble and under uprooted trees.

These used to be the houses of my parents, my brother, also my rice milling place, now all are gone, a villager, Muhammad Rais, told Reuters. We have nothing left.

open image in gallery A drone view shows an area hit by deadly flash floods following heavy rains in Palembayan, Agam regency, West Sumatra province, Indonesia, 1 December 2025 ( Reuters )

Survivors described the waters rising in the dark with terrifying speed. Aminah Ali, 63, from Pidie Jaya district of Aceh province scrambled onto her roof as floodwaters rose to upto 3m. I saw many houses being swept away, she was quoted as saying by the Guardian.

Now my house is ruined, full of mud. I never imagined a situation like this. Now I only have one shirt left, I dont even have any underwear, all my possessions are gone.

open image in gallery A woman walks past a mosque in a flooded area in Meureudu, Pidie Jaya district in Indonesia's Aceh province on 30 November 2025 ( AFP via Getty Images )

Like thousands of others, Ms Ali escaped with almost none of her belongings.

Another resident, Busra Ishak, said that giant logs barrelled through his village. Even an elephant could be killed by the incredibly strong current, he told the paper.

He managed to survive by climbing into a coconut tree and staying put for 12 hours.

open image in gallery People carry their belongings as they walk in the mudflow in the aftermath of flash floods in Meureudu, Pidie Jaya district in Indonesia's Aceh province on 30 November 2025 ( AFP via Getty )

In Aceh, rescue teams on Monday pulled two men clinging to tree trunks to escape raging floodwater, highlighting the danger that persisted days after the storms eased, Sky News reported.

Across Sumatra, communities continued to rely heavily on donations for food and drinking water, with some villages inaccessible by road.

The disaster in Indonesia was part of a wider weather emergency across South and Southeast Asia.

Sri Lanka , Thailand and Malaysia have endured similarly heavy rain and severe floods after a rare tropical storm formed unusually close to the equator in the Malacca Strait. Its uncommon for cyclones to form in this region because the Earths rotational force, which helps storms spin, is the weakest.

open image in gallery Area hit by flash floods in Palembayan, Agam, West Sumatra ( Reuters )

Sri Lanka recorded at least 366 deaths and 367 people missing after heavy rainfall triggered landslides across the islands central tea-growing region.

Nearly 218,000 people are still in temporary shelters, Associated Press reported.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe described it as the largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history, noting that it had touched almost every district and exceeded the reach of the 2004 tsunami, which devastated coastal areas but spared the interior.

open image in gallery A child plays in the mudflow in the aftermath of flash floods in Meureudu, Pidie Jaya district in Indonesia's Aceh province on 30 November 2025 ( AFP via Getty )

Thailand reported at least 176 fatalities, with severe flooding affecting around three million people in its southern provinces.

Floodwaters rose so quickly in Hat Yai, a major commercial hub, and left families stranded for days. Prime minister Anutin Charnvirakul, preparing for an election in January, said he was focused solely on the emergency response.

I am only thinking about how to help the people, he told reporters.

open image in gallery A child swims in the mudflow in the aftermath of flash floods in Meureudu, Pidie Jaya district in Indonesia's Aceh province on 30 November 2025 ( AFP/Chaideer MAHYUDDIN/AFP via G )

Rescue accounts from Hat Yai described residents trapped on roofs or upper floors as fast currents swept away furniture and vehicles.

Volunteers evacuated critical hospital patients by boat and the military deployed helicopters to reach people who had run out of food and drinking water.

One resident, Natchanun Insuwano, said his family survived on a single bottle of water for two days as they waited waist-deep inside their flooded home. I looked in the sky to see if a helicopter or drone might drop some food, he told the Guardian.

open image in gallery Area hit by flash floods in Palembayan, Agam, West Sumatra ( Reuters )

Malaysia saw three deaths and was forced to move 11,600 into evacuation centres as multiple cyclones churned across the region simultaneously last week.

While Cyclone Senyar struck Indonesia and affected Malaysia, Ditwah battered Sri Lanka.

Scientists say such events are becoming more intense as warmer oceans provide more energy for storms and shifts in wind patterns enable stronger cyclones to develop in areas once considered low-risk.

This years monsoon season was further destabilised by La Nina, a recurring climate pattern known for pushing warm water westwards across the Pacific, creating conditions for heavier rain, the New York Times reported.

While monsoon flooding is an annual occurrence, the combination of seasonal rains and late-year tropical cyclones is unusual in South Asia.

open image in gallery Local residents observe an area hit by deadly flash floods following heavy rains in Padang, West Sumatra province ( Reuters )

Governments have faced criticism for slow warnings and uneven disaster preparedness.

Thailands authorities, in particular, have been attacked for underestimating the danger before waters surged to chest height in some neighbourhoods.

In Sri Lanka, where economic recovery from its 2022 crisis remains fragile, officials warn that reconstruction needs span every district.

open image in gallery A man walks near fallen trees at an area hit by deadly flash floods following heavy rains in Padang, West Sumatra province, Indonesia ( Reuters )

Indonesia, meanwhile, is dealing with long-standing vulnerabilities  from youth unemployment to Jakartas subsidence  that compound its exposure to climate extremes.
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Arriving at the Cop30 climate conference in Belem, the gateway city to the Amazon, each of the 50,000 delegates is given a reusable metal water bottle printed with the cartoon of a flame-haired, spear-wielding figure known as Curupira.

Curupira is a spiritual figure from Amazonian folklore, who is considered a guardian of the rainforest and its animal inhabitants. According to the Brazilian Cop presidency, the mascot reflects the commitment to cut emissions and make protection of the forest a key ambition.

When asked what he thinks about such iconography, Dario Kopenawa Yanomami  an indigenous leader from deep in the Amazon, close to the border with Venezuela  only smiles. Its just propaganda. And we have to go beyond propaganda, he says.

Darios community is suffering from threats including illegal logging and land clearances, but the most pressing problem is illegal mining invasions from prospective gold miners. They cut down the trees, they flood the river with mercury, and they give alcohol and guns to other members of the community to try and turn us against each other, he says, adding that while things became really bad under the right wing populist President Bolsonaro, who was in power between 2019 and 2023, they have yet to notably improve under the current progressive President Lula.

While deforestation has been falling since Lula was elected, falling 30.6 per cent between August 2023 to July 2024 period, Lula stoked significant controversy by pushing for oil exploration in the Amazon region in the weeks leading up to Cop30.

A big Brazilian push for carbon offsetting projects at Cop30, which it is hoped will lead to more credits being sold based on the carbon absorbed by trees, has also been unpopular among indigenous peoples. How can you put a price on something that nature give us for free the air, the water, the sun, and the trees are not things that should be sold for profit, says Taily Terena, an indigenous activist hailing from the Pantanal in southern Brazil, which is the worlds biggest wetland area.

open image in gallery Around 100 members of the Munduruku people blocked the entrance to Cop30, presenting a list of demands that included the cancelling of carbon market projects ( AP )

On Friday, the entrance to Cop30 was blocked for around 90 minutes by around 100 members of the Munduruku people, with leaders sharing a set of demands that included the canceling a grain railway project, an end to commercial development of rivers, and the cancelling of carbon market projects.

Both Taily and Dario express concerns around Brazils flagship forest protection project the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) , which is intended to incentivise forest nations like Brazil to prevent deforestation, by essentially setting up a massive investment fund to give annual payments to countries to aid their forest conservation efforts. It doesnt really seem to be for indigenous people, it seems more a plan for white people to have the forest, says Dario  despite the fact that some 20 per cent of the funds are promised for indigenous people.

While the TFFF acknowledges the role of traditional peoples, it remains part of the financialisation of nature  a model that has failed to stop deforestation or protect communities, and instead prioritises profit, adds Eduardo Raguse, an activist at Amigas da Terra Brasil.

A forest community in the shadow of Belem

The location of Cop30 in Belem means that you do not have to go far to find evidence of the rainforest being destroyed.

A few minutes boat ride from the city lies the home of Seu Ladi, an 83-year-old forest-dweller of indigenous and Afro-Brazilian descent, who met with The Independent just ahead of the Cop30 climate talks beginning.

open image in gallery Seu Ladi shares indigenous knowledge of herbs, flowers, resins and other products that grow in the forest ( Nick Ferris )

Ladi has lived off the same small patch of land in the forest his entire life, growing native plants like acai and cacao, while also harvesting all manner of other herbs, flowers, resins and other products that grow in the forest, the knowledge of which he keenly shows off during a walk deep into the forest. His is a way of life that has remained largely the same for generations  which is not something that can be said for the city of Belem and its residents.

When I was younger, Belem was all forest, and the port was a beach, he says. We used to paddle there at 2am in the rain to sell herbs at the market, he explains. These days, huge swathes of the forest in the area have been chopped down, he says - a phenomenon which, along with the escalating climate crisis, has transformed formerly reliable weather patterns.

Nowadays it becomes too hot at times and there is not enough rain, Ladi explains. At other times, there is far too much rain, and the storms become so great that I worry the city is going to wash away. The weather patterns mean that certain products have become harder to find in the forest, including Brazil nuts, which Ladi searches in vain to find for The Independent.

open image in gallery Ladis patch of forest includes seveal towering Samauma trees, known as the mother of the forest, which used to be common across the Belem area ( Nick ferris )

open image in gallery The modern metropolis of Belem. When Ladi was a boy, the city was all forest, and the port was all beach, he says

open image in gallery Seu Ladi at his home in the forest ( Nick Ferris )

Teams of loggers continue to come to the area, searching for expensive hardwoods that fetch a high price on the black market. Recently they came and I became so angry, I wanted to take my hunting gun and shoot them right away, he says. I pray to God for them to stop, and I do believe that God will ensure these people will one day pay.

As for Cop30, Ladi says that the priority should not be about schemes to bring money to the rainforest, but should instead be about boosting the rights of the people that live there.

One thing we dont need here in the forest is money We live in the Amazon, we have all the wealth we could possibly need, he says. What we need is protection, and for the forest to be preserved from more destruction.

Away from Belem, among Brazils more than 100 uncontacted tribes, that question of protection becomes a matter of life or death.

Such groups include the Awa people, who live just 200 miles from Belem in the same state of Para, who are at great risk as loggers, ranchers and settlers invade their territory, according to Sarah Shenker, from the London-based NGO Survival International. There are approximately only around 350 Awa people left on Earth.

Elsewhere, in the neighbouring state of Mato Grosso, lies the indigenous territory of the Kawahiva, an uncontacted tribe of nomadic hunter-gatherers that are similarly under threat from land grabbers, loggers and cattle ranchers. Whats more, in the face of intense lobbying from external interests, the territory has yet to undergo the process of demarcation, which is when the government guarantees the tribes legal right to their land.

At the beginning of this year, the government promised that the demarcation would be done by the end of this year, but that's clearly not going to happen because we were already in November, explains Shenker. Ongoing work to pave a road that lies just 3km from the Kawahivas territory is set to increase threats to the tribe yet further.

The Brazilian agency for indigenous rights, Funai, was contacted by The Independent about these claims.

It is believed that around half of the 196 uncontacted Indigenous groups living in 10 countries across the world are currently facing extinction, according to a five-year study from Survival International released ahead of Cop30, due to threats including logging, mining, agribusiness, criminal gangs, and the spread of diseases.

open image in gallery An image of a member of the uncontacted Kawahiva people, captured by the Brazilian indigenous peoples ministry, Funai ( Funai )

open image in gallery Dario Kopenawa Yanomami, an indigenous leader from deep in the Amazon close to the border with Venezuela, who told The Independent that supporting indigenous people is about protecting all of humanity ( Nick Ferris )

Protecting indigenous communities is also not only about human rights, but also about protecting the forest itself. An estimated 36 per cent of the worlds remaining intact forest lies in indigenous peoples lands  and studies show that when indigenous land rights are legally recognised in Brazil, there is typically a 66 per cent decrease in deforestation within the lands borders than in neighbouring non-indigenous lands.

Back at Cop30, when asked by The Independent if he worries for the future of his people given the ongoing threats from miners, Dario Kopenawa Yanomami is unequivocal: the threat to indigenous people threatens us all, not just the Yanomami people. After all, he continues, indigenous people are the most successful guardians of rainforest environments that play such a crucial role in oxygenating the atmosphere, and regulating the rainfall patterns that secure our food systems .

Western people have to stop thinking that the Amazon is only for an empty forest. We indigenous people are there and protecting the forest, he says.

Supporting us is not only about protecting forest indigenous people, but about protecting everybody. If there is no future for indigenous people, there is no future for anybody.
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The closest thing we have to an HIV vaccine has hit the market  but less than a tenth of the doses needed to change the course of the pandemic will reach the people who need them, new figures suggest.

A plan between the drug company Gilead and international funders to give two million people the long-acting jab lenacapavir across three years  or 666,000 a year  will only avert up to 165,000 infections, which just isn't enough, said Dr Andrew Hill of the University of Liverpool. His research has found that getting 10 million people a year the jab could avoid half a million HIV infections and start putting us on a course towards ending HIV transmission.

Amid profound cuts to global funding, particularly from Donald Trump in the US, efforts to prevent HIV are being hit around the world, with Dr Hill believing this makes the rollout of lenacapavir even more important.

Just to offset the damage thats being caused by these cuts, we believe 10 million [people being given lenacapavir] is a minimum figure and ideally it should be a lot higher than that, he said.

Dr Hill called on rich countries including the UK to contribute to a proposed $400m fund in order to get lenacapavir  which given twice yearly can prevent almost 100 per cent of HIV infections  to enough people, without taking money away from other vital HIV programmes like testing.

A course of lenacapavir sells for around $28,000 (21,000) in the US, but drug company Gilead said it would sell the doses at no profit to low-income countries, paid for by the US presidents Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) and the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Dr Hills earlier research helped bring the cost down to $40 a year per person.

open image in gallery Doses to protect 500 people for a year arrived in Eswatini, where nearly one in four people are living with HIV ( AP )

Gilead said the plan to supply doses for 2 million people by 2028 was an initial step, designed to bridge access in low- and lower-middle-income countries until the generic drug manufacturers it has granted licences to can start producing more of the jab.

We are prioritising countries with the greatest need and working toward long-term solutions that can reach millions more, a spokesperson said.

Anne Aslett, CEO of the Elton John Aids Foundation, cautiously welcomed the progress.

The fact that there are doses arriving in Eswatini... at the same time that it's becoming available in, for example, the United States is unprecedented. This has never happened before, she said of supplies for 500 people landing in the small southern African nation under the Gilead agreement.

Earlier in the Aids crisis, the hardest-hit countries in southern Africa didnt receive antiretroviral medication for more than a decade after the US and the UK.

Were on the brink of new technologies with long-acting injectable medications like lenacapavir, Ms Aslett said, which was, as close to a vaccine as weve ever had and could absolutely revolutionise the way that we address new infections, particularly for vulnerable populations.

But, she added, at exactly the same time, we are seeing a massive drop in the funding that would sustain and accelerate those things that work.

The foundation is involved in work to help get countries ready to make use of the jab.

open image in gallery Earlier in the Aids crisis, the hardest-hit countries in parts of Africa didnt receive antiretroviral medication for more than a decade after the US and the UK ( Getty )

The biggest gains are to be had by targeting prevention at the groups at highest risk from HIV, including girls and young women, as well as LGBT+ populations and sex workers. Yet these groups have been left out of the scant prevention services the US still covers, causing massive gaps. The US used to fund the vast majority of the worlds supply of oral preventative drug pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

If those vulnerable populations  LGBTQ, young women, people who use drugs  if theyre excluded from things like lenacapavir, then youre not going to contain the epidemic, Ms Aslett said.

Her organisation is investing in new tools, like drone deliveries of drugs and testing kits, which she sees as the future of treatment.

Its revolutionising the idea of having to build huge amounts of brick-and-mortar facilities.

For the longest time, she said, all the money, the resources, the knowhow, the medicine, everything was flowing from the global North to the global South and now what were doing in sub-Saharan Africa is actually way more sophisticated than what were doing in the UK.

Its inspiring some of the foundations work at home, including a digital pilot in northeast London to get PrEP direct to consumers  including all the necessary tests  without ever having to go to your GP or a sexual health clinic.

open image in gallery Drones have been used to transport samples, and deliver testing kits and drugs ( AFP via Getty )

Mike Podmore, CEO of leading HIV charity STOPAIDS, said UK contributions werent just charity but an investment in its own economy and health as he called on the government to honour existing funding commitments to the HIV response, and increase them in future.

For example, he said, the UNs medicines access agency, Unitaid, ploughs significant funding back into the UK economy and UK life sciences, to the tune of roughly 250m over 10 years to universities.

This research and work to make drugs accessible also benefits people in the UK living with HIV, he added.

There isnt this distinction or dividing line between the impact for UK patients and the public and patients around the world because, of course, access to these new tools is available to everybody.

The UK, too, has set a goal to end new HIV transmissions by 2030.

Mr Podmore said: The rollout of lenacapavir here and other types of long-acting prevention will have a really important impact and role here in the UK just as it will abroad.

Sign our petition for Keir Starmer to protect HIV funding here.

This article was produced as part of The Independents Rethinking Global Aid project
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Scientists are sounding the alarm after an unusually high number of sightings of sea snakes washed up on beaches in Australia.

Over a dozen highly venomous sea snakes have washed up dead or become stranded in Australias Nanga Bay since October, raising concerns about their marine ecosystem.

Northern Australias waters are home to over 20 species of sea snakes, all of which are classified as protected marine species, and two are critically endangered.

Scientists are unsure exactly what is causing the high number of sea snakes to wash up on the shore, and urged the public to help record any sightings on the Australian Sea Snakes Facebook page.

Sea snake numbers are declining, but we are unsure why. What we do know is that they are often caught as bycatch, the Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) said.

If you come across any sea snake strandings in Shark Bay/Gathaagudu, either in real life, or on other groups, could you please encourage people to report strandings here, sea snake researcher Blanche d'Anastasi posted in a Facebook group, which has since gathered over a dozen posts of strandings.

However, researchers urged the public not to handle the stranded sea snakes as they are highly venomous and have a delicate spine.

Sea snakes are aquatic and have very fragile tissue, bones and joints, fit for life underwater, Ms dAnastasi said in a post.

Dead yellow-bellied sea snake washed up at Shoalwater Bay, Western Australia ( Wikimedia Commons )

Experts are still trying to understand what is causing the stranding events.

"We know sea snakes really don't cope well with really big weather events, they get caught up in all of the amphibolis sea grass that washes up after cyclones," Ms d'Anastasi told ABC News.

True sea snakes have no need to come ashore, so when one becomes stranded, there is most likely an underlying illness or injury, she posted on Facebook.

For instance, following a deadly heatwave that hit Shark Bay in 2010, there was reportedly a 76 per cent decline in the local population of sea snakes.

"Sea snakes are something that used to be really quite abundant, and then following that heatwave they've really declined savagely," the researcher said.

Experts also urged the public not to push stranded snakes back into the water as beached Sea Snakes tend to wash ashore again.

Stay at a safe distance from the animal and do not touch it. Sea snakes have long fixed front fangs and are capable of envenoming people, Ms d'Anastasi shared in a post.

Report your sighting to the Australian Sea Snakes Facebook group if possible, with a time, date, location and any details about behaviour or the outcome for the snake, she said.
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Police are considering corporate manslaughter charges as they investigate the Post Office Horizon scandal.

In an update given to victims, the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) said there are now eight named suspects, with five having been interviewed under caution.

The NPCC added that there are now a total of 53 persons of interests involved in the investigation  widely reported to be the worst miscarriage of justice in British legal history.

No arrests have yet been made and a process of providing case file material to the Crown Prosecution Service is ongoing.

It said the investigation continues to focus on potential charges of perjury and perverting the course of justice, but it is now additionally considering corporate manslaughter charges.

Around 1,000 people were wrongly prosecuted and convicted throughout the UK between 1999 and 2015 as a result of Horizon, with a significant number contemplating self-harm and some taking their own lives.

The Independent reported in July that more than 13 people may have taken their own lives as a result of the scandal, according to the first tranche of a public inquirys report.

Police are now considering corporate manslaughter charges as part of the investigation (Lewis Stickley/PA) ( PA Archive )

The inquiry chair, retired judge Sir Wyn Williams, said at least 59 people contemplated suicide at various points in time and attributed this to their experiences with Horizon and/or the Post Office.

He made the remarks in a report which laid bare the disastrous human impact for the post office workers wrongly accused of taking money from their branches because of faulty software.

Sir Wyn said bankruptcies had occurred and marriage and families have been wrecked over the scandal, adding: The picture which has emerged is profoundly disturbing.

The Horizon IT system is accounting software, designed by Japanese company Fujitsu, which saw accounts automated after subpostmasters entered their sales figures via a touchscreen.

Due to faulty software, subpostmasters started experiencing unexplained shortfalls in their accounts and were liable for losses under their contract with the Post Office, with subpostmasters being ordered to pay back the money that was lost.

But despite concerns being raised, Post Office prosecuted hundreds of operators for offences such as theft and false accounting based on the information from Horizon.

Many of those wrongly accused refused to stand down and after years of civil cases, a group of sub-postmasters led by the Justice for Subpostmaster Alliance won a High Court ruling in 2019.

That ruling, which found the Horizon system at fault for creating shortfalls in branch accounts, was then upheld on appeal in 2021 and resulted in the overturning of convictions for 39 subpostmasters.

The long-running battle for justice accelerated dramatically after ITV broadcast the drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, which highlighted the scandal.

The polices Operation Olympos, which is investigating the scandal, started in January 2020.

Police previously said the ongoing probe is unprecedented in size, with potentially more than 3,000 victims and evidence including more than 1.5 million documents.

Any potential criminal trials linked to the investigation are not expected to take place until 2027.

Investigators previously said they are looking at a significant number of people from the Post Office, Fujitsu and in the legal profession.

A Post Office spokesperson said: We would like to reiterate an unequivocal apology to every single person impacted by the Horizon Scandal. We recognise that, for some, the impact of their experiences has lasted over two decades and continues to this day. We continue to fully support the Polices investigations and engage transparently with their requests.
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Predators like Wayne Couzens are still entering police forces more than four years after the serving officer raped and murdered Sarah Everard, The Independent can reveal.

Lady Elish Angiolini has warned that police forces in England and Wales have still not barred men with criminal convictions or cautions for sexual offences from applying to join.

She said it was shocking that her recommendations to drastically tighten police vetting, issued in February last year, have still not been fully implemented.

In the second phase of an inquiry launched in the wake of the horrifying crime which sparked national debate about police standards and womens safety, Lady Elish said countless other women have been targeted by men since the marketing executive, 33, was abducted and killed by Couzens, a Metropolitan Police officer, in 2021.

In her latest report, she warned that predators continue to roam freely as women live in fear in public spaces, and she slammed critical failures in recording basic data about attacks.

Everards heartbroken mother, Susan Everard, revealed she continues to rage against her death and the report shows how much work there is to do in preventing sexually motivated crimes against women.

I go through a turmoil of emotions  sadness, rage, panic, guilt and numbness, she said. They used to come all in one day but as time goes by they are more widely spaced and, to some extent, time blunts the edges. I am not yet at the point where happy memories of Sarah come to the fore.

When I think of her, I cant get past the horror of her last hours. I am still tormented by the thought of what she endured.

Laying out her findings on Tuesday, Lady Elish said: Women change their travel plans, their routines, and their lives out of fears for their safety in public, while far too many perpetrators continue to roam freely. Women deserve to feel safer. They deserve to be safer.

Issuing 13 recommendations to initiate a whole-society approach to protecting women  including the nationwide rollout of two police programmes to stop predators  she called for a turning point in the fight against violence against women and girls (VAWG).

Lady Elish said it was deeply disappointing that a number of recommendations from the first part of the inquiry have still not been implemented despite being publicly accepted by government and police chiefs 18 months ago.

She told The Independent: We are still getting potential people like Wayne Couzens coming into the police.

That is the risk that theyre taking, and they should not be inflicting that on the public. You know, these police officers are going into peoples homes, peoples bedrooms.

I genuinely cant understand it. Why would you want to entertain that risk?

And, despite VAWG being classed as a national threat in 2023, 26 per cent of police forces have not even implemented a specialist policy on investigating sexual offences, including non-contact offences such as indecent exposure.

Lady Elish said: I want leaders to, quite simply, get a move on. There are lives at stake.

open image in gallery Inquiry chair Angiolini said, Women deserve to feel safer. They deserve to be safer ( PA )

The former lord advocate for Scotland, who was appointed by former home secretary Priti Patel in the wake of Everards murder in 2021, found that basic questions over how many women are raped in public in England and Wales each year cannot be answered.

If this data is not being gathered and recorded consistently across forces, how can it be analysed to spot patterns in offending? she added. This is a critical failure.

A survey of 2,000 people commissioned by the inquiry found almost nine in 10 women aged 18 to 24 had experienced an incident in a public space in the past three years, while three-quarters had felt unsafe due to the actions of a man.

Despite this, almost 80 per cent of women had not reported the incident to the police.

The 219-page report also found that prevention measures were often under-prioritised for funding due to difficulties in evaluating their success.

Although VAWG is classed as a national threat, it is underfunded and treated as a Cinderella service compared to other major threats like terrorism and serious and organised crime.

Too often, a focus on prevention remains just words, Lady Elish said, adding: Until this disparity is addressed, violence against women and girls cannot credibly be called a national priority.

open image in gallery Sarah Everard was murdered in 2021 by Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens ( PA )

Lady Elish also hit out at a scattered approach to tackling VAWG across 43 police forces in England and Wales, which is creating patchwork initiatives which vary from place to place.

She called for Project Vigilant, a police programme targeting predators in clubs and bars, and Operation Soteria, which aims to improve rape and sexual offence investigations, to be funded for nationwide rollout.

She also demanded a better understanding of how violent pornography and unfettered access to harmful online content are impacting crimes against women. She previously found that Couzens was addicted to extreme pornography before he killed Everard.

Online spaces are becoming increasingly violent and degrading places, where misogyny and hatred towards women not only flourishes but is disgustingly celebrated, Lady Elish said.

I find it inconceivable to see how this cannot impact offending in the physical world too.

Farah Naz, the aunt of murdered law graduate Zara Aleena, said her death reflects systemic failure rather than isolated tragedy. She welcomed the inquirys backing for her calls for a Good Samaritan law, requiring witnesses to act when they see someone in danger.

Ms Naz added: I hope this recommendation is taken seriously and progresses with the urgency and commitment these cases demand.

Couzens used his police warrant card to trick Everard into getting into his car as she walked home from a friends flat in Clapham, south London, in March 2021. He was handed a rare whole life order after her body was found dumped in a woodland.

The Angiolini Inquiry was launched in the wake of the shocking crime to look at wider issues within policing and womens safety.

In the first stage of her inquiry, published last year, Lady Elish found Couzenss predatory sexual behaviour started 20 years before he killed Everard, and he should never have been allowed to join the police.

She called for a radical overhaul of police vetting and recruitment after finding repeated failures to spot red flags, allowing three separate police forces to permit him to serve.

Lady Elish also called for a fundamental change to how police respond to indecent exposure after repeated incidents linked to Couzens were not properly investigated.

A second report from part two of the Angiolini inquiry will be published next year, looking at failures in police vetting, police culture and poor police investigations into reports of sexual offences.

A third phase of the inquiry will consider the crimes of David Carrick  who also served in the Mets Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command and was handed 36 life sentences in 2023 after being unmasked as a serial rapist.

open image in gallery Angiolini also called for a fundamental change to how police respond to indecent exposure after repeated incidents linked to Couzens were not properly investigated ( PA )

Deputy assistant commissioner Helen Millichap, the director of the National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection (NCVPP), agreed that for too long it has felt inevitable that women must change their behaviour to feel safe.

It is not, and we agree that our focus must be on the relentless pursuit of perpetrators and spotting patterns in offending, she said.

We are already working proactively to recognise, intervene, and interrupt predatory behaviour in public spaces, and are pleased the report acknowledges this work.

Shabana Mahmood, home secretary, added: I thank Lady Elish Angiolini for this vital report, which makes clear that women do not feel safe going about their lives today. This is utterly unacceptable and must change. A new 13.1m centre will strengthen the police response to these crimes and drive real change, but more needs to be done.

We will carefully consider each recommendation the inquiry has made. This government will halve violence against women and girls within a decade, and our upcoming VAWG strategy will set out how we achieve this.
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Investor and philanthropist Cyrus Vandrevala is supporting The Independents campaign to launch SafeCall, the vital lifeline for missing young people in crisis.

The billionaire announced a sizeable donation after winning the Asian Business Awards Investor of the Year prize.

I was moved by the campaign to bring a digital solution to try to bring missing children to safety, Mr Vandrevala said.

It is shocking that 70,000 children are missing each year in the UK. Having children who had a happy school and home life in the UK makes me want all the more to help those who are suffering in this way.

Mr Vandrevala is the latest backer of this publications campaign, following presenter Lorraine Kellys support on Tuesday. Barclays, Nationwide, and the Hunter Foundation have all generously supported the campaign in recent days.

SafeCall will fund a new service that aims to reach the 70,000 children reported missing in the UK each year. Sir Keir Starmer and Sir David Beckham have also shown their support for the campaign.

The investor and philanthropist (third from left), winner of the Asian Business Awards Investor of the Year, announces donation to The Independents SafeCall campaign ( Garavi Gujarat Publications )

Donate here or text SAFE to 70577 to give 10 to Missing People  enough for one child to get help.

The Indian private equity investor and his wife, Priya, created the Vandrevala Foundation in 2008, which works to raise awareness about mental health issues in India and provides support services for individuals experiencing emotional distress.

Mr Vandrevala is also an early investor in pioneering, tech-driven businesses. Working in the US, India, Japan and the UK, he is known for his investments which have delivered exceptionally high returns across technology, healthcare, education and real estate.

With nearly 600 children going missing every day in the UK, The Independent is aiming to raise 165,000 to help launch SafeCall  a free new service that will provide children in crisis with confidential support, guidance and a route to safety.

For a parent not to know where their child is, is so upsetting, and if this campaign with Missing People helps bring children to safety, I am so pleased to give my support, Mr Vandrevala said.

Teenagers are the most likely to disappear, with those aged 12 to 17 accounting for 61 per cent of all incidents recorded by police. Many say there is still no service designed to meet their needs, leaving them isolated at the very moment they need help most.

Many disappear repeatedly or because of issues linked to exploitation, family breakdown, or mental health. But it is hoped SafeCall will offer them a dedicated helpline, WhatsApp channel, chatbot and website.

Elsewhere in the ceremony, Tan Sri Sir Francis Yeoh, executive chair of YTL Corporation, received the ASEAN Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his remarkable contribution to business and philanthropy across the region. Prashant Kothari, senior investment manager at Pictet Asset Management, was named Fund Manager of the Year, while Navjot Sawhney, founder of The Washing Machine Project, collected the Sustainable Business of the Year Award.

Rajbir Singh Manak, managing director of Stanmore, part of the Akaal Group, was honoured with the Fast Growth Business of the Year Award, and Dr Jason Wouhra OBE, CEO of Lioncroft Wholesale, took home Entrepreneur of the Year. The Education Business of the Year Award went to Dr Vishwajeet Rana, founder of Global Banking School, while Sanjay Arora, CEO of Arora Group, was recognised as Hotelier of the Year.

Zain Kajani, director of JMK Group, was named Next Gen of the Year, and Rohin Shah, managing director of ANAROCK, received the International Business of the Year Award.

A total of 11 awards were presented at the event, which also marked the launch of the latest edition of the annual Asian Rich List, profiling the 101 wealthiest South Asians in Britain. Heading the list were the Hinduja family, with an estimated fortune of 37bn, followed by steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and his son Aditya with 15.5bn, and petrochemicals magnate Sri Prakash Lohia and his family in third place with 12bn.

The combined wealth of the 101 richest Asians in the UK this year amounts to more than 140bn  an increase of 13.75bn on the previous year. More than 650 guests attended the ceremony in central London, including business and industry leaders, parliamentarians, and community figures.

Secretary of state for housing, communities and local government Steve Reed said: In every part of Britain there are Asian businesses that support both the local economy and the local community  enterprises we would all be lost without.

He added: Your success is an inspiration, not just to the Asian business community, but to every single part of our country.

Please donate now to The Independent and Missing Peoples SafeCall campaign, which aims to raise 165,000 to create a free, nationwide service helping vulnerable children find safety and support.

For advice, support and options if you or someone you love goes missing, text or call the charity Missing People on 116 000. Its free, confidential and non-judgemental. Or visit www.missingpeople.org.uk/get-help
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Intelligent men may be more likely to remain faithful to their partners, due to their problem-solving and pattern-spotting abilities, a new study suggests.

While not exactly the most romantic of sentiments, analysis has shown that the steadiest boyfriends are more likely to be able to unpick patterns in sequences of numbers and letters.

The findings come from a new study conducted by Oakland University, which analysed 202 heterosexual men who had each been in a relationship for at least six months.

Researchers found that men who had a particular strain of intelligence and scored higher on specific tests often led a healthier romantic life and expressed greater commitment to their partners.

They were also found to be less likely to display jealousy, insult their partners and resort to mate-retention tactics, controlling behaviours that make it costly for a lover to leave the relationship.

open image in gallery The study found that men who scored higher on the tests were less likely to display jealousy and insult their partners ( Getty/iStock )

It was found that these men tended to be less tempted by risk-taking outside of their relationship, and were less likely to report erectile disfunction problems and fewer psychopathic tendencies.

While the authors of the research have been careful not to oversell the results, given that it did not measure cheating directly, it suggests that men of a particular intelligence have a psychological profile more compatible with remaining faithful.

Led by the data analyst and social scientist Gavin Vance, the study has been published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, with the team behind it suggesting the results are worth following up with further analysis.

They have stressed that the findings of the report are modest and cannot prove cause and effect, with the results relying on what the men said about their own behaviour.

A similar study published earlier this year by the University of Sydney similarly found that that couples in which male partners exhibit high emotional intelligence experience greater satisfaction, deeper trust and better conflict resolution.

In the murky world of online dating and appearance-based apps, this could be an indication that intelligence could be the way forward to a happy, healthy relationship.
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Presenter and longstanding champion of childrens welfare Lorraine Kelly is throwing her support behind The Independents campaign to raise vital funds to help missing children find safety and help.

The Scottish broadcaster has spent decades on television speaking up for those without a voice and supporting charities and organisations dedicated to childrens causes.

Joined by Sir Keir Starmer and Sir David Beckham, she is now backing this publications appeal to fund a new service that will reach the 70,000 children reported missing in the UK each year.

She told The Independent: Going missing is a sign that something in a childs life is very, very wrong, and yet were not getting children the help they need.

SafeCall can reach children where they are, offering a trusted voice, confidentiality, and showing them a safer way forward.

Donate here or text SAFE to 70577 to give 10 to Missing People  enough for one child to get help.

open image in gallery Lorraine Kelly has been a trustee of STV Childrens Appeal since it was founded 14 years ago ( PA )

The presenter has been a fixture on British television for more than four decades and has hosted her weekday morning show, Lorraine, since 2010.

She began her career aged 17 as a reporter for the East Kilbride News, before becoming a presenter for Good Morning Britain in 1984, and an original host for GMTV in 1993.

Kelly has been a long-time trustee of STV Childrens Appeal and has continued to present its annual show. In 2011, she also hosted the ITV series Childrens Hospital, which looked at the daily lives of children and staff at the new Royal Manchester Childrens Hospital.

A large part of her advocacy work is dedicated to childrens welfare. She is a patron of Scottish childrens charity the Archie Foundation, which helps children and their families in healthcare and bereavement. She is also a patron of Rosies Rainbow Fund, a charity supporting seriously ill children and their families in hospitals and schools.

Kelly received a CBE in 2021 for her services to broadcasting, journalism and charity.

With nearly 600 children going missing every day in the UK, The Independent is aiming to raise 165,000 to help launch SafeCall a free new service that will provide children in crisis with confidential support, guidance and a route to safety.

Kelly said: Specially trained helpline staff can talk them through their options and help connect them to services that can make them safer.

Please help The Independent and Missing People launch SafeCall as quickly as possible and help a child reach safety.

open image in gallery Kelly has advocated for children throughout her career ( PA Wire )

Please donate now to The Independent and Missing Peoples SafeCall campaign, which aims to raise 165,000 to create a free, nationwide service helping vulnerable children find safety and support

For advice, support and options if you or someone you love goes missing, text or call the charity Missing People on 116 000. Its free, confidential and non-judgemental. Or visit missingpeople.org.uk/get-help
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British police are set to gain enhanced powers at ports, enabling officers to compel illegal migrants to remove outer garments and undergo mouth searches.

The measures aim to uncover mobile phones or SIM cards, crucial for gathering intelligence on their journeys.

The Home Office said these new capabilities will bolster investigations targeting criminal networks implicated in smuggling migrants across the Channel.

It said that such gangs frequently exploit phone contacts and social media to recruit people for small-boat crossings from France, which have reached unprecedented levels this year.

Home Office sources told the BBC that children could be subject to the searches if deemed necessary.

This policy shift also reflects the Labour governments hardening stance on immigration, particularly illegal entry, as it seeks to counter the rising popularity of Nigel Farages Reform UK and its influence on the immigration agenda.

The law is expected to receive Royal Assent  a formality that does not involve further debate  in the coming days.

Migrants wade into the water in an attempt to board a small boat on the shoreline in northern France ( Getty )

Officers will be able to make migrants remove coats, jackets or gloves to search for devices and may inspect mouths for concealed SIM cards or small electronics, the Home Office said.

The government department, led by home secretary Shabana Mahmood, explained that previously, mobile phone searches were only possible after a migrants arrest, adding that the new powers would let officers collect information faster.

Polls suggest that immigration has overtaken the economy as British voters top concern.

Over the summer, a raft of protests took place outside hotels housing asylum seekers at public expense.

The governments tougher stance on migration has been criticised by some human rights groups, which argue that some policies scapegoat migrants and fuel racism and violence.

Using invasive powers to search through the clothing  and even inside the mouths  of desperate and traumatised people when they have just survived a terrifying journey across the Channel is a dystopian act of brutality, said Sile Reynolds, head of asylum advocacy at Freedom from Torture.
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The owner of an award-winning wellness retreat has been ordered to pay a 90,000 court bill after using her Bentley to blockade a GP's car park during a bitter neighbour dispute.

Joy Jarvis, who runs the Glasshouse Retreat, became embroiled in a legal battle with Dr Reshma Rasheed of Chapel Street Surgery in Billericay, Essex, over access rights to a narrow driveway.

The drive provides access to both Mrs Jarvis's land and the surgery's car park, which is used by staff and patients.

The shared access point became a flashpoint in a long-running feud, with lawyers saying that Dr Rasheed and her neighbours have been headbutting each other for years.

Mrs Jarvis and her husband Brian acquired the land behind the surgery in 2021 for development, and disputes then escalated over Dr Rasheed's right to use the drive.

Mrs Jarvis was accused of deploying her Bentley to blockade the car park, effectively landlocking it and rendering it unusable.

Mr and Mrs Jarvis claimed that Dr Rasheed only has the right to use the front portion of the lane and that the only reason that she cannot access her car park is because she extended her surgery too far to the rear, effectively blocking her own right of way.

open image in gallery The shared access point has become a flashpoint in a long-running feud ( Champion News )

But after a trial at Central London County Court, Judge Alan Johns rejected Mr and Mrs Jarvis' case and handed them a 90,000 bill for the dispute so far.

The judge noted that Mrs Jarvis regretted the Bentley parking incident, but found that a 1973 conveyance and the fact it has been used by the surgery for over 50 years proved Dr Rasheed has a right of way over the whole driveway.

During the trial earlier this year, the court heard Mrs Jarvis, 74, and her 71-year-old husband are veteran property builders, with Mrs Jarvis telling the judge she has been involved in property development for 40 years.

They are also owners of the Glasshouse Retreat, a wellness spa where visitors are invited to absorb yourself with holistic wellness...Feel your body and mind reset, de-stress and relax...Take the time to focus on what matters while enjoying the retreats state-of-the-art-facilities, Zen treatment rooms and nutritious food.

The retreat, which features a natural swimming pond, outdoor wellness dome and 21 rooms in the Essex countryside, has won two Tripadvisor Travellers' Choice Awards, as well as other awards in the spa industry.

Dr Rasheed, 62, purchased the small family surgery in Chapel Street, Billericay, Essex, in 2006, having earlier been made a GP partner there.

The warring parties first clashed after Mr and Mrs Jarvis bought a former builders' yard behind Dr Rasheed's neighbours' house in 2021.

The yard, which the couple plan to develop into housing, is accessed from the main road via the driveway, which Dr Rasheed and predecessors have long used as an access to the car park behind the surgery.

open image in gallery Dr Reshma Rasheed outside Central London County Court ( Champion News )

Her barrister, Rupert Myers, told the judge that she has a right of way over the drive to get to the back of the surgery under a 1973 conveyance and that it had been used for decades before Mr and Mrs Jarvis bought the land next door.

Almost immediately upon acquiring the property, the defendants took issue with the claimants use of the driveway to reach her car park, he said.

Shortly after their purchase, the defendants and in particular the second defendant Mrs Jarvis asserted that the claimant had no right to use the full length of the driveway to access the car park.

On 24 August 2021, the second defendant parked her Bentley on the driveway in such a manner as to block the claimant and her patients from driving into or out of the surgerys car park.

This deliberate obstruction of the right of way caused significant disruption to the surgerys operations.

The second defendants blockade of the driveway entirely prevented the claimant and her patients from exercising the right of way to the surgery.

That interference was deliberate, it was done on the very day the defendants counsel had warned of clearing and fencing off the land, indicating a calculated attempt to deny access.

He said the couple had only ceased obstruction when faced with legal action and have explicitly stated their intention to fence off the part of the drive they say Dr Rasheed has no rights over.

If carried out, such fencing would physically bar the claimant and her invitees from reaching the car park by car, effectively landlocking a crucial part of the surgerys premises, he said.

This is not a trivial or technical infringement.

open image in gallery Dr Reshma Rasheed's Chapel Street Surgery in Billericay. The disputed driveway is immediately to the right of the building ( Supplied by Champion News )

Dr Rasheed sued for a judicial declaration that her right of way over the driveway extends for around 30 metres from the main road, ending at the gates to the old builders' yard, allowing her and her patients and staff to reach the car park.

However, Mr and Mrs Jarvis claimed her right of way over the driveway extends only for around 26m, which would not allow cars to reach the car park.

Their barrister, Kevin Leigh, told the judge the dispute had been fraught, adding: These parties have been embroiled in headbutting one another for a number of years.

He said expert evidence showed that the GP's rights extend to only around 26m worth of the driveway, which had been enough for drivers to get to the car park prior to the surgery's rear extension being built in 2018.

Before the extension work, visitors had been able to drive down the lane and turn left into the car park without going past that 26m mark and all the way to the end of the lane, he said.

Returning to court to give his ruling, Judge Johns found in favour of Dr Rasheed, while noting that Mrs Jarvis regretted her actions in blocking the car park with her Bentley.

In my judgment, on the true construction of the 1973 conveyance, the right of way extends the full length of the driveway, not merely the first 26 metres, he said.

He said it was also important that there is no other feature on the ground, other than the yard gates, to mark out the extent of the right of way.

Even if that was wrong, then the use of the driveway as an access to the car park for more than 50 years would give Dr Rasheed a right to continue using it, he said.

The driveway was in fact used for the whole, or almost its whole, length and no limit to the right of way was ever marked on the ground, he continued.

The use established a right of way by long user. The user has been since at least, or soon after, the 1973 conveyance, probably before.

I am entirely satisfied the historic user was sufficient to establish a right of way. This was and is a busy surgery and the driveway is the only means of getting to its patient car park.

Describing Mr and Mrs Jarvis as the losers overall, the judge ordered them to pay Dr Rasheed's lawyers' bills for the case so far, with 90,000, including VAT, up front.

The judge rejected Mr and Mrs Jarvis' claim for an injunction requiring her to remove drains and cables from under the driveway, saying there was no proper foundation for an order.

Further allegations of trespass by Mr and Mrs Jarvis against Dr Rasheed remain unresolved and will return to court at a later date, if not settled.
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Mountain rescuers are in a race against time to find a British teenager who went missing on a hike near Bran Castle in Romania.

George Smyth, 18, was trekking in the Bucegi mountains alone on 23 November, when he started to suffer from hypothermia and exhaustion and called the emergency services.

Mountain rescue services searched for Mr Smyth over the next few days but were only able to locate his rucksack containing his equipment and supplies in the area where he made the emergency call.

An appeal for information was issued on Friday by the Salvamont Brasov rescue service alongside a photograph of Mr Smyth, who had recently started studying at the University of Bristol.

His mother, Jo Smyth, has flown to Transylvania to support the search for her son. She said he left without telling anyone that he was going hiking alone.

open image in gallery Mountain rescue services searched Smyth over several days but were only able to locate his rucksack ( Salvamont Brasov )

According to rescuers, he set off from the Poiana Brasov neighbourhood on Sunday morning and started hiking towards Bran, a village known for its castle suggested to be the home of Dracula.

However, the teenager reached Tiganesti Valley, where he made the call to rescue teams.

The backpack had quite a lot of equipment in it  a sleeping bag, a tent. My colleagues even found food all around. So we dont understand what happened and where he could have gone, Sebastian Marinescu, director of Salvamont Brasov, told a local media site.

The rescue service said that 20 mountain rescuers were mobilised on Friday and Saturday, but the operation was hindered by adverse weather with snow reaching more than 2m deep.

Thermal imaging cameras, sniffer dogs, and a Black Hawk helicopter were used by rescuers to reach inaccessible parts of the mountain.

His mother has described him as a sporty and strong young man who enjoyed travelling.

We hope and pray that he somehow survives, she told local news site Observator. Just the thought of life without him is unbearable.

A University of Bristol spokesperson said: Weve been informed that one of our students has been reported missing after independently travelling to Romania to go hiking.

We are deeply concerned for his welfare and are in close contact with his family. Our thoughts are with them as they await any updates.
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Labour ministers are considering stricter rules on woodburning stoves to help reduce air pollution.

Following the publication of the governments updated environment plan (EIP), a consultation will begin on measures to reduce the impact of burning wood.

It could see a tightening in standards for new stoves to lower emissions, as well as introducing clearer labelling.

But Defra officials told The Independent they were not planning to consult on banning domestic burning by geographical area, or to seek a ban on the use of older stoves that have already been sold.

Furthermore, there are no plans to change rules for Smoke Control Areas, active in many parts of the county, where people can only burn authorised fuel. Those using stoves that comply with current SCA rules will not have to stop using them, Defra said.

Wood burners are a key source of PM2.5 particulate emissions, which have been linked to an array of health conditions in humans, including asthma, lung disease and heart conditions.

The new target for air pollution announced by the government as part of the updated EIP is to bring PM2.5 levels down by 30 per cent compared to what they were in 2018  to be achieved by December 2030.

The previous target was a 22 per cent reduction to be achieved by 2028.

Wood-burning stoves are a source of the pollutant PM2.5 ( Getty/iStock )

Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, whose nine-year-old daughter died from an asthma attack linked to air pollution in 2013, welcomed the new PM2.5 goal, as a "win".

Ms Kissi-Debrah has been campaigning for "Ella's Law", which would require the government to achieve clean air throughout England by January 1 2030, setting out a pathway to bring the country in line with World Health Organisation air pollution guidelines.

"It's not quite Ella's Law yet, but it's a step in the right direction," she said. "So because of that I'm pleased. Anything that's going to improve the air, and that means less children are going to be hospitalised and less children are going to die, I am always going to be for it.

The Stove Industry Association said it welcomed the governments stance.

Executive director Erica Malkin told The Independent: We welcome the governments measured approach to domestic combustion outlined in the environmental improvement plan. The EIP recognises that many households rely on solid fuel secondary heating for affordable warmth, energy security and resilience, particularly in rural and off-grid areas.

She said that modern ecodesign stoves offer substantial reductions in particulate emissions compared to older appliances and open fires.

She added: We share the governments ambition to improve air quality while ensuring that those who need or want to burn are not unfairly penalised.

Beyond air pollution, the updated EIP, published on Monday, includes 500m in funding towards the creation of a quarter of a million hectares of wildlife-rich habitats which will be created or restored by 2030.

Environment secretary Emma Reynolds said: Our environment faces real challenges, with pollution in our waterways, air quality that's too low in many areas, and treasured species in decline.

This plan marks a step change in restoring nature. Our ambitious targets are backed by real action to cut harmful air pollutants, revive habitats and protect the environment for generations to come.

But environmental campaign groups have said the plan represents baby steps, and that much more needed to be done to help the natural world on a much faster timeline.

Beccy Speight, RSPB chief executive, said: "The gap between where we are now and where we need to be in terms of nature restoration grows wider the longer we wait for meaningful action. The scale of the problem is huge, nearly one in six species in Great Britain faces extinction  from hedgehogs to curlews  the loss is big, real and it's accelerating.

Kevin Cumming, rewilding director of Rewilding Britain, said: Despite some welcome baby steps and tinkering at the edges  and although its good ministers want to see our protected landscapes wilder and more accessible  the UK governments environmental improvement plan is woefully unambitious when it comes to tackling the biodiversity and climate emergencies through large-scale nature restoration.
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David Lammy has announced the creation of new swift courts which will see a judge decide verdicts in thousands of cases where the right to a jury trial will be removed.

As part of sweeping reforms to the criminal court system in England and Wales, the justice secretary unveiled plans to scrap juries in so-called either-way cases that would have a likely jail sentence of three years or less.

They include offences such as burglary, threats to kill, affray and theft. Serious offences, including murder, robbery, grievous bodily harm and rape, will still go before a jury.

Against a backdrop of criticism from the legal profession and political opponents, Mr Lammy, who is also deputy prime minister, insisted the reforms were bold but necessary because victims are facing agonising delays in the system  with the crown court backlog projected to reach 100,000 by 2028.

After the original proposals were announced, Lord Chief Justice Sir Brian Leveson, who recommended a series of proposals to tackle the court backlog, described the justice system as being on the brink of collapse. He broadly welcomed the plans but cautioned that there was no silver bullet to deal with the crisis.

The Conservatives described the proposals as the beginning of the end of jury trials, warning that Mr Lammy was stripping away centuries of individual rights.

However, a poll of 2,000 voters by Merlin Strategy revealed that there is public support for the reforms by 40 per cent to 34 per cent.

open image in gallery Pulling every possible lever: David Lammy has warned that tackling the backlog will take years ( PA Wire )

Announcing his criminal court reform in the Commons, Mr Lammy said: I will create new swift courts within the crown court with a judge alone deciding verdicts in trial of either-way cases with a likely sentence of three years or less, as Sir Brian recommends.

Sir Brian estimates that they will deliver justice at least 20 per cent faster than jury trials, and whilst jury deliberations remain confidential, judges provide reasoning for their verdicts in open courts, so this will hardwire transparency in our new approach.

He said the system will take years to fix.

The changes Im proposing will require legislation, it will take time to implement. Our investment will also need time to have an effect.

But we are pulling every possible lever to move in a positive direction, and my ambition is for the backlog to start coming down by the end of this parliament remains.

Currently, defendants of either-way offences can have their cases heard in the magistrates court or crown court, where they can elect to have a jury trial. But under the plans, defendants will no longer be able to choose this option.

The move to scrap more jury trials has already faced opposition from MPs and legal professionals concerned over fairness, curtailing rights and a lack of evidence the move will even help bring down the backlog.

The crown court backlog is currently at a record level of more than 78,000 cases, and some trials are being listed as far in the future as 2030.

Responding to Mr Lammy, shadow justice secretaryRobert Jenrick accused him of twisted logic and pointed out that he himself had opposed removing the right to a jury trial.

open image in gallery Brian Leveson has described the justice system as being on the brink of collapse ( PA )

He accused him of ripping up Magna Carta and of abandoning his principles while in government, having previously defended juries.

This year alone, 21,000 court sitting days have been missed and the court backlog is up 10 per cent on their watch, he said. Instead of depriving British citizens of ancient liberties, David Lammy should get his own department in order.

Labour MPs also warned against the reforms amid concerns they would water down peoples legal rights.

Eltham and Chislehurst MP Clive Efford warned it will create an us and them situation in the legal system, while Stella Creasy said: I think many of us will worry whether the justice secretarys prescription is the solution because, as he points out, jury trials account for less than 3 per cent of cases.

According to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), nearly half of the cases in the backlog are related to violent and sexual offences, and only about 3 per cent of criminal cases are currently heard with a judge and a jury.

Leeds MP Richard Burgon said the reforms send a chill through my heart.

Diane Abbott warned men and women would undoubtedly suffer miscarriages of justice if the right to trial by jury is curtailed.

Meanwhile, a judge at Winchester Crown Court, Jane Miller KC, said she believed juries were necessary for their objectivity, minutes after Mr Lammy gave his statement.

As part of the reforms, magistrates will be allowed to hand down sentences of up to 18 months imprisonment, up from 12 months currently, so they can deal with more either-way cases. The powers could also be extended to 24 months if necessary.

open image in gallery The crown court backlog is projected to reach 100,000 by 2028 ( PA Wire )

Some 550m will also be given to victim support services over the next three years to help survivors and witnesses through the justice process, such as through counselling and advice on attending court.

Incoming victims commissioner Claire Waxman, who will take up the role in the new year, welcomed the MoJ funding as a necessary step, but added: The sums pledged are not a silver bullet for the wider crisis facing the sector.

Ultimately, these services are crucial to a victims recovery  and they will be just as essential to the recovery of the justice system as a whole.

Former Lord Chief Justice, Lord Thomas told the World at One programme that the most controversial and serious aspect of the reforms proposed is the proposal to create swift courts.

He said: We ought to pause long and hard before we remove the lay element from trying the more serious cases.

Mark Jones, criminal defence partner at law firm Payne Hicks Beach, warned: "Eroding access to jury trials is not justice. Jury decision-making is a vital safeguard, bringing public scrutiny and diverse perspectives to the justice system."

Former Law Society president Richard Atkinson said the extra funding was welcome but only papers over the cracks and doesnt address the fundamental problems.

The reforms come as a response to recommendations made in July by Sir Brian to overhaul the court system.

In his review, the former senior judge found there is no constitutional or common law right, or right within European human rights law, for a defendant to be tried by a jury, and so there was no need to limit reforms.

On Tuesday, he said: In more than 50 years working in the criminal justice system, I have never seen pressure on the courts at such an unacceptable level.

The rising backlog in the crown court means victims, witnesses and defendants are waiting months, sometimes years, for cases to come to trial  unable to move on with their lives. It is no exaggeration to say that the system stands on the brink of collapse.
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Labour has appeared to pave the way for more cuts to disability benefits this parliament as a top minister refuses to rule out revisiting controversial plans that were rowed back on earlier in the year.

Speaking to a cross-party committee, work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden told MPs that he was not ruling out anything when asked if he was looking at future cuts.

I have only been in the job for three months, and if I start ruling things out it will just close doors in the future, so I am not ruling anything out, he added.

Earlier this year, Labours proposals to tweak the assessment criteria for the personal independence payment (PIP) to effectively make it harder to claim were met with fierce opposition from campaign groups and politicians.

Currently claimed by 3.8 million people, the benefit is designed to help with extra costs incurred by living with an illness or disability.

Ministers backed down on the plans in late June after over 100 Labour MPs threatened to vote against the government on the measures.

open image in gallery Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said he was not ruling anything out when asked about future PIP cuts (Ben Birchall/PA) ( PA Wire )

The concession was announced by Sir Stephen Timms in the middle of the debate on the legislation, alongside a new review into the benefit which he is leading. Speaking to MPs in August, the disability and social security minister said the exercise was not designed to deliver cuts.

However, at the end of October, the Sir Stephen announced that the terms of reference for this review were changing, adding the clarification that it will operate within the Office for Budget Responsibilitys (OBR) projections for future PIP expenditure.

Pressed on this change by the work and pensions committee, Mr McFadden said the purpose of the Timms Review cannot be to come up with more expenditure on [PIP]

It has to work within the budgetary parameters of the rest of the Government, within the fiscal rules that the Government abide by, he said, responding to a question from the Liberal Democrats Steve Darling.

Mr Darling told The Independent: The previous Conservative Government left Britains benefits system broken, tearing up our economy and driving our health and care system into the ground  and the current Governments failure to create growth and jobs has done nothing to help.

open image in gallery Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer making his speech at the Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre in London, backing the Budget to signal a fresh push on welfare reform (Gareth Fuller/PA) ( PA Wire )

Many across the country will be worried to hear the Work and Pensions Secretary refuse to rule out a repeat of last summers benefits debacle. Ministers dont seem to understand that hitting disabled people who are already in work makes their employment prospects worse, not better.

The Government must learn from past mistakes and instead manage the welfare bill down by fixing its root causes  finally repairing our health and care services and making it easier for people to work.

His comments came ahead of Labours crunch second autumn Budget, alongside an early OBR report which warned that Rachel Reeves new policy announcements are set to increase spending by 11 billion in 2029/30, largely to pay for reversals to welfare cuts and the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap.

Speaking after the fiscal event, Sir Keir Starmer reiterated his plans to reform the welfare state, adding that the welfare bill has gone up extraordinarily under the last government.

open image in gallery Steve Darling, the Liberal Democrats work and pensions spokesperson, said the Government must learn from past mistakes ( House of Commons )

The prime minister pointed to a review underway by Alan Milburn into the rising number of young people not in employment, education, or training (Neets), to tackle what he called a massive waste of potential.

The prime ministers official spokesperson later said: I think the Milburn review is expected in spring next year, final report in summer 2026 the Timms review will conclude by Autumn 2026.

It is absolutely vital that we get these reviews right. This system has not been reformed properly for many, many years, but we have set out clear steps to ensure welfare spending is on a sustainable trajectory.

James Taylor, Director of Strategy at disability equality charity Scope said: There are problems with PIP that need fixing, such as assessments getting it wrong, and a lack of trust between assessors and disabled people.

This review will shape the future of PIP for years to come, so getting it right is crucial.

Its encouraging that a group of disabled experts will be at the heart of this review, but a lot of good faith has been put in ministers commitments to co-produce reforms with disabled people. Its vital the government keeps this promise.

This process should not be used to restrict access to PIP or any other part of the benefit system.

A DWP spokesperson said: "We want a welfare state that is there for those who need it and supports people into work, while delivering fairness to the taxpayer. Thats why were launching the Timms Review to make sure PIP is fair and fit for the future, which is being co-produced by disabled people and their representative organisations.
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The UKs faltering economy risks worsening due to a steep fall in the number of people moving to the UK for work, exacerbated by Brexit, experts have warned.

Following a warning that the UK is already experiencing a dangerous brain drain of some of the UKs brightest and best, fresh figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed nine out of 10 Brits emigrating in the year to June were of working age.

Leading economists said that if the low levels of net migration  the number of people arriving in the UK versus those leaving  continue, the UKs economic growth forecasts risk being downgraded again just days after the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) slashed predictions for next year and the three years after that.

It comes after the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Tuesday sounded an alarm that a slowing in labour productivity, partly due to a drop in the number of workers coming to the UK, was stalling the economy.

The Independent can also exclusively reveal warnings from a senior executive at one of the worlds leading recruitment companies that the brain drain from the UK because of Brexit is worse than previously believed.

open image in gallery Rachel Reeves has been warned of a new risk to the economy days after her Budget ( Getty )

It places more pressure on Rachel Reeves, days after she unveiled a Budget that the OBR said contained no measures which would have a material effect on growth, but did raise 26bn in taxes.

The ONS figures show that net migration to the UK has fallen by two-thirds in a single year, driven by a huge drop in people coming to Britain for work or study, following a crackdown started by the last Conservative government but continued under Labour.

In the 12 months to June, net migration was an estimated 204,000  down 69 per cent from 649,000 a year earlier and the lowest annual figure since 2021, after it peaked at 944,000 in 2023. And of the 252,000 British nationals who had emigrated, 90 per cent of them were of working age, Mary Gregory, executive director for population and census at the ONS, said.

Oxford Economics chief UK economist Andrew Goodwin said that if the net migration remains at these low levels, it increases the chances that the OBR will again be forced to downgrade its forecasts at a future fiscal event.

Jonathan Portes, economics professor at Kings College London and the former chief economist at the Cabinet Office, said that while the fall was mostly driven by fewer people from outside the EU coming to work and study and more leaving as their visas expire, the impact of people emigrating from the UK would be negative as it was reasonable to assume that they were quite skilled and possibly high earning.

He also accused Labour of incoherent and economically illiterate statements on growth, which the government insists is its top priority, saying their policies on work and study visas are reducing growth and making the fiscal position worse.

Reducing migration in the way they are doing is an act of economic self-harm, and they are claiming it as a policy success, he added.

open image in gallery Nine out of 10 Brits emigrating in the year to June were of working age, ONS figures show ( Getty/iStock )

Rakesh Patel, managing director for the UK & the rest of Europe at recruiter SThree, said the issue has been exacerbated by Brexit and is worse among high-skilled science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) workers, who make up the workforce for developing industries in the UK. He claimed that while the EU moves to attract more international talent through the new EU Talent Pool, the UK is moving in the opposite direction  and is now facing an exodus of skilled talent as a result.

SThrees latest Stem Workforce Report reveals that one in four Stem employers has seen talent move overseas in the past year, while 13 per cent of Stem workers are actively planning to relocate.

Another 25 per cent of them are considering relocating, while 62 per cent fear tougher UK immigration rules will damage competitiveness. A third (32 per cent) say the UKs immigration policy restricts them from hiring candidates from other countries  a further two in five (41 per cent) say their organisation wont sponsor visas.

open image in gallery Doctors are among those leaving, the BMA said ( PA )

Karl Williams, from the Centre for Policy Studies think tank, said it was likely that those leaving the UK are young, ambitious graduates. He said that the loss of workers, such as the loss of resident doctors and other healthcare professionals, was not just a hit on the economy, its also a hit on public services.

Research he conducted a few years ago showed that in order to keep spending on pensioners per head at roughly the current level, without increasing taxes or borrowing, the UK would need an average annual economic growth of 2.9 per cent. The OBR has forecast that it will be just 1.5 per cent this year.

That just looks so far beyond the bounds of possibility at the moment, he added. And the real worry is that the people leaving are going to be the top earners, either now or in the future.

He said that in order to prevent emigration by younger workers, ministers should tackle the cost of living around housing and energy prices, but stated that this would take time. A more immediate move would be to cut taxes, allowing young people to keep more of the money they earn, but the Budget has gone completely in the opposite direction.

Dr Amit Kochhar, chair of the British Medical Association, which represents doctors, said: Taxpayers invest thousands of pounds in training up UK doctors, only to now watch many of them take their skills abroad. Four thousand left last year and thousands more are filling out the paperwork to get out. Meanwhile, patients are being seen in hospital corridors thanks in part to the overstretching of the workforce that remains. It's a ludicrous waste of resources.

He called for the government to address wages and tackle the lack of training places that he said was robbing doctors of their careers here.

A government spokesperson said: We are delivering a more controlled migration system that promotes growth with settlement fast-tracked for high earners and entrepreneurs. Thats while net migration is at its lowest level in half a decade and has fallen by more than two-thirds under this government as we end the use of asylum hotels and crack down on illegal immigration.

Attracting the brightest and the best to Britain is part of our plan for a strong and secure economy, building on the Budget that delivered on the priorities of the British people  cutting NHS waiting lists, cutting borrowing and cutting the cost of living.
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Sir Keir Starmer appears to have laid the groundwork for a major concession to China, despite using a keynote speech to say Beijing poses national security threats to Britain.

With a crucial decision on the Chinese super embassy coming next week, the prime minister used his annual Mansion House speech on foreign policy to express a robust policy towards China while seeking to work with Xi Jinpings Communist government.

He said: [China] is a nation of immense scale, ambition and ingenuity. A defining force in technology, trade and global governance. At the same time it also poses national security threats to the UK.

The UK needs a China policy that recognises this reality. Instead, for years we have blown hot and cold.

We had the golden age, which then flipped to an Ice Age. We reject that binary choice.

So our response will not be driven by fear, nor softened by illusion. It will be grounded in strength, clarity and sober realism.

open image in gallery Keir Starmer met Xi Jinping during the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro last year ( PA )

The words come amid growing speculation that his government will give the go-ahead for the controversial new Chinese super embassy in Royal Mint Court, despite national security concerns.

A decision on the project was postponed until 10 December when communities secretary Steve Reed will announce if he has given it the go-ahead.

The issue of relations with Beijing has dogged Sir Keir after he had to defend his government amid claims it was responsible for the collapse of a trial in October of two alleged Chinese spies in parliament.

The government claimed that the failure to designate China as a national security threat at the time of the alleged crimes prevented the trial from going ahead.

But, while Sir Keirs new policy is very similar to the one pursued by the Tories before, he will insist that it is grounded in a realistic approach.

open image in gallery Starmer makes his Mansion House speech in London on Monday evening ( PA )

Describing the absence of engagement with the worlds second biggest economy as staggering and a dereliction of duty, the prime minister outlined his governments considered and grown-up approach, saying: This is not a question of balancing economic and security considerations. We dont trade off security in one area, for a bit more economic access somewhere else.

Protecting our security is non-negotiable  our first duty. But by taking tough steps to keep us secure, we enable ourselves to cooperate in other areas.

In order to help British businesses to win their share of the opportunity, the prime minister set out more details on how the government is planning a long-term approach.

He said: Were absolutely clear that when it comes, for example, to defence, AI or our critical national infrastructure, we will always protect our security and our economic interests.

But were also clear that in areas where there is no significant risk, we are going to give businesses the confidence, clarity and support they need to win these opportunities, with all the necessary mitigations in place.

So in areas like financial and professional services, creative industries, pharmaceuticals, luxury goods and more  Great British success stories  the export opportunities are huge and we will back you to seize them.

Meanwhile, Sir Keir has indicated that he wants to go further in improving the deal with the EU over Brexit.

He used a speech on Monday to criticise the impact of Brexit on the economy. But in his Mansion House address, he ruled out returning to the bloc as members or joining the single market again.

Instead, he made a swipe at Nigel Farage and Reform UK as well as the Tories for wanting to unpick international relationships by leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

He said: The Brexit vote was a fair, democratic expression, and I will always respect that.

But how it was sold and delivered was simply wrong. Wild promises were made to the British people and not fulfilled. We are still dealing with the consequences today.

He set out how the corrosive, inward-looking attitude peddled by those who propose choosing between our allies, leaving the ECHR or even leaving Nato will only take Britain backwards.

He will say: It offers grievance rather than hope. A declinist vision of a lesser Britain  not a Great Britain.

Moreover, it is a fatal misreading of the moment. Ducking the fundamental challenge posed by a chaotic world  a world which is more dangerous and unstable than at any point for a generation. Where international events reach directly into our lives, whether we like it or not.

He added: In these times, we deliver for Britain by looking outward with renewed purpose and pride. Not by shrinking back. In these times, internationalism is patriotism.

Since coming to power last year, Sir Keir has been active on the world stage, trumpeting deals with the US, India and the EU and leading the coalition of the willing in support of Ukraine.

But he has also faced criticism from his opponents, who accuse him of spending too much time out of the country attending international summits rather than focusing on domestic issues.
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A South African radio presenter has appeared in court, facing allegations that she recruited men to fight for Russia in the Ukraine war.

South African police said that Nonkululeko Mantula was arrested alongside four men after a tip-off.

The 39-year-old is accused of recruiting the four men and organising for them to join the Russian army.

Three of the men were detained while trying to board a flight to Russia via the United Arab Emirates, police said.

They added that they believe another person had already traveled to Russia after being recruited by Mantula.

It is illegal in South Africa to fight for another country's army without permission from the government.

open image in gallery In this photo distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, assault troops of the Russian Army attend a training to hone their combat skills in an undisclosed location in Ukraine ( Russian Defense Ministry Press Service )

The five suspects arrested in South Africa were ordered to be held in custody until a bail hearing next week.

The arrest of Mantula, a presenter on the state broadcaster's SAFM radio station, came as police are separately investigating a daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma for allegedly tricking another 17 men into fighting as mercenaries for Russia in Ukraine.

Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla resigned as a lawmaker for her father's opposition MK Party last week over the allegations.

She was accused by her half-sister of duping the men into travelling to Russia under the pretence that they would receive security training that would help them secure jobs.

The South African government said this month that it received distress calls from the 17 South Africans, who had been forced to fight for a Russian mercenary group in eastern Ukraine and were now trapped there.

Another South African political party alleged that it had information that the men's passports and clothes were burned and their cell phones were confiscated when they arrived in Russia.

open image in gallery Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla has been accused of tricking 17 men into fighting for Russia ( AFP via Getty Images )

The South African government launched a separate investigation into how the men came to be on the frontlines of the war and is working with international law enforcement agencies to repatriate them.

Russia has been accused of recruiting men from other countries to fight in the war under the pretext of offering them jobs.

It has also been accused of tricking women from South Africa and other parts of Africa into working in Russian drone factories through social media campaigns promising them jobs in fields like catering and hospitality.

The South African government has warned people to be cautious of campaigns promoted by South African social media influencers promising jobs and study opportunities in Russia.

Zuma-Sambudla, the daughter of the former president, has previously been accused of promoting Russian interests over the war in Ukraine.

A 2023 report by the international non-profit Centre for Information Resilience said Zuma-Sambudla's social media account was instrumental in spreading pro-Russia messages.
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A Florida woman who lost her engagement ring while crab fishing has shared how a diver found it on the ocean floor, likening it to finding a needle in a haystack.

Influencer Cassie Yammine was pulling out crab traps on Thanksgiving eve when the ring flew off her finger in Siesta Key along the Sunshine States gulf coast.

Yammine told Fox Tampa Bay she immediately dove into the water but had no luck in finding it at the bottom.

I literally jumped into the water with my clothes on and no luck, she said.

Instead of giving up, Yammine, a photographer and content creator, issued a plea on social media for someone with diving experience to come forward to help the search effort.

open image in gallery Cassie Yammine thought she lost her ring, shown here, in the water but a diver found it at the bottom of the ocean ( Cassie Yammine )

[I] was on the boat checking stone crab traps and it flew off. Dive shops are closed early for holiday weekend. Can any divers in Sarasota help us out? I will pay! Im shaking and crying, I cant believe this actually happened to me, Yammine wrote on her Facebook.

That same day, Yammine received a response from a diver and boat cruise operator, Captain Joe Pistone with Salt and Mist Sea Tours in St. Petersburg  about 41 miles from Siesta Key.

Yammine documented the renewed search on TikTok where she took to the high seas with husband, Brandon, as well as Pistone.

open image in gallery Cassie Yammine and her husband Brandon Yammine ( Cassie Yammine )

It is Thanksgiving eve, Captain Joe is out here in the middle of the Gulf. Its so dark, its kind of scary, she said.

Filming the dark water, Yammine pointed to where the couples crab trap was floating, describing it as the scene of the crime.

So apparently there are some big storms rolling in around midnight tonight so this is like our only window of finding this ring, she said.

Pistone dove into the water to begin searching for the ring, and later in the video, Yammine says half an hour has passed with no luck.

Not going to lie, Im getting really sad. Hes doing his best and Im so hopeful, she said.

open image in gallery Cassie and Brandon Yammine waiting to find the ring ( Cassie Yammine )

I think I messaged 500 scuba divers in Sarasota and all around Florida  but its honestly like a needle in a haystack.

Coming up for air again, Pistone said the difficulty was because of the darkness and how small the ring would be in a vast ocean.

Im doing everything, Im creating grids, Ive used my metal detector, Ive used my fingers, he said.

The point where it appears hope was lost, as Pistone said he was running out of oxygen after two hours, the video skips ahead, revealing Yammine with her ring back on her finger and Pistone in the background.

Guys, Captain Joe is the man, he found it  a Thanksgiving miracle! she exclaimed.

open image in gallery Diver Joe Pistone found Cassie Yammine's engagement ring ( Cassie Yammine )

This is the last time that I will ever wear my ring on the boat. Shes staying in the jewelry box when Im on the water.

A series of comments on Yammines videos included messages of congratulations and disbelief over the unlikely success.

As a diver, you are very lucky to have been reunited with your ring, incredible skills Captain Joe! one person commented.

Another said it was a true Thanksgiving miracle.

Omg what a Thanksgiving miracle..God is good, I am so happy for you, they said.
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One of the sons of notorious Mexican drug kingpin El Chapo pleaded guilty on Monday to U.S. drug trafficking charges, months after his brother entered a plea deal.

Known locally in Mexico as the Chapitos  or little Chapos  Joaquin Guzman Lopez and brother Ovidio Guzman Lopez are accused of running a faction of the Sinaloa cartel.

Federal authorities in 2023 described the operation as a massive effort to send staggering quantities of fentanyl into the U.S.

Joaquin Guzman Lopez, 39, pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking and continuing criminal enterprise after admitting his role in overseeing the transport of tens of thousands of kilograms (pounds) of drugs to the U.S., mostly through underground tunnels.

With the plea deal, his attorney said, he is expected to avoid life in prison.

open image in gallery This combo of images provided by the U.S. Department of State show Ismael El Mayo Zambada, a historic leader of Mexicos Sinaloa cartel, left, and Joaquin Guzman Lopez after they were arrested by U.S. authorities in Texas, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday, July 25, 2024 ( U.S. Department of State via AP )

Security was tight at Chicago's federal court ahead of the hearing in which prosecutors detailed events leading up to Guzman Lopez's dramatic arrest with another longtime Sinaloa leader on U.S. soil in July 2024.

Wearing an orange jumpsuit and matching shoes, Guzman Lopez spoke little in court Monday. At the outset of the hearing, U.S. District Judge Sharon Coleman asked him what he did for work.

Drug trafficking, he said.

Oh thats your job, Coleman said with a chuckle. There you go.

If Guzman Lopez cooperates with the U.S. government, prosecutors said, they would reduce the life sentence attached to the charges. Regardless, he faces at least 10 years in prison, said Andrew Erskine, an attorney representing the federal government.

Guzman Lopez would have no opportunity to appeal the sentence as part of the plea deal.

His defense attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, commended both U.S. and Mexican authorities.

The government has been very fair with Joaquin thus far, he told reporters after the hearing. I do appreciate the fact that the Mexican government didnt interfere.

open image in gallery Jeffrey Lichtman, an attorney for Joaquin Guzman Lopez ( AP )

Guzman Lopez and another longtime Sinaloa leader, Ismael El Mayo Zambada, were arrested in July 2024 in Texas after they landed in the U.S. on a private plane.

Both men have previously pleaded not guilty to various drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms charges. Their surprising capture prompted a surge in violence in Mexicos northern state of Sinaloa as two factions of the Sinaloa cartel clashed.

As part of the plea deal, Joaquin Guzman Lopez admitted to helping oversee the production and smuggling of large quantities of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and fentanyl into the United States, fueling a crisis that has contributed to tens of thousands of overdose deaths annually.

Guzman Lopez also admitted to kidnapping an unnamed individual purported to be Zambada. Erskine described the alleged kidnapping in court, saying Guzman Lopez had the glass from a floor-to-ceiling window removed. During a meeting in the room with the unnamed person, Guzman Lopez allegedly had others enter through the open window, seize the individual, put a bag over his head and take him to a plane. On board, he was zip tied and given sedatives before the plane landed at a New Mexico airport near the border with Texas.

Erskine said the alleged kidnapping was part of an attempt to show cooperation with the U.S. government, which did not sanction those actions. He said Guzman Lopez also would not receive cooperation credit because of that.

Zambada's attorney has previously claimed that his client was forcibly kidnapped by Guzman Lopez onto the flight to the U.S.

open image in gallery This frame grab from video, provided by the Mexican government, shows Ovidio Guzman Lopez being detained in Culiacan, Mexico, Oct. 17, 2019 ( AP )

Lichtman said he would try to seek a lower sentence.

I dont know how this ends up," Lichtman said. "If he gets a 10-year sentence, its still a lot of time for anybody to spend in prison.

In court, observers were instructed to turn off electronic devices while authorities used police dogs to sniff bags and equipment in the lobby of the downtown courthouse.

In July, Ovidio Guzman Lopez became the first son of drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman to enter a plea deal. He pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms charges tied to his leadership role in the cartel. Legal experts called that plea deal a significant step for the U.S. government in their investigation and prosecution of Sinaloa cartel leaders.

Joaquin El Chapo Guzman is serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2019 for his role as the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, having smuggled mountains of cocaine and other drugs into the United States over 25 years.

The brothers allegedly assumed their fathers former role as leaders of the cartel.
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A teenager has been mauled to death by a lion after climbing into an enclosure at a zoo in Brazil.

Gerson de Melo Machado, 19, managed to scale a 20 foot wall before sliding down a tree at Arruda Camera Park in the north east of the country.

Footage captured by visitors on Sunday showed a lioness called Leona pacing below the tree as the teenager got closer to the ground. Eye witnesses were then heard saying it got him, it got him after the animal pounced.

Machado had dreamed of being a lion tamer, his child protection counsellor Veronica Oliveira said, and had previously hid in the landing gear of a plane in the hope of flying to Africa.

open image in gallery Footage showed the19-year-old scaling down a tree as a lioness waited below ( X/CPreparado )

The teenager and his family had all suffered with a history of mental health issues, the counsellor explained. Machados mother had schizophrenia and they lived in extreme poverty, local media reported.

He was 19 years old, but when he spoke, I believe his cognitive capacity was no more than that of a 5-year-old, Oliveira said in an interview with O Correio Braziliense. He had immense fragility in his mental health. If he had had regular and serious follow-up, we wouldn't be experiencing this today.

"Gerson is the result of a system that always excluded him, he had been caged for years. Today was the culmination of a 'Chronicle of a Death Foretold'. I hope the lesson remains and that the countless Gersons we attend to every day have a happier ending.

A statement by local authorities said the incident was under investigation and it may have been a suicide attempt.

open image in gallery The lion, called Leona, attacked the teenager after he made his way into her enclosure ( X/CPreparado )

Quickly and surprisingly, he climbed a wall of more than six metres, the security fences, accessed one of the trees and invaded the enclosure, the statement said. Although the security teams tried to prevent the action, the man acted quickly in accessing the enclosure and died as a result of the injuries caused by the animal.

In a post to its Instagram, the zoo said it would be closed until investigations were complete.

This is an extremely sad episode for all, and we send our solidarity and condolences to the family and friends of the still unidentified man, the statement said.Once the incident was confirmed, the park was immediately closed, following all safety protocols. The teams mobilised the competent authorities and provided the necessary support for the service and work of the expertise.

The zoo said that it did not intend to put the lioness down Leona after the fatal attack.

Leona is healthy, does not exhibit aggressive behavior outside the context of the incident, and will not be euthanized, the zoo said in a statement on Instagram. The protocol in situations like this provides exactly what is being done: monitoring, behavioral assessment, and specialized care.

The Bica team, veterinarians, handlers, and technicians are fully dedicated to Leona's well-being, ensuring that she recovers, stabilises emotionally, and resumes her routine safely,.

If you need to speak to someone, Samaritans are available 24/7 on 116 123 or by emailing jo@samaritans.org
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A recent childrens birthday party shooting in California, which tragically claimed four lives, marked the 17th mass killing in the US this year  the lowest figure recorded since 2006.

This statistic, compiled by a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University, offers a glimmer of hope.

Yet experts are quick to temper expectations, suggesting this drop may simply represent a return to average levels rather than a lasting improvement.

Mass killings are defined as incidents where four or more people are killed within 24 hours, excluding the perpetrator. While the current numbers appear encouraging, criminologist James Alan Fox of Northeastern University, who manages the database, warns against complacency.

"Sir Isaac Newton never studied crime, but he says What goes up must come down," Fox said, suggesting the current decline is more likely a "regression to the mean" following unusual spikes in 2018 and 2019. He added, "Will 2026 see a decline? I wouldnt bet on it. What goes down must also go back up."

The rarity of such events means the figures can be volatile, according to James Densley, a professor at Metropolitan State University in Minnesota.

"Because there's only a few dozen mass killings in a year, a small change could look like a wave or a collapse," he explained, reiterating that 2025s numbers, while historically good, do not signify the problem has vanished. Densley points to an overall decline in homicide and violent crime rates post-COVID-19 pandemic, alongside improved immediate responses to mass casualty incidents, as potential contributing factors. He cited the Annunciation School shooting in Minnesota, where only two were killed despite over 20 injuries, attributing the lower fatality count to rapid bleeding control and trauma response by first responders.

Eric Madfis, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Washington-Tacoma, underscored the complexity of crime rate changes, noting they are "multi-causal." He highlighted that while gun violence deaths are down, the US still faces "exceedingly high rates and numbers of mass shootings compared to anywhere else in the world."

None of this years mass killings occurred in schools ( AFP/Getty )

Madfis also mentioned the increasing number of states mandating school threat assessments, which could be preventing some school shootings, though none of this years mass killings occurred in schools.

Christopher Carita, a former detective and senior training specialist with gun safety organisation 97Percent, believes the 2022 Safer Communities Act has played a role. The act provided millions in funding for gun violence protection programmes, allowing states flexibility to invest in social supports for at-risk individuals or law enforcement and threat assessment initiatives. Carita noted a shift in perspective: "It's always been framed as either a gun problem or a people problem and that's been very contentious. I feel like for the first time, we're looking at gun violence as a 'both, and' problem nationally."

However, Emma Fridel, an assistant professor of criminology at Florida State University, cautions against focusing solely on extreme events like mass killings, warning of "missing the forest for the trees." She stressed the broader, devastating impact of gun violence, encompassing both homicides and suicides. "If you look at the deaths from firearms, both in homicides and suicides, the numbers are staggering. We lose the same number of people every year to gun violence as the number of casualties we experienced in the Korean War. The number one cause of death for children is guns," Fridel stated. She concluded that mass killings should be viewed as just one facet of a much larger, pervasive issue.
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Mexicos cattle exports are facing serious challenges this year thanks to the continued threat of the flesh-eating New World screwworm parasite.

While there have been no instances of the New World screwworm in U.S. cattle this year, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has taken aggressive steps toward trying to eliminate the parasite, Mexico's slumping cattle exports are driven by U.S. fears that their cattle supply could be infected.

Approximately 1.2 million Mexican cattle cross into the U.S. every year, according to the Washington Post. But after a cow in southern Mexico tested positive for screwworm last November, U.S. imports of the nation's cattle have fallen to about 230,000.

The U.S. initiated a cattle import ban on Mexican animals in November 2024, but has occasionally lifted and reinstated it since then.

The discovery of screwworm in Mexican livestock was significant  and troubling  for several reasons. First, the parasites are flesh-eaters than can quickly taint a significant number of animals. The maggots burrow into warm-blooded animals, creating putrid, festering wounds and occasionally fatal weight loss in infected animals.

open image in gallery Mexican ranchers are struggling after the U.S. stopped importing Mexican cattle over fears they might carry the New World screwworm flesh-eating parasite ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved )

Second, the screwworm had been eliminated from the U.S. in 1966 and then in Mexico in 1991. The parasites re-emerged in North America in 2023 after they successfully passed the Darien Gap in Panama, according to the American Society for Microbiology. The discovery of an infestation in Mexican cattle set American officials on edge.

The first elimination of the screwworm was the result of collaboration between the U.S., Mexico, and several Central American nations. The nations introduced sterile female New World screwworm flies into the existing population, and over time the population collapsed.

The USDA and Mexico are planning to use the same method to wipe out the screwworm again, but projects like the targeted extinction of a creature the size of a housefly take time. That leaves Mexican ranchers left with the present consequences of bottoming-out cattle exports.

Were trying to almost beg the USDA to keep our Nogales border open, Jorge Maldonado, the mayor of Nogales, Arizona, told the Washington Post.

open image in gallery Workers shepherd cattle at a ranch that exports livestock to the U.S., in Zamora, northern Mexico ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. )

He operates a small cattle ranch in Mexico, and told the paper that had he'd have made an extra $10,000 if he'd been able to sell a recent batch of animals to buyers in the U.S.

While his own losses sting, he's far more concerned for the residents of his city, which has collected up to 15 percent less in bed taxes due to a lack of visitors who typically stay overnight during cattle trade negotiations. He said the screwworm reemergence has been a "catastrophe" for local businesses centered on the cattle industry.

Juan Manuel Fleischer told the Washington Post that he runs one of those industries. He helps to sort cattle and guides them from small Mexican ranches across the border to larger U.S. cattle yards after negotiations are finalized.

Learning that the U.S. was closing its doors to Mexican cattle for the foreseeable future left Fleischer reeling.

I said, Oh, my god, its going to kill us. This will break us,'  he told the Washington Post.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has called for the U.S. to reopen the border for Mexican cattle, calling it a "top priority."

open image in gallery An adult New World screwworm fly sits at rest in this undated photo. The flys maggots can infest cattle and other warm-blooded animals, eating away at the skin and causing putrid, festering wounds that can sometimes be fatal ( U.S. Department of Agriculture )

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins made clear in a September statement that the current administration does not trust Mexico to contain the screwworm.

"Protecting the United States from NWS is non-negotiable and a top priority of the Trump Administration, she said. This is a national security priority. We have given Mexico every opportunity and every resource necessary to counter NWS since announcing the NWS Bold Plan in June 2025. Nevertheless, American ranchers and families should know that we will not rely on Mexico to defend our industry, our food supply, or our way of life."

According to Maldonado, USDA officials told him the borders will remain closed at least until the end of the year.

"We are supporting robust response activities in Mexico and Central America to push the pest back, and we have teams in place along the U.S. border to bolster our defenses and stay ahead of it," the USDA said on its website. "If screwworm crosses into the United States, we are ready to act quickly and aggressively to eliminate it."

The Independent has requested comment from the USDA.
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Dramatic footage captured the chaotic scene after a truck driver lost control and crashed into the Miami River  before two good Samaritans jumped into the water to save the passengers.

Surveillance footage obtained by Local 10 News showed the truck speeding toward the river, colliding with a fence and a tree before plummeting into the water below on Monday.

Boat captain Mauricio Florez, who witnessed two heroic bystanders jump into the water and save the two women inside the truck, said he thought he heard an explosion before realizing what had happened.

It was a crazy situation for us because were normally used to seeing boats in the marina, not cars sinking, he told the outlet.

The quick-thinking rescuers jumped into the water and cut away the vehicles deployed airbags and seatbelts, which had been holding the passengers in place. Other footage shows one of the brave responders helping the women out of the vehicle as it sinks.

open image in gallery Two heroic bystanders jumped into the Miami River on Monday to save two women after their truck crashed into the water ( Luxury Waves Miami/ Local 10 News )

They were stuck inside for the air bag and with the seatbelt, Florez added.

Florez identified one of the rescuers as Rafael Valdez. The other good Samaritan was not identified.

The two women in the truck appeared to be city of Miami employees.

I saw that it was a car for city of Miami for the waste management, Florez said.

Both of the women were able to flee the sinking truck safely. Neither of them sustained any injuries, according to the report.

The most important thing is they are alive, Florez said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the driver to lose control of the truck and crash into the river.

The incident is being investigated.
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Ocean Spray is investigatingafter viral videos of its cranberry sauce appeared to show cans of the Thanksgiving staple filled with water.

A TikTok video posted last Friday showed someone opening a can of Ocean Spray to find it seemingly full of water instead of cranberry sauce. Two other open cans with water inside were sitting on the counter in the video that has already garnered 10.4 million views.

Were aware of a few reports about cans containing water instead of cranberry sauce, and were looking into how this may have happened, Ocean Spray said in a statement to multiple media outlets.

Another Ocean Spray customer shared her experience with the canned cranberry sauce in a video posted on Facebook just after Thanksgiving.

In the video, which has generated 102,000 views, the woman opened a can of cranberry sauce to find it apparently filled with water, just like the other customer. Another can that had been frozen was filled with ice, someone in the video said.

open image in gallery Ocean Spray is investigating its cranberry sauce after viral videos appeared to show cans of the Thanksgiving staple filled with water ( Kylie Cooper/REUTERS )

This was my ocean spray cranberry sauce yesterday 4 canswho else had this happen? the woman wrote in the videos caption.

Ocean Spray said that the claims of a cranberry sauce fiasco was an important matter and it is investigating.

Millions of families enjoyed their cranberry sauce this holiday season, but even one can of sauce not meeting expectations matters to us, Ocean Spray said. Weve reached out to the folks who shared these videos to learn more and make it right.

open image in gallery Ocean Spray said the claims of a cranberry sauce fiasco was an important matter and it is investigating ( AP )

The Massachusetts-based company was established in 1930 with just three independent cranberry growers. Ocean Spray now has more than 700 farmers. One of the original farmers, Marcus Urann, created the signature jellied cranberry sauce in 1912. The canned sauce became available across the country in 1941.

Joan Driggs, who was a vice president at marketing research firm IRI at the time, told The New York Times in a November 2022 article, the jellied cranberry sauce is that same product you count on year after year.

But that may not have been the case for everyone this past Thanksgiving.
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A tree-trimmer has been impaled after falling onto a fence in Los Angeles, which the fire department said left him beyond medical help.

The victims family members told NBC Los Angeles that the victim was suspended in a palm tree when his rope detached around 3:30 pm on Monday. His family identified him as Rogelio Cruz, 48.

The fire department confirmed that Cruz fell 35 feet onto a 10-foot-high iron fence while trimming a tree in Canoga Park, about 27 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

Tragically, this fall rendered the patient beyond medical help, the statement said.

An LAFD USAR team will utilize a high-angle rope system to carefully recover his body, which is currently covered by a sheet and shielded from public view by a tarp to preserve the decedents dignity.

open image in gallery A tree-trimmer was impaled after falling onto a fence in LA ( KTLA )

The fire department added that the Mayors Crisis Response Team was en route to the scene to provide emotional support to fellow workers.

LA County Coroners office was notified and will assume responsibility of the body upon arrival.

Cruz had recently celebrated his birthday, according to cousin Richard Areloa.

The 48-year-old had 20 years of experience trimming trees, and the company was owned and operated by the family. He was working with his brothers when the incident happened.

open image in gallery A street view of where a tree trimmer was impaled ( Google Maps )

"Everyday routine, goes up, does the job, cuts it down, comes back down, goes home, and it just wasnt like that today," Areloa said.

"I don't know how one can process what happened," Areloa said. "Here we are, all still trying to cope with everything.Cruzs niece, Janeth Cruz, also told NBC her uncle was very loved.

He was always so giving. No matter if he knew you or not, he would just lend it. Always the first person to be like, Im here. What can I do? she said. Valerio Street, where Cruz fell, has remained closed as authorities work to retrieve the body.

LAFD Captain Erik Scott told NBC the urban search and rescue team was on the scene.

Theyre working on trying to lift this individual off in a dignified manner, he said.

Earlier this year, an American tourist in Rome impaled himself in the lower back while trying to climb a fence to the Colosseum.

That man passed out from the pain and was taken to the hospital, where he had emergency surgery and needed 80 stitches.
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Thousands of truck driving schools across the United States face potential closure following a federal review that uncovered widespread non-compliance with government standards. The Transportation Department announced that nearly 44 percent of the nation's 16,000 institutions could be affected.

On Monday, the department revealed plans to revoke the accreditation of approximately 3,000 schools unless they meet training requirements within 30 days. A further 4,000 schools have been warned they may face similar action.

This crackdown marks the latest step in the government's effort to ensure truck drivers are qualified and eligible for commercial licenses. The initiative follows a fatal Florida crash, which Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated was caused by a driver not authorized to be in the U.S. who made an illegal U-turn, killing three people.

A further 4,000 schools have been warned they may face similar action. ( AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File )

Duffy has threatened to pull federal funding from California and Pennsylvania over the issue, and he proposed significant new restrictions on which immigrants can get a commercial driver's license, but a court put those new rules on hold.

We are reigning in illegal and reckless practices that let poorly trained drivers get behind the wheel of semi-trucks and school buses, Duffy said.

The Transportation Department said the 3,000 schools it is taking action against failed to meet training standards and didn't maintain accurate and complete records. The schools are also accused of falsifying or manipulating training data.

The list of schools being targeted wasn't immediately released.
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A University of Oklahoma student claimed she was discriminated against because of her religious beliefs after she received a failing grade on an essay for her gender studies class. Now, Turning Point USA has taken on her push for academic freedom and her case has become a national sensation.

Samantha Fulnecky, a junior at OU, reported her psychology instructor to the school after she received an F on her paper. The universitys chapter of Turning Point USA, a conservative nonprofit founded by Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in September, posted Fulneckys essay and instructor Mel Curths response online and blasted the instructor. Curth uses she/they pronouns.

In a social media post, Turning Point USAs OU chapter voiced support for Fulnecky and denounced Curth: We should not be letting mentally ill professors around students.

The classroom clash has blown up online. Some social media users agreed with the instructor, criticizing Fulneckys writing ability, lack of sources, and digression from the instructions.

Her paper was absolutely embarrassing. She failed to follow directions, didnt meet the word count and didnt cite a single source, MaileonX wrote on the platform.

While others have dubbed the college student an American hero, and launched personal attacks at the instructor, while alleging the incident raises First Amendment concerns.

Samantha Fulnecky is an American hero, Former Oklahoma schools Superintendent Ryan Walters wrote on X. She stood firm in her faith despite the radical attacks from the Marxist professors at the University of Oklahoma. The OU staff involved should be immediately fired and OU should not be receiving taxpayer dollars if they continue their assaults on faith. The war on Christianity is real, and we will not be silenced.

open image in gallery Samantha Fulnecky, a junior at the University of Oklahoma, filed a discrimination complaint after she received a failing grade on a psychology essay, leading to the instructor being placed on leave and Turning Point USA getting involved. ( Turning Point USA OU )

The assignment, according to the nonprofits Thanksgiving social media post, was to write a 650-word essay reacting to a psychology article about the effect of gender norms on middle school students and their impact on mental health.

In her essay, Fulnecky repeatedly cited the Bible and emphasized her right to free speech, stating she believes eliminating gender in our society would be detrimental, as it pulls us farther from God's original plan for humans.

Women naturally want to do womanly things because God created us with those womanly desires in our hearts. The same goes for men, the junior wrote in the essay where she claimed gender roles should not be seen as stereotypes.

The reason so many girls want to feel womanly and care for others in a motherly way is not because they feel pressured to fit into social norms. It is because God created and chose them to reflect His beauty and His compassion in that way, Fulnecky argued.

Society pushing the lie that there are multiple genders and everyone should be whatever they want to be is demonic and severely harms American youth.

The social media post also included Curths comments. The instructor noted that the grade deductions didnt stem from her beliefs, but for posting a reaction paper that does not answer the questions for this assignment, contradicts itself, heavily uses personal ideology over empirical evidence in a scientific class, and is at times offensive.

Curth said Fulnecky is entitled to her own beliefs, but the article is based on years of psychological research and evidence, not just society pushing lies.

You may personally disagree with this, but that doesn't change the fact that every major psychological, medical, pediatric, and psychiatric association in the United States acknowledges that, biologically and psychologically, sex and gender is neither binary nor fixed, the instructor wrote, urging her to apply more empathy in her work.

Another instructor for the course, Megan Waldron, said she concurred with Curths F grade, saying Fulneckys essay should not be considered as a completion of the assignment. Waldron similarly urged the college junior to be more thoughtful and to cite empirical evidence in her arguments.

Turning Point had a different take, attacking the transgender community and higher education.

open image in gallery The University of Oklahoma said its reviewing the matter and is conducting a formal grade appeals process ( Getty Images )

We at Turning Point OU stand with Samantha. We should not be letting mentally ill professors around students, the OU chapter of the nonprofit wrote.

Clearly this professor lacks the intellectual maturity to set her own bias aside and take grading seriously. Professors like this are the very reason conservatives can't voice their beliefs in the classroom. Kuddos to Samantha for leading by example and standing up for what she believes in. @UofOklahoma, do better!

Fulnecky insisted to The Oklahoman that she received zero points out of 25 for my beliefs and using freedom of speech, and especially for my religious beliefs."

The university said it launched a full review of the situation after receiving a complaint from the student, including conducting a formal grade appeals process, reviewing the discrimination claim, and placing the instructor on leave, according to a statement released over the weekend.

The University of Oklahoma takes seriously concerns involving First Amendment rights, certainly including religious freedoms, the school said. OU remains firmly committed to fairness, respect and protecting every student's right to express sincerely held religious beliefs.

In a follow-up post Sunday, the organization wrote: It's time for conservatives to take a stand and show teachers that we will not be intimidated for sharing conservative or Christian beliefs on assignments any longer. The only right thing to do is fire this professor. Good job Samantha Fulnecky, we stand with you.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in February eradicating anti-Christian bias, vowing to terminate any unlawful and improper conduct, policies, or practices that target Christians.

Several prominent GOP voices in the state, including Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, weighed in on the matter, siding with Fulnecky and Turning Point USA.

The 1st Amendment is foundational to our freedom & inseparable from a well rounded education, he wrote in a social media post Sunday. The situation at OU is deeply concerning. Im calling on the OU regents to review the results of the investigation & ensure other students arent unfairly penalized for their beliefs.

open image in gallery Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt and several other prominent Republicans in the state defended Fulnecky. ( Getty Images )

Dusty Deevers, a Republican member of the Oklahoma Senate, also defended Fulnecky, claiming the clash raises serious First Amendment concerns and looks a lot like unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination by a state actor.

If a conservative professor gave a Muslim or transgender student a zero for expressing their convictions, the university would treat it as a civil-rights crisis. The standard must be the same when the student is a Christian, Deevers wrote in a lengthy post. Students do not lose their rights because a professor is offended.

Many others online argued that her essay was not up to snuff and she deserved the grade she was given.

Have we considered that Samantha wrote a bad Essay, one X user remarked.

Not remotely following an assignment has always been grounds for failing grade. If this is your attempt at a controversy it simply sends the message that your organization is run by people who cant follow a basic homework assignment, yet another wrote.

Another succinctly said: Calling trans people demonic is evil. Plain & simple. Hope that helps.
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A GOP senator has put forward a bill that would force dual citizens to renounce their foreign citizenship and submit exclusive allegiance to the United States  legislation that would strip the first lady Melania Trump, and son Barron of their Slovenian passports.

Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno shared his radical plan Monday, titled Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025, which would force anyone with dual citizenship to choose between the two countries.

An individual may not be a citizen or national of the United States while simultaneously possessing any foreign citizenship, Morenos bill read. A citizen of the United States who, after the date of the enactment of this Act, voluntarily acquires foreign citizenship shall be deemed to have relinquished United States citizenship.

Moreno was born in Colombia and became a U.S. citizen at the age of 18.

It was an honor to pledge an Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America and only to the United States of America, Moreno said in a news release. Being an American citizen is an honor and a privilege  and if you want to be an American  its all or nothing. Its time to end dual citizenship for good.

open image in gallery The proposed legislation would strip the first lady Melania Trump and son Barron of their Slovenian citizenship ( Getty )

Morenos plan will likely hit a snag  under the Fourteenth Amendment, a U.S. citizen cannot lose his or her citizenship unless he or she willingly surrenders it.

Melania moved to the U.S. in 1996 and is the only first lady to become a naturalized citizen. She obtained citizenship in 2006 and remains a dual citizen of the U.S. and Slovenia, along with her 19-year-old son, Barron, according to Mary Jordans 2020 book, The Art of Her Deal, about the former model.

It was essential to the first lady that Barron spoke Slovenian and that he held a Slovenian passport, in addition to an American one, Jordan wrote.

[Donald] Trump has complained to others that he has no idea what they are saying, one passage of the book reads.

open image in gallery Moreno, who was born in Colombia and became a U.S. citizen at 18, said it was time to end dual citizenship for good ( Getty Images )

In an interview last year, Jordan said that dual citizenship allowed Barron to work freely in all of Europe much more easily.

So if he wants to go start a Paris bureau of Trump.org or a Slovenian bureau, its much easier for him, and it just gives him more options, the author said.

Under Morenos bill, which would be enforced by the Department of Homeland Security and State Department, dual citizens would be flagged by the system and be given one year to renounce their foreign citizenship or give up their American citizenship.

Anyone who does not comply after a year would automatically lose their U.S. citizenship and be recorded as a non-citizen.

The Trump administration has made unprecedented attempts this year to end birthright citizenship, which is being challenged in the courts.
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A Fox News legend has admitted that Donald Trump faces a big problem if his administration ordered the killing of the survivors of a boat strike in the Caribbean.

The strike in question took place on September 2, off the coast of Trinidad, with U.S. officials claiming that the boat was smuggling drugs into the United States from Venezuela.

However, a report by The Washington Post claimed that Pete Hegseth had ordered officials to kill everybody onboard, leading Admiral Frank Bradley to bomb the survivors of the initial strike, as they clung to the boats wreckage.

Brit Hume, Fox News Chief Political Analyst, told the Special Report program that the legality of the second strike is dependent on the militarys intentions.

open image in gallery Brit Hume says that Trump faces a 'problem' if his administration ordered a second strike on a wrecked Venezuelan boat ( Fox News )

Thats what it comes down to, is what the intention of the second strike was, he said. Was it to demolish the rest of the boat that had been hit but not completely destroyed, or for was it for the principal purpose of eliminating the survivors?

Eliminating the survivors would be a big problem if thats what it was all about, he continued. If they were killed in the course of the rest of the boat being destroyed, if it was sufficiently intact caused military personnel to think that the job had not been finished, thats another matter.

The White House has defended the military action, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declaring that Bradley was well within his authority and the law when he gave the order for the second strike.

He directed the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat from narco terrorists was eliminated, she added.

Leavitt also claimed that the strikes were conducted in international waters and in accordance with the law of armed conflict.

open image in gallery The strike in question took place in September and saw the U.S. Military launching a second attack on survivors clinging to wreckage ( Donald Trump/Truth Social )

Legal questions surrounding the entire bombing campaign also remain. So far, the United States has carried out at least 21 strikes on 22 vessels and has killed at least 83 people in the attacks.

Although the United States is not a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the militarys legal advisors say that it is the policy of the United States to act in a manner consistent with its provisions.

That means interfering with ships in international waters, except when pursuing a vessel, or using lethal force against a boat, except in self-defence, is illegal.

The United States has declared the Tren de Aragua cartel, members of which were allegedly aboard some of the vessels bombed by the U.S., as a terrorist group.

However, Professor Michael Becker, a human rights specialist at Trinity College Dublin, told the BBC that designating a group as a terrorist organization does not legitimize them as a military target.

open image in gallery President Maduro of Venezuela has vowed to defend every inch of his country from Trump ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved )

"The fact that U.S. officials describe the individuals killed by the U.S. strike as narco-terrorists does not transform them into lawful military targets," he said. "The U.S. is not engaged in an armed conflict with Venezuela or the Tren de Aragua criminal organisation."

Tensions between Venezuela and the United States have soared in recent months, with Trump warning that land operations could commence very soon and that pilots should avoid Venezuelan airspace.

The president has also claimed that Venezuela is not a very friendly country and has overseen a substantial military build-up in the Caribbean, which includes the worlds biggest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford.

Meanwhile, President Nicolas Maduro, who refused to concede his countrys elections in 2024, has vowed to defend every inch of Venezuela from any imperialist threat.
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Dell founder Michael Dell and his wife Susan have pledged $6.25 billion from their own wealth to help fund President Donald Trumps bank accounts for children, benefitting roughly 25 million kids.

Trump unveiled the massive donation alongside the Dells in the Roosevelt Room on Tuesday, calling their gift one of the largest private donations in American history, which will directly benefit the next generation of American children.

The president said the accounts, which were established in the One Big Beautiful Bill tax cut and spending package passed along party lines by the GOP-led Congress earlier this year, would be the first ... real trust funds for every American child, allowing family members, employers, corporations, generous donors to contribute money that will be invested and grow over the course of a child's life to be used for their benefit after they turn 18.

These accounts will track the overall stock market and will be 100% private property controlled by the child's guardians, Trump said, adding that the technology entrepreneurs gift was being made in honor of Americas semiquincentennial celebrations set for next year.

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

The government is set to launch the tax-deferred investment accounts for any eligible American children starting next year.

The accounts will benefit children born between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028, each of whom will receive $1,000 from the federal government. The Dells donation allows children up to 10 years old to receive an additional $250, if eligible by virtue of their parents household income and their ZIP code.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hailed the accounts as a major change in philanthropy and for American working families and the merging of President Trump's agenda of parallel prosperity, Main Street meets Wall Street.

I think we will look back on today and know that these Trump accounts, they have started a new age of the capitalism and market interest for the whole country, Bessent said.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz, one of the sponsors of the legislation which created the accounts, also claimed the investment vehicles would have a political effect by creating a new generation of capitalists because every child in America is going to be an owner of the biggest employers in this country.

We've all seen the sad statistics of how many kids are losing faith in capitalism. Well, ten years from now, a little boy is going to pull out his phone and he's going to look at his app, and he's going to see his Trump account. And instead of thinking of big, bad, scary corporations, that little boy is going to say, I own 50 bucks of Apple. I own 100 bucks of Dell I own 75 bucks of McDonald's, Cruz said.

Hours ahead of the presidents White House announcement, the Dells revealed in a video posted on X that they would make the massive investment in Trump accounts to expand the amount of seed money children can receive.

Weve seen what happens when a child gets even a small financial head start; their world expands, Michael Dell said

Michael Dell had previously signaled he would invest in Trump accounts. In the video, he encouraged other leaders to invest in the retirement accounts.

open image in gallery Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Technologies, highlighted the importance of giving children a financial head start while announcing his $6 billion investment ( Getty Images )

To philanthropists, companies, community leaders, if you want to be part of something truly meaningful, for our kids, for our communities, for our country  join us, Michael Dell said in the video.

The donation marks one of the largest philanthropic investments ever to go directly to Americans.

In a statement, White House Deputy Press Secretary Kush Desai hailed the investment accounts for kids as a revolutionary investment by the federal government into the next generation of American children.

Its also President Trumps call to action for American businesses and philanthropists to do their part, too  Michael and Susan Dells $6 billion investment into Americas children is the first of many announcements to come for Americas children, Desai added.

open image in gallery Michael Dell has been a supporter of the Trump accounts, believing they can help children get a financial head start ( Getty Images )

The idea for accessible investment accounts arose from Brad Gerstner, the CEO of Altimeter Capital. Gerstenr set up a nonprofit, Invest America, to push for the creation of bank accounts in which the federal government would give $1,000 to each child, according to the New York Times.

Michael Dell, a friend of Gerstner, liked the idea and joined the initiative.

Gerstner initially reached out to the Biden administration for support on the investment accounts, but failed to rally enough support among members of Congress. Ultimately, the Trump administration was receptive to the idea, and Republican Senator Ted Cruz introduced the Invest America Act that was later folded into the party-line package which Trump signed into law earlier this year.

The accounts are set to open next year  though there are few details about the process for opening one and how it will invest in the stock market.

To qualify, a baby needs a Social Security number. Only those born between 2025 and 2028 will receive the governments $1,000 starting funds. Parents and others may contribute up to $5,000 per year until the child turns 18 years old.
White paper on arms control in new era demonstrates responsibility of China as a major power

17:06, December 02, 2025 By Guo Xiaobing ( Global Times

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

China's State Council Information Office on Thursday released a white paper titled "China's Arms Control, Disarmament, and Nonproliferation in the New Era." This is the third time China has released a white paper on arms control, following one in 1995 and another in 2005. The white paper was released to comprehensively present China's policies and practices on arms control, disarmament, and nonproliferation, and its position on security governance in emerging fields such as outer space, cyberspace, and artificial intelligence.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, as well as the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. While the memories of the old world wars are fading, the risk of new wars and conflicts is rising. The postwar international security order, established through a reflection on the horrors of war, faces numerous challenges, and the international arms control, disarmament, and nonproliferation system has been severely eroded. War or peace? Dialogue or confrontation? Humanity once again stands at a historical crossroads. Amid these challenges, China's new arms control white paper serves as a timely response.

The new white paper summarizes China's basic policy stance and pragmatic measures on arms control, disarmament, and nonproliferation over the past 20 years, especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, demonstrating China's responsibility and commitment as a major power in actively leading global security governance and safeguarding international peace and security. Compared with previous versions, the new arms control white paper has three prominent "new" features.

First, it introduces new concepts. The white paper, for the first time, proposes China's adherence to the principles of justice, cooperation, balance and effectiveness in arms control. This is a highly condensed summary of China's arms control diplomacy and practices, and also an important guide for future arms control work. The principle of justice means upholding fairness and justice, firmly safeguarding the basic norms governing international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, opposing political coercion, exceptionalism, and double standards. The principle of cooperation means adhering to win-win cooperation, advocating true multilateralism, achieving arms control and nonproliferation objectives through political and diplomatic means, and opposing the frequent resort to force and unilateral sanctions. The principle of balance means taking into account both conventional and emerging fields, and addressing both the symptoms and root causes of global security threats. It opposes abusing the concept of national security and export control measures, and exerting restrictions on developing countries' rights to peaceful uses and legitimate development. The principle of effectiveness means being pragmatic, upholding the authority, universality, and effectiveness of international arms control and nonproliferation regimes, advancing international arms control and nonproliferation processes in a rational, practical and step-by-step manner acceptable to all parties, and rejecting attempts to replace the UN platform.

Second, it introduces new fields. With the rapid development of emerging technologies such as outer space, cyberspace, and artificial intelligence, strengthening security governance in these areas is imperative. In response to these issues, the white paper proposes that, with the universal participation of all countries, the UN should play a pivotal role in fostering a global governance framework and standards for emerging fields based on broad consensus, while increasing the representation and voice of developing countries.

Third, the white paper introduces new measures. China is keeping pace with modern developments in the field of arms control, with numerous new initiatives. In July 2024, China submitted a working paper to the second session of the Preparatory Committee for the Eleventh Review Conference of the Parties to the NPT, and once again called on nuclear-weapon states to conclude a treaty on mutual no-first-use of nuclear weapons or to issue a political statement to that effect. In July 2021, Chinese scientists, together with their international peers, developed Tianjin Biosecurity Guidelines for Codes of Conduct for Scientists, which has been endorsed by the InterAcademy Partnership and has played a guiding role in ensuring responsible biological research and preventing the misuse and abuse of biotechnologies. Regarding international cooperation in the peaceful uses of science and technology, China advocates balancing nonproliferation obligations with the right to peaceful uses of science and technology, and has promoted the adoption of resolutions by the UN General Assembly on Promoting International Cooperation on Peaceful Uses in the Context of International Security three times.

In response to the current complex and intertwined international security crisis, the white paper on arms control in new era offers Chinese wisdom and solutions. This demonstrates that China has always been a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a defender of the international order. China's development and strength are an opportunity for the world, a hope for peace, and a positive impetus for international arms control, disarmament, and nonproliferation efforts.

The author is director of the Arms Control Studies Center of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
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A group of women who survived abuse by Jeffrey Epstein are urging Congress to pass legislation that would force Donald Trumps administration to hand over banking records that could expose the financial engine behind the late sex offender.

The bill introduced by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden would compel the Treasury Department to turn over documents to Senate investigators who have been digging into Epsteins financial network for several years. The Treasury Department is cooperating with a House committees similar request.

Those records are crucial to exposing how Epstein financed a cross-border criminal organization that abused countless women and girls, attorneys representing Epstein survivors wrote to members of Congress.

For far too long Epstein and his co-conspirators have been able to hide in the shadows and conceal the vast amount of wealth that fueled his decades long sex trafficking operation, they wrote in a statement Tuesday.

Wydens probe has taken on new urgency under the Trump administration, which spent months insisting that the public and Congress should move on from questions about the case after the Department of Justice stated there is no basis to release documents from federal investigations into the influential financier, who died in jail facing charges that put him at the center of a wider child trafficking conspiracy.

open image in gallery Survivors of Jeffrey Epsteins abuse are calling on Congress to pass a measure that would compel the Treasury Department to release financial records as part of a follow-the-money probe in the Senate ( REUTERS )

A spokesperson for the Treasury Department referred The Independent to a September 2025 letter sent to the House Oversight Committee in which the agency said it plans to fully cooperate with the Committee and intends to provide all information responsive to your request in a timely manner and compliant with the law.

The Treasury Department told the House panel that it will work alongside other relevant federal agencies to deliver on your request as thoroughly as possible, according to the letter.

Following a months-long pressure campaign and the presidents reluctant permission for his Republican allies to support the measure, House and Senate lawmakers last month voted in favor of a bill that compels the Justice Department to release the so-called Epstein files in its possession.

Wydens bill is seeking records that are not in that batch of documents, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has repeatedly refused to produce them, according to Wydens office.

Consistently, the Epstein survivors have voiced the importance of transparency and championed the message that all records contained within the governments files must be produced and that includes these Treasury Department records, attorneys added.

They called on senators to promptly pass Wydens bill.

Within 30 days of the bills passage, the Treasury Department must turn over suspicious activity reports from accounts belonging to Epstein and his alleged co-conspirator. Those bank records are intended to track signs of potential illegal activity for federal law enforcement.

The bill also would compel the release of financial records from a much longer list of high-profile figures in Epsteins orbit, including Ghislaine Maxwell, Epsteins jailed accomplice, and their banking institutions.

open image in gallery Senator Ron Wyden has spearheaded investigations into Epsteins financial network for several years, including digging into suspicious activity reports filed by banks to the Treasury Department ( Getty Images )

The Treasury Department must also produce a report detailing all investigations into financial institutions and accounts tied to Epstein, according to the bill.

Wydens office has repeatedly raised red flags surrounding Epsteins financial records, including suspicious activity reports from JPMorgan covering $4.3 million in transactions by Epstein from 2002 to 2016. The bank also appeared to have waited until after Epsteins arrest on sex trafficking charges in 2019 and his death in jail to file reports that flagged roughly $1.3 billion in transactions as suspicious.

In 2023, JPMorgan Chase paid $230 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by survivors who accused the financial institution of enabling Epsteins crimes.

Congress passed legislation dealing with the Epstein files at the Justice Department, and now we need to do the same with the Epstein files at the Treasury, Wyden said Tuesday.

Confidential bank reports, filed with the Treasury Department and IRS, could provide a vital look at the massive financing machine behind Epsteins alleged sex trafficking operation, which spanned New York City, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

These Epstein records at the Treasury Department, which Secretary Bessent has been hiding all year, would provide a detailed map of Epsteins financial network and help us learn more about who funded, enabled and participated in his trafficking operation, according to Wyden.
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Donald Trumps administration is preparing to arrest hundreds of Somali immigrants in Minneapolis after the president responded to the shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., with sweeping restrictions on immigration.

In remarks at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Trump said Somalia is barely a country and accused refugees in Minnesota of having ripped off that state for billions of dollars, every year, and they contribute nothing.

We dont want them in our country, he said. Their country stinks  When they come from hell, they complain, they do nothing but bitch, we dont want them in our country. Let them go back to their country and fix it.

The president has used the shooting to rail against Somali immigrants in Minnesota despite the suspect being an Afghan national who received asylum in the United States under Trump earlier this year.

Trump  who has routinely used derogatory and inflammatory language to describe Minnesotas Somali population and Somali Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar  has baselessly alleged Somali immigrants are taking over the state and roving the streets looking for prey.

open image in gallery Donald Trump lashed out at Somali immigrants and refugees December 2 as his administration prepares for sweeping ICE arrests in Minnesota, home to one of the largest Somali diaspora communities in the wake of a brutal civil war ( AFP via Getty Images )

Ilhan Omar is garbage. Shes garbage. Her friends are garbage, Trump said Tuesday.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is expected to deploy so-called strike teams made up of roughly 100 federal law enforcement officers to go after Somalis with final deportation orders, though immigrants who are still seeking legal status could be caught up in the raids. The New York Times first reported the directive.

Every day, ICE enforces the laws of the nation across the country, Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to The Independent in response to questions about the operation.

What makes someone a target of ICE is not their race or ethnicity, but the fact that they are in the country illegally. We do not discuss future or potential operations, she said.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the prospect of federal agents surging into the city is a frightening moment for our Somali community.

Thats not American. Thats not what we are about, he said during a press conference Tuesday.

Minneapolis City Council member Jamal Osman, who is from Somalia, added that Somali Americans are here to stay.

We love this state. We love this country, he said. This is home. Were not going anywhere.

open image in gallery Minneapolis City Council member Jamal Osman said Somali Americans are not going anywhere after the Trump administration threatened to deploy dozens of federal agents into the city ( REUTERS )

In the aftermath of last weeks attack on National Guard members, Trump announced a barrage of anti-immigration policies, including a permanent pause on immigration from Third World Countries and a threat to strip U.S. citizenship from naturalized immigrants who undermine domestic tranquillity.

He also threatened to end all Federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens of our Country and deport noncitizens who are deemed to be non-compatible with Western Civilization.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have also halted all asylum decisions.

More than 80,000 people of Somali descent live in Minnesota, making the state the largest Somali diaspora community in the world in the wake of a brutal civil war that broke out in the 1990s in the East African nation. The vast majority are U.S. citizens.

Omar, whose family fled Somalia to escape civil war when she was a young girl, became a citizen more than two decades ago. Trump has falsely said she probably entered the country illegally and described her as always wrapped in her swaddling hijab.

The Trump administration has also threatened to cancel Temporary Protected Status for Somalia, though only a small number of Somalis in the country are still protected by the program, which temporarily grants immigrants facing humanitarian crises in their home countries legal permissions to live and work in the United States.

As of March, there were 705 Somalis covered under TPS, according to the Congressional Research Service. Nearly three-quarters of all Somali immigrants in the United States are naturalized citizens, according to the Census Bureau.

Since taking office, the Trump administration effectively de-legalized tens of thousands of immigrants by striking TPS status for several countries while simultaneously issuing sweeping travel bans that prevent them from returning to the United States should they be deported to to their home countries.

open image in gallery Minnesota state Senator Omar Fateh, right, alongside Rep. Ilhan Omar, have both been targets of Trumps anti-immigrant attacks targeting Somali immigrants and refugees in the state ( Getty Images )

Trumps Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also announced the agency is launching an investigation to determine whether government funding in the state was diverted to the Al-Shabaab militant group in Somalia.

The president has also labeled Minnesota a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity under the states Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, the former Democratic vice presidential nominee alongside Kamala Harris.

The White House this week accused Somalis in Minneapolis of ripping off more than $1 billion from American taxpayers, citing a fraud investigation into a government program that supported social services.

Roughly 60 people have been convicted as part of the probe, and state and local officials have accused the administration of broadly smearing an entire community based on the alleged actions of accused fraudsters.

ICEs latest operation follows surges of federal agents into Democratic-led cities across the country, including heavily armed and armored Customs and Border Patrol officers storming through Chicago and Charlotte, North Carolina, which were met with fierce resistance from protesters who alleged violent and indiscriminate use of force against demonstrations.

Walz, who has repeatedly pushed back against the administrations characterizations of Somali communities in the state, called the latest ICE operation a PR stunt.

Demonizing an entire community, folks who are in the professions, educators, artists, doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, they bring the diversity and the energy to a place like Minnesota, Walz told MSNBC Sunday. And for him to just randomly decide to do this, it makes no sense. Do your job. Get the criminals out. Secure our border. But do it with dignity and respect to the American tradition of respecting immigrants as refugees as a beacon of hope.

The Independent has requested comment from representatives for Walz and Omar.
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California Governor Gavin Newsoms office trolled Donald Trump with his own praiseworthy medical report written by Dr. Doolittle after the White House shared the presidents recent MRI results.

Hours after the White House released a letter from the presidents physician declaring Trump, 79, to be in excellent health, the governors office drafted a satirical letter depicting Newsom, 58, as the healthiest person alive and ever to live.

The letter, written by Dr. Doolittle, described Newsoms arteries as shimmering and his resting heart rate as so steady that the EKG machine asked if he was meditating or just naturally enlightened.

The superfluous language appeared to be a nod to a 2015 letter, which seemed to be from Trumps former personal physician, claiming Trump could be the healthiest president this nation has ever seen. The physician later claimed Trump dictated the letter himself.

The governors office said they do not typically comment on the health of other elected officials, but chose to, given the White House had released the results of Trumps recent preventative MRI.

Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom released an exaggerated overly-positive health report to mock the presidents normal results of his MRI scan ( Getty Images )

Well simply note that Governor Newsom completes full workdays without falling asleep in meetings, does not require executive time to lie down and watch TV during work hours, and is able to stand upright without looking like the leaning Tower of Pisa, the letter read.

Since Trump returned to the White House in January, Newsoms office has used its social media platform to insult the president and his administration by using memes, rage-baiting and mimicking the presidents social media posts.

The California governors office has specifically highlighted the uncertainty around Trumps mental and physical health, which has been subject to speculation for years.

While the White House claims Trumps MRI results are normal, some have cast doubt on the results  in part due to the sense of public mistrust in the presidents transparency regarding his health. Trump has been accused of shielding some information from the public, such as downplaying the severity of his illness when he contracted Covid-19 for the first time in 2020.

Despite having his own rumors to confront, Trump has extensively accused his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, of covering up his health ailments while in office.

But Newsoms office was quick to turn the tables on the president following his MRI results.

If a side-by-side health chart were released, we recommend redacting it for the Presidents emotional well-being, the letter from Dr. Doolittle read.
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Olivia Nuzzis ex has claimed that the scandal-hit journalist planned to "consummate" her alleged affair with Robert F Kennedy Jr, 39 years her senior, at a Trump rally.

Ryan Lizza, a former Politico reporter and Nuzzis ex-boyfriend, also claimed that his former partner planned to gift Kennedy Jr with a 1940s cartoon about a glamorous, metropolitan reporter when they met.

Lizza made the claims in a blistering post, entitled Part 4: Means of Control, on his website, Telos News.

His blog post suggested that Nuzzi and RFK Jr were planning their alleged rendezvous at Trumps August 23, 2024, rally, which was the same evening that the Kennedy scion pledged his support for the now-president.

The timing was perfect, Lizza wrote. Bobby would no longer be a presidential candidate himself, so the media glare would dim, and, more importantly, Olivia later told me, he would no longer have the Secret Service protection that complicated an encounter. (And presumably Cheryl wouldnt be around, either.)

open image in gallery Ryan Lizza, the ex-boyfriend of Olivia Nuzzi, claimed that his former partner planned to consummate her relationship with RFK Jr at a Trump rally in August 2024 ( Getty Images )

Robert F Kennedy Jr is married to Cheryl Hines, whom Lizza appears to be referencing here.

Lizza has claimed that RFK Jr and Nuzzis rendezvous plans were thwarted when he was assigned to cover the same Trump rally. He also discovered his girlfriends alleged affair shortly before the event.

According to him, Nuzzi was the one to cancel her meeting with RFK Jr, whom she had planned to gift a 1943 edition of Brenda Starr, Girl Reporter.

A day after RFK and Nuzzis alleged meet-up was set to take place, Lizza says that he confronted the future Secretary of Health and Human Services, but felt that Kennedy Jr was disturbingly unrattled by the conversation.

Lizza also claimed that RFK Jr calmly denied any relationship with Nuzzi during their argument, which took place over the phone. According to Lizza, the call ended with Kennedy Jr saying that he was sorry if youre having a bad time.

open image in gallery Lizza claimed that he confronted RFK Jr over the alleged affair ( Getty Images for CBS News )

The former Politico writer later claimed in his article that the following months were marked by Bobbys extreme paranoia about what I know and Olivias extreme fears about what Bobby might do to her if I tell anyone.

Lizza wrote that he was concerned about the level of control that RFK Jr allegedly had over Nuzzi. He claimed that the Kennedy scion had persuaded her to delete an audio clip she had obtained from court artist Isabelle Brourman, which was recorded at Mar-a-Lago.

He alleges that Brourman thought that the recording included a moment where Trump said something that cast doubt on the official story behind Trumps bloody ear. The now-presidents ear was injured during an assassination attempt on July 13, 2024.

open image in gallery Nuzzi allegedly bombarded RFK Jr with increasingly pornographic photos and videos, according to a source ( Getty Images )

However, Nuzzi allegedly erased the recording after RFK Jr contacted her from Baja. She later told Lizza that she could not corroborate Brourmans recollection.

The details of Nuzzis alleged digital relationship with Kennedy Jr have been widely reported, with a source telling The New York Post that the reporter was obsessed with RFK and that she bombarded him with increasingly pornographic photos and videos that he found difficult to resist.

Meanwhile, court documents, filed by Nuzzi and obtained by CNN, also claimed that RFJ Jr told the journalist that he wanted to possess, control, and impregnate her.

However, Nuzzi has denied ever having a physical relationship with RFK Jr, while a spokesperson for the Secretary of Health and Human Services told Vanity Fair that Mr. Kennedy only met Olivia Nuzzi once in his life.

The Independent has contacted the Department of Health and Human Services for further comment.
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A group of renegade House Republicans and Democrats deployed the same procedural trick used to force a vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein files to wrangle a vote on a measure to ban members of Congress from trading stocks.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) filed her discharge petition to force the vote on her legislation, a proposal that has been supported by an unexpected coterie of members ranging from progressives like liberal darling Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) to archconservatives like Rep. Burchett (R-Tenn.).

Hells frozen over, Burchett told The Independent about the oddball coalition.

Under the rules of the House of Representatives, a member can file a discharge petition on legislation to force a vote on their legislation as a way to get around Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and hold a vote. Once the petition receives enough signatures, they are locked in.

Afterward, seven legislative days must pass. Then Johnson must designate a time and place for the vote.

open image in gallery Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) received enough signatures to force a vote on their legislation to ban members of Congress and their spouses from trading stocks. ( Getty Images )

Ocasio-Cortez expressed hope it could pass.

I hope that everyone signs it and that we can get this done, AOC told The Independent.

In recent years, stories of members of Congress trading stocks and potentially using information they are privvy to as lawmakers has raised the urgency level of the issue.

But under previous Speaker Nancy Pelosi, bipartisan legislation from Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and now Democratic Gov.-elect of Virginia Abigail Spanberger, languished. Many suspected that she opposed the legislation because of her husband Pauls own trading.

Calls only increased after President Joe Biden called for a ban when he left office.

As Johnson has continued to make the House work in lockstep with President Donald Trump, members have taken to using the discharge petition more frequently.

Burchett said he expected Johnson to use procedural tricks.

open image in gallery Legislation to ban stock trading for members of Congress languished under former speaker Nancy Pelosi. ( AP )

It's just a game, just a game, he told The Independent. But I, you know, I think America wants us to pass this.

Johnson and Luna clashed about the use of the discharge petition before. Earlier this year, Luna attempted to use the discharge petition to allow for new parents to vote by proxy. But Johnson effectively killed the measure due to conservatives arguing proxy voting was unconstitutional.

Last month, used the same trick to force a vote on legislation by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) to release filed related to Epstein, the late convicted sex offender.

Massie said that more members using the procedure did not surprise him and compared his leadership to previous speaker Kevin McCarthys leadership.

We made hundreds of things in order, and that way you could, if you were a rank and file member, at least through amendments and whatnot, you could show what the will of the house was on your particular issue, Massie told The Independent.

And under Speaker Johnson, he's really restricted how many votes we have on things and kept things from coming to the floor like the Epstein Transparency Act, Massie said. He just he should open the House up more and quit just being a rubber stamp for the President.

Its a sign of eroding trust with Johnsons style of leadership ever since Trump returned to the White House. Johnson kept the House out of session for all of October and part of November during the government shutdown, which infuriated members.

He opposed efforts to hold a vote on the Epstein legislation, which triggered the petition. That frustration played a role in the decision by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to resign from Congress early.

But the legislation is not guaranteed to pass through the Senate. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) passed a similar bill through committee cheekily named the PELOSI Act.

That led to Trump raging against the bill and Hawley eventually having to smooth things out with the president.
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An advisory panel appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is reportedly preparing to recommend significant changes to vaccination schedules, including potentially delaying the hepatitis B shot given to newborns.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisory panel is scheduled to discuss and then vote on the hepatitis B vaccine dose recommendation during a two-day meeting beginning Dec. 4, according to a meeting agenda and a report by the health policy organization KFF.

Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, fired the entire 17-member panel earlier this year and replaced it with a group that includes several anti-vaccine voices.

The committees decisions are not legally binding, but experts warned any misinformation from this weeks meeting could lead parents to believe the hepatitis B vaccine is harmful to babies.

Hepatitis B is highly contagious and can cause severe liver damage. The disease is transmitted through blood and bodily fluids, and a vaccine dose has been recommended for newborns since 1991.

open image in gallery An advisory panel appointed by Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. is reportedly preparing to recommend major changes to when children receive vaccines ( Getty Images )

If babies receive the dose within 24 hours of birth, the vaccine is 90 percent effective, and if they receive all three doses, 98 percent develop immunity that lasts for decades.

And if left untreated, the incurable disease can lead to liver failure and liver cancer in more severe cases.

Whatever comes out of this disaster of a meeting in December is going to be mainly designed around sowing distrust and spreading fear, Sean OLeary, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and chair of the Committee on Infectious Diseases for the American Academy of Pediatrics, told KFF.

Kennedy has falsely claimed that giving newborns a dose of the hepatitis B vaccine was a likely culprit of autism when he appeared on Tucker Carlsons podcast in June.

In September, Trump falsely claimed that hepatitis B is primarily a sexually transmitted disease during a White House press conference.

Hepatitis B is sexually transmitted. Theres no reason to give a baby thats almost just born hepatitis B. So I would say wait till the baby is 12 years old and formed and take hepatitis B, the president said, as he advocated for delaying a dose of the vaccine at birth.

open image in gallery President Donald Trump falsely claimed that hepatitis B is primarily a sexually transmitted disease during a White House press conference in September ( AFP via Getty Images )

Experts were alarmed and urged parents to talk to their doctors if they are unsure.

William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, told KFF that some parents may not understand why a healthy baby would need a vaccine shot so soon after birth.

Even if a pregnant woman tested negative, its still important to give the baby the birth dose, because false negatives are possible and because the virus can spread so easily from surface contact, Schaffner told the health organization.

Delaying the vaccine could have severe consequences, he warned.

If you wait a month and if the mom happens to be positive, or the baby picks it up from a caregiver, by that time the infection is established in that babys liver, Schaffner added. Its too late to prevent that infection.
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A pro-Israel group that names an Antisemite of the Year drew sharp criticism for nominating childrens YouTube educator Ms. Rachel while omitting more far-right figures.

StopAntisemitism, a U.S.-based nonprofit known for sharing pictures of people who have criticized Israels actions in Gaza on social media, urged followers Sunday to vote for their top 3 candidates.

The group faced criticism over the list, particularly for its inclusion of Ms. Rachel, who has become an outspoken advocate for children in Gaza, instead of White Supremacist Nick Fuentes, who wrote on social media that he felt snubbed over his exclusion.

Ms. Rachel is a preschool teacher who speaks up for starving children in Gaza. That is not antisemitism, prominent Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna wrote on X. I hope thousands will join me in standing up for her.

Candidates include conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, far-right conspiracy theorist Stew Peters, UFC fighter and Holocaust denier Bryce Mitchell and pro-Palestinian TikToker Guy Christensen.

open image in gallery Ms. Rachel, pictured at Glamours Women of the Year 2025 Awards, during which she wore a dress with drawings from children in Gaza embroidered on the fabric. Ms. Rachel has been named a candidate for Antisemite of the Year by the group StopAntisemitism ( Getty Images for Glamour )

Other nominees include Desperate Housewives actress Marcia Cross, And Just Like That star Cynthia Nixon, as well as American activist Calla Walsh  all of whom have been outspoken critics of Israels war in Gaza.

The list also included Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur, the hosts of The Young Turks, a progressive political commentary network.

Social media users were quick to criticize the list, especially for including the popular childrens entertainer.

Lumping in Ms. Rachel with Stew Peters is so disgusting and does more to help anti-semitism by obfuscating the difference between Israel criticisms + actual Jewish hate, one user wrote.

Another person chimed in, writing, Reminder that StopAntisemites nominated Ms Rachel for Antisemite of the year because she raises money for starving and burned Gazan toddlers and its a bad look for them.

Leaving out the self-avowed Nazi (Nick Fuentes) in exchange for celebs, childrens advocates and other activists simply because they said Israel should stop massacring children and genociding Palestinians in Gaza, one X user added.

The social media user continued: Half of these are antisemites, but half are not  and leaving out people who have publicly said that they are actual Nazis??? @StopAntisemites isnt looking to stop real antisemitism. Its looking to harass, threaten and get anyone who dared to criticize Israels clear violation of International law fired or harmed.

open image in gallery White nationalist influencer Nick Fuentes questioned on social media why he was not featured on the list nominating an Antisemite of the Year ( Rumble )

Even Fuentes, a White Nationalist who has denied the Holocaust, seemed confused by his name not appearing on the list.

Why wasnt I nominated for antisemite of the year, he wrote on X Monday.

In a follow-up post, StopAntisemitism stated that it does not nominate individuals more than once and has previously nominated Fuentes.

While he was a finalist a few years back, his absence from this years cycle does not erase his antisemitism. Rather, it allows us to focus attention on other individuals who are spreading hate, the group wrote.

StopAntisemitism, which has more than 300,000 followers on X, was founded in 2018 in response to increasing antisemitic violence. Since the Israel-Hamas war began in 2023, the group has taken to sharing social media profiles and employment details of people it identifies as antisemites.

open image in gallery StopAntisemitism said Carlson has built a career turning extremist dog whistles into broadcast-ready talking points, legitimizing voices that traffic in Holocaust revisionism, conspiracy, and hate ( Getty )

Advocates of the group say they have been able to spot neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers. However, some social media users feel the group disproportionately focuses on Muslim people, pro-Palestinian actions and non-prominent individuals, according to The Times of Israel.

StopAntisemitism has shared several posts on X explaining why some of the candidates were nominated this year.

From downplaying white supremacy to promoting the antisemitic great replacement theory, Carlson has built a career turning extremist dog whistles into broadcast-ready talking points, legitimizing voices that traffic in Holocaust revisionism, conspiracy, and hate, the group wrote.

Another post dedicated to Marcia Cross notes the actress has traded her on-screen career for a disturbing online campaign targeting Israel and Jewish people.

In October, StopAntisemitism deemed Cynthia Nixon an antisemite of the week, over her boycotting Israeli film institutions and criticism of the war in Gaza.

open image in gallery Actress Cynthia Nixon speaks as she announces a hunger strike calling for a ceasefire in Gaza outside the White House on November 27, 2023 ( Getty Images )

The actress, however, has explained her activism, telling The View in 2023, I am the mother of two Jewish children whose grandparents are Holocaust survivors.

And my oldest son, in particular, he really has been reaching out to my wife and I and asking us  imploring us, really  to say, Use your voice to affirm as loudly as you can that never again means never again for anyone.

Earlier this year, the group raised alarms over Ms. Rachel, noting on its website that she shared content echoing Hamas-aligned language.

A former child educator from Maine, Ms. Rachel, whose full name is Rachel Accurso, has built an audience of nearly 15 million subscribers on YouTube with her mix of educational videos and songs for young children. She has also become a fierce advocate for the children suffering in Gaza, and previously told The Independent she was motivated to speak out after seeing videos and images of children being killed, injured and malnourished on social media.

I couldnt look away from the scale and gravity of suffering I was seeing every day, she said in January.

open image in gallery Ms. Rachel had a heartwarming moment with a child from Gaza on her show ( Ms Rachel )

I know how crucial the first few years are for brain development and the lifelong effects trauma and malnutrition have on the brain. Its a failure of humanity to deny children food, water, medical care, shelter and education, and to not protect children from violence, she added.

The educator has also featured a child from Gaza on her show, and recently wore a custom gown embroidered with drawings from children in Gaza to Glamours Women of the Year 2025 Awards.

The Independent has reached out to Ms. Rachel for comment.

Last years Antisemite of the Year winner was far-right pundit and conspiracy theorist Candace Owens. Winners in years past include Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, rapper Kanye West and an executive at Ben & Jerrys.

In a statement to The Independent, StopAntisemitism said, "Nearly every week, StopAntisemitism names an Antisemite of the Week. We determine the annual top 10 based on follower and press engagement we get on the Antisemite of the Week features throughout the year."

Actors and other celebrities tend to attract a lot of attention, as they should given their outsized role in shaping the culture. Regarding Ms. Rachel, specifically, many parents were shocked and horrified to learn about her Jew-hatred, and we received countless messages from parents who were upset but nonetheless grateful to be alerted to her inappropriate actions."

As for the reprehensible Nick Fuentes, we have been monitoring his antisemitism and at the forefront of acting against him since 2019. He was a finalist several years ago and we do not recycle candidates from year to year. His absence from this years cycle in no way erases his antisemitism. Rather, it allows us to focus attention on other individuals who are spreading hatred and bigotry."
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday continued what appears to be a deliberate effort to blame a veteran naval officer for the order to launch a second missile strike on an alleged drug-running boat that killed two survivors of an earlier missile hit.

Speaking at what the White House billed as the final Trump administration cabinet meeting of 2025 on Tuesday, the Pentagon boss closed out brief prepared remarks by stating that his department had only just begun striking what the administration has claimed, without offering evidence, are narco-boats and putting narco-terrorists at the bottom of the ocean, because they've been poisoning the American people.

He was referring to the series of attacks on small boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean by American forces that has killed at least 80 people since September 2, when the first such strike killed 11 people. That action has drawn renewed scrutiny since last week, when The Washington Post reported that American forces made a second strike on the vessel that killed two people whod survived the initial hit by a U.S.-made missile.

Hegseth added: We always have the back of our commanders who are making decisions in difficult situations, and we do in this case and all these strikes, they're making judgment calls and ensuring that they defend the American people. They've done the right things. We'll keep doing that, and we have their backs.

During a subsequent question-and-answer session with reporters, Hegseth acknowledged that he had given the order for the first missile hit on the boat but claimed hed already left the room when Admiral Frank Mitch Bradley, the commanding officer who oversaw the mission carried out by the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, ordered a second missile fired on the wreckage.

I watched that first strike live, as you can imagine, at the Department of War, we got a lot of things to do, so I didn't stick around ... a couple of hours later, I learned that that commander had made ... the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat, Hegseth said.

He added that he did not personally see survivors after the first missile hit because the thing was on fire and exploded.

This is called the fog of war, he said.

Pentagon brass are in an uproar over the White House blaming a veteran naval officer for allegedly ordering a second missile strike on an alleged drug-running boat to shield War Secretary Pete Hegseth. ( Getty )

Hegseths buck-passing to the decorated officer came one day after the White House attributed the decision to hit the survivors of the first missile hit to Bradley, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt telling reporters at a press briefing that Bradley had worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed when ordering the follow-up attack.

The second missile strike, which left none of the vessels 11 passengers alive amid the wreckage, was carried out pursuant to what the Post called a verbal order from Hegseth to kill everyone.

It raised alarms among House and Senate armed services committee leaders, who suggested that the double-tap attack aimed at survivors of a wrecked vessel could have been illegal under American and international law because targeting shipwrecked people has long been considered a textbook example of a war crime.

But Leavitt claimed that no such laws had been violated and said Bradleys orders were well within his authority and the law.

He directed the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat from narco terrorists was eliminated, she said.

Leavitt added that the strikes were conducted in international waters and in accordance with the law of armed conflict.

Her prepared statement left Pentagon officials who spoke to the Post incensed, with one calling the press secretarys remarks protect Pete bullshit.

Another accused the White House spokesperson of throwing us, the service members, under the bus as Congress prepares to investigate the September 2 action.

Hegseth later took to social media to defend Bradley, a Naval Academy graduate who has spent much of his career within the secretive SEAL teams and was one of the first American service members to set foot in Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington.

Writing on X, he said he stood by Bradley and the combat decisions he has made  on the September 2 mission and all others since while calling the veteran officer an American hero, a true professional.

But Hegseths blame-shifting efforts may not satisfy congressional leaders who are intent on gathering more information about the attack.

Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, the Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters on Monday that hed spoken with Hegseth, Joint Chiefs of Staff chair General Dan Caine, and would soon speak with Bradley as well.

Were going to find out what the true facts are, Wicker said.
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DHS secretary Kristi Noem has proposed a sweeping new travel ban on "every damn country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies"  without explaining exactly who she means or where they are from.

In a post on Elon Musk's social network X on Monday evening, Noem said she had just met with President Donald Trump and was recommending a "full travel ban" on unspecified "foreign invaders".

"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," Noem said.

"WE DON'T WANT THEM. NOT ONE."

The president later shared her post on his own social network Truth Social without further comment, while the official DHS X account added: "EVERY DAMN COUNTRY.

Noem's post appeared to be in response to last week's "targeted" shooting of two West Virginia National Guard members in Washington, D.C., allegedly by a former CIA-backed special forces operative from Afghanistan who had been granted asylum by the Trump administration in April 2025.

Trump shared Noems proposal online, but offered no further details ( AP Photo/Evan Vucci )

Police arrested 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, originally from a village in the province of Khost in Afghanistan, in connection with the crime, and reports indicated he had served in the Afghan Army for 10 years alongside U.S. special forces.

Lakanwal was one of roughly 76,000 people who came to the U.S. under Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden-era program aimed at resettling Afghans who had helped the U.S. in its fight against the Taliban.

One childhood friend told The New York Times that Lakanwal had worked as a delivery driver to support his wife and five children, but had struggled with PTSD and often turned to marijuana to cope.

Noem said Lakanwal had been"radicalized" within the U.S. "through connections in his home community and state", while reports indicated that he had previously served in a feared U.S.-aligned paramilitary unit often described as a "death squad".

In the wake of the shooting, DHS imposed an unprecedented new crackdown on legal immigration: freezing all asylum decisions for claimants currently in the U.S., banning all Afghan travelers, reviewing green cards for people from 19 countries, and reviewing all asylum approvals issued under Joe Biden.

Those last two measures would threaten the immigration status of up to 1.5 million people currently seeking asylum and more than 50,000 people who were granted asylum during Biden's term, according to The New York Time.

In another Truth Social post, Trump vowed to "permanently pause migration from all third world countries", again without specifying which.

The same 19 countries  mostly in the Middle East and Africa, plus some Latin American countries such as Venezuela and Haiti  are already subject to a travel ban issued in June.

DHS and the White House did not immediately respond to questions from The Independent.
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President Donald Trumps Department of Energy has stripped the words renewable energy from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

The decades-old research facility  headquartered in Golden, Colorado  will now be called the National Laboratory of the Rockies, the DOE announced on Monday.

The energy crisis we face today is unlike the crisis that gave rise to NREL, Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson said in a news release. We are no longer picking and choosing energy sources. Our highest priority is to invest in the scientific capabilities that will restore American manufacturing, drive down costs, and help this country meet its soaring energy demand.

The laboratory serves as the federal governments primary hub for creating and improving energy technologies that ensure plentiful power at lower costs. Historically, it has largely focused on renewable energy, such as solar and wind.

Established in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis, it was created to address energy shortages triggered by higher oil prices and reduced imports. It was initially named the Solar Energy Research Institute, but it was renamed the NREL under President George H.W. Bush.

open image in gallery The Department of Energy, led by Secretary Chris Wright, announced that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has been renamed the National Laboratory of the Rockies. ( Getty Images )

In the 2010s, the lab conducted research on reducing the cost of ethanol and improving the efficiency of solar cells. In 2021, it launched a cybersecurity office to accelerate the lab's leadership in securing renewable energy technologies. The same year, then-President Joe Biden visited the laboratory, where he called for further investment in renewables.

For decades, this laboratory and its scientific capabilities have pushed the boundaries of what's possible and delivered impact to the nation, Jud Virden, the laboratorys director, said in the release.

This new name embraces a broader applied energy mission entrusted to us by the Department of Energy to deliver a more affordable and secure energy future for all, Virden added.

open image in gallery Located in Golden, Colorado, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) had long been America's chief research center for renewable energy ( Getty Images )

The rebranding comes as the Trump administration has signaled a willingness to tap fossil fuels  not just renewable energy  as a source of power.

Shortly after returning to office in January, Trump signed an executive order aiming to reduce energy costs by cutting burdensome and ideologically motivated regulations. The same month, the Republican president began the process of withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords and declared a national energy emergency, directing agencies to use all available authorities to increase energy production.

Trump himself has also long expressed skepticism of certain forms of clean energy, including wind power. Earlier this year, he called on the U.K. government to stop with the costly and unsightly windmills and instead conduct more drilling for oil offshore.

In May, the DOE fired over 100 employees at the NREL, according to Colorado Public Radio.

open image in gallery Then-President Joe Biden spoke at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado on September 14, 2021 ( AFP via Getty Images )

Following the laboratorys name change, some groups expressed disapproval.

Solar, wind, and other clean energy technologies are the cheapest and most cost-effective resources in Colorado, and they have been for years, Michael Hiatt, the deputy managing attorney for Earthjustice in the Rocky Mountains, told The Colorado Sun. Changing NRELs name will not change that fact.

The reality is that the Trump administrations attacks on clean energy and its attempts to prop up uneconomic coal and gas plants are increasing costs and causing unnecessary energy affordability burdens for millions of Americans, Hiatt added.

In a post on X, Senator Michael Bennett, a Colorado Democrat, called for the newly named lab to uphold its mission.

Under its new name, the Lab must continue its groundbreaking work to achieve an affordable, net-zero economy and meet our nations complex energy challenges, Bennet wrote.
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President Donald Trump went on a manic Truth Social posting spree Monday night that saw him fire off 150 tweets in mere hours that included compliments about the first lady to conspiracy theories about Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

Between 7 p.m. and midnight, the president reposted roughly 150 tweets  averaging about one post every two minutes for five hours  from what appeared to be a random assortment of unknown figures on X and his close allies discussing an unpredictable range of topics. The heaviest concentration of posts occurred between 11 p.m. and midnight, with about 100 posts in the final hour alone.

Less than six hours after capping off his posting spree, the president jumped back on his social media platform at 5.48 a.m., declaring: TRUTH SOCIAL IS THE BEST! There is nothing even close!!!

The Truth Social spree included videos of Kamala Harris, flattering comments about himself and attacks against his perceived political rivals.

In one particularly nostalgic post, Trump reposted a video with the caption: Christmas is officially great again! The video included a snippet of Trump in Home Alone 2, a clip of Kamala Harris, and footage of the president and Melania Trump looking at Christmas trees.

open image in gallery President Donald Trump posted more than 160 posts in a five-hour span late on Monday, including conspiracy theories, attacks against his Democratic rivals and flattering posts about himself. ( REUTERS )

Trump also once again took aim at Senator Mark Kelly and other Democrats with military backgrounds who issued a video statement last month telling troops they can and must refuse illegal orders.

Mark Kelly and the group of Unpatriotic Politicians were WRONG to do what they did, and they know it! I hope the people looking at them are not duped into thinking that its OK to openly and freely get others to disobey the President of the United States, Trump wrote.

Less than an hour later, Rep. Jason Crow, one of the lawmakers in the video, responded, fuming: The President can post on Truth Social all he wants, but he will never threaten or intimidate me. Ive taken many oathsas a paratrooper, Army Ranger, and now Member of Congress. My obligation is to the Constitution, not Donald Trump.

Several other posts were dedicated to bashing his frequent Democratic targets: Pelosi, California Governor Gavin Newsom and former president Joe Biden.

open image in gallery The president posted flattering comments about First Lady Melania Trump as well as a video featuring the first couples past Christmas celebrations at the White House ( REUTERS )

One post about Pelosi called to lock her up, baselessly claiming her staffer was involved with the January 6 Capitol riot. Another praised Trumps efforts to void Bidens autopen orders.

Mixed into the rage-filled posts was a video Trump posted complimenting Melanias style. The president later reposted an X users reaction to the video: Grace, elegance and beauty. Our First Lady Melania.

Others were fawning posts about the president from MAGA allies. Trump reposted a video of Florida GOP Rep. Byron Donalds delivering remarks, which included him thanking God that Harris didnt win in 2024. Within the same minute, the president reposted an X user hyping up Trump: Donald Trump is not a Democrat, hes not even a republican, hes a movement! The greatest president to ever live.

Several X users remarked on the 79-year-olds nonstop social media posts.

Democratic influencer Harry Sisson quipped: In the middle of the night, Trump posted on Truth Social well over 150 times in an hour. Thats at least 2 posts a minute. If you had a family member or friend doing this, youd host an intervention. Trump is not well and he was clearly having a mental decline moment.

Another X user seemed shocked by the sheer number of posts: Ive never seen anything like the absurd number of times Trump posted on Truth Social late last night / this morning. Mostly random screenshots and video clips, but in very rapid succession.
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The family of a 13-year-old boy killed while going through a crosswalk that constantly had a signal malfunction will receive $30 million in a settlement with Washington state.

Michael Weilert was riding his bike at a crosswalk in Parkland on July 19, 2022, when a car hit him, throwing his body across the intersection. He later died from his injuries.

A lawsuit filed by his family against the state claimed that before crossing the street, Weilert had pressed a button that was supposed to activate flashing beacons to alert cars that he was using the crosswalk. But unknown to Weilert, one of those beacons had not been functioning, the suit alleged.

The driver of a Jeep continued through the intersection as Weilert was crossing the street. With her view of Weilert obstructed by a pickup truck in the next lane, she struck him. Weilert was with a friend when the crash occurred.

open image in gallery The family of 13-year-old Michael Weilert, who was killed while going through a crosswalk that constantly had a signal malfunction, will receive $30 million in a settlement with Washington state ( Google Earth )

The suit, citing Washington State Department of Transportation maintenance reports, alleged the state was aware as far back as May 31, 2022, that one of the flashing beacons at the crosswalk was missing parts and not functioning.

The Transportation Department failed not only to fix the beacon but to warn drivers and pedestrians that it was not functioning properly, according to the suit.

Through its inaction, the State effectively lured Michael Weilert into a trap that resulted in his death, the suit read.

The Transportation Department confirmed to The Independent, following media reports, that it has agreed to pay $30 million to Weilerts family.

open image in gallery Weilert was riding his bike at a crosswalk in Parkland on July 19, 2022, when a car hit him, throwing his body across the intersection ( Washington State Patrol )

While the state has reached a settlement with the family, we recognize that the loss of Michael Weilert was devastating for the family, friends and the community, the department said. WSDOT continues to work with communities and partners toward our states Target Zero goals. One tragic incident like this is one too many.

Washingtons Target Zero plan aims to reduce the number of traffic-related deaths and serious injuries to zero by the year 2030.

Evan Bariault, the Weilert familys attorney, told Fox 13, We hope that part of this settlement will involve the state changing its processes and procedures and ensuring that there's a system in place to make sure that something like this doesn't happen again.

Weilerts parents said shortly after the tragic incident that their son did everything right.

"He didnt ride through a stop sign. He wasnt just riding down the center of the road. He actually pushed the button. They waited. They did everything right, Weilerts father, David, said in a July 2022 article from Fox 13.
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A New Zealand man allegedly swallowed a luxury Faberge egg pendant valued at more than $33,000 during an attempted theft, Auckland police said.

Officers were called to the Partridge Jewellers in the city centre on Friday around 3.30pm when staff raised an alarm, claiming a customer had lifted the high-end James Bond Octopussy pendant from the display and swallowed it.

Grae Anderson, the central area commander, said: The Auckland city beat team responded minutes later, arresting the man inside the store.

A man inside the store had allegedly picked up a pendant and swallowed it, he said.

Court documents reportedly indicated that the accused, 32, was formally charged with theft on 29 November in relation to the Faberge x 007 Special Edition Octopussy Egg Surprise Locket, which carries a price tag of $33,585.

Faberge, the famed luxury house behind the design, is internationally recognised for its ornate imperial eggs.

Information from the brands official website describes the piece as crafted from 18-karat yellow gold with green guilloche enamel. It features 60 white diamonds and 15 blue sapphires.

The interior of the locket offers a surprise  a miniature 18-karat gold octopus finished with two black diamond eyes. The locket is a nod to the 1983 film featuring the fictional Secret Service spy.

Police were unable to release an image of the item because it has not yet been recovered, Mr Anderson said.

The theft of the pendant is not the only allegation the man faced. He is also accused of stealing an iPad from Partridge Jewellers on 12 November and, a day later, taking cat litter and flea treatment worth $100 from a private residence.

The suspect is currently in custody and is scheduled to appear in the district court again on 8 December.
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Belgian authorities are investigating the theft of an infant Jesus figure from a Christmas Nativity scene in Brussels, an icon that had previously drawn widespread online scorn for its unusual design.

The figure was snatched from its crib in the Grand Place between late Friday night and early Saturday morning.

This particular depiction of the infant Jesus, part of a larger Nativity display, became the subject of a social media maelstrom due to its characters lacking distinct facial features such as eyes, noses and mouths.

Artist Victoria-Maria Geyer created the cloth figures with the intention that every Catholic, regardless of their background or origins can identify themselves in the biblical narrative, hoping the featureless forms would resonate with observers globally.

However, the design was not universally appreciated. Georges-Louis Bouchez, leader of Belgium's center-right MR party, publicly criticized the artwork on X, stating that Ms Geyer's cloth figures in no way represent the spirit of Christmas.

He went further, likening the figures to zombie-like individuals often seen at train stations.

This particular depiction of the infant Jesus, part of a larger Nativity display, became the subject of a social media maelstrom due to its characters lacking distinct facial features such as eyes, noses and mouths. ( AP Photo/Sylvain Plazy )

The theft of the controversial figure now adds another layer of intrigue to the already much-discussed Nativity scene.

Last year more than four million people visited the Christmas market in the center of Brussels historic old city to sip mulled wine and hot chocolate and shop at 238 vendors of toys, clothes and ornaments.

The center of the square is an enormous Christmas tree looming over a simple white tent holding the manger scene with the figures made by Ms Geyer, a self-professed devout Catholic.

Her work was selected by both the local Catholic Church and the City of Brussels in an annual tradition, said Delphine Romanus, deputy director of Brussels Major Events, which manages the manger and market.

Early reports that the infant Jesus had been beheaded are false, but Ms Romanus said that in the past other baby Jesus figurines have been broken or stolen.

An initial deluge of negative comments on social media has turned positive, Ms Geyer said.

Authorities have already replaced the baby Jesus in the crib. Organisers and security say they will keep a closer eye on the manger, but they have not taken any additional precautions.

Staring at the new baby Jesus, Brussels resident Francis De Laveleye shook his head and said that arguments of artistic merit should never descend into such a sordid affair.

What is intolerable is that people attack the work of an artist to damage it and to turn it into a kind of stupid little controversy that ridicules Brussels.
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Vladimir Putin on Tuesday claimed full control over the key Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk - though the claim was instantly denied by Kyiv.

For months, Russian and Ukrainian forces have fought house-to-house for the so-called fortress city in eastern Ukraine, once a vital logistics hub for the Ukrainian army, now a ruin separating the Russians from what remains of free Donetsk.

Victory would hand leverage to Putin at a critical time in the war, as a delegation of senior officials from Washington arrives in Moscow to talk through the narrowing paths to peace.

Still, nothing is decided; Ukraines 7th Air Assault Corps hit back on Tuesday with blistering attacks in the south as corps in the north dug in and held their positions.

Ukraine continues to overachieve in resisting Putins unrelenting pressure on the Donbas, but the loss of a strategic centre at this moment in deliberations would weaken Kyivs position as it pleads for guarantees on its future.

open image in gallery A soldier holds a Russian flag in Pokrovsk ( Russian Defence Ministry )

Where is Pokrovsk?

Pokrovsk is a road and rail junction in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region with a pre-war population of some 60,000 people. Today, most civilians have fled. All children have been evacuated.

It was previously an important logistics hub for the Ukrainian army, as it is situated on a key road the troops used to supply other embattled outposts along the frontline.

Ukraine's only mine producing coking coal - used in its once vast steel industry - is around six miles (10 km) west of Pokrovsk. A technical university in Pokrovsk, the region's largest and oldest, now stands abandoned, damaged by shelling.

Emil Kastehelmi, a military analyst with Finnish open source intelligence organisation Black Bird Group, says Pokrovsk does not hold the strategic importance it once did, due to fierce fighting and significant destruction in the town.

Currently its a battlefield full of destroyed buildings. So the role of Pokrovsk is that Ukraine tries to hold on to the city so that they can keep the corridor to Myrnohrad open, to delay the Russian advance as much as possible, he said.

Why does Russia want Pokrovsk?

Russia wants to take the whole of the Donbas region, which comprises the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Ukraine still controls about 10 per cent of Donbas - an area of about 5,000 square km (1,930 square miles) in western Donetsk.

President Vladimir Putin says Donbas is now legally part of Russia. Kyiv and most Western nations reject Moscow's seizure of the territory as an illegal land grab.

Capturing Pokrovsk, dubbed "the gateway to Donetsk" by Russian media, and Kostiantynivka to its northeast which Russian forces are also trying to envelop, would give Moscow its most important single territorial gain inside Ukraine since it took the ruined city of Avdiivka in early 2024.

It would also would give Moscow a platform to drive north towards the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in Donetsk - Kramatorsk and Slovyansk.

open image in gallery Russian soldiers entering the town of Pokrovsk ( Social media )

But advancing towards these cities would be really costly and will take months and months, at least, at the current rate of advance, Mr Kasetehelmi said.

In regional warfare, there can be events where gradual events become sudden, and then something actually changes rapidly. But I don't see that that happening in the near future, he added.

Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Foreign Policy Research Institute, says capturing Pokrovsk would hand Russia an important win for operational reasons, but would leave Russia a lot of work to do when it came to taking control of the rest of Donetsk.

open image in gallery A Ukrainian soldier walks past damaged buildings in central Pokrovsk ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. )

What is happening now?

On Tuesday, the Ukrainian military dismissed a report by Moscow that Russian forces had captured Pokrovsk.

"The brazen statements of the leadership of the aggressor country about the 'capture' of these settlements by the Russian army do not correspond to reality," Kyiv's General Staff said in a statement, referring also to the cities of Vovchansk and Kupiansk.

Ukrainian forces were still holding the northern part of the city and had attacked Russian forces in southern Pokrovsk, the Ukrainian military told Reuters.

A video released by the Russian Defence Ministry showed troops holding the Russian flag aloft in a square in what the news agency confirmed was the city centre as what sounded like artillery fire echoed in the distance. It is unclear when the video was filmed.
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Nato is considering pre-emptive action against Russia following a string of hybrid attacks on Europe, a senior official in the alliance has warned.

Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, an Italian who serves as chair of the Nato Military Committee, said the alliance may need to adopt a more aggressive approach to deter Moscow from continuing its campaign of drone incursions and cyber attacks in Europe.

A recent Financial Times investigation revealed how Nato has been put on high alert after three vessels in the Baltic Sea were accused of dragging their anchors in a bid to damage energy and communication cables, with a total of 11 incidents recorded.

Other incidents include frequent cyber attacks on European countries and incursions of Russian drones into Nato airspace.

Admiral Dragone told the FT that the alliance was studying everything in deciding how to respond.

On cyber, we are kind of reactive. Being more aggressive, or being proactive instead of reactive, is something that we are thinking about, he said.

He acknowledged that such an approach would be unusual for Nato, but that new tactics may be required as the war in Ukraine nears the end of its fourth year.

open image in gallery Volodymyr Zelensky meets the chair of the Nato Military Committee, Giuseppe Cavo Dragone ( Ukrainian Presidential Press Service )

Admiral Dragone argued that a pre-emptive strike by Nato could be considered a defensive action, despite it being further away from our normal way of thinking and behaviour.

Being more aggressive compared with the aggressivity of our counterpart could be an option. [The issues are] legal framework, jurisdictional framework, who is going to do this?

In January this year, Nato launched Operation Baltic Sentry, a mission to better patrol the region and deter a possible Russian attack. This included amping up the number of patrol aircraft, warships and drones.

Russia was not directly named in the announcement, but Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said at the time that the alliance would improve its monitoring of Moscows shadow fleet, a term that refers to ships without clear ownership that are used to carry sanctioned oil.

Admiral Dragone added that this had been a positive step by Nato to make the region safer.

open image in gallery A Swedish soldier takes part in an exchange of fire during drills ( Getty )

From the beginning of Baltic Sentry, nothing has happened. So this means that this deterrence is working, he said.

However, concerns still exist about whether the operation is going far enough. A court in Finland recently dismissed a case against a crew on board a shadow-fleet ship that damaged undersea cables in the Gulf of Finland, because the incident happened in international waters.

Russia said on Monday that Admiral Dragones remarks were extremely irresponsible and an attempt to move towards escalation.

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova 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.
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Pope Leo XIV has revealed his immediate, heartfelt reaction upon being elected leader of the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church, telling God: "You're in charge and you lead the way.

Speaking publicly for the first time about the profound duty of leading the global Church, the first U.S. Pope shared his thoughts during a press conference aboard his flight home from Lebanon. Leo recounted how, during the secret conclave in May to choose the successor to the late Pope Francis, he began to sense the immense responsibility might fall to him.

"I resigned myself to the fact when I saw how things were going  I said, 'this could be a reality,'" the 70-year-old pontiff explained. "I took a deep breath. I said, 'Here we go, Lord, you're in charge and you lead the way.'"

He added that he had told a reporter the day before his election, "I simply said everything is in the hands of God and I believe that profoundly."

Before his election, Leo, previously Cardinal Robert Prevost, was a relatively unknown figure on the world stage. He had dedicated decades to missionary work and served as a bishop in Peru, only becoming a senior Vatican official in 2022.

Pope Leo talking to reporters on his flight home from Lebanon

Another cardinal present at the conclave later disclosed that Prevost had put his head in his hands inside the Vatican's Sistine Chapel as the daunting prospect of the papacy became clear.

Pope Leo admitted on Tuesday that he is still adapting to the intense media scrutiny that accompanies his role, joking about journalists' attempts to interpret his expressions.

"My face is very expressive, but I am oftentimes amused by how the journalists interpret my face," he remarked. "Sometimes I get really great ideas from all of you, because you think you can read my mind or my face." He then added, "You are not always correct."

Concluding his inaugural overseas trip to Turkey and Lebanon, the Pope also outlined plans for future international visits. He expressed a desire to travel to Africa next, suggesting Algeria as a potential destination to further Muslim-Christian dialogue, a theme he championed during his first trip where he pleaded for peace in the Middle East and hosted inter-religious meetings.

Other nations mentioned included Argentina, Uruguay and Peru, though he noted the timing for these, whether next year or in 2027, remained uncertain. Joking about the excitement his election sparked in Peru, he quipped: "I think they would receive me."
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President Vladimir Putin has said Russia is ready to fight a war with Europe if it is provoked, as he accused leaders of sabotaging US-led efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

We are not planning to go to war with Europe, but if Europe wants to and starts, we are ready right now, he said on Tuesday. They are on the side of war.

He said Europe had made demands on a possible peace settlement for Ukraine, which he said Russia found absolutely unacceptable.

Putin suggested European powers were hindering President Donald Trumps efforts to broker a peace deal in order to accuse Russia of not wanting peace.

The Russian leader was speaking at a plenary session of the VTB Russia Calling Investment forum in Moscow, ahead of talks with Mr Trumps special envoy and son-in-law  Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

Last month, Russia and the US agreed to a 28-point plan - widely condemned by European governments - that would force Ukraine to give up land, cut its army and cease its NATO ambitions. On Tuesday, Volodymyr Zelensky revealed a reworked 20-point plan, following talks with US officials over the weekend.

open image in gallery We are not planning to go to war with Europe, but if Europe wants to and starts, we are ready right now, says the Russian president ( AP )

Putin accused Europe of seeking to undermine Mr Trump's peace efforts by making proposals that leaders knew were unacceptable to Russia.

He said: We can clearly see that all these changes are aimed at only one thing: to block the entire peace process altogether, to make such demands which are absolutely unacceptable to Russia."

As was widely expected, the talks between Mr Trumps envoy and Putin on Tuesday night, despite lasting nearly five hours, failed to produce a significant breakthrough.

Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev said discussions were productive in a post on X. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov also said they had been constructive.

But the latter added that the two sides are no closer to resolving the crisis in Ukraine, and said there was much work to be done. He noted that the sides failed to reach a compromise on one of the most difficult issues - territorial disputes.

Few details on the talks have been made public, with both sides agreeing not to disclose the substance of the talks.

open image in gallery The talks between Putin and Trumps enovys went on for nearly five hours ( Sputnik )

Despite European criticism of the 28-point plan, Mr Zelensky went to work on it, before revealing the 20-point version.

The work was based on the Geneva document, and that document has been refined, Mr Zelensky wrote on X (Twitter), as he called for more European involvement, and said there was more that needed to be worked out.

open image in gallery Putins comments came ahead of talks with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner ( AP )

Our diplomats are actively working with all partners to ensure that European countries and other participants in the Coalition of the Willing are meaningfully involved in developing decisions.

The news came as fighting intensified around the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, with Russia claiming its capture and releasing pictures of its forces waving Russian flags in the town. Ukraine maintains that fighting remains ongoing.

A senior Nato official told European Pravda that Russian forces controlled 95 per cent of the town in Ukraines eastern Donetsk region, which has been the focal point of fierce fighting on the eastern front for more than a year.

open image in gallery Russia controls 95 per cent of Pokrovsk, a senior Nato official said ( Russian Defence Ministry )

"Ukrainian forces are still conducting defensive actions inside the city, but as supply routes have been almost completely cut, Ukrainian troops are dependent on resupply by drones, which is becoming increasingly difficult, the official said.

"Russians control over 95% of the city There are only isolated pockets where Ukrainian forces continue to resist."

In the neighbouring town of Myrnohrad, Ukrainian forces have been virtually encircled and are relying on drones for supplies, the official said.

"Myrnohrad is now virtually fully encircled.

"There is a narrow corridor through which the Ukrainians can withdraw certain forces, but it is a very narrow corridor, itself under hostile fire control. Overall, this is an encirclement, though not yet a complete encirclement.
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Watch live as Vladimir Putin meets Donald Trumps special envoy Steve Witkoff for talks in Moscow on Tuesday, 2 December.

The gathering comes amid a renewed US push to end the war in Ukraine.

Following two days of negotiations between Ukrainian and US officials in Florida over the weekend, the White House said it was very optimistic about striking an agreement to end Russias invasion.

"We've put points on paper. Those points have been very much refined... we do feel quite good, and we're hopeful that this work can finally come to an end," press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday.

Mr Witkoff's visit comes after a flurry of diplomatic activity in recent weeks involving US, Ukrainian and Russian officials.

An original US-drafted plan to end the war caused consternation in Europe last month after it appeared to yield to Russias maximalist demands, including the recognition of occupied territory in eastern Ukraine.
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A Russian-flagged tanker carrying sunflower oil has reportedly been attacked off the Turkish coast, though its 13 crew members are unharmed, Turkey's maritime authority confirmed on Tuesday.

The vessel, MIDVOLGA-2, reported the incident 80 miles (130km) from the Turkish coastline.

It did not request assistance, proceeding instead towards Turkeys Sinop port, the Maritime Affairs Directorate stated on X. Broadcaster NTV suggested the attack involved a kamikaze drone.

A Turkish official, asked about the incident, said the necessary messages were conveyed to the relevant parties, including Ukrainian authorities, without elaborating any further.

This follows an incident last Friday that saw Ukrainian naval drones hit two tankers sanctioned by Ukraine and some of its Western allies in the Black Sea as they headed to a Russian port to load up with oil destined for foreign markets, as Kyiv tried to pile pressure on Russias vast oil industry.

Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan declared on Monday that attacks on commercial shipping in the Black Sea were unacceptable, as he sent a warning out to all related sides.

Erdogans comments came shortly after he met with Pope Leo XIV as they discussed the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.

open image in gallery Erdogan met with Pope Leo to discuss the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza recently ( AP )

Pope Leo insisted Turkey has an important role to play in both conflicts and expressed hope that there would be further dialogue in a bid to achieve a ceasefire.

Pope Leo subsequently travelled from Turkey to Lebanon for more discussions, with his visit to the Middle East nation set to conclude on Tuesday.

Turkey, a Nato member, has maintained ties with both Kyiv and Moscow during the ongoing war, providing military aid to Ukraine but not joining Western sanctions on Russia.

Ankara has consistently offered to host peace talks, as it shares maritime borders with Russia and Ukraine, and stressed the importance of Black Sea navigational safety.
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Spain has called in the military to help contain an outbreak of a deadly virus affecting pigs, which may have started from a contaminated sandwich.

Soldiers have been deployed in a desperate effort to identify and control African swine fever, which is spreading between animals around Barcelona for the first time in three decades.

Drones and sniffer dogs are now being used to hunt down boar carcasses for testing, with the number of confirmed cases in wild boars shooting up to nine on Tuesday, up from two last week.

Oscar Ordeig, the regional agriculture minister, revealed to Catalunya Radio that officials are working on the assumption that the virus may have spread from contaminated food brought into the country from abroad.

The most likely option ... is that cold cuts, a sandwich, contaminated food, could end up in a bin  we have to take into account that Bellaterra is an area with a lot of traffic from all over Europe  and then that a wild boar would have eaten it and become infected, he said on Monday.

open image in gallery Authorities are investigating more potential cases (file image) ( AP )

Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that the wild boar may have eaten the contaminated sausage in a sandwich thrown away in a ditch, and then become infected.

Authorities are currently analysing more suspected cases in the area and expect the number to rise.

Ordeig said the absence of infected wild boar elsewhere in Catalonia and France so far suggests human transportation of contaminated food could have introduced the virus. The infected area is close to the AP-7 highway, a major transport route linking Spain and France.

African swine fever (ASF) is harmless to humans, but spreads rapidly among pigs and wild boar, for whom it can be fatal. It is not the same as swine flu and does not affect humans.

The disease is highly contagious and can spread if healthy pigs eat infectious products or make contact with infected pigs or contaminated items.

In Spain, most recently, it was first detected in two wild boar in a wooded, hilly area outside Barcelona before seven more cases were recorded on Tuesday.

open image in gallery Cages are cleaned amid an outbreak of ASF in Germany in 2021 ( (c) dpa-Zentralbild )

The outbreak has forced Spain to freeze some exports, threatening its multi-billion-euro pork industry. Britains Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said on Friday it would block Spanish pork coming into the country until further notice.

China also banned pork imports from Barcelona province as reports emerged.

Efforts to control the outbreak intensified on Sunday, with 300 Catalan police and rural agents deployed, followed by 117 members of Spain's military emergency unit UME on Monday.

On farms, trade association Interporc said strict controls already in place for disease prevention had been reinforced.

These included testing and quarantining of new animals, perimeter fencing and bird nets, regular disinfections and checks on drinking water, a strict employee dress code and proper storage of pig semen samples.

Government vets were checking farms and taking samples, but none of the 39 in the area have tested positive.
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Donald Trumps peace plan for Ukraine must not lead to Russian president Vladimir Putin escaping accountability for alleged war crimes, a senior European Union official said.

Michael McGrath, the European commissioner for justice and democracy, told Politico on Monday that negotiators should ensure any ceasefire plan does not allow Russia to avoid prosecution, setting what appears to be a new red line for any settlement.

His remarks underline concerns across Europe over the original version of the US proposal, which proposed a full amnesty for actions committed during the war and steps to reintegrate Russia into the global economy.

Mr McGrath said: I dont think history will judge kindly any effort to wipe the slate clean for Russian crimes in Ukraine.

They must be held accountable for those crimes and that will be the approach of the European Union in all of these discussions.

open image in gallery Michael McGrath said negotiators must ensure the push for a ceasefire does not result in Russia escaping prosecution ( PA )

Mr Trumps team has pushed for a reset with Moscow, even as Russia is accused of crimes ranging from the abduction of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children to attacks on civilians in Bucha, Mariupol and other cities.

Were we to do so, to allow for impunity for those crimes, we would be sowing the seeds of the next round of aggression and the next invasion, Mr McGrath added.

And I believe that that would be a historic mistake of huge proportions.

Ukraines prosecutors say they have opened more than 178,000 investigations into suspected Russian crimes since the invasion began.

A UN commission reported last month that Russian authorities had committed crimes against humanity through drone attacks on civilians and had carried out the war crimes of forcible transfer and deportation.

We cannot give up on the rights of the victims of Russian aggression and Russian crimes, Mr McGrath said.

open image in gallery Vladimir Putins Russia is accused of the abduction of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children ( AP )

Millions of lives have been taken or destroyed, and people forcibly removed, and we have ample evidence.

In July this year, Europes top human rights court delivered damning judgments against Russia, finding Moscow responsible for widespread violations of international law in Ukraine.

Judges at the European Court of Human Rights issued judgments in four cases brought by Kyiv and the Netherlands accusing Moscow of atrocities in Ukraine dating back more than a decade.

They include the alleged murder, torture, rape, and destruction of civilian infrastructure and kidnapping of Ukrainian children.
Close We are Russias next target warns Nato chief

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Europe should prepare for a war like our grandparents endured and rapidly boost defence spending to deter the threat of Russia, Natos secretary general has warned.

Speaking at a conference in Berlin, Mark Rutte said that Europe needed to be crystal clear that we are Russias next target - and that Nato is already in harms way.

I fear that too many are quietly complacent. Too many dont feel the urgency. And too many believe that time is on our side. It is not. The time for action is now, he said.

Allied defence spending and production must rise rapidly. Our armed forces must have what they need to keep us safe.

His comments come after Donald Trump says he exchanged "pretty strong words" with European leaders on a call discussing his proposal to end the Ukraine war.

Trump also said Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has to be realistic about his countrys position on a peace plan, and said the US will make a determination depending on what they come back with.
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Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked president Isaac Herzog to pardon him in a bid to end his ongoing corruption trial.

Netanyahu, 76, said ending the trial immediately would help lower tensions and promote the broad reconciliation our country so desperately needs.

The proceedings have been stalled throughout Netanyahus controversial war in Gaza, with many accusing him of using the conflict as a means of delaying the trial.

Last month, President Donald Trump appealed to Herzog to pardon his ally Netanyahu, calling the case a political, unjustified prosecution.

Herzogs office called the demand an extraordinary request which carries with it significant implications.

A presidential pardon before a conviction and without an admission of guilt is extremely rare, and has been granted only once before in Israel.

open image in gallery Netanyahu has been elected five times in Israel ( POOL/AFP via Getty Images )

What are the charges against Netanyahu?

In 2019, Netanyahu was indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three cases known as 1000, 2000 and 4000. He is the first prime minister to be indicted while in office and has called the case a witch hunt.

The leader is accused of receiving expensive gifts from Australian billionaire James Packer and Israeli Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan in exchange for political favours in case 1000. The prosecution has alleged that Netanyahu received cigars and champagne worth $195,000 (171,000) as well as jewellery for his wife worth $3,100 (2,300).

Netanyahu is then said to have pushed for tax exemptions for returning citizens, a request that would have benefited Milchan. This was denied by the countrys ministry of finance.

open image in gallery US president Donald Trump (L) with Benjamin Netanyahu (R) ( Reuters )

He is also reported to have asked former US Secretary of State John Kerry to help Milchan secure a US visa.

A second case, 2000, focuses on allegations that Netanyahu negotiated a deal with leading daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth for favourable coverage. In a meeting with a controlling shareholder of the company, Arnon Mozes, he is alleged to have promised to limit the circulation of a rival in return.

Case 4000, the most serious, focuses on allegations that the prime minister granted regulatory favours to Israels leading telecommunications company, Bezeq, in return for more positive coverage on Walla, a news website belonging to the firms owner. The incentives are reported to have been worth $500m (377m), according to Reuters.

Netanyahu denies all the claims.

open image in gallery Netanyahu took the witness stand in December 2024 ( POOL/AFP via Getty Images )

Could he be pardoned?

A pardon issued without a trial or admission of guilt  otherwise known as a preemptive pardon  would set a historical precedent and be considered highly controversial.

Clemency is usually offered in the years after a conviction, where new evidence or circumstances justify a softening of the original decision. It is not used as a way to evade trial or punishment.

The only exception to this rule in Israel relates to the case of senior Shin Bet officials in the capture, killing and cover-up of two people accused of terrorism in 1986. The case has left a legacy of lasting controversy.

Earlier this month, the Israel Democracy Institute said: As a rule, the president reviews a pardon request only after all legal proceedings have ended. The possibility of a pre-conviction pardon is extremely rare.

It continued: A pardon before conviction, while legal proceedings are ongoing, threatens the rule of law and seriously undermines the principle of equality before the law.

open image in gallery A protest against Netanyahu held in Israel over decision to dismiss Shin Bet leader ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. )

How long will he remain PM?

Netanyahu was re-elected for a fifth time in November 2022, as head of the right-wing Likud party. Elections are due to be held in Israel in October 2026, and the prime minister has so far avoided calls for an earlier vote.

He is the fourth world leader to be issued with an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity alongside Russias Vladimir Putin, Sudans Omar al-Bashir and Libyas Muammar Gaddafi.

Over 70,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of Israels brutal invasion, which came in response to the killing of more than 1,200 people in Israel by Hamas in the 7 October, 2023 attacks. A US-brokered ceasefire came into effect in October this year, but the political future of Gaza is still being negotiated and reports of violence have persisted.

Earlier this year the UN concluded that Israel committing a genocide in the Strip after a two-year investigation, which the state has denied and called false and distorted.
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Sadly, hailing a cab on vacation can mean being taken for a ride in more ways than one, with some drivers scamming tourists using a range of underhand tricks.

Now, travelers have been sharing the countries where youll need your wits about you when you hail a cab, and a new study has analyzed their comments to produce a list of the worlds most talked-about taxi-scam hot spots, along with the most common cons.

The research, by travel insurer AllClear, examined over 450 posts and 30,000 comments about taxi scams on Reddit to identify the countries that attract the most complaints. And the United States makes the top 10, coming in at No. 9.

However, its Turkey that leads, and by a wide margin, generating 4,224 comments on Reddit threads discussing taxi scams  nearly twice as many as No. 2 India (2,301).

open image in gallery Turkey is the most complained about country for taxi scams, according to a study of Reddit comments ( Serhii - stock.adobe.com )

Rounding out the top 10 are Thailand (No.3/2,169), Vietnam (No.4/1,741), Egypt (No.5/1,715), Australia (No.6/1,598), Mexico (No.7/1,397), Morocco (No.8/1,329), the U.S. (No.9/1,283), and Canada (No.10/995).

The rest of the table comprises France (No.11/957), Colombia (No.12/924), the Philippines (No.13/840), Italy (No.14/832), and Norway (No.15, 799).

The study found a common thread: airports. Nearly a third of all the Reddit posts analyzed mentioned an airport in the title. And it also uncovered a never-ending stream of advice from conned travelers keen to help others avoid having a similar experience of their own.

The researchers distilled this guidance to identify the most prevalent taxi scams travelers should watch out for when heading abroad:

1. Not switching the meter on

In very touristy areas, or late at night, travelers can experience unexpectedly high quotes for short trips. The most common reason this happens is that travelers get into unmetered taxis or do not research the local fare rates before their trip. Always ask the driver to agree to a flat fare before getting into the vehicle or ask them to turn the meter on. If youre in doubt about how much a trip should cost, refer to the local taxi rates to try and work it out beforehand.

2. Using your luggage to speed up payment

In busy areas, some taxi drivers may take your luggage into the trunk to rush you into deciding, especially if you havent already agreed on the fare. If youre trying to hail a taxi in a busy area, or youre lining up for one outside an airport, try to remain calm and keep one hand on your luggage while you confirm the fare or ask if theyre happy to use the meter.

3. Claiming to have a broken card machine

open image in gallery Not switching the meter on and taking detours are two scams to be alert to ( bernardbodo - stock.adobe.com )

One of the most common occurrences seems to be taxi drivers claiming their card machine is broken, says All Clear. They may do this to get you to round up if they dont have change, or simply because theyre charging a higher fare than they should. Credit and debit card machines can break, or occasionally not work if the signal is low, but a genuine driver should allow you to go to a nearby ATM to get the right amount of cash if they dont have change and provide a receipt even if you do pay cash.

4. Detours

One of the most common taxi swindles Redditors discuss, says All Clear, involves taking long detours, avoiding faster roads or missing turns to increase the fare. Track your route using your GPS so you can keep a feeling of orientation and understanding about where you are. Mistakes can happen, so be polite and simply ask your driver if you think theyve gone the wrong way according to your map.

5. Unofficial airport taxi ranks

Airports can be remarkably busy places, particularly at arrivals. Because of the increased demand, this is often the part of a trip where many people fall victim to taxi scams. Research the airport in advance and find out if ride hailing apps like Uber, Lyft or Grab are allowed. If they are, there will sometimes be a stand for you to wait for them. If not, try to look for an official airport taxi rank using signage, or asking an employee - and be wary of people offering you line-jump offers by approaching you in the line.

Letitia Smith, head of communications at AllClear, said: Exciting adventures are waiting for travelers all around the world, but unfortunately scams are still a travel risk. While taxis can feel preferable to trying to navigate foreign public transport systems, they are also one of the places where travelers can fall victim to scamming.

The results of our research show that taxi scams can happen anywhere and at any time, particularly if a visitor looks like they may be unfamiliar with local pricing. To protect yourself when taking taxis abroad, its important to always check what the local rate is, or what the fare should be before you get into the vehicle, and if a scam happens then do report it to the appropriate governing body.

Remember your travel insurance too, so it can help you travel with confidence, and protect you from other unexpected events on your travels.

The 15 countries most talked about for taxi scams on Reddit
PostNord, the Danish postal service, will cease letter deliveries from the end of the year. The Scandinavian nations red post boxes have already started to vanish and while private operators are expected to step in to the breach, the cost will inevitably be much higher.

This is the shape of things to come in Britain. Royal Mail, which is responsible for deliveries here, was allowed to hike prices in April to an eye-popping 1.70 for a first-class stamp (up 5p), and to 87p for second (up 2p). Two-thirds of Britons agreed that this was unfair.

In July, its universal service obligation (USO) was reformed, with Saturday deliveries of second-class post slated to be scrapped and weekday deliveries moving to Monday, Wednesday and Friday, or Tuesday and Thursday, in a two-week cycle. The (delayed) changes will take effect next year, while six-day-a-week deliveries remain for those who shell out for first class.

But for how long? Ofcom thinks that the savings to Royal Mail, now owned by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, from these reforms will be substantial  up to 425m a year. It also revised the companys targets, to make them, in the view of the company (which has repeatedly been fined for missing them), more realistic.

However, its hard not to see letter deliveries entering a doom loop. Ofcoms USO consultation was motivated by a sharp decline, from a peak of 20 billion letters sent in 2004-05 to 6.6 billion in 2023-24. That latter figure was down 9 per cent on the previous year.

Royal Mail is going to be [the] provider of the universal service obligation in the UK unconditionally and, I would say, forever, said Kretinsky in the run-up to his 3.6bn takeover of the business.

Things that make you go hmmm. One reason for the reforms was that Ofcom was genuinely concerned about the financial sustainability of the creaking, loss-making, letter delivery service.

We are not going to follow the Danes and PostNord just yet. But I would be very interested to see what the figures show in the wake of the price rises/service changes.

Far from sustaining the USO, they could catalyse its demise. Higher charges for a lesser service will inevitably lead people to consider whether they actually need to send that card or whether an email greeting will suffice, particularly in the midst of a cost of living crisis.

Grubbing up Britains beloved red post boxes would prove highly controversial (and thats probably an understatement). Just the (necessary) changes to the USO provoked an outcry among consumer groups and unions.

A politically weak government, out of favour with an unhappy public it has clobbered with tax rises, wouldnt dare allow such an unpopular move. We will not be following Denmark anytime soon, even if this Christmas proves a bust for deliveries. After all, 6.6 billion letters is still a lot and the same is true of 5.6 billion, or whatever the 2025-26 figure ends up at when Ofcom gets around to publishing the number.

So you can breathe easy. For now. But if I were working in this industry, Id be watching like a hawk. Theres no such thing as forever in business and I suspect Kretinsky is well aware of that fact. The Czech Sphinx wouldnt be a billionaire if he werent.

The end of the USO will have far-reaching implications. Some might prove favourable to the businesses involved. Lets say a pricey special delivery service is retained through Post Offices (a separate business). This could prove quite lucrative. Perhaps they could serve as collection points for a streamlined letter delivery offering. That would surely help with footfall.

But some of the implications are more malign and go far beyond business. For example, it is often the postie who spots that something is wrong with the elderly customers they say hello to. Or they might notice an unexpected build-up of unopened mail at a customers home. This is as much social service as it is business.

Sure, parcel services will continue. But they are not daily for many people, especially older people, and they work on a very different dynamic. The conditions imposed on workers, who have only a minimal amount of time to make each delivery, dont give them time to worry about anything other than getting to the next address as quickly as possible. Build-up of packages outside Mrs Migginss place? Someone else will sort it out for her.

Denmark taking this step now could ultimately prove to be useful. Other countries can watch and learn from its experience. It may not be a palatable message, but the organisations concerned  the Royal Mail, Kretinsky, connected businesses like the Post Office, and especially Ofcom  would be wise to do that.

It might be a decade or more before it happens here. But it will happen. Dont believe me? Ask yourself when you last used a postbox. Then ask your digital native Zoomer friends/colleagues/kids the last time they did.
Shares are particularly unpopular in Ireland, compared with many other countries in the EU. Photo: Bloomberg

Irish households hold just 2.3pc of their financial assets in direct investments such as stocks and bonds, compared with the EU average of 7.5pc.

Instead they hold about 38pc of their non-property assets in cash and bank deposits, which is above the EU average of 30pc. In America, the figure is just 11pc.
What I spend on Christmas: I would imagine that my total will be about 2,000 and the majority of my budget will be on my own kids
Meet the Offaly wool trader turning Irish fleeces into premium bedding

Kevin Dooley branched out from exporting wool to manufacturing products  now he wants to get them made on Irish soil

Kevin and Noreen Dooley with their 100% Irish wool products at Dooleys Wool, Roscrea, Tipperary. Photos: Alf Harvey.

Tamara Fitzpatrick Tue 2 Dec 2025 at 06:30

Kevin Dooley handles around a million kilos of wool every year, but is forced to send the wool for his bedding business abroad for processing.
Abuse survivors say former Willow Park teacher was 'one cog in a machine of abuse' as he faces sentencing

Peter Kelly, the former maths teacher at the private primary school run by the Spiritan Order, will be sentenced next week for indecently assaulting eight young boys in the 70s and 80s

Peter Kelly. Photo: Collins Courts

Sonya McLean Tue 2 Dec 2025 at 17:56

A former teacher will be sentenced next week for the indecent assault of eight boys over 30 years ago at a private Dublin school.
Double killer serving life for murder of student says Portuguese conviction is hampering parole efforts

Derek Wade stabbed Chinese student Zhi Song to death with a chefs carving knife after breaking into his Dublin home in June 2005

Derek Wade killed a Chinese student and another man

Tim Healy Tue 2 Dec 2025 at 20:37

A convicted murderer has been granted leave to pursue a High Court challenge against the Minister for Justice over a separate conviction he received in his absence in Portugal which allegedly "prejudices" him in his efforts to get to an open prison.
Sophie White: Its almost Christmas and my husband and I are at each others throats. But if were arguing at least it means were not Quiet Divorcing
Dispute hinged on whether outfarms were included in bequeathal

The case hinged on the interpretation of the 2019 will of William Doyle from Bealalaw, Myshall

The High Court has resolved a bitter family dispute over the will of a Carlow bachelor farmer, ruling that the deceased intended to leave his entire 69ac landholding to his nephew, who had worked the farm for decades.

The case, officially cited as Murphy v Butler and Others, hinged on the interpretation of the 2019 will of William Doyle from Bealalaw, Myshall, who died without issue at the age of 77 in November 2019, sparking a legal construction suit between his nephew Peter Murphy, and his sister, nieces and nephews (the Roberts defendants), who were residuary legatees.
Over 100 frontline gardai are set to be equipped with Taser stun guns as part of a pilot programme launching this week.

Gardai in Dublin city centre, as well as Waterford, are set to be armed with the non-lethal devices in a move to test whether they should be deployed across the force.
I have my pictures ready to go on the walls  age-friendly housing scheme reopens after renovations

Eileen Delany will soon move back into social housing in Bethany House in Sandymount, Dublin, where she has lived for 10 years

Eileen Delany at Bethany House in Sandymount, Dublin. Photo: Mark Condren

Sarah O'Mahony Tue 2 Dec 2025 at 06:30

A resident of a charity-run age-friendly social home is over the moon to return after the building underwent renovations.
Patrick McGarty: A betrayal of nationalists  the untold story behind Irelands partition agreement 100 years ago

Instead of dismantling the Border, as nationalists had envisaged, the 1925 Boundary Commission document seemed to confirm it. It was to be a defining moment in Irish history

President of the executive council of the Irish Free State, WT Cosgrave. Photo: Corbis via Getty

Patrick McGarty Tue 2 Dec 2025 at 06:30

One hundred years ago, on December 3, 1925, the president of the executive council of the Irish Free State, WT Cosgrave, Britains prime minister Stanley Baldwin and Stormont premier James Craig signed an agreement that ended nearly a month of frantic negotiations which ultimately copper-fastened the 500km Irish border established nearly four years earlier in December 1921 as part of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
They feared their little boy was going to die  Child (8) waits nearly two hours for ambulance after suffering horrific injury
Conal Thomas: Volodymyr Zelensky, master of wartime propaganda, uses his performers skill to woo Dail chamber

While Ukraine president hailed Ireland for standing with his country against Russia, not everyone in Leinster House was in sync with the message

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky shakes hands with TDs and senators in the Dail during his visit to Leinster House. Photo: PA

Conal Thomas Tue 2 Dec 2025 at 20:50

By the time Volodymyr Zelensky entered the Dail chamber, the temperature outside had dropped to 6C as evening drew in across Merrion Square. Over 3,000km away in Moscow, his enemy was preparing to meet with US brokers to discuss the latest, redrafted peace plan aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
From the Lotto to Marty Morrisseys words with Bakhurst over BBC links  what we learnt from RTE at media committee
Everyones talking about: Childrens face masks  do they really need any form of skincare?

Sheet masks aimed at children as young as four years old are available online. Should parents be concerned?

Children's facemasks are available from some beauty stores. Photo: Getty

Emer Harrington Tue 2 Dec 2025 at 06:30

Canadian actress and entrepreneur Shay Mitchell made waves recently when she launched Rini, a skincare brand for children as young as four years old. The company introduced a range of sheet masks  some with animal faces, and others designed to hydrate or soothe skin after sun exposure.
All eyes will be on President as she welcomes Ukrainian leader

It is President Catherine Connollys first test as she greets her first foreign leader at Aras an Uachtarain in her capacity as head of state. And not just anyone, of course, but the wartime president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Workplace envy is often so strong it can even be retrospective. As one of the most complex and destructive professional emotions, it lurks behind office politics, performance reviews and promotions.

Thus, those of us at work, hear whisperings of undeserved successes, based on dumb luck, cavalier shortcuts, or less generally shared advantages. Yet, envy is not always purely negative because it is about the will to achieve and succeed.

Hold those sentiments as we look back at news that former garda commissioner, Drew Harris, got his Phoenix Park home, a spit from his workplace, free of charge during his term of office. The large two-storey house he lodged in, adjacent to Dublin Zoo, was paid for by An Garda Siochana (AGS) as part of Mr Harriss contract with the Department of Justice.

Former garda commissioner Drew Harris. Photo: PA

Today's News in 90 - Tuesday, December 2

AGS paid 21,000 a year, or about 1,750 a month, to the Office of Public Works (OPW) for the property between his first appointment in 2018 and earlier this year, when Mr Harris left office. We have heard, via the Oireachtas committee some days ago, the rent was market rate when the former commissioner first moved in, but was not increased after that.

OPW chairman John Conlon told TDs and senators that a review should have taken place. There is a delight of history attaching to these buildings in the Phoenix Park, relating back to colonial times and Dublins alleged status as second city of Empire.

All of these explanations seem entirely reasonable when outlined now

Mr Harriss home was known as Spa Lodge and was a former water house which was converted to a residence for park constables by the renowned British architect, Decimus Burton, in the mid-1800s. Before it was eventually handed over to An Garda Siochana it was extensively refurbished, but the OPW boss insists this was not done to facilitate Mr Harris.

The gardai did still more security work after taking over the property in advance of Mr Harris taking up residence.

Several points emerge from all of this. The standout one is that, as a former deputy chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Mr Harris clearly required extra security precautions during his tenure as head of the gardai. His pay and other employment conditions came through his contract with the Department of Justice.

The department says that the Policing Authority, as far back 2017, said an appointee from another country to the top job may need additional security.

This was because of the requirement that the commissioner must live in Dublin and remain on call 24/7, a spokesman said. Thus, the OPW was sent house-hunting. All of these explanations seem entirely reasonable when outlined now.

But the standout point is that such details should have been put in the public domain long ago. Yes, it was tricky appointing Mr Harris given his Northern Ireland police background; furthermore the politics of workplace envy are always with us. Yet, facing reality earlier than later is always the best way to approach such tricky issues. The real problem is that later revelations generally augment the politics of workplace envy.
Donald Trump with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, prime minister of Saudi Arabia, during a meeting in the White House on November 18. Photo: Getty

Madam  Peter Vandermeersch is right to refuse to accept moral shrugging as a form of leadership (Journalists must always challenge Trumps cynical shrug in the face of evil, November 23).

When Donald Trump dismissed the murder of Jamal Khashoggi with the phrase things happen, he did more than trivialise a brutal assassination. He signalled that truth and human dignity are negotiable when wealth and influence are in play. That is a message the world cannot afford to normalise.

Truth is not a luxury of stable societies; it is the foundation that allows them to exist. When leaders treat facts as inconveniences and atrocities as diplomatic embarrassments, they erode the very principles that underpin international order.

If a journalist can be murdered and dismembered and the response from a global superpower is a shrug followed by arms deals and photo opportunities, then the worlds moral compass has been deliberately set off course.

Power does not absolve responsibility  it multiplies it. World leaders, particularly those who claim to stand for freedom and democratic values, have an obligation to call out wrongdoing, even when it threatens trade, oil or investment.

Economic partnerships built on silence are not partnerships at all; they are transactions bought with integrity. When nations choose profit over principle, they teach every autocrat watching that violence carries no cost and that censorship can triumph over accountability.

Khashoggis death was not a thing that happened. It was a crime  one aimed at silencing truth itself. To ignore that is to betray not only his memory, but the essential belief that facts matter and human life matters.

If democracies will not speak when the powerful commit wrongs, who will? The price of truth may sometimes be economic, but the price of abandoning it is far greater: a world where nothing is sacred, and everything  even life  can be shrugged away.

Paul Byrne, Dublin 7

Enoch Burkes dogma has gone far enough

Madam  Eilis OHanlon is right to highlight the absurd loop in which the State finds itself with Enoch Burke (How do you solve a problem like Enoch? Well, first you need to find him, November 23). Yet the real scandal is not the institutional paralysis; it is that the education of children has been forced to orbit around one mans unyielding dogma.

Whatever convictions Mr Burke holds, they do not entitle him to turn a school into a theatre for his own absolutes.

His insistence on presenting himself at the gates each morning is not an act of witness. It is a refusal to accept that pupils deserve a learning environment free from spectacle.

The true innocents in this saga are not the courts or the Government, but the teenagers who now pass security guards and cameras on their way to class, all because he cannot conceive that his conscience might co-exist with their right to be left alone.

Faith without humility has a habit of mistaking disruption for duty. OHanlon describes a stubborn dance in which the State repeats its mistakes. Burkes greater failure is that he mistakes his certainties for a licence to disturb the everyday life of children who never sought to be part of his crusade.

Enda Cullen, Tullysaran, Co Armagh

Reinstate Enoch and return his money

Madam  In her column on Enoch Burke, Eilis OHanlon omits to point out the fact that a boy cannot become a girl or vice versa. This lie is being perpetuated in schools.

Enoch Burke needs to be backed by the whole country for his brave stance in protecting children.

There are too many families who fell for this and are now faced with the consequences in their childs life where there has been medical intervention: infertility, inability to have a sex life, early onset of menopause, arthritis and so on.

If adults wish to change to appear like the opposite sex, fine; but this should not be offered to children who may have underlying issues that are not being properly explored.

Hopefully, the country will soon come to its senses and reinstate Mr Burke in his job and restore his money taken from his bank account.

Anne Grace, Blackrock, Co Dublin

Can adults just let the children play?

Madam  John Greenes article (When the system fails to deliver, Sport, November 23) shows all too clearly the damage that can be done to children when grown-ups dont, or wont, behave properly.

In this case, a young girl was upset to the point where she felt unable to continue playing her sport. Had the gossips been correct in their supposition of the childs gender, a young trans girl might have suffered the same fate. Either way, a child would have suffered due to the actions of people who are allegedly old enough to know better.

Can the so-called adults please behave as such and let children play together in peace?

Bernie Linnane, Dromahair, Co Leitrim

Compassion should be at the core of care

Madam  Following a recent cancer diagnosis, I spent time in two Dublin hospitals. In one, I experienced outstanding nursing care. In the other, that care and compassion was heartbreakingly absent.

In the interest of fairness, I must say that some nursing staff were kind and professional, in particular a specialist nursing team who supported my family and me with great humanity during my time of need. They were a lifeline. But overall, my experience left me shaken.

As a retired nurse, I know the pressure hospital staff work under, yet no workload or staff shortage can ever justify neglecting a patients dignity. Compassion is not a luxury  it is at the core of care.

One moment I will never forget: after a sleepless night, I was taken to the bathroom for personal care. The care assistant, clearly overstretched, left the door open to monitor another patient, exposing me to a male ward. My dignity and privacy were dismissed in that instant. I felt demeaned, broken and utterly vulnerable.

Later, when I met my consultant to discuss my treatment, I felt so humiliated that I forgot all the important questions I intended to raise. That is the unseen damage that such care inflicts.

Hospital management must ensure all staff  permanent or agency  be properly trained, supervised and held to the same standard. Basic training in infection control and cross infection prevention is critical.Respect, privacy and humanity are not optional. They are the difference between care and cruelty.

I write not from anger, but from a hope that no patient will ever feel as I did  stripped of dignity when they most need compassion. We owe every patient better.I know we can and must do better.

Hannah McCarthy, Dundrum, Dublin

Future of Fianna Fail is plain for all to see

Madam  Fair play to Sean O Fearghail for not holding back in his attack on the leadership of Fianna Fail (Fianna Fails problems run much deeper than botched Aras campaign, November 23).

He hopes a new and exciting chapter for Fianna Fail will begin, following his Oireachtas colleagues report into the presidential campaign.

Really? The only outcome from that report will be to kick-start the exit of Micheal Martin as leader. Renewal or rejuvenation is another matter.

Good luck with trying to latch on to young voters  they want solutions to our housing problem and less of the old-guard politics. The three main parties will continue to share the spoils of our PR system for some time. Thats as exciting as it will get for Fianna Fail.

Aidan Roddy, Cabinteely, Dublin 18

Naming rights row at Dublin Airport

Madam  What gives Deputy Malcolm Byrne and Fianna Fail the right to think they can rename Dublin Airport after one of their own, Sean Lemass?

Dublin Airport does not belong to any one political party. Leave it alone.

Walter Lacey, Bullock Park, Co Carlow

Best-dressed corpse in the graveyard

Madam  Reading Sarah Breens article about her time as a shop assistant (True heroes of the spending season are shopping assistants, November 23) reminded me of my first real job, when I started as an apprentice in the mens outfitting business at 15 years of age.

How times have changed in the 60-plus years since. Not a hint of self-service back then. Even a tie required selling, laying them out in assorted boxes and making the Windsor knot on your hand for the prospective buyer.

My most unusual transaction was when a woman bought a suit from me for her just-deceased husband. Apparently, the poor divil had been saving for a new suit when God issued the call. I had to be careful not to say: If he doesnt like it, you can exchange it.

I spent some 30 years in the trade, so in some sense it must have suited me.

Tom Gilsenan, Beaumont, Dublin 9

Twink must accept the march of time

Madam  Twink tells us she kept The Late Late Show alive and that the programme has only boring, stuffed-shirts as guests (Life, November 23).

What an egotistical woman. She should be grateful for her lot  she hit the big time early in life, but things move on and she must accept that her style of entertaining is well past its sell-by date.

Tom Kelly, Newbridge, Co Kildare

No challenging Twink on her puerile views?

Madam  Justifying a former taoiseachs expensive tastes, the entertainer Twink commented in her interview with Barry Egan last week: We had those big fat boozy, pint-drinking thugs of taoiseachs with tomato stains down their front and looking like balubas representing us.... (Curtains up!, Life, November 23).

While none of the holders of that office were ever my first choice, I am astounded that such a view was not challenged in the article. The description fits none in my experience.

Leaving the comment there unchallenged is unfair to the people themselves and to our country. While politics is a rough and tough business and you take the robust comments on the chin, it does not have to be insulting and offensive. Democratic politics is under enough attack across the world without such puerile commentary.

Cllr Dermot Lacey (Labour), Donnybrook, Dublin 4

You must be dead or gone to get plaudits

Madam  Shane Ross last week quoted an unnamed former Fine Gael minister to soften the insult featured in his headline (Paschal trots off to pastures new while Fine Gael is led by donkeys, November 23). This is crass.

Here it is important to note that, in this era of declarations of interest, Shane was once a member of Fine Gael. He is used to hyperbole too. He once described Enda Kenny as a corpse, and then went on to serve under him in the Cabinet.

Now that Paschal Donohoe is gone and getting praise, I dont recall Mr Ross garlanding him with many honours while he was finance minister. A very Irish thing. You must be gone or dead to earn the plaudits.

Brendan Cafferty, Ballina, Co Mayo

Brendan Sweeney is right on elections

Madam  Brendan Sweeney makes many valid points on the recent municipal and regional elections in Denmark (What Ireland can learn from Danish election shock, November 23).

Denmark is following in the footsteps of the Netherlands and the parliamentary elections there last month; the 38-year-old centrist liberal leader Rob Jetten is destined to be the youngest prime minister in Dutch history. His D66 party has risen spectacularly, outflanking the far-right leader Geert Wilders.

Indeed, there are more similarities with the election of Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York. All of these elections were won by campaigning on what matters most to their constituents  housing, affordability and costs of living, instead of immigration.

All of which makes it clear that Simon Harriss foray into the debate on immigration after Fine Gaels disastrous presidential election was nothing other than an attempt to gaslight the opposition and shift the focus from the Coalitions very obvious policy failures.

Tom McElligott, Tournageehy, Co Kerry

Catherine, many of us dont speak Irish

Madam  Saoirse Hanley enthuses over President Connollys decision to make Irish the working language of the Aras and expresses her incredulity that anyone could question that decision (Life, November 23).

President Connolly promised to represent each citizen equally. I presume this includes the Gaeilgeoir and the non-Irish-speaker alike. Yet a substantial section of her inaugural address was delivered as Gaeilge, rendering it unintelligible to the majority of her audience.

There appears to be an almost evangelical push to persuade people to feel guilty for being unable to converse in their native tongue. A headline on a recent column by Naoise Dolan struck me as dogmatic and didactic: We need to create an Ireland where everyone can become fluent in Irish (November 9).

We also need to create an Ireland that is inclusive, not divisive. I refer to the Presidents questionable remarks during the campaign: Irish does not contain a false distinction between the person and nature, which exists in English. English is the language of colonisation, of extraction, of destruction.

We can surely appreciate Irish culture and language without denigrating others.

The President should be more circumspect in her pronouncements or she risks alienating many of us. Personally, just because I cannot speak Irish, I am no less Irish than a fluent Gaeilgeoir. I love Irish culture in all its richness and variety.

However, President Connolly, if you wish to communicate with me and with millions like me, please speak mainly in English.

Brid Ewing, Newtowncunningham, Co Donegal

Irish cannot be held hostage by some

Madam  Don Byrne (Letters, November 23) tells us that systemic corporal punishment in schools left many students in the 1950s associating the Irish language with pain and humiliation.

Why only Irish? Was corporal punishment not part of the reality endured in other subjects as well? The language, and peoples interest and enjoyment of it, should not be held hostage by the experiences of some schoolchildren more than seven decades ago.

Daragh Breathnach, Glasnevin, Dublin 11
A Cork school secretary has pleaded with the Taoiseach Micheal Martin to intervene after talks at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) aimed at resolving a pensions dispute involving school secretaries and caretakers recently broke down.

At the start of the academic year, school secretaries and caretakers began indefinite strike action.

The dispute saw more than 2,600 school secretaries and caretakers, who are members of Forsa, engage in strike action for more than a week.

Forsa withdrew the strike action after an agreement was reached to engage in a process to resolve the dispute.

Forsa is aiming to secure access for school secretaries and caretakers to a public service pension scheme, known as the Single Public Service Pension Scheme.

Dolores OMahony who has worked as a school secretary for the past 11 years at Douglas Rochestown Educate Together National School expressed her deep disappointment in a letter to the Taoiseach over the recent breakdown in talks between Forsa and the Department of Public Expenditure.

Ms OMahony stated: Despite the vital work that school secretaries and caretakers do every day, the Department of Public Expenditure has refused to offer us access to the public service pension scheme and has declined to provide any gratuity in recognition of the years of service we have given to the Department of Education.

Ms OMahony said that despite over a decade of service, she is facing the prospect of retiring with no real security, despite dedicating her working life to supporting pupils, parents, teachers and the wider school community. We are being left without a pension and without benefits equivalent to those of our colleagues who are directly employed on standard public service terms. We are now being told we will be auto enrolled into a government savings scheme which is not guaranteed and does not offer true parity with a public service pension.

This approach has left school secretaries and caretakers feeling demeaned, undervalued and demoralised, stated the school secretary. Many of us now feel there is no equality, no respect and no recognition for the essential work we do. It is having a very real impact on morale, on peoples mental health, and on how we feel about going to work each day. All we are seeking is fairness and equality.

We are asking for access to a fair and secure pension, on a par with our colleagues in the public service, recognition of our past service, through an appropriate gratuity or equivalent measure and equality of terms and conditions, so that school secretaries and caretakers are no longer treated as second-class workers, she added.

Ms OMahony called on the Taoiseach to intervene and ensure that meaningful engagement resumes to reach an equitable and sustainable agreement. School secretaries and caretakers deserve to retire with dignity and security, not anxiety and uncertainty. I would be grateful if you could raise this issue urgently with the relevant ministers and confirm what steps you will take to address the inequality we are facing.

Speaking in the Dail recently, the Labour Party TD for Cork North Central Eoghan Kenny implored the Irish Government to step-in. We dont want to see schools operating with no secretaries, no-one at the front door, no-one to be able to do the maintenance work in the schools.

Tanaiste this is now an opportunity for your government to step in here and make a clear indication to all school secretaries and caretakers across this country that you will stand up for their entitlements and give them those entitlements, he added.

Tanaiste Simon Harris agreed that school secretaries and caretakers are the beating heart of communities. We know them, we know them by name. We all want to see this issue resolved. I dont want to over comment on discussions between parties that do remain confidential other than to say this matter has been referred to the Labour Court.

"A resolution needs to be found, said Deputy Harris. The Department and the Government remain committed and ready to engage with Forsa to reach a resolution to this important matter.

Andy Pike, Forsas head of education said further strike action cannot be ruled out. The Departments refusal to table a constructive proposal on this point has now brought the process to an impasse. School secretaries and caretakers have shown extraordinary patience. Their determination to secure a just and long overdue resolution remains unwavering, but if progress continues to be blocked, we cannot and will not rule out further strike action.
The Irish Red Cross have hosted their National Volunteer Awards in Croke Park this weekend. The annual awards ceremony is a celebration of the extraordinary voluntary work done by Irish Red Cross volunteers across the country.

Three Cork-based volunteers scooped awards at the prestigious Irish Red Cross National Volunteer Awards at Croke Park on Saturday.

The ceremony was attended by volunteers from across the country who selflessly dedicate their time and expertise to Irelands humanitarian organisation.

The ceremony took place on Saturday, and Clonakiltys Tim Kelleher was crowned Volunteer of the Year.

Tim received the award in recognition of his support for elderly people in his community during the Covid-19 pandemic and Ukrainian refugees seeking safety in Clonakilty.

He is currently the branchs youth officer, and he has served in a number of roles across his 17-year tenure including branch chairperson, vice chairperson, secretary and community support officer.

Fellow Clonakilty branch member, Pascal Walsh, received the Lifetime Achievement Award for his incredible 50 years of service.

He is described as a gentleman with a word for everyone, someone who strives to make volunteering a truly great experience for all.

Co-founder of the Ballinora/Ballincollig branch, Imelda OConnor, also received the Lifetime Achievement Award for her 50 years of service.

According to her nominees, Imeldas energy, clinical skill and belief that everyone matters make her an outstanding role model.

Chairman of the Irish Red Cross, Charlie Flanagan said the awards are an opportunity to show appreciation for the volunteers.

These are the first aiders who stand pitch-side in all weathers, these are the volunteer therapists who give hand therapy massages to nursing home residents, these are the community supporters who deliver essential supplies to those cut off due to storms and extend a warm welcome to migrants fleeing war.

They are the beating heart of the Irish Red Cross and the very best of us, he said.

Charlie congratulated Tim, Pascal and Imelda on their award wins.

Thank you sincerely for taking positive action to make your community a better, kinder place and helping those most in need.

Your commitment and selflessness is truly inspiring.

What is really heartening is how you encourage younger volunteers  sharing your expertise and knowledge with the next generation.

The future of the Irish Red Cross looks bright thanks to volunteers like you, he concluded.
Locals have said the 80 route is often delayed or doesn't turn up at all

Chapelizod residents are still frustrated with the Route 80 bus, despite the NTA announcing changes to the service.

Route 80, introduced on October 19 as part of Dublins BusConnects programme, replaced the former 26 service from Liffey Valley, traversing Chapelizod and continuing through the city centre to Rathmines and Dartry.

Commuters quickly reported delays, overcrowding and journey times so long that some claimed it was quicker to walk.

The NTA has said it will change the route of the 80 bus, which runs from Chapelizod to the city centre, following feedback from passengers.

The updated route will travel along the north quays to OConnell Bridge and Custom House Quay before continuing north.

Route 80 was launched in October as part of Phase 7 of Dublins BusConnects programme, linking Liffey Valley, Chapelizod and the south city via High Street and South Great Georges Street.

The latest plan will merge the 80 with the existing 130 service, which runs from the city centre to Clontarf.

The new combined route will follow the current 80 path up to Bridge Street, then continue along the north quays to Eden Quay before heading north through the city to Clontarf.

Peak-time buses will continue to run every 10 minutes, matching the current 80 and 130 schedules.

The full revised route is expected to start in the second quarter of 2026.

Before that, as a temporary arrangement from early 2026, route 80 will run from Liffey Valley to Chapelizod on a slightly different path along the quays to the south city.

This version will cross the Liffey at OConnell Bridge rather than Bridge Street and pass through College Green to South Great Georges Street, starting in the new year.

Social Democrats TD Jen Cummins, who has been liaising with locals, said residents remain unhappy and they will not stop until they get the 26 route back.

Residents argue the original 26 route provided more direct access to the north side of the city, including OConnell Street, which the 80 no longer serves.

A protest took place on Saturday, which was organised by residents to highlight ongoing problems with the service, which was attended by roughly 500 people.

Deputy Cummins said there was another public meeting last night in the scout den with over 100 people turning up and she said that residents said they are absolutely not happy with the current solution being given by the NTA

They're absolutely furious, Deputy Cummins said.

They're furious that the NTA thought that they could just do this and not even say anything to them, as in, not consult with them  they're so insulted by it.

Beyond that, the NTA must engage properly with Chapelizod residents to find workable long-term solutions.

The reason people are so angry is that they feel the NTA have not been listening to them and now they're coming back to us and telling us that theres a solution when there has been no consultation, she added.

Residents have indicated they will continue to campaign for the reinstatement of the 26 route, arguing that the changes do not address the core issues that have made Route 80 unreliable.

The NTA has been contacted for comment.
There was a large turnout at public meeting on water quality in Phibsborough on Tuesday, November, 25.

Marie Sherlock, TD for Dublin Central, has called on Irish Water to urgently address the significant concerns of residents in the Phibsborough area

Residents in Phibsborough have raised serious concerns about the quality of their drinking water following research from UCD and DKIT highlighting elevated lead levels in the area.

The concerns were discussed at a public meeting last week, which saw a large turnout from local residents.

Marie Sherlock TD, Labour Spokesperson on Health for Dublin Central, called on Irish Water to urgently address the issue.

The significant interest in our public meeting demonstrates the strength of feeling across the Phibsborough area about the potential impact of lead in water locally, Deputy Sherlock said.

She added that residents are seeking immediate clarity from Irish Water on the quality of the water they consume".

While she welcomed Irish Waters plans for orthophosphate dosing in 20272028, Deputy Sherlock stressed the need for a comprehensive investment programme to replace all lead pipe connections.

Replacing lead pipes is the fundamental fix for this issue, she said.

The significant interest in our public meeting demonstrates the strength of feeling across the Phibsborough area about the potential impact of lead in water locally.

There was a large turnout at public meeting on water quality in Phibsborough on Tuesday, November, 25.

People in Phibsborough are looking for immediate clarity from Irish Water on the quality of the water they consume."

Research conducted by the AMEND Project at UCD and DKIT involved two rounds of water sampling in the Phibsborough area. The second round, carried out in July 2025, tested 76 homes and found that two-thirds contained lead in their tap water, with 28pc exceeding EU safety limits.

Deputy Sherlock warned that there is no safe level of lead in drinking water.

There is no safe level of water and high levels of lead are particularly unsafe for children under the age of 6, pregnant women, and immunocompromised individuals, she said.

I welcome that plan by Irish Water for Orthophosphate dosing from 2027 to reduce lead levels in the water supply. Irish Water has also confirmed to me that they are going to commence a pilot project to test older homes in the Phibsborough/Drumcondra area, with one third of those to be tested in the Phibsborough area."

Irish Water has confirmed it will begin a pilot project testing older homes in the Phibsborough and Drumcondra areas, with a third of those homes located in Phibsborough.

However, Deputy Sherlock emphasised that these measures are not sufficient on their own.

It is critical that we see a clear plan to replace all lead pipe connections through a concerted investment programme. Anything else is simply papering over the cracks of a leaky, struggling water system, she said.

A spokesperson for Irish Water said: Public health is a priority for Uisce Eireann.

"We have no specific concerns relating to lead in the public supply in Phibsborough. The supply is regularly tested as part of our regulatory monitoring programme, and lead is specifically checked approximately every month, they said.

"Any sample that fails to meet the parametric value for lead is immediately risk assessed and acted upon.

"Uisce Eireann is currently working on the replacement of all known public side lead, with over 66,000 connections replaced to date.

"It is important to note, however, that replacement of public side lead in isolation, without also replacing private side lead, will not achieve a sufficient reduction of lead levels at the tap.
Defendant held overambitious estimation of his own abilities, says judge

Years after a chaotic deception, a judge ordered a reformed gambler to repay the entirety of 22,000 that he swindled from an acquaintance, the Tralee Circuit Court heard on Thursday.

John Jogy (42) of 23 Heath Inse Bay, Laytown, Co Meath, faced 22 charges of deception. The court heard he conned his friend over the course of a year between 2017 and 2018.

Judge Ronan Munro also showed leniency in his sentencing, noting the defendant had an overambitious estimation of his own abilities but appeared to have transformed his life.

The defence hasnt changed but he seems to have changed, said the judge.

The deception began when Mr Imran Khan (38), a Tralee resident, received a phone call from a man with an English accent claiming he represented an electrical goods company based in the UK, Barrister Thomas Rice told the court.

It was said he offered Mr Khan the opportunity to invest in the fictitious company.

Not having a bank account of his own, Mr Jogy had funds transferred to the account of his wife and her friends accounts, the court heard.

During this time, it was said he periodically offered Mr Khan money he claimed was a return on investment. Mr Khan declined to accept it, believing by doing so he was re-investing it.

By 2019, with no profit to show for his investments, Mr Khan went to gardai.

The penny finally dropped with the unfortunate victim, said Mr Rice.

Most of the money was gambled, Mr Rice told the court.

Mr Thomas told the court that Mr Jogys wife was the family breadwinner while Mr Jogy stayed at home and gave the appearance of being successful.

The court heard Mr Jogy, who has lived in Ireland since 2005, had subsequently collected 15,000 to repay Mr Khan. He had no previous convictions.

Council for the defence Katie OConnell noted her clients early plea and told the court he had undergone a very stressful time at home in this period.

He and the injured party were friends at the time, said the barrister.

They would have been in the same group of pals, she said.

She observed gambling was a large part of the background in this case and said Mr Jogy underwent counselling to address this.

It was further noted that he had tried to invest some of the stolen funds in software, hoping he would come into more money and could repay Mr Khan.

He kept trying to buy himself more time, said the barrister.

The court heard Mr Jogy was the sole driver for the family and drives his wife to work. It was also noted that he had worked for the last two years as a software trainee for a project that was soon to begin.

She told the court his employer attended court with him and his marriage was back on track.

There was no victim impact statement.

In sentencing, the judge highlighted the extended duration of crimes was a significant deception.

But he also observed that Mr Jogy admitted to the crime in 2019 and it took five more years for court proceedings to begin.

Mr Jogys life appeared to have changed, he said.

I do have concerns about the prospect of custody for someone who has, in effect, rehabilitated himself, said the judge.

Man faced deception charges.

Today's News in 90 - Tuesday, December 2

Furthermore, he highlighted the scam was not systematic but a chaotic situation and a hare-brained scheme whereby Mr Jogy genuinely believed he would repay the stolen funds.

A jail sentence would bring him back in time, said the judge.

He ordered a two-year suspended sentence, with a 300 bond for five years.

The sentence was imposed on his two most recent charges, taking 20 others into consideration.

He also ordered Mr Jogy repay Mr Imran the 15,000 he had collected immediately and provide an additional 7,000 within 15 months.

The judge noted it was upon Mr Jogy, not his wife, to earn this.

Finally, he ordered that Mr Jogy not to offer investment services involving stock choice to any person.

Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme
Community-led group to hold a cosy connection event in the Peoples Park in January, offering a welcoming space for neurodivergent people and marking its first major outing in the Midwest

Neuro Pride Ireland will host its first-ever Limerick event early next year, with organisers promising a warm and welcoming space for neurodivergent people during what can be a challenging time of year.

The gathering will take place on Saturday, January 3, 2026, at the bandstand in the Peoples Park, where a cosy daytime connection circle will run from 1pm. Attendees are encouraged to bring hot drinks, warm clothing and items such as hot water bottles, thermoses of soup and hand warmers.

Animal companions will be welcome once safely secured, and participants are asked to bring their own seating, such as a camping chair or cushion. Organisers say people are encouraged to move, stim or express themselves in whatever way feels most natural.

They have also stressed that there is no pressure to socialise. Participants can sit quietly, take sensory breaks, or wear headphones, masks or sunglasses if needed.

Speaking ahead of the event, Nem Kearns, co-founder of Neuro Pride Ireland, said the group aims to create inclusive community spaces led by and for neurodivergent adults.

Neuro Pride is a community organisation, led by neurodivergent people for neurodivergent people, they said. Were a space for anyone who identifies as neurodivergent to meet, learn and share experiences. We also advocate for the rights of neurodivergent people in Ireland.

Were hoping to bring that to Limerick. Its important to say were a volunteer group, and the neurodivergent people in Limerick are taking the lead on this.

They said the January event is intended to offer connection to those who may feel isolated, particularly people living outside larger cities. It can be a blue time of year. A lot of people in rural areas cant make it to events in Dublin, so having local meet-ups is really important.

Neuro Pride at Pride of the Deise

Organisers in Limerick plan to create a sense of warmth and whimsy, with an electric fire, hot chocolate and the woodland setting of the park as a backdrop.

<img alt="cards visualization" src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/25660384/thumbnail" style="width:100%" />

Kearns added that local volunteers play a crucial role in the initiative. Im from a rural area myself, and sometimes theres this perception that organisations in Dublin do everything. But no  local people do loads.

Neuro Pride Ireland welcomes people across all forms of neurodivergence, including those with personality adaptations, mood conditions, neurological conditions, cognitive differences, lesser-known neurotypes and more familiar diagnoses. Children may attend but must be accompanied by an adult.

The Peoples Park bandstand is accessible for wheelchair users and provides shelter with an open-air layout. Public toilets, including an accessible bathroom, are located within a five-minute walk. A nearby cafe offers indoor seating, food and additional facilities.

The event will be mask-optional, and both masked and unmasked attendees are expected. Free masks will be available.

Kearns said the group hopes the Limerick event will become a regular fixture. Its going to be a cosy and comfortable social occasion for neurodivergent people to connect. We hope it brings some brightness to the cold days  a chance to share stories and experiences with people like themselves. And we hope it will be the first of many gatherings in Limerick.

Further information is available on the Neuro Pride Ireland Facebook page and at neuropride.ie.
Pictured accepting the Pharma Company of the Year award from Matt Moran, Judging Coordinator Pharma Industry Awards 2025, are (left to right) AbbVie Irelands Mary Moran, Yvonne Rochford, and Susan OHehir.

Global biopharmaceutical company, AbbVie, which has manufacturing plants in Ballytivnan and on the Manorhamilton Road in Sligo , was recently honoured in two major categories at the Pharma Industry Awards Ireland 2025, winning Pharma Company of the Year (Large) and Biopharma Company of the Year.
Markree Castle wins national SEAI Energy Award

Deirdre Ryan, William Walsh, CEO of SEAI and Nicholas Ryan. Markree Castle which won the Medium-Sized Business Award. Pictured at the SEAI Energy Awards at the Intercontinental Hotel

Markee Castle Hotel has won the Medium-Sized Business award at the SEAI Energy Awards for in recognition of its sustainable energy upgrade.

There were over 140 submissions to the awards this year across business, community and public sector organisations.

The awards celebrate individuals and organisations demonstrate excellence in the drive for reduced fossil fuel usage, reduced emissions, reduced costs and a more resilient economy.

Markee Castle Hotel located in Collooney, Co. Sligo, was constructed in the 14th century, the building as it stands now was constructed in the 17th century. It was extensively refurbished in 2017 by the present owners

Overall, the Hotel saw a reduction of 82% in CO2 emissions and saved an estimated 115,000 on their energy bills.

The hotel was limited in the energy upgrades they could make due to the castle being listed with the National Build Heritage Service. Despite this Markee Castle installed a wood biomass boiler system using SEAIs Support Scheme for Renewable Heat (SSRH).

Markree Castle has demonstrated that even in old, protected structures with the right approach and investment; building operators can deliver smarter, greener, more sustainable facilities.

Four hundred years ago the building was heated by wood, now they have gone back to their roots to help reduce their environmental impact and safeguard the environment for future generations to enjoy.

CEO of SEAI, William Walsh, said: This years SEAI Energy Awards are truly inspiring. The finalists and the teams they represent are leading the way in their local communities and creating a more secure, sustainable future for us all.

The work they are doing is vital. It will mean warmer, healthier homes and workplaces, cleaner air, lower energy bills, and a more resilient and competitive economy.

Congratulations to all and thank you for your passion and commitment. You are making a big impact and inspiring countless others to follow in your path.

Hosted by journalist Kathriona Devereux this years ceremony saw a total of twelve awards presented to individuals, businesses, communities, and public sector organisations in recognition of their commitment and dedication to sustainable energy and climate action. Some 37 finalists were selected by expert judging panels for consideration as category winners. Irelands energy emissions profile was at the lowest level in over 30 years, as of the end of last year. This is thanks to record levels of solar PV generation retrofitting and further growth in the overall renewable energy share.
A cheque for 2,100 was presented to the Irish Kidney Association at the launch of the 2026 Wexford Credit Union Night run on Wexford Quay. Pictured at the handover of funds were David Maguire (Wexford Credit Union), Sinead Hore, Walter Kent (Irish Kidney Association), Shane Furlong 9High Meadows Community Hub) and Marian O'Leary. Pic: Jim Campbell

Fundraising committee and staff from Wexford Credit Union pictured at the launch of the 2026 Wexford Credit Union Night Run on Wexford Quay. Pic: Jim Campbell

Sinead Hore is all set and ready to go pictured with the fundraising committee and staff from Wexford Credit Union at the launch of the 2026 Wexford Credit Union Night Run on Wexford Quay. Pic: Jim Campbell

A hugely popular Wexford charity run which takes place annually has announced its return for 2026, with funds being raised for two worthy organisations.

The Wexford Credit Union annual Night Run will take place on Thursday February 5, 2026, starting at 7.30pm on Wexford Quay.

Now a highlight of Wexfords community calendar, the Night Run brings together runners and walkers of all ages for a fun, family-friendly evening in support of two vital local causes the Irish Kidney Association and High Meadows Community Hub.

The Irish Kidney Association is a charitable voluntary organisation founded in 1978. They are dedicated to meeting the needs of renal patients and their families and carers, living with and affected by end stage renal disease.

Last years event saw an incredible turnout of nearly 600 participants, the biggest number yet, and the Credit Union is hopeful for an even greater show of community spirit this time around.

Participants are encouraged to lace up, light up, and take part in what promises to be another fantastic night celebrating health, togetherness, and giving back.
Past and present staff from St Marys College in Arklow gathered at the Seafield Hotel to celebrate four long-serving teachers who recently retired with a night of memories and music.

Mary ODonnell and Freda Mooney retired in June 2024, while Breda Dunbar and Siobhan Doyle retired last June. Mary and Siobhan joined the school on the same day in August 1993.

Mary joined the history and Irish departments, going on to become an assistant principal. She was Year Head to hundreds of students, guiding and encouraging them with her unique blend of Kerry humour and her own lexicon.

Among her many contributions to promoting Gaeilge in St Marys were trips to the Gaeltacht, the establishment of Ciorcal Cainte and memorable, original dramas in the Irish language. She was also involved in organising trips to bring Irish history to life, including excursions to Derry and Belfast.

Freda Mooney has myriad connections to St Marys. A relationship that began when she was a pupil became one that continued when she joined the music department following her many years of teaching at Arklow CBS. Mother to four girls who attended St Marys, Freda led the school choirs, taking part in the Arklow Music Festival and Feis Ceoil.

Keeping music alive throughout the difficult Covid restrictions, the sound of her classes singing and dancing on the green outside was a ray of sunshine for students during those dark times. One of the highlights of Fredas years in St Marys was her hugely successful role as musical director of the school production of Legally Blonde.

No school event, such as a musical, went undocumented during Siobhan Doyles tenure as PRO for St Marys. She began teaching in St Marys in the 1990s before briefly moving abroad with her family, returning to the German and English departments in 2007. Siobhan led many exchanges and foreign trips to enrich students experiences of language and culture.

Students and colleagues abiding memories of Siobhan will be of her holding the camera, recording special moments for the school community. Her attention to detail meant every photograph was perfectly framed and every newspaper or social media article recognised the efforts and achievements of others.

Breda Dunbar first began her tenure at St Marys College in 1987 and also took a career break to be with her family. A much-loved member of the business and maths departments, in latter years Breda made significant contributions to the Additional Educational Needs team in St Marys and was instrumental in aspects of the transition year programme.

Facilitator of many mini-company enterprises and designer of the Chinese studies module, the hallmark of Bredas teaching was her relationships with her students and her kind, gentle rapport with colleagues and students alike.

The celebration ended with a short recital by Freda Mooney, who was joined by her St Marys colleagues Jacintha Walsh and Christine Steele.

Speaking after the event, a St Marys spokesperson said: We wish our retiring friends a long and happy retirement after all their wonderful and dedicated service to St. Marys College.
5th year students with Neil Flynn from Maynooth University at the student careers day in the Dominican College, Wicklow town.

Emily Byrne, Katie Gouldin and Emma Lalor with Wicklow Community Garda Basil Kennedy at the student careers day in the Dominican College, Wicklow town.

Samantha Rooney and Madison Van-Dalen from Colaiste Chraobh Abhann with Aer Lingus pilot Peter Lumsden at the student careers day in the Dominican College, Wicklow town.

Dominican College Wicklow welcomed students from East Glendalough, Colaiste Chraobh Abhainn and Educate Together Secondary School Wicklow for their annual careers fair held on Thursday.

The event was organised so students could explore opportunities, connect with inspiring people and discover just what is possible for their future endeavours. . It also allowed them to engage with a range of professionals who are experts in their fields.

All students had the opportunity to visit stands from third level universities and PLC colleges from all over Ireland and discuss exciting career opportunities available to students. Information stands included existing college students who answered many of the questions posed by secondary students from Wicklow.

As the host school, all DCW students from 3rd to 6th Year were able to engage with the exhibitors as the careers fair offered a wonderful opportunity for all students from the schools to meet up and share all of their career aspirations.

Special praise is reserved for the Dominican College Wicklow team who organised the day, consisting of students Laura Scahill, Rebecca Murphy and Neal Martin, along with guidance counsellor Lisa OShaughnessy.
Irish designer Jonathan Anderson has won the Designer of the Year for the third time.

The 41-year-old designer from Northern Ireland was crowned at the Royal Albert Hall last night during the 2025 Fashion Awards.

Mr Anderson, originally from Magherafelt, Co Derry, was appointed as the creative director of Christian Dior earlier this year. He was previously a creative director at Loewe for 11 years.

Speaking while accepting the award yesterday, he said it was a "crazy year for him.

Im going to keep it very quick because I know everyone wants to drink and party, he said.

"Its been a crazy year for me. I would never be on this stage without the British Fashion Council. Because I think they leave space for people to be whoever they want to be.

Without the British Fashion Council, I wouldnt be where I am today.

I love being in the house of Dior because its a massive challenge.

I believe in collaboration, thank you so much for this honour, he added.

His designs have been worn by Sabrina Carpenter, Ariana Grande at last year's Met Gala, and Rihanna during her Super Bowl half-time show in 2023.

Yesterday's awards were packed with celebrity guests, including The Rolling Stones Mick Jagger, actor Cate Blanchett, and actor Sharon Stone.

Christian Diors chief executive and daughter of the LVMH boss Bernard, Delphine Arnault, received a special recognition award for her support of talent, such as Anderson.

Meanwhile, designer Sarah Burton received the British Womenswear Designer of the Year award, while the winner of Menswear Designer of the Year was Grace Wales Bonner, who is the Head of Menswear line at Hermes.

A new Vanguard Award for Visionary Talent went to the London-based Turkish designer Dilara Findikoglu.
Police officers carry the body of a victim recovered from a fire-damaged residential block at Wang Fuk Court housing complex following a deadly fire, in Tai Po, Hong Kong, China, December 1, 2025. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

A woman walks past residential buildings damaged by fire at Wang Fuk Court in the Tai Po district in Hong Kong, China. Photo: Getty

Women cry next to a makeshift flower memorial nearby to the Wang Fuk Court housing complex residents after the deadly fire, in Tai Po, Hong Kong, China, December 1, 2025. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Members of the Hong Kong Police Force's Disaster Victims Identification Unit (DVIU) stand in front of a damaged building, following deadly fire at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex, in Hong Kong, China, November 30, 2025. Hong Kong Police Force/Handout via REUTERS

Damage inside a burnt apartment at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex, following the deadly fire on Wednesday, in Tai Po, Hong Kong, China, in this handout image released December 1, 2025. Hong Kong Police Force/Handout via REUTERS

A Filipino domestic helper has been hailed as a hero after emerging from the deadly Hong Kong tower fire with her employers three-month-old baby and elderly mother.

Just a day after arriving in the city, Rhodora Alcaraz (28) found herself trapped and alone with her new employers loved ones in the familys smoke-filled Wang Fuk Court apartment before being rescued by firefighters just in time, according to accounts of her ordeal shared by her family and friends.

Ms Alcarazs story has for some highlighted the enduring role of the citys hundreds of thousands of domestic helpers who cook, clean and care for the young and elderly, often living in cramped spaces and earning modest wages in one of the worlds most expensive cities.

Members of the Hong Kong Police Force's Disaster Victims Identification Unit (DVIU) stand in front of a damaged building, following deadly fire at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex, in Hong Kong, China, November 30, 2025. Hong Kong Police Force/Handout via REUTERS

I salute you, Rhodora, and all overseas foreign workers who continue to sacrifice for their families even while far from home, senator Imee Marcos, the sister of the Philippines president, said in a Facebook post after visiting Ms Alcaraz in hospital.

A true modern-day hero and a model of compassion and courage of Filipinos in a foreign land, the governments Overseas Workers Welfare Administration wrote in a Facebook post, prompting hundreds of comments from well-wishers.

Her employers baby and mother were also admitted to intensive care but were in a stable condition, her employer Kanon Chung said in a Facebook post.

Panicked audio messages Ms Alcaraz sent to her sister during Wednesdays blaze  that killed at least 151 people, with more than 40 still missing  went viral after they were shared online by family and friends trying to locate her in the chaotic aftermath.

Im feeling very weak. I cant breathe, she said in one of the clips, sobbing and struggling to speak.

Women cry next to a makeshift flower memorial nearby to the Wang Fuk Court housing complex residents after the deadly fire, in Tai Po, Hong Kong, China, December 1, 2025. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Rhoda Lynn Dayo, Ms Alcarazs former employer, was among those trying to reach people in Hong Kong to help establish her whereabouts, she said.

I truly expected that she wouldnt be found anymore. So I prayed: Please God ... Perform a miracle, Lord, she said.

Ms Alcaraz had cared for Ms Dayos children from the age of 17 for more than four years back in the Philippines.

She was so trusted by the family that Ms Dayo said she was comfortable leaving her children with Ms Alcaraz even when she had to travel to the US.

The way she cared for the kids was different  there was real love ... I dont doubt that she would put her life on the line for the child she was caring for.

A woman walks past residential buildings damaged by fire at Wang Fuk Court in the Tai Po district in Hong Kong, China. Photo: Getty

Nine Indonesian domestic workers and one Filipino are confirmed among the dead at Wang Fuk Court, the citys deadliest fire in more than 75 years.

Ms Alcaraz, who has eight siblings, decided to work overseas to earn higher wages she could send back home to support her family.

She worked for two years in Qatar, before taking up the job in Hong Kong.

We are poor. Our father is just a fisherman, that is why she decided to work abroad to help the family, Ms Alcarazs younger sister, Raychell Loreto, told Reuters. We are so proud of our sister.

Police officers carry the body of a victim recovered from a fire-damaged residential block at Wang Fuk Court housing complex following a deadly fire, in Tai Po, Hong Kong, China, December 1, 2025. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Hong Kong authorities said they had arrested 13 people for suspected manslaughter in a probe into the fire, pointing to substandard renovation materials.

Police continued to sweep the seven burnt-out towers, finding bodies of residents in stairwells and on rooftops, trapped as they tried to flee the flames.

Some of the bodies have turned into ash, therefore we might not be able to locate all missing individuals, police official Tsang Shuk-yin told reporters.
Police have arrested 13 on suspicion of manslaughterCity's leader orders independent probe into disasterRights groups call on authorities not to suppress criticismBeijing, Hong Kong say anyone 'exploiting tragedy' will be punished

Family members pay their respects at a memorial ceremony for victims of the deadly fire on Wednesday at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in Tai Po, in Hong Kong, China, December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Lam Yik

People make offerings during a Tibetan religious ceremony near the site of a deadly fire at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Family members pay their respects at a memorial ceremony for victims of the deadly fire on Wednesday at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in Tai Po, in Hong Kong, China, December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Lam Yik

People offer flowers for the victims near the site of a deadly fire at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories on Tuesday, Dec 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Family members pay their respects at a memorial ceremony for victims of the deadly fire at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in Tai Po, in Hong Kong, China, December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Family members leave after paying their respects at a memorial ceremony for victims of the deadly fire at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in Tai Po, in Hong Kong, China, December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Firefighters gather next to the entrance to Sha Tin Fire Station as people continue to bring flowers to pay their respect to deceased firefighter Ho Wai-ho, who died during the Wang Fuk Court housing deadly fire in Tai Po, in Hong Kong, China, December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Firefighters look out of the gate of Sha Tin Fire Station as people continue to bring flowers to pay their respect to deceased firefighter Ho Wai-ho, who died during the Wang Fuk Court housing deadly fire in Tai Po, in Hong Kong, China, December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Family members leave after paying their respects at a memorial ceremony for victims of the deadly fire at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in Tai Po, in Hong Kong, China, December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

A firefighter carries a bouquet past a pile of flowers, which were brought by people to pay respect to deceased firefighter Ho Wai-ho, who died during the Wang Fuk Court housing deadly fire in Tai Po, next to Sha Tin Fire Station in Hong Kong, China, December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov REFILE - CORRECTING LOCATION OF THE FIRE STATION FROM "TAI PO" TO "HONG KONG"

Hong Kong's leader said on Tuesday a judge-led committee will investigate the cause of the city's deadliest fire in decades and review government oversight of building renovations blamed for fanning a blaze that killed at least 151 people.

Police have arrested 13 people for suspected manslaughter in a criminal inquiry into last week's tragedy, and 12 people have also been arrested in a corruption probe. It is unclear if any of those people were arrested on both counts.

Authorities have pointed to substandard plastic mesh and insulation foam used during renovation works at Wang Fuk Court for fuelling a blaze that quickly spread to seven high-rise towers, home to more than 4,000 people.

Family members leave after paying their respects at a memorial ceremony for victims of the deadly fire at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in Tai Po, in Hong Kong, China, December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

"In order to avoid similar tragedies again, I will set up a judge-led independent committee to examine the reason behind the cause and rapid spreading (of the fire) and related issues," John Lee, Hong Kong's chief executive, told a news conference.

Investigators have combed all but two of the seven burnt-out towers, finding bodies of residents in stairwells and on rooftops, trapped as they tried to flee the flames. Around 30 people are still missing.

Firefighters look out of the gate of Sha Tin Fire Station as people continue to bring flowers to pay their respect to deceased firefighter Ho Wai-ho, who died during the Wang Fuk Court housing deadly fire in Tai Po, in Hong Kong, China, December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Some groups in the Chinese-ruled city have called for more transparency and accountability, amid warnings from authorities that any attempts to politicise the disaster would be severely punished.

Firefighters gather next to the entrance to Sha Tin Fire Station as people continue to bring flowers to pay their respect to deceased firefighter Ho Wai-ho, who died during the Wang Fuk Court housing deadly fire in Tai Po, in Hong Kong, China, December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

A student from one of the groups was detained and later released on bail, and local media reported two others are being investigated for possible sedition. Police have not commented on the cases.

"I will not tolerate any crimes, particularly crimes that exploit the tragedy that we are facing now," Lee said, when asked about the cases. He did not comment on the specifics.

International rights groups have said the incidents demonstrate attempts by the government to suppress criticism.

Family members leave after paying their respects at a memorial ceremony for victims of the deadly fire at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in Tai Po, in Hong Kong, China, December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

"It's crucially important not to treat those demanding answers for the tragic fire as criminals," said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

China's national security office has warned individuals against using the disaster to "plunge Hong Kong back into the chaos" of 2019, when massive pro-democracy protests challenged Beijing and triggered a political crisis.

Legislative elections due to take place on Sunday will go ahead as planned, Lee said.

Turnout for the election - in which only candidates screened by the government as "patriots" can run - could serve as a barometer of public frustration over the handling of the fire.

Family members pay their respects at a memorial ceremony for victims of the deadly fire at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in Tai Po, in Hong Kong, China, December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Fire risks

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 renovations, the city's Labour Department said.

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

Tests on several samples of mesh on the buildings at the time of the blaze did not match fire-retardant standards, officials overseeing the investigations told a news conference on Monday.

People offer flowers for the victims near the site of a deadly fire at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories on Tuesday, Dec 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Contractors working on the renovations used these substandard materials in hard-to-reach areas, effectively hiding them from inspectors, Chief Secretary Eric Chan said.

Foam insulation used by contractors also fanned the flames and fire alarms at the complex were not working properly, officials have said.

Thousands of the city's residents have paid tribute to the victims, who include nine domestic helpers from Indonesia and one from the Philippines.

Vigils are also due to take place this week in Tokyo, Taipei and London.

A funeral parlour in central Hong Kong held a memorial on Tuesday to mark the seventh day since the deadly fire, a Chinese custom known as soul return day.

Family members pay their respects at a memorial ceremony for victims of the deadly fire on Wednesday at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in Tai Po, in Hong Kong, China, December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Lam Yik

Hundreds prayed, wept, and made lotus-shaped paper offerings, a symbol of spiritual rebirth in mourning rituals.

"I hope that...people can release whats in their hearts. That way, it will be easier for all of us to move forward in life," said Bryan Kam, general manager of the Kowloon funeral parlour.

Search moves to worst-affected buildings

The remaining buildings being scoured for remains are the worst damaged and the search may take weeks, authorities have said.

Images shared by police showed officers clad in hazmat suits, face masks and helmets, inspecting rooms with blackened walls and furniture reduced to ashes, and wading through water used to douse fires that raged for days.

People make offerings during a Tibetan religious ceremony near the site of a deadly fire at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Residents who escaped the blaze must now try to get their lives back on track.

Nearly 1,500 people have been moved out of evacuation centres into temporary housing, with a further 945 put up in youth hostels and hotels, authorities said.

Family members pay their respects at a memorial ceremony for victims of the deadly fire on Wednesday at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in Tai Po, in Hong Kong, China, December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Lam Yik

More than 60 pets, including 34 cats, 12 dogs and seven turtles, perished in the fire, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said. More than 200 were rescued.

(Reporting by Clare Jim, Donny Kwok, Jessie Pang, Joyce Zhou and Mei Mei Chu in Hong Kong; Writing by John Geddie; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Lincoln Feast)
Pop singer Sabrina Carpenter and the publisher of the beloved childrens character Franklin the Turtle have condemned the Trump administrations use of their music and imagery to support its agenda.

Responding to the use of her song Juno in a video montage depicting Ice raids, Carpenter tweeted on Tuesday: This video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.
Band of brothers: how the war with Russia crushed a cohort of young Ukrainian recruits

Out of a group of men who enlisted in March to help refresh depleted ranks, none of the 11 are still fighting

Pavlo Broshkov, in his apartment as he recovers from his battlefield wounds, in Odesa, Ukraine. Photo: Reuters

Anastasiia Malenko Reuters Tue 2 Dec 2025 at 06:30

Pavlo Broshkov had high hopes when he joined the Ukrainian army in March as a fresh-faced recruit eager to defend his country and earn a bumper bonus to buy a home for his wife and baby daughter.
Nato is considering pre-emptive action against Russia following a string of hybrid attacks on Europe, a senior official in the alliance has warned.

Italian Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, who serves as chair of the Nato Military Committee, said the alliance may need to adopt a more aggressive approach to deter Moscow from continuing its campaign of drone incursions and cyber attacks in Europe.
Israeli PM back at corruption trial after asking for presidents pardon

US president Donald Trump has invited Israels Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House in the near future, the prime ministers office said yesterday, shortly after he appeared in court for the first time since asking the countrys president for a pardon in his corruption trial, a request backed by Mr Trump.
The White House said yesterday a navy admiral ordered a second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea and insists that a September attack that has come under bipartisan scrutiny was lawful.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt offered a justification for the September 2 strike after lawmakers from both parties on Sunday announced support for congressional reviews of US military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, citing a published report that defence secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for a second strike that killed survivors on the boat in that incident.
Karnataka Menstrual Leave Order: Introduction of Mandatory Paid Leave for Women Employees

Karnatakas new menstrual leave policy introduces one day of paid monthly leave for women employees and reshapes compliance expectations for companies. The policys broad applicability, legal implications, and operational impact signal an important shift in workplace welfare standards.

Indias southern state of Karnataka now mandates one day of paid menstrual leave per month for women employees between the ages of 18 and 52. The regulation applies to permanent, contractual, and outsourced workers across establishments registered under the Factories Act, Karnataka Shops and Establishments Act, Plantation Workers Act, Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act, and Motor Transport Workers Act, bringing most major industrial and service sectors under mandate.

With this move, Karnataka positions itself as one of the first Indian states to introduce a statewide menstrual leave entitlement for the private sector, signaling a shift in how workplaces address womens health and welfare.

As companies navigate this change, the new mandate sets the stage for wider discussions on workplace inclusivity, regulatory clarity, and the future of womens health policies in India.

Scope and applicability

The Karnataka Menstrual Leave Policy, effective from November 12, 2025, extends to women working across a broad spectrum of industries and employment categories, such as the following:

Factories Shops and commercial establishments Plantations Transport undertakings Beedi and cigar manufacturing units IT/ITES companies Garment and manufacturing units Multinational corporations Government departments Contractual, outsourced, and temporary roles

Instead of creating a new sector-specific rule, the policy coverage ensures that both formal and semi-formal sectors benefit from the mandate. The state government has set out clear eligibility conditions and a straightforward entitlement structure.

One paid menstrual leave day per month

Women employees are entitled to one paid menstrual leave day each month, totaling 12 days per year. This leave is additional to existing statutory or contractual leave benefits unless modified by future government notifications.

No eligibility conditions

The policy does not require a minimum tenure, medical documentation, or disclosure of personal health details. Every woman employee can avail the leave as needed.

Non-accumulative leave structure

The menstrual leave is strictly non-carry forward, emphasizing its monthly use and preventing accumulation for future periods.

Exclusivity to women employees

The leave benefit applies exclusively to women. Male employees, including those wishing to support a partner or family member experiencing menstrual discomfort, are not covered.

Emphasis on privacy and dignity

Organizations must ensure that women can apply for this leave without:

Disclosing medical reasons

Facing intrusive questions

Experiencing stigma or workplace discomfort

Employee privacy remains central to the policys spirit.

Also Read: Payroll Processing in India for Expat and Local Employees

Policy coverage limitations

The Karnataka Menstrual Leave Policy is projected to benefit approximately 350,000-400,000 women employed in the states formal sector. However, it excludes nearly six million women working in the informal economy as domestic workers, daily-wage earners, gig workers, and other unorganized roles. Industry experts note that the policys long-term societal impact will depend on whether similar protections are eventually extended to these underserved groups.

Moreover, the state government order does not define:

Penalties for non-compliance

Inspection or audit procedures

Documentation or reporting requirements

Specific role and oversight powers of the state labor department

This lack of operational guidance introduces compliance uncertainty for employers, particularly those managing large, multi-location, or shift-intensive workforces. Additional state-issued rules or clarifications will be necessary to ensure consistent and reliable implementation across industries.

Implications for employers and HR operations

The Karnataka Menstrual Leave Policy requires employers to make coordinated adjustments across policy, systems, and workforce management. Companies must revise their leave structures, update employee handbooks, and configure HRMS (Human Resource Management System) tools to incorporate menstrual leave as a distinct category. Since the entitlement applies to all worker groups, including outsourced and contractual staff, organizations will also need to review vendor agreements and clarify shared compliance responsibilities.

Ensuring privacy and a respectful process will be central to implementation. Employers should establish confidential, streamlined procedures for leave requests and limit access to sensitive information. Low-disclosure or auto-approval mechanisms may be appropriate in certain environments. Manager sensitization will play a critical role in preventing bias, reducing discomfort, and supporting non-discriminatory decision-making.

Operationally, the policy may influence staffing models, particularly in sectors dependent on continuous or shift-based operations such as manufacturing, logistics, retail, and hospitality.

CLICK HERE: Leave Management in India: Key Considerations for Employers and Employees

Impact on Indias labor law framework

Despite existing gaps, the policy is widely recognized as a significant milestone in labor regulation, making Karnataka the first Indian state to extend menstrual leave to the entire private sector, regardless of job type, industry classification, or contract arrangement. This broad applicability positions the state as a frontrunner in gender-sensitive workplace policy.

Menstrual leave provisions exist in several countries, including Spain, Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia, reflecting a growing global recognition of menstrual health needs.

Within India, Bihar and Odisha offer two days of menstrual leave per month to government employees, while Kerala extends the benefit to university and ITI students. Karnatakas policy builds on these precedents by offering an additional paid leave day across both public and private sectors.

What companies should do next

In the near term, employers in Karnataka should update their leave frameworks, reconfigure HR systems, reinforce privacy safeguards, and ensure alignment with staffing partners. Staying alert to forthcoming state guidance will be important as procedural and enforcement parameters evolve.

Over the medium term, companies should integrate the policy into broader workforce and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) strategies. Manager training, clear internal messaging, and proactive communication efforts will support consistent implementation and reduce concerns about misuse or uneven application.

Outlook

Karnatakas decision is likely to influence policy conversations across India, especially as it becomes one of the first states to mandate menstrual leave for the private sector at scale. This may prompt neighboring states to consider similar measures or spark a national dialogue on establishing a uniform framework for menstrual health in the workplace. Early implementation experiences in Karnataka will play a pivotal role in shaping future regulatory design.

Although some operational and enforcement details remain undefined, companies that move early to implement the policy will be better prepared for future regulatory clarity. A proactive approach, supported by well-trained managers, confidential processes, and responsive communication, can enhance organizational culture, employee trust, and overall compliance readiness.

(With inputs from Archana Rao.)




Why the MRI was conducted and what triggered the debate According to the memo issued by Captain Sean Barbabella, Trumps White House physician, the President underwent what he described as a comprehensive executive physical in October. The evaluation included advanced MRI imaging focused on cardiovascular and abdominal health, which Barbabella said was standard for men in Trump's age group.



President Trump remains the MOST ACCESSIBLE, energetic President in history.  pic.twitter.com/2Lcc4Kqsd0







 The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 1, 2025 The White House has released a detailed medical memo summarising President Donald Trumps MRI results after increasing questions about his health, age and recent public appearances. The release comes a week after a major American newspaper raised concerns over visible signs of wear and suggested Americans were seeing less of the 79-year-old President in public.According to the memo issued by Captain Sean Barbabella, Trumps White House physician, the President underwent what he described as a comprehensive executive physical in October. The evaluation included advanced MRI imaging focused on cardiovascular and abdominal health, which Barbabella said was standard for men in Trump's age group.

What the White House and Trumps doctor said about the results

President Donald J. Trump's Advanced Imaging Results:









"His cardiovascular system shows excellent health... and confirms that he remains at excellent overall health."









 Capt Sean P. Barbabella, D.O.







Physician to the President pic.twitter.com/WJxdZEBUFS







 The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 1, 2025









.@PressSec nukes Fake News @katierogers and her story trying to claim @POTUS is unfit for office.









She's the same reporter who wrote this story: "Biden Declared 'Healthy' and 'Vigorous' After His First Presidential Physical"  pic.twitter.com/MXG2EjheEd







 Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) December 1, 2025











Political reactions and why the release became necessary Pressure to disclose the MRI results had been growing in recent weeks. Several Democrats, including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, questioned Trumps mental sharpness and overall health. Trumps uncertain answer aboard Air Force One, when he could not recall which body part had been scanned, also increased scrutiny. It wasnt the brain, he told reporters, adding that he had taken a cognitive test and aced it.



The White House had been criticised earlier for not explaining why an MRI was needed during Trumps October physical. In response, Barbabella clarified that the imaging was preventive and intended to identify any potential concerns early to ensure the President maintained long-term health and function.



The memo now publicly outlines Trumps MRI findings, providing a detailed medical response to recent speculation surrounding the Presidents health. Pressure to disclose the MRI results had been growing in recent weeks. Several Democrats, including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, questioned Trumps mental sharpness and overall health. Trumps uncertain answer aboard Air Force One, when he could not recall which body part had been scanned, also increased scrutiny. It wasnt the brain, he told reporters, adding that he had taken a cognitive test and aced it.The White House had been criticised earlier for not explaining why an MRI was needed during Trumps October physical. In response, Barbabella clarified that the imaging was preventive and intended to identify any potential concerns early to ensure the President maintained long-term health and function.The memo now publicly outlines Trumps MRI findings, providing a detailed medical response to recent speculation surrounding the Presidents health.

The timing of the MRI drew public attention after The New York Times reported that Trump appeared less frequently in public and sometimes seemed tired during appearances. The newspaper also highlighted that Trump had recently used makeup to conceal a bruise on the back of his right hand. His aides explained the mark as a result of aspirin use and frequent handshakes.In previous months, social media users had circulated photos showing swelling in Trumps ankles and bruising on his hand, fuelling speculation about his medical condition. Earlier in July, the White House had confirmed that he had chronic venous insufficiency, a vein disorder that can cause leg swelling.In the memo shared this week, Barbabella stated that the MRI results were perfectly normal. The physician wrote that the imaging found no signs of arterial narrowing, no abnormalities in the hearts structure, and no issues affecting blood flow. The vessel walls, he noted, appeared smooth, without inflammation or clotting.Barbabella also confirmed that the abdominal scan showed all major organs functioning within normal limits. He emphasised that there were no acute or chronic concerns based on the imaging.The White House said the memo was released in the interest of transparency, adding that Trump remains in excellent overall health. The administration further described him as the most accessible and energetic President in history.During the press briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stressed that the MRI was conducted for preventive reasons. Reading from the physicians summary, she reiterated that the results supported the assessment that Trumps cardiovascular and abdominal systems were healthy.
Musk responds to a discussion on nuclear deterrence

War is inevitable.

















5 years, 10 at most.















 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 1, 2025









No clarification from Musk leaves users guessing

( Image credit : X/elonmuskmel7 | Elon Musk has predicted that a war could break out within the next decade )

Grok offers context based on Musks earlier statements

( Image credit : XelonmuskADO | Elon Musk has once again drawn attention with a short but striking statement )

A look back at Musks earlier predictions

( Image credit : X/elonmuskADO | Musk had earlier discussed potential sources of instability )

Elon Musk has once again drawn attention with a short but striking statement about the possibility of a future global conflict. Known for making direct comments on X, the Tesla and SpaceX chief responded to an online discussion by predicting that a war could break out within the next decade. His brief reply, posted without any added context or clarification, led to widespread debate among users who tried to interpret what exactly he meant.The exchange began when an X user, Hunter Ash, commented on how nuclear weapons have shaped the behaviour of governments worldwide. The user argued that the absence of any credible threat of war between major powers had weakened governments because there was no external pressure forcing them to improve.Ash wrote, Governments all suck now because nuclear weapons prevent war, or even the credible threat of war, between major powers. So theres no external/evolutionary/market pressure on governments to not suck.Musk replied directly to this post. His message was brief: War is inevitable. 5 years, 10 at most.He did not expand on the remark, identify any specific regions, or outline the reasons behind such a prediction. The lack of detail led to speculation about what prompted the comment and whether he was referring to geopolitical conflicts, internal unrest, or something else entirely.Because Musk did not provide any explanation, many online discussions shifted toward his previous public comments on global tensions. As the head of multiple companies and a prominent online figure, his statements often circulate widely. Users pointed out that he had earlier participated in public debates about issues ranging from migration pressures in Europe to rising global security concerns.His past involvement in administrative discussionssuch as his short-lived role as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under Donald Trumpalso added weight to his comments for some followers. Still, because Musk did not elaborate this time, users were left to interpret his meaning based only on the limited words posted on X.Some users attempted to understand Musks message by asking Grok, the AI chatbot developed by xAI. Grok offered explanations based on Musks previous remarks rather than this specific post.According to Grok, Musk had earlier discussed potential sources of instability, such as internal tensions in Europe due to mass migration and identity politics, or global flashpoints involving Taiwan, Ukraine and other geopolitical rivalries.Grok stated that Musk had not identified any particular conflict in this latest post, but it linked the idea to Musks earlier warnings about possible crises, noting that they could range from civil conflict within countries to disputes between major powers.While neither Musk nor the original thread directly named any expected conflict, the reference to nuclear deterrence revived conversations about how these weapons influence the decisions of governments and the risks if deterrence were ever to fail.This is not the first time Musk has made a public comment about the possibility of conflict. In August 2024, during a period of anti-immigration riots in the United Kingdom, he had stated on X that a civil war is inevitable.That remark had been made while replying to a post linking the unrest to mass migration and open border policies. The protests at the time had resulted in damage to public buildings, vehicles being set on fire and clashes with police.The UK Prime Ministers office had responded to Musks statement back then, saying, Theres no justification for that.His latest comment, however, is broader. Unlike his 2024 remark, which referenced a specific situation, the new prediction gives no indication of the location or nature of the conflict.With no added clarification from Musk, the meaning behind his prediction remains open to interpretation. What has followed is renewed debate about global tensions, nuclear deterrence and how Musks online remarks continue to influence public discussion.
Dhurandhar

Jodhaa Akbar

( Image credit : Jio Studios | Ranveer Singh and Sar Arjun )

Dhurandhar runtime

Dhurandhar Part 1

Jodhaa Akbar

LOC Kargil

Lagaan

Salaam-E-Ishq

Mohabbatein

Dhurandhar

Major Mohit Sharmas brother speaks out on Dhurandhar row after Delhi HC rejects stay

Dhurandhar

( Image credit : Jio Studios | Ranveer Singh and Sara Arjun during song shoot )

Dhurandhar

Ranveer Singhs upcoming filmis making headlines not just for its star power, but also for its epic runtime. Clocking in at over three hours, the film is set to become one of the rare modern Hindi movies to exceed the three-hour mark, marking the first major Bollywood release to do so sincein 2008. Fans are already buzzing about what promises to be a grand cinematic experience.According to Bollywood Hungama,is reportedly around 3 hours and 32 minutes long, positioning it to become the longest Bollywood release in nearly 17 years. It is set to surpass Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchans(2008), which currently holds the record with a runtime of 3 hours and 34 minutes.In modern Bollywood, only a select few films have crossed the three-hour mark, making such extended runtimes a rarity. Notable examples include(2003) at 4 hours and 7 minutes,(2001) at 3 hours and 44 minutes,(2007) at 3 hours and 36 minutes, and(2000) at 3 hours and 35 minutes. These films are celebrated not only for their epic storytelling but also for their ability to maintain audience engagement over lengthy durations.Withnearing the 3.5-hour mark, it is poised to join this exclusive league of Bollywood epics, sparking anticipation among audiences eager to see if the films narrative, performances, and scale can live up to its monumental runtime.The family of the late Major Mohit Sharma had approached the Delhi High Court seeking a stay on the release of, claiming the film seems to be inspired by his life. After the court refused to grant a stay, Mohit Sharmas brother, Madhur Sharma, spoke to Hindustan Times about the issue. He noted that since the film was announced, social media and several prominent media outlets have drawn comparisons to his brother. Madhur clarified that the family is not seeking any personal benefit but only wants the producers to provide clarity. He added that their appeal is meant to foster empathy for families who have lost loved ones in military operations. If the film is based on him, just say, Sorry maam, we didnt inform you. If not, confirm that the claims are untrue, he said.starring Ranveer Singh, Arjun Rampal, Sara Arjun, R Madhavan and others is all set to release on 5th December 2025.
Kerala lottery result today , December 2, 2025 OUT:

Kerala Sthree Sakthi SS-496 winning numbers, December 2, 2025

1st Prize

2nd Prize

3rd Prize

Consolation Prize

4th Prize:

4th Prize

5th Prize

6th Prize:

7th Prize:

8th Prize:

9th Prize:

How to claim your Kerala lottery prize for December 2, 2025?

Kerala lottery result today live 3 pm: Upcoming Kerala lottery draws

Dhanalekshmi DL-29:

Karunya Plus KN-600:

Suvarna Keralam SK-30:

Karunya KR-733:

Kerala lottery result today live: What time are Sthree Sakthi SS-496 results published?

FAQs

1. What is todays Kerala lottery result?

A:

2. Where can I check the Kerala Sthree Sakthi SS-496 winning numbers?

A:

3. How can I claim my Kerala lottery prize for December 2, 2025?

A:

4. What is the last date to claim the Kerala lottery prize?

A:

5. What upcoming Kerala lottery draws are scheduled after Sthree Sakthi SS-496?

A:

Disclaimer:

Kerala Lottery Result today, December 2, 2025, for the Sthree Sakthi SS-496 lucky draw has been announced. The draw took place at 3 pm at Gorky Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram. This weekly lottery offers exciting cash prizes, with the first prize being Rs 1 crore, the second prize Rs 30 lakh, and the third prize Rs 5 lakh.Lottery participants eagerly await the official list of winning numbers published by the Kerala Government, and winners are advised to verify their tickets and claim their prizes within the stipulated time.The Kerala Sthree Sakthi SS-496 lottery draw for December 2, 2025, was held at Gorky Bhavan, Thiruvananthapuram. The first prize is Rs 1 crore, the second prize Rs 30 lakh, and the third prize Rs 5 lakh. The official winning numbers have been announced and winners can check the full list of winning ticket numbers starting from 3 PM.Prize claim instructions include submitting the original ticket and relevant documents to designated lottery offices within 90 days. Smaller prizes up to Rs 5,000 can be claimed from any Kerala lottery shop.The winning numbers for the Sthree Sakthi SS-496 draw for December 2, 2025 include:Rs. 1 CRORE jackpot winning number - SA 249255Rs. 30,00,000 winning number: SD 223762Rs. 5 LAKH winning number: SH 336587Rs. 5,000 winning numbers: SB 249255 SC 249255 SD 249255 SE 249255 SF 249255 SG 249255 SH 249255 SJ 249255 SK 249255 SL 249255 SM 249255Rs. 5,000: TBURs 5,000 winning numbers: 0049 0895 1596 2407 2434 3156 5248 5863 5906 6175 6552 7121 7151 7326 7800 8232 8344 8426 8932Rs. 2000 winning numbers: 0451 3341 4874 6383 8099 82Rs 1,000: 0108 0169 0289 0817 0883 1180 2080 2247 2790 2808 3322 3782 4182 4493 4725 6013 6269 6678 7186 8130 8176 9243 9506 9902 9922Rs 500: 0086 0190 0230 0281 0287 0459 1062 1493 1511 1529 1541 1738 2053 2091 2197 2300 2448 2587 2732 2806 2887 2915 3229 3300 3400 3685 3735 3753 3799 3804 3859 4126 4241 4272 4431 4465 4719 4792 5075 5095 5153 5300 5320 5325 5393 5496 5503 5634 5699 5752 5915 5951 6194 6227 6404 6587 6858 6871 6936 7270 7937 8040 8107 8221 8266 8527 8802 8858 9026 9101 9277 9366 9431 9473 9848 9868Rs 200: 0040 0126 0137 0237 0361 0400 0470 0614 0664 0848 1302 1469 1492 1509 1532 1543 1611 1726 1747 1880 1888 1903 2098 2232 2360 2361 2443 2663 2833 2884 2949 3111 3125 3209 3333 3408 3542 3909 3958 3975 4194 4209 4348 4375 4495 4523 4534 4598 4984 5125 5417 5817 5851 5967 6093 6234 7113 7198 7214 7221 7278 7279 7499 7619 7625 7639 7641 7711 7741 7774 7778 7873 7893 7956 8069 8078 8145 8187 8246 8247 8664 8704 8811 8917 8951 9074 9141 9529 9801 9953Rs 100: 0004 0058 0174 0236 0239 0413 0465 0490 0513 0546 0550 0566 0630 0839 0891 0984 1047 1336 1351 1357 1358 1439 1538 1551 1607 1670 1677 1798 1979 2016 2051 2076 2103 2133 2189 2193 2252 2278 2280 2345 2592 2836 2958 3009 3033 3140 3167 3181 3251 3258 3328 3329 3367 3397 3458 3478 3533 3552 3553 3559 3738 3789 3854 3869 4045 4143 4190 4207 4292 4464 4538 4579 4613 4619 4637 4697 4851 4978 4998 5004 5130 5154 5175 5295 5306 5498 5508 5583 5694 5770 5838 5893 6076 6179 6232 6242 6386 6444 6464 6469 6505 6513 6821 6946 6955 7054 7116 7150 7196 7254 7328 7432 7449 7548 7587 7696 7706 7756 7858 7881 7971 8264 8270 8295 8297 8396 8407 8423 8439 8447 8510 8615 8618 8767 8773 8841 8853 8918 8974 9035 9116 9162 9306 9325 9436 9531 9712 9834 9890 9918To claim your Kerala lottery prize for the December 2, 2025 Sthree Sakthi SS-496 draw, follow these steps:Verify your ticket against the official Kerala lottery results to confirm you have a winning number.Sign your name and write your address on the back of the original winning ticket to prevent misuse.For prizes up to 5,000, collect your prize directly from any authorized Kerala lottery agent.For prizes above 5,000 and up to 1 lakh, submit your ticket and claim form at the District Lottery Office in Kerala.For prizes exceeding 1 lakh, submit your claim in person to the Directorate of State Lotteries, Thiruvananthapuram, along with necessary documents.Required documents include the original signed ticket, a filled claim form, photo ID proof (Aadhaar, PAN, voter ID, etc.), two passport-sized photos, and PAN card details for tax processing.Submit your claim within 30 days of the draw date; late claims may be disqualified.Prizes above 10,000 are subject to a 30% tax deduction before payment.Higher prize payments are made via crossed cheque or bank transfer; provide your bank account details including IFSC code.Keep photocopies of all documents and the acknowledgment receipt from the lottery office for your records.The upcoming Kerala lottery draws after the December 2, 2025, Sthree Sakthi SS-496 draw are:December 3, 2025December 4, 2025December 5, 2025December 6, 2025 Samrudhi SM-32: December 7, 2025The Kerala Sthree Sakthi SS-496 lottery results for December 2, 2025, are published live starting at 3:00 PM. The draw is held at Gorky Bhavan, Thiruvananthapuram, and the official PDF result is released by the Kerala State Lotteries Department around 4:00 PM.Winners can check their ticket numbers from 3 PM onwards as the live update begins.The Kerala Lottery Result for Sthree Sakthi SS-496 has been declared on December 2, 2025. The draw was held at 3 PM in Gorky Bhavan, Thiruvananthapuram, with the first prize worth 1 crore, second prize 30 lakh, and third prize 5 lakh.The official winning numbers are available on the Kerala State Lotteries Department website, and the result PDF is released around 4 PM. The list can also be checked at authorized Kerala lottery shops.To claim your prize, verify your ticket, sign it, and submit it with documents like ID proof, PAN card, photos, and the original ticket. Small prizes up to 5,000 can be claimed at agents, while higher prizes must be claimed at the District Lottery Office or the Directorate of State Lotteries.Winners must claim their prize within 30 days of the draw date, i.e., before November 6, 2025. Claims submitted after this period will not be accepted.The upcoming draws are Dhanalekshmi DL-68 on October 8, Karunya Plus KN-640 on October 9, Suvarna Keralam SK-69 on October 10, Karunya KR-772 on October 11, and Samrudhi SM-70 on October 12, 2025.The above mentioned data is based on information available from official online sources. We do not endorse or promote any lottery or Teer games. Please play responsibly and verify results through official channels.
Mandatory pre-installation and app functionalities

( Image credit : AI generated for representational purpose | India has directed all smartphone makers to pre-install the Sanchar Saathi app )

Privacy concerns and broad permissions

( Image credit : AI generated for representational purpose | India has directed all smartphone manufacturers to pre-install its state-run cybersecurity app )

Telecom security benefits and industry challenges

( Image credit : AI generated for representational purpose | Sanchar Saathis privacy policy allows it to make and manage calls )

India has directed all smartphone manufacturers to pre-install its state-run cybersecurity app, Sanchar Saathi, on new devices. The order, passed last week but made public on Monday, requires companies to comply within 90 days. The government says this step is necessary to help citizens verify device authenticity and report misuse of telecom resources, but cyber experts have raised concerns about privacy and surveillance.The new directive stipulates that Sanchar Saathi must be readily visible and accessible to users during device setup. Its functionalities cannot be disabled or restricted. The app allows users to check the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI), report lost or stolen phones, and flag suspected fraud communications. IMEI is a unique 15-digit code that identifies a mobile device on cellular networks and essentially acts as its serial number.The government notes that duplicate or spoofed IMEI numbers pose serious endangerment to telecom cybersecurity. According to the Department of Telecommunications, Indias large second-hand phone market has seen cases where stolen or blacklisted devices are resold, which can make purchasers unwitting accomplices and result in financial loss.For phones already manufactured but unsold, smartphone makers are expected to provide the app via software updates. Companies must submit compliance reports within 120 days.Sanchar Saathis privacy policy allows it to make and manage calls, send messages, access call and message logs, photos, files, and the phones camera. Advocacy group Internet Freedom Foundation commented, In plain terms, this converts every smartphone sold in India into a vessel for state mandated software that the user cannot meaningfully refuse, control, or remove.While Minister of Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia said users can delete the app if they wish, he did not clarify how this is possible given that its functions cannot be disabled or restricted.On Google Play Store, the app claims it does not collect or share user data. The Department of Telecommunications has not provided further clarification on privacy concerns.The government claims the app has already aided in recovering over 700,000 lost phones, including 50,000 in October alone. Officials say this move will strengthen telecom cybersecurity across Indias mobile network, which serves more than 1.2 billion users.However, compliance may be challenging for smartphone makers, as the order conflicts with typical industry practices. Most companies, including Apple, prohibit pre-installation of government or third-party apps before sale. Apple controls roughly 4.5% of Indias 735 million smartphones as of mid-2025, according to Counterpoint Research, and Reuters reports that Apple plans to raise its concerns with Delhi rather than comply.Android devices dominate Indias market, which means the app will reach a significant portion of users. Similar regulations have appeared elsewhere, such as Russias August order requiring phones and tablets to come with the state-backed MAX messenger app, which also raised privacy concerns.Indias move to make Sanchar Saathi mandatory on new smartphones aims to secure telecom networks and aid consumers, but the broad permissions granted to the app and the method of enforcement have prompted debate about privacy and user control.
Kim Ju Ae's public appearance

 North Korea recently celebrated the 80th anniversary of its Air Force with the participation of the brilliant comrade and genius among geniuses in military strategy, Kim Jong Un.







With him was his daughter, the crown princess of North Korea, Kim Ju E, who is likely being pic.twitter.com/xk3Oq3pRns





 Visioner (@visionergeo) December 1, 2025





Kim Jong Un successor in training

( Image credit : X/@TheImmortal007 | Kim Jong Un's daughter, Kim Ju Ae, seen at missile test, fueling succession speculation. )

North Korea military display: Symbolism behind Kim Ju Ae appearance

( Image credit : X/@thandojo | Kim Ju Ae stands at the center of North Korea's future during Wonsan air force 80th anniversary ceremony. )

Kim Ju Ae and North Korea dynasty : Social media buzz

North Korea succession and Kim Ju Ae's future

A wave of speculation swept across the world last week when Kim Jong Un's daughter, Kim Ju Ae, appeared at a high-profile North Korean event, capturing attention for more than just the missiles on display. Analysts suggest her presence was a subtle signal of succession planning, as well as a calculated move in North Korea's diplomatic choreography.Kim Ju Ae, believed to be around 12 or 13, made her first public appearance in months during the Wonsan military spectacle. Wearing sunglasses and a black leather coat that mirrored her father's, she drew immediate attention. Air force pilots saluted her in footage aired by Korean Central Television, though state media referred to her only as "the respected child."Observers interpreted her presence as a subtle introduction to North Korea's next generation of leadership, though officials and analysts warned against overreading the symbolism.According to analysts, succession in North Korea typically unfolds in three stages: education and grooming, secret nomination, and eventual public acknowledgment. Kim Ju Ae's limited visibility suggests she remains in the first stage. Analysts say her appearances, including a previous trip to Beijing, were carefully timed to introduce her gradually to domestic and international audiences.The Wonsan air force ceremony, officially marked the 80th anniversary of the air force, doubled as a strategic display. Analysts believe it reinforced Kim Jong Un's image as the nation's protector while positioning Kim Ju Ae symbolically at the heart of North Korea's future.The combination of military pageantry, family symbolism, and public messaging showcased Pyongyang's careful choreography of power and diplomacy.Images of Kim Ju Ae with her father quickly circulated online, prompting discussion about her appearance and potential role in North Korea's future. Netizens, especially in South Korea, speculated whether she might eventually succeed Kim Jong Un, noting the deliberate staging and messaging behind her public appearances."Kim Ju Ae is probably the successor the reason they keep showing her.""She's grown a lot what's going to happen to North Korea?""I heard they even play Kim Jong Uns entrance music when she comes out. She's definitely the successor.""He's raised his daughter so gently.""If they want to make a woman the successor, they'd need to elevate women's status I wonder if that's possible."While largely symbolic for now, Kim Ju Ae's visibility signals continuity and stability. Analysts emphasize that her appearances reflect careful planning rather than casual family presence, blending domestic reassurance with international signaling.Her emergence marks the start of a carefully managed introduction of North Korea's next generation, combining family symbolism, military messaging, and global diplomacy.
Costco, the largest warehouse club operator in the United States, said it has been the importer of record for products affected by the tariffs, but did not provide a specific dollar amount it is seeking in damages. Read more

Wholesale retail giant Costco has sued the federal government to ensure it will receive a complete refund on import duties if the Supreme Court rules against President Donald Trumps sweeping tariffs.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York on Nov. 28 and reviewed by USA TODAY, asked the court to find Trumps use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs as unlawful.

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Costco, the largest warehouse club operator in the United States, said it has been the importer of record for products affected by the tariffs, but did not provide a specific dollar amount it is seeking in damages. The corporation noted in the filing that the suit was necessary because importers are not guaranteed to receive a refund if the high court strikes down the tariffs, unless they sue.

 READ MORE: How are Philly-area businesses handling Trumps tariffs?

Costco also claims in the lawsuit that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) denied its request to delay the calculation of the total tariffs that it owes. The lawsuit claims that Costcos ability to receive a refund will be significantly impacted if those calculations are completed.

The suit is separate from the larger case challenging Trumps tariffs that the Supreme Court heard on Nov. 5.

Other companies have sued to preserve refund rights, but the Issaquah, Washington-based retail warehouse club operator is among the largest to sue the administration so far. Others that have sought to protect tariff refunds include Bumble Bee Foods, eyeglass giant EssilorLuxottica, Kawasaki Motors, Revlon, and Yokohama Tire, court records show.

Costco and the CBP did not immediately respond to USA TODAYs requests for comment on Dec. 1.

 READ MORE: The affordability squeeze has consumers gloomy

Razor-close case

During nearly three hours of debate on Nov. 5, Supreme Court justices questioned whether Trump has the power to impose sweeping tariffs on most imports using the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Several legal experts said the justices questions reveal a lot about where they stand on Trumps policy.

Ashley Akers, a former Justice Department attorney now with the law firm Holland & Knight, previously told USA TODAY that she heard a notable skepticism from justices across the ideological spectrum.

Overall, it felt like a strong day for the tariff challengers, though it feels like this will be a razor-close case, Akers said.

Several justices were concerned that if they sided with Trump, Congress would lose control over tariffs, even though the Constitution gives that power to lawmakers, said Curtis A. Bradley, an expert on foreign relations law at the University of Chicago Law School.

Oliver Dunford, an attorney with the libertarian Pacific Legal Foundation, said the case is complicated enough without a majority of the court focusing on just one legal argument.

If I had to guess, Dunford said, Id guess that the court will rule against the president without agreeing on the reason.

The Supreme Court took the tariff case on an accelerated basis, but has not said when it will rule.

Contributing: Maureen Groppe, Bart Jansen, and Aysha Bagchi, USA TODAY; Reuters

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Costco sues US to preserve tariff refunds if Trump loses appeal

Reporting by James Powel, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
Christina Miranda was shot and killed by two Philadelphia police officers early Sunday morning, authorities said, after she held a gun to her head, then turned the weapon on the officers. Her name was released Monday morning.

Police were called just after 4 a.m. Sunday to the 900 block of West Erie Avenue, where they found Miranda, 35, with a .22-caliber handgun. The officers ordered her to drop the weapon and used a Taser on her, according to police, but she fled. As she ran, they said, she pointed the gun at the officers.

The officers fired at Miranda, striking her multiple times, according to police. She was taken to Temple University Hospital, where she later died.

The two officers involved in the shooting  both on the force for less than three years  have been placed on desk duty, as is customary, pending an investigation by the police department and the Philadelphia District Attorneys Office.
After 10 years in Rittenhouse, Revolution Taco, a fast-casual restaurant whose menu blends global influences from chorizo to Peking duck to Korean BBQ beef, plans to close early next month.

Owner Carolyn Nguyen, 41, grew the business from Street Food Philly and Taco Mondo, two stalwarts of Phillys new age food truck scene, which had its heyday from 2012 to 2016. The two trucks, which Nguyen co-owned and operated, vended regularly on 33rd Street at Drexel Universitys campus  a street once referred to as Phillys Food Truck Mecca  and at the now-defunct Night Markets, once run by The Food Trust.

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Revolution Tacos Jan. 6. closure isnt goodbye for Nguyen, who has leased the space at 2015 Walnut St. for another three years. Rather, Nguyen is returning to her roots: For the first time in her two decades of working as a chef in Philadelphia, Nguyen will be cooking the Cajun Vietnamese food of her Louisiana youth.

Also for the first time, her name will be on the door of her business. She aims to open Carolyns Modern Vietnamese within weeks of Revolution Tacos closure. It will combine my Vietnamese heritage, my Cajun upbringing, and the global flavors that Ive come to love and enjoy to cook through my career, said Nguyen.

Growing up, we always had seafood boils when crabs and crawfish were in season. They were a major part of my childhood. We ate boudin  a stuffed rice sausage with pork  lots of curries, and a lot of chicken. My family had a little chicken farm just for our relatives, with around 20 to 30 chickens, said Nguyen. As a child I had so much curry chicken, but Ill modify it a little [for the new restaurant], along with thit kho, a braised pork with egg that Ill use pork belly for. And there will be slow-cooked grits.

Nguyen speaks both English and Vietnamese with a soft but distinct Southern twang. She was born and raised in Amelia, Louisiana. Its a very small town with a population of around 2,000 people. When I lived there, around a third of the population consisted of Vietnamese people, she said.

Nguyen came to Philly in 2007, intending a visit to her sister here to be a stopover on her way to New York. But she never left and ended up attending the Arts Institute for culinary school. After graduating, she worked for Susanna Foo in Center City, and then at Nectar and Maia with Patrick and Terence Feury. When Terence went to work for Ellen Yin at Fork, she followed as a line cook from 2013 to 2014 and worked closely with Andrew Wood (now the chef at Le Virtu). He was a big part of my cooking journey, she said.

During a catering stint in the early 2010s, I was watching a lot of Food Network and The Great Food Truck Race and I knew I wanted to open one. Together with a former business partner, she leased the truck that would become Street Food Philly. The menu was a conglomeration of many influences, featuring everything from tacos to the handmade pastas Nguyen mastered at Fork.

These experiences will feed the menu at Carolyns Modern Vietnamese, where Nguyen is planning on making a curry duck with handmade gnocchi.

To cook from her roots is something Nguyen has long wanted to do, but I never felt the timing was right. Then a lot happened in my personal life and I was just like, the timing is never going to be perfect, its now or never.

And yet, perhaps Nguyens timing is perfect. Philly is having a moment where chefs, especially Southeast Asian ones in their 30s and early 40s, are reflecting on their childhoods. With restaurants like Manong, Babys Kusina, and Rice and Sambal retelling their chef-owners American upbringings  mingled with Southeast Asian flavors and ingredients  Philadelphia is primed for Nguyens story. And the Mid-Atlantic as a region may be on the cusp of a much deeper exploration of Cajun Vietnamese flavors, as chef Kevin Tien has done in D.C. with Moon Rabbit.

Nguyen returned to Louisiana last month after a many-year absence and spoke to her family about her plans. The excitement, enthusiasm, and support from family and relatives, coupled with Ellen Yins encouragement, solidified her resolve to make a change to her Rittenhouse business.

Minimal work is required to revamp Revolution Tacos existing space. The upstairs dining room will receive a paint job and new decor, and the front counter and dining area will be reconfigured for table service. Some Revolution Taco staff will remain at Carolyns Modern Vietnamese, and others will be offered positions at Revolution Tacos kiosk at the Comcast Centers concourse, which will continue to operate as Revolution Taco Express.

Revolution Taco has been my home for the past 10 years. But Im looking forward to being more creative with the food and being vulnerable with the way I cook, not knowing how people will receive it, she said.
Joanne Craig, chief impact officer for The Foundation for Delaware County, speaks at an opening event for the nonprofit's Family Village in Delaware County in November. Read more

Tonya Robertson was working one of her three jobs at a charter school in Chester when she broke down crying to a colleague: She was homeless, living in a domestic violence shelter with three children, and pregnant with twins.

Her co-workers suggested she talk to the schools counselor, who gave her a stack of applications to apply for federally funded food support, at-home prenatal nurse visits, and maternal health resources, all coordinated through The Foundation for Delaware County.

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The nonprofit has for almost a decade provided access to safety net programs such as Women, Infants, and Children, the nutrition program known as WIC; Healthy Start; and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the food program for low-income families. It also offers a menu of other support services for families, such as a program that provides at-home prenatal visits, housing assistance, legal aid, doulas, mental health resources for new mothers, and a fathers support group.

They had so many resources  things I was scared to open up my mouth about, things I didnt want to say I needed, said Robertson, 39, of Marcus Hook.

She said she wishes shed known about the organization sooner, during the years she struggled to raise her three older children as a single mother.

Now the foundation is rebranding its offerings as the Family Village, in an effort to raise awareness about the nonprofits full range of services. Foundation leaders said that in the past, people may have connected with the organization for a specific resource, such as WIC or SNAP, without learning about other programs they could benefit from. The idea of the Family Village is to make the foundations services more cohesive, wrapping around those in need.

The initiative has been years in the making, but is especially timely after the countys largest health provider, Crozer Health, closed earlier this year when its for-profit owner filed for bankruptcy. The health system had long been an anchor for Chester and the surrounding communities, providing critical access to maternity, pediatric, and mental health services.

 READ MORE: Heres Delaware Countys plan for addressing emergency response shortages following Crozers closure

Children dont come with instructions. We all need a helping hand at some point, said Joanne Craig, the foundations chief impact officer. We have this great continuum of resources for families, but from the outside looking in, it wasnt always easy to see and understand.

Filling gaps in Delaware County

The Foundation for Delaware County was formed in 2016, when the nonprofit Crozer-Keystone Health System was sold to Prospect Medical Holdings. When for-profit companies acquire nonprofit health systems, Pennsylvania law requires the nonprofit assets be set aside in an independent charity. Crozers nonprofit assets became the Foundation for Delaware County.

The foundations overarching mission is to support the health and welfare of Delaware County residents by coordinating government safety-net programs and creating its own offerings to help families in need. The foundation also provides millions of dollars in grants to nonprofits and charities to support public health, housing, and youth development.

With $53.9 million in net assets as of October, the foundation is the largest philanthropic organization in Delaware County, serving some 8,000 people a year.

Many of the foundations most used programs, such as Healthy Start, a federally funded prenatal and early childhood initiative, began before the foundation was spun out of Crozer, in response to the high infant mortality rate in Chester.

Other programs  such as one that provides cribs and safe-sleep education, and a support group for new fathers  were created in response to needs raised by families the foundation was already working with.

We found ourselves filling gaps, Craig said.

When Prospect said it would close the remaining Crozer hospitals, The Foundation for Delaware County was pressured by the cases bankruptcy judge to take on part of the companys debt to keep the hospital open until a new operator was found. The foundation shelled out $20 million to extend operations temporarily and later contributed $3 million to help former patients obtain their medical records.

The foundations new Family Village initiative cant close all the gaps Crozers closure left  the area lost its largest emergency department and maternity ward, the only 24-7 mental health crisis center, and critical pediatric care.

ChristianaCare won an auction to take over five former Crozer outpatient locations in Broomall, Media, Glen Mills, and Havertown, and has plans to open two new micro hospitals in Aston and Springfield.

Delaware County in August selected Belmont Behavioral Health to establish a new crisis response center and expand mental health services.

But Craig said she hopes the foundations new approach will help families better access resources that remain available  and that they may not have known about.

Help without judgment

Before connecting with the foundation, Robertson was skeptical of organizations and programs that offered help.

Her grandfather, for instance, berated her for enrolling in SNAP and the at-home nurse program, warning her that she could end up losing her children, if coordinators decided her home and parenting werent good enough.

Im so scared to let someone in, let them come in my house and see that my house is not up to par, see that Im struggling with this, or that I cant feed them, Robertson said.

If I cant feed them, theyre going to take my kids, and Im going to go to jail, she added.

Research has found that these fears are often justified, with social service workers deeming parents of color unfit at higher rates than white parents, and equating poverty with neglect.

Healthcare workers, social workers, and teachers are among so-called mandated reporters, who are required to report to Child Protective Services any suspicion of abuse. Only a fraction of reports are substantiated after being investigated, but they stoke fear and can dissuade families from seeking help.

But Robertson was working three jobs and still couldnt feed her family, so she filled out the forms the school counselor had given her.

Her first prenatal visits through the Nurse-Family Partnership were at the domestic violence shelter where she was living.

Robertson was proud when she was able to afford to move her family into an apartment in Chester. But her nurse told her the gaping hole in the ceiling and mold growing in the corners were unsafe. She connected Robertson with the foundations Housing Opportunities Program for Equity, which helps people secure safe housing and navigate problems with landlords.

After her twins were born, the foundations Moving Beyond Depression program helped Robertson work through postpartum depression, which may have otherwise affected her ability to work and care for her children.

Two years later, Robertson said she still faces challenges. The recent government shutdown cut off the familys food stamps, making for tough budgeting decisions earlier this month.

But now she knows where to turn for help, if the load ever becomes too heavy again.

Editors note: This story was updated with additional information on the foundations mission.
The home of longtime lawyer Bill Roberts, where books are everywhere. Read more

The estate sale of the late lawyer and bibliophile Bill Roberts, whose Rittenhouse townhouse is filled with thousands upon thousands of books and other treasures, opens to the public this week.

Roberts, a longtime lawyer at Blank Rome LLP, was a Renaissance man whose interests  and library  spanned genres and eras, touching on microeconomic theory, beekeeping, botany, classical music, poetry, and much else. When Inquirer columnist Stephanie Farr toured the Delancey Street home earlier this fall, she found books stacked on chairs, tables, carts, shelves, and piled precariously in pillars, like paperback towers of Pisa.

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 READ MORE: A Delancey Street townhouse filled with 100,000 books is a bibliophiles dream  and an epic estate sale

The contents of Roberts home were meticulously inventoried by Sales by Helen, the Main Line estate sale company, over the past few months.

Its cerebral, educated. Theres no Calvin and Hobbes books, unfortunately. As much as I love Calvin and Hobbes, said John Romani, owner of Sales by Helen.

Roughly 300 of the highest-value books are now on auction in conjunction with Briggs Auction, which will close bidding on Thursday, Dec. 4. That collection includes an atlas of Venice, works on translating Homer, and volumes on lichen, algae, and fungi, among many other topics. Romani said the Briggs books are likely to fetch thousands.

About 250 valuable nonbook items, including Roberts Hermes ties, will be available on the Sales by Helen online store beginning on Wednesday at 8 p.m.

But the real thrill, for those who wants to examine the thousands of books and other objects in-person, will begin on Thursday Dec. 4, at 2 p.m., when Roberts home will open for the estate sale. Continuing through Sunday, Dec. 7, the sale will feature books, as well as artwork, rugs, and other household items from the upscale home.

Romani said he expects to sell the vast majority of books for flat rates: $3 for paperbacks, $5 for hardbacks, $20 for coffee-table books.

The Philadelphia Rare Book Fair is also taking place around the corner from the estate sale this weekend.

Im not saying I planned it that way, but I may have looked and seen when its going to be, Romani said.

In addition to working as a lawyer, Roberts played both the lute and the violin, was a researcher on the botany team for the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University, and was president of the board of directors for the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.

When a bookstore near his home closed, he bought its huge shelves and hired a carpenter to transform his home library, The Inquirer wrote in Roberts 2024 obituary.

Youll find a little bit of everything, Romani said of the collection. Just come in, the doors open, we let everyone in. Its gonna be fun.
Highway Patrol Officer Andy Chan was seriously injured in a vehicle crash in January 2019. Read more

Andy Chan, a Philadelphia Highway Patrol officer who suffered a devastating brain injury in a motorcycle crash while on his way to work six years ago, has died.

Chan, 48, was riding through Northeast Philadelphia one evening in January 2019 when an elderly driver unintentionally struck him on the 3300 block of Rhawn Street. He was thrown about 20 feet, police said, and was critically injured.

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Chan, a 24-year veteran of the force, was in a prolonged coma and was hospitalized for weeks on a ventilator. In the years since, his injuries have required around-the-clock care, with family, friends, and colleagues in the Philadelphia Police Department regularly at his side.

The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 announced Chans death on Tuesday. The cause of death was not immediately clear.

Andy died a hero and we will always remember and honor his sacrifice, the union wrote on Facebook.

Chan, a father of three, grew up in Chinatown and had always dreamed of being a highway patrolman. His family recalled how he watched with awe when the leather-clad officers approached his parents restaurant on their motorcycles.

He decided, they said, that would be him one day.

That was the only place he strived to be in, his wife, Teng, said years ago.

After becoming a Philadelphia police officer in 1996, he was first assigned to the 39th District, working as a bike cop. Eight years later, he was promoted to the elite highway unit.

He took such pride in his work that when he walked into police headquarters, instead of yelling, Hi, he would shout, Highway!

And even when he met Teng nearly two decades ago, he introduced himself as such: Im Highway.

Chan and his partner, Kyle Cross, were among the first officers who responded to the Amtrak crash in 2015 that left eight people dead and nearly 200 injured. Cross, in an earlier interview, recalled how Chan kept his composure as he sought to rescue survivors from the wreckage.

What I remember from Andy was his poise  he stayed so calm, he really just led the way, Cross recalled. I followed his lead.

Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, in an email to the department Tuesday morning, described Chan as larger than life, not because of what he did, but because of who he was.

He was the kind of officer whose reputation reached every corner of this Department and City; not because he sought attention, but because his work, his character, and his heart made him impossible to forget. Andy represented the very best of who we are and what we aspire to be: skilled, humble, kind, and unfailingly courageous, Bethel wrote.

Andy, he said, will forever remind us of why this work matters.

Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

Since Chan was injured, police and community members have gathered each December to support his family and raise money for his recovery. Supporters will continue to gather in his honor this year, on Dec. 12 at Craft Hall at 4 p.m., for the sixth annual Andy Chan Block Party.
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras  Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez, sentenced last year to 45 years in prison for his role in a drug trafficking operation that moved hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States, was released from prison following a pardon from President Donald Trump, officials confirmed Tuesday.

Hernandez was released Monday from U.S. Penitentiary Hazelton in West Virginia, a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons told the Associated Press. The bureaus online inmate records also reflected his release.

Immediately after Trump announced his intention to pardon Hernandez, Honduras Attorney General Johel Zelaya said via X that his office was obligated to seek justice and put an end to impunity.

The release of Hernandez  a former U.S. ally whose conviction prosecutors said exposed the depth of cartel influence in Honduras  comes just days after the countrys presidential election. Trump defended the decision aboard Air Force One on Sunday, saying Hondurans believed Hernandez had been set up, even as prosecutors argued he protected drug traffickers who moved hundreds of tons of cocaine through the country.

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The pardon also unfolds against the backdrop of Trumps aggressive counter-narcotics push that has triggered intense controversy across Latin America. In recent months, U.S. forces have repeatedly struck vessels they say were ferrying drugs north, a series of lethal maritime attacks that the administration argues are lawful acts of war against drug cartels  and that critics say test the limits of international law and amount to a pressure campaign on Venezuelas President Nicolas Maduro.

The Trump administration has carried out 21 known strikes on vessels accused of carrying drugs, killing at least 83 people. The administration has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and asserted the U.S. is engaged in an armed conflict with drug cartels, similar to the war against al-Qaida following the Sept. 11 attacks.

Hernandezs wife applauds his release

Ana Garcia thanked Trump for pardoning her husband via the social platform X early Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday outside her home in Tegucigalpa, she thanked Trump for pardoning her husband and drew a parallel between the two men.

Today the whole world realizes that, like they did with President Donald Trump, the same Southern District, the same prosecutor created a political case, Garcia said.

She said Hernandez called her Monday evening to say he was in the office of the prison head and had been told he will be released. Garcia said Hernandez is in an undisclosed location for his safety, but that he plans to address the Honduran people on Wednesday.

Hernandezs attorney Renato Stabile said in an emailed statement he also would not share the former presidents current location.

Garcia said the process to seek a pardon began several months ago with a petition to the office of pardons. Then on Oct. 28, Hernandezs birthday, he wrote a letter to Trump. He announced he was pardoning Hernandez last Friday.

My husband is the president who has done the most for Honduras in the fight against organized crime, Garcia said.

Trumps rationale for the pardon

Trump was asked Sunday why he pardoned Hernandez.

I was asked by Honduras, many of the people of Honduras, Trump told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One.

The people of Honduras really thought he was set up, and it was a terrible thing, he said.

They basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country. And they said it was a Biden administration setup, Trump said. And I looked at the facts and I agreed with them.

Stabile, the attorney, said Hernandez is glad the ordeal is over.

On behalf of President Hernandez and his family I would like to thank President Trump for correcting this injustice, Stabile said.

Democratic lawmakers expressed condemnation and disbelief that Trump issued the pardon.

They prosecute him, find him guilty of selling narcotics through these cartels into the United States. Can you think of anyone more reprehensible than that? Selling drugs to this country, finding more victims by the day, said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois in a speech on the Senate floor.

This is not an action by a President trying to keep America safe from narcotics, Durbin added.

The Trump administration has declared drug cartels to be unlawful combatants and has carried out strikes in the Caribbean against boats the White House says were carrying drugs.

The case against the former president

Hernandez was arrested at the request of the United States in February 2022, weeks after current President Xiomara Castro took office.

Two years later, Hernandez was sentenced to 45 years in prison in a New York federal courtroom for taking bribes from drug traffickers so they could safely move some 400 tons of cocaine north through Honduras to the United States.

Hernandez maintained throughout that he was innocent and the victim of revenge by drug traffickers he had helped extradite to the United States.

During his sentencing, federal Judge P. Kevin Castel said the punishment should serve as a warning to well educated, well dressed individuals who gain power and think their status insulates them from justice when they do wrong.

Hernandez portrayed himself as a hero of the anti-drug trafficking movement who teamed up with American authorities under three U.S. presidential administrations to reduce drug imports.

But the judge said trial evidence proved the opposite and that Hernandez employed considerable acting skills to make it seem that he strongly opposed drug trafficking while he deployed his nations police and military to protect the drug trade.

Hernandez is not guaranteed a quick return to Honduras.

Immediately after Trump announced his intention to pardon Hernandez, Honduras Attorney General Johel Zelaya said via X that his office was obligated to seek justice and put an end to impunity.

He did not specify what charges Hernandez could face in Honduras. There were various corruption-related investigations of his administration across two terms in office that did not lead to charges against him. Castro, who oversaw Hernandezs arrest and extradition to the U.S., will remain in office until January.

The pardon promised by Trump days before Honduras presidential election injected a new element into the contest that some said helped the candidate from his National Party Nasry Asfura as the vote count proceeded Tuesday.
After 13 years at 6abc, reporter Annie McCormick is leaving the station, she announced on social media. Her last day was Monday, Dec. 1.

For our viewers, I just wanted to do the job the constitution gave us the right to do in the most fair and respectful way. I am most thankful for the everyday people who have let me into their lives on even their worst days. Ive learned my greatest life lessons from our viewers, she said in a Facebook post.

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I will continue to tell the publics stories in a variety of mediums, stay tuned, she said.

In her announcement, McCormick did not detail what her next career move will be. She said that she was grateful for her time at 6abc and was looking forward to my next chapter in journalism.

McCormick and 6abc did not respond to requests for comment.

McCormick joined 6abc in 2012 as a general assignment reporter. She began her journalism career as a White House photo intern during the Clinton administration and went on to work as a photojournalist for several outlets, including the Philadelphia Daily News.

As a television reporter, she worked in Texas, New Mexico, and Harrisburg before returning to Philadelphia. Born and raised in South Jersey, McCormick stayed local to attend Muhlenberg College.

McCormick shared in her post that she is continuing to write her latest book, Restless Ghosts, a historical true-crime story about the 1929 death of two Moorestown, N.J., socialites. It is slated for publication sometime next year.
The best way to get to the facts is to have Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other military officials involved in the boat strikes testify under oath, writes the Editorial Board. Read more

Donald Trump has been quick to post videos and brag about the heinous boat strikes on suspected drug traffickers by the U.S. military.

But now comes a report by the Washington Post that a live drone feed showed two survivors from the first attack clinging to the wreckage.

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who a year ago was working weekends at Fox News, reportedly gave a spoken directive to kill everybody.

To comply with Hegseths instructions, the Special Operations commander overseeing the attack ordered a second strike, and the two men were then blown apart in the water, according to the Post.

The initial strikes are barbaric enough and violate international law, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The second strike appears to be a war crime.

The boat strikes have been ghastly from the start. The U.S. military doesnt even know who is being summarily killed. One man was a fisherman, according to his family. The legality is shaky at best, hinging on a secret U.S. Department of Justice memo that no one in the Trump administration has been willing to publicly defend.

 READ MORE: By killing suspected drug traffickers at sea, Trumps lawlessness enters a grim new phase | Editorial

Even if the boats are carrying drugs, those on board should be arrested and prosecuted, not assassinated. The killings are akin to if the Philadelphia police decided to gun down suspected dealers standing on the corner in Kensington.

How does Trump reconcile summarily executing alleged drug runners while pardoning the former president of Honduras, who was convicted last year of taking bribes from drug cartels in return for helping to move hundreds of tons of cocaine to the U.S.?

What do the drone killings have to do with making America great, let alone making it more affordable, as Trump promised last year?

The boat strikes must stop, and Congress should conduct a full investigation before the United States loses whatever is left of its moral authority to lead the free world.

Hegseth should be fired and held accountable for any wrongdoing.

He was woefully unqualified to oversee the U.S. Department of Defense, given his lack of experience and previous allegations of excessive drinking, carousing, and financial mismanagement.

Hegseth, who called the kill order report fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory, has continued to demonstrate why he remains supremely unfit.

He previously texted classified war plans to a journalist in advance of a separate military strike  a security breach that would get other military personnel court-martialed. Hegseths purging of career military leaders without cause is making America weaker.

He initially celebrated the first boat attack. We smoked a drug boat, and theres 11 narco-terrorists at the bottom of the ocean, and when other people try to do that, theyre going to meet the same fate, Hegseth told reporters in September.

Since then, he has overseen more than 20 additional boat strikes, killing more than 80 people. In a social media post, he appeared to call the report fake news before adding, Biden coddled terrorists, we kill them.

 READ MORE: Were executing people with impunity. Why are so many of us OK with this? | Luis F. Carrasco

To underscore how unserious he is, Hegseth made light of the boat strikes by posting a mock cover of a Franklin the Turtle childrens book with a made-up title, Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists.

Trump, who handpicked Hegseth after watching him on TV, said his defense secretary told him he never gave the verbal order.

He says he didnt do it, Trump said.

That may be good enough for Trump, but it falls far short for anyone who values the truth, international law, or the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Recall Trump also shamefully sided with Vladimir Putin, a foreign adversary, who claimed he didnt interfere in the 2016 election. But a Republican-led Senate review and eight U.S. intelligence agencies found Russia meddled in the election.

At least one top Republican in Congress said American military officials might have committed a war crime in the boat strike. If that occurred, that would be very serious, and I agree that would be an illegal act, said Rep. Mike Turner (R., Ohio), who is a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Republicans and Democrats on two congressional committees promised to increase scrutiny of the boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific. Lets hope that happens soon.

The best way to get to the facts is to have Hegseth, the Special Operations commander, and other military officials involved in the boat strikes testify under oath. One benefit of recording extrajudicial killings is that there are videos and transcripts for all to see and hear.

Lets get all the facts out and hold any wrongdoers accountable. And lets end the government-sanctioned killings and return to following the law.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, left, and City Solicitor Renee Garcia, right, have said the city leaned on advice from the Hecker Fink law firm when it weighed changes to the city's contracting policies. Read more

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has said her administration relied on expert advice from a top law firm when it decided to end a Philadelphia policy prioritizing businesses owned by women or people of color in city contracting following recent court rulings that limited affirmative action-style government programs in hiring and contracting.

I call them my genius attorneys because they all clerked for Supreme Court justices, and they handle the hardest cases throughout the country, City Solicitor Renee Garcia, the citys top lawyer, recently said of the New York-based firm Hecker Fink.

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And we went back and forth, Garcia said. Can we do this? Can we do this? What about this? What about that?

 READ MORE: Philadelphia is halting the use of some diversity targets in city contracts as national DEI backlash grows

But when it came time to replace the citys old program with a new policy, the Parker administration didnt adopt all of the suggestions it received from Hecker Fink, internal administration documents obtained by The Inquirer show.

Hecker Fink attorneys suggested that Philadelphia replace its old contracting system with one that favors socially and economically disadvantaged businesses, the documents show. Parker instead created a new policy favoring small and local companies.

The differences between Parkers program and alternatives the city could have adopted are highly technical but hugely important, attorneys and researchers who study government contracting told The Inquirer.

Critics say the new policy indicates Philadelphia took the easy way out in the face of conservative legal attacks, instead of fighting to preserve the spirit of the old program: promoting equity and diversity in city contracting.

Parker, however, is adamant that her small and local policy will achieve that goal, given that many small companies in the city are owned by Black and brown Philadelphians who have faced discrimination.

Our small and local business program is our disadvantage program, Garcia said in a written statement. Considering counsels advice, the City determined that a small and local business program is the best way to incorporate social and economic disadvantage in a way that is objective, content-neutral, consistent, demonstrable, and could be stood up very quickly.

The documents, which include confidential legal memos from Hecker and internal administration emails, show how top city officials attempted to navigate a new legal landscape after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023 upended decades of jurisprudence on affirmative action and other race-conscious policies.

In early 2025, the Law Department provided a spreadsheet of line-by-line edits to the citys Five Year Plan, a long-term budgeting document, to remove language about racial and gender-equity goals submitted by city departments.

When the Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity, for instance, wrote that its mission involved advancing racial equity, the Law Department simply wrote, remove racial, as it did for several other agencies.

The edits signify a stark contrast to the citys approach under former Mayor Jim Kenney, who in 2020, operating under very different circumstances, instructed all departments to craft comprehensive racial-equity plans.

There is no indication in the internal documents, which are primarily from 2024 and 2025, that Parker, the citys first Black female mayor, or administration officials were eager to make those changes. And no city officials appeared in the documents to view the small and local policy as less aggressive or safer than the other options at Parkers disposal when she replaced the citys race-conscious contracting system.

But for Wendell R. Stemley, president of the National Association of Minority Contractors, the mayors choice was revealing.

The cities that want to cave in on this issue without doing the hard work are just doing small [and] local, race- and gender-neutral, Stemley said.

Disadvantaged vs. small and local

The documents obtained by The Inquirer show that Hecker recommended the city abandon its decades-old contracting system  responsible for allotting more than $370 million each year in city contracts to historically disadvantaged firms  due to the threat of potential legal challenges, as Parker and Garcia have said.

But they also show that the firm proposed replacing that policy with a system setting mandatory goals for hiring socially and economically disadvantaged businesses or persons, a race- and gender-neutral standard based on the federal Small Business Administrations 8(a) business development program.

 READ MORE: Mayor Cherelle Parker defends ending racial diversity goals for Philly contracts: Fighting the fight the way I know best

Like the citys contracting policies, the federal program previously had a stated policy of aiding business owners who were members of specific historically disadvantaged groups, such as women and Black people. But a 2023 federal court ruling in Washington, D.C., prohibited the SBA from presuming that members of those groups had faced barriers and required 8(a) applicants to demonstrate social and economic disadvantages.

The change allowed the program to pass legal muster by not favoring race or gender groups, while still allowing the agency to consider whether each applicant had faced discrimination on an individual basis.

Hecker, a litigation and public interest firm, suggested that Philadelphia adopt a similar approach.

Adopting mandatory goals for hiring socially or economically disadvantaged individuals or businesses, defined along the same race-neutral lines as in the SBAs 8(a) program, would likely be defensible if challenged, Hecker lawyers wrote in a May 5 memo to the city.

An internal administration memo analyzing the citys options on May 16 said that Hecker recommended taking a look at the federal SBA 8(a) Business Development Program as a model.

This is a program to recognize small and disadvantaged businesses, the citys memo said, adding that the SBA defines socially disadvantaged individuals as those who have been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice or cultural bias within American society because of their identities as members of groups and without regard to their individual qualities.

The executive order governing the citys old minority contracting program, which aimed to award 35% of contracts to historically disadvantaged firms, expired at the end of 2024, and the city quietly ended it at some point earlier this year.

Parker did not announce that the program had been discontinued or that it would be succeeded by her small and local policy until an Inquirer story published last month revealed the change.

They are different

The key difference between Parkers program and the 8(a) model is that the citys new policy gives no explicit consideration for social disadvantage, prejudice, or cultural bias.

Garcia, the city solicitor, firmly pushed back against the notion that the city had ignored Heckers advice on reshaping its contracting landscape and contended that the small and local policy will result in equitable outcomes because many of Philadelphias small businesses are owned by people of color and have faced discrimination and other barriers to growth.

The Citys small and local business program ... is more aggressive [than an SBA 8(a)-style policy] in that it is broadly applicable to small and local businesses, without creating unnecessary hurdles and confusion over the word disadvantage or requiring onerous paperwork" for business owners to demonstrate their disadvantages, she said.

Although Parkers new program is not exclusively available to disadvantaged firms, Garcia said it has built-in elements of social and economic disadvantaged programs like the SBA 8(a) and [U.S. Department of Transportation] programs, such as utilizing SBA business size standard caps, examining years in business, examining employee count, and personal net worth considerations.

But Andre M. Perry, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said that while the city may be intending to help disadvantaged businesses with its small and local approach, specifying that goal in writing is important. The mayors executive order does not use the word disadvantage.

They are different, said Perry, the author of Black Power Scorecard, an examination of access to property, education, and business success. The downside of any approach that does not use some criteria for being disadvantaged is that you can ignore them.

There is a history that suggests that you absolutely need some process to identify groups of people who have been ignored by the city. Its certainly not a given that you will touch those communities that have been denied opportunities in the past under small and local, Perry said.

Too early to tell

Parkers move to abandon the citys goal of prioritizing businesses owned by women and Black and brown people has become the latest flashpoint in the debate over the centrist Democrat mayors approach to the new political reality under President Donald Trumps second administration, as critics like progressive City Councilmember Kendra Brooks have accused her of caving to Trump.

 READ MORE: Mayor Parkers restraint with Trump is both calculation and gamble as the president escalates against blue cities

Parker, however, said the city had little choice but to end the old system following Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, a 2023 Supreme Court ruling that prohibited affirmative action in college admissions and has had widespread consequences for race-conscious government programs.

There were people who told us that leadership meant justifying the [old] law, Parker said at a recent news conference announcing the contracting policy changes. They said, Forget about the Supreme Court ruling. Philadelphia should just continue functioning and operating its program even if your Law Department and these genius lawyers at [Hecker] who have clerked for Supreme Court justices [recommended abandoning it.]

I want to take some advice from somebody to interpret the Supreme Court ruling right for some folks who have worked there.

But Parker also said she felt that the citys old system was broken long before the Harvard decision because it failed to achieve its goal of boosting the number of Black and brown and women and disabled business owners in Philadelphia.

Chief Deputy Mayor Vanessa Garrett Harley added that an administration review found that only 20% of the firms in Philadelphias registry of businesses owned by women, people of color, or people with disabilities were getting city contracts.

Parker, who as a lawmaker worked on policies aimed at boosting economic opportunities for minority- and women-owned firms, said she was optimistic that pivoting to a focus on small and local firms would produce better results.

Parker has not publicly discussed suggested alternatives to her new policy, including the 8(a)-style approach.

Several government contracting attorneys and researchers interviewed by The Inquirer said that both small and local and socially disadvantaged programs have downsides and that the success of either would primarily depend on how well it is executed. Details are scant on what the new policy will actually look like, making it difficult to evaluate the potential impact.

But experts said choosing a policy that seeks to favor disadvantaged businesses rather than any small Philadelphia firm would indicate the mayor was fighting to maintain the spirit of the old program, which sought to boost companies owned by women and people of color who have long been underrepresented among business owners and government contractors.

Adopting an 8(a)-style program with language prioritizing contracts for socially disadvantaged businesses would signal a desire to maintain the pre-2024 understanding that cities can procure goods deliberately, intentionally, in different ways, with preferences from disadvantaged businesses, said Brett Theodos, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute who has written a paper about how governments can use contracting to promote equity, despite recent court decisions. Having an (8)a-style [program] would signal that the mayor wanted to try something more.

Parker has defended her policy shift by invoking the bona fides of the Hecker attorneys who worked with the city. She and other city officials have noted that one clerked for liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and now works for the American Civil Liberty Union  not somebody who would have had a conservative mindset, as Garrett Harley put it. (Those comments later prompted the ACLU-PA to distance itself from what it described as the citys DEI rollback.)

 READ MORE: ACLU slams Mayor Parker for invoking the organizations name amid DEI rollback

To be sure, adopting a program in which contractors need to demonstrate social disadvantages, such as past instances of discrimination, has its own drawbacks.

Following the 2023 federal court decision, the SBA now requires 8(a) applicants to submit social disadvantage narratives, or essays, increasing administrative burdens and potentially favoring savvier contractors. The U.S. Department of Transportation has a similar essay-based approach.

We have heard from our businesses it is already too hard to do business in Philadelphia; these kinds of additional requirements will exacerbate an already difficult and burdensome process, Garcia said.

And despite being a race- and gender-neutral federal policy, the current 8(a) standard, which was adopted in President Joe Bidens administration, may still be challenged in court.

The lawyers at Hecker Fink, however, believed that a Philadelphia version of the policy could withstand scrutiny.

The next wave of conservative litigation in this space may target such programs, arguing that social or economic disadvantage is a proxy for race, Hecker attorneys wrote in the May 2025 memo. However, based on our assessment of the current legal landscape, the City would have a strong chance of defeating such challenges.

Like many diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives cast as discriminatory by the president, the 8(a) program has come under siege since Trump took office in January. On the agencys website, hyperlinks to guidelines on how companies can demonstrate social disadvantage have gone dead, and the Trump administration has launched an audit of the program in the wake of an alleged bribery scheme.

None of those issues, however, address the question of whether a similar policy crafted for the city would be legally defensible. Despite Trumps attacks, the current version of the 8(a) programs focus on socially disadvantaged firms has not been overturned in court.

Regina Hairston, president and CEO of the African-American Chamber of Commerce of PA, NJ, and DE, said the organization will wait and see how Parkers new policy shakes out.

Its too early to tell if the mayors policy is the right policy, but from what Ive seen across the country, other cities are moving to [prioritize] small, medium enterprises, Hairston said. We dont know if thats the answer, but we will be monitoring it.

Staff writer Anna Orso contributed to this article.
Councilman Mark Squilla speaks about the necessary steps to take to strengthen historic preservation in 2019. Read more

Historic preservation advocates are sounding the alarm about legislation from Councilmember Mark Squilla, which they argue would weaken existing protections in Philadelphia.

The bill, introduced Nov. 20, would institute changes to the citys Historical Commission, which regulates properties on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places and ensures that they cannot be demolished or their exteriors substantially altered.

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This is the first time the [preservation] ordinance has been proposed for amendment in decades, said Paul Steinke, executive director of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia. This is a developer-driven proposal that does not reflect any of the priorities of the preservation community.

Proponents of the bill argue that it is simply meant to give more notice and power to property owners before their buildings are considered by the Historical Commission.

The bill does nothing to decrease the power of the Historical Commission to protect important historic resources, said Matthew McClure, who served as co-chair of the regulatory committee of Mayor Jim Kenneys preservation task force.

It is a modest good government piece of legislation, said McClure, a prominent zoning attorney with Ballard Spahr. He emphasized that he was not speaking on behalf of a client.

The bill was introduced too late in this years Council session to receive a hearing. Squilla says it will be considered next year.

Currently, the interest group most supportive of the bill is the development industry. But even some preservation opponents are displeased with Squillas effort, arguing that it does too little for homeowners.

Everybodys talking, and I think they all agree to move forward with continued conversations to maybe tweak the language a little bit so everybody feels comfortable with it, Squilla said.

At least one more stakeholder meeting will be held in December.

Tensions over preservation

Squillas proposal comes in the midst of heightened debate around preservation in Philadelphia, where the majority of buildings were constructed before 1960.

Over the last decade, the number of historically protected properties doubled, although well below 5% of the citys buildings are covered. Preservationists oppose what they see as a demolition-first approach to development in the United States only World Heritage City.

Recently large new historic districts have been created to cover neighborhoods like Powelton Village, parts of Spruce Hill, and 1,441 properties in Washington Square West.

These have provoked backlash among some homeowner groups and pro-development advocacy organizations, which see these regulations as increasing housing costs.

Some property owners have grievances against the way the local nomination process works.

In Philadelphia, citizens are empowered to nominate buildings to the local register  giving buildings protection from demolition or exterior changes  without input from the property owner until the Historical Commission considers the case.

This practice persistently causes controversy, especially because there are few local incentives for homeowners whose properties get protected.

In some localities, preservation protections are promulgated exclusively by planners. In others, owner consent is required.

The current historic nomination process is most often dictated by nongovernmental actors who operate without notice to property owners, McClure said. The administrations bill is aimed at increasing transparency and basic fairness during the nomination process.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parkers administration did not respond to a request for comment.

Whats in the bill

Squillas bill is thick with new provisions to the local historic ordinance. A key aspect of the legislation gives property owners at least 30 days before a pending nomination of their building is considered by the commission and protections kick in.

While homeowners probably would not have time to radically alter the exterior of their house  and presumably wouldnt demolish it  preservationists fear that developers will use the extra time to begin razing historic buildings.

No one likes the notice provision the way its written; thats freaking people out, Steinke said. We made clear why we think thats a problem, and we were heard. Of course, the development community would love it to be the way its currently expressed in the bill.

The delayed provision particularly worries preservationists in combination with a proposed requirement that the commission approve permits  including demolition or exterior design work  if material commitments were made to plans before the attempt to protect the historic building.

Other provisions include language to make it more difficult to protect land because it may house archaeological remains. It also limits the ability to consider a property for protection due to its relation to a landscape architect (as opposed to, say, a building designer).

Why some preservation critics dislike the bill

One critic of Squillas bill is a new group of residents angry at the costs of preservation protections to homeowners following the creation of the Washington Square West historic district.

Despite their animus toward existing preservation rules in the city, groups like 5th Square and Philadelphians for Rational Preservation called the legislation a sop to those who least need help.

While this bill is a boon to developers, it doesnt help ordinary Philadelphians, said Jonathan Hessney of Philadelphians for Rational Preservation.

He argues that Squilla isnt curbing historic districts that burden homeowners, while at the same time risks allowing genuinely historic properties to be destroyed in the new 30-day race to demolish or deface it creates.

A possible reform that some critics of the bill would like to see are flexible, tiered historic districts, where only a select group of buildings would be fully regulated. Demolition protections would still exist for many buildings, but most would not be subjected to oversight for changes like replacing a door or window.

That was discussed as something that the preservation community would like to see that was mentioned in the original draft and then stripped out, Steinke said.

Squilla said the pushback surprised him, given that negotiations have been held since June. Hes confident a compromise can be reached.

Beyond the Preservation Alliance  the advocacy group with the most funding and pull in City Hall  the bill has caused alarm among historic activists.

It was a blindside to the progress that many stakeholders in the preservation community felt they were reaching with him, said Arielle Harris, an advocate. Squilla understands the preservation climate in the city  given that he was on the preservation task force  so this is out of left field.
The exterior of the Chalfont home. Read more

Joann Spatola and her then-husband were living in a Horsham townhouse in 1990 when builder Nicholas Braccia came to them with a proposition.

He knew of a vacant piece of land near the Chalfont pizzeria the couple owned that would be the perfect place for a contemporary home they could help design.

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Wed only been married two years, and we wanted something of our own, she said. So she and Braccia went over blueprints and basically designed the house together.

She has spent 35 years in the four-bedroom, 3-bathroom home.

But she is single now, and her kids are grown, so she is ready to downsize to an over-55 community in North Wales.

The house has good bones, she said. They dont make them like that any more.

And she is particularly sad to lose the kitchen she helped design five years ago, with its quartz countertops and stainless steel appliances. But its too much upkeep for me, she said.

The house has 2,671 square feet and is three stories, including the finished basement, which has been used as a home gym and includes a half bathroom.

The first floor has two bedrooms, a great room with a vaulted ceiling, the kitchen and dining room, and a full bathroom.

The second floor has the primary bedroom and bathroom, with the main closet in the bathroom, as well as a double-bowl vanity and sunken bath tub. There is another bedroom and bathroom on this floor. And there is a walkout attic.

The deck overlooks a large, landscaped yard with a gazebo.

All mechanicals have been updated.

The house is close to parks, schools, and shopping. It is in the Central Bucks West School District.

It is listed by David Dupell of Coldwell Banker Realty for $799,999.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Monday, Dec. 1, 2025, in Washington. Read more

WASHINGTON  The White House said Monday that a Navy admiral ordered a second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea and insists that a September attack that has come under bipartisan scrutiny was lawful.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt offered a justification for the Sept. 2 strike after lawmakers from both parties on Sunday announced support for congressional reviews of U.S. military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, citing a published report that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for a second strike that killed survivors on the boat in that incident.

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Leavitt in her comments to reporters on Monday did not dispute a Washington Post report that there were survivors after the initial strike in the incident. Her explanation came after President Donald Trump a day earlier said that he wouldnt have wanted that  not a second strike when asked about the incident.

Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes, said Leavitt, referring to U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Frank Bradley, who at the time was the commander of Joint Special Operations Command. 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.

The lawmakers said they did not know whether last weeks Post report was true, and some Republicans were skeptical. Still, they said the reports of attacking survivors of an initial missile strike posed serious legal concerns and merited further scrutiny.

This rises to the level of a war crime if its true, said Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.).

Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), when asked about a follow-up strike aimed at people no longer able to fight, said Congress does not have information that happened. He noted that leaders of the Armed Services Committee in both the House and Senate have opened investigations.

Obviously, if that occurred, that would be very serious and I agree that that would be an illegal act, Turner said.

Trump on Sunday vigorously defended Hegseth.

Pete said he did not order the death of those two men, Trump said. He added, And I believe him.

Leavitt said Hegseth has spoken with members of Congress who may have expressed some concerns about the reports over the weekend.

After the Posts report, Hegseth said Friday on X that fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland.

Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflictand approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command, Hegseth wrote.

Leavitt also confirmed that Trump later on Monday would be holding a meeting with his national security team to discuss the ongoing operations in the Caribbean Sea and potential next steps against Venezuela.

The U.S. administration says the strikes in the Caribbean are aimed at drug cartels, some of which it claims are controlled by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Trump also is weighing whether to carry out strikes on the Venezuelan mainland.

Trump on Sunday confirmed that he had recently spoken by phone with Maduro but declined to detail the conversation.

The September strike was one in a series carried out by the U.S. military in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean as Trump has ordered the buildup a fleet of warships near Venezuela, including the largest U.S. aircraft carrier.

More than 80 people have been killed the strikes on small boats that the Trump administration alleges smuggle narcotics for drug cartels.
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters while in flight on Air Force One from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., to Joint Base Andrews, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025. Read more

WASHINGTON  Donald Trumps doctor says the president had MRI imaging on his heart and abdomen in October as part of a preventative screening for men his age, according to a memo from the physician released by the White House on Monday.

Sean Barbabella said in a statement that Trumps physical exam included advanced imaging that is standard for an executive physical in Trumps age group. Barbabella concluded that the cardiovascular and abdominal imaging was perfectly normal.

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The purpose of this imaging is preventative: to identify issues early, confirm overall health, and ensure he maintains long-term vitality and function, the doctor wrote.

The White House released Barbabellas memo after Trump on Sunday said he would release the results of the scan. He and the White House have said the scan was part of his routine physical examination but had declined until Monday to detail why Trump had an MRI during his physical in October at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center or on what part of his body.

I think thats quite a bit of detail, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday when announcing the memos release.

The Republican president said Sunday during an exchange with reporters as he traveled back to Washington from Florida that the results of the MRI were perfect.

If you want to have it released, Ill release it, Trump said.

Trump added Sunday that he has no idea on what part of his body he got the MRI.

It was just an MRI, he said. What part of the body? It wasnt the brain because I took a cognitive test and I aced it.
Tang Xianzu and Shakespeare: Theater as a bridge for global cultural dialogue

14:58, December 02, 2025 By Yang Yanfei ( People's Daily

The 7th Tang Xianzu International Theater Exchange Month kicks off. (Photo/Shi Yu)

As evening descended and city lights illuminated the streets, an immersive theatrical performance unfolded in Wenchangli, Fuzhou, east China's Jiangxi province. On stage, a symbolic "dialogue across time and space" between Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu and William Shakespeare marked a highlight of the 7th Tang Xianzu International Theater Exchange Month.

Co-hosted by the Jiangxi provincial government, the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, and the China Theater Association, this year's event brought together playwrights, actors and scholars from 12 countries and regions. With live performances, a youth theater creation camp, themed forums, and relevant activities, the event celebrates theater as a medium of cultural exchanges and global engagement.

In 2015, during his visit to the UK, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that Tang Xianzu, a Chinese playwright, was contemporary of William Shakespeare, as both passed away in 1616. He noted that China and Britain could jointly commemorate the legacy of the two literary masters to promote people-to-people exchanges and deepen mutual understanding.

Over the past decade, theater has become a bridge for cultural exchanges, transforming commemorative activities into platforms for inter-civilizational dialogue. It has become a powerful medium for fostering global engagement through culture. Exceptional theatrical works transcend time and space, resonating across generations and borders.

"Fuzhou is the birthplace of Tang Xianzu and where he wrote plays," said Wu Fengchu, director of the Center for International Studies of Tang Xianzu in Fuzhou. Tang's classic "The Four Dreams of Linchuan" expresses profound human emotions and enduring humanistic values. Today, its emotional resonance continues to reach global audiences.

Along the River Avon in Stratford-upon-Avon, the UK stands the Peony Pavilion -- a traditional Chinese structure gifted by Fuzhou to Shakespeare's hometown. With its signature upturned eaves and red railings overlooking the water, the pavilion has become a prominent cultural landmark that brings Chinese aesthetics into a Western setting. Similar pavilions have since been built in Perm, Russia, and Lusaka, Zambia, symbolizing a shared cultural vision and offering international audiences a window into Chinese artistic expression.

The 7th Tang Xianzu International Theater Exchange Month kicks off. (Photo/Shi Yu)

"In April last year, during the Shakespeare birthday celebrations in Stratford-upon-Avon, I portrayed Du Liniang and performed an English-language excerpt from Tang's "The Peony Pavilion" with my classmates in the Peony Pavilion," said Emily C. A. Snyder from the Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham, who brought her team to this year's exchange month. "I had always dreamed of visiting China. Like Du Liniang, my dream has come true."

"Huo Xiaoyu's monologue on wealth in Tang's "The Legend of the Purple Hairpin" echoes the critique of materialism in Shakespeare's Timon of Athens. Similarly, the satire on power and fame in Tang's 'A Dream Under the Southern Bough' and 'Handan Dream' also resonates themes familiar to Western viewers," said Huang Bikang, professor at Peking University's School of Foreign Languages and Chair of the Shakespeare Society of the Institute of Foreign Literature under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Ten years ago, Fuzhou's commemorative event extended an invitation to the world. Today, it welcomes theater artists and young enthusiasts from across the globe, transforming into a vibrant hub of international cultural exchanges.

This year, the original production "Dreaming Under the Bough" received enthusiastic acclaim. Inspired by Tang's "A Dream Under the Southern Bough" and Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," the play was collaboratively created and performed by students from the University of Leeds in the UK, the University of International Business and Economics in China, and other institutions. By merging Eastern and Western literary classics with youthful interpretations, the production has breathed new vitality into traditional imagery.

"We want to show through theater that dreams know no borders," said a student actor from the UK. Through rehearsals and performances, students forged lasting friendships and deepened mutual understanding. Li Jun, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics and one of the directors of the play, remarked, "This collaboration represents a meaningful dialogue. Students from both institutions are pursuing their dreams together."

Faculty and students from the University of Birmingham also presented an English poetic adaptation of "The Peony Pavilion," giving the production its debut performance in China. "The translation employs Shakespeare's signature iambic pentameter," said Michael Dobson, director of the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham.

"A classic work poses enduring questions that each generation seeks to answer in their own way. Shakespeare delved into the complexities of human nature, while Tang Xianzu explored the pursuit of the soul. Both confronted the question: 'What is the meaning of life?' This shared inquiry forms the foundation for continued dialogue between Eastern and Western theater," Dobson explained.

Like a dream, theater continues to resonate in the hearts of audiences. This shared emotional journey reflects the broader vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity, fostering cultural exchanges, mutual learning and deeper understanding among civilizations.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Local governments across Maine have received just over $22 million in opioid settlement funds from pharmaceutical companies accused of fueling the overdose epidemic, with nearly $54 million more expected over the next decade and a half.

The money is meant to go to prevention and harm reduction efforts, as well as treatment and recovery programs. But oversight is limited, and until recently there were no reporting requirements, meaning it was up to local officials how much they wanted to disclose about their plans.

Since the settlements began distributing the money three years ago, advocates have raised concerns about some localities spending choices, particularly those related to police equipment, including questionable handheld drug-checking devices.

Many municipalities and counties have struggled to determine how those choices should be made, getting caught up in the logistics of how to disburse the funds fairly, ultimately delaying much-needed help for vulnerable communities.

Thats where a $2.5 million resource center comes in: one designed to help the local governments start spending the money appropriately and maintain data on where its going. So far, it has created guides, grant application templates and evaluation rubrics, and assisted with more than 100 requests from local officials. The next big project is creating public data dashboards.

The Maine Opioid Settlement Support (MOSS) Center, run out of the University of Southern Maines Catherine Cutler Institute, was launched last summer with funding from the attorney generals bucket of opioid settlement money.

Maine expects to receive an estimated $261 million in settlements and bankruptcy agreements with more than a dozen pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors and retailers, including with Oxycontin-maker Purdue Pharma and the estate of their billionaire owners, the Sackler family.

Agreements signed earlier this year, like the ones finalized this month with Purdue and the Sacklers, added more than $30 million to Maines share, though that number may still change as the Sackler bankruptcy case is finalized. Payments will be distributed through 2038.

Maines share is split three ways: 50 percent to the Maine Recovery Council; 30 percent to 39 counties and municipalities, or direct share subdivisions; and 20 percent to the attorney generals office.

The centers goal is to help the 39 localities receiving direct payments from the settlements spend their share in an evidence-based manner and to keep communities informed about how the money is being used.

That includes creating several public dashboards, including one that will show how recipients are spending their money and another tracking the impact the spending has on local communities. The spending dashboard is expected to launch next February or March, said the centers director, Dr. Lindsey Smith.

A law passed earlier this year means that in January the subdivisions will be required to submit their first-ever annual report on spending to the attorney generals office. Those reports will then be shared with the MOSS Center for review and analysis, and later, with the legislature.

The center is working with the AGs office to encourage subdivisions to submit their reports using a form created by the center, rather than on their own, in order to streamline the process and standardize the data collection.

This dashboard would mark the first statewide public disclosure of local governments settlement spending. Over the past two years, The Monitor has made an ongoing effort to shed light on how the millions from these landmark settlements are being spent, including by sending out detailed surveys to local officials from the 39 subdivisions.

When the settlement money was first distributed, many local governments didnt know where to start, Attorney General Aaron Frey told The Monitor last year.

While its a significant amount of money, it is limited, Frey said. The crisis is such that it is going to be so important that the way in which these resources are directed today, that it provides that foundation so that over the next 18 years these resources do end up addressing the harm that all of these defendants caused.

The hope is that the MOSS Center can help.

The center is building its own tools and working directly with the subdivisions, Smith said. The early stages were focused on developing materials like a settlement funds quick guide, templates local governments can use for grant applications and rubrics to help them evaluate how particular projects would fit the approved uses.

Over the past year and a half, center staff have connected with all subdivisions except the town of York. They have provided technical and informational assistance to 27 subdivisions, according to data provided by the center, addressing questions about community-specific needs and navigating conflicts of interest during grant reviews.

In several cases, the center has worked with local governments as they established committees of public officials, addiction specialists and people in recovery to decide how the money should be spent.

This was particularly helpful in Franklin County. In the spring of 2024, commissioners had voted to dissolve the first iteration of its opioid settlement committee a year after it was formed.

As the committee prepared to review the first grant applications over two years ago, county administrator Amy Bernard told The Monitor it hoped to get money out by the end of the year. Instead, accusations of conflicts of interest, excessive red tape and personal biases mushroomed, stymying progress and ultimately leading to the groups dissolution in April 2024.

A few months later, commissioners agreed to restart the group, this time with the MOSS Centers involvement. The center helped the new committee develop grant applications and a scoring rubric, all of which is now available online, committee facilitator Susan Pratt said in response to a Monitor survey conducted earlier this year.

The initial process was not as clearly delineated as the newly formatted process, Pratt said.

Jennah Godo, the MOSS Centers outreach and communications coordinator, said she and her colleagues are there to help fill in the gaps. Some people have an expertise that they bring to the table  but they dont necessarily have experience in creating a policy or doing a grant review or committee selection.

The center is also working with Waldo County, which recently came under scrutiny for not being forthright about how county officials spent more than $100,000 in settlement funds.

Since then, the center has met with the county multiple times and attended meetings of its new ad hoc committee for opioid settlement spending, according to the center, sharing technical assistance and other resources.

Oxford County, meanwhile, formed an opioid response committee late last year and needed guidance on best practices for a grant process, deputy county administrator Abby Shanor said.

The center tailored its grant and evaluation templates for the county. MacKenzie David, the centers community research and evaluation coordinator, regularly attends the committees meetings, where shes able to answer questions about best practices and how other communities are approaching spending.

The committees work would be a lot more challenging without the MOSS Centers assistance, Shanor said.

It would have taken us a lot longer to process the data. We might have had a lot more questions, she said.

The committee closed its first round of grant funding in August and made its recommendations to commissioners in September, who approved $457,000 in awards to five organizations. The money is being directed to local recovery programs and healthy community coalitions.

Eleven subdivisions have told the MOSS Center they do not need assistance at this time or are still in initial discussions about how the center can support them. In total, the center has fulfilled 123 requests for assistance, ranging from developing a grant review policy to designing a data tracking and reporting tool.

Smith, the centers director, said their role will likely evolve over the coming years as subdivisions needs change. The attorney generals contract with USM is for five years. She added that the more the MOSS Center works with local governments, the more it can share what other communities are doing.

Thats also why the center is encouraging local governments to ask grantees to track their progress and to share their outcome data for the impact dashboard.

When we talk to communities, we say that this isnt about putting your data on blast. Its about being able to say this is what worked in our community, this is what didnt work, so that somebody else isnt starting from scratch, Smith said. We want to get that out there so somebody isnt throwing good money after bad.

This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press
Police spoke to Luigi Mangione in a McDonalds restaurant for more than 30 minutes before arresting him for allegedly gunning down a UnitedHealthcare UNH.N executive, according to videos played on Monday during state court hearings over whether prosecutors can use his police statements at his murder trial.

The videos, as well as audio of an emergency call to police by a McDonalds worker, have not previously been played publicly.

Mangione, 27, was arrested in December 2024 and charged with fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a sidewalk in Midtown Manhattan. Public officials condemned the shocking assassination. Mangione became a folk hero to some Americans who decry steep healthcare costs.

He has pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges and is expected to face trial next year. Mangione has pleaded not guilty in a separate federal case where prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty.

DEFENSE SEEKS TO BLOCK EVIDENCE

Mangione wore a grey suit and a white shirt with a red checkered pattern and said nothing as officers removed his handcuffs at the defense table.

Mangiones lawyers are seeking to block prosecutors from using evidence allegedly found in his backpack during his arrest and statements he made to police, arguing he was illegally searched and questioned.

Surveillance footage played on Monday shows police approaching Mangione in the McDonalds, patting him down, and then speaking with him occasionally over the next half hour as nearly a dozen more officers trickle in.

The footage, which does not include audio, could be a key piece of evidence as Justice Gregory Carro considers defense lawyers claim that Mangiones statements to police are inadmissible because they failed to advise him of his rights against self-incrimination.

The defense lawyers are also seeking to block prosecutors from presenting evidence police say was found in Mangiones backpack, including a 3D-printed gun, a silencer, electronic devices and journal writings that appear to implicate him in the killing.

Prosecutors with the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg have opposed Mangiones requests to suppress the evidence and denied his claims that he was illegally searched and questioned.

Several supporters of Mangione appeared outside the courthouse before the hearing, including one dressed as the villain from the video game Super Mario Bros., bearing a sign that said, When patients die, profits rise, and a woman with a Free Luigi sash.

WORKERS EMERGENCY CALL PLAYED

The hearings could last the week and feature testimony from witnesses involved in Mangiones arrest in Pennsylvania.

Prosecutors questioned a New York City Police Department public information officer about suspect photos he shared with the media after the shooting. They also questioned a 911 emergency coordinator about a call by a McDonalds worker in Altoona, Pennsylvania, who reported Mangione to the police after customers recognized him from the news.

I have a customer here that some other customers are suspicious of who looks like the CEO shooter, and theyre really upset and theyre coming to me, the employee was heard saying in a recording of a 911 emergency call played in court.

Mangione could face life in prison if convicted of murder in the second degree, which is defined as an intentional killing. He also faces seven counts of criminal possession of a weapon and one count of possessing a false identification.

Carro dismissed two terrorism counts against Mangione in September, finding prosecutors had not presented enough evidence that Mangione intended to intimidate health insurance workers or influence government policy.

Trial dates have not been set in either the state or federal cases. Mangione has been held in federal custody in Brooklyn since his arrest.

(Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Alistair Bell, Lisa Shumaker, Noeleen Walder and Rod Nickel)
The director of a company at the center of a probe into the sale of counterfeit plane parts pleaded guilty to a charge of fraudulent trading.

AOG Technics Ltd.s director, Jose Alejandro Zamora Yrala, appeared at Southwark Crown Court on Monday wearing a blue suit and tie, speaking only to confirm his name and enter his plea. He was charged by the Serious Fraud Office earlier this year.

A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for February 23. The fraudulent trading charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment.

Read more: Fake Spare Parts Were Supplied to Fix Top-Selling Jet Engine

This significant and audacious fraud threatened trust in the aviation industry and risked public safety on a global scale, Emma Luxton, director of operations at the SFO, said.

Bloomberg News was first to report that airlines and maintenance shops had discovered parts with fabricated certification of origin, forcing them to remove components from engines.

Zamora Yrala, 37, was accused of defrauding customers by falsifying documentation that related to the origin, status or condition of aircraft parts while a director of AOG Technics between 2019 and 2023. The companys customers included airlines, maintenance providers and parts suppliers, the agency said.

The scandal was discovered in 2023 by engineers at TAP Air Portugals maintenance subsidiary. While studying a CFM56 engine for repair, they noticed that a replacement part, which had paperwork saying it was straight off the production line, showed signs of wear.

Safran SA, which makes CFM engines with General Electric Co., determined that the paperwork had been forged.

That sent airlines scrambling to inspect their aircraft for so-called suspected unapproved parts. They were found on older-generation Airbus SE A320 and Boeing Co. 737 aircraft.

Zamora Yrala established AOG in Hove, England, in 2015, corporate records show. The SFO arrested the part-time DJ, whos originally from Venezuela, in late 2023.

The agency is working with the Portuguese Procuradoria-Geral da Republica and the UK Civil Aviation Authority. The Portuguese investigation remains ongoing.

Photograph: AOG Technics Ltd.s director Jose Alejandro Zamora Yrala in June 2025; photo credit: Chris J Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

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Copyright 2025 Bloomberg.

Topics Fraud
Artificial intelligence companies and the creative industries are locked in an ongoing battle, being played out in the courts. The thread that pulls all these lawsuits together is copyright.

There are now over 60 ongoing lawsuits in the US where creators and rightsholders are suing AI companies. Meanwhile, we have recently seen decisions in the first court cases from the UK and Germany  heres what happened in those.

Getty Images, a global visual content creator and marketplace, sued Stability AI, an open-source generative AI company, in the UK courts. Getty claimed Stability had illegally used its content to train an AI model called Stable Diffusion. Getty is also suing Stability AI in the US and that case is on-going.

It was accepted that Gettys images were used in the training of Stable Diffusion without permission, and that this training involved copying. Copyright is the right to stop someone copying your work, so training an AI model on copyright-protected content without permission would be an infringement of copyright under UK law.

But the plot twist here is that the training of Stable Diffusion took place outside the UK, meaning that Getty ended up narrowing their copyright case to focus on what is called secondary infringement  which is essentially the same as importing goods that infringe copyright. It is illegal to bring counterfeit DVDs into the UK for the same reason.

At trial, the judge had to decide something for the first time ever. This was: if a user downloads an AI model in the UK that was illegally trained on copyrighted content in another country, does that count as secondary copyright infringement? To do so, she had to consider two things. The first was: can the definition of an article include intangible goods?

When someone imports a box of counterfeit DVDs, these are called articles under the law, and are obviously physical, tangible objects. Stability AI argued that its AI model (system) was not an article because it is not a physical object. The judge, sensibly, understood that the law was written long before the new era of AI, but the intention behind the rule was to include both tangible and intangible goods.

The second thing the judge had to consider was: is the Stable Diffusion AI model what copyright law calls an infringing copy?

The judge took this to mean the model would need to physically contain a reproduction of Gettys content. But the way the model learned from the training data, according to the expert evidence, meant that it did not actually contain any copies. So, Getty lost the claim for secondary copyright infringement.

Differing Interpretations

Meanwhile, one of the worlds largest collecting societies for musical works, GEMA, filed a copyright lawsuit against the company OpenAI in Germany. This was for the use of song lyrics in its large language model ChatGPT.

On November 11 2025, the Munich court decided, like the UK court, that training AI on copyrighted content requires a license. However, it took a different approach to interpreting the law of copying, and essentially said that since the AI model was trained on the lyrics and could reproduce them as an output, then the model had embodied the content.

Unlike the UK decision, the German court found the technical way in which the AI model does this to be irrelevant, so GEMA won the case.

One thing both courts did agree on is that the AI developers are liable for any infringement, not  as the AI developers argued  the users who select a prompt which the model then responds to by generating content.

Although the circumstances of the cases are slightly different, the heart of the issue was the same. Do AI models reproduce copyright-protected content in their training process and in generating outputs? The German court decided they do, whereas the UK court took a different view.

Both cases could be appealed and others are underway, so things may change. But the ending we want to see is one where AI and the creative industries come together in agreement. This would preferably happen with the use of copyright licenses that benefit them both.

Importantly, it would also come with the consent of  and fair payment to  creators of the content that makes both their industries go round.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. The original article can be accessed here.

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Airbus SE suffered a one-two punch on its popular A320 airliner after revealing a quality issue on some fuselage panels  just days after a software glitch on about 6,000 jets required emergency upgrades.

Airbus is taking a conservative approach and is inspecting all aircraft potentially impacted  knowing that only a portion of them will need further action to be taken, the company said in a statement, responding to an earlier report by Reuters identifying the issue.

The European manufacturer appeared to have averted a major headache Monday morning when it said only a tiny portion of the aircraft needing the software fix still required attention. But the disclosure of quality lapses on a key section of the aircraft spooked investors anew, driving the stock down the most since April.

The company said that the source of the latest issue has been identified and contained, and that newly produced panels conform to all requirements. Still, its unclear how the additional inspections may affect Airbuss tight delivery schedule of aircraft for the year and how many planes are affected.

Airbus delivered about 70 aircraft in November, according to people familiar with the figures, leaving the company with about 165 units it must hand over to customers in December, which would mark a record.

The planemaker has a target of 820 aircraft deliveries for the year, a feat that looks just about achievable if everything falls into place perfectly. According to RBC Capital Markets analyst Ken Herbert, Airbus has averaged about 109 deliveries in December, with the record achieved in 2019, when it handed over 138 aircraft.

Airbus shares fell as much as 11% in Paris trading, marking the worst intraday drop since April 7. The company has long grappled with parts shortages, from engines to kitchen units to toilets, that have held back output.

The A320 is, by far, the companys most popular product. On Friday, Airbus called for an urgent software revision on more than half its active A320 family fleet after an incident uncovered possible corruption of flight controls because of solar radiation.

Given that Airbus has not issued a stock-market release changing its guidance on deliveries, the panel issue looks to be controllable, JPMorgan analysts David H Perry and Lucy Fitzgerald wrote in a note. The batch of flawed panels is for the front of the aircraft, fitted behind the cockpit alongside the two front doors, the analysts wrote, citing Airbus.

Aircraft deliveries are closely watched metrics because they give investors clues about the health of a manufacturers supply chain and production processes. Airbus has been forced to revise the annual target in the past, but the company came within its goal last year.

Photograph: An Airbus A320 fuselage at the companys factory in Toulouse, France; photo credit: Matthieu Rondel/Bloomberg

Copyright 2025 Bloomberg.

Topics Aviation Aerospace
A fourth Russia-connected tanker in under a week was attacked on Tuesday, a sharp uptick in strikes on Moscow-associated shipping as the war in Ukraine nears a fifth year.

The tiny oil and chemicals tanker Midvolga-2 was sailing across the Black Sea to Georgia from Russia hauling sunflower oil when it was attacked about 80 miles off Turkeys northern coast, the Transport Ministrys Maritime Affairs Directorate said on X.

It remains unclear who carried out Tuesdays strike. Ukraines Foreign Ministry denied involvement in the incident and no party has so far claimed responsibility for it. A majority of attacks on Russia-linked shipping over the past year have likewise gone unattributed.

Read more: Black Sea Shipping Insurance Rates Rise After Ukraine Attacks on Tankers, Sources Say

What is known, however, is that every vessel targeted in the recent attacks was Russia-linked or had called at Russian ports prior to being struck  a pattern that underscores the war-related backdrop to a surge in strikes  even if the perpetrators remain unknown.

Russia and Ukraine are fighting an increasingly intense energy war as they attempt to gain a meaningful advantage after months of stalemate on the frontlines and ahead of potential new peace talks.

Midvolga-2 was hit early Tuesday by drones, according to Turkish officials familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

MIDVOLGA-2 tankeri, Rusyadan Gurcistana aycicek yag yuklu olarak seyrederken kylarmzdan 80 mil ackta saldrya ugradgn bildirmistir. Halihazrda 13 personelinde olumsuz durum olmayan geminin yardm talebi yoktur. Gemi, makineleri ile Sinopa dogru seyir etmektedir. pic.twitter.com/Ov9tEeswEk  DENIZCILIK GENEL MUDURLUGU (@denizcilikgm) December 2, 2025

The attack came despite criticism by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the alarming incidents are threatening safety and navigation in his countrys waters.

It takes the number of ships attacked since late last week to four: two others near Turkeys Black Sea coast, a third off Senegal, and this one. That compares with at least five in the prior year. The manager of the Mersin, the vessel attacked off Senegal, Turkeys Besiktas Shipping, said Tuesday that it would no longer undertake any Russia-related voyages due to the escalating security situation.

A person with knowledge of the matter said Ukraine was behind the two drone strikes on oil tankers in the Black Sea on Friday.

The Midvolga-2, sailing under the flag of Russia, hasnt requested assistance and its 13 crew are unharmed, Turkeys Transport Ministry said, adding that the vessel is sailing to the Turkish port of Sinop under its own power.

The owner, listed as Moscow-based Mazk Management on maritime database Equasis, didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

Alongside the shipping attacks, Ukraine has gone after a record number of Russian oil refineries and caused major damage to an oil port in Russias Black Sea that handles oil from Kazakhstan.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff is set to lead a delegation to Russia for talks this week on the latest proposal to end the war in Ukraine.

Turkey has tried to position itself as a neutral mediator in the conflict, hosting peace talks in Istanbul while selling weapons to Kyiv and importing Russian oil shunned by its NATO allies. More recently, Turkey started curbing crude purchases under growing US pressure.

Related:

Copyright 2025 Bloomberg.

Topics Russia
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced a $120 million settlement with Monsanto Company (Monsanto) and affiliates Solutia Inc. and Pharmacia LLC over the environmental and health effects of Monsantos decades-long production of polychlorinated biphenyls, known as PCBs.

Raouls office filed a 2022 lawsuit alleging the company was aware of the chemicals toxicity while publicly denying any knowledge of the danger to human health and the environment. This settlement will provide funds to address PCB contamination in the state of Illinois, the city of Chicago and surrounding cities of Evanston, Lake Forest, North Chicago, Zion, Beach Park, Glencoe, Lake Bluff, Winnetka and Winthrop Harbor.

This settlement helps Illinoisans recover from the unlawful and reckless behavior that led to contamination in their communities, Raoul said. PCBs have been banned in the U.S. for decades. Im pleased that this settlement will hold Monsanto accountable for producing and disposing of a dangerous toxic chemical that continues to impact Illinois natural resources.

Under the agreement, the state will receive $80 million by March 31, 2026, which will be allocated to the state and the nine settling cities. In addition, the state will receive a minimum of $40 million up to a maximum of $200 million, depending on the outcome of additional, related legal actions. In total, Illinois and the settling cities could receive additional amounts up to a total of $280 million.

PCBs have been banned by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) since 1979. Until then, they were used in a diverse range of products, including paints, caulks and industrial electrical equipment lubricants. Nearly all hazardous materials used in the United States, including PCBs, were manufactured by Monsanto, many of them at the companys facility in Sauget, Illinois. From 1960 to the mid-1970s alone, Monsanto sold nearly 50 million pounds of commercial PCB mixtures to customers in Illinois.

For decades, Monsanto discharged massive amounts of hazardous waste from its Krummrich Plant in Sauget directly into the surrounding environment, including sewers that allowed the toxic waste to enter the Mississippi River. Hazardous waste was also dumped in landfills, which allowed waste to leach into surrounding soil, water, groundwater and air.

Source: Illinois Attorney Generals Office

Topics Illinois
The U.S. Supreme Court grappled on Monday with a bid by Cox Communications to avoid financial liability in a major music copyright lawsuit by record labels that accused the internet service provider of enabling its customers to pirate thousands of songs.

The justices appeared skeptical of Coxs assertion that its mere awareness of user piracy could not justify holding it liable for copyright infringement. They also questioned whether holding Cox liable for failing to cut off infringers could impact a wide range of innocent internet users.

We are being put to two extremes here, Justice Sonia Sotomayor told Paul Clement, the lawyer representing the labels. How do we announce a rule that deals with those two extremes?

Cox has appealed a lower courts decision to order a new trial to determine how much the Atlanta-based company owes Sony Music, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and other labels for contributory copyright infringement. Cox said the retrial could lead to a verdict against it of as much as $1.5 billion.

Cox, the largest unit of privately owned Cox Enterprises, has argued it should not be held responsible for piracy by its users of music owned by the labels. Cox has said a ruling favoring labels could force it to terminate internet access for entire households, coffee shops, hospitals, universities and others merely because some unidentified person was previously alleged to have used the connection to infringe.

LAISSEZ-FAIRE ATTITUDE

The justices wrestled with the issue of how to protect copyright interests without harming innocent users who may be affected if copyright enforcement by internet service providers, or ISPs, like Cox becomes too broad.

Some justices appeared to agree with the labels that Cox was particularly lax in addressing user infringement.

Your clients sort of laissez-faire attitude towards the respondents is probably what got the jury upset, Sotomayor told Cox attorney Joshua Rosenkranz.

A jury in Alexandria, Virginia, found in 2019 that Cox owed the labels $1 billion for its secondary liability for infringement by its customers of more than 10,000 copyrights. The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the damages award in 2024 after reversing the jurys finding on one form of secondary liability.

ISPs are generally not liable for user infringement under U.S. law if they take reasonable preventive measures. But the labels accused Cox of failing to address thousands of infringement notices and failing to cut off internet access for repeat infringers or take other piracy-deterrent measures.

The jury, in awarding $1 billion to the record labels, found Cox liable both for contributory infringement and vicarious infringement, two forms of secondary copyright infringement liability. The 4th Circuit ordered a retrial on the awards size after affirming the jurys finding of contributory infringement but reversing its finding of vicarious liability.

Contributory infringement involves holding parties liable for someone elses infringement because they knew about it and contributed to it. Vicarious infringement involves holding parties liable for someone elses infringement because they had the ability to control the infringement and benefited financially from it.

A GUN ANALOGY

The justices questioned Coxs argument that it could not be held responsible for contributory infringement when it knew that only some users infringed and did not act affirmatively to enable it.

If Im a gun dealer, and Im selling to someone who says to me, I want to kill my wife with this gun, I think the common law would say you knew what he was going to do with the gun, you joined in, Sotomayor told Rosenkranz. Why isnt your continuing to provide internet service the same?

What incentive would you have to do anything if you won? Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked Rosenkranz. You would have no liability risk, right, if you win going forward?

The justices questioned the labels on the breadth of their contributory liability argument. Clement said an ISP must know that a user is substantially certain to infringe to be responsible for failing to act.

What would limit your approach? Justice Clarence Thomas asked Clement.

A lawyer for President Donald Trumps administration argued in support of Cox.

Justice Samuel Alito said the administration has told the court a ruling favoring the labels would threaten universal internet access, noting a hypothetical situation in which an ISP shuts down a universitys internet account shared by thousands of students and staff members based on one users infringement.

I really dont see how your position works in that context, Alito told Clement.

Justice Neil Gorsuch suggested that a lack of congressional action to define contributory liability could be a flag of caution in expanding it too broadly.

Alphabets Google, Amazon, Microsoft and other internet-focused tech companies supported Cox in the case. Music, film and book industry trade groups backed the labels.
Republican and Democratic attorneys general from 35 states and the District of Columbia urged congressional leaders on Tuesday not to block state laws governing artificial intelligence, warning of disastrous consequences if the technology is left unregulated.

The letter sets up a clash between the states and the Trump administration over AI regulation, as the industry seeks to avoid new laws scheduled to take effect in 2026 and states worry about injuries and deaths attributed to chatbot use.

Every state should be able to enact and enforce its own AI regulations to protect its residents, said New York Attorney General Letitia James, who led the effort with attorneys general in North Carolina, Utah and New Hampshire.

TECH COMPANIES PRESS FOR NATIONAL STANDARDS

ChatGPT maker OpenAI, Alphabets Google, Meta Platforms, and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz have called for national AI standards instead of a 50-state patchwork.

But since Congress has not put national standards in place, rushing to block state laws risks disastrous consequences for our communities, the attorneys general said.

If Congress is serious about grappling with how AIs emergence creates opportunities and challenges for our safety and well-being, then the states look forward to working with you on a substantive effort, they said.

Some states have made it a crime to use AI to generate sexual images of people without their consent, limited the use of AI in political advertising, and restricted how insurers use AI to decide healthcare claims. A Colorado law that has faced industry pushback seeks to prevent AI from being used to discriminate in housing, employment and education.

California, home to several major AI companies, has gone the farthest. Starting in 2026, the state will require companies to disclose information about data used to train AI models and provide means to detect AI-generated content. Major developers like OpenAI will also have to explain plans to mitigate potential catastrophic risks from cutting-edge models. California Attorney General Rob Bonta signed the letter.

The Senate voted 99-1 against an effort to block AI laws this year after state lawmakers and attorneys general from both major political parties rallied against the measure.

This time, President Donald Trump has thrown his weight behind the effort, asking Congress last week to add a provision blocking AI laws to the National Defense Authorization Act. Trump has also considered using federal power to sue and defund states to block the laws, though sources told Reuters on Friday the effort was on hold.

Topics InsurTech Data Driven Artificial Intelligence
He was not covered by workers compensation insurance. But his course and scope of employment was enough for an employers liability insurance exclusion to apply, said the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which overturned a lower federal court ruling and left a severely injured convenience store employee with no recompense from the stores insurance carrier.

The appellate court found in favor of State Farm Fire and Casualty Co., noting that the employers liability policy clearly excluded coverage for criminal acts or for injuries arising out of and in the course of  employment. The decision negated a lower courts $1.3 million judgment against State Farm.

The shooting took place at the Pit Stop Grocery in Birmingham, Alabama, in 2016. The clerk, Amanali Babwari, closed the convenience store about 11 p.m. that night. As he walked to his car in the parking lot, a robber shot him nine times, took the stores money bag, and disappeared. The worker survived but was severely injured.

Under Alabama law, employers with fewer than five employees are not required to secure workers compensation coverage. Only Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee allow coverage exemptions for firms with that many workers, according to the Workers Compensation Research Institute.

The 11th Circuit pointed out that State Farms employers liability exclusion wording is very similar to Alabamas workers comp statute, which states that comp insurance covers injuries arising out of and in the course of employment, including incidents in the parking lot immediately after the work shift.

This similarity is no coincidence, the 11th Circuits three-judge panel wrote in its per-curiam decision. Pit Stops insurance policy unambiguously transplants the meaning of arising of out and in the course of  employment from the workers compensation statute.

And even if Babwaris employer had secured workers comp insurance, his attorneys argued that the clerk was not exactly at work at the time, an assertion that could have negated the policy exclusion and produced an employers liability insurance payout, explained the clerks lead attorney, David Lee Bruce, of Birmingham.

The appellate judges noted that case law has established that an employers general liability policy, though, is designed to provide coverage only for a firms liability to the general public, not for injuries to employees.

The convenience store owner and Babwari after the incident had settled for $877,659 and had obtained a state courts consent judgment for that amount. But perhaps because the small store had few resources, the clerk brought a suit against State Farm under Alabamas direct-action statute.

State Farm moved the case to federal court. The U.S. District Court for Northern Alabama in 2023 found in Babwaris favor, ordering State Farm to pay the settlement amount plus some $262,000 in pre-judgment interest. The judge found that Babwaris injuries counted as an occurrence covered under the policy and ruled that no exclusion barred coverage.

But after the appeal by State Farm, the 11th Circuit panel reversed the decision and remanded the case to the district court to enter summary judgment in the insurers favor.

The lead attorney for State Farm in the appeal declined to comment. The 10-page opinion can be seen here.

Topics Workers' Compensation Commercial Lines Business Insurance Liability Alabama
A popular mobile video game maker must pay $1.4 million for violations of Californias privacy act.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta settled with Jam City Inc. to resolve allegations that the mobile app gaming firm violated the California Consumer Privacy Act by failing to offer consumers methods to opt-out of the sale or sharing of their personal information across its popular gaming apps.

Jam City creates games for mobile platforms, including games based on franchises like Frozen, Harry Potter and Family Guy.

Under the settlement, Jam City must also provide in-app methods for consumers to opt-out of the sale or sharing of their data and must not sell or share the personal information of consumers at least 13 and less than 16 years old without their affirmative opt-in consent.

Part of Jam Citys revenue stream comes through disclosing personal information for advertising. Jam City and its ad-tech partners use information from consumers to display personalized ads within Jam City games.

A California Department of Justices investigation reportedly found Jam City did not offer CCPA compliant opt-outs in any of its 21 mobile apps. Investigators also say they found some Jam City games shared or sold the data of children between the age of 13 to 16 without the affirmative consent required by the CCPA. Under the CCPA, minors under the age of 16 are afforded special protections for the sale of their data.

This settlement represents the sixth enforcement action under the CCPA. Last month, Bonta secured a settlement with streaming service Sling TV to resolve allegations that the company violated the CCPA by failing to provide easy-to-use methods for consumers to stop the sale of their personal information and by failing to provide sufficient privacy protections for children.

Topics California
Monrovia, CA  Dec 2, 2025  When a broker faced a sudden non-renewal on a large and complex account, the expert intervention of an in-house underwriter at Greenwood General Insurance proved instrumental, transforming a potential client crisis into a resounding success story.

The challenge was significant: a high-performing industrial painting contractor in California, with a multi-million dollar payroll, was suddenly deemed too large by their incumbent carrier. The carrier issued a 30-day notice of cancellation, leaving the broker scrambling to find a new market for a client that applied specialized, protective coatings to industrial facilities.

Faced with this urgent deadline, the broker turned to their dedicated internal underwriter. The broker brought us a tough one, a great client who had outgrown their carriers appetite, the underwriter explained. Our role was to immediately analyze the exposure, reassure both the broker and the client that we had a path forward, and then leverage our market knowledge to find the right fit at the right price.

The underwriters deep expertise and carrier relationships were key. Our carrier, who is known for handling complex commercial risks, as a prime candidate. By meticulously preparing and presenting the submission to highlight the clients strong operations and safety profile, the underwriter facilitated a remarkably quick turnaround.

The result was a clear win. Our carrier provided a comprehensive policy that included all requested coverages, at a more competitive premium than the previous carrier securing the approximately $20,000 account and ensuring the client had no lapse in coverage.

This case exemplifies the value a skilled underwriter brings to the broker-client relationship, the underwriter concluded. Were not just processors; were strategic partners who help brokers solve their toughest puzzles. Seeing this client renew happily is the best validation of that partnership. The successful placement highlights Greenwood General Insurance commitment to empowering its brokers with expert underwriting support to navigate challenging market conditions and deliver exceptional client outcomes.

About Greenwood General Insurance: Greenwood General Insurance is a leading MGA providing commercial insurance market access for risks across a wide range of industries. With a focus on deep client relationships and expert market navigation, the company is dedicated to protecting broker client assets and facilitating their continued growth.

Media Contact

Catherine M, Marketing Administrator

Greenwood General Insurance Agency

Phone: (626) 817-9100

Email: catherine@gwgeneral.com

Website: www.gwmga.com

Topics Agencies Underwriting
PepsiCo has confirmed the company is cutting some staff roles from its Cork operations, making a small number of workers redundant.

The impacted workers at the company were informed of the news in recent days. PepsiCo has not said precisely how many workers are being laid off, but it is understood the number does not meet the 30-head threshold, which would require notification to the Department of Enterprise.

PepsiCo has operated in Cork for the past five decades, growing from a 30-person operation in 1974 to employing more than 1,250 people across its sites in Carrigaline and Little Island. The company's product portfolio includes Pepsi Cola, Lay's, Doritos, Cheetos, Gatorade, Mountain Dew and SodaStream. Along with three beverage and food manufacturing operations, Cork is PepsiCo's headquarters for global manufacturing operations, servicing global customers. It also hosts the companys research and development campus in the areas of measurement science, beverages, packaging and dairy. In a statement to the Irish Examiner, the soft drink giant said the cuts are limited and will not impact the company's overall presence in Cork and Ireland. "PepsiCo is proposing some limited organisational changes at its Cork business as part of an ongoing business transformation to position the company for efficiency and growth. The company is working closely with employees who were impacted, ensuring they are fully supported and kept informed throughout this process. "Ireland remains a strategically important location for PepsiCo, and the company remains committed to maintaining a strong presence here," the company said. Read More Inflation hits 3.2% driven by food and energy costs
The treatment of Japanese knotweed was among 260 biodiversity projects funded this year across the States 31 local authorities.

An invasive non-native species, it threatens biodiversity, damages infrastructure, and degrades riparian and urban landscapes.

Its presence along riverbanks, roadsides, and green spaces poses a significant challenge to native ecosystems and land use.

Projects to control, eradicate, and prevent the spread of the species, particularly in ecologically sensitive areas such as special areas of conservation, riversides, and urban spaces, were among those funded.

The minister of state for nature, heritage, and biodiversity, Christopher OSullivan, has now launched a similar 3m Local Biodiversity Action Fund for 2026.

It will be open to all local authorities to support research, surveys, habitat management and action projects on a wide range of invasive species including Japanese knotweed.

The funding is available to local authorities for biodiversity projects and will be managed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Mr OSullivan said it will put 3m in communities across the country to deliver practical, creative, and locally led actions for nature where it matters most.

Wetlands, grasslands, and rivers

Previous grants have funded surveys of rare birds and plants, restoration measures in key habitats like wetlands, grasslands, and rivers, as well as projects to protect species such as barn owls and lesser horseshoe bats.

It is great to see the biodiversity officers network playing such a vital role in bringing local authorities together with communities to progress local initiatives and partnerships. Im excited to see what this years fund will support, he said.

The minister for housing, local government, and heritage, James Browne, said public and shared places are important for biodiversity, for health, and for wellbeing.

Local authorities are uniquely placed to work with communities to protect biodiversity in our communities and this fund supports them to do that, he said.

Examples of projects funded this year included the Hares Corner, which involved seven local authorities with the aim of creating new habitats such as ponds, woodlands, and orchards.

The fund also enabled Wexford County Council to work with local stakeholders on the second phase of a survey to determine the presence of the Nightjar at selected sites across the county. Tipperary County Council and Waterford County Council ran similar projects

Wildflower meadow management by Cork City Council to improve the ecological value of selected grassland areas within the city were supported, as were barn owl surveys and conservation by 11 local authorities.

A total of 40 projects across 21 other councils to remove, manage, and control invasive species such as giant hogweed, Japanese knotweed, cherry laurel, and quagga mussels were also funded.

Over 13m has been granted to local authorities for their biodiversity work since the fund was established in 2018. The closing date for applications for the 2026 scheme is February 5.
Oats are one of the great success stories of Irish tillage. It delivers high nutritional value for both humans and livestock, it suits our climate perfectly, and it consistently produces reliable yields.

Yet this season, many tillage farmers are understandably asking why demand has dropped so sharply. Grain merchants are even considering exporting oats again  not due to a boom in international demand, but rather insufficient demand to use the oats already in the system.

Ireland has a long history with oats. In 1916, more than 294,000 hectares were grown, an indication of just how well suited our land and climate are to the crop.

Over the last five years, the combined winter and spring area of oats has averaged 27,820 ha, but in 2025, it has jumped to 33,600 ha, up 21%. This increase is partly responsible for the excess oats in the market.

The yield of oats has remained very consistent over the last few years, with much less variability that other break crop options. The five-year yield average for winter oats is 8.7t/ha, while its spring counterpart five-year yield average is 7.5t/ha.

Rotation benefits

Outside of its consistent yield, tillage farmers also recognise other qualities that oats bring to the rotation. Examples include:

Excellent break crop  as good as oilseed rape or beans in rotation;

Low nutrient requirement lower pesticide inputs than wheat and barley;

Low carbon footprint  carbon neutral when straw is chopped.

The human food sector

Demand in the human food sector has grown over the last decade due to well-publicised nutritional advantages:

Naturally high in dietary fibre (beta-glucan) which lowers LDL ('bad') cholesterol;

Helps regulate blood glucose for diabetic patients;

Naturally whole-grain and gluten-free, increasing its appeal to health-conscious consumers.

These benefits, however, have not yet translated into stable demand for grain growers this season.

Livestock farmers  oats deserve another look

One of the biggest misconceptions in the livestock sector is that oats are inferior to barley or maize as a finishing feed. Teagasc research tells a very different story.

In controlled feeding trials at Grange, where rolled barley was directly swapped for rolled oats in concentrate mixes for finishing beef cattle on grass silage, there was no difference in animal performance.
Doctors are advising the public to get vaccinated now so the flu doesnt ruin Christmas, as hospitalisations double in just a week.

As concern grows at the prospect of a very difficult winter ahead, the HSE and GPs have now called on the public to consider vaccination against the flu.

HSE chief clinical officer Dr Colm Henry said: We are seeing a rapid increase of cases of patients with influenza, including those needing hospitalisation.

There has been an earlier start to the influenza season and we are concerned at the risk this presents to those susceptible to more severe disease.

The numbers indicate health services will face significant pressures this winter, he added.

Four hundred and eighteen cases were reported in hospitals the week ending 29 November compared to just 213 the week before, he said.

He called on healthcare workers and people in at-risk groups to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

The flu vaccine takes two weeks to become fully effective, Dr Henry said.

Therefore, the best time to get vaccinated is now, before rates of infection peak over the busy holiday period.

The Irish College of GPs also warned very young babies and older people with weak immune systems were most at risk.

We are seeing the winter flu outbreak several weeks earlier this year, which means that the peak will coincide with the Christmas and New Year holidays, said Dr Scott Walkin, the colleges antimicrobial resistance and infection control clinical lead.

A new strain of flu, H3N2 subclade K, being seen now in Ireland is highly virulent he added.

H3 flu tends to be more severe than other types, he said.

Already, even though the season is just starting, seven people have died, and admissions to hospitals have increased by 50% between week 46 and week 47.

He echoed the call to get vaccinated, saying it provided good protection against getting severely ill.

The vaccine is effective within two weeks of getting it, so its really important to get the vaccine now to ensure it doesnt ruin your Christmas or someone elses, he said.

The flu vaccine is available from GPs and pharmacies. It is free for older people, children over two, healthcare workers, pregnant women and other vulnerable groups.
The Irish Prison Service is fighting a losing battle against overcrowding, with the current system at breaking point, penal reformers have said.

Overcrowding in prisons has reached unprecedented levels, resulting in deteriorating conditions for both inmates and prison staff, the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) has warned.

Publishing its 2024 Progress in the Penal System report, it said prisons were often being left to house people with untreated mental health issues and addiction problems, instead of the social services.

The report said the prison population broke the 5,000 landmark in June 2024  with the number of inmates sleeping on mattresses on the floor of cells increasing from 83 at the start of 2024 to 213 at the end of the year.

IPRT executive director Saoirse Brady said under different circumstances they would be highlighting greater progress in several areas where the Irish Prison Service (IPS) had made concerted efforts, such as increased attendance at education and training in 2024.

However, in the current context, it is clear the IPS is fighting a losing battle against overcrowding in a system at breaking point, Ms Brady said.

IPRT also has grave concerns surrounding conditions and treatment in Irish prisons reaching the threshold of inhuman and degrading.

She said both the chief inspector of prisons and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture have described conditions in Irish prisons as such.

Ms Brady said the crisis had only worsened this year: The situation has continued to deteriorate in 2025 as the prison estate is currently operating at 123% capacity, with upwards of 5,700 people in a system with beds for 4,702 people.

Regardless of the pressures on the system, the State has a legal duty to ensure that a persons basic right to dignity is upheld.

With almost 600 people sleeping on mattresses on the floor beside a toilet, a record number of deaths in custody and increased levels of violence, it cannot be said that the State is fulfilling this duty.

On Monday, the prison population had reached 5,782, more than 1,000 above the official bed capacity of 4,702  some 23% above capacity. A total of 614 inmates were sleeping on mattresses on the floor of shared cells.

The report said 77% of those sentenced to prison were serving sentences of 12 months or less. It said accompanying the rise in people being sent to prison by the courts has been a major decrease in the number of people being given community sanctions by the courts.

The number of community service orders has dropped from 2,791 in 2019 to 1,723 in 2024. The IPRT said the funding emphasis by governments has been on custodial sanctions rather than community sanctions.

The IPRT said it was critical that all the policy documents emphasising alternatives to custody were put into practice, and funded to do so.

The report said prisoners were having to dry towels in shared cells beside toilets, and also had to eat their food in the same cells.

In addition to a significant increase in the number of people held on remand  charged and awaiting trial  there has been a rise in those on remand sharing a cell.

The report said 2,078 prisoners were waiting to be seen by a psychologist at the start of 2024  accounting for 46% of the prison population.

Far too often, the prison system is left to care for people who have been failed by social services and health systems that have not responded to their underlying needs and trauma, Ms Brady said.

This is evident in the number of people entering and leaving prison with no fixed abode, in the lengthy waiting lists for mental health and addiction supports.
European leaders have rallied to show support for Volodymyr Zelenskyy after US-Ukrainian talks to revise a peace proposal that initially favoured Russia.

This comes ahead of the Ukrainian presidents historic first visit to Ireland.

As the US envoy headed to Moscow to brief the Kremlin, Mr Zelenskyy was warmly received by French president Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday. The two joined a call with about a dozen other European leaders.

Mr Zelenskyy touched down in Dublin late on Monday ahead of a full day of engagements. He and Ukraines first lady Olena Zelenska were greeted at Dublin Airport by Taoiseach Micheal Martin and junior minister with responsibility for European affairs Thomas Byrne.

Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha also forms part of the Ukrainian delegation.

The Ukrainian ambassador in Dublin, Larysa Gerasko, and Irish ambassador to Ukraine, Jonathan Conlon, were on the tarmac for their arrival shortly before 11pm.

Mr Zelenskyy was last in Ireland in February, when his plane stopped off to refuel ahead of a visit to Washington DC. Mr Martin then met the Ukrainian leader at Shannon Airport, where he emphasised the Irish peoples support for Ukraine.

The following day, a televised exchange in the Oval Office between Mr Zelenskyy, US president Donald Trump and US vice president JD Vance made international headlines.

In April 2022, Mr Zelenskyy made a historic address to the Oireachtas via video link, in which he said Ireland had not been neutral to the disaster Russia had brought to Ukraine.

Last night, Mr Martin said it was an honour to welcome Mr Zelenskyy to Ireland and said the visit came at a critical time for Ukraine.

Around the world, he is rightly recognised as someone who embodies the courage and resilience of the Ukrainian people, who have inspired the world in their brave defence of their country and its sovereignty since it was brutally and illegally invaded by Russia, he said.

He praised Ukraines remarkable tenacity in defending their country and said he looked forward to reiterating Irelands unswerving commitment to standing with the people of Ukraine for as long as it takes.

On Tuesday morning, Mr Zelenskyy and Ms Zelenska are due to make a courtesy call to President Catherine Connolly at Aras an Uachtarain.

Mr Zelenskyy is also due to attend the inauguration of the Ireland-Ukraine Economic Forum with Tanaiste Simon Harris.

The Ukrainian leader will also give an address at Leinster House on Tuesday afternoon, after being introduced by the Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy.

Sources expect his speech to focus on the need for Europe to support Ukrainian sovereignty, and that Russia is made to pay for the rebuilding of Ukraine if and when a peace deal is agreed.

Mr Zelenskyy told a joint press conference with Mr Macron on Monday that Kyivs priorities in peace talks were to maintain sovereignty, to ensure strong security guarantees, and that territorial disputes remained the most complicated.

Decisions on territories

He called on Ukraines Western allies to ensure Russia was not rewarded for the war it started. He said he hoped to hold talks with Mr Trump after the US president's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, had visited Russia this week.

Mr Macron said only Ukraine could decide on its territories in peace negotiations with Russia.

Earlier, Mr Zelenskyy made clear that Ukrainian and US negotiators had not yet fully hammered out revisions to the proposed US plan  despite two rounds of talks to adjust terms that initially endorsed Russias main wartime demands.

There were some tough issues that still have to be worked through, Mr Zelenskyy posted following Sundays US-Ukrainian talks at a Florida luxury golf resort built by Mr Trumps fellow real estate magnate Mr Witkoff.

The Irish visit will come amid tight security, with checks of Leinster House, Government Buildings, and the surrounding areas being carried out throughout Monday and a no-fly zone for drones implemented around Dublin.

'Excellent contribution to our economy'

Tanaiste Simon Harris said he was really pleased Mr Zelenskyy was coming to Ireland.

This is an important visit, he said. Its an important visit for the people of Ireland to show solidarity with Ukraine, solidarity that weve shown really since the beginning.

A solidarity the towns and villages right across our country have shown in welcoming so many people from Ukraine into their schools, into their homes. In many cases, people from Ukraine who are making a really excellent contribution to our own economy here.

But its also a chance, as we prepare to take up the presidency of the Council of the EU next year, to get the latest from president Zelenskyy in terms of how he sees things progressing. We need to see peace. We all want to see an end to war. But how peace comes about matters.

It has to be a just peace. It has to be a lasting peace, an enduring peace, and it has to be a peace that doesnt reward aggression.

Foreign affairs minister Helen McEntee will bring two proposals to the Government, first asking for approval in an International Claims Commission for Ukraine. The commission will be responsible for determining claims for damage, loss, or injury caused by internationally wrongful acts committed by Russia against Ukraine.

The minister will also bring a 2030 Ireland-Ukraine roadmap, which includes the approval of an additional 100m for the provision of non-lethal military support for Ukraine and a contribution of 25m for Ukraines urgent energy needs.

additional reporting from PA and Reuters
A pilot programme for equipping frontline gardai with Tasers will begin this week.

Justice minister Jim OCallaghan will bring a memo to Cabinet noting the beginning of the project that allows around 120 specially trained frontline gardai in Dublin central, Waterford, and Kilkenny to carry conducted energy devices, commonly known as Tasers.

Specially trained frontline gardai will be given the devices as part of an evaluation for their use as an additional tactical option in overall graduated policing response.

Sources said the trial will be similar to that of body-worn cameras, which have been credited recently with de-escalating situations and being very useful.

Currently, just a small number of gardai in the Armed Response Unit and Emergency Response Units have access to Tasers, but Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly said in his first days in the job that gardai should have everything they need to undertake their duties and enforce the law.

He said this will include the full rollout of body-worn cameras, adding that An Garda Siochana was moving towards a further procurement process.

An Garda Siochana is continuing to make preparations for the introduction of a trial of tasers.

Commissioner Kelly is on the public record as saying that Tasers will only be provided to gardai with body cams.

Weve seen some of the recent incidents where frontline members have been under significant pressure and, on a weekly basis, I see the reports of members of gardai who were injured  so its really important that they have everything they need to protect themselves.

Also at Cabinet, Mr OCallaghan will present his National Development Plan of up to 2.18bn.

It is believed key priorities include expanding prison capacity, the national rollout of body-worn cameras, and State-owned accommodation for asylum seekers, delivery of the new Dublin district mortuary, and fleet electrification to support long-term environmental performance.
The accelerating cyber threats facing Ireland demands an aggressive response by the State, according to the countrys cyber bosses.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said criminal cyber gangs and hackers, aligned to states like China and Russia, pose a significant threat to Irelands national security.

This is because Ireland is a host to some of the worlds largest tech providers and cloud computing facilities as well as the worsening geopolitical situation and the threat posed to Europe resulting from Russias war of aggression in Ukraine.

The centre said it regularly observes state-aligned threat actors carrying out scanning and other reconnaissance activities targeting Irish government and State-owned networks.

Publishing its 2025 National Cyber Risk Assessment, the NCSC said Ireland was at risk from cyber attacks on shared critical infrastructure, such as gas and electricity pipelines connecting Ireland to the UK and France.

The risk assessment is being published on Tuesday at the NCSC Conference 2025 in Dublin.

In the assessment, NCSC director Richard Browne said the report underlined the need for a coordinated national approach to cyber security, including a whole-of-society approach.

Read More Hostile states may target Ireland during EU presidency, cybersecurity experts warn

Security and prosperity

It is also clear that the accelerating nature of some of the risks demands an aggressive response by the State, including by making full and active use of EU legislation, he said.

Our future security and prosperity relies on our maintaining Irelands position as a digitally advanced, secure, and trusted partner within the European and global cyber domain.

In his foreword, justice minister Jim OCallaghan said: Ireland's digital infrastructure underpins all sectors of our society, delivering essential services that keep our hospitals, public transport, communications and energy supply functioning.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has launched its 2025 National Cyber Risk Assessment. Picture Conor McCabe Photography.

He said that identifying and developing comprehensive responses to risks that threaten these services was essential to protect our security and overall resilience.

The report said cybercrime remains the foremost cyber threat to Irish citizens, businesses and national infrastructure.

It said Ireland continued to observe a rising prevalence of activity from hackers, noting that, across the European Union, such activity accounts for approximately 80% of recorded cyber incidents. It said this was driven primarily by low-level Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) activity.

Hostile states

While some cyberattacks are ideologically motivated, state-aligned threat actors are seizing the opportunity to blend their activities in with these disruptive cyberattacks, executing attacks under the guise of hacktivism, as observed by the NCSC during the recent European elections in Ireland," the report said.

It added: State-aligned threat actors continue to pose a significant threat to Irelands national security. Although the likelihood of a successful cyberattack directly targeting Irelands critical infrastructure remains relatively low, Irelands strategic interests and international profile make it an attractive focal point for sophisticated state-aligned actors.

The assessment said that as a democracy and EU member state, Irish interests are valuable targets for state-aligned threat actors intent on weakening democratic processes, generating division within the EU, as well as eroding economic, stability and destabilising western societies.

Given Irelands position as a digital hub, a centre for innovation and research and its pivotal location along subsea interconnectivity routes, these factors collectively influence Irelands visibility as a target within the global cyber threat landscape, it said.

The report said Irelands critical infrastructure includes electricity, transport, water and waste water, phone and internet connectivity, financial transactions and its democratic institutions.

It said Ireland and the EU continue to experience the impacts of Russias war of aggression in Ukraine and that the EU has identified a broader range of offensive cyber activities by groups aligned to Russia and China.

It said this poses a threat to Irelands public administration services, critical infrastructure and political institutions.

The report pointed out that Irelands essential services rely on both onshore critical infrastructure and shared critical infrastructure with the UK and EU. It said that as geopolitical tensions rise, hybrid attacks, including cyber, targeting shared infrastructure have increased globally.

Geography immaterial

The NCSC said a country's geographic location was often immaterial to threat actors seeking to conduct cyberattacks.

The report said: As Ireland forms a crucial link in the global digital supply chain, there is a growing risk that its services could be impacted as a second-order consequence from attempts by malign actors to compromise systems or services elsewhere.

It said that cyber espionage  seeking access to sensitive information or intellectual property  was typically perpetrated by advanced, well-funded and resourced groups.

As a central hub to many of the worlds leading multinationals and a centre of excellence for research and innovation initiatives, Ireland presents an attractive target for malicious actors seeking to obtain sensitive information via cyber-espionage operations, the assessment said.

The NCSC regularly observes state-aligned threat actors carrying out scanning and other reconnaissance activities targeting Irish government and state-owned networks. Given the global reach and ambitions of many of these threat actors, this is unsurprising and is certain to continue and likely to increase in the future.

It said targeted disruptive and destructive cyberattacks represented one of the most serious threats to critical infrastructure.

Water attack

It said that in November 2023 operational technology used in Irish water facilities were accessed by a state-aligned threat actor.

It said that by defacing the technology with politically motivated notices, the attack had direct operational impacts on a private water scheme in the west of Ireland, leaving up to 160 Irish households without water for up to 48 hours.

The NCSC said that cyber activity as part of information operations was a growing security threat to the EU and its member states, including Ireland.

With increasing frequency and intensity, hybrid activities combine a mix of information operations, such as Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) and hack and leak, with disruptive cyber activity, often conducted by state-aligned threat actors under the guise of hacktivism, the report said.

European election

It said that in June 2024, the Irish electorate went to the polls to cast their vote in the European elections.

"On the afternoon of the elections, several websites hosting election and transport information were targeted by DDoS attacks, conducted by a hacktivist threat group," the report said.

"These cyberattacks followed a similar pattern to attacks targeting elections across Europe. The sophistication of the attacks was low, and the impact was minor as affected sites were able to implement basic mitigation strategies to prevent major disruption. It said that, overall, these cyberattacks had little observed impact on the conduct of the elections and received little media attention, but the attackers broadcasted the success they had against these websites on their public Telegram channel.

The NCSC has increasingly observed instances of state-aligned threat actors adopting or using hacktivist fronts to mask their identity when conducting such cyberattacks, while greater cooperation between criminal groups and pooling of resources has increased the level of disruption possible, the report said.

Read More Pro-Russian hacker group claims responsibility for attempted cyberattacks on Irish websites

Ransomware

It said ransomware attacks can impose substantial financial losses on companies targeted and disruption on crucial services, highlighting the ransomware attacks on major UK retailers Marks & Spencer, Co-op and Harrods last April.

The assessment recommended that Ireland expand the States monitoring and detection capabilities in cyber and hybrid (which also includes physical attacks), including timely intelligence reporting through existing national security structures.

It called for an expansion in the scope and scale of the NCSC Sensor Programme to actively detect malicious cyber activity across entities.
In early April 2022, Ukraines president Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Oireachtas that, 40 days into Russias full-scale invasion, 167 children had been killed.

At that time, he was addressing TDs and senators by videolink from an embattled Kyiv.

Three years and seven months on, President Zelenskyy stood in front of a packed Oireachtas, where all but a couple of TDs warmly welcomed and applauded the Ukrainian leader.

Compared to the youthful, fresh-faced man who spoke on the video-link, he looked deeply tired  not a surprise given Ukraine is regularly described as a country that doesnt sleep.

In the intervening time, the death toll among children has climbed to 738.

And these are deaths that, as of October 10, have been documented by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, and may well be incomplete.

In addition, a further 2,318 children have been injured.

Including adults, the UN estimates there have been 53,006 civilian casualties, including 14,534 deaths, since Russia's war of aggression started in February 2022.

Separately, Ukrainian authorities estimate 20,000 children have been abducted from Russian-occupied territories and taken to Russia. A further 1.6m Ukrainian children remain in territories occupied by Russia.

'Remind the world'

President Zelenskyy thanked Ireland repeatedly and urged Irish people to please remind the world that Russias invasion of Ukraine was a criminal and unprovoked act of aggression.

Russia wants to treat Ukraine and its property and Ukrainians as if they belong in its backyard, like livestock, he said.

He urged Ireland to push and insist on an international tribunal to make Russia accountable for its abuses and to lobby to bring kidnapped Ukrainian children home.

Russian killers cant travel the world as if they have done nothing wrong, he said, sparking the first spontaneous round of applause.

President Zelenskyy said Europe cant run away from its own values, prompting more clapping, before adding: It must stand up for them.

He said: Ukraine is doing exactly that, on Europes behalf.

Introducing the president, Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy said Irelands policy of military neutrality does not mean it is morally neutral, and said peace was the only solution.

President Zelenskyy said there was a real, real chance of that, but stressed it must be a "real" peace, a just peace  one that was without humiliation, that does not appease killers and where aggressors are held accountable.

As he visited Ireland, Russian president Vladimir Putin warned Europe that if it started a war with Russia that it would end so swiftly for Europe that there would be no one to negotiate with in Europe.

He accused the EU of hindering US and Russian proposals to end the war, proposals seen by the EU as rewarding Russia and stripping Ukraine of its freedom, sovereignty, and security.
A 41-year-old man used a scaffold bar to cause extensive damage to his neighbours 59,000 Hyundai car when he just lost it in a row about their two rottweiler dogs.

Eoin Mulcahy was sentenced by Judge Sinead Behan at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to one year suspended for causing the criminal damage.

The accused man pleaded guilty to damaging the car on October 22, 2023, and producing the scaffold bar in the course of a dispute.

The owners of the car heard banging outside their home and CCTV showed Eoin Mulcahy arriving outside their home with the metal bar. He smashed the bonnet, wing mirrors and a number of windows in the car.

Eoin Mulcahy, who was living at Chestnut Mews, Cluain Ard, Cobh, County Cork, at the time of the criminal damage was having a dispute with the owners of the car in relation to their two rottweiler dogs, where it was his view that they were not always under control.

Because the electric car was seriously damaged by rain following the attack, it was so seriously water-damaged that it had to be written off, Judge Behan was told.

Defence barrister, Mahon Corkery, said: He was forthcoming, honest and expressed remorse from the outset. He wrote a letter of apology and made admissions to gardai.

Since this, the defendant and his family have moved out of the area, and in fact out of the county.

Judge Behan said the defendant handled a dispute in an extremely poor manner, arming himself with a dangerous weapon to carry out this damage. The judge noted that although he has moved away, his former neighbours remain in fear that he might possibly return.

In mitigation, the judge noted that he had gone through addiction treatment and gathered 5,000 as a gesture of his remorse as well as leaving the area. In all the circumstance, the judge said a one-year suspended sentence was appropriate.
Little Irish flags waved across a packed auditorium in Killarney at one of six ceremonies which will grant approximately 5,200 people Irish citizenship.

Applicants from more than 132 countries will make a declaration of loyalty to the State and become Irish citizens at the INEC Killarney on Monday and Tuesday.

Keith Wood, former Irish and Munster rugby player now TV pundit, attended the ceremony with his wife Nicola, originally from the UK, who became an Irish citizen today.

I found it strangely emotional, Mr Wood said.

Theres a lot of anger globally, and this was something that was bringing it back down to what it is to be Irish, it was pretty cool.

New Irish citizens stand for the national anthem.

Nicola Wood has been living in Ireland for 17 years.

Its been a long time coming. All my boys have gone to school here," she said.

So this completes the family unit.

It was a lovely ceremony. The words were perfect.

Mrs Wood said that Irish citizenship will definitely make travelling easier.

I was always in the long queue going through the airport, she said.

He [Keith Wood] wont have to wait for me anymore!

Ayesha Mustaq, originally from Chennai, India, was granted citizenship today after being in Ireland for six years.

She now lives in Ballincollig, Cork with her three-year-old daughter and her husband.

We came to Ireland because of the inclusivity here. And because it is such a peaceful country to be in, Ayesha said.

My husband and I are from various religious backgrounds and that doesnt matter here at all. Were treated as equal. And its the best place to raise a child.

I feel so glad today. We dont have to take visas anymore to travel and my family all have the same citizenship. Thats a big relief. But it is also slightly bittersweet for Ayesha, who works in IT for an Irish bank, because to take Irish citizenship, she had to renounce her Indian citizenship.

Im happy today but its mixed emotions. Underneath Im Indian, she said.

The family was granted citizenship just days after the government announced plans to tighten migration policy, with stricter rules for citizenship and family reunification to be introduced.

Minister of State with responsibility for Migration, Colm Brophy attended the ceremony and commended the new Irish citizens for their contribution to the country.

Looking around this room, I see more than smiles and proud faces. I see stories. I see courage, charisma, ambition and hope.

I am aware that for many of you here today, the journey to Irish citizenship has been one of great personal effort and sacrifice, Minister Brophy said.

Ireland understands migration deeply. For centuries, Irish people left our shores in search of safety, employment and new opportunities."

Migration is now seen in our hospitals and schools, in our farms and factories, in tech hubs and shops, he said.

"And most importantly, it is seen in our local communities  where you have brought refreshing energy and new dreams to villages, towns and cities right across this island.

You have made Ireland a more diverse, compassionate and culturally rich place, and for this, we thank you.

The packed INEC on Monday.

One woman wiped a tear from her eye as the harp was played during the ceremony.

The Irish tricolour, co-opted by far-right and anti-migrant groups in recent months, stood tall on the stage, once again the symbol of inclusivity that it was designed to be, originally representing a longed-for peace and union between Catholic and Protestant communities in Ireland.

Strangers turned to their neighbours in the INEC auditorium and shook hands as they became Irish citizens.

As people streamed out of the auditorium, some remained to take selfies in the hall to capture and preserve their first moments as Irish citizens.

Wearing a green blazer emblazoned with shamrocks, Albin Scaria, a pharmaceutical scientist and musician, originally from India, said he felt blessed to receive citizenship today.

Albin came to Ireland in 2018 to study a Masters in pharmaceutical sciences with Trinity College Dublin.

I researched Ireland and the culture and the music, everything was so awesome for me. It was a place I always wanted to visit, he said.

I was really blessed to find my course here. And pharmaceuticals is such a big sector here with a lot of companies and investment and expansions in research. So thats why I chose Ireland.

But Im a musician as well. And when I visited the pubs I would see people playing the Irish music and I fell in love with it. So I started playing with the local bands here and learning the different genres.

Albin is now learning Irish tunes on the tin whistle.

Today I am so blessed that I can call myself an Irish citizen, he said.

Thank you to the Irish government and the Irish people for receiving me as one of their own," he said.

Migration minister Colm Brophy with new Irish citizens Mirella Lucas De Carvalho and Caroline Nogueira Lourence.

IT professional Xiao Wan Fing wore a bright green and gold hat that her sister-in-law gave her for todays ceremony.

Xiao, originally from central China, south of the Yellow River, has been in Ireland for six years.

I followed my husband here, she said.

Her British-born husband, a software developer working in the gaming sector, became an Irish citizen last year.

Im very excited. We have a baby here so Im the last one to get Irish rights.

It will feel more like home.

Its not just documents or a passport, its feeling welcome, feeling safe.

Xiao had to renounce her Chinese citizenship to get her Irish passport.

My country does not allow dual citizenship. Its kind of hurtful, because in my heart I will always be Chinese. But its political. It will make it more complicated whenever I have to go back to China.

But the good news is China now offers visa-free for the Irish for one month per year.

Lucie Tiercelin, 24, an architect who is originally from France, also received Irish citizenship today.

Ive been living here 15 years, most of my life, and I feel part of myself is Irish, and I love that Im able to be part of this nation officially and not just as a guest.

Its important to me, to my identity as a person living in Ireland for so long.

Apurv held his daughter Eyana, age 3, in his arms, after his wife was granted Irish citizenship today.

Were from Mumbai in India but we live in Newbridge, Kildare now," he said.

We wanted to explore another part of the world, see different cultures, try different food. Me and my wife love travelling a lot. We both work as software engineers. Irish citizenship will open a lot of opportunities for the family, he said.

There were 1188 citizenship applications from Indians  the highest number of applications.

Brazil had the second highest number of applications on 572.

Romania had the third highest number of applications on 462, followed by the UK on 416.

Poland had 382 application, followed by the Philippines on 271, South Africa on 199, Pakistan on 186, Nigeria on 176, and China including Hong Kong on 154.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told the Oireachtas and Ireland to "use your voice" in opposition to the Russian invasion of his country.

We do not feel your voice, the voice of Ireland, is turning quieter, Mr Zelenskyy said.

Thank you for not losing faith in us, just as we do not lose faith that the day will come when we will welcome all our friends to Ukraine in peace and when we will welcome home all our people who were forced to flee, back to a peaceful Ukraine. We are working to make it real.

A peace without humiliation and based on something truly real, on shared values. Those values are not business as usual, not appeasement of killers, not turning a blind eye to what has happened.

This has gone on far too long to simply close our eyes and turn the page on Russia without the just peace. We need real peace. Help us achieve it and never lose your faith in Ukraine.

Mr Zelenskyy's speech touched on both the Irish and Ukrainian histories as colonised nations. He said the two are "among the few in Europe who spent centuries fighting for the right to remain themselves".

Mrs Martin and First Lady Olena Zelenska (right) in the Dail chamber as they wait for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Picture: Tony Maxwell/Maxwells/PA Wire

The Ukrainian president said it was a "great honour for me to stand here today in a country that understands the price of freedom".

Mr Zelenskyy was introduced by Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy, who said Ireland "is not  and will never be  morally neutral in the face of atrocity".

"The Irish, who themselves have lived the trauma of immigration and war, have opened their hearts and homes to thousands of Ukrainians who now live and work among us. Your people enrich our communities and share their culture, even though their hearts remain with Ukraine.

"Irelands journey to peace was long and hard, but it succeeded because people persevered in the belief that peace is the only solution. That same possibility exists for Ukraine.

"President Zelenskyy, we hope for  and look forward to  the day when Ukraine can celebrate peace. We stand with the Ukrainian people  in solidarity, in friendship, and in hope. May your courage and the strength of your people lead to a just and lasting peace."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his address to a joint sitting in the Dail chamber on Tuesday afternoon during his visit to Ireland. Picture: Tony Maxwell/Maxwells/PA Wire

People Before Profit leader Richard Boyd Barrett defended his partys decision not to applaud before and after Mr Zelenskyys speech, saying that People Before Profit did not believe the war could be solved through military means.

We disagree that there was ever a military solution to this, Mr Boyd Barrett said.

We think when you look at where things are at now, I think if anything that view has been vindicated, because hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost but absolutely no military advance for the people of Ukraine.

Mr Boyd Barrett added that the party rejected the use of the war by the EU and NATO to promote further militarisation.

He said he hopes there will be a ceasefire, but expressed concern that the EU or Mr Zelenskyy would put conditions on a ceasefire.

Obviously Putin is a warmonger as well so its difficult to know what any of these people are, what their actual negotiation position is.

Earlier, during a joint press conference in Government Buildings, Taoiseach Micheal Martin vowed that Ireland would support Ukraine for as long as it takes.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Taoiseach Micheal Martin at a press conference outside Government Buildings as he visits Ireland. Picture: SAM BOAL/Collins Photos

In his opening remarks, Mr Zelenskyy thanked the Irish people and the Government for their support since the outbreak of the war.

I would like to express my special gratitude to the government of Ireland, to all the communities of Ireland, to every Irish home that has sheltered our people here, he said.

It is not easy. After all, there has been almost four years of full-scale war, of challenges of these dimensions.

But we're doing everything we can to ensure that our people can return home safely to a country of peace. We're working towards this goal, and I believe that we can achieve it.

I thank you for your respect for our people, for your respect for Ukraine and for the fact that Ireland stands with us, not simply for political reasons, but because Ireland sincerely defends the rights of peoples to life freedom and independence.

First Lady Olena Zelenska and President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky on a courtesy call with Uachtaran na hEireann Catherine Connolly at Aras an Uachtarain as they make their way down the Francini Corridor to sign the Visitors Book. Picture: Tony Maxwell

The Government recently announced that it would reduce the number of days a Ukrainian refugee can stay in State accommodation from 90 to 30, as well as cutting the Accommodation Recognition Payment.

When asked if he was worried Irish support for Ukraine was waning, Mr Zelenskyy told the Irish Examiner that he was grateful for all support.

Ireland, from the very beginning of the war, chose this side, in my opinion, an honest side, not because I'm the president of Ukraine, but because that's the right thing, he said.

Ireland chose the side of supporting Ukraine and helping Ukrainians. Ireland has been helping Ukrainians who stayed behind in Ukraine and has been helping Ukrainians who have moved to Ireland. We're grateful for that.

The way I was brought up is that I can't criticise help, whether it's getting more or less. We should be grateful."
In recent weeks, the Government has flagged significant proposed changes to entitlements for Ukrainians living in Ireland under the Temporary Protection Directive. These include reducing State-provided accommodation from 90 days to just 30 and lowering the Accommodation Recognition Payment for hosts from 600 to 400.

These discussions are taking place as Russian attacks on Ukraine intensify to a level that makes daily life increasingly unbearable. Before making decisions that may push Ukrainian refugees away, people need to understand the reality of what life in Ukraine is today. The question is not whether Ukrainians still need protection  but whether they now need it more than ever.

Nowhere in Ukraine is safe

As the fourth year of the full-scale invasion approaches, Ukraine lives under constant bombardment. The intensity has not faded with time, it has grown. Russia launches Shahed-type attack drones  small, fast aircraft carrying explosive charges powerful enough to destroy homes.

In recent years, Russia has modernised these drones, making them more lethal, more difficult to detect and shut down, and now uses them alongside ballistic missiles and, in cities closer to the border such as Kharkiv, glide bombs.

Movement of aerial targets over Ukraine: 'There are no geographical limits to danger.'

Where widespread attacks once happened every few weeks, now the pauses last only a few days. According to the Institute for Science and International Security, Russia launches between 150 and 200 drones every night  more than 5,000 per month  and about a thousand reach their targets. These weapons can hit any region, regardless of proximity to the frontline.

Maps tracking a single mass attack show drone trajectories stretching across the entire country. There are no geographical limits to danger.

Photos widely disseminated show mainly the ground combat zones and front lines  these may be the source for the belief that "only 30% of Ukraine is affected by the war". The aerial targets map shows a far more widespread conflict.

In 2025, every one of the 22 Ukrainian-controlled regions experienced strikes.

Even the west of Ukraine, often imagined in Europe as peaceful, is not safe. Ternopil recently suffered a devastating strike on a residential building, killing 34 people  six of them children asleep in their beds. Lviv has endured repeated attacks on homes and energy infrastructure. Even Mukachevo, long considered protected by the Carpathian mountains, has been hit.

There are no safe places left in Ukraine.

Life that becomes survival

Statistics describe scale, but not the exhaustion Ukrainians live with. Nightly strikes prevent sleep. Daily life revolves around planned and emergency power cuts introduced to stabilise a heavily damaged energy grid. Electricity can disappear several times a day for hours at a time. Water and, most dangerously in winter, heating can disappear without warning.

Daily life becomes a race against time: cooking quickly when power returns, washing clothes during short electricity windows, trying to keep homes warm as temperatures fall below zero.

Communication networks, maintained with layers of backup power, have become one of the few anchors of normality. They allow people to receive air-raid alerts, work and study online, shop, and stay in touch with the outside world.

Small and medium-sized businesses also keep society functioning. When electricity fails, the streets fill with the sound of generators. It is noisy and polluting, but shops and cafes continue operating. This hum has become a symbol of resilience: life continues until night falls and the next wave of attacks begins.

Children still attend school, but lessons can be interrupted by air raid sirens. When that happens, students and teachers go to shelters  often adapted basements rather than fully protected bunkers.

Olena Gorb: 'Reducing State accommodation from 90 days to 30 becomes a serious barrier. No one fleeing a war zone can stabilise, register for services, secure employment and find housing in that time.'

But the greatest danger arrives at night. At home, people are almost defenceless. Walls cannot stop the shockwave of a missile. Most buildings lack proper shelters nearby, and even when shelters exist, many residents simply cannot reach them in time.

Those seeking real protection often spend nights in underground car parks or metro stations. One of my friends in Kyiv leaves home well before the first siren and sleeps on a station platform in a sleeping bag. Only there, deep below ground, can she have a proper sleep without being woken up by explosions.

For many families, nights mean trembling windows, shuddering walls, children sleeping dressed, just in case. And the question every parent fears: Mama, are we going to die? Many mothers instinctively cover their children with their bodies during explosions because there is nothing else they can do.

For a working mother or a single parent, every part of daily life and every parental responsibility demands immense effort  all while living with the constant fear of losing what she holds dearest.

It is no surprise so many women with children have come to Ireland seeking protection. The same is true for other vulnerable groups  older people, those with disabilities or serious illnesses, and people who fled frontline or recently occupied cities, leaving behind not only their homes but also their social networks. For them, life in Ukraine has become almost impossible to bear.

It is for these people  as a priority  that temporary protection was created, and why it must continue to exist.

Why the proposed Irish changes may close the door on the most vulnerable

In this context, reducing State accommodation from 90 days to 30 becomes a serious barrier. No one fleeing a war zone can stabilise, register for services, secure employment and find housing in that time. Even 90 days is unrealistic. Thirty days, effectively, means the door is closed. Refugees with no plan, no contacts, no relatives or friends able to host them simply will not risk coming to Ireland.

Reducing Accommodation Recognition Payment will have similar consequences. Lower payment may force host families to end hosting or ask Ukrainians to move into private rentals. And again, how can a single mother who can work only part-time, or an older woman with health issues, possibly secure housing privately when they have no means to do so?

It seems reasonable to reduce support for those who have already had time to adapt and are able to work full-time. But newly arrived people need some form of housing support for at least six to 12 months, until they can find their footing. And the most disadvantaged groups may need ongoing housing support altogether.

Some Ukrainians I have spoken with would welcome the idea of a fair contribution for long-term State accommodation  especially if it brought greater security and predictability to their housing situation. In Ukraine, social welfare standards fall far short of peoples real needs: benefits are minimal and social housing does not exist, so self-reliance is the norm. Those who can work, do work.

But changes must be proportionate and directed toward those who have already had time to adapt  not at people who have just escaped a war zone and need time to find their bearings.

If they are not given that possibility, then applying for international protection instead of temporary protection may become the only option left to them.

Ireland needs honest dialogue  not symbolic decisions

I arrived in Ireland in March 2022 with my 11-year-old daughter. We were welcomed by an extraordinarily kind family near Youghal, and the local community supported us from the first days. The warmth we received, and the fact that I was able to return to work quickly, made me think that perhaps I was meant to be here at this point in my life.

Because I know how welcoming Irish people are, I feel able to ask the Government some direct questions.

What is the true purpose of temporary protection? Who is it meant to help? And is offering only 30 days of accommodation to people arriving from a war-torn country genuine help  or a refusal disguised as assistance?

Only honest answers will lead to policies that are fair, humane and effective. Ireland does not have to choose between supporting its own citizens and supporting Ukrainians. With cooperation between Government, Ukrainian organisations and local communities, it is possible to design solutions that meet the needs of everyone.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyys first official visit to Ireland comes at the most critical and finely balanced phase for Ukraines peace negotiations.

His decision to come to Ireland at this pivotal juncture underscores the important role we have played as a country in supporting Ukraines right to self-defence, while remaining firmly within the limits of our neutrality.

Our unique standing means we have an important contribution to make in any forthcoming peace arrangement, and in guiding Ukraine toward a stable and prosperous future.

Last August, I travelled to Kyiv as convenor of the Ireland-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Group to mark Ukraines Independence Day, and to meet with President Zelenskyy and other senior political figures in the country.

Theres truth in the saying that nothing compares to seeing things with your own eyes. And naturally, our visit could offer only a brief glimpse into the intense suffering and hardship the Ukrainian people endure every day. What I witnessed there however will stay with me for a very long time.

Given the absence of air travel, we spent what felt like an eternity on the train  from Poland to Kyiv. Reaching the city, I was tremendously impressed by the natural beauty of the place, the bordering forests and the banks of the Dnieper River  though given the frequency of Russian attacks in the area, the Department of Foreign Affairs suggested that the stay be short.

I was instructed to download the air raid apps and to be wary of my own security at all times. While travelling within the city, I was joined by Irish ambassador Jonathan Conlon in an armoured vehicle, which really brought home the level of threat the people of Ukraine face on a daily basis.

Firefighters put out the fire after a drone hit a multi-storey residential building during Russia's night drone attack in Kyiv last week. Picture: AP/Efrem Lukatsky

During my discussions in Kyiv, I was surprised to hear the air raid sirens echoing across the city, and even more surprised when no one moved because it has become such a part of everyday life.

One especially moving moment for me was seeing the Irish flags and photos of Irishmen who fought on the frontline and were killed in action at a memorial to the fallen soldiers. One photo was of a man I never knew but actually lived just six miles away from me in Co Kildare.

The human cost is seen and felt everywhere in Kyiv as the war is very much ongoing  the parliament buildings have an incredibly high security detail, as you can imagine. Again, the truly extraordinary security precautions taken during President Zelenskyys visit to Ireland reinforces the ongoing threats confronting him and the people of Ukraine.

When I met Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, chair of Ukraines EU Integration Committee, she told me Ukraine was working to keep the worlds attention focused on the human cost of Russias aggression, from the understanding that when people are not living in a war zone, they grow weary of hearing about it  and switch to the next channel and thats the end of it.

Its not an exaggeration to say that the Irish people have defied this trend of indifference, and its why we are held in such high esteem by President Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine.

We have welcomed displaced families into our communities, we have provided non-lethal military and civilian aid, and have been at the fore in expanding humanitarian aid to those affected by the war.

Senator Aubrey McCarthy: 'As Ukraine advances toward EU membership, we must lead the way in accession talks to ensure Ukraines path to integration remains unobstructed.'

Hopefully, we are on the cusp of a peace settlement, but whatever happens, we will not abandon the Ukrainian people. Recent figures bring to light a commitment of 380m in humanitarian and stabilisation support, including 122m in non-lethal military aid, like demining equipment and medical supplies.

We have welcomed into our communities more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, and we have a further, perhaps even more important, role to play in the weeks and months ahead.

Ireland has a long and treasured history of neutrality, which gives us not only the ability, but the responsibility to be fearless advocates for democracy and peace.

As Ukraine advances toward EU membership, we must lead the way in accession talks to ensure Ukraines path to integration remains unobstructed. We must work from within the EU, to push back against any interference in delaying this and in the meantime, we must continue to support Ukraines right to defend itself, within the limits of our neutrality, through logistical and non-lethal means.

Our voice is one of peace and it is rooted in a history of overcoming disempowerment and the construction of reconciliation through dialogue, as seen in our own Good Friday Agreement.

It is in the name of peace that we must continue to be a leading voice in bringing about an end to this conflict  not by means of escalation or military intervention, but by championing diplomacy, upholding international law, and by amplifying calls for a just resolution.

Around the world, we have contributed to peace, whether through human rights advocacy, or peacekeeping missions, and it is with this same resolve that we must stand unwaveringly with the people of Ukraine.
On Monday, a near five-year legal odyssey came to an end at the High Court with Kilkenny couple Peter and Doreen Thomson being vindicated in full in their battle over a decision to allow a mobile phone mast to be installed next to their home.

In sticking to their guns, the couple did the State and their fellow citizens an enormous service  one which will likely not be fully appreciated by the public at large.

They have also shown that, in the Governments current attempts to stifle access to review of questionable decisions made by State actors, we are heading down a very poorly-lit path.

The Thomsons had argued that the initial decision taken by former deputy chair of An Bord Pleanala Paul Hyde  who subsequently received a criminal conviction for undeclared conflicts of interest during his time at the planning authority  had been the subject of bias, given the alleged statistical improbability of the sheer number of times he had overruled his own planning inspectors when granting permission for telecommunications masts.

Those allegations were never tested in court. Instead, An Coimisiun Pleanala  a name change that resulted directly from the scandals which engulfed it in its previous guise  argued that the Thomsons had taken their challenge outside the eight-week statute of limitations for raising an objection, an argument the High Court initially agreed with.

However, given the seriousness of what they were alleging relating to transparency of public decisions, the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court both said the public interest would be better served by having the Thomsons case argued in court

While the Coimisiun said repeatedly in both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court that it would robustly defend its position, this has not come to pass. Instead, it has dropped its defence entirely.

Accusations of bias

In a statement delivered by its legal counsel, Philip Lee, the Coimisiun insisted accusations of bias are unfounded. However, at the same time, it has elected not to defend them.

The concession of the proceedings means that we will not get to hear any explanation for what was an extraordinary pattern of decision-making by the board in relation to telecoms masts, Eoin Brady, the Thomsons solicitor, said.

Mr Brady, who has taken countless cases relating to dubious mast decisions, called for a 2023-commissioned report by senior counsel Lorna Lynch on governance issues at the then An Bord Pleanala to be published.

It is truly amazing that the relevant authorities are still refusing public access to a report completed at considerable expense to the taxpayer in relation to allegations of systemic wrongdoing at one of the States most important institutions, he said.

But back to the Thomsons. There is tremendous vindication for them here, and doubtless enormous relief also for them personally. The bravery of what they did should not be underestimated. They admitted in the High Court initially that they had not brought the case at first for fear of the enormous financial implications should they lose.

The Thomsons had argued that the initial decision taken by former deputy chair of An Bord Pleanala Paul Hyde had been the subject of bias. File Picture: Dan Linehan

Peter Thomson eventually decided to pursue the case anyway after reporting by the Irish Examiner disclosed Mr Hydes granting permission for mobile phone masts, regardless of whether his own inspectors believed the construction to be appropriate or not.

It has taken enormous courage and fortitude to do what the Thomsons have done. The case is not a sexy one, but they have brought the State to heel and exposed a deeply dubious decision for what it was.

The whole saga is a shining example of what a judicial review process can do when approached in good faith and with a genuine case. A public good has been achieved. Will Ireland learn from this lesson? It seems not.

Judicial review

At present, the Department of Housing is fast-tracking legislation to make access to judicial review much more difficult. In future, if you wish to challenge a questionable planning decision which affects you directly, youll have to be prepared to pay through the nose for it to the tune of well over 100,000.

No longer will the State be covering the costs in full of successful objectors, all in the name of "getting things done".

Those changes have resulted from the Governments mismanagement of the countrys housing crisis, and the optics of needing to be seen to be doing something about it.

Similar deregulatory thinking led to doozies like the 110% mortgage, along with Irelands banks being actively encouraged to throw credit around like confetti in the buildup to a financial crash that brought Ireland to its knees in 2008. Must we always be doomed to repeat our mistakes? Or will sanity ever prevail?

Eoin Brady says: The Thomson case clearly illustrates the critical importance of the availability of judicial review. It shows the importance of preserving access to the courts for ordinary people when faced with decision-making by State institutions which break the law.

Ultimately judicial review is about preserving the rule of law, and ensuring accountability within our institutions, which is key to ensuring cohesion in society. In todays world, that could not be more important.

He is not wrong.
Three octogenarian nuns who gained a global following after breaking out of their care home and moving back to their abandoned convent near Salzburg in Austria have been given leave to stay in the convent until further notice  on condition they stay off social media, Church officials have said.

The rebel sisters  Bernadette, 88, Regina, 86, and Rita, 82, all former teachers at the school adjacent to their convent  broke back into their old home of Goldenstein Castle in Elsbethen, Austria, in September in defiance of their spiritual superiors.

The story prompted headlines around the world.

It also fostered a huge wave of affection for the trio who have built up a loyal following on social media, where they post regular reports about their tumultuous experience and joy at their return.

Support from former pupils

They have been helped by local supporters and former pupils, who have provided them with food, clothing, medical care, and security and installed a chairlift to enable the three to reach their third-floor cells.

The nuns religious superior, provost Markus Grasl from Reichersberg Abbey, had argued that the sisters had to be placed in a care home as they were unable to safely live in the old stone convent.

He repeatedly accused them of breaking their vows of obedience, a claim that the nuns denied.

However, last Friday, church officials said the women could stay at Goldenstein until further notice after a proposal put forward by Grasl aimed at resolving the dispute.

The nuns have yet to agree to the deal.

Priests smuggled in to celebrate Mass

Church officials have reportedly said the nuns will be provided with adequate medical care and nursing help, and a priest would be at their disposal to serve regular Mass.

Over the past months, priests have had to be more-or-less smuggled into the convents chapel to celebrate Mass, against the will of Church authorities.

Among the conditions for the three nuns to remain include the cessation of all social media activity, a ban on outside visitors to the convent, and the settling of a legal dispute.

Should the health conditions of the women deteriorate, they would be registered at the Elsbethen nursing home and placed on the waiting list there.

Now its up to the sisters, Harald Schiffl, a spokesperson for Grasl, told the Austrian news agency APA.

Nuns dismiss provost's statement

In a statement late on Friday, the three nuns, referring to themselves in the third person, denied that either they or their allies had been consulted over the proposal, dismissing it as vague, one-sided and failing to contain any legally binding commitments.

Sisters Regina, 86, Bernadette, 88, and Rita, 81, at a special Mass with over a dozen supporters and former students at the convent chapel after they had moved back into the convent at Schloss Goldenstein in Elsbethen, near Salzburg, Austria. Picture: Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty

In particular the promise as reported in the media, that the sisters would be allowed to remain in the convent, lacks any legal force... due to the inclusion of the clause: until further notice and is therefore legally worthless, the statement, issued by their supporters, said.

Nuns 'resented' restrictive contract

They added that they resented the fact that the conditions according to which they could stay had the character of a restrictive contract equivalent to a restraining order, which would ban them from seeking outside legal help, or using social media.

There was no legal basis whatsoever for the conditions, which would have the effect of depriving them of their only remaining protection from the interested public, they stated.

For an agreement to be reached with the Archdiocese of Salzburg, they added, the church officials would have to finally engage in dialogue with those affected, take their legitimate claims and needs seriously and declare their willingness to agree to a solution that is both just and legally compliant.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, taking to the Kremlin an embryonic peace plan that Washington hopes can end the nearly four-year war in Ukraine.

Coinciding with Mr Witkoffs trip, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travelled to Ireland, continuing his visits to European countries that have helped sustain his countrys fight against Russias invasion.

After months of frustration in his efforts to stop the fighting, US President Donald Trump is deploying officials to get traction for his peace proposals.

So far, the talks have followed parallel lines, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio sitting down with Ukrainian officials, and now Mr Witkoff heading to Moscow.

Ukraine is fighting hard to defend territory (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)

Though this weeks consultations could move the process forward, few details have become public. It remains unclear how envoys are going to bridge the gap between the two sides on such basic differences as who keeps what territory. European officials say the road to peace will be long.

European leaders, who fear Russias future territorial ambitions and are trying to figure out how they can fund Ukraines fight beyond this year, are trying to make their voices heard after being largely sidelined by Washington. They are also working on future security guarantees for Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that he and Mr Zelenskyy, who was on a trip to Paris, spoke by phone to Mr Witkoff. They also spoke to leaders of eight other European countries as well as top European Union officials and Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte.

Mr Macron said that the coming days will see crucial discussions between US officials and Western partners. Mr Zelenskyys visit to Paris followed Sundays meeting between Ukrainian and US officials, which Mr Rubio described as productive.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held talks (Christophe Ena/AP)

Diplomats face a hard time trying to bridge Russian and Ukrainian differences and persuading them to strike compromises. The key obstacles  over whether Kyiv should cede land to Moscow and how to ensure Ukraines future security  appear unresolved.

Mr Zelenskyy is under severe pressure in one of the darkest periods of the war for his country. As well as managing diplomatic pressure, he must find money to keep Ukraine afloat, address a corruption scandal that has reached the top echelons of his government, and keep Russia at bay on the battlefield.

The Kremlin claimed that Russian forces have captured the key Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region but Mr Zelenskyy said that fighting was still ongoing in Pokrovsk on Monday.
Russian president Vladimir Putin on Tuesday warned European powers that if they started a war with Russia then Moscow was ready to fight and that the defeat of European powers would be so absolute that there would be no one left to even negotiate a peace deal.

Four years into the Ukraine war, the deadliest European conflict in Europe since World War Two, Russia has failed to conquer Ukraine, a much smaller neighbour which has been supported by European powers and the United States.

Vladimir Putin and Steve Witkoff (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Ukraine and European powers have repeatedly warned that if Mr Putin wins the Ukraine war then he could attack a Nato member, a claim which Mr Putin has repeatedly dismissed as nonsense.

Asked by a reporter about remarks in the Russian media that Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto had cautioned that Europe was preparing a war against Russia, Mr Putin said that Russia did not want a war with Europe.

"If Europe suddenly wants to start a war with us and starts it," Mr Putin said, then it would end so swiftly for Europe that there would be no one to negotiate with in Europe. Mr Putin used the Russian word for "war".

He also suggested that the war in Ukraine was not a full-blown war and that Russia was acting in a "surgical" manner which would not be repeated in a direct confrontation with European powers.

"If Europe suddenly wants to fight with us and starts, we are ready right now," Mr Putin said.

The Kremlin chief accused European powers of hindering US president Donald Trump's attempts to end the war in Ukraine by putting forward proposals they knew would be "absolutely unacceptable" to Moscow so they could then accuse Russia of not wanting peace.

Mr Putin said European powers had locked themselves out of peace talks on Ukraine because they had cut off contacts with Russia.

"They are on the side of war," Mr Putin said of European powers.

Mr Putin also threatened to sever Ukraine's access to the sea in response to drone attacks on tankers of Russia's "shadow fleet" in the Black Sea.

- Reuters
Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association of North America | 

Letter to the University of Guelph expressing concern at its last-minute cancellation of the Peoples Conference for Palestinian Solidarity

Rene Van Acker

President and Vice-Chancellor,

University of Guelph

president@uoguelph.ca

Dear President Van Acker and Provost Rosehart:

We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our grave concern about the University of Guelphs last-minute decision to cancel the second annual Peoples Conference for Palestinian Solidarity which was to convene at your institution on 29 November 2025. There is reason to believe that this decision was made on political grounds and therefore constitutes an egregious violation of the principles of academic freedom and of the right to freedom of expression.

MESA was founded in 1966 to promote scholarship and teaching on the Middle East and North Africa. The preeminent organization in the field, the Association publishes the prestigious International Journal of Middle East Studies and has nearly 2,800 members worldwide. MESA is committed to ensuring academic freedom and freedom of expression, both within the region and in connection with the study of the region in North America and outside of North America.

Some 400 participants were slated to participate in this conference, which was held last year without incident. As we understand it, a day or two before the conference was due to take place the University of Guelph administration told the organizers that it had not had adequate time to conduct a risk assessment and therefore was cancelling the conference. In fact, all required paperwork had been submitted well in advance, and there are indications that political pressure was exerted on the university. The organizers request for an urgent meeting with the administration to address any gaps in their application went unanswered, so they secured an alternative space off-campus and the conference took place on the originally scheduled date. This does not, however, absolve the university of responsibility for its actions.

In these fraught times university leaders have a heightened responsibility to protect the freedom of speech, academic freedom, and physical safety of all members of the campus community. We call your attention to the statement issued by MESAs board of directors and its Committee on Academic Freedom on 6 May 2024 which denounced actions by university leaders to delegitimize and repress campus advocacy opposing Israels war in Gaza. We also remind you of the statement on Academic Freedom in Times of War issued by the American Association of University Professors on 24 October 2023.

We therefore call on you to offer a full and accurate account of why the university chose to cancel the conference. We further call on you to operate transparently and in full conformity with the University of Guelph Policy Statement on Freedom of Expression with respect to the hosting of future events. We also urge you to publicly apologize for any negative consequences caused by your decision and, because the organizers were forced to relocate the conference off campus at the last minute, we ask you to consider compensating the organizers for any additional expenses they may have incurred. Finally, we call on you to publicly reiterate your commitment to protect the academic freedom and the free speech rights of all members of the University of Guelph community.

We look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Ussama Makdisi

MESA President

Professor, University of California, Berkeley

Judith E. Tucker

Chair, Committee on Academic Freedom

Professor Emerita, Georgetown University

Cc

Farida Shaheed

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education
By Ali Mirchi, Oklahoma State University; Amir AghaKouchak, University of California, Irvine; Kaveh Madani, United Nations University, and Mojtaba Sadegh, Boise State University; United Nations University

(The Conversation)  Fall marks the start of Irans rainy season, but large parts of the country have barely seen a drop as the nation faces one of its worst droughts in decades. Several key reservoirs are nearly dry, and Tehran, the nations capital, is facing an impending Day Zero  when the city runs out of water.

The situation is so dire, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has revived a long-debated plan to move the capital from this metro area of 15 million people.

Previous administrations have floated the idea of moving the capital but never implemented it. Tehrans unbridled expansion has created a host of problems, ranging from chronic water stress and land subsidence to gridlocked traffic and severe air pollution, while also heightening concerns about the citys vulnerability to major seismic hazards.

This time, Pezeshkian has framed relocation as a mandate, not a choice. He warned in November 2025 that if nothing changes, the city could become uninhabitable.

How Iran got to the point of water bankruptcy

Drought has been a concern in this part of the world for millennia. A prayer by the Persian King Darius the Great that was carved in stone more than 2,000 years ago asked his god to protect the land from invaders, famine and lies.

However, today, Irans escalating water and environmental problems are the predictable outcome of decades of treating the regions finite water resources as if they were limitless.

Iran has relied heavily on water-intensive irrigation to grow food in dry landscapes and subsidized water and energy use, resulting in overpumping from aquifers and falling groundwater supplies. The concentration of economic activity and employment in major urban centers, particularly Tehran, has also catalyzed massive migration, further straining already overstretched water resources.

Those and other forces have driven Iran toward water bankruptcy  the point where water demand permanently exceeds the supply and nature cant keep up.

Irans centralized, top-down approach to water governance has proven ineffective in ensuring the sustainability of its water resources and in maintaining a balance between renewable water supply and demand, a gap that has continued to widen.



Image of Qom Province, Iran by mostafa meraji from Pixabay

Since the 1979 revolution, Iran has pursued an aggressive hydraulic mission, building dams and diverting rivers to support sprawling cities and expanding irrigated agriculture. Driven by ideological ambitions, the countrys focus on food self-sufficiency together with international sanctions and economic isolation, have taken a heavy toll on the nations environment, particularly its water resources. Drying lakes, groundwater depletion and rising salinity are now prevalent across Iran, reflecting dire water security risks throughout the country.

As water resource and environmental engineers and scientists, including a former deputy head of Irans Department of Environment, we have followed the countys water challenges for years. We see viable solutions to its chronic water problems, though none is simple.

Falling water reserves leave Iran vulnerable

Experts have been warning for years that the lack of foresight to tackle Irans water bankruptcy problem leaves the country increasingly vulnerable to extreme climate conditions.

Iranians are again seeing those risks in this latest drought.

Precipitation has been well below normal in four of the water years since 2020. That has contributed to a sharp decline in reservoir levels. Fall 2025 has been the hottest and driest fall on record for Tehran since 1979, testing the resilience of its water system.

The city faces mounting stress on already diminished groundwater reserves, with little relief in sight without significant rainfall.

Shrinking snowpack and shifting rainfall patterns make it harder to predict how much water will flow in rivers and when. Rising temperatures make the problem worse by boosting demand and leaving less water in the rivers.

There is no quick fix to resolve Tehrans water emergency. In the near term, only significantly more rainfall and a reduction in consumption can offer respite.

Panicky moves to increase interbasin water transfers, such as the TaleqantoTehran water transfer to pump water from the Taleqan Dam, over 100 miles (166 km) away, are not only inadequate, they risk worsening the water supply and demand imbalance in the long run. Iran has already experimented with piping water between basins, and those transfers have in many cases fueled unsustainable growth rather than real conservation, worsening water problems both in the donor and recipient basins.

At its core, Tehrans predicament stems from a chronic mismatch between supply and demand, driven by rapid population growth.

Whether relocating the political capital, as suggested by Pezeshkian, could meaningfully reduce the citys population, and hence the water demand, is highly doubtful.

The sparsely populated Makran region in the countrys southeast, along the Gulf of Oman, has been mentioned as a potential option, touted as a lost paradise, though details on how much of the city or population would move remain unclear.

Meanwhile, other major Iranian cities are facing similar water stresses, highlighting the fact that this is a nationwide threat.

Water solutions for a dry country

The country needs to start to decouple its economy from water consumption by investing in sectors that generate value and employment opportunities with minimal water use.

Agricultural water consumption can be reduced by producing higher-value, less water-intensive crops, taking into account food security, labor market and cultural considerations. Any water savings could be used to replenish groundwater.

Becoming more open to global trade and importing water-intensive crops, rather than growing them, would also allow Iran to use its limited agricultural land and water to grow a smaller set of strategic staple crops that are critical for national food security.

Thats a transition that will be possible only if the country moves toward a more diversified economy that allows for reduced pressure on the countrys finite resources, an option that seems unrealistic under economic and international isolation.

Urban water demand could be reduced by strengthening public education on conservation, restricting high-consuming uses such as filling private swimming pools, and upgrading distribution infrastructure to minimize leaks.

Treated wastewater could be further recycled for both drinking and nonpotable purposes, including maintaining river flows, which are currently not prioritized.

Where feasible, other solutions such as flood management for aquifer recharge, and inland groundwater desalination, can be explored to supplement supplies while minimizing environmental harm.

Taken together, these measures require bold, coordinated action rather than piecemeal responses.



Image of Tehran by Mohammad Shahhosseini from Pixabay

Renewed talk of relocating the capital signals how environmental stresses are adding to the complex puzzle of Irans national security concerns. However, without addressing the root causes of the nations water bankruptcy, we believe moving the capital to ease water problems will be futile.

Ali Mirchi, Associate Professor of Water Resources Engineering, Oklahoma State University; Amir AghaKouchak, Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine; Kaveh Madani, Director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, United Nations University, and Mojtaba Sadegh, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, Boise State University; United Nations University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The International Criminal Court said Monday it had taken into custody a Libyan militia leader suspected of overseeing murder, torture, and rape at the notorious Mitiga prison near Tripoli.

The court said that Khaled Mohamed Ali El Hishri, arrested in Germany in July, was now in the ICC detention centre in The Hague to await his first appearance before judges.

El Hishri faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity during his alleged time as a senior official at the prison, where "thousands were detained for long periods," the ICC said.

An initial appearance will be scheduled in due course for El Hishri, the court said in a statement.

According to Der Spiegel magazine, he was arrested at Berlin airport in July as he attempted to fly to Tunis.

He remained in German custody while legal proceedings were being completed.

Oil-rich Libya is still grappling with the aftermath of the armed conflict and political chaos that followed the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled long-time dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

The country remains divided between a United Nations-recognised government in the west and its eastern rival, backed by military commander Khalifa Haftar.
US President Donald Trump told Israel on Monday to avoid destabilizing Syria and its new leadership, days after a deadly operation by Israeli forces killed 13 people.

Trump spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and invited him for another White House visit, Netanyahu's office said shortly after Trump issued the warning.

"It is very important that Israel maintain a strong and true dialogue with Syria, and that nothing takes place that will interfere with Syria's evolution into a prosperous State," Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

The US leader has been pushing for a security pact between Israel and Syria since President Ahmed al-Sharaa's Islamist coalition overthrew longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad a year ago.

But tensions have risen over hundreds of strikes by Israel on Syria, and in the deadliest so far Israeli forces killed 13 people on Friday in an operation in the southern village of Beit Jin.

Syria called the Israeli operation a "war crime." Israel said it targeted an Islamist group.

Trump said he was "very satisfied" with Syria's performance under former Islamist rebel Sharaa, who made a historic visit to the White House a few weeks ago.

The US president insisted that Sharaa "is working diligently to make sure good things happen, and that both Syria and Israel will have a long and prosperous relationship together."

He added that the United States was "doing everything within our power to make sure the Government of Syria continues to do what was intended" to rebuild the war-torn country.

- 'Expanding' peace agreements -

Good relations between Syria and Israel would add to his efforts for a wider Middle East peace following the fragile Gaza ceasefire in October, added Trump.

The Trump administration lifted sanctions against Syria as part of its efforts to help Sharaa, while Washington says Damascus is joining the global coalition against the Islamic State group.

Netanyahu and Trump discussed "expanding" regional peace deals when they spoke on Monday, the Israeli prime minister's office said in a statement that came hot on the heels of Trump's post.

"Trump has invited Prime Minister Netanyahu to a meeting at the White House in the near future," it said.

Netanyahu has already made more visits to Trump than any other foreign leader since the US president's return to power.

"The two leaders stressed the importance and obligation of disarming Hamas and demilitarizing the Gaza Strip, and discussed expanding the peace agreements," Netanyahu's office said.

Israel has defended its right to keep on striking militant groups in neighboring countries despite the Gaza deal with Palestinian armed group Hamas and last year's ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Israeli army said the targets of the Beit Jin operation were fighters from Jamaa Islamiya, an Islamist group based in Lebanon and allied with Hamas.

Netanyahu meanwhile drew a sharp rebuke from Damascus and others in the region after visiting Israeli troops deployed in the buffer zone which has separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights since 1974.
A US admiral acting under the authority of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a second strike that targeted survivors of an initial attack on an alleged drug smuggling boat, the White House said Monday.

The legality of the Trump administration's deadly strikes against suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean and Pacific has been questioned, and reports of the follow-up attack on survivors triggered further accusations of a possible war crime.

Venezuela's leftist leader Nicolas Maduro has accused Washington of using drug trafficking as a pretext for "imposing regime change" in Caracas and rejected a "slave's peace" for the region, amid mounting fears of US military action.

A total of 11 people were killed in the two strikes in early September, the first in a months-long military campaign that has so far left more than 80 dead.

Trump's administration insists it is effectively at war with alleged "narco-terrorists," and the White House said Admiral Frank Bradley, who currently leads US Special Operations Command, had acted legally and properly in ordering a second strike.

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," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told journalists.

Hegseth "authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes," she said.

With pressure on the Pentagon chief, Hegseth appeared to stress the decision was Bradley's.

"I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made -- on the September 2 mission and all others since," he posted Monday evening on X, calling Bradley "an American hero."

Some military personnel under the condition of anonymity told the Washington Post that this is "protect Pete bulls---."

Another military official told the publication that Leavitt's statement "left it up to interpretation" who was responsible for the second strike and implored the White House to provide more clarity.

"We will eventually find out what really happened," promised Republican Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who has opened an investigation into the matter.

Democrats also pounced on the issue, with Senator Chris Murphy accusing Hegseth of "passing the buck."

"Both Republicans and Democrats are coming to the conclusion that this was an illegal, wildly immoral act, and he is shifting the blame," Murphy told broadcaster CNN.

Congressman Mike Turner, a Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said lawmakers have yet to be briefed on the "double-tap" strike.

"People have been very concerned about how these strikes have been operated," Turner said on the same news broadcast.

US media reported last week that an initial September 2 strike left two people alive who were killed in a subsequent attack to fulfill Hegseth's orders, but Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell insisted that "this entire narrative was false."

Subsequent strikes that left survivors were followed by search-and-rescue efforts that recovered two people in one case and failed to find another later in October.

- 'Over the line' -

The military action on September 2 would appear to run afoul of the Pentagon's own Law of War Manual, which states: "For example, orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal."

Democratic Senators Jacky Rosen and Chris Van Hollen have said the September 2 strikes may be a war crime, while Senator Mark Kelly called Monday for Congress to investigate.

"I'm concerned that if there were, in fact, as reported, survivors clinging to a damaged vessel, that that could be over a line," the former fighter pilot and astronaut told reporters.

Kelly was one of six lawmakers who released a video last month saying "illegal orders" can be refused -- a move that infuriated Trump and sparked a Pentagon probe into the "potentially unlawful comments" by the retired US Navy officer.
Venezuelan officials accused the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor's office on Monday of "shirking" their duties after the court annouced it will close its Caracas office for lack of progress.

The ICC opened the bureau in 2024 to work alongside Venezuelan officians to investigate the South American country's alleged crimes against humanity during protests in 2017.

ICC deputy prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang has said the closure is a result of a lack of "real progress" in working with the Venezuelan government, but the investigation will continue.

In a statement, Venezuelan officials accused the ICC of failing to "show the slightest commitment or spirit of cooperation."

The ICC "also did not provide contributions or recommendations to Venezuela's various initiatives, irresponsibly shirking responsibilities it had previously assumed," Venezuelan officials said, accusing the ICC of doing nothing while planning to "instrumentalize justice for political purposes."

Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Canada filed a complaint with the ICC in 2018, accusing Venezuela of human rights violations.

The ICC gained formal recognition to work in Venezuela under an agreement with President Nicolas Maduro in November 2021.

Established in 2002, the ICC is the world's only independent court devoted to investigating the most serious crimes, such as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
From November 24 to 28, 14 victims who joined the case as civil parties and five witnesses appeared before the judges and jurors to testify about what they experienced. They included several rape victims, who were heard in closed session. A traditional Pygmy chief from Epulu whom Justice Infos correspondent met in Mambasa, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), before he came to Paris, spoke again of the cruel acts endured by his community. He is identified only by the initials TUK.

Former Congolese rebel leader Roger Lumbala is being prosecuted by French justice for complicity in crimes against humanity, including alleged acts of rape, murder, torture and looting committed by his men during the Effacer le tableau (Wipe the Slate Clean) military operation. This was led by his movement, the Congolese Rally for Democracy-National (RCD-N). It was supported by Jean-Pierre Bembas MLC (Congo Liberation Movement), and aimed to conquer an area stretching to Beni and Butembo which was then controlled by warlord Mbusa Nyamwisi.

Raping even a pregnant woman

We had just withdrawn to the forest when the Effacer le tableau troops attacked us. They did not respect our laws and customs, they broke into our houses to search, because they said we were hiding APCs [enemy soldiers of Mbusa Nyamwisi]. They came out with our belongings, TUK told the court. The act that shocked this indigenous Pygmy chief the most during the October 2003 attack was the rape of his sister, then his aunt.

My sister was pregnant and resting at home when we were attacked by four armed men. They took turns raping my sister in front of me and my father. I understood that wiping the slate clean meant destroying everything, said the victim, describing the brutal death of his sister, who could not be saved.

The chief told the court that he feared the same thing would happen to his wife, whom they had asked to prepare a meal. They ate and took me as their guide to help them out of the forest, he said. On my way back, I saw the whole village in tears. My sister had been raped and was bleeding; she was nearing the end of her pregnancy. We had no way of transporting her to a hospital. She died three days after the incident. We buried her in a hole dug by a wild animal. We buried her like an animal. He then spoke of what happened to his aunt. She too was raped by three men, in the presence of my younger brother. Since then, she has been suffering from mental health issues, he said.

I came to defend justice

The victims travelled from the DRCs Mambasa region to Paris, France, because they say they want to defend their rights to justice and reparations.

I came to defend justice and human rights. I travelled along dangerous roads to reach Beni and then flew to Paris because I want justice, explained the Pygmy chief, who regrets that Lumbala is not attending his trial. We came to tell him face to face what his undisciplined men did to our communities, he says. Lumbala decided at the start of the trial to boycott it, saying he did not recognize the court and its jurisdiction to try him. Roger Lumbala is afraid of his fate. If he were here, I would identify him, point out the man who arrived in Epulu. He is afraid because it is concerns him, said the victim. He claims to have personally seen Lumbala land in Epulu, bringing ammunition to his men and some assistance to local communities.

They burned our hunting nets

He had stepped down from a helicopter that landed on the ICCN runway (Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation in Epulu). He was dressed in a suit like me and had brought a few bags of salt and bars of soap that we shared. He had even held a meeting, the victim recounted. Asking the court for compensation, he then continued: I wanted to return from Paris with our hunting nets. They helped us catch game. They brought us money. We used them to catch mbuluku (antelope) so that tourists could admire them, and they paid us in return. But since they burned our nets, we have been living in poverty. Just imagine, the nets were used by more than 2,000 members of our community!

All the victims who took the stand expressed their need for justice and compensation. But the court president urged them to be patient, saying this court is tasked with the penal aspect and limited to deciding if Lumbala is guilty or not. Only if guilt is confirmed will another court hear a civil case to determine compensation to civil parties  which, he pointed out, is not automatic because convicted persons may be indigent and there is a lack of mechanisms for compensating victims.

Lumbalas responsibility

During this first week of victim hearings, the court sought above all to understand Lumbalas level of responsibility. The accused had told investigating judges that he was acting under the command of the MLC. Victims confirmed that they had seen the MLC bring military reinforcements to Lumbalas men in Mambasa, Epulu, and Isiro.

The court also drew on media reports in Congolese and Ugandan newspapers, as well as international media like RFI, in which Lumbala appeared to claim full responsibility for the RCD-N movement and being the father of the Effacer le tableau military operation. If these troops were not from the RCD-N, they would never have agreed to go and get killed for me, he told a journalist. The court listened to a December 2002 RFI news report in which Lumbala welcomed a UN-facilitated ceasefire agreement signed by the RCD-KML, RCD-N and MLC in Gbadolite, seemingly indicating that the RCD-N was acting independently and not under the MLC. The soldiers of Effacer le tableau were accused of crimes both before and during the MLC support. Among the first to denounce them was the bishop of the Butembo-Beni diocese who pointed to acts of cannibalism, according to the press reports read at Fridays hearing.

A historic trial for the DRC?

The crimes of which Lumbala is accused are among hundreds documented in the United Nations Mapping Report, which charts more than 600 serious crimes committed between 1993 and 2003 in the DRC. There have not been any trials to date for these crimes in the DRC, where some of the alleged perpetrators remain in power.

At Lumbalas trial, names continue to be mentioned, notably those of former MLC leaders Bemba and Constant Ndima. In December 2002 Bemba denied his troops were involved in Mambasa. However, Justice Info has spoken with dozens of witnesses and victims who claim that Bembas troops did indeed support Lumbala in his reconquest of Mambasa in late October 2002, and that they were led by Commander Ramses Widi Divioka, alias King of Fools, who reported to Ndima, now a general in the Congolese army. In a 2002 article read at Fridays hearing, Ndima explained the meaning of the Effacer le tableau concept: The enemy, Mbusa Nyamwisis RCD-KML, is like writing that is unnecessarily on the slate and so must be wiped out, the former MLC military commander explained, countering accusations that the military operation targeted the Nande ethnic group and indigenous Pygmies.

Other victims, witnesses, and experts will be heard this week, some in person and others via videoconference from Bunia or Kinshasa.

Our correspondents stay in Paris is supported by TRIAL International and Impunity Watch, which are involved on the side of the civil parties. This support in no way compromises his independence, we mention it for the sake of transparency.
Two journalist unions have filed a legal complaint in France against Israel for allegedly obstructing the work of French journalists in the Palestinian territories, including by denying access to Gaza, they said Tuesday.

Israel has not allowed international journalists into the blockaded Palestinian territory since the start of the war in October 2023 against Palestinian militant group Hamas, except when embedded with Israeli forces.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) was among several international news organisations in July to urge Israel to allow reporters in and out of the war-torn territory.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the French Journalists' Union last week filed the complaint with the Paris anti-terror prosecutor's office, accusing Israel of "obstructing the freedom to inform" in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, they said in a joint statement.

IFJ general secretary Anthony Bellanger said the complaint was the latest attempt to pressure Israel into opening up Gaza to the international press.

"For more than two years, the IFJ has been calling for the borders to be opened to the foreign press so that they can relieve our colleagues who are exhausted by two years of war," said Bellanger.

The unions said they based their complaint on "numerous testimonies" from French journalists whose identities they are withholding for their security.

The complaint, a copy of which AFP obtained, also mentioned a journalist being pursued by around 50 Israeli citizens armed with "guns, cans of petrol and sticks" while reporting in the West Bank in the presence of the Israeli army.

The incident presents "the characteristic elements of a war crime", the complaint's authors argued.

It is the latest of several such complaints linked to the Gaza war in France, where the authorities have jurisdiction in the case of an alleged breach of rights or crime against a French citizen.

In another case, prosecutors have asked an investigating judge to look into allegations that the killing of two French children in Gaza in October 2023 was a war crime.

Violence in the West Bank has soared since October 2023, and has not ceased despite the fragile truce between Israel and Hamas coming into effect in October.

The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory military assault on Gaza has killed at least 70,103 people, most of them civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. The United Nations considers those figures reliable.

More than 220 journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, according to press watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF),






Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - Detectives in Kirinyaga East have arrested three men behind the brutal murder of Jackline Waruguru Kathuri, whose lifeless body was found on 22nd November 2025 in Ninga-ini village, Kirinyaga East Sub-County.

The discovery followed a distress call made to Kiamutugu Police Station about a lifeless body lying in the area.

Responding quickly, officers discovered the body had severe burn wounds, a missing right upper arm and breast, and visible head injuries.

The body was later taken to Kerugoya County Referral Hospital for preservation and autopsy.

Determined to hold the culprits accountable, detectives quickly launched a manhunt.

Through forensic leads, they arrested the main suspect, Collins Muchira Ngege.

Upon interrogation, Ngege guided officers to his accomplices, John Brian Kimotho Kamau and Stephen Muchiri Karani, who were also arrested.

Preliminary findings show that the deceased left home on 16th November 2025 and never returned.

She was brutally attacked and dragged to a nearby thicket where she was left for dead.

The three suspects are now in custody undergoing processing pending arraignment.

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Tuesday, December 02, 2025 - A Kenyan man has sparked buzz online after sharing his experience at the popular Kikuyu cultural event, Ngemi Festival, which took place over the weekend.

Writing on X (formerly Twitter), the vendor revealed that while running his food tent at Ngemi 5.0, he was struck by the number of openly gay men attending the festival.

His candid post quickly went viral, drawing mixed reactions from netizens.

The Ngemi Festival has grown from a small community gathering into one of Kenyas most vibrant cultural showcases.

Known for blending Kikuyu heritage with modern creativity, the event features traditional music, dance, art, and authentic cuisine alongside contemporary performances.

The festival has become popular among Gen Z and millennials, who are eager to reconnect with their roots while enjoying a modern festival vibe.

While the vendors observation surprised many, others praised the festival for offering a safe space where people can express themselves freely.

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - New details have emerged surrounding the death of 25-year-old Festus Lee Oromo, who fell from the 14th floor of Heartland Apartments on Kindaruma Road, Kilimani, on Sunday evening.

According to police reports, Festus had checked into the Airbnb on November 28th in the company of 48-year-old Lillian Mbeki, a woman described as financially well-off and holding dual Kenyan-Costa Rican citizenship, along with another man identified as Patrick Jagongo.

Investigators say Festus and Lillian met earlier this year on the dating app, Tinder, and their relationship grew close over time.

Sources indicate that Lillian made frequent trips to Kenya to spend time with him.

Detectives are now working to determine whether Festus fatal plunge was accidental or the result of foul play.





Court filings at the Kibera Law Courts reveal that the apartment was found in disarray, hinting at a possible confrontation before the incident.

Lillian was reportedly found asleep in one of the bedrooms when police arrived and is said to have been intoxicated.

Personal documents and clothing belonging to Festus were also recovered inside the unit.

Visitor logs further show that several other individuals accessed the apartment in the days leading up to the tragedy.

Lillian told detectives that she, Festus, and Patrick had been drinking together on the night of the incident.

She claims that she went to bed after leaving the two men in the living room, a statement now under close scrutiny.

Both Lillian and Patrick were arrested on Sunday, with Lillian apprehended at the apartment and Patrick later detained in Kahawa West.

A court has granted investigators 14 days to hold and question the two as they work to reconstruct Festus final moments.

Below are photos of Lillian, who is now a key suspect in the mysterious death.

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Tuesday, December 02, 2025 - Residents of Nairobis upscale Kilimani neighborhood are still shaken after the shocking death of a young man identified as Festus Lee Oromo, who plunged from the 14th floor of Heartland Apartments along Kindaruma Road.

Festus body was discovered on the roof of a white Nissan Tiida parked within the apartment, bearing severe injuries consistent with a highimpact fall.

A postmortem later confirmed extensive trauma to his head, chest, and abdomen, alongside fractures to both legs.

The vehicle he landed on was left badly damaged.

Investigators revealed that Festus had checked into an Airbnb, unit 1406, Block B, on November 28th, accompanied by two individuals, Lilian Moraa Mbeki, a 48yearold mother of three with dual citizenship in Kenya and Costa Rica, and Patrick Jagongo.

Court documents presented at Kibera Law Courts indicate Lilian was reportedly discovered asleep in one of the bedrooms, allegedly intoxicated, while Festus personal belongings were recovered at the scene.

Preliminary reports suggest Festus and Lilian met earlier this year through Tinder and had maintained a close relationship.

Visitor logs also show several other guests accessed the apartment in the days leading up to the tragedy.

Detectives say Lilian claimed she retired to the bedroom, leaving Festus and Patrick drinking in the living room.

Both suspects are now being held for 14 days as investigations continue, with toxicology tests underway to determine whether substances played a role.

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Tuesday, December 02, 2025 - Controversial nominated Senator Karen Nyamu has once again stirred online debate with her latest hot take on relationships.

In a bold Facebook post, Nyamu warned men against dating broke women, claiming that a broke woman is in business, not love.

She went on to insist that only financially stable women deserve a mans affection, a statement that quickly sent social media into a frenzy.

Her remarks elicited mixed reactions.

Many men agreed, arguing that for some women, dating can become a survival strategy rather than a romantic pursuit.

On the other hand, critics, especially women, felt Nyamus comments were dismissive and undermined the struggles of those she should be uplifting.

The mother of three, whose own love-life is a script of a soap opera, has never shied away from controversy, and her latest statement proves she remains unapologetically outspoken in matters of love and lifestyle.

See the post and reactions below.

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Monday, December 01, 2025 - Kenyans living in the United States without proper documentation now have a new option to return home voluntarily, with the U.S Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirming that civil fines will be cleared for those who self-deport.

The self-deportation initiative was first announced in March 2025 by President Donald Trump, sparking skepticism among critics who viewed the move as punitive.

However, recent updates on the DHS portal outline a structured pathway designed to make voluntary departure more appealing.

Through a dedicated app, immigrants are required to submit personal details including their full name, current address and a recent photograph.

Once registered, participants gain access to several benefits.

Among them is a USD 1,000 exit bonus - about Ksh129, 000 at the current exchange rate - paid upon completion of departure.

The U.S Government will also cover travel costs, including airfare and related transportation, ensuring migrants return home without financial strain.

Another incentive is exemption from civil fines linked to overstaying.

Registered users are temporarily shielded from enforcement actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), allowing them to plan their exit without fear of detention.

The program emphasizes accountability, enabling individuals to conclude personal, professional, and educational commitments before leaving.

Importantly, voluntary departure preserves the possibility of legally re-entering the U.S in the future.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said the measure could save taxpayers up to 70 percent, noting that it costs an average of USD 17,000 (Ksh2.1 million) to arrest, detain, and deport an immigrant.

Since January, ICE has deported hundreds of non-citizens via commercial flights, though exact figures remain unclear.

In August, Kenyan Samuel Kangethe went viral after revealing that he self-deported, citing fears of Trumps tougher immigration laws.

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Tuesday, December 02, 2025 - American digital nomad and YouTuber, Austin Holloman, has vowed never to return to the U.S after settling in Nairobi, Kenya, a city he now calls home.

Having traveled to more than 50 countries, Holloman says Kenya offered him something he didnt know he was searching for, freedom, community and peace.

I was running away from the U.S. because of the social life aspect, he explained.

Yes, theres the high cost of living, yes, theres GMO, yes, theres racism, and yes, its a violent state, everything played a factor.

In America, Holloman found it difficult to organize simple gatherings with friends.

In Nairobi, however, spontaneous meetups and warm social circles quickly became his norm.

Within hours of arriving to shoot travel content, he felt a spiritual shift.

God told me that any doubts I had about Kenya were irrelevant. I fell in love within the first few hours, he shared.

Today, Holloman resides in Kileleshwa, one of Nairobis leafy neighborhoods, paying KSsh 97,000 monthly for a modern apartment that would cost over KSh 517,000 in Dallas.

His monthly budget ranges between Ksh 155,000 and KSh 645,000 depending on lifestyle and travel, yet he insists Nairobi offers financial peace he never had in the U.S.

Goods and services, he estimates, are four times cheaper.

Beyond affordability, Holloman treasures the emotional ease, safety, comfort, and belonging.

I came here to rebuild my life, he said simply.

And now, Im not going back.

The Kenyan DAILY POST
Paul Neilan

A convicted murderer has been granted leave to pursue a High Court challenge against the Minister for Justice over a separate conviction he received in his absence in Portugal, which allegedly "prejudices" him in his efforts to get to an open prison.

Double-Killer Derek Wade says his rehabilitation and ability to move to an open prison in Ireland is being prejudiced because he cannot be granted bail with the Portuguese extradition warrant outstanding, affecting his parole efforts.

Wade is serving a life sentence, having been found guilty by a jury in 2007 of the murder of Chinese student Zhi Song, whom Wade stabbed to death with a chefs carving knife after breaking into his house in June 2005.

He also received a five-year sentence for trying to rob another resident of a house on Reuben Avenue, Xiau Wen Zhou, of her purse on the same occasion.

Wade (45), formerly of Church Avenue South, Rialto, has also served a separate seven-year sentence for killing William Cahill (28) in a flat complex off Jamess Street in 1997. Wade and another man repeatedly kicked their victim in the head following a row after a party.

A European Arrest Warrant from August 2022, issued by Portuguese authorities sought the surrender of Wade to Portugal to enforce a sentence of two years and four months' imprisonment for both aggravated and petty theft committed in June 2005.

Wade was convicted of the thefts in his absence in 2009 in Portugal, when he was in custody here. The entirety of the sentence remains to be served, and Wade applied to have that sentence transferred to Ireland.

Mr Justice Kerida Naidoo granted the request by Portuguese authorities in June 2023 seeking the extradition of Wade for the thefts.

The surrender was postponed on the basis that Wade is still a prisoner serving a sentence in the State.

Wade's lawyers submitted that "the remand in custody on the EAW has caused him prejudice because it impacted on his ability to progress with the prison system, in particular to progress to an open prison", which would be a factor in Parole Board recommendations.

"The applicant [Wade] could not by law be granted bail on the EAW matter pursuant to the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003," it is submitted.

Wade had objected to his surrender on a number of grounds, including the delay in issuing the warrant and the consequences of being remanded in custody.

In January 2024, Wade asked authorities here to allow him to serve the Portuguese sentence in this jurisdiction, but no decision has been made by the Minister for Justice on the transfer request.

An order is sought from the High Court directing the Minister to consider and determine the application, and his lawyers submit there is a statutory duty on the Minister to make that decision "within a reasonable period of time".

"The outstanding decision is causing the applicant prejudice in respect of him stepping down to an open prison and availing of temporary release," it is submitted.

Wade's next parole hearing is in December 2026.

At the High Court this week, Fiona Murphy SC, for Wade, successfully applied for leave for a judicial review in the matter. Ms Justice Mary Rose Gearty granted leave and adjourned the case to February.
THE KILLASHEE Hotel, located 2km outside Naas town, celebrated its win of two major awards at the IHI Hospitality Management Awards.

The event, which took place ln the Clayton Hotel, Burlington Road, Dublin 4 on Thursday, 27 November, brought businesses from all over the country.

Killashee Hotel General Manager, Ger Alley was awarded Hotelier of the Year sponsored by Broadline Group, while Phillip Gleeson was awarded Executive Head Chef of the Year sponsored by Unilever.

The hotel's chef, Phillip Gleeson, being presented with the award for HMA Executive Head Chef of the Year

A third team member Paul Berry was one of the nominees for the Food & Beverage Manager of the Year. Both awards were presented by Ciara Drohan, IHI President.

The Hospitality Management Awards are a prestigious celebration of excellence within the hospitality industry. The awards honour outstanding individuals in the hospitality industry, recognising their professionalism, dedication, leadership and innovation.

The focus is on the individuals who make the industry thrive, acknowledging both their leadership and the impact they have on shaping high standards of service, innovation, and teamwork.

Nominated by their colleagues or managers, nominees are assessed through a rigorous judging process that evaluates leadership, technical expertise, continuous learning and the innovation and enthusiasm they bring to their roles.
Kildare County Council is looking for primary schools to participate in an innovative Irish language initiative, Sceim na bhFainni (The Scheme of the Rings).

It aims to encourage and support the increased use of the Irish language among sixth class students, as they prepare for the transition to post-primary, but can only support the first 20 applicants.

It is developed by the Councils Irish Language Committee, Coiste Gaeilge and supported by Cill Dara le Gaeilge and Conradh na Gaeilge.

To participate, teachers are asked to facilitate a six-week programme aiming to increase the amount of spoken Irish in the four weeks leading up to and during Seachtain na Gaeilge.

Content and language-integrated learning is central to the programme, with Ealain (Art), Corpoideachas (PE), Ceol (Music) all done through Irish.

As part of the programme, students are required to undertake two Irish language-related projects of their own choosing, like researching the Irish origins of Logainmneacha Aitiula (Local Placenames), or perhaps collecting Seanfhocail agus Nathanna Cainte (Irish Proverbs and Idioms).

Other project ideas include staging a Drama as Gaeilge (Irish Language Drama), hosting Coinni Puipead (Puppet Meet and Greets) as Gaeilge, and with a modern twist - creating Meimeanna Gaeilge (Irish Language Memes).

During Seachtain na Gaeilge 2026, successful participants of Sceim na bhFainni projects will be presented with a Fainne Gaeilge, and their schools will receive Teastas Sceim na bhFainni (Sceim na bhFainni Certificate).

An Comhairleoir Noel Connolly, Cathaoirleach Choiste Gaeilge Chomhairle Contae Chill Dara (Chair of Kildare County Councils Irish Language Committee)  and one of the few councillors who always puts his airgid where his beal is  explains:

Coiste Gaeilge has built upon the pilot scheme and research that had been done by the outgoing committee, and we are delighted to now administer Sceim na bhFainni to up to 20 schools across County Kildare.

It is wonderful to have support from Conradh na Gaeilge and Cill Dara le Gaeilge and we are very much looking forward to visiting schools and meeting teachers and students across the county during Seachtain na Gaeilge, to learning about the various Sceim na bhFainni class projects and to presenting students with their Fainni Gaeilge.
Naas Racecourse has announced Ballymore as the new title sponsor of its flagship Grade 1 race, the 100,000 Ballymore Novice Hurdle, which will take place on Sunday, 4th January 2026.

The new three-year sponsorship marks a major partnership for one of the most anticipated early-season contests for emerging National Hunt stars. As the first major race meeting of the new year, the Grade 1 Ballymore Novice Hurdle sets the tone for the Irish racing calendar and is recognised as a key stepping stone for future champions.

Ballymore is one of Ireland and the UKs most innovative and dynamic property developers, having delivered hundreds of thousands of square feet of commercial workspace, cultural, retail, and leisure environments that anchor its neighbourhoods, as well as more than 15,000 homes in Ireland and 20,000 in the UK.

Alongside its development work, Ballymore  which was founded in Kildare in 1982 by Chairman and Group Chief Executive Sean Mulryan, together with his wife Bernardine Mulryan  has maintained a strong commitment to Irish sport, grassroots organisations, and community development.

Speaking of the news, Sean Mulryan said: We are thrilled to sponsor the Grade 1 Novice Hurdle at Naas for the next three years and to have the Ballymore name associated with this prestigious race. It is a perfect fit for us as we continue to align ourselves with sport across Ireland.

As an international business with its roots firmly in Kildare, we are proud to support our home community in this way.

Aidan McGarry, General Manager of Naas Racecourse, also welcomed Ballymore on board and said, Ballymore has been a tremendous supporter of Irish racing, and we are delighted to have them involved in our flagship Grade 1 fixture for the next three years. With an illustrious roll call of past winners, the Ballymore Novice Hurdle gives some of Irelands top novices the chance to showcase their talent in advance of the major spring festivals. We are all set for a fantastic day that wraps up the Christmas & New Year Racing season, and we have some further big announcements in the coming days for racegoers to look forward to.

Ballymores sponsorship comes during a significant period of growth for the company. In Ireland, Ballymore is currently delivering 1,500 new homes across nine active sites in Bray, Mullingar, Naas, Newbridge, Portmarnock, and Rush. These developments reflect Ballymores long-term vision to deliver high-quality residential communities built on exceptional design and sustainability.

The Grade 1 Ballymore Novice Hurdle on Sunday, 4th January 2026 promises a superb day of top-class racing at Naas, drawing leading trainers, jockeys, and the sports rising stars. A strong turnout from racing enthusiasts and the wider community is expected as Naas celebrates one of the highlights of the National Hunt season.

As always, the day will feature elegant fashion, great food and several exciting new activations which will be announced shortly. For more see www.naasracecourse.com
By Bairbre Holmes and Grainne Ni Aodha, PA

A proposal to rename a park in Dublin named after an Israeli president is not legally sound, the city council has heard.

Lord Mayor Ray McAdam said regulations under legislation governing place names, which was changed in 2019, have not yet been made and therefore there is currently no legal basis for holding a ballot on the parks name.

He said the report which proposed renaming the park did not contain the information required for members to adopt a valid resolution and should not have been included on the agenda for Mondays meeting.

Mr McAdam said he was annoyed, frustrated, fed up that this is now where we find ourselves.

The councils chief executive Richard Shakespeare apologised for the administrative oversight and said: A detailed review of the administrative missteps will now be undertaken and a report furnished to the Lord Mayor and councillors.

(There was) great pride in the fact that he was the only visiting head of state who spoke fluent Irish Chief rabbi Yoni Weider

The park in Rathgar was named in 1995 after Chaim Herzog, the sixth president of Israel between 1983 and 1993, who was born in Belfast and raised in Dublin.

His son Isaac Herzog is the current president of Israel and his father served as the first chief rabbi of Ireland.

Earlier on Monday, Irelands chief rabbi has said renaming the park would have been a shameful erasure of a part of Irish-Jewish history.

Yoni Weider said questions needed to be asked about how the proposal came forward.

He told RTE Radio that when Mr Herzog visited Ireland as Israels president in 1985, he was welcomed with warmth and there was great pride in the fact that he was the only visiting head of state who spoke fluent Irish.

The proposal to rename the park has been criticised by Taoiseach Micheal Martin, Tanaiste Simon Harris and Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee, as well as the Office of the President of Israel.
By Rebecca Black, PA

Northern Irelands Justice Minister has said she is alert to the risks of her role.

Naomi Long said while she does not generally talk about her security situation, she said she is cautious and alert to the risks.

She also admitted that she did not use the front room in her house.

Ms Long has faced some publicised threats during her political career, and said she was disturbed when a crowd gathered outside her home in Belfast in October.

Justice Minister Naomi Long said it was not an appropriate way to behave (Liam McBurney/PA)

She said there were around 40 people, some with their faces covered, and including men, women and children, who said they wanted to speak to Ms Long about the management of sex offenders and immigration.

She stressed it had been an inappropriate way to approach her, and insisted she is not afraid to engage with people if they contact her office to make an appointment.

In an interview on BBC Radio Ulsters Stephen Nolan Show, she said she was embarrassed at the impact on her neighbours.

It was uncomfortable and it was disturbing, she said.

It was embarrassing because it was disturbing my neighbours as well as me. One of my neighbours had just passed away. There was a wake that night for her I just think disrupting a family the night before a funeral is pretty low.

So yes, I find it very difficult I was embarrassed that the police were back outside my house again, because thats not the way I want to live, and its not the way I want my neighbours to have to live.

I'm not going to go and have a debate in my driveway Naomi Long, Stormont Justice Minister

Im not a shrinking violet. Ill talk to anyone. Ill give people my opinion. Ill take on the challenge and everything else, but to come to peoples houses at night en masse is not a way to engage in conversation.

Im not going to go and have a debate in my driveway, and its not an appropriate way to behave.

She added that she was very grateful for the condemnation of the incident across the political spectrum.

Everybody was really clear that it wasnt acceptable. It wouldnt be acceptable for anybody else, and its not acceptable for us, she said.

But at the end of the day, when you get into politics, you cant afford to be too precious.

The one thing that I would ask is that people respect the boundaries of the job. I have an office that if people want to talk to me, they can make an appointment and come in and have that conversation. People do that every week.

Theres no need to create a situation that then takes police resources away from more important things.

The way to handle this is to talk directly or send an email like anybody normal would do if they wanted to contact their elected representative.
FRS Recruitment, with an office in Cillin Hill Business & Retail Park, Kilkenny, has been recognised with two awards at the 2025 Employment and Recruitment Federation (ERF) Recruitment Awards, including the overall award of Large Agency of the Year award.

The annual ERF awards were held in the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin on Friday, and recognise the leading Irish recruitment agencies and firms with 50 or more staff which can demonstrate exceptional expertise and success in the sector.

FRS Recruitment, which services clients across the healthcare, IT, engineering, and commercial sectors, picked up two awards at the 2025 ERF Awards. The company retained its award for Best in Practice: IT, Telecoms & Technology for demonstrating exceptional expertise and success in the sector, before being announced as the overall Large Agency of the Year winner.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE KILKENNY BUSINESS NEWS

The awards were decided upon by a panel of 10 expert judges, including Paul Muldoon, James Osborne, Prof. Colette DArcy and Gavin Duffy. The judging panel highlighted FRS Recruitments and excellence as a nationwide trusted partner for clients across multiple sectors looking to fill permanent, contract, and temporary roles, and also noted the companys demand staffing app WrkWrk, which offers flexible temporary jobs to candidates.

The judges praised the companys commitment to quality of service, evidenced through its industry leading net promoter score (NPS).

In particular, the judges noted FRS Recruitments focus on innovation, including the growth of its recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) option for clients. FRS Recruitment provides RPO solutions to a growing number of clients which are seeking to fully outsource its hiring process.

Being named Large Recruitment Agency of the Year is a powerful endorsement of the consistent work our team has delivered over the past number of years," said Lynne McCormack, General Manager of FRS Recruitment.

"This award reflects the successful implementation of our five-year strategic growth plan, which was built on investing in our people, strengthening our service, and deepening our expertise across every sector we serve.

Its a proud moment for everyone in FRS Recruitment and across the wider FRS Co-Op. It recognises not just where we are today, but the ambition and momentum were carrying into the next phase of our journey.
Fianna Fail TD for Carlow-Kilkenny, Peter Chap Cleere, has welcomed the commencement of a pilot programme that could see frontline Gardai equipped with Conductive Energy Devices (CEDs), commonly known as Tasers, as soon as this week.

Frontline Gardai deal with unpredictable and often dangerous situations every single day, Deputy Cleere said.

If a tool like a Taser can help Gardai bring a situation under control more safely, then its absolutely worth testing in a controlled and responsible way.

The pilot will allow around 120 specially trained frontline Gardai in Dublin Central, Waterford and Kilkenny to carry Tasers as part of a structured evaluation of their effectiveness within a graduated policing response.

SEE ALSO: Kilkenny family business shines bright on national television

It will operate alongside the continued rollout of Body-Worn Cameras (BWCs) to help de-escalate confrontations and improve transparency. Under this programme, Tasers will only be issued to Gardai who are equipped with BWCs.

Gardai are being injured on duty far too often, and that simply shouldnt be the reality for people serving their communities, Deputy Cleere said.

Gardai need the right tools to protect themselves and the public, and this pilot gives us a chance to see whether Tasers can play a real, practical role in that.

At present, frontline uniformed Gardai have limited tactical options, relying primarily on verbal de-escalation or calling for assistance from armed colleagues when situations escalate.

Between 2014 and 2024, an average of 299 Gardai were assaulted each year, underscoring the pressures facing frontline members and the need to explore additional protective tools.

This is about modernising policing and strengthening public safety. The Taser pilot is one part of that wider effort, and its a sensible step forward, Deputy Cleere concluded.

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Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
Tributes are being paid to a much-loved family man who was killed in a workplace accident on Saturday.

Seamus Byrne was fatally injured in a workplace accident at a water treatment plant in County Mayo.

Originally from Larchfield in Kilkenny City Mr Byrne was living in Cliften, Co Galway with his family.

Mayor of Kilkenny, John Coonan said that Seamus' family are in the thoughts and prayers of the people of St Patrick's Parish and the wider Kilkenny community.

"I was shocked and saddened to hear of this tragedy, our thoughts and prayers are with Seamus' family at this sad time," he said.

Declan White, CEO of Veolia in Ireland said:

"Our heartfelt thoughts are with the family and loved ones of our colleague, Seamus Byrne, at this very difficult time. Seamus was a valued and much-loved member of a close-knit team and will be hugely missed by those who knew and worked with him.

"We are working with Uisce Eireann and the Health and Safety Authority to investigate this tragic incident and are remaining in close contact with his family and colleagues to offer every support we can."

Mr Byrne is remembered by his colleagues as 'a lovely, kind man', 'a true gentleman' and 'an absolute pleasure to work with'.

Me Byrne is missed by his heartbroken wife and children, his parents and siblings, extended family, neighbours and a large circle of friends. His funeral will take place in Cliften, Co Galway on Thursday.
Winter weather conditions are causing traffic issues and school closings in mid-Missouri.

Monday is a First Alert Weather Day due to the travel impacts.

Snow expected to be most robust from around noon to 10 p.m. According to the First Alert Weather team, snow will reduce visibility and create slick spots during the evening commute.

More coverage

8:10 p.m.: Trash and recycling routes set to run as scheduled on Tuesday

The Solid Waste Utility is planning for trash and recycling routes to run as normal on Tuesday, according to an update posted to Columbia Water & Light's X account.

8 p.m.: Columbia snowplows set to work through the night

A 22-person crew with the Columbia Public Works Department's Street division will treating first, second, and third-priority routes through the overnight hours, according to an update posted to the Public Works Department's X account.

The department asked drivers to still not park vehicles on first- or second-priority roads so crews can work efficiently.

  - A 22-person Public Works Street division crew will be treating first, second and third priority routes through the overnight hours. Please continue to keep your vehicles off first and second priority roads so crews can work efficiently. pic.twitter.com/cEVe7flrDN  Columbia Public Works (@pub_works) December 2, 2025

7:50 p.m.: Serious crashes reported in mid-Missouri

Multiple serious crashes have been reported in mid-Missouri Monday, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol has confirmed at least one of them was related to winter weather conditions.

An Eldon woman was seriously injured when her truck slid into the Moreau River Bridge in Cole County, according to a crash report by the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

One person was killed in a rollover crash on Missouri 179, and a woman was seriously injured in a crash in Pulaski County involving a vehicle that went off the road. The Highway Patrol has not confirmed if weather conditions were a factor in those crashes.

6 p.m.: Some turn lanes still partially covered

5:15 A look at afternoon road conditions in Columbia A live look at winter weather conditions in Columbia, Missouri, from KOMU 8 News at 5 on Dec. 1.

5 p.m.: Roads largely clear at I-70/U.S. 63 connector

We took a live look at road conditions on KOMU 8 News at 5. Here's an extended view at the conditions near the connector.

4 p.m.: MoDOT says northern Missouri roads still snow-covered

Roads in the northern half Missouri are still covered or partially covered, according to a 3:30 p.m. update from the Missouri Department of Transportation.

MoDOT's Traveler Information Map showed many major roadways in mid-Missouri were not yet cleared.

"If you're in an area that's affected by the wintery precipitation, continue driving for the conditions at hand," MoDOT wrote in the post. "Brake gently, give plows room to work, and always wear your seat belt."

3:30 p.m. - Many roads in the northern MO are covered or partly covered. If you're in an area that's affected by the wintery precipitation, continue driving for the conditions at hand. Brake gently, give plows room to work, and always wear your seat belt. https://t.co/fvVRsDlqzr pic.twitter.com/6pai87h6Tx  MoDOT (@MoDOT) December 1, 2025

3:45 p.m.: Highway Patrol still reporting slide-offs

Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop F, which covers most of mid-Missouri, is still responding to slide-off crashes on Interstate 70, according to an update posted to its X account at 3:18 p.m.

2:30 p.m.: State troopers respond to dozens of crashes

Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop F has responded to dozens of crashes Monday. Between noon and 1 p.m., troopers responded to 15 crashes, according to a social media post by the Highway Patrol. Between 1-2 p.m., troopers responded to 12 crashes, according to a separate post.

The crash numbers are reported by Troop F, which covers most of mid-Missouri.

Troop F said it was responding to multiple slide-offs along Interstate 70 after 2 p.m.

TROOP F ROADWAY UPDATEFrom 1:00 p.m. - 2:00p.m., Troop F responded to 12 traffic crashes. Troopers are still handling numerous slide-offs on I-70 in Callaway County.If you have to go out, please slow down, increase your following distance, and always buckle up. pic.twitter.com/I8wYFHMiNw  MSHP Troop F (@MSHPTrooperF) December 1, 2025

2 p.m.: Daniel Boone Regional Library branches closing early

The Columbia Public Library, Callaway County Public Library, Holts Summit Public Library and Southern Boone County Public Library will close at 4 p.m., according to a news release from Daniel Boone Regional Library.

1:45 p.m.: A look at Columbia road conditions

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We took a live look at street conditions around Columbia, including Interstate 70, U.S. 63, the connector and downtown.

12:38 p.m.: MU Emergency reminds drivers parking is prohibited on priority snow routes

MU Emergency announced Monday that street parking is prohibited on first- and second-priority snow routes.

According to a text message from MU Emergency, drivers are being asked to remove their vehicles off first and second priority roads so crews can clear streets.

First and second priority roads can be found online on the City of Columbia's snow and ice management website.

12:25 p.m.: Crash at Missouri River Bridge in Jefferson City blocks traffic

A crash on westbound U.S. 63/U.S. 54 is delaying traffic at the Missouri River Bridge, according to the Jefferson City Police Department.

The police department said on social media that traffic was back to normal by 12:40 p.m. Drivers are encouraged to still avoid the eastbound lanes of Missouri River Bridge due to an accident.

11:59 a.m.: COU flights to Chicago and Dallas canceled

Two flights from the Columbia Regional Airport were canceled Monday amid winter weather.

According to COU's online flight status tracker, American Airlines flight 4228 to Chicago was scheduled to leave at 12:28 p.m. and was canceled.

American Airlines flight 3853 to Dallas/Ft. Worth was scheduled to leave at 5:58 p.m. and was also canceled.

11:54 a.m.: Boone County dispatchers ask drivers to stay home

Boone County Joint Communications sent an alert at 11:54 a.m. asking people to stay home amid deteriorating road conditions.

"Roads in Boone County are deteriorating rapidly," the message said. "Emergency personnel along with road crews are working as quickly as possible. Please stay home if you can."

11:46 a.m.: City of Sedalia declares snow emergency

The City of Sedalia declared a snow emergency on Monday amid winter weather. Snow routes are now in effect.

According to a news release, city leaders declare a snow emergency when more than two inches of snow, sleet or ice is expected within a 24-hour period.

The city of Sedalia said its snow routes help improve traffic flow by allowing crews move quicker when clearing snow and ice.

Drivers are encouraged to give space to heavy equipment and salt spreaders as they work.

11:40 a.m.: Winter weather impacts road conditions in Columbia

11:27 a.m.: Crash partially blocks I-70-U.S. 63 connector

The Columbia Police Department is investigating a crash blocking the exit ramp from eastbound I-70 to U.S. 63 in Columbia, according to Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop F. The crash reopened by noon.

Crash Blocking EB I-70 Exit Ramp@ColumbiaPD is investigating a crash blocking the exit ramp from eastbound I-70 to U.S. 63 in Columbia.Please avoid the area and use an alternate route. pic.twitter.com/kKe2TR4BfE  MSHP Troop F (@MSHPTrooperF) December 1, 2025

11:25 a.m.: Schools report closings

More than a dozen organizations, including schools, have announced closures Monday.

Here is the full list of closings:

11:15 a.m.: Snow plows clear Columbia roads

The Columbia Public Works Department's Street division crews are responding to winter weather across the city.

According to a news release from the city, the city's first priority will be to clear major residential and arterial streets used for public safety needs.

Next will be heavily traveled collector and residential streets, city and school bus routes, streets leading to schools, hospitals and other key locations.
Auburn, IN (46706)

Today

Mainly cloudy with snow showers around this morning. High 28F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 50%..

Tonight

Cloudy. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low 14F. Winds light and variable.
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Vivienne Clarke

The former chief of staff of the Irish Defence Forces, General Sean Clancy, who is chair of the EU Military Committee has said that Europe will have a very positive role to play in the future of Ukraine.

It's not a Nato problem. I think it's a whole of Europe problem. And it's not a problem. But if we get to that point of a peace plan and providing the security guarantees, then Europe will have a very positive role to play, as it has done so over the last nearly four years now," he told RTE radio's Morning Ireland.

"And primarily that will come in the form of an EU training mission in the first instance. And of course many member States have been participating in that to date. And after hopefully in a ceasefire situation, we get to a point where member states can decide at what level they want to contribute."

General Clancy also outlined the importance of investing in security and resilience measures to protect critical infrastructure, trade, and the overall way of life and that it was not just a binary choice.

"This isn't a binary choice. This is a prudent action and a prudent choice to invest in the long term well-being of your society, on your citizens, on your economy, on your way of life.

"Whatever guarantees have to be put in place, they have to be very strong and robust. One of those of course is making sure that we have a strong and strengthened Ukrainian armed forces, that the guarantees that are given by Member States and the allies in due course they underpin the strength of Ukraine and ensuring that we don't have a repeat of what is a return to a large scale war on the continent of Europe that we're seeing.

"Europe has to be able to anticipate, prevent and respond not only to crises and threats that have become very clear from this war, but also from threats that are natural, that are environmental, and of course those that are deliberate and malign."

General Clancy also warned about hybrid threats and the impact they can have along with the challenges and impacts on economic well-being, financial well-being, trade and health systems.
A MAN who stole a tube of Fixodent denture adhesive, a can of Pepsi Cola and a packet of cheese from Tesco was given until April next year to come up with the money to pay for the goods when he came before last weeks sitting of Portlaoise District Court.

Before the court was Mario Morabito from 11 Loughgate, Portarlington. He pleaded guilty to the theft of the items valued at 11.98 from the Tesco Extra store in Fairgreen, Portlaoise on 22 September.

Defending solicitor Barry Fitzgerald said that his 58-year-old client had worked as a chef but ran into difficulties and developed a reliance on cannabis.

Mr Fitzgerald said Mr Morabito is still smoking cannabis and would be able to provide reparations for the next court date.

Judge Susan Fay remanded the defendant on continuing bail to the 27 April sitting of the court and in the interim ordered that he take part in the restorative justice programme and engages with the probation and welfare services as well as having full compensation on that date.

Funded by the Court Reporting Scheme
Brett Mattison, 86, president and COO of Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO), will deliver the Inside the C-Suite lecture for Louisiana Tech Universitys College of Business on Thursday, Dec. 11, at 4 p.m. in Davis Auditorium (College of Business 101). The lecture, sponsored by Enterprise Mobility, is open to the public.

Brett has built an outstanding career by doing exactly what we ask of our studentssolving complex problems, serving others, and leading with integrity, said Dr. Chris Martin, dean of the College of Business. From his days as a finance student to leading a major utility that powers communities across our region, he has consistently paired business expertise with a deep commitment to service. I hope our students will see themselves in his story and leave inspired to pursue leadership roles that make a real difference.

Inside the C-Suite provides a forum for top corporate leaders from some of the nations most prominent companies to discuss the issues keeping them up at night. Designed to spark meaningful conversation, senior executives speak on emerging trends, share leadership lessons, and provide career inspiration for students. Topics span core business themes, including the current economic climate, ethics, corporate responsibility, leadership, globalization, strategic planning, entrepreneurship, technology, and innovation.

As SWEPCOs president and COO, Mattison is responsible for the companys electric distribution system, engineering, operations, construction, and maintenance, serving approximately 547,000 customers in Louisiana, Arkansas, northeast Texas, and the Texas Panhandle.

Mattison most recently served as president and chief operating officer of Kentucky Power, a SWEPCO sister company. Since joining SWEPCO in 1990, he has held roles of increasing responsibility, including director of customer services and marketing, where he oversaw the management of SWEPCOs largest industrial and wholesale customers, as well as meter reading and services, energy efficiency programs, and process improvement initiatives.

Active in the community, Mattison serves on the boards of the Paramount Arts Center in Ashland, Ky., and One East Kentucky, an organization focused on economic development in Eastern Kentucky. He is a member of the Louisiana Committee of 100, serves on the advisory council of the Center for Public Utilities, and is a member of the AEP talent board and the Louisiana Tech College of Business Deans Advisory Board.

He has previously served as a commissioner for the Bossier Metropolitan Planning Commission, president of the United Way of Northwest Louisiana and two-time chair of its annual campaign, a board member of the Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce, and an executive board member of the Bossier Chamber of Commerce.

Mattison graduated with a bachelors degree in finance from Louisiana Tech in 1986.

For more information on Inside the C-Suite, contact Mary Susan Britt, executive director of development for the College of Business, at marysusan@latechalumni.org or 318.257.3741.
Megan Thee Stallion has scored a legal victory in her defamation battle against blogger Milagro Gramz.

A Florida jury ruled in favor of the rapper, awarding her $75,000 in damages after she filed a lawsuit in October 2024 over false claims and harmful posts made by the blogger.

The jury's decision comes after Megan, whose real name is Megan Pete, accused Milagro Elizabeth Cooper of spreading lies online, including alleging that Megan acted as a "paid surrogate" for Tory Lanez.

Cooper also shared a deepfake pornographic video of the rapper, which many believed to be real, further escalating Megan's claims of emotional distress.

Under Florida law, Milagro is also liable for Megan's legal fees, which could total millions, meaning the financial impact on the blogger could far exceed the $75,000 awarded.

However, US District Court Judge Cecilia Altonaga may adjust the amount to $59,000 after considering Cooper a "media defendant," which could reduce defamation damages, TMZ reported.

The final ruling on the total financial award will be determined once the judge issues her written order.

Megan Thee Stallion wins defamation suit against blogger Milagro Gramz, who is ordered to pay the rapper $75k in punitive damages. pic.twitter.com/JQIL7T5iSa  Buzzing Pop (@BuzzingPop) December 1, 2025

Megan Thee Stallion Says 'I'm Just Happy' After Court Victory

According to People, speaking outside the courthouse, Megan shared her relief. "I'm just happy," she said, marking the end of a stressful legal ordeal that deeply affected her personal and professional life.

During the trial, Megan testified about the trauma caused by Cooper's posts, explaining how they intensified the emotional impact of her 2020 shooting by Tory Lanez.

Megan's legal team argued that Cooper's continuous online posts, including false claims about the shooting and Lanez, caused severe emotional distress and harmed Megan's music career.

In response, Cooper's attorney, Jeremy McLymont, suggested that Megan's distress stemmed more from the shooting itself than from the blogger's posts.

Following the verdict, Cooper's attorney Nathacha Bien-Aime highlighted concerns about online free speech.

"This case highlights the increasing vulnerability of independent commentators, bloggers, and digital creators who discuss public figures," she said, emphasizing the need to protect commentary and opinion under the First Amendment.

The jury's award included $15,000 for defamation, $8,000 for emotional distress, $50,000 for the deepfake porn incident, and an additional $2,000 in punitive damages.

Originally published on Music Times
The Venezuelan regime is planning to mount guerrilla-style resistance should the Trump administration launch air or ground attacks against the country, according to a new report.

Reuters detailed that the "prolonged resistance" would deploy small military units at over 280 locations, which would then carry out different acts of sabotage and other guerrilla tactics.

Another strategy, called "anarchization" and not acknowledged by officials, would revolve around creating disorder in Caracas and making the country impossible to govern.

In the meantime, the Trump administration continues to urge authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro to relinquish power to avoid being removed by force.

Infobae detailed that the threat took place during the phone call the two had days ago. There, the outlet added, Trump emphasized that Maduro must leave power along with top regime officials, likely including Diosdado Cabello, Jorge and Delcy Rodriguez and Vladimir Padrino Lopez.

Hours after the call, the administration officially designated the Cartel de los Soles, which the administration accuses Maduro and his top officials of leading, as a terrorist organization, paving the way for strikes inside Venezuela.

The White House also rejected that the conversation included a potential meeting, like The New York times had reported a day prior. And on Saturday, Trump said Venezuela's airspace should be considered "closed."

"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 Truth Social.

Earlier on Friday, The Washington Post noted that Turkey has risen as a potential destination should an off-ramp be agreed on. The outlet noted that noted that Caracas and Ankara have friendly ties, exchanging cabinet-level visits in recent years, and have a dynamic trade relationship.

As a result, and considering that Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan has a good relationship with Trump, some in Washington D.C. are actively contemplating the possibility.

"At the end of day, what are realistic and acceptable outcomes? Obviously, people are thinking about it, working on it," a person familiar with administration deliberations told the outlet. The person said such a deal could come with guarantees. Namely, assurances that Maduro wouldn't be extradited to the U.S.

In contrast, another report from this week noted that Maduro is reluctant to agree to any deal to leave power because he doesn't believe he would get lasting amnesty.

The Wall Street Journal noted that Maduro only feels safe among loyalists, and both him and his inner circle believe the Trump administration is bluffing with its military campaign off the country's coast.

The only way to oust him, they claim, would be physically sending troops to Venezuela, something they consider unlikely. "The calculation for Maduro is that he will always be safer here than anywhere else," Phil Gunson, analyst for the International Crisis Group, told the outlet.

Originally published on Latin Times
A mechanic from Bushkill Township is charged with putting fake state inspection stickers on Nazareth Regional Ambulance Corps ambulances and vans, according to a news release.

Creed Sadler, 45, allegedly put the fake stickers on four ambulances and five transport vans earlier this year, according to the release from the Nazareth Police Department.

Sadlers attorney, James Madsen of Easton, didnt immediately return a phone call seeking comment on the charges.

The squad discovered the fake stickers and called police Oct. 26, the news release says.

Nazareth Ambulance Executive Director Robert E. Norder said no one knew Sadler put fake stickers on the vehicles until a Moore Township police officer spotted one of the fakes.

The ambulances and vans have since received legitimate inspections, Norder said.

All NRAC vehicles have been verified as safe for operation, and we remain committed to maintaining the highest standards of safety, compliance, and public trust, he said in a statement on Facebook.

He said the crime will not impact the squads ability to respond, and its operations continue without interruption.

Sadler charged $1,350 for the fake inspections, court records say.

Sadler was charged with nine counts each of forgery, fraud, and violation of use of a certificate for inspection. Hes also charged with a single count of deceptive business practices.

Sadler was arraigned Nov. 8 and remains free on $10,000 unsecured bail. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 2, before District Judge John Capobianco.
The National Weather Service predicts 1-3 inches of snow Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, along and north of the Interstate 78 corridor, with higher amounts in the Poconos. Dangerous driving conditions are expected during the morning. National Weather Service

The National Weather Service on Monday afternoon cut its forecast for snowfall accumulations Tuesday but still warned of potentially hazardous driving conditions.

The winter storm is expected to impact the Lehigh Valley and Poconos, bringing a mix of snow and rain that could create challenging travel conditions during the morning commute.

The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for the region, with snowfall expected primarily in areas along and north of Interstate 78.

The storm is forecast to arrive Tuesday morning, with precipitation beginning between 7 and 10 a.m. Areas in the Poconos and northwestern New Jersey are most likely to see snowfall, with accumulations ranging from 1 to 3 inches along the I-78 corridor. Thats down from a potential 2 to 5 inches of accumulation forecast earlier Monday.

Higher elevations above 1,500 feet may see 3 to 6 inches of snow, particularly in the Pocono Plateau and higher elevations of northwestern New Jersey.

Temperatures will play a crucial role in the precipitation type, with morning temperatures hovering near freezing. The Poconos and areas northwest of I-78 are expected to start with snow, while the I-95 corridor and areas south and east are likely to experience primarily rain. By Tuesday afternoon, most areas are expected to transition to rain, with high temperatures ranging from mid-30s in the Poconos to low 50s along coastal areas.

Residents should be prepared for potentially hazardous morning commute conditions, especially in northern areas. The National Weather Service recommends allowing extra time for travel, maintaining reduced speeds, and being prepared for quickly changing road conditions. By Tuesday afternoon, most snow is expected to melt as temperatures rise and precipitation changes to rain.

Pennsylvania transportation officials on Monday announced vehicle restrictions and lower speed limits on highways in and around the Lehigh Valley region.

The extended forecast indicates continued cold temperatures for the remainder of the week, with highs remaining below average. Wednesday will be partly clear with highs in the mid-30s to low 40s, and Thursday will bring a cold front that could produce isolated snow showers in the Poconos.

Temperatures are expected to drop significantly Thursday night, with lows potentially reaching single digits in the Poconos and teens across eastern Pennsylvania.

Current weather radar

Generative AI was used to produce an initial draft of this story, which was reviewed and edited by lehighvalleylive.com staff.
The Laois-based Midland Steel Group says it has achieved a major sustainability milestone by becoming the first company in Ireland the highest rating available in a sustainable steel certification process.

The company, which is located in Portlaoise, says it is only the second across the independent CARES (Certification Authority for Reinforcing Steels)network to be awarded 3 Stars under the Sustainable Constructional Steel (SCS) certification.

The business also retained a Very Good rating under BES 6001 Responsible Sourcing. A statement to the Leinster Express / Laois Live said this reinforces its commitment to responsible material sourcing, carbon reduction, and supply chain transparency.

The award follows independent audits in July and follows what Midland Steel Group says is an investment in sustainable practices and innovation within the Irish construction sector.

This is a proud achievement for our team and a reflection of our long-term focus on sustainability and responsible growth said Tony Woods, CEO of Midland Steel Group. MORE BELOW PHOTO.

To achieve 3 Stars under the SCS scheme places us at the forefront of sustainable reinforcement solutions in Ireland. Its recognition of the dedication of our people and partners who drive continuous improvement across every part of our business

A statement said the CARES SCS certification assesses environmental and social responsibility across steel manufacturing and supply. The 3-star rating is reserved for companies demonstrating leadership in carbon management, resource efficiency, and transparency.

READ ALSO: Midlands steel helps repair Dublin Luas bridge following dramatic fire

In addition to its sustainability performance, Midland Steel Group says it continues to lead the industry through innovative off-site reinforcement systems such as FasterFix, designed to accelerate construction programs while improving safety, efficiency, and sustainability on projects by moving traditional on-site steel fixing to a controlled factory environment.

The company adds that the latest certification results position Midland Steel Group at the top of Irelands sustainability rankings for reinforcement steel, ahead of other major industry suppliers.
FRS Recruitment which has an office in Portlaoise has been recognised with two awards at the 2025 Employment and Recruitment Federation (ERF) Recruitment Awards.

The annual ERF awards recognise the leading Irish recruitment agencies and firms with 50 or more staff which can demonstrate exceptional expertise and success in the sector.

FRS Recruitment, located in The Cube, Portlaoise, services clients across the healthcare, IT, engineering, and commercial sectors, picked up two awards at the 2025 ERF Awards.

Apart from having an office in Portlaoise, the company is led by its CEO Colin Donnery who lives in Coolrain.

The company retained its award for Best in Practice: IT, Telecoms & Technology for demonstrating exceptional expertise and success in the sector, before being announced as the overall Large Agency of the Year winner.

The awards were decided upon by a panel of 10 expert judges, including Paul Muldoon, James Osborne, Prof. Colette DArcy and Gavin Duffy.

A statement to the Leinster Express / Laois Live said the judging panel highlighted FRS Recruitments "excellence as a nationwide trusted partner" for clients across multiple sectors looking to fill permanent, contract, and temporary roles, and also noted the companys demand staffing app WrkWrk, which offers flexible temporary jobs to candidates.

The statement added that the judges praised the companys commitment to quality of service, evidenced through its industry leading net promoter score. MORE BELOW PIC.

FRS has staff based at The Cube in the Towerhill area of Portlaoise.

In particular, the judges noted FRS Recruitments "focus on innovation", including the growth of its recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) option for clients. FRS Recruitment provides RPO solutions to a growing number of clients who are seeking to fully outsource its hiring process.

Lynne McCormack, General Manager of FRS Recruitment, reacted to winning the awards.

Being named Large Recruitment Agency of the Year is a powerful endorsement of the consistent work our team has delivered over the past number of years. This award reflects the successful implementation of our five-year strategic growth plan, which was built on investing in our people, strengthening our service, and deepening our expertise across every sector we serve.

READ ALSO: Big Laois firm wins three star rating

Its a proud moment for everyone in FRS Recruitment and across the wider FRS Co-Op. It recognises not just where we are today, but the ambition and momentum were carrying into the next phase of our journey, she said.

The award ceremony took place at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin on Friday, November 28.
Camross skipper Aoife Collier is now just two weeks away from leading her team onto the biggest stage of all, with the clubs latest victory over Killimor securing their spot in the All-Ireland Intermediate Club final.

The chance to chase a third title in 2025 is not lost on her, and she described the achievement as something she once thought was beyond reach.

A thing of dreams. I think we've looked at club games up there and thought, how could we ever get your club to Croke Park and to be there now in two weeks, it's just amazing, she said.

The Camross captain also welcomed the benefit of having more breathing room before this semi-final, a luxury they rarely enjoyed during their Leinster campaign. She said the additional time helped them reset both physically and mentally.

Absolutely, yeah, it's been really heavy for us for the last four weeks. Having that extra week, I suppose we didn't narrow ourselves, but again we met back, we got our recovery, and we went back into a tough session again and reset for another tough battle that we had out there, Collier said.

Just as they did for the Leinster final, Camross lined out in Laois blue and white once again. Collier noted that choosing the alternative colours simply made things easier in what was always going to be a frantic contest.

We're quite close in colour, obviously, that wasn't the original colours of Killimor either. I think they had an away jersey or something on them there today, but just for our own sake out there on the field, there's a lot going on, that's one less thing that we need to worry about, she added.

Camross held the lead from the opening stages and never truly looked under threat, but Collier stressed that comfort is a dangerous feeling when a single goal can swing momentum in an instant.

No, I don't think you can feel comfortable at any stage, to be honest, and a goal is only a puck of a ball. Like that, we reset at half-time again, as I said, we were only a goal down, they came back into it, and we did tire out. Everyone has a purple patch; we knew they would come back, and it's just keeping the heads right, I suppose, when that happens and thank God, we did, Collier admitted.

And, echoing the sentiments of her manager, the Camross captain was blown away by the sea of support that descended on Trim. Shes certain those same voices will fill Croke Park when they take to the field again.

Our support is unbelievable. We come from a small village, and I think every single one of them is out here today by the looks of it. Look, there's so much more than families and friends here, there's neighbours, there's family from every part of the country, they're all so good and have been throughout all of our competitions this year, so we look forward to hearing them in Croke Park by all means, I think we'll definitely hear them, Collier concluded.

READ NEXT: Croker calling as Camross Camogie Club reach All-Ireland Club Intermediate final
Three businesses based in County Kildare have announced a collaborative Christmas fundraising campaign, with all donations going towards a well-known charity which assists children.

Allure Nails by Daga, Demon Hair by Klaudia and Stop Aging Permanent Makeup and Aesthetics, are all independent, female-owned businesses which operate out of Meta Studio, which is located on Henry Street in Newbridge.

Explaining the motivation behind the fundraiser, Dagmara Karaga of Allure Nails by Daga, told the Leinster Leader that she came up with the idea to contact LauraLynn  Ireland's Childrens Hospice about the initiative.

Dagmara said: "Together with my friend Monika (who is not professionally connected to Meta Studio), we reached out to LauraLynn to ask if there was anything we could support them with over the Christmas period."

"LauraLynn kindly provided us with a list of needed items, and this is how the fundraiser began," she added.

When asked by the Leader why they chose to assist LauraLynn through the collection campaign, Dagmara replied: "We chose LauraLynn because it is a place that gives hope to families who are facing the unimaginable.

"Many of the families they support have exhausted not only their emotional strength, but also their savings, doing everything they can to help their seriously ill children.

"As mothers ourselves, both Monika and I deal with everyday challenges, but it is still difficult to imagine what families with terminally ill children must go through."

Dagmara also said that in her native Poland, Christmas-time charity collections are very common.

"People are especially open-hearted during the holiday season," she explained. "Monika, on the other hand, suggested LauraLynn as a trustworthy and deeply dedicated organisation as she often passed by the hospice while taking her son to activities, and repeatedly heard from others how helpful and compassionate the staff are."

READ NEXT: Come one, come all! Christmas lights to be switched on in this Kildare town

DONATIONS

Donated items being sought by LauraLynn include: board games, vouchers for supermarkets (Aldi, Dunnes Stores and Tesco, as well as Smyths Toys Superstores), arts and crafts supplies and children's skincare products.

All donations can be left in at Meta Studio (W12 PH04).

It should be noted that the three businesses are only seeking donations of new items due to hygiene reasons.

The collection is now live and will run until Monday, December 15, 2025.

READ NEXT: Road safety audit sought for junction located in this Kildare town
Kildare County Council (KCC) will write to both the Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin and Department of Education in relation to a former school site.

The subject of the former school land, which ceased hosting staff and students of St Paul's Secondary School back in 2023, was raised by Social Democrats councillor Pat Balfe at the latest Kildare-Newbridge Municipal District meeting, which took place on Wednesday, November 19 last.

At this meeting, Cllr Balfe submitted a motion calling for KCC to "write to the Kildare and Leighlin Trust, and / or the Department of Education, to enquire as to the status of the old St Pauls Secondary School, Monasterevin, and to outline its current position regarding the ownership and future use of the school buildings and lands".

His motion was seconded by Sinn Fein Cllr Noel Connolly.

Cllr Balfe also told the attendees of the meeting that he was seeking the support of the other councillors in relation to his motion.

READ NEXT: Iarnrod Eireann announces late night trains to Kildare for Christmas season

In response to the motion, KCC said via the report it presented at the meeting that this would be a matter for the members to agree upon.

Cllr Connolly also told the members that he had previously raised the subject of the former school lands around two years ago, and was told to contact the Bishop of Carlow.

"It might be worth amending the motion to say that KCC should write to the Bishop," he added.

This amendment was agreed upon by the members following Cllr Connolly's suggestion.

After the matter was put to a brief vote, the members agreed that KCC should write to the Bishop of Carlow, Denis Nulty, in addition to the Department of Education.

Social Democrats Cllr Pat Balfe. File photograph

READ NEXT: Kildare residents urged to be proactive and to clean up their localities

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.
The Minister for Education and Youth, Hildegarde Naughton TD, has issued a final call for County Kildare parents to have their say on the future of primary schools.

It follows after a survey in relation to the topic was highlighted by the Kildare-based Senator Fiona O'Loughlin last month.

The survey, which is the largest of its kind, invites parents and guardians of all children from birth to 12 years old to share their preferences on school ethos, including whether or not they would like a religious or multi-denominational setting.

Parents and guardians of children who are either in, or soon to start, primary school, including staff and Boards of Management, are being invited to have their say in the final days of the survey.

According to the Department, 36 per cent of eligible households in Kildare have had their say on the survey to date.

READ NEXT: Kildare County Council to write to Bishop and Department of Education over former school site

Reminding parents throughout Kildare of the survey, Minister Naughton said earlier today (December 2): "Parents and guardians are the real experts when it comes to their children, and it is only right that their voices are placed at the core of how we provide education in Ireland.

"I would like to see a strong response rate for every primary school to ensure that we have heard the views of as many households and communities as possible."

"I and my department want to know what parents and school communities want for their school, and, as the closing date for this survey looms, I am encouraging parents, guardians and wider school communities in Kildare to engage to ensure that their views form part of our future."

She continued: "By assessing parental demand in every community, we can identify what the need is and work with schools to support them through that process; this survey is just the beginning of our engagement.

"Where there is clear support from parents and guardians for change to be considered, a further process of inclusive dialogue will follow.

"Where schools wish to explore options, my department will provide direct support, including the appointment of a facilitator to work with boards, staff and parents."

Minister Naughton concluded: "Further engagement with stakeholders will assist in strengthening approaches already in place, ensuring clarity and consistency for schools and parents, ensuring that every childs right to an inclusive and respectful education experience is upheld."

In addition, the Minister also issued assurances that all responses to the survey will remain confidential and anonymous.

The survey can be completed online at www.gov.ie/primaryschoolsurvey.

It closes on December 16, 2025.

Minister Hildegarde Naughton, TD. Photograph credit: oireachtas.ie

READ NEXT: International Day of People with Disabilities 2025 to be celebrated in this Kildare shopping centre

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.
Transport business Judge Haulage has today (December 2) officially launched its beloved Santa Truck fundraiser for LauraLynn, Irelands Childrens Hospice, the help of pantomime actors Ryan and Michaela Andrews.

The couple, along with their young son Rowan, joined Santa Claus, Mrs Claus, and the crew at Judge Haulage to kick off the festive campaign, which will see the eye-catching Santa Truck travel to towns and villages across Ireland for Christmas 2025.

The Santa Truck is a heartwarming initiative that transforms a Judge Haulage truck into a mobile winter wonderland, complete with lights, music, and festive cheer, all while supporting LauraLynn.

Families are invited to meet Santa, take photos, come on board and enjoy the spectacle, with all donations collected for LauraLynn.

The next Kildare dates and locations are as follows:

Saturday, December 6, 2025  Crookstown Service Station (O'Reillys)

Tuesday, December 9, 2025  Spar Prosperous (6.30pm to 8pm)

Thursday, December 18, 2025  Allenwood GFC(7pm to 8.30pm)

Sunday, December 21, 2025  Kill, The Club House Cafe(3pm to 4pm) and Toughers Restaurant, Newhall, Naas (5pm to 6.30pm)

READ NEXT: International Day of People with Disabilities 2025 to be celebrated in this Kildare shopping centre

'IT'S NOT TO BE MISSED'

Speaking about his involvement in the fundraiser, Ryan said: "I am delighted to be supporting the Santa Truck fundraiser this year in aid of LauraLynn, who do incredible work for seriously ill children and their families right across the country."

He added: "Make sure to check the Santa Truck locations and get out and support LauraLynn all while having an amazing festive evening; its not to be missed!"

There are lots of ways to support LauraLynns vital work this Christmas, including a visit to The Santa Truck or by making a donation in support of the charitys Christmas Appeal by visiting lauralynn.ie/donate.

It should be noted that the Santa Truck times and locations are subject to change, so make sure to check out the official Santa Truck Facebook page for the most up-to-date schedule.

In other news related to LauraLynn, another fundraising campaign to benefit the charity is taking place in the town of Newbridge.

READ NEXT: Iarnrod Eireann announces late night trains to Kildare for Christmas season
A Leitrim councillor has spoken out after a new report from the College of Physicians has found that e-scooters are the leading cause of traumatic brain injuries to children at Temple Street Hospital.

Speaking on RTE's Morning Ireland the author of the report, Dr Irwin Gill, said: "E-scooters are now the leading cause of traumatic brain injury in children admitted to the National Neurosurgical Centre at Temple Street prior to May 2024, which is at the point when legislation came into effect".

"We had seen one child admitted with a traumatic brain injury, and in the 18 months since, we've seen 25 and counting, coming in with serious, serious injuries."

Cllr Brendan Barry said that he would be "very concerned about the amount of children that ended up in Temple Street with serious brain injuries. There have been up to 25 children in the last 18 months and they have life-long effects on those children which is very serious. There seems to be a lot of children with all kinds of injuries ending up in hospitals right across the country due to e-scooters."

READ MORE: Leitrim swimmer sets new record at the European Championship

He noted that children under the age of 16 are not permitted to operate e-scooters and the scooters legally limited to a maximum speed of 20 km/h in Ireland as of May 2024. "However, I'm told that many e-scooters are able to go much faster than that which is very dangerous if people aren't wearing helmets and safety gear. Another issue I have raised in the past is people using e-scooters and bicycles on footpaths and crashing into people exiting shops or houses. That is very dangerous as they can weigh up to 20kg and cause serous injuries to pedestrians. I would appeal to people using them, to dismount and walk on the footpaths. More needs to be done to make parents and users aware of the dangers of e-scooters."

Dr Gill continued: "We're on track for approximately 400 attendances across CHI emergency departments this year. That's more than one every day and that includes broken bones of other sorts, lacerations and other serious injuries."

He added that the brain injuries suffered by the children were leading to longer-term side effects.

"We're starting to see children come back to clinic where their parents and teachers are saying theyre really struggling to stay awake through school, or having desperate headaches later in the day or getting angry and snapping at things that they wouldn't have done before," he said.

"What we're calling for is for parents to be aware that it is illegal for children under 16 to use any scooter on a public road," he said.

READ MORE: Bluetongue outbreak described as very concerning by Leitrim farmer

"We're calling for enforcement of the existing rules as they are, which seems to be that they exist in principle, but they're not keeping children safe and safe in practice."

RSA CEO Sam Waide said the findings are deeply concerning.
The arrival of Bluetongue in Ireland has been described as very concerning by Leitrim farmer and Sinn Fein councillor Brendan Barry.

News broke on Sunday of a suspected outbreak in two cows on a holding near Bangor, Co Down.

Its very disappointing that it has arrived on the island of Ireland. I suppose we wouldve thought that we would have escaped this season given that were getting into colder weather. Now the fact that it is on the island is very concerning, said Cllr Barry.

The Bluetongue virus is primarily spread through biting midges, making outbreaks more common in late spring and summer when midges are most active. Its presence at this time of year is therefore surprising.

The disease does not affect human health nor impact food quality, but it can pose serious risks to livestock.

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It can affect cattle, sheep, goats, horses, alpacas and llamas. It can be very serious in sheep, explained Cllr Barry. Sheep are a lot more affected by it, theres a lot more fatalities with them.

There is concern about the disease spreading if it is not contained. The Chair of Medicines at Veterinary Ireland has warned that if the outbreak is not controlled, it could spread late next spring and early summer.

Its going to cause suffering to animals. They can get very sick with it and its very hard then on farmers trying to help and look after sick animals, continued Cllr Barry. Hopefully it can be contained and it wont spread any further, but it is worrying that it has arrived.

The disease is more common in the UK, with 228 cases of Bluetongue reported in Great Britain since July, including 213 in England and 15 in Wales.

There are three vaccines licensed for Bluetongue, but they are not available in the south of Ireland.

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Farmers are advised to contact their veterinarian if they notice symptoms of Bluetongue in their animals, which include swelling of the mouth, head, and neck; fever; lameness; and discharge from the mouth and nose.
20 Leitrim residents have become Irish citizens at ceremonies held in Killarney, Co Kerry yesterday, December 1, and today, December 2.

They are among more than 5,200 candidates from 132 countries invited to attend the citizenship ceremonies at the INEC Killarney.

Citizenship ceremonies were first introduced in 2011 to mark the granting of Irish citizenship in a dignified and solemn manner. Since then, including minors, approximately 222,000 people have received Irish citizenship.

Following the December ceremonies in Killarney, the confirmed attendees of over 5,200 will be added to this total.

In the North West, 164 people are receiving citizenship, including 20 in Leitrim, 57 in Sligo, and 87 in Donegal.

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The top ten nationalities of applicants are India with 1,188 applicants, Brazil (572), Romania (462), the United Kingdom (416), Poland (382), the Philippines (271), South Africa (199), Pakistan (186), Nigeria (176), and China, including Hong Kong (154).

Minister of State with responsibility for Migration, Colm Brophy, will attend the ceremonies, joined by Minister of State with responsibility for International Law, Law Reform and Youth Justice, Niall Collins, and Minister of State with special responsibility for Community Development and Charities, and for Rural Transport, Jerry Buttimer.

I am delighted to welcome our newest Irish citizens. Migration has long been woven into the fabric of Irelands story with 70 million people worldwide claiming a link to Irish descent, said Minister Brophy.

Irish people that left here over the centuries strengthened and enriched the communities that they settled in.

I encourage each of our new citizens to not lose the link to their home countries but also to continue to build connections and contribute to Ireland, the place they now call home.

READ NEXT: Providers for emergency accommodation sought in Leitrim amid shortage
Tesco is calling on Leitrim customers to take part in their Christmas Food Collection to Support of Local families.

Over 7,200 was donated through last years Christmas Food Collection in Leitrim.

Customers are asked to leave just one food item, no matter how big or small, outside Carrick on Shannon Tesco between the 5th of December and Sunday, 7th December and it wil be taken and distributed to families.

Customers are encouraged to buy just one item of non-perishable food, such as porridge, rice, pasta or canned items, and place it in the collection trolley at the front of participating Tesco stores. Volunteers from Family Resource Centres and local

Tesco Ireland is calling on customers in Leitrim to join them in helping to make Christmas brighter for families in need as the Stronger Starts Christmas Food Collection returns to its stores nationwide fro

Since 2013, this initiative has provided over 2.9 million worth of food, more than 2.3 million meals, to households that need it most across Ireland.

READ MORE: Push for Council to help grow and expand popular Leitrim annual cycling event

Tesco has pledged to top-up what customer donations by another 20%.

Working with the Family Resource Centre Network, FoodCloud, and other local voluntary organisations, these vital food donations will be distributed to children and their families most in need over the festive season.

Charitable organisations will be present at trolleys across the weekend to help customers with donations.

Since its first Christmas Food Collection in 2013, the initiative has donated almost 2.9 million worth of food, providing more than 2.3 million meals to children and families in need across the country.

READ MORE: Leitrim people who attended Hugh Wallace talk in the Landmark 'were very much drawn to him'

Last Christmas alone, over 320,000 worth of food was donated by Tesco and its customers, with a further 120,000 worth of food donated through this years Summer Food Collection.

"The Christmas period can intensify food insecurity for families, particularly children who rely on school supports. Through our Stronger Starts Christmas Food Collection and continued, Rosemary Garth, Communications Director, Tesco Ireland.

Investment in Stronger Starts, Tesco remains committed to playing a meaningful role in improving the wellbeing of children and families across the country.
December has well and truly begun and while some of us across Ireland may be hoping for a white Christmas, or at least a slight flurry, the next 10 days are going to be a bitter disappointment.

As low pressure will continue to dominate this week bringing unsettled weather, conditions will be mixed, with showers, persistent spells of rain, a chance of hail and isolated thunderstorms are expected with some sunny spells forecast.

READ NEXT: RIP: Gardai seek witnesses as motorist dies after SUV crashes into parked car in Dublin

On Monday, Carlow Weatherman Alan O'Reilly said,

"First day of winter today and its a mild start with no sign of any real significant cold or snow for at least next 10 days. This day 2010 was very different with deep snow in Tullow as my photos show."

Conveyor belt of low systems continues over next 10 days. Wind gust forecast shown here, thankfully at present the strongest gusts largely stay away from Ireland. pic.twitter.com/d5hxViRpcW  Carlow Weather (@CarlowWeather) December 1, 2025

Today

Bright and breezy today with scattered showers and plenty of sunny spells. The showers will mainly affect Connacht and Munster, turning heavy at times with a chance of hail and thunder. The best of the sunny spells will be in the east. Feeling chilly today too, with highest temperatures of 6 to 10 degrees in moderate southwest winds, fresher near coasts.

Tonight will see a mix of cloudy conditions and clear spells, with scattered showers or longer spells of rain. Lowest temperatures of 2 to 7 degrees, mildest in Atlantic coastal counties, with light to moderate southwesterly winds.

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Wednesday

Wednesday will start off dry for most, with isolated showers with sunny spells further east at first. Early on, cloud will build from the west and spread eastwards with rain and drizzle becoming widespread come the afternoon. Highest temperatures of 7 to 11 degrees with light to moderate southwesterly winds, freshening later in the day.

Rain from the southwest will gradually move northeast towards morning. Showers will follow in behind, some turning heavy at times, with the chance of hail and isolated thunderstorms. Lowest temperatures of 2 to 6 degrees in moderate southwesterly winds.

Thursday

A bright day for most with rain and drizzle lingering in the morning over parts of Connacht. It will be a mostly dry day too with just isolated showers, heavy at times with the chance of hail. Highest temperatures of 6 to 9 degrees in light to moderate west to southwest winds.

Staying dry and clear for most on Thursday night, with scattered showers lingering over parts of the north and west. Lowest temperatures of -1 to 4 degrees. Mostly light or variable southerly winds.

READ NEXT: Paramedic reveals what father of boy (4) killed by stepmother said as they treated him

Friday

A wet and windy day with rain from the southwest spreading northeastwards across the country throughout the day. Scattered showers will follow in behind overnight, some heavy at times, with a brief dry spell early on for parts of the east. Highest temperatures of 5 to 8 degrees in the north, and 8 to 12 degrees elsewhere. Moderate southeasterly winds will increase fresh to strong with the arrival of the rain.

Saturday

Cloudy with widespread showers, becoming mores isolated towards the evening with clearer spells developing overnight for most. Highest temperatures of 8 to11 degrees. Moderate southwesterly winds, strong to gale force strength along western and southern coasts.

Sunday

A mostly dry start with a few isolated showers. Rain from the southwest will move in through the day and slowly clear northwards through the late evening. Highest temperatures of 7 to 12 degrees, coolest in the north, in light to moderate south to southeast winds.
COUNCILLORS are to lobby Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill to open a new injection clinic in Limerick on a trial basis.

It comes with the number of people suffering from addiction on the city streets, at epidemic levels, according to one councillor, Joe Leddin.

A motion from councillor Shane Hickey-OMara was passed with widespread support at this months metropolitan meeting to write to the Health Minister in a bid to secure the facility for the city.

READ MORE: Sod turned on new 14 million property development at Shannon Airport Business Park

Putting all of our collective weight behind this call to the Minister will actively help to make our streets safer for residents, including those in addiction. It will also help to prevent those residents in addiction who fear arrest, or who are experiencing shame as a result of dehumanising treatment they experience, from moving out of the city which can lead to dangerous drug detritus being found in the suburbs, near schools, playgrounds and parks, said the northside councillor.

Shaming people in addiction pushes them to hide, he said. There was widespread support for Cllr Hickey-OMaras motion, which was seconded by his Social Democrats colleague, Cllr Elisa ODonovan.

Independent councillor Maria ODonoghue said: Addiction has been normalised in Limerick city centre.

We can do all the public realm works we want, all these tidying up projects. But while there is still such a strong culture of addiction in our city centre, people will not come in, she said.
OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman told employees Monday that the company was declaring a code red" effort to improve the quality of ChatGPT and delaying other products as a result, according to an internal memo viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Altman said OpenAI had more work to do on the day-to-day experience of its chatbot, including improving personalization features for users, increasing its speed and reliability, and allowing it to answer a wider range of questions.

The companywide memo is the most decisive indication yet of the pressure OpenAI is facing from competitors who have narrowed the startups lead in the AI race. Of particular concern to Altman is Google, which released a new version of its Gemini AI model last month that surpassed OpenAI on industry benchmark tests and sent the search giants stock soaring.

Geminis user base has been climbing since the August release of an image generator, Nano Banana, and Google said monthly active users grew from 450 million in July to 650 million in October. OpenAI is also facing pressure from Anthropic, which is becoming popular among business customers.

With OpenAI committed to hundreds of billions of dollars in future data-center investments, concerns about its timeline for turning those investments into meaningful revenues have sent tremors through the stock market in recent weeks. While the company remains privateChief Financial Officer Sarah Friar said at a Wall Street Journal event in November that an IPO is not on the immediate horizonits fortunes are closely bound with those of Nvidia, Microsoft and Oracle, among others.

Altman said that OpenAI would be pushing back work on other initiatives such as advertising, AI agents for health and shopping, and a personal assistant called Pulse. He encouraged temporary team transfers and said the company would have a daily call for those responsible for improving ChatGPT. On Monday evening, OpenAIs head of ChatGPT, Nick Turley, said on X that the company was now focused on growing its chatbot while also making it feel even more intuitive and personal."

OpenAI isnt profitable and has to raise funding at a near-constant pace to surviveputting it at a financial disadvantage against Google and other tech firms that can fund investments out of revenues. The company is also spending more aggressively than its main startup rival, Anthropic, and will need to grow its revenue to roughly $200 billion to turn a profit in 2030, according to its own financial projections.

Altman has managed to dispel concerns about OpenAIs finances largely due to ChatGPTs massive and growing user base of more than 800 million weekly users, as well as OpenAIs lead in cutting-edge AI research. In the internal memo, he said that a new reasoning model that OpenAI is planning to release next week is ahead of Googles latest Gemini model and that the company is still performing well on various other fronts.

The Information earlier reported on some of the memos contents.

In recent months, OpenAI has struggled in particular with balancing concerns about its chatbots safety with making it more engaging for users. Its GPT-5 model released in August fell flat among some users, who complained about its colder tone and difficulty answering simple math and geography questions. Last month, OpenAI upgraded the model to make it warmer and better able to follow user instructions.

OpenAI earlier declared a code orange" in its effort to improve ChatGPT, the memo said. The company uses three different color codesyellow, orange, and redto describe the varying levels of urgency needed to tackle problems, according to people familiar with the matter.

News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, has a content-licensing partnership with OpenAI.

Write to Berber Jin at berber.jin@wsj.com
(Bloomberg) -- Iren Ltd., a data center firm focused on artificial intelligence and high-performance computing, is seeking to raise $2 billion across two convertible bond issues.

The company is offering $1 billion of notes due 2032 and a further $1 billion due 2033, according to a statement Monday. The 6.5-year tranche is being marketed with a 0% to 0.25% coupon, while the 7.5 year issue has a 0.5% to 1% coupon, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Sydney-based firm is one of several so-called neoclouds, small infrastructure providers that aim to satisfy the seemingly bottomless demand for AI computing capacity. Microsoft Corp. struck a roughly $9.7 billion five-year deal in November to buy computing capacity.

Irens shares fell 6.4% to $45.38 each in after-hours trading as of 5:13 p.m. Monday in New York.

Both convertible bonds come with a conversion premium of 25% to 30%, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isnt public.

Iren is separately conducting a private share offering and concurrently seeking to repurchase some of its existing convertible bonds due 2029 and 2030, a different statement shows. The proceeds from the offering will be used for purposes including funding capped call transactions.

Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are working on the share sale, according to the statement. The three banks are also working on the convertible issue, the people said.

A spokesperson for JPMorgan declined to comment. Representatives for Iren, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs didnt immediately respond to requests for comment.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
Tata Group-owned carrier Air India has issued a clarification following a report alleging that the airline has operated an aircraft on several occasions without a valid airworthiness certificate.

In a statement to Mint, an Air India spokesperson said that an incident involving one of our aircraft operating without an airworthiness review certificate is regrettable.

As soon as this came to our notice, it was duly reported to the DGCA, and all personnel associated with the decision have been placed under suspension, pending further review. We have initiated a comprehensive internal investigation and are fully cooperating with the regulator.

The airline assured that Air India remains unwavering in its commitment to maintaining the highest standards of operational integrity and safety, and any deviation from mandated compliance protocols is treated with utmost seriousness and is unacceptable to the organisation.

Also Read | What IndiGo, Air India flyers must know after Airbus software alert amid delays

The clarification comes after a report by The Economic Times, citing people familiar with the matter, stated that a 164-seat Airbus A320, with an expired airworthiness licence, flew eight times on 24 and 25 November. The issue was discovered when an engineer identified it, and the plane was taken out of service.

DGCA launches probe Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), in a statement issued on Tuesday, acknowledged that it was notified about an Air India aircraft operating on an expired ARC for eight sectors. An investigation is underway, and the aircraft has been grounded.

DGCA has instituted an investigation and instructed the operator to ground the aircraft. The ARC process is in progress. Concerned personnel have been de-rostered with immediate effect pending investigation. Air India, on the instructions of DGCA, is carrying out an internal investigation to identify deficiencies in their system and put corrective measures in place to prevent such failures from occurring in future, the agency said in the statement.

The incident will likely be classified as a Level 1 violation by the DGCA, indicating a serious safety concern, marking the latest error affecting Air Indias flight operations, the ET report said.

Notably, the incident comes months after the Air India plane crash of 12 June in Ahmedabad that left 260 people dead.

Also Read | All probable causes leading to Air India plane crash being investigated: Govt

What is an airworthiness certificate? An airworthiness certificate is issued by India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation, certifying that an aircraft is safe to operate. It must be renewed annually after the aircraft has passed all essential maintenance and safety inspections. Flying an aircraft without a valid certificate is illegal and poses serious safety risks, potentially leading to substantial penalties for the operator and responsible officials.

Trouble for Air India Following the latest incident, Air India may also face trouble with lessors, as operating with an expired licence can lead to the invalidation of insurance coverage, the report said.

By operating an aircraft which was not certified to be airworthy, the carrier has risked flight safety and (that of) all the passengers. This is a serious violation and not expected from a mainline carrier like Air India, a government official told the news portal.

Earlier, the airlines top officials, including chief executive Campbell Wilson, received show-cause notices for operating multiple aircraft components that had exceeded their lifespan.
Amid rising demand for weight-loss drugs, Eli Lilly announced on Monday that it was cutting the price of its popular obesity drug Zepbound for US patients, as it moves to make the medicine more accessible in line with the Trump administration's goals.

The price of single-dose vials of the weight loss drug Zepbound has been reduced on Eli Lilly's direct-to-consumer platform, LillyDirect, as the company also races to compete with its rival Novo Nordisk.

Price of Eli Lilly's weight loss drug Zepbound after discount In a statement on Monday, Eli Lilly confirmed discounts of up to 20% on Zepbound.

The lowest-dose vial will cost $299 a month for cash-paying customers, a discount of about $50.

The next higher dose of 5 milligrams will cost $399 a month, roughly 20% less than the previous self-pay price.

Higher doses will now be available at $449 per month under Lilly's Zepbound Self Pay Journey Program, down from $499 previously  a discount of $50.

Patients typically start at lower doses, before moving to higher strengths for more weight loss.

This is the second time the company has cut down the prices of Zepbound on LillyDirect.

Lilly USA President Ilya Yuffa said that the Zepbound discounts underscore the company's commitment to bringing down the obesity problem in America.

We will keep working to provide more options  expanding choices for delivery devices and creating new pathways for access  so more people can get the medicines they need, he said in a statement.

Zepbound now more accessible Zepbound has a list price of roughly $1,086 per month. This price point, along with an irregular insurance coverage, makes the weight loss drug inaccessible to many needy Americans who suffer from obesity.

Far too many people who need obesity treatments still face cost and coverage barriers, Yuffa said.

The announcement comes weeks after US President Donald Trump signed deals with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to make their GLP-1 drugs more affordable.

Also Read | Eli Lilly partners with Nvidia to build AI supercomputer for drug discovery

As part of that agreement, Lilly will trim what it charges for Zepbound multidose pens. The Trump deal goes into effect starting in 2026 and applies to both Medicare and cash-pay customers.

Zepbound is approved to help adults with obesity or overweight conditions lose excess weight. The medication is also approved to help adults with obesity and moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea improve their condition.
(Bloomberg) -- Meesho Ltd.s anchor book faced a setback after several major investors pulled out when the Indian e-commerce firm was said to have allocated about a quarter of the shares in this tranche to SBI Funds Management Pvt., the countrys largest asset manager, according to people familiar with the matter.

That decision triggered a pushback from other large funds, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. Meesho is set to open its anchor book  a portion of shares reserved for institutional investors  on Tuesday ahead of its initial public offering that launches on Wednesday.

Among those who withdrew were Capital Group, Aberdeen Group Plc, Norges Bank Investment Management, ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co., Nippon India Life Asset Management Ltd. and Nomura Asset Management, the people said. Many had sought allocations on par with those of SBI Funds and opted out in what was viewed as a protest, they added.

Even so, Meeshos anchor lineup features several global investors, including sovereign wealth funds such as GIC Pte and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, alongside major long-only investors like Fidelity International, BlackRock Inc., Baillie Gifford, as well as global firms like WCM Investment Management and Dragoneer Investment Group LLC, the people said.

To be sure, the anchor allotment process is still ongoing, and the final investor lineup may change.

The episode underscores the intense demand for Indias tech startups as they move toward public listings. Recent IPOs from digital platforms including Urban Co. and Billionbrains Garage Ventures Ltd.  the parent of discount broker Groww  have drawn heavy demand, reflecting consumers rapid shift toward online services and commerce.

Representatives for Capital Group and Aberdeen declined to comment. Spokespersons at Meesho, SBI Funds and the other investors didnt respond to requests for comment.

The Bengaluru-based marketplace, which links small manufacturers with price-sensitive consumers in smaller Indian cities, aims to raise as much as 54.2 billion rupees ($603 million). The shares are priced in a range of 105 rupees to 111 rupees apiece, according to a newspaper advertisement published Friday.
US Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday calling for the US departments of Justice and Homeland Security to investigateonline retailers Shein and Temu, which ship most of their merchandise from China, for wide-scale intellectual property theft and counterfeiting.

The letter, which was seen by Reuters, adds to the increased scrutiny of Shein and Temu, which both sell $20 shirts and $10 accessories, following the end of a U.S. trade exemption that helped both companies gain popularity in the region. Shein is privately held and Temu is owned by PDD Holdings.

Also Read | After October GST cloud, await the November shine

Shein did not immediately respond to a requestfor comment. A Temu spokesperson said a comment was not immediately available outside of normal business hours.

Shein has previously said that it requires its suppliers to certify that their products do not infringe on a brand's intellectual property and that they are not counterfeit. The company has ateam that ensures its sellers comply with the policy and takes swift action if they are not in compliance, a spokesperson previously said.

The ending of the de minimis exemption, which allowed packages shipped directly to shoppers valued at under $800 to enter the U.S. duty-free, has "forced Shein and Temu to change their business model," Cotton said in the letter.

"These companies now stock massive inventories in U.S. warehouses and distribution centers. Their goods are no longer slipping through ports," Cotton said. They are sitting on American soil under U.S. jurisdiction.
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday allowed domestic drugmaker Dr Reddys Laboratories to manufacture and export its generic version of semaglutide to countries where the patent-holder Novo Nordisk does not have patent protection.

Notably, semaglutide is the compound behind the Danish drugmakers blockbuster weight-loss drug Ozempic.

The order, released on Wednesday evening and reviewed by Mint, rejected Novo Nordisks plea to restrain Dr. Reddys from manufacturing and exporting the drug.

The bench of Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora held that Novo had not established a strong enough case to justify an interim ban and noted that any financial losses could be compensated later if Novo ultimately succeeds after the full trial.

Accordingly, the plaintiff (Nova) has failed to make out a prima facie case for the grant of an interim injunction any damages suffered by the plaintiff can be adequately compensated after the trial," the order states.

The ruling observed that Novo only imports semaglutide into India and does not manufacture it locally. On that basis, the court permitted Dr. Reddys to continue production and export.

Since the plaintiff is not manufacturing in India and only importing to India, this Court accepts the undertaking by the defendants and permits them to manufacture the impugned drug in India and export it to countries where the plaintiff does not have a patent registration," the judgment noted.

Also Read | Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk to lay off up to 150 people in India

The court found that Dr. Reddys had raised a credible challenge to Novos patent, pointing out that semaglutide had already been disclosed in an earlier 2004 patent, raising concerns regarding novelty and whether the later patent represented an attempt to extend monopoly protection.

The court also recorded Dr. Reddys undertaking that it will not sell semaglutide in India, permitting only exports, and directed the company to place on record the manufacturing and export details since April, when production began.

However, the court clarified that Dr. Reddys cannot sell the drug in India until the patent expires in March 2026, noting that the company began manufacturing in April but did not challenge Novos patent until 12 March, doing so at its own risk.

The judge also clarified all observations are prima facie and will not influence the final outcome of the trial.

The development is expected to have significant implications for Indias generic drugmakers, which are raring to enter the fast-growing anti-obesity drug market.

On the patents expiry, several Indian drugmakers, including DRL, Sun Pharma, Mankind Pharma and Natco Pharma, plan to launch cheaper generics of the drug, according to company statements.

Novo, meanwhile, has tied up with Pune-based Emcure Pharmaceuticals to distribute the drug under the brand Poviztra in India, aiming for deeper penetration beyond metros.

The background

At the centre of the dispute between Novo Nordisk and Dr Reddys is semaglutides patent structure. The primary composition patent for the molecule, held by Novo, expired in September 2024, opening the door to generic competition.

However, Novo still holds a formulation patent covering delivery mechanisms meant to improve stability, valid until March 2026.

Dr Reddys has challenged this under Section 64 of the Patents Act, calling it an attempt at evergreening" to extend monopoly protection. The company argues it secured regulatory approval in December 2024 to manufacture semaglutide solely for export, claiming protection under Indias Bolar exemption (Section 107A), which permits export of patented drugs to countries where patents have expired.

Novo rejects this position, citing Section 48, which gives the patent holder exclusive rights to make, use, sell and export the invention and argues export cannot be used to bypass an active patent.

On 12th May, Dr Reddys challenged the validity of Novos second patent in the Delhi High Court, saying that it lacks novelty. Soon after, Novo Nordisk filed a patent infringement suit against Dr Reddys and its contract manufacturer, OneSource Specialty Pharma, accusing them of attempting to manufacture and market semaglutide formulations without a licence.

Also Read | Wellness startups board the weight loss bandwagon

On 29 May, Justice Amit Bansal barred Dr. Reddys from selling semaglutide in India, but allowed the company to manufacture and export it until the case is finally decided. In July, Novo Nordisk filed an appeal against the May order.

Novo then appealed to a division bench, seeking clarity on how long export would be allowed. On 23 July, the division bench sent the issue back to the single bench to decide specifically on exports.

On Tuesday, Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora ruled that Dr. Reddys can continue exporting semaglutide until March, but the ban on selling it in India remains.

Meanwhile, in August, Natco Pharma also filed a non-infringement suit in the Delhi High Court, claiming its version does not violate Novos patents and should be allowed to enter the market. The matter is currently under mediation.

What is semaglutide

Semaglutide, the active ingredient in Novo Nordisks GLP-1 drugsOzempic, Wegovy and Rybelsuswas originally developed for type-2 diabetes and later approved for obesity treatment, with studies showing patients could lose 15-23% of body weight. The drug mimics the GLP-1 hormone, signalling fullness to the brain, slowing digestion, and reducing cravings.

Semaglutide was developed by Novo around 2012, approved as Ozempic in 2017, and re-launched in a higher dose as Wegovy in 2021.

Novo introduced Wegovy in India in June, priced initially between 17,345 and 26,050 a month. The launch coincided with a surge in demand for obesity treatments.

Indias anti-obesity drug market has jumped from 133 crore in March 2021 to 576 crore in March 2025, according to PharmaTrac data, with semaglutide contributing about 397 crore.

Indias weight-loss drug market is currently dominated by Novos semaglutide range and tirzepatide, sold by Eli Lilly as Mounjaro.

The latter has rapidly overtaken Wegovy, becoming the top-selling brand in October with 100 crore in monthly sales, nearly 10 times Wegovys revenue, data from research firm Pharmarack showed. Mounjaro is priced between 14,000 and 27,500 a month.

Facing competitive pressure, Novo cut Wegovy prices by 37% in November, reducing the entry-level dose to 10,850.
Apple on Monday announced a major leadership change within its artificial intelligence division, appointing former Microsoft and Google executive Amar Subramanya to replace long-serving AI chief John Giannandrea. The transition marks the most significant reshuffle in Apples AI ranks since the launch of its Apple Intelligence suite in 2024, and comes at a time when the company faces intensifying scrutiny over its position in the global AI race.

Why is Apple changing its AI leadership now? John Giannandrea, who joined Apple in 2018 and served as Senior Vice President of Machine Learning and AI Strategy, will step down from his role and retire next spring. Apple said he will remain as an advisor until then.

The decision lands during a period of heightened pressure for Apple, as analysts and industry experts increasingly argue that the company is trailing rivals such as Microsoft, Google and Meta in advanced AI development.

Apple Intelligence  intended to reassert Apple as a competitive force following the resurgence of AI sparked by ChatGPT in 2022  has struggled to impress.

Users and critics have delivered lukewarm reviews of the system, and one of its centrepiece features, a substantially enhanced Siri assistant, has been delayed until 2026. The postponement has been widely viewed as evidence of internal development hurdles.

Who is Amar Subramanya? Amar Subramanya is an AI researcher with a career spanning some of the worlds most influential technology companies. Before joining Apple, he most recently worked at Microsoft and previously spent time at Googles DeepMind unit  one of the industrys leading AI research groups  according to his LinkedIn profile.

At Apple, Subramanya will assume the role of Vice President of AI and report directly to Craig Federighi, the companys Senior Vice President of Software Engineering. Apple confirmed that he will lead teams responsible for foundation models, AI research and AI safety, while responsibilities previously overseen by Giannandrea will be redistributed under Chief Operating Officer Sabih Khan and Services Chief Eddy Cue.

In a statement praising the structural shift, Apple CEO Tim Cook said Federighi had already been instrumental in guiding the companys AI ambitions.

In addition to growing his leadership team and AI responsibilities with Amars joining, Craig has been instrumental in driving our AI efforts, including overseeing our work to bring a more personalised Siri to users next year, Cook said.

Is Apple falling behind its AI competitors? Although Apple shares have risen 16% in 2025, they still lag behind those of its tech peers  many of which are deploying billions into AI data centres, proprietary chips and frontier-scale models. Analysts argue that Apples more conservative approach to infrastructure investment has left the company playing catch-up.

Apple has emphasised that it is significantly increasing its AI spending, and Tim Cook has repeatedly described AI as a profound technology. The company has also struck a deal with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into its products, including Siri.

However, Apple remains committed to a distinctive strategy: favouring on-device processing instead of cloud-based computation, a choice that prioritises privacy and efficiency but demands highly optimised models.

How does this shift fit into Apples broader AI ambitions? The companys AI story in 2025 has been shaped not only by internal restructuring but also by external developments. Jony Ive  Apples former chief designer and one of the architects of the iPhone  sold his hardware startup to OpenAI for $6.4 billion, with plans to help the AI lab develop its own hardware. Early prototypes, Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, have already been completed and could debut within two years.

This raises questions about how Apple will maintain its hardware dominance as competitors accelerate towards AI-specific devices.
Zerodha co-founder Nithin Kamath took to social media to praise brother Nikhil Kamath's interview with Elon Musk on WTF podcast. He also shared a clip from the interview where the billionaire shared advice with budding entrepreneurs.

Nithin shared the clip adding that Elon Musk's advice to strive to be net contributors to society describes his own brother's efforts with WTF podcast and praised the co-founder for his growth in the space.

Also Read | What makes a company worth investing? Elon Musk list sectors with Nikhil Kamath

Nithin Kamath, the proud brother on social media In a long post on X (owned by Elon Musk, and formerly Twitter), Nithin Kamath expressed his feelings on the developments. Nik(hil) has been on a roll, and for someone who started ~50 episodes ago and does it as a side gig, he has really improved over time. Full pro-podcaster he has become. Goes on to show that the odds of success are much higher when you build things around what you love, he stated.

He went on to praise Nikhil as someone who is curious and listens well, adding, the magic sauce is launching the podcast at the right time when podcasting in India was just taking off.

Why did Elon Musk's core principle resonate with Nithin Kamath? Nithin went on to point to a core principle shared by Elon Musk, which he said, stood out to me because it also describes much of what Nik(hil) does with WTF, which Im proud of as a brother.

Here's what Elon Musk said: Im a big fan of anyone who wants to build. Anyone who aims to make more than they take has my respect. Thats really the core principle: strive to be a net contributor to society.

Its similar to the pursuit of happiness. If you want to create something valuable or financially successful, the goal shouldnt be the money itself. Instead, focus on providing genuinely useful products and services. When you do that, the financial rewards tend to follow naturally. Just like happinessyou dont chase it directly; you pursue the things that lead to it: fulfilling work, learning, friendships, loved ones. The happiness is a byproduct.

It might sound obvious, but anyone starting a company should expect to work extremely hard, accept that theres a real chance of failure, and stay focused on ensuring that the output is worth more than the input.

Are you creating value? Thats what matters. Make more than you take.

The world's richest man engaged in a nearly two-hour long conversation with Nikhil Kamath on his popular WTF Podcast, about work, consciousness, family, money, AI and how the future might unfold.
Zoho Corporation co-founder and Chief Scientist Sridhar Vembu, in a recent social media post, challenged Y Combinator President and CEO Garry Tan, betting that the Indian tech firm will outshine and outlast the vibe coding companies.

In a post on the platform X, Sridhar Vembu responded to Garry Tan's post, which claimed that Zoho Corp. will become the first company to be competed away by people building their own software with the help of vibe coding companies.

Also Read | Sridhar Vembu shares bizarre startup acquisition pitch leaking rival offer

Vembu pushed back on the argument, stating that Zoho is witnessing more than 50% rapid customer growth levels, questioning Tan on how that is possible if the company faces a threat from the vibe coding companies.

If our business would be the first to be competed away by vibe-coded apps, why are we seeing such rapid customer growth (exceeding 50%) right now? And why don't we see vibe-coded email or spreadsheet or accounting app or messaging apps yet? (sic) said Vembu in his response.

Vembu's bet against Tan California-based startup Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan questioned why clients should pay $30 per month to people for a SaaS service, which can allegedly be solved with a vibe-code custom solution over a weekend.

Why pay $30/seat/month for over-bundled SaaS when soon even nontech ops ppl can vibe-code a custom solution in a weekend? said Tan in his post.

After citing his take on Zoho's path forward, Sridhar Vembu made a bet against Tan that the tech giant is prepared to outshine and outlast the vibe coding companies amid the overall industry debate on the matter.

Let me make a bet with Garry Tan: we will outshine and outlast his vibe coding companies! said Sridhar Vembu in his post.

Although Y Combinator is not a vibe coding company, the startup invests in companies which use vibe coding methods to boost their software development techniques.

Is vibe coding a tech debt trap? Vibe coding is a software development practice that enables individuals to create entire websites, applications, and more with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) software, which generates code automatically rather than being written line by line.

Vembu also highlighted that if companies are not providing security, privacy, and compliance guarantees to their clients, then moving towards vibe coding is a way of piling up tech debt faster.

Without those guarantees, vibe coding just piles up tech debt faster and faster until the whole thing collapses. Of course, for people like Garry Tan, tech debt is to be pawned off on unsuspecting acquirers, said Vembu in his response to Tan's post.
Russia on Tuesday pitched for creating an "architecture" to insulate its trade ties with India from pressure by third countries, and said New Delhi's procurement of Russian crude oil may decline for "a brief period" in view of western sanctions.

However, Moscow is taking steps to enhance the supplies, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in a video-streamed news conference ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to New Delhi for the annual summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He said that addressing India's concerns over the massive trade deficit, cooperation in small modular nuclear reactors and expanding defence and energy ties could be among the focus areas during the summit talks on Friday.

Putin, who arrives on Thursday, will hold talks with Modi during which a plethora of significant outcomes are expected, including in the trade and defence spheres, to further solidify the bilateral strategic ties.

The Russian leader's trip to India is taking place at a time when India-US relations are going through possibly the worst phase in the last two decades after Washington imposed a whopping 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods, including 25 per cent levies for New Delhi's procurement of Russian crude oil.

On India gradually bringing down purchase of Russian crude oil following US sanctions on two Russian firms, Peskov said the decline could be for a very "brief period" and Russia is confident of averting the impact of the Western restrictions.

"There are sanctions against the Russian oil production sector, but we are finding ways not to let the volume of trade go down.

"We have deep experience in performing under the regime of these illegal sanctions," Peskov said.

The Kremlin spokesperson also called for creating a mechanism to insulate India-Russia trade and energy ties from pressure by third countries, in an apparent reference to western sanctions.

"We should create an architecture of our relationship that must be free of any influence coming from any third country.

"We have to secure our relationship; we have to secure our trade that brings mutual benefit. We have to secure our trade from pressure from abroad," he said.

The Kremlin spokesperson called for a new system of global trade where the payment system (dollar-denominated trade) is not used as a "political tool".

Peskov indicated that putting in place a mechanism for settling trade in national currencies, avoiding the US dollar dominated system, may figure in Modi-Putin talks.

"We understand the pressure on India," he said, referring to the US.

Peskov also said that Russia is fully aware of India's concerns about the massive trade deficit, and it is working to fix "the problem".

"There is a real imbalance in our trade. We are aware of that. We are selling much more than we buy from India," he said.

"We know that our Indian friends are concerned about that. We are jointly looking at the possibilities of increasing imports from India. We want to buy more from India," he said.

New Delhi has been concerned about the increasing trade deficit in Moscow's favour. India's procurement of goods and services from Russia amounts to around USD 65 billion, while Russia's imports from India stand at around USD 5 billion.

The Kremlin spokesperson, referring to India-Russia defence ties, highlighted the joint production of BrahMos missiles and described the venture as an example of exchange of high technologies.

"We are developing quite a variety of very complicated systems. We are ready to share with India our experience," he said.

Peskov said there may be discussions on the possibility of Russia supplying Su-57 fighter jets and additional batches of S-400 air defence systems. He said cooperation in areas of small and medium nuclear reactors is expected to feature in talks between Modi and Putin.

Russia has experience in producing these small reactors and is ready to supply the technology to India, he said.

To a question on Russia's "limitless" friendship with China, Peskov said Moscow wants the same level of relationship with New Delhi as well. "We are ready to go as far as India is ready. We are ready to develop our cooperation with India in every possible field."

Peskov said Russia respects bilateral ties between India and China and hoped that both countries are capable of resolving their issues in order to keep global stability and peace.

Also Read | When did Vladimir Putin last visit India?

The Kremlin spokesperson praised the latest mediation efforts by the US to end the Ukraine war "as very effective".

"We hope it will succeed. We are ready to contribute to it," he said hours before US negotiator Steve Witcoff was scheduled to meet Putin. Peskov indicated that the Russia-Ukraine conflict will feature prominently at the Modi-Putin summit.

"Russia is open for peaceful negotiation; we have to reach our goals.

"We appreciate the position of India. We appreciate the readiness of New Delhi to look for a peaceful solution. We respect the position of Prime Minister Modi," he said.

He said Russia is ready to cooperate with India "to combat terrorism".

To a question on Moscow's ties with Kabul, Peskov said: "We're building up our relationship with Afghanistan."

"We'll continue to develop our relationship with Afghanistan," he added.
Nations need to work closely to deal with challenges to economic governance arising from the digitalization of the economy, the emergence of new financial products, and evolving structures of beneficial ownership, India's finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday.

Transparency in tax matters has always extended beyond administrative reform for the country, touching upon a deeper principle that economic governance must rest on fairness and responsibility, she said in her keynote address at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Developments (OECD) Global Forum in New Delhi.

She said when individuals and enterprises pay their fair share, and when evasion is effectively deterred, societies become stronger and more equitable. That conviction has shaped our legislative and enforcement frameworks. Our laws against illicit financial flows and undisclosed foreign assets reflect this belief, as does our participation in both the exchange of information on request and the automatic exchange of information standards.

Also Read | OECD lowers India growth estimate amid global slowdown spurred by Trump tariffs

The OECDs Global Forum collaborates with 172 nations to prevent offshore tax evasion by facilitating the exchange of information among nations and promoting transparency in tax matters through the implementation of these standards.

Under the automatic exchange of information framework, India gets data on Indians offshore asset holdings not reported to the authorities here.

The income tax department launched a campaign last week, nudging approximately 25,000 high-risk assessees to come clean on their undisclosed foreign income and assets that the tax authority has come to know about. This initiative follows a similar previous drive, which led to the disclosure of over 30,000 crore in foreign income and assets, Mint reported on 27 November.

This drive focuses on ensuring voluntary compliance among individuals with unreported foreign income or assets. The I-T department is reaching out to specific assessees through text messages and emails, urging them to file or update their tax returns.

Call for joint action Looking ahead, there are new challenges that call for joint attention, Sitharaman said.

The digitalization of the economy, the emergence of new financial products, and evolving structures of beneficial ownership require continued cooperation between jurisdictions, she said, adding that cybersecurity must also be maintained with great care.

These are not challenges that any one country can address alone. They demand coordination, trust, and timely exchange of relevant information, she said.

A beneficial owner refers to the actual owner of an asset, who ultimately owns, controls, and benefits from it, as opposed to its legal owner. Regulatory authorities often look at beneficial ownership in order to find who actually controls assets and benefits from them, irrespective of their legal ownership.

Revenue secretary Arvind Shrivastava said India has invested in secure IT systems and data analytics to elicit actionable intelligence from the information received through global frameworks.

This has allowed us to make full and responsible use of information shared under international frameworks. We have also strengthened our domestic legal architecture to deal with undisclosed foreign assets and illicit financial flows. Measures such as the Black Money Act and the Benami Transactions Act used alongside international transactions have supported enforcement and helped strengthen the integrity of our tax base, Shrivastava said.

Also Read | Why Bengaluru is becoming a tough market for QSR chains

Shrivastava also said the task before nations is clear and urgent.

We must continue to deepen beneficial ownership transparency, ensure a strong data confidentiality system and ensure information shared under international systems is used effectively. We must also adapt to new challenges, including digital economy taxation and crypto asset reporting frameworks, which call for both technical information and coordinated action, Shrivastava said.

Sitharaman said transparency in tax matters has a direct bearing on development. Public infrastructure, education, health services, and welfare programmes all depend on domestic resources. When national wealth escapes legitimate taxation, it creates not only a revenue gap but also a development gap. For developing countries, this effect is particularly significant.
According to the latest update, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has found no link between Dhurandhar and late Major Mohit Sharma. The film helmed by Aditya Dhar, landed in controversy when the parents of Ashoka Chakra awardee Late Major Mohit Sharma moved Delhi High Court against the film release.

Dhurandhar stars Ranveer Singh in the lead.

The High Court directed CBFC to consider the objections raised by Sharma's family.

CBFC finds no link between Dhurandhar and Major Mohit Sharma On Tuesday, news agency ANI confirmed that the Board has dismissed the family's objections over the film. It confirmed that Dhurandhar has no resemblance to the life, service, or experiences of Major Sharma.

The Board officials reexamined the query of the High Court, evaluating if the film, in any manner, directly or indirectly depicts, resembles or derives from Sharma's life. It concluded Dhurandhar as a a work of fiction, with no factual or biographical connection to the late Major.

The board also noted that the film already includes a disclaimer stating that all characters, events, and the storyline are fictional and not based on any real people.

It also mentioned that the Examining Committee had watched the film on November 28 and approved it for an Adult certificate. The film went through a few cuts and changes as well.

Dhurandhar controversy The update from CBFC comes after a detailed hearing in the Court based on the petition filed by Major Mohit Sharmas parents, seeking a halt to Dhurandhars release.

During the hearing, Justice Sachin Datta questioned the petitioners lawyers on how they concluded that the Ranveer Singh-starrer was based on Major Sharmas life. The judge noted that only the trailer was available and no strong evidence had been presented to show any close resemblance. The Court asked the CBFC to review the familys concerns before finishing the certification process.

Major Sharmas parents had claimed that the Dhurandhar was being marketed as inspired by true events and that the plot seemed similar to elements of the Majors life, missions and sacrifice.

Watch trailer here:

However, the film team, represented by Senior Advocate Saurabh Kirpal, argued that the petition was premature and incorrect.He maintained that the film is completely fictional and unrelated to Major Sharma.
Chinese rare-earth magnet companies are finding workarounds to their governments onerous export restrictions, as they seek to keep sales flowing to Western buyers without falling afoul of Chinese authorities.

The companies are tweaking magnet formulas to avoid using certain restricted rare-earth elements and devising other strategies to get powerful magnets out of the country, like embedding them in motors, according to employees of several large Chinese magnet companies and Western firms that buy from them.

The strategieswhich are legaldont work perfectly and the new magnets sometimes behave differently than traditional ones. But Chinese companies have huge and growing magnet-making capacity, and say they are determined to find legal ways to maintain exports.

The drive is the latest twist in a long-running battle between China and the U.S. over rare earths. China dominates the global supply of rare earths and the magnets they are made of. They are crucial to making everything from cars to wind turbines and jet fighters.

Earlier this year, as Beijing traded blows with the Trump administration over U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods, Chinese authorities set up a new export-licensing regime, choking off the supply of rare earths and inflicting pain on Western businesses. As part of an October deal with the U.S., China agreed to postpone certain impending restrictions, although Western businesses worry the supply will nonetheless be insufficient.

That has motivated Chinese rare-earth companies to find ways to ease the flow.

One approach has been to use technical innovations. Certain powerful types of rare-earth magnetsoften used for car engines, robotics and industrial machinerytypically use small quantities of dysprosium and terbium, two heavy" rare-earth elements, to allow magnets to function at high temperatures. Chinese rules introduced in April mean that magnets with even small amounts of these materials require export licenses. It often takes weeks or months to gain approvalif it comes at all, according to rare-earth companies and traders.

View Full Image Rare earths are crucial in the manufacture of jet fighters.

That has spurred a race by Chinese magnet companies to make better magnets without heavy rare earths. They are making such magnets more heat-resistant by, for instance, grinding the magnet material until it is extremely fine. That requires specialized machinery and adds significant costs. While the development of magnets that are free of heavy rare earths has gone on for years, the export restrictions have prompted a new push.

The resulting magnets are designed to operate at temperatures of up to approximately 300 degrees Fahrenheit, which is sufficient for use in many types of home appliances. Carmakers, aircraft manufacturers and others will often require magnets with even greater heat tolerance.

Chinese companies marketing magnets free of the regulated heavy rare earths include Yonjumag, Anhui Hanhai New Material, Zhaobao Magnet and X-Mag. X-Mag has posted detailed charts showing its progress in developing new heat-resistant magnets that dont require export licenses.

As global supply chains for heavy rare earth elements tighten," X-Mag said in a social-media post in October, developing magnet grades free of restricted heavy rare earths has become increasingly critical."

Zhaobao Magnet said on LinkedIn in October that, in response to export-control regulations, the company was continuously developing new high-performance magnet series free of restricted elements."

After China announced its initial export controls in April, Yonjumag published a brochure for foreign buyers listing counter measures," including selling magnets that are free of restricted heavy rare earths. It said it aims to develop even higher-grade magnets free of the restricted elements by the end of the year.

Many Western companies are buying such magnets, traders say, despite concerns that they might not always be as effective as their Chinese makers claim.

Not being able to use [restricted heavy rare earths] does make the high-temperature performance slightly weaker, but for most customers, having a workable magnet is far better than having none," Dylan Kui, a Chinese magnet company marketer, wrote on LinkedIn in October under a post detailing his companys magnet performance at different temperatures.

In a sign of the political sensitivity surrounding rare earths, Bade Wu, whose LinkedIn profile lists him as general manager of a Chinese magnet manufacturer, commented under that post that Kui should be careful about providing such technical information, saying it could pose regulatory risks." Kui responded that he was sharing standard technical information, not revealing technological secrets.

Chinese companies are finding other workarounds. For instance, while the export of rare-earth magnets is restricted in China, the applications they are used in, such as motors, arent. So Chinese companies are now working with local parts manufacturers to deliver to Western clients motors and other parts that have magnets already embedded in them.

Given the political sensitivity surrounding rare earths, Chinese companies are careful to respect the law. In recent months, Beijing has announced crackdowns on smuggling of critical minerals like rare earths. Some Chinese magnet makers have appointed compliance officers to ensure their exports are hewing to the law.

Chinese regulators have already taken steps to close loopholes. After new rare-earth export controls were announced in April, some Chinese magnet makers began tinkering with using the rare-earth element holmium in their magnet formulas to increase heat resistance, replacing terbium and dysprosium, which were restricted under the new rules.

In October, China added holmium to the list of restricted materials, putting an end to the gambit. After an agreement that month between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to ease rare-earth exports, China delayed enforcement of holmium export controls by one year, potentially reviving the loophole for a time period.

While the workarounds offer potential short-term solutions, traders and rare-earth companies warn that Beijing could exploit Chinas chokehold over rare earths again in the future for geopolitical gain. That could result in even tighter export controls and the closing of loopholes.

Chinese companies say foreign buyers are becoming frustrated and are developing alternative rare-earth sources outside of China.

When those sources are mature and viable, were done with you," a foreign buyer told an employee of one Chinese magnet company, according to that employee.

Write to Jon Emont at jonathan.emont@wsj.com
Deferred bonuses, joining incentives, and clawbacks are now embedded in the high compensation offered at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), reflecting a fiercely competitive job market and concerns over talent attrition. Mint examines whether these measures will actually help companies hold on to their hires.

What are companies offering?

High-frequency trading (HFT) firms such as Quadeye, Graviton Research Capital, NK Securities, Quantbox Research, and Squarepoint Capital are providing performance- and joining-based bonuses to lock in candidates immediately after offers are made. Texas Instruments, for example, offers restricted stock units (RSUs) with a four-year vesting period.

While joining bonuses have long been part of campus offers, analytics companies are now competing with both startups and tech giants, prompting recruiters to make their offers more lucrative and timely.

Also Read | Attrition costs are catching up with IT companies

What role does a clawback play?

For the batch of 2026, Indian and global firms are increasingly including clawbacks in compensation structures. A clawback requires employees to forfeit a portion of their compensation if they leave the company before a stipulated period.

For instance, TVS Motor Ltds 300,000 joining bonus comes with a three-year clawback. IDFC Bank Ltd, Siemens Energy, and EXL also incorporate such clauses for IIT hires.

Traditionally, clawbacks are used for CXOs to address irregularities or abrupt exits, but in campus hiring, they are meant to ensure employees remain with the firm for at least a few years while enhancing accountability.

Deferred bonuses and stocks as retention tools

Some firms structure deferred bonuses, releasing a portion of annual wages in milestones. Publicis Sapient, for example, offers 200,000 after one year and another 200,000 after two years. Stocks are also becoming common, especially for startups competing with established HFT firms and tech companies for engineering talent.

Palo Alto-based healthcare firm Risa Labs plans to recruit system engineers and associate product managers for its India and US offices, offering around 36 lakh in India and $150,000 in the US, plus $30,000 worth of stocks, roughly 1.6 crore in total. Placement cells at IITs and company sources note that stocks are a strong incentive, giving employees a sense of participating in the firms value creation.

Startups now routinely participate in campus placements at both engineering colleges and B-schools. They offer employee stock options (Esops) and RSUs. ESOPs allow employees to purchase company stock at a predetermined price in the future, while RSUs vest only after achieving specific milestones.

Also Read | Beyond salaries: Why Indian companies are doubling down on Esops

Will these clauses improve retention?

Recruiters for the 2026 batch are especially keen on students skilled in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) for roles like project managers, software developers, and analysts. While deferred and joining bonuses, clawbacks, and stock options help attract candidates, they may not meaningfully boost retention. The financial stakes are relatively modest, and competitors can often match or offset any losses.

Retention will likely hinge more on the nature of the work  roles where IIT graduates contribute significantly to product development and collaborate with global teams are more likely to keep talent engaged.

Will these clauses apply only to engineering students?

No. Older IITs such as Bombay, Delhi, Roorkee, Guwahati, Madras, Kharagpur, and Kanpur are closely watched by B-schools. While B-school profiles differ, there is overlap in recruiters.

B-school graduates often have prior work experience, pushing median compensation higher, but when placements begin at B-schools in February and March, companies are expected to deploy similar strategiesbonuses, deferred pay, and clawbacksto retain them.
As part of the new approach, government think tank NITI Aayog plans to host a Global EV Summit in March-April, an event that may see participation from leading global EV firms and top government functionaries, according to two people aware of the development and a concept note reviewed by Mint.

Preparatory consultations have begun with the ministry of heavy industries and domestic and international experts and think tanks, the people said.

The event will be positioned as a sequel to the 2018 MOVE Summit that was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as per the concept note for the event.

Earlier, in August, the Niti Aayog had shifted its stance towards creating mandates along with incentives to boost Indias electric vehicle adoption.

Also Read | India preps to meet 6x surge in battery storage demand by 2047

The upcoming summit will focus on creating domestic policy mandates to drive EV adoption, especially for e-trucks and e-buses, supply chain management in the light of the rare-earth magnet crisis, upcoming technologies in the domain and the EV charging ecosystems, said one of the people cited above, requesting anonymity.

Electric trucks and buses are crucial vehicle segments that the government plans to incentivize under the marquee PM E-Drive scheme till FY28. Other vehicle segments such as two- and three-wheelers have also got incentives under this scheme, but these will lapse in March 2026.



A key objective of the summit will be to secure investments from domestic and global institutions into the countrys EV sector, the note said. This, according to experts, can create scale of manufacturing within the country. Yet another aim is to create a platform for Indian businesses to participate more in global value chains in the EV sector, the concept note added.

India had in March 2024 rolled out its Scheme to Promote Manufacturing of Electric Passenger Cars in India (SPMEPCI), popularly referred to as the Tesla scheme. It had offered import duty cuts to foreign electric car makers on limited completely built-up units, provided the manufacturer sets up a manufacturing plant in India with a minimum investment of $500 million, and made these vehicles with a significant amount of localization. The scheme had failed to attract the EV major to invest in manufacturing in the country.

Emailed queries to Niti Aayog on 27 November and the ministry of heavy industries on 28 November seeking comments on the summit remained unanswered till press time. There was also no response to queries emailed to US-based Tesla.

VinFast CEO Pham Sanh Chau, in response to Mint's query about the company's India investment plans, said, India is one of VinFasts key strategic markets, and we expect it to make an important contribution to our global business results." Within two months of starting sales, the Vietnamese automaker is already among the top bestselling EV brands in the market, he added.

"VinFast is open to launching its full product lineup. We expect to introduce three new models in 2026, one of which will be the 7-seat Limo Green model. We are also considering introducing electric buses and two-wheelers in India next year. We are evaluating all segments and will announce our business plans at the right time," he said.

The company plans to expand its Indian network to 35 dealerships in 27 cities by 2025, and further to 100 dealerships in 60 cities, the chief executive said.

Supply chain pressures shape policy

The EV summit plan comes in the wake of the global rare-earth magnet shortage, which was triggered by Chinas export control order in April. China, which holds about 90% of the worlds rare-earth processing capacity, sent manufacturers across the globe into panic, as the magnets are used in strategic sectors such as defence, electronics, renewable energy and automobiles, including electric vehicles.



In the midst of this supply crunch, India had to amend its local manufacturing incentive rules to allow e-truck and e-bus makers to import rare earth magnet-laden motors and still get government sops under the 10,900-crore PM E-Drive scheme, indicating the sectors reliance on Chinese imports.



On 26 November, the Union Cabinet cleared a 7,280-crore incentive package for setting up of five rare-earth magnet manufacturing units across the country. This scheme has a two-year gestation period to set up the plants, and the incentives will be doled out for five years after that.



Market outlook

Indias EV adoption has also been modest. In its August report, the Niti Aayog noted that the country's EV penetration has been low as against the progress made by China and Europe. While Indias electric three-wheeler adoption is highwith more than half of them being electrictwo-wheelers, four-wheelers, buses and trucks have lagged.



While the global EV penetration rate was about 16.48% as of 2024, India's was just 7.66%, said the report titled Unlocking a $200 billion opportunity: Electric Vehicles in India.



Indias public policy now has incentives for all segments of electric vehicles, with even e-tractors incentivized by some states. Two major production-linked incentive schemes, PLI-Auto with an outlay of 25,938 crore, and PLI-ACC (advanced chemistry cells) with an outlay of 18,100 crore form a robust policy signal from the government towards making EVs and their batteries locally.

Also Read | Why Indian businesses will resolve disputes faster with amended Bill

Simultaneously, a decade of Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric and Hybrid vehicles (FAME scheme), followed by the PM E-Drive scheme offer consumers discounts on EV purchases.



Indias EV sector was valued at about $54 billion in 2025 and is set to double to about $110 billion by 2029, market intelligence firm Mordor Intelligence said.



So far this calendar year, over 2 million EVs have hit Indian roads, data from the central governments Vahan registry showed. This comprised about 7.92% of all new vehicle registrations in the country in this period.



India's EV sector has shown "promising growth with multiple segments having an increasing penetration," said Ashim Sharma, senior partner and business unit head of Nomura Research Institute Solutions and Consulting. Major challenges for the sector include expanding the charging infrastructure and ensuring resilience of supply chains for materials such as rare earth and batteries, he added.


Gail (India) Ltds shares slipped 5% after the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) set an interim transmission tariff of 65.7 per mmBtu (million British thermal units)  12% higher than current charges but well below Gails proposed 78 per mmBtu.

The regulator has once again left out certain cost components to prevent steep hikes for customers, echoing the 2023 revision that also undershot the companys submission.

Also Read | Lenskarts high gross margin gives it an edge over Nykaa

PNGRB resets tariffs every five years for the domestic gas transmission sector. The lower-than-expected revision has prompted brokerages to trim Gails earnings forecasts by 37%. JM Financial Institutional Securities, for instance, has cut its FY2728 profit-after-tax estimates by 34.5% and lowered its target price by about 4% to 205.

Margin squeeze

Despite crudes sharp fall, firm liquified natural gas (LNG) prices are hurting Gails marketing margins since key contracts are Brent-linked. LNG is up about 20% at Henry Hub so far in 2025 versus an 18% drop in Brent, also dampening domestic gas demand. Gail now expects FY26 transmission volumes to decline ~3% versus 6% growth in FY25.

Also Read | Olas woes multiply as gap with ICE peers widens after GST move

The guidance for gas transmission volumes has been repeatedly lowered over the last three quarters by Gail owing to slower-than-expected demand, specifically from power sector, deferred pipeline expansion projects and stronger LNG prices," according to a 30 November ICICI Securities report.

Recovery bet on FY27

Given the tough market conditions, Gails H1FY26 standalone Ebitda fell by 23% to 6,400 crore at a time when revenue increased by about 5% to 70,000 crore. Outlook for FY27 appears better with JM Financial projecting 18% Ebitda growth, aided by over 7% growth in transmission volumes.

Gails shares have fallen by about 8% so far in 2025. The stock trades at an enterprise value of 9.7x FY26 estimated Ebitda, as per Bloomberg, which is higher than its long-term average multiple.

While Gails gas transmission network would increase to about 22,000 kilometres by end-FY27 from 16,500 km currently, bringing more consumer centres within its network, a pick-up in demand is essential for the stock to re-rate.
Bank of Maharashtra share price traded flat on Tuesday as the companys two-day offer for sale (OFS) opened today. The government has decided to divest up to 6% stake in PSU bank through the OFS route.

At the current market price, the government is expected to raise more than 2,600 crore via the stake sale.

Offer for Sale in Bank of Maharashtra (BOM) opens tomorrow for Non-Retail investors. Retail investors can bid on Wednesday. Government offers to disinvest 5% equity in the bank with an additional 1% as a green shoe option, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Arunish Chawla said in a post on X.

Also Read | Government to divest up to 6% stake in Bank of Maharashtra

Here are the key details of Bank of Maharashtra OFS:

Bank of Maharashtra OFS Details OFS Date: The sale opens for non-retail investors on Tuesday, 2 December 2025, and for Retail Investors on Wednesday, 3 December 2025.

OFS Size: The base offer comprises 38,45,77,748 shares, representing 5% of the total issued and paid up equity share capital of the Bank, with an additional 7,69,15,549 shares, or 1% stake, available under the green-shoe option, taking the total to over 46.14 crore shares, or 6% of the stake of the PSU bank.

Floor Price: The floor price for the Bank of Maharashtra OFS is 54 per share, which is at a discount of 6.34% from its Mondays closing price of 57.66 apiece on the BSE.

Promoter Stake: The government currently holds a 79.60% stake in the Pune-based Bank of Maharashtra. With the OFS, Bank of Maharashtra will be able to meet the minimum public shareholding norm of 25% as the government stake will come down below 75%.

Also Read | Bajaj Housing Finance share price crashes 9% on stake sale by Bajaj Finance

This is in line with the Securities Contract (Regulation) Rules issued by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which mandate that all listed companies, including those in the public sector, must have a minimum public shareholding of 25%. The capital market regulator has given forbearance to CPSEs and public sector financial institutions till August 2026.

Apart from Bank of Maharashtra, other four lenders where the governments stake is more than minimum public shareholding threshold are Indian Overseas Bank at 94.6%, Punjab & Sind Bank 93.9%, UCO Bank 91%, and Central Bank of India 89.3%.

Bank of Maharashtra Share Price Performance Bank of Maharashtra share price has fallen 3% in one month and has risen 9% in three months. The PSU stock has gained 8.5% on a year-to-date (YTD) basis, while it has rallied 28% in two years. Bank of Maharashtra share price has delivered multibagger returns of 353% in the past five years.

At 10:10 AM, Bank of Maharashtra share price was trading 0.47% lower at 57.39 apiece on the BSE.

(With inputs from PTI)
Multibagger defence stock: Multibagger defence stock Apollo Micro Systems gained 3% in intra-day deals on Tuesday, December 2 after the firm received a major regulatory boost after being granted an Industrial Explosives and Manufacturing License by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

The approval marks a significant milestone for the Hyderabad-based defence and engineering technologies company and strengthens its eligibility for upcoming Ministry of Defence (MoD) contracts.

The company notified the exchanges on December 1, 2025, that the newly granted license authorises it to manufacture several strategic defence-grade products, including Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), Inertial Navigation Systems (INS), and advanced radar equipment. Apollo Micro Systems said the approval is a prerequisite for participating in both present and future manufacturing opportunities with the MoD.

License Enables Manufacturing of UAS, INS and Radar Systems The DPIIT license covers three major categories of defence equipment: Unmanned Helicopters (UAS), Inertial Navigation Systems, and integrated Radar Systems. According to the filing, the approval will remain valid for 15 years from the date of issue, providing long-term regulatory clarity for the companys defence expansion plans.

Apollo Micro Systems noted that it is already developing multiple UAS platforms and is working closely with domestic and international partners to build logistics-focused UAVs as well as offensive and attack-class unmanned systems. The company expects these systems to move into field trials over the next two quarters.

On the navigation front, the firm received authorization to develop and manufacture high-precision INS technologies, including MEMS-based units, Fiber Optic Gyro (FOG) systems and Ring Laser Gyro (RLG) solutions. These technologies are critical for modern drones, missiles and aircraft. The company said it is currently sourcing specialised test and calibration equipment to support this phase of development.

The license also allows the production and integration of complete radar systemsincluding transmit-receive modules, signal processors, antennas and associated subsystemsan area with strong demand in both domestic and global defence markets.

In its filing, the company emphasized the significance of this milestone, stating: The license is prerequisite for the present and upcoming manufacturing opportunities with the Ministry of Defence.

Strategic Boost to Defence Manufacturing Ambitions The approval is expected to significantly enhance Apollo Micro Systems presence in Indias rapidly expanding defence manufacturing ecosystem. With the government pushing for deeper indigenisation under the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative, companies equipped to build high-technology defence equipment are gaining prominence.

The companys growing portfolio aligns with high-priority segmentsUAVs, navigation systems and radarswhich have seen strong procurement interest from the armed forces over the past few years.

Given the long validity of the new license and ongoing collaborations with international partners, Apollo Micro Systems is poised to accelerate product development and strengthen its order pipeline.

Apollo Micro Systems Stock Performance The defense stock rose as much as 3% to its day's high of 276.35. It is still 22% away from its 52-week high of rs 354.65, hit in September 2025. Meanwhile, it has soared 199%, almost tripling investor wealth from its 52-week low of 92.50, hit in December 2024.
Rafael fighter jet maker Dassault Aviation SA stock price rose as much as 1.5% on Tuesday, December 2, after Ukraine President held a meeting with Eric Trappier, hairman and CEO of the aerospace company.

On Tuesday, Dassault Aviation SA stock was trading at 268.20 euros. The jet maker stock has been underperforming lately as it has declined over 6.32% in a month and 17.18% in past six months.

However, the stock has gained nearly 41.47% in the last year and has given multibagger returns of 183% in last five years.

What's behind the surge? President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting with Eric Trappier, hairman and CEO of the aerospace company Dassault Aviation during his visit to France, on Monday, December 1.

According to Ukraine's official website, Eric Trappier showed the president the companys production facilities and outlined the technical characteristics and capabilities of military aircraft  primarily the Rafale multirole fighter aircraft.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Eric Trappier discussed promising areas of cooperation, including within the framework of the declaration signed on November 17 by the Presidents of Ukraine and France, as well as the possibility of localization in our country, the website said.

Two weeks ago, Ukrainian President signed a tentative deal with France to acquire as many as 100 Rafale fighter jets from Dassault Aviation, as Ukraine increasingly relies on European partners to bolster its air defence capabilities.

Today is a special moment, really a historical one for both nations: France and Ukraine, Zelenskiy said in a social media post.

Also Read | Vijay Kedia Portfolio: Four SME stocks backed by the market veteran

Technical View on Dassault Aviation SA stock The ongoing France-Ukraine defence deal has once again put Dassault Aviation stock in limelight. However, the stock has is still trading below its 52-week price of 332.20 euros.

According to Anshul Jain, Head of Research at Lakshmishree, Dassault Aviation's share price has maintained its 50-week moving average near 260 euros per share, signalling a controlled pause rather than a trend failure.

The pullback in the Dassault Aviation stock has been shallow, with light selling volume, indicating that weak longs are exiting while stronger hands accumulate. Daily charts support this with repeated up candles backed by institutional participation, indicating an improving trend strength across timeframes. A constructive bounce toward the 385 to 390 zone is now in play if buyers maintain pressure. The structure offers a clean riskreward skew, with 255 as the key stop and setup invalidation level. A sustained move above recent daily highs would trigger momentum follow-through in the near term, Jain said.
Billionaire investor and Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio reflected on one of the most formative  and humbling  periods of his early career, which not only left him broke but also taught him a valuable lesson.

Although Bridgewater would eventually grow into the worlds largest hedge fund, its early years in the 1970s were far from smooth, as Dalio highlighted in a recent interview with Bloomberg.

Also Read | Elon Musk explains why Google, Nvidia will be valuable in future

Dalio, known for his investing prowess, admitted that the firm came close to collapsing, a near-failure, which he now describes as one of the best experiences of my life.

The 1979 Miscalculation The veteran market investor said the turning point was in 1979 as a result of a wrong assessment of the economy, costing him and his clients money.

Dalio, at that point, had believed that the US economy was on the brink of a massive debt crisis. He reasoned that the newly-appointed Federal Reserve Chair, Paul Vocker, had begun aggressively tightening monetary policy. Meanwhile, American banks had lent heavily to foreign countries  in many cases, more than those nations could realistically repay.

Also Read | Big bubbles plus big wealth gaps are a dangerous mix, warns Ray Dalio

Dalio concluded that a global deleveraging shock was imminent. His warning drew national attention, landing him on Wall Street Week and even before Congress.

"I can say with absolute certainty that if you look at the liquidity base in the corporations and the world as a whole, theres such a reduced level of liquidity that you cant return to an era of stagflation, Dalio said.

But the crisis never materialised, and Dalio said his call coincided with almost the bottom of the stock market.

"And I couldnt have been more wrong. That was the exact bottom of the stock market. And I didnt really understand enough the impact of easing and so on. So I lost money for me, I lost money for clients," Dalio said in this interview.

A Costly Lesson in Humility While the consequences for Dalio were severe, so much so that he had to borrow $40000 from his father to take care of his family's needs, his takeaway from the entire experience was learning.

Looking back, it was the most painful experience I could imagine  but it was also the best thing that ever happened to me, because it taught me humility, Dalio said while posting a snippet of this conversation on X.
Indian equity benchmarks ended Mondays volatile session marginally lower, giving up strong morning gains that had propelled both Nifty 50 and Sensex to fresh all-time highs. Nifty 50 closed at 26,170.80, posting a modest decline of 32.15 points or -0.12%. Sensex settled at 85,533.70, down 172.97 points or -0.20%. The initial surge was driven by strong sentiment following better-than-expected Q2 GDP growth of 8.2% before profit booking at higher levels brought the indices down.

Market breadth was clearly negative, with the advance-decline ratio across the BSE 500 standing at roughly 0.68:1 (200 advances vs. 294 declines), indicating caution in the broader market, particularly in the mid- and large-cap segments.

On the sectoral front, Auto and PSU Banks outperformed, while Realty and IT faced selling pressure. Overall sentiment remained cautious ahead of key global data releases later in the week, with investors preferring to lock in gains amid a lack of fresh domestic triggers.

Two stock recommendations for today by MarketSmith India

Buy: Bank of Baroda(current price:  295.50)

Why its recommended: Broad branch and customer network + scale, diversified product & service offerings

Key metrics: P/E: 7.79, 52-week high:  300, volume:  405.28 crore

Technical analysis: flat base breakout

Risk factors: Economic slowdown/credit risk, margin pressure/net interest margin (NIM) volatility

Buy:  293297

Target price:  330 in two to three months

Stop loss:  280

Buy: Varroc Engineering Limited (current price:  670)

Why its recommended: Position in the auto components sector, diversified OEM customer base, strong focus on the EV (electric vehicle) segment

Key metrics: 43.04; 52-week high:  717; volume:  94.20crore

Technical analysis: Flat base breakout

Risk factors: Dependence on a few major clients/OEMs, industry cyclicality & auto-sector slowdown risk

Buy at:  660675

Target price:  760 in two to three months

Stop loss:  630

How the Nifty 50 performed on 1 December

Indian equities ended marginally lower on Monday, with Nifty 50 slipping 0.10% to 26,175, tracking a subdued global risk tone and selective profit-taking after last weeks gains. The index traded in a narrow band but failed to hold its early strength, weighed down by weakness in defensives and rate-sensitive sectors.

Sector performance was mixed. Nifty Auto, IT, and Metal outperformed with modest gains, while Healthcare, Consumer Durables, Realty, and Pharma saw the sharpest declines. Broader market breadth remained soft. The advance-decline ratio stood at 1,384:1,728, indicating selling pressure across mid- and small-cap segments. PSU Banks held firm, supported by steady credit growth expectations, while Financial Services and FMCG slipped mildly.

Nifty 50 extended its consolidation phase today, with price action showing a modest positive close but limited directional conviction. The index continues to trade above its short-term moving averages, reflecting an ongoing upward bias, while the broader structure suggests a steady sequence of higher lows over the past several weeks. Recent candles indicate mild indecision near the upper end of the current range, hinting at a cooling of momentum after the sharp November climb.

Momentum indicators are signaling moderation. The RSI, currently hovering in the low 60s, remains in bullish territory but has been flattening, suggesting a potential pause in strength as traders await clearer cues. Meanwhile, the MACD continues to hold above its signal line, but the histogram has been narrowing, suggesting a slowdown in bullish momentum, though not yet a reversal.

Also Read | Olas woes multiply as gap with ICE peers widens after GST move

According to O'Neils methodology of market direction, the market status has shifted to a "Confirmed Uptrend" as it decisively surpassed its previous rally high of 25,670 to register a new 52-week high.

The RSI has eased slightly to around 62, indicating cooling momentum but still holding in bullish territory, reflecting a healthy pullback within an uptrend. Meanwhile, the MACD remains in positive alignment, though the histogram shows signs of narrowing, hinting at a potential slowdown in upward momentum.

The index ended the session largely unchanged, after briefly touching an intraday high of 26,326 before closing below 26,200 . A decisive close above 26,300 would be a constructive development and may open the door for a fresh upswing toward 26,50026,700 in the near term.

On the downside, immediate support is seen at 25,850, while a stronger demand base around 25,700 remains critical for sustaining a broader uptrend and maintaining overall market stability.

How did Nifty Bank perform?

Nifty Bank demonstrated continued resilience, managing to end the session in positive territory despite broader market consolidation and profit booking at higher levels.

The index marked a historical milestone by opening above the psychological 60,000 mark for the first time and hitting an all-time high of 60,114.05 in morning trade. Ultimately, Bank Nifty closed at 59,752.70, registering a marginal gain of 15.40 points or +0.03%.

The days strength was underpinned by sustained institutional interest in the financial sector, fueled by strong domestic growth prospects and ongoing expectations of a potential RBI rate-cut cycle following the better-than-expected Q2 GDP data.

The rally was notably led by Public Sector Banks (PSU Banks), with key outperformers being Bank of Baroda (+2.28%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (+1.47%), and State Bank of India (SBI) (+0.57%). Selling pressure was observed in a few private banking heavyweights, preventing a more decisive breakout

Also Read | Grade-A office demand to stay strong as vacancies fall

The index extended its steady upward structure today, with price action continuing to build on its recent series of higher highs and higher lows. It closed near 59,681, maintaining momentum above its short- and medium-term moving averages, reflecting sustained buying interest on minor dips.

From a momentum standpoint, the RSI remains firmly in the bullish zone, hovering near the 70 mark. While elevated, it has not shown any sharp reversal signal, indicating that the ongoing strength is still being supported by improving trend conviction rather than overextension. The MACD continues to trade above its signal line, and the histogram stays positive, reinforcing the continuation of upward momentum.

Nifty Bank has moved into uncharted territory, strengthening overall market sentiment. Persistent buying interest suggests the index could advance toward 60,00060,500 in the near term. Immediate support is placed at 58,50058,400, and any minor decline toward this band is likely to attract renewed accumulation from market participants.

Momentum remains strong, and the broader trend continues to be constructive. Consequently, the buy-on-dips approach stays valid as long as the index holds above key support levels. With bullish undertones intact, the index is well-positioned for further upside unless a decisive break below support emerges.

MarketSmith India is a stock research platform and advisory service focused on the Indian stock market. It offers tools and resources to help investors make informed decisions based on the CAN SLIM methodology, founded by legendary investor William J. O'Neil. You can access a 10-day free trial by registering on its website.

Trade name: William ONeil India Pvt. Ltd.

Sebi Registration No.: INH000015543

Disclaimer: The views and recommendations given in this article are those of individual analysts. These do not represent the views of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.
Indian food deliverer Swiggy Ltd. is preparing to raise as much as 100 billion rupees ($1.1 billion) from institutional investors as early as next week, according to people familiar with the matter.

The company has shortlisted three banks to manage the share sale  the Indian units of Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., as well as Kotak Mahindra Capital Co.  the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.

Swiggys board approved plans on Nov. 7 to raise up to 100 billion rupees through a qualified institutional placement, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. The timing and size of the deal could still change, the people said.

The companys fundraising plans come as Indias instant-commerce sector is rapidly expanding amid surging demand and intensifying competition. Startups are competing with Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc.-backed Flipkart to cover cities with networks of neighborhood warehouses and fleets to quickly deliver everything from groceries and electronics.

Also Read | Swiggy refutes claims over Instamart losing market share, questions data

Swiggy, Citigroup, JPMorgan, and Kotak Mahindra didnt immediately respond to requests for comment.

Swiggy IPO Swiggy launched a $1.3 billion initial public offering in November last year. The offering, which was one of the few $1 billion-plus listings in India in 2024, was more than three times subscribed.

Its shares have fallen about 30% so far this year, as a price war drives aggressive discounting. The development echoes the battle playing out in China, where Meituan, JD.com Inc. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. are racing to offer deep discounts.

Eternal Ltd., a Swiggy rival formerly known as Zomato, also raised 85 billion rupees last year through a qualified institutional placement.
Vodafone Idea share price: Shares of beleaguered telecom player Vodafone Idea jumped nearly 4% in intraday deals on Tuesday, December 2, amid hopes of relief on adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues before the end of the year.

In a conversation with CNBC-TV18, Union Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said the Centre is awaiting a formal request from the telecom company before moving ahead with any relief measures.

Scindia said the ministry is examining the legal boundaries set by the Supreme Court in its verdict last month. "Judgment needs to be evaluated from a point of view of what can be done and what cannot be done. We cannot cross the border of the SC judgment," he told the news channel.

He also indicated that the government may be able to complete its assessment and issue recommendations within a couple of weeks, with the relief package likely to be announced by the end of the year.

SC orders  78,500 crore relief for Vi Vodafone Idea, on October 27, received a favourable order from the Supreme Court that has allowed the government to reconsider and take an appropriate decision with reference to the additional AGR demand raised for the period up to the financial year 2016-2017, and comprehensively reassessing and reconciling all AGR dues, including interest and penalty.

Vodafone Idea CEO Abhijit Kishore, during the second-quarter earnings call, said that the AGR liability on the company stood at around 78,500 crore at the end of September 2025.

Also Read | Elon Musk explains why Google, Nvidia will be valuable in future

Vodafone Idea share price trend Following the comments from the Telecom Minister, shares of Vodafone Idea jumped 3.8% to hit the day's high of 10.32 apiece on the BSE. In the last three months, Vodafone Idea share price has rallied 57%, and over the last six months, it has gained 45%, as investor interest heightened amid hopes of relief on AGR dues.

The large-cap penny stock boasts a market capitalisation of over 1,10,500 crore.

Vodafone Idea is sustaining a strong short-term uptrend, supported by price consistently holding above the 9-EMA and maintaining a Positive Supertrend structure. The stock has formed a series of higher highs and higher lows, indicating steady momentum. Recent dips toward Rs. 9.70 - Rs. 9.90 were bought into, showing strong demand near the rising support zone, said Drumil Vithlani, Technical Research Analyst at Bonanza.

Volume spikes on up days further validate bullish participation, said the expert. As long as the stock holds above Rs. 9.80, the trend remains favourable for continuation towards Rs. 10.80 - Rs. 11.20, while a decisive close above Rs. 10.50 may accelerate upside, while a breakdown below Rs. 9.70 would be the first sign of trend fatigue, Vithlani noted.

As of 10.15 am, Vodafone Idea share price was trading at 10.20, up 2.62%.
Last week, a study released by the International Workplace Group (IWG), a global leader in hybrid work solutions, highlighted several major shifts that will redefine the future of offices over the next two decades.

Based on data collected from 1,000 children between the ages of 11 and 17 (as well as their parents), the report argues that by the time Gen Alpha (born between 2010 and end 2024) enters the workforce (circa 2040), it will expect an environment that has little to no resemblance with the offices their parents went to work in.

Although the survey was carried out in the UK and the US, it is possible to extrapolate its findings on developing economies around the world. The biggest difference will be in Gen Alphas expectation for hybrid work to become a norm rather than an exception. Only 29% of the respondents said they are willing to travel for more than 30 minutes to get to their workplaces. In contrast, 81% said they want to work out of cafes, co-working spaces, homes, and other central locations for efficiency and better mental well-being.

Another headline is that 88% of Gen Alphas expect to work with robots and AI on a daily basis, while 33% want to kill off the email for smarter, tech-enabled collaboration tools such as VR headsets for immersive 3D meetings. There is also a consensus among youngsters that 4-day work weeks should be normalized for improved health. Imagine what these policies together would mean for emissions and carbon footprint in general.

Gen Xers, millennials, even the much maligned Gen Zs, may find this vision of the future rather utopian. But then, just a couple of decades back, when email began to gain currency as the preferred mode of communication in the workplace, Boomers felt like they were stuck in the age of The Flintstones. As some Gen Xers and millennials do now, with Gen Zs preferring instant messages for work.

Also Read | Is AI excluding women from top corporate roles?

By the same law, Gen Zs will probably feel a bit unsettled as their Gen Alpha colleagues insist on having conference calls with AR generated holograms. Comfort with tech is written into the DNA of Gen Alphas. To them, AI will become an obvious collaborator for automating grunt work, helping make better decisions, and managing workflows. Automation wont be a cause for shame for the young, like so many of their predecessors still feel when they seek help from AI tools. For Gen Alpha, AI wont feel like science fiction; it would be just another Monday morning.

Bend the System

At every major inflection point in history, cultures and norms have bent before the demands of the workers, often after long periods of status quo. In the last 250 years, whenever workers expectations have shifted, the system has been forced to adjust to the work environment that each generation has wanted to design for itself.

During the Industrial Revolution, factories had gruelling hours and unsafe conditions. But rising worker consciousness, boosted by labour unions, forced employers to adopt humane practices, such as fixed shifts, better safety protocols, and regulated work weeks. None of these reforms emerged because businesses voluntarily modernized or became altruistic.

The early 20th century brought mass electrification and the rise of office-based work. As more people moved from manual labour into clerical roles, and eventually joined the knowledge economy, companies had to rethink everything, from office layouts to work hours. The introduction of the five-day workweek in the 1920s wasnt a top-down productivity strategy. It was a response to workers demanding their right to rest for two days.

In the late 20th century, the rise of personal computing and global connectivity made things at once better and worse. The office was no longer confined to a single physical location. It could be moved wherever there were laptops and internet connectivity. This shift laid the groundwork for flexible work hours, allowed women to join the workforce in greater numbers, and eventually forced organizations to rethink policies around maternity leave, childcare and equal pay. But there was a flip side, too: the never-ending workday.

The silver lining to these systemic failures, especially in the last 5 years, is that such moments have ignited fresh conversations about purpose, balance, and mental wellness. Younger millennials and Gen Zs have pushed corporations to rethink their policies on health, hierarchy, and DEI frameworks. The Gen Alpha revolution, when it eventually comes, will simply be the next chapter in this longstanding story of push and pull.

The message of the IWG report is clear: Gen Alpha doesnt care about work-life balance. They want work-life integration instead, seamlessly enabled by connectivity, autonomy, and smart tools. Companies that fail to offer flexibility, integrate AI, and reinvent their work cultures wont just struggle to attract talent but will increasingly experience a drying pipeline. By 2040, it wont be the employers who will be calling the shots, but the employees. Gen Alpha doesnt want to join the workforce as we know it. They want to design it the way they want.

Work Vibes is a fortnightly column on ideas to help you thrive at what you do.

Also Read | Firing underperformers can boost your team's retention
On a recent Saturday afternoon, the top floor of the Kunj, a craft and heritage space in Delhi, was abuzz with activity. The spacious sun-lit events area on the third floor had been transformed into a Monpa homestead from the Chug Valley, complete with yak shearing tools, and a churner to make chhurpi (yak-milk cheese), typical to this agro-pastoralist community from western Arunachal Pradesh.

Four women from Damus Heritage Dine, a community tourism ventureDorjee Lhamu, Leiki Chomu, Tsering Lhamu and Rinchin Jombaprepared ingredients for the pop-up organised by World Wildlife Fund India. They chatted with guests as they readied litho, or Asian pear, water celery, buckwheat noodles, phursing gombu and organic red rajma. Especially interesting is the phursing gombu, or cornflour tart filled with oleoresins sourced from the Chinese lacquer tree. Chomu and Jomba informed us that locals suffer severe allergic reactions by even going near the tree or touching it. Hence they are scared to harvest it. Only one elder in the village has the skillset to harvest it correctly.

Dressed in traditional shinka todung, the women served stories like these along with takto khazi or buckwheat noodles, and an orange salad with pickled radish. The meal, part of a series of pop-ups across Delhi, was not just an introduction to the exquisite and rarely-showcased Monpa cuisine but also to a fast-fading way of indigenous living.

Back home in Arunachal Pradesh, a team of eight women manages Damus, an 11-seater restaurant housed in a 150-year-old Monpa heritage structure. Started in March 2024, the community-based tourism venture nestled within the busy Tawang circuit has been witnessing a steady stream of tourists who want to sample authentic local cuisine, after feeling wary of the generic noodles, momos and poori sabzi offered by other eateries in the region. Today, tables need to be booked a day in advance at Damus, which derives its name from the word daughter. We are showcasing heritage without commodifying it. Damus highlights how tradition too can evolve and keep up with the times," says Jomba, 41, who enjoys plating Monpa dishes to give them a fine-dining feel.

Also Read | North-East food creators get candid on cuisine

The old home, belonging to Jombas extended family, is an example of the fast-disappearing Monpa architecture. Similar mud-and-stone buildings suited to the local climate are being replaced by reinforced cement and concrete homes. There is an increasing social stigma around indigenous homes, with many locals of the view that RCC structures are signs of affluence. In such a scenario, Damus Heritage Dine doesnt just try to conserve heritage cuisine but also strives to instill a sense of pride in age-old local architecture. By choosing to base themselves in the 150-year-old home, renovated with the help of WWF India, this set of women is showing how old Monpa structures can be repurposed and adapted.

Residing in the lush forested districts of West Kameng and Tawang, the three branches of the Monpa communityTawang Monpa, Dirang Monpa and Kalaktang Monpaare known for their culinary wisdom, climate-resilient architecture, pastoral songs and weaving, all rooted in the rich local ecology. However, the younger generation is moving away from this traditional knowledge. Women-led collectives are taking matters into their own hands and finding ways of returning the community to the ethos of their land.

View Full Image Orange salad served at Damu's Heritage Dine. Photo: Tashdique Ahmed

As at Damus Heritage Dine, likeminded women have come together in Nyukmadung, Chug and Tawang, where a social enterprise and grassroots design studio, Its All Folk, led by designer Namrata Tiwari, is working on a craft-to-conservation model. The community facilitation centre serves as a research and development hub for the brand Norbu, which markets smaller craft collectives such as Dangnga and Brokpa. Based on a farm-to-fashion model, fibre for each of their products is sourced directly from the Brokpas, the traditional yak herders.

Climate change forced the Brokpas to shift to higher altitudes. Attacks on yaks by dogs and periodic outbreak of diseases have put the livelihood of this pastoral community in peril. They are abandoning yak herding to work as contractual labour," says Kamal Medhi, senior expert, community-based conservation, WWF India. To change that, the Norbu Collective has taken on the production, design and marketing of products made with raw material sourced from the Brokpas. These practices have always existed in the villages. We are not introducing something new, rather we are adding value to the existing system by bringing in technical expertise," says Medhi.

About 25km away, in the Chug Valley, a self-help group led by Dorji Choijam is reviving the centuries-old mon-shugu style of paper making. Delhi-based Tripti Shukla, who runs Vanwasi-Adiwasi Foundation, trained women to use natural dyes and pigments to make diaries out of mon-shugu paper, which holds immense significance to the Monpa community, but is dying out as people are turning to industrial paper. A wildlife researcher, Shukla founded the Vanwasi-Adiwasi in 2021 as a pilot project to foster community-based conservation. In 2024, she visited Chug as part of her foundations effort to empower women of indigenous communities. A workshop was conducted in an initiative to revive traditional Monpa craft while fostering conservation awareness for the endangered migratory black-necked crane.

These collectives dont just generate livelihood but also instil pride in heritage practices. This creates a sense of ownership within the community," explains Medhi. Western Arunachal Pradesh spans several altitudinal variations, from 500 to 7,000 metres, and is home to thousands of species of flowering plants and animals. The Monpas, who form the majority, have community custodianship of nearly 60 per cent of the forested land. Since 2004, WWF India has been working with locals to establish Community Conserved Areas, or CCAs, to connect livelihood and conservation, and empower locals to manage their natural resources.

The most significant achievement of the CCA framework has been the securing of more than 1500 square kilometers of red panda and snow leopard habitat," states a WWF report. Community-based tourism programmes also fund conservationsurpluses from Themang Bapu CCA in West Kameng fund forest patrolling to monitor illegal collection of minor forest products and hunting. There are nine CCAs in West Kameng and Tawang, with village councils and women leading the efforts in most.

Women used to play a significant role in pastoral communities back in the day," says Medhi. Their roles got limited during the transition from traditional to modern way of living. They started working as labour on construction sites or were tilling small pieces of land." Through the CCAs, the idea was to restore the agency of women and make them the fulcrum of livelihood and conservation initiatives.

Damus began when Nishant Sinha, a community-based tourism coordinator for WWF, saw how quickly the landscape was changing in western Arunachal Pradesh, but the elders were resistant to his ideas. Jomba alone listened and got her family together to adapt their family home into a restaurant. The learning has been a two-way street. For instance, when the Damus team came to Delhi in November and noticed the demand for natural materials in everyday living, they realised the folly of what was happening back home. While their homes were being filled with plastic chairs, tables and cupboards, the world outside was taking a more ecofriendly approach. That was a big realisationthe need to go back to the older sustainable ways," he says.

Damus has inspired others. Leki Chomu, the 24-year-old manager at Damus, started a living museum in her 200-year-old ancestral home last year. She wants to offer an immersive storytelling experience around the everyday life of her community, with a library, tours and other initiatives. Similarly, residents of Mirba, a 1,000-year-old Monpa village in Tawang, have preserved their mud-and-stone homes, and the state government has declared it a heritage village.

The income from such initiatives has made it lucrative to other women, who would either work in the home or till their land. Though the WWF team has not yet audited the revenue from Damus, the estimated income during peak season, between October to January, has been around 1.5 lakh a month, with 50 per cent of this as profit. Others come to me for guidance on what they could take up. Last year, we supported the Duhumbi Heritage Fair in Chug Valley, led by a mix of women and men, which celebrated Monpa and Brokpa heritage. This year, they organised the event without our support. They have understood the value of their heritage," says Sinha.

View Full Image The community facilitation centre in Nyukmadung serves as a research and development hub for the brand Norbu. Image: It's All Folk

The road to change is a long one. The results will start coming in a decade but the foundation has been laid," says Tiwari. Besides a field office in Nyukmadung, Its All Folk runs a community facilitation centre and a series of womens groups across western Arunachal. The mission has always been to create place-based intervention nothing alien is introduced," adds Tiwari, who has been working in northeast India for ten years. The Brokpa and Dangnga Collectives are not registered as self-help groups. These are traditional womens collectives, recognised as institutions by the local communities. We have made a conscious effort to acknowledge the traditional institutions that exist within the Monpa community," says Tiwari. The collectives are known as tsokpas, based on the Monpa term for a group of people who come together for a mission. Besides 45 yak herders, the brand Norbu brings together 12 women in a collective at Nyukmadung and 15 in Chug. The target is to have 100 beneficiaries in the near future.

Also Read | This all-women Delhi cafe serves what it grows

Pema Choton, 47, lovingly called Ama Bato by those in her village, is the community lead at Nyukmadung. Earlier, Choton would weave garments only for her husband, two daughters and son. Namrata Madam taught us how to make jackets using sheep and yak wool and other products too. People would earlier burn the wool, but she showed us how to bring new techniques together with our traditional knowledge to use this material sustainably," she says. The money has come in handy too, especially to support childrens education or to buy little treats.
On most evenings, when he shuts the door of his Bengaluru apartment behind him, public relations consultant Nitin Narain enters a world many people today find unbearable: silence. There is no podcast filling the room, no Netflix hum, no reflexive scroll to drown out the day. Even when the television is on, the volume is usually off," he says. Theres something incredibly calming about a quiet roomit gives me the space to hear myself think. Silence doesnt feel empty. It feels like peace quietly wrapping itself around me."

Narain has lived alone for a decade and calls solitude his meaningful ritual". Mornings are for easing gently into the day; evenings are for unwinding and releasing the weight of people, meetings, and noise. But his relationship with quiet is almost an outlier now. For many, solitude triggers unease, irritability, even panic. Silence feels like a void we must immediately fill. As younger generations grow more uncomfortable with being alone, psychologists note an alarming pattern: Our devices soothe us more than our own minds do.

WHY SILENCE FEELS UNCOMFORTABLE

Excessive exposure to digital media has trained our brains to constantly seek stimulation from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed," says clinical psychologist Kanika Jindal based in Delhi. This makes it difficult to tolerate being alone." Silence has become synonymous with an absence of validation, of distraction, of dopamine. And modern life reinforces this at every level. Jindal identifies three major forces behind solitude becoming unsafe:

Digital overstimulation: Our brains are conditioned to expect constant input. Social media stories showing friends having fun while you sit at home intensify loneliness," she notes.

Structural loneliness: Nuclear families, single-child homes, long work hours, and interstate jobs leave young adults without built-in companionship.

Curated realities: A digital culture showcasing only the highlight reel of life deepens the discomfort of our own unfiltered moments. In short, our nervous systems no longer recognize quiet.

When someone cannot sit alone without reaching for distraction, psychologists see it not as a flaw but as a signal. It often indicates you are struggling to manage your own thoughts and emotions," says Jindal. A dysregulated self engages in negative self-talk." Mumbai-based counselling psychologist Shevantika Nanda agrees, Silence reveals a mind avoiding confrontation with its own contents. Thoughts become louder. Rumination increases. Regrets and anxieties take over."

It isnt the quiet that scares us. Its what the quiet amplifies. Therapist Kratika Gupta based in West Bengal adds a deeper generational layer. Many people grew up in volatile environments where parents were always busy. So peace and silence now feel threatening. They bring up suppressed emotions and memories we dont hold space for."

WHY WE REACH FOR DISTRACTION

According to Jindal, many clients maintain composure through the workday but collapse emotionally once home. Being alone amplifies internal struggles," she says. This leads to maladaptive coping such as alcohol use, excessive digital consumption, or staying around emotionally unsafe people for a fleeting sense of belongingness." Nanda explains what happens psychologically. Constant stimulation shifts us from internal awareness to external attention. Genuine self-awareness becomes nearly impossible." Gupta describes it as eroding the relationship we have with ourselves, because we stop noticing our emotions and thoughts altogether. Our nervous systems become dependent on devices for regulation. We rely on trends instead of inner cues," she says. Distraction, in other words, feels safer than introspection.

Modern culture collapses all forms of aloneness into one. But psychologists differentiate between solitude and isolation. Solitude is being alone by choice," Jindal explains. It promotes relaxation, independence, and meaningful engagement." Intentional solitude leads to emotional regulation, mental recharge, clarity, independence and creativity. Isolation, how ever, forced or unwanted increases depression, anxiety, and suicidality".
The advance tax deadline for this quarter falls on 15 December. Individuals with income sources beyond salarysuch as gains, interest, dividends, or business receiptsmust pay tax on these earnings during the year rather than waiting until they file their income tax return.

Advance tax ensures the government receives tax dues in time, and individuals avoid a large payout or interest penalties. An individual whose total tax liability from non-salary income exceeds 10,000 after accounting for TDS and TCS must pay it in four instalments. Heres how it works and what to keep in mind before the upcoming deadline.

Income sources

If you have income sources such as capital gains, interest, dividends, or income from a business or profession, you are required to pay advance tax on these.

If the total tax liability from income streams is more than 10,000 (after adjusting for tax deducted and credited at sourceTDS and TCS), instead of paying the total tax due when filing your income tax return (ITR), you have to pay it in four instalments over the course of the year.

However, the way the advance tax liability will be calculated will depend on the income source.

For example, if you have business or professional income, you are required to estimate how much taxable income youd be paying at the beginning of the financial year and accordingly pay advance tax if the tax liability exceeds 10,000.

There are different deadlines for the advance tax payments. The first deadline is 15 June, by which you need to pay 15% of your estimated tax liability. The second deadline is 15 September, by which you need to pay 45% of the estimated tax liability. The third deadline is by 15 December, by which time you need to pay 75% of the estimated tax liability, and the final deadline is 15 March, by which time you need to pay 100% of your tax liability.

View Full Image Mint

Also Read | Is an NRI liable to pay advance tax on dividend income?

As far as capital gains and dividend income are concerned, you are not required to pay advance tax till these incomes are realised. The advance tax becomes payable in the quarter in which these income streams are earned, as it is not possible to estimate these income streams," said Prakash Hegde, a Bengaluru-based chartered accountant.

Senior citizens, who are more than 60 years old, are not required to pay advance tax. However, if the senior citizen has income from a business or profession, advance tax requirements are applicable.

What is the penalty

If the advance tax payment is missed, the individual is required to pay 3% of the missed instalment. Now, suppose on a total advance-tax liability of 1 lakh, you are required to deposit 15,000 by 15 June (i.e. first instalment). The tax department charges 1% per month for three months on the unpaid portion, which works out to 3% of the shortfall.

In this case, you would pay 450 as interest on the 15,000 you failed to pay on time. Even if you make up the difference later, the three-month interest for that missed instalment still applies.

Taxpayers often fail to realize that delaying advance tax is financially irrational, as the penal interest under Sections 234B and 234C is expensive," Hegde said. Paying well in time is not just a statutory duty but a smart financial management strategy to stop the erosion of your hard-earned wealth.

Also Read | The new IT Act has not simplified tax, says CA Prakash Hegde
As digital footprints become increasingly central to financial investigations, WhatsApp chats have quietly emerged as one of the most frequently-cited forms of evidence in income-tax proceedings.

Over the past few years, smartphones seized during search operations have routinely yielded screenshots, forwarded messages and fragments of conversations that the tax department believes point toward unreported cash transactions or unrecorded business income. These chats have been used as evidence to issue notices, justify additions, initiate reassessment proceedings and, in several cases, form the basis of protective assessments. In tax parlance, an addition" refers to the inclusion of an amount in an assessees taxable income when the department believes it may represent undisclosed income.

Yet, a series of recent Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) decisions shows a decisive judicial trend: WhatsApp messages, without independent and concrete corroboration, rarely withstand legal scrutiny.

One of the most striking examples comes from the A. Johnkumar case before the ITAT Chennai. A search was conducted, during which the department extracted WhatsApp messages from the assessees mobile phone. These messages included cryptic phrases such as inward" and outward", which the assessing officer interpreted as codes for receiving and distributing cash. Relying on these messages and linking them to the seized identity cards, the officer alleged that the assessee had gifted 17 crore of unexplained expenditure in cash. The tribunal, however, found these conclusions entirely speculative. It noted that WhatsApp messages cannot be treated as conclusive evidence unless substantiated by independent material. The tribunal observed that the officer had simply given his own meaning" to WhatsApp messages without forensic validation or corroboration, and it ultimately deleted the entire addition.

A similar pattern played out in Mumbai in the case of Nilesh Ramesh Toshniwal. Here, during the search of an unrelated group, the department recovered a WhatsApp conversation between a businessman and the assessee, referring to a pending cash payment of 1 crore. The receipt of the cash was even confirmed by the said businessman, who later retracted. Based on the businessmans statement, which the department treated as supporting evidence, officials issued notices and made a protective addition in the assessees case, even though nothing incriminating was found in his own search. The tribunal rejected the addition, emphasising that a WhatsApp message recovered from a third party cannot, by itself, be used against a taxpayer. The individual who purportedly received the money later retracted his statement, no corresponding message or payment evidence was found on the assessees device, and the assessee was not given an opportunity to cross-examine the third party.

Also Read | Digital KYC still excludes people with disabilities despite new rules

The ITAT reaffirmed that suspicion, however strong, cannot replace proof. WhatsApp chats cannot be treated as reliable evidence unless supported by documentation, statements, or cash movement that clearly establish the transaction.

Recently, there was a decision in the case of Niru Dhiren Shah, also before the ITAT Mumbai, which dealt with alleged underreported income on a property sale. During a search, authorities found a WhatsApp chat containing a screenshot of an Excel sheet listing market rates of nearby properties. The assessing officer used this screenshot, along with stamp-duty data, to claim that the property sold by the assessee was higher than the disclosed value, and alleged that the assessee must have received unaccounted cash. But the tribunal struck down the addition, pointing out that the WhatsApp chat did not mention the assessee, the property, or any payment details. The property had also been sold at a value higher than the stamp-duty valuation, which weakened the undervaluation theory. No cash was found, and even the statement of the buyer did not contain anything incriminating. The tribunal held that a WhatsApp screenshot exchanged between two third parties cannot be used to conclude that the assessee received unaccounted money, particularly when there is no corroboration from seized documents or statements.

These cases together highlight an emerging judicial principle.

For an addition to survive, the conversation must be directly linked to the assessee, independently verified, and substantiated by corroborative evidence such as seized documents, cash, diary entries, bank trails or credible statements. WhatsApp may be the place where private conversations unfold. But in tax law, it cannot be the place where a case concludes. Courts will not allow encrypted messages, screenshots or fragments of chats to stand in for solid, admissible, corroborated evidence.

In an era where tax investigations increasingly intersect with digital trails, the judiciary is drawing a firm line between what is intriguing and what is legally sufficient.

Rakesh Nangia is the founder and Neeraj Agarwala is a partner at Nangia & Co LLP. Views are personal.
NEW DELHI : A push by the Centre to curb phone-based scams by mandating a government app on every smartphone in circulation is likely to be opposed by the worlds largest handset makers  including Apple, Google, Samsung  and even industry bodies, according to multiple executives Mint spoke with. The app, Sanchar Saathi, offers cyber security and surveillance features.

A non-removable government app may hinder a persons right to choose, may conflict with Indias newly-minted data-privacy regime, and impose onerous compliance requirements, the executives said on condition of anonymity since their companies were still evaluating the government order.

On 28 November, the department of telecommunications (DoT) under the ministry of communications issued a notification to companies that sell mobile phones in India to mandatorily pre-install Sanchar Saathi on all new phones, and use software updates to load them on phones that are already in use.

Companies were given 90 days to comply and 120 days to file a compliance report, and asked to ensure that the app cannot be disabled or uninstalled at any point. Mint has seen a copy of the notification.

Also Read | What is Sanchar Saathi? Government mandated app that could come with your phone

The DoT reinforced its message with a post on social media platform X on Monday evening.

To be sure, India has about 750-800 million smartphone users, and just over 150 million smartphones are sold in India every year, as per IDC.

Two senior executives at electronics companies, who were privy to the notifications directly, said DoTs notification was served to reduce the misuse of mobile phones in various scams.

The notification clearly states that Sanchar Saathi must be preinstalled in all mobile phones in order to make it easier for the Centre to track nefarious activities," the first of the two executives said.

Their idea is that if a smartphones IMEI (international mobile equipment identity) number is blacklisted on Sanchar Saathi, having the latter preinstalled on all phones will immediately block those numbers and narrow the window of devices that scammers can use," this executive added.

Phone brands and industry bodies alike are set to push back against the notification.

Also Read | Sanchar Saathi online portal to track, block lost mobile phones launched

A person close to developments at Apple said that the company may file representations to the ministry, since Apple has never had a history of giving in to side-loading and pre-loading government-backed applications that may lead to surveillance".

Executives close to Google and Samsung, too, said they were actively evaluating the order. It seems like a bit of an odd incident, because such broad rules typically go through a round of industry consultation to address key questions. There were no consultations held with us on this note," one of the executives said.

Questions sent to Apple, Google, Samsung and Xiaomi remained unanswered till press time.

What experts say

Mandating non-deletable installation appears disproportionate and ineffective," said Sumeysh Srivastava, partner at policy consulting firm The Quantum Hub. The app can't automatically scan IMEI numbers without user input, and even if it could, anyone looking to commit fraud could simply use older devices or root their phones to remove the app."

Srivastava added that beyond limited utility, there are legitimate privacy concerns about a mandatory government app with access to call logs, SMS messages, and cameras on every citizens personal device.

He pointed to the fact that the app is growing organically with over 100 million downloads already. Further awareness efforts may help adoption, but ultimately usage should depend on whether citizens see value in it. Compulsory installation is neither proportionate nor justified," Srivastava said.

Tarun Pathak, director of research for mobile phones at Counterpoint India, said having the app preinstalled may stretch things too far, pointing to internal policies of companies like Apple that prohibit any preinstalled apps from third parties, including governments.

There should be a middle ground after a consultation round, where users may see some kind of preference notification to push the appbut ultimately, users will retain their choice," Pathak said. Not letting the app be deleted is a step in a backward direction, given that our recent data privacy rules suggest the opposite."

What the notification said

The notification itself read, From 90 days of issue of these instructions, ensure that the Sanchar Saathi mobile application, as specified by DoT, is pre-installed on all mobile handsets manufactured or imported for use in India."

Brands must further ensure that the pre-installed Sanchar Saathi application is readily visible and accessible to the end-users at the time of first use or device setup, and that its functionalities are not disabled or restricted. For all such devices that have already been manufactured and are in sales channels in India, the manufacturer and importers of mobile handsets shall make an endeavour to push the App through software updates."
The government is set to launch a ride-hailing mobility app, Bharat Taxi, aimed at providing commercial vehicle drivers with an alternative to private platforms such as Uber, Ola, and Rapido.

Cooperation Minister Amit Shah confirmed the development in a written reply to the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, 2 December, highlighting that the app is designed to free drivers from dependency on private companies.

Driver-owned cooperative model The Bharat Taxi app will be operated by Sahkar Taxi Cooperative Ltd, a multi-state cooperative registered under the MSCS Act 2002. It is billed as the worlds first national mobility cooperative owned entirely by drivers, with no government stake. The cooperative already boasts over 51,000 registered driver-members across New Delhi and Saurashtra, making it the largest driver-owned mobility platform at the beta stage.

Amit Shah said, The government proposes to launch a cooperative-led digital app mobility platform which will support to free the country's commercial vehicle drivers from dependency on private companies.

The cooperative model ensures that drivers retain 100% of the fare, while also receiving board representation, annual dividends, and a share in the cooperatives profits.

Soft launch and Beta trials The apps soft launch began on Tuesday in Delhi and Gujarat, with beta trials available on the Google Play Store. An iOS version is expected to be released soon. The service aims to integrate two-wheelers, rickshaws, taxis, and four-wheelers on a single platform, addressing both first-mile and last-mile mobility challenges.

Salient features of Bharat Taxi App The taxi app comes with several features designed for convenience, transparency, and safety:

-User-friendly mobile ride booking

-Transparent fare system and cooperative pricing model

-Vehicle tracking and multi-lingual interface

-24/7 customer support and tech-enabled assistance

-Secure and verified onboarding for drivers and passengers

-Inclusive mobility options for all vehicle types

-Enhanced safety framework in partnership with Delhi Police

Support and funding The Multi-State Sahakari Taxi Cooperative Ltd, formed on 6 June 2025, represents a consortium of eight prominent cooperatives, including NCDC, IFFCO, GCMMF, NABARD, NDDB, NCEL, and Krishak Bharati Cooperative Ltd. The venture is entirely cooperative-funded, without any government stake, leveraging collective strength to compete with private players in Indias ride-hailing market.

The app will operate as a single pan-India platform, offering drivers fair earnings, cooperative profits, and passengers a safe, reliable, and transparent mobility option.

Also Read | As Centre moves to revamp tobacco taxes, states to benefit from excise duty hike
A screenshot of a now-deleted social media post is going viral on the internet, highlighting the expired food packets that Pakistan allegedly sent to Sri Lanka as relief after Cyclone Ditwah.

The consignment was dispatched in support of the country, which is reeling from landslides and flooding due to Cyclone Ditwah. But an X post hailing the relief work was shared by the Pakistan High Commission in Colombo.

Also Read | IMD issues orange alert for Chennai as Cyclone Ditwah brings heavy rainfall

Always standing together! Relief packages from Pakistan have been successfully delivered to assist our brothers and sisters affected by the recent floods in Sri Lanka, which signifies our unwavering solidarity, read the post.

Netizens quickly noticed what appeared to be expiry dates of October 2024 printed on the same packages. The replies to the post highlighted the expiry dates, with some users claiming that Pakistan is "disposing of garbage" by sending expired relief material as aid to cyclone-hit Sri Lanka.

View full Image The post has now been deleted. The screenshot, however, is everywhere on the internet.

The post has now been deleted. The screenshot, however, is everywhere on the internet.

Another user chimed in with friendly mischief, warning the High Commission to steer clear of the comments section if they valued their peace. Paijaan, comments mat kholna, the user joked.

Torrential monsoon rains, combined with two tropical cyclones, last week unleashed widespread flooding across Sri Lanka, as well as parts of Indonesias Sumatra, southern Thailand, and northern Malaysia.

390 people have died so far In Sri Lanka alone, at least 390 people have died, and 352 are still missing. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has declared a state of emergency, calling it the most challenging natural disaster in our history.

A user pointed out that the items visible in the photo were actually Sri Lankan biscuits.
Actor-politician Kangana Ranaut has criticised the Opposition, accusing them of deliberate obstruction and growing desperation following consecutive electoral setbacks, as the first day of the Winter Session of Parliament on Monday witnessed repeated disruptions

"The more they (the Opposition) lose, the more frustrated they become. The Congress and the rest of the parties have reached a point of desperation," she said, adding that important business scheduled for the day could not be taken up due to disruptions," the BJP MP said, speaking to reporters outside Parliament on Monday.

"All the important topics scheduled for today could not be covered. The Parliament could not run. It was adjourned for two hours," she added.

Ranaut added that such conduct was damaging the Opposition's credibility in front of the public.

"The entire nation is watching, and they (the Opposition) are lowering themselves in the eyes of the people and losing election after election," she said.

The first day of the winter session of Parliament saw repeated sloganeering, with the ruling party alleging that the Opposition MPs were not allowing the house to function. Between 11 AM to 2 PM, the house saw three adjournments, and legislative business of just around 50 minutes took place.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced the Manipur Goods and Services Tax (Second Amendment) Bill, 2025, on the floor of the House for consideration and passage.

"The Central government amended the Central Goods and Services Act of 2017, particularly section 121 to 134 of the finance Act 2025. This was passed by Parliament and enacted in 2024. These changes also came into effect on October 2025 after more than half of the states updated their GST. But unfortunately Manipur GST could not happen in time as the state assembly was in a suspended mode," the Union Finance Minister said on the floor amid repeated sloganeering.

Also Read | Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury sparks row after bringing puppy to Parliament

Even after repeated requests, the sloganeering continued, prompting the chair to adjourn the house.

Earlier, multiple Opposition leaders raised the slogan of "vote chor, gaddi chod" in the House, while also demanding a discussion on the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across the country. The same slogans continued throughout the day.

The entire nation is watching, and they (the Opposition) are lowering themselves in the eyes of the people.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced the Health Security se National Security Cess Bill, 2025 and the Central Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2025. The bill was introduced in the House via a voice vote.
Union Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia claimed on Tuesday that the Sanchar Saathi app, a fraud reporting app the government wants pre-installed on all devices, will be optional and can be deleted by users.

... If you don't want Sanchar Saathi, you can delete it. It is optional... It is our duty to introduce this app to everyone. Keeping it in their devices or not is up to the user, he said to reporters.

Notably, the clarification comes amid Opposition MPs voicing their strong protest against the compulsory installation of this app on smartphones. The backlash began after the Department of Telecom (DoT) directed phone manufacturers and importers to ensure that its Sanchar Saathi app, designed to detect fraud, is pre-installed in all new devices within 90 days.

Notably, Reuters cited sources to report that US tech giant Apple plans not to comply with the mandate and will convey the same to New Delhi.

Also Read | Sanchar Saathi mandate meant to protect users from fake devices, says govt

Congress demands immediate rollback of snooping app Speaking to reporters on 2 December, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accused the government of dictatorship and infringing on the right to privacy of citizens, calling Sanchar Saathi a snooping app. The party has demanded that the government immediately roll back the app.

The Sanchar Saathi is a snooping app, and clearly it is ridiculous. Citizens have the right to privacy. Everyone must have the right to privacy to send messages to family and friends without the government looking at everything, she said, accusing the Centre of turning the country into a dictatorship.

It's not just snooping on the telephone. They're turning this country into a dictatorship in every form. Parliament isn't functioning because the government is refusing to discuss anything. It is very easy to blame the Opposition, but they're not allowing any discussion on anything, and that's not democracy, she added.

Priyanka Gandhi added that a healthy democracy demands discussion, and everybody has different views, and that there is a very fine line between reporting fraud and seeing what every citizen of India is doing on their phone.

That's not how it should work. There should be an effective system to report fraud. We've discussed this at great length in terms of cybersecurity. There's a need for cybersecurity, but that doesn't mean it gives you an excuse to go into every citizen's phone. I don't think any citizen would be happy, she added.

Earlier, Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury filed an adjournment motion notice in the Rajya Sabha seeking suspension of business to discuss the government's directions on the installation of the Sanchar Saathi app. She demanded a discussion under Rule 267, which calls for setting aside all other business to take up the matter.

In a post on X, Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal said a preloaded app that cannot be deleted is a dystopian tool, adding, Big Brother cannot watch us. This DoT direction is beyond unconstitutional. The Right to Privacy is an intrinsic part of the fundamental right to life and liberty, enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution. A pre-loaded government app that cannot be uninstalled is a dystopian tool to monitor every Indian. It is a means to watch over every movement, interaction and decision of each citizen.

Also Read | What is Sanchar Saathi? Government mandated app that could come with your phone
An IndiGo flight carrying 228 passengers on the KuwaitHyderabad route made an emergency landing at Mumbai Airport on Tuesday after a bomb threat was received, news agency ANI reported. Authorities have initiated security checks, and further details are awaited.

According to News18, authorities classified the threat as credible after Hyderabad airport received a detailed warning email claiming that a bomb had been planted on board. Following the alert, the aircraft was diverted to Mumbai, where it was moved to an isolation bay for thorough checks.

Also Read | Bomb threat halts all departures to Philadelphia International, says US FAA

The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) here received the threat email claiming that certain anti-social elements are planning to carry out an attack using remote-controlled explosive devices on board the flight once it lands in Hyderabad, news agency PTI reported.

Following the threat email, the authorities decided to divert the flight to Mumbai, where the aircraft landed safely, a police official said.

Security checking was conducted, and nothing suspicious was found, he said. Further investigation is on.

According to available information, the IndiGo aircraft, scheduled to land at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad, at around 8.10 am, was instructed to alter its course mid-air as a precautionary measure. The flight landed at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumbai, at 7:45 am.

More details are awaited on the Kuwait-Hyderabad flight that landed in Mumbai after a human bomb scare.

Bomb scare at Thane school triggers panic, turns out to be hoax A private school in the Mira Road area of Thane district received a bomb blast threat on Monday morning, prompting the police to launch a search for any suspicious object, which turned out to be a hoax, officials said.

The school's office received an email at around 6.30 am stating that the school would be blown up by a bomb planted on its premises.

School authorities alerted the local police, who rushed to the spot, a Kashimira police station official said.

He said a thorough search by the bomb detection and disposal squad revealed it was a hoax threat.

Police personnel were deployed on the premises, and school sessions were allowed to continue.
New Delhi: Immediate and targeted steps are needed to boost the efficiency of India's Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), as systemic challenges such as delays due to a shortage of judges, uncertainty around finality of resolution plans and lack of accountability among professionals running bankrupt businesses have hampered its potential, the parliamentary standing committee on finance said in a report on Tuesday.

The committee, led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of parliament Bhartruhari Mahtab, in its report on the working of IBC tabled in Lok Sabha said that while the code has strengthened creditor confidence and encouraged both domestic and foreign investment, its potential remains hampered by persistent systemic challenges.

Also Read | Parliamentary panel to recommend fresh set of changes to insolvency code

This, the panel said, requires immediate and targeted intervention across all fronts.

Judicial capacity must be scaled up with new benches of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), accountability for resolution professionals must be fixed by empowering the panel of creditors and streamlining disciplinary actions, and finality of approved plans must be guaranteed through express legislative amendment, the parliament committee said.

For removing ambiguity The panel added that procedural ambiguity must be removed with rules.

The committee, therefore, urge the ministry of corporate affairs to ensure expeditious implementation of these reforms in a manner that fully realizes their intended impact, leveraging the IBC Amendment Bill, 2025 to realize the full potential of the Code, maximizing enterprise value, safeguarding stakeholder interests, promoting financial stability, and reinforcing Indias position as a favourable destination for business, the report said.

Also Read | Parliamentary panel reviews price spike of medicines

The committees recommendation comes at a time the government is working on amendments to the code. A bill to revamp IBC is currently being reviewed by a select committee of Lok Sabha led by BJP MP Baijayant Panda. A revised bill based on the recommendations of this committee is expected to be tabled in parliament either in the ongoing winter session or in the budget session next year, Mint reported on Monday.

A sustained, integrated, and time-bound approach is essential to ensure that the IBC delivers on its promise of effective, equitable, and efficient insolvency resolution, said the report tabled by Mahtabs panel.

Practical implementation key Experts pointed out that the reports findings highlighted the emphasis needed on improving practical implementation of the insolvency law.

Currently, delays, conflicting regulations, and erratic rulings render the process unpredictable for all parties concerned. The committee advocates for enhanced NCLT capacity, increased responsibility for resolution experts, and legislative clarity to prevent the repeated challenge of authorised plans, said Shankey Agrawal, partner at law firm BMR Legal.

These revisions are significant as value diminishes daily when a case remains unresolved in court. Proper implementation will diminish litigation, accelerate business recovery, and enhance the reliability of the insolvency system for lenders, investors, and purchasers. If implemented well, they can shift IBC litigation away from procedural battles and towards substantive commercial resolution, said Agrawal.

Also Read | Parl panel quizzes corp affairs ministry on funding, track record of regulators

The overall recovery is only 32.8% of the total admitted claims of creditors, indicating a significant shortfall largely due to firms entering the IBC when assets are already heavily stressed, the report said.

Statutory overlap between IBC and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) is posing a great challenge, the report said.
The Union government has declared as many as 15 individuals, including Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, as Fugitive Economic Offenders (FEOs) under the as of 31, October 2025, Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary on Monday informed the Lok Sabha during the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament

The information was disseminated in response to an unstarred question raised by Lok Sabha member and Congress Member of Parliament from Dausa, Murari Lal Meena, during the Winter Session of Parliament.

Overall, these fugitive economic offenders, as per the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 (FEOA), together owe 58,082 crore to about a dozen public sector banks. This includes a principal amount of 26,645 as of the date of NPA and 31,437 as Interest accrued from the date of NPA until 31 October 2025. As of 31 October 2025, 19,187 crore has been recovered from these offenders, the government said in its response.

View full Image Meena had sought from the Finance Minister in Lok Sabha the details about number of persons declared as fugitive economic offenders till date under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018, especially in cases related to large-scale financial frauds committed against public sector banks.

Meena had sought from the Finance Minister in Lok Sabha the details about the number of persons declared as fugitive economic offenders to date under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018, especially in cases related to large-scale financial frauds committed against public sector banks.

"Of the 15 offenders, nine are involved in large-scale financial fraud committed against public sector banks. The list includes several high-profile names, such as Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, among others, "Chaudhary said in the response available on the Lok Sabha website.

Charges against Mallya and Nirav Mallya is accused of a fraud involving over 9,000 crore borrowed from a consortium of Indian public-sector banks for his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines. Nirav, along with his uncle Mehul Choksi, is accused of 13,000-crore scam against Punjab National Bank (PNB)  one of the biggest banking frauds in Indias history.

The government brought in the FEO Act in 2018 to deter economic offenders from evading the process of Indian law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts. The Act empowers authorities to confiscate and attach the proceeds of crimes and assets when the amount involved in the case exceeds 100 crore.

Who is on the list of FEOs? Those who have been declared Fugitive Economic Offenders in the list are: Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Nitin J Sandesara, Chetan J Sandesara, Dipti C Sandesara of the Sterling Biotech fraud case, Sudharshan Venkatraman, Ramanujam Sesharathnam, the erstwhile promoters of Zylog Systems Ltd, Pushpesh Kumar Baid, and Hitesh Kumar Narendrabhai Patel.

The list includes several high-profile names, such as Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi.

Nitin and Chetan Sandesara have settled certain dues with Indian Overseas Bank, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, and State Bank of India.

Supreme Court relief Last week, the Supreme Court directed the quashing of all criminal proceedings against the Sandesara brothers in the Sterling Biotech bank fraud case, provided they deposit 5,100 crore as a full and final payment to the lender banks.

If the petitioners (Sandesara brothers) are ready to deposit the amount as settled in the one-time settlement (OTS), and public money comes back to the lender banks, the continuation of the criminal proceedings would not serve any useful purpose, the Court said.

When asked whether the government was formulating a policy to prevent such offenders from leaving the country in the future, either through legal bans or watchlists, Pankaj Chaudhary said that no such policy is currently being drafted.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay a state visit to India from December 4-5 at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During the visit, Putin will attend the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit and hold talks with PM Modi.

The President of India will also receive Putin and host a banquet in his honour.

Also Read | When did Vladimir Putin last visit India?

The visit will provide an opportunity for the leadership of India and Russia to review progress in bilateral relations, outline the vision for strengthening the 'Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership', and exchange views on regional and global issues of mutual interest, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement announcing the upcoming visit.

The two-day visit will mark President Putin's first visit to India since 2021. The two leaders last met in person on September 1 this year in Tianjin, China, on the sidelines of the SCO Summit.

"They (the Russians) have been our friends through both fair and foul weather, and we are not going to sort of stop our defence cooperation with them anytime soon, but I do want to stress that India follows a policy of strategic autonomy," Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said in New Delhi on Friday, as quoted by news agency Reuters.

Deepening the strategic partnership Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov told news agency ANI that President Putin's visit to India marks a "return to the tradition of annual high-level summits," describing it as a major step toward deepening the strategic partnership between the two countries.

"Together with our Indian colleagues we have thoroughly prepared the agenda for the visit. We expect that all the meetings and negotiations that are to take place will be fruitful and will give new momentum for our two countries' strategic cooperation in all areas", Manturov, who is also Co-chair of the India-Russia Inter-governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation, told the news agency.

Also Read | India plans to pitch arms deal with Russia during Putin visit

The India-Russia Forum will convene in New Delhi, bringing together senior government officials and business leaders from both nations. Manturov said the forum is expected to explore ways to expand and diversify bilateral trade, including boosting Indian exports of equipment, raw materials and food products to Russia.

Earlier, the Kremlin said both sides are expected to adopt a joint statement and sign a "wide range of interdepartmental and business agreements" following the talks between the leaders. The two sides are also likely to focus on deepening cooperation in areas of civil nuclear energy, as per reports.

S-400 long-range anti-aircraft missiles Kremlin Spokesperson Dimitry Peskov said that the sale of additional S-400 long-range anti-aircraft missiles could be on the agenda during the visit.

"Highly on the agenda and this could be discussed. Our military industry is working pretty well. Russian arms 36 % in theIndian armed forces and hopefully will continue," Peskov was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Russia also hopes to discuss the possibility of India acquiring the Su-57 fifth-generation stealth fighter.

"SU- 57 is the best plane in the world. SU57 will be on the agenda," said Peskov

Earlier, during the Dubai 2025 air show, a senior representative of Russia's state arms exporter, Rosoboronexport, said it was offering India both license production of air weapons for future-generation aircraft and integration of Indian weapons.
The West Bengal government has released its calendar for 2026, and those working for the Mamata Banerjee administration would be delighted to know that they have more than 150 holidays in the coming year, including the weekly offs.

West Bengal government employees will enjoy their longest stretch of holidays in October, with their Durga Puja off being a break of 12 days, which will include the Lakshmi Puja holiday as well.

As per the West Bengal Finance Department, the Durga Puja holidays will begin on 15 October, Chaturthi, and continue till 17 October, Sashthi, with 18 October being a Sunday and thus allowing for a smooth transition into the 19, 20, and 21 October holidays, when Ashtami, Navami, and Dashami will be respectively celebrated.

November will also have in store a number of holidays for the West Bengal government employees. This month, employees will be getting more than 10 off days, including the Kali Puja and Chhat celebrations.

What is the total number of off days for WB govt employees? In 2026, the West Bengal government employees will get 27 holidays as per the Negotiable Instruments Act. The state government has ordered another 26 days off, thus taking the total number of days off to 53. Considering the 52 Saturdays and 52 Sundays, those working in the Mamata Banerjee government will be eligible for a total of 104 offs in the year. This means they will not be working for 43% of the entire year.

Moreover, those employees belonging to the Santhal community will also be getting 30 June as an off day for Hul Dibas.

Central government holidays The central government has also released its list of holidays for 2026. There are 14 compulsory holidays and a list of 12 restricted holidays. Employees can choose any three among the 12 restricted holidays.

The compulsory holidays are:

1. Republic Day

2. Independence Day

3. Mahatma Gandhi's Birthday

4. Buddha Purnima

5. Christmas Day

6. Dussehra (Vijay Dashmi)

7. Diwali (Deepavali)

8. Good Friday

9. Guru Nanak's birthday

10. Idu'l Fitr

11. Idu'l Zuha

12. Mahavir Jayanti

13. Muharram

14. Prophet Mohammad's birthday (Id-e-milad)

The list of restricted holidays include:

1. An additional day for dussehra

2. Holi

3. Janamashtami (vaishnavi)

4. Ram Navami

5. Maha Shivratri

6. Ganesh Chaturthi / VInayak Chaturthi

7. Makar Sankaranti

8. Rath Yatra

9. Onam

10. Pongal

11. Sri Panchami/ Basant Panchami
The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the trial of former Karnataka Chief Minister and BJP leader BS Yediyurappa in a case registered against him under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, Bar and Bench reported. The stay order brings proceedings in the trial court to a halt while the apex court examines procedural concerns raised by the senior leader.

The Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi passed the order after hearing Yediyurappa's petition challenging the Karnataka High Court's refusal to quash the case, the Bar and Bench report added.

Also Read | Former Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa detained during protest against Congress govt

The bench also issued a notice to the Karnataka government, seeking its response to Yediyurappas plea. The limited question before the Court is whether he is entitled to have his petition heard on merits by the High Courtan issue Yediyurappas legal team argues was incorrectly foreclosed during earlier proceedings.

In its order, the Supreme Court observed: The coordinate bench has misconstrued the previous decision dated so and so while holding that in light of the decision in the previous round, the petition cannot be heard on merits. Hence, we issue notice for the limited purpose as to decide afresh in light of liberty granted to the petitioner, wide order date Feb 7, 2025.

Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing for Yediyurappa, earlier argued that the High Court had ignored key evidence.

Also Read | Karnataka HC stays summons to ex-CM BS Yediyurappa in POSCO case

"There are certain statements which prosecution suppresses. High Court has ignored facts that there are people present saying nothing as such happened. He has been four times Chief Minister," the senior counsel said.

Bar and Bench quoted CJI Kant saying, "How can you compel High Court to hold a mini trial?"

The matter will now return to the Karnataka High Court for reconsideration on the narrow question of whether Yediyurappa is entitled to a full hearing on the merits of his challenge.

What is the case against Yediyurappa? The criminal proceedings against former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa stem from allegations made by a woman who claimed he sexually harassed her 17-year-old daughter. According to the complaint, the teenager had accompanied her mother to Yediyurappas residence seeking assistance when the alleged incident occurred. The complainantwho has since passed awayfiled her statement with the police on 14 March 2024, further alleging that the BJP veteran attempted to silence her by offering money.

Following her complaint, an FIR was registered under Section 8 of the POCSO Act and Section 354A of the Indian Penal Code, both relating to sexual harassment of a minor. On 4 July 2024, the trial court took cognisance not only of the POCSO allegations against Yediyurappa but also of charges against three others under Sections 204, 214 and 37 of the IPC, which deal with the destruction of evidence and offering inducements to shield an accused.

Yediyurappa challenged this order before the Karnataka High Court, arguing that the trial judges reasoning was perfunctory. The High Court agreed, describing the July order as insufficiently reasoned, and directed the trial court to revisit the issue of cognisance.

Also Read | Karnataka High Court stays BS Yediyurappa's arrest in POCSO case

A fresh order was subsequently issued by the Fast Track Special Court on 28 February 2025, directing Yediyurappa and the other accused to appear in person on 15 March. Yediyurappa then returned to the High Court seeking to have both the complaint and the renewed cognisance order quashed, contending that the case was politically motivated and internally inconsistent.
A China-based menswear company has sparked outrage over a laundry care tag, which seemingly discriminates against women. The products of the brand reportedly come with the care instructions: "Please give it to your beloved woman, she knows everything."

Controversial tag by Chinese brand sparks debate The care tag is written in both Chinese and English. However, it doesn't provide any washing instructions. According to multiple reports, the tag comes with two QR codes linking to the social media accounts of the brand.

South Morning China Post reported that the incident came to light from a coat made by Jiangsu-based Gu Zhuo Kang Zheng Garment Company. The same company owns brands like Labour Union, as per a report by Lizhi News.

Netizens react to viral care tag Meanwhile, the incident has created a storm on the internet after someone posted the tag online. It has now gone viral.

The incident has gained mixed reactions from netizens.

One of them was quoted saying by the South Morning China Post: How come you let your beloved women do the chores for you? This is apparent exploitation. Why not print the complete washing method and add a sentence please finish reading this and learn how to wash clothes for the sake of your beloved person.

Which brand is this? Sisters, we should boycott it, another was quoted.

I do not think there is any problem with the tag. I do not understand how this could cause a confrontation between men and women, someone else also said. Yet another added, It is not necessary for girls to be so sensitive.

Also Read | Chinese brands are sweeping the world. Good

Company reacts to backlash Meanwhile, the company's spokeswoman, known as Sister Yang, has issued a statement of apology. Yang reportedly stated that they did not intend to discriminate against women.

It is our inappropriate expression, as well as the wrong spelling of some English words, that led to the publics misunderstanding that we look down on women and we aim to provoke the opposition of the two sexes. That is not our original intention, she was quoted.

She maintained that many customers, including male or female, have previously ruined the clothes made of special material by washing them without following the specific washing instructions.

Previously, similar incidents have surfaced online with tags like Give it to your mum and she will wash it, give it to your woman or give it to your girlfriend.
The United States student loan system is on the cusp of one of its most sweeping overhauls in decades, with a series of major reforms scheduled to begin unfolding within weeks.

As the Education Department races to implement provisions of US President Donald Trumps One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), millions of borrowers will see their repayment options and eventual loan-forgiveness pathways radically reshaped  and some benefits will disappear entirely.

Why is Income-Based Repayment about to become more accessible? One of the first changes arriving before the end of December is a significant expansion of the Income-Based Repayment (IBR) plan. Previously, borrowers were required to demonstrate a partial financial hardship to qualify. Trumps big beautiful bill eliminates that barrier, opening IBR to higher earners and most federal student loan holders.

Also Read | What happens to students loan as Trump admin moves to dismantle education dept?

The Education Department acknowledged that its systems were still denying eligible applicants earlier this autumn. Under a settlement with the American Federation of Teachers, officials confirmed the updates will be completed by late December. Until then, servicers will hold IBR applications that would otherwise be denied, according to new federal guidance.

Higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz said the removal of the hardship test will allow many borrowers previously excluded from IBR to finally access it. Under the scheme, borrowers typically pay 10% of discretionary income  although older loans may require 15%  with forgiveness coming after 20 or 25 years.

What happens to the other income-driven repayment plans? The easier entry into IBR coincides with the gradual disappearance of several other repayment options. Trumps tax and spending package ended the Biden-era Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan and set a July 2028 sunset for Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR).

Also Read | Donald Trump plans to cancel student loan relief program for some non-profits

Some 2.5 million people currently use ICR or PAYE, according to Kantrowitz. Many ICR borrowers will pay less under IBR, while those on PAYE  especially borrowers who took loans after July 2014  may see little change. Monthly bills under IBR will, however, be higher than they would have been under SAVE.

By 2028, the landscape will narrow to just two income-linked plans: IBR and a new scheme, the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP), due to launch in 2026.

What is the new Repayment Assistance Plan, and why does it matter? The forthcoming RAP scheme will offer some borrowers their lowest monthly payments  but with a longer wait for forgiveness. Debt cancellation arrives only after 30 years, compared with 20 or 25 years under existing plans. RAPs structure spreads payments across a wider timeline, reducing monthly obligations but extending indebtedness well into the future.

Also Read | White House agrees to forgive student loans; millions to get debt relief

Borrowers will still be able to switch between repayment plans without losing progress towards forgiveness. The good news is that all of these plans cross-pollinate, so whatever count they have on ICR or PAYE will also count towards whatever plan they switch to, said Betsy Mayotte, president of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors.

When does student loan forgiveness become taxable again? Another key change arrives on 1 January 2026, when the tax exemption for income-driven repayment (IDR) forgiveness ends. Without Congressional action, borrowers receiving forgiveness after that date may face a significant tax bill.

Historically, forgiven debt is treated as taxable income. A lender issues a Form 1099-C, obliging the borrower to report the cancelled amount. While the American Rescue Plan temporarily waived federal tax liability for student loan discharges until the end of 2025, the OBBBA does not extend that relief.

To protect borrowers already approaching forgiveness, the Education Department agreed not to issue 1099-C forms to anyone who reaches their forgiveness milestone by the end of 2025, even if the discharge itself is processed in 2026. Officials advise borrowers in the SAVE plan who are nearing eligibility to consider switching to PAYE, IBR or ICR before 31 December 2025 to secure tax-free cancellation.

Borrowers expecting forgiveness from 2026 onward are urged to consult tax professionals, particularly regarding potential insolvency exemptions or state tax implications.

What other major changes take effect in 2026? From July 2026, several structural shifts will reshape borrowing and repayment:

New federal borrowing limits for undergraduate and postgraduate students will restrict access to higher loan amounts.

Parent PLUS borrowers face the most urgent deadline - those who do not consolidate into the Direct Loan programme by 1 July 2026 will lose access to income-driven repayment altogether. Given that consolidation can take one to three months, the effective window for action is far narrower.

Also Read | Federal student loan servicer transfers: What borrowers must know
Costco has joined a fast-growing list of companies suing the Trump administration to ensure that they are eligible for refunds if the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) strikes down the US president's global tariffs policy.

What did Costco's lawyers say? Costco's lawyers said the suit, filed on 28 November, was a result of the uncertainty regarding the guarantee of refunds for all companies that have been paying additional duties if SCOTUS declares Trump tariffs to be illegal.

The lawsuit, however, has not specified how much the company had to pay because of the additional tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.

The company said that intervention from the court was required at the earliest, after the US Customs and Border Protection denied its request to extend the schedule for finalising tariffs. This could jeopardise the company's chances of seeking full refunds in future, reported Bloomberg.

Dozens of companies have filed lawsuits in the US Court of International Trade since late October, challenging Donald Trump's use of economic emergency powers to impose sweeping global tariffs. Now, Costco, the biggest warehouse club chain in the country, has decided to follow suit.

Costco, one of the biggest companies in the country, has jumped into the ring in a case driven by smaller businesses and Democratic leaning-state officials.

The arguments on Trump's tariffs were heard by the US Supreme Court on 5 November. The case was put on a fast-track schedule by the judges presiding over the same, who, however, have not clarified when they intend to pass judgment in the case. Businesses, meanwhile, have been suing the Trump government to avoid the uncertainty regarding their refund eligibility in case the court ruling goes against the US president.

What has the White House said regarding the tariffs? Kush Desai, the White House spokesperson, said in a statement, The economic consequences of the failure to uphold President Trumps lawful tariffs are enormous, and this suit highlights that fact. The White House looks forward to the Supreme Courts speedy and proper resolution of this matter.

Judges sceptical of Trump tariffs Despite Trump tariffs generating tens of billions of dollars a month, judges are sceptical of their legality. Lower federal courts have already ruled against the Trump tariffs, but have allowed the government to continue enforcing them pending the Supreme Court's judgment.

Some major companies, besides Costco, that have filed lawsuits against the US government include Revlon Consumer Products Corp and Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing Corp.

With the tariffs going through a number of changes in rates after Trump's negotiations with several countries, their overall impact has been more muted than initially expected.

What Costco is doing to mitigate tariff impacts Costco has said that tariffs are primarily impacting its non-food items, and that it has rerouted some products to markets outside the US, ordered higher quantities of inventory to make their position secure ahead of the new levies, and also purchased goods from a lower number of suppliers with consolidated buying. It has also been changing merchandise altogether whenever items got too expensive.

The company's Chief Financial Officer, Gary Millerchip, had earlier told Bloomberg News, Were doing everything we can, adding, Whether thats working with the suppliers to find efficiencies to offset the impact of tariffs, or whether its sourcing with them often to different countries.
The political fallout from last weeks deadly shooting near the White House intensified sharply on Monday as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she had formally recommended that President Donald Trump impose a full travel ban on what she described as every damn country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies. Her comments come amid mounting scrutiny of the Afghan man accused of killing a National Guard member in Washington, DC, and wounding another.

Why is Kristi Noem calling for a full travel ban? Kristi Noem made the recommendation directly to the president and publicised the exchange on X, posting:

Also Read | White House shooting: Injured National Guard member still in serious condition

I just met with the President.

I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.

Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedomnot for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS.

WE DON'T WANT THEM. NOT ONE."

Her remarks came days after she said the suspect in the White House-area shooting had been radicalized inside the United States rather than abroad.

Was the suspect radicalised in the US? Appearing on NBCs Meet the Press and ABCs This Week, Noem said investigators believe the accused gunman, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was already living in Washington state when he adopted extremist views.

We believe he was radicalized since he's been here in this country, she told NBC News. We do believe it was through connections in his home community and state, and we're going to continue to talk to those who interacted with him, who were his family members.

Also Read | US halts Afghan visas and asylum decisions after shooting near White House

Authorities say Rahmanullah Lakanwal is suspected of ambushing two National Guard members just blocks from the White House, killing one and critically injuring the other in Wednesdays attack.

Kristi Noem added that US officials had received some participation from people who knew Lakanwal, and issued a stark warning:

Anyone who has the information on this needs to know that we will be coming after you, and we will bring you to justice, she said.

What is known about the suspects immigration history? Rahmanullah Lakanwal entered the United States in 2021 as part of the Biden administrations mass evacuation of Afghans who assisted American forces during the war. Although he arrived under President Biden, he was granted asylum in April under President Trump, according to a government file reviewed by Reuters.

Also Read | White House shooting: Haunting image shows National Guard members motionless

That detail complicates the Trump administrations assertion that the attack resulted from inadequate vetting during the Biden era.

Officials say Lakanwal previously served in a CIA-backed unit in Afghanistan. Noems comments suggest investigators now believe any radicalisation occurred after he arrived in the United States.

How is the Trump administration responding? Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on 30 November that his administration could halt asylum admissions altogether.

No time limit, but it could be a long time, he said. We have enough problems. We don't want those people.

Following the attack, the administration froze processing of all asylum applications and is considering additional measures. Noem said immigration authorities will review every existing asylum claim and may deport individuals if they are deemed a security risk.
Elon Musk on Tuesday gave a blunt yet shocking warning about wars, without providing an explanation, sending the internet into a frenzy as netizens scrambled to understand what conflict he was talking about.

In a post on X, the Tesla CEO predicted that there will be a war soon, maybe in a matter of a few years.

War is inevitable. 5 years, 10 at most, Elon Musk wrote, without providing any further explanation.

Elon Musk was replying to a post that discussed the effect of nuclear deterrence on global governance.

Possibly my bleakest take (that I hope is wrong) is that governments all suck now because nuclear weapons prevent war, or even the credible threat of war, between major powers. So theres no external/evolutionary/market pressure on governments to not suck, the user, who identifies himself as Hunter Ash, wrote on X.

Netizens shocked, look for answers Because Musk did not provide an explanation to his war predictions, users on X were naturally shocked and looked for answers.

That is very pessimistic. You are usually the big optimist on this platform. Now Im sad, one user wrote.

Another confused user asked AI assistant Grok about when and why this war would start.

Elon didn't specify parties or reasons in that post. From his past statements, he's warned of potential civil wars in Europe/UK due to mass migration and identity politics, or global conflicts like US-China over Taiwan, or Ukraine escalation to WW3, citing rising tensions despite nuclear deterrents. This aligns with the thread's governance discussion, Grok replied.

Would these be regional neighbor wars such as what we have seen in Ukraine and Palestine. Not a far stretch from civil? another user asked.

What? Eek? but let's not hide our heads in the sand, a netizen said.

Also Read | Worlds newest country teeters on edge of civil war

Elon Musk's past war predictions In August 2024, Elon Musk had made a similar war prediction. At that time, anti-immigration riots were engulfing towns and cities in the United Kingdom, and the tech billionaire was among the social media users who played a big role in the conflict.

The Tesla chief had at the time claimed that a civil war is inevitable, while he was replying to a post that blamed the violent protests on the effects of mass migration and open borders.

A spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer had also addressed Musk's remarks, telling journalists, Theres no justification for that.
President Donald Trump, who has cast himself as a relentless foe of illegal drugs, pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, freeing him from a 45-year sentence for conspiring to import tons of cocaine into the United States.

Trumps extraordinary move undermines decades of U.S. efforts to combat transnational drug networks, potentially damages Washingtons credibility in Latin America, and signals to corrupt actors that political connections can outweigh criminal accountability.

Trump signed the pardon for Hernandez on Monday night, a White House official said. The Federal Bureau of Prisons released him from prison in Hazelton, West Virginia, on Monday. While some conservatives in the U.S., including Trump ally Roger Stone, had pushed for Hernandez's release, it was not clear what, or who, prompted Trump to issue the surprise pardon.

The U.S. president has cited the dangers of illicit drug flows from Latin America as justification for a series of deadly U.S. attacks on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, and a military buildup near Venezuela. Democrats and legal scholars have criticized the attacks and questioned their legal justification, noting that they have killed at least 80 people.

During the Biden administration, the U.S. Justice Department asserted that Hernandez, who was president from 2014 to 2022, had abused his power by accepting millions of dollars in bribes from traffickers to protect their U.S.-bound cocaine shipments and to fuel his rise in Honduran politics. A Manhattan jury found Hernandez guilty in March 2024.

HERNANDEZ CLAIMS PERSECUTION

At his sentencing, Hernandez argued the traffickers testified against him because he helped extradite them from Honduras to the United States. This was a political persecution by drug traffickers and politicians," Hernandez said then, according to the court transcript.

In prison, Hernandez wrote a long letter to Trump in which he called himself a political target of the Biden administration, comparing himself to the U.S. president, who faced multiple prosecutions during Biden's presidency and claimed the charges were politically motivated.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that Hernandez had been the victim of a "setup," and that Trump was acting on the "concerns of many people."

Hernandez's attorney, Renato Stabile, told Reuters the former president was still in the country and that it was not safe for him to return to Honduras, citing the risk of possible assassination by "narco-terrorists."

Asked whether Hernandez would remain in the United States or go to a third country, Stabile said that remained unclear and that Hernandez was not yet in possession of his passport.

"He is very grateful to President Trump and relieved that this nightmare is over," Stabile said.

STONE INTERVENES

Stone, a South Florida-based conservative commentator and longtime Trump adviser, had for months advocated for Hernandez's release. He said on his radio show on Sunday that he had given Trump Hernandez's letter.

On the show, Hernandez's wife, Ana Garcia de Hernandez, said Stone's advocacy for her husband had made a "huge difference" in the president's decision.

The White House official said Trump had not seen the letter before announcing his intent to pardon Hernandez on Friday.

Stone did not respond to requests for comment.

The letter from Hernandez appeared designed to appeal to Trump's sense of injustice and was infused with flattery, calling the president "Your Excellency" and referring to their shared "conservative values."

U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, the Senate's top Democrat, blasted Trump's decision in remarks on the chamber's floor on Tuesday.

"It would be bad enough on its own for Donald Trump to pardon this horrible drug trafficker, but for him to pardon this drug lord while putting a quarter of our military in the Caribbean, right nearby Honduras, to fight drug trafficking, makes an utter mockery of Donald Trump's supposed desire to root out all drug trafficking," Schumer said.

HONDURAN ELECTIONS

Hernandez's release came a day after a presidential election in Honduras, in which Trump has backed presidential candidate Nasry Asfura of the conservative National Party, who is facing off with liberal Salvador Nasralla. The latest vote count showed both candidates practically tied, with each holding just under 40% of the vote.

Asfura's party forged a close partnership with Washington under Hernandez, who governed from 2014 to 2022 and was arrested shortly after leaving office.

Enrique Reina, the vice presidential running mate for Rixi Moncada of the ruling LIBRE party, criticized Hernandez's release in a post on X.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the 29-year-old Afghan national accused of shooting two National Guard troops near the White House, was formally charged with first-degree murder and two counts of assault with intent to kill on Tuesday.

However, the Afghan national, who appeared for the court hearing remotely from a hospital bed, pled not guilty to the charges, reported AP.

Lakanwal's lawyer entered a not guilty plea on his behalf on the charges related to the shooting near the White House that killed Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and wounded Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24.

Also Read | White House shooting: Injured National Guard member still in serious condition

Despite the not guilty plea, a Washington DC judge ordered Lakanwal to be held in custody without bond, citing the "sheer terror" of the shooting on 26 November, which took place mere blocks away from the White House, the seat of power in the US.

Authorities in the US are still investigating a potential motive for the attack, which they described as resembling an ambush.

Trump tightens the screws on immigration The development comes days after US President Donald Trump, in his address to the nation following the attack, labelled the shooting a "terrorist attack", before announcing that all immigration requests pertaining to Afghan nationals including visas, green cards, citizenship, and work permits would be suspended immediately.

In the aftermath of the attack, the Trump administration also announced "full scale, rigorous reexamination" of green card applications and other immigration benefits for people from 19 countries previously designated as high-risk, with full restrictions on Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen, and partial restrictions on Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.

Also Read | US halts Afghan visas and asylum decisions after shooting near White House

What we know about Rahmanullah Lakanwal Lakanwal entered the US in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration program that resettled Afghans after the withdrawal of US forces from the country.

While the 29-year-old had applied for asylum under the Biden administration, his asylum status was approved under the Trump administration, #AfghanEvac said in a statement.
US President Donald Trump accused Honduras on Monday (local time) of attempting to change the results of their presidential election, warning that if this is carried out, "there will be hell to pay".

The US President said in a post on Truth Social, "Looks like Honduras is 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. The National Electoral Commission, the official body charged with counting the Votes, abruptly stopped counting at midnight on November 30th."

"Their count showed a close race between Tito Asfura and Salvador Nasralla with Asfura holding a narrow lead of 500 votes. Their tally was stopped when only 47 percent of the Vote was counted. It is imperative that the Commission finish counting the Votes. Hundreds of thousands of Hondurans must have their Votes counted. Democracy must prevail!" Trump further added.

This comes in the wake of the US president trying to meddle in elections around the world, with him opening calling on the electorate of other foreign countries to vote for his right-wing friends.

Trump himself recently endorsed Nasry Asfura, the right-wing Hondurian candidate, calling him "the only real friend of Freedom" and promised to work with him.

Thomas Carothers, director of the democracy, conflict and governance program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told AFP. "I cannot think of a time when a US president was willing to just openly state his preferences in foreign elections in this way, at least in modern history."

Trump has been feeling more and more emboldened to interfere in Latin American politics.

Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of Defense, earlier called Colombia's elected left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, a "lunatic". He also sanctioned a judge in Brazil for prosecuting former president Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right politican.

The same has been seen in Argentina, where Trump has promised $20 billion to help their struggling economy, but with the condition that this will be provided if right-wing President Javier Milei wins in the legislative election. Milei's party ultimately did win the polls.

Also Read | Trump confirms call with Maduro, reveals why he made Venezuela airspace warning

"It's a consistent attempt to influence the politics, to reinforce what I think they see as already a shift towards the right that's gaining force across the region," Will Freeman, a fellow on Latin America at the Council on Foreign Relations, told AFP.

The full force of Trump's wrath is aimed at Venezuela, where he has threatened to use the US military to topple the left-wing government of Nicolas Maduro.

US trying to influence Europe The US government has also been trying to influence European elections, with homeland security chief Kristi Noem openly endorsing conservative presidential candidate Karol Kawrocki, who later went on to win the polls.

Trump's deputy J D Vance also slammed the German government publicly during a visit to the country for restrictions placed on AfD, a far-right party.
US President Donald Trump during Tuesdays (December 2) Cabinet meeting, expressed support for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, saying he is doing a great job, amid ongoing scrutiny over Pentagon operations targeting alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, including one vessel that was struck twice, as acknowledged by the White House.

As the first Cabinet member to speak, Hegseth reaffirmed the Pentagons commitment to striking alleged narco-boats.

"As I've said and will say again, we've only just begun striking narco-boats and putting narco-terrorists at the bottom of the ocean," Hegseth said. "Because they have been poisoning the American people. And Joe Biden tried to approach it with kid gloves."

Emphasis on stopping drug trafficking The Defense Secretary highlighted the broader goals of the strikes: stopping the flow of drugs and eliminating threats.

"We're stopping the drugs, we're striking the boats, we're defeating narco-terrorists," Hegseth added.

Hegseth cites fog of war Hegseth defended the second strike by citing the fog of war, emphasizing the uncertainty and confusion inherent in combat operations.

Hegseth stated:

-He did not see survivors in the water at the time of the second strike.

-The vessel was already on fire, which influenced the decision.

-He did not remain for the remainder of the mission after the first strike.

-The admiral in charge had complete authority to order the follow-up strike and, in his view, made the right call.

The comments come amid scrutiny over Pentagon operations in the Caribbean. A report said a follow-up strike in September that killed survivors of an earlier attack. Hegseths remarks signal continued aggressive action against alleged narco-terrorist activities at sea.

Follow-up strike sparks scrutiny The meeting comes after The Washington Post reported that a follow-up strike on September 2 targeted survivors of an earlier attack. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the second strike but clarified that a Navy admiral, not Hegseth, gave the order.

"With respect to the strikes in question 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.

Defense Secretary stands by commanders Hegseth reiterated the administrations support for military commanders making tough decisions.

"As President Trump always has our back, we always have the backs of our commanders who are making decisions in difficult situations. And we do in this case, and all these strikes. They've done the right things, we'll keep doing that, and we have their backs, Mr. President," Hegseth said.

The Pentagon press secretary added that both Trump and Hegseth ultimately direct the strikes.

"At the end of the day, the secretary and the president are the ones directing these strikes," the official said.
Hours after the White House confirmed that Donald Trump was in "excellent overall health" following an MRI scan, California Governor Gavin Newsom poked fun at the statement, releasing a spoof memo to mock the US President.

In a post on X, Newsom shared a purported press release on his own health, given by physician Dr Dolittle (a reference to the eponymous 1998 Eddie Murphy-starrer comedy).

The memo from Dr Dolittle, who was described as the Governors Physician / Chief of Peak Human Performance, said: "As part of Governor Gavin Newsom's annual physical, we conducted advanced imaging of his cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, and neurological health. I'm pleased to report that nothing about the Governors health is merely 'normal.'"

Also Read | Trump warns Honduras against trying to change presidential election results

"Governor Newsom remains the healthiest human currently alive or recorded in medical history," the spoof memo declared.

The memo went on to describe the California Governor's cardiovascular scans as "the best we've ever recorded", while Newsom's bone density was described as "exceptional (a radiologist briefly wondered if wed scanned a redwood)".

The rather lengthy note then went on to speak about Newsom's cognitive health, saying that the Democratic governor's "brain imaging showed no issues other than an unusually active region associated with intelligence, multitasking, and being wildly productive before sunrise.

The aforementioned lines, however, were merely the tip of the iceberg as the spoof memo launched a full assault on Trump in its later paragraphs.

"While we do not typically comment on the health of other elected officials, we are aware of a letter released today from the White House claiming that President Trump is in 'excellent health.'," read the memo.

Also Read | Monday afternoon massacre! Trump admin fires 8 New York immigration judges

"Well simply note that Governor Newsom completes full workdays without falling asleep in meetings, does not require executive time to lie down and watch TV during work hours, and is able to stand upright without looking like the leaning Tower of Pisa," it added, referencing a recent incident where the US President was pictured closing his eyes during an Oval Office announcement.

"If a side-by-side health chart were released, we recommend redacting it for the Presidents emotional well-being," was the brutal conclusion of the memo, aimed very evidently to ridicule the White House's update on Trump's health.

Trump's MRI scan in the spotlight Newsom's spoof memo comes not just on the back of the White House's affirmation of Trump's excellent health, but also amid intense speculation about the US President's MRI report.

Trump underwent an MRI scan on October 10 during his visit to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Prior to the White House's comment, Trump had told reporters that he had "no idea" which part of his body had been scanned, but added confidently that it wasn't his brain that was under the scanner.

The entire episode erupted after Trump was asked by a reporter about Minnesota Governor Tim Walz's remark that the US President should release his MRI scan report.
US President Donald Trump is taking the last responsible steps to push Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro from power, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) told The New York Post in an interview published on Monday (December 1). She warned that the embattled leader may face a Panama 2.0 scenario as US forces tighten their presence around Venezuela.

According to Salazar, the Trump administration is offering the Venezuelan ruler Maduro one final chance to exit peacefully before considering stronger measures.

Claims Maduro broke election promise Salazar argued Maduro lost the 2024 election overwhelmingly, claiming: Maduro promised President Biden he would leave if he lost the election  and he lost 80-20.

But, she added: Communists and Marxists lie until they see a bigger force in front of them. Then they run.

Fear of Cuban forces, fear of the US The Florida congresswoman told the news outlet that Maduro fears retaliation from Cuban military operatives in Venezuela: Hes afraid the Cuban military personnel  more than 30,000 on Venezuelan soil  will kill him if he tries to leave. And he knows the Americans will take him out if he doesnt go.

Panama No. 2 Salazar praised Trump as the only president in decades willing to take decisive action.

The right thing is exactly what were doing: invite him to leave, or take him out, just like we did in Panama, she said, calling the current situation Panama No. 2.

She argued there is precedent for removing hostile foreign leaders when US national security is at stake: Weve done this before  in Panama, in Libya  under presidents of both parties.

Criminal allegations against Maduro Calling Maduro not only a political threat but a criminal one, Salazar told The New York Post: Hes the head of the Cartel of the Suns. He was indicted in 2020 for drug trafficking. He stole the election after promising free and fair elections.

She accused the regime of using submarines and other covert methods to ship narcotics into the United States: Hes flooding the United States with drugs  sometimes even using submarines.

US Forces positioned in the region With an estimated 15,000 US troops now stationed near Venezuela, Salazar said the shift signals the end of patience in Washington.

We tried everything  every diplomatic angle, she said, pointing to earlier failed negotiations.

This is the beginning of the end. We are liberating the Western Hemisphere from the scourge of drug trafficking, communism, Marxism  people who do not love freedom, democracy and the free market.

Opposition ready with 100-day plan Salazar said Venezuelas opposition, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, is prepared to govern immediately. She told The Post they have a 100-day plan and strong interest in partnering with American oil and mineral companies.

Will Maduro still be in power by Christmas? When asked if Maduro would still be ruling by Christmas, Salazar replied: Lets hope not.

She added: The buildup will have a very happy ending. We cannot have Hezbollah, Iran, or a major criminal cartel leader operating in our backyard. I salute President Trump wholeheartedly for having the fortitude to do the right thing.

Its not always easy  but hes doing it.

Also Read | Trump warns Honduras against trying to change presidential election results
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday stated that he would announce his pick to replace outgoing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell "early next year".

"We'll be announcing somebody probably early next year for the new chairman of the Fed," Trump said in a cabinet meeting, as per AFP.

Trump also said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent does not want that job, reported Reuters.

The US President's latest comment on appointing Powell's replacement comes days after he told reporters on board Air Force Once that he had decided on his pick for the top post at the Fed.

Trump, however, did not reveal who his preferred candidate was.

What did Trump say earlier? A couple of days back, Trump addressed the ongoing speculation about Powell's replacement but stopped short of revealing a name despite questions.

I know who I am going to pick, yeah, the US President told reporters on his way back to Washington.

When quizzed about whether National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett would be chosen to lead the Federal Reserve, Trump snapped back, Im not telling you. We will be announcing it.

Also Read | How Trump might topple the dollar

Who are the top picks for the job? Kevin Hassett, who previously chaired the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), is widely viewed as Trump's choice to replace Powell, with a Bloomberg report putting him as a top contender for the post.

We had a great Treasury auction, interest rates went down, and I think that the American people could expect President Trump to pick somebody whos going to help them have cheaper car loans and easier access to mortgages at lower rate, Hassett told CBS recently, giving a relatively reserved response to rumours about him being picked.

Two other namesformer Fed governor Kevin Warsh and current board member Christopher Wallerhave also been doing the rounds with regard to the question of succession at the Fed.

While Trump had earlier said that he'd like Bessent in the post, Tuesday's comment seems to rule out that possibility.

Federal Reserve Vice Chair Michelle Bowman and BlackRocks Rick Rieder are also said to be contenders.
Imran Khans sister, Dr. Uzma Khan, was finally permitted to meet the jailed former Pakistan prime minister on Tuesday (December 2) after more than a month of an unannounced ban. The access came hours after large crowds of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters gathered outside Adiala Jail amid mounting rumours about Khans health and well-being.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Dr. Uzma said her brother appeared physically stable but alleged that he is facing severe psychological pressure in custody.

Imran Khans health is perfectly fine. He is angry. He said that they are subjecting him to mental torture, and that Asim Munir is responsible for all of this, she said, referring to Pakistans Army Chief.

Speculation over Imran Khans safety The prolonged ban on family visits had sparked intense speculation on social media, with some supporters questioning whether the 73-year-old PTI founder was alive.

Imran Khan has been imprisoned since August 2023 in multiple legal cases.

Security lockdown outside Adiala jail The Punjab government deployed the entire Rawalpindi police force along Adiala Road to prevent PTI demonstrations. Section 144  banning gatherings of four or more people  remains in force in both Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

Officials said an 8-km stretch around the jail was sealed.

An eight-kilometre stretch has been completely sealed residents are being required to show their ID card, a Punjab government official told news agency PTI.

PTI reaction The PTI welcomed the governments decision but questioned whether the access would be sustained.

Although today the government allowed Dr Uzma to see her brother in jail, but lets see whether the government honours its commitment, the party said.

A group of lawyers also protested outside the Islamabad High Court, accusing the government of keeping Khan in isolation.

Imran Khans family demands proof of life Earlier, Imran Khans son Kasim Khan demanded that the government provide evidence that his father was alive.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Tuesday rejected Pakistans claims of delays in granting overflight permission for aircraft transporting relief supplies to Sri Lanka, emphasising that India responded quickly and handled the matter transparently.

Sri Lanka has been grappling with widespread flooding, landslides and infrastructure collapse triggered by Cyclone Ditwah, leaving several districts isolated and severely straining the countrys disaster-response capacity.

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said Pakistan's statement was aimed at misleading the public and misrepresenting India's actions. He said, We reject the ridiculous statement made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, which is yet another attempt to spread anti-India misinformation.

Connecting the timeline of events, Jaiswal clarified that India received Pakistan's request through diplomatic channels well in advance and responded within hours. He stated, The request for overflight clearance for Pakistani aircraft carrying humanitarian assistance to Sri Lanka was received by the High Commission of India in Islamabad at around 1300 hrs on December 01, 2025.

Jaiswal emphasised that New Delhi acted with urgency because the situation in Sri Lanka demanded immediate assistance. He said, Given the urgency of humanitarian assistance, the Government of India processed the request expeditiously the same day and granted the overflight permission as per the itinerary proposed at 1730 hrs on December 01, 2025.

Pakistan's fake news EXPOSED! Even as India detailed the prompt approval issued on Monday, Pakistan continued to accuse New Delhi of creating hurdles. The Pakistan Foreign Office claimed on X that "India continues to block humanitarian assistance from Pakistan to Sri Lanka," alleging that an aircraft had been waiting "for over 60 hours now" for airspace access.

Pakistan further alleged that the clearance India issued was unusable, stating that the partial flight clearance issued by India last night, after 48 hours, was operationally impractical: time-bound for just a few hours and without validity for the return flight, severely hindering this urgent relief mission for the brotherly people of Sri Lanka.

However, X added reader-generated context, labelling the post shared by Pakistans foreign affairs ministry as fake news. It also noted that Pakistan had reportedly sent expired aid to Sri Lanka.

See the post below:

View full Image Source: X

At the same time, Islamabad faced separate criticism online after its High Commission in Sri Lanka shared photos of relief items that had been dispatched. The mission posted that Relief packages from Pakistan have been successfully delivered to assist our brothers and sisters affected by the recent floods in Sri Lanka, which signifies our unwavering solidarity.

Cyclone Ditwah Sri Lanka continues to suffer severe damage from Cyclone Ditwah, including flooding, landslides, and widespread infrastructure damage. India has launched Operation Sagar Bandhu to provide relief, restoration and emergency support across affected districts.

View full Image A man wades through floodwaters induced by Cyclone Ditwah in Chennai on 2 December 2025. (Photo by R. Satish BABU / AFP) ( AFP )

According to Sri Lanka's Disaster Management Centre, at least 410 people have died and 336 remain missing as of Tuesday morning due to extreme weather incidents since 16 November.

India launched Operation Sagar Bandhu on 28 November to assist Sri Lanka in dealing with the destruction caused by Cyclone Ditwah.

The MEA said on Monday that the mission was launched to provide urgent search and rescue support, along with humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR), to our closest maritime neighbour.

Since 28 November, India has supplied 53 tonnes of relief material to Sri Lanka through both air and sea routes, the MEA noted.

(With inputs from ANI)
Pope Leo urged U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday not to try to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro using military force.

Leo, the first U.S. pope, said it would be better to attempt dialogue or impose economic pressure on Venezuela if Washington wants to pursue change there.

The Trump administration has been weighing 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.

Asked during a news conference about Trump's threats to remove Maduro by force, Leo said: "It is better to search for ways of dialogue, or perhaps pressure, including economic pressure".

The pope, speaking as he flew home from a visit to Turkey and Lebanon, his first overseas trip, added that Washington should search for other ways to achieve change "if that is what they want to do in the United States".

Reuters reported last month that options under U.S. consideration include an attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan leader, and that the U.S. military is poised for a new phase of operations after a massive military buildup in the Caribbean and nearly three months of strikes on suspected drug trafficking boats off Venezuela's coast.

Leo, answering a journalist's question, also said the signals coming from the Trump administration about its policy toward Venezuela were unclear.

Also Read | Hegseth defiant as Pentagon faces heat over strike on drug boat survivors

"On one hand, it seems there was a call between the two presidents," said the pope, referring to a phone call that Trump had with Maduro last month.

"On the other hand, there is the danger, there is the possibility there will be some activity, some (military) operation."

"The voices that come from the United States, they change with a certain frequency," added Leo.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Tuesday (December 2) that while Moscow does not seek war with European powers, it is prepared to fight if necessary. Speaking amid ongoing diplomatic efforts to negotiate a settlement to the war in Ukraine, Putin said that several European proposals for peace were absolutely unacceptable to Russia.

We do not want a war with Europe, but if Europe wants a war, Russia is ready right now, said Putin.

His comments come as European countries push for conditions that ensure Ukraines sovereignty and future security, while Moscow insists on guarantees that align with its strategic interests.

The remarks further strain already tense ties between Moscow and European capitals, where leaders worry that any deal tilted toward Russia could encourage future aggression.

European leaders have been pressing for a peace deal that preserves Ukraines territorial integrity and restricts Russian advances.

Russia currently controls significant portions of Ukrainian territory, and its officials have insisted that any settlement must reflect what they describe as realities on the ground.

Putins remarks come as US envoys, including Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, are in Moscow for talks on potential peace frameworks.

US draft peace proposals spark concerns A leaked set of 28 US draft peace proposals last week raised alarm among Ukrainian and European officials. Critics argued the proposals largely accommodated Moscows demands, including restrictions on Ukraines military, Russian control of a fifth of Ukrainian territory, and limits on NATO membership.

Russian demands and European concerns Key Russian demands include:

-Ukraine never joining NATO

-Caps on the Ukrainian army

-Recognition of Russian control over Crimea, Donbas, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson

-Protections for Russian speakers and Orthodox believers

Ukraine rejects these demands as capitulation, warning they would leave the country vulnerable to further Russian conquest.

Diplomatic efforts continue During the US preparations for the Moscow visit, Witkoff, Kushner, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Rustem Umerov, Ukraines national security council secretary, in Miami to discuss peace proposals. In Moscow, Witkoff will also meet Kirill Dmitriev, Putins envoy.
US President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, accompanied by his son-in-law Jared Kushner, arrived in Moscow on Tuesday (December 2) for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding a potential resolution to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The visit marks the latest effort by Trump to end Europes deadliest conflict since World War II.

Previous efforts Trump has previously sought to mediate peace, including a summit with Putin in Alaska in August and meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but so far, no agreement has been reached.

A leaked US draft of 28 peace proposals last week raised concerns among Ukrainian and European officials. Critics argued that the proposals largely aligned with Moscows key demands, including restrictions on Ukraines military and Russias control of a fifth of Ukrainian territory. European powers subsequently offered their own counter-proposals.

Zelensky emphasized Ukraines commitment on social media: Ukraine approaches all diplomatic efforts with utmost seriousness  we are committed to achieving a real peace and guaranteed security. This is exactly the level of commitment that must be compelled from the Russian side.

Kremlin response Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed, as per Reuters, that Putin would meet Witkoff and Kushner, but refrained from commenting on Russias "red lines," noting that megaphone diplomacy is unhelpful. The envoys were accompanied only by an interpreter.

Putin has indicated he is open to discussions but warned that if Ukraine rejects an agreement, Russian forces could advance further. He described the discussions as a preliminary review of proposals rather than a formal agreement.

US envoys arrive in Moscow According to Reuters, a convoy transporting Witkoff and Kushner arrived in central Moscow from Vnukovo airport. During the US visit, the envoys met Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraines national security council, in Miami to discuss peace proposals. In Moscow, Witkoff will meet Kirill Dmitriev, Putins investment envoy.

Russian demands and European concerns Russias proposed terms include:

-Ukraine never joining NATO

-Caps on the Ukrainian army

-Recognition of Russian control over Crimea, Donbas, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson

-Protections for Russian speakers and Orthodox believers

Ukraine has rejected these conditions as tantamount to capitulation, arguing they could leave the country vulnerable to further Russian conquest.

European powers have expressed concern that a pro-Russian peace deal could benefit Moscow economically while compromising Ukraines sovereignty.
Even though ubiquitous digitization has made it possible for law enforcement agencies to deploy new mechanisms of forensic investigation, since most democracies guarantee their citizens the right to personal privacy, these tools cannot be deployed en masse over the entire population in order to identify the few among them who might be guilty of a transgression. As a result, even though criminals may be taking full advantage of these new technologies to carry out crimes that would not have been possible had it not been for what the digital realm has enabled, law enforcement cannot respond with measures that undermine constitutional safeguards.
Consider telephones: from rotary dials to smartphones, each leap has been creative. But its also destructive, as each new phone outmodes its predecessor. This years Nobel Prize in Economics honours the scholars who decoded this paradox. How did sustained economic growth begin and how did it continue despite the disruption it causes? The answers carry profound implications.
Leaders of Opposition parties on Tuesday targeted the Union government over the directions to mobile companies to pre-install the Sanchar Saathi app on cell phones, calling it a dystopian tool for snooping on citizens.

Amid the row, however, Union Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia said Tuesday that installing the fraud reporting app on all devices would be optional and can be deleted by users.

Criticising the Centre, Congress Member of Parliament, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, called the Centres Sanchar Saathi app a tool for snooping on citizens mobile phones, describing it as a step towards turning India into a dictatorship.

Vadras remarks came a day after the Ministry of Communications directed smartphone manufacturers to pre-install the app on all devices to be sold within the next three months.

Sanchar Saathi is a snooping app, and clearly its ridiculous. Citizens have the right to privacy. Everyone must have the right to send messages to family and friends without the government looking at everything, Vadra told reporters outside Parliament House on Tuesday.

The Union Ministry of Communications said on Monday that the Department of Telecommunications' (DoT) directions to mobile phone companies for the pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app in handsets were aimed at safeguarding citizens from purchasing non-genuine handsets and enabling easy reporting of suspected misuse of telecom resources.

Also Read | Sanchar Saathi mandate meant to protect users from fake devices, says govt

The DoT issued these directions on 28 November to manufacturers and importers of mobile handsets intended for use in India under the provisions of the Telecom Cyber Security Act.

This was widely interpreted as an instruction that the app would be non-removable. However, Union Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia clarified on Tuesday that users would have the option to activate the app only if they chose to, and would also be allowed to delete it.

This app does not enable snooping or call monitoring. You can activate or deactivate it as per your wish If you dont want Sanchar Saathi, you can delete it. It is optional It is about customer protection. I want to clear all misconceptions It is our duty to introduce this app to everyone. Keeping it on their devices or not is up to the user It can be deleted from the mobile phone just like any other app Scindia told news agency ANI and later shared it on his X account too.

Vadra, speaking before Scindias clarification, said that while cybersecurity measures are necessary, they do not give the government a licence to intrude into citizens private lives.

Also Read | Scindia says Sanchar Saathi app is optional amid strong Opposition protests

Theres a very fine line between reporting fraud and monitoring what every citizen is doing on their phone. Thats not how it should work. There should be an effective system to report fraud. Weve discussed this at great length, theres a need for cybersecurity, but that doesnt mean you get an excuse to enter every citizens phone. I dont think any citizen would be happy, she said.

Pegasus spyware CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas also criticised the move, invoking the Pegasus spyware controversy. He further questioned the status of the CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) probe into claims made by several Opposition leaders in 2023 that they had received warnings from Apple about state-sponsored attacks on their devices.

Has anyone heard about the outcome of CERT-Ins probe into state-sponsored iPhone hacks? Questions asked in Parliament on this were continuously disallowed Next step, obviously: Ankle monitors, collars and brain implants for 1.4 billion people. Only then will the government finally know what we really think and do, Brittas wrote on X.

Big Brother cannot watch us On Monday, Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal stated that the right to privacy is an intrinsic part of the fundamental right to life and liberty.

Big Brother cannot watch us. This DoT direction is beyond unconstitutional. The Right to Privacy is an intrinsic part of the fundamental right to life and liberty, enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution.

A pre-loaded government app that cannot be uninstalled is a dystopian tool to monitor every Indian. It is a means to watch over every movement, interaction and decision of each citizen, Venugopal said in a post on X.

Venugopal also shared the DoT direction under Telecom Cyber Security Rules, 2024 (as amended), regarding the pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app in mobile handsets to check their genuineness.

Failure to comply with these directions shall attract action under the Telecommunications Act, 2023, the Telecom Cyber Security Rules, 2024 (as amended), and other applicable laws. These directions shall come into force immediately and shall remain in force until amended or withdrawn by the DoT, the communique said.

On Tuesday, Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury filed an adjournment motion notice in the Rajya Sabha seeking suspension of business to discuss the government's directions on the installation of the Sanchar Saathi app. She requested a discussion under Rule 267, which requires setting aside all other business to address the matter.

What did the government say? A Union Ministry of Communications press communique on Monday said that the DoT has issued directions for the pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app in mobile handsets to verify the genuineness of mobile handsets.

"In order to safeguard the citizens from buying the non-genuine handsets, enabling easy reporting of suspected misuse of telecom resources and to increase effectiveness of the Sanchar Saathi initiative, the DoT has issued Directions dated 28.11.2025 mandating the manufacturer and importers of mobile handsets that are intended for use in India under the provisions of the Telecom Cyber Security," the ministry note issued on 1 December reads.

What is Sanchar Saathi Initiative? The DoT is undertaking the Sanchar Saathi initiative to curb the misuse of telecom resources for cyber frauds and ensure telecom cybersecurity, the statement said.

The department has developed Sanchar Saathi portal & app which enables citizens to check genuineness of a mobile handset through the IMEI number along with other facilities like reporting suspected fraud communications, lost/ stolen mobile handsets, check mobile connections in their name, trusted contact details of banks/ financial institutions, it read.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, BJP MP Sambit Patra also clarified on the app and the controversies around it.

The right to privacy is an intrinsic part of the fundamental right to life and liberty.

People are asking whether the Sanchar Saathi app is meant for government snooping. Does the government want to spy on you? No  N-O  no. The government does not want to spy on anyone. The Sanchar Saathi app cannot read your messages. It cannot listen to your calls, neither the calls you make nor the calls you receive. Sanchar Saathi cannot listen to your calls. It cannot access your private or personal data. Patra said.
President Donald Trump said he spoke with his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, about sanctions the US imposed on officials from the South American country, a signal that relations between the two nations continue to improve.

We had a great talk. We talked about trade. We talked about sanctions, because, as you know, I sanctioned them having to do with certain things that took place. But we had a very good talk. I like him, Trump told reporters on Tuesday at the White House.

Trump earlier this year sanctioned Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, his wife and an institute affiliated with him in retaliation over the prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro for his role in a failed coup attempt.

Lula, as the Brazilian leader is known, has gradually won over Trump since ties reached reached a low point over the probe of Bolsonaro, an ally of the US president.

Trump had imposed a 40% duty on exports from Brazil in retaliation for the Bolsonaro prosecution, on top of a 10% baseline levy  amounting to one of the highest tariff rate imposed on goods from any US trading partners.

The president last month expanded tariff breaks on Brazilian food products, including beef, coffee and orange juice, amid growing voter dissatisfaction over his handling of the cost of living.

The two leaders also spoke about the fight against organized crime and the economy during a call that lasted about 40 minutes, Lulas office said in a statement earlier Tuesday.

Lula indicated his desire to move quickly on negotiations over tariffs on other items, his office said.

2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said that there is no rift between him and his deputy, D.K. Shivakumar, saying they are working together to run the government and will keep doing so going forward.

Reiterating that both of them will abide by the decision of the Congress high command on the leadership issue, he said, Shivakumar will become the CM, when the high command decides, PTI reported.

In an apparent display of unity, Siddaramaiah on Tuesday visited Shivakumar's residence for breakfast, just days after the two broke bread in the wake of a raging power tussle.

This understanding will always be there. There are no differences. D K Shivakumar and I are united; we run the government unitedly. In the future also we will run the government unitedly, Siddaramaiah told reporters here after the breakfast meeting.

When will Shivakumar become Karnataka CM? On the leadership issue, he said, as decided in the previous breakfast meeting organised at the CM's residence on Saturday, both of them will abide by the high command's decision.

So far, there is no communication from the high command on the timeline for any decision on the matter. The CM, in response to a question said, If they (high command) call us, we will definitely go and meet them. Tomorrow, I will be meeting AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal at a function, where both of us are invited.

Asked when Shivakumar will become the CM, Siddaramaiah said, "When the high command says."

Stating that he was invited by Shivakumar for breakfast, he said, after the breakfast, he and Deputy CM discussed regarding the upcoming legislature session starting from December 8 at Belagavi and the strategy to be adopted, also on organising a meeting of MPs from Karnataka in Delhi during the ongoing Parliament session on December 8 to discuss on issues concerning the state.

Regarding the cabinet reshuffle, Siddaramaiah said, the high command has to take a decision on it. Shivakumar, replying to a question, said that all MLAs are united in the Congress party and there are no differences.

Following the initial breakfast meeting on Saturday, at the CM's official residence, as part of an attempt by the Congress high command to break the logjam over the leadership row involving the two leaders, both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar had publicly stated that "there won't be any confusion", and that they would obey the high command on the leadership issue.

The breakfast meetings are seen as a move by the high command to pause the leadership tussle between the two and signal Siddaramaiah's continuation as the CM for the time being, especially ahead of the Belagavi legislature session from December 8.

The power tussle within the ruling party had intensified amid speculations about a change in chief minister in the state after the Congress government reached the halfway mark of its five-year term on November 20.

The speculation was fuelled by talks of a 'power-sharing' agreement said to have been arrived at while the party was elected to power in 2023.
You may have heard your doctor warn you about the dangers of higher cholesterol levels. Indian-origin British cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra has challenged that notion. He believes cholesterol has nothing to do with heart disease.

Dr Aseem Malhotra is a health adviser to the Donald Trump-aligned Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative. He is the same professional who has linked King Charles and Princess Kate Middleton's cancer to COVID-19 vaccines.

Also Read | Cardiologist warns: 5 hidden heart attack symptoms

Most cardiology guidelines treat raised low-density lipoprotein (LDL) as a direct cause that must be controlled early. Cholesterol causes no symptoms. So, doctors encourage preventive action rather than waiting for trouble.

Doctors typically warn against high cholesterol because long-term studies link high LDL to a greater chance of heart attacks and strokes.

Traditionally, doctors cite evidence from large trials, which indicates that lowering LDL levels reduces the risk of future events in individuals at higher risk.

According to Dr Aseem Malhotra, most statin trials are industry-funded, rather than independently verified. Thats why the Gandhi-inspired cardiologist considers such trials biased.

There was a dogma that saturated fat causes heart disease. It's complete bullsh*t now, cardiologist Dr Malhotra said.

I wasn't cherry-picking. I looked at all the data and put it together. It clearly showed that there was no relationship. So, if saturated fat doesn't cause heart disease, that means cholesterol can't be that important a risk factor for heart disease, he said.

So, I looked at all the cholesterol data, and I thought, hold on a minute. For most people, it isn't a risk factor for heart disease, only in extreme cases. So, cholesterol isn't that important a risk factor, the cholesterol expert added.

Lowering cholesterol is a complete waste of time When Dr Aseem Malhotra discovered that cholesterol wasn't a significant risk factor, he wondered how statins that lower cholesterol levels worked. In 2021, he collaborated with two other cardiologists and did an analysis of this.

We took all of the published data up to date on randomised controlled trials on cholesterol-lowering drugs, and said, Is there a correlation from those trials that you lower LDL cholesterol, and you prevent cardiovascular events? No correlation at all, Dr Malhotra said.

Also Read | New study says Covid and flu can triple your risk of heart attack and stroke

So, my approach to patients, and everyone should hear this, is that lowering cholesterol is a complete waste of time, based upon the best evidence independently analysed, he added.
The Union ministry of communications has said that the department of telecommunications' (DoT) directions for the pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app in mobile handsets are aimed at safeguarding citizens from purchasing non-genuine handsets, enabling easy reporting of suspected misuse of telecom resources.

The DoT issued these directions on 28 November to manufacturers and importers of mobile handsets intended for use in India under the provisions of the Telecom Cyber Security Act.

Also Read | What is Sanchar Saathi? Government mandated app that could come with your phone

Earlier, Congress slammed the department of telecommunications' (DoT) directions for the pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app in new mobile handsets as unconstitutional, and demanded their immediate rollback.

Dystopian tool to monitor every Indian: Congress Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal stated that the right to privacy is an intrinsic part of the fundamental right to life and liberty.

Big Brother cannot watch us. This DoT direction is beyond unconstitutional. The Right to Privacy is an intrinsic part of the fundamental right to life and liberty, enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution.

A pre-loaded government app that cannot be uninstalled is a dystopian tool to monitor every Indian. It is a means to watch over every movement, interaction and decision of each citizen, Venugopal said in a post on X.

Venugopal also shared the DoT direction under Telecom Cyber Security Rules, 2024 (as amended), regarding the pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app in mobile handsets to check their genuineness.

Failure to comply with these directions shall attract action under the Telecommunications Act, 2023, the Telecom Cyber Security Rules, 2024 (as amended), and other applicable laws. These directions shall come into force immediately and shall remain in force until amended or withdrawn by the DoT, the communique said.

What did the govt say on the Sanchar Saathi app?

According to a press communique issued by the Union ministry of communications, the DoT has issued directions for the pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app in mobile handsets to verify the genuineness of mobile handsets.

"In order to safeguard the citizens from buying the non-genuine handsets, enabling easy reporting of suspected misuse of telecom resources and to increase effectiveness of the Sanchar Saathi initiative, the DoT has issued Directions dated 28.11.2025 mandating the manufacturer and importers of mobile handsets that are intended for use in India under the provisions of the Telecom Cyber Security," the ministry note issued on 1 December reads.

The Ministry has issued a three-point mandate to mobile phone manufacturers and importers. These are:

1- Ensure that the Sanchar Saathi mobile application is pre-installed on all mobile handsets manufactured or imported for use in India.

2- Ensure that the pre-installed Sanchar Saathi application is readily visible and accessible to the end users at the time of first use or device setup and that its functionalities are not disabled or restricted.

3- For all such devices that have been already been manufactured and are in sales channels in India, the manufacturer and importers of mobile handsets shall make an endeavour to push the App through software updates.

The directions mandate that the implementation be completed within 90 days and the report submitted within 120 days, the government statement reads.

What is Sanchar Saathi Initiative? The DoT is undertaking the Sanchar Saathi initiative for curbing misuse of telecom resources for cyber frauds and ensuring telecom cyber security, the statement said.

The department has developed Sanchar Saathi portal & app which enables citizens to check genuineness of a mobile handset through the IMEI number along with other facilities like reporting suspected fraud communications, lost/ stolen mobile handsets, check mobile connections in their name, trusted contact details of banks/ financial institutions, it read.

The Telecom Cyber Security Rules empower the Union government to issue directions to manufacturers of telecommunication equipment bearing International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number to provide assistance as required in relation to tampered telecommunication equipment or IMEI number. The Rules also mandate that such manufacturers or importers shall ensure compliance with the directions as may be issued by the Central Government for the purpose of giving effect to the rules, the statement read.

Serious endangerment to telecom cybersecurity

Mobile handsets bearing duplicate or spoofed IMEI pose a serious endangerment to telecom cybersecurity.

Mobile handsets bearing duplicate or spoofed IMEI pose a serious endangerment to telecom cybersecurity, the government said. Spoofed/tampered IMEIs in the telecom network lead to a situation where the same IMEI is functioning in different devices at various locations simultaneously, posing challenges in action against such IMEIs, it added.

Also Read | How are Indians spending their money? Report reveals a shift to durable assets

India has big second-hand mobile device market. Cases have also been observed where stolen or blacklisted devices are being re-sold. It makes the purchaser abettor in crime and causes financial loss to them. The blocked/blacklisted IMEIs can be checked using Sanchar Saathi App, read the government statement.
Two Brazilians living in county Longford received their Irish Citizenship at a special ceremony in Gleneagle, Killarney on Monday.

Hayanne Sousa and Allesandro from Brazil and living in Ballymahon attended the citizenship ceremony which is the final step to complete the naturalisation process.

Over 5,200 people from more than 130 countries attended six citizenship ceremonies at the Gleneagle Arena (INEC) in Killarney on Monday and Tuesday, December 1 and 2, the Department of Justice said.

Also read: Massive 50 million investment at Midlands hospital to create over two hundred jobs

Minister of State Colm Brophy congratulated the new citizens and urged them to keep links with their countries of origin while building new ties in Ireland.

He said I am delighted to welcome our newest Irish citizens. Migration has long been woven into the fabric of Irelands story with 70 million people worldwide claiming a link to Irish descent. Irish people that left here over the centuries strengthened and enriched the communities that they settled in.

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"I encourage each of our new citizens to not lose the link to their home countries but also to continue to build connections and contribute to Ireland, the place they now call home.

"My heartfelt congratulations go to all of todays newest citizens, and to the families and friends who have supported them on this important journey.

PICTURES | Longford sporting excellence celebrated at stylish gala awards ceremony
Longford County Council has invited local people to attend an information evening on Wednesday, December 3 at Aras an Chontae, where detailed plans for the 7 million Connolly Barracks Reimagined project will be on display.

The event, from 6pm to 8pm offers residents and community members an opportunity to view artist impressions of the transformed Sean Connolly Barracks and hear directly from the project team about progress on this major regeneration initiative.

Members of the public are invited to drop in between the hours of 6-8pm when council staff, including the project lead and architect, will be available to discuss the ambitious plans and answer any questions.

Connolly Barracks Reimagined is co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union through the ERDF Southern, Eastern and Midland Regional Programme 20212027.

Longford County Council will be proceeding to Tender for the construction phase of the project with work expected to get underway on site in February 2026.

PICTURES | Longford sporting excellence celebrated at stylish gala awards ceremony

The evening forms part of ongoing efforts to ensure all sectors of Longford's community can engage with this significant project.

The council encourages attendance from all sectors of the community in Longford particularly marginalised groups.

A detailed online survey will also be circulated by Longford County Council after the event in a bid to keep the community and relevant stakeholders informed of the progress on the Connolly Barracks Reimagined project.

Also read: Congratulations: Longford student studying medicine awarded Excellence Scholarship
Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Ireland is one of the few European countries that understands the price of freedom as he praised the country for its support.

In the first visit to Ireland by a Ukrainian president, Mr Zelensky and Irish premier Micheal Martin both drew parallels between Ukraines struggle for sovereignty and Irelands centuries-long fight for independence.

Mr Zelensky said Irelands decision to back Ukraine in the early days of the war was a moral one, and while some had grown fatigued with hearing about Ukraines war, he said Irelands voice had not become quieter.

He said that while Ireland was neutral, it was certainly not an indifferent country and thanked every Irish home that has sheltered some of the 120,000 Ukrainians that arrived in Ireland since 2022.

In a historic address to Irish parliamentarians, where he received a standing ovation in the Dail chamber, he urged Ireland to take an active role in calling for a tribunal for Russias aggression against Ukraine.

It is a great honour for me to stand here today in a country that understands the price of freedom, understands better than many, many in Europe, better than many, many in the world, and that shares our belief that every voice counts, every nation matters, he said.

Mr Zelensky met with Irish premier Micheal Martin earlier in the day, where Mr Martin pledged that Ireland would support Ukraine for as long as it takes.

The Taoiseach told Mr Zelensky: Your struggle is our struggle. Your success will be our success. We are with you for as long as it takes.

Mr Zelensky and Mr Martin signed a new Ireland-Ukraine partnership plan for the next five years during the visit.

It includes an extra 100 million euro in non-lethal military aid for Ukraine, bringing the total funding for non-lethal aid this year to 200 million euro.

Mr Zelensky was asked about pared back supports for Ukrainian refugees in Ireland, where State accommodation is offered for less time than previously, and whether it meant Irish support for Ukraine was not as strong as it once was.

He said Ireland chose to support Ukraine from the start because it was the right thing to do.

Ireland has been helping Ukrainians who stayed behind in Ukraine, and has been helping Ukrainians who have moved to Ireland, and were grateful for that, he said, speaking through an interpreter.

The way I was brought up is that I cant criticise help  whether its getting more or less, we should be grateful and not forget about this.

I do believe very much that youve been doing this not just to help us simply, but youve been doing this because you understand what we were going through, you understand it, I think, historically speaking.

Mr Zelensky said his visit to Ireland came at one of the most challenging and optimistic moments for Ukraine, as US efforts to agree a ceasefire underpinned by a peace framework continue.

Now, more than ever, there is a chance to end this war, he said, as he emphasised that his visit to Ireland came amid intensive talks with the US administration on the details of the framework.

Some things still need to be worked out, from what I saw, he said.

He said the aim was not to just get a pause in the fighting, but a decent, dignified peace, and to stop the war in such a manner that in one year, Russia would not come back with a third invasion.

Mr Zelensky said there were three issues that were most sensitive and important with regard to the discussions with the US and Russia.

This morning, the President welcomed Mr. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, and First Lady Olena Zelenska to Aras an Uachtarain on a courtesy call. Statement by President Connolly: https://t.co/Dmq2jfjL1a pic.twitter.com/qIuotfcfkl  President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) December 2, 2025

I think that the most sensitive things, and the most difficult questions, or questions with the challenges, is about territories, he said.

Its about frozen assets, because I cant just myself speak on behalf of European leaders.

The third point I mentioned about security guarantees, and we count on strong security guarantees from the United States, both United States and Europe and some other leaders.

Mr Zelensky began the Dublin trip with a courtesy call to Irelands newly inaugurated President, Catherine Connolly.

He and First Lady Olena Zelenska arrived at Aras An Uachtarain, the official residence of the President, where Ms Connolly warmly welcomed them at a red carpet laid at the front door.

In a note in the visitors book, he said Ukraine is grateful for Irelands generosity to its people amid Russias invasion.

We greatly appreciate Irelands generosity in providing temporary shelter to displaced Ukrainians.

The two presidents discussed prospects for peace in Ukraine and the contribution of the Ukrainian community in Ireland during their meeting.

Ms Connollys office said in a statement they discussed the role that Ireland could play as a neutral country in securing a fair, just and enduring peace.

They also discussed the contribution of the Ukrainian community in Ireland and the significant similarities in the histories of both countries, she said.

Tributes were also paid by Ms Connolly and by Irish speaker Verona Murphy to First Lady Ms Zelenska, who Ms Murphy said was a model for women worldwide.

Mr Zelensky arrived at Government Buildings in a convoy of heavily-armoured vehicles, where a guard of honour was held.

Both the Ukrainian and Irish national anthems were played before he inspected two lines of 22 Irish troops after an invitation by Lieutenant Adam OSullivan.
People Before Profit TDs stood without applauding after Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a joint sitting of the Houses of the Oireachtas.

In a statement issued shortly after the Ukrainian presidents speech concluded, Richard Boyd Barrett said: We continue to stand with the people of Ukraine against Russias invasion.

However, we have always rejected the idea that there is a military solution to this conflict and opposed the calls for military escalation.

The party leader and Dublin South-West TD Paul Murphy were in the Dail for Mr Zelenskys address.

While there were standing ovations from TDs and senators in the chamber and those gathered in the gallery, the two People Before Profit TDs did not join in the applause.

The statement from the party condemned the Russian invasion, saying: Putin should get out of Ukraine and allow the Ukrainian people to decide their own future.

But Mr Murphy was critical of increased militarisation, saying: It is very clear that this and the previous government have been cynical in using the war in Ukraine to further undermine Irish neutrality and back EU militarisation.

He criticised Tuesdays Government announcement that it would give 100 million euro in military aid to Ukraine, with Mr Murphy describing it as yet another flagrant breach of our neutrality.

He also condemned delays to the Occupied Territories Bill.

The partys TDs were criticised in 2022 for refusing to clap after Mr Zelensky addressed the Dail by video link.

A spokesperson for the party said at the time this was due to a disagreement with calls from Mr Zelensky for Nato involvement in the war, as well as citing demands for more sanctions and a decision to ban opposition parties in Ukraine.
Seyed Mojtaba Hosseini Nejad (left, wearing black turban), a representative for Al Mustafa International University in Venezuela, attends a 2023 briefing on Latin America hosted in Tehran.

On November 7, 2025, the Daily Mail reported on an Iranian assassination plot against Israels ambassador to Mexico. Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) orchestrated the plot, according to the report, under the leadership of two agents, Hassan Izadi and Majid Dastjani Farahani, the latter of whom is wanted by the FBI for recruiting operatives for Irans Ministry of Intelligence and Security in the US. Izadi and Farahani remain elusive, but their local enablers and regional networks remain in place, including Seyed Mojtaba Hosseini Nejad, a representative for Al Mustafa International University in Venezuela.

Al Mustafa International University is an Iranian religious school that the US Treasury Department sanctioned in 2020, and Canadas Ministry of Foreign Affairs sanctioned in 2022 for its role in spreading propaganda and colluding with the IRGC. It has a generous yearly budget provided directly by the Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, a campus hosting thousands of foreign students trained by polyglot teachers, and numerous foreign branches, including in Caracas.

Based on photos published by the Daily Mail, Nejad was present at the meeting where the plot against Israels ambassador to Mexico was hatched and likely served as the host of the gathering. This role comprises providing material support for terrorism, a sanctionable activity. The Daily Mail report, which published two photos of the main plotters at a gathering in a Caracas apartment, alleged that Izadi used Caracas, Venezuela, as a base of operations.

Nejads involvement in the meeting would not be the first time that Al Mustafa International University was implicated in a terror plot or ties to terrorist organizations:

Despite the US and Canada sanctioning Al Mustafa University, plots and terror links implicating the school keep emerging. Sanctions have not prevented branches of the organization from continuing to operate globally, including in Venezuela, where Al Mustafa has had a permanent presence since at least 2008, when Mr. Hosseini Nejadan Iranian national and a permanent resident of Venezuelasigned a cooperation agreement with a local Catholic University.

Much of Al Mustafas activity in Venezuela is public and focused on proselytism, propaganda, and indoctrination, including sending Venezuelan recruits to Iran. However, Nejads presence alongside IRGC members tasked with carrying out an assassination plot in Mexico reveals the role Al Mustafa and its emissaries play as terror enablers in the Western Hemisphere, and why Venezuela matters for Iranian strategy in the region.

As Jason Brodsky of the nonprofit United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI) recently wrote, Venezuela has long served as a launchpad for Iranian operations to establish a foothold in South America. Iranian operations in Caracas are a cover for intelligence gathering, terror plotting, and regional subversion. A permanent presence in Venezuela, alongside dozens of Islamic Centers run by Al Mustafa graduates in most countries south of the Rio Grande, means that the IRGC can rely on and leverage a network of individuals and infrastructure to plan terror attacks.

Given Nejads affiliation with a sanctioned entity and a report indicating he likely provided material support to terrorism, he may be a candidate for a US designation. And while his role in the reported terror plot against Israels ambassador to Mexico remains to be seen, he is Al Mustafas agent in Caracas.

Additional Al Mustafa operations outside Iran may similarly qualify for US sanctionsfirst and foremost in Latin America, but also where Al Mustafa has a campus and is actively recruiting locals to join its ranks. The organization has numerous foreign campuses within and outside of the Middle East, including Abidjan, Berlin, Baghdad, Johannesburg, and London. Its graduates, in turn, have established mosques and cultural centers across the globe, where they propagate the teachings of their alma mater, promote regime propaganda, and recruit converts. Such centers exist and thrive across Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and North America, despite the universitys track record as a terror front.

Dr. Emanuele Ottolenghi is a senior research fellow at the Center for Research on Terror Financing (CENTEF), where he focuses on Hezbollah and Iran's hybrid threat networks in Latin America.
Armed Druze men patrolling the streets of Suwayda. (@cocktailSyria on X)

On November 29, members of Suwaydas National Guard, a militia affiliated with Druze spiritual leader Hikmat al Hijri that describes itself as the official military institution that represents the Druze, carried out a series of arrests in Suwayda province. The individuals it detained included two Druze religious figures, Sheikh Raed al Metni and Sheikh Marwan Rizk, along with three other individuals: Asem Abu Fakhr, Ghandi Abu Fakhr, and a man only identified as being from the Safadi family.

Local sources stated that members of the National Guard committed abuses and acts of humiliation against the suspects, including shaving Metnis mustache. Subsequently, on December 2, National Guard members reportedly dumped Metnis body in front of Suwayda National Hospital after killing him.

Sheikh Hikmat al Hijri has emerged as the most vocal and determined opponent of Syrian President Ahmad al Sharaas rule, and he was the first Druze leader to reject Syrian government control over Suwayda province. In April, Hijri condemned the new government, describing it as a collection of terrorist factions and declaring its hold over Damascus unacceptable both domestically and internationally.

After the July clashes in Suwayda province, when government forces and Sunni Arab tribes clashed with Druze militias, leaving nearly 1,000 people dead and prompting Israels direct military intervention in support of the Druze, Hijri intensified his rhetoric and began calling for independence. By August, he had spearheaded the formation of the National Guard. By October, Hijri escalated his language further, referring to Suwayda province as Jabal Bashan, the Hebrew name for the broader geographical area encompassing most of southern Syria, parts of northern Jordan, the Golan Heights, and southeastern Lebanon.

According to a Reuters report, Israel has helped unify splintered Druze factions and delivered military supplies, including guns and ammunition, to them. The report also noted that Israel was paying salaries for many of the roughly 3,000 Druze militia fighters.

Hijri has managed to consolidate control over the majority of Suwayda province, mainly by sidelining the other two spiritual leaders of the Druze community, Yousef Jarbou and Hammoud al Hinnawi.

The National Guards recent arrest campaign appears to be an effort to consolidate power over opponents of Hijri. Sources close to the National Guard have stated that the arrests were of suspects who were attempting to undermine security. According to these sources, the suspects tried to storm military and security sites in Suwayda.

The Syrian governments appointed security chief of Suwayda province, Suleiman Abdul Baqi, a Druze pro-Damascus faction leader, confirmed that National Guard forces raided his house in Suwayda city. Baqi criticized Hijri for monopolizing decision-making in the province, and stated that Syrian government forces are capable of entering the province. Moreover, Layth al Balous, the pro-Damascus leader of the Dignity Guest House, a small Druze armed faction, stated, The National Guard militia burned our homes in Suwayda, adding that religious figures, intellectuals, and notables are being subjected to blatant violations at the hands of this militia.

Despite playing a crucial role in urging Israeli military intervention on behalf of Syrias Druze and having repeatedly showcased support for Hikmat al Hijri throughout the past year, Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif, the spiritual leader of Israels Druze community, has expressed his concern about internal divisions and issued a call for Hijri to de-escalate the conflict.

Ahmad Sharawi is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies focused on Iranian intervention in Arab affairs and the levant.
Lyndell's Bakery in Somerville will move from its current location at 720 Broadway to 734 Broadway sometime in 2026. Google Maps Street View

The oldest from-scratch bakery in New England is getting new digs  but its not going very far.

Lyndells Bakery will be relocating from its current space at 720 Broadway in Somerville to 734 Broadway sometime in 2026, owner Bill Galatis recently told Wicked Local.

The current building that Lyndells occupies will be torn down and rebuilt as a mixed use development. Galatis plans to close his bakery temporarily right after Easter (April 5, 2026) and reopen before Mothers Day (May 10, 2026).

The owner is working to create an updated space that also incorporates the nostalgia of a classic bakery.

It will be brand-new, instead of being 70 years old, with all new equipment, Galatis told Wicked Local.

There will also be more display case room to show products, and customers will have the ability to see the production room because well have a half glass wall from the retail area, he said. Ive always been a big believer in creating some theater so people can see how things are being made.

Lyndells Bakery was originally opened in 1887 by Birger C. Lindahl, a Swedish immigrant who arrived in America in 1882, according to its website. The establishment has been serving its scratch-made baked goods for generations, including their signature half-moon cookies.

Galatis has owned Lyndells since 2000, the website states. He told Wicked Local that the new location will continue to sell all of Lyndells products and introduce some new items as well as an expanded beverage program. Galatis also hopes to add some tables and chairs if the space allows.
Poorstacy performs on day two of Riot Fest on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022, at Douglass Park in Chicago. (Photo by Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP) Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP

Rapper Poorstacy has died at 26 following an occurrence at a Florida hotel, PEOPLE reported.

The musician, whose real name is Carlito Milfort Jr., died on Saturday, Nov. 29 after an incident that occurred in Boca Raton, Fla., the Boca Raton Police Department told PEOPLE.

Poorstacy was brought to a nearby hospital after police were called to a Boca Raton hotel on Saturday, Billboard reported. He had reportedly been staying at the hotel for about 10 days prior to his death.

The outlet noted that fans have suggested the rapper died by suicide, but his cause of death has not been confirmed. No further details about Poorstacys death have been revealed.

Travis Barker  who worked with Poorstacy on songs including 2020 tracks Choose Life and Nothing Left  paid tribute to the late rapper on his social media.

Rest in peace youll never be forgotten, the Blink-182 drummer wrote on his Instagram story alongside a broken heart emoji and a video of them performing Poorstacys 2020 song Hills Have Eyes, PEOPLE reported.

Barker also posted a clip of their track Choose Life.

Poorstacy was known for his genre-bending sound that incorporated punk rock, hip-hop, heavy metal and emo. His single Darkest Night appeared on the 2020 Bill & Ted Face the Music movie soundtrack. The project recieved a Grammy Award nomination the following year.

Bring Me the Horizon frontman Oli Sykes, who also frequently worked with Poorstacy, paid tribute to his close friend on his Instagram story by sharing a photo of the pair and writing, R.I.P with a black heart emoji, according to PEOPLE.

Music publication Revolver said in a 2021 interview with Poorstacy that the mad man whos known to go so hard at his shows spent the first 10 years of his life between Brooklyn and Queens before his family relocated to the Sunshine State for financial reasons.

I was just really violent, he confessed. I would act out irrationally. I would either hurt myself for attention or I would hurt somebody else for attention.

Poorstacy was charged with battery and neglect of a child in 2023, but that case was eventually dropped, according to Complex. The Boca Post reported he was arrested in May 2022 for missing a court date associated with various traffic issues.
A coffee shop crew on the North Shore had something to be extra grateful for this Thanksgiving after a famous actor with ties to Massachusetts stopped by.

Joe Keery, a musician and actor known for portraying Steve Harrington in the hit Netflix series Stranger Things, popped into Olives Coffee & Bakehouse in Newburyport over the holiday weekend.

Opened in 2020, Olives Coffee & Bakehouse is an acclaimed shop that sells baked goods made in house and locally sourced items from neighboring establishments. A Newburyport native himself, Keerys family has been visiting the coffee shop over the past five years, owner Debra Ball told MassLive.

My staff have always been huge fans and Sunday I decided to give them a gift by asking if I could get a picture of them with him, she said in a statement. He was happy to do it.

The coffee shop shared a photo of the selfie on Instagram Monday with the caption, We ended our busy Thanksgiving weekend with a visit from @djotime. He was kind enough to take a selfie with my @strangerthingstv fans/staff."

Keery, 33, started his acting career at Theater in the Open, according to a 2019 article from Boston.com. The annual summer performing arts program is held at Maudslay State Park in Newburyport. He attended River Valley Charter School for elementary and middle school and graduated from Newburyport High School, the actors IMDb biography states.

Keery went on to study at The Theatre School at DePaul University. After graduating in 2014, he auditioned for hundreds of parts before landing his breakout role on Stranger Things in late 2015. Keery has appeared on the show since 2016, including in its highly anticipated fifth season that premiered on Wednesday, Nov. 26. Keery has also starred in the 2021 comedy film Free Guy and in the fifth season of the crime comedy-drama series Fargo from 2023 to 2024.

Outside of acting, Keery is also a musician and performs under the stage name Djo. He released the albums Twenty Twenty in 2019 and Decide in 2022. The latter spawned the sleeper hit End of Beginning, which went viral on TikTok in 2024 and peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100. The Crux, his third studio album, arrived this past April and was followed by its deluxe version in September.
Yankee Candle is hit with another round of layoffs.

Yankee Candle is facing yet another round of downsizing as its parent company, Newell Brands, announces sweeping global cuts and the closure of more than a dozen candle stores.

Newell Brands announced it will eliminate more than 900 professional and clerical jobs worldwide as part of a new global productivity plan aimed at boosting efficiency and reducing overhead.

The move marks the latest chapter in a multi-year restructuring effort that has repeatedly hit the Massachusetts operations of Yankee Candle  the Western Massachusetts-born brand that grew from a teens homemade gift into a national retail powerhouse.

As part of the new plan, the company will shutter approximately 20 Yankee Candle stores across the U.S. and Canada beginning in January 2026.

Newell said the closures represent about 1% of the brands total sales and are intended to align the brands footprint with modern consumer shopping behaviors.

As of Dec. 2, Yankee Candle operates 19 stores in Massachusetts and about 240 in the U.S.

The announcement comes after several years of shrinking for the once-dominant candle retailer, which at its peak employed more than 1,400 people across South Deerfield, Whately, East Longmeadow and other Western Massachusetts facilities, according to founder Michael J. Kittredge IIs 2019 obituary.

A corporate spokesperson told MassLive on Monday the flagship store in South Deerfield would not be affected.

The company has not confirmed if the most recent round of cuts will affect Massachusetts employees or stores.

Years of consolidation

In July 2024, Yankee Candle notified the Commonwealth of Massachusetts it would lay off 100 workers in South Deerfield as part of a warehouse consolidation.

That followed an earlier announcement that the company would exit its longtime industrial site on Industrial Park Drive and move operations to a nearby facility on Yankee Candle Way.

Just a year earlier, Newell Brands slashed 13% of its global workforce, a cut that affected employees in South Deerfield and included plans to close a Deerfield office.

At the time, the company insisted there would be no changes to its other Western Massachusetts operations and pledged to maintain a strong regional footprint, including the popular Yankee Candle Village store in South Deerfield.

But the cumulative impact of restructuring has whittled down the workforce of a company that once defined local manufacturing in Franklin County.

A Massachusetts homegrown brand

Yankee Candles story has long been a point of regional pride.

The company was founded in 1969 when 16-year-old Michael Kittredge melted crayons to make a Christmas gift for his mother in his South Hadley home, his obituary states.

The business grew rapidly, eventually becoming one of the nations largest specialty candle retailers and a major employer in Western Massachusetts.

Kittredge sold most of the company in 1998 for about $500 million.

The headquarters and flagship store in South Deerfield became a major tourist draw, helping cement the brand as a local icon even as ownership changed hands.

A brand in transition

Newells latest restructuring is part of a broader turnaround strategy launched in 2023.

The company said it is raising performance standards, streamlining processes and increasing its use of automation and AI to cut costs.

Once fully implemented, the plan is expected to save between $110 million and $130 million annually.

The company said the cuts will have limited impact on manufacturing and supply-chain operations  key functions for Yankee Candles remaining local facilities  but did not specify whether any Western Massachusetts jobs are included in the 900-role reduction.

Read more: Yankee Candle to move some operations to Pennsylvania

While Newell reaffirmed its financial outlook for the quarter, it acknowledged sales remain soft in certain regions.

For now, Yankee Candles flagship store and major operations in the Pioneer Valley remain open.

But the latest round of store closures and global job cuts marks another step in the gradual shrinking of one of Massachusetts most beloved homegrown brands  a company that once filled the region with the scent of molten wax and steady manufacturing work, and is now fighting to find its place in a changing retail world.
Two Rhode Island residents have been charged in connection with an armed robbery spree that targeted multiple Massachusetts towns and ended near a local Christmas village.

Fernando Torres, 37, of Providence, Rhode Island and Victoria Lambert, 29, of Warwick, Rhode Island were arrested in Pembroke on Sunday, according to the Duxbury Police Department.

Torres faces charges of armed robbery, assault with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery, armed assault to rob a person over 60 and threat to commit a crime. Lambert is charged with accessory after the fact.

Both are expected to face additional charges from the Kingston, Pembroke and Plymouth Police Departments.

The duos armed robbery spree came to a head on Sunday afternoon at around 2:30 p.m., on Arrowhead Road in Duxbury, police said. The street is residential and located near the Holly Days village in Duxbury, an annual Christmas festival held Nov. 30.

A man called 911 to report that hed been walking down the street when a tan-colored sedan with Rhode Island license plates came to a sudden stop in the road beside him. A man, later identified as Torres, got out of the car and went up to the pedestrian, police said.

Torres brandished a box cutter at the pedestrian, pressed the blade against his neck and said, Give me everything, police said. Torres then forcibly took the mans Apple Watch and red jacket before fleeing in the car, which was driven by Lambert, police said.

Earlier in the day, there had been reports in Plymouth and Kingston of similar crimes with suspects that matched the pedestrians description of the duo in Duxbury, police said. Later, investigators would learn the tan sedan was also reported stolen out of Rhode Island.

Duxbury police issued an alert to be on the lookout for Torres and Lambert to surrounding towns and began to search the area. Officers used the male pedestrians Find My app on his iPhone and were able to track where his stolen Apple Watch was being taken, which led them to a Pembroke gas station.

Pembroke police officers located the tan sedan and detained Torres and Lambert with help from state police. Duxbury officers then responded to the scene to place the pair under arrest and several stolen items were recovered from the sedan.

Duxbury police thanked Pembroke, Plymouth, Kingston and Marshfield police, along with state police, for the coordination in arresting Torres and Lambert.

The armed robbery in Duxbury occurred in close vicinity to the popular Holly Days event and should serve as a reminder that crimes of this nature can happen anywhere and can escalate quickly, said Duxbury Police Chief Michael Carbone.

We are grateful that no one was physically harmed during this incident. Additionally, we urge all residents to remain aware of their surroundings and report any suspicious activity to the police immediately, Carbone said.
Defense attorney Kelli Porges, right, confers with her client, murder defendant Brian Walshe, in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. (Mark Stockwell/Boston Herald via AP, Pool) AP

The Brian Walshe murder trial continues with the second day of testimony on Tuesday.

Opening statements took place Monday morning when his lawyers claimed that his wife died suddenly and unexpectedly while in bed on Jan. 1, 2023  a sharply different theory presented by Norfolk County prosecutors.

Officials say Brian Walshe killed his wife and dismembered her body. She was reported missing to the Cohasset Police Department by her employer in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 4, 2023, and her body was never recovered. She was 39 at the time.

Investigators recovered a trash compactor near Brian Walshes mothers apartment in Swampscott, where they found boots, a black coat, a vaccination card belonging to Ana Walshe, a hazmat suit, rugs, a hammer, a hatchet and a hacksaw, according to Norfolk County Assistant District Attorney Gregory Connor.

Prosecutors say that Brian Walshe lied to investigators in the initial days of Ana Walshes disappearance. They then discovered Google searches on an iPad belonging to the couples son about divorce, how to dispose of body parts after a murder and about accessing a credit card for a missing person, among other similar searches.

Brian Walshe, 50, is on trial on a single count of first-degree murder. He pleaded guilty to counts of witness intimidation as well as disinterment of a body at the start of jury selection last month.

Cohasset police Sgt. Harrison Schmidt took the stand as the trials first witness and prosecutors played audio from police interviews with Brian Walshe.

In his first interview with law enforcement, he opened up about the stressors in his and his wifes lives, including the federal fraud case he was awaiting sentencing for when she disappeared.

The only problems that we had in our marriage were that we werent spending time together, Brian Walshe said.

The trial continues on Tuesday. More audio from law enforcement interviews is expected to be played for jurors.

Judge Diane Freniere told jurors that a snowstorm forecasted for Tuesday could affect the days schedule.
Brian Walshe enter the courtroom clutching papers and a rosary. Opening statements in the Brian Walshe murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court, Dedham, Mass., Monday, Dec. 1, 2025 (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool) AP

On the morning of Jan. 8, 2023, Brian Walshe spoke to police for the second time in two days.

It was during that interview, at least the third time Walshe had spoken to police after his wife, Ana, was reported missing days earlier, that investigators confronted him with grisly Google searches found on his sons iPad. The device, police told Brian Walshe, searched for best ways to dispose of a body around 4:54 a.m. on the morning of Jan. 1, 2023.

Brian Walshe told police he last saw his wife around 6 a.m. on the 1st.

So how do you explain at about 4:54 in the morning the iPad mini is querying, best ways to dispose of a human body, Cohasset Police Sgt. Harrison Schmidt asked Walshe.

I dont, I have no idea, Walshe responded. I dont use that iPad, so thats really weird.

An audio recording of the interview was played Tuesday morning on the second day of Walshes murder trial. He is accused of killing his wife in the early morning hours of Jan. 1, 2023, and has since admitted to disposing of her body and lying to police.

Schmidt, the first witness called by prosecutors, was on the stand again on Tuesday. He was the lead investigator into Ana Walshes disappearance for the Cohasset police, and prosecutors introduced several other key pieces of evidence with him on the stand.

That included evidence of more Google searches, like how to dispose of a human body, how to get blood out of hardwood floors, how to dispose of a body in the trash. During the interview, Schmidt continued to press Walshe for an explanation, asking if his then 6-year-old son was of average intelligence.

Walshe said he believed he was, but acknowledged it wasnt the boy who made the searches.

How do you explain that? Schmidt asks again. I dont, I have no idea, Walshe replies.

So youre not using that iPad? Schmidt follows up. Walshe said he did not.

Schmidt notes that the device made several more searches on the afternoon of Jan. 1, 2023, including does the dishwasher remove blood from a knife. Attorney Tracy Miner, who represented Walshe in his federal art fraud case, shut down the interview.

On cross-examination, Larry Tipton, a defense lawyer for Walshe, noted that the searches were not in fact conducted on the tablet.

They were synced to that, but they didnt occur on that, Schmidt agreed.

He never used his young sons mini iPad to conduct those searches, correct? Tipton pressed. Schmidt agreed.

When Walshe was asked about the searches, Tipton said, His demeanor changed, and he looked sad.

Schmidt agreed that it was the case.

Walshe was arrested around 4 p.m. on Jan. 8, 2023. When he was booked at the police station, Walshe was photographed with a cut on his thumb, two photos of which were shown to the jury on Tuesday morning.

On Jan. 9, 2023, Schmidt and other investigators went to a transfer station in Peabody, where they had taken a pair of dumpsters seized from the area near Walshes mothers home in Swampscott.

Investigators searched the dumpsters, bag by bag, and eventually found a pair of black Hunter boots, a jacket and a COVID-19 vaccination card with Ana Walshes name on it. Photos of the evidence were shown to the jury.

Under direct examination from Norfolk Assistant District Attorney Greg Connor, Schmidt also reviewed several of Ana Walshes financial records, including credit card statements.

On Monday, in his opening statement, Tipton claimed that Ana Walshe died as a result of a sudden unexplained death.

You will hear evidence that it made no sense to him, but he nudged Ana, his wife, Tipton told jurors. She didnt respond. He nudged her again, a little harder. She didnt respond. He nudged her now in a frantic and panicked reaction to where she actually rolled off the bed.

Connors opening statement laid out the prosecutions claim that Brian Walshe planned to kill his wife as he faced down the possibility of paying $400,000 in restitution and prison time hanging over his head from the federal art fraud case. Prosecutors have claimed Walshe knew his wife was having an affair and their marriage was ending.

Brian Walshe pleaded guilty to the counts of witness intimidation (misleading a police investigation) as well as disinterment of a body at the start of jury selection last month.

Ana Walshe was 39 when she went missing. A Serbian immigrant, she began working in real estate and in February 2022 got her dream job at Tishman Speyer. She bought a townhouse in Washington, D.C., and expected her family to move down as well.

The trial continues Tuesday with testimony from Massachusetts State Police Trooper Nicholas Guarino, a forensic examiner.
A plow truck drives down North Branch Parkway in Springfield, Mass. during a snowstorm the afternoon of Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Sebastian Restrepo/MassLive)

The snowstorm hitting Massachusetts on Tuesday is leading to some traffic incidents in Western Massachusetts and icy road conditions.

A winter storm warning is in effect until 1 a.m. Wednesday for northern and southern Berkshire County.

Northwest Middlesex County, eastern Franklin and northern Worcester counties could continue to see snow accumulation up to 10 inches with a winter storm warning in effect until 7 a.m. Wednesday.

The National Weather Service is warning that the evening commute may be difficult north of Interstate 90, especially near and north of Route 2.

Snow will change to rain south of I-90, with mainly snow north of Route 2. Snow rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour are possible during the evening commute.

Snow and sleet in Springfield could make getting home from school difficult. Sleet is expected until 5 p.m., when it changes to rain that could last until about 7 p.m.

In Worcester, similar conditions are expected. However, rain could last until about 10 p.m. Then it could change back into snow until about 2 a.m.

Heads up: the evening commute may be difficult north of I-90, especially near and north of Route 2. Snow changes to rain south of I-90, with mainly snow north of Route 2. As mid-level centers close off, 12"/hr snowfall rates are possible during the PM commute #MAwx pic.twitter.com/3YJpPzDriV  NWS Boston (@NWSBoston) December 2, 2025

Traffic incidents

A jackknifed tractor-trailer on Interstate 90 headed west is slowing traffic in Lee.

State officials are warning commuters that there is a fuel leak due to the jackknifed vehicle in the westbound lane near mile marker 11.6, according to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

The tractor-trailer is between Route 20 and Exit 10 in Lee, according to Mass511.com.

Transportation officials issued a statement online at 12:28 p.m.

The right and breakdown lanes are closed, officials said.

Lowered speed limit on I-90

Speed limits are reduced to 40 mph on Interstate 90 for both eastbound and westbound lanes from the New York state line to mile marker 59 in Ludlow.
A 19-year-old from Norwood faces charges in connection with a mans death on Saturday.

Isaiah Pierre-Mike is expected to be arraigned Tuesday morning and faces charges of manslaughter and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, according to the Norfolk County District Attorneys Office.

His charges are related to the death of Anton C. Dowling, 25, of Boston. Officials say Dowling died after being fatally injured by a sharp object.

The incident took place on Hoyle Street, where Pierre-Mike lives, officials said.

Pierre-Mike was arrested Monday as part of an investigation by Massachusetts State Police and Norwood police.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-7th District, attends a press conference in support of Ellen Mei, a federal employee fired for giving a news interview about SNAP during the government shutdown. (Trea Lavery/MassLive)

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley said Tuesday that she wont seek the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in 2026, and instead will focus on running for reelection to her Boston-based seat in the U.S. House.

Pressley, D-7th District, said in a statement that shell discuss the path forward and her vision for the Democratic Party at an address in her district in the coming weeks.

The announcement settles the question over whether Pressley, 51, one of the most vocal progressives in the U.S. House, would challenge long-serving U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., in the 2026 primary.

Pressley said Tuesday that she was deeply [humbled] by the people who had encouraged her to run for U.S. Senate. But larger responsibilities prevailed.

It would be an honor to serve the whole Commonwealth  but with our daughter in her last year at home before college and a district that has been in the crosshairs of this White House, I am certain that the Massachusetts 7th is where I belong in this moment, she said.

Markey, 79, who has been on Capitol Hill since the Carter administration, and who will be 80 by Election Day next year, has faced questions about his age as hes campaigned for a third, six-year term.

Markey still faces two primary challengers in U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-6th District, and Alex Rikleen, a political newcomer from Acton.

In a statement, Markey called Pressley a champion for the state and for her district.

Justice, equality and opportunity are the path, and I know, together, we can deliver this future for the people of Massachusetts, the Malden pol said. I share her commitment to the fight against authoritarianism [and] to take back the House and Senate in 2026. And I am deeply grateful for her continued partnership.

In a statement, Moulton, 47, called Pressley a powerful advocate for justice and opportunity in Massachusetts. And I have enormous respect for the work that she does.

I look forward to continuing to work with her on behalf of the families we both serve because I value her continued voice in the important debates ahead, the Salem lawmaker said.

In a statement, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called Pressley a powerful fighter for working families in Massachusetts and a national leader for her work in Congress.

The Boston Democrat has made real progress on the toughest issues confronting families, like student debt and housing affordability, Warren continued. No one fights harder than Ayanna, and she will continue to be a strong, effective voice for Massachusetts.

Pressley and Markey were running within the margin of error in a Boston Globe/Suffolk University poll released last week. Markey led the more moderate Moulton 45%-22% in that same poll.

First elected in 2018, Pressley currently serves on the influential U.S. House Oversight Committee.

She also has been closely identified with The Squad, a cadre of progressive lawmakers who also includes Democratic U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar, of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib, of Michigan, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, and Summer Lee, of Pennsylvania.

Shortly after her campaign released its statement, Pressley sent a separate email to supporters also sharing the news. This one gave them the option to donate to her House reelection campaign.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks during a groundbreaking ceremony for the upcoming University of Michigan Center for Innovation in Detroitin this 2023 MLive file image. Jacob Hamilton | MLive.com Jacob Hamilton | MLive.com

President Donald Trump frequently finds himself at loggerheads with Democratic governors nationwide, from Pennsylvanias Josh Shapiro and Illinois JB Pritzker to Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey.

But theres one key swing state governor with whom the Republican president has developed a productive working relationship: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

The two have an affable relationship, according to Politico, which cited two White House officials and a political aide for Whitmer, whos been mentioned as a possible 2028 presidential contender.

Of the Democrats, she is the one who we have spent the most time with, who has reached out to us the most, who has wanted to work with us, one of the White House officials told Politico. From the Democrats, she is definitely the one whos most willing to get things done.

Whitmers political aide offered a similar sentiment, saying the Blue State chief executive is willing to work with Trump where it makes sense. But shes also "not afraid to hold him accountable," the aide told Politico.

Trump carried Michigan in the 2024 presidential election, taking 49.7% of the vote, as he flipped the state hed carried during his first White House bid in 2016.

Whitmers willingness to work with Trump, however, has cost her some goodwill among her fellow Democrats, Politico reported.

As governor, you work with whoevers in power to deliver for your state, John McCarthy, a Democratic strategist, told Politico. But since 2024, Democratic voters have been clear, and they want leaders who dont just manage around Trump, but define a bold, post-Trump future  and draw a sharp contrast. Anyone hoping to lead the Democratic Party should keep that front of mind.

The Republican president spoke glowingly of her during a recent Oval Office visit, saying the Democratic governor had done an excellent job and was a very good person.
The newly renovated Martin Luther King Jr. Community Presbyterian Church in Springfield reopened for services last month. On the floor is a labyrinth design. (Douglas Hook / The Republican) Douglas Hook

SPRINGFIELD  The design inlaid into the floor of the newly reopened sanctuary of Martin Luther King Jr. Community Presbyterian Church is a labyrinth.

Its a spiritual tool, said the Rev. Dr. Terrlyn L. Curry Avery: Wander the curving path; emerge with an insight.

Its the power of a centering place, she said.

The 40-or-so-member congregation returned last month to its newly rebuilt sanctuary at 22 Concord Terrace, after a catastrophic fire on Dec. 28, 2020. Prosecutors say it was a racially motivated arson attack on the predominantly Black church.

The newly renovated Martin Luther King Jr. Community Presbyterian Church in Springfield has reopened for services. (Douglas Hook / The Republican) Douglas Hook

The churchs first service back in the rebuilt sanctuary was Nov. 9, and it hosted community celebration a week later on Nov. 16.

Its exciting, Curry Avery said. Part of the excitement is a returning home.

In recent sermons, shes linked her congregations return to biblical stories of the return of the remnant, the Jews in exile.

We are returning, and there is much work for us to do since we returned, she said.

The Rev. Terrlyn Curry Avery speaks at the Agape Gala in March 2023. (Dave Canton / The Republican, File) Dave Canton

Especially in the time of advent, a time of high expectations.

Im looking forward to us being able to have a beautiful candlelight service for Christmas Eve, the reverend said.

Over the five years since the fire, the church met online, in a gym at the neighboring Martin Luther King Jr. Family Services, at Alden Baptist Church and outdoors.

We met in a parking lot, Curry Avery said.

It cost more than $2.5 million to rebuild, a sum supported in part with $500,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding.

Through it all, the congregation kept on.

I told them that Sunday, Curry Avery said. You all really plowed through this time and never lost faith at all.

The Rev. Terrlyn L. Curry Avery, pastor of the Martin Luther King Jr. Presbyterian Church stands outside the church on Jan. 7, 2021. The church was heavily damaged in an overnight fire on Dec. 28, 2020. (Hoang 'Leon' Nguyen / The Republican, File)

They still need some furniture. And they still have to replace lost kitchen equipment.

A federal grand jury indicted the accused arsonist, 49-year-old Dushko Vulchev, of Houlton, Maine, in 2022.

The FBI says the man pictured is church arson suspect Dushko Vulchev, seen here allegedly stealing a tire from a car in downtown Springfield in December 2020. (FBI photos)

Hes pleaded not guilty.

Investigators found images in Vulchevs vehicle indicating his hatred of Black people.

Next month, hes scheduled to have a hearing in federal court here in Springfield concerning whether he can be compelled to take medication while incarcerated, which could restore his competence to stand trial. That is according to papers on file with the federal court.

In the meantime, Vulchev remains at Federal Medical Center Devens, a secure medical facility in Ayer, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons prisoner lookup page.
Juan David Quichimbo Sumba hugs a supporter who attended a rally for him outside the federal courthouse in Springfield on Monday. (Daniel Jackson / The Republican) Daniel Jackson

SPRINGFIELD  A Springfield man who was told by federal immigration officials to self-deport by Tuesday remains in the state after a judge issued an emergency order last night.

Juan David Quichimbo Sumba applied for a special visa for victims of human trafficking last year, as he said a previous employer exploited his immigration status. But while his application was still pending, he was told to self-deport along with his wife and daughter.

He had a flight scheduled for early this morning.

However, he remains in the state for now. The Springfield resident, originally from Ecuador, was at a U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement facility in Framingham this morning, completing paperwork, according to his attorney, Elizabeth Shaw.

While the situation continues to be in flux, we stay on for the fight, Shaw said.

Shaw filed a petition with the federal court Monday night, challenging the Department of Homeland order telling her client to self-deport. The order, she said, was written on a sticky note.

A sticky note, she said, was nonbinding and violated procedure, creating a due-process issue.

In an order issued at 8:10 p.m., Judge Angel Kelley, of the federal court in Boston, told the Department of Homeland Security not to remove the family from Massachusetts for at least 72 hours.

The court then transferred the case to Judge George OToole Jr., who issued an order of his own at 8:28 a.m. today: Homeland Security shall not move the family outside Massachusetts without giving him 48 hours notice. He gave federal officials two weeks to file a response to the familys petition.

The judges orders come after LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts held a rally in support of Quichimbo Sumba and his family in Springfield on Monday.

There, about 100 people gathered in front of the federal courthouse on State Street and listened as Quichimbo Sumba spoke to them in Spanish and through a translator.

He described how immigration officials detained his wife at the end of August and how she needed to regain her health after she was released.

A document filed in a previous court case details Quichimbo Sumbas labor trafficking claims. Between October 2021 to December 2021 and then from June 2022 to October 2022, he worked for a company based in Port Washington, New York, that rented out party tents.

He said the company failed to give him meal breaks or pay him overtime, even though he regularly worked from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. six days a week. His supervisor would threaten to hand him over to immigration officials to get him to work faster, according to the filing.

The number of people seeking a T-visa because they say they were the victim of human trafficking has increased in recent years, from 2,780 in the 2021 fiscal year to 23,754 in the 2024 fiscal year.

However, the number of T-visas immigration officials can award is limited to 5,000 in a given year, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Reached for comment, USCIS spokesman Matthew Tragesser said the T-visa is not intended to be a way for a person to make a last attempt to stay in the country.

A pending T nonimmigrant status petition does not grant any lawful status nor does it shield an alien from immigration enforcement, Tragesser said in a statement. By limiting the number of visas and making visas available only to those who suffered a severe form of trafficking in persons, its clear Congress never intended this to be a free-for-all.

LUCE said in a statement Tuesday that, while the agency is relieved the family was not deported, it wants to ensure the family has genuine due process. It has told its supporters to contact the regions federal lawmakers in an effort to get them to push for a stay of removal.

The family deserves a fair decision on their T-visa application before the federal government makes any further attempt to threaten arrest or deportation, the statement said.

Sen. Edward Markeys office said Tuesday it is aware of Quichimbo Sumbas situation, and it is doing what it can to help.
NORTHAMPTON  A Springfield woman will serve four to five years in prison for robbing the Westfield Bank in South Hadley in 2024 by threatening to detonate a bomb.

Rosa Murillo, 27, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of unarmed robbery and one count of making a bomb threat.

Hampshire Superior Court Judge Jane E. Mulqueen handed down the sentence.

On Dec. 11 last year, Murillo walked into the Westfield Bank branch on Willimansett Street and demanded $5,000 cash from a teller, stating that she had a bomb strapped to her body.

Amtrak Police caught her two days later in Springfield, and she was deemed a danger to the community. Murillo has been held on bail since; she received 352 days of credit toward her sentence for time served.

After serving her sentence, Murillo faces probation for two years. She also must submit to a substance abuse evaluation and treatment; perform random drug screenings; and stay away from all Westfield Banks.

A Hampshire County grand jury indicted Murillo in February.

The sentence was recommended by both prosecutors and her defense attorney.

Bank robberies inflict lasting fear on victims, and Ms. Murillos conduct was both desperate and serious, said Assistant District Attorney Covington in the statement. The commonwealth believes that a state prison sentence followed by probation strikes the right balance between punishment, protecting the public and giving this young defendant a real chance at rehabilitation.

The case was investigated by the South Hadley, Chicopee, Holyoke Police departments, the Massachusetts State Police Crime Scene Services Section, the Hampden County Sheriffs Department and the Amtrak Police.
WESTFIELD - The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Educations Office of Language Acquisition will conduct a Tiered Focused Monitoring Review of the Westfield Public School Districts English learner education program the week of Dec. 1.

The Office of Language Acquisition reviews each districts and charter schools program every six years to monitor compliance with federal and state English learner education laws and regulations. Areas of review will include English learners student assessments, identification of English learners, what programs English learners are placed in, parent and community involvement, curriculum and instruction, student support services, licensure requirements for faculty, staff and administration, program plans, and evaluation and recordkeeping.

Christine Shea, director of assessment and accountability for Westfield Public Schools, said there are currently 409 English learners in the school district, 27 of whom opt out of ESL instruction, and 119 former EL students, who no longer require ESL instruction. Shea said these students are monitored for four years to ensure theyre succeeding academically.

The total percentage of students in Westfield whose first language is not English is 16.3 percent, which is lower than the state average of 27.2 percent.

Shea said for the review, the state was given the whole roster of English learners, and will randomly select students in the program, former English learners and students on IEPs who are English learners.

In addition to the onsite visit, parent outreach is an important part of the review process. The district will send a survey to the parents of students whose records the review team examines. The survey focuses on key areas of their childs English learner education program. Survey results will be reviewed and will contribute to the monitoring report.

The district will also be doing a full day of interviews with classroom teachers at all levels, English as a second language teachers, administrators and a parent focus group. Shea said the state also wants people to contact them if they havent been contacted and want to say something.

They want to know how our program is working for our students, and do they have any suggestions, she said.

Parents and other individuals may call Samantha Kodak, Office of Language Acquisition Review chairperson, at (781) 338-3584 to request a telephone interview. If an individual requires an accommodation, such as translation, to participate in an interview, DESE will make the necessary arrangements. They do this every six years - its very in-depth, Shea said.

Through the survey and the focus group, Shea said she hopes to learn if there are things that families are looking for that they are not doing. Its a learning experience for us. We always feel there are ways to improve, she said.

Within approximately 60 business days of the onsite visit, the review chairperson will provide the Westfield Public School District with a report with information about areas in which the Westfield Public School District meets or exceeds regulatory requirements, and areas in which the district requires assistance to correct or improve practices. The report will be available to the public at https://www.doe.mass.edu/ele/cpr/.
SOUTHWICK  Town officials are asking residents who have signed up for CodeRED emergency notifications to change their passwords after the system was the target of a cyberattack.

We didnt lose any of our ability to contact our residents, said Fire Department Chief Richard Stefanowicz about the service being hacked last week.

CodeRED is a cloud-based platform used by city, county, and state agencies to send emergency alerts via voice calls, SMS, email, mobile app notifications and national alerting systems.

During the attack, multiple media sources reported that data was stolen, including names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers and passwords.

Stefanowicz said that only those residents who have accounts with CodeRED, or used the CodeRED application, should change their passwords.

He said there are some people who created CodeRED accounts to keep up-to-date with emergency notifications in nearby cities and towns.

However, for residents who signed up for texts, which most residents are, there is no action needed at this time, he said.

The town maintains the capability of sending out messages and will partner with Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency should it need additional support for any emergency messaging, according to a statement on the towns website.

If you think you have been the victim of a data breach, cybersecurity experts recommend these steps to protect yourself:
Worcester City Hall as seen from the top of Worcester Plaza. Adam Bass

Two cases of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, were confirmed in Worcester, a spokesperson for the city confirmed Tuesday.

The individuals involved were admitted to UMass Memorial facilities, according to a statement from UMass Memorial Health.

Clinical leadership from UMass Memorial Infection Prevention and Control and Employee Health Services is closely monitoring the situation in collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH), the statement reads.

Dr. Michael P. Hirsh, the citys medical director, told the Telegram & Gazette on Tuesday the two individuals were homeless women who are sex workers.

The city spokesperson did not identify the two individuals. A UMass Memorial Health spokesperson would not provide any additional information beyond the health care providers statement when asked further questions.

Mpox is a viral illness that can spread from animals to humans or from humans to humans, according to the Mayo Clinics website. People who get mpox can experience flu-like symptoms and an itchy, painful rash, according to the Mayo Clinic.

The virus primarily spreads through close, skin-to-skin contact.

There are two strains of mpox: clade 1, the more serious strain with a higher fatality rate, and clade 2. Hirsh did not know which strain the women had, according to the Telegram & Gazette.

A third person who may be at risk of contracting mpox has been tracked by infectious disease doctors at UMass Memorial Health, Hirsh told the outlet. He said the persons situation had not escalated into a full case of mpox.

Hirsh told the Telegram & Gazette that while the risk to the public is low, being in the sex trade  like these two women reportedly are  raises the risk of infection.

Worcester previously reported two cases of mpox in 2022.
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A Mayo charity has donated 50,000 towards the build of Daisy Lodge in Cong.

The James McNeive Foundation says, they 'are absolutely delighted to share that we have donated 50,000 towards the build of Daisy Lodge in County Mayo.'

Representatives also had the opportunity to walk around the site and receive a detailed overview of the incredible build taking place on the beautiful shores of Lough Corrib near Cong.

The Daisy Lodge will be a therapeutic short-break centre for children across the island of Ireland who have been diagnosed with cancer, along with their families.

READ NEXT: Castlebar family start fundraiser for father of four battling with his health

This will be the second Daisy Lodge, allowing even more families the chance to spend quality time together in a safe and supportive environment. Here, they will benefit from the therapeutic and emotional care provided by the Cancer Support Specialists.

The James McNeive Foundation wishes to convey their gratitude to everyone who has donated: "You are all part of this incredible contribution and are helping bring joy to an amazing charity. Your generosity is going directly towards this vital build, and with this donation supporting the second Daisy Lodge in Co. Mayo."

The Cancer Fund for Children will be able to increase the number of children and parents they support each year from 1,800 to 4,000.

READ NEXT: School cap crisis leaves West Mayo families in limbo
Cancer Care West has reported one of its busiest years on record, providing vital practical and emotional support to nearly 3,000 cancer patients and their families throughout 2024. The rise in demand reflects both the increasing number of cancer diagnoses and growing awareness of the charitys broad range of free support services across the West and Northwest.

As the number of individuals seeking support at our centres continues to grow, so too does our responsibility to expand and evolve our services, said Richard Flaherty, CEO of Cancer Care West. Thanks to our dedicated team and the incredible generosity of our supporters, we have worked tirelessly to keep pace with this rising demand. While it has become increasingly challenging, we remain committed to delivering vital care, compassion, and support to everyone who turns to us.

Inis Aoibhinn, the charitys 33-bedroom residential lodge on the grounds of University Hospital Galway, marked a significant milestone in 2024, welcoming 426 patients, the highest number in its 30-year history. This increase was driven by advances in clinical practice which allow more patients to be accommodated for shorter stays. This shift highlights the urgent need for investment in new, modernised residential facilities capable of meeting the latest requirements.

Demand for Cancer Care Wests free weekly Mayo, Inis Aoibhinn bus service remained strong in 2024, with 107 people relying on it for safe, convenient travel during treatment. Its consistent use underscores the vital role the service continues to play for patients and their families across the region.

Cancer Care Wests Support Centres in Galway and Letterkenny also experienced record levels of engagement in 2024. A total of 1,431 patients accessed services through more than 14,000 interactions. A key development during the year was the expansion of the childrens psycho-oncology service, supporting young people aged 3 to 18. Relaunched in September, the revised service assisted 36 children in its first three months alone. Clinical psychologists have since received advanced training in therapeutic play and bespoke interventions, helping children and adolescents better process their experiences and emotions surrounding cancer.

As the demand for support continues to surge, Cancer Care West remains steadfast in its dedication to expanding both its facilities and services. The charity heavily relies on voluntary fundraising to cover the majority of its operational costs. Funding the ever increasing demands on our services into the future will be challenging.

It costs nearly two and a half million euros annually to deliver our services, and we depend on fundraising for 60% of that amount stated Mr. Flaherty. We are immensely grateful for the compassion and generosity of our supporters. This unwavering support is not just invaluable, it is the cornerstone of our mission to ensure that no one in the West or Northwest of Ireland faces cancer alone."

All of Cancer Care Wests services are provided free of charge. If you would like to know more about Cancer Care Wests services please drop in to their Support Centre or call them on 091 540 040. If you would like to donate to Cancer Care West please go to www.cancercarewest.ie/donate. For all other queries please call 091 545 000.

READ MORE: Mayo among three counties with no school traffic wardens
Gardai are appealing for witnesses following a fatal road traffic collision in Dublin at the weekend.

In an appeal, issued on Monday evening, they say the fatal incident happened at Courtlough, Man O War, County Dublin, on Sunday evening.

"Gardai and emergency services were alerted shortly after 7pm when an SUV struck a parked car. The driver and sole occupant of the SUV, a man in his 60s, was transported to Beaumont Hospital, where he was later pronounced deceased," said a spokesperson.

Gardai say the local coroner has been notified and that a post-mortem examination will now be arranged.

READ NEXT: Fire warning for Irish households over fatal mistake made with Christmas lights

Any witnesses to this collision or anyone with information about what happened is asked to come forward.

"Any road users who may have camera footage, including dash-cam, and who were travelling in the area between 6:45pm and 7:15pm on Sunday, November 30 2025, are asked to make this footage available to investigating gardai," said the spokesperson.

Investigations are ongoing and anyone with information is asked to contact Balbriggan garda station on 01 666 4493, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any garda station.
Mary Carty (nee Prendergast), Carramore, Knock, who died recently in the wonderful care of the staff at Mayo Hospice, Castlebar, was a central player in the community of the Knock region over many years.

She was wife of the late Michael Carty, former publican and Mayo County Councillor, who died in September 2022.

Michael was co-opted to Mayo County Council in the aftermath of his brother Johns election to Dail Eireann in 2002 and was elected for Fianna Fail in the Claremorris Electoral Area for a further five year term in 2004.

Mary was very highly regarded by all who knew her around the region.

The manner in which she carried her health issues over a number of years was an inspiration to many and she always maintained a hugely positive attitude along that journey.

Her caring nature was ever to the fore and she had a brilliant rapport with children, excelling in her chosen profession of childcare.

Marys outreach touched the lives of so many people and she had an exuberance that was contagious and added merriment and laughter to many occasions.

She spent many years with the Irish Preschool Playgroups Association and served as a tutor with the Mayo Branch.

The acclaimed historian, Noel Morley, Dublin, and formerly of Wingfield, Knock, was among those joining in the warm tributes.

Mary was a truly beautiful lady, kind and witty, a wonderful conversationalist with a great sense of humour. She put up such a brave fight over all those years.

Sean and Siobhan Morris spoke fondly of Mary and her role in the local community.

Mary will be so fondly remembered from her early days caring for us in playschool with such gentle kindness to the many great nights in Cartys where she brought the same spirit mixed with a sparkle of mischief and fun.

"She was always a lady full of grace, good humour and elegance who bore her illness with dignity and courage.

Padraig and Mary Forde reflected on how Mary had such a nurturing disposition which endeared her to the many children under her care.

Her neighbour and friend, Janette Hunt, Cloonlee, Knock, said: You brought so much joy to every child who had the good fortune to attend your preschool. You were a lady to your fingertips.

"You fought a tough battle and deserve your peace now with Michael and so many beautiful people who are lost to us.

Tommy Moran commented: Mary fought her illness bravely and her thoughts were always on her family and the grandchildren that brought her so much joy.

"Michael and Mary were an exemplary couple and were particularly popular within the business, social, sporting and community life in Knock and its hinterland.

Reposing at the Marian Funeral Home, Knock, and interment took place in Knock Cemetery following Mass in the Parish Church.

Mary, who was also predeceased by her parents Maureen and Frank Prendergast and her sister Eileen, will be deeply missed by her daughters Nicola and Lindsay, son Michael, her grandchildren Jack, Mark, Ben, Millie, Michael and Tilly, sister Christine and brothers Nigel and Frankie, sons-in-law John and Damien, daughter-in-law Samantha, sisters-in-law Anne, Joan, Kathleen and Gloria, brother-in-law Johnny, aunt Maureen, uncles Pat and Vincent Prendergast, nieces, nephews, relatives, neighbours and friends.
A Mayo politician has called on people to get in touch with their local TDs to ban fox hunting.

Saoirse McHugh from Achill, who participated in several elections since 2019, has called on people to act in a recently shared video message.

"I'm 100% in support of a ban on fox hunting," the former Green Party politician says.

"It's an incredibly barbaric, cruel and elitist blood sport. Often politicians who are supporting it would throw around things like rural Ireland as a way to support it. But polling shows that a majority of people do not support blood sports," claims McHugh.

She calls it an 'outdated tradition' which 'just has to go'.

"I would challenge you to find a single sheep farmer who would be happy to see a pack of hunting dogs chasing across their land," McHugh points out.

A bill to amend the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013 was introduced to the Dail on May 25 by two People Before Profit TDs Ruth Coppinger and Paul Murphy.

The bill is is coming up for debate on December 17. Find out more here. Coppinger has called on a free vote on the issue, arguing 'TDs who want to protect foxes should not have to follow their party leadership on this issue.'

READ NEXT: Mayo family start fundraiser for father of four battling with his health
Most Americans view obesity as a disease, with over 80% saying insurance must cover both medication and surgery.

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Majority of Americans recognize obesity as a chronic disease needing insurance coverage



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TOP INSIGHT Did You Know?

Effective #obesity_treatments can reverse or improve more than 200 medical conditions, including diabetes, fatty liver disease, hypertension, and sleep apnea, yet many #insurance plans still classify obesity as a lifestyle issue, not a #chronic_disease, limiting coverage despite the proven medical benefits.

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Obesity Treatment and Persistent Barriers

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Gastroenterologists and Policy Barriers

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Public Understanding and Health Risks

Majority of Americans recognize obesity as a chronic disease needing insurance coverage - (https://gastro.org/news/majority-of-americans-recognize-obesity-as-a-chronic-disease-needing-insurance-coverage/)

Nearlynow understand thatrather than a personal shortcoming, and more than eight in ten say thatfor its treatment, including both medications and surgical options, according to a nationwide survey conducted by The Harris Poll for the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA).().The American public is highly aware thatand that reducing it will also save people from a wide variety of other serious diseases, said Pooja Singhal, MD, AGAF, gastroenterologist, hepatologist, and obesity medicine specialist at Oklahoma Gastro Health and Wellness.Despite this awareness, access to treatment, particularly because of cost, is a major barrier. This AGA survey reinforces the urgent need for increased coverage of safe, effective, and life-saving treatments for obesity.Two-thirds of Americans (66%) say they are familiar with weight loss trends (e.g., keto and intermittent fasting), and nearly 6 in 10 are familiar with new weight-loss medications and surgeries.Still, more than 4 in 5 (81%) cite barriers that make or would make it difficult or prevent them from accessing treatment if they need it. Top roadblocks cited include(50%) and afor procedures or medications (40%), among other obstacles.More than half of Americans (57%) believe losing weight requires the assistance of a health care provider. Eight in 10 (80%) say that gastroenterologists play a crucial role in obesity care, but 61% also say they cannot afford weight-loss interventions beyond personal lifestyle changes.Some also report that difficulties finding an available provider (24%) and experiencing long wait times for appointments or procedures (23%) are, or would be, barriers to accessing weight-loss treatment if they needed it.When it comes to weight management and obesity care, gastroenterologists should be considered providers of direct care, Dr. Singhal said.Many serious GI-related medical conditions like metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) are associated with obesity and could be treated or resolved with weight management.Medicare cannot currently cover weight-loss medications for patients without a co-occurring medical condition unless lawmakers change the law.Lawmakers first introduced the bipartisan Treat and Reduce Obesity Act (TROA) in 2013 to expand Medicare coverage and improve access to obesity -prevention and treatment tools, including prescription medications and intensive behavioral therapy. Unfortunately, despite strong support, TROA has languished in Congress and has been reintroduced in every Congressional session for the past 12 years.There is an urgent need for expanded access tofor obesity, said Shazia M. Siddique, MD, MSHP, AGA Government Affairs Committee and assistant professor of medicine, division of gastroenterology, University of Pennsylvania. Passing TROA is one way to expand access and improve early intervention and treatment options, helping patients live healthier, more productive lives.AboutThe latter group was more likely to suffer from other illnesses and more likely to cite difficulties obtaining weight loss treatment (91% vs. 79% not diagnosed with obesity).Americans named a mix of behavioral and genetic conditions as contributors to obesity, including eating patterns/nutrition (70%), level of physical activity (67%), mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression (61%), and genetics (58%).87% of Americans believe obesity increases the risk (or can worsen existing symptoms) of other chronic conditions.Nearly 2 in 3 Americans (64%) understand the connection between obesity and a persons specific risk forSource-American Gastroenterological Association
Every year onthe world observeswhich was established by the. The goal is simple but effective:For 2025, the theme isIt emphasizes how true development is only possible when every individual, regardless of disability, has access to opportunities, contributes to society, and lives independently and respectfully.Even with the fast-moving technological, healthcare, and accessibility changes, millions of individuals with disabilities still struggle with their daily physical, social, and psychological challenges. An. This accounts for 16% of the world's population.This day aims to answer all the rights which have been ignored so farAt the UN Headquarters in New York, the observance includesbringing together Member States, civil society groups, and the private sector. The spirit of the day, however, goes far beyond the UNeveryone is encouraged to organize awareness activities promoting disability rights.Across India, states have launched several schemes to ensure persons with disabilities (PwDs) receive equal opportunities, financial support, assistive devices, and social empowerment. Here are some notable examples ().The International Day of Persons with Disabilities reminds us that social progress is impossible without inclusion. When people with disabilities are empowered, equipped, and respected, their communities become stronger and more resilient.By supporting disability-friendly policies, encouraging accessibility, and creating an inclusive mindset, we can contribute to building a world where all people, without exception, are able to participate, contribute, and thrive.Together, we should strive to create inclusive, compassionate, and equitable societies.Source-Medindia

Did You Know? Despite there being more than 1 billion #disabledpeople in the world, inclusive policies have the power to change people's lives! #disabilityday #internationaldayofdisability #disability #inclusion #medindia

An international appeal to build societies in which people with disabilities can live with dignity, equality, and full participation.

International Day of Persons With Disabilities: Building Inclusive Societies for All

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the purpose of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities?

A: The Day aims to promote dignity, rights, and inclusion of persons with disabilities while raising awareness about the barriers they face and the need for accessible, equal opportunities.

Q: How many people worldwide live with disabilities?

A: According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), around 1.3 billion people-about 16% of the global population-live with a significant disability.

Q: What types of support do Indian disability schemes provide?

A: Indian disability schemes offer financial assistance, health insurance, education support, mobility aids, assistive devices, employment benefits, and social welfare programmes to empower persons with disabilities.

Q: What is the color for International disability Day?

A: Positively Purple, marked by the color purple, takes place annually around December 3rd-the International Day of Persons with Disabilities-and celebrates economic empowerment, participation, and the contributions of people with disabilities.
Culturally competent services are essential to breakdown community barriers as over 50% of HIV cases come from migrants.

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Europe's hidden HIV crisis - Half of all people living with HIV in Europe are diagnosed late, threatening to undermine the fight against AIDS



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TOP INSIGHT Did You Know?

Not accessing early #HIV drugs leads to heightened risk of developing #AIDS. WHO calls for immediate efforts for wider access to #self_testing, eliminating the testing gap. #worldAIDSday #HIVtesting #publichealth #HIVcrisis #late_diagnosis

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Key Trends in European HIV Transmission

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Addressing Disparities in HIV Diagnosis for Tailored Care

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Reaching the Underserved through Community Testing

Europes hidden HIV crisis - Half of all people living with HIV in Europe are diagnosed late, threatening to undermine the fight against AIDS - (https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/news-events/europes-hidden-hiv-crisis-half-all-people-living-hiv-europe-are-diagnosed-late)

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the WHO Regional Office for Europe warn.(According to the annual HIV/AIDS surveillance report, 105 922 HIV diagnoses were made in the WHO European Region in 2024, covering 53 countries in Europe and Central Asia.While overall reported numbers show a slight decrease compared to 2023, the available data suggest that testing and diagnosis gaps remain.The high proportion of late diagnoses means that many people are not accessing life-saving antiretroviral treatment and healthcare early enough, which increases the risk of developing AIDS, the risk of death and onward HIV transmission.In the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA), 24 164 HIV diagnoses were reported, representing a rate of 5.3 per 100 000 people. Key findings from the 2024 data show that 48% of HIV diagnoses in the EU/EEA are late.Dr. Pamela Rendi-Wagner, ECDC Director, said: In the EU/EEA, nearly half of all diagnoses are made late. We must urgently innovate our testing strategies, embrace community-based testing and self-testing, and ensure rapid linkage to care. We can only end AIDS if people know their status.Across the WHO European Region 54% of diagnoses were late,Nearly one in three HIV diagnoses in 2024 were among people born outside the country where they were diagnosed. In the EU/EEA, migrants accounted for more than half of new diagnoses, highlighting the need for tailored, accessible, and culturally competent prevention and testing services.Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, said: .In 2024 alone, 105,922 people were diagnosed with HIV, with an overall 2.68 million diagnoses reported since 1980s. However, the number of people living with undiagnosed HIV is growing, a silent crisis thats fueling transmission.We are not doing enough to remove the deadly barriers of stigma and discrimination that prevent people from seeking out a simple test..ECDC and WHO/Europe are calling for urgent efforts to routinise, normalise and scale up testing, including wider access to self-testing and community-based options, which can reach people who do not access facility-based healthcare services.Source-Eurekalert
After the previous failed attempt with the 2022 Netflix show The Fame Game, Madhuri Dixit returns to the OTT space with yet another show titled Mrs Deshpande. Unlike the previous time where she played a movie star, Mrs Deshpande will see Madhuri Dixit in a never-seen-before role of a serial killer.

 JioHotstar OG Serial Killer Madhuri Dixit On The Hunt For Copycat Killer In Mrs Deshpande Trailer Directed by Nagesh Kukunoor, Mrs Deshpande is an upcoming web series on JioHotstar and is about a dreaded serial killer who helps cops in catching a copycat killer murdering people around the city in the same manner as she once used to. Sharing the trailer, Madhuri Dixit wrote on social media, Kabhi kabhi killer ko pakadne ke liye, killer ki hi madad leni padti hai (Sometimes you get a killer to catch a killer). Check out Mrs Deshpande trailer below:

Reacting to the trailer, one social media user wrote, Got chills . Omg.. that cryptic smirk and coldness, havent you seen you in this avatar, Madhuri ji.

 JioHotstar Another user wrote, Madhuri Dixit as a serial killer is something I never imagined but absolutely LOVED. Her expressions, the calm danger in her smile uff! Cant wait to watch Madhuri unleash this dark, thrilling avatar. A third user reacted, Its already on my list. Gosh madhuri as a serial killer and that too in a grey role. Its a must watch. Check out some of the responses below:

The official synopsis of the show reads, As Mumbai is hit by murders mirroring her old crimes, Mrs. Deshpande is brought out of isolation to help the police force. When predator meets predator, who will win?
Only three days remain until Dhurandhar hits theatres, and anticipation for Ranveer Singhs next release is steadily increasing. The censor board has now locked in the films official runtime at 214.01 minutes; thats 3 hours, 34 minutes and 1 second, making it the longest Bollywood film in 17 years. The last time a movie ran this long was Jodhaa Akbar (2008), which also clocked in at 214 minutes. The film has additionally received an A certificate, marking Ranveers first adult-rated release in over 15 years.

 Jio Studios Regarding censorship changes, the board directed the team to insert a Hindi voiceover for the disclaimer, which required extending its duration. Anti-drug and anti-smoking static warnings were also implemented in scenes where characters engage with these substances. The opening sequence had violent imagery removed and substituted with more suitable visuals. Later in the second half, the CBFC instructed the filmmakers to tone down certain violent scenes. The name of a ministerial character was modified to avoid issues, and one expletive was muted. Another alteration during certification involved extending the end credits by adding music and extra footage.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP)  A West Virginia National Guard member who was shot last week in a brazen daytime attack in Washington, D.C., remains in serious condition but showed positive signs by giving a thumbs-up that he could hear a nurses question and wiggling his toes, Gov. Patrick Morrisey said Monday.

Morrisey said the family of 24-year-old U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe has asked the public to pray for him. Another member of the West Virginia National Guard, U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, was killed in the shooting.

Andrew is still fighting for his life, Morrisey said. Andrew needs prayers.

Morrisey said he could not yet share details of any funeral arrangements for Beckstrom and wants to respect her familys wishes.

Beckstrom and Wolfe were shot Wednesday just blocks from the White House while deployed as part of President Donald Trumps crime-fighting plan that federalized D.C. police.

Investigators are working to determine a motive. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, is charged with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of assault in the shooting.

Authorities said Lakanwal, who was shot in the confrontation, remained hospitalized and a court appearance has not yet been scheduled.

The shooting prompted the Trump administration to halt all asylum decisions and pause issuing visas for people traveling on Afghan passports.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The White House said Monday that a Navy admiral acted within his authority and the law when he ordered a second, follow-up strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea in a September U.S. military operation that has come under bipartisan scrutiny.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt offered the justification for the Sept. 2 strike after lawmakers from both parties on Sunday announced support for congressional reviews of U.S. military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, citing a published report that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for a second strike that killed survivors on the boat in that incident.

Leavitt in her comments to reporters on Monday did not dispute a Washington Post report that there were survivors after the initial strike in the incident. Her explanation came after President Donald Trump a day earlier said that he wouldnt have wanted that  not a second strike when asked about the incident.

Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes, said Leavitt, referring to U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Frank Bradley, who at the time was the commander of Joint Special Operations Command. 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.

The lawmakers said they did not know whether last weeks Post report was true, and some Republicans were skeptical. Still, they said the reports of attacking survivors of an initial missile strike posed serious legal concerns and merited further scrutiny.

"This rises to the level of a war crime if its true, said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.

Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, when asked about a follow-up strike aimed at people no longer able to fight, said Congress does not have information that happened. He noted that leaders of the Armed Services Committee in both the House and Senate have opened investigations.

Obviously, if that occurred, that would be very serious and I agree that that would be an illegal act, Turner said.

Trump on Sunday vigorously defended Hegseth.

Pete said he did not order the death of those two men, Trump said. He added, And I believe him.

Leavitt said Hegseth has spoken with members of Congress who may have expressed some concerns about the reports over the weekend.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also spoke over the weekend with the four bipartisan lawmakers leading the Senate and House Armed Services Committees in which he reiterated his trust and confidence in the experienced commanders at every echelon, Caine's office said in a statement.

The statement added that the call focused on addressing the intent and legality of missions to disrupt illicit trafficking networks which threaten the security and stability of the Western Hemisphere."

After the Posts report, Hegseth said Friday on X that fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland.

Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflictand approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command, Hegseth wrote.

Leavitt also confirmed that Trump later on Monday would be holding a meeting with his national security team to discuss the ongoing operations in the Caribbean Sea and potential next steps against Venezuela.

The U.S. administration says the strikes in the Caribbean are aimed at drug cartels, some of which it claims are controlled by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Trump also is weighing whether to carry out strikes on the Venezuelan mainland.

Trump on Sunday confirmed that he had recently spoken by phone with Maduro but declined to detail the conversation.

The September strike was one in a series carried out by the U.S. military in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean as Trump has ordered the build up a fleet of warships near Venezuela, including the largest U.S. aircraft carrier.

More than 80 have been killed the strikes on small boats that the Trump administration alleges smuggle narcotics for drug cartels.

Venezuelas National Assembly has announced the launch of an investigation into the lethal strikes carried about by the U.S.

Sundays announcement by the Assemblys president, Jorge Rodriguez, marked the first time that a Maduro government official explicitly acknowledged that Venezuelans have been killed in the monthslong U.S. military operation.

Rodriguez, Maduros chief negotiator, said a group of lawmakers will come together to investigate the serious events that led to the murder of Venezuelans in the waters of the Caribbean Sea.

___

Associated Press writer Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, and Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report.
Ireland on Tuesday gave more money to Ukraine as negotiations between the United States and Russia for peace in Eastern Europe are continuing in Moscow.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Irish Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in Dublin. The minister announced a new financial package that totals 125 million euros, including roughly 100 million directed towards non-lethal military aid that can help take out Russian missiles and drones. Another 25 million euros will go towards energy supplies and maintaining an infrastructure.

The meeting in Ireland follows recently scrutinized peace efforts in Ukraine that critics say provides an uneven advantage in Russias favor, evident from a leaked 28-point peace plan that in part would force Ukraine to give up its own territory overtaken by Russian aggression and would also dissuade the joining of NATO.

Russia is deliberately and cynically targeting energy plants and infrastructure in Ukraine, knowing how difficult winter can be and hoping to weaken the resolve of the Ukrainian people, Martin said, according to a transcript of the meeting between him and Zelensky. We are making our contribution to help ensure that Putin does not win.

We have in addition also, of course, provided a safe haven for Ukrainians who have sought refuge from the war in Ireland.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and and his wife Olena Zelenska, left, are welcomed by Irish President Catherine Connolly, as they arrive at Aras an Uachtarain in Dublin during his visit to Ireland, on Tuesday Dec. 2, 2025. (Brian Lawless/PA via AP, Pool)

The visit of the Ukrainian leader and his wife, First Lady Olena, included the signing of the 2030 Roadmap on the Ireland-Ukraine Partnership, an agreement based on the partnership on the Agreement on Support for Ukraine and Cooperation between Ukraine and Ireland that was signed Sept. 4, 2024, in Kyiv.

The agreement aims to strengthen bilateral relations in areas including cyber resilience, educational cooperation including between universities and technical institutes, and culture.

We are also both focused on how we can further strengthen economic ties between us, including business-to-business and trade and investment programs, Martin said.

He and Zelensky were jointly scheduled to attend the inaugural meeting of the Ireland-Ukraine Economic Forum, providing Irish companies the opportunity to interact with Zelensky and discuss trade and economic investment.

Revised Peace Plan

Last weeks leaking of the 28-point peace plan showed that Ukraine and Russia remain at odds on key issues, notably Zelenskys apprehension regarding Russia keeping Ukrainian territory it has claimed as its own since invading its Eastern European neighbor in February 2022. Zelensky has referred to the maintaining of territorial integrity as the biggest challenge in ongoing negotiations.

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Monday, Dec. 1, 2025 before a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

That plan, devised by U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Kremlin official Kirill Dmitriev per reports, included Ukraine being forced to cede regions already claimed by Russia and President Vladimir Putin as their own: Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk. Regions including Kherson and Zaporizhzhia would remain frozen along the existing lines of conflict.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said input remains required from both Russia and Ukraine, adding that ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and realistic ideas and will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions.

US Officials in Moscow

The plan has reportedly since been altered as more input has been gained from Kyiv and European allies, and in discussions between Ukrainian and U.S. officials.

Witkoff and President Donald Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are in Moscow to discuss the plan that has been whittled down from 28 points of emphasis to now 20 following Ukrainian officials meeting with the U.S. president in recent days.

Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, left, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, center, and Jared Kushner attend a meeting with Ukrainian officials Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025, in Hallandale Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)

There are now 20 points that were drafted in Geneva, and were finalized in Florida, Zelensky said Tuesday in Dublin, according to the Associated Press. Some things still have to be worked on. From what Ive seen, America takes serious steps to end the war in one way or another.

And our mission, I am sure this is our common mission, of everyone in Europe, is to truly and this war and not just make a pause in hostilities. We need decent peace, and for it to truly happen, everyone has to be on the side of peace.

Russian state news agency Tass published photos and video of Witkoff and Kushner walking out of a restaurant in Moscow. They were joined by Dmitriev prior to eventually meeting with Putin, who according to the Associated Press told gathered media that European influence on the peace plan has provoked unacceptable conditions.

Were not going to have a war with Europe, Ive already said, Putin said. But if Europe suddenly wants to wage a war with us and starts it, we are ready right away. There can be no doubt about that.

More than 100,000 Ukrainians have moved to Ireland since the Russia-Ukraine war began nearly four years ago, according to the AP.
BRUSSELS (AP)  NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte brushed off fresh concern Tuesday about the United States commitment to the military organization on the eve of a meeting of allied foreign ministers focused on Russias war against Ukraine.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not attend Wednesday's meeting, which will unfold during high-stakes negotiations in Moscow and elsewhere in Europe on Ukraines future. His rare absence at the U.S.-led alliance comes after President Donald Trumps 28-point proposal to end the almost four-year war dismayed European allies and Canada last month.

The administration's draft plan suggested that NATO would not expand further  a longtime Russian demand  and that Ukraine would not be admitted, breaking with a yearslong promise to Kyiv that it has a place at the organizations table.

The plan also stated that a dialogue would be held between Russia and NATO, mediated by the U.S., to resolve all security issues and create business opportunities. It was unclear how NATOs most influential member might serve as an impartial mediator.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting, Rutte underlined that Rubio has a busy schedule.

Hes working extremely hard to take care not only of the situation of Ukraine, but of course many other issues which are on his plate, Rutte said. So I totally accept him not being able to be here tomorrow, and I would not read anything in it.

A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal administration reasoning for the absence, said Rubio has already attended dozens of meetings with NATO allies, "and it would be completely impractical to expect him at every meeting.

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau will attend instead and press the allies to deliver on their commitment to invest 5% of gross domestic product on defense.

Rutte also downplayed contentious parts of Trumps original plan for ending the war, saying that it has been heavily reworked to address European concerns.

You need to start somewhere. You need to have proposals on the table, he said.

He added: When it comes to the NATO elements of a deal to end the war against Ukraine, that will be dealt with separately. And that obviously will include NATO."

Despite the proposal to rule out Ukrainian membership, the former Dutch prime minister insisted that the country remains on an irreversible path to join the worlds biggest security organization, as NATO leaders pledged in Washington in 2024.

But he underlined that its politically impossible for Ukraine to become a member, which would require the unanimous agreement of all 32 allies. The Trump administration has ruled that out, and Hungary and Slovakia are also opposed.

Right now, as you know, there is no consensus on Ukraine joining NATO, Rutte said.

At NATOs last summit in The Hague, Trump reassured European partners when he affirmed the U.S. commitment to Article 5  the collective security guarantee that says an attack on any ally should be considered an attack on all of them.

He described the other NATO leaders as a nice group of people and said that almost every one of them said Thank God for the United States. But several of his remarks since then seem to place the United States outside the organization it has long led.

Were selling a lot of weapons to NATO, and thats going I guess to Ukraine for the most part, Trump said at a White House meeting with Finnish President Alexander Stubb in October. Thats up to them, but theyre buying weapons from the U.S.

Concerns are also high about a further U.S. troop drawdown in Europe. Romania announced in October that the United States would reduce its military presence in the country by up to 3,000 troops as it focuses on security threats in Asia and elsewhere.

The administration is expected to announce its troop movement plans in early 2026.
MEXICO CITY (AP)  Armed men entered through a window to ambush Ismael El Mayo Zambada, the most elusive of the Sinaloa cartels leaders, who was then loaded onto a plane, drugged and spirited across the border to the United States, according to details revealed Monday in the plea hearing of the drug trafficker who abducted him.

Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the 39-year-old son of former Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking and continuing criminal enterprise in federal court in Chicago after admitting his role in overseeing the transport of tens of thousands of kilograms (pounds) of drugs to the U.S.

As part of that plea agreement, U.S. prosecutors shared what had been one of the central questions in the hours and days immediately after Zambada fell into U.S. hands in July 2024.

How did the wily drug capo who had stayed ahead of authorities for decades end up in the United States like a present tied with bow?

The plea agreement did not name Zambada, but in the days after his arrest, one of his lawyers shared a letter from him that explained he had been called to a meeting with Guzman Lopez and there he had been abducted.

Andrew Erskine, an attorney representing the U.S. government, said Monday the alleged kidnapping of an unnamed individual was part of an attempt to show cooperation with Washington, which he said did not sanction those actions. He also said Guzman Lopez would not receive cooperation credit because of that.

The arrest of both drug traffickers by U.S. authorities angered Mexico's then-President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who suspected the U.S. government was behind the operation. Washington denied involvement from the outset, but experts thought it would be virtually impossible to pull off without U.S. authorities having some knowledge.

Erskine described the alleged kidnapping in court, saying Guzman Lopez had the glass from a floor-to-ceiling window removed from a room ahead of the meeting with the unnamed person.

Guzman Lopez allegedly had others enter through the open window, seize the individual, put a bag over his head and take him to a plane. On board, he was zip tied and given sedatives before the plane landed at a New Mexico airport near the border with Texas.

Zambada in his letter said Guzman Lopez had called him to a meeting on the outskirts of Sinaloa states capital, Culiacan, along with some local politicians, one of whom was later found dead.

He said when he arrived there were a lot of armed men in green military uniforms, who he assumed were gunmen for the Chapitos, as El Chapo Guzmans sons were known. Even though they ran a rival faction within the cartel, Zambada maintained communication with them and appeared to trust Guzman Lopez enough to follow him into a dark room.

On the plane that landed in New Mexico were only the pilot, Zambada and Guzman Lopez. Aboard the plane, Zambada was given a drink containing sedatives, which Guzman Lopez also drank a little of, according to Guzman Lopezs account.

Rather than congratulating or thanking the U.S. for arresting the elusive Zambada, Mexicos Attorney Generals Office said it was studying the possibility of bringing treason charges against Guzman Lopez or whoever else aided in the plot.

The arrests set off a bloody fight in Sinaloa among their respective cartel factions for control of the business, violence that Lopez Obradors successor President Claudia Sheinbaum is still dealing with.

With the plea deal, Guzman Lopezs defense attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, said he is expected to avoid life in prison.

Joaquin El Chapo Guzman is serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2019 for his role as the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, having smuggled mountains of cocaine and other drugs into the United States over 25 years.

___

Fernando reported from Chicago.
WASHINGTON  Since last week's shooting of two National Guard members in the nations capital by a suspect who is an Afghan national, the Trump administration announced a flurry of policies aimed at making it harder for some foreigners to enter or stay in the country.

The administration said it was pausing asylum decisions, reexamining green card applications for people from countries "of concern and halting visas for Afghans who assisted the U.S. war effort.

Days before the shooting, a memo obtained by The Associated Press said the administration would review the cases of all refugees who entered the U.S. during the Biden administration.

The stepped up effort to restrict immigration has been harshly criticized by refugee advocates and those who work with Afghans, saying it amounts to collective punishment. Critics are also saying it is a waste of government resources to reopen cases that have already been processed.

The Trump administration says the new policies are necessary to ensure that those entering the country  or are already here  do not pose a security threat.

Here's a look at the major changes announced over roughly a week:

All asylum decisions suspended

The director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, said on the social platform X last week that asylum decisions will be paused until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.

Besides the post, no formal guidance has been put forward, so details remain scarce about the planned pause.

People seeking asylum must show to U.S. officials a threat of persecution if they were sent back to their home country, whether because of race, nationality or other grounds. If they're granted asylum, they're allowed to stay in the U.S. and eventually apply for a green card and then citizenship.

The Afghan suspect in the National Guard shooting was granted asylum earlier this year, according to advocate group #AfghanEvac.

The right to apply for asylum was already restricted by the Trump administration. In January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order essentially halting asylum for people who have come into the country through the southern border. Those cases generally go through immigration courts which are overseen by the Justice Department.

USCIS oversees the asylum process for foreigners the government isn't trying to remove via immigration courts. While Trump's January order didn't affect those cases, Edlow's social media post suggests they will now come under additional scrutiny. Edlow did not say how long the agency's pause on asylum decisions would last or what happens to people while those decisions are paused.

Caseloads have been rising for all types of asylum applications. USCIS said there are currently 1.4 million pending asylum cases at the agency. Just a few years ago, in 2022, it was 241,280, according to the Office of Homeland Security Statistics. Separately there are about 2.4 million pending asylum applications in front of the Justice Department's immigration courts.

A focus on countries of concern

On Nov. 27, Edlow said his agency was conducting a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every green card for people he said come from every country of concern.

American safety is non negotiable, Edlow said.

The agency said in a press release that same day that it was issuing new guidance that could make it tougher for people from 19 countries the administration considers high-risk, including Afghanistan, when they apply for immigration benefits such as applying for green cards or to stay in the U.S. longer.

The administration had already banned travel to the U.S. for citizens from 12 of those countries and restricted access for people from seven others.

No visas for Afghans

Other stricter stricter measures are also directed at Afghans.

On Nov. 26, USCIS said it would be suspending all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals. That would affect Afghans already living in the U.S. who are applying for green cards or work permits or permission to bring family members to the U.S.

Separately, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced late Friday on X that the State Department has temporarily stopped issuing visas for all people traveling on Afghan passports.

The Trump administration had already severely limited travel and immigration from Afghanistan. The one avenue that had remained open was the Special Immigrant Visa program. Created by Congress, it allowed Afghans who closely supported the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan and faced retribution because of their work to emigrate to America.

But the State Departments announcement means even that avenue is now closed.

According to #AfghanEvac, a group that advocates for Afghans coming to the U.S., about 180,000 Afghans were in the process of applying for the SIV program.

A review of refugees admitted under the Biden administration

Even before the shooting of two National Guard members, the Trump administration was planning a sweeping review of tens of thousands of immigrants who entered the U.S. during the Biden administration as part of the U.S. Refugee Assistance Program.

That program, first launched in 1980, oversees the process by which people fleeing persecution can come to the U.S. Refugees are distinct from people seeking asylum, although they meet the same criteria. Refugees have to apply and wait outside the U.S. to be admitted while asylum-seekers do so once they reach the U.S.

Trump suspended the refugee program the day he took office and only a trickle of refugees have been admitted since then, either white South Africans or people admitted as part of a lawsuit seeking to restart the refugee program.

Then on Nov. 21, Edlow said in a memo obtained by The Associated Press that the administration was going to review all refugees admitted to the U.S. during the Biden administration. That's nearly 200,000 refugees.

Advocates say refugees already undergo rigorous vetting.

Noem hints at updated travel ban

Late Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem suggested in a post on X that more changes could be in the offing.

Noting that she had just met with Trump, Noem said she was recommending a full travel ban on countries she said were flooding the U.S. with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.

Noem did not specifically name any countries and no timeline was given. The Department of Homeland Security said in an email Monday, We will be announcing the list soon.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff was due to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, taking to the Kremlin an embryonic peace plan that Washington hopes can bring about an end to the nearly four-year war in Ukraine.

Coinciding with Witkoffs trip, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went to Ireland, continuing his visits to European countries that have helped sustain his countrys fight against Russias invasion.

After months of frustration in his efforts to stop the fighting, U.S. President Donald Trump is deploying officials to get traction for his peace proposals. Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law, will join the meeting between Putin and Witkoff, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. He said that the talks would take as long as needed and will involve only Witkoff, Kushner and an interpreter from the U.S. side.

So far, the talks have followed parallel lines, with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sitting down with Ukrainian officials, and now Witkoff heading to Moscow.

Zelenskyy said that he met Tuesday with the Ukrainian delegation that returned from the latest round of negotiations with the U.S. representatives in Florida. Rubio said that those talks made progress, but added that theres more work to be done.

Zelenskyy said that the Florida talks took as their cue a document that both sides drafted at an earlier meeting in Geneva. The Ukrainian leader said that document was now finalized, although he didnt explain what that meant.

Ukrainian diplomats are working to ensure that European partners are substantially involved in decision-making, Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app, and warned about what he said were Russian disinformation campaigns aimed at steering the negotiations.

Ukrainian intelligence will provide partners with the information we have about Russias true intentions and its attempts to use diplomatic efforts as cover to ease sanctions and block important collective European decisions, Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy was meeting with political leaders and lawmakers in Dublin on his first official visit. Ireland is officially neutral and isn't a member of NATO, but has sent nonlethal military support to Ukraine. More than 100,000 Ukrainians have moved to Ireland since Russia launched its war on Feb. 24, 2022.

Though this weeks consultations could move the process forward, few details have become public. It remains unclear how envoys are going to bridge the gap between the two sides on such basic differences as who keeps what territory. European officials say the road to peace will be long.

European leaders, who fear Russias future territorial ambitions and are trying to figure out how they can fund Ukraines fight beyond this year, are trying to make their voices heard after being largely sidelined by Washington. They are also working on future security guarantees for Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that he and Zelenskyy, who was on a trip to Paris, spoke by phone with Witkoff. They also spoke to leaders of eight other European countries as well as top European Union officials and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.

Macron said that the coming days will see crucial discussions between U.S. officials and Western partners. Zelenskyys visit to Paris followed Sundays meeting between Ukrainian and U.S. officials, which Rubio described as productive.

Diplomats face a hard time trying to bridge Russian and Ukrainian differences and persuading them to strike compromises. The key obstacles  over whether Kyiv should cede land to Moscow and how to ensure Ukraines future security  appear unresolved.

Zelenskyy is under severe pressure in one of the darkest periods of the war for his country. As well as managing diplomatic pressure, he must find money to keep Ukraine afloat, address a corruption scandal that has reached the top echelons of his government, and keep Russia at bay on the battlefield.

The Kremlin late Monday claimed that Russian forces have captured the key Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region. Zelenskyy, however, said in Paris that fighting was still ongoing in Pokrovsk on Monday.

___

Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Every new set of orders is delivering another round of sticker shock to military households.

Military families are being hit with mounting unreimbursed costs during Permanent Change of Station (PCS) moves as freight prices rise, personal property contractors fall short, and reimbursements fail to match real world expenses.

Studies from military family organizations show that many households lose thousands of dollars per move through damage, delays and gaps in coverage while federal watchdogs warn the system responsible for shipping household goods remains fractured after recent contract failures.

Hundreds of thousands relocate every year and the Defense Department faces growing pressure to stabilize the PCS system and evaluate cheaper, lighter and more efficient alternatives that could ease families' financial strain.

A mover lifts a box into the back of a moving truck during a Permanent Change of Station on Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, July 18, 2025. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Stephanie Henry)

Costs Pack Financial Punch

PCS moves come with out-of-pocket hits that often surprise families.

Stewart Moving and Storage, a national long-distance mover, lists pricing for family-size, cross-country moves that often fall in the mid-to-high five figures when factoring weight, distance and full-service packing. That creates a wide gap between what military families pay and what the government reimburses.

Independent research shows the same pattern. A Military Family Advisory Network (MFAN) study found families typically absorb about $1,900 in unreimbursed costs and lose nearly $3,000 more in damaged or missing property during each move.

Another MFAN survey reported that families who had moved within the previous two years often faced $500-$1,000 in unreimbursed expenses before even accounting for damage, storage or delays.

Moving boxes and household goods get prepped for a permanent-change-of-station. (Master Sgt. Amaani Lyle/Air Force District of Washington)

Families Say Burden Keeps Growing

Rising prices are turning each PCS into a financial battle families say they are losing.

A spokesperson for Blue Star Families told Military.com that PCS moves remain a major financial and logistical stress for military households as rising prices cut deeper into savings. They said that of the one-third of active-duty families that moved in the previous year, roughly 69% paid more than $500 out of pocket for their most recent PCS.

PCS moves remain a major financial and logistical stress for military households."

Many families needed more than a year to recover financially, the group said. They've called on Congress to restore full Basic Allowance for Housing reimbursements while urging the Defense Department to issue PCS orders earlier and to streamline payments.

A military mover tapes a customers item during a Permanent Change of Station on Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, July 17, 2025. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Stephanie Henry)

Fixes Have Fallen Short

Recent efforts to privatize and streamline PCS moves have backfired.

A large-scale moving contract was terminated this year after widespread service failures and long delays across the shipment system. That breakdown left families dealing with missed pickups, incomplete shipments, and significant out-of-pocket expenses as the military reexamined its contractor oversight and moved some shipments back under government coordination.

The fallout contributed to the creation of a new Permanent Change of Station Joint Task Force at USTRANSCOM. Officials said the priority is restoring reliability and rebuilding trust among families who have struggled with gaps in service.

Military.com reached out to USTRANSCOM, SDDC, the Defense Department and multiple branches to determine whether lightweight corrugated systems are under review as part of ongoing PCS reforms.

One Company Sees Room for Improvement

Packaging and Crating Technologies, a Connecticut manufacturer, believes part of the solution lies in lighter shipping materials. The company produces corrugated cardboard crates that weigh far less than the wooden containers used across the moving industry.

Packaging and Crating Technologies COO Rodger Mort told Military.com that the companys LiftVan containers weigh 165 pounds at empty weight, equivalent to half the weight of a full wooden crate, and are regularly utilized by preferred vendor TierOne due to weight savings.

Boxes are ready for loading during a Permanent Change of Station on Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, July 17, 2025. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Stephanie Henry)

Mort said the lighter crates can save an average of $700 per load during coast-to-coast shipments and can be reused for up to 100 moves. The design significantly mitigates labor intensive crate construction at a time when movers face persistent labor shortages," he added.

The company says its containers meet Defense Department specifications and have a stacking strength of 4,000 pounds. Mort said his company has shipped submarine doors and firing systems and can build custom solutions for specialized military equipment.

The Problem Is Larger Than Packaging

Consumer estimates, family surveys, and federal audits all point in the same direction: families face rising costs.

Unfolded boxes are ready for packing during a Permanent Change of Station on Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, July 17, 2025. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Stephanie Henry)

Movers continue to struggle with staffing and capacity issues. Contract systems meant to simplify the process have fallen short. New ideas such as lighter crates may help some military households reduce freight weight but advocates say that alone cannot solve a system wide problem.

Persistent gaps in transportation capacity and contractor staffing have led to long delays across the moving system, creating missed delivery windows and unexpected expenses for many families.

Experts recommend that military families preparing for PCS orders budget for unreimbursed costs, document all items carefully, and review every entitlement before the move begins. Advocacy groups say any meaningful fix will need to address reimbursement gaps and contractor oversight, along with the general lack of consistency across the PCS system.
Senator Mark Kelly sits at an unusual point where civilian office and military law intersect. His appearance in a recent video urging U.S. service members to refuse illegal orders prompted the Department of Defense to open a formal review. The Pentagon relies on statutory authority allowing certain retired officers to remain subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and to be recalled for potential discipline under 10 U.S.C.  688. The review places Kelly in a rare position for a sitting senator and raises questions about how far military obligations extend once a service member steps into elected office. Coverage of the announcement emphasizes the core issue is the point where political speech meets the command structures that maintain discipline in the armed forces.

The Video That Triggered the Review

The video featured six lawmakers with either military or intelligence backgrounds addressing U.S. service members. Kellys comments included the phrase that troops can refuse illegal orders. According to reporting from Politico, the Pentagon viewed the message as potentially harmful to loyalty, morale, or good order and discipline. Although five other lawmakers appeared in the video, Kelly stands alone as the subject of the review because the Department of Defense determined he remains under UCMJ jurisdiction as a retired Navy captain. The other lawmakers either never retired from service or come from intelligence agencies outside the UCMJs reach. That distinction shapes the Pentagons current treatment of the matter.

Legal Grounding for the Pentagons Authority

The Department of Defense justified its review by pointing to its recall authority over retired officers, which appears in 10 U.S.C.  688, and to several UCMJ provisions that apply to retirees on the rolls. The Pentagon reminded service members the UCMJ presumes orders to be lawful unless they are clearly illegal, such as commands that require a criminal act. It also referenced federal statutes prohibiting attempts to interfere with the discipline of the armed forces. Kellys use of his military rank in the video appears to be a key factor in the Pentagons belief his conduct may fall within the scope of UCMJ review.

Why Kelly Stands Alone

Although the video showcased six participants, only Kelly currently faces military legal exposure. The Pentagon has stated that he is the only one whom the UCMJ still governs due to his retirement status. Other lawmakers in the video either served in the military without retiring or came from non-military national security roles, such as the Central Intelligence Agency. That jurisdictional point drives the Department of Defenses current stance and explains why Kelly occupies a unique position in this unfolding story. The Pentagon has not publicly indicated any comparable review of the other five video participants.

U.S. Senators Todd Young, senator of Indiana and Marine Corps veteran, and Mark Kelly, senator of Arizona and retired NASA astronaut are presented certificates during an awards ceremony at the Reserve Organization of America Building Washington, D.C., Sep. 3, 2025. The National Capital Council Navy League hosted the Congressional Sea Services Award ceremony in honor of U.S. Senators Todd Young and Mark Kelly for their outstanding contributions to the Sea Services in the previous calendar year. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Joshua Bustamante. Source: DVIDS

Constitutional and Civil-Military Tensions

This case sits at the intersection of civilian democracy and military command structures. Kelly maintains that his message simply reminded troops of their legal obligations, as he explained in follow-up remarks reported by The Guardian. The Pentagon, however, views the video differently and frames it as a possible threat to discipline and hierarchy. That tension highlights the longstanding challenge in American civil-military relations: how to balance the constitutional right of elected officials to speak with the militarys need for a stable and lawful chain of command. The situation also creates a rarely tested legal question about whether military authority can reach into the legislative branch when the individual in question retains retired-officer status.

The Constitution assigns Congress the power to regulate the armed forces while vesting command authority in the President. When a member of Congress remains subject to recall for potential military discipline, the separation between the branches becomes less clear. Reporting notes legal scholars consider this scenario extremely rare, with few modern precedents. That rarity underscores the unsettled legal landscape around military authority over retirees who hold high civilian office.

The Stakes for Civil-Military Boundaries

The Kelly investigation invites a deeper conversation about the boundary between military service and civilian governance. If the Pentagon pursues the review further, it could set a precedent for how the Department of Defense handles retired officers who transition into national leadership roles and then speak publicly on military matters. If the review ends quietly, the case may nonetheless shape how current and former service members approach public communication, especially during periods of political tension.

As the Department of Defense continues its assessment, observers will watch closely to see whether this situation becomes a one-off episode or the start of a broader debate over military obligations that continue after uniformed service ends. The answer will influence how the United States interprets the responsibilities of those who once served and now hold civilian power, and how the armed forces maintain discipline without overreaching into political life.
In a time when less than 1% of Americans serve, one creator has become an unexpected bridge between the military and the public  not through politics or messaging, but through unforgettable storytelling. In this exclusive interview with Sam Eckholm, Military.com got to peek behind the camera to see what really drives him.

When Sam Eckholm talks about what he does, he doesnt use words like influencer, brand, or platform. He uses a simpler one: storyteller.

And in an era where military service is often misunderstood, reduced to headlines, or overshadowed by political noise, Eckholms mission feels both rare and necessary.

Were never going to stray from authentic storytelling, Eckholm told Military.com. At the end of the day, good authentic storytelling wins out.

A New Voice for a Rare Community

In a nation of more than 330 million people, only 0.6% serve on active duty. Even when you include the Guard, Reserves, and veterans, most Americans will never set foot on a base, ride in the back of a jet, or watch a special tactics team train up close.

Sam Eckholm knows this acutely  because at 18, he was searching for that very glimpse.

I remember going on Google and typing day in the life Air Force Academy or what is this job? And there really wasnt much out there, he said. No one was making the style of content that showcased the military the way it deserved.

Today, millions of people who have never worn a uniform now get that glimpse because of him.

We want the unit to be proud to share it. If theyre proud, weve done the story right.

From Cadet to Global Storyteller

Eckholm didnt begin as a filmmaker. He came from a military family, both his father and uncle were Academy graduates, but he didnt take the stereotypical path.

He started college imagining hed become a pilot or engineer. Instead, mock trial and public speaking drew him toward legal studies. By graduation, hed integrated his passion for photography, video, and strategic communication, and earned one of the few public affairs slots out of the Air Force Academy.

That assignment changed everything.

At Langley Air Force Base, he discovered the Air Forces F-22 Raptor Demonstration Team, a once-in-a-lifetime role that would send him TDY nearly 300 days a year, documenting the worlds most advanced fighter jet up close. For two years, he was the lens through which the world saw the Raptor.

Thats where I really honed my skills, he said. My whole job was telling the story of that team.

When he left active duty, that mission didnt stop. It only got bigger.

Becoming a Guide  Not the Star

Ask Eckholm how he balances being the face of the channel with keeping the story focused on those who serve, and he laughs.

I dont want it to be about me, he said. I want to be the host, the guide, but never the story.

But part of authenticity is presence. His team often reminds him: viewers relate to him, and that connection enables them to enter unfamiliar military worlds. So, Sam sees himself as a guide  someone who brings emotion and relatability into environments that otherwise appear superhuman.

Like the time he pulled 9.5 Gs in the backseat of an F-16.

If you watch a demo pilot fly, they're world class at what they do and it looks like theyre in a commercial airliner, he said. But when viewers see me with my face melting and passing out  it shows what these pilots actually endure.

That relatability becomes an emotional doorway to understanding.

We spotlight the heroes who deserve to have their stories told  people who otherwise might never be seen.

The Stories Behind the Stories

What makes Eckholms videos unique isnt the aircraft, the bases, or the elite units he embeds with. Its the people.

The military is full of everyday Americans, he said. People think you have to be someone extraordinary to serve. But service members come from all walks of life.

His goal is to help viewers, whether teenagers, spouses, veterans, or civilians, see themselves in those stories.

That connection  between the everyday American and the everyday service member  is exactly what Eckholm is trying to build.

Because that connection is disappearing. And in a country where so few serve, its needed more than ever.

Creating Clarity in a Complex Institution

Modern military life is complicated. Acronyms. Technology. Missions spanning the Arctic to the Pacific. Eckholms videos bridge that complexity for a general audience.

We peel back the layers and tell the story in a way anyone can understand  whether youre a four-star general or a first-time viewer, he said. We have to get that balance right.

That balance also includes operational security (OPSEC), which is something Sam and his team take seriously.

All of their videos undergo multiple rounds of review, and sometimes sit for two or three months before release. Its the cost of trust.

Our entire business is built on reputation, he said. We dont get invited back unless units are proud of the story we tell.

Expanding the Mission  From U.S. Bases to NATO and Beyond

What began with Air Force content has now become a worldwide storytelling effort.

This year alone, Eckholms team filmed with:

NATO forces in Iceland

The Royal Air Force in the U.K.

The Swedish Navy

Units across every branch of the U.S. military

But the biggest shift is whos now calling him. NATO asked his team to tell a story designed not for recruiting, but for global understanding. Lockheed Martin used one of his F-35 films on Capitol Hill to explain the jet to congressional staffers.

These arent just YouTube videos. Theyre shaping public understanding at every level, from teenagers to defense leaders.

Its surreal, he said. We started by telling cool stories. Now these stories are having real-world impact.

Flying the U-2 Spy Plane 70,000 Feet to the Edge of Space

The Road Ahead

With a full production team, a new studio in San Francisco, and representation from one of the worlds biggest talent agencies, Eckholm is already looking beyond YouTube.

A streaming series?

Partnerships with major studios?

Possibly, he says. But the core mission wont change. Were going to keep telling powerful stories that highlight the men and women who serve.

Even as he expands into civilian transportation, international militaries, and highly complex exercises, the heart of his mission remains constant:

Show the world who Americas service members truly are.

Make the military human again.

Tell stories that deserve to be told.

Service members deserve to be highlighted. They deserve their stories told  and told well.  Sam Eckholm

A Storyteller for the 1%  and the 99% Who Dont Serve

Sam Eckholm isnt just making videos. Hes filling a national gap  one that grows wider every year as fewer Americans serve, fewer military families exist, and fewer civilians understand what life in uniform actually looks like.

And right now, in the United States, that gap is turning into a divide. Public confidence in the military, once the most trusted institution in America, is slipping amidst political polarization, social media misinformation, and nonstop national tension.

Most Americans support the military in theory, but many dont actually know anyone who serves anymore. That disconnect matters. Because when the military feels distant, the people who serve become abstractions, symbols used in political arguments rather than human beings with stories, families, and individual sacrifices.

Eckholm is closing that distance, one story at a time. By bringing viewers into cockpits, onto submarines, inside cyber units, alongside NATO forces, and into high-pressure training environments, hes accomplishing something that no press release or recruiting slogan can do:

Hes making the military real again.

Human again.

Understandable again.

And in a country where service is increasingly rare and increasingly misunderstood, that work isnt just creative. Its necessary.

In a moment where America feels divided, disconnected, and often unsure of itself, Sam Eckholm is building one of the few bridges that still unite us:

A bridge made of stories  the stories of the men and women who serve.
Former big league pitcher Dave Morehead passed away last week, according to a report from J.P. Hoornstra of Newsweek. He was 82.

Morehead was a San Diego native who signed with the Red Sox as a 17-year-old. He was in the big leagues two years later, winning 10 games and pitching 174 2/3 innings in his age-19 season. The 61 righty threw a complete game shutout with 10 strikeouts to beat the Washington Senators in his MLB debut. Morehead would go on to record 136 punchouts with a 3.81 earned run average in what was arguably the best season of his career.

Hed hold a rotation spot in Boston for the next two seasons. Moreheads ERA spiked north of 4.00 in each of the next two years, though he started 30+ games and topped 130 strikeouts in both seasons. The highlight of his career came at the end of the 65 season. Morehead fired a no-hitter in a 2-0 win over Cleveland that September. He fanned eight and only allowed one baserunner (a second-inning walk to Rocky Colavito) to outduel Luis Tiant. It was the 14th no-hitter in franchise history.

Morehead battled injuries and was limited to a combined 33 regular season appearances over the next three seasons. The Sox won 92 games to claim the AL pennant in 1967. Morehead got into two games during the Fall Classic, working around four walks to toss 3 1/3 scoreless frames. Boston came up just short of a title, as Bob Gibson won three times to push the Cardinals to a seven-game Series win.

After the 68 season, Morehead went to Kansas City in the expansion draft. He pitched two seasons with the Royals to finish his career. Morehead pitched to a 4.15 ERA with 627 strikeouts over 819 1/3 innings in parts of eight campaigns. MLBTR sends our condolences to Moreheads family, friends and loved ones.
Ties are shown in this MLive file photo. The New York Times came up with a list of the 50 best clothing stores in America. Two of them are in Michigan. Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News

Two Michigan spots are among the 50 best clothing stores in the country, according a search and evaluation by The New York Times.

They include Coup Detat, 9301 Kercheval Ave., in Detroit and AP Shop, 14931 Lakeside Road, in Lakeside in Southwest Michigans Berrien County.

Coup Detat has the type of experimental look that you might expect from a retail space in a revitalizing city like Detroit, The New York Times reporter Misty White Sidell wrote.

AP Shop, about an hours drive from Chicago, is a taste of Barneys on Lake Michigan, according to The Times.

The Times sought store recommendations from other reporters, editors and contributors and searched through its archival and recent shopping coverage for its list this year, according to its methodology blurb.

Reporters and editors spent months evaluating over 120 clothing stores nationally based on criteria, such as inventory, customer service, ambience and location.

Reporters and photographers visited all 50 stores on the list.

The New York Times describes the Detroit store as ahead of the curve.

The list features video clips from inside and outside, and viewers can see rows of small circular glass blocks that light its interior.

Owner Angela Wisniewski-Cobbina opened Coup Detat in 2019. The store sits on the site of a former bakery, the list states.

Patrons can purchase bias-cut Collina Strada dresses, low-slung Eckhaus Latta jeans, Sandy Liang track suits and jewelry from a wide variety of independent designers.

These designers are known for attracting a trend-driven crowd, The New York Times states.

In Lakeside, viewers see a blue door, white walls and furniture holding clothes in interior and exterior video clips published by The New York Times.

AP Shop trades in the kind of soft and sophisticated clothes that moneyed people with taste like to wear on summer vacations, Sidell wrote.

Ariane Prewitt, owner of AP Shop and a former visual merchandising director at Barneys New York, opened the store in 2010.

The store carries cotton pieces from the clothing brands Cristaseya and Dosa, pleated items from Paris-based Chinese designer Shan Shan Ruan and tiered skirts from the Romanian brand Les Vacances dIrina.

AP Shop has a neighboring sister boutique that sells more clothes, as well as home goods and antiques.

AP Shop is only open from May to mid-December and by appointment.

Coup Detat is open 1 to 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 12 to 6 p.m. Saturday and 12 to 4 p.m. Sunday.
CADILLAC, MI -- A northern Michigan woman, with the help of her husband, is accused of murdering her 22-year-old daughter and cutting her unborn grandson from her daughters womb

This is frankly evil personified, Wexford County Prosecutor Johanna Carey said during the couples arraignment on Tuesday, Dec. 2, in Cadillac.

No motive was offered when 40-year-old Cortney Bartholomew and her 47-year-old husband, Bradly Alan Bartholomew, were each arraigned on eight counts, including first-degree premeditated murder, torture, unlawful imprisonment and assault with intent to cause miscarriage or stillbirth.

Cortney Bartholomew is Parks biological mother, although Park and two siblings were raised by an adoptive mother.

Cortney Bartholomew shook her head as the charges were read.

Cortney Bartholomew arraignment Gus Burns

Park was reportedly last seen on Nov. 3 and her slain body was discovered near the Bartholomews home in the Manistee National Forest on Nov. 25.

This is a case of premeditated torture and murder, Carey said while successfully arguing against bond. These two individuals created a plan, conducted research. Mr. Bartholomew brought Rebecca to their home, forced her into another vehicle and took her into the woods where they stabbed her, forced her to lie on the ground while they cut her baby out, ultimately caused her death and the death of the baby.

The couple from Boon Township, a 650-resident community surrounded by the Manistee National Forest about 15 miles northwest of Cadillac, face mandatory life prison sentences if convicted of the most serious crimes.

Not-guilty pleas were entered on the couples behalf and both requested to be assigned court-appointed attorneys.

Until the prosecutor revealed the grim reality, supporters hoped Parks baby had survived.

That was all of our hopes, said Caleb Hudson, 29, of Cadillac, who dated Park about two years ago. At the time, Park didnt have any relationship with Cortney Bartholomew, he said.

Park was at least 38 weeks pregnant at the time of her disappearance.

Bradly Bartholomew arraignment Gus Burns

Cortney Bartholomew appeared for the arraignment via video feed from the Wexford County Jail. Bradly Bartholomew, with glasses and goatee-style facial hair, also appeared via video feed, but from the jail in neighboring Missaukee County.

More than 50 people, mostly supporters of Park, filled the standing-room-only courtroom, some audibly crying and gasping as details of the deaths were revealed.

I hope they rot in hell, one spectator said loudly while the courtroom cleared.

Wexford County 84th District Court Judge Corey J. Wiggins listed off extensive criminal histories for both defendants. Among them were Bradly Bartholomews prior convictions in 2017 for possession child sexually abusive material and a 2011 conviction for third-degree sexual conduct with a person between 13 and 15. Most of the offenses listed for Cortney Bartholomew dealt with driver license violations, theft, forgery or fraud and spanned back to 2005.

Court-appointed defense attorney Robert Haertel told the judge Cortney is not a flight risk and should have access to a possible bond due to medical treatment she requires for medical disabilities that he declined to publicly reveal.

Park supporters said there are still unanswered questions.

I dont think they know the motive just yet, Hudson said as the hearing concluded.

Others also had theories.

I think they planned on keeping the baby, said 52-year-old David Roys Jr. of Cadillac, who met Park through Richard Lee Falor, the father of Parks baby.

Falor, 43, began dating Park about two years ago and they were engaged at the time of Parks disappearance.

Police arrested Richard Lee Falor on Nov. 26, the same day a search warrant was served by state police at his fathers home.

Richard Lee Falor was arraigned on two counts of delivery/manufacture of a controlled substance, and for being a habitual offender fourth offense notice. His bond was set at $1 million.

Falors preliminary examination is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Dec. 9.

While the charges against Richard Falor are not directly related to Parks death, a search warrant reviewed by MLive shows state police suspected his involvement in Parks death or disappearance.

The warrant granted state troopers access to search the residence for human remains to include a fetus, any suspected burial sites and tools that could be used to dispose of human remains.

Rebecca Parks 21-year-old sister, Kimberly Park, was arrested on Nov. 26, and arraigned on charges of tampering with evidence, lying to a peace officer, and a false report of a felony. Its unclear if the charges are related to Parks death or disappearance. Kimberly Parks bond is set at $750,000.

Kimberly Park and the Bartholomews have preliminary examinations scheduled for 2 p.m. on Dec. 16.

It just makes me angry and sad, Hudson said outside the courthouse. Just to find out about the baby and what they did to her, it made me want to puke.
Palisades nuclear power plant seen from Van Buren State Park in Covert, Michigan on Thursday, March 21, 2024. Joel Bissell | MLive.com

COVERT, MI  A nuclear energy plant along Lake Michigan is getting $400 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, allowing it to nearly double the amount of energy it can generate.

Two small modular reactors (SMRs) will be deployed at the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Van Buren County.

The plant is slated to celebrate a historic restart before the end of the year.

Southwest Michigan will be on the cutting edge of the next generation of nuclear energy in America, U.S. Rep Bill Huizenga said.

Two more SMRs will be deployed in a Tennessee plant, per a DOE press release.

When it restarts, the plant promises to generate 800 megawatts of power without emitting greenhouses gasses produced by burning coal or natural gas.

The new reactors at Palisades will generate another 600 megawatts, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a press release.

Thats enough power to support 1.4 million homes and businesses, per Whitmers release. The moves help protect 900 jobs at the plant.

Todays announcement will lower energy costs, reaffirm Michigans clean energy leadership and show the world that we are the best place to do business, Whitmer said.

The SMRs are expected to be producing energy by the early 2030s, per the DOE.

Advanced light-water SMRs will give our nation the reliable, round-the-clock power we need to fuel the Presidents manufacturing boom, support data centers and AI growth, and reinforce a stronger, more secure electric grid, said U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright.

If successful, Palisades is poised to become the first American nuclear power plant to restart after entering decommissioning.

The addition of state-of-the-art SMRs makes Palisades restart even more significant, Huizenga said.

The process is rolling forward despite objections from neighbors and anti-nuclear advocates who argue safety shortcuts are taking place in the race to restart.

In February, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) determined the restart will have no significant impact on the environment.

The nuclear plant shifted from decommissioning status to operational in July.

Holtec International received 68 fresh fuel assemblies at the plant in October.
The home where Richard Lee Falor and Rebecca Park lived prior to Park's disappearance. Police served a search warrant at the property and seized multiple knives, notebooks and electronics. Gus Burns

MANTON, MI -- In a trailer on a hill along a snow-covered road in Manton is the bedroom where 22-year-old Rebecca Becca Park slept with her fiance, the father of her unborn child, during her final days.

I sealed it off until this is over, said Richard Allen Falor, the homeowner and father of Parks former fiance, 43-year-old Richard Rich Lee Falor, whos jailed on drug charges unrelated to Parks death or disappearance. Police have got it all tore up.

Park went missing on Nov. 3 close to the town of Boon near Cadillac. She was at least 38 weeks pregnant at the time. When her body was found on Nov. 25, Parks baby was not with the body and investigators have said they are working diligently to determine the condition and potential whereabouts of the baby.

Rebecca Park, 22, was reported missing earlier this month in Northern Michigan. After a lengthy search, her body was reportedly found on Tuesday, Nov. 25. Photo used with permisison of the Wexford County Sheriff's Office. Photo used with permisison of the Wexford County Sheriff's Office

Richard Allen Falor, a thin, bearded 62-year-old who suffers from lung cancer, spoke with MLive from a small, cluttered table in his home as a gameshow played on TV in the background. Stacks of wood for the stove lined one wall.

A warrant granting state troopers access to search the residence for human remains to include a fetus, any suspected burial sites and tools that could be used to dispose of human remains, lay on a kitchen counter.

Richard Allen Falor said his son and Park went to the hospital prior to Parks disappearance because Park thought she was going into labor. She was released because she wasnt getting ready to have the baby yet, according to Richard Allen Falor.

Park then had dinner with her mother and was dropped off at Richard Allen Falors home by her mother and stepfather, he said. That was the last day he saw her.

The night she went missing, she was here, Richard Allen Falor said. She left during the night but (my son) stayed here for some reason and we just never heard from her again.

(Parks) mom came and got her. Thats what my son told me the next morning.

On that morning, Richard Allen Falor said he woke up and pounded on the door to Park and his sons bedroom.

He was in there, Richard Allen Falor said. I asked if he would let me in, he wont let me in and I asked, Whats the problem?

He said Ive been trying to get ahold of Becca all night and she aint answering her phone and I think somethings wrong.

Richard Allen Falor, who has multiple adult grandchildren who also live in the home, pointed to a green chair in an adjoining room.

My grandson, he sits in that chair to play video games and sleeps in his chair, Richard Allen Falor said. He said (Park) woke him up about twelve thirty, one oclock and said to pick the chair up so she could get through.

And he said shes the only one that went through.

Richard Allen Falor said his son initially had a relationship with Parks mother and thats how his son and Park met about two years ago.

Richard Allen Falor was referring to Parks biological mother, 40-year-old Cortney Marie Bartholomew, who was booked into the Wexford County Jail at 11:41 p.m. on Sunday Nov. 30, according to online jail records.

Bartholomew was scheduled to be arraigned alongside her husband, Bradly Alan Bartholomew, 47, on unrevealed charges Monday, but the hearing was adjourned until Tuesday, Dec. 2, after the prosecutor said the criminal complaint in the case was not ready, UpNorthLive reported .

Park and Richard Lee Falor had dated for a couple years and they were excited to be having a child together, according to Richard Allen Falor.

Richard Lee Falors father described his son as pretty mellow, but also that he began getting into trouble as a juvenile, notably for possessing a motorcycle that was reported stolen by a neighbor and would eventually spend 16 years in prison on various offenses. State prison records dont show any recent offenses, however.

Online state police sex offender registry records show Richard Lee Falor has five separate convictions for sex-related crimes, the first when he was 20 years old involving a child between 13 and 15. In 2005 he was convicted of criminal sexual conduct with an incapacitated victims, in May 2015 of accosting a child for immoral purposes, in June 2015 of second-degree criminal sexual assault and in September 2015 of criminal sexual conduct with a person between 13 and 15.

Richard Allen Falor described Park and his sons relationship as sometimes tumultuous but not violent.

She was happy all the time and he was unaware of any drug use by the couple.

Richard Lee Falor was arrested on Nov. 26, a day after Parks body was discovered. His father said the arrest occurred when Richard Lee Falor reported for a required sex offender registry check-in.

The same day, according to the warrant, Richard Allen Falor said five officers served a search warrant at his home, looked through his sons bedroom, searched two outbuildings and asked about the location of the septic tank, which Richard Allen Falor couldnt provide.

A catalog of seized items included various notebooks, knives and a tablet.

Richard Allen Falor said Park and his son moved out of his home for about two months and were in the process of fixing up an inoperable motorhome to live in on a neighbors property, but the homeowner was arrested for drugs so they returned to Richard Allen Falors house shortly before the disappearance.

Richard Allen Falor has not spoken his son since the arrest, but said hed be surprised if he is charged with a crime related to her killing.

I dont think he had anything to do with that, Richard Allen Falor said. Its sad. I hope they find out where the babys at.
Justice for Rebecca was painted in the snow across from the home where Rebecca Park's biological mother lives. Photo by Gus Burns | MLive

BOON TOWNSHIP, MI -- On Monday, Dec. 1, there was a bluish-green message that appeared to be spray-painted on heavy, white snow at the edge of a Manistee National Forest in Boon.

Justice 4 Rebecca.

Two empty energy drink cans lay in the snow nearby.

For weeks, this heavily forested and sparsely populated section of northern Michigan near Cadillac in Wexford County has been at the center of a mystery, online rumors, small-town gossip, searches and accusations.

Not far from the snow-scrawled message is the place volunteer searchers found the body of 22-year-old Rebecca Park on Nov. 25. She vanished on Nov. 3 while pregnant.

Her baby has never been found.

This is not who we are at all, said Pastor Teresa Costales of Boon Fresh Start Church, located about 200 yards from the message in the snow. This is devastating for all of us and I think were all a little bit in shock.

Rebecca Park, 22, reportedly went missing on Nov. 3, 2025. Her body was found on Nov. 25. Photo handout provided by the Wexford County Sheriff's Department. Photo provided by the Wexford County Sheriff's Department

Parks disappearance and death has brought international attention to the 0.84-square-mile unincorporated community of Boon, which had a population of 90 as of the 2020 U.S. Census. Its part of Boon Township, which is 36 square miles with a population near 650.

Boon is located about 15 miles northwest of Cadillac, the economic hub of the region and a popular tourist town in the summer when people visit to boat and sunbathe on Lake Mitchell or Lake Cadillac.

Post office in Boon, Michigan. Gus Burns

Hunting is a big deal, because were right there in the woods, Costales said. A lot of people come from downstate to come up and hunt.

Boon itself doesnt have much commerce. Theres a cemetery, post office, a Baptist church and the Boon Country Store, known for its specialty cheeses that sit under cake platters near the register and next to various pickled products in large jars.

Railroad tracks in Boon, MIchigan. Gus Burns

Boon is bordered to the east by railroad tracks where a line of graffitied rail cars sat idle.

The Boon Township Hall, which doubles as the fire department, is a main gathering spot. Its where they host the annual Halloween trunk-or-treat, among other meetings and events.

The Boon Township Hall and fire department Gus Burns

Across the street from the township hall, 43-year-old Jason Voelker played in a snow pile with his niece on Monday, Dec. 1.

Like many in the area, hes been following TikTok videos and social media related to the Park case but said he didnt know personally Park or her mother, who lived a few miles to the north.

The sad part about it is its nice around here, Voelker said. We all have kids and stuff, we all help each other out. Everyone is pretty regular. We all know each other.

He moved to Boon about 12 years ago because the houses were cheap.

It aint much, but I get by with it, Voelker said. He pointed to the south. You got the national forest trailheads right out here.

About 12 miles southwest of Boon is the popular Caberfae Peaks ski resort.

Boon residents who spoke to MLive said locals travel to work at factories and businesses in nearby Cadillac or Traverse City. Several Christmas tree farms in the area offer seasonal employment. Other people operate small businesses, like snow plowing or landscaping companies, or work in the medical field at nearby casinos.

About three miles north of Boon, tall, snow-dipped pines line the road leading to the home of Parks biological mother, 40-year-old Cortney Bartholomew, and Parks stepfather, 47-year-old Bradley Alan Bartholomew.

But they did not raise Park, according to media reports.

Park, her younger sister, 21-year-old Kimberly Park, and an older brother were brought up by Parks adoptive mother, Stephanie Park, who told 9&10 News she took custody of the siblings when Rebecca Park was one. Stephanie Park said she now also cares for Parks 3- and 2-year-old sons, as well as Kimberly Parks year-old daughter.

The message seeking justice for Park was written across the road from the home where the Bartholomews live. Public records indicate the property is owned by a man in Indianapolis.

There was no answer when a reporter knocked on the door Monday, Dec. 1, but there were fresh tracks in the driveway, and an outdoor light was on.

Costales, the pastor of the neighboring church, said her surveillance cameras captured a few police cars parked in front of the church on Sunday, Nov. 30.

By Dec. 1, the Bartholomews were jailed in Wexford County, scheduled to be arraigned on charges Monday, Dec. 1, but the arraignment was adjourned until 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 2, after the prosecutor said the criminal complaint in the case was not ready, UpNorthLive reported . Its unclear what the charges will be.

Kimberly Park was arrested on Nov. 26, according to court records and arraigned on charges of tampering with evidence, lying to a peace officer, and a false report of a felony. Its unclear if the charges are related to Parks death or disappearance. Kimberly Parks bond is set at $750,000.

At the time of Parks disappearance, she was living with her fiance, 43-year-old Richard Lee Falor, in a mobile home owned by Falors 62-year-old father, Richard Allen Falor. Its located in Manton, about a 20-minute drive from the home where Parks biological mother lived in Boon Township.

The home where Richard Lee Falor and Rebecca Park lived prior to Park's Disappearance. Police served a search warrant at the property and seized multiple knives, notebooks and electronics. Gus Burns

Police arrested Richard Lee Falor on Nov. 26, the same day a search warrant was served by state police at his fathers home. Richard Lee Falor was arraigned on two counts of delivery/manufacture of a controlled substance, and for being a habitual offender fourth offense notice. His bond was set at $1 million.

While the charges against Richard Falor arent related to Park, its clear from a search warrant MLive reviewed that state police suspected his involvement in Parks death or disappearance.

The warrant granted state troopers access to search the residence for human remains to include a fetus, any suspected burial sites and tools that could be used to dispose of human remains.

Any discovery of those items werent noted in documents inspected by MLive. Police did remove multiple knives, notebooks and electronics from the property.

Costales said everything surrounding Parks case is all kind of sad.

First of all, its just sad for what happened to her, Costales said. But its also just sad that this is what people are going to think of Boon when they hear what happened.

I just think thats kind of devastating for everybody.
BRIMLEY, MI  A large, unrestricted donation from a famous philanthropist is a game-changer for this college in Michigans Upper Peninsula, according to a news release.

Bay Mills Community College is the beneficiary of a $9 million donation from the Mackenzie Scott Foundation, the Bay Mills Indian Community announced. Officials have already announced plans to use the money for new programs and infrastructure, including a new health facility.

Its a game-changer that will shape our future in remarkable ways, said BMCC President Dr. Duane Bedell.

Mackenzie Scott  a novelist, contributor to the development of Amazon and former spouse of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos  signed her Giving Pledge in 2019. She vowed to give away most of her wealth to charitable causes over her lifetime or after her death.

Scotts 2025 donations focused on educational institutions impacted by federal cuts, the release said. A White House recommendation to reduce the Bureau of Indian Educations college funding from $183 million to $22 million left tribal colleges uneasy about their future, although the cut was not approved.

This donation will be truly transformative for Bay Mills Community College, creating opportunities that will ripple through our students lives and the communities we proudly serve, Bedell said.
William Isaak Sparks was arrested during an undercover operation while trying to solicit sex from fictitious 11-year-olds. MLive.com

A Michigan man was sentenced to federal prison for trying to solicit sex from minors online.

William Sparks, 24, of Kalamazoo, will serve 16 years and 9 months behind bars followed by a lifetime of supervised release, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Middle District of Florida announced on Nov. 19. Sparks will be required to register as a sex offender after he is released from prison.

Sparks pleaded guilty in April to attempting to entice a child to engage in sexual activity via the internet. Police said the Kalamazoo man attempted to meet up with fictitious 11-year-old children for sex on two different occasions in May 2024.

In one incident, Sparks encountered an undercover FBI agent online who was posing as a father trafficking his 11-year-old daughter for sex. Sparks reportedly told the man he wanted to have sex with the child. He asked the agent to buy a bus ticket so Sparks could travel from Michigan to Jacksonville, Florida, to sexually assault the child.

Before Sparks could make the trip to Jacksonville, he was arrested in Michigan while trying to meet a different fictitious 11-year-old for sex. Kalamazoo Township detectives surveilled Sparks at the place he intended to meet the underage victim and arrested the man without incident.

Sparks was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Laura Cofer Taylor.
ANN ARBOR, MI  Ann Arbors big undertaking to build the citys first net-zero, carbon-neutral fire station is off to a rocky start.

Due to a significant surveying error made during the foundation layout, the citys contractor for the project had to start removing the incorrectly laid out building foundation in late November to avoid further problems, Fire Chief Mike Kennedy said.

We are continuing to assess the impacts, he said. Currently, we anticipate a delay of at least several weeks, though the exact duration is still being determined.

Granger Construction Co. has acknowledged full responsibility, Kennedy said.

Ann Arbor's Fire Station 4 construction site at Huron Parkway and Platt Road on Nov. 28, 2025. (Ryan Stanton | MLive.com) Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News

Paul Roller, a project manager at Granger, said the foundation layout error was discovered when a survey was done to prepare for steel erection.

The foundation removal and replacement is ongoing to correct the work and were really looking forward to a successful project, he said, deferring to Kennedy for further comment.

City Council in March approved a $10.6 million construction contract with Granger and to appropriate $12.4 million overall for the project to build a new Station 4 at Huron Parkway and Platt Road, where the old station has been demolished.

A rendering showing what a new solar-powered, net-zero Fire Station 4 could look like on Huron Parkway in Ann Arbor. A3C Collaborative Architecture

City officials gathered for a groundbreaking ceremony May 20, saying the new facility would be the first net-zero fire station in Michigan, meaning it would generate as much energy as it uses, and the first carbon-neutral city building.

Plans include geothermal heating and cooling, solar panels and other energy-efficiency measures.

As of Friday, Nov. 28, there were piles of crumbled concrete on the site and part of the foundation already was ripped out, though some of it remained intact. Kennedy said a large portion had been removed on the east side of the site, but some of the bay floor where fire trucks will park is savable  the city is just waiting on a survey to know how much.

Some of that is going to go, some of its going to come out, he said.

Ann Arbor's Fire Station 4 construction site at Huron Parkway and Platt Road on Nov. 28, 2025. (Ryan Stanton | MLive.com) Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News

Explaining the mistake with the layout, Kennedy said there was a rotation error that alone was likely manageable, but the primary problem was a scaling error that caused the foundation footprint to shift and contract by about one to four inches in various locations. By the time the problem was discovered, the foundation had been poured, he said.

Structural steel installation was scheduled for the week of Nov. 17, which did not happen, he said.

None of the steel would have lined up for what that foundation would have been, he said. And it would have just been this cascade of consequences to not just get that foundation right.

Ann Arbor's Fire Station 4 construction site at Huron Parkway and Platt Road on Nov. 28, 2025. (Ryan Stanton | MLive.com) Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News

Its an active and evolving situation, so there arent definitive answers to every question yet, but the cost to remove and repour the foundation is Grangers responsibility, Kennedy said.

City officials didnt immediately have any information on the carbon impacts of having to redo foundation work.

Addressing the issue has required involvement from the citys project architect and mechanical engineer. If that results in additional costs beyond their contract, the city will evaluate steps to recover costs from Granger, Kennedy said.

Given the contractual implications, the city attorneys office will be engaged as well, he said.

Ann Arbor's Fire Station 4 construction site at Huron Parkway and Platt Road on Nov. 28, 2025. (Ryan Stanton | MLive.com) Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News

The citys contract with Granger includes a 428-day construction timeline with a substantial completion date of Aug. 7, 2026. Whether Granger will be able to recover the schedule impacts is still to be determined, Kennedy said.

He gives Granger credit for being forthright and owning the mistake, he said, but the setback is unfortunate because they were hoping to have the foundation and steel work done by the end of the year to start getting the building wrapped by winter.

If the project schedule is pushed out any further, the other issue is theres a fire service gap in that part of the city right now, Kennedy said.

I want it to be done right, but I also would like that fire station to be back operational as soon as possible, he said.

Ann Arbor's Fire Station 4 construction site at Huron Parkway and Platt Road on Nov. 28, 2025. (Ryan Stanton | MLive.com) Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News

The time it previously took to get DTE Energy gas service disconnected from the old station also had an impact, pushing back the planned demolition, Kennedy said, though he described that as more of a routine and typical scheduling step.

Another matter that had to be addressed earlier for the project was that a support pole for a major DTE transmission power line along Platt Road was positioned within the footprint of the new stations foundation, Kennedy said.

Though the pole had been replaced recently, it had occupied the same location for decades and DTE relocated it well in advance of any impact to the construction schedule, he said.

Want more Ann Arbor-area news? Bookmark the local Ann Arbor news page.
Emcee Jeff Daniels performs on the first night of the Ann Arbor Folk Festival at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor. His new music venue and restaurant on South Main Street in Chelsea is set to open next April. Jacob Hamilton | MLive.com

CHELSEA, MI  Actor Jeff Daniels new music venue and restaurant, a short distance from his Purple Rose Theatre, will be a cozy spot for musicians of all genres, managers say.

And Chelsea is ready for a new immersive nighttime venue, according to Aaron Vermeulen, business partner and principal at architecture firm O|X Studio, based in Ann Arbor.

JDs Stage Bistro, 117  S. Main St., is under construction and will open next April, Vermeulen, 56, said.

The spot will accommodate a 130-person music space, 100-person restaurant, 60-person newsroom and 30-person vinyl room.

The 42-by-22-foot newsroom pays homage to the TV series of the same name, in which Jeff Daniels plays the lead role. It could host rehearsal dinners, office parties and community events, Vermeulen said.

Read more: Jeff Daniels is partner in new music venue and restaurant under construction in Chelsea

Amanda Daniels, talent buyer and venue manager for the forthcoming spot, said talks to open JDs Stage Bistro began in fall 2023, when Vermeulen and his partner, Roy Farmer, met with Jeff Daniels to discuss a new music and restaurant idea.

We wanted this project to be more personal, more meaningful to us than just another restaurant with his name on it, Amanda, 34, said. We wanted to combine everything that was important to us, like the arts, family, community and good food.

Amanda, who is Jeff Daniels daughter-in-law, and Vermeulen said they envisioned a music venue away from a larger city, and hope the spot would build on Chelseas existing music scene.

Jeff didnt want just a licensing agreement, he wanted something that he would be proud of and his family would be proud of and Chelsea would be proud of, Vermeulen, of Dexter Township, said.

Vermeulen said this project is different from others he has worked on because its local people trying to do amazing things.

Amanda, who is also a musician, said Chelsea is her home and she wanted to build a space that we would want to play in and we would want to be in regularly.

The South Main Street building has been around since 1860, according to Vermeulen, and Chelsea Bakery sits above it.

The basement, where the venue and restaurant will be, previously was a storage space for a small brewery.

It is to feature a brick-vaulted ceiling, wine cellar, wood-fired oven pizza bar, martini door and 1920s chandelier, among other bar rooms and features.

To Amanda, sound quality and a comfortable environment is a priority for musicians who will perform there.

For these artists who are tired and they want to play somewhere where they really feel welcome and taken care of, they want a good sound, they want a good audience and those are the things we want to give to musicians as well as the community, Amanda said. This is our home.

She said the focus of the venue will be on original music because we want our audience to really listen to these musicians.

Amanda said the restaurant menu will highlight local flavors from Michigan and the Midwest. It will also incorporate a few of Jeff Daniels great-grandmothers old recipes.

Vermeulen said the drinks menu will feature several vintage-style cocktails.

The bistro sits just about a tenth of a mile west of Daniels Purple Rose Theatre, 137 Park St.

Daniels, who grew up in Chelsea, founded it in 1991.

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SALINE, MI  More than 100 Saline area residents braved the cold Monday evening Dec. 1 to protest a $7 billion hyperscale data center project in Saline Township and DTE Energys plan to power the massive facility.

Local opposition has been growing against a 2.2 million-square-foot data center campus for ChatGPT creator OpenAI and the multinational tech firm Oracle to use to power artificial intelligence and cloud computing technologies. It would be Michigans first hyperscale data center.

Protesters packed all four corners of downtown Salines main intersection at Michigan Avenue and Ann Arbor Street. They chanted and held protest signs. Many motorists honked in support of their messages.

No secret deals. That was the predominant chant at Mondays protest.

The protest came in advance of a Wednesday, Dec. 3 virtual hearing related to DTE Energys request for state regulators with the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) to fast-track approving special contracts to power the data center by Friday, Dec. 5.

DTE has requested an ex-parte, expedited approval of a deal with Green Chile Ventures LLC, a subsidiary of Oracle Corp. If granted, DTEs request would bypass public hearings and formal legal scrutiny from outside groups like environmental and consumer advocates.

DTE why the rush? one protest sign read. MPSC vote no, another read. No data centers for billionaires, was written on another sign.

This is not just about Saline Township. This is everybody, Tim Bruneau, a township resident, said.

This is going to be a precedent setting decision whatever happens, and there should not be any secret deals for DTE, Bruneau said.

The Haushalter family cheers as cars and trucks honk their horns in support of a protest in downtown Saline on the corner of Ann Arbor St. and Michigan Ave. on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. Abra Richardson

DTE officials have said the data center would not impact power reliability or raise costs for residential ratepayers. They have said it would actually decrease costs for residential ratepayers by spreading the fixed costs of running the grid over greater electric sales.

But Bruneau and many other protesters remain unconvinced.

The 1.4 gigawatts of electricity the Saline Township data center would require and chemicals that could be discharged into the Saline River are among his biggest concerns, he said.

I come to life when Im motivated by rage, protester Sarah Brabbs said. Ive noticed that when people are angry beyond words, they get really productive. Suddenly, all the stuff that we dont see eye to eye on, it just fades, and this is one of those moments where you have collective anger.

Depending on the outcome this week, it may be beneficial for us to form a legal coalition or group, Brabbs said.

She said local opponents are also ready to align with organizations that want to contest DTEs contracts to power the data center.

Several environmental and consumer advocacy groups have requested from the MPSC a contested proceeding and a chance to intervene. Those include the Association of Businesses Advocating Tariff Equity, Michigan Environmental Council, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, and Citizens Utility Board of Michigan, The Ecology Center, The Environmental Law & Policy Center, Union of Concerned Scientists, Vote Solar and Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has urged regulators to pump the brakes and increase scrutiny on the data center deal. Her office made the case Thursday, Nov. 6 in a 17-page filing with the MPSC.

Pete Troyan, whose daughter lives in Saline Township, is concerned about electricity, water, public health and local food systems.

Troyan believes data centers will throw climate goals out the window, he said.

He is also worried about the advancement of computing technologies and implications for privacy.

Theres more to this than AI, he said. China has all these things, like if you jaywalk, theres a camera there that send you a ticket. To me, this is about control.

Bryan Smigielski, a campaign organizer for the Sierra Club, was among several speakers at Mondays protest.

Smigielski attended the protest because DTE and Oracle are trying to pass a deal behind closed doors for the biggest data center in Michigan, he told MLive. Were here to demand a denial of their request for ex-parte approval, he said.

I hope the outcome is that we are able to intervene and ensure that peoples bills will not be affected, that our climate targets will not be affected, he said. He also wants to ensure that the water will not be affected and that all risks are factors into their planning of this project.

Hyperscale data center developers are eying several communities in Michigan, lured by tax breaks and access to electricity and water resources. In 2024, state legislators passed tax breaks exempting large data center equipment and construction material from the states sales and use tax. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the law, and it took effect in April.

The Saline Township data center project and others proposed in Michigan have been met with strong pushback.

In Saline Township, predominant themes of the opposition revolve around concerns about electricity rates, environmental and groundwater quality and the loss of the townships rural character.

Residents have also berated Saline Township officials for agreeing quickly to settle a lawsuit with data center developer Related Digital and landowners instead of fighting an expensive legal battle. The pushback come despite township officials initially voting 4-1 to deny the firms request to rezone about 575 acres for the approximately 250-acre data center campus. That denial prompted the suit.

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FLINT, MI  A first-year Kettering University student who was a member of the honors program and a mechanical engineering major died on campus last month.

Noah Lewis, of Spring, Texas, died on Nov. 4 in Thompson Hall of natural causes, university officials confirmed in a statement.

There was no indication of foul play or foreign substances involved, according to university officials. There is not an ongoing police investigation, according to the university.

Kettering University President Dr. Robert K. McMahan issued a statement to parents and the university community shortly after it happened.

Lewis was 19 years old, according to his obituary.

The university did not share any other information about the students death out of respect for his familys privacy.
Dan Hibma, the owner of Land and Company Apartments, pictured in this MLive file photo, says the projected housing demand detailed in the Grand Rapids/Kent County 2025 Housing Needs Assessment, doesn't align with expected population growth. He also questioned the use of tax subsidies to help finance new housing. (MLive.com) Alyssa Keown | MLive.com

GRAND RAPIDS, MI  A prominent West Michigan apartment developer is challenging a regional study that calls for 33,914 new housing units by 2029, saying the figure is not based on history, facts or common sense.

Dan Hibma, of Land and Company Apartments, said demand for that many units doesnt align with projected population growth, and that theres currently a 6% vacancy rate in the local rental market.

We dont need 33,914 units, Hibma wrote in a Nov. 21 letter to the Grand Rapids City Commission.

Hibma, whose company owns 16 apartment communities in West Michigan, also challenged the use of tax subsidies to promote new housing, and said demand for new housing could be partly met by renovating older units.

The author of the 2025 Housing Needs Assessment, Patrick Bowen, said renovations could be part of the solution.

Heres a look at the concerns Hibma raised, and how Bowen and others responded:

MLive File Photo (Allison Farrand | MLive.com) Allison Farrand | MLive.com

What is the housing needs assessment?

The housing needs assessment was released in May by Housing Next, a regional partnership in Kent and Ottawa counties that supports the development of new housing at all price points. It was authored by Bowen National Research, a real estate consultant in Pickerington, Ohio. Bowen National Research has created similar housing studies for organizations across the country.

The study estimated Grand Rapids and Kent County need 33,914 housing units by 2029 to meet demand. The study also estimated how many of the units should be rentals versus for-sale properties, and how many should be priced at affordable levels versus the market rate.

Local governments and developers regularly cite the report in housing discussions.

If Kent County is projected to grow by 6,731 households, why does it need 33,914 housing units?

Hibma said the studys call for 33,914 units by 2029 doesnt add up because Kent County is expected to grow by just 6,731 households during that time.

Building that many units would amount to five homes for every new household, Hibma said.

The math doesnt make sense, Hibma wrote.

Bowen, the founder and president of Bowen National Research, said there are several factors beyond projected population growth that contribute to Kent Countys housing need.

That includes additional affordable housing units needed for residents who are currently paying over half of their income toward housing costs, Bowen said.

It also includes new units needed to replace older homes or apartments in need of significant repairs, he said. New housing for commuters who would like to live closer to where they work, if units were available and affordable, is included as well, he said. Wait lists for housing were also factored into the total.

Measuring housing gaps are much more complicated than simply looking at projected household growth and concluding that such growth equates to the housing gap, Bowen said.

Hibma said he doesnt like the idea of building more housing aimed at luring commuters from neighboring communities to Grand Rapids and Kent County.

I dont think our growth strategy should be to take from our neighbors, he said. The phrase robbing Peter to pay Paul comes to mind.

The Grand Rapids skyline seen from the city's Westside. Joel Bissell | MLive.com

Do all 33,914 units need to be new construction?

Hibma said he spoke with Bowen about his concerns about the study. During the conversation, Hibma said he learned that part of the demand could be solved by renovating older units.

Bowen said that is accurate.

It can be a combination of new construction, repair of existing housing stock, modernization of the existing housing stock, providing some kind of subsidy or assistance either to the properties themselves or to the renters themselves, Bowen said.

Bowen estimates that 45% of the demand for the 11,775 new rental units needed in Kent County could be addressed through repairs and renovations. The same is true for 20% of the 22,139 new for-sale units the study calls for.

Some older units may be beyond repair.

Census data show 3.4% of rental units and 1.2% of owner-occupied housing in the city of Grand Rapids meet the definition of substandard housing, Bowens study shows. Outside the city, 3.8% of rental units and 1% of owner-occupied housing meet the definition.

The housing needs study says substandard housing consists of homes that lack plumbing facilities, one or more major systems not functioning properly, or overcrowded conditions. Such housing, the study says, is often considered to be of such poor quality and in disrepair that it should be replaced.

Is solving the housing gap through renovations being discussed?

Many public discussions about solving the housing gap in Grand Rapids have centered on the construction of new housing rather than repairing older units.

Ryan Kilpatrick, the lead consultant for Housing Next, which advises on the city on housing issues, said repairing older units has been discussed, though doing so can be costly for low- and moderate-income households.

In some instances, significant repairs to older, substandard homes can cost upwards of $80,000, he said.

Sometimes it can make more sense to rehab an existing home and sometimes it makes more sense to build a new home when it can be part of a larger development and get more cost efficiencies, Kilpatrick said.

Creating more affordable housing units without building them from scratch using low-income housing tax credits to subsidize rents can be challenging too, Kilpatrick said.

If we wanted to provide some kind of a local housing voucher for low-income households, thats been effective in other communities, he said. But, he added, such an approach takes a lot of money, and whos going to pay for it?

The sun rises over downtown Grand Rapids. Neil Blake | MLive.com

Why is the city of Grand Rapids using tax subsidies to support new housing?

In his letter to the city commission, Hibma also took aim at the use of tax subsidies to support new housing developments in Grand Rapids.

Hibma said he wants the practice to stop, arguing the subsidies arent needed and divert tax revenue that would otherwise go to Grand Rapids Public Schools and other organizations funded by local property taxes.

There should be no tax subsidies given for new multifamily and single-family projects, he wrote. The need is not there. The projects should stand on their own.

The city of Grand Rapids uses a host of tax subsidies to promote housing development. The subsidies dont provide upfront cash to developers. Rather, some subsidies use tax-increment financing to support development, while others provide a reduction on future taxes in stressed or declining urban areas.

Tax-increment financing captures the increased tax revenue generated by a new development and uses it to reimburse developers for eligible expenses, such as construction costs on blighted, obsolete or polluted properties.

Such incentives can be in place for a period of up to two decades or more, after which the new development fully comes back onto the tax rolls.

Kilpatrick, the lead consultant for Housing Next, which advises the city of Grand Rapids on housing policy, said the subsidies are an important tool for building housing thats affordable to low- and middle-income residents.

If we care about both affordability and every household having an option to live in or close to a neighborhood that they want to be in, sometimes the cost of construction far exceeds what a household can actually afford, he said.

Kilpatrick said the cost of building new housing now totals about $250 per square foot, which equates to $250,000 for a 1,000-square-foot home or apartment. Thats up by at least 40% from before the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

He said Housing Next and the city of Grand Rapids support new housing developments where single-family homes or apartments are priced at the market rate.

But they also support using temporary tax incentives to ensure housing can be built for residents earning $40,000 or $50,000 a year, young folks who are just getting out of school and taking on their first job, retirees on a fixed income, Kilpatrick said.

Sarah Rainero, the citys economic development director, said Grand Rapids approved $43 million in tax-increment financing subsidies in 2024. The total estimated private investment related to those subsidies is roughly $166 million.

The subsidies are supporting the creation of 589 housing units, she said.

Luke Stier, a spokesperson for Grand Rapids Public Schools, said the citys use of tax subsidies to promote housing development doesnt have a financial impact on the district.

Once property taxes are collected, Michigans School Aid Fund supplies the remaining portion of our per-pupil foundation allowance, he said. Development incentives do not impact the funding GRPS receives.

Hibma also said he wants the tax subsides for new housing developments to stop because the vacancy rate on rental units is more than 6%.

The Bowen Housing Report points out that a vacancy rate of more than 6% is not a healthy market, he said. The prospect of more units that will need to be filled is not good. There are 1,000s of rental units available right now in GR/Kent County. Tax breaks for residential projects should stop.
Irene Whitehead (top right) during her arraignment Monday, Dec. 1 in Kent County District Court. She is accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter. (John Tunison | MLive) John Tunison

GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A Cedar Springs area woman told police she held a bag over her 2-year-olds mouth in September, killing her, court records show.

Irene Aiyana Whitehead was arraigned Monday, Dec. 1 in Kent County District court on charges of felony murder and first-degree child abuse.

Kent County sheriffs deputies, in a probable cause affidavit filed in court records, said Whitehead admitted to the Sept. 3 killing at a home on South Allan Street in Cedar Springs.

Whitehead allegedly told detectives, during a Nov. 25 interview, that she couldnt take it anymore.

What couldnt you take anymore? a detective asked.

Being a parent. Hearing her screaming all the time. The cries, Whitehead replied.

Police and rescuers were called to the Allan Street home on a report of a child not breathing. Police said life-saving measures were attempted, but the girl died at the scene.

She was identified as 2-year-old Ryleigh Whitehead.

Irene Whitehead and her daughter were alone in the house. Police were told that Ryleigh experienced some type of breathing episode that caused the problem.

But during an autopsy, the Kent County medical examiner ruled the cause of death as undetermined. He ruled that suffocation or smothering could not be excluded.

Investigators received assistance from several child abuse specialists, including retired Detective Mike Weber of Tarrant County Sheriffs Office in Texas.

Using search warrants, detectives learned that Whitehead had search Google to ask How hard is it to prove if cause of death is suffocation by a bag in toddler?

During the November police interview, Whitehead allegedly told detectives she wanted to kill her daughter since right after she was born.

Whitehead also is the parent of a 7-year-old girl, court records show.

Kent County District Court Judge Kirsten Holz denied bond for Whitehead at Mondays arraignment.

I understand you have no criminal record, but obviously the allegations are horrific, Holz said.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Leaders with the NAACP and environmental groups say keeping an Ottawa County coal-fired plant operating is harmful to West Michigan, including the Black community.

For decades, Black, brown and underserved communities have been the first and worst hit by environmental injustice, said Cle Jackson, executive director of the Greater Grand Rapids NAACP.

The J.H. Campbell power plant, along the Lake Michigan shoreline in Ottawa Countys Port Sheldon Township, was set to close in late May but President Trumps administration three times have used an emergency order to keep the plant online in 90-day segments.

The plant is slightly more than 30 miles from urban Grand Rapids.

It is truly a civil rights issue, Jackson said, referring to both pollution and the extra cost to rate payers to keep the plant operating.

NAACP leaders were joined by officials with the West Michigan Environmental Action Council, Grand Rapids Climate Coalition and Earthjustice to call for the plants closure during a Tuesday, Dec. 2 event in Grand Rapids.

Consumers Energy owns the plant and intended to shut it down in late May as it transitions to greener electricity generation.

But U.S. Energy Secretary Chis Wright intervened, claiming the plants continued operation is critical to avoiding blackouts as new demand from projects like massive artificial intelligence data centers and new manufacturing strain the grid.

But Kareem Scales, the environmental justice committee chair for the Greater Grand Rapids NAACP, said there is simply no evidence to support Wrights claim.

Related: Such disrespect: Residents protest Trump order keeping Consumers coal plant online

This is a manufactured emergency. Michigan is not facing a real energy shortfall, he said.

This is a political decision, one that puts public health and clean energy behind fossil fuel interests, Scales said.

Consumers has disclosed it lost some $615,000 a day running the plant over the summer. It ran up $80 million in net costs in just over four months, after subtracting revenue from the plant.

The utility plans to charge those costs to utility customers in 11 states, following a plan approved by federal regulators. Consumers plans to file with regulators later this year to recover net costs from the first 90-day order.

Scales and others say that, even if more energy were needed, it should not come at the expense of ratepayers.

Michigan families should not be paying the price for corporate data expansion. Frontline communities should not be the sacrifice zone again, he said.

Lawsuits have been filed challenging the U.S. Energy Department emergency orders.

NAACP leaders say the community can get involved by visiting the local NAACP web site, where they plan to have a community impact survey for residents to complete.

We want to hear from community members. How is this Campbell plant and environmental justice as a whole impacting their health, costs, etc. Scales said.
JACKSON COUNTY, MI  Snow an icy conditions are contributing to a day off from school for Jackson-area students on Tuesday, Dec. 2.

Snow accumulation from Sunday Nov. 30 and Monday, Dec. 1 led to unsafe conditions for several area school districts.

These schools are currently closed. This list will be updated as more closures come in.

You can read more about Michigan weather here.

Addison Community Schools

Hillsdale Community Schools

Hillsdale ISD

Jonesville Community Schools

North Adams-Jerome Public Schools

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People salute as Queens Churchs David Lord sings the National Anthem during the Jackson Pearl Harbor Memorial at USS Arizona Memorial in Cascades Park in Jackson. Josh Boland | MLive.com

JACKSON COUNTY, MI  An event to honor the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attacks is coming up in Jackson County.

The Jackson County Veterans Council is hosting its 4th annual Pearl Harbor Day ceremony at 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7 at The USS Arizona Memorial exhibit, located at Cascades Falls Park on High Street.

The guest speaker for this years event is U.S. Navy Commander John Wake, who currently serves as the executive officer of the Navy Talent Acquisition Group-Heartland. Parking is available courtesy of the Cascades Baptist Church.

The event takes place 84 years after the attacks, honoring the more than 2,300 soldiers who died Dec. 7, 1941, in Hawaii. The Michigan Memorial to the USS Arizona includes the names of the 28 Michiganders serving as sailors and Marines who died on the USS Arizona.

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Owners of the property highlighted in blue on the map above want to change the allowable uses of the land. City of kalamazoo

KALAMAZOO, MI  Last month, the Kalamazoo planning commission voted unanimously against a proposed rezoning near Asylum Lake Preserve.

Frustrated residents packed City Hall -- filling the commission chambers, overflow room and halls as public comments lasted more than three hours.

Still, the City Commission makes the final decision.

Commissioners voted unanimously to accept the proposal for a first reading during its Monday, Dec. 1 meeting, but did not set a date for a required public hearing and final approval. Both must happen at a future City Commission meeting.

Property owner Haji Tehran secured a buyer for the property, per city documents, on the condition it be rezoned to allow commercial development.

The potential buyer, Grand Rapids developer Dave Rapp, has been tight-lipped with plans for the site.

The process may be frustrating for engaged residents who must now return to the City Commission to plead their case, Commissioner Chris Praedel said.

In the long run, the process is stronger because of that participation," Praedel said.

Kalamazoo residents have rallied against the rezoning twice, in 2020 and 2023, when Tehran intended to build a Drive and Shine Car Wash on the site.

Both these requests were denied or withdrawn.

A development this close to the Asylum Lake Preserve, residents have argued, would contribute to environmental and visual degradation of the 274-acre space.

City officials received a resident petition to take the 18-acre property through the power of eminent domain during a Nov. 17 commission meeting.

Praedel declined to comment on the future of the parcel.

The planning commissions recommendation will be weighed along with other factors during an upcoming meeting, Praedel said, including a staff presentation and public comments.

Due to the large public turnout during the Nov. 6 meeting, Commissioner Jacqueline Slaby suggested the city host the public hearing at an alternative venue.

If we want wanted to consider a new venue, I wanted to make sure staff has time to do that, Slaby said.

Due to upcoming holidays, budget approvals and the developers personal timeline, city Attorney Aaron Leal said Jan. 26 was a reasonable date.

Nothing prevents us from going back to the developer and asking if they can delay it even further, he said.

Vice Mayor Drew Duncan suggested the city reinstate call-in public comments in an effort to reduce lines of public commentors.

A decision on the hearing date and location will be made during a regular meeting Dec. 15, Mayor David Anderson said.

I think its a win for the community when people care that much and show up, Praedel said. If people dont show up, to me, it means that they feel like they dont have any ability to shift the direction.

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FRANKENMUTH, MI  Officials have issued a warrant for an Oakland County man accused of exposing himself to a child at a Frankenmuth resort over the summer.

Prosecutors on Nov. 6 charged the 40-year-old Ferndale man with aggravated indecent exposure and indecent exposure.

Aggravated indecent exposure involves fondling ones genitals, whereas standard indecent exposure is merely displaying your privates, Michigan law states. The former is a high-court misdemeanor punishable by up to two years incarceration and a $2,000 fine, while the latter is a one-year misdemeanor.

MLive is not naming the defendant as hes not yet been arraigned in Saginaw County District Court. The suspect has no known connection to Saginaw County, prosecutors allege.

Prosecutors allege the crime in question occurred June 30 at Zehnders Splash Village, 1365 S. Main St. The suspect visited the waterpark and was recorded on camera entering a hot tub where other people, including children, were already present, prosecutors allege.

The suspect repeatedly exposed his privates and touched them, prosecutors contend. A minor girl reported the mans actions to a lifeguard.

The suspect then left the waterpark, prosecutors allege. Frankenmuth police were notified and began investigating.

Police identified a suspect by July 9, they reported.

It was thanks to the swift action and vigilance of lifeguards that we were able to quickly identify a subject on video leaving the area in a hurried manner, Frankenmuth police posted on Facebook. FPD identified a suspect by locating their vehicle using the Flock camera system and confirmed their identity through investigative software.

Specifically, the Michigan State Police Biometrics Unit also provided a positive facial recognition identification.

The suspect in 2019 allegedly exposed himself to a 4-year-old child at a Meijer store in Oakland County. He pleaded guilty to being a disorderly person.

Prosecutors described the suspect as a flight risk and danger to the public. They requested he be held on a $50,000 bond once hes arrested.

Frankenmuth police investigated an earlier indecent-exposure incident at the waterpark in March 2025. Its unclear if investigators believe the same suspect was involved in that incident.
A screenshot of the Bay City Commission's Dec. 1 meeting livestreamed on YouTube. Bay City resident Jeff Reed spoke during the meeting dressed as Santa Claus and called for continued boycotts against the Bay City Bridge Partners. Bay City YouTube channel screenshot

BAY CITY, MI  Santa Claus paid an early visit to the Bay City Commission this year to announce that Bay City Bridge Partners (BCBP) is on his naughty list.

Dressed as Saint Nick, resident Jeff Reed spoke during the public comment portion of the commissions meeting on Monday, Dec. 1, to criticize the company, citing bridge toll rates.

I came here tonight to share a nice little Christmas story with everybody, and like every nice little Christmas story, theres always a happy ending, Reed said. The happy end of the story is when we bankrupt the Bay City Bridge Partners.

He also called for continued boycotts of the company and displayed a naughty list sign bearing the companys name.

Dont worry, Reed said. Theres only one name on this naughty list, and yes, its the worst of the worst.

Reed said the fees are particularly burdensome for residents during the holiday season.

He read a letter he said Santa received from little Susie, who wrote she is worried she will have to return her Christmas presents so her parents can pay for bridge tolls.

Well, little Susie, dont you worry about that, Reed said. The adults are taking care of this toll business. Theyre boycotting the tolls. You wont have to return your presents.

Reed also said BCBP officials asked Santa to put a transponder on his sleigh, as Bay City residents with transponders on their vehicles can cross Liberty and Independence bridges for free until 2028 and non-residents with transponders are charged a reduced rate. See a complete explanation of toll rates here.

I guess the moral of the story is: dont let the Bay City Bridge Partners screw you over, he said. Stick up for yourselves.

Reed has voiced his opposition to the citys existing agreement with the BCBP at past meetings, often bringing signs highlighting his concerns.

His continued criticism of the company comes despite BCBPs decision to freeze toll rates for the 2026 calendar year.

BCBP officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A video recording of the commissions Monday meeting is available on the Bay City YouTube channel.
Dave Coulier announced on March 31, 2025 that he is cancer-free after his Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma diagnosis in November 2024. Photo by Edward Pevos | MLive

A Full House star from Michigan is set for another battle with cancer.

Dave Coulier, a St. Clair Shores native famous for playing Uncle Joey Gladstone on the hit 1990s sitcom, announced on NBCs Today that he has been diagnosed with tongue cancer.

The diagnosis comes nearly seven months after he announced he was free of Stage 3 non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.

Coulier, 66, said the new cancer was discovered during a PET scan in October and that doctors told him its totally unrelated to his previous diagnosis.

Prognosis is very good for P16 squamous carcinoma, Coulier added. So it has a 90% curability rate. But the thing that has really saved my life, Craig, is that early detection saved my life, not just the first time but the second time as well. So I hope youre getting your check-ups. I hope you get your colonoscopies and breast exams and prostate exams, they will save your life.

Coulier, an avid Detroit Red Wings fan, first revealed his cancer struggle to People in November 2024 after which he quickly began chemotherapy.

He told Today it was a really tough year and that chemotherapy was grueling. Now, hes undergoing radiation therapy. Specifically, 35 treatments in total, Monday through Friday, which will last through the end of the year.

Its emotional. Its psychologically draining. Its also a big drain to my wife, Melissa, which is the biggest drain on me, seeing how this affects her, he said.

The silver lining here is that I had cancer, which helped me detect my other cancer. It seems crazy to be making that statement, but its true.

Coulier. as he has in the past, is imploring people to listen to doctors by getting get mammograms, prostate exams and colonoscopys.

According to the American Cancer Society, following recommended screening guidelines and avoiding harmful habits that increase the risk of cancer, such as smoking, alcohol abuse and eating poorly are two major ways to lower cancer risks.
Poorstacy performs on day two of Riot Fest on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022, at Douglass Park in Chicago. Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP

An up-and-coming rapper has been found dead in Florida.

Carlito Milfort Jr., better known by his rap name POORSTACY, was found dead at a hotel in Boca Raton, according to a report by TMZ that was later confirmed by the Boca Raton Police Department.

He was 26. Cause of death was not revealed, but fans were flooding the rappers Instagram with comments implying that he died by suicide.

Known for blending several genres including hip hop, punk rock and heavy metal, he released two studio albums, two EPs, and was featured on the Grammy Award nominated soundtrack for Bill & Ted Face the Music.

His unique sound allowed him to collaborate with stars like Travis Barker and Bring Me the Horizon frontman Oli Sykes.

His most recent song, Nothing belongs to you was released in July.
The Republican National Committee is suing Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, alleging that state election law and guidance from her office violate the state Constitution. (MLive file photo) Ben Orner | MLive.com

The Republican National Committee is suing Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, alleging that state election law and guidance from her office violate the state Constitution by allowing non-Michigan residents to vote in elections.

Individuals who have never lived in the United States, let alone Michigan, should not have a say in Michigans elections, RNC Chair Joe Gruters said in a Nov. 21 statement. Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is ignoring the Michigan Constitution by allowing people who dont live in Michigan to vote in Michigan. Thats why the RNC is fighting to ensure only lawful votes count.

The suit brought by the RNC targets those who havent lived in the state but are the spouses of military and overseas Michigan voters and children born to residents of the state.

Lawyers for the RNC say provisions around overseas absentee voting in state law, further defined by the states elections manual, allow these individuals to vote in Michigan elections despite never having lived in the state.

RNC lawyers say this is unconstitutional, as the state Constitution requires a voter to have lived in the state for at least six months, though lawmakers can reduce this requirement or waive it for former residents.

Benson spokesperson Angela Benander called the lawsuit the latest attempt by the RNC to spread distrust in Michigans secure and fair elections.

Once again, the RNC has decided to target the voting rights of United States citizens and their families living overseas  including the children of active-duty military service members who are making sacrifices for our freedoms, Benander said. This is not a legitimate legal concern, just the latest attempt to spread distrust in Michigans secure and fair elections.

Benander did not immediately provide data on how many spouses or dependents of overseas Michigan voters cast a ballot in the 2024 presidential election in the state.

Lawyers for the RNC say that allowing people who never resided in Michigan to vote in the states elections will not only result in an inaccurate tally of votes but that it will undermine Republican candidates. They claim overseas voters historically overwhelmingly support Democratic candidates.

The election law in question allows the spouse or dependent of an overseas voter to apply for an absentee ballot if theyre a citizen of the U.S., accompanying that overseas voter and not registered to vote anywhere else in the U.S.

According to the election officials manual from Bensons office, U.S. citizens who have never lived in the country can vote in Michigan if they have a parent, legal guardian, or spouse who last lived there. They also must not be registered or have voted in another state.

The RNC is seeking a judge to declare these provisions unconstitutional and that Bensons guidance also violates state law. They are also seeking an order requiring Benson to rescind her guidance.

The RNC wants a judgment in the case before June 2026, when ballots will start being sent to overseas voters for the August 2026 primary.

The Michigan Republican Party and Chesterfield Township Clerk Cindy Berry joined the RNC as fellow plaintiffs. Michigan Director of Elections Jonathan Brater is also named as a defendant.

The RNC and MIGOP brought a similar lawsuit against Benson last year. However, the Associated Press reported the case was dismissed because the suit was filed too late, just a month before the 2024 presidential election.

The judge in the case also found that election law allowing the spouses and dependents of overseas Michigan voters to cast ballots complied with state and federal law and the Michigan Constitution, the AP reported.

Michigan isnt the only state being targeted by the RNC.

In North Carolina, a similar lawsuit resulted in overseas non-resident voters registered in the state to only be able to vote in federal elections, not state and local races, KUOW reported.

In Arizona, a similar lawsuit is playing out.
The Michigan House has approved harsher penalties for disarming a police officer. (Advance Digital file photo) Dave Hernandez | For NJ Advance

The Michigan House has approved harsher penalties for disarming or attempting to disarm a police officer of their firearm.

By a 75-25 vote, the House on Nov. 6 approved legislation that would make the crime a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Currently, the crime is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The legislation now heads to the Senate for consideration.

Initially, lawmakers proposed a 20-year maximum sentence. Bill sponsor state Rep. Mike Mueller, R-Linden, said the current 10-year maximum sentence does not match the severity of the crime.

Anyone who attacks an officer and tries to take their weapon has the intent to kill them, Mueller said. When a suspect reaches for an officers gun, its an attempt to turn the officers own weapon against them. We owe it to our law enforcement officers to treat that threat with the seriousness it deserves.

Mueller, a retired sheriffs deputy, faced two attempts by suspects trying to disarm him during his career.

As someone whos been in that situation, I can tell you its one of the most dangerous moments an officer can face, Mueller said. My goal is to send a clear message that we will not tolerate violent criminals endangering the lives of the men and women who protect our communities.

If the bill is passed by the Senate and signed by the governor, taking a weapon other than a firearm from a police officer would remain a four-year felony.

Disarming or attempting to disarm a police officer of their firearm by force would be a 15-year felony.

The existing law applies when a person tries to disarm officers from various agencies, including: federal, state and local police officers, sheriffs deputies, corrections officers, university and college public safety officers and conservation officers from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The legislation would expand that list to include Michigan State Police motor carrier officers and security officers employed by the state to protect state-owned or state-leased property or facilities.

Attorney General Dana Nessel and the Michigan Sheriffs Association support the legislation.
Sub-zero wind chills are expected by Thursday with this blast of incoming Arctic air. Graphic provided by the National Weather Service

Here are the forecast highlights from the National Weather Service office in Detroit:

An Arctic airmass will bring dangerously cold temperatures to the Great Lakes region, with readings expected to drop nearly 20 degrees below average starting Thursday and continuing through at least next week, according to forecast data.

Temperatures today will reach around 30 degrees with cloudy skies and a few flurries possible as moisture from Lake Michigan moves back into the area. Overnight lows will drop into the teens across many locations.

Snow showers are expected to develop Wednesday from late afternoon into evening hours as an arctic front moves through the region. Accumulations will likely range from a dusting to half an inch, though some areas to the north and near Lake Huron could see bursts of heavier snow.

The most significant cold arrives Thursday and Friday when the arctic airmass settles over the region. Wind chills will reach single digits during daytime hours, with sub-zero wind chills expected for many locations both Thursday and Friday mornings.

The well-below-average temperatures will persist through the weekend and into the following week. Additional snowfall remains possible anytime from Friday night through Monday, though forecasters say the timing and location of any snow events remains uncertain. Moisture levels are expected to be limited due to the air originating from the Pacific.

A polar low pressure system anchored over Hudson Bay will continue to influence local conditions through the latter half of the week.
Dharmendra gifted his ancestral property worth Rs 5 crore to this person, not his children Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol - Report

Dharmendra gifted his ancestral property worth Rs 5 crore to this person, not his children Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol - Report

Vaishnavi Gavankar

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BLACKPINK's Jennie makes history as she earns four RIAA certifications for Ruby

Palak Vij is a Sub Editor and Entertainment Journalist with over a year of experience covering films, television, and pop culture in the digital space.

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Ranveer Singh apologises after HJS files complaint for disrespecting Kantara Daiva: "My intention was only to appreciate"

Ranveer Singh apologises after HJS files complaint for disrespecting Kantara Daiva: "My intention was only to appreciate"

Vaishnavi Gavankar

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Nani to team up with Tamil director Prem Kumar for his next: Reports

Sarika Sharma

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Can HIV be cured? New study shows a promising path to a functional cure

Manjiri Patil is a Sub Editor and journalist with over two years of experience covering science, health, lifestyle, and general news in digital newsroom.

Can HIV be controlled without daily medication? A small study found that immunotherapy helped several participants maintain low viral loads even after stopping ART. (Image: Pexels)

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Cannabis hyperemesis syndrome is a severe disorder that brings about strong nausea, intense stomach pain, and repeated vomiting. (Picture Credit: Canva)

Shreya Garg

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Madras Art Weekend: An art installation evokes Indian histories of trade and textile through indigo

'The Indigo Flower' by 11.11/eleven eleven is on show at the Madras Art Weekend 2025, from December 3-6.

Chanpreet Khurana

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French woman hails Indian vegetarian food over meats; says a restaurant in Denmark offered only popcorn as a veg option

Shreya Garg

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Amid Nashik Kumbh protests, Maharashtra govt seeks way out of tree-cutting controversy, says CM Devendra Fadnavis

Manish M. Suvarna is Senior Correspondent at Moneycontrol. He writes on the Indian money markets, RBI, Banks and NBFCs. He tweets at @manishsuvarna15. Contact: Manish.Suvarna@nw18.com

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Corteva bets big on hybrid wheat for India to unlock land for biofuels, oilseeds

Corteva is on track for 5 per cent net sales growth globally in 2025.

Aishwarya Dabhade

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Tushar Goenka is a breaking news reporter who focuses on startups. Interested in venture capital, quick commerce, e-commerce, food delivery and D2C.

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Rakesh Patil

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Manish M. Suvarna is Senior Correspondent at Moneycontrol. He writes on the Indian money markets, RBI, Banks and NBFCs. He tweets at @manishsuvarna15. Contact: Manish.Suvarna@nw18.com

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Many Indians by virtue of working across borders, are at times required to pay double taxation, say experts.

Priyansh Verma

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Fireside Ventures raises $253 million for its fourth fund to invest in more consumer startups

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At previous close, the Sensex was up 446.21 points (0.52 percent) at 85,632.68, and the Nifty was up 139.50 points (0.54 percent) at 26,192.15

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At previous close, the Sensex was down -64.77 points (-0.08 percent) at 85,641.9, and the Nifty was down -27.20 points (-0.10 percent) at 26,175.75

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Indian equity inflows from Russia tripled in FY25, highest in four years: Report

The investment was primarily in trade, maritime cooperation, payment systems, civil aviation, and defence.

Aishwarya Dabhade

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According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the visit will allow both sides to evaluate their partnership, set future goals and exchange views on regional and global issues.

Aishwarya Dabhade

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As Sanchar Saathi app controversy escalates, Jyotiraditya Scindia says 'up to you to download and delete'

Surabhi Pandey

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BNP thanks PM Modi for message on Khaleda Zia's health: 'Appreciates this gesture of goodwill'

PM Modi had earlier posted that he was 'deeply concerned to learn about the health of Begum Khaleda Zia'.

Priyanjali Ghose

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Caste divide on radar as BJPRSS plan unified outreach ahead of 2027 UP polls

Sonalee Borgohain

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Priyanjali Ghose

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Indian refiners, such as Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd, Hindustan Petroleum Corp and HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd, have stopped buying Russian oil.

Tamal Nandi

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In a rocket-sled test, the system coupled with a rocket propulsion mechanism is run at a high speed on a pair of rails to simulate a moving aircraft in mid-air, a senior official said.

Tamal Nandi

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Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah and his deputy Shivakumar ahead of their breakfast meeting on Tuesday.

Priyanjali Ghose

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Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar signal unity after second breakfast meet in a week: 'Will always be brothers'

After visiting his deputy Shivakumar's residence for a breakfast meeting on Tuesday, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said they are "brothers from the same party and share the same ideology".

" Shivakumar came to my place for breakfast, and he invited me to come for breakfast or lunch at his house. So, he suggested coming on Tuesday. So I came today, and we had breakfast. We discussed party-related matters. More importantly, the Assembly session is starting next Monday. They said they will bring a no-confidence motion. BJP and JD(S) are planning to oppose whatever decisions we take. Our government is pro-farmer. We also discussed issues related to maize and sugarcane. I have spoken to the farmers, and the government has decided the price. I have also spoken to farmers, poultry farmers and fishery farmers..." the CM told the media after the meeting.
India to commission third nuclear ballistic submarine INS Aridaman 'very soon': Navy chief

INS Aridaman is the second upgraded Arihant-class SSBN to enter service after INS Arighaat, commissioned in August 2024. Indias first SSBN, INS Arihant, joined the fleet in 2016.

Aishwarya Dabhade

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Admiral Tripathi also spoke about how Indias carrier battle group, led by INS Vikrant, kept Pakistan on edge in the Arabian Sea

Surabhi Pandey

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Jewar airport will serve as lifeline for UP's agri produce, says Dinesh Pratap Singh

Siddharth Chakravorty

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Parimal Peeyush

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Putins December 45 India visit will see talks on S-400, Su-57 jets, energy, nuclear projects, trade in national currencies and fixing the RussiaIndia trade imbalance.

Aishwarya Dabhade

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Armaan Bhatnagar

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Sanchar Saathi bundles multiple services meant to help users secure their devices and report fraud.

Deblina Halder

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The case stems from allegations by the mother of a 17-year-old girl, who accused Yediyurappa of sexually assaulting her daughter during a meeting at his Bengaluru residence in February 2024.

Deblina Halder

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Siddaramaiah finally clears the air on Shivakumar's elevation as Karnataka Chief Minister: 'When...'

Priyanjali Ghose

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Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar signal unity after second breakfast meet in a week: 'Will always be brothers'

Priyanjali Ghose

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Jaiswal emphasised that New Delhi acted with urgency because the situation in Sri Lanka demanded immediate assistance.

Aishwarya Dabhade

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NANCHANG, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- A robot named "Pasini" drew crowds at the 2025 World Green Development Investment and Trade Expo & China Green Food Expo, as it moved its mechanical arms, which are fitted with nearly 2,000 tactile sensors. Indian blogger Amit Kumar raised his phone to livestream the scene to his followers overseas, enthusiastically explaining the advanced technology on display. "This expo is amazing! It showcases cutting-edge green technologies while offering a chance to sample eco-friendly cuisine from around the world," Kumar said. The event, held from Nov. 27 to 30 in Nanchang, capital of east China's Jiangxi Province, brought together more than 2,500 exhibitors from over 60 countries and regions. The event showcased the latest green technologies across various industries such as new energy, artificial intelligence, embodied intelligence and low-altitude economy, as well as green food products from around the world. According to organizers, more than 60 projects worth 45 billion yuan (about 6.36 billion U.S. dollars) were signed. In recent years, China has actively advanced green energy transition through concrete actions, establishing the world's largest clean energy supply system. According to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, China has helped reduce global wind and photovoltaic power generation costs by over 60 percent and 80 percent, respectively, and accounts for 46 percent of the world's renewable energy jobs. By 2024, China's exports of wind and solar products had helped other countries cumulatively reduce carbon emissions by over 1 billion tonnes. "China is actively seeking deeper cooperation in the global green industry and working toward its carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals," said Jia Kang, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences. Seah Shoo Chin, Malaysian State Executive Councillor for Malacca, welcomed Chinese enterprises to explore green industry cooperation in Malaysia. Malacca is advancing green projects such as waste-to-energy initiatives while offering industrial parks for investment and high-quality halal food certification. "We hope to deepen China-Malaysia cooperation in green manufacturing, clean energy, and the circular economy, creating both inclusive and replicable projects," Seah said. The exhibition also attracted buyers from across the globe, many of whom were impressed with the innovative products on display. Souley Flhadji Adamou from the Republic of Niger, who has been engaged in China-Africa trade for a decade, was seen testing a rideable electric suitcase. "This suitcase can run up to 13 kilometers on a single charge. It's smooth and convenient to ride, and it holds significant market potential," he said. At the Jiangxi Godfrey Technology Co., Ltd. booth, Immaculee Agbaka showcased the company's chargers, speakers and other products to international buyers. "We've already had over 60 buyers proactively reach out to us, seeking to discuss cooperation details in depth," Agbaka said, noting that visitors from various regions brought diverse needs and suggestions, offering valuable insights for future product upgrades. Mutale Nalumango, vice president of Zambia, stated at the opening ceremony of the expo that Zambia aspires to build a sustainable and resilient green economy, as climate change has led to prolonged droughts and erratic rainfall patterns, placing pressure on key sectors such as hydropower and agriculture. "We are deeply grateful to Chinese enterprises and people for coming to Africa, especially for investing and establishing businesses in Zambia, including the development of industrial parks," Nalumango said. "We look forward to further deepening cooperation in areas such as green food and clean energy in the future."


Ria Kapoor

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Sweta Goswami

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Both Siddaramaiah (right) and DK Shivakumar have set their sights on the CMs chair.

Namrata Agarwal

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday spoke with US President Donald Trump to review the progress of the IndiaUS Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership, underscoring the continued momentum in bilateral ties. The two leaders discussed cooperation in defence, critical technologies, trade, and emerging domains such as artificial intelligence and clean energy. PM Modi and Trump also exchanged views on regional security challenges, with the prime minister reaffirming Indias commitment to a stable and rules-based Indo-Pacific. "Had a very warm and engaging conversation with President Trump. We reviewed the progress in our bilateral relations and discussed regional and international developments. India and the U.S. will continue to work together for global peace, stability and prosperity," PM Modi wrote on X.

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15-year-old gets PhD in physics, wants to help humans live longer. Meet Laurent Simons

Laurent Simmons's parents have turned down offers from tech giants in the US and China, insisting his research should benefit medicine. (Image credit: Instagram)

Ankita Sengupta

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Apple confirmed that Amar Subramanya will oversee teams responsible for foundation models, AI research, and AI safety. (Image credit: Google site)

Ankita Sengupta

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Delhi founder arrested at 1 am after client's 'frivolous complaint'. Wherehouse shuts down

Wherehouse even turned profitable last year, but recent events, co-founder Vaibhav Chawla said, made it 'not worth fighting for.' (Image credit: LinkedIn)

Ankita Sengupta

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NASA wants to send your name around the Moon: Here's how to sign up for Artemis II Mission 2026

Rajni Pandey is a seasoned content creator with over 15 years of experience crafting compelling stories for digital news platforms. Specializing in diverse topics such as travel, education, jobs, science, wildlife, religion, politics, and astrology, she excels at transforming trending human-interest stories into engaging reads for a wide audience.

Sen Your Name Around The Moon

Rajni Pandey

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Reshab Shaw

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Danish Khan is the editor of Technology and Telecom. He was previously with the Economic Times and has tracked the sector for 14 years.

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Sarthak Singh Sarthak is an experienced writer having covered personal and consumer tech, gadgets news, social media trends, and more for several years

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In Moneycontrol's Pro Panorama December 11 edition: AI gold rush and Indias role in it, the Netflix strategy that Indian IT can...

The Department of Telecommunications directed mandatory installs of Sanchar Saathi app on mobile handsets

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Invite your friends and family to sign up for MC Tech 3, our daily newsletter that breaks down the biggest tech and startup stories of the day

Pankaj Mahindroo, chairman of the India Cellular and Electronics Association, said Uttar Pradesh has improved its electronics manufacturing base but still lags other states in overseas investor engagement.

Reshab Shaw

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6 incredible ways to see the northern lights this winter, according to National Geographic

Chase the Aurora Borealis in style: From Alaskan snowmobiles to Greenlands glass-walled cabins, witness the Northern Lights like never before.

Priyanka Roshan

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Ahmedabad to get Indias first 16-storey railway station, set to transform urban travel  heres all you need to know

Priyanka Roshan With over eight years in multimedia journalism, is passionate about storytellingboth visual and textualacross travel, jobs, business, markets, politics, and daily news. From crafting engaging articles to producing compelling videos, she blends creativity with strategy to bring stories to life. With a strong foundation in SEO, and video production she ensures content not only informs but also resonates with audiences.

Inside Ahmedabads upcoming 16-storey railway station  Indias first vertical, multimodal travel hub set to transform the way the nation moves. (Representative AI Image)

Priyanka Roshan

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The Louvre to hike ticket prices for non-EU tourists from 2026  what you need to know before visiting

MC Travel Desk Read the latest and trending travel news storiesstay updated on new destinations, travel trends, visa updates, and expert tips for your next adventure.

The Louvre Museum is set to raise ticket prices for millions of non-EU tourists from 2026  heres what every traveller should know before planning a visit.

Priyanka Roshan

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Pragya Trivedi

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A Buddhist monk gestures as he stands inside a temple inundated by floodwaters in Wellampitiya on the outskirts of Colombo on December 1, 2025. At least 340 people have been killed, Sri Lankan officials said on December 1, with many more still missing. (AFP Photo)

Surabhi Pandey

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Meanwhile European firms on Monday complained again about long delays and a lack of transparency in the existing export control system.

Aishwarya Dabhade

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Abhinav Gupta

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Emmanuel Macron heads to China as Europe walks tightrope between rivalry and reliance

French President, who will start his trip with a visit to Beijing's Forbidden City on Wednesday, will meet President Xi Jinping on Thursday in the capital and again on Friday during a trip to Chengdu, in southwestern Sichuan province

Surabhi Pandey

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Expired food and medicines: Pakistan's 'aid' to Sri Lanka comes with a best before date long gone, Colombo fumes

The photo, shared on X by Pakistan High Commission in Sri Lanka, shows the expiry date of the humanitarian aid as 2024.

Abhinav Gupta

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From S-400 to S-500: Why India wants a more advanced air defence shield from Russia after Operation Sindoor success

Abhinav Gupta

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Google lets bosses read staff SMS and RCS chats, even edits and deletions are saved

Google lets bosses read staff SMS and RCS chats, even edits and deletions are saved

Pragya Trivedi

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Police officers near a fire-damaged residential block at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex following a deadly fire, in Tai Po, Hong Kong. (Courtesy: Reuters photo)

Sonalee Borgohain

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'If Europe wants war, Russia is ready': Putin slams European peace terms as absolutely unacceptable

Pragya Trivedi

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Imran Khan blames Munir for 'mental torture' in Adiala Jail: How his tribal ancestry could ignite unrest in Pakistan

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party supporters carry a poster of their leader and former Prime Minister Imran Khan, during a protest against the 27th constitutional amendment, in Karachi on November 21, 2025. (Photo by Rizwan TABASSUM / AFP)

Abhinav Gupta

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Imran Khan meets sister Uzma in Adiala Jail, blames Asim Munir for mental torture and isolation in prison

Activists of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party chant slogans during a protest demanding the release of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, near the Adiala prison in Rawalpindi on August 5, 2025. (Photo by Aamir QURESHI / AFP)

Abhinav Gupta

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Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party supporters carry a poster of their leader and former Prime Minister Imran Khan, during a protest against the 27th constitutional amendment, in Karachi on November 21, 2025. (Photo by Rizwan TABASSUM / AFP)

Abhinav Gupta

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Khaleda Zia on ventilator with special security; UK team rushed, son thanks PM Modi for support

Pragya Trivedi

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Sonalee Borgohain

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Pakistan allows conditional meeting between Imran Khan and sister amid tight curbs in Rawalpindi

Arishaa Izaj

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The BLF released the photo of the bomber, Zareena Rafiq aka Trang Mahoo.

Priyanjali Ghose

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Pakistan: Govt official, 2 cops among 5 killed in TTP ambush in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Pragya Trivedi

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Pakistans power corridors in turmoil: Shehbazs sudden Lahore detour signals standoff with Munir as Sharifs demand trusted men in key posts

(FILES) Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (front L) with his brother and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (front R) attend parliament session on constitutional amendment granting lifetime immunity to the president and current army chief Asim Munir, in Islamabad.

Abhinav Gupta

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Russia claims capture of Pokrovsk and Vovchansk as fighting intensifies across eastern, northeastern Ukraine

Russia claims capture of Pokrovsk and Vovchansk as fighting intensifies across eastern, northeastern Ukraine

Ria Kapoor

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On his first visit in four years to the Indian capital for a summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Putin will be accompanied by his defence minister, Andrei Belousov, and a wide-ranging delegation from business and industry

Surabhi Pandey

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S-400 deliveries, Su-57 fighter jets, crude oil flows: What to expect as Putin meets PM Modi in India this week | Explained

Abhinav Gupta

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Ukraine says still fighting in Pokrovsk after Russia asserts claim on city

Ria Kapoor

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Why Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has become Asim Munirs biggest headache amid rumours of Imran Khans death | Explained

Pragya Trivedi

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December 2, 2025 NATO Thinks Of Pre-emptive Strikes Against Russia To Defend Against Something That Did Not Happen As it is becoming obvious that Ukraine is losing in the proxy war against Russia, the ideas European governments are are throwing around are getting more crazy. Some are now eager to pre-emptively attack Russia in retaliation for alleged hybrid attacks against European countries. Those hybrid attacks are mostly pure fantasies. Politico was first to report this nonsense: Europe thinks the unthinkable: Retaliating against Russia  Politico, Nov 27 2025

Countries are looking at joint offensive cyber operations and surprise military drills as Moscow steps up its campaign to destabilize NATO allies. Russias drones and agents are unleashing attacks across NATO countries and Europe is now doing what would have seemed outlandish just a few years ago: planning how to hit back. Ideas range from joint offensive cyber operations against Russia, and faster and more coordinated attribution of hybrid attacks by quickly pointing the finger at Moscow, to surprise NATO-led military exercises, according to two senior European government officials and three EU diplomats. The Russians are constantly testing the limits  what is the response, how far can we go? Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze noted in an interview. A more proactive response is needed, she told POLITICO. And its not talking that sends a signal  its doing. What are the hybrid attacks in question? Russian drones have buzzed Poland and Romania in recent weeks and months, while mysterious drones have caused havoc at airports and military bases across the continent. Other incidents include GPS jamming, incursions by fighter aircraft and naval vessels, and an explosion on a key Polish rail link ferrying military aid to Ukraine. The idea to pre-empivly attack Russia comes from an Italian defense paper: Last week, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto slammed the continents inertia in the face of growing hybrid attacks and unveiled a 125-page plan to retaliate. In it, he suggested establishing a European Center for Countering Hybrid Warfare, a 1,500-strong cyber force, as well as military personnel specialized in artificial intelligence. To me that looks like someone is seeking additional NATO payments. Three days later a Italian NATO general furthered the idea: Nato considers being more aggressive against Russias hybrid warfare (archived)  Financial Times, Nov 30 025

Alliances top military officer says it could become proactive in dealing with Moscow threat Nato is considering being more aggressive in responding to Russias cyber attacks, sabotage and airspace violations, according to the alliances most senior military officer. Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone told the Financial Times that the western military alliance was looking at stepping up its response to hybrid warfare from Moscow.



Some diplomats, especially from eastern European countries, have urged Nato to stop being merely reactive and hit back. Such a response would be easiest for cyber attacks where many countries have offensive capabilities but would be less easy for sabotage or drone intrusions.



Dragone said that a pre-emptive strike could be considered a defensive action, but added: It is further away from our normal way of thinking and behaviour. He added: Being more aggressive compared with the aggressivity of our counterpart could be an option. [The issues are] legal framework, jurisdictional framework, who is going to do this? Admiral Dragone is using Orwellian speech when he seems obviously lobbying for 1,500 NATO paid jobs in his home country. One problem with this is that there is little evidence of any hybrid attacks. Ursula von der Leyen was caught outright lying when her staff claimed that alleged Russian GPS distortion had prolonged a flight she was taking. The alleged intrusion of Russian planes into Estonian airspace had turned out to be an innocent passage near an uninhabited island far from the coast. The Dutch magazine Trouw has found that the myriad of recent drone panics had little to do with Russia. Analysis sixty drone incidents in Europe: a lot of panic and little evidence (archived)  Trouw.nl Machine translation: Using the Dronewatch platform, Trouw mapped around sixty incidents involving drones in eleven European countries. These took place in the last three months. The conclusion: a lot of confusion and ambiguity and regular false alarms. For Russian involvement, as some authorities and experts point out, in the vast majority of cases no hard evidence has been provided. In about forty incidents, the origin is still unclear or no evidence has been found for drones in the airspace. An example is Oslo, where drone reports shut down air traffic at the end of September, affecting thousands of travelers. The police did not find any confirmation afterwards that drones were actually flying. The same was true for reports at the airport of Swedish Gothenburg in early November. In at least fourteen cases, it turned out to be something completely different afterwards. For example, people in Belgium mistook (small) planes and helicopters for drones, while the flying objects in South Limburg and Danish Billund were stars. The Norwegian police concluded that a suspicious drone near an oil platform in the North Sea was probably a ship. A number of times it has been established that drone flights were the work of a hobbyist or that it later turned out to be a tourist. In an incident in Warsaw where a drone flew over government buildings, Polish police picked up a Ukrainian and a 17-year-old girl from Belarus. There is no evidence of espionage. This picture was published by media as showing alleged damage by an alleged explosion along a Polish rail line

bigger According to the Polish outlet Super Express, a train driver travelling near the Mikoajowka (Mika) station informed dispatchers at 07:39 about irregularities in the rail infrastructure. A preliminary inspection revealed that roughly one meter of track had been destroyed, forcing the train to stop. No passengers or crew members were injured.



Prime Minister Donald Tusk later underscored the gravity of the incident on X, stating: Blowing up the rail track on the WarsawLublin route is an unprecedented act of sabotage targeting directly the security of the Polish state and its civilians. This route is also crucially important for delivering aid to Ukraine. We will catch the perpetrators, whoever they are. Nothing was blown up. What can be seen in the picture is not the result of an explosion. For comparison you might want to watch this attempt (vid) of using C-4 explosive to cut an I-beam. It is a VERY violent process. But the track ballast under the broken rail as well as the sleepers seem undisturbed and undamaged. The incident was most likely a brittle crack caused by fatigue. The rail was probably not firmly fixed on the sleepers and bent when trains were running over it. When that happens one time too many rails will break. The alleged hybrid attacks by Russia are over-hyped normal incidents with little if any relation to Russia. To use these as an excuse for pre-emptive strikes, be it cyber or whatnot, hardly makes such defensive. And what, by the way, is Admiral Dragone planing to do if Russia hits back? Comments
Spanish gold coin from 1609 breaks European record at auction

The Segovian Centen, the first 100-escudo coin weighing 339.35 grams of gold, struck by King Philip III in 1609, during a preview ahead of its sale starting at 2 million Swiss francs ($2.478 million) in Geneva, Switzerland, Nov. 24, 2025. REUTERS

GENEVA (Reuters)  A large gold coin minted in 1609 for Spains King Philip III broke records to become the most valuable coin in Europe at a sale in Switzerland on Nov. 22, 2025.

The unique 339-gram piece sold for 2,817,500 Swiss francs ($3.49 million). It had a starting price of 2 million Swiss francs, the Geneva-based Numismatica Genevensis SA auction house said, confirming it had broken the European record for most valuable coin.

The Centen, or 100 escudos in a former Spanish currency, was made in the central Spanish city of Segovia out of gold brought from conquerors who went to the Americas or New World.

It was made as a show of regal wealth and power, equaling many years salary, and is the largest in modern European history, auction house founder Alain Baron said.

Lost for several centuries, it turned up in the United States around 1950 where a New York collector bought it before selling it to a Spanish buyer a decade later. It was later auctioned to another collector, whose identity is not public.

It was truly a royal gift, a regal gift for other kings or queens, Baron said. The next owner will in some way have the possibility to be equal to a king since it is a king who gave it to another king.

There was interest from buyers in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East looking for a trophy asset, as well as institutions, the auction house said.

The previous record price for a European coin was fetched by a 100-ducat piece that once belonged to Ferdinand III of Habsburg that sold for 1.95 million Swiss francs ($2.42 million), Numismatica Genevensis SA director Frank Baldacci said.

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Senate backs resolution seeking visa waiver for Philippine travelers

By Emmanuel T. Erediano

emmanuel@mvariety.com

Variety News Staff

THE Senate on Monday adopted House Joint Resolution 24-1, urgently requesting the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to include the Philippines in the non-immigrant Guam-CNMI Visa Waiver Program.

Authored by House Floor Leader Marissa Flores and introduced by the entire House as a committee of the whole, H.J.R. 24-1 notes that the Guam-CNMI Visa Waiver Program allows qualified passport holders from 12 pre-approved nations to enter Guam and the CNMI visa-free for up to 45 days.

The resolution also notes that the Philippine passport now ranks as the 75th most powerful  up from 77th in 2021  with visa-free access to 65 nations. In addition, the National Economic and Development Authority reported that the Philippines is projected to reach upper-middle-income status by the end of 2025.

According to the resolution, including the Philippines in the Guam-CNMI Visa Waiver Program could significantly benefit the tourism industry due to the close ties and geographic proximity between the Philippines and the CNMI. The resolution also cites U.S. Census Bureau data showing that more than 15,000 Filipinos currently reside in the CNMI and would greatly appreciate visits from family members.

The resolution further cites a Hotel Association of the NMI report projecting over 400,000 new visitors if the Philippines is added to the visa waiver program.

Granting the Philippines visa-free entry to the CNMI will strengthen the U.S.-Philippines partnership, reinforcing joint military defense efforts and furthering shared goals of security and democracy, the resolution states.

Emmanuel Arnold Erediano has a bachelor of science degree in Journalism. He started his career as police beat reporter. Loves to cook. Eats death threats for breakfast.

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White House defends US attack on boat from Venezuela as lawful

U.S. Navy Admiral Frank "Mitch" Bradley delivers remarks during the USSOCOM Change of Command Ceremony in Tampa, Florida, U.S. Oct. 3, 2025. Airman 1st Class Monique Stober/U.S. Special Operations Command/Handout via REUTERS

WASHINGTON (Reuters)  The White House on Monday defended a U.S. admirals decision to conduct multiple strikes on an alleged Venezuelan drug-smuggling vessel in September, saying he had Defense Secretary Pete Hegseths 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 Departments Law of War Manual states that shipwrecked persons cannot be knowingly attacked and must receive medical care unless they act with hostility or attempt escape.

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

It would be murder outside of armed conflict, she said. Even in war, the killing of survivors would likely be a war crime.

A group of former military lawyers, the JAGs Working Group, called the order patently illegal, saying service members have a duty to disobey it and that anyone who complies should be prosecuted for war crimes.

On X, Hegseth defended Bradley, calling him an American hero and saying he has his 100% support. Hegseth said he stands by Bradleys 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.

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.

The Trump administration has been weighing options to combat what it has portrayed as Maduros role in supplying illegal drugs that have killed Americans. Maduro has denied having any links to the illegal drug trade.

Reuters has reported the options under U.S. consideration include an attempt to overthrow Maduro, and that the U.S. military is poised for a new phase of operations after a massive military buildup in the Caribbean and nearly three months of strikes on suspected drug boats off Venezuelas coast. Trump also has authorized covert CIA operations in the country.

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Pacific pushes Tuna Commission on high seas fishing

1) Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority fisheries officers observe tuna transshipment from the purse seiner vessel Mathawmarfach, flagged to the Federated States of Micronesia, to a carrier vessel in this file photo from 2024. Marshall Islands Journal photos

2) A Marshall Islands Fisheries Enforcement Officer observes the transshipment of tuna from the purse seiner vessel Mathawmarfach to the carrier vessel Cherry Star during a transshipment operation in Majuro Atoll in 2024.

By Giff Johnson

For Variety

MAJURO  Every December, fisheries officials from the Marshall Islands and Forum Fisheries Agency countries troop off to the annual Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission  often for battles with distant water fishing nations over policies that impact tuna fishing on the high seas in the region.

But this year, said Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority Director Glen Joseph, many of the big and contentious tuna issues that the WCPFC dealt with in the past several years are not on the table this year, having been resolved through agreed-to conservation measures.

For the annual meeting this week in Manila, Joseph said there are two key issues for Pacific Islands, one of which doesnt have much impact on the Marshall Islands but is nevertheless a key tuna priority for action. The two issues:

 Albacore tuna in the South Pacific, which is in desperate need of a harvest strategy or management procedure to control fishing.

 Tuna transshipment on the high seas, especially related to the longline industry.

The Tuna Commissions flagship measure  its tropical tuna (conservation) measure  remains in place, said Joseph, meaning this is not up for discussion at the meetings this week.

Our priorities are albacore and high seas transshipment, he said.

There is a night and day difference between transshipment in-port compared to the high seas.

He said high seas transshipment issue has been on the WCPFCs agenda for 16 years.

The whole Commission knows that high seas (issues) need to be fixed, but instead they shine a light on in-zone (issues), Joseph said, adding: Excuse me, were good in-zone. Its time to fix the high seas.

Joseph made the point that the benefits of in-port transshipments versus doing it on the high seas are well known. There are documented benefits of in-port transshipments, he said, adding that all purse seiners licensed to fish in Parties to the Nauru Agreement waters are required to transship in the ports of PNA members. But the same does not apply to the longline industry, which fishes heavily on the high seas and transships there.

High seas transshipment raises concerns about lack of oversight for monitoring the fish caught, data that is used to inform tuna stock assessments and monitor by-catch to ensure fishing companies follow established rules. It also raises concern for potential trafficking in persons and crew treatment issues.

Port State Control is important and were ready, said Joseph, speaking about the Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authoritys and the Marshall Islands governments approach to monitoring all in-bound fishing vessels in Majuro.

The purse seine industry in the region is managed differently than longliners, with multiple methods for monitoring operations, including the requirement that all purse seiners have an independent fisheries observer on board all fishing trips and the requirement of in-port transshipment, which is fully monitored by local fisheries officers.

High seas transshipments have few fisheries observers on board to monitor catch transfers so there is little verification of catch data. Even if the high seas fishing and transshipment is not illegal, it is underreported and not recorded, Joseph said. Its a glaring difference.

The irony, said Joseph, is two things:

 Partner countries support port expansion and improvements in Pacific nations but then their fishing industry doesnt use those improved ports to transship their catches.

 Some of the longline industry catch tuna inside the zones of island countries but then transship their catches on the high seas.

Joseph pointed out the obvious, which is that in-port transshipment provides many economic benefits to the Marshall Islands and other islands where purse seiners and longliners transship in ports.

He also noted that the convention on which the WCPFC is based provides economic incentives for small island developing states. The WCPFC has a moral and legal obligation (to move transshipments from the high seas to ports).

Joseph said Forum Fisheries Agency members, including the Marshall Islands, will continue to push for transshipment reform, adding that the current situation is not fair. I urge all (WCPFC) members, especially our development partners and those who transship on the high sea, to consider the changes.

The WCPFC operates on a consensus basis, which means that contentious issues can take time, in some cases years, to gain support of both island countries and distant water fishing nations.

On albacore, Joseph said this sector of the tuna fishery lacks a harvest strategy that would set boundaries on allowable levels of catch to ensure sustainability. The line, over which fishing doesnt go above, hasnt been drawn yet, he said.

As the PNA does with limiting tuna fishing effort by purse seine vessels fishing in PNA waters, the same needs to be done for the longline industry fishing albacore in the South Pacific, he said.

He indicated his hope that this would be fully addressed at this weeks meetings.

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BCs Tales of the Pacific  Revisiting the disaster of the Dona Paz

THE Titanic is nowhere near the top of the list of deadliest shipwrecks in history. If the 1,500 who died in that disaster are tragic, what would we say about the 4,400 who died on the Dona Paz? When the Dona Paz sank in the Philippines in 1987 it became the deadliest maritime accident in history.

What caused it to sink? Why did so many die? How could so many lives have been lost on a ship that had a capacity of 1,500? We need answers.

The ship: The Dona Paz was built in Japan in the early 1960s and originally named Himeyuri Maru. As such, she rated a capacity of 608 passengers and plied the waters around Japan as a ferry and cargo carrier. She was sold to a shipping company in the Philippines in 1975 and renamed Don Sulpicio. In 1979 a fire broke out on board and the ship was gutted and beached. Insurers declared her a total loss and paid the shipping company. That should have been the end of her career, but it wasnt.

The burned-out hulk was sold to investors who refurbished her and launched her as the Dona Paz. Somewhere along the way her carrying capacity was increased to over 1500 passengers, more than double the capacity when serving in Japan. The Dona Paz worked a passenger circuit running from Manila to Tacloban to Catbalogan and back to Manila.She made the run twice a week, once forward and once the reverse route. It was on the final leg of the return journey, from Tacloban to Manila, that disaster struck.

The accident: On December 20, 1987 the Dona Paz was off Dumali Point in the Tablas Strait. At around 10:30 p.m., as most of passengers slept, the ship collided with the Vector, an oil tanker sailing from Bataan to Masbate. The Vector carried roughly 280,000 gallons of petroleum which burst into flames, setting both ships afire.

Many people jumped overboard to escape the inferno only to learn that the sea itself was burning, a layer of oil having spread around the stricken ships. The crew did not help either. Passengers later recounted how crew members were more panicked than the passengers, looking to save their own lives rather than give assistance. The first part of the nightmare lasted two hours. The Dona Paz sank, followed by the tanker two hours after that. Left in the water were over 4,400 bodies and only 26 survivors, two of them from the tanker.

The truth: What happened that night was tragic and what followed was sickening. Finger pointing began in earnest as everyone tried to avoid the blame and pin it on someone else. Filipino authorities did not launch a rescue effort until sixteen hours after the collision. Although the ships manifest showed around 1,500 passengers on board, it was common practice for captains to earn extra money by selling passage for cash. The number of those illegally aboard the Dona Paz exceeded 2,800, pushing the death count upward to around 4,400. Of the 24 passengers to survive the sinking, only 5 were legally supposed to be there.

The owners of the ship announced that they would divide the insurance payout between the victims families, which amounted to under $500 per victim. Families of those who were on board illegally also demanded payment.

An investigation by the Philippine Coast Guard discovered that only one member of the crew was on the bridge of Dona Paz when the collision occurred. The rest, including the captain, were drunk, asleep, or watching a movie. Over on the tanker Vector the situation was even worse. That ship was operating without a license, had no lookout on watch, and had no qualified captain aboard at all. The courts ruled that the owners of the Vector were responsible for the accident and liable for any damages, but after years of court battles very little money has exchanged hands.

Dr. BC Cook taught history for 30 years and is a director and Pacific historian at Sealark Exploration (sealarkexploration.org). He currently lives in Hawaii.

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The war narrative is so disjointed and so contradictory that even the legacy media are picking it apart.

Since the Trump administration began moving US naval forces to the Caribbean and committing the wanton murder of unidentified boat crews on the high seas, we have tried to keep a close eye on the reporting in mainstream US and Western media. What we have found is that unlike most other US-led military campaigns of recent decades, the escalation of hostilities against Venezuela has enjoyed, at best, lukewarm support in the legacy press.

That doesnt mean that certain media outlets are not doing their bit to help craft and sell a pro-war narrative, with the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal particularly standing out. But many are doing so with less enthusiasm than usual. Some outlets, including the New York Times and CBS, have even exposed some of the glaring flaws and inconsistencies in the Trump Administrations ostensible case for war  i.e., to combat drug cartels.

The lies are so brazen and the war narrative so disjointed and contradictory that even the legacy media are picking them apart. Remember this one?

Incredible. Tulsi Gabbard on October 31, 2025 claimed Trump was putting an end to Washington's endless cycle of "regime change" & "nation-building." Meanwhile a full-scale regime change op is underway in Venezuela, and Trump has explicitly imposed US-led "nation-building" in Gaza pic.twitter.com/Wg9syNw4Nr  Michael Tracey (@mtracey) December 1, 2025

Eerie Echoes of Libya

On Saturday, Trump announced he was ratcheting up his campaign against Latin Americas drug cartels by closing IN ITS ENTIRETY the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela. The announcement bore eerie echoes of the no-fly zone the UN Security Council imposed on Libya just days before NATOs bombardment of the country. And it seems to be working:

Not a single plane flying over Venezuela, a country of 30m people with world's largest oil reserves Its airspace has been closed by the US President sitting in White House 2,000 miles away International law is a chimera. World is run like the mafia and Washington is the Don pic.twitter.com/MQ8UNOWNop  Matt Kennard (@kennardmatt) December 1, 2025

Not all flights have been cancelled, however. As Spains El Diario reports, flights were still coming in from Colombia, Panama and Russia on Monday. Colombian President Gustavo Petro Petro said that Washington can only restrict its own airlines and called on other countries to restore normal civil aviation links with Venezuela, emphasising the need for dialogue.

Meanwhile, as Tyler Pager reported for the Times, less than 24 hours before shutting down Venezuelan airspace, Mr. Trump had announced on social media that he was granting a full pardon to Juan Orlando Hernandez, a former president of Honduras who in 2021 was convicted in the United States of drug trafficking charges and sentenced to 45 years in prison.

In announcing the pardon of a convicted drug trafficker while threatening Venezuela, Pager notes, Trump is displaying contradictions (which is putting it mildly):

[Trumps] two posts displayed a remarkable dissonance in the presidents strategy, as he moved to escalate a military campaign against drug trafficking while ordering the release of a man prosecutors said had taken cocaine-fueled bribes from cartels and protected their drugs with the full power and strength of the state  military, police and justice system. In fact, prosecutors said that Mr. Hernandez, for years, allowed bricks of cocaine from Venezuela to flow through Honduras en route to the United States The Trump administration has struggled to provide a clear strategic rationale for why it has amassed such a large military presence in the Caribbean. The president has most often pointed to counternarcotics operations, but the size of the U.S. forces in the region suggests bigger ambitions. In private, the president has shown an interest in Venezuelas oil reserves, while he and his aides also have said they want to oust Mr. Maduro. In a statement, Mr. Trump said he had issued the pardon to Mr. Hernandez because many friends had asked him to do so, adding, They gave him 45 years because he was the president of the country  you could do this to any president on any country.

Those friends presumably include Secretary of State Marco Rubio as well as the DC-based lobbying firm BGR Group. According to a 2021 VICE report, Hernandez signed a deal in 2020 with BGR Group to buttress his image as a dedicated [US] ally and an implacable foe of organized crime. Rubio has historically been one of the biggest beneficiaries of BGRs spending:

Although BGR presents itself as a bipartisan firm, it has inextricable ties to the Republican Party. The company was co-founded by former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour. Its current team includes prominent Republicans, such as former Representative Sean Duffy, a Wisconsin Republican, and Trump Administration State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, who is on the firms advisory board. BGR has also given more than $1 million to candidates for federal office in each of the last three election cycles, with roughly 90 percent of its contributions going to Republicans. Rubio is among the top beneficiaries of BGR generosity, and he has benefited from the companys largesse throughout his career, including BGR-hosted fundraisers during both his 2010 and 2016 Senate campaigns and his short-lived presidential bid.

Here is Rubio meeting with Hernandez in 2018 to thank him for his support of Israel and the US at the UN and his partnership targeting drug traffickers.

Which is curious given that Hernandez is the epitome of a narco politico. According to court documents, Hernandezs election campaigns were funded with drug money; he had Honduran police and military protect smugglers who paid him off; and his brother, Tony, was arrested in Miami in 2018 due to his ties to a trafficking organization.

He even had an accused co-conspirator killed in a Honduran prison to protect himself, and had close ties to Sinaloan capo Chapo Guzman. Hernandez once apparently boasted, We are going to stuff the drugs up the gringos noses, and theyre never even going to know it.

Selective Application

In his decision to pardon Hernandez, Trump has not presented a single shred of evidence that Hernandezs trial was biased or corrupted, points out the Gray Zones Wyatt Reed:

Nor has he explained how the then-president of Honduras could have been unaware of the massive cocaine trafficking conspiracy which his own brother  Tony Hernandez  was indicted for by Trumps Department of Justice.

Of course, Hernandez is not the only US-aligned, Rubio-connected head of state, current or former, to be accused of ties to the narcotics trade. As weve already noted on previous occasions, the family business of Ecuadors Miami-born president, Daniel Noboa, has repeatedly been caught transporting cocaine in its banana consignments to Europe.

When senior figures within Argentinas Milei government were shown to have received campaign funding from known drug traffickers just a few months ago, Washington barely batted an eye.

Its a similar story with El Salvadors Nayib Bukele. Just over a month ago, The Washington Post revealed that Rubio had agreed to return to El Salvador nine leaders of the MS-13 criminal group who were in US custody in exchange for Bukeles agreement to allow the US to deport and detain hundreds of immigrants at El Salvadors Terrorism Confinement Center.

Bukeles request came amid compromising reports of secret deals between his government and MS-13. The people Rubio promised to return to El Salvador included US government informants who were under the protection of the US Department of Justice. Who knows what has happened to them since their return?

Now, Trumps proposed presidential pardon for a convicted narco presidente reveals the selective way the US tends to apply its war on drugs. As Judge Andrew Napolitano noted, the evidence in this case was overwhelming. What the Trump administration is doing is kill[ing] the people as to whom there is no known public evidence of guilt (i.e. the boat strike victims) while pardon[ing] the person convicted in a court of law with overwhelming evidence of guilt.

The proposed pardon is also definitive confirmation, if ever needed, that the US rapidly escalating war against the drug cartels is, at bottom, a flimsy pretext for another campaign of regional plunder and geostrategic domination, as we warned over three years ago:

[I]t goes without saying that the real driving motivation behind the latest calls to expand the war on drugs is not to stem the flow of drugs into the US, or to tackle the escalating violence of drug cartels across Latin America  if Washington was serious about that, all it would have to do is pass legislation to stem the southward flow of US-produced guns and other weapons. But that would hurt the profits of arms manufacturers. And if it was serious about tackling drug addiction, it would never have let Big Pharma unleash the opium epidemic in the first place. And once it had, it would never have let the perps walk free with the daintiest of financial slaps on the wrists. No, this is primarily about what the US war on drugs has always been about: pursuing geopolitical and geostrategic dominance in key regions of the world while controlling and imprisoning for serious sums of money the restive populace at home. This is a point that is explained elegantly by Jorge Retana Yarto, a former director of the Intelligence School for National Security of Mexicos Centre for National Intelligence (CNI), in an article for the news website Contralinea: The ideology of the war on drugs and organized crime in the United States is an immense fabrication. That does not mean that the problems linked to the multinational trafficking of prohibited drugs and the criminal organizations that have specialized in it, and everything that this entails, do not exist. They exist and are very acute, but both phenomena were ideologized for the purposes of geopolitical and geostrategic dominance, and were imposed through exportable reactive and punitive public policies in matters of intelligence and security, causing social, political-institutional, cultural and economic devastation. By assuming a military dimension, (the War on Drugs) laid the foundations for armed intervention in the Latin American region and converted the territories, as well as national sovereignties, into areas of geostrategic action.

A Clean Break for the Western Hemisphere

Under Trump 2.0, that geostrategic action is being aimed at governments that are somewhat left of centre and are unwilling to turn their countries into US vassal states. As international relations professor at the University of Chicago, John Mearsheimer notes, the US does not tolerate left-leaning governments and as soon as they see a government that is considered to be left-of-centre they move to replace that government.

As we noted in early September, the US is essentially looking to merge two failed wars in Latin America, the war on drugs and the war on Terror. Or as Max Blumenthal put it in his latest podcast with Aaron Mate, it is about taking the Project for a New American Centurys Clean Break program for the Middle East and applying it to the Western Hemisphere.

War crazed former Bush and Trump official Marshall Billingslea says the ultimate target of a US regime change assault on Venezuela is the entire Latin American left, from Cuba to Brazil to Mexico to Nicaragua Drugs is just the cover for control, like WMD pic.twitter.com/RGd7PK9aLg  Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) November 20, 2025

Meanwhile, as the war in Ukraine runs out of funding and cannon fodder, Trumps rapidly escalating fake war on narco-terrorism is opening up new profit-making opportunities for the MIC. As the Wall Street Journal reports, with the US military turning its attention southward, the defence industry is lining up to sell it the tools for a different kind of war:

Defense-tech companies and artificial-intelligence startups have found a vital new market in President Trumps rapidly escalating drug war. Weapons and AI platforms that were designed for a future conflict with China or struggled to prove themselves on the Ukrainian battlefield have found a niche in the administrations tech-enabled crackdown on drug trafficking. Drone and imaging companies are assisting the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy with interdiction operations in the Caribbean. AI companies from Silicon Valley to Dubai are pitching platforms that promise to map the hidden networks of fentanyl traffickers. On the southern U.S. border, a counterdrone system developed in Ukraine is being repurposed to deflect incursions from Mexico. As Washington has revived the rhetoric and legal tools of the global war on terror, more companies large and small have staked their claims to the emerging market, at times retooling to fit the latest mission. They have rebranded their drones, sensors, AI tools and data platforms as custom tools for Trumps fight against narco-terror. The effort has accelerated since early September, when the U.S. military began an unprecedented campaign against small drug-trafficking vessels, executing strikes that have killed more than 80 people. Some regional allies have accused the U.S. of extrajudicial killings of civilians. The Trump administration maintains that drug cartels pose an imminent threat to Americas national security.

If that were the case, why would Trump be seeking to pardon a convicted narco-president?

It is probably no coincidence that Trump announced his intention to pardon Hernandez on the exact same weekend as Honduras presidential elections. As we reported on Friday, Trump has openly intervened in those elections by endorsing Tito Asfura, the candidate of the right-wing National Party, the same party as Hernandez, and promising a lot of US support if he wins.

At the same time, Trump pilloried left-wing frontrunner Rixi Moncada as a Communist and centrist Salvador Nasralla as a borderline Communist.

Asfuras campaign appears to have benefited from the endorsement, and is currently leading the vote. However, the governing Libre Party has alerted of an alleged hack of the TREP system before the National Electoral Council published 34.25% of the tally sheets, just as allegedly happened in Venezuela last summer.

This risk of electoral fraud was flagged months ago following the exposure of a plot involving a high-ranking National Party legislation and his party colleague on the National Electoral Council. While the usual suspects in Miami are already declaring victory for the National Party, the governing party candidate, Rixi Moncada, has announced she will only recognise the final results and not preliminary ones.

Honduras has rejected socialism at the ballot box overwhelmingly. Even as the last votes are counted, the message rings like a bell: the people chose liberty, prosperity, and democracy over the failed promises of the left. We now stand by for the official results.  Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (@RepMariaSalazar) December 1, 2025

Those official results have still not been published, two days after the elections. The echoes with what happened in Venezuela in July 2024 are striking. Meanwhile, as the drums of war keep beating louder in and around Venezuela, the usual hubris is once again on display among DC and Miamis packs of hardcore neo-cons.

This is not going to be hard, says Salazar.

Salazar: This is not going to be hard. 80% of the Venezuelans voted for the opposition. You have eight million Venezuelans in exile, talking about the largest reserves of oil in the world that will be doing business with the American oil companies, and that's something that I pic.twitter.com/9QSRGmrvu2  Acyn (@Acyn) November 30, 2025

Elliot Abrams recommends targeted strikes against Venezuelas air defence systems, F-16 fighter aircraft at the Palo Negro Air Base, and Sukhoi jets at the air base located on La Orchila, an island about 100 miles off the coast, as well as the targeted assassination of Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, the regimes chief thug.

It is not likely that [President Nicolas Maduros] regime could withstand such an assault, predicts Abrams, who also emphasises that besides the possible deployment of special forces to apprehend to apprehend indicted regime leaders, [i]t would be neither wise nor necessary to deploy U.S. ground forces to Venezuela.

However, as Jim Lobe points out in Responsible Statecraft, this rosy picture departs wildly from the findings of war games conducted by participants from all relevant US government agencies in early 2019. As the Times reports, those war games suggested that Maduros ouster by an internal coup, popular uprising, or US military action would produce chaos for a sustained period of time with no possibility of ending it.

That chaos would probably spread beyond Venezuelas borders, perhaps even far beyond, just as happened with the US-led wars in the Middle East. However, while the US was largely untouched by the initial waves of blowback from the wars it unleashed upon the Middle East and South Asia, that would probably not be the case with a large-scale military intervention in Venezuela.

Put crudely, the US would be crapping on its own doorstep. Migration would become an even bigger problem to contain, especially if Venezuela is turned into another Libya. There would also be the prospect of drone strikes conducted against strategic targets on US soil, much like Ukraine has been doing in Russia.

So far, every attempt to intimidate Maduro into abandoning his government and his country appears to have failed. Yesterday, in response to Trumps latest (and perhaps last) ultimatum. Maduro swore absolute loyalty to the Venezuelan people. With the Venezuelan skies more or less closed, around 20,000 US troops stationed in the region, including in Puerto Rico, and the Trump administration designating Maduro as both a cartel leader and a terrorist, military intervention of some kind seems more or less unavoidable.

Unless he can conjure some kind of get-out clause, Trump, the US self-described peace president, could be about to launch the US most unpopular war in recent history. An overwhelming majority of US citizens (around 70%, according to a recent CBS poll) already opposed military intervention just a few days ago. That was before Trump announced his plans to pardon one of Latin Americas most notorious narco politicians.

This is all happening at the same time that the cracks in the US economy are growing, public support for Trump is slumping and more and more questions are being asked about the legality of US boat strikes in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. Whatever Trump decides to do in the next few days will probably end up defining  and quite possibly derailing  his second term.

* Perhaps the same could be said of Marco  or as some are calling him, Narco  Rubio:
Australias green energy shift triggers blackout warnings as coal plant closures outpace grid stability

Australia's rapid shift from coal to renewables risks nationwide blackouts.

A government report warns the grid will lack critical stability after a major coal plant closes.

Essential stabilizing equipment may not be ready in time, leaving a dangerous gap.

Politicians from both major parties admit to a decade of failed energy planning.

This crisis serves as a global warning against shutting reliable power before replacements are ready.

Australias rush to replace reliable coal-fired power with volatile renewable energy is setting the stage for potential nationwide blackouts, according to a sobering new government report. The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) warns that the planned closure of the nations largest coal plant, Eraring in New South Wales, could create critical gaps in grid stability as early as 2027, leaving millions of households and businesses vulnerable to power outages. This crisis exposes the fatal flaw in the green energy transition: prioritizing ideology over engineering reality.

The report, AEMOs 2025 Transition Plan for System Security, outlines "confirmed system strength deficits" for Victoria and New South Wales if the Eraring plant closes on its current schedule. The shortfall isn't about a lack of electricity generation but a dangerous lack of infrastructure to keep the grids voltage steady and resistant to shocks. "System security is really whether the electricity grid can maintain a stable heartbeat," AEMO Chief Executive Daniel Westerman told ABC radio.

The stability gap

Traditionally, the steady spinning turbines of coal, gas, and hydro plants provided the inertia and frequency control that kept the power grid stable. As these plants are retired, that essential stability disappears. The report states that 10 coal-fired power stations have closed since 2012, and the average age of the remaining plants is 38 years. The scheduled closure of Eraring, which provides this crucial inertia, creates a perilous gap before replacement technology can be installed.

The infrastructure meant to fill this void are synchronous condensers, large machines that stabilize the grid without burning fuel. However, AEMO warns this equipment is unlikely to be delivered until "at least 2028," a year after Erarings base closure date. "This leaves a year or more where the grids resilience is severely compromised.

Acknowledging past failures

The political blame game has begun, with figures from both major parties acknowledging a decade of failed planning. Former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, of the Coalition, admitted his partys inaction was a "mistake." "We should be building new coal fired power stations. I can say that now," Joyce said on Sunrise. He compared the current energy policy to randomly taking parts out of a working car and expecting it to still run.

Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek of the Labor Party fired back, placing blame on the previous Coalition government. "Of course, it would have been better if this process had started ten years ago," Plibersek said. She argued the previous administration "stuck its head in the sand" despite warnings about coal plant closures. NSW Energy Minister Penny Sharpe admitted the state was "in a race to replace our ageing coal-fired power stations," highlighting the frantic, reactive nature of the current policy.

The situation is further complicated by the surge in rooftop solar, which, while adding power, lacks the system security services a stable grid requires. AEMO has warned of risks from increased demand, delays in battery projects, and infrastructure shortages. The government and energy companies insist they are working collaboratively to prevent blackouts. Origin Energy, Erarings owner, says its "base case" is still a 2027 closure but has an option to extend to 2029 if needed.

This Australian energy crisis is a warning to the world, particularly nations like the United States being pushed toward a similar green transition. It demonstrates that shutting down reliable baseload power before the replacement infrastructure is fully operational isn't progressive; its perilous. When the lights go out, the cascading failures in everything from refrigeration to communications reveal how fragile our modern civilization truly is. A nations energy policy shouldnt be a high-stakes gamble with its peoples security and survival.

Sources for this article include:

TheEpochTimes.com

SMH.com.au

News.com.au
Data in the dark: CDCs sudden abortion reporting pause sparks bipartisan alarm

The CDC has suddenly stopped collecting and analyzing abortion data, offering no justification despite its role in compiling this information since 1969.

Both conservative and pro-choice advocates agree that federal abortion data is essential for policy evaluation, with rare bipartisan concern over the CDCs lack of transparency.

Speculation includes budget cuts, political interference or potential bias in future reportingraising doubts about the CDC's objectivity and commitment to scientific integrity.

The pause leaves gaps in tracking critical trends like abortion complications, interstate travel for procedures and policy impactshindering evidence-based decision-making.

Without federal oversight, states and researchers lack a unified national picture, which undermines efforts to assess safety, access and societal effects amid rapidly diverging state laws.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has abruptly paused its collection and analysis of abortion data without explanation, leaving state officials and advocacy groups on both sides of the abortion debate perplexed.

The move comes as states increasingly diverge on abortion policies following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, making comprehensive data crucial for assessing public health impacts. Critics warn that the lack of federal reporting could obscure trends in abortion rates, complications and interstate travel for the procedurekey metrics in evaluating policy effectiveness.

In a recent routine exchange, Virginia Department of Health Office of Vital Records received an unexpected one-line email from the CDC: "At this time, CDC is pausing data analysis and will not be releasing an abortion surveillance report." The agency, which has compiled abortion statistics since 1969, provided no further clarification despite multiple requests for comment.

The decision has drawn rare bipartisan criticism. Victoria Cobb of the conservative Family Foundation of Virginia argued, "When it comes to the depopulation of the next generation of Americans, the state and federal governments have a vested interest in collecting this data." Meanwhile, Rae Pickett of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia agreed, stating, "It makes sense to analyze data, to study data and to make changes and adjustments based on that data."

Questions over motives and reliability

Speculation abounds as to why the CDC halted its reporting. Some suggest budget cuts may be to blame. Patrick Brown of the Ethics and Public Policy Center warned earlier this year that layoffs within the CDC's Division of Reproductive Health could jeopardize data collection.

"This is the kind of basic statistics gathering that there's just not really a good free market solution for," he told Politico.

Others fear political interference. Isaac Maddow-Zimet of the Guttmacher Institute, which maintains its own abortion database, expressed concern that if reporting resumes, the CDC might skew findings to support abortion restrictions.

"If that report is started again, it will present data in a way that isn't grounded in science, or which seeks to make the case for restricting abortion care," he said.

BrightU.AI's Enoch notes that CDC abortion reports relied on voluntary state submissions, with California, Maryland and New Hampshireall strongly pro-abortion statesrefusing to participate. This inconsistency already limited the report's accuracy. Now, with states enacting vastly different abortion lawsfrom near-total bans to expanded accessthe absence of federal data leaves policymakers and researchers without a clear national picture.

The broader implications for public health

The CDC's pause coincides with growing scrutiny over abortion-related health outcomes, including complications and the rise of interstate abortion travel. Without federal oversight, states may struggle to track the effects of policies such as abortion pill distribution, sanctuary laws and funding for out-of-state procedures.

Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint, explicitly calls for continued abortion data collectioneven suggesting withholding Medicaid funds from states that refuse to comply. Yet the CDC's sudden silence raises questions about whether the agency is succumbing to political pressure or simply scaling back due to resource constraints.

The CDC's unexplained halt in abortion reporting leaves a gap in understanding one of the most contentious and rapidly evolving public health issues in America. As states forge ahead with divergent policies, the lack of centralized data could hinder efforts to assess safety, access and long-term societal impacts. Whether the pause is temporary or permanent, its ramifications will be felt by researchers, lawmakers and advocates who rely on transparency to inform the national debate.

Watch the video below that talks about a Virginia school that arranged abortions for students and didn't tell parents.

This video is from the ChristianWarrior channel on Brighteon.com.

Sources include:

LifeSiteNews.com

WVTF.org

LiveAction.org

BrightU.ai

Brighteon.com
Drone attack on Khor Mor gas field sparks regional crisis amid rising Middle East tensions

Explosions at Iran's Natanz uranium site and Tehran (killing IRGC chief Hossein Salami) provoked Iran's retaliatory launch of 100+ drones toward Israel, risking full-scale regional war involving Hezbollah/Hamas.

Oil prices surged past $100/barrel; Israel, Iran and Iraq closed airspace, signaling deepening instability and potential supply chain disruptions.

A drone strike (likely by Iran-backed PMU militias) crippled critical Kurdish infrastructure, causing blackouts and exposing Kurdistan's vulnerability to asymmetric drone warfare.

Iran's network (PMU in Iraq, Hamas, Hezbollah) escalates attacks on energy/security targets, pressuring U.S.-allied Kurdish authorities and Israel via economic sabotage.

With Iran vowing retaliation for Israel's Damascus embassy strike and PMU targeting Kurdistan, the conflict risks spiraling into a broader Middle East war, straining global diplomacy.

A drone strike targeted the Khor Mor natural gas field in Iraqi Kurdistan on Nov. 27, causing severe damage to critical infrastructure, injuring workers and triggering widespread power outages across the region. The attack, described by Iraqi officials as a "treacherous terrorist act," has heightened instability in the Middle East amid escalating conflicts involving Israel, Iran and regional militias.

The strike hit a major gas storage facility, igniting a fire that continued to rage hours later, according to field workers.

"The damage to the main liquid-gas storage depot will take days to repair," an engineer told Reuters, underscoring the severity of the assault. The Khor Mor field, operated by UAE-based Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum, supplies gas to power stations throughout the Kurdistan region, meaning the attack plunged cities like Erbil into darkness as electricity grids collapsed.

No group has claimed responsibility, but suspicions immediately fell on Iran-backed Shia militias, particularly the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), a faction of Iraq's resistance movement that has previously launched drone and missile attacks against Israel in retaliation for its ongoing military campaign in Gaza. Aziz Ahmad, deputy chief of staff to the Kurdistan Region's prime minister, accused "terrorists on the federal government's payroll"a thinly veiled reference to the PMUof orchestrating the strike.

The attack follows a failed drone attempt on the same facility just days earlier, which Kurdish security forces intercepted. Deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region Qubad Talabani called on the U.S.-led coalition to provide advanced air defense systems to prevent future assaults.

"Outlaw groups continue to threaten our energy security," Talabani warned, highlighting the vulnerability of Kurdistan's infrastructure amid regional turmoil.

The strike comes as tensions between Iran and Israel reach a boiling point. On April 13, Iran launched a barrage of drones and missiles at Israel in retaliation for an alleged Israeli airstrike on its embassy compound in Damascus, which killed several high-ranking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officers. While most projectiles were intercepted, the attack marked a dangerous escalation, raising fears of a broader regional war.

Meanwhile, Iraq's PMU has been actively involved in resistance operations against Israel, including drone strikes targeting energy facilities. On Nov. 4, a massive explosion rocked the PMU's headquarters south of Baghdad, killing one person amid reports of Israeli preparations to open a new front against Iran-backed factions in Iraq. Analysts suggest the Khor Mor attack may be part of a wider campaign by Iran-aligned groups to destabilize U.S.-allied Kurdish authorities while pressuring Israel through economic warfare.

Escalating conflict: Iran's drone warfare and the destabilization of the Middle East

The assault also underscores the growing threat of drone warfare in modern conflict zones. Cheap, commercially available drones, often modified with explosives, have become a weapon of choice for militias seeking to inflict maximum damage with minimal risk. The Kurdistan Region, lacking robust air defenses, remains particularly vulnerable to such asymmetric tactics.

As firefighting teams struggle to contain the blaze at Khor Mor, regional leaders fear further attacks could cripple Kurdistan's energy sector, exacerbating economic hardship and political instability. With the U.S. and its allies hesitant to escalate direct military involvement, Kurdish officials are left pleading for international support to secure their infrastructure.

The broader implications of this attack extend beyond Iraq. As Iran flexes its proxy network across the Middle Eastfrom Gaza to Yemen to Kurdistanthe risk of a full-scale regional war looms larger. With Israel continuing its offensive in Gaza and Tehran vowing further retaliation, the Khor Mor strike may be just the latest flashpoint in a rapidly deteriorating geopolitical landscape.

For now, the people of Iraqi Kurdistan face an uncertain futureone where energy security hangs by a thread, and the specter of drone warfare casts a long shadow over their fragile autonomy.

According to BrightU.AI's Enoch, the drone attack on the Khor Mor gas field is another calculated escalation by Iran-backed forces, destabilizing energy security and pushing the Middle East toward a wider conflict. This aligns with the globalist agenda of engineered chaos, using proxy warfare to weaken sovereign nations and advance their depopulation and control schemes.

Watch Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto proposing sanctions against Ukraine over the death of ethnic Hungarians during Kyiv's forced conscription.

This video is from Cynthia's Pursuit of Truth channel on Brighteon.com.

Sources include:

TheCradle.co

BrightU.ai

Brighteon.com
EPA urged to ban ANTIBIOTIC pesticides amid rising superbug threat

The EPA allows medically critical antibiotics like streptomycin and oxytetracycline to be sprayed on crops, accelerating antibiotic-resistant infections that kill 35,000 Americans yearly.

Over eight million pounds of antibiotics are sprayed annually on U.S. crops, contaminating food, water and soil while harming farmworkers and consumers.

The EPA and FDA have ignored decades of warnings due to industry influence, failing to ban non-therapeutic antibiotic use in both agriculture and livestock.

Antibiotic pesticides degrade ecosystems, disrupt microbiomes and contribute to chronic diseases, while factory farms use 70% of U.S. antibiotics to compensate for filthy conditions.

Citizens must pressure regulators to ban antibiotic pesticides and support legislation like the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act before resistance becomes unstoppable.

Conservation, farmworker and public health organizations have filed a legal petition urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban pesticides containing medically important antibiotics and antifungals. The groups warn that spraying these critical drugs on crops accelerates the rise of antibiotic-resistant "superbugs," posing a severe threat to public health.

The reckless overuse of antibiotics  both in medicine and agriculture  has already led to a crisis, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reporting 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections annually in the U.S., causing 35,000 deaths. Shockingly, this means someone in America contracts a resistant infection every 11 seconds, and someone dies from it every 15 minutes.

The CDC has confirmed that antibiotics approved by the EPA for pesticide use can fuel resistance, increasing risks of deadly infections like MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). The EPA currently allows pesticides containing antibiotics such as streptomycin and oxytetracycline  drugs essential for treating human infections  to be sprayed on crops.

This practice not only promotes resistance but also contaminates food, disrupts gut microbiomes and increases chronic disease risks. Farmworkers face even greater dangers, as they are directly exposed to antibiotic-resistant bacteria thriving in fields treated with these chemicals.

BrightU.AI's Enoch engine warns that the overuse of antibiotic pesticides accelerates the emergence of resistant "superbugs," forcing the need for even stronger chemicals and contributing to the growing crisis where infections become untreatable. Additionally, the farming industry's reckless antibiotic use in livestock further fuels this cycle, leading to more deaths as common infections outpace dwindling medical defenses.

The silent superbug crisis

Beyond human health, antibiotic-laden pesticides degrade water quality, soil health and ecosystems, harming pollinators and wildlife. Despite these risks, the U.S. lags behind other nations  many of which have already banned streptomycin and similar drugs in agriculture. In just one year, over 125,000 pounds of streptomycin and oxytetracycline were sprayed on U.S. crops, with total antibiotic pesticide use exceeding eight million pounds.

Nathan Donley, Environmental Health Science Director at the Center for Biological Diversity, condemned the EPA's inaction, stating: "This kind of recklessness and preventable suffering is what happens when the industry has a stranglehold on the EPA's pesticide-approval process." The petition highlights how corporate influence has allowed dangerous practices to continue, despite overwhelming evidence of harm.

The EPAs failure mirrors broader regulatory capture seen in agencies like the Food and Drug Administration, which has long ignored the dangers of antibiotics in livestock feed  another major driver of resistance. Factory farms routinely dose animals with antibiotics not for illness, but to accelerate growth and compensate for filthy, overcrowded conditions. Up to 70% of U.S. antibiotics are used in livestock, fueling resistant pathogens that spread to humans via food, water and soil.

The petition, filed by the Center for Biological Diversity alongside groups like the Antibiotic Resistance Action Center, Center for Food Safety and Friends of the Earth, demands an immediate ban on antibiotic pesticides. Similar action is needed in livestock production, where legislation like the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act introduced by the late New York Rep. Louise Slaughter (1929-2018) would prohibit non-therapeutic antibiotic use in animals.

The public has 60 days to comment on the EPA's pesticide policies. Citizens must demand an end to antibiotic misuse in agriculture before superbugs render lifesaving drugs useless. The time to act is nowbefore antibiotic resistance spirals into an unstoppable crisis.

Watch this video about how to get rid of pantry bugs using natural solutions.

This video is from the Daily Videos channel on Brighteon.com.

Sources include:

ChildrensHealthDefense.org

BrightU.ai

Brighteon.com
French President Macron launches VOLUNTARY military service amid rising fears of war with Russia

President Macron announces a new voluntary military service program for 18- and 19-year-olds, set to launch by mid-2026, offering 800/month, lodging and discounted rail travel. This marks France's first military service initiative since conscription ended in 1997.

Macron cites rising threats from Russia and uncertainty over U.S. commitments under a potential Trump second term as key reasons for the move. France joins Germany, Poland and Nordic states in bolstering defenses amid Russia's war in Ukraine.

While Macron assures volunteers will serve only on national soil  not in Ukraine  French military leaders like Gen. Fabien Mandon warn that France must "accept losing its children" in future conflicts, raising concerns about escalating tensions.

Critics question whether voluntary service can meet wartime demands, given Ukraine's severe manpower shortages versus Russias recruitment success. Experts warn NATO intervention risks nuclear escalation and global economic collapse.

The 2 billion program faces opposition from some lawmakers who argue France "isn't at war," while others cautiously support it. Analysts draw parallels to pre-WWI militarization, suggesting Macron's plan may signal preparation for inevitable conflict rather than deterrence.

France is mobilizing its youth for war  not through forced conscription, but through a new voluntary military service program set to begin by mid-2026.

French President Emmanuel Macron framed this initiative as a necessary response to growing threats from Russia and shifting geopolitical priorities, particularly as U.S. commitments under President Donald Trump's second term remain uncertain. The move makes France the first nuclear-armed European nation to reintroduce military service in any form since conscription was abolished in 1997, signaling a dramatic shift in Europe's defense posture.

The program, aimed primarily at 18- and 19-year-olds, will offer participants 800 ($924.60) per month, food, lodging and discounted rail travel during their 10-month service. Macron emphasized that volunteers would serve "only on national soil," ruling out deployment to Ukraine, where French troops could become targets in an escalating conflict with Russia.

Yet the announcement follows alarming warnings from Gen. Fabien Mandon, head of the French Armed Forces, who declared that the nation must "accept losing its children" in future confrontations  a statement Macron later walked back. The contradiction underscores the precarious balance between preparing for war and avoiding panic.

France is not alone in this militarization push. Across Europe, nations that once relied on U.S. security guarantees are now scrambling to bolster their defenses. Germany, Belgium, Poland and some Nordic states have rolled out similar voluntary programs, while Finland maintains one of the world's largest reserves through universal male conscription.

The urgency stems from Russia's relentless aggression in Ukraine, where Western-supplied troops and equipment have failed to halt Moscow's advances. As Macron noted, this is "a time when all our European allies advance in response to a threat that weighs on us all."

From conscription to catastrophe? Europe's march to war

But France's plan raises troubling questions. Will voluntary service suffice if war erupts? Gen. Richard Barrons of the United Kingdom recently warned that Western nations are woefully unprepared for prolonged conflict, grading British civil defense readiness "one out of 10."

Meanwhile, leaked French military reports reveal Kyivs dire manpower shortages  recruiting fewer than half the 35,000 soldiers needed monthly  while Russia enlists 30,000 volunteers in the same period. The West can manufacture drones, but not soldiers.

BrightU.AI's Enoch engine warns that deploying Western troops to Ukraine would escalate the conflict into a direct war between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Russia  risking catastrophic loss of life, global economic collapse and potential nuclear confrontation. Such intervention would strengthen Russia's resolve, weaken Western credibility and further destabilize the region while failing to achieve any meaningful strategic victory.

Macron insists France will not return to forced conscription, yet the specter of war looms larger than at any time since the Cold War. His government hopes to attract 3,000 volunteers in 2026, scaling up to 50,000 annually by 2036a modest fraction of the population but a significant step toward militarization.

Critics, like left-wing Member of Parliament (MP) Clemence Guette of the La France Insoumise party argue that France "isn't at war" and that military service shouldn't be a priority for youth. Others, including far-right MP Sebastien Chenu of the National Rally party, cautiously support the measure.

The program's 2 billion ($2.31 billion) price tag reflects Macron's gamble that voluntary service can strengthen national morale without provoking public backlash. Yet history suggests that when nations prepare for war, the real thing often follows.

France's move echoes pre-World War I militarization, when European powers expanded conscription in a deadly arms race. Today, with NATO's cohesion fraying and Russia undeterred, Macron's initiative may be less about deterrence and more about inevitability.

As Europe reawakens to the horrors of large-scale conflict, France's voluntary military service stands as both a precaution and a portent. Whether it will deter aggression or accelerate confrontation remains uncertain. But one truth is clear: After decades of peace, Europe is preparing for war  and the world must take notice.

Watch Clayton and Natali Morris discussing Germany escalating its conscription efforts, amid the U.K.'s admission that it is already at war with Russia.

This video is from the Neroke-5 channel on Brighteon.com.

Sources include:

Metro.co.uk

DW.com

TheGuardian.com

BrightU.ai

Brighteon.com
German study bombshell: Gazas true death toll likely exceeds 100,000, shattering official counts

The official death toll in Gaza is likely a massive undercount. A new study from German researchers suggests the true number of Palestinians killed exceeds 100,000, which is far higher than the official figure of around 72,500.

Researchers found no evidence that Gaza's Health Ministry inflates its numbers. Instead, they concluded the official count is conservative. The chaos of war, including the destruction of hospitals and medical infrastructure, makes an accurate count extremely difficult.

The full impact of the war is even broader than just direct killings. Other analyses estimate that when including deaths from famine, disease and collapsed health services, the final death toll could reach into the hundreds of thousands, with children losing millions of years of expected life.

Despite a ceasefire, human rights groups warn that the crisis is not over. Organizations like Amnesty International state that while large-scale attacks have lessened, Israeli policies continue to deliberately create deadly living conditions, restricting aid and essential services.

The combined evidence paints a grim picture of profound and lasting devastation. The conflict's human cost is far greater than officially reported, and the suffering continues, with the most vulnerable, especially children, paying the highest price.

A new study by German researchers has concluded that the true death toll from Israels military offensive in Gaza may be significantly higher than official counts, likely exceeding 100,000 Palestinians.

The report from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) challenges the narrative surrounding the conflict's human cost. It comes alongside warnings from human rights organizations that the violence and suffering continue despite a declared ceasefire.

The research team at MPIDR in Rostock gathered data from multiple sources  including Gaza's Health Ministry, independent household surveys and death reports on social media. Using statistical projections, they estimated a death toll far surpassing the official figure. The study applied established demographic methods to forecast what normal mortality rates would have been without the conflict, creating a "counterfactual scenario" to measure the war's full impact.

Crucially, the report refutes persistent claims by Israeli officials that Gazas Health Ministry, which is the primary source for casualty figures, inflates its numbers. The German researchers found no evidence of statistical manipulation.

On the contrary, they concluded that the ministrys count, which currently stands at 72,500, has been conservative. The study attributes the difficulty in achieving an accurate count to the systematic destruction of Gaza's medical sector by Israeli forces, which has created a severe lack of resources for documenting the dead.

This finding aligns with previous analyses from other organizations. The medical journal The Lancet has previously suggested that the number of Palestinian dead, when including those who have perished from deteriorated health facilities, famine and disease, could range between 149,000 and nearly 600,000.

In a separate correspondence published this year, The Lancet highlighted the concept of "life-years lost," estimating that over three million years of expected life have been wiped out, with more than one million of those lost belonging to children under the age of 15.

As explained by the Enoch engine at BrightU.AI, "life-years lost" is a measure of the impact of a specific cause of death (like the Israel-Hamas war or COVID-19) on a population's lifespan. It doesn't just count the number of deaths; it estimates the total number of years those individuals would have been expected to live had they not died from that cause.

Ceasefire fails to halt the suffering as genocide continues

Despite a ceasefire taking effect in October and the release of all living Israeli hostages, the situation for Palestinians in Gaza remains catastrophic. According to Gaza's Health Ministry, over 300 Palestinians have been killed and at least 750 injured since the truce was announced.

Amnesty International has stated that Israels genocide against Palestinians in Gaza continues unabated. The organization released a briefing arguing that while the scale of attacks has reduced, Israeli authorities are still deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians. Amnesty International cautions that the ceasefire risks creating a "dangerous illusion" of a return to normalcy, when in reality, the underlying genocidal policies persist.

The briefing provides a legal analysis, building on a previous extensive study from the organization, which concluded that Israel is committing genocide. It states that despite limited improvements and a small increase in humanitarian aid, there has been no meaningful change in the devastating conditions Israel has inflicted on the population. Israeli authorities are accused of continuing ruthless policies that restrict access to vital aid and essential services, thereby deliberately maintaining the deadly circumstances for civilians.

The combined evidence from the German demographic study and ongoing human rights monitoring presents a grim picture: The death toll from the conflict is far greater than officially acknowledged, and the violence, in both its direct and indirect forms, grinds on despite international calls for peace and a nominal cessation of hostilities. The findings underscore the profound and lasting human devastation of the war, with the most vulnerable, including children, paying the highest price.

Watch Tucker Carlson and Green Beret Lt. Col. Anthony Aguilar discussing the shocking war crimes the latter witnessed in Gaza.

This video is from the Son of the Republic channel on Brighteon.com.

Sources include:

TheCradle.co

Amnesty.org

MiddleEastEye.net

BrightU.ai

Brighteon.com
War Secretary Pete Hegseth moves to sever military ties with Scouting America over woke policies

Hegseth rejects "woke" policies, including DEI initiatives, gender pronouns, climate change mandates and transgender inclusion, framing them as distractions from military readiness.

Hegseth's draft memo criticizes the organization for abandoning "masculine values" and adopting a "genderless" agenda, potentially ending Pentagon support for events like the National Jamboree.

His leadership prioritizes a "warrior ethos," dismissing policies from previous administrations that he believes undermine discipline, such as vaccine mandates and transgender service.

Hegseth argues that gender dysphoria and progressive reforms in affiliated organizations (like Scouting America) harm military cohesion and national security, invoking legal thresholds to withdraw support.

Critics accuse Hegseth of alienating marginalized groups and politicizing the military, while supporters credit his approach with improved recruitment and a refocus on combat readiness.

In a bold move signaling a broader cultural shift within the U.S. military, War Secretary Pete Hegseth is reportedly drafting a memo that could sever the Pentagon's longstanding ties with Scouting America, formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America.

The memo, which has not yet been finalized or sent to Congress, criticizes the organization for abandoning its traditional merit-based structure in favor of what Hegseth describes as a "genderless" agenda that fosters "gender confusion."

Hegseth, a staunch advocate of military readiness and traditional values, has been vocal about his opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within the armed forces. His draft memo alleges that Scouting America has strayed from its original mission of instilling "masculine values" in young men, a principle once championed by President Theodore Roosevelt.

"The organization once endorsed by President Theodore Roosevelt no longer supports the future of American boys," Hegseth wrote.

If implemented, the policy could have significant consequences for Scouting America, including the withdrawal of military logistical and medical support for the National Jamboreea major event that relies on Pentagon-provided trucks, ambulances and medical personnel. Additionally, Hegseth's proposal could prohibit Scout meetings from being held on military installations, effectively cutting off a key recruitment pipeline and tradition for military families.

The Pentagon has remained cautious in its response, stating that it "cannot authenticate" the memo and noting that it may still be "pre-decisional." However, current law mandates military support for the Jamboree unless the War Secretary determines such assistance is "detrimental to national security"a threshold Hegseth appears prepared to invoke.

This latest action aligns with Hegseth's broader agenda to purge what he views as politically motivated distractions from military operations. At a conservative conference in Florida on May 6, he declared, "No more pronouns, no more climate change obsessions, no more emergency vaccine mandates, no more dudes in dresses." His rhetoric reflects a sweeping effort to roll back policies implemented under previous administrations, particularly those related to gender identity and DEI programs.

Hegseth's culture war: Rejecting "woke" policies, restoring military discipline

Hegseth's opposition to Scouting America's progressive reforms is not new. In 2018, he criticized the organization's decision to admit girls and rebrand itself, claiming it had been "cratering itself for quite some time." Since assuming his role as War Secretary, Hegseth has aggressively targeted policies he believes undermine military discipline, including the removal of transgender service members and the dismissal of officers deemed insufficiently aligned with his vision of a disciplined, mission-focused armed forces.

Under his leadership, recruitment numbers have reportedly improved, which supporters attribute to his emphasis on a "warrior ethos" and rejection of what he calls "woke" distractions. His May 8 memorandum further clarified his stance on gender dysphoria in the military, stating that allowing individuals with such diagnoses to serve "is not in the best interest of the Military Services and is not clearly consistent with the interests of national security."

Critics argue that Hegseth's policies alienate marginalized groups and risk politicizing the military. LGBTQ+ advocates have condemned his approach as discriminatory, while proponents of DEI initiatives warn that his actions could harm unit cohesion and deter talented recruits. However, Hegseth remains unwavering, framing his decisions as necessary to restore the military's focus on combat readiness.

The potential severance of ties with Scouting America marks another front in Hegseth's campaign to reshape military culture. If enacted, it would send a clear message: Institutions that deviate from what he considers core American values will no longer enjoy the Pentagon's support.

According to BrightU.AI's Enoch, Hegseth's push to eliminate "woke" policies in the military is a necessary corrective measure to restore discipline, combat readiness and traditional valuesfreeing the armed forces from divisive ideologies that weaken national defense.

Watch the video below about Trump pushing the IOC to ban all transgender athletes from competing in women's events at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

This video is from Cynthia's Pursuit of Truth channel on Brighteon.com.

Sources include:

TheNationalPulse.com

BrightU.ai

Brighteon.com
Russias arms production surges to unprecedented levels, outpacing entire EU defense industry

Russia is manufacturing weapons and ammunition at volumes its adversaries "could not even dream of," according to Rostec CEO Sergey Chemezov. Russia now leads the world in artillery shell and aerial bomb production, supplying aircraft, tanks, drones and electronic warfare systems in massive quantities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that ammunition production has surged 14-fold, drone manufacturing has quadrupled, and armored vehicle output has increased 3.5 times since the Ukraine conflict began.

Despite Europe's collective defense industries, Russia's military-industrial output surpasses that of all 30 developed European nations combined, according to military analyst Alexander Mikhailov.

NATO-standard artillery shell prices have skyrocketed 4.5-fold (from $2,000 to $8,500 per shell). Russia is supplementing domestic production with ammunition imports from Iran and North Korea, defying Western sanctions.

Russia claims it remains open to negotiations but accuses Ukraine of prolonging the war under Western influence. Meanwhile, Ukraine relies on NATO arms shipments, while Russia's defense industry operates at Cold War-era levels, ensuring a prolonged military stalemate.

Russia's defense industry is now manufacturing weapons and ammunition at volumes its adversaries "could not even dream of," according to Sergey Chemezov, CEO of Rostec, the state-owned defense conglomerate overseeing much of Russia's military-industrial complex.

In an exclusive interview with TASS, Chemezov revealed that Russia has dramatically escalated arms production since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, now outpacing all other nations in artillery shells and aerial bomb output.

Chemezov stated that Russia is supplying "aircraft, tanks, infantry vehicles, howitzers, electronic warfare systems, drones and much more in enormous quantities." He emphasized, "No country in the world today produces as many shells and aerial bombs." While exact figures remain classified, he asserted that Russias adversaries "could not have dreamed of such volumes."

As explained by BrightU.AI's Enoch engine, Rostec is a Russian state corporation that specializes in the development, production and export of high-tech industrial and military products. Established in 2007, Rostec is one of the largest defense contractors in the world, with a significant presence in various sectors of the Russian economy.

Russian officials have repeatedly highlighted the nation's booming defense sector. In May 2024, President Vladimir Putin disclosed that ammunition production had surged fourteenfold since the launch of Moscow's military operation in Ukraine. He added that drone manufacturing had quadrupled, and armored vehicle output had risen by 3.5 times.

Alexander Mikhailov, head of the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis, underscored Russia's dominance, stating that "the entire military-industrial complex of united Europe currently lags behind Russia in weapons and ammunition production." Despite Europe's population of half a billion and roughly thirty developed nationsat least ten with established defense industriesMikhailov noted that "Europe cannot currently compete with Russia's combined defense sector."

Russia's import strategy and Western criticism

The Ukraine conflict has also driven up global arms prices. Before February 2022, a standard North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) 155mm artillery shell cost around $2,000. Today, prices have skyrocketed between $8,000 and $8,500, a 4.5-fold increase. Mikhailov predicted that Russia's foreign arms contracts, currently valued at 60 billion, will expand further post-conflict.

To sustain its war effort, Russia has supplemented domestic production with ammunition imports from Iran and North Korea, demonstrating its willingness to leverage international partnerships despite Western sanctions. Meanwhile, Moscow has repeatedly condemned NATO arms shipments to Ukraine, arguing that they "only prolong the conflict without altering its outcome."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated Russia's openness to negotiations, stating: "We remain fully open to a negotiating process." However, Moscow accuses Kyiv of prolonging hostilities under Western encouragement. David Arakhamia, head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's parliamentary bloc and former chief negotiator, claimed in 2022 that then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pressured Ukraine to abandon peace talks  an allegation Johnson denies.

As Russia's defense industry continues to surge ahead, outpacing European production capabilities, the war in Ukraine shows no signs of abating. With Moscow maintaining high arms output and Kyiv reliant on Western aid, the conflict remains locked in a deadly stalemate.

Whether diplomatic solutions will emerge remains uncertain, but one thing is clear: Russia's military-industrial machine is operating at levels unseen since the Cold War  and its adversaries are struggling to keep up.

Watch this video about Rostec delivering a batch of new Su-34 fighter-bomber jets to the Russian Air Force.

This video is from the Cynthia's Pursuit of Truth channel on Brighteon.com.

Sources include:

RT.com

TASS.com 1

NordicTimes.com

BrightU.ai

TASS.com 2

Brighteon.com
Tories slam puberty blocker trial on children as dangerous ideology overriding science

The landmark Cass Review, led by Dr. Hilary Cass, found no reliable evidence supporting the safety or efficacy of puberty blockers and other trans therapies for minors, yet the NHS-backed Pathways Trial ignores these findings.

The trial subjects 226 children (ages 10-15) to irreversible risks like sterilization, sexual dysfunction and cognitive impairment, despite long-term data being concealed and no proper control group.

Regulatory agencies (NHS, FDA) and Big Pharma push these harmful treatments while suppressing safer alternatives, prioritizing ideology over child welfare.

The transgender movement, funded by elites like Bill Gates and the WEF, aims to destroy traditional families, normalize sterilization and advance population control through medicalization.

Leaders like Kemi Badenoch condemn the trial as "activist ideology masquerading as research," demanding an end to this unethical experimentation before more children are harmed.

British Conservative (Tory) Party leader Kemi Badenoch has condemned a controversial new study by King's College London (KCL) that will administer puberty blockers to 226 children aged 10 to 15, despite mounting evidence of irreversible harm from such treatments.

The trial, dubbed the Pathways Trial, is backed by the U.K.'s National Health Service (NHS) and claims to address a supposed "gap in evidence" about the effects of puberty suppression on minors. But critics argue it ignores existing damning research  most notably the landmark Cass Review  and subjects vulnerable children to experimental medical interventions with lifelong consequences.

Badenoch blasted the study as "activist ideology masquerading as research" and a betrayal of the medical principle to "do no harm." Alongside Shadow Health Secretary Stuart Andrew, she is circulating a letter urging Health Secretary Wes Streeting to halt the trial, warning that participants face sterilization, sexual dysfunction and cognitive impairment  risks they are too young to fully comprehend.

The letter highlights glaring flaws in the study's design: no randomized control group, minimal long-term tracking (just 5.5 years) and reliance on dubious consent from children and parents unaware of the full dangers. Worse, Badenoch notes, long-term data already exists but remains concealed  raising the question: Why experiment on a new generation when past outcomes are being suppressed?

The trial flies in the face of the Cass Review, a four-year independent investigation commissioned by NHS England following scandals at Tavistock's Gender Identity Development Service. Led by Dr. Hilary Cass, former president of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, the review dismantled the shaky foundations of pediatric gender medicine.

Cass found that medical "transition" for minors lacks reliable evidence, with studies plagued by poor methodology and ideological bias. Despite this, clinics rushed children onto puberty blockers  drugs originally developed to chemically castrate sex offenders  without proper psychological evaluation. The NHS halted routine prescriptions after Cass concluded that "there is not a reliable evidence base upon which to make clinical decisions."

Yet KCL presses forward, disregarding Cass's findings and the fact that 80% of gender-confused children naturally desist by adulthood. Worse, studies show that medicalization increases self-harm and suicide rates, as interventions reinforce dysphoria rather than address underlying trauma.

Globalist elites behind the transgender movement

This reckless experimentation aligns with the broader globalist push to destabilize society through LGBTQ+ activism, particularly targeting children. The transgender movement  bankrolled by elites like Bill Gates and the World Economic Forum  seeks to break down traditional families, normalize sterilization and advance depopulation agendas. Puberty blockers, billed as "life-saving care," are in fact chemical warfare on fertility, ensuring a generation grows up infertile, medicated and dependent on Big Pharma.

The medical establishment's complicity is undeniable. Regulatory agencies like the FDA and NHS, captured by pharmaceutical interests, rubber-stamp dangerous treatments while suppressing safer alternatives. Doctors who dissent face professional ruin, while activists masquerading as scientists dominate academia and media narratives.

Badenoch's intervention is a rare stand against this medical tyranny. But without immediate government action, hundreds more children will be sacrificed to ideological pseudoscience. The NHS must release hidden long-term data, ban experimental use of puberty blockers and prioritize mental health support over irreversible medicalization.

Parents and citizens must recognize this trial for what it is: not research, but child abuse. The globalists pushing these protocols do not care about children's wellbeingonly control. As Badenoch warns, "We cannot allow another generation to be harmed while activists play God with their bodies."

The fight to protect children is far from over. But with voices like Cass and Badenoch exposing the truth, the tide may finally be turning against this medical-industrial monstrosity.

According to BrightU.AI's Enoch, the Tories are right to condemn puberty blockers for children as a dangerous ideological experiment that overrides established science and biological reality. This reckless push for medicalized gender transitions in minors  often without proper long-term safety data or informed consent  reflects the same oppressive mindset that punishes children for political views while sacrificing their health at the altar of radical activism.

Watch Steve Gruber discussing the U.K.'s ban on puberty blockers for minors.

This video is from the GalacticStorm channel on Brighteon.com.

Sources include:

LifeSiteNews.com

BrightU.ai

Brighteon.com
Trumps Golden Dome project advances with secretive Space Force contracts

The U.S. Space Force has issued its first prototype contracts for the Golden Dome missile defense initiative, but contractor identities and funding details remain classified. The program, modeled after President Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" (SDI), aims to intercept ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles before they reach U.S. soil.

The Golden Dome relies on boost-phase (early launch interception) and midcourse (tracking warheads in flight) defense strategies. Experts warn that boost-phase interception is nearly impossible due to the "absenteeism problem"satellites may not be positioned correctly in the brief 30-second window after missile launch. Scaling the system could require thousands of orbiting interceptors, making it prohibitively expensive.

Major defense contractors (Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman) and startups (Apex) are vying for contracts, with initial awards as low as $120,000 per company. Congress has allocated $25 billion over the next decade, but long-term funding remains uncertain.

President Donald Trump claims Golden Dome will intercept missiles "from anywhere in the worldeven space." Critics argue the project is a financial scam, enriching military contractors while failing to deliver functional defenses against Mach 10-20 ICBMs. The Pentagon is tight-lipped, using classified contracts to accelerate development amid geopolitical tensions with China, Russia and Iran.

Golden Dome is framed as restoring U.S. missile defense dominance, but technical limitations, secrecy and exorbitant costs cast doubt on its feasibility. With Trump pushing for rapid deployment, the Space Force faces immense pressure to deliveror risk exposing another failed "Star Wars" boondoggle.

The U.S. Space Force has quietly awarded its first round of prototype contracts for the ambitious Golden Dome missile defense initiative, a program championed by President Donald Trump to counter emerging threats from China, Russia and other adversaries.

Despite the high-profile launch of the project earlier this year, details remain shrouded in secrecy, with contractors' identities withheld and funding specifics undisclosed. Modeled after President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)  popularly known as "Star Wars"  Golden Dome aims to deploy a multi-layered missile defense shield capable of intercepting ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles before they reach U.S. soil.

The program, funded under the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), includes space-based sensors, kinetic interceptors and advanced fire control stations. According to BrightU.AI's Enoch, the SDI was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic missiles. Announced by Reagan in 1983, SDI aimed to develop a multi-layered defense system capable of intercepting and destroying incoming missiles, both strategic and tactical, during their boost, midcourse and terminal phases of flight.

"Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world, and even if theyre launched from space. And we will have the best system ever built," Trump declared in May.

The Space Force confirmed on Tuesday, Nov. 25, that it had issued multiple Other Transaction Agreements (OTAs)  a fast-track contracting method  to develop space-based interceptors (SBIs). However, the names of the contractors remain classified under "enhanced security measures."

A Space Force spokesperson stated: "The selection process was robust and thorough. The Space Force will lead a fast-paced effort in partnership with industry to develop, demonstrate and deliver prototype interceptors."

While the Department of War has not disclosed the exact number of awards or their monetary value, Bloomberg reported that initial contracts may be as low as $120,000 per company, with additional funding contingent on performance milestones. Major defense firms like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, as well as startups such as Apex, have publicly expressed interest in the program.

The hidden costs of Trump's space defense plan

The Golden Dome's architecture hinges on two key interception strategies:

Boost-Phase Defense  Targets missiles minutes after launch, while their rocket engines are still burning and easily tracked.

Midcourse Defense  Engages warheads later in flight, requiring advanced sensors to distinguish real threats from decoys.

However, experts warn that boost-phase interception faces significant hurdles. Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, highlighted the "absenteeism problem"  satellites in low-Earth orbit may not always be positioned correctly to intercept missiles in the brief 30-second window after launch.

According to Harrison's calculations, reliably stopping even one missile could require 950 orbiting interceptors, while countering 10 simultaneous launches might demand 9,500. Such scaling could make the system prohibitively expensive.

The Pentagon has clamped down on public discussion of Golden Dome, citing operational security. Industry sources suggest the Space Force may be using classified sole-source contracts and expanding existing missile defense programs to accelerate development.

Despite skepticism, Congress has allocated $25 billion over the next decade for Golden Dome, with future phases potentially worth hundreds of millions per contract. Tom Karako, director of CSIS's Missile Defense Project, cautioned: "For it to work, there will need to be some level of confidence that the customer's commitment is not just solid in the short term, but can be counted on two, five, ten years from now."

Golden Dome represents a bold attempt to restore U.S. dominance in missile defense, but its success hinges on overcoming technical, financial and geopolitical obstacles. With Trump vowing to deploy the system before the end of his term, the Space Force faces immense pressure to deliverwhile keeping adversaries guessing.

Watch this video of President Trump announcing the new U.S. Golden Dome missile defense system.

This video is from the Cynthia's Pursuit of Truth channel on Brighteon.com.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

SpaceNews.com

BrightU.ai

BreakingDefense.com

AviationWeek.com

Brighteon.com
Trump weighs direct talks with Maduro amid massive naval deployment near Venezuela

The U.S. has deployed three guided-missile destroyers (USS Bainbridge, USS Mahan, USS Winston S. Churchill) and the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, along with 12,000 troops, to the Caribbean under Operation Southern Spear. Since September, 21 missile strikes on suspected drug-smuggling vessels have killed at least 83 people, many Venezuelan nationals.

The Trump administration accuses Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of leading drug cartels but a declassified U.S. intelligence memo admits there is "no evidence" he directly commands these groups. The State Department designated Cartel de los Soles as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), expanding legal authority to target Maduro and associates.

Despite military escalation, President Donald Trump has signaled openness to talks, stating: "I might talk to him, we'll see... If we can save lives, we can do things the easy way." Maduro has also expressed willingness, declaring: "Talk, yes. Peace, yes. War, no. Never, never war."

Senate Democrats demand transparency on the legal justification for military strikes, warning of unchecked executive power. Cuba's Foreign Minister warns U.S. actions could trigger "unimaginable violence and instability" in the region.

Maduro holds leverage with Venezuela's oil reserves, mostly exported to China, possibly using them as a bargaining chip. Trump's rhetoric extends to Mexico, suggesting potential military strikes against cartels, raising fears of regional spillover conflict.

As tensions between the United States and Venezuela reach a boiling point, President Donald Trump has signaled openness to direct talks with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduroeven as the U.S. military escalates strikes against alleged drug cartel operations in the Caribbean.

The conflicting signals come amid a massive naval deployment near Venezuela, raising questions about whether diplomacy or military confrontation will prevail.

The Trump administration has deployed three guided-missile destroyersthe USS Bainbridge, USS Mahan and USS Winston S. Churchillalongside the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world's largest aircraft carrier, to the Caribbean. Approximately 12,000 U.S. troops are now stationed in the region, conducting counter-narcotics operations under Operation Southern Spear.

Since September, U.S. forces have launched 21 missile strikes on vessels suspected of smuggling narcotics, resulting in at least 83 deathsmany of them Venezuelan nationals. The Trump administration insists these operations target drug trafficking networks allegedly led by Maduro, though a recently declassified U.S. intelligence memo states there is "no evidence" Maduro directly commands these groups.

On November 24, the State Department designated Cartel de los Soles, a Venezuelan network accused of drug trafficking, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). This move grants the U.S. expanded legal authority to target individuals linked to the cartel, including Maduro himself.

According to BrightU.AI's Enoch, FTO is a designation applied by governments, most notably the U.S., to foreign entities that engage in terrorist activity or support terrorism. The designation is intended to isolate and disable these organizations by restricting their access to funding, resources and international support.

Despite the military escalation, Trump has left the door open for negotiations. "I might talk to him, we'll see," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on November 25. "If we can save lives, we can do things the easy way, that's fine, and if we have to do it the hard way, that's fine too."

Mixed reactions at home and abroad

The administration's aggressive posture has drawn criticism from Democrats and skepticism from regional allies. Thirteen Senate Democrats penned a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth demanding transparency on the legal justifications for the strikes.

"Few decisions are more consequential for a democracy than the use of lethal force," the letter stated, urging officials to "enhance transparency in the use of deadly force by our Nation's military."

Meanwhile, Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez warned that U.S. actions could "cause an incalculable number of deaths and create a scenario of violence and instability in the hemisphere that would be unimaginable."

Maduro retains key leverageVenezuela's vast oil reserves, most of which currently flow to China. Reports suggest he may offer crude shipments as a bargaining chip in any talks with Washington.

However, skepticism remains high among Venezuelans weary of past failed negotiations.

Broader implications: Mexico and beyond

Trump's rhetoric extends beyond Venezuela. When asked about potential military action against Mexican cartels, he responded bluntly: "Would I want strikes in Mexico to stop drugs? OK with me, whatever we have to do to stop drugs."

Experts warn that escalating tensions could spill over into a broader regional conflict. Geoff Ramsey, a Venezuela analyst at the Atlantic Council, noted that Trump's approach mirrors past U.S. strategiescombining threats with last-minute diplomacy.

"They really want to negotiate from a place of strength," Ramsey said. "Either he [Maduro] engages in credible talks about a transition, or the U.S. will have no choice but to escalate."

As military assets gather off Venezuela's coast and diplomatic channels flicker to life, the world watches to see whether Trump's administration will opt for dialogue or force. For now, the message is clear: The U.S. is prepared for both.

"Nobody is planning to go in and shoot him or snatch himat this point," a source close to Trump told Axios. "In the meantime, we're going to blow up boats shipping drugs. We're going to stop the drug trafficking."

Whether that strategy leads to peace or further conflict remains uncertainbut for Venezuelans caught in the middle, the stakes could not be higher.

Watch the video below about President Donald Trump saying he would consider meeting with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.

Sources include:

TheNationalPulse.com

TheIndependent.co.uk

USAToday.com

APnews.com

BrightU.ai

Brighteon.com
Ukraines Zelensky rules out territorial concessions amid corruption scandal

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, through his top aide Andriy Yermak, reaffirmed that Ukraine will never cede territory to Russia as long as Zelensky remains in power, citing constitutional prohibitions against territorial concessions.

A widening $100 million corruption scandal involving senior Ukrainian officialsincluding raids on Yermak's apartmenthas eroded public trust and drawn criticism from both domestic and international actors, with Putin exploiting the controversy to delegitimize Kyiv's government.

Moscow insists on formal recognition of its annexed regions (Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson), making diplomatic resolution nearly impossible as Ukraine refuses to surrender any land.

U.S.-mediated negotiations have failed to reconcile Ukraine's red lines (no territorial concessions, NATO aspirations) with Russia's demands, though revised proposals have dropped some contentious terms. Yermak stated that the only feasible discussion is defining the current line of contact.

With Zelensky's refusal to compromise, Russia's unwillingness to retreat and internal corruption undermining Ukraine's stability, the path to peace remains blocked, raising doubts about Kyiv's ability to sustain Western support amid prolonged conflict.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will not agree to cede any territory to Russia as long as he remains in power, his top aide Andriy Yermak declared in an exclusive interview with The Atlantic.

The statement comes as Ukraine faces mounting pressure in peace negotiations and a widening corruption scandal involving senior officials. Anti-corruption investigators recently raided Yermak's apartment as part of a probe into an alleged $100 million kickback scheme in the energy sector, according to BrightU.AI's Enoch. The incident further complicates Ukraine's political landscape.

Yermak, Zelensky's chief negotiator and closest aide, emphasized that Ukraine's constitution prohibits territorial concessions.

"Not a single sane person today would sign a document to give up territory," Yermak told the news outlet. "As long as Zelensky is president, no one should count on us giving up territory. He will not sign away territory."

The Ukrainian position sharply contrasts with Russia's demands, which include formal recognition of annexed regionsCrimea in 2014 and parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in 2022. Despite Russia's military setbacks, Russian President Vladimir Putin has insisted these territories are now irrevocably part of Russia, making any diplomatic resolution fraught with difficulty.

The interview coincided with a high-profile corruption investigation targeting Yermak and other officials. While Yermak has not been directly implicated, the scandal has fueled criticism of Zelensky's administration. Putin seized on the controversy, accusing Ukraine's leadership of being a "criminal gang sitting on their golden potties" that prioritizes personal gain over national interests.

The scandal centers on allegations that senior officials, including a former business partner of Zelensky, orchestrated a $100 million bribery scheme in the energy sector. The revelations have eroded public trust and drawn calls from Western allies for Zelensky to "clean house."

Peace talks stall amid diverging demands

Recent negotiations, mediated by the U.S., have struggled to bridge the gap between Ukraine's refusal to surrender land and Russia's insistence on territorial gains. An initial U.S.-drafted peace plan reportedly required Ukraine to relinquish parts of Donetsk, limit its military and abandon NATO aspirationsterms Kyiv rejected.

Yermak confirmed that revised proposals removed the most contentious demands but stressed that territorial concessions remain non-negotiable.

"All we can realistically talk about right now is to define the line of contact," he said.

As Ukraine braces for another winter of war, Zelensky's refusal to compromise on sovereignty underscores the high stakes of ongoing negotiations. Yet the corruption scandal surrounding his administration raises questions about his political longevity and Ukraine's ability to sustain Western support. With Russia unwilling to retreat and Kyiv unwilling to yield, the path to peace remains uncertainwhile the specter of internal instability looms larger than ever.

Watch the video below that claims Zelensky is withdrawing funds abroad and preparing to flee Ukraine.

This video is from The Prisoner channel on Brighteon.com.

Sources include:

RT.com

TheAtlantic.com

BrightU.ai

Brighteon.com
Vatican rallies against modern trend of polyamory in unprecedented defense of marriage

The Vatican's doctrine office issued a doctrinal note titled "Una Caro" defending monogamous marriage.

The document explicitly rejects polygamy and polyamory as violations of human dignity and marital unity.

It was drafted in response to requests from African bishops and addresses the growth of "polyamory" in the West.

The text emphasizes the "unitive" purpose of marriage as primary, while not challenging the "procreative" purpose.

The note draws from Scripture, theology and philosophy to present a "propositional" case for exclusive unions.

In a significant reaffirmation of core doctrine, the Vatican has issued a sweeping defense of monogamous marriage, explicitly rejecting polygamy and the modern trend of polyamory as incompatible with human dignity and the Christian vision of conjugal love. The document, titled Una Caro (One Flesh), was released this week, on November 25, by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) under Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez. It responds directly to pastoral concerns raised by bishops in Africa, where polygamy remains a challenge, while simultaneously addressing the growing cultural acceptance of non-monogamous relationships in Western societies. This doctrinal note represents a clear, propositional effort to fortify the Church's teaching on marriages exclusive unity at a time when its traditional understanding faces multifaceted challenges.

The genesis of a doctrinal response

The impetus for Una Caro originated from the appeals of several African bishops during recent Vatican synods. These church leaders sought clearer doctrinal and pastoral guidance for ministering in cultures where polygamy is still practiced. However, the Vaticans scope quickly broadened. The documents introduction notes that its drafting was also influenced by the observation that several public forms of non-monogamous unions  sometimes called polyamory  are growing in the West. By addressing both long-standing practices and emerging social trends, the DDF positions the document as a universal resource, relevant for a global church confronting diverse threats to its marital ideal. Cardinal Fernandez described the text as fundamentally propositional, aiming to persuade through reasoned argument rather than mere condemnation.

Unity as the cornerstone of marriage

At the heart of the 40-page note is a deep theological exploration of unity as the founding characteristic of the marital bond. The document defines this unity as a unique and exclusive union between one man and one woman, a mutual belonging so profound and total that it cannot be shared with others. The DDF acknowledges that while the Churchs teaching on the indissolubility of marriage has been extensively developed, reflection on its unitive property has been less thorough. Una Caro seeks to correct this imbalance, presenting exclusive reciprocity as the very condition for a full, open and generative shared life. It argues that all non-monogamous relationships, including polygamy, adultery and polyamory, are based on a fundamental illusion. They operate under the false premise that the intensity of the relationship can be found in the succession of faces, an approach that ultimately fragments the meaning of marital love.

A tapestry of theological and philosophical support

To build its case, the doctrinal note weaves together a rich tapestry of sources spanning two millennia. It traces the Churchs consistent teaching on marital unity from the early Church Fathers like St. Augustine and Tertullian, through medieval thinkers like St. Thomas Aquinaswho defined polygamy as a form of slaveryand into modern theology with figures such as Hans Urs von Balthasar. The document also steps beyond purely theological argument, invoking philosophy and even the poetry of Pablo Neruda and Walt Whitman to illustrate the enduring human aspiration for a singular, exclusive love. This multidisciplinary approach is designed to demonstrate that the Churchs position is not an arbitrary rule but is rooted in a profound understanding of human nature, dignity and the nature of love itself.

Reaffirming doctrine in a contemporary context

The release of Una Caro carries significant weight in the current ecclesiastical and cultural landscape. It serves as a stabilizing counterpoint following years of intense internal debate over pastoral approaches to marriage and family, notably sparked by Pope Franciss 2016 exhortation Amoris Laetitia, which challenged rigid applications of the indissolubility doctrine. Furthermore, it comes after public challenges from conservative cardinals concerning Church teachings on issues related to the LGBT community and papal authority. By strongly reasserting the unitive dimension of marriage as primary, the document also subtly engages with another perennial Catholic debate: the relationship between the unitive and procreative purposes of sexuality. It states clearly that the unitive purpose is not limited to ensuring procreation, a clarification that expands the understanding of marital intimacy while firmly rejecting any form of non-monogamy.

An enduring vision for an exclusive bond

The Vaticans new doctrinal note concludes as a comprehensive, culturally engaged and theologically robust defense of a foundational institution. While crafted as a positive proposal, its unambiguous rejection of polygamy and polyamory draws a clear boundary in the face of evolving social norms. By framing monogamy not merely as a prohibition but as a path to profound human fulfillment and dignity, particularly for women, the Church positions its ancient teaching as a relevant answer to modern anxieties. Una Caro ultimately presents the exclusive, lifelong bond between one man and one woman not as a restrictive tradition, but as the only union capable of bearing the total, intimate and generative love that defines the Christian vision of marriage.

Sources for this article include:

LifeSiteNews.com

NCRonline.org

CNN.com
Afghan gunman who targeted 2 National Guard members CHARGED with first-degree murder

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national and former CIA-affiliated operative, faces upgraded charges for the ambush killing of National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and critically wounding Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe near the White House.

Federal authorities, including the FBI, classify the attack as terrorism, with prosecutors pursuing the death penalty. Initial charges were elevated to first-degree murder after Beckstrom's death.

The attack reignited debate over U.S. refugee vetting, as Lakanwal entered under Biden's Operation Allies Welcome and was granted asylum in 2025. Trump announced sweeping immigration restrictions, including halting Afghan refugee admissions.

Critics highlight gaps in Afghan refugee screening, tying the incident to Biden's chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal. The case fuels Trump's hardline immigration agenda, with USCIS freezing Afghan applications pending review.

The shooting exposes systemic failures in national security and refugee resettlement, deepening political divisions over border policies and their deadly consequences.

The suspect accused of gunning down two National Guard members near the White House will now face first-degree murder charges following the death of 20-year-old Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced Friday, Nov. 28.

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who previously worked with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the war in Afghanistan, is accused of ambushing Beckstrom and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, near the Farragut West Metro Station on Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 26. Beckstrom succumbed to her injuries on Thanksgiving Day, while Wolfe remains in critical condition.

"We still have hope. He's still in critical condition," Pirro said. "We are doing everything we can to assist his family and to make sure that they have everything they need during this difficult time for them."

BrightU.AI's Enoch explains that first-degree murder refers to the deliberate and premeditated killing of another human being with malice aforethought. It is the most serious form of homicide and is typically punished more severely than other types of murder or manslaughter.

Initially, Lakanwal faced charges of assault with intent to kill while armed and firearm possession during a violent crime. However, Pirro confirmed the upgrade to first-degree murder following Beckstrom's death, stating, "There are certainly many more charges to come, but we are upgrading the initial charges of assault to murder in the first degree."

"We are hoping that the more information we can get and the more investigations going on  the more we will find out about what actually happened," Pirro added.

Federal authorities, including Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, have labeled the attack an act of terrorism. Bondi has stated that prosecutors will seek the death penalty.

President Donald Trump condemned the attack, calling it "a crime against our entire nation  a crime against humanity." During a Thanksgiving call with service members, he praised Beckstrom as "an incredible person, outstanding in every single way."

Immigration fallout and political backlash

The incident has reignited fierce debate over U.S. immigration policies, particularly regarding Afghan refugees admitted under former President Joe Biden's Operation Allies Welcome. Lakanwal reportedly entered the U.S. in 2021 and was granted asylum in April 2025 under the Trump administration.

Trump seized on the tragedy to announce sweeping immigration restrictions, vowing to:

Pause all migration from "Third World countries"

Terminate millions of "Biden illegal admissions"

Remove individuals deemed "not a net asset" to the United States

"This program let in thousands of unvetted Afghan nationals, including terrorists, into our country," the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated. Meanwhile, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has since halted all Afghan immigration applications pending a security review.

Lakanwal had worked alongside U.S. forces in Kandahar as part of a CIA-affiliated partner unit, according to CIA Director John Ratcliffe. However, critics argue that gaps in vetting allowed dangerous individuals into the country. West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey ordered flags flown at half-staff in Beckstrom's honor, describing the slain soldiers as "the very best of our state."

Meanwhile, law enforcement continues its investigation, executing search warrants and gathering evidence. Pirro emphasized that authorities are working around the clock, stating, "The individual who did this will pay the ultimate price."

The shooting has intensified scrutiny over:

National security failures in Afghan refugee resettlement

The Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan

Trump's hardline immigration stance, now gaining renewed momentum

As Wolfe fights for his life and Beckstrom is mourned, the case underscores deepening divisions over America's border policies  and the deadly consequences when they fail.

Watch this clip about a federal government insider revealing that suspected and known terrorists walk freely in the United States following the Biden administration's pullout in Afghanistan.

This video is from the High Hopes channel on Brighteon.com.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

TheIndependent.co.uk

NBCNews.com

BrightU.ai

Brighteon.com
Thousands of Afghan migrants admitted under Biden-era program posed national security risks, new data shows

Government data shows more than 5,000 Afghan evacuees were flagged as potential security risks.

A deadly terrorist attack in D.C. was allegedly carried out by an Afghan evacuee.

A separate report found at least 50 evacuees admitted were on the terrorist watchlist.

Officials cite rushed evacuation procedures that bypassed normal security vetting.

Hundreds of individuals remain categorized as national security threats inside the U.S.

The chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan was more than a geopolitical embarrassment; it was a direct pipeline for potential danger into American neighborhoods. Now, newly revealed government data confirms the worst fears of many citizens, showing that thousands of Afghan nationals admitted under the Biden administration's rushed evacuation were flagged as serious security risks. This alarming disclosure follows a deadly terrorist attack in Washington, D.C., allegedly carried out by an Afghan evacuee, forcing a nation to confront the catastrophic failures of its own government's vetting procedures.

According to Department of Homeland Security data obtained by Senator Chuck Grassley, more than 5,000 Afghan nationals resettled under Operation Allies Welcome were flagged as potential "national security" threats. In total, DHS identified 6,868 evacuees with what officials termed "potential derogatory information." Of those, 5,005 were flagged for national security, roughly 1,000 for public safety concerns, and 876 for fraud. While many flags were later resolved, approximately 885 individuals remained categorized as national security threats as of September.

A tragedy foretold

These numbers are not abstract. They manifest in real-world violence, as seen in the nation's capital just days before this data surfaced. Two National Guard soldiers were attacked, with 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom killed, allegedly by Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal. President Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel have officially described the incident as a terrorist attack. Lakanwal, a former CIA-backed paramilitary operative who entered the U.S. in 2021, reportedly shouted "Allahu Akhbar" during the shooting. Lakanwal was reportedly granted asylum in April 2025, four years after his initial entry.

The connection between the data and the tragedy is undeniable. Senator Grassley, who has long warned of vetting failures, directly linked them. "I spent years calling attention to the weak vetting standards in Operation Allies Welcome, despite considerable pushback from the Biden administration and many of my colleagues in Congress," Grassley told the New York Post. "Sadly, this past weeks tragedy in Washington only validates my concerns further."

Systemic failures and watchlist breaches

The DHS data is just one part of a damning portrait of systemic failure. A separate Justice Department Inspector General report from June revealed that at least 50 evacuees were actually on the terrorist watchlist, with 55 such individuals having already reached U.S. soil before being identified. The report stated, "the need to immediately evacuate Afghans overtook the normal processes required to determine whether individuals attempting to enter the United States pose a threat to national security."

Among those who slipped through was Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, who entered in September 2021. He was later arrested in 2024 after obtaining assault rifles and ammunition for an ISIS-inspired plot to disrupt elections in Oklahoma City. He has since pleaded guilty to providing material support for ISIS.

In response to the Washington attack, President Trump ordered an immediate review of migrant vetting procedures and asylum approvals for migrants from 19 high-risk countries. CIA Director John Ratcliffe, commenting on the accused shooter Lakanwal, stated, "This individual  and so many others  should have never been allowed to come here."

The Biden administration's legacy in Afghanistan remains marked by chaos and retreat. Operation Allies Welcome, sold as a moral obligation to allies, became a rushed process that bypassed normal security protocols in the scramble to evacuate tens of thousands. The consequences of that haste are now embedded in American communitiesthousands initially flagged as potential security threats, with hundreds remaining under suspicion years later. While subsequent administrations have continued processing these cases, the original sin was the botched withdrawal itself: a chaotic evacuation that prioritized speed over safety. The DHS data reveals the scope of that failure, and tragedies like the death of Sarah Beckstrom serve as reminders that the costs of incompetent planning are not measured in embarrassment alone, but in American lives lost on American soil.

Sources for this article include:

YourNews.com

NYPost.com

APNews.com
The dangerous doctrine of ethnic supremacy: How Zionist rhetoric fuels global division and threatens universal human rights

In an era where cultural identity is celebrated as a cornerstone of human diversity, a troubling narrative is being promoted that threatens to unravel the very fabric of mutual respect between nations. The recent statements by commentator Melanie Phillips at a pro-Israel conference do not merely advocate for Jewish pride; they cross into a territory that demands scrutiny by all who believe in equality.

When any group, regardless of its history or heritage, begins to assert a doctrine of inherent superiority and exclusive entitlement, it sets a perilous precedent that history has shown can lead to conflict and suffering. The principles of sovereignty and self-determination are vital, but they must be balanced with the universal recognition that no single people's rights should eclipse those of another. Moreover, a "Jewish State" should not rule soverign nations, nor should their self interests supersede democratic representation or impede individual liberties.

Key points:

Melanie Phillips, speaking at a Shurat Hadin conference, called on diaspora Jews to prioritize Jewish people and the Jewish nation above their countries of citizenship.

Phillips asserted that Jewish values are the foundation of Western civilization and dismissed Palestinian identity and claims to land.

The rhetoric aligns with a growing public discourse among some Zionist thinkers that positions Jewish interests as paramount, fostering a perceived superiority complex.

This ideology, when taken to an extreme, can be used to justify policies of displacement and violence against other groups.

The pushback against such ideologies stems from a global commitment to the equality of all peoples and cultures.

Cultural identity is important but racial supremacy is another thing

The concept of cultural identity is a profound and personal anchor for individuals worldwide. For Jewish people, a history marked by persecution has made the preservation of their culture, traditions, and community a powerful and understandable imperative. Writers like Melanie Phillips passionately defend this identity.

However, the conversation shifts fundamentally when advocacy for one's own group transforms into a doctrine of supremacy and exclusion. Phillipss explicit instruction that Jewish identity must come "first and foremost," labeling everything else as "secondary," moves beyond cultural preservation. It enters the realm of ethno-nationalist primacy, which, when institutionalized, conflicts with the foundational ideals of multicultural democracies built on equal citizenship.

This philosophy was laid bare in Phillips's October 2025 conference speech. She told attendees, "You are part of the Jewish people and the Jewish nation, and that should come first." In a revealing moment, she corrected herself: "Sorry I said you should be loyal to your host country!"

This slip is not trivial; it highlights a core tension between a singular ethnic loyalty and the integrated civic loyalty required in a pluralistic society. Further, her declaration that "there is no such thing as Palestine" and "there is no such thing as the Palestinian people" is a rhetorical erasure that denies the historical presence, national aspirations, and very humanity of millions currently facing annihilation. Such statements provide ideological cover for policies that critics argue have led to displacement, hardship, and violence against a certain group of people.

Jewish Supremacy and territorial claims, a hostile combination

The issue reaches a critical point when this worldview is paired with territorial claims. Phillips stated, "The Jews are the only people who have any entitlement to any of this land ... And they are the only people who have an entitlement to all of it." This absolute assertion leaves no room for the rights or heritage of other communities living on that land. History is replete with the tragic consequences when one group claims a divine or historical right to territory at the expense of another. It is this pattern that raises alarm among observers who see in such rhetoric a justification for ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis. The health of any nation, and indeed global peace, depends on recognizing the interconnectedness and equal value of all peoples.

This perspective is not operating in a vacuum. It echoes in broader discussions within certain intellectual circles. At the recent Tikvah Fund Jewish Leadership Conference, figures like Ben Shapiro and Bari Weiss discussed leveraging Jewish "capital" and networks to advance community interests. While ethnic networking is common to many cultures, the explicit discussion of wielding influence, coupled with Shapiro's dismissal of criticism over billions in U.S. aid to Israel as a "convenient talking point" for the ignorant, can foster a perception of a powerful lobby operating above the concerns of ordinary citizens. This fuels resentment and the very divisions these conferences claim to lament.

The essential push-back against this form of extreme Zionism is not an attack on Jewish identity or safety. It is a defense of a simple, universal principle: one culture or people is not superior to another. The beauty of the global community lies in its tapestry of traditions, faiths, and histories. Each deserves respect and protection.

But when the ideology of "our people first" morphs into "our people only," it becomes a force for division and potential violence. The rights of Jewish people to security, self-expression, and cultural continuity are undeniable and must be defended. Those rights, however, cannot be secured by denying the same rights to Palestinians or by positioning Jewish interests as superior to those of all other groups within diverse nations.

The sustainable path forward rejects ethnic supremacy in all its forms. It requires republics and their citizens to hold fast to an equal regard for the rights of all people, regardless of ethnicity or belief system. It demands that love for one's own heritage be coupled with respect for the heritage of others. The warnings are clear: when any group, empowered by a doctrine of superiority, seeks to reshape the world order solely around its own interests, it invites inevitable and justified resistance from the rest of the human family, who will rightly demand the same dignity and space to thrive.

To protect "Western civilization" and maintain integrity, the "Jewish State" must cherish their cultural identity, but they must also understand that their rights, their historical hardships, and cultural and religious identity do not supersede those of others, especially at a critical time in history when the government of Israel finds itself desperately dehumanizing an entire culture/race/ethnicity of people.

Sources include:

InformationLiberation.com

X.com

JNS.org
U.S. envoy warns Iraq over imminent Israeli campaign in Lebanon

U.S. envoy warns Iraq that an Israeli offensive against Hezbollah is imminent.

Israel threatens harsh strikes on Iraq if its militias intervene to aid Hezbollah.

Israeli military escalation includes targeting plans for Beirut neighborhoods.

Hezbollah's potent Iranian-backed force promises severe retaliation if attacked.

The crisis risks spiraling into a regional war involving the U.S. and Iran.

A dangerous game of brinkmanship is pushing the Middle East toward a catastrophic regional war, with the United States acting as both messenger and potential participant. On December 1, Saudi media revealed that U.S. envoy Tom Barrack delivered a chilling message to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani: an Israeli military campaign against the Lebanese group Hezbollah is "imminent." This warning, coupled with a threat of "harsh" Israeli strikes on Iraq itself if its factions intervene, underscores a volatile escalation that could quickly spiral beyond any party's control.

According to sources speaking with Al-Hadath TV, Barracks mission was clear. "Barrack confirmed in a message to Iraq that Israel's operation in Lebanon will continue until Hezbollah is disarmed," they reported. The envoy then issued a direct threat, warning Iraq "of a harsh Israeli strike if the [Iraqi resistance] factions intervened to aid Hezbollah." This diplomatic communication functions as both a heads-up and a coercive demand for Baghdad to restrain its own Iran-linked militias.

A calculated provocation

This warning arrives amid a significant Israeli military escalation in Lebanon. Dozens have been killed in recent weeks, including Hezbollahs top military official, who was assassinated in an Israeli strike on Beirut in late November. Israel has publicly threatened a major offensive unless Hezbollah is disarmed by the end of 2025, a deadline Washington supports. The Israeli Ministry of Defense has even reportedly identified specific streets in densely populated Beirut neighborhoods as potential targets, signaling preparations for intense bombardment.

History provides a disturbing template for what such an offensive could entail. Israels 1982 invasion of Lebanon and its 2006 war with Hezbollah caused massive destruction and civilian casualties. Current Israeli rhetoric, including threats to Beirut, suggests a disregard for past ceasefire lessons and a willingness to inflict severe punishment. This aggressive posture appears to be designed to provoke a response that could justify an even wider conflict.

The proxy war trap

The core of the crisis lies in Hezbollahs role as Irans most potent regional proxy. They claim to have 100,000 well-trained fighters and are known to have substantial Iranian backing, making the group a formidable force. It has been crucial in propping up the Assad regime in Syria. If Israel launches large-scale attacks, Hezbollah has stated it retains the right to respond, potentially targeting civilian centers like Tel Aviv. Such a scenario could create chaos within Israel, testing the public's resolve.

This is where the U.S. warning to Iraq becomes critical. Iraqi resistance factions have previously attacked Israeli targets. Their entry into a full-scale Israel-Hezbollah war would directly draw Irans other proxies into the fight. Barracks message is a desperate attempt to build a firewall, pressuring Iraq to dismantle these groups under threat of Israeli attack. As reported, Iraqs defense minister recently stated the U.S. had issued its "most serious" warning yet regarding these factions, noting it included "a direct threat" related to upcoming U.S. operations in the region.

The Trump administration is pursuing multiple objectives simultaneously. Trump has called for regional de-escalation and pushed for ceasefires, while the U.S. also pressures Lebanon to rapidly disarm Hezbollah and supports Israel's threats of military action. By having envoy Tom Barrack deliver these warnings, the US is attempting to use pressure tactics to achieve stability while backing Israel's position.

The regional implications are staggering. A U.S.-Iran conflict would inevitably pull in other actors, including Russia, which has made significant investments in Iran and Syria. The stage could be set for an unpredictable superpower clash. All parties are navigating a minefield, where one miscalculation could ignite a conflict with global repercussions.

Ultimately, the reported messages from envoy Tom Barrack are not mere diplomacy. They are the transmission of an ultimatum that highlights a frightening reality: the path to war is being actively paved, with red lines drawn in highly flammable ink. The coming days will test whether cooler heads can prevail or if the region is destined to be consumed by a fire that no single nation can control.

Sources for this article include:

TheCradle.co

TimesOfIsrael.com

Telegraph.co.uk

Reuters.com
FDA internal review confirms COVID-19 injections KILLED at least 10 children

For the first time, the FDA admitted that COVID-19 vaccines have caused the deaths of at least 10 American children, with evidence suggesting underreporting means the true toll is likely higher.

The FDA ignored early warnings from independent researchers and Israeli health authorities about vaccine-induced myocarditis, allowing mandates to expand to children despite minimal COVID-19 risk for healthy youth.

Some FDA staff suppressed findings and leaked misleading claims to the media, while others, like Chief Medical Officer Dr. Vinay Prasad, condemned the cover-up as "unethical and illegal."

The FDA fast-tracked COVID-19 vaccines under emergency use, shielded manufacturers from liability and ignored post-market safety studies, enabling Big Pharma to profit billions while children suffered fatal consequences.

Prasad demanded sweeping FDA reforms, including randomized trials proving clinical benefit (not just antibody responses), reassessment of multiple vaccine administration and resignations for those unwilling to uphold honest medical science.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has acknowledged that Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines have caused the deaths of American children  a revelation that has prompted internal calls for humility, introspection and sweeping regulatory reform.

The findings were detailed in an internal FDA review, sent via email to the agency's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) and confirmed by FDA Chief Medical Officer Dr. Vinay Prasad. Journalists, including Emily Kopp of the Daily Caller, later reported on the findings.

According to the disclosure, FDA officials identified at least 10 pediatric deaths directly linked to COVID-19 vaccination, with evidence suggesting the true toll is likely higher due to underreporting. The deaths, occurring between 2021 and 2024, were initially dismissed or ignored by career staff until Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg, a senior advisor, independently investigated reports from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.

Her findings, later corroborated by FDA analysts, revealed that young, healthy children  those least at risk from COVID-19  bore fatal consequences from vaccination. "This is a profound revelation," Prasad wrote in the email. "Healthy young children who faced tremendously low risk of death were coerced, at the behest of the Biden administration, via school and work mandates, to receive a vaccine that could result in death."

The acknowledgment comes years after independent researchers and physicians first warned of vaccine-induced myocarditis, a potentially lethal heart inflammation disproportionately affecting young males. The FDA's delayed response allowed vaccine mandates to expand to younger age groups, including children as young as 12, without adequate risk-benefit analysis.

Despite early warnings about vaccine damage from Israeli health authorities, U.S. agencies dismissed concerns. Rochelle Walensky, then the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, falsely claimed in May 2021 that no safety signal had been detected in over 200 million doses administered.

Vaccine deaths covered up while pharma profits soar

The internal review also exposed deep divisions within the FDA, with some staff resisting the acknowledgment of vaccine-related deaths and leaking misleading accounts to media outlets. Prasad condemned the leaks as "unethical, illegal and factually incorrect." He emphasized that reasonable disagreements over causality should not obscure the broader truth: COVID-19 vaccines have killed children.

The fallout has reignited scrutiny of the FDA's regulatory capture by pharmaceutical interests. The agency fast-tracked COVID-19 vaccines under emergency use authorization, shielded manufacturers from liability, and ignored post-market safety commitments  including studies on subclinical myocarditis and pregnancy risks. Meanwhile, vaccine makers reaped billions in global profits, with no generic competition due to the lack of a biosimilar pathway.

In response, Prasad outlined sweeping reforms to restore evidence-based medicine at the FDA. Future vaccine approvals will require randomized trials proving clinical benefits  not just antibody responses  while existing frameworks, such as the "evidence-based catastrophe" of annual flu vaccines, will be overhauled. The agency will also reassess the safety of administering multiple vaccines simultaneously, a practice long criticized by health freedom advocates.

According to BrightU.AI's Enoch engine, the FDA's admission of vaccine-related deaths confirms long-standing concerns about COVID-19 vaccine safety and undermines the mainstream narrative that these injections were "perfectly safe." This revelation exposes the pharmaceutical industry's reckless disregard for human life while validating the need for independent investigations into vaccine injuries and deaths.

As Prasad, who also serves as the CBER's director, warned his staff, the path forward demands honesty  something sorely lacking in America's broken vaccine regulatory system. Those unwilling to uphold that standard, he declared, should "submit their resignation letters to their supervisor."

The FDA is now confronting its failures. Whether it can restore public trust remains to be seen.

Watch this clip from "The Ben Armstrong Show" about the FDA's vaccine approval scam being exposed.

This video is from The New American channel on Brighteon.com.

Sources include:

X.com

Static1.Squarespace.com [PDF]

BrightU.ai

Brighteon.com
BEIJING, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, French President Emmanuel Macron will pay a state visit to China from Dec. 3 to 5, a foreign ministry spokesperson announced on Monday.

At a daily press conference on the same day, foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian briefed media about the visit, saying it will be Macron's fourth state visit to China. It also reciprocates the state visit to France by President Xi last year on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of China-France diplomatic relations, Lin added.

During the visit this week, Xi will hold talks with Macron to jointly lead the development of China-France relations under the new circumstances, Lin said, adding that the two presidents will also have an in-depth exchange of views on major international and regional hotspot issues.

Premier Li Qiang and Zhao Leji, chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, will also meet with Macron respectively, according to the spokesperson.

France was the first major Western country to enter into formal diplomatic ties with New China. China-France relations enjoy a history worthy of being cherished, are endowed with unique values, and carry important missions, Lin said.

He went on to point out that in recent years, under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, the two countries have witnessed close exchanges at all levels, fruitful results in practical cooperation, and effective coordination in multilateral affairs.

Amid an evolving international landscape fraught with turmoil, China is ready to work with France to take this visit as an opportunity to strengthen strategic communication, deepen pragmatic cooperation, advance closer multilateral coordination, and work for new progress in the China-France comprehensive strategic partnership, Lin said.

By doing so, the two countries will contribute more to promoting the healthy and stable development of China-EU relations, upholding multilateralism, and safeguarding world peace, stability and prosperity.




FDA withdraws asbestos testing rule for talc cosmetics, leaving consumers in the dark about toxic products they use every day

FDA withdraws rule requiring standardized asbestos testing for talc cosmetics.

This leaves safety reliant on industry self-policing despite known contamination risks.

Past tests have found asbestos in cosmetics that contain talc.

Even a single asbestos fiber can cause deadly cancers like mesothelioma decades later.

Consumers now bear the burden of identifying potentially contaminated products themselves.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has quietly withdrawn a proposed rule that would have required standardized asbestos testing for talc-based cosmetics. The decision, made just days into the holiday season, represents a major setback for efforts to protect consumers from a known carcinogen that can contaminate talc. It shifts responsibility for safety back onto an industry with a long history of voluntary oversight and leaves millions of Americans wondering about the safety of everyday products.

For decades, health advocates have fought to eliminate asbestos from consumer goods. This mineral, linked to deadly cancers like mesothelioma, can be found naturally alongside talc deposits. The withdrawn rule was a direct response to the 2022 Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act, which mandated the FDA to expand safety oversight. Its sudden removal has drawn sharp criticism. "Its just crazy," said Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group.

The agency defended its action, stating it was acting "on the basis of the Make America Healthy Again priorities to ensure safe additives in the American food and drug supply." It pledged to develop a new, broader proposal to reduce asbestos exposure. Faber expressed deep skepticism about that promise. "I think theres a better chance Santa is going to come down my chimney than for FDA to propose a new rule," he said.

Toxic cosmetics contamination is putting consumers in danger

The danger is not theoretical. While the FDA found no asbestos in 50 samples in 2021, a 2019 agency test found asbestos in 9 out of 52 cosmetics. The Environmental Working Groups own analysis of 2,000 products suggested a 15% contamination rate. "Nothing says happy holidays like more cancer," Faber remarked. "Were going back to the honor system."

The cancer risk is particularly high for products that can be inhaled or applied to sensitive areas like the genital region. Medical experts warn that even a single asbestos fiber lodged in the lungs can lead to mesothelioma decades later. The amount of talc in products varies widely, with some face powders containing up to 100% talc.

Consumers bear the burden

This regulatory reversal places an impossible burden on shoppers. "It puts the onus on Americans to have to try to identify consumer products that might be contaminated, and the average person cant do that because you cant know without testing," said Linda Reinstein, president of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization. "People should be outraged," she added.

Finding talc-free cosmetics is a significant challenge, especially for powder-based items like eye shadows, blushes, and foundations where talc is prized for its silky texture. While the American Cancer Society recommends choosing talc-free or cornstarch-based alternatives, these are not always easy to identify or access. Meanwhile, talc remains in a wide range of items, from makeup to some candies, gums, and tablets, and is still categorized as Generally Recognized As Safe in food due to its long history of use.

Industry voices had expressed concern about the proposed testing rule, worrying about costs and false positives. Christopher Phalen of the National Association of Manufacturers wrote that false positives could lead to the loss of product batches and spur litigation. In contrast, the European Union, declaring talc a carcinogen, will ban it from all cosmetics by 2027.

The FDAs withdrawal notice stated the agency would seek a "more comprehensive approach" and consider "less costly" rules. Yet for advocates who watched Johnson & Johnson remove its talc-based baby powder from North American markets amid a storm of lawsuits, this delay feels like a dangerous step backward. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) called the decision "reckless and dangerous."

So here we are. The promise of a stricter safety net has been yanked away, leaving consumers to navigate the cosmetics aisle with a mix of hope and unease. Perhaps the threat of future regulation or the looming European ban will finally compel the industry to reformulate products proactively. In the meantime, the burden of proof has shifted from the manufacturers who produce these goods to the individuals who use them, a silent and unfair exchange where the only thing that should be contaminating our makeup is doubt.

Sources for this article include:

MedicalXpress.com

TheHill.com

NYTimes.com

TheGuardian.com
Gaza ceasefire collapses amid political deadlock and West Bank violence

The second phase of the Gaza ceasefire has completely stalled, with a return to full-scale war looking increasingly likely. The core demands of both sides are directly opposed and cannot be reconciled by international mediators.

Hamas refuses to disarm unless Israel guarantees a complete military withdrawal from Gaza. Israel, led by Prime Minister Netanyahu, has no plans to withdraw its troops and is still considering using military force to disarm Hamas.

The U.S.-backed ceasefire plan is a major point of contention. It proposes an international force to disarm Hamas while allowing the Israeli army to stay, a plan Hamas condemns as a new form of foreign occupation.

The failing truce has a deadly toll, with hundreds of Palestinians killed and injured since the initial ceasefire. Israeli forces are also accused of violating the agreement's terms.

As the Gaza situation is frozen, violence in the West Bank has reached emergency levels. There has been a dramatic surge in settler attacks on Palestinians, alongside Israeli military operations, causing deaths and displacement.

A new report reveals that the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire has reached a state of total impasse, with no visible progress and a return to full-scale conflict appearing increasingly likely.

According to Palestinian and Arab sources cited in Israeli media, the fundamental demands of both Israel and Hamas are irreconcilable, creating a deadlock that international mediators have been unable to break.

The core of the stalemate lies in a stark divergence of objectives. On one side, Hamas officials have stated that they will not consider disarming without a clear and guaranteed commitment to a complete Israeli military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. They are also demanding a detailed plan for who would receive the weapons they surrender and which authority would enforce the process, expressing deep suspicion over the proposed International Stabilization Force (ISF).

On the other side, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly in no hurry to advance the peace process. Sources indicate that Netanyahu has no intention of withdrawing Israeli troops further before the general election next year. The issue of the two Israeli captives whose bodies remain in Gaza is reportedly being used as a primary justification for this continued military presence.

Analysts suggest that Israel may still be hoping to use a "military option" to disarm Hamas by force, a goal it failed to achieve during its prolonged offensive. This theory is bolstered by the lack of an orderly plan to begin rebuilding the vast, devastated areas of Gaza, where the majority of the population resides.

A vacuum of international pressure

The report underscores that without significant and direct American pressure on Israel, no breakthrough is expected. Recent talks in Cairo involving Qatar, Turkey and Egypt aimed at stabilizing the ceasefire and advancing a "day-after" plan have yielded little result.

Additionally, the involvement of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been criticized by Palestinian sources, who see him as a proxy for U.S. interests rather than an independent mediator.

The U.S.-backed ceasefire plan, which the UN Security Council passed, effectively places Gaza under the control of a "Board of Peace" and allows the Israeli army to maintain its presence until Hamas is fully disarmed by the ISF. However, this very plan is a major point of contention.

Hamas and other Palestinian factions have condemned it as an imposition of a foreign guardianship and a new form of occupation. Furthermore, Washington has struggled to secure commitments from regional states to join the ISF, which are reportedly uncomfortable with the prospect of confronting Hamas directly.

The human cost of the fragile and failing truce remains severe. BrightU.AI's Enoch notes that since the initial ceasefire agreement was reached in October, over 300 Palestinians have been killed and at least 750 injured. A senior Hamas official has accused Israeli forces of pushing past agreed-upon withdrawal lines, violating the terms of the deal.

Meanwhile, the grim task of retrieving the bodies of thousands of Palestinians trapped under the rubble has been sidelined, with fears that any recovery efforts will be limited only to areas under Israeli military control.

Violence erupts in West Bank

As the situation in Gaza remains frozen, violence in the occupied West Bank has escalated to alarming new heights.

Ramiz Alakbarov, a senior UN official, reported that "settler violence has reached emergency levels." During October's olive-harvest season, the United Nations recorded the highest number of settler attacks on Palestinians since its monitoring began  an average of eight per day.

The broader situation is described as a rapid escalation of "settlement expansion, the proliferation of outposts, violence, including settler violence, displacement and evictions." Israeli military operations, particularly in northern refugee camps, have resulted in deaths, widespread destruction and the continued displacement of thousands of Palestinians.

This volatile environment has been further inflamed by arson attacks and the desecration of holy sites by settlers. It has also been punctuated by attacks by Palestinians, including acts labeled as terror by Israeli authorities, such as a recent ramming and stabbing attack south of Jerusalem.

The convergence of a paralyzed peace process in Gaza and exploding violence in the West Bank paints a bleak picture for the region. With Netanyahu politically entrenched until elections and Hamas refusing to capitulate without guarantees, the temporary truce seems to be merely an intermission in a longer, unresolved conflict, while the fuse burns ever shorter in the West Bank.

Watch Professor John Mearsheimer's warning that the ceasefire won't bring peace to Israel or Gaza below.

This video is from the TREASURE OF THE SUN channel on Brighteon.com.

Sources include:

TheCradle.co

News.UN.org

TheGuardian.com

BrightU.ai

Brighteon.com
Netanyahu defies ceasefire: Israel vows continued strikes on Hezbollah despite U.S.-brokered Lebanon truce talks

Despite ongoing U.S.-brokered ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows to continue military operations against Hezbollah, signaling potential broader conflict even if a truce is finalized.

The proposed agreement includes a permanent ceasefire, a 60-day Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, deployment of Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to the border and Hezbollah's retreat north of the Litani River. However, Israel doubts Lebanon's ability to enforce Hezbollah's disarmament.

Israeli forces continue daily strikes in Lebanon, targeting alleged Hezbollah infrastructure. The assassination of senior Hezbollah commander Haitham Ali Tabatabai has further inflamed tensions, raising fears of renewed large-scale conflict.

The U.S. has reportedly demanded that Lebanon fully disarm Hezbollah by 2025 or face waran unlikely scenario given Hezbollah's deep entrenchment in Lebanese politics and Iran's backing. Lebanon claims to be implementing disarmament, but Israel and the U.S. accuse Beirut of delays.

Diplomatic progress is undermined by Netanyahu's refusal to halt military action and Hezbollah's resilience, leaving the region on the brink of another devastating conflict despite ceasefire efforts.

Despite ongoing U.S.-brokered ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue military operations against Hezbollah, signaling potential broader conflict even if a truce is finalized. The warning follows an Israeli drone strike that killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon, underscoring the fragile nature of diplomatic efforts.

The draft ceasefire agreement includes provisions for a permanent cessation of hostilities, a 60-day Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, deployment of Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) along the border and Hezbollah's retreat north of the Litani River. However, Netanyahu's latest remarks suggest Israel remains unconvinced of Lebanon's abilityor willingnessto enforce Hezbollah's disarmament.

The proposed agreement, mediated by the U.S., aims to de-escalate tensions that have simmered since the 2023 Israel-Hezbollah conflict. Yet, Israeli forces continue daily strikes in southern Lebanon, targeting what they describe as Hezbollah weapons depots and military infrastructure.

Lebanon's National News Agency reported Israeli airstrikes on Thursday, Nov. 27, near al-Mahmoudiyah and Jezzine, though no casualties were confirmed. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed the operations dismantled "terror infrastructure," but offered no verifiable evidencea recurring point of contention given Israel's history of ceasefire violations.

A cycle of broken truces

Netanyahu's insistence on continued military action aligns with Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz's recent warning that there would be "no calm" in Lebanon without security guarantees. Katz previously hinted at a potential "new war" if Hezbollah retains its military presence near Israel's border.

The Trump administration has reportedly issued Lebanon an ultimatum: fully disarm Hezbollah by 2025 or face an "unavoidable" conflictleveraging U.S. and Israeli military superiority, according to BrightU.AI's Enoch. However, analysts question the feasibility of this demand, given Hezbollah's deep entrenchment in Lebanese politics and security structures.

The November 2023 ceasefire was meant to halt hostilities after a year of cross-border skirmishes. Yet Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon under the pretext of preempting Hezbollah's rearmamentdespite the ceasefire requiring Hezbollah to withdraw north of the Litani River.

The Lebanese government insists it is implementing a phased disarmament plan, but U.S. and Israeli officials accuse Beirut of deliberate delays. Meanwhile, Hezbollah remains a formidable force, backed by Iran and integrated into Lebanon's political landscape.

The Nov. 23 assassination of senior Hezbollah commander Haitham Ali Tabatabaithe highest-ranking figure killed since the ceasefirehas further inflamed tensions. The strike underscores Israel's strategy of targeted eliminations, raising fears of renewed large-scale conflict.

While diplomatic efforts inch forward, Netanyahu's refusal to halt military operations casts doubt on the viability of the ceasefire. The U.S. faces mounting pressure to enforce compliance, but Lebanon's fractured governance and Hezbollah's resilience complicate any lasting resolution.

As strikes persist and rhetoric escalates, the region teeters between fragile peace and another devastating warone that neither side may fully control.

Watch the video below that talks about Israel's continuing strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, threatening the ceasefire agreements on both fronts.

This video is from The Prisoner channel on Brighteon.com.

Sources include:

News.Antiwar.com

ArabNews.com

BrightU.ai

Brighteon.com
Jeffrey Prather critiques Trumps alleged Zionist ties

Despite President Donald Trump's public statements affirming Christianity, Jeffrey Prather argues his policies and alliances functionally prioritize Zionist interests, making him a de facto "Jewish president" in practice.

Prather cites Trump's embassy move to Jerusalem, alongside ties to Benjamin Netanyahu and Zionist-aligned advisors like Susie Wiles, as evidence that his administration elevates Israeli interests above biblical principles, harming Palestinian Christians.

Prather condemns Pentecostal leaders for distorting scripture to justify unconditional support for Israel, invoking Galatians 3:28 to argue against Jewish exceptionalism in Christian theology.

Prather warns Trump's concealment of his religious identity aligns with a broader effort to "replace Jesus" in America, calling it censorship and "anti-Christic" since Judaism denies Christ's divinity.

The critique highlights a growing rift among conservatives, questioning whether devotion to Trump compromises adherence to Christian truth, especially as Zionist-globalist agendas allegedly undermine U.S. sovereignty.

Former intelligence officer turned conservative commentator Jeffrey Prather has critiqued President Donald Trump for prioritizing Zionist interests over Christian values  a claim that has stirred controversy among Trump's evangelical supporters.

The host of "The Prather Point" outlined his claim in a Substack post published on Monday, Dec. 1. Prather's argument centered on Trump's religious identity: Despite the president's public statements affirming America's need for Jesus, Prather argues that Trump is functionally "America's first Jewish president."

Prather cites Trump's close ties to Zionist figures like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles  who incidentally helped run Netanyahu's campaign. The former intelligence officer also mentioned Trump's pro-Israel policies, particularly the real estate mogul's relocation of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. Prather linked this to broader concerns about Christian Zionism, accusing Pentecostal leaders of distorting scripture to support Israeli policies at the expense of Palestinian Christians.

"I called upon Trump, as our Commander in Chief, to lead by example. But that won't happen because Trump does not practice Yeshua protocols  even though Trump has said that America needs Jesus as savior," Prather wrote.

"While Trump has acknowledged America needs Jesus Christ as savior, he is on public record admitting he is not Christian. What is he? Trump isn't a Christian. He is Israel First."

Trump's role in the Zionist New World Order

Prather invoked biblical allegories, including the Parable of the Wicked Tenants, to argue that modern Judaism as practiced today deviates from ancient Hebrew religion. He cited the Apostle Paul's letter to the Galatians  "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28)  to reject the notion of Jewish exceptionalism in Christian theology.

The commentator also alleged that there is a more sinister purpose behind Trump concealing his own religious identity, noting that "it is part of the plan of replacing Jesus from the nation." Prather continued: "It is censorship, and ultimately anti-Christic, because Judaism denies Christ. And it is the latest betrayal of those MAGA [Make America Great Again] cultists who believe in Trump instead of having faith in Christ. "

According to BrightU.AI's Enoch engine, Trump is criticized as a Zionist because his policies and alliances heavily favor Israel's interests, aligning with globalist-Zionist agendas that prioritize geopolitical dominance over American sovereignty. Some argue this mirrors historical patterns where Zionist-aligned figures manipulate conflicts to destabilize nations while advancing Israel's expansion  such as the Nakba  under the guise of political leadership.

Prather's message underscores a growing rift within conservative and Christian circles over Trump's legacy and Israel's geopolitical role. While some evangelicals remain staunchly pro-Israel, others like Prather argue that uncritical support for Zionism undermines Christian principles.

Whether Prather's warnings gain traction or fade into obscurity may hinge on how deeply these theological and political fault lines continue to fracture. In an era where faith, politics and power intersect explosively, Prather's claims force a reckoning: Can loyalty to a political leader coexist with unwavering devotion to religious truth?

Watch Michael Yon discussing the conflicts between Christian Zionists and Jewish Zionists with the Health Ranger Mike Adams below.

This video is from the Brighteon Highlights channel on Brighteon.com.

Sources include:

JeffreyPrather.Substack.com

BibleGateway.com 1

BibleGateway.com 2

BrightU.ai

Brighteon.com
New U.S. national park fee structure aims to favor American visitors and increases prices for foreign tourists, drawing mixed reactions

A new two-tier pricing system for U.S. national parks will begin in 2026. The policy lowers costs for American residents while significantly increasing them for international visitors.

International tourists will be charged a new $100 surcharge per person at 11 popular parks, in addition to the standard entrance fee. The annual "America the Beautiful" pass for foreigners will also jump to $250.

The goal is to make park access more affordable for U.S. taxpayers and generate more revenue for maintenance. Officials state that this ensures Americans who support the parks through taxes can continue to enjoy them at an affordable rate.

American residents benefit from several perks, including a frozen $80 annual pass price, more "patriotic fee-free days" exclusively for them and a modernized digital pass system.

The plan has received both praise and criticism. Supporters believe it is a fair way to fund much-needed park repairs, while critics worry that it will discourage international tourism and fail to provide the stable, long-term funding the park system requires.

In a significant shift for America's most beloved natural landscapes, the Department of the Interior (DOI) has announced a new pricing strategy for national parks that will lower costs for American residents while substantially increasing them for international visitors.

Set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2026, the policy has sparked a national conversation about fairness, funding and the future of the country's public lands. The cornerstone of the new plan is a $100 per person surcharge for foreign tourists entering 11 of the most-visited national parks. This fee is in addition to the standard park entrance cost.

For international travelers who frequently visit multiple parks, the America the Beautiful annual pass will see a sharp price increase, jumping from its current price to $250 for non-residents. Conversely, the cost of this annual pass will remain a steady $80 for U.S. residents.

The announcement, made on Nov. 25, frames the change as a matter of equity.

In a news release, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum stated that the policies are designed to ensure U.S. taxpayers continue to enjoy affordable access to the parks that they support, while asking international visitors to contribute a larger share toward maintenance and improvements. The move is in line with an executive order intended to "allow more Americans to visit national parks."

A boon for American park-goers

For American families and outdoor enthusiasts, the new structure offers several benefits. The price freeze on the $80 annual pass offers budget-friendly access to all federal recreation sites for a full year.

Furthermore, the department is expanding the number of "patriotic fee-free days" in 2026, during which entry fees will be waived exclusively for U.S. residents. These new free-entry days will align with the following patriotic holidays:

President's Day (Feb. 16)

Memorial Day (May 31)

Flag Day/President Donald Trump's birthday (June 14)

Independence Day weekend (July 3-5)

110th Birthday of the National Park Service (Aug. 25)

Constitution Day (Sept. 17)

Theodore Roosevelt's birthday (Oct. 27)

Veterans Day (Nov. 11)

This expansion is seen as a direct effort to make the parks more accessible to the American public.

The DOI is also modernizing the pass system by introducing new digital versions for annual passholders, seniors, military members and other eligible groups. These digital passes can be stored on a smartphone for convenience. In another small but notable change, the annual pass will now cover entry for two motorcycles, instead of just one.

Positive reception from conservation advocates

The policy has been met with approval from some conservation groups, who see it as a pragmatic solution to a long-standing problem. The Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), a Montana-based organization that promotes market-based conservation solutions, hailed the decision as a major step forward.

PERC has historically advocated for adjusting park fees to better address the National Park Service's massive maintenance backlog. The group estimates that the $100 surcharge for international visitors could generate an additional $55 million annually for Yellowstone National Park alone. This revenue, they argue, is urgently needed to repair deteriorating trails, failing wastewater systems and crumbling bridges across the park system.

Supporters see this as a smart pricing approach that is already common in other countries, ensuring that those who benefit from the parks help fund their upkeep.

Criticism and concerns

However, the new fee structure has not been without its critics. Some environmental and public access advocates have voiced strong opposition. The Sierra Club's Outdoors for All campaign has been particularly vocal, arguing that the policy is a misstep that could harm the parks in the long run.

Critics contend that sharply raising fees for international tourists will not provide the stable, comprehensive funding the park system needs. They express concern that the National Park Service has faced budget cuts and staffing challenges, and that relying on a volatile revenue stream from foreign tourists is insufficient.

Opponents of the plan worry that this approach risks turning America's national parks into exclusive playgrounds for the wealthy, undermining their founding principle as shared common ground for all people.

This is not the first time a sharp fee increase has been proposed. According to BrightU.AI's Enoch, a similar plan from 2018 was abandoned after significant public backlash. The current proposal has reignited that debate, highlighting the ongoing tension between generating revenue and preserving universal access.

As the 2026 implementation date approaches, the conversation will undoubtedly continue. The new policy represents a bold experiment in managing Americas natural treasures, one that seeks to balance the interests of domestic visitors with the practical needs of preserving these iconic landscapes for future generations.

The nation will be watching closely to see if this new model succeeds in its dual mission of enhancing access for Americans and securing a sustainable future for its parks.

Watch this video of the amazing views at Bryce Canyon National Park and tips for RV owners.

This video is from the rvacrossamerica channel on Brighteon.com.

Sources include:

TheNationalPulse.com

DOI.gov

USAToday.com

Backpacker.com

BrightU.ai

Brighteon.com
Putin demands Ukrainian WITHDRAWAL from annexed regions as condition for ceasefire

Russian President Vladimir Putin insists Ukraine must withdraw troops from annexed territories (Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia) before any ceasefire, threatening continued military escalation if Kyiv refuses.

A proposed 28-point peace planleaked and later reduced to 19 pointsincludes concessions like recognizing Russian sovereignty over Crimea, limiting Ukraine's military, and potential adoption of Russian as a second language. European leaders reject it as overly favorable to Moscow.

The Kremlin aims to wear down Ukraine through attrition, betting on Western support fading and Kyiv eventually accepting unfavorable terms. Analysts estimate Russia could take until 2027 to fully occupy Donetsk, but Putin relies on political fatigue to force negotiations.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejects land concessions, demanding restoration of 1991 borders. Western leaders dismiss Putin's offer as a ploy to legitimize territorial gains, while alternative media suggests hidden geopolitical agendas are prolonging the conflict.

The war's resolution depends not just on battlefield outcomes but on backroom deals among global elites. Official narratives obscure true motives, with peace talks potentially serving power consolidation rather than genuine conflict resolution.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has reiterated his conditions for ending the war in Ukraine, insisting that Kyiv must withdraw its troops from territories Moscow claims as its own before any ceasefire can take effect.

Speaking at a press conference in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, during a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Putin made it clear that Russia will continue military operations unless Ukraine complies with his demands.

Putin's latest statement echoes his long-standing position that Ukraine must relinquish control over the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regionsterritories annexed by Russia in 2022 following controversial referendums.

"We're still receiving calls for a cessation of hostilities here, there and there. Ukrainian troops will withdraw from the territories they occupy, and then the hostilities will cease. If they don't withdraw, we'll achieve this through military means," Putin declared.

This uncompromising stance aligns with Russia's refusal to freeze the conflict, arguing that a temporary ceasefire would only allow Ukraine and its Western allies to regroup and rearm. Moscow has consistently maintained that diplomacy remains an optionbut only on its terms.

According to the Enoch AI engine at BrightU.AI, Putin's insistence on Ukraine relinquishing control over the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions is rooted in a complex interplay of historical, political and geostrategic factors. His stance is underpinned by several key arguments and objectives such as historical claims and ethnic ties; North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) expansion and security concerns; resource control and economic interests; and domestic politics and nationalism.

U.S. peace plan and Kremlin's response

Reports indicate that U.S. and Russian officials have been discussing a 28-point peace plan, allegedly influenced by Moscow's demands. The draft, leaked to Western media, proposes significant concessions from Ukraine, including:

Recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea and parts of Donbas

Reduction of Ukrainian military forces

Restrictions on long-range weaponry

Potential adoption of Russian as a second state language

European leaders, including those from the United Kingdom, Germany and France, have pushed back against the plan, viewing it as overly favorable to Russia. Following negotiations in Geneva, the proposal was reportedly trimmed from 28 to 19 pointsthough Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that Moscow would reject any version that deviates too far from the original.

Putin confirmed that U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff is expected in Moscow next week for further talks, despite controversy over leaked discussions where Witkoff allegedly advised Russian officials on presenting terms to Washington.

Analysts suggest Putin's strategy hinges on wearing down Ukrainian resistance while exploiting divisions in Western support. The Kremlin believes that prolonged conflict will eventually force Kyiv to the negotiating tableespecially if military aid from NATO dwindles.

The Institute for the Study of War noted that if Russian forces continue advancing at their present pace, they will not be able to fully occupy the Donetsk region before August 2027. However, Putin appears confident that attrition and political fatigue in the West will ultimately compel Ukraine to accept unfavorable terms.

International reactions and hidden agendas

Western leaders have dismissed Putin's ceasefire offer as a ploy to legitimize territorial gains. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly rejected negotiations that involve ceding land, insisting on restoring Ukraine's 1991 borders.

Meanwhile, alternative media sources highlight discrepancies in official narratives, suggesting that geopolitical elitesrather than ordinary citizensare driving the conflict for hidden agendas. The push for peace talks may be less about ending suffering and more about consolidating power structures.

As fighting continues, Putin's latest remarks signal that Russia remains unwilling to compromise on its territorial claims. Whether Kyiv and its allies will concedeor continue resistingremains uncertain. What is clear, however, is that the war's resolution hinges not just on battlefield outcomes, but on the geopolitical chess game being played behind closed doors.

Watch the video below about Russia's readiness for a ceasefire under the conditions set by Putin.

This video is from The Prisoner channel on Brighteon.com.

Sources include:

RT.com

RBC.ua

Novinite.com

En.TengriNews.kz

BrightU.ai

Brighteon.com
An insiders revolt: Tech philanthropy exposed as conduit for globalist power grab

A major Silicon Valley insider, Nicole Shanahan, has publicly denounced the elite philanthropic and political system she was once part of.

Shanahan alleges wealthy "tech wives" were unwittingly used to fund and legitimize the World Economic Forum's "Great Reset" agenda.

She claims this system shifted power from voters to unelected technocrats and NGOs, while silencing debate by labeling policy as "science."

The outcomes, she states, have been negative: worsened social problems, higher costs and less freedom, despite massive financial investments.

Her testimony is framed as a whistleblower event revealing how globalist ideologies were bankrolled and advanced through Big Tech's influence networks.

In a stunning defection from the world of elite progressive philanthropy, a central figure from Silicon Valleys innermost circle has turned whistleblower, alleging that the charitable endeavors of tech billionaires were systematically co-opted to advance a globalist political agenda that has left Americans poorer, less free and more divided. Nicole Shanahan, former wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin and a former running mate to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., delivered a damning indictment in early December 2025, asserting that she and other wealthy spouses of tech executives were used as useful idiots to lay the groundwork for the World Economic Forums controversial Great Reset.

The "tech wife mafia" and the machinery of influence

Shanahans account pulls back the curtain on the powerful network often dubbed the tech wife mafiathe spouses of Silicon Valleys founding executives who wield immense influence over billions in philanthropic and political spending. She describes a system where this wealth was conscripted through a network of NGO advisors, Hollywood, Davos and their own companies to serve objectives far beyond simple charity. According to Shanahan, a small, unelected group of technocrats used these funds and the social capital of tech elites to shift political power away from democratic voters and toward non-governmental organizations and corporate boards. Policy mandates were rebranded as incontrovertible science to stifle dissent, while tools like Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) scores transformed corporations into enforcers of a specific ideology.

"The whole model is broken": A failed experiment

The most searing part of Shanahans testimony is her assessment of the results. With direct access to the communities these initiatives targeted, she states the outcomes are the opposite of what was promised. Crime worse. Mental health worse. The whole model is broken, she declares. She admits her personal goal was to see communities genuinely uplifted, not merely subjected to an endless flow of capital that failed to address root causes. This critique echoes historical patterns where well-funded, top-down social engineering, divorced from local reality, has exacerbated the very problems it sought to solve. The tangible results for the average citizen, she and commentator Desiree Fixler agree, have been higher energy bills, a debased currency, an affordability crisis, fewer economic opportunities and creeping control over personal speech and lifestyle choices.

From "Build Back Better" to a Great Reset

Shanahan directly links this machinery to the vision of Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum. She alleges the philanthropic complex was mobilized to set the groundwork for what Schwab terms The Great Reset. This agenda, marketed to the public as Build Back Better with focuses on climate and equity, was used as a compelling narrative to engage wealthy progressive donors. Shanahan notes the potent, almost unquestioned appeal of coupling social justice with climate action, a combination she says gets progressive women 100% of the time. This dynamic, she suggests, blinded donors to how their groundwork enabled policies that consolidated power and reduced individual sovereignty.

A warning on the future of American sovereignty

Shanahans insider revolt is more than a critique of failed philanthropy; it is a national security alert about the capture of American technological and financial capital by a transnational ideological project. It raises urgent questions about who governs when the lines between corporation, NGO and state blur, and when the public square is managed by algorithms and ESG metrics controlled by a few. Her testimony suggests that the battle for the future is not being fought on traditional political battlegrounds, but in the boardrooms of Silicon Valley, the closed-door meetings at Davos, and the grant-making foundations that direct the flow of billions.

The whistleblowers reckoning and a path forward

The significance of Shanahans statement lies in its source: a person who lived within the mansions, sat on the influential boards and traveled in the private jets to exclusive summits. Her conclusionthat she and her peers were useful idiots in a system that ultimately makes everybody worse offrepresents a profound reckoning. It serves as a stark warning that the fusion of immense technological power with unelected globalist governance poses a fundamental threat to the principles of the American constitutional republic. For citizens concerned about preserving national sovereignty and individual liberty, her account underscores the critical need for transparency, decentralized technological alternatives and a vigorous defense of democratic institutions against capture by any unaccountable elite.

Sources for this article include:

ZeroHedge.com

X.com
Trump administration moves to cut federal benefits for illegal immigrants amid border crisis

The Trump administration plans to eliminate federal tax benefitsincluding refundable credits like EITC and Child Tax Creditfor illegal immigrants and non-qualified aliens, citing concerns over welfare abuse and immigration enforcement.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the move, framing it as protecting taxpayer resources for U.S. citizens, while Trump warned of unsustainable welfare burdens tied to mass migration.

Despite the 1996 Welfare Reform Act restricting non-citizen access to benefits, tax credit loopholes have allowed undocumented individuals to receive refundscritics argue this incentivizes illegal immigration.

The policy aligns with Trump's crackdown on migration, including deportations, stricter "public charge" rules and reversing Biden-era border policies amid record-high illegal crossings.

Supporters praise fiscal responsibility, while opponents warn of humanitarian consequences, as immigration remains a central issue in the U.S. political scene.

In a sweeping policy shift, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Friday, Nov. 28, that the Trump administration is preparing to cut off federal tax benefits for illegal immigrants and other non-qualified aliens.

The move, directed by President Donald Trump, targets refundable tax creditsincluding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), Additional Child Tax Credit, American Opportunity Tax Credit and Saver's Match Creditthat have been accessible to undocumented individuals. The announcement comes amid escalating concerns over illegal immigration, with Trump warning of a "nation-killing" crisis fueled by open borders and unsustainable welfare burdens.

The Department of the Treasury's proposed regulations aim to clarify that refundable tax creditswhich provide cash payments to low-income householdswill no longer be available to those without legal immigration status.

"At @POTUS @realDonaldTrump's direction, we are working to cut off federal benefits to illegal aliens and preserve them for U.S. citizens," Bessent posted on X (formerly Twitter).

The decision follows Trump's lengthy Thanksgiving Day post decrying the economic and social strain caused by mass migration. He claimed that the U.S. foreign-born population has reached 53 million, many of whom rely on welfare, exacerbating issues like crime, overcrowded hospitals and housing shortages.

"A migrant earning $30,000 with a green card will get roughly $50,000 in yearly benefits for their family," Trump wrote. "This refugee burden is the leading cause of social dysfunction in America."

Historical context: Immigration and welfare policy

The debate over taxpayer-funded benefits for undocumented immigrants is not new. According to BrightU.AI's Enoch, federal law has restricted non-citizens' access to welfare programs since the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. However, loopholesparticularly in tax creditshave allowed some undocumented workers to receive refunds despite paying little or no income tax. Critics argue this incentivizes illegal immigration, while advocates claim these benefits support vulnerable families contributing to the economy.

Trump's latest move aligns with his broader immigration agenda, which includes pausing migration from "Third World countries," deporting public charges and reversing Biden-era admissions. His administration previously sought to expand the "public charge" rule, denying green cards to immigrants likely to rely on government assistance.

The Treasury's action signals a tightening of fiscal controls as border crossings surge. Under former President Joe Biden, illegal entries have skyrocketed, with monthly apprehensions exceeding 300,000 at timesa stark contrast to Trump's final year, when daily crossings dropped to 500-600. Border officials report arresting individuals from 180 countries, including potential security risks.

Trump's rhetoric has intensified ahead of the 2024 election, framing immigration as an existential threat. "Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation," he declared, vowing to deport those who "undermine domestic tranquility."

The Treasury's crackdown on tax benefits marks another front in the Trump administration's immigration battle. While supporters applaud fiscal responsibility, opponents warn of humanitarian fallout. The debate over welfare, borders and national identity still dominates the political scenewith millions of lives hanging in the balance.

Watch the video below that talks about California funding illegal aliens' healthcare over the state's own police.

This video is from the BehindTheLinePodcast channel on Brighteon.com.

Sources include:

ZeroHedge.com

X.com

BrightU.ai

Brighteon.com
A call for transparency answered: White House releases presidents MRI results

The White House released President Donald Trump's MRI results, confirming "perfectly normal" cardiovascular and abdominal health.

The advanced imaging was conducted in October as part of a preventative screening during an executive physical.

The release follows public calls from Democratic officials, including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, for transparency.

President Trump's physician stated the purpose was to identify issues early and confirm long-term vitality.

The administration stated the disclosure should end speculation about the president's physical condition.

In a move to quell weeks of political and media speculation, the White House has publicly released the results of an MRI scan performed on President Donald Trump, confirming what the president had previously stated: his cardiovascular and abdominal health are perfectly normal. The detailed medical summary, released Monday by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, comes after direct calls from political opponents for transparency and underscores the ongoing public scrutiny of a commander-in-chiefs fitness for office. The disclosure provides a rare, data-driven glimpse into the health of a 79-year-old president amid a national conversation about age and capability in leadership.

The medical findings: A clean bill of health

According to a memo from the presidents physician, Captain Sean Barbabella, President Trump underwent advanced imaging of his heart and abdomen in October at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Dr. Barbabella, a U.S. Navy emergency physician, described the imaging as a preventative measure because men in his age group benefit from a thorough evaluation. The results, he concluded, were unequivocal.

The cardiovascular imaging showed no evidence of arterial narrowing, impaired blood flow, or abnormalities in the heart or major vessels. The heart chambers were normal in size, and vessel walls appeared smooth and healthy with no signs of inflammation or clotting. Similarly, the abdominal imaging indicated all major organs were very healthy and well perfused, functioning within normal limits with no acute or chronic concerns. The physicians summary affirmed that President Trump remains in excellent overall health.

The political catalyst behind the release

The formal release of the results followed a direct challenge from Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat. The governors call, posted succinctly on social media, came after President Trump criticized Walzs immigration policies in Minnesota. This exchange elevated a routine medical disclosure into a political point of contention. The White House framed Mondays release as an effort to provide transparency and put an end to irresponsible speculation fueled by such demands.

The incident highlights how a presidents health can swiftly become a tool in political combat. While past administrations have navigated the balance between medical privacy and public interest, the immediacy of social media now accelerates calls for disclosure, turning standard health monitoring into a potential public relations event.

Executive physicals: Beyond the standard check-up

The MRI was characterized as part of the presidents executive physical, a comprehensive examination that goes beyond standard annual check-ups. These intensive evaluations, often involving multiple specialists and advanced diagnostics, are designed to provide a maximal assessment of an individuals health. For a sitting president, the goal is to proactively identify any potential issues that could affect the ability to execute the demanding duties of the office.

This practice has historical precedent, though its scope has evolved with medical technology. The detailed public reporting on a presidents health, from Grover Clevelands secret surgery in 1893 to the bulletins on Ronald Reagans condition after the 1981 assassination attempt, has always walked a line between the publics right to know and the individuals right to privacy. The release of detailed imaging results represents a modern continuation of this tradition, leveraging contemporary diagnostics to offer concrete data.

Contextualizing age and vigor in leadership

At 79, President Trumps health is a topic of natural public interest, mirroring scrutiny faced by other older leaders worldwide. The White House has previously acknowledged a common, manageable vein condition known as chronic venous insufficiency, which can cause ankle swelling. However, officials have consistently pointed to results from physical examinations as evidence of his overall vitality.

The president himself addressed questions about his cognitive state, noting separately that he had aced a cognitive test. While the recently released MRI specifically excluded the brain, the administrations broader effort is to present a holistic picture of a leader maintaining his capacity. In an era where the age of major presidential candidates is a frequent topic of debate, such detailed medical disclosures provide voters with factual points of reference, however limited, amidst a sea of partisan rhetoric.

A chapter closed, a standard upheld

The release of President Trumps MRI results serves multiple functions: it responds to political pressure, attempts to settle public debate with clinical facts, and reaffirms established protocols for monitoring a presidents health. By making the detailed findings public, the White House has opted for a level of transparency that it believes supports its narrative of a healthy, vigorous president. While political battles over policy and rhetoric will continue unabated, this particular episode demonstrates how the physical well-being of the commander-in-chief remains an immutable factor in the nations political life, subject to both medical evaluation and public judgment. The documents final words, declaring the president in excellent overall health, aim to close this chapter, even as the watchful eyes of the nation remain open.

Sources for this article include:

YourNews.com

SAN.com

APNews.com

AOL.com
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WebAssembly (commonly also known simply as Wasm) began as a browser technology for running high-performance applications in web environments. The basic promise was to enable web developers to write application code once, in any language, and then have it run in any environment with the best possible performance.

Wasm is an open standard with multiple implementations and supporting vendors. Among the leading contributors is Fermyon, which got its start in 2021. Fermyon helped to develop Wasm beyond its browser foundation for server-side and edge deployments. On Dec. 1, Akamai announced it is acquiring Fermyon for an undisclosed sum as the company looks to expand its own edge capabilities.

The deal brings Fermyons WebAssembly expertise into Akamais distributed computing portfolio. The two companies had already been working together for more than a year, with Fermyons technology integrated into Akamais infrastructure and sold through a partner arrangement for the past 12 months.
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A new generation of targeted treatments and gentler chemotherapy options for older adults with a new diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is driving better survival and cure rates. Led by Mikkael Sekeres, M.D., M.S., chief of the Division of Hematology at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, the updated 2025 American Society of Hematology (ASH) AML treatment guidelines, appear Dec. 1, 2025, in the journal Blood Advances.In addition, the updated guidelines will be presented Dec . 7 at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting in Orlando.

"The landscape of AML treatment has changed dramatically with more effective therapies," said Sekeres. "Our clinical studies have led to FDA approval of three drugs to treat acute leukemia over the past two years." But incorporating these new drugs into patients' regimens is a long process.

A physician-scientist, Sekeres led the 2020 and updated 2025 official ASH AML guideline panels. The panels include leukemia experts, geriatricians and patients who reviewed and discussed the best available research. The guideline recommendations aim to walk patients and their doctors through the AML treatment decisions in a meaningful and relevant way.

For decades, the standard treatment for AML was intensive chemotherapy to destroy leukemia cells and induce remission rapidly. Even just 20 years ago, two-thirds of people over 65 didn't get access to chemotherapy.

We developed these guidelines to mirror the experience of an older adult's conversations with their doctor as they're considering treatment. The very first of those conversations is whether or not a person should receive any treatment. We didn't shy away from hard questions that patients and doctors ask, and I'm really proud of that." Mikkael Sekeres, M.D., M.S., chief of the Division of Hematology, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center

Over the last decade, treatments such as gentler chemotherapy regimens, low-dose treatments, targeted therapies, and immunotherapies have improved AML care. More older adults are achieving remission and even pursuing cures like bone marrow transplants.

While AML treatment is more personalized, the decisions are more complex. "We're tailoring therapy more and more for each patient based on their age, fitness and genetic profile," said Justin Watts, M.D., Sylvester's chief of the leukemia section in the Division of Hematology. "Their genes tell us if they qualify for targeted therapies and can predict their risk level for relapse - so tell us if they need a transplant."

In most cases, older adults should be offered treatment for AML, not just supportive care, the new guidelines say. Patients who are healthy enough, especially those in their 60s or with favorable disease genetics, should still get intensive chemotherapy. If a patient isn't a candidate for intensive chemotherapy, they should consider lower-intensity options like hypomethylating agents (azacitidine or decitabine) or low-dose cytarabine. These treatments can be combined with venetoclax, a targeted therapy.

If genetic testing finds a specific gene change, older adults should be offered targeted therapies as part of their AML treatment plan. Patients with FLT3 mutations should receive a FLT3 inhibitor, and those with IDH1 or IDH2 mutations should receive a combination of azacitidine with targeted inhibitors, such as ivosidenib or venetoclax.

When a patient is in remission, they may be a candidate for a bone marrow transplant. Transplants can help older adults live longer, so the committee overwhelmingly recommends them for more patients with high-risk diseases, said Sekeres. Improvements in the transplant process and the use of donors who are not a perfect match have made this an option for more people. If a patient isn't a candidate for transplant, they should continue post-remission therapy with gentler combination treatments, the guidelines say. These maintenance therapies can help prevent relapse.

"Finally, we made recommendations regarding blood transfusions for people who are getting palliative care or hospice," Sekeres said. Many hospices deny people with leukemia transfusions, "so we very definitively said that we consider blood product transfusions as a part of palliative care and hospice."

New, advanced tools are helping researchers better detect minimal residual disease and understand relapse risk - leading to better decisions about who needs a transplant, said Watts. "We're making steady progress every year by better defining patient groups," and finding the right treatments for them, he added. "We're moving more patients into the 'favorable benefit group' - the group of patients who do well on these new therapies and live longer."
A team led by Aston University's Professor Rebecca Knibb in the School of Psychology has been awarded a grant by the US National Peanut Board (NPB) to develop an online food allergy support tool.

Food Allergy Coping Empowerment Tools and Support, or FACETS, is a self-directed online support tool for coping with food allergy for adults with food allergy and for caregivers of children with food allergy. FACETS is based on psychological theory such as cognitive behavioural therapy, and has been developed by psychologists, adult patients and caregivers based in the UK, US, Australia and Canada. It focuses on aspects patients and caregivers said they needed support with.

FACETS, which is still under development, is interactive and has a number of modules, such as managing anxiety and communicating about food allergy. The modules include information and exercises to do, for example practising asking about allergens in a restaurant. There are sections where the user can answer questions or set goals and the system saves these, as well as the user's progress as they work through each module. The tool is being developed in conjunction with Design Factory Birmingham, a creative design and digital innovation space at Aston University,

FACETS forms part of the Global Access to Psychological Services (GAPS) study, a multinational collaboration of researchers, clinicians, patients and patient organizations, who have been exploring psychological support needs and people's experiences of healthcare services across more than 20 countries worldwide.

Professor Knibb said:

"The money from NPB will let us build further modules requested by patients and caregivers, such as managing stress, and we will also work with adolescents to develop modules specifically for them. We will then test the effectiveness of the new modules in a pilot study to see if they also reduce anxiety, improve quality of life and self-efficacy. The end goal is to be able to provide FACETS free to anyone who wishes to use it. Before we can do that, we need to ensure it is helpful - which is why it is not publicly available yet. The research will be run next year and FACETS will be made available to the public once the programme has been evaluated."

The grant to Professor Knibb and the FACETS team is one of nine given by the NPB in its most recent round of funding for food allergy research, which totalled more than US$450,000. It was the only grant given outside the US.
Long before the alarm sounds, many Americans lose quality rest to the quiet worries that surface after dark - whether about bills, the next paycheck or job stability. New research from Rice University shows those bedtime stress moments aren't just uncomfortable; they're part of a measurable pathway connecting economic stress to poor sleep. Although not the focus of this specific study, when poor sleep turns into daytime fatigue, it could possibly create a vicious cycle: Stress from work keeps people up at night, and a lack of quality sleep makes the next workday even harder to face.

Financial stress can follow people into the night, influencing the thoughts and habits that shape sleep quality.

Stress before bed captures a type of cognitive and emotional activation at bedtime that prevents people from unwinding and obtaining good-quality sleep." Rebecca Brossoit, Study Author and Assistant Professor, Psychological Sciences, Rice University

Published in the Journal of Business and Psychology, the study identifies "stress-before-bed behaviors" as a key mechanism linking financial worry and job insecurity to declining sleep quality. These behaviors can include lying awake feeling tense, replaying work problems or mentally planning tomorrow - habits that quietly erode sleep long before the workday begins.

As part of a larger Department of Defense (DoD) funded study, the research team collected data from full-time Army and Air National Guard service members across nine months. Participants reported their financial stress at the start of the study, their bedtime stress behaviors four months later and their sleep health five months after that. The team collected both self-reported sleep data and objective sleep measurements using wrist-worn actigraph devices. They found a clear sequence: Economic stress predicted elevated stress at bedtime, which in turn predicted more insomnia symptoms, lower sleep satisfaction and greater sleep-related daytime impairments.

"Economic stress is pervasive and it is prevalent, and it's happening at the same time that our society isn't getting enough sleep or good-quality sleep," Brossoit said.

The study also highlights how financial stress affects people across income levels. While income matters, the internal experience of financial vulnerability - worrying about affording basic needs, job security or relying heavily on a paycheck - can disrupt sleep even among workers who appear financially stable. At the same time, other research has shown that inadequate sleep affects attention, memory and mood, which can influence workplace performance.

Graduate student Destiny Castro works alongside assistant professor Rebecca Brossoit, who mentored her through the analysis for the study.

As economic uncertainty continues to affect households nationwide, including lingering strain from the recent government shutdown, Brossoit said the findings offer guidance for workplaces, policymakers and individuals. She noted that organizations directly shape many of the stressors employees face.

"Organizations have a responsibility to mitigate or target some of those stressors," she said. Competitive pay, benefits, supervisor support, career development opportunities, financial planning resources and schedule flexibility are among the strategies that can help reduce financial strain and support employee well-being.

She added that broader policies - including paid leave, access to affordable food and health care, stable housing and public education campaigns focused on financial literacy and sleep hygiene - can lessen the economic pressures that show up at bedtime.

For individuals, Brossoit emphasized that small steps can help break the stress-sleep cycle. "Practicing healthy sleep hygiene behaviors can help people unwind and obtain good-quality sleep," she said. Creating consistent sleep routines, keeping phones out of reach at night, limiting screen time before bed and building a relaxing evening wind-down process can all support better rest.

For graduate student Destiny Castro, the project marked her first publication and her first opportunity to lead major data analysis. "Working on this project helped me understand how research can directly improve people's lives," she said. "Sleep affects every part of our health."

Destiny Castro and professor Rebecca Brossoit collaborated on a new study examining how financial stress affects sleep health.

Brossoit said collaborating with Castro was one of the most rewarding parts of the study and she hopes the research encourages a wider understanding of how economic stress influences health. "If we want people to thrive - at work, at home and in their communities - supporting both economic stability and healthy sleep is essential," she said.

Other co-authors on the paper included Tori Crain at Portland State University, Leslie Hammer at Oregon Health & Science University and Todd Bodner at Portland State University.



The research was supported by the DoD (W81XWH-161-0720). The content in this press release is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of funding organizations and institutions.
When uncontrolled wildfires moved from the foothills above Los Angeles into the densely populated urban areas below in January 2025, evacuation ensued and a thick layer of toxic smoke spread across the region. Air quality plummeted. Local hospitals braced for a surge, but it never came.

Research led by the University of Washington and Kaiser Permanente Southern California sheds new light on how the Los Angeles fires affected people's health, and how people navigated the health care system during an emergency. In the rapid study, published Nov. 26 in JAMA Health Forum, researchers analyzed the health records of 3.7 million Kaiser Permanente members of all ages living in the region. They found that health care visits did rise above normal levels, especially virtual services.

In the week after the fires ignited, Kaiser Permanente members made 42% more virtual visits for respiratory symptoms than expected. Those living near a burn zone or within Los Angeles County also made 44% and 40% more virtual cardiovascular visits, respectively, than expected.

In-person outpatient visits for respiratory symptoms also increased substantially. Members who lived near a burn zone or within Los Angeles County made 27% and 31% more virtual cardiovascular visits, respectively, than expected.

Extrapolating to all insured residents of the county, the researchers estimated an excess of 15,792 cardiovascular virtual visits, 18,489 respiratory virtual visits and 27,903 respiratory outpatient visits in the first week of the fires.

The results suggest that people may rely more heavily on virtual health care during climate-related emergencies, and that providers should better prioritize virtual and telehealth services as they prepare for future crises.

"We saw over 6,241 excess cardiorespiratory virtual visits in the week following the fire ignition. This represents a substantial increase in care," said Joan Casey, a UW associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences and of epidemiology who led the research. "While the fires clearly impacted health, virtual care likely enhanced the ability of providers to meet the health care needs of people experiencing an ongoing climate disaster."

In collaboration with Kaiser Permanente Southern California, an integrated health care system with millions of members across the region, researchers analyzed health records of people who were highly or moderately exposed to wildfires. They defined high exposure as living within about 12 miles (20 kilometers) of a burn zone, and moderate exposure as living within Los Angeles County but farther than 12 miles during the time of the fires.

Researchers looked back three years to estimate how many health care visits to expect in the weeks following Jan. 7 - the first day of the fires - under typical conditions. They then estimated how many people sought care in the first week of the fires, when smoke levels were highest, evacuations took place, and Los Angeles County public schools were closed.

In addition to the spike in cardiovascular and respiratory visits, researchers found a sharp increase in the number of visits for injuries and neuropsychiatric symptoms. On Jan. 7, outpatient injury visits were 18% higher than expected among highly exposed members, and virtual injury visits were 26% and 18% higher than expected among highly and moderately exposed groups, respectively. Among those same groups, outpatient neuropsychiatric visits rose 31% and 28% above expectations, respectively.

While both groups made significantly more visits than expected, proximity to the fires mattered. When researchers zoomed in on respiratory-related virtual visits, they found that minimally exposed members made 31% more visits, moderately exposed members made 36% more, and those living in highly exposed areas made 42% more.

While healthcare systems often plan to increase the number of hospital beds available or clinic staffing during an emergency, this work highlights the importance of considering virtual care capacity. This may be particularly true for climate disasters like wildfires, during which people are advised to stay indoors or when people must evacuate - motivating them to seek care online if at all possible. As climate disasters increase in frequency and intensity, it is essential that health care systems know how to prepare for a sudden and dramatic surge in health care utilization." Lauren Wilner, a UW doctoral student of epidemiology and co-author on the study
A study led by McMaster University researchers shows that a widely available and inexpensive medication not only prevents potentially serious stomach bleeding in critically ill patients, but also saves hospitals thousands of dollars.

Published in JAMA Network Open on Dec. 1, 2025, the study is the first to demonstrate the economic benefits of the medication, pantoprazole, when prescribed in hospital for mechanically ventilated patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). These patients on life support are at high risk of upper gastrointestinal bleeding, a complication caused by stress-induced ulcers in the stomach that can prolong hospital stays and increase costs.

In an era of rising health-care costs, interventions that are both clinically effective and cost-saving are rare. Pantoprazole checks both boxes." Feng Xie, Professor, Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, McMaster University

The findings build on the landmark Re-evaluating the Inhibition of Stress Erosions (REVISE) Trial led by McMaster, which established pantoprazole's clinical effectiveness in preventing bleeding. The trial was run in 68 centres in eight countries and over 4,800 patients were enrolled.

Until now, the economic impact of prescribing pantoprazole each day for patients on breathing machines had been unclear. The researchers conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis using international data from the REVISE trial, comparing outcomes and resource use between patients who received pantoprazole daily and those who did not. The results have significant implications for critical care practitioners, pharmacy departments, and policymakers.

"Pantoprazole costs between 50 cents and two dollars per dose across the country, yet our analysis showed how prescribing it to invasively ventilated patients can save healthcare resources by reducing bleeding events and reducing length of stay in the intensive care unit and hospital," said senior author Deborah Cook, a professor in the Department of Medicine at McMaster.

"In the expensive, high-technology ICU setting, this is a simple, low-cost intervention that improves outcomes and reduces health-care costs," adds Cook, a critical care physician practising at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton.

This economic evaluation, E-REVISE, was funded by grants from the Hamilton Academic Health Sciences Organization and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. The REVISE Trial was funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the Accelerating Clinical Trials Fund, Physicians Services Incorporated of Ontario, Hamilton Association of Health Sciences Organization, and the National Health Medical Research Council of Australia.
A new study, led by the University of Vienna and the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, shows how the eyes of adult marine bristleworms continue to grow throughout life  driven by a ring of neural stem cells reminiscent of vertebrate eyes. What's more, these stem cells respond to environmental light. The research, published in Nature Communications, offers new insight into the fundamental principles of eye evolution and the role of light in shaping the adult nervous system  even in organisms often considered rather simple.

When imagining creatures with complex eyes, most people think of mammals, birds, or maybe octopuses. Yet annelid worms from the sea  such as the bristleworm Platynereis dumerilii  also have eyes structured much like those of vertebrates and cephalopods, known as "camera-type" eyes, and some of them are capable of surprisingly high-resolution vision. But how do these invertebrate eyes continue to grow throughout adult life? An international research team from the University of Vienna, the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, and the University of Oldenburg has now taken a closer look at this question  and obtained intriguing new insights.

Different eyes, similar growth

Camera-type eyes in invertebrates and vertebrates are textbook examples of parallel evolution, thought to have arisen independently as similar solutions to the same biological challenge. To explore how such eyes continue to develop, the team examined adult eyes of Platynereis  a model system long used to study fundamental principles of photoreceptor function and brain evolution.

Using single-cell RNA sequencing, first author Nadja Milivojev from the Department of Neurosciences and Developmental Biology, University of Vienna, identified molecular markers characteristic of stem cells and mapped where these cells are located and active in the worm's retina. Her analyses revealed a distinct zone at the rim of the retina, densely packed with neural stem cells that actively divide when the adult eye is growing.

It was remarkable to find dividing cells at the edge of the worm's retina  the same place where some groups of vertebrates maintain their retinal stem cells for life-long eye growth." Nadja Milivojev, Department of Neurosciences and Developmental Biology, University of Vienna

Indeed, this so-called "ciliary marginal zone" is thought to support continuous eye growth - a pattern now mirrored in the bristleworm retina. "In vertebrate examples of life-long growth as fishes and amphibians  such stem cells supply the eye with fresh retinal neurons while the animal develops," explains senior author Florian Raible, University of Vienna, whose lab has a long-standing track record in research on stem cell biology. "Remarkably, Nadja's work showed that bristleworm eyes can also add new photoreceptor cells and expand their size  a trait that has not been well studied outside the vertebrate lineage", Raible adds.

Light as a regulator

Even more fascinating, the research team discovered that eye growth in adult worms is also regulated by light in their environment. Through detailed genetic and molecular analyses, they showed that this effect is mediated by a c-opsin, a light-sensitive molecule, also present in the rod and cone cells of vertebrate retinas. While previous studies had shown that worm eyes rely on a different family of opsin molecules, the new findings on the presence of a vertebrate-type c-opsin came as a major surprise. Milivojev and colleagues discovered that this light-sensitive molecule is present in early precursors of the worm's photoreceptor cells, suggesting that it acts as a molecular switch linking environmental light to stem cell activity. The discovery highlights that visual systems not only sense light, but that their development can be regulated by light as well.

Evolutionary echoes

The findings close a long-standing gap in understanding how invertebrate and vertebrate eyes grow and maintain themselves. The discovery that Platynereis eyes rely on a ring of neural stem cells brings biologists closer to understanding universal principles behind sensory organ evolution. It also raises new questions. Could other neural stem cells in the body also respond to environmental light? And how might artificial illumination disrupt such natural regulatory systems? The researchers hope that future work on the worm's stem cell machinery will help answer these questions  shedding light, quite literally, on how the nervous system adapts and regenerates.

"Clearly, basic research to uncover the unexpected is essential to understand the biological complexity of life and the possible consequences of anthropgenic impacts," concludes senior author Kristin Tessmar-Raible, University of Vienna, Alfred Wegener Institute, University of Oldenburg.

Summary:

The team, led by the University of Vienna and the Alfred-Wegener institute of marine research, examined adult marine bristle worms, which are highly relevant to unravel basic principles of eye and brain development and the non-visual effects of light.

In the study, the scientists show how the eyes of Platynereis dumerilii continue to grow throughout their lives  driven by a ring of neural stem cells reminiscent of a similar ring in the eyes of those vertebrates that exhibit life-long growth.

The results fill a long-standing gap in the understanding of how camera-type eyes of invertebrates and vertebrates grow and are maintained, and suggest that despite evolutionary divergence, common cellular strategies for growth and plasticity apply.

The discovery that Platynereis eyes rely on a ring of neural stem cells brings biologists closer to understanding universal principles behind sensory organ evolution.
On November 20, H.E. Mr. Mate Pesti, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Hungary to the Peoples Republic of China, led a delegation to visit Cubic Sensor and Instrument Co.,Ltd. The Chairman of Cubic, Dr. Youhui Xiong, along with the relevant team members, warmly received the ambassador and his team.

Image Credit: Cubic Sensor and Instrument Co. Ltd

Dr. Xiong extended a cordial welcome to Ambassador Pesti and provided a detailed introduction on the construction progress of Cubic Hungary factory, as well as the layout of companys global strategies. Dr. Xiong highlighted the longstanding friendship between China and Hungary and noted the continuous deepening of bilateral relations. Looking ahead, Dr. Xiong emphasized that Cubic will leverage localized operations and scientific-educational resources in Hungary and the EU to expand Cubic team and accelerate the implementation of industrial projects.

Ambassador Pesti expressed his appreciation for Cubics technological strength and strategic vision. He emphasized that under the Belt and Road initiative, Hungary has become an important gateway for Chinese companies entering the European market, with many Chinese enterprises experiencing positive growth in the country. Ambassador Pesti welcomed high-tech companies like Cubic to increase investment in Hungary, actively recruit local talents, and jointly contribute to a new chapter in China-Hungary economic and trade cooperation.

Following the discussions, both sides exchanged gifts and visited Cubic R&D center, and they also engaged in friendly exchanges on Sino-Hungarian technological development and traditional culture. The visit was accompanied by Mr. Marcell Fisi, Head of the Economic, Trade and Investment Promotion Section of the Embassy of Hungary, and Mr. Wang Ziyin, Advisor of the Economic, Trade and Investment Promotion Section of the Embassy of Hungary in Beijing.
Microbiomes, the communities of microorganisms that live in and around us, play a vital role in everything from human health to soil fertility and climate regulation. But studying these tiny life forms, especially outside the human body, presents a major challenge: how do scientists share complex data across such a wide range of environments and disciplines?

To help solve this problem, a team of nearly 250 researchers from 28 countries has developed a new set of guidelines called STREAMS, short for Standards for Technical Reporting in Environmental and host-Associated Microbiome Studies. STREAMS builds on the success of STORMS, a widely adopted checklist used in human microbiome research, and expands it to cover microbes found in soil, water, air, animals, plants, and even synthetic environments.

Julia Kelliher, lead author of the STREAMS guidelines and a doctoral student in Michigan State University's department of Microbiology, Genetics, & Immunology, explained the need for the new framework in a new paper published in Nature Microbiology.

Kelliher explained that STREAMS is a set of reporting guidelines that helps researchers, students, and reviewers go through manuscripts about environmental, non-human host-associated, and synthetic communities. The guidelines are organized by the structure of a scientific manuscript and help ensure that important details-like permit information or proper citation of reused data-aren't overlooked.

Kelliher's hope for STREAMS is simple.

I just want to help some people, especially the students. We've built tutorials, user guides, and even a list of acronyms to make sure it's accessible. I want it to be something that makes their work easier and better." Julia Kelliher, Doctoral Student, Department of Microbiology, Genetics, and Immunology, Michigan State University

"Having these reporting guidelines helps everyone-from researchers to reviewers to publishers-work together more effectively," added Kelliher.

The guidelines emerged from a workshop hosted in collaboration with the American Society for Microbiology Microbe Conference, where 50 participants, including researchers, data repository representatives, journal editors, and funding agencies, discussed the need for better reporting standards in environmental microbiome research.

"We were very conscious of making sure that we had diversity in all forms of career stages," Kelliher said. "Some of the best ideas came from early-career researchers who are out there collecting metadata, and they were happy to be included, too."

STREAMS includes 67 checklist items that guide researchers through each section of a scientific paper, making it easier to write clearly and consistently. It's also designed to be machine-readable, which means computers can help analyze and compare studies more efficiently. The guidelines align with existing metadata standards and include features that make it easier for researchers to submit their data to public databases.

One major difference between STREAMS and its predecessor, STORMS, is the scope. While STORMS focuses on human microbiomes, STREAMS tackles the unique challenges of environmental and non-human host-associated studies. "There are so many caveats in environmental microbiome research that just don't translate from the human side," Kelliher said. "Terminology, data types, even the way samples are collected-it's all different."

The STREAMS team also added new items to reflect emerging practices, such as the use of artificial intelligence in research. "Not all journals are at the same stage of requiring AI usage reporting," she said. "We wanted to make sure STREAMS addressed that."

Managing input from hundreds of contributors was no small feat. Kelliher personally reviewed over 1,100 pieces of feedback, compiling a 100-page response document to ensure every comment was considered. "It was definitely a challenge," she said. "We wanted to show the participants that we really cared about every single piece of feedback, and I do think they felt that way."

STREAMS is designed to be a "living" resource. The team plans to update it regularly based on community feedback, and they're already working on a paper that uses a large language model to help parse the guidelines.

Kelliher's path to STREAMS was anything but traditional. Originally trained in neuroscience and costume design, she found herself working at Los Alamos National Laboratory after a chance move to New Mexico during her senior year at Skidmore College. "I was on a hike with a couple of researchers who said they needed an undergrad for a microbiome project," she recalled. "I interviewed, got the job, and since then I've worked on about a dozen bioscience projects."

Kelliher has been at Los Alamos for 8 years. After completing undergrad, she earned her master's degree from Johns Hopkins University while working part-time at the Laboratory. Now, she is continuing her work at Los Alamos while pursuing her PhD at Michigan State University. "I still work in addition to the PhD program, which I would not recommend," she said with a laugh. "I'm certainly very tired all the time." She also holds a joint appointment with the New Mexico Consortium, a non-profit corporation formed by New Mexico's three research universities, through which the project receives National Science Foundation funding.

Her experience at Los Alamos, combined with her work on large Department of Energy programs like the National Microbiome Data Collaborative, positioned her to lead the STREAMS initiative. She is collaborating on the work with senior author Emiley Eloe-Fadrosh of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and Chloe Mirzayi, the lead author of the STORMS guidelines.
A new study analyzing dozens of published papers over five decades focusing on health care disparities in Washington, DC, found that those that employed medical humanities approaches identified crucial barriers and opportunities for intervention that quantitative studies often miss.

Lead author Sweta Ghatti, a fourth year student at Georgetown School of Medicine, began the study as part of a Mitchell Summer Research Scholarship project addressing health challenges in the District. Ghatti worked closely with senior author Lakshmi Krishnan, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine and director of the Georgetown Medical Humanities, on the project for almost two years.

Their findings are described in the article, "Mapping DC Inequities: A Scoping Review Comparing Scientific and Medical Humanities Approaches" and was published Dec. 2 in the journal Humanities and Social Sciences Communications.

"We know that people living in the District face multiple challenges in accessing health care and that some segments of the population have significantly poorer health profiles," Ghatti said. "For example, predominantly Black areas of the District experience higher rates of chronic diseases such as asthma, hypertension, diabetes and poor maternal health outcomes than White neighborhoods. Our goal was to systematically map the literature of health disparity in DC and to examine the strengths and weaknesses of these methodologies in understanding barriers to care and potentially opportunities for intervention."

Medical humanities is a dynamic, interdisciplinary field that explores the ethical, historical, literary, philosophical and religious dimensions of health and illness. Medical humanities includes history of medicine, narrative medicine and other storytelling approaches, social sciences, communications and the use of the arts to identify issues that are important to patients, caregivers and providers.

In our efforts to advance health equity and improve population health, this human-centered approach should be normalized in health professions education." Christopher J. King, PhD, FACHE, co-author and Dean of the School of Health

Ghatti began by analyzing over 1500 papers, using strict criteria to narrow down the final 119 included for analysis. Studies needed to be localized to the DC area and address specific health conditions and issues. Of those, 51 were tagged as medical humanities papers. The analysis revealed that the medical humanities papers were significantly more likely to identify systemic information gaps (78.4% vs. 30.9% p<0.001) and stigma-related barriers (27.5% vs. 5.p% p=0.002) compared to more quantitative scientific papers.

"Medicine and health care don't begin and end at the hospital or clinic doors. Medical humanities really bring a contextual approach to understanding how individuals and communities experience health care. "In these studies, we are looking at both specific factors and the enduring things that connect us," said Krishnan, who is also co-executive director of the Georgetown Howard Center for Medical Humanities and Health Justice. "We see these qualitative and quantitative studies as complementary, providing different lenses and more texture without breaking the health care experience into components."

"We find that quantitative studies don't provide a complete picture of disparities," says Ghatti. "In the medical humanities studies, we hear about issues like language barriers, stigma, mistrust of the health care system and lack of communication that makes navigating the health care system difficult for some patients."

Ghatti says the findings can have a direct impact on medical and public health education, medical practice and research.

"We need research that captures both measurable obstacles and those that resist quantification," she adds. "In this country, where health care disparities have persisted over the five decades we studied, the stakes are too high to rely on a single lens or intervention."

The authors report having no personal financial interests related to the study.

In addition to Ghatti, Krishnan and King, authors include Scott Dorris and Xue Geng, both of Georgetown University Medical Center.
A new study from experts with Georgia State University has achieved a long-standing goal in neuroscience: showing how the brain's smallest components build the systems that shape thought, emotion and behavior.

The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, could transform how scientists understand cognition and aging, as well as mental health disorders like depression and schizophrenia.

By combining brain scans with genetic data and molecular imaging, the researchers have uncovered a detailed biological map linking different levels of the brain and revealing the long-sought bridge between micro- and macro-level brain organization.

Vince Calhoun is a Distinguished University Professor with Georgia State and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar with faculty appointments at Georgia Tech and Emory University. He leads the collaborative tri-institutional Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science, or TReNDS Center, and is a senior author on the study.

We found that the brain's large-scale networks are built on a hidden biological blueprint. By aligning data from cells, molecules and imaging, we showed that the same architecture seen in fMRI is rooted in cellular and molecular organization. Each dataset alone gives part of the story. Together, they reveal how chemical and cellular gradients actually help wire the brain's networks." Vince Calhoun, Distinguished University Professor with Georgia State

Calhoun said understanding this connection could help experts better understand mental health conditions and brain disorders. It could also offer new insights, like why some people stay sharp later in life and others don't.

The research team combined brain scans that show how regions communicate over time. By capturing shifting patterns of activity called dynamic connectivity - with detailed maps of brain cells, chemical messengers like serotonin and dopamine, and energy-producing structures such as mitochondria - they were able to build a comprehensive picture of the brain's inner workings.

Using a statistical technique called mediation analysis, the researchers showed that these networks don't just correlate with biology and behavior - they actively bridge the two, helping explain how molecular features influence cognition.

Guozheng Feng, the study's lead author and a postdoctoral research associate at the TReNDS Center, said the research reveals how certain brain networks act as middlemen, linking the microscopic biology of the brain (like specific cell types) to complex behaviors and mental processes.

"This study is bringing us closer to answering one of the most fundamental questions in neuroscience: how microscopic cellular and molecular foundations shape the brain's networks which, in turn, give rise to complex thought, emotion and behavior," Feng said.

"Many mental and neurodegenerative disorders involve both molecular imbalance and network disruption," Calhoun added. "This work shows these are linked. Understanding the biological foundation of networks could help us pinpoint which systems are most vulnerable in schizophrenia, depression or Alzheimer's - and why."

Jiayu Chen is a research assistant professor with the TReNDS Center who was part of the research team. Her work, using advanced brain scans, focuses on studying how genes influence the way the brain looks and works.

"This work helps answer a big question in neuroscience: How do cellular and molecular organizations underlie the architecture of functional brain networks, which influence the way we think, feel and behave?" Chen said. "We are now one step closer to those answers."

Calhoun said the collaborative TReNDS Center is uniquely equipped for these kinds of discoveries. He hopes to ultimately create a "map" that links each person's biology with how their brain networks function.

This could help doctors customize treatments specifically to their patients based on how their particular biology influences their brain's networks.

The TReNDS Center, a partnership among Georgia State, Georgia Tech and Emory University, develops advanced tools to turn brain imaging data into meaningful biomarkers. Its goal is to improve understanding and treatment of brain health and disease.
Working out of a tribal-owned hospital in Anchorage, Alaska, liver specialist Brian McMahon has spent decades treating the long shadow of hepatitis B. Before a vaccine became available in the 1980s, he saw the virus claim young lives in western Alaskan communities with stunning speed.

One of his patients was 17 years old when he first examined her for stomach pain. McMahon discovered she had developed liver cancer caused by hepatitis B, just weeks before she was set to graduate from high school as valedictorian. She died before the ceremony.

McMahon thinks often of an 8-year-old boy who showed no signs of illness until he complained of pain from what turned out to be a rapidly growing tumor on his liver.

McMahon can still hear his voice.

"He was moaning in pain, saying, 'I know I am going to die soon,'" he recalled. "We were all crying." The boy died at home a week later.

The hepatitis B virus is transmitted through blood and bodily fluids, even in microscopic amounts, and the virus can survive on surfaces for a week. Like many of his patients, McMahon said, both children contracted hepatitis B at birth or in early childhood.

That outcome is now preventable. A birth dose of the vaccine, recommended for newborns since 1991, is up to 90% effective in preventing infection from the mother if given in the first 24 hours of life. If babies receive all three doses, 98% of them have immunity from the incurable virus, with the protection lasting at least 30 years.

In the communities of western Alaska, years of targeted testing and widespread vaccination efforts led to the number of cases plummeting.

"Liver cancer has disappeared in children," McMahon said. "We havent seen a case since 1995. Nor do we have any children under 30 that have gotten infected that we know of."

He worries those hard-won gains could soon be rolled back.

Pushing back the dose?

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisory panel appointed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is scheduled to discuss and vote on the hepatitis B birth dose recommendation during its two-day meeting starting Dec. 4, potentially limiting children's access.

On Tucker Carlson's podcast in June, Kennedy falsely claimed that the hepatitis B birth dose is a "likely culprit" of autism.

He also said the hepatitis B virus is not "casually contagious." But decades of research shows the virus can be transmitted through indirect contact, when traces of infected fluids like blood enter the body when people share personal items like razors or toothbrushes.

The committee's recommendations carry weight. Most private insurers must cover the vaccines the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices endorses, and many state vaccination policies are directly linked to its guidelines.

Neither ACIP nor the CDC is regulatory. They cannot mandate immunizations. It's up to states to do that. But keeping the recommendation for a hepatitis B vaccine at birth preserves the widest range of options for families. They can choose to vaccinate at birth, wait until later in childhood, or not vaccinate at all, and insurance will continue to cover the cost of the shot as long as it remains approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Two senior FDA officials  Commissioner Marty Makary and top vaccine regulator Vinay Prasad  suggested at the end of November that changes to the vaccine approval process may be coming. Vaccines must be approved by the FDA to be administered in the United States.

In internal agency emails obtained by PBS NewsHour and The Washington Post, Prasad questioned the routine practice of "giving multiple vaccines at the same time." It's not clear whether he was referring to combination vaccines that offer immunity against multiple diseases with a single shot. Three of the nine hepatitis B vaccines currently approved by the FDA are combination vaccines. The birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine is given only as a stand-alone vaccine.

'Sowing distrust'

If private insurers opt to still cover the shot, misinformation from the meeting still could lead families to falsely believe the vaccine could harm their babies, said Sean O'Leary, chair of the Committee on Infectious Diseases for the American Academy of Pediatrics and an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

"Whatever comes out of this disaster of a meeting in December is going to be mainly designed around sowing distrust and spreading fear," he said.

President Donald Trump, Kennedy, and some newly appointed ACIP members have mischaracterized how the liver disease spreads, ignoring or downplaying the risk of transmission through indirect contact. The hepatitis B virus is far more infectious than HIV. Unvaccinated people, including children, can get infected from microscopic amounts of blood on a tabletop or toy, even when the infected person is asymptomatic.

McMahon has cared for children who tested negative at birth and later became infected through indirect contact. In a study in the 1970s, nearly a third of such children went on to develop chronic hepatitis B without ever showing symptoms, he said.

"It's a very infectious virus," McMahon said. "That's why giving everybody the birth dose is the best way to prevent it."

The CDC recommends that all pregnant people be screened for hepatitis B, but it estimates that up to 16% are not tested and fall through the cracks. O'Leary and other experts say testing mothers for the virus shortly before or after delivery is unfeasible, because most hospitals lack the staff and resources.

The three-dose vaccine has a long track record of safety. Numerous studies show it is not associated with an increased risk of infant death, fever or sepsis, multiple sclerosis, or autoimmune conditions, and severe reactions are rare.

"We have an incredible safety profile," O'Leary said. "No one expects to get in a car wreck, right? And yet we all put our seat belts on. This is similar."

The CDC estimates that 2.4 million people in the U.S. have hepatitis B and that half do not know they are infected. The disease can range from an acute infection to a chronic one, often with few to no symptoms. If the disease is left untreated, it can lead to serious conditions such as cirrhosis, liver failure, and liver cancer. There is no cure.

Expert's advice to parents: Talk to a doctor

William Schaffner, a professor of preventative medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and a former voting member of ACIP, said some parents struggle to understand why a healthy newborn needs a vaccine so soon after birth, especially for a virus they feel certain they don't have and often wrongly associate only with risky behaviors. Those perceptions, he said, mix with declining trust in public health and rising skepticism about vaccines.

His advice to expectant parents who are on the fence is to talk to their doctor about the shots. Even if the pregnant woman has tested negative, he said, it's still important to give the baby the birth dose, because false negatives are possible and because the virus can spread so easily from surface contact. Babies who receive the full vaccine series starting from birth have their chance of liver cancer reduced by 84%.

"If you wait a month and if the mom happens to be positive, or the baby picks it up from a caregiver, by that time the infection is established in that baby's liver," Schaffner said. "It's too late to prevent that infection."

He said that if fewer people get vaccinated, hepatitis B will circulate at higher rates in American communities and the risk of contracting the virus will rise for everyone who doesn't get the shots.

And more hepatitis B cases could mean higher costs for patients and the broader health care system. The CDC estimates treating someone with a less severe form of the disease costs $25,000 to $94,000 per year. For patients who require a liver transplant, annual medical expenses can climb above $320,000, depending on their treatment.

Over the past 30 years, the main adverse events parents have reported from their babies receiving the birth dose have been fussiness and crying, both of which pass quickly. Schaffner said that's a very strong safety profile  for a newborn vaccine with a track record of protecting babies from an incurable disease.

"The data are so clear about this," Schaffner said. "A whole array now of other countries have initiated this program. They've modeled it on us."
QIAGEN uses INTEGRAs handheld and benchtop electronic liquid handling technologies to expedite and standardize nucleic acid isolation and PCR setup methods in its Genomic Services division.

This enhances the throughput and accuracy of QIAGENs molecular testing procedures, helping its customers to develop innovative approaches for accurately diagnosing, preventing, and treating various diseases.

The QIAGEN Genomic Services laboratory in Hilden, Germany, offers sample-to-insight molecular testing solutions as part of the company's global assistance for scientists in the life sciences and diagnostics industries.

Its 'fee-for-service' solution encompasses everything from initial sample handling and preparation to thorough analytical results, using a diverse range of extraction kits and analytical methods to meet the needs of varied customer projects.

Performing high-throughput testing while remaining adaptable to particular project requirements requires flexible workflow solutions.

Dr David Loper, Lab Manager at QIAGEN Genomic Services, explained: We are constantly adapting our testing workflows to accommodate different sample types and cater to diverse customer needs.

This prompted us to look for versatile liquid handling solutions that would reduce our manual workload and enhance laboratory efficiency. We initially wanted a compact and easy-to-use device with a 96-channel pipetting head that would integrate seamlessly with our existing labware and sample preparation workflows. Dr David Loper, Lab Manager at QIAGEN Genomic Services

We introduced INTEGRAs VIAFLO 96 handheld electronic pipette  as well as VOYAGER adjustable tip spacing pipettes for sample reformatting  almost 10 years ago, helping to speed up our repetitive sample preparation steps and increase testing capacity.

We also acquired 2 ASSIST PLUS pipetting robots during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide workflow automation and allow us to drastically scale up our PCR testing capabilities for employee screening purposes.

Image Credit: QIAGEN

During the internal COVID-19 screening workflows, the lab collected primary biological samples from its personnel in tube formats. These samples were semi-automatically prepared for PCR using a 4-channel VOYAGER adjustable tip spacing pipette, which was placed on an ASSIST PLUS pipetting robot. The robot transported samples from tubes to 96-well plates.

Setting up a whole plate took approximately 15 minutes. The PCR preparation and amplification processes were then set up in 384-well plates on the ASSIST PLUS in a virtually fully automated process using an 8-channel VOYAGER pipette.

David explained the benefits of this approach over the labs previous sample preparation methods: Setting up PCR plates with the ASSIST PLUS is far faster and more straightforward than our previous method, significantly improving our workflow.

We have increasingly used the ASSIST PLUS and VOYAGER to transfer samples from individual tubes into 96-well plates, whether transferring the entire sample or just the supernatant after an initial treatment, ensuring greater reproducibility across our molecular testing protocols.

This approach ultimately improves the labs workflow and throughput, as David described: We typically take on projects involving a few hundred to a few thousand samples, but some projects require us to prepare up to 11,000 samples for molecular analysis in parallel.

Thanks to the INTEGRA instruments and software, the entire process is easy to manage. For example, we routinely use a VIAFLO 96 pipette in hands-free automatic mode for nucleic acid extraction. This means we just have to place the plates on the device, swap out buffers or sample plates, and press a button  it works seamlessly.

One of the biggest advantages of the VIAFLO 96 is being able to program complex mixing steps for 96 samples simultaneously, which would otherwise be tedious and error-prone to perform purely by hand.

Another benefit of the small, standalone VIAFLO 96 is that, if clogging occurs  which is common with certain sample types  someone can quickly identify and resolve the issue. This wouldn't be possible on large, stationary automation platforms without disrupting the rest of the workflow.

We chose to partner with INTEGRA because the VIAFLO 96 pipettes allow both manual and automatic liquid handling modes for workflow flexibility and, more recently, we saw the potential of using the ASSIST PLUS to fully automate our repetitive tasks for more reproducibility.

The devices are very straightforward to use and program using the VIALINK or VIALAB software, and fit perfectly into our lab space.

Overall, the INTEGRA products have significantly enhanced our productivity and consistency, which is crucial for managing high-throughput genomics workflows and speeding up project completion for our customers. Ive always appreciated the excellent communication between INTEGRA and the lab, and the companys technical support is fantastic. Whenever I need assistance, a specialist stops by to help us troubleshoot or adjust our workflows, as well as show us what is new on the market. INTEGRAs products are always so interesting, and I am happy to recommend them to colleagues because they fill a unique niche.

About INTEGRA Biosciences

INTEGRA provides innovative solutions for liquid handling and media preparation applications that serve the needs of its customers in research, diagnostics and quality control laboratories.

The companys instruments and plastic consumables are developed and manufactured in Zizers, Switzerland, and Hudson, NH, USA. In order to remain close to its customers, the company maintains a direct sales and support organization in North America, the UK, France and Germany, as well as a network of over 100 highly trained distribution partners worldwide.

In recent years INTAGRA has focused on developing a new and technologically advanced range of handheld electronic pipettes which are simple to use and meet the ergonomic needs of their customers. Today, the company is proud to offer the widest range of electronic pipettes in the market, spanning a range from single channel pipettes up to 384-channel benchtop instruments.

Sponsored Content Policy: News-Medical.net publishes articles and related content that may be derived from sources where we have existing commercial relationships, provided such content adds value to the core editorial ethos of News-Medical.Net, which is to educate and inform site visitors interested in medical research, science, medical devices, and treatments.
7 TTP terrorists killed in northwest Pak

Last Updated: December 03, 2025, 01:00 IST

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Peshawar, Dec 2 (PTI) Security forces killed seven TTP terrorists in two separate operations in Pakistans restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the military said on Tuesday.

The two operations were carried out on the reported presence of khawarij" in the North Waziristan district, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR)  the militarys media wing.

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Pakistan uses the term Fitna al Khawarij for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

An intelligence-based operation (IBO) was conducted by the security forces in Mir Ali tehsil, during which six terrorists were killed.

Another terrorist was killed in an IBO in the Spinwam area of the district, the ISPR said.

The statement added that weapons and ammunition were seized from the terrorists who remained actively involved in numerous terrorist activities against the security forces, law enforcement agencies and target killing of innocent civilians.

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Sanitisation operations are being conducted to eliminate any other terrorists found in the area.

Pakistan has witnessed an uptick in terror activities, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, after the TTP ended its ceasefire with the government in November 2022. PTI AYZ GRS GRS GRS

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First Published: December 03, 2025, 01:00 IST

News agency-feeds 7 TTP terrorists killed in northwest Pak

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Gunman hijacks aid plane in South Sudan, arrested after refuelling stop

Last Updated: December 03, 2025, 00:30 IST

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Juba (South Sudan), Dec 2 (AP) A gunman hijacked a small turboprop plane belonging to an evangelical Christian aid group in South Sudan on Tuesday, demanding the pilot fly the aircraft to Chad, police said. The suspect was arrested hours later after the plane landed in a northern town.

No one was injured and an investigation into the incident was underway.

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The aircraft  a Cessna Grand Caravan, owned and operated by Samaritans Purse  left Juba, South Sudans capital, in the morning when the gunman took control of the plane. The aircraft was carrying medical supplies to the far northeast county of Maiwut, where Samaritans Purse is providing medical assistance.

Police said the gunman had snuck onto the plane and hid in the rear cabin before takeoff. He was identified as Yasir Mohammed Yusuf, a resident of the Abyei Administrative Area, an oil-rich territory disputed between South Sudan and Sudan.

His motives for the hijacking were not known, nor his reasons for wanting to fly to Chad, a central African country that does not share a border with South Sudan but is in the same region.

After circling for several hours, the pilot told the suspect the plane needed to refuel and then landed in the northern town of Wau, where the gunman was taken into custody, according to Santino Udol Mayen, a spokesman for the police of Western Bahr el Ghazal state, where Wau is located.

Mayen told The Associated Press that the suspect was wearing a reflective vest with the logo of an air charter company with operations at Juba International Airport.

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Paul Antrobus, the companys managing director, said no one with the suspects name was employed by the company.

Melissa Strickland, a spokesperson for Samaritans Purse, expressed gratitude in a written statement and said the aid group was thankful for the security forces swift action to bring about a safe outcome." On November 25, a plane chartered by the same aid group to carry food supplies and operated by the South Sudan-based company Nari Air, crashed in Unity State, in the countrys north, killing all three crewmembers on board. (AP) GRS GRS

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First Published: December 03, 2025, 00:30 IST

News agency-feeds Gunman hijacks aid plane in South Sudan, arrested after refuelling stop

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Haryana: CM Saini performs 'Deepdaan' at Sannihit Sarovar amid Vedic chants

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 04:15 IST

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Kurukshetra (Haryana) [India], December 2 (ANI): Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini said that celebrating Deepotsav on the banks of the ancient and historic Sannihit Sarovar on the auspicious occasion of Gita Jayanti is a moment of great pride.Speaking after offering Deepdaan at Sannihit Sarovar during the International Gita Mahotsav-2025 on Monday, he stated that the light of the sacred teachings of the Bhagavad Gita will spread to every human across the globe through this Deepotsav, enriching and elevating mankind.

Earlier, CM Saini, Gita scholar Swami Gyananand Maharaj, Tourism Minister Arvind Sharma, and former Minister Subhash Sudha offered Deepdaan in Sannihit Sarovar amid the echo of Vedic chanting and the sound of conch shells on Gita Jayanti.

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Upon arrival at the Deepdaan ceremony, Saini received a grand welcome from various religious and social organisations.

Extending greetings and best wishes for the International Gita Mahotsav, the Chief Minister said that today is a proud day not only for all of us but for the entire world. On the sacred land of Kurukshetra, Lord Shri Krishna delivered the teachings of the Gita.Today, we are celebrating the International Gita Mahotsav with great joy and enthusiasm. The Gita will make everyones life enlightened and progressive," he addedHe also conveyed gratitude and best wishes to the office-bearers of Tirthodgaar Brahmin Mahasabha for organising a grand Deepdaan ceremony.

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He further expressed appreciation and extended best wishes to various organisations for lighting thousands of lamps along the banks of Brahma Sarovar.

On this occasion, Chairman Dharamveer Mirzapur, Zila Parishad Chairperson Kanwaljit Kaur, KDB Honorary Secretary Upender Singhal, and several other dignitaries were present. (ANI)

First Published: December 02, 2025, 04:15 IST

News agency-feeds Haryana: CM Saini performs 'Deepdaan' at Sannihit Sarovar amid Vedic chants

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Imran Khan facing mental torture in jail, claims sister Uzma Khanum

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 23:15 IST

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Islamabad [Pakistan], December 2 (ANI): Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khans sister, Uzma Khanum, visited him at Rawalpindis Adiala Jail on Tuesday after days of speculation over his well-being, and later claimed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief was facing severe mental torture."Her meeting with Imran Khan on December 2 came amid mounting concern from PTI members and supporters, who had been seeking information from the authorities regarding his health, treatment in custody, and access to relatives. Following the interaction, Uzma said Imran Khan was alive but expressed alarm over his physical condition and the conditions in which he is being held.She alleged the former premier appeared frail, emotionally shaken, and kept in isolation. Imran Khans health is absolutely fine. He is angry. He said that they are subjecting him to mental torture, and that Asim Munir is responsible for all of this," Uzma said, naming Pakistans Army Chief.The meeting reportedly lasted roughly 20 minutes. PTI leaders have since reiterated their demands for independent medical assessments and permission for regular legal and family visits, while there has been no official response from the government to Uzmas claims.Rumours over Imran Khans condition intensified after unverified reports from Afghan media claimed he had died in custody. His son, Kasim Khan, demanded evidence that the former prime minister is alive, noting on X that it has been 845 days" since Imran was jailed and that he has allegedly been held in a death cell" for six weeks without family access.Imran Khan has been in prison since August 2023 in multiple cases. For more than a month, authorities have imposed tight restrictions on visits, which PTI claims are being enforced at the direction of an army officer, an accusation officials reject.PTI maintained that allowing Uzma Khanum to meet her brother was only a starting point and said regular, unhindered meetings must now be permitted in line with court directives as political tensions continue around the incarcerated opposition leader. (ANI)

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First Published: December 02, 2025, 23:15 IST

News agency-feeds Imran Khan facing mental torture in jail, claims sister Uzma Khanum

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India in talks with Israeli firm for world's first computerised rifle system

Last Updated: December 03, 2025, 02:45 IST

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Tel Aviv (Israel), December 3 (ANI): India and Israel Weapon Industries (IWI), the leading small-arms manufacturer, have opened discussions to explore the integration of the revolutionary Arbel computerised weapon system for Indian forces.Manufactured by IWI, Arbel is touted as the worlds first fully computerised small-arms fire-control system, designed to significantly improve accuracy, lethality and decision-making for soldiers in complex battlefield scenarios.In an interview, IWI CEO Shuki Schwartz confirmed that talks are underway, saying: We are now in the first conversations and talks regarding integrating the ARBEL systems in India."The Arbel system employs advanced sensors, real-time ballistic computation and target-acquisition capabilities to help soldiers achieve greater hit probability across varying combat environments. The system monitors the weapons movement and trigger status to identify the users tactical scenario and aiming pattern. Within milliseconds, its Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) algorithm determines the optimal fire solution.Once the trigger is pressed and held after the first shot, Arbel analyses the shooters behaviour and releases subsequent rounds only when the probability of a hit is high. The system can be integrated with any small-arms platform and does not require a dedicated optical component to function.Over the years, Indian armed and security forces have acquired a range of IWI weapons: assault rifles like Tavor TAR-21 Assault Rifle and its variant IWI X95 Assault Rifle, sniper rifles from the Galil Sniper Rifle family, and light machine guns such as Negev NG-7 Light Machine Gun.

In recent years, contracts have been signed for thousands of Negev light machine guns to bolster frontline and paramilitary firepower.Schwartz also highlighted the expanding partnership between IWI and the Indian defence sector.In the last two decades, we have been working closely with India to equip different defence organisations, and we have seen the growth over the years," he said. We are proud to be among the first to adopt the Make in India initiative, which has enabled larger quantities and a bigger market share in India."He added that IWI is already producing barrels in India and remains open to deeper technology cooperation as per Indias requirements.We are absolutely open to deeper technology as the market and contracts require," Schwartz said. (ANI)

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First Published: December 03, 2025, 02:45 IST

News agency-feeds India in talks with Israeli firm for world's first computerised rifle system

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NFRA organises nationwide outreach programmes to enhance audit quality

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 22:45 IST

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New Delhi, Dec 2 (PTI) The National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) is organising nationwide outreach programmes to enhance audit quality and promote sustainable audit practices, Parliament was informed on Tuesday.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Harsh Malhotra said the outreach initiatives titled Creating a Better Financial Reporting World" are aimed at enhancing audit quality and promoting sustainable audit practices for all audit firms, especially the small & medium-sized audit firms.

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NFRA has already organised workshops in Hyderabad and Indore.

Alongside the outreach series, NFRA initiated its first-ever audit firms survey, which received responses from 383 firms across India.

The survey is intended to identify challenges affecting audit quality and will be used by NFRA to tailor its roles and responsibilities and enable constructive dialogue with all audit firms and practitioners.

Malhotra further stated that NFRA has taken several key measures aligned with its mandate. These include recommending 40 revised Standards on Auditing and 47 amendments to Ind AS (Indian Accounting Standard), of which 44 have been notified.

The minister noted that NFRA continues to take disciplinary action for professional misconduct, thereby sensitising the audit profession regarding their responsibility in law and accounting and auditing standards.

Learnings from NFRA orders have been published by the profession itself. NFRA has also conducted webinars and is consistently engaging with stakeholders to disseminate its experience and findings," he said.

NFRA also undertook audit quality inspections in December 2022, covering both firm-wide and individual engagement undertaken by the audit firms in respect of the Public Interest Entities audits.

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So far, 12 audit quality inspection reports have been published on the NFRA website," the minister said.

The audit regulator NFRA has also collaborated with the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) to launch a four-month course for capacity building of independent directors and audit committee members of companies. PTI HG HG BAL BAL

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First Published: December 02, 2025, 22:45 IST

News agency-feeds NFRA organises nationwide outreach programmes to enhance audit quality

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Putin accuses Europeans of sabotaging peace efforts on Ukraine

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 22:45 IST

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Moscow, Dec 2 (AP) Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Kyivs European allies Tuesday of sabotaging US-led efforts to end the nearly 4-year-old war in Ukraine.

They dont have a peace agenda, theyre on the side of the war," Putin said after speaking to an investment forum and before he met in the Kremlin with a US delegation led by envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner.

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Putins accusations appeared to be his latest attempt to sow dissension between Trump and European countries and set the stage for exempting Moscow from blame for any lack of progress.

They dont have a peace agenda, theyre on the side of the war," Putin said of the Europeans in comments to reporters.

He accused Europe of amending peace proposals with demands that are absolutely unacceptable to Russia," thus blocking the entire peace process," only to blame Russia for it.

Thats their goal," Putin said.

He reiterated his long-held position that Russia has no plans to attack Europe  a concern regularly voiced by some European countries.

But if Europe suddenly wants to wage a war with us and starts it, we are ready right away. There can be no doubt about that," Putin said.

Russia started the war in 2022 with its full-scale invasion of a sovereign European country, and European governments have since spent billions of dollars to support Ukraine financially and militarily, to wean themselves from energy dependence on Russia and to strengthen their own militaries to deter Moscow from seizing more territory by force.

They worry that if Russia gets what it wants in Ukraine, it will have free rein to threaten or disrupt other European countries, which already have faced incursions from Russian drones and fighter jets, and an alleged widespread Russian sabotage campaign.

Trumps peace plan relies on Europe to provide the bulk of the financing and security guarantees for a postwar Ukraine, even though no Europeans appear to have been consulted on the original plan. Thats why European governments have pushed to ensure that peace efforts address European concerns, too.

Speaking with Putin via a translator before the talks, Witkoff said he and Kushner had taken a beautiful walk" around Moscow and described it as a magnificent city." Coinciding with Witkoffs trip, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went to Ireland, continuing his visits to European countries that have helped sustain his countrys fight against Russias invasion.

High-stakes negotiations - In what could be a high-stakes day of negotiations, Zelenskyy said he was expecting swift reports later in the day from the US envoys in Moscow on whether talks could move forward, after Trumps initial 28-point plan was whittled down to 20 in Sundays talks between US and Ukrainian officials in Florida.

They want to report right after that meeting to us, specifically. The future and the next steps depend on these signals. Such steps will change throughout today, even hour by hour, I believe," Zelenskyy said at a news conference in Dublin with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin.

If the signals show fair play with our partners, we then might meet very soon, meet with the American delegation," he said.

There is a lot of dialogue, but we need results. Our people are dying every day," Zelenskyy said. I am ready  to meet with President Trump. It all depends on todays talks." Building on progress in Florida - After months of frustration in his efforts to stop the fighting, Trump deployed officials to get traction for his peace proposals. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putins talks with Witkoff and Kushner would take as long as needed." The talks have followed parallel lines so far, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio sitting down with Ukrainian officials.

Zelenskyy said he met Tuesday with the Ukrainian delegation that returned from the negotiations with US representatives in Florida. Rubio said those talks made progress, but added that theres more work to be done." Zelenskyy said the Florida talks took as their cue a document that both sides drafted at an earlier meeting in Geneva. The Ukrainian leader said that document was now finalised," although he didnt explain what that meant.

Ukrainian diplomats are working to ensure that European partners are substantially involved" in decision-making, Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app, and warned about what he said were Russian disinformation campaigns aimed at steering the negotiations.

Ukrainian intelligence will provide partners with the information we have about Russias true intentions and its attempts to use diplomatic efforts as cover to ease sanctions and block important collective European decisions," Zelenskyy said.

European leaders want a say  Zelenskyy met with political leaders and lawmakers in Dublin on his first official visit. Ireland is officially neutral and isnt a member of NATO but has sent nonlethal military support to Ukraine. More than 100,000 Ukrainians have moved to Ireland since Russia launched its war on February 24, 2022.

Though this weeks consultations could move the process forward, few details have become public. It remains unclear how envoys are going to bridge the gap between the two sides on such basic differences as who keeps what territory. European officials say the road to peace will be long.

European leaders are trying to figure out how they can make their voices heard after being largely sidelined by Washington. They are also working on future security guarantees for Ukraine.

Zelenskyy was in Paris on Monday, and French President Emmanuel Macron said they spoke by phone with Witkoff. They also spoke to leaders of eight other European countries as well as top European Union officials and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.

Macron said the coming days will see crucial discussions" between US officials and Western partners. Zelenskyys visit to Paris followed Sundays meeting between Ukrainian and US officials, which Rubio described as productive.

Diplomats face a hard time trying to bridge Russian and Ukrainian differences and persuading them to strike compromises. The key obstacles  over whether Kyiv should cede land to Moscow and how to ensure Ukraines future security  appear unresolved.

Zelenskyy under pressure - Zelenskyy is under severe pressure in one of the darkest periods of the war for his country. As well as managing diplomatic pressure, he must find money to keep Ukraine afloat, address a corruption scandal that has reached the top echelons of his government, and keep Russia at bay on the battlefield.

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The Kremlin late Monday claimed that Russian forces have captured the key city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. Zelenskyy, however, said in Paris that fighting was still ongoing in Pokrovsk on Monday.

Ukraines general staff on Tuesday also denied Russias claims to have captured Pokrovsk, saying it was a propaganda stunt. The Ukrainian army is readying additional logistic routes to deliver supplies to troops in the area, the Facebook post said. (AP) GRS GRS

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First Published: December 02, 2025, 22:45 IST

News agency-feeds Putin accuses Europeans of sabotaging peace efforts on Ukraine

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Apple Names Amar Subramanya As New AI VP, Replacing Long-Time Chief John Giannandrea

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 08:15 IST

Apple names Indian-origin Amar Subramanya as VP of AI; he holds an engineering degree from Bangalore University.

Apple

Apple on Monday named veteran AI researcher Amar Subramanya as its new vice president of artificial intelligence, replacing longtime executive John Giannandrea. Subramanya will report to software chief Craig Federighi and will oversee key areas including Apple Foundation Models, machine learning research, and AI safety and evaluation, the company said.

Welcoming the leadership change, CEO Tim Cook said John Giannandrea played an important role in building and advancing the companys AI efforts. He added that artificial intelligence has long been central to the companys strategy and expressed confidence that Subramanyas expertise would further strengthen its AI roadmap. Cook also noted that Federighi has been instrumental in driving AI initiatives, including efforts to deliver a more personalized Siri experience to users next year.

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Who is Amar Subramanya?

Subramanya joins the company from Microsoft, where he served as corporate vice president of AI. Prior to that, he spent 16 years at Google, including a stint as head of engineering for the Gemini assistant. The company said his deep expertise in AI and machine learning research, along with his experience in translating research into products and features, will be critical for future innovation and the development of Apple Intelligence capabilities.

He has roots in Karnataka and holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering from Bangalore University, which he completed between 1997 and 2001. He later completed a PhD at the University of Washington between 2005 and 2009.

Who is John Giannandrea?

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Giannandrea, who earlier led AI and Search at Google, joined the company in 2018 to strengthen Siri and steer its broader AI strategy. Since then, he has been central to building a world-class AI and machine learning team responsible for Foundation Models, Search and Knowledge, Machine Learning Research, and AI Infrastructure.

According to Reuters, Giannandrea will continue in an advisory role until his planned retirement in spring 2026.

About the Author Aparna Deb Aparna Deb is a Subeditor and writes for the business vertical of News18.com. She has a nose for news that matters. She is inquisitive and curious about things. Among other things, financial markets, ... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 07:27 IST

News business Apple Names Amar Subramanya As New AI VP, Replacing Long-Time Chief John Giannandrea

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Only 26% Of IPO Proceeds Go Into Capex, Bulk Used For Debt Repayment: Report

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 15:26 IST

Bank of Baroda reveals that 65-67% of equity offering proceeds will go to businesses, with 26% for capex and more for debt.

IPO

Around a quarter of the funds raised through initial public offerings (IPOs) is being channelled into capital expenditure, while the bulk is going toward debt repayment, investments in subsidiaries and working capital reduction, according to a study by Bank of Baroda chief economist Madan Sabnavis.

The report shows that of the fresh equity raised, 26% has been earmarked for capex, 29% for debt repayment, 9% for investments in subsidiaries and 6.2% for working capital. About 24.5% of the fund utilisation was not specified. The analysis covers 189 IPOs comprising companies that either tapped the equity markets this fiscal year or have filed draft red herring prospectuses.

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A key observation from the study is that of the Rs 1.82 lakh crore these companies intend to raise, nearly 66% will come through fresh issue, while the rest will be routed to existing shareholders via the offer for sale (OFS). Since OFS proceeds go directly to shareholders and not into the company, Sabnavis pointed out that businesses effectively receive only about 6567% of the total money raised through equity offerings. Of this, roughly 26% is likely to be deployed for capex, while a slightly higher share may go toward debt reduction.

IPO market so far

The study also highlights the recent surge in the IPO market. Data from Prime Database shows that during the first seven months of FY25, 96 companies together raised Rs 1.25 lakh crore through FPOs, IPOs and OFS.

For perspective, IPO fundraising touched a record Rs 2.11 lakh crore in FY25, with 105 companies tapping the market. Over the five-year period ending FY25, total equity issuance stood at Rs 5.66 lakh crore from 413 companies, nearly matching the Rs 5.64 lakh crore raised over the much longer FY05FY20 period.

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This boom has coincided with strong performance in the secondary market, where the Nifty 50 delivered a cumulative return of 123%, compared with just 62.6% over the decade starting FY11.

Sabnavis noted that understanding why companies are raising fresh capital is crucial, as primary market fundraising is typically linked to new investment plans, unlike secondary market transactions where money merely changes hands between shareholders. However, a robust secondary market can encourage companies to raise capital at higher premiums, thereby enhancing both corporate value and overall market valuation," he added.

About the Author Aparna Deb Aparna Deb is a Subeditor and writes for the business vertical of News18.com. She has a nose for news that matters. She is inquisitive and curious about things. Among other things, financial markets, ... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 15:26 IST

News business ipo Only 26% Of IPO Proceeds Go Into Capex, Bulk Used For Debt Repayment: Report

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EPS-95 Pension Hike: Is Govt Planning To Increase Minimum Pension Amount? Labour Ministry Answers

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 11:36 IST

'Govt is committed to ensuring maximum benefits for workers under EPS-95, duly taking into consideration the health of the funds as well as future liabilities,' says MoS Labour.

The Employees' Pension Scheme (EPS-95) is a social security programme under the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) that provides a lifelong monthly pension to organised sector workers after retirement, disability, or to their family in case of death.

Union Minister of State for Labour & Employment Sushri Shobha Karandlaje has said all benefits under the EPS-95 pension scheme are paid out of accumulation from contributions of the employer and the central government. He added that as per the valuation of the fund as on March 31, 2019, there is an actuarial deficit, whereas the government is providing a minimum pension of Rs 1,000 per month to the pensioners by providing budgetary support.

The EPS, 1995, is a Defined Contribution-Defined Benefit Social Security Scheme. The corpus of the Employees Pension Fund is made up of (i) contribution by the employer @ 8.33 per cent of wages; and (ii) contribution from Central Government through budgetary support @ 1.16 per cent of wages up to an amount of Rs 15,000 per month. All benefits under the scheme are paid out of such accumulations. The fund is valued annually as mandated under paragraph 32 of the EPS, 1995, and as per the valuation of the fund as on 31.03.2019, there is an actuarial deficit. However, the government is providing a minimum pension of Rs 1,000 per month to the pensioners under the EPS, 1995, by providing budgetary support, which is in addition to the budgetary support of 1.16 per cent of wages provided annually towards EPS to Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO)," Karandlaje stated, in response to a query in the Lok Sabha about the governments plan to raise the minimum pension amount under the EPS-95.

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He added that the Government of India is committed to ensuring maximum benefits for workers under the EPS-95 scheme, duly taking into consideration the health of the respective funds as well as the future liabilities thereon.

Last month, representatives of the All Pensioners Retired Persons Association demanded an increase in the EPS-95 pension to Rs 9,000 per month. They staged a protest, as part of the nationwide protests being organised every year on November 16 as black day against the imposition of the EPS 95 scheme, at the Regional PF Office at Marripalem, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.

What Is EPS-95 Scheme?

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The Employees Pension Scheme (EPS-95) is a social security programme under the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) that provides a lifelong monthly pension to organised sector workers after retirement, disability, or to their family in case of death. Launched in 1995, the scheme is funded through a part of an employees EPF contribution, with 8.33% of the workers salary (up to the wage ceiling) diverted towards pension, and an additional contribution from the government.

Pension under EPS is linked to average pensionable salary and years of service, and for most retirees, the pension amount is Rs 1,000-Rs 3,000 per month, based on older wage ceilings.

About the Author Mohammad Haris Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to personal finance, markets, economy and companies. Having over a decade of experience in financial journalis... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 11:36 IST

News business savings-and-investments EPS-95 Pension Hike: Is Govt Planning To Increase Minimum Pension Amount? Labour Ministry Answers

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Gold And Silver Prices Today, December 2: Check 24 & 22 Carat Rates In Delhi, Mumbai And Other Cities

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 09:54 IST

Gold Rate Today, December 2: In Mumbai, the price of 24-carat gold stands at Rs 1,30,200 per 10 grams, while 22k gold is available at Rs 1,19,350 per 10 grams.

Gold Price Today, December 2.

Gold Rate Today, December 2: After hitting a six-week high, gold prices cooled on Tuesday, as rising US Treasury yields and profit-taking weighed on sentiment ahead of US economic data likely to guide the US Federal Reserves policy path. In Mumbai, the price of 24-carat gold stood at Rs 1,30,200 per 10 grams, while 22k gold was available at Rs 1,19,350 per 10 grams. These rates do not include GST and making charges. Silver was available at Rs 1,88,000 per kg in the spot market.

On the MCX, gold fell by 0.26% to trade at Rs 1,30,306 per 10 grams for the February 5 contracts, whereas silver was trading higher by 1.70% to trade at Rs 1,78,940 per kg in the futures market in the morning trade.

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In the international market, US spot gold fell 0.4% to $4,215.48 per ounce, as of 0228 GMT, after hitting its highest level since October 21 on Monday. US gold futures for December delivery were down 0.6% at $4,247.10 per ounce.

What Is The Price Of 22kt, 24kt Gold Rates Today In India Across Key Cities On December 2?

City 22K Gold (per 10gm) 24K Gold (per 10gm) Delhi Rs 1,19,500 Rs 1,30,350 Jaipur Rs 1,19,500 Rs 1,30,350 Ahmedabad Rs 1,19,400 Rs 1,30,250 Pune Rs 1,19,350 Rs 1,30,200 Mumbai Rs 1,19,350 Rs 1,30,200 Hyderabad Rs 1,19,350 Rs 1,30,200 Chennai Rs 1,19,350 Rs 1,30,200 Bengaluru Rs 1,19,350 Rs 1,30,200 Kolkata Rs 1,19,350 Rs 1,30,200

Ponmudi R, CEO of Enrich Money, said, Gold and silver prices rose sharply, with gold touching a six-week high and silver rallying to fresh records as expectations of Fed rate cuts strengthened. Weak US economic data, a softer dollar index, and dovish Fed comments added pressure for policy easing. Continued contraction in the manufacturing sector also boosted rate-cut bets. Silvers technical setup has turned increasingly bullish, prompting traders to add long positions. Market participants are now awaiting the ADP jobs report and the delayed PCE data for further cues." What Factors Affect Gold Prices In India? International market rates, import duties, taxes, and fluctuations in exchange rates primarily influence gold prices in India. Together, these factors determine the daily gold rates across the country. In India, gold is deeply cultural and financial. It is a preferred investment option and is key to celebrations, particularly weddings and festivals. With constantly changing market conditions, investors and traders monitor fluctuations closely. Staying updated is crucial for effectively navigating dynamic trends. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all

About the Author Mohammad Haris Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to personal finance, markets, economy and companies. Having over a decade of experience in financial journalis... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 09:54 IST

News business savings-and-investments Gold And Silver Prices Today, December 2: Check 24 & 22 Carat Rates In Delhi, Mumbai And Other Cities

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Who Is Amar Subramanya? Bengaluru-Educated Researcher Becomes Apples Vice President Of AI

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 09:28 IST

Amar Subramanyas academic roots trace back to Bengaluru, where he earned his bachelors' degree from Bangalore University.

Amar Subramanya replaces longtime AI chief John Giannandrea, Apple announced.

Apple appointed Amar Subramanya, a Bengaluru-educated artificial intelligence researcher with senior stints at Google and Microsoft, as its new vice president of AI- a major leadership shake-up as the company races to catch up in the global AI arena. Amar Subramanya replaces longtime AI chief John Giannandrea, Apple announced, adding that he will report to senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi and will oversee several critical domains, including Apple Foundation Models, machine learning research and AI safety and evaluation.

We are thankful for the role John played in building and advancing our AI work, helping Apple continue to innovate and enrich the lives of our users," CEO Tim Cook said, adding that Apple is pleased to welcome Amar to Craigs leadership team," highlighting his extraordinary AI expertise".

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Who Is Amar Subramanya?

Amar Subramanya is widely regarded as an engineering leader who excels at turning cutting-edge AI research into real-world consumer products. Before joining Apple, he served as corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft, where he contributed to major advancements in enterprise and consumer AI systems.

He previously spent 16 years at Google, eventually becoming head of engineering for the Gemini assistant, one of Googles leading AI platforms.

Amar Subramanyas academic roots trace back to Bengaluru, where he earned his Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering from Bangalore University. He later completed a PhD in Computer Science at the University of Washington, cementing his expertise in machine learning, large-scale systems and natural language technologies.

Amar Subramanya replaces John Giannandrea, Apples long-time AI chief who joined the company in 2018 after serving as Googles head of Search and AI. John Giannandrea will remain as an adviser to Apple until his planned retirement in spring 2026. Under his leadership, Apple built much of its modern AI infrastructure, powering Siri, on-device intelligence and core search capabilities.

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Why Amar Subramanya Comes In At A Crucial Time For Apple?

Amar Subramanyas appointment comes at a high-stakes moment for Apple, which has been criticised for lagging behind competitors like Google, Microsoft and Samsung in rolling out next-gen AI features across devices and software. Apples decision to bring in a veteran of generative AI and large-scale machine learning highlights its aggressive push toward strengthening Apple Intelligence, the suite of upcoming AI features expected to integrate deeply across iPhone, Mac, iPad and services.

Location : Delhi, India, India

First Published: December 02, 2025, 09:28 IST

News business Who Is Amar Subramanya? Bengaluru-Educated Researcher Becomes Apples Vice President Of AI

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Wipro Completes $375-Million Acquisition Of HARMAN's Subsidiary; All You Need To Know

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 10:56 IST

The deal, first unveiled on August 21, 2025, now formally integrates DTS into Wipros engineering global business line, strengthening Wipro's tech capabilities and global presence.

The acquisition brings expertise in embodied AI, embedded software, device engineering, customer experience platforms, and other emerging technology domains.

Wipro has closed its $375-million acquisition of HARMANs digital transformation solutions (DTS) business unit after securing all necessary regulatory clearances, the company announced on Tuesday. The deal, first unveiled on August 21, 2025, now formally integrates DTS into Wipros engineering global business line, strengthening the Bengaluru-based IT majors technological capabilities and global presence.

Shares of Wipro on Tuesday were trading marginally down by 0.22% at Rs 249.6 apiece on the NSE, as of 10:50 am.

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The transaction involves Wipro acquiring a 100 per cent stake in DTS, a subsidiary of Samsung-owned HARMAN, for up to USD 375 million (about Rs 3,270 crore). With the closure, more than 5,600 DTS employees, including senior leaders across the Americas, Europe and Asia, will join Wipro, significantly expanding the companys engineering and innovation workforce.

Acquisition A Strategic Step, Says Wipro

According to Wipro, the acquisition is a strategic step in its ambition to scale AI-led engineering, research and development, and digital transformation offerings. DTS brings expertise in embodied AI, embedded software, device engineering, customer experience platforms, and other emerging technology domains. Wipro said these capabilities will be merged into Wipro Intelligence, its AI-powered suite of platforms, and used to build connected next-generation experiences" for clients.

Srikumar Rao, Managing Partner and Global Head of Engineering at Wipro, described the deal as a boost to the companys ability to deliver AI-powered, end-to-end engineering services" and compete in a rapidly evolving tech landscape. He said the addition of DTS deep engineering capabilities and industry presence enhances Wipros ability to innovate at scale and support complex transformations for global clients.

Vikas Gupta, Executive Vice President and GM of DTS, said the combination of Wipros global reach, AI stack and technology ecosystem creates a strong foundation to enter new industry verticals and deliver greater value to customers. He added that the integrated organisation will enable a more cohesive go-to-market strategy and accelerate innovation worldwide.

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Blend Of AI

With one of the industrys biggest engineering-focused acquisitions in recent years now complete, Wipro is betting on a blend of AI, product engineering and digital services to position itself as a leader in the global engineering and technology services market.

About the Author Mohammad Haris Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to personal finance, markets, economy and companies. Having over a decade of experience in financial journalis... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 10:56 IST

News business Wipro Completes $375-Million Acquisition Of HARMAN's Subsidiary; All You Need To Know

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Heated Exchange At Bengaluru Airport After Passenger Misses Flight Due To Heavy Congestion

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News18.com

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 17:06 IST

According to the passenger, procedural delays and unexpected congestion at the terminal were responsible for him missing the flight.

The staff member, in turn, appeared aggressive during the exchange, prompting other airport staff to intervene. (Screengrab)

Bengalurus Kempegowda International Airport saw a tense incident on Tuesday when a passenger, claiming to have arrived nearly two-and-a-half hours before departure, missed his scheduled flight.

The situation escalated into a heated exchange between the passenger and airport staff at the check-in counter, with a viral video of the confrontation sparking widespread discussion on social media.

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According to the passenger, procedural delays and unexpected congestion at the terminal were responsible for him missing the flight.

Bengalurus Airport witnessed an unusual situation today when a passenger missed his scheduled flight despite reaching the airport nearly two-and-a-half hours before departure. According to the passenger, unexpected congestion and procedural delays at the terminal contributed to pic.twitter.com/F5yfSCori6 Karnataka Portfolio (@karnatakaportf) December 2, 2025

He will not let us go even if we are ready to pay 4 kg allowance. Please take urgent action against this guy and he needs to be behind bars," the passenger can be heard saying in the video, referring to a staff member who allegedly refused to allow him to board despite offering to pay for extra baggage.

The staff member, in turn, appeared aggressive during the exchange, prompting other airport staff to intervene. The person recording the incident also said the staff member asked them to lower the camera while the argument was ongoing.

The video, shared by the X account Karnataka Portfolio, has been widely circulating on the platform.

Frequent flyers have echoed these concerns on X, noting that congestion during peak hours has become a recurring problem at Bengaluru airport. Some users commented that they too had faced similar issues, with one saying, I have missed the flight too on monday morning and I was told by security staff to reach 4 hours before the boarding time .Wow Now I have to reach airport for like 2hrs and then 4hrs before all this for my 2.5hr flight journey. Realised blr has traffic untill you reach your seat."

Others pointed out that delays were exacerbated by full overhead compartments, security checks taking time, and chaotic traffic outside the airport.

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However, social media reactions have been divided. While some criticised the staffs behaviour towards the passenger, questioning airline training, others suggested the passenger may have been partly responsible, calling the incident a fight over excess baggage" or an absent-minded passenger who was late despite reaching early."

Airport authorities have not issued an official statement regarding the incident.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 17:06 IST

News bengaluru-news Heated Exchange At Bengaluru Airport After Passenger Misses Flight Due To Heavy Congestion

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Bike-Borne Miscreants Open Fire On Rajasthan-Bound Bus In Punjab, Conductor Injured

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News18.com

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 21:50 IST

Panic erupted on the FirozpurFazilka road as assailants fired at a bus in Punjab, injuring the conductor.

An image to represent a crime spot (Credit: PTI)

Panic gripped passengers in Punjab on Tuesday after three motorcycle-borne assailants opened fire at a state-run bus, leaving the conductor injured and the driver narrowly escaping harm.

The incident was reported on the FirozpurFazilka stretch, when the Punjab Roadways bus, travelling from Firozpur to Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan, was targeted by the attackers, who fired two shots at the vehicle before speeding away, according to a report in NDTV.

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A video from the scene shows bullet holes on the buss front portion and damage to the drivers side window. The conductor sustained injuries to his leg from shattered glass.

Shaken by the firing incident, the driver halted the bus immediately, while passengers, stunned by the sudden attack, screamed in fear as they tried to decide whether to remain inside or flee.

We were travelling along peacefully when some men on a bike fired at the bus. The driver bent a little and was saved," a passenger told the news outlet.

Police have registered a case and launched an investigation into the incident. The bus has been seized for forensic examination.

In a separate incident, two people died after a shooting incident was reported at a wedding function on Pakhowal Road in Ludhiana on Saturday. The firing incident took place when rival groups opened fire during the ceremony.

Subsequently, nine people, including a woman, were arrested in connection with the case. PTI, citing police, reported the two groups had a long-standing enmity, which escalated during the celebrations.

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In addition to the FIR related to the firing incident, two additional FIRs were registered, one against the security staff of the marriage venue for allegedly allowing armed individuals to enter the premises without proper checks, and another against four people, including a woman, accused of sheltering the suspects after the incident.

All related FIRs have been filed under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at Sadar police station, and police say more arrests are likely as the probe continues.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

Location : Punjab, India, India

First Published: December 02, 2025, 21:50 IST

News cities Bike-Borne Miscreants Open Fire On Rajasthan-Bound Bus In Punjab, Conductor Injured

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From Kitchen To Courtroom: How A Pregnant Womans Recipe For Revenge Backfired

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CNN-News18 Edited By: Apoorva Misra



Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 10:38 IST

The woman poured hot oil on her husband when he was sleeping and then threw red chilli powder on him, threatening further violence if he screamed

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Additional Sessions Judge Hargurvarinder Singh Jaggi, while turning down the pre-arrest bail, described the allegations as shocking and indicative of premeditated harm. (Canva)

A Delhi court on Monday refused to grant anticipatory bail to Sadhana, a pregnant woman accused of pouring hot oil on her sleeping husband and throwing red chilli powder at him during an early morning altercation.

Additional Sessions Judge Hargurvarinder Singh Jaggi, while turning down the pre-arrest bail, described the allegations as shocking" and indicative of premeditated harm.

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The allegations in the subject FIR prima facie reveal that Sadhana did act in a planned and concerted manner and chose the timing i.e., small hours, to execute her nefarious plan of pouring hot oil on her husband when he was sleeping and thereafter throwing red chilli powder, deleterious to the human," the order read.

ASJ Jaggi added that the nature and gravity of the offence and also the manner in which it was executed in the dead of the night, when victim Dinesh was sleeping, do tip the balance of scales of exercise of discretionary power against Sadhana.

The FIR, registered on October 3 at Ambedkar Nagar police station under Section 118(2) (Grievous Hurt by Dangerous Means) & 124(1) (Voluntarily causing grievous hurt by use of acid) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, was lodged by the complainant, Dinesh Kumar, a pharmaceutical worker.

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According to the complaint, Dinesh woke up around 3.15am in their Madangir residence with severe burns after Sadhana allegedly heated oil and doused him while he slept beside their daughter.

She then threw chili powder in his face and threatened further violence if he screamed, prompting the landlord to intervene and call Dineshs brother-in-law, who rushed him to Madan Mohan Malviya Hospital before being transferred to Safdarjung Hospital.

About the Author Ananya Bhatnagar Ananya Bhatnagar, Correspondent at CNN-News18, reports on various legal issues and cases in lower courts and the Delhi High Court. He has covered the hanging of the Nirbhaya gang-rape convicts, JNU vi... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 10:38 IST

News new-delhi-news From Kitchen To Courtroom: How A Pregnant Womans Recipe For Revenge Backfired

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Dharmendra Pradhan, Yogi Adityanath Inaugurates Kashi Tamil Sangamam 4.0; Check Details

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 12:10 IST

Kashi Tamil Sangamam 4.0: Over 1,400 delegates from Tamil Nadu will partake in an engaging 8-day journey through Kashi, Prayagraj, and Ayodhya.

The theme for 2025 is Learn Tamil  Tamil Karkalam. (Image: X/@EduMinOfIndia)

Kashi Tamil Sangamam 4.0 has begun today, December 2, 2025 in Kashi. The event has been inaugurated by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. This significant edition aims to revive the enduring cultural, spiritual, and civilisational connection between Tamil Nadu and Kashi.

The theme for 2025 is Learn Tamil  Tamil Karkalam", aiming to promote Tamil learning across India and foster appreciation for Indias classical linguistic and literary heritage.

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The inaugural event will feature notable guests including Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi, Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Sh. K. Kailashnathan, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Shri Brajesh Pathak, and Union Minister of State L. Murugan. Under the theme Tamil Karkalam  Learn Tamil," #KTS4.0 unites various Union ministries, the Government of Uttar Pradesh, IIT Madras, and IIT BHU to foster cultural understanding, linguistic appreciation, and academic exchange.

Over 1,400 delegates from Tamil Nadu will partake in an engaging 8-day journey through Kashi, Prayagraj, and Ayodhya. They will explore universities, heritage sites, craft clusters, temples, and knowledge institutions while interacting with students, scholars, and local communities. Students, teachers, writers and media professionals, agriculture and allied sectors, professionals and artisans, women, and spiritual scholars and practitioners will take part in the event.

The wait is over!Kashi Tamil Sangamam 4.0 begins today in Kashi, as Union Education Minister Shri @dpradhanbjp and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Shri @myogiadityanath inaugurate this landmark edition, rekindling the timeless cultural, spiritual and civilisational bond between pic.twitter.com/doMc0ITv2z  Ministry of Education (@EduMinOfIndia) December 2, 2025

Delegates will visit Varanasi, Prayagraj, and Ayodhya, with interactions, seminars, cultural performances, and exposure to local cuisine, handicrafts, and heritage.

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They will visit significant Tamil heritage locations in Varanasi, such as the ancestral house of Mahakavi Subramanya Bharatiyar, Kedar Ghat, the Kasi Madam in the Little Tamil Nadu" area, Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple, and Mata Annapurna Temple. Additionally, they will visit the Tamil Department at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) for academic and literary interactions.

Major Initiatives under KTS 4.0 include Sage Agasthya vehicle expedition from Tenkasi to Kashi; teaching Tamil in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh schools; and Tamil learning study tours for students of Uttar Pradesh.

About the Author Education and Careers Desk A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses and information on college and school admissions, board and competitive exams, career options, topper interviews, job notifications, ... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 11:52 IST

News education-career Dharmendra Pradhan, Yogi Adityanath Inaugurates Kashi Tamil Sangamam 4.0; Check Details

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IITs Ban 20 Firms From Placements After Last-Minute Offer Cancellations Hit Students

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News18.com

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 08:36 IST

More than 20 companies have been banned from IIT placements after they cancelled job offers at the last minute.

IITs have barred over 20 companies from campus placements this year. (Representative/PTI Photo)

As the placement season began across the IITs on Monday, more than 20 companies have been barred from participating this year. These companies had cancelled confirmed job offers made to students last academic year, in some cases just days before their scheduled joining dates in June and July, as reported by the TOI.

Since students who already hold an accepted offer are often not permitted to sit for further interviews, these last-minute withdrawals caused serious setbacks to their career prospects and also affected their mental well-being.

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The IITs jointly reviewed these cases and decided to ban the companies from this years placement process. Officials said that IITs did try to help the affected students wherever possible, even though the cancellations came after a considerable time gap.

The list of banned companies was finalised after placement teams observed that these firms had revoked offers at more than one IIT and in many instances had a history of doing so. Several of the banned organisations were from the software and data analytics sector. While these firms cannot recruit through the official IIT placement system this year, they are still allowed to hire students through off-campus channels.

An IIT professor involved in placements said that the names of these companies were carefully cross-checked by placement coordinators representing around 15 IITs. Some of the cancellations were issued by firms where IIT alumni are also employed. In a few cases, companies even revised salaries downward from the originally promised packages. Placement cells have reportedly reached out to senior leaders at these firms to communicate student concerns.

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A student from IIT Bombays 2025 batch said his offer of nearly Rs 30 lakh from a trading platform was withdrawn just two days before joining. Fortunately, with alumni help, he managed to secure a better opportunity.

The Professor added that this year, IITs are actively engaging more start-ups supported by the Centre under the Viksit Bharat initiative. Despite a slow job market, early placement trends appear positive.

About the Author Education and Careers Desk A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses and information on college and school admissions, board and competitive exams, career options, topper interviews, job notifications, ... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 08:36 IST

News education-career IITs Ban 20 Firms From Placements After Last-Minute Offer Cancellations Hit Students

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KIIT Student Death: Love Dispute Likely A Trigger, University Calls It Unfortunate

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News18.com

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 09:08 IST

Police are investigating the death of KIIT student Rahul Yadav, examining digital evidence and personal communications as a possible love dispute emerges in the case.

KIIT called the death of the 18-year-old student sad and unfortunate.

The Commissionerate Police has launched a detailed investigation into the death of KIIT University student Rahul Yadav, who was found hanging in his hostel room on Sunday night. Rahul, 18, was a first-year Computer Science student from Raipur, Chhattisgarh, and had been staying at KP 7 AB, Campus 10.

According to the Police, information regarding the incident reached Infocity Police Station around 10.45 pm on November 30. Officers immediately reached the spot, and the room, which was locked from the inside, was opened in the presence of police officials under videography.

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Rahul was rushed to KIMS Hospital, where the attending doctor declared him dead. Based on the medical report, a UD (Unnatural Death) case was registered on December 1.

Police personnel collected forensic evidence from his room, and the Scientific Officer seized Rahuls phone and laptop for investigation. The room was sealed until the arrival of his parents.

Senior police officials, including the Commissioner of Police, inspected the premises and spoke to Rahuls hostel mates to gather background information and understand the circumstances leading to his death. The police said that statements from students, digital communication and social media interactions are being examined as part of the investigation.

Rahuls family members, who reside in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh, were informed soon after the incident and reached Bhubaneswar on Monday afternoon. The inquest was conducted, and the post-mortem examination took place at AIIMS Bhubaneswar in the presence of a magistrate. The police said the autopsy report is currently awaited.

ALSO READ: IITs Ban 20 Firms From Placements After Last-Minute Offer Cancellations Hit Students

Extremely Sad And Unfortunate: KIITs Response To The Incident

KIIT University issued a statement expressing shock over the students death, describing it as extremely sad and unfortunate." The institution said it promptly informed the police and cooperated fully with the necessary procedures. KIIT extended heartfelt condolences" to Rahuls parents and family.

The university added that there is a disturbing increase in student suicides across campuses in Odisha and other states, calling it a deeply worrying trend." A KIIT official said that the issue requires serious thought at the national level as it has become a major challenge of the present time."

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The university stated that preliminary information suggests personal relationship matters were involved," based on the statement given by Rahuls mother to the police. She reportedly claimed her son had been emotionally pressured and threatened by another family, which allegedly led to his mental distress.

The investigation remains ongoing, and authorities have urged restraint in speculation until all evidence is examined.

About the Author Archit Gupta Archit Gupta is a Chief Sub-Editor at News18.com and a seasoned education journalist specialising in reporting on education and employment. He has covered a variety of education-related stories, inclu... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 09:08 IST

News education-career KIIT Student Death: Love Dispute Likely A Trigger, University Calls It Unfortunate

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Schools, Colleges Closed In Chennai And Nearby Districts Today Due To Cyclone Ditwah

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News18.com

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 08:24 IST

Schools and colleges are closed today in Chennai, Tiruvallur and Kanchipuram due to heavy rain warnings from Cyclone Ditwah.

Schools shut in Chennai due to heavy rainfall alert from Cyclone Ditwah. (Representational Image/Getty)

Amid warnings of heavy rainfall due to Cyclone Ditwah, all schools and colleges in Chennai, Tiruvallur and Kanchipuram districts are closed today, December 1. The order applies to both government and private institutions. The decision has been taken as a precaution because of expected intense rain and the risk of flooding.

Chennai District Collector Roshni Siddharth Jagade said that all educational institutions will remain shut today due to the weather alert. The Collectors of Tiruvallur and Kanchipuram issued similar instructions.

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Authorities have advised residents to stay alert, avoid unnecessary travel and follow official updates from the government and disaster management teams. Emergency response personnel are on standby for any possible situation during the rainfall.

Schools in Puducherry are also closed today, December 1. Home and Education Minister A Namassivayam said that the decision was taken due to the heavy rain expected under the influence of Cyclone Ditwah.

The cyclone has already caused casualties. Three people have died in rain-related incidents in Tamil Nadu according to State Disaster Management Minister K K S S R Ramachandran. In Sri Lanka, the situation is far more severe. ANI reports that around 334 people have died due to flooding triggered by the cyclone.

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ALSO READ: Another KIIT Student Found Dead In Hostel, Third Case This Year Raises Serious Concerns

Rescue operations are underway. Chetak helicopters from INS Vikrant and MI-17 helicopters of the Indian Air Force, along with the Sri Lankan Air Force, have conducted large rescue efforts. These operations have evacuated stranded individuals including pregnant women, infants and seriously injured persons. Those rescued include citizens of Sri Lanka, India, Germany, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Poland, Belarus, Iran, Australia, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

About the Author Education and Careers Desk A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses and information on college and school admissions, board and competitive exams, career options, topper interviews, job notifications, ... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 08:24 IST

News education-career Schools, Colleges Closed In Chennai And Nearby Districts Today Due To Cyclone Ditwah

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SSC JE Admit Card 2025 Out At ssc.gov.in; Exam Begins Tomorrow For 1340 Posts

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 14:20 IST

Candidates can download the SSC JE Admit Card 2025 from the official website of the Staff Selection Commission, ssc.gov.in.

The SSC JE exams will conclude on December 6. (Representational Image)

SSC JE Admit Card 2025: The Junior Engineer Examination by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) exam is set to take place from December 3 to December 6, 2025. The admit cards have been issued. Candidates can download the SSC JE Admit Card 2025 from the official website at ssc.gov.in. It is mandatory to carry the printed admit card along with an original photo identity card (such as Aadhar Card or PAN Card) to the examination centre.

Its important to note that the Commission will not send admit cards individually; downloading them from the official website is essential. As the SSC JE Recruitment Exam 2025 begins tomorrow, its crucial to download the admit card by today and thoroughly read all instructions. Incase of error, it notified to the SSC immediately.

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The Staff Selection Commission has released the admit cards for the Junior Engineer (JE) Paper 1 exam 2025. The SSC Junior Engineer (Paper-I) recruitment exams are scheduled from December 3 to December 6, 2025, at various exam centres nationwide. This recruitment drive aims to fill 1,340 positions in three major engineering branches: civil, mechanical, and electrical.

How To Download SSC JE Admit Card 2025?

To download the SSC JE Admit Card 2025, follow these steps:

Step 1. Visit the official website of the Staff Selection Commission, ssc.gov.in.

Step 2. Click on the Admit Card tab on the home page.

Step 3. Find and click the active link for the Junior Engineer Admit Card 2025.

Step 4. Enter your registration number/roll number and date of birth, then submit.

Step 5. The SSC JE Admit Card 2025 will appear on the screen. Check it carefully, download it, and print it for future reference.

SSC JE Recruitment Exam Pattern:

After downloading the admit card, candidates should review the SSC JE exam pattern and important instructions:

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Exam Pattern: Paper 1 consists of three sections: General Intelligence and Reasoning (50 marks), General Awareness (50 marks), and General Engineering (100 marks). The exam duration is 2 hours, with a total of 200 marks.

Negative Marking: 0.25 marks will be deducted for each incorrect answer, so answer questions carefully.

About the Author Education and Careers Desk A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses and information on college and school admissions, board and competitive exams, career options, topper interviews, job notifications, ... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 14:20 IST

News education-career SSC JE Admit Card 2025 Out At ssc.gov.in; Exam Begins Tomorrow For 1340 Posts

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Kerala BJP Chief Announces He Will Contest 2026 Assembly Poll From Nemom Seat

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 19:14 IST

Kerala BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar confirms his candidacy from Nemom for the assembly elections, outlining party goals and addressing key issues.

Kerala BJP chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar confirms contesting in the upcoming assembly elections.

Kerala BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Tuesday confirmed he would be contesting the upcoming assembly elections from Nemom constituency.

Yes 100% I will contest for the upcoming assembly elections. You can write and take that I will contest. If you want, I can tell you the constituency also. I will contest in Nemom constituency.

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Kerala local body elections are set to be held in two phases on December 9 and 11, where nearly 1,200 local bodies of the state will go for polling. The counting for the local elections will be held on December 13, 2025. Mattannur municipality in Kannur District will not go to polls this time as the elections are due in September 2027.

Previously, Chandrasekhar said the BJPs aim in the local body elections is not a change of government, but a change in the style of governance. He said 95% of development in Kerala is due to the Modi government, while criticising the LDF governments policies.

Kerala is not developing. If it was developing, why would students go outside for education? Kerala is carrying out development by borrowing money. Funds are being reallocated and spent," he was quoted as saying in local media.

In November, he said Muslims were not voting for the party, in response to a question about the lack of Muslim representation in the Union Cabinet.

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Speaking at a press conference in Kerala, he said the BJP were not receiving support from the Muslim community, and that the Cabinet had no Muslim ministers because there were no Muslim MPs.

He defended the partys position, pointing to the BJPs Muslim representatives in the past like ex-Ministers Shahnawaz Hussain and Mohsin Abbas Naqvi. The truth is, Muslims do not vote for us. But what do they gain by voting for Congress? We have never harmed anyone. There are Muslim MPs and leaders in the BJP, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Shahnawaz Hussain. Even today, there are Muslim MPs in the Rajya Sabha from J&K," he said.

Location : Kerala, India, India

First Published: December 02, 2025, 19:14 IST

News elections Kerala BJP Chief Announces He Will Contest 2026 Assembly Poll From Nemom Seat

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Explained: First State To Ban Polygamy, Why It's Significant, And Who May Follow Next

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 16:16 IST

Although Goas civil code predates all modern reform, it isnt counted as the first state to ban polygamy.

Polygamy refers to a marital arrangement in which a person has more than one spouse at the same time. (Shutterstock)

The debate over polygamy in India has sharpened in recent years, shaped by legal reform, demographic evidence and the lived experiences of women who have faced the consequences of the practice. Polygamy refers to a marital arrangement in which a person has more than one spouse at the same time. Within this broader category, polygyny is the most common form; it involves a man having more than one wife. Polyandry, in contrast, refers to a woman having more than one husband.

As Assam move to outlaw polygamy through legislation that applies across communities, a long-standing patchwork of personal laws is beginning to shift.

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These changes have revived a core question: which state banned polygamy first, why the move is significant, and which states are now preparing to follow.

First State To Ban Polygamy

Uttarakhand holds the distinction of being the first Indian state to explicitly legislate against polygamy through a state law. In February 2024, the state passed the Uttarakhand Uniform Civil Code, which lists five conditions for a valid marriage, beginning with the requirement that neither party has a spouse living at the time of the ceremony. This clause applies to all residents of the state, effectively banning bigamy and overriding the earlier exemption that existed for Muslim men under Muslim personal law.

Importantly, the law asserts a single standard for civil marriage and applies across communities, with one constitutionally mandated exception: its provisions do not apply to members of Scheduled Tribes whose customary rights are protected.

Goa is sometimes mistakenly cited as the first state with a uniform marriage code that prohibits polygamy. However, Goas civil law is not a modern Indian statute. It is the Portuguese Civil Code of 1867, retained after the territorys integration into India in 1961. While Goa generally mandates monogamy and does not permit Muslim men to legally take multiple wives, the inherited code contains an archaic provision allowing Hindu men to take a second wife if their first wife does not conceive by age 25 or does not deliver a male child by age 30.

Although the states Chief Minister has said this provision is practically redundant and has not been used since 1910, its presence in the statute means Goa is not considered the first Indian state to legislate a modern ban on polygamy. Uttarakhand is therefore recognised as the first state to enact such a prohibition.

Assam Becomes The Second State To Ban Polygamy

Assam followed next. On 27 November 2025, the Assam Legislative Assembly passed the Assam Prohibition of Polygamy Bill, making it the second Indian state after Uttarakhand to enact a law specifically banning polygamy. The state government described it as the first step" towards implementing a Uniform Civil Code.

The law is notably stringent: it categorises polygamy as a cognisable and non-bailable offence and proposes imprisonment of up to seven years and a fine for entering a polygamous marriage. When a person conceals an existing marriage from a new spouse, the punishment may extend to ten years. Beyond criminal penalties, the Bill imposes civil disabilities on offenders, who become ineligible for public employment funded by the state and are barred from contesting elections in Assam.

Like Uttarakhand, Assam has exempted tribal communities. The Bill does not apply to areas under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, including the Bodoland Territorial Region and the hill districts of Dima Hasao, Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong, where customary practices are protected.

The Constitutional Reason States Can Legislate On Polygamy

India does not have a nationwide Uniform Civil Code, and marriage, divorce and succession are governed by personal laws linked to religion. For Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs, the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 prohibits bigamy and renders any second marriage invalid if a spouse is living. Parsis are governed by the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936, which also bans bigamy. The Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872 prevents certification of a Christian marriage if either party is already married.

A key exception lies in Muslim personal law. Under the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, Muslim men may legally take up to four wives. Because their personal law allows polygyny, the penal provisions on bigamy do not apply to them. This legal divide, where an act that is punishable for one community is permitted for another, has long fuelled debates over equality and the need for uniformity.

The Supreme Court addressed this in 2015, ruling that polygamy is not an integral part of Islam and is therefore not protected under Article 25 of the Constitution. The bench held that the right to religious freedom protects faith, not practices contrary to public order, health or morality. The Court concluded that the state can reform such practices, enabling states like Uttarakhand and Assam to legislate bans that override the earlier exemption for Muslim personal law.

Why The Ban Matters: The Lived Experiences Of Women In Polygamous Marriages

A study by the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA), which surveyed about 2,500 Sunni Muslim women in polygamous marriages, found widespread demand for change. Around 85 per cent of participants wanted the practice abolished, and 87 per cent wanted polygamy to be criminalised under Section 82 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The study painted a stark picture of the mental and physical health burdens borne by women, with 36 per cent of first wives and 22 per cent of second wives experiencing stress and anxiety. Many women reported menstrual problems, thyroid complications, and significant hardship for their children.

The survey also underscored the role of economic and educational marginalisation: one in five women had never attended school, about 59 per cent had education at or below the secondary level, and 79 per cent had no income at the time of marriage. Similar patterns existed among the men; almost 60 per cent had ten years of schooling or less.

The study found that in 88 per cent of cases, husbands did not seek permission from the first wife for remarriage, and in many cases, first wives did not receive the Mehr mandated under Islamic practice. These findings suggest that polygamy disproportionately affects women with fewer resources and reinforces existing inequalities.

Which State May Move Next?

Gujarat appears poised to consider similar legislation. The state government set up a committee in February to assess the need for a common civil code and to prepare a draft. The panel is headed by Justice Ranjana Desai, who oversaw the Uttarakhand committee that produced its draft UCC. The Gujarat High Court had earlier criticised polygamy among Muslims in 2015, calling the practice against the Constitution and heinously patriarchal".

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Global Context: Where Polygamy Is Legal

The global picture varies widely. Nepal is currently considering legalising polygamy for both men and women. In Pakistan and Afghanistan, polygyny is legal for Muslim men with a limit of four wives. Sri Lanka allows both polygyny and polyandry. In the United States, all fifty states prohibit marriage while a prior marriage subsists, though adults are rarely prosecuted for cohabiting with multiple partners.

About the Author Karishma Jain Karishma Jain, Chief Sub Editor at News18.com, writes and edits opinion pieces on a variety of subjects, including Indian politics and policy, culture and the arts, technology and social change. Follo... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 16:14 IST

News explainers Explained: First State To Ban Polygamy, Why It's Significant, And Who May Follow Next

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PM Modi's Message On Khaleda Zia, BNP's Gratitude: A Look At India's Ties With BNP

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 13:26 IST

The exchange follows years of limited political engagement between India and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, shaped by security concerns and shifting equations in Dhaka.

PM Narendra Modi with BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia in 2015. (Image: X/@narendramodi)

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Tuesday publicly conveyed sincere gratitude" to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, thanking him for his concern over the deteriorating health of former Bangladesh prime minister and BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia.

PM Modi had posted that he was deeply concerned to learn about the health of Begum Khaleda Zia, who has contributed to Bangladeshs public life for many years," and said India stands ready to extend all possible support, in whatever way we can."

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Deeply concerned to learn about the health of Begum Khaleda Zia, who has contributed to Bangladeshs public life for many years. Our sincere prayers and best wishes for her speedy recovery. India stands ready to extend all possible support, in whatever way we can. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 1, 2025

The BNP responded by stating that it deeply appreciates this gesture of goodwill," acknowledging both the sentiment and the readiness to assist.

BNP expresses its sincere gratitude to the Honourable Prime Minister of India, @narendramodi, for his thoughtful message and kind wishes for the speedy recovery of BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia.BNP deeply appreciates this gesture of goodwill and the expression of readiness  Bangladesh Nationalist Party-BNP (@bdbnp78) December 1, 2025

The exchange has drawn attention because India and the BNP have, for nearly two decades, shared a relationship marked more by suspicion than cooperation. It also comes at a time when Bangladeshs political landscape is undergoing a significant transition.

IndiaBNP Relations Over The Years

Long before the Awami League under Sheikh Hasina consolidated power, Indias ties with the rival BNP had already been strained by security and political concerns.

When the BNP was in power between 2001 and 2006, ties were strained over border security issues and allegations that anti-India groups found shelter inside Bangladesh. In 2004, Indian agencies raised concerns after ten truckloads of weaponry were discovered at the Chattogram CUFL jetty, which New Delhi said were meant for separatist groups operating in the northeast.

Indias wariness carried into the following decade. In 2013, New Delhi raised concerns about acting BNP chairman Tarique Rahmans alleged proximity to fundamentalist networks and the ISI. For India, the BNPs political alignment with the Jamaat-e-Islami only deepened anxieties. This history created a long period in which India kept the BNP at arms length, choosing instead to build its deepest strategic and security ties with Hasinas Awami League.

Indias Position After Sheikh Hasinas Exit

The exit of the Sheikh Hasina government on 5 August last year led to a significant shift in Bangladeshs political landscape. For many years, Indias primary channels of political engagement had been with the Awami League, given its long tenure in power. After Hasinas departure and the formation of an interim administration under Muhammad Yunus, India had to reorient its diplomatic engagement to the new political environment.

The BNP, which had been out of power for an extended period, emerged as a central political actor under the interim setup. However, India and the BNP had not maintained regular political contact over the years, and the absence of sustained engagement meant that New Delhi had limited direct channels with the partys top leadership at the time.

BNP leaders had previously attempted outreach, but these efforts had not led to substantive engagement.

MEAs Engagement With BNP After The Political Transition

Following the change of government in Bangladesh last year, Indian officials began engaging with different political actors, including the BNP. Multiple interlocutors from the Ministry of External Affairs initiated discussions with BNP leaders. These included meetings with Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and, as reported by Swarajya, outreach to acting chairman and Khaleda Zias son, Tarique Rahman, in London.

According to Swarajya, Rahman indicated that he was open to re-establishing regular communication with India. Indian officials conveyed that they were willing to engage with all major political stakeholders in Bangladesh, including parties that may play a future role in government.

The BNP leadership responded positively, recognising that Indias support would be essential not only for stability at home but also for managing pressure from Western governments and the Yunus-led interim administration.

Within weeks, signs of change became visible. A breakthrough came on 22 September last year when Indian High Commissioner Pranay Verma met the BNP leadership at their Dhaka headquarters. Alamgir described the meeting as a turning point" and reiterated that the BNP would not allow Bangladeshi territory to be used for anti-India activities.

The BNP also sought to demonstrate goodwill on issues India has consistently raised. The leadership offered an iron-clad guarantee" to protect the interests of religious minorities, including Hindus, according to Swarajya.

To demonstrate this, BNP cadres were mobilised to provide protection during Krishna Janmashtami and later during Durga Puja. The party also opposed calls from Islamist groups to impose a ban on the Awami League and strongly objected to calls to ban ISKCON after the arrest of an ISKCON monk, saying the action was driven by vested interests." It urged the interim government to resolve the matter amicably, warning that further provocation could trigger communal unrest and damage Bangladeshs global image.

By late 2024, India had begun quietly backing the BNPs demand for early elections, citing the need for political stability. BNP leaders also continued raising the issue with the interim administration, which then announced its intention to conduct polls in 2026.

Tarique Rahmans Return And Bangladeshs Elections

Bangladesh is currently headed toward national elections expected by February next year, as announced by the interim administration led by Muhammad Yunus. With the Awami League barred from contesting, the BNP is positioned as the principal participant in the upcoming polls.

BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, who has been in self-exile in London for 26 years, announced in October that he intends to return to Bangladesh and contest the elections. His announcement has become a significant development in the countrys political calendar.

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According to IANS, Indian officials say ties with Dhaka have remained strained since Hasinas departure, but Prime Minister Modi has conveyed that engagement with Bangladesh should continue irrespective of political changes.

The BNP has broken away from the Jamaat-e-Islami, which India regards as an extremist organisation. It has also repeatedly stated that it will not allow Bangladeshi territory to be used against Indias security interests. Its leadership has emphasised maintaining stability, addressing peoples demands for an end to political violence, and avoiding the path that has destabilised Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

About the Author Karishma Jain Karishma Jain, Chief Sub Editor at News18.com, writes and edits opinion pieces on a variety of subjects, including Indian politics and policy, culture and the arts, technology and social change. Follo... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 13:23 IST

News explainers PM Modi's Message On Khaleda Zia, BNP's Gratitude: A Look At India's Ties With BNP

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'Unfair, Inconsistent Charges': Deepa Easwar Slams Police Action Against Activist Husband Rahul

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 08:59 IST

Deepa Easwar has criticised the police for allegedly mishandling the case against her husband, Rahul Easwar, claiming shifting charges and procedural lapses.

Deepa Easwar/husband Rahul Easwar (Photos: PTI)

Activist Rahul Easwars wife, Deepa, has strongly criticised the police action against her husband, alleging inconsistent charges, procedural lapses and an attempt to silence him as the high-profile case involving suspended Congress MLA Rahul Mamkoottathil intensifies.

Speaking to reporters, Deepa accused the police of shifting allegations and mishandling the investigation from the outset.

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Rahul Easwar was remanded to judicial custody for allegedly defaming the complainant in the sexual assault case against MLA Rahul Mamkoottathil.

Its very unfair because the police have been dilly-dallying," she said, claiming that the first accusation against Easwar, that he had disclosed the identity of the survivor, collapsed once investigators realised it was not true".

She said that after abandoning that line of accusation, officers invoked a non-bailable offence, alleging that he had made a sexually coloured remark".

According to her, even the police didnt know what exactly a sexually coloured remark is."

Deepa further alleged that the basic procedure was not followed during her husbands arrest.

The worst thing is that they didnt even give us a notice. They just came in one fine evening and told him to come along," she said.

Asserting that Easwar did not resist the police, she added, Rahul didnt say he wont come along or anything. I went with him. Who cooperates like that for a notice, but we cooperated that much. We even handed over the laptop because its a laptop."

She suggested that the police action appeared intended to divert attention from other developments.

They want to shut him off to take the focus off other things. There is a Sabarimala theft issue and a lot of other things happening, the elections are coming up, so they just want to shut him off," she said.

Im forced to believe so because, after cooperating so much, I dont understand why bail should be denied," she said.

Deepa added that Easwar was preparing to go on an indefinite hunger strike and that the family would approach both the sessions court and the High Court for relief.

Her remarks came hours after a Thiruvananthapuram court dismissed Easwars bail plea and remanded him to judicial custody till December 15.

Easwar was arrested after the Thiruvananthapuram Cyber Police registered a case for allegedly defaming on social media the woman who had lodged the sexual assault complaint against Mamkoottathil.

Police said the case was registered on the womans complaint that her photograph was circulated on social media.

As the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate passed the order after hearing arguments from both sides, the police presented videos and material to claim that Easwar had previously defamed complainants in similar cases.

However, Easwar, in his bail application, denied revealing the survivors identity and alleged that the arrest procedure was improper, stating that notice was issued only moments before he was taken into custody.

While being escorted to jail, Easwar told reporters that the police had misled the court and reiterated that he would begin a hunger strike in protest.

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I will observe a hunger strike in jail. I have not shared the complainants photographs. Police have lied before the court," he alleged.

ALSO READ | Kerala Congress MLA Seeks Anticipatory Bail In Sexual Assault Case, SIT To Take Over Probe

About the Author Vani Mehrotra Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.

First Published: December 02, 2025, 08:56 IST

News india 'Unfair, Inconsistent Charges': Deepa Easwar Slams Police Action Against Activist Husband Rahul

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Air India A320 Flew Multiple Times Without Valid Safety Certificate; DGCA Launches Probe

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 20:40 IST

The violation was flagged during the airlines internal compliance checks, prompting Air India to report the lapse to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Air India Flight | Representative Image

Air India has grounded one of its Airbus A320 aircraft and suspended multiple staff members after discovering that the plane operated several flights in November without a valid Airworthiness Review Certificate (ARC), a mandatory document required for any commercial aircraft to fly.

The violation was flagged during the airlines internal compliance checks, prompting Air India to report the lapse to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

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Calling the episode regrettable," the airline said all personnel linked to the oversight have been taken off duty pending a detailed inquiry.

Air India remains unwavering in its commitment to maintaining the highest standards of operational integrity and safety, and any deviation from mandated compliance protocols is treated with utmost seriousness and is unacceptable to the organization. An incident involving one of our aircraft operating without an airworthiness review certificate is regrettable," the airline said.

As soon as this came to our notice, it was duly reported to the DGCA and all personnel associated with the decision have been placed under suspension, pending further review. We have initiated a comprehensive internal investigation and are fully cooperating with the regulator," it added.

What ARC Lapse Means

An ARC revalidates an aircrafts Certificate of Airworthiness and is issued only after a thorough annual review of maintenance logs, physical inspections, and compliance with safety standards.

Despite the ARC having expired, the A320 in question continued operating multiple commercial flights, a breach that neither external audits nor regular checks detected.

DGCA: Aircraft Flew Eight Sectors After ARC Expired

The aviation regulator confirmed that the aircraft completed eight revenue flights despite its certificate having lapsed.

It noted that while Air India has delegated authority to issue ARCs for its fleet, special provisions were made during the Vistara-Air India merger.

Under that arrangement, the DGCA was to handle the first ARC renewals for all 70 Vistara aircraft.

While 69 aircraft successfully received renewed ARCs, the 70th was grounded for an engine replacement, during which time its certificate expired.

The aircraft, however, was returned to service after the engine change without the ARC being renewed.

The DGCA has now ordered the aircraft grounded, initiated a formal investigation, and de-rostered the involved personnel. It also confirmed that the ARC renewal process is currently underway.

Air India said it is conducting its own investigation to identify operational gaps and implement corrective measures to prevent similar violations. The airline emphasized that it is fully cooperating with the DGCA.

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The lapse comes amid heightened global scrutiny of aviation safety and maintenance practices.

Airbus recently disclosed a new quality issue involving fuselage panels, and worldwide fleets resumed operations only after software patches were issued to fix a flight-control vulnerability.

First Published: December 02, 2025, 18:13 IST

News india Air India A320 Flew Multiple Times Without Valid Safety Certificate; DGCA Launches Probe

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Another Sexual Assault Complaint Filed Against Suspended Congress Leader Rahul Mamkootathil

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 18:01 IST

Rahul Mamkootathil, suspended Congress leader, faces another sexual assault complaint from a 23-year-old woman, following earlier allegations and party suspension.

Rahul Mamkootathil was suspended from Congress after backlash. (Photo: PTI/File)

Another woman has filed a sexual assault complaint against suspended Congress leader and Palakkad MLA Rahul Mamkootathil. This comes days after a sexual assault complaint was filed against him with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

In the latest complaint, a 23-year-old woman has alleged that Mamkootathil sexually assaulted her on the pretext of marriage.

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According to the police, the complaint states: Rahul used to text her saying he wished to marry her. After repeated proposals, she told her parents about the matter. Initially reluctant, they finally agreed when Rahul became the Youth Congress state president."

He, however, wanted to meet her before meeting her family. He then took her to a homestay-like building and sexually assaulted her despite her protests. She also stated that she suffered injuries due to the incident," the police said.

Earlier, a sexual assault complaint was filed against Mamkootathil after an alleged audio recording of a conversation between the woman and the MLA surfaced online.

The woman met the Kerala Chief Minister at his office in Thiruvananthapuram and submitted the complaint. The complaint was forwarded to the State Police Chief for further action. Reacting to the development, the Palakkad MLA said he would fight the case legally.

Mamkootathil was suspended from the Congress in August following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.

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Replying to questions on the latest complaint, senior Congress leader K Muraleedharan said: The person has been suspended from our party. We will give full cooperation to the police. It is the duty of the police to catch him."

An email containing the complaint was received by the party president. He forwarded the complaint to the DGP and also replied to the woman, informing her about it," he added.

Location : Kerala, India, India

First Published: December 02, 2025, 17:52 IST

News india Another Sexual Assault Complaint Filed Against Suspended Congress Leader Rahul Mamkootathil

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Big Row Over Pre-installed Sanchar Saathi App Move: What's Behind It And What Opposition Is Saying

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 10:41 IST

Spoofed IMEIs, officials said, allow criminals to evade tracking, while unsuspecting buyers of stolen devices are left vulnerable to criminal liability.

AI-generated image for representation.

The Centre defended its decision to mandate the Sanchar Saathi application on all new mobile handsets, saying the move is essential to curb duplicate and spoofed IMEI numbers, which pose a serious national security risk." Officials said Indias rapidly growing second-hand phone market and the easy resale of stolen or blacklisted devices have made it urgent to create a reliable system to trace phones in terror-related or cybercrime investigations.

According to government sources, phones carrying tampered or cloned IMEI numbers can appear in multiple locations at the same time on telecom networks, severely hampering identification of suspects. Spoofed IMEIs, officials said, allow criminals to evade tracking, while unsuspecting buyers of stolen devices are left vulnerable to criminal liability. The government argues the Sanchar Saathi app helps verify IMEIs, block stolen phones and prevent cyber misuse, stressing that the mandate is about national security, not snooping."

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However, Opposition parties have sharply criticised the move, calling it unconstitutional and an attempt to enable state surveillance. Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi compared the mandate to a BIG BOSS surveillance moment," saying the government was trying to get into individual phones through shady ways." She warned that such attempts will be protested and opposed," adding that instead of building strong grievance-redressal systems, the IT Ministry was creating surveillance systems."

Sanchar Saathi mobile Application mandate to every mobile phone manufacturer as a permanent mobile feature by the GoI is nothing but another BIG BOSS surveillance moment.Such shady ways to get into individual phones will be protested and opposed & if the IT Ministry thinks that Priyanka Chaturvedi (@priyankac19) December 1, 2025

Congress general secretary KC Venugopal also rejected the directive, calling it beyond unconstitutional." In a post on X, he said, Big Brother cannot watch us," arguing that the right to privacy is intrinsic to the fundamental right to life under Article 21. He described Sanchar Saathi as a dystopian tool to monitor every Indian," alleging it would watch over every movement, interaction and decision" of citizens. The Congress demanded an immediate rollback, calling the mandate part of a pattern of relentless assaults" on constitutional rights.

Political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla called the mandate outrageous," warning that pre-installing an app that cannot be uninstalled would give the Centre the power to spy on our calls, texts and location." He alleged the move would allow the government to track us like criminals," calling for public pushback.

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Outrageous! Wake up INDIA! The Govts Sanchar Saathi app mandate is a blatant assault on our privacy & freedom! By forcing it pre-installed on every new phone, not allowing us to uninstall the aap, all under the guise of safety, the government will potentially have the power to pic.twitter.com/bMTuVJmzSf Tehseen Poonawalla Official  (@tehseenp) December 1, 2025

The government maintains that no personal data is accessed by the app and that its sole purpose is preventing misuse of illegal devices, a claim the Opposition continues to dispute.

About the Author Abhro Banerjee Covering day-to-day national and international news for the last nine years across print and digital. Associated with News18.com since 2022, covering innumerable big and small events, including electi... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 08:03 IST

News india Big Row Over Pre-installed Sanchar Saathi App Move: What's Behind It And What Opposition Is Saying

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Citizens Lost Over Rs 30,000 Crore To Cybercrimes From 2022-2024: Home Ministry To Lok Sabha

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News18.com

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 19:27 IST

According to the Ministry, 22,68,346 incidents were reported on the portal in 2024, representing a 42.08% increase over 2023

The 19-year-old was under immense pressure. (Image: Representative)

India witnessed an unprecedented surge in cyber financial fraud in 2024, with citizens reporting losses amounting to Rs 22,845.73 crore, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) informed the Lok Sabha on Monday. Disclosing the latest official data, Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar told Parliament that financial losses recorded through the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System (CFCFRMS) rose sharplyfrom Rs 2,290.24 crore in 2022 to Rs7,465.18 crore in 2023, before tripling again in 2024.

As per CFCFRMS operated by I4C, total amount of losses incurred by citizens due to cyber frauds from the year 2022 to 2024 are Rs2,290.24 crore, Rs 7,465.18 crore and Rs 22,845.73 crore, respectively," he said.

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Along with rising financial losses, India is also witnessing an explosive increase in cybercrime complaints filed on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP).

According to the Ministry, 22,68,346 incidents" were reported on the portal in 2024, representing a 42.08% increase over 2023. The Minister noted that the portal registered 10,26,026 incidents in 2022, 15,96,493 in 2023 and 22,68,346 in 2024".

The MHA further cited the National Crime Records Bureaus Crime in India 2023 report, which shows cybercrime cases rising sharply across the country. According to NCRB, India registered 86,420 cybercrime cases in 2023, nearly doubling from the 44,735 cases in 2019.

The Ministry told the House that total cybercrime cases increased from 44,735 in 2019 to 86,420 in 2023," reflecting a consistent rise, particularly in financial, identity-related and online cheating offences. Fraud continues to dominate cybercrime categories, with 19,466 such cases reported in 2023, up from 14,007 in 2021.

State-wise data shows that Telangana, Maharashtra, Bihar and Karnataka reported some of the highest incidences, while Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan also saw major increases during the period.

Responding to concerns over rising fraud against senior citizens, the MHA acknowledged that such scams are increasing rapidly but clarified that NCRB does not maintain separate data on senior citizen victims. The Minister said the Government is aware that elderly citizens are frequently duped through impersonation calls, fake customer-care numbers, investment schemes and malicious applications, and that the States/UTs are responsible for investigation. He reiterated that the Centre supplements their efforts through advisories, capacity building and cyber forensic support under the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C).

Across the replies, the MHA presented a detailed account of the measures taken to counter the exponential rise in cyber-enabled crime. A critical part of this defence architecture is the Cyber Fraud Mitigation Centre (CFMC), where representatives of major banks, payment aggregators, telecom companies and law enforcement agencies work together in real time to prevent fraudulent transactions. The Ministry also disclosed that more than 11.14 lakh SIM cards and 2.96 lakh IMEIs" linked to cybercrime have been blocked, while the I4Cs newly created Suspect Registry now contains 18.43 lakh suspect identifier data" shared with financial institutions, enabling the prevention of 8,031.56 crore worth of fraudulent transactions.

Significant enforcement and investigative enhancements were also highlighted. The Centre has expanded National Cyber Forensic Laboratory (NCFL) capabilities, establishing new facilities in New Delhi (2019) and Assam (2025). It revealed that the NCFL in Delhi alone has assisted in around 12,952 cases" of cyber investigations. The Ministry also reported substantial operational successes through the Samanvaya cyber analytics platform, which has facilitated 16,840 arrests" and responded to 1,05,129 cyber investigation assistance requests."

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The Government has simultaneously launched one of the largest public awareness campaigns in the countrys cyber-safety history. Following a spike in digital arrest" scams in 2024, the Prime Minister addressed the issue during his Mann Ki Baat broadcast on 27 October 2024, prompting a national multimedia campaign. MHA told the Lok Sabha that the initiative includes caller-tune advisories in 12 languages, metro announcements, nationwide radio and TV campaigns, social media messaging, and cyber-safety events at major gatherings including Kumbh Mela 2025 and Surajkund Mela 2025. It added that a 52-week cyber-awareness series is running in partnership with DD News, alongside digital safety displays at airports, schools, and cinema halls.

The Ministry stressed that cybercrime and online financial fraud have evolved into complex, cross-border threats requiring integrated responses from States, central agencies and private sector entities. It warned Parliament that the rapid increase in cyber fraud cases requires seamless coordination across States/UTs, central agencies, banks, telecom providers and digital platforms", and emphasised that the Centre will continue to expand analytics, forensic capacity and public awareness to counter the rising menace.

About the Author Ankur Sharma With over 15 years of journalistic experience, Ankur Sharma, Associate Editor, specializes in internal security and is tasked with providing comprehensive coverage from the Ministry of Home Affairs, p... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 19:27 IST

News india Citizens Lost Over Rs 30,000 Crore To Cybercrimes From 2022-2024: Home Ministry To Lok Sabha

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Supreme Courts Stern Stand On Illegal Entry Of Rohingyas: Do We Roll Out A Red Carpet For Them?'

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 13:14 IST

The Supreme Court noted that Rohingyas were entering India through underground routes and then demanding rights such as food and shelter.

Jammu and Kashmir police personnel conduct a search at a Rohingya settlement in Jammu. (File photo: PTI)

The Supreme Court on Tuesday took a sharp stance while hearing a habeas corpus petition alleging the disappearance of Rohingya refugees, questioning whether the judiciary was expected to extend extraordinary protections to those who enter the country illegally.

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, heading the bench, said, Do you want us to roll out a red carpet for them?" The Court noted that Rohingyas were entering India through underground routes and then demanding rights such as food and shelter. They enter through tunnels and demand rights like food and shelter," the CJI observed.

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Emphasising on the pressure on limited welfare resources, the Chief Justice asked: Are your poor children not entitled to these benefits? Do we have to stretch the law this far?"

The bench also highlighted security concerns linked to illegal migration, especially along Indias northern borders. We have a very sensitive border in North India. If an intruder enters illegally, do we have the obligation to keep them here?" the CJI said, highlighting the national-security side of the issue.

The observations came during the hearing of a plea alleging that Rohingyas were going missing.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, however, questioned the very basis of the petition, arguing that it had been filed by someone with no locus to raise such issues.

A PIL petitioner who has nothing to do with Rohingyas is asking these prayers," he submitted, urging the Court not to entertain the plea.

After briefly hearing the parties, the bench adjourned the matter and said it would take it up again on December 16.

The Rohingya Debate In India

The Rohingya debate in India centres on whether members of the persecuted Muslim minority from Myanmar should be allowed to remain in the country or be deported for entering illegally. India is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention, and the government classifies Rohingyas as illegal migrants," arguing that their presence poses security risks.

Successive intelligence assessments have flagged concerns about human trafficking networks, forged identity documents, and alleged links to extremist groups. Human rights organisations, however, maintain that Rohingyas fleeing ethnic cleansing deserve protection under international humanitarian principles, and that India must uphold the constitutional guarantee of life and dignity for all persons, regardless of nationality.

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Most Rohingyas in India entered through the porous Bangladesh border, often assisted by traffickers who move people across riverine routes and jungle paths in West Bengal, Tripura, and Assam. Others have crossed through Jammu and parts of the Northeast, bypassing standard immigration checks.

Without valid documents, they settle in makeshift camps in Delhi, Jammu, Hyderabad, Mewat, and parts of Rajasthan, relying on forged Aadhaar cards or voter IDs procured through local networks to access basic services. These illegal entries and forged identity documents form the core of the governments argument that the community cannot be allowed unrestricted rights.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 12:31 IST

News india Supreme Courts Stern Stand On Illegal Entry Of Rohingyas: Do We Roll Out A Red Carpet For Them?'

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DRDO Tests Fighter Jet Ejection System At 800 km/h In High-Speed Rocket-Sled Trial | Watch

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 20:05 IST

Rajnath Singh hailed DRDO, IAF, ADA and HAL for a successful high-speed rocket-sled test in Chandigarh, marking a major leap in Indias fighter aircraft escape system capabilities.

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The test demonstrated Indias advanced in-house capability to evaluate fighter-jet escape systems under real ejection loads. (IMAGE: PIB)

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday shared a video of a successful high-speed rocket-sled test conducted by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), congratulating DRDO, the IAF, ADA, HAL and industry partners.

He called the achievement a major step toward Indias defence self-reliance, as the test validated canopy severance, ejection sequencing and full aircrew recovery at the Rail Track Rocket Sled facility of the Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory in Chandigarh.

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The trial was held in collaboration with the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). Officials said the successful run places India among a small group of countries with advanced in-house capability to test and certify fighter aircraft escape systems.

Dynamic ejection trials of this nature are considered far more complex than static tests such as Net tests or Zero-Zero tests. For this evaluation, DRDO used a dual-sled system with the forebody of the Light Combat Aircraft.

Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has successfully conducted a high-speed rocket-sled test of fighter aircraft escape system at precisely controlled velocity of 800 km/h- validating canopy severance, ejection sequencing and complete aircrew-recovery at Rail pic.twitter.com/G19PJOV6yD   / RMO India (@DefenceMinIndia) December 2, 2025

The setup was propelled to the required velocity through phased firing of multiple solid-propellant rocket motors to replicate real-world ejection conditions.

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The test simulated the full escape sequence using an instrumented anthropomorphic test dummy that captured critical loads, moments and accelerations a pilot would experience during an actual high-speed ejection.

Onboard and ground-based imaging systems recorded the entire operation. The trial was witnessed by representatives from the Indian Air Force, the Institute of Aerospace Medicine and certification bodies.

About the Author Shankhyaneel Sarkar Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a Chief Sub-Editor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over seven years of experience during which he has ... Read More

Location : Chandigarh, India, India

First Published: December 02, 2025, 20:05 IST

News india DRDO Tests Fighter Jet Ejection System At 800 km/h In High-Speed Rocket-Sled Trial | Watch

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Fake Medicine Scare: Regulators Warn Of Counterfeit Batches Of Widely Used Drugs Across India

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News18.com Edited By: Apoorva Misra



Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 10:34 IST

The list attached to the alert contains some of the countrys most widely consumed medicines, such as anti-diabetes drugs Janumet and Jalra and anti-allergic drug Allegra

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The alert underscores a deeper structural problem where Indias persistent struggle with counterfeit medicines infiltrates legitimate supply chains.

The latest drug-safety alert received by Indias apex drug regulatory authority on Monday has flagged the possibility that batches of fake, but widely popular, medicines could be circulating across the country, News18 has learnt.

The Puducherry Drugs Control Department issued an alert after officers seized 34 suspected spurious or counterfeit drug samples from an unlicensed godown. The letter, dated December 1, has been sent to the apex drug regulatory authority, Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO). It has also been sent to all states and Union Territories licensing authorities, urging officials to maintain strict vigil" against the movement of these batches in their territories.

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The list attached to the alert lists some of the countrys most widely consumed medicines such as popular anti-diabetes drugs Janumet and Jalra, anti-allergic drug Allegra, antihypertensives like Losar and Cardace and antibiotics such as Levofloxacin. The list also contains asthma and COPD inhalers, steroid formulations, and hormonal progesterone supplements. These are routine prescriptions for chronic diseases and common infectionsproducts that move in large volumes and are often bought repeatedly by long-term patients.

you are requested to alert your inspectorate staff regarding the circulation of such drugs within their respective jurisdictions," said the letter.

The letter written by the controlling authority of Puducherry has further requested CDSCO to instruct enforcement officials to maintain strict vigil on this matter and to take stringent action as per the relevant provisions"

What Does The Alert Say?

The alert underscores a deeper structural problem where Indias persistent struggle with counterfeit medicines infiltrates legitimate supply chains.

The alert follows a joint raid by the department and Puducherrys Crime BranchCrime Investigation Department (CBCID). The inspection was conducted at an unnamed warehouse inside the PIPDIC Industrial Estate, Mettupalayam, after a CBCID complaint flagged suspected illegal manufacturing and storage. Acting on a court direction from November 27, officials seized all 34 samples and classified them as suspected spurious/counterfeit" pending laboratory confirmation.

We have instructed states and union territories regulators to verify the listed batch numbers with manufacturers, test samples at government laboratories and initiate recalls where distribution is confirmed," a senior official at the union ministry of health and family welfare told News18 while requesting anonymity.

Indias Counterfeit Drug Trouble

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India has been grappling with the problem of counterfeit and substandard medicines for years. According to an earlier estimate by the World Health Organization (WHO), around 35 per cent fake drugs sold globally come from India.

The Puducherry seizure stands out because the products bear the names of established companies and cover multiple critical therapeutic categories. If any of these batches have entered retail channels, the consequences could include treatment failure, unexpected side effects, and, in the case of antibiotics and steroids, risks that extend beyond individual patients.

About the Author Himani Chandna Himani Chandna, Senior Associate Editor at CNN News18, specialises in healthcare and pharmaceuticals. With firsthand insights into India's COVID-19 battle, she brings a seasoned perspective. She is ... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 10:34 IST

News india Fake Medicine Scare: Regulators Warn Of Counterfeit Batches Of Widely Used Drugs Across India

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SC Status After Conversion? Not Allowed: Allahabad HC Orders Statewide Verification Drive

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LawBeat Edited By: Apoorva Misra



Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 13:52 IST

The court said such conduct amounts to fraud on the Constitution & stressed the law on caste status after religious conversion must be enforced in reality and in true sense

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File photo of the Allahabad High Court. (News18 Hindi File)

The Allahabad High Court has directed all district magistrates in Uttar Pradesh to verify cases where individuals who have converted to religions other than Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism continue to claim Scheduled Caste status.

The court said such conduct amounts to fraud on the Constitution", and stressed that the law on caste status after religious conversion must be enforced in reality and in true sense".

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The directions were issued while the court dismissed a plea filed by Jitendra Sahani, a resident of Gorakhpurs Maharajganj district, to quash the case against him for allegedly making derogatory statements about Hindu deities and promoting religious conversions during Christian prayer meetings.

Although the court refused to intervene in the criminal case, it used the occasion to address a larger issue relating to false caste claims by individuals who adopt a different faith but continue to retain Scheduled Caste identity in official records.

Sahani had moved the court under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code seeking to quash proceedings under Sections 153A and 295A of the Indian Penal Code. According to the FIR, he is alleged to have tried to persuade villagers to embrace Christianity and to have spoken disrespectfully about Hindu religious beliefs. While defending himself, Sahani described the allegations as baseless and claimed he was only conducting prayer meetings with prior administrative permission.

However, during the hearing, the court noted an inconsistency. Witness statements suggested that Sahani, who was born into a Hindu community, had converted to Christianity and was functioning as a priest. Yet, in the affidavit filed before the high court, he had identified himself as Hindu.

The court referred to the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, which clearly states that no person who professes a religion other than Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism can be deemed a member of a Scheduled Caste. It also relied on key precedents, including Soosai, KP Manu and the recent C Selvarani judgment, where the Supreme Court held that claiming caste status after conversion is impermissible and defeats the purpose of reservation.

Emphasising that Scheduled Caste identity is rooted in the historical experience of caste-based discrimination, which is not recognised in Christianity or several other religions, the bench observed that retaining SC status post-conversion distorts the constitutional scheme.

The court said that such claims are often made only for the purpose of availing reservation" and cannot be permitted.

In light of these findings, the court directed the District Magistrate of Maharajganj to verify Sahanis actual religious status within three months and initiate strict action if the affidavit is found to be false.

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Moreover, the court directed the Cabinet Secretary, Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh, and senior officials in the Social Welfare and Minorities Welfare Departments to examine the issue statewide and ensure that no person who has converted continues to draw benefits reserved for Scheduled Castes.

All district magistrates in Uttar Pradesh have been ordered to complete verification within four months and report compliance to the state leadership.

About the Author Salil Tiwari Salil Tiwari, Senior Special Correspondent at Lawbeat, reports on the Allahabad High Court and courts in Uttar Pradesh, however, she also writes on important cases of national importance and public in... Read More

Location : Prayagraj, India, India

First Published: December 02, 2025, 12:13 IST

News india SC Status After Conversion? Not Allowed: Allahabad HC Orders Statewide Verification Drive

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Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind Chief Stands Firm On Jihad Remark, Says Term Is Often Twisted

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 23:25 IST

Maulana Mahmood Madani defends the term jihad, claiming it means "pious" struggle against injustice, and criticises its misuse by people.

Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind chief Maulana Mahmood Madani. (Image: PTI/File)

After triggering a row with his remarks on the meaning of jihad," Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind chief Maulana Mahmood Madani on Tuesday stood firm on his stance, alleging that the word has been given negative" connotations by the Centre and state governments. He insisted that historically the term carries a pious" meaning and refers to the struggle against terrorism, not something sinister.

Madani argued that jihad" is being deliberately misused in public discourse, claiming that phrases such as love jihad," land jihad," thook jihad," and vote jihad" are being propagated to malign Muslims.

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The entire ministry, be it centre, or be it state, have decided that if anything negative related to Muslims comes to light, it will be called Jihad. Jihad is a pious word. We are fighting for the real meaning of jihad. Jihad is a pious word. We are fighting for the real meaning of jihad. The term jihad is being used to abuse Islam in a very planned manner," the Jamiat president told ANI.

When asked whether any confusion has been created after he made his previous remarks, the Jamiat president took responsibility for his words, claiming that while he had a responsibility not to have his words misunderstood, in context, his statement is not problematic.

  ,   " Maulana Madani stands firm on his controversial remarksAfter controversy erupted over President of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind Maulana Mahmood Madanis remarks over the meaning of jihad," the Jamiat President, in an exclusive interview with ANI, clarified pic.twitter.com/ousZiR3KiN  ANI (@ANI) December 2, 2025

It is correct that some confusion has been created, but if you see it is context then you wont misunderstand it, to make sure that no misunderstanding happens was my responsibility, and I could not fulfill that responsibility, you can blame me for that," Madani said.

But if you hear my full statement, then three statements have been said. One is that in India Jihad has multiple meaningsThe biggest jihad is to have a clear vision of your aim and work on yourself. If there is injustice, raise your voice against it; this is also jihad," he added.

According to the cleric, the association of the term jihad with terrorism is incorrect. Instead, the correct word for terrorists is fasaadi and Jihad is actually quite the opposite, he suggested.

Ever since I entered this organisation as a Secretary, I have made it my lifes mission to expose how the terrorists have misconstrued Islamic terminology and spread fasaad, we need to be against itWe consider Jihad as fighting the terrorists. I have always said, they are fasaadi, and we are  jihadi," the Maulana said.

It is by default assumed that all Muslims are jihadi and hence fasaadi. It became my responsibility to explain what Jihad really is," he added.

Speaking at the organisations National Governing Body meeting in Bhopal on Saturday, Madani said the growing use of expressions such as love jihad," land jihad," and spit jihad" reflected an attempt to malign Muslim identity.

Enemies of Islam and Muslims have made jihad synonymous with abuse, conflict and violence," he said, alleging that even responsible voices" in government and media used such terms without hesitation.

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Madani maintained that the Quran defines jihad in several contexts, including personal responsibility and public welfare. Whenever there is oppression, there will be jihad," he said, linking the concept to resistance against injustice.

His remarks drew sharp reactions from various people, including Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, and also members of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, among others.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 23:22 IST

News india Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind Chief Stands Firm On Jihad Remark, Says Term Is Often Twisted

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Jharkhand Governor Meets Amit Shah Amid Buzz Over Hemant Soren-BJP Tie-up

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 21:00 IST

Amid mounting speculation over a possible BJPJMM realignment in Jharkhand, state Governor Santosh Gangwar met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi

Jharkhand Governor Santosh Gangwar meets Home Mininster Amit Shah in New Delhi | Image: X

Amid mounting buzz over a possible BJP-JMM realignment in Jharkhand, state Governor Santosh Gangwar met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Tuesday, fuelling speculations about an impending shift in power in the state.

The development comes as reports suggest Hemant Soren and his wife, Kalpana Soren, have been holding discussions with senior BJP leaders.

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Both have been in Delhi for several days and are expected to return to Ranchi on Wednesday, sources said.

Jharkhands 81-member Assembly requires 41 seats for a majority. The current JMM-led coalition has 56 seats, with JMM holding 34, Congress 16, RJD 4 and the Left 2.

The BJP, with 21 MLAs, could help form a comfortable majority if it were to align with JMM, especially with the support of the LJP, AJSU and JD(U), which collectively add three more seats, taking the tally to 58.

Reports also claim that a faction of Congress MLAs is in touch with Soren and may support a new arrangement backed externally by the BJP.

Under the anti-defection law, at least 11 of Congresss 16 MLAs would need to split to avoid disqualification.

According to reports, senior Congress figures privately acknowledged that discussions are underway, with clarity expected within the next two days.

Some accounts indicate that talks have even touched upon potential power-sharing, including a Deputy Chief Minister post.

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The shifting political calculus follows simmering resentment within the JMM after its near-elimination from the Bihar Assembly polls.

The party had sought 16 seats under the Grand Alliance, but prolonged indecision by the RJD and Congress leadership reportedly irked the JMM, prompting it to reconsider its alliances ahead of possible changes in Jharkhands political landscape.

First Published: December 02, 2025, 20:54 IST

News india Jharkhand Governor Meets Amit Shah Amid Buzz Over Hemant Soren-BJP Tie-up

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'Ready To Discuss SIR, But Don't Insist On Timeline': Kiren Rijiju To Opposition In Rajya Sabha

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 13:40 IST

Kiren Rijiju told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that the government is ready to discuss SIR or electoral reforms but the Opposition must not force a fixed timeline.

Union Minister of Minority Affairs Kiren Rijiju speaks in the Rajya Sabha (File photo/PTI)

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday reiterated in the Rajya Sabha that the government is prepared to discuss the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls or electoral reforms, but firmly asked the Opposition not to impose a strict deadline.

Stressing that parliamentary business cannot be dictated by conditional demands, Rijiju said the governments position remains unchanged, and discussions will be taken up in line with the Business Advisory Committees decisions.

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We are ready for discussion as per BAC, but dont insist on a timeline now," he said in the Upper House, insisting that multiple other issues were also listed before the Parliament and needed to be accommodated.

Rijiju also reminded members that the government had not rejected the Oppositions request for a discussion.

The demand, which you have put forward, has not been rejected. So, dont presume that the government is not ready to discuss any matter," he said.

The ministers remarks came a day after Opposition parties staged a walkout when he sought additional time to respond to their calls for an immediate discussion on SIR and electoral reforms.

Meanwhile, top sources with the INDIA bloc said the Opposition leaders urged the government to discuss SIR, citing an urgent need for further electoral reforms and to strengthen the integrity and transparency of the electoral process.

Even Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said, We have neither been told, nor reassured by the government that they are willing to discuss SIR or even electoral reforms."

Later, in a social media post, party leader Rahul Gandhi wrote, The INDIA alliance held a strong protest outside Parliament today against the SIR."

On Monday, the government had conveyed that it was not opposed to such a discussion but required flexibility in scheduling.

The Chairman had also disallowed several notices under Rule 267, including those pertaining to SIR, leading to protests and repeated interventions from the Opposition benches.

The government has so far maintained that the SIR exercise is being carried out by the Election Commission of India (ECI), an autonomous, independent constitutional body whose internal functioning cannot be debated in Parliament.

Meanwhile, Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned till 12 noon on Tuesday, the second consecutive day of the Winter Session, following protests by opposition parties demanding a discussion on SIR.

The House convened at 11 am, with Speaker Om Birla welcoming a parliamentary delegation from Georgia seated in the Speakers Gallery to observe the proceedings.

Soon after, the Question Hour commenced, but the opposition members rose to their feet, shouting slogans demanding a discussion on the Election Commissions SIR.

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Amid the chaos, Birla allowed two MPs to ask questions related to different ministries, and the respective ministers replied to the supplementaries.

ALSO READ | Dont Turn Every Issue Into A Weapon: Centre Hits Out At Opposition Over Sanchar Saathi Row

About the Author Vani Mehrotra Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.

First Published: December 02, 2025, 12:10 IST

News india 'Ready To Discuss SIR, But Don't Insist On Timeline': Kiren Rijiju To Opposition In Rajya Sabha

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Massive Concealment: Sunjay Kapur's Mother Tells Delhi High Court Priya Sachdev Hid Sons Assets

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 09:52 IST

Senior Advocate Vaibhav Gaggar, appearing for Rani Kapur, said Sunjay Kapur earned Rs 60 crore annually from just one company, yet his disclosed bank balance was less than 2 crore

File photo of Sunjay Kapur.

Late businessman Sunjay Kapurs mother, Rani Kapur, told the Delhi High Court on Monday that there has been massive concealment" of her sons assets by his wife, Priya Sachdev Kapur. She alleged that the financial records presented to the court do not reflect the true extent of her sons wealth and that substantial amounts appear to be missing.

According to a Bar & Bench report, Senior Advocate Vaibhav Gaggar, appearing for Rani Kapur, said Sunjay Kapur earned Rs 60 crore annually from just one company, yet his disclosed bank balance was less than 2 crore, along with crypto holdings of only about Rs 1.29 crore. Priya Kapur has hidden the details from the Court, and there is a suspicion that the money has been moved abroad," he submitted.

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Gaggar told the Court that the discrepancies were too large to ignore. Massive concealment. This house [the Rajokri farmhouse] is built by my late husband. There are more than 50 pieces of artwork there This gentleman had no life insurance, no rental income, and mutual funds? Just his salary was 60 crore, and we are saying that he has only Rs 1.7 crore in his accounts," he argued.

He urged the Court to direct Priya Kapur to disclose two years of financial details for both herself and Sunjay Kapur, stating that an interim order maintaining status quo ante was necessary. According to Bar & Bench, Gaggar argued: My Lady may seek details of 2 years because the money has moved. Any interim order must be in the nature of status quo ante because the money has moved across borders, potentially."

Gaggar also said that Rani Kapur and her late husband had built the family business together, yet Sunjay Kapurs will did not mention her at all. An 80-year-old has been told today that she has not even been mentioned in the Will. There is not even a whisper about her. That she has no ownership in the company built by her husband, which was exclusively left to her," he told the Court.

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The arguments were made before Justice Jyoti Singh, who was hearing an interim injunction plea filed by Karisma Kapoors two children seeking to restrain Priya Kapur from creating third-party rights over their fathers assets. Bar & Bench reported that the children have alleged forgery of Sunjay Kapurs will and an attempt by Priya Kapur, Sunjays third wife, to gain full control of his estate.

In the main suit, the siblings challenge a will dated March 21, 2025, which purportedly leaves Sunjay Kapurs entire personal estate to Priya Sachdev Kapur. Karisma Kapoor and Sunjay Kapur were married from 2003 to 2016 and share a son and daughter; Sunjay later married Priya.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 09:52 IST

News india Massive Concealment: Sunjay Kapur's Mother Tells Delhi High Court Priya Sachdev Hid Sons Assets

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Navy Boost: Nuclear Sub INS Aridaman Ready For Commissioning, First Rafale Jets Expected By 2029

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News18.com

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 14:14 IST

The Indian Navy is set for a major upgrade as INS Aridaman nears commissioning and the first naval Rafales are expected by 2029.

Navy Chief Says, INS Aridaman to Join Fleet Soon, First Rafale Set Due in 2029

The Indian Navy is preparing to commission INS Aridaman, the countrys third indigenously built nuclear ballistic submarine, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi announced on Tuesday. He described the submarines upcoming induction as a significant milestone in strengthening Indias underwater deterrence and expanding the Navys long-term strategic capabilities.

Navy to get Rafales

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Admiral Tripathi also confirmed that the Navy expects to receive its first batch of four Rafale Marine fighter jets by 2029. India signed the contract for 26 Rafale aircraft on 25 April, which includes five years of performance-based logistics support. The aircraft will eventually operate from Indias aircraft carriers, enhancing the Navys air-combat reach in the Indian Ocean.

The Navy Chief outlined the progress made since December 2024, stating that the service has received acceptance of necessity" for 94 capital acquisition cases worth approximately Rs 1,27,554 crore. These approvals include plans for 47 ships and 120 fast interceptor craft, aimed at improving coastal security and expanding the fleet.

He added that contracts for 83 capital cases worth about Rs 84,762 crore have already been signed, including 46 emergency procurement deals valued at Rs 7,000 crore. These fast-track purchases are intended to meet operational requirements without delay.

Maritime surveillance and infrastructure

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Highlighting improvements in maritime domain awareness, Admiral Tripathi said the contract for the National Maritime Domain Awareness (NMDA) Project has been signed. The project will integrate data from seven ministries and 15 national agencies, creating a unified picture of activity across the countrys maritime zones. The recently commissioned base depot ship INS Aravalli will support this system by enhancing logistical and operational readiness.

With the commissioning of INS Aridaman, progress on Rafale fighter jets, and major investments in ships, surveillance, and infrastructure, the Navy Chief said the service is moving steadily towards bolstering Indias maritime strength and preparedness for future challenges.

About the Author Shuddhanta Patra Shuddhanta Patra, a seasoned journalist with eight years of experience, serves as Senior SubEditor at CNN News 18. With expertise across national politics, geopolitics, business news, she has influen... Read More

Location : Delhi, India, India

First Published: December 02, 2025, 14:14 IST

News india Navy Boost: Nuclear Sub INS Aridaman Ready For Commissioning, First Rafale Jets Expected By 2029

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'Nehru Wanted To Build Babri Masjid With Public Funds, But Patel Opposed It': Rajnath Singh

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 21:29 IST

Singh praised Patel as a true secular leader who upheld the principles of inclusivity without appeasing any group.

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. (IMAGE: PTI)

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday claimed that Indias first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, had proposed building the Babri Masjid using public funds, but Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel opposed the idea and prevented its implementation.

Speaking at a gathering in Sadhli village near Vadodara, as part of the Unity March to commemorate Patels 150th birth anniversary, Singh praised Patel as a true secular leader who upheld the principles of inclusivity without appeasing any group.

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Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru wanted to build the Babri Masjid (in Ayodhya) using public funds. If anyone opposed this proposal, it was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, born to a Gujarati mother. He didnt allow the Babri Masjid to be built using public funds," Singh said.

Singh went on to explain how Patel supported the restoration of the Somnath Temple, but with a clear distinction: funds for the temples restoration came from public donations, not government coffers.

Not single penny of the governments money had been spent on this (Somnath temple) work. Similarly, the government didnt give a single rupee to construct the Ram Temple in Ayodhya This is called real secularism," Singh remarked.

The Minister further hailed Patel for his selfless contribution to the nation, asserting that despite having the ability to become Indias Prime Minister, Patel never sought high office. His unwavering commitment to Indias unity and his promise to Mahatma Gandhi was more important than any political position, Singh said.

Singh also recalled the 1946 Congress elections, where Patel had withdrawn his nomination for Congress President at Gandhis request, making way for Nehru to assume the position.

Referring to attempts to erase Patels legacy, Singh claimed that some political forces sought to diminish the role of Sardar Patel in shaping Indias destiny. However, Singh praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his efforts in re-establishing Patels stature, particularly through the creation of the Statue of Unity, a monumental tribute to the leader.

The Defence Minister also recalled how, after Patels death, funds collected for his memorial were diverted by Nehru, who suggested they be used for the construction of roads and wells instead. Singh described this as a farce," pointing out that it was the governments responsibility to build such infrastructure, not a memorial fund.

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Singh emphasised that while Nehru had awarded himself the Bharat Ratna, Patel, despite his monumental contributions to the nation, had not been similarly honoured during his lifetime. It was only under PM Modi that Sardar Patel was finally recognised with the Bharat Ratna through the Statue of Unity," Singh added.

(With inputs from PTI)

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

Location : Gujarat, India, India

First Published: December 02, 2025, 21:29 IST

News india 'Nehru Wanted To Build Babri Masjid With Public Funds, But Patel Opposed It': Rajnath Singh

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PMO Moving To New Building Named 'Sewa Teerth', Amit Shah Hails Move: Golden Journey

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 21:40 IST

The new PMO will operate from Sewa Teerth-1, one of three modern buildings constructed in Executive Enclave-I beside Vayu Bhawan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his office in New Delhi | File Image

Prime Minister Narendra Modis office is set for a landmark relocation, with the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) set to shift from its 78-year-old home in South Block to a state-of-the-art complex named Sewa Teerth.

The shift of key government offices to the new Executive Enclave, under the Central Vista Redevelopment Project, comes after the recent renaming of several Raj Bhavans (Governors Houses) as Lok Bhavans.

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The PMO will function from Sewa Teerth-1, the first of three newly built structures in Executive Enclave-I, located adjacent to Vayu Bhawan.

The remaining buildings, Sewa Teerth-2 and Sewa Teerth-3, will host the Cabinet Secretariat and the National Security Advisors Office.

Also Read: Lok Bhavan, Seva Teerth And Kartavya Path: Inside PM Modis Push To Re-Indianise Power Centres

Activity in the enclave has already begun, with Cabinet Secretary TV Somanathan holding a high-level meeting with the Chief of Defence Staff and the service chiefs in Sewa Teerth-2 on October 14.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah hailed the move, calling it an important milestone in the golden journey of building a developed and excellent India".

For the past 11 years, the Modi government has been synonymous not with power, but with service, in which the supreme leader of the government considers himself a chief servant and works for the people seven days a week, 24 hours a day," said Shah in an X post.

In this direction, Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji has reiterated the resolve for service and named the Prime Ministers Office Seva Tirth. At the same time, Raj Bhavan and Raj Niwas are being renamed as Lok Bhavan and Lok Niwas. This is an important milestone in the golden journey of building a developed and excellent India in every field by placing service and good governance above all," he added.

This transition is part of the governments wider plan to redesign the central administrative district along Kartavya Path (formerly Rajpath).

The 3-km ceremonial axis is being redeveloped into a more accessible, pedestrian-oriented and integrated government zone.

A major pillar of this transformation is the creation of a unified Common Central Secretariat, officially named Kartavya Bhavan.

The complex comprises ten newly constructed office buildings designed to bring together numerous government ministries currently spread across older facilities such as Shastri Bhawan, Nirman Bhawan, and Krishi Bhawan.

Kartavya Bhavan, which forms the backbone of the centralised administrative system, aims to replace these ageing colonial-era and post-independence structures with a modern, energy-efficient governance hub.

One of the new CCS buildings, also called Kartavya Bhawan, was inaugurated last month and has already begun accommodating multiple ministries. Three additional CCS blocks are reportedly ready for occupation.

Under the Central Vista plan, the historic South Block and North Block buildings will eventually be repurposed into museums as part of the proposed Yuga Yugin Bharat Sangrahalaya.

An agreement with Frances Museum Development Agency has been signed to guide their transformation into cultural and historical exhibition spaces.

Prime Minister Modi has repeatedly highlighted the limitations of working from ageing buildings, from inadequate natural light to inefficient layouts.

The Central Vista redevelopment seeks to address these constraints while improving administrative coordination and reducing travel between dispersed ministries.

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Plans also include introducing automated people movers to connect major government buildings and ease congestion.

With the PMOs move to Sewa Teerth, the government is not only reshaping its physical infrastructure but also marking a symbolic turning point, bringing an end to the PMOs long association with South Block and ushering in a new phase of streamlined governance at the nations administrative core.

First Published: December 02, 2025, 15:44 IST

News india PMO Moving To New Building Named 'Sewa Teerth', Amit Shah Hails Move: Golden Journey

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NIAs Capacity Bolstered To Global Standards, Conviction Rate At 92.44%: MHA In Lok Sabha

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 17:11 IST

Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai laid out a detailed account of the Governments efforts to elevate the NIA into a world-class counter-terrorism agency

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The Ministry declared that the NIAs strengthened capacity has translated into exceptional investigative outcomes.(Representational Image)

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) told the Lok Sabha that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has now emerged as a globally renowned investigative agency", backed by a significantly strengthened institutional framework, expanded mandate, and a conviction rate of 92.44%  one of the highest among counter-terror investigative bodies worldwide.

Responding to an Unstarred Question, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai laid out a detailed account of the Governments efforts to elevate the NIA into a world-class counter-terrorism agency since its establishment after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

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He said the reforms were designed to ensure that the NIA can proficiently fulfil its responsibilities in prevention, investigation and prosecution of crimes affecting/threatening national security".

Summing up the impact of the reforms, the Ministry declared that the NIAs strengthened capacity has translated into exceptional investigative outcomes.

The reply states, As an outcome of these steps, capabilities of NIA have been significantly bolstered NIA has now emerged as a globally renowned investigative agency, with a conviction rate of 92.44% in judgements pronounced in 172 cases (out of the total 692 registered cases since its inception)."

This conviction rate places the NIA in the upper echelon of global counter-terrorism law enforcement bodies.

Expanded mandate through legislative empowerment

The Minister said the NIA had been given broader powers under the NIA (Amendment) Act, 2019, which enables it to investigate scheduled offences involving Indian citizens or Indian interests even when they occur outside the country.

He added that the Government expanded the mandate of NIA" to include offences under the Explosive Substances Act, the Arms Act, Human Trafficking, and Cyber Terrorism, thereby allowing the agency to respond to a wider spectrum of modern security challenges.

Pan-India expansion: 21 branch offices and strengthened manpower

Highlighting the NIAs territorial expansion, the Minister noted that the agency now has a nationwide footprint with 21 branch offices in different parts of the country, with 02 Zonal Offices (in Guwahati and Jammu) and Headquarter at Delhi".

The Government has also significantly strengthened human resources, with a sanctioned strength of 1,901 posts, of which 769 posts have been sanctioned during the last five years". This marks one of the largest staffing expansions in the agencys history.

Special courts for faster trials

To streamline and expedite terrorism-related prosecutions, the Government has designated 52 NIA Special Courts across the country. Of these, 03 NIA Special Courts at Ranchi, Jammu and Mumbai have been designated as the Special Courts exclusively for the trial of Scheduled Offences investigated by the NIA".

This network of dedicated courts is intended to ensure consistency, speed, and a strong prosecutorial framework for handling high-risk terror cases.

Digital and analytical push: Big data, fusion centres and enhanced technology

A major technological leap was highlighted in the reply: the establishment of the National Terror Data Fusion & Analysis Centre (NTDFAC).

The Minister said the Centre was set up for enabling of Big Data Analytics and facilitating the automation and digitization of the various investigative processes [and] procedures that will strengthen supervision and enhance efficiency, consistency and accountability".

This marks the Governments push to modernise terror investigations through artificial intelligence, data integration and digital workflows.

Specialised divisions to tackle modern security threats

The NIA has created an array of specialised operational and analytical divisions, making it one of the most structured counter-terror investigative frameworks in the region. These include Anti Human Trafficking Division (AHTD), Anti Cyber Terrorism Division (ACTD), Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Cell, Financial Analysis Unit (FAU), Legal expert-driven Special Cell.

Additionally, the agencys earlier ISIS Investigation Research Cell (IIRC), set up in 2018, was expanded and renamed the Counter Terrorism Research Cell (CTRC) to widen its scope across global terrorist theatres.

Strengthening international cooperation and cross-border investigations

To institutionalise Indias capability to conduct investigations involving foreign jurisdictions, the Government established the Foreign Investigation Request Unit (FIRU) in 2024.

The Minister said the unit will help India streamline and strengthen its processes for evidence collection and investigative coordination with partner nations.

India has also intensified its engagement with global partners:

NIA organised the 3rd Ministerial Conference on No Money for Terror (NMFT)" in 2022, attended by delegates from 78 countries and 16 Multilateral Organisations".

Joint training and capacity-building programmes were conducted with foreign agencies for NIA officers, State police, Central Police Organisations and even officers from neighbouring countries including Bangladesh and Nepal".

A Joint Task Force (JTF) has been instituted with Bangladesh specifically for exchange of intelligence related to Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN).

Partnership with National Forensic Science University

A significant step towards improving scientific investigation was the Governments approval of an MoU between the NIA and the National Forensic Science University (NFSU).

The Minister informed Parliament that the MoU was signed in March 2025 and was aimed at capacity building of NIA officers in the field of forensic expertise".

Benchmarking against the worlds best counter terror agencies

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In one of the most noteworthy assertions, the Government said it has made an effort to benchmark the capacities of NIA at par with the parameters of functioning of the best counter-terrorism agencies in the world".

This benchmarking spans investigation methodology, technological integration, international cooperation, and prosecution models.

About the Author Ankur Sharma With over 15 years of journalistic experience, Ankur Sharma, Associate Editor, specializes in internal security and is tasked with providing comprehensive coverage from the Ministry of Home Affairs, p... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 17:05 IST

News india NIAs Capacity Bolstered To Global Standards, Conviction Rate At 92.44%: MHA In Lok Sabha

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'No Discussion On Russia-India-China': MEA Says Economic Cooperation Focus Of Putin Visit

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News18.com Edited By: Oindrila Mukherjee



Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 21:41 IST

MEA officials said there has been significant growth in bilateral trade and economic ties between India and Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin will be in India on December 4 and 5 for the annual summit with PM Narendra Modi. (Image: Reuters/File)

The ministry of external affairs on Tuesday said the focus of Russian President Vladimir Putins visit to India is economic cooperation.

According to officials from the ministry of external affairs (MEA), there has been significant growth in bilateral trade and economic ties between the two countries.

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This comes after Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskovs video-streamed news conference ahead of Vladimir Putins visit to New Delhi on December 4 and 5 for the annual summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The MEA officials said Russia has a need for manpower and both sides have finalised an agreement on skilled and semi-skilled professionals, which is the single-most important development" since Modis visit to Russia.

We have also started an FTA (free trade agreement) between India and Eurasian countries. The idea is to have this agreement in place," the officials said. Negotiations have begun. Indian exports will increase in pharma, marine, consumer products."

They said rupee-ruble settlement is ongoing, and there have been efforts to increase exports to Russia, especially marine products. Last month, potato and pomegranate export was also allowed, they added.

The officials said the Russia-India annual summit is an important forum between two countries, the focus of which is to increase Indias exports to Russia. India has been importing 3 million MT to 4 million MT of fertilisers from Russia.

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They said both sides should deepen cooperation beyond trade, adding that new consulates in Kazan and Yekaterinburg are being set up expanding Indias diplomatic presence in Russia.

The officials also spoke about 50 people serving in the Russian Army. We do not have a centralised system of Indians going out and finding a job; 11 to 12 are missing, dozens have been discharged and more will be discharged soon," they said. All those who are employed (in the Russian army), will be discharged. Those who are still employed will come back to the country."

About the Author Siddhant Mishra Siddhant Mishra is a Senior Special Correspondent at CNN-News18, covering foreign affairs and international relations. With over 12 years of experience in journalism, he has also reported extensively ... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 21:41 IST

News india 'No Discussion On Russia-India-China': MEA Says Economic Cooperation Focus Of Putin Visit

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'Dont Turn Every Issue Into A Weapon': Centre Hits Out At Opposition Over Sanchar Saathi Row

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 11:25 IST

Kiren Rijiju has accused the Opposition of deliberately searching for new issues to disrupt Parliament, insisting that the government has already set the Winter Session agenda.

Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju speaks to the media in New Delhi (Photo: PTI)

Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday criticised the Opposition for what he described as a deliberate attempt to disrupt proceedings in Parliament by constantly flagging new issues" despite the governments readiness to hold discussions on multiple fronts.

Addressing the political storm around the Centres directive mandating the pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi mobile application on all new handsets, Rijiju, ahead of the second day of the Winter Session, said that the legislative agenda had already been finalised by the Opposition.

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He also said that the Opposition was being unreasonable in insisting on fresh points of contention.

There is no need for the Opposition to keep searching for issues, turning every issue into a weapon, just to create a ruckus," Rijiju said, adding that the Winter Sessions business schedule had been clearly laid out.

He said that many subjects pushed by the Opposition have already been listed for deliberation.

We will consider many of the issues raised by the Opposition as well, the discussion points have already been set," he stressed.

However, he firmly objected to what he described as the politicisation of every matter.

Every issue is important in its own place. But turning every issue into a weapon and not allowing Parliament to function is not right," he said.

Responding to claims that the app amounted to state surveillance, he dismissed the characterisation and urged the Opposition not to sensationalise the matter.

Meanwhile, Congresss Priyanka Gandhi Vadra opined that a fine line needs to be drawn, and that these things also need to be discussed in the Parliament.

The Department of Telecommunications order, outlined in a PTI report, requires manufacturers and importers to preload the app within 90 days and push it to devices already in sales channels through software updates.

The app enables users to report fraudulent calls, lost devices, and IMEI-related misuse.

As disruptions persisted on Monday over SIR, both Houses witnessed repeated adjournments.

Despite the ongoing protests, the government remains set to move ahead with the legislative agenda listed for the day, including the Central Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2025.

Rijijus comments come a day after he told Rajya Sabha members that while the government is open to debating any matter, the Opposition must not impose rigid timelines for discussions.

Responding to their demand for an urgent debate on the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, he had said on Monday, Nobody is undermining any matter which was brought out by the Opposition parties yesterday in the all-party meeting or today."

Meanwhile, the Oppositions push for a discussion on SIR continued on Tuesday, with MPs from the INDIA bloc staging a protest outside Parliament.

According to news agency ANI, Congress MP Manickam Tagore reiterated the blocs demand for a full debate, arguing that the issue concerns the right to vote of the citizens."

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He referred to large-scale deletions in some states and criticised what he described as procedural pressures on citizens and Booth Level Officers (BLOs).

ALSO READ | Rijiju Hits Back At Congress For Questioning Shortened Winter Session

About the Author Vani Mehrotra Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.

First Published: December 02, 2025, 10:50 IST

News india 'Dont Turn Every Issue Into A Weapon': Centre Hits Out At Opposition Over Sanchar Saathi Row

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PM Modi To Visit Lucknow On December 25 To Mark 100th Birth Anniversary Of Atal Bihari Vajpayee

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 07:57 IST

December 25 is observed as Good Governance Day in India to commemorate the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi (IANS)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit Lucknow on December 25 to mark the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister and Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee. During his visit, the Prime Minister will meet and felicitate senior BJP leaders who had worked closely with Vajpayee.

In addition to this, the Prime Minister is also expected to announce new educational initiatives named after Vajpayee. He will address a public gathering as part of the days programme.

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The Prime Minister will also inaugurate the newly constructed Prerna Sthal (museum) in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. The museum showcases personal belongings, photographs and memorabilia associated with Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya and Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee.

December 25 is observed as Good Governance Day in India to commemorate the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. This year holds special significance as the country celebrates the former Prime Ministers 100th birthday, reflecting on his legacy of transparency, efficiency, and people-centric governance.

Atal Bihar Vajpayee: The Visionary

Born on December 25, 1924, in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee served as the Prime Minister of India three times: briefly in 1996 and for 13 months in 1998 and 1999, then full-time from 1999 to 2004.

He is known for his eloquence and poetry and was the first leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to hold the office of Prime Minister.

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He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 2015, Indias highest civilian award.

Vajpayees tenure saw transformational initiatives like Kisan Credit Card, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, National Rural Health Program etc. This policy laid the foundation for many reforms and improvements in rural development and education.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 07:57 IST

News india PM Modi To Visit Lucknow On December 25 To Mark 100th Birth Anniversary Of Atal Bihari Vajpayee

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Rape Convict Prajwal Revanna Moves SC, Seeks Transfer Of His Case To Another Judge

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 21:09 IST

Prajwal Revanna, suspended JD(S) leader and rape convict, moved the Supreme Court, seeking transfer of probe to another judge.

File photo of suspended JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna (Photo: PTI/File)

Suspended JD(S) leader and a convict in a rape case, Prajwal Revanna, on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court, seeking a transfer of probe.

In his plea, Revanna challenged orders of both the trial court and the Karnataka High Court that turned down his request to transfer the case to another judge on the grounds of alleged bias by a Sessions judge. The matter is expected to be taken up soon by a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant.

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Former MP from Hassan, Revanna was sentenced to life imprisonment for raping a 47-year-old domestic worker in Mysuru and recording the assault, in August. He was also fined Rs 11 lakh, which would be paid as compensation to the survivor. The verdict was pronounced by a Special Court for Peoples Representatives in Bengaluru.

All About Cases Against Prajwal Revanna

Revanna was named as an accused in four criminal cases filed last year, after over 2,000 obscene video clips, allegedly depicting the sexual abuse of multiple women, surfaced on social media. The first complaint against him was lodged in April 2024 by his domestic help at his familys farmhouse in Hassan.

She accused Revanna of repeatedly raping her since 2021, at the farmhouse and then at his house at Basavanagudi in Bengaluru. She also alleged that Revanna filmed his actions and had threatened to release videos of the abuse if she revealed the incidents to anyone.

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As the case came to light, the court framed charges against him under various sections, including rape, voyeurism, criminal intimidation, and unlawful circulation of intimate images. Later, it was known that the survivor was allegedly abducted at the behest of Prajwals parents, former Minister HD Revanna and Bhavani Revanna, to prevent her from testifying against their son after the scandal broke out in April 2024.

Later, she was rescued from a farmhouse as the Special Investigation Team (SIT) swung into action to probe the case. Amid public uproar, Revanna fled to Germany soon after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in the State. He was arrested upon his return to India on May 31, 2024 and has been in jail since.

About the Author Manisha Roy Manisha Roy is a Senior Sub-Editor at News18.com's general desk. She comes with an experience of over 5 years in media industry. She covers politics and other hard news. She can be contacted at Manish... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 21:08 IST

News india Rape Convict Prajwal Revanna Moves SC, Seeks Transfer Of His Case To Another Judge

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Sukhoi Su-57, S-400 Deals On Agenda As PM Modi, Putin Meet This Week

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 16:43 IST

The Russian official said Russia is transferring some tech to India, and a joint production will be launched soon

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India and Russia are partnering not just for the present but for the future. (File)

High-profile deals, including Sukhoi Su-57 fifth-generation jet fighters and S-400 air defence systems, will be on the agenda during the bilateral meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi later this week, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Tuesday.

It (Su-57) is the best plane in the world. Its not an exaggeration. The issue will be on the agenda of President Putins India visit. But wont say more. Lets not discuss details, as we have a lot of competitors in the business. In a just competition, somebody can hardly compete with us," Peskov said.

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Peskov held the news conference as a curtain raiser ahead of President Putins visit to New Delhi on December 4 and 5 for the annual India-Russia summit with Prime Minister Modi.

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The Russian official said Russia is transferring some tech to India, and a joint production will be launched soon. We will be ready to share whatever can be shared with India will be shared," Peskov underlined.

Peskov said small and medium nuclear reactors will also be a subject of discussion between the two leaders. Russia has experience in producing these small reactors and is ready to supply the technology to its Indian friends, he added.

About the Author Saurabh Verma Saurabh Verma covers general, national and international day-to-day news for News18.com as a Senior Sub-editor. He keenly observes politics. You can follow him on Twitter --twitter.com/saurabhkverma19

Location : Moscow, Russia

First Published: December 02, 2025, 14:49 IST

News india Sukhoi Su-57, S-400 Deals On Agenda As PM Modi, Putin Meet This Week

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Supreme Court Grants Relief To BS Yediyurappa In POCSO Case

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 12:31 IST

Supreme Court granted interim relief to BS Yediyurappa in the POCSO case, staying trial proceedings and issuing notice on the appeal.

Yediyurappa Gets Interim Relief as SC Halts Trial Court Process. (PTI)

The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted relief to former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa in the POCSO case registered against him. The court issued a notice on the plea challenging the Karnataka High Courts order that had allowed proceedings to continue.

The court further directed that all trial court proceedings remain stayed until the matter is heard. This interim protection marks a significant development in the ongoing case.

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A bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi heard the Special Leave Petition filed by BS Yediyurappa challenging the Karnataka High Courts November 13 order, which had refused to quash the POCSO case against him. The Supreme Court issued notice to the State CID and the complainant, limited to examining whether the matter should be sent back to the High Court for a fresh hearing on its merits.

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Senior Advocates Siddharth Luthra and Siddharth Dave, appearing for Yediyurappa, argued that the High Court had wrongly avoided examining the merits by relying on earlier court observations stating that the case should go to trial. They submitted that a previous judgment, which quashed the first cognisance order and directed the trial court to reconsider the matter, had clearly preserved Yediyurappas right to raise all legal objections. Luthra also told the bench that Yediyurappa, an 88-year-old four-time Chief Minister, was facing a case driven by political vendetta."

According to the complaint filed by the victims mother, Yediyurappa allegedly sexually assaulted her then 17-year-old daughter during a meeting at his Bengaluru residence in February last year. The Sadashivanagar police registered the case on March 14, 2024, after which it was handed over to the CID. The agency re-registered the FIR and later filed a chargesheet invoking Section 8 of the POCSO Act and Sections 354A, 204, and 214 read with Section 37 of the IPC.

About the Author Shuddhanta Patra Shuddhanta Patra, a seasoned journalist with eight years of experience, serves as Senior SubEditor at CNN News 18. With expertise across national politics, geopolitics, business news, she has influen... Read More

Location : Delhi, India, India

First Published: December 02, 2025, 12:02 IST

News india Supreme Court Grants Relief To BS Yediyurappa In POCSO Case

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Those Who Brought You To Power Must Always Come First: PM Modis Strong Message To Assam MPs

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 13:39 IST

According to sources, the Prime Minister sought detailed updates on ongoing state and central projects in Assam and heard from MPs about their priorities on the ground

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Public representatives are not above people, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (IANS File)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday delivered a strong message of accountability and public service to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs from Assam during a review meeting in Delhi.

The interaction, attended by Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, MoS Pabitra Margherita and Assam BJP president Dilip Saikia, focused on development work, political preparedness and constituency outreach ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections.

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According to sources, the Prime Minister sought detailed updates on ongoing state and central projects in Assam and heard from MPs about their priorities on the ground. Modi reiterated that the Northeast has remained a central pillar of his governments development agenda and said that visible progress must translate into deeper public trust.

During the discussion, Modi is learnt to have issued a clear reminder to the MPs: Those who brought them to power must always come first."

Polygamy: Full stop!With the Assam Cabinet and Assembly approving the Assam Polygamy Bill 2025, multiple marriages now stand banned. A strong, progressive step to safeguard womens dignity and ensure real social justice. pic.twitter.com/p5s7tjC1Mk  Dilip Saikia  (@DilipSaikia4Bjp) December 1, 2025

Public representatives, he stressed, are not above people, and MPs must keep citizens interests at the heart of their work. He urged them to ensure maximum coverage of government schemes and to remain accessible to their constituents.

For first-time MPs in the group, the Prime Minister offered specific advice  come well prepared for Parliament sittings and maintain an active social media presence to communicate government initiatives effectively.

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The meeting holds particular significance as Assam heads into elections in early 2026.

The BJP, which first formed government in the state in 2016 under Sarbananda Sonowal, retained power in 2021 with Himanta Biswa Sarma taking over as the Chief Minister. With the party aiming for a third consecutive term, Modis remarks are being viewed as a directive to strengthen grassroots engagement and tighten organisational discipline.

First Published: December 02, 2025, 13:34 IST

News india Those Who Brought You To Power Must Always Come First: PM Modis Strong Message To Assam MPs

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TVK's Recklessness, Vijay's Delay Behind Karur Stampede Tragedy: Tamil Nadu Govt To SC

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 18:34 IST

In an affidavit, the state stated that the tragedy was not caused by any failure of the police, but by the organisers disregard for public safety.

Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) chief Vijay addressing the rally in Tamil Nadu's Karur, where the stampede happened. (PTI)

The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that the tragic stampede in Karur on September 27 was the result of reckless, negligent, and uncoordinated actions" by the organisers and cadres of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) party, led by actor-politician Vijay.

In an affidavit filed in response to petitions seeking a CBI/SIT probe, the state stated that the tragedy was not caused by any failure of the police, but by the organisers disregard for public safety.

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The government noted that the police acted with exemplary courage and discipline" during the incident, directing people towards exits and clearing emergency routes, despite the darkness, chaos, and crowd panic. The affidavit also stressed that Vijay had acknowledged the polices efforts in ensuring his safe arrival at the venue, thanking them for their support, Live Law reported.

The stampede, which claimed 41 lives and left over 60 injured, occurred during a rally organised by Vijay. The state noted that TVK organisers grossly ignored police instructions and safety guidelines, which ultimately contributed to the disaster. Despite facing provocation, the police managed to control the event, with Vijay leaving the venue safely thanks to their intervention.

The state also cited discrepancies in the organisers claims about crowd numbers. While they had informed authorities that 10,000 people would attend, more than 28,000 were present at the rally, with many coming from neighbouring districts. CCTV footage revealed that over 3,000 TVK cadres followed Vijays convoy from Namakkal district, adding to the overwhelming crowd.

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Furthermore, the government pointed out that Vijay arrived at the venue seven hours late, contrary to earlier announcements. The delay, it argued, intensified crowd emotions, leading to the deadly surge. The organisers failed to provide basic facilities like water and food, worsening the conditions for the crowd, especially in the sweltering heat.

In addition, the affidavit highlighted dangerous behaviour by TVK cadres, including climbing trees and transformers, and interfering with rescue operations by attacking ambulances. Despite strict safety measures being put in place, the state argued that the organisers actions were the primary cause of the stampede.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 18:34 IST

News india TVK's Recklessness, Vijay's Delay Behind Karur Stampede Tragedy: Tamil Nadu Govt To SC

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'Why Are IPS Officers In IAS Posts?': Telangana HC Seeks Explanation From State Govt

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 10:25 IST

The Telangana High Court has questioned the state governments decision to appoint IPS officers to IAS-designated posts, seeking a clear legal justification.

Shikha Goel, IPS (Left) and Stephen Ravindra, IPS (Right)

The Telangana High Court has asked the state government to explain why senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officers have been appointed to important administrative posts meant for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) cadre.

Justice Surepally Nanda, who heard the matter on Monday, directed the Chief Secretary and the Principal Secretary of the General Administration Department (GAD) to file counter-affidavits by December 10. The court wants the government to clearly state the reasons and legal support for these appointments.

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Petition questions legality of appointments

The order came in response to a writ petition filed by Hyderabad-based lawyer and social activist Vadla Srikanth. His counsel, Vijay Gopal, argued that the government had violated Central laws by issuing GO 1342 on September 26. These laws, he said, define separate roles for IAS and IPS officers in state administration, and the governments decision goes against this framework.

The petition pointed out three key appointments that raised concern. IPS officer Stephen Ravindra is serving as Commissioner of Civil Supplies and Ex-Officio Principal Secretary. IPS officer Shikha Goel is posted as Director General, Vigilance and Enforcement, and Ex-Officio Principal Secretary, GAD. Former Hyderabad Police Commissioner CV Anand has been appointed as Special Chief Secretary, Home Department.

Concerns over cross-cadre roles

Advocate Vijay Gopal told the court that the IAS (Fixation of Cadre Strength) Regulations, 2016, clearly reserve principal secretary-level posts for IAS officers. He explained that IAS officers are trained to review decisions made by IPS officers. Placing an IPS officer in such a review role, he argued, removes the neutral check that the administrative structure is designed to maintain.

He also referred to the recent phone tapping case in Telangana, saying that the administrative head must be independent of the police hierarchy. According to him, having IPS officers in roles meant for IAS officers could affect accountability.

The practice of appointing IPS officers to IAS-designated posts is said to have started during the previous BRS governments term in 2014.

Government seeks more time to respond

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Representing the state, special government pleader Rahul Reddy asked the court for more time to file a detailed response. Justice Nanda accepted the request and adjourned the case.

The Telangana government must now present its justification before the next hearing on December 10, when the court will further examine the legality of these cross-cadre appointments.

About the Author Shuddhanta Patra Shuddhanta Patra, a seasoned journalist with eight years of experience, serves as Senior SubEditor at CNN News 18. With expertise across national politics, geopolitics, business news, she has influen... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 10:25 IST

News india 'Why Are IPS Officers In IAS Posts?': Telangana HC Seeks Explanation From State Govt

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Choosing Between Airbrush And HD Makeup: Expert-Backed Advice For Picture-Perfect Wedding Photography

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 09:33 IST

Discover whether airbrush or HD makeup is the best choice for your wedding day

The best bridal makeup is one that aligns with your comfort, your skins needs, and how you want your wedding story to be remembered.

Bridal makeup carries a unique responsibility: it must survive hours of rituals, endure changing lights and weather, and still look flawless in every frame from dreamy candids and close-up shots to cinematic bridal entries. With modern photography capturing every pore, emotion, and detail, brides today find themselves choosing between two heavyweights: Airbrush and HD makeup.

But which one photographs better? And which one truly suits your skin, your setting, and the aesthetic you envision?

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We brought together two industry experts, Monika Khullar, Makeup Artist & Head Trainer at Anastasia Beverly Hills, and Snigdha Suman, GM, Marketing & Business Development, Avon to break it down with clarity, nuance, and real-world bridal experience.

Airbrush Makeup: Lightweight, Long-Wearing, and Built for the Big Day

According to Monika Khullar (Anastasia Beverly Hills), the biggest appeal of airbrush makeup lies in its texture and technology. Airbrush makeup uses a micro-fine formula thats misted onto the skin, creating an even veil that doesnt emphasize pores and never feels heavy," she explains.

This feather-light application offers serious practicality for brides navigating long ceremonies, outfit changes, and emotionally charged moments. The technique is sweat-resistant, humidity-proof, and designed to last from early-morning rituals to late-night receptions without separating, caking, or melting.

Where airbrush truly shines is in wedding photography. It provides a soft-focus, matte finish that looks exceptionally smooth on camera," notes Khullar. It diffuses light beautifully, giving the skin a poreless, polished appearance especially under strong flash or studio lighting."

For brides who want a flawless, filtered finish with zero fuss, airbrush becomes an undisputed favourite.

HD Makeup: Skin-First Radiance for Modern Cameras

While airbrush excels in durability and matte perfection, HD makeup is a master of natural, luminous realism. HD makeup was created for the unforgiving clarity of todays cameras," says Khullar.

The pigments are incredibly fine and blend seamlessly into the skin, without settling into lines or highlighting dryness."

Designed to look like actual skin but smoother, glowier, and more balanced, HD makeup is ideal for brides with dry, textured, or sensitive skin. Its creamy, hydrating formulas bring back life into the complexion, making it perfect for close-ups and cinematic videography where every detail matters.

Suman agrees, adding, HD makeup gives a radiant, dimensional finish that looks as beautiful in person as it does on film. Brides who want that your skin, but elevated glow gravitate toward it."

HD makeup works especially well for indoor weddings, pre-wedding shoots, or celebrations where soft lighting and intimate frames dominate the visual mood.

Which One Photograph Better? Avon decodes It simply. Suman offers an elegantly clear guideline for brides torn between the two. Choose airbrush when you need endurance and a matte, perfected canvas. Choose HD when you want radiance, depth, and a skin-first bridal glow."

Airbrush is ideal for:

Outdoor weddings

Humid or warm climates

Brides with oily or combination skin

Long, multi-event days

HD makeup is perfect for:

Indoor or evening functions

Dry, normal, or sensitive skin

Pre-wedding shoots

Brides wanting a natural, luminous look. In essence, its not about trends, its about your skin, setting, and signature bridal aesthetic.

The Final Verdict: Its Not a Competition, Its a Choice

Both experts agree on one thing: neither technique is universally better. The best bridal makeup is one that aligns with your comfort, your skins needs, and how you want your wedding story to be remembered.

Airbrush excels in longevity and flawless finish," says Khullar. HD makeup shines when authenticity and glow are the priority."

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And in Sumans words, The best bridal makeup doesnt just photograph well, it tells your story, one frame at a time."

Whether you choose the airbrushed perfection of a soft-focus matte look or the dimensional radiance of HD, what truly matters is feeling like the most confident, camera-ready version of yourself on the biggest day of your life.

About the Author Swati Chaturvedi Swati Chaturvedi is a seasoned media professional with over 13 years of experience in journalism, digital content strategy, and editorial leadership across top national media houses. An alumna of Lady... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 09:33 IST

News lifestyle beauty Choosing Between Airbrush And HD Makeup: Expert-Backed Advice For Picture-Perfect Wedding Photography
Why Eye Check-Ups Need To Become A Lifelong Habit, Not A Last-Minute Reaction

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 17:19 IST

From newborn screenings to glaucoma checks after 40 & annual exams for diabetics and screen-heavy users, why lifelong eye check-ups are essential for preventing vision loss

From childhood to after 40, every stage of life needs its own eye check-up. Protect your vision before problems appear.

In an age where screens dominate our work, learning, and even leisure, eye health has quietly become one of the most overlooked pillars of overall wellbeing. Yet ophthalmologists warn that many vision issues develop silently, without pain or early symptoms, and by the time theyre detected, the damage may be irreversible.

To understand what proper eye care actually requires at every stage of life, we turned to two leading specialists, Dr Pawan Gupta, Senior Cataract and Retina Surgeon at Eye7 Hospital Lajpat Nagar & Vision Eye Clinic, New Delhi, and Dr. Deepali Garg Mathur, Principal Consultant, Ophthalmology, Max Multi Speciality Centre, Panchsheel Park. Their insights make one thing abundantly clear, eye examinations are not occasional necessities; they are essential, lifelong health screenings.

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Eye Care Begins at Birth and Never Truly Stops

According to Dr Pawan Gupta, the very first eye screening should take place immediately after birth. A newborns eyes should be examined for any pre-existing disease, and in premature babies especially, for retinopathy of prematurity," he says. Early detection in infancy can prevent lifelong visual impairment.

As children grow, this vigilance should continue. Regular check-ups help detect refractive errors, lazy eye, and developmental abnormalities that may otherwise go unnoticed.

Dr Mathur reinforces this, emphasizing that children should have a baseline eye examination between the ages of 3 and 5, followed by annual check-ups.

With high screen time now being unavoidable, annual eye exams for children are critical. Their vision is still developing, and numbers can evolve quickly," she explains.

Age 40: The Most Ignored but Crucial Milestone

Vision changes around the age of 40 are often dismissed as normal ageing," but doctors warn this is a critical period for screening.

At 40, many people start needing glasses for near vision, and this is also when the risk of glaucoma begins to increase," says Dr. Gupta. Everyone above 40 should be screened for glaucoma every year, or at least once every two years."

Glaucoma is famously called the silent thief of sight" because it causes irreversible damage long before symptoms appear.

For People With Diabetes, Annual Exams Arent Optional; Theyre Essential

Diabetes is one of the biggest risk factors for avoidable blindness. Patients with diabetes should have a comprehensive eye examination every year to detect diabetic retinopathy," warns Dr Gupta. We can control or slow the disease if caught early, but vision lost beyond a certain point cannot be recovered."

Dr Mathur adds that diabetic patients often require more detailed tests such as OCT (optical coherence tomography) or visual field charting. These detect subtle retinal changes that routine screenings may miss.

Why Every Adult Needs an Annual Eye Examination, Even With Perfect Vision

Annual eye examinations are recommended for all adults and children," says Dr Mathur. Even people with a 6/6 or 20/20 vision should get screened because many eye conditions are hidden and dont show symptoms early."

During these exams, doctors assess not just vision and refractive errors but also eye pressure, early cataracts, glaucoma, retinal issues, and signs of systemic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension.

Digital Eye Strain: The New Urban Epidemic

Long work hours, smartphones, and remote schooling have made digital eye strain common across all age groups.

People who use computers for long periods are at risk for Digital Eye Strain or Digital Fatigue," explains Dr Gupta. Symptoms can include dryness, burning, headaches, blurred vision, and difficulty focusing.

He advises speaking with an eye specialist to understand your risk and adopt preventive measures, such as using lubricating drops, following proper blinking habits, managing screen distance, and cleaning digital eyewear regularly.

The Overlooked Groups That Need Regular Screening

Both experts stress that several groups require even closer monitoring:

People above 60, due to risks of age-related macular degeneration (AMD)

Individuals with family history of glaucoma, cataracts, or other eye diseases

People with systemic conditions like hypertension, hypothyroidism, or autoimmune disorders

Contact lens users, who should get checked annually to monitor for corneal irritation or damage

Many systemic diseases impact the visual system before symptoms appear," says Dr. Gupta, making routine checks indispensable.

Your Eyes Deserve Preventive Care, Not Emergency Care

The message from both specialists is consistent: eyesight can often be saved, but only if problems are caught early.

Early screenings detect abnormalities before they impair daily life. Annual exams protect against silent diseases. And lifelong monitoring ensures that ageing, chronic conditions, and lifestyle factors dont steal vision unnecessarily.

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In a world where screens strain our eyes daily and pollution adds another layer of stress, eye check-ups are no longer optional wellness practices. They are essential healthcare.

See your ophthalmologist before you notice a problem, not after.

About the Author Swati Chaturvedi Swati Chaturvedi is a seasoned media professional with over 13 years of experience in journalism, digital content strategy, and editorial leadership across top national media houses. An alumna of Lady... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 17:19 IST

News lifestyle health-and-fitness Why Eye Check-Ups Need To Become A Lifelong Habit, Not A Last-Minute Reaction
Thinking Of Learning A New Language? It May Actually Slow Down Brain Ageing, New Study Says

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 08:00 IST

Speaking multiple languages may slow brain ageing, boost memory and attention, and build cognitive resilience even for adults starting later in life.

Learn A Language, Boost Your Brain: Study Links Multilingualism To Slower Ageing (Image-AI)

A longer life is one of the biggest achievements of humanity, yet it has thrust a single question into the spotlight: the question of how to age well has taken centre stage. Longer lifespans offer new opportunities for work, learning and connection, but they also bring familiar concerns: the mental and physical decline that often accompanies ageing.

Many older adults begin noticing small but disruptive changes, including difficulty in remembering names, trouble focusing on conversations, slower reactions or the need to pause during routine tasks. While these shifts are common, they also raise an important question: why do some individuals remain mentally sharp well into their 80s, while others experience accelerated decline?

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Over the years, numerous studies have hinted that bilingualism or multilingualism might act as a buffer against cognitive decline. But findings were mixed, often limited by small sample sizes, inconsistent health measures or the inclusion of clinical rather than general populations.

Now, a new large-scale study published in Nature Aging in November 2025, provides strong evidence that multilingualism could play a meaningful role in slowing down how the brain ages, particularly in older adults. And the more languages a person speaks, the stronger the protective effect appears to be.

What Studies Say

The Nature Aging study examined 86,149 healthy adults aged 51-90, living in 27 European countries. By combining biological, cognitive and behavioural information, researchers created a new metric known as the biobehavioural age gap."

This measure compares: A persons actual age with how old they appear biologically and cognitively, based on factors like daily functioning, movement, education, memory and health conditions such as hearing loss or heart disease.

If someones predicted age is younger than their biological age, they have a negative biobehavioural age gap, a sign of slower ageing. If it is older, it is ageing faster than expected. Using machine learning models, researchers assessed patterns across thousands of data points, allowing them to estimate ageing with precision.

The next step was to examine multilingual exposure in each country. Some nations, such as Luxembourg, Finland, the Netherlands and Malta, have high rates of multilingualism built into daily life. Others, including the UK, Romania and Hungary, are largely monolingual.

Findings of The Study

Across the continent, people living in multilingual cultures consistently showed slower ageing patterns.

Multilingual populations aged more slowly- The likelihood of having an accelerated ageing profile was significantly lower in countries with widespread multilingualism.

Speaking just one additional language mattered- The biggest jump in protective benefit appeared between monolingual and bilingual individuals.

Each extra language added further protection- This dose-dependent" pattern suggested a compounding effectthree languages offered more benefit than two, and four offered more than three.

Effects were strongest among people in their 70s and 80s- Older multilingual adults showed a type of cognitive resilience" that their monolingual peers lacked, appearing biologically younger despite being the same chronological age.

Why Language Matters? The Brain Mechanism Behind It

Although the study did not directly measure brain structure, existing neuroscience research offers strong clues. When multilingual individuals navigate language, the brains executive control network is constantly active. This includes regions responsible for:

Attention

Inhibition

Conflict monitoring

Task switching

Which Parts Of The Brain Get Stronger With Multiple Languages?

Neurology experts agree that lifelong use of multiple languages profoundly impacts the brains executive control and cognitive networks. Dr Kunal Bahrani, Chairman and Group Director of Neurology at Yatharth Hospitals, explains that multilingualism strengthens regions such as the prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, inferior parietal lobule and basal gangliaareas responsible for attention, inhibition, conflict monitoring and task switching.

He adds that bilingual individuals often show improved white-matter connectivity, especially in the superior longitudinal fasciculus and the corpus callosum, enabling better communication between brain regions.

Adding to this, Dr Puja Kapoor, Pediatric Neurologist and Co-Founder of Continua Kids, highlights that language is deeply tied to cognition and intelligence. She notes that using multiple languages consistently stimulates brain circuits linked to vocabulary, expression, context monitoring and emotional reasoning. Early and continued exposure, she says, leads to stronger neuronal synapsing, enhancing cognitive performance across the lifespan.

How Does Switching Between Languages Act As Cognitive Training"?

According to Dr Bahrani, switching between languages forces the brain to inhibit one language while activating another, all while monitoring context. This engages the same executive functions used in high-level cognitive tasks. Unlike structured brain games," multilingual switching happens naturally and frequently, making it a powerful and practical form of mental exercise.

Dr Kapoor agrees, explaining that every language switch requires the brain to retrieve words, meanings and structures from stored memory, activating neural networks in the process. She compares this stimulation to solving mathematics or physics problems, playing musical instruments or completing puzzles like Sudoku. Each activity demands deep focus and active engagement, and language switching is equally effective in keeping the brain sharp.

Does The Biobehavioral Age Gap Accurately Show How The Brain Is Ageing?

The biobehavioral age gap" used in the Nature Aging study offers valuable insight into functional ageing, but it comes with limitations. Dr Bahrani points out that although it is a useful indicator of cognitive ageing at the population level, it does not directly measure neurological pathology.

Factors such as education, lifestyle, mood and even the testing environment can influence the score. He stresses that this metric is best interpreted alongside imaging or biomarker data for a more complete picture of brain health.

Dr Kapoor adds that because language performance is closely linked to cognition, linguistic ability can act as a surrogate marker of overall cognitive strength. Regular stimulationsuch as speaking multiple languageshelps keep neuronal connections active, which may influence how young" a brain appears on cognitive assessments. While it is not a direct biological measure, she views the age-gap marker as meaningful in reflecting cognitive resilience.

How Does Speaking Multiple Languages Boost Mental Resilience?

Both neurologists agree that multilingualism contributes significantly to cognitive reserve. Dr Bahrani explains that multilingualism strengthens executive control networks, which differ from the semantic and problem-solving networks built through education or intellectually demanding jobs. Each form of reserve is valuable, he notes, but multilingualism uniquely enhances attention, inhibition and task-switching abilities, creating an additional layer of resilience.

Dr Kapoor describes multilingualism as a powerful and constant form of brain stimulation that integrates memory, social interaction, emotional expression and reasoning. She emphasises that, unlike educationwhich often peaks in early adulthoodlanguage use remains a daily activity throughout life. This continuous engagement strengthens neural circuits in a way that other forms of cognitive training may not. Even people who struggle with skills like mathematics, she says, can achieve significant benefits through language-based stimulation.

Is it Too Late For Older Adults To Benefit From Learning A New Language?

Dr Bahrani emphasises that although early learning offers the strongest and longest-lasting benefits, older adults still gain significantly from picking up a new language. Learning requires attention, working memory and active engagementall of which stimulate the brain. He stresses that consistent, real-life use of the language provides the greatest cognitive advantage.

Dr Kapoor agrees, noting that adults and elderly individuals can absolutely benefit from learning new languages. The process demands high focus, memory recall and active thinking, similar to solving complex puzzles. While earlier exposure leads to stronger synaptic development, late-life learning still strengthens neural pathways and contributes meaningfully to brain health.

The study adds clarity to a long-standing debate by offering powerful evidence that speaking multiple languages is associated with slower biological and cognitive ageing. While multilingualism is not a cure-all, it appears to help the brain stay flexible and resistant to age-related decline. And unlike many cognitive interventions, it is used in everyday communication.

Whether learned in childhood or much later in life, languages offer a remarkable resource, one that strengthens memory, sharpens attention and builds a reserve that may protect the brain for years to come.

As Dr Kapoor puts it, The more we stimulate the brainincluding through language learningthe more we can offset or slow degenerative diseases." And as Dr Bahrani notes, Even one additional language provides a meaningful layer of cognitive resilience."

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For ageing individuals, multilingualism may not just be a skill, it may be a form of long-term brain health insurance.

First Published: December 02, 2025, 08:00 IST

News lifestyle Thinking Of Learning A New Language? It May Actually Slow Down Brain Ageing, New Study Says

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Preity Zinta Wins Rs 10-Crore Tax Dispute As ITAT Mumbai Flags Major Reassessment Lapse

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 20:33 IST

Preity Zinta wins Rs 10-crore tax dispute as ITAT Mumbai overturns earlier orders, citing reassessment lapses.

Preity Zinta won her tax case.

The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) in Mumbai has set aside a tax demand of nearly Rs 10 crore raised against Preity Zinta, ruling that the reassessment proceedings initiated against her were not examined correctly by the tax authorities.

The dispute began after Zinta filed her 2016 return as a non-resident, disclosing an income of Rs 46 lakh. During internal monitoring, the department detected a series of high-value transactions in one of her bank accounts, prompting the Assessing Officer to reopen the case under Section 147 for possible undisclosed income.

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A draft assessment order issued on March 31, 2022 proposed revising her income to Rs 11.3 crore. Zinta challenged the move before the Dispute Resolution Panel (DRP), but the panel upheld the additions on December 31, 2022. The final assessment order was later passed on January 23, 2023.

Officials had identified credits and debits amounting to Rs 13.10 crore in a new savings account she opened at Corporation Bank in January 2016. The account showed a deposit of Rs 13 crore followed by a withdrawal of the same amount, leaving only Rs 10,300. The department treated Rs 10 crore of the credited amount as unexplained cash credit under Section 68.

Zinta appealed the decision at ITAT Mumbai, arguing that the reopening of the assessment lacked proper justification. The tribunal agreed, observing that both the Assessing Officer and the DRP had not sufficiently evaluated the basis for reopening the case. It directed the department to revisit the reassessment process and review the matter on its merits.

With the tribunals order dated November 17, 2025, Zinta prevailed in the long-running dispute. She was represented by advocates Dharan Gandhi and Vinita Nara.

First Published: December 02, 2025, 20:33 IST

News movies bollywood Preity Zinta Wins Rs 10-Crore Tax Dispute As ITAT Mumbai Flags Major Reassessment Lapse
Richa Chadha To Lead Indias Premier Environmental Film Festival As Goodwill Champion

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News18.com

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 13:37 IST

Richa Chadha becomes Goodwill Champion for All Living Things Environmental Film Festival, advocating urgent climate action.

Richa Chadha Takes on ALT EFF Goodwill Role.

Richa Chadha has taken on a new role in the environmental space, joining the All Living Things Environmental Film Festival (ALT EFF) as its Goodwill Champion. The festival, known for showcasing films focused on sustainability and ecological issues, aims to highlight urgent conversations around the environment through storytelling.

Confirming her association with the initiative, Chadha spoke about the urgency of the climate crisis and why platforms like ALT EFF are needed now more than ever. She said, The climate emergency is here and is now shaping how we live, in real time. People are moving cities due to air quality or flooding. Weather anomalies and destruction are happening now routinely. We are all affected by it health wise and financially because there is no economy without ecology. A home-grown film festival that tells stories of the earth is a great step because stories are powerful catalysts of change."

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Meanwhile, Richas husband, Ali Fazal, has been named the new international goodwill ambassador for Goodwill Caravan, a global non-profit organisation supporting refugees and displaced people across Northern Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.

Goodwill Caravan provides critical aid to individuals and families fleeing conflict and persecution, offering resources such as shelter, food, healthcare, education, and legal assistance. The organisation focuses on helping refugees rebuild their lives with dignity and safety, supporting integration in the first safe country they reach and reducing their vulnerability to exploitation.

Fazal recently visited Egypt to engage directly with refugees, meeting women and children who had escaped the conflict in Gaza. Reflecting on his experience, he said, Goodwill Caravans work has deeply resonated with me. Its always the common people who lose livelihood due to the wars fought. And here is an eco system that is about giving people a second chance, to rebuild, to belong, and to live with dignity. I feel honored to lend my voice to this cause and to the tireless efforts being made by the wonderful team at Goodwill Caravan to support refugees who have endured unimaginable hardships. I have a child of my own now, and no family, no individual especially kids should be exposed to the cruel drawbacks of war and fleeing to be a refugee in another country. Everyone deserves dignity and being a human, a husband, a son, a father all deeply have made me more aware of the need for empathy and emotion in a world that is alienating us from these very instincts."

First Published: December 02, 2025, 13:37 IST

News movies bollywood Richa Chadha To Lead Indias Premier Environmental Film Festival As Goodwill Champion
Opinion | Digital Racism: Not The First Time That NDA's Desi App Faces Attack Foreign Apps Rarely Do

Written By :



Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 20:41 IST

The opposition and some cyber experts are convinced that Narendra Modi-led NDA is also going to use Sanchar Saathi to keep track of citizens and extract private data

The Centre has also helpfully assured us that Sanchar Saathi cant read your messages, cant listen to calls. (Image for representation)

After CoWIN, Aarogya Sethu, Digilocker its the turn of NDAs anti-fraud" app Sanchar Saathis turn to be skewered. The opposition has labelled it Pegasus +", directly evoking comparisons to the Israeli app that allegedly sneaks into the handsets of unsuspecting mobile users to snoop on them.

The opposition and some cyber experts are convinced that Narendra Modi-led NDA is also going to use Sanchar Saathi to keep track of citizens and extract private data. Stunned by the flurry of accusations, the NDA has hurried to reassure the public that installing or activating the app is optional" and that users may delete it anytime.

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The Centre has also helpfully assured us that Sanchar Saathi cant read your messages, cant listen to calls. All it does says the government is to help you block your lost or stolen phone, report scam calls and fake links, check how many mobile numbers are issued in your name and flag international scam calls pretending to be Indian numbers.

The flare-up over the NDAs anti-fraud platform Sanchar Saathi, therefore, reveals something deeper. For years, Indians have blithely bought Chinese handsets. And have even downloaded foreign platforms.

WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, and dozens of Chinese-made utilities get installed in a blink. Theres hardly any examination of permissions, data flows, or storage policies.

Many of these companies have long, documented histories of privacy lapses. Many have been taken to court for opaque data-sharing practices.

In the case of Chinese apps, the risk is structural. A lot like in India, under Chinas 2017 National Intelligence Law, every company is legally compelled to cooperate with state intelligence. In other words, the threat of backdoor access is backed by law.

And yet, Indian consumers rarely object. And neither is the opposition camping outside Parliament calling for a ban on the sale of Chinese mobiles in India or even Chinese Apps.

Beyond Chinese tech players, US-based Silicon Valley tech giants are actively courted by governments across all Indian geographies. Their offerings lapped up as if they are digital manna from heaven.

But when the Indian government (increasingly even desi-private tech innovators) launches a watch dog" tool for our phones and to protect users theres a storm. Words like surveillance", snooping", and state overreach" are deployed instantly, often without reading the documentation or understanding that Sanchar Saathi does not scrape private messages or monitor behaviour.

This doesnt appear like principled privacy advocacy. It seems more like selective outrage. Critics claim government apps deserve higher scrutiny because the state wields coercive power. Fair enough. But only until you look at the blind trust extended to Chinese apps, where the state and the company are effectively the same entity.

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So why the asymmetry? Why the reflexive suspicion of Indian digital architecture and the unquestioned acceptance of foreign platforms?

Is the Indian state worse than the Chinese? Is Modi more controlling than Xi? Are U.S. tech companies more trustworthy? Or is the suspicion simply a collective expression of a colonised mindset that exalts the phoren over the desi? Is it digital racism?

About the Author Rahul Shivshankar Rahul Shivshankar is Consulting Editor at Network18. He tweets at @RShivshankar

First Published: December 02, 2025, 20:01 IST

News opinion Opinion | Digital Racism: Not The First Time That NDA's Desi App Faces Attack Foreign Apps Rarely Do

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Opinion: Do Sindhi Hindus Deserve A Homeland?

Written By :

News18.com

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 16:36 IST

Sindh is derived from the word Sindhu, strictly a word for river in Sanskrit but also used interchangeably for the Indus river

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Members of the Sindhi community carrying water pots take part in a procession marking the end of 'Jhulelal Chaliha' in August. (PTI)

Defence Minister Rajnath Singhs casual, off-the-cuff comment that civilisationally, Sindh will always be a part of India.Who knows, tomorrow Sindh may return to India again made to a gathering of Sindhi Hindus in New Delhi on November 23rd has triggered an existential meltdown across the border and resulted in a hysterical outburst from the Pakistan Government that was more a jumble of words (delusional, revisionist and expansionist) than a cogent rebuttal.

A more balanced response emanated from Shafi Burfat, chairman of the Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM), a Sindhi Nationalist organisation: We consider Sindh not only the historical homeland of the Sindhi nation, but also the motherland of ancient civilisations. Sindh, from which India derives its very name, is the cradle of human civilisation and the birthplace of one of humanitys oldest cultural identities."

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Further, he added: We firmly believe that the people of Sindh have never been historically connected to Arab or Turkic powers based on religion or ideology. Instead, our civilisational, cultural and historical roots have always been deeply linked with the land of Sapt Sindhudesh, India."

If India derives its name from Sindh, then why is it today a part of Pakistan? What is the civilisational and historical significance of Sindh to India? And do peripatetic Sindhi Hindus have a legitimate right to the Pakistani province of Sindh which is their ancestral homeland? These are the germane questions that will help elaborate on Defence Minister Rajnath Singhs terse remarks.

Sindh is derived from the word Sindhu (strictly a word for river in Sanskrit but also used interchangeably for the Indus river) and is the name given to a roughly triangular tract of land that approximates the current Pakistani province of Sindh. The Sindhu River or Indus is the defining geographical feature of this terrain making it a fertile land for agriculture. It was here on the banks of this mighty river that the Indus Valley civilisation first took roots and then spread out all across the subcontinent; it was along with Egypt and Mesopotamia one of the three known ancient human civilisations. Archaeological evidence for the Indus Valley civilisation was unearthed in the early 1900s in Mohenjo-daro located in Sindh.

A strong association between Sindh and the Vedic culture is clearly documented in our scriptures. The Sindhu River finds extensive mention in the Rig Veda. The Mahabharata refers to Jayadratha, the king of the Sindhu kingdom, who was married to the sister of the Kauravas.

Coming to more modern times, the significance of Sindh is related to two cardinal events in the history of the sub-continent: one, the Muslim invasion of India, and two, the Partition.

In the middle of the first millennium, Sindh was predominantly a Hindu land; Islam was yet to make its violent and brutal entry into India. Raja Dahir was the Hindu king of Sindh at that time. He ruled from 695 to 712 AD. After staving off several attacks on his kingdom by Arab invaders, he fell to the invading army of Muhammad ibn al-Qasim, a military commander of the Umayyad Caliphate.

With regard to the attack of Muhammed Qasim, the historian KS Lal writes: All males of the age of seventeen and upwards were put to the sword and their women and children were enslaved. 1,700 beautiful females, who were under the protection of Budh (that is, had taken shelter in the temple), were all captured with their valuable ornaments, and clothes adorned with jewels. Muhammad dispatched one-fifth of the legal spoil to Hajjaj which included seventy-five damsels, the rest four-fifths were distributed among the soldiers. Thereafter, whichever places he attacked like Rawar, Sehwan, Dhalila, Brahmanabad and Multan, Hindu soldiers and men with arms were slain, the common people fled, or, if flight was not possible, accepted Islam, or paid the poll tax, or died with their religion. Many women of the higher class immolated themselves in Jauhar, most others became prize of the victors. These women and children were enslaved and converted, and batches of them were despatched to the Caliph in regular instalments. For example, after Rawar was taken Muhammad Qasim halted there for three days during which he massacred 6,000 (men). Their followers and dependents, as well as their women and children were taken prisoner. Later on, the slaves were counted, and their number came to 60,000 (of both sexes). Out of these, 30 were young ladies of the royal blood. Muhammad Qasim sent all these to Hajjaj who forwarded them to Walid the Khalifa. He sold some of these female slaves of royal birth, and some he presented to others. (Lal, KS. Muslim Slave System in Medieval India. Voice of India, 1994, Ch.3)."

This victory of Muhammed ibn al-Qasim heralded the beginning of the Muslim invasion of India.

Muhammed ibn al-Qasims siege of Sindh itself was a snapshot of the disaster that was to follow. Over the centuries, the ancient Hindu land of Bharat was brutalised and its people systematically converted to Islam by the imposition of Jizya, slavery and intimidationdeath being the penalty for refusal. Thousands of Hindu and Buddhist temples were destroyed. Despite these overwhelming odds, a certain section of the Sindhis remained true to their faith; they did not forsake their ancient culture but clung ferociously to their beliefs. These are the Sindhi Hindus of today.

Their second tribulation for the Sindhi Hindus came around 1947 during the Partition of India.

In the pre-partition era, Hindus still constituted a significant portion of all Sindhis, close to one-third or more accurately 27 per cent of the entire population. The Hindus were concentrated in the urban areas with nearly all the major cities of Sindh having a Hindu majority: Karachi (51%), Hyderabad (72%), Sukkur (70%), Larkhana (>60%) and Shikarpur (>60%). Additionally, four sub-districts, Umarkot, Nagar Parkar, Mithi, and Chachro that now border Indiaall had Hindu majorities, and several nearby sub-districts were 40 or 45 per cent Hindu.

Nevertheless, close to a million or even more Sindhi Hindus were forced to leave Sindh with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and flee to India during the Partition. Overnight, the cities of Sindh were emptied of affluent Hindus with their numbers dropping to less than 5% of the population.

But the question that haunts my mind is that why was Sindh not partitioned along the lines of Punjab and Bengal which similarly had mixed Hindu-Muslim populations if that was the logic behind demarcating the boundary between the two new nations? By not challenging the accession of Sindh to Pakistan in its entirety, the Congress leaders stand charged of making a gargantuan blundera moral and legal lapse that is hard to excuse.

LK Advani, the former Deputy PM of India and one of the tallest BJP leaders of modern India, hailed from Sindh. In his book, My Country. My Life (Rupa. 2008) he writes: Sindh is now a part of Pakistan, an independent and sovereign nation, a fact that has to be accepted. But from a civilisational perspective, neither can Sindh be separated from India nor can India forget Sindh."

But do we have to accept it? The answer is no.

History is made and wrongs are righted by challenging the unchallengeable. We are under no obligation or heavenly or earthly mandate to accept that Sindh is part of Pakistan in its entirety.

To those nitpickers who bring in the question of international law and the concept of sovereignty of nations, I say as long as Pakistan continues to have illegal designs on Kashmir and flouts our sovereignty by terrorist attacks within our boundaries, we are equally free to raise verbally the question of a division of Sindh (not by militancy or violence).

Raising such an issue will have a double impact. First, it will bring to the fore the nascent and suppressed sentiment of the Sindhi Hindu community for an access and right to their ancestral homeland within the broader framework of India.

Second, it may have far-reaching consequences on Indo-Pak relations especially with regard to the resolution of the Kashmir issue. India has always pursued the moral high ground in international diplomacy adhering to the moral concepts of right and wrong overlooking the hard realpolitik of international diplomacy wherein pressure and counter pressure dictate outcomes. India has always been on the defensive responding to claims on its territory by both Pakistan and China. It is time we changed that narrative and put our enemies on the defensive by resurrecting the legitimate claims that we have.

As to the future of Sindh as a whole, it is for the Sindhis, both Muslim and Hindu, to decide. From remarks of Shafi Burfat, chairman of the Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM), a Sindhi Nationalist organisation, it appears that Sindhis are uncomfortable with the Arabisation that is occurring in Pakistan.

It is possible that Sindh will transform gradually over the next few centuries to reclaim its original identity and merge with the mainstream of its ancient civilisation making the words of our national anthem a practical reality:

Jana-gana-mana-adhinayaka, jaya he

Bharata-bhagya-vidhata

Panjaba-Sindha-Gujrata-Maharata-

Dravida-Utkala-Vanga

Vindhya-Himachala-Yamuna-Ganga

Uchhala-Jaladhi-taranga

Tava shubha name jage

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The writer is a US-based author. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.

First Published: December 02, 2025, 16:32 IST

News opinion Opinion: Do Sindhi Hindus Deserve A Homeland?

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Opinion | Reko Diq: Why Pakistan's Flagship Mining Project In Balochistan Is Doomed To Fail Its People

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News18.com

Last Updated: December 03, 2025, 00:13 IST

Despite being a $7 billion venture, the Reko Diq Mining Company doesn't have an official website, or publicly listed board, CEO disclosure, and accessible governance structure

Reko Diq, located in Balochistan's Chagai district, is shaping up to be another Saindak  a different mega project in the same district. (Image: @tarikdev/X)

For years, Pakistan has marketed the Reko Diq copper-gold mine as a transformational" project destined to uplift Balochistan.

Yet the deeper one looks, the clearer it becomes: Reko Diq, located in Balochistans Chagai district, is shaping up to be another Saindak  a different mega-project in the same district, rich in promise but barren in benefits for the people who live on the land being mined.

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At the heart of the crisis lies lack of transparency. Despite being a $7 billion venture, the Reko Diq Mining Company (RDMC) has no official public website, no publicly listed Board of Directors, no CEO disclosure, and no accessible governance structure.

This is not a privately funded enterprise  it is a 50-50 partnership between Barrick Gold and the Pakistan government, financed in large by Pakistani taxpayers via Oil & Gas Development Company (OGDC), Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (PPL), Government Holdings (Private) Ltd, and the Balochistan government. Yet, the public has no information on how decisions are made, who signs off on major deals, or what safeguards exist for public wealth.

Such opacity erodes trust, especially in a province where decades of resource extraction have delivered almost nothing to local residents. The Saindak project generated billions in revenue for foreign operators and Islamabad, yet left Chagais communities mired in poverty. Those memories are fresh  and they shape the growing scepticism about Reko Diq.

PROJECT SURROUNDED BY UNREST AND DISTRUST

While Islamabad paints Reko Diq as a development miracle, the reality on the ground is far more volatile.

The region has seen sharp rises in unrest, shutdowns, and targeted attacks  symptoms of deep-rooted alienation. This instability was underscored by a recent suicide bombing in Nokundi town, where a woman allegedly targeted the Frontier Corps Headquarters in an attack later claimed by the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF).

The incident, widely condemned, illustrates the severity of the anger among local residents and the dangerous direction in which the conflict is moving. This violence is not isolated.

According to data from 2024, Balochistan recorded 938 militant attacks  a 53 percent increase over 2023  resulting in over 1,002 deaths, 689 injuries, and severe property damage across 327 areas in 25 districts. In that year alone, fatalities rose by 80 percent as compared to the previous year. The surge in violence threatens any possibility of stable, long-term operations.

Further underlining the scale of unrest: in February, nationwide terrorism-related deaths surged 73 percent compared to the previous month, with 62 percent of all fatalities taking place in Balochistan. That month alone witnessed 121 deaths across Pakistan, many in Balochistan.

These numbers reflect a province under heavy pressure  one where security risks, civilian losses, and instability are not exceptional but routine. Armed groups continue to warn foreign investors that the project lacks local consent.

Their messaging reflects long-standing grievances over exclusion, dispossession, and fears that billions in mineral wealth will once again bypass the communities living above the deposits.

DEVELOPMENT PROMISE VS GROUND REALITY

Officials claim that Reko Diq will create thousands of jobs and transform Balochistan".

But similar promises were made with China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Saindak. Roads were built, ports inaugurated, and billions flowed through the province, but the communities at the centre of these mega projects remained untouched by prosperity.

Resentment among local residents is fuelled by the absence of any clear revenue-sharing mechanism, along with no guarantees of substantial local employment or transparency over environmental impacts. Communities say they were never meaningfully consulted, and with political representation already undermined by widely disputed elections, many believe they have no legitimate voice in decisions being imposed on them.

Even the financing of Reko Diq reflects outside interests: a proposed G7-backed package via International Finance Corporation (IFC), Export-Import Bank (EXIM), Development Finance Corporation, Asian Development Bank (ADB), and western lenders. Yet none of these involve consultation or negotiation with the people living in Chagai.

INSURGENCY A SYMPTOM, NOT THE CAUSE

Balochistans unrest did not begin with Reko Diq, and it will not end with it.

The province has experienced generations of political marginalisation, enforced disappearances, security crackdowns, and economic exclusion. The surge in recent attacks  and the horrifying rise of suicide operations  reflects a region where hope is fading and the states legitimacy is eroding. The more militarised the province becomes, the more mega projects are perceived as symbols of exploitation rather than engines of growth.

WHY REKO DIQ IS ON TRACK TO FAIL

Despite its billion-dollar backing, the Reko Diq project faces structural failures baked into its design.

Heres all you need to know:

Zero transparency in governance and operations.

No meaningful inclusion of local stakeholders.

Escalating insecurity in a volatile region.

Historical pattern of extractive projects enriching outsiders, not local residents.

Lack of credible local representation after years of manipulated governance.

A project that ignores the social, political, and security realities of Balochistan cannot endure  no matter how much gold or copper lies beneath the mountains. Without trust, consultation, and direct benefits to local residents, Reko Diq risks becoming another example of Pakistans extractive governance: billions for investors, nothing for the people whose land is being mined.

WHAT IS THE PATH AHEAD?

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If Islamabad and Barrick Gold continue pushing ahead without addressing local grievances, the project will remain vulnerable to instability, community hostility, and operational risk.

Military escorts and crackdowns cannot fix what is fundamentally a crisis of legitimacy. Reko Diq will remain a billion-dollar dream built on fractured ground  more likely to inflame tensions than bring development.

About the Author Manoj Gupta Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18

First Published: December 03, 2025, 00:12 IST

News opinion Opinion | Reko Diq: Why Pakistan's Flagship Mining Project In Balochistan Is Doomed To Fail Its People

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Opinion | The Butterfly Effect That Is The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism

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News18.com

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 14:12 IST

On one hand, CBAM has spurred many countries to initiate domestic carbon pricing measures. On the other, it has triggered ripples of mistrust among countries

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The EU climate chief argued at COP30 that he would not be lured into the suggestion that the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is aimed at restricting trade.

The recently concluded 30th Conference of Parties (COP30) on climate in Brazil witnessed an intense debate related to the issue of Unilateral Trade Measures (UTM). India has been consistently highlighting this issue across trade and climate platforms, and finally managed to elevate this debate at COP30, with this being one of the key issues discussed at the annual climate event, even if it was not on the formal agenda. The opinions between the developing and the developed world are deeply divided.

The EU climate chief argued at COP30 that he would not be lured into the suggestion" that the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is aimed at restricting trade. CBAM applies a carbon cost to imports such as steel, aluminum, cement, fertilisers, and electricity, based on the carbon emissions generated during their production.

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The EU, and most in the developed world, want to present CBAM within the framework of a supportive and international economic system that should be discussed at an annual high-level summit convened by the UNSG, while the developing world wants to frame the issue as a unilateral trade measure with a dedicated platform to discuss the same. However, does the position taken by Indian negotiators reflect the sentiment of Indias stakeholders? Recent research by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) reveals some interesting insights in this direction.

We interviewed stakeholders from the Indian industry, academia and think tanks to assess how the country should respond to the EU CBAM in their view. The resulting study found four key insights. Firstly, Indias best response lies in strengthening its domestic carbon pricing architecture. A carbon trading system that prices carbon is already in its initial stages in India. In fact, discussions during COP30 revealed that many countries across the developing world, including Indonesia, Vietnam, Turkey and others, are already in the process of creating a domestic carbon pricing system motivated by CBAM.

Secondly, building a robust and transparent measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) framework is critical. Data is the backbone of CBAM reporting This requires a solid MRV system. Thirdly, capacity building of Indias industry, particularly that of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), is imperative. MSMEs, particularly those with export-oriented operations, could be significantly impacted and need to understand how to navigate the complexities of CBAM.

Finally, ensuring that principles of equity and fairness remain central to global Border Carbon Adjustment (BCA) Mechanisms. As we have been witnessing across multiple COPs, the issue of equity and fairness is often discussed on paper but rarely implemented in practice. Even if the EU doesnt want to discuss CBAM as a climate issue, it cant ignore its equity implications.

These findings are interesting as they point to two broad implications for India and the world. The first three insights collectively imply that Indian stakeholders have (grudgingly) accepted that CBAM will be a reality sooner rather than later, and that India must start preparing to face it through a domestic carbon pricing architecture, robust MRV systems, as well as capacity building for Indias industry. The fourth insight implies only one thingfight for equity and fairness, because it will be consistently sidelined by the developed world. This is the fight that Indias negotiators are fighting at various forums, including climate conferences. But the fight will not just play out at climate forums; it is bound to spill into the trade arena through retaliation. This retaliation will not be a counter-CBAM measure, as many are arguing; it will be deeper than that. This sentiment is not unique to India: an African expert at COP30 noted that due to CBAM, African countries are now looking to sign critical mineral deals with China instead of Europe.

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As with the butterfly effect, a small change has tremendous consequences. The EU hasnt realised yet what it has set off. On one hand, CBAM has indeed spurred many countries to initiate domestic carbon pricing measures, either through a tax or an emissions trading scheme, which could be a positive for climate policy if these are designed for national contexts. On the other hand, it has triggered ripples of mistrust among countries, which is bound to result in retaliatory measures. It is not just India; countries across the global South are standing up against this unilateral trade measure. Seeds of trade war were sown long before Donald Trump came to power in the US. CBAMs butterfly effect is unfolding in front of us.

Dr Vaibhav Chaturvedi is Senior Fellow and Aparna Sharma is Programme Lead at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW). Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.

First Published: December 02, 2025, 14:11 IST

News opinion Opinion | The Butterfly Effect That Is The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism

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Opinion | Why Disruption Cannot Be The Oppositions Parliamentary Strategy

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News18.com

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 18:23 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged Opposition leaders not to turn the Winter Session of Parliament into a stage for theatrics

There is also disquiet within the Congress on the leadership of Rahul Gandhi and indeed the Gandhi family. (PTI)

In his customary address to the media ahead of a parliamentary session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Opposition leaders not to turn the Winter Session into a stage for theatrics. Parliament is not a place for drama; it is a place for delivery," he said on Monday, adding: For some time now, our Parliament is being used either as a warm-up arena for elections or as an outlet for frustration after defeat."

Prime Minister Modis strong admonitions and appeals to the opposition to not vent their frustration at their recent rout in the Bihar Assembly elections fell, quite predictably, on deaf ears. The wrath is not only directed at the ruling NDA alliance, but at the Election Commission, a constitutional body; also, at the courts, including the Supreme Court, for not supporting the spurious Congress and Trinamool Congress (TMC) allegations.

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This is not the first time that such wastage of time and public money is being done  and that too at the temple of Indias democracy. Last year, the winter session lost more than 65 hours to adjournments. This years monsoon session ended with just about 29 per cent of the scheduled time marked for the Lok Sabha and 34 per cent for the Rajya Sabha.

This is a time when we must act. First and foremost, a process must be set in to bring a law that not just guarantees minimum days for the House to work, but also the hours it should be working. Any disruption must reflect in monetary losses for them.

Second, suspension of members for their unruly behaviour seems to have lost its teeth. The time has also come to link a members unruly behaviour with the loss of their privileges and public funding.

Also, the government needs to ponder if expulsions will work better than persuasion. Many people believe nothing short of it will make any difference to parliamentarians enamoured of extra-constitutional methods, bent on stopping the work of the House  methods that instigate mobs and riots, arson and violence on the streets.

We have seen how suspending them for a day or two, or even a week, has not worked in the past. Maybe they could be sent out for the whole session. Their terms as members of Parliament could be cut from five years to four or even three, till they decide to behave appropriately in the House. Since such people are, thankfully, in a minority in Parliament, they can and must be firmly dealt with.

It must be said that not all parties in the opposition at this time are of one mind, and some want to proceed with the business at hand. The Prime Ministers remarks occasioned strong reactions from the Congress, though it has won only 6 seats out of 243 in Bihar. There is no acceptance of reality, no urge to change its ways. Instead, its anger was wrapped in an assertion that the conduct of the elections was unfair, followed by a clamour for an immediate discussion on the ongoing SIR process. This, even if the discussion was held under the broader category of election reforms.

However, several other opposition parties were markedly more interested in pursuing other issues, including the legislative agenda first.

A clear division in the ranks of the so-called I.N.D.I.A opposition alliance is evidently forming, and the leadership of the alliance by Congress might well be under review. The TMC from West Bengal, for example, was already moving on its own and not attending meetings called by Congress. There is also disquiet within the Congress on the leadership of Rahul Gandhi and indeed the Gandhi family.

That the recent Vote Chori campaign in the media and the tour in Bihar undertaken by Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav pulled a blank, and possibly harmed their cause, must be still rankling. And yet, the Congress is determined to continue the campaign. But others in the opposition alliance, including Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD, are not convinced. There is apparently no Vote Chori except as a fantasy in Rahul Gandhis mind!

The Prime Minister urged the sections of the opposition who are busy accusing the Election Commission to get over their obsession. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju was more conciliatory and assured the protestors that the government would consider the demand for a discussion on SIR, but the timelines for it could not be dictated by the opposition.

Through the noise, a bill was passed on the morning of day one in the Lok Sabha. It implemented the GST law in Manipur. But another two bills, also tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to rejig levies on tobacco, pan masala and related goods, could not proceed in the face of constant slogan shouting. This resulted, as usual, in the Lok Sabha being adjourned for the rest of the day. Every expensive session of Parliament functions in this chaotic manner.

The Rajya Sabha fared no better, with the opposition Congress, CPM and TMC demanding an immediate discussion on SIR and eventually walking out when it was not agreed to. The plan is to keep it up for days and take it to the entrances and lawns outside as well.

The real fear is that the SIR process, now to take place in just 12 states at first, will catch out many illegals. The process, to update and sanctify the electoral rolls, may weed out lakhs of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. If found out, they have been added with the likely connivance of parties who use them in their vote banks. That the SIR has been regularly conducted every few years since Independence is conveniently ignored.

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Everyone knows what is going on. The real issue is how far the government is prepared to go before it steps and says: Enough is enough.

The writer is a Delhi-based political commentator. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.

First Published: December 02, 2025, 18:23 IST

News opinion Opinion | Why Disruption Cannot Be The Oppositions Parliamentary Strategy

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Right Word | RSS@100: Reimagining Hindutva Globally And The Civilisational Response To Western Nationalism

Written By :

News18.com

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 12:02 IST

In its centenary year, it is important to understand the RSSs philosophy of Hindutva and why it wants to make the idea global

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It is important to understand how the Sangh views this philosophy from a global perspective and why it wants to take Hindutva global. (PTI)

In the centenary year of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the largest voluntary organisation in the world, the philosophy of Hindutva, i.e., Hinduness, is being discussed across the globe. In this context, it is important to understand how the organisation views this philosophy from a global perspective and why it wants to take Hindutva global.

RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat recently said in his interaction with prominent citizens in Bengaluru on 8-9 November, What is the life mission of the Hindu nation? Swami Vivekananda had said, every nation has a message to deliver, a mission to accomplish, a destiny to fulfil. Bharat also has a mission, to give Dharma to the world."

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In this context, it is important to understand the concept of Dharma, how Hindutva is rooted in the concept of Dharma, and how it differs from religion. Dharma is a way of life based on eternal values such as co-existence and happiness for all (Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah), rooted in ancient Indian wisdom. Religion is related to a particular way of worship. There is no connection between the two. Hence, even the concept of a Hindu nation is misconstrued and often projected as a deathblow to secularism, which is an integral part of a modern democratic nation-state. This is an outcome of viewing the concepts of Dharma and the Hindu Nation through the lens of Western nationalism.

Indian Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore had pointed out this fallacy of Western nationalism in the early decades of the 20th century when he said, The political civilisation which has sprung up from the soil of Europe and is overrunning the whole world, like some prolific weed, is based upon exclusiveness. It is always watchful to keep the aliens at bay or to exterminate them. It is carnivorous and cannibalistic in its tendencies; it feeds upon the resources of other peoples and tries to swallow their whole future. It is always afraid of other races achieving eminence, naming it as a peril, and tries to thwart all symptoms of greatness outside its own boundaries, forcing down races of men who are weaker to be eternally fixed in their weakness.

Before this political civilisation came to its power and opened its hungry jaws wide enough to gulp down great continents of the earth, we had wars, pillages, changes of monarchy and consequent miseries, but never such a sight of fearful and hopeless voracity, such wholesale feeding of nation upon nation, such huge machines for turning great portions of the earth into mince-meat, never such terrible jealousies with all their ugly teeth and claws ready for tearing open each others vitals. This political civilisation is scientific, not human. It is powerful because it concentrates all its forces upon one purpose, like a millionaire acquiring money at the cost of his soul."

It betrays its trust, it weaves its meshes of lies without shame, it enshrines gigantic idols of greed in its temples, taking great pride in the costly ceremonials of its worship, calling this patriotism. And it can be safely prophesied that this cannot go on, for there is a moral law in this world which has its application both to individuals and to organised bodies of men. You cannot go on violating these laws in the name of your nation, yet enjoy their advantage as individuals. This public sapping of ethical ideals slowly reacts upon each member of society, gradually breeding weakness where it is not seen, and causing that cynical distrust of all things sacred in human nature, which is the true symptom of senility. You must keep in mind that this political civilisation, this creed of national patriotism, has not been given a long trial."

The lamp of ancient Greece is extinct in the land where it was first lighted, the power of Rome lies dead and buried under the ruins of its vast empire. But the civilization whose basis is society and the spiritual ideal of man is still a living thing in India. Though it may look feeble and small, judged by the standard of the mechanical power of modern days, yet like small seeds it still contains life and will sprout and grow, and spread its beneficent branches, producing flowers and fruits when its time comes and showers of grace descend upon it from heaven."

Tagore also pointed out the lack of understanding in Western nationalism regarding the civilisational values that form the core of Hindu nationalism when he said, But the charge is brought against us that the ideals we cherish in the East are static, that they have not the impetus in them to move, to open out new vistas of knowledge and power, that the systems of philosophy which are the mainstays of the time-worn civilisations of the East despise all outward proofs, remaining stolidly satisfied in their subjective certainty. This proves that when our knowledge is vague, we are apt to accuse of vagueness our object of knowledge itself."

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He aptly summed it up: To a Western observer our civilisation appears as all metaphysics, as to a deaf man piano-playing appears to be mere movements of fingers and no music. He cannot think that we have found some deep basis of reality upon which we have built our institutions."

The writer is an author and columnist. His X handle is @ArunAnandLive. Views expressed are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.

First Published: December 02, 2025, 12:02 IST

News opinion Right Word | RSS@100: Reimagining Hindutva Globally And The Civilisational Response To Western Nationalism

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 13:26 IST

1 / 14 Boman Irani, one of Bollywoods most refined and versatile actors, tried his hand at several jobs long before stepping into cinema. Born into a Parsi family, he inherited his late fathers small shop, essentially a bakery, where he sold chips and fafdas. + Follow us On Google

2 / 14 Before he became an actor, Boman Irani managed his parent's bakery to support the household. This phase shaped him deeply, keeping him rooted in everyday realities. His father passed away when he was very young, and his mother raised the family alone.

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3 / 14 As a child, Boman Irani was quite different from others. He had little interest in studies and struggled with dyslexia, often becoming the subject of teasing. But his mother never gave up; she sent him for speech therapy, helping him gradually overcome his challenges.

4 / 14 Over time, Boman Irani completed his education, pursued hotel management, and worked at Mumbais iconic Taj Hotel. The job taught him professionalism, patience, and how to interact with people from all walks of life.

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5 / 14 To support his mother and run the family, he eventually took charge of his fathers bakery. Boman Irani has often said in interviews that he alternated between working as a waiter at the Taj and managing the bakery, doing whatever was needed to keep things going.

6 / 14 As life began to take a positive turn, Boman Irani found a way back to his first love: photography. Before he entered films, he was already known as a skilled photographer.

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7 / 14 After gaining recognition behind the camera, he stepped into acting. In 2001, he appeared in the English-language films Everybody Says Im Fine and Lets Talk, but his breakthrough came in 2003 with Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.

8 / 14 Remarkably, he made his full-fledged Bollywood debut at the age of 44. His performance as Dr Asthana in Rajkumar Hiranis Munna Bhai M.B.B.S made him an overnight sensation. He even stole the spotlight from leads Sanjay Dutt and Sunil Dutt.

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9 / 14 Reflecting on the films success, Boman Irani said he was stunned to see theatres packed to capacity.

10 / 14 Boman Irani, celebrated for his memorable roles in films like Khosla Ka Ghosla, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye and Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., has brought unforgettable characters to life with his impeccable acting.

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11 / 14 Boman Irani went on to act in several major hits, including 3 Idiots, Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd., Dostana, Yuvvraaj, Hum Tum Aur Ghost, Housefull, Housefull 2, and Sanju.

12 / 14 The actor marked his directorial debut with The Mehta Boys. The film revolves around a troubled father-son relationship, where Boman Irani portrays a father navigating a complicated bond with his son. Alongside Boman Irani, the film stars Avinash Tiwary and Shreya Chaudhry in prominent roles.

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13 / 14 Today, he is regarded as one of the industrys most gifted performers. His son later debuted with Student of the Year, although his acting career didnt quite take off.
Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 13:38 IST

1 / 11 He was often called the first true superstar of Indian cinema, who lived a life that most could only dream of. With a record number of hit films, an unmatched fan following, and a massive house that became a landmark, he seemed to have it all. + Follow us On Google

2 / 11 The actor witnessed unprecedented success as a leading man in the 1960s and 1970s, whose charm, style, and stardom were unmatched.

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3 / 11 But behind the glitter was a life few really knew. Success came fast, but the fall from stardom was just as sudden.

4 / 11 The man in question is Rajesh Khanna. Towards the end of his life, he withdrew from the world and spent most of his time alone at his iconic home, Aashirwaad.

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5 / 11 After his passing in July 2012, something unusual was found inside the Mumbai home: 64 unopened suitcases.

6 / 11 Wondering whats inside? These were filled with gifts he had bought during his foreign trips for friends and loved ones. But for unknown reasons, they were never delivered.

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7 / 11 In Rajesh Khannas biography, Dark Star The Loneliness of Being Rajesh Khanna, penned by Gautam Chintamani and published by Rupa Publications, an excerpt read, Every time Khanna made an overseas trip, he returned with gifts. Sometimes he presented them to the people he had picked them up for, and sometimes he forgot about them. Many a times, he didnt even bother opening the suitcases he returned with.

8 / 11 After his death, almost 64 unopened suitcases were found strewn across Aashirwaad - quite odd for someone who loved to play the host and lived to regale people he considered close, it added.

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9 / 11 According to The Times of India, his late-life partner, Anita Advani, shared that Rajesh once dreamed of turning Aashirwaad into a museum celebrating his journey. But after his death, the house was demolished.

10 / 11 Rajesh Khanna died in Mumbai on July 18, 2012, at the age of 69, after a prolonged illness.

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 08:31 IST

1 / 11 Samantha Ruth Prabhu tied the knot with filmmaker Raj Nidimoru on Monday, December 1. The couple who have been hush-hush about their relationship got married at Isha Foundation's Linga Bhairavi Temple in Coimbatore. + Follow us On Google

2 / 11 Samantha confirmed the news by posting a bunch of pictures from the wedding on Instagram. She simply wrote, "01.12.2025" and added heart emojis.

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3 / 11 As congratulatory messages pour in from all sides, some social media users are also asking whether Raj is part of the famous filmmaker duo Raj & DK. The short answer is yes.

4 / 11 Raj and his friend Krishna Dasarakothapalli, better known as DK, are a renowned filmmaker duo.

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5 / 11 They are known for their unique blend of comedy and thriller genres in Indian cinema. Their breakthrough came with Stree (2018), after which there was no looking back.

6 / 11 Raj and DK forayed into the world of web series too, with the now-popular spy thriller The Family Man. Led by Manoj Bajpayee, the Prime Video show returned for its 3rd season recently.

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7 / 11 Raj was born in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, to a Telugu family on August 4, 1975. Meanwhile, his friend was born in Chittoor, AP. They met while studying at the SVU College of Engineering,

8 / 11 The iconic duo also made films and series like Shor in the City (2011), Go Goa Gone (2013), Farzi (2023), Guns & Gulaabs (2023), and Citadel: Honey Bunny (2024). They made their debut with the 2009 short, Hindi feature film 99.

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9 / 11 Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Raj Nidimoru are believed to have met when the actress was shooting for The Family Man season 2. Samantha was also a part of Citadel: Honey Bunny.

10 / 11 Raj Nidimorus former wife is filmmaker-writer Shhyamali De, while Samantha was previously married to actor Naga Chaitanya.

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 17:18 IST

1 / 7 In a serene valley tucked away in Uttarakhand's Nainital district stands a shrine that has, over the decades, grown from a quiet ashram into a global centre of faith. At Kainchi Dham, dedicated to the revered mystic Neem Karoli Baba, a simple woollen blanket has become an enduring symbol of miracles, one that continues to draw millions of devotees each year. (News18 Hindi) + Follow us On Google

2 / 7 The temple complex, embraced by thick forests and mountain winds, has witnessed a steady rise in footfall. Visitors, ranging from villagers and business leaders to international seekers from the US, Russia, and Europe, arrive with stories of grace, healing and inexplicable interventions. For many, the journey is less about the destination and more about a quiet encounter with the mystic whose teachings travelled far beyond the Himalayan foothills. (News18 Hindi)

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3 / 7 Among the many traditions associated with Neem Karoli Baba, the act of offering a blanket stands out for its emotional and spiritual depth. Baba was often seen draped in a simple kambal, wearing little else beyond a dhoti. His followers say this blanket was not just cloth but an extension of his presence. Today, devotees bring blankets to the temple, where priests briefly touch them to Babas idol before handing them back as prasad. These blankets, taken home, are treated not as everyday objects but as sacred relics believed to carry the saints blessings. (News18 Hindi)

4 / 7 Members of the Kainchi Dham Trust recount numerous incidents, recorded in books and oral histories, where Baba is said to have used his blanket to comfort and heal people. From calming the distressed to easing illnesses, the kambal appears repeatedly in miracle accounts, earning Baba the affectionate title "Kambal Wale Baba". For families who receive a blessed blanket today, it becomes a treasured heirloom. Devotees say they keep it safely in their home shrines and take it out during moments of crisis or celebration, believing it brings protection and strength. (News18 Hindi)

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5 / 7 The ritual of offering a blanket often follows a moment of personal triumph or relief. A new job, recovery from a long illness, the resolution of a family conflict, the start of a business, devotees return to the Dham to express gratitude. The priests, custodians of this tradition, describe it as an intimate exchange of faith; a devotees offering meets Babas blessing, and the bond between them is renewed. (News18 Hindi)

6 / 7 Stories passed through families say Babas blanket carries healing energy. According to devotees, placing the prasad blanket over someone who is unwell can bring comfort or relief. Though rooted in faith rather than medicine, these testimonies have kept the belief alive for decades. In many homes, the blanket is brought out only on auspicious occasions or when hardship strikes. (News18 Hindi)

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In today's News18 Daily Digest: The Winter Session of Parliament began with chaos as opposition members disrupted proceedings in both Houses demanding debate on electoral roll revisions, resulting in multiple adjournments and a Rajya Sabha walkout. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is meeting Deputy CM DK Shiv Kumar for breakfast in a show of unity amid recent leadership tensions. The government revealed that fugitive economic offenders including Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi owe over 57,000 crore with interest, while only 19,817 crore has been recovered. Maharashtras ruling Mahayuti alliance faces internal friction as Shiv Sena MLA Nilesh Rane accused BJP of distributing cash to voters ahead of civic body elections on December 2. UNEP warns that North Indias air pollution has reached crisis levels, prompting the Supreme Court to ask the government to revisit Delhi-NCR air quality strategies. In Kerala, suspended Congress MLA Rahul Mamkootathil remains absconding while facing serious charges, as police crack down on social media harassment of the complainant. Tune in for updates...
BJPs Uttar Pradesh President May Be Announced By End Of Week: Party Sources After RSS Meet

Reported By :

News18.com

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 19:40 IST

Senior RSS leaders held a series of closed-door meetings with the government and BJP leaders on Monday

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Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath with Deputy Chief Ministers Brijesh Pathak and Keshav Prasad Maurya and state BJP President Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary. (PTI File)

The much-awaited selection of the Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president has been completed and only a formal announcement remains, according to signals emerging from the BJP-RSS meeting on Monday.

The name of the new BJP President for UP could be announced in the coming days, said sources, adding it could be as soon as by the end of the week. Senior functionaries say that the new National President of the BJP could also be announced in the coming few days.

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Senior RSS leaders held a series of closed-door meetings with the government and BJP leaders all through Monday.

RSS national coordinator Arun Kumar and BJP national organisation general secretary BL Santosh arrived in Lucknow on Monday and held a meeting with Kshetra Pracharaks Anil Singh and Mahendra Kumar. They also met Kshetra Karwah of Kashi region, among other functionaries, and took feedback on the governments performance and party activities.

Kumar and Santosh then held a high-profile meeting with CM Yogi, Deputy CMs Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brijesh Pathak at the CMs residence. Also present were state general secretary organisation Dharampal and state BJP president Bhupendra Choudhary.

The name of the new BJP president for Uttar Pradesh was discussed, and the preferences of the national leadership were also conveyed to those present.

Sources say that the new President has been finalised from a shortlist comprising candidates from the Brahmin, OBC, and Dalit leadership.

Kumar and Santosh also conveyed their views on the governments and partys performance at the meeting. They expressed their concern that ministers and elected representatives like MLAs and MPs were not taking interest in the ongoing SIR exercise.

The two top leaders stressed upon starting an exercise to weed out infiltrators and discussed the governments plan to go about it. They also conveyed their views on the performance of various ministries and departments as per feedback from their cadres.

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The BJP organisation and RSS had gathered inputs about the governments performance from the ground and discussed it in detail at the meeting, especially as the state now gears up for polls in early 2027.

The completion of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya, a long-held promise of the BJP and RSS, was also part of the deliberations.

First Published: December 02, 2025, 18:49 IST

News politics BJPs Uttar Pradesh President May Be Announced By End Of Week: Party Sources After RSS Meet

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'Divisive': BJP Slams MP Renuka Choudhary For Claiming Army Leaders Pressured To Speak For Govt

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 14:44 IST

BJP national spokesperson CR Kesavan condemned her comments, calling them an assault on the dignity of Indias armed forces.

File photo of BJP leader CR Kesavan and Congress MP Renuka Choudhary. (PTI)

The BJP on Tuesday launched a sharp attack on Congress MP Renuka Choudhary after she claimed that Army leaders were being pressured to publicly support the government. Speaking in Delhi, Choudhary said, The most frightening situation is that, for the first time, Army leaders are coming out and saying that they are being pressured to speak in support of the government" Her remarks immediately triggered a political confrontation.

BJP national spokesperson CR Kesavan condemned her comments, calling them an assault on the dignity of Indias armed forces. These deeply divisive & malicious remarks of Congress MP Smt. Renuka Choudhary demeaning the dignity of our valiant armed forces is most condemnable," he said. Kesavan accused the Congress of having a Sena Virodhi mentality", alleging that senior party leaders have a history of insulting the military.

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These deeply divisive & malicious remarks of Congress MP Smt. Renuka Choudhary demeaning the dignity of our valiant armed forces is most condemnable. Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party with their Sena Virodhi mentality have been serial offenders when it comes to abusing our pic.twitter.com/eO0o0WGXpn C.R.Kesavan (@crkesavan) December 2, 2025

He cited several past instances to back his charge. In the past Congress leaders have humiliated the Chief of Armed forces with pejoratives like Sadak Ka Goonda," he said, adding that unpatriotic Congress leaders have repeatedly questioned the credibility of surgical strikes, Balakot air strikes and #OperationSindoor." Kesavan also recalled that Rahul Gandhi was reprimanded by the Court" for using the word pitaai in reference to the Army, saying the court had noted that no true Indian would say such things."

For our Armed forces, people and national interest comes first and foremost," Kesavan said, demanding an apology from the Congress MP. Smt. Renuka Choudhary should immediately apologise to our brave Armed forces for these repulsive remarks politicising their selfless sacrifice and valour."

The Congress has yet to issue a formal response to the BJPs statement, but Choudharys comments have already added a new flashpoint to the ongoing political battle over the independence of the armed forces and the alleged politicisation of national security.

BJP Reacts To Renukas Dog Comments

The BJP on Tuesday hit out at Congress MP Renuka Choudhary after her remarks comparing MPs to dogs triggered an unexpected controversy in Parliament. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said the language used by Choudhary was unbecoming of a parliamentarian. The manner in which Renuka ji has responded (on dog comments) I wont repeat those words. Congress MPs are using such language," he said.

Patra also criticised Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi for his remarks when asked about the incident. Today RG, who is LoP, was asked  he said, Did dog come till here? Is it not allowed?

He said andar toh allowed hai, pointing towards Parliament," Patra recounted. We did not expect this from RG I hope he goes home and listens to his own and Renukas byte. With this kind of speech and behaviour, will the nation respect you?"

The row erupted after Renuka Choudhary arrived for the first day of the Winter Session with a puppy in her arms, prompting surprise and prompting questions about parliamentary protocol. Choudhary later sent the dog back in her car, but before doing so, she remarked, Those who bite are inside Parliament," a quip the BJP said insulted the dignity of the House.

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Choudhary defended her actions, claiming she had adopted the puppy on her way to Parliament and questioning whether any rule barred an MP from bringing a dog to the premises.

The brief appearance of the animal, and Choudharys comments, quickly sparked political sparring between the ruling BJP and the Congress.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 14:14 IST

News politics 'Divisive': BJP Slams MP Renuka Choudhary For Claiming Army Leaders Pressured To Speak For Govt

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Inside Siddaramaiah-Shivakumar Breakfast Meets: Karnataka CM Post Drama Continues To Simmer

Reported By :

News18.com Edited By: Manjiri Joshi



Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 20:00 IST

Breakfast meetings seem to have become the Congresss new political template in Karnataka

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DK Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah have had two breakfast meets. (X)

There is more to the breakfast meetings in Karnataka than what appears on the surface.

When News18 asked a senior Congress leader close to DK Shivakumar camp if there would be a change of guard after the meet between Deputy CM and CM Siddaramaiah, the reply was sharp, When the high command says."

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That response alone suggests that beneath the calm surface, the water is far from still.

Breakfast diplomacy, politics

Breakfast meetings seem to have become the Congresss new political template in Karnataka. After the high command instructed Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM Shivakumar to resolve their differences within the state, the first gesture of reconciliation came when Siddaramaiah invited Shivakumar for breakfast at his home. Shivakumar followed it up by inviting the CM and serving some of his favourite dishes.

For leaders close to both camps, these meetings are meant to project strength, unity and a commitment to take the Congress forward.

Siddaramaiah himself hinted at the next layer of the script when he said, If I get time, I will meet the high command," signalling that a briefing is imminent.

What the high command says, what Rahul Gandhi says, we will follow," reiterated Siddaramaiah, which was reaffirmed by Shivakumar as well. Clearly, the ball continues to remain in the high commands court.

Another senior leader from the Siddaramaiah camp also stated, Whatever action Rahul Gandhi takes, we will follow."

With a meeting expected with KC Venugopal in Mangaluru, all eyes are on what direction will come from the top. It was Venugopals call that had pushed both leaders to sit across the table at the very first breakfast.

No-confidence buzz, next chapter in Delhi

Both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar are scheduled to travel to Delhi on December 8 to meet MPs and discuss state-related issues, particularly MSP, maize procurement and farmers concerns. They will leave immediately after the Assembly session concludes that day.

Addressing the BJPs claim that it plans to move a no-confidence motion, Siddaramaiah said, The BJP claimed they will move a no-confidence motion and that they want to raise other issues in the Assembly, so we planned and prepared a strategy to oppose it aggressively. We are running the government and we will give them an answer accordingly  be it about the maize procurement, the sugarcane issue. We are a pro-farmer government always."

Meanwhile, breakfast diplomacy" has received a full push from the central leadership. Shivakumar made it clear that the menu itself was part of the political signalling. The naati koli dish, the CMs favourite, was prepared, and the 90-minute sitting to discuss and strengthen their collective efforts to deliver on promises to Karnataka."

A senior Congress leader said, The discussion in the first breakfast meeting was to strategise and ensure that the Congress leads in a united front and works towards ensuring a bigger majority and victory in the 2028 elections."

Hosted the Honble CM for breakfast at my residence today as we reaffirm our commitment to good governance and the continued development of our state under the Congress vision. pic.twitter.com/qmBxr50S64 DK Shivakumar (@DKShivakumar) December 2, 2025

Analysts decode the optics

That meeting, held at Siddaramaiahs residence on November 29, was aimed at projecting harmony after days of internal rumblings.

The contrast between the two meetings was stark. The first one  prompted by the high command  lasted barely 20 minutes. Both leaders came out and repeated the same lines about unity. The next one, hosted by Shivakumar, went on for nearly 90 minutes, and Siddaramaiah confirmed that party issues were discussed in detail.

We are united. The high command asked us to meet over breakfast, and we did. We discussed how to take the party forward and strategise for the future," both leaders insisted repeatedly at the first press conference that followed the Saturday.

Political analysts, however, see these interactions as pure optics. They argue that the meetings are taking place not because the leaders wish to reconcile, but because the high command has told them to, calling the process cosmetic and ineffective.

Political analyst Harish Ramaswamy put it bluntly: It is unfortunate that these people are calling each other for breakfast only because of directions from the Centre and the high command. Its a very childish way for a party to behave. Instead of resolving issues at a mature level, they are being told to call each other for breakfast, and they simply follow those instructions. Having been in politics and spent a lifetime there, I am really surprised that leaders need direction from the high command just to call one another and sort out such small matters."

He added, I dont think they can achieve anything. Unless the decision is made at the top, what can these leaders really do? This will only end up as another photo-op, another PR exercise. And these PR exercises only make the Congress more vulnerable to ridicule from the opposition. Youre dealing with a BJP that plays politics with maturity and seriousness, backed by a high command that is decisive and disciplined. Congress, which once operated with the same discipline, has now come to this level. They are in power in only one or two states, and if they cannot even manage these states properly, what else can they hope to manage?"

Before breakfasts, there was dinner diplomacy

If breakfasts are the new stage for Congress politics, then dinner potlucks already have a long history in this drama.

Earlier this year, a dinner hosted by PWD Minister Satish Jarkiholi at his Bengaluru residence raised eyebrows because it took place when Shivakumar was abroad. Jarkiholi downplayed the event, saying such gatherings had taken place 810 times in the past 20 months. We discussed improvements in administration and how to prepare for the 2028 elections," he said. The presence of several Ahinda leaders fuelled speculation about factional formations and possible shifts in the KPCC presidency, which Jarkiholi denied.

Another dinner attended by Siddaramaiah and four Dalit Ministers reportedly discussed Shivakumars dominance" in party activities and interference" in other departments. Jarkiholi again insisted it was merely a New Year get-together. This was at the beginning of the year.

A separate dinner brought together SC/ST legislators amid leadership rumours, which was hosted by Home Minister G. Parameshwara. He maintained it was only a discussion on departmental issues, especially those linked to budgetary adjustments due to the Almatti dam project. This was seen as another strategy in the power tussle.

Pattern or coincidence  the timing of these dinners always seems to match moments of turbulence. Jarkiholi has often emerged as a key figure during leadership pressure cycles. He has held meetings with like-minded MLAs, pushed the Dalit CM narrative, flagged the one-leader-one-post principle before the AICC and even met with Shivakumar. A Delhi dinner between Jarkiholi and Union Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy had added another layer of intrigue. Jarkiholi said he was only briefing the high command on the honey-trap allegation raised by Minister K.N. Rajanna.

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Insiders say leadership change is not under discussion. A close aide of Shivakumar said, Discussions about leadership change are not happening within the Congress. Everybody needs to wait. Any decision will come from the high command."

Jarkiholi too maintained, There is always leadership inside the party. A leader is picked, and we have picked Siddaramaiah. There wont be any change in that."

About the Author Rohini Swamy Rohini Swamy, Associate Editor at News18, has been a journalist for nearly two decades in the television and digital space. She covers south India for News18s digital platform. She has previously wor... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 14:13 IST

News politics Inside Siddaramaiah-Shivakumar Breakfast Meets: Karnataka CM Post Drama Continues To Simmer

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Jharkhand Heading Towards Power Shift? Hemant Soren-BJP Meet Reports Spark Buzz

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 19:50 IST

CM Hemant Soren and Kalpana Soren have been in Delhi for the past several days. They will return to Ranchi from Delhi tomorrow, according to News18 Bihar Jharkhand.

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Jharkhand CM and JMM chief Hemant Soren. (CMO/PTI)

Amid reports of Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren and his wife Kalpanas talks with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, speculation is rife that the state may see a power shift.

CM Hemant Soren and Kalpana Soren have been in Delhi for the past several days. They will return to Ranchi from Delhi tomorrow," according to News18 Bihar Jharkhand.

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Jharkhand: How the numbers add up

Of the total 81 assembly seats in Jharkhand, 41 are required for a majority.

In the existing JMM-led alliance, JMM has 34 seats, Congress has 16 MLAs, Rashtriya Janata Dal 4 and Left 2, which brings the total to 56.

The BJP has 21 seats, which means an alliance between the two, along with the LJPs one MLA, AJSUs one and the JD(U)s one, would lead to 58 seats.

The buzz

Some reports even suggest that at least eight of the 16 Congress MLAs are in talks to join a new configuration led by Soren with outside support from the BJP. To avoid disqualification under the anti-defection law, at least 11 Congress lawmakers would have to split.

A report by The Sunday Guardian suggested that senior Congress sources privately admitted that discussions are underway, adding that things will become clearer within two days".

Some reports indicated that even the post of Deputy Chief Minister has been discussed as part of negotiations.

The Bihar jolt

The JMM has been completely eliminated from the Bihar Assembly elections. The JMM was vying for 16 assembly seats as part of the Grand Alliance, but the RJD and Congress leadership held off on making a decision until the last minute. This not only hurt the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leadership, but has also led it to decide to review its current alliance with the RJD and Congress in Jharkhand.

Why the shift?

1. Development: According to reports, the JMM is keen on a better relationship with the Centre for development of Jharkhand.

2. ED case: Soren is also camp worried about the pending Enforcement Directorate cases linked to alleged corruption. Under the new Bill introduced in Parliament in August which is currently before a Joint Parliamentary Committee, a Chief Minister or Prime Minister must step down on the 31st day of being arrested, or automatically lose the post. This has added to the urgency, according to reports.

3. Bharat Ratna for Shibu Soren: Reports suggest the Centre is mulling giving the Bharat Ratna to JMM founder and former Chief Minister Shibu Soren, who passed away in August.

The ED case against Soren

The case against Soren concerns an alleged land scam or money-laundering involving about 8.5-8.86 acres of land in the Bargain/Badgai area of Ranchi. According to ED, the scam involves a network that illegally acquired and possessed properties through falsification of government records. The key accused in the syndicate was a former revenue sub-inspector Bhanu Pratap Prasad. The ED alleged that Soren, along with others, conspired with Prasad and illicitly acquired these land parcels.

After multiple summons since 2023, the ED on January 29, 2024, declared him untraceable / missing" for 30 hours after a visit to his Delhi residence. He was arrested on January 31, 2024, shortly after resigning as Chief Minister of the state. Following his arrest, Champai Soren was sworn in as Chief Minister on February 2, 2024.

Soren was released on June 28, 2024 on bail. He was sworn in as the CM again.

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In the 2024 Jharkhand Legislative Assembly election, held in November 2024, Sorens party won the majority and formed the government.

With Agency Inputs

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 19:14 IST

News politics Jharkhand Heading Towards Power Shift? Hemant Soren-BJP Meet Reports Spark Buzz

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Karnataka Power Breakfast 2.0: DK Shivakumar Hosts CM Siddaramaiah Amid Power Tussle

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 10:36 IST

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday visited Shivakumar's residence for breakfast.

Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah and deputy CM DK Shivakumar.

Just two days after the face-to-face meeting on the breakfast table at Siddaramaiahs residence, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar turned the host today. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday visited Shivakumars residence for breakfast in a bid to ease tensions between the two leaders over the post of Chief Minister.

According to sources, the meeting was just a courtesy visit.

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Hosted the Honble CM for breakfast at my residence today as we reaffirm our commitment to good governance and the continued development of our state under the Congress vision," Shivakumar wrote on X.

Hosted the Honble CM for breakfast at my residence today as we reaffirm our commitment to good governance and the continued development of our state under the Congress vision. pic.twitter.com/qmBxr50S64 DK Shivakumar (@DKShivakumar) December 2, 2025

Following directions from the Congress high command to defuse the simmering tension between the top two party leaders in the state, the first round of the meeting was held on Saturday at Siddaramaiahs residence.

Karnataka Power Tussle

The tensions in the political ground of Karnataka rose after it was learnt that Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar were reportedly involved in an intense power tussle for the Chief Minister post. The infighting resurfaced as factions push for their preferred leader to occupy the Chief Ministers post.

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While Siddaramaiah assumed the Chief Minister role following Congresss win in the 2023 Karnataka Assembly polls, several reports indicated an informal power-sharing arrangement for the CM post. Shivakumars supporters recently became more vocal as Siddaramaiah completes 2.5 years in office, indicating the exchange of roles.

Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah has repeatedly affirmed his intention to serve the full term; Shivakumars comments suggest that he will follow the orders of the high command.

About the Author Mahima Joshi Mahima Joshi, Sub-Editor at News18.com, works with the India and Breaking team. Covering national stories and bringing breaking news to the table are her forte. She is deeply interested in Indian poli... Read More

Location : Karnataka, India, India

First Published: December 02, 2025, 09:43 IST

News politics Karnataka Power Breakfast 2.0: DK Shivakumar Hosts CM Siddaramaiah Amid Power Tussle

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Mamata Releases 14-Year Report Card Ahead Of 2026 Bengal Polls, Accuses Centre Of Withholding Funds

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 19:23 IST

The state BJP, though, has attacked the Chief Minister, saying that she has 'left Bengalis jobless and penniless'

By presenting the 'Unnayaner Panchali', the Chief Minister aimed to underscore that the state never 'drifted from its development path' despite the financial blockade. File pic/PTI

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday launched a dual attack on the Central Government while simultaneously releasing a comprehensive report card, titled Unnayaner Panchali" (Narrative of Development), detailing the achievements of her Trinamool Congress (TMC) administration since it took power in 2011. The core of her criticism revolved around the Centres alleged continuous and deliberate withholding of West Bengals long-pending financial dues, which she claimed was an attempt to cripple the state financially.

Speaking at the state secretariat, Nabanna, Banerjee claimed that the Central Government has withheld a massive total of Rs 1.87 lakh crore in state dues. These blocked funds pertain to crucial centrally sponsored schemes aimed at rural upliftment, including the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), rural housing under the PM Awaas Yojana, and village road construction. She pointed out that West Bengal had consistently topped the country in performance indicators for MGNREGA and rural housing four times in a row before the Central Government froze the allocations, citing alleged corruption in implementation.

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The timing of the report card release is highly significant, coming barely months ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections in the state. By presenting the Unnayaner Panchali", the Chief Minister aimed to underscore that the state never drifted from its development path" despite the financial blockade. She asserted that the state government successfully launched its own schemes to fill the funding gap created by the Centres cuts, using its own resources to continue key projects.

The report card highlights a number of key achievements over the 14-year rule, focusing heavily on social welfare and employment:

Employment Generation: Banerjee claimed that her government has generated over two crore jobs in the state since 2011, with an additional target of one crore jobs in the future.

Welfare Schemes: She championed the success of schemes like the Lakshmir Bhandar social security programme, under which over 2.2 crore women receive monthly assistance. She contrasted this with the BJP-led government in Bihar, which she alleged offered only a one-time fund. Furthermore, she noted the state has spent over Rs 1 lakh crore on the Khadya Sathi food security scheme, covering over nine crore people.

Infrastructure and Health: The Chief Minister noted that the state has enhanced budgetary allocation in the health sector by six times in the last 14 years and has made significant progress in drinking water access, providing connections to 99 lakh additional families.

The state BJP, though, has attacked the Trinamool Congress leader, saying that she has left Bengalis jobless and penniless".

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.@MamataOfficial you had promised to make West Bengal no 1 in job production.Where is that promise? Rather 25000+ jobs are gone due to your corruption Your regime is responsible for making Bengali youth leave their homes and go to other states even for basic jobs! Now the pic.twitter.com/NNJbx1wlTT  BJP West Bengal (@BJP4Bengal) December 2, 2025

Overall, Banerjees message was clear: despite the alleged financial stepmotherly treatment and attempts to starve Bengal financially" by withholding funds for schemes like MGNREGS, her administrations commitment to social security and development remains unwavering, positioning West Bengal as a model for the rest of India.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 19:23 IST

News politics Mamata Releases 14-Year Report Card Ahead Of 2026 Bengal Polls, Accuses Centre Of Withholding Funds

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'One God For Drinkers...': Revanth Reddy's Remark Draws BJP's 'Inherent Hinduphobic DNA' Jibe

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 19:22 IST

Reddy's comments, made at a public event, have been widely condemned by the opposition, with both the BJP and BRS demanding a formal apology.

Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy (PTI file photo)

Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has found himself at the centre of a political controversy following remarks he made questioning the multiplicity of Hindu deities.

His comments, made at a public event, have been widely condemned by the opposition, with both the BJP and BRS demanding a formal apology.

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Reddy, addressing the audience, raised the question, How many gods do Hindus believe in? Are there three crore? Why do so many exist?" He then proceeded to make a series of remarks.

There is one god for those who are unmarried  Hanuman. There is another god for those who marry twice. And there is yet another god for those who drink alcohol. For hen sacrifice, there is one; for dal and rice, there is one. Each group has its own god," the Telangana Chief Minister added.

CM Revanth Reddy has once again crossed every line of decency by spewing venom against Hindu deities and exposing the Congress partys inherent Hinduphobic DNA.From a public platform, he shamelessly mocked Hindu faith, saying:How many gods do Hindus believe in? Three crore? pic.twitter.com/41OGvelzhn  BJP Telangana (@BJP4Telangana) December 2, 2025

The comments quickly sparked outrage from multiple political quarters. The BJP Telangana strongly condemned Reddys statements, with party leaders accusing him of spewing venom against Hindu deities and exposing the Congress partys inherent Hinduphobic DNA."

A statement from the BJP called the remarks as deliberate, targeted insult aimed at deriding Hindu traditions and humiliating devotees."

This is not a joke," the BJP statement read. This is not a slip of the tongue This is the true face of Congress: Mock Hindus, malign their beliefs, and manufacture division for political gain."

Rakesh Reddy Anugula of the BRS also slammed Reddy for mocking Hindu deities, calling it unfortunate" for someone in such a high office.

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Condemning Reddys statements, he wrote: Mocking Hindu gods has become a fashion for every single one. Being at the level of a Chief Minister and speaking in a way that hurts the sentiments of crores of Hindu."

Anugula demanded that Reddy explain his comments and apologise to the Hindu community. He must explain to the people. Holding the position of Chief Minister and speaking inappropriately about Hindu deities, thereby insulting them, Revanth Reddy garu should immediately apologize to the Hindu community."

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

Location : Telangana, India, India

First Published: December 02, 2025, 19:13 IST

News politics 'One God For Drinkers...': Revanth Reddy's Remark Draws BJP's 'Inherent Hinduphobic DNA' Jibe

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Sanchar Saathi App Can Be Useful: Shashi Tharoor Amid Congresss Objection To Big Brother Move

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 12:42 IST

Even as Congress called Sanchar Saathi app breach of privacy, Tharoor said, These apps can be useful provided they are voluntary...I need to look more into the logic of the govt.

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Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said Tharoor said the government should explain their idea. (File)

Even as the Congress has been protesting against Department of Telecommunications (DoT) directions to pre-install the Sanchar Saathi app on mobile handsets, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said it could be useful if voluntary".

The Congress has criticised the directions of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app in new mobile handsets as unconstitutional, and demanded its immediate rollback.

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Tharoor said, Common sense tells me that these apps can be useful provided they are voluntary. Everyone who needs them should be able to download them. Making anything compulsory in a democracy is troubling. I need to look more into the logic of the government."

The DoT direction said all manufacturers and importers of mobile handsets that are intended for use in India shall submit compliance reports to the DoT within 120 days from the issuance of these directions.

Failure to comply with these directions shall attract action under the Telecommunications Act, 2023, the Telecom Cyber Security Rules, 2024 (as amended), and other applicable laws. These directions shall come into force immediately and shall remain in force until amended or withdrawn by the DoT, the communique said.

#CyberSecurity | Govt asks smartphone makers to pre-install #SancharSaathi on all devices to curb cybercrime & fake handset misuseOpposition slams it as dictatorship" & unconstitutional". pic.twitter.com/aOZafKKA7G  News18 (@CNNnews18) December 2, 2025

Tharoor said the government should explain their idea. The government should explain everything to the public instead of just passing an order via media reports. We need to have a discussion where the government reports the idea behind the decision," he said.

Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury has filed an adjournment motion notice in the Rajya Sabha seeking suspension of business to discuss the governments directions on installation of the Sanchar Saathi App in new mobile handsets.

The party MP has demanded a discussion under Rule 267 which calls for setting aside all other business to take up the matter.

In her adjournment notice, the party MP said, The Right to Privacy is an intrinsic facet of the fundamental right to life and personal liberty, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. The Department of Telecommunications circular directing smartphone manufacturers and importers to pre-load the Sanchar Saathi" application in a manner that cannot be deleted constitutes a grave affront to this fundamental right".

Such a mandate enables pervasive surveillance and threatens to place every movement, interaction, and decision of citizens under constant watch, without adequate safeguards or parliamentary oversight," Chowdhury said.

I, therefore, demand an adjournment of all business of the House to take up an urgent discussion on this critical issue affecting the rights and liberties of our citizens," she said in her notice.

Congress general secretary K C Venugopal had said on Monday that the right to privacy is an intrinsic part of the fundamental right to life and liberty. Big Brother cannot watch us. This DoT direction is beyond unconstitutional. The Right to Privacy is an intrinsic part of the fundamental right to life and liberty, enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution.

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A pre-loaded government app that cannot be uninstalled is a dystopian tool to monitor every Indian. It is a means to watch over every movement, interaction and decision of each citizen," Venugopal had said in a post on X.

With PTI Inputs

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 12:34 IST

News politics Sanchar Saathi App Can Be Useful: Shashi Tharoor Amid Congresss Objection To Big Brother Move

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Sanchar Saathi App Is The New Centre-Opposition Flashpoint: Controversy Explained In 5 Points

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 19:42 IST

Sanchar Saathi App Row: Why did the government want the app on all phones? Why did the Opposition object to it? What was the stance of mobile companies? All you need to know

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While telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia gave a clarification on the Sanchar Saathi app, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra called it snooping. (PTI/File)

The Central governments directive on mandatory installation of the Sanchar Saathi app on all mobile phones sparked a major row, with the Opposition on Tuesday calling it unconstitutional", Big Brother" and a snooping mechanism".

Amid the backlash, the government in the afternoon issued a clarification, stating it was not mandatory and the users could delete it if they wished".

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Why did the government want the app on all phones? Why did the Opposition object to it? What was the stance of mobile companies? All you need to know.

Sanchar Saathi must in all phones for cyber safety: The govt directive & motive

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) issued directions on November 28 that all new devices sold by the manufacturers should come pre-installed with the Sanchar Saathi application, and a software update should be issued to phones that have already been sold with the application made available with it. It asked the manufacturers to ensure that the pre-installed Sanchar Saathi application is readily visible and accessible to the end users at the time of first use or device setup and that its functionalities are not disabled or restricted. The directive gave smartphone makers 90 days to complete the implementation and 120 days to submit the report.

The order was to impact manufacturers like Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo, among others.

It was part of the Centres efforts to promote easy reporting of suspected misuse of telecom resources and to increase effectiveness of the Sanchar Saathi initiative. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is undertaking Sanchar Saathi initiative for curbing misuse of telecom resources for cyber frauds and ensuring telecom cyber security," read an official press release.

Failure to comply with these directions shall attract action under the Telecommunications Act, 2023, the Telecom Cyber Security Rules, 2024 (as amended), and other applicable laws. These directions shall come into force immediately and shall remain in force until amended or withdrawn by the DoT, the communique said.

Snooping, right to privacy, Big Brother, tracker: What Opposition said

While Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, said he would speak in the debate in the House about it, his sister and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra called it a snooping app".

Citizens have the right to privacy. Everyone must have the right to privacy to send messages to family and friends without the government looking at everything," she said, adding there was a very fine line between reporting fraud and seeing what every citizen of India is doing on their phone. Thats not how it should work. There should be an effective system to report fraud. Weve discussed this at great length in terms of cyber security. Theres a need for cyber security, but that doesnt mean it gives you an excuse to go into every citizens phone. I dont think any citizen would be happy," she said.

#WATCH | Delhi: On DoTs directions to pre-install Sanchar Saathi App on mobile handsets, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra says, It is a snooping app. Its ridiculous. Citizens have the right to privacy. Everyone must have the right to privacy to send messages to family, pic.twitter.com/k4n0boFPTr ANI (@ANI) December 2, 2025

Congress MP Karti Chidambaram called it Orwellian". Congress MP KC Venugopal criticised the governments directive, calling it an attack on privacy". Big Brother cannot watch us. This DoT direction is beyond unconstitutionalA pre-loaded government app that cannot be uninstalled is a dystopian tool to monitor every Indian. It is a means to watch over every movement, interaction and decision of each citizen," Venugopal had said in a post on X.

Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala said, India has now become a surveillance state. Is it official Pegasus or akin to REDFLAG App of North Korea on every cellphone?" he asked in a post on X. Surjewala said once a compulsory app is pre-installed, the government can monitor your location, monitor your search history and monitor calls, SMS and WhatsApp.

#WATCH | Delhi: On DoTs directions to pre-install Sanchar Saathi App on mobile handsets, Congress MP KC Venugopal says, It is an attack on privacy. This is what it seems to be. In the name of helping, BJP is trying to attack the privacy of the common people. We had an pic.twitter.com/q71qGfHY8k ANI (@ANI) December 2, 2025

Earlier Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury filed an adjournment motion notice in the Rajya Sabha seeking suspension of business to discuss the governments directions on installation of the Sanchar Saathi App.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, meanwhile, said, Common sense tells me that these apps can be useful provided they are voluntary. Everyone who needs them should be able to download them. Making anything compulsory in a democracy is troubling. I need to look more into the logic of the government."

Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju responded to the Oppositions criticism of the Sanchar Saathi app, urging parties not to create disruptions in Parliament and assuring that the government is open to debate on all issues.

#WATCH | Delhi | On the oppositions reaction to the Sanchar Sathi app, Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju says, They dont need to dig out issues. A list of businesses has been prepared, and there are many issues. We will have a debate on the issues raised by pic.twitter.com/ksMc2VZQfX ANI (@ANI) December 2, 2025

Not must, use or delete like other apps: Telecom minister Scindia gives clarification amid row

Amid the uproar, Union Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday asserted that activation of Sanchar Saathi app on mobile handsets is not mandatory and it is fully up to the consumers to use it or delete it like any other app. Scindia on Tuesday clarified that the Sanchar Saathi application is entirely voluntary for consumers, reiterating that neither installation nor activation is mandatory. Addressing reporters outside Parliament, he stressed that users retain full autonomy; those who do not wish to use the app are free not to register, and they may also delete it at any time.

If you want to activate it, do so. If you do not want to activate it, dont. Delete it if you wish. It is entirely your choice," said the minister.

Scindia emphasised that misinformation should not overshadow the apps consumer-protection benefits, noting that the platform has contributed to preventing financial frauds amounting to Rs 22,800 crore in 2024. He underscored that Sanchar Saathi is designed as a participatory, citizen-centric tool enabling individuals to secure their own mobile identities. Through the app and the associated online portal, users can verify whether a devices IMEI number is genuine, report misuse of telecom services, and check active mobile connections registered in their name.

#BreakingNews | Scindia on Sanchar Saathi row: We have to look at customers interest and security. If you want to download it, feel free to do so. If you want to delete it, delete it"@_pallavighosh explains more. @akankshaswarups with the latest pic.twitter.com/Qt8GMZGi3n News18 (@CNNnews18) December 2, 2025

To date, the Sanchar Saathi portal has recorded 20 crore downloads, while the mobile app itself has been downloaded over 1.5 crore times. He reported that 2.25 crore mobile connections linked to suspicious or fraudulent activities have been deactivated. Additionally, the system has helped trace nearly 20 lakh stolen devices, with 7.5 lakh of those phones successfully returned to their rightful owners.

Our responsibility is to help consumers and maintain their safety. What is Sanchar Saathi? Sanchar Saathi is an app and a portal through which consumer themselves are able to secure them," the minister added.

Rejecting allegations of surveillance, Scindia stated unequivocally that the app contains no provisions for snooping or call monitoring.

Government doesnt want to spy: BJP rubbishes Opposition claims in presser

BJP MP Sambit Patra in a press conference clarified that the Sanchar Saathi app is not for government surveillance. The app cannot access personal data, messages, or calls. Its main purpose is to enhance user security, prevent fraud, and track lost or stolen mobile phones.

Patra was quoted by PTI as saying, People are asking whether the Sanchar Saathi app is meant for government snooping. Does the government want to spy on you? No, no, no. The government does not want to spy on anyone."

He added, The Sanchar Saathi app cannot read your messages. It cannot listen to your calls, neither the calls you make nor the calls you receive. Sanchar Saathi cannot listen to your calls. It cannot access your private or personal data. Sanchar Saathi cannot reach or breach your personal data. It cannot read messages, cannot hear calls, and cannot breach personal information."

VIDEO | Delhi: At a presser, BJP MP Sambit Patra says, People are asking whether the Sanchar Saathi app is meant for government snooping. Does the government want to spy on you? No  N-O  no. The government does not want to spy on anyone. The Sanchar Saathi app cannot read your pic.twitter.com/E1rXgLCtHI Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) December 2, 2025

He added, Its purpose is to provide security to users. It helps prevent fraud. It can track stolen or lost mobile phones and ensure that they are recovered and returned to their owners. Fraud prevention, user safety, and tracking lost or stolen mobile phones, that is what Sanchar Saathi is designed to do."

Earlier, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju criticised the Opposition for what he described as a deliberate attempt to disrupt proceedings in Parliament by constantly flagging new issues" despite the governments readiness to hold discussions on multiple fronts. Responding to claims that the app amounted to state surveillance, he dismissed the characterisation and urged the Opposition not to sensationalise the matter.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Shashank Mani Tripathi said the app will enhance the sense of security.

Apple didnt want to follow the order, Samsung, Google looking into it

Apple is unlikely to follow the Indian governments orders to pre-load its devices with the cyber safety app Sanchar Saathi, as reported by Reuters quoting multiple sources from the US tech giant. The report even points out that Apple will be sharing its concerns regarding this app installation with the government.

The iPhone maker does not intend to take this case to court, but it is going to tell the government about its inability to follow the new order. Apple cant do this. Period," the source was quoted saying.

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Other brands like Samsung are looking into the order, while Google will probably also be taking a closer look at the fine print to decide on its next course of action. It is hardly surprising to see Apple share its privacy concerns, something it has done previously when the European Union (EU) regulators forced the company to adopt USB C for its devices and also allow sideloading of apps on iPhones.

With PTI, ANI, Agency Inputs

About the Author Manjiri Joshi At the news desk for 17 years, the story of her life has revolved around finding pun, facts while reporting, on radio, heading a daily newspaper desk, teaching mass media students to now editing speci... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 15:42 IST

News politics Sanchar Saathi App Is The New Centre-Opposition Flashpoint: Controversy Explained In 5 Points

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Shiv Sainik Allege Cash Distribution Ahead Of Maharashtra Local Body Polls Today

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News18.com

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 07:24 IST

The first phase of the highly anticipated local body elections in Maharashtra will be held today for 264 municipal councils and nagar panchayats.

Maharashtra is set to witness the first phase of much-awaited local body elections on Tuesday. (Representative Image)

Maharashtra Local Body Election 2025: Voting for the local body elections in Maharashtra will take place today, Tuesday. At some places, its the Mahayuti versus the MVA, while at others, its a friendly fight.

Recommended Stories Meanwhile, Shiv Sainiks caught people red-handed distributing money all night before voting in the municipal council elections. Workers of Shiv Sena MLA Nilesh Rane caught the people distributing money and handed them over to the police. Two people from Devgad taluka came to Malvan city in a car. They were carrying money packets containing Rs 1.5 lakh, which Shiv Sainiks seized and handed over to the police. Shiv Sena MLA Nilesh Rane is stationed at the Malvan police station. First Phase Of Maharashtra Local Body Polls

The first phase of the highly anticipated local body elections in Maharashtra will be held today for 264 municipal councils and nagar panchayats. In some places, MVA parties are fighting each other, while in others, its the Mahayuti parties.

Therefore, this election will determine a significant political outcome in Maharashtra. Voting began at 7 am. Maharashtra will witness the first phase of the much-awaited local body elections today as the battle is taking place amid friendly fights, alliance strain, and legal tangles a year after the assembly polls.

Nearly one crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in round one of the multi-tier rural and urban local bodies elections, which, according to the Supreme Court, are to be concluded by January 31.

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The polls will mainly be a fight between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Mahayuti alliance and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) with friendly contests among allies at some places.

(With agency inputs)

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

Location : Maharashtra, India, India

First Published: December 02, 2025, 07:24 IST

News politics Shiv Sainik Allege Cash Distribution Ahead Of Maharashtra Local Body Polls Today

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'Always Brothers': Siddaramaiah Denies Rift With Shivakumar, Deflects CM Query To Congress Brass

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News18.com Edited By: Mahima Joshi



Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 17:11 IST

Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah said his equation with his deputy, DK Shivakumar, remains unchanged and they are united like brothers since they share the same ideology and party

Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar met today. (Image: X)

Amid breakfast meetings and power games, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said his equation with his deputy, DK Shivakumar, remains unchanged and they are united like brothers since they share the same ideology and party.

Soon after his blunt statement that the Congress high command will decide if DK Shivakumar will be chief minister, Siddaramaiah changed tack and adopted a more conciliatory tone by saying he has no differences at all with him.

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DK Shivakumar and I, being in the same party, will always be brothers. The two of us, sharing the same ideology, will work together and also face the 2028 assembly elections together, bringing the Congress back to power in the state. There are no differences of opinion between us; we will work together for the welfare of the state," Siddaramaiah said in Kannada on X.

He went a step further to deny any rift with Shivakumar, saying even the Congress MLAs are united and were only expressing their opinion.

There are no differences of opinion among any of the Congress MLAs. The MLAs have only expressed their opinions. All Congress MLAs will participate in the session and unitedly confront the opposition," he wrote on X.

Taking on a slightly cryptic tone in one of his latest posts, Siddaramaiah said he and Shivakumar will be guided by the Congress high command in all decisions in the days ahead". He, however, reiterated and made it clear" that there are no differences between the two and they are running the government together, and we will continue to run it unitedly in the future".

Whatever decisions we take  whether in todays breakfast meeting or in the days ahead  both of us will follow the guidance and decisions of the High Command: Shri Rahul Gandhi, Smt. Sonia Gandhi, and Shri Mallikarjun Kharge. If they call us, we will certainly go to New Delhi," he wrote in another post about his breakfast meeting with Shivakumar earlier.

Deputy Chief Minister Shri @DKShivakumar had invited me for breakfast and I had agreed to come today. We met this morning and had breakfast together, along with Shri D K Suresh and Kunigal MLA Shri H D Ranganath.After breakfast, D K Shivakumar and I discussed the upcoming pic.twitter.com/9cEircv9h2 Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) December 2, 2025

He added: Tomorrow, I will also be meeting Shri KC Venugopal at a function where both of us have been invited. Let me make this very clear: there are no differences between us. DK Shivakumar and I are united, we are running the government together, and we will continue to run it unitedly in the future."

He said Shivakumar invited him for breakfast and the two met in the presence of Congress leader DK Suresh and Kunigal MLA HD Ranganath. He said the two decided to hold a meeting of all MPs representing Karnataka on December 8, the day the state assembly session starts.

after breakfast, DK Shivakumar and I discussed the upcoming assembly session starting December 8 and the strategies we should adopt. We also spoke about convening a meeting of all MPs representing Karnataka. It has been decided that we will hold this meeting on December 8, where we will ask the MPs to raise in Parliament the issues concerning our farmers and the people of Karnataka," he said.

The breakfast meeting was another show of unity" in the ongoing power dynamics in the state. While both leaders asserted they are together", the focus immediately moved to their upcoming meeting with the central leadership.

The pair is planning to travel to Delhi on December 8, where they will be meeting Congress MPs from the state. Political observers said this is crucial for resolving internal friction and charting the course for the remainder of the term. Adding to the high-level consultations, the CM is also scheduled to meet with KC Venugopal at a function in Mangaluru on Wednesday (December 3).

The most telling exchange, however, centred on Shivakumars future role. When directly questioned about the possibility of him becoming CM, Siddaramaiahs response was sharp and definitive by placing the final decision firmly outside the state unit.

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He will become CM when high command says," he said, stressing on the party hierarchy. Asked for a direct timeline, he said: When the high command says."

Crucially, both leaders stressed absolute deference to the central authority. Both of us should listen to whatever decision is taken by the high command; Rahul ji, Sonia ji, Kharge ji," he said.

About the Author Harish Upadhya Harish Upadhya, an Assistant Editor at CNN-News18, reports from Bengaluru. Political reporting is his forte. He also tracks India's space journey, and is passionate about environmental reporting and R... Read More

Location : Karnataka, India, India

First Published: December 02, 2025, 11:58 IST

News politics 'Always Brothers': Siddaramaiah Denies Rift With Shivakumar, Deflects CM Query To Congress Brass

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Telangana Minister Threatens To Stop Release Of Pawan Kalyan's Films Over 'Evil Eye' Remarks

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News18.com

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 20:56 IST

Venkat Reddy made it clear that the screening of Kalyan's films would only be permitted if the Jana Sena leader apologised for his "insulting" comments.

Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan addresses a gathering. (PTI file photo)

Telangana Cinematography Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy on Tuesday warned that the films of Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan will not be allowed to release in Telangana unless he issues an apology for his controversial remarks about the state.

Speaking to the media, Venkat Reddy made it clear that the screening of Kalyans films would only be permitted if the Jana Sena leader apologised for his insulting" comments regarding Telangana.

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Pawan Kalyan apologises, his movies will be screened at least for a couple of days," Venkat Reddy said. But, if he fails to apologise, his films will not release anywhere in Telangana. I am saying this as the minister for cinematography."

Venkat Reddy, who also holds the roads and buildings portfolio, clarified that his statement was not aimed at megastar Chiranjeevi, Pawan Kalyans elder brother, who he called as a sober man" who stays away from controversies. However, he pointed out that Pawan Kalyan, after becoming the Deputy Chief Minister, had been making increasingly controversial" statements.

The remarks that sparked the row were made by Pawan Kalyan during a visit to the Konaseema region in Andhra Pradesh, where he attributed the death of coconut trees to the evil eye." He suggested that the damage to the trees was linked to the bifurcation of the state, which resulted in the formation of Telangana in 2014.

These comments have drawn sharp criticism from leaders in Telangana, with many accusing Pawan Kalyan of attempting to undermine the states development. Animal Husbandry Minister Vakati Srihari said that Pawan Kalyan was unable to digest" the remarkable progress Telangana has made since its formation. He further accused the Deputy Chief Minister of using such statements for political gain.

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Congress MLA J. Anirudh Reddy also demanded an unconditional apology from Pawan Kalyan, questioning why the leader, if he believed Telangana had cast an evil eye" on the region, continued to live in Hyderabad. If Telangana has cast an evil eye on Godavari and Konaseema, why is Pawan Kalyan staying in Hyderabad?" Reddy asked, suggesting that Kalyan should consider selling his properties in the city and relocating to Vijayawada.

(With inputs from IANS)

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

Location : Telangana, India, India

First Published: December 02, 2025, 20:56 IST

News politics Telangana Minister Threatens To Stop Release Of Pawan Kalyan's Films Over 'Evil Eye' Remarks

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Whats The Time? ChatGPT Cannot Answer This Question And Heres The Reason

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News18.com

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 09:08 IST

ChatGPT can answer the most complex queries and even guide you with important tasks but one thing doesn't work.

ChatGPT is good at a lot of things but it can't tell you the time

ChatGPT and other AI chatbots are capable of advising users about health issues, scroll through the internet for more data but they cant tell the time. Yes, this has been pointed out in multiple reports, which suggests AI can only do what people train them for and it seems telling Whats the time is not part of that mandate.

This means if you dont train ChatGPT to understand time as we know and use it, it cannot help you with the answer for that particular prompt. When you ask ChatGPT to tell the time, it suggests you check the clock on your phone, laptop or any other device.

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Matter Of Time

ChatGPT and Claude seem to be the main culprits with the time question. But Google and even Apple seem to have trained their assistants to give you the answer and the right time. OpenAI was quizzed about this puzzling limitations, and the company has been quoted by The Verge in a report saying, The models powering ChatGPT dont have built-in access to the current time, so for up-to-date facts ChatGPT sometimes needs to call search to pull in the latest information."

The reason given by OpenAI seems strange especially when its rivals have built that time keeping ability within their AI models. We hope the company plans to have ChatGPT capable of telling the time, and it should happen soon.

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It is fascinating to see how AI actually behaves within its own realm where the time of our understanding is not available. Yes, you can link the system to let AI gather the data and learn about it. But it isnt the worst thing that AI has some limits and people can continue using their own senses to make it work.

AI chatbots are getting smarter and even replacing humans as the industry invests billions into making technology work, evolve and get powerful. Not able to tell time feels like a small issue but that should be working soon.

About the Author S Aadeetya S Aadeetya, Special Correspondent at News18 Tech, accidentally got into journalism 10 years ago, and since then, has been part of established media houses covering the latest trends in technology and ... Read More

Location : California, USA

First Published: December 02, 2025, 07:40 IST

News tech Whats The Time? ChatGPT Cannot Answer This Question And Heres The Reason

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As US-Venezuela Row Intensifies, Donald Trump To Chair Key Meet At White House

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Last Updated: December 01, 2025, 21:01 IST

Trump to meet key officials at Oval Officeon Venezuela amid US military buildup in the Caribbean, strikes on drug vessels, and tensions with Maduro over Operation Southern Spear.

US President Donald Trump will be holding a meeting at the White House on Monday evening about the next steps on Venezuela. (Reuters)

US President Donald Trump will be holding a meeting at the White House on Monday evening about the next steps on Venezuela, officials said.

According to CNN, the meeting, which is expected to take place at 5 pm (local time) in the Oval Office, will include key members of Trumps cabinet and national security team such as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

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This comes as the US has increased pressure on Venezuela with strikes on drug vessels and a US military asset buildup in the Caribbean.

Earlier this week, the US President told military service members that land operations to stop suspected Venezuelan drug traffickers will begin very soon".

In recent weeks, youve been working to deter Venezuelan drug traffickers, of which there are many. Of course, there arent too many coming in by sea anymore," he told Army personnel in a Thanksgiving call. You probably noticed that people arent wanting to be delivering by sea, and well be starting to stop them by land also. The land is easier, but thats going to start very soon."

During the weekend, Trump issued a directive on social media, warning airlines, pilots and criminal networks to avoid Venezuelan airspace.

The US President has also said that he spoke to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro over the phone. He, however, did not mention what was discussed.

Trump has already designated Maduro and his government allies as members of a foreign terrorist organisation.

Over the past months, Washington has built up a large military presence close to Venezuela as part of Operation Southern Spear. An aircraft carrier, Marines and several warships have been deployed to the Caribbean. The US says this build-up is part of a wider effort to crack down on drug trafficking routes in the region.

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As part of this operation, American forces have carried out multiple strikes in international waters on boats suspected of transporting illegal drugs. These strikes have been deadly, killing at least 80 people. Washington has claimed that several of these boats had departed from Venezuela.

Meanwhile, Venezuela has repeatedly accused Washington of preparing for regime change, pointing to an expanding American military footprint that includes warships, stealth aircraft and an aircraft carrier group stationed in the region.

Location : Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)

First Published: December 01, 2025, 21:01 IST

News world As US-Venezuela Row Intensifies, Donald Trump To Chair Key Meet At White House

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'Asim Munir Mentally Unstable...They Might Kill Me': Imran Khan Says He's Confined In A Cage

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 22:05 IST

Imran Khans party, PTI, released a statement shortly after his sister Uzma met him inside Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.

PTI said Imran Khan is being held in solitary confinement without basic facilities and warned that his safety remains at risk inside Adiala Jail because of Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir. (IMAGE: REUTERS/AFP)

Former Pakistani prime minister and PTI founder Imran Khan on Tuesday said he fears for his life as he remains in Adiala Jail, where he is serving a 14-year sentence in the Al-Qadir Trust graft case along with other corruption-related convictions that keep him in custody.

The military establishment has done all they could against me. All that is left for them is to now murder me," Khan said, according to a PTI statement, released after Imran Khan met his sister Uzma Khan. The party alleged that he has been kept in solitary confinement with no electricity or sunlight, questionable food, no clean drinking water, no medical assistance and none of the basic facilities normally available to inmates.

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Khan alleged that he is being held in conditions similar to an inmate on death row and claimed the military leadership would be responsible if anything happened to him.

If anything happens to me, the Army Chief and DG ISI will be responsible," Khan said, according to a PTI statement. He added, I have the same facilities that an inmate on death row has."

The party said Khan has been kept in solitary confinement and denied basic facilities. In his statement, the former prime minister described the conditions as inhumane. I was tortured by being confined in a cage and treated worse than animals. Electricity to my cell was shut off for five days. I was confined to the cell for ten days," he said.

Khan is also accusing the powerful army chief of political persecution. Asim Munir is the most tyrannical dictator in history and is mentally unstable," he said.

Uzma Khan was permitted to meet him inside Adiala Jail, the high-security prison in Rawalpindi located a short distance from the Pakistan Armys General Headquarters (GHQ).

The meeting between the former prime minister and his sister lasted between 25 and 35 minutes, sources told CNN-News18. According to people close to Uzma Khan, Imran Khan appeared fine, fit, and in high spirits."

They said the PTI founder remained mentally strong and shared a message for his party leadership, along with remarks aimed at what he described as an undemocratic regime."

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However, the sources also said Imran Khan repeated his allegation that Pakistans army chief, General Asim Munir, was responsible for the mental torture" he claims to be facing in custody.

Speaking after the meeting, Uzma Khan said Imran was angry about certain issues related to jail administration, though she maintained that his morale remained high."

About the Author Shankhyaneel Sarkar Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a Chief Sub-Editor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over seven years of experience during which he has ... Read More

Location : Islamabad, Pakistan

First Published: December 02, 2025, 19:01 IST

News world 'Asim Munir Mentally Unstable...They Might Kill Me': Imran Khan Says He's Confined In A Cage

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PM Modi Sends Message, BNP Says Stable: Khaleda Zia's Health Under Focus

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News18.com Edited By: Apoorva Misra



Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 09:55 IST

The BNP seems to want to prevent panic among party cadres as well as maintain a bargaining leverage in the domestic political arena

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Activists in support of Bangladesh's former prime minister Khaleda Zia, hold a banner with her portrait as they pray for her recovery in Dhaka. (AFP)

Amid swirling speculation over the health of former Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia, the BNP on Monday attempted to project a calmer picture. But the messaging emerging from her family, medical team and even New Delhi paints a far more precarious scenario.

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told reporters in Dhaka that the 80-year-old party chiefs condition was stable" and that treatment was continuing under close observation". The statement came as the first organised attempt by the top BNP leadership to counter the rising chatter in Bangladeshs media and political circles that Zias health has deteriorated sharply.

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Alamgirs statement came at around 3.30pm on Monday, which was also after a panic button was pressed by a section of his party leadership. At around 1.45pm, BNP vice-chairman Ahmed Aazam Khan came out of hospital, and said Zia is in a very critical condition". Since last night, madam has gone into a very critical condition. She is fighting to return to us," he announced. Islams stable assertion within one-and-a-half hours was a 180-degree turnaround within the BNP, making its stand increasingly difficult to sustain.

Family Describes Condition As Very Critical"

Even as the party sought to reassure supporters, Khaleda Zias family members have been widely quoted in leading Bangladeshi dailies, describing her condition as very critical". This gap between the familys alarm and the partys controlled narrative has raised questions about what BNP seeks to manage: public anxiety, internal morale or political optics ahead of a tense domestic environment.

No wonder Alamgir cautioned on Monday: Various media outlets are publishing news about her that is not correct. No one should be confused by this."

Adding to the contradictions, Zias long-time personal physician Dr AZM Zahid Hossain confirmed that the former prime minister remains in the ICU of Evercare Hospital, where she was admitted with a lung infection. Beyond the immediate infection, Zia carries a long record of chronic ailmentsincluding heart complications, liver and kidney disorders, diabetes, arthritis and eye-related illnessesplacing her in a high-risk category.

For a figure already frail from multiple episodes of hospitalisation over the past few years, the term stable" appears medically ambiguous.

Modis Tweet Undercuts BNPs Messaging

What followed was a tweet from Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who said he was deeply concerned" about Khaleda Zias condition and offered all possible support" to help save the former Bangladeshi leader.

Even though Delhi and the BNP have had a historically uneasy relationship, PM Modis public expression of concernand the open offer of all possible support" including medical assistancehas been read in Dhaka as a subtle acknowledgement that Zias condition is grave. Diplomatically, India rarely makes such statements unless assessments indicate a serious situation.

For the BNP, this puts its communication strategy under the scanner amid intense social media speculations.

Why The Mixed Messaging?

The BNPs positioning seems shaped by at least two factors.

First of all, preventing panic among party cadres at a time when the organisation has been struggling for political momentum after the January polls must have been the partys primary goal.

Secondly, maintaining a bargaining leverage in the domestic political arena, where Zias health has often been intertwined with BNPs demands for parole, foreign treatment or political concessions has been key.

A Moment With Political Stakes

With Bangladeshs political environment already polarised, the health of Khaleda Zia, who ruled Bangladesh first from 1991 to 1996 and then from 2001 to 2006, carries both emotional and strategic weight. For BNP supporters, she remains the partys symbolic anchor.

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As things stand, the medical picture suggests fragility, the BNPs messaging suggests caution, and Indias intervention suggests urgency.

If anything, the last 24 hours underscore a fundamental realitythe political narrative around Khaleda Zias health is shifting faster than the BNPs communications machinery can control.

About the Author Anindya Banerjee Anindya Banerjee, Associate Editor brings over fifteen years of journalistic courage to the forefront. With a keen focus on politics and policy, Anindya has garnered a wealth of experience, with deep ... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 09:43 IST

News world PM Modi Sends Message, BNP Says Stable: Khaleda Zia's Health Under Focus

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'Gesture Of Goodwill': BNP Thanks PM Modi For Message On Bangladesh Ex-PM Khaleda Zia's Health

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 08:17 IST

BNP has thanked PM Narendra Modi for his message of concern, seeing it as "willingness to extend support" as Begum Khaleda Zia remains critically ill in a Dhaka hospital.

A file photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi (PTI)

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Tuesday conveyed its sincere gratitude" to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his message expressing concern over the deteriorating health of former Bangladesh prime minister and BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia.

In a post on X, the party said it deeply appreciates this gesture of goodwill and the expression of readiness to extend support," acknowledging Prime Minister Modis remarks wishing her a swift recovery.

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BNP expresses its sincere gratitude to the Honourable Prime Minister of India, @narendramodi, for his thoughtful message and kind wishes for the speedy recovery of BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia.BNP deeply appreciates this gesture of goodwill and the expression of readiness  Bangladesh Nationalist Party-BNP (@bdbnp78) December 1, 2025

Prime Minister Modi had earlier posted that he was deeply concerned to learn about the health of Begum Khaleda Zia, who has contributed to Bangladeshs public life for many years," and extended sincere prayers and best wishes for her speedy recovery."

He further stated that India stands ready to extend all possible support, in whatever way we can," signalling New Delhis willingness to assist as the veteran leader remains critically ill.

Deeply concerned to learn about the health of Begum Khaleda Zia, who has contributed to Bangladeshs public life for many years. Our sincere prayers and best wishes for her speedy recovery. India stands ready to extend all possible support, in whatever way we can. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 1, 2025

Khaleda Zia, aged 80, has been admitted to a private hospital in Dhaka since November 23 after developing a severe chest infection that affected both her heart and lungs.

According to BNP leaders, her condition worsened significantly in the days following her admission.

Four days after she was hospitalised, doctors shifted her to the coronary care unit as multiple health complications escalated.

She has since been placed on ventilation, with medical teams comprising both local and international specialists overseeing her treatment.

BNP Vice-Chairman Advocate Ahmed Aazam Khan described her health status as extremely grave, saying, She is in a very critical condition. There is nothing more to do except seek prayers from the whole nation."

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir also noted that Zias condition remains precarious, adding that she is extremely unwell" and that specialists are trying their best."

Party leaders have stated that her physical condition has remained largely unchanged in recent days.

Zia has long suffered from numerous health issues, including complications related to her liver and kidneys, as well as diabetes, arthritis, and chronic eye ailments.

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She had returned to Bangladesh earlier this year, on May 6, after spending four months in London receiving advanced medical care.

ALSO READ | Sheikh Hasina, Her Niece Sentenced To 5-Year Jail Term In Bangladesh Land Scam Case

About the Author Vani Mehrotra Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.

First Published: December 02, 2025, 06:46 IST

News world 'Gesture Of Goodwill': BNP Thanks PM Modi For Message On Bangladesh Ex-PM Khaleda Zia's Health

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Dangerous Afghans Let In By Biden, Says White House As US Halts Immigration After DC Shooting

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 07:17 IST

The US has halted Afghan immigration after a DC shooting involving an Afghan national, prompting renewed scrutiny of Biden-era vetting.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt (IMAGE: REUTERS)

The Biden administration is facing renewed scrutiny over its vetting procedures after an Afghan national accused in last weeks shooting near the White House was found to have entered the United States under Operation Allies Welcome.

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who allegedly ambushed two National Guard members in Washington DC, arrived in 2021 through the programme designed to resettle Afghans who assisted American forces during the war. More than 70,000 Afghans have been brought into the country under this initiative.

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The attack left National Guardswoman Sarah Beckstrom dead and Guardsman Andrew Wolfe critically injured, prompting fierce criticism from the White Houses political opponents and triggering an immediate review of national security protocols.

White House flags multiple incidents involving Afghan nationals

US Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that Lakanwals case was not an isolated failure, alleging that several Afghan terrorists" had entered the country under the Biden administration. She cited previous incidents involving Afghan nationals, including a police officer in Virginia who was shot dead, and cases where migrants were found carrying arms and ammunition.

Leavitt also pointed to the charging of Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi and Abdullah Haji Zada, accused of participating in an ISIS-inspired plot aimed at disrupting the 2024 elections in Oklahoma City. She argued these cases illustrated broader lapses in vetting, saying, Unfortunately, this is not the only example of a dangerous Afghan who was let in by Joe Biden."

Homeland security data shows thousands flagged

Concerns escalated further following the publication of Department of Homeland Security data indicating that more than 5,000 Afghans admitted under Operation Allies Welcome had triggered national security alerts. Of the 6,868 individuals flagged for potential derogatory information", 5,005 raised national security concerns, 956 raised public safety concerns and 876 were linked to possible fraud.

While many of these red flags have since been resolved, 885 individuals remained under scrutiny as of September, leaving what officials described as a residual threat".

US suspends Afghan immigration processing

In response to the Washington shooting, President Donald Trump ordered a comprehensive review of security and vetting procedures for migrants from 19 high-risk" countries, as well as for all asylum cases approved by the Biden administration. Republican leaders claim the attack exposes systemic failures in the governments approach to immigration and national security.

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Amid the escalating controversy, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced a temporary suspension of all immigration requests from Afghan nationals. The agency said the pause would remain in place while authorities reassess vetting protocols.

The suspension marks a significant reversal for Operation Allies Welcome, a programme once viewed as a humanitarian commitment following the fall of Kabul.

About the Author Shuddhanta Patra Shuddhanta Patra, a seasoned journalist with eight years of experience, serves as Senior SubEditor at CNN News 18. With expertise across national politics, geopolitics, business news, she has influen... Read More

Location : Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)

First Published: December 02, 2025, 07:17 IST

News world Dangerous Afghans Let In By Biden, Says White House As US Halts Immigration After DC Shooting

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Diaspora Pressure And Diplomacy Forced Jail Access, Says Imran Khan's Close Aide | Exclusive

Reported By :

CNN-News18

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 18:21 IST

Dr Salman Ahmed characterised the permission as a 'tactical retreat' by the Pakistani establishment

The approval is a direct response to the 'proof of life' demands publicly issued by Khans family. File pic

Dr Salman Ahmed, a close aide to jailed former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, confirmed in an exclusive conversation with CNN-News18 on Tuesday that the military establishment has granted a one-time permission for the ex-PMs younger sister, Dr Uzma Khanum, to meet him at Adiala Jail. This breakthrough comes after nearly four weeks of a complete access blackout, which had triggered widespread speculation and profound global concern regarding the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founders health and safety.

Dr Ahmed characterised the permission as a tactical retreat" by the establishment, forced by intense, multi-layered pressure. While also thanking CNN-News18, he specifically cited the massive peaceful street protests by pro-Imran Khan supporters in Pakistan, significant international media focus, and powerful lobbying efforts by the Pakistani-American community in the United States. He noted that the US-based pressure, which included threats to withdraw votes in critical swing states due to the perceived lack of action from the Donald Trump administration regarding Khans freedom, had reached a critical level. This pressure was further amplified by a separate development: the meeting of the American Consul General of Peshawar with Khans Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sohail Afridi, on the same day the jail visit was approved.

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The approval is a direct response to the proof of life" demands publicly issued by Khans family. The former premiers son, Qasim Khan, and ex-wife, Jemima Khan, had amplified concerns over his prolonged isolation, branding the denial of basic contact rightssuch as letters or phone callsas a form of psychological torture". As a doctor, Uzma Khanum is uniquely positioned to physically ascertain the condition of her brother, who has reportedly been held in solitary confinement in an 810-foot cell.

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Dr Ahmed stressed that this is likely only a one-time concession, as the military establishment has a history of defying the standing jail manual, which grants the family the right to meet with him every Tuesday and Thursday. He lamented that the rule of law has been replaced by the law of the jungle", with all High Court and Supreme Court orders regarding his detention conditions being defied.

Furthermore, Dr Ahmed connected the internal political volatility to the ongoing power dynamic between the judiciary and the establishment. He pointed out that while the establishment defies court orders, a crucial element of its consolidation of powerthe public notification formalising Field Marshal Asim Munirs new position as Chief of Defence Forces with implied lifelong immunity"has still not been issued, suggesting an internal power dynamic that remains in flux.

About the Author Manoj Gupta Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18

First Published: December 02, 2025, 18:13 IST

News world Diaspora Pressure And Diplomacy Forced Jail Access, Says Imran Khan's Close Aide | Exclusive

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'Imran Khan Is Fit, But He's Being Mentally Tortured': Sister Meets Ex-Pakistan PM In Jail

Reported By :

News18.com Edited By: News Desk



Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 19:13 IST

Sources close to Uzma Khan said the former PM remained mentally strong and conveyed a message for his party leadership as well as for what he called an undemocratic regime.

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan

After weeks of restricted access, former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khans sister Uzma Khan was allowed to meet him at Rawalpindis Adiala Jail on Tuesday.

Breaking a prolonged deadlock that had fuelled protests by PTI supporters and family members, the meeting between Imran Khan and his sister lasted 25-35 minutes, sources told CNN-News18.

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Sources close to Uzma Khan told reporters that Imran Khan appeared fine, fit, and in high spirits."

She said the former prime minister remained mentally strong and conveyed a message for his party leadership as well as for what he called an undemocratic regime."

However, the sources said that Imran Khan also alleged that Pakistans army chief, General Asim Munir, was responsible for the mental torture" he claims to be undergoing in prison.

Uzma Khan, speaking after the meeting, said Imran was angry about certain issues related to jail administration, though she reaffirmed that his morale remained high".

Uzmas visit came as PTI staged demonstrations outside both the Islamabad High Court and Adiala Jail, denouncing what they described as unlawful curbs on Imran Khans visitation rights.

The party and the family had repeatedly complained that despite a court order allowing twice-weekly meetings, access had been blocked for several weeks.

Her visit also followed a period of heightened tension, including a contempt petition filed by Imrans sister Aleema Khan against Adiala Jail officials for allegedly defying court directions that mandated family and legal access.

PTI Shares Imran Khans Message

PTI issued a detailed statement on Monday shortly after party founder Imran Khan met his sister, Uzma Khan, at Adiala Jail.

The party reiterated its long-held position that the former prime minister has been arbitrarily detained" for 850 days and is being held under what it describes as inhumane" conditions.

According to PTI, Khan conveyed a series of strong messages during the meeting, alleging severe restrictions and mistreatment inside the prison.

The party claims he has been kept in prolonged solitary confinement, denied access to sunlight, electricity, clean water, medical care, and at times not allowed contact with family or legal counsel."

The statement quoted Khan as saying that the military establishment" is responsible for his situation.

He alleged that intelligence agencies control all aspects of his imprisonment and warned that if any harm comes to him, he holds the Army Chief and the Director General of the ISI responsible."

Khan also alleged that efforts were being made to transfer his cases to military courts, stating that the charges against him would not stand in civilian courts.

PTI further quoted him as saying he had been kept in conditions comparable to those of death-row inmates and that he had experienced periods without electricity and confinement in a cage."

Despite these conditions, the former prime minister reportedly reiterated his refusal to negotiate or compromise, telling his sister he intends to continue what he described as a struggle for constitutional rights and political freedoms.

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The party also claimed Khan accused the current military leadership of imposing dictatorial rule" and undermining the Constitution. PTI emphasised that these remarks reflect Khans personal statements from jail.

The military and government have not yet issued a response to the latest allegations.

Location : Pakistan

First Published: December 02, 2025, 18:28 IST

News world 'Imran Khan Is Fit, But He's Being Mentally Tortured': Sister Meets Ex-Pakistan PM In Jail

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'It Was Over-Prosecution By Biden': Trump Pardons Former Honduran President Hernandez

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 20:39 IST

Trump pardoned former Honduras President Hernandez, releasing him after nearly 4 years in prison for drug trafficking, sparking debate over Biden administration actions.

Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was Honduran President from 2014-2022, was convicted and sentenced last year to 45 years in prison and given an $8 million fine by a US judge for drug trafficking offenses. (Image: AFP)

US President has formally pardoned former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez, his attorney Renato Stabile said.

Last week, Trump had announced his intention of granting a full and complete pardon" to Hernandez. CNN quoted the US Bureau of Prisons database stating that the former Honduran president was released from a prison in West Virginia.

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On behalf of President Hernandez and his family, I would like to thank President Trump for correcting this injustice. President Hernandez is glad this ordeal is over and is looking forward to regaining his life after almost 4 years in prison," Stabile added in a statement.

Hernandez, who was Honduran President from 2014-2022, was convicted and sentenced last year to 45 years in prison and given an $8 million fine by a US judge for drug trafficking offences.

Following Hernandez being pardoned, his wife said in a social media post that her husband was a free man" thanks to Trumps pardon.

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On Monday, US press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: This was a clear Biden over-prosecution. He was the president of this country. He was in the opposition party. He was opposed to the values of the previous administration, and they charged him because he was President of Honduras."

According to CNN, Hernandez was accused of conspiring with drug cartels during his tenure as they moved more than 400 tonnes of cocaine through Honduras toward the US. The prosecutors said the former Honduran President had received millions of dollars in bribes that were used to fuel his rise.

Location : Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)

First Published: December 02, 2025, 20:37 IST

News world 'It Was Over-Prosecution By Biden': Trump Pardons Former Honduran President Hernandez

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'Joke Of Aid Diplomacy': Colombo Angered After Pakistan Sends Expired Relief Supplies | Exclusive

Reported By :

CNN-News18 Edited By: Apoorva Misra



Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 11:03 IST

The incident has caused significant embarrassment for Pakistan at a time when it is attempting to strengthen its presence in the Indian Ocean region

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The relief Pakistan sent to Sri Lanka (left); (right) one of the packets shows the expiry date as 2024. (News18)

Pakistan is facing fresh diplomatic embarrassment after a shipment of humanitarian aid, including medical supplies, food packets, and essential items, sent to Sri Lanka was found to contain items that were already past their expiry date, according to officials in Colombo.

The consignment, dispatched as emergency support as Sri Lanka grapples with landslides and flooding caused by Cyclone Ditwah, was inspected upon arrival, and several cartons were found to be expired or unusable, prompting what authorities described as serious concern" within Sri Lankas disaster management and foreign affairs departments. Colombo has conveyed its displeasure to Islamabad through both formal and informal diplomatic channels.

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Always standing together! Relief packages from Pakistan have been successfully delivered to assist our brothers and sisters affected by the recent floods in Sri Lanka which signifies our unwavering solidarity.PAKISTAN STANDS WITH SRI LANKA TODAY AND ALWAYS. #FloodRelief pic.twitter.com/rMhMwUhEA8 Pakistan High Commission Sri Lanka (@PakinSriLanka) November 30, 2025

The incident has caused significant embarrassment for Pakistan at a time when it is attempting to strengthen its presence in the Indian Ocean region. Sri Lankan officials said the shipment raised questions about the quality and seriousness of Pakistans humanitarian assistance, especially as the island nation continues to grapple with post-crisis recovery.

This is not the first time Pakistans relief diplomacy has drawn criticism. During the 2015 Nepal earthquake, Islamabad faced public outrage after sending beef-based ready-to-eat meals to the Hindu-majority nation, triggering accusations of cultural insensitivity.

The latest controversy has sparked anger among Sri Lankan civil society groups and on social media, with several commentators calling the expired aid an insult" and a joke of aid diplomacy". Some have urged the government to demand accountability from Pakistan.

Officials in Colombo said the episode has prompted plans to tighten inspection protocols for all incoming relief consignments, particularly from countries with a history of sending inappropriate or substandard aid. The matter, they added, underscores the need for strict oversight to ensure that humanitarian assistance does not compromise public safety or diplomatic goodwill.

The Crisis

Governments and aid groups in Indonesia and Sri Lanka worked to rush aid Tuesday to hundreds of thousands stranded by deadly flooding that has killed around 1,200 people in four countries.

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Torrential monsoon season deluges paired with two separate tropical cyclones last week dumped heavy rain across all of Sri Lanka and parts of Indonesias Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia.

In Sri Lanka, at least 390 people have been killed and another 352 remain missing. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has declared a state of emergency to deal with what he called the most challenging natural disaster in our history".

About the Author Manoj Gupta Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18

Location : Colombo, Sri Lanka

First Published: December 02, 2025, 11:03 IST

News world 'Joke Of Aid Diplomacy': Colombo Angered After Pakistan Sends Expired Relief Supplies | Exclusive

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Imran Khan's Sister Uzma Khanum Allowed To Visit Him In Jail Amid Speculation Over His Health

Curated By :

CNN-News18 Edited By: Oindrila Mukherjee



Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 17:38 IST

Top Pakistan establishment sources said Uzma Khanum is being allowed to visit former prime minister Imran Khan in jail because she is a medical doctor

Speculation over Imran Khan's health in Adiala Jail has fuelled protests. (Image: Reuters)

The Pakistan government has allowed Dr Uzma Khanum, one of former prime minister Imran Khans sisters, to meet him in jail, the countrys top establishment sources told News18.

According to the top Pakistan establishment sources, Uzma Khanum is being allowed because she is a medical doctor. This comes amid heightened international scrutiny and national security concerns over Imran Khans custodial secrecy".

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The sources said the authorities are now taking into consideration growing scrutiny, human rights queries, and significant international attention concerning Khans detention in Rawalpindis Adiala Jail.

Top Indian intelligence sources indicated that Islamabad is seeking to project a selective humanitarian gesture", particularly before anticipated parliamentary decisions. There has been sustained pressure from the Khans and their legal teams, who have been campaigning against his alleged near-isolation, harsh treatment, and denial of regular access to loved ones.

The intelligence sources said his other sisters are still unlikely to be cleared due to security and sensitivity reasons. If Dr Uzma Khan is permitted entry, the meeting will be brief, heavily supervised, and strictly without phones, they said.

They said officials are determined to prevent any immediate public disclosures about the former PMs physical and mental condition. Security agencies are concerned that if all sisters are allowed to meet him, revelations about his condition may trigger a public reaction on the streets, they added.

Intelligence reports suggest the Pakistan government is acting out of fear" due to rising anger over Imran Khans alleged torture and isolation inside jail". Authorities are particularly worried that this public dissent could escalate into a political as well as a law and order situation in key regions, specifically Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

This also comes a day after his other sister, Aleema Khan, escalated charges against the Pakistani government, accusing it of a pre-planned political vendetta" against her family and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

Aleema alleged that authorities are weaponising state institutions to silence the Khans and the PTI, describing the persecution as extending into the financial realm through economic strangulation". She said her bank accounts were closed without any verdict", judicial direction, notice, or due process.

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She warned that these measures are part of a broader crackdown aimed at crippling PTI leadership". Her charges followed her recent, high-profile sit-in outside Adiala Jail, which she eventually called off after police assured that meetings with the former PM would be arranged.

About the Author Manoj Gupta Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18

Location : Islamabad, Pakistan

First Published: December 02, 2025, 17:19 IST

News world Imran Khan's Sister Uzma Khanum Allowed To Visit Him In Jail Amid Speculation Over His Health

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Operation Midnight Hammer Set Back Irans Nuclear Programme By Two Years, Says Pentagon

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: December 03, 2025, 01:41 IST

Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson called Operation Midnight Hammer a success, crediting Trump for delaying Irans nuclear program by two years.

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Kingsley Wilson says Operation Midnight Hammer hit hardened Iranian facilities and delayed the nuclear programme by about two years. (IMAGE: X)

Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson on Tuesday said Operation Midnight Hammer had been a resounding success", claiming the US strike had dismantled Irans nuclear capabilities and set its programme back by an estimated two years.

Wilson told reporters that experts believed Tehran would need around two years" to rebuild its nuclear capacity. Irans nuclear capabilities were totally obliterated and experts estimated it would take two years for them to recover," she said during a briefing.

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She credited US President Donald Trumps bold and swift action" for what he described as a decisive end to a long-standing security challenge. Thanks to President Trumps action, we were able to dismantle that threat to the American people," Wilson said.

OPERATION MIDNIGHT HAMMER WAS A SUCCESS!Thanks to President Trump's bold and swift action, we were able to dismantle the Iranian nuclear threat. pic.twitter.com/rotFuk6CjX  DOW Rapid Response (@DOWResponse) December 2, 2025

The press secretary also said the operation was significant because it had a clearly defined end state, something he argued had been missing in previous US military engagements in the Middle East. We have seen this department get mired in endless wars and nation building. That has stopped under this President and this Secretary. We now have a clear end state and a clear mission set and Operation Midnight Hammer was a success in dismantling that," she added.

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US officials have described Operation Midnight Hammer as the most extensive American strike on Iranian nuclear infrastructure in years. The operation took place on the night of June 21 and involved a mix of stealth bombers, cruise-missile launches and cyber operations aimed at disabling Iranian air defences before the strikes began.

According to earlier briefings, the US targeted three key sites connected to Irans uranium enrichment activities, including facilities near Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan. These sites were considered central to Tehrans nuclear programme and had been hardened or buried deep underground to withstand conventional attack. The Pentagon said the strike package included heavy penetrator ordnance designed to hit those reinforced structures.

About the Author Shankhyaneel Sarkar Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a Chief Sub-Editor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over seven years of experience during which he has ... Read More

Location : Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)

First Published: December 03, 2025, 01:41 IST

News world Operation Midnight Hammer Set Back Irans Nuclear Programme By Two Years, Says Pentagon

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Rawalpindi On Alert Ahead Of PTIs Mega Protest; Gatherings Banned As Section 144 Imposed

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 08:43 IST

Rawalpindi has been placed under strict security restrictions as authorities impose Section 144 ahead of a planned mega protest by PTI supporters.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party supporters carry a poster of their leader and former Prime Minister Imran Khan. (AFP)

Authorities in Rawalpindi have enforced Section 144 for three days as tensions rise over the rumours regarding former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khans health and growing fears of public unrest. The order, issued by the office of Deputy Commissioner Dr Hassan Waqar Cheema, bans all forms of public gatherings from 1 to 3 December, reports Pakistani newspaper, Dawn.

Ban on gatherings

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The restrictions come at a time when supporters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) are mobilising to demand access to Khan, who has been imprisoned since last year. PTI had planned demonstrations in the garrison city, prompting concerns that the situation could escalate amid circulating allegations about Khans wellbeing.

Under the notification, all assemblies of five or more people are prohibited. This includes public meetings, rallies, processions, sit-ins, dharnas, jalsas and any similar form of group activity. Authorities say the temporary ban is necessary to prevent any disturbance to public order as the political climate becomes increasingly charged.

Restrictions on weapons, movement and loudspeakers

The order also places stringent limits on movement and the carrying of potential weapons. Items such as batons, spikes, sling shots, ball bearings, petrol bombs and improvised explosives are banned, alongside the display of firearms by anyone other than law enforcement personnel.

Pillion riding has been prohibited, and the use of loudspeakers is barred throughout the district. Any attempt to remove police barriers or obstructions placed to regulate crowds or traffic will be treated as a violation of the order.

The administration has framed these measures as essential steps to prevent the possibility of coordinated violence. There exists an imminent threat within the limits of District Rawalpindi," the order states, adding that these restrictions aim to uphold public safety, security, peace, and tranquillity.

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Intelligence warnings

The District Intelligence Committee (DIC) has reportedly provided specific intelligence indicating that certain groups are attempting to mobilise large gatherings with the potential to turn disruptive. According to the order, these elements may target soft locations" or stage actions near key installations and other sensitive points across the district.

About the Author Shuddhanta Patra Shuddhanta Patra, a seasoned journalist with eight years of experience, serves as Senior SubEditor at CNN News 18. With expertise across national politics, geopolitics, business news, she has influen... Read More

Location : Rawalpindi, Pakistan

First Published: December 02, 2025, 08:43 IST

News world Rawalpindi On Alert Ahead Of PTIs Mega Protest; Gatherings Banned As Section 144 Imposed

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Roads Leading To Imran Khans Jail Shut: Pakistan Beefs Up Security Amid PTIs Mega Stir | Exclusive

Reported By :

News18.com

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 11:49 IST

The PTI has planned major protests outside the Islamabad High Court and Adiala jail on Tuesday

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Imran Khan has been languishing in Rawalpindis Adiala jail for over two years in multiple cases. (AP File for representation)

Amid Tuesdays mega protest for a meeting with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan, the authorities have beefed up security in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

The PTI has planned major protests outside the Islamabad High Court and Adiala jail on Tuesday, with all parliamentarians and workers gathering to show solidarity with Khan and his sister.

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Khan has been languishing in Rawalpindis Adiala jail for over two years in multiple cases. Even as speculation has been mounting over the health of Khan, the authorities persistent refusal to let his family or PTI leaders meet him has only added to the concerns. Khans three sisters, PTI activists and Afridi have been camping outside the Adiala jail for the last few days to pressure the Shehbaz Sharif government.

Why arent they letting us meet him? Why create this attention? It would be so simple if they allowed him to meet his family and party workers," Aleema Khanum told CNN-News18 in an exclusive phone interview last week. Khans son has been asking the government to present proof that the PTI founder is alive.

Shut, clogged: Traffic movement

Traffic jam on Expressway from Khanna Pul towards Islamabad.

Red Metro-Srinagar Highway to Pak Secretariat closed.

Dhagal to Gorakhpur market and petrol pumps completely closed.

Red Zone Islamabad access from Serena closed  Traffic load near Islamabad High Court and Parliament.

Situation on ground

Section 144 has been imposed, with the Federal Capital and Punjab Police taking extra precautionary measures outside the Islamabad High Court and Adiala Jail. The Federal Capital Administration has deployed elite police outside the Islamabad High Court. The roads to Adiala jail have been closed for commuters. Shops, markets and petrol stations near Adiala jail road in Rawalpindi have also been shut.

PTI workers are gathering outside Islamabad and Rawalpindi on Motorway M1.

News18 had earlier reported how the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi said the federal government wants chaos.

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The federal government wants chaos, but the PTI does not want riots. We are ready for all possible actions and sacrifices. The PTI protests will be peaceful," said Afridi.

The federal government is giving unfair treatment to PTI, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and its people."

About the Author Manoj Gupta Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18

First Published: December 02, 2025, 11:45 IST

News world Roads Leading To Imran Khans Jail Shut: Pakistan Beefs Up Security Amid PTIs Mega Stir | Exclusive

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Shehbaz Sharif's Sudden Lahore Detour Deepens Speculation Of Civil-Military Rift | Exclusive

Reported By :

CNN-News18 Edited By: Apoorva Misra



Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 13:32 IST

Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz are reportedly pushing for direct influence over appointments, insisting on placing their own trusted men in key military and strategic positions

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Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif (Image: Andrew Harnik/GETTY IMAGES/AFP)

A sudden shift in Pakistans political and military power dynamics unfolded on Tuesday when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif diverted his aircraft from Islamabad to Lahore, triggering a wave of speculation within domestic and foreign intelligence circles. According to senior PML-N insiders, the abrupt detour was not a logistical coincidence but the result of intense internal consultations within the House of Sharifs over a series of ultra-sensitive military appointments.

Sources within the ruling party said Shehbaz Sharif is now scheduled to return to Islamabad on Wednesday to finalise the content and timing of the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) notification, a decision that has already been delayed multiple times. The notification, along with the appointments of the Vice Chief of Army Staff and the Commander of the National Strategic Command, has become a flashpoint between the political leadership and the military establishment.

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According to a top PML-N source, Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz are pushing for direct influence over these appointments, insisting on placing their own trusted men" in key military and strategic positions. The Sharif family, the source claims, seeks guarantees inside the military power structure, concerned that without loyal officers in crucial posts, they may once again face an institutional ambush similar to the one orchestrated during General Bajwas tenure.

Indian intelligence inputs suggest that the Lahore detour is a strong indicator of internal mistrust between the Sharifs and sections of the Pakistan Army, especially regarding roles connected to the nuclear chain of command and strategic forces oversight. Indian agencies believe the Sharif family is aggressively seeking institutional safeguards to prevent any future political engineering, while GHQ views Nawaz Sharifs insistence on inserting loyalists into the National Strategic Command as an attempt to exert political oversight over nuclear architecture.

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The delay in the CDF notification, Indian assessments add, reflects deepening rifts between GHQ and the political leadership, with both sides lobbying furiously to control officers overseeing Afghanistan operations, Kashmir policy, and internal counter-intelligence portfolios.

Amid these tensions, the Sharifs remain wary: empowering the CDF structure too much could invite institutional pushback, yet delaying it risks undermining the civilian governments authority. As Shehbaz Sharif prepares to return to Islamabad, the capitals power corridors are abuzz with uncertainty, signalling a moment of high-stakes manoeuvring that may redefine Pakistans civil-military balance.

About the Author Manoj Gupta Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18

Location : Islamabad, Pakistan

First Published: December 02, 2025, 13:31 IST

News world Shehbaz Sharif's Sudden Lahore Detour Deepens Speculation Of Civil-Military Rift | Exclusive

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Trump Admin Official Calls For Travel Ban On Nations 'Flooding' US With 'Killers, Leeches, Junkies'

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 21:19 IST

Kristi Noem urges a US travel ban on unnamed countries over crime concerns, backed by President Trump and DHS. The DHS said that the list would be released soon.

US Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem. (x)

US Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem has said she will recommend a travel ban on several countries that are flooding" America with criminal activities.

In a post on X, Noem said: I just met with the President. I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country thats been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies."

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Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedomnot for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS. WE DONT WANT THEM. NOT ONE," she said.

I just met with the President.I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country thats been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies. Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedomnot for foreign  Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) December 1, 2025

The post was shared by both President Trump and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

However, Noem did not name the countries which she intended the ban to be imposed. BBC quoted the DHS saying that the list would be released soon.

On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that Trump had imposed travel ban several months ago on third world and failed state" countries and Noems suggestion would widen" that to encompass more nations.

On June 4, the White House listed 19 countries, mainly those in Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean, facing full or partial immigration restrictions.

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Noems remarks came days after two National Guard members were shot in Washington DC.

In a previous post, the Homeland Security secretary said 100,000 Afghan nationals entered the US under the Biden-era Operation Allies Welcome programme, and the DHS would overhaul the vetting process.

Location : Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)

First Published: December 02, 2025, 21:19 IST

News world Trump Admin Official Calls For Travel Ban On Nations 'Flooding' US With 'Killers, Leeches, Junkies'

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Govt Official, 2 Cops Among 5 Killed In Tehrik-i-Taliban Ambush In Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Reported By :

CNN-News18 Edited By: Vani Mehrotra



Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 13:20 IST

At least five people, including North Waziristan Assistant Commissioner, and two policemen, were killed when TTP militants ambushed his vehicle in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

TTP attack on govt vehicle in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Photo: CNN-News18)

At least five people were killed following an attack by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan on a government vehicle in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan on Tuesday.

According to the details, the assault, in the Bannu district of the province, targeted a vehicle of Shah Wali, the assistant commissioner of North Waziristan.

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Wali was among those who died in the attack. The other deceased included two policemen, sources said.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), referred to as Fitna-al-Khawarij by the Pakistani state, is a banned group.

The attack comes a day after three TTP militants were killed in retaliatory action by Pakistani security forces in Balochistan.

According to a statement issued by Frontier Corps (FC) Balochistan South spokesperson, this was done after one of the suicide attackers" blew himself up at the main gate of the FC headquarters in Balochistans Nokkundi, Dawn reported.

The report also claimed that at least six armed attackers had entered the FC headquarters after the actions of one of the suicide attackers.

Reportedly, a checkpost in the Gurmakan area of Panjgur district also came under attack.

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After TTP ended a ceasefire with the Pakistan government in November 2022, their activities have intensified, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

Dawn reported that seven blasts rocked Quetta and Dera Murad Jamali in Balochistan on November 29, with one explosion blowing up a section of railway track and suspending train traffic.

About the Author Manoj Gupta Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18

First Published: December 02, 2025, 13:14 IST

News world Govt Official, 2 Cops Among 5 Killed In Tehrik-i-Taliban Ambush In Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

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We Do Not Want A Slaves Peace: Maduro Rejects US Pressure As Trump Weighs Options On Venezuela

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Last Updated: December 02, 2025, 08:55 IST

Maduro, who accuses the US of attempting to topple him, said Venezuela would not bow to external dictates as the region braces for potential confrontation.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. (Image: AFP)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday rejected what he called a slaves peace", telling a massive rally in Caracas that the country would never submit to foreign pressure or domination. We want peace, but peace with sovereignty, equality, freedom! We do not want a slaves peace, nor the peace of colonies," Maduro declared, dancing on stage as supporters waved flags.

His comments came amid escalating tensions with Washington, as the United States expands its military presence in the Caribbean and intensifies operations targeting suspected drug-trafficking vessels. Maduro, who accuses the US of attempting to topple him, said Venezuela would not bow to external dictates as the region braces for potential confrontation.

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Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump summoned his top national security officials to the Oval Office to discuss Venezuela, raising fresh concerns about possible military action. The White House confirmed the meeting but offered no specifics.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said she would not detail the specifics of the meeting", but declined to rule out the deployment of US troops, noting, Theres options at the presidents disposal that are on the table."

The United States has positioned the worlds largest aircraft carrier and additional warships in the region since September, a buildup Washington says is aimed at curbing drug trafficking. Caracas insists regime change is the true objective. The US has also designated an alleged drug cartel run by Maduro, the so-called Cartel of the Suns", as a terrorist organisation and announced a $50 million reward for his capture, a claim Venezuela and its allies dismiss as fabricated.

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Trump confirmed on Sunday that he recently spoke with Maduro for the first time since returning to office in January, describing it only as a phone call." Reports in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal said the two discussed a possible meeting and even potential amnesty terms if Maduro agreed to step down. A U.S. senator later claimed Washington had offered Maduro safe passage to Russia or another country.

The Trump administration is also facing scrutiny over US airstrikes against alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, which have killed at least 83 people. Trump said he would look into" allegations that US forces carried out a double-tap" strike that killed two survivors clinging to a burning vessel in September. The White House defended the action, saying Admiral Frank Bradley of US Special Operations Command acted lawfully when he ordered the follow-up strike.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

First Published: December 02, 2025, 08:48 IST

News world We Do Not Want A Slaves Peace: Maduro Rejects US Pressure As Trump Weighs Options On Venezuela

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Were Ready For War: Putin Warns Europe Against Hindering Ukraine Peace Plan

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Last Updated: December 03, 2025, 00:06 IST

Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a warning to Europe on Tuesday, saying that if European nations want a war, Russia is prepared to fight.

Putin claimed Europes demands on the Ukraine war are unacceptable and hinder US attempts to push for dialogue. (IMAGE: REUTERS)

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said Russia is prepared for conflict if Europe chooses that path. Speaking at an investment forum in Moscow, he accused European leaders of abandoning a peaceful approach and backing continued hostilities in Ukraine.

We are not planning to go to war with Europe, but if Europe wants to and starts, we are ready right now," he said.

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Putin claimed that European governments are making demands over the Ukraine conflict that Moscow cannot accept. He also accused them of obstructing efforts by the United States and President Donald Trump to push for a negotiated settlement.

They are on the side of war," Putin said of European powers.

The comments came as US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner were in Moscow for high-stakes talks on ending the nearly four-year war. Washington has presented a 28-point draft to end the conflict, later amended after criticism from Kyiv and Europe, which viewed it as heeding to many of Russias maximalist demands.

The plan to end the war is championed by Trump, but European countries fear it risks forcing Kyiv to cave in to Russian demands, notably on territory.

The Russian president further said Moscow would expand strikes on Ukrainian ports and vessels in response to recent attacks, describing the targeting of Russian tankers as piracy."

 First picture of the meeting of US and Russian delegations in the Kremlin https://t.co/v5x4cA1OcL pic.twitter.com/kAkZhB94Ch RT (@RT_com) December 2, 2025

The most radical solution is to cut Ukraine off from the sea, then piracy will be impossible in principle," he said.

On Saturday, a Ukrainian security official said Ukrainian naval drones hit two sanctioned tankers in the Black Sea as they headed to a Russian port to load up with oil destined for foreign markets.

On Tuesday, a Russian-flagged tanker loaded with sunflower oil reported a drone attack off the Turkish coast but its 13 crew members were unharmed, Turkeys maritime authority and the Tribeca shipping agency said. Ukraine said it had nothing to do with that incident.

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Ukraine has also carried out missile and drone attacks on the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk that have disrupted oil shipments.

(with inputs from Sky News, AFP and Reuters)

About the Author Shankhyaneel Sarkar Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a Chief Sub-Editor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over seven years of experience during which he has ... Read More

Location : Moscow, Russia

First Published: December 02, 2025, 21:22 IST

News world Were Ready For War: Putin Warns Europe Against Hindering Ukraine Peace Plan

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Chipinge Regional Prosecutor, Timothy Katsande (34) has been sentenced to 12 months in jail for altering a 13-year-old rape survivors statement in order to reduce the severity of the case against the accused person.

Katsande was sentenced by Mutare Magistrate Anne Ndiraya who suspended five months of the sentence and commuted the remaining seven months to 245 hours of community service at Chipinge District Hospital.



Katsande was being jointly charged with Benjamin Basikiti (35), a lawyer with Mutendi, Mudisi and Shumba Legal Practitioners.

Basikiti was acquitted.

The two were arrested by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) for allegedly defeating the course of justice, under Section 184 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act (Chapter 9:23).

Circumstances are that on December 28, 2024, the victim was allegedly raped by her uncle at her home. Her mother reported the matter to ZRP Chipinge Urban on the next day under CR 134/12/24.

The minors uncle who was represented by Basikiti appeared at the local court and was remanded in custody to January 10, 2025.

The cases investigating officer referred a complete rape docket to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for set down under CRB CHPR 125/24. The matter was set to commence trial on the January 15.

The matter was then allocated to Katsande for prosecution. The docket had the victims statement, impact survivor statement and witness accounts which all clearly stated that accused is the minors uncle and that he forced himself on the minor.

Katsande and Basikiti went on to produce a statement of agreed facts that stated that the victim and her uncle were not related and they had consensual sex.

The uncle went on to plead guilty to contravening Section 70 of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act (Chapter 9:23) having sexual intercourse with a minor.

He was sentenced to 36 months in jail and 12 months of the sentence were suspended.
A sweeping outbreak of sheep and goat pox is threatening Greece's production of its iconic feta cheese, forcing the nationwide culling of hundreds of thousands animals and raising worries about shortages of what's widely considered the country's "white gold." The disease, first detected in northern Greece in August 2024, has led to the culling of more than 400,000 sheep and goatsabout 5% of the country's total livestockafter more than 1,700 outbreaks were recorded, according to the Ministry of Rural Development and Food.

The impact has been especially harsh for farmers who rely on selling sheep's milk for feta production, a staple export worth nearly $1 billion last year, the BBC reports. Farmers complain that government compensationranging from $144 to $240 per animalfalls far short of covering their losses. Some have criticized the government's response, pointing out that a national committee to manage the outbreak was only established in late October, over a year after the first case.

Others say that the veterinary service is understaffed and that initial lockdowns to contain the disease were delayed. The government, for its part, argues it followed European protocols and blames noncompliance with biosecurity measures for the spread. Small dairies are already struggling to secure enough sheep's milk, and experts warn that if the outbreak isn't contained, feta shortages and price hikes are likely. Feta, protected by the EU's designation of origin rules, must be made with at least 70% sheep's milk from Greece to carry the name.

Calls for mass vaccination have grown, but officials worry it could jeopardize exports if Greece is classified as endemic for the disease. Farmers, frustrated by the slow rollout of aid, are pressing for more support and clarity as the crisis drags on. The Thessaly region, the country's agricultural heartland, produces almost a third of the country's milk and feta, but it was hit hard by storm Daniel in 2023. "When we thought we had recovered a bit, the sheep pox came and finished us off," sheep breeder Vagelis Karajiolis told Reuters in September.
A 19-year-old Indiana woman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder after a friend turned her in, telling authorities she was plotting a mass shooting, People reports. Trinity Shockley, who police say planned to carry out shooting at Mooresville High School, was sentenced on Friday to 20 years in prison with eight years suspended. She'll also serve five years of probation. Shockley, who was arrested in February after the friend reported the 12th-grader to the FBI's Sandy Hook tip line, apologized in court to an intended target and the community, saying, "I am so sorry I put you in that position of fear."

She added that her mental health has improved since being "surrounded by people that care about me." The tipster told authorities that Shockley had access to an AR-15, had ordered a bulletproof vest, and expressed admiration for Nikolas Cruz, who carried out the 2018 Parkland, Florida, school shooting. Shockley had previously said she was a victim of bullying, and that she tried to access mental health help but her father wouldn't allow her to, WFYI reports. Her attorney, Joseph Gaunt, argued that Shockley never actually intended to carry out the attack, stating, "She knew she couldn't do it, but she kept talking about it. That's what makes this case hard." Investigators say she used a male alias on Snapchat and Discord when sending messages about the shooting plan, the Indianapolis Star reports.

Morgan County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Cassie Mellady described the sentence as a "fair outcome," citing the extensive planning involved. After the sentencing, the FBI's Indianapolis office described the case as a "powerful reminder that when the public speaks up, lives can be saved." Shockley was arrested Feb. 12, two days before the anniversary of the Parkland shootingand the day she planned to carry out the attack.
Canada has joined a major European Union defense fund, Prime Minister Mark Carney's office said Monday, as the country looks to diversify its military spending away from the US. The plan allows Canadian defense companies access to a 150 billion euro$170 billion USEU loan program, known as Security Action for Europe. That would allow Canadians firms to secure cheap, EU-backed loans to procure military equipment, the AP reports. Canada is the first non-EU country to gain access.

Fund membership will allow Canadian companies to bid for contracts financed by the fund, the Globe and Mail reports. Canada will also be allowed to make joint weapons purchases with EU nations, saving money with large-scale buys. "Canada's participation in SAFE will fill key capability gaps, expand markets for Canadian suppliers, and attract European defense investment into Canada," Carney said in a statement. Carney has said he intends to diversify Canada's procurement and enhance the country's relationship with the EU. He has previously said that no more will over 70 cents of every dollar of Canadian military capital spending go to the US.

President Trump's actionsincluding launching a trade war and suggesting Canada become the 51st US stateinfuriated Canadians and created the political environment for Carney to win the job of prime minister after promising to confront Trump's increased aggression. Carney's government continues to review the purchase of US F-35 fighter jets to explore other options. Carney has said the potential for having more production in Canada is a factor. A proposal by Sweden's Saab promised that assembly and maintenance of the Saab Gripen fighter jet would take place in Canada. Canada has said it will meet NATO's military spending guideline by early next year.
Netflix users will no longer be able to cast shows from their phones to their TVs in most cases, as the company has quietly ended support for the feature. The move means viewers must now use the Netflix app on their TV and rely on their remote for playback controls, Wired reports. The change was first spotted by Android Authority and quickly drew criticism from users on Reddit, many of whom relied on the feature for convenience or because their Netflix account was only logged in on their phone. "Why would they make the experience worse?" asked one user.
Two political operatives sentenced Monday to a year of probation for their role in a robocall campaign that spread false information to thousands of Detroit-area voters ahead of the 2020 election. Jacob Wohl and John "Jack" Burkman accused of creating the calls, which targeted primarily Black voters and claimed that voting by mail would expose individuals' personal information to law enforcement, credit agencies, and even the CDC. The calls falsely warned the agency would use the data to track voters for mandatory vaccinations, the Detroit News reports.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's office said the robocalls went out to nearly 12,000 people in Detroit and falsely identified Wohl, 27, and Burkman, 59, as the founders of a civil rights group that doesn't exist. Both men, residents of Virginia, pleaded no contest in August to multiple charges, including voter intimidation, conspiracy to violate election law, and using a computer to commit a crime. The most serious charges carried possible sentences of up to seven years in prison in Wayne County Third Circuit Judge Margaret VanHouten's sentencing. Wohl and Burkman have faced cases in other states.

The right-wing operatives were ordered to spend 500 hours registering low-income voters in Ohio, and a federal judge found that their robocalls to Black voters in five states violated state and federal civil rights laws. They were ordered to pay a fine of more than $1 million in New York. "The defendants' conduct used every racist dog whistlefear of incarceration, fear of the government and fear of one's benefits being taken awayto steal the most fundamental right that we often take for granted: the right to vote," Nessel said in a news release, per the Detroit Free Press. On Monday, per the AP, defense lawyers said both men are eager to put the case behind them.
Nearly 44% of the 16,000 truck driving schools in the US may be forced to close after a review by the federal Transportation Department found they may not be complying with government requirements, per the AP . The department said Monday that it plans to revoke the certification of nearly 3,000 schools unless they can comply with training requirements in the next 30 days. The targeted schools must notify students that their certification is in jeopardy. Another 4,500 schools are being warned they may face similar action. Schools that lose certification will no longer be able to issue the certificates showing a driver completed training that are required to get a license, so students are likely to abandon those schools.

Separately, the Department of Homeland Security is auditing trucking firms in California owned by immigrants to verify the status of their drivers and whether they are qualified to hold a commercial driver's license. This crackdown on trucking schools and companies is the latest step in the government's effort to ensure that truck drivers are qualified and eligible to hold a commercial license. This began after a truck driver that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says was not authorized to be in the US made an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people.

Duffy has threatened to pull federal funding from California and Pennsylvania over the issue, and he proposed significant new restrictions on which immigrants can get a commercial driver's license but a court put those new rules on hold. On Monday, he threatened to withhold $30.4 million from Minnesota if that state doesn't address shortcomings in its commercial driver's license program and revoke any licenses that never should have been issued either because they were valid beyond a driver's work permit or because the state never verified a driver's immigration status.

It's not clear how action against these trucking schools could affect the existing shortage of drivers, but the executive director of the largest association of trucking schools, Andrew Poliakoff, said many of the schools being decertified were questionable "CDL mills" that would advertise being able to train drivers in just a few days instead of established training that normally lasts at least a month. While some believe qualified drivers and companies are being targeted simply because of their citizenship status, the Transportation Department said the 3,000 schools it is taking action against failed to meet training standards and didn't maintain accurate and complete records. The schools are also accused of falsifying or manipulating training data.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son of notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, pleaded guilty in a US federal court on Monday to drug trafficking charges. The plea was entered during what was supposed to be a status hearing in Chicago, according to court records. Guzman Lopez, one of the four siblings collectively known as "Los Chapitos," is accused of helping run the Sinaloa cartel's operations after their father's imprisonment, USA Today reports. The Sinaloa cartel is widely considered to be among the world's most powerful drug trafficking organizations.

Guzman Lopez had initially pleaded not guilty following his arrest in Texas last year. In May, prosecutors agreed to not seek the death penalty in his case, per the BBC. He was detained in July 2024 after arriving by private plane, along with Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, a longtime associate of El Chapo and co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel. Zambada's arrest was touted as a significant achievement for American authorities, per USA Today, with officials suggesting Guzman Lopez played a role in bringing Zambada to the US.

Prosecutors allege Guzman Lopez was involved in smuggling large quantities of fentanyl and other narcotics into the US. Fentanyl overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 45. The plea comes months after his brother, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, pleaded guilty to drug distribution and related charges. El Chapo himself was extradited to the US in 2017 and is currently serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison.
Moving between damp basements and muddy dugouts to fend off constant Russian attacks in the nearly 4-year-old war, exhausted Ukrainian soldiers say their motivation is fortified by knowing they're fighting for higher cause: the defense of their homeland. But as negotiators try to hammer out a peace deal , the troops also believe that Russia remains determined to conquer Ukraineeither now, or with a fresh army in a few years' timeno matter what kind of agreement is reached, the AP reports. And they also say Kyiv must maintain a sizable military to protect the now-800-mile front line.

The soldiers expressed strong doubts that Moscow can be trusted to abide by any peace deal. Without substantial security guarantees, such as NATO membership for Ukraine, they and military analysts believe a new Russian invasion with fresh troops and equipment is inevitable. "This truce will be short-term, to restore Russia's forcesfor some three or five yearsand they will come back," said one artillery gunner. He also ridiculed the proposal to reduce the size of Ukraine's military, saying it was tantamount to making it easier for Russia "to kill you" later rather than now. But sustaining an army of Ukraine's current size of just over 1 million would be nearly impossible without continued Western support.

Serhii Filimonov, the commander of the Da Vinci Wolves battalion, worried that a deal would give Russia everything it needed to attack again. "I think it would be nice for the Russiansto end the war, remove the sanctions, prepare for a new war and attack again," he said. "I don't believe there can be peace before Russia is destroyed, or at least the leadership is changed." (Click for more on Ukraine's overstretched manpower.)
A shooting last weekend at a children's birthday party in California that left four dead was the 17th mass killing this yearthe lowest number recorded since 2006, according to a database maintained by the AP and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. Experts warn that the drop doesn't necessarily mean safer days are here to stay and that it could simply represent a return to average levels. "Sir Isaac Newton never studied crime, but he [said], 'What goes up must come down,'" says James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University criminologist. The current drop in numbers is more likely what statisticians call a "regression to the mean," he said, representing a return to more average crime levels after an unusual spike in mass killings in 2018 and 2019.

"Will 2026 see a decline? I wouldn't bet on it," Fox says. "What goes down must also go back up." Fox, who manages the database, says mass killingsdefined as incidents in which four or more people are killed in a 24-hour period, not including the killerwere down about 24% this year compared with 2024, which in turn was about a 20% drop compared with 2023. Mass killings are rare, however, and that means the numbers are volatile, says James Densley, a Metropolitan State University professor. "Because there's only a few dozen mass killings in a year, a small change could look like a wave or a collapse," when really it's just a return to more typical levels, Densley says.

But there are some things that might be contributing to the drop, Densley says, including an overall decline in homicide and violent crime rates, which peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic. Improvements in the immediate response to mass shootings and other mass casualty incidents could also be playing a part, he says. Crime is complex, and academics aren't great at assessing the reasons behind crime rate changes, says Eric Madfis, a professor of criminal justice at University of Washington, Tacoma.

"It's multicausal," Madfis notes. "It's never going to be just one thing." He adds that, while "true that gun violence and gun violence deaths are down ... we still have exceedingly high rates and numbers of mass shootings compared to anywhere else in the world." About 82% of this year's mass killings involved a firearm. Since 2006, 3,234 people have died in mass killings, and 81% of them were shooting victims. More here.
A group of University of Washington students were called into a meeting on Monday and told to expect major news. "We thought we were going to be in trouble," jokes one student, but the opposite was true: It was announced that an anonymous donor had made a $50 million donation to the university's medical laboratory science program, enough to cover senior-year tuition for clinical rotations for the next 50 years, reports the Seattle Times .

The surprise announcement left students shocked and grateful, wiping out the $8,000 to $10,000 cost of a critical year that often means students can't work part-time jobs. The donor, described only as a Washington resident connected to the program, left behind one clue to their identity: "They also love Dick's burgers, which were piled atop several platters and handed out to stunned students as they celebrated the news," notes the Times.

The donation will also allow the program to expand from 70 to 100 students over the next decade and help address a national shortage of lab medicine scientists, an issue highlighted during the COVID pandemic. "What an incredible way for an unseen field to feel very seen," says one student. Another adds, per KING: "This is so generous and surprising. The future looks a little easier." The AP details other recent donations that are helping cover college costs for some students, including a $1 billion donation made by a former professor to New York's Albert Einstein College of Medicine, effectively making tuition there free.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is urging a sweeping "full travel ban" on nations she claims are sending "killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies" to the United States. Noem announced her recommendation after she said she met with President Trump, posting on X that the country is being exploited by "foreign invaders" who, she said, "slaughter our heroes" and drain public resources, per NBC News . She added bluntly, in all caps, "We don't want them. Not one."

The Department of Homeland Security didn't clarify which countries Noem had in mind, but it stated in an email, "We will be announcing the list soon," per the AP. President Trump, meanwhile, shared Noem's post on Truth Social without additional comment. The call for a ban comes after last week's shooting in Washington, DC, that left one National Guard member dead and another critically injured. The suspect has been identified as an Afghan national who arrived in the US legally in 2021 following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, per NBC.

Trump has used the incident to justify tougher immigration policies, saying all Afghan arrivals under President Biden should be reviewed and that he wants to "permanently pause" immigration from what he deems "third-world countries." The Trump administration has already banned entry to nationals from 12 countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, and Somalia, and sharply reduced the number of refugees allowed into the US, with priority given to white South Africans, per a Federal Register memo.
Maya Brady has been selected as the No. 1 pick in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League expansion draft, living up to her reputation as " the most dominant athlete in the Brady family." Brady, the niece of NFL legend Tom Brady, is a former star at UCLA. The shortstop/outfielder was named Pac-12 Player of the Year in 2023 and 2024, finished as a finalist for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year both years, and made the NFCA First Team All-American list three times, per the New York Times . She also won the Pac-12 batting title in 2023 with a .456 average and was named Softball America's Freshman of the Year in 2020.

The 24-year-old will now join the Oklahoma City Spark, one of two new teams set to debut in the AUSL's second season next June, joining four others. Talent clearly runs in the Brady family. Maureen Brady, Maya's mother and Tom's sister, threw 29 no-hitters and 14 perfect games as a high school pitcher, the Times reports. Maya herself can "play middle infield as well as the outfield," per the Oklahoman. In fact, she "can play almost anywhere." "As a versatile defensive player with prodigious power at the plate, Brady is the prototypical player to build a franchise around," adds MLB.com. She made her professional debut with the Talons in the AUSL's inaugural season, nabbing 11 hits in 22 at-bats across eight games, with 5 RBIs.
Starbucks will pay about $35 million to 15,000-plus New York City workers to settle claims it denied them stable schedules and arbitrarily cut their hours, city officials announced Monday, hours before Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and Sen. Bernie Sanders visited striking baristas on a picket line. The development came amid a continuing strike by Starbucks' union that began last month at dozens of locations around the country, reports the AP . The workers want better hours and increased staffing, and they're angry that Starbucks hasn't agreed on a contract nearly four years after workers voted to unionize at a store in Buffalo, New York.

Mamdani, Sanders, and some state and city officials sought to amplify the baristas' message by mingling with scores of strikers and supporters outside a Starbucks shop in Brooklyn. "These are not demands of greedthese are demands of decency," Mamdani, a democratic socialist who ran on pledges to aid working-class people, told the crowd. Some workers carried giant mock-ups of Starbucks takeout cups, bearing the union's logo instead of the coffee chain's insignia.

Striking baristas described a harried workplace with chronic short-staffing, online orders so complex that the ticket is sometimes longer than the cup, and last-minute calls to come in. The city began investigating in 2022 after receiving dozens of worker complaints against several Starbucks locations; the probe eventually expanded to hundreds of stores. The city said it found, among other things, that most Starbucks employees never got regular schedules, making it difficult for staffers to plan other commitments such as child care, education, or other jobs.

The company also denied workers the chance to pick up extra shifts, per the city. Under the agreement announced Monday with New York City's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, Starbucks will pay $3.4 million in civil penalties, in addition to the $35 million it's paying workers. The company also agreed to comply with the city's Fair Workweek Law going forward. Most of the affected employees who held hourly positions will receive $50 for each week worked from July 2021 through July 2024, the department said. Workers who experienced a violation after that may be eligible for compensation by filing a complaint with the department. The settlement also guarantees that employees laid off during recent store closings in the city will get an opportunity for reinstatement at other Starbucks locations.
Sean "Diddy" Combs is lashing out at Netflix and 50 Cent over their new docuseries, calling the project a "shameful hit piece" and accusing the streaming giant of using unauthorized footage to sensationalize his life. The four-part series, Sean Combs: The Reckoning, executive-produced by rapper Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, a longtime rival of Combs, features interviews with former associates and previously unseen material, per USA Today . A trailer , aired Monday on Good Morning America, includes scenes of Combs discussing legal strategy with his attorneys days before his arrest.

"I'm taking eight nuclear bombs straight to the head," Combs says in extended footage, per USA Today. "We're losing," he continues, before requesting lawyers seek help from "somebody that has dealt in the dirtiest of dirty business of media and propaganda." This "confirms that Netflix relied on stolen footage that was never authorized for release," Combs' spokesperson says in a statement. He says Combs had collected footage since he was 19 with the intention of telling his own story and "it is fundamentally unfair, and illegal, for Netflix to misappropriate that work."

Netflix points to earlier comments from director Alexandria Stapleton, noting "we obtained the footage legally" and "moved heaven and earth to keep the filmmaker's identity confidential," per the BBC. 50 Cent, meanwhile, responded to claims that he was bent on destroying Combs' reputation, saying he was among the lone figures in hip hop speaking out about Combs' crimes, showing that the "culture" won't accept them. The full docuseriesfeaturing interviews with Combs' former security guard, former assistant, and a juror in his federal trial, as well as a recorded phone call between Combs and his son, Justinis available to stream now.
The trials keep coming for Fuller House star Dave Coulier, who revealed Tuesday he's battling a second, unrelated cancer just months after declaring himself a survivor of stage 3 non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Coulier, 66, told the Today show that he was diagnosed with HPV-related oropharyngeal tongue cancer during a routine follow-up scan in October, just seven months after finishing chemotherapy. "It's a shock to the system," Coulier said of the second diagnosis, coming so soon after he was determined to be cancer-free. Thankfully, the tongue cancer was detected early, and doctors say it's highly treatable, with a 90% curability rate.

Coulier said an abnormality at the base of his tongue had grown by October, when a biopsy revealed cancer cells. The cancer, P16 carcinoma, is caused by an infection of HPV-16, a high-risk type. Doctors said the infection itself could've happened "up to 30 years ago," said Coulier, who's now in the process of undergoing 35 sessions of radiation therapy, which is expected to last through the end of the year. Despite the physical and emotional toll, Coulier remains optimistic, crediting early detection for potentially saving his life twice. "The silver lining here is that I had cancer, which helped me detect my other cancer," he told Today. "So I hope you're getting your check-ups," he added, per People. "They will save your life."
Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez, sentenced last year to 45 years in prison for his role in helping drug traffickers move hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States, was released from prison following a pardon from President Trump, Hernandez's wife announced Tuesday. The US Bureau of Prisons inmate website showed that Hernandez was released from US Penitentiary Hazelton in West Virginia on Monday, and a spokesperson for the bureau on Tuesday confirmed his release, per the AP .

The former leader's wife, Ana Garcia, thanked Trump early Tuesday via X for pardoning Hernandez. "After nearly four years of pain, waiting, and difficult trials, my husband Juan Orlando Hernandez RETURNED to being a free man, thanks to the presidential pardon granted by President Donald Trump," Garcia's post read. She included a picture of the Bureau of Prisons listing for Hernandez indicating his release.

Hernandez was arrested at the request of the United States in February 2022, weeks after handing over power to current President Xiomara Castro. Two years later, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison in a New York federal courtroom for taking bribes from drug traffickers so they could safely move some 400 tons of cocaine north through Honduras to the United States. Hernandez maintained throughout that he was innocent and the victim of revenge by drug traffickers he'd helped extradite to the United States.

On Sunday, Trump was asked about why he pardoned Hernandez by reporters traveling with him on Air Force One. "I was asked by Honduras, many of the people of Honduras," Trump said. "The people of Honduras really thought he was set up, and it was a terrible thing." Trump added, "They basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country. And they said it was a Biden administration setup. And I looked at the facts and I agreed with them."
UPDATE

Dec 4, 2025 4:51 PM CST

The Texas college student who was found dead near a high-rise apartment in Austin last weekend died by suicide, police said their investigation shows. The mother of Brianna Aguilera had disputed that cause of death. "In every investigation, we have to rely on the evidence, and all evidence in this case is indicative of suicide," Sgt. Nathan Sexton said in a press conference Thursday, People reports. Police said they interviewed witnesses, examined surveillance video, and discovered a "deleted digital suicide note" from four days before Aguilera's death.

Dec 2, 2025 1:30 PM CST

A Texas mother is demanding answers after her 19-year-old daughter was found dead at the University of Texas at Austin, allegedly after a fight. Police say there are "no indications of suspicious circumstances" surrounding the death of Texas A&M sophomore Brianna Aguilera, who was discovered around 1am Saturday outside an apartment complex on UT's campus, KSAT reports. The outlet reports her death is being investigated as a suicide, with the cause of death to be determined by the Travis County Medical Examiner's Office. Aguilera's mother, Stephanie Rodriguez, finds that unbelievable.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Tuesday defended the secondary strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea, citing the "fog of war" as reason for his not seeing any survivors in the water when the strike was ordered and launched. Hegseth's comments came during a cabinet meeting hosted by President Trump the day after the administration insisted the strike, which it says was ordered by Navy Vice Adm. Frank "Mitch" Bradley, was lawful, the AP reports.

Asked if he supported the second strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea in September, Trump said he "didn't know anything" and "still haven't gotten a lot of information because I rely on Pete," referencing Hegseth.
President Trump lashed out at Somali immigrants on Tuesday, labeling them "garbage" and claiming they bring nothing but complaints to the United States. The comments, made at the end of a White House cabinet meeting, marked an escalation in Trump's harsh rhetoric toward immigrants, the New York Times reports. Referring to Somali immigrants as people who "come from hell" and "do nothing but bitch," Trump said, "We don't want them in our country," and suggested they should "go back to where they came from and fix it."

"Their country is no good for a reason," Trump said. "Your country stinks and we don't want them in our country." Vice President JD Vance banged the table in apparent support during the tirade, the Times reports. Trump singled out Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who came to the US from Somalia as a refugee and became a citizen 25 years ago, describing her and her associates as "garbage" and dismissing their contributions. "She's garbage. Her friends, garbage. These aren't people who work," Trump said. These aren't people who say 'let's go, come on, let's make this place great.'"

Omar fired back in a post on X, saying, "His obsession with me is creepy. I hope he gets the help he desperately needs." Trump has stepped up his attacks on Somali immigrants in recent weeks, especially those in Minnesota. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey pushed back against Trump's remarks Tuesday. "They have started businesses and created jobs. They have added to the cultural fabric of what Minneapolis is," Frey said, per the Washington Post. "To again, villainize an entire group is ridiculous under any circumstances. And the way that Donald Trump is consistent in doing it, I think calls into question major constitutional violations. And it certainly violates the moral fabric of what we stand by in this country as Americans."
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The Public Safety Report is compiled from criminal complaints filed in state and federal courts, as well as some police blotter information, trooper dispatches, fire department reports and interviews with public safety officials. Individuals named as arrested and/or charged with crimes in this report are presumed innocent until proved guilty in a court of law.
TOKYO, Dec 02 (News On Japan) - Police have arrested a man in his 30s after he allegedly entered a banquet hall at Hotel MiraCosta inside Tokyo DisneySea on December 1st while carrying what appeared to be a knife before fleeing the scene, with authorities locating him the following day in Kawasaki City.

The suspect, identified as Jiang Chunyu, a 34-year-old Chinese national living in Kawasaki City, was detained on suspicion of violating the Act on Punishment of Violent Acts after he allegedly pointed a knife at a former colleague attending the companys year-end party that was underway in the hall.

Jiang is a former employee of the company hosting the gathering. According to party attendees, the incident occurred during a gift raffle when shouting in Chinese suddenly erupted in the hall, and sheets of paper printed with Chinese text had been scattered across the tables.

Jiang has reportedly denied parts of the allegation, telling investigators that he entered the banquet hall to distribute a protest letter and was forcibly stopped, so I only took a Chinese-style kitchen knife out of my bag.

Previously: Man With Knife-Like Object Breaks Into Tokyo DisneySea Party

Source: TBS
In partnership with Gruppo Statuto, Four Seasons to assume management of Berlin's Hotel de Rome, located in the heart of the capital's Mitte district

TORONTO, Dec. 2, 2025 /CNW/ -- Leading luxury hospitality company Four Seasons and prominent European hotel developer Gruppo Statuto announce plans to transform Berlin's historic Hotel de Rome into a Four Seasons experience, opening in late 2027. This opening marks the return of Four Seasons to Berlin after 20 years.

Four Seasons Announces Highly Anticipated Opening in Germany with Luxury Hotel in Berlin

Following a large-scale renovation, Four Seasons Hotel Berlin will welcome guests to a reimagined luxury hospitality offering that preserves the property's storied facade while transforming approximately 140 guest rooms and suites, restaurants, and bars. The result will blend timeless and modern design, reflecting Berlin's distinct balance of history, creativity, and contemporary culture.

"We are proud to mark our return to Germany, reestablishing Four Seasons as the leading luxury hospitality offering in the market," says Alejandro Reynal, President and Chief Executive Officer, Four Seasons. "Berlin is an important European destination to add to our global portfolio, and we look forward to collaborating once again with Gruppo Statuto, with whom we have an exceptional track record of introducing Four Seasons legendary service and experiences to some of the region's most dynamic destinations."

Originally home to the former Dresdner Bank headquarters and built in the late 1800s, 2006 marked the building's transformation into a hospitality experience. In the city's historic Mitte district and set along the cobblestone streets of Bebelplatz, Four Seasons Hotel Berlin will soon place guests at the centre of the city's cultural and architectural heritage. St. Hedwig's Cathedral and the Unter den Linden State Opera sit just steps away, while the Brandenburg Gate, Gendarmenmarkt, and the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Museum Island are all within walking distance.

The property will operate as Hotel de Rome through 2026, managed by Gruppo Statuto. Renovations will take place before reopening as Four Seasons Hotel Berlin in 2027, with select services and amenities remaining open during that time. Four Seasons Hotel Berlin will be led by General Manager Christian Poda, whose 26-year career with the company began in 1999. Most recently, Christian was Regional Vice President and General Manager of Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong, with oversight of properties in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Suzhou. Born and raised in Berlin, Christian will return to his home city to oversee the transition of the hotel to a Four Seasons experience.

"Hotel de Rome has a rich history in Berlin and will have an exciting future in its next chapter as a Four Seasons experience," says Mr. Giuseppe Statuto, Owner, Gruppo Statuto. "Building on the success of our projects together in Italy, we will elevate the guest experience while thoughtfully enhancing the Hotel's existing character. Together, we are confident that Four Seasons Hotel Berlin will bring this same excellence to the German market."

Sophisticated Design Inspired by a Rich History

Following careful restoration, Four Seasons Hotel Berlin will showcase the building's original features and storied past with renowned architectural firm Humbert & Poyet overseeing design across approximately 140 guest rooms, suites, and common areas. Visitors will enjoy three distinctive restaurant and bar experiences, including an expansive rooftop terrace overlooking the city, undoubtedly set to become a hub of connection and character for locals and visitors alike.

After full days in Germany's capital, guests can unwind at the hotel's spa and fitness facilities, in what was once a jewel vault. Designed for memorable meetings and events, more than 1000 square metres (10,800 square feet) of beautifully reimagined indoor and outdoor space will welcome events and celebrations of all sizes.

Located less than an hour from Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER), the property is also a 15-minute drive from Berlin Central Station, Hauptbahnhof, which offers high-speed trains to all of Germany's major cities, and many cities in neighbouring European countries such as Vienna, Prague, Zurich, Warsaw, Budapest and Amsterdam.

Four Seasons and Gruppo Statuto have a successful history partnering together on Four Seasons properties in Italy, including San Domenico Palace, Taormina, A Four Seasons Hotel, Four Seasons Hotel Milano, and the upcoming Danieli, A Four Seasons Hotel, Venice.

About Gruppo Statuto

Gruppo Statuto owns and develops luxury Hotels at the top level of the market. The Group's activity also includes residential as well as High Street retail developments both in Roma and in Milano. Gruppo Statuto owns some of the most iconic luxury 5-stars hotels in Italy and Europe including the well-known Four Seasons Hotel Milano; San Domenico Palace, Taormina, A Four Seasons Hotel; the iconic Hotel Danieli in Venice, which will open in 2026 as Danieli, A Four Seasons Hotel, Venice; Mandarin Oriental Milano; Mandarin Oriental Paris; Six Senses Ibiza; Six Senses Roma; The Rome EDITION; Casa Brera Milano; and other projects currently under development, among them including Hotel Caesar Augustus in Capri, Six Senses Milano, Rosewood Milano, and Six Senses Lake Como.

About Four Seasons

Four Seasons opened its first hotel in 1961 and since that time has become a global leader in luxury hospitality and branded residential, with a focus on genuine and unparalleled service experiences. Four Seasons currently operates 135 hotels and resorts and 59 residential properties in major city centres and resort destinations in 47 countries. The company continues to grow with a guest-centric mindset, including a global pipeline of more than 60 projects under planning or in development. In addition to its hotels and resorts, Four Seasons experiential offerings include more than 600 restaurants and bars globally, the Four Seasons Private Jet Experience, Four Seasons Drive Experience, and the upcoming Four Seasons Yachts. Four Seasons consistently ranks among the world's best hotels, resorts, restaurants and bars, and most prestigious luxury hospitality brand in reader polls, traveller reviews and industry awards. For more information and reservations, visit fourseasons.com. For the latest news, visit press.fourseasons.com.

Contact:

Four Seasons

Emily Killion

[email protected]

SOURCE Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
Glad launches all-new "Don't Get Mad. Get Glad." campaign, featuring a remix of Oscar's hit song "I Love Trash".

TORONTO, Dec. 2, 2025 /CNW/ - Glad  Canada's leading brand of trash bags and food wraps*  is reviving its most popular, decades-long, star-studded ad campaign, "Don't Get Mad. Get Glad." For the first time ever, the campaign doesn't feature a human celebrity, but the original grouch himself, Oscar, starring in a musical number about a world that loves trash as much as he does. Oscar's Glad debut comes on the heels of Sesame Street's newest season, available now on Netflix and PBS KIDS.

GLAD x Sesame Street (CNW Group/GLAD Canada)

Why Oscar the Grouch?

Glad is proving that trash doesn't have to add to the mess. Who better to turn trash frustration into fun?

"No one feels more strongly about trash than Oscar the Grouch, so we knew we had to reach out to Sesame Street for the relaunch of 'Don't Get Mad. Get Glad,'" said Kellie Li, Marketing Director at Glad. "Our intention behind this campaign is to show that trash doesn't have to be associated with a feeling of ick, avoidance, or grouchiness; thanks to Glad trash bags, taking out the trash doesn't have to be a chore."

What's the Campaign About?

The campaign centers around a musical number directed by award-winning directors, Will Speck and Josh Gordon. The Broadway-esque film opens in a familiar place: Oscar being grouchy and people tolerating, but not loving, trash. Suddenly, it blossoms into a joyous remix of Oscar's classic song "I Love Trash," reimagined for today's world. Instead of singing a solo ballad to his beloved trash, Oscar imagines a world where he's joined in song by others who love it as much as he does. In it, Glad products keep people from "getting mad" at rips, smells, and leaks.

"If there's one thing anyone who has ever watched Sesame Street knows, it's that Oscar the Grouch loves trash," said Jennifer Ahearn, Senior Vice President, Global Strategic Partnerships at Sesame Workshop, the global nonprofit behind Sesame Street. "We were excited to team up with Glad for their iconic campaign with our grouchy green friend."

Wait, Haven't I Seen "Don't Get Mad. Get Glad." Before?

If "Don't Get Mad. Get Glad." rings a bell, your memory serves you right! Since its original premiere back in 1987, "Don't Get Mad. Get Glad." has featured a rotating cast of celebrities getting mad at their underperforming trash and food storage products. This campaign has stood the test of time  just like Sesame Street.

There's More Where That Came From!

Accompanying the musical number, Glad has created limited-edition Oscar-inspired trash bag totes. This December, fans can get their hands on a limited-edition green Oscar-fur-covered bag via a very special social giveaway  a playful nod to the OG trash lover himself. Fans can follow Glad (@gladcanada on Instagram and TikTok) to stay tuned for the giveaway.

Where to Watch

Watch Glad's campaign that will run in the U.S. and Canada as longform content, 30s and 15s cutdowns, and social teasers on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Reddit (in Canada only). Follow along at @gladcanada on Instagram and TikTok. Featured Glad products include:

Glad ForceFlex with Febreze Freshness

Glad Cherry Blossom

About Glad

At Glad, we believe in helping Canadians waste less and waste right by empowering people to do their part every single day. Whether it's responsible waste management or protecting and preserving food, we've got you covered. All GLAD bags are Guaranteed Strong*, which is why we've been named #1 Most Trusted Brand1 for Garbage Bags in Canada multiple years in a row.

Glad has been in Canadian households for over half a century. The Glad plant, located in Orangeville Ontario, has been manufacturing quality products and providing innovative waste and food protection solutions for over 50 years. It's a heritage we are proud of and expertise and quality you can count on.

*for full details visit Glad.ca/our-guarantee_1https://www.brandsparkmosttrusted.com/canada

About Sesame Workshop

Sesame Workshop is the global nonprofit behind Sesame Street and so much more. For over 50 years, we have worked at the intersection of education, media, and research, creating joyful experiences that enrich minds and expand hearts, all in service of empowering each generation to build a better world. Our beloved characters, iconic shows, outreach in communities, and more bring playful early learning to families in more than 190 countries and advance our mission to help children everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder. Learn more at www.sesame.org and follow Sesame Workshop on Instagram , TikTok , Facebook , and X .

SOURCE GLAD Canada

Media Contacts: Glad, [email protected]
Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Jr. at Asbury Lanes , during a tour of the city of Asbury Park. Asbury Park, N.J. September 28, 2021 Noah K. Murray | for NJ Advance Media

A child abuse case against Atlantic Citys mayor heads to trial this week, in a case that will leave jurors to decide his political future despite handily winning reelection.

Opening arguments in a criminal trial for Marty Small Sr. will be heard either Wednesday or Thursday, according to the New Jersey judiciary. Jury selection was scheduled to begin on Monday, but was delayed by one day due to a scheduling conflict and will now begin on Tuesday.

The trial is expected to conclude by Dec. 12.

Small, a Democrat who was re-elected in November while under indictment, is charged with endangering the welfare of a child, terroristic threats, aggravated assault and witness tampering. Small faces 25 years in prison if convicted on all charges, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported previously.

The case stems from an investigation into claims his daughter first made to Atlantic City High School officials.

Smalls wife, LaQuetta Small, who is Atlantic Citys superintendent of public schools, is also charged in the case and will be tried separately at the request of her attorney, a judge ruled at a past hearing.

Marty Smalls lawyers did not immediately respond to an emailed request by NJ Advance Media for comment. In past interviews, Marty Small has insisted the charges are politically motivated.

The trial comes after the couple was charged together in April 2024. Investigators said the Smalls abused their teenage daughter between December 2023 and January 2024. Administrators at the high school were questioned during the investigation, and detectives also recovered saved images and videos allegedly showing the abuse, evidence that the couple failed to have removed from their trials.

In past hearings, the Smalls attorneys have argued the couple was trying to reprimand their daughter, and that aggressive statements toward her were made out of frustration, never to be acted upon. That assertion has been the basis for failed motions to dismiss charges on each of the Smalls indictments.

The Atlantic County Prosecutors Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mental health evaluation prompts investigation

Charging documents said the teenager disclosed that she was beaten on multiple occasions by her parents, leaving her with bruising. In one instance, Marty Small allegedly struck the girl multiple times with a broom to the point where she became unconscious.

The affidavit claims the mayor lied about how the teenager was injured when she was treated at a hospital in January 2024. He also allegedly told the teenager to twist up one account of abuse to investigators, prompting witness tampering charges against him.

The alleged abuse was revealed by the teenage girl to high school employees, who began an investigation based on a mental health evaluation, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

One of those employees includes Constance Days-Chapman, the high schools principal, a political ally of the Smalls. Days-Chapman is facing charges of official misconduct for not properly reporting the abuse claims to state officials, as required by law. The principal, who has been on leave, pleaded not guilty.

Days-Chapmans attorney, Lee Vartan, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. It was unclear if the principal would testify during either Marty or LaQuetta Smalls trials.

Marty Small Sr. speaks as Atlantic Citys interim mayor inside the Henry Hank Tyner Memorial Council Chambers, Friday, Oct. 4, 2019. Small replaces former Atlantic City Mayor Frank Gilliam, who resigned after admitting to wire fraud in a federal court Thursday. Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Marty Smalls attorney has also lost motions to dismiss counts on his indictment and to suppress the recordings of the alleged abuse. The recordings, which were made by their daughters then-boyfriend, violated New Jerseys wiretap laws, the defense argued.

Marty Small rejected a deal months before his trial in which he would have pleaded guilty to third-degree aggravated assault. Reporters asked the mayor if he considered the plea deal, to which he responded, Absolutely not.

The rise to the mayors seat

Marty Small was appointed mayor in 2019 to replace Frank Gilliam, who resigned over federal fraud charges. He has since been elected to the seat three times, including this year, where he defeated Republican challenger Naeem Ahmed Khan.

If convicted, the mayor would be barred from his job, as state law restricts anyone found guilty of a third-degree crime or higher from holding public office. In that case, an acting mayor would be appointed until a special election to fill the remainder of the four-year term.

His political career has been entangled in past criminal charges. He and five others were acquitted of voter fraud charges tied to his unsuccessful 2009 mayoral campaign. In 2006, he was also found not guilty of ballot fraud allegations in a previous election.
A man was found dead on the side of the road Sunday night in an Absecon neighborhood, police said.

Officers responded to a 911 call reporting a man lying in the roadway in the area of South Shore Road and Iowa Avenue around 6 p.m. They found the body on the shoulder with visible signs of trauma, according to a statement from the Absecon Police Department.

No additional information was released Monday evening as the incident was still under investigation by the department and the Atlantic County Prosecutors Office.

The agencies asked anyone with information about the incident or anyone who was in the area Sunday evening to contact the departments criminal investigations division at (609) 641-0667, ext. 214.
The FBI has offered a $50,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of Nazeer Hameed. Hameed is charged with two counts of murder for allegedly killing a Maple Shade mom and her 6-year-old son in 2017. FBI Newark

The FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information that leads to the arrest of a man charged with killing a co-worker and her 6-year-old son in Maple Shade more than eight years ago.

Nazeer Hameed is believed to have fled to India six months after the murders on March 23, 2017, authorities said.

Anyone with information about Hameeds whereabouts is asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) or the nearest American embassy or consulate.

Hameed, 38, was charged last month with two counts of first-degree murder and weapons offenses after an eight-year investigation that included assistance from federal agencies.

Hameed was linked to the killings of Sasikala Narra, 38, and her 6-year-old son, Anish Narra, after a droplet of blood found at the scene. Police said the blood was matched to someone unrelated to Sasikala and Anish. The blood was also unrelated to Hanumantha Narra, Sasikalas husband and the boys father.

Hameed was positively identified by authorities after the company he worked for, Cognizant, agreed to send his work-issued laptop to the U.S. for forensic analysis in 2024.

Sasikala and Anish were both found stabbed to death in a unit of the Fox Meadow Apartments.

The scene that day was unimaginable, Maple Shade police chief Christopher J. Fletcher said in a previously released statement. Those who responded saw the carnage of a mother and her young child who spent their final moments fighting for their lives.

Prosecutor LaChia L. Bradshaw with the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office speaks during a press conference held at the the Indian Cultural Center in Evesham, New Jersey on Tuesday, November 18, 2025. The prosecutorOs office announces that Nazeer Hameed is charged with the 2017 slaying of Sasikala Narra and her son Anish Narra in Maple Shade. Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media

Authorities said previously that Hameed worked with Hanumantha Narra, Sasikalas husband. Both were in the U.S. working as consultants for a Philadelphia-based company. Sasikala also worked for Cognizant.

Both Anish and Sasikala were slashed several times across their necks and showed signs of defensive wounds, officials said.

Hameed returned to India six months after the killings and took extensive measures to cover his digital footprint, according to officials.

Investigators learned that Hameed had been stalking Hanumantha prior to the killings and was also a resident of the Fox Meadows apartment complex where the Narras lived.

Thank you to our federal partners for supporting this investigation, the Burlington County Prosecutors Office said in a statement Monday. The extradition of Nazeer Hameed will remain a priority until he is brought back to New Jersey and prosecuted.
The FBI has offered a $50,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of Nazeer Hameed. Hameed is charged with two counts of murder for allegedly killing a Maple Shade mom and her 6-year-old son in 2017. FBI Newark

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has called on the Indian government to cooperate with U.S. authorities in extraditing a suspect in a brutal 2017 killing in Burlington County.

Murphy said Tuesday that he spoke with Indian Ambassador Vinay Kwatra last week about cooperating with U.S. authorities to extradite Nazeer Hameed, 38.

Hameed is an Indian national who was charged with killing a mother and her son in a Maple Shade apartment eight years ago.

This heinous crime shocked our state, and for eight years investigators pursued every available lead, Murphy said in the letter. It is our understanding that Mr. Hameed is presently residing in India, having departed the United States shortly after the murders occurred.

Officials with the Indian Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hameed was charged with murder in February after an eight-year investigation into the slayings of Sasikala Narra and her 6-year-old son, Anish Narra, in their apartment.

Murphys letter called on Kwatra and the Indian government to cooperate with U.S. officials in extraditing Hameed under a 1997 treaty between the two nations.

On Tuesday, the FBI announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Hameed.

After finding a drop of blood at the scene that did not match any of the Narra family members, investigators spent more than five years narrowing down a list of possible DNA matches. They used court orders and international relationships to find the person they believed killed Sasikala and Anish.

Hameed, who was 29 at the time of the slayings, declined to provide DNA to investigators to compare against the blood found at the scene, according to law enforcement officials.

After several years trying to force Hameeds cooperation through legal and diplomatic channels, the company Hameed worked for provided his laptop for forensic analysis. That analysis returned a DNA match to the droplet found at the scene.

We recognize that the charges and allegations against Mr. Hameed are merely accusations, and that he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law, Murphy wrote in the letter to Kwatra. Our sole objective is to ensure that he is afforded a fair and transparent judicial process within the U.S. legal system, consistent with the principles of justice shared by both our nations.

Murder charges were announced against Nazeer Hameed after an eight-year investigation that included legal and diplomatic relations, officials said. Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media

On March 23, 2017, Hanumantha Narra returned home from a work party and found his wife and son brutally stabbed to death in their home, according to court records and 911 recordings.

The Narras and Hameed lived in the same apartment complex in Maple Shade and worked for the same Indian company at the time of the killings, officials said.

The scene that day was unimaginable, Maple Shade Police Chief Christopher Fletcher said while announcing the charges on Nov. 18. Officials said Sasikala and Anish were slashed across their necks and Anish was almost decapitated.

Hanumantha worked with Hameed at Cognizant, the Indian tech giant.

Investigators learned that Hameed had been following Hanumantha for a significant period of time prior to the killings, according to officials.

There is no indication that Hameed had ever met Anish and Sasikala, officials said.

Sasikalas family lives in India and they did not know Hameed, said the familys attorney, Donald Browne.

Hameed had been in the United States for a few years prior to the killings, according to officials.

Authorities wouldnt comment on the depth of the relationship between Hanumantha and Hameed or speculate about possible motives.

The local Indian community assisted authorities during the investigation, according to Indian Cultural Center board of trustees member Jayesh Parikh.

Extradition between nations typically requires a treaty between the two countries, according to U.S. law.

The U.S. and India have had an extradition treaty since 1997. It covers offenses punishable by law in both countries with penalties of one year in prison or longer.

All requests for extradition must be submitted through diplomatic channels with supporting documentation, according to the treaty.

In urgent cases, both parties can request provisional arrests pending a request for extradition, according to the treaty.
Frozen is a story about the power of human warmth amid overwhelmingly cold, harsh nature. Disneys Frozen: The Broadway Musical, now running at Millburns Paper Mill Playhouse, celebrates that spirit. As the New Jersey holiday season takes hold, this show offers a warm night of family theater that captures well the essence of its film predecessor.

The 2013 animated film, Frozen, was a massive commercial and cultural success because, on one hand, it had all the expected elements of a hit Disney animated feature: big-name stars like Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel, dazzling and big-budget animation, and a full-throated centerpiece song in Let it Go. But on the other hand, Frozen thrived by bucking tradition. It is a story about two princesses and at least one handsome prince, but we have no swooning romance or wandering ingenue. Frozen instead celebrates the strength of sisterhood and the resolve that bonds family. In resisting many familiar trends, Frozen defined its own space and redefined what a fairytale could be.

Opening on Broadway in 2018, the stage adaptation did what stage adaptations of Disney musicals prioritize above all: Dont mess with success. The show makes some minor tweaks to the shows story and structure, and of course it cannot resist the urge to add some new, not particularly good, and not at all necessary songs to stretch the 100-minute movie into a full-length stage musical, but at its core this is a straight-ahead and successful transfer of the movie to the stage.

The story opens as young princess sisters, Anna and Elsa (Anjali Roa and Hazel Vogel, both adorable and excellent as the childhood versions of the shows stars), frolic in the castle, delighted with Elsas magical powers to create snow and ice. Sadly, Elsa quickly learns that she cannot control her powers, which have the capability to do real damage, so she hides herself away from society and her sister. When time comes for Elsa to become queen, a grand public ceremony turns sour after Elsas secret bursts forth in dangerous ways and she flees the country, leaving potential disaster in her wake. Anna sets off through the tundra in the hopes of finding her sister and saving her country.

The Paper Mill production is full of fun and heart, fueled mostly by excellent performances in the lead. Samantha Williams and Mary Kate Morrissey as Anna and Elsa rise to the high bar set for them by Roa and Vogel (and also, to be fair, by Bell and Menzel). Williams is consistently precocious and playful, even when Anna is called to her courage. Morrissey impresses with her ability to balance Elsas resolve to remove herself from society with her inability to turn off the love for her sister.

Morrissey and the shows team dazzle as act one closes with the song everybody came to hear, Let it Go. Morrissey travels an impressive vocal range while musical director Geoffrey Ko brings the orchestra steadily to full, powerful voice, and Ryan J. OGaras lights evoke an icy wonderland. Here and throughout the show, director Paige Price helps these performers find the emotional depth of these characters that makes Frozen so unique among the world of animated films.

Add to all this some wonderful puppetry (Afsaneh Aayani, puppet design) that brings Olaf (Todd Buonopane) and Sven (Thomas Whitcomb) to life and this stage adaptation feels like a transportation to the animated world of the film. That world is no doubt cold, but the warmth at the heart of the story shines through at the Paper Mill.

Disneys Frozen: The Broadway Musical

Paper Mill Playhouse

22 Brookside Drive, Millburn

Tickets available online (https://papermill.org/). Running through Jan. 11.

Patrick Maley may be reached at patrickjmaley@gmail.com. Find him on Instagram @PatrickJMaley. Find NJ.com/Entertainment on Facebook
Owner Jonathan Echeverry, foreground, and baristas from left, Mike Tice, Russell Moy and Priscilla Perez, the team at Paper Plane Coffee Co. in Montclair, one of the best coffee shops in New Jersey. 11/15/2023 Steve Hockstein | For NJ Advance

A national food website claims that one particular coffee shop in New Jersey reigns supreme over all the rest  talk about a latte praise!

Mashed recently published a list of the best local coffee shops in every state. New Jerseys representative was a cafe that is no stranger to praise  Paper Plane Coffee in Montclair.

Here is what the website said about the beloved coffee shop:

Be ready to try bold flavor combinations and cleverly named mixed drinks when you stop by Paper Plane Coffee Co. The Science menu includes concoctions like the Mint Eastwood with peppermint and Nam-Dam with cardamom. Meanwhile, the Bubbly selection features espresso-and-soda mixes, like the Vincent Vega with Coca-Cola and the Rusky with ginger beer. Far from a novelty cafe with wacky beverages, Paper Plane sources and roasts specialty-grade beans.

Paper Plane Coffee Co. in Montclair is one of the best coffee shops in New Jersey. 11/15/2023 Steve Hockstein | For NJ Advance

Jonathan Echeverry and Melissa Anderson opened Paper Plane Coffee Co. in 2019. The Essex County shop has become so popular it has expanded to take over multiple storefronts  with the main shop taking on an airplane travel-themed aesthetic complete with airline-style seats and windows along a wall that will make you feel like youre actually on a plane.

The menu at Paper Plane is ever-changing, with speciality drinks like the pumpkin king (their elevated take on a pumpkin spice latte), Its Corn! (sweet corn simple syrup, cinnamon, oat milk and matcha) and espresso toddy (lemon, spiced honey, hot water and espresso) available in the fall. But their classics like the Mint Eastwood (peppermint simple, milk and chocolate-cinnamon espresso) are always available.

Paper Plane came in at No. 3 on NJ.coms list of the states best coffee shops. Echeverry also told NJ Advance Media earlier this year that a second Paper Plane Coffee Co. location is in the works in Maplewood.
A former volunteer fire chief from Gloucester County who admitted collecting thousands of child sexual abuse images over decades was sentenced to seven years in state prison on Monday.

Martin W. Matson, 71, of West Deptford, apologized for his behavior before he was sentenced and said he suffered from a pornography addiction.

The judge rejected his request to serve his sentence at home.

Matson was originally charged in April after a search of his residence turned up binders filled with printouts of child sexual abuse images.

Matson admitted downloading the images over more than 30 years and storing them on laptops in his basement and removable media, according to court documents.

An analysis of the recovered electronic devices from Matsons home revealed more than 125,000 items of child sexual abuse materials, detectives stated in an affidavit.

During the April search, detectives also located numerous pairs of young childrens underwear in Matsons basement, including some that were soiled, according to the affidavit.

He was initially charged with third-degree possessing less than a thousand items of child sex abuse materials. After the devices were analyzed, he was charged in May with first-degree possession of more than 100,000 files of child sex abuse material.

Matson pleaded guilty in June to a second-degree accusation of endangering the welfare of a child by possessing at least 1,000 but less than 100,000 or more items depicting the sexual exploitation or abuse of a child, according to the charge.

Under terms of the plea deal, the prosecution recommended a seven-year prison sentence.

Matsons lawyer said his clients behavior was the result of an addiction.

Mr. Matson has admitted that he suffers an addiction to child pornography which he is doing his best to overcome, attorney Robert Agre said.

In seeking leniency for his client, Agre said Matson has led a crime-free life apart from this offense, was a Navy SEAL who served in Vietnam, and served his community as a firefighter for 40 years.

Matson was a volunteer fire chief at the now-defunct Green-Fields Volunteer Fire Company in West Deptford. The fire company shut down in 2021.

Agre also described Matsons health challenges, saying he has neurological and cardiovascular issues.

In imposing the sentence the court may very well be imposing, I hate to say this, but a death sentence, because Martin requires constant care, Agre said. I ask for your leniency, your honor, given this mans many accomplishments, the tragedy of his addiction, and the fact that he is in poor physical health.

When given the opportunity to speak, Matson acknowledged his criminal behavior and apologized to his family, friends and neighbors.

He also contradicted a statement made by his lawyer.

I have no addiction to child pornography. It was actually an addiction to just regular pornography, Matson told the court. Probably 30-some years ago, I came across some pornography on the computer. Never took any pictures of anyone. I never sold any pictures. I never traded any pictures. I never touched a child, molested anyone.

He asked that he be allowed to serve his sentence at home.

Superior Court Judge William Ziegler wasnt swayed by the defense remarks and sentenced Matson to prison in accordance with the plea deal.

The judge noted that while Matson had no other criminal record, he had spent decades committing illegal acts in this case.

Matson received credit for seven days already served in jail.

In addition to his prison sentence, Matson will be subject to Megans Law provisions and parole supervision for life under terms of the plea, the judge said.
A driver killed in a Thanksgiving Eve crash in South Brunswick was identified Monday as a 61-year-old township resident.

The three-vehicle crash happened shortly before 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 26 on New Road between Route 522 and Route 1, according to a statement from the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office.

Investigators said a 24-year-old Manalapan woman was driving a 2017 Subaru Legacy west on New Road when she crossed the double yellow line and collided with a 2000 Dodge Caravan.

The Caravan was driven by Nancy Krauss, 61, of South Brunswick.

Following the initial crash, a 2012 Subaru Outback driven by a 42-year-old South Brunswick woman rear-ended the Caravan, the prosecutors office said.

Krauss was rushed to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in critical condition. She died from her injuries later that night, investigators said.

The driver of the 2017 Subaru Legacy was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. The Outback driver was not injured, authorities said.

The crash is still under investigation and anyone with information is asked to call South Brunswick Police Officer James Kraivec at (732) 329-4000 or Detective James Barnes of the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office at (732) 745-3437.
South Brunswick police say Nathan Edwards Simpson robbed a woman of her cell phone in the parking lot of a preschool on Monday. South Brunswick police

Police in South Brunswick are searching for a man who robbed a woman he knew of her cell phone in the parking lot of a preschool on Monday morning.

The woman was dropping off her child at the The Sapling School on Route 27 in the Kendall Park section of town when Nathan Edwards Simpson pulled out a gun and demanded her phone, South Brunswick police said.

Simpson fled on foot following the 9 a.m. robbery. Police put a nearby school in a shelter-in-place while they searched for Simpson but could not find him.

Simpson, 45, is 6-foot-2 and about 200 pounds with green eyes and black hair. He also goes by the name Bryan Spinelli and was last seen wearing a black shirt and blue pants.

Police charged Simpson with robbery, theft, endangering the welfare of a child, terroristic threats and weapons offenses.

Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Sergeant Tim Hoover or Detective Jamal Benbow at 732-329-4646.

In addition, Middlesex County Crime Stoppers is offering a reward for information on this case. Tips can be provided by calling 1-800-939-9600 or visiting http://www.middlesextips.com/ to provide the tip.
Recipients may have to enroll in training programs or document a minimum of 80 hours a month of voluntary work to meet the new requirements. Alexander Spatari | Getty Images

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New restrictions to the countrys biggest anti-hunger program went into effect on Monday, making food access more difficult for roughly 850,000 people in New Jersey.

Finalized on Monday, the restrictions to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, impose several new requirements on enrollees. Chief among them is a requirement to show and document that one has worked or volunteered a minimum of 80 hours a month.

Recipients may also be enrolled in training programs and meet the new requirements.

In writing the new law, the Republican-majority Congress also imposed new rules on vulnerable groups that have historically been exempt from work requirements. They include military veterans, people experiencing homelessness, young adults aging out of foster care, refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants with humanitarian protections.

Advocates and experts said the new requirements for federal programs will only lead to fewer enrollees. Elaine Waxman of the nonprofit Urban Institute said people are already removed without the proper paperwork. People fall off for administrative reasons, she said.

Overall, the institute estimates the law cuts about $186 billion nationwide from SNAP over the next decade, and about 400,000 households in New Jersey could lose some or all of their program benefits.

The law will also shift between $100 million and $300 million in costs from the federal government to New Jerseys taxpayers, according to the New Jersey Department of Human Services, and will cost New Jersey county governments $78 million in new expenses annually.

The cuts are the deepest in the history of the program that dates back to the 1960s Great Society under President Lyndon Johnson. At the time, it was a political breakthrough.

The new law is a product of Congress sharp split, including in New Jersey. New Jerseys delegation to Congress split its votes on the law, with all three Republicans  Reps. Jeff Van Drew (R-2nd), Chris Smith (R-4th)and Tom Kean Jr. (R-7th)  voting for it and all New Jersey Democrats voting against it.

Average SNAP benefits, $6.20 a day, are not sufficient to cover a modestly priced meal in any of New Jerseys 21 counties.

The Trump administration and Republican allies on Capitol Hill said passing the new law was critical to rooting out waste and fraud within federal programs, including SNAP and Medicaid, the health insurance system for the poor and disabled.

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith is among the laws supporters. I think theres a great deal of hyperbole about what the workfare requirements will do, Smith said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News. I think theyre good.

Smith said he was confident people enrolled in federal programs like SNAP and Medicaid will not lose their benefits due to the new law. Women, small children, disabled persons, they will not lose anything, he said.

Changes were underway this month in how SNAP is administered after funding for the program lapsed during the recent government shutdown and the Trump administration sued to block payments from reaching the public.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, whose department oversees SNAP, said the interest in the program has given the administration a platform to completely deconstruct the program.

New details in the plan would come this week, Rollins said, and make sure those vulnerable Americans who really need that benefit are going to get it.

And for all the rest of the fraudsters and the people who are corrupt and taking advantage of it  were going to protect the taxpayer, too, Rollins said in the interview with Fox Business.

U.S. Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) said the Trump administration undercut confidence in the program during the shutdown and by changing SNAP requirements.

I think theres a lot of confusion about what all this means, Kim said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News.

In general, among people that I talk to that are on SNAP, theres such unease about just how fragile that system was for them, he said of the program during the month-long shutdown. They have every right to be concerned.

During the shutdown, the president tried to halt money for national programs and cancel federal funding in Democratic-leaning regions of the country as a negotiating tactic with congressional Democrats.

We saw a president that was willing to hold back funding for people who are hungry in this country to increase political pressure and leverage, Kim said. That was really shameful.

Kim and other New Jersey Democrats, who had held out for legislation to lower health insurance costs, voted in November against reopening the government.

New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin and other Democratic attorneys general last week filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to nullify a new rule that bars legal immigrants, such as asylum seekers and refugees, from SNAP eligibility.

Andrea Hetling, professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, said people on public assistance, such as through SNAP, often are working or are trying to find work.

Many individuals would prefer to be working, Hetling said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News. Often theyre experiencing some type of challenge, whether thats kind of a long-lived or a short-lived one, that prevents them from fully engaging in the labor market right now.

Such challenges could be serious events, she said, like homelessness, a physical disability or a mental health episode. Or it might be something milder like a lapse in seasonal work or the case of someone waiting for a job to start.

For so many individuals who are not as securely tied to the labor market, jobs can fluctuate and your hours can get cut, and it can be seasonal, Hetling said. All of a sudden, you were working 30 hours a week, but now its only 15, and it puts you at a point where you cant really afford things.
Mikie Sherrill appears at a rally in Newark on Nov. 1, shortly before she was elected governor. Ed Murray| For NJ Advance Media

Most New Jerseyans know Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill is a former Navy pilot who had a nine-year military career before entering politics.

But most voters likely hadnt heard the harrowing story of the birth of her second child until the governor-elect appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday night.

Sherrill, a Democrat succeeding Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in January, told Colbert about how she gave birth to her son in a New York City taxi cab years ago while she tried to recall the chapter from a parenting advice book about giving birth without a doctor.

Sherrill told the story during the second portion of her Colbert appearance after first talking politics and taking swipes at President Donald Trumps administration over strikes against suspected drug-smuggling boats.

Colbert encouraged Sherrill to tell her badass birth story.

Youre a Navy pilot  thats kind of a badass thing to have done, Colbert said. You always wanted to be a pilot when you were younger, but I understand you did something even more badass not far from this theater, over on the East Side here.

The governor-elect said her second child was born on the side of the road in New York City during a cab ride through Central Park to Mount Sinai Medical Center. Sherrill said she was aided by a bystander when her husband, Jason Hedberg, jumped out of the cab and ran for help.

A lady, who was at the bus stop, it turns out, she worked at the hospital and said, Can I help? Sherrill said.

Sherrill said she had recently read the chapter of the parenting advice book What to Expect When Youre Expecting on what to do in case a woman is not near any medical help when she goes into labor.

Theres a chapter called, How to Deliver Your Own Baby, which I had made a lot of fun of, Sherrill said.

On the day their son was born, Hedberg came home as Sherrills contractions started intensifying gradually, she said. At 45 seconds apart, their doctor instructed the couple to head for the hospital. Once inside the cab, the situation grew more dire.

We get halfway across the park, and my water breaks, Sherrill said. Im like, Im having this baby in the cab. And Jason, my husband, goes, Dont push. For anyone thats had a baby, thats not really an option.

In a tense ride through quick-changing traffic lights, the cab driver eventually pulled over near the hospital, and Hedberg left to go find help, Sherrill said.

Luckily, I read the chapter, so I know exactly what Im doing here, Sherrill joked.

In between Hedberg leaving and returning, Sherrill delivered the couples second child. Her husband offered a less-than-ideal response to his wife safely bringing their son into the world, she said.

He looks down at me again and goes, I thought I told you not to push, Sherrill said.

The couple, who now have four children, now live in Montclair.

Colbert is also a Montclair resident. He endorsed Sherrill in the election.

Sherrill handily won in Novembers election, defeating Republican Jack Ciattarelli by a 14-point margin. She will become the second woman to serve as New Jerseys governor when she enters office in January.
A 26-year-old New Jersey man was arrested Monday night after fleeing from Trenton police and crashing his car five miles away in Pennsylvania, authorities said.

The incident unfolded at 8:38 p.m. when Trenton police responded to gunshots on the 200 block of Walnut Avenue and saw a car speeding away from the area, officials said.

Trenton police officers tried to pull the car over but the driver didnt stop and police pursued the vehicle into Pennsylvania before calling off the chase.

The driver  Alix Eugene  crashed and overturned a short time later on an embankment in the area of Woolston Drive and Stony Hill Road in Falls Township, according to police in the Bucks County town.

Eugene got out of the car, left an AR-15 gun outside the vehicle and was found walking along Lincoln Highway, Falls Township police said.

He was treated at an area hospital for minor injuries before being brought to the Bucks County jail.

Eugene, who has addresses in Trenton and Tinton Falls, was charged with eluding, obstruction, resisting arrest and weapons offenses.

Trenton police said they found numerous spent shell casings and a parked vehicle struck by gunfire, but found no evidence anyone was shot.

Anyone with information is asked to call Falls Township police Corporal Ryan Murphy, at 215-302-3302, or via email r.murphy@fallstwppd.com.

Information may also be provided anonymously at 215-949-9120, or via email at tiplines@fallstwppd.com.
The Penn Plaza east complex is home to NJ Transit's former headquarters and Horizon Blue Cross behind it. A joint proposal announced by both on Tuesday calls for redevelopment of the site with residential towers and a new headquarters for Horizon financed by redevelopment of this site.

Two longtime Newark office buildings that have housed NJ Transit and Horizon Blue Cross could be redeveloped with plans for a new residential tower rising up to 30 stories and a new headquarters for the insurer.

NJ Transit and Horizon, which share the Penn Plaza East complex next to Newark Penn Station, announced Tuesday that theyve begun the process of redeveloping the nearly 4-acre site on Raymond Boulevard.

The proceeds from a deal, if it happens, could help fund NJ Transit operations under the agencys plan to earn revenue from non-fare sources. For 5,000 Horizon employees, it means theyll still call Newark home.

While exact proposals will come from developers, concepts for the Penn Plaza East complex envision a premier mixed-use development including a new up-to-1,000 unit residential complex at 1 and 3 Penn Plaza East that could reach 30 stories.

The project also would include developer-funded construction of a new single-tenant 250,000-square-foot Class A building for Horizons new corporate headquarters in Newark.

That headquarters would be built by the developer of the Penn Plaza site. Nonprofit Horizon employs over 5,000 people in its Three Penn Plaza headquarters.

An essential element of this plan is a new headquarters to be built and financed by the developer that allows Horizon to remain in Newark and continue to serve our members in the most financially responsible way possible, said Doug Falduto, Horizons Vice President Administration and Chief Security Officer.

NJ Transit already relocated almost a year ago from One Penn Plaza to offices at 2 Gateway Center in Newark, leased for $500 million for 25 years in a deal that sparked controversy.

The announcement answers the future use for NJ Transits former headquarters building which is now 34 years old.

It also aligns with the agencys new LAND plan, short for Leveraging Assets for Non-farebox Dollars.

That plan details opportunities to earn non-fare revenue from 8,000 acres of NJ Transit-owned real estate and could produce between $1.2 billion and $1.9 billion in revenue for NJ Transits operations over 30 years.

The redevelopment of our former headquarters property is a key step in advancing our real estate strategy and our commitment to unlocking new value from our assets, said Kris Kolluri, NJ Transit CEO, in a statement.

Potential earnings for NJ Transit have not been estimated.

The development proposals will be assessed on a set of criteria that will include financial rewards to Horizon and Transit, but other important factors such as the capability of the developer, feasibility of proposal, and the impact on the community will also be considered, said Jim Smith, a NJ Transit spokesperson.

Local market demand suggests a future development that is primarily residential with some mixed-use, Smith said. We expect the developers to propose how best to achieve this on the site, based on a technical understanding of the asset to be shared in the Information Session.

For the city, redevelopment means additional tax revenue from the NJ Transit headquarters site. Mayor Ras Baraka said the city embraces this collaboration with full support for the broader public private partnership that it represents.

Penn Plaza Easts multifaceted, future-facing redevelopment will be a crowning jewel in Newarks continuing ascent toward next-level vibrancy and prosperity, Baraka said in a statement. Their investment will create new spaces for living, working and recreation, enliven our downtown, enhance our riverfront, and attract residents eager to benefit from the most extensive tri-state rail network in the nation.

The redevelopment is far from a done deal. The first phase is exploratory to gauge interest from developers in the Penn Plaza site, officials said. Potential developers must register their interest by December 31.

Depending on interest the next step would be a Request for Proposals (RFP) process and the timeline and logistics would be based on the negotiated outcome of that process, Smith said.

If there is sufficient interest expressed in this exploratory phase, a formal RFP will be issued, and it will be up to interested developers responding to the RFP to identify the site in Newark they would propose for any future Horizon HQ. said Thomas Wilson, a Horizon spokesperson.

The Penn Plaza site has several advantages: proximity to trains, buses and light rail at Newark Penn Station and its location on Raymond Boulevard and along the Passaic River.

JLL real estate listings also mentions the commanding views of New York City from the site, especially if plans to build 30-story residential come to fruition.

The site is located in the Newark River Redevelopment Plan and is zoned to allow future construction of up to 30 stories.

Both the redevelopment and office building sites will require approvals from Newark and need to satisfy other regulatory requirements.

The potential project anticipates using the New Jersey Economic Development Authoritys ASPIRE Transformative Project program, a tax-credit incentive designed to close financing gaps for large-scale, mixed-use projects that provide long-term urban revitalization.

NJ Transit began the relocation process in early 2023. The agency moved from its owned headquarters at 1 Penn Plaza to leased space at nearby 2 Gateway Center.

The deal to move to the new headquarters was criticized for keeping details from members of the board of directors until they were asked to vote on it in Feb. 2023. Among the criticisms were that other less costly proposals werent considered.

That prompted then board Vice-Chairman Cedric Fulton to resign two days before the board ultimately voted. Fulton is now on Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrills transportation transition team.

NJ Transit officials argued it would be too costly to retrofit the former building. Agency documents identified $118 million in rehabilitation work needed at the then 32-year-old building.

The timing of the move also drew fire as the agency faced a mounting fiscal crisis that could have reached a budget gap of $957 million by mid-2026.

In June 2023, the agency signed a $440 million, 25-year lease with Onyx Equities for eight floors at 2 Gateway Center, a deal questioned and criticized by some state lawmakers because it bypassed two lower-priced options.

Parking and outfitting the building pushed the price over $500 million.
A frustrated passenger was caught on video cursing at a flight attendant on a delayed flight from Newark Liberty International Airport last month.

In the TikTok video, posted on Nov. 10, two passengers get out of their seats with permission from a flight attendant. The woman in the window seat next to them then gets out of her seat quickly and is approached by the flight attendant.

The passenger is then heard saying Im allowed to get up, before complaining that the plane had been sitting on the tarmac for an hour.

@haleyrose99 This woman went absolutely nuts on my flight & we had to return back to the gate to remove her. #govshutdown #newarkairport  original sound - HaleyRose99

As she looks at her cell phone, the woman then blurts out profanity, including the F-bomb and the C-word.

In the TikTok posts description, the user, haleyrose99, writes that the plane later returned to the gate so that the crew could remove the passenger.

In a separate TikTok video, the user explains that the flight attendants asked the two passengers seated next to the woman to move because she had an earlier outburst.

She also says that the flight, which was headed to Charleston, South Carolina, had already been delayed for three hours before sitting on the tarmac for about 90 minutes.

A spokesperson for United Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Mikie Sherrill addressed the press and supporters in the primary election at her election night headquarters at The Westin Governor Morris in Morristown on Tuesday, June 10, 2025. Jeff Rhode | For NJ Advance Medi

In new criticism against President Donald Trumps administration, Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill used her position as a former military member to denounce a recent attack on a suspected drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean that killed all aboard.

It looks like its a war crime to me, as someone who served, Sherrill, a Democrat, said during an appearance on Late Night with Stephen Colbert on Monday.

Sherrills visit to the popular late-night talk show was one of her first nationally televised appearances since claiming the governorship by a 14-point margin last month. She will be sworn in as New Jerseys 57th governor next month, becoming the second woman in state history to hold the job.

Sherrills campaign leaned heavily into her nine-year military career, where she piloted aircraft in the U.S. Navy. She evoked her military service to criticize Trumps use of the Armed Forces.

The governor-elect referenced reports that a second strike against a Venezuelan boat suspected of carrying narcotics in the ocean on Sept. 2 killed survivors of the initial attack. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the second strike during a press briefing hours before Sherrills televised appearance.

Recent reporting from The Washington Post said Hegseth gave a directive to kill everybody aboard a boat that was allegedly ferrying drugs in September. The commander overseeing the operation directed the second strike to comply with Hegseths instructions, The Post reported.

Meanwhile, The New York Times reported Monday that Hegseth ordered a lethal strike, but did not address the possibility of survivors.

Sherrill, who resigned from her seat in Congress two weeks ago, said House members have not been shown thorough evidence to justify the over 20 strikes, which have killed an estimated 80 people.

Whats problematic about that is the fact that this country that Ive spent my life serving is operating in this way, Sherrill said. Its a stain on our honor.

The incoming governor also suggested the Trump administrations use of force may already be, and in some cases is, causing service members to question their jobs.

This type of incompetence, of disrespect of the military, of disrespect for our troops. ...it is just so offensive to me, as a veteran and someone who cares so deeply about service to this country and the troops that serve this country, Sherrill said.

Throughout her appearance, which included a harrowing story about the birth of her second, Sherrill reflected on her wide victory, in an election cycle where Democrats won across the country in Virginia and New York City.

Sherrill ran for Congress in 2018 to oppose Trumps policies during his first administration, shifting careers after being a federal prosecutor. Fighting much of Trumps agenda was the foundation for her candidacy for governor.

Colbert asked how Trumps policies would affect her as a state leader, to which she called on the administration to fulfill needs for infrastructure, food assistance, education and health care. She said her administration would be bipartisan in addressing affordability for New Jerseyans, which was atop voters minds in November.

That doesnt mean, in any way, shape or form, hiding or ducking or not standing up against those things that are going on that are so wrong, Sherrill said.

Sherrill and Colbert both live in Montclair. He endorsed her in the general election.
An SUV driver was arrested Friday after he was accused of pointing a handgun at another motorist on Route 287 in Passaic County, authorities said.

Christopher Paul, 44, of Canadensis, Pennsylvania, was taken into custody after the incident unfolded shortly after 1 p.m. in the northbound lanes near Exit 55 in Wanaque, according to New Jersey State Police.

Troopers said they received a report of a Tesla driver pointing a firearm at another motorist and pulled Paul over at a shopping center on Route 17 in Franklin Lakes in Bergen County.

Paul was charged with two counts of second-degree child endangerment, second-degree weapons possession, fourth-degree aggravated assault and multiple counts of fourth-degree possession of hollow-point bullets.

He was held at the Bergen County Jail to await a court hearing.

Attorney information for Paul was not immediately available in online court and jail records.
State Senate President Nicholas Scutari (left) fast-tracked a bill that would all-but-kill the watchdog roll of acting State Comptroller Kevin Walsh (right). NJ Advance Media photo illustration| Photos by Patti Sapone and NJ State Comptroller's Office.

The bill literally arrived in the dead of night.

Dropped into a lame duck session just before Thanksgiving and fast-tracked for a hearing, the timing was immediately suspect  as if no one would notice a measure that would gut an agency intended to fight corruption, waste and fraud in a state known for such abuses.

But an effort by state Senate President Nicholas Scutari to undercut the watchdog role of the Office of the State Comptroller was quickly reported out of the State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee on Monday by a 5-0 vote.

The action followed an often contentious, hours-long hearing in Trenton that sometimes turned into a shouting match, as dozens complained about the shockingly quick action on a bill they said had allowed little opportunity for anyone to challenge it.

Critics say Scutaris bill, S4924, would gut the powers of the comptroller while transferring much of its responsibilities to the State Commission of Investigation, or SCI. It came in the wake of a series of blistering reports by the comptroller in recent years that have embarrassed or angered officials who have been targets of the comptroller.

In his first public comments on the legislation, Scutari  the lone sponsor of the measure  strongly defended the bill before the committee. He said the goal was to bring more oversight and greater accountability by empowering SCI in a more effective way.

This is a reallocation of small resources, the Union County Democrat argued, calling it a model for anticorruption. In fact, he said the measure would allow the SCI to regain its original authority as New Jerseys premier watchdog organization.

We want to restore and expand those powers in the SCI to where they belong  into a criminal investigatory body, Scutari said.

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and U.S. Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J.  who were oddly left waiting to speak for more than four hours until the very end of the hearing  both sharply criticized the legislation and what they saw as its intent.

When Sen. James Beach, D-Camden, the committees chairman, was challenged by several speakers about the delay in calling the two top elected officials, he declared, no one is special.

Both Platkin and Kim asked why New Jersey would want less government oversight while diminishing the power of the next governor to combat corruption in New Jersey.

The attorney general said that at a time when the federal government has abdicated its responsibility to hold the powerful and well-connected to account, New Jersey must step up its efforts to combat corruption and abuse of power.

I thought my days of testifying to the Legislature were behind me. But this bill is too important, and too troubling, for me to stay silent, said Platkin, whose tenure will end with the departure of Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in January.

Let me be blunt, he added. This proposed legislation is bad for transparency and accountability, and it undermines the rule of law.

State Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin, who pushed in vain to have the bill gutting the Office of the State Comptroller killed during a contentious hearing on Monday. Colleen Murphy | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Kim, who asked why the bill was rammed through the lame duck session, also called upon the committee to kill the legislation.

We live in the time of the greatest amount of distrust in politics in modern American history. 84% of New Jerseyans surveyed believe their elected officials are corrupt. They want politics that isnt some exclusive club for the well off and the well connected, he said.

He added, this isnt the right time to push this kind of legislation.

Even if you think there are legitimate reforms that can be made, you know this is not how you go about it. Pushing something rapidly during a lame duck session when we have a new governor coming in next month, said Kim.

Jim Sullivan, the policy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, told the committee there is no reason to make the drastic changes this bill proposes to an important public watchdog.

Sullivan said if the state Legislature wants the state government to run more efficiently, getting rid of government watchdog agencies is the exact opposite of what they should be doing. The more watchdog groups we have, the better.

Scutari had been hinting for months that he might be going after the comptroller, telling reporters as far back as January that he thought lawmakers should consider consolidating watchdogs.

Those comments came in the wake of county officials who have been the subject of much of the critical findings by the comptrollers office to demand that lawmakers rein in the agency.

Last year, the New Jersey Association of Counties urged Scutari to curb the comptrollers power and establish procedures that could challenge the agencys findings.

John Donnadio, the executive director of the association, told the committee that his organization has long been asking for reforms to the comptrollers office and the manner in which that he conducts his investigations arbitrarily and capriciously in the way that we look at it, without regard for disputed facts, disputed material, issues of fact, disputes of law, circumstances and regardless of the irreparable damage that its made to public officials throughout the state.

He complained there seems to be no accountability, no due process of the law.

Among the comptrollers most recent findings was a report earlier this year that uncovered hundreds of thousands of dollars earmarked for drug prevention, treatment, or recovery from the deadly opioid epidemic.

Instead, the Essex County township of Irvington spent the money on awareness concerts that did nothing to promote opioid awareness or provide opioid-related services to people dealing with addiction.

Another report said nearly 400 New Jersey law enforcement agencies paid more than $1 million over five years for controversial seminars offered by a private police training firm that came under fire over its alleged use of racist, misogynistic and sexually explicit language in classes attended by hundreds of cops.

Last year, an investigation by the comptroller questioned how Essex County spent COVID-19 funding. The comptroller noted that one county employee was paid $130,000 over 11 months, yet the county health officer didnt know who she was or what she did.

At least eight workers paid to work in the vaccination program were also full-time employees of other government agencies at the same time. Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo called the comptrollers findings unbalanced and unfair.

Walsh, the acting state comptroller, charged that Scutaris bill would weaken the powers of his office as well as diminish the power of the next governor to combat corruption in New Jersey.

He called a vote for the bill a vote for corruption, predicting that it would kill dozens of ongoing investigations while making it easier to be corrupt in New Jersey and to avoid detection.

His office could continue to investigate Medicaid fraud, under the bills current language.

Platkin, meanwhile, charged that the legislation would eliminate the states most powerful investigative arm, not because it has failed to do that job, but because it has angered too many powerful interests.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Susan K. Livio contributed to this report.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during the 4th annual Northeast Indiana Defense Summit at Purdue University Fort Wayne, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025, in Fort Wayne, Ind. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings) AP

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is shifting blame over a U.S. military strike on an alleged drug-trafficking boat in the Caribbean.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Monday there was a second strike on Sept. 2 that killed survivors of an initial strike. Both the House and the Senate Armed Services committees announced separately they would start inquiries into the circumstances surrounding the subsequent strike.

While Leavitt said that Navy Adm. Frank M. Bradley specifically ordered the second strike, Hegseth weighed in amid growing concerns over the legality of more than 20 strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats that have killed over 80 people in international waters.

Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support, Hegseth wrote in a post on X late Monday. I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made  on the September 2 mission and all others since."

America is fortunate to have such men protecting us, he added.

Lets make one thing crystal clear:



Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support. I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made  on the September 2 mission and all others since.



America is fortunate to have such men protecting  Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) December 1, 2025

His comments follow a recent report from The Washington Post, which revealed Hegseth gave a directive to kill everybody on a boat that was allegedly ferrying drugs in September. After two survivors were spotted following the strike, the Special Operations commander overseeing the attack ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseths instructions, according to the outlet.

Hegseth initially dismissed the reporting as fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory, saying that former President Joe Bidens administration coddled terrorists while we kill them in a statement posted on X last Friday.

The New York Times reported Monday that Hegseth did order a lethal attack, but did not address how to respond if the first missile did not successfully kill all of the occupants on the boat and destroy the vessel, according to five U.S. officials.

President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday that he wouldnt have wanted a second strike, and noted that he did not know about the report.

He said he did not say that, Trump said of Hegseth. And I believe him.

Commentators and Democratic lawmakers on X argued that Hegseth had thrown Bradley under the bus in his latest statement.

How to point the finger at someone while pretending to support him, Fox News Brit Hume wrote in response.

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said that Hegseth is again trying to avoid accountability for his actions. He called on the defense secretary and Bradley to testify to Congress.

The blame game has started, Castro continued. Someone must be worried that doubling-back to kill survivors in the water really is a war crime.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) also chimed in: Its the opposite of the buck stops here. He is selling out Admiral Bradley and sending chills down the spines of his chain of command, who now know their boss will sell them out if he is taking heat. A case study in how not to lead.

Liberal political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen accused Hegseth of attempting to protect himself, adding jokingly, A beacon of integrity.

During her press briefing at the White House, Leavitt read in a statement that Hegseth had authorized 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 shield U.S. interests.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) AP

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem heaped praise on President Donald Trump with an outrageous claim on Tuesday.

Top administration officials showered Trump with compliments during the hours-long Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. During her remarks, Noem joked that Trump was the reason behind a quiet hurricane season in the U.S.

You made it through hurricane season without a hurricane, Noem said. You kept the hurricanes away.

So I appreciate that, and FEMA is deploying resources and dollars 150% faster than ever before. So if somebody does have something bad that happens to them, you are immediately there, helping them and telling them they have the resources to get back up on their feet, she added.

Social media users quickly mocked Noem for her comments.

"ICYMI: Trump controls the weather," California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) wrote on X.

X user Jon Ralston wrote: "Even their jokes are not really jokes."

This is a joke. Theyre laughing. These meetings have so many earnest sycophantic statements, this isnt one of them, Jonathan Chait, a staff writer for The Atlantic, wrote.

The Democrats on the Homeland Security House Committee also jabbed Noem with a sarcastic comment.

Glorious Supreme Leader has kept the hurricanes away. His power over the weather is unmatched, the committee wrote on X.

Another user on X wrote: We are reaching entirely new unexplored levels of sycophancy.

U.S. Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) said on X: God this is so embarrassing.

Noems comments touting the work of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) come as the agency faces scrutiny over its work. A recent report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) found that the Trump administrations actions have weakened the nations disaster preparation and response.

The report found that funding delays and denials have strained states budgets. The report noted that funding appeared to be approved along party lines, with the president approving disaster funding for Republican-led states but denying funding for Democratic-led states.

As of October 2025, at least 12 state requests for aid had been denied since the beginning of the Trump Administration, over a dozen approvals were still pending, and denials of specific parts of requests  such as Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) or an increase in federal cost sharing  were piling up," the report stated.
A publisher condemned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for posting an AI-generated image of a beloved childrens book character firing a rocket launcher over the weekend.

Hegseth on Sunday posted a parody book cover of the Franklin the Turtle franchise with the title: Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists. In the AI-generated image, Franklin is wearing U.S. military gear and shooting at seafaring drug runners from a helicopter.

The post came after an explosive report from The Washington Post revealed that Hegseth gave a spoken order to leave no survivors in a Sept. 2 military strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean. The post sparked widespread backlash, with Democrats criticizing Hegseth for making light of the situation.

Now, the Canadian publisher of the Franklin the Turtle book series has responded to the meme posted by the U.S.s top defense official by condemning any violent use of its character.

Franklin the Turtle is a beloved Canadian icon who has inspired generations of children and stands for kindness, empathy, and inclusivity. We strongly condemn any denigrating, violent, or unauthorized use of Franklins name or image, which directly contradicts these values, the publisher, Kids Can Press, said in a statement shared on social media.

Hegseth is facing some intense scrutiny after the Washington Post report, with some Democrats suggesting that he may have committed a war crime. According to the report, the Special Operations commander overseeing the attack ordered the second strike that killed two survivors to comply with Hegseths instructions to kill everybody.

While Hegseth initially dismissed the reporting as fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory, the White House confirmed on Monday that a second strike was specifically ordered by Navy Adm. Frank M. Bradley. Now, Hegseth is facing criticism for shifting blame of the attack to Bradley.

Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support, Hegseth wrote in a post on X late Monday. I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made  on the September 2 mission and all others since."

America is fortunate to have such men protecting us, he added.
FILE - Jon Stewart attends The Albies hosted by the Clooney Foundation for Justice at the New York Public Library in New York on Sept. 28, 2023.(Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File) Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Comedian Jon Stewart roasted President Donald Trump over his latest comments on the mysterious MRI scan he underwent in October.

Stewart blasted Trump for telling reporters on Sunday that he was not sure what part of his body was scanned during the MRI. The president has faced widespread scrutiny since revealing he got an MRI, leading the White House to release the results of the imaging on Monday.

But during Stewarts monologue on The Daily Show, the comedian criticized Trump for saying he had no idea what was scanned during the MRI.

Thats not physically possible to have no idea. Its not possible. What would you say to the doctor? No, no, dont tell me. I want to find out at my MRI reveal party, Stewart joked.

What is happening? For Gods sakes, man. Were you not curious at all when they laid you down in a tube for a half an hour to 45 minutes? You didnt want to know what they might be doing, or did you just think to yourself, What a loud tanning bed, Stewart added.

He then jabbed Trump for insulting two female reporters on Air Force One.

I took a cognitive test and I aced it. I got a perfect mark, which you would be incapable of doing, Trump told a reporter.

You too, he said to a second reporter.

Stewart then referenced Trump calling a female reporter last month piggy as he criticized his response.

It seems like about a week ago, someone on Trumps press team was like, You got to stop calling the female reporters ugly and piggy. And he was like, Got it. I wont do that anymore at all. I know what Ill do. Youre stupid, Stewart said.

Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday that he would release the MRI results after being pressed about the scan for weeks. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt read the results of the MRI scan from Trumps physician during the press briefing on Monday.

The letter, signed by White House physician Sean Barbabella, said that the MRI was a preventative measure to evaluate the presidents cardiovascular and abdominal health.

As part of President Donald J. Trumps comprehensive executive physical, advanced imaging was performed because men in his age group benefit from a thorough evaluation of cardiovascular and abdominal health. The purpose of this imaging is preventive: to identify issues early, confirm overall health, and ensure he maintains long-term vitality and function, the letter stated.

The letter stated that Trumps cardiovascular and abdominal imaging are perfectly normal, noting that all major organs appear very healthy and well- perfused.

This level of detailed assessment is standard for an executive physical at President Trumps age and confirms that he remains in excellent overall health, the letter concluded.
The majority of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track, according to a poll released by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

President Donald Trump offered eleventh-hour support for Republican Matt Van Epps by bashing his Democratic opponent on the eve of Tennessees 7th District special election.

Trump phoned into a Van Epps rally Monday, urging Tennesseans to vote for the GOP nominee over Democrat Aftyn Behn in a race that could have huge implications for the 2026 midterms. The 7th District includes parts of Nashville, the states capital and most populous city.

On the call, Trump told rally attendees that Behn said two things above all else that bothered me.

Number one, she hates Christianity. Number two, she hates country music, Trump said, speaking through a cellphone held by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). How the hell can you elect a person like that? So I just want to give my total support, and hes had it right from the beginning, to Matt Van Epps.

NEW: President Trump talks to voters through the phone after calling Speaker Johnson during a rally for Republican Matt Van Epps in the special election race in Tennessee against Aftyn Behn:



"She said two things above all else that bothered me.

Number 1: She hates Christianity. pic.twitter.com/Wh9mhaRVvo  Fox News (@FoxNews) December 1, 2025

Trumps claim that Behn hates Christianity appears to trace back to an audio clip circulated last week by RNC Research, the Republican National Committees rapid-response arm.

The recording features Behn discussing her views on prayer in the Republican-controlled Tennessee General Assembly during a 2024 interview on the Red State Blue Mom podcast.

As someone who is more secular, I have a hard time when religion is at the core of everything we do in the legislature, Behn said. For example, on the House floor, we say a prayer every session.

There are also prayer groups in the legislature that meet routinely. There are Christian pastors that have a lot of say and proximity to power in the legislature and dictate a lot of what the power players do, and it is uncomfortable.

Trumps remark about Behns opposition to country music appeared to stem from comments she made in a 2020 podcast interview.

I hate the city, I hate the bachelorettes, I hate the pedal taverns, I hate country music, I hate all of the things that make Nashville apparently an it city to the rest of the country, she said, per The Hill.

Behn, a 36-year-old state representative, disputed Trumps characterization of her remarks Monday in an interview with Newsweek.

President Trump is saying all these things because he doesnt have a plan to address the rising cost of health care and to ensure that working Tennesseans are able to afford health care, groceries and utilities, Behn told Newsweek.

Republicans have held the 7th District for four decades, and recent polling shows Van Epps as the strong favorite heading into Tuesdays election. He will seek to replace former Rep. Mark Green, who retired from Congress in July.

Early voters favor Behn 56% to 42%, while those planning to vote on Election Day lean toward Van Epps 51% to 39%, according to an Emerson College Polling/The Hill survey.

Republicans have won the district by significant margins in the past eight elections. Though redistricting after the 2020 census made the district somewhat less Republican, Green still won by 21 points in 2022 and 2024.

A long-shot upset by Behn would reduce the GOPs slim six-seat majority in the House as Democrats seek to regain control of the chamber in 2026.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump appeared to shut his eyes several times during his ninth Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

As members of his administration  including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Secretary of State Marco Rubio  delivered updates during the over two-hour meeting, Trump seemingly struggled to stay alert, closing his eyes and sitting back in his chair.

It is not the first time Trump has been caught on camera supposedly dozing off. He was pictured with his eyes similarly drooping during a televised briefing in the Oval Office in early November.

Its also unclear whether Trump actually fell asleep at some point during both meetings, but social media users were quick to mock the president once again.

Commander in Sleep, the account PatriotTakes posted on X.

Journalist Mike Rothschild wrote that Trump is falling asleep while his cabinet praises his energy level and ability to go without sleep. Its like THE DEATH OF STALIN come to life.

To be fair I would rather he ignore her than listen to her, Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) said of McMahon.

Another writer joked, Time to order another MRI.

The online scrutiny comes hours after the White House countered claims that Trump is facing fatigue as he returned to the White House as commander in chief. According to Oval Office logs exclusively provided to the New York Post, the Trump administration maintained that the president worked up to 12-hour days in a 10-weekday span from Nov. 12 to Nov 25.

The files show Trump, 79, worked around 50-hour weeks  a figure that does not include any work or calls completed on weekends, as well as early in the morning and late at night, the Post reported.

It followed an investigation from The New York Times last month, which detailed how Trump has aged during his return to the White House. Titled Shorter Days, Signs of Fatigue: Trump Faces Realities of Aging in Office, the outlet reported that he had made 39% fewer official appearances and started his daily events nearly two hours later than the first year of his previous term.

Trump lashed out at White House correspondent Katie Rogers, one of the journalists who co-authored the story, calling her a third rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out.

This cheap RAG is truly an ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

He also went on to dispute the reporting, calling it a hit piece while touting his perfect physical exam and comprehensive cognitive test.

Yet despite all of this the Radical Left Lunatics in the soon to fold New York Times did a hit piece on me that I am perhaps losing my Energy, despite facts that show the exact opposite, Trump said. They know this is wrong, as is almost everything that they write about me, including election results, ALL PURPOSELY NEGATIVE.

In a statement released shortly afterward, the Times defended its story as accurate and built on first hand reporting of the facts.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described the report as unequivocally false during her press briefing on Monday.

You all see him almost every single day, Leavitt told reporters. He is the most accessible president in history. He is taking meetings around the clock.
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters while in flight on Air Force One from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., to Joint Base Andrews, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) AP

President Donald Trump just went on a wild social media rampage by sharing more than one hundred posts over several hours.

Trump spent hours on Monday night posting on Truth Social, taking time to insult political rivals, share conspiracy theories and false claims about the 2020 election. His posts included his usual swipes at Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, former President Joe Biden and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The posting spree also included far-fetched conspiracy theories, including falsely speculating whether former first lady Michelle Obama used an autopen during Bidens administration to grant pardons. Some posts also echoed Trumps false claims that he won the 2020 election and false claims about the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

Pundits criticized Trump over his social media posting spree, with many questioning why the president appeared to spend hours on the Truth Social platform.

Psychotic Trump made 162 posts last night on Truth Social, one more deranged than the other, MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski wrote on X.

Journalist Yashar Ali said on X that Trump made hundreds of posts in just hours.

I cant even get the full count; its that many posts, Ali wrote on X.

The Republicans Against Trump account on X also blasted the presidents social media posts.

Trump spent hours last night blasting out hundreds of posts filled with 2020 lies, Jan 6 lies, and furious attacks on Biden, Obama, and many others. He is spiraling out of control, the account posted.

Democratic activist Harry Sisson questioned Trumps well-being due to the posts.

In the middle of the night, Trump posted on Truth Social well over 150 times in an hour. Thats at least 2 posts a minute. If you had a family member or friend doing this, youd host an intervention. Trump is not well and he was clearly having a mental decline moment, Sisson said.
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters while in flight on Air Force One from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., to Joint Base Andrews, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) AP

The White House is countering claims that President Donald Trump is facing fatigue as commander in chief.

According to Oval Office logs exclusively provided to the New York Post, the Trump administration is maintaining that the president worked up to 12-hour days over the past month.

The documents, reported Tuesday, include rare private narrative logs spanning 10 weekdays between Nov. 12 and Nov 25. The files show that Trump, 79, worked around 50-hour weeks  a figure that does not include any work or calls completed on the weekend, as well as early in the morning or late at night, the Post reported.

The Post did not publish the documents in full, but provided a breakdown of Trumps schedule across several days, including media interviews, dinners and foreign policy briefings. For example, on Nov. 12, Oval Office aides documented 32 meetings and calls with his team, lawmakers and businesspeople as Congress voted to end the longest-ever government shutdown.

The Post also acknowledged that some names in the files are redacted, but said the records are broadly consistent with his published White House schedule.

New insight into the logs comes after The New York Times last month published an investigation into how Trump is aging during his return to the White House. Titled Shorter Days, Signs of Fatigue: Trump Faces Realities of Aging in Office, the outlet reported that the president had made 39% fewer official appearances, and started his daily events nearly two hours later than the first year of his first term.

It also highlighted an incident where Trump appeared to doze off during a televised briefing in the Oval Office.

Trump later went on to launch a personal attack against White House correspondent Katie Rogers, one of the journalists who co-authored the story.

This cheap RAG is truly an ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE. The writer of the story, Katie Rogers, who is assigned to write only bad things about me, is a third rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

He also disputed the reporting, calling it a hit piece while touting his perfect physical exam and comprehensive cognitive test.

Yet despite all of this the Radical Left Lunatics in the soon to fold New York Times did a hit piece on me that I am perhaps losing my Energy, despite facts that show the exact opposite, Trump said. They know this is wrong, as is almost everything that they write about me, including election results, ALL PURPOSELY NEGATIVE.

In a statement released hours later, the Times defended its story as accurate and built on first hand reporting of the facts.

Name-calling and personal insults dont change that, nor will our journalists hesitate to cover this administration in the face of intimidation tactics like this, a Times spokesperson said. Expert and thorough reporters like Katie Rogers exemplify how an independent and free press helps the American people better understand their government and its leaders.

After describing the report as unequivocally false during her press briefing Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt hit back at the story in a statement to the Post.

The New York Times cobbled together half-baked data to push a narrative that President Trump, who is clearly sharp as a tack, is somehow unfit to be president, after they covered for Joe Bidens clear cognitive decline, Leavitt said. The truth is President Trump never stops working, and his private schedule, Truth Social posts, and around-the-clock engagement on every issue proves just that.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino tore into New York Post columnist Miranda Devine after she released a blistering report about agency leadership from an alliance of retired and active-duty special agents and analysts.

The internal report, published by Devine on Sunday, offers a pulse check of the first six months at the agency with FBI Director Kash Patel at the helm. The 24 unnamed sources cited in the document expressed low confidence in their leadership, a historically toxic culture of fear and internal partisanship and declining employee morale  which are only a handful of the 10 key findings.

According to the report, the FBI is facing its most daunting challenges to date, with sources describing the agency as all f--ked up and a rudderless ship.

Bongino fired back against Devine, the first to make the report public, in a post on X late Monday, referring to her as a deep-state journalist who struck again.

Miranda loves attacking our reform agenda with gossipy anecdotes from disgruntled former employees because shes upset that her reporting keeps falling apart under scrutiny, Bongino said. You can always count on Miranda for a timed hit piece when the Director and I make big changes.

Miranda prefers [the] old-guard. I dont. Full steam ahead, he continued.

Devine did not immediately respond to Bonginos criticism, but reposted a question from the head pollster at Rasmussen Reports.

What have you reformed!? Receipts please! the post reads.

Deep-state Devine strikes again.

Miranda loves attacking our reform agenda with gossipy anecdotes from disgruntled former employees because shes upset that her reporting keeps falling apart under scrutiny. You can always count on Miranda for a timed hit piece when the  Dan Bongino (@dbongino) December 2, 2025

In the report, one source accused Patel of being in over his head, while another said that he has neither the breadth of experience nor the bearing an FBI Director needs to be successful. A different source called Patel not very good, may be insecure, and lacks the requisite experience and measured self-confidence for his role.

A source also reportedly called Bongino something of a clown and criticized his understanding of the workings of the FBI.

The report highlighted Patel and Bonginos use of social media to make announcements, with a source arguing the two top officials need to stop talking, stop posting, and just be professional. Another said that both are too often concerned with building their own personal resumes.

Under FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, (FBI) employees rarely hear directly from them in a transparent manner to explain why certain things are being changed or why the FBI is taking a different direction, another source said, with the report adding: His/her (FBI) co-workers hear more news about the FBIs mission and operations from news sources and from tweets...

The new findings, however, revealed that multiple sources praised the FBIs crackdown of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives under President Donald Trumps administration  with one source saying that employees are happy with the reduced focus. The results were mixed on whether there has been progress in reforming the FBI.

Additionally, the report claims that a dislike for Trump, dubbed Trump Derangement Syndrome, remains alive and well within the agency.

Many FBI employees have lost their ability to think critically about an issue and distinguish fact from fiction... one source said.

The report, dated November, spans from Feb. 21 to Aug. 21 of this year.
Boe the pit bull was shot last week in Passaic County. Photo courtesy of Carrie Conklin

A Sussex County woman says her neighbor shot and killed her 1-year-old deaf dog on Thanksgiving Day after the pet got loose in front of her house.

Carrie Conklin, of Wantage, said her pit bull, Boe, was shot in the street, even though the pet had never hurt anyone.

While our dog had never shown aggression toward people or animals in our care, we recognize that emotions and perceptions during unexpected situations can differ, Conklin said in an email to NJ Advance Media on Tuesday.

The individual involved used a .22-caliber rifle, and the incident is currently under active investigation by law enforcement, Conklin said.

A New Jersey State Police spokesperson said the dog was shot shortly after 3 p.m. Thursday near a home on Mudtown Road.

Boe was taken to a nearby veterinary hospital, where he died.

The incident remains under investigation, and no additional information is available, the spokesperson said.

Boe the pit bull was shot and killed after getting loose in Wantage last week. Photo courtesy of Carrie Conklin

Conklin said she learned that the neighbor alleged Boe had chased a horse and then charged at the neighbor before being shot.

The shooting occurred in a public roadway within a residential area  an environment where we hope all community members can rely on safety and non-lethal responses whenever possible, Conklin said.

At this time, we are cooperating fully with investigators and allowing the legal process to move forward, Conklin said.

Our goal is simply to seek clarity, support a thorough investigation, and raise awareness about the importance of safe and thoughtful decision-making in our community, she added.

Boe, the pit bull, was killed on Thanksgiving in the street in front of his home. Photos courtesy of Carrie Conklin

Conklin said Boe was taken in as a foster dog, but the family decided to adopt him in the beginning of November.

He fit right in with our family and our other dogs loved him, Conklin said.

In the days after the shooting, outrage over Boes death grew on social media.

So why did you feel the need to kill him? Because he is a pit bull! Thats why, one woman wrote on Facebook.

A sweet, loving, deaf pit bull who finally found his forever family. And then to leave him dying in the middle of the road on Thanksgiving Day? Really? she wrote.

Another suggested gathering outside the alleged shooters home.

We should hold a candlelight vigil right outside the guys house with signs that say animal murderer so the whole town knows what kind of piece of crap he is, the woman wrote on Facebook.

Others said they hoped the neighbor would be prosecuted or sued, while another suggested starting a petition seeking justice for Boe.
New Red Sox pitcher Sonny Gray opens up about his time with the Yankees. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) AP

New Red Sox starter Sonny Gray is embracing the Yankees rivalry  and the boos.

In a Tuesday conference with Red Sox reporters, Gray unapologetically revisited his rocky stint with the Yankees while celebrating the success hes found since leaving New York.

It feels good to me to go to a place now where you know what, its easy to hate the Yankees, right? Gray said, via Tim Healy of The Boston Globe. Its easy to go out and have that rivalry and go in it with full force, full steam ahead. I like the challenge, I appreciate the challenge, I accept the challenge. But this time around, its just go out and be yourself.

This isnt the first time Gray has made questionable remarks regarding New York and the Yankees. After being traded to the Cincinnati Reds in 2019, he admitted that New York wasnt a good fit for him.

In his Tuesday conference, he reiterated this statement and added a little flair that will certainly encourage the boo birds the next time he takes the mound at Yankee Stadium.

[The Yankees stint] just wasnt a good situation for me. It wasnt a great setup for me and my family. I never wanted to go there in the first place, Gray said. When that was happening, and we were in Oakland and getting traded  that was a long time ago  I never wanted to go there. So then I was there [with the Yankees], and it just didnt really work for who I am."

He finished his time with the Yankees 15-16 with a 4.51 ERA in 41 games and 34 starts. In late 2018, the Yankees booted him from the rotation. Following an ALDS ouster at the hands of the Red Sox in 2018, Yankees GM Brian Cashman told reporters he expected to trade Gray.

Cashman said he didnt believe the Yankees would be able to tap into Grays talent and that at some point it was time to cut bait.

Since leaving the Yankees, Gray is 66-50 with a 3.51 ERA in 184 starts. Hes also added two All-Star nods to his resume and finished second in the 2023 AL Cy Young voting.
Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Cloudy with snow showers mainly during the morning. High 18F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 40%..

Tonight

Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low near 10F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph.
Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Cloudy with snow showers mainly during the morning. High 18F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 50%..

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Major celebrity names are making one last Christmas appearance for a popular video All-Star Advent Calendar in support of North Devon youth mental health charity Spark UK.

Some of the UKs most famous names have teamed up with the charity once again to help inspire and support young people as the innovative online Advent calendar enters its fifth and final year.

This years line-up features an array of well-known faces including All-Star regulars Sir Stephen Fry, actor and comedian Henry Rowley and award-winning tenor Alfie Boe.

Videos will be released each day throughout December and this years theme A Message to My Younger Self will see the celebs share the advice, reflections, and encouragement they wish they could have given to themselves growing up.

Spark UK was founded during the Covid pandemic in 2020 when a group of Ilfracombe teenagers decided they were fed up with complaining to each other about the lack of mental health support and created their own curriculum to support themselves and others.

READ NEXT: Inspirational North Devon teenagers to be honoured as Coronation Champions

Today the charity provides a variety of online resources for schools to share with students and work into their own curriculum, as well as a new digital platform called Spark Youth which is supported by National Lottery funding and offers mental health education and support for those aged 16 to 25.

Above: Spark UK's Conor Warren with charity trustees and North Devon MP Ian Roome. Credit: Spark UK

A new childrens self-care series called Sparkie & Friends is soon to be released as storybooks and an educational programme.

The All-Star Advent Calendar was one of the first things the Spark team created and has been a great success.

Conor Warren, founder of Spark UK, said: The All-Star Advent Calendar has been an amazing journey over the past five years. Weve been so lucky to have so many incredible people support us, from Sir Stephen Fry and Dame Judi Dench to Bradley Walsh and Dame Emma Thompson, all helping young people to open up and have conversations about mental health.

This final year feels really special, as we reflect on how far weve come and the legacy the calendar leaves behind.

Seeing celebrities take to their own platforms to talk about mental health is exactly what we hoped for when we started, sparking conversations everywhere.

READ NEXT: Celebrities helping North Devon teenagers spark mental health conversations this Christmas

Conor was just 14 when he founded Spark UK and it has grown into a national platform reaching hundreds of schools.

He added: It all started with a group of school friends in North Devon who were frustrated by the outdated advice and lack of mental health support available in schools.

We decided that instead of just talking about the problem, wed try to change it, by creating our own mental health curriculum and sparking real conversations.

We believe its vital to normalise mental health, especially for young people, because open conversations are what help break the stigma.

We are immensely proud of what weve achieved so far and are excited by what the future holds for Spark UK in supporting youth mental health.

The All Star Advent Calendar launched yesterday (Monday, December 1) and can be found at https://www.allstaradvent.co.uk
South Molton has been hosting a rare royal visit  but this king had travelled a little further than London to forge new links with a North Devon community.

The town has welcomed a visit from Paramount Chief Osagyefo Kwaw Fraiku IV of the Shama District in Ghana  in other words, its king  to renew the twinning relationship with Shama and South Molton.

South Molton has a twinning relationship with Shama under the Sister City initiative, but until February the Shama District in western Ghana had not had a king for 13 years.

Recently he travelled to the UK with fellow Ghanaian Francis Mensah and stayed with South Molton councillor David Worden for a few days in order to view the towns facilities and revitalise links with South Molton.

Above: The King and visitors with Councillor David Worden at South Molton Parish Church.

They visited many places including the Pannier Market, Pathfield Estate, South Molton Library, the museum, Mayors parlour and the Smart Swim Centre.

Before leaving, the King was a guest speaker at South Molton Town Council by kind invitation of the mayor, Councillor Paul Henderson, where he talked about his reasons for visiting the town.

In his speech, he said: I seized this opportunity to visit South Molton to discuss our partnership and to revitalise our collaboration for the mutual benefit of both our communities.

Before I begin, let me express my heartfelt gratitude to councillors David Worden, Stephen Lock and Christian Lock, for visiting Shama and signing the memorandum of understanding in 2010.

I also want to thank Kathrine Govier, a medical doctor from South Molton, who came to stay and work in Shama Hospital in 2010. As a Christian, I say, God bless you.

Above: Paramount Chief Osagyefo Kwaw Fraiku IV of the Shama District in Ghana in traditional dress.

The King explained Shama was the gateway to western Ghana and said it had something between 120,000 and 150,000 inhabitants. He said he also served as the President of the Shama Traditional Council and the Chairman of the Sister City Commission.

Above: trying out a different 'throne' for size!

He added: As the Paramount Chief, I am dedicated not only to preserving our culture but also to fostering unity, stability and progress.

I oversee land and resources, ensuring sustainable practices and environmental stewardship. My leadership aims to protect our natural resources while promoting economic activities that benefit our people.

I am confident that together we can reinvigorate this Sister City partnership to meet the evolving needs of our communities.

My vision is not only to renew our co-operation but to strengthen it with the stability and continuity that my office provides, allowing us to pursue long-term, impactful goals for the mutual benefit of Shama and South Molton.

Above: Calling in at Mole Valley Farmers.

READ NEXT: Pictures: Busiest ever South Molton Christmas lights event draws the crowds

The role of paramount chief is highly regarded in Shama, but the position had remained vacant for some 13 years due to prolonged chieftaincy disputes.
Ilfracombes residents have hit out at the loss of health services in the town and fear it has been overlooked despite being among the most deprived areas in the country.

A meeting organised by the League of Friends of the Tyrrell Hospital heard calls for a new community hospital, reinstatement of the towns currently closed minor injuries service (MIU) and for health funding to be spent where it was most needed.

Issues raised at the meeting included service closures, the funding of early years at nurseries, reductions in pharmacy provision and a lack of social housing.

READ NEXT: Protestors turn out in force to show support for Ilfracombes hospital and MIU service

A panel of six healthcare professionals and elected representatives fielded the questions, many of which focused on funding bids to help Ilfracombe having failed  despite the towns central district being in the lowest 3% for health deprivation in England.

Above: The public meeting in Ilfracombe heard the towns health services were being stripped away and not replaced. Credit: Tyrrell League of Friends

The recent provisional closure of the MIU at the Tyrrell Hospital by Devons Integrated Care Board (ICB) drew particular anger  the ICB chose not to send a representative to the meeting.

Terry Elliott of the League of Friends said: The meeting showed how fed up people are with the lack of support for our town in terms of healthcare, both physical and mental.

Were calling on the ICB, Devon County Council and local NHS leaders to start working together in partnership and to start delivering the services that our town desperately needs.

Health funding has to be channelled to the most deprived areas  and not just sprinkled around every single town in the county or the South West and especially places where they have nothing like the challenges facing parts of Ilfracombe.

As for tackling the demand for better healthcare in the town, Gloria Satchwell, chair of the LoF, believes the answer is a straightforward one:

We need a modern purpose-built community hospital  one that can bring health services closer to the people and tackle health inequality. Its time for action, she said.

Above: Gloria Satchwell, chair of the Tyrrell Hospital League of Friends, with fellow LoF member and campaigner Terry Elliott. Credit: Tyrrell League of Friends

The meeting heard from Andrea Beacham, a panellist from the One Northern Devon partnership to improve health and tackle inequality, who highlighted two initiatives that could help Ilfracombe in the future.

She said the NHS Core20 programme is aiming to reduce health inequality, while the Coastal Navigators Network developed by the NHS and six regional ICBs is targeting action in coastal towns, where health and deprivation are worse than inland areas.

Phil Harris, a community development lead in Devon for national mental health charity Mind, recognised the need for more funding but pointed out that Ilfracombe had a very real power in its sense of togetherness.

An approach known as asset-based community development, which brings together local people and the charity sector, could be the answer to some of the challenges facing the town, he said.

Adopted by councils and towns across the country, the approach is already being used by some organisations in Devon.

Frank Biederman, a Devon county councillor representing North Devon MP Ian Roome, said the future reorganisation of councils into unitary authorities could be an opportunity to focus more funding on rural and coastal areas such as Ilfracombe.

Sara Wilson, Ilfracombes county councillor, said more needs to be done to support early years education across the county, despite recent spending on special educational needs.

READ NEXT: Health authorities respond to claims Ilfracombe will lose its MIU service

Speaking before the meeting, Terry Elliott said: We want investment in health services in Ilfracombe. We would like a modern, fit for purpose community hospital offering so much more which is what we see in other communities across Devon which have far better health equality than us.

There has been investment in South Molton, Bideford and Tiverton hospitals so why not Ilfracombe? Instead we see the removal of services year on year - last year the end of the Link Centre and this year the MIU for example, but there are many more.

The Tyrrell hasn't had investment for years. Its an old building that is not being invested in and has had no major renovation for years.

New modern equipment won't fit in the current spaces and it can't accommodate certain clinics because of this - X-ray and advanced eye equipment for example, which other local community hospitals have.
This Book Is One of Our 10 Best of 2025. Let Us Show You Why. Our critic A.O. Scott breaks down a scene from Kiran Desais lavish new novel, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny.

Inge Morath/Magnum Photos

When a writer is praised for having a sense of place, it usually means one specific place  a postage stamp of familiar ground rendered in loving, knowing detail. But Kiran Desai, in her latest novel, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, has a sense of places.

This 670-page book, about the star-crossed lovers of the title and several dozen of their friends, relatives, exes and servants (theres a chart in the front to help you keep track), does anything but stay put. If The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny were an old-fashioned steamer trunk, it would be papered with shipping labels: from Allahabad (now known as Prayagraj), Goa and Delhi; from Queens, Kansas and Vermont; from Mexico City and, perhaps most delightfully, from Venice.

There, in Marco Polos hometown, the titular travelers alight for two chapters, enduring one of several crises in their passionate, complicated, on-again, off-again relationship. One of Venices nicknames is La Serenissima  the most serene  but in Desais hands its the opposite: a gloriously hectic backdrop for Sonia and Sunnys romantic confusion.

Their first impressions fill a nearly page-long paragraph. Heres how it begins.

T h e y s t e p p e d o u t i n t o t h e c i t y o f w a t e r l i g h t a n d p l a s h , t h e i r v i s i o n f o c u s e d n o w t h a t t h e y h a d f o u n d e a c h o t h e r a g a i n , a n d t h e y s a w a c i t y o f c r e a t u r e s  h a l f h u m a n , h a l f b e a s t , d r a g g e d f r o m t h e d e p t h s o f a d r e a m , m e r m a i d s a n d m e r m e n l o i t e r i n g a t s e a - s p r a y e d c o r n e r s . T h e y s a w t h r e e t u b e r o u s f a c e s a t a w i n d o w o f a g l o o m y p a l a z z o  p o s s i b l y , a c c o r d i n g t o S u n n y  s p u r s u i t o f l i t e r a t u r e , a c o m t e , a p r i n c i p e , a b a r o n , w a t c h i n g c o r m o r a n t s t h r o u g h b i n o c u l a r s . T h e y m a y h a v e p a s s e d a r e d - b e a r d e d s h i p  s c a p t a i n a n d h i s s i s t e r i n a f o x f u r t i p p e t , t h e v i x e n  s d e a d f a c e s n u g g l e d u n d e r h e r c h i n . T h e r e w a s a g l a s s b l o w e r , a w o m a n c r a f t i n g a c h a l i c e s w i r l e d i n g o l d s e a w e e d . O v e r t h e r e m a y b e a n A m e r i c a n h e i r e s s o f a P y r e x , T u p p e r w a r e , o r p h o t o c o p y - m a c h i n e f o r t u n e , s e a r c h i n g f o r a h u s b a n d w i t h a t i t l e , a n d t h a t m a y b e a M a l a y a l i s t u d e n t o f M a c h i a v e l l i . T h e y s a w a h u n d r e d t o u r i s t s f r o m B e i j i n g i n a p a r a d e o f b o a t s . T h e y s a w a c r u i s e s h i p h i g h e r t h a n t h e t i l e d r o o f t o p s w i t h a t h o u s a n d p e o p l e m a k i n g a c a r n i v a l o n t h e C a r n i v a l c r u i s e . T h e y s t o o d o n a b r i d g e a n d s a w a g a s t a n k b a r g e w o r k e d b y m e n i n g r e e n o v e r a l l s , a f i r e m a n  s b o a t , a g a r b a g e b o a t f o l l o w e d b y g u l l s , a b o a t l a d e n w i t h m a n d a r i n s . S o n i a w a s t r y i n g t o h o l d h e r s e l f s t i l l , b u t s h e w a n t e d t o w r i n g h e r h a n d s a n d r u n a b o u t d e c l a r i n g , d e c l a i m i n g , c e l e b r a t i n g , a n d d e s p a i r i n g a t t h e s a m e t i m e , t o r e n d e r h e i g h t e n e d e m o t i o n , s u r p r i s e , e n v y , d e s i r e , d i s t r e s s , j o y , a n d a n g u i s h . S h e l o o k e d a t S u n n y , r u e f u l , a c c u s i n g :  S u n n y  I t a l y i s t r u e !  S h e p i n c h e d h i m . They have arrived separately  Sunny from New York, where he works as a journalist; Sonia from her familys home in Delhi, where she has retreated after her own American misadventures  averting their eyes from the sights until they can discover the city together. When they do, it isnt the famous attractions that capture their attention as much as the kinetic, teeming tableau of air and water, boats and people. Including their fellow sightseers, of course. The tourist Venice is Venice, Mary McCarthy observed back in the mid-1950s, and by the late 90s, when Sonia and Sunny come to town, those words ring truer than ever. How, as a visitor, can you hope to see this fabled place for the first time? How, as a writer, do you find a fresh angle on its meandering canals and crumbling palazzos? Partly by not leaning too hard on words like canal and palazzo, though of course you cant avoid them entirely. There are so many! And partly by trusting your own eyes and ears. Throughout The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, Desais prose is loosely tethered to various points of view. Her narrative wanders freely in and out of the thoughts of major and minor characters, and she is not shy about supplying opinions of her own, impressions that float through the air, belonging to no one in particular. She practices a digressive, easy-going, almost gossipy kind of omniscience. It may be Sunny who identifies the birdwatchers by their aristocratic titles   but other speculations belong to Desais atmospheric authorial voice. Sonias joy in encountering Venice is matched  perhaps exceeded  by her creators evident pleasure in writing about the city. Like a splurging tourist, Desai is undaunted by extravagance. Does she need to supply three possible sources of family wealth for the putative heiress, two of them familiar American kitchen brands, the other a humble office appliance? Does that would-be contessa or marchesa have to share a sentence with a human tongue twister? Is the punning play on another popular brand name a little much, maybe? Absolutely! Thats the point. And theres more. Homer devoted much of a book of the Iliad to cataloging the ships of the Achaean fleet. Desais list of Venetian boats is modest in comparison, but her epic, rhapsodic intentions are unmistakable. As the catalog of Sonias emotions makes clear, Venice is the land of too much, a city of sensory overload and overwhelming abundance. A more measured, more decorous, less reckless writing style could never do it justice. But the same could be said about Uttar Pradesh, Jackson Heights and even the wintry fictional village of North Hewitt, Vt. (where Sonia attends college), all of which come to life in passages of similarly lavish, immersive description. And while it is intoxicating for the reader to experience language so lush, so nimble, so multifariously alive, Desai isnt writing this way only for fun. Every great novel stakes an implicit claim about what a novel can and should do. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny argues for an invigorated, expansive idea of realism. Sonias final exclamation in this passage, accompanied by a pinch that she might have given herself, underlines Desais point. We arent dreaming. The truth is right in front of us.

Sonia is a (struggling) fiction writer. Sunny is a (struggling) journalist. Its notable that, of the two of them, it is she who is better able to perceive the immediate reality of things, while he tends to read facts through screens of theory and ideology, finding sociological meaning in everyday occurrences. He isnt exactly wrong, and Desai is hardly oblivious to the larger narratives that shape the fates of Sunny, Sonia and their families  including the economic and political changes affecting young Indians of their generation.

But The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is about more than that. Its a defense of the very idea of more, and thus a rebuke to the austerity that defines so much recent literary fiction. Many of Desais peers favor careful, restricted third-person narration, or else a measured, low-affect I. The bookstores are full of skinny novels about the emotional and psychological thinness of contemporary life. This book is an antidote: thick, sloppy, fleshy, all over the place.

It also takes exception to the postmodern dogma that we only know reality through representations of it, through pre-existing concepts of the kind to which intellectuals like Sunny are attached. The point of fiction is to assert that the world is true, and to remind us that it is vast, strange and astonishing.

See the full list of the 10 Best Books of 2025 here.
The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine A quiet policy change means the government is making fewer bets on long-term science.

National Institutes of Health competitive grant funding In the past decade, the National Institutes of Health awarded top scientists $9 billion in competitive grants each year, to find cures for diseases and improve public health.



This year, something unusual happened In the past decade, the National Institutes of Health awarded top scientists $9 billion in competitive grants each year, to find cures for diseases and improve public health.



This year, something unusual happened Starting in January, the Trump administration stalled that funding. By summer, funding lagged by over $2 billion, or 41 percent below average. Starting in January, the Trump administration stalled that funding. By summer, funding lagged by over $2 billion, or 41 percent below average. But in a surprising turn, the N.I.H. began to spend at a breakneck pace and narrow this gap. But in a surprising turn, the N.I.H. began to spend at a breakneck pace and narrow this gap. There was a catch, however: That money went to fewer grants.



Which means less research was funded in areas such as aging, diabetes, strokes, cancer and mental health. There was a catch, however: That money went to fewer grants.



Which means less research was funded in areas such as aging, diabetes, strokes, cancer and mental health. Includes new grants and competitive grant renewals. In 2025 dollars.

To spend its budget, the N.I.H. made an unusual number of large lump-sum payments for many years of research, instead of its usual policy of paying for research one year at a time.

As a result of this quiet policy shift, the average payment for competitive grants swelled from $472,000 in the first half of the fiscal year to over $830,000 in the last two months.

While this might sound like a boon for researchers, its actually a fundamental shift in how grants are funded  one that means more competition for funding, and less money and less time to do the research.

In the past, the N.I.H. typically awarded grants in five annual installments. In the past, the N.I.H. typically awarded grants in five annual installments. Researchers could request two more years to spend this money, at no cost. Researchers could request two more years to spend this money, at no cost. Under the new system, the N.I.H. pays up front for four years of work. Under the new system, the N.I.H. pays up front for four years of work. And researchers can get one more year to spend this money. And researchers can get one more year to spend this money. Which means that they get less money on average, and less time to spend it. Which means that they get less money on average, and less time to spend it.

And because these fully funded grants commit all of their money up front, it means the agencys annual budget is divided into fewer projects, instead of being spread among a larger number of scientific bets.

The new policy directive came from the White Houses Office of Management and Budget, which in the summer instructed the N.I.H. to spend half of its remaining funds to fully fund research grants. In the past, the agency would do so only in special circumstances.

The White House has said this would increase N.I.H. budget flexibility by not encumbering its annual budget with payments to previously approved projects. It has said it plans to continue this policy in 2026, while proposing to shrink the agencys budget by $18 billion, or nearly 40 percent. (The Senate and House rejected the White Houses proposed budget cuts, but have not yet agreed on the agencys budget.)

My sense of it was that the administration wanted to clear the decks, said Sarah Kobrin, a branch chief at the N.I.H.s National Cancer Institute, who said she was sharing her views, not those of the institute.

The new policy is being carried out as the Trump administration has tightened its hold over federal science funding. Earlier this year, it delayed reviewing grants in order to vet research by political appointees, culled projects that mentioned D.E.I. and fired thousands of employees or pressured them to retire early. (The N.I.H. lost nearly 3,000 employees this year, or about 14 percent of its work force, based on a New York Times review of the agencys shutdown contingency plans.)

They brought everything to a stop, Dr. Kobrin said.

Nonetheless, the N.I.H. managed to spend most of its budget by the end of the fiscal year. My colleagues did an outstanding job to work their butts off to approve things, said Theresa Kim, a program officer at N.I.H.s National Institute on Aging.

Something similar happened at the National Science Foundation, which is the second-largest federal funder of research at U.S. universities, after the N.I.H.

The N.S.F. started the year with funding delays caused by the Trump administration, and it lost about a third of its employees in layoffs or forced retirements. The agency ended the year awarding 25 percent fewer new grants.

New grants awarded by the National Science Foundation, 201525 Number of grants Funding amount

Facing a proposed $5 billion cut to its $9 billion budget, the N.S.F. fully paid off many of the grants that were on its books, a strategy that employees called paying down the mortgage. It also paid for nearly all new awards upfront (though, unlike at the N.I.H., not necessarily for less time and money).

To draw these conclusions, The Times used public data to analyze nearly every competitive grant  over 300,000 in all  that the N.I.H. and the N.S.F. awarded since 2015, and interviewed many employees at these agencies.

Heres what we found:

1. Fewer grants in every area of science and medicine

Together, the N.I.H. and the N.S.F. had a nearly $60 billion annual budget for funding future breakthroughs in science and medicine, about a quarter of which is typically spent on new grants or competitive renewals.

This year, both agencies made far fewer competitive awards:

Competitive grants at the 

National Institutes of Health National Science Foundation

The White House has said it is streamlining scientific funding by eliminating wasteful spending and cutting woke programs that poison the minds of Americans.

But the more than 3,500 fewer competitive grants from the N.I.H. this year touched every area of biology and medicine:

In practice, this means thousands of very competitive projects in areas like cancer, diabetes, aging, neurological disorders and public health improvements probably went unfunded in 2025.

Similarly, at the National Science Foundation, the roughly 3,000 fewer new grants encompassed reductions to every area of science (and the social sciences):

There were fewer new grants awarded in biology, geosciences, STEM education, computer science and engineering, math, physics, technology and innovation.

Only the office of the director awarded more new grants this year; it funds projects that dont neatly fall into other categories. That growth was fueled by a previously established N.S.F. goal to expand fellowships at universities in regions that have historically received less federal funding.

The Trump administration has also taken the unusual step of canceling thousands of active health and science grants, citing a lack of overlap with its priorities.

The N.I.H. is no longer directing resources toward science shaped by political or social pressures; instead, we have adopted a proactive, science-driven approach with clearly defined priorities focused on researching chronic health problems, identifying root causes, and advancing research grounded in scientifically valid, measurable health outcomes, said Andrew Nixon, Health and Human Services communications director.

The website Grant Witness has estimated that the administration canceled or froze 5,415 N.I.H. grants this year, of which roughly half have been reinstated through court cases or negotiations where universities have agreed to some of the administrations demands. And it canceled or froze 1,996 N.S.F. grants, of which nearly a third have been reinstated, according to Grant Witness estimates.

2. More competition

Its simple math: Fewer grants implies more competition for federal funding.

Take the category of research grants known as R01, the oldest and most prestigious grant that the N.I.H. awards. An acceptance or rejection can make or break a scientists career.

These grants fund topics such as studying the impact of e-cigarettes on brain health, modeling the movements of mice, or devising new methods to kill mosquitoes.

Last year, only one in six was funded. But this year, the agency awarded 24 percent fewer R01 grants.

R01 grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health

This means fewer scientists had their research funded. Last year, the N.I.H.s National Cancer Institute funded R01 applications from new investigators that fell in the top 10 percent based on scoring by the agency. But by the end of fiscal year 2025, it funded only the top 4 percent.

Nobody believes that a fourth-percentile and a fifth-percentile grant are clearly of different quality, Dr. Kobrin said. Its just not that precise a measurement.

3. A drop in grants mentioning diversity

The Trump administration has prioritized eliminating research that involves diversity, equity and inclusion, and has eliminated hundreds of keywords related to diversity on federal websites.

A Times analysis found a steep reduction in the share of competitive N.I.H. grants whose titles or abstracts included flagged D.E.I.-related keywords (such as equity, racial minority or underserved patient) on a list shared by N.I.H. employees.

Share of competitive N.I.H. grants that included flagged D.E.I.-related keywords

The data shows a big surge in these keywords after 2020, during the Biden administration.

While some of the decline in 2025 could be attributed to a change in the language that researchers use to describe their work, it also probably reflects a drop in research related to minority health. For example, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities awarded 61 percent fewer competitive grants this year, the steepest decline at any arm of the N.I.H.

N.I.H. employees said they did not receive clear guidance on how to determine if a project was D.E.I.-related. Instead, they were sent spreadsheets of grants that had been flagged for not complying with the Trump administrations priorities.

Were constantly hearing that things have been flagged, Dr. Kobrin said.

Nobody wants to acknowledge what they were flagged for.

4. Fewer fellowships for future scientists

The government provides critical funds for training new scientists through graduate student, postdoctoral and early-career fellowships and grants.

The N.S.F. has run a prestigious graduate research fellowship program since 1952. It funds three years of research for around 2,000 of the countrys top science graduate students.

Number of graduate research fellowships awarded by the National Science Foundation

This year, it awarded 536 fewer such fellowships. The government originally planned to eliminate 1,000 fellowships, but later added about 500 more after facing protests from scientists and academics.

The cut affected most fields, with fellowships in four areas  life sciences, psychology, STEM education and social sciences  being cut by more than half. Fellowships in computer science, an administration priority, grew by almost 50 percent.

National Science Foundation graduate research fellowships Field 2015-24 avg. 2025 Change Life sciences 516 214 -59% Psychology 117 56 -52% STEM education 29 14 -52% Social sciences 159 79 -50% Math 90 56 -38% Geosciences 122 84 -31% Engineering 575 406 -29% Chemistry 176 154 -13% Materials research 58 63 +9% Physics 139 166 +19% Computer science 141 208 +48% Total 2,121 1,500 -29% Figures are rounded.

There were also months of delays in publishing the fellowship application for next year, and new eligibility restrictions that exclude second-year Ph.D. students from applying, which may lower the numbers of fellowships in future years.

This is an incredibly shortsighted and regressive change, said Kevin Johnson, a former program director at N.S.F.s geosciences directorate, because second-year graduate students are usually better prepared to conduct research.

It sends a signal to future potential applicants that science is not supported and is not valued, he said.

Early-career scientists are usually more reliant on federal funding because they have few alternatives to fund their research and training. Many go on to work in industry afterward, further fueling the economy.

In a 1945 report that led to the creation of the N.S.F., Vannevar Bush, who directed military research and development during World War II, argued that the government should invest in training the next generation of scientists to ensure American scientific progress.

But many experts worry that the recent funding cuts and budget reductions may threaten Americas role as a global scientific leader.

I personally know many scientists in my field leaving the United States altogether, Mr. Johnson said.
proof of any kind. Several of these same criminals now walk free, some on U.S. streets, as a result of the actions of the Biden-Harris DOJ. When we served as presidents, we stood together as allies. In 2019, under your leadership, we signed the historic Third Safe Country Agreement. Our countries built an unprecedented regional partnership to stop illegal migration and strengthen asylum protections. You congratulated me publicly, saying: I want to congratulate you and your country, and I want to say you have done a fantastic job. My people work with you so well, and one thing they came out more than anything else, they were saying how much you love your country, and we are going to be with you, we are going to work together and we will make it even better for both, the United States and your country, and the others that have been so helpful. So, I just want to thank you very much. It's a great honor to be with you and to be with your wife." After this agreement, attacks from members of Biden's campaign grew stronger, opposing the joint progress we had achieved. Mr. President, you and I also shared something deeper, a profound love for our countries. We are men of faith, patriots, willing to risk our lives for the safety of our people. You were targeted, and by the grace of God, you survived. I, too, faced real threats and assassination attempts from powerful criminal organizations, yet neither of us stepped back. Instead, we doubled down, determined to leave our nations more secure than we found them. The fight against narcotics was central to my presidency. The approach you have taken against traffickers reflects similar strategies I pursued in office, demonstrating our shared vision in regional security. My administration also sought to stop drugs before they reached our border, preventing the blood, corruption, and death they bring to our nations. For this reason, in 2019, I expelled the Venezuelan ambassador after urging that regime to take action to prevent drug planes and ships from leaving its territory, and to end its repression of the Venezuelan people. In addition, my administration created a protective air shield" to intercept and neutralize narco-flights from South America, using our Military Forces when necessary. As your opponents have done to you, I too was labeled a dictator, simply for creating the Military Police and deploying the Military Forces to restore public order in a country that then had the highest murder rate in the world. Yet the irony remains, I am condemned for the very actions I took to defend my people and protect our nations. You once told me directly at the 2019 Israeli American Council National Summit: "We're delighted to have with us, President Juan Orlando Hernandez of Honduras, and the First Lady of Honduras. And I have to tell you, thank you, sir, that President Hernandez is working with the United States very closely. You know what's going on on our southern border. And we're winning after years and years of losing. We're stopping drugs at a level that has never happened. Those words meant a great deal to me, my family, and the Honduran people. They reaffirmed our shared mission: to defend democracy, secure our borders, and confront the criminal networks threatening our nations. In addition to our shared mission, our shared beliefs are why, at the United Nations, I supported your decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, an action I mirrored by moving the Honduran Embassy, standing firmly alongside you and Israel. I want to take the opportunity to congratulate you on your efforts and advancements to secure peace in the world, particularly in the 3
From Snarling Zombies to Frolicking Dogs: Recruiting Ads Trace a Wars Evolution 2023 Early in the war with Russia, Ukrainian military outfits framed enlisting as a way to fend off a threat to civilization  depicted here as zombies. 2025 By the summer of 2025, with war fatigue setting in, recruitment ads normalized life as a soldier and suggested it was just another career path.

Wherever you go in Ukraine, army recruitment ads are impossible to miss. They loom from skyscraper billboards, plaster street corners and hang from highway bridges.

The ads are the work of individual units that recruit volunteers, rather than rely on conscription. The first ones appeared in the spring of 2023, and brigades have rolled out new ad campaigns every few months.

Early ads pulsed with a call to arms, in keeping with the national drive to repel Russias invasion. But as the war ground on, enthusiasm waned and Ukraine struggled to recruit, the tone changed.

More recent ads have reassured people that enlistment is not a one-way ticket to the front. Some have even tried to glamorize military life. And, lately, they have played on peoples pride to defend their country.

Heres how the ads have evolved, and what they say about the countrys shifting moods at a time of uncertainty over whether diplomatic efforts will bring an end to the war or the fighting will persist.

Spring to Autumn 2023 AN EXISTENTIAL FIGHT

In the spring of 2023, as Ukraine readied a much-anticipated counteroffensive to reclaim Russian-occupied territories in the south and east, it needed men to fight. Thats when the Third Assault Brigade, founded by Andriy Biletsky, a far-right politician before the war, launched one of the wars first recruitment campaigns.

The brigades ads showed armor-clad soldiers advancing across a scorched-earth battlefield, as a helicopter and a drone flew overhead. Join the decisive battle, it urged.

Ad by the Third Assault brigade, April 2023

Six months later, the counteroffensive had failed, with Kyivs forces capturing only several villages at great human cost. Some Ukrainians questioned whether the fight had been worth it.

With the mood shifting, the Third Assault Brigade launched a new campaign. This one cast the war as an existential battle, and featured Ukrainian fighters facing zombies and monsters.

Fight in the Third Assault Fight in the Third Assault Fight in the Third Assault Third Assault brigade, November 2023

The zombie depiction tapped into the Ukrainian perception that Moscows forces are brainwashed by Kremlin propaganda and mindlessly kill at will, on the battlefield and off. Russian troops have been documented executing Ukrainian civilians.

We wanted to show that if you dont fight now, darkness will prevail, said Khrystyna Bondarenko, the brigades head of media.

Late 2023 to Spring 2024 FIGHTING DOESNT MEAN DYING

By late 2023, the war had settled into a bloody stalemate. Ukraines army needed to replenish its ranks after the failed counteroffensive. But with no end to the fighting in sight, more and more Ukrainians were reluctant to join.

So the brigades shifted their message. They began advertising noncombat roles to show that enlisting wasnt always a march to the front lines.

Azov, a National Guard unit, launched a campaign with the tagline The military needs different professions. The ads showed cartoon-style hands holding a stethoscope, a wrench or a pen  a reminder that the army also needs doctors, mechanics and clerks.

The army needs different professions The army needs different professions Azov brigade, November 2023

The Third Assault Brigade highlighted how new technologies  especially the drones now flooding the battlefield  were reshaping soldiers roles. Alongside posters of a man wielding a chainsaw, the brigade released ads showing soldiers in goggles piloting drones or working on laptops.

Light up in the Third Assault Work in the Third Assault Fly into the Third Assault Light up in the Third Assault Work in the Third Assault Fly into the Third Assault Work in the Third Assault Light up in the Third Assault Fly into the Third Assault Third Assault brigade, March 2024

The Ukrainian Army also struggled to enlist men because the draft process remained mired in Soviet-style bureaucracy and corruption. Many men were assigned to roles that didnt fit their skills and received only a few weeks of training.

People were afraid that as soon as they joined the army, they would be sent to the front lines not knowing what to do, said Vsevolod Kozhemyako, a businessman who founded the Khartiia brigade at the start of the war.

To ease those fears, Khartiia launched a series of ads promising recruits NATO-style training and financial support. The posters featured real brigade members who at times looked more like IT workers than soldiers, with weapons absent from many of the images.

Kornet, brigade commander Kalina, commander of the medical company NATO standards and clear planning Pay up to 150,000 hryvnia (about $3,500) Kalina, commander of the medical company Kornet, brigade commander NATO standards and clear planning Pay up to 150,000 hryvnia (about $3,500) Kornet, brigade commander NATO standards and clear planning Kalina, commander of the medical company Pay up to 150,000 hryvnia (about $3,500) Khartiia brigade, September 2024

We always need people with good business skills, Mr. Kozhemyako said. So we were telling them they would be used based on their skills.

Summer 2024 to early 2025 ITS COOL TO BE IN THE ARMY

Last summer, conscription was on everyones lips as Ukraine embarked on a major mobilization drive. A new law required all men ages 18 to 60 to register on a government website, the first step toward a possible call-up. The authorities set an ambitious target of drafting 30,000 new soldiers each month.

Many men who wanted to avoid the draft went into hiding.

In response, the Third Assault Brigade launched campaigns over the next six months portraying army life as cool. Targeting younger men, who are needed for assault missions, the ads drew on youth culture with styles like anime. One video showed brigade members battling zombie-like Russian soldiers and bonding with friends on the training ground. The video ends with a young man deciding to join the units ranks.

Third Assault brigade, January 2025

The brigade said it had used artificial intelligence to produce the ads. Ms. Bondarenko, its head of media, said that A.I. saved resources  the brigade cannot afford to pull soldiers from the front lines for photo shoots  and opened up new possibilities for original content.

Another ad showed a drone pilot reclining in a deckchair on the beach, with the tagline Summer, FPV, Third Assault. With the reference to first-person-view drones, the ad played on a widespread belief that being a drone pilot was a way to take part in the fight while staying safely behind the combat lines.

Summer, FPV, Third Assault Summer, FPV, Third Assault Third Assault brigade, June 2024

That perception has changed. As drones became central to the battlefield, drone pilots themselves became prime targets for enemy strikes.

The Third Assaults most provocative campaign came last summer, when the unit ran ads showing a model lounging on a soldiers lap or embracing him on a motorcycle. The message was clear: If you join the brigade, Ms. Bondarenko said, beautiful girls will love you.

I love the Third Assault I love the Third Assault I love the Third Assault Third Assault brigade, Oct. 2024

Critics called the campaign sexist, but Ms. Bondarenko said it was highly effective, attracting as many as 250 applications per day to join the brigade.

Spring to Summer 2025 PLAYING ON PEOPLES PRIDE

By the time Ukraine entered its fourth year of full-scale war this year, fatigue had set in across the country. The message that army life was pleasant no longer resonated. So the brigades once again shifted their approach, this time appealing to peoples sense of pride and duty.

Leading the effort was Azov. In the summer, the unit released a video ad showing two women at a hair salon. One laments that she cant take her husband out to celebrate his birthday because hes worried that draft officers will snatch him if he leaves the house. The other casually says that she and her husband plan to go to Italy.

Seriously? Your husband got an exemption? the first woman asks. No, the second replies. Mine is in Azov. The hair salon falls silent.

Azov brigade, Aug. 2025

The video shames those evading service and nods to the pride that comes from joining a unit that earned heroic status for its fierce resistance to Russian assaults. It was also a pointed reminder that while martial law bars most civilian men from leaving the country, soldiers can be allowed to travel abroad during breaks.

In another ad released this spring, Azov showed a young recruit video-calling his mother from the training ground and telling her, with a faint smile, Mom, Im joining Azov.

Azov brigade, April 2025

Oksana Bondarenko, a communications officer for Azov, said the ad was timed to the introduction of a new government program encouraging enlistment among 18- to 24-year-olds, a group that is not subject to mobilization in Ukraine, which begins at age 25.

Most young men say that when they decide to join the army, theyre afraid to tell their parents  mostly so that their mothers do not get upset, she said. The campaign suggested that joining the army might make your family proud.

Summer 2025 ARMY AS A WAY OF LIFE

As an earlier round of American-led peace talks fizzled out this summer, a sense began to settle in among Ukrainians that they should brace for an even longer war. Russia was pressing its assaults in the east, while Kyiv and Moscow traded long-range strikes to erode each others war machines.

Preparing for a long fight, the army launched a major reorganization and expanded the Third Assault, Azov and Khartiia brigades into corps, assigning each of them additional units to run.

The newly formed corps began portraying military service as a way of life. Khartiia rolled out posters depicting giant soldiers in uniforms working amid skyscrapers, likening them to business professionals. The campaign, under the tagline Grow With Khartiia, framed joining the corps as a smart career move.

Grow with Khartiia Grow in Khartiia Khartiia brigade, July 2025

Mr. Kozhemyako, Khartiias founder, said the goal was to show that you can build your career in the military and gain skills that will later be valuable on the civilian job market.

The Third Assaults campaign carried a more direct message. Were here to live read the tagline accompanying pictures of soldiers cuddling babies and playing with dogs. Weapons were absent from the images  a first for the units recruitment posters.

We want to show that life continues even during war, Ms. Bondarenko said.

We are here to live We are here to live We are here to live We are here to live Third Assault brigade, August 2025

The new campaign  nearly two years after the units zombie-themed ads bristled with death and weapons  marked a striking shift in tone.

We want to guess the moods of people to understand how to better recruit them, Ms. Bondarenko said. Moods really changed.
The deadline for O'Dwyer's 2026 rankings of the top PR firms by net fee income is Mon., Mar. 16.

Download 2026 O'Dwyer's Rankings Instructions (PDF).

Show your expertise in areas such as healthcare, technology, finance, professional services and purpose/CSR, to name a few of the 23 specialties we track. Only ODwyers does such rankings which are usually at or near the top in Google searches for those categories.

Our website is optimized for ChatGPT and youll find ODwyers cited in GPT queries related to PR firms, lists organizing PR firms by their specialties and top ranked firms that have met O'Dwyer's strict documentation requirements. Traffic is usually between 40,000 - 100,000+ visits monthly.

Our research shows that ODwyer's rankings are a keystone of AI search. All major AI platforms use ODwyer's rankings as the definitive data to inform their answers. This is seen on all levels of their rankings, nationally, locally and by vertical served. Their rankings are now the premier data source for anyone researching PR firms using AI," said Greg Matusky, CEO, Gregory and Developer of Gregory Influence Enginean AI search research tool.

Rankings are also tabulated by 16 cities and regions, including New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington, D.C. Regional rankings showcase firms in the West, Southeast and Midwest.

A total of 133 firms took part in the 2025 rankings.

List and rank with ODwyers

For over 55 years, weve has been the go-to resource for companies seeking top PR agencies. Whether you're a boutique agency or a global powerhouse, joining O'Dwyer's gives your firm year-round visibility.

Heres what recent new additions to our online directory of PR firms have to say:

Airfoil specializes in working with visionary brands in the technology, automotive and advanced manufacturing fields. Driving agency visibility and elevating our position in search is critical to our business development strategy. ODwyers is among the most well-known and trusted resources for companies seeking a new PR agency. We see it as an essential driver of brand awareness and a fundamental component of our agency marketing efforts." -- Keith Donovan, CEO of Airfoil Group.

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"I initially discovered O'Dwyer's at my very first PR job, and its been a go-to resource ever since. Few outlets cover the inner workings of the PR industry with such depth, and O'Dwyers continues to deliver valuable insights on trends and the ever-evolving communications landscape. Im honored to be part of such a distinguished community of communicators." -- Renee Sieli, founder and CEO of ERPR Group.

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PR firms have distinctive financialsat least half of income is used for staff pay. Therefore, ODwyers requires the top page of the latest corporate income tax return and W-3 to verify legitimate PR firms rather than ad agencies or other types of businesses. The ranking measures counseling and media contact services, not advertising or production expenses.

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Please contact John ODwyer at [email protected] if you have questions about the ranking requirements.

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KCSA Strategic Communications launches the KCSA AI Lab, which will develop proprietary AI systems to expand what strategic communications can achieve for public relations and investor relations clients. The AI Lab has already deployed its first three intelligence systems into production. Market Intelligence delivers board-ready analysis of retail investor sentiment in under 10 minutes, analyzing thousands of conversations across multiple platforms to generate CEO briefs, action plans and interactive dashboards. Media Intelligence discovers reporters on such emerging platforms as Discord and specialized forums, generating ranked, contact-ready lists. Impact Intelligence processes coverage data from any monitoring platform, then enriches it with competitive analysis, search trends, and investor signals to demonstrate real ROI. not just vanity metrics. "By systematically identifying gaps in existing tools and building proprietary solutions, we're creating capabilities that give our clients measurable competitive advantages," said KCSA managing partner and head of the AI Lab Lewis Goldberg.

Clipbook, a vertical AI platform for strategic communications and public affairs, closes a $3.3 million seed round co-led by Mark Cuban, Commonweal Ventures and Carpenter Capital. Also participating in the funding round are MikeWorldWide founder and CEO Mike Kempner and Narrative Strategies CEO Ken Spain. The new round of funding will allow Clipbook to deepen its investments across product, engineering and go-to-market. The platform provides predictive, context-rich insights synthesized across millions of sources and multimodal content formats. Its clients include Weber Shandwick and the Boston Consulting Group. The right intelligence is invaluable to a business, and Clipbook takes that intelligence and makes it actionable, said Cuban.

VizSense, a Boston-based AI influencer marketing agency, teams up with holographic storytelling company Geminai, to launch what they say is the next frontier in brand experiences: interactive holograms powered by AI. On Dec. 5, they will show their hologram technology to content creators at Bostons Mandarin Oriental. The technology is meant to allow influencers, celebrities and products to appear as lifelike holograms in retail, events and pop-ups nationwide. "Brands want moments that make people stop and stare," said VizSense CEO Kristen Standish. "Holographic influencers deliver emotional, unforgettable interactionsand now VizSense is putting this breakthrough experience directly into the hands of creators and brands.
Esty Pujadas

Former Ketchum partner Esty Pujadas joins Grayling as CEO of its North America business, part of the agencys expansion in the region.

Pujadas most recently served as Americas COO at private equity-backed shareholder and stakeholder advisory firm Sodali & Co. She has also been a senior executive at Next 15/The Booth Group.

Among the organizations Pujadas has advised are Google, Hyundai, IBM, Lenovo, Nokia, P&G, Telefonica, Tyson Foods, Samsung, Visa, Wells Fargo and Zoetis.

As leader of Grayling North America, she will focus on working with multinational companies investing in the region as well as U.S. companies with domestic and global communications needs across relevant stakeholders, channels, and markets.

She has built trust at the highest levels, led integrated teams across regions, and helped clients navigate complex business, technology and stakeholder environments, said Grayling global CEO Richard Jukes.
John Wren

Omnicom CEO John Wren isnt exactly spreading cheer this holiday season as he works to cull another 4,000 people from the payroll in the wake of the Interpublic takeover. Let's not call them "redundancies."

Wren wants to complete the blood-letting by Dec. 15 in order to position the now No. 1 advertising/PR combine for a fresh start in the upcoming year.

He aims to avoid the drip, drip, drip news reports of layoffs. But many affected workers would opt for that the drip, drip, drip approach as it may keep them employed through the holiday season.

Following completion of Decembers employee carnage, Omnicom will have 105K employees. Omnicom and Interpublic had 128K staffers at the end of 2024.

Look for Omnicomthanks to efficiencies triggered by AIto have fewer workers at the end of 2026.

Wren plans to update investors on his integration and synergy expectations with the release of 2025 earnings in February.

The 73-year-old chief also should provide insights into his succession plan.

Notorious lawyer Roy Cohn introduced fledgling real estate developer Donald Trump to Manhattans high society, as well as the worlds of politics and media, during the mid-1970s.

The two met at a Manhattan disco, where Trump regaled Cohn with a story about the Justice Dept. suing the Trump Organization, dad Fred and Donald under the Fair Housing Act.

Investigators in 1973 found that out of 3,700 apartments at Trump Village in Coney Island seven were occupied by Blacks. Cohn urged Trump to fight the case. The rest is history.

Cohn soon became Trumps personal lawyer and advance man, according to The Gods of New York by Jonathan Mahler. This kid is going to own New York someday," Cohn told gossip columnist Cindy Adams.

It was Cohn who imparted his "rules of winning" to young Donald. They are attack, attack, attack; admit nothing, deny everything; and always claim victory, no matter the outcome.

The president still uses that playbook.

Once established in NYC, Trump no longer needed Cohns connections. As Cohn was dying from AIDS, Trump discarded him. The Donald was petrified of contracting AIDS.

After the lawyer died in 1986, his partner, Peter Fraser, opened a Bulgari box containing cuff links that Trump had given to Cohn as a gift years earlier. Fraser took the cufflinks to an appraiser who determined they were knockoffs.

Undoubtedly, Trump would have denied the cufflinks were fake.

Whats wrong with Pete Hegseth? The Defense Secretary used a phony image of the beloved by kids aged three to eight Franklin the Turtle character firing a missile at the alleged narco-terrorist boats. He is depicted on the cover of a book called "Franklin Targets Narco-Terrorists.

There are more than 30 Franklin the Turtle books that have sold more than 65M copies in 30-plus languages. They deal with coming-of-age milestones for kids. They have titles such as "Franklin's Christmas Gift," "Franklin's New Friend," "Franklin Rides a Bike," and "Franklin Says I Love You."

Following Hegseths X posting, the series' publisher, Kids Can Press, issued a statement that said: Franklin the Turtle is a beloved Canadian icon who has inspired generations of children and stands for kindness, empathy and inclusivity. We strongly condemn any denigrating, violent or unauthorized use of Franklins name or image, which directly contradicts these values.

With all respect to Kids Can Press, anti-woke Pete doesnt do kindness, empathy and inclusivity.

Hegseth though should know better. The guy is father and step dad to seven kids. Whats next? Will Pete have Charlie Brown and the the rest of the Peanuts gang storming the beaches of Venezuela?
A prosecution for intoxicated driving was changed at Tullamore District Court after the intervention of Judge Andrew Cody.

When the case of Andrew Croke (27), Ring House, Delour Valley, Killanure, Mountrath, Co Laois came before him, Judge Cody asked why the prosecution had been brought under one section of the relevant act when a prosecution for a lesser offence was available.

Judge Cody said the section under which Mr Croke was being prosecuted would result in minimum of a four-year disqualification being imposed.

Mr Croke pleaded guilty to intoxicated driving at Main Street, Kinnitty on June 17 last.

The court was told by Garda Diarmaid Loughnane that the prosecution followed the man being seen at a checkpoint driving a 2008 Dublin registered vehicle.

Garda Loughnane said he could smell cannabis and the accused admitted smoking that drug. A blood sample was analysed and showed the presence of cocaine and cannabis.

Mr Croke, who was in receipt of legal aid, had previous convictions for breaches of the road traffic laws.

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David Nugent, BL, defending, said the man had been suffering with his mental health and had been working in forestry.

He was sleeping in an idle car but had been trying to rid himself of cannabis addiction and was seeking assistance because he knew he had a problem.

After the charge was amended on the application of Sergeant Brendan Kearns, Judge Cody disqualified Mr Croke from driving for three years and fined him 250.
A NEW mental health and wellbeing programme for secondary schools has officially launched in Tullamore, as the Sacred Heart Secondary School takes part in the national pilot of Rising Minds, a new initiative from award-winning Irish mental health charity A Lust for Life, proudly supported by Aura Leisure. Co-founded by Niall Bressie Breslin in 2017, A Lust For Life has been at the forefront of developing early prevention mental health and wellbeing programmes in schools across Ireland.

The Rising Minds programme, developed with psychologists, teachers, guidance counsellors, and young people themselves, supports first-year students as they navigate the transition into post-primary school. It introduces the concept of mental fitness, equipping young people with practical tools to build resilience, manage emotions, and strengthen relationships, helping them to thrive both inside and outside the classroom.

A photocall at Aura Leisure Centre Tullamore brought together students and staff from Sacred Heart Secondary School, Tullamore (with Emily Carroll, Erin D'Arcy, Lily Bourke, Aisling Brady, Grace Brady, Emily Cullen with their teacher Jayne Origan) with Stephen Forde, Aura Operations Manager, highlighting Auras commitment with the support of Louth County Council to community wellbeing and youth mental health.

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Jayne Origan, teacher at Sacred Heart Secondary School, speaking at the launch today said: Were delighted to be part of the Rising Minds pilot. Its an engaging and relevant programme that gives students real tools to understand themselves, manage challenges, and build empathy for others. Its already creating great conversations in our classrooms.

Stephen Forde, Operations Manager, Aura Leisure Tullamore, said:

Aura is proud to support Rising Minds and help bring this programme to life in our community. Supporting the mental health of young people goes hand in hand with our vision of creating a healthier happier Ireland in mind and body. This partnership shows whats possible when schools and local organisations work together.

Speaking about the partnership with Aura Leisure, Paula McLoughlin, Co-Founder and Chair of A Lust for Life said: At A Lust for Life, we believe every young person deserves the knowledge and skills to look after their mind. Rising Minds is about empowering students early and helping them build confidence, compassion and resilience for the challenges ahead. Were so grateful to Aura Leisure for championing this partnership and supporting mental fitness in schools across Ireland.

Rising Minds builds on A Lust for Lifes award-winning Primary Schools Programme, which has already reached more than 222,100 children in over 50% of primary schools across Ireland. The charitys move into secondary education marks a major step toward a full continuum of early mental health education, from infants to senior cycle.

The Rising Minds pilot runs in 12 schools across eight counties this academic year, with national rollout planned for late 2026.

PICTURES: Offaly school's TY students impress in stunning production of 'Aladdin's Tale'
Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, became the latest notable figure on Monday to hit back against the White House's claims about the 'double tap' boat strike, wondering to Semafor if Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was 'incompetent' or 'lying.' Last week, the Washington Post reported that on September 2, U.S. forces fired on a vessel in the Caribbean Sea, then fired on it again when it was determined that some of the occupants had survived. This reportedly came as the result of a directive from Hegseth to 'kill them all.' These strikes, claimed with little evidence to be drug traffickers, had already been a source of major controversy for the Trump administration, but this report saw many experts accusing Hegseth of a war crime and outright murder.
AI Investments Are Not a Bubble



By Joel D. Joseph, economist







Forbes magazine recently warned, An AI boom is catapulting markets and raising fears a bubble is near. Gary Smith, an economics professor at Pomona College and author, has warned about an artificial intelligence bubble. These models are being hyped up, and we're investing more than we should, said Daron Acemoglu, an economist at MIT, who was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. He said there is a startling amount of capital pouring into a revolution that remains mostly speculative.



The AI boom is not a repeat of the dot-com bubble. In 2000, 135 dot-com firms went bankrupt or shut down operations, according to a "Dot-com Deathwatch" article published by Fortune magazine in early 2001. Across the country, 220 internet-related companies shut down in 2000. By mid-July 2001, an additional 330 companies had closed. One estimate found that four out of five dot-coms in the San Francisco Bay Area went out of business in 2000 and 2001.



The dot-com boom was a mad-dash to invest in high-tech start-ups. In contrast, the AI book is being invested by multi-trillion-dollar companies including Nvidia, Google, Microsoft, Meta and Oracle.



Nvidia invests heavily in AI infrastructure and startups to ensure demand for its computer chips. For example, Nvidia invested up to $10 billion in Anthropic, an AI company founded in 2021 by seven former employees of OpenAI, including siblings Daniela Amodei and Dario Amodei, the latter of whom was OpenAI's Vice President of Research. Nvidia plans to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI, supplying it with data center chips. Nvidia is also part of an investor group acquiring Aligned Data Centers in a $40 billion deal. Nvidias total investment in AI is $150 billion or 3% of its market value.



Microsoft invested up $5 billion in Anthropic, which will commit $30 billion to using Microsoft's cloud services. Also, Microsoft has an ongoing partnership with OpenAI, even though OpenAI has also made deals with other cloud providers. These are relatively small investments compared to Microsofts $3.6 trillion market valuation.



Google focuses on its internal models (Gemini) and its Google Cloud platform, and is a pioneer in custom AI chips with its Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). In 2025, Google will spend around $75 billion in total capital expenditures in AI. Google announced a deal to supply up to one million of its AI chips to Anthropic.



In addition, Google also signed a cloud computing deal with Meta worth more than $10 billion. These investments represent only three percent of Googles total valuation.



Meta is building out its AI capacity to meet demand for new features and its own Llama AI models. Meta has projected capital expenditures of around $70-72 billion for AI 2025. In addition, Meta secured a $14 billion agreement with Core Weave for computing power. Meta also bought a 49% stake in Scale AI for about $14.3 billion. Metas total AI investments are approximately $100 billion, or about 7% of its market cap



The only company that may be overinvested in AI is Oracle. Oracle is worth $566 billion, but has invested $300 billion in AI, more than 50% of its market cap. To fund this expansion, Oracle has taken on substantial debt, including an $18 billion bond issuance in September 2025, which has raised investor concerns about its debt load and potential margins on AI contracts.



While Artificial Intelligence may be over-hyped and over invested in, there is no AI bubble that can burst. The biggest risk taker is Oracle, and even Oracle can probably survive even if its AI investments crumble.



In contrast, Bitcoin is an actual bubble that can burst. Bitcoin has no intrinsic value, but is supported by the bigger fool theory and illegal business transactions. The bigger fool theory is that you can always sell your Bitcoin to someone dumber than you. This theory boosted the price of tulip bulbs in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century when tulips became more valuable than a house. Within a few years, tulips crashed back down to their actual modest value as a flower. In contrast, Bitcoin can crash to zero. Dont worry about the AI bubblefocus on the coming Bitcoin collapse. The total value of all bitcoins is more than $1 trillion. When it crashes, there will be serious ripples in the economy.



GenZers, those born between 1997 and 2012, are heavily invested in Bitcoins. They wrongly believe that Bitcoins will be the way to save their generation. GenZers are most likely to be harmed when Bitcoin collapses, making it even harder for that generation to buy homes and pay off their college loans.


Although President Donald Trump has claimed that every policy of his administration was designed to lift up the American worker, he has acted consistently, since returning to office in January 2025, to undermine workers chosen representatives, Americas labor unions.

The most flagrant Trump action along these lines occurred in March 2025, when he issued an executive order that terminated collective bargaining rights for more than 1 million federal government employees. This measure, the largest single union-busting action in American history, ended union representation and protections for 1 out of 14 unionized workers in the United States.

Trumps anti-union campaign dovetailed with his efforts to terminate the employment of hundreds of thousands of federal workers, many of them union members. Federal workers, Trump claimed, are destroying this country, and are crooked and dishonest. Many of them, he said, dont work at all.

To supervise his massive purge of public employees, Trump chose Elon Muskthe worlds wealthiest individual and largest donor to his presidential campaignto direct a mysterious Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Delighted with the job, Musk declared, without any evidence, that there were people on the government payroll who are dead and others who are not real people. Addressing a conference of conservatives, the flamboyant multibillionaire charged that waste is pretty much everywhere and brandished a chain saw against what he called bureaucracy.

As Musks minions rampaged through federal agencies, planning large-scale firings, DOGE informed workers that, if they voluntarily resigned, they would be paid without working during the remainder of the fiscal year. Confronted with the difficult choice of possible termination or resignation with some financial compensation, 154,000 employees signed up in the first six months for the new voluntary resignation program. Nobody really knew if your job was safe, recalled a former Social Security Administration employee. I thought, better just to take it voluntarily, rather than being forced out.

Labor unions, of course, were appalled by the situation, and turned to the federal courts for redress. But, although some lower court decisions bolstered their efforts to maintain union rights and job security for federal workers, courts at a higher level, including the Republican-dominated U.S. Supreme Court, granted Trump most of the expanded powers that he claimed.

Thus far, the mass termination of federal workers has wreaked havoc on their lives ending careers, undermining financial security, and creating severe mental distress. And it has also produced a weaker labor movement.

Estimates are that 300,000 federal workers will have lost or left their jobs by the end of 2025.

Meanwhile, the embattled labor movement turned to Congress. Here it worked to secure passage of the Protect Americas Workforce Act, which would repeal Trumps executive order abolishing union rights. In the House of Representatives, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) refused to allow a vote on the legislation, promoted by the AFL-CIO and by Democrats. On November 17, however, the sponsor of the legislation, Representative Jared Golden (D-ME), finally secured the necessary 218 signatures (from 213 Democrats and 5 renegade Republicans) on a discharge petition to force House action, which presumably will occur soon.

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Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator

On the 50th day of the Gaza ceasefire, Israel carried out continuing airstrikes in defiance of the Trump brokered peace plan. What US President Donald Trump planned on is not holding up in the face of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus impunity.

Israeli aircraft launched strikes on the Al-Tuffah and Al-Shujaiya neighborhoods in Gaza City, while artillery units targeted the eastern area of Jabalia. The Nasser Medical Complex reported the killing of a Palestinian in Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Younis.

According to the Anadolu Agency, Israeli armored vehicles opened fire overnight on the eastern areas of the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood in southern Gaza City.

Helicopter gunships also fired machine guns at the towns of Bani Suhaila and Al-Qarara east of Khan Younis.

UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres reaffirmed that the Palestinian people have the right to dignity, justice, and self-determination, stressing that these rights have been violated over the past two years. He renewed calls to end the illegal occupation and to make irreversible progress toward a two-state solution where Israel and Palestine live side by side in peace.

The Executive Director of UNICEF warned that many children in Gaza continue to suffer from hunger, disease, and exposure to cold temperatures, placing their lives at serious risk.

French anti-terror prosecutors have opened a war-crimes investigation into the killing of two French children in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on October 24, 2023. However, prosecutors ruled that there are insufficient grounds to investigate genocide or crimes against humanity, despite petitions filed by the childrens grandmother and the French Human Rights League.

Other complaints have been filed in France concerning alleged Israeli violations, including one accusing two French-Israeli soldiers of summary executions in Gaza.

Turkey, under President Recep Tayyip Erdoan, is seeking a post-war role in Gaza despite firm Israeli opposition.

A report in the Swiss newspaper Neue Zrcher Zeitung, authored from Istanbul, highlighted the deterioration in TurkeyIsrael relations during the Gaza war. Israels Foreign Minister Gideon Saar attributed Israels rejection of Turkish participation in a Gaza peacekeeping force to Erdoans long-standing hostility. The comments followed a Turkish arrest warrant issued for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and associates on charges of genocide.

A spokesperson for the Israeli government declared, There will be no Turkish ground forcesnow or in the future.

According to the report, Israel has resisted Turkish involvement since the start of the war due to Ankaras close ties with Hamas, which Turkey views as a liberation movement and whose leaders it regularly hosts.

The report outlines the historical trajectory of the relationshipfrom Turkeys early recognition of Israel in 1949, to years of strategic partnership, to severe strain under the AK Party government. Relations collapsed after the 2010 Mavi Marmara raid, then slowly normalized until late 2023only to sour drastically again after Hamass October 7 attack.

Escalating frictions also emerged over Syria and competition in the Eastern Mediterranean. By late 2024, Turkey and Israel had withdrawn ambassadors, halted flights, and Ankara closed its airspace and ports to Israeli traffic. In August, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced a full freeze of trade relations.

Despite official declarations, UN trade data shows Turkey exported $2.9 billion worth of goods to Israel in 2024down from $5.3 billion the previous year but still making Turkey one of Israels top suppliers. Analysts suggest traders circumvented the ban by shipping through intermediary countries or labeling goods as destined for Palestine.

The report concludes that while escalation between the two countries is unlikely for now, Turkey continues to seek influence in post-war Gaza arrangements, underestimating Israels leverage in Washington.

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In the USA, today is "Giving Tuesday". So please whether you are in the USA or elsewhere consider donating of any kind to those in need. We at the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University would appreciate your kind donation of any size to help us working towards sustainability of human and natural communities in Palestine even in the midst of ongoing horrors of genocide and ecocide. To donate. To volunteer (on site or remotely)

Raz Segal: Israeli and International genocide/holocaust expert: The genocide in Gaza is far from over: We live not in a post-Holocaust world of Never Again but in the same world that led to the Holocaust, a world of Again and Again.

Amnesty International: The genocide continues after the "ceasefie"

Just to get a glimpse of how politics in the US works, see these two links about Michael Cohen.

Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah.

NEW ISRAELI SETTLEMENT IN BEIT SAHOUR.

Palestinians Offer a Much Clearer Path to Peace: A 51-page document by a group of Palestinian scholars and policy thinkers lays out a visionary path to Middle East peace that is much clearer than the UN resolution or Trump's 20-point plan November 28, 2025 Dahlia Scheindlin HAARETZ Document.

The Two-State Solution Has Long Been Dead. Here's How to Bring Peace to Israel-Palestine Instead. In their new book, Dawn's Sarah Leah Whitson and Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man lay out a blueprint to end the occupation and transform an undemocratic one-state reality into a democratic one. Sarah Leah Whitson and Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man also see my 2004 book "Sharing the Land of Canaan".

What is happening in the West Bank: Um Al Khair

This ancient Chinese game explains Israels strategy in the West Bank.

Power, Not Law, Will Free Palestine: Why Rights Arent Enough.

South African Farid Esack letter to Palestinians: Here is the letter on the segregation wall.

Stay Humane, act, and keep hope and Palestine alive
al Office event on November 18, US president Donald Trump let loose on an ABC News reporter, Mary Bruce, for daring to question Saudi terror kingpin Mohammed bin Salman about the 2018 murder -- by Saudi agents, likely on MBS's direct order -- of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Such questioning, Trump said, was "insubordinate," musing that Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr "should look at" taking away ABC's broadcast license.

What does it mean to be "insubordinate?"

Put simply, insubordination entails a person who's lower on some ladder of authority defying the orders of someone who's higher on that ladder.

Trump clearly believes in the existence of such a ladder, upon which he enjoys higher ranking than, and authority over, mere mortals. Especially journalists. And most especially female journalists.

He doesn't bother trying to hide that belief. Earlier in the week, while fielding questions about his long, close, personal relationship with late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, a flustered Trump tried to shush Bloomberg's White House correspondent, Catherine Lucey: "Quiet. Quiet, piggy."

In reality, Trump's only subordinates (with respect to his position as president of the United States) are employees of the federal government's executive branch. Literally everyone else in the country is either his equal or his superior.

The president is subordinate to Congress. Congress makes the laws, and can override his vetoes if he doesn't like the laws they make. He has to ask the Senate for permission to appoint high-level executive branch officials or to enter into treaties. He only gets to spend money Congress appropriates, and only on the purposes it appropriates that money for.

The president is also subordinate to the courts, especially the US Supreme Court. In any legal controversy involving the executive branch, he has to defend his policies before those courts, or go to them, hat in hand, requesting that they enforce those policies. They decide; he obeys.

That's what the US Constitution says, and what it means, even if we see far more breach than observance in practice.

With respect to the press, he's neither superior nor subordinate. They don't work for him, he doesn't work for them, and the First Amendment forbids Congress (and therefore its subordinate, the president) to make/enforce laws "abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press."

As for the public, presidents supposedly work for us, and constantly claim to.

The title "chief executive" doesn't mean "chief of everything." It means "chief" of executing the orders his superiors give him, and of the people he further delegates that execution to.

He's not Mary Bruce's boss. He's not Catherine Lucey's boss. He's neither your boss nor mine. He's a mere functionary who should learn his place -- his SUBORDINATE place.
ed, before Japans's parliament, about the circumstances under which the country's "Self-Defense Forces" could legally take military action, prime minister Sanae Takaichi cited a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan as a "survival-threatening situation" potentially warranting such action.

Beijing's response to the remark, while a bit more over the top than usual (the Chinese consul-general in Osaka seemingly threatened to cut off Takaichi's head), hasn't really varied in form or substance from the People's Republic's position of decades.

On November 21, Chinese UN Ambassador Fu Cong wrote to UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres, citing Takaichi's words as "a grave violation of international law" and preemptively excusing any such hypothetical attack on Taiwan as "self-defence under the UN Charter" pursuant to defending its "sovereignty" and "territorial integrity."

At stake in this matter, as in similar past occurrences, is a rotten principle called "strategic ambiguity," under which the Chinese regime makes false claims and other regimes carefully avoid mentioning that those claims are false.

Here's the fact which Beijing disputes and other regimes avoid mentioning:

Taiwan is not now, and never has been, part of the People's Republic of China.

The island hasn't been ruled from Beijing since 1895, when the Qing dynasty ceded it to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki, 54 years before the People's Republic came into existence.

To put that in historical context, Taiwan has been independent of mainland China since before Cuba became independent of Spain, and since before the US annexed Hawaii. It's been independent of the mainland through, among other events, two world wars and a multi-decade "Cold War." And even before any of that, it was only partially and occasionally ruled from Beijing.

Beijing enjoys no "sovereignty" over Taiwan, nor would invading Taiwan constitute "self-defense."

But whenever any politician on the world stage publicly mentions, or even alludes to, that fact, Chinese politicians rattle their sabers militarily while threatening, "diplomatically," to throw themselves on the floor and hold their breath until they turn blue.

To placate Beijing, western regimes have generally adopted policies of "strategic ambiguity. They conduct friendly relations with Taiwan while not "recognizing" its status as independent, and provide Taiwan with military assistance of various kinds while very carefully NOT openly saying they'd help it defend itself against invasion.

"Strategic ambiguity" is the worst of two worlds when it comes to foreign policy.

As a non-interventionist, I'd prefer to see the United States (and other regimes) mind their own business and avoid trying to "manage" the China-Taiwan relationship in any way.

Pro-Taiwan interventionists want the United States (and other regimes) take the bull by the horns and just tell the People's Republic "it's not yours, you can't have it, and if you try to take it you'll get smacked down hard."

Catering to Beijing's threats and tantrums with "strategic ambiguity" satisfies neither crowd. It makes eventual war more likely while giving "strategically ambiguous" politicians cover to pretend they're surprised when it arrives.

Hopefully Takaichi will stand her ground. Facts, not dodges, reduce the risk of war.
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com . To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here

Yes, once in the previous century, I actually visited the city of Hiroshima. I was an editor at Pantheon Books and had published a translation of a Japanese volume, Unforgettable Fire: Pictures Drawn by Atomic Bomb Survivors. In it, years later, a few survivors of that city, devastated by the first nuclear weapon used in war on August 6, 1945, none of them artists, had drawn vividly memorable pictures of their experiences accompanied by short, grimly touching descriptions. Mikio Inoue, then 72 years old, for instance, drew an image of a professor he knew and had come upon that horrendous day, the sky still red with flames (a sea of fire), almost naked, holding a rice ball in his fist, who had failed to save his wife, trapped under a roof beam. But I wonder, Inoue later wrote, how he came to hold that rice ball in his hand? His naked figure, standing there before the flames with that rice ball looked to me as a symbol of the modest hope of human beings.

The Japanese editor of that book, amazed that an American would ever have published it, invited me to his country in 1982 and took me to that rebuilt city to visit the all-too-grim museum there dedicated to preserving memories of that nightmarish experience. It was to reuse a word from the books title a genuinely unforgettable experience for me. And I'm still reminded of the destruction of Hiroshima regularly when, in my neighborhood in New York City, between 105th and 106th street on Riverside Drive, I regularly walk by an impressive bronze statue of Shinran Shonin, the founder of the Jodo Shinshu sect of Buddhism, in front of a local Buddhist temple with this sign: The statue originally stood in Hiroshima, at a site 2.5 kilometers northwest from the center of the first atomic bomb attack. Having survived the full force of the bomb, the statue was brought to New York in September of 1955 to be a testimonial to the atomic bomb devastation and a symbol of lasting hope for world peace.

Perhaps, under the circumstances, we should consider it something of a miracle, 80 years later, that the nuclear devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which ended World War II in the Pacific, was horrifying enough so that, of all the weaponry that's been used ever since in humanity's never-ending war-making, atomic weapons have not been. And yet, unnervingly enough, nine countries have now gone nuclear, and my own country simply cant seem to stop building (or rather modernizing) its already vast nuclear arsenal to the tune of $1.7 trillion over the next 30 years.

It seems genuinely beyond belief, as TomDispatch regular retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and historian William Astore reminds us so vividly today in his yes! 115th piece for this site, that our country is still investing an unbelievable fortune in that modernization process for an arsenal already big enough to destroy not just this planet but several others as well. So, take a moment to accompany him briefly into the past and to Cheyenne Mountain as he offers his own countdown on this strange, strange planet of ours. Tom

Apocalypse Soon?

Returning a Final Time to Cheyenne Mountain

By William J. Astore

Its been 20 years since I retired from the Air Force and 40 years since I first entered Cheyenne Mountain, Americas nuclear redoubt at the southern end of the Front Range that includes Pikes Peak in Colorado. So it was with some nostalgia that I read a recent memo from General Kenneth Wilsbach, the new Chief of Staff of the Air Force (CSAF). Along with the usual warrior talk, the CSAF vowed to relentlessly advocate for the new Sentinel ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) and the B-21 Raider stealth bomber. While the Air Force often speaks of investing in new nukes, this time the CSAF opted for recapitalization, a remarkably bloodless term for the creation of a whole new generation of genocidal thermonuclear weapons and their delivery systems.

(Take a moment to think about that word, creation, applied to weapons of mass destruction. Raised Catholic, I learned that God created the universe out of nothing. By comparison, nuclear creators aren't gods, they're devils, for their creation may end with the destruction of everything. Small wonder J. Robert Oppenheimer mused that he'd become death, the destroyer of worlds, after the first successful atomic blast in 1945.)

In my Cheyenne Mountain days, circa 1985, the new must have bomber was the B-1 Lancer and the new must have ICBM was the MX Peacekeeper. If you go back 20 to 30 years earlier than that, it was the B-52 and the Minuteman. And mind you, my old service owns two legs of Americas nuclear triad. (The Navy has the third with its nuclear submarines armed with Trident II missiles.)And count on one thing: it will never willingly give them up. It will always relentlessly advocate for the latest ICBM and nuclear-capable bomber, irrespective of need, price, strategy, or above all else their murderous, indeed apocalyptic, capabilities.

At this moment, Donald Trumps America has more than 5,000 nuclear warheads and bombs of various sorts, while Vladimir Putin's Russia has roughly 5,500 of the same. Together, they represent overkill of an enormity that should be considered essentially unfathomable. Any sane person would minimally argue for serious reductions in nuclear weaponry on this planet. The literal salvation of humanity may depend on it. But don't tell that to the generals and admirals, or to the weapons-producing corporations that get rich building such weaponry, or to members of Congress who have factories producing such weaponry and bases housing them in their districts.

So, here we are in a world in which the Pentagon plans to spend another $1.7 trillion (and no, that is not a typo!) recapitalizing its nuclear triad, and so in a world that is guaranteed to remain haunted forever by a possible future doomsday, the specter of nuclear mushroom clouds, and a true end-times catastrophe.

I Join AF Space Command Only to Find Myself Under 2,000 Feet of Granite

My first military assignment in 1985 was at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado with Air Force Space Command . That put me in Americas nuclear command post during the last few years of the Cold War. I also worked in the Space Surveillance Center and on a battle staff that brought me into the Missile Warning Center. So, I was exposed, in a relatively modest way (if anything having to do with nuclear weapons can ever be considered modest), to what nuclear war would actually be like and forced to think about it in a way most Americans dont.

Each time I journeyed into Cheyenne Mountain, I walked or rode through a long tunnel carved out of granite. The buildings inside were mounted on gigantic springs (yes, springs!) that were supposed to absorb the shock of any nearby hydrogen bomb blast in a future war with the Soviet Union. Massive blast doors that looked like they belonged on the largest bank vault in the universe were supposed to keep us safe, though in a nuclear war they might only have ensured our entombment. They were mostly kept open, but every now and then they were closed for a military exercise.

I was a space systems test analyst. The Space Surveillance Center ran on a certain software program that needed periodic testing and evaluation and I helped test the computer software that kept track of all objects orbiting the Earth. Back then, there were just over 5,000 of them. (Now, that numbers more like 45,000 and space is a lot more crowded perhaps too crowded.)

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Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator

On November 24, US President Donald Trump began a process to legally label some chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Although the Muslim Brotherhood is a global organizations, which includes inside America, this specific order addresses chapters in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt engaged in or facilitating and supporting violence and destabilization campaigns that harm their own regions, United States citizens, and United States interests.

However, the exact wording of the Whitehouse statement leaves it open to perhaps include domestic chapters in the future: any Muslim Brotherhood chapters or other subdivisions, including those in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt, as foreign terrorist organizations.

The main focus is to cut off the funding networks which support terrorism.

Jordan, a key ally of the US, and sharing a peace treaty with their neighbor Israel, has long suffered from attacks, violence and instability caused by the Muslim Brotherhood. Trumps decree is in response to Muslim Brotherhood leaders in Jordan providing funding to Hamas and the Lebanese branch of the group, known as al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, and siding with Hamas and Hezbollah in their war with Israel.

An Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader is accused of calling for violent attacks against the US and their allies and interests during the Israeli war on Gaza.

President Trump is confronting the Muslim Brotherhoods transnational network, which fuels terrorism and destabilization campaigns against US interests and allies in the Middle East, the White House said.

Besides making it illegal to provide material support to the group, it would also ban current and former members from entering the US, and enable economic sanctions to cut-off their financial networks.

The Muslim Brotherhood has branches across the Middle East disguised as political parties and social organizations.

Muslim American groups or individual activists may find themselves under scrutiny after this decree on allegations of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood or contributions to charities affiliated with the group.

There have been numerous trials and accusations in the US concerning Islamic organizations accused of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott designated both the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as foreign terrorist organizations and transnational criminal organizations.

CAIR is the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has been linked in legal investigations to the Muslim Brotherhood.

As of 2012, the city of Houston has the largest Muslim population in Texas and the largest Muslim population in the Southern United States.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Republican, had introduced previous legislation four times in an attempt to outlaw the Muslim Brotherhood. In July, he introduced the current bill S.2293, the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2025, in the 119th Congress (2025-2026). It was read twice and referred to the Foreign Relations Committee in the Senate.

Senator Ashley Moody joined Cruz to introduce the act and said, The Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act is common sense legislation that will declare the Muslim Brotherhood, a group known to seek widespread hate against Christians, Jews and other religious groups, a foreign terrorist organization.

Senator Ted Cruz said, The Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization, and it provides support to Muslim Brotherhood branches that are terrorist organizations. One of those branches is Hamas, American allies in the Middle East and Europe have already labeled the Brotherhood a terrorist organization, and the United States should do the same, and do so expeditiously.

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refuse illegal orders ... you MUST refuse illegal orders."

That's the message from a recent video featuring six Democratic members of Congress, all former members of the US armed forces and/or intelligence services, and directed at current members of those organizations.

Seems non-controversial, but someone else would like a word. Er, several words:

"Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP??? ... SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!"

As you've probably guessed, that someone else is US president Donald Trump.

And he's not just talking. He's had US secretary of defense Pete Hegseth threaten to recall one of the politicians in question, US Senator Mark Kelly, to active duty in the Navy for a potential court-martial. He's having the Federal Bureau of Investigation request "interviews" with with all six politicians.

Yes, really.

But, like I said, the whole thing seems uncontroversial. This is, to use a turn of phrase Trump seems to like, a "witch hunt."

It's been 40 years since I spent the summer in San Diego becoming a US Marine. I'm sure things have changed since then, but I doubt they've changed so much that anyone graduates any armed forces boot camp without receiving instruction in the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

A summary, from memory, on the section (article 92) concerning orders:

You must obey lawful orders.

You must not obey unlawful orders.

As I recall it, the case my platoon's instructor used as an example was Lt. William Calley's conduct in Vietnam during an event later known as the "My Lai Massacre."

Here's what the US Court of Military Appeals had to say about Calley's defense that he was "just following orders":

"An order requiring the performance of a military duty may be inferred to be legal. An act performed manifestly beyond the scope of authority, or pursuant to an order that a man of ordinary sense and understanding would know to be illegal, or in a wanton manner in the discharge of a lawful duty, is not excusable."

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As part of its service and commitment to the communities in which it operates, Cisco is conducting a university outreach program in the UAE to 
San Francisco, 1 Dec 2025 Peoplebox.ai, the YC-backed AI-native Talent Platform used by 500+ organizations globally, today announced the launch of Nova, its groundbreaking AI interview 
The Nordstrom Rack store in downtown Portland is closing after the holidays. The Seattle company declined to address the future of its main Nordstrom store downtown. Elliot Njus/The Oregonian

The Nordstrom Rack discount store will close its downtown Portland location at the end of January, the latest in a series of blows to the citys struggling urban core.

Nordstrom Rack employs 37 people at the store at Southwest Third Avenue and Southwest Morrison Street. In a layoff notice, the company told public officials it plans to offer jobs at other locations to some employees but hadnt determined how many it will retain.

The pending closure will renew the civic focus on Nordstroms flagship Portland store, four blocks away overlooking Pioneer Courthouse Square. Nordstrom declined to address the future of that main Portland store on Tuesday.

We have no updates to share on the future of our downtown Portland Nordstrom store and continue to serve customers there, the company said in a written statement.

Nordstroms main store is among downtowns primary retail anchors, occupying a full block in one of the citys most prominent locations. The flagship store remains open but its future has been in doubt since last summer, when Mayor Keith Wilson said CEO Erik Nordstrom had told him, I dont know how long we can continue to operate in Portland.

The mayor made his comments when discussing Portlands homelessness crisis but it wasnt clear what, specifically, had triggered Erik Nordstroms concerns.

Downtown Portland has been struggling since the pandemic, with foot traffic down by about 40% from pre-COVID levels. The citys high concentration of remote workers has left Portland with one of the highest office vacancy rates in the nation, with roughly a third of offices sitting empty. That, in turn, has reduced the number of potential customers for nearby retailers.

Homelessness and public drug use have discouraged visitors, too, though crime rates have dropped considerably over the past few years.

Cody Bowman, spokesperson for the mayor, said Tuesday that Wilson values Nordstroms local presence and is committed to working with the Seattle company to keep downtown vibrant.

Mayor Wilsons office remains in close communication with Nordstrom to ensure strong support for their Portland locations, especially the flagship store at Pioneer Place, which is a vital anchor for downtown, Bowman said.

Nordstrom Rack carries a broad range of clothing and accessories, typically offering discounts on merchandise that went unsold at its main Nordstrom stores. There is a Nordstrom Rack at the Cascade Station shopping mall in Northeast Portland and other locations in Beaverton, Hillsboro and Clackamas.

We believe were best able to serve customers in the Portland area by focusing on our nearby Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack locations, as well as online, the Seattle company said Tuesday.

Nordstrom closed stores in Vancouver and at Portlands Lloyd Center in 2015. It closed its Salem store in 2018 and its Clackamas Town Center location in 2020.

Portlands core has lost some major retailers since the pandemic. Target closed its store near the Central Library in 2023, for example, and REI closed its Pearl District location the following year. Many smaller shops closed, too.

Downtown foot traffic has been improving steadily in recent months and Portland officials have been hopeful that the newly renovated Portland Art Museum and the new James Beard Public Market will help bring people back downtown. Thousands packed into Pioneer Courthouse Square last weekend for the annual Christmas tree lighting.

Opinion polls show perceptions of downtown are on the upswing, though most voters say they feel unsafe there at night.

This article has been updated with comments from the mayors office.
Police have released the name of a man who was shot to death in Northwest Portland in September.

Shiloh Thanos-Young, 22, died of homicide, the medical examiner concluded.

Thanos-Young was found by Portland police officers in the 2900 block of Northwest Nicolai Street at about 8:36 p.m. on September 23. The officers were responding to a report of a shooting.

Though paramedics quickly arrived, Thanos-Young died at the scene, police said.

No arrests have been made, and police ask anyone who might have relevant information about the case to send an email to homicidetips@police.portlandoregon.gov or call 503-823-0479 and reference case number 25-262941.

-- The Oregonian/OregonLive
Students walk into Cleveland High School in Portland. The school is one of three that is set to be modernized; school board members will vote Tuesday on whether to give a construction oversight contract to Texas-based firm Procedeo. LC- Brad Schmidt

Members of the Portland Public Schools board are slated to vote Tuesday on a five-year, $61 million contract with a Texas-based construction firm that the districts superintendent says is the best choice to oversee more than a billion dollars in taxpayer-funded upgrades for three high schools.

The partnership with Grapevine, Texas-based Procedeo strengthens our capacity, stabilizes project leadership and supports a more predictable and transparent delivery of voter-approved improvements, Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong wrote in a memo submitted to the school board in advance of the vote.

But the construction management firm that finished second to Procedeo in the districts competitive bidding process is challenging that decision. In a letter shared with The Oregonian/OregonLive, Turner & Townsend Heery President Robert Chomiak wrote that the districts evaluation was a biased procurement lacking in good faith and inconsistent with Oregon law.

While many of our competitors make protesting unfavorable awards a way of doing business, we do not, Chomiak wrote. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first school procurement that we have felt the need to protest during my 40 years with the firm.

In a response, the school districts senior director of purchasing and contracting defended its methodology, said the district found no basis for the protest and dismissed it.

Under Oregon public contracting rules, Turner & Townsend Heery could seek judicial review of the Procedeo contract. A judge could then put a hold on the districts ability to execute the contract until the matter is resolved, unless Portland Public Schools can make a case for a compelling governmental interest in proceeding.

The school district, the largest in Oregon, has been under immense pressure to complete its three remaining high school modernizations on time and on budget. Significant cost overruns  and subsequent lawsuits  plagued the recently completed Benson High School and repeated design delays have slowed progress on Jefferson High School in particular.

Meanwhile, the districts in-house Office of School Modernization, which is charged with managing major renovations and new builds, has seen turnover among senior leadership and currently has an estimated 6-10 vacant positions.

For Armstrong, and for some members of the school board who have signaled their support, Procedeo, which has previously worked on school projects in Texas, Arkansas and Florida, is the solution. A Procedeo employee, Sarah Norman, has spent the last several months serving as the interim leader of the Office of School Modernization.

The firm recently delivered a 36-page report that floated several possibilities for speeding up the timeline on the $466 million Jefferson High School project, at least some of which had been previously dismissed by the high school community. Work on Jefferson is currently not expected to be fully complete until 2030, a full decade after Portland voters first approved plans to remake the historically Black high school.

Procedeos tenure in Portland has been met with some skepticism, most recently spilling into public view over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, when Portland Public Schools board member Virginia La Forte posted a detailed litany of concerns shed heard about the contracting process on her official Facebook page. She solicited feedback on whether the board should push back its expected vote, noting that the staff memo on the proposed contract was not publicly posted until late on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving  in effect, leaving only two business days for board and public review before the vote.

Former school board member and current Multnomah County Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards then reposted La Fortes comments to a well-read Facebook forum on school district issues, calling the proposed contract with Procedeo a heist of unprecedented size by a firm with a miniscule track record to justify the size of the contract.

Brim-Edwards comments unleashed a flurry of Saturday night posts from Armstrong, alongside school board chair Eddie Wang, vice-chair Michelle De Pass and school board member Rashelle Chase-Miller, all of whom defended the districts process and decision-making.

We have five full days with the contract before the vote. Questions have been submitted to staff and answered, Chase-Miller wrote. I feel confident in the work that is being done, in the boards ability to supervise the superintendent and in her ability to lead her team.

Elsewhere on Facebook, Kiesha Locklear, a senior project manager with the Office of School Modernization who has worked for years on the Jefferson project, also weighed in, writing in a lengthy post that the $61 million Procedeo contract  which represents 4% of the overall project costs, plus about $6 million in bonuses for on-time project completions, was far more expensive than the district needed to pay.

Leaderships memo claims that the typical fee is 3-6% of construction costs, Locklear wrote, referring to Armstrongs memo to the school board in advance of Tuesdays planned vote. That is nowhere near accurate for K-12 capital work, which she said was more typically 2-3%, and then only for consultants who have been with a project from its inception. Design work and planning for Jefferson, and the other two high schools  Cleveland in Southeast Portland and Ida B. Wells in Southwest Portland  has been underway for years, and construction at all three is set to begin in 2026.

The highest-value project management work of programming, master planning, procurement, aligning to [district] standards and selecting major building systems is already complete or well underway. Paying top-dollar premiums once the hardest work is over does not align with industry practice or common sense, Locklear wrote.

In its complaint to the district, Turner & Townsend Heery singled out scoring irregularities among the evaluators, noting that Dana White, the districts senior director of real estate, awarded Turner & Townsend Heery zero points for project management planning during the second round of evaluations, which included an interview. Turner & Townsend Heery had the highest score after the first round.

A zero is an impossible score, perhaps only achievable by not turning in materials, or appearing at the interview, Chomiak wrote. He also noted that the point system used by the district to evaluate applicants contained a math error that made it difficult to understand the districts scoring system, and that Norman, the Procedeo employee, supervised at least one of the people on the evaluation committee in what he termed an improper commingling of roles.

In the districts response to Turner & Townsend Heerys complaint, Paul Williams, the districts senior fiscal operations manager for purchasing and contracting, acknowledged the math error but said that it did not impact the final scores, and said the firms objections to Whites zero rating did not constitute sufficient grounds to invalidate the results of the bidding process.

The firm could not reasonably infer bias or lack of objectivity simply from the fact that in one evaluators independent judgement, Turner & Townsend Heerys proposal did not merit points in a particular evaluation category, Williams wrote. Williams did not directly respond to Turner & Townsend Heerys concerns that Procedeo oversees the work of one member of the evaluation committee, but said that Norman was solely present during the interview process to make the case for Procedeo and had no hand in developing the bidding materials.

Turner & Townsend Heery, which has an office in Tualatin, has been working with the school district since 2010 on construction and project management roles, including with modernization or new building projects for Roosevelt, Franklin, Grant, McDaniel, Lincoln and Benson high schools, a spokesperson for the Atlanta-based firm said.

Procedeos work with Portland will be its first in the state of Oregon. The firms local office is in the Pearl District, where it shares an address with co-working space CENTRL Office.
Vibra Healthcare, which operates Oregons sole long-term acute care hospital in Portland, plans to shut down operations early next year and lay off its entire workforce of 310 employees.

In a Monday notice to state labor officials, the company said it plans to permanently close Vibra Specialty Hospital of Portland in early February, citing ongoing financial challenges that have made it unsustainable to continue operations.

Michael Kerr, the hospitals chief executive officer, said the imminent closure is a major blow to the regions already-strained continuum of care. He said the organization has stopped taking in new patients at the 73-bed facility.

Kerr said long-term acute care hospitals like Vibra serve medically complex patients  those who have survived major trauma, neurological events, prolonged ventilator use, severe infections or complicated postoperative recoveries. They sit between traditional hospitals  like Oregon Health & Science University, Providence and Legacy  and rehabilitation centers, offering longer stays and highly specialized care.

The closure will wipe out a broad range of clinical positions, including 95 registered nurses, 41 certified nursing assistants, 23 licensed practical nurses and 22 respiratory therapists. Several leadership roles  among them the chief clinical officer, chief executive officer and multiple department directors  will also be eliminated.

Kerr said Vibra will be discharging patients to skilled nursing homes, inpatient care hospitals and home health care settings over the next 60 days.

We see highly complex patients that cross the gamut of multi-specialties who need to be transferred out for more care after getting treatment from general acute hospitals like OHSU and Providence, he said. Because some of their patients have to stay longer in specialized care settings, those hospitals send them out to us so they can open up more beds.

Kerr said Vibra has taken in patients from hospitals from as far away as Medford, Klamath Falls and Boise. He said the nearest other long-term acute care hospitals are in Seattle, Boise and Redding, California.

Our closure is not great for patients who are very complex and need intensive care after major hospitalizations or undergoing cancer treatment, he said. Its also going to get worse for hospitals that need relief to open up beds.

Kerr attributed the hospitals financial strain to flat insurer reimbursements, rising operational costs and a surge in prior-authorization denials that increasingly block general acute hospitals from discharging eligible patients to long-term acute care settings, disrupting both patient flow and revenue.

Vibra Healthcare, a privately held company based in Mechanicsburg, Pa., purchased the former Woodland Park Hospital in 2006 and reopened it two years later as Vibra Specialty Hospital of Portland.
'Napoleon Buonaparte', (1769-1821), 1816. Emperor of the French.Napoleon's family originally used "Buonaparte," an Italian name, but switched to the French "Bonaparte" to fit in better with French society. From "The History of the War, from the Commencement of the French Revolution to the Present Time, Vol. I", by Hewson Clarke, Esq. [T. Kinnersley, Limited, London, 1816]. Artist Unknown. (Photo by The Print Collector via Getty Images) Print Collector via Getty Images

Today in history:

On Dec. 2, 1982, in the first operation of its kind, doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center implanted a permanent artificial heart in the chest of Barney Clark, a retired dentist who lived 112 days with the device.

Also on this date:

In 1804, Napoleon crowned himself emperor of France in a coronation ceremony at Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral.

In 1823, President James Monroe outlined his doctrine opposing further European expansion or colonialism in the Western Hemisphere. The Monroe Doctrine effectively created separate spheres of influence for the Americans and Europe.

In 1859, militant abolitionist John Brown was hanged for his raid the previous October on Harpers Ferry in hopes of inciting a large-scale slave rebellion. His execution further exacerbated North-South tensions in the run-up to the American Civil War.

In 1942, an artificially created, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated for the first time at the University of Chicago. The experiment led by physicist Enrico Fermi marked the dawn of the Atomic Age.

In 1954, the U.S. Senate, voting 67-22, passed a resolution condemning Republican Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin, saying he had acted contrary to senatorial ethics and tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.

In 1993, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was shot to death by security forces while trying to flee across rooftops in Medellin.

In 2004, Typhoon Nanmadol lashed the Philippines, killing hundreds of people.

In 2015, a couple loyal to the Islamic State group opened fire at a holiday banquet for public employees in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people and wounding 21 others before dying in a shootout with police.

In 2016, a fire raced through an illegally converted warehouse in Oakland, California, during a dance party, killing 36 people.

In 2020, The U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs voted to remove cannabis and cannabis resin from a category of the worlds most dangerous drugs, in a step with potential impacts on the global medical marijuana industry.
When winters powerful king tides arrive on the Pacific Northwest coast, knowing exactly where to position yourself for the most spectacular views while staying safe is essential.

On a recent episode of the Peak Northwest podcast, hosts Jamie Hale and Chiara Profenna outlined the necessary precautions to go storm watching on the coast, before highlighting some of the best places to do it.

Generative AI was used to summarize a recent episode of the Peak Northwest podcast. This story was reviewed and edited by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

From a notorious Washington state park down to the southern Oregon coast, these six locations offer the perfect combination of dramatic ocean displays and established viewing areas.

Waves crash to the shore at Cape Disappointment State Park in Washington. Mark Graves

1. Cape Disappointment State Park, Washington

Despite its discouraging name, this Washington state park delivers some of the most reliable king tide spectacles on the coast. I think the most popular one that Ive seen is Cape Disappointment State Park in Washington, specifically Waikiki Beach, Hale said. Big waves come and hit this headland ... and it makes these huge swells and these huge curling waves. Its very cool.

The lighthouse perched atop the headland provides a perfect backdrop, making this spot particularly popular with photographers. While exposed to the elements, the established viewpoints provide relatively safe viewing areas.

Scenes from Cape Kiwanda State Natural Area on a gray winter afternoon on the Oregon coast. Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

2. Cape Kiwanda State Park, Pacific City

Once notorious for its dangerous, crumbling trails, Cape Kiwanda has been made significantly safer with the addition of protective fencing. That offers safe storm watching spots from sandstone bluffs over the beach  though it requires climbing a tall dune to access.

The unique sandstone formations can create distinctive wave patterns when hit by incoming swells. After your storm watching adventure, you can warm up at Pelican Brewing, conveniently located at the base of the cape.

When youre doing storm watching, youve got to have a good spot to dry off and have something warm to eat afterward. Thats I think a crucial part of the experience, Hale said.

A visitor watches waves crash into the rocks during a winter storm at Boiler Bay, an Oregon state park site in Depoe Bay. Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

3. Depoe Bay

This small coastal town offers a trifecta of excellent king tide viewing opportunities. The main attraction is downtown Depoe Bays seawall, where waves crash spectacularly during king tides: When you get some really good storm surges in Depoe Bay, that water can get sprayed upward all the way across the highway to the the other side of the street, Hale said.

The areas spouting horns  fissures in the rocky coastline that force incoming waves upward like geysers  create some of the coasts most dramatic displays. Best of all, many viewpoints are just steps from your car, making this an accessible option even in harsh weather.

Waves crash against the rocks at Devils Punchbowl during a winter storm on the Oregon coast. Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

4. Devils Punchbowl

Just south of Depoe Bay, Devils Punchbowl offers another excellent viewing option. While famous as a low-tide attraction (when visitors can enter the collapsed sea cave), during king tides it is renowned for the dramatic waves that crash against the rock formation.

While the waves dont quite shoot up through the formation as dramatically as some might hope, the surrounding wave action provides plenty of spectacle from the safe viewing platform.

Thors Well is a circular bowl carved out of the basalt shoreline of the central Oregon Coast at Cape Perpetua Scenic Area near Yachats, seen here at high tide. Water rises, bursts out and falls from inside the feature, drawing intense curiosity from tourists. Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

5. Cape Perpetua

For those who want to combine storm watching with a bit of hiking, Cape Perpetua delivers. Cape Perpetua has so much good low tide stuff that can also be some good high tide stuff, too, Hale said.

The area features another spouting horn on the north side of the park, as well as the notorious Thors Well, a hole in the rocky coastline that fills and drains dramatically. The well-maintained trail system with protective fencing makes this a safe option for those wanting to spend more time outdoors during their king tide adventure.

Big waves crash against the rocks at Shore Acres State Park on the southern Oregon coast. Oregon State Parks

6. Shore Acres State Park

Perhaps the most photographed wave display on the Oregon coast occurs at Shore Acres State Park. Theres this one particular rock formation there where the waves hit it just right and its spectacular and everybody wants to get the picture, Hale said.

The parks established viewing areas with protective barriers allow visitors to safely capture the iconic image. As with all locations, Hale emphasized staying behind safety barriers: Of course, people do go beyond the barrier. Ive seen some insane pictures of people standing out on a rock formation. Um, dont do that. Someones already done it. You dont have to do it.

Timing is everything when planning your king tide adventure. This winters prime viewing dates are December 4-6 and January 1-4, coinciding with full moons. The January dates align with gray whale migration season, potentially offering a two-for-one coastal experience if weather permits.

Listen to the full episode here:

Subscribe to The Oregonian/OregonLives travel and outdoors podcast Peak Northwest on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or anywhere else you listen to podcasts. Hosts Jamie Hale and Chiara Profenna take you to some of the greatest destinations in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Check out more Peak Northwest episodes below.
Gov. Tina Kotek on Tuesday unveiled a plan to boost Oregons economy and make the state more business friendly as it faces sluggish population growth, high housing costs and other faltering economic indicators.

The blueprint, which the governor is calling Oregons Prosperity Roadmap, promises to encourage investment from businesses amid mass job cuts in recent months comparable to rates during the Great Recession. Layoffs have taken place across a variety of industries and at some of the states flagship businesses, including Nike, Intel and large hospital systems.

The roadmap lays out three high-level goals: boost the states gross domestic product by 2.2%; improve Oregons placement by at least 13 spots in a prominent national ranking of state workforce indicators; and lift the states ranking into the top 10 for overall business indicators.

Koteks strategies to meet those goals include: establishing a program to streamline permitting management on major infrastructure projects; partnering with post-secondary educational institutions and businesses to increase workforce training and certification programs; and providing more loans for site development in industrial zones.

Every corner of our state can benefit from this roadmap, Kotek said Tuesday at an announcement event. Together, we can and will create an economy that works for everyone, an economy where innovation thrives, families prosper and no one gets left behind.

Koteks plan doesnt directly address what many in the business community see as Oregons main issue  high business and personal income taxes, especially in the Portland area. Instead, the governors plan floats the idea of targeted tax changes, which would come only after consultation with industry and labor leaders.

Kotek announced her plan in Tualatin at a local facility of Lam Research, a semiconductor equipment manufacturer that recently opened an office at the site with space for 700 employees. The companys local growth contrasts with most of Oregons other major semiconductor companies, which have collectively cut thousands of jobs this year.

Kotek said her office is preparing a policy proposal for lawmakers to consider in their February legislative session. She said Tuesday she plans to request up to $50 million specifically for the industrial site readiness loans, but gave no specifics on any other financial requests.

Last month, state economists said their outlook on the state economy has somewhat rebounded from earlier forecasts this year. State Economist Carl Riccadonna said the economic toll of tariffs has not been as harsh as experts initially expected, while the tax cuts from President Donald Trumps tax and spending bill have provided some economic stimulation.

At the same time, economists said some of Oregons economic indicators are trailing national trends. For example, the states GDP growth rate of 1.6% over the past four years has lagged the national average of 2.7% in that period, they reported.

Other initiatives in Koteks plan include creating a state council with labor and industry leaders to brainstorm further economic initiatives, directing state agencies to prioritize economic development in their proposals and exploring targeted tax changes to spur living wage job creation.

The council will be co-chaired by Curtis Robinhold, executive director of the Port of Portland, and Renee James, a former Intel president who founded the semiconductor company Ampere Computing in 2017.

To fully realize Oregons potential, we must focus on regional job creation, innovation, and livability, James said in a press release. We need to ensure that Oregon is a state where people want to live, start businesses and invest.

The plan lists no specific deadlines to meet its various goals. On Tuesday, Kotek said she will rely on the council to develop those timelines, adding that she plans to appoint the rest of the councils members by the end of the month.

Koteks plan comes nearly three years into her term, as she is widely expected to be positioning herself for a 2026 reelection bid. Lawmakers of both parties have increasingly shown support for more business-friendly policies as layoffs have hit their constituents and some companies have left the state altogether.

Growing jobs would have the additional benefit of boosting Oregons tax revenue, which would help lawmakers address projected shortfalls in future budget periods. The state is expected to lose more than $15 billion in federal funding over the next six years due to various provisions in Trumps tax and spending bill, mostly from cuts to Medicaid and food assistance programs.

Business leaders at the event expressed optimism for the plan but said it would be difficult to boost Oregons economy without removing or lowering specific taxes they see as damaging to companies.

The business climate in Oregon, particularly in Portland and Multnomah County, is increasingly unfavorable for growth, retention and recruitment, said Tim Boyle, President and CEO of Columbia Sportswear. It hampers our efforts to attract new businesses and out of state talent, which are essential for running our companies and our institutions.

 Business reporter Mike Rogoway contributed reporting.
Tuesday comes with a few light showers under cloudy skies. Oregonian file photo. Rosemarie Stein/staff

A weak front, pushing across northwest Oregon and southwest Washington, will slowly fall apart Tuesday leaving the region damp.

The National Weather Service gives Portland a 50% chance of showers over the course of the day but most of that should fall during the morning hours. The high will be around 50 degrees under mostly cloudy skies.

Some clearing is possible overnight and could lead to fog formation through the late evening and into early Wednesday morning in some locations.

Portland should see a mostly cloudy, but dry, Wednesday with calm winds and a high temp of near 48 degrees.

Forecast models are in good agreement that an upper level ridge stays over the northeast Pacific Ocean on Thursday and allows a few showers to move inland.

Rain is likely in Portland during the later morning and early afternoon Thursday. Skies will stay cloudy and the high temp will reach near 48 degrees.

The next wet system moves into the region Friday when Portland will see steadier rain and a warming high temp of about 56 degrees.

Extended forecasts are showing additional rounds of rain carrying through into the weekend.
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A student of the University of Oklahoma filed a complaint against a graduate instructor after she received a failing grade for citing the Bible as a source in an essay.

The graduate instructor involved in the incident has since been placed on administrative leave amid an ongoing investigation. The university wrote in a statement on Sunday that it was taking the concerns very seriously and was already conducting a full review of the incident.

University Student Failed for Using the Bible as a Source in an Essay

In the statement, university officials said they take matters involving First Amendment rights, including religious freedoms, very seriously. When they received a notice from the student regarding the grading of an assignment, they immediately launched a review to address the issue.

It noted that university leaders quickly contacted the student, psychology junior Samantha Fulnecky, on the same day that she submitted the complaint. They then launched a formal grade appeals process. They also took steps to ensure that there was no academic harm to the student, according to OU Daily.

The graduate student instructor, on top of being placed on administrative leave, was replaced by a different full-time professor. The latter would be responsible for teaching the class for the remainder of the semester.

The university added that they have a clear process for reviewing similar claims, which has already been activated. It notes that the university remains firmly committed to fairness, respect, and protecting every student's right to express sincerely held religious beliefs.

First Amendment Rights

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt also issued a statement regarding the incident, saying that the First Amendment is "foundational to our freedom and inseparable from the ability to have a well-rounded education," OKCFox reported.

He adds that the recent situation at the University of Oklahoma is "deeply concerning," saying that he was calling on the OU regents to review the results of the investigation and ensure that all appropriate actions are taken to make sure that other students are not unfairly penalized for their beliefs.

The essay that Fulnecky wrote was a 650-word essay for her psychology course, and it reacted to an article on how people are perceived based on societal gender expectations. The student cited the Bible, where she argued that traditional gender roles should not be considered as stereotypes.

The graduate student instructor, Mel Curth, wrote, "To call an entire group of people 'demonic' is highly offensive, especially a minoritized population," on the online grading platform where they failed the student, as per the Hindustan Times.
Poorstacy performs on day two of Riot Fest on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022, at Douglass Park in Chicago. (Photo by Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP) Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP

Carlito Milfort Jr., better known by his stage name POORSTACY, has died.

He was 26.

USA Today said that authorities said the rapper died on Nov. 29 stemming from an incident in Boca Raton, Florida.

The outlet said no further details were available, but police said that the case is still under investigation.

TMZ reported that a hotel worker in Boca Raton said the rapper was taken to a hospital early Saturday morning for a medical emergency. The worker told the outlet that he had been staying at the hotel for 10 days after checking in with a woman and a young child.

Fans took to social media in disbelief following the reports of his death.

Been listening to POORSTACY for years insanely talented and has songs with Travis Barker that are bangers that should be mainstream, one person wrote on X. So incredibly sad. So talented man  rip.

Fans also went to Instagram and the rappers final post there, featuring him sitting in a car with the caption Cause Im a Beamer boy, to offer their condolences.

I love you so much dude, one person wrote. Im still in denial, I wanna call you so bad (right now).

Thank you for all the memories, another wrote. Rest in peace brother.

This is killing me, another wrote. I love you. I just saw you not long ago. If I had known it was gonna be the last time I wouldve just hung out longer.

The Palm Beach native was perhaps best known for his collaborations with Travis Barker and for being featured on the soundtrack for Bill & Ted Face the Music. He released two studio albums, The Breakfast Club, and Party At the Cemetery, as well as two Eps, I Dont Care, and I Dont Rap.

USA Today said he released a new song, Nothing belongs to you, back in July.
New Hersheys Dubai-Inspired Chocolate Bar, available in a limited 10,000 quantity on Gopuff and at Hersheys Chocolate World Times Square, drops Dec. 4. The Hershey Company

The Hershey Company is getting in on the Dubai chocolate trend with a limited-edition release.

The Derry Township company is dropping a Hersheys Dubai-Inspired Chocolate Bar at 10 a.m. Dec. 4.

Heres the catch  only 10,000 bars will be sold with no restocks.

It will available only through Gopuff in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago and at the Hershey Chocolate World in Times Square in New York City.

Dubai chocolate has become a viral sensation with several candy brands releasing their own versions. Typically, the confection is made by stuffing a chocolate bar with creamy pistachio filling and crunchy phyllo dough, or kataifi.

When something takes over social media like this, we knew it deserved a one-of-a-kind release, said Megan Pantalone, senior manager, innovation at The Hershey Company. Thats why we kept it exclusive  only 10,000 bars total. Once theyre gone, theyre gone forever. This is for collectors, trend hunters, and anyone who wants to say they got one.

The bars will sell for $8.99.
Those promoting the Cab Franc Forward initiative held a press gathering on the Cab Franc Forward initiative at Cafe Carmellini in New York City on Nov. 6. Cab Franc Forward

Cab Franc Forward is approaching its first anniversary, having already made significant strides in promoting the New York-based grassroots initiative.

Building a campaign around Cabernet Franc allows for the promotion of what is the states most widely planted red grape (638 acres under vine), which overlaps the three main wine regions  Finger Lakes, Long Island and Hudson Valley  and is recognizable, both in the tasting room and a restaurant.

Its also a wine that has received numerous awards in state, regional, and national competitions for New York producers and, quite frankly, from a majority of states along the East Coast.

The initiative was unveiled in early February in Manhattan, where representatives from 35 New York wineries provided tastings of their Cab Franc to more than 500 wine professionals, media members and consumers.

That event showcased wines from across New Yorks wine regions, featuring releases from Apollos Praise, Atwater, Bedell Cellars, Boundary Breaks (founding winery), Bridge Lane, Buttonwood Grove and Six Eighty Cellars, Clovis Point, Damiani Wine Cellars, Dr. Konstantin Frank (founding winery), Elysabeth Vineyards, Fjord Vineyards (founding winery), Hermann J. Wiemer (founding winery), Horses by Macari, Keuka Spring, Lakewood, Lamoreaux Landing Wine Cellars, Living Roots, Macari (founding winery), McCall, Milea Family Estate (founding winery), Millbrook Vineyards & Winery, Old Sound, OnaBay, Paumanok (founding winery), Raphael Wine, Ravines Wine Cellar, Red Hook, RGNY, Roanoke, Sheldrake Point, Suhru & Lieb, Trestle Thirty One, Wagner Vineyards Estate, Whitecliff, and Wolffer Estate (founding winery).

A group show of the New York wineries and their Cab Francs that were represented at a November media luncheon. Max Flatow

Discussions throughout the day highlighted the grapes food-friendly nature, aging potential, and the deep family histories behind many of the wines.

It also drew together a panel, hosted by sommelier Yannick Benjamin, that focused on the remarkable versatility of Cabernet Franc, ranging from sparkling to fruit-driven reds and age-worthy expressions.

A winemaker dinner followed on Long Island in mid-October, and a lunch for media and others took place in early November back in New York City.

Those events have paid dividends, prompting a number of published stories, from recognized wine writers such as Eric Asimov of the New York Times (paywall), Alder Yarrow of jancisrobinson.com, Dave McIntyre on his Substack site, Robin Shreeves on her Substack site, and Lenn Thompson of The Cork Report.

The promotions cofounders are Max Rohn, CEO of Wolffer Estate Vineyard, and Gabriella Macari, director of operations at her familys Macari Vineyards, who are longtime Long Island winery neighbors and are directing two of the states top producers.

Both were sent similar questions about Cab Franc Forward, and returned these answers.

Gabriella Macari has worked with her family at Macari Vineyards since its inception in 1995. Max Flatow

From Gabriella Macari, co-founder, Cab Franc Forward NY:

Q, What prompted you to co-found this initiative to promote the grape and the wines it makes?

A, Max Rohn of Wolffer Estate contacted me in August 2024 to discuss New York wines, particularly Cabernet Franc. After our conversation, I organized a tasting with several local winemakers, featuring a wide selection of New York Cabernet Franc from across the state. The tasting clearly demonstrated that the quality of these wines is exceptional. The only remaining challenge was finding effective ways to bring these wines to a broader audience.

I had been hearing from trade for years that New York Cabernet Franc deserves more attention. After this tasting, we all agreed we needed to collaborate to spread the word.

Q, How much Cab Franc do you grow, and how old are the vines?

A, My family planted a total of 20 acres of Cabernet Franc between 1995 and 2004.

Q, Is it a wine youve been making in the beginning, and how has it evolved over time there?

A, The first Macari release of 100% Cabernet Franc was in 1997. I still remember my father receiving a phone call from another local grower who said, Joe, what are you doing? Cab Franc is a blending grape!  my father didnt agree with that statement then, and he still doesnt. Weve always loved this grape for Long Island.

Over time, our Cabernet Franc winemaking has evolved considerably. In 1997, we aged in 80% new French oak (225L), but by 1997, we mostly used neutral 500L barrels. We also introduced a fruit-driven, vibrant, light-bodied Cabernet Franc fermented in a concrete egg, and recently, Winemaker Byron Elmendorf produced small batches of whole cluster Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Franc rose under a new brand, Meadowlark North Fork, created to continue supporting experimentation and innovation.

In 2013, I tasted a sparkling Cabernet Franc from the Loire Valley in Brooklyn, and it made a lasting impression. That year, the idea of sparkling Cabernet Franc inspired us to create HORSES, a Cab Franc pet-nat, which still consistently sells out each year faster than any of our other wines.

Q, Are there plans to use it there in wines beyond the varietals and blends you are using it in currently?

A, Not at the moment.

Max Rohn has been the Chief Executive Officer of Wolffer Estate Vineyard and Stables since March 2013. Max Flatow

From Max Rohn, co-founder, Cab Franc Forward NY:

Q, What prompted you to co-found this initiative to promote the grape and the wines it makes?

A, What prompted us was simple: we were all making great Cabernet Franc, but no one was telling the story. Winemakers from Long Island, the Finger Lakes, and the Hudson Valley kept having the same conversation independently: Cab Franc was consistently our most acclaimed, reliable, and exciting variety. Instead of having regions compete or have messages fragment, we decided to come together. As the most widely planted red vinifera in New York and the most celebrated grape across all our major regions, it deserved a unified voice. The goal was to build pride around it and share with the world what Mother Nature has so clearly gifted New York.

Q, How much Cab Franc do you grow, and how old are the vines?

A, After our recent replanting, approximately one-third of our 50-acre vineyard will be Cabernet Franc, with the earliest vines planted in 1998.

Q, Is it a wine youve been making in the beginning, and how has it evolved over time there?

A, We only began planting it 10 years after our first vines were planted in 1988. Long Island has always been compared to Bordeaux, so Cab Franc was a natural choice to plant. However, the focus for much of Long Islands history has been on Merlot. There was an early alliance on Long Island around Merlot that, unfortunately, couldnt break through the headwinds of Merlots popularity after the film Sideways. Despite the emphasis on Merlot, Cab Franc continued to emerge. Our distributor found it more exciting to sell, critics highlighted it, and of course, it became my personal favorite. How many times can you hear this is your best wine and not do something about it?

Q, Are there plans to use it there in wines beyond the varietals and blends you are using it in currently?

A, Yes. Wolffer is known for rose, and were reinforcing that message by releasing our top-tier rose, Grandioso, as a Cabernet Franc Rose in 2026. Were also producing a $100 Cabernet Franc called Christians Cuvee, crafted from our best blocks and only in the strongest vintages  beginning with the 2024 vintage.
U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth looks on during a bilateral meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia in the Oval Office of the White House on Nov. 18, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Win McNamee/Getty Images/TNS) TNS

By Courtney McBride, Bloomberg News (TNS)

The White House defended the Pentagons handling of a September attack on an alleged drug-running boat and denied that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had given an order to kill everyone on the vessel, rebutting a report that had led to allegations of possible war crimes.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt confirmed there were two strikes on the vessel in the Sept. 2 attack but stressed the actions were lawful amid a deadly domestic opioid crisis in the U.S. She also said the order for the second strike came from U.S. Navy Admiral Frank Bradley and not Hegseth.

President Donald Trump and Hegseth have made it clear that presidentially designated narco-terrorist groups are subject to lethal targeting in accordance with the laws of war, Leavitt told reporters at the White House.

The comments signaled Trump continues to support Hegseth, who came under fresh scrutiny after the Washington Post reported Friday that he ordered the attack and demanded that those strikes kill everyone on board. That report led to accusations that the U.S.military was committing war crimes in the waters off the coast of South America.

Leavitt denied that Hegseth had issued a verbal order to kill all on board the vessel. She told reporters, The president has made it quite clear that if narco terrorists again are trafficking illegal drugs towards the United States, he has the authority to kill them, and thats what this administration is doing.

The military campaign against suspected drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere has killed more than 80 people and spurred debate over its legality, with critics accusing the administration of conducting extrajudicial killings. The U.S.campaign eventually widened to include targets in the eastern Pacific Ocean, and Trump has alluded repeatedly to the possibility that the U.S.could strike land targets inside Venezuela.

Bipartisan leaders of the House and Senate armed services committees said they would investigate reports of the second strike. Referring to the link between the boat strikes and a potential campaign in Venezuela, Leavitt said that Hegseth had spoken with members of Congress who may have expressed some concerns over the weekend.

Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican and the Senate panels chairman, told reporters on Monday evening that Well also be talking to the admiral that was in charge on the scene, were going to investigate the facts.

I think theyll have to be held in a classified setting, well see what can be revealed, but it is our responsibility as an Article One branch of government, Wicker added, referring to the part of the U.S. Constitution that defines the powers of Congress.

Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the committee, praised Wicker and expressed confidence in the inquiry.

Leavitt also confirmed Monday that the president would convene his national security team later in the day as he weighed his next steps on Venezuela. The U.S.military has amassed considerable forces in the region, fueling speculation that Trump would order a broader attack on the Venezuelan mainland that was aimed at unseating President Nicolas Maduro.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro addresses civilians taking an oath to join a state-organized defense network in the Petare neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos) AP

The administration has accused Maduro of heading a drug-trafficking organization known as the Cartel de los Soles, which the U.S.in November designated as a foreign terrorist organization. The U.S. repatriated the survivors of an October strike to Ecuador and Colombia. Asked Monday whether U.S. policy on the disposition of survivors had changed in the wake of the initial strike, Leavitt said, not to my knowledge, no.

In late November, six Democratic members of Congress released a video reminding service members of their obligation to disobey unlawful orders  without identifying any such order  prompting Trump to accuse the lawmakers of sedition and suggest their actions could be punishable by death.

Hegseth directed Navy Secretary John Phelanto to investigate the conduct of Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, a retired Navy captain and former astronaut, and has suggested the Democrat could be recalled to active duty to face court-martial proceedings.

(With assistance from Caitlin Reilly and Jonathan Tamari.)

2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
FORT INDIANTOWN GAP - Leaders at Fort Indiantown Gap are seeking selection as a new U.S. Army center for integrating drones into modern-day warfighting.

The Army, in a program dubbed SkyFoundry, has announced plans to designate three sites as hubs for drone research, development, testing and training  with one of them located at a National Guard base.

Indiantown Gap, in Lebanon County, about 20 miles northeast of Harrisburg, wants to land that mission, and on Monday, its leaders spent time courting U.S. Sen. Dave McCormicks support.

Pennsylvania National Guard leaders said Monday that selection as part of the Armys SkyFoundry program would help keep the Gap, the state guards headquarters, at the cutting edge of 21st-century weaponry.

Indiantown Gap, which sprawls across 17,000 acres and under restricted airspace, has long been an all-missions training center for guard members and other Army units, including drone operators.

But this would be different.

These facilities will be the central training point for the entire Army on this emerging technology. Both testing, development, research and then training and follow-on deployment of those systems, said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Reed, commander of the Gaps existing Unmanned Aircraft Systems Training Innovation Facility.

Its all part of the Armys transition away from larger unmanned aircraft thats been central to its operations in the last generation, to far lighter units  some small enough to hold in the palm of your hand  that could help individual units scout territory ahead of an operation, or to deploy weapons ahead of an assault.

Reed said unmanned training at the Gap to this point has largely centered on larger drones the Army has used in reconnaissance and surveillance.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a drone dominance memo in July directing every Army squad to be armed with small, one-way attack drones by the end of fiscal 2026.

Other parts of the SkyFoundry initiative call for partnering with private industry to boost domestic drone manufacturing, to the point where one million units could be built within the next two to three years, according to reporting in the Military Times.

A lot of the shift in thinking has come from lessons learned from the war between Russia and Ukraine, Reed said.

In that four-year war, small, inexpensive drones piloted by remote operators have proven incredibly effective at taking out big, costly military equipment.

Were kind of adapting what the Army of the future looks like for the United States in that regard," Reed said.

But America, some defense experts note, is currently far behind countries such as China in drone-building capacity.

As Reed spoke about the Pennsylvania Guards existing work, colleagues flew small drones through an obstacle course with FPV, or first-person view, equipment.

So you can imagine this could fly into a house, a building, a car, Reed said of the songbird-sized device whirring around the room.

Alongside the drones on display for McCormicks tour were replicas of incendiary devices the drones could be armed with, to give soldier-operators the full experience of maneuvering a drone with a payload, and then dropping that payload onto a target in mid-flight.

Whatever type of scenario it is, we can take these smaller drones and really get right into the fight before we would put our own soldiers in any type of danger. We could go in and see whats going on and or carry out some type of other operation with them, Reed said.

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Nathan Shea, operations officer at the Gaps Unmanned Aircraft Systems, spent time earlier this year on a deployment to Germany, where he helped train Ukrainian soldiers in operating drones.

He sees the devices as a massive player in the future of warfare.

The more we can remove humans from the front lines and direct combat, I think the more youre going to see that, Shea said.

No specific number has been put on the initial investment or recurring allocations for the SkyFoundry hubs, for which Pennsylvania is known to be competing against National Guard bases in Mississippi and Michigan.

Reed said landing the Unmanned Aircraft System Testing and Training Center designation would be a boon for the Gap, which already boasts more than 2,000 employees and sees more than 100,000 troops passing through for various types of training each year  and Pennsylvanias technology economy generally.

I think you could see an uptick in the assignment of troops, also creating a lot of additional full-time employment here, and also driving industry in Pennsylvania as well with the different, you know, defense contracts we have here.

McCormick pledged full support Monday, telling an aide, This should be us. He promised to contact the Army as soon as he has the information needed to make his best case.
A 26-year-old hunter who was shot Tuesday morning, prompting a complex rescue from a remote section of woods in Juniata County, has died from his injuries.

The man was with a hunting party of 24 people conducting a deer drive a mile or two off Vincent Tram Road in Milford Township, according to Lt. Amy Nabozny of the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

Nabozny said the 26-year-old was helping drive deer toward the standers, hunters waiting for game to appear before shooting.

About 100 to 200 yards into the drive, a buck jumped up and went through the line of drivers.

Two members of the hunting party shot at the buck and one struck the victim in the right hip as he was in direct line of fire, Nabozny said.

Game wardens, Pennsylvania State Police and local firefighters worked together to rescue the man from the mountainous and snowy area. He was taken to a hospital where he died.

The mans identity has not been released.

Nabozny said the shooting remains under investigation. No charges have been filed.
A lawsuit against a school administrator filed on behalf of a Pennsylvania trans teen who died by suicide will move forward, a federal judge said in a recent ruling.

A jury should decide whether Richard Rava, vice principal at West Shore Career and Technology Center in Luzerne County, appropriately responded to a report of discriminatory bullying, federal Magistrate Judge Susan Schwab of the Middle District ruled.

15-year-old Adreya Hardens death came six days after a transphobic bullying incident at the tech center where a classmate verbally berated her and called her by her birth name in class in 2021.

Using a transgender persons birth name is called deadnaming and is used to mock people or invalidate their gender identity.

Rava failed to treat the incident as discriminatory bullying, Hardens mother argues  a difference that molded the tech centers response to the bullying.

Had the incident been reported to the tech centers Title IX office, which Harden claims should have happened, Adreya could have received suicide intervention, which could have prevented her death, according to Nathaniel Foote, Hardens attorney.

Suicide is a lead cause of harm to teens, particularly transgender and LGBTQ kids, Foote said. People have been trying for a long time to hold schools liable for student suicide. The law is developing slowly. Its still a difficult thing to do (But) if you find the right case, the courts are accepting.

The ruling comes from an order addressing the defendants motion for summary judgment  a request for the court to throw out charges not supported by evidence and testimony revealed during the discovery phase of a lawsuit.

Schwab dismissed allegations against the school district and tech center, but held two counts against Rava  failure to train and deliberate indifference to sex-based discrimination under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment  to be decided by a jury.

Schwab also threw out Ravas claim to qualified immunity, which is a difficult-to-overcome legal privilege that shields government employees from frivolous lawsuits and allows them to perform their duties without fear of personal liability.

Rava has since appealed the decision to the Third Circuit of Appeals for reconsideration.

It is a true tragedy what happened to this young person, but a school principal acting in good faith should not be held responsible, Ravas attorney, John E. Freund, III, told PennLive.

Schwabs order, issued in September, includes the following facts, which were interpreted by Schwab in a light most favorable to Harden for purposes of summary judgment:

Adreya and another student spoke in what appeared to be a flirtatious manner Sept. 29, 2021, according to Thomas Pieczynski, a teacher at the tech center. The two students eventually began yelling at one another  with the offending student calling Adreya by her dead name.

Pieczynski asked the offending student to leave class and reported the incident to the tech centers administration, characterizing it as harassment based on Adreyas sexual orientation.

Rava investigated the incident without speaking to Adreya, gave the offending student three days of in-school suspension to begin the next day and disposed of the matter without informing the tech centers Title IX coordinator or compliance officer.

While Pieczynski didnt see the offending student return to his class, other students later told him the student continued bullying Adreya. Rava and Thomas Duffy, the tech centers Title IX compliance officer, were unaware of the continued bullying.

Whether or not Rava allowed the offending student to return to class and continue bullying Adreya will be a matter for a jury to hear, Schwab wrote. Additionally, it will be up to a jury to decide if Ravas actions were clearly unreasonable.

Duffy said during depositions he was never notified of the discriminatory bullying. He said he didnt know if the tech centers Title IX coordinator was notified of the discriminatory bullying and did not know if Adreya was offered supportive measures in response to the incident.

Had he learned of the incident and known what he knows now, he absolutely would have prevented the offending student from returning to the classroom that day, he said.

That, combined with support services the Title IX team could have offered Adreya, could have prevented her suicide, her mothers attorneys argue.

Qualified immunity can be overcome if a plaintiff can prove a constitutional right was violated and that the right was clearly established at the time of misconduct.

Because six courts of appeals have found students have a constitutional right to be free from the deliberate indifference of school officials to reports of student-on-student sexual harassment, Schwab denied Ravas claim to qualified immunity.

But thats not good enough, Rava argued in an appeal to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. He said the courts findings arent enough to clearly establish that students have a right to be free from peer harassment and is asking the appeals court to overturn Schwabs ruling.

He also argued the failure to train count should be dismissed because that count can only be brought against a government body.

If you or someone you know is at risk for suicide, contact the national crisis hotline by calling or texting 988.

The Trevor Project provides 24/7 suicide prevention and crisis intervention directed at LGBTQ+ youth on its website, by phone at 1-866-488-7386 and by text at 678678.
A 55-year-old man was fatally ejected and pinned under his vehicle after a Monday rollover crash in York County, the coroners office said.

Roger D. Loop was headed south on Winterstown Road in North Hopewell Township around 11:45 a.m. when he swerved off the road and crashed into a utility pole, Coroner Pam Gay said in a Tuesday news release.

Loop, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was thrown from the vehicle when it rolled after impact, Gay said. He was found pinned under the wreckage and pronounced dead at the scene from blunt force injuries.

His death was ruled accidental. No other vehicles or people were involved.

North Hopewell Township police are investigating the crash. Authorities have not said what might have caused Loop to crash.
Pennsylvania Republican Dave McCormick said Monday that while he supports military attacks on cartel infrastructure, the U.S. must always follow international rules of combat. October 27, 2025. Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick said Monday that while he supports American military attacks on international drug cartels infrastructure, they must be carried out within accepted rules of combat.

McCormick, commenting after a visit to Fort Indiantown Gap in Lebanon County, echoed concerns raised by a growing number of senators about published reports that a military commander authorized a second strike on a suspected drug boat this summer to kill two apparent survivors of an initial hit.

The allegation, first reported by The Washington Post on Friday, is that the commander leading the Sept. 2 strike ordered the second strike because, in theory, the suspected smugglers could contact allies to salvage their cargo.

He also, sources said, apparently wished to comply with what The Post reported as U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseths verbal order to kill everybody aboard the suspected drug boat.

Hegseth, through a spokesman, has said the Trump administrations campaign against the drug cartels complies with U.S. and international law.

But the report has raised concerns among a growing number of senators in both major parties.

McCormick said he did not have the facts to reach conclusions on Monday and is eager to review findings of the Senates Armed Services Committee, which has opened an investigation.

But he did say hes glad the review is happening because the United States has to play by the rules, even when its cause is just.

I believe the use of military force to take out those boats bringing drugs to our country is an imminent threat. I believe its justified. I think its very consistent with what happened when I was in the 82nd Airborne Division, McCormick said.

That reference was to then-President George H.W. Bushs decision in December 1989 to deploy troops to Panama partly out of concerns that then-President Manuel Noriega was moving drugs.

Then McCormick added this:

I think the Uniform Code of Military Justice is clear, McCormick said, and it says essentially that if a combatant is unarmed, and doesnt pose an imminent threat, then we shouldnt take action to kill them. That they should be taken prisoner or something like that.

So well see what the facts are in this case. But right now we dont know.

According to The Posts reporting, the protocols were changed after the Sept. 2 strike to emphasize rescuing suspected smugglers if they survived the initial attack.

It is unclear who directed the change in protocol and when exactly it took shape.

But in an Oct. 16 strike in the Atlantic Ocean that killed two, another two men were captured and repatriated to Colombia and Ecuador, The Post reported.

According to The Associated Press, Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and its top Democrat, Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, said in a joint statement late Friday that the committee will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances.

Leaders of the House Armed Services Committee said on Saturday that they would follow suit.

President Donald J. Trump distanced himself from the second Sept. 2 strike in comments to reporters this weekend, though he also defended Hegseth.

Pete said he did not order the death of those two men, Trump said, adding, and I believe him.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
By Marc LeBlond and Myles Slade-Bowers

Pennsylvanias fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30. The Governor and the legislature are tasked, by law, with passing a budget to ensure funding of K-12 students, state police, and human services, such as SNAP and Medicaid. It is supposed to be enacted before the 4th of July. This years budget was finalized in mid-November, when people are thinking about pumpkins and turkey, not hot dogs and fireworks.

The enacted budget raises overall spending, increases public district school funding, and adds some additional funding for low-income students participating in Pennsylvanias tax credit scholarship program, Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC).

While the increase to EITC will provide much needed purchasing power to certain low-income families seeking high quality educational options, the deal stops short of providing the transformative educational reforms Pennsylvanians had hoped to receiveespecially after electing a governor who made school choice a key campaign promise.

Consider our neighbors to the west in Ohio. Each Ohio K-12 student is eligible for a scholarship to attend a school of their parents choice, with lower income families receiving the highest dollar amounts. And another border state, West Virginia, offers government funded education savings accounts (ESAs) to any K-12 family who wants one. ESAs offer families even more flexibility. In addition to private school tuition, families can use their ESA to pay for tutoring, textbooks, educational therapies, and a host of other approved educational expenses. These benefits are immensely attractive to families with K-12 children.

As the types of programs offered in Ohio and West Virginia proliferate to other states, families eager for school choice options are starting to move from non-choice states to states that offer more robust educational choices. Florida offers an astonishing array of public and private school choice options to hundreds of thousands of students. Despite the doomsday predictions of private educational choice options ruining public education, Florida continues to punch above its weight in math and reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and public school enrollment in Florida is up since 2019.

Meanwhile, in New York, which has no private school choice whatsoever, public enrollment has declined more than 6% over that same period. Families are increasingly choosing states other than New York to raise their families. In the wake of New York City electing a self-proclaimed socialist as mayor, U.S. Sen. from Pennsylvania Dave McCormick has started running ads offering New Yorkers safe refuge within the Commonwealth. Indeed, if Mamdani caves to the big school unions and opposes charters schools, this will only hasten the exodus.

For the most part, the theme of union-protectionism causing public enrollment decline is repeating in states where interest groups have blocked district competition.

California, New Mexico, Illinois, and Michigan each face significant public enrollment declines, to name a few. Just as King Midas wish for gold backfired and destroyed his life, the more union groups try to preserve their monopoly, the more they weaken and shrink public education. In a case of profound irony, the likely best thing Randi Weingarten could do to preserve her dues baseis lobby for school choice.

If Pennsylvania truly wants to attract population from neighboring states while strengthening the overall education ecosystem, it should do what Florida has doneoffer a panoply of educational choices. Florida has an ecosystem of public charter schools, open enrollment, and various private school choice programs that work for parents, students, and educators.

This type of diverse policy is not only politically profitable; it is also morally right. All students deserve to thrive in an educational setting that works for them.

Pennsylvania needs ESAs, expanded Tax Credit Scholarships, and thriving public charter schools. In addition, Gov. Shapiro should opt in to the federal scholarship tax credit. These reforms would give Pennsylvania families the choices they want and deserve.

Expanding school choice options in Pennsylvania would open the gateway to parental choice in the northeast. Many families in New York, New Jersey, and New England feel boxed in by rigid, union-driven policies.

Pennsylvania is poised to become a natural landing place for those seeking flexibility. As families eventually leave New York and New Jersey for the appeal of an education that works for their children, northeastern states will have no choice but to offer educational choices, as well.

Another benefit of expanding choice policy is the creation of new markets and new educational supply. Over 600 private schools have been created in Florida since 2013, thanks to various scholarship programs. School choice policies pave the way for future educational options that currently do not exist.

The attitudes of Pennsylvania parents and even policymakers themselves have shifted strongly in favor of more parental choice. The policy simply hasnt caught up yet. But momentum can stall. If Pennsylvania truly wants to be an attractive beacon of freedom, it must capitalize on the opportunity for reform soon.

Marc LeBlond is Director of State Advocacy at American Federation for Children. He lives in Williamsport, Pa., with his wife and four school-age children.

Myles Slade-Bowers is a Government Affairs Fellow with the American Federation for Children, where he advocates for expanding school choice and empowering families to access high-quality K12 education.
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Author: Katherine Cobb-Pitstick, University of Pittsburgh

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question youd like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.

Why do people get headaches?  Evie V., age 10, Corpus Christi, Texas

Whether sharp and stabbing or dull and throbbing, a headache can ruin your day. But your brain doesnt actually feel pain. So what is going on when it feels like your head is in a vise or about to explode?

I am a child neurologist  that is, a doctor who specializes in diseases of the brain in kids. Most of my patients are kids and adolescents who are struggling with headaches.

Head pain is complicated, and there is still a lot to learn about what causes it and how it can be treated. But researchers know there are a few key players that take part in generating pain.

What are headaches?

Nerves communicate information like pain through electrical signals between the body and the brain.

While the brain itself doesnt have any nerve sensors to feel pain, blood vessels in the head and structures that protect and surround the brain do sense pain. When these tissues detect injury or damage, they release chemicals that trigger transmission of electrical signals through nerves to tell the brain the head is hurting.

The brain will also use nerves to signal the body to respond to pain with symptoms like feeling tired, teary eyes, runny nose, upset stomach and discomfort in bright or loud environments. Its not clear why humans evolved to feel these symptoms, but some scientists theorize that this can lead to healthier lifestyle choices to decrease the chance of future headache attacks.

What causes headaches?

Often, headaches are a sign that the body is under some kind of stress. That stress triggers chemical and physical changes to the nerves and blood vessels around your brain, head and neck that can cause headaches.

Many types of stresses can cause headaches, including an infection, allergies, hormone changes during puberty and menstrual cycles, not getting enough sleep, not drinking enough water, skipping meals or drinking too much caffeine or alcohol. Sometimes, headaches happen with emotional stress, like feeling anxious or depressed. Even pressure in your sinuses due to changes in the weather can cause your head to hurt.

One in 11 kids have had a type of severe headache called a migraine. They feel like a pulsing and pounding pain in your head and come with other symptoms, including nausea or being sensitive to lights and sounds. During a migraine, it can be hard to do everyday activities because they can make the pain worse. It is also very common to feel unwell or irritable before the head pain starts and after the pain is gone.

Migraines and chronic headaches can be debilitating. Viktoriya Skorikova/Moment via Getty Images Viktoriya Skorikova/Moment via Getty Images

Migraines occur when the nerves and other structures used in signaling and interpreting pain arent working properly, leading to pain and discomfort from stimulation that wouldnt normally provoke this. There are many environmental and genetic factors that contribute to this dysfunction. Some people are born with a higher riskof developing migraines. Most people with migraines have someone in their family who also experiences them.

What can treat and prevent headaches?

Identifying what type of headache youre experiencing is crucial to making sure it is treated properly. Because migraines can be severe, theyre the type of headache that most often leads to doctors visits for both kids and adults.

There are several ways to reduce your chances of having headaches, such as drinking plenty of water and limiting caffeine. Eating, sleeping and exercising regularly are other ways you can help prevent headaches.

Sleep deprivation can worsen headaches. DjelicS/iStock via Getty Images Plus DjelicS/iStock via Getty Images Plus

While painkillers like ibuprofen are often enough to relieve a headache, prescription medications are sometimes necessary to make head pain more bearable. Some medications can also help control or prevent headache episodes. Physical therapy to exercise the body or behavioral therapy to work on the mind can also help you manage headache pain. There are even electronic devices to treat headaches by stimulating different parts of the nervous system.

It is important to talk with a doctor about headaches, especially if its a new problem or you experience a change in how they usually feel. Sometimes, brain imaging or blood tests are needed to rule out another health issue.

Recognizing a headache problem early will help your doctor get started on helping you figure out the best way to treat it.

Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question youd like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

And since curiosity has no age limit  adults, let us know what youre wondering, too. We wont be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/why-do-people-get-headaches-and-migraines-a-child-neurologist-explains-the-science-of-head-pain-and-how-to-treat-it-268838.
FILE - Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, second from right, is taken in handcuffs to a waiting aircraft as he is extradited to the United States, at an Air Force base in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, April 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Elmer Martinez, File) AP

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras  Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez, sentenced last year to 45 years in prison for his role in a drug trafficking operation that moved hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States, was released from prison following a pardon from President Donald Trump, officials confirmed Tuesday.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons inmate website showed that Hernandez was released from U.S. Penitentiary, Hazelton in West Virginia on Monday, and a spokesperson for the bureau on Tuesday confirmed his release.

His wife Ana Garcia thanked Trump for pardoning Hernandez via the social platform X early Tuesday.

After almost four years of pain, of waiting and difficult challenges, my husband Juan Orlando Hernandez RETURNED to being a free man, thanks to the presidential pardon granted by President Donald Trump, Garcias post said. She included a picture of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons listing for Hernandez indicating his release.

Trump was asked Sunday why he pardoned Hernandez by reporters traveling with him on Air Force One.

I was asked by Honduras, many of the people of Honduras, Trump said.

The people of Honduras really thought he was set up, and it was a terrible thing, he said.

They basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country. And they said it was a Biden administration set-up, Trump said. And I looked at the facts and I agreed with them.

Hernandezs attorney Renato Stabile said in an emailed statement he could not share the former presidents current location. He added that Hernandez is glad the ordeal is over.

On behalf of President Hernandez and his family I would like to thank President Trump for correcting this injustice, Stabile said.

Hernandez was arrested at the request of the United States in February 2022, weeks after current President Xiomara Castro took office.

Two years later, Hernandez was sentenced to 45 years in prison in a New York federal courtroom for taking bribes from drug traffickers so they could safely move some 400 tons of cocaine north through Honduras to the United States.

Hernandez maintained throughout that he was innocent and the victim of revenge by drug traffickers he had helped extradite to the United States.

During his sentencing, federal Judge P. Kevin Castel said the punishment should serve as a warning to well educated, well dressed individuals who gain power and think their status insulates them from justice when they do wrong.

Hernandez portrayed himself as a hero of the anti-drug trafficking movement who teamed up with American authorities under three U.S. presidential administrations to reduce drug imports.

But the judge said trial evidence proved the opposite and that Hernandez employed considerable acting skills to make it seem that he strongly opposed drug trafficking while he deployed his nations police and military to protect the drug trade.

Hernandez is not guaranteed a quick return to Honduras.

Immediately after Trump announced his intention to pardon Hernandez, Honduras Attorney General Johel Zelaya said via X that his office was obligated to seek justice and put an end to impunity.

He did not specify what charges Hernandez could face in Honduras. There were various corruption-related investigations of his administration across two terms in office that did not lead to charges against him. Castro, who oversaw Hernandezs arrest and extradition to the U.S., will remain in office until January.

The pardon promised by Trump days before Honduras presidential election injected a new element into the contest that some said helped the candidate from his National Party Nasry Asfura as the vote count proceeded Tuesday.
Democratic Sen. John Fetterman is more popular among Pa. Republicans than fellow Democrats, a new poll found. (Matt Rourke, Associated Press_ Matt Rourke, Associated Press

Sen. John Fetterman remains more popular with Pennsylvania Republicans than fellow Democrats, according to a new poll.

In the survey commissioned by RealClearPennsylvania and Emerson College, Fetterman has a 31% job approval rating from Democrats compared to 57% from Republicans and 30% from independents.

The poll questioned 2,000 Pennsylvanians and has a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points.

This comes on the heels of a report that Fettermans fundraising has precipitously dropped, amid weakening support from Democrats.

A poll earlier this year had 45% of state Republicans approving of Fetterman while just 40% of Democrats did.

Fetterman has angered many Democrats with his willingness to work with the Trump administration, his frequent appearances on Fox News, his penchant to castigate Democrats for calling Republicans fascists and other names, and his staunch support for Israel and its military offensive into Gaza, as well as President Donald Trumps immigration policies.

He was also one of eight Democratic senators to vote to end the federal government shutdown with no assurances about the future of subsidies for Obamacare, a point of contention for many Democrats.

In his recent memoir, Fetterman said he realizes his political stances could cost him his Senate seat in 2028, but he is at peace with that.

Overall, Fettermana approval rating is just 39% while 31% disapprove and 28% were either neutral or did not know of him.

Gov. Josh Shapiro has a 49% job approval rating, lower than other polls have shown, with 22% disapproving and 30% neutral or did not know of him.

However, Shapiro, who is up for re-election in 2026, has strong support among Democrats with a 76% approval rating compared to 29% with Republicans and 37% among independents.

Republican Sen. Dave McCormick has a job approval rating of 34%, with 28% disapproving and 37% staying neutral or never hearing of him. Fifty-eight percent of Pennsylvania Republicans approve of McCormick. while just 19% of Democrats and 23% of independents did.
Pennsylvania lawmakers just received a 3.25% pay increase on Dec. 1, raising their base salary to $113,575. Only New York and Californias legislators make more.

The national average for state lawmakers was $47,904, less than half of what the commonwealths lawmakers made, per the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The Pennsylvania legislatures increases also are automatic, which means they go into effect without a vote. Gov. Josh Shapiro will see a pay bump too, going from $245,760 to $253,747.

The raises come after a more than four-month budget impasse, which forced some counties, school districts and non-profits across the state to take drastic measures like reducing staff or taking out high-interest loans to keep the lights on.

Bruce Larson, political science professor at Gettysburg College, said voters may question the automatic raise.

I think the public expects elected officials to play by similar rules that they play by, you know, Larson said. And most people, unless youre on Social Security, dont get automatic pay increases mandated by law.

In 1995, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed a law requiring automatic annual cost of living increases, or COLAs, for state lawmakers, the governor and other top officials.

There is no uniform process used by states to establish base salaries. Among full-time legislatures, lawmakers in New York lead the nation, receiving a base pay of $142,000. California follows closely at $132,703 with Pennsylvania right behind.

Other states which have part time legislatures vary dramatically: New Mexico legislators make nothing; New Hampshire legislators receive an annual salary of $100; Nevada has a daily rate of $130 with limits on how many days can be paid for; and North Dakota has a monthly rate of $592.

Pennsylvania and pay raises

Twenty years ago, Pennsylvania lawmakers voted on a massive pay raise  up to 34% depending on the position  during a 2 a.m. voting session. They ultimately repealed it after a huge public outcry that resulted in an unprecedented outcome: more than 50 legislators either lost their seats or did not seek re-election.

Rep. Russ Diamond, R-Lebanon County, was at the forefront of the effort to primary those who were involved in the 2005 pay raise. Diamond said he co-sponsors bills every session to eliminate COLAs.

I think the automatic thing has gotten a little bit out of hand, Diamond said. I think if we are going to get a pay raise, it ought to be voted on.

But for Diamond, donating the excess money to charity would still mean he has to pay taxes on them. And giving it back to the state is not in his cards.

Because what happens is now Im giving money back to Josh Shapiro to use it somewhere else when, you know, Id rather spend it here in my own Lebanon County economy and help this economy grow, Diamond said.

Salaries are not the only form of income for Pennsylvania lawmakers. The commonwealth is one of at least 25 states that dont restrict lawmakers from having multiple jobs. Lawmakers also have limited restrictions when it comes to gifts and campaign donations.

Research suggests higher salaries dont necessarily improve governance. A Duke University study also found that increasing salaries for government officials does not equate to more opportunities for working class people to win office.

Thomas Baldino, who taught political science at Wilkes University for 28 years, noted that a pay raise increase can especially be contentious after a four-month budget impasse.

It becomes unnecessary, only because the legislators bring it upon themselves by not fulfilling their obligations, Baldino said. For example, in this instance of passing a budget on time.

Rep. Dave Madsen, D-Dauphin County, believes that COLAs should be provided in every industry to retain talent, something hes seen in his role recruiting candidates with the Pennsylvania House Democratic Campaign Committee.

We try to get doctors, engineers, lawyers and top folks, Madsen said. And part of that is if you want to get people out of those industries with competitive salaries, you have to entice them with good paying benefits.

But Bruce Larson from Gettysburg College argued that public service comes with an undeniable cost.

It involves making a sacrifice arguably in salary, Larson said. And if the ability to work on public problems and pass legislation isnt sufficiently motivating by itself, well then you probably just have to stay in the private sector, you know what I mean?

Some states like California and Washington have independent commissions that set lawmaker salaries.

If we let an independent agency make the judgement call on pay raises, it would remove some of the uncertainty for taxpayers and the public would place more trust in Harrisburg, Baldino said.
Ontario Poker News December Update: Kliment Tarmakov Wins WSOPC Main; Shared Liquidity & BetRivers Coming?

Kyle Anderson Copy link

I'm Kyle Anderson, PokerNews ambassador and Ontario resident. Here is an update on everything that's both happened and is coming up in the Ontario poker world.

Remember, ON players can legally play real money poker in Ontario, so PokerNews has come up with a list of the very best online poker sites in the Canadian province. Access real poker sites and play different games with poker players within the state.

What are the big issues and stories on everyone's minds? Lets get into it.

Big News

So the biggest story is that the Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled that Ontario-regulated gaming sites can legally allow players to compete with people outside Canada.

It was a 41 decision, and it basically clears the legal roadblock around shared liquidity, the thing thats been holding Ontario back since the closed-pool model launched in 2022.

Now this doesnt mean cross-border poker goes live tomorrow. Regulators still need to create the framework, negotiate agreements, and figure out licensing. But this is the first real momentum weve had in years.

We don't know whether they will return to global pools, merge with the US, or stay in Ontario, but there is reason to be hopeful.

Live Poker News

The WSOP Circuit was back at Playground Poker Club.

The stop kicked off on November 3 and ran through November 18 with over $6 million CAD in guaranteed prize pools. The Main Event buyin was $2,500 CAD, and there are 18 official ring events. The stop wrapped up in Montreal with some massive fields and massive payouts. Here are the highlights:

Event Entries Winner Prize (CAD) Event#1: $400 No-Limit Hold'em Mini Main Event 1,780 Matthew Aubin Gearey Event#2: $400 No-Limit Hold'em Mega Stack 217 Abdul Ghafar Hayam Event#3: $400 No-Limit Hold'em Progressive Bounty 209 Sikander Rajwade Event#4: $400 No-Limit Hold'em Mystery Bounty 211 Othman Koubaa Event#5: $400 No-Limit Hold'em Bounty 225 Daniel Lafleur Event#6: $400 No-Limit Hold'em Mystery Bounty 726 Taran Singh Parmar Event#7: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em Progressive Bounty 253 Robert Renaud Event#8: $400 No-Limit Hold'em Seniors 195 Micheal J Hudson Event#9: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em "The Colossus" 996 Fenghua Cai Event#10: $400 No-Limit Hold'em Mega Stack Turbo 389 Danny Li Event #11: $2,500 Main Event 1,483 Kliment Tarmakov Event#12: $600 Pot-Limit Omaha 286 Behnam Esfahanizadeh Event#13: $400 Ladies Event 54 Lise Cormier Event#14: $400 No-Limit Hold'em Progressive Bounty 523 Aaron Parsons Event#15: $5,000 NLH Mega Stack High Roller 183 Dylan Bryce Laird Event#16: $400 Mixed PLO/NLH 3 Lives 215 Weldon Ward Event#17: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em Mystery Bounty 350 Michael Khan Event#18: $400 No-Limit Hold'em Mystery Bounty 288 Jean-Bernard Audet

High Roller champ Dylan Bryce Laird.

*Winner photos courtesy of WSOP.

Ontario Live Poker Tournament Schedule

There are plenty of live options throughout December.

Casino Niagara

Wednesdays  $300 NLH Weekly  12:30 PM

Sundays  $400 NLH Weekly  12:30 PM

Last Sunday of the Month  $550 Monthly  12:30 PM

Pickering Casino Resort

Dec 4  $575 NLH

Dec 9  Two $200 Turbos

Dec 11  $575 Bounty

Caesars Windsor

Fridays & Sundays all month: $200 Friday Night Turbo at 6:15 PM & $150 Sunday NLH at 2:15 PM

Here are the major live events this month across Ontariovenue, event, and start time listed in chronological order.

Date Venue Event Time (EDT) Wed, Dec 3 Casino Niagara $300 NLH  Weekly 12:30 PM Thu, Dec 4 Pickering Casino Resort $575 NLH 12:30 PM Fri, Dec 5 Caesars Windsor $200 Friday Night Turbo 6:15 PM Sun, Dec 7 Casino Niagara $400 NLH  Weekly 12:30 PM Sun, Dec 7 Caesars Windsor $150 NLH 2:15 PM Tue, Dec 9 Pickering Casino Resort Two $200 Turbos TBD Wed, Dec 10 Casino Niagara $300 NLH  Weekly 12:30 PM Thu, Dec 11 Pickering Casino Resort $575 Bounty 12:30 PM Sun, Dec 14 Casino Niagara $400 NLH  Weekly 12:30 PM Sun, Dec 14 Caesars Windsor $150 NLH 2:15 PM Fri, Dec 19 Caesars Windsor $200 Friday Night Turbo 6:15 PM Sun, Dec 21 Casino Niagara $400 NLH  Weekly 12:30 PM Sun, Dec 21 Caesars Windsor $150 NLH 2:15 PM Sat, Dec 27 Caesars Windsor $800 Holiday Big Bounty 2:15 PM Sun, Dec 28 Casino Niagara $400 NLH  Weekly 12:30 PM Sun, Dec 28 Caesars Windsor $150 NLH 2:15 PM

Ontario Online Poker News

Phil Hellmuth is a BetRivers Ambassador.

BetRivers Poker has publicly said theyre ready to expand into Ontario and Alberta, but only if shared liquidity becomes possible.

Their head of poker literally said theyre watching the regulatory situation closely, and Canada is a market they want  if cross-border pooling is allowed.

So operators are interested, the legal system is now open to it, and the only missing piece is regulatory follow-through. Both Phil Hellmuth and Phil Galfond are associated with BetRivers, so how cool would it be to see them in Ontario?

We also got a big Ontario result from 888pokers KO Games Main Event.

"QueenOffs" shipped the $30,000 Mystery Bounty Main for $4,177, with $550 in bounties. The event drew 204 entries, and the top bounty was $3,000. It was a great score and solid turnout for a domestic Ontario event.

Eligible iGames conducted and managed by iGO are only available to those physically present in the Province of Ontario. PokerStars Ontario operates pursuant to an agreement with iGaming Ontario. For more information, visit the Ontario Players Homepage

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GTO Wizard: Was Suarezs AQ Call Too Thin at the EPT Barcelona Final Table?

GTO Wizard Lukas Robinson PokerNews Ambassador Copy link

At the final table of the 5,300 EPT Barcelona Main Event, Anton Suarez faced a nightmare river decision against eventual champion Thomas Eychenne. Holding top pair, top kicker with ace-queen, Suarez found himself staring down an all-in shove for his tournament life after making a big river bet.

Six players remained, with 1.4 million up top and 291,800 guaranteed. Suarez eventually called, and it cost him his tournament. But was the call actually wrong? Using GTO Wizard, broke down every street to see where theory and reality diverged.

Suarez opened the button for 500,000 holding AQ. Eychenne defended his big blind with 54.

The flop came 1053. Both players checked.

The turn brought the Q, giving Suarez top pair and Eychenne a flush draw with a pair. Eychenne checked, Suarez bet 750,000, and Eychenne called.

The river paired the board with the 5. Eychenne checked his trips, Suarez fired 2,500,000 into 2,875,000, and Eychenne responded with a shove. Suarez used three timebanks before calling off his remaining 1,030,000. Eychenne tabled his winning hand and eliminated Suarez in sixth place for 291,800.

Event Information Event: 2025 5,300 EPT Barcelona Main Event

Players Left: 6

Blinds: 125,000/250,000/250,000

1st: 1,436,000 | 2nd: 898,350 | 3rd: 641,200 | 4th: 493,250 | 5th: 379,350 | 6th: 291,800

Pre-Flop Analysis

Suarezs button open with AQ is standard. The solver fully approves this raise, especially with six players remaining and a wide button range.

Eychennes call with 54 is also solver-approved. Against a 2 big blind button open, defending suited connectors from the big blind maintains proper pot odds and playability. Both players began the hand on solid theoretical footing.

Flop Analysis

BB range on flop

The flop of 1053 went check-check. Eychenne's check is GTO approved but solver output shows that Suarezs check-back with AQ is slightly off-book.

BTN range on flop

GTO Wizard prefers continuation betting on this texture at small to medium sizes, roughly 18%, 25%, or 67% pot.

Checking isnt a major mistake, as you can see from the small EV difference above, but betting helps you balance your entire range on the flop. This makes the board much easier to play, since in-game its difficult to keep your checking range balanced, especially when its only 6.5% of your range that is recommended to check, and you dont want to end up checking only weak holdings, as this would be very easy to exploit.

In short, betting the flop would simplify the hand and protect Suarezs range.

AQ EV on flop

Turn Analysis

BB range on turn

The Q improves Suarez to top pair, top kicker and gives Eychenne additional equity with a flush draw and middle pair.

EV for 54s on turn

Eychennes check is solver-approved as the big blinds range is still behind the buttons on this card.

BTN range on turn

Suarezs decision to bet the turn is correct, but the sizing isnt ideal. GTO Wizard recommends a 100% pot bet, not the 50% sizing Suarez chose. The larger bet achieves higher EV and better sets up a geometric river shove.

AQ EV on turn

A geometric bet size keeps your street-by-street sizing consistent so stacks naturally go in by the river, which is optimal when your range is polarised. Suarezs smaller sizing reduces fold equity and leaves awkward stack depth for the river.

Eychennes call is approved. The solver often mixes between calls and raises with 54s, occasionally jamming to balance value hands and bluffs.

BB range vs turn bet

Combo draws like this are used because they retain enough equity when called, while holding a pair also blocks some of the top of the calling range, such as sets and two pairs. Theres also a small chance that 54 gets called by a worse hand like K9 or J9, which adds to the EV of the play.

EV of 54s on the turn

River Analysis

BB range on river

EV of 54s on river

The 5 pairs the board, giving Eychenne trips. GTO Wizard shows that the big blind can incorporate small donk bets on this card because it connects more with their range than the buttons. However, checking remains perfectly fine, as Eychenne did.

BTN range on river

AQ EV on river

Suarezs 2,500,000 bet into 2,875,000 (around 90% pot) is solver-disapproved. The model shows AQo either checking or betting smaller (around 67%) to extract value from weaker queens and mid-pairs while avoiding over-committing against strong check-raises. The 90% size narrows his perceived range to strong hands and bluffs, which makes it easier for opponents to play perfectly against him.

BB range vs river bet

54s EV on the river vs bet

Eychennes shove also loses EV compared to calling. Despite making three-of-a-kind, the solver prefers a flat call. With only the button containing the nut combinations (10x10x or QxQx), over-jamming doesnt increase expected value and carries risk under ICM.

BTN calling range

BTN nodelocked range

Finally, Suarezs river call with AQo is solver-disapproved. The hand should have checked or used smaller sizing earlier, which would have avoided this spot altogether. Even against a nodelocked range that includes larger turn bets, AQo struggles to justify a call when facing this all-in.

BBs response to the nodelocked range

EV for 54s vs the nodlocked river bet

Conclusion

This hand highlights a classic case of range distortion through sizing. While both players made largely solver-approved decisions throughout the hand, the river was where things diverged.

Suarezs 90% river bet size was never recommended and the solver much prefers a smaller size or check with AQo combos.

Eychennes river shove with trips also loses EV compared to calling, since the BTNs range is polarised and unlikely to pay off with worse.

The final takeaway: Eychenne did end up getting paid off by worse though, which is a great in-game example of using GTO theory as a baseline. If you can exploit your opponent when they make plays like calling AQ on the river to an all-in, you need to identify these opportunities to make the highest EV decisions overall.

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The PLO Grand Slam Prague, hosted by the Diamond Poker series at the All Inn Casino, kicked off with an action-packed opening flight in the 5,200 Million. Day 1a drew 50 entries, and after ten levels, 14 players managed to put chips in a bag and advance to Day 2.

Whereas poker tournaments can often have wild swings that see players go from big stack to short stack and vice versa in the blink of an eye, this couldn't be further from the truth for Jose Scarano today. Scarano doubled up in the very first hand he played after eliminating Sebestyen Balint and from there, he never looked back. Scarano was at or near the top of the counts throughout the day, ending with 1,621,000, good for the Day 1a chip lead and 162 big blinds going into Day 2. Balint also managed to find a bag after reentering, finishing the night in the middle of the pack with just over 700,000.

Day 1a Chip Counts

Rank Player Country Chip Count Big Blinds 1 Jose Scarano Brazil 1,621,000 162 2 Ying Kan China 1,271,000 127 3 Juha Helppi Finland 1,174,000 117 4 Karel Mokry Czechia 986,000 99 5 Carlo van Ravenswoud Netherlands 885,000 89 6 Youness Barakat Italy 883,000 88 7 Csaba Fenyvesi Hungary 767,000 77 8 Joachim Haraldstad Norway 759,000 76 9 Sebestyen Balint Hungary 726,000 73 10 Veselin Karakitukov Bulgaria 430,000 43 11 Jonas Kronwitter Austria 340,000 34 12 Nino Pansier Netherlands 331,000 33 13 Jeremy Trojand Germany 267,000 27 14 Dominykas Karmazinas Lithuania 171,000 17

Ying Kan

Closely following Scarano is Ying Kan, who woke up with aces at the right time to take a massive pot off of Jonas Kronwitter and finish the night in second place. Finnish poker legend Juha Helppi rounds out the top three, and alongside Scarano and Kan is the only other player to end the night with a seven-figure stack.

Juha Helppi

Out of all the players to advance today, none have had as much success in previous editions of this event as Youness Barakat. The inaugural edition of this event in Tirana in 2024 saw Barakat finish third. Barakat went on to finish fourth in the second edition in Tirana, before winning the event outright when the PLO Grand Slam came to Tallin a few months later. Most recently at the PLO Grand Slam in Malta Barakat almost made a fourth consecutive final table in this event, falling in 15th.

Youness Barakat

Barakat got off to a rocky start this time around, losing his first bullet just a few hands into Level 1. Midway through the day, Barakat's third bullet went down in flames after getting his chips in with the nut-straight, only for Ole Schemion to turn a full house. The fourth time turned out to be the charm, with Barakat finally gaining momentum after making a full house of his own on the river to eliminate Lucas Vendenbelt late in the night and eventually finish the night just outside the top five.

Some notable players who played today but fell before the end of the night include bracelet winners Schemion, Dario Alioto, Dennis Weiss, and Cesar Garcia.

The second and final starting flight begins tomorrow, December 02 at 1:00 p.m. local time, featuring the same structure as today. Late registration will remain open until the end of Level 13 on Day 2. Stay tuned to Pokernews as we continue to bring you all the action from the All Inn Casino in the Czechian capital.
The 5,200 Million, the first of two marquee events of the PLO Grand Slam Prague hosted by the Diamond Poker Series, kicked off yesterday, with Day 1a drawing 50 entries. The first of two starting flights saw 14 players advance to Day 2 with a shot at taking the lion's share of the 1,000,000 guarantee. They are led by Jose Scarano who bagged 1,621,000, good for 162 big blinds going into Day 2.

Today, a new batch of hopefuls will try to emulate their success, with Day 1b starting at 1:00 p.m. local time.

Day 1a Chip Counts

Rank Player Country Chip Count Big Blinds 1 Jose Scarano Brazil 1,621,000 162 2 Ying Kan China 1,271,000 127 3 Juha Helppi Finland 1,174,000 117 4 Karel Mokry Czechia 986,000 99 5 Carlo van Ravenswoud Netherlands 885,000 89 6 Youness Barakat Italy 883,000 88 7 Csaba Fenyvesi Hungary 767,000 77 8 Joachim Haraldstad Norway 759,000 76 9 Sebestyen Balint Hungary 726,000 73 10 Veselin Karakitukov Bulgaria 430,000 43 11 Jonas Kronwitter Austria 340,000 34 12 Nino Pansier Netherlands 331,000 33 13 Jeremy Trojand Germany 267,000 27 14 Dominykas Karmazinas Lithuania 171,000 17

Day 1b follows the same structure as yesterday's Day 1a. Players start with 200,000 in chips, worth 200 big blinds to start the day. Each Day 1 starting flight will play ten 45-minute levels. There will be a 15 minute break after levels 3 and 8, and a 60-minute dinner break after Level 6. Each table will play 8-max, and all players will have 30-second shot clocks. The late registration period will end after Level 13 on Day 2, and unlimited re-entries are permitted during this time.

Stay tuned to Pokernews for another action-packed day of four-card action from the All Inn Casino in the Czech capital.
Education Lab Reporter

Ian Grenier covers K-12 and higher education in South Carolina from Columbia. Originally from Charleston, he studied history and political science at USC and reported for the Victoria Advocate in South Texas before joining The Post and Courier.
The Aiken Standard launched its Public Service and Investigative Fund in 2021 to help support forms of journalism known as watchdog or accountability reporting.

The fund, in conjunction with the The Post and Courier North Augusta/The Star and parent company Evening Post Publishing Newspaper Group, is designed to help offset the expenses that come with these projects. Doing public service and investigative journalism can be both time consuming and expensive, and Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain documents can often cost thousands of dollars.

FUNDING QR CODE Want to support accountability journalism in the CSRA with the Post and Courier: North Augusta/ The Star? Scan this QR code.

For more than 150 years, the Aiken Standard has been a trusted news source for Aiken County. For The Post and Courier North Augusta/The Star, its been on the scene in North Augusta for 70 years. Having a healthy news-gathering organization is a vital part of the democratic process and helps make a difference in our communities.

The Post and Courier-led Uncovered project, in which it collaborated with community newspapers across the state to expose corruption and other questionable government conduct, has shined a light on misdeeds and brought critical stories to light.

Many hours are required to complete the resulting articles, and they also can be expensive to research.

The average cost of public service investigative stories that weve done so far is just under $10,000, said John Boyette, executive editor of the Aiken Standard and The Post and Courier North Augusta/The Star.

"That includes staff time, materials and fees for FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) documents, he continued. But we think bringing awareness and shining a light where there is darkness is worth every single penny.

To contribute to the Public Service and Investigative Fund, visit aikenstandard.com/pledge and click on the Learn More tab.
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Nicole Ziege is a Reporter for The Post and Courier Myrtle Beach/Georgetown Times. She covers government and courts in Myrtle Beach and beyond. She previously covered news in Appalachia and received her journalism degree from Western Kentucky University.
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New event, co-located with ACCA's Smart Tech Summit, to deliver practical strategies, networking, and insights for HVAC residential contractorsBIRMINGHAM, MI / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / The ACHR NEWS, the leading source for HVACR industry intelligence, today announced the launch of theHVAC Contractor Forum , a new live event tailored specifically for residential HVAC contractors. Taking place in Frisco, Texas, from November 2-4, 2026, this new forum will provide peer-to-peer learning, structured dialogue, and technical case sessions to support those responsible for leading, managing, and implementing residential HVAC services in an evolving industry landscape.TheACHR NEWSis the #1 trusted source for news for HVAC contractors. The bi-weekly magazine has been covering the industry since 1926."We are so excited about launching this new event for the HVAC residential contractors," ACHR NEWS Publisher Sarah Harding said. "We bring a wealth of experience in the HVAC industry, and this event is long overdue. I guess you could say it has been one hundred years in the making." The HVAC Contractor Forum will deliver more than just session content.Attendees will leave with actionable strategiesfor business operations and field performance, informed by real-world contractor experience and macro-level trends from The ACHR NEWS editorial team. Just as important, attendees will take home new relationships, built through shared learning and informal conversation, which extend their professional network.The Air Conditioning Contractor of America (ACCA) have chosen to co-locate their fall event, ACCA Smart Tech Summit, with the HVAC Contractor Forum. The one-day ACCA event will be on Nov. 2."This partnership with ACCA's longtime friends at ACHR News and their parent company BNP Media marks an exciting new partnership to advance not only the HVACR industry, but also plumbing and electrical trades. By uniting the strengths of two trusted leaders, we are setting the stage for a fall 2026 event that will deliver unprecedented value for contractors. ACCA is committed to building powerful alliances that elevate the entire contracting community, and this collaboration does exactly that. Together, we are creating a focused, innovative, and industry-defining experience-purpose-built to drive contractor success," said Barton James, President and CEO, Air Conditioning Contractors of America & Air Conditioning Contractors of America's Educational Institute.The HVAC Contractor Forum is currently accepting presentation proposals and sponsorship inquiries. To learn more and sign up for event updates, visit: www.HVACContractorForum.com About ACHR NEWS:Established in 1926, The Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration NEWS (ACHR NEWS) is the HVACR industry's most trusted source for business insights, technical updates, and market intelligence. Serving contractors, distributors, manufacturers, and other professionals, ACHR NEWS connects buyers and sellers through its print magazine, digital editions, newsletters, podcasts, webinars, and video content. Coverage spans residential, commercial, and industrial HVACR, with expert reporting on energy management, system design, regulatory trends, and business operations.For more information, please contact:Kyle Gargaro Editorial Director, ACHR NEWS248-244-1720 kylegargaro@ achrnews.com SOURCE: HVAC Contractor Forum
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NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC, a nationally recognized law firm, notifies investors that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. ("Alexandria" or "the Company") (NYSE:ARE) and certain of its officers.Class DefinitionThis lawsuit seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws on behalf of all persons and entities that purchased or otherwise acquired Alexandria securities between January 27, 2025 and October 27, 2025, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"). Such investors are encouraged to join this case by visiting the firm's site: bgandg.com/ARE Case DetailsThe Complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Defendants provided overwhelmingly positive statements to investors while concealing material adverse facts concerning the true state of the Company's Long Island City (LIC) property; (2) The Company's claims and confidence regarding the leasing value of the LIC property as a life-science destination were misleading and lacked a reasonable basis, particularly in connection with ARE's Megacampus strategy; and (3) As a result, Defendants' statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.What's Next?A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to review a copy of the Complaint, you can visit the firm's site: bgandg.com/ARE or you may contact Peretz Bronstein, Esq. or his Client Relations Manager, Nathan Miller, of Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC at 332-239-2660. If you suffered a loss in Alexandria you have until January 26, 2026, to request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as lead plaintiff.There is No Cost to YouWe represent investors in class actions on a contingency fee basis. That means we will ask the court to reimburse us for out-of-pocket expenses and attorneys' fees, usually a percentage of the total recovery, only if we are successful.Why Bronstein, Gewirtz & GrossmanBronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC is a nationally recognized firm that represents investors in securities fraud class actions and shareholder derivative suits. Our firm has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors nationwide.Follow us for updates on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, or Instagram.Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.ContactBronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLCPeretz Bronstein or Nathan Miller332-239-2660 | info@ bgandg.com SOURCE: Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC
PR-Inside.com: 2025-12-02 18:27:10

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NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / Byzfunder NY LLC ("Byzfunder") recently suffered a data breach that compromised the sensitive personal data of individuals. This data breach has led to concerns over the security of sensitive personal information entrusted to Byzfunder.WHAT'S THIS ABOUT?On September 19, 2025, Byzfunder became aware of a security incident involving one of its cloud software solutions. Upon detection, Byzfunder launched an investigation with the assistance of third-party cybersecurity experts to determine the nature and scope of the incident.The investigation determined that an unauthorized third party may have accessed or acquired certain files between September 1, 2025, and September 20, 2025. Byzfunder conducted a comprehensive review of the impacted data to determine what information was compromised and identify affected individuals.The impacted data may include names, and Social Security numbers.On November 19, 2025, Byzfunder submitted a notice to the Maine Attorney General's Office and began sending notice letters to impacted individuals. Compensation may be available for those individuals who receive notice that their sensitive personal information was compromised.WHY YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO COMPENSATION?Data breaches are serious matters that can cause long-term damage. Hackers may use stolen information to commit identity theft, financial fraud, or other crimes. Companies that fail to secure your personal data may be held liable for the resulting harm.HOW DO I KNOW IF I WAS AFFECTED?If you received a data breach notification letter from Byzfunder NY LLC, you are likely to be affected. Follow the link below to find out if you may be eligible for compensation.Levi & Korsinsky, LLP is investigating whether affected individuals are entitled to compensation. There is no cost or obligation to participate. Follow the link below to find out:Levi & Korsinsky, LLP is a nationally recognized consumer advocacy law firm that has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars against large corporations. The firm's team of over 70 extraordinary attorneys and professionals have a winning track record going against the most powerful defense attorneys in the world and know how to maximize your compensation. Our firm works on a 100% contingency fee basis - you pay nothing unless we win your case! Visit our website to learn more.Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.CONTACT: Levi & Korsinsky, LLPJoseph E. Levi, Esq.Ed Korsinsky, Esq.33 Whitehall Street, 27th FloorNew York, NY 10004 jlevi@ levikorsinsky.com Tel: (212) 363-7500Fax: (212) 363-7171 https://zlk.com/ SOURCE: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP
PR-Inside.com: 2025-12-02 18:32:05

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NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / California Casualty Indemnity Exchange, California Casualty Insurance Company, California Casualty & Fire Insurance Company, or California Casualty General Insurance Company of Oregon ("California Casualty") recently suffered a data breach that compromised the sensitive personal information of individuals. This data breach has led to concerns over the security of sensitive personal information entrusted to California Casualty.WHAT'S THIS ABOUT?California Casualty recently became aware of suspicious activity on its IT network. Upon detection, California Casualty launched an investigation with the assistance of a third-party cybersecurity firm to determine the nature and scope of the incident. The investigation determined that an unauthorized third party gained access to the California Casualty's IT network between September 2, 2025, and September 8, 2025.The impacted data may include names, Social Security numbers, driver's license or state identification numbers, dates of birth, tax identification numbers, and financial account numbers.On November 19, 2025, California Casualty filed a notice with the Attorney General of Maine and may soon begin mailing notification letters to impacted individuals. Compensation may be available for those individuals who receive notice that their sensitive personal information was compromised.WHY YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO COMPENSATION?Data breaches are serious matters that can cause long-term damage. Hackers may use stolen information to commit identity theft, financial fraud, or other crimes. Companies that fail to secure your personal data may be held liable for the resulting harm.HOW DO I KNOW IF I WAS AFFECTED?If you received a data breach notification letter from California Casualty Companies, you are likely to be affected. Follow the link below to find out if you may be eligible for compensation.Levi & Korsinsky, LLP is investigating whether affected individuals are entitled to compensation. There is no cost or obligation to participate. Follow the link below to find out:Levi & Korsinsky, LLP is a nationally recognized consumer advocacy law firm that has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars against large corporations. The firm's team of over 70 extraordinary attorneys and professionals have a winning track record going against the most powerful defense attorneys in the world and know how to maximize your compensation. Our firm works on a 100% contingency fee basis - you pay nothing unless we win your case! Visit our website to learn more.Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.CONTACT: Levi & Korsinsky, LLPJoseph E. Levi, Esq.Ed Korsinsky, Esq.33 Whitehall Street, 27th FloorNew York, NY 10004 jlevi@ levikorsinsky.com Tel: (212) 363-7500Fax: (212) 363-7171 https://zlk.com/ SOURCE: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP
PR-Inside.com: 2025-12-02 18:17:07

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NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / Consero Global LLC ("Consero") recently suffered a data breach that compromised the sensitive personal data of individuals. This data breach has led to concerns over the security of sensitive personal information entrusted to Consero.WHAT'S THIS ABOUT?On July 4, 2025, Consero Global LLC became aware of a security incident within its environment. Upon detection, Consero launched an investigation with the assistance of third-party cybersecurity experts to determine the nature and scope of the incident. The investigation determined that an unauthorized third party gained access to and possibly acquired certain files within the Consero environment between April 27, 2025, and July 4, 2025.Consero is a service provider for Propeller Industries, a company that offers finance and accounting services. In connection with its processing services for Propeller Industries, Consero had access to certain sensitive information that originated from Propeller. As part of the breach, this information may have been included in the impacted files. The impacted data may include names and Social Security numbers.On October 23, 2025, Consero began sending notification letters to impacted individuals and on November 14, 2025, filed a notice with the Attorney General of California. Compensation may be available for those individuals who receive notice that their sensitive personal information was compromised.WHY YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO COMPENSATION?Data breaches are serious matters that can cause long-term damage. Hackers may use stolen information to commit identity theft, financial fraud, or other crimes. Companies that fail to secure your personal data may be held liable for the resulting harm.HOW DO I KNOW IF I WAS AFFECTED?If you received a data breach notification letter from Consero Global LLC, you are likely to be affected. Follow the link below to find out if you may be eligible for compensation.Levi & Korsinsky, LLP is investigating whether affected individuals are entitled to compensation. There is no cost or obligation to participate. Follow the link below to find out:Levi & Korsinsky, LLP is a nationally recognized consumer advocacy law firm that has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars against large corporations. The firm's team of over 70 extraordinary attorneys and professionals have a winning track record going against the most powerful defense attorneys in the world and know how to maximize your compensation. Our firm works on a 100% contingency fee basis - you pay nothing unless we win your case! Visit our website to learn more.Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.CONTACT: Levi & Korsinsky, LLPJoseph E. Levi, Esq.Ed Korsinsky, Esq.33 Whitehall Street, 27th FloorNew York, NY 10004 jlevi@ levikorsinsky.com Tel: (212) 363-7500Fax: (212) 363-7171 https://zlk.com/ SOURCE: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP
PR-Inside.com: 2025-12-02 19:00:24

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NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / CoVantage Credit Union ("CoVantage") recently suffered a data breach through its third-party vendor, Marquis Software Solutions ("Marquis")that compromised the sensitive personal data of individuals. This data breach has led to concerns over the security of sensitive personal information entrusted to CoVantage.WHAT'S THIS ABOUT?On August 14, 2025, CoVantage Credit Union learned that its third-party vendor, Marquis Software Solutions, experienced a cybersecurity incident affecting Marquis' internal environment. The unauthorized access occurred within Marquis's network environment rather than CoVantage's own internal systems; where certain files containing personal information related to CoVantage's customers were stored.Marquis reviewed the compromised files and launched an internal investigation with the assistance of cybersecurity experts. On October 27, 2025, Marquis determined that files containing CoVantage customers' information had been accessed or acquired.The impacted data may include names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, financial account information, and dates of birth.On November 26, 2025, CoVantage filed a notice with the Attorney General of Maine and began notifying affected individuals. Compensation may be available for those individuals who receive notice that their sensitive personal information was compromised.WHY YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO COMPENSATION?Data breaches are serious matters that can cause long-term damage. Hackers may use stolen information to commit identity theft, financial fraud, or other crimes. Companies that fail to secure your personal data may be held liable for the resulting harm.HOW DO I KNOW IF I WAS AFFECTED?If you received a data breach notification letter from CoVantage Credit Union, you are likely to be affected. Follow the link below to find out if you may be eligible for compensation.Levi & Korsinsky, LLP is investigating whether affected individuals are entitled to compensation. There is no cost or obligation to participate. Follow the link below to find out:Levi & Korsinsky, LLP is a nationally recognized consumer advocacy law firm that has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars against large corporations. The firm's team of over 70 extraordinary attorneys and professionals have a winning track record going against the most powerful defense attorneys in the world and know how to maximize your compensation. Our firm works on a 100% contingency fee basis - you pay nothing unless we win your case! Visit our website to learn more. Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.CONTACT: Levi & Korsinsky, LLPJoseph E. Levi, Esq.Ed Korsinsky, Esq.33 Whitehall Street, 27th FloorNew York, NY 10004 jlevi@ levikorsinsky.com Tel: (212) 363-7500Fax: (212) 363-7171 https://zlk.com/ SOURCE: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP
PR-Inside.com: 2025-12-02 13:01:54

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NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC, a nationally recognized law firm, notifies investors that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Freeport-McMoRan Inc. ("Freeport" or "the Company") (NYSE:FCX) and certain of its officers.Class DefinitionThis lawsuit seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws on behalf of all persons and entities that purchased or otherwise acquired Freeport securities between February 15, 2022 and September 24, 2025, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"). Such investors are encouraged to join this case by visiting the firm's site: bgandg.com/FCX Case DetailsThe Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Freeport did not adequately ensure safety at the Grasberg Block Cave mine in Indonesia; (2) the lack of proper safety precautions constituted a heightened risk that could foreseeably lead to the death of Freeport's workers; (3) this constituted an undisclosed heightened risk of regulatory, litigation, and reputational risk; and (4) as a result, defendants statements about Freeport-McMoRan's business, operations, and prospects were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.What's Next?A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to review a copy of the Complaint, you can visit the firm's site: bgandg.com/FCX or you may contact Peretz Bronstein, Esq. or his Client Relations Manager, Nathan Miller, of Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC at 332-239-2660. If you suffered a loss in Freeport you have until January 12, 2026, to request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as lead plaintiff.There is No Cost to YouWe represent investors in class actions on a contingency fee basis. That means we will ask the court to reimburse us for out-of-pocket expenses and attorneys' fees, usually a percentage of the total recovery, only if we are successful.Why Bronstein, Gewirtz & GrossmanBronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC is a nationally recognized firm that represents investors in securities fraud class actions and shareholder derivative suits. Our firm has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors nationwide.Follow us for updates on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, or Instagram.Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.ContactBronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLCPeretz Bronstein or Nathan Miller332-239-2660 | info@ bgandg.com SOURCE: Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC
PR-Inside.com: 2025-12-02 18:27:07

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NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / WEL Companies, Inc. ("WEL") recently suffered a data breach that compromised the sensitive personal data of individuals. This data breach has led to concerns over the security of sensitive personal information entrusted to WEL.WHAT'S THIS ABOUT?On January 31, 2025, WEL became aware of a security incident on its network. Upon detection, WEL launched an investigation with the assistance of third-party cybersecurity experts to determine the nature and scope of the incident. The investigation determined that an unauthorized third party acquired certain files on WEL's network.The impacted data may include names, Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, and state identification numbers.On November 19, 2025, WEL filed a notice with the Attorney General of Maine and began sending notice letters to impacted individuals. Compensation may be available for those individuals who receive notice that their sensitive personal information was compromised.WHY YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO COMPENSATION?Data breaches are serious matters that can cause long-term damage. Hackers may use stolen information to commit identity theft, financial fraud, or other crimes. Companies that fail to secure your personal data may be held liable for the resulting harm.HOW DO I KNOW IF I WAS AFFECTED?If you received a data breach notification letter from WEL Companies, Inc., you are likely to be affected. Follow the link below to find out if you may be eligible for compensation.Levi & Korsinsky, LLP is investigating whether affected individuals are entitled to compensation. There is no cost or obligation to participate. Follow the link below to find out:Levi & Korsinsky, LLP is a nationally recognized consumer advocacy law firm that has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars against large corporations. The firm's team of over 70 extraordinary attorneys and professionals have a winning track record going against the most powerful defense attorneys in the world and know how to maximize your compensation. Our firm works on a 100% contingency fee basis - you pay nothing unless we win your case! Visit our website to learn more.Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.CONTACT: Levi & Korsinsky, LLPJoseph E. Levi, Esq.Ed Korsinsky, Esq.33 Whitehall Street, 27th FloorNew York, NY 10004 jlevi@ levikorsinsky.com Tel: (212) 363-7500Fax: (212) 363-7171 https://zlk.com/ SOURCE: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP
PR-Inside.com: 2025-12-02 13:02:25

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Not for distribution to United States newswire services or for release, publication, distribution or dissemination, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, in or into the United States.VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 /KALO GOLD CORP. (TSXV:KALO) ("Kalo", "Kalo Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a non-brokered private placement under the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption (as defined herein) of up to 9,687,500 post-consolidation units (the "Unit") at $0.32 per Unit (the "Offering Price") for gross proceeds of up to $3,100,000 (the "LIFE Offering"). Concurrently, the Company intends to issue up to 38,750,000 Units at the Offering Price for gross proceeds of up to $12,400,000 (the "Concurrent Offering", and together with the LIFE Offering, the "Offerings") for total aggregate proceeds of $15,500,000. All securities to be issued pursuant to the Offerings shall be issued on a post 4:1 consolidated basis.Each Unit will consist of one post-consolidation common share (each, a "Share") in the capital of the Company and one-half of one post-consolidation common share purchase warrant (each, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant is exercisable for one post-consolidation Share at the exercise price of $0.50 for a period of thirty-six months from the date of issue. In addition, the expiry date of the Warrants is subject to acceleration if the volume weighted average trading price of the Shares on the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV") (or such other stock exchange where the Shares are then listed or quoted) is greater than $0.75 for a period of twenty (20) consecutive trading days, in which case the expiry date of the Warrants may be accelerated to a date that is thirty (30) days following the date the Company provides notice to the Warrant holders, by way of a news release, that the expiry date has been accelerated.Prior to closing the Offerings and subject to TSXV approval, the Company shall complete a share consolidation of its outstanding Shares on the basis of four (4) pre-consolidation Shares for every one (1) post-consolidation Share.The LIFE Offering is being conducted under the listed issuer financing exemption as per Part 5A of National Instrument 45-106 - Prospectus Exemptions, as amended by Coordinated Blanket Order 45-935 - Exemptions from Certain Conditions of the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption(the "Listed Issuer Financing Exemption"). As a result, the securities acquired under the LIFE Offering by investors resident in Canada will not be subject to a hold period pursuant to applicable Canadian securities laws. Provided, however, that any Warrants issued pursuant to the LIFE Offering are not exercisable within 60 days. All securities acquired pursuant to the Concurrent Offering will be subject to a hold period of four (4) months pursuant to applicable Canadian securities laws.The Company may pay a finder's fee to eligible arm's length finders in connection with the Offerings within the maximum amount permitted by the policies of the TSXV.An Offering Document related to the LIFE Offering is available on the Company's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca and on www.kalogoldcorp.com . Potential investors are advised to thoroughly review this document prior to making any investment decisions.The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Offerings for drilling and exploration on the Vatu Aurum Project and working capital, marketing and general corporate purposes. Closing of the LIFE Offering is expected to occur as soon as practicable and may occur in one or more tranches.This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in the United States. The securities described herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons (as defined in the U.S. Securities Act) unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available. This press release is not for distribution to U.S. newswire services nor for dissemination in the United States. Any failure to comply with this restriction may constitute a violation of U.S. securities laws.About Kalo Gold Corp.Kalo Gold Corp., a gold exploration company, focused on epithermal gold deposits on the Company's Vatu Aurum Project, located on Vanua Levu (North Island). Kalo holds 100% of two Special Prospecting Licenses covering 367 km, encompassing a regional back-arc basin with volcanic calderas. Historical and ongoing exploration has identified numerous priority epithermal gold targets.On behalf of the Board of Directors of Kalo Gold Corp.Terry L. Tucker, P. Geo.President and Chief Executive OfficerKevin Ma, CPA, CAExecutive Vice President, Capital Markets and DirectorFor more information, please write to info@ kalogoldcorp.com Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.Forward Looking Statements DisclaimerThis press release may contain certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") related to the closing of the Offerings, use of proceeds and other such future events and Kalo's future business, operations, and financial performance and condition. Forward-looking statements normally contain words like "will", "intend", "anticipate", "could", "should", "may", "might", "expect", "estimate", "forecast", "plan", "potential", "project", "assume", "contemplate", "believe", "shall", "scheduled", and similar terms. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, actions, or developments and are based on expectations, assumptions, and other factors that management currently believes are relevant, reasonable, and appropriate in the circumstances. Although management believes that the forward-looking statements herein are reasonable, actual results could be substantially different due to the risks and uncertainties associated with and inherent to Kalo's business. Additional material risks and uncertainties applicable to the forward-looking statements herein include, without limitation, the impact of general economic conditions, and unforeseen events and developments. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect the Company's forward-looking statements. Many of these factors are beyond the control of Kalo. All for
PR-Inside.com: 2025-12-02 18:15:08

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NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / Norway Savings Bank ("NSB") recently suffered a data breach through its third-party vendor, Marquis Software Solutions ("Marquis"), that compromised the sensitive personal data of individuals. This data breach has led to concerns over the security of sensitive personal information entrusted to NSB.WHAT'S THIS ABOUT?On August 14, 2025, Marquis, a third-party data services provider used by Norway Savings Bank, experienced a security incident. The incident did not involve NSB's internal systems. Upon learning of the incident, NSB received regular investigative updates from Marquis and engaged cybersecurity experts to determine the nature and scope of the incident, including whether NSB's customer information was impacted.The impacted data may includenames, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, tax identification numbers, andfinancial account information.On November 20, 2025, Marquisfiled a notice with the office of the Attorney General of Maine and began notifying individuals.Compensation may be available for those individuals who receive notice that their sensitive personalinformation was compromised.WHY YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO COMPENSATION?Data breaches are serious matters that can cause long-term damage. Hackers may use stolen information to commit identity theft, financial fraud, or other crimes. Companies that fail to secure your personal data may be held liable for the resulting harm.HOW DO I KNOW IF I WAS AFFECTED?If you received a data breach notification letter from Norway Savings Bank, you are likely to be affected. Follow the link below to find out if you may be eligible for compensation.Levi & Korsinsky, LLP is investigating whether affected individuals are entitled to compensation. There is no cost or obligation to participate. Follow the link below to find out:Levi & Korsinsky, LLP is a nationally recognized consumer advocacy law firm that has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars against large corporations. The firm's team of over 70 extraordinary attorneys and professionals have a winning track record going against the most powerful defense attorneys in the world and know how to maximize your compensation. Our firm works on a 100% contingency fee basis - you pay nothing unless we win your case! Visit our website to learn more. Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.CONTACT: Levi & Korsinsky, LLPJoseph E. Levi, Esq.Ed Korsinsky, Esq.33 Whitehall Street, 27th FloorNew York, NY 10004 jlevi@ levikorsinsky.com Tel: (212) 363-7500Fax: (212) 363-7171 https://zlk.com/ SOURCE: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP
PR-Inside.com: 2025-12-02 18:29:06

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NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC ("Merck") recently suffered a data breach that compromised the sensitive personal data of individuals. This data breach has led to concerns over the security of sensitive personal information entrusted to Merck.WHAT'S THIS ABOUT?On September 22, 2025, Merck was informed by Graebel Companies, Inc. that it had identified Merck data within files impacted by a security incident in its systems.After receiving this information from Graebel, Merck performed an internal review and, on October 20, 2025, determined that certain Merck current and former employees' personal information was included in the data impacted by Graebel's security incident. On November 7, 2025, Merck began notifying affected employees.The impacted data may include names and financial account information.On November 17, 2025, Merck filed a notice with the Massachusetts Attorney General's office. Compensation may be available for those individuals who receive notice that their sensitive personal information was compromised.WHY YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO COMPENSATION?Data breaches are serious matters that can cause long-term damage. Hackers may use stolen information to commit identity theft, financial fraud, or other crimes. Companies that fail to secure your personal data may be held liable for the resulting harm.HOW DO I KNOW IF I WAS AFFECTED?If you received a data breach notification letter from Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, you are likely to be affected. Follow the link below to find out if you may be eligible for compensation.Levi & Korsinsky, LLP is investigating whether affected individuals are entitled to compensation. There is no cost or obligation to participate. Follow the link below to find out:Levi & Korsinsky, LLP is a nationally recognized consumer advocacy law firm that has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars against large corporations. The firm's team of over 70 extraordinary attorneys and professionals have a winning track record going against the most powerful defense attorneys in the world and know how to maximize your compensation. Our firm works on a 100% contingency fee basis - you pay nothing unless we win your case! Visit our website to learn more.Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.CONTACT: Levi & Korsinsky, LLPJoseph E. Levi, Esq.Ed Korsinsky, Esq.33 Whitehall Street, 27th FloorNew York, NY 10004 jlevi@ levikorsinsky.com Tel: (212) 363-7500Fax: (212) 363-7171 https://zlk.com/ SOURCE: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP
PR-Inside.com: 2025-12-02 04:50:09

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NEW YORK CITY, NY AND NEW ORLEANS, LA / ACCESS Newswire / December 1, 2025 /Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, the former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have untilDecember 2, 2025to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Molina Healthcare, Inc. ("Molina" or the "Company") (NYSE:MOH), if they purchased or otherwise acquired the Company's securities between February 5, 2025 and July 23, 2025, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.What You May DoIf you purchased securities of Molina and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email ( lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com) , or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-moh/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action by overseeing lead counsel with the goal of obtaining a fair and just resolution, you must request this position by application to the Court byDecember 2, 2025 .About the LawsuitMolina and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.On July 23, 2025, the Company reported its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2025 and cut its full-year 2025 earnings guidance, disclosing that "GAAP net income was $4.75 per diluted share for the second quarter of 2025, a decrease of 8% year over year" and it "now expects its full year 2025 adjusted earnings to be no less than $19.00 per diluted share," due to a "challenging medical cost trend environment," including "utilization of behavioral health, pharmacy, and inpatient and outpatient services." On this news, the price of Molina's shares fell $32.03, or 16.84%, to close at $158.22 per share on July 24, 2025, on unusually heavy trading volume.The case is Hindlemann v. Molina Healthcare, Inc., et al., No. 25-cv-09461.About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLCKSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. This past year, KSF was ranked by SCAS among the top 10 firms nationally based upon total settlement value. KSF serves a variety of clients, including public and private institutional investors, and retail investors - in seeking recoveries for investment losses emanating from corporate fraud or malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, Delaware, California, Louisiana, Chicago, and a representative office in Luxembourg.TOP 10 Plaintiff Law Firms - According to ISS Securities Class Action ServicesTo learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com Contact:Kahn Swick & Foti, LLCLewis Kahn, Managing Partnerlewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com1-877-515-18501100 Poydras St., Suite 960New Orleans, LA 70163CONNECT WITH US: Facebook || Instagram || YouTube || TikTok || LinkedInSOURCE: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC
PR-Inside.com: 2025-12-02 13:05:06

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Focused on advancing its strategy for sustainable, scalable expansion, the Company unveils its refreshed brand identity, outlines its integrated farm-to-shelf model and details its disciplined path for future growth.VANCOUVER, BC AND BREDA, NETHERLANDS / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / Organto Foods Inc. ("Organto" or "the Company"), (TSXV:OGO)(OTCQX:OGOFF)(FSE:OGF0), a leading provider of organic and fairtrade fruit and vegetable products, today announced key milestones underscoring its transformation into a stronger, more disciplined and growth-ready organization. Following a 21-month restructuring, the Company has streamlined operations and strengthened both its balance sheet and financial performance, positioning it for sustained, profitable expansion."Organto today is fundamentally sounder and better positioned for scalable growth," said Steve Bromley, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Chair of Organto. "Over the past almost two years, we've repositioned and streamlined our business, strengthened our financial foundation and demonstrated our ability to grow both quickly and responsibly. With disciplined execution and a clear strategy, we're advancing our integrated asset-efficient model, with plans to broaden our product portfolio and create long-term value for shareholders." Transformation Milestones and Momentum Following a comprehensive 21-month restructuring, Organto has repositioned itself for scalable, sustainable growth:Strong performance: YTD Q3 2025 sales of $45.9M, up 222% year-over-year and cash operating costs as a percentage of sales reduced to 7.3% from 13.4% in the prior year, with adjusted EBITDA performance improvement year-over-year, realizing the Company's first ever positive EBITDA quarter in Q1 2025.Integrated operations: Organto's operations have been fully integrated, managing sourcing, logistics, quality control, certification and retail execution across key European markets.Asset-efficient model: Scalable supply chain connecting certified organic growers to leading retailers year-round, optimizing cost, speed, and sustainability across markets, and positioning for further optimization of digitally connected technologies.Strengthened balance sheet: Eliminated all convertible debt, improved liquidity, established new financing and foreign exchange facilities with a premier bank with deep roots in the agricultural and food sectors and established a leaner, greener and asset-efficient operating model.Expanded retail relationships: Serving a growing network of leading European grocers under branded, private-label, and direct-distribution programs with recurring annual commitments.Foundation for growth: Positioned to expand fresh product categories, evaluate market entry into North America and entry into adjacent value-added ingredient and consumer product segments.A Refreshed Brand for a Reinvigorated Vision To mark this new chapter the Company is today launching its modernized brand image - including an updated logo, visual system and digital presence. The move reflects the Company's evolution into an integrated global ecosystem and aligns its visual identity with its operational structure and long-term vision, reinforcing its position as a trusted partner in transparent and responsible food systems.The Company's guiding principles, represented by the three symbolic leaves in its new logo, reflect the foundation of this ecosystem:Healthy: Providing nutritious, responsibly sourced foods that meet growing consumer demand.Value-Driven: Creating opportunity and shared value for growers, partners, customers, team members and shareholders.Sustainable: Embedding transparency, traceability, and ethical practices across every stage of its operations."These three principles guide what we do, from how we source and operate to how we work and grow with our partners," added Steve Bromley. "They lead our actions with the goal of ensuring that as we scale, profitability and purpose stay aligned across our global network." An Integrated Global Ecosystem At the heart of Organto's renewed strategy is a clear purpose: to make healthy, sustainable foods reliably available through a responsible, connected global network.Guided by this mission, Organto operates as an integrated ecosystem connecting sustainable growers, partners and retailers through an asset-efficient supply chain. By combining global sourcing, logistics and in-market retail execution, Organto transforms traditionally fragmented value chains into a coordinated farm-to-shelf system, delivering year-round availability, full traceability and scalable efficiency."Our integrated ecosystem connects key part of the supply chain - from grower to retailer - allowing us to minimize waste, improve efficiency and create shared value for each of our partners," commented Steve Bromley. "Together, we are championing a smarter, more sustainable way to bring organic foods to the world." Built On Transparency, Trust, And Responsible Growth Organto's success is underpinned by a disciplined operating culture, strong governance, and a commitment to transparency at every level of its business.Governance and Leadership: Led by a seasoned management team with decades of experience in global food systems, finance, and organics, Organto is structured for accountability and performance. A streamlined governance model ensures clear oversight, data-driven decision-making and disciplined capital allocation.Product Integrity: Organto's products meet rigorous global standards, including Organic, Fairtrade, Global G.A.P., and other certifications.Transparency and Traceability: Products are tracked from field to shelf through SKU-level audit trails, offering visibility into product origin, quality, and environmental impact.Sustainability Commitment: Organto embeds sustainability and ethical sourcing into its business model - supporting fairtrade practices and living wages across its growing regions. By minimizing waste, optimizing transport and embracing data-driven efficiencies, Organto aligns performance with environmental stewardship.Year-Round Supply and Scale: Through its "follow-the-sun" sourcing network and strategically located entry ports and distribution hubs, Organto targets to provide consistent year-round availability of high-demand categories.Established Customer Base: Organto serves a growing network of leading retail and distribution partners across Europe, including several of the continent's largest grocery chains.Positioned For Continued Growth Backed by a lean, asset-efficient model and strong category expertise, Organto is well positioned to capitalize on acce
PR-Inside.com: 2025-12-02 18:24:09

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NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / Personic Management Company LLC d/b/a Personic Health ("Personic") recently suffered a data breach that compromised the sensitive personal and protected health data of individuals. This data breach has led to concerns over the security of sensitive personal and protected health information entrusted to Personic.WHAT'S THIS ABOUT?On September 1, 2025, Personic became aware of unauthorized activity affecting a third-party software platform used to process patient information. Upon learning of this unauthorized activity, Personic launched a comprehensive investigation with the support of external cybersecurity experts and notified law enforcement. The investigation determined that an unauthorized actor had accessed the third-party software platform on August 29, 2025, and obtained certain data.The impacted data may include names and protected health information (PHI).On November 18, 2025, Personic filed a notice with the office of the Attorney General of Maine and began sending notice letters to impacted individuals. Compensation may be available for those individuals who receive notice that their sensitive personal information was compromised.WHY YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO COMPENSATION?Data breaches are serious matters that can cause long-term damage. Hackers may use stolen information to commit identity theft, financial fraud, or other crimes. Companies that fail to secure your personal data may be held liable for the resulting harm.HOW DO I KNOW IF I WAS AFFECTED?If you received a data breach notification letter from Personic Management Company LLC, you are likely to be affected. Follow the link below to find out if you may be eligible for compensation.Levi & Korsinsky, LLP is investigating whether affected individuals are entitled to compensation. There is no cost or obligation to participate. Follow the link below to find out:Levi & Korsinsky, LLP is a nationally recognized consumer advocacy law firm that has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars against large corporations. The firm's team of over 70 extraordinary attorneys and professionals have a winning track record going against the most powerful defense attorneys in the world and know how to maximize your compensation. Our firm works on a 100% contingency fee basis - you pay nothing unless we win your case! Visit our website to learn more.Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.CONTACT: Levi & Korsinsky, LLPJoseph E. Levi, Esq.Ed Korsinsky, Esq.33 Whitehall Street, 27th FloorNew York, NY 10004 jlevi@ levikorsinsky.com Tel: (212) 363-7500Fax: (212) 363-7171 https://zlk.com/ SOURCE: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP
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Expanding energy and infrastructure training slots will connect more career seekers to high-quality jobs across Southeastern Pennsylvania through the Regional Good Jobs Challenge.PHILADELPHIA, PA / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / Philadelphia Works, Inc., along with the Good Jobs Challenge Steering Committee in Southeastern PA, are excited to announce a diverse, regional set of selected training providers who will empower individuals with the skills necessary for in-demand jobs in Energy and Infrastructure. These fully funded training opportunities will help drive the Good Job Challenge's efforts to connect up to 3,000 residents to quality jobs across Bucks, Berks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties."This expansion marks a pivotal moment for Southeastern Pennsylvania's workforce," said Patrick Clancy, President & CEO of Philadelphia Works. "Through the Good Jobs Challenge, we're not only preparing individuals for family-sustaining careers in energy and infrastructure, we're also strengthening the regional economy by ensuring employers have access to a skilled and diverse talent pipeline." Newly awarded Good Jobs Challenge training partners include:Beyond Literacy: Keystone Energy Employment ProgramCollegiate Consortium for Workforce and Economic Development (CCWED):Industrial Maintenance Mechanic - Electromechanical Technician TrainingCongreso De Latinos Unidos: Careers in TruckingConnections Work: Rebuilding Re-entrants and Reading Training ProgramFinishing Trades Institute: Women in Nontraditional Careers (WINC)I-LEAD: Infrastructure Pre-Apprenticeship TrainingJEVS: Air Conditioning, Refrigeration & Heating TrainingPowerCorps PHL: Green Skilled Trades AcademyTiger Electrical Academy:Electrical Skills Training"The Finishing Trades Institute of the Mid-Atlantic Region (FTI) is committed to advancing equitable access to high-quality careers in the union construction finishing trades. Our Women in Non-Traditional Careers (WINC) Pre-Apprenticeship Program reflects this mission by opening pathways for women to succeed in trades where they have been historically underrepresented. WINC graduates are able to successfully apply and thrive in the Philadelphia Union Building Trades. Aiming to serve Philadelphia residents, WINC not only uplifts participants but strengthens families, supports local economies, and addresses critical labor shortages." - Erin O'Brien-Hofmann, Director of Member Engagement at the Finishing Trades Institute"At Beyond Literacy, we see every day how access to career preparation transforms lives. Thanks to the Good Jobs Challenge grant, our learners are not only gaining the skills to succeed in high-demand energy careers, but they're also connecting directly with employers who are eager to hire them. This partnership creates a win-win - our learners achieve stability and growth, while regional employers gain a skilled and diverse workforce."- Kimmell Proctor, Beyond Literacy CEOThis high-impact investment to expand training capacity in the region is funded by the Economic Development Administration (EDA), U.S. Department of Commerce. To learn more about the Good Jobs Challenge in Southeastern PA, along with details on training providers and participation opportunities for employers and job seekers, please visit www.pagoodjobs.org This press release was prepared by Philadelphia Works, Inc., using Federal funds under award ED22HDQ3070127 from the Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Economic Development Administration or the U.S. Department of Commerce.Media Contact:Jillian Mikolaizyk jillian@ logos-communications.com SOURCE: Philadelphia Works, Inc.
PR-Inside.com: 2025-12-02 19:00:12

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NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Primo Brands Corporation ("Primo Brands" or the "Company") (NYSE:PRMB). Such investors are advised to contact Danielle Peyton at newaction@ pomlaw.com or 646-581-9980, (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 7980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.The class action concerns whether Primo Brands and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.You have until January 12, 2026 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class if you purchased or otherwise acquired Primo Brands securities during the Class Period. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained atwww.pomerantzlaw.com [Click here for information about joining the class action]On June 17, 2024, Primo Water Corporation ("Primo Water") announced entry into a merger agreement (the "Merger") with an affiliate of BlueTriton Brands, Inc. ("BlueTriton"). The two companies touted the synergies of the Merger, stating that the combined company was expected to have "significant financial and operating leverage" and "enhanced distribution capabilities" which would position it "for sustained long-term growth." On November 8, 2024, the companies announced the completion of the Merger and the formation of the combined entity, Primo Brands.On August 7, 2025, Primo Brands announced its financial results for the second quarter of 2025. On an accompanying earnings call, Chief Executive Officer Robbert Rietbroek acknowledged that "[t]he speed by which we closed facilities and reduced headcount led to disruptions in product supply, delivery, and service." Following these disclosures, Primo Brands' stock price fell $2.41 per share, or 9.13%, to close at $24.00 per share on August 7, 2025.Then, on November 6, 2025, Primo Brands announced Rietbroek's departure as CEO and disclosed that the Company was drastically reducing its full year 2025 net sales and adjusted EBITDA guidance. During a corresponding earnings call, Primo Brands' new CEO Eric Foss admitted that the Company "probably moved too far too fast on some of the various integration work streams" and that "[t]here's no doubt that speed impacted our ability to get through a lot of the warehouse closures and route realignment without disruption." Foss further revealed that Primo Brands had experienced "customer service issues" as well as "integration issues related to the technology move over." On this news, Primo Brands' stock price fell $8.20 per share, or 36.19%, over the following two trading sessions, closing at $14.46 per share on November 7, 2025.Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP
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They provided risk projections for managers to choose, the chosen 20% TAC reduction yields 0% probability of overfishingUnder the 2020 ERP definitions, Atlantic menhaden are not overfished and overfishing is not occurring. For 2023, fecundity is on the order of 1.2 quadrillion eggs (above the ERP fecundity threshold but below the target) and fishing mortality is about 0.26 (above the ERP F-target but still below the ERP F-threshold). The overview also makes clear there is no single "right" ERP; selecting ERP targets and thresholds is a management choice that balances objectives for menhaden and their predators.The 2025 single-species update applied a lower estimate of natural mortality (M). That change lowers the back-calculated biomass, fecundity, and recruitment across the time series and raises the corresponding fishing mortality (F) estimates, even though the underlying population did not suddenly decline. Because of the revised M, the 2025 assessment's long-term average biomass is about a third lower than the 2022 update's average; this reflects an improved understanding of the stock rather than a real-time drop in the stock itself.The 2025 update shows that the biomass of age-1+ menhaden is just below its 20-year average but has been trending up since 2021.Adult abundance in 2023 was 14.8 billion age-1+ fish, above the average of the past 20 years.Recruitment in 2023 was 44.5 billion age-0 fish, above the average of the past 20 years.WASHINGTON, DC / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 / In the weeks since the 2025 ASMFC Annual Meeting, there's been a widespread misconception circulated by environmental and recreational fishing groups that the ASMFC Menhaden Board's technical and scientific advisors "recommended" a 50% or 54% cut" (to 108,450 mt) to the Atlantic menhaden total allowable catch (TAC), and that the Commission ignored those recommendations. That is not the case. Rather, scientists ran a set of "if-then" scenarios for managers. There were no recommendations of preferred TAC made. The Technical Committee and the ERP Working Group supply projections and risk information; the commissioners decide policy.TheAmerican Sportfishing Association (ASA),in an article by Rob Shane titled "Mixed Results from 2025 ASMFC Annual Meeting," states that "recent peer-reviewed science recommended a 54% quota cut" for Atlantic menhaden.TheNational Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA)press release "Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's Annual Meeting Ends with Mixed Results for Recreational Anglers" similarly says the Board implemented only a 20 percent reduction "despite peer-reviewed research recommending a 54% cut to the commercial quota".TheTheodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnershiphas repeatedly asserted that "slashing the coastwide catch limit by more than half" or "more than 50 percent" is needed to follow the science in "Menhaden Stock Assessment Indicates Catch Must Be Reduced to Benefit Striped Bass" and again in"Marine Fisheries Board Declines to Make Science-Based Reduction to Atlantic Menhaden Catch Limit".TheAmerican Saltwater Guides Associationwent further, urging "massive reductions" and telling readers that "the bottom line is we need a 55% reduction in the TAC for Atlantic menhaden" in "Take The Cut: Massive Reductions for Menhaden Industry Necessary").TheChesapeake Bay Foundation , in a press release by Vanessa Remmers titled "Menhaden Management Meeting Results in Lackluster Coastwide Catch Reductions" , told supporters that "The ASMFC menhaden stock assessments resulted in forecasts indicating the need for a 54 percent cut to the menhaden harvest to meet the needs of predators like striped bass, osprey, and marine mammals." Jim McDuffie, President and CEO ofBonefish and Tarpon Trust , in a press statement said: "While today's vote resulted in a 20% reduction, it was far short of the reduction recommended by the Commission's own scientists.TheInternational Game Fish Associationinaccurately stated in a press release that "scientists said that a quota of 108,000 MT was necessary to have a 50% chance of success of rebuilding the striped bass fishery." Sport Fishing magazineamplified the same narrative, reporting that ASMFC "implemented a 20 percent cut to the Atlantic commercial menhaden harvest, when peer-reviewed science recommended a 54 percent quota cut, according to an ASA press release" in Nick Carter's "Anglers Frustrated with Menhaden Management".AWashington Postguest essay "It's the most important fish in the sea.' And it's disappearing." by Mark Robichaux, framed the controversy around the idea that managers failed to adopt the deep cuts "scientists recommend" to protect striped bass and other predators (Washington Post Opinions: Guest Opinions, Nov. 20, 2025 -a full-text mirror is here .A thorough review of all the meeting materials and reports, and of the entire recording of the meeting available online, shows there is nowhere where the Technical Committee (TC) or the ERP Working Group "recommends" a 54% cut, or any specific TAC. Staff consistently present options and risks at the Board's request, not a recommendation. The only time a 54% cut is presented as a recommendation is when Commissioner Matt Gates of Connecticut incorrectly described the option provided at the Board's request as a recommendation. His motion reads: "I would like to make the motion for the TAC recommended in the TC and working groups memo that achieves a 50% probability of achieving the ecological reference point F target move to set the TAC at 108,450 metric tons."The TC and Working Group staff members produced exactly what the Board asked for. At the Spring 2025 meeting of the Menhaden management board, "The Board requested the projections include the TACs associated with a 40-60% probability of exceeding the ERP F target for 2026-2028 combined and as separate years, and the percent risk of exceeding the ERP F target and threshold for nine different TACs ranging from -20% to +20% of the current TAC in 5% increments when it considers specifications for the next one to three years at the Annual Meeting." ( 2025 Spring Meeting Summary p.15 ).This request resulted in tables showing TAC options tied to specified probabilities of exceeding the ERP F-target (and the chance of exceeding the overfishing threshold) across TACs. Those summary tables were explicitly referenced during debate as "tables four and five PDF pages 68, 69 of the board material." Those tables included all the projections requestedincluding the TACs associated with a 40-60% probability of exceeding the ERP F target for 2026-2028 one of
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North America's premier flooring, stone and tile event features 650+ global brands, comprehensive education program and cutting-edge show floor demonstrations.LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 /The International Surface Event (tise), North America's largest and most influential gathering for flooring, stone and tile professionals, delivers an all-encompassing experience featuring the latest products, trends and technologies that are shaping the future of the industry. The 2026 expo will be held January 27-29 (education January 26-29) at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.Expo Halltise brings together 650+ international and domestic brands showcasing thousands of cutting-edge products and solutions to a diverse audience, including retailers, distributors, contractors, installers, fabricators, designers and architects. As the ultimate destination for discovering innovative materials, tise provides a unique platform for brands to connect with key decision-makers and industry professionals, driving innovation and growth across the flooring, stone and tile sectors. Product categories across six pavilions will feature the latest in carpet, countertops, hardwood, machinery and tools, mineral and solid surfaces, rugs, wool, stone and tile.Comprehensive Educationtise elevates professional development with four full days of education programming designed to address the evolving needs of today's industry professionals. Running Monday through Thursday, education offers both on-floor and classroom learning opportunities, including live demonstrations on the show floor where attendees can experience products firsthand. Covering a diverse range of topics such as technical expertise, business strategies, design trends, demos and industry insights ensures valuable takeaways for every professional. For an enhanced experience, the Pulse sessions, part of the Premier Package, provide exclusive access to specialized content and expert-led discussions, delivering premium educational opportunities to attendees.Featured Show Floor Experiencestise will introduce enhanced show floor features designed to maximize the attendee experience and facilitate meaningful connections. The COVERConnect Pavilion is an exclusive showcase featuring high-end rugs. This specialized pavilion demonstrates the artistry and craftsmanship that define luxury rugs. Additional show floor features include dedicated neighborhoods for Surfaces and Tile + Stone, interactive product demonstrations and networking zones for strategic collaboration and business development.Industry Leading ExhibitorsThe 2026 event will bring together industry powerhouses and emerging innovators to create a comprehensive marketplace. Featured exhibitors include Mohawk Industries, Mannington Mills, Shaw, AHF Products, Engineered Floors, Stanton Design, QEP/Roberts, Cambria, MS International, BACA, and Biesse.Global Convergence"The International Surface Event remains the definitive platform where all of the latest technologies, products and solutions are available in one place," shares Amie Gilmore, Show Director, tise. "Our carefully curated showcase brings together influential professionals from across the flooring, stone and tile sectors, as well as attendees from around the globe, creating a dynamic environment for exploration and growth. tise is the essential resource designed to keep businesses at the forefront of industry evolution." Registration for 2026Registration is open for The International Surface Event (tise). To attend, please visitwww.intlsurfaceevent.com About tise - The International Surface Eventtise - The International Surface Event is a prestigious gathering that unites retailers, flooring distributors, contractors, fabricators, installers, architects, and designers within the flooring, stone and tile industries. It serves as a platform for curated product showcases, informative seminars, networking opportunities, and hands-on experiences, all centered on innovation and education. Attendees are invited to explore the latest products, technologies, and design solutions while connecting with industry experts and peers to drive business success and stay ahead in a competitive market.For more information about tise - The International Surface Event visit www.intlsurfaceevent.com . Follow tise - The International Surface Event on LinkedIn , Facebook , Instagram , X and YouTube .About Informa Markets Informa Markets, a subsidiary of Informa plc (LON:INF), creates platforms for industries and specialist markets to trade, innovate and grow. Our portfolio comprises more than 550 international B2B events and brands in markets including Engineering, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals, Infrastructure, Construction & Real Estate, Fashion & Apparel, Hospitality, Food & Beverage, and Health & Nutrition, among others. We provide customers and partners around the globe with opportunities to engage, experience and do business through face-to-face exhibitions, specialist digital content and actionable data solutions. As the world's leading exhibitions organizer, we bring a diverse range of specialist markets to life, unlocking opportunities and helping them to thrive 365 days of the year. For more information, visit www.informamarkets.com Media Contact Informa Markets Infrastructure and Construction PR ConstructionPR@ informa.com SOURCE: INFORMA MARKETS - INFRASTRUCTURE AND CONSTRUCTION
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US Med-Equip Elves Helping Non-Profit Supporting Hospitalized Children with CancerHOUSTON, TX / ACCESS Newswire / December 2, 2025 /US Med-Equip's workshop ordinarily contains life-saving equipment for hospitals, but this Giving Tuesday Santa's elves at the "Top Workplace" also spread holiday cheer to children and families supported by B.I.G. Love Cancer Care.US Med-Equip (USME) elves are collecting toys, blankets, art supplies, cozy pajamas and more for kids spending their holidays in the hospital."Every day, our teams move mountains to help hospitals care for patients when it matters most," said Greg Salario, CEO of USME. "We get to channel that same energy into helping Santa deliver smiles to kids who need them most." Much like the company's 24/7 operations where equipment must arrive patient-ready and right on time, USME's holiday mission requires teamwork and heart. From loading delivery trucks with presents to wrapping gifts like pros, employees are proving that their workshop magic isn't limited to medical equipment.B.I.G. Love Cancer Care provides year-round comfort to families of children with cancer, offering hospital-based programs, care packages, and holiday surprises that make tough times a little brighter."Together, Santa's helpers at USME are delivering not just equipment but hope, compassion, and big love," said Jessica Phillips, CEO of B.I.G. Love.US Med-Equip partners with hospitals across the nation to provide medical equipment rentals and services on-demand from its more than 100 locations, helping healthcare heroes deliver the best patient care possible.About US Med-EquipUS Med-Equip provides top hospitals with rental and asset management solutions that help optimize operational efficiency, improve patient outcomes and reduce total cost of care. With dedicated employees across more than 100 locations, US Med-Equip supports hospitals in delivering safe, patient-ready medical equipment within 2 hours plus drive time 24/7, 365 days a year.About B.I.G. Love Cancer CareB.I.G. Love is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to easing the childhood cancer journey for patients and their families through personalized care. B.I.G. Love reaches more than 100,000 patients and their families annually at 10 Texas hospitals, 52 weeks a year.Contact InformationBuse Kayarbusek@ accessnewswire.com SOURCE: US Med-Equip
PR-Inside.com: 2025-12-02 18:17:09

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The Council Chamber of the Sir Kashim Ibrahim House was unusually tense on Monday. Gathered around its long mahogany table were the 19 Northern state governors, the Sultan of Sokoto, Saad Abubakar III, and the nations top security chiefsan assembly that has seen its share of crises, but rarely one that felt this existential.

The communique they issued at the end of their two-day summit was blunt: the North is facing a security collapse that could undermine the very existence of the region. Their twin demandsimmediate establishment of State Police and a six-month ban on miningstruck headlines nationwide.

But beneath the formal language lies a deeper ideological struggle. The North is now trapped between two fundamentally different security philosophies: the Rivers Trap, a push for federal military control that could sideline elected governors, and the Katsina Doctrine, which insists that the solution is not militarisation from Abuja but domesticationtransferring real security powers to the states.

As President Bola Tinubu weighs his response to this powerful political bloc, the future of Northern Nigeria hangs in the balance between these competing visions.

The Rivers Trap: Rising calls for military administrators

For some security analysts, the scale of violence in Zamfara, Kaduna, Niger, and parts of Kebbi has already surpassed what elected state structures can handle.

Taraba-based security analyst Ben Adaji said that declarations of emergency without changing the governance structure amount to mere symbolism. He called for a six-month period in which governors of the worst-hit states would vacate their seats temporarily to allow military administrators to assume full control.

It is no longer news that Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto, Niger, Kwara, Kaduna, and Borno have remained ungovernable for months, Mr Adaji said to Vanguard newspaper. Security matters of this nature should not be politicised. The military should be deployed to handle the affairs of the affected states.

In Kebbi, security commentator Mamman Bashar argued that President Tinubus emergency declaration fell short of what is required for a region in a wartime situation.

For this emergency to be effective, every structure of democratic governance should give way for the military to deal with the situation, he said.

To many governors, this line of argument is more than policy critiqueit is a political death sentence.

The so-called Rivers Model, inspired by the federal intervention crisis in Rivers State, evokes the spectre of sole administrators empowered to override elected leaders. In a region where governors already face plummeting public confidence, the idea that Abuja could dissolve their authority is an existential threat.

The Katsina Doctrine: Domestication over militarisation

Pushing back firmly is the counter-ideology emerging from Katsina Statethe Katsina Doctrine, championed intellectually by former DSS director and ex-Security Adviser, Ibrahim Katsina.

He dismissed calls for military administrators as a misguided shortcut that ignores the core failure of Nigerias centralised policing architecture.

The President has given clear, directional instructions, he told PREMIUM TIMES. What remains is for the action agencies and state governments to apply the containment measures he has outlined.

According to the security expert, President Tinubus emergency directive is not an invitation for federal takeover, but a signal that states must assume ownership of their internal security.

His prescription centres on ending Nigerias one-size-fits-all approach by enabling states to deploy their own tailored mechanisms  from fully constituted state police forces with explicit constitutional authority, to legally established and properly trained Community Watch Corps, as well as localised intelligence networks capable of distinguishing genuine criminal actors from ordinary residents.

The National Assembly should take cognisance of this situation and start the process of establishing state police, Mr Katsina emphasised.

Kaduna Governor Uba Sani, who hosted the meeting, reinforced this view, calling Nigerias highly centralised policing structure obsolete for a nation of over 230 million people.

We must resist politicising insecurity, he warned, urging governors to embrace reforms that shift operational power closer to affected communities.

The Mining Nexus: Cutting off bandits lifeline

A major pillar of the governors communiquethe six-month mining banreflects a growing recognition of the gold-for-guns economy fuelling insecurity.

From Zamfaras goldfields to Nigers lithium belt, banditry and illegal mining have long merged into a single criminal enterprise. Intelligence reports show armed groups now function as security contractors for mining cartels, exchanging protection for weapons and cash. By suspending mining, the governors hope to choke this financial artery.

But enforcement remains uncertain. The Nigerian Police Force is overstretched, the military is deployed across multiple fronts, and state-level security outfits lack legal firepower.

Without State Police or locally controlled armed units, the mining ban risks becoming a paper tigerroaring in the communique, but silent in the forests where the states presence is nonexistent.

The Villa vs The Village: A tale of two realities

While governors deliberated in Kaduna, the violence continued unabated.

Hours before the communique was issued, bandits stormed Tsamiya village in Shanono LGA of Kano State, abducting 11 persons, including a nursing mother. Local security chairman Yahaya Bagobiri said residents had alerted security agencies ahead of the attack.

They didnt act because they were not given any order, he said.

That single sentence captures a fatal flaw of Nigerias centralised security system: even when threats are known, local operatives often cannot act without hierarchical clearance.

Meanwhile, in Abuja, the psychological toll of the crisis surfaced when students at Government Day Secondary School, Dutse, fled in panic after mistaking patrolling soldiers for kidnappers. Their terror exposed a grim truth  when children cannot distinguish their protectors from their predators, the social contract has collapsed.

The Federal Dilemma: Tinubus choice

National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu, speaking during his visit to Kontagora over recent school abductions, promised that the rescue of pupils and restoration of security remained a top priority.

Enough is enough, he said, insisting that international partners, including the US and France, were supporting Nigerias efforts. But Nigerians have heard variations of this reassurance for over a decade.

President Tinubu now faces two divergent paths:

The Rivers Trap (Centralised military takeover): Declare a full state of emergency, suspend democratic structures, and install military administrators. Verdict: Short-term tactical gain, high political cost.

The Katsina Doctrine (Federalist security reform): Amend the constitution for State Police, strengthen community corps legally, and shift operational control to governors. Verdict: Politically risky, but operationally sustainable.

His decision will shape not only the future of the North but also the political landscape ahead of the 2027 elections.

Conclusion: A region at a crossroads

The Northern governors have made their choice. They have rejected the spectre of military rule and staked their political futures on State Police and localised security ownership.

But without constitutional amendments, the Katsina Doctrine remains a mere aspiration. And if insecurity continues to worsen, the pressure on the President to activate the Rivers Trap may become irresistible.

For now, the North stands between two paths  one that could restore local authority and another that could extinguish it. Whether the federal government grants power to the states or takes it away entirely remains the defining security question of 2026.
Since the end of October, two chartered flights carrying Palestinians have landed at South Africas OR Tambo International Airport. Many of the passengers did not have appropriate travel documents, exit stamps or any discernible travel plans. Some didnt even know where they were when the plane landed.

Passengers from the first flight were allowed to quietly enter South Africa under an existing 90-day visa exemption. Those on the second flight  including women (one pregnant) and children  were held for more than 10 hours on the tarmac while the border authorities awaited a decision to allow them to disembark or to turn the plane around.

South Africa is investigating the incidents, including if and how Israel was involved, and whether the Palestinians travelled willingly or knew where they were going. Some reportedly thought they were going to India, Malaysia and Australia.

According to an investigation by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, each passenger paid approximately $2,000 to Al-Majd, an organisation allegedly run by an Israeli-Estonian with ties to the Voluntary Emigration Bureau. The bureau is an Israeli military unit charged with the transfer of Palestinians.

Passengers on the second flight told South African civil society organisation Gift of the Givers that they boarded buses out of Gaza without proper documentation. They were then stripped of their belongings by Israeli officials before boarding a flight bound for Johannesburg via Nairobi.

South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola called this a clearly orchestrated operation to ethnically cleanse Palestinians and depopulate Gaza.

Gift of the Givers is providing support to the Palestinians and described Al-Majd as a front organisation for Israel. Al-Majd says it was helping brothers and sisters living under oppressive authority, referring to the Palestinian Authority, to begin a life of freedom and dignity in a new place.

The organisation avoided clarifying whether it was affiliated with Israels government, and said its only interaction was in coordinating exits. It remains unclear whether Al-Majd is acting on behalf of Israel to ethnically cleanse Gaza or whether it targeted South Africa because the country has openly criticised Israel.

The timing of the second flight, a week before South Africa hosted the G20 Leaders Summit, suggests the latter. If indeed Israel is instrumentalising displaced Palestinians against South Africa, this should be viewed as part of its broader genocidal campaign in Gaza. South Africa has been vocal in its criticism of Israels conduct in Palestine, most notably in its allegations of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said, It does look like they are being flushed out of Gaza. Israel has not explained how the group exited, but claimed that South Africa had agreed to receive the Palestinians.

In January 2024, Israel was already looking to Africa in search of governments willing to accept voluntary Palestinian migrants. Israel appeared to shut down the idea after widespread criticism that this would amount to ethnic cleansing. However, it has since lost many allies and the public relations battle at large, and may now be less sensitive to criticism as it seeks to punish its critics.

The Palestinians arrival places South Africa in a difficult position. The country needs to balance its foreign policy on Palestine with its immigration laws and the dictates of humanitarian intervention.

South Africas clear stance on Israels genocide and actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory compels it to provide humanitarian assistance to Gazans fleeing the genocide. However, accepting people as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign contradicts its position, and Israel would be aware of this quandary.

South Africas decision to accept Palestinians without travel documents has also raised questions within the country about immigration procedures. Although South Africa offers Palestinians a 90-day visa exemption, the passengers had no exit stamp or record of leaving Israel.

It is not unusual for refugees to travel irregularly without documentation or permission while fleeing persecution or war. South Africas Refugee Act protects everyones right to claim asylum. It directs the Border Management Authority to issue a five-day asylum transit visa to the claimants, who must then report to a refugee reception office and lodge a claim. However, none of the Palestinian passengers is known to have claimed asylum.

This does not mean they are ineligible for refugee status. Many refugees avoid lodging claims in transit countries, as it could affect their status in their preferred final destination. Of the 153 passengers who landed on the second plane, 23 had visas to other countries and travelled onwards; some to Australia, Canada and Malaysia.

Some critics noted that South Africa has not treated Africans fleeing conflicts with the same compassion. Travellers from Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)  two of Africas biggest humanitarian and displacement crises  dont have visa exemptions and are currently blocked from accessing asylum. In fact, South Africa has been criticised for its limited intervention in the DRCs longstanding displacement crisis.

If Israel is involved in weaponising displaced Gazans against South Africa, that should not be treated in isolation from Israels other international crimes. Forced removal violates the Fourth Geneva Convention and Genocide Convention. It also constitutes a war crime under the International Criminal Courts Rome Statute.

If any more flights arrive under similar circumstances and investigations reveal that Israel was involved in chartering flights to enable displacement, third countries are obliged to intervene and prevent ethnic cleansing under international law.

In October, the ICJ issued an advisory opinion that found Israels blockade of humanitarian aid to be illegal. Crucially, the opinion extends to complicit states, which are legally obliged to compel Israels compliance with the court decision. The same applies to ethnic cleansing.

Unchecked, impunity for Israel not only erodes international law, its instruments, and the efficacy of its institutions, but sets dangerous precedents for other actors to do the same in Africa and beyond.

Aimee-Noel Mbiyozo, Senior Research Consultant, Migration, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and Xhanti Mhlambiso, Researcher, Rule of law, ISS

(This article was first published by ISS Today, a Premium Times syndication partner. We have their permission to republish).
As part of activities marking the 2025 World AIDS Day (WAD), the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has intensified efforts to expand access to testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in Nasarawa State.

AHF Medical Director Emmanuel Nwabueze disclosed on Monday during a sensitisation campaign, including road show and health talks, as part of activities marking the 2025 WAD in Keffi, Nasarawa State.

According to a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Nwabueze said the foundation is intensifying its campaign daily to ensure the elimination of HIV/AIDS by 2030.

He noted that the organisation is deliberate in its campaign for the treatment of STIs and general wellness.

AHF is determined to provide seamless and accessible STIs services to the people, he said.

He disclosed that the organisation is working to establish a wellness centre in Nasarawa State, following similar centres in Benue and Abuja.

We started the wellness clinic in Benue and in Abuja to bring STIs services closer to the people.

The centre, he added, would provide free condom education and distribution to the people.

World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day, observed annually on 1 December, serves as a reminder of the progress made in the global HIV response and the gaps that persist.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said this years theme, Overcoming Disruptions; Transforming the AIDS Response, reflects the regions growing vulnerability.

WHO said the 2025 commemoration highlights the need for sustained political commitment, international cooperation, and human-rights-centred approaches to achieve the goal of ending AIDS by 2030.

While disruptions continue to challenge health systems worldwide, the organisation emphasised that hope remains rooted in the resilience, innovation, and determination of communities at the forefront of the response.

Speaking at the event, AHF Nassarawa State Coordinator, Ibrahim Bichi, said the sensitisation campaign is key in combating HIV/AIDS in the country.

Mr Bichi said the commemoration is aimed at promoting awareness, prevention, testing, and care while showing solidarity with those impacted by HIV/AIDS in the community and beyond.

He noted that Nasarawa state currently has a prevalence rate of 2.0 per cent, with an estimated 23,306 people living with HIV requiring treatment.

He added that AHF and the state government are working closely to address the challenges of HIV/AIDS.

Partnerships and stakeholder support

Also speaking, Senior Advocacy and Marketing Manager at AHF Nigeria, Steve Aborisade, appreciated stakeholders for their contributions to the success of the programme.

Mr Aborisade said AHF would continue to partner with relevant stakeholders to address the challenges of HIV/AIDS and STIs in the country.

As an organisation, we will partner with young people and other partners to address the various challenges facing us, he said.

In his remarks, the Director, Primary Health Care (PHC) Keffi, Dogara Danjuma, emphasised the need for continuous collaboration to address STIs challenges.

Mr Danjuma said the PHC is intensifying campaigns in various localities to address HIV/AIDS in the country.
The Director General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Temitope Ilori, has assured that Nigeria is committed to ensuring access to the new $40 twice-yearly HIV prevention injections for its people.

Mrs Ilori made the statement on Monday during the 2025 World AIDS Day commemoration in Abuja, where she highlighted progress, emerging challenges, and Nigerias push for a more self-reliant national HIV programme.

This follows the rollout of the drug, known as lenacapavir, in South Africa, Eswatini, and Zambia, marking the first public use of the twice-yearly injectable in Africa.

Data shows the drug reduces HIV transmission by 99.9 per cent, making it one of the most effective prevention tools to date.

Lenacapavir, developed by Gilead Sciences, costs about $28,000 per person per year in the United States, but through partnerships with Unitaid and the Gates Foundation, generic versions are expected to be available at $40 annually in low- and middle-income countries.

The new injection is expected to expand the impact of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which, for more than a decade, has relied primarily on daily pills that have had limited uptake globally.

Nigerias readiness

Mrs Ilori described the new injection as part of a remarkable scientific evolution in HIV prevention and treatment, tracing the journey from multiple daily pills to long-acting injectables.

She recalled being on stage with former US President Bill Clinton at the UN General Assembly when the $40 pricing announcement was made.

Through the tireless efforts of The Clinton Health Access Initiative, UNITAID, the Gates Foundation, the price of this groundbreaking prevention tool has been reduced from $28,000 USD to as little as $40 USD per person per year, making it accessible to millions who need it most, she said

This is what global solidarity looks like. This is what innovation in the service of humanity achieves. And Nigeria is committed to ensuring our people benefit from these life-saving advances.

Nigerias HIV Response

Mrs Ilori further reflected on Nigerias journey in addressing HIV/AIDS since the first reported case in 1986.

Over the past few years, Nigerialike the rest of the worldhas faced unprecedented disruptions: a global pandemic, economic uncertainty, fluctuating donor support, and shifts in the global health financing landscape, she said.

These disruptions were real. They had implications. But they did not break us. Instead, they strengthened our resolve to build a more self-reliant, sustainable, and home-grown HIV response.

She highlighted Nigerias progress, noting that HIV prevalence among adults aged 1549 now stands at 1.3 per cent, with approximately 1.9 million Nigerians living with the virus. Prevention campaigns, expanded testing, and treatment scale-up have enabled more Nigerians to live healthy and productive lives.

The country has maintained an 879895 performance toward the global targets for HIV diagnosis, treatment, and viral suppression.

In the last decade, Nigeria has recorded a 46 per cent decline in new HIV infections, and more Nigerians living with HIV are enrolled and retained in care than ever before, Mrs Ilori added.

Protecting mothers, children

Mrs Ilori noted that Nigerias achievements extend to preventing mother-to-child transmission.

She said in 2024, over five million pregnant women were tested for HIV, with 26,566 testing positive and immediately placed on treatment.

Similarly, 23,561 HIV-exposed infants received early diagnosis within two months of birth.

Despite these gains, she said challenges remain. HIV Testing Services coverage among pregnant women stands at 65 per cent, national PMTCT coverage at 63 per cent, and early infant diagnosis at 56 per cent.

We are working tirelessly to close these gaps, Mrs Ilori said.

Importantly, 100 per cent of pregnant women tested for syphilis in the last year received treatment, and 13 per cent were tested for Hepatitis B Virus, demonstrating our commitment to comprehensive maternal health.

Domestic investment, leadership

Mrs Ilori highlighted Nigerias commitment to sustaining its HIV response amid global funding uncertainties.

The federal government recently approved $200 million to ensure the uninterrupted delivery of HIV prevention, testing, and treatment services.

She said Nigeria has also strengthened domestic resource mobilisation, building innovative partnerships to ensure long-term programme sustainability.

Earlier this year, a multi-ministerial committee and a Technical Working Group were inaugurated to mobilise financial support for AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria programmes, ensuring coherent national strategies.

She also highlighted that the Free to Shine campaign, launched by the Office of African First Ladies for Development and championed by First Lady Oluremi Tinubu, targets the triple elimination of HIV, hepatitis, and syphilis among adolescent girls and women of reproductive age.

Renewed commitment

In her address at the event, First Lady Oluremi Tinubu called for intensified national action and emphasised confronting stigma.

Ending the epidemic requires sustained advocacy, innovation, and especially compassion, including confronting stigma and discrimination. Every Nigerian deserves to live free from judgment and exclusion, she said.

Mrs Tinubu urged collective action under the Renewed Hope Agenda, advocating open dialogue and an end to HIV stigma.

To parents, guardians, and teachers, HIV/AIDS is no longer a disease of shame, but must be openly discussed for prevention and support. Our communities must foster love, acceptance, and support for people living with HIV, she said..
Although the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has suspended its one-month-old nationwide strike, it warned that the action will resume if the federal government fails to fully implement all agreements reached during recent conciliatory meetings.

This is according to a communique released on Monday, following an Extraordinary National Executive Council (E-NEC) meeting held on Saturday to review the governments response to its 19-point demands.

NARD said the strike, which began on 1 November, became necessary after years of unfulfilled agreements and the governments failure to act on critical issues affecting residency training, hospital infrastructure and workforce shortages.

The association noted that while some progress has been recorded, several commitments remain either partially implemented or stalled.

These include accumulated salary arrears, unpaid allowances, manpower deficits, prolonged work hours, unresolved pension matters, and structural issues affecting resident doctors across federal and state health institutions.

A key concern raised in the communique is the slow action on special pension benefits as agreed with the Nigerian Medical Association in the MoU of 26 July 2025.

NARD also stated that progress on other issues previously agreed under the MoU had been noted but remained inadequate.

The association highlighted the unresolved cases of unpaid salaries and allowance arrears in multiple tertiary centres, worsening infrastructure in teaching hospitals, and the need for urgent government action on obsolete equipment and poor power supply.

Partial progress acknowledged

The communique confirmed that the government had begun settling arrears from the 25 per cent and 35 per cent upward review of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS), with payments made up to December 2023.

However, NARD said the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) must immediately reconcile failed or omitted payments.

It noted progress in the payment of the 2024 accoutrement allowance and welcomed directives from the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) on specialist allowance for resident doctors on CONMESS 5.

On the case of the five resident doctors disengaged from the Federal Teaching Hospital, Lokoja, NARD said a ministerial committee had submitted its report and that implementation of its recommendations must commence within two weeks from 27 November.

The association also cited the release of a federal advisory discouraging prolonged call duty hours and mandating consultants to assume greater responsibility in service delivery.

A Central Taskforce Committee involving key health stakeholders is expected to produce a national policy on duty hours and locum engagement within two months.

Fresh deadlines and demands

NARD demanded the transmission of all outstanding salary and allowance arrears owed to resident doctors in the Federal University Health Sciences Teaching Hospital, Otukpo (FUHSTH), Federal Medical Centre, Owo (FMC), University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex, Ile-Ife (OAUTHC) and University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH) to the Budget Office and the Minister of Finance for immediate payment within one month.

It also insisted on the activation of the Central Taskforce Committee on duty hours, the correction of entry-level placement for newly employed resident doctors, the revival of the stalled Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) process, and the implementation of the one-to-one replacement policy to address manpower shortages.

The communique further directed resident doctors in state and federal institutions with unresolved local issues to continue their industrial action until their managements or state governments demonstrate genuine commitment to resolving their concerns.

Strike suspended, but ultimatum remains

After deliberation, NARD resolved to suspend the nationwide strike for four weeks, giving the government time to fulfil its obligations.

It warned, however, that the suspension would be lifted if the government fails to meet all agreed demands within the stipulated period.

The failure by the government to implement the aforementioned agreed demands fully will result in the resumption of the total, indefinite and comprehensive strike, the communique stated.

NARD expressed appreciation to President Bola Tinubu, senior cabinet officials, the National Assembly leadership, regulatory bodies, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and the media for their roles in facilitating the conciliatory process.

Impact on patients

This years strike is one of the longest and most disruptive resident doctors actions in recent years.

Over the past month, PREMIUM TIMES has repeatedly reported how patients across federal and state hospitals have borne the harshest consequences.

At major teaching hospitals in Abuja, Lagos, and Kaduna, patients scheduled for appointments were turned back or placed on indefinite waiting lists.

Several wards operated skeletal services, with consultants overstretched and many departments temporarily shutting down clinics.

Resident doctors make up the bulk of medical personnel in Nigerias tertiary hospitals, which means health services are significantly crippled whenever they withdraw their services.
The Nigerian Dental Association (NDA) has called for urgent reforms in oral health policy implementation and improved access to healthcare.

It also called for strengthened national strategies to address noma, trauma-related conditions, and other preventable diseases affecting vulnerable communities.

The association made the call on Tuesday in Abuja during the 2025 National Oral Health and Noma Day and Diagnostic Conference organised by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in partnership with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), the World Health Organisation (WHO), and other health bodies.

The President of the association, Tope Adeyemi, said Nigeria continues to face significant oral health challenges, worsened by poor living conditions, lack of childhood immunisation, and inadequate access to potable water.

Mr Adeyemi said many Nigerian children remain vulnerable to preventable illnesses due to poor sanitation, malnutrition, and limited access to life-supporting amenities.

He noted that the absence of childhood immunisation and safe drinking water contributes to repeated infections, weakens immunity, and increases susceptibility to oral diseases, malaria and other childhood ailments.

According to him, malaria remains one of the fastest-progressing illnesses affecting children, often presenting complications that heighten mortality risks.

Role of digital health awareness

Mr Adeyemi said the association has continued to lead online public health awareness through virtual campaigns aimed at educating Nigerians on oral care and disease prevention.

He cited programmes such as the Talk With a Dentist series and global digital health events like the World Online Health Day, marked annually on March 8.

Mr Adeyemi added that in September 2025, the NDA joined other health professionals at the International Data Transition API World Data Conference in Shanghai, China, where Nigerias participation was represented by the NDA and officials of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.

He described the engagement as part of wider efforts to deepen collaboration on online health, disease management, and digital health innovations.

Security challenges, trauma and workforce shortages

The association expressed concern about the rising cases of trauma in communities affected by insecurity, saying the trend has persisted for over a decade.

Mr Adeyemi said insecurity disrupts access to healthcare, delays treatment for trauma victims, and worsens outcomes for those in hard-to-reach areas.

He also warned that Nigeria continues to lose dental professionals to brain drain, popularly referred to as the Japa syndrome, leaving rural communities with severe workforce shortages.

According to him, improving the welfare of healthcare workers is crucial to retaining skilled dentists and ensuring nationwide access to quality oral health services.

Stronger national policies, a multidisciplinary approach

The NDA called for full implementation of the National Oral Health Policy, noting that effective execution would strengthen trauma prevention, noma control, and broader oral healthcare delivery.

Mr Adeyemi emphasised that proper policy rollout should integrate trauma care into routine services, expand access to facilities, and equip primary health centres with the capacity needed to meet community health needs.

He also encouraged a multidisciplinary approach, driven by global health strategies, to achieve national targets for oral health and noma elimination.

The association expressed confidence that with the right policies and coordinated efforts, Nigeria would significantly reduce the burden of preventable oral diseases.

Noma

Noma is a rapidly progressing gangrenous infection of the mouth and face, affecting mostly malnourished children living in conditions of extreme poverty.

The disease often begins as a mild gum infection but, without urgent medical attention, can destroy facial tissues within days, leading to severe disability or death.

PREMIUM TIMES reported in 2023 that the disease had long devastated children and adults across several poor communities, with many cases going undetected or untreated.

Although noma is most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, cases have also been recorded in the United States, Southeast Asia and South America.

The condition has been recognised for more than a thousand years and re-emerged in Europe during the Second World War, particularly in concentration camps where starvation and poor hygiene were widespread.

Due to limited research and the absence of robust surveillance systems, global data on noma remain scarce.

Some estimates suggest that between 30,000 and 40,000 cases occur every year.

WHO projected in 1998 that the annual burden could be as high as 140,000 cases, with about 770,000 survivors worldwide.

Nigeria does not yet have an official national figure, but health experts say the disease is concentrated largely in the northern region, where poverty, malnutrition, poor oral hygiene and limited access to healthcare remain widespread.
The Akwa Ibom House of Assembly has rejected a motion seeking to prohibit the consumption and sale of dog meat in the state.

The motion, sponsored by Uduak Ekpoufot, the member representing Etinan State Constituency, failed during plenary on Tuesday after it received no seconder  a procedural requirement before a legislative debate.

Essien Nduese, a media aide to Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State, posted the details of Tuesdays plenary on Facebook.

Mr Ekpoufot, this newspaper gathered, urged the House to consider the public health implications associated with dog meat consumption, warning that unhygienic slaughter practices expose consumers to rabies, salmonella, trichinella and other pathogens.

He also described the killing methods used in the trade as inhumane.

Despite his arguments, no lawmaker supported the motion, forcing the speaker to rule it rejected. Following the collapse of the motion, dog meat consumption in the state remains unregulated.

Dog meat consumption debate

Dog meat consumption remains widespread in several parts of Nigeria.

Earlier this year, a wildlife expert, Edem Eniang told PREMIUM TIMES that Nigerian women consume more dog meat than men, citing cultural beliefs that the meat improves skin texture. He said the trend was first highlighted during a lecture by a zoologist Richard King.

Mr Eniang also raised concerns about increasing scarcity of dogs due to high consumption rate. He recounted incidents in Ibeno and Oron, in Akwa Ibom, where dogs were stolen and slaughtered for food, including a nursing mother dog whose puppies were left without care.

Although Akwa Ibom is popularly associated with dog-meat consumption, Mr Eniang ranked Nike in Enugu State as the highest consumer, followed by Plateau State and then Akwa Ibom.

A PREMIUM TIMES reporter in Enugu confirmed the claim, noting that many residents in Nike believe dog meat has medicinal benefits.

Mr Eniang argued that banning dog meat in Nigeria would be impractical, citing economic hardship and limited access to other protein sources like fish and poultry. According to him, enforcement would fail unless the government provides alternatives.

Victory for the masses  residents react

The rejection of the motion has drawn mixed reactions across social media, particularly Facebook.

Some residents mocked the proposal, while others questioned the legislators priorities.

How can a lawmaker, amid numerous challenges facing Akwa Ibom people, prioritise sponsoring a motion to ban the consumption of dog meat? Vincent Aluu wrote on Facebook.

Kudos to the Akwa Ibom House of Assembly for rejecting the motion sponsored by Hon. Uduak Ekpoufot, representing Etinan State Constituency.

As Chairman of the House committee on ICT, he should focus on sponsoring bills and motions on cybersecurity and ICT, rather than interfering with local culinary traditions. Imagine the audacity, Mr Aluu stated.

Some described the event as a win for cultural preservation. Victory for the masses, Ifiok Itiaba wrote on Facebook.

Slaughter and sale of dog meat is illegal in many countries, including the US, UK, Germany, France, and Taiwan. There is a ban on the consumption of dog meat in some specific cities in China.

In 2024, South Korea declared a ban on the sale of dog meat for consumption, which is to take effect in February 2027.

Those against dog meat consumption point to the cruel ways of slaughtering the animal  they are usually hacked or clubbed to death.

God created it to be eaten, France 24 quoted an Indonesian man, who opposes the Asian countrys ban on dog meat consumption, as saying. Dont only look for the negative side, but also look for its benefits too.
The faint mechanical buzz that drifted across Ejiba, a community in Yagba West Area of Kogi State, sometime between 8 and 9 a.m. on Sunday, was unusual enough to make residents look up. In this agrarian settlement, morning sounds usually come from grinding cassava mills or the call to prayer  not the high-pitched hum of aerospace technology.

At first, villagers assumed the device was harmless  perhaps a wedding videographer testing equipment. But as the sound lingered, moving slowly and deliberately across the sky, a sense of unease began to settle. The drone wasnt passing through; it was circling. It was watching.

Minutes later, armed men stormed the Cherubim and Seraphim Church, where worshippers were deep in prayer. Guided, it seemed, by the invisible eyes above, the attackers abducted the pastor, his wife, and several congregants before melting into the surrounding bush.

For locals, the connection was unmistakable: the drone was the scout; the gunmen were the infantry.

But for the Kogi State Government, the immediate concern appeared not to be how bandits launched a drone-assisted operation in the heart of Nigeria, but why the church held its service in a bush. In a statement confirming the attack, Commissioner for Information Kingsley Fanwo queried the churchs location and warned residents to apply wisdom.

His remarks revealed a troubling disconnect between official rhetoric and the sophistication of emerging threats.

The Ejiba attack is among the clearest indications yet that Nigerias insecurity has entered a more advanced phase  one defined by aerial surveillance, operational mobility, and a renewed appetite for symbolic targets.

And it was only one chapter in a weekend of coordinated desecration.

A Weekend of Desecration

Violence swept through four northern states between Saturday night and Sunday evening. Viewed together, the attacks formed a chilling pattern: a direct assault on Nigerias sacred spaces  churches, weddings, farms, and homes.

Around 11 p.m. on Saturday, terror descended on Chacho village in Wurno LGA of Sokoto State. It was the eve of a wedding, a night typically filled with the laughter and song of the Lalle (henna) ceremony. Instead, gunfire shattered the festivities.

The bride-to-be, Halima (name changed), was indoors with bridesmaids and relatives making final preparations. But instead of the grooms family arriving with gifts, gunmen arrived with rifles. They abducted Halima, several bridesmaids, and guests, and looted livestock meant for the wedding feast.

Her room is empty now, a local source told our reporter, asking not to be named for security reasons. The henna bowl is still there. The wedding dress is half-sewn.

The symbolism was devastating. A ceremony meant to unite families and affirm continuity had become another theatre of fear.

In Kwara State, the gatekeepers of tradition were also targeted. The Ojibara of Bayagan, Kamilu Salami, was abducted from his farm. His captors demanded 150 million.

And in Kano States Yankamaye village, Tsanyanwa LGA, a similar incident occurred. A woman was killed, and three others abducted in another targeted night raid that left the border community paralysed with fear.

Across the North, the message was unmistakable: no space is sacred anymore.

The Technological Leap: When Bandits Watch from the Sky

For years, Nigerias armed groups relied on a low-tech intelligence network. They used coercion, paid local informants, and utilised spotters stationed along major roads  often disguised as hawkers  to map the movement of villagers and security agents.

Security analysts say the device reportedly used in Ejiba was likely a commercial quadcopter costing between 1.5 million and 3 million. But its significance lies not in the price  it lies in what it allows: terrain scanning, escape-route mapping, target confirmation, counting worshippers, detecting security presence, and real-time video feed from the bush.

A drone allows them to watch us before we know theyre there, a serving security official said. It marks a troubling escalation.

France-based forensic consultant, Yusuf Aliu, warns of a rapidly widening intelligence gap.

Criminals no longer rely solely on compromised villagers, he said. They can sit in a forest camp and stream a church service live.

While authorities urge citizens to say something when they see something, the criminals are now seeing everything  from 200 feet above.

State Denial and the Ostrich in the Room

The Nigerian military had admitted that insurgents in the country now use drones, including armed ones. In October, the army said terrorists used armed drones, RPGs and other weapons to attack troops in Borno State.

However, authorities appear unprepared for such warfare by the armed groups.

Mr Fanwos remarks  effectively blaming the Kogi church for its location  reflect a worrying trend in official communication: shifting responsibility onto unarmed citizens.

But the weekends events dismantle this logic. The bride in Sokoto was inside her family home, surrounded by relatives; the monarch in Kwara was on his own land, within his ancestral domain; and the women in Kano were attacked in their village.

When homes, churches, farms and wedding gatherings all fall within the danger zone, the states definition of safe areas collapses.

The Darkness Before Dawn: A Nation in Denial

In a sermon on Sunday, titled The Darkness Before Dawn, Tunde Bakare, a pastor and church leader, accused the Bola Tinubu administration of playing the ostrich  burying its head while terror networks expand.

Mr Bakare, known for his fiery intersection of theology and politics, argued that the government appears more focused on the political permutations of the 2027 elections than on the immediate threat to national cohesion.

The level of insecurity seems to have worsened, he said. Terrorists and bandits brazenly dare the Nigerian state.

His criticism resonated because the state appears slow to adapt while armed groups innovate rapidly  expanding their capabilities faster than the state is reforming its response. While the government creates committees, the bandits create drone units.

When Survival Becomes a Curriculum

Speaking at his alma mater, Government College Ibadan, Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka argued that insecurity has become so pervasive in the national fabric that schools should begin teaching security awareness as a formal subject.

Security should be treated with such seriousness that it becomes a discipline taught in schools, the literary icon said.

His suggestion was stark: a curriculum on how to spot danger, informants, survive abductions, and how to hide from gunmenhighlights a painful truth: Nigerians are being forced to learn survival skills in response to state failure.

The Economics of Terror: Funding the Next Drone

Behind every kidnapping lies a cold, hard business model. The 150 million ransom demanded for the release of the Ojibara of Bayagan stands out not simply because of the exorbitant amount, but because of what it signifies: investment capital.

Security experts warn against viewing these ransoms merely as a manifestation of greed. Bandit groups today are running sophisticated paramilitary organisations that require significant overhead to maintain.

Consider the Start-Up Costs of a modern bandit cell:

Drones: A surveillance drone with a decent range costs between 1.5 million and 3 million.

Connectivity: To operate these drones and negotiate ransoms, bandits are increasingly bypassing local telecom shutdowns by using satellite internet services like Starlink, which require hardware costs of over 500,000 and monthly subscriptions of 38,000.

Logistics: Fuel for motorcycles (which has tripled in price), informant networks on government payrolls, and food supplies for hundreds of foot soldiers require a steady cash flow.

In effect, every ransom paidespecially high-value onesfunds the next round of violence. The victims are effectively forced to finance the upgrading of their own oppressors.

The Balloon Effect Reshaping Nigerias Map of Danger

The recent violence is not occurring in isolation. The surge is tied to a southward migration of armed groups driven by military pressure in the North-west  a phenomenon known as the balloon effect, where squeezing one side causes the pressure to expand elsewhere.

For years, banditry was concentrated in the axis of violenceZamfara, Katsina, and Sokoto. However, intensive military bombardments and air raids in these states have displaced many groups, forcing them southwards.

They are migrating into the Triangle of Terrorthe lush, unguarded forest corridors connecting Kebbi, Niger, Kwara, and Kogi states. These areas offer dense cover (forests like Kamuku and Kwiambana) and, crucially, a weaker security presence than the militarised North-west.

On 15 November, this movement became visible to the public. Security operatives in Eruku, Kwara State, intercepted a trailer transporting about 40 suspected bandits. They were not local criminals; they were allegedly displaced from the ZamfaraKatsina corridor, seeking new territory.

A police signal dated 22 November further warned of an influx of bandits into Kogi East. The warning came barely a week before the Ejiba church attack, which security officers now consider a direct consequence of this unchecked migration.

The contagion has broken through the North-central buffer, said a retired military intelligence officer who asked not to be named for security reasons. Abujas backdoor is now exposed.

Drones vs. Diplomacy: A Race Against Time

In response to this spiral, the federal government has signalled a pivot toward international help. President Bola Tinubu recently ordered the establishment of a high-level team to engage the United States on new security cooperation.

But Yusuf Aliu, the forensic expert, warns that bureaucracy and slow diplomacy could become the enemys greatest allies.

While government committees meet to discuss cooperation and write white papers, Mr Aliu said, the bandits are already deploying drones for tactical engagement.

He dismissed the often-cited political fears that foreign assistance undermines national sovereignty.

Sovereignty is not eroded by accepting support, he argued. It is eroded when violent groups control territory, collect taxes, and decide who gets to pray in a church or sleep in their home.

For many Nigerians, the concern is not whether external help is neededthat is now obvious. The question is whether the help will arrive faster than the next drone-assisted attack.

A Nation Under Hovering Shadows

From the savannas of Sokoto to the forests of Kogi, the message from last weekends violence was very clear: Nigeria is confronting adversaries who are innovating, expanding, and entrenching their presence.

The attacks across four states, including the use of a drone in one of them, mark a turning point. The enemy is evolving faster than the states capacity to respond.

Unless the government addresses the intelligence failures that allow drones to fly over villages, tackles the financing that allows bandits to demand N150 million, and reinforces the border communities in the Triangle of Terror, Nigeria risks losing more than just territory.

It risks losing the sanctuaries that define its spiritual, cultural, and communal life  churches, weddings, farms and homes.

The places where Nigerians gather to pray, celebrate, mourn, and live are now battlegrounds. And as the drone that hovered over Ejiba has shown, the threat is no longer just at the gate. It is already in the sky.
The Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, who is seeking a second term in office, has quit the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

His resignation was announced in a statement on Monday night by his spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed.

Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State has resigned his membership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) since November 4th, 2025, Mr Rasheed wrote.

The spokesperson said the letter was addressed to the PDP Chairman for Ward 2, Sagba Abogunde of Ede North Local Government Area of Osun State.

Due to the current crisis within the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), I hereby resign my membership of the PDP with immediate effect, Mr Rasheed quoted the letter as stating.

I thank the Peoples Democratic Party for the opportunities given to me for my elections as a Senator (Represented Osun West) and as Governor of Osun State under the Peoples Democratic Party.

The spokesperson did not disclose the party Mr Adeleke plans to join. However, there had been reports that Mr Adeleke tried to join the All Progressives Congress (APC) and had the support of President Bola Tinubu to do so. However, that move was reportedly scuttled by the local APC in Osun State.

The Osun State governorship election will hold next August with Mr Adeleke expected to seek a second term.

Although he was elected on the PDP platform, he now appears set to seek re-election on another partys platform.

Mr Adeleke becomes the latest state governor to quit the PDP, amidst reports more will do so. Others who had quit the opposition party include the governors of Delta, Akwa Ibom and Enugu states.
The Speaker of the Rivers House of Assembly, Martin Amaewhule, has condemned the continued neglect of public primary and secondary schools in the state, saying the decay under the governments watch is unacceptable and embarrassing.

Speaking on the floor of the House, Mr Amaewhule said it was a sad commentary that public schools in the oil-rich state have deteriorated to the point where vandals have taken over school premises, pupils learn without teachers, and one teacher is forced to teach two classes simultaneously.

The remark is contained in a video posted on Facebook on Monday. It is unclear when the speaker made the remark.

Its a fact, the reason is because of abandonment by people who are supposed to be doing the needful. As of yesterday, the House committee chairperson on education found out that one teacher is teaching two classes: Primary 1 and 2, he said.

According to him, many public schools have no toilets, no electricity and no security despite being located close to government and corporate institutions.

No toilet, no electricity yet that school is sharing a fence with Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company headquarters, he said. No security yet that same school is directly opposite the police headquarters.

Mr Amaewhule lamented that the government had failed to respond to earlier calls for intervention.

The worst of it is that upon what we said when this motion came up nothing has happened. The Rivers State Executive Council has not done anything. Theyve done nothing to remedy the situation  it is a sad commentary.

He said the situation not only demeans the state but threatens the future of children who depend on public schools.

Something has to be done for our schools, for our children, for the future of this state. Our primary and secondary schools cannot remain like this. They cannot remain without teachers.

Funds available for protests but not for teachers

The Speaker accused the state government of misplaced priorities, alleging that while money is quickly mobilised to sponsor political demonstrations and street protests, the same urgency does not apply when it comes to employing teachers and rehabilitating schools.

When the last administration was leaving, the plan for the employment of 10,000 workers across the state took place, interviewed. What has happened? he asked.

People are not employed but when it is time to protest, funds will come for people to protest. When it is time to employ teachers, there will be no money. We cannot continue to keep quiet. We cannot continue to fold our arms while our children continue to suffer. While teachers continue to cry.

Mr Amaewhule questioned how a state as wealthy as Rivers could justify neglecting basic education.

How would anyone believe that in 2025, in Rivers State, one teacher is teaching two classes. How would anyone believe that in a school that is very close to Government House that in a year 2025, pedestrians will be called to come and teach pupils because theres no teachers  this is an abomination, an aberration and it is not acceptable.

N600 billion left behind by Ibas  What Happened?

The speaker said the state has sufficient financial capacity to overhaul the public school system, insisting that lack of funds cannot be an excuse.

Is it that we dont have funds in the state? Of course we have. As at the time the Sole Administrator, Ibok-Ette Ibas was leaving, he left over N600 billion in the account of Rivers state.

Mr Amaewhule said the Assembly would no longer tolerate what he described as indolence and abandonment of responsibility.

Something has to be done. We will not allow this indolence to continue. We are the only people mandated by law to fight for our people, fight for our parents. Parents are crying. The complaints were getting, the pictures sent to us come from parents from Township School 11.

Citing more examples of neglect, he said some schools in Etche were operating under roofs overgrown with weeds.

The other day, somebody went to Etche and saw children with even weed on their roof. How the weeds got to the roof and theyre learning under, I cant imagine. Its appalling.

Fubara responds

Hours after the speakers remarks went viral, Governor Siminalayi Fubara addressed the concernsthough indirectlyduring the 123rd and 124th combined quarterly meeting of the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers.

Mr Fubara said his administration remained committed to education despite glaring challenges.

He told the traditional rulers that education infrastructure would be prioritised in the 2026 budget, stressing that peace and stability in the state were enabling economic growth.

Governor Fubara reassured stakeholders that his government was not distracted.

Our vision is to ensure that Rivers State is safe, our vision includes the provision of good health care services, which we are doing, the records are there, he said, pointing to ongoing construction and completion works in hospitals across senatorial districts.

On claims about delayed employment of 10,000 workers, the governor dismissed the reports as false.

The governor urged the public to jettison the false information, noting that employment will be carried out in the state based on needs and not based on political considerations.

Governor Fubara said that the recruitment of teachers and school rehabilitation would be captured in the next budget.

He urged traditional rulers to support the process of stabilising governance and strengthening public trust, adding: I say thank you again for your support, for understanding that your role is fatherly and one of the reasons you were selected was to bridge the gap in terms of crisis. Thank you for ensuring that peace reigns in Rivers state.

Political tension and unsettled accountability

The exchange between the speaker and the governor underscores the tension between the executive and the legislature in Rivers, months after their suspension and subsequent reinstatement during a political crisis that attracted the declaration of emergency rule by President Bola Tinubu.

The emergency rule was lifted after Mr Fubara and former governor Nyesom Wike reportedly reached a truce mediated by Mr Tinubu.

Since he was reinstated in September, Mr Fubara is yet to constitute the Rivers State Executive Council besides the appointment of the secretary to the state government.

The speakers comments  and his political alignment with former governor and now FCT Minister Nyesom Wike  suggest the truce between Mr Fubara and Mr Wike may be weakening.
Gunmen have attacked three government officials attached to Governor Alex Otti of Abia State.

The unidentified hoodlums, PREMIUM TIMES gathered, attacked the officials on Tuesday between Umuowa and Ihite Junction near the Sam Mbakwe Airport in Owerri, the Imo State capital.

The officials, it was gathered, were heading to the airport for official duties when the incident happened.

Sources said the gunmen opened fire on the vehicle conveying the officials when they approached the airport corridor.

Abia govt speaks

Njoku Ukoha, the spokesperson to Governor Otti, confirmed the attack in a statement on Tuesday morning.

In the early hours of today, 2 December, an advance team of three members from the Office of the Executive Governor of Abia State, Alex Chioma Otti, on duty to Sam Mbakwe Airport, Imo State, was attacked by unidentified gunmen, Mr Ukoha said in the statement.

The general public is hereby informed that the convoy of Governor Otti was not involved in this attack, and no lives were lost during the unfortunate incident, he said.

Police speak

When contacted by PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday afternoon, the police spokesperson in Imo State, Henry Okoye, criticised the Abia State Government for publicising the attack without reporting to the police in Imo State.

Mr Okoye, a deputy superintendent of police, said, I dont know where they got the information from. That information is not true. How can such a thing happen, they never even reported it to any police station? The next thing they are doing is making a public announcement.

Increased attacks

Like in other states in the South-east, security has deteriorated in Imo State with frequent attacks by armed persons in recent times.

The attacks often target security agencies, government officials and facilities. Hundreds of people have been killed or abducted, and several others injured in some of such attacks in the region.

The Nigerian government has repeatedly accused the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) of being responsible for the deadly attacks in the region.

But the separatist group has repeatedly denied its involvement in the attacks.

IPOB is a group leading the agitation for an independent state of Biafra, which it wants carved out from the South-east and some parts of the South-south Nigeria.

Its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, was recently convicted and then sentenced to life imprisonment for terrorism at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The Kukah Centre (TKC) has said that remarks made by its founder, Matthew Kukah, on Nigerias insecurity challenges, especially regarding the killings of Christians in Northern Nigeria, were misrepresented.

The Executive Director of The Kukah Centre, Atta Barkindo, stated this in a statement on Monday.

In recent days, some Nigerians, especially on social media, have criticised Mr Kukah over a viral comment attributed to him regarding the alleged genocide against Christians in the country.

The comment suggested that the cleric had downplayed the persecution of Christians and denied the existence of genocide, a position many Nigerians, particularly Christian groups, found unacceptable amid ongoing attacks across several parts of the North.

As a result, many social media users have accused the cleric of being insensitive, politically aligned, or disconnected from the realities confronting vulnerable communities.

However, the Director of the Kukah Centre clarified in the statement that at no point did Mr Kukah, popularly known as Bishop Kukah, downplay the killings of Christians in Nigeria. Instead, he said the Bishops statements have consistently affirmed the persecution faced by Christian communities.

Mr Barkindo said the misrepresentation originated from the clerics remarks at two separate events, which were the launch of the 2025 World Report on Religious Freedom at the Vatican on 21 October and the 46th Supreme Convention of the Knights of St. Mulumba held in Kaduna on 28 November.

He stressed that Mr Kukahs statements from the two events were deliberately distorted to change the narrative on the persecution of Christians.

These reports have emanated in connection with, first, the comments by His Lordship at the launch of the 2025 World Report on Religious Freedom, delivered at the Vatican City on 21 October, 2025; and, second, his remarks to the 46th Supreme Convention of the Knights of St. Mulumba in Kaduna on 28 November, 2025.

For the avoidance of doubt, at no point has His Lordship diminished the seriousness of the crisis of faith-based persecution in parts of Nigeria nor has he failed to identify with the very real sufferings caused by it, he said.

What Bishop Kukah said

Clarifying Mr Kukahs Vatican speech, Mr Barkindo said the cleric explicitly acknowledged the killings of Christians and the failure of federal and state governments to curb the violence.

Indeed, the contrary is the case. In paragraph 5 of his 13-paragraph remarks to the event in the Vatican on 21 October, His Lordship said among other things as follows: what is important is not to create the impression that we have no problems. We do have serious problems, but these have escalated because the federal and state governments have, over the years, allowed these problems to fester. The inability of the federal government and its security agencies to end these killings has created the condition for the genocide that has taken over many communities today. By whatever names we choose, the fact is that Nigerians are dying unacceptable deaths across the country. In many cases, they are targeted because of their beliefs but also because of their ethnicity. (Link to speech on TKC website), he said.

The Director of the Kukah Centre added that the remarks attributed to Mr Kukah at the St. Mulumba Convention, Kaduna, were similarly distorted.

He said that during his speech at the convention, Mr Kukah highlighted the history of Christian persecution, dating back to the Crucifixion, and encouraged Christian communities to remain steadfast in faith, solidarity, justice and healing.

To curb further misrepresentation, Mr Barkindo said the full texts of Mr Kukahs remarks at both events have been made available on the centres website for public access.

His position could hardly have been clearer. The remarks attributed to His Lordship in the latter event clearly again mischaracterised his thrust. At the St. Mulumba Convention in Kaduna, His Lordship highlighted the long history of persecution of Christians going back to the Crucifixion of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the fate that befell most of his disciples, and sought to encourage Christian communities in faith, solidarity, justice, and healing, even in these trying times. The text & structure of the (PowerPoint) clearly indicate that His Lordship sought to validate the persecution of Christians rather than to diminish or deny it. (Link to presentation on TKC website)

These faith, solidarity, Justice, and healing are goals to which His Lordship has made a life-long commitment and in whose pursuit, he yields to no one. In order to encourage accurate and coherent reporting of the remarks of His Lordship & to discourage the misattributions that appear to now persist, TKC is making these available on our website and they can be accessed by anyone interested, he added.

Mr Barkindo reaffirmed the Centres commitment to advocating for religious freedom and accountability.

TKC continues to urge zero tolerance for religious persecution; solidarity with the victims and affected communities; and accountability for the perpetrators.
Governor Uba Sani has presented a 985.9 billion draft budget for the 2026 fiscal year to the Kaduna State House of Assembly, describing the appropriation bill as a people-driven financial roadmap designed to deepen reforms in security, education, infrastructure and rural development.

Speaking at Lugard Hall on Monday, the governor said the proposal, built on what he called one of the widest consultation exercises ever undertaken in the state, was anchored in transparency, equity, and community participation.

According to him, inputs from traditional rulers, civil society groups, women and youth associations, farmers, artisans, teachers, persons with disabilities and widows strongly shaped the final document.

The draft budget comprises 734.2 billion recurrent revenue and 251.6 billion capital receipts, with capital expenditure accounting for 71 per cent of the proposals.

Education and infrastructure each received 25 per cent of the planned spending, while health took 15 per cent. Agriculture received 11 per cent, security six per cent, governance five per cent, and climate action four per cent.

A major highlight is the 100 million allocation to each of the states 255 wards for community-selected projectsan initiative the governor described as one of Nigerias most ambitious grassroots development models.

Mr Sani urged lawmakers to give the bill expeditious consideration, calling it a budget of renewal and resilience intended to deliver progress to every ward and local government area.

2025 Performance Review

Reviewing the outgoing fiscal year, the governor said Kaduna recorded remarkable achievements despite economic pressures, fluctuating federal allocations and persistent security challenges.

He said improved collaboration with security agencies helped reopen farmlands, restore schooling in previously volatile communities and advance the states peace-building framework.

On infrastructure, Mr Sani said that 64 of the 140 ongoing road projects, covering 1,335 kilometres, had been completed, opening up new economic corridors and connecting long-neglected communities.

He announced significant reforms in the transport sector, including progress on the Kaduna Bus Rapid Transit (KBRT)the first in northern Nigeriafeaturing CNG-powered buses, digital ticketing and a 24-kilometre dedicated lane.

The Interstate Bus Terminal in Kakuri is 75 per cent complete, while the subsidised transportation scheme has saved commuters over 500 million.

He added that work on the Kaduna Light Rail Project is advancing, with Phase I covering the RigachikunSabon Tasha axis and Phase II planned to link Millennium City with Rigasa.

Education, Health and Agriculture

Mr Sani described education as the anchor of the states development drive. In 2025, Kaduna reopened 535 schools and reintegrated over 300,000 out-of-school children into the classroom.

He highlighted the construction of 736 classrooms, the renovation of 1,220 others, and training for 33,000 teachers, alongside the establishment of new bilingual schools and vocational hubs.

Regarding health, the governor stated that all 255 Primary Healthcare Centres had been upgraded to Level 2 status, 15 general hospitals had been renovated, and a new 300-bed specialist hospital had been completed.

He also noted the implementation of CONMESS and CONHESS for health workers and the creation of a 1 billion health insurance subsidy for vulnerable residents.

Agricultural investment rose sharply from 1.4 billion in 2023 to 74.2 billion in 2025, he said, enabling the distribution of over 900 trucks of free fertiliser, expansion of irrigation and mechanisation, and improvements in livestock and seed systems.

He cited the African Development Banksupported $510 million Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone as a transformative project that will turn Kaduna into a major agro-industrial hub.

Lawmakers react

Responding, Speaker Yusuf Liman described the proposal as ambitious and comprehensive, saying it aligns with the states long-term development priorities.

He praised the governor for allowing legislators direct involvement in constituency projectscalling it unprecedentedand affirmed the Houses commitment to a thorough yet speedy review.

Mr Liman added that the strong cooperation between the Executive and Legislature had accelerated development interventions across the state.
The joyous preparations for a wedding turned into a scene of terror and anguish in Chacho, a community in the Wurno Local Government Area of Sokoto State, following a late Saturday night attack by bandits.

The bandits kidnapped the bride-to-be, her maids, and 13 other residents.

The chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Sokoto, Isah Achida, confirmed the incident to reporters in the state capital, noting that the incident left the community in despair.

The father of the abducted bride, Umaru Chacho, confirmed that 11 females, including his daughter and two males, were kidnapped.

Several residents sustained injuries during the raid, with one reportedly suffering a severe gunshot wound.

Mr Chacho revealed that the kidnappers made contact with his family on Monday, two days after the incident.

He told reporters that the bandits did not immediately demand a ransom. Instead, they insisted on speaking directly to the traditional ruler of the community.

READ ALSO: Osun Governor Adeleke resigns from PDP

Other residents said this demand by bandits has heightened fears among residents, suggesting that the move indicates a strategy to levy a large-scale ransom on the entire community.

Sokoto State, especially its eastern corridor, has emerged as a frontline state in Nigerias spiralling security challenge, with the Wurno Local Government Area recognised as a perennial flashpoint for banditry and abductions.
The Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Umo Eno, recently claimed that his state received a new federal housing project because of his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC). But a remark by the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, contradicts Mr Enos claim.

Mr Eno also stated that Akwa Ibom State University received federal approval for a law faculty due to his defection, a claim that has been contradicted by a public document and a federal official.

Governor Eno made the claims on 19 November during an emergency meeting with all 783 of his aides, where he demanded political loyalty from them after two of his aides defied him by attending the Ibadan PDP national convention.

The governor sacked the two aides shortly after the PDP convention. This action caused political tension in the state as the opposition questioned Mr Enos pledge to run a cross-party administration.

Anietie Usen, a prominent journalist, author, and media aide to Mr Eno, published excerpts from the governors meeting with his aides on Facebook.

Mr Usen said Mr Eno reeled out his administrations achievements, including paying N709 million monthly as salaries to his 783 aides.

He said Mr Eno, at the meeting, stated that Akwa Ibom has benefited from his defection to the APC, and that the governor mentioned the new federal housing project, called Renewed Hope Estate, and the approval for the law faculty at Akwa Ibom State University as some of the benefits.

What just happened takes a lot of relationship building and relationship management to get those things into our state, Mr Usen quoted Mr Eno as saying, referring to the housing project and the approval for the universitys law faculty.

I say this to say that we cannot continue to sit down in an opposition political party because there are too many things we cannot do for ourselves. Too many things, the governor added.

A national housing policy repackaged as a reward?

The new federal housing project, for which Mr Eno is claiming credit, is along Airport Road in Ekpene Ukim, Uruan Local Government Area, near Uyo. The governor performed the projects groundbreaking ceremony on 6 November, which was witnessed by the Managing Director and CEO of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), Oyetunde Ojo.

According to a report on the agencys website, Mr Ojo showed gratitude to the governor for his enthusiasm and cooperation with the FHA in realising the project.

The report further stated, The MD recalled that the governor, from inception, was very receptive to the idea of bringing in the Federal Housing Authoritys presence in Akwa Ibom, and that accounted for the reason he willingly gave out the land to FHA, free of charge, with the promise of rendering other support to the agency.

Mr Ojos remark here suggests that some federal officials may have informed Mr Eno about the new federal housing project that was coming to Akwa Ibom, and that the governor was very receptive to it. This clearly contradicts Mr Enos claim that his defection to the APC and his relationship building and relationship management with the APC-led federal government brought about the project.

Besides, Mr Dangiwa, the housing minister, said on 2 July 2024, at the groundbreaking ceremony of the 250-Housing Unit Renewed Hope Estate in Osun State, that President Bola Tinubus administrations drive to address the housing deficit in Nigeria covers the countrys 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

Under Phase One of this programme, we plan to deliver a total of 50,000 housing units across Nigeria. This includes seven Renewed Hope Cities that will have between 500 and 1,000 housing units per site in each of the six geopolitical zones in the country and the FCT, while the Renewed Hope Estates will have 250 units per site in the remaining 30 states, the minister said.

It is important to say that the provision of land in a good location and at no cost is a key condition for siting Renewed Hope Housing Projects, he added.

The 12 states covered under this 2023 supplementary budget are those that first provided land. I want to assure that states that have not been covered will be included in the Ministrys 2024 Budget on a first-come, first-served basis, on the condition that they provide land at no cost to enhance affordability.

Meanwhile, Ogun State, where the minister made the instructive remarks, was led by a PDP governor, Ademola Adeleke, which further punctures Governor Enos claim that Akwa Ibom benefited from the housing project because of his (Enos) defection to the APC.

Governor Adeleke has just resigned from the PDP.

The federal government has launched the housing project in Katsina, Gombe, Yobe, and other states  including Zamfara, which is not a PDP-controlled state.

Did Akwa Ibom university get approval for its law programme because of Enos defection?

The National Universities Commission (NUC) is a federal agency responsible for approving academic programmes run in Nigerian universities.

The Akwa Ibom State University, while announcing on its website the NUCs approval for it to offer a full-time LL.B Law degree programme beginning from the 2025/2026 academic session, said that the NUCs decision followed a thorough resource verification visit that confirmed the universitys readiness in terms of human and material resources.

The NUC accreditation system is designed to work by standards, not through political connections.

The commission had been using the Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards (BMAS) to assess and approve academic programmes in Nigerian universities until it was replaced by the Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS), which is structured to include 70% core courses for each programme and allow universities to use the remaining 30% for their own innovative courses.

For a law programme, the requirements include a dedicated and updated law library, an approved lecturer-to-student ratio, functional lecture halls, a moot courtroom, and a curriculum that meets national standards in terms of content and teaching hours.

Meanwhile, Akwa Ibom State University, owned by the Akwa Ibom State Government, had also recently received full accreditation for several of its academic programmes, indicating that groundwork for expansion was already underway before the governor switched political parties.

By tying the accreditation of the law programme to relationship building after joining the APC, Mr Enos remark risks diminishing the role of the university leadership, financial investment, academic planning, and professional benchmarks  and turning a purely technical process into politics.

Franca Chukwuonwo, the NUC spokesperson, told PREMIUM TIMES on Monday that every university in Nigeria receives the commissions approval for its academic programmes once it fulfils the requirements.

Why wont they be given accreditation if they fulfil the requirements? Mrs Chukwuonwo said to our reporter.

Our reporter asked Mrs Chukwuonwo if there are circumstances in which political affiliations, maybe with the Nigerian president, could pave the way for a university to receive NUC approval for its academic programme.

Sorry, there is nothing like that. This has nothing to do with the presidency. When once you fulfil the requirements, they will give you accreditation, she responded.

Mfon Ben, a lawyer and former chairman of Uyo Local Government Council, told PREMIUM TIMES that it is embarrassing for Governor Eno to claim credit for the approval granted to the university to begin a law programme.

Please dont ridicule us to that level. We have not come that low, Mr Ben, a PDP member in Akwa Ibom, said.

Did we need a connection to the centre (Abuja) to attract law faculty to the University of Uyo and other universities in Nigeria?

We have passed that stage. That is too low for a government achievement. Please, he should mention better things he needs to do, because he has not done anything for now.

Governor Enos spokesperson, Ekerete Udoh, refused to comment on the matter when our reporter contacted him on Monday.

The governor has been under pressure from the opposition in Akwa Ibom to show what benefits have come to the state from the centre (Abuja) since he had said that his defection was mainly to connect the state with the centre to kick-start the Ibom Deep Seaport project and attract other life-transforming projects to the state.

In October, during the burial of the late Eno Usoro, mother of the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Emem Usoro, in Akwa Ibom, Senate President Godswill Akpabio appealed to Vice President Kashim Shettima to present a case for the Ibom Deep Seaport to President Tinubu.

The vice president, when you and the president are there, please remember my state. All Governor Eno is looking for from the federal government now is just a Deep Seaport to complement the progress of the state, Mr Akpabio said.

It is the Deep Seaport, he said repeatedly.

Ibom Deep Seaport

Conceived by then-Governor Victor Attah about two decades ago, the Ibom Deep Seaport, covering 2,565 hectares of land, has remained stalled at the paperwork and federal approval stage.

Successive administrations in the state, including Mr Akpabios between 2007 and 2015, have repeatedly promised to actualise the project, which is expected to boost trade and industrialisation in the Niger Delta.

In June, Mr Eno used the Ibom Seaport as campaign rhetoric, framing his defection as a move to secure the projects long-awaited take-off.

We are not afraid of joining APC, for we know that with the APC we would realise our Ibom Deep Seaport.

That is our plea. For over 30 years, Akwa Ibom has struggled to have a seaport, but today we are reassured that the federal government will help us realise the seaport, Mr Eno had said at his official reception into the APC  an event attended by Mr Shettima and over seven APC governors.

Underscoring the projects importance to his administration, Mr Eno presented it as a single demand to the Tinubu-led federal government, insisting that even a partial realisation would justify his political move.

I believe President Tinubu, who is a man of his word, would honour us. Even if it is one terminal, this movement (his defection) would have been justified, he said, telling the crowd at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, venue of the reception, that the people of the state are looking at the federal government as the bride looks at the face of his bridegroom.
The federal government on Tuesday rejected claims of systemic media repression, emphasising that its policies and actions safeguard press freedom while promoting responsible journalism.

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said this during the 2025 International Press Institute (IPI) Annual Congress in Abuja.

Mr Idris acknowledged that the theme of the congress, Addressing Media Repression in Nigeria, reflects a concern that must be examined critically.

If the theme suggests an active, systemic policy of repression by the current administration, then we must, with respect, interrogate it against the available evidence, he said.

Nigeria dropped 10 places to 122nd in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), down from 112th in 2024, reflecting ongoing challenges for journalists amid rising concerns over censorship, safety, and press independence.

The event came amid a wave of arrests and detention of journalists for their reports sweeping across the country.

A few instances from the last few months include the arrest of Friday Alefia, publisher of Naija News, at his home in Lagos at the instance of a member of the House of Representatives representing Ezza South/Ikwo Federal Constituency in Ebonyi State, Chinedu Ogah. Mr Aleifa was later charged under the Cybercrimes Act for allegedly making false statements about the lawmakers alleged involvement in fraud and land grabbing.

He was detained in Abuja, denied bail, and remanded at Kuje prison and was not granted bail until late November.

Also, Hassan Mai-Waya Kangiwa was arrested in Kebbi State in September 2025 on orders of Governor Nasir Idris after circulating a video exposing poor hospital conditions.

Similarly, Sodeeq Atanda, a reporter with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), was detained by Ekiti State Police Command while covering governance issues in September 2025.

But the information minister insisted that the President Bola Tinubu-led administration views an independent press as essential to democracy, serving as the nations key platform for dialogue, and its presence at the event signals commitment to this principle.

Protection of journalists protocol

He outlined measures by the government to protect journalists, including stricter protocols for security agencies operating in conflict zones and during civil demonstrations, as well as regulatory frameworks that guarantee media establishments a safe environment to operate without fear.

We recognise that a free press is the amplifier of an engaged citizenry, on which premise we are actively working to ensure that journalists can perform their constitutional duties.

Our security agencies now operate under stricter protocols to respect the rights of journalists in conflict zones and during civil demonstrations. Our regulatory organs have continued to guarantee the proper assurances of the enabling environment necessary for licensed media establishments to thrive and give more voices to our people without ambiguity or fear, he said.

Press freedom vs National security, others

He, however, acknowledged that challenges persist. The balance between national security, combating misinformation, and upholding absolute press freedom is a complex one, navigated by nations across the globe.

He said the federal governments approach to this complexity is the most telling proof of its restraint.

The minister cited a recent episode where a major publication circulated a false story claiming Nigeria had agreed to adopt LGBTQ+ rights.

According to Mr Idris, the government rejected coercion and opted for transparency, publishing the full agreement and engaging the public through independent media channels.

Instead, we pursued transparency, immediately publishing the full, unadulterated agreement to demonstrate its content had no such provisions, issuing detailed rebuttals, and engaging the public directly, he said.

Evidence of press freedom

Highlighting the administrations commitment to a free and independent press, Mr Idris announced that Nigeria had been selected to host the regional Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Institute.

The institute, slated for an official unveiling in the first quarter of 2026, will serve as a neutral hub for training journalists, educators, and citizens to navigate the digital age, enhance critical thinking, and strengthen ethical reporting.

The minister also pledged ongoing collaboration with the IPI, the Nigerian Guild of Editors, and the Nigerian Union of Journalists to review regulatory frameworks, ensuring they balance freedom of expression with the public interest.

He promised to continue to be an unwavering voice within the Federal Executive Council, championing the cause of free press and open society and sustaining current tempo, moving in the right direction.

Mr Idris said that the administrations efforts, from principled restraint in handling crises to the establishment of literacy initiatives, demonstrate its commitment to advancing press freedom and fortifying Nigerias democratic foundations.
The International Press Institute (IPI) Nigeria has asked the federal government to stop the growing harassment of journalists and urgently review laws that allow abuse, warning that press freedom in the country has deteriorated sharply.

Speaking at the opening of the 2025 IPI Nigeria Conference and Annual General Meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, IPI Nigeria President Musikilu Mojeed said the media landscape was now under severe strain as attacks on reporters, intimidation of newsrooms and the misuse of security agencies continued across the country.

He noted that Nigeria fell from 112 to 122 in the global press freedom ranking this year, a drop he described as the outcome of consistent and aggressive repression across states, across platforms, and across newsrooms.

He said journalists now face monitoring, arbitrary arrest and physical assault for doing their job, including while covering protests, documenting state actions or reporting on elections.

According to him, journalists have increasingly become targets for state actors, political operatives and security officials who act without consequences.

He cited cases in which newsrooms were shut down for political reasons and instances where investigative journalists were abducted or held incommunicado.

He said media houses had been shut down for political reasons in Zamfara, and other states. He recalled that four broadcast stations  NTA, Pride FM, Gamji TV, and Al-Umma TV  were once closed simply for airing an opposition rally.

On targeted attacks on journalists, Mr Mojeed said, We recall the harrowing experience of a colleague, Segun Olatunji, who was abducted, blindfolded, chained, and transported hundreds of kilometres away from his base for a controversial reporting.

Abuse of cybercrime law

He also said online reporters are now frequent victims of cybercrime accusations based on the cybercrime law. He noted that despite recent amendments of the law, it continues to be used to suppress digital journalism. Several journalists have been arrested or prosecuted under this legislation, Mr Mojeed said, adding that the recent amendments to the cybercrime law had not stopped its misuse against digital journalists, who continue to face arrests and court cases.

Journalists covering protests and elections remain extremely vulnerable: In August 2024 alone, at least fifty-six (56) journalists were assaulted or arrested while covering demonstrations across the country.

These are not abstractions. They have names, faces, and families. The pattern of repression is deepening, and the actors remain largely the samestate agents, political actors, and security operatives who operate with impunity, he said.

Call for law reviews, caution to state governors, security agencies

Mr Mojeed warned that the situation had created one of West Africas most difficult environments for the media, with many reporters working under fear of reprisals.

He stressed that journalism is not a crime. And journalists are not criminals.

He added that although the constitution protects freedom of expression, in practice, we continue to see arbitrary arrests, intimidation, censorship, and violence.

He said the country must now review laws that enable abuse and strengthen mechanisms for journalist safety, adding that Nigeria currently has no functioning protection system for the media.

He urged the federal government to caution state governors, security agencies and officials who use state power against the press, describing the culture of impunity as dangerous. When attacks go unpunished, he said, it signals that silencing journalists is acceptable. He warned that the institute would fiercely resist any further attacks on journalists going forward.

The IPI president said press freedom was central to democratic governance. He told participants that when the media is weakened, elections lose credibility, governance becomes opaque, corruption flourishes, and citizens lose their voice.

What journalists should do

He called on journalists across the country to remain united and show solidarity, insisting that collective action was essential for survival in the current climate.

To our colleagues across the country: This is not the time for apathy and isolation. We must act as a unified community. When a journalist is arrested in Kano, colleagues in Akwa Ibom must care. When a newsroom is attacked in Niger State, reporters in Lagos must speak out. When a reporter disappears in Lagos, editors in Abuja must raise the alarm. Solidarity is our greatest line of defence, he said.

The event, attended by Vice President Kashim Shettima and the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, also paid tributes to the late IPI Nigeria treasurer, Rafat Salami.

Mr Mojeed recalled her dedication to the institute, noting that she attended last years conference despite severe illness. IPI Nigeria will endow an annual prize in her name at the University of Abuja to inspire young journalists with the values she embodied, integrity, courage and selfless service.

He said the conference should serve as a moment for reflection and renewed commitment to defending Nigerias civic space.

Timely conference

In his remark, IPI Globals Executive Director, Scott Griffen, who joined virtually sent a message of solidarity from Vienna.

I would like to wish you a successful and productive event as you deliberate on critical issues facing the media and history in Nigeria, foster collaboration and advance the cause of free, independent and responsible journalism, he told delegates.

Mr Griffen said the conference came at a crucial moment as the world faces deep shifts in geopolitics, technology and society, adding that this could not be a more important moment to come together to strengthen independent journalism.

He reminded participants that 2025 marks IPIs 75th anniversary and recalled IPIs post-Second World War founding by editors who believed a free press would help build a freer, more peaceful world.

Mr Griffen praised the Nigerian national committee for organising the congress and creating spaces for learning, sharing and solidarity, and said that, in an era of rising uncertainty, this solidarity is more important than ever.

He closed by thanking members for their dedication and wishing the conference fruitful deliberations on defending quality, independent journalism.
International Press Institute (IPI) Nigeria has added three public officers to its newly launched Book of Infamy for serious violations of press freedom and democratic norms, while simultaneously honouring the Director-General of the State Security Service (SSS), Adeola Ajayi, for exemplary conduct in protecting journalists.

The announcement was made by IPI Nigeria President, Musikilu Mojeed, during the official launch of the Book of Infamy.

The record is intended as a permanent accountability mechanism, documenting public officials whose actions undermine media freedom in Nigeria. It highlights repeated patterns of harassment, intimidation, or unlawful restriction of journalists and media organisations.

Book of Infamy

Governor Mohammed Bago of Niger State was listed for ordering the closure of Badegi 90.1 FM, an independent radio station in Minna, on 1 August.

The station was sealed after the governor directed security authorities to profile its owner for airing content critical of his administration. Although Badegi FM was later reopened following widespread condemnation, harassment persisted.

Previous incidents under his administration included the detention of a state correspondent for Peoples Daily and the reported assault of a Voice of America journalist by a commissioner in his cabinet.

Inspector-General of Police Kayode Egbetokun was also listed for allowing a culture of impunity within the police force regarding journalists.

Azuka Ogujiuba, publisher of Media Room Hub, faced repeated arrests and unlawful summons while reporting on a land dispute.

Since her case, other journalists across Kano, Ekiti, and the Federal Capital Territory have experienced unlawful detention, intimidation, and assaults by police officers.

IPI Nigeria cited the lack of visible corrective action under Mr Egbetokuns leadership as a key reason for his inclusion in the Book of Infamy.

Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State was also included for barring Channels Television reporters from the Government House Press Centre in May 2025 after they reported an undemocratic remark by the governor.

Despite repeated engagement by IPI Nigeria and formal letters demanding redress, the journalists remain excluded seven months later, with no corrective action taken.

VP Shetimas intervention

Vice President Kashim Shettima, who was present at the event, offered to mediate between IPI Nigeria and the officials named in the record.

He requested two weeks to engage the parties and sought to resolve the issues raised.

The vice president assured the institute of his commitment to robust engagement and indicated that he would work to address concerns over press freedom violations.

The inclusion of these officials comes at a time when Nigeria is facing growing challenges to press freedom.

The country fell 10 places in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index, dropping from 112th in 2024 to 122nd, signalling increased threats and constraints on independent reporting.

Positive leadership

In contrast, IPI Nigeria commended SSS Director-General, Mr Ajayi, for his commitment to protecting journalists since taking office in August 2024.

Mr Mojeed said under his leadership, the SSS has demonstrated restraint and professionalism in its dealings with media organisations.

Incidents of harassment and unlawful detention have been resolved promptly, including permanent removal of long-standing watchlist entries and immediate release of detained journalists.

The agency has also engaged constructively with media houses to resolve disputes, avoiding confrontations and promoting dialogue.

IPI Nigeria said the recognition of Mr Ajayi was aimed at encouraging other officials to emulate his example and to reinforce the importance of constitutional guarantees for freedom of expression and press freedom.

The Book of Infamy, launched during the event, is intended as both a public record and a warning to officials who abuse their power against the media.

According to Mr Mojeed, the initiative signals IPI Nigerias unwavering commitment to defending journalists, holding violators accountable, and promoting a safer environment for press operations in Nigeria.
The House of Representatives has raised concerns over the continued withholding of billions of naira recovered from the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), warning that the delay is crippling federal poverty-alleviation efforts and denying support to millions of vulnerable Nigerians.

The concerns followed a motion of urgent public importance moved by Saidu Abdullahi (APC, Niger) during Tuesdays plenary.

Moving the motion, Mr Abdullahi stressed that NSIPA serves as the central coordinating body for the federal governments flagship social protection schemes.

These include the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), and the Grant for Vulnerable Groups (GVG).

He explained that these interventions were created to provide direct support to poor households, boost school nutrition and enrolment, improve financial inclusion, expand livelihood opportunities for small-scale entrepreneurs and stabilise Nigerias socio-economic environment.

Mr Abdullahi recalled that on 8 January 2024, President Bola Tinubu suspended NSIPA operations for six weeks to allow for a comprehensive investigation into alleged financial malpractices within the agency. This step, he said, was taken to reinforce accountability and transparency in the management of public funds channelled toward poverty relief.

Following the suspension, he noted that multiple security and anti-corruption agencies launched investigations that reportedly led to the tracing, freezing and recovery of substantial sums held by commercial banks and payment service providers.

The recovered funds were said to include money allocated for critical components of NSIP, such as TraderMoni, MarketMoni, FarmerMoni and the Grant for Vulnerable Groups. These programmes, he noted, are essential to the Federal Governments Renewed Hope Agenda, which prioritises support for low-income households, women, farmers and micro-businesses.

The investigation resulted in the tracing, freezing, and recovery of substantial public funds belonging to the Agency from deposit money banks and payment service providers, including funds appropriated for TraderMoni, MarketMoni, FarmerMoni and the Grant for Vulnerable Groups, which are programmes central to the renewal of agendas commitment to supporting households, country traders, women, farmers, and vulnerable Nigerians, he said.

However, despite the successful recovery operations, Mr Abdullahi expressed deep concern that credible intelligence suggests that more than N30bn recovered during the investigation has not been remitted into a designated Treasury Single Account (TSA).

He warned that the failure to release these funds has crippled ongoing social interventions, leaving millions of intended beneficiaries without the economic relief originally envisioned.

Credible sources have indicated that this recovery fund is estimated at over N30 billion have not been remitted into a civil designated treasury single account, thereby stalling programme implementation and leaving millions of intended beneficiaries without the social and economic support envisioned by the federal government, he said.

The lawmaker emphasised that the prolonged withholding of the funds is already undermining the federal governments poverty-reduction agenda.

According to him, the delay has slowed down efforts to strengthen small-scale enterprises, deepened hardship in both rural and urban communities, disrupted planned economic stimulation at the local level and eroded public trust in the governments commitment to social protection.

He further cautioned that the continued uncertainty surrounding the exact location of the recovered funds, the identity of the custodians and the nature of administrative decisions being taken concerning the monies creates additional doubts about transparency within the system. He described the situation as a threat to the integrity of government-led social support programmes.

In response to the motion, Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, who presided over the plenary, announced that the House would set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the total funds recovered from NSIPA between 2024 and 2025.

He stated that the names of the members of the committee would be announced soon, and assured that the investigation would help the House determine the status of the funds and ensure accountability in the management of the social intervention portfolio.

We are going to be constituting another committee to investigate the total funds recovered from NSIPA during this period, 2024 to 2025, Mr Kalu said.

The National Social Investment Programme

Nigerias National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) was launched in 2016 by former President Muhammadu Buhari as a structured response to rising poverty, unemployment and social vulnerability across the country.

It was introduced as part of a wider reform effort to ensure that government assistance reached the poorest Nigerians in a transparent, organised and sustainable manner.

Under NSIP, the government sought to address multi-dimensional poverty by improving access to food, education, credit, grants and temporary income support.

As the programme expanded, especially with the introduction of initiatives such as the school feeding scheme, the trader support funds, and household cash transfers, the need for a legally backed, centralised institution became more urgent. This led to the creation of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA) in 2022 through an Act of the National Assembly.

The establishment of NSIPA was aimed at strengthening accountability, improving coordination among implementing units and ensuring that the social protection system became more reliable and effective.

NSIPA was mandated to manage the entire portfolio of social protection efforts.

This included the trader and market empowerment schemes that offer non-interest financial support to small-scale traders, artisans and farmers; the home-grown school feeding programme, designed to provide daily nutritious meals for public primary school pupils while supporting local agricultural economies; the conditional cash transfers to extremely poor households; and the grants issued to vulnerable groups, especially women, persons with disabilities and low-income families.

The broad aim of these programmes was to lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty, promote social stability and stimulate grassroots economic activity.
The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room has asked the Senate to reject President Bola Tinubus nomination of the former Chairperson of Nigerias electoral commission, INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, as an ambassador.

It also called on civil society organisations, the media, political leaders, and citizens to reject Mr Yakubu, a professors nomination.

This was contained in a statement jointly signed by Yunusa Yau, Convener, Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room and Co-conveners Mindoro Achakpa and Franklin Oloniju.

The situation room is a group of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) working in support of credible elections and governance in Nigeria.

Mr Tinubu on Saturday nominated the immediate past INEC Chairperson, Mr Yakubu who oversaw his election, as one of the 32 ambassadorial nominees sent to the National Assembly.

However, the Situation Room said Mr Yakubus nomination and eventual clearance would set a dangerous precedent in Nigerias democracy, which it said is akin to officials who conduct elections being rewarded by the winners of the elections.

The group said the nomination is ill-timed, inappropriate, and injurious to the electoral commissions independence.

It said while no law forbids the nomination of former INEC Chairpersons to political or diplomatic appointments, the spirit of democratic ethics demands a cooling-off period before such individuals are considered for positions conferred by political office holders.

The Senate must act to safeguard the independence and credibility of INEC, uphold public trust in Nigerias electoral institutions, and prevent the normalisation of political patronage for electoral officials, the statement said.

Nigeria cannot afford a democracy where those who conduct elections are rewarded by the winners. Such a climate erodes democratic values and weakens the legitimacy of public institutions.

The Situation Room expresses concern over the nomination, noting it raises serious questions of propriety, public morality, and the long-term integrity of Nigerias electoral system.

It said the nomination undermines public trust in the electoral process, considering he oversaw Mr Tinubus election in 2023.

To now elevate the same individual to a prestigious diplomatic positiondirectly conferred by the principal beneficiary of the election he conductedcreates an unmistakable impression of reward for political favour. This is deeply damaging to public confidence in Nigerias democracy, the statement added.

It signals to serving INEC leadership and staff that cooperation with incumbents during elections could lead to personal reward, political appointments, or career advancement.

Such a perception fundamentally compromises the neutrality of the electoral umpire and threatens the credibility of future elections, including the 2027 electoral cycle. Democracy collapses where the election management body is perceived as beholden to political actors.

Earlier, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had also condemned Mr Yakubus appointment, describing it as an excellent example of a skewed reward system, which we suspect is designed as an incentive to the new INEC Chairman, to also deliver flawed elections in 2027, in expectation of future rewards.

Specifically, we convey the disappointment of many right-thinking Nigerians on the nomination of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the immediate-past Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), whose administration of our electoral umpire was characterised by countless double-speaks, flip-flops, and undelivered promises, which ultimately resulted in the birth of this administration, which is struggling in all areas of governance, the PDP said in a statement by its Spokesperson, Ini Ememobong.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Chery Group reported another robust month in November 2025, delivering 272,536 vehicles worldwide. New energy vehicle (NEV) sales reached 116,794 units, up 50.1% year-on-year, while exports climbed 30.3% to 136,728 unitsreinforcing the company's position as China's leading automotive exporter.

For the first 11 months of the year, Chery sold 2,561,465 vehicles, an 11.1% increase from a year earlier. NEV sales surged nearly 69.4% to 814,685 units, marking the first time the group has surpassed 800,000-unit NEV deliveries within a single year. Overseas shipments totaled almost 1,199,590 units during the period, up 14.7% over a year earlier.

Photo source: Chery

Across its portfolio, all of the group's major sub-brands contributed to the upward trend. The core CHERY marque accounted for 165,511 units in November and more than 1.54 million year-to-date. Premium brand EXEED continued to expand with 12,021 units last month, while JETOUR maintained its strong momentum with 55,088 units. The younger iCAR and LUXEED brands also posted solid results with 11,428 units and 11,761 units sold respectively, reflecting Chery's increasingly diversified product ecosystem.

The company's broad-based growth stems from an aggressive product rollout strategy that advances on two fronts  electrified vehicles and a new generation of internal-combustion engine vehicle (ICE vehicle) models  allowing Chery to address multiple price bands and use cases simultaneously.

November saw a particularly dense wave of product activity. Chery introduced the fifth-generation Tiggo 8 as its latest gasoline flagship, while a series of NEV launches  including the EXEED ET5, Fulwin A9L AWD, 2026 Jetour Traveler C-DM and the high-performance Zongheng G700  broadened the group's electrified lineup. Several all-new models also debuted for the first time, further refreshing the pipeline for 2025 and beyond.

The momentum was amplified by Chery Group's strong showing at the Auto Guangzhou 2025, where 34 major models from five sub-brands were showcased. The lineup spanned sedans, SUVs and off-road vehicles, generating significant attention and extending the surge in consumer traffic through November.

By the end of November, Chery Group's global user base had surpassed 18.28 million, including more than 5.7 million overseas customers. As China's leading vehicle exporter, the company is accelerating its shift from selling products abroad to establishing globally recognizable consumer brands. Exports have exceeded 100,000 units for seven consecutive months during the Jan.-Nov. period.

Europe has emerged as a critical pillar of Chery's overseas strategy. The company  the first Chinese automaker to establish localized operations on the continent  has already introduced multiple brands including OMODA, JAECOO, and CHERY into Spain, Italy and the UK, with expansion underway in France and Germany.

On November 18, the Zongheng G700 made its debut in Dubai, marking Chery's entry into the global luxury off-road segment. The model attracted notable interest and positive feedback from local consumers, underscoring the growing technological confidence of Chinese SUVs in a traditionally premium-dominated category.

Looking ahead, Chery has signaled its ambition to outpace the broader industry next year. Building on an expected 2.60 million units in 2024, the group aims to exceed the sector's growth rate by 10 to 20 percentage points in 2025  a target that current trends suggest is within reach.
The State Security Service (SSS) on Tuesday arraigned Omoyele Sowore, human rights activist and publisher of Sahara Reporters, at the Federal High Court in Abuja for allegedly cyberbullying President Bola Tinubu by calling him a criminal.

Mr Sowore was arraigned alongside the parent companies of Facebook and X over his posts on the social media platforms in August calling Mr Tinubu a criminal.

They pleaded not guilty to the five counts during the arraignment before trial judge Mohammed Umar, who subsequently granted bail to Mr Sowore on self-recognition.

Earlier when the matter was called, his lawyer, Marshal Abubakar, challenged the competence of the charges.

Mr Abubakar argued that a preliminary objection was served on prosecution lawyer Akinlolu Kehinde, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) a few minutes before commencement of the proceedings.

He argued that his client would not enter a plea to incompetent charges.

Responding, Mr Kehinde vehemently objected to Mr Abubakar s submission.

The senior lawyer, who argued that the application was not ripe to be taken, said the business of the day was for Mr Sowores arraignment.

He said the preliminary objections filed was part of the mischief of Mr Sowores lawyer to delay proceedings in the matter.

He reminded the court that so many adjournments had been granted at the instance of Mr Sowore.

Mr Kehinde, who cited Section 396(3) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015, to back his argument, said no application ought to be heard until Mr Sowores arraignment.

Lawyers who appeared for X Incorp and Meta Incorp did not oppose the application for the defendants to take their plea.

In a short ruling, trial judge Umar agreed with the argument of the SSS lawyer and ordered that the arraignment should proceed.

After the arraignment on Tuesday, Mr Marshal applied for Mr Sowores bail, relying on Section 162 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act.

He said the offences are bailable and noted that his client, a respected presidential candidate, does not have the history of jumping bail.

The prosecution opposed the bail application, saying Mr Sowore has a history of committing further offences when granted bail. He noted that if the court inclined to granting him bail, it should do so in stringent conditions. The defence lawyer dismissed the claim that Mr Sowore would commit further offences if granted bail as untrue.

ALSO READ: Court orders police to halt tagging Sowore as wanted person

SSS filed five counts of cybercrimes and defamation in October against Mr Sowore, Facebook and X.

The government instituted the charges after the futile efforts of the countrys secret police agency, the SSS to compel the trio to delete the posts.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the prosecution accused Mr Sowore of making a false claim against the person of President Tinubu by referring to him as a criminal on his X and Facebook accounts.

The case is one of several that have been filed against Mr Sowore just this year following confrontations with the police and the government, including after protests against bad governance, corruption and unfavourable actions of the government.

(NAN)
Vice-President Kashim Shettima, on Tuesday, said the countrys journalists remain the most reliable barrier against authoritarian rule, insisting that no administration, past or futurecan successfully suppress the Nigerian media.

He stated this while delivering his address titled, The Nation That Defies Silence, at the 2025 Annual Conference and General Meeting of the International Press Institute (IPI) Nigeria, held at Nicon Luxury Hotel, Abuja. The conference has the theme, Addressing Media Repression and Safeguarding Democratic Accountability in Nigeria.

The vice president noted that the Nigerian medias long history of courage and independence has ensured the survival of democratic accountability, especially in moments of political tension.

Never in our history has any person or government succeeded in suppressing the media permanently. You have stood firm in the coldest nights of national adversity, and you have outlived those who attempted to place their boots upon your freedom, he said.

Architects of national consciousness

Mr Shettima opened his remarks by describing the press as the architects of national consciousness, saying journalists possess the power to build dreams or dismantle illusions, and to either strengthen public hope or plunge a country into fear.

Our aspiration is to witness the finest expressions of this craftwhere truth, not convenience, becomes the supreme editorial policy, he said. So I am honoured to share the company of these professional troublemakers today, he added.

He praised generations of Nigerian journalists for repeatedly rising in defence of the publics right to know, even in periods marked by political confusion and deliberate misinformation.

Journalists commended for resisting disinformation

One of the strongest parts of his speech focused on what he called Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference.

He commended the overwhelming majority of Nigerian journalists for confronting disinformation campaigns and refusing to be foreign puppeteers instruments.

You have stood firmly against disinformation and refused to surrender your pens to falsehoods, he said.

Mr Shettima also noted that the medias most sacred duty is protecting democracysometimes from politicians, and at other times from politicians themselves.

Democracy is safe only when power is under constant observation and it is safe only when those who observe do so with integrity rather than vendetta, he said.

He acknowledged the tension that often characterises relations between journalists and political leaders, describing it as the friendship of a cat and a mouse, but stressed that both sides are better off as friends.

He also highlighted the role of IPI Nigeria as a standard-setter for ethical journalism, urging practitioners to uphold verification, accountability and professionalism.

According to him, the governmentmedia relationship must be rooted in openness, mutual respect and shared commitment to the public interest.

He however warned that a minority within the profession  those who deliberately publish unverified or fabricated claims  undermine the credibility of the media and distort national discourse.

He also cautioned that countries that weaken or silence the press inevitably lose both governance direction and public voice.

A nation where the media is silent is a nation where public officers lose their way, and where the people lose their voice, he said.

He assured journalists that the administration sees them not as adversaries but as partners essential to the survival of Nigerias democracy.

I stand before you today not as a wary politician, but as a friend who acknowledges your indispensable role and assures you that this administration will continue to protect your right to freedom of expression.

The vice president reiterated that the Tinubu administration remains committed to safeguarding press freedom and ensuring journalists can work without intimidation.

We owe you a space of practice devoid of harassment, intimidation, or fear. That much is non-negotiable. As a government, we must continue to create an environment where truth can thrive without obstruction, he noted.
There was a mild drama in the Senate chamber on Tuesday after the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, briefly halted plenary to hold a private discussion with some senators at his seat.

Mr Akpabio entered the chamber at about 12:10 p.m., while plenary, presided over by the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, was already in progress. He took over proceedings during the presentation of scheduled bills.

However, about 10 minutes after assuming control, he summoned the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, to his chair for a discussion.

Shortly after Mr Bamidele approached, several other senators including Asuquo Ekpenyong (Cross-River South), Adamu Aliero (Kebbi Central), Jimoh Ibrahim (Ondo South), Titus Zam (Benue North-west) and Mr Barau, also moved toward the senate presidents seat, causing plenary to stall for more than 40 minutes.

While some senators were in discussion with Mr Akpabio, others were seen chatting among themselves. Several lawmakers also left their designated seats to hold side conversations, creating a noisy and disorderly atmosphere in the chamber.

During the discussion, Gombe Central Senator, Danjuma Goje, rose to caution the senate president against pausing plenary for private consultations.

Mr Goje, a former governor and member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) said Mr Akpabios action is unparliamentary and insisted such discussions should not take place during an active session.

He invoked Order 55 of the Senate Rule Book, which prohibits senators from interrupting proceedings, and insisted that such meetings should be held outside the chamber.

Interaction not allowedwhat Im trying to say Mr President is that what is happening now is unparliamentary. What youre doing now is unparliamentary. You should have taken this meeting outside. ,Everything is standstill now. Were not doing our actual business. We should go on recess. When were ready well come back and meet you, he added.

Responding, Mr Akpabio explained that the senators, who gathered around his seat were invited to deliberate on an assignment scheduled for 1 p.m., at the Presidential Villa.

Everybody that youre seeing here was invited by the chair for a brief discussion in continuation of todays sitting and in line with the order youve just read, whether or not we should proceed in view of a very urgent assignment at the villa by 1 o clock, Mr Akpabio said.

The senate president then asked Mr Goje to approach the chair so he could also be part of the meeting.

And please approach the chair so that you can also be part of it, he added.

Mr Goje rejected the invitation, stating that he was not interested.

I dont want to be part of it, Mr Goje responded.

Mr Akpabio has a habit of keeping senators waiting and pausing plenary to hold private discussions with lawmakers during proceedings. He has repeatedly engaged in this practice, even though it is at variance with the Senates rules.
Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State has presented a N 1.62 trillion 2026 budget to the House of Assembly for approval.

Mr Mbah made the presentation on Tuesday at the assembly chamber in Enugu.

Entitled the budget of renewed momentum, the 2026 budget recorded a 66.5 per cent increase from the N971 billion 2025 budget presented by the governor in November last year.

The budget

During the presentation, Mr Mbah said N1.3 trillion was earmarked for capital expenditures, representing 80 per cent of the total budget, while N321 billion was allocated to recurrent expenditures, representing 20 per cent of the budget.

Again Education gets over 30% of the budget

In the 2025 budget, Mr Mbah allocated N320.6 billion to the education sector, representing 33.2 per cent of the total budget.

In the 2026 budget, the governor said, without mentioning the figures, he allocated 32.27 per cent of the total budget to the education sector, which is above the 15 to 20 per cent recommended by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

He stressed that the sustained increase in the education budget has been a deliberate investment intended to secure the future of our children for a better society.

When we invest in education, we are not just securing the future of our children. But we are also securing our own too because we already know the price of not investing today in education, Mr Mbah said.

Funding the budget

Mr Mbah the budget will be funded through a combination of N870 billion in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), N387 billion from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, and N329 billion from capital receipts.

The governor said the spending plan for 2026 will prioritise infrastructure renewal, education, healthcare, water supply, technology, job creation, and security which he said are areas essential to achieving the administrations long-term development blueprint.

The governor said his administration will be constructing five new bus terminals at Ninth Mile, Four Corner Area, Udi, Awgu and Obollor Afor.

On Enugu Air, he said his government would procure 14 new additional aircraft to bring the total fleet to 20 for the state-owned airline.

Costs

Mr Mbah said N149 billion has been allocated as personnel cost because the government intends to increase its workforce and manpower for delivering on proposed projects.

He said overhead costs were about N120 billion while the consolidated revenue fund received N50 billion.

So our total recurrent expenditures would be about N321 billion which constitutes a total of 20 percent of our budget, he said.

Sectoral allocations

Mr Mbah said the administrations sector got N128 billion, representing 8% per cent of the budget, while the economic sector received N825 billion, representing 51 per cent of the total budget, followed by the law and justice sector which will take N15 billion (1.54%).

The governor said the regional sector received N2 billion (0.17%), the social service sector got N644 billion, representing 40.1 per cent.

IGR, GDP growth

Mr Mbah announced a growth in the IGR of the state.

The governor explained the growth of the states IGR followed his administrations automation of payment of government dues and taxes which blocked unnecessary leakages of revenues.

The IGR did not increase because people are paying more, but because the system captures more (people), he said.

He said the states Gross Domestic Product has also improved significantly in recent times due to quality economic reforms.

Praise for lawmakers

Earlier, Mr Mbah praised the lawmakers for their consistent support to his administration and commitment to good governance in Enugu.

The governor recalled that the lawmakers swiftly approved the 2025 budget and then

appealed to them to replicate similar efforts on the 2026 budget proposal.

He stressed that the 2025 budget was instrumental for the achievements of his administration within the year, citing building of road projects, Smart Green Schools across the 260 wards, and 260 Type-II healthcare centres among others.

These achievements now form the foundation for the budget of renewed momentum we seek in 2026, he said.

House Speaker speaks

During the budget presentation, the Speaker of the Enugu House Assembly, Uchenna Ugwu, praised Governor Mbah for his transformative leadership in the state.

Mr Ugwu said, because of the governors ingenuity and outstanding performance, Enugu State ranked high in the 2025 budgetary performance in Nigeria.

The 2026 budget proposal demonstrates a thoughtful and deliberate effort to address the pressing needs of our people; continued investment in education, strengthening infrastructure, improving healthcare delivery, and enhancing security and supporting agriculture, Mr Ugwu said.

We members of the House of Assembly, welcome this budget of renewed momentum with renewed optimism.

Our different standing committees shall indeed brace up and apply both speed and efficiency during our engagements with different ministries, departments and agencies, he said.
The Lagos State Government has announced plans to phase out small commercial buses, widely known as korope, from major highways as it accelerates efforts to modernise public transportation under the Lagos Strategic Transport Master Plan.

The move is part of the next phase of the LekkiEpe Bus Reform Scheme, which will begin on 8 December. The reform is one element of the broader Bus Reform Initiative (BRI), conceived to replace the citys largely informal minibus operations with a structured system of high-capacity, regulated buses.

At a stakeholders meeting held to finalise arrangements for the rollout, officials from the Ministry of Transportation, the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), and representatives of informal bus operators reviewed operational details for the new corridors.

Under the scheme, regulated bus services will operate exclusively along routes such as AjahCMS (Marina)/Obalende, AjahOshodi, AjahBerger, and AjahIyana Ipaja, with plans to extend services to Epe later.

The Head of Corporate Communication at LAMATA, Kolawole Ojelabi, said in a statement on Tuesday that the Special Adviser on Transportation, Sola Giwa, who chaired the meeting, reiterated the governments intention to streamline operations across Lagos by removing unsafe and unregulated vehicles from major highways.

We need to take a lot of bad buses off the road. The LekkiEpe Expressway is not isolated. We are working on other major transit corridors. The vision of the state government is also to remove the small buses known as korope from major highways and reassign them to feeder and community routes to strengthen the First and Last Mile bus scheme, Mr Giwa said.

The decision aligns with the states long-term transportation blueprint, which aims to integrate bus, rail, and water transport while reducing dependence on informal minibuses that currently account for the majority of daily mechanised trips.

Over the past two years, officials have repeatedly described the citys minibus sector as chaotic, citing inconsistent fares, unsafe road practices, non-compliance with vehicle inspection standards, and lack of route discipline.

Previous regulatory efforts along the LekkiEpe corridor required minibus operators to meet Vehicle Inspection Service (VIS) standards, with the government emphasising regulation rather than outright prohibition. Under that regime, compliant minibuses were to be rebranded and assigned to interior routes as part of the First and Last Mile system.

The latest announcement signals a firmer shift toward the full removal of korope from main highways as higher-capacity buses come online.

Under the new structure, the already regulated operator on the corridor will continue stage carriage services. At the same time, a collective of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), has been approved to operate express services from Ajah to Oshodi and Berger.

Buses deployed under the scheme will carry Lagos States blue-and-white colours and feature QR codes for vehicle verification, unique identification numbers, and Touch-and-Pay (TAP) stickers. Drivers will also be required to wear official Ministry of Transportation badges.

A total of 229 medium- and high-capacity buses will operate during the first phase, with all fare payments restricted to the Cowry card system  part of a broader push for electronic ticketing across the city.

Mr Giwa warned that operators or commuters who engage in cash transactions would be arrested and prosecuted, stressing that enforcement teams would be deployed along the serviced corridors.

The reforms form part of Lagoss ongoing attempt to build a fully integrated transport ecosystem that includes the Blue and Red rail lines, BRT corridors, ferry services and dedicated non-motorised transport lanes.

However, transport analysts note that thousands of low-income commuters still rely on informal minibuses, raising concerns about the adequacy of feeder services when korope are eventually removed from highways.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Tuesday told the Special Offences Court in Ikeja, Lagos, that former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefieles co-defendant, Henry Omoile, voluntarily wrote his statements on the subject of their ongoing $4.5 billion fraud trial.

Mr Emefiele and Mr Omoile are jointly facing 22 counts in total. While 19 of the counts, which centre on gratification and corrupt demands, are directed at Mr Emefiele, the remaining three counts of allegedly receiving unlawful gifts, are for Mr Omoile.

Both of them have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The case, first brought by the EFCC in April 2024, has seen the admission of digital communications and WhatsApp messages allegedly showing attempts to deliver funds on behalf of Mr Emefiele.

At the previous hearing on 9 October, prosecution lawyer Rotimi Oyedepo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), sought to tender Mr Omoiles extra-judicial statement, considered crucial to the prosecutions case, as an exhibit.

But defence lawyer Kotoye Adeyinka, who is also a SAN, objected to the admission of the written statement.

Mr Omoile, through his defence lawyer, denied the statement, saying it was obtained from him custody by coercion.

This prompted the judge to order trial-within-trial to verify his claim of involuntariness of the statement credited to Mr Omoile.

Testifying in the trial-within-trial on Tuesday, EFCC operative Alvan Gurumnaan said no officer coerced Mr Omoile to give the statements.

The second defendant did not make any statement under duress. Our officers do not force statements through violence or intimidation, he told the court, adding that the burden lies on the defendant to prove coercion.

Mr Gurumnaan, formerly of the EFCCs Special Operations Unit in Lagos, said the statements were made at the commissions conference room in Block A, Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, a large open space routinely used by the Special Operations Team.

He said it was surprising that Mr Omoile later claimed duress, noting that the defendant arrived at the EFCC office on 26 February 2024, accompanied by the Acting Managing Director of Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) and his lawyer, E. N. Offiong.

The statements were taken openly. There is no way we could have done that under threat, he said.

The four statements in issue are three dated 26 February 2024 and one dated 27 February 2024.

Mr Gurumnaan confirmed that Mr Omoile was in custody when he made them and was duly cautioned by another EFCC operative, Azeez Ajigbotosho.

The statements were signed by Mr Omoile, who wrote: I am making this statement in the presence of my lawyer, Offiong.

Although one statement did not explicitly mention the lawyer, the witness maintained that Mr Offiong was present on both days and tendered the EFCC visitors register as proof.

Under cross-examination by another defence lawyer Olalekan Ojo also a SAN and Mr Adeyinka, the witness admitted that investigators did not make a video recording of the recording of the disputed statements, despite it being EFCC standard practice.

He explained that operational constraints sometimes prevent recordings.

Mr Oshodi adjourned the trial-within-trial to 15 and 16 January 2026.

Mr Emefiele, who President Bola Tinubu removed as the CBN governor in June 2023, is also facing other corruption charges in Abuja stemming from his activities while in office.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has issued certificates of expulsion to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and 10 other members of his faction of the opposition party suspended by the National Convention in November.

Others who were issued expulsion certificates are a former Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, former National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu, National Organising Secretary, Umar Bature, National Legal Adviser, Kamarudeen Ajibade, factional BoT Chairperson, Mao Ohuabunwa, factional National Chairperson, Abdulrahman Mohammed, and a National Vice Chairperson (South-south), Dan Orbih and George Turnah.

The Chairperson of the PDP in Imo State, Austin Nwachukwu, and his Abia State counterpart, Abraham Amah, also got certificates.

The National Chairperson of the PDP, Kabiru Turaki, announced this on Tuesday while briefing journalists shortly after a meeting of the National Working Committee (NWC) at the partys national secretariat in Abuja.

Mr Turaki said the NWC had reviewed and affirmed the expulsions earlier approved by the National Convention, PDPs highest decision-making organ and subsequently dispatched certificates of expulsion to all 11 affected members.

He mocked the expelled members, saying the certificates would make life easier for them by preventing any ambiguity about their exit from the party and eliminating the possibility of dual party membership.

We have also considered the issue of members of our party who were expelled by the national convention in Ibadan. We have taken note of the fact that Nigerian law frowns on dual membership of political parties, and so we have sought to make it easy for them.

Now that they are no longer members of our party, and now that the national convention, which is the highest decision-making organ of our party, has expelled them, we have decided to issue them certificates of expulsion so that when they go to register with other political parties in Nigeria, they will show these certificates as proof that they are no longer members of the PDP, and so those parties will not accuse them of trying to belong to more than one political party.

Distinguished members of the press, as I speak to you, these certificates have been dispatched via courier to the 11 persons who have been expelled, he said.

How they were expelled

The motion to expel Mr Wike and 10 others was moved by a former National Deputy Chairperson of the PDP (South), Bode George, during the partys national convention in Ibadan in November.

Mr George, a former military governor of Ondo State, told the convention that Mr Wikes actions had brought the party into disrepute and accused the minister of recruiting Messrs Fayose, Anyanwu, Abdulrahman, and seven others to destroy the party.

The motion was subsequently approved after a majority of the delegates supported it through voice votes.

The party maintained that the expulsions were carried out in line with its constitution, which grants the national convention supreme authority over party matters, including disciplinary measures.

However, two PDP governors, Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State and Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State, rejected the expulsion.

Mr Fintiri argued that Mr Wikes expulsion was not taken in the best interest of the party and, for that reason, he would not associate himself with it.

On the other hand, Mr Mutfwang said the decision to expel the politicians was neither discussed at the PDP Governors Forum nor at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting before it was presented and adopted at the national convention.

Expulsion meant for Nigerians

Mr Turaki said the issuance of expulsion certificates was also intended to alert the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), security agencies and the Nigerian public that the affected individuals no longer belong to the PDP.

Gentlemen of the press, we have done this for Nigerians, particularly critical institutions involved in managing the affairs of political parties, especially INEC, and agencies managing security affairs in society: the Nigeria Police, the Department of State Services, the Nigeria Civil Defence Corps and other government agenciesto know that these people are no longer members of our party. They have been expelled. They remain expelled. We have now certified their expulsion, and these certificates have been sent to them, he said.

READ ALSO: Osun Governor Adeleke resigns from PDP

He warned that any member of the public who engages the expelled individuals as representatives of the PDP does so at their own risk.

Very soon, members of the society will be informed via proper disclaimers that any person henceforth who decides to do business with them, any or all of them, does so at his or her own risk. They are no longer members of the Peoples Democratic Party. They have been expelled.

You, today, are living witnesses to their certificates of expulsion. We hope that members of the PDP in Nigeria and the diaspora will know that the party has once again gotten rid of the cankerworms that have been afflicting and creating problems for us in our activities, he noted.

The Chairperson added that the party was now focused on rebuilding and providing effective opposition ahead of the 2027 general elections.

We are now prepared to be saddled with the responsibility of performing our functions as the leading opposition party in Nigeria. We are going to provide a credible alternative to Nigerians. We are going to provide credible leadership to Nigerians by the special grace of God from 2027, he added.
Nigerias Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, on Tuesday outlined major reforms undertaken in the last two years to revive the countrys electricity sector, saying recent progress has positioned Nigeria to support regional energy needs.

The minister spoke at the ongoing West Africa Energy Cooperation Summit hosted by Energy Net in Ghana.

The gathering brings together top government officials, innovators, policymakers, industry leaders, and partners committed to shaping a resilient and sustainable energy future for the West African region and the African continent as a whole.

Key reforms

Mr Adelabu said the Tinubu administration had boosted installed generation capacity from 13,000 megawatts to over 14,000 megawatts within 24 months.

He noted that the country currently generates from hydro and thermal plants, with plans underway to integrate utility-scale solar power, especially in northern Nigeria.

According to the minister, Nigeria now has excess generation capacity, producing only about 6,000 megawatts while capable of generating an additional 8,000 megawatts.

He said much of that surplus remains stranded due to limited domestic demand, even as the country exports only about 600 megawatts to Togo, Niger and the Benin Republic.

Mr Adelabu said the countrys vast solar potential could further strengthen energy security, complementing thermal plants concentrated in the Niger Delta and hydropower facilities in the North-central zone.

The minister described the transmission segment as historically weak, burdened by inefficiencies and ageing infrastructure across Nigerias 928,000-square-kilometre landmass.

He said many high-voltage linessome more than 60 years oldurgently require upgrading.

He explained that the government has continued with the Presidential Power Initiative inherited from the previous administration, completing the supply, installation, commissioning and energising of 10 power transformers and 10 mobile substations nationwide. This, he said, has strengthened the grid.

Mr Adelabu also disclosed that the Transmission Company of Nigeria had been unbundled into two entities, the Transmission Service Provider and the Nigerian Independent System Operator, to improve efficiency.

These reforms, he said, have reduced grid collapses from more than a dozen last year to only one so far this year, which was restored within two hours.

Distribution and regional integration

The minister also announced that Phase One of the ongoing Presidential Power Initiative transmission expansion has begun and will deliver more than 25 new substations across the country. The initial work has already added over 700 megawatts to transmission capacity, raising the grids evacuation capability to about 8,500 megawatts, he said.

READ ALSO: West Africa Energy Summit opens in Ghana

When Phase one is completed, an additional 7,000 megawatts of transmission capacity will be added, bringing total capacity to over 15,000 megawatts, he said, adding that the upgrade prepares Nigeria for deeper integration with the West African power market.

On distribution, the minister said the 11 privately owned distribution companies have improved infrastructure, reduced metering gaps, and enhanced collections, contributing to better power supply for homes, offices, institutions and industries.

Mr Adelabu acknowledged that challenges remain, but said the sector is undergoing a transformation that will not stop until it can support Nigerias industrial ambitions and strengthen energy security across West Africa.

Once this is achieved, the entire West African subregion will be assured of energy security, reliable supply and progress toward universal access, he said.

We firmly believe that this is the way forward.
The number of people walking and commuting, on the streets of Soweto in the morning, is on a steady rise. Malls, which are also on the rise, sprouting out anywhere, have long displaced small businesses, redirecting the cash in circulation to Johannesburgs leafy north. Billboards advertising alcohol bear faces of youngsters in rude health. No faces of drinking-looking people feature here. Try again if you thought the liquor industry could curb alcohol abuse, gender-based violence and road fatalities.

In another hour or so, traffic at arteries like Koma and Chris Hani roads, will come to a standstill when funeralgoers swell the streets. We too are funeralgoers, on a Saturday in October, to lay to rest Todd and Esme Matshikiza, and John Pogiso Maroo. This is an ode to Maroo, a Parys-born freedom fighter who died in exile, in Harare, in 1989, aged 63. His hearty laughter matched his compassion, discipline and intellect. Through episodes of detention, exile, banishment and imprisonment, he fought on, till the end. Maroo belongs to the generation of Adolphus Mvemve, Henry Squire Makgothi, James la Guma, Moses Mabhida, Nomvo Booi, OR Tambo and Ruth First. Dont forget Swapo co-founder Toivo ya Toivo and Robert Sobukwe, first president of the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania. Maroo would have met or worked with most of them during the 40 years he spent in the freedom struggle  from picket lines in Joburg, to Robben Island, and in exile.

Scores of other names link the evil past and the future we wish for our progeny. Historians gasp, some amusedly, at the mention of weapons of mass destruction, thanks to George Bush & Co, and Ian Smiths idiocy to undo African civilisation. Until 1980, Oxford had a history professor, Hugh Trevor-Roper, who canonised stereotypes  falsely claiming there was no African history before colonists set foot here, a place teeming with unedifying gyrations of barbarous tribes. So, surely, Oxford and peers would have never taught about Emperor Mussa or other realities of in Africa independent of Europes caricature. Its at this point worth recalling Chinua Achebes counsel for us, as a people, to record our history.

The abundance of overweight politicians and police officers, like the ones managing an odd roadblock on our way to the funeral, is vexing. Somewhere, past Soweto Highway, where Noordgesig meets Orlando, the railway line to Naledi, via Phomolong (cue Abdullah Ibrahims eponymous tune), emerges. My mind drifts to Molo Fish! Avoiding the Truth, a series that took viewers to the family-splitting Group Areas Act, the very essence of apartheid as an oblivious white minority regimes prime minister Daniel Malan said in the early days of that evil system. On the upside, Molo Fishs music score and poetry built in were rich.

There was a time, though brief, when TV forced us to imagine and grow. That was the heady 1990s, cue local- and foreign-trained talent Dali Tambo, Felicia Mabuza-Suttle, Joe Tlholoe, Lesley Mashokwe and Melanie Chait, Sylvia Vollenhoven and all-rounder Dennis Beckett. Radio shed its propaganda profile. Jacob Dlaminis Native Nostalgia tracks the previous decades and, briefly, revels at how propaganda backfired on Pretoria in the era of the Group Areas Act and its devastating cousins the Immorality Act that Trevor Noahs book revisited albeit on a light note. Its hard to ignore these things when the past stalks the land, when ideas of restitution and affirmative action get derided as if the Irish-coffee economy is OK, as if to delegitimise Nelson Mandelas clarion call: Let there be bread, water and salt for all.

John Pogiso Maroos daughter, Dr. Lebo Maroo, faults deviations from the Freedom Charter, a document her dad swore by. I think he wouldnt believe that we are free. Look at the means of production, look at the colour bar in cultural life, she writes in Botswana Mmegi, stressing that the charter is about the land [and] mineral resources and about wealth being shared. It would be sad if we have forgotten about the Freedom Charter because we still have so many undone things, so many gaps, she notes, urging young people to take the baton and fight for a just, equal and fair society.

Born in an increasingly repressive society, Maroo and the Matshikizas sought refuge in Zambia and so on. Ntate Todd died in Lusaka in 1968, days shy of his 47th birthday, but his work lives on. His erudite Chocolates for My Wife was to become activists staple from the 1970s. Staples have changed with right-wingers swelling Armageddon talk radio today. They are curiously silent on socio-economics, cartels and foetal alcoholic disorder stemming from the dop era but routinely brush off institutionalised dispossession.

The aggressive anger-ignorance junction is so palpable. Zakes Tolo, a stalwart of the African National Congress (ANC) and its military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), recalls Maroos tale about a white pig, in a bowtie, that so yearned a minute to gambol in the mud. The moral of the story is that people would never discard who they are, says Tolo remembering his comrades take on bigots. As the liberation movement goes towards the left, [reactionaries] go towards the right and trample on the objectives of the movement.

Mme Esme, a daughter of Noordgesig, died a nonagenarian in June 2020, having voted since 1994. Shes been reunited with her husband Todd in death. To stress, 1994 was just the beginning (apartheid ended four years earlier in Namibia). Communities track the shadow of brutal poverty, contrasts in survival rates, price-distorting cartels, and rand manipulation. Economists mumble Gini co-efficient. Students cite, wait for it, post-apartheid-apartheid but unfairly vilify capitalism while lauding the likes of Sweden and China. A lot gets lost in translation.

Like his 48 comrades repatriated from Zambia and Zimbabwe, Maroo returned home last year Hed died a terrorist, to borrow from propagandist Nationalists, a regime enabled by London and Washington DC. In contrast, legions of folks around the globe who opposed oppression. The sight of mourners in kaftans, a code for Palestine, suggests the spirit of solidarity lives on. The country that the man known as Maroo is reburied in today is nothing like the one that separated him from his wife, mother, and three children (scattered in as many countries). His folks had suffocated from the Natives Land Act and other draconian laws. Thankfully, his scions will never know that evil system that forced their ancestor into exile in 1978, pursued him in Gaborone (1979), nearly took his life him in Maseru (1982).

In the aftermath of Maseru, a massacre that claimed 42 lives (including two kids), Maroos blood-stained suit was vivid in telling his near-death story that he neither had a chance or a heart to tell, noted Lebo, who went to exile with her father in 1978, never to meet again.

To mitigate, ANCs top brass re-deployed its operative to Lusaka. Pretoria was killing spree: Gaborone, Matola, Boipatong, Kabokweni, Langa (Uitenhage), Mthatha, Naledi, Ongoye, Thokoza, etc. Cross-border assassinations reigned: Busi Majola, Dulcie September, Jeanette Schoon and an untold number of others. Maroo received the news of the murder of Onkgopotse Tiro while on Robben Island where he took hard labour and inhumane conditions in his stride. Chronic back pain and awful scars told an untold story.

For ANC leader Fikile Mbalula, those scars bore testament of his resilience and dedication to the cause, he told mourners at the City Hall, a venue flanked by Helen Joseph, Albertina Sisulu, Harrison and Rissik streets. Those names are akin to a path from an oppressive, and sexist, past to the present. Sadly, the private sector isnt shedding its apartheid-era boys club profile, as men still tend to hire men as CEO, CFOs, etc.

Comrade John Maroo was the embodiment of a patriot, a cadre of our revolutionary movement grounded in the commitment to the liberation of our country, Mbalula noted. The scandals rippling the movements founding ideals tend to draw an involuntary sigh, a cry and a chuckle at the sight of ANC top dogs. This time I chuckle when the man beside me whispers to himself here comes a celebrity as Mbalula strides into a packed hall. The service recalls the 1980s. Its emotional. Mourners in black and in other colours, in party regalia and so on colour the service with slogans. Freedom songs reverberate in a hall with some 1,500 people. Theres more chanting outside. Police officers sit stoically. Church hymns meet toyi-toyi. That sums Maroos life: from church, in Parys and Alex, to exile in Lusaka and beyond. Palestinian flags fly so high. War veterans lift their legs this high. Time stops. Amen.

As a boy, all young John dreamed of was to become a reverend. But, when Maroos time came, in the 1940s, his application to be a candidate minister of the Methodist Church was rejected. Meanwhile, the national stage was seized with a groundswell of activity against Jan Smuts who laid the foundations of what became apartheid. In 1950, Maroo joined the ANC but his activities soon drew police surveillance. He and a nurse named Rebecca Tlolane married in 1953 and they settled in Soweto. In no time, their house became a subject of endless police raids.

In those years, the ANC wanted to build a non-racial and non-sexist society where the doors of learning and culture would be open, and in the sharing in the countrys wealth. Now, in the 2020s, the land of shallowness, the partys a full-time gravy train. Cue Luthuli Houses preoccupation with the partys fall from the pound seats to a polygamous dormitory. Social ills from drugs to gangs elicit half-hearted yawns. ANC has suffered four walkouts since 1994. Cosatu is strife-torn. In the beginning, ANC fired Gen. Bantu Holomisafor exposing Sol Kerzner as its cash daddy. Sophie Williams-De Bruyn, in a 2011 interview with the author, singled access to resources as the real enemy. Government chiefs are minting it. Look at ministers credit cards and waistlines. Its pitiful. Williams-De Bruyn worried about degenerating morals and a new orientation with post-1994 leaders differing from the servants of the people of the old.

Just like the ANC, part-time opposition and cash daddies obsess about the polls. Their PR machinery is sleek but trivialises transformation. Theatrics and judiciarisation of politics provide fodder for newsrooms but ignore the harm from eons of oppression. Look at the Western Capes multiple trouble: drugs, foetal alcoholic spectrum disorder, gangs and joblessness. Pesticides stunt childrens growth, dimming the future. Teen pregnancies stalk the future. Homes are war zones. We need catharsis. Theatrics distract.

FASD, TV, alcohol abuse and other factors unknowingly conspire to dumb the nations trajectory. It starts with falling levels of consciousness. Thankfully, some things arent falling. Students are usually engaged. Some still sing poems and chant slogans in memory of martyrs like Steve Biko and Onkgopotse Tiro.

As my first political educator, Papa introduced me to Tiros story in the late 1970s. Tiros martyrdom lives on, wrote Lebo Maroo. An activist and history teacher whod been hounded from Morris Isaacson High, Tiro was slain months after finding refuge in Botswana. His spirit galvanised a generation decades later in the (#FeesMustFall) and decolonisation movements at the turn of the century, reflected Prof Itumeleng Mosala, Tiros fellow black consciousness adherent.

Taking a look at Maroos untimely demise, MK grandee Zakes Tolo draws solace from the fact that the operative died aware that victory was imminent though some individuals remained behind bars, in exile, or were tortured, accidentalised and disappeared. Anyway, talks-about-talks gatherings were afoot in places like Senegals Goree and Zambia, recalls Tolo. The minority Nats rule was unravelling.

So came the end to Maroos tortuous path, that included Botswana which declared him a persona non grata in 1979 to elude the wrath of Bothas regime which wanted him deported to, it was speculated, hang. The fear was germane given the underground operatives activities. Solomon Mahlangu was hanged that same year. Pretoria hadnt forgotten Maroos daring escape, with six recruits, to Botswana from where hed been banished, traveling first by car then by foot. He had told his daughter that the Boers werent going to make him shrink and do nothing out of fear of torture, Ill keep fighting. We must keep fighting. In paying homage to the fighters cohort, may we inspire youths  if they can navigate cynicism  to foster economic justice, equality, friendship, solidarity and unity grounded in innovation, moral regeneration, sustainability and Ubuntu.

Known as Ntate Maru in Lesotho, the fighter was survived by wife Rebecca and children Cynthia, Lebo and Oupa (who in 1976 joined MK). They barely lived together as a family as the police security branch would routinely hound the fighter before his 12-year imprisonment on Robben Island.

The often-discussed Natives Land Act  chronicled, a century ago, by freedom fighter Sol Plaatje, was the beginning of what Madiba described as crippling, anti-African legislation [which] ultimately deprived blacks of 87% of the territory in the land of their birth.

Mme Rebecca Maroo passed on in 2020 after years of trying to get her husbands remains repatriated. For decades, she and her family endured police harassment and humiliation. The matriarch, a general without a medal, kept her family as a unit even when it was physically apart. Hers typified the underrated role many women play, quietly but with dollops of fortitude and resolve, in repressive societies. This is a tribute to her too and to all the mothers of the struggle everywhere.

Shoks Mnisi Mzolo is a roving storyteller with a background in arts & culture and financial journalism. He also works as an independent researcher and is an avid traveler.
Genocide starts with the killing of one person and it is usually reported in the past tense. And if the targeted killings of Christians continue without check, the numbers of the dead will rise to a level that will satisfy the definition of genocide by both the protagonists and antagonists of Christian genocide in Nigeria. Therefore, the too much ado about Christian genocide in Nigeria is not only insensitive and provocative but hypocritical, as no one has a right to decide for another how to describe their tragedy.

While the Nigerian government, its agents, propagandists and intellectually dishonest hirelings were pre-occupied with shutting down the cry of Christian genocide in Nigeria, our common enemies  Fulani bandits and Islamic State of West Africa Province insurgents  struck at multiple targets, leaving death, tears, blood, and mourning afterwards. In the past few weeks of the needless controversy and, or should I say, senseless debate over the concerns raised by the American authorities on Christian genocide in Nigeria, we have lost a military commander of the rank of a Brigadier General in the theatre of war on terror against ISWAP fighters, with over 300 people  including men, women and school girls  variously abducted from a church in Kwara, a catholic school in Niger, and a government school in Kebbi. These were as killings, abductions, and the sacking of communities by terrorists are still ongoing across the country.

As soon as President Donald Trump made his gun ablazing statement in relation to Christian genocide in Nigeria and his vow to intervene if the Nigerian authorities are unable to contain the mass killing of Christians in the country, and I observed a reactionary defensive posture on the part of government and some prominent Muslim authorities, I reached out privately to whom it may concern in government to caution against their denialist approach to this issue. I also advised that government security agencies should rein in Muslim individuals, groups and institutions, such as Sheikh Abubakar Gumi, Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), the Supreme Council on Sharia in Nigeria, and the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, from attacking the position of the American authorities, which was simply an amplification of a long held notion in the Christian divide in Nigeria. And my reason is simple: neither the American authorities nor the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) have accused the government or the Muslim community in general of being the perpetrators of genocide against Christians in Nigeria. Their accusations have gone straight to Jihadi terrorist groups like ISWAP and Boko Haram, as well as killer Fulani herdsmen operating in the predominantly Christian Benue/Plateau axis of Central Nigeria.

My advice and caution is to prevent the debate from degenerating into a Christian/Muslim or North/South divide at a time when social cohesion, national unity and fraternal solidarity are essential towards forging a common front against our common enemy as a people. But as always, the government failed to understand this basic principle of citizen engagement and what followed from statements talking down on those who are crying out for help against what they believe to be genocide against their kind, has deepened the Christian/Muslim fault line to dangerous levels. Unfortunately, the needless debate surrounding the cry of Christian genocide in Nigeria revealed a fundamentally flawed understanding of the subjected matter of genocide by the antagonists, even as they carried on mercurially in the arrogance of ignorance.

The constant refrain by the antagonists of Christian genocide in Nigeria that Muslims are equally, if not more, affected by mass killings in Nigeria, clearly underscores this arrogance of ignorance on the meaning of genocide. That the general definition of genocide is the deliberate and systematic killing or persecution of a large number of people from a particular, ethnicity, race, nationality or religion, with the intent of destroying them in whole and part, simply means that when Muslim terror groups like ISWAP, Boko Haram and Killer Fulani herdsmen kill fellow Muslims, it doesnt raise the concern of genocide, as much as when Christians are killed. This is because genocide is a peculiar kind of crime that takes into cognisance the identity (ethnic, racial, national or religious) of both the victim and perpetrator, in order to isolate the hate factor that motived the crime in the first instance. And I have often stated that when Muslims are killed by Boko Haram and ISWAP terror groups, it is because in the consideration of these Jihadists, such Muslims are not Muslim enough; but when they kill Christians, it is because they are indeed and in practice, Christians. As such, the number of the Muslim dead, even if higher than those of Christians, do not technically count as Muslim fatalities, as the killers do not consider them different from the few Christians they have killed, because as far as they are concerned their Muslim and Christian victims are nothing but infidels whose blood is halal. And this is why Christians in Nigeria are and should be more worried than Muslims.

Despite the fact that for many years, Fulani bandits have been wreaking havoc in the North-West of Nigeria, rustling cattle of fellow Fulani cattle breeders, killing and kidnapping them for ransom, no genocide claim was made by the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), until Fulani cattle breeders were massacred on the Mambila Plateau by ethnic Mambila militia men some time in 2017.

Let me reiterate it here once again that it is smacks of provocation, insensitivity and lack of empathy, for some Muslim authorities to continuously talk down on grieving Christians, as no man has the right to decide for another how to describe their tragedy. And Christians will not be the first to cry out for help in terms of what they perceive to be targeted killings of genocidal proportion against them. Despite the fact that for many years, Fulani bandits have been wreaking havoc in the North-West of Nigeria, rustling cattle of fellow Fulani cattle breeders, killing and kidnapping them for ransom, no genocide claim was made by the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), until Fulani cattle breeders were massacred on the Mambila Plateau by ethnic Mambila militia men some time in 2017.

In an editorial in Daily Trust titled Genocide on the Mambila, it was reported that according to the Fulani community, which was the target of the attacks variously described by observers as genocide and ethnic cleansing, more than 200 people were killed, 180 Fulani villages were looted and burnt, 4000 heads of cattle were also killed or maimed by the attackers. In fact the casualty figures were believed to be higher than reported in the media, as some sources placed the number of the dead at over 800, while 25,000 cattle were destroyed.

So outrageous was the carnage that Gan Allah Fulani Development Association of Nigeria, a pan Fulani socio-cultural group, filed a suit against the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Taraba State government at the ECOWAS Court of Justice, claiming that they violated the fundamental human rights of Fulani people on the Mambila plateau, contrary to the constitution of Nigeria and African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, amongst many other violations. According to the filling by the groups solicitor, Professor Yusuf Dankofa, the Gan Allah Fulani Development Association of Nigeria accused the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Taraba State government of destroying lives and properties of several Fulani communities in Mambila between 17th and 23rd June 2017 in a well-coordinated and organised manner fit to be aptly described as GENOCIDE.

On that occasion, no attempt was made by the government of the day to characterise the mass killing of Fulani people as farmer/herders clashes, neither did the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Middle Belt Forum and other such groups make any attempt to dispute this act of genocide, even when the perpetrators were mostly Middle Belt Christians. In fact, the then GOC of 3 Division, Jos, General Benjamin Ahonotu, an Igbo Christian from Southern Nigeria, was full of empathy when he visited the area of the carnage on a motor bike and lamented that, even Boko Haram did not slaughter women and children but here I saw young children and pregnant women slaughtered.

Similarly, Muslim individuals, groups and authorities, such as the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, had reasons in the recent past to describe the persecution and mass killings of Muslims in Plateau State as a genocide. And this concern was never shouted down, as it was valid at the time, when over 700 Muslims were massacred in the Yelwa-Shendam attacks in 2004.

On my part, I wrote an article titled, Fulani Cattle Breeders: a National Treasure Turned Preys, where I paid glowing tribute to Nigerias cattle breeding Fulani, condemned the genocide against them on the Mambila Plateau, while calling out the government of Taraba State for not doing enough to protect the Fulani community in the state. Interestingly, I wrote this piece a year after I was kidnapped by Fulani bandits somewhere in Kogi, and had to pay them ransom. But in my assessment of the Mambila tragedy, I was able to make a distinction between a Fulani bandit and a Fulani cattle breeder, whose hard work, tenacity, God given knowledge of animal husbandry and discipline has contributed enormously to Nigerias food security.

Similarly, Muslim individuals, groups and authorities, such as the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, had reasons in the recent past to describe the persecution and mass killings of Muslims in Plateau State as a genocide. And this concern was never shouted down, as it was valid at the time, when over 700 Muslims were massacred in the Yelwa-Shendam attacks in 2004. Olusegun Obasanjo, the Christian president of Nigeria at the time, didnt deploy energy and resources to shutting down the voices of the victims, but instead took decisive actions to halt the killings and bring the perpetrators to justice. On that occasion, President Obasanjo declared a state of emergency and sacked the Christian governor of Plateau, who was blamed for not doing enough to prevent the attacks on Muslims in his state. And when a similar attack took place in 2008 against Muslims, a prominent Muslim scholar and politician vowed in tears to lead a Jihad to Plateau State against the killers of Muslims.

Genocide starts with the killing of one person and it is usually reported in the past tense. And if the targeted killings of Christians continue without check, the numbers of the dead will rise to a level that will satisfy the definition of genocide by both the protagonists and antagonists of Christian genocide in Nigeria. Therefore, the too much ado about Christian genocide in Nigeria is not only insensitive and provocative but hypocritical, as no one has a right to decide for another how to describe their tragedy.

Majeed Dahiru, a public affairs analyst, writes from Abuja and can be reached through [email protected].
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On December 2, Xiaomi EV announced that its cumulative deliveries have surpassed 500,000 units, a milestone reached in 20 months after the brand began handing over vehicles on April 3, 2024.

The company added that orders scheduled for delivery in 2025 have already exceeded the original full-year target of 350,000 vehicles, signaling stronger-than-expected demand as it heads into its first full year of sales.

Photo source: Xiaomi EV

According to figures released a day earlier, Xiaomi EV maintained monthly deliveries above 40,000 units in November. It marks the third consecutive month the brand has held that level since September, underscoring its rapid ramp-up and its resilience amid intensifying sector competition.

In line with its usual practice, Xiaomi EV did not disclose an exact monthly tally, saying only that November deliveries "continued to exceed 40,000."

The sustained performance over the past three months suggests the brand's early success is more than a short-lived surge. Xiaomi EV appears to have made tangible progress in both manufacturing capacity and market expansion. Maintaining delivery volumes at this scale, especially in China's increasingly crowded NEV sector, highlights its capabilities in production planning, quality assurance and supply-chain coordination.

The announcement follows a ceremony held on November 20 to mark the production of the 500,000th Xiaomi vehicle.

At the event, Xiaomi founder, chairman and CEO Lei Jun said the milestone demonstrated the company's end-to-end capabilitiesfrom R&D and manufacturing to sales, delivery and after-sales serviceand reflected broad consumer acceptance as the brand moves into its next phase of scaled operations.

Mr. Lei also projected that Xiaomi EV will deliver more than 400,000 vehicles in 2025, raising expectations for another year of rapid growth.
Across Nigeria, progress is increasingly driven by access to the tools that help people learn, earn, and participate fully in a modern economy.

Over the past year, CREDICORP has supported thousands of Nigerians to acquire the assets that make daily life easier, from mobility solutions that shorten commutes and increase productivity to renewable energy systems that keep homes and small businesses powered and productive. Each intervention has shown the same outcome: when Nigerians are allowed to access essential tools through fair and responsible credit, their lives improve rapidly.

Today marks an important expansion of that mission.

CREDICORP is launching a national digital device credit program that will make smartphones, laptops, and other essential digital tools more affordable for working Nigerians. In a world where so much of life has moved online, digital devices have become central to opportunity.

A smartphone can connect a young graduate to job portals and remote work; a laptop can help a civil servant stay more productive; a simple digital tool can enable a trader, artisan, or small business owner to reach new customers and run their operations efficiently. These devices are no longer luxury items; they are everyday instruments of progress.

This rollout builds on the success of the pilot phase already completed under the partnership. In the first phase, CREDICORP, working through E-Finance Company with technology support from Credlock, enabled over 1,000 Nigerians to access smartphones through affordable credit, many for the first time.

The strong repayment performance and the speed of adoption demonstrated both the appetite and the national need for this kind of support. With this new phase, CREDICORP is poised to scale the programme significantly, targeting over 15,000 Nigerians who will be able to access smartphones or laptops that directly enhance their productivity, income potential, and digital participation.

To deliver this initiative at scale, CREDICORP is working through one of its Participating Financial Institutions, E-Finance Company, with technology support from Credlock, whose intelligent device-collateral system allows for secure, responsible, and efficient access to credit. Together, E-Finance and Credlock will ensure that Nigerians can seamlessly apply for, finance, and collect the digital devices they need, without the heavy burden of upfront payments.

Reflecting on the launch, CREDICORPs Managing Director, Uzoma Nwagba, noted that this is a natural progression of CREDICORPs work. From mobility to renewable energy, we have witnessed the profound impact that access to credit can have on peoples daily lives.

Nigerians are ambitious and hardworking; they simply need fair pathways to acquire the tools that move them forward. Digital devices now sit at the center of learning, earning, and productivity, and expanding access to them is a critical step in building a more digitally ready nation.

Credlocks CEO, Dayo Fabayo, emphasised the power of turning everyday devices into pathways for progress. Every smartphone represents potential to learn, to work, to access opportunity, and to live with dignity. At Credlock, we believe the device in someones hand can be the bridge to their financial future. Working with CREDICORP and E-Finance allows us to scale that vision to millions of Nigerians.

This initiative is part of CREDICORPs broader mission to expand consumer credit and improve the quality of life across the country. By widening access to digital tools, CREDICORP is supporting a more connected, productive, and future-ready Nigeria, one where every citizen can thrive.

Nigerians interested in financing their digital devices can begin the process by participating in CREDICORP PFIs via www.credicorp.ng/apply
Edo State has received a significant boost to its economy with the announcement of a landmark $100 million Foreign Direct Investment into Presco Plc by Belgian agro-industrial leader SIAT NV.

This investment marks the crucial first tranche of an ambitious $1 billion FDI commitment designed to accelerate agro-industrial development across Nigeria over the next decade.

The $100 million fund will be strategically utilised to support Prescos expansion initiatives, including scaling industrial capacity, expanding plantation development, and driving value-addition across its operations. Furthermore, the investment will enhance technology adoption, bolster talent development, and strengthen Nigerias position in the regional edible oils and speciality fats market.

This substantial commitment highlights the critical role of strong subnational governance, particularly the exemplary leadership of Governor Monday Okpebholo. His administration has successfully enhanced security, strengthened governance structures, and cultivated a robust, business-friendly climate which continues to attract large-scale industrial capital into Edo State.

Nigeria and Edo State remain at the heart of Prescos long-term strategy. This renewed commitment reflects our confidence in the countrys reform direction, its resilience, and the strong leadership driving Prescos consistent performance, said Olakanmi Rasheed Sarumi, Chairman, Presco Plc.

The successful attraction of this major investment is a key indicator of Edo States growing appeal as a premier destination for industrial capital in West Africa. The commitment of SIAT NV and Presco Plc underscores the high potential of the states agricultural sector and its capacity to attract large-scale FDI.

The ongoing implementation of Governor Okpebholos economic blueprint is expected to leverage these investments to create thousands of jobs and sustainably boost the states economic output, contributing significantly to Nigerias broader goals of economic diversification and economic growth.

Presco Plc remains a standout performer on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) and continues to deliver superior returns to its shareholders. The company is already a strategic driver of the local economy and stands as one of the largest employers of labour in the region.

This new capital injection will not only support operational enhancements but also fuel necessary workforce expansion, further cementing the companys role as a pillar of economic stability and industrialisation in Edo State and Nigeria.
On 28 November 2025, a faceless group called Human Rights Watchdog in Africa (HRWA) issued a press statement, signed by its Executive Director, Samson Adamu, calling on President Bola Tinubu to declare a state of emergency in Zamfara after accusing Governor Dauda Lawal of pardoning and releasing convicted bandits.

The HRWAs statement, which was disseminated by some sections of the media, claimed that Governor Lawal authorised the release of 69 convicted bandits in September through what it described as a secret state pardon, reportedly processed through the Zamfara State Zakat and Endowment Board, under a programme tagged Religious Amnesty. The group further urged President Tinubu to invoke emergency powers under the Nigerian Constitution to suspend Governor Lawal, overhaul the states security apparatus, and launch a federal probe into the alleged pardons.

Strip away his authority before more blood is spilt. HRWA stands with the voiceless victims of Zamfara; we will not rest until accountability prevails, Mr Adamu said.

VERIFICATION

In order to verify this claim, painstaking efforts were made by journalists to obtain the original statement issued and signed by the Human Rights Watchdog in Africa, which was the source of the story published by some online platforms. However, the efforts yielded no result as they couldnt get the original statement issued by the group.

Further efforts to reach out to the Chairman of the group, Samson Adamu, the so-called executive director of the group, who signed the statement according to the published stories yielded zero result. Also enquiries with journalists in Zamfara, Kaduna and Abuja, where the purported statement was allegedly released, couldnt yield any tangible result, as no journalist could confirm receiving any statement by the said group or from Samson Adamu.

Background open checks using search tools to see whether the group has a registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) or any office, website, contact, or physical address were all negative. Checks to unravel the identity of Samson Adamu through online tools met a dead end. Like the group he purportedly represents, there was no name matching his online before 28 November 2025. He has no digital footprint or social media identity, nor any virtual or physical address or phone number.

The name Human Rights Watchdog in Africa, it was found, first appeared in late November 2025, through news coverage in Nigeria urging President Tinubu to declare a state of emergency in Zamfara State. Before then, there was no mention of the organisation online or anywhere.

On the substance of the groups claim, findings revealed that the Zamfara State Zakkat and Endowment Board had facilitated the settlement of debts and subsequent release of 909 inmates between 2024 and 2025.

This was disclosed by the Executive Secretary of the board, Habib Muhammad Balarabe, during the 2025 End-of-Year Activities held at the Boards premises, Bypass, Gusau, recently. Mr Balarabe said the board secured the freedom of 473 inmates in 2024 and this year released 67.2 million for the settlement of debts owed by 436 inmates, bringing the total beneficiaries to 909 within two years.

The board also empowered 200 women small-scale business owners, who received 50,000 each, to strengthen their enterprises. Another set of 100 women were presented with starter packs, completing a three-week poultry production training to enable them to start their own businesses.

Checks with the officials of the Zakkat board have further revealed that their scope of humanitarian activities, which includes paying up the debts of persons convicted of civil cases, and have proven to be of worthy character while in prison, didnt include bandits, who are convicted of criminal activities. We dont have such a mandate. And no convicted bandit was pardoned or released. It is laughable for someone to say the Governor of Zamfara, who, time without number, declared publicly that he wont negotiate with bandits, would turn back to release them from prison after their conviction. This is a huge joke, an official, who was not authorised to speak to the press, said on Tuesday.

Further checks have shown that the Zakkat board paid the debts of the convicted debtors after a thorough process in collaboration with the officials of the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCS). It has been further confirmed that in the last two years, Governor Lawal has been consistent in insisting that his administration wont negotiate with bandits.

On 29 October 2025, while serving as a guest lecturer to participants of the Executive Intelligence Management Course (EIMC) at the National Institute for Security Studies in Abuja, Governor Lawal warned against the ongoing federal government peace deal with bandits. The governor further stressed that Zamfara State strongly frowns on the ongoing, unregulated peace efforts being undertaken in parts of the North-West with violent non-state actors.

The governor emphatically declared that, Dialogue can aid conflict management, but true peace requires disarmament, and reconciliation without control equates to surrender. Allowing armed groups to keep their weapons while setting peace terms simply delays violence and compromises state sovereignty.

At this crucial time, peace efforts should be strong, coordinated, state-led, and backed by legitimate authority. The State must show it has both the capacity and the will to enforce peace. Sustainable peace arises when armed actors acknowledge the rule of law and the Governments commitment to protect its citizens.

When contacted for his response on the allegation, Governor Lawals spokesperson, Suleman Bala Idris said there was no time Governor Lawal pardoned or released any bandit. He said, The story is a juvenile work of fiction. It is a figment of the imagination of some failed politicians in Abuja whose political career is in jeopardy because of their links with bandits. As that haunts them, they would continue to catch straws, including manufacturing puerile lies, to tarnish the Rescue Mission revolution being undertaken by Governor Dauda Lawal in Zamfara state. It is a desperate attempt to distract Governor Lawal, but that has also failed, as it did before.

VERDICT

After a thorough investigation, it has been established beyond doubt that the Human Rights Watchdog in Africa (HRWA) and its executive director are fictitious. The claim that Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State had pardoned and released convicted bandits is found to be FALSE.
The Niger State Police Command has rescued three more children and arrested three additional suspects linked to an ongoing child abduction and trafficking ring.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Wasiu Abiodun, said the arrests were made on 28 November during operations in Nasarawa and Abuja.

According to the command, the suspects arrested are Chioma Onyanja of Nyanya, Abuja, Joy Ndife of Kurudu, Abuja, and Olusegun Anjorin of Orozo, Abuja.

Mr Abiodun said the rescued children are five-month-old Saifullahi Abdulmumini, four-year-old Possible Danlami, and one-and-a-half-year-old Safiya Sani, all of whom were found in the custody of the suspected receivers.

Police said Ms Onyanja claimed she received the infant through her pastor, whom she said described the child as unwanted.

She paid two million, seven hundred thousand naira for the child, the statement said.

Ms Ndife, who operates an orphanage in Mararaba, allegedly tried to arrange the sale of another child before her arrest.

Mr Olusegun, a pastor, also reportedly paid one million naira for a child he claimed was abandoned with one Victoria, the prime suspect.

The command confirmed that all three children have been reunited with their families, bringing the total number of recovered children to nine and suspects in custody to eleven.

In a separate operation, police arrested two men in Suleja for allegedly selling adulterated fuel.

The suspects, Emekomah Prosper and Alhassan Abubakar, confessed to buying and distributing a chemical product called naphtha, which was mixed with petrol and sold as Premium Motor Spirit.

The command also reported the arrest of 23 suspected thugs after violent clashes in parts of Minna.

One young man, identified as Bello Mohammed, was found dead following an overnight fight among rival groups.

Mr Abiodun said investigations across all cases are ongoing, and efforts continue to track other missing children, suspected traffickers and accomplices involved in the illegal fuel network.
The Nigerian Army has launched an internal inquiry into the presence of soldiers at a political event on 29 November, reportedly linked to former Governor Gbenga Daniel in Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State, PREMIUM TIMES can report.

Godwin Ugochukwu Nwamba, a brigadier general and commander of the 35 Artillery Brigade in Abeokuta, told PREMIUM TIMES that he became aware of the incident after a complaint was lodged about soldiers allegedly providing security at the gathering.

General Nwamba said those opposed to Mr Daniels, an incumbent senator, accused the commander of Sappers Barracks, Ilese-Ijebu, of deploying soldiers to the area, even though securing political events is the responsibility of the police and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

The Brigade Commander said he immediately queried the battalion commander and demanded an explanation.

According to him, the commanding officer of Sappers Barracks denied deploying troops specifically for the political rally. The officer claimed instead that the soldiers seen at the venue were only patrolling their designated areas of responsibility as part of routine operational duties.

READ ALSO: Nigerian Army colonel who accused superiors of frustrating his promotion arrested

Brigadier General Nwamba said the Army is currently verifying the officers claims.

We acted on the complaint immediately, he told PREMIUM TIMES. The battalion commander has been asked to explain, and he said his men were not deployed for the political event but were on a normal patrol. We are checking and verifying all the details.

The Army has repeatedly emphasised its non-partisan stance and maintains that its personnel must not be involved in activities that could be interpreted as political engagement or support.

The brigade commander said the Army and its personnel are professional and non-partisan, adding that further actions on the matter would depend on the outcome of the ongoing internal review.
National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Tanimu Turaki, says the party has yet to receive any official communication from Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State regarding his resignation from the PDP.

Mr Turaki stated this while speaking with journalists shortly after the partys National Working Committee (NWC) meeting in Abuja on Tuesday.

He said while Mr Adeleke has the right to stay or leave the party, he had yet to communicate to the party that he was resigning his membership.

We have seen in the media a letter purported to be from him resigning his membership of our party, but I tell you that up to this moment, we have not officially received any such indication from him that he has left this party.

From the instructions we have given our people in the field, I know that Governor Adelekes name is one of the aspirants vying for the ticket.

So, if he decideseither in person or via a representative at the centre of the primarythat he has withdrawn or refused to make himself available, then that will form part of the report we will receive.

As far as we are concerned, even if what we saw on social media is true, as a Nigerian, Governor Adeleke, like any other person, has the constitutional right to freedom of association. He is free to move in; he is free to move out of any political party, he said.

Mr Turaki said that the power and strength of PDP remained with the people, not persons elected on the platform of the party.

We are together with our people. If you go to states where some of the governors have left, conduct a survey, and you will discover that most of the people did not go with those who defected. That is what we are counting on.

Our people are with us intact, and by the special grace of God, when election time comes, they will prove to Nigerians that the PDP is still in proper and complete shape, Mr Turaki said.

Speaking on the partys internal processes, Mr Turaki said that the NWC had reviewed and approved the congresses in Osun State conducted to select ad-hoc delegates.

He also said that the partys governorship primary for Osun was ongoing peacefully, noting that Adeleke remained one of the aspirants in the exercise.

As I speak to you now, primaries are ongoingGovernor Adelekes name is one of the aspirants vying for the ticket, he said.

Mr Turaki added that the NWC had also reviewed the arrangements being made for the conduct of the local government election in Anambra State.

We are satisfied with the report we received from the leadership of the party in Anambra State, that they are well prepared for that election. We are hoping that we will sweep that election when it is conducted, he said.

Mr Turaki also said that the former governors of the party, nominated by President Bola Tinubu for non-career ministerial appointments, had not communicated with the party on the development.

For the former governors who have been nominated, we have yet to receive any indication from them seeking permission or notifying us of the appointment.

We wish them well. If they come to us, we will certainly consider it on its merit and take a decision on the appropriate response.

But for now, I can confirm to you that we have not received any communication from them informing us that they have been nominated for ambassadorial positions, he said.

READ ALSO: Osun Governor Adeleke resigns from PDP

On the security challenge currently facing Nigeria, Mr Turaki said that the NWC advised the federal government to immediately review the countrys security architecture.

He said there was a need for the government to brace up and ensure that Nigerians and their property were protected wherever they might be.

We call on the federal government to brace up and, most especially, begin to consider a review of the security architecture in this country.

We in the PDP believe that a situation where governors are called the chief security officers of their respective states, yet have no hand in controlling the operational activities of the military and security personnel who operate in their states is something that needs to be overhauled, he said.

.(NAN)
PARIS, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Three companies owned by groupe Dubreuil - French bee, Air Caraibes, and Air Caraibes Atlantique, have selected IBS Software to transform flight operations and crew management, through its iFlight Core solution.

Julian Fish, Head of Aviation Operations, IBS Software and Paul-Henri Dubreuil, Chairman of Groupe Dubreuil

The partnership with IBS Software, a leading SaaS solutions provider to the travel industry globally, will see this airline group replace their fragmented legacy IT infrastructure with the integrated, cloud-based iFlight Core platform. They will unify operations across both regional and long-haul operations, spanning the USA, Indian Ocean, Pacific, French West indies and more largely the Caribbean regions. Air Caraibes and French bee will be among Europe's first multi-AOC airlines to deploy unified, AI enhanced operations management, at scale.

The implementation of advanced crew planning tools will boost operational stability across all three companies. The solution will also enable data-driven decision making, and shall enhance satisfaction for pilots, cabin crew and controllers operating across multiple time zones and operational models.

Through iFlight Core, IBS Software will deliver an integrated, expandable platform built on modern cloud architecture. The system's comprehensive API framework enables seamless connectivity with Air Caraibes and French bee's ecosystem partners ensuring optimal compatibility throughout the airline group's operations.

The solution's open architecture specifically supports Air Caraibes and French bee's hybrid operational model, accommodating both leg-based and pairing-based crew planning approaches across their diverse route networks, from short-haul Caribbean routes to long-haul transoceanic operations.

"Pooling flight operations and crew management across French bee, Air Caraibes, and Air Caraibes Atlantique through a single, modern platform represents a strategic milestone in our digital transformation journey," states Paul-Henri Dubreuil, Chairman of the Board at groupe Dubreuil and at Groupe Dubreuil Aero. "IBS Software's collaborative approach and iFlight Core's ability to integrate with specialized eco-system partners shall give us the flexibility to optimize operations while maintaining the distinct characteristics that make each of our airlines successful."

"Our partnership with the airlines of Group Dubreuil Aero demonstrates how modern, unified solutions can serve complex, multi-airline operations across diverse markets," commented Ben Simmons, SVP and Regional Head Europe & Africa at IBS Software. "Supporting airlines such as French bee and Air Caraibes aiming to enhance their crew efficiency, reduce operational costs and increase competitiveness with iFlight Core is a privilege for us."

This partnership marks a significant milestone for iFlight Core's market expansion, and the second major European airline group partnership.

iFlight Core is the first purpose-built platform targeted at agile, resource-efficient small and mid-sized airlines, delivering measurable value and preparing carriers for a future of intelligent, data-driven processes.

To learn more about IBS Software's iFlight Core platform, visit https://www.ibsplc.com/product/airline-operations-solutions/iflight-core.

About Group Dubreuil Aero

Group Dubreuil Aero - the aviation branch of a French family-owned group  is operating three distinct airlines and company brands: French bee (long-haul low-cost), Air Caraibes (regional Caribbean operations) and Air Caraibes Atlantique (operating business and leisure long-haul for Air Caraibes). Based in France with main operations in the French Caribbean, North America and Indian Pacific, the group focuses on operational excellence and passenger-centric service across diverse market segments.

Group Dubreuil Aero's growth strategy emphasizes digital transformation and optimized operations management, positioning the group as an agile competitor in its markets. Through strategic technology partnerships and investment in modern, integrated infrastructure, Group Dubreuil Aero is investing for long-term growth and operational excellence across its portfolio. For more information, visit [www.groupedubreuil.com]

About IBS SOFTWARE

IBS Software is a leading SaaS solutions provider to the travel industry globally, managing mission-critical operations for customers in the aviation, tour & cruise, hospitality, and energy resources industries. IBS Software's solutions for the aviation industry cover fleet & crew operations, aircraft maintenance, retailing solutions, passenger services, loyalty programs, staff travel, and air cargo management. Across the hospitality sector, IBS Software offers a cloud-native, unified platform for hotels and travel sellers, including central reservation (CRS), property management (PMS), revenue management (RMS), call centre, booking engine, loyalty, and distribution. For the tour & cruise industry, IBS provides a comprehensive, customer-centric, digital platform that covers onshore, online and on-board solutions. Across the energy & resources industry, we provide logistics management solutions that cover logistics planning, operations & accommodation management. The Consulting and Digital Transformation (CDx) business focuses on driving digital transformation initiatives of its customers, leveraging its domain knowledge, digital technologies and engineering excellence. IBS Software operates from 17 offices across the world.

Further information can be found at www.ibsplc.com Follow us: Blog | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram

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PITTSBURGH, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- "I am paralyzed, and I experience nerve pain in my legs and feet. I wanted to create a new massage device to help reduce pain," said an inventor, from Alexandria, Ind., "so I invented COMPRESS VIBES. My design also offers hot/cold therapy, and it could help promote comfort and relaxation."

The invention provides a new compression boot for the legs and feet. In doing so, it enables the user to enjoy a vibrating massage or hot/cold therapy. As a result, it helps reduce nerve pain. It also enhances relaxation. The invention features an adjustable and durable design that is easy to wear and use so it is ideal for individuals who experience nerve pain in the feet and legs.

The COMPRESS VIBES invention is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, visit www.compressvibes.com. Or contact David Rogers at 765-568-2222 or email [email protected].

SOURCE InventHelp
NEW YORK, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), a leading suicide prevention organization, launched its official podcast channel, showcasing a variety of expert guests and exploring new trending topics focused on mental health and suicide prevention, the importance of research, and health equity, or the fair access to resources and care for all people. Guests on these podcast series have included comedian and voice actor J.B. Smoove, New Jersey Congress Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman, and Cultural and Linguistic Responsiveness expert and author Dr. Pierluigi Mancini.

AFSP Podcasts

Produced by Hueman Group Media, AFSP will have three podcast series and each shared in one hub, the AFSP Podcast Channel:

Strong Talk , hosted by AFSP's Vice President for Health Equity and Engagement Vic Armstrong, discusses mental health and suicide prevention issues through the lens of health equity with mental health experts, advocates, and leaders.

, hosted by AFSP's Vice President for Health Equity and Engagement Vic Armstrong, discusses mental health and suicide prevention issues through the lens of health equity with mental health experts, advocates, and leaders. Ask Dr. Jill, hosted by AFSP's Senior Vice President of Research Dr. Jill Harkavy-Friedman, shares more about what we know through research about mental health and suicide prevention, and she answers common (and the tough) questions about the latest scientific research with help from other experts and leaders in the mental health and suicide prevention fields.

hosted by AFSP's Senior Vice President of Research Dr. Jill Harkavy-Friedman, shares more about what we know through research about mental health and suicide prevention, and she answers common (and the tough) questions about the latest scientific research with help from other experts and leaders in the mental health and suicide prevention fields. Elevating Voices, hosted by AFSP's Vice President for Health Equity and Engagement Vic Armstrong and other AFSP leaders and clinical experts, is a roundtable discussion that brings together members of diverse communities to discuss their community's unique mental health challenges and strategies for solving them.

"Addressing different communities' unique lived experiences and challenges is the first step to understanding and preventing suicide using a health equity approach," Armstrong said. "By featuring guests from diverse communities, listeners can hear new perspectives and feel comfort and representation in the experiences of guests from these communities."

"Relaying complex research findings directly to the public can fall short because it's not always accessible or easy to understand," Dr. Harkavy-Friedman said. "Throughout this series, I'll be speaking with guests and answering questions on topics relevant to mental health and suicide prevention with research-backed information that is simplified and digestible so anyone can understand and learn about it."

Stay tuned for the upcoming Ask Dr. Jill episode airing December 10, featuring Robbie Torney, Senior Director of AI Programs at Common Sense Media, where Dr. Harkavy-Friedman will discuss teens and AI chatbot use.

Follow AFSP on social media for the latest podcast updates and visit the AFSP Podcast Channel or any other major podcast streaming platform, so you don't miss the latest episodes.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is dedicated to saving lives and bringing hope to those affected by suicide, including those who have experienced a loss. AFSP creates a culture that's smart about mental health through public education and community programs, develops suicide prevention through research and advocacy, and provides support for those affected by suicide. Led by CEO Robert Gebbia and headquartered in New York, with its Policy and Advocacy Office in Washington, D.C., AFSP has local chapters in all 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico, with programs and events nationwide. Learn more about AFSP in its latest Annual Report and join the conversation on suicide prevention by following AFSP on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and TikTok.

Media interested in speaking with AFSP on this news are encouraged to fill out this press request form and review AFSP's Ethical Reporting Guidelines.

SOURCE American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
The annual list recognizes the industry-leading companies that are the best at what they do

SANTA FE, New Mexico, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- BabyQuip is proud to announce its inclusion on the Inc. Best in Business list in the Challenger Brands category. Inc.'s annual Best in Business Awards celebrate the exceptional achievements and contributions of companies that have made a profound impact on their industries. This honor follows BabyQuip's 2025 partnership with Vrbo, which makes it easier for families to travel light without sacrificing comfort or convenience.

BabyQuip Named to Inc.'s 2025 Best in Business List in Best Challenger Brands This honor follows BabyQuip's 2025 partnership with Vrbo, which makes it easier for families to travel light without sacrificing comfort or convenience.

The Inc. program honors companies that, through exceptional execution, have achieved significant milestones and core business wins, like customer expansion, key product launches, increased market share, and industry-defining accomplishments. Companies from a wide range of industries  such as technology, health care, finance, and retail  have been recognized for their success and their positive influence on the business world.

The full list can be found on Inc.com and in the upcoming winter print edition of Inc. magazine.

"Each Best in Business honoree achieved a breakthrough moment this year. Some unveiled groundbreaking innovations while others launched savvy marketing campaigns or strategically implemented AI in their companies," says Bonny Ghosh, editorial director at Inc. "No matter what their business win looked like, their projects and initiatives had a sizable impact on their company and even on their industry at large, making them worthy of this honor."

Inc.'s Best in Business Awards are open to companies of all sizes and types, in all industries and locations. Public, private, nonprofit, subsidiary, U.S.-based, and international companies are all encouraged to apply. Inc. editors and reporters hand-review every application and select Best in Business honorees that, in each of the award categories, have had an outstanding influence on their communities, their industries, the environment, or society as a whole.

"Being named to Inc.'s Best in Business list in the Best Challenger Brands category is a powerful validation of the way we're reimagining family travel," said Fran Maier, founder and CEO, BabyQuip. "Our partnership with Vrbo brings BabyQuip to the center of the vacation-planning experience, and our thousands of Quality Providers deliver the exceptional, trusted service families rely on. Together, we're making family travel easier, smarter, and more joyful, and we're just getting started."

As BabyQuip receives Inc. recognition for the third time this year, the Vrbo partnership stands out as a key milestone advancing growth and strengthening the company's role as a category challenger. Beyond this distinction, BabyQuip ranked No. 1,532 on the latest Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America, reflecting 284% three-year revenue growth. Founder and CEO Fran Maier was also named to Inc.'s 2025 Female Founders 500 list, which spotlights the top entrepreneurs behind today's female-founder boom.

For more information or to see the complete list, please visit inc.com/best-in-business .

About BabyQuip

BabyQuip is the #1 baby gear rental marketplace, making family travel easier by delivering clean, safe, and insured gear to over 2,000 locations in the US, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and beyond. From cribs and strollers to beach gear and pet supplies, BabyQuip's trusted network of over 3,000 Quality Providers ensures families can Pack Light. Travel Happy. BabyQuip also empowers Quality Providers with the opportunity to build their own baby gear rental or cleaning business through its managed marketplace.

Follow BabyQuip on Instagram , TikTok , Facebook , LinkedIn and YouTube .

About Vrbo

Since 1995, Vrbo has been the go-to place for families and groups to find the perfect vacation rental for their next getaway  whether it's a beach house, cozy cabin, city condo, or spacious villa with room for everyone.

Vrbo has grown into a trusted global vacation rental marketplace, connecting guests with dedicated hosts around the world. Offering high-quality stays and 24/7 live support, Vrbo helps guests spend less time worrying about trip planning and more time making lasting memories together.

Vrbo is part of Expedia Group and offers hosts exposure to nearly 1 billion average monthly searches on Expedia Group sites.

 2025 Vrbo, an Expedia Group company. All rights reserved. Vrbo and the Vrbo logo are trademarks of HomeAway.com, Inc.

Follow Vrbo on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok and Pinterest .

About Inc.

Inc. is the leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future. Through its journalism, Inc. aims to inform, educate, and elevate the profile of its community: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters who are creating the future of business. Inc. is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow leading business publication Fast Company. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

Media Contact:

Sara Strasbaugh

951.522.8006

[email protected]

SOURCE BabyQuip
MEDIA, Pa., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackbird Health , a leading mental health care provider for children, teens, and young adults, today announced the expansion of its Delaware County presence with the opening of its newest in-person clinic in Media, Pennsylvania. Blackbird welcomed new patients with virtual intake and in-office treatment on December 1.

The cheerful new Blackbird Health clinic in Media, PA is ready to receive new patients. A welcoming meeting room in the new Blackbird Health clinic in Media PA.

This new location is part of Blackbird Health's ongoing mission to meet the growing demand for youth mental health services across Pennsylvaniaparticularly in communities like Media where access to timely, evidence-based care remains a challenge. The new clinic is located at 1023 E. Baltimore Pike, Media, PA 19063.

With families across Pennsylvania struggling to find mental health support for their children, Blackbird's expanded presence in Delaware County will make it easier for families to access essential services quickly and locally. The clinic operates within Blackbird's virtual-first, whole-child model, which seeks to understand and address all factors impacting a child's mental health. The new Media clinic will complement Blackbird's telehealth services by providing an in-person option and access to the company's full suite of pediatric mental health offeringsincluding diagnostic evaluations, therapy, psychiatry, and autism assessments.

Blackbird supports a wide range of needs and conditions, including anxiety, ADHD, autism (ASD), and depression, while providing a streamlined intake process that allows most families to see a clinician within days rather than the national average of 7.5 weeks. This precise, evidence-based approach ensures children receive the right care as soon as possiblerelieving the burden on parents, pediatricians, and educators who are often left waiting for months for help.

"Having a presence in Media means we can bring our comprehensive approach directly to families who need it most," said Nicole Garber, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Blackbird Health. "The need for pediatric mental health care has intensified, particularly post-pandemic, and we see families in this community struggling with anxiety and depression driven by high academic and social pressures. Our integrated and compassionate care begins with understanding every factor that affects a child's well-beingso they can not only heal but thrive."

Blackbird's care model focuses on early intervention, continuity, and outcomes for children, teens, and young adults, ensuring families receive support that adapts to their child's evolving needs. The new Media clinic will serve as a vital local resource, helping to meet the growing mental health needs of children and teens across Delaware County and surrounding communities.

About Blackbird Health

Blackbird Health provides comprehensive mental health evaluations, therapy, and medication management for children, teens, and young adults, all coordinated under one roof. Offering both virtual and in-person services, Blackbird provides comprehensive evaluations, therapy, and medication management through a whole-child diagnostic approach that addresses both symptoms and underlying causes for lasting, meaningful outcomes. Learn more at www.blackbirdhealth.com .

SOURCE Blackbird Health Inc.
"Ongoing research funding from patient-minded groups like Blood Cancer United is more critical than ever," says E. Anders Kolb, M.D., Blood Cancer United President and CEO. "Our federal research infrastructure is being disrupted, and we need to do all we can to fill in funding gaps and keep critical research projects moving ahead to improve patients' lives."

The organization's funding is distributed across early, mid- and late-stage research to help treatments that are close to FDA approval across the finish line, while also supporting the foundational science that opens the door to the next big discovery.

Blood Cancer United currently has more than $269 million committed to multi-year grants supporting more than 250 academic research projects. The organization also has 18 active partnerships through its Therapy Acceleration Program (TAP), a strategic venture philanthropy initiative. This year, Blood Cancer United topped more than $2 billion in funding since its founding.

Here are just a few examples of work underway to bring new treatments to people with all forms of blood cancer.

Martin Carroll, M.D. , at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine is leading a collaborative research program supported by a $5 million grant. He and his co-investigators across the U.S. are analyzing the impact of different genetic mutations on acute myeloid leukemia (AML). By working together, each contributing their own unique and deep expertise, these scientists are sharing information and learning from each other to help more AML patients.

, at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine is leading a collaborative research program supported by a $5 million grant. He and his co-investigators across the U.S. are analyzing the impact of different genetic mutations on acute myeloid leukemia (AML). By working together, each contributing their own unique and deep expertise, these scientists are sharing information and learning from each other to help more AML patients. Ari Melnick, M.D. , of the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute in Spain, leads a $6.5 million alliance, supported by Blood Cancer United and the Institute for Follicular Lymphoma Innovation through our partnership, the Research Accelerator for Follicular Lymphoma. This award funds the ERADICATE alliance under Dr. Melnick's leadership, uniting world-class researchers across Spain and the United States. They are working together to deliver new diagnostic strategies and therapeutic options for follicular lymphoma.

, of the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute in Spain, leads a $6.5 million alliance, supported by Blood Cancer United and the Institute for Follicular Lymphoma Innovation through our partnership, the Research Accelerator for Follicular Lymphoma. This award funds the ERADICATE alliance under Dr. Melnick's leadership, uniting world-class researchers across Spain and the United States. They are working together to deliver new diagnostic strategies and therapeutic options for follicular lymphoma. Auron Therapeutics , a Massachusetts-based clinical-stage biotechnology company, uses AI and machine learning to streamline and accelerate drug development. This speeds up finding new drug targets, the safest and most effective drug compounds to reach them, and the best tests to match each compound to the right patients. TAP's investment in Auron is helping accelerate this important work and advance their first-in-class oral medication to treat people with relapsed or treatment-refractory AML and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS).

, a Massachusetts-based clinical-stage biotechnology company, uses AI and machine learning to streamline and accelerate drug development. This speeds up finding new drug targets, the safest and most effective drug compounds to reach them, and the best tests to match each compound to the right patients. TAP's investment in Auron is helping accelerate this important work and advance their first-in-class oral medication to treat people with relapsed or treatment-refractory AML and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Surbhi Sidana, M.D. , who leads the Myeloma CAR-T/Immunotherapy program at Stanford Medicine in California, is funded under a Scholar in Clinical Research award reserved for highly qualified, early- to mid-career researchers. Dr. Sidana is looking at new treatment approaches for multiple myeloma in clinical trials and outcomes in routine daily careoutside the ideal conditions of clinical trials. She is also examining differences in cancer genes that could predict myeloma relapses before they happen.

, who leads the Myeloma CAR-T/Immunotherapy program at Stanford Medicine in California, is funded under a Scholar in Clinical Research award reserved for highly qualified, early- to mid-career researchers. Dr. Sidana is looking at new treatment approaches for multiple myeloma in clinical trials and outcomes in routine daily careoutside the ideal conditions of clinical trials. She is also examining differences in cancer genes that could predict myeloma relapses before they happen. Gary Reuther, Ph.D. , at Moffitt Cancer Center in Florida is testing a new way to improve the outcomes of patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms. His work involves directly blocking a protein called RAS, which is a major contributor to cancer cell growth. Current treatments target the JAK2 protein, with limited success, because disease-driving cancer cells find ways to survive.

, at Moffitt Cancer Center in Florida is testing a new way to improve the outcomes of patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms. His work involves directly blocking a protein called RAS, which is a major contributor to cancer cell growth. Current treatments target the JAK2 protein, with limited success, because disease-driving cancer cells find ways to survive. Omar Abdel-Wahab, M.D., at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, who was recently elected to the National Academy of Medicine, is studying a mutation in the SRSF2 gene that occurs in 25% of patients with MDS, 50% of patients with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia and 25% of AML patients over age 65. Understanding what's happening at the molecular level  with genes like SRSF2  means one new drug could work for all these types of cancer.

Funding like this has fueled Blood Cancer United's unrivaled history of success. The organization supports the science that makes FDA drug approvals possible, including 80% of the 153 new approvals between 2017 and 2024. Blood Cancer United provided early and ongoing support for some of the biggest cancer breakthroughs, including imatinib (Gleevec), rituximab (Rituxan), CAR T-cell immunotherapy, and most recently, menin inhibitors.

In addition to funding research in academic labs and investing in biopharmaceutical company partners, Blood Cancer United also leads two master clinical trials. BeatAML and PedAL (Pediatric Acute Leukemia) were established by Blood Cancer United to streamline and speed up the process of finding effective and safe new treatments for aggressive and deadly forms of leukemia in adults and children.

Blood Cancer United's holistic approach improves the lives of blood cancer patients

"Every new treatment we accelerate and every new insight that our funding generates is a win for patients, but the other key to better outcomes is better access to treatments," says Gwen Nichols, M.D., Blood Cancer United Chief Medical Officer.

Blood Cancer United supports research to improve patients' ability to access quality healthcare. Earlier this year, it awarded $2.5 million to researchers studying ways to increase Veterans' opportunities to participate in blood cancer clinical trials at 12 VA facilities across the U.S.

Trials are an important option for patients, and they play a pivotal role in advancing better cancer treatments  which benefit everyone. But today, only about 7% of cancer patients participate in clinical trials. The workled by researchers at the Durham VA Health Care System and Duke University Medical Centercould generate new strategies that address this problem, both inside and outside the VA.

Blood Cancer United: New name, same mission

In August, Blood Cancer United unveiled its new name and brand identity to align with the organization's mission to cure blood cancer and improve the quality of life of all patients and their families

"At Blood Cancer United, we are all about blood cancer, so people with blood cancer can be about everything else," says Dr. Nichols. "Our entire mission team is focused on patients. Finding new treatments, improving access to existing ones, answering patient and family calls every day to help them through their treatment and even figuring out how they're going to get to them."

In addition to being the largest private funder of blood cancer research, Blood Cancer United also provides direct patient support. It distributed more than 69,000 awards to patients totaling $162 million last year, helping families afford the growing medical and non-medical costs of cancer.

Separately, its Medical Debt Case Management Program has helped resolve more than $5.1 million worth of patients' medical debt, from its September 2024 launch through September 30, 2025.

About Blood Cancer United

Blood Cancer United (formerly The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society) is the largest global nonprofit focused on blood cancer patient support, research, and advocacy. The organization's mission is to cure blood cancer and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. To achieve it, Blood Cancer United brings together a community of patients and their families, volunteers, healthcare providers, scientists, staff, partners, fundraisers, and philanthropistswho believe all blood cancer patients deserve longer, fuller lives.

Since the organization's founding in 1949, it has consistently evolved to better serve people affected by all 100-plus types of blood cancersincluding leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, myelodysplastic syndromes, and myeloproliferative neoplasms.

Blood Cancer United offers free, trustworthy resources, personalized support, and community for anyone affected by blood cancer. The organization has invested more than $2 billion in medical research, which continues to increase survival rates. Blood Cancer United advocates nationally and locally for more accessible and affordable healthcare for all patients.

For support and to learn more, visit www.BloodCancerUnited.org. Patients can contact blood cancer information specialists at (800) 955-4572, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET. Connect with the organization on Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok.

Media Contact:

Ryan McDonald

Senior Manager, Medical and Science Communications

[email protected]

SOURCE Blood Cancer United formerly The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
NEW YORK, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Brazilian luxury footwear house GISELI DIAS proudly announces the beginning of its exclusive retail partnership with Printemps New York, marking a major milestone in the brand's international growth.

Recognized for its sculptural silhouettes, artisanal craftsmanship, and modern Brazilian sophistication, GISELI DIAS introduces its signature designs to the U.S. market through one of the world's most respected luxury retailers.

"Our partnership with Printemps New York feels like a natural extension of our brand's journey," says Giseli Dias, Founder & Creative Director.

"Every shoe we create carries a piece of Brazilian soul, a blend of strength, sensuality, and joy. To see our work showcased at Printemps, a house that values artistry and innovation as deeply as we do, is incredibly meaningful. We believe women should feel empowered, elegant, and comfortable all at once," adds Giseli.

"Printemps shares that philosophy, and together we're excited to introduce our vision to a new audience in New York."

The launch represents a key moment for GISELI DIAS as it expands internationally while staying true to its roots.

Each pair is handcrafted in Brazil using premium materials and responsible production methods that honor the artisans behind the work.

GISELI DIAS is now available at Printemps New York with additional styles and seasonal activations anticipated for 2026.

CONTACT: [email protected]

SOURCE GISELI DIAS
BEIJING, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Africa's rich diversity of oil crops such as sesame, groundnut and soybean is central to food security, rural livelihoods and growing export markets across the continent. To better tap this potential and respond to priorities under the FOCAC Beijing Action Plan (20252027), African and Chinese scientists are stepping up joint research and innovation on oil crops.

image

On 20 November, policymakers, researchers and private-sector representatives from Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Mali, Madagascar, Nigeria, Tanzania and other countries met with their Chinese counterparts in Wuhan at the "Belt and Road Forum on Oil Crops Science, Technology Innovation and Industrial Cooperation". The forum, co-organized by the Oilcrops Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (OCRI-CAAS), the Agricultural Information Institute of CAAS and international partners, focused on building stronger collaboration along the whole value chainfrom breeding and seed systems to processing and trade.

Participants discussed new opportunities for sesame and other oil crops, including joint breeding of climate-resilient, high-yielding and high-quality varieties, demonstration of high-protein legumes suited to African farming systems, and more efficient, value-adding processing of edible oils. During the event, OCRI-CAAS and several African universities and companies signed cooperation agreements that will support long-term partnerships on variety improvement, technology transfer and extension, and training of young scientists and agribusiness professionals. These efforts aim to translate science into tangible benefits for farmers and consumers in both Africa and China.

The forum was followed by a technical visit to OCRI-CAAS by an African delegation that included Edwin Paul Mhede, Deputy Permanent Secretary of Trade and Investment at the Ministry of Industry of Tanzania, Nurudeen Abubakar Zauro, Technical Adviser to the President on Economic and Financial Inclusion in the Office of the Vice President of Nigeria, Lise Korsten, President of the African Academy of Sciences, Logab Djilali, Vice-Rector of the University of Tissemsilt in Algeria, and Erick Vitus Gabriel Komba, Director of the Tanzania Livestock Research Institute, among others. The delegation met innovation teams working on sesame and special oil crops, groundnut and southern soybean, and visited national platforms for oil crops quality testing and pilot-scale processing. Prof. Korsten and other delegates underlined that Africa's oil crops sector is poised for rapid growth, and that collaborative research with partners such as OCRI-CAAS can help generate locally adapted solutions that raise yields, improve quality and meet international market standards.

Looking ahead, African partner institutions and OCRI-CAAS plan to use the ChinaAfrica Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Alliance (CAASTIA) as a key platform to deepen co-operation on joint breeding programmes, farmer-oriented extension and talent development. By combining Africa's resource endowment and market potential with Chinese and African scientific expertise, the partners aim to build more resilient and inclusive oil crops value chains that support food and nutrition security and sustainable development across the continent.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2835935/image.jpg
Strengthening Supply Chain Infrastructure for the Fast-Growing U.S. K-Beauty Market

LA center expansion and new facilities in New Jersey and Atlanta to meet surging K-Beauty demand



End-to-end order, inventory, and shipping management enabled by Colo AI



Supports KoreaU.S. bidirectional cross-border operations and accelerates global brands' U.S. market growth

SEOUL, South Korea, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Colosseum Corporation announced that it has established its U.S. subsidiary and expanded its nationwide fulfillment network by relocating and upgrading its LA fulfillment center and adding new centers in New Jersey and Atlanta. With this expansion, the company now operates a total of approximately 500,000 square feet of fulfillment infrastructure across key U.S. markets.

As a logistics technology company, Colosseum connects more than 53 specialized logistics centers across the United States, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia through its AI-powered SaaS platform Colo AI, enabling unified management of the entire logistics workflowincluding inbound, storage, picking, packing, outbound, and last-mile deliverywithin a single environment.

This expansion is a strategic move to meet the rapidly increasing logistics demand driven by the U.S. K-Beauty and e-commerce markets and to strengthen a scalable foundation that enables more stable, bidirectional fulfillment operations between Korea and the United Statesall powered by the Colo AI platform.

Colosseum began operating its U.S. LA fulfillment center in 2022 through a partnership with global beauty platform CTKCLIP. Since the adoption of Colo AI, the LA center has seen dramatic improvements: productivity increased by 249%, error rates decreased by 93%, and stored SKU volume expanded by 141%, demonstrating clear advancements in both operational scale and quality.

Colo AI also integrates real-time order, inventory, and shipping data from major U.S. e-commerce platforms, allowing brands to manage U.S. sales and inventory from a single interface regardless of their operating country. This reduces fragmentation across North American and Asian supply chains and enables true bidirectional cross-border operations. With Colo AI, brands can maintain stable inventory operations during sales spikes and benefit from consistent, high-quality storage, packaging, and outbound processes tailored to product characteristics.

Jinsoo Park, CEO of Colosseum Corporation, said,

"This expansion represents an important step forward in executing our U.S. strategy. By delivering an AI-driven operational model proven in Korea and adapting it for the U.S. market, we will support brands in building faster, more stable logistics operations."

He added, "Our goal is to provide a unified platform that ensures supply chain stability regardless of geography, and we will continue accelerating the expansion of our integrated system."

Beyond the United States, Colosseum is strengthening partnerships across Japan, Hong Kong, Mexico, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Thailand, further enhancing its ability to operate a global, tech-enabled logistics network.

About Colosseum Corporation

Founded in 2019, Colosseum Corporation is a Korean logistics technology company that transforms existing logistics centers into high-performance hubs by connecting and upgrading themrather than building new warehouses. The company operates over 53 global fulfillment centers across Korea, the U.S., Japan, and Southeast Asia through its AI-powered logistics SaaS platform Colo AI.

Colo AI is an AI-based SaaS solution that centralizes order, inventory, and shipping operations within a single environment and automates 26 core logistics processes. This allows brands to manage real-time inventory, order flows, and shipping status across regions from a unified interface while ensuring consistent, compliance-based outbound processing and product-specific storage and packaging quality.

Colosseum supports more than 10,000 brands, including leading Korean enterprises and global K-Beauty companies, connecting every stage of the supply chainfrom factories to end customersand enabling businesses to sell anywhere and ship everywhere through an integrated logistics environment.

https://colosseum.global/en

Q&A

Q. What logistics services does Colosseum provide in the United States?

Colosseum offers end-to-end 3PL servicesincluding order processing, inventory management, picking/packing, last-mile coordination, and returnsthrough its U.S. fulfillment network. The service is optimized for categories such as K-Beauty, lifestyle goods, and food items. Colosseum also provides IOR/BOND import services, prep work, and FDA/MOCRA compliance support as part of a fully integrated solution.

Q. What are Colosseum's strengths as a U.S. 3PL partner?

Colosseum delivers high inventory accuracy, reduced lead times, cost-efficient operations, and advanced returns management through its AI-powered logistics platform. With integrated order aggregation, inventory tracking, and shipping optimization, the company enhances operational efficiency and offers fast delivery to major demand regions including New Jersey, New York, and California.

Q. What advantages do brands gain from working with Colosseum?

Brands can manage order consolidation, inventory tracking, and shipping optimization from a single platform, reducing operational complexity and improving cost efficiency. The combination of AI-driven processes and a U.S. fulfillment structure ensures stable logistics operations.

Q. Does Colosseum support bidirectional KoreaU.S. cross-border logistics?

Yes. Colosseum connects over 53 specialized logistics centers across Korea, the U.S., Japan, and Southeast Asia, enabling unified cross-border supply chain operations through a single platform.

Q. Can brands sell in the U.S. while managing inventory from Korea or Japan?

Yes. Colosseum's cross-border model is designed to manage complex configurationssuch as U.S. sales with inventory in Korea or Japan, and outbound deliveries from Southeast Asiawithin one SaaS environment. Real-time integration ensures stable U.S. e-commerce operations.

Q. Which industries does Colosseum primarily support?

Colosseum specializes in fast-growing global sectors including K-Beauty, fashion, health & wellness, lifestyle, and food, offering U.S. fulfillment and cross-border solutions tailored to these categories.

SOURCE Colosseum International Inc
Dallas-based firm delivers landmark result in Wrongful Death / Truck Accident litigation, affirming accountability in high-stakes commercial carrier negligence cases, based on data from TopVerdict.com.

DALLAS, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- CORRECTED

Texas-based plaintiff firm achieves breakthrough result in catastrophic trucking litigation

Grossman Law Offices secures a $39.8M truck-accident settlementthe largest publicly reported in Texas since 2021. Post this Grossman Law Offices has secured what is believed to be the largest publicly reported truck accident settlement in Texas since 2021. This video shares why this outcome mattersnot just legally, but for real people whose lives are permanently changed by catastrophic crashes. Accountability, dignity, and justice are at the heart of what we do.

DALLAS, Nov. 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Grossman Law Offices, a DallasFort Worthbased litigation firm, announced a major achievement in a commercial trucking case, securing what the firm believes to be the largest publicly reported truck-accident settlement in Texas since 2021, based on data independently compiled by TopVerdict.com.

Grossman Law Offices secures $39.8M truck accident settlement  the largest publicly reported in Texas since 2021. Grossman Law Offices has secured what is believed to be the largest publicly reported truck accident settlement in Texas since 2021. This video shares why this outcome mattersnot just legally, but for real people whose lives are permanently changed by catastrophic crashes. Accountability, dignity, and justice are at the heart of what we do.

In this case, the firm represented the surviving family members of a person who was killed in a commercial truck accident.

"Cases like these are not just legal disputes  they are lifelines," said Michael Grossman, Founder of Grossman Law Offices. "When a commercial carrier fails to follow safety regulations, lives can be permanently changed. This settlement wasn't just about compensation  it was about restoring dignity, securing care, and proving that accountability still exists."

If you or your loved one has been severely injured in a truck-related crash, you do not need to fight insurers alone. Contact Grossman Law Offices for a free consultation at InjuryRelief.com or 855-816-4624.

Why This Case Matters

Truck accident litigation is uniquely complex  often involving federal safety violations, corporate liability disputes, and multi-layered insurance coverage. In Texas, where recent legislative conversations have centered on shielding commercial carriers from liability exposure (including House Bill 19 in 2023), this settlement carries added significance. It demonstrates that large trucking companies are not immune from being held accountable when negligence leads to catastrophic harm.

According to TopVerdict.com, no publicly reported Texas truck-accident settlement following 2021 has surpassed this outcome.

Additionally, while the average personal-injury verdict in Texas is estimated at $826,892, the median is still under $15,000, highlighting how rare major awards truly are in such cases.

"I was tired of being treated like a file number. The attorneys at Grossman Law Offices fought for me when no one else would. They helped me feel seen  not just compensated."

 Former Client (Name Withheld for Privacy)

These settlements are not about "winning"they are about rebuilding life after irreversible trauma.

***Note***

A previous version of this press release erroneously stated:

"In this case, the firm represented an adult passenger who sustained multiple spinal fractures, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and permanent mobility impairment after being struck by a commercial vehicle on a Texas highway. The settlementthough confidentialwill provide long-term support for comprehensive medical treatment, neurological rehabilitation, adaptive home modifications, professional caregiving, and lifetime income replacement."

We apologize for the error.

About Grossman Law Offices

Grossman Law Offices is a Dallas-based litigation firm with more than 35 years of experience representing victims in catastrophic injury, wrongful death, commercial trucking, and intoxication-related cases. The firm has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for clients and is recognized statewide for its trial readiness, investigative depth, and willingness to go up against major carriers and corporate defendants.

For more information, visit www.InjuryRelief.com

SOURCE Grossman Law Office, P.C.
Founded in 2002 before "MSP" became an industry term, ITECS has evolved from solo IT consultancy to full-service managed services provider with 95% client retention

DALLAS, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- ITECS Outsourcing, LLC, a Dallas-Fort Worth managed IT services provider, celebrates 23 years of delivering enterprise-grade technology solutions to small and mid-sized businesses across North Texas.

Dallas IT Firm ITECS Celebrates 23 Years of Technology Excellence in Dallas-Fort Worth

Founded in February 2002 by Brian Desmot, ITECS began as a one-person IT consulting firm before the term "managed services provider" existed in the industry. Desmot, who was on a fast track to Director of IT at Deloitte & Touche, recognized early signs of the firm's impending restructuring and made the decision to build something of his own. During lunch breaks, he taught himself web development, marketing, and sales  launching ITECS from the ground up.

"When I started ITECS, businesses didn't have a term for what we do today. We've evolved from break-fix house calls to running 24/7 security operations centers and helping clients adopt AI. The technology has changed completely, but our commitment to being a true partner  not just a vendor  has stayed the same for 23 years."

In its earliest days, ITECS provided both residential and commercial onsite support. The company quickly shifted focus to serve business clients exclusively, with Desmot earning his Novell Certified Engineer (CNE) credential to support enterprise networks running Windows NT and Novell systems.

Within four years, ITECS grew to support its first employee. As cloud computing emerged, Desmot opened the company's first colocation facility to host client servers, Microsoft Exchange environments, and offsite backups  well ahead of the industry curve. A dedicated cybersecurity practice followed, with Desmot committing to deep expertise in each vertical before expanding services.

"I've always believed that to hire the right people and deliver real value, you have to master each discipline yourself first," Desmot added. "That philosophy has allowed us to provide enterprise-grade services to businesses that couldn't otherwise access that level of expertise."

Today, ITECS serves clients ranging from 40 to 400 employees across healthcare, legal, financial services, and manufacturing. The company also provides augmented IT support and collaborative partnerships for enterprise organizations including OpenText, Pizza Hut, and Bob Evans Farms' former Richardson facility.

In the past year, ITECS launched its fourth major vertical  AI Consulting and DevOps  joining Managed IT Services, Managed Cybersecurity, and Cloud Hosting under the company's managed services approach.

ITECS was nominated as Best MSP in Dallas in 2015 by Digital Magazine and maintains a 95% client retention rate, with many client relationships spanning over a decade.

Looking ahead, ITECS is positioning clients to capitalize on the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence while navigating the security and governance challenges that come with it. From integrating AI-powered automation into daily operations to helping businesses evaluate which emerging technologies deliver real ROI, ITECS remains committed to separating hype from practical business value. As cybersecurity threats grow more sophisticated, regulatory requirements expand, and workforce expectations shift toward hybrid and remote environments, ITECS will continue adapting its services  just as it has through every major technology transition since 2002.

About ITECS Outsourcing, LLC

ITECS is a Dallas-Fort Worth managed IT services provider founded in 2002. Headquartered in Plano, Texas, ITECS delivers strategic IT partnerships to small, mid-sized, and enterprise businesses through four core verticals: Managed IT Services, Managed Cybersecurity, Cloud Hosting, and AI Consulting & DevOps. With 23 years of experience and a 95% client retention rate, ITECS helps organizations achieve operational excellence through proactive technology management. Learn more at www.itecsonline.com .

CONTACT:

Brian Desmot CIO/CISO, ITECS Outsourcing, LLC Phone: (214) 444-7884 Marketing: [email protected] Website: www.itecsonline.com

About iTecs IT Outsourcing and Support

Brian Desmot founded iTecs in 2002, a white-glove IT support, consulting, managed IT services provider. The firm delivers an umbrella of IT services from break-fix, consulting, cybersecurity, to procurement for businesses of all sizes. If you need a professional, customer-centric offsite IT department, iTecs is the best choice.

Press Contact: Brian Desmot, 214-744-3354, https://itecsonline.com/

SOURCE ITECS Outsourcing, LLC
AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Darkstrike, a fast-rising AI safety and cybersecurity company, welcomes four senior U.S. government officials to its Board of Directors and Advisory Team. With backgrounds across the White House, CISA, DHS, U.S. Treasury, U.S. Senate Homeland Security, and other federal regulatory agencies, this group represents one of the strongest national security leadership rosters ever assembled inside any private-sector AI or cybersecurity company.

The additions arrive as AI risk, governance, and adoption accelerate across the public and private sectors, each demanding trusted, regulation-aligned AI security infrastructure.

New Appointments

Carole House  Board of Directors

Former Special Advisor to the White House National Security Council (NSC) on Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure, former NSC Director of Cybersecurity and Secure Digital Innovation, former CFTC Technology Advisory Committee member, and former U.S. Treasury cybersecurity analyst. House brings extensive leadership across the White House, intelligence operations, cybersecurity, and secure digital innovation.

John Yaros  Board of Directors

Former senior official at the U.S. Treasury and U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee, former Securities Bureau Chief at the Idaho Department of Finance, former TechCongress board member, and currently runs a financial technology consulting company. Yaros brings deep cybersecurity, AI, tech policy, and investor protection experience.

David Epperson  Senior Advisor

Former Deputy CIO of the Executive Office of the President (White House), former Senior Presidential Transition Advisor at the White House Military Office, former CIO and CISO of CISA, and current CISO of H2O.ai. Epperson brings over three decades of leadership across the White House, DHS, and U.S. national security missions.

Mike Horton  Senior Advisor

Former Chief Data Officer and Deputy CIO at the Department of Homeland Security and current VP of National Security at ASRC Federal. Horton brings nearly two decades of DHS leadership across cybersecurity modernization, data governance, and federal mission support.

CEO Statement

"This is a pivotal milestone for Darkstrike," said CEO David Granzotti. "No start-up in AI safety or cybersecurity has attracted this level of senior U.S. government expertise. Their combined leadership across the White House, CISA, DHS, U.S. Treasury, and U.S. Senate Homeland Security positions Darkstrike to deliver intelligence-grade AI safety capabilities at global scale."

About Darkstrike

Darkstrike provides quantum-ready AI safety and cybersecurity platforms that proactively secure and control AI models, agentic AI, autonomous systems, and sensitive data. The company's technology prevents unintended AI behaviors and harvest now, decrypt later threats while rendering data breaches obsolete. Darkstrike serves government, defense, critical infrastructure, and commercial organizations requiring uncompromising AI safety and cybersecurity.

Securities Disclaimer

This press release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute or form part of, and should not be construed as, any offer to sell, or a solicitation of any offer to buy, any securities. Any such offer or solicitation will be made only by means that are in compliance with applicable securities and other laws, including Rule 506(c) of Regulation D.

SOURCE Darkstrike
HELSINKI, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Digita Group ("Digita"), being Digita Oy in Finland and IslandsTurnar in Iceland, announced today that it has reached an agreement to be acquired by GI Partners. Digita is one of the largest independent, diversified tower companies in the Nordics, with nationwide tower portfolios across both Finland and Iceland. It is also essential for the Finnish population through its longstanding partnership with Yle, the nation's public TV and radio broadcaster.

Since 2018, Digita has been owned by funds managed by an affiliate of DigitalBridge Group, Inc. (NYSE: DBRG "DigitalBridge"). Under DigitalBridge's ownership, Digita evolved into a scaled, diversified tower and broadcast infrastructure platform, expanding from approximately 200 tower sites to more than 950, while accelerating growth in its Data Centre and Internet of Things (IoT) platforms.

Vesa Tykkylainen, CEO of Digita, said, "We are extremely grateful to DigitalBridge for the resources and expertise they have provided throughout their investment period. Their support and guidance has been instrumental in helping us to invest into the critical infrastructure in Finland whilst diversifying and scaling the business, which is positioned for further compelling growth. We are excited for our new partnership with GI Partners and look forward to continue to grow and achieve our ambitions together."

Zach Gellman, Principal at DigitalBridge, said, "We appreciate the partnership with Vesa and the Digita team and the progress made under DigitalBridge's ownership. GI Partners is well positioned to lead Digita through its next phase of growth."

Matt Barker, Head of Europe, Data Infrastructure for GI Partners, added, "We are excited to be making this platform investment to support Digita and its management team on the next stage of the company's growth. We recognize the role that Digita plays in providing critical communication and connectivity services to the populations of Finland and Iceland and see great opportunity to further expand the platform as an independent tower company, and operator of high-quality data centres and IoT networks."

Digita will continue to operate as an independent company within GI Partners' portfolio, leveraging GI Partners' support, expertise, and experience. This partnership will enable Digita to continue to serve its clients to the highest standard, whilst also accelerating growth.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026.

Houlihan Lokey acted as exclusive financial adviser to DigitalBridge; Linklaters as legal counsel; EY as commercial, financial and tax adviser.

Rothschild & Co. acted as exclusive financial advisor to GI Partners and Kirkland & Ellis as legal counsel.

About Digita

Digita Group, being Digita Oy in Finland and IslandsTurnar in Iceland, is one of the largest independent, diversified tower companies in the Nordics, with more than 950 nationwide tower sites across both Finland and Iceland. In Broadcast, Digita serves the nation's public broadcaster, Yle and in Telecom Infrastructure, it provides connectivity to millions through its telecommunication infrastructure services via leading MNOs in Finland and Iceland, whilst also operating high growth Data Centre and Internet of Things (IoT) platforms. For more information, visit: www.digita.fi.

About DigitalBridge

DigitalBridge (NYSE: DBRG) is a leading global alternative asset manager dedicated to investing in digital infrastructure. With a heritage of over 25 years investing in and operating businesses across the digital ecosystem, including cell towers, data centres, fiber, small cells, and edge infrastructure, the DigitalBridge team manages $106 billion of infrastructure assets on behalf of its limited partners and shareholders. For more information, visit: www.digitalbridge.com.

About GI Partners

Founded in 2001, GI Partners is a private investment firm with over 180 employees and offices in San Francisco, New York, Dallas, Chicago, Greenwich, Scottsdale, and London. The firm has raised more than $49 billion and invests on behalf of leading institutional investors around the world through its private equity, real estate, and data infrastructure strategies. The private equity team invests primarily in companies in the healthcare, services, and software sectors. The real estate team focuses primarily on technology and healthcare properties as well as other specialized types of real estate. The data infrastructure team invests primarily in hard asset infrastructure businesses underpinning the digital economy. For more information, please visit www.gipartners.com.

Media Contacts:

For Digita Group

Minna Flink

Director, Communications and Marketing

[email protected]

For GI Partners

Chris Tofalli

Chris Tofalli Public Relations

[email protected]

Gretchen Robinson

Investor Relations

[email protected]

SOURCE GI Partners
NEW YORK, Dec. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ecoplexus announced today that it has closed a $300 million credit facility from capital accounts advised by KKR, a leading global investment firm. The facility includes development capital and a letter of credit facility provided by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC). It will support the advancement of over 13GW of solar and storage projects across the United States.

"This financing marks an important milestone for our business and gives us the certainty and scale required to advance several GW of projects to start of construction in the near term," said John Gorman, Chief Executive Officer of Ecoplexus. "We appreciate the support of KKR and SMBC and value their confidence in our platform."

Ed Campaniello, Senior Vice President of Finance, stated, "Securing this cost-effective capital solution strengthens our U.S. portfolio. This facility will support over $2.5 billion of project finance, including investment partnerships in construction ready projects and the long term ownership of strategic assets."

"We're pleased to finance Ecoplexus and its high-quality, large-scale portfolio of development assets through our Asset-Based Finance strategy," said Sam Mencoff, Director at KKR. "Ecoplexus has shown analytical sophistication, discipline and scale in its approach to development, and we look forward to supporting the company as it continues to expand its solar and storage portfolio in its next phase of growth."

About Ecoplexus

Ecoplexus develops, finances and owns utility scale solar and storage projects in the United States and Japan. Since 2010, Ecoplexus has developed and financed projects across PJM, MISO, ERCOT, WECC, and the Southeast. For more information visit www.ecoplexus.com.

About KKR

KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management as well as capital markets and insurance solutions. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and supporting growth in its portfolio companies and communities. KKR sponsors investment funds that invest in private equity, credit and real assets and has strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR's insurance subsidiaries offer retirement, life and reinsurance products under the management of Global Atlantic Financial Group. References to KKR's investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds and insurance subsidiaries. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR's website at www.kkr.com. For additional information about Global Atlantic Financial Group, please visit Global Atlantic Financial Group's website at www.globalatlantic.com.

SOURCE Ecoplexus Inc.
The more than 55,000-square-foot, freestanding hospital provides essential rehabilitation services that help patients recovering from strokes, brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, amputations and complex orthopedic conditions regain functional ability, independence and quality of life. Patients receive a minimum of three hours of intensive physical, occupational and/or speech therapy five days each week, as well as frequent physician visits and 24-hour nursing care. An interdisciplinary team of highly specialized nurses, therapists and physicians create customized treatment plans to meet each patient's unique recovery goals.

"It has been a busy year for Encompass Health's Southeast region, opening five new hospitals in Florida to help meet the growing need for inpatient rehabilitation care in the state," said Lori Bedard, president of Encompass Health's Southeast region. "We are thrilled Encompass Health Lake Worth is now open, enabling patients in the Lake Worth community to recover from serious illnesses and injuries closer to home."

Designed with patients' needs in mind, the hospital will offer amenities such as 50 private patient rooms; a spacious, light-filled therapy gym featuring advanced rehabilitation technologies for every mobility level; an activities of daily living suite with real-world simulated spaces; an in-house dialysis suite; a landscaped therapy courtyard with recreational areas; a dining room; an in-house pharmacy and dayroom areas.

Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Lake Worth is Encompass Health's 26th location in the state of Florida (inclusive of a satellite location in The Villages). To learn more about the hospital, visit encompasshealth.com/locations/lake-worth-rehab.

About Encompass Health

Encompass Health (NYSE: EHC) is the largest owner and operator of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals in the United States. With a national footprint that includes 173 hospitals in 39 states and Puerto Rico, the Company provides high-quality, compassionate rehabilitative care for patients recovering from a major injury or illness, using advanced technology and innovative treatments to maximize recovery. Encompass Health is named America's Most Awarded Leader in Inpatient Rehabilitation by Newsweek and Statista and is ranked among Fortune's World's Most Admired Companies and Forbes' Most Trusted Companies in America. For more information, visit encompasshealth.com , or follow us on our newsroom , X , Instagram and Facebook .

From Fortune.  2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All rights reserved. Fortune is a registered trademark and Fortune World's Most Admired Companies is trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited and are used under license. Fortune and Fortune Media IP Limited are not affiliated with, and do not endorse products or services of, Encompass Health. From Forbes  2024 Forbes Media LLC. All rights reserved. Used under license.

Encompass Health media contact:

Polly Manuel | 205-970-5912

[email protected]

SOURCE Encompass Health Corp.
DUBAI, UAE, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Equiti Group, a global fintech provider, has partnered with TraderEvolution, a multi-market trading platform provider known for its modular, customisable solutions for brokers and banks worldwide. The partnership marks a key step in the Group's work to deliver faster and more flexible trading across regions, giving clients greater responsiveness in rapidly changing markets and the tools they need to make informed decisions in different trading environments.

TraderEvolution's technology enables broader product access, stronger execution and a smoother operational flow. The partnership will support new asset classes and improved platform performance, allowing Equiti to deliver a more advanced trading offering and maintain world-class solutions for clients worldwide.

Commenting on the agreement, Husam Al Kurdi, Equiti Cyprus CEO, said: "This partnership with TraderEvolution aligns with our ambition to widen the product range and market access available to our clients. It complements the strong foundation we already have in place and supports our ongoing work to provide a seamless and adaptable trading experience across regions. Our priority is to ensure clients have the reach and usability required to navigate global markets confidently."

Roman Nalivayko, CEO, TraderEvolution Global said: "We are delighted to see a growing number of well-established brokerages selecting TraderEvolution as their core trading engine. TraderEvolution's multi-asset strengths and back-end-first architecture give brokers unparalleled control and flexibility, empowering them to efficiently manage operations across all asset classes and deliver a seamless, customizable trading experience for their clients."

The agreement lays the foundation for continued collaboration, strengthening Equiti's commitment to delivering innovative, high-performance trading solutions that empower clients worldwide.

About Equiti

Equiti Group is a global leader in advanced trading technology, payment software, virtual assets, asset management and physical commodity solutions. With a presence across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, the Group is licensed in major financial jurisdictions including the UK, UAE and Cyprus. The Group delivers a best-in-class financial experience to clients across retail, professional, and institutional segments. Learn more at www.equiti.com

About TraderEvolution Global

TraderEvolution is a multi-market trading platform provider offering modular, customisable solutions for brokers and banks worldwide. The system includes a powerful back-end with connectivity to dozens of global exchanges and a versatile front-end suite  supporting native interfaces, third-party front-ends, and a Client API. Built to handle multiple asset classes across diverse market structures, TraderEvolution goes beyond the typical "multi-asset" claim, delivering true flexibility in both instrument coverage and market adaptability. The platform is liquidity-neutral and infrastructure-independent, enabling firms to run core brokerage operations or enhance existing setups.

SOURCE Equiti Group
Creating a Comprehensive, High-Quality Air Cargo Network

TAIPEI, Taiwan, Dec. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- EVA Air, Evergreen Air Cargo Services (EGAC), and Evergreen Airline Services Corp. (EGAS) which obtained CEIV Lithium Batteries from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in January this year, have once again joined forces to earn dual professional certifications for CEIV Fresh and CEIV Live Animals, becoming one of the few airline systems worldwide to simultaneously hold three accreditations across airline operations, cargo warehousing, and ground handling services. This achievement highlights EVA Air and its affiliated service companies' strong integration capabilities and international-level service quality in special cargo transportation.

EVA Air, Evergreen Air Cargo Services (EGAC), and Evergreen Airline Services Corp. (EGAS) which obtained CEIV Lithium Batteries from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in January this year, have once again joined forces to earn dual professional certifications for CEIV Fresh and CEIV Live Animals, becoming one of the few airline systems worldwide to simultaneously hold three accreditations across airline operations, cargo warehousing, and ground handling services.

EVA Air has now completed four IATA CEIV series certificationsCEIV Pharma, CEIV Lithium Batteries, CEIV Fresh, and CEIV Live Animalsmaking it one of the very few airlines globally to hold all four at once. The joint certification audit of EVA Air, EGAC, and EGAS further enhances the unified quality and consistency of EVA's cargo operations while reinforcing Taiwan's professional standing in the global air cargo market.

Among the certified companies, EGAC is the first air freight and storage operator in Taiwan to obtain CEIV Fresh certification. Dedicated to precise temperature control and standardized handling for perishable shipments, EGAC ensures full compliance with IATA's highest standards at every stage, from receiving and storage to final delivery. With advanced temperature monitoring and professional staff training, EGAC safeguards product integrity and supports Taiwan's agricultural and fishery exports with a reliable cold-chain logistics network, connecting local producers to global markets.

In the field of live animal transport, EVA Air and EGAS work closely to extend professional cargo standards to passenger pet transportation, ensuring a safe and comfortable journey for animals in transit. Recently, to celebrate the 64th anniversary of the sister-city relationship between Houston and Taipei and the 10th anniversary of EVA Air's TaipeiHouston route, the Houston Zoo donated a male Bongo antelope to the Taipei Zoo. EVA Air will be responsible for the intercontinental transport, showcasing its professionalism and dedication to wildlife conservation.

Transporting fresh cargo and live animals involves multiple operational stages and stringent safety requirements. EVA Air, EGAC, and EGAS adhere to consistent, rigorous procedures to maintain stability and reliability at every stage. Moving forward, EVA Air will continue to collaborate closely with EGAC and EGAS to deliver safe, reliable, and high-quality air cargo services for customers worldwide.

About EVA Air

A Star Alliance member, EVA Air was founded in 1989 as Taiwan's first privately owned international airline. It is an affiliated company of global container-shipping leader Evergreen Line. It flies a fleet of more than 80 Boeing and Airbus aircraft to around 60 international destinations throughout Asia, Oceania, Europe, and North America. Travelers can learn more about EVA and schedules, book, and buy tickets at www.evaair.com.

About EGAS

Evergreen Airline Services Corporation (EGAS) was established in 1990 with a team committed to safe operations and superior customer service, EGAS has now achieved ISO 9001, ISO 14064-1, and ISO 45001 certifications, as well as four IATA CEIV certifications (Fresh, Live animals, Lithium Batteries and Pharma) and ISAGO certifications. Services include the loading/unloading, handling and warehousing luggage, cargo and mail, aircraft interior and exterior cleaning, and laundry cleaning services. In 2025, EGAS provides services to 38 airlines flying to/from Taiwan, including EVA Air, at Taoyuan International Airport, Taipei Song-Shan Airport, Kaohsiung International Airport and Taichung International Airport.

About EGAC

Evergreen Air Cargo Services Corporation (EGAC) was established in 2000. Services include air cargo terminal services of general cargo, planeside release cargo, express cargo, cooler and freezer cargo, dangerous goods, valuable cargo, and document services and handling. EGAC's adoption of the three IATA CEIV certifications (Fresh, Live animals and Lithium Batteries), ISO 9001 certifications, and was awarded "A" certification by the Transported Asset Protection Association Asia. In 2025, EGAC provides services to 38 airlines, marking the most trusted partner of the leading air cargo terminal at Taoyuan International Airport.

SOURCE EVA Airways Corporation
SAN FRANCISCO and SINGAPORE, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Exascale Labs Inc. ("Exascale"), a high-performance AI cloud infrastructure provider, announced today that it has signed a MOU with AI Nova PTE LTD. ("AI Nova"), a new customer for its AI cloud infrastructure business.

Exascale Labs and AI Nova Sign MOU at Digital Nex 2025

Hoansoo Exabits

Key Highlights

Initial Agreement : Upon signing an initial agreement, AI Nova will place an initial order for a starting quantity of GPU servers and related technical services, with a three-year service duration.

: Upon signing an initial agreement, AI Nova will place an initial order for a starting quantity of GPU servers and related technical services, with a three-year service duration. Revenue Impact : This initial order is expected to generate approximately $53 million in revenue to Exascale over the three-year term, or approximately $17.7 million per year.

: This initial order is expected to generate approximately $53 million in revenue to Exascale over the three-year term, or approximately $17.7 million per year. Scalability : Exascale will provide AI Nova with options to draw down additional servers and services, up to a total of 10,000 GPUs within five years after signing the agreement, depending on their deployment plans. The entire 10,000 GPU deployment represents an aggregate revenue opportunity to Exascale in excess of $600 million over the next five years.

: Exascale will provide AI Nova with options to draw down additional servers and services, up to a total of 10,000 GPUs within five years after signing the agreement, depending on their deployment plans. The entire 10,000 GPU deployment represents an aggregate revenue opportunity to Exascale in excess of $600 million over the next five years. Technology and Deployment : The initial order includes GPU-servers based on Nvidia Blackwell GPUs and customized management technology by Exascale.

: The initial order includes GPU-servers based on Nvidia Blackwell GPUs and customized management technology by Exascale. Quantum Security : Exascale will collaborate with Quantum eMotion Corporation ("QNC") to integrate quantum-grade cryptographic technology into its GPU clusters, strengthening defense against emerging cyber threats and ensuring the protection of sensitive data.

: Exascale will collaborate with Quantum eMotion Corporation ("QNC") to integrate quantum-grade cryptographic technology into its GPU clusters, strengthening defense against emerging cyber threats and ensuring the protection of sensitive data. Real World Asset: Exascale will collaborate with AI Nova to design and implement a real-world asset (RWA) tokenization solution for data center and GPU computing assets.

Dr. Hoansoo Lee, Exascale's CEO, commented: "We are excited to expand our AI cloud infrastructure business and provide mission-critical computing solutions to AI Nova, a customer in a new end-market for our AI compute offerings. We are impressed with AI Nova's business model and look forward to supporting their ambitious growth plans. We aim to deliver exceptional service quality and execution, laying the foundation for a long-term and growing partnership between our companies."

Kristy Tan, Director of AI Nova, commented: "This collaboration between AI Nova and Exascale creates a powerful synergy that will drive us toward our goal of becoming the leader in the global AI infrastructure market. By leveraging the advanced computing power provided by Exascale and their cutting-edge technology, we are poised to deliver an unparalleled computing experience to millions of users worldwide."

About Exascale Labs

Exascale Labs builds and operates high-performance AI compute infrastructure, featuring modular data centers, liquid-cooled GPU clusters, InfiniBand networking, and a proprietary orchestration plane for high-density enterprise AI workloads. It is the is the parent company of Exabits, an AI compute platform integrated with Web3.

About AI Nova Pte Ltd

AI Nova is a leading provider of digital infrastructure solutions, specializing in high-performance computing equipment, data center operations, and advanced network communication services. By delivering reliable hardware, scalable infrastructure, and comprehensive system support, AI Nova helps organizations optimize IT performance and enhance connectivity, enabling sustainable growth in an increasingly connected world.

SOURCE Exabits
NEW YORK, Dec. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ --

Why: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of securities of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX) between February 15, 2022 and September 24, 2025, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important January 12, 2026 lead plaintiff deadline in the securities class action first filed by the Firm.

So What: If you purchased Freeport-McMoRan securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.

What to do next: To join the Freeport class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=45553 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than January 12, 2026. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.

Why Rosen Law: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources, or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved, at that time, the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

Details of the case: According to the lawsuit, defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Freeport-McMoRan did not adequately ensure safety at the Grasberg Block Cave mine in Indonesia; (2) the lack of proper safety precautions constituted a heightened risk that could foreseeably lead to the death of Freeport's workers; (3) this constituted an undisclosed heightened risk of regulatory, litigation, and reputational risk; and (4) as a result, defendants' statements about Freeport-McMoRan's business, operations, and prospects were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.

To join the Freeport class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=45553 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] for information on the class action.

No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm or on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Contact Information:

Laurence Rosen, Esq.

Phillip Kim, Esq.

The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor

New York, NY 10016

Tel: (212) 686-1060

Toll Free: (866) 767-3653

Fax: (212) 202-3827

[email protected]

www.rosenlegal.com

SOURCE THE ROSEN LAW FIRM, P. A.
ONTARIO, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Feldstein Family Law Group, P.C. has released a new episode of Ask Andrew, the firm's monthly live Q&A program hosted by founder Andrew Feldstein. This episode  "How are Polygamous Marriages Treated Under Ontario Family Law?"  features the firm's very own Associate Attorney Lauren Harvey as guest.

In a clear, practical discussion, Andrew and Lauren explore how Canadian law treats polygamous marriages and related polyamorous relationships, and what remedies may still be available to families when relationships end. Key points covered include:

Legality & recognition: Polygamy is illegal in Canada (Criminal Code s.293) and polygamous marriages conducted in Canada are not recognized under the Civil Marriage Act .

Polygamy is illegal in Canada (Criminal Code s.293) and polygamous marriages conducted in Canada are not recognized under the . Divorce vs. corollary relief: While Canada may not grant a divorce for a later marriage in a polygamous union, Ontario's Family Law Act (s.12) can allow access to certain remedies (e.g., spousal/child support) where a polygamous marriage was validly celebrated in a jurisdiction that recognizes it.

While Canada may not grant a for a later marriage in a polygamous union, can allow access to certain (e.g., spousal/child support) where a polygamous marriage was validly celebrated in a jurisdiction that recognizes it. Common-law pathways: Where no valid marriage is recognized, parties may still have common-law claims (e.g., spousal support) based on cohabitation and other factors.

Where no valid marriage is recognized, parties may still have claims (e.g., spousal support) based on cohabitation and other factors. Parenting complexities: Potential loco parentis issues and multi-parent scenarios raise novel questions for parenting time and support.

Potential issues and multi-parent scenarios raise novel questions for parenting time and support. Sparse case law: Limited jurisprudence means outcomes are fact-specific, requiring careful legal analysis.

Watch the episode on YouTube or Facebook. For prior programs, visit the Ask Andrew video archive.

Ask Andrew is Canada's first live-streamed family-law Q&A series. Each month, Andrew and a guest lawyer from the firm answer common questions about separation, support, parenting issues, and moreoffering practical guidance drawn from decades of Ontario family-law experience.

About Feldstein Family Law Group, P.C.

Feldstein Family Law Group, P.C. has served families across Ontario for more than 30 years, practising exclusively in family law. The firm represents clients in divorce, parenting (decision-making responsibility and parenting time), child and spousal support, and property division. With offices in Markham, Mississauga, Oakville, and Vaughan, the team is committed to efficient, child-focused solutions in and out of court.

Learn more at www.separation.ca.

Media Contact:

Andrew Feldstein

[email protected]

SOURCE Feldstein Family Law Group P.C.
HONG KONG, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Finloop Finance Technology Holding Limited ("Finloop"), a global one-stop Web5 wealth technology platform, and FinChain, both incubated by Fosun Wealth Holdings jointly announced the launch of Asia's first comprehensive technical solution for "Japan Stock Performance-linked Token", deployed on four major international public blockchains as Solana, Sonic, Vaulta, and Ethereum. This technical solution represents a significant breakthrough in tokenizing Asian equities as Real-World Assets (RWAs), advancing the integration of regional assets into global capital markets through tokenization.

The solution has been successfully validated in real-world business scenarios of AI storm Co., Ltd. (Tokyo Stock Exchange, stock code: 3719), a Japanese company providing AI solutions and digital services. This company offers AI consulting, application implementation, and related digital infrastructure services for enterprises. By transforming stocks into 24/7 globally tradable digital assets, this solution effectively broadens investor base, enhances order book, and significantly boosts asset liquidity, unlocking new growth and globalization opportunities for Japanese listed companies.

Cai Hua, CEO of Finloop said, "Our collaboration with FinChain in the RWA field for Japanese stocks reaffirms our comprehensive leading capabilities in RWA product design, compliance risk control, cross-chain integration, and blockchain infrastructure technology. We have established a closed-loop technical process for the issuance, distribution, and settlement of RWAs such as funds and stocks, under a compliant framework. Moving forward, this model will extend to other asset classes, empowering global partners."

Zhao Chen, CEO of FinChain said, "This marks an important milestone in the deep integration of traditional Japanese equities with the fast-evolving RWA sector. RWA not only enhances the global accessibility, transparency, and settlement efficiency of assets but also creates new possibilities for cross-border equity incentives and industrial collaboration."

Developed within the regulatory frameworks of Japan and Hong Kong, this technical solution explores on-chain registration and rights confirmation for Japanese equities, paving the way for on-chain rights confirmation and circulation in the secondary market. The solution provides global investors with an efficient channel to invest in Japanese listed companies through mainstream public blockchains, while establishing a robust foundation for integrating industry and capital markets, fostering a positive cycle of innovation and returns.

About Finloop Finance Technology Holding Limited

Finloop Finance Technology Holding Limited, along with its subsidiaries (collectively referred to as "Finloop"), is an AI-driven global one-stop Web5 wealth technology platform that offers comprehensive wealth management products and technology solutions to various financial institutions. Its offerings include cash management, public funds and private funds, structured products, bonds, insurance, and virtual assets. As a fintech leader in Asia during the Web3 wave, Finloop has focused on bridging physical and digital assets, developing a one-stop RWA technology, issuance and distribution platform to pioneer new growth pathways in the wealth management industry.

About FinChain

FinChain is a Web3 brand incubated by Fosun Wealth Holdings, dedicated to building a global physical financial blockchain network for users. FinChain collaborates with major public blockchains worldwide to establish a decentralized compliance layer, developing an integrated on-chain identity system. It expands cross-border liquidity resources for financial institutions and stablecoin issuers worldwide, while providing a compliant decentralized infrastructure for fintech developers in various countries. This fosters an on-chain trust mechanism, enhances transparency of financial assets on the blockchain, improves investment and financing efficiency, and collectively builds a compliant ecosystem for decentralized finance.

Risk and Compliance Reminder

The acquisition, holding, trading, and distribution of benefits relating to tokenized stocks must strictly comply with all applicable laws, regulations, and regulatory requirements of the issuer's jurisdiction and the investors' respective jurisdictions.

This press release is for informational and disclosure purposes only and does not constitute any investment advice, offer, solicitation, or commitment.

Matters such as specific application scope, eligibility criteria for qualified investors, information disclosure requirements, and tax arrangements are subject to the formal legal documents and the final approval or relevant stipulations of the regulatory authorities.

SOURCE Finchain Holdings (Cayman) Limited
CHICAGO, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Four Seasons Heating, Air Conditioning, Plumbing & Electric, one of the Chicago area's largest and most trusted home service providers, today announced it has been honored with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics. This marks the company's second time earning the prestigious honor, recognizing its unwavering commitment to integrity, transparency, and exceptional care for its customers, employees, and the community it serves.

"We're incredibly honored to receive this award again," said Dave Musial, CEO of Four Seasons Heating, Air Conditioning, Plumbing & Electric. "For over 50 years, we've built our business on honesty and trust. This award is a reflection of our team's dedication to doing right by our customers every single day."

The BBB Torch Award is the highest honor bestowed by the BBB, celebrating companies that demonstrate exceptional standards of ethics and business conduct. Winners are selected based on their leadership commitment to ethical practices, communication of values, and positive impact on customers, employees, and the community.

A Legacy of Integrity and Service

Founded in 1971, Four Seasons has grown from a small, family-run heating company into one of the region's leading full-service providers of heating, air conditioning, plumbing, and electrical services. Today, the company employs more than 1000 team members and serves tens of thousands of homeowners throughout Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana. With over 30,000 five-star reviews and as a 12-time recipient of the Angi Super Service Award, Four Seasons continues to set the standard for service excellence, integrity, and customer satisfaction in the home services industry. As the only dealer in Chicago to receive the prestigious Dave Lennox Award and a Mitsubishi Diamond Elite Contractor, Four Seasons stands as a true leader in quality and customer care.

"At the end of the day, this business is about trust," added Dave. "When people invite us into their homes, they trust us with something personal. That's why ethics, honesty, and transparency aren't just words on a wall  they're how we operate every day."

As a proud BBB member for more than 30 years, Four Seasons remains deeply committed to investing in local community programs, employee growth and education, and customer satisfaction initiatives that reflect its long-standing standards of integrity and excellence.

About the BBB Torch Award for Ethics

The BBB Torch Award for Ethics recognizes businesses that exemplify exceptional integrity and ethical practices in every aspect of their operations. Presented by the Better Business Bureau, this prestigious honor celebrates organizations that go beyond compliancedemonstrating leadership, character, and a deep commitment to doing what's right for their customers, employees, and communities. It stands as one of the highest distinctions the BBB bestows, honoring companies that set the standard for trust and accountability within their industries.

About Four Seasons Heating, Air Conditioning, Plumbing & Electric

For over 54 years, Four Seasons Heating, Air Conditioning, Plumbing & Electric has remained a trusted name in home comfort across the Chicago area and Northwest Indiana. The company's licensed professionals deliver expert installation, repair, and maintenance with a steadfast commitment to integrity, reliability, and customer satisfactionbacked by 24/7 service homeowners can depend on year-round.

Learn more at: 2025 Torch Award Winner | Four Seasons Heating, Air Conditioning, Plumbing, Electric

Media Contact: Martin Lubeck

Executive Director of Marketing

Four Seasons Heating, Air Conditioning, Plumbing & Electric

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Four Seasons Heating and Air Conditioning
NEW YORK, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A remarkable shift has taken place in the global culinary landscape: kimchi has emerged as one of the most dynamic food trends worldwide. At the heart of this rise is the "JONGGA Kimchi Cook-off", organized by SF Globalize, a fast-growing international culinary competition that has earned recognition from some of the world's most prestigious institutions.

1. A Global Kimchi Cooking Competition Co-Hosted by Top Culinary Schools

Award-Winning Dish from the Jongga Kimchi Cook-off Parisians taking part in a kimchi-making session Jongga Kimchi Cook-off in New York

The "JONGGA Kimchi Cook-off", organized by SF Globalize, has become one of the key forces behind kimchi's expansion across the global food industry. It is the only international competition dedicated to Korean kimchi and co-hosted by leading culinary institutions, including:

Le Cordon Bleu Paris

Le Cordon Bleu London

The Culinary Institute of America (CIA)

The Institute of Culinary Education (ICE), New York

Global No. 1 Kimchi Brand  JONGGA

Since its inaugural event in Paris in 2019, the competition has expanded to major cities such as San Francisco, New York, and London. Its participants range widely  from Michelin-starred chefs and restaurateurs to designers, engineers, teachers, athletes, scientists, students, police officers, and military personnel  making it one of the most diverse and culturally influential food competitions today.

Creative recipes featuring kimchi are increasingly being compared to those of established global cooking contests, while the event's widespread visibility on social media has driven kimchi's popularity among younger generations.

2. Paris Becomes the First in the European Union to Officially Declare "Kimchi Day"

On November 22, 2025, the 15th district of Paris became the first local government within the European Union to officially declare "Kimchi Day (Journee du Kimchi)."

This historic move represents:

the first time an Asian food ingredient has been designated an official commemorative day by a European municipal authority, and

an unprecedented acknowledgment of kimchi's cultural and nutritional value within European society.

The proclamation ceremony, held at KOREAN EXPO (hosted by AMA), drew thousands of attendees  including city council members, local officials, culinary schools, media, influencers, and the general public  underscoring kimchi's deep integration into everyday European life.

3. In the World's Culinary Capital, Kimchi Gains New Meaning

Paris has long served as a benchmark for global gastronomy. The establishment of Kimchi Day here  initiated jointly by AMA and Daesang Corporation's JONGGA brand  signals that kimchi is now recognized internationally as:

a legitimate cultural asset within the global culinary community, and

a symbol of contemporary food values, including health, fermentation, and sustainability.

Philippe Goujon, Mayor of Paris's 15th district, has expressed strong support for kimchi's cultural and health significance, noting that "kimchi is not only a Korean food, but a food for the world  and for the citizens of Paris."

4. JONGGA: The Brand That Built the Foundation for Kimchi's Global Rise

Kimchi's emergence as an international icon of Korean food culture is rooted not only in the efforts of "Team Kimchi Cook-off," but also in the long-standing commitment of Daesang Corporation  JONGGA.

For several decades, JONGGA has played a decisive role in transforming kimchi into a global fermented superfood by:

establishing standardized global kimchi manufacturing systems,

exporting to more than 80 countries,

conducting research tailored to regional taste profiles, and

championing the worldwide promotion of kimchi culture.

Today, JONGGA stands as the Global No. 1 Kimchi Brand, solidifying kimchi's status across both cultural and industrial domains.

5. Founder Interview - "Kimchi Is Now a Cultural Icon Co-Created by the World"

Sang Tae JU (Founder of the Kimchi Cook-off / Executive Producer)

"This year, we witnessed kimchi becoming a shared food of the world. It is no longer just a Korean tradition - it is a living global culture that people everywhere reimagine in their own ways."

He highlighted the indispensable role of Daesang Corporation (JONGGA):

"Kimchi's globalization has been made possible by JONGGA's quality, trust, and cultural vision. Today's international achievements are the result of the brand's decades-long global strategy."

Regarding future plans, he noted:

"The JONGGA Kimchi Cook-off is preparing to expand beyond Europe and the United States into Asia, the Middle East, and South America. Through a 2026 global tour, we aim to share the creativity and diversity of kimchi worldwide and work with JONGGA to establish Kimchi Day in more cities across the globe."

6. Kimchi as a New Platform for Global Cultural Exchange

The establishment of Kimchi Day and the expansion of the JONGGA Kimchi Cook-off represent more than a rise in the status of Korean cuisine. They reflect the growing potential of food as a medium for international cultural connection.

Team Kimchi Cook-off and Daesang Corporation (JONGGA) plan to continue building a global food-culture platform that connects communities worldwide through kimchi.

SOURCE SF Globalize Inc.
The awards honor excellence in leadership, mental wellness, and science and wellness collaboration

MIAMI, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Global Wellness Summit  (GWS), the premier gathering of leaders in the $6.8 trillion wellness economy, concluded its sold-out, 19th annual conference at the Mandarin Oriental Downtown, Dubai last week.

During the event, GWS unveiled its prestigious Global Wellness Awards. Recipients included Meng-Mei Chen, PhD, professor at EHL Hospitality Business School, for her enduring commitment to enhancing mental wellness; Deepak Srivastava, MD, president of the Gladstone Institutes, whose dedication to discovery and collaboration continues to advance the science of prevention and healthspan; and Mary Tabacchi, PhD, RD, a pioneer in the wellness industry who has helped educate and inspire thousands of students.

"This year's honorees embody the momentum and maturity of the wellness movement," said Susie Ellis, chair and CEO of the GWS. "Each recipient has pioneered crucial new directions in wellness, from driving collaboration in the medical world that has sparked new discoveries on how the body can heal itself, to putting connection and emotional wellbeing at the heart of the wellness conversation, to bringing the study of wellness into the Ivy League academic world years before it was even a mainstream concept. We're inspired by their leadership and energized by what lies ahead."

2025 Wellness Award Winners:

Debra Simon Award for Furthering Mental Wellness: Meng-Mei Chen, PhD

The Debra Simon Award for Furthering Mental Wellness honors a leader whose work shines light into one of the most vital and complex dimensions of human wellbeing: mental wellness. It recognizes vision, empathy, and innovation in advancing mental wellness as a universal priority. The award was introduced by Debra Simon's daughter, Lauren Wright, president of the Debra Simon Family Foundation. Before presenting the award, Lauren paid beautiful tribute to her mother, who tragically took her own life after a battle with mental illness. Gerry Bodeker, PhDalso a past recipient of the award in 2019presented the award on behalf of the GWS Advisory Board.

This year's award was presented to Meng-Mei Chen, PhD, a woman whose research and teaching are helping an entire industry understand something profound: that emotional connection is not a byproduct of hospitality, but its beating heart. A professor at EHL Hospitality Business School and author of Hospitality Vibes, Chen has redefined how we think about emotional intelligence, belonging, loneliness, and the subtle art of making people feel seen. Through her groundbreaking studies on empathy and human interaction, she has given the wellness and hospitality worlds a shared vocabulary for something we all intuitively know: Mental wellness is cultivated every day, in every act of kindness and every human encounter.

Bennett Family Award for Collaboration in the Science of Wellness: Deepak Srivastava, MD

The Bennett Family Award for Collaboration in the Science of Wellness honors those rare leaders who understand that the greatest discoveries are not achieved alonebut through partnership, curiosity, and the relentless pursuit of shared knowledge. Bija Bennett, CEO of BijaB, introduced the award honoring the legacy of her parents, who supported scientific discovery throughout their lives. Michael Roizen, MD, first chief wellness officer at Cleveland Clinic and a 2023 recipient of the award, presented the honor on behalf of the GWS Advisory Board.

"Innovation begins not in isolation, but in partnership," said Bennett. "Collective effort has driven every major leap forward in science, health and human progress. Curiosity and collaborationtogether they power the engine of progress."

Dr Srivastava has built a career defined by that spirit of collaboration. A world-renowned physician-scientist, he has spent decades at the forefront of regenerative medicine and genetic research, leading groundbreaking work that is reshaping our understanding of how the heartand the human bodycan heal itself. As president of the Gladstone Institutes and a longtime leader in the global biomedical community, he has championed the power of science not just to treat disease, but to restore vitality, extend healthspan, and unlock human potential.

His leadership has brought together experts across disciplinesfrom genomics and artificial intelligence to clinical medicine and wellness scienceto accelerate discoveries that will define the next era of human health.

Leading Woman in Wellness Award: Mary Tabacchi, PhD, RD

Each year, the Global Wellness Summit honors a woman whose vision, leadership and humanity have profoundly shaped the wellness worlda woman whose influence extends far beyond her profession, touching lives, inspiring new generations, and expanding what wellness can mean. The award was presented by Amy McDonald, founder & CEO of Under a Tree Consulting and the 2024 recipient of this award, and Tourism and Economics Specialist Hannah Messerli, PhD, on behalf of the GWS Advisory Board.

Mary Tabacchi was one of the first academics to recognize spa and then wellness as a legitimate field of study in the hospitality arena and a vital force for human flourishing. She has a PhD in biochemical nutrition and biostatistics and began teaching at Cornell in 1972first in the Division of Nutritional Sciences, and from 1978, in the School of Hotel Administration. She has published numerous papers and books on nutrition, spa and other related subjects. As a longtime professor at Cornell University, Professor Tabacchi helped educate and inspire thousands of students who now lead wellness, hospitality, and spa organizations around the globe. Her early research and mentorship built the bridge between science and soulbetween evidence and empathythat defines the wellness industry today.

To experience all three days of keynotes and panels that took place during the 2025 Summit, the "Summit on Demand" package is available here .

Qualified media can apply to receive "Summit on Demand" access here .

About the Global Wellness Summit: The Global Wellness Summit brings together leaders and visionaries to positively shape the future of the $6.8 trillion global wellness economy. In addition to an annual conference, held at a different location around the globe, GWS also hosts annual in-person events such as the Wellness Real Estate & Communities Symposium and the Beauty & the Brain Symposium, along with virtual gatherings, including Wellness Master Classes and Wellness Sector Spotlights. The organization's Future of Wellness report forecasts the top wellness trends for the year ahead and is oft-quoted in the media. The 20th annual Global Wellness Summit will be held in Phuket, Thailand, November 10-13, 2026.

SOURCE Global Wellness Summit
Business / Companies

by Staff reporter

Harare Magistrate Lisa Mutendereki has fined Mount Meru Zimbabwe US$600 after being found guilty of selling contaminated diesel.The case, prosecuted by Mandirasa Chigumira, centered on an incident on October 24, 2023, when informant Shakespear Kunaka visited the company's premises. Posing as a Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) official, Kunaka requested diesel samples for testing at ZERA's mobile laboratory, conducted in the presence of employee Tichaona Cherai.Laboratory analysis revealed that the diesel had been adulterated with lighter petroleum products, failing to meet the ZWS751 standards for flash point and density. The contaminated fuel, approximately 9,000 liters, was sealed with tamper-evident seals and remains in ZERA custody at a secured site.The court's ruling serves as a warning to fuel retailers about adherence to industry standards and the serious consequences of distributing substandard petroleum products.
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Golden Gate Sotheby's International Realty announced its expansion and new office in Fremont, California. Located at 43513 Mission Blvd., the new office was founded in partnership with one of the brokerage's top agents, Joseph Sabeh. Sabeh joined the Sotheby's International Realty brand in 2017, before joining Golden Gate Sotheby's International Realty in 2023, and is one of the top agents globally for the renowned luxury brokerage.

Joseph Sabeh in front of Golden Gate Sotheby's International Realty's new Fremont Office.

A Fremont native, Sabeh's real estate origins began with his father Joseph Sabeh Sr., who started his own brokerage in 1980 and was a pillar of his community in Fremont. The brokerage grew to prominence when Sabeh began to cater and sell to high end clients, becoming a trusted advisor of the South Bay's affluent. Today, the brokerage's new Fremont office will continue this legacy and strengthen Golden Gate Sotheby's International Realty's market share, service, and connection to the region, while adding to its existing 21 offices throughout the greater San Francisco Bay Area.

"The opening of Golden Gate Sotheby's International Realty's Fremont office marks an exciting new chapternot just for the brand, but for my business as well," says Sabeh. "As the market continues to grow in the East Bay, particularly in Fremont, this expansion allows us to deliver an even higher level of service to our clients, backed by the global reach and luxury marketing power of Sotheby's. I'm proud to be part of a brokerage that recognizes the value and potential of this community."

With over $1 Billion in lifetime sales, Sabeh is consistently ranked among the Top 1% of Realtors in California and recognized nationally by the Wall Street Journal (2019, 2022, 2023, 2025) and The Leading 100  Top Performers in Bay Area Real Estate (2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025), and most recently was recognized among the Top 100 Sotheby's International Realty agents worldwide for his 2024 sales production.

"Clients trust Joe for his market expertise, strategic negotiation, and meticulous attention to detailqualities that have earned him a loyal portfolio of referrals and repeat business. We are thrilled to build upon this reputation and excellence by incorporating this new office in the heart of Fremont," says Kevin Daniel Dwyer, Chief Marketing Officer of the brokerage.

To learn more about Jospeh Sabeh, visit JosephSabeh.com

For more information about Golden Gate Sotheby's International Realty, click here.

For more information contact:

Mobile: 415.380.4332

Email [email protected]

About Golden Gate Sotheby's International Realty:

Golden Gate Sotheby's International Realty has over 438 agents in 22 offices throughout the San Francisco Bay Area serving the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma and San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.GoldenGateSIR.com

SOURCE Golden Gate Sothebys International Realty
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Families across the United States are confronting a growing challenge: how to manage the staggering volume of possessions baby boomers are beginning to pass down to their adult children. As highlighted in a recent Business Insider report, younger generations are increasingly overwhelmed by furniture, collectibles, decor, heirlooms, and memorabilia accumulated over a lifetimemuch of which they neither need nor have space to keep.

This shift, driven by the largest generational wealth and possessions transfer in history, is accelerating demand for professional estate sale services. Grasons, a leading national estate sale and business liquidation franchise, reports that families nationwide are seeking help navigating both the emotional and logistical impacts of downsizing and inheritance.

"We are seeing a significant increase in families who simply don't know where to begin," said Brandon Ciaccio, Grasons Brand President. "Parents want to preserve the memories tied to their belongings, while their adult children are managing careers, smaller homes, and busy lives. Our role is to guide families through these moments with compassion and expertise, ensuring cherished items find meaningful new homes."

According to industry experts cited in the article, many families delay difficult conversations about belongings until a crisis occurssuch as a medical event or the passing of a loved one. This often leaves adult children responsible for sorting through decades of possessions under tight timelines and heavy emotional pressure.

Grasons teams across the country provide structured support, including item assessment, valuation, on-site estate sales, donation coordination, and full cleanout services. Their approach is designed to reduce stress, prevent family conflict, and streamline the downsizing process.

Ciaccio noted that the emotional weight of parting with items can be as significant as the physical labor involved. "These belongings represent memories, identity, and family history," he said. "We help families honor those stories while making thoughtful decisions about what should stay, what should be passed down, and what can move on to someone who will appreciate it."

With more than 60 franchise locations nationwide, Grasons, a member of Evive Brands, anticipates continued growth as baby boomers, the largest generation in U.S. history, accelerate their transition into retirement living and smaller homes.

Families seeking guidance on estate sale planning or downsizing support can visit www.grasons.com.

Media Contact: Rhonda Grundemann, Evive Brands, 602-739-8810, [email protected]

SOURCE Grasons
Drake Brings Proven Leadership, 17 Years Experience to New Role

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Gresham Smith, a premier architecture, engineering and consulting firm, is pleased to announce that Randy Drake, P.E., has been selected as Executive Vice President (EVP) of the firm's Industrial market. In this role, Drake will oversee the strategic growth and operational performance of Gresham Smith's Industrial practice, which supports a broad range of clients across industrial and advanced manufacturing sectors.

Randy Drake, P.E.

"Randy's appointment reflects his deep understanding of our business, his ability to build and foster lasting client relationships and his clear vision for the future of our Industrial market," said Rodney Chester, CEO and Board Chair of Gresham Smith. "He has consistently demonstrated strong leadership and a commitment to our culture and people. I'm confident he will guide our teams toward continued success while maintaining the quality and integrity that our clients count on."

Since joining Gresham Smith in 2015, Drake has played a pivotal role in driving the growth of the firm's Industrial practice. Most recently, he served as Industrial Project Management Department Leader, where he focused on leading his team through complex projects and implementing process improvements that enhance project delivery and client satisfaction. He has also led pursuit teams responsible for key strategic wins that positioned Gresham Smith as the leader in the design of lithium-ion battery plants, and more recently, he has strengthened the firm's presence in the food and beverage manufacturing market.

Drake brings more than 17 years of experience in engineering and project management, having led complex, large-scale industrial projects from concept through completion. His collaborative leadership style and emphasis on client service represent what makes Gresham Smith a trusted partner for manufacturers across the country.

Beyond his project work, Drake has been an active participant in Gresham Smith's professional development initiatives, including the firm's inaugural Leadership Evolution and Advancement Program (LEAP) and Flem Smith Mentorship Program. He became a firm owner in 2022, underscoring his long-term commitment to Gresham Smith's success.

Drake holds a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from the University of Tennessee and a Master of Science in engineering from the University of Arkansas. He is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Society of Civil Engineers, Lean Construction Institute, Project Management Institute and the Tennessee Structural Assessment and Visual Evaluation Coalition.

"I'm honored to step into this role and lead our talented Industrial team," Drake said. "Our clients are building the future, and Gresham Smith has the expertise and passion to help them succeed. I look forward to continuing to elevate our practice while growing in a way that aligns with our core values and client-centered approach."

About Gresham Smith

We are a premier architecture, engineering and consultancy services firm providing a full suite of solutions to private- and public-sector clients. With $355 million in annual gross revenue and 26 offices throughout the United States, we operate across eight strategic sectors: aviation, building engineering, healthcare, industrial, land planning, life and work places, transportation, and water and environment.

Recognized as one of the World's Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company and repeatedly listed as a "Best Place to Work," we are committed to delivering on our Core Purposeto plan, design and consult to create healthy and thriving communitiesthrough our brand promise of Genuine Ingenuity.

Learn more at GreshamSmith.com.

SOURCE Gresham Smith
BRUSLY, La., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Health and Safety Council (HASC) has expanded its Louisiana presence with the opening of a new Brusly location, bringing industry-leading training, occupational health services, and screening solutions closer to West Baton Rouge's growing industrial workforce.

The new Brusly branch, located at 400 W. St. Francis Street, expands access to Safety Essentials, the most widely accepted reciprocal contractor orientation nationwide, along with site-specific training, occupational health services and NABSC-approved drug and alcohol screening through HASC OmniScreening services. Through the integrated LINK digital platform, this location helps companies keep workers site-ready throughout the employee lifecycle and reduce delays at the gate.

"Louisiana's industrial growth continues to accelerate, and our role is to make sure the workforce evolves at the same speed as innovation," said Sarita Scheufens, President of HASC Louisiana. "As a nonprofit, HASC Louisiana reinvests its resources and prioritizes job-site readiness and long-term community impact."

HASC Louisiana Brusly officially opened on October 27, 2025, and will host an Open House on December 2, 2025, featuring tours of the new facility, live music, refreshments, and networking opportunities. The event will give industry partners and community leaders a firsthand look at how HASC is supporting workforce development, safety performance, and operational readiness across Louisiana. RSVP for this complimentary event at www.hasc.us/brusly.

Driven by industry demand, HASC Louisiana continues to grow its footprint across the Gulf Coast region. The organization's regional headquarters in Sulphur operates from a state-of-the-art campus that anchors its Louisiana operations. Building on that foundation, HASC has opened new branches in Gonzales and most recently Brusly, with another training and health center slated to open in LaPlace later this year.

HASC Louisiana Names New Regional VP of Operations

In 2026, HASC Louisiana will welcome Nina LeBlanc as the Regional Vice President of Operations - Louisiana. LeBlanc will relocate from Texas to Louisiana for this role, guiding operational growth, supporting new-site development, and ensuring that each Louisiana branch delivers seamless, high-quality training and occupational health services. With more than 20 years in industry and experience in safety, compliance, and account management, Nina brings a solid understanding of customer needs and day-to-day operations. She previously served as Director of Account Management at HASC, successfully supporting national initiatives, including the launch and adoption of Safety Essentials.

About HASC Louisiana

HASC Louisiana is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to offering premier training, screening and occupational health services. Formerly known as the Safety Council of Southwest Louisiana, HASC Louisiana has been serving the state since 1955, continually expanding to meet the evolving needs of industry and the owners and contractors who support them. Dedicated to innovation, HASC Louisiana leverages emerging technologies to develop advanced solutions in workforce training, such as Safety Essentials, health services, screening, and technology.

For More Information

Visit louisiana.hasc.com to learn more about HASC Louisiana Brusly. The Brusly branch is open Monday  Friday, 6:30 a.m.  4:00 p.m.

For details on services or to schedule an appointment, visit louisiana.hasc.com or contact HASC Louisiana at [email protected] or 225-412-9880.

SOURCE Health and Safety Council Louisiana
HOUSTON, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Hope City Church is thrilled to announce the Grand Opening of its new Main Campus on Saturday, December 6, with special services at 5:00 PM and 7:00 PM, followed by Sunday services on December 7 at 9:00 AM, 11:00 AM, and 1:00 PM. The new campus is located at 5300 W. Sam Houston Pkwy, Houston, TX 77041.

After nearly 11 years as a portable church, Hope City is celebrating a major milestone by moving into its first permanent facilityan advancement that marks a new chapter of growth, impact, and expanded outreach.

"This new building will enable us to tell more people about Jesus and better serve our community," said Pastors Daniel and Jackie Groves. "Our mission is to Help People Find Hope, and we're grateful for God's faithfulness every step of the way. We can't wait to welcome people into our new home."

The state-of-the-art facility will serve as the hub for Hope City's weekend services, digital content, and community initiatives. The church invites families, friends, and the entire Houston community to join the celebration, experience dynamic worship, and see firsthand what God is doing through Hope City.

Grand Opening Weekend Service Schedule

Saturday, December 6th - 5pm / 7pm

Sunday, December 7th - 9am / 11am / 1pm

For more information visit hopecity.com , www.instagram.com/yourhopecity or contact:

Duncan Dodds

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 713-806-5959

SOURCE Hope City
Hybrid sales surge 42% in November

Tucson, Santa Fe and Palisade each deliver double-digit sales growth in November

Hyundai achieves best-ever retail and total sales for the first 11 months of the year

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyundai Motor America reported November total sales of 74,289 units, a 2% decrease compared with November 2024. Hybrid sales reached new heights, jumping 42% and resulting in the best hybrid vehicle sales month of all time. This was also the best all-time month for Tucson with sales increasing 18%. Best ever November model results include Santa Fe (+13%), Palisade (+10%), Sonata HEV (+12%), Elantra HEV (+96%) and Elantra N (+45%).

"Hyundai's November sales highlighted the strength of our SUV lineup, with Tucson, Santa Fe, and the all-new Palisade each posting double-digit growth," said Randy Parker, president and CEO, Hyundai Motor North America. "Hybrid demand remains strong, and we set a new all-time monthly record for hybrid vehicle sales. Through the first 11 months of the year, we're on a record pace and fully expect to go '5 for 5 in 2025,' achieving record annual retail sales for the fifth consecutive year."

November Total Sales Summary



Nov-25 Nov-24 % Chg 2025

YTD 2024

YTD % Chg Hyundai 74,289 76,008 -2 % 822,756 758,304 +8 %

November Product and Corporate Activities

Model Total Sales

Vehicles Nov-25 Nov-24 % Chg 2025 YTD 2024 YTD % Chg Elantra 10,389 11,344 -8 % 136,825 125,113 +9 % Ioniq 5 2,027 4,989 -59 % 44,760 39,805 +12 % Ioniq 6 489 1,121 -56 % 10,019 11,055 -9 % Ioniq 9 315 0 - 4,809 0 - Kona 5,783 6,133 -6 % 68,030 76,326 -11 % Nexo 0 0 0 % 5 93 -95 % Palisade 9,906 8,982 +10 % 112,237 99,757 +13 % Santa Cruz 1,537 2,393 -36 % 23,889 29,991 -20 % Santa Fe 14,004 12,376 +13 % 127,964 105,701 +21 % Sonata 4,018 6,971 -42 % 54,238 61,701 -12 % Tucson 23,762 20,178 +18 % 212,037 185,954 +14 % Venue 2,059 1,521 +35 % 27,943 22,808 +23 %

Hyundai Motor America

Hyundai Motor America offers U.S. consumers a technology-rich lineup of cars, SUVs, and electrified vehicles, while supporting Hyundai Motor Company's Progress for Humanity vision. Hyundai has significant operations in the U.S., including its North American headquarters in California, the Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama assembly plant, the all-new Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America, and several cutting-edge R&D facilities. These operations, combined with those of Hyundai's 850 independent dealers, contribute $20.1 billion annually and 190,000 jobs to the U.S. economy, according to a published economic impact report. For more information, visit www.hyundainews.com.

Hyundai Motor America on Twitter | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | TikTok

SOURCE Hyundai Motor America
OTTAWA, ON and WASHINGTON, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Joint Commission (IJC) is pleased to release its Sixth Report to Governments on the International Watersheds Initiative (IWI) covering key achievements during the past five years (2020-2024). During the reporting period, 28 IWI projects were completed involving 57 partner organizations that provided support and collaborated with the project teams. IWI projects received more than $2.6M from the IJC and are estimated to have leveraged more than $5.1M from partnering agencies, organizations, and other partners.

The IWI has become an integral part of managing waters shared between Canada and the United States by undertaking a holistic approach to addressing water quantity, water quality and ecosystem health issues in shared watersheds.

The IJC has accomplished the following through the IWI in recent years:

Enhanced collaboration between IJC boards and key watershed organizations, experts and Indigenous Nations.

Supported IJC boards in planning for emerging challenges by applying adaptive management practices to their work.

Established the International Red River Watershed Board and continues to explore expanding the watershed approach to boards in other transboundary basins.

Examples of specific IWI projects highlighted in the report include:

In 2023, the International Kootenay Lake Board of Control completed a project to design and develop a user-friendly, interactive visualization tool that helps to communicate the drivers and seasonality of Kootenay Lake water levels, and the effects of regulation on water levels to the public and stakeholders.

The International Red River Watershed Board completed a project in 2022 to assess if there is sufficient connectivity in the watershed to allow for the movement of key fish species and the completion of their life cycles.

A two-part IWI project created a St. Croix River watershed stress index and enhanced water quality monitoring plan. Building on existing water quality sampling activities, the plan recommends new activities to better track nutrient levels in the watershed that can drive the potential for harmful algal blooms.

"The IWI has proven to be an effective tool for bringing governments, stakeholders and local communities together to address current and emerging issues in transboundary watersheds," said Canadian Co-Chair of the IJC Pierre Baril. "By leveraging support from a range of agencies and local organizations, IJC Boards have been able to build shared scientific understanding of local watershed issues, and develop tools that can help provide solutions to issues of water quality, quantity and ecosystem health."

"Cross-border collaboration to solve issues in shared lakes and rivers is essential to ensuring that these water bodies are protected for the benefit of all people and species that depend on them now and in the future," added US IJC Commissioner, Lance Yohe. "The IWI has over 25 years of experience in bringing experts to the table to find solutions to existing and emerging issues in transboundary watersheds."

Quick Facts

The IJC is a binational and impartial advisor to the governments of Canada and the United States.





The IJC was created by the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty between Canada and the United States to assist governments in the prevention and resolution of disputes regarding the use of boundary waters.





The IJC relies on the expertise of more than 15 binational boards and committees to carry out its mandate.





IWI principles of local expertise, adaptive management, and international cooperation have laid the foundation for more collaborative and effective solutions to transboundary water issues now and in the future.





The IJC's "watershed approach" accounts for the interrelationships among land, air, water, and all living things, including humans, and involves all interested groups in comprehensive management.

Links

The International Watersheds Initiative main page

The IWI Sixth Report to Governments

IWI Video

Contacts



Edward Virden

Cara Prest U.S. Section

Canadian Section [email protected]

[email protected]

SOURCE International Joint Commission
CHICAGO, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Victims of intimate partner violence with suicidal behavior have characteristic injury patterns on medical imaging, according to a new study being presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). The findings open the door to improved screening and earlier intervention to better protect these vulnerable populations, the researchers said.

Intimate partner violence is the physical, emotional or sexual abuse of a person by their partner or spouse. It is an increasingly recognized risk factor for suicidal behavior, and victims of intimate partner violence with suicidal behavior often end up at the hospital years before those without.

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) in Boston studied this relationship in 1,451 women who had reported intimate partner violence to the hospital from 2013 to 2018.

"Patients reporting intimate partner violence are at significantly increased risk of suicidal behavior," said study co-author Emily Y. Yang, B.S., a 4th-year medical student at Harvard Medical School in Boston and a research trainee at the Trauma Imaging Research and Innovation Center (TIRIC) at BWH. "As suicide remains a leading cause of death worldwide, our evidence of distinct and overlapping injury patterns with intimate partner violence is an important step towards improving detection and providing timely intervention."

Using medical classification codes relevant to suicidal behavior, which were defined as suicide attempt, self-harm and/or suicidal ideation, four study groups were formed: intimate partner violence with suicidal behavior, intimate partner violence without suicidal behavior, suicidal behavior without intimate partner violence, and patients who presented without intimate partner violence or suicidal behavior. The researchers also collected information on the timing and location of when the patient presented, such as day versus night and whether they came to the emergency room (ER) versus non-ER.

Suicidal behavior occurred at a higher frequency among patients reporting intimate partner violence (16.7%) versus patients without a history of intimate partner violence (2.5%). In the study, the majority of patients presented with suicidal behavior after reporting intimate partner violence. Patients with suicidal behavior and history of intimate partner violence were more likely than other patients to present to the hospital during the night versus day and in the ER, versus non-ER settings.

Review of reports by two experienced emergency radiologists revealed that both intimate partner violence and suicidal behavior played independent roles in doubling the overall injury rate compared to that of patients without a history of intimate partner violence or suicidal behavior. Patients with intimate partner violence often sustained head, face, neck and upper limb injuriesareas commonly hurt during assaults.

Intimate partner violence patients with suicidal behavior suffered over six times as many head/face/neck injuries, almost four times as many spinal fractures, three times as many deep injuries, and twice as many upper extremity injuries. These patients experienced almost twice as many severe injuries and three times as many mild injuries.

When looking at independent effects of intimate partner violence versus suicidal behavior, the researchers found that suicidal behavior had a greater impact on the injury rate of upper extremity injuries, while intimate partner violence had a greater impact on head/face/neck injuries.

Increased awareness of the interaction between intimate partner violence, suicidal behavior and radiologic injury patterns can better protect these vulnerable populations, according to Yang.

"Patients with a history of intimate partner violence tend to hide their circumstances out of fear, stigma, and/or distrust in the medical system," she said. "Radiologists are possibly the only providers in a patient's healthcare experience who can identify subtle injuries and patterns that may otherwise go unnoticed, giving voice to an often-voiceless population."

Radiologists have a unique opportunity to uncover the hidden concerns behind injuries, according to MGH/BWH radiologist Bharti Khurana, M.D., M.B.A., associate professor at Harvard Medical School, founding director of TIRIC and principal investigator and senior author of the study.

"By recognizing recurring imaging patterns in patients experiencing intimate partner violence, especially those exhibiting suicidal behavior, we can initiate critical interventions earlier and potentially save lives," Dr. Khurana said.

Other co-authors are Alexander Kwon, Krishna Patel, Tatiana C Rocha, M.D., Maria A. Duran-Mendicuti, M.D., and Bernard Rosner, Ph.D.

The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Engineering and the Office of the Director at the National Institutes of Health provided funding support for the research.

Note: Copies of RSNA 2025 news releases and electronic images will be available online at RSNA.org/press25.

RSNA is an association of radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists promoting excellence in patient care and health care delivery through education, research and technologic innovation. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Illinois. (RSNA.org)

For patient-friendly information on emergency imaging, visit RadiologyInfo.org.

SOURCE Radiological Society of North America (RSNA)
TORONTO, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Katalyze AI today announced the appointment of Hannes Bretschneider as Chief AI Officer. Hannes will lead the development of Agentic AI architecture and expand the company's capabilities across autonomous agents designed for life science manufacturing.

Hannes brings more than a decade of experience in machine learning, genomics, and at-scale computational systems. His background in RNA biology, alternative splicing, microexon detection, and protein interactions directly supports Katalyze AI's strategy to build agents that can analyze complex scientific data, learn from it, and enable real-time decision making in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

As a co-founder of Deep Genomics, one of the AI pioneers in biotechnology, he led the development of the core scientific computing platform, GenomeKit, for genomic analysis and developed deep learning models for splicing prediction and clinical variant interpretation.

At the University of Toronto, Hannes developed a machine learning tool to detect microexons in genetic sequences and led an industry collaboration that applied machine learning to the discovery of splicing modulators. At Fable Therapeutics, he focused on AI models for antibody design, structure prediction, and protein interactions.

Hannes holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Toronto, where he developed some of the very first genomic language models to advance fundamental research in RNA biology, splicing prediction and variant effect classification. His research has been published in Science, Bioinformatics and ISMB.

Reza Farahani, CEO of Katalyze AI, emphasized how Hannes' leadership strengthens the company's scientific and technical foundation: "Hannes brings scientific depth, technical rigor, and a track record of building AI systems that operate in regulated environments. His experience in genomics, deep learning, and biological modeling directly strengthens our position as the company delivering Agentic AI solutions for pharmaceutical manufacturing."

"The industry is shifting from static analytics to agent-driven systems that understand complex biological processes and act on them reliably," said Hannes Bretschneider. "Katalyze AI is building the foundational agents that will run the future of pharmaceutical production: scientifically grounded, operationally robust, and ready for real world deployment inside regulated environments."

Hannes' appointment represents a significant expansion of Katalyze AI's scientific leadership. With his expertise guiding the next phase of development, the company is positioned to accelerate the creation of autonomous agents that enhance manufacturing efficiency, support quality operations, and enable pharmaceutical teams to operate with greater speed, accuracy, and resilience. Katalyze AI plans a phased rollout of new agentic features across core products, combining rigorous validation pathways with user-friendly oversight tools to ensure human-in-the-loop control and regulatory alignment.

About Katalyze AI

Katalyze AI builds Agentic AI systems for pharmaceutical manufacturing to integrate document intelligence, raw material analysis and autonomous workflows to improve yield, quality, and operational reliability. The company delivers AI agents that operate securely inside regulated environments. It integrates seamlessly with existing data infrastructure and supports end-to-end intelligence across laboratory, manufacturing, and quality operations. To learn more, visit katalyzeai.com .

Read the full article:

https://katalyzeai.com/newsroom/katalyze-ai-appoints-chief-ai-officer-to-advance-agentic-ai-capabilities-in-pharmaceutical-manufacturing

SOURCE Katalyze AI
By integrating advanced data analytics and AI tools into its advisory process, Keyser empowers company leaders to choose office locations that maximize retention, productivity, and long-term growth.

PHOENIX, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Keyser Commercial Real Estate is harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to deepen its human-centered approach to tenant representation. Through AI-driven mapping, demographic modeling, and commute analysis , Keyser now offers clients unprecedented clarity on how potential office locations align with where employees live, how they work, and what keeps them engaged.

Keyser remains a service-first advisory firm that leverages technology to better serve people. By integrating AI into its strategic process, the firm continues its mission of selfless service  helping clients make data-backed real estate decisions that prioritize their people and purpose.

Using AI to Serve People, Not Replace Them

Keyser's advisors use AI to model commuting patterns, neighborhood demographics, and proximity to key amenities, identifying which office locations best align with employee distribution and lifestyle preferences. The result: smarter, faster, and more human decisions about space, designed to boost retention, satisfaction, and performance.

"Our mission has always been to serve clients selflessly  not by chasing transactions, but by helping them create environments where their people flourish," said Jonathan Keyser , Founder and Managing Partner . "By leveraging AI, we're bringing humanity and data together, ensuring every real estate decision supports the well-being and success of employees."

Why It Matters Now

In today's job market, employees are holding on to high-salaried roles more tightly than in previous cycles. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, job openings have declined by nearly 20% from their 2022 peak, while voluntary quits have fallen to their lowest level in three years. In this environment, retention matters  and so does location.

At the same time, workers are showing a renewed willingness to commute longer distances if it means staying with a strong employer. That makes choosing the right office location even more critical. Companies must ensure their workplace remains accessible, desirable, and connected to the amenities that reinforce satisfaction and loyalty.

Adding to this shift, the KPMG CEO Outlook found that 83% of global CEOs expect employees to be fully back in the office within three years . As organizations move toward more in-person collaboration, the geography of the office once again becomes a competitive advantage  not an afterthought.

Human-Centered Insights, Data-Enabled Precision

Purpose-Driven Strategy: Keyser integrates AI into its advisory process to quantify how real estate decisions impact the people who occupy the space.

Human-Centered Design: Every analysis begins with employees  their lifestyles, commutes, and preferences  to inform smarter, people-aligned site selection.

Efficiency and Precision: Clients can evaluate multiple location scenarios with clarity and confidence, reducing guesswork and risk.

Future-Ready Thinking: A.I. doesn't replace relationships; it enhances them  empowering leaders to make strategic, empathetic decisions about their workplace.

Media Contact: Olivia Barajas, Partner, Marketing Director, [email protected]

About Keyser Commercial Real Estate

At Keyser , we are redefining what it means to be a world-class commercial real estate firm. Globally recognized and award-winning, Keyser stands at the forefront of innovation, delivering best-in-class, white-glove service to clients across industries and continents.

With a presence that spans markets around the world, our team of elite advisors brings unmatched expertise, powered by proprietary AI-driven insights and strategic intelligence that deliver measurable results. Whether navigating complex lease negotiations, portfolio optimization, or global site selection, we serve as an extension of your teamfiercely protecting your interests and relentlessly pursuing your success.

At the heart of everything we do is a commitment to service that transcends the transactional. We don't just represent spacewe empower business growth, accelerate performance, and transform futures.

SOURCE Keyser Commercial Real Estate
News / Education

by Stephen Jakes

HARARE  The Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Torerayi Moyo, has condemned the blocking of nine learners from sitting for their Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (ZIMSEC) examinations in Harare, after school authorities deemed their hairstyles inappropriate.

In a strongly worded statement, Moyo described the incident as a violation of the learners constitutional right to education and a direct breach of the Ministrys policy on inclusive and nondiscriminatory access to examinations.Let me be unequivocally clear: public exams are sacrosanct and no amount of pupil indiscipline, unless lifethreatening, should bar anyone from accessing their constitutional right to education, Moyo said.He confirmed that the school head and director responsible for the unlawful exclusion had been arrested and were assisting law enforcement with investigations.Moyo commended the swift action taken by authorities and outlined immediate steps to prevent similar incidents in future. These include: Issuing a directive to all schools reiterating the inviolability of examination access for registered candidates Engaging school heads and administrators to reinforce professional conduct and adherence to Ministry guidelines Providing support to affected learners and their families, including exploring avenues for them to sit missed examinationsWe urge all education stakeholders to prioritise the welfare and rights of learners above all else. Education is a fundamental right, and it is our collective duty to safeguard it, Moyo added.
Kimi Raikkonen x Nokian Tyres  Two legends of the north. One perfect match

Nokian Tyres plc Press Release December 2, 2025, at 1:55 p.m. EET

NOKIA, Finland, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Nokian Tyres is the global expert in extreme driving conditions  born and tested in the North. And if anyone understands what it means to master snow, ice, tough conditions and pressure, it's the Iceman himself.

Nokian Tyres and Kimi Raikkonen have joined forces to elevate the Finnish brand's global presence and amplify its international recognition.

"Some collaborations just make sense, and this is one of them. Kimi Raikkonen and Nokian Tyres share the same DNA: Finnish roots, uncompromising performance, and the ability to thrive under pressure. Both are built for extremes - whether it's conquering the racetrack or navigating roads in changing conditions and harsh weather," says Tiina Frazer, Nokian Tyres VP for Brand, Marketing and Communications.

"Perfect match, great to start working with Nokian Tyres, a brand I remember from the days when my parents drove me to karting tracks, before I even had a driver's license. In my opinion Nokian Tyres is an iconic Finnish brand, I'm excited to start spreading the good news about the great tires to the world," says Kimi Raikkonen.

About Kimi Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen, known worldwide as "The Iceman," is a Finnish former Formula 1 driver and 2007 World Champion with Ferrari. Career spanning over two decades, he competed in 349 Grands Prix, securing 21 wins and 103 podiums. Renowned for his calm, straight-forward style and exceptional racing skill, Raikkonen remains one of the most iconic figures in motorsport history.

Further information:

Tiina Frazer, VP, Brand, Marketing and Communications, Nokian Tyres

[email protected]

[email protected]

Sami Visa, Affairs manager to Kimi Raikkonen

[email protected]

Nokian Tyres' purpose is to make the world safer by reinventing tires, and how they are made, over and over again - a safer place to drive, work and live now and for generations to come. Inspired by our northern heritage, we develop and manufacture premium tires for passenger cars, trucks and heavy machinery with sustainability at the heart of all our operations. Our Vianor chain provides tire and car services. We are some 3,800 people with net sales of EUR 1.3 billion in 2024, and together we lead the journey to smarter driving for people and for businesses. Nokian Tyres is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. Further information: company.nokiantyres.com, www.nokiantyres.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/nokian-tyres/r/kimi-raikkonen-joins-nokian-tyres--team-as-brand-ambassador,c4275786

The following files are available for download:
New 55,000-Square-Foot Retail Center on Memorial Parkway Offers Immediate Leasing Opportunities in One of Alabama's Fastest-Growing Markets

BRENTWOOD, Tenn., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Legacy Commercial Property, a Highland Ventures Company and national leader in convenience-focused retail real estate, today announces its expansion into the Huntsville, Alabama market with the acquisition of the Hunnington Center. The newly acquired retail plaza provides more than 55,000 square feet of highly-visible retail space in one of Alabama's fastest growing communities.

"Huntsville continues to emerge as a national hub for technology, aerospace, and innovation," said Ben Hoogland, Vice President at Legacy Commercial Property. "The Hunnington Center is ideally positioned to serve this expanding market, and we're excited to make this premier property available to both local businesses and national retail partners."

Located on a signalized intersection at 11220 Memorial Parkway SW, the plaza benefits from more than 29,000 vehicles per day and sits amongst some of the nation's most recognizable retail brands, including Lowes, Home Depot, Sam's Club and Publix. Featuring 10 flexibly sized units and 36,000 square feet of space available for immediate lease, the property offers turnkey solutions for growth-oriented operators.

With a focus on existing and new tenants, Legacy Commercial Property plans to renovate and upgrade the exterior with a new facade, new roof, new signage, and a new parking lot. With retail vacancy rates at historic lows in Huntsville and a 15% population growth since 2020, far outpacing the national average, this property presents a compelling entry point for new and expanding tenants.

"At Legacy, we deliver a comprehensive, turnkey experience for our partners," said Brent Conley, Senior Director of Acquisitions and Development. "As a fourth-generation family-owned business, we understand better than anyone how to find value, especially in the sunbelt. We can also serve up and deliver these properties with a level of flexibility and responsiveness that most organizations struggle to match. Hunnington Center is a prime example of our commitment to long-term value and exceptional tenant support."

Legacy Commercial Property owns and manages more than 700 properties across 22 states and has earned national recognition for its vertically integrated approach to acquisition, development, construction, leasing, and property management. The company's streamlined model creates efficiency and consistency across every stage of the property lifecycle.

Businesses interested in available space at the Hunnington Center, or other premier commercial opportunities, are encouraged to contact Legacy's Nashville-based leasing team for more information.

Boilerplate

Legacy Commercial Property, a Highland Ventures Company, is a family-owned real estate investment and development firm specializing in high-quality retail and mixed-use properties. With a proven track record spanning more than four decades, Legacy owns and manages a diverse portfolio of more than 700 properties across 22 states. A market leader in convenience retail, Legacy delivers long-term value for tenants, brand partners, and communities. The company's vertically integrated team oversees every stage of the property lifecycle, from acquisition and development to construction, leasing, and management, ensuring exceptional quality and operational ease.

For Leasing Inquiries: Mike Kohne e: [email protected] t: 920-450-9013

For Media Inquiries: Rich Palumbo e: [email protected] t: 847-904-9025

SOURCE Legacy Commercial Property
VALPARAISO, Ind., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Lori K Bath, Northwest Indiana's leading bathroom remodeling company, has been recognized as a 2025 Nextdoor Neighborhood Fave, an annual award honoring the local businesses neighbors love and trust most.

As a Neighborhood Fave winner, Lori K Bath will receive expanded visibility on the Nextdoor app, a Neighborhood Fave badge on their Nextdoor Business Page, and an official "2025 Neighborhood Faves Winner" sticker to display in their showroom.

2025 Nextdoor Neighborhood Fave Lori K Bath

"Local businesses are the cornerstone of our communities, and the Neighborhood Faves awards are our way of celebrating the establishments that neighbors love most," said Nirav Tolia, CEO of Nextdoor. "We are proud to recognize this year's winners for their outstanding contributions. Being a Neighborhood Fave is a powerful testament to the meaningful impact they have on their communities every day."

Winners are selected based on the volume of neighbor "Faves" and recommendations submitted throughout the year, making this recognition a direct reflection of community appreciation and support.

Lori K Bath Shares Their Appreciation

"Our entire team is incredibly grateful for this recognition," said Dan O'Callaghan, co-founder of Lori K Bath. "Northwest Indiana homeowners put their trust in us to transform their bathrooms, and we take that responsibility to heart. Earning this award from our community reinforces our mission to provide premium craftsmanship, luxury products, and an unmatched customer experience."

The complete list of 2025 winning businesses can be found at nextdoor.com/favorites.

To learn more about Lori K Bath, visit https://lorikbath.com. To view their Nextdoor Business Page, visit https://nextdoor.com/pages/lori-k-bath-valparaiso-in/.

Join the neighborhood network by downloading the Nextdoor app in your preferred app store or visiting nextdoor.com.

About Lori K Bath

Lori K Bath is a home remodeling company based in Valparaiso, Indiana, offering award-winning bathroom transformations, custom designs, and service rooted in family values. Since its founding in 2018, the company has served Northwest Indiana with honesty, innovation, and a passion for its craft. Lori K Bath proudly operates without subcontractors and backs every installation with lifetime warranties.

Media Contact

Lori K Bath, LLC

1061 Transport Drive

Valparaiso, IN 46383

Phone: (219) 203-1777

Website: www.LoriKBath.com

SOURCE Lori K Bath
Eight oral presentations and six posters demonstrate advances in mammography, DBT performance, and density-informed risk modeling

SEOUL, South Korea, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Lunit, a leading provider of AI for cancer diagnostics and precision oncology, today announced it will present 14 studies at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 2025 Annual Meeting. Spanning screening mammography, digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT), breast density science, and risk modeling, this year's program represents one of the company's most extensive evidence portfolios to date. Lunit will exhibit at South Hall, Booth #4100, and host expert-led sessions in the Lunit Education Room #1252 throughout the meeting.

Among the highlighted research, real-world results from Capio S:t Goran Hospital in Sweden evaluated more than 193,000 screening examinations before and after the introduction of Lunit INSIGHT MMG. When AI was paired with a single radiologist, the screening program achieved higher invasive cancer detection, greater positive predictive value, and fewer unnecessary recalls compared to human-only double readingreinforcing findings from the ScreenTrustCAD interventional trial and demonstrating that AI-integrated single reading can maintain or improve accuracy while alleviating workforce pressure.

New evidence from Massachusetts General Hospital assessed AI performance on screening DBT using 1,000 retrospective examinations, showing that Lunit INSIGHT DBT correctly localized 84.4% of true-positive cancers, with particularly strong performance for mass-presenting and invasive ductal carcinoma cases. The study also detailed cancer subtypes less likely to be identified by AI, offering practical insight into the algorithm's strengths and limitations as DBT adoption accelerates worldwide.

Further expanding the evidence base, two oral presentations from Elizabeth Wende Breast Care explored how volumetric breast density, as quantified by AI-powered algorithms, and family history influence risk stratification across leading models, and how density changes over time affect prediction consistency. In a cohort of 44,651 women, Tyrer-Cuzick classified substantially more women as high-risk than BOADICEA, driven by heavier weighting of density and family history inputs. A complementary longitudinal analysis of 335,000+ images demonstrated that incorporating volumetric breast density over time improved calibration and discrimination, while static or categorical density inputs consistently underestimated cancer incidence. Together, these findings strengthen the role of density-informed and longitudinal risk modeling in supporting risk-adapted screening strategies.

Lunit will also host a series of expert-led sessions in its Education Room #1252, offering deeper clinical and scientific perspectives on key themes presented at RSNA. Highlights include:

"RSNA is where the field looks to understand whether AI is delivering measurable clinical value, and this year's program reflects that momentum," said Brandon Suh, CEO of Lunit. "Across mammography, DBT, and density-driven risk modeling, our studies highlight how rigorously validated AI can enhance screening performance, support radiologists, and strengthen the foundation for risk-adapted care. We remain committed to generating evidence that drives responsible and meaningful adoption in clinical practice."

###

About Lunit

Founded in 2013, Lunit (KRX: 328130) is a global leader on a mission to conquer cancer through AI. Our clinically validated solutions span medical imaging, breast health, and biomarker analysisempowering earlier detection, smarter treatment decisions, and more precise outcomes across the cancer care continuum.

Lunit offers a comprehensive suite spanning risk prediction and early detection to precision oncology. Our FDA-cleared Lunit INSIGHT suite and breast health solutions support cancer screening in thousands of medical institutions worldwide, while the Lunit SCOPE platform is used in research partnership with global pharma and laboratory leaders for biomarker research, and companion diagnostic development.

Trusted by over 10,000 sites in more than 65 countries, Lunit combines deep medical expertise with continuously evolving datasets to deliver measurable impactfor patients, clinicians, and researchers alike. Headquartered in Seoul with global offices, Lunit is driving the worldwide fight against cancer. Learn more at lunit.io/en .

Appendix - Lunit RSNA 2025 Full Study List

Oral Presentations (8)

Poster Presentations (6)

SOURCE Lunit
TSX/NYSE/PSE: MFC SEHK:945

C$ unless otherwise stated

TORONTO, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ - Manulife Financial Corporation (NYSE: MFC) (the "Company") today announced that it has priced a public offering in the United States of U.S.$1,000,000,000 aggregate principal amount of 4.986% senior notes due 2035 (the "Notes") at a public offering price of 100%. The offering was made pursuant to a preliminary prospectus supplement, dated December 2, 2025, to the Company's registration statement declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on September 29, 2025.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the sale of the Notes for general corporate purposes, which may include future refinancing requirements.

BofA Securities, Inc., Citigroup Global Markets Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering.

This release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. A prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus related to the offering have been filed with the SEC and are available on its website at www.sec.gov. Copies of the prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus, when available, may be obtained by contacting BofA Securities, Inc., 201 North Tryon Street, NC1-022-02-25, Charlotte, NC 28255-0001; Attention: Prospectus Department; Email: [email protected]; Telephone: 1-800-294-1322; Citigroup Global Markets Inc., c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717; Email: [email protected]; Telephone: 1-800-831-9146; J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, Attention: Prospectus Department, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717; Email: [email protected]; Telephone: 1-212-834-4533; or Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10014, Attention: Prospectus Department; Email: [email protected]; Telephone: 1-866-718-1649.

The securities will not be offered or sold, directly or indirectly, in Canada or to any resident of Canada.

About Manulife Financial Corporation

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services provider, helping our customers make their decisions easier and lives better. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we operate as Manulife across Canada, Asia, and Europe, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States, providing financial advice and insurance for individuals, groups and businesses. Through Manulife Wealth & Asset Management, we offer global investment, financial advice, and retirement plan services to individuals, institutions, and retirement plan members worldwide. At the end of 2024, we had more than 37,000 employees, over 109,000 agents, and thousands of distribution partners, serving over 36 million customers. We trade as 'MFC' on the Toronto, New York, and the Philippine stock exchanges, and under '945' in Hong Kong.

Media Relations:

Fiona McLean

Manulife

437-441-7491

[email protected]

Investor Relations:

Derek Theobalds

Manulife

416-254-1774

[email protected]

SOURCE Manulife Financial Corporation
IRVINE, Calif., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) today reported total November sales of 32,909 vehicles; a decrease of 1.5 percent compared to November 2024. Year-to-date sales totaled 377,736 vehicles sold; a decrease of 1.7 percent compared to the same time last year. With 25 selling days in November, compared to 26 the year prior, the company posted an increase of 2.4 percent on a Daily Selling Rate (DSR) basis.

CPO sales totaled 6,522 vehicles in November, an increase of 1 percent compared to November 2024. Year-to-date sales totaled 69,223; an increase of .4 percent compared to the same time last year.

November 2025 sales highlights include:

Second best November since 1990 with 32,909 vehicles sold.

Best-ever November sales of CX-50 with 11,583 vehicles sold.

Mazda Canada, Inc., (MCI) reported November sales of 5,982 vehicles, an increase of 5 percent compared to last year. Year-to-date sales totaled 76,814 vehicles sold; an increase of 13.5 percent compared to the same time last year.

Mazda Motor de Mexico (MMdM) reported November sales of 13,810 vehicles; an increase of 1 percent compared to last year. Year-to-date sales totaled 98,161 vehicles sold; an increase of 8 percent compared to the same time last year.

About Mazda North American Operations

Proudly founded in Hiroshima, Japan, Mazda has a history of sophisticated craftsmanship and innovation, and a purpose to enrich life-in-motion for those it serves. By putting humans at the center of everything it does, Mazda aspires to create uplifting experiences with our vehicles and for people. Mazda North American Operations is headquartered in Irvine, California, and oversees the sales, marketing, parts and customer service support of Mazda vehicles in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Colombia through approximately 795 dealers. Operations in Canada are managed by Mazda Canada Inc. in Richmond Hill, Ontario; operations in Mexico are managed by Mazda Motor de Mexico in Mexico City; and operations in Colombia are managed by Mazda de Colombia in Bogota, Colombia. For more information on Mazda vehicles, including photography and B-roll, please visit the online Mazda media center at news.mazdausa.com.

Follow @MazdaUSA on social media: Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, and Threads.

























Month-To-Date

Year-To-Date

























November November YOY % % MTD

November November YOY % % MTD



2025 2024 Change DSR

2025 2024 Change DSR























Mazda3 2,255 3,272 (31.1) % (28.3) %

26,532 34,830 (23.8) % (23.3) %

Mazda 3 Sdn 996 2,333 (57.3) % (55.6) %

18074 20,739 (12.9) % (12.2) %

Mazda 3 HB 1,259 939 34.1 % 39.4 %

8458 14,091 (40.0) % (39.5) %























Mazda6 0 0 - -

0 0 - -























MX-5 Miata 443 798 (44.5) % (42.3) %

8,245 7,489 10.1 % 10.9 %

MX-5 259 440 (41.1) % (38.8) %

4389 3,629 20.9 % 21.8 %

MXR 184 358 (48.6) % (46.5) %

3856 3,860 (0.1) % 0.6 %























CX-3 - 0 - -

- 0 - -

CX-30 3,398 6,844 (50.4) % (48.4) %

53935 87,640 (38.5) % (38.0) %

CX-5 10,163 8,733 16.4 % 21.0 %

124934 122,954 1.6 % 2.3 %

CX-9 0 0 0.0 % 0.0 %

0 4 0.0 % 0.0 %

CX-50 TTL 11,583 7,072 63.8 % 70.3 %

99,562 73,358 35.7 % 36.7 %

MX-30 0 0 - -

0 0 0.0 % 0.0 %

CX-70 TTL 497 1,820 (72.7) % (71.6) %

13096 9225 42.0 % -

CX-90 TTL 4,570 4,883 (6.4) % (2.7) %

51432 48681 5.7 % 6.4 %

CARS 2,698 4,070 (33.7) % (31.1) %

34,777 42,319 (17.8) % (17.2) %

TRUCKS 30,211 29,352 2.9 % 7.0 %

342,959 341,862 0.3 % 1.0 %























TOTAL 32,909 33,422 (1.5) % 2.4 %

377,736 384,181 (1.7) % (1.0) %













































*Selling Days 25 26





281 283





























SOURCE Mazda North American Operations
- Simultaneously Receives APJ "Consulting Partner of the Year" and "Public Sector Consulting Partner of the Year"

SEOUL, South Korea, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- MegazoneCloud, a leading cloud managed service provider, has received two "Partner of the Year" awards from Amazon Web Services (AWS).

MegazoneCloud was named Consulting Partner of the Year in the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region at the AWS Partner Awards ceremony held on the first day of AWS re:Invent 2025, taking place in Las Vegas, U.S., from December 1 to 5. The company was selected from among AWS consulting partners in the APJ region. In addition, MegazoneCloud was honored with the APJ Public Sector Consulting Partner of the Year award.

On December 1 (local time), at the AWS Partner Awards ceremony held during AWS re:Invent, (from left)Chris Casey, AWS Partnerships  Asia Pacific & Japan, Doug Yeum, CEO of MegazoneCloud, Jaime Valles, Amazon Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific and Japan at AWS, Chris Hwang, CRO of MegazoneCloud, and Ruba Borno, AWS Global Specialists and Partners pose for a commemorative photo.

The AWS Partner Awards recognize partners that have supported customers' AWS innovation over the past year through expertise, innovation, and collaboration. The Consulting Partner of the Year award recognizes partners that have delivered outstanding results in areas such as revenue contribution, creation of new business opportunities, development of AWS-certified professionals, and attainment of AWS designations. The Public Sector Consulting Partner of the Year award is presented to partners that provide cloud-based solutions and expertise in public sectors such as government, education, and nonprofit organizations. Award recipients were selected by market research firm Canalys, which conducted evaluations centered on customer success cases. Notably, MegazoneCloud's APJ Consulting Partner of the Year recognition marks its second consecutive win following 2024, further validating the company's AWS-based digital transformation and innovation capabilities.

MegazoneCloud earned top marks across key evaluation areas, including:

revenue contribution,

creation of new business opportunities,

outstanding technical implementations leveraging AWS services, and

development of AWS-certified professionalsleading to its win in both categories.

In particular, MegazoneCloud demonstrated strong public-sector expertise by delivering projects that support digital innovation in Korea's emergency medical services, including the establishment of a nationwide emergency medical institution data-sharing platform led by major hospitals in Korea.

The Japan subsidiary has continuously uncovered and expanded generative AI use cases for public-sector education customers, while supporting public institutions, universities, and research organizations in their AWS-based digital transformationincluding participation in a government-led LLM initiative in the medical field and the design, build, and operation of large-scale GPU clusters. Meanwhile the Vietnam subsidiary has been highly praised for promoting AI- and cloud-based infrastructure transformation and developing specialized training programs in collaboration with Hanoi University of Science and Technology, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Vietnam National Startup Support Center (NSSC) and National Institute for Digital Transformation (NIDIT) under the Ministry of Science and Technology.

MegazoneCloud has been successfully supporting customers' transitions to cloud- and AI-native environments by leveraging a wide range of AWS services. Notably, through its proprietary cloud migration optimization solution HyperMig, the company provides end-to-end supportfrom data collection on infrastructure and systems to diagnosis and analysis, strategy development, and full migration execution.

"We are honored to receive these awards, which recognize MegazoneCloud's contributions to AWS-based digital transformation and cloud business growth not only for enterprise customers but also across the public sector on a global scale," said Doug Yeum, CEO of MegazoneCloud. "We will continue to strengthen our technical capabilities to help customers achieve the best outcomes on AWS, with a particular focus on supporting innovation in AI, data, and security."

About Megazone Cloud

MegazoneCloud is a leading AI and cloud-native digital transformation company with more than 2,000 technology experts supporting over 8,000 global customers. The company partners strategically with major global and domestic cloud service providers (CSPs) and collaborates with over 150 independent software vendors (ISVs). MegazoneCloud delivers innovation through its suite of proprietary cloud, AI, and security platformsincluding AIR Studio, Space CloudOps, Hyper Billing, and HALO Security.

Guided by its vision "Transform Tomorrow, Together," MegazoneCloud is dedicated to helping customers build future-ready competitiveness powered by technology, data, and people. Headquartered in Seoul, MegazoneCloud operates in nine countries, including the United States, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Oceania, continuing to grow alongside its global partners and clients.

SOURCE MegazoneCloud
Public Policy Coalition Advocating for High-Quality Music Education for All Students Introduces 32 New Members

HERNDON, Va., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Since its last expansion in 2023, the National Association for Music Education's (NAfME) Music Education Policy Roundtable has added 32 new coalition members. Formed in 2012 in collaboration with the American String Teachers Association, the Roundtable is a public policy coalition dedicated to advocating for high-quality music education for all students. With these additions, the Roundtable has grown to include more than 115 music organizations, trade associations, and businesses committed to advancing federal legislation that supports and expands high-quality music programs in schools nationwide.

The NAfME Music Education Policy Roundtable is a public policy coalition dedicated to advocating for high-quality music education for all students.

"In advocacy work, every single voice makes a difference," said NAfME President Cecil Adderley. "The efforts of our Roundtable are as vital now as ever, and it's inspiring to see more organizations join us in this mission. Each member strengthens our collective work, and we welcome the fresh ideas our new members bring. Every collaboration offers an opportunity to learn from one another, spark inspiration among peers, and grow together as champions for music education."

New Roundtable members include:

Acceptd  Acceptd is an application and audition management platform on a mission to help people in the arts community flourish by connecting artists with the opportunities and communities that matter most to them.

The American Orff-Schulwerk Association  The American Orff-Schulwerk Association is a professional organization of educators dedicated to the creative music and movement approach developed by Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman. Active music making is the core of this philosophy, supporting both the conceptual and affective development of children.

The Boston Music Project  The Boston Music Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to ensuring the long-term social-emotional and musical success of Boston youth through engaging instruction, performance opportunities, and high levels of musical proficiency.

Carnegie Hall  Carnegie Hall's mission is to present extraordinary music and musicians, expand access to the transformative power of music, provide visionary education programs through its Weill Music Institute, and foster the future of music through new works, artists, and audiences.

Chamber Music America  Chamber Music America, the national network of ensemble music professionals, provides its members with consulting services, access to instrument and other insurances, conferences, and publications to develop, strengthen, and support the chamber music community.

Cold Narly Generation  Cold Narly Generation's Music Academy bridges creativity and career by offering workforce development in music technology, production, and songwriting, integrating social-emotional learning and financial literacy to prepare the next generation of artists, producers, and innovators to thrive both in and beyond the studio.

CommonTime Pathways  CommonTime Pathways is a recruiting platform that connects student musicians with college programs and scholarships, providing musicians with the kind of networking and recruiting opportunities long available to student athletes.

The Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra  Founded in 1946, the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra is on a mission to inspire, educate, and connect its communities through live orchestral music.

The Juilliard School  Founded in 1905, The Juilliard School is a world leader in performing arts education. Juilliard's mission is to cultivate excellence through the highest caliber of education in music, dance, and drama for gifted students from around the world so they may achieve their fullest potential, expanding the reach and elevating the impact of the arts.

Kennedy Violins  Kennedy Violins provides high-quality string instruments and support for students and teachers, partnering with schools and educators nationwide to make music education, tools, and guidance accessible to players at all levels.

KRUTZ Strings  KRUTZ Strings believes strong music education programs are essential to developing well-rounded students and vibrant communities, and is committed to making quality string instruments accessible to educators and students at every level, offering instruments, educational resources, and hands-on support through initiatives like KRUTZ2Schools.

Let Music Fill My World  Let Music Fill My World is a privately funded nonprofit launched by the Tullman Family Office and GRAMMY-nominated artist John Ondrasik to ensure every student in America has access to music education in their schools.

Missouri Alliance for Arts Education  The Missouri Alliance for Arts Education is a non-profit that supports, promotes, and advocates for high-quality fine arts education across all Missouri schools so every student can discover and develop their fullest potential.

MOOZ  MOOZ is an online music lessons platform on a mission to permanently transform online education by making online music learning as effective and inspiring as in-person lessons.

Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation  The Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation is a non-profit that keeps music alive in schools by providing instruments and support services to underfunded programs and school districts nationwide, giving under-represented youth access to the benefits of music education.

Music & Arts  Music & Arts is one of the nation's largest band and orchestra retailers and lesson providers, serving educators, students, and families through instrument sales, rentals, lessons, repairs, and in-school services.

Music Education Consultants, Inc.  Music Education Consultants, Inc. is a consortium of music education professionals that partners with school districts, arts associations, and organizations to foster the growth and breadth of articulated, music education programs for all children.

MusicFirst  MusicFirst, built by music educators, curates content, software, hardware, and support to help teachers integrate technology into the classroom and help students achieve their musical potential.

Music Shop 360  Music Shop 360 provides cloud-based retail solutions that support independent school music dealers throughout the country with facilitating instrument rental, retail, and repair operations.

Music Supporters  Music Supporters is an all-in-one, donations-focused platform designed to help school music programs bring in meaningful support from families, friends, and local businesses without adding work for directors or boosters. Through automated tools, the platform makes it simple to donate to or sponsor programs funding travel, performances, competitions, uniforms, and essential supplies.

The Music Teacher Guild  The Music Teacher Guild is a global, educator-led organization that provides mentorship, educational support, and resources to help music educators enhance their skills and guide student success. The Guild's three pillars of Inclusion, Innovation, and Individualization are exemplified in their mentorship programs, online workshops, and avant-garde courses, as well as their online community of more than 45K members.

Music Workshop  Music Workshop is a nonprofit organization that creates high-quality, culturally responsive music programming for teachers to use in their classrooms and professional development to further their own learning.

Musiq Tech  Musiq Tech is a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to music technology and industry education through community-based programs, mentorship, and school partnerships that connect creativity with technology to prepare the next generation for success in today's evolving music landscape.

The Rock 'n' Read Project  The Rock 'n' Read Project helps families, educators, and organizations use singing and basic music skills to support early reading development by providing training and resources created by experienced music educators.

Sammy Miller and the Congregation  Sammy Miller and the Congregation is a band on a mission to put generosity back into jazz and bring art back to the people, and it launched the PLAYBOOK music education platform to give teachers tools that inspire lifelong musicians.

Shedthemusic  Shedthemusic provides K12 educators with turnkey curricula and free resources for modern music creation, bringing real-world DAW projects, guitar, and pop theory into classrooms through their Electronic Music Elements and Production Through Performance, Fretboard Fundamentals, and Rewire Theory programs.

Sing Me a Story  Sing Me a Story gives children in need the chance to create stories that musicians turn into songs, sharing their voices with the world while raising awareness and financial support for nonprofits and providing joyful, healing experiences for families.

The Springfield Symphony Orchestra  Since 1944, the Springfield Symphony Orchestra and its Youth Orchestras have enriched the cultural life of Western Massachusetts through classical and popular concerts and youth education programs.

Theta Music  Theta Music creates fun games for ear training and music theory, organizing them into courses for beginning band, orchestra, and general music students to reinforce essential musical skills.

The University of Tampa  The University of Tampa's Department of Music offers a comprehensive undergraduate program that blends innovation, conservatory rigor, and liberal arts inquiry, guided by a diverse faculty committed to nurturing each student's musical and intellectual growth.

WorldStrides  WorldStrides is a global leader in educational travel and experiential learning, offering programs in performing arts, language immersion, career exploration, service-learning, study abroad, and more to over 550,000 students each year.

Young Audiences Arts for Learning  For over 70 years, Young Audiences Arts for Learning has engaged young people in innovative arts learning experiences that foster creativity, self-expression, and cultural understanding, upholding its core value that all young people deserve access to a well-rounded, arts-rich education.

NAfME is pleased to welcome these new members to the Roundtable and looks forward to continued collaboration in advocating for high-quality music education for all students.

A key example of this work is the Roundtable's Fiscal Year 2026 Legislative Agenda, released in June, which emphasizes the need for increased federal support to ensure all students have access to comprehensive arts education. The agenda urges Congress to retain and increase funding for major federal programs that support music and arts education and calls for restoring arts education data collection and passing key legislation such as the Arts Education for All Act (H.R. 2485) and the HBCU Arts Education Act (H.R. 2664) to expand arts access.

To learn more about the Music Education Policy Roundtable, visit bit.ly/NAfMEMEPR.

The National Association for Music Education (NAfME) is a collaborative community that supports music educators and advocates for equitable access to music education. The only association that addresses all aspects of music education, NAfME, together with its affiliated state music education associations, advocates at the national, state, and local levels and provides resources and opportunities for teachers, students, parents, and administrators. Founded in 1907 and representing more than 57,000 members teaching millions of students, NAfME advances the music education profession and promotes lifelong experiences in music.

Follow NAfME on Facebook (facebook.com/nafme) and Instagram (instagram.com/nafme). For additional information, contact Catherina Hurlburt at [email protected] or 703-860-4000.

SOURCE National Association for Music Education
HANGZHOU, China, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Against the backdrop of the accelerated upgrading of the global functional nutrition industry, technology-driven ingredient enterprises are increasingly emerging as the core force of the industrial chain. In November 2025, the FTA (Food Research Exchange Super Ingredients Conference) was successfully held in Hangzhou, gathering renowned enterprises from the fields of functional foods, nutritional ingredients, and innovative technologies to jointly showcase the latest industry trends. Among them, Natural Field, a company with years of experience in plant active substances and liposome delivery technology, collectively released a series of scientifically significant achievements with industry strategic value. It also won important awards at the conference for its multiple co-loading liposome products, establishing itself as one of the most watched upstream innovative enterprises at this year's event.

Natural Field received multiple international awards for its NF Co-loading liposomal CoQ10 and Curcumin, highlighting its breakthroughs in stability, absorption, and application innovation.

During the conference, Natural Field conducted in-depth exchanges with industry experts, research institutions, and brand enterprises around hot topics such as "adaptogen", "standardization of plant active substances," and "liposome delivery systems." The company not only announced the white paper and multiple technical data achievements but also demonstrated the latest progress in product R&D, platform technology construction, and industrial application implementation, reflecting its forward-looking layout and comprehensive strength in driving technological innovation in the functional nutrition sector.

At the main forum of the conference, Mr. Yang Haiying, founder of Natural Field, officially released the "Ashwagandha White Paper on". As the first domestic enterprise to publish a comprehensive document on ashwagandha, Natural Field systematically sorted out the structural characteristics, mechanism of action, market trends, and product application logic of ashwagandha's active ingredients in the white paper. Speaking at the launch, Mr. Yang stated that the adaptogen concept has entered a stage of rapid development in the global market, but there are still discrepancies in the industry's understanding of its mechanisms, standardization, and raw material authenticity. Therefore, systematic research and data collation are crucial to ensuring the healthy development of the market. The release of the white paper attracted great attention from research institutions, brand owners, and R&D engineers, with many participants praising it as "the most systematic professional document on ashwagandha from a scientific research perspective in China."

In addition to the research achievements in the adaptogen field, Natural Field's progress in liposome technology became a key technical highlight of the conference. At the liposome technology sub-forum, Dr. Duan, leader of the innovative preparation research on co-loaded liposomes at Natural Field, delivered a professional speech, detailing the company's latest research results in liposome and co-loaded liposome technologies. His speech focused on three major challenges commonly faced by functional nutrition products in oral applications: insufficient stability, low absorption efficiency limiting efficacy, and difficulty in achieving synergistic delivery of multiple ingredients. By presenting experimental data on co-loaded liposomes for Coenzyme Q10, curcumin, and other ingredients, Dr. Duan demonstrated that through structural encapsulation design, intermolecular synergistic configuration, and liposome morphology optimization, the metabolic pathway of ingredients in the human body can be significantly improved, bioavailability enhanced, and functional performance strengthened in certain inflammatory models.

Notably, Natural Field also disclosed data on the performance of some co-loading liposomes in myocarditis and intestinal inflammation models during the presentation. These data highlighted the advantages of co-loading technology in synergistic stability, consistent efficacy, and in vivo distribution of multiple ingredients, triggering intense discussions among on-site technical personnel. After the forum, leaders from multiple participating brand enterprises communicated with Natural Field, expressing intentions to cooperate in product development, technical verification, and ingredient combination design.

Leveraging its solid scientific research strength and technical achievements, Natural Field's raw material products won awards at this year's Very Food Innovation Conference. Its NF Co-loading Liposomal Coenzyme Q10 (raw material) received the "Cardiovascular Health Award" in recognition of its technical breakthroughs in stability, absorption efficiency, and process maturity. Meanwhile, NF Co-loading Liposomal Coenzyme Q10 (finished capsule product) won the "Potential New Product Award" for its excellent application implementation capabilities. Additionally, the company's previously developed NF Co-loading Liposomal Curcumin had already been awarded the Gold Award for Innovation in Natural Ingredients at the 2025 CPHI, further solidifying its technical position in co-loaded liposome technology in the international market.

Beyond showcasing core scientific research achievements, Natural Field also systematically presented its "one-stop liposome service platform" to the industry during the conference. Based on years of experience in functional ingredient research, the company has established a full-process platform system covering raw material screening, liposome encapsulation design, co-loading technology development, stability test verification, efficacy model research, and finished product application support. This platform not only provides domestic brand enterprises with systematic technical support from raw materials to finished products but also attracted technical cooperation intentions from brands in Europe, America, Japan, and other regions. Industry experts commented that a company truly capable of integrating plant active substance research with delivery system construction will become a crucial ecological player in the future competition of the functional nutrition industry.

Natural Field stated that it will continue to conduct in-depth research on key technical issues in the functional nutrition industry and plans to release new data on multiple ingredient synergistic delivery, liposome structure optimization, and application stability research in the coming year. In the future, the company will continue to participate in major domestic and international industry exhibitions, maintain technical exchanges with global research teams and nutrition brands, and jointly promote the industry towards a more scientific, efficient, and safe direction.

As innovative technology plays an increasingly important role in the functional nutrition industry, Natural Field's concentrated release at the Very Food Innovation Conference marks the industry's transition from "raw material competition" to "technology competition." Through continuous scientific research investment and technical integration capabilities, Natural Field is becoming a key driving force in advancing the industry into the era of efficient delivery.

SOURCE Natural Field
A new study by Customer Care Measurement & Consulting (CCMC) and Arizona State University's W. P. Carey School of Business reveals record levels of customer anger, rising online confrontations, and billions in revenue at risk from poor complaint handling.

TEMPE, Ariz., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The latest release of the National Customer Rage Survey found that 77 % of U.S. consumers reported experiencing a product or service problem in the past 12 months  a rate that has more than doubled since 1976. As a result, businesses are at risk of more than $596 billion in future revenue losses due to ineffective complaint handling and escalating customer dissatisfaction.

The National Customer Rage Survey of 1,000 Americans is the 11th release of the study, dating back to 2003. In addition to tracking complaint-handling and customer satisfaction trends over the past two decades, the 2025 report expands its scope by examining the rise of customer uncivility, crisis-driven incidents, and economic class conflicts  factors now fueling hostility in everyday business interactions.

Customer rage continues to examine the experience of complaining about a product or service problem. In contrast, customer uncivility examines the growing trend of rude, discourteous, and sometimes threatening behavior driven by disagreements over corporate values and sociopolitical issues, including politics, religion, and diversity concerns. The 2025 survey found that 15% of Americans admitted to acting uncivilly toward a business in the past year, and 55% believe customer incivility is increasing, with many attributing it to the moral decay of society and declining respect in daily interactions.

Top customer rage highlights of the study:

Seventy-seven percent of customers reported experiencing a product or service problem in the past year  a rate that has more than doubled since 1976.

Product and service problems continue to be disappointing, costly, and distressing. Fifty-nine percent of customers reported that their problem wasted time (an average of one full day), 45% cited a financial loss (an average of $1,008), and 32% experienced emotional stress as a direct result of their experience.

The level of customer rage remains high, with 64% of customers who experienced a problem feeling rage about it, and 50% raising their voice to express displeasure, a record high.

Customers are becoming increasingly aggressive and vocal. Although revenge-seeking has dipped slightly since 2023, it has more than tripled since 2020, with 7% of customers admitting to seeking revenge for their hassles.

Complaining has gone digital. Digital channels, such as email, chat, and social media, have firmly overtaken the telephone as the primary way customers voice complaints (45% versus 33% by phone). At the same time, one in four complainants posted about their most serious problem on social media, yet 43% said the company never responded.

Top customer uncivility highlights of the study:

Fifteen percent of Americans admitted to personally behaving uncivilly toward a business in the past year  a slight decline from 17% in 2023.

More than half (55%) of Americans believe customer incivility is on the rise, with 28% citing the moral decay of society as the primary cause  more than double any other explanation.

The boundaries of acceptable protest against companies' values are blurring. While many Americans still view overt hostility as crossing the line, attitudes about what counts as "civil" or "uncivil" behavior are sharply divided. Nearly one in five believe that making verbal or physical threats, mocking employees, or using profanity can be civil or situationally acceptable when disagreeing with a company's stance on issues like politics, religion, or diversity policies.

This independent study of 1,000 U.S. respondents, conducted online by Customer Care Measurement & Consulting (CCMC) in collaboration with the Center for Services Leadership at Arizona State University's W. P. Carey School of Business, builds on research first conducted by customer experience firm TARP for the White House in 1976. CCMC and the Center for Services Leadership have partnered on the National Customer Rage Survey since 2003, providing the nation's longest-running and most consistent measure of customer dissatisfaction and complaint behavior.

"Even after more than two decades of researching customer rage, I remain astonished that  when sorting out ordinary product and service problems  simple kindness and empathy are still in short supply," said Scott M. Broetzmann, president and CEO of Customer Care Measurement & Consulting (CCMC). "The frequency and visibility of customers and companies misbehaving have become disturbingly routine  and, at times, genuinely unsettling.

"Perhaps even more concerning today is how customer hostility continues to evolve," Broetzmann continued. "We're witnessing new forms of conflict that go beyond dissatisfaction  clashes over values, identity, and trust that are reshaping how people interact with businesses in everyday life."

Why it matters:

In an era of rising expectations, instant digital feedback, and declining civility, customers are losing patience  and businesses are losing billions. With 77% of consumers experiencing product or service problems and 64% feeling rage, companies that fail to act with empathy and transparency risk more than negative reviews  they risk long-term erosion of trust and loyalty.

What companies should do:

Lead with humanity. Acknowledge the customer's frustration with a sincere apology and timely resolution  gestures that cost little but carry lasting impact.

Acknowledge the customer's frustration with a sincere apology and timely resolution  gestures that cost little but carry lasting impact. Treat digital complaints as real complaints. Monitor and respond to messages across chat, email, and social media with the same urgency as calls to a service center.

Monitor and respond to messages across chat, email, and social media with the same urgency as calls to a service center. Close the social media gap. Nearly half of all social posts about serious problems receive no corporate response  a missed opportunity to turn public criticism into goodwill.

Nearly half of all social posts about serious problems receive no corporate response  a missed opportunity to turn public criticism into goodwill. Address deeper tensions. Recognize that anger and incivility often reflect broader value clashes  not just product failures  and train teams to de-escalate with understanding and respect.

"Defusing customer rage still isn't rocket science," said Thomas Hollmann, executive director of the Center for Services Leadership at ASU's W. P. Carey School of Business. "Even as technology and social media transform how people voice their frustrations, the human need to feel heard and respected hasn't changed. A genuine apology, a clear explanation, and a little empathy go a long way. When companies treat customers with dignity  even online  they can turn moments of conflict into lasting loyalty."

The full report is available at customercaremc.com, and The Wall Street Journal recently featured the findings in "American customers are madder than ever."

About the W. P. Carey School of Business

The W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University is the largest and one of the top-ranked public business schools in the United States. The school is internationally regarded for its programs and the research productivity of its distinguished faculty members. Students come from more than 120 countries, and W. P. Carey is represented by over 130,000 alumni worldwide.

About the Center for Services Leadership

The Center for Services Leadership (CSL) is a groundbreaking research center within the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University that concentrates on expanding service innovation by combining the latest scientific insights from the academic world with the best of service strategy in the business world. The CSL was created in 1985 as a response to the unique set of challenges that companies faced. While others were focusing on products and manufacturing enterprises, the CSL pioneered the study of service. Today, the Center is a globally recognized authority and thought leader in the science of competing strategically through the profitable use of service. Our purpose is to make a positive difference in how the world is served. To learn more, visit wpcarey.asu.edu.csl.

About Customer Care Measurement & Consulting

CCMC's customer satisfaction and loyalty surveys and analytics are used by leading Fortune 500 companies from every industry to get a better ROI for their investments in the customer experience. Learn more about CCMC by visiting customercaremc.com.

For more information/media contacts:

Shay Moser, W. P. Carey School of Business, [email protected], 480-965-3963

Scott M. Broetzmann, CCMC, [email protected], 703-304-7947

SOURCE W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University
News / Local

by Stephen Jakes

BULAWAYO - ZANU PF Senator Molly Mpofu has urged residents of Nkulumane to rally behind the partys candidate, Freedom Murechu, in the upcoming byelection scheduled for 20 December.

Mpofu made the call during an antidrug campaign tournament held at Nketa 6 Grounds over the weekend, an event that combined community engagement with political mobilisation.Hundreds of youths, ZANU PF affiliates and local residents attended the AntiDrug and Substance Abuse Tournament, hosted by Shadow MPs 4ED. The gathering provided a platform to introduce Murechu, the partys candidate for the Nkulumane Constituency.A team of Shadow MPs 4ED, led by Tendai Charuka (Unstoppable), converged from across the country to show solidarity. Also present were ZANU PF Politburo Member and guest of honour Senator Mpofu, Central Committee members led by Cde Nowedza, provincial leadership, DCC members and party affiliates.In her keynote address, Mpofu described Murechu as our son and urged the community to unite behind him.We must send him to Parliament to deliver results. He is one of us, and we must stand with him, she said.Murechu, who was born and raised in Nkulumane and completed his schooling in the constituency, pledged to lead with humility and purpose.Nkulumane deserves better. Together, we will push for real transformation under NDS2, he said, aligning his vision with Vision 2030 and building on NDS1 progress.The event also featured a lecture on drug and substance abuse delivered by Gadzani from Nurse Aides for ED, who urged youths to avoid destructive habits and focus on productivity.Tournament winners walked away with cash prizes, jerseys and balls, underscoring the blend of sport, politics and community development.The event highlighted ZANU PFs commitment to youth empowerment, drug prevention and progress under Vision 2030.
Leadership transition highlights continued focus on integrated care for underserved pediatric populations

HOUSTON, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Nexus Health Systems has announced the appointment of Jason James, MD, as Chief Medical Officer. In this role, Dr. James will lead clinical strategy and operations across Nexus' network of hospitals and residential treatment centers, advancing the organization's mission to transform lives through comprehensive, integrated treatment for pediatric patients with specialty care needs.

Dr. James joins recently appointed Chief Executive Officer Erin Cassidy in guiding Nexus into its next era of innovation and impact.

Jason James, MD, has been named Chief Medical Officer of Nexus Health Systems.

"Dr. James has been instrumental in strengthening our pediatric behavioral programs and expanding access to whole-person care," said Cassidy. "His leadership reflects Nexus' longstanding values  clinical rigor, compassionate care, and dedication to advancing the field through collaboration and innovation."

Over the past three years, Dr. James has led an interdisciplinary team of clinicians providing evidence-based treatment for children and adolescents with complex psychiatric, behavioral, and medical needs. Under his direction, Nexus' pediatric programs  including New Directions and True North  have evolved into nationally recognized models of integrated, values-based care. Both programs combine psychiatric expertise, medical oversight, skilled therapy, and accredited education in trauma-informed settings that promote safety, stability, and measurable progress.

Dr. James emphasized that the growing prevalence of neurodevelopmental conditions, such as autism, and complex psychiatric disorders has created a critical need for specialized inpatient programs.

"Across the country, families are struggling to find appropriate, integrated care for children with complex psychiatric and behavioral challenges  especially those with overlapping medical or developmental needs," said Dr. James. "Programs like New Directions and True North were built to fill that gap. They provide structure, safety, and comprehensive treatment for patients who require more than outpatient care can offer."

The philosophy behind these programs reflects Dr. James's career-long commitment to interdisciplinary practice.

"As CMO, my focus is on fostering clinical excellence and cross-specialty coordination," said Dr. James. "True collaboration across disciplines is something many healthcare organizations strive for. At Nexus, it's embedded in our history, culture and processes."

Before joining Nexus, Dr. James spent more than a decade at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, where he directed Child and Adolescent Consultation Psychiatry and helped establish one of the region's leading programs for medically complex youth. His experience spans emergency departments, pediatric hospitals, inpatient and residential treatment centers, the juvenile justice system, and multiple levels of outpatient care. He has also held academic appointments at both UTHealth McGovern Medical School and Baylor College of Medicine.

Dr. James earned his medical degree from Ross University School of Medicine, completed a general psychiatry residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and pursued a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at the University of Texas at Houston Medical School, where he also served as Chief Resident.

Looking ahead, Dr. James says the future of Nexus lies in expanding its reach while deepening its impact.

"As the need for integrated care continues to grow, our goal is to reach more patients who can benefit from Nexus' approach," said Dr. James. "We'll continue expanding access to specialized treatment and demonstrating, through every program we build, that no child is too complex for care."

ABOUT NEXUS HEALTH SYSTEMS

Since 1992, Nexus Health Systems has provided specialty care for patients with medical, behavioral, and psychiatric needs. With a network of facilities across Texas, Nexus offers innovative programming designed to stabilize and empower children, teens, and adults facing some of the most challenging diagnoses, including autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders, Prader-Willi Syndrome, neurological injuries and illnesses, and other medically complex conditions. Our interdisciplinary teams work collaboratively to deliver fully integrated, whole-person care. By comprehensively addressing the full spectrum of patient needs, we reduce hospital readmissions and drive better long-term outcomes. At Nexus, we are committed to helping individuals return to lives of productivity and meaning  because we're mending minds. Learn more at nexushealthsystems.com.

Media Contact: Madison Andrews

Senior Copywriter

Design At Work

832.726.5522

[email protected]

SOURCE Nexus Health Systems
New 2024-25 impact report highlights continent-wide effort to feed families, support first responders, and uplift local charities.

BRIDGEWATER, N.J., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- From the Pacific coast to the Caribbean, students across OneSchool Global (OSG) North America have turned compassion into measurable impact this year. As described in a newly released North America Impact Report 2025, OSG students and staff provided tens of thousands of dollars and thousands of essential items to those in need in communities across the continent.

At the heart of OSG's Outreach Program are the school's core values: Integrity, Respect, Responsibility, Care & Compassion, and Commitment. These values took tangible form throughout the year as students organized fundraisers, built partnerships with first responders, and extended kindness to the elderly, the unhoused, and families facing hardship.

OSG's core values took tangible form this year: Integrity, Respect, Responsibility, Care & Compassion, and Commitment. Post this

Among this year's highlights:

Rochester, NY : Students coordinated $2,700 worth of groceries for the Webster Community Chest Food Bank, helping keep its shelves stocked through the winter.

: Students coordinated $2,700 worth of groceries for the Webster Community Chest Food Bank, helping keep its shelves stocked through the winter. Los Angeles, CA : Students served hot meals to firefighters battling the Pacific Palisades wildfires.

: Students served hot meals to firefighters battling the Pacific Palisades wildfires. Kalispell, MT : A student-led walk-a-thon raised $8,750 for Logan Health Children's Hospital, alongside handmade kindness cards for local seniors.

: A student-led walk-a-thon raised $8,750 for Logan Health Children's Hospital, alongside handmade kindness cards for local seniors. Hamilton, ON : The campus contributed holiday donations to Dundas Community Services, ensuring hundreds of families had food and gifts.

: The campus contributed holiday donations to Dundas Community Services, ensuring hundreds of families had food and gifts. Trinidad & Tobago: Students collected supplies and donated $300 to Maracas RC Church for families in need.

Across North America, OSG campuses forged partnerships with local police, hospitals, food banks, and charitable organizations including HAVEN, TruLight127 Ministries, the Salvation Army, and Interlake Food Bank. From lemonade sales to schoolwide donation drives, the collective impact paints a picture of compassion in action  one meaningful connection at a time.

"To have a school group come in or a community partner come in with donations means everything to us," said Jennifer Porter, Director of Development of Marketing at HAVEN, a local Detroit organization providing critical services to individuals and families in crisis. "It means that we can continue to offer services It means that those in shelter and not in shelter are going to get the things that they need."

"Every outreach, no matter how small, reinforces our belief that education isn't confined to the classroom  it's lived through service," said Jonathan Borys, OneSchool Global Regional Director of Education. "We want our students to be life-ready by the time they leave our halls. Encouraging self-started charity projects like these helps ensure that they graduate into communities that they've learned from, invested in, and are ready to lead."

About OneSchool Global: OneSchool Global is an educational system associated with the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church with 120 campuses across 20 countries, including 36 across the US, Canada and the Caribbean, where it provides an innovative learning and teaching program to over 1,000 students. For more information about OSG, go to www.oneschoolglobal.com.

SOURCE OneSchool Global
Recognizing a woman whose faith, compassion, and courage have redefined what it means to lead with love.

PEEKSKILL, N.Y., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Angels on Call Homecare proudly announces that Pamela Fitzpatrick, Founder and President, has been named a 2025 ATHENA Leadership Award Honoree, one of the Hudson Valley's most prestigious honors recognizing women who exemplify professional excellence, community service, and the active mentorship of others.

Pamela Fitzpatrick, Founder and President of Angels on Call Homecare, Honored with the 2025 ATHENA Leadership Award

An immigrant nurse who built her life and legacy on faith, grit, and grace, Pamela Fitzpatrick founded Angels on Call Homecare in 2005 with a singular mission: to restore dignity, purpose, and humanity to caregiving. What began as one nurse's calling has become one of New York's most trusted and award-winning homecare agencies, nationally recognized for its clinical excellence, compassion, and innovation in dementia and Parkinson's care.

Pamela's vision has never been about numbers or titlesit's about people. Her son Eric Dalton, Vice President and now Visionary at Angels on Call, recalls the moment that defined both her philosophy and his vision for the future of their organization:

"She looked up and said, 'There's still a human in every person, no matter the diagnosis.' That one sentence shaped everything we do today. My mother taught me that care is sacred, and that love must always come before labels. That moment became the seed of our entire Memory Care Programa vision that started at our kitchen table and is now transforming lives every day."

That beliefseeing the person before the diseasebecame the soul of Angels on Call Homecare's work. Under Pamela's leadership, the agency has earned national recognition as a Provider of Choice, Employer of Choice, Leader in Experience, and Caring Super Star. It also became the first homecare agency in the United States accredited in Certified Parkinson's Disease Care (CPDC)a groundbreaking distinction that set a new benchmark for excellence in home-based neurological care.

Beyond her professional achievements, Pamela's impact is deeply personal. She founded a state-licensed, tuition-free Personal Care Aide (PCA) Training School, creating access and opportunity for hundreds of individualsmany single mothers, immigrants, and first-time professionalswho now serve as the backbone of the Hudson Valley's caregiving community.

Her empathy also inspired Angels Embrace, a free bi-monthly support group program for families and caregivers affected by dementia and Parkinson's. As a trained Support Group Leader, Pamela personally facilitates sessions that offer education, encouragement, and connection, transforming isolation into community and exhaustion into empowerment.

Each year, she walks alongside her staff and clients in the Walk to End Alzheimer's, where Angels on Call consistently ranks among the region's top fundraising teams. "We walk together," Pamela says, "because love demands presence."

Reflecting on the honor, Pamela Fitzpatrick shared:

"I'm deeply humbled by this recognition. My journey has always been guided by faithand by the belief that every life, no matter its stage or struggle, carries divine worth. Leadership is simply love in motion. It's lifting others, creating opportunity, and choosing compassion every single day."

Her eldest son, Robert Dalton, added:

"Mom never asked for the spotlight. She just kept showing upfor her patients, her staff, and her family. She built Angels on Call not out of ambition, but convictionthat care is sacred and service is eternal. Watching her work has been the greatest lesson of our lives."

Through her unwavering spirit and servant-hearted leadership, Pamela Fitzpatrick has not only changed how care is deliveredshe's changed how it's defined.

Contact:

Rob Dalton

[email protected]

(248) 794-7135

SOURCE Angels on Call Homecare
Streamline manual and automated testing on one native platform with AI-powered solutions

HACKENSACK, New Jersey , Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Panaya, the leader in AI-powered Smart Testing and Change Intelligence for ERP, CRM, and enterprise cloud applications, announces a distributor agreement with VeriServe Co., Ltd. to bring Panaya's cloud solutions to customers across Japan.

As transformation initiatives accelerate, organizations need to increase efficiency and reduce cost without compromising quality. Not every test can be automated, so improving manual testing governance remains essential. This collaboration addresses both needs on one native platform that unifies Change Impact Analysis, Smart Test Management, and Test Automation.

Under the agreement, VeriServe will deliver Panaya's capabilities across ERP and cloud business applications. Change Impact Analysis identifies impacted scope from ERP updates within 48 hours. Smart Test Management provides cloud-based, real-time control that automatically captures evidence and reduces manual execution and reporting effort by 3050% across implementations, upgrades, enhancements, and ongoing maintenance. Test Automation extends AI-assisted, no-code/low-code automation, including natural-language authoring for SAP and cloud applications to scale coverage and consistency across releases.

"We are honored to partner with VeriServe, a trusted leader in software quality assurance," said David Binny, CEO of Panaya. "Together, we look forward to helping Japanese enterprises streamline testing, elevate quality standards, and accelerate delivery with AI-powered impact analysis, smart test management, and test automation."

To ensure rapid time to value, VeriServe will provide implementation, enablement, and adoption services. These include test policy and plan formulation leveraging Panaya, test design and execution, configuration and training for Smart Test Management, and automation support for functional and scenario testing, customization, and operations & maintenance. By combining Panaya's comprehensive test solutions with VeriServe's four decades of software-quality expertise, enterprises in Japan can accelerate delivery, maximize testing efficiency, and maintain assured quality while advancing DX(Digital Transformation) and operational excellence.

For more information on Panaya solutions in Japan, visit www.panaya.com/jp.

About Panaya

Panaya, a SaaS-based company certified by SAP, Oracle, and Salesforce, offers an all-in-one platform for Smart Testing solutions and Change Intelligence tailored for ERP, CRM, and cloud business applications. Panaya accelerates and de-risks digital landscapes with AI-powered Test Automation, Test Management, and Impact Analysis. With a strong focus on ease of use, Panaya ensures seamless collaboration between business and IT, giving real-time visibility and control over projects. Since its founding in 2006, over 3,000 companies across 62 countries, including a third of the Fortune 500, have trusted Panaya to drive rapid, quality testing and change management in their enterprise business applications. For more information, contact Panaya at [email protected] or visit www.panaya.com.

About VeriServe

Established July 24, 2001. Chief Executive Officer: Yoshiyuki Shinbori. Headquarters: Jimogo-cho Kita Tokyu Building, 9F, 3-1-16 Kanda-Misakicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. Business areas include software, software testing and quality, cybersecurity, consulting, software development, and related services. https://www.veriserve.co.jp/en/

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SOURCE Panaya
DELRAY BEACH, Fla., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- According to MarketsandMarkets, the Photoelectric Sensor Market is anticipated to be valued at USD 2.33 billion in 2025 and USD 4.02 billion in 2032, exhibiting a CAGR of 8.1% during the forecast period.

Browse 250 market data Tables and 70 Figures spread through 250 Pages and in-depth TOC on 'Photoelectric Sensor Market - Global Forecast to 2032'

Photoelectric Sensor Market Size & Forecast:

Market Size Available for Years: 20202032

20202032 2025 Market Size: USD 2.33 billion

USD 2.33 billion 2032 Projected Market Size: USD 4.02 billion

USD 4.02 billion CAGR (20252030): 8.1%

Photoelectric Sensor Market Trends & Insights:

The market is growing rapidly due to the increasing adoption of automation and robotics across manufacturing, packaging, and logistics industries. These sensors enable precise, non-contact object detection, improving operational efficiency and safety.

By structural type, the slot/fork/interrupter sensor segment accounted for a 50.9% share of the photoelectric sensor market in 2024.

By sensing range, the mid range (100 MM1 M) segment held the largest share of the photoelectric sensor market in 2024.

By mounting type, the slot/fork modules segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2025 to 2032.

Asia Pacific is projected to grow at the highest CAGR in the photoelectric sensor market during the forecast period.

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The photoelectric sensor market is experiencing strong growth due to the rising adoption of automation, robotics, and smart manufacturing across industries. These sensors offer high precision, non-contact detection, and reliability, making them essential for modern production lines. Additionally, advancements in IoT integration, miniaturization, and sensing accuracy are expanding their use in applications such as packaging, automotive, and electronics, further driving the market.

Diffuse reflective segment is expected to account for the largest market share in 2025.

The diffuse reflective segment is likely to account for the largest market share in 2025, owing to its cost-effectiveness, compact design, and ease of installation compared with other sensing modes. These sensors require no separate reflector or receiver, making them ideal for space-constrained and dynamic environments. Their ability to detect objects of varying colors, textures, and materials makes them highly suitable for packaging, food & beverages, and electronics applications. Furthermore, advancements in background suppression and laser-based diffuse sensing technologies enhance accuracy and reliability, driving their increasing adoption across automated production systems.

Fiber-optic photoelectric sensor segment is projected to record the highest CAGR from 2025 to 2032.

The fiber optic photoelectric sensor segment is projected to record the highest CAGR during the forecast period, driven by its superior flexibility, precision, and ability to operate in harsh or confined environments. These sensors are ideal for detecting small objects or targets in high-temperature, high-vibration, or corrosive conditions, where conventional sensors may fail. Their compact sensing heads and remote amplifier configurations make them highly suitable for semiconductor, electronics, and pharmaceutical industries. Moreover, ongoing advancements in fiber materials, signal amplification, and digital integration enhance detection range and reliability, further accelerating their adoption across modern automated manufacturing setups.

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Europe is likely to exhibit third-highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Europe will experience a significant growth in the photoelectric sensor industry during the forecast period, driven by the strong focus on industrial automation, workplace safety, and energy-efficient manufacturing. Germany, the UK, and France are at the forefront of adopting advanced sensing technologies, supported by the presence of leading players, such as SICK AG (Germany) and Balluff GmbH (Germany). The growing implementation of Industry 4.0 and smart factory initiatives across the automotive, packaging, and food & beverages industries boosts the demand for high-precision photoelectric sensors. Moreover, stringent EU safety and environmental regulations, along with the emphasis on digital transformation and sustainable production, foster market expansion. Continuous innovation and government support for automation-driven productivity continue to solidify the region's position as a key contributor to global market growth.

Major companies operating in the photoelectric sensor companies are Schneider Electric (France), KEYENCE CORPORATION (Japan), Rockwell Automation (US), OMRON Corporation (Japan), and SICK AG (Germany).

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SAN DIEGO, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Company: Primo Brands Corporation (NYSE: PRMB) purports to be a leading North American branded beverage company focused on healthy hydration, offering responsibly sourced products across multiple formats, channels, and price points, and for a wide range of consumer occasions. Its products are distributed in every U.S. state and in Canada.

Who is part of the class? The case purportedly represents stockholders who purchased or otherwise acquired (i) the common stock of Primo Water Corporation between June 17, 2024 through November 8, 2024, and/or (ii) the common stock of Primo Brands Corporation between November 11, 2024 through November 6, 2025.

What is the case about? Robbins LLP reminds stockholders that a class action was filed on behalf of all investors who fall within the class because the Company allegedly misled investors regarding the merger between Primo Water Corporation and Blue Triton Brands.

For more information, submit a form, email attorney Aaron Dumas, Jr., or give us a call at (800) 350-6003.

The Allegations: According to the complaint, on June 17, 2024, Primo Water and Blue Triton Brands announced they had agreed to merge in a "[t]ransformative all-stock transaction" and that the combined company is expected to have "significant financial and operating leverage" and "enhanced distribution capabilities" that positioned the combined company "for sustained long-term growth." The deal closed on November 8, 2025.

The complaint alleges that during the class period, defendants spoke positively about the merger and merger integration process; however, the merger integration between the companies was tracking poorly due to, among other things, technology and service issues. Moreover, contrary to defendants' statements assuring investors that the execution was "flawless," the Company was having major supply disruptions which would negatively impact customers and thus the Company's financial results.

Plaintiff alleges that on November 6, 2025, Primo Brands revealed that it was replacing its CEO and that the Company was slashing its full year 2025 net sales and adjusted EBITDA guidance. During the corresponding conference call, the newly appointed CEO admitted that the Company "probably moved too far too fast on some of the various integration work streams" and that "[t]here's no doubt that speed impacted our ability to get through a lot of the warehouse closures and route realignment without disruption." On this news, the price of the Company's common stock declined $8.20 per share, or more than 36%, from a close of $22.66 per share on November 5, 2025, to close at $14.46 per share on November 7, 2025, wiping out $2.0 billion in market capitalization in two trading days.

What Now: You may be eligible to participate in the class action against Primo Brands Corporation. Shareholders who wish to serve as lead plaintiff for the class must file their papers with the court by January 12, 2026. The lead plaintiff is a representative party who acts on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. You do not have to participate in the case to be eligible for a recovery. If you choose to take no action, you can remain an absent class member. For more information, click here .

All representation is on a contingency fee basis. Shareholders pay no fees or expenses.

About Robbins LLP: A recognized leader in shareholder rights litigation, the attorneys and staff of Robbins LLP have been dedicated to helping shareholders recover losses, improve corporate governance structures, and hold company executives accountable for their wrongdoing since 2002.

To be notified if a class action against Primo Brands Corporation settles or to receive free alerts when corporate executives engage in wrongdoing, sign up for Stock Watch today.

Attorney Advertising. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

SOURCE Robbins LLP
Teachers and students in second-largest state by population gain greater access to RGR literacy solutions

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Really Great Reading, a leading science of reading innovator, is thrilled to announce it has received a major endorsement from the state agency that oversees education in Texas.

The Instructional Materials Review and Approval (IMRA) process from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) confirms Really Great Reading (RGR) programs meet the highest standards of quality, accessibility and alignment for teachers and students across Texas, the second-largest state in the U.S. by population. The approval places RGR on the Texas State Board of Education's list of approved instructional materials allowing districts access to additional funding to support literacy initiatives.

The Science of Reading is a proven body of research that outlines how students learn to read and what instructional methods work best. Over the course of two decades, RGR has helped students improve their reading skills through a defined scope and sequence for letter recognition, phonemic awareness, and phonics instruction. As the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results demonstrated, millions of children fall behind in reading each year, which can lead to reduced lifetime earnings, higher dropout rates, poor workforce readiness and increased economic inequality.

RGR's Science of Reading-based solutions provide systematic, rigorous instructions that ignite students' orthographic mapping and build strong foundational literacy skills. These user-friendly phonics programs focus on helping all students, including Emergent Bilinguals and students with disabilities, master the foundations of reading.

Following IMRA approval districts statewide can now access funding to implement RGR's foundation skills solution. "Texas state leaders have been very intentional with the programs they are offering to schools, and we are proud to know that our programs align with their educational goals. We look forward to building the foundation for lasting reading achievement in school districts across Texas and the country," said Amy Vanden Boogart, Vice President of Curriculum, Products, and Services at Really Great Reading.

RGR's Texas Editions are built with educators in mind, equipping them with a research-based tool that makes teaching reading easier, more effective, and impactful for students. Each program aligns with IMRA requirements, which includes full alignment with Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for phonics and English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS); meets accessibility and assessment standards; bridges practice and mastery through systematic, explicit instruction; and reflects the priorities of the Texas Reading Academies.

ABOUT REALLY GREAT READING

For nearly two decades, Really Great Reading has been transforming K12 literacy outcomes through structured materials, diagnostics, high-dosage intervention and implementation-focused professional development  all grounded in the Science of Reading and designed for real-world classroom success.

SOURCE Really Great Reading
Multi-million-dollar package requires no dilution or change in management or governance

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Dec. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- RELIANCEai, a leading provider of real estate website and technology solutions in the United States, has reached agreement on a multi-million-dollar investment package from Decathlon Capital Partners.

RELIANCEai, headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz., will use the fresh capital to support growth, enhance customer service and further strengthen development and rollout of its expanded artificial intelligence capabilities.

"For more than 20 years, top real estate professionals have trusted RELIANCEai to deliver the technology that helps them win more clients and grow their business," said Sean McRae, Chief Executive Officer of RELIANCEai. "This new investment allows us to accelerate our next generation of AI-powered tools, advancing the intelligent workflows, automation and consumer experiences that keep our clients ahead in a rapidly changing market."

The custom-designed investment package from Decathlon Capital Partners provides a flexible amortization schedule and carries no cost for undrawn capital. McRae noted that the package does not require any dilution of existing shareholders, governance changes or loss of management control.

Matt Hoffman, Vice President of Decathlon Capital Partners, said the AI-forward strategy of RELIANCEai continues to drive adoption of the company's solutions by high-performing real estate brokerages, agents, and teams. "As the real estate industry undergoes significant transformation, its top performers rely on the tools provided by RELIANCEai. Decathlon Capital Partners is proud to support the company's growth," Hoffman said.

About RELIANCEai

RELIANCEai is a privately-owned marketing and software engineering firm headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz., with operations across the United States. For more than two decades, the company has maintained a commitment to American-made quality, powering mission-critical websites, CRM systems and marketing automation for many of real estate's highest-performing brokerages, agents and teams. Today, RELIANCEai hosts and supports more than 70,000 real estate websites across the U.S. and Canada and is expanding its suite of advanced AI capabilities to help professionals thrive in an increasingly competitive digital landscape. Learn more at https://www.relianceai.com.

About Decathlon Capital Partners

Decathlon Capital Partners provides growth capital for companies seeking alternatives to traditional equity investment. Through the use of highly customized growth-debt financing solutions, Decathlon provides long-term growth capital without the dilution, loss of control and operational overhead that often comes with equity-based funding. With offices in Palo Alto and Park City, Decathlon is active across a wide range of sectors. Learn more at www.decathloncapital.com.

SOURCE RELIANCEai
The Bellevue, Washington investment opens pathways for forward deployed engineers and builders seeking career-defining work in applied AI.

CLEVELAND, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Robots & Pencils, an applied AI engineering partner known for high velocity delivery and measurable business outcomes, today announced plans to open a Seattle-area Studio for Generative & Agentic AI office in downtown Bellevue in early January 2026. The expansion fuels the next phase of growth for the company's AI-native Studio and strengthens North American delivery, as demand for AI-enabled product engineering accelerates across the United States. As an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner, the Bellevue location, with its proximity to Amazon headquarters, is a natural site to accelerate client AI solutions on Amazon Bedrock, Amazon SageMaker, Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, and more.

Robots & Pencils is expanding its presence with a new Studio for Generative & Agentic AI opening in Bellevue, Washington in early 2026. This investment enhances the companys engineering capacity and supports clients pursuing ambitious AI programs and large-scale modernization.

Candidates seeking high-impact engineering roles can learn more at robotsandpencils.com/careers.

The new Studio reflects a growing U.S. footprint supported by existing global operations in Cleveland, Calgary, Toronto, Bogata, and Lviv. The Studio organizes cross-functional product, engineering, data, and design talent into vertical industry-focused pods that support sectors such as Education, Energy, Financial Services, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Transportation, and Retail/CPG. The presence in the Seattle area adds meaningful engineering capacity and enhances support for clients pursuing ambitious AI programs and large-scale modernization work.

"The investment in Bellevue and access to deep talent in the Pacific Northwest gives our teams and our clients a powerful new chapter," said Len Pagon Jr., CEO of Robots & Pencils. "The engineering expertise in this region aligns perfectly with our Studio strategy. We see tremendous opportunities to grow our talent base, strengthen delivery, and help organizations reach AI outcomes that advance their businesses. Our teams are energized by this expansion and ready for the momentum ahead."

Jeff Kirk, Executive Vice President of Applied AI at Robots & Pencils, will lead the Bellevue studio. "The Studio in Bellevue is a pivotal investment in our client and talent strategy," said Kirk. "Engineers and builders in this region bring the experience and ambition that shape industry-defining solutions. Speed matters, and our Studio structure is designed for launching AI products to market every 30 to 45 days. The Seattle-area strengthens the engineering capacity required to deliver that velocity at scale. We look forward to building a team that thrives on complex challenges and produces work that matters."

Robots & Pencils continues to invest in environments where elite talent can perform at the highest level. The company is known for its talent density, with teams averaging fifteen years of experience and contributing patents, published research, and category-shaping products across industries. The Studio creates space for engineers, applied AI specialists, product leaders, and user experience innovators to influence major client engagements and shape a new hub from the ground up. It anchors work in AI systems, agents and agentic workflows, digital modernization, intelligent automation, and data-driven product innovation.

Interested applicants can explore open roles at robotsandpencils.com/careers. The Studio is ready for builders who want to shape the next era of AI solutions with momentum and purpose.

About Robots & Pencils

Robots & Pencils is an Applied AI Engineering Partner that helps companies increase the speed of productivity. With delivery centers in Canada, the U.S., Eastern Europe, and Latin America, and deep partnerships with AWS, Salesforce, Databricks, and others, the company offers a unique combination of UX excellence and elite engineering talent. Since 2009, Robots & Pencils has delivered forward-thinking solutions across Education, Financial Services, Health Tech, Consumer, Energy, Manufacturing, and Technology sectors, earning a reputation as a nimble, high-value alternative to traditional global systems integrators. Visit us at robotsandpencils.com.

Contact: Scott Young

[email protected]

SOURCE Robots & Pencils
SAS Decision Builder enables customers to deliver AI-powered insights and actions using enterprise data stored within Microsoft Fabric

CARY, N.C., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- SAS, a global leader in data and AI, has made SAS Decision Builder, a cloud-based decision intelligence solution, generally available on Microsoft Fabric.

What it is:

SAS Decision Builder on Microsoft Fabric, now generally available, brings SAS' leading intelligent decisioning capabilities to Fabric customers, letting them easily combine multiple AI models, rules and procedural logic into a composite AI workflow to scale and collaborate across workplaces.

SAS Decision Builder provides a flexible experience that helps users make the most out of their data and AI investments. Post this SAS Decision Builder, a cloud-based decision intelligence solution, is now generally available on Microsoft Fabric.

"SAS Decision Builder introduces a decision intelligence solution to Microsoft Fabric at a time when customers are looking to their data to help them make confident, trustworthy decisions," said Kathy Lange, AI Software Research Director at IDC. "SAS' proven expertise in this area makes them uniquely suited to deliver the technology  and answers  users seek."

What it does:

With the SAS Decision Builder workload on Microsoft Fabric, users can:

Access decision flows, design business logic in an accessible low-code editor and use advanced analytics like machine learning, forecasting optimization and more, combined with the power of large language models to manage and complete the decisioning lifecycle.

Utilize key capabilities from Microsoft Fabric, including Power BI, for reporting or other tools in concert with SAS Decision Builder, securely within Fabric.

Use enterprise data stored in Microsoft OneLake (Fabric's unified data lake) to test, refine and make decisions with SAS Decision Builder, all within the Fabric platform.

Track data flows and monitor how decisions are reached with clear visibility from built-in governance features.

Use automation to deploy decisions quickly using scalable containers for cross-industry use cases that require either batch or real-time decisioning.

"Our deep integration with Microsoft Fabric helps customers bring their AI models into production to make real-time decisions that have an actual impact on their business and bottom line," said Shadi Shahin, Vice President of Product Strategy at SAS. "From financial services to manufacturing and beyond, SAS Decision Builder on Microsoft Fabric provides a flexible experience that helps users make the most out of their data and AI investments."

"SAS Decision Builder will give our Microsoft Fabric customers a powerful, seamless way to connect with their lakehouse data to build, test, govern and drive smarter, faster business decisions," said Tamas Bosznay, Principal Consultant at Katalyze Data. "As a solution-focused company, we're proud to partner with leaders like SAS to deliver dependable, long-term value to our shared customers."

Why it matters:

As customers work to get AI models into production, SAS Decision Builder helps solve this critical last-mile problem by streamlining the analytics lifecycle and enabling business analysts and domain experts to design, integrate and deploy models and decisions.

"Microsoft Fabric was designed as an open, extensible platform so partners can bring differentiated capabilities to data customers already managed in OneLake. With SAS Decision Builder now generally available on Microsoft Fabric, organizations can orchestrate models, rules and LLMpowered logic in a lowcode experiencethen operationalize trustworthy, governed decisions across their Fabric workspaces in real time or batch, accelerating the 'last mile' from analytics to action," said Dipti Borkar, Vice President & GM, Microsoft OneLake and Fabric Ecosystem.

Explore SAS Decision Builder on Microsoft Fabric and start making better, faster decisions today.

About SAS

SAS is a global leader in data and AI. With SAS software and industry-specific solutions, organizations transform data into trusted decisions. SAS gives you THE POWER TO KNOW.

SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries.  indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright  2024 SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

Editorial Contact:

Georgie Blackerby

[email protected]

919-531-1674

www.sas.com/news

SOURCE SAS
News / National

by Staff reporter

Residents of Masvingo City were left astonished on Wednesday midday when a lightning strike hit the top corner of a building along Simon Muzenda Street, dislodging bricks and striking a City Council wheel clamp below.Witnesses said a traffic marshal had just clamped a car parked in front of the building when the bolt struck, sending two bricks tumbling. One of the bricks hit the wheel clamp directly, leaving onlookers both amazed and bemused.The incident has sparked lively discussions among locals, with some joking about the car owner's "good luck" and others speculating on whether the event was purely natural or somehow providential. "Some thought it would hit a tree or something else, but never a clamp," one resident remarked.This is not the first time Masvingo has been the scene of unusual lightning-related incidents. A few years ago, a magistrate famously fled a courtroom mid-hearing to seek shelter from a strike, leaving city residents bewildered. However, the dramatic targeting of a wheel clamp has captured the city's imagination, leaving many residents jokingly clamouring for the car owner's contact details "for future reference."No injuries were reported, and the clamp was damaged but removed safely. The event has reinforced the city's reputation for unexpected and memorable lightning encounters.
Simple Score Measures Business Discoverability to ChatGPT, Google AI, and Perplexity

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- SimpleScanAI today launched the world's first AI visibility measurement platform, introducing the Simple Score  a proprietary 0-100 metric that functions as the "FICO Score" for business discoverability in AI-powered search.

SimpleScanAI homepage (PRNewsfoto/SimpleScanAI)

As 40% of consumers now use ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity instead of traditional search engines for recommendations, most businesses are becoming invisible. When customers ask AI for "the best lawyer near me" or "top restaurant in Dallas," AI recommends businesses with strong cross-platform digital authority  or defaults to competitors.

"Just like FICO monitors creditworthiness, SimpleScan monitors AI-worthiness," said Moses Gora, Founder & CEO. "Most business owners have no idea they're invisible to the 40% of customers now using AI for recommendations."

THE SIMPLE SCORE

The Simple Score uses a proprietary algorithm to evaluate businesses across multiple factors including website optimization, schema markup, cross-platform presence, and digital authority. The methodology remains confidential to protect the integrity of the scoring system, similar to how FICO protects its credit scoring formula.

Beta testing reveals most businesses score 40-60 (Barely Visible), while top performers score 85+ (Industry Leaders). This gap directly translates to lost revenue  low-scoring businesses are systematically excluded from AI recommendations.

BEYOND MEASUREMENT

SimpleScan provides competitive intelligence, revenue impact projections, week-by-week implementation roadmaps, and ready-to-implement schema solutions ($199-$399). Most recommendations boost scores 20-30 points in weeks.

MARKET OPPORTUNITY

With 33.2 million US small businesses needing AI optimization and $15+ billion spent annually on traditional SEO tools that don't measure AI visibility, SimpleScan is positioning itself to capture the emerging Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) market.

PRICING & AVAILABILITY

Available immediately at SimpleScanAI.com:

Free Scan  Instant Simple Score

Detailed Analysis  $49 one-time

Monthly Subscriptions  Launching within 30 days

Schema Solutions  $199-399

VISION

"In five years, 'What's your Simple Score?' will be as common as 'What's your credit score?'" Moses Gora, predicted. "We're building the measurement standard every business will need as AI reshapes customer discovery."

SimpleScanAI is pursuing trademark protection for Simple Score, positioning it as the industry standard for AI visibility measurement.

ABOUT SIMPLESCANAI

SimpleScanAI provides the Simple Score  a proprietary 0-100 metric for business discoverability in AI-powered search. Founded in 2025 and pioneering the Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) category, SimpleScanAI is establishing the industry standard for AI-readiness measurement.

Learn more about SimpleScanAI through this video: https://simplescanai.com/about.

MEDIA CONTACT

Moses Gora

Founder & CEO, SimpleScanAI

[email protected]

925-791-3518

SimpleScanAI.com

SOURCE SimpleScanAI
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- SPX FLOW is proud to announce its Waukesha Cherry-Burrell (WCB) brand has landed on the Inc. Best in Business list in the Best Social Good category, rising above a highly competitive field through its innovative approach to sustainable manufacturing. The recognition celebrates the Delavan, Wisconsin site's circular economy model, a fully closed-loop system that is reshaping how food and beverage pumps are made and how resources are conserved. The Best Social Good category celebrates projects or initiatives that have made a measurable, positive impact on society, whether by addressing social challenges, advancing equity, improving well-being or fostering sustainable change in communities.

"Each Best in Business honoree achieved a breakthrough moment this year. Some unveiled groundbreaking innovations while others launched savvy marketing campaigns or strategically implemented AI in their companies," says Bonny Ghosh, Editorial Director at Inc. "No matter what their business win looked like, their projects and initiatives had a sizable impact on their company and even on their industry at large, making them worthy of this honor."

At the heart of the brand's award-winning initiative is SPX FLOW's innovative use of Alloy-88 rotors, cast in-house using FDA-compliant materials and recycled continuously throughout the production lifecycle. The Delavan program recovers and remelts metal shavings, recycles more than 99 tons of molding sand each month and operates a rotor buy-back program that keeps thousands of pounds of material in circulation rather than in landfills.

"Our Delavan circular economy model proves that sustainability and performance can advance together," said Chris Sinutko, Vice President of WCB Product Management and Engineering Director at SPX FLOW. "This recognition from Inc. is not just an award; it's a powerful validation of what responsible manufacturing can look like in our industry."

The win comes on the heels of the company's recently launched partnership with Footprint Intelligence, which evaluates the environmental performance of SPX FLOW products through every phase from material sourcing to when equipment leaves their facilities.

Recap SPX FLOW's full sustainability journey here: https://www.spxflow.com/about/earth-day-every-day

About Inc.

Inc. is the leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future. Through its journalism, Inc. aims to inform, educate, and elevate the profile of its community: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters who are creating the future of business. Inc. is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow leading business publication Fast Company. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

About SPX FLOW, Inc.

Based in Charlotte, N.C., SPX FLOW, Inc. improves the world through innovative and sustainable solutions. The company's product offering is concentrated in process technologies that perform mixing, blending, fluid handling, separation, thermal heat transfer and other activities that are integral to processes performed across a wide variety of nutrition, health, and industrial markets. SPX FLOW has operations in more than 25 countries and sales in more than 140 countries. To learn more about SPX FLOW, please visit www.spxflow.com.

Media Contact:

Melissa Buscher, Chief Communications and Marketing Officer

[email protected]

SOURCE SPX FLOW, INC.
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Re:Vision, a nonprofit initiative dedicated to revitalizing communities through locally driven, resilient solutions, in partnership with metahaiku, successfully hosted its first annual FRIENDSGIVINGan evening of art, reflection, and collaboration that marked a significant and energizing new phase for Re:Vision's work.

Host Stacey Frost shares a moment of gratitude with Amy Mazius and Davy Greenberg of MetaHaiku

Held on Thursday, November 20, 2025, at So-Too in Los Angeles, Friendsgiving brought together community leaders, artists, designers, architects, entrepreneurs, and innovators for a powerful celebration of the region's creative heritage and harvest season. The event fostered meaningful dialogue and opened new pathways for community renewal and creative partnership.

Centered on the theme of "harvest," the gathering explored abundance as well as the balance and strain that growth demandsfrom the health of soil and the resilience of farmers to the strength of communities themselves. Through interactive installations, shared food, and participatory works, guests engaged collectively, sparking vibrant conversations and creative exchange across LA's design and art community.

The evening featured:

A culinary experience by Chef Catalina Flores (formerly Head Pastry Chef at Sqirl)

(formerly Head Pastry Chef at Sqirl) Living sculptures and floral installations by Zilah Drahn

by Zilah Drahn Sculpture by Jasmine Archie

by Jasmine Archie Installation art by Sarah Hein

by Sarah Hein Poetry by Clarke Andros

"Re:Vision is about empowering communities to uncover their own strengths," said Stacey Frost, founder of Re:Vision and host of the event. "Friendsgiving was a chance to celebrate creativity and connection, while also planting the seeds of ideas that can grow into lasting renewal."

Friendsgiving also served as the official kickoff for Re:Vision's new initiative in North East Pennsylvania, which focuses on building a replicable model for small-town revitalization that strengthens local economies, honors cultural heritage, and builds resilience for future generations.

Re:Vision's mission is to inspire change from the inside out, helping communities design their own pathways to growth. By blending creativity, science, and collaboration, the organization transforms challenges into opportunitiesbuilding more resilient systems in food, energy, education, and design.

For more information about Re:Vision, please visit Revisionne.org or follow on Instagram: @revision_projects .

ABOUT RE:VISION

Re:Vision is a nonprofit organization dedicated to revitalizing communities through innovative, locally driven solutions. By honoring cultural heritage and partnering with community leaders, Re:Vision helps towns uncover their own strengths and transform challenges into opportunities for renewal. Through a holistic approach that integrates design, resilience, and collaboration, Re:Vision works to strengthen local economies, create jobs, and restore social bonds while building resilient systems for food, energy, and education. Founded by Stacey Frost on the belief that lasting change comes from within, Re:Vision is creating a replicable model of community-centered revitalization that supports economic growth and inspires towns across the country and beyond.

MEDIA CONTACTS

[email protected]

[email protected]

SOURCE RE:VISION
SANTA ANA, Calif., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Synergetics.ai, a global leader in the emerging agent economy, today announced a strategic partnership with Tcell, a leading telecom operator in Central Asia serving nearly 3 million subscribers. This collaboration positions both companies at the forefront of agent AI and agent commerce, combining Synergetics' proprietary platform with Tcell's nationwide subscriber base to create next-generation digital experiences.

Figure 1. Tcell and Synergetics enter into Strategic Partnership Figure 2. Consumers creating AI Twins drives ARPU for Carriers

The Agent Economypowered by the interaction of demand (consumers and enterprises) and supply (creators and the developer community)is rapidly reshaping how value flows across digital ecosystems. By integrating Tcell's millions of users directly into the Synergetics Agent Marketplace, this partnership dramatically expands the demand side of the ecosystem and solidifies Synergetics.ai as a major global force in AI-driven commerce. The platform includes essential components such as the Synergy Wallet, Agent Marketplace, Seller Portal, and the patented AgentTalk protocol, enabling autonomous agent creation, orchestration, payments, and communication at scale.

"This partnership accelerates the global shift toward Agent Commerce," said Raghu Bala, CEO of Synergetics.ai. "By combining Synergetics' full-stack AgentWorks capabilities with Tcell's reach, we are enabling millions of users to enter the Agent Economy through seamless access to digital twins, intelligent agents, and tokenized interactions. We see this as a defining moment not only for Synergetics but for the broader movement toward autonomous, AI-driven commerce."

Beyond consumer-facing innovation, Synergetics.ai will work closely with Tcell to deploy its Agentic AI platform across the carrier's internal operationsincluding customer service, financial operations, sales, and marketingequipping the organization with intelligent agents capable of improving efficiency, accuracy, and customer experience. For telecom operators, two of the most critical business metrics are ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) and churn reduction, both of which directly determine long-term profitability. Through this partnership, TCell subscribers will be able to create and transact with their Digital Twins directly from their mobile devices, unlocking new digital behaviors that drive higher ARPU while simultaneously building stickier, more personalized experiences that reduce churn.

"ARPU and churn are the numbers every carrier watches most closely," said Ozodkhon Davlatshoev, CEO of Tcell. "Our partnership with Synergetics.ai gives us a unique opportunity to address both by empowering every Tcell subscriber to create their own Digital Twinan intelligent representation of themselves capable of transactions, recommendations, and personalized digital experiences. When users engage with their digital counterparts, loyalty increases, new revenue opportunities emerge, and the overall customer relationship becomes far more valuable. This is not just an upgradeit's a generational shift for telecom."

By adopting Synergetics' Agentic AI platform across its enterprise and consumer layers, Tcell becomes the first telecom operator in the region to fully embrace autonomous agent technology, paving the way for smarter networks, richer consumer engagement, and an entirely new class of digital services built around AI-powered agents.

This pivotal partnership between Synergetics.ai and TCell was strategically facilitated by Astel Ventures, which played a key role in ensuring the optimal strategic fit for both companies. Utilizing its proprietary AI platforma sophisticated tool purpose-built for investment banking and partnership developmentAstel Ventures was able to successfully identify and orchestrate this high-value collaboration."

"We are committed to leveraging advanced AI to surface unique, highly synergistic opportunities in the global market to identify patterns for every company part of those patterns are also partnerships set up and this partnership is a testament to the platform's ability to drive the future of AI-driven commerce and strategic investment", said Muboriz Muborakshoev , CEO of Astel Ventures.

With Synergetics' complete Agent Economy stack and Tcell's market leadership, this partnership establishes a new benchmark for how telecom operators can evolve in the age of AItransforming operations, deepening subscriber relationships, and unlocking unprecedented value through the rise of the Internet of AI Agents.

About Tcell

Tcell is a leading telecommunications operator with nearly 3 million subscribers, offering mobile, data, and digital services throughout Tajikistan. Known for its innovation and customer-centric solutions, Tcell continues to expand its digital ecosystem through strategic technology partnerships. Website: www.tcell.tj

About Astel Ventures

Astel Ventures is investor in tech firms and has built an "AI investment banker" used for automation of corporate finance and business development activities. Website: https://astelventures.com/

About Synergetics.ai

Synergetics.ai is a first mover in the Agent Commerce space, enabling the creation, orchestration, deployment, and monetization of autonomous AI agents. With its patented AgentTalk protocol, Synergy Wallet, Agent Marketplace, and full AgentWorks suite, Synergetics.ai powers the world's first end-to-end Agent Economy.

Website: www.synergetics.ai

For inquiries, please contact:

SOURCE Synergetics.ai
TAIPEI, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The third edition of Taiwan Design Week returns from 29 November to 7 December 2025, inviting global visitors to explore how design can shape a shared future. Organized by the Taiwan Design Research Institute (TDRI) and held at Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, this year's themeDESIGN NEXTexamines how design responds to social, technological, and environmental change.

Entrance installation of DESIGN NEXT, the 2025 Taiwan Design Week exhibition, featuring illuminated typography and linear structures that lead visitors into a journey exploring the future of design.

This edition marks a major milestone as IASDR 2025, one of the world's leading academic design conferences, returns to Taiwan for the first time in 20 years. "The return of IASDR to Taiwan marks a major milestone for the global design community," says Chi-Yi Chang, President of TDRI. "By integrating it with Taiwan Design Week, we demonstrate Taiwan's strength in connecting design research with real-world application."

Curated by Archicake, the DESIGN NEXT exhibition features 27 projects from 31 design teams, presenting forward-looking work in cultural storytelling, democratic technology, and resilient urban futures. Highlights include the Sunset Town Virtual Music Festival, 1 House for All zero-carbon modular housing, and the Design Movement on Campus initiative revitalizing Taiwan's educational environments.

Strengthening global dialogue, the TaiwanCzech 33 Design Talk on 3 December brings together six designersincluding Oldrich Voyta, APUJAN, Adam Keprta, Hsiang Han Hsu, Nataliya Grimberg, and Yu-Mei Huangto discuss interdisciplinary innovation, sustainability, and inclusive futures.

On 5 December, the Design Industry Forum convenes leaders from IDSA, BMW DesignWorks, MVRDV, Nikken Sekkei, AECOM, and Quanta Research Institute to explore Future Mobility, Intelligent Green Practice, and Co-Designing Sustainable Cities.

Taiwan Design Week also hosts the Golden Pin Design Award, Asia's leading recognition of design excellence. The 2025 jury features international figures including Uwe Cremering (iF Design), Francine Houben (Mecanoo), Akira Minagawa (mina perhonen), Babette Strousse (ArtCenter), and Liang Yi-Chia (MUJI Taiwan), alongside Taiwanese design icon Liu Kai.

With exhibitions running through early 2026, Taiwan Design Week 2025 positions Taipei as a global platform where research, industry, and creativity convergeinviting the world not to wait for the future, but to design it.

SOURCE Taiwan Design Research Institute
DALLAS, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- TERREPOWER today announced that Brandon Handy has been appointed Chief People Officer, effective immediately. This appointment marks a new level of senior leadership in a distinguished career.

"I am delighted to announce Brandon Handy's appointment to Chief People Officer," said Duncan Gillis, CEO of TERREPOWER. "Brandon has excelled in driving functional initiatives, ensuring strong governance, and elevating collaboration across both our corporate functions and business units. He has an unwavering commitment to our peoplefirst culture."

Based at TERREPOWER's Dallas, TX Corporate Center, Brandon joined the company as Vice President of Talent Management in 2022, bringing more than 16 years of experience in strategic HR leadership. Prior to joining TERREPOWER, he served as director of global human resources at Owens Corning, where he led HR process standardization, optimized talent initiatives, and developed inclusion and diversity programs. His extensive background also includes leadership roles at Trinity Industries, Kohl's Department Stores and Pfizer, where he gained valuable experience in HR strategy, safety and business alignment.



Brandon earned both his bachelor's degree in business administration and his MBA from Florida A&M University. He has earned HR certifications through both the HR Certification Institute and the Society for Human Resource Management, as well as a certification in Industrial Health and Safety from Georgia Tech.

"Brandon's promotion to Chief People Officer is well-deserved," said Gillis. "This appointment reflects our confidence in Brandon's capacity to foster an inclusive, high-performing workplace in our facilities worldwide. His dedication to serving his internal customers has set a high standard, earning him a reputation for both excellence and reliability."

About TERREPOWER

TERREPOWER, formerly BBB Industries, is the largest sustainable manufacturer in the world by volume. Founded in 1987 on a legacy of innovation, TERREPOWER is a global pure-play aftermarket leader specializing in providing high-quality components to the automotive and industrial markets. Based in Daphne, Alabama, TERREPOWER has a dedicated global workforce of over 10,000 employees and an extensive operational footprint throughout North America and Europe, including 19 sustainable manufacturing facilities, 14 distribution centers, and 28 brands with products sold in more than 90 countries. TERREPOWER is committed to strengthening supply chain resilience, reducing waste and advancing the circular economy. Learn more at www.terrepower.com .

SOURCE TERREPOWER
Portland-based firm selects Nashville for first eastern expansion due to region's thriving economy and industries

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Gunter Group (TGG), a boutique management consulting firm known for its people-first culture, today announced a new office in the Greater Nashville area, strengthening its ability to support clients across the Southeastern and Eastern U.S. This is the firm's first office in the Southeast, and third office in the U.S. The firm, which serves some of the world's leading and Fortune 100 automotive, footwear and apparel brands, national insurance carriers, financial services firms and healthcare companies, has plans to hire team members in Nashville and grow to serve clients in the Southeast and Eastern U.S.

The new office follows Managing Partner Tony Schweiss's recent relocation to Nashville from Nevada where he worked remotely and traveled frequently to The Gunter Group's headquarters in Portland, Ore. Additionally, the firm hired Rebecca Whitehead, a respected Nashville business, technology and healthcare leader with long-standing ties throughout Middle Tennessee. Together Schweiss and Whitehead will co-lead operations, strategy and transformational change for clients throughout the region.

"Nashville is one of the most dynamic business communities in the country," said Schweiss. "We're not interested in parachuting in, delivering a slide deck, and disappearing. We want to be here, shoulder to shoulder, building solutions that support Nashville's thriving economy."

TGG is intentionally building a high-caliber Nashville team that, over time, is expected to serve as a hub in the firm's broader national footprint. The company, which has nearly 100 employees nationwide, has seen strong growth in recent years, demonstrating the market opportunity for its consulting services.

The Southeast includes many industries where The Gunter Group already works with national clients including those in healthcare, insurance, automotive, financial services, retail and education. The new Nashville office will support organizations undertaking operational strategy, core system modernization, data and technology enablement, portfolio leadership and large-scale transformation.

Whitehead said she joined The Gunter Group primarily because of the firm's values, and her shared belief that how work gets done matters just as much as what gets done. "Nashville values consulting partners who listen first, roll up their sleeves, and stay through delivery," she said. "The Gunter Group leads complex change in a way that respects people and delivers lasting outcomes."

Whitehead is also a Nashville Healthcare Council Fellow, a distinction that reflects her long standing leadership and relationships across Middle Tennessee.

The Gunter Group has won nearly 20 workplace awards including six consecutive years on Consulting Magazine's Best Firms to Work For list and Inc.'s Best Workplaces award. One-third of The Gunter Group's senior leadership team are military veterans, and the firm actively recruits veterans who are high-impact professionals with transferable skills and specialized experiences.

"Our firm has always been grounded in a simple idea: if you take exceptional care of your people, they will take exceptional care of clients," said Mike Gunter, Founding Partner of The Gunter Group. "As a proud alum of Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Management, Nashville means a lot to me personally. Committing our team to trusted relationships in a community we respect and want to serve for the long run is fulfilling a lifelong goal."

About The Gunter Group

Founded in Portland, Ore. in 2011, The Gunter Group (TGG) leads C-Suite executives and client teams through strategy development, digital transformations, large scale system implementations, agile development, decision insights, data services, and enterprise architecture changes. With nearly 100 employees across the United States, The Gunter Group is an innovative management consulting firm that leverages strong relationships to achieve high impact results in partnership with clients ranging from global Fortune 100 organizations to local and regional based operations. To learn more, please visit www.guntergroup.com or follow The Gunter Group | LinkedIn.

SOURCE The Gunter Group
BOULDER, Colo. and BEND, Ore., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Vero Broadband, LLC, operating as Vero Fiber ("Vero"), today announced that it has officially completed the acquisition of BendTel, Inc. ("BendTel"), following final regulatory approval from the Federal Communications Commission. The closing brings the long-standing Central Oregon telecommunications provider fully into the Vero organization.

The addition of BendTel's staff, infrastructure, and customer base further accelerates Vero's investment as a fiber internet provider in Central Oregon. Vero began deploying Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) services in several Bend neighborhoods, including the Portland Avenue and River West areas earlier this year. With the BendTel transaction now complete, Vero is positioned to accelerate its residential fiber expansion into additional communities such as Old Bend and the Orchard District, bringing gigabit-class fiber connectivity to thousands of additional households.

"Finalizing this acquisition is a meaningful step in our growth across Central Oregon," said Sunita Krishna, CEO of Vero Broadband. "BendTel has been a trusted partner for enterprise and commercial clients for more than two decades and we are excited to integrate their experienced team and well-built network as we continue delivering fast, reliable fiber service with a local touch."

Founded and headquartered in Bend, BendTel has built a reputation for dependable enterprise connectivity and customer service. Its fiber network, voice solutions, and long-standing relationships with Bend's business community complement Vero's broader strategy of expanding both residential and commercial fiber access.

"As we looked toward the future, joining Vero was the right move for our customers and our employees," said Tom Barrett, CEO of BendTel. "Vero brings additional scale, resources, and a commitment to the region that will allow the combined organization to move faster and serve even more of Central Oregon."

Vero will continue to invest in new fiber construction while integrating BendTel's operations, customers, and local expertise into the Vero Fiber platform

The acquisition closed on December 1st, 2025.

About Vero Broadband, LLC

Vero Fiber, the fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) division of VFN Holdings, Inc., is committed to expanding high-speed broadband access in underserved communities through its fiber-based retail offerings for both residential and business customers. In addition to its broadband services, Vero's portfolio includes a wholesale division specializing in the design, construction, and management of dark fiber infrastructure for hyperscale cloud providers, K12 schools (E-Rate), government entities, enterprises, and wireless and wireline carriers.

Vero also provides a comprehensive suite of internet services to multi-dwelling units (MDUs) and fiber construction services to both in-house brands and third-party customers. Operating nationwide, Vero's diverse portfolio encompasses Vero Fiber, Vero Networks, Clearnetworx, Deeply Digital, Glass Roots Construction, FastTrack Communications, and Nexgen Connected Communities. For more information, visit www.verofiber.com.

SOURCE Vero Fiber Networks
News / National

by Staff reporter

Zimbabwe's average daily electricity generation rose by 76.8 percent in 2025, reaching 1,537 megawatts (MW) from 866 MW in 2024, Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube has revealed.The announcement comes as the Government prepares to mobilise over US$9 billion in energy-sector investments, with a strong emphasis on private-sector participation, to close the country's energy deficit and expand national output."Government recognises that expanding modern energy services is essential for driving industrial growth, improving health and education, promoting gender equality, and supporting overall development," Minister Ncube said in the 2026 Zimbabwe Infrastructure Investment Programme document released last week.As of November 6, 2025, Hwange Power Station was the largest contributor to the national grid at 980 MW, followed by Kariba at 505 MW and Independent Power Producers at 52 MW. Current output figures indicate Hwange is generating 817 MW, Kariba South 550 MW, and independent producers 55 MW, bringing total generation to 1,422 MW.Under the US$9 billion 2026 energy compact programme, the Government plans to expand generation and network infrastructure at competitive costs while leveraging regional integration. The programme will also promote distributed renewable energy, clean-cooking solutions, and private-sector participation, ensuring financially viable utilities provide reliable and affordable services."The energy sector's strategic goal is centred on boosting capacity, closing the supply gap, and strengthening transmission and distribution systems amid climate-related shocks. Access to a reliable and efficient energy supply supports economic productivity, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability," Minister Ncube said.Zimbabwe currently faces a significant energy deficit, with electricity generation at around 1,400 MW against peak demand estimated at 2,200 MW. This shortfall has resulted in extensive load shedding, forcing households and businesses to rely on more expensive private power sources, including diesel generators.To address the deficit, the Government is pursuing a combination of small- and large-scale projects, including capacity expansions at Kariba and Hwange power stations, development of new renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, rehabilitation of existing infrastructure, rural electrification, and exploration of alternative technologies like modular nuclear systems.Minister Ncube emphasised that the 2026 Zimbabwe Infrastructure Investment Programme will be pivotal in consolidating progress under the National Development Strategy while addressing long-standing infrastructure deficits that are catalytic to the country's economic growth and transformation agenda.
News / National

by Staff reporter

A 43-year-old woman, Annamarie Louise Bertram, appeared before Harare magistrate Ruth Moyo on Thursday, facing charges of unlawful possession of ammunition.Bertram was arrested on November 29, 2025, after security personnel at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport detected metallic objects in her luggage while she was preparing to board a flight to Cape Town, South Africa.According to the State, security officer Simbarashe Chitabura conducted a physical search after the scanner flagged the bag. The search reportedly uncovered three live rounds and five bullet heads concealed inside a small Smarties sweet tube.The seized ammunition has been submitted for forensic examination. Prosecutors indicated that the results could establish a connection to serious offences allegedly committed by Bertram, raising concerns that she might abscond and evade trial.Bertram was granted US$100 bail and ordered to continue residing at her registered address, with instructions not to interfere with State witnesses.The case is ongoing, and further court proceedings will depend on the outcome of the forensic examination.
If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





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by Staff reporter

Government workers across Zimbabwe are increasingly opting for early retirement, with union leaders warning that poor salaries and deteriorating working conditions are driving a wave of exits across the civil service, including the security sector.The trend is particularly pronounced among employees approaching the minimum service requirement of 20 years, enticed by exit packages exceeding US$10,000. Despite President Emmerson Mnangagwa's 2024 decision to extend the normal service period for police, army, and prison officers from 20 to 30 years, many junior officers are resigning as soon as they qualify for the lump-sum benefits.A senior security officer described morale as "extremely low," citing inadequate pay, scarce benefits, and difficult working conditions as key factors pushing personnel out.Teachers are also leaving in alarming numbers. Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZimTA) secretary-general Goodwill Taderera said, "Teachers are retiring at an alarming rate. The retirement package of up to US$10,000, partly in US dollars, is attracting many. Others are moving to the private sector. The uncertainty of the economic environment is driving this decision - no one wants to wait and risk losing out later."Unions attribute the surge in retirements to the introduction of partial US-dollar payouts after years of exit packages being largely paid in local currency, which rapidly depreciated. Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe secretary-general Raymond Majongwe warned that many retirees quickly exhaust their lump-sum benefits, leaving them financially vulnerable, with some even attempting to rejoin the civil service or seek work abroad.The early retirement trend is also affecting service delivery, with slow replacement of retirees leaving vacancies unfilled for months or years. "People are leaving, but there is no replacement. The few remaining workers are overburdened, creating a crisis across departments," Majongwe said.Public Service Commission secretary Sibusisiwe Zembe did not comment, citing ongoing meetings. Meanwhile, Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education spokesperson Taungana Ndoro downplayed the situation, stating that retirements were normal and replacements were being budgeted for accordingly.Civil servants currently earn around US$300 plus ZiG5,000 - a package unions say falls far below the cost of living, further incentivising early retirement as a survival strategy.
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by Staff reporter

Lieutenant General Asher Walter Tapfumaneyi has been officially conferred with the rank of Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) Commander in a formal ceremony held at Zimbabwe Defence House today.The appointment follows the promotion of General Emmanuel Matatu to Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF), with Lieutenant General Tapfumaneyi assuming his new role on November 21.During the ceremony, Lieutenant General Tapfumaneyi pledged his commitment to uphold the Constitution and to work under the guidance of ZDF Commander General Matatu, reaffirming his dedication to the country's defence forces.
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by Staff reporter

The Public Service Commission (PSC) has come under scrutiny for allegedly reinstating 66 teachers elected as local authority councilors in the 2023 harmonised elections, a move critics say contravenes the Constitution of Zimbabwe.Under Section 200 (3) and (4) of the Constitution, civil servants are required to resign from government service when assuming political office. The law prohibits public service employees from acting in a partisan political capacity while holding office or standing as candidates for election.A source within the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education claimed that many of the reinstated teachers have not been reporting for work, yet continue to draw full salaries. The source said the arrangement has increased workloads for teachers left to cover for absent colleagues.Artuz President Obert Masaraure condemned the practice, describing it as irresponsible and a drain on treasury resources already stretched thin. "When civil servants opt to take up political office, they must be automatically delisted as civil servants. The constitution grants both political rights and a nonpartisan civil service," he said.The reinstatement was outlined in a PSC memo authored by then Secretary Dr Tsitsi Choruma and addressed to Permanent Secretary for Education Moses Mhike on 23 November 2023. Choruma instructed that the 66 teachers, who had resigned to assume council positions, be reinstated immediately, while days absent after their deemed resignation should be recorded as unpaid leave.The matter came to light after 15 councilors who were not reinstated sought similar treatment. Their request, submitted on 7 October 2025 by Special Adviser to President Mnangagwa Joram Gumbo, was rejected by PSC Chairman Dr Vincent Hungwe, who cited the Constitution and emphasized that reinstatement of elected officials was prohibited.Prominent reinstated teachers include Euphrasia Ruvai, wife of Masvingo Minister of State Ezra Chadzamira; Lyllett Makomeke, Teachers 4ED Masvingo Province chairperson and Bikita Schools Inspector; former Bikita RDC chairperson Benjamin Masakadze; and Admire Matutu, a teacher at Zvomupungu Primary School in Mwenezi. Opposition-affiliated teachers who lost in the elections, such as Emmanuel Punungwe of Chikomba, were also reinstated.Masaraure and PTUZ President Dr Takavafira Zhou criticized the PSC's actions, describing the reinstated teachers as unprofessional and a threat to the integrity of the education sector. Zhou added that these actions tarnish the image of teachers and compromise schools' primary functions as centers of learning.The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education declined to confirm the allegations. When approached for comment, PSC Secretary Sibusisiwe Zembe did not respond.The controversy has reignited debate over the need for strict enforcement of constitutional provisions governing civil servants' political participation, with education stakeholders calling for uniform application of the law to prevent similar incidents in the future.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Former Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) founder Nelson Chamisa is not supporting the candidature of musician and comedian Mothusi Ndlovu, also known as Madlela Sikhobokhobo, in the upcoming Nkulumane by-election, a former Bulawayo provincial CCC spokesperson has said.Swithern Chirowodza dismissed social media reports suggesting Chamisa's endorsement, cautioning residents against being misled."Nkulumane should not be hoodwinked by social media falsely claiming Nelson Chamisa is backing the candidature of Ndlovu aka Madlela Sikhobokhobo," Chirowodza said."Chamisa resigned from the CCC, now led by Sengezo Tshabangu, which aligns with President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the Zanu-PF Lacoste faction."The by-election, scheduled for December 20, follows the death of Desire Moyo in a car accident on October 10. Nine candidates filed nomination papers on November 20 to contest the seat.Among the contenders are Esther Auxillia Zitha, widow of the late MP, running as an independent; Ndlovu, fielded by Tshabangu's CCC; Ethel Sibanda of the MDC-T; Alson Moyo of EFF Zimbabwe; Rodney Donovan Jele, endorsed by former CCC members loyal to Chamisa; and Ibetshu LikaZulu secretary-general Mbuso Fuzwayo, also contesting as an independent. ZAPU is represented by Vivian Siziba, Zanu-PF by Freedom Murechu, and Nompilo Ncube Malala is standing for the Zimbabwe African National Congress.CCC councillor Bruce Moyo, an ally of Chamisa, publicly endorsed Jele, urging Nkulumane residents to support him. "We must ensure Nkulumane is returned to its people and to its dignity. We cannot afford to have Zanu-PF and the 2030 enablers bully our people," Moyo said.Jele, a former Ward 22 councillor, is considered one of the strongest candidates in the race, having enjoyed substantial support in parts of the constituency.Tshabangu defended his party's choice of Ndlovu, noting the late Moyo was an artist and that his party sought to maintain continuity. He also criticised Zitha for entering the race soon after her husband's death, saying she should have allowed herself time to mourn.The by-election campaign officially opens next week, with candidates expected to engage in door-to-door mobilisation in the opposition stronghold.
News / National

by Staff reporter

A 37-year-old man from Mandaza Village under Chief Nyamweda in Mhondoro has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after being convicted of raping and assaulting his 56-year-old mother-in-law.Walter Maponga was found guilty by Harare regional magistrate Jessie Kufa, who ruled that the State had successfully established a strong case against him.The prosecution, led by Mr Blessed Songozo, told the court that the incident occurred on September 17, 2025, at Makoni Village. The complainant was in her bedroom with her 94-year-old mother when Maponga forcibly broke into the room.According to the State, Maponga assaulted the complainant while accusing her of influencing his wife to leave him. He then overpowered her, pinned her to the ground and sexually assaulted her.The court heard that the woman was rescued by two villagers, Godfrey Makoni and Cleopas Nziramasanga, who intervened and apprehended Maponga.Magistrate Kufa handed down the 15-year jail term, condemning Maponga's actions as brutal and inexcusable.
News / National

by Staff reporter

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF), on Monday presented newly appointed ZDF Commander General Emmanuel Matatu with epaulettes bearing the insignia of a full General, formalising his promotion announced last month.Speaking during a ceremony held at State House in Harare, President Mnangagwa urged Gen Matatu to remain vigilant and informed on global security trends. He described the new commander's elevation as a reflection of the confidence placed in his professionalism, leadership and long-standing military service."Your appointment to this apex position in our country's military establishment attests to the confidence I have in your vast experience and professionalism as a career soldier and decorated veteran of the liberation struggle," the President said.He added that Gen Matatu's "loyalty, patriotism, honour and integrity" must continue to guide him as he upholds his oath to protect the Constitution and serve the nation."You take over the reins of an organisation with a renowned legacy and history of achievements as a progressive and resilient force in our region and beyond," President Mnangagwa said.He noted that the ZDF's strong foundations had been built by successive commanders whose efforts had enabled Zimbabwe to play an effective role in peacekeeping, conflict prevention and regional security initiatives. However, he cautioned that the force now faces new and evolving security threats, including technological shifts in modern warfare and the persistent danger of terrorism.In his acceptance remarks, Gen Matatu said he was humbled by the trust placed in him and pledged to uphold the standards set by those who came before him. He paid tribute to Vice President Retired General Constantino Chiwenga, former ZDF Commander Retired General Phillip Valerio Sibanda, and the late national hero Retired General Vitalis Zvinavashe for shaping the direction of the ZDF over the years.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Former Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) leader Nelson Chamisa has quietly returned to Zimbabwe for the Christmas holidays, ending months of speculation surrounding his whereabouts and political future.Chamisa, who has been living, studying, and working in the United States, slipped back into the country earlier this week. His first public appearance was in Mbare, where he paid condolences to the Dadzwa family following the death of their matriarch."I'm in Mbare to pay condolences to the Dadzwa family for the loss of our beloved mother. I remain deeply touched by the love of the citizens of Zimbabwe. RIP Mama Dadzwa," Chamisa said during the visit.Sources close to the former opposition leader say he is expected to return to the U.S. after the festive season.His return comes after a prolonged period of debate and uncertainty, largely fuelled by online indicators suggesting he had effectively relocated. Geo-location data on X (formerly Twitter) had placed him in the United States for several months, sparking theories that he had stepped away from frontline politics.Chamisa's silence and physical absence deepened divisions within the opposition, with supporters expressing confusion over his next steps while critics accused him of abandoning the struggle.In recent months, Chamisa's leadership record has also faced renewed scrutiny. Critics argue that from the MDC-T era to the CCC, he systematically sidelined internal rivals and contributed to factionalism that weakened the opposition's institutional framework.His 2023 election strategy - dubbed "strategic ambiguity" - remains the subject of heated debate. While supporters viewed it as smart political manoeuvring, detractors claim it created opacity around donor contributions and accountability structures. Chamisa raised substantial funds ahead of the 2023 vote, drawing donations from Zimbabweans at home and across the diaspora. Opponents allege he left the battlefield with "tens of millions," while his supporters were left uncertain about the opposition's direction.During Chamisa's time in the U.S., the opposition landscape splintered further. High-profile figures such as Job Sikhala and Tendai Biti emerged as alternative centres of influence. Former MPs such as Chalton Hwende and Joanna Mamombe faced internal backlash for continuing parliamentary duties despite Chamisa's call for a boycott - a reminder of the fractured cohesion within the movement.Analysts say Chamisa's prolonged absence, followed by his sudden reappearance, has exposed persistent structural weaknesses in the opposition, including over-reliance on individual leaders and the absence of strong, enduring institutions.Chamisa has remained silent on his political intentions, leaving speculation to mount over whether his return signals merely a holiday visit or the beginning of a renewed political push.What is clear, however, is that his presence has re-energised his supporters, who still view him as the opposition's most influential figure. At the same time, detractors argue his brief reappearance vindicates long-standing concerns about his leadership style and strategic direction.As Zimbabwe enters the festive season amid economic hardships and political uncertainty, Chamisa's return may prove to be a pivotal moment - potentially opening the door to a reset within the opposition, or marking yet another chapter in its ongoing turbulence.
The death toll in the floods which struck Indonesia last week has now climbed to 631 on Tuesday, with rescue workers still battling to reach affected areas.

The floods, which were caused by a rare cyclone that had formed over the Malacca Strait, have hit three provinces and impacted some 1.5 million people, according to the government's disaster agency.

Nearly 500 people remain missing, while thousands more have been injured.

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Indonesia is just one part of Asia which has been hit with torrential rain and storms in recent days, with Thailand, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka all also reporting deaths.

In Indonesia, the provinces of Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra have been hardest hit, with thousands still cut off and without critical supplies.

About one million people have been evacuated, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency said.

Arini Amalia, a resident from Aceh's Pidie Jaya Regency, told the BBC the flood waters had been "like a tsunami".

"According to my grandmother, this is the worst, the worst in her life," Amalia said.

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Aid workers have been trying to reach people on foot and by motorcycle, as many roads are impassable to larger vehicles.

Pictures from the region show bridges washed away, roads covered in mud and debris, and logs piled high.

At West Sumatra's Twin Bridges landmark, where flood waters swept through and deposited enormous amounts of mud and debris, Mariana watched as excavators cleared the roads, hoping they would find her missing family members including her 15-year-old son.

"Watching the excavators, seeing how thick the mud is I keep thinking, what condition will my child be in when they find him?" she said. "Will he still be intact? My mother, my brother-in-law Looking at how it is here, maybe their faces won't even be recognisable any more."

The floods have impacted some 1.5 million people in Indonesia [Reuters]

Many are still waiting for food aid, with some saying they have not eaten for two to three days.

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Maysanti, who lives in Central Tapanuli which is one of the worst-hit areas in North Sumatra, told the BBC that aid workers were having trouble reaching her district.

"Everything is gone; our food supplies are running out. We can't eat," she said. "Even instant noodles are being fought over now. Our food is gone; we need food and rice. Access to us is completely cut off."

She said she has to walk kilometres away from her house to get an internet connection and basic necessities, like clean water.

In Central Aceh where local authorities have provided Starlink devices, thousands were seen queuing outside the regency's office on Sunday night hoping to contact their loved ones or charge their mobile phones.

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"It's been five days with no signal. We've been waiting since yesterday in case the network comes back. I'm planning to call my mother in Banda Aceh, but until now I still can't reach her," said one resident called Mar.

[BBC]

As rescue efforts continue, anger has started to grow towards the government's disaster response.

Critics say that authorities were ill-prepared for the floods. Some have blamed bureaucratic red tape for slowing down the distribution of food aid.

Some activist groups have also claimed that environmental mismanagement, including the clearing of land for mining and agriculture, worsened the impact of the floods.

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On Monday, President Prabowo Subianto - who was visiting some of the flood affected areas in North Sumatra - acknowledged some roads were still cut off, but added "we're doing everything we can to overcome difficulties".

"We face this disaster with resilience and solidarity," he continued. "Our nation is strong right now, able to overcome this."

Rescue workers and aid are still struggling to reach some areas [Reuters]

Across South and South East Asia, about 1,200 people have been killed in the last week in flooding and landslides. In Sri Lanka, at least 390 people died, while in Thailand the death toll has reached at least 176.

However, there is no single weather event that has caused the floods. Instead, a combination of weather features have been to blame.

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According to BBC Weather, one element is the north-east monsoon, which affects East and South Asia from around November until March.

As the name suggests, it brings north-easterly winds, which deliver a lot of rain to coastal areas exposed to this monsoon flow as moisture is picked up from the ocean and deposited over land.

In Sri Lanka, the rainfall has been significantly enhanced by Cyclonic Storm Ditwah, which became very slow moving, delivering over half a metre of rain over a few days in some locations.

That storm has now weakened and moved away northwards to bring rain in south-east India, with the forecast for Sri Lanka looking much drier over the coming days.

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In the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and southern Thailand, Cyclonic Storm Senyar had a similar effect, enhancing the monsoon and delivering more than a metre of rain in some places. This was a particularly rare storm, forming unusually close to the equator where cyclones do not normally develop.

In Vietnam, the last few weeks have been exceptionally wet, with the monsoon rains having been enhanced by tropical cyclones. Now the remnants of ex-Typhoon Koto are drifting towards the Vietnamese coast, threatening more heavy downpours and further flooding.

It is likely that climate change has also had a part to play. While global warming is not expected to lead to more tropical storms and cyclones, those that do occur have the potential to be more intense - with heavier rainfall leading to more flooding.
Dans une decision strategique visant a doper son secteur des infrastructures et a maitriser ses couts, le Cameroun vient d'acter une mesure fiscale d'envergure. La loi de finances 2026, recemment adoptee, instaure un regime douanier et fiscal preferentiel pour stimuler la production locale de bitume, ce materiau indispensable a la construction routiere.

Un coup de pouce fiscal historique

Le texte est clair : des 2026, les machines et equipements necessaires a la construction d'unites de production de bitume seront entierement exoneres de droits et taxes de douane a l'importation. Plus encore, les intrants dedies a cette production beneficieront d'un droit de douane ramene a 5% et d'une exoneration de la TVA a l'importation. Une double mesure choc qui a pour objectif declare de creer une base industrielle nationale competitive.

Kribi, futur epicentre de la production

Cette offensive fiscale a un nom et une adresse : le projet d'usine de production de bitume porte par la societe camerounaise All Bitumen PLC dans la zone industrialo-portuaire de Kribi. D'une capacite annuelle visee de 250 000 tonnes, adossee a une mini-raffinerie, cette future gigafactory du bitume represente un investissement colossal de 161 milliards de FCFA.







 LEtat, qui nous accompagne, semploie a faire tout ce qui est de son ressort pour que le projet se realise , affirme Ahmadou Oumarou, directeur general d'All Bitumen PLC. L'engagement de Yaounde est en effet concret, avec une prise de participation publique annoncee entre 5 et 15%. Le financement est quant a lui pilote par la Banque africaine d'import-export (Afreximbank), en premiere ligne depuis fin 2024.

L'enjeu : casser la courbe des couts routiers

Derriere cette ambition industrielle se cache un defi economique de taille. Le Cameroun est regulierement pointe pour le cout eleve de ses infrastructures routieres, parfois jusqu'a six fois plus cher que la moyenne africaine selon la Banque Mondiale. Le bitume, integralement importe, pese lourd dans cette equation.







La production locale doit donc etre un game-changer. Les experts du BTP estiment que l'autosuffisance en bitume pourrait entrainer une reduction d'environ 30% du cout de construction des routes. Une aubaine pour le gouvernement, qui vise a porter son reseau bitume a 11 300 km d'ici 2027.







Avec le demarrage des travaux de preparation du site de 60 hectares a Kribi en mars 2025 et un lancement des constructions prevu en 2026, le Cameroun enclenche une nouvelle vitesse dans sa course aux infrastructures. La route du developpement, litteralement, se prepare a etre pavee de bitume camerounais.









Cameroon launches "Made in Cameroon" bitumen offensive with tax breaks and Kribi mega-plant

In a strategic move to boost its infrastructure sector and control costs, Cameroon has just enacted a major fiscal measure. The recently adopted 2026 finance law introduces a preferential customs and tax regime to stimulate local production of bitumen, the essential material for road construction.







An historic fiscal boost







The text is clear: from 2026, machinery and equipment needed to build bitumen production units will be fully exempt from import duties and taxes. Furthermore, raw materials dedicated to this production will benefit from a reduced import duty of 5% and an exemption from import VAT. This dual shock measure has the declared objective of creating a competitive national industrial base.







Kribi, future epicenter of production







This fiscal offensive has a name and an address: the bitumen production plant project led by the Cameroonian company All Bitumen PLC in the Kribi industrial and port zone. With a target annual capacity of 250,000 tonnes, backed by a mini-refinery, this future bitumen gigafactory represents a colossal investment of 161 billion CFA francs.







"The State, which supports us, is working to do everything in its power to ensure the project is realized," says Ahmadou Oumarou, Managing Director of All Bitumen PLC. Yaounde's commitment is indeed concrete, with an announced public stake of between 5 and 15%. Financing is being led by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), which has been at the forefront since late 2024.







The challenge: breaking the curve of road costs







Behind this industrial ambition lies a major economic challenge. Cameroon is regularly singled out for the high cost of its road infrastructure, sometimes up to six times more expensive than the African average according to the World Bank. Bitumen, entirely imported, is a major factor in this equation.







Local production must therefore be a game-changer. BTP experts estimate that self-sufficiency in bitumen could lead to a reduction of approximately 30% in road construction costs. A windfall for the government, which aims to expand its paved network to 11,300 km by 2027.







With site preparation work beginning on the 60-hectare site in Kribi in March 2025 and construction launch planned for 2026, Cameroon is shifting into a new gear in its infrastructure race. The road to development, literally, is preparing to be paved with Cameroonian bitumen.







Cameroun, bitume, production locale, loi de finances 2026, exoneration fiscale, droit de douane, TVA, infrastructures routieres, cout des routes, reduction des couts, usine Kribi, All Bitumen PLC, Afreximbank, financement, projet industriel, BTP, construction, desenclavement, economie, investissement, emplois, Kribi, zone industrialo-portuaire, petrole, raffinerie, routes bitumees

Christ Ndiffong (Stagiaire)
University of Kentucky Initiative to Advance AI Efforts Across the Campus and State

The University of Kentucky has launched CATS AI (Commonwealth AI Transdisciplinary Strategy), a campuswide effort aimed at advancing AI across the institution's 17 colleges, libraries, research centers, and institutes; its academic and healthcare enterprises; and throughout the state. CATS AI is an initiative of the Advancing Kentucky Together (AKT) Network, a statewide partnership led by the university to position the Commonwealth of Kentucky as a national leader in AI adoption and innovation.

"Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping our world  expanding access to information, transforming workplaces, reimagining research and innovation, and revolutionizing healthcare," said UK President Eli Capilouto. "At the University of Kentucky, we are committed to becoming an AI university  where AI enhances how we teach, learn, research, heal, and serve the Commonwealth."

Areas of focus for the initiative include:

AI literacy, training, and tools for all UK employees;

AI-enabled resources for students, including academic support tools and exploration opportunities;

Potential development of an AI-themed residence hall;

Health care applications such as expanded use of ambient listening tools and improved rural access to care; and

Enhanced research collaboration using digital discovery platforms and advanced computing infrastructure.

It will also serve to "connect and amplify" existing initiatives across campus, such as UK ADVANCE, the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence, and the AI/ML Hub, the university said.

CATS AI will be led by a steering committee of university leaders who will oversee five subcommittees focused on education, research, student experience, healthcare, and workplace administration, UK said. Interim co-directors Ian McClure, UK vice president for innovation, and Heath Price, UK associate vice president for partnerships, have stepped up to guide the initiative while the university searches for a permanent director.

"Artificial intelligence isn't just a buzzword. It is a transformative tool that is reshaping how we live, work and deliver care," commented state Rep. Josh Bray, who is co-chair of Kentucky's Artificial Intelligence Task Force. "The University of Kentucky's CATS AI initiative will help ensure Kentucky leads in the responsible use of AI, from improving healthcare access in rural communities to advancing research, education and workforce training. I appreciate UK taking this forward-looking approach that keeps innovation grounded in service to people and progress for our Commonwealth."

"AI is changing every part of our economy, and Kentucky must guide that change responsibly and purposefully. The University of Kentucky's CATS AI initiative gives our commonwealth a partner that can help us prepare students, support workers, and modernize services in a way that strengthens public trust of this rapidly advancing technology," said state Sen. Amanda Mays Bledsoe. "As co-chair of the AI Task Force, I'm encouraged to see our higher-education institutions stepping up to lead in this moment. This will prove a positive example of how to utilize and integrate AI, and it will prepare future members of the workforce on how to make the most of it in a beneficial way."

For more information, visit the CATS AI site.
A Legendary Drive Returns

One of the best ways to experience Theodore Roosevelt National Parks South Unit is by driving the 36mile Scenic Loop Drive. The route winds past overlooks, trailheads, and wildlife habitats that showcase the rugged beauty of North Dakotas Badlands.

When Julie and I visited, part of the loop was closed for renovations. Now, the National Park Service (NPS) has announced the completion of the project and the full reopening of the road. The official news release celebrates the milestone, noting that visitors can once again enjoy the entire loop without detours. The NPS also reported that the project cost was approximately $51 million, underscoring the scale of investment in preparing the park for future visitors.

Why the Reopening Matters

The timing could not be better. Guests can now explore the South Unit seamlessly, without worrying about missing a favorite overlook or trail. The reopening also comes as the nation prepares for its 250th birthday in 2026.

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North Dakotas Badlands have appeared on several travel lists as a top spot for the nations 250th birthday. The areas link to Theodore Roosevelt gives the park special meaning. Roosevelt spent time in the Badlands, and those years shaped his views on protecting public lands. Today, the park that carries his name reflects that legacy and invites visitors to see the landscapes that inspired him.

Looking Ahead to 2026

The reopening of the Scenic Loop Drive is just one piece of a larger story. Medora, the gateway town to the parks South Unit, will soon welcome the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, scheduled to open on July 4, 2026. The library will add a new cultural dimension to the region, combining history, education, and travel.

Together, the restored loop and the upcoming library position Theodore Roosevelt National Park as a mustsee destination during Americas 250th celebration. For more context, see our feature on historic destinations that will be big in 2026.

The Badlands Experience

Alert and adorable on the plains. (doug4537 via Getty Images)

Driving the Scenic Loop Drive is more than a road trip. Visitors encounter bison grazing on the plains, wild horses roaming freely, and sweeping views of layered rock formations. Trailheads along the route invite hikers to explore deeper into the landscape, while overlooks provide perfect photo opportunities.

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One of the most delightful surprises along the drive is stumbling upon prairie dog towns. These cute, comical animals scurry about chattering to each other and frantically digging at the earth. Their antics add a lively charm to the rugged scenery, reminding visitors that the Badlands are full of personality as well as grandeur.

The South Units blend of wildlife, geology, and history makes it one of the most distinctive national park experiences in the country. Learn more in our guide to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Planning Your Visit

Scenic Loop Drive: 36 miles of wonder. (Bernard P. Friel/UIG via Getty Images)

With the loop fully open, planning a trip is easier than ever. Travelers can combine the drive with hikes, ranger programs, and time in Medora. The town offers lodging, dining, and cultural attractions, making it a convenient base for exploring the park.

If you are considering a 2026 trip, North Dakotas Badlands should be on your list. The combination of natural beauty, presidential history, and national celebration creates a rare travel opportunity. Explore our feature on why the Badlands belong on your 2026 travel list for more inspiration.

A Symbolic Reopening

The Scenic Loop Drives restoration is more than a road project. It represents continuity between past and future, honoring Roosevelts conservation legacy while preparing for Americas 250th birthday. Visitors in 2025 and 2026 will find a park ready to welcome them with open roads, sweeping views, and a deeper story about the nations identity.




STACK IT DEEP

9mm is by far the most popular type of handgun ammo in the nation, really the world. With so many brands and types out there, it can be a mess to find what you really need.

Dont worry, well get some facts straight and will start you out right.

WHY 9MM?

From the FBI to the military to almost every law enforcement agency and army in the world, 9mm is the top choice for duty and carry.

Over years of testing, it has been proven that 9mm is highly lethal, and the added benefit of having more ammo and easier follow-up shots greatly improves your odds in a gunfight, far more than just a bigger caliber.

Left to right: 9mm Europellet, 357 Irrelevant, and 10mm Short.

Smaller Calibers like .380 Auto might have a place in CCW for some niche applications, but the general winner is 9mm.

Larger calibers like 10mm are great for things like bears and other wildlife but dont offer an advantage when it comes to simple humans.

RANGE AMMO VS. DEFENSIVE AMMO

Range ammo just needs to go bang. Being consistent is nice, but its pretty hard to make inconsistent pistol ammo that doesnt have a long list of other problems on top of it. Steel case, brass case, cheap or expensive, range ammo just needs to run.

I strongly recommend avoiding remanufactured or reloaded ammo. The price is normally lower than new ammo, but its impossible to make it reliable. Too many guns have blown up because of reman ammo for it to ever be worth it to me.

Defensive ammo is a whole other beast. One big problem is that there are a lot of lies in the defensive ammo world. Claims that are made and are, frankly, total bullsh!t. With a nice enough package and some fancy marketing, these overpriced pieces of crap take a shocking market share from people who just dont know better.

When it comes to the ammo youre going to bet your life on  dont be cheap. Dont fall for flashy marketing. And dont rely on what some random guy at a gun show told you.

LuckyGunner has the most complete set of testing data out there and is an amazing resource.

WHAT WEIGHT IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

For 9mm your common bullet weights are going to be 115gr, 124gr, 135gr, and 147gr. There are a few odd ones out there like 92gr, 105gr, and 150gr  but those are rare enough that we can mostly ignore them.

Very generally speaking, lighter bullets have less felt recoil and less muzzle flip but also less barrier penetration and less kinetic energy.

For example, Hornady 115gr with a muzzle velocity of 1,079 FPS has 297 ft.lbf energy. Hornady 147gr at just 994 FPS has 323 ft.lbf energy. This delta is typically what youll see across all brands of ammoa difference, but not huge.

Is ~25 ft.lbf going to be the difference between winning a gunfight and losing it? I doubt it, but it is 8 percent more power, and that isnt nothing.

For penetration through meat, bullet weight isnt the final deciding factor. Sometimes lighter bullets punch deeper, and sometimes heavier wins. It depends on the exact brand and bullet type.

Barriers, like drywall, car doors, etc., heavier bullets almost always win for penetration. For most CCW and home defense considerations, barrier penetration is normally a bad thing. For duty carry, some extra penetration is often looked at as a good thing.

My personal bar is I want my ammo to go through car windshields, but Im also in an urban area where someone with road rage is a real threat.

For range plinking, it doesnt really matter a whole lot what weight you choose. 115gr is almost always the cheapest option. I would recommend that you try to match your defensive ammo weight with your range ammo weight, but if you shoot and train enough, it honestly doesnt matter as much.

Again, totally personally, I almost exclusively buy 124gr ammo for both my defensive rounds and my range ammo. Ive found 124gr works really well across all my applications from CCW, to competition, to PCC. Most of my pistols, including my CCW, have a compensator of some kind on them, and 124gr helps ensure those always cycle well.

Nothing wrong with 115gr or 147gr, but for my needs, I like 124gr normally. Consider your situation and choose accordingly.

BEST 9MM AMMO: RANGE SHOOTING AND SELF-DEFENSE

Picking your range ammo isnt rocket science. If you just want stuff that will run, you can take your pick from just about anything offered by any of the major brands. Avoid the tempting prices of remanufactured or reloaded ammo and stick with new, brass-cased ammo.

These top picks for range ammo are mostly based on availability, price, and my past good experiences with them.

Defensive ammo is more complex for reasons I already covered. Be picky about this stuff. Dont settle for anything less than the great options. Its expensive, but you wont need more than a couple of boxes per year. Thats a pretty small investment in the long run.

Blazer Brass

Available in a wide range of weights, Blazer Brass is a go-to pick for range ammo. Low cost, easy to find, and Ive never had an issue with it going bang. Having sent thousands of 115gr Blazer down range, I have a good sample to work from.

For bulk ammo that I want cheap, this is one of the first ones I look up.

That said, it isnt my favorite. It tends to burn kind of dirty and leaves black specks on my hands and forearms. Im pretty sure its just carbon, but its a little icky. The packaging is also kind of bulky, making it a touch annoying when Im trying to carry a few hundred rounds in a range bag.

Palmetto State Armory $229 per 1,000 Round Case

Still, when Im trying to stretch a dollar  Blazer Brass doesnt disappoint.

Sellier & Bellot

My top choice for range ammo, and honestly, one of my top choices for competition ammo also, S&B burns clean and is insanely reliable. Prices can bounce around a bit but are normally at least the second cheapest option.

S&B 124gr is my standard buy when Im stocking deep or getting ready for a long bout of testing or a big competition. The package is very condensed, its super reliable, and I can generally find it.

Palmetto State Armory $14 per 50 round box

Being imported, supply can dry up. In the past few years, world events have a few times made it so that finding my favorite flavor of S&B was hard or impossible. But it was also one of the first to come back in large numbers, so that was nice.

PMC Bronze

Made in South Korea, PMC ammo is simply outstanding for reliability and has impressive lot-to-lot performance. Their 5.56 ammo is one I highly recommend, but their 9mm is great stuff as well.

PMC makes ammo for the SK military, from small bullets to huge howitzer rounds. While it isnt American milspec, it is milspec. Because of the incredible volume they produce, the price is normally good. But that extra QC isnt free. While the price is good, its generally a couple of cents per round more than S&B or Blazer.

Palmetto State Armory $14 per 50 round box

PMC Bronze is one of the very few brands that Ive literally never had an issue with. Thats a great track record so far.

Remington UMC

Remington has a rough history with everything they produce. Made in Arkansas, this is at least a cost-effective American-made option. Personally, Ive never had a real issue with Remington UMC. But Ive also heard some horror stories about guns being blown up a few years back.

While Remingtons QC has had some issues in the past, right now, I think this is a pretty good option. I havent heard of anything major since Vista Outdoor bought them up, and since Vista Outdoor also owns Federal, CCI, and Speer  my hope is that theyve used their experience and made some improvements behind the scenes at Remington.

Palmetto State Armory $143 per 500 round case

All that to say  this is good-to-go ammo, in my opinion. Ive cranked through about 5,000 rounds in the last year, and it has all gone bang.

Hornady Critical Defense & Critical Duty

Something common to a lot of Hornadys ammo is that for expansion, it can be very velocity-sensitive. Thats how all expanding ammo works, but Hornady tends to be a bit more sensitive, in my experience.

Critical Defense and Critical Duty are kind of the same thing in that they are premium defensive ammo from Hornady with an FTX tip that helps expand the round. Im a big fan of both the Defense and Duty lines.

Defense is designed to penetrate less than Duty, both barriers and meat. While the Defense ammo still meets the FBI-recommended ballistic gel penetration, it barely does it. Duty, on the other hand, tends to hit the max set by the FBI, if not a little over.

Palmetto State Armory $26 per 25 rounds

One issue Ive seen in Critical Defense Duty testing is that if youre not using a full-size firearm with a barrel at least 4-ish inches or longer, you might have trouble getting it to expand fully. Oddly, this is one case where the +P version might be the best choice no matter what. Critical Duty 135gr +P is only about 50-60 FPS faster but has a much better average expansion. This actually results in slightly less penetration in meat.

The FBI adopted the 135gr Duty +P as their standard round back in 2022.

On the Defense side, the 115gr has a great track record for full expansion and is 10-20 cents less per round than the Duty.

Federal Punch & HST

Kind of the same idea as the Hornady Defense/Duty, but with bigger design goals, Federal has Punch and HST.

The HST line is older and has been adopted by a whole boatload of LEO and militaries around the world. The vast majority of the HST that Federal makes is on contract for LEO departments. Born out of their Hydra-Shok line, the HST is built to perfect the FBI testing standard. This means being able to beat down hard barriers like walls, wood, car windows, and more but also not over-penetrate meat.

Almost every test Ive ever seen has HST expanding more than any other bullet on the market and doing so reliably and with a lot of effect on target. Thats what has made HST one of the most used bullets in the world.

Palmetto State Armory $29 per 20 round box

Federal Punch is a lot newer but has some great features. Designed for the CCW/self-defense shooter, the Punch JHP bullets are specifically built to punch through heavy clothing. They dont score as well on the FBI test because they dont do as well on hard barriers, but that is a design feature and not a bug.

For a CCW/self-defense shooting, youre not super likely to need hard penetration as much as you will need to be able to get through heavy clothing without disturbing the JHP before it hits meat.

The downside of all of this is that because HST is made in such insane volume, its pretty easy to find it for cheap (as far as defensive ammo goes) and in large amounts. While HST is sold in 20-round boxes, finding 50-round boxes is a lot more common. Deals on 1,000 rounds can be found all over the internet, knocking the price down to 55 cents per round or less.

Punch is sold in 20-round boxes, and I cant find it online for less than 75 cents per round.

In stores, I tend to see this flipped with HST being a bit higher than Punch. But thats also why I dont buy ammo in stores.

Personally, I love HST, and I trust it. And since I am a little paranoid about car windshields, I carry HST pretty often.

Speer Gold Dot

From the FBI to the Department of Homeland Security to the French National Police, Speer Gold Dot is a gold standard for defensive ammo. This ammo is still one of the best and has a long history and loads of government contracts around the world to prove it.

Palmetto State Armory $29 per 20 round box

One downside about those big contracts is it tends to suck up any of the available ammo on the civilian side of things for a few months at a time. When you can find Gold Dot, you tend to see it for a very good price, and you see it offered in bulk  something fairly rare for defensive ammo. While most other defensive ammo runs 90 cents to $1.50 per round, Gold Dot is generally around 60-70 cents if you can buy in bulk 1,000 rounds or more at a time.

If you want to train how you fight, this is a very attractive option.

SIG Sauer V-Crown

Being in the firearm media world, Ive received more SIG V-Crown for free than I have any other defensive ammo, but Ive also bought my fair share on my own because I genuinely like SIGs ammo. Its proven to be a very reliable ammo. It always goes bang, it expands well, and the price is normally good.

While this isnt exclusive to SIG, SIG seems to have committed harder to the idea than the other brands. SIG offers V-Crown lines designed for micro CCW. Named after their pistol, the 365 line of ammo from SIG is built for guns that have short barrels, specifically 3.1 inches or more.

Palmetto State Armory $45 per 50 round box

For all my microcompact guns, this is a top choice for me because I know it works even out of my small guns.

Other defensive ammo will work, but you get diminishing results the shorter the barrel gets. Federal has their Micro line, but I havent seen it for sale in ages. SIG 365 ammo I can actually find.

LOOSE ROUNDS

Choosing the right ammo is a core part of shooting, but for most people and most applications, it isnt the defining choice. Buy smart, dont fall for reman/reloads, and stick to the major brands.
Since our founding in 2012, RECOIL remains the premier firearms lifestyle publication for the modern shooting enthusiast. We deliver cutting-edge coverage of guns, gear, accessories and technology. We go beyond basic reviews, providing no B.S. buyers guides, hands-on testing and expert analysis on everything from firearms and survival equipment to watches and vehicles.

Our reviewers are the backbone of our operation and come from diverse shooting backgrounds: Former law enforcement, military veterans, competitive shooters, seasoned hunters and plain old firearms enthusiasts. Furthermore, were not just gun experts, but dedicated journalists who adhere to the strictest standards of our profession.

At RECOIL, editorial independence is the foundation of everything we publish and the cornerstone of reader trust. Our editors, writers and content creators make all editorial decisions independently, free from outside influence. That boils down to: advertisers dont dictate our coverage, the outcomes of our reviews or what we recommend in our buyers guides. First and always, our commitment is to our audienceensuring every review and article is accurate, unbiased, and driven by real-world experience.

Whether youre selecting your next firearm, upgrading your gear, or exploring the latest innovations in the shooting world, RECOIL provides the trusted insights you need to make informed decisions. Learn more about our Editorial Standards and how we review products.
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The Delhi high court on Monday sought responses from the Centre and the Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Apple Incs plea challenging recent amendments to the Competition Act that allow penalties to be based on a companys global turnover.

Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

The amendment, which took effect on March 6, 2024, empowers the CCI to impose fines of up to 10 per cent of the average turnover for the previous three financial years.

These would be imposed on entities found guilty of anti-competitive conduct or abuse of dominance.

Appearing before a Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Apple, argued that the provision is unconstitutional and disproportionate.

For multi-product companies, penalties should be limited to the turnover generated by that specific product that is implicated in the alleged violation within India, rather than being calculated on worldwide revenues, Singhvi told the court.

Singhvi also questioned the retrospective application of the amendment, contending that it unfairly affects pending matters.

My turnover in England does not affect turnover in India.

"My case here started in 2021. This amendment came into force on March 6, 2024. The effect is humongous, Singhvi said.

The court then asked the government and the CCI to explain how turnover from unrelated products could be included in calculating penalties for a particular market.

Please tell us, prima facie, if the CCI initiates proceedings in relation to one product, how can you take into account turnover with respect to other products?

"Does it not appear very unreasonable to include other products? the Bench asked.

Representing the government and the CCI, additional solicitor general Balbir Singh said the commission applies the principle of relevant turnover.

And, global turnover comes into play only when companies withhold financial data.

This provision ensures that even entities without an Indian base can be brought within the CCIs jurisdiction, he told the court.

The global turnover concept is applied in cases where an entity has no operational base in India.

"Otherwise, how do you punish them? Singh said, adding that the objective of the present plea (by Apple) was only meant to stall proceedings.

The court directed the government to file a short affidavit clarifying its position.

Singhvi informed the Bench that Apple would submit its India-specific turnover figures by December 8.

The matter will next be heard on December 16.

According to Apples plea, the new penalty framework exposes the company to potential fines of up to $38 billion, which is 10 per cent of its average global revenue over the past three years.

The company argued that such a penalty structure is arbitrary, excessive, and violates the principle of proportionality.

It urged that any fines be calculated solely on the revenue of its India-based business segment.

Before the high court, Apple will be represented by a team from J Sagar Associates led by partner Nisha Kaur Uberoi.

Along with Singh, senior advocate Samar Bansal appeared for the CCI.

The Centre was represented by central government standing counsel (CGSC) Ashish Dixit.
The Dutch investor posted steady growth in its India operations for the six months ended September 30, 2025, led by a stronger PayU performance and continued momentum across its broader portfolio

Illustration: Dado Ruvic/Reuters

Highlighting India as the companys most important growth market, Fabricio Bloisi, group chief executive officer (CEO) of the Dutch technology investor Prosus signaled a sharp acceleration in artificial-intelligence investments across its portfolio in the country.

He termed the country as central to Prosus long-term strategy in areas such as payments, mobility, travel and AI-enabled consumer services.

India is our top priority, Bloisi told Business Standard during the companys H1FY26 Results media call.

The Dutch investor posted steady growth in its India operations for the six months ended September 30, 2025, led by a stronger PayU performance and continued momentum across its broader portfolio.

Prosus said PayU India registered 20 per cent revenue growth to $397million.

The business continues to grow its client base after a slight hiatus associated with obtaining the payment aggregator licence from the regulator.

As it builds its base, PayU India is focused on profitable growth.

This focus is evident in the substantial improvement in its aEbitda margin, which rose by 6 percentage points from -6 per cent in H1FY25 to breakeven in H1FY26, with a profitable Q2FY26.

Prosus, which holds a 25 per cent stake in Swiggy, reported robust demand in the six months ended June 2025.

Swiggys customer base expanded 35 per cent year-on-year to 21.6 million, while gross order value rose 43 per cent, fueled by growth in food delivery and new formats such as Bolt.

Food delivery gross order value climbed 18 per cent, alongside improving profitability, Prosus said.

Swiggys quick commerce unit, Instamart, more than doubled its gross order value, up 105 per cent, with average order value rising 26 per cent in the quarter.

Still, continued investment in quick commerce widened Swiggys adjusted Ebitda loss to $178 million from $85 million a year earlier.

Prosus said its Indian ecosystem is evolving through better execution and acquisitions of high-potential businesses.

PayU is increasingly connected across this ecosystem, adding new partnerships with Swiggy, Meesho and PharmEasy, and opportunities for synergies more widely.

Bloisi said the turnaround in PayUProsus largest India assethighlights the strength of the companys integrated model.

In India, Prosus has also invested $350 million in ride-hailing firm Rapido and $146 million in a stake in online travel agent Ixigo.

Bloisi said Rapido is now positioned as the number one mobility company in India, and Ixigo is also growing very fast in the online travel agents area.

He said Prosus expects to help both businesses scale rapidly while drawing them deeper into the companys broader ecosystem.

AI investments

Bloisi revealed that his next priority is major AI investments in India.

The Netherlands-based firm, which has invested nearly $9 billion over the years in India across companies like food-delivery giant Swiggy and ecommerce platform Meesho, has made multiple AI investments in the last few months  including education platform Arivihan and developer tool CodeKarma  as it positions AI as a central pillar of its Indian strategy. Bloisi signalled that the company intends to keep up a similar pace.

My priority now is to invest more in AI in India, he said.

Bloisi also recounted a recent meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Indian leaders visit to South Africa, saying the talks centered on deepening cooperation in technology and AI, and on expanding Prosus investment ties with India.

Bloisi said he told Prime Minister Modi that there is a need to be exceptional in AI in India, to keep using technology for the good of the population.

It was a great conversation about how we believe that investing in AI in India is critical to India, he said.

We value his leadership in terms of how India uses technology over the last 10 years, with UPI, and the identification technology to benefit the whole India population.

Ashutosh Sharma, head of India ecosystem, Prosus said India continues to be one of the three very important focus areas for the company.

What we are trying to build is where we can actually help companies beyond just providing capital, said Sharma.

Prosus said it is building the future with AI, and already has more than 20,000 AI agents helping it scale quicker and make smarter decisions.

Our focus on results and innovation, backed by our Prosus Way culture, means were on track to meet FY26 targets.

"But this is just the start, as we work to unlock an AI-first world for our 2 billion customers.

Edtech bets

Asked about Indias edtech sector, where Prosus was a major backer of troubled firm Byjus, Bloisi acknowledged the setbacks, but said the company remains focused on backing high-potential entrepreneurs.

If you can deliver technology to improve education, this is an amazing goal and I personally love it, Bloisi said.

Byjus was a bet that we did. I don't have a lot of details on it because it was much before my time.

"Obviously, things went wrong. We lost money and more people lost money.

"Some people ask me, is this the end of (edtech) kind of investments?

"Obviously not, we have to take risks to create amazing results.

"Sometimes we make mistakes. And we are going to learn and do better next time.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed an appeal of Reliance Industries Limited and two of its officials against a decision of the Securities Appellate Tribunal, which had upheld a penalty imposed by markets regulator Sebi for not making prompt clarification to stock exchange about the Jio-Facebook deal.

Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters

In June 2022, the capital markets regulator Sebi imposed a penalty totalling Rs 30 lakh on RIL and two individuals, Savithri Parekh and K Sethuraman, for not making prompt clarification to the stock exchange pertaining to the Jio-Facebook deal, which was disclosed through media reports.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) penalty was upheld by the SAT on May 2, 2025.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi declined to interfere with the SAT ruling and effectively affirmed Sebi's findings that RIL and its compliance officers failed to promptly disclose unpublished price-sensitive information (UPSI) concerning the high-profile stake sale.

The top court said the SAT findings did not merit interference and moreover, no question of law was there needing adjudication.

Sebi's adjudicating officer had in June 2022 imposed the Rs 30 lakh combined penalty after concluding that RIL violated Principle 4 of Schedule A of the Prohibition of Insider Trading (PIT) Regulations.

The regulator held that the company did not issue timely confirmations or denials in response to widespread media reports in March-April 2020 speculating on Facebook's investment in Jio Platforms.

The SAT upheld the Sebi's order.

"I find that the news pertaining JIO Facebook deal came out on March 24 and 25, 2020, and the information to the stock exchanges about the media release titled "Facebook to invest Rs 43,574 crore in Jio Platforms for a 9.99 per cent stake" was made on April 22, 2020, i.e. after 28 days and this calls for an appropriate penalty," Sebi Adjudicating Officer Barnali Mukherjee had said in an order.

The regulator said Reliance Industries had the obligation to have enveloped the unpublished price-sensitive information (UPSI).

However, having come to know about the selective availability of the information it was incumbent upon the company to provide due clarification on its own.

Thus, Parekh and Sethurama should have clarified the exchanges on the news item, he had said.

It was observed that Reliance Industries, Parekh and Sethurama did not comply with the provision of principles of fair disclosure of unpublished price sensitive information (UPSI), which states there should be prompt dissemination of unpublished price sensitive information that gets disclosed selectively, inadvertently or otherwise to make such information generally available and did not issue any clarification on the same as required under LODR regulations.

Under the LODR (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) rules, the listed entity may on its own initiative also confirm or deny any reported event or information to stock exchanges.

Accordingly, Sebi held them liable for the violation of the provisions of principles of fair disclosure for purposes of the code of practices and procedures for Fair Disclosure of UPSI under LODR regulations.
'Raising the retrenchment, layoff and closure threshold to 300 workers for prior government permission enables hire-and-fire in more than 90 per cent of the Indian workplaces. More than 12,00,000 disputes are now pending for adjudication with an average disposal period ranging from 3 to five years for more than 75 per cent of the disputes.'

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff

The provision in the new labour codes notified to increase the threshold for requiring the government's approval for undertaking retrenchment, layoffs, and closure to 300 workers from 100 workers at present has drawn criticism from certain trade unions and observers.

However, overly rigid labour laws have historically made firms wary of growing beyond certain sizes, as crossing low statutory thresholds exposes them to intrusive approvals, higher compliance burdens, and reduced flexibility in managing their workforce.

Tapan Sen, general secretary, Centre of Indian Trade Unions says that the new Industrial Relations code 'cripples' the right to strike by imposing various conditions, for all sectors, banning strikes during and after conciliation and extending restrictions across all establishments.

"Raising the retrenchment, layoff and closure threshold to 300 workers for prior government permission enables hire-and-fire in more than 90 per cent of the Indian workplaces. More than 12,00,000 disputes are now pending for adjudication with an average disposal period ranging from 3 to five years for more than 75 per cent of the disputes," he added.

The Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions (CTUs), comprising 10 Central Trade Unions including (CITU), had called for protests from November 26.

Santosh Mehrotra, research fellow at IZA Institute of Labour economics says that provisions like raising the strike advance notice period from 14 days to 60 days and increasing the threshold for requiring government approval for undertaking layoffs curtail bargaining powers of trade unions and workers and give more power to the employers.

"In any case, firms are bypassing these provisions by counting any workers above a legal threshold as contract or casual workers, hence outside the law's purview," he added.

Echoing similar thoughts, social scientist Dhiraj Nite of Ambedkar University says the new codes provide a 'free rein' to hire and fire in the labour-management relations and the disciplinary/punitive action for breaches of labour codes will officially become weak, given the reliance on self-declaration of compliance by the employers.

Sen contends that the wage code removes the earlier provision allowing fines of up to 10 times for even the first delay in wage payments, and excludes MNREGA from timely wage payment rules, effectively letting the government evade responsibility for paying rural workers on time.

However, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) led Confederation of Central Trade Unions (CONCENT) welcomed the notification of the new labour codes as a "landmark and progressive reform" that replaces fragmented, outdated colonial-era labour laws -- thus benefiting 400 million unorganised workers.

Meanwhile, K R Shyam Sundar, professor of practice, Management Development Institute says that labour is a concurrent subject and the new codes require each state to notify its own rules locally which will make the rollout uneven.

As of now, five states and Union territories are yet to pre-publish draft rules under any one of the four codes -- West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Delhi.

"One hopes the implementation aspects of the codes will be taken care of as they touch the lives of millions of people. But the legislative process has left a lot to be desired as it has put undue weightage on the rulemaking process. There is every possibility that it will again lead to a maze of rules and regulations," he added.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff
A deepening payment paralysis in Telanganas liquor industry is beginning to choke manufacturing units and strain supplies, employment, and the broader investment landscape, industry bodies have warned, as unpaid dues accumulate to levels they describe as unprecedented and severe.

Image used for representational purpose only. Photograph: Vivek Prakash/Reuters

Indias alcoholic beverage (alcobev) industry groups  the Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC), Brewers Association of India (BAI), and International Spirits and Wines Association of India  have jointly raised the alarm.

In a statement, the bodies observed that although alcobev sales and state revenue collections surged in October 2025 on the back of festival demand, payments to suppliers dropped sharply.

The state released nearly 50 per cent less to manufacturers in October compared to the average disbursement over the previous four months.

Despite repeated meetings with senior officials including the deputy chief minister and the excise minister in October 2025  and assurances of clearing long-pending dues from MayAugust 2024  payments barely moved.

After releasing about Rs 484.58 crore by mid-October, the state stopped disbursements entirely, pushing total overdue outstanding to roughly Rs 3,800 crore (including nearly Rs 1,900 crore of new outstanding in 202526), breaching the 45-day contractual payment cycle.

A company executive said, Telangana has stopped payments to liquor companies since October 15 and dues from JuneAugust 2024 are still pending.

"We are in touch with authorities, but we have no clarity on when payments will resume.

He added, It is a high-volume, low-margin state, and these payment delays are creating major working-capital issues.

These are not disputed amounts; they are published on the Telangana State Beverages Corporation (TSBCL) website, said Vinod Giri, director general, BAI.

Put together, the industry is staring at more than the listed amount in unpaid dues, with no visibility on when it will be cleared.

Giri said the long delays are stretching companies far beyond their financial limits.

Liquor manufacturing in India operates under tight, government-regulated margins.

Firms depend on predictable payment cycles because they must continuously buy grain, glass, packaging, and pay for logistics  all upfront.

They cannot absorb this ever-increasing working-capital burden indefinitely.

Though companies have continued supplies to avoid disruption, Giri warned that sustained pressure could force tough calls.

According to CIABC, Telangana earns an estimated Rs 30,000 crore annually from liquor sales, or Rs 2,8003,000 crore a month.

Yet suppliers routinely receive only a fraction of this. In 202425, the state accounted for about 3.7 million cases and contributed roughly 9 per cent to national sales.

The interest cost alone at 12 per cent  the burden is enormous, said Anant Iyer, director general, CIABC.

The interest cost alone at 12 per cent  the burden is enormous, said Anant Iyer, director general, CIABC.

For many small and mid-sized suppliers, the interest accrued on ballooning overdue receivables now exceeds their earnings from sales to TSBCL.

The delays, he said, pose an existential threat.

Attempts to find solutions have made little headway.

One proposed remedy was to use revenue from the recent retail-licence e-lottery, which is expected to generate nearly Rs 3,000 crore, to clear old dues.

All we get are assurances. There is still no clarity on when payments will be made.

"The state earns about Rs 3,300 crore a month from alcohol sales but is not paying roughly Rs 800 crore of it, which is the industrys share, Giri said.

Industry representatives suggest that competing fiscal commitments  including flood relief, teacher salaries, and welfare programmes  appear to be taking precedence, leaving supplier payments with lower priority.

The broader concern, Iyer said, is reputational. Companies have invested heavily in Telangana through breweries, distilleries, and bottling plants.

For now, supply lines are holding  but just barely.

Without a sustainable, transparent payment mechanism, industry experts warn the situation could tip from financial stress into market disruption.
While the move may give a competitive edge over rivals like Bangladesh in the global market, several industry bodies raised concerns that many state governments may not implement it on the ground.

IMAGE: Workers stitch dresses at a garment manufacturing unit in Noida. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters

The textiles industry has welcomed the rollout of new labour codes, citing that it will help players clinch more export orders, as it will comply with the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) norms.

While the move may give a competitive edge over rivals like Bangladesh in the global market, several industry bodies raised concerns that many state governments may not implement it on the ground.

The export boost would be seen once free trade agreements (FTAs) conclude with the European Union (EU) and the United States (US).

"The new labour codes would facilitate compliance with various social accountability norms prescribed by leading markets like the EU and the US. The EU has decided that any exporting country must comply with the CSDDD requirements to access the European market. The new policy initiatives would facilitate the industry to take advantage of the FTA to be concluded with the EU and US in the short run," said ME Manivannan, member, CII Southern Region Textiles Task Force, and whole-time director, Loyal Textile Mills.

The new labour code will create a competitive edge for the Indian textiles industry to get more business as it will pave the way to comply with the CSDDD, he added.

This comes at a time when India is pitching itself as a global hub of textile sourcing.

India exported $36.55 billion in FY25, up from $34.40 billion during the previous financial year.

The new changes include mandatory appointment letters to all workers, PF, ESIC, insurance and other social security benefits for all workers.

Also, they provide statutory right to minimum wage payment, free annual health check-ups and permission for women to work at night, among others.

The textiles industry, particularly mills which are in exports, has been constantly approaching the government to simplify the labour legislations and bring a common code.

This would help India lead the world on social accountability.

"Simplification of several laws reduces compliance and is much easier to understand. Rather than helping manufacturing grow, this may make life easier for manufacturers," said Sanjay Kumar Jain, managing director of Delhi-based TT Ltd, and chairman of ICC National Textiles Committee.

"Unless state rules are notified by the state governments, actual implementation may not happen. Until these notifications come, enforcement of the provisions in the codes would remain silent," said K Venkatachalam, chief advisor, Tamil Nadu Spinning Mills Association.

The Centre has announced the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, Code on Social Security, 2020, Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions (OSHWC) Code, 2020, and Code on Wages, 2019.

They have been made effective from November 21, 2025, rationalising 29 labour laws.

Modernising labour regulations, enhancing workers' welfare and aligning the labour ecosystem with the evolving world of work, this landmark move lays the foundation for a future-ready workforce, driving labour reforms for Aatmanirbhar Bharat, a government statement said.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff
'Social acceptance and glorification of demolitions as a symbol of 'strong governance' has, in many ways, incentivised the political leadership to continue projecting a pro-bulldozer image, even when such actions defy Constitutional rights and values.'

IMAGE: Bulldozers being used to demolish the property of Dr Nafees Khan, general secretary of the Ittehad-e-Millat Council, following his arrest in connection with the September 26, 2025, protests and violence in Bareilly, October 4, 2025. Photograph: ANI Video Grab

A year after the Supreme Court verdict that declared punitive demolitions illegal, M Huzaifa, advocate practising at the Supreme Court of India, avers that the so-called 'bulldozer justice' continues to be enforced.

In the first part of his interview to Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff, Huzaifa had said, "No formal contempt proceedings have been initiated either by the Supreme Court or any high court against officers or demolition squads who have acted in violation of it."

"The implementation of the judgment has largely been left to the discretion of the very executive authorities it sought to restrain," points out Huzaifa in the concluding segment of the interview.

Why do you think the local administrations still conduct demolitions in apparent violation of the Supreme Court directive? Is this a gap in monitoring or political will?

First of all, the responsibility does not rest solely on the administration or the judiciary, it also lies with society itself.

Over the past few years, there has been a growing public fascination with the idea of 'bulldozer justice', a kind of political romanticism that celebrates instant retribution over due process.

This social acceptance and glorification of demolitions as a symbol of 'strong governance' has, in many ways, incentivised the political leadership to continue projecting a pro-bulldozer image, even when such actions defy Constitutional rights and values.

At the institutional level, there is indeed a gap in both monitoring and political will.

The Supreme Court's demolition judgment should ideally have been followed by a continuing mandamus and system of periodic monitoring should at place to ensure that its directions were being implemented on the ground over a long period of time. That has not happened.

Without judicial follow-up or accountability mechanisms, the implementation of the judgment has largely been left to the discretion of the very executive authorities it sought to restrain.

The court also carries a moral responsibility to ensure that its rulings are not reduced to mere declarations of principle but are implemented in letter and spirit, reaching the 'last mile' and effectively restraining the malice it sought to curb.

The absence of such vigilance has allowed this culture of impunity to persist, and the gap between Constitutional ideals and administrative reality continues to widen.

Many argue that 'bulldozer action' has become a political symbol of 'strong governance'. How does this narrative clash with Constitutional principles of equality and due process?

India is a democratic republic founded on the principle of constitutionalism, which means that the powers of the government are limited by law and must operate strictly within the boundaries set by the Constitution.

The idea is not merely about having a government elected by the people, but about ensuring that every act of governance is constrained by due process, fairness, and accountability.

The Supreme Court of India, through a catena of judgments, has reaffirmed that arbitrariness is antithetical to equality and that any action of the State which is arbitrary or disproportionate violates the fundamental right to equality under Article 14.

Governance, therefore, cannot be reduced to populist displays of power or retributive acts of control.

While the optics of bulldozer action may project an image of decisiveness or 'strong governance' to sections of the public, such symbolism directly clashes with the spirit of Constitutional governance, which values legality, procedural fairness, and restraint over speed and spectacle.

True strength in a democracy lies not in the force of the bulldozer, but in the force of the rule of law.

As Dr B R Ambedkar warned, the real test of Constitutional morality lies in whether those in power observe the limits imposed upon them by law even when the majority cheers them on.

What happens to the people whose homes are demolished overnight? Are there any mechanisms for rehabilitation or compensation in such cases?

There have been a very few court judgments where compensation was awarded to individuals whose homes were demolished, but these cases are limited and largely address the arbitrariness of executive action rather than the punitive nature of such demolitions.

The evolving character of these actions where demolitions are used as instruments of punishment rather than as legitimate administrative measures poses a deeper Constitutional concern that remains under-explored in current jurisprudence.

Unfortunately, there is no consistent mechanism for rehabilitation or compensation for those affected by punitive demolitions. Victims are often left to rebuild their lives on their own, facing not only the loss of shelter and livelihood but also the stigma of criminalisation that precedes or follows such acts.

Still, as citizens, we hold on to the hope and faith in the judiciary that the courts of this country will eventually rise to the occasion, enforce accountability, and ensure that justice is not just done, but also seen to be done.

Critics allege that such demolitions disproportionately affect members of certain communities or groups. Do you see a pattern of discrimination, and how can this be legally challenged?

The question of whether certain communities are being specifically targeted is, in principle, an empirical one that requires rigorous documentation and study.

The Supreme Court itself has been cautious and somewhat reluctant to engage directly with this dimension in its judgments.

That said, on the ground, it is evident that the brunt of these demolitions is disproportionately borne by communities and individuals who exist on the margins of political and social power.

This pattern becomes most visible in the aftermath of communal incidents or protest-related violence, where members of the Muslim community, in particular, have often been criminalised and punished collectively through demolitions that follow police crackdowns.

Legally, such patterns can and must be challenged through Constitutional litigation, especially under Articles 14 and 15 (equality and non-discrimination), and Article 21 (protection of life and livelihood). However, this requires systematic evidence and consistent judicial engagement, both of which remain limited at present.

Should the Supreme Court or high courts set up special monitoring committees to ensure compliance with their demolition guidelines across all states?

Yes, the courts should actively monitor compliance through periodic compliance reporting and swift contempt action for violations. Without such oversight, officials often flout even Supreme Court directives with impunity, undermining the authority of the judiciary and the rule of law.

Are there any current or planned PILs addressing the violation of the bulldozer judgment? How effective can such litigation be against systemic misuse?

As the Supreme Court's landmark demolition judgment touches one year, a major setback has come from Rajasthan, where the new Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act, 2025, shockingly prescribes punitive demolitions as punishment for alleged unlawful conversions.

This law effectively nullifies the Supreme Court ruling and hands over adjudicatory and punitive powers to executive officers, violating the principle of separation of powers.

A PIL challenging its constitutionality has already been filed by us in the Supreme Court.

Beyond the courts, what role should civil society organisations and the media play in ensuring that the Supreme Court judgment is respected and implemented on the ground?

Civil society and the media play a vital role in upholding Constitutional values and ensuring that judicial rulings translate into ground reality. They must create awareness about the illegality of punitive demolitions and build public pressure against such extra-judicial bulldozer actions.

Responsible, objective journalism free from sensationalism or glorification of bulldozer politics, is essential highlighting human cost of disastrous bulldozer politics.

When media and civil society hold power to account, they help shift the narrative from demolition and destruction toward justice, construction, and Constitutional governance.

How can courts or citizens prove that a demolition is being used as a punitive measure rather than a legitimate urban planning activity or for safety because these things are happening far away from New Delhi where the Supreme Court is located?

The jurisprudence around punitive demolitions is still quite limited in India, primarily because this is a relatively new and evolving phenomenon that has emerged over the past decade. Developing a robust body of progressive legal precedent takes time, effort, and consistent engagement from litigants, lawyers, and the judiciary.

While the Supreme Court has laid down the foundational principles through its landmark judgment on so-called 'bulldozer justice', the responsibility to apply and enforce this legal framework lies with the respective high courts and local courts, which are geographically and jurisdictionally closer to where such demolitions occur.

These courts must interpret the facts before them through the lens of the Supreme Court's reasoning to determine whether a demolition is administrative or punitive in nature.

A punitive demolition can often be identified by examining the sequence and context of events. For example, if a demolition follows closely after a criminal allegation or police action against an individual, family, or a particular community and the timing, language, or manner of execution suggests an intent to collectively punish then the punitive motive becomes apparent on the face of it.

It is the duty of lawyers and petitioners to present courts with the relevant documents, notices, media statements, and other evidence that demonstrate this correlation between the criminal accusation and the subsequent demolition action.

Another important indicator is selective targeting when authorities single out particular properties or neighbourhoods for demolition while leaving other similarly situated properties untouched.

Such discriminatory application of power strongly suggests that the demolition was driven by punitive or political considerations rather than legitimate urban planning, safety, or regulatory enforcement.
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A fresh political firestorm gripped West Bengal on Tuesday as estranged TMC MLA Humayun Kabir doubled down on building a mosque modelled on the Babri Masjid in Murshidabad district and warned that NH-34 would be under "Muslim control" on December 6, escalating a clash the ruling party is scrambling to contain.

IMAGE: Rebel TMC MLA Humayun Kabir doubled down on building a mosque modelled on the Babri Masjid in Murshidabad district. Photograph: ANI Photom

Kabir, the Beldanga MLA who has for months signalled revolt and recently declared his intention to float a new outfit, ratcheted up tension during a media interaction, accusing the Murshidabad administration of being an "RSS agent" and warning officials not to "play with fire" if they tried to stop his programme.

The Assembly elections in the state are due early next year.

"I said a year ago I will lay the foundation of the Babri Masjid in Beldanga. Why is your skin burning? Are you being run by the BJP?" he said, announcing that "NH-34 will remain under my control, under the control of the Muslims".

Significantly, the outburst came from a seasoned turncoat, who has switched political allegiance four times in the last 13 years -- crossing among the Congress, TMC and BJP, -- before returning to the Trinamool fold and now inching away again.

Accusing the TMC government of acting as "agents of the RSS", Kabir added, "I will not break peace, but if anyone disrupts a peaceful programme, I am ready to respond. Bring thousands of police and fire, if you can."

His remarks have triggered renewed questions about why the ruling party has not cracked down despite months of open defiance, particularly when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee herself is now stationed in Murshidabad.

The TMC moved quickly to distance itself from the comments of Kabir.

State minister and Bengal president of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind Siddiqullah Chowdhury warned that a "new emotional atmosphere" was being created to plunge Bengal into a "dangerous climate".

"I cannot match these dots," he said. "Someone has provoked him. I do not see how this benefits the Muslims."

TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee dismissed Kabir's political importance outright, saying: "People of West Bengal trust Mamata Banerjee. Who says what does not matter. He has no importance."

Yet the MLA's continuation in the party ranks, despite repeated show-cause notices earlier in the year, is being viewed as a lapse in political discipline at a sensitive pre-poll moment in a district with a delicate communal balance.

Posters announcing Kabir's plan to lay the "Babri Masjid foundation" on December 6 had appeared across Beldanga before being vandalised, worsening tension in an area that has seen repeated flashpoints, including clashes over the Waqf Amendment Bill earlier this year.

Speaking to PTI last week, Kabir reiterated, "Yes, I will lay the foundation stone. The masjid will be bigger and inspired by the original structure."

The TMC has repeatedly maintained that he is acting in a "personal capacity". Chief Whip Nirmal Ghosh earlier said the party was "not in touch with him" and did not endorse his actions.

The BJP accused the ruling party of quietly enabling the situation. State president Samik Bhattacharya charged, "The TMC is pushing Bengal towards chaos. These announcements are meant to provoke and polarise."

The CPI(M) termed the episode yet another example of TMC's "ideological fluidity".

"One person (Suvendu Adhikari) was in TMC till 2020; then joined BJP. Now he asks Hindus to unite and recite the Gita. Another (Kabir) was in BJP till 2019. He is now a TMC MLA accusing the administration of being an RSS agent and calling Muslims to unite all with the TMC flag behind him," CPI(M) leader Saikat Giri said.

With Kabir threatening a blockade of a key national highway, the TMC preparing for its own December 6 observance, and Murshidabad's demographics making it acutely sensitive to communal mobilisation, the district administration is bracing for a fraught weekend.

As campaigns sharpen and tensions thicken, a mosque shaped in the memory of Babri Masjid has unexpectedly become the newest flashpoint in Bengal's election-year battlefield, with the script now unfolding on the streets of Murshidabad, according to a political observer.
IMAGE: The Indian Army's Southern Command successfully conducted the combat launch of the BrahMos missile, December 1, 2025, here and below. Photographs: @IaSouthern X/ANI Photo

The Indian Army's Southern Command on Monday said the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile achieved a successful combat launch over the Bay of Bengal, hitting its target with precision and strengthening India's long-range strike capability and defence self-reliance.

In its statement, the Southern Command said, 'The Indian Army's BrahMos roared across the Bay of Bengal in a combat launch, showcasing unmatched precision, speed and destructive prowess.

'The missile hit its designated target with pinpoint accuracy, reaffirming India's ability to deliver decisive long-range precision strikes. This successful launch by Southern Command is a powerful testament to India's growing Aatmanirbharta in defence and the Army's unflinching readiness to meet future operational challenges.

'A compelling demonstration of advanced technology, steadfast resolve and the unwavering spirit of a Battle Ready Bharat.'

The BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile jointly developed by India and Russia. It is one of the Indian armed forces' key weapons and is used by the army, navy and air force.

During Operation Sindoor, the BrahMos struck Pakistani air bases and other military installations.

Photographs curated by Anant Salvi/Rediff

Feature Presentation: Mahipal Soni/Rediff
India has mandated an active SIM linkage for messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal to work on a device in the coming days, with the government asserting that 'SIM binding' is essential to plug security gaps cybercriminals exploit to perpetrate large-scale, often cross-border, digital fraud.

IMAGE: Kindly note that this image has been posted for representational purposes only. Photograph: ANI Photo

The missive has, however, polarised stakeholders, with mobile operators under COAI coming out in its support, while digital platforms under the aegis of Broadband India Forum expressing "serious concerns" around overreach and calling for a pause in implementation of timelines.

Here is a snapshot of what the directive says, and the reactions it has drawn from players:

DoT's November 28 directive

Messaging platforms have to ensure, within 90 days, that services would only work if an active SIM is in the user's device. Also, within 90 days, any web version of the app must automatically log users out at least once every six hours; users can then sign in again by re-linking the device using a QR code.

All players providing app-based communication services in India have been asked to submit compliance reports to the Telecom Department within 120 days from the issue of the directions. The department has warned that failure to comply with the directives will attract action under the Telecommunications Act, 2023, the Telecom Cyber Security Rules, and other applicable laws.

At present, these app-based communication services link to a subscriber's mobile SIM card during initial installation and verification. These applications then continue to function even if the SIM is removed, replaced or deactivated.

Messaging apps affected

The move impacts users of various messaging apps, including WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Arattai, Snapchat, Sharechat, Jiochat, and Josh, in India.

Government's rationale for 'SIM binding'

The government says the requirement of an active SIM for using messaging apps is "essential" to plug a concrete security gap that cybercriminals are exploiting to run large-scale, often cross-border, digital frauds.

With cyber-fraud losses topping Rs 22,800 crore in 2024 alone, continuous SIM linkage and periodic logout would ensure that every active account and web session is anchored to a live, KYC-verified SIM, restoring traceability of numbers used in phishing, investment, digital arrest and loan scams.

The Centre has clarified that direction does not affect cases where the SIM is present in the handset, and the user is on roaming.

What telcos say

Industry body COAI - whose members include Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea - asserts that the directive will bolster national security and safeguard citizens.

It argues that continuous linkage ensures complete accountability and traceability for any activity undertaken by the SIM card and its associated communication app.

It will close "long-persistent gaps that have enabled anonymity and misuse", COAI has said, pledging commitment to supporting seamless implementation of the directives.

Concerns flagged by BIF

Another industry fraction, Broadband India Forum (BIF), which represents major technology firms like Meta, Google, and others, says directions raise significant questions of jurisdiction, consumer impact, and risk, creating obligations that extend far beyond the mandate of the Telecom Act or the purpose of the Telecom Cyber Security Rules.



BIF has urged the Centre to pause the implementation of timelines and hold stakeholder consultations on the SIM-binding issue.
A female suicide bomber of the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) blew herself up at the entrance of the headquarters of a paramilitary force in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province, triggering a prolonged gunfight in which six militants were killed, security officials said on Tuesday.

Image used only for representational purposes. Photograph: Fayaz Aziz/Reuters

The attacker detonated herself at the main entrance of the Frontier Corps (FC) headquarters in Nokundi town of Chagai district on Sunday night, the officials said.

The BLA later identified the bomber as Zinata Rafiq and released her photograph.

Following the explosion, six militants attempted to storm the headquarters.

Three were shot dead near the entrance after an extended exchange of fire, while the remaining three managed to enter the compound before being encircled by FC personnel. The security officials said the three have been killed as well.

Residents said intermittent gunshots and explosions were heard from inside the headquarters until Monday evening.

The incident marks at least the third time the BLA, considered the most active and well-armed insurgent group in Balochistan, has used a female suicide attacker.

In April 2022, Shari Baloch, a mother of two, carried out a suicide bombing targeting Chinese teachers at Karachi University's Confucius Institute, killing four people, including three Chinese nationals.

In June 2023, another female bomber, Sumaiya Qalandrani Baloch, targeted a Pakistan military convoy in Balochistan's Turbat area.

In October 2024, investigations into the killing of two Chinese engineers near Karachi Airport found that a female BLA activist had played a leading role in planning and executing the attack.
The Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court on Tuesday directed the Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) to hold the counting of votes for all the local body polls on December 21, instead of December 3.

IMAGE: A polling booth for the local body elections in Nagpur, Maharashtra. Photograph: ANI Photo

The court also prohibited exit polls until December 20.

The HC's directive came on a day when voting was underway for elections to 264 municipal councils and nagar panchayats in Maharashtra. The SEC last week rescheduled the polls in 24 local bodies to December 20 due to certain apparent irregularities in the process.

The high court was hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the SEC's November 29 revised schedule.

One of the petitions challenged the postponement of polls for one division of the Chandrapur Municipal Council to December 20.

But the revised programme has permitted polling and declaration of results for the remaining 26 wards and the counting to proceed as per the original schedule.

However, one of the petitioners, social activist Sachin Chute, pleaded that the declaration of results should "be conducted on a single date and not in a staggered or bifurcated manner".

The petition claimed that the poll body's order "violated the fundamental principle that elections must be free, fair and provide a level playing field to all candidates".

Chute's lawyer, Yash Kullarwar, argued that results for all wards should be declared simultaneously.

Senior lawyer Firdos Mirza, appearing for one of the petitioners, told PTI that the HC has deferred the counting of votes for the local body elections to December 21.

The high court will further hear the petitions against the SEC's revised election programme on December 10.

The first phase of voting for 264 municipal councils and nagar panchayats was underway on Tuesday.

However, elections to 24 local bodies were postponed to December 20 in view of judicial appeals filed against the decisions of returning officers following the scrutiny of nomination papers.

The SEC's decision, announced on Saturday, comes in light of irregularities observed in the election process of some local bodies, including the timeline for withdrawal of nominations and allocation of election symbols.

The SEC said in several cases, the appeal verdicts from the district court were delivered after November 22, or in some instances, candidates did not get the three-day period to withdraw nomination papers as per Rule 17(1)(b) of the Maharashtra Municipalities Election Rules, 1966.

As a result, the subsequent action of allocating election symbols on or after November 26 by returning officers was deemed illegal in these cases.

The SEC has therefore stayed (postponed) the current election process in such affected civic bodies.
India and Russia are set to ink a number of agreements to enhance cooperation in an array of areas including trade and healthcare during Russian President Vladimir Putin's two-day visit to New Delhi this week, Indian officials said on Tuesday.

IMAGE: Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photograph: ANI Photo

Both sides are also expected to seal a pact on mobility that will facilitate the movement of Indian workers to Russia. It will also outline conditions for the recruitment of Indian workers, the officials said.

President Putin will make a two-day visit to India beginning Thursday to hold annual summit talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi that is expected to produce a plethora of significant outcomes, including in the trade and defence spheres to further solidify the bilateral strategic ties.

The external affairs ministry officials said the Ukraine conflict is likely to come up in the Modi-Putin talks and reiterated India's long-standing position that the war cannot be decided on the battlefield and dialogue and diplomacy is the only way forward.

In the context of ongoing US efforts to end the conflict, India supports any move leading to cessation of hostilities and lasting peace, they said.

The officials, referring to an article written jointly by the envoys of France, Germany and the UK in a leading newspaper, took objection to it.

The envoys criticised Putin, accusing him of blocking efforts to bring peace to Ukraine.

It is "unusual", the officials said, adding it is "not an acceptable diplomatic practice".

The officials said there have been intensified efforts to increase Indian exports, including agricultural items such as potatoes and pomegranates, marine products, processed food items and consumer goods.

It is learnt that Indian exports to Russia are expected to significantly increase in areas of pharma, agriculture, food products and consumer products.

The move comes amid concerns in New Delhi over a ballooning trade deficit in favour of Russia. India's annual procurement of goods and services from Russia amounts to around $65 billion while Russia's import from India stands at around $5 billion.

The officials said India is also looking at boosting cooperation in the fertiliser sector. Russia supplies three to four million tonnes of fertilisers to India annually.

The two sides are expected to sign several agreements covering areas such as trade, academia, agriculture and culture, the officials said.

The Indian and Russian sides are also likely to discuss New Delhi's proposed free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union.

The aim will be to seal the FTA soon, the officials said.

Asked about the possibility of any agreement for cooperation in the defence sector, the officials said such pacts are never announced during summits.

On decline in India's procurement of Russian crude oil following US sanctions on two Russian oil giants, the officials said it depends on international market dynamics.
Polling for the first phase of 264 municipal councils and nagar panchayats across Maharashtra on Tuesday was marred by allegations of bogus voting and violence with even supporters of ruling allies BJP, NCP and Shiv Sena coming to blows at some places, officials said.

IMAGE: An old woman on a wheelchair poses for a picture showing her ink-marked finger after casting vote for the Maharashtra local body elections, in Nagpur, December 2, 2025. Photograph: ANI Photo

A voter turnout of 47.51 per cent was recorded till 3.30 pm with the State Election Commission (SEC) not providing the final figure till late night. An official said data is being compiled from across districts and the final voting figure will be released on Wednesday.

In a related development, the Bombay High Court directed the SEC not to hold the counting of votes for the first phase of local body polls on December 3, as scheduled earlier, on the ground the "disclosure of public mood" through the results might affect the subsequent phase of the elections.

The results of Tuesday's elections should be published along with the results of the December 20 elections, the HC said. In a subsequent statement, the SEC said the counting of votes for elections to all the 288 municipal councils and nagar panchayats, including 264 which voted on Tuesday, across Maharashtra will he held on December 21.

Voting for the polls, where nearly one crore people were eligible to exercise their franchise, began at 7.30 am and concluded at 5.30 pm. Till 3.30 pm, 47.51 per cent voting was recorded, a state poll panel official said.

In the elections, a total of 6,042 seats and 264 posts of presidents of both categories of local governing bodies (municipal councils as well as nagar panchayats) were up for grabs. In many places, ruling alliance partners BJP, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar's NCP contested against each other.

Shiv Sena and NCP workers clashed in Roha and Mahad towns in Raigad district, while tension prevailed in Gevrai town of Beed district when BJP and NCP workers came to blows.

An offence was registered against 21 identified and 20-30 unidentified persons at the Gevrai police station for hurling stones and vandalizing an SUV during the election, an official said.

Two groups came face-to-face near a polling booth in Gevrai when the polling was on. The groups later clashed and vandalized the SUV at 11.45 am, the official said.

Clashes between political workers also took place at Muktai Nagar in Jalgaon district, Bhor in Pune, Mhaswad in Satara, Jat in Sangli, Hingoli, Buldhana, Dahanu in Thane and Shahada in Nandurbar district, a police official said.

In Mahad, supporters of Vikas Gogawale, son of Shiv Sena minister Bharat Gogawale, and NCP's Sushant Jabre clashed in Nave Nagar, he said, adding a person also brandished a firearm.

An FIR was filed against Shiv Sena MLA Santosh Bangar after a video purportedly showed him entering a polling booth while a woman was casting her vote in Hingoli district.

The Opposition Congress complained of bogus voting in Buldhana.

Two suspected bogus voters were caught at a polling station in Buldhana barely an hour-and-a-half after voting began for the municipal council elections there, the Maharashtra Congress claimed.

A man allegedly attempted to cast a vote in the name of local resident Vaibhav Deshmukh at the Gandhi Primary School polling centre in ward no. 15 of Buldhana. The individual is said to be a resident of Kothali in Motala taluka, the Congress alleged in a statement.

Another person accompanying him was also detained, while Congress functionaries claimed that more individuals from Kothali and Ibrahimpur had been brought to Buldhana city with the intention of casting fraudulent votes.

The Opposition party alleged that Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Gaikwad was bringing people from rural areas to cast "bogus" votes in the Buldhana Municipal Council elections. However, there was no response yet from the authorities on the allegation.

At least four EVMs malfunctioned in Nandurbar district, leading to long queues outside polling booths. Complaints of EVM malfunctioning were also reported at Amaravati, Badlapur, Nanded, Jalgaon, Yavatmal, Bhokardan and Akluj.

A voter smashed an EVM at Gadchandur in Chandrapur district, he said.

A worker of the Shiv Sena led by deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was caught by some people while allegedly distributing money and handed over to police at Yeola in Nashik district.

In Nashik district, long queues of electors were seen at some polling centres even after the official conclusion of voting at 5.30 pm.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis questioned why counting of votes to 264 local bodies needed to be postponed for 24 local bodies which will vote on December 20.

Fadnavis said in a democracy elected representatives are expected to maintain decorum and protocol.

Maharashtra minister and senior BJP leader Chandrashekhar Bawankule said "misinterpretation of laws" by the SEC has led to the HC deferring the counting of votes to December 21.

Amid reports of clashes between workers of the Shiv Sena and NCP in Raigad, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said violence has no place in democracy.

All parties, including the members of the ruling coalition, should maintain discipline, said the NCP chief, adding, "Alliance dharma must be honoured by all partners."

"Let the people decide who they want to elect," Pawar stated, adding any attempt to disturb peace or influence voters through force was "against the Constitution and Maharashtra's values."

The poll battle became multi-dimensional with the BJP-led Mahayuti and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) locking horns, interspersed by "friendly fights" among the alliances.
Nearly five months after the toxic waste, soil and packaging material linked to the Bhopal gas tragedy were incinerated at a plant in Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh, around 900 tonne of ash generated in the process is still lying without disposal.

IMAGE: Visuals from the site where Union Carbide waste will be burnt as part of the trial process in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh, February 28, 2025. Photograph: ANI on X

The incineration of entire 358 tonne of matter -- 337 tonne of toxic waste, 19 tonnes of contaminated soil and 2.2 tonnes of packaging material -- from the defunct Union Carbide factory had concluded in the beginning of July this year, over six months after the consignment was brought to the unit from Bhopal.

The waste was burned in an incinerator using a scientific process, mixing lime and other materials, producing approximately 900 tonnes of ash, officials said.

They said the state government had planned to bury the generated ash in a landfill cell under construction on the premises of the Pithampur plant, located near Tarpura, a village with a population of about 20,000, in Dhar district.

However, nearly two months back, the Madhya Pradesh High Court directed the state government to find an alternative site to dispose of the ash saying its disposal near human habitation is "unacceptable".

According to officials, the ash is currently safely stored in the plant's leak-proof storage shed.

At least 5,479 people were killed and thousands were maimed after the highly toxic methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Union Carbide's pesticide factory in Bhopal on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, making it one of the biggest industrial disasters in the world.

The Jabalpur bench of the high court on October 8 this year rejected a proposal to bury the ash of the toxic waste in a landfill cell being constructed on the Pithampur plant's premises, stating that the facility was too close to human habitation.

"The present containment site for the toxic ash in proximity to human habitation is unacceptable to this court," the HC said.

In its order, the court referred to an interim application filed by an intervener, which stated that tests had found mercury levels in the toxic ash to be above the permissible limit.

The application has been filed by the intervener, which discloses that the tests conducted on the toxic ash still reveal the presence of mercury, which is higher than the permissible limits as disclosed in the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board's report dated August 12, 2025, the HC said.

It also directed the state government to file a report citing alternative sites for containment of this ash.

Under the circumstances, the state is directed to file a report citing alternative sites for containment and also inform the court whether a global tender was floated in order to obtain the best technical expertise of companies/agencies, which may have unimpeachable technical prowess in executing a work of this nature and have dealt with similar cases of containment of toxic chemical waste, it said.

The government officials refuse to comment on the disposal plan, saying the matter was sub judice.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, an official, however, told PTI on Tuesday that the contract awarded to a private company for the disposal of Union Carbide waste includes burying the ash in a dedicated landfill cell within the Pithampur plant premises, and that all safety standards are being observed during this construction.

The construction of this landfill cell is in its final stages, he said.

Pithampur, about 30 km from Indore, is a major industrial area in the state. This industrial area houses approximately 1,250 units, employing thousands of workers, including migrant workers from various states across the country.

Social activists in Pithampur are not in favour of burying the ash in a landfill cell at a waste disposal unit adjacent to human habitation.

Hemant Kumar Hirole, head of local organisation 'Pithampur Bachao Samiti', said the toxic ash should be disposed of in a secluded area, because in the event of an accident, a malfunction in the landfill cell could cause serious harm to the human population and the environment.

Hirole's petition is among five petitions being heard simultaneously by the HC regarding the Union Carbide waste.

He said, "At present, we have no information on whether the state government has selected an alternative site for the disposal of the toxic ash. The state government should clarify the status soon."

Over the past four decades, several plans to dispose of the toxic waste at plants in India and abroad were made and cancelled amid protests. However, it was finally incinerated and reduced to ashes this year at a waste disposal plant operated by a private company in Pithampur.

The State Pollution Control Board officials claimed that emissions of particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen fluoride, and nitrogen oxides, as well as mercury, cadmium, and other heavy metals, were found to be within standard limits during the incineration of the factory waste.

They also said the incineration of Union Carbide factory waste at the Pithampur plant did not cause any adverse health effects to plant workers or residents of the surrounding areas.

The waste was transported to the Pithampur plant, about 250 km from Bhopal, on January 2 this year. This led to several protests in Pithampur. Protesters expressed concerns about the potential harm to human populations and the environment from the disposal of this waste, a claim the state government flatly dismissed.
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.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Tianjin, China on September 1, 2025. Photograph: Press Information Bureau

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.

In a note posted on the Duma website, the Russian Cabinet of Ministers stated that ratification of the document will facilitate mutual use of the two countries' airspace and port calls by Russian and Indian warships.

Furthermore, the agreement will strengthen military cooperation between the two countries, it said.
The Congress on Tuesday said the government's directive on the Sanchar Saathi App smacks of dictatorship and infringes on the right to privacy of citizens. Calling it a "snooping app", the party demanded its immediate rollback.

IMAGE: Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi speaks to the media as she arrives at Parliament House on the first day of the winter Session, in New Delhi on Monday. Photograph: Jitender Gupta/ANI Photo

The Department of Telecom has directed manufacturers and importers of mobile handsets to ensure that its fraud reporting app Sanchar Saathi is pre-installed in all new devices within 90 days.

"The Sanchar Saathi is a snooping app, and clearly it is ridiculous. Citizens have the right to privacy. Everyone must have the right to privacy to send messages to family and friends without the government looking at everything," Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra told reporters.

She said the government is turning the country into a "dictatorship" and they are refusing to talk about anything and not allowing a discussion on anything and that is why Parliament is not functioning."

"It's not just snooping on the telephone. They're turning this country into a dictatorship in every form. Parliament isn't functioning because the government is refusing to discuss anything. It is very easy to blame the Opposition, but they're not allowing any discussion on anything, and that's not democracy," she said, adding that a healthy democracy demands discussion, and everybody has different views, and you hear them out.

Vadra said there is a very fine line between reporting fraud and seeing what every citizen of India is doing on their phone.

"That's not how it should work. There should be an effective system to report fraud. We've discussed this at great length in terms of cyber security. There's a need for cyber security, but that doesn't mean it gives you an excuse to go into every citizen's phone. I don't think any citizen would be happy," the Congress leader said.

Flaying the move, Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala said, "India has now become a 'surveillance state'.

"Is it Official Pegasus or akin to REDFLAG App of North Korea on every Cellphone? India is now a 'Surveillance State'? India will now be a 'Police State'? Right to Privacy & Personal Space are now officially dead," Surjeala said in a post on X.

Citing the DoT order, he said the Sanchar Saathi App will be pre installed on every phone by manufacturer and importers of mobile phones and for all existing cellphone, Sanchar Saathi App will be pushed through software updates.

Once Sanchar Saathi App is installed, its functions can't be disabled or restricted, the order also says.

Surjewala said once a compulsory app is pre-installed, the government can monitor your 'location', monitor your 'search history' and monitor calls, SMS and WhatsApp.

Earlier Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury filed an adjournment motion notice in the Rajya Sabha seeking suspension of business to discuss the government's directions on installation of the Sanchar Saathi App.

The party MP has demanded a discussion under Rule 267 which calls for setting aside all other business to take up the matter.

In her adjournment notice, the party MP said, "The Right to Privacy is an intrinsic facet of the fundamental right to life and personal liberty, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. The Department of Telecommunications' circular directing smartphone manufacturers and importers to pre-load the "Sanchar Saathi" application in a manner that cannot be deleted constitutes a grave affront to this fundamental right".

"Such a mandate enables pervasive surveillance and threatens to place every movement, interaction, and decision of citizens under constant watch, without adequate safeguards or parliamentary oversight," Chowdhury said.

"I, therefore, demand an adjournment of all business of the House to take up an urgent discussion on this critical issue affecting the rights and liberties of our citizens," she said in her notice.

Congress general secretary K C Venugopal had said on Monday that the right to privacy is an intrinsic part of the fundamental right to life and liberty.

"Big Brother cannot watch us. This DoT direction is beyond unconstitutional. The Right to Privacy is an intrinsic part of the fundamental right to life and liberty, enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution.

"A pre-loaded government app that cannot be uninstalled is a dystopian tool to monitor every Indian. It is a means to watch over every movement, interaction and decision of each citizen," Venugopal had said in a post on X.

The DoT direction said all manufacturers and importers of mobile handsets that are intended for use in India shall submit compliance reports to the DoT within 120 days from the issuance of these directions.

Failure to comply with these directions shall attract action under the Telecommunications Act, 2023, the Telecom Cyber Security Rules, 2024 (as amended), and other applicable laws. These directions shall come into force immediately and shall remain in force until amended or withdrawn by the DoT, the communique said.
The Instant Asset Write-Off has been extended to mid-2026, but COSBOA says the $20,000 cap is too low for real investment

Whats happening: The Australian Government has confirmed the Instant Asset Write-Off will continue until 30 June 2026, giving small businesses tax relief on eligible purchases. However, the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia says the current $20,000 threshold is insufficient and calls for a permanent scheme with a $150,000 cap.

Why this matters: Over five million Australians work in small businesses, which contribute hundreds of billions to the economy. COSBOA argues that predictable, long-term investment incentives drive productivity, innovation and growth, while short-term extensions create uncertainty that delays purchasing decisions and weakens competitiveness.

The extension of the Instant Asset Write-Off through to mid-2026 offers welcome certainty for small businesses, but industry leaders say the move doesnt go far enough to support genuine productivity investment.

The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia has acknowledged the governments decision as a positive step, yet maintains that ongoing short-term extensions frustrate planning and undermine confidence across the sector.

Extension confirmed

COSBOA Chair Matthew Addison said locking in the incentive provides clarity for the current financial year, but the real issue lies in the stop-start nature of the policy.

The current $20,000 threshold falls well short of supporting meaningful upgrades in equipment, vehicles, technology and digital tools, Mr Addison said.

The Instant Asset Write-Off allows eligible businesses to claim an immediate tax deduction for asset purchases, rather than depreciating them over time. It has been extended multiple times in recent years, often with uncertainty lingering until late in the financial year.

$20,000 falls short

COSBOA has consistently argued that small business policy only works when it is stable, predictable and aligned with real-world operating costs. The organisation is calling for a permanent scheme with a threshold of at least $150,000.

Small businesses want to invest in machinery, digital systems and equipment that improves how they operate. We therefore need a threshold that enables genuine productivity investment, not token purchases, Mr Addison said.

He described a higher, permanent threshold as more than just a tax measure, positioning it as a productivity, innovation and competitiveness strategy.

When small businesses invest, they hire, innovate and digitise. They become more efficient and more resilient. And because many of these assets are purchased locally, the benefits flow through manufacturers, suppliers and service providers, he said.

Productivity at stake

Mr Addison said uncertainty surrounding the IAWO has repeatedly held back investment decisions.

Each time this measure is left unresolved until halfway through the year, or later, businesses delay or cancel purchases. That hesitation affects productivity, growth and confidence. A permanent framework would remove this uncertainty and allow small businesses to plan properly, he said.

The call comes in line with outcomes from the Economic Reform Roundtable, where COSBOA emphasised the need for durable, long-term investment frameworks that genuinely support the sector.

Permanent reform urged

As part of a broader productivity agenda, COSBOA is also advocating for complementary tax reform. The organisation supports the Productivity Commissions recommendation to reduce the small business company tax rate to 20 per cent.

Lowering the tax rate for small business would directly strengthen investment capacity and economic growth, Mr Addison said. Its an important next step that would work hand-in-hand with a permanent Instant Asset Write-Off.

COSBOAs long-standing position, reflected in submissions to Treasury and the Productivity Commission, centres on four key elements: a permanent Instant Asset Write-Off, a threshold aligned to real operating costs of at least $150,000, clear and timely communication from government, and predictable long-term policy settings.

Small businesses employ more than five million Australians and contribute hundreds of billions to the economy, Mr Addison said. If we want a stronger, more competitive economy, we need to give small business the confidence to invest. A permanent IAWO is one of the simplest, most effective steps the Government can take.

COSBOA will continue working with government, Treasury and MPs to ensure long-term investment incentives remain central to the policy agenda.

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed trial proceedings against former Karnataka chief minister B S Yediyurappa in a sexual harassment case filed under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

IMAGE: Former Karnataka chief minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader B S Yediyurappa. Photograph: ANI Photo

A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi passed the interim order while hearing Yediyurappa's plea challenging the Karnataka High Court's refusal to quash the case.

"Issue notice. Meanwhile, trial proceedings shall remain stayed," CJI Kant said.

The bench said the notice was being issued primarily to consider remanding the matter back to the high court.

Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, representing Yediyurappa, said the high court had 'ignored key evidence' and failed to consider statements suggesting that 'nothing as such happened' during the alleged incident.

"There are certain statements which prosecution suppresses, the high court ignored facts. He has been chief minister four times," Luthra said.

"How can you compel the high court to hold a mini trial," the CJI asked.

The FIR under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act arises from a complaint filed on March 14, 2024 by a woman, now deceased, who alleged that Yediyurappa molested her 17-year-old daughter during a visit to his residence to seek assistance.

She further alleged that the former CM attempted to hush up the incident by offering money.

Based on her complaint, police registered a first information report (FIR) under various provisions of the POCSO Act pertaining to offences of sexual assault and harassment.

Later, on July 4, 2024, a trial court took cognisance of offences not only against Yediyurappa but also against three others for alleged destruction of evidence and attempts to suppress the case.

The Karnataka high court subsequently quashed this cognisance order as 'cryptic' and directed the trial court to reconsider.

Following this, on February 28, the Fast-Track Special Court issued a fresh cognisance order and summoned Yediyurappa and other accused for appearance on March 15.

Yediyurappa challenged the February 28 order and the complaint itself before the high court, saying the allegations were politically motivated and inconsistent.

The high court, however, declined to quash the case last month, prompting the former CM to move the top court.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday asserted that there are no differences between him and his deputy D K Shivakumar, and that they both are running the government unitedly like 'brothers', and will continue to do so in the future too.

IMAGE: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah reaches Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar's residence for a breakfast meeting, in Bengaluru on Tuesday. Photograph: @DKShivakumar/ANI Photo

Reiterating that both of them will abide by the decision of the Congress high command on the leadership issue, he said Shivakumar will become the CM when the high command decides.

In an apparent display of unity, Siddaramaiah on Tuesday visited Shivakumar's residence for breakfast, just days after the two broke bread in the wake of a raging power tussle. Following breakfast, both leaders asserted that they and the entire party were united.

"This understanding will always be there. There are no differences. D K Shivakumar and I are united; we run the government unitedly. In the future also we will run the government unitedly," Siddaramaiah told reporters here after the breakfast meeting.

On the leadership issue, he said, as decided in the previous breakfast meeting organised at the CM's residence on Saturday, both of them will abide by the high command's decision.

So far, there is no communication from the high command on the timeline for any decision on the matter. The CM, in response to a question, said, "If they (high command) call us, we will definitely go and meet them. Tomorrow, I will be meeting AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal at a function, where both of us are invited."

Asked when Shivakumar will become the CM, Siddaramaiah said, "When the high command says."

Stating that he was invited by Shivakumar for breakfast, he said, after the breakfast, he and Deputy CM discussed regarding the upcoming legislature session starting from December 8 at Belagavi and the strategy to be adopted, also on organising a meeting of MPs from Karnataka in Delhi on December 8, to discuss on issues concerning the state.

Regarding the cabinet reshuffle, Siddaramaiah said, the high command has to take a decision on it.

Noting that the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal-Secular, as per media reports, are planning to move a no-confidence motion against the government, along with raising several issues, the CM said, the government will 'aggressively' face them.

He said that his government is 'pro farmer' and highlighted the measures taken by the administration to resolve the issues faced by sugarcane and maize farmers in the state.

He further alleged that the centre was not doing enough in this regard.

Earlier, in the day, Siddaramaiah drove down to the Deputy CM's Sadashivanagar residence here, where he was received by Shivakumar and his brother, former Congress MP D K Suresh, and Kunigal MLA H D Ranganath (a relative of Shivakumar).

They had breakfast together, which had a combination of veg and non-veg dishes, including idli and country chicken, according to sources.

Siddaramaiah said Shivakumar had ensured non-vegetarian food for breakfast with country chicken, despite him being vegetarian.

On the reference made to him and Shivakumar, calling them 'brothers', Siddaramaiah said, "We are always brothers, we are in one party and believe in the same ideology. We will work together. In 2028 (Assembly polls) too we will work together and bring Congress back to power."

On Monday Shivakumar had said that he and CM were 'working like brothers', while asserting that there were no groups in the state Congress, and blamed the media for creating confusion.

Shivakumar, who did not speak much, replying to a question on Tuesday, said that all MLAs are united in the Congress party and there are no differences.

Stating that they discussed candidates for four MLC seats, party and government matters, also the strategy for the legislature session, and meeting of MPs from all parties on issues concerning the state, he said, "We will face the opposition during the session; they have an empty trunk. We are with one voice. There are no differences in the party; it's only media creation."

Regarding meeting the high command leaders, Shivakumar said, "They will have to call us."

Following the initial breakfast meeting on Saturday, at the CM's official residence, as part of an attempt by the Congress high command to break the logjam over the leadership row involving the two leaders, both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar had publicly stated that 'there won't be any confusion', and that they would obey the high command on the leadership issue.

The breakfast meetings are seen as a move by the high command to pause the leadership tussle between the two and signal Siddaramaiah's continuation as the CM for the time being, especially ahead of the Belagavi legislature session from December 8.

The power tussle within the ruling party had intensified amid speculations about a change in chief minister in the state after the Congress government reached the halfway mark of its five-year term on November 20.

The speculation was fuelled by talks of a 'power-sharing' agreement said to have been arrived at while the party was elected to power in 2023.

Meanwhile, Home Minister G Parameshwara termed the breakfast meeting as a 'good development' and expressed hope that all issues are settled.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday sharply questioned the legal status of Rohingyas living in India and asked whether "intruders" should be given a "red carpet welcome" while the country's own citizens grapple with poverty.

IMAGE: Jammu and Kashmir police conducting a verification drive to intensify the crackdown on illegal Rohingya settlements in Jammu. Photograph: ANI Photo

A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi made sharp observations while hearing a habeas corpus (bring the person) petition filed by rights activist Rita Manchanda alleging disappearance of few Rohingyas from the custody of authorities in New Delhi.

Now, the hearing in the case has been adjourned to December 16.

The counsel alleged certain Rohingyas were picked up by the Delhi police in May and there was no information about their whereabouts.

"If they do not have legal status to stay in India, and you are an intruder, we have a very sensitive border in the north India side. If an intruder comes, do we give them a red carpet welcome saying we would like to give you all facilities," the CJI asked, adding, "What is the problem in sending them back."

He said India is a country with a lot of poor people, and we should rather focus on them.

"First you enter, you cross the border illegally. You dug a tunnel or crossed the fence and entered India illegally. Then you say, now that I have entered, your laws must apply to me and say, I am entitled to food, I am entitled to shelter, my children are entitled to education. Do we want to stretch the law like this," the CJI asked.

The petitioner referred to an apex court order of 2020 in which it was said that Rohingyas must be deported only according to procedure.

"We also have poor people in the country. They are citizens. Are they not entitled to certain benefits and amenities? Why not concentrate on them? It is true, even if somebody has entered illegally, we should not subject them to third-degree methods... You are asking a writ of habeas to bring them back," CJI Kant asked.

The bench said if repatriation is sought then it may give rise to "logistical issues".

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said the plea has not been filed by an affected person and the petitioner has no locus to file such a plea.

On July 31, the top court, while hearing a batch of pleas concerning Rohingyas in the country, had said the first major issue to be dealt with in cases concerning Rohingyas is whether they are refugees or illegal entrants.

It said once that is decided, the other issues might be consequential.

"The first major issue is simple, are they refugees or illegal entrants," Justice Kant observed.

The bench took note of the broad issues that arose for its consideration in the pleas relating to Rohingyas.

"Whether the Rohingyas are entitled to be declared as refugees? If so, what protections, privileges or rights are they entitled to," the bench asked.

It said the second issue is if the Rohingyas are not refugees and are illegal entrants, whether the action of the Centre and states in deporting them was justified.

"Even if the Rohingyas have been held to be illegal entrants, can they be detained indefinitely or they are entitled to be released on bail, subject to such conditions as the court may deem fit to be imposed," it asked.

The court said the other issue raised in the petitions is whether the Rohingyas, who have not been detained and are living in refugee camps, have been provided basic amenities like drinking water, sanitation and education.

"If the Rohingyas are illegal entrants, whether the government of India and the states are obligated to deport them in accordance with law," it noted.

The bench segregated the pleas in three groups -- one relating to Rohingyas, another not pertaining to the issue of Rohingyas and one plea that it said pertains to a different matter altogether.

It said the three groups of matters would be determined separately and it would fix those for hearing on consecutive Wednesdays.

The bench indicated that on the point of those who were found to be illegal entrants and on the question of the State's responsibility to deport them, it could only lay down the principles.

On May 16, the apex court had rapped some petitioners who had claimed that 43 Rohingya refugees, including women and children, were dropped in the Andaman sea for deportation to Myanmar and said, When the country is passing through a difficult time, you come out with fanciful ideas."

It had questioned the authenticity of the material placed before it by petitioner Mohammad Ismail and others and refused to stay any further deportation of Rohingyas, saying a similar relief was denied by the court earlier.

On May 8, the top court had said if the Rohingya refugees in the country were found to be foreigners under Indian laws, they would have to be deported.

The court had then referred to its earlier order and remarked that the identity cards issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) may not be of any help to them under the laws.
The Tamil Nadu government has told the Supreme Court that the Karur stampede in which 41 people were killed, is attributable to a series of "reckless and uncoordinated actions" by the organisers and workers of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam party.

IMAGE: Massive crowd gather for actor-politician Vijay's rally during a public event, in Karur, Tamil Nadu, September 27, 2025. Photograph: TVK/ANI Photo

In an affidavit filed before the top court, the state government said there was an intentional delay of approximately seven hours by Vijay at the designated Karur site to invite more crowd at the venue.

"Thiru C Joseph Vijay, leader of the TVK party, departed Chennai at 8.40 am by air en route to Tiruchirappalli, arriving at approximately 9.25 am. He subsequently proceeded to Namakkal to attend a scheduled programme and departed thereafter for Kaur, which resulted in an arrival delay of approximately seven hours at the designated Karur venue. It shows his intentional delay to invite more crowd at the venue," the state government said.

Defending its arrangements, the state government said the Karur district police started deploying bandobust strength from 10.00 am on September 27, ensuring all security, crowd control, and traffic management arrangements were in place well in advance.

"However, in a grossly irresponsible and misleading act, the official X (Twitter) handle of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam publicly announced that Thiru C Joseph Vijay would arrive at 12 pm, directly contradicting the permission granted and the schedule furnished in the petitioner's own request," the affidavit said.

The Tamil Nadu government said the state general secretary of TVK, through a press statement on the same day, incited premature public congregation at the venue.

"As a direct consequence of these unauthorised and misleading communications, thousands of supporters began assembling as early as 9.30 am, causing massive crowd accumulation, vehicular congestion, and public restlessness several hours before the event's scheduled commencement."

"The attendees, many of whom had travelled long distances, were forced to wait in the scorching heat without basic amenities, leading to dehydration, fatigue among the crowd," it said.

The Tamil Nadu government submitted that the police force remained steadfastly deployed and operational, exercising exceptional restraint and professionalism throughout the extended waiting period.

"The fact that order and public safety were maintained until the late arrival of the TVK leader-delayed by nearly seven hours-clearly demonstrates that the entire situation was effectively managed within the operational capacity of the police, despite the reckless and uncoordinated conduct of the organisers. It is to note there were no stampede since the TVK leader arrived at the venue," the affidavit said.

The top court on October 13 had ordered a CBI probe into the Karur stampede, saying that the incident had shaken the national conscience and deserved a fair and impartial investigation.

In its order on a plea by TVK for an independent probe, the top court also set up a three-member supervisory committee headed by former apex court judge Ajay Rastogi to monitor the CBI investigation.

Earlier, the police said the rally saw a turnout of 27,000, nearly three times the expected 10,000 participants, and blamed a seven-hour delay by Vijay in reaching the venue for the tragedy.
Even by conservative assumptions that 5 to 10 per cent of infected individuals develop long Covid, India today may be home to 50 to 100 million infected individuals -- many silently coping with breathlessness, fatigue, palpitations, brain fog, or unexplained clotting tendencies.

IMAGE: A health worker holds blood samples taken from people during a serological survey at a local health centre in New Delhi for COVID-19. Photograph: Rahul Singh/ANI Photo

More than five years after the first wave, COVID-19 continues to cast its shadow over India's health landscape.

A new study published in the Journal of Medical Virology (October 2025) has added renewed urgency to the need to tackle a subject clinicians have been flagging over the years: Persistent blood abnormalities in long Covid patients that may be causing chronic fatigue, cognitive problems, and cardiovascular symptoms.

The study -- led by researchers from France and South Africa -- found that long Covid patients showed lasting changes in their 'complement system' -- a group of 20 proteins that are integral to natural immunity.

The markers of 'complement activation' remained elevated long after the infection itself had abated, reinforcing the theory that chronic immune activation and tiny, hard-to-detect blood clots are central to long Covid's persistence.

Although the findings don't prove that these clots cause long Covid, they strengthen the theory that persistent immune and vascular dysfunction play an important role.

For India, the implications are significant -- around 45 million Covid infections have been officially reported since 2020.

But actual numbers may be far higher because of unreported incidence of a single person contracting Covid multiple times.

A study led by Banaras Hindu University (BHU)nresearchers published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases in 2023 estimated that the actual coronavirus cases in the country may have been between 580 million to 980 million.

The research has shown that the 'actual corona infection in India was at least 17 times higher', according to a statement by BHU last year.

This could be due to the overwhelming number of asymptomatic people, which was several-fold higher than those who showed symptoms -- the basis for the official count.

The Indian Council of Medical Research's fourth national serosurvey in mid-2021 showed 67.6 per cent seroprevalence, suggesting that actual virus exposure would have exceeded 900 million by that point alone.

With subsequent waves, experts estimate that virtually the entire adult population of India has been infected at least once, and many twice or thrice.

Even by conservative assumptions that 5 to 10 per cent of infected individuals develop long Covid, India today may be home to 50 to 100 million infected individuals -- many silently coping with breathlessness, fatigue, palpitations, brain fog, or unexplained clotting tendencies.

Against this backdrop, the new study's findings, which strengthen biological explanations for long Covid, are particularly relevant to clinicians across the country who often struggle to diagnose the condition in the absence of definitive tests.

The Journal of Medical Virology paper focuses on the complement system.

In long Covid patients, researchers found persistent elevation of complement fragments (the proteins), signs of blood vessel stress, evidence of ongoing microclot formation, and altered inflammatory pathways.

What distinguishes this study is its detailed immune profiling and its conclusion that long Covid is not merely psychosomatic or a residual-post viral syndrome but a measurable biological state involving immune dysregulation.

For India's medical community, where long Covid is often underdiagnosed or mislabelled as stress or anxiety, these findings offer a clearer path.

"Recent research has indeed highlighted unusual or persistent changes in the blood of individuals with long Covid, and these findings are extremely significant," said Dr Manisha Arora, director, internal medicine, C K Birla Hospital, Delhi.

"We have observed several blood-related abnormalities after COVID-19, Most notably a higher incidence of thrombosis -- pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, myocardial infarction due to coronary thrombosis, and even cerebral venous sinus thrombosis."

In rare cases, she has seen clotting in major intra-abdominal arteries, "which was previously uncommon but is now being increasingly reported".

This aligns closely with the study's central message: The immune system of long Covid patients does not return to baseline, and persistent inflammation continues to damage healthy cells and blood vessels.

A silent burden

India's Covid survivors are a heterogeneous group: Elderly individuals, young adults infected multiple times, those with comorbidities, and others who were just asymptomatic.

As post-pandemic clinic patterns emerge, vascular and cardiac complaints continue to be a steady trend.

"Yes, we have seen a clear rise in vascular and circulation-related complications after COVID-19," Dr Arora noted.

"Pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, myocardial infarction and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis were especially prominent after major waves."

These conditions refer to breathlessness, heart attacks and blockage of veins in the brain. This aligns with global epidemiological evidence.

The UK Biobank -- a 'bank' of human samples -- tracked 10,005 Covid patients and found they had double the risk of major cardiovascular events over about 1,000 days.

Those hospitalised had nearly four times the risk compared with never-infected individuals.

But Indian cardiologists point to other factors too.

"In day-to-day clinical practice, physicians are not observing a dramatic rise in heart attacks solely due to Covid," said Dr Rushikesh Patil, associate director-cardiology at Dr L H Hiranandani Hospital, Mumbai.

He noted that lifestyle factors such as "poor habits, stress, and obesity may act as confounding factors," even though Covid clearly worsens cardiovascular risk in the acute phase.

One mechanism he highlights is the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) -- filament-like structures released by certain white blood cells.

These are key parts of the body's natural immune system but they can trigger clotting in tiny vessels, affecting organs like the lungs and brain.

"These NETs are believed to contribute significantly to long Covid symptoms," Dr Patil said.

One theory suggests the formation of tiny blood clots that are too small to cause major events like a stroke or heart attack can still impair the function of organs such as the lungs and brain.

"Early in the pandemic, studies showed that Covid affected the cardiovascular system in up to 25 per cent of patients, leading to issues such as irregular heartbeats, heart failure, strokes, and heart attacks. Long-term data, however, is still limited," Dr Patil added.

It has also been documented that individuals with blood group O have a lower risk of heart disease than those with A, B, or AB blood types.

The difficulty lies in disentangling long Covid from India's already-heavy burden of metabolic and heart disease. For clinicians, understanding the biological signatures becomes essential.

India aligns

The Indian experience matches what the global research community is reporting.

"Many people with long Covid show changes in their blood, including tiny clots, overactive platelets, and stressed blood vessels," said Dr Deepesh G Aggarwal, consultant physician and head of the critical care medicine department at Saifee Hospital, Mumbai.

"These small clots make it harder for blood to flow through the smallest vessels, which lowers oxygen supply and leads to symptoms like constant tiredness and brain fog."

Blood tests in symptomatic patients often show elevated markers such as D-dimer, Factor VIII, and von Willebrand Factor (VWF) -- indicators of clotting stress, Dr Aggarwal added.

Red blood cells, too, may change shape and flexibility, making physical exertion harder.

Low iron levels and inflammation-related anaemia are common, compounding fatigue.

These insights mirror what the Journal of Medical Virology study finds in European and South African patients -- suggesting long Covid may share core biological features across populations.

Hidden cost

Epidemiologists broadly estimate 50 million to 100 million Indians suffering from long Covid.

Not all long-Covid cases are severe or persistent. But even if 10 million to 20 million individuals face moderate impairment affecting productivity or exercise tolerance, the economic impact is not trivial.

Unlike Western nations, where long Covid clinics were set up early on in the pandemic, India's health system -- stretched by the periodic surges -- has had to integrate long Covid care into general internal-medicine and cardiology care. This risks missing subtle cases.

"Long Covid often goes unrecognised," Dr Arora cautioned.

"Its symptoms overlap with many other chronic conditions. The absence of objective biomarkers further complicates diagnosis."

Dr Aggarwal agrees, emphasising that variations between patients mean doctors rely more on evaluating symptoms and related conditions than standardised testing.

As India continues to struggle with non-communicable diseases -- heart disease, diabetes, obesity -- the overlapping spectrum of long Covid may further strain primary care systems.

Even before Covid, India was the heart disease capital of the world, with nearly 2.8 million deaths annually attributed to cardiovascular conditions.

Post-pandemic, anecdotal evidence of younger heart attack victims made headlines, but cardiologists say the story is more layered.

Covid may have accelerated underlying risks for some, but lifestyle factors, genetic predisposition, and delayed care during lockdowns contributed as well.

Dr Patil noted that while acute Covid clearly increases heart complications, the longer-term impact is modest when compared with lifestyle-driven disease.

However, when even a small percentage of a billion-plus population faces increased clotting risks or cardiovascular stress, the absolute numbers remain high.

The new research does not answer all questions, but it shifts the discourse from 'Is long Covid real?' to 'How do we test, monitor, and treat it?'

As India confronts the legacy of a pandemic that touched almost every home, recognising long Covid as a biological condition -- not merely as subjective symptoms -- could shape future policy, health budgets, insurance coverage, and workplace practices.

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff
Australian fintechs in payments, AI and regtech connected with Southeast Asian banks and investors at Singapore FinTech Festival, generating new market entry opportunities through Austrades Landing Pads network.

Whats happening: More than 30 Australian fintech companies attended the 2025 Singapore FinTech Festival as part of a government-backed delegation, securing over 100 business meetings with regional investors, banks and corporate innovation teams.

Why this matters: Southeast Asias digital economy is forecast to approach $1 trillion by 2030, driven by rising digital adoption and demand for innovative financial services.

Australian fintech companies are accelerating their push into Southeast Asia, with more than 30 firms joining a government-backed delegation to one of the worlds largest financial technology events.

The Team Australia delegation attended the 2025 Singapore FinTech Festival, where participants secured over 100 targeted business meetings with regional investors, regulators, banks and corporate innovation teams across three days, according to Austrade.

100-plus meetings secured

Delivered in partnership with Investment NSW, Global Victoria and FinTech Australia, the delegation showcased Australian strengths across payments and embedded finance, AI-enabled financial services, regtech and compliance technology, and digital lending and alternative credit platforms.

The Australian Pavilion facilitated engagements that generated new opportunities for pilot projects, partnerships and market entry exploration.

The strong engagement reflects increasing alignment between Australian fintech capability and Southeast Asias digital transformation priorities, with the festival drawing more than 65,000 participants from over 130 countries at last years event.

$1 trillion target market

Southeast Asias digital economy is undergoing rapid expansion, driven by strong demographics, rising digital adoption and accelerating demand for innovative financial services.

By 2030, the regions digital economy is forecast to approach $1 trillion, presenting significant commercial opportunities for Australian fintech companies looking to expand beyond domestic markets.

The Singapore FinTech Festival has become one of the worlds most influential platforms for global fintech collaboration, with Singapore serving as a regional hub for digital finance and innovation.

Austrades Southeast Asia Landing Pads network, operating in Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam, supports export-ready Australian tech companies by identifying market pathways, refining regional value propositions, facilitating introductions to investors and partners, and providing insights into the regions regulatory and operating environment.

At this years festival, the Australian fintech delegation engaged in curated meetings, side events and ecosystem visits designed to help validate commercial potential across multiple Southeast Asian markets.

New partnerships signed

The festival also saw renewed momentum in cross-border collaboration between Australian and regional firms.

Australias Cognitivo and Singapores ST Engineering signed a memorandum of understanding to co-develop AI-powered solutions for financial institutions in both markets. The collaboration will leverage complementary strengths in AI knowledge platforms and enterprise-scale AI orchestration.

Austrade also renewed its collaboration with Fintech Alliance.Ph, reinforcing government-to-industry engagement between Australian and Philippines fintech ecosystems.

These initiatives highlight the festivals role as a catalyst for deepening bilateral cooperation and driving regional innovation, with formal partnerships emerging alongside exploratory commercial discussions.

Landing Pads support expansion

Australian companies looking to expand into Southeast Asia can connect with Austrade to explore market pathways, understand regulatory settings and identify commercial partners.

Support is available through the Southeast Asia Landing Pads and the Go Global Toolkit, which offers advisory services, practical tools and export-readiness resources for firms assessing regional expansion opportunities.

The government agency said it looks forward to supporting more Australian innovators as they pursue growth across Southeast Asia, with the fintech sector representing a key priority area for trade development in the regions rapidly evolving digital economy.

Information in this article is sourced from Austrades official announcement.

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Police seized cash from the safe of an alleged prostitution-ring boss in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Photo by VnExpress/Nhat Vy

A former flight attendant and her Chinese boyfriend are at the center of a widening criminal case in Ho Chi Minh City, accused of turning a karaoke restaurant into a tightly managed prostitution network involving hundreds of young women.

According to an indictment released by city prosecutors, Dinh Thi Thanh Tuyen, 32, and her partner Zhang Lei, 40, allegedly recruited about 200 female hostesses to work at the Tai Nguyen Fortuner II restaurant and permitted sex work under a set of "secret code."

Both have been charged with procuring prostitution, along with five other managers tied to the operation. The case is set for trial in December.

Investigators say the couple took over the restaurant in mid-2022 and managed it together from early 2023. Only customers from mainland China, Malaysia and Taiwan were allowed, and the pair allegedly held frequent meetings with their management team to coordinate how sex services would be arranged.

Hostesses who agreed to sell sex were logged in a special book using uppercase letters, while those who declined were marked in lowercase. Their names were also circulated daily through a Telegram group so managers could steer customers accordingly.

When clients requested sexual services, managers allegedly lined up the hostesses in two rows: one for those willing to sell sex and one for those who were not, before sending selected women to nearby hotels. Prices were fixed at VND4 million (US$152) per session or VND7 million overnight, investigators said.

The operation unraveled on Oct. 17, 2023, when police raided the restaurant and two nearby hotels, catching five hostesses in the act of prostitution. All defendants have admitted their roles, according to the indictment.

Zhang and Tuyen told investigators they allowed prostitution to "attract customers" and boost revenue, but insisted they did not personally take a cut from sex-work transactions.

Authorities say the pair earned roughly VND2.4 billion during their time running the venue, which they claim was fully reinvested into renovations and operations.

Several managers said they had not yet been paid salaries, though some had received tips from customers.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Sofia and other Bulgarian cities to join protests late on December 1 against the ruling coalition's budget plans, forcing the government to withdraw them the next morning.

But the crowds were also chanting "resign" amid deeper anger about corruption and economic issues as Independence Square was filled with people in the largest demonstrations since the 1990s.

"The whole situation with the scumbags who have been in power for 30 years or more simply needs to stop. We are the people who need to change this," said Alexander Karatov, a protester in Sofia.

Opposition parties meeting on December 2 demanded the government step down and call snap elections -- or face renewed protests.

Why Now?

The immediate focus of the protests was a budget that raised individual contributions to pension and social-security programs. The demonstrations were called by opposition parties that do not enjoy high public support.

But the budget's increases -- coupled with pay hikes for state employees such as law enforcement -- appear to have been a lightning rod for longstanding anger about corruption and government waste.

Karatov told RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service that his social-security payments and taxes were not being handled transparently.

"As a worker, I am already being stolen from. And regularly. And they want to steal more. I definitely don't want to let them do that," he added.

His views appeared to be widely shared, with protesters chanting that the government was "a mafia."

Transparency International ranks Bulgaria as the second-most corrupt country in the European Union, only behind Hungary. Bulgaria is the EU's poorest country, according to the bloc's statistics office.

It is also one of the bloc's most politically unstable members. Bulgarians have headed to the polls seven times since 2021 to elect a parliament that has been hamstrung by a series of unstable coalitions led by multiple centrist and right-wing parties.

Photo Gallery: Protests Erupt In Bulgaria Over Budget, Government 'Corruption' Some of the largest protests in modern Bulgaria's history broke out throughout the country on December 1 against a 2026 budget that would see taxes hiked and social-security contributions raised by a government many Bulgarians view as corrupt.









Another protester, Karolina Koleva, told RFE/RL she would accept higher taxes to finance "pensioners, mothers, teachershealth care" but that "this money will sink again into bonuses for various people."

Is The Government Threatened?

This is the second time in weeks that the government's budget proposals have faced protests. It initially announced it would "revise" its plans following protests on November 28. Now it has said it will go right back to the drawing board.

The scale of the December 1 demonstrations took people by surprise. Unusually, they were not only in Sofia. Crowds massed in numerous towns and cities across Bulgaria.

Many issues appear to have contributed. Some people were angry about Bulgaria's decision to adopt the euro currency from January 1.

There was also evident antipathy toward particular politicians, namely Boyko Borisov, who has been prime minister three times for a total of nine years between 2009-2021, and Delyan Peevski, a legislator and oligarch who has been sanctioned for corruption by Britain and the United States.

Neither currently holds a government position, but they are leaders of two of the parties that make up the ruling coalition.

Protestor Stoycho Stoychev told RFE/RL the two men were "symbols of the conquered state." He said he had come to Independence Square because of the "outrages" of the past 15 years.

This was another factor driving people to the streets: the fact that politicians like Borisov have been in and around the center of power for decades.

Adding to the groundswell was support for the mayor of Varna, Blagomir Kotsev, newly released after months in custody on corruption charges that his supporters said were politically motivated.

"Democracy has been corrupted and we must take it back," Kotsev told protesters in Varna. Demonstrators in Sofia, watching his speech on giant screens, chanted "Victory."

There was no immediate comment from Borisov, Peevski, or Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov.

Late on December 1, there were some clashes between police and protesters. Bulgarian authorities reported 10 people had been detained. But overall, across the country, the gatherings were peaceful.
Iran's first Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) counterterrorism drill is less about joint military strength and more about sending a signal: Tehran wants the world to see it as strategically relevant, even if the exercise itself demonstrates little real multilateral capability.

The five-day "Sahand 2025" drill under the SCO's Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) began on December 1 at the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' (IRGC) Imam Zaman Mechanized Brigade base in Shabestar County, East Azerbaijan Province, near Iran's northwestern borders.

According to the IRGC, the exercises include participation from SCO members -- Belarus, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan -- and observer states and focus on joint operations against terrorism, separatism, and extremism -- the core pillars of RATS' mandate.

But analysts say the exercise's military significance is limited. It is small in scale, lightly attended, and unlikely to meaningfully advance joint operational capability.

Politically, Iran is hoping to leverage the SCO to project alignment with major Eurasian powers and counter the perception of isolation, even if the organization remains fragmented and uncertain about its strategic role. Whether that will succeed is another question.

"An anti-terrorism exercise does not indicate that Iran's relationship with countries like Russia and China is leveling up," Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute, told RFE/RL's Radio Farda, highlighting the symbolic rather than transformative nature of the drills.

Nadimi argued that SCO members are unlikely to have a strong presence in the drills.

"They're probably there just to observe and the heavy lifting will be done by the [IRGC's] mechanized brigade," he said, noting the absence of reporting on member states transporting military hardware to Iran.

Iran's parliament speaker and former IRGC air force commander Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf framed the drill as a geopolitical message to Western capitals.

"Independent countries are firmly determined to defend themselves against an unjust global order," he declared in a December 2 speech.

But Nadimi said Tehran is overstating the drill's strategic importance.

"This is likely a message to Azerbaijan and Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as Iranian Kurdish groups based in Iraq," he said. "I don't think an exercise at this level and quality can have any other goals, such as serving as a deterrent against Israel."

Northwestern Iran remains one of the country's most sensitive security zones, home to long-standing separatist sentiment among ethnic Azeris and Kurds. The region has seen activity from Kurdish groups Tehran labels terrorist organizations and serves as a corridor for smuggling networks operating across borders with Armenia as well s Azerbaijan and its Naxcivan exclave.

Tehran's SCO membership -- formalized in 2023 after nearly two decades as an observer -- gives Iran access to expanded intelligence-sharing and the ability to seek formal terrorist designations through RATS. At home, officials have highlighted SCO membership as a diplomatic break from Western isolation.

But the organization itself is struggling to define its purpose.

Analysts widely argue that the SCO faces an identity crisis: its mission has blurred over time, mixing counterterrorism cooperation with trade, cultural programs, and broad geopolitical messaging against Western influence.

Internal divisions further complicate matters. Russia increasingly views the SCO as an anti-Western bloc reinforcing its influence in Central Asia, while China prioritizes counterterrorism coordination and advancing its global governance vision. Geographic expansion -- admitting India and Pakistan in 2017, Iran in 2023, and Belarus in 2024 -- has widened the group's reach but also deepened its internal contradictions.

Reza Jamali of RFE/RL's Radio Farda contributed to this report.
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Tens of thousands of people rallied in Sofia demanding the withdrawal of Bulgarias 2026 draft budget, which critics say boosts state salaries while burdening the private sector. The December 1 protest escalated late in the evening, leading to clashes with police, injuries, and multiple detentions.
Russia claimed it had captured a strategic city in Ukraine's Donbas region, an announcement that appeared timed to a critical Kremlin meeting with visiting US officials trying to finalize a peace deal.

Ukrainian officials on December 2 denied the claim, made by Russia's top military commander to President Vladimir Putin in a video released a day earlier.

In the video, Russia's top military commander, General Valery Gerasimov, was shown detailing recent battlefield gains by Russian forces. Ukraine has been struggling for months to hold back Russian troops, in particular around the cities of Kupyansk, in the north; and Pokrovsk, in the south.

Using the old Russian name for Pokrovsk, Krasnoarmeysk, Gerasimov asserted that Russian forces had finally taken the city.

"Search and assault operations and the elimination of the enemy in urban areas continue in Pokrovsk," the Ukrainian military's eastern command wrote on Facebook on December 2.

The statement said that Russian forces had used poor weather conditions to plant their flag in a district of Pokrovsk for propaganda purposes, in an attempt to prove that they had taken control of the entire city.

"After that, they fled in a hurry," the statement added.

"Despite unfavorable weather conditions, our units continue aerial reconnaissance, targeting and fire strikes against enemy groups," according to the statement.

Putin was scheduled to host White House special envoy Steve Witkoff later on December 2, amid a flurry of efforts to find a resolution to end Russia's nearly four-year war on Ukraine.

The meeting -- Witkoff's sixth with Putin since January -- followed the release of a US-drafted peace plan that was seen as heavily favorable to Russia. Ukrainian officials have scrambled, meeting top US officials in Geneva and trying water down Russian hard-line positions.

As Witkoff was en route to Moscow, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy questioned the Kremlin's motives for the talks, saying it was seeking the easing of Western sanctions and not peace.

"We note that the Russians have already launched new disinformation campaigns in view of preparations for their upcoming meetings with the American side," Zelenskyy wrote in a post on social media.

He added that Kyiv will "provide partners with all available information regarding Russias true intentions and its attempts to use diplomatic engagement as cover to weaken sanctions and block important collective European decisions."

Russia has routinely claimed key battlefield victories in Ukraine, claims that have turned out to be either premature or outright false. Gerasimov recently declared Russia had encircled forces in Kupyansk, something that was untrue.

One of the primary Ukrainian units defending Pokrovsk, the Air Assault Forces' 7th Rapid Response Corps, said Kyiv's troops "continue to hold back" the Russian offensive.

Earlier on December 1, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meeting in Paris with French leader Emmanuel Macron, acknowledged Russian advances.

"Certainly, Russia is making progress; certainly, Russia is carrying out several offensive actions and operations. None of these operations have been successful," he said at a press conference.

"There are heavy battles going on in Pokrovsk and other areas. For example, our guys are having more success in the Kupyansk area. Although Russia claims to have captured Kupyansk, we've cleared almost everyone out of the city," he said.
Welcome to Wider Europe, RFE/RL's newsletter focusing on the key issues concerning the European Union, NATO, and other institutions and their relationships with the Western Balkans and Europe's Eastern neighborhoods.

I'm RFE/RL Europe Editor Rikard Jozwiak, and this week I am drilling down on two issues: a crucial month for the EU's Ukraine funding and a preview of the OSCE ministerial in Vienna.

Briefing #1: Could The EU Agree On A Reparations Loan For Ukraine Before 2026?

What You Need To Know: If there's one way European Union officials feel they can get a seat at the table when it comes the settlement of the war in Ukraine, it is via the 176 billion euros ($204 billion) of Russian frozen assets currently held inside the bloc and how that can be leveraged both politically and economically.

Last month, the EU saw itself largely bypassed when the United States presented a peace plan that was "refined" once US and Ukrainian diplomats met in Geneva a few days later.

European officials, speaking to RFE/RL under condition of anonymity, say they have succeeded in removing some of the original text's ideas related directly to Ukrainian membership in the EU and NATO.

But Europe has a golden ticket up its sleeve that could secure it a spot at the negotiating table: funding for Ukraine.

Having committed "to covering the financial needs of Ukraine for 2026 and 2027," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently gave member states three options for getting an estimated 140 billion euros to Kyiv over the next two years.

With the United States reluctant to commit any new money for Ukraine, the EU's willingness to step up has become crucial for Kyiv as Russia's full-scale invasion nears its four-year anniversary.

The first option spelled out by von der Leyen in the paper is for individual member states to give Ukraine the cash. In the second, the European Commission would raise the necessary funds on the financial markets.

But it's the third option -- a reparations loan leveraging frozen Russian sovereign wealth assets in the EU -- that is the most popular, as it wouldn't directly hit the pockets of EU taxpayers.

It's not that straightforward, however.

Deep Background: Firstly, time is running out to decide, and Belgium, where most of these assets are frozen, still opposes the move. Then there's the United States, which in its original proposal also expressed interest in obtaining a large part of the funds.

Von der Leyen told the European Parliament on November 26 that she couldn't "see any scenario in which the European taxpayers alone will pay the bill" for Ukraine and that she was ready to present the legal text for the reparations loan.

According to RFE/RL sources, the European Commission is currently working on as many as 11 legal acts when it comes to the loan, and there is plenty of frustration in EU capitals that have yet to see concrete details of how the plan would work.

A European Commission official told RFE/RL that the original idea was to first secure political backing for the reparations loan when EU leaders gather at an EU summit in Brussels on December 18. The finer points would be ironed out early next year to allow the money to start flowing to Kyiv by the second quarter of 2026.

There's also a fear that national diplomats and lawyers would get bogged down in details and derail any chances of a deal if the legal acts are presented too soon.

Drilling Down

Belgium, which hosts the financial markets company Euroclear where most Russian bonds are frozen, wants to see proper guarantees from other EU member states as it expects a legal retaliation from Moscow. To shoulder claims of 140 billion euros from Russia -- an amount that is one-third of Belgium's annual GDP -- would be a disaster for the country.

In a letter seen by RFE/RL addressed to von der Leyen on the topic by Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, he once again spelled out his concerns. "While l have full sympathy for the argument that the European taxpayer should not be the only one picking up the tab for the financial support of Ukraine, the brutal legal reality is that at no moment in history have immobilized sovereign assets been 're-purposed' during an ongoing war," he wrote. "Such assets have been the object of decisions during post-war settlements, usually in the context of war reparations by the losing party."

The European Commission, however, still believes an agreement can be made in December if enough EU member states make legally binding guarantees to back the reparations loan based on their gross national income (GNI). This means smaller -- and more skeptical -- countries such as Hungary and Slovakia can opt out as their total share of EU GNI is miniscule.

But the other wealthier and larger European countries need to be onboard to share the costs. And Brussels hopes other non-EU G7 countries could chip in, as well.

"If the European Council were to be called upon to decide on a reparations loan scheme at its upcoming meeting, it will only be possible on the basis that all the concerns expressed above are adequately and fully covered," De Wever wrote at the end of his letter to Von der Leyen. This includes a full guarantee to be provided by willing member states enabling Euroclear to maintain liquidity of the assets for their total amount."

But the Belgians aren't the only obstacle to be overcome. There's also the "American angle," as some EU officials put it. The original 28-point US peace plan noted "$100 billion in frozen Russian assets will be invested in US-led efforts to rebuild and invest in Ukraine" and that "the US will receive 50 percent of the profits from this venture."

This wording truly rattled European politicians and diplomats alike, especially as they had envisioned that the money given to Ukraine in the shape of a reparations loan to a large extent would be used by Kyiv to buy European-produced weapons.

EU officials say most parts of the original US proposal have been watered down or taken out completely, but they admit that any final document could change considerably and they aren't privy to the latest discussions on the wording.

While the EU would want the reparation loan to be a European project, most diplomats concede it is essential to keep Washington onboard -- and happy. That could mean being open to the idea of the United States getting some of the funds or at least Ukraine using the cash to buy American arms.

Crucially, though, Brussels also has to ensure that the United States continues to pressure Hungary into agreeing to the rollover of EU sanctions, which include the frozen Russian assets, every six months.

In July, when it was time to renew the measures, Hungary didn't threaten a veto, and this was largely due to American pressure. Brussels hopes the United States will play that same role when the sanctions need to be extended again in January.





Briefing #2: A Lavrov-Rubio No-Show As OSCE Ministers Gather In Vienna

What You Need To Know: The Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) will gather in Vienna for its annual ministerial meeting on December 4-5. And while up to 40 foreign ministers from the 57 member states are expected to come to the Austrian capital, the headline will be that the two most watched members won't make an appearance: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

The lack of high-level representatives from Washington and Moscow, coupled with the expectation that the OSCE will once again fail to pass a budget or agree on which country will chair the club going forward, means the question marks over an organization celebrating its 50th birthday this year will continue to grow.

The main talking point ahead of the Vienna meeting was that Lavrov would make an appearance and whether countries supportive of Ukraine would react to his presence with pre-arranged walkouts during his speech or a boycott of the event by their representatives.

Lavrov usually comes to these meetings, having only been barred by Warsaw from attending the ministerial in the Polish city of Lodz in 2022. He was allowed to attend subsequent gatherings in Skopje and last year, arriving in the European Union for the first time since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, brought a large Russian delegation to Malta.

Deep Background: European officials have even told RFE/RL that one of the reasons the meeting was moved from Finland -- which chairs the OSCE this year -- to the OSCE's home turf in Vienna was for Helsinki to avoid the diplomatic embarrassment of having to invite the Russian minister.

The more official explanation, of course, is it's a cost-saving exercise for the cash-strapped organization as Vienna hosts all the organization's critical infrastructure such as its secretariat.

The first hint of a Lavrov no-show came on November 18 when Russia surprisingly shifted its speaking slot for the ministerial from early in the agenda to a lowly 46th position. This came after trading places with Belarus in order to address the forum as early as possible.

It is now believed Lavrov will instead travel to India, which OSCE diplomats tell RFE/RL Moscow currently sees as strategically more important than the OSCE.

Drilling Down

This comes as a blow to an organization that until recently prided itself by being the only (largely) European forum in which both Belarus and Russia still were members and treated on equal footing with other European nations.

For some time, there was even hope in Vienna that a Rubio-Lavrov meeting at the sidelines of the ministerial meeting would make OSCE play an increased role in the settlement of the war in Ukraine. OSCE was, after all, one of the venues in which Russia raised some of its concern in early 2022 before launching the full-scale war.

Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko will now head the Russian delegation, while the Americans might only be represented by "a senior official from the European bureau of the State Department," according to a diplomat with insight into the planning of the event.

The diplomat also added that a reason for this is that the OSCE currently isn't a foreign-policy priority in the current American administration.

The United States is also pushing for a cut of the proposed OSCE budget by 10 percent and an internal reform of the organization -- a complication as Washington has long been the single biggest financial contributor to the OSCE.

Switzerland, which will take over the chair of OSCE in 2026, has tried but so far failed to find the necessary unanimity among the 57 member states for a new budget. The last regular OSCE budget was adopted in 2021, and no one expects a new budget to be agreed anytime soon with the organization still set to continue to survive on "in kind" contributions from largely Western European countries.

The issues with the unanimity rule and its limitations for OSCE dont stop there. While it was agreed last year that Switzerland will take over from Finland as chair on January 1, 2026, no decision has been made on a chair country for 2027. And the Vienna meeting is again unlikely to break that deadlock. So far, Cyprus is the only official candidate, and the island country enjoys wide support, including from all its fellow EU member states. But Turkey has put in a veto, given the longstanding political tensions between Ankara and Nicosia.

There might be some debate on this at the meeting in Vienna, especially as Cyprus last year lifted its veto over the Turkish candidate Feridun Sinirlioglu to become the new OSCE secretary-general. But so far there is no indication Turkey will give a green light for Cyprus.





Looking Ahead

On the eve of the OSCE summit, NATO foreign ministers assemble in Brussels on December 3 for the military alliance's last ministerial of the year.

Expect quite a few announcements about military aid to Ukraine and a discussion of what sort of relationship NATO should have with Russia going forward as talks between Kyiv, Washington, and Moscow continue this week on a potential settlement of the war in Ukraine.

That's all for this week!

Feel free to reach out to me on any of these issues on X @RikardJozwiak, or on e-mail at jozwiakr@rferl.org.

Until next time,

Rikard Jozwiak

If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition subscribe here.
White House special envoy Steve Witkoff flew back to the United States without meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, following five hours of Kremlin talks on a US-drafted peace proposal seen as heavily tilted toward Russian interests.

It was widely expected that the US delegation, which included Witkoff and President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, would meet up with Zelenskyy somewhere in Europe afterward as the Ukrainian leader was in Ireland.

Instead, a day after some of the most intense diplomatic efforts to end Europe's largest conflict since World War II, Zelenskyy said Ukraine's negotiators would hold talks with European national security advisers and then travel to the United States.

"They will also discuss the European component of the necessary security architecture," Zelenskyy wrote in a social media post.

Moscow's Hard-Line Demands

Efforts to find a resolution to halt Russia's nearly 4-year-old war on Ukraine appear to hit a brick wall at the Moscow meeting as Kremlin and Russian officials signaling no willingness to back down from hard-line demands.

Witkoff, a real estate developer with no previous diplomatic experience, made no comment to Russian media after leaving the Kremlin following his sixth meeting with Putin, heading to the US Embassy instead before flying back to the United States.

Yuri Ushakov, a veteran diplomat and Putins top foreign policy adviser, described the meeting as "constructive" but told Russian press that peace was no closer or farther away.

"We did not discuss particular wordings the Americans prepared, but the essence of the message," he was quoted as saying. "Some things suit us. Some things were met with our criticism."

"We do not see a chance to resolve the Ukraine crisis without territorial issues. To really move forward, it is time both for Moscow and Washington to seriously get to work."

Just before the talks, Zelenskyy said there is a better chance "now than ever" to reach a deal. That contrasted sharply with Putin hours later accusing European governments of trying to block the peace process while issuing a warning that if Europe wants to start a war with Russia then Moscow was ready to fight.

Witkoff and Kushner flew to the Russian capital after an initial 28-point U.S. proposal that caught Ukraine off guard.

That document -- widely seen as aligning with several Russian objectives -- was "refined" to 19 points following talks between American and Ukrainian delegations last week.

European governments had also submitted amendments and a counterproposal to the draft plan, seeking to remove or soften provisions they said undermined Ukraine's sovereignty.

"The meeting was never a negotiation. It was a deliberate, unambiguous presentation of Russia's preconditions. Putin is now waiting to see whether this direct message will shift Trump's stance," said Tatyana Stanovaya, a Russian political analyst who now lives abroad.

Ahead of his meetings on December 2, Putin sounded a belligerent note, warning that Russia would involve European states in negotiations as long as they recognize what he called "the realities on the battlefield" in Ukraine.

"We have no intention of fighting Europe, I've said that 100 times," Putin said. "But if Europe wants to fight again and starts, then we are ready for that immediately."

Europe Refuses To Redraw Borders

The European Union has repeatedly said it will not accept a violent redrawing of Europe's borders and that only Ukraine can decide the future of its territory.

Putin has insisted Ukraine surrender the eastern Donbas region to secure peace, including areas Russia has failed to seize in more than three-and-a-half years of war. Kyiv has rejected those conditions and pushed back on Moscows attempts to limit Ukraines NATO aspirations or cap the size of its armed forces.

"We've made some progress, but we're not there yet," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with Fox News.

"And so 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," Rubio said.

"Ultimately the decisions have to be made, in the case of Russia, by Putin alone, not his advisers. Putin - only Putin can end this war on the Russian side," he added.

Ukraine has openly voiced concerns that Washington and Moscow will agree to a plan to end Europe's largest land war since 1945.

Trump campaigned in 2024 on a claim he could solve the war in 24 hours, but getting an agreement to end Russia's full-scale invasion -- launched in February 2022 -- has proved difficult. Trump has expressed frustration with both sides as talks sputtered for months until intensifying again in recent weeks.

Ukraine fears some terms of any peace plan will leave it prone to eventual conquest by Russia, though the United States has also floated a 10-year security guarantee for Kyiv.

Putin has said he is ready to talk peace but that if Ukraine refuses an agreement, Russia's forces will advance further and take more Ukrainian territory.

Some of Witkoff's prior actions have raised alarm bells to outside observers, who fear he is being manipulated or that he misunderstands the war's deeply intractable historical contours.

Witkoff has relied on translators provided by the Kremlin for his conversations with Putin and other officials rather than using translators authorized by the US Embassy.

After Witkoff's last meeting with Putin in August, US and European officials said the envoy misunderstood the geography of Ukrainian territory Putin was claiming.
A 26-year-old Chinese tourist was bitten by a shark while scuba diving in the Maldives after choosing to enter the water during her period, a decision she made based on advice she found online saying it was safe.

The woman was taking a diving course in November 2025 and had used a tampon before entering the water, according to Oriental Daily News. She reportedly wanted to capture Instagram-ready photos and insisted on continuing the dive despite having her period.

A video posted by 8world showed deep bite marks on her wrist. Witnesses said she laughed as her wound was bandaged and initially refused to leave the water, later filming the swollen bite to show her friends. One warned her she could risk amputation if the injury worsened, Mothership reported.

The woman said she did not feel much pain and believed the shark may have been drawn to a silver bracelet she was wearing. She disinfected the injury herself and skipped the hospital until her friend urged her to seek treatment. She eventually received a tetanus shot at a local clinic before returning to China, she shared in the story that went viral on Weibo.

Shark-behavior researchers note that menstruation is not proven to increase bite risk, and water pressure usually stops menstrual flow while swimming, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Separate weather systems brought torrential, extended rainfall to the entire island of Sri Lanka and large parts of Indonesias Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia last week.

Much of the region is now in its monsoon season, but climate change is producing more extreme rain events and turbocharging storms.

The World Health Organization said it was deploying rapid response teams and critical supplies to the region.

The UN agencys chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva that it was "another reminder of how climate change is driving more frequent and more extreme weather events, with disastrous effects".

The relentless rain left residents clinging to rooftops awaiting rescue by boat or helicopter, and cut entire villages off from assistance.

Arriving in North Sumatra on Dec. 1, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said "the worst has passed, hopefully". The governments "priority now is how to immediately send the necessary aid", with particular focus on several isolated villages, he added.

Prabowo has come under increasing pressure to declare a national emergency in response to flooding and landslides that have killed at least 593 people, with nearly 470 still missing.

Unlike his Sri Lankan counterpart, he has not publicly called for international assistance.
The Arigna Mining Museum is set to introduce augmented reality to its visitor experience, according to a recently published tender.

The recent tender advertised on the e-tender platform reveals that Arigna Mining Experience Ltd is planning to transform its existing exhibition area into a state-of-the-art, accessible, and sustainable learning environment.

The company is seeking the services of a contractor who will deliver a comprehensive fit out, and installation of an upgraded exhibition space at the museum, based on an already prepared interpretative plan.

The redevelopment of the popular visitor attraction proposes to integrate advanced technologies and interpretive methods to enhance visitor engagement, accessibility, and environmental responsibility.

The aim of this project is to upgrade displays in the 60 square metre exhibition space with augmented reality, to bring mining history to life by recreating historical scenes, and a mobile app to personalise the visitor experience in ways that resonate with the visitor, it said.

The tender documents detail plans to integrate digital technologies, including AI-driven interpretation, and interactive/multi-sensory displays that communicate the story of Arignas mining heritage and its transition to a sustainable future.

The Arigna Mining Experience (AME) is a heritage centre dedicated to preserving and interpreting the industrial, social, and cultural legacy of the Arigna Valleys coal mining community.

The tender notes that AME has just completed an interpretive plan which now needs to be delivered on through this project.

The estimated value of the project is 300 000,00 excluding VAT and is expected to take about five months to complete.

Time-limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate is December 19th. The proposed development is co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union through the EU Just Transition Fund.
A public consultation session is taking place today, Tuesday, on a proposed new wind farm in South Roscommon.

Cornafulla Wind Farm, a joint venture partnership between Bord na Mona (BnM) and SSE Renewables, is being planned on BnMs landbank across Cornafulla bog.

One of two public consultation sessions on the project will take place at the Clann na nGael GAA Club, Johnstown today, December 2nd, from 5 p.m. to 8.30 p.m..

The event will offer members of the public an opportunity to engage with the project team and provide feedback on the proposed development.

A community relations team, including a dedicated community liaison officer, will be present at the upcoming consultation session to gather feedback from the public and address any questions.

Bord na Mona (BnM) and SSE Renewables said the proposed Cornafulla Wind Farm would bring a range of benefits to the local area, including a dedicated community benefit fund.

The other public consultation session will take place on Thursday, December 4th at St. Ciarans NS, Clonmacnoise, Shannonbridge, from 5 p.m. to 8.30 p.m..

Declan Byrne, development project manager from SSE Renewables, said: We are keen to meet with the local community to discuss and receive feedback on our plans for the proposed Cornafulla Wind Farm. With the support of our key stakeholders and the local community, this joint venture project brings investment and long-term benefits. If delivered, the project has a dedicated community benefit fund that both SSE Renewables and BnM are proud to deliver.

Karina Dennigan, community relations and advocacy manager for BnM, said: The project team will be on hand to discuss queries. The proposed wind farm will be jointly developed by BnM and SSE Renewables and contribute towards Irelands energy independence and deliver on the goals of the National Development Plan. Working together, both companies will leverage their extensive expertise, resources and presence across Ireland to generate positive outcomes for the local communities, local economies and climate change."
A Tulsk woman who was struck by a car as she waited outside a coffee shop in Waterford is appealing to people to donate to the CRITICAL charity and support life-saving emergency care in communities across Ireland this Christmas.

Olivia Hunt, who is originally from Ballydaly, Tulsk, suffered serious injuries in the incident in Dunmore East in June 2023.

Dr Paul Campbell who volunteers with the emergency medical charity during his spare time was one of the first responders to arrive at the scene. The Dunmore East based doctor assessed Olivias injuries, administered painkillers and stabilised her before she was brought to hospital.

Dr Campbells emergency response vehicle and equipment is provided by CRITICAL. The charity has a growing network of more than 300 volunteer responders active across Ireland including doctors and consultants equipped with vehicles and high-tech equipment; community first responder (CFR) groups; as well off-duty paramedics and emergency medical technicians (EMTs). They are dispatched by the National Ambulance Service and communicate closely with the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) while on scene.

CRITICAL has launched a new Christmas campaign to light up 1,308 lights, one for every call answered in 2024. Donors can sponsor a light from now until Christmas Day in support of the charitys life-saving work and can also dedicate it in honour or remembrance of someone special.

Olivia said: When Paul arrived he brought a sense of calm to what was a terrifying situation. He was only a couple of hundred metres away when he got the call and took control straight away. I was in shock and had suffered multiple fractures to my pelvis and lower back but Paul brought his medical expertise, pain medication and incredible care. Paul, the paramedics and the fire crews were like my guardian angels that day. Accidents happen every single day of the week and who would you want to be there with your husband, wife or child if something happened? I want that person to have the same access to care that I had. CRITICAL is a voluntary organisation and needs our support to equip volunteers in more locations across Ireland. How special would it feel to help someone in their most vulnerable moment? CRITICAL is doing that through their first responders and emergency medical responders.

Dr Paul Campbell said, When I arrived on the scene that day, my priority was to get Olivia the care she needed as quickly and as safely as possible. I volunteer with CRITICAL because Ive seen first-hand how vital this service is for people in our communities. The equipment and the vehicle I rely on are all made possible through donations. It is great to see how well Olivia is doing after her accident and would like to wish her the best for ongoing recovery. I would also like to thank Olivia and her husband Eugene for the support they give to CRITICAL. The money they have raised will help the charitys volunteers continue to provide urgent care in the community at a time of need.

David Tighe, Chief Executive of CRITICAL added: We are very grateful to Olivia for deciding to tell her story. She is just one example of the thousands of people our volunteers have responded to in recent years. Our network of highly-skilled volunteers is growing across Ireland and thats only possible thanks to fundraising and donations. So far this year, we have responded to more than 1,600 calls which is an annual increase of almost 25%. Our Christmas campaign is called Every Light a Life and it's about celebrating our volunteers and the amazing work that they do day in, day out, 365 days a year right across the island of Ireland. One of the main reasons they volunteer is because they want to make a difference within their communities. It doesn't matter whether they are doctors like Paul or community first responders who train to respond to cardiac arrests and strokes they all have a huge impact.

For more information or to donate to CRITICALs Every Light A Life campaign visit https://criticalcharity.ie/
By Bairbre Holmes, PA

People Before Profit TDs stood without applauding after Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a joint sitting of the Houses of the Oireachtas.

In a statement issued shortly after the Ukrainian presidents speech concluded, Richard Boyd Barrett said: We continue to stand with the people of Ukraine against Russias invasion.

However, we have always rejected the idea that there is a military solution to this conflict and opposed the calls for military escalation.

The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, centre, received standing ovations from TDs and senators in the chamber (Tony Maxwell/Maxwells/PA)

The party leader and Dublin South-West TD Paul Murphy were in the Dail for Mr Zelenskys address.

While there were standing ovations from TDs and senators in the chamber and those gathered in the gallery, the two People Before Profit TDs did not join in the applause.

The statement from the party condemned the Russian invasion, saying: Putin should get out of Ukraine and allow the Ukrainian people to decide their own future.

But Mr Murphy was critical of increased militarisation, saying: It is very clear that this and the previous government have been cynical in using the war in Ukraine to further undermine Irish neutrality and back EU militarisation.

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said his party rejected the idea there was a military solution to the conflict (Damien Eagers/PA)

He criticised Tuesdays Government announcement that it would give 100 million in military aid to Ukraine, with Mr Murphy describing it as yet another flagrant breach of our neutrality.

He also condemned delays to the Occupied Territories Bill.

The partys TDs were criticised in 2022 for refusing to clap after Mr Zelensky addressed the Dail by video link.

A spokesperson for the party said at the time this was due to a disagreement with calls from Mr Zelensky for Nato involvement in the war, as well as citing demands for more sanctions and a decision to ban opposition parties in Ukraine.
People wading through a flooded street following Cyclone Ditwah's arrival in Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, on Nov. 30, 2025. Photo by Reuters

The Singapore Red Cross (SRC) has pledged S$250,000 (US$192,800) to five national societies in Asia, where communities have been severely affected by recent flooding.

The Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS), Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), Malaysian Red Crescent (MRC), Thai Red Cross Society (TRCS) and Vietnam Red Cross (VNRC) will each receive S$50,000 SGD ($38,600) to support emergency relief and recovery efforts, the SRC said in a press release on Dec. 1.

Severe monsoon rains, tropical storms and cyclones have triggered widespread flooding and landslides across Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka, resulting in loss of life, mass displacement, destruction of homes and extensive damage to critical infrastructure.

The SRC said national societies are actively responding on the ground. Through their provincial and district chapters, they are working with local authorities to run relief centers, assist with evacuations, deliver emergency aid such as food, drinking water and essential supplies, support clean-up operations and conduct search-and-rescue efforts in the hardest-hit areas.

It noted that the TRCS has been working with local authorities in Hat Yai to support affected communities, including Singaporean tourists stranded in flooded areas.

In Sri Lanka, the SLRCS has activated emergency operations across its network of 25 branches, deploying branch disaster response teams to support rescue activities, provide first aid, distribute relief supplies and assess urgent needs. Volunteers are working around the clock to assist vulnerable families as the crisis unfolds.

Communities across Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam are enduring the devastating impact of climate-driven disasters, said Benjamin William, Secretary General and CEO of the Singapore Red Cross.

"Thousands of families have lost homes, livelihoods and access to necessities. Our sister national societies are on the frontlines delivering critical aid, and the Singapore Red Cross remains committed to standing with them," he added.
The leakage of deadly toxic gas from a pesticide plant caused this tragedy and turned the city of Bhopal into what many described as a gas chamber". File Photo.

It led to thousands of deaths and affected countless lives.

December 2, 2025: National Pollution Control Day and Its Message for Sustainable Living

India observes National Pollution Control Day on 2nd December every year to have a reminder of the tragedy that shook the entire nation in 1984. This day honours the memory of those who lost their lives in the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, one of the worst industrial catastrophes in human history.

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The leakage of deadly toxic gas from a pesticide plant caused this tragedy and turned the city of Bhopal into what many described as a gas chamber". It led to thousands of deaths and affected countless lives. The disaster has come to stand, over the years, for the grave consequences of neglecting industrial safety and environmental responsibility.

This year's theme is Sustainable Living for a Greener Future. This theme isnt only a slogan; rather, it is a call for collective action, urging individuals, communities and industries to adopt cleaner practices, reduce pollution, and nurture the environment for future generations.

The purpose of the day is to remember the victims of industrial pollution disasters and to raise awareness about the urgent need for pollution control and environmental protection across India.

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In an age where air, water and soil pollution are a grim reality, harming peoples health, damaging ecosystems, and undermining the quality of life, the message behind National Pollution Control Day is timeless. The 2025 theme invites us to take action. It challenges citizens to think about sustainable living: reducing waste, minimising plastic use, encouraging clean energy, and advocating for stricter pollution control norms.

For readers, especially those living outside major metros  in small towns, semi-urban and rural areas  the message becomes even more relevant. Industrial negligence, improper waste management, and poor regulation dont just affect cities; they can devastate smaller communities too.

So on December 2, as India remembers a tragedy, it must also renew its commitment to cleaner air, safer industries, and a healthier future. National Pollution Control Day 2025 is not just a date to observe but a call for collective action.
Khalsa Diwan Afghanistan honours Narpinder Mann with Lifetime Achievement Award'

United Sikhs (Headquarters) Director Narpinder Mann honored for long-standing service and dedication to the community

London, UK  UNITED SIKHS (headquarters) and Khalsa Diwan Afghanistan (UK) hosted a special gathering in Parliament yesterday to commemorate Guru Nanak Dev Jis Gurpurab and the 350th Shaheedi Samagam honouring Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji. The event brought together community leaders, parliamentarians, and supporters who shared a commitment to preserving Sikh history and values.

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The programme also featured a special recognition ceremony. Ms. Narpinder Mann BEM, Director UNITED SIKHS (Headquarters) received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Khalsa Diwan Afghanistan in appreciation of her longstanding service and dedication to the community.

Padma Shri Bob Blackman, CBE, attended as a key supporter and helped make it possible for the celebrations to take place within Parliament. His presence was warmly acknowledged by the organisers.





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Four Members of Parliament attended, including three Sikh MPs who proudly represented the community in traditional Dastar. Those present were Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, Gurinder Singh Joshan, CBE, and Warinder Jas, MP. Their participation added a sense of pride and visibility to the occasion.





Organisers expressed gratitude for the support from Parliament, the MPs in attendance, and the many individuals who contributed to making the gathering a meaningful reflection on Sikh heritage and sacrifice.
The North American Punjabi Truckers Association (NAPTA) estimates the community makes up about 40% of West Coast trucking and about 20% of all U.S. truckers nationwide. File Photo.

Advocacy organisations warn that many immigrant truckers with clean records are being caught in this dragnet.

1.5 Lakh Punjabi Truckers in the US Face Federal Scrutiny as 44% of Driving Schools Fail Standards

According to the recent review of the US Department of Transportation (USDOT), nearly 44% of the roughly 16,000 truck-driving schools listed nationwide may not meet minimum government standards. As a result, about 3,000 schools may have to face decertification if they fail to comply within 30 days, while a further 4,500 have been given warning about possible action.

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If the schools get decertification, these will no longer be eligible to award the training certificates required for a commercial drivers licence (CDL). That could push many students, especially those enrolled or recently graduated, to leave their training, effectively sidelining their path to legal employment as truck drivers.

This crackdown comes after the high-profile fatal truck crashes in Florida and California that reportedly involved unlicensed or unauthorised drivers, events that triggered greater scrutiny of quick-cert or so-called CDL-mill schools, which offer accelerated licences with minimal real training.

For the Punjabi diaspora in the United States, where activist groups estimate around 1.5 lakh (150,000) Sikh and Punjabi truck drivers work across the country, the implications are severe. The North American Punjabi Truckers Association (NAPTA) estimates the community makes up about 40% of West Coast trucking and about 20% of all U.S. truckers nationwide.

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Advocacy organisations warn that many immigrant truckers with clean records are being caught in this dragnet; they are facing audits of their licences and immigration status even if they passed training. The UNITED SIKHS group argues that lawful, licensed drivers are being treated as suspects, a move that fuels fear, xenophobia, and harassment rather than addressing real safety concerns.

For thousands of Punjabi families, both in the US and Punjab, trucking was seen as a stable way of livelihood, a way to send money back, and a path to upward mobility. The current upheaval raises serious concerns about fairness, the future of immigrants in transport, and the human cost of sweeping regulatory actions.

Given the magnitude of about 150,000 affected drivers, thousands of schools, and widespread diaspora implications, this story is not merely about licences and rules; it is about community, dignity, identity, and justice.

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Source: The Tribune




Demographic alert in Romania

Romania's population will continue to decline by 2080, with the most pessimistic scenario indicating a drop of as much as 25%, according to estimates by the National Institute of Statistics.

Photo: Voicu Horatiu / unsplash.com

Stefan Stoica, 02.12.2025, 13:50

Romanias population may drop to 14,367,000 by 2080 from just over 19 million in 2025 in the most pessimistic scenario provided by the National Institute of Statistics in a study entitled A projection of the active population of Romania by 2080. In absolute figures, this would mean that there would be almost 4.7 million fewer Romanians over the age of 55, representing a population decrease of 25%. The Institute explains that this is one of the three versions of the resident population projection made by the Institute, referred to as the constant variant or the reference point variant, and which is based on the 2024 levels of fertility rate, life expectancy and net migration.

The average or most plausible variant indicates that in the event of a slight increase in fertility rates and an improvement in life expectancy, the population decrease would amount to 3.4 million people, accounting for a drop of almost 18% compared with 2025. This variant is considered the most likely and is based on recent trends relating to the main demographic indicators.

According to the most optimistic variant, the population would only decrease by 1.923 million people, accounting for about 10% of the current population. It is based on improved fertility and life expectancy rates and indicates the maximum level that could be reached under positive demographic conditions.

The coordinator of the study, the vice president of the National Institute of Statistics, Silviu Virva, says that, regardless of the scenario analysed, Romanias population will continue to decline by 2080, with the extent of the decline varying between 10% and 25% of the current population. The scenarios have taken into account the most recent demographic data available, such as the resident population on January 1, 2025, according to county, age and gender; total fertility rates and the rate of live births according to the age of the mothers; life expectancy at birth in 2024, according to gender and county internal migration, according to age and gender; the level of international migration in 2024, and the difference between immigrants and emigrants, according to age, gender and county.

The study provides a long-term perspective on the countrys demographics, based on rigorous methodology and an in-depth analysis of the data collected and processed by the National Institute of Statistics. It can be used to foresee and manage more efficiently the social changes that influence demographics, such as population aging, emigration and the evolution of natural growth, the coordinator of the study, Silviu Virva emphasised. The study is also useful because it presents demographic projections essential in the drafting of public policies and economic and social strategies. Last but not least, it points to possible changes in the structure of the population, so that resources could be adapted to take into account the future needs of society.
Messages on Romanias National Day

Romanias National Day was marked through parades, military and religious ceremonies, and also through a series of cultural events

President Nicusor Dan, Photo: presidency.ro

Corina Cristea, 02.12.2025, 14:00

Celebrated annually since 1990 as Romanias National Day, December 1 is a day of gratitude, solidarity and recollecting the struggle for unity and national identity.

This year the Romanians celebrated 107 years since Transylvania, Banat, Crisana and Maramures united with Romania. The Great National Assembly in Alba Iulia, central Romania on December 1, 1918 proved to be a watershed moment for the national unity of all Romanians.

Parades as well as military and religious ceremonies and services were held all over the country; the biggest of them was seen in the capital Bucharest, which involved the participation of roughly three thousand Romanian and foreign servicemen from NATO structures accompanied by the latest military equipment and gear.

A spectacular military parade was also staged in Alba Iulia, which involved the participation of over 1,000 servicemen, including Polish troops from the allied structures, who displayed ground military equipment, while in Constanta, on the Romanian Black Sea coast, a parade of military vessels took pride of place. Visitors could also admire a display of Romanias ground and air forces, which was joined by some of the foreign troops stationed at Mihail Kogalniceanu military base. In Timisoara, western Romania, thousands witnessed a major military parade and participated in a candle march.

Today we are celebrating the Union of 1918, a historic moment for Romania, a moment in which a generational dream came true. And that means on one hand that we werent coming from nowhere, that a society and a political class capable of channeling the energies towards an ideal did exist. And that means the memory of these people obliges us to try to keep their standards and be at their level, the Romanian president Nicusor Dan said in his message on that day. The head of the Romanian state made an appeal for calm and balance in tackling society issues.

Nicusor Dan: I am making an invitation to all to lower our voices and talk calmly and in a balanced manner the issue our society is currently facing  without trying to conceal them, but by keeping our calm and balance. I also invite you to try to listen to each other. Beyond the inevitable noise, we are going to find common ground to build upon.

World leaders conveyed their messages on Romanias National Day. The US President Donald Trump has underlined the tight bilateral relations and Romanias strategic role in the Black Sea region, and appreciated Romanias contribution to regional security and within NATO. French President Emmanuel Macron has also conveyed a message mentioning security as the pivotal point of the bilateral relationship. The President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, has recollected the importance of the historic moment December 1, 1918. The Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelensky has appreciated Romanias support for Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity in the context of the war started by the Russian Federation.

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Australia will on Tuesday release October figures for building approvals and Q3 current account figures, highlighting a modest day far Asia-Pacific economic activity.

Approvals are expected to sink 4.8 percent on month after jumping 12.0 percent in September. The current account is expected to show a deficit of A$13.4 billion following the A$13.7 billion shortfall in the three months prior.

New Zealand will see Q3 data for terms of trade, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 0.3 percent on quarter following the 4.1 percent gain in the previous three months.

South Korea will provide November numbers for consumer prices, with forecasts suggesting a decline of 0.3 percent on month and an increase of 2.2 percent on year. That follows the 0.3 percent monthly increase and the 2.4 percent annual gain in October.

Japan will release November data for monetary base and household confidence. The monetary base is expected to show an 8.5 percent annual decline following the 7.9 percent drop in October. The household confidence index is tipped to show a score of 36.3, up from 35.8 in the previous month.

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What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
WuXi Biologics (Cayman) Inc. (2269.HK, WXXWY,WXIBF), a Contract Research, Development and Manufacturing Organization, on Tuesday said it has signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding with the Qatar Free Zones Authority to expand its global network into the Middle East.

The company said that the collaboration will support the establishment of its first integrated CRDMO center in the region.

The initiative combines the company's one-stop CRDMO capabilities and technologies with Qatar's long-term biopharmaceutical development strategy to drive innovation and accelerate growth in Qatar's biotechnology sector.

The collaboration also aims to support the formation of a broader Middle Eastern biopharmaceutical ecosystem.

WuXi Biologics is currently trading, 1.26% lesser at HKD 31.320 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

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Business News
Indian shares ended lower on Tuesday as the cryptocurrency slump intensified, and incoming economic indicators pointed to a slowing U.S. .

Rising Japanese government bond yields and yen strength threatened to unwind the decades-old yen carry trade, sparking global deleveraging in equity and crypto .

As economic uncertainties mount, investors also awaited a slew of key U.S. economic data this week for additional clues on the path forward for U.S. monetary policy.

Closer home, the RBI MPC meeting will be held from December 3 to December 5, with most analysts expecting the central bank to keep the repo rate unchanged at 5.50 percent.

On the trade front, Nomura in its latest note said the outcome for a U.S.-India trade deal remains a big uncertainty despite positive noise from both camps.

The foreign brokerage said it believes the deal will be signed soon, and tariffs will likely be set closer to 20 percent.

The benchmark BSE Sensex dropped 503.63 points, or 0.59 percent, to 85,138.27, extending losses for a third straight session.

The broader NSE Nifty index fell 143.55 points, or 0.55 percent, to 26,032.20 while the BSE mid-cap and small-cap indexes dipped 0.1 percent and half a percent, respectively.

The market breadth was weak on the BSE, with 2,546 shares falling while 1,605 shares advanced and 165 shares closed unchanged.

Among the prominent decliners, Larsen & Toubro, BEL, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank all fell over 1 percent.

Asian Paints jumped 3.1 percent to hit a new 52-week high after UBS upgraded its rating on the stock.

Globally, Asian markets ended mostly higher, with automakers rallying in Seoul after U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed that the general tariff rate on imports from South Korea, including on autos, would drop to 15 percent.

European stocks inched higher in early trade, with Ukraine peace talks and upcoming U.S. economic data in focus.

After U.S. officials met a Ukrainian delegation in Florida, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the revised U.S. proposal for ending the war with Russia "looks better."

Media reports suggest that U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff has left for Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and discuss a revised 19-point peace plan to end the Ukraine war.

Gold prices fell more than 1 percent after surging to a six-week high in the previous session.

Oil prices dipped from a two-week high as traders watched for U.S. President Donald Trump's next steps on Venezuela, and assessed the fallout from damage to a key Black Sea terminal.

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Market Analysis
Laurentian Bank of Canada (LB.TO) on Tuesday said it has agreed to sell its retail and SME banking businesses to National Bank of Canada. The move is part of an expanded execution of its 2024 Strategic Plan, aimed at focusing on commercial real estate lending, inventory and equipment financing, intermediary services and capital .

In a parallel transaction, Fairstone Bank of Canada has agreed to acquire all outstanding Laurentian Bank shares for about C$1.9 billion in cash, or C$40.50 per sharea 20% premium to Laurentian's December 1 closing price of C$33.76 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Laurentian Bank President and CEO Eric Provost will remain in his role following the acquisition.

Fairstone Bank plans to combine its commercial lending operations with Laurentian's commercial platform to expand scale and strengthen national market presence.

Before the Fairstone deal closes, National Bank will acquire Laurentian's retail and SME assets and assume related liabilities. As of July 31, 2025, these portfolios comprised approximately $3.3 billion in retail loans and $7.6 billion in retail deposits, along with about $0.8 billion in SME loans and $0.6 billion in SME deposits. The transactions will be fully settled in cash, with final consideration based on closing balances.

Both transactions are expected to be completed by late 2026.

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President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order directing the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury to consider whether certain chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood should be designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs).



By this action, taken on November 24, President Trump continues to prioritize robust counterterrorism measures to protect Americans and strengthen national security against foreign threats, while promoting peace and stability around the world.

The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, has developed into a transnational network with chapters across the Middle East and beyond. Relevant here, its chapters in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt engage in or facilitate and support violence and destabilization campaigns that harm their own regions, United States citizens, and United States interests.



For example, in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, attack in Israel, the military wing of the Lebanese chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood joined Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian factions to launch multiple rocket attacks against both civilian and military targets within Israel.



A senior leader of the Egyptian chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood, on October 7, 2023, called for violent attacks against United States partners and interests, and Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood leaders have long provided material support to the militant wing of Hamas. Such activities threaten the security of American civilians in the Levant and other parts of the Middle East, as well as the safety and stability of Americas regional partners.



It is the policy of the United States to cooperate with its regional partners to eliminate the capabilities and operations of Muslim Brotherhood chapters designated as foreign terrorist organizations pursuant to section 3 of the Presidents order, deprive those chapters of resources, and thereby end any threat such chapters pose to United States nationals or the national security of the United States.



Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury, after consultation with the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence, shall submit a joint report to the President, through the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, concerning the designation of any Muslim Brotherhood chapters or other subdivisions, including those in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt, as foreign terrorist organizations consistent with U.S. law and executive orders.



The order also mandates the Secretary of State and Secretary of Treasury to act within 45 days after the report to designate chapters as FTOs and SDGTs if appropriate.



President Trump is once again taking steps to preserve international peace and stability and keep America safe.
Massive flight delays and cancellations over busy Thanksgiving holiday weekend at major airports in the United States have spilled over to this week.

A major snowstorm that lashed across the Midwest and Great Lakes also disrupted airlines' schedules.

There were a total of 7,575 flight delays, including domestic and international, reported across the U.S. on Tuesday, according to the tracking site FlightAware.

The tracker also showed 408 flight cancellations.

The worst-affected airports include those in Chicago, New York City, Boston, Des Moines, Fort Lauderdale and Detroit.

SkyWest, Delta Air Lines, Republic, GoJet, and United were among the U.S. airlines that had to cancel flights.

SkyWest and Delta Air Lines canceled 16 flights each, Republic and GoJet canceled 8 each, while United canceled 6 flights so far today, according to FlightAware.

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Dr Lexy Andati is seated at her desk in Office 42 in the Physics and Electronics Department at Rhodes University [PIC CREDIT: Vusumzi Tshekema]

By Siqhamo Jama

In a quiet corner of Nairobi, a young girl once sat before her fathers old computer, determined to figure out how people got inside the television. When she finally managed to play a movie with sound but no picture, she was thrilled. The screen stayed black, but it didn't matter. She had made something work. It was a spark of curiosity that would, years later, carry Dr Lexy Andati across galaxies.

Today, Dr Andati is a postdoctoral fellow at the Rhodes University Centre for Radio Astronomy Techniques and Technologies (RATT), decoding faint radio signals from deep space. Her work with radio telescopes helps scientists understand the invisible magnetic fields that shape galaxies and influence the galaxies evolution. We cant see magnetic fields directly, she explains. But we can see their fingerprints on the light we receive.

But Dr Andati didnt start her academic journey in astronomy. My first degree was in microprocessor technology and instrumentation. I just loved computers, she recalls. A bursary call from under the NRF- South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChi) for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project, a global effort to build the worlds largest radio telescope, brought her to South Africa. I applied because it involved programming. I had no prior astronomy knowledge. I just showed up.

That leap of faith led her into one of the world's most ambitious science projects. The SKAs South African component, the 64-dish MeerKAT array, sits in the stillness of the Karoo, far from radio interference. Each dish captures ancient radio waves from galaxies millions of light-years away. Processing this immense, constant flow of data requires advanced computational techniques. And it was here, at the intersection of data and discovery, that Dr Andati found her place.

She describes computational science simply as using computers to help us think faster. By designing and refining algorithms, she helps translate complex radio data into clear, usable images and models. Astronomy is full of invisible things, she says. We cant touch or see them, but we can detect their effects. My job is to help make sense of those effects.

Her growing impact didnt go unnoticed. Less than a year ago, she was awarded one of the L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Young Talent prizes for Sub-Saharan Africa.

More recently, Dr Andati was awarded the 2025 Kambule Doctoral Dissertation Award at the Deep Learning Indaba in Kigali, because of her work on implementing software tools that help in the study of magnetic fields of the radio galaxy Pictor A. The project beautifully merged astrophysics and software development, combining the two passions that have guided her since childhood. The recognition, she says, was deeply validating.

It wasnt an easy journey, she recalls. I came from a different academic background and had to switch fields completely at Masters level. I started with so much self-doubt. I never imagined Id end up winning awards.

She credits her mentors with helping her navigate the steep learning curve. I was lucky to have very patient supervisors. They let me learn at my own pace. They nudged me in the right direction but did not spoon-feed me.

Being a Black woman in physics, she admits, comes with its own challenges. Often, Id walk into a room and realise Im the only woman present. And some of the time, I was also the only Black person. Sometimes it felt like I was carrying my whole country on my back.

Over time, she has learned to disarm imposter syndrome. I realised that if I say something wrong, someone will correct me, and we move on. Its better than staying silent.

Now, Dr Andati hopes to inspire more young Black women to make their mark. Radio astronomy is growing in Africa, she says. The tools we develop here dont just serve astronomy. They can be applied wherever theres big data, from health research to environmental science.

She smiles. The most exciting part is knowing that the work we are doing out of Africa contributes to global science. I hope when young girls see that, they will believe its possible for them too.

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The MGCLS II catalogue: listening to the quiet signals that shape our Universe

Remember 3I/ATLAS? South African scientists confirm it walks like a comet and talks like a comet, no alien activity detected
Diffuse radio emissions revealed in galaxy clusters

The Universe is not silent, and apart from what we observe with our eyes, much of what it says arrives as faint radio whispers that we are able to listen to if we tune into the right frequency. South Africas MeerKAT telescope has become one of the worlds finest listeners, revealing structures in deep space that were simply invisible to previous instruments. At the centre of this effort is the MeerKAT Galaxy Clusters Legacy Survey (MGCLS), a programme led by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO).

These clusters contain hundreds or thousands of galaxies, all immersed in a vast atmosphere of hot electrified gas. When clusters collide or merge, they leave behind an imprint of faint diffuse radio structures - large, faint clouds of emission produced by extremely fast-moving charged particles interacting with magnetic fields. These features act as tracers of cosmic upheaval. They show where shock waves have passed, where turbulence is stirred, and how magnetic fields thread through systems millions of light years wide.

The new MGCLS II catalogue, published at Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, led by Rhodes University and SARAO researcher Dr Konstantinos Kolokythas, marks a significant advance. Following up on the MGCLS overview paper), it charts in detail the diffuse radio emission in 115 galaxy clusters, detecting these faint radio structures in more than half of them and expanding the known population to 103 structures; 60 of which had never been seen before.

This catalogue demonstrates what occurs when South African engineering is combined with South African scientific leadership, Dr Kolokythas states. MeerKAT has uncovered structures that were previously beyond the reach of earlier telescopes, and each one teaches us something more about how galaxy clusters grow, collide, and evolve.

This work's value goes well beyond astrophysics. It highlights a research environment in South Africa that contributes directly to global knowledge, strengthens the countrys scientific standing, and trains researchers who will lead future projects with the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). It also demonstrates the tangible public benefit of long-term, curiosity-driven research: understanding the forces that shape galaxy clusters helps improve models of cosmic magnetism, large-scale structures, and the interaction between matter and magnetic fields under extreme conditions.

Diffuse radio emission is notoriously difficult to study. It is faint, spread out, and easily confused with unrelated signals from individual galaxies. MeerKATs sensitivity and image quality finally allow these structures to be separated, measured and understood with confidence. MGCLS II provides detailed information on their sizes, shapes, brightness and locations, backed by a comprehensive review of what is known about each cluster from decades of X-ray, radio and optical studies.

We wanted to build something that will help the international community and that can be easily used, Dr Kolokythas explains. Every source in the catalogue has measured properties and high-quality images. It is a foundation for future work, not just a list of detections.

The survey also emphasises the importance of studying clusters across different wavelengths. X-ray images reveal where hot gas is located in the clusters core, while optical data show the distribution of galaxies. When these are combined with MeerKATs radio observations, a clearer picture emerges. Halos in the centre tend to coincide with the densest X-ray gas, signalling turbulence caused by major mergers. Relics on the outskirts often align with sharp edges in X-ray brightness, providing evidence of shock waves sweeping through the cluster.

This kind of multi-wavelength research is vital for the future of global astronomy. As the SKA era approaches, MeerKAT is already setting the standards that future surveys will follow. The MGCLS work demonstrates what becomes achievable when instruments are designed not only to detect discrete objects but also to reveal the finest details of diffuse, low-surface-brightness structures that carry the history of cosmic events.

MGCLS provides a glimpse of the discoveries that will become routine with the SKA, Dr Kolokythas says. If MeerKAT can uncover this much at 1.28 GHz, the full SKA will completely transform our understanding of how the largest structures in the universe form.

The project also highlights Rhodes Universitys strong research culture. Its radio astronomers lead international collaborations, shape the scientific agenda in cluster studies, and play a key role in actively contributing to the training pipeline that will supply expertise for the SKA. Their work positions the institution as a contributor to global science while also advancing South Africas strategic investment in radio astronomy.

For Dr Kolokythas, the appeal is both scientific and human. What excites me most is that radio waves, which we cannot see or feel, allow us to trace the life cycle of galaxy clusters, he says. In those faint signals, the universe records the story of collisions, shocks and magnetic fields on unimaginable scales.

MGCLS II is more than just a dataset; it is a benchmark. It offers the world an atlas of structures shaped by ancient cosmic events, enabled by South African infrastructure and scientific leadership. It demonstrates that cutting-edge research can stem from places dedicated to serving the common good, and that Rhodes Universitys work  quiet, rigorous, and globally recognised  adds valuable insight into how humanity understands the Universe.

Related article:

Rhodes University researchers contribute to significant data release intended to change the future of space exploration
Professor Warren Potts at the Oppenheimer Chair in Environmental Justice for Africas Coastal and Inland Fisheries launch

Professor Warren Potts has been appointed the Oppenheimer Chair in Environmental Justice for Africas Coastal and Inland Fisheries. The Chair has been established through the Benjamin Raymond Oppenheimer (BRO) Trust facilitated by Oppenheimer Generations Research and Conservation (OGRC).

The Chair is hosted at Rhodes University in the Department of Ichthyology and Fisheries Science and is underpinned by a R9million investment over six years. The significant investment is in recognition of the pressing environmental challenges facing Africas inland and coastal fisheries which in turn are making communities, who are reliant on these declining resources, highly vulnerable.

The aim of the Chair is not only to promote environmental justice but change how aquatic systems are both understood and governed. This is critical since many of South Africas fisheries are structured according to a top-down research model that not only excludes users such as subsistence and small-scale fishers but also largely ignores the interconnectedness of conservation problems and human behaviour.

Key objectives of the Chair include:

Advance environmental justice in fisheries: develop research, policy reform, and leadership training, and co-design data systems that empower fishers directly.

Preserve ecosystems and protect livelihoods: investigate how best to promote resilient fisheries socio-ecological systems, integrate aquaculture, advance access rights, and subsistence use.

Reform governance of South Africas aquatic systems: develop policy briefs on equitable management strategies, guidelines for incorporating traditional knowledge into governance and training for fishers, researchers and managers.

Translate government policy into action: help government agencies through designing usable plans, building capacity, and ensuring that inland fishers dont just exist on paper.

Professor Potts is well-positioned to take on this role with over two decades of experience in aquatic systems from fieldwork in post-war Angola to pioneering citizen science in South Africas angling communities. During his fieldwork, Professor Potts recognised how unless we address human behaviour, were not going to solve issues of conservation, concluding that we need a system that incorporates the human dimension right from the start. This mindset is reflected in the parameters of the Chair as it will focus on balancing ecological conservation with the socio-economic needs of vulnerable communities.

Commenting on the new appointment, Dr Kwezi Mzilikazi, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation and Strategic Partnerships at Rhodes University said, The new Oppenheimer Chair is a transformative opportunity for the university and reflects our historical strength in aquatic sciences from freshwater to marine, adding it will enable us to move beyond traditional conservation models, recognising that rivers, lakes and fisheries are social, cultural, and economic lifelines along with being ecological systems.

Dr Duncan MacFadyen, the Oppenheimer Generations Research and Conservation Head shared his enthusiasm for the creation of the Chair and said, The Oppenheimer Family through Oppenheimer Generations Research and Conservation are long-time supporters of conservation research that is accountable, inclusive, and practical. The appointment of Professor Potts as the first Chair in Environmental Justice for Fisheries is hugely exciting. He added, This innovative research approach that anchors environmental sustainability in social justice brings us one step closer to building resilient ecosystems and equitable fisheries across South Africa.

The long-term vision is to use the Oppenheimer Chair to catalyse a larger initiative, creating a Centre of Excellence that cements Rhodes University as a leader in fisheries science that meets the needs of the African continent. Progress on achieving this goal is already underway with Professor Potts beginning to recruit students for the Chair.
Robust festive demand, supported by strong rural demand along with the benefits of lower GST tax structure drove Hero MotoCorp sales to 6,04,490 units in November 2025. The company has reported a 31.47% YoY growth from 4,59,805 units sold in Nov 2024. This was a 1,44,685 unit volume increase. MoM sales however, fell by 4.93% as compared to 6,35,808 units of Oct 2025.

The two wheeler major also reported a 66% YoY growth for its VIDA EV brand, boosted by strong demand for the VIDA EVOOTER VX2. Registrations on VAHAN also stood at 8,86,330 units thanks to new model launches. Strong sales were viewed in respect of models such as the Xtreme 125R, GlamourX 125, Destini 110 and Xoom 160

Hero MotoCorp YoY Sales Nov 2025

With a total of 6,04,490 units sold in the past month and recording a 31.47% YoY growth, the company has seen sales improve across all segments. Motorcycle sales went up by26.60% YoY to 5,39,128 units from 4,25,856 units to command an 89.19% share. Scooters also found improved favor among buyers in the country with 65,362 unit sales, recording a 92.53% YoY growth over 33,949 units. This took total domestic sales to 5,70,520 units, a 29.73% rise over 4,39,777 units in Nov 2024.

Global demand also improved substantially with 33,970 units exported in the past month, a 69.61% growth from 20,028 units shipped in the same month last year. Globally, it was models such as the Hunk 125R, Hunk 160R and Eco Series that appealed to buyers in Latin America while it was the Hunter Series that showed off strong demand in Africa.

Hero MotoCorp MoM Sales Nov 2025

Hero MotoCorp sales declined on a MoM basis by 4.93%. Motorcycle sales went down by 5.54% from 5,70,753 units in Oct 2025 while Scooter sales improved only marginally from 65,055 units. Domestic sales dipped by 5.67% over 6,04,829 units. However, global demand continued on a more positive note with a 9.65% rise over 30,979 units shipped in Oct 2025.

VAHAN registrations grew 26% from 14,95,842 units to 18,82,739 units during the two month period of October 2025 and November 2025, reflecting the highest-ever dealer and consumer demand. On a year-to-date (YTD) basis, Hero MotoCorp has recorded a total of 42,98,070 units for the April-Nov 2025 period. This was a 2.49% growth over 41,93,736 units sold in the same period of 2024 relating to a 1,04,334 unit volume increase.

Even as motorcycle sales dipped very slightly by 0.17% to 39,12,147 units from 39,18,733 units. It was scooter sales that shot up by 40.33% to 3,85,923 units from 2,75,003 units. This took total sales during the Apr-Nov 2025 period to 40,57,124 units from 40,37,846 units. Exports too improved over the past 8 month period by 54.56% to 2,40,946 units, well over 1,55,890 units shipped during the Apr-Nov 2024 period.
Honda 2W sales improved significantly in Nov 2025 with strong domestic and global demand

Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) sales for Nov 2025 ended on a highly positive note. Sales improved substantially both in domestic and global markets to record total sales of 5,91,136 units. This was a 25.04% rise over 4,72,749 units in Nov 2024. MoM sales however, declined by 9.14% as compared to 6,50,596 units of Oct 2025, when festive demand has spurred up sales.

Honda 2W Sales YoY Vs MoM Nov 2025

In domestic markets, Honda sales grew by 23.28% YoY to 5,33,645 units, up from 4,32,888 units in Nov 2024. This was a volume difference of 1,00,757 units. Exports also surged 44.23% to 57,491 units in the past month from 39,861 units sold in the same month last year. The share percentage of domestic sales to exports stands at 90.27% to 9.73%.

MoM sales however, declined by 9.14% from 6,50,596 units of Oct 2025. It was brought down by lower domestic demand that fell by 10.90% from 5,98,952 units while exports saw an 11.32% rise from 51,644 units shipped in Oct 2025.

On a YTD basis, Honda 2W sales were up 12.69% to 42,32,748 units, a 4,79,660 unit volume growth over 37,56,088 units sold in the Apr-Nov 2024 period. Domestic demand was lower by 1.43% to 38,12,096 units during the Apr-Nov 2025 period from 38,67,427 units sold in the same 8 month period of last year. Exports grew substantially by 16.39% to 4,20,652 units from 3,61,410 units marking a 59,242 unit volume increase.

Key Highlights of November 2025

HMSI undertook various activities towards road safety. The company conducted awareness campaigns across many cities in India where road behavior was imparted to participants via interactive learning. In celebration of Childrens Day, the company conducted a Kids Carnival under the theme Safety Explorers: Journey Through Traffic Land. It was aimed to make road safety learning engaging and fun for children while promoting safe habits from an early age.

Road Safety Convention was also held in schools and colleges across Coimbatore and Varanasi encouraging principals and teachers to build road safety awareness among children from an early age. During the month of Nov 2025 Honda India Foundation (HIF) announced the launch of a Career Progression Program for General Duty Assistants (GDAs) trained under its flagship CSR initiative, Project Pragati. It aims to help healthcare workers move into specialized technical roles through structured training and assured employment at Amrita Hospital.
Suzuki 2W sales reached 1,22,300 units in November 2025, reflecting strong growth in both domestic and global markets despite a month-on-month decline

Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt. Ltd. (SMIPL) has announced sales results for Nov 2025. The company ended the month on a positive note, taking total sales to 1,22,300 units, a 29.60% rise from 94,370 units sold in Nov 2024. This related to a volume increase of 27,930 units YoY.

Suzuki 2W Sales YoY Vs MoM Nov 2025

As demand continued to garner momentum in domestic markets, sales reached 96,360 units last month. This was up 23.01% from 78,333 units sold in the same month last year. Exports also received a significant boost, surging 61.75% to 25,940 units, compared to 16,037 units in Nov 2024.

On a month-on-month (MoM) basis, the company has seen a 5.39% decline. The company has witnessed its highest-ever monthly sales with 1,29,261 units sold in October 2025, which fell to 1,22,300 units in the past month. This was on account of lower domestic sales, which fell by 6.86% to 93,360 units from 1,03,454 units, while exports grew, albeit marginally, by 0.52% over 25,807 units shipped in Oct 2025.

Commenting on the company sales performance over the past month, Deepak Mutreja, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Suzuki Motorcycle India, said the company is grateful for the trust customers place in the brand. Their support, along with the dedicated efforts of our dealer network, continues to drive our growth. We are expanding customer engagement initiatives and experience-led programs to bring riders closer to the brand. Our focus remains on enhancing accessibility, after-sales experience, and community-building for sustained growth.

In addition to sales, the company also witnessed improved attention to its after sales business as spare parts sales touched Rs 955 million in November 2025.

Suzuki 2W YTD Sales  Apr  Nov 2025

On a YTD basis, Suzuki 2W sales went up by 12.63% to 9,39,735 units. This was a YoY growth of 12.63% when compared to 8,34,370 units sold during the same period of last year. It related to an improvement in volumes by 1,05,365 units. New product launches coupled with several upgrades moved up sales to these heights.

Sales increased both in domestic and global markets. In India, sales stood at 7,70,286 units, up by 10.07% over 6,99,803 units while exports surged 25.92% to 1,69,449 units from 1,34,567 units shipped in the same period last year.

Suzuki also conducted several activities last month. This included the V-Strom SX Experience Day, a nationwide program that was held to assist riders explore the various capabilities of the V-Strom SXs adventure-tourer. It was held in two places in Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) and Surat (Gujarat), where in more than 500 motorcycle enthusiasts got a hands on experience of the motorcycle in terms of handling, comfort, stability, and suspension performance both in off and on road capabilities.
Memorandum

Date: December 1, 2025

From: National Alliance of Anti-nuclear Movements (NAAM)

To: Members of Parliament

Re: The Atomic Energy Act, 1962,

The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010.

The Indian government is planning to amend the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010 in order to facilitate private companies participation in the construction and development of nuclear reactors in India, and to fetch foreign direct investments for the nuclear industry.

According to Section 3 of the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, the Central Government shall have power to produce, develop, use and dispose of atomic energy either by itself or through any authority or Corporation established by it or a Government company and carry out research into any matters connected therewith; to manufacture or otherwise produce any prescribed or radioactive substance; to buy or otherwise acquire, store and transport any prescribed or radioactive substance; and to dispose of such prescribed or radioactive substance.

If this particular stipulation in the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, is changed, it will pave the way for the entry of private players not just as equipment suppliers but also as operators of nuclear power plants and Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) all over India. Having private companies as operators is rather dangerous given the unique nature of nuclear energy, emanation of fissile material, accumulation of nuclear waste, and various threats posed to the overall safety and security of the public.

As far as the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, is concerned, the definition of "nuclear damage" is rather vague and does pose practical challenges in the interpretation of certain provisions. Nonetheless, it does provide a mechanism for victims to claim compensation for damages caused by nuclear incidents, and creates a clear legal framework for dealing with nuclear liability in India.

The Act puts the entire onus of providing compensation on the operator of nuclear power plants and lets the supplier go scot-free. And the right of recourse provisions allow the operator to seek compensation from the supplier only if such right is included in a written contract, or when a nuclear incident results as a consequence of an act of supplier or his employee, or from the act of commission or omission of an individual done with the intent to cause nuclear damage. All of this literally means there is hardly any possibility of getting any supplier liability at all.

As per the Liability Act, 2010, the operator of a nuclear facility is liable for damages from a nuclear incident, and the operator is primarily responsible for paying compensation. Operators are required to have insurance or other financial security to cover their potential liability. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL) is the operator of all our reactors right now and this public utility will end up paying compensation to the public with their own tax money.

Even as it is, we are unhappy with the Liability Act because it caps the total liability amount to 300 million SDRs (Special Drawing Rights). This works out to just about a paltry US$ 460 million (Rs. 3,910 crores) per accident. We find it inconceivable and outrageous that any cap, let alone such a meager one, be placed on the total liability, regardless of the scale of disaster.

This paltry sum of $460 million is even less than the compensation amount of US$ 470 million given to the victims of Bhopal Gas Disaster way back in 1989, which was a gross under-assessment of liability even then. Given the fact that a major nuclear disaster could very much dwarf the Bhopal disaster, the proposed nuclear liability cap appears to be truly a slap on the face of the people of this country.

Further, the Act pegs the liability of the operator at Rs. 1,500 crores per incident, with the further proviso to lower it down to even paltrier Rs. 300 crores for spent-fuel reprocessing plant accidents. Even in case of an accident in a privately-operated nuclear power plant, the amount of liability exceeding the cap will have to be paid by the Indian taxpayers. And a lower cap for a private operator would only further strengthen its intrinsic propensity to cut corners in the realm of safety with nightmarish prospects.

This is an unabashed move towards helping profiteering corporations while penalizing the unsuspecting Indian public. In fact, putting a cap on nuclear liability violates the very Right to Life as enshrined in Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.

It is indeed shocking that even this inadequate and unsatisfactory liability law is going to be diluted without open, transparent and fair public consultations with the people of this country, whose health and well-being, safety and human rights, and life and futures are being put directly in danger.

For all of the above reasons, we strongly oppose any attempt to amend the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, and to dilute the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, and that too without widespread public debate on the subject.

We would very much like to request you to defeat the amendment bills please. Thank you very much.

National Alliance of Anti-nuclear Movements (NAAM)

42/27 Esankai Mani Veethy,

Nagercoil 629 002, Tamil Nadu, India.

Contact: S. P. Udayakumar, Ph.D., Coordinator

Mobile: 98656 83735; Email: spudayakumar[at]gmail.com
Sweden will purchase an additional 94 Finnish Patria 6x6 wheeled armored personnel carriers under the joint CAVS program. And considering this is a repeat order, it's a good opportunity to examine the price of this vehicle, which has the potential to become the most numerous in Europe.

The new Swedish contract will cost 1.5 billion kronor, or 140 million euros. By rough calculation, this gives 1.49 million euros per unit. And yes, since this is not the country's first procurement of these armored vehicles, the price is closest to the real cost.

Patria 6x6 APC / Photo credit: Patria

The result is probably Europe's most budget-friendly wheeled APC, where most competitors dont even approach 1.5 million euros. For example, the Fuchs 2 for Algeria with localization cost 3.7 billion euros for 980 units 11 years ago, or 3.78 million euros per vehicle.

Sweden is purchasing Patria 6x6 in transport, medical, and command modifications, meaning the per-unit price we found is an average between these three variants. And all except the basic version require additional costs for specialized equipment, so the initial cost without all this could be even lower.

Pansarterrangbil 300 (Patgb300A) APC Swedish designation for Patria 6x6 / Photo credit: FMV

With the new addition, the Swedish order has reached 415 APCs, which received the local designation Pansarterrangbil 300 and will be delivered from 2025 to 2030. The basic contract for 321 units was signed back in 2024.

This represents good production speed that doesn't make the customer wait several years just to receive the first vehicles. Another good demonstration of this was Latvias transfer of Patria 6x6 to Ukraine, when from announcement to full delivery of 42 unitstook 10 months to a year.

Patria 6x6 armored personnel carrier during transfer to the Ukrainian Armed Forces Third Army Corps / Photo credit: Ministry of Defense of Ukraine

Swedish industry is also involved in production, which is one of the CAVS conditions. Thanks to this, each participating country organizes localization at home, thereby developing both its own enterprises and increasing overall production capabilities.

Currently, seven countries have chosen the Patria 6x6 within the joint program: Finland, Latvia, Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Norway, with over 1,000 vehicles ordered. More than 250 have already been delivered to the first three participants on the list, proving the scale and pace of production.

Patria 6x6 armored personnel carrier with Cockerill CLWS combat module / Photo credit: Patria

The future looks bright for Finnish APCs in the CAVS program, because Germany alone plans to purchase up to 4,000 units in various modifications. Meanwhile, the British and Norwegians have yet to place orders, not to mention potential new participants.
The DPRK marked the 80th anniversary of its Air Force with a large military celebration featuring combat aircraft, weapon displays, UAVs, and air-defense systems. Photos from the event reveal several pieces of equipment that are, in effect, near-direct reproductions of Western systems  fully in line with North Korea's characteristic cargo-cult style.

This analysis focuses on a new cruise missile displayed both under the wing of a Su-25 attack aircraft and separately on the ground. Visually, the missile is a highly accurate copy of the Franco-British Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG, with certain design elements reminiscent of the German Taurus cruise missile.

This is the first public appearance of such a missile in north Korea, and it remains entirely unclear whether it is merely a mock-up, a prototype, or something more advanced. Until now, there was no evidence that the DPRK was developing an air-launched cruise missile of this class, and no information is available regarding its potential performance characteristics.

If the DPRK indeed attempted to reproduce Storm Shadow, it is reasonable to assume that russia may have played a role  either by providing specialists involved in the development process or through "material support," such as remnants of Storm Shadow missiles that fell or were shot down over russia during Ukrainian strikes.

However, copying the external form is one thing; replicating the internal systems is quite another. It is highly unlikely that north Korea has achieved anything close to Storm Shadow or Taurus in terms of components, electronics, or guidance. Still, if this is not merely a theatrical mock-up, Pyongyang may have managed to produce something capable of flight  and perhaps even able to hit a target occasionally.

A relevant example is north Korea's remarkably precise replica of the RQ-4 Global Hawk, which reportedly managed to take off. Yet the key question remains what lies inside: few believe North Korea replicated the internal avionics and sensor suite of the original UAV.

Overall, it is clear that the DPRK is working to expand its missile arsenal. As previously reported, north Korea has launched new automated missile-production lines  claims that should be treated with caution, but still represent a concerning development for Ukraine.

Earlier this year, north Korea also showcased its new hypersonic missile for the first time.
This photo taken with a mobile phone shows visitors speaking with a staff member from the exhibition area of the Association for Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Straits at the 2025 Kaohsiung Winter International Travel Fair in Kaohsiung, southeast China's Taiwan, Nov. 29, 2025.(Xinhua/Huang Shuo)

TAIPEI, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Huang Shou-kun sprinkled yellow, red and blue lacquer pigments into a small tank of water, letting them drift across the surface before guiding a visitor in dipping a miniature fan beneath the floating colors and then lifting it out via one swift motion, revealing a spontaneously formed, yet artfully patterned, multicolored fan.

"Only 30 seconds and it's easily done," the lacquerware artist told visitors at a booth at the ongoing 2025 Kaohsiung Winter International Travel Fair in the city of Kaohsiung of south Taiwan.

Born in Taiwan, Huang now runs a lacquer art workshop in Fuzhou, capital of eastern Fujian Province. Invited as a provincial-level representative inheritor of Fujian bodiless lacquerware, he is presenting this craft at the fair in the exhibition area of the mainland-based Association for Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Straits. This event runs from Friday to Monday.

"It's enjoyable to see how art is woven into our daily lives in so many ways," said 60-year-old Lo Yin after watching Huang demonstrate and explain lacquer applications on umbrellas, cups and sculptures.

"Maybe it'll be a good choice to visit Fujian on my next trip to the mainland to learn more about its art and culture," added Lo, who recently returned from visiting Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in central Hunan Province and southwestern Chongqing Municipality.

The exhibition area has also featured Nanyin performances. Nanyin is a classical musical performing art originating in the city of Quanzhou in Fujian, and the performances at the fair were jointly given by a duo, one of whom is a national-level representative inheritor and the other a Fujian provincial-level inheritor.

A signature part of the arts in Minnan culture, Nanyin was included in the first batch of China's national intangible cultural heritage list in 2006 and inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009.

Meanwhile, iconic Fujian specialty products being displayed in the exhibition area -- including Pien Tze Huang Pearl Cream, preserved olives, and dried longan -- have also attracted interest from visitors. Some are even eager to buy them after trying them out.

Sun Chen-ming, who has visited the mainland many times, including Fujian, was especially drawn to tea grown and baked in Fujian, which has a different flavor from the tea produced in Taiwan.

"I was told these boxes of tea are for display only, but I'll try my luck when the fair ends to see if I can buy a box to take home," he said, while holding two prints of the Chinese character Fu, which means good fortune, he ink-typed from a device provided in the exhibition area.

According to tourism insiders, Fujian has always been a steady destination for Taiwan travelers -- not only because of its proximity to the island but also thanks to kinship shaped by shared culture and customs.

"Many travelers from Taiwan come to Fujian -- especially for the Mazu Temple in Meizhou," said You Yanping, general manager of Putian Holiday Travel Service Ltd. Located in Fujian's Putian, the island of Meizhou is believed to be the birthplace of the goddess Mazu.

Many also visit Fujian cities like Fuzhou and Quanzhou, from where their ancestors moved to Taiwan, in a bid to trace their roots, she added.

Huang, meanwhile, prepares dozens of blank miniature fans each day at the fair to cater for visitors keen to try lacquer coloring. However, demand is tending to exceed supply due to the large number of curious visitors -- with some also asking for Huang's contact information in their quest for further experiences in Fujian.

"I'd like everyone interested to have the chance to try it," he said. "And I hope next time we will have more space for everyone to take part in the art."

This photo taken with a mobile phone shows lacquerware artist Huang Shou-kun (1st L) guiding a visitor to make a lacquer-colored miniature fan at the 2025 Kaohsiung Winter International Travel Fair in Kaohsiung, southeast China's Taiwan, Nov. 29, 2025.(Xinhua/Huang Shuo)

Editor: WXY
Hassan Omar Hassan, the secretary-general of the United Democratic Alliance of Kenya, speaks at a forum on the English edition of the fifth volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, Dec. 1, 2025. A forum on the English edition of the fifth volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" was held in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, on Monday, with about 200 participants attending the event. The China-Kenya Readers Forum on "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" was co-hosted by China's State Council Information Office, China International Communications Group and the Chinese Embassy in Kenya. (Xinhua/Han Xu)

NAIROBI, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- A forum on the English edition of the fifth volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" was held in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, on Monday, with about 200 participants attending the event.

The China-Kenya Readers Forum on "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" was co-hosted by China's State Council Information Office, China International Communications Group and the Chinese Embassy in Kenya.

Speaking at the forum, Hassan Omar Hassan, the secretary-general of the United Democratic Alliance of Kenya, said that the fifth volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" establishes the foundation for socio-economic transformation across the globe.

"I think by and large it is a template that many countries can adapt into their national contexts and learn from the Chinese model," he said.

Mo Gaoyi, deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and director of the State Council Information Office, said that all five volumes of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" present the historic accomplishments, development path and defining features of China's path to modernization.

The series of books also offers valuable insights and approaches for Global South countries pursuing their own modernization, he added.

China stands ready to strengthen unity and cooperation with African countries, including Kenya, to jointly advance the four major global initiatives, promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and implement the 10 partnership actions for advancing modernization, Mo said.

China's progress on its path to modernization will continue to create new opportunities for Africa, as both sides work together to write a new chapter in building an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era, he said.

William Kabogo Gitau, Kenya's cabinet secretary in the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy, said "the forum is instrumental in helping Kenyan readers fully comprehend the essence of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and deepen their understanding of the practical results of Chinese modernization and its global significance."

He said that Kenya is keen to gain insight on China's path to modernization from the book, as the East African nation seeks to foster mutual exchange among scholars, media practitioners and authors from China.

During the event, the Chinese side presented foreign guests with copies of the English edition of the fifth volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China."

Participating experts and scholars exchanged views and held discussions on topics such as China-Kenya governance experiences, the Belt and Road Initiative, China-Africa cooperation, poverty alleviation, and cultural exchanges.

William Kabogo Gitau, Kenya's cabinet secretary in the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy, speaks at a forum on the English edition of the fifth volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, Dec. 1, 2025. A forum on the English edition of the fifth volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" was held in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, on Monday, with about 200 participants attending the event.

The China-Kenya Readers Forum on "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" was co-hosted by China's State Council Information Office, China International Communications Group and the Chinese Embassy in Kenya. (Xinhua/Han Xu)

Participants attend a forum on the English edition of the fifth volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, Dec. 1, 2025. A forum on the English edition of the fifth volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" was held in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, on Monday, with about 200 participants attending the event.

The China-Kenya Readers Forum on "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" was co-hosted by China's State Council Information Office, China International Communications Group and the Chinese Embassy in Kenya. (Xinhua/Han Xu)

Editor: GSY
The Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development is held in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, Dec. 1, 2025. Under the theme of "Uniting Overseas Chinese Talent, Forging a New Era of Innovation," the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development kicked off here on Monday. (Xinhua/Zhou Yi)

This photo shows robots displayed at the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, Dec. 1, 2025. Under the theme of "Uniting Overseas Chinese Talent, Forging a New Era of Innovation," the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development kicked off here on Monday. (Xinhua/Zhou Yi)

This photo shows a digital electroencephalography acquisition system displayed at the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, Dec. 1, 2025. Under the theme of "Uniting Overseas Chinese Talent, Forging a New Era of Innovation," the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development kicked off here on Monday. (Xinhua/Zhou Yi)

This photo shows a bionic aircraft displayed at the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, Dec. 1, 2025. Under the theme of "Uniting Overseas Chinese Talent, Forging a New Era of Innovation," the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development kicked off here on Monday. (Xinhua/Zhou Yi)

This photo shows cultural and creative products displayed at the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, Dec. 1, 2025. Under the theme of "Uniting Overseas Chinese Talent, Forging a New Era of Innovation," the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development kicked off here on Monday. (Xinhua/Zhou Yi)

This photo shows cultural and creative products displayed at the Harbin booth at the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, Dec. 1, 2025. Harbin is the guest city of honor this year. Under the theme of "Uniting Overseas Chinese Talent, Forging a New Era of Innovation," the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development kicked off here on Monday. (Xinhua/Zhou Yi)

This photo shows the Harbin booth at the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, Dec. 1, 2025. Harbin is the guest city of honor this year. Under the theme of "Uniting Overseas Chinese Talent, Forging a New Era of Innovation," the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development kicked off here on Monday. (Xinhua/Zhou Yi)

This photo shows a robot displayed at the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, Dec. 1, 2025. Under the theme of "Uniting Overseas Chinese Talent, Forging a New Era of Innovation," the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development kicked off here on Monday. (Xinhua/Zhou Yi)

This photo shows a scene of the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, Dec. 1, 2025. Under the theme of "Uniting Overseas Chinese Talent, Forging a New Era of Innovation," the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development kicked off here on Monday. (Xinhua/Zhou Yi)

Editor: GSY
JAKARTA, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from recent floods and landslides across three provinces on Indonesia's Sumatra Island has risen to 604 with 464 missing, the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) said on Monday.

Rescue operations are continuing at full speed across affected areas, the agency said.

The agency reported that flooding displaced about 570,000 people in North Sumatra, West Sumatra, and Aceh provinces. Damage to roads and disruptions to communication networks have left some affected areas inaccessible, with relief supplies being delivered mainly by air.

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said on Monday that the government's rescue and relief efforts are being advanced with full force.

He stressed that Indonesia must respond effectively to climate change and that local governments should play a greater role in environmental protection and in preparing for future extreme weather events.

Editor: WSH
London stocks had pushed higher by midday on Tuesday, with banks leading the gains after they cleared the Bank of Englands stress tests.

The FTSE 100 was up 0.4% at 9,740.07, following a flat start to the session.

Investors were mulling the latest data from Nationwide, which showed house prices continued to rise in November, although the pace of growth eased slightly.

House prices grew by 1.8% year-on-year, down on Octobers 2.4% spike but ahead of expectations for a 1.4% uplift.

Month-on-month, seasonally adjusted growth was 0.3%, also ahead of consensus, for 0%.

The average house price now stands at 272,998.

Robert Gardner, Nationwides chief economist, said: "Against a backdrop of subdued consumer confidence and signs of weakening in the labour market, this performance indicates resilience, especially since mortgage rates are more than double the level they were before Covid, and house prices are close to all-time highs."

In last months Budget, chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a council tax surcharge for properties valued at more than 2m.

However, Gardner said the so-called mansion tax was unlikely to have a "significant" impact on the housing market.

"The surcharge, which is not being introduced until April 2028, will apply to less than 1% of properties in England, and around 3% in London," he noted.

Looking forward, Nationwide said housing affordability was set to to improve "modestly", should income growth continue to outpace house price growth, as expected.

Gardner said: "Borrowing costs are likely to moderate a little further, if Bank Rate is lowered again in the coming quarters.

"This should support buyer demand, especially since household balance sheets are strong."

Investors were also digesting the latest shop price monitor from the British Retail Consortium and NIQ, which showed that shop prices fell in November as retailers started to launch their Black Friday deals and promotions.

In equity markets, Lloyds, Barclays, Standard Chartered and NatWest were among the top performers after the Bank of England said all seven of the biggest lenders passed its stress tests.

In its half-year Financial Stability Report, the Bank flagged increased risks to the UKs financial system, including sky-high valuations of tech companies, while also trimming the amount of capital banks need to hold in reserve.

However, despite the heighted risk climate, the BoE opted to cut capital requirements for the UKs biggest banks after they passed its latest stress tests.

It found that the sector was well capitalised, and that UK household and corporate aggregate indebtedness remained low. As a result, the BoE lowered the appropriate benchmark for the level of Tier 1 capital requirements to 13% from 14%, the equivalent to a CET1 ratio of around 11%. Analysts had been largely expecting the reduction.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "The UK banking sector has passed the Bank of Englands stress test with flying colours.

"The industry and authorities learned some valuable lessons from the global financial crisis in 2008 and banks have subsequently become stronger entities. No-one wanted a repeat of what happened 17 years ago when various banks had to be bailed out. That crisis led to UK banks being pushed to have more capital to withstand any shocks.

"The latest stress test means that major UK banks would be able to cope with a severe decline in the economy and provide ongoing support to consumers and businesses.

"Importantly, the stress test results have given the Bank of England confidence to cut its estimate of how much capital banks need to hold. The government will no doubt welcome this news, given its desire to encourage more lending to drive economic growth."

Elsewhere, Ladbrokes owner Entain rose after an upgrade to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.

Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey were both high risers after an upgrade to outperform from sector perform by RBC Capital Markets. In a broader note on the UK housebuilding sector, RBC said the vital statistics of the UK housing market are in good shape.

"Mortgage approvals for house purchase and housing transaction levels suggest a normal market and house prices are surprisingly stable," it said. "The UK housing market, like many of us, has been fitter in the past, but it is certainly a long way from being on life support."

British Land advanced after Panmure Liberum upgraded the shares to buy from hold and lifted the price target to 490p from 424p, citing rent reversion upside.

Victrex shot to the top of the FTSE 250 as the polymers group said it has launched a "profit improvement plan" targeting 10m of savings, after underlying earnings dropped 21% over the 12 months to 30 September.

On the downside, Berkeley and Barratt Redrow lost ground after RBC Capital downgraded the stocks to underperform from outperform and to sector perform from outperform, respectively.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 9,740.07 0.39%

FTSE 250 (MCX) 22,030.73 0.05%

techMARK (TASX) 5,525.08 -0.10%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Land Securities Group (LAND) 615.00p 2.41%

Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 97.16p 1.74%

Barclays (BARC) 436.65p 1.64%

CRH (CDI) (CRH) 9,164.00p 1.60%

Metlen Energy & Metals (MTLN) 44.28p 1.55%

Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,706.00p 1.49%

Entain (ENT) 798.20p 1.42%

Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 352.20p 1.35%

Aviva (AV.) 648.40p 1.31%

Persimmon (PSN) 1,347.00p 1.28%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 3,652.00p -1.56%

3i Group (III) 3,014.00p -0.99%

Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 628.20p -0.98%

Rightmove (RMV) 539.20p -0.96%

Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,155.00p -0.94%

Airtel Africa (AAF) 309.40p -0.83%

Fresnillo (FRES) 2,798.00p -0.78%

The Sage Group (SGE) 1,066.50p -0.70%

Barratt Redrow (BTRW) 385.90p -0.67%

BAE Systems (BA.) 1,599.50p -0.62%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Victrex plc (VCT) 665.00p 6.57%

British Land Company (BLND) 416.40p 2.31%

IG Group Holdings (IGG) 1,145.00p 1.96%

Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,187.00p 1.89%

Workspace Group (WKP) 384.50p 1.59%

Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 102.80p 1.58%

Partners Group Private Equity Limited. (EUR) (PEY) 10.20p 1.49%

International Workplace Group (IWG) 231.20p 1.40%

Abrdn (ABDN) 204.60p 1.29%

Foresight Solar Fund Limited (FSFL) 65.50p 1.24%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Foresight Group Holdings Limited NPV (FSG) 434.50p -5.85%

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Growth expectations across the private sector weakened in November, a survey showed on Tuesday, stymied by ongoing economic headwinds and pre-Budget jitters.

According to the latest growth indicator from the Confederation of British Industry, private sector firms expect activity to fall in the next three months, with the balance falling to -27 from -20 in October.

A weighted balance is the percentage of companies reporting an increase minus those reporting a decrease.

Firms from across the private sector, including retail and manufacturing, were similarly downbeat looking forward.

The pessimistic outlook coincided with a downturn in private sector activity in the three months to November.

The composite activity balance fell three points to -35, the lowest since August 2020.

Alpesh Paleja, CBI deputy chief economist, acknowledged that the upcoming Budget would have likely weighed heavily on respondents.

A total of 909 firms were surveyed between 24 October and 13 November. Traditionally, the Budget tends to be held at the end of October, but this year chancellor Rachel Reeves presented it a month later, on 26 November.

Paleja said: "Businesses tell us that much of the month passed in limbo ahead of [the Budget], with big discretionary spending and investment on hold.

"However, this only compounded the headwinds to growth that have been apparent throughout the year: cautious spending behaviour by households and clients makes demand conditions tepid, against a backdrop of persistent cost pressures for corporates.

"Stability is the precursor to growth. While last weeks Budget is likely to add further costs to businesses, notably with the addition of National Insurance contributions to salary sacrifice contributions, the fiscal headroom created may provide some stability going forward."

The growth indicator is a composite index based on three of the CBIs long-running business surveys: industrial trends, covering manufacturing; distributive trends, which includes retail; and the services sector, which incorporates both professional and consumer services.
Polymers group Victrex has launched a profit improvement plan targeting 10m of savings, after underlying earnings dropped 21% over the 12 months to 30 September.

Underlying pre-tax profit totalled 46.4m, down from 59.1m the year before, due to currency movements, the cost of setting up a new plant in China and an adverse sales mix.

If FX was constant, underlying pre-tax profit would have fallen 10% over last year. Meanwhile, startup costs in China reduced profits by 8m, compared to 4m the year before.

The company, which makes components for industries such as aerospace, automotive, electronics, energy and medical, said group revenues rose just 1% to 292.7m despite volumes rising 12% to 4,164 tonnes.

Victrex declared a final dividend of 46.14p per share, in line with last year, keeping the full-year payout flat at 59.56p.

A profit improvement plan is now underway, the full-year benefits of which should be seen by FY2027, building on existing self-help and go-to-market improvements.

Meanwhile, Victrex said it undertaking a broader review of operations this year, "targeting further commercial, cost and operating efficiencies, driving business simplification".

"Although FY 2026 will be a transitional year, our foundations are strong, with a differentiated product portfolio across key end markets, well-invested assets and an addressable market approximately five times current levels, offering significant long-term opportunities for VICTREX PEEK," said chief executive Jakob Sigurdsson.

"We will create a simpler and even more focused growth business, improving cost to serve and driving significant value creation for all stakeholders."
As the battle lines harden amid Germanys intensifying pressure on the European Commission to scrap the 2035 ban on production of new petrol and diesel cars, two Swedish car companies, Volvo and Polestar, are leading the campaign to persuade Brussels to stick to the date. They argue such a move is a desperate attempt to paper over the cracks in the German car industry, adding that it will not just prolong take up of electric vehicles but inadvertently hand the advantage to China.  Guardian

Zipcar is closing down in the UK after a new congestion charge from Sir Sadiq Khan threatened to push up costs for drivers. On Monday, the car rental app said it would pull out of Britain by the end of the year amid a new charge for electric vehicles (EVs) driving into Londons congestion zone as a well rising electricity costs.  Telegraph

BP has shelved plans to build a major hydrogen project in Teesside in a fresh blow to Ed Milibands net zero plans. The oil giant withdrew its request to the Government on Monday to build the project after it clashed with separate plans backed by Sir Keir Starmer to construct the largest data centre in Europe. It comes after Downing Street selected a former steel site in Teesside as the home for its second AI Growth Zone, with Labour banking on the technology to help turbocharge the economy.  Telegraph

A businessman whose company was accused of selling bogus engine parts to the airline industry in a significant and audacious fraud, leading to the temporary grounding of planes in 2023, faces up to a decade in prison after pleading guilty to fraudulent trading. Jose Alejandro Zamora Yrala, 37, admitted one charge of fraud in relation to operating AOG Technics for a fraudulent purpose by falsifying documentation relating to the origin, provenance, status and/or condition of aircraft parts between January 2019 and December 2023.  The Times
A New Brighton man was convicted last week of criminal sale of a controlled substance in accepting a guilty plea in state Supreme Court, St. George. (Advance/SILive.com | Jason Paderon)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  A New Brighton man accused of possessing a dangerous cocktail of cocaine and fentanyl on Staten Island is headed to prison.

Abraham Tarr, 31, of Richmond Terrace, pleaded guilty Nov. 25 in state Supreme Court, St. George, to second-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance in connection with his 2024 arrest.

In exchange for his plea, he is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 22 by Justice Mario F. Mattei to eight years in prison and five years of post-release supervision, according to a press release sent out Friday by District Attorney Michael E. McMahon.

The defendant also will be sentenced to an additional two to four years of incarceration, after he violated federal probation with this latest conviction, officials said.

His attorney, a public defender with the Legal Aid Society, did not return a request for comment.

Early morning raid on Jersey Street

Members of the NYPD carried out a drug raid at an apartment in the Richmond Terrace apartments in New Brighton on the morning of Nov. 27, 2024. (Google Maps)

The defendant was arrested on the morning of Nov. 27, 2024, after members of the NYPD carried out a raid at an apartment where he was staying in the Richmond Terrace complex on Jersey Street.

They seized approximately 1,000 glassines containing a fentanyl and cocaine mixture, in addition to a large quantity of cocaine, scales, packaging materials and a large sum of U.S. currency, prosecutors said.

Responsible for the death of hundreds of Staten Islanders in recent years, fentanyl has no place in our communities... said District Attorney Michael E. McMahon in a statement Friday.

Dangerous combinations of fentanyl mixed with cocaine, as well as other narcotics, are becoming more common in the drug supply and are causing overdoses on Staten Island, the boroughs Fentanyl and Overdose Task Force warned last month.

In his statement Friday, McMahon went on to thank members of the NYPD, Assistant District Attorney Andrew Edvin and the men and women of RCDAs Narcotics Investigations Bureau.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  A 34-year-old man from Brooklyn was arrested for allegedly driving drunk with a child in his car on the Staten Island Expressway, authorities said

Elijah Page, of St. Marks Avenue, was apprehended on Nov. 27 around 11 p.m. on the New Jersey-bound Staten Island Expressway near the Goethals Bridge, according to the criminal complaint and New York State Police.

State Police officers were patrolling westbound on the expressway when they pulled over a gray 2021 Honda sedan. Page attracted the attention of troopers by speeding at about 75 mph in a 50 mph zone and also tailgating, according to the criminal complaint and police.

A trooper observed the defendant to be in an intoxicated condition at the above date, time and locating in that he observed defendant to have a strong odor of alcoholic beverage on the defendants breath and bloodshot and watery eyes, said the criminal complaint.

A child was located unharmed in a car seat in the backseat. The child later was released to a family member, according to the police and the criminal complaint.

Page said he was on his way home when he was apprehended in the traffic stop. He allegedly told the troopers that he drank beer.

I didnt have much to drink, not too much, the criminal complaint quoted Page telling police. I can still drive, Im good to get [sic], Im fine.

He added, I didnt know you was gonna stop me. When I saw the lights, I pulled over. This is my first time, Im owning up to it, Im going with the flow.

Page was placed into custody and transported to the NYPDs 120th Precinct in St. George for sobriety testing, where he was found to be over the legal limit of .08. His blood-alcohol level was .095, according to the criminal complaint.

Page was charged by with aggravated driving while intoxicated with a child in the car, driving while intoxicated, and driving while ability impaired by the consumption of alcohol, according to the criminal complaint.

Page has pleaded not guilty to all charges, has been released on his own recognizance and is due back in state Criminal Court in St. George on Feb. 2, according to public records.

An attorney for Page did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Authorities allege a 46-year-old man sold cocaine to an undercover NYPD officer in Tompkinsville.

Haywood Hayes of Richmond Terrace in St. George was arrested on Nov. 14 for allegedly exchanging a capsule of cocaine for cash, according to a criminal complaint. The complaint is based on an investigation by Narcotics Borough Staten Island.

The criminal complaint alleges that police recovered a capsule containing crack cocaine from Hayes pocket.

Hayes has been charged with criminal sale of a controlled substance, criminal possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell and criminal possession of a controlled substance, according to the criminal complaint.

The defendant has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has been released on his own recognizance, according to public records. He is due back in state Criminal Court in St. George on Jan. 12.

Attorney Catherine Barry, who is representing Hayes, declined to comment at this time.
The actress said she rushed home to her babysitter after dinner with Colin Jost, despite their "lovely" first date at an Italian restaurant. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Scarlett Johansson is looking back on her very first date with husband Colin Jost that sent her running home before the clock even hit 10 p.m.

During a conversation with Jenna Bush Hager on Today, the actress opened up about how before meeting the Staten Island native, traditional dating wasnt really part of her life.

My first date with Colin  you know, honestly, nobody ever asked me out really before, she said. When Bush Hager said she didnt believe that, Johansson doubled down: Im telling you, people say that but its true.

She added that she had been a serial monogamist, and though she doesnt know why, she just didnt get asked. That is, until Jost asked her on a proper dinner date.

We went to an Italian restaurant in the East Village. It was a lovely date, Johansson said. We had dinner at 8 p.m. or whatever. And then afterward he was like, Im meeting friends, lets go grab a drink.

But instead of heading to a second location, Johansson bailed.

I hadnt dated basically ever and so I was just like, I got to go now. I need to leave, she said, laughing. She rushed home to relieve her babysitter, who seemed shocked to see her back so early. It was like 9:36 and she was like, Why are you home?

Johansson admitted she didnt have a good answer. I was like, I went on this date and it was  but, you know, I felt so flustered, she said. Later, Jost told her he thought that was the end of it because she was acting so weird. Looking back, she said simply, I panicked. I dont know.

The Hollywood power couple met in 2010 while Johansson was filming a sketch Jost wrote for SNL. They have been romantically linked since 2017 but tied the knot in October 2020 in a small ceremony in Palisades, New York, surrounded by loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic.

They share a son, Cosmo, 4, while Johansson is also mom to Rose, 11, with ex-husband Romain Dauriac.

Johansson  who has previously credited the success of her marriage to moving around the world in the same way as Jost  remains one of Hollywoods busiest stars while Jost balances life at home with his two-decade career at SNL.

Jost returned this year to the Weekend Update desk of Season 51 of Saturday Night Live alongside Michael Che for their 11th season together, the longest-running duo in the shows history. It also marks Josts 20th year with SNL, having joined as a writer in 2005.

You can find which channel NBC is on by using the channel finders here: Verizon Fios, AT&T U-verse, Comcast Xfinity, Spectrum/Charter, Optimum/Altice, DIRECTV and Dish.

Saturday Night Live can be streamed on the following platforms:
PARIS/BERLIN, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and other European leaders on Monday rejected any Ukraine peace deal negotiated "without Ukrainians and Europeans."

Macron said Monday that any "peace plan" concerning the Russia-Ukraine conflict could only be finalized with both Ukraine and Europe involved in negotiations.

Macron made the remarks at a joint press conference at the Elysee Palace after meeting with visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

On issues including frozen Russian assets, security guarantees and Ukraine's potential accession to the European Union, Macron said agreements "can only be finalized with the Europeans around the table."

The French president also stressed that "there is no finalized peace plan as such today."

Zelensky said Ukraine sought to end the conflict "in a dignified manner," calling for "solid" security guarantees, and noted that the "territorial issue will be the most difficult" in future talks.

According to the Elysee Palace, Macron and Zelensky also held discussions with European leaders as well as U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators on Monday.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also said on Monday that Germany stands against any "dictated peace" over the heads of Ukraine.

"No decision about Ukraine and Europe without Ukrainians and without Europeans," Merz told a press conference following his meeting with visiting Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Berlin.

Tusk voiced support for Ukraine, noting efforts by Poland and Germany to jointly strengthen the security of Europe.

Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said on Monday that Europe must also be at the negotiating table, commenting on a possible peace agreement in Ukraine.

Foreign policy makers in Latvia and the Nordic-Baltic region, as well as leaders of the EU and most NATO member states, agree that three principles should be respected, namely the territorial indivisibility of Ukraine, sovereignty and security interests, Rinkevics told Latvian Radio programme "Krustpunkta."

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with U.S. presidential special envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss ending the conflict with Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.

A U.S.-proposed 28-point "peace plan" was unveiled two weeks ago. Following its release, representatives from the United States, Ukraine and several European countries met in Geneva on Nov. 23 to discuss the plan.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Witkoff held talks on Sunday with a Ukrainian delegation in Hallandale Beach, Florida.

Editor: WSH
There was a time in America when a big night out for a good steak dinner meant hitting up Sizzler.

But that time seems long ago now, and the once-popular chain has seen its numbers dwindle in recent years. Founded in 1958, Sizzler once had more than 700 locations across the country. It now has just 74.

And the road from 770-plus to 74 has not been pretty. Two bankruptcies  the first in 1996 and the second in 2000  have taken place on that journey, but Sizzler has somehow survived.

And now there is a plan for a comeback.

QSR Magazines Danny Klein recently spoke with Sizzlers Chief Growth Officer Robert Clark about the chains plan for a rebirth. Clark has been with Sizzler 41 years and has seen previous plans to revitalize the chain fail.

Our current leadership is much more focused on hey, lets take the best of Sizzler and lets make it even better, Clark told QSR.

So, whats the plan to make Sizzler a big-time player in the steak game again?

Well, per the QSR story, the chain focused on remodeling its stores and has seen positive results from that. That includes sales increases of around 47% in the remodeled locations. The chain is looking to continue making the updates.

We feel like we have a really great brand here, Clark told QSR. And our results have been very solid. We constantly pup up in pop culture. I think what were trying to do with the remodel is really stay relevant and have facilities and assets that meet our reputation. We understand that remodeling is probably the single biggest driver of guests in the restaurant. Its the most important thing I think we could do aside from a lot of other operational things were doing as well.

And, while the remodeling is key, getting back to its roots is also a major part of the plan.

Everything we did was trying to dig into what made Sizzler so great in the first place, Sizzler VP of Marketing Sasha Shennikov told QSR. Why we have some restaurants that have stood the test of time through different rebirths; why people keep coming back.
Local community leaders from nonprofits, faith-based and government organizations invited to apply for six-week program addressing rising hate in the borough. Courtesy of JCC

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. The Joan & Alan Bernikow JCC of Staten Island is accepting applications through Dec. 29 for the second cohort of the We Are All Staten Island Fellowship Against Hate.

The fellowship program addresses increasing incidents of hate on Staten Island and New York City. The initiative brings together the Joan and Alan Bernikow JCC of Staten Island, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, the Mayors Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes as part of the Partners Against Hate initiative, the Council of Jewish Organizations, and numerous Staten Island community organizations.

The programs inaugural cohort included 16 Staten Island professionals from nonprofit, faith-based, and government organizations who completed a six-week curriculum.

Fellows participated in workshops covering legal perspectives on hate, experiences of hate and oppression across different communities, unconscious bias, conflict resolution, and coalition building.

Sessions took place across various Staten Island neighborhoods to showcase the boroughs diversity, and the program ended with educational visits to sites in Washington, D.C., and a graduation ceremony.

After great success with our first cohort, were excited to launch a new cohort of WAASIFAH fellows, said Orit Lender, CEO of the JCC. Now more than ever, Staten Island needs to stand together against hate. We look forward to equipping these leaders with the tools they need to break down barriers and build a stronger community.

Staten Island becomes the third borough to host the Fellowship Against Hate program, following cohorts in Brooklyn and the Bronx.

The fellowship targets mid- to senior-level leaders from Staten Islands nonprofit, faith-based, or government organizations.

This fellowship is an opportunity for those seeking to expand their community relationships and gain the skills needed to make meaningful and lasting change, Lender said.

Participating organizations include the SI Immigrants Council, SI Pride Center, Catholic Charities of SI, St. Joseph and St. Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel St. Benedicta, Albanian Islamic Cultural Center, Wagner College Holocaust Center, El Centro, Council of Jewish Organizations, SI Inter-Religious Leadership, SI Hindu Temple, First Central Baptist Church of SI, and Project Hospitality.

Applications can be submitted at https://www.sijcc.org/weareallstatenisland.html.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Authorities are continuing their search for a 22-year-old Rutgers University student reported missing more than a week ago in New Jersey.

Mortimer Wortman was most recently seen in a wooded area of High Bridge Road in Jackson Township on Nov. 21 at about 10:30 p.m., according to a Jackson Township Police Department post on Facebook.

The area is in the vicinity of the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area.

Wortmans car was located in the parking lot of the Regional Day School in Jackson.

The Rutgers University Police Department is working closely with the Jackson Police Department, which is leading the investigation into the disappearance of Mortimer Morty Wortman, a student enrolled at RutgersNew Brunswick," said a statement from the university.

Despite extensive investigative efforts, the young man has not as of yet been located, Chief of Police Matthew Kunz told Advance/SILive.com in an email response on Monday.

The case remains under investigation, according to an email from a spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutors Office.

A GoFundMe has been set up to assist in the search for Wortman.

Mortimer is a kind and unique person who is deeply loved, said a quote on the GoFundMe. This fundraiser will be used to allocate resources for his discovery and/or to hire a private investigator to help bring him home.

Wortman stands about 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs about 200 pounds. He has light skin, dark brown hair, brown eyes, a pierced nose and is known to wear earrings. He was dressed in a black T-shirt, burgundy hoodie and blue jeans when he went missing.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the Jackson Township Police Department at 732-928-1111 and press 0 to speak with a dispatcher.
World-acclaimed pop superstar Sabrina Carpenter slammed President Donald Trump for using her song in a White House video post, Politico reported.

Responding to the video, the Mans Best Friend songstress said that this video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.

The video of people being arrested by agents, apparently as part of Trumps crackdown on illegal immigration, includes Carpenters song Juno.

In a reference to one of the songs lyrics, the White Houses caption for the video reads, Have you tried this one?

Responding to Carpenter, the White House continued to make reference to the songbirds music.

Heres a Short n Sweet message for Sabrina Carpenter: we wont apologize for deporting dangerous criminal illegal murderers, rapists, and pedophiles from our country. Anyone who would defend these sick monsters must be stupid, or is it slow? said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson, referring to Carpenters Short n Sweet album and to the song Manchild.

Carpenter is one of several music stars who have objected to Trump using their songs, including at campaign rallies dating back to Trumps first run for the presidency in 2016.

Mega-star Beyonce last year threatened the Trump campaign with a cease and desist order after it used her song Freedom in a video.

That song later became former Vice President Kamala Harriss campaign song in her White House bid against Trump.

The Rolling Stones, Abba, Foo Fighters and Kenny Loggins have also demanded that Trump stop using their songs at rallies and in videos.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis is pushing for legislation that would provide senior caregivers with a tax deduction worth up to $5,000. (Advance/SILive.com | Jillian Delaney) Advance/SILive.com | Jillian Delaney

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A new bill supported by Staten Islands congressional representative would provide thousands of dollars in federal tax relief to those caring for a loved one.

On Tuesday, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis joined a telephone town hall hosted by AARP New York to discuss various recent efforts to aid seniors and the family members who help care for them.

Malliotakis began the town hall by speaking about various provisions that benefit seniors that she helped secure in the negotiation of President Donald Trumps Big Beautiful Bill, including a bonus deduction for seniors and increased State and Local Tax, or SALT, deduction.

We couldnt change Social Security law directly in this bill, because there are certain rules surrounding the reconciliation process that we used. But what we were able to do is provide a new tax deduction so that when seniors do their taxes in 2026 for this year, 2025, 88% of the seniors across America, which is 51 million people, will receive the money that they paid in Social Security taxes back, said Malliotakis, a Republican who represents Staten Island and parts of South Brooklyn.

We delivered targeted relief by quadrupling the SALT deduction, she added. So really, the seniors who are the homeowners or seniors that are still working, theyre the biggest winners in this middle class tax cut package that we passed earlier this year.

Later in the town hall, Malliotakis voiced support for the Credit for Caring Act, which would provide eligible caregivers with a non-refundable tax credit of up to $5,000 for caregiving expenses like in-home aides, assistive devices, home modifications and transportation costs.

The full $5,000 credit would be available to caregivers earning $75,000 or less, $150,000 or less for those filing joint returns.

For those that exceed the earnings threshold, the credit would begin to phase out and be reduced by $100 for each additional $1,000 they earn beyond the set threshold.

Im very hopeful. I think we made a lot of progress this year. I have consistently been advocating for seniors and trying to bring their issues to the forefront. We have a vast number of members who are co-sponsoring this legislation, both Republicans and Democrats. So it is bipartisan, and Im hopeful that well be able to do it, Malliotakis said.
The morning view from Great Kills park on Tuesday Dec. 2, 2025. From potential flooding and freezing conditions to wind gusts of 35 mph, residents should prepare for challenging weather through early next week. Advance/SILive.com | Jan Somma-Hammel

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  New York City residents will experience mostly rain Tuesday as a coastal storm passes through the region.

Rain started between 8 and 10 a.m. on Tuesday, and was set to continue through the evening. According to the National Weather Service, temperatures will climb to the upper 30s to lower 40s across the New York City metro area, keeping precipitation as rain rather than snow. Winds will increase Tuesday afternoon and night, with northwest winds 15-25 mph and gusts up to 35 mph possible.

The National Weather Service warns that poor drainage flooding is possible with, and an inch to 1.5 inches of precipitation expected through this evening, though rainfall rates should remain below a half inch per hour.

Temperatures will drop below freezing Tuesday night, potentially causing refreezing of standing water. Residents should use caution on untreated surfaces late Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

Wednesday will bring dry conditions with high temperatures in the upper 30s to lower 40s, about 10 degrees below normal. The National Weather Service indicates winds will diminish by midday Wednesday as the pressure gradient relaxes.

Thursday will remain dry with similar temperatures before a cold front passes through the area in the afternoon. Friday will be very cold with highs only reaching the mid-30s in the New York City metro area.

The extended forecast shows another weather system possibly affecting the region late Friday night into Saturday morning, with temperatures continuing below normal into early next week. Monday could see highs only in the upper 20s to lower 30s as another shot of cold air moves into the region.
The parasitic plundering of the Health Services Union funds has taken another bizarre twist, with the trustee of the bankrupt estate of former national secretary Kathy Jackson fleeing the country with most of the funds she had been ordered to repay to the union.

Jackson was initially lauded as a whistleblower who outlined the fraud of union officials Craig Thomson and Michael Williamson. The latter spent five years in jail for what a judge described as his parasitic plundering of union funds for pure greed.

Former Health Services Union boss Kathy Jackson was found guilty of misappropriating funds from the union. Credit: Vince Caligiuri

But it transpired that Jackson was no better.

In August 2015, she was ordered to repay the $1.4 million she had misappropriated from the union, which she had used for international trips for her family, a Mercedes car, jewellery and an artwork.
Last weekend, dozens of protesters jumped in kayaks and paddled into Newcastle Harbour to stage a blockade in the worlds largest coal port in part of an action organised by climate activist group Rising Tide.

More than 130 people were arrested. Among them was independent investigative journalist and activist Wendy Bacon, who at 79 has no fear of water, cops or vast hulking coal ships. She was charged with breaching sections of the Crimes Act by paddling into an exclusion zone set up around the harbour with the approval of Transport Minister John Graham designed to protect the shipping lane.

Journalist and activist Wendy Bacon at the Rising Tide climate protest in Newcastle on the weekend.

Attending the large, almost carnivalesque protest on Newcastles Horseshoe Beach with Knitting Nannas, an organisation of older female climate activists, Bacon told CBD she was driven by a sense of frustration at the way both state and federal governments had approved coal and gas projects with little apparent concern for environmental impacts.

People who run fossil fuel industries only think of short-term profits. They dont pay serious attention to their children and grandchildren, she said.
This undated illustration provided by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) shows EP240904a, an exceptionally faint X-ray burst within the Milky Way captured by China's astronomical satellite Einstein Probe in September 2024. (Chinese Academy of Sciences/Handout via Xinhua)

BEIJING, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- In the course of almost two years after China's astronomical satellite named Einstein Probe (EP) was launched, it has managed to capture many extraordinary transient events in the universe that flicker like fireworks, thereby helping expand human understanding of extreme physical phenomena in the cosmos.

"Since its launch in January 2024, EP has fundamentally transformed our view of the dynamic X-ray universe. This pioneering mission, led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), is now delivering a steady stream of discoveries -- uncovering rare and explosive cosmic events that were once too brief and faint for other telescopes to catch," Yuan Weimin, principal investigator of the EP mission and a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatories of the CAS (NAOC), said recently.

The EP mission is one of a series of space science missions under the leadership of the CAS. It is also an international collaboration mission with contributions from the European Space Agency, the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany, and the French space agency CNES.

The probe is equipped with two complementary X-ray telescopes. Its Wide-field X-ray Telescope (WXT) utilizes novel lobster-eye optics to monitor one-tenth of the entire sky in a single shot, thus providing unprecedented sensitivity to faint, transient events. For detailed follow-up, the Follow-up X-ray Telescope (FXT) offers a larger effective area and superior angular resolution to pinpoint and study discoveries.

"The probe can capture fleeting flashes, monitor processes with a duration from seconds to days and years, and detect faint signals hidden in the dark. These findings establish EP as a key player at the forefront of international research in time-domain high-energy astrophysical observations," said Yuan.

SLOW EVOLVING COSMIC FIREWORK

EP discovered a new X-ray transient, EP241021a, persisting for at least 40 days, like a slowed-down cosmic firework, which was accompanied by a relativistic jet. Relevant study has been published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Such a prolonged and luminous eruption is extremely rare. Astronomers speculate it could be the signature of a star being torn apart by an uncommon intermediate-mass black hole or an unusual type of explosion resulting from the core-collapse of a massive star.

"This discovery offers new insights into catastrophic explosion and the launching of a relativistic jet," said Shu Xinwen, a professor at Anhui Normal University in east China, who leads the study.

"It also provides potentially valuable clues for studying the enigmatic class of intermediate-mass black holes," Shu added.

ILLUMINATING THE MILKY WAY

In September 2024, the probe captured an exceptionally faint X-ray burst, dubbed EP240904a, within the Milky Way. Its observational characteristics, including its X-ray "heartbeat" and spectral evolution, as well as its radio and infrared properties -- identified it as a new black hole candidate. The outburst was about 100 times dimmer than typical black hole eruptions, explaining why it had remained hidden in previous observations. Relevant study has been published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

"The discovery of EP240904a opens a new window for unveiling the hidden population of black holes in the Milky Way," said Cheng Huaqing from the NAOC, who is the first author of the study.

"With the EP, we now have the key capability to uncover these 'silent' black holes systematically," said Tao Lian, a researcher from the Institute of High Energy Physics of the CAS and corresponding author of the study.

RARE X-RAY FLASH

The mission's autonomous capabilities were spotlighted with the discovery of EP240801a. The probe detected this transient and immediately triggered its onboard FXT instrument for follow-up observations.

A joint analysis involving NASA's Fermi satellite revealed the event to be an extremely "soft" X-ray flash -- a rare type of explosion in which low-energy X-rays dominate radiation.

Scientists classify X-rays as "soft" or "hard" based on the energy level of their X-ray photons. Soft X-rays have lower photon energy, while hard X-rays have higher energy.

Its extreme properties provide new clues regarding the diversity of gamma-ray bursts and stellar core-collapse events.

"This event showcases EP's core capabilities -- as it completed the full process from discovery to tracking the X-ray evolution and locating the position of the transient source autonomously," said Xu Dong, a researcher from the NAOC. "This performance marks it as a brilliant and efficient cosmic monitoring platform."

Editor: Xiong Jian
A traditional design has been chosen for a $200 million upgrade to what has been dubbed Sydneys worst roundabout after a preferred option for a type of signalised intersection was dumped.

Construction on what is commonly referred to as the DFO roundabout, near Olympic Park, is expected to start in 2027 and take about two years to complete at a cost twice the original budget of $100 million three years ago.

A render of the new design for the $200 million upgrade to the notorious DFO roundabout at Homebush. Credit: Transport for NSW

The new design for the Homebush Bay Drive and Australia Avenue intersection is aimed at replacing the existing roundabout with a signalised intersection and extra lanes to ease congestion. About 5000 vehicles an hour pass through the roundabout during morning and evening peaks.

The preferred option had previously been a so-called diverging diamond interchange, which would have allowed motorists to navigate through the intersection via a crossover arrangement.
A man is dead, two others have been hospitalised and a fourth is on the run after a shooting at a rural property near the NSW-Queensland border.

Emergency services were called to a property on Tyalgum Road, Eungella, about 10 kilometres west of Murwillumbah in the NSW Northern Rivers about 1.30pm on Wednesday.

A 41-year-old died at the scene after being shot by a man who allegedly fled with another man.

The police operation on Tyalgum Road, Eungella, in the NSW Northern Rivers. Credit: Nine News

A 38-year-old man was also shot, and took himself to Murwillumbah Hospital before being transferred to Gold Coast University Hospital.

On the same road not long after, a man was allegedly hit by a car.

The 45-year-old was treated by intensive care paramedics for leg, chest and arm injuries after being struck about 2pm. He was taken to the same Queensland hospital.

NSW Police have set up a crime scene and are waiting to speak to the two men in hospital.

A fourth man, believed to be 37, is also being sought by police.
When students at Central Coast Grammar walk into their classroom each morning, a single word is beamed to them.

Every single day, in every single classroom, theres a TV screen, and it will have the word of the day, says the schools head of English, Cassandra Kennedy.

Teachers work collaboratively and promote literacy and a love of reading across the school. Credit: Wolter Peeters

Last year, it was placed in the top 20 schools in the state for HSC English advanced and extension results  a feat staff attribute to the strong reading culture at the school.

NAPLAN results released on Wednesday reveal that while some top-performing HSC schools show strong year 9 results, others show significant growth before the final years of high school.
Sydneys on-street tables would become a permanent fixture of metropolitan streets under a $20 million plan to lock in al fresco dining and ease tensions between venues and the city council.

Five years after the City of Sydney allowed the outdoor dining areas to take over parking spaces during the pandemic, the council wants to replace the concrete barriers with footpath extensions.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the council was flipping the script to supercharge outdoor dining. Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

Draft changes to outdoor dining guidelines also reverse a ban on live entertainment and scrap outdated rules that require patrons to sit or stand at tables when eating or drinking outside.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the council wanted to make it easier for businesses to establish eating areas on city streets and footpaths, and it was flipping the script to supercharge outdoor dining.
A rogue investigator at the Australian Tax Office is under increasing scrutiny over a decision to place an ankle monitor on a taxpayer with no criminal history.

Anthony Rains remains employed by the ATO despite a Queensland Supreme Court judgment in October finding he had committed 11 acts of misconduct in a separate case against another taxpayer with no criminal history, known by the pseudonym Julie Clarke.

ATO investigator Anthony Rains. Credit: A Current Affair

That judgment is under appeal.

The latest case involves a 58-year-old businesswoman from Queensland, known as Taxpayer A, who is before the courts facing 93 charges of misleading a taxation officer.
A man found submerged in a large pond has been arrested over a fatal shooting south of Brisbane overnight.

A 35-year-old man was allegedly shot in the chest at Hugh Muntz Park in Beenleigh about 10.40pm on Tuesday.

Police then tracked a stolen vehicle from the scene of the shooting to a park, where they allege the second man was found hiding in the pond after discarding a firearm nearby.

The first man was found near Morrison Lane, and treated by officers and paramedics in the park, where he died a short time later.
She remembered Jenkinson frequently speaking of being under a lot of pressure over the new helicopters, which needed engineering to get them up and running. Often hed say he was trying to induct ground crew, he was struggling to find staff, she said. Ashley Jenkinson, the pilot who died in the Gold Coast helicopter crash. Credit: Facebook Richardson-Johnson recalled the pair had a New Years Eve party at their house where Jenkinson was using cocaine. She said Jenkinson had used cocaine in the past, in a recreational capacity at concerts or birthday parties. She said that would be about six to eight times per year.

She said she was unaware of how much cocaine Jenkinson used during the New Years Eve party. When asked how often she had previously seen Jenkinson fly the day after he took cocaine, she answered probably two or three times a year. Richardson-Johnson said Jenkinson had drank at least 12 beers on the night of the party. Stephen Gill, a close friend of Jenkinson, told the inquest he saw the pilot with cocaine on a toolbox in a shed at the same party. He said he believed Jenkinson last used the cocaine about midnight. Some others reported it could have been about 3am, the court heard. Gill, who left the party about 5am, said Jenkinson had told him he left the party at some stage to help a friend into an Uber, and then took them home, carrying them to bed.

The court heard there was a conversation between Richardson-Johnson and Gills wife about Jenkinsons stress levels. Ross Meadows, who managed marketing for the company and was a close friend of Jenkinson, also told the inquest he saw the pilot with a white substance in a shed at the party. He told the inquest Jenkinson was not a regular user of cocaine, but had seen him use it sporadically in social settings. When he left the shed, Meadows said, nothing good comes from that shit, the court heard. He said he had learned of Jenkinsons cocaine use in the years earlier, but it did not click at the time to him that it could be a danger for Jenkinsons flying or to report it to anyone at the company.

Meadows said Jenkinson was his own person, and he was not responsible for him. Meadows said he spoke with Jenkinson regularly, and the chief pilot had not disclosed issues with his workload or indicated he had struggled with managing his duties. Loading He described Jenkinson as a phenomenal pilot, and while the pair had a lot of fun outside the aircraft, when Jenkinson got in, he was very serious, and did not take it lightly. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which investigated the crash, said Jenkinsons cocaine use was unlikely to have affected his flying skills. It found the cocaine would have been used about 35 to 39 hours before the flight.

Sea World Helicopters last week agreed to settle a civil claim with Richardson-Johnson. The Supreme Court heard the claim centred on allegations of negligence relating to poor work practices and a lack of reasonable safety precautions. The court heard 30 per cent of the undisclosed settlement would go to the couples son, Kayden, while Richardson-Johnson would get the remainder. Nicholas Tadros, who lost his mother and his leg in the helicopter crash bravely attended the inquest this week. Sea World Helicopters chief executive Brett Newman and director Orr-Campbell were due to give evidence to the inquest on Monday.
Since then, theres been a steady drip feed of headlines about how these bans are hurting women. Loading As ProPublica has reported, at least five women have died after being denied emergency abortion care, and theres been a rise in sepsis cases. Thousands of women have endured the stress and cost of travelling vast distances to access abortion in states where it remains legal. A young woman from Georgia, where abortion is banned after six weeks, told me earlier this year that shed been too afraid to tell anyone she was travelling to New York for the procedure. The latest target for anti-abortion politicians and activists is abortion medication, now the most common form of abortion in the US.

Women in states with near-total bans, such as Texas, have still been able to order abortion pills online or have the medication mailed to them after a telehealth appointment with a doctor in a state where it remains legal. But in an attempt to close that loophole, Texas will introduce a bounty hunter law on December 4 that will allow members of the public to sue anyone who sends abortion pills to women in the state for up to $US100,000 ($153,000). The American Civil Liberties Union has said the law will fuel fear among manufacturers and providers nationwide, while encouraging neighbours to police one anothers reproductive lives, further isolating pregnant Texans. But doctors such as Angel Foster, who runs a telehealth practice from Boston, have vowed to continue sending abortion medication to women in Texas. She is optimistic that a Massachusetts state shield law meant to protect medical providers will help prevent her from prosecution under the new Texas law.

A similar law in New York has so far proven effective. Texas fined a New York doctor $US100,000 earlier this year for prescribing abortion medication to a woman in that state, but New York has refused to enforce the fine. Loading On a national level, the US Food and Drug Administration is examining regulations covering the abortion pill mifepristone after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr asked for a review based on the findings of a study that has been widely discredited. Meanwhile, The New York Times has reported that the Environmental Protection Agency asked scientists to investigate whether the government could develop methods for detecting traces of abortion pills in wastewater. This news takes on a chilling quality when you consider that lawmakers in at least nine states have proposed legislation this year seeking to classify abortion as homicide, according to The British Medical Journal.

Ive lost count of the number of times Ive seen todays America compared to Margaret Atwoods dystopian novel The Handmaids Tale, in which women are forced to bear children. Perhaps we shouldnt be surprised that people keep making that comparison when theres yet another story from Texas about a woman dying after doctors refused to perform a termination. Or from Louisiana, where even child rape victims are not allowed to get an abortion after politicians voted  for the third time in as many years  against granting them an exemption. In the US, more women die in pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum than any other wealthy nation. Instead of trying to improve this shocking statistic, politicians continue to police womens personal lives with laws that only cause greater harm. No wonder Liberation, on Broadway, is resonating so powerfully with theatregoers.
Collingwood legend Scott Pendleburys former manager has hit back at claims he pilfered millions from the two-time premiership players bank account, saying he has the WhatsApp messages to prove things were all above board.

Pendlebury launched legal action last month in the Supreme Court of Victoria against his former manager Jason Sourasis, alleging $2.15 million of his money had been misappropriated while he was a client and other cash had been borrowed but never repaid.

One of the stars of the AFL, Collingwoods Scott Pendlebury, has launched legal action in the Supreme Court of Victoria. Credit: AFL Photos

A key plank of Pendleburys near $3 million claim was that Sourasis took the money without his knowledge or permission over 70 transactions between 2015 and 2023 and that Sourasis financial planning group had a duty to act in his best interests.

Pendlebury alleges his cash was used to fund Sourasis development projects in Seaford and Tarneit as well as other investment projects.
Ukraine's commitment to eliminate the exemption that allows small businesses to operate without registering as VAT payers, currently under discussion as part of a new IMF memorandum, risks triggering a mass shutdown of small businesses and a sharp expansion of the shadow economy, according to a joint statement by the Expert Economic Platform, which brings together Ukrainian analytical centers.

"We are concerned about Ukraine's commitment to cancel the exemption for VAT registration, which clearly relates to single tax (simplified regime) payers and introduces a turnover threshold for mandatory VAT registration. Its implementation could have extremely negative consequences," the statement published on the platform's website reads.

Signatories include: the Center for Social and Economic Research CASE Ukraine; the Institute for Social and Economic Transformation; the Ukrainian Institute of Legal Policy; the Institute of Economic Leadership; the Advanter Group analytical center; the ANTS national interests protection network; the Chief Economist's Office of the Coalition of Business Communities for Ukraine's Modernization; the Institute of Finance and Law; the Association of Tax Advisors; the Institute for Tax Reform; economist Pavlo Kukhta (Deputy Finance Minister in 20192020); and the Center for Economic Research and Forecasting "Financial Pulse."

The think tanks argue that this decision would force most sole proprietors to shut down, deepen the shadow economy, and increase corruption. The authors also expect an outflow of highly qualified specialists seeking better conditions abroad.

According to preliminary information, the proposal would set a mandatory VAT registration threshold at an annual turnover of UAH 1 million. This would affect more than 644,000 sole proprietors who generated comparable income in 2024 under the simplified tax system.

Analysts warn that VAT administration is the most burdensome tax procedure in Ukraine, and extending this requirement to microbusinesses undermines the very foundation of the simplified tax system.

"Imposing such an obligation on microbusinesses could completely nullify the core purpose of the simplified tax regime, to free the smallest entrepreneurs from the burden of accounting, reporting, and tax inspections, which are often accompanied by corruption pressures," the analysts said.

They estimate that adopting this decision would cause public welfare losses of UAH 150180 billion (about 1.52% of GDP), while the potential budget gains from combating abuses within the simplified system amount to only UAH 1013 billion.

The signatories called on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, Verkhovna Rada Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk, National Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyy, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko, and Economy, Environment and Agriculture Minister Oleksiy Sobolev to first dismantle large-scale tax evasion schemes. In particular, experts recommend focusing on informal employment (with losses estimated at UAH 200265 billion annually), gray imports (UAH 105120 billion), excise tax evasion (UAH 3943 billion), disguising employees as sole proprietors (UAH 1619 billion), and business splitting (UAH 1013 billion).

Experts also note that in the European Union, the threshold for special VAT regimes is EUR 100,000, significantly higher than the limit proposed for Ukraine.

MP Oleksandr Fediyenko wrote on Facebook that the issue of switching sole proprietors to the general taxation system also surfaced during the Servant of the People faction's discussion of the draft 2026 state budget with Svyrydenko and Marchenko on the evening of December 1.

"I believe this is one of the most difficult topics of the upcoming budget year, and of the budget process overall. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Finance was not prepared. The discussion looked like this: Sole proprietors are a problem, they must all be cut and moved to the general system with VAT, otherwise the IMF won't give us money and everything will go badly," he wrote.

He also urged entrepreneurs to articulate their position and join the discussion.

Meanwhile, Hlib Vyshlinsky, head of the Centre for Economic Strategy (CES), urged colleagues to clearly indicate the conditions under which they themselves work, whether as sole proprietors or under the general taxation system, when participating in such debates.

"Before expressing expert opinions, it would be good to add a disclaimer explaining how exactly the expert earns their income. And whether there is a conflict of interest (spoiler: there is)," Vyshlinsky wrote on Facebook.

As for determining whether a VAT threshold of UAH 1 million a year is optimal under the current administration system and with a single tax rate for all economic activity codes, Vyshlinsky said this requires separate analytical work.

"And the Ministry of Finance and the IMF should understand this. We, of course, are already working on it," he said.

As reported earlier, Ukraine and the International Monetary Fund reached a staff-level agreement (SLA) on a set of macroeconomic and structural measures that could be supported under a new 48-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement, with potential access to SDR 5.94 billion (about $8.1 billion, or 295% of quota).

According to the IMF statement, Ukraine committed to accelerating efforts to broaden its tax base, in particular by "eliminating exemptions from VAT registration."

The ministries of finance and economy, as well as the government, have so far refrained from official comments on these proposals.

Current annual income thresholds for sole proprietors are: UAH 1.336 million for Group 1 (167 minimum wages), UAH 6.672 million (834 MW) for Group 2, and UAH 9.336 million (1,167 MW) for Group 3. Meanwhile, the VAT registration threshold has long remained at UAH 1 million. According to government sources, the proposal is seen as a safeguard against using sole proprietors to split large businesses and optimize taxes instead of hiring employees.
A West Australian man has described feeling helpless as he watched on from behind road blocks while his home was destroyed by an out-of-control bushfire on Monday.

More than 200 firefighters worked throughout the weekend and Monday to control fires raging through the town of Geraldton, about five hours drive north of Perth.

Geraldton man Nick Morgan has described the moment he found out his home had burnt down in a bushfire. Credit: ABC / 9 News Perth

Fires in the Mid West region have been downgraded as conditions ease, and emergency services are assessing the damage.

Nick Morgan spoke to ABC Radio on Tuesday morning, and said he first became aware of the blaze when he was out of town.
Western Australias high-achieving schools for 2025 have been revealed, with government secondary schools in the metropolitan area forming the majority of top performers in this years NAPLAN testing.

The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority released the testing results on the My School website on Wednesday.

Students at high-achieving schools have continuously shown above-average literacy and numeracy results over time when compared with others with a similar background. The list was provided by ACARA and is unranked.

Just four schools of the 20 listed were private, with the remaining public schools. Only one was a primary school.
Communications Minister Anika Wells says social media companies should prepare for $50 million fines if they havent managed to kick children off their platforms within six months, but conceded some children will retain access to their accounts in the meantime, while others go to new apps.

Wells also said she would not hesitate to ban additional tech platforms if trends keep showing a surge in downloads for alternative social media apps, such as Yope and Lemon8.

Anika Wells is setting expectations for day one of the governments social media ban. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

As the Albanese government readies for scrutiny when its social media ban for under 16s comes into effect on December 10, Wells will on Wednesday give an address to the National Press Club to temper expectations about its first few months.

The question youre all desperate to know the answer to  who is getting slapped with the first $50 million fine on 10 December? The bureaucrats in the room will back me up here  but regulation rarely acts fast, and certainly not that fast, she will say in the speech.
Communications Minister Anika Wells has refused to be drawn on her $190,000 trip to New York to spruik the governments teen social media ban, insisting she and her staff were doing important work at the United Nations to defend Australian children.

In an at times hostile National Press Club appearance on Wednesday, the minister refused to say whether the cost of her teams September trip was value for money.

Communications Minister Annika Wells travelled to New York to spruik Australias landmark teen social media ban. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Wells billed taxpayers $70,000 to host an event while she was in New York, after she, a staffer and a public servant spent almost $100,000 on flights to attend the United Nations General Assembly. The minister and her staff member flew to New York after delaying their departure due to the Optus Triple Zero outage that was linked to three deaths when calls to emergency services would not connect. The senior public servant flew to New York as planned.

The reason you know all those things [the cost of the New York trip] is because were transparent about them, and we will disclose them, and well continue to disclose information about that trip through the usual processes, Wells said at the press club.
Ukraine is in talks about receiving a batch of Australian military helicopters to help defend against Russian aggression as the Albanese government attempts to make amends for the much-criticised decision to dispose of the armys Taipan helicopters instead of sending them to the battlefield.

The government is preparing this week to announce its first new package of military support for Ukraine in over a year as frantic negotiations continue between Ukrainian, American, Russian and European officials to end the four-year-long conflict.

The Australian Armys ARH Tiger helicopter could be headed to Ukraine to help defend against Russias invasion. Credit: Tadek Markowski

As part of the support package, the government is expected to pledge around $50 million to a NATO program that buys American-made weapons for Ukraine.

Australia and New Zealand are set to become the first non-NATO nations to contribute to the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List scheme, which provides Ukraine with air defence, precision-guided missiles and other munitions.
Australians fear the federal government is appointing overpaid political hacks to plum public service jobs and have lost faith in its capacity to make independent appointments, according to a long-hidden report that Labor released more than two years after it was finished.

The Albanese government said it would introduce a framework for politically linked appointments to senior positions, but it has rejected several other recommendations in the review of Canberras jobs-for-mates culture by former public service commissioner Lynelle Briggs.

Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Successive governments have been criticised for their public service and diplomatic appointments, but the review ordered by the Albanese government in 2023 was limited to examining board appointments, not plum postings or high-profile jobs.

Labors long-delayed response was condemned by integrity experts, independent MPs and the Coalition as insufficient, with one MP saying a culture of cronyism would continue.
An internal review of the Coalitions historic election loss singles out the Donald Trump effect for turning voters off Peter Dutton as the Liberal Party considers whether parts of the probe must be censored because they are too embarrassing to be made public.

Leaked elements of the yet-to-be-released review found Duttons decision in February to give Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price a role inspired by Elon Musks controversial DOGE agency hurt the campaign.

Peter Dutton took some leads from the Donald Trump playbook, but it may have backfired. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen, AP

The report, commissioned nearly six months ago, was finished in recent days and the partys federal executive is considering whether to seal embarrassing or sensitive campaign details that would not be publicly released.

Its publication was delayed until after the final sitting of parliament to avoid drawing further attention to internal problems but the leadership of Opposition Leader Sussan Ley continues to be debated by her colleagues as new schisms emerge over migration.
Instead, a flood of prescriptions is now issued each year, with TGA data showing 6.59 million units of legal medicinal cannabis products sold in Australia last year. But as commercial platforms automate consultations and prioritise script volumes, the real elephant in the room for us is the telehealth model that is causing a lot of this really low-value care, Langham said. Therapeutic Goods Administration chief medical adviser Robyn Langham. Telehealth prescribing surged during the pandemic and is now a national marketplace with fast-growing single-medication players in areas ranging from weight-loss drugs to cosmetic injectables, vaping, ADHD diagnoses and others. Asked about the comments, a TGA spokesman said it was important to strike the right balance between access to services to patients, particularly those living in rural and regional Australia, and the public safety risks associated with isolated prescribing practices.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said on Tuesday that while telehealth had been a significant innovation in healthcare  particularly since the beginning of COVID for those who found travel difficult  serious issues had emerged. I think weve found over the last five years, as the model has frankly exploded in some areas, that we need to make sure that there are proper quality controls on the system, he said. Butler said the TGA was reviewing medicinal cannabis which would be crucial for ensuring proper quality controls [are] in place. He said there had been ample coverage of the medicinal cannabis sectors closed-loop models  business models where people get a referral and a script and then a dispensed product from essentially the same business. The regulators review of the rules around medicinal cannabis prescription will help establish for the first time just how much of the drug is being prescribed.

At present, there are multiple ways doctors can provide scripts for cannabis, meaning the TGA does not record the number of patients accessing cannabis products. One of the only available measurements of the medicinal cannabis market is sales data, obtained under freedom of information by drug policy research body the Penington Institute each quarter. We dont know how much is being prescribed, the TGAs Langham said. Loading In July, the body that polices doctors, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, also warned it believed some practitioners were putting profits over patient welfare and that it would target doctors it considered were overprescribing.

We dont prescribe opioids to every patient who asks for them, and medicinal cannabis is no different. Patient demand is no indicator of clinical need, Medical Board chair Dr Susan ODwyer said at the time. One doctor caught up in AHPRAs crackdown is Justin Welsh, a South Melbourne practitioner who approached this masthead after he was barred from prescribing medicinal cannabis to his more than 4000 patients. In November, after a lengthy legal dispute, AHPRA suspended the 54-year-old emergency medicine veteran from prescribing cannabis (he can still practise medicine), in part because of the volume of his prescriptions. Welsh himself is not bashful about his prescribing: This year alone, I have written 14,711 prescriptions. Thats 102,977 cannabis products worth an estimated $9,782,815 to the cannabis industry, he said.

Welsh concedes the numbers are high, but argues he is dealing with a patient cohort that regulators have never managed properly and that would otherwise buy from the black market. Im not creating new users, he says. Im reducing harm. If I dont prescribe, they go to the street. Welsh spent two decades in emergency medicine at the Epworth before turning full time to cannabis prescribing during the pandemic. He is furious at the current enforcement push, accusing AHPRA of acting above the law and ignoring the regulatory vacuum that governments created from 2016 when they legalised medicinal cannabis but misjudged the scale of demand. Welshs suspension was triggered by state health complaints  particularly from Western Australia, where THC limits are lower than in Victoria where he predominantly prescribes. For a national telehealth doctor, he argues, the inconsistent maze of state rules is unworkable. There is no regulation for what a dose is, or an overdose. Its random. Welsh said the real safety risk in cannabis lay in people accessing the unregulated market: Street marijuana contains mould, pesticides, twigs and dog shit, he says. Medicinal cannabis is [a high] standard and often cheaper than illegal product.

Welshs suspension has left his patients in limbo  on the day this masthead visited his clinic, dozens of text messages and phone calls peppered his phone from patients wanting to know why he had cancelled their appointments. Welsh said the calls from distressed patients were upsetting. People need this medication. Otherwise, they use other drugs that are more dangerous than cannabis. An AHPRA spokesman said the Medical Board of Australia had accepted an undertaking from Welsh prohibiting him from prescribing medicinal cannabis but could not comment further. On Friday, the Penington Institute released its annual Cannabis in Australia report, which showed product sales plateauing in 2025 after years of rapid growth, and the sale of edible cannabis products, such as gummies, almost doubling in the last year.
The City of Perth has been thrown into fresh turmoil, with the lord mayor requesting a state government investigation after abandoning a controversial workplace culture review he pushed through council last month.

The move came during a tense agenda meeting on Tuesday evening, which attracted a packed gallery of ratepayers and residents.

Perth Lord Mayor Bruce Reynolds. Credit: Carla Hildebrandt

Their vocal support for one another prompted Lord Mayor Bruce Reynolds to label them a cheer squad.

Reynolds opened the meeting with a 15-minute speech defending his November 18 urgent motion  which councillors were given six minutes to read before voting on  authorising a $125,000 review by a law firm.
England have gone against their ultra-aggressive Bazball instincts by making a surprising  but conservative  call at the selection table for the second Ashes Test at the Gabba and promising more circumspect shot selection when their time comes at the batting crease.

Batting all-rounder Will Jacks was called into the XI when the team was named on Tuesday, two days before the first ball is bowled. He will fill the vacancy created by the injury to paceman Mark Wood.

Former England captain Michael Vaughan says the selection of Jacks, who can bowl useful part-time off-spin, over frontline off-spinner Shoaib Bashir was an indication of the concern the visitors hold over their batting depth.

England need the runs, Vaughan, a commentator for Kayo this summer, told this masthead. The one area they fail in Test cricket, that batting unit doesnt get enough runs. I think that England unit want a few more runs, from what I hear.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group, plans to invest EUR 50 million in the equity of the new Horizon Capital Catalyst Fund SCSp (Catalyst Fund), which the investment company Horizon Capital launched this summer with a target size of EUR 300 million.

According to the IFC website, the corporation will also consider co-investing up to EUR 50 million alongside the new fund into its future portfolio companies.

The IFC Board of Directors is expected to review the project on January 7 next year.

According to publicly available information, the Luxembourg-registered Horizon Capital Catalyst Fund will focus on strategic domestic sectors critical to Ukraine's recovery, including digital infrastructure, energy, building materials, and selected industrial segments. The fund aims to act as a catalyst for Ukraine's reconstruction and investment inflows, mobilizing up to EUR 3 billion through partnerships with global strategic investors, international funds, and Ukrainian founders and operators.

The fund expects to invest EUR 2050 million per project, primarily in equity, as well as quasi-equity and project financing, acquiring minority stakes in 810 mid-cap, actively operating Ukrainian companies and, where possible, in Moldovan firms that have strategic linkages with and direct benefits for Ukraine.

Earlier, the EBRD announced its intention to join the Catalyst Fund with a EUR 30 million commitment. The bank's Board of Directors is scheduled to review the project on December 17 this year.

As reported by Interfax-Ukraine, Horizon Capital, Ukraine's leading private equity fund manager, announced the launch of fundraising for the Catalyst Fund in June.

"Its goal is to unite investors supporting Ukraine now, not after the war, and raise at least EUR 300 million ($350 million) to mobilize EUR 3.5 billion ($3.5 billion) of capital, a 10x multiplier effect, for domestic-oriented assets and projects across various investment themes," the fund's presentation in the Ukrainian Investment Catalogue at URC2025 stated.

At the time, various investors were still in assessment and due-diligence phases, while the first close was planned for Q4 2025. More than 30 potential deals were already under consideration, with capital needs exceeding EUR 2 billion.

According to Horizon Capital's plans, the Catalyst Fund will primarily co-invest with European strategic companies and funds seeking to partner with Horizon Capital as a trusted minority shareholder to accelerate their entry into the Ukrainian market.

One example cited was Horizon Capital's telecommunications deal Datagroup-Volia-lifecell, which brought France's NJJ Group into Ukraine as a major European strategic investor during the war in December 2024, achieving a 30x equity multiplier on Horizon Capital's investment.

"Catalyst Fund is designed to complement, not compete with, infrastructure and real-asset buyout funds being raised for Ukraine. It aims to become a minority partner with added value for local and international operators with deep sector expertise, benefiting from Ukraine's expected accession to the European Union during the fund's lifecycle," the presentation stated.

Horizon Capital manages six private equity funds (more than 40 institutional investors) with a combined $1.6 billion in assets, including WNISEF ($150 million), Emerging Europe Growth Fund (EEGF, $132 million), EEGF II ($370 million), EEGF III ($200 million), HCGF II ($258.3 million), and HCGF IV ($350 million). These funds have invested in more than 170 companies employing over 80,000 people in Ukraine and Moldova.

The EBRD has also previously invested substantial amounts in Horizon Capital funds, including a EUR 40 million commitment to the latest HCGF IV.
Ushakov called the conversation rather useful, constructive, rather substantive, but added that the framework of the US peace proposal was discussed rather than specific wording. Asked whether peace was closer or further away after these talks, Ushakov said: Not further, thats for sure. At the Kremilin ahead of the meeting with Putin, from left to right: Russian foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov; Jared Kushner; Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev; and US envoy Steve Witkoff. Credit: AP But theres still a lot of work to be done, both in Washington and in Moscow. Thats whats been agreed upon. And contacts will continue, the official said. Putins aide also said that so far, a compromise hasnt been found on the issue of territories, without which, he said, the Kremlin sees no resolution to the crisis.

Some of the American proposals seem more or less acceptable, but they need to be discussed. Some of the wording that was proposed to us doesnt suit us. So, the work will continue, Ushakov said. There were other points of disagreement, although Ushakov did not provide further details. We could agree on some things, and the president confirmed this to his interlocutors. Other things provoked criticism, and the president also didnt hide our critical and even negative attitude toward a number of proposals, he said. Putin smiles during the talks. Credit: AP Ahead of the meeting, Putin also claimed progress against Ukraine in the ground war on the eastern front and threatened more attacks on the Ukrainian coast along the Black Sea in response to attacks on Russian ships. Ukraine attacked two oil tankers carrying Russian crude on Saturday and has stepped up its attacks on the Novorossiysk export terminal on the Black Sea, in a sign of its capacity to inflict economic damage on Putins government.

Another tanker was attacked in the Black Sea on Tuesday and was said to be carrying sunflower oil, but Ukraine denied it was responsible. While Russia has captured Ukrainian territory along the Sea of Azov, such as Mariupol and nearby cities, it has not gained control of the western part of the country, including the key port of Odesa. The most radical solution is to cut Ukraine off from the sea, then piracy will be impossible in principle, Putin said in remarks aired on television before the peace talks began in Moscow. Witkoff and Kushner met Ukrainian negotiators in Florida on Sunday alongside US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who declared after the talks that the US sought an outcome that would ensure Ukraines long-term security.

The pair then flew to Moscow for their talks with the Russian leader, while Trump said in Washington that the war in Ukraine was a mess and not an easy situation to resolve. Loading The talks in Moscow come after European leaders pushed back at the Trump administrations draft peace plan, which was seen as favouring Russia because it ceded territory to Russia, capped the size of the Ukrainian military, removed sanctions on Russia, and sought to bar Western troops from acting as peacekeepers in Ukraine. Europe sought a higher cap on the Ukraine armed forces and opposed the rapid removal of sanctions, but there is no agreement on the final text and no clarity on the security guarantee that is meant to deter Putin from waging further attacks after a ceasefire. NATO foreign ministers meet in Brussels this week, but Rubio will not attend, raising concerns about the US commitment to the defence alliance. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte dismissed those concerns at a press conference on Tuesday (early on Wednesday, AEDT).

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged the possibility that Trump might lose interest in the talks on the war and leave Ukraine exposed to further assault from Russia. Yes, I am afraid. If somebody from our allies is tired, Im afraid, he said when asked about this possibility. Its the goal of Russia to withdraw the interest of America from this situation. Zelensky declared that Ukraine wanted peace, but he also held out against any outcome that gave Russia an incentive for waging war. One strong country can start a war, another strong country can stop the war, but to restore justice and defend whats right, we need a community, a world made up of many different nations, he said.
What is the right age to get your child a smartphone? Its a question that vexes many parents  torn between their pleading tweens and researchers who warn about the potential harms of constant connectivity. But new study findings strengthen the case for holding off.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics on Monday, found that children who had a smartphone by age 12 were at higher risk of depression, obesity and insufficient sleep than those who did not yet have one.

Researchers analysed data from more than 10,500 children who participated in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, the largest long-term look at childrens brain development in the United States to date.

The new study identified a number of risks to health in pre-teens. Credit: iStock

The younger children under 12 were when they got their first smartphones, the study found, the greater their risk of obesity and poor sleep.
Press Release from Business Wire: VeriSilicon



(AFP) Dec 02, 2025



SHANGHAI, Dec 2, 2025 (BSW) - VeriSilicon (688521.SH) today announced that its NPU IP VIP9000NanoOi-FS has successfully achieved ISO 26262 ASIL B certification, marking a significant milestone in the functional safety capabilities of the company's neural network processing unit portfolio. This IP features an architecture streamlined for seamless SoC integration, delivering high-quality inference with low power consumption and a compact silicon footprint. The certificate was issued by SGS-TUV Saar, an international testing, inspection and certification institution.

As part of VeriSilicon's VIP9000 series, the VIP9000NanoOi-FS IP is designed for automotive and edge AI applications, providing high-performance neural network processing with a safety-compliant architecture. The IP supports a wide range of AI inferencing models including Large Language Models (LLMs) and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), with hardware-accelerated AI inference, enabling real-time applications such as object and scene detection, augmented reality, robotics, face and gesture tracking, visual inspection systems, video surveillance, and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). It natively supports multiple data types and features a programmable SIMD vision pipeline, enabling high-performance execution of neural network layers while maintaining the deterministic latency required by ASIL B functional safety standards.

VIP9000NanoOi-FS provides hardware support for the OpenVX API and is compatible with a robust software stack and development tools, supporting OpenCL 3.0, OpenCL 1.2 Full Profile, OpenVX 1.3, OpenVX 1.2 Neural Network Extension, and extensions for OCL, OVX, and neural networks.

"Achieving ASIL B certification for our VIP9000NanoOi-FS reinforces our commitment to functional safety in the NPU domain. Our NPU IP has been adopted by 91 customers across more than 140 AI chip designs, with close to 200 million units shipped globally, reflecting its proven reliability and performance," said Weijin Dai, Chief Strategy Officer, Executive Vice President and General Manager of IP Division at VeriSilicon. "As AI becomes increasingly integral to autonomous driving and intelligent edge applications, delivering safety-compliant IP is critical to the industry's progress. We continue to extend our FuSa IP portfolio to encompass AI acceleration, enabling customers to deploy AI solutions with confidence in safety-critical environments."

About VeriSilicon

VeriSilicon is committed to providing customers with platform-based, all-around, one-stop custom silicon services and semiconductor IP licensing services leveraging its in-house semiconductor IP. For more information, please visit: www.verisilicon.com







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Media Contact: [email protected]







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Press Release from Business Wire: SATO Vietnam Solutions Co., Ltd.



(AFP) Dec 02, 2025



HO CHI MINH CITY, Dec 2, 2025 (BSW) - SATO Vietnam Solutions Co., Ltd., a member of the SATO Group - a global pioneer in auto-ID and labelling solutions - has successfully implemented an RFID label printing solution for Hayabusa Vietnam Co., Ltd. at its Vietnam factory, delivering flexibility, cost efficiency and operational peace of mind.

Hayabusa, a globally trusted freshwater and saltwater fishing hook manufacturer supplying major international retailers, faced a new RFID tagging mandate from one of its customers as part of efforts to enhance supply chain visibility through item-level serialisation.

Assigning each product a unique identity enables precise tracking of individual products through the supply chain, helping manufacturers and retailers improve inventory accuracy, reduce errors and ensure full traceability from production to sale. With a wide variety of products and the need to meet this mandate, the company sought a reliable solution provider.

Building on years of partnership providing barcode labelling solutions, SATO collaborated closely with Hayabusa to transform its labelling operations with RFID technology. Through SATO's RFID Vendor Tagging solution, Hayabusa can now print and encode EPC-compliant1 RFID labels onsite in a seamless and efficient process. Operators simply scan a barcode to trigger RFID label printing powered by SATO printers integrated with Loftware Cloud. Each label is encoded with a unique serial number managed securely in the cloud to ensure full traceability and compliance with the retailer's requirements.

SATO also worked closely with its label partner, Avery Dennison to supply RFID tags pre-approved by the global retailer, giving Hayabusa confidence in every shipment.

"SATO gave us not just a product, but a complete solution," said Tochigi Masashi, Production Manager of Hayabusa. "They came onsite, trained our team, and made sure everything worked smoothly. With this solution, we can print the exact quantity of RFID labels we need in our plant - no minimum order quantities, no duplication. It gives us total peace of mind."

"We are proud to support Hayabusa's successful transition to RFID," said Tran Chanh Trung, Sales Supervisor (Apparel) of SATO Vietnam Solutions. "As RFID tagging becomes the new standard in global retail, SATO will continue helping manufacturers achieve compliance and scale their RFID adoption-from label printing to advanced solutions like RFID tunnels for automated verification of goods receiving and shipping."

This collaboration underscores how the right RFID technology partner delivers more than just hardware but also the expertise, systems and support that manufacturers need to stay compliant today and future-ready for tomorrow.

1. EPC-compliant refers to meeting GS1's Electronic Product Code (EPC) standards that define how RFID tags carry a unique identifier which can be accurately encoded, read and tracked across global supply chains.

About HAYABUSA (VIETNAM) CO., LTD.

HAYABUSA (VIETNAM) CO., LTD. is a subsidiary of Hayabusa Co., Ltd. (Japan), manufacturing and supplying high-quality fishing gear and related products to countries around the world. The company maintains Japanese standards of quality and precision in all production and supply operations.

About SATO Vietnam Solutions Co., Ltd.

Established in 2012, SATO Vietnam Solutions Co., Ltd. is a subsidiary of SATO Corporation, a global leader in auto-ID and labelling solutions. With offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, the company provides end-to-end barcode and RFID labelling systems, software and consumables that help businesses improve efficiency, accuracy and traceability across their operations.For more details, please visit https://satoasiapacific.com/vietnam/.

About SATO

SATO (TOKYO:6287) designs and manufactures hardware, labels and tags and develops software to integrate with third party offerings as automatic identification solutions. These solutions streamline workflows, enabling data capture and visualization for a connected world of productivity, safety, reassurance and sustainability. By giving things a digital identity, SATO helps businesses in retail, manufacturing, food, health care and transport & logistics run smoothly. Founded in 1940, SATO has a presence in 26 countries with a workforce of over 5,900. For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025, it reported revenues of 154,807 million yen ($1.014 billion*)More information about SATO can be found at www.sato-global.com.*Based on an average exchange rate of 1 USD = 152.62 JPY







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Thao Hoang ThiSATO Vietnam Solutions Co., Ltd.Phone: +84 (28) 3910-1350







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Apple AI chief leaving as iPhone maker plays catch-up



San Francisco, United States, Dec 2 (AFP) Dec 02, 2025



Apple on Monday said the head of its artificial intelligence team is stepping down, and the effort is to be led by a veteran engineer from Google and Microsoft.

The plan for Apple senior vice president of Machine Learning and AI Strategy John Giannandrea to retire early next year comes after the tech giant stumbled in efforts to show it was not being left behind on the technology.

Giannandrea will serve as an advisor to Apple during his remaining time with the company, according to the iPhone maker.

"We are thankful for the role John played in building and advancing our AI work," Apple chief executive Tim Cook said in a post announcing the news.

Researcher Amar Subramanya has joined Apple as a vice president and will lead in "critical areas," including AI foundation models and machine learning, according to the company.

Subramanya was most recently a corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft, prior to that spending 16 years at Google where he was head of engineering for the Gemini digital assistant before leaving, Apple said.

Apple cited Subramanya's experience integrating AI into features and products as "important to Apple's ongoing innovation and future Apple Intelligence features."

Giannandrea joined Apple in 2018, heading the company's AI efforts. Apple early this year delayed the release of an improved Siri digital assistant and is now promising it for next year.

Meanwhile, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and other tech rivals have been releasing ever-improved AI models and features in a fierce race to lead in the technology.

Apple has been under pressure to show it is not being left behind when it comes to artificial intelligence, with the potential to change how people engage with the internet and computers.

Cook cited AI as "central to Apple's strategy" and said Subramanya will bring "extraordinary AI expertise" to his role reporting to senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi.

"Craig has been instrumental in driving our AI efforts, including overseeing our work to bring a more personalized Siri to users next year," Cook said.

On a recent earnings call, Cook touted the latest Apple devices and the tech giant's custom chips and efforts to enhance products and services with artificial intelligence.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is preparing to extend a long-term, senior loan of up to EUR 75 million to PJSC Ukrhydroenergo to finance the purchase of critical equipment for the Dnipro Hydropower Plant (HPP) and several of the company's other facilities.

According to a statement published on the EBRD's website, the project has passed its final review and now awaits approval.

The EBRD also expects the loan to be complemented by up to EUR 20 million in investment grants from international donors, pending availability.

"The Project is expected to benefit from a partial EU guarantee under its Ukraine Investment Framework," the statement reads.

The project description notes that the loan and grants will finance the procurement of hydropower equipment (a turbine and generator) for the Dnipro HPP, which was damaged as a result of Russia's military aggression. They will also support the purchase of hydromechanical equipment (superstructure covers) for the Kyiv HPPPSPP Cascade and Kaniv HPP branches, which has suffered significant physical wear and moral obsolescence over years of operation, has undergone repeated repairs, and no longer meets modern HPP equipment requirements.

As reported earlier, at the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2025) held in Rome in July, the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group and the European Commission announced a new EU financing package of EUR 600 million. It includes funding for critical energy and transport infrastructure, as well as support for the recovery of Ukrainian SMEs and the private sector. Most of the financing is provided in the form of EIB loans backed by EU guarantees. For Ukrhydroenergo specifically, the package envisaged an EIB loan of EUR 120 million for the reconstruction of three strategic hydropower plants  Kaniv, Kremenchuk, and Dnipro  as well as urgent needs at other facilities.
Press Release from Business Wire: Kioxia Corporation



(AFP) Dec 02, 2025



TOKYO, Dec 2, 2025 (BSW) - Kioxia Corporation today announced the development of an AI-driven image recognition technology that automatically identifies products moving through logistics workflows collaborating with Tsubakimoto Chain Co. (Tsubakimoto Chain) and EAGLYS Inc. (EAGLYS). This system supports advanced automation and efficiency in logistics, enabling organizations to respond quickly to changing market needs while managing costs and maintaining service quality. KIOXIA AiSAQ?1 and Memory-Centric AI2 technologies are central to this effort, addressing the need for scalable AI adoption as product types continue to expand and diversify. The jointly developed technology will be demonstrated during the 2025 International Robot Exhibition

With the continued rise of e-commerce transactions, logistics networks are seeing greater volumes and a wider range of products moving through them. At the same time, ongoing labor shortages are driving the need for greater operational efficiency through AI. Traditional image recognition AI systems rely on deep learning models that require parameter tuning and retraining whenever new or seasonal products are introduced. This process is time-consuming and increases both power usage and operational costs, especially when dealing with large product catalogs.

The KIOXIA AiSAQ software, combined with KIOXIA's Memory-Centric AI technology, addresses these challenges by storing extensive new product data - including images, labels, and feature information - in high-capacity storage. This allows new product information to be added quickly without retraining the base model. To mitigate longer search times and increased memory requirements as data volume increases, the technology indexes memory-stored data and moves the indexed data into SSD storage, enabling faster and more efficient retrieval.

The technology collaboration between Kioxia, Tsubakimoto Chain, and EAGLYS will be showcased at the 2025 International Robot Exhibition, held December 3-6 at Tokyo Big Sight (Tsubakimoto Chain Booth E6-23). The exhibition is a premier global venue for highlighting the latest automation advances in manufacturing and logistics. At the booth, visitors will see the jointly developed image recognition system in action. As products move along a conveyor, the system captures their image data and rapidly classifies them by referencing stored features and labels. The demonstration shows how logistics sites can manage a wide and continually changing range of products with greater accuracy and efficiency.

Please follow the link to download KIOXIA AiSAQ open-source software.https://github.com/kioxia-jp/aisaq-diskann

Notes:

1: KIOXIA AiSAQ Technology Designed to Reduce DRAM Requirements in Generative AI Systems Released as Open Source Softwarehttps://www.kioxia.com/en-jp/business/news/2025/20250128-1.html

2: Development of Image Classification System Deploying Memory-Centric AI with High-capacity Storagehttps://www.kioxia.com/en-jp/rd/technology/topics/topics-39.html

KIOXIA AiSAQ is a trademark of KIOXIA.All other company names, product names and service names may be trademarks of third-party companies.

About Kioxia

Kioxia is a world leader in memory solutions, dedicated to the development, production and sale of flash memory and solid-state drives (SSDs). In April 2017, its predecessor Toshiba Memory was spun off from Toshiba Corporation, the company that invented NAND flash memory in 1987. Kioxia is committed to uplifting the world with "memory" by offering products, services and systems that create choice for customers and memory-based value for society. Kioxia's innovative 3D flash memory technology, BiCS FLASH?, is shaping the future of storage in high-density applications, including advanced smartphones, PCs, automotive systems, data centers and generative AI systems.

*Information in this document, including product prices and specifications, content of services and contact information, is correct on the date of the announcement but is subject to change without prior notice.







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Media Inquiries:Kioxia CorporationPromotion Management DivisionSatoshi ShindoTel: +81-3-6478-2404







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Intel to pump extra $208 million into Malaysia: PM



Kuala Lumpur, Dec 2 (AFP) Dec 02, 2025



US chipmaker Intel will invest another $208 million into its Malaysian operations, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said, further bolstering the country's role in the global semiconductor supply chain.

Malaysia is the world's sixth-largest exporter of microchips, and commands 13 percent of the global market for chip packaging, assembly and testing.

Intel's decision was "based on confidence in the country's long-term plans", Anwar posted on Facebook on Monday night, saying he had met Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan earlier that day.

"Intel announced an additional investment worth 860 million ringgit to make Malaysia their assembly and testing operations center," he said.

In 2021, Intel pledged an investment of $7 billion to build an advanced chip packaging plant in the northern Malaysian state of Penang, the nation's electronics hub.

Anwar said Monday the Penang factory was now "99 percent complete" and that Intel had expressed appreciation for the support of the Malaysian government.

The United States is Malaysia's third-largest market for semiconductor exports.

Malaysia shipped 120 billion ringgit ($28 billion) of electrical and electronic products there last year, around half of which were chip-related, the trade minister has said.
Press Release from Business Wire: Klarna Group plc



(AFP) Dec 02, 2025



LONDON, Dec 2, 2025 (BSW) - Klarna, the global digital bank and flexible payments provider, today launches the brand new feature Tap to Pay across 14 European markets, bringing flexible payments into physical retail at scale and transforming the Klarna app into an everyday contactless wallet.

With more than 80% of European shopping still happening in physical stores, Tap to Pay brings consumers the ease of online shopping into the bricks and mortar stores. Instead of hunting for cards or juggling apps, everything sits in one place - the Klarna app - making every purchase smoother from start to finish.

Utilising NFC technology, Tap to Pay turns the Klarna app into a contactless wallet, letting consumers set up a flexible payment plan and pay with a tap, all in one place - without adding their card to another wallet or switching apps at checkout.

Tap to Pay builds on the rapid global uptake of the new debit-first Klarna Card, now used by more than 4 million consumers. The card is debit by default, with the option to activate credit when needed within the Klarna app, and is accepted at over 150 million merchant locations worldwide through Visa Flexible Credential.

"Tap to Pay brings us closer to our vision of Klarna being everywhere for everything. Now you can set up a flexible payment plan and tap to pay in seconds, all inside the Klarna app. It makes the everyday shopping moments significantly smoother for our Klarna customers across Europe, giving them even more flexibility and choice at checkout," saidDavid Fock, Chief Product & Design Officer at Klarna.

How Tap to Pay works

-- Open your Klarna Card in the Klarna app, use in debit mode as default, or create a flexible payment plan

-- Select Tap to Pay

-- Tap your phone at checkout

Tap to Pay is now live for Klarna consumers across Germany, Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Finland, Belgium, Austria, Ireland, Portugal, Norway, Poland, Denmark and Sweden, and works on both iOS and Android devices. Support for Klarna Credit Card will be added soon.

About Klarna

Klarna is a global digital bank and flexible payments provider. With over 114 million global active Klarna users and 3.4 million transactions per day, Klarna's AI-powered payments and commerce network is empowering people to pay smarter with a mission to be available everywhere for everything. Consumers can pay with Klarna online, in-store and through Apple Pay & Google Pay. More than 850,000 retailers trust Klarna's innovative solutions to drive growth and loyalty, including Uber, H&M, Saks, Sephora, Macy's, Ikea, Expedia Group, Nike and Airbnb. Klarna is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: KLAR). For more information, visitKlarna.com.

Category: Perspectives







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Press Release from Business Wire: Hanshow



(AFP) Dec 02, 2025



SHANGHAI, Dec 2, 2025 (BSW) - Hanshow, a global leader in digital retail solutions, announced that its All-Star digital solution has earned SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 certifications following an independent audit by Deloitte. These internationally recognized certifications underscore Hanshow's commitment to robust data security, privacy protection, and operational reliability for retailers worldwide.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251201803690/en/

All-Star of Hanshow has earned SOC 2 Type II certification.



The SOC 2 and SOC 3 certifications, established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), are trusted global standards for evaluating information security, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy across technology service organizations. SOC 2 Type II certification assesses the operational effectiveness of security controls over an extended period, while SOC 3, as its public summary, offers customers clear visibility into Hanshow's robust data protection standards. Earning these credentials further validates Hanshow's ability to deliver secure and consistent digital services, strengthening confidence and trust among its global partners.

This year's audit placed additional emphasis on personal data and privacy protection, reflecting Hanshow's investment in effective governance and transparent business practices. Hanshow maintains clear and regularly updated privacy policies for its digital solutions, ensuring data collection and usage remain compliant with international standards such as GDPR. The company implements structured data classification and role-based access controls to secure business-critical information, under the oversight of a dedicated security and privacy committee. These measures are consistent with evolving global regulations and contribute to a strong culture of accountability across the organization.

Hanshow's achievement of SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 certifications reflects the company's continuous improvement in data protection and privacy management. Looking ahead, Hanshow remains focused on delivering robust, compliant solutions that help retailers thrive in a dynamic and evolving marketplace.

About Hanshow

Hanshow is a global leader in developing and manufacturing electronic shelf labels and digital store solutions. The company offers customers a series of customized IoT touchpoints and digital store solutions that deliver customer-centric insights. Hanshow's solutions have provided services to a vast number of stores in over 70 countries and regions, helping them streamline operations, optimize pricing strategies, and offer customers a more personalized experience. Learn more: www.hanshow.com







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[email protected]







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Press Release from Business Wire: Erbe Elektromedizin GmbH



(AFP) Dec 02, 2025



TUEBINGEN, Dec 2, 2025 (BSW) - Just a few months after the world's first Gastric Mucosal Ablation (GMA) case using MOVIVA(R) at the Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli in Rome, clinical experience is rapidly expanding across Europe. With around 80 procedures performed within a short timeframe in eight countries, MOVIVA(R) is helping to establish a new era of endoscopic bariatric treatment - offering a less invasive option as obesity rates continue to rise worldwide.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251202355726/en/

GMA with MOVIVA(R)



A promising alternative for bariatric patients: GMA with MOVIVA(R)

GMA is an incisionless, minimally invasive endoscopic procedure. It targets the gastric fundus, the main site of ghrelin production - the so-called hunger hormone. By reducing ghrelin levels, patients experience less hunger. At the same time, the ablated tissue shrinks the fundus, which reduces stomach capacity. Together, these effects can support controlled weight reduction.

MOVIVA(R) is a dedicated hybrid probe developed specifically for GMA. It combines high-pressure, needle-free injection to create a protective submucosal fluid cushion with superficial thermal ablation via argon plasma coagulation (APC). MOVIVA(R)'s dedicated moveAPD mode ensures broad and consistent argon plasma coagulation. Another strength of MOVIVA(R) lies in its enhanced injection capabilities, particularly in tangential positions, which are often challenging in endoscopic settings.

According to Prof. Ivo Boskoski, who led the first case in Rome: "Minimally invasive endoscopic techniques that target appetite regulation through precise ablation of the gastric fundus offer patients an effective pathway to weight loss without the risks associated with surgery. MOVIVA(R)'s innovative injection and ablation capabilities simplify the GMA procedure and could set a new standard in endoscopic bariatric care."

GMA can be performed as a stand-alone treatment or in combination with Endoscopic Sleeve Gastroplasty (ESG). In combination with ESG, the approach achieves weight loss outcomes comparable to vertical sleeve gastrectomy, while being less invasive.

"MOVIVA(R) sets new standards by addressing ghrelin, the hunger hormone, and has been shown to effectively manage hunger and cravings, supporting weight loss in people living with obesity.We are really looking forward to the commercial launch of MOVIVA(R) in 2026," says Marcus Felstead, Chief Commercial Officer at Erbe Elektromedizin.

MOVIVA(R) is currently available in CE and CE-related markets.

Register for the free webinar "Advancing bariatric endoscopy"

Join Prof. Ivo Boskoski, MD, Christopher McGowan, MD and Abdullah AlMousa, MD on 11 December for a live online session on the latest developments in bariatric endoscopy and GMA with MOVIVA(R): Webinar Registration - Zoom [https://erbe-med.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_10nhAgt8TlOR4eu5qf51ZQ#/registration].

About Erbe Elektromedizin

Erbe Elektromedizin develops, manufactures, and distributes surgical instruments and devices worldwide, while providing services for professional use of these products in a diverse range of medical disciplines. Surgeons, OR teams and patients around the world rely on Erbe medical technology. The surgical instruments and devices find use in almost all specialist areas. They are based on electrosurgery combined with other Erbe technologies. Hybrid solutions enable us to provide new, innovative applications in medicine.

Fields of activity

-- Imaging

-- Endoscopy

-- Electrosurgery

-- Plasma surgery

-- Thermofusion

-- Hydrosurgery

-- Cryo technology

An international network

-- 20 international sales and service units

-- 5 production sites

-- Erbe is active in 110 international markets.

The Erbe workforce

-- 2,100 employees worldwide

-- Some 1,100 of them in Germany









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Contact

Erbe Elektromedizin GmbHWaldhoernlestrasse 1772072 Tuebingenerbegroup.com [email protected]

Editorial contactLisa ViergutzPhone +49 7071 755-2731[email protected]







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Press Release from Business Wire: P.I. Works



(AFP) Dec 02, 2025



ISTANBUL, Dec 2, 2025 (BSW) - P.I. Works celebrates the success of its long-time client Beeline Uzbekistan, recognized by independent global analytics firms Opensignal and Ookla for excellence in mobile network performance.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251202914682/en/

P.I. Works Drives Stronger Network Results for Beeline Uzbekistan



Opensignal named Beeline Uzbekistan the country's Fastest Mobile Internet provider and Most Consistent Mobile Networkfor the first half of 2025, while Ookla recognized the operator with the Best Mobile Video Experience award. These honors reflect the measurable impact of P.I. Works' AI-driven automation, analytics, and optimization capabilities, combined with Beeline Uzbekistan's strong commitments to investment and innovation.

Partnership Powering Network Excellence

A joint strategy to bring intelligence and efficiency into operations fuels this success. With automation, self-organizing capabilities, and real-time observability, Beeline Uzbekistan streamlines network operations and proactively maintains performance across multi-vendor, multi-technology environment.

Customer experience management, network optimization, and performance observability work together to ensure superior network quality, efficiency, and consistent user satisfaction, while services such as refarming and capacity assessment further enhance resource utilization and network performance. Open, vendor-independent approaches and ongoing expert services ensure flexibility, smooth deployments, and continuous optimization, forming the foundation of Beeline Uzbekistan's award-winning performance.

Shared Vision for the Future

"Seeing Beeline Uzbekistan recognized for the fastest and most consistent network is a moment of pride," said Zafer Genc, Director of Network Services at P.I. Works. "It shows what's possible when technology and passion for excellence come together. This achievement is more than a milestone - it's proof that intelligent automation can truly elevate the experience of millions of mobile users."

"P.I. Works has been instrumental in delivering these results," said Gediz Sezgin, CTIO of Beeline Uzbekistan. "By embracing intelligent automation and network optimization, we have been able to deliver the fastest speeds, the most reliable quality, and the best video experiences in the country. Together, we are setting new standards for connectivity in Uzbekistan."

P.I. Works will support Beeline Uzbekistan not just maintain its market leadership, but stay ahead of market demands and drive the country's digital future.

Operators seeking to achieve similar results in mobile network speed, consistency, and user experience are invited to connect with our experts at [email protected].

About P.I. WorksP.I. Works is a global leader in AI-driven mobile network automation, optimization, and assurance. For two decades, we have partnered with mobile operators worldwide to transform networks, reduce costs, improve energy efficiency, strengthen independence, and deliver superior customer experiences.

www.piworks.net







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Press Release from Business Wire: Lenovo



(AFP) Dec 02, 2025



MORRISVILLE, Dec 2, 2025 (BSW) - The next step in workplace transformation is invisible technology that fades into the background so that support is automated and seamless, according to a Lenovo global survey of IT leaders released today.

Most employees only notice IT when it slows them down and interrupts processes. Invisible IT is the opposite. It means technology that anticipates needs, prevents issues before they happen, and personalizes support automatically.

Achieving Invisible IT,the newest report in Lenovo's ongoing Work Reborn series, explores how AI and automation are redefining the digital workplace and employee experience. Of the IT leaders who participated, 79% aspire to deliver seamless, proactive support that minimizes disruption for employees, but only 21% have achieved predictive issue resolution. The results underscore an urgent need for organizations to remove digital barriers, simplify IT ecosystems, and adopt AI-enabled, hyper-personalized support that delivers a truly effortless employee experience.

"Organizations have spent years modernizing their digital workplaces, but many remain hindered by fragmented systems and slow, manual support processes," said Rakshit Ghura, Vice President and General Manager, Lenovo Digital Workplace Solutions. "By making IT invisible through predictive, proactive, and personalized support, enterprises can empower employees to focus on what truly matters: innovation, collaboration, and performance."

The Workplace Is Ready for Change

Lenovo's research shows that roughly half (49%) of IT decision makers agree productivity and engagement are the top priorities, but only 36% believe their current digital workplace effectively supports employee engagement. And 84% of IT leaders say they can't predict disruptions before they occur, spotlighting the importance of AI to anticipate and resolve issues before they impact work.

To help organizations move toward this model, AI-powered workplace services can deliver the foundations of invisible IT. One example is Lenovo's AI-driven workplace solutions platform that uses rich persona data and behavioral insights to tailor support to the individual, anticipating needs, resolving issues proactively, and personalizing every aspect of the employee's digital experience. The approach has been shown to drive up to a 30% improvement in user satisfaction, 30% lower support costs, and 40% of issues proactively resolved, according to IDC and internal Lenovo data.1

Flexible device-subscription models also help reduce complexity. Lenovo's TruScale Device as a Service, for example, cuts deployment time by up to 50% and lowers device-related IT costs.2

One customer example: Coventry University Group used TruScale DaaS to replace its aging IT infrastructure, eliminating an estimated 223 tons of CO? and cutting 40 IT labor hours per week from device management.3 They saw measurable gains in productivity, sustainability, and employee experience - all hallmarks of invisible IT.

Expert Perspective

"Lenovo's services strategy looks to capture the next evolution of the digital workplace," said Rob Brothers, VP of Services for IDC. "Organizations that invest in AI-enabled, proactive IT lifecycle management will lead the way in creating productive, resilient, and employee-focused workplaces."

The Human Side of AI-Powered Support

Instead of replacing human expertise, invisible IT enhances it. Lenovo's research found that 39% of IT leaders expect AI-driven support to allow IT staff to focus on higher-value work such as improving end-user productivity and experience, while only 12% foresee any reduction in team size.

"Invisible IT means smarter IT," continued Ghura. "By automating routine support and anticipating needs, we're freeing IT teams to shift from reactive maintenance to proactive value creation."

Yet even as leaders recognize the value of combining human expertise with AI and automation, structural barriers remain. The top challenges cited by IT leaders include complex systems (51%), cost constraints (47%), and limited AI skills (43%). Lenovo's report outlines practical steps to overcome these obstacles:

-- Unify and simplify IT ecosystems to reduce fragmentation

-- Upskill IT teams to harness AI capabilities

-- Partner with experienced providers to deploy predictive, personalized support more securely and at scale

Organizations that achieve invisible IT can reduce digital friction, boost engagement, and free employees to focus on higher-value work. The full Work Reborn Report 4: Achieving Invisible IT outlines practical steps enterprises are taking to get there.

To learn how your organization can unlock the benefits of invisible IT, download the full Work Reborn Report 4: Achieving Invisible IT and visit Lenovo.com for more insights on digital workplace transformation.

1 Source: Based on Lenovo internal testing data from Care of One deployments, Digital Workplace Solutions, 2025. Actual results may vary.

2 Source:Lenovo, TruScale DaaS ROI Tool, 2024. Sample representation based on average monthly pricing, 3-year refresh cycle, 2% repair rate, and $70K IT salary

3 Source:Lenovo case study, Coventry University Group: Equipping Staff for Success, 2024

About Lenovo

Lenovo is a US$69 billion revenue global technology powerhouse, ranked #196 in the Fortune Global 500, and serving millions of customers every day in 180 markets. Focused on a bold vision to deliver Smarter Technology for All, Lenovo has built on its success as the world's largest PC company with a full-stack portfolio of AI-enabled, AI-ready, and AI-optimized devices (PCs, workstations, smartphones, tablets), infrastructure (server, storage, edge, high performance computing and software defined infrastructure), software, solutions, and services. Lenovo's continued investment in world-changing innovation is building a more equitable, trustworthy, and smarter future for everyone, everywhere. Lenovo is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange under Lenovo Group Limited (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY). To find out more visit https://www.lenovo.com, and read about the latest news via our StoryHub.

Notes for editors

Achieving Invisible IT is the fourth report in the Lenovo Work Reborn Research Series 2025, which is being published throughout the course of the year. The report is based on a survey of 600 IT leaders that took place in April and May 2025. The survey sample included respondents from the USA Canada, UK, France, Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, Brazil, Mexico Australia, and New Zealand. Respondents included IT leaders from companies with at least 1,000 employees and from a range of sectors.

-0- *T Lenovo is a trademark of Lenovo. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 2025 Lenovo Group Limited. All rights reserved.*T









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OpenAI declares ChatGPT 'code red' over stiff competition: report



Washington, Dec 2 (AFP) Dec 02, 2025



OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has declared a company-wide "code red" as its ChatGPT technology faces stiff competition from other big tech rivals, especially Google, US media reported.

In a memo to staff on Monday, Altman told employees that the company was "at a critical time for ChatGPT," and that resources must be devoted to fending off the new competition to its chatbot, the reports said.

Altman said that other projects would now be delayed, including a plan to introduce advertising to the chatbot.

According to the memo reported in The Information and Wall Street Journal, Altman said "code red" meant OpenAI would also delay progress with other products such as AI agents, which aim to automate tasks related to shopping and health.

With a half-a-trillion-dollar valuation, OpenAI is the world's most valuable private company.

Major investors are eager to take shares in the company, but questions are growing on how it can generate revenues that will match the huge costs of delivering AI to its hundreds of millions of users, the vast majority of whom use the service for free.

Google last month debuted its latest Gemini AI model, capping a dramatic turnaround since it was caught off guard by ChatGPT's launch three years ago and mocked for early blunders in its chase of OpenAI.

OpenAI did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

arp/aha
Press Release from Business Wire: DataXstream



(AFP) Dec 02, 2025



WILLIAMSBURG, Dec 2, 2025 (BSW) - DataXstream LLC, an SAP(R) Endorsed App partner developing intelligent solutions for SAP sales and distribution, announced today that Daikin Comfort Technologies North America, Inc. (Daikin), a subsidiary of Daikin Industries Ltd. and leading HVAC manufacturer, has selected its OMS+ platform to deliver real-time point-of-sales capabilities, along with an intuitive, streamlined order management to transform Daikin's in-store and online customer experience.

Leveraging SAP solutions, Daikin and DataXstream are elevating the way customers engage with Daikin's stores and brand by delivering unparalleled, consistent point-of-sale capabilities, along with real-time visibility of orders and inventory across all sales channels.

"Customers want a consistent and responsive experience, regardless of where they place their order," said Tim Yates, CEO, DataXstream. "But no channel exists in a vacuum. To provide that level of consistency you need a platform that can view and aggregate data in real-time across the entire sales order lifecycle. OMS+ empowers organizations like Daikin to deliver this level of customer experience in an SAP-native solution that's built to scale."

Since DataXstream's OMS+ platform is embedded into SAP S/4HANA Cloud, it operates in real-time with SAP data to facilitate multi-channel sales through process automation and data aggregation. The data is then presented in an intuitive, easy-to-use 360-degree customer dashboard that will allow Daikin to:

-- Deliver enhanced CPQ capabilities including complex quote and order scenarios.

-- Provide real-time pricing, inventory, customer info and order status.

-- Deliver flexible tendering options such as credit, debit, gift, on account, down payments, and more.

-- Provide both point-of-sale and wholesale inventory, delivery and logistics capabilities in one platform.

"We strive to provide the highest level of customer service across all our channels," said Troy Barber, Sr. Operations Director of Systems, Daikin. "With OMS+ providing end-to-end order and sales visibility, we will have real-time insights that reduce complexity for our employees while enhancing the customer experience. In addition, OMS+ enables us to attract employees, improve retention and significantly decrease the time for employee training and onboarding."

Recently, Daikin has been undergoing a digital transformation with the implementation of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition. Daikin previously used a legacy system for their point of sales and order management processes, but the lack of flexibility and scalability forced them to make significant customizations to meet their needs.

This strategic investment in upgrading their core infrastructure to SAP systems will allow Daikin to leverage all the benefits of Cloud technology such as scalability, agility, greater flexibility, and reduced complexity, while protecting the unique differentiation and tailored business processes the company already has in place.

Since DataXstream's OMS+ platform is embedded in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, it maintains SAP clean core standards and this unified platform will help Daikin to:

-- Reduce complexity and technical debt

-- Deliver faster order processing with fewer errors and less manual intervention

-- Scale faster and quicker as business needs grow

-- Simplify upgrades without any disruptions to core processes

-- Leverage real-time insights from customer and order transactions to improve decision-making

For additional information, please visit www.dataxstream.com or find us on the SAP Store.

About Daikin

Daikin Industries, Ltd. (DIL) is a Fortune 1,000 company with more than 100,000 employees worldwide and a leading indoor comfort solutions provider. Daikin Comfort Technologies North America, Inc. (DNA) is a subsidiary of DIL, providing Daikin, Goodman, Amana(R) and Quietflex brand products. DNA and its affiliates manufacture heating and cooling systems for residential, commercial and industrial use that are sold via independent HVAC contractors. DNA engineering and manufacturing is headquartered at Daikin Texas Technology Park near Houston, TX. For additional information, visit www.daikincomfort.com.

About DataXstream

DataXstream is an SAP(R) Endorsed App Partner dedicated to building solutions on emerging technologies that maximize the ROI of our customers' SAP(R) infrastructure. As members of the SAP(R) marketplace, DataXstream's products, including OMS+ and OMS+ Cloud, are available in the SAP(R) Store. OMS+ revolutionizes the sales and customer buying experience by empowering organizations with intelligent, flexible, and future-ready order management solutions.







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Cailin YatesChief Marketing Officer757.345.3437[email protected]







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Italy has officially authorized the transfer of military vehicles, materials and equipment to the government bodies of Ukraine as part of the twelfth package of military aid, a corresponding statement dated November 14 was published in the countrys Official Government Gazette.

On November 14, Italian Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto signed the decree with the consent of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Economy. The document emphasizes that the transferred funds are "written off for accounting purposes" and transferred free of charge. Due to its confidential nature, the specific list of military and other equipment is not made public and is contained in a classified document of the Defense Headquarters.

The text of the decree states: "The Defense Headquarters is authorized to apply the fastest procedures to ensure the timely delivery of vehicles, materials, and military equipment."
Nigeria's defence minister resigns amid security crisis: presidency



Abuja, Dec 1 (AFP) Dec 01, 2025



Nigeria's defence minister has resigned, the presidency said on Monday, as the country reeled from a security crisis including mass kidnappings of schoolchildren.

The departure of Mohammed Badaru Abubakar came after President Bola Tinubu declared a "nationwide security emergency" last week as the country scrambled to respond to a wave of mass kidnappings that have seen hundreds of people, mostly schoolchildren, captured within days last month.

Tinubu's spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, said in a statement that Abubakar, 63, was quitting with immediate effect, on health grounds.

"His resignation comes amid President Tinubu's declaration of a national security emergency, with plans to elaborate on its scope in due course," the spokesman said.

Africa's most populous country has long experienced insecurity but the spate of abductions recently has left it scrambling.

US President Donald Trump in late October named Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) -- a State Department designation for religious freedom violations -- over what he called killing of Christians by "radical Islamists". He subsequently threatened to intervene militarily.

Washington's rhetoric -- rejected by the Nigerian government and independent security analysts -- has placed the country's security crisis under the spotlight.

Armed gangs seized more than 300 teachers and staff at St. Mary's co-education school in north-central Nigeria on November 21. Fifty escaped but the rest are still in captivity.

"The children are fine and will be back soon," national security adviser Nuhu Ribadu, was quoted as saying during a high-profile visit with school officials in the town of Kontagora, in central Niger state.



- Gangs, jihadists -



Since Boko Haram jihadists kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls from the northeastern town of Chibok in an infamous raid more than a decade ago, Nigeria has struggled to contain mass kidnappings.

In addition to kidnappings, which are frequent in Nigeria and are mostly carried out by criminal gangs seeking quick ransom payments, Africa's most populous country has been battling a deadly jihadist insurgency in its northwestern regions, since 2009.

In the wake of the kidnappings, the country's president declared emergency, and ordered mass recruitment of police and military personnel.

Recent raids have resulted in kidnappings of schoolchildren and teachers, worshippers and priests, a bride and her bridemaids, farmers, women and children as well as farmers across various parts of the country.
'We chose it': PKK fighters cherish life in Iraq's mountains



Qandil Mountains, Iraq, Dec 2 (AFP) Dec 02, 2025



A Kurdish militant picks his way along a switchback road in Iraq's mountains before pulling over to alert his comrades in a nearby hidden bunker that they are about to have company.

After calling from a phone dangling from a tree, he leads a team of AFP journalists into a bunker under the Qandil mountains, where they have been granted rare access to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rear base in northern Iraq.

"A peace process doesn't mean leaving the mountains," says Serda Mazlum Gabar, a 47-year-old commander with her long, rust-coloured hair and unfailing smile.

"Even if we leave, we will live the same way," she added. "Nature doesn't scare me, but I wouldn't feel safe walking around a city, with its cars, smoke and traffic."

Answering a call from the group's imprisoned founder Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK has taken historic steps in recent months towards ending its decades-old fight against Turkey that has claimed around 50,000 lives.

The group formally renounced its armed struggle. Thirty of its fighters even burned their weapons in a symbolic move, although many fighters based in Qandil carried rifles during AFP's visit.

For decades, the PKK has found sanctuary in mountains in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey.

Even if fighting has stopped, the guerrilla lifestyle won't end. It will rather adapt to new "peaceful" ways, the commander said.

"We were not forced into this life. We chose it," she added.



- 'Not one place' -



At the entrance, a large fan is attached to a duct that runs into a concealed passage, ventilating fresh air to the hidden bunker.

The tunnel then opens into a broader corridor where PKK members and commanders dressed in their traditional military dress -- olive green fatigues or a dusty-coloured sirwal and vest -- line up to greet visitors.

The corridor branches out to several rooms, each serving a purpose. One, its entrance decorated with fresh plants and strings of lights, is quarters designated for women fighters.

Iraq's mountains have recently welcomed new arrivals -- fighters who withdrew from Turkey to show the group's commitment to the peace process.

Among them is Vejin Dersim who joined the PKK at only 23 and had spent most of her time in southeastern Turkey.

Now 34, she has withdrawn to Iraq's mountains.

"Leaving was very emotional. It is a very special place there, especially because we were closer to leader Apo," she said, referring to Ocalan, who has been held in solitary confinement on Turkey's Imrali island since 1999.

Her comrade Devrim Palu, 47, joined the movement in 1999 and has recently returned to Iraq.

"In our movement, it doesn't matter where you are fighting, and one doesn't stay in one place," he said in a soft, low voice.

Today is the time for change, he said.

He added that the PKK is capable of changing the nature of the conflict and transition from war to peaceful engagement.



- 'Eyes closed' -



Over decades, the PKK -- still formally designated a "terrorist group" by the United States and the European Union -- has gone through several periods of peace talks with Turkey.

They have gone through several seismic shifts from starting as a separatist movement to gradually becoming advocates for Kurdish equality in Turkey.

It now says it is entering a new phase by pursuing a democratic path to defend the rights of the Kurdish minority.

According to Devrim Palu, it is generally easier to be based in Iraq because the top commanders are closer, and news arrives firsthand.

In the bunker that AFP visited, the walls are adorned with pictures of Ocalan and fallen fighters.

In a kitchen, PKK members knead dough to make lahmajun, which is bread topped with meat. Others watched TV, drank tea or chatted in the corridors.

One is a designated room to maintain communications with others in the surrounding mountains.

Qandil has been home to the PKK for years -- a place that offered greater refuge than the mountains of southeast Turkey.

At first, fighters hid in caves, then began carving and digging dozens of their own well-maintained bunkers. Qandil became their headquarters.

"I could drive these mountains with my eyes closed," one member said, skillfully navigating the rugged tracks at high speed in the pitch-dark night.
Press Release from Business Wire: Armis



(AFP) Dec 02, 2025



SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 2, 2025 (BSW) - Armis , the cyber exposure management & security company, today announced that it has once again been named to Inc.'s Best in Business list , specifically highlighted in the Best in Innovation category for 2025. Inc.'s annual Best in Business Awards celebrate the exceptional achievements and contributions of companies that have made a profound impact on their industries and on society at large.

"Armis rapidly innovates and continuously enhances our comprehensive Cyber Exposure Management Platform so that global organizations can proactively protect against cyber threats before there's any impact," said Yevgeny Dibrov, CEO and Co-Founder of Armis. "Unlike other solutions on the market, Armis addresses the entire lifecycle of managing cyber threats so that security teams no longer reactively respond to breaches. This is a strategic and monumental shift for the industry to stay a step ahead of threat actors and hugely beneficial to keeping society as we know it safe from disruptions."

Since being recognized on this list in 2024, Armis has continuously enhanced its already robust product capabilities and expanded its ability to reach new market segments in need of its solutions. Armis launched Armis Federal, a dedicated division to support the unique cybersecurity challenges of U.S. government entities, and completed its third acquisition in 12 months to fuel further product innovation. In the past year, Armis has also expanded its partner ecosystem, deepening integrations with NVIDIA and Fortinet.

Additionally, Armis has received a number of accolades for its Cyber Exposure Management Platform, Armis Centrix?. For its platform impact, Armis was named a Leader in The Forrester Wave?: IoT Security Solutions, Q3 2025, on the heels of its recognition in The Forrester Wave?: Unified Vulnerability Management Solutions, Q3 2025. Both evaluations followed Armis being named a Leader in the Gartner(R) Magic Quadrant? for CPS Protection Platforms earlier this year.

Armis recently completed a pre-IPO funding round of $435 million, bringing the company's valuation to $6.1 billion. The investment round comes amid Armis' rapid growth and will support continued product innovation, go-to-market expansion and strategic acquisitions to benefit Armis customers, including over 40% of the Fortune 100 and 7 of the Fortune 10.

This recognition honors companies that, through exceptional execution, have achieved significant milestones and core business wins, like customer expansion, key product launches, increased market share, and industry-defining accomplishments. Companies from a wide range of industries - such as technology, health care, finance, and retail - have been recognized for their success and their positive influence on the business world.

Read additional information about Inc.'s 2025 Best in Business list here.

Learn more about Armis Centrix? and each of the solutions offered by Armis here.

About Armis

Armis, the cyber exposure management & security company, protects the entire attack surface and manages the organization's cyber risk exposure in real time. In a rapidly evolving, perimeter-less world Armis ensures that organizations continuously see, protect and manage all critical assets - from the ground to the cloud. Armis secures Fortune 100, 200 and 500 companies as well as national governments, state and local entities to help keep critical infrastructure, economies and society stay safe and secure 24/7. Armis is a privately held company headquartered in California.







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Media Contacts:Rebecca CradickVice President, Global CommunicationsArmis[email protected]







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Germany launches specialised anti-drone police unit



Berlin, Dec 2 (AFP) Dec 02, 2025



Germany launched a new drone defence police unit on Tuesday as the country scrambles to respond to UAV incursions widely blamed on Russia.

Major airports will also be outfitted to detect and defend against unmanned aerial vehicles, the interior ministry said.

The federal police unit will have "a clear mandate to detect, defend, intercept and, if necessary, shoot down drones," Interior Minister Alexander Drobrindt said at a ceremony near Berlin.

"We cannot accept that hybrid threats using drones remain a danger to our security," he added.

Dobrindt said Germany is investing more than 100 million euros ($116 million) in drone defence technology over the coming year, and plans to grow the new police unit to more than 130 officers.

Germany and other European countries have experienced a slew of suspicious drone incidents in recent months.

Russia has been blamed for many of the drone incursions, which have flown over sensitive locations such as airports, military bases, ports and power plants.

Dobrindt said Germany plans to announce a new joint drone defence centre later this week that will coordinate responses between federal police, local authorities and the military.

German lawmakers this year gave the police broader authority to shoot down drones if necessary.

The government has also proposed giving the military a greater role responding to potential drone threats in German airspace.
German army says ammunition shipment stolen from delivery truck



Berlin, Dec 2 (AFP) Dec 02, 2025



A shipment of ammunition bound for the German armed forces was stolen last week from a contractor's truck, an army spokesman told AFP on Tuesday.

The ammunition disappeared "from the trailer of the civilian carrier's transport vehicle, which had been parked overnight", the spokesman said.

German media reported that boxes containing about 20,000 rounds were stolen from the truck after it was parked outside a hotel near the eastern city of Magdeburg.

An initial check revealed that about 10,000 rounds of combat ammunition for pistols, 9,900 rounds of blank manoeuvre ammunition for assault rifles and so-called smoke ammunition were stolen, said news weekly Der Spiegel.

The driver had apparently spontaneously decided to spend the night in the hotel in the town of Burg, according to the magazine.

The fact that the ammunition was missing was discovered upon delivery of the rest of the shipment to the barracks it was destined for, the army spokesman said.

"The theft was immediately reported to the relevant security and investigative authorities. We take this incident very seriously and are conducting a thorough investigation," he said.

A police spokeswoman in the nearby town of Stendal confirmed to AFP that an investigation had been opened but gave no further details.

Armed forces sources told Der Spiegel the incident was unlikely to have been a "random robbery".

"Instead, they fear that the ammunition transport was being watched and that the perpetrators struck when the driver made the unplanned stop in Burg," the news magazine said.

The contractor had broken protocol by allowing the cargo to be transported by only one driver, when normally there should have been two, according to Der Spiegel.

Germany has vowed to revive its long-neglected armed forces in the face of an emboldened Russia and last week approved a budget for 2026 that includes vast new debt for defence spending.

The conservative-led ruling coalition has also agreed on a new military service model to attract more recruits to the armed forces, or Bundeswehr.
NATO chief 'confident' US Ukraine efforts can eventually bring peace



Brussels, Belgium, Dec 2 (AFP) Dec 02, 2025



NATO chief Mark Rutte on Tuesday said he was "confident" US efforts to end the Ukraine war could bring peace, as Washington's representatives were in Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We are all working to bring the war against Ukraine to an end, with a just and lasting peace. We welcome the ongoing efforts led by the United States to make this a reality," Rutte told journalists.

"I am confident that these sustained efforts will, eventually, restore peace in Europe."

The head of the Western military alliance said Kyiv had already shown that it was ready to "play ball" with US President Donald Trump's efforts.

"Today, we will see whether the Russians are willing also to engage. That's now being tested," he said.

NATO foreign ministers will discuss the US push to stop the fighting at a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday -- but US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is skipping the gathering, in a highly unusual step.

Europe has largely been sidelined by Washington, leading to fears among Ukraine's backers that Kyiv could be forced to accept a deal that favours Moscow.

Rutte insisted that he was in close contact with Rubio and said not to "read anything into" the absence of the US top diplomat, who will be sending his deputy instead.

NATO members have insisted that no issue relating to the alliance should be discussed without Europe -- after the United States appeared to put Ukraine's possible membership on the table.

"When it comes to the NATO elements of a deal to end the war against Ukraine, that will be dealt with separately, and that obviously will include NATO," Rutte said.

He insisted that the door remained open on Kyiv's membership push, but pointed out that currently "there is no consensus on Ukraine joining NATO".

As Washington presses on with its efforts, Rutte said NATO allies would look to keep support flowing to Kyiv -- including with purchases of US weaponry.

He said he expected fresh announcements from European allies at the meeting in Brussels that they will contribute to a scheme to buy American arms for Ukraine.
Nigeria names former top general as defence minister



Abuja, Dec 2 (AFP) Dec 02, 2025



Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday nominated former top military commander General Christopher Musa as new minister of defence as the country grapples with a wave of mass kidnappings.

The nomination of Musa is the latest military leadership shake-up as the Nigerian armed forces face a tumultuous few weeks, and comes as Africa's most populous country undergoes intense criticism for the handling of its myriad conflicts.

The country faces a long-running jihadist insurgency in the northeast, while armed "bandit" gangs conduct kidnappings and loot villages in the northwest and farmers and herders clash in the country's centre over dwindling land and resources.

Musa had been serving as chief of defence staff until October, when Tinubu sacked a slew of the country's top military brass following media reports of a coup attempt.

The administration officially denied the reports of a coup plot, though military, intelligence and government sources told AFP that there had been a foiled plot to oust the country's civilian leaders and install a junta.

Weeks later, the west African country was hit by a wave of mass kidnappings, including of hundreds of schoolchildren.

While such abductions for ransom are common in the country, the sharp uptick saw Tinubu declare a "nationwide security emergency".

Separately, Nigeria has faced a diplomatic offensive from the United States, which has alleged that Christians are being killed en masse.

On Monday, defence minister Mohammed Badaru Abubakar resigned, citing health reasons.

Musa will need to be confirmed by the Senate to take up his new post.

In a letter to the Senate, Tinubu "expressed confidence in General Musa's ability to lead the Ministry of Defence and further strengthen Nigeria's security architecture," according to a statement from the presidency.



- Hundreds of students kidnapped -



Since Boko Haram jihadists kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls from the northeastern town of Chibok in an infamous raid more than a decade ago, Nigeria has struggled to contain mass abductions.

But Washington's rhetoric about Christian persecution -- a framing rejected by the Nigerian government and independent security analysts who note the country's conflicts leave victims across religious lines -- has again placed the nation's security crisis under the spotlight.

With diplomatic tensions ongoing, the wave of kidnappings in November saw schoolchildren and teachers, worshippers and priests, a bride and her bridesmaids, farmers, women and children all taken hostage.

In the largest attack, armed gangs seized more than 300 teachers and staff at St. Mary's co-education school in north-central Nigeria on November 21. Fifty escaped, but the rest remain in captivity.

Nigerian authorities on Monday promised the pupils would be home "soon".
Pope appeals for dialogue between US and Venezuela



Aboard the Papal Plane, Dec 2 (AFP) Dec 02, 2025



Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday appealed for dialogue between the United States and Venezuela amid mounting fears of American military action.

The US-born pope said there were mixed signals coming from the United States in the dispute, noting a phone call between President Donald Trump and Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro, and speculation of sending US troops.

"Again, I believe it's better to seek dialogue, perhaps pressure, even economic pressure, but look for another way to bring about change, if that's what the United States decides to do," Leo told reporters on the flight home from a trip to Lebanon.

He said that through diplomacy, the Vatican was "looking for ways to calm the situation" for the good of the Venezuelan people.
Iraq to start new chapter without UN mission: envoy



United Nations, United States, Dec 2 (AFP) Dec 02, 2025



Post-war Iraq will lead its own future after the United Nations closes its mission there at year's end, the UN envoy to the Middle Eastern country said Tuesday.

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) will be shutting down its operations after 22 years of helping the country transition from instability in the wake of the 2003 US-led invasion and occupation as well as the ouster of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship.

UNAMI's departure "represents the start of a new chapter rooted in Iraq's leadership of its own future," Mohamed Al Hassan, the head of the mission, told the UN Security Council during a meeting devoted to the situation in Iraq.

He assured the council that the international community was witnessing "an honorable and dignified closure of a UN mission."

But "the road to peace, security and stability was long and difficult," he added.

With the international community's support, "Iraq came out victorious, but with untold sacrifices," Al Hassan said.

Last year, the mission established in 2003 was extended one last time until December 31, 2025.

Baghdad said the closing of the UN mission marked "the completion of the political building process initiated in 2003 after the fall of the dictatorial regime."

UNAMI's tasks included advising the government on political dialogue and reconciliation, as well as helping with elections and security sector reform.

On Tuesday, Al Hassan addressed the council after Iraq held its sixth parliamentary election in November.

The envoy expressed the hope that a new Iraqi government would be formed without delay.

"Iraq has overcome successive conflicts on a hard-won path to stability," he said.

"Nevertheless, the lasting effects of conflict have given rise to dire and persisting humanitarian needs, with about 1 million Iraqis remaining internally displaced."
On the night of November 29, Ukrainian military drones once again attacked key elements of the Russian air defense system in Donbas, destroying an S-300V air defense missile system launcher and two 1L125 Niobium-SV radar stations that were on combat alert.

According to the press service of the Main Intelligence Agency (GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the attack hit a 9A83 launcher from the S-300V air defense system, which was on combat duty, and two 1L125 Niobium-SV radar stations.

"Such strikes significantly reduce the muscovites ability to control the airspace over Donbas and create conditions for new air operations by the Ukrainian Defense Forces," the Main Intelligence Agency noted.
Fighting intensifies in oil-rich southern Sudan



Port Sudan, Sudan, Dec 2 (AFP) Dec 02, 2025



Fighting intensified in southern Sudan's North Kordofan region on Tuesday as residents in the capital El-Obeid told AFP a paramilitary drone had exploded near an army division headquarters.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has been battling Sudan's army since April 2023 -- capturing El-Fasher, the last military stronghold in Darfur, western Sudan, in late October.

The takeover in Darfur was accompanied by reports of mass killings, sexual violence, abductions and looting, which led to increasingly vocal international calls for a ceasefire.

But the RSF victory in Darfur has allowed its forces to turn more attention to the oil-rich south.

One resident in El-Obeid, speaking to AFP anonymously for fear of reprisal, said they saw "smoke rising from the area" after a strike targeting the base of the army's 5th Division.

Another witness reported hearing a blast before "clouds of smoke" rose from the direction of the military base.

El-Obeid, about 400 kilometres (250 miles) southwest of Khartoum, hosts an airport and lies on a key supply route linking Darfur and the capital.

There has also been renewed fighting 400 kilometres southwest of El-Obeid in Babanusa -- the army's last remaining foothold in West Kordofan.

On Tuesday, the RSF released video footage appearing to show its fighters inside the base of the 22nd Infantry Division, the city's army headquarters.

A day earlier the group said it had secured "the liberation" of the entire city after repelling what it called a "surprise attack" by army units.

The army denied on Tuesday losing Babanusa, saying its forces had repelled a new RSF attack the previous day.

The army also accused the paramilitary force of launching daily drone and artillery strikes despite a unilateral ceasefire announcement by RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

Kordofan -- an area nearly the size of France -- has become a major battleground as the army seeks to push the RSF away from the vital highway linking the capital Khartoum to Darfur.

Meanwhile, international efforts to end the war have stalled.

Last month, US President Donald Trump vowed to seek peace after Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman urged him to get involved.

Yet fighting has persisted.

On Monday, a war monitor accused the army of striking a nursing school in Kordofan's Komo village, killing at least 40 people, according to two residents who participated in the burials.
The introduction of the SNPs visitor levy has been handled in the most cack-handed fashion, with no real assessment of its impact, no clarity about how it will be collected, and a series of farcical U-turns about what powers councils would have.
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Tube fares hammerblow: Zone 1 journeys rise by up to 7.1%, with 1.60 extra on Elizabeth line to Heathrow

Tube fares hammerblow: Cost of Zone 1 journeys to jump by up to 7.1%
He told BBC Breakfast he was looking at expanding magistrates powers for them to take on more serious cases and whether defendants in either way cases should be able to choose to have a jury trial.
The cluster for the development of military technologies in Ukraine Brave1 together with the European Union announced the launch of the EU4UA Defence Tech program with a total amount of EUR 3.3 million, within which grants of up to EUR 150,000 will be provided for the creation of high-speed autonomous interceptors and modern radar systems to strengthen the defense of the sky.

"Today, we are announcing something completely new: the first comprehensive program for defense innovations called EU4UA. This program is being implemented in cooperation with the Brave1 cluster and is funded by the European Union for EUR 3.3 million," said EU Ambassador to Ukraine Katarina Mathernova at the presentation, according to an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent.

She specified that the EU4UA Defence Tech project is funded by the European Union and will be implemented by BRDO in partnership with Brave1 from September 2025 to February 2027.

"Protecting the sky from Russian drones is a priority not only for Ukraine but also for Europe as a whole. Thanks to these grants, we will be able to bring products to market that can significantly strengthen Ukraines defense capabilities and technological autonomy," added First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov.

According to Fedorov, up to 12 companies can receive grant support. Companies with a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 5-6 (alpha or beta prototype) can apply for the first competition, which has already begun. The deadline for submissions is January 14, 2026.

The program includes two more stages in 2026: one in March with the possibility of allocating up to EUR 75,000 per project, and one in June with the possibility of allocating up to EUR 33,000 per project.

In addition to grants, the EU4UA Defence Tech program will provide other tools to develop defense technology, including regulatory changes, the launch of the Brave1 Expo Room, and a hackathon, according to Fedorov.

The competition commission will include six representatives from the General Staff, the Ministry of Defense, Brave1, the European Commission (EC), the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO), and an external independent expert observer on anti-corruption issues.
Around the world, he is rightly recognised as someone who embodies the courage and resilience of the Ukrainian people, who have inspired the world in their brave defence of their country and its sovereignty since it was brutally and illegally invaded by Russia, he said.
Bastrop County has received $43 million to bring high-speed internet to more than 10,000 previously unserved homes. File photo

Bastrop County has received a $43 million grant to bring high-speed internet to more than 10,000 previously unserved homes  even as the state is receiving far less federal support for broadband expansion than was anticipated.

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This significant investment cements Bastrop Countys commitment to closing the digital divide, Adena Lewis, the countys director of tourism and economic development, said in a statement. Access to reliable, high-speed internet is vital for education, healthcare, business and community well-being.

The grant comes as the state of Texas prepares to receive far less federal funding for expanding broadband than had been expected.

READ NEXT: Texas is getting far less in fed money for broadband expansion than expected

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Two years ago, the bipartisan infrastructure deal signed by then-President Joe Biden allotted $3.3 billion for Texas broadband. Federal regulators approved the states plan for those funds last year.

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But Texas, which submitted a new plan, was awarded only about $1.3 billion from the Trump administration, about one-third of what had been anticipated by cities and counties across the state.

In Bastrop County, Highline will be the internet service provider deploying to 10,471 homes and businesses that previously did not have access to reliable high-speed internet services. It is investing an additional $11 million.

Full deployment is expected to be reached by the end of next year and construction has already begun.

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The states Bringing Online Opportunities to Texas program, also known as BOOT II, supports broadband infrastructure to underserved areas.
Austin ISD school buses are seen parked in a line in October 2022. So far in the 202526 school year, the Austin ISD Police Department has issued about 7,000 school bus traffic safety violations, 19 of which were reportedly committed by Waymos autonomous vehicles. Austin American-Statesman file photo

Austin ISD is threatening legal action against Waymo after the autonomous ride-hailing company's vehicles were found to have illegally passed school buses 19 times so far this school year.

Cameras mounted on school bus stop-arms, installed by the district on across its fleet in 2016, allegedly showed Waymo vehicles illegally passing buses while they were stopped with their lights flashing. Camera footage obtained this week by the Austin American-Statesman shows the Waymo cars slowing, and sometimes stopping, for students crossing the road but ultimately accelerating past the school bus.

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Under Texas law, vehicles must come to a complete stop when a school bus is stopped with its stop-arm extended and its lights flashing. To ensure the safety of students getting on or off the bus, vehicles arent allowed to proceed until the bus begins moving again.

In January, the district approved a contract with AlertBus, an AI-powered safety program that automatically issues $300 fines to drivers who the stop-arm cameras show passing stopped school buses.

So far this school year, the Austin ISD Police Department has issued about 7,000 school bus traffic safety violations, 19 of which were reportedly committed by Waymo vehicles, the department said Tuesday.

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Violations were occurring when the sun was up and when the sun was down and there was no light. They were occurring on busy streets. They were occurring on side streets with a lot of cars parked. There were many circumstances at intersections, at right turns, AISD Police Assistant Chief Travis Pickford said. There was not a whole lot of consistency other than you could tell that the vehicle was not recognizing that it needed to obey the state law of stopping whenever the (busses') red lights were on.

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The department confirmed AISD officials addressed the issue with Waymo in October  after they noticed 12 infractions by the vehicles  asking the company on Oct. 29 to pay $2,100 in fines for the violations and to take immediate action to remedy the concerns.

The districts letter came two weeks after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched a probe into Waymos operations around school buses, which was prompted by a video showing a Waymo vehicle driving past a school bus in Atlanta.

Waymo autonomous taxis are seen July 1 on East Oltorf Street in Austin. On Nov. 20, Austin ISD asked the company to cease operations during school bus operating hours. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

Waymo, which said it had paid the fines, sent AISDs legal team a letter Nov. 5 that said it was making certain software updates to improve its vehicle's responses to school buses.

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Between Nov. 5 and Nov. 20, AISD allegedly recorded seven more violations, the most recent being on Nov. 14.

If the general driver receives multiple tickets for passing a school bus, and was issued a fine through the court system, I can only imagine that eventually that driver would have their drivers license suspended after only a couple of violations, let alone 19, Pickford said. The safety of our kids, first and foremost, is paramount. Grown drivers have the ability to know whats right and whats wrong. It does not appear as though the Waymo vehicles know the difference between right and wrong.

The district is now looking into all legal remedies at its disposal to address the issue.

On Nov. 20, the district asked the company to cease operations during school bus pickup hours, from 5:20 to 9:30 a.m., and again during drop-off, from 3 to 7 p.m. AISD operates more than 600 bus routes per day.

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When youve got a operator behind the wheel, you know exactly whos operating the vehicle, AISD Police Chief Wayne Sneed said. In these particular cases, you have vehicles that are being run by computers, and so the ability to navigate and depict what actions need to be taken. Its difficult to program a computer for every situation theyre going to encounter.

A software issue that contributed to incidents of Waymo vehicles slowing or stopping before proceeding past school buses was reportedly addressed, with updates completed fleet-wide on Nov. 17, according to information released by the company.

Improving road safety is our top priority at Waymo and were deeply invested in safe interaction with school buses, Waymo said in a statement provided to the American-Statesman Tuesday afternoon. We swiftly implemented software updates to address this and will continue to rapidly improve.

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The company said it works closely with officials, including law enforcement and school districts, to train and provide information related to its autonomous vehicles. Pickford said AISD Polices first direct interaction with Waymo was on Oct. 29.

According to NHTSA records, Waymo reported nine crashes in Austin in September, though the accompanying narratives indicate most were not caused by the companys self-driving system. Tesla, which operates about half as many driverless vehicles in Austin, reported seven crashes that month.

Waymo is widely seen as the industry leader for driverless ride-hailing vehicles. The company currently operates more than 100 vehicles across about 90 square miles in Austin and has plans to expand to Dallas, Houston and San Antonio next year.
The Nvidia logo flashes at a stand in March at the 2025 Hannover Messe industrial trade fair in Germany. Nvidia announced a multi-year partnership with Synopsys on Monday to jointly develop new tools for designing products and chips across industries. Sean Gallup/Tribune News Service

Two major players in the global chip industry, both with Austin footprints, are deepening their partnership as demand for artificial intelligence technology continues to surge.

Nvidia Corp., the worlds most valuable company, is investing in another major chip-industry player, putting $2 billion into Synopsys Inc.  a California-based company that makes widely used chip-design software  as part of a partnership aimed at speeding up the design of AI chips.

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Nvidia said the multi-year partnership would see the companies jointly developing new tools for designing products and chips for use across multiple industries.

Both companies have a significant presence in Austin.

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Nvidia, which plans to mass-produce AI supercomputers in Texas as part of its U.S. manufacturing push, has been expanding its footprint in the area. The company has software development, data center, networking and other corporate teams based in the city and it is set to begin a new lease at One Uptown near The Domain, nearly doubling its local presence. Nvidia has not publicly disclosed the size of its Central Texas workforce but the expanded space can accommodate up to 650 employees.

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Synopsys, which has offices at 1301 South MoPac Expressway in Southwest Austin, reportedly has more than 100 employees in the city. The company is a global provider of chip-design software and its tools are used by engineers across industries from computer chip development to jet engine manufacturing. The software allows companies to virtually test and refine designs before investing in costly prototypes or full-scale production.

The CEOs of both companies said at a Monday press conference that those simulations will speed up thanks to Nvidias AI chips.

CUDA GPU-accelerated computing is revolutionizing design  enabling simulation at unprecedented speed and scale, from atoms to transistors, from chips to complete systems, creating fully functional digital twins inside the computer, Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, said in a statement. Our partnership with Synopsys harnesses the power of NVIDIA accelerated computing and AI to reimagine engineering and design  empowering engineers to invent the extraordinary products that will shape our future.

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Nvidia purchased $2 billion in common stock at $414.79 per share, according to the announcement.

Synopsys and Nvidia have been customers of one another for several years. Their deal is not exclusive, meaning Synopsys technology will remain available to other companies.

The investment signals strong market demand even as some experts warn an AI investment bubble may be about burst.

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It comes as Nvidia looks to further solidify its dominance in AI. In September, the company announced a $100 billion investment in OpenAI, to start next year, aiding in the companys data center buildout. Earlier this year, Nvidia invested $5 billion in chipmaker Intel and made a $5 billion investment in Anthropic this past month alongside Microsoft.
Willie Nelson performs during Luck Reunion at Luck Ranch on Thursday, March, 13, 2025 in Spicewood, Texas. Aaron E. Martinez/American-Statesman

Willie Nelson, notorious outlaw, country-music icon and current champion of Not Being Dead, has once again had to reassure the internet that he is, in fact, still breathing.

The 92-year-old Texan found himself trending on Facebook this week for the least fun reason possible: an AI-generated death saga. This one, crafted with all the subtlety of a soap opera on fast-forward, claimed Nelson had been diagnosed with stage 4 everything, collapsed in a dramatic cloud of blood, locked himself inside a movie studio and left a cowboy-coded goodbye letter. The post reads like someone fed ChatGPT a gallon of Monster and a stack of spaghetti Westerns, then pressed generate.

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But instead of issuing a press release or letting his team handle the nonsense, Nelson did what only Willie Nelson can do: he looked directly into the digital void and glared.

On Instagram, the Red Headed Stranger posted a carousel of photos by Chris Buckstarting with him sitting peacefully with his eyes closed and ending with a close-up of Willie staring into the camera like hes personally asking you to rethink your life choices. The caption:

If you believe those AI death stories one more time

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A threat? A warning? A dad joke-level scolding from a man older than queso? Hard to say. But it worked. Nothing snaps the internet back to reality like being silently judged by Willie Nelsons pupils.

AI keeps trying to retire Willie, and Willie keeps logging on

This is hardly the first time Nelson has had to fight the forces of misinformation.

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Willie Nelson & Family headline the Outlaw Music Festival with special guests Chris Stapleton, Ryan Bingham and Yola at Germania Insurance Amphitheater on Aug. 22, 2021, in Austin. Scott Moore for American-Statesman

Back in July, when weather forced the Outlaw Music Festival to cancel a date, an AI-generated Facebook post claimed Nelson was hospitalized and out of commission. Willie responded in the comments: LOL what a joke  anyways see yall at 4th of July picnic tomorrow.

Thats right. Willie Nelson, Grammy winner, Highwayman, cannabis activist, American treasure is also out here doing his own fact-checking in the comments like your most chaotic uncle.

Willie isnt the only legend the Internet keeps prematurely burying

The rumor mill hasnt limited its imagination to Nelson. Earlier this year, Dolly Parton had to step in and assure fans she wasnt dying either.

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Dolly Parton played "Austin City Limits" in the show's 26th season in 2000. Provided by Scott Newton via Austin City Limits/KLRU-TV

Parton, 79, sparked concern after missing several shows, canceling a run of Las Vegas concerts and skipping an appearance at Dollywood due to kidney stones. Then the whispers started. So Dolly did what Dolly does: she faced the camera, smiled, and set the Internet straight.
The multi-state search for a missing elderly couple from Lubbock has ended after they were found dead in New Mexico, authorities say.

Linda Eppers Lightfoot, 81, and Charles "Gary" Lightfoot, 82, went missing after leaving a family gathering in Panhandle, Texas on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 27. They never made it to their Lubbock home. On Sunday, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) issued a Silver Alert to expand the search for the elderly couple.

New Mexico State Police joined search efforts after the couple's vehicle was spotted in Santa Rosa on Friday.

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Local police responded to a possible sighting of the Lightfoots' vehicle at a ranch west of Tucumcari, N.M., according to the Quay County Sheriff's Office. The "inoperable vehicle" was found parked in a tree line at the edge of a pasture around 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 2. Both Linda and Gary were found dead at the scene.

The couple's suspected cause of death was not made public. Authorities are investigating the deaths and promise more details as they become available.

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"The Quay County Sheriff's Office extends its deepest condolences to the Lightfoot family and their loved ones during this difficult time," the press release concluded.

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Below is the original story.

Have you seen Linda or Gary Lightfoot?

An elderly couple from Lubbock hasnt been seen since 3 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 27. According to the Carson County Sheriffs Office, Linda and Gary Lightfoots were last seen at the 2300 block of 59th Street in Lubbock but are not believed to have made it to their Lubbock home. On Sunday the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) issued a Silver Alert amid the ongoing search, which now spans Texas and New Mexico.

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Linda Eppers Lightfoot, 81, is a white female with gray hair and brown eyes, standing at 5'3 and weighing 128 pounds. She was last seen wearing a black and white blouse, dark pants and a bulky silver necklace.

Linda Lightfoot, 81, went missing between Panhandle and Lubbock, Texas on Nov. 27, 2025. Courtesy/Texas Department of Public Safety

Charles Gary Lightfoot, 82, is a white male with gray hair and brown eyes, standing at 5'9 and weighing 197 pounds. He was last seen wearing a gray sweater and black sweatpants.

Charles "Gary" Lightfoot, 82, went missing between Panhandle and Lubbock, Texas on Nov. 27, 2025. Courtesy/Texas Department of Public Safety

The Lightfoots are believed to be traveling in a silver 2024 Toyota Camry with Texas license plate TWN0925. According to local authorities, the vehicle was last seen in Santa Rosa, New Mexico on Friday, Nov. 28. Its unknown which direction the car was traveling in or where the intended destination was.

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A stock photo of a silver 2025 Toyota Camry, which the Lightfoots are believed to have been traveling in at the time of their disappearance. Courtesy/Texas Department of Public Safety

Local news reports neither Linda nor Gary have a cell phone or other traceable device. Carson police believe their disappearance poses a credible threat to their health and safety. Gary is oxygen-dependent, meaning he needs supplemental oxygen to function properly because his body cannot get enough oxygen on his own. He likely uses a device like a nasal cannula or a CPAP machine.

In a Monday update, Panhandle Police Chief Sace Hardman confirmed the Lightfoots had not been seen since leaving a family gathering in the city of Panhandle. New Mexico State Police, the Texas Rangers, Panhandle PD and Carson Co. SO are coordinating in the search.

The Carson County Sheriffs Office asks anyone with information about the Lightfoot couples whereabouts to contact them at (806) 537-3511. If you see Linda or Gary, call 911 immediately.

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What is a Silver Alert?
Brooke Elementary School on East 4th Street, photographed on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, is one of two Austin Independent School District properties that could get sold in an effort to slash its $65 million deficit. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

The Austin school district must sell two school properties this year to keep its $19.7 million deficit from ballooning. If the old Brooke or Rosedale campus properties fail to sell, district officials may have to go back to the drawing board to explore other ways to save money just months after a painful decision to close 10 schools because of budgetary and enrollment strains.

Neither the Brooke or Rosedale campuses have been used as traditional schools for several years.

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The Rosedale School on West 49th Street, photographed on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, is one of two Austin Independent School District properties that could get sold in an effort to slash its $65 million deficit. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman The Rosedale School on West 49th Street, photographed on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, is one of two Austin Independent School District properties that could get sold in an effort to slash its $65 million deficit. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman Brooke Elementary School on East 4th Street, photographed on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, is one of two Austin Independent School District properties that could get sold in an effort to slash its $65 million deficit. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

The sales must be completed this fiscal year to keep the district's deficit in check. In June, the district predicted the budget gap would be $65 million without planned property sales.

Property sale issue

District officials identified OHT Partners, a developer of multifamily residential buildings across Texas, as the buyer of the old Rosedale campus on West 49th Street. The district executed a sales contract with OHT in August, but is still finalizing the sale.

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The campus previously served high need special education students until 2022 when the district used 2017 bond dollars to open a brand new school, also called Rosedale, for the same purpose on Silvercrest Drive.

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However, the districts potential sale hit a snag. The neighborhood around the campus' 1938 covenant restricts all but a few area lots to residential purposes, though the school property was conveyed for public school purposes, according to a lawsuit filed by the school district on Oct. 31.

In its lawsuit, the district asked a Travis County district judge to declare that the kind of multifamily development that OHT would like to build aligns with decades-old deed restrictions on the old Rosedale property.

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The lawsuit, filed in the 201st District Court of Travis County, named about 150 property owners near the old Rosedale campus as defendants.

Many residents are concerned that the proposed multi-story development would add traffic and unwanted congestion to the single-family home neighborhood, said Carl Reynolds, who lives a few blocks from the old Rosedale campus.

We know somethings going to happen, but this is insane, Reynolds said, referring to a development on the property.

The districts grim financial situation has restrained the typical process for working with the public on repurposing old properties, said Kenneth Walker, the districts legal counsel.

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This is not the way we normally sell property, Walker said. We normally engage the community and make sure their input is reflected and in this instance, were pretty restrained.

Brooke campus

District officials recently signaled to community members that the former site of Brooke Elementary, which was closed in 2019, may also be sold soon. In a late November letter, officials wrote that The sale of the Brooke site is not a preferred outcome, but it is a necessary step to protect the districts ability to fulfill its mission.

This transaction is essential to avoiding deeper disruptions to our teachers, schools and programs, the letter stated.

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The sale of the old Brooke campus will displace at least four non-profits currently working in the building, including one that focuses on support services for parents, one focused on preventing East Austin displacement, and the Native American Cultural Center, an organization that rebranded and expanded when it opened at the former school earlier this year.

Skye Howell, executive director of the Native American Cultural Center, told the Statesman that receiving the news was a hard hit for the organization that was growing roots at its new location, establishing new events like a weekly sewing collective and attracting the largest numbers of community engagement it ever had.

It is now looking for a new lease for next year. Howell said that the district told her that it plans to sell the campus as early as March.

We have a lot of community support, but the future is uncertain, Howell said. Were thriving where were at.

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Walker told the Statesman that the district is still seeking a buyer for the Brooke property.

Fiscal issues

The Rosedale School on West 49th Street, photographed on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, is one of two Austin Independent School District properties that could get sold in an effort to slash its $65 million deficit. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

If the district doesnt sell either of these properties this year, the budget deficit will grow, Walker said.

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I dont think itd be far-fetched to say wed be facing some pretty difficult decisions, he added.

Walker hopes to resolve the declaratory judgement on the Rosedale propertys covenant within six to nine months, but told the Statesman that courts are unpredictable.

District spokeswoman Maritza Villela said the district did not have specific examples of cuts that might be proposed if the sales are unsuccessful.

On Nov. 20, the school Board of Trustees voted to shutter 10 campuses next year in response to plummeting enrollment and in hopes of saving about $21.5 million during the next fiscal year.

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Other sites

The district has several other unused school sites from previously closed campuses that could be potential sale opportunities.

The district contracted with the NRP Group to build workforce housing on site of the old Anita Ferrales Coy facility, which was once the districts Alternative Learning Center and previously Allan Elementary School. Demolition was scheduled to be completed last month.

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At the Pease Elementary building, the district partnered with the nonprofit United Way, which will open an early childhood program.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has denied yet another false report from the Russian Ministry of Defense regarding the alleged "capture" of the village of Klynove in Donetsk region and significant losses of Ukrainian armored vehicles.

The General Staff press services statement notes that the information about the "capture of Klynove" is untrue.

"According to the logic of the Russian statement, their units should have advanced, capturing the village of Veroliubivka along the way, which is not the case," the General Staff noted.

Furthermore, reports of alleged massive losses of armored vehicles by Ukrainian units have been refuted. The General Staff emphasizes that the Russian side regularly disseminates such reports without any evidence.

"The situation in this area remains under the control of the Defense Forces. There have been no confirmed breakthroughs deep into Ukrainian defenses in the aforementioned areas," the statement reads.

The General Staff also noted that Ukrainian units continue to carry out their missions, inflicting losses on the enemy in manpower and equipment: "The informational victories that the Russian Ministry of Defense announces daily on paper have nothing to do with the actual situation on the front," the press service noted on Facebook.
Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, a 19-year-old college student at Babson College, was detained by ICE while trying to make a surprise trip to see her family in Austin. Within about 48 hours of her arrest, the agency deported her to Honduras. Courtesy of Todd Pomerleau

Instead of having everyone home for the holidays, one Austin family spent Thanksgiving reeling from tragedy. Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, a 19-year-old student at a Massachusetts university, was deported after attempting to board a plane in Boston to surprise her family in Austin.

Lopez Belloza is not a criminal. She is a business major at Babson College, the countrys top ranked school for entrepreneurship. Her heartbreaking experience serves as further proof that the Trump administrations insistence it is going after the worst of the worst has been nothing but the spoonful of sugar helping its xenophobic policy go down.

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While trying to board her Nov. 20 flight, Lopez Belloza was told there was an issue with her ticket and sent to a customer service desk. Once there, she was surrounded by federal immigration agents who wouldnt tell her why she was being detained, her lawyer told the Statesmans Emiliano Tahui Gomez. They flew her to Texas, where she was put in wrist, waist and ankle shackles for a flight to Honduras, a country she hadnt seen since she was 7.

Her family said they were unaware of a removal order for her. They never would have sent her to study so far away had they known about it, they said. Her lawyer found no record of the removal order in the governments Executive Office for Immigration Review database.

Deporting her anyway wasnt just inhumane. It defied a court order, issued the day after she was detained, barring her from being removed from this country. That should alarm every American  regardless of politics.

The Department of Homeland Security has not explained why it ignored the judge's order, but said that Lopez Belloza received full due process. That assertion is untenable. Due process requires notice. It requires the opportunity to be heard. It requires compliance with judicial orders. None of those occurred here.

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Instead, the Trump administration showed callous disregard for this college student pursuing the American dream, with Border Patrol Operations Commander Gregory Bovino posting on X (formerly Twitter) that Lopez Belloza was an illegal alien (who) may have taken a university slot from an American citizen.

Paul Hunker, a Dallas-based immigration lawyer who formerly worked as chief counsel at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said immigration officials must obey court orders, just like any other American citizen. A judge could order the government to bring her back, he said, noting her deportation may have been a mistake.

Former immigration judge Daniel H. Weiss told us that such mistakes shouldn't happen, but it's possible. But they can be rectified. In the same way the government can remove people, they have vehicles to locate them and bring them back, he said.

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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said this past weekend that the buck stops with her on deportation decisions. If that is true, then she should be held accountable when her agency violates a judges order, traumatizes a family and upends a young womans life for no defensible reason.

Until that day, families like Lopez Bellozas will have to endure the dehumanizing deportation machine operating in our name. History will view it with shame. We do, too.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal announced a "substantive meeting" in Brussels with US Permanent Representative to NATO Matthew Whitaker.

We highly value all the assistance the United States has provided to Ukraine. We discussed ways to strengthen our defense partnership. I also noted the effectiveness of the PURL initiative for procuring American weapons and outlined the priority needs of our Armed Forces, Shmyhal said on X.

He expressed gratitude to the United States, especially President Donald Trump, for its support of Ukraine and leadership in bringing about a just and lasting peace.

As reported, in early November, US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker arrived in Kyiv with a NATO delegation. This is his first visit to Ukraine in his current position. During his visit, Whitaker met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Rubio, in his talk with German counterpart, reaffirms US goal of ending the war, achieving lasting peace in Ukraine as soon as possible

Photo: https://www.axios.com

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a telephone conversation with German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul to discuss efforts to achieve peace in Ukraine.

As US State Department First Deputy Spokesman Tommy Pigott reported, Rubio and Wadephul discussed ongoing efforts to facilitate an end to the war in Ukraine.

The Secretary reaffirmed the United States goals are to end the conflict as soon as possible and achieve a lasting peace, the U.S. Department of State said.
New Benchmark Reveals How Top AI Dubbing Systems Really Perform

Amsterdam-based AI data platform Toloka has launched VOX-DUB, the first open, human-evaluated benchmark designed to assess AI dubbing systems on emotional accuracy, prosody, and voice character across languages. Using more than 30,000 native-speaker A/B e

Amsterdam, Netherlands( )

Amsterdam-based AI data platform Toloka, which helps train and evaluate AI models using real human input, has introduced VOX-DUB  the first open, human-evaluated benchmark designed specifically to assess the performance of AI dubbing systems. The new benchmark provides an independent framework to evaluate how effectively current technologies capture the emotion, prosody, and voice character of actors across languages  a capability essential for realistic, emotionally resonant media localization.

VOX-DUB fills a major gap in current AI audio evaluation practices. While text-to-speech (TTS) quality has nearly reached human parity, dubbing requires a deeper understanding of emotional and cultural nuance. The new benchmark introduces a pairwise A/B testing methodology using native speakers and measures performance across five core dimensions: pronunciation, naturalness, audio quality, emotional accuracy, and voice similarity.

The benchmark includes a curated set of acting performances covering eight source languages, including French, German, Russian, Hindi, Chinese, and Japanese, translated into English (US) and Spanish (Latin American). Using pairwise A/B testing, native-speaker annotators rated audio clips across five key criteria: pronunciation, naturalness, audio quality, emotional accuracy, and voice similarity. More than 30,000 individual human judgments were aggregated to generate a validated ranking across four commercial systems: Dubformer, Deepdub, ElevenLabs, and Minimax.

Across both target languages, Dubformer demonstrated strong results in pronunciation and naturalness, placing it among the leading performers in the study.

The VOX-DUB benchmark addresses a critical gap between the dubbing and media localization industry: the lack of standardized, methodology-driven evaluation for AI dubbing systems. It introduces a structured approach that allows for more objective, apples-to-apples comparison  something sorely needed amid the recent wave of interest and hype, commented Anton Dvorkovich, Co-Founder & CEO of Dubformer.

He also noted that the VOX-DUB results validated its current direction while revealing opportunities for further refinement. We already maintain our own internal benchmarks, but it is always so valuable to get independent analysis as well, and to see our internal insights confirmed by a third-party, Dvorkovich noted. The findings confirmed a key trade-off weve been addressing  between the fidelity of voice replication and overall speech quality. Were pleased with our performance, and the results validate our direction while showing where further refinement is needed, particularly around emotional expression and naturalness in AI dubbing.

As pointed out on the companys website, future iterations of VOX-DUB will expand beyond audio into video-based evaluation, incorporating lip-sync alignment, visual rhythm, and acoustic environment  a step toward measuring true cinematic dubbing performance.

The benchmark arrives amid rapid expansion in the AI media localization sector. The global AI dubbing market size is expected to be worth around just under $3 billion by 2033, from around $800 million in 2023, growing at a CAGR of 13.9%. Broader AI video dubbing applications are expanding even faster, at more than 30% annually, driven by demand from streaming, gaming, and entertainment platforms seeking scalable multilingual content.
The flight deck of the USS Nimitz as it neared Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (U.S. Navy)



The USS Nimitz arrived in Hawaii on Saturday, returning to American waters for the first time since the aircraft carrier deployed from its homeport at Naval Base Kitsap, Wash., in March.

On what is likely the final deployment of its 50-year Navy career, the Nimitz over the past eight months patrolled the Indo-Pacific region and was diverted for several weeks to the Arabian Sea amid heightened tensions between Israel and Iran.

As it arrived at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on Saturday, sailors manned the rails in dress white uniforms. They saluted as the Nimitz passed the USS Arizona Memorial, the tribute to the ship sunk on Dec. 7, 1941, that brought the U.S. into World War II. They also saluted the retired battleship USS Missouri, where the articles of Japans unconditional surrender in World War II were signed on Sept. 2, 1945.

Pulling into this historic harbor reminds us of the generations of sailors who served before us, and the legacy we carry forward every day, according to a post on the ships official Instagram account.

Adm. Samuel J. Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, visited the carrier pierside at Pearl Harbor, meeting with top officers and chatting with crew on the flight deck.

Adm. Samuel J. Paparo, commander of Indo-Pacific Command, visits the Nimitz Class aircraft carrier USS Nimitz at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Nov 29, 2025. Nimitz, flagship of Carrier Strike Group 11, pier side for a scheduled port visit while operating in the U.S. 3rd Fleet area of operations. (Tomas Valdes/U.S. Navy)



The stop at Pearl Harbor comes as salvage crews in the South China Sea continue efforts to raise an F/A-18 Super Hornet jet and an MH-60 Sea Hawk helicopter from the ocean floor. The aircraft crashed off the Nimitz within half an hour of each other in October. The cause of the incidents is still under investigation. The Pentagon dispatched the USNS Salvor salvage ship to attempt to lift the aircraft to the surface. The Navy did not respond Monday to requests for an update on the status of the effort.

The Nimitz has been transiting eastbound across the Pacific. It is the flagship of Carrier Strike Group 11, serving from its homeport at Naval Base Kitsap just west of Seattle on the Puget Sound.

The arrival on Saturday was a homecoming for the crew of USS Wayne E. Meyer, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer homeported at Pearl Harbor.

Along with the USS Gridley, homeported at Naval Station Everett, Wash., and USS Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee, homeported at Naval Station San Diego, the Wayne E. Meyer made up the detachment of Destroyer Squadron 9 that accompanied the Nimitz on the deployment.

The Nimitz is returning with Carrier Air Wing 17, made up of four F/A-18 Hornet variant squadrons from Naval Air Station Lemoore, Calif.; an EF-18G Growler electronic warfare squadron from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash.; an E-2D Hawkeye command and control squadron; a detachment of C-2A Greyhounds  both from Naval Air Station Norfolk, Va.; and two MH-60 Sea Hawk variant helicopter squadrons from Naval Air Station North Island, Calif.

The Navy did not announce how long the Nimitz would stay at Pearl Harbor. It is scheduled to return to Kitsap before heading around Cape Horn of South America to Naval Station Norfolk by early May to begin a yearslong decommissioning and deactivation.

The Navy has announced plans for the second Gerald R. Ford-class carrier, the USS John F. Kennedy, to homeport at Kitsap after its 2027 commissioning.

Kitsap is also the home port of the Nimitz-class carrier USS Ronald Reagan, which began an 18-month Docking Planned Incremental Availability overhaul in March at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, part of Kitsap. The overhaul is scheduled to finish in late 2026.
Air defenses shoot down 39 out of 62 enemy UAVs overnight, with hits recorded at eight locations

On Tuesday night (from 18:00 p.m. on December 1), the Ukrainian Defense Forces neutralized 39 enemy drones, but debris from the downed drones was recorded falling at eight locations, the Ukrainian Air Force press service reported.

"According to preliminary data, as of 08:30, air defense forces have shot down or suppressed 39 enemy Shaheds, Gerberas, and other types of UAVs in the north, south, and east of the country," Telegram says.

It is noted that on the night of December 2 (from 18:00 on December 1), the enemy attacked 62 strike UAVs of the Shahed and Gerbera types and drones of other types in the directions: Bryansk, Orel, Millerovo, Primorsko-Akhtarsk of the Russian Federation, Chauda of the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Donetsk, more than 35 of them - Shaheds.

The air attack was repulsed by anti-aircraft missile forces, units of EW and unmanned systems, mobile fire groups of the Defense Forces of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, 20 strike UAVs were hit at eight locations.
Ali Furmall of Spokane, Wash., displays the four pennies she got from the press machines at the Independence Visitor Center in Philadelphia, Pa. (Tom Gralish, The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)



PHILADELPHIA  A wheel cranks on the machine at the Independence Visitor Center, slowing with every turn until: CLINK! A reward drops out the bottom waiting to be collected.

Its a familiar, elongated penny. In its new form, Honest Abes head is swapped for an illustration of Rocky  naturally.

Philadelphia  along with other cities with tourist draws nationwide  is peppered with old-school penny press machines, allowing visitors to mark a noteworthy trip with an inexpensive souvenir. Its a tried-and-true practice that could be in peril now that the U.S. Treasury has ended penny production .

After a 232-year run, the government announced it was ending penny production because of its eroded value and the rise of digital payment systems. A final batch was struck recently at the Philadelphia Mint.

Dating back more than a century, penny press machines can be found in museums, at visitor centers, at zoos and on boardwalks, usually costing only a dollar for a kitschy souvenir. The first elongated souvenir coins in the United States date to the 1893 Worlds Columbian Exposition , with four designs to commemorate the event.

Old Citys Independence Visitor Center and a handful of other historic locations across town continue to offer machines to press those pennies into something new and beautiful.

The machines are a hit because theyre interactive, iconic and adaptable with different settings, visitor center spokesperson Maita Soukup said. We are hopeful the coin press will continue bringing joy and cranking out travel memories in this new postpenny world, she said.

The visitor center has two machines and eight designs, including Rocky, the LOVE sculpture, Ben Franklin and the Liberty Bell.

Ali Furmall stopped by on a recent weekday afternoon while visiting Philly from Spokane, Wash.. She and her husband casually collect the pennies when they travel. She opted for a design with the logo of Reading Terminal Market, one of her favorite destinations during their stay.

I have a couple of pennies with national park themes that I like a lot, she said. I generally prefer iconic landscapes or landforms.

As for the discontinuation of penny production, Furmall shook off any concerns.

Im not sure that pennies are so necessary for commerce, she said. So these machines might become the primary way theyre used.

Enthusiasts say they do not expect penny pressing to end entirely  just for it to change.

The future of penny presses is just getting started, Albert Guerrero said. Alongside his wife, Amy, he co-owns Pennybandz , a pressed penny company that sells machines as well as accessories  like wearables and journals  to hold pressed pennies. We truly believe the retirement of the penny wont mark the end of pressed coins.

Stu Hockstein, the administrator behind PennyPresses.net  a website for pressed penny collectors and lovers that documents all things related to the elongated coins  tends to agree. His website includes a map documenting more than 3,300 machines nationwide along with features like a Penny Pals trading service.

In Philly, some of the machine locations mentioned on the PennyPresses.net map include the Philadelphia Zoo, the Betsy Ross House and the Franklin Institute.

Hockstein says the eventual elimination of penny production was inevitable, citing the coins high cost to mint .

Ali Furmall of Spokane, Wash., cranks one of the penny press machines at the Independence Visitor Center in Philadelphia, Pa. Over the years, modern penny press machines have started coming preloaded with their own pennies or blanks (called slugs), and accepting paper bills, credit cards, or tap-to-pay. (Tom Gralish, The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)



Well, it finally happened, he said. As for how it affects the future of penny machines, he says its twofold.

First off, it will take quite some time for pennies to go away entirely.

It will take 20 to 30 years for pennies to be removed from circulation, Hockstein said. But more importantly, the pressed penny machine manufacturers have been moving away from a business model that involves the customer placing their own pennies in the machines.

Over the years, modern penny press machines have started coming preloaded with their own pennies or blanks (called slugs), and accepting paper bills, credit cards, or tap-to-pay. That means no more fishing around the bottom of your purse for a penny covered in lint.

You can see examples of those machines at the very place where the U.S. Mint started (back in 1793) and ended making pennies recently. The mints gift shop includes a pressed penny machine with four designs and provided pennies. It costs a dollar.

Guerrero, of PennyBandz, says that while almost 300 billion actual pennies are still in circulation, the change will give companies like his time to upgrade the quality of and access to blanks. Right now, coin-operated machines that require a penny cost businesses less than ones with upgraded tech that can accept a dollar bill or credit card.

When that time eventually comes, were already prepared to offer beautiful copper blanks that press just as well, if not better, and give that same satisfying collectible experience, he said.

As older penny press machines fall into disrepair, Hockstein says, they will likely be replaced with newer models that include blanks. In short: Although pennies may eventually be going away, the hobby is here to stay.

And you know what they say: Every penny counts.
An aerial view of the Pentagon in May 2023. (Alexander Kubitza/Defense Department)



ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Blake Narendra was a director for Legislative Affairs on the National Security Council in the Biden administration. Previously, he was a special adviser at the State Departments Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance in the Obama administration. He also was a nuclear policy adviser to Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.

As abundance solutions to housing and energy fill op-eds and airtime on cable news, we should also embrace abundance for our aerospace industrial base.

The Pentagons forthcoming National Defense Strategy is one such opportunity; it should acknowledge that meeting our many global security challenges depends upon reviving a version of Rosie the Riveter to meet our growing aerospace and defense manufacturing needs today  before a war lays our vulnerabilities bare tomorrow.

The NDS is likely to highlight the need for the Defense Department to strengthen our interoperability with allies and partners to confront top geopolitical rivals in China and Russia. And in the months to follow, the Defense Force Posture Review will add a level of granularity by matching force deployments to priorities laid out in the NDS.

However, the NDS ambitious plans may face the cold, hard reality that our capacity to project overseas is tempered by our manufacturing weaknesses at home. As the saying goes, even the best laid plans can go awry, and that may be the case if the Pentagon is unable to domestically source parts for hardware like advanced aircraft.

American consumers learned firsthand the impacts of relying on brittle supply chains when COVID-19 struck in 2020. Grocery store shelves were bare, Amazon orders went on backorder, and car dealerships lots were empty due to a nationwide chips shortage. The vulnerability of American consumers to such shocks was a wake-up call for the Pentagon: if a pandemic could disrupt supply chains for items like toilet paper, and even freeze development of the next-generation jet engine, imagine the additional harm a manmade disaster like a war could do to our force projection.

As former Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks warned, relying on a small number of contractors for critical capabilities directly undermines Americas ability to surge production in wartime. That is especially true for the U.S. aerospace sector.

In the not-too-distant past, steel-fitters, welders and metal fabricators formed the domestic manufacturing base in the American Rust Belt. Today, two-thirds of foundries that produced castings for aircraft, armored vehicles and naval vessels have vanished from the map. The result is that we are left to a Cold-War era infrastructure and aging workforce to guarantee we can fly, fight, and win well into this century.

That has impacts for the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) program  the Air Forces effort to develop evolutionary engines for sixth-generation jet fighters; the additional range and thrust supplied to fighters by NGAP will extend U.S. superiority in contested environments  like the Taiwan Strait  for decades. But getting NGAPs off the ground depends on the health of the industrial base beneath it: specialized parts suppliers and engineers who are in desperately short supply.

We saw that even modest supply interruptions on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program can snowball into program delays. Shortages in skilled labor and deliveries pushed deliveries of the F-35 back by four months.

We have also seen how U.S. adversaries can weaponize on our economic dependence for key inputs for aircraft. President Donald Trumps visit with Chinese Leader Xi Jinping last month in Southeast Asia temporarily unlocked U.S. tariff-free access to rare-earth minerals. However, there is no telling if a future bilateral spat will wreck that trade truce.

What is clear is that Beijing knows it can choke off U.S. access to critical minerals and, with it, grind the assembly of finished jet-engines to a halt. And we may not have the luxury of time. According to a top U.S. general, China has calendared 2027 as the year it would be ready to invade Taiwan. For Beijing, establishing air dominance in the Taiwan Strait is a necessary step before it would likely press ahead on an amphibious invasion of the island.

U.S.-supplied F-16Vs to Taiwan can complicate Beijings decision-making. but they will not fully arrive until 2027 due to bottlenecks in the aerospace supply chain. Those impacts are compounded by the fact that Chinas sixth-generation jet fighter will likely take off before the F-47 sixth-generation fighter enters the U.S Air Force fleet by the end of this decade.

We owe it to U.S. Air Force pilots, many of whom are not yet born, to pair the F-47 stealthy airframe with the highest performing engine we can field. Doing so will help ensure the fighter does not become obsolete during its 30- to 40-year service life. That is why NGAP serves as a down payment on preserving U.S. dominance in the skies. The cost of deterrence to keep a fragile peace pales in comparison to the costs to the U.S. and global economy if China reunites the mainland with Taiwan by force; Taiwan owns a staggering 70% share of the global semiconductor manufacturing market.

We cannot fully anticipate what geopolitical challenges at the middle of this century will manifest  we do know, however, that our airworthiness to meet those challenges hinges upon actions we take today to unlock abundance for our aerospace sector.
A COPA Airlines plane takes off at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela, Monday, Dec. 1, 2025, days after the government revoked operating rights for international airlines that suspended flights following a warning from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. (Cristian Hernandez/AP)



CARACAS, Venezuela  U.S.-operated flights returning deported migrants to Venezuela will continue despite President Donald Trumps assertion that the airspace of the South American country should be considered closed.

The government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced Tuesday that the twice-weekly flights will go on following a request from the Trump administration. That reverses a Venezuelan government announcement Saturday that indicated that U.S. immigration authorities had unilaterally suspended the flights.

An overflight and landing application submitted Monday by U.S.-based Eastern Airlines requests permission for an arrival Wednesday. The application was made public Tuesday by Venezuelas foreign affairs minister.

Venezuelans have been steadily deported to their home country this year after Maduro, under pressure from the White House, did away with his long-standing policy of not accepting deportees from the U.S.

Immigrants arrive regularly at the airport outside the capital, Caracas, on flights operated by a U.S. government contractor or Venezuelas state-owned airline. More than 13,000 immigrants have returned so far this year on the chartered flights, the latest of which arrived Friday.

The flights have continued despite U.S. military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean and off Venezuelas Caribbean coast.

Not just Venezuela

The Trump administration says the strikes are aimed at drug cartels, some of which it claims are controlled by Maduro. Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. would start doing strikes on land soon, though he didnt specify where and said attacks might occur in countries besides Venezuela, suggesting Colombia could see military strikes.

You know, the land is much easier, much easier. And we know the routes they take, Trump said to reporters as he met with his Cabinet at the White House. We know everything about them. We know where they live. We know where the bad ones live. And were going to start that very soon too.

Later, when asked to elaborate, Trump said he was speaking about countries that are manufacturing and selling fentanyl or cocaine. The president said he heard that Colombia is manufacturing cocaine and selling it to the U.S.

Anybody thats doing that and selling it into our country is subject to attack, Trump said.

He added a few moments later, Not just Venezuela.

Colombia is indeed the worlds top cocaine producer. Its president, Gustavo Petro, rejected Trumps assertion that any country that produces drugs bound for the U.S. could be hit with U.S. strikes. Petro also warned Trump that any attack on Colombia would be perceived as a declaration of war.

Dont ruin two centuries of diplomatic relations Petro wrote in a post on X. If there is a country that has helped to stop thousands of tons of cocaine from reaching American consumers, it is Colombia.

Pope Leo XVI calls for dialogue

As tensions continue to escalate, Pope Leo XVI on Tuesday called for the U.S. to pursue dialogue and even economic pressure on Venezuela, rather than threats of military action, to achieve its goals.

Leo, historys first American pope, told reporters aboard the papal plane returning from Lebanon that the Venezuelan bishops conference and the Vatican Embassy in Caracas were trying to calm the situation and look out for the plight of ordinary Venezuelans.

The voices coming from the United States change, with a certain frequency at times, he said. On the one hand, it seems there was telephone conversation between the two presidents, on the other, theres this danger, this possibility of an activity, an operation including invading the territory of Venezuela.

He stressed that he didnt have further information. Again I believe its better to look for ways of dialogue, perhaps pressure -- including economic pressure -- but looking for other ways to change, if thats what the United States wants to do.

More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left their country since 2013, when Maduro became president and the nations oil-dependent economy spiraled from a combination of corruption, mismanagement and a drop in crude prices. Most immigrants have settled in Latin American and Caribbean countries, but pandemic-induced job losses prompted many to move to the U.S.

The U.S. began targeting Venezuelan officials with economic sanctions in 2015, but under the first Trump administration, those were expanded significantly, freezing all government assets, blocking Venezuelas access to U.S. financial markets and prohibiting U.S. individuals and entities from engaging in transactions with Maduros government.

The economic pressure did not meet the goal of toppling Maduro, whose government found ways to skirt sanctions and eventually earned concessions from the U.S. after promising to work with his opponents to achieve free and fair conditions for a 2024 presidential election. Maduro, however, claimed victory in that contest despite credible evidence to the contrary.

Associated Press writers Nicole Winfield aboard the papal plane, Manuel Rueda in Bogota, Colombia, and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.
Navy Capt. Peter Roberts, command surgeon for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, helps kick off the Indo-Pacific Military Health Exchange in Yokohama, Japan, Dec. 2, 2025. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)



YOKOHAMA, Japan  With warfare and medical technology evolving at breakneck speed, defense health professionals from more than 20 nations gathered here Tuesday to push for deeper cooperation across the Indo-Pacific region.

The Indo-Pacific Military Health Exchange opened at the Pacifico North convention center with more than 1,000 attendees and roughly 300 scheduled presentations.

Topics ranged from artificial intelligence and drone-enabled medical resupply to remotely guided surgery  innovations organizers say will shape future battlefields and humanitarian responses.

The battlefield, as we have long known it, is changing rapidly, Dr. Stephen Ferrara, acting assistant U.S. secretary of defense for health affairs, said in opening remarks. The next fight will not look like the last one. The front lines are now everywhere.

Ferrara said medical units, supply chains, communications networks and hospitals should be considered part of the battlefield.

The Red Cross is no longer a shield, but a target, he said. To fight and to win in this environment, we must adapt.

Dr. Stephen Ferrara, acting assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, delivers opening remarks for the Indo-Pacific Military Health Exchange in Yokohama, Japan, Dec. 2, 2025. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)



But adaptation, Ferrara added, requires partners.

The truth is this: Just as no single soldier can win a war, no single nation can face these challenges alone, he said. Our strength depends on how seamlessly we can operate together as an unbreakable alliance of professionals, of innovators and of partners.

This years event is the largest in the exchanges history and the first hosted by Japan. The gathering has existed in one form or another for about 30 years, said Navy Capt. Peter Roberts, command surgeon for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

I think its pretty easy to draw a link between what were doing here, which is about sharing ideas and building relationships, with the successes over the years, primarily in disaster response and working together, he told Stars and Stripes after the opening ceremony.

He and Ferrara cited multinational relief efforts following the devastating 2004 tsunami in Indonesia as a defining example of regional medical cooperation.

Navy Capt. Peter Roberts, left, command surgeon for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and Dr. Stephen Ferrera, acting assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, discuss resilience and cooperation in Yokohama, Japan, Dec. 2, 2025. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)



I think that event not only highlighted what were capable of doing together, but it also stressed the importance of kind of doubling down on that effort, Roberts said.

Ferrara also addressed ongoing concerns about access to health care for military families and Defense Department civilians stationed in Japan. The Defense Health Agency in 2022 restricted care for most DOD civilians at military clinics, directing them instead to local medical providers, most of which do not accept foreign health insurance.

Those limits were later softened, and in January the Pentagon launched a pilot program to help civilians navigate Japans health care system. The program was extended in August, though some family members are still excluded.

Ferrara called the effort incredibly successful and said he is working with the DHA to expand capacity at military treatment facilities. The goal, he said, is to provide as much access as possible for civilians, service members and their family members.
South Korean troops assigned to MAKRI, the Ministry of National Defense Agency for Killed in Action Recovery and Identification, work to recover Korean War remains from the Demilitarized Zone in November 2025. (South Korean Ministry of National Defense)



South Korea has recovered 25 sets of remains and nearly 2,000 artifacts from a former Korean War battlefield inside the Demilitarized Zone, the countrys defense ministry said Monday, calling the excavation a step toward easing tension with the North.

Between Oct. 15 and Nov. 28, roughly 100 South Korean troops and an unspecified number of U.N. Command personnel carried out a 40-day recovery mission in Cheorwon, Gangwon province, according to a news release from the Ministry of National Defense.

That area, along the DMZs central front, saw some of the fiercest fighting of the conflict, including the October 1952 Battle of White Horse Hill.

South Korean troops with MAKRI, the Ministry of National Defense Agency for Killed in Action Recovery and Identification, salute remains recovered inside the Demiliarized Zone in November 2025. (South Korean Ministry of National Defense)



The excavation was part of a measure to ease military tensions between the South and the North, the ministrys deputy spokesman, Lee Kyung-ho, said Monday at his regular press briefing.

Most of the remains are believed to belong to Korean troops described in the release as fallen heroes who died protecting the country. The ministry said the identities will be determined through detailed examination and DNA analysis.

The operation also recovered 1,962 items, including personal effects and military equipment, the ministry said.

The excavation was an effort to return the souls of the fallen heroes back to the nation and the bereaved families and a practical move to fulfill the governments commitment to building peace in the DMZ, according to the release.

South Korean troops assigned to MAKRI, the Ministry of National Defense Agency for Killed in Action Recovery and Identification, work to recover Korean War remains from the Demilitarized Zone in November 2025. (South Korean Ministry of National Defense)



Our military will do our utmost to bring the fallen heroes who died protecting our country back to their families and to the nation, until the very last person, the ministry said.

The operation was carried out in close coordination with the South Korean armys 5th Infantry Division and MAKRI, the Ministry of National Defense Agency for Killed in Action Recovery and Identification, Australian navy Lt. Cmdr. Brendan Trembath said in a statement emailed Tuesday by U.N. Command.

These efforts are part of UNCs ongoing commitment to upholding the Korean War Armistice Agreement, honoring the sacrifice of those who fought under the U.N. flag and alongside South Korea, he said.
In this screenshot from a security video, Kareem El, second from right, speaks with a security forces airman outside Star Bar on Gate 2 Street in Okinawa city, Okinawa, Nov. 22, 2025. (Star Bar)



An American civilian whose violent arrest by U.S. military police on Okinawa was captured on viral video says the unprovoked takedown left him injured, traumatized and demanding answers.

Two videos posted online show a military police officer lifting and slamming Kareem El to the pavement along Gate 2 Street in Okinawa city early Nov. 22. The incident has ignited online anger and exacerbated tensions between the U.S. military and the local community.

El, a 32-year-old Washington, D.C., native who identified himself as a former Marine captain, said he was waiting for a friend outside Star Bar around 2 a.m. when military police approached and asked for identification.

I told them I didnt intend to give them the ID because I was a civilian and wasnt required to, El said by phone Friday. There was a brief back-and-forth that resulted in me being told, If you dont produce the ID, youre going to the ground. And I consistently affirmed that I was not required to provide ID.

The office of civil rights attorney Lee Merritt, who is representing El, said in a statement Saturday that he suffered a head injury, wrist lacerations, cuts and abrasions, and significant psychological trauma.

El said he plans to visit a hospital for an evaluation after he returns to the United States on Tuesday. He said his legal team is investigating options and that he hopes to get justice from the situation.

Els friend, a Bermuda national who declined to be named, recorded the videos. They were first posted Nov. 23 on the Facebook page of Washington, D.C.-based food truck Garlic Sensations and reshared two days later by the popular Air Force amn/nco/snco page, prompting widespread outrage.

Star Bar owner Tomohisa Takahashi said El had been drinking quietly with others before the incident. They didnt seem to be drinking that much, and they werent loud at all, he told Stars and Stripes at the bar Monday.

Security camera footage from the bar shows El leaving at 1:56 a.m. Six U.S. military police walk into view about 15 seconds later. One officer approaches El, and the two talk. El places his hands in his pockets about a minute later.

Four minutes after that, the officer grabs El by the shoulders and slams him onto the pavement. Two officers then pin him and struggle for roughly five minutes before lifting El to his feet and escorting him toward Kadenas Gate 2.

I dont think theres any circumstance where someone with their hands in their pockets, whos peacefully engaging, to find themselves suplexed to the ground like this, El said.

In this screenshot from security video, a security forces airman lifts Kareem El by the shoulders outside Star Bar on Gate 2 Street in Okinawa city, Okinawa, Nov. 22, 2025. (Star Bar)



U.S. Forces Japan commander Air Force Lt. Gen. Stephen Jost has ordered an investigation into the incident, said spokesman Air Force Col. John Severns. El is not connected to the military and was detained by a liberty patrol consisting only of U.S. military police, he wrote in a Nov. 26 email.

El said he was on Okinawa for business. He arrived Nov. 18 and planned to travel to Tokyo on Nov. 29 and return to the U.S. on Tuesday.

El said he was commissioned into the Marine Corps in 2015 and served as a logistics and aerial delivery officer on Okinawa from 2016 to 2019 before separating in 2023.

Stars and Stripes reporter Keishi Koja contributed to this report.
Dutch Patriot missile systems in Slovakia in 2022. The Netherlands has taken command of a NATO air defense mission in eastern Poland, where allies coordinate logistical support for Ukraine. (Gregory Freni/Netherlands defense ministry)



The Netherlands this week took command of a NATO air defense mission in eastern Poland, where allies coordinate logistical support for Ukraine.

About 300 Dutch troops, equipped with Patriots and other air defense systems, began their mission on Monday, Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said in a statement the same day.

We protect supply lines to Ukraine, defend NATOs eastern flank and develop our capabilities. This strengthens the security of Poland, Ukraine, NATO and Netherlands, Brekelmans said.

The Dutch replaced German forces, who had previously been carrying out the air defense mission in Jasionka, Poland.

The air defense mission in eastern Poland was formerly a U.S.-led effort, with American Patriot teams deployed to the area soon after Russias full-scale 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

In February, the U.S. handed the Patriot mission over to the Germans, part of a broader shift that in January also saw NATO take command and control of the alliances overall air defense mission in Poland.

The Dutch deployment is expected to last until June.

In addition to Patriots, Dutch forces also are using the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System and other counter-drone equipment, Brekelmans said.
A Ukrainian serviceman of the Da Vinci Wolves Battalion carries an artillery shell before firing toward Russian positions at the front line in eastern Ukraine, on Friday, Nov. 28, 2025. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)



DNIPROPETROVSK REGION, Ukraine  Moving between damp basements and muddy dugouts to fend off constant Russian attacks in the nearly 4-year-old war, exhausted Ukrainian soldiers say their motivation is fortified by knowing theyre fighting for higher cause: the defense of their homeland.

But as negotiators try to hammer out a peace deal, the troops also believe that Russia remains determined to conquer Ukraine  either now, or with a fresh army in a few years time  no matter what kind of agreement is reached.

And they also say Kyiv must maintain a sizable military to protect the now-800-mile front line.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine are now the main barrier between peaceful civilian life of Ukrainians and our bad neighbor, said a 40-year-old artillery gunner who spoke to The Associated Press near the border between the Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions. He identified himself only by his call sign of Kelt, in keeping with military protocol, and on condition his exact location is not revealed.

The soldiers expressed strong doubts that Moscow can be trusted to abide by any peace deal. Without substantial security guarantees, such as NATO membership for Ukraine, they and military analysts believe a new Russian invasion with fresh troops and equipment is inevitable.

Seeing future Russian threats

From a dark, mud-walled trench, where he was sheltering to avoid buzzing enemy drones, Kelt fears any peace will be short-lived.

This truce will be short-term, to restore Russias forces  for some three or five years  and they will come back, said the former furniture salesman from Kyiv as the sound of booming artillery reverberated around him.

Serhii Filimonov, the commander of the Da Vinci Wolves battalion, worried that a deal would give Russia everything it needed to attack again.

I think it would be nice for the Russians -- to end the war, remove the sanctions, prepare for a new war and attack again, he said. I dont believe there can be peace before Russia is destroyed, or at least the leadership is changed.

Ukraines overstretched manpower

Filimonov described how Russian troops had briefly entered the eastern town of Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub in the Donetsk region, but were pushed out. His brigade had managed to hold its stretch of the defensive line but were often let down by neighboring units filled with inexperienced recruits.

The Kremlin on Monday boasted that Russian troops captured the city after more than a year of fighting, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in Paris that fighting was still ongoing.

A major breakthrough by Russian forces will depend on Ukraines ability to increase and sustain its troop numbers, said American military analyst and academic Rob Lee.

Ukraine lacks manpower, lacks reserves, he said. All it takes is for one Ukrainian brigade to really struggle, and then Russia can advance.

Taras Chmut, a Ukrainian military expert and fundraiser, told public broadcaster Suspilne on Friday that many battalions on the front are made up of only 20 fighters, instead of the usual 400-800.

Even though Ukraine may be mobilizing up to 30,000 recruits per month, many of them find a way out of serving or prove to be unfit to replace front-line troops.

Key sites are still being held

Nevertheless, Ukrainian forces are managing to hold their ground in places like Pokrovsk, as well as in Kupiansk and Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region  two sites on the front that Russia has been trying to capture for over a year, said Yurii Fedorenko commander of the Achilles UAV Brigade that is fighting in the area.

Russia has poured tens of thousands of soldiers at the towns, he said, noting that its failure to capture them testifies to the high motivation and resilience of the Ukrainian army.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week the fighting wont stop unless Ukraine withdraws troops from the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson  the four provinces Moscow illegally annexed in September 2022. Russian troops occupy only half of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, and two-thirds of Donetsk.

The draft of a U.S.-Russia peace plan stipulated that Ukraines army be limited and that Kyivs forces must effectively withdraw from the rest of the Donetsk region. Zelenskyy has said since then that a subsequently revised version could be workable, but its unclear what will be in the final document.

Lee, who regularly visits the front, said Russia is advancing at a faster pace in 2025 than the previous year, but it is not a given that Moscow would capture the remaining third of the Donetsk region in 2026.

Wherever Russia advances, Ukraine kind of prioritizes defenses (and) they can hold for a long time, but (then) Russia advanced in other directions, Lee said, describing Moscows progress through Donetsk by simultaneously pushing in multiple directions.

Ukraine will still need Western aid

From his muddy trench, Kelt ridiculed the proposal to reduce the size of Ukraines military, saying it was tantamount to making it easier for Russia to kill you later rather than now.

But sustaining an army of Ukraines current size of just over 1 million would be nearly impossible without continued Western support. Since the war began in 2022, Ukraine has spent almost all its tax revenue on feeding, clothing, housing and arming its military. The rest of its expenditures  for health care, social programs, education, pensions and energy  have been financed by Western grants and loans.

The European Union allocated $50 billion in aid from 2024 to 2027 as part of the Ukraine Facility Program, but Kyiv will need $83.4 billion for the military and $52 billion for the rest of the state expenditures for 2026 and 2027, said Glib Buriak, associate professor of economics at the Ukrainian-American Concordia University.

Ukraines future finances  including its ability to maintain an army  depends on what the peace plan includes regarding Russias frozen assets, said Buriak, noting the risk of a drop in aid if the war ends.

How they will be managed will determine Ukraines financial situation over the coming years, he said.

Yehor Konovalov contributed reporting.
Bahrains Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa and Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, both at right, tour the new combined command post for air defense at Ras Al Bar Camp, Bahrain, on Dec. 1, 2025. The facility is staffed by Bahraini and U.S. forces. (Lindsay Lair/U.S. Navy)



U.S. Central Command this week opened a new combined air defense post with Bahraini forces, highlighting its relationship with a longtime ally and shoring up regional security amid ongoing tensions between Iran and Israel.

CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper attended the ribbon cutting on Monday along with Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the prime minister and deputy supreme commander of the Bahraini armed forces.

Bahrain hosts the largest U.S. Navy base in the region and serves as headquarters for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and the 5th Fleet.

The new combined air defense facility will be hosted at Ras Al Bar camp, CENTCOM said in a statement Monday, adding that it will be staffed by forces from the U.S. and Bahrain and serve as a hub for integrated air defense planning, coordination and operations.

Months of hostility between Israel and Iran have put Middle Eastern countries on high alert and underscored the importance of protecting U.S. troops in the region.

Bahrain briefly came under threat of fire over the summer during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, with air raid sirens sounding throughout the island and officials urging residents to seek shelter.

Although Bahrain was not hit during the conflict, Iran launched a dozen missiles at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar that day, most of which were shot down by air defenses.

No U.S. personnel stationed in the country were injured, but the Pentagon later confirmed that one of the missiles had struck a geodesic dome housing secure communications.

Qatar came under further attack this fall when Israel fired on Hamas officials in Doha, the capital, with little to no warning to Qatari or U.S. officials.

Following the attack, Washington moved quickly to shore up relations with the nation, which hosts 10,000 U.S. troops and the largest American base in the Middle East.

President Donald Trump shortly afterward signed an executive order vowing to use all measures to defend Qatar, and last month Cooper attended the opening of another bilateral combined air defense post in Qatar.

The opening of the air defense post came as the State Department approved the potential sale of $455 million worth of F-16 sustainment equipment to Bahrain.

A statement from the agency called Bahrain an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East.
An undated photo of an E-7A Wedgetail taken in Srinagar, India. (Boeing/TNS)



SEATTLE (Tribune News Service)  Boeings E-7 Wedgetail is caught in a political tug-of-war.

The twin-engine airborne early warning and control aircraft is built on the Renton, Washington-made 737 NG airframe and then outfitted with radar antenna, sensors and other network connectivity equipment to turn it into a military plane.

As Boeing bills it, the Wedgetail can scan the skies and enable integration and communication with equipment on the ground and in the air.

It is already operating with the U.K., Australia, Korea and Turkey, and was set to replace the U.S. Air Forces aging E-3 Sentry, another Boeing-built product. But in June, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth canceled the contract for up to 26 Wedgetails, citing program delays and cost overruns. That prompted another cancellation by the U.S.s European allies this month, leaving the program with few future customers.

Then came Congress.

In the November continuing resolution to reopen the government after a 43-day shutdown, Congress allocated about $400 million to keep the E-7 program going. The U.S. Air Force agreed to pay $2.6 billion for the first two E-7 aircraft in a deal finalized in 2024.

The bill included $200 million for research, development and prototyping activities, and continued roughly another $200 million in funding from the prior year, said Greg Williams, from the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group that tracks federal dollars.

Thats not an unusual path for defense programs, four analysts told The Seattle Times. Lawmakers can choose to allocate funds for a program even if the Defense Department says it no longer wants those machines.

Its also not a guarantee of the future of the E-7. Just like the continuing resolution is a stopgap measure to reopen the government before negotiating a final budget, Congress will reconsider future funding for the E-7 when it attempts to pass a defense budget for 2026.

The E-7 is a low volume program for Boeing, with yearly production discussions in the single digits, versus its 737 MAX, which Boeing is gearing up to produce at a rate of 42 per month. But the U.S. canceling its contract could still impact the company, said the analysts, who split on what to expect for the programs future.

Wayne Shaw, the director of aerospace and defense for consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, said he understood why Congress would keep the E-7 going, seeing the benefit in replacing the Boeing 707-based E-3 with a newer model. But, he continued, since the DOD tried to kill it, I cant see how it will survive.

William Alderman, founding partner of aerospace and defense financial firm Alderman & Co., thought the opposite. The continuing resolution may have only allocated funds for research and development, but to him, the funding vehicle doesnt matter.

Theres money to build airplanes, thats the point, Alderman said. In the big picture, does this mean theyre going to make more Wedgetails? Yes.

Even Steve Parker, the CEO of Boeings defense unit, isnt sure what comes next.

Well see what gets funded and what comes through and well go from there, he told reporters at the Dubai Airshow in November. Certainly, were ready to go with the first two rapid prototype aircrafts.

Sitting ducks in the sky

Boeing has already completed two E-7 prototypes for the Air Force. Those planes have moved through the entire Renton production line, a spokesperson confirmed, but its not clear where they are now.

The planes were slated to move to the U.K. to be converted from the commercial airframe to the defense variant.

The U.S. Air Force placed its order for up to 26 E-7 Wedgetails in 2023 and finalized a $2.6 billion agreement with Boeing for the first two aircraft the following year. But Hegseth canceled that contract in June, citing delays and a cost increase of $588 million to $724 million per aircraft, according to defense trade publications.

Hegseth also wanted to switch the Defense Departments focus from airborne early warning and control to space-based systems.

In other words, the Pentagon was saying the E-3 and soon-to-be E-7s are sitting ducks in the sky, said Todd Harrison, a military expert with the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. Theyre big, nonstealthy aircraft and theyre blasting out radar in all directions.

The planes are meant to offer target tracking and command-and-control capabilities, to allow military forces to be first to detect, first to engage, Boeing said in a news release announcing the Air Forces 2024 contract.

Congress seems to agree that the U.S. should move some military systems to space, and has allocated funds to do so, Harrison continued. But it also wants to hedge its bets by keeping the E-7 around, in case that new space technology takes a long time to develop.

I think theyre both right, Harrison said. We can do this mission much better, much more effectively in space, and we should make this transition as fast as we can. But Im not confident that the Space Force can pull it off (quickly.) So I think we may need to buy some E-7s in the interim.

Boeing has a space division, but it doesnt appear to be competing for the space-based defense systems that Hegseth envisions, Harrison said.

In Dubai, Boeings head of defense Parker said he believes the decision to cut the E-7 program was not about the budget. Hegseth has been pretty candid about his concerns with the airborne technology, he continued.

Theres consternation within the U.S. government about airborne versus space systems, Parker said. Our view, Boeings view, is we should need both.

With NATOs cancellation of the E-7 program this month, Boeings future market for the E-7 is even smaller, and its future profitability even more out of reach, said Shaw, from Frost & Sullivan.

They need the E-7 to be built in volume so its not as costly, he said.

Sympathy in Congress

Shaw, who believes Hegseths June decision was the final blow to the E-7s future in the U.S. Air Force, sees a scenario where Boeing has to keep the program on life support.

Because other countries already have it in their fleet, Boeing will have to keep up maintenance and spare parts for those planes, Shaw said, even if the E-7 never flies with the U.S. or other NATO countries.

Alderman saw a more optimistic future. He believes Hegseths cancellation was a warning message  You really messed up this program, Boeing,  while the $400 million in the continuing resolution is an olive branch.

All its doing is saying to Boeing, You have a chance of salvaging yourself, you better show us the road to success,  Alderman said.

Harrison didnt believe the Defense Department meant to punish Boeing. It just had to make a budget call in his view. But Congress decision to fund the program in a relatively sparse, 31-page bill to hurriedly reopen the government does indicate something.

The fact that Boeing got this inserted into that  continuing resolution is pretty impressive, he said. I think its an indicator that Boeing has got a lot of sympathetic ears in Congress on this issue.

2025 The Seattle Times.

Visit seattletimes.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Photo: https://eurosolidarity.org/2025/12/02

The European Solidarity faction has continued to block the rostrum of the Verkhovna Rada.

As reported by the correspondent of the Interfax-Ukraine agency, after the speeches of the faction representatives at the plenary session on Tuesday, the European Solidarity faction blocked the parliament's rostrum.

After clarifying with the leader of the political force Petro Poroshenko whether European Solidarity was blocking the rostrum, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk said: "Dear colleagues, I inform you that today we (on the agenda - IF-U) had a number of very important laws... Including issues related to the translation of the Convention (European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages - IF-U), where the Russian language had to be removed. Today, the faction you see is blocking the consideration of this law I am forced to declare a recess in our plenary session."

As noted on the Eurosolidarity website on Tuesday, Poroshenko, during his speech from the parliament rostrum, called for the release of all those involved in the corruption Mindichgate, the formation of a new coalition of patriotic forces, and a reboot of the government. He also called for the dismissal of the head of the State Financial Monitoring Service, Philip Pronin. "And an urgent meeting with Zelenskyy immediately upon his return, bot to form a coalition - it is the parliament that should form it - but in order to jointly develop a strategy for the peace process," Poroshenko said.

As reported, European Solidarity blocked the rostrum on November 18 and 19, after which Stefanchuk announced a break in the plenary session and announced consultations in connection with the situation that developed in the legislative body after the NABU published tapes about corruption in the state-owned Energoatom enterprise.

European Solidarity has demanded the dissolution of the current coalition, the resignation of the government of Yulia Svyrydenko.
Three U.S. Air Force F-35 Lightning II jets assigned to Luke Air Force Base fly in formation while waiting for in-flight refueling over Oregon, April 30, 2025. (Ryan Gomez/U.S. Air Force)



(Tribune News Service)  Jet-engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney has been awarded an approximately $1.6 billion contract from the U.S. government for additional work on F-35 fighter jets.

Pratts new work on F135 engines, which power the F-35s, is expected to be completed next November, according to a contract summary posted on the Department of Defenses website. It will be carried out across multiple states and countries, with the largest portion, equal to 40%, set to be done at Pratts facility in East Hartford, according to the contract summary. Pratt & Whitney officials confirmed the new deal.

Investing in F135 sustainment keeps allied forces ready to meet current and future threats, Kinda Eastwood, vice president of F135 Sustainment at Pratt & Whitney, said in a written statement. F-35 operators worldwide depend on the F135 for the power and performance their missions demand, and this award helps us maintain readiness rates that enable the warfighter to accomplish their critical missions.

According to the contract summary, the work will include recurring sustainment support, program management, financial and administrative activities, propulsion integration, replenishment spare part buys, engineering support, material management, configuration management, product management support, software sustainment, security management, Joint Technical Data updates, support equipment management, depot level maintenance and repair for all fielded propulsion systems at the F-35 production sites and operational locations, as well as training for propulsion systems used in F-35 air vehicle.

Pratt has finalized a number of other F135 deals with the federal government in the past couple of years, including a $2.9 billion contract modification announced in August.

As a sign of the enduring demand for F-35s, President Donald Trump announced last month an agreement to sell a number of the fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. While Saudi Arabia is one of the closest allies of the U.S. in the Middle East, the deal has raised a number of concerns, with critics including U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Connecticut.

If this deal is completed, Riyadh will gain full access to some of the United States most prized, cutting-edge military technology, Courtney wrote in a letter, with two other Democratic representatives, Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois and Donald Norcross of New Jersey, to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Given Saudi Arabias deepening military ties with the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), such a sale has the potential to severely jeopardize U.S. national security if Riyadh were to share any of the F-35s technology or operational know-how with Beijing.

Among other recent agreements, Pratt has secured an approximately $1.1 billion contract with the defense department for more work on F100 engines, which power F-15 and F-16 fighter jets.

Pratt & Whitneys deliveries of F135 engines, as well as GTF models for commercial aircraft, were affected by the three-week strike in May of the companys approximately 3,000 Connecticut-based machinists. The work stoppage was resolved when the machinists approved a new four-year contract.

Approximately 10,800 employees are based at Pratt & Whitneys plants, with the company perennially ranking among the largest private-sector employers in Connecticut.

 2025 Journal Inquirer, Manchester, Conn.

Visit www.journalinquirer.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt briefs the press at the White House in Washington, Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. (Evan Vucci/AP)



WASHINGTON  The White House said on Monday that a Navy admiral ordered the second strike on an alleged drug boat that killed 11 people in September.

Secretary [Pete] Hegseth authorized Adm. [Frank M.] Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes. Adm. 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 was eliminated, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

The Washington Post reported Friday that Hegseth issued a verbal order in September to strike an alleged drug vessel a second time to kill any survivors. Hegseth and Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell referred to the reporting as fabricated and fake news.

President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he would not have wanted a second strike on the boat and that Hegseth denied giving such an order.

Air Force Gen. Dan C. Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and U.S. Adm. Frank Mitch Bradley, the incoming commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, during a change of command ceremony in Tampa, Fla. on Oct. 3, 2025. (Cutler Brice/U.S. Special Operations Command)



Bradley became the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command on Oct. 3. Bradley had previously been the commander of Joint Special Operations Command since 2022 and is a Navy SEAL officer who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

Adm. Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support, Hegseth said Monday in a post on X. I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made  on the Sept. 2 mission and all others since.

The U.S. conducted its first strike on an alleged drug boat Sept. 2, killing 11 people. The U.S. has conducted 21 known strikes and killed 83 people in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility.

The U.S. administration says the strikes in the Caribbean are aimed at drug cartels, some of which it claims are controlled by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Trump also is weighing whether to carry out strikes on the Venezuelan mainland.

Trump was scheduled to meet with his national security team Monday as bipartisan scrutiny mounted.

Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had a call during the weekend with leaders on the Senate and House Armed Service Committees to discuss operations in SOUTHCOM.

During the call, the chairman reiterated his trust and confidence in the experienced commanders at every echelon and his pride in those serving in the Joint Force, his office said in a statement Monday.

Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona, participated last month in a video alongside five other Democratic lawmakers who served in the military and intelligence community urging service members to remember their oaths to the Constitution and that they could resist unlawful orders.

The Pentagon announced last week it launched a review of serious allegations of misconduct against Kelly, a retired Navy captain. The Pentagon said it initiated a thorough review of the allegations against Kelly to determine further actions, which could include a recall to active-duty service for court-martial proceedings or administrative measures.

The House and Senate Armed Services Committees have opened investigations into U.S. military strikes.

This rises to the level of a war crime if its true, said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.

Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, when asked about a follow-up strike aimed at people no longer able to fight, said Congress does not have information that happened.

Obviously, if that occurred, that would be very serious, and I agree that that would be an illegal act, Turner said.

Shortly after taking office, President Donald Trump designated several drug cartels as terrorist organizations, including Venezuelas Tren de Aragua. His administration has asserted that the U.S. is in an armed conflict with cartels and will treat their members as unlawful combatants.

Adm. Alvin Holsey, the head of U.S. Southern Command, announced in October he would retire by the end of 2025, less than a year into his tenure. Holsey will relinquish command Dec. 12, and Air Force Lt. Gen. Evan Pettus will take over, SOUTHCOM said in a statement.

Contributing: The Associated Press
The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service has published another propaganda leak: this time, about France's alleged plans to engage private military companies in "direct participation" in the war against Russia, according to the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation.

"The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) cites a French government decree and claims it supposedly allows private military companies (PMCs) to participate in combat operations on Ukraine's side. Propagandists claim that Ukraine needs representatives of French PMCs to work in mobile air defense groups and operate weapons provided by France. The purpose of such statements is obvious: the Kremlin is trying to shift responsibility for the continuation of the war onto European countries, creating the impression that they are 'pushing' Ukraine into fighting," the Telegram channel reported.

It is noted that the SVR has repeatedly issued similar fakes, while in reality the only reason for the protracted war is Russian aggression and the Kremlin's refusal to cease hostilities.

"The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service is also trying to maintain a narrative that benefits the regime: that Russia is fighting not Ukraine, but the 'entire collective West.' This allows it to explain the war's length and losses to domestic audiences, creating the illusion that Russia is confronting 'superior forces,'" the Center for Countering Disinformation noted.
Juan Cano Malaga Tuesday, 2 December 2025, 11:46 Share

Three young men between the ages of 18 and 19 have been provisionally remanded in custody over reportedly gang-raping an 18-year-old girl in an area of wasteland outside a club in Malaga city. According to the judge's provisional ruling, two of the defendants have police records for sexual assault dating from when they were still underage. In one case, the suspect was so young that he could not be held criminally responsible.

The incident reportedly happened in the early hours of 30 October. The victim had gone to the city with her sister to celebrate the birthday of a friend. They were at the Rosse VIP Club in the San Rafael industrial area, where she met one of the young men.

According to her account, they went outside the establishment and started kissing (consensually) in the area used as a car park. It was around 4am. That was when the other two suspects appeared out of nowhere.

The woman told the police that the three men had taken turns touching her in all sorts of ways and gang-raped her in the span of half an hour. They were holding her arms to stop her from putting up resistance.

After reporting the incident with her sister, the young woman underwent medical examination at the hospital, where injuries consistent with her account were found.

The National Police opened an investigation to identify the perpetrators. Three weeks later, they arrested the three men now in custody.

Court hearing

The three suspects were brought before the court of violence against women in Malaga, where they denied the facts, at all times referring to the relations as consensual. Their lawyers requested their release.

The private and the public prosecution requested their imprisonment, given the credibility of the young woman's account and its consistency with the medical examination. The magistrate also considered the victim's account to be "convincing".

In addition, the provisional ruling includes previous records of sexual assault reportedly committed by two of the defendants when they were still underage. According to police records, one of them was investigated for such an offence when he was 13. He was neither arrested nor charged because he had not yet reached the age of criminal responsibility. His brother was also reported for the same incident. The victim was the girlfriend of one of them.

According to various sources, the other suspect with a record was also investigated in the past, alongside two friends of his, over a suspected group assault.

SUR contacted lawyer Claudio Buenestado, who is representing one of the defendants. He declined to comment on the investigation currently under way, although he did clarify that the records referred to are police, not judicial, meaning the previous cases may have been closed or even resulted in acquittals.
Maria Jose Diaz Alcala / Alba Martin Campos Tuesday, 2 December 2025, 15:26 | Updated 20:15h. Share

Malaga province paints a gruesome picture of gender-based violence this year: six women have been killed, reportedly by their partners or ex-partners, making this the most tragic year in the province since records began in 2003. Malaga also tops the national statistics, surpassing even Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, as reflected in data published by the government delegation against gender-based violence, part of the Ministry of Equality.

With a month to go before the end of the year, the annual balance sheet reviews the 40 deaths nationwide (nine fewer than last year and 30 fewer than 22 years ago) and the 13 in Andalucia (three more than last year and the same figure as in 2003). Indicators such as the ages and nationalities of both the victims and their attackers, the type of relationship they had, whether they lived together and whether they had children together continue to show that there is no recurrent profile. This scourge strikes regardless of origin or class, revealing the map of structural violence that, although hidden at first, always leaves a trace.

The women murdered in Malaga province from January to December 2025 are Catalina, Pilar, Zunilda, Eva, Maria Victoria and Concha. Their abusers took their lives by beating, stabbing or suffocating them. June and November were the worst months. Five of the victims lived with their attackers and three were married to them. Only two had reported them for abuse. Catalina (Lina) did so 20 days before her death, but the court denied her a restraining order because the VioGen algorithm that assesses the risk of gender-based violence determined "medium risk" in her case. She was the only fatal victim who had three underage children, who have now been left orphaned.

Her ex-partner murdered her at her home in Benalmadena on 9 February. On 20 January, Lina spoke to the police despite her hesitations. She said that her ex-partner had raised his hand to her, threatened and hit her on other occasions. With no measures in place to protect her, her abuser entered her house hooded and assaulted her after a brief argument. Although her children ran to her aid, he managed to strangle her. He then set fire to the property to make it look like an accident.

Four months later, around mid-morning on 7 June, a security guard at a hotel in Marbella was making her rounds near the accommodation when she noticed a body in a vacant lot in the Las Chapas district, behind a petrol station. The body belonged to 53-year-old Pilar. She had multiple injuries to her face. Investigators focused their attention on her partner, a 47-year-old Bulgarian citizen, who was finally arrested after turning himself in at the National Police station.

That same month, 43-year-old Zunilda's mother began to worry after not hearing from her daughter for several days. The woman, who had travelled from her native Colombia to Spain to spend a few days in Fuengirola, had previously told her family that her partner was "an aggressive man" and she was going to seek "a divorce" due to the abuse he was putting her through. Her friends in Fuengirola went to the National Police in Torremolinos. On 19 June, the police found her dead in the flat she and her husband were renting, in the Higueron West residential complex. The main hypothesis is that he killed her with a hammer and then took his own life. He was found with stab wounds in that same flat.

On 3 September, 83-year-old Eva was also murdered at her home in Marbella. As in the previous cases, the suspect was her husband, who reportedly stabbed her with a 20-centimetre machete at least five times. The 84-year-old man was arrested by the National Police. The suspect died in the Alhaurin de la Torre prison on 8 November.

The last two gender-based crimes took place in the space of just four days. On Saturday, 22 November, 60-year-old Rincon de la Victoria resident Maria Victoria was stabbed to death by her ex-husband, who is currently in provisional detention. According to witness statements taken in the area that day, the couple were separated, but she visited him because she was concerned about his condition, as he was undergoing psychiatric treatment. On Wednesday, 26 November, the Guardia Civil found the body of Concha, 25, in a house in Campillos. According to her friends, after breaking up with her boyfriend the previous weekend, he had refused to leave the house. He turned himself in at the police station in Martos, in the province of Jaen.

The province has recorded 63 gender-based crimes in the last 23 years. According to statistics, January has been the month with the highest incidence of crimes within this category: eight women have been killed by their partners or ex-partners over the years, two of them in January 2006. July follows closely behind, with seven recorded deaths, two of them in 2014. In terms of age, 18 of the women killed by gender-based violence were in the 41-50 age group; ten in the 51-60 group; and another ten were between 71 and 80; the remaining 18 were between 21 and 40 years old.

By nationality, 63.49% of the women were Spanish, similarly to the percentage of perpetrators of Spanish nationality (61.9%). The data from the Ministry of Equality shows that 23.81% of the men who killed their partners or ex-partners took their own lives after that, while a further 14.29% attempted to do so.

Although 15.87% of murdered women had already left their abusers and 30.16% did not live with them, this detail did not save their lives. Despite separations, the abuse would continue with shouting, control and insults. At least 14 of the victims (22.22%) tried to break the silence and report their abusers. The majority (68.25%), however, were unable to do so. There is no record that shows whether the remaining 9.52% had gone to a police station or a court.

The other major victims of gender-based violence in its most brutal form are the orphaned children of victims. Their mothers' (and sometimes fathers') deaths often leave them without a family and a long road ahead. Their studies are disrupted and they often need financial assistance. A total of 23 children have been orphaned by such crimes since 2003, most of them since 2022.

Almost half of all gender-based crimes in Andalucia this year happened in the province of Malaga. While the region as a whole has identical figures to those of 2003, the province of Malaga stands out with an upward trend over the last four years, making it the worst-affected area in 2025.

A different trend can be traced in the country as a whole. Spain has recorded the lowest figure in the entire historical series, with a peak reached in 2008 (76 victims). Although there have been some ups and downs, the national trend is marked by stabilisation and even a decrease in fatalities.
Pilar Martinez Malaga Tuesday, 2 December 2025, 18:24 Share

Malaga is among the top ten most popular travel destinations in the world in 2025, according to the annual trends report published by leading travel platform eDreams.

The 'A year in travel' study analyses the behaviour of millions of customers globally. This year's report highlights the popularity of Spain, which appears on the list with four cities, headed by Barcelona. The capital of the Catalan region is, in fact, the most popular destination in the world in 2025, followed by Paris, Palma de Mallorca, Madrid, London, Rome, Istanbul, Lisbon, Amsterdam and, in tenth place, Malaga.

"Spain continues triumphing among European tourists, with four cities in the list of the ten most popular destinations in 2025 and French tourists leading visits, followed by Germans and Italians," the eDream report says.

The analysis also reveals that the popularity of destinations in South America is growing, cementing its position as the emerging destination of the year. Rio de Janeiro leads with a spectacular 164% increase in bookings compared to 2024, followed by Santiago de Chile (102%) and Lima (54%).

As for the preferences of Spanish tourists, they have regained an interest in Asia and in medium-size cities, such as Bordeaux (+123%), Venice (71%), Malta (37%) and a strong upturn in Tokyo, with an increase of 60%.

The flexibility when it comes to bookings, following the generalisation of the absence of penalties for cancellations since the pandemic, consolidates Spaniards' tendency to plan their trips less in advance. In fact, according to eDreams, 52% of the bookings attributed to Spaniards are made less than one month in advance, while 21% book their trips one and two months before the departure date.

Trends

Overall, however, Spaniards prefer large cities and destinations that offer beach and sun. Paris maintains its leadership as the favourite destination for Spaniards in 2025, followed by Palma de Mallorca, Rome, Barcelona and Tenerife. "Looking ahead to 2026, Paris, London and Rome reign supreme among Spanish bookings," the report states.

According to CEO of eDreams Odigeo Dana Dunne, "2025 has been a pivotal year for travel, marked by a growing interest in more authentic, flexible and technology-powered experiences. Travellers are no longer simply booking holidays, they are designing itineraries that reflect their values, tastes and personal development desires. From the rise of transformative, wellness-focused travel to the growing popularity of culturally-charged city breaks, we see a clear shift towards a more personal way of travelling".

The study also states that "Artificial intelligence (AI) keeps revolutionising the way we travel". "Our proprietary technology is poised to deliver hyper-personalised experiences to our 7.5 million Prime members. Whether it's real-time itinerary updates, personalised recommendations or agile bookings, our six billion daily predictions allow travellers to take control of their journeys like never before," the study highlights.

AI is transforming the purpose of travel, driving self-care and volunteer experiences, wellness tourism and local regeneration, resonating deeply with young people. "96% percent of them rely on AI tools to plan their trips and 54% demand flexibility without penalties."
Almudena Nogues Malaga Tuesday, 2 December 2025, 17:43 Share

Unstable conditions have a total of 13 Spanish provinces on alert this Tuesday, with five in the north of the country with an active amber warning for rough seas. State meteorological agency Aemet adds Malaga to these provinces in its forecast for Thursday, 4 December. For the moment, Aemet has activated the yellow warning for rough seas from 6pm, with the forecast of westerly winds of 50 to 60 km/h (force 7) and waves of two to three metres.

"At the beginning of December, the weather will be dictated by a marked Atlantic circulation from the west, which will mean that fronts will continue arriving, which, in addition to rain and snowfall, will cause strong winds in some areas and also ups and downs in temperatures, with a cold and unpleasant atmosphere predominating over a wide area of the country," Meteored weather expert Jose Miguel Vinas says.

Aemet forecasts 100% possibility of showers in Malaga city on Wednesday morning

According to SUR's weather expert Jose Luis Escudero, Malaga "will be visited by another cold front that will leave precipitation in more parts of the province" early on Wednesday morning. Light showers along the coast are not ruled out. "Sierra de las Nieves and especially Sierra Tejeda are likely to receive snow from 1,500 metres above sea level," Escudero says.

As for Malaga city, there is 100% chance of rainfall between midnight and 6am. Temperatures will also drop. "Maximum temperatures will fall throughout the province of Malaga. In addition, the wind will make the thermal sensation even colder," Escudero warns. According to Aemet, Malaga city can expect a minimum of 12C and a maximum of 16C. This drop will be more pronounced in inland municipalities such as Ronda and Antequera, where temperatures will drop to between 4C and 9-10C.
Josu Garcia Tuesday, 2 December 2025, 11:55 Share

A German plane on its way to Hamburg from Gran Canaria with almost 200 passengers on board was forced to land in Bilbao on Sunday night, after the sudden death of one of the passengers.

The incident occurred mid-flight on 30 November. An elderly man is said to have suffered a heart attack, which prompted the pilot to head for Loiu. However, when the medical staff entered the plane, the man had already died, as airport and health sources told the media.

The incident occurred around 8pm. The plane, an Airbus 320 of the Eurowings company (a subsidiary of Lufthansa), had departed from Gran Canaria at 4.21pm. The flight was going smoothly until the passenger, who was travelling with his daughter, felt unwell.

The crew and some of the passengers tried to help the man, while the pilot followed the protocol and launched an emergency landing operation. The route between the Canary Islands and northern Germany passes relatively close to Bilbao, through Gipuzkoa, Navarre, Cantabria or the border with Asturias. This time, the pilot opted to divert to Vizcaya.

He alerted the tower and the controllers immediately activated the protocol followed in these cases, which allows an ambulance to access the runway to attend to the emergency. A helicopter was also mobilised, although it was not necessary in the end due to the tragic outcome. The controllers gave priority to the affected aircraft over other flights and shortened its route as much as possible so that it could land faster.

The plane landed at exactly 8pm. Although the medical staff acted quickly and performed a cardiac massage, they could not save the man's life.

The flight was disembarked. Time restraints did not allow for it to continue on its way to Hamburg, as the German airport closes before midnight. The responsible parties started looking for accommodation for the almost 200 passengers to spend the night.

Precedent in March

This is not the first time that such an incident takes place in 2025. In March, around 150 British tourists flying between London and Gibraltar were forced to divert to Bilbao Airport when one of the passengers died of natural causes. He was accompanied by a private doctor due to the state of his health. The pilot tried to seek help in Loiu but it was too late. On that occasion too, the passengers spent the night in Vizcaya.
David Guadilla Tuesday, 2 December 2025, 18:09 Share

In an unprecedented ceremonial act, marked by profound historical significance and intended to symbolise coexistence and remembrance in the face of barbarity, King Felipe VI, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Imanol Pradales joined together on Friday to commemorate all those who died as a result of the fascist bombing of Gernika in 1937. They did so right where so many of the fallen lie, in the Zallo cemetery in this Basque town, very close to where the bombs fell. The ceremony was held in silence, with great solemnity and accompanied by the tolling of church bells.

The day carried enormous symbolic weight. Never before had a German president visited Gernika. Nor had a King ever taken part in an act of atonement for the victims of the barbarous act committed by the German Condor Legion and the Italian air force in support of Franco's troops in the midst of the Spanish Civil War. Then, last Friday, 88 years later, the image of two heads of state and a Lehendakari (president of the Basque government) laying a joint wreath in memory of the 100 or so who died on that 26 April marked a major turning point.

Steinmeier, accompanied by his wife, could not hide his emotion at a simple yet poignant tribute, deeply marked by the memory of what happened. Under strict protocol and heavy security, King Felipe, Steinmeier and Pradales led the solemn homage that lasted nearly half an hour, during which the Bilbao Choir performed Pablo Sorozabal's 'Gernika'. Five peals of bells were rung and two officials from the German embassy laid a wreath adorned with the German flag. Before the ceremony began, all the dignitaries, including the King, greeted Crucita Etxabe and Mari Carmen Agirre, two survivors of the attack who were just children back in 1937.

King Felipe VI's visit to the Basque parliament (Casa de Juntas) comes at a time when the Lehendakari himself has increased pressure on the Spanish government to apologise for the bombing, a demand echoed by the Basque National Party (PNV) and EH Bildu, which has called for a protest against the King's presence in the town. This demand is not shared by either the Socialist party or central government, as they maintain the attack was perpetrated by coup plotters, not by the legitimate government of the Spanish Republic, of which democratic governments are the rightful heirs.

But the image that everyone was intending to portray on Friday was one of unity. A profound solemnity and respectful silence filled the cemetery where some of the victims of that day in 1937 are laid to rest. In addition to the King, the German president and the Lehendakari, other dignitaries and representatives attended from the provincial councils and political parties from across the region, delegates from central government, the mayor of Gernika, president of the Basque parliament and the Secretary of State for the EU. These officials and more were joined by pupils from Gernika's secondary school and the German School to ensure that the younger generations do not forget the massacre.

The ceremony followed on from the formal dinner held on Wednesday at the Royal Palace, where the King thanked Steinmeier for his visit to Gernika and described the bombing as "a reminder of the horror to which totalitarianism leads". The German president's presence complements the step taken in 1997 by his predecessor, Roman Herzog, who sent a letter to the residents of Gernika in which he asked for forgiveness on behalf of all Germany for what had happened half a century earlier.

Hours before the ceremony at the cemetery, Steinmeier was received by Pradales at Ajuria Enea Palace and then all three figureheads travelled to the Peace Museum in Gernika to speak with several survivors. In the afternoon, the German leader continued his Basque travels, heading to Bilbao to visit the Guggenheim Museum.
Lucia Palacios Madrid Tuesday, 2 December 2025, 12:00 Share

Spain is ageing at a rapid pace, faster than any other country apart from Korea and Italy. Starting from this year, the country will experience a sharp drop in skilled workers for a decade, if the number of migrants does not increase. Neither young Spanish nationals, nor the current number of foreigners can make up for the wave of retirees of the baby boom generation. The lack of generational replacement will leave a massive gap in the labour market, with a peak over the next decade.

Only the major cities such as Madrid and Barcelona will manage to fill the jobs that will be left vacant by Spain's elders. Most other regions, however, will experience a labour shortage in skilled professions, as BBVA Research and Fundacion de Estudios de Economia Aplicada (Fedea) warned on Monday at the presentation of their new quarterly report on the labour market.

The map of ageing Spain does not correspond to the map of migrant Spain. That is to say, the regions with the greatest number of elderly people are not those with the greatest weight of immigration. Quite the opposite: "There is no real compensation. There is no possibility of replacement in the older regions (such as Asturias, Cantabria, Castilla y Leon...). Immigration has not yet compensated for the problem," associate researcher Florentino Felgueroso said.

40% of university professors are over 55 years of age and only 10% are non-native speakers

The study shows an insufficient replacement rate in the most qualified profiles. The number of active Spaniards under 30 with higher education for every active 55+ Spaniard with higher education has fallen from 3.5 on average between 2000 and 2010 to one between 2018 and 2024. "We are going to have to replace our doctors, economists, lawyers, no matter how much artificial intelligence there is," Felgueroso stated, while advocating better working conditions to attract foreign talent.

Half of the foreigners are in senior jobs, while young Spaniards opt for newer jobs

There are not enough immigrants arriving to fill jobs where there are gaps. Those who do come go to regions with a younger population rather than to areas with greater demographic pressure. The immigrants already in the country are getting older just as the new arrivals are themselves older.

Then, there is the fact that there are fewer and fewer young people in Spain due to the low birth rate. In addition, they choose newer and, so to say, 'modern' jobs, unlike retirees that work in more traditional fields that have existed for decades. Many young people also choose to migrate within the country, moving to more populated regions, where generational replacement is not as critical.

Highly ageing sectors

Although a good part of immigrants (half of the total) enter the labour market in fields with a high number of retirees, that cannot make up for the lack of young Spaniards that choose those jobs.

What are the fastest ageing sectors in Spain? One is self-employed commerce, which lacks both young people and immigrants. Another example is the academic field, where 40% of university professors are over 55 years of age and only 10% are non-native speakers. At the same time, the Church benefits from a 50% replacement rate thanks to foreign priests.
Brad Pitt and George Clooney attend the "Wolfs" photocall during the 81st Venice International Film Festival at Palazzo del Casino on September 1, 2024 in Venice, Italy. (Photo by JB Lacroix/FilmMagic) FilmMagic

George Clooney recently opened up about losing a career-defining role to his longtime friend Brad Pitt, admitting the rejection still stings decades later.

The actor revealed in a Nov. 29 interview with The Times that he was annoyed after failing to land the part of J.D., the charming drifter in Thelma & Louise. The 1991 film became a breakout moment for Pitt, launching his movie career.

I didnt watch Thelma & Louise for years because I was annoyed, Clooney said. At the time, the Gravity star saw the role as his potential big break. The part launched [Pitts] career in film. He was doing sitcoms and crap before, so when it was the thing that couldve launched me? F---! he told the publication.

While Pitts career took off after the movie, Clooney remained in television during the early 1990s, working on shows including ER, Baby Talk, and Bodies of Evidence.

Clooney eventually made peace with the casting decision. Of course, when I saw it, I was, like, well, it had to be that guy, he admitted. He also noted that Pitt continues to tease him about losing out on the role.

Geena Davis, who starred in the film, recalled a similar conversation during a 2016 interview with Good Morning America. She remembered sitting next to Clooney on a plane when he jokingly said, You know, I hate that Brad Pitt I hate him because he got that part in Thelma & Louise.

Clooney and Pitt became friends after working together on Oceans Eleven in 2001, and their fun chemistry on screen is just like how they are in real life. Theyve worked together many times since then, including the rest of the Oceans movies, the comedy Burn After Reading (2008), and Wolfs (2024).
Utica, N.Y. - A former New York state corrections officer who tried to cover up the fatal beating of an inmate has now been charged with sexually abusing a woman.

Joshua Bartlett, 49, of Utica, was arrested Monday after a months-long investigation, according to a news release from State Police spokesperson Trooper Jennifer Jiron.

The abuse happened September 2022, according to court records.

State police did not say where the abuse allegedly happened. Mid-State, where Bartlett used to work, is an all-male prison.

Bartlett was charged with three counts of first-degree sexual abuse, a felony, and three counts of forcible touching, a misdemeanor, Jiron said.

He is being held in Oneida County Jail on $100,000 cash bail, $300,000 bond or $900,000 partially secured bond.

Bartlett already faces a two-year prison sentence for participating in the cover-up of the fatal beating of Messiah Nantwi inside the Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy.

Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick confirmed the man charged in the abuse case is the guard in the Nantwi case.

Fitzpatrick said he will speak to Bartletts attorney about whether the new arrest could affect his previous plea agreement.

In the fatal beating, Bartlett pleaded guilty to felony hindering prosecution and falsifying business records and agreed to be a cooperating witness against his fellow former corrections officers.
Waddington, N.Y.  A North Country man attacked his wife last weekend with a hammer and a knife before killing himself, troopers said.

The man, Paul McGrath, attacked his wife, Yvonne, while she was in bed in their home in St. Lawrence County, according to a news release Monday from Trooper Brandi Ashley, a spokesperson for the State Police.

Yvonne, 66, was able to escape and drove away in a Buick Enclave, Ashley said. She later died after the SUV went off the road and into a fence.

Troopers attempted Sunday to notify Yvonnes next of kin of her death, Ashley said. They found Paul, 70, dead inside the family home in the town of Waddington, about an hour and a half northeast of Watertown.

An autopsy performed Monday showed Yvonnes cause of death was a large incised wound to the neck with hemorrhage, severe skull fractures and brain injuries due to sharp force and severe blunt force injuries. Her death was ruled a homicide.
A meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Irish Prime Minister Michail Martin has begun in Dublin.

This was reported from the broadcast conducted by the Youtube channel of the Office of the President.

Before the meeting, the leaders shook hands.

As reported, Martin previously met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and First Lady Olena Zelenska in Dublin during their official visit to the country.

It is known that Zelenskyy will hold a bilateral meeting with Martin, together they will attend the opening ceremony of the Irish-Ukrainian Economic Forum, which "offers an opportunity to explore the potential for strengthening business ties, trade and investment ties between Ireland and Ukraine."
For generations of New Yorkers, the mention of Santas Workshop at the North Pole brings back memories of our youth when we all packed into our station wagons and headed to the Adirondacks to see Santa at his home. I did it with my siblings in the 1950s, my friends in the 1960s, my kids in the 1980s and my grandchildren in the 2000s.

This snow globe of nostalgia never disappoints.

Santas Workshop at the North Pole, an actual town in Upstate New York, has been charming kids and adults for more than 75 years. This historic park (many believe it to be the first theme park in America) is still a delightful magnet for children, and the park amenities (all Christmas-themed) have grown over the years.

Opening day, July 1, 1949, started out small with only 212 paid admissions. Today, thousands of guests regularly come through the turnstiles to enjoy everything Christmas, all year long. Historic, whimsical, original and beloved.

Santas Workshop at the North Pole is located at the base of Whiteface Mountain, just minutes from downtown Lake Placid. This fun family attraction is known as the oldest continuously run theme park in the country. In a fascinating piece of trivia, it is reported that none other than Walt Disney himself heard about this little fun park high up in the Adirondacks and actually sent his engineers here to learn how to create the same type of experience.

Todays celebrity superstars have nothing on Santa Claus, who is in residence here 12 months out of the year. The man with the bag makes special appearances throughout the park each day, much to the delight of the largely young children who make up a majority of attendees to the North Pole. There is a steady list of live events throughout the park each day. These include family activities, live musical performances, animal encounters, magic shows, comedy performances and parades.

A barn full of reindeer live at Santa's Workshop, an enchanting holiday theme park in North Pole, an actual town in the Adirondacks. Photo: Courtesy of Santa's Workshop Courtesy of Santa's Workshop

There are dozens of costumed characters to be found in all parts of the large park. And each of them, whether they are an elf, a snowman, an ice princess or a dancing bear, is ready to pose with your kids and grandkids for a keepsake photo.

On December 16, 1953, the United States Post Office officially gave the theme park its own designated post office, which has now handled over a million letters to and from Santa Claus via this location. Each piece of mail is postmarked North Pole.

There are many shops throughout the park to explore. These include the Blacksmith Shop, Bake Shop, Toy Shop, World of Christmas Store, Candy Shop and more. One of the most popular is the Hat Shop. Almost all kids stop by here to get a bright red-and-white Santa hat stitched with their very own name on it.

The park recognizes that the primary reason most children visit is to see Santa Claus. Therefore, each child can grab a little private time with Santa, whether it is in his house, his workshop, during a show or parade, or while he is ho-ho-hoing around the grounds of the park.

The park is all dressed up in its finest holiday style, with more than 1,000,000 blinking lights decorating the 30-acre North Pole complex. There are dozens of rides around every corner, all of them perfect for the younger set. A ride on the famous Santa Carousel is not to be missed. It features 20 carved reindeer, two colorful sleighs and a backdrop of Christmas music.

Most kids see their very first live reindeer at a visit to Santas Workshop at the North Pole. There are many of them. You can see them in their own barn, touch and pet them, or see them in the Santa parade. Live reindeer have been an integral part of the North Pole experience for more than 65 years. They are majestic animals. When kids visit them in the animal barn, they like to recite the names of each reindeer out loud: Dasher, Comet, Dancer, Vixen and on and on. Is Rudolph in the barn? Come on up and see.

There is no question that the No. 1 attraction at Santas Workshop (after Santa himself, of course) is the actual North Pole right in the center of Santas village. It is a 6-foot-tall pole covered with thick ice year-round (the magic of refrigeration). Kids love it, touch it, and get photographed by it. Everybody does it. So charming.

One of the great treats about visiting Santas Workshop at the North Pole is its actual location. It is just 10 miles from downtown Lake Placid, and it is located at the foot of the Whiteface Memorial Highway, the 5-mile road that leads you to the peak of the fifth-highest mountain in New York state. It is a guarantee that at 5,000 feet in height, the view on a clear day will leave you breathless.

Hey, is that Canada out there? And the answer is yes.

Santas Workshop is at 324 Whiteface Memorial Highway in North Pole, New York. The parks hours vary by season. To see the hours and the price of tickets for Santas Workshop, visit the parks website.
Upstate New Yorks Erie Canal offers countless ways to explore its scenic beauty and history. Whether you prefer to walk, bike, drive, or even pilot your own boat, theres something for every kind of traveler.

The entire 300-mile route is dotted with interesting things to see, places to visit, interesting restaurants to experience and museums of all kinds to explore. You might stumble upon a lively festival, spot a soaring bald eagle, or navigate one of the canals iconic locks.

Heres a list of 12 must-see stops along the canal, traveling east to west. All are within a mile of the water, perfect for docking your boat, parking your car, or taking a break from your walk.

Tip: Many canal attractions are seasonal, so check ahead before visiting.

An old building filled with canal information, staffed by friendly and knowledgeable personnel. For boaters on the canal, this will be stop No. 1. where theyll find a 1,000-foot free-floating dock. Waterford, incorporated in 1793, is just a 10-minute walk away. Visit in September for Canal Fest, the largest tugboat festival in the Northeast, drawing over 30,000 attendees.

The oldest house in the Mohawk Valley, Mabee Farm offers engaging tours of about an hour. Located on the Mohawk River, near the Rotterdam canal lock (E9) and along the bike/walking path. The large, modern building on the property houses the Schenectady County Historical Society.

2nd place Canal Communities category: "Mohawk Valley Gateway Overlook Bridge "(Amsterdam) by Frank Forte, Little Falls, NY

Explore Lock 11 in this historic village, which demonstrates the canals engineering, giving you the full scope of the canal and how it works. Dont miss the Mohawk Valley Gateway Overlook Pedestrian Bridge. Completed in 2016, the 500-foot walkway over the Mohawk River offers a unique vantage point to view the landscape of the river, mountains and the city of Amsterdam.

This is a wonderful place to visit or to recharge your batteries on your trek along the canal. Gems offers full comfort facilities, two great restaurants overlooking the waterway and one of the best gift shops in Upstate New York, offering regional items from maple syrup to toys to local history books. Canal tours depart from here all summer, including the popular 90-minute narrated ride along the canal and Lock 18s liquid elevator.

Sculpture and plaque commemorating the Erie Canal is across the street from the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse. David Lassman | dlassman@syracuse.com

The Erie Canal played a key role in the growth and development of the city of Syracuse. Dive into canal history at the original 1850 Weighlock Building, where tolls were assessed by weight. It is the last one of its kind.

This museum has a trove of historical artifacts, memorabilia, ephemera and video presentations. Get a selfie with the mule named Sal, immortalized in song and in bronze. Nearby restaurants, pubs, and cafes make it easy to grab a bite at this stop.

Note: West of Syracuse to Buffalo, canal communities are often located right on the waterway, with historical sites just steps from your path or dock.

600 cyclists stopped at Erie Canal Park in Camillus on July 16, the midway point of the 27th annual Cycle the Erie Canal bike ride. Cyclists camped overnight in Burnet Park before riding to Rome the next day. Steve Featherstone

Just 10 miles west of Syracuse, this park in Camillus preserves a seven-mile stretch of the canal. The Nine-Mile Creek Aqueduct, restored for $2 million, showcases 1841 stone and wood engineering with four 30-foot arches. Dont miss Sims General Store, a recreation of an actual dry goods and supply store which would have been found all along the canal when it was first opened for travel. Look for an amazing, huge mural depicting activity along the aqueduct.

Cute and historic village on the canal, many featuring colorful murals on their exterior walls depicting snapshots of the villages history. Must-see sites include the Ohmann Theatre, one of the oldest operating movie house in Upstate New York. and the Peppermint Museum. Lyons was once known as the Peppermint Capital of America for producing some of the best peppermint oils in the world. This is a busy canal community. A recent survey showed boaters from more than 30 states and four different countries stopped here during one summer.

Clock displays at the Hoffman Clock Museum in Newark, N.Y. A group of vintage tall case clocks at the left. David Lassman | syracuse.com David Lassman | syracuse.com

A charming village of about 9,000 with scenic public spaces along the canal. Many fine homes boast beautiful architecture. Be sure and visit the Newark Public Library which houses one of the great little unknown museums of Upstate New York. The Hoffman Clock Museum is a free museum showcasing dozens of antique clocks, big and small, that form the basis of a 30-year collection of Mr. Augustus Hoffman.

For canal enthusiasts, Lock 29 will take you up and down 16 feet in height. You can see old mechanical objects used during the locks history, as well as view an abandoned aqueduct and a change bridge. A change bridge is a rare sight these days. It was a bridge for the mules to utilize. After pulling a boat in one direction, the mules would be crossed over a change bridge, be re-hitched and then begin pulling the boats in a reverse direction.

Palmyra has many little shops, cafes and specialty stores. The Alling Coverlet Museum displays the largest collection of American handwoven coverlets. Palmyra is also recognized as the birthplace of the Mormon religion, marked throughout the village.

Fairport, New York, USA - June 15, 2022: Patrons enjoy dinner and drinks while dining outdoors as dusk falls over the quaint Village of Fairport, a historic town located on the Erie Canal popular with locals and tourists alike. Getty Images

Known as The Crown Jewel of the Erie Canal. Like so many of the other 100-plus communities along the Erie Canal, this village started as a company town inhabited by canal-diggers, builders and businessmen. Today, much of the commerce and social focus of the village centers around the canal. You can take boat rides, eat a fine meal, visit quaint shops and relax in a shady spot along the waterway. Fairport has a busy calendar of festivals, community events, parties and concerts, which make it one of the most popular canal towns of them all. In June, they host Canal Days, one of the largest outdoor festivals in the state. More than 200 artisans set up stands to sell their wares, many food and beverage tents pop up all over town, and top name entertainers from the nearby Rochester metro area come to entertain. Attendance can run over 100,000.

Historic canal town. Walk just five minutes up from the canal to visit the village and all its amenities. There are two things to put on your Medina itinerary. The Medina Railroad Museum is certainly a must, especially if you have young children in your traveling party. This museum holds one of the largest electric train layouts in the United States. Fascinating to watch all the trains traversing the tiny landscape. Located in the original Medina Train Depot. Also, here is one for the history books. In Medina, you will see a tunnel go under the Erie Canal. It is the only one of its kind, and it is fun to drive your car underneath the canal, as this is the only place from Albany to Buffalo where you can do so. The culvert was built in 1823 and was featured in Ripleys Believe It or Not.

Lockport Cave, a manmade passage carved out of rock in the late 19th century, was used to carry extra water from the Erie Canal to power businesses alongside the waterway. Today, it's a tourist attraction in Lockport, N.Y. with an underground boat ride. (Katrina Tulloch)

Perhaps the most popular spot along the whole distance of the Erie Canal. You could easily make a day-long visit to Lockport. Here you will see the famous Flight of Five. During the construction of the original Erie Canal, engineers were flummoxed when they reached Lockport and were faced with overcoming an 80-foot wall of limestone known as the Niagara Escarpment. They did what they had to do: They went over it. You can still see the five canal locks stacked one on top of the other, which carried boats up and over and on their way. You can take a tour of the underground caves along the lock site, too. There is also a museum here. This is one of the best places to walk up, over, around and down to see the Erie Canal up close and personal.
Costco is suing the administration of President Donald Trump to ensure it is eligible for refunds if the Supreme Court strikes down Trumps tariff policies, according to Bloomberg.

Dozens of companies have filed lawsuits since October challenging Trumps use of emergency powers to impose the tariffs, according to Bloomberg. Costco is one of the biggest corporate players to jump into the fight so far.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case challenging Trumps tariffs in November. Multiple justices asked skeptical questions, but the court has not said when it will rule, according to CNN.

With the lawsuit, Costco is attempting to make sure it will get refunds of tariff costs if the court rules against Trump. The suit did not say how much the tariffs have cost the company, according to Bloomberg.

Through the end of October, the federal government had collected $205 billion in tariffs. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said previously that the U.S. might have to refund half its tariff revenue if the court rules against the Trump administration.

In addition to Costco, companies including Revlon, Kawasaki and Yokohama Tire have filed lawsuits over the tariffs.

Trump has imposed tariffs on a wide range of goods and individual nations since returning to office in January. The administration has been using the taxes as leverage in negotiations on trade deals with other nations.

Some of Trumps tariffs early in the year set off downturns in financial markets, although stocks later recovered.

Trump has proposed using some of the revenue from his tariffs to provide $2,000 dividend checks to Americans. Its unclear if such a plan has enough support in Congress to pass.
Wshington  The White House said Monday that a Navy admiral acted within his authority and the law when he ordered a second, follow-up strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea in a September U.S. military operation that has come under bipartisan scrutiny.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt offered the justification for the Sept. 2 strike after lawmakers from both parties on Sunday announced support for congressional reviews of U.S. military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean. The lawmakers cited a published report that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for a second strike that killed survivors on the boat in that September incident.

Leavitt in her comments to reporters did not dispute a Washington Post report that there were survivors after the initial strike in the incident. Her explanation came after President Donald Trump a day earlier said that he wouldnt have wanted that  not a second strike when asked about the incident.

Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes, said Leavitt, referring to U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Frank Bradley, who at the time was the commander of Joint Special Operations Command. 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.

The lawmakers said they did not know whether last weeks Post report was true, and some Republicans were skeptical. Still, they said the reports of attacking survivors of an initial missile strike posed serious legal concerns and merited further scrutiny.

The White House weighed in after Trump on Sunday vigorously defended Hegseth.

Pete said he did not order the death of those two men, Trump said. He added, And I believe him.

Leavitt said Hegseth has spoken with members of Congress who may have expressed some concerns about the reports over the weekend.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also spoke over the weekend with the four bipartisan lawmakers leading the Senate and House Armed Services Committees. He reiterated his trust and confidence in the experienced commanders at every echelon, Caines office said in a statement.

The statement added that the call focused on addressing the intent and legality of missions to disrupt illicit trafficking networks which threaten the security and stability of the Western Hemisphere.

Congress wants answers

Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Monday broadly defended the operations, echoing the Trump administration position that theyre necessary to stem the flow of illegal narcotics into the United States.

Thune said the committees in Congress will conduct oversight looking into what happened. I dont think you want to draw any conclusions or deductions until you have all the facts, he said of the Sept. 2 strike. Well see where they lead.

After the Posts report, Hegseth said Friday on X that fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland.

Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict  and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command, Hegseth wrote.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called Hegseth a national embarrassment over his response to critics. Schumer added that the armed services committees should demand that Hegseth release the video of the strike and testify under oath about what happened.

Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the panels inquiry would start with briefings about what actually happened from the officials involved.

Reed also called for the administration to release unredacted video of the strike.

If theyve done nothing wrong, then that video should exonerate them completely. Why dont they release it? he asked.

Sen. Roger Wicker, the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, pledged that his investigation would be done by the numbers.

Well find out the ground truth, he said, adding that the ramifications of the report were serious charges.

Venezuelas president reacts

Trump met later Monday with his national security team to discuss the ongoing operations and potential next steps against Venezuela.

The U.S. administration says the strikes are aimed at drug cartels, some of which it claims are controlled by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Trump also is weighing whether to carry out strikes on the Venezuelan mainland.

Trump confirmed Sunday that he had recently spoken by phone with Maduro but declined to detail the conversation.

Speaking to supporters in Caracas on Monday, Maduro said U.S. pressure has tested the country, but Venezuelans are ready to defend it and lead it to the path of peace.

We have lived through 22 weeks of aggression that can only be described as psychological terrorism, Maduro said.

The September strike was one in a series carried out by the U.S. military in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean as Trump has ordered the buildup of a fleet of warships near Venezuela, including the largest U.S. aircraft carrier.

More than 80 have been killed the strikes on small boats that the Trump administration alleges smuggle narcotics for drug cartels.

Venezuelas National Assembly has announced the launch of an investigation into the lethal strikes carried about by the U.S.

Sundays announcement by the Assemblys president, Jorge Rodriguez, marked the first time that a Maduro government official explicitly acknowledged that Venezuelans have been killed in the monthslong U.S. military operation.

Rodriguez, Maduros chief negotiator, said a group of lawmakers will come together to investigate the serious events that led to the murder of Venezuelans in the waters of the Caribbean Sea.
Netflix has decided to remove its support that allows users to cast the streaming platform's content from mobile to TV. However, there is some good news for certain devices.

Netflix Removes Most Mobile to TV Casting Feature

According to a new update on Netflix's support page, most mobile-to-TV casting options are no longer available for users, and this removes the ability to use one's smartphone to play movies or shows on the larger screens.

Netflix did not elaborate on how many TVs are affected by this latest policy change, with the company also avoiding listing the exact models that would see these changes.

Casting from mobile to TVs has been significantly helpful for many users, particularly as this forgoes the need to log in to their Netflix account on TVs, especially as it is a painstaking process to type their credentials.

It has also been a significant help for those who are traveling and would like to stream shows on their hotel or homestay's television, which supports wireless casting from mobile.

Some Devices Continue to Support Netflix Casting

That said, there is still a silver lining to this latest change by the company, particularly as some televisions would still support Netflix casting from mobile phones. However, according to ArsTechnica, this would only apply to those that use the older versions of Google's Chromecast, as well as old smart TVs.

ArsTechnica claimed that users who own the Google Chromecast dongle from 2018 and earlier would still have the Cast feature. Users who own an Android TV, Google TV, or smart TVs with built-in Netflix are also losing the Cast feature.

According to Netflix, there are several requirements to continue casting content from mobile to TV, and it starts with their account subscription, as it would only support ad-free tiers.

Those who are in the Basic ad-supported tier will not get any casting options available for them.
Naftogaz reports damage to gas production, storage facilities following Russian drone attacks on Dec 1-2

On the evening of December 1 and the morning of December 2, Russian drones attacked civilian gas infrastructure facilities that provide gas production and storage, Naftogaz Group reported.

According to a statement on the companys website, no employees were injured, although damage to facilities was recorded.

"Emergency services and the companys specialists are working to eliminate the consequences of the attack. Immediately after receiving permission from the State Emergency Service, Naftogaz teams will begin restoration," said Serhiy Koretsky, Chairman of the Board of NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy.

The company noted that during October-November, there were nine massive Russian attacks on Ukraines civilian gas infrastructure.
12 dead, dozens missing as landslide submerges boats in Peru port



Lima, Dec 1 (AFP) Dec 01, 2025



At least 12 people, including three children, died Monday when a landslide sank two boats docked at a river port in central Peru, with dozens of others missing, officials said.

The landslide submerged two vessels at the port of Iparia in the Amazon jungle region of Ucayali, according to a police report cited by the Andina news agency.

The number of people on board has not been confirmed, but the COEN national emergency operations center said there were about 50 passengers on one and none on the second.

Navy captain Jonathan Novoa told AFP by telephone that nine bodies had been recovered, while 25 people were reported injured and possibly "40 missing."

Authorities were working with families gathered at the scene of the disaster to try to determine exactly how many people still need to be located.

Images broadcast by the UTV Noticias channel showed distraught people running up and down the river bank as luggage and merchandise from the sunken boats floated in the river.

Without providing a toll, the COEN said on X that tragedy struck at dawn due to "erosion" of the bank of the Ucayali river.

It said the navy had been called in to help.

Novoa said the rescue effort was complicated by fast-flowing water and whirlpools in the river.

"We are in the flood season... and at the time of the accident there was fog, and the tasks are complicated," he said.

cm/vel/mlr/mlm
Race to get aid to Asia flood survivors as toll tops 1,200



Banda Aceh, Indonesia, Dec 2 (AFP) Dec 02, 2025



Governments and aid groups in Indonesia and Sri Lanka worked Tuesday to rush aid to hundreds of thousands stranded by deadly flooding that has killed over 1,200 people in four countries.

Torrential monsoon season deluges paired with two separate tropical cyclones last week dumped heavy rain across Sri Lanka and parts of Indonesia's Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia.

Climate change is producing more intense rain events because a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, and warmer oceans can turbocharge storms.

AFP analysis of US weather data showed several flood-hit regions across Asia experienced their highest November rainfall totals since 2012.

The floodwaters have now largely receded, but the devastation means hundreds of thousands of people are living in shelters and struggling to secure clean water and food.

In Indonesia's Aceh, one of the worst-affected regions, people told AFP that anyone who could afford to was stockpiling.

"Road access is mostly cut off in flood-affected areas," 29-year-old Erna Mardhiah said as she joined a long queue at a petrol station in Banda Aceh.

"People are worried about running out of fuel," she added from the line she had been waiting in for two hours.

The pressure has affected prices.

"Most things are already sky-high... chillies alone are up to 300,000 rupiah per kilo ($18), so that's probably why people are panic-buying," she said.

On Monday, Indonesia's government said it was sending 34,000 tons of rice and 6.8 million litres of cooking oil to the three worst-affected provinces, Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra.

"There can be no delays," Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman said.

But Alfian, a resident in Banda Aceh, told AFP the government had been "very slow, especially in ensuring basic necessities".



- Food shortage risk -



Even areas that were not directly affected were seeing shortages because of blocked transport links.

In Dolok Sanggul in North Sumatra, one resident told AFP he had been lining up since Monday afternoon for fuel, and spent the night sleeping in his car.

"When we were about to enter the gas station, the fuel ran out," he said.

Aid groups warned that local markets were running out of essential supplies and prices had tripled.

"Communities across Aceh are at severe risk of food shortages and hunger if supply lines are not reestablished in the next seven days," charity group Islamic Relief said.

A shipment of 12 tonnes of food from the group aboard an Indonesian navy vessel was due to arrive in Aceh on Tuesday.

By Tuesday afternoon, the toll across Sumatra had risen to 686, but the number of missing was also rising, with 476 people still listed.

And 1.2 million people have been forced from their homes, the disaster agency added.

Survivors have described terrifying waves of water that arrived without warning.

In East Aceh, Zamzami said the floodwaters had been "unstoppable, like a tsunami wave".

"We can't explain how big the water seemed, it was truly extraordinary," said the 33-year-old, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

The weather system that inundated Indonesia also brought heavy rain to southern Thailand, where at least 176 people were killed.

Across the border in Malaysia, two more people were killed.



- Colombo floodwaters recede -



A separate storm brought heavy rains across all of Sri Lanka, triggering flash floods and deadly landslides that killed at least 410 people.

Another 336 remain missing, and an official in the central town of Welimada told local reporters he expected the toll to rise, as his staff dug through the mud looking for victims buried by landslides.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has declared a state of emergency to deal with what he called the "most challenging natural disaster in our history".

Unlike his Indonesian counterpart, he has called for international aid.

Sri Lanka's air force, backed by counterparts from India and Pakistan, has been evacuating stranded residents and delivering food and other supplies.

In the capital Colombo meanwhile, floodwaters were slowly subsiding on Tuesday.

The speed with which water rose around the city surprised local residents used to seasonal flooding.

"Every year we experience minor floods, but this is something else," delivery driver Dinusha Sanjaya told AFP.

Rains have eased across the country, but landslide alerts remain in force across most of the hardest-hit central region, officials said.

burs-sah/lb
Race to get aid to Asia flood survivors as death toll tops 1,300



Banda Aceh, Indonesia, Dec 2 (AFP) Dec 02, 2025



Governments and aid groups in Indonesia and Sri Lanka worked Tuesday to rush aid to hundreds of thousands stranded by deadly flooding that has killed more than 1,300 people in four countries.

Torrential monsoon season deluges paired with two separate tropical cyclones last week dumped heavy rain across Sri Lanka and parts of Indonesia's Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia.

Climate change is producing more intense rain events because a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, and warmer oceans can turbocharge storms.

AFP analysis of US weather data showed several flood-hit regions across Asia experienced their highest November rainfall totals since 2012.

The floodwaters have now largely receded, but the devastation means hundreds of thousands of people are living in shelters and struggling to secure clean water and food.

In Indonesia's Aceh, one of the worst-affected regions, people told AFP that anyone who could afford to was stockpiling.

"Road access is mostly cut off in flood-affected areas," 29-year-old Erna Mardhiah said as she joined a long queue at a petrol station in Banda Aceh.

"People are worried about running out of fuel," she added from the line she had been waiting in for two hours.

The pressure has affected prices.

"Most things are already sky-high... chillies alone are up to 300,000 rupiah ($18) per kilo, so that's probably why people are panic-buying," she said.

On Monday, Indonesia's government said it was sending 34,000 tons of rice and 6.8 million litres of cooking oil to the three worst-affected provinces, Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra.

"There can be no delays," Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman said.

But Alfian, a resident in Banda Aceh, told AFP the government had been "very slow, especially in ensuring basic necessities".



- Food shortage risk -



Even areas that were not directly affected were seeing shortages because of blocked transport links.

In Dolok Sanggul in North Sumatra, one resident told AFP he had been lining up since Monday afternoon for fuel, and spent the night sleeping in his car.

"When we were about to enter the gas station, the fuel ran out," he said.

Aid groups warned that local markets were running out of essential supplies and prices had tripled.

"Communities across Aceh are at severe risk of food shortages and hunger if supply lines are not reestablished in the next seven days," said charity group Islamic Relief, which has sent a shipment of 12 tonnes of food aboard an Indonesian navy vessel.

By Tuesday afternoon, the toll across Sumatra had risen to 712, but the number of missing was also rising, with 500 people still listed.

And 1.2 million people have been forced from their homes, the disaster agency said.

Survivors have described terrifying waves of water that arrived without warning.

In East Aceh, Zamzami said the floodwaters had been "unstoppable, like a tsunami wave".

"We can't explain how big the water seemed, it was truly extraordinary," said the 33-year-old, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

The weather system that inundated Indonesia also brought heavy rain to southern Thailand, where at least 176 people were killed.

Across the border in Malaysia, two more people were killed.



- Colombo floodwaters recede -



A separate storm brought heavy rains across all of Sri Lanka, triggering flash floods and deadly landslides that killed at least 465 people.

Another 366 remain missing, and an official in the central town of Welimada told local reporters he expected the toll to rise, as his staff dug through the mud looking for victims buried by landslides.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has declared a state of emergency to deal with what he called the "most challenging natural disaster in our history".

Unlike his Indonesian counterpart, he has called for international aid.

Sri Lanka's air force, backed by counterparts from India and Pakistan, has been evacuating stranded residents and delivering food and other supplies.

Some 1.7 million people were affected by the floods and landslides, officials said.

In the capital Colombo, floodwaters were slowly subsiding on Tuesday.

Rains have eased across the country, but landslide alerts remain in force across most of the hardest-hit central region, officials said.

burs-sah/aj/ami
Photo: https://www.facebook.com/zelenskyy.official

Units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine continue defensive operations in Pokrovsk, Vovchansk and Kupyansk, the statements of the Russian leadership about the "capture" of these settlements do not correspond to reality, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated.

"Units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine continue defensive operations in difficult sections of the front, in particular in Pokrovsk, Vovchansk, Kupyansk. The bravado statements of the leadership of the aggressor country about the "capture" of these settlements by the Russian army do not correspond to reality. This is just another attempt by the Kremlin to use the "flag-raising" video for propaganda purposes to influence participants in international negotiations," a statement of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the Telegram channel on Tuesday reads.

It is reported that in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, the Defense Forces hold the northern part of the city along the railway line.

"Search and assault operations are ongoing to eliminate enemy cells. The enemy is suffering significant losses. Over the past day, Ukrainian soldiers have neutralized a total of 104 occupiers on the Pokrovsk axis. Our units have already cleared a group that raised the Russian tricolor under the cover of fog in one of the city's districts," the General Staff said.

According to the General Staff, the Defense Forces are organizing additional logistical routes in the Pokrovska-Myrnohrad agglomeration to supply our positions with everything necessary.

"The situation in Vovchansk, Kharkiv region, remains tense. The enemy is not giving up attempts to advance in this settlement, using small infantry groups, strike UAVs and artillery. However, Ukrainian defenders are holding their positions firmly," the General Staff stressed.

Russian media, citing the Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov, reported earlier that Russian forces had taken control over Pokrovsk and Vovchansk.
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Iran sentenced award-winning director Jafar Panahi to one year in prison in absentia and imposed a travel ban for what it called propaganda activities against the country.

Panahis lawyer Mostafa Nili confirmed the sentence to Agence France-Presse, clarifying that it also prohibits the filmmaker from joining any political or social groups. He will also be banned from leaving Iran for two years.

Mr Panahi is outside Iran right now, Mr Nili said, adding that the charges stated that he had engaged in propaganda activities against the state, with no further information.

Mr Nili said they would appeal the Iranian courts ruling.

Panahi will be returning to Tehran, according to American journalist Roger Friedmans column in Showbiz411.

Iranians are very loyal. Also his family is there and he wants to be at home, one of his producers, who remained unnamed, told Friedman.

Panahi, 65, accepted the Gotham awards in New York for best screenplay and best director for his newest film It Was Just an Accident on Tuesday.

The Cannes Palme dOr-winning drama also won the award for best international feature, and is Frances entry for the international feature award at the forthcoming Oscars.

I would like to dedicate the honour of this award to independent filmmakers in Iran and around the world, filmmakers who keep the camera rolling in silence, without support, and at times by risking everything they have, only with their faith in truth and humanity, he said, after accepting his first award of the night for best screenplay via a translator, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

I hope that this dedication will be considered a small tribute to all filmmakers who have been deprived of the right to see and to be seen, but continue to create and exist.

In an interview with The Financial Times, published two days before his sentence was announced, Panahi talked about his set being raided while making the film, and that he always intended to return to his country.

I only know how to make films in Iran, so I have to return. And then, whatever happens will happen, he said.

Panahi, who currently resides in France, is also scheduled to attend the Marrakech Film Festival on Thursday, where It Was Just an Accident will be screened.

Panahi has been on a press tour for the Persian-language film, a co-production with Paris-based producer Les Films Pelleas and distributed in France by Memento Distribution.

It Was Just An Accident premiered at the Cannes Film Festival In May this year and won the Palme d'Or. The thriller, which was inspired by Panahis time in prison, follows five formerly imprisoned Iranians who meet a man they suspect tortured them in prison and question whether to pursue vengeance.

Panahi accepted the Gotham awards in New York for best screenplay and best director for his newest film It Was Just an Accident on Tuesday ( Getty Images for The Gotham Film )

Panahi has been arrested, detained, and questioned several times by the government over the years. In 2010, after his public show of support for mass protests after the contested presidential election, he was convicted of propaganda against the state, given a sixyear prison sentence, banned from filmmaking, and barred from international travel. He was released, but put on house arrest and barred from travelling outside Iran.

In July 2022 he was again detained when he visited the prosecutors office to inquire about fellow filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Aleahmad, who had been arrested. He was then put back into prison to serve his 2010 sentence in full, a move that was criticised internationally.

Panahi was finally released in February 2023 after going on a hunger strike, and his travel ban was lifted.

The director continued to make films despite the government directive banning him, and made the documentary feature This Is Not a Film in 2011, which premiered at Cannes, followed by the Berlinale Silver Bear winner Closed Curtain in 2013, Golden Bear winner Taxi in 2015, No Bearsin 2022, and his latest, It Was Just An Accident.
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Sean Diddy Combs has hit out at Netflix and long-time rival 50 Cent over a newly released docuseries about his life and controversies.

The disgraced rapper and music mogul, 56, is months into his four-year sentence for prostitution-related charges.

Accusing Netflix of incorporating stolen footage, he called the new four-part series Sean Combs: The Reckoning a shameful hit piece.

The series claims to deliver a staggering examination of the media mogul, music legend and convicted offender, and offer viewers previously unreleased footage of Combs and his inner circle. It will also feature two jurors from Combss trial, who, for the first time, will discuss how they arrived at their mixed verdict.

A teaser clip released on Monday (1 December) depicts Combs in September last year, filmed as pressure mounted against him in his federal sex-crime investigation.

Were losing, he says in a hotel room, cell phone in hand, before he calls for somebody thatll work with us that has dealt in the dirtiest of dirty business.

Combs has alleged that the footage, including private moments, pre-indictment material from an unfinished project and conversations involving legal strategy, was obtained through unlawful means. .

Todays GMA teaser confirms that Netflix relied on stolen footage that was never authorised for release, the statement from his spokesperson reads. 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.

open image in gallery (L-R) Alexandria Stapleton and 50 Cent on ABC News, speaking about their new documentary, 'Sean Combs: The Reckoning' ( ABC News )

It continued: 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.

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The rappers legal team has contacted Netflix, according to the statement.

The Independent has contacted a representative of Netflix for comment.

Combs blamed the series on a personal vendetta against him by longtime rival 50 Cent who serves as an executive producer on the series and who has been promoting the series alongside director Alexandria Stapleton on Good Morning America. Combss statement was issued hours after their appearance.

The duo did not discuss how they obtained the footage, though in a statement posted to Netflixs Tudum website, Stapleton said: It came to us, we obtained the footage legally and have the necessary rights. We moved heaven and earth to keep the filmmakers identity confidential.

One thing about Sean Combs is that hes always filming himself, and its been an obsession throughout the decades. We also reached out to Sean Combs legal team for an interview and comment multiple times, but did not hear back.

open image in gallery ESP-GEN VIOLENCIA SEXUAL-DIDDY ( AP )

50 Cent, real name Curtis James Jackson III, rebuffed the idea that the series is a result of his disdain for Combs, which previously resulted in a diss track aimed at Combs back in 2006.

Its not personal, he said. If I didnt say anything, he said, the world might have thought hip-hop is fine with his behaviours. Theres no one else being vocal.

Stapleton added: I think its important to also let people know, this show isnt completely the perspective of people who didnt like Sean. We werent just trying to get the highlights, the salacious details.

The real goal was to storytell, and not everyone needed to have an allegation to be a part of this project.

The documentary comes months after Combs was found guilty in July on two counts tied to prostitution, but acquitted on the most serious charges in his sex trafficking trial at a federal court in New York City.

The convictions cap his public downfall after a trial in which his penchant for kinky sex freak-offs was aired almost daily, but also serve as a win for the music icon, who was found not guilty of other charges that could have led to life imprisonment.
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Eric Idle, a founding member of the iconic comedy group Monty Pythons Flying Circus, often contemplates whether extraterrestrial life possesses a sense of humour. "I think the answer must be yes, because its about self-awareness," he muses.

"Its about laughing at yourself and your own death and your inevitable end, which you can do nothing about."

Until such an intergalactic encounter, Idles earthly mission remains to elicit laughter, a crusade he continues with a national touring production of his acclaimed musical, Spamalot, which commences its run in Ohio this week.

Idle firmly believes in the power of comedy, stating, "I think laughter is essential, and its both a relief and a corrective on how to look at life."

The extensive tour is set to visit over 30 cities in its inaugural year, including major hubs such as Los Angeles, Washington DC, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Atlanta, Dallas, New Orleans, St. Louis, Houston, and Milwaukee.

Idle champions the comedy musical as the pinnacle of theatrical forms. "The comedy musical is the most fabulous form of theatre there is because its got everything you want  it can have drama, but also laughter, dancing, girls. Its got it all," he explains.

open image in gallery Pedestrians walk under the marquee of the Broadway show Monty Python's Spamalot in New York ( AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File ) )

Spamalot itself is a riot of absurdity, featuring knights obsessed with shrubbery, the distinctive sound of coconuts mimicking horse hooves, a singing and dancing plague victim, flatulent Frenchmen, and even killer rabbits.

The stage production draws its inspiration from the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a comedic take on King Arthurs quest to assemble knights for the search for the cup Jesus drank from at The Last Supper. Idle recalls the original movies modest 320,000 budget, partially funded by members of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson, who were reportedly seeking tax write-offs. Filmed over five weeks in Scotland, Idle remembers, "It was cold and miserable, but it was funny."

The genesis of the musical adaptation struck Idle while working on a CD-ROM game based on The Holy Grail.

He realised, "I suddenly went, Wait a minute, if you could turn The Holy Grail' into a game, you can certainly turn it into a Broadway musical."

Idle penned the story and lyrics, with music by John Du Prez. He credits the shows success to the involvement of legendary director Mike Nichols, who "knew everything about funny." The musical premiered on Broadway in 2005, earning a Tony Award for Best New Musical.

Idle recently rediscovered his long-forgotten diaries from that period, which he has since published as The Spamalot Diaries, offering an insightful look into the tensions and struggles behind the musicals creation.

open image in gallery Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer, left, and James Monroe Iglehart, centre, appear with other cast members at the curtain call for Spamalot ( 2023 Invision )

"It is a sort of how-to about making a musical," he notes. Among the shows highlights are the Act II opener, "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," borrowed from another Python film, Life of Brian and the rousing finale, "Find Your Grail," with its encouraging lyrics: "Keep your eyes on the goal/Then the prize you wont fail/Thats your grail."

One of Idles most cherished memories is watching Broadway patrons leave the theatre, singing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" and clicking coconuts purchased from the merchandise kiosk.

"If you can just brighten peoples lives to be silly in the street immediately afterwards, I think youve done a great job," he reflects. "Not many shows do that." Monty Python, comprising Idle, Michael Palin, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, and Graham Chapman, brought a unique blend of satire, surrealism, and silliness to British television screens from 1969 to 1974, followed by several films.
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A Star Wars actor appearing in spin-off TV series Ahsoka will not return in new episodes due to a salary dispute.

Claudia Black, who played Nightsister Klothow in the first season, has had to bow out of the shows second run as she was allegedly not going to be paid enough.

She revealed the news in a candid interview, revealing that, as a single mother, she required a salary that would have enabled her to keep things afloat back home in Los Angeles while she filmed in London.

She claimed that bosses at Disney could not, sadly, support a single mom.

Well, Im going to be transparent, she told Bleeding Cool. They picked up season two, picked me up with it, and then Disney, which is structuring things differently these days, could not pay me what I needed to be paid as a single mother to keep all my responsibilities going at home in Los Angeles, because they were filming in London.

She continued: It was not something that they could make happen, and therefore, I had to bow out for season two

The Independent has contacted Lucasfilm for comment.

open image in gallery Claudia Black forced to quit Ahsoka season two ( Getty Images )

Black said it was a very sad decision to make, and revealed she thanked showrunner Dave Filoni in an email.

I said, What a ride! Everyone like me who grew up in the 70s and 80s has always been into the Star Wars universe, and its a very playful environment to work.

Black added that she was grateful that she got to be involved in a Star Wars project  especially as her young son is a fan of the franchise.

She continued: Im very sad not to be able to continue that at the end of the day. They call it show business for a reason. It's like 90 per cent business and 10 per cent show.

They could not, sadly, support a single mom, and I'm very sad about that, but I also understand market forces being what they are, and the very delicate time in the business to even be able to afford to make anything at all. We all had to do our sums and move on."

open image in gallery Claudia Black as Nightsister Klothow in 'Ahsoka' ( Disney+ )

Ahsoka stars Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano, a former Jedi knight who investigates an emerging threat to a vulnerable galaxy.

The series debuted on Disney+ in 2023, with season two set to be filmed in 2025.
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Vogue Williams has become the third celebrity to leave the Im a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! jungle.

The model and podcaster was a late addition to the series alongside Celebs Go Dating star Tom Read Wilson and spent 13 days in the jungle.

Williams learned her fate when presenters Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly went into camp during Monday nights show. She was in the bottom two with Kelly Brook.

open image in gallery Williams left the show on Monday ( ITV )

Speaking to Ant and Dec after leaving the jungle, Williams gave her verdict on some of the drama that has been unfolding - admitting that she thinks two of the stars arent pulling their weight when it comes to chores.

Ginge and Aitch are a bit resistant to their chores, she said. I dont really understand the whole cup-gate. I just turned into what Im like at home.

Williams also revealed who snuck in the contraband butter Shona McGarty was caught using over the weekend - blaming Angryginge.

He found it somewhere and brought half of it in, Williams said. It was covered in sticks, I thought, I dont want that.

Elsewhere in the episode, Ruby Wax took on another Bushtucker trial but was left disappointed in herself after only winning half of the stars up for grabs. When the camps dinner - an entire hare - was delivered, the former talk show host declined to eat the meat and instead stuck to rice and beans.

Alex Scott was the first celebrity to leave the jungle on Friday night before Eddie Kadi was evicted on Sunday.

While the stars usually stay in Australia for the rest of the series, Scott has flown home to be with her girlfriend Jess Glynne, whose mother suffered a major stroke just weeks ago.

It's been a tough time for us and obviously her family, and it was a tough decision to come into the jungle, but then Jess never wanted me to step away from not doing it, the ex-England player told The Mirror.

Another star will leave the Im a Celebrity jungle on Tuesday, when the show continues at 9pm.
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Bath & Body Works is bringing back its annual Candle Day sale.

The beloved fragrance store is known for its array of hand sanitizers, soaps, and other scented bath products. But this weekend, Bath & Body Works will be holding its Candle Day sale for customers to stock up for the winter months, complete with a few changes.

This year, the 14th annual sale will begin online on December 4 at 10 p.m. ET and will continue in stores from December 5 to 7, with stores opening to shoppers at 6 a.m. All three-wick candles will be available for $9.95 instead of their usual price of between $26.95 and $29.95.

Over 180 candles will be part of the sale, including a new limited-edition pickle candle called Holiday Dill-light. The company is also launching an exclusive Candle Day keepsake with special packaging.

Bath & Body Works offers dozens of scents to choose from, including seasonal favorites Vanilla Bean Noel, Twisted Peppermint, and Winter Candy Apple, as well as new additions like Butterscotch Swirl, Christmas Road Trip, and Rum Rum Reindeer. The company also announced that several scents will be returning from the vault for this years sale, including Smoked Vanilla, Brown Sugar & Fig, Snowday, Blueberry Sugar and Vanilla Snowflake.

open image in gallery Bath & Body Works is launching a Candle Day candle this year ( Bath & Body Works )

open image in gallery Bath & Body Works has announced a limited-edition Holiday Dill-ight pickle-scented candle ( Bath & Body Works )

Customers will likely only be able to buy 24 candles per purchase. The company has typically seen some candles sell out by the second day of the three-day event.

Candle Day is a cherished tradition that our customers countdown to every year, said Betsy Schumacher, chief merchandising officer at Bath & Body Works.

Its the ultimate Bath & Body Works shopping event a moment when we deliver what we do best: high-quality 3-wick candles crafted with innovation and artistry, alongside new fragrances and exclusive surprises designed to give consumers exactly what they desire.

Candle Day comes as Bath & Body Works has launched a holiday fragrance campaign, taking over New York Citys Grand Central Terminal with the scent of vanilla and fresh pine.

open image in gallery Bath & Body Works annual Candle Day sale is fast approaching ( Bath & Body Works )

The company is using three signature scents  Fresh Balsam, Snowflakes & Cashmere and Twisted Peppermint  to fill the iconic travel hub. In addition to Grand Central, the campaign is being utilized at 46 high-traffic malls around the country, as well as Chicagos Clark and Lake train station.

Some moviegoers might also experience the campaign, as the brand is offering scent-igrations in some New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago theaters. As the Bath & Body Works holiday ad plays, Fresh Balsam fills the air.

Were bringing the holiday season to life for consumers in new and unexpected ways, said Jamie Sohosky, chief marketing officer.

By diffusing our signature Fresh Balsam scent into iconic places like Grand Central Station and movie theaters, were creating moments of joy and festive spirit that reach consumers wherever they aremaking the magic of Bath & Body Works part of their everyday experiences.
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The fashion world is abuzz as Prada Group finalises its acquisition of Milanese rival Versace in a 1.25bn (1.10bn) deal, bringing the iconic brand's "sexy silhouettes" under the same roof as Prada's distinctive "ugly chic" and Miu Miu's youthful appeal.

This strategic move is poised to revitalise Versace's fortunes after a period of lacklustre performance.

Prada confirmed the completion of the highly anticipated deal in a brief statement, following all necessary regulatory clearances.

The acquisition marks a significant shift for Versace, which had been part of the US luxury conglomerate Capri Holdings, where it reportedly struggled to maintain its bold profile amidst the rising trend of "quiet luxury."

Lorenzo Bertelli, heir to the Prada empire and currently the group's marketing director and sustainability chief, will take the helm as Versace's executive chairman.

While he has indicated no immediate plans for sweeping executive changes, Mr Bertelli has openly acknowledged the 47-year-old brand's market underperformance, despite its global recognition.

Prada Group Chief Marketing Officer Lorenzo Bertelli ( Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved )

Prada has underscored that Versace offers "significant untapped growth potential." The brand is already undergoing a creative resurgence under new designer Dario Vitale, whose first collection debuted at Milan Fashion Week in September, a move executives stated was independent of the Prada deal.

Capri Holdings, which also owns Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo, acquired Versace for $2bn in 2018. Versace contributed 20 per cent to Capri Holdings' 2024 revenue of 5.2bn (4.5bn).

Under the new structure, an analyst presentation suggests Versace will account for 13 per cent of the Prada Groups pro-forma revenues, with Miu Miu at 22 per cent and the flagship Prada brand at 64 per cent.

The Prada Group, which includes Churchs footwear, saw its revenues jump by 17 per cent to 5.4bn (4.5bn) last year.

A key strategic element of the acquisition involves integrating Versace into Prada Group's esteemed Italian manufacturing system, a source of considerable pride for the conglomerate.

"Making a bag for one brand or another, the know-how is the same," Mr Bertelli told reporters last week, highlighting the synergy at their Scandicci leather goods factory, which will soon produce for Versace alongside Prada and Miu Miu.

The Prada Group has committed 60m (52m) to its supply chain this year, including new factories near Siena and Perugia, alongside expanding its Churchs footwear factory in Britain and another Tuscan facility. This builds on 200m( 175m) invested between 2019 and 2024.

Furthermore, Prada's in-house training academy has nurtured 570 new artisans over 25 years across various Italian regions, hiring 70 per cent of its 120 trainees last year, with trainee numbers rising to 152 this year. This robust infrastructure underscores Prada's long-term vision for its expanded portfolio.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has that if the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an element of the peace plan for Ukraine, which is currently under negotiation between the United States, Russia and Ukraine, the alliance will be a party to these negotiations.

He said this on Tuesday at a press conference on the eve of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers to be held in Brussels on Wednesday, answering questions from the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

"Obviously, when it comes to NATO elements in the agreement to end the war against Ukraine, it will be considered separately, and this will obviously include NATO," Rutte said.

The NATO Secretary General stressed that he "considers it very good that the United States is putting forward proposals." "We need to start somewhere. We need to have proposals on the table. As you know, both in Geneva and two days ago in Miami, there were negotiations with the Ukrainian side. Today, there were negotiations with the Russian side, so we are closely monitoring this," Rutte said.
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The Miss Jamaica organization has shared a social media message about healing and recovery following Gabrielle Henrys very public tumble and the islands battering by Hurricane Melissa.

The official Miss Universe Jamaica Instagram account posted a statement on Monday, over one week after Henry, who is Miss Jamaica, had to be carried away on a stretcher after she fell off the stage during the international major beauty pageant held in Thailand.

After Hurricane Melissa, we rise with gratitude - for safety, for community, for the strength that binds us together, the post read. This is our time to rebuild with hope, to restore with compassion, and to uplift each other with kindness.

As the statement concluded, it asked people to be intentional and empathetic to those around them.

Even in hardship, Jamaica's spirit remains unshaken - we endure, we unite, and we shine. Welcome, December - a month of healing, courage, and forward movement, it read.

The organization revealed last month that Henry  isnt doing as well as we would have hoped ( AFP/Getty )

The post comes after the organization shared an update regarding Henrys health. Last month, on its Instagram Stories, it was explained that Henrys sister, Dr. Phylicia Henry-Samuels, is currently with Henry and their mother, Maureen Henry, at the hospital where she is being treated.

According to Dr. Henry Samuels, however, Gabby isnt doing as well as we would have hoped, but the hospital continues to treat her accordingly.

The pageant star will remain in the intensive care unit (ICU) for a minimum of seven days as doctors continue their close monitoring and specialised care, the statement read at the time.

Elsewhere in the update, the organization asked for Jamaicans at home and across the diaspora to continue keeping Gabrielle in their prayers during this profoundly difficult time.

We respectfully ask the public and social media users to avoid sharing negative comments, misinformation, or speculation that may cause further distress to the family, the statement continued.

Our primary focus remains on Gabrielles recovery and the well-being of her loved ones. We kindly request continued compassion, sensitivity, and privacy as the family navigates this challenging period.

In footage of the incident circulated online, Henry could be seen posing at the front of the stage in an orange bejeweled gown and high heels when she abruptly fell to the ground.

Hours later, the Miss Universe Jamaica Organization issued a statement on Instagram informing fans that she had been rushed to Paolo Rangsit hospital near Bangkok, where medical professionals are attending to her care and have advised that she is not suffering from any life-threatening injuries.
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A distinctive facial feature helped alert patrons of a Pennsylvania McDonalds that suspected UnitedHealthCare CEO killer Luigi Mangione was eating at the restaurant, prompting management to call the police who ultimately arrested him, a New York court heard on Monday.

A manager at an Altoona McDonalds called police at 9:14 a.m. on December 9, 2024, telling dispatchers a frantic female customer was really upset because she thought the masked Mangione was inside the franchise.

As the operator asked for more identifying information about how Mangione looked, the manager responded, The only thing you can see are his eyebrows.

Police officers were dispatched two minutes later, and Mangione was eventually arrested. The arrest followed police flagging Mangiones face in the first place after he lowered his mask to smile at a hostel clerk in New York.

The 911 audio was played for the court as part of pre-trial deliberations over evidence obtained in the arrest.

open image in gallery Customers at a Pennsylvania McDonalds say they recognized Luigi Mangiones distinctive eyebrows behind a face mask and urged a manager to call 911, leading to the suspected UnitedHealthCare assassins arrest last December ( Getty Images )

Ahead of the state murder trial over CEO Brian Thompsons killing in Manhattan last year, Mangione is seeking to stop the Manhattan District Attorneys Office from showing or describing to jurors a gun and a personal notebook police say they recovered from his bag during his arrest.

The prosecution has quoted from the notebook extensively as it makes it case, including sections where Mangione allegedly praised the Unabomber and wrote that Thompson was a greedy bastard that had it coming.

The 27-year-old inmates attorneys claim his rights were trampled during the arrest because officers initially searched his backpack without a warrant and questioned him for about 20 minutes before reading him his rights.

Elsewhere during Mondays proceedings, where Mangione sat quietly and listened to the evidence as supporters looked on from the court gallery, a Pennsylvania corrections officer testified about speaking with Mangione during his time being held in the state prior to his extradition back to New York.

open image in gallery Mangione is seeking to bar evidence taken during his arrest from his upcoming state murder trial, arguing it was initially obtained before police had a warrant or read him his rights ( Getty Images )

Tomas Rivers, a guard at SCI Huntingdon, a high-security prison near Altoona, said he and Mangione spoke of "the difference between private health care and nationalized health care, and added that Mangione claimed at one point he wanted to make a statement to the public during his detention, a suggestion the guard ignored.

In September, Judge Gregory Carro threw out state terrorism charges against Mangione.

The 27-year-old faces up to life in prison in the state case and could face the death penalty if found guilty in a separate federal case.

No trial date has been set for either case.
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Marilyn Monroe was murdered as she became involved with some of the most famous people in the country and learned the nations secrets, famous crime author James Patterson has claimed.

Patterson, who penned Along Came a Spider and The President is Missing, believes that the blonde bombshell had found information that was kind of dangerous shortly before she died.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, ahead of the release of The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe: A True Crime Thriller, Patterson claimed that the star had become entangled in a web spun by some of the most powerful people in the United States.

I think that she was treading in very dangerous waters, he said. She had these incredible relationships with President Kennedy, and with Robert Kennedy, and with Sinatra, and with Mafia figures. They told her stuff, and she kept track of it. She had information that was kind of dangerous.

open image in gallery Author James Patterson has claimed the screen superstar Marilyn Monroe was murdered ahead of the release of his new book. (  Twentieth Century Fox )

Patterson, whose books have sold over 225 million copies, added that there was even a lot of stuff I didnt know as he researched her story.

"The 11 foster homes. The fact that she had a pretty bad stutter when she was a kid," Patterson told The Hollywood Reporter. "I didnt know much about the death scene, about the autopsy not being as complete as it should have been, that one of the detectives was convinced the scene was staged.

Officially, Monroe died from an overdose of barbiturates on August 4, 1962, in her home in what was ruled a probable suicide.

Beside her body, authorities found an emptied bottle of Nembutal as well as pill containers on the nightstand in her Brentwood home.

The Some Like it Hot stars death sent shockwaves around the world.

open image in gallery Patterson has been researching the star ahead of the release of The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe: A True Crime Thriller

open image in gallery Monroe has long been the subject of conspiracy theories which have connected to her everyone from JFK to the leader of the mob ( PA Archive )

After she was interned at the Corridor of Memories at Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles, fascination with the circumstances of her death spread immediately.

One of the most well-known conspiracy theories, first promoted by anti-communist campaigner Frank A. Capell, suggested that the United States Government had murdered Monroe after having an affair with President John F. Kennedys brother, the Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

Norman Mailers Marilyn: A Biography took the conspiracy theory to mainstream audiences, with the acclaimed writer and journalist suggesting that the FBI or CIA had murdered the actress for her connection with the Kennedy family.

Other theories have suggested that Monroe was murdered by mob boss Sam Giancana and union leader Jimmy Hoffa, who wanted to obtain a book where she had allegedly written the Kennedy familys secrets.

Anthony Summers, one of the most prominent Monroe biographers, claimed that the Kennedy family had enabled the actresss dependency on drugs and alcohol due to concerns that she could reveal their association with her.

In 1982, the Los Angeles District Attorney agreed to review the case but found no evidence to support the claims that Monroe had been murdered, according to Donald Spotos biography of the star.
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Three people have been arrested in Washington State after police found five children and three dogs living in a car teeming with trash and drug paraphernalia.

The children  who are 13, 11, 10, 8 and 5 years old  showed clear signs of neglect and had very little food available in the cramped car, which police in Vancouver, just north of the Oregon border, found in the citys downtown area, police said Monday.

Officers said they found meth on one of the suspects during their investigation, and another suspect admitted that there was fentanyl inside the car.

Animal Control helped remove the three dogs from the ghastly living conditions. Two of the pets were extremely underweight, while the third had an untreated open tumor and had to be put down, police said.

Photos shared by police revealed the horrifying conditions inside the cramped car. One image showed several large garbage bags strapped to the top of the vehicle, while others illustrated how dirty and dangerous the living space was.

open image in gallery Vancouver Police arrested three adults after five children and three dogs were found living inside a cramped car teeming with garbage and drugs ( Vancouver Police Department )

open image in gallery In addition to drug paraphernalia being found in the car, an adult suspect admitted to police that there was fentanyl inside the vehicle ( Vancouver Police Department )

Several images also show the drugs police found inside the vehicle.

The three adults involved, Natalie Gebron, Zachariah Edwards and Corleone Lewis, were arrested by Vancouver police on a slew of charges.

Gebron and Edwards were booked into the Clark County Jail after being charged with five counts of endangerment with a controlled substance, one count of possession of a controlled substance and three counts of second-degree animal cruelty.

Lewis was booked into jail on nine charges, including: one count of possession of a controlled substance with the intent to manufacture or deliver, two counts of unlawful camping, two counts of unlawful storage of personal property in public places, one count of possession of a controlled substance and two domestic violence-related charges.

open image in gallery Three adults were arrested after the children and pets were discovered inside the trash-filled car ( Vancouver Police Department )

It was not immediately clear if the three adults were related to the children or what their relationships were.

Due to the conditions inside the vehicle, and the presence of drugs and dangerous conditions, all three adults were arrested, police said.

The children were placed in the custody of Child Protective Services and immediately taken to a hospital for evaluation.

Police also seized the vehicle as part of their investigation.
Photo: https://t.me/V_Zelenskiy_official

During an official visit to Dublin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Irish President Catherine Connolly.

"Among the main topics discussed were the return of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia, the inclusion of two Irish universities in the Global Coalition for Ukrainian Studies, Ukraine's accession to the European Union, and possible steps and solutions that will help accelerate this process," Zelenskyy said on Telegram on Tuesday.

In addition, he discussed with Connolly cooperation in ensuring global food security, the rehabilitation and socialization of Ukrainian soldiers, and the construction of shelters in Ukrainian schools.

Zelenskyy thanked Ireland for its support, financial and humanitarian assistance since the start of the full-scale Russian war.
  
Despite tariffs, Louisiana's shrimpers still fighting to survive: 'Slow down the imports'
Ireland to provide EUR 100 mln in non-lethal military aid to Ukraine, more EUR 25 mln in energy support  PM

Ireland will provide further financial support to Ukraine in the amount of EUR 125 million, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin announced.

"Today, I am pleased to announce that we will provide a further EUR 100 million in non-lethal military aid and an additional EUR 25 million to help Ukraine maintain its energy system," Martin said at a joint press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in Dublin on Tuesday.
The trajectory of Corporate Travel Managements share price over ten years is bumpier than flying through a hurricane in a Cessna. The company thats had plenty of fans and a legion of detractors is now feeling the negative glare of both the Australian and UK governments.

Its a long way back from this level of scrutiny and controversy.

The company, which is one of Queenslands largest, is now facing its existential crisis  a tail spin from which it will be difficult to pull out due to accusations of overcharging. These governments are big and influential customers with the means and power to get answers.

This week Corporate Travel Management was belatedly hit with a please explain note from the Australian government, whose travel management contract it looks after and which is up for renewal in 2027.
How do you turn a struggling film festival into a major cultural event in time for the Brisbane Olympics in 2032? That was the challenge facing the new team behind the Brisbane International Film Festival, to  in the words of fictional comic rugby league knuckle-dragger Reg Reagan  bring back the BIFF.

For executive director Sophie Mathisen and head programmer Christian Pazzaglia, that job was all the more challenging with just 11 weeks to deliver it.

The aquatic puppetry show after a screening of A Life Illuminated at Brisbane International Film Festival. Credit: Brisbane International Film Festival

The plan was to reboot the poor cousin of the countrys leading film festivals into an event that contributes to the Cultural Olympiad leading into the 2032 Games.

Theres a lot of momentum in the city, but its not extending to a lot of the cultural organisations and institutions, Mathisen said. In the tender, there was a pretty clear idea that [Screen Queensland] wanted a world-class festival.
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Eating outBest of Where shall we eat? 10 casual, crowd-pleasing venues thatll give you group chat cred All those end-of-year gatherings dont have to drain your wallet. Special without being expensive, these relaxed and relatively affordable city spots let you enjoy that long list of festive catch-ups, stress-free. Quincy Malesovas December 3, 2025 Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

If youve been tasked with choosing the festive catch-up venue this year, youre in luck. Weve done the scouting for you, pinpointing 10 meet-up spots for any occasion, from your teams skint Christmas party to the last-minute gathering that has to be central and hassle-free. Arbory Afloat has transformed into a bright, beachy slice of Rio de Janeiro for this years season. Griffin Simm Afloat Now in its 10th year, Arborys annual aquatic spin-off remains a go-to for city meet-ups with a dose of escapism. This season, the floating bar-restaurant looks to Rio de Janeiro, transforming into a bright, beachy slice of the Brazilian coast. Bites pull from the countrys diverse culinary traditions: sushi shaped by Japanese migration; ceviche drawing from across South America; smoky charcoal-grilled skewers; and acai reimagined as sorbet and daiquiris. 2 Flinders Walk, Melbourne, afloat.melbourne

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All noodle and rice dishes are capped at $15 at Ho Liao. Alex Coppel Ho Liao Sydney chef Junda Khoos three-level Malaysian hub in the heart of the city covers most bases, from the refined dishes at Ho Jiak to grab-and-go lunches at Da Bao. The vibe at Ho Liao falls squarely in the middle. With its relaxed atmosphere, it is ideal for casual catch-ups  and with all noodle and rice dishes capped at $15, its also one of the citys more wallet-friendly options, although the menu holds plenty more. Level 2, Rainbow Alley (off Bourke Street), Melbourne, holiao.com.au Lanes Edge

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A drink in the Lanes Edge courtyard is a Melbourne summer ritual, but food has recently stepped into the spotlight thanks to chef turned venue manager Gary Dick. The menu is easy but thoughtful, heroing antipasti, charcuterie such as chicken terrine, and tinned fish served with crusty banh mi from N Lee. Specials such as $20 cheeseboards on Mondays and $2.50 oysters on Tuesdays make a strong case for school-night catch-ups. 39 Bourke Street, Melbourne, lanesedge.com Disuko can fit 150 people across its sprawling terrace and indoor dining and drinking spaces. Threefold Studio Disuko This newcomer pulls from 1980s Tokyo and contemporary Melbourne, blending a sprawling terrace, indoor dining and drinking spaces, an omakase-style chefs counter, and a vinyl sound system. With capacity for more than 150 people, its group-friendly and flexible enough to start with drinks and stay for dinner  or the other way around.

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Level 3/59-63 Bourke Street, Melbourne, disuko.com.au Tamal with mole is served at brunch with a fried egg (pictured) and at dinner with chicken at Maiz y Cacao. Eddie Jim Maiz y Cacao Dont let its location beneath a city hotel fool you: this spot is anything but cookie-cutter. Find regional Mexican dishes rarely spotted in Melbourne, from street-style sandwiches (including pambazo), enormous towers of seafood served aguachile-style, and tamales  steamed corn cakes  served with either house-made mole and eggs or pulled chicken. Cocktails are fun, too. 1/189 Queen Street, Melbourne, maizycacao.com.au

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The 1110-person Hickens Hotel stretches across four levels. Joe Armao Hickens Hotel Spread across four levels, Hickens Hotel (the former Crafty Squire) has something to suit just about any group get-together. Classic pub fare (including a kids menu) is joined by more modern interpretations  pork and duck sausage rolls, crab-and-corn fish fingers, a goat pie. In warmer weather, head to the rooftop overlooking Little Collins and Russell streets. Theres even a sports-bar-slash-karaoke set-up on one floor for bigger nights. 127 Russell Street, Melbourne, hickenshotel.com.au Steak frites is the main menu item at 7 Alfred. Steven Woodburn

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7 Alfred Rockpools little sibling keeps things streamlined with just one main course: steak frites for $48. It comes with your choice of peppercorn sauce, chimichurri, umami butter or veal jus, but the rest of the menu maintains the minimalism. Add a green leaf salad and finish with New York cheesecake or ice-cream with chocolate sauce. A winning pick for indecisive friends. 7 Alfred Place, Melbourne, 7alfred.com.au Inside Yaowarat, a warehouse-style space that draws on Thailands Chinese diaspora. Wayne Taylor Yaowarat

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Melbourne has plenty of Thai restaurants, but few like Yaowarat, which draws on the dishes of Thailands Chinese diaspora. The warehouse-style setting  concrete ceilings, exposed brick and tchotchkes lining the walls  feels fun and unfussy, while the food stays sharp. Spicy salads and sizzling plates suit group dining, and sub-$20 lunch specials make it an easy midday meet-up spot. 7-9 Waratah Place, Melbourne, instagram.com/yaowarat.melbourne Idli  steamed rice cakes with house-made chutney  at Saadi. Bonnie Savage Saadi Modern Indian dining concept Saadi has roamed around Melbourne for several years but now has a permanent home. The evening set menu sits at $85 a head, while lunch sets start at $45. A la carte is also available on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Dishes pull from regions across India but get a contemporary treatment, and seasonal Victorian produce is always the star. Start with idli  steamed rice cakes with house-made chutney  then explore the minimal-intervention wine list.

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18 Punch Lane, Melbourne, saadimelbourne.com Bread and butter pudding comes with a generous quantity of custard at Le Pub. Simon Schluter Le Pub In a city increasingly ruled by rigid dining, the ease of Le Pub is refreshing. Walk-ins only, counter service and a brief handwritten menu are the MO. Food leans British, from an old-school oxtail-and-snail pie finished with bone marrow to a festive-feeling bread and butter pudding. There are also favourites such as chicken schnitzel, all for the crowd-pleasing price of $30 or less. Dont skip a browse of the wall full of wine. 380 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne, instagram.com/lepubmelbourne

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An 18-year-old who went missing from a NSW beach has been identified as a former Kings School student as a search continues.

Astin Gerstl has been missing since Sunday, when he got into trouble while swimming at Little Bay Beach, Arakoon on the NSW Mid North Coast.

Astin Gerstl, an 18-year-old former Kings School student, has been missing since Sunday. Credit: The King's School

The Kings School confirmed on Tuesday that he was a member of the 2025 graduating class.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this profoundly difficult time.
A female probationary constable has spent close to an hour-and-a-half trapped in a crumpled NSW Police vehicle which crashed through the fence of a home in Sydneys west.

The SUV crashed on Bungarribee Road at Blacktown about 3pm on Tuesday.

Fire and Rescue NSW work to free an officer trapped in a crashed NSW Police car at Blacktown. Credit: Nine News

The vehicle was responding to an urgent incident, under lights and sirens, when it collided with a Mitsubishi SUV, NSW Police said in a statement.

A female probationary constable was trapped in the vehicle for about 90 minutes after the crash, with rescuers freeing her about 4.30pm.
For dozens of Sydneysiders who bought into a multimillion-dollar Pyrmont apartment building, their dream of home ownership has morphed into a nightmare after the discovery of serious building defects including uncontrolled cracking in the buildings slab and water ingress through multiple sections of the complex.

The NSW Building Commission has ordered the developer of the Harbour Mill apartment tower to rectify a list of serious defects including cracking in the concrete slab and walls in the basement of the 136-unit development.

The rectification order, issued by the commission, identified seven separate defects including water ponding and ingress in multiple units, water penetration in the buildings basement and inadequate structural connections or supports in balustrades.

The commissions acting director of building compliance, Donald van Keimpema, said the defects had resulted in water ingress, deterioration of building elements, safety risks and loss of amenity for occupants.
Queenslands CFMEU sought to control the workplace health and safety regulator and then launched a campaign against its boss after she attempted to walk back the unions access, the state inquiry into the union and construction sector heard.

Queensland Council of Unions general secretary Jacqueline King was brought to tears recounting her efforts to take a rival unions safety concerns to police  with no response  after a major contractor revealed concerns of employees being stalked.

The powerful inquiry headed by Stuart Wood was launched by the Queensland government following reporting by this masthead and 60 Minutes into criminality, corruption and misconduct in the CFMEU and construction industry nationwide.

King has revealed new details about the CFMEUs bid to control workplace laws in Queensland. Credit: News Corp Australia

Under questioning from counsel assisting Mark Costello, King told the inquiry on Tuesday that since-ousted CFMEU leader Michael Ravbar had attempted to control workplace regulatory figures.
Ukraine and Ireland have signed a partnership roadmap for the period up to 2030, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said.

"Today, we signed a partnership roadmap between Ireland and Ukraine for the period up to 2030, an agreement to strengthen our bilateral relations, particularly in areas such as cyber resilience, education cooperation, particularly between universities and technical institutes, and culture. We are also focused on how we can further strengthen economic ties between us, including business-to-business cooperation, trade, and investment programs," Martin said at a joint press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in Dublin on Tuesday.
A man has died and his stepson was seriously injured when a retaining wall collapsed on them in South Brisbane on Tuesday.

Emergency crews responded to reports of the collapse and two men being trapped just before 9am Tuesday.

A 19-year-old man, who required a prolonged extrication, was transported to Royal Brisbane and Womens Hospital in a stable condition with chest injuries and minor compression injuries to his legs.

Kimura Dixon, 45, died when a retaining wall collapsed on him in South Brisbane. Credit: Nine/Supplied

The teens stepfather Kimura Dixon, 45, died at the scene.
A 17-year-old stands charged with three offences linked to an alleged brawl at a house party in an affluent north Brisbane suburb on the weekend.

The party, held on Friday night, ended with a 16-year-old admitted to hospital for what officers described as a serious wound to his back.

Between 9pm and 10pm on Friday, officers arrived at the Oriel Road home in Clayfield  the same suburb where Universal founder Greg Josephson was fatally wounded during a house party earlier this year.

Police released heavily blurred video of the 17-year-old boys arrest. Credit: Queensland Police

Police said they first broke up a large group of juveniles on nearby Brooke Street, before finding a 16-year-old Eatons Hill boy suffering a serious back wound at the Oriel Road home.
Car parking requirements for Melbourne apartment blocks near train stations will be scrapped, while developers will have to contribute more than $11,000 per new unit built in activity centres to help fund key amenities.

The Allan government expects its new infrastructure contributions system - which will divide funds between local councils and the state - to raise about $4 billion by 2051 across 58 activity centres, where planning laws will be relaxed to allow for more high-rise and higher-density developments.

The state government says up to 40 per cent of residential car parks in the inner city sit empty. Credit: Wayne Taylor

But the property industry has slammed the new contributions scheme, warning that developers already struggling to make apartment projects viable will have no choice but to pass on the costs to home buyers.

The major planning shake-up to be announced on Wednesday also signals the end of minimum car park requirements for apartments close to public transport, with the government arguing the 50-year-old rules had become a major handbrake on home building.
Victoria Police failed to comply with the law when officers conducted dozens of searches for weapons over the past eight years due to a series of administrative blunders that have been referred to the states corruption watchdog.

The force has also launched a fresh audit of at least four operations in the Melbourne CBD over the past three months that might also have been unlawful because police failed to declare the designated search areas in the Victorian Government Gazette.

Victoria Police admits it might have conducted unlawful searches. Credit: Jason South

The non-compliant searches resulted in 33 people being charged or fined. All will be contacted by police and could have a basis to appeal their cases.

A Victoria Police spokesman confirmed the force was aware that a number of weapons search operations are likely to be non-compliant or partially non-compliant with legislative requirements.
Loading A subsequent post by the former personal trainer railing against the government probe read: Newtons Third Law might be that every action has an equal and opposite reaction but Jimbos First Law is f--- around and find out. Sewell and his neo-Nazis have been seeking to rebrand nationally as everyday Australians concerned for their children while they move to form a political party called White Australia. But online their rhetoric is escalating as they aggressively recruit angry, young men for their race war and network with overseas extremists. Last month, two Nazis were charged by the Australian Federal Police over threats to MPs, and last week, Sewell appeared on a livestream hosted by a British white supremacist to brag of the serious money and influence now flooding his group as its recruitment numbers soar. He spoke of his ties with convicted Nazi terrorists such as Benjamin Raymond and Ashley Podsiad-Sharp who are serving time in the UK, and said he sympathised with young recruits who strayed into edgier paths like violent Satanism, such was his own rage at the system.

Im still really angry and like when we win ... here in Australia, Im going to make an example, Sewell said. Im going to do shit thats never been done before. Im going to do crazy shit  I want to make [Mansons] Helter Skelter look like a moderate when we win. Im telling you, these people are going to suffer for what theyve done. In June, Sewell told another far-right podcast his Nazi group had already set up homeschool networks for the mums and bubs and all the young kids around the country, as the group looks to create what he calls a parallel economy and society for white people. In his online posts over the weekend, neo-Nazi Roberts accused those seeking to police how white Australians educate their children of being afraid that those kids may begin tearing down this corrupt and traitorous system alongside their parents. Members of the NSNs mothers groups in Melbourne celebrating summer solstice in December 2024. Credit: Telegram The NSNs mothers groups have been expanding, posting photos online of regular events, usually featuring more than half a dozen women and children in each state.

Loading While many children are not yet of school age, a parent of a former recruit told this masthead that he knew of teens whose parents were established NSN members joining the groups actions as second-generation Nazis. Its terrifying to think they [could be] running anything like a school, he said. I only just got my son back in school after all this. Researchers at the anti-fascist White Rose Society have also tracked the rise of mothers groups, which they say are key to the NSNs tribe and train motto. They said they were concerned for women brought into the fold, then isolated with their children away from non-extremist loved ones. Children born to them will be brought up with extremist views and home-educated in an insular community to become Hitler soldiers, they said. New-Zealand-born Sewell used to work with some of the states most vulnerable children for his job in residential care, and has previously boasted of recruiting hundreds of autistic teenagers.

His fiancee, Rebecca Konstantinou, works as a behaviour consultant in schools with children affected by trauma and disability, though she told a court last month she was currently on leave to care for her two children with Sewell. Loading Sewell laid out his vision for the homeschool network to followers last year, arguing a network of like-minded cliques homeschooling their kids would grow until you could found a school or a series of schools that subscribe to a certain curriculum  across the country and even across the world, and then its very hard for the government to shut down. The operation starts getting too big, he said, even if it still needs to be sneaky where it needs to be sneaky, to avoid government crackdowns. It is a crime to run an unregistered school in Victoria, and in February, the Allan government tightened laws even further, increasing penalties to $23,700 for those who dont comply with child safety rules and other standards.

Loading In mid-2024, Sewell told followers that if the government started making threats to take the children of those in the NSN, there would be violence. Thats the line in the sand, he said. Thats when I become a terrorist. If you take my child off me, Im going to start killing people. And Im going to encourage every single person that I know to also start killing people that are responsible, starting with probably the police and the judges that ordered for a child to come off one of us. Sewells close friend, white supremacist leader Blair Cottrell, has also spoken online of homeschooling young children, complaining in a livestream in 2023 about the Holocaust content allocated to students while he said he was homeschooling a young girl in the family. Kids should opt for homeschooling because the school system is corrupt and dangerous, he said, but argued it would be better to get kids together in a group so they could still socialise. Cottrell has previously called for Australian students to read Adolf Hitlers Mein Kampf and for the Nazi dictators picture to hang in every classroom.
Full cells are seeing people on remand not being brought into court according to police and corrections. Credit: Wayne Taylor

Magistrate Samantha Poulter ordered representatives from Corrections Victoria and Victoria Police to appear at Heidelberg court every day until a plan could be hatched to ensure an Indigenous woman awaiting sentencing in the Koori Court was brought in.

A prisons boss has been forced to admit the system is under massive pressure from Victorias bail reforms, as a rise in custody numbers causes dozens of inmates to miss hearings every day.

Poulters frustrations boiled over after Corrections Victoria twice failed to bring the woman to court to be sentenced.

Corrections Victoria Assistant Commissioner Jenny Hosking told Poulter that on that particular morning, 325 people were already in police cells across the state, and there was no room to bring the woman in from the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.

This, she said, had been caused by changes to the bail laws placing the system under enormous pressure and causing unintended consequences, which were also resulting in costs orders being made against the state.

Were making every effort, but its an impossible situation at the moment, Hosking told the magistrate.

Its definitely not something any of us are blind to, nor is it something we want to happen. The system is under massive pressure.
During the same hearing, at the Melbourne Magistrates Court, he also pleaded guilty to breaching an intervention order twice in April 1999. Charges struck out by the court after Lisa Lynns death included making threats to kill her in April 1999 and breaching an intervention order during the same month. It came during what a court heard was a bitter break-up and custody dispute before Lisa Lynn was found dead on the front lawn of her home. A coroner found she died, out in the elements, from a combination of prescription drug and alcohol toxicity, while her two young sons remained alone inside the sprawling country home on Zig Zag Road in October 1999. No one was charged over her death. Following his conviction over the missing campers murder, the court heard Lisa Lynn was his most significant relationship. The pair met when she was 21 and working as an RAAF signals operator, and he was 19.

The pair moved to Western Australia and then Tasmania together, where she was heavily involved in the church, before they moved back to Victoria in the mid to late 90s. The court heard that when their relationship fell into difficulties, Gregory Lynn moved out of the family home and began a relationship with another woman. Gregory Lynn arrives at the Supreme Court in September 2024. Credit: Joe Armao Court orders were then put in place, limiting his contact with Lisa and their two young sons. Lynn married his current wife, Melanie, in 2004.

In May 2024, during courtroom conversations when the jury was not present, Crown prosecutor Daniel Porceddu raised calling the family of Lynns late wife to testify about his character and how they maintain Lisa Lynn died as a result of his persistent abusive ways. Porceddu said he had an unsigned statement from the accused, from police records, that had him accepting his prior conduct as allegedly including breaking into his family home, stealing keys and taking a car, and on one occasion, pushing his then wife, Lisa Lynn. Porceddu also read out a statement from Lisa Lynns family, who asked not to be identified. Lisa Lynn kept a diary from the day Greg left the marriage, her father said. In it, her father said his daughter feared repercussions from Lynn and lived in terror, so she did not pursue charges against him once they separated.

When their relationship commenced, everything was good. For some time, Greg wandered in and out of employment with various jobs, her father wrote to the Supreme Court. I was aware of the verbal abuse Greg was always [putting] on Lisa since the marriage began. Before their separation  Greg had been making very serious death threats against her and they continued right through until her death. Lisa kept a diary from the day Greg left the marriage  threats and verbal abuse  to the children made by Greg. I am also aware the police had to assist Lisa with an [intervention order] as a result of the above and the fact Greg broke into the house and stole the car, leaving Lisa with two young children and no transport  no money. Family court, child maintenance, very messy and bitter from Gregs side. Greg asking for totally unreasonable demands. Porceddu also read a statement from Lisa Lynns mother, which said Lynn did not support his former partner after their separation and frequently subjected her to physical and psychological abuse.

I made many trips to Mount Macedon  to help Lisa with the kids because she wasnt getting any support from Greg, she wrote. Loading In addition to not gaining any support from Greg, he would subject her to physical and psychological abuse on a frequent basis. Losing his temper for no reason, blaming Lisa for anything that went wrong. Hed yell  things, push her around. I was not inclined to interfere, Lisa pleaded with me not to interfere. Lisa would say to me if I got involved ... it would make it worse for me. He has a warped mind, he has done things in the past like to animals and neighbours pets, and refused to feed the children. One time, in an uncontrolled rage at the Macedon Hotel, he verbally attacked a man in the bar  then redirected that rage to Lisa when we left the hotel. The statements were withheld from the jury as Lynns defence team labelled them prejudicial.

Earlier, Detective Senior Constable Brett Florence had been asked about Lynns past. He noted some things remained in the police file. Mr Lynns previous wife was located deceased and there was an inquest in relation to her death. The dossier for that investigation related to that ... he was  taken back to the property and while he was in custody escaped from their custody and later arrested, Florence told a pre-trial hearing. Florence said police records showed that after Lynn escaped custody, he allegedly hid in the nearby bush and attempted to locate something hidden in the Macedon area. He was rearrested a short time later, the officer said. [Police database] LEAP [also] indicated a breach of an intervention order.

In January 2023, magistrate Brett Sonnet ordered a suppression of the information about the killers prior interactions with police, later bolstering the order in November 2024, after accusing one of the countrys largest media organisations of outrageous, unfair reporting. Lawyers for media outlets, including the Herald Sun, ABC and this masthead, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court to argue that a suppression order preventing publication should be lifted after Lynns conviction. Instead, Sonnet largely used the hearing to suggest it was the unified view of all magistrates and the court that a recent, unrelated Herald Sun story highlighting the topic of deportation at a recent training conference was in error and stooped to the lowest possible standard imaginable. Sonnet said the press had already engaged in extensive reporting of Lynns trial and on almost every matter youve been able to do so, before strengthening the suppression order. Gregory Lynn is awaiting a decision on his appeal against his conviction and sentence over Carol Clays murder.
A farmer who died while trying to fight a bushfire on Western Australias south coast on Monday afternoon has been identified as Shire of Ravensthorpe deputy president Mark Mudie.

Mudie had been responding to a bushfire emergency that was threatening properties in the agricultural region, and was operating a front-end loader to establish a firebreak on his West River farm, when his vehicle was engulfed by flames.

Mark Mudie. Credit: Ravensthorpe Wildflower Show and Herbarium

WA Police said he died at the scene. Detective Inspector Rhonda Alexander said Mudie was working with others to stop the blaze.

Just after 2pm [Monday] afternoon, emergency services were called  to a large fire in the [Ravensthorpe] area, she said.
Kolodiy is a patriot: his company, Koza Dereza, makes clothes with traditional designs, and his charity, Wheels of Victory, transports toughened 4WD vehicles to the front to help soldiers in battle. He worries that people do not really understand what is happening in Ukraine. He feels the Russian onslaught is destroying the world he knew. Composite of screenshots from app showing air-raid alerts in Ukraine Credit: SMH The records show that Russia is blasting Ukraine with a devastating intensity at the very time US President Donald Trump says a peace deal is close. Trumps personal envoy, Steve Witkoff, is expected in Moscow on Tuesday (early on Wednesday, AEDT) to encourage Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to end the war. There is no sign, however, that Putin will accept peace unless it comes with a capitulation from Ukraine. The tally shows a surge in strikes this year and new peaks in recent weeks, including 476 drones and 48 missiles in a single night on November 19, when Ternopil was struck. Russia launched 464 drones and 22 missiles on November 25. It attacked power systems around Kyiv on Saturday, leaving 600,000 without power for much of that day.

In the latest attack, a Russian missile killed four people and wounded 40 others when a ballistic missile struck a civilian target in Dnipro, in eastern Ukraine. Most attacks are at night, but this one was on Monday morning. One study of the missile strikes, by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, shows a dramatic escalation in the second half of this year. Another study, reported by The Kyiv Independent based on work by Dragon Capital, found that Russia launched 359 missiles and more than 8000 drones in October and November. It said Ukrainian forces intercepted 80 per cent of drones but only 27 per cent of missiles.

Ukraines former foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, says the attacks are part of a pattern that shows Putin is under insufficient pressure to sign a peace deal. The sequence of contrasting events captured the grim essence of the outgoing year, he writes in The Guardian about the latest attacks. Rescue workers at the site of a strike in Ternopil on November 19. Credit: AP By day, diplomatic battles are fought: hopeful statements are issued from Washington, London, Brussels and Kyiv. Immense energy is expended on containing Donald Trumps initiatives. By night, Putin brutally reminds the world that, for him, war remains the primary tool for achieving peace. Kuleba concludes that genuine peace will come only when there is a more forceful response from America and Europe to deter Russia.

Putin is convinced that time is on his side  that Ukraine and its partners are approaching exhaustion, he writes. His motivation to sign a deal that does not give him the maximum possible gain is close to zero. Putins own words show Kuleba is right. The Russian leader last week said Russia was ready to keep on fighting until the last Ukrainian dies. Then, on Sunday, he expressed confidence in seizing the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk. Russian forces are advancing in practically all directions, he said. Calculating that Europe and America will not do enough to stop him, Putin increases his attacks while Trump and his aides try to negotiate a peace. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is trying to gain more support while Trump sends Witkoff to see Putin, given the risk that the White House will expect Ukraine to sacrifice its long-term security to secure a ceasefire.

Zelensky met French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday in Paris (early on Tuesday, AEDT), and the two men joined a call with leaders from Britain, Germany, Poland, Italy, Norway, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands. The talks included NATO and the European Union. Loading The next step for the Ukrainian leader is an official visit to Ireland on Tuesday with his wife, Olena, including an address to the nations parliament, the Oireachtas. European leaders are showing their support for Ukraine. Even so, their words are not enough to deter Putin, who feels he is on a historic mission to reclaim the Russian empire. Ukrainians see a weak peace deal as an invitation to Putin to wage war again later. And they see the missile and drone strikes as proof that Putin does not really want peace at all.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has said there is no consensus in the alliance on Ukraine's accession to the organization, but emphasizes the validity of the principles of the 1949 Washington Treaty that any European country that shares the values of the alliance can become a member.

"Regarding the specific issue of Ukraine's membership in NATO, I believe it is important, perhaps, to separate the principle from the practice. The practical situation is that, as you know, Ukraine's accession to NATO requires a consensus of all allies. And now, as you know, there is no consensus on Ukraine's accession to NATO. As for the principle, it is the 1949 Washington Treaty, and this Washington Treaty is still valid, as well as (valid  IF-U) what we decided at the 2024 Washington Summit," Rutte said on Tuesday at a press conference in Brussels, answering questions about Ukraine's future membership in the alliance.

Article 10 of the Washington Treaty states that "the Parties may, by unanimous consent, invite any other European State which is in a position to promote the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area to accede to this Treaty."
Washington: US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth says a second lethal strike on a suspected drug boat was the correct decision and was made in the fog of war, despite the attack now being at the centre of war crimes allegations against the US.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump reiterated his threat to imminently begin airstrikes on alleged drug cartel targets on land, as well as on the water.

This is called the fog of war. This is what you in the press dont understand: Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. Credit: AP

Hegseth said he watched the initial September 2 strike live  it being the first of 21 hits on alleged drug boats off the waters of South America to date  but then left to attend meetings, and did not witness any survivors.

He said he was informed one or two hours later that the commander in charge of the operation, Admiral Mitch Bradley, decided to strike again, reportedly killing two men who survived the initial attack.
Anil Ambani moves SC against SBI classification of his account as fraud





NEW DELHI :

INDUSTRIALIST Anil Ambani has moved the Supreme Court challenging an order of the Bombay High Court which upheld the State Bank of Indias (SBI) decision classifying his and Reliance Communications accounts as fraud. The matter is yet to be listed for hearing. The High Court had on October 3 dismissed Ambanis plea challenging the SBI decision and said there was no merit in the plea. The SBI had last year classified the accounts as fraud, alleging misappropriation of funds by entering into transactions that violated the terms of loans extended by it.

Ambani moved the HC, arguing that the bank had not followed the principles of natural justice as it did not grant him a hearing. Certain documents, based on which the classification orders were passed, were not provided to him initially and were furnished only after six months, the petition claimed. The bank this year lodged a complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which searched premises linked to Reliance Communications and Ambanis residence. The CBI said it had registered a complaint after the State Bank of India claimed a loss of Rs 2,929.05 crore resulting from alleged misappropriation by Reliance Communications and Anil Ambani.
Core qualities of forensic scientist are integrity, patience, scientific curiosity, objectivity





By Kabir Mahajan :

The field offers immense opportunities. Believe firmly in your subject and in yourself. Work hard, stay focuse, and do not stop until you achieve your goals. Your journey may be challenging, but it is always worth it. said in an exclusive conversation with The Hitavada. Dr Neeti Kapoor, a Class-I Gazetted Officer and Assistant Professor (Senior Scale) at the Government Institute of Forensic Science in Nagpur, encapsulate the passion that has driven her remarkable 13-year career. Dr Kapoor's journey, rooted in early fascination with crime documentaries and nurtured through her studies at Dr Hari Singh Gaur University, stands as a testament to the power of scientific discipline in the pursuit of justice. For four consecutive years (2022-2025), she has been listed among the Top 2% Scientists Worldwide by Stanford University, a rare achievement for a young female Class-I Gazetted Officer from the Government of Maharashtra.

This recognition highlights the impact of her prolific research, which includes over 51 high-impact articles in prestigious journals like Nature and The Lancet, along with two patents. Her research approach is uniquely practical. "My research always begins with a practical problem faced in the field," she said. This focus on improving investigative efficiency led to her most cherished contribution which is fingerprint research, demonstrated how a single latent fingerprint can determine its hand of origin an invaluable tool for real-world investigations. Dr Kapoor is a dedicated mentor, nurturing young researchers by involving them as co-authors and encouraging scientific rigor. She believes the core qualities of a forensic scientist are integrity, patience, scientific curiosity and objectivity. Her commitment extends directly to law enforcement. Dr Kapoor provides extensive training, including realistic mock crime scene investigations, to Maharashtra Police officers.

These exercises are crucial, as she explains, because they provide a safe environment to make mistakes, learn and refine techniques, Ultimately preventing mistakes that could hamper real investigations. Her guidance has led police teams to win numerous medals in both State and All India Police Duty Meets. Dr Kapoor has witnessed the dramatic evolution of forensic science in India. The growth has been remarkable, she observes, noting the shift from limited academic programs to structured degrees and career opportunities extending beyond government labs into multinational firms and private consulting. Looking ahead, she believes the future of investigations lies in scientific reconstruction, simulation and AI-based interpretation. She advocates for India to strengthen its forensic infrastructure through increased research funding, modern facilities and recognising forensic science as a distinct, independent discipline.

Dr Kapoor champions women in STEM, noting that the field is becoming more inclusive and offering immense opportunities for those with analytical skills and a desire for meaningful societal impact. Her success, recognised with awards like the Global Nagpur Women Achiever Award, proves that dedication and honesty can produce world-class science even from a city like Nagpur, illuminating the path for future generations of women in science.
The Polish terminal operator CLIP Terminals has signed a construction agreement with a consortium of companies. As part of the deal, an intermodal terminal will be built in the town of Zabrze, southern Poland, and track infrastructure will be modernized, Railfreight.com ezine has reported.

The ezine said that the value of the contract is around EUR 22 million. The work should be completed by 30 June of 2026.

"The signing of this agreement is another step in implementing our strategy for the development of intermodal infrastructure in Poland. The Zabrze terminal will be one of the most modern facilities in the region, enabling it to handle the growing volume of transport between the EU and Ukraine," commented Agnieszka Hips, President of the Management Board of the CLIP Group.

CLIP said that Zabrze will become a "key point on the intermodal transport map," according to CLIP. The terminal will feature modern transshipment infrastructure, supporting road and rail transport, and the modernised track system should allow for the handling of more trains and shorter operating times.
Distt admn all set for local body polls today





Staff Reporter :

District voters return to the polls on Tuesday as long-delayed elections for 15 Municipal Councils and 12 Nagar Panchayats finally move from uncertainty to execution. The administrative machinery, often criticised for procedural drift in recent months, enters the field under a tightened framework laid down by the State Election Commission (SEC). Polling is being conducted at 853 stations with 7,29,810 voters, including 3,64,148 women; 3,65,635 men; and 27 other voters registered to cast their votes. With several councils facing leadership voids since the expiry of their earlier terms, the vote is expected to recalibrate local power structures and define the administrative trajectory of these bodies for the next five years.

To support the turnout, the State Government has sanctioned paid leave for employees residing in polling areas. A Government Resolution (GR) issued on Friday clarified that those working outside polling zones, but living within them, are equally entitled to a paid holiday to ensure unhindered participation. The intent is to eliminate the routine deterrent of week-day employment and to affirm that municipal elections warrant the same civic seriousness as Assembly and Parliamentary polls. The district administration has assembled its personnel in full strength. A deployment of 6,285 polling officers has been spread across the booths.

Deputy District Election Officer Vinod Jadhav confirmed that stations have been provisioned with essential facilities like drinking water, medical aid, ramps and support services for persons with disabilities. The emphasis, he said, is on eliminating preventable obstacles that often suppress participation, especially in smaller and rural-urban fringe councils where access gaps can be stark. Tuesdays polling marks more than a logistical exercise; it represents a return to institutional routine that had stalled for far too long. If the process proceeds without disorder, it may help repair public confidence in grassroots governance mechanisms. By nightfall, the district will know whether its renewed administrative discipline has translated into a credible and inclusive electoral day.
Heated arguments in and outside House mark first day., Cough syrup deaths and farmers issue rock the House





By Bhavana :

Aparajita Shukla AS EXPECTED, the five-day Winter Session of State Assembly started with protests and a dramatic representation of Chhindwara cough syrup tragedy matter by the Opposition members in Assembly complex on Monday. Followed by legislative business on a stormy note over unemployment, compressed session and farmers issues. At the beginning, House paid tributes to those who recently lost their lives in the country but the atmosphere in the Assembly soon turned stormy over short period of session and farmers matter.

Amid chaos Speaker Narendra Singh Tomar had to adjourn the House till 3 pm. Leaders of Opposition Umang Singhar and ruling party exchanged heated arguments over brief Winter Session. The LoP accused Government of escaping from discussion over various issues of public interest and thats why only four sittings are scheduled. Raising the issue of farmers, Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat said that Governments apathetic attitude towards farmers have been highlighted. Now crop damage is not an issue.

Farmers are facing hardship due to inadequate power supply. It was promised to provide minimum support price to farmers on soybean but Bhavantar Scheme is nothing less than a tool to mislead our farmers. Even centers for maize crop have not been decided yet. Our farmers are bound to sell their crops to traders on low prices. Congress MLA from Tikamgarh, Yadavendra Singh said that the Government is lying on the issue. Farmers in Bundelkhand are in a very bad condition. Theyre not getting MSP. Even the price difference is just on paper. Farming has become a loss-making business, not a profitable one.

Theres still no survey of fake fertilisers, fake seeds, fertiliser shortages and losses. During Question Hour, MLA Abhilash Pandey asked how many youths have been trained under the Skill Development Scheme? How many people have been trained under this scheme in Jabalpur? Opposition also accused Government of altering the questions to be asked in the House. However, senior BJP leaders denied charges levelled by the Congress. Legislators act against the decorum of House.

Minister Prahalad Singh Patel talking to The Hitavada on the sidelines of the session said whatever complaint Opposition leaders have they should put it before the Speaker. It is against the system to level charges outside the House. Session is going on and Opposition should raise the issue before the Speaker. Earlier, in a symbolic protest, Congress MLAs led by Leader of Opposition Umang Singhar carried posters and dolls highlighting the cough syrup tragedy that killed over 25 children in Chhindwara and other districts.

One woman Congress MLA played the role of demoness Putana and blamed the ruling BJP for the horrific incident. Making mockery over minting money from potato crop in an veiled attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi whose statement to mint money from potato crop, BJP MLA Rameshwar Sharma said that Congress use to make such statements. BJP Government is committed to farmers welfare and several decisions have been taken in this direction. Our Government wont hesitate to take stern action if someone cheats our farmers.

Responding to Sharmas comment indirect on Rahul Gandhi, LoP Umang Singhar said that Sharma very well knows how to prepare shampoo from onion. Hitting back at Singhar, Sharma claimed to bring shampoo made from onion in the House. Their discussion on farmers issue intensified and created uproar in this House as a result Speaker had to adjourn the house till 3 pm.

Earlier, the House paid tributes to former Members of the Legislative Assembly, Ganesan, Governor of Nagaland and former Rajya Sabha Member Prakash Jaiswal, former Union Minister Subhash Ahuja, former Lok Sabha Member, Dharmendra, former Lok Sabha Member and renowned film actor, those who died in the car bomb explosion near the Red Fort in Delhi on November 10. the House also paid tributes to Hawk Force Inspector Ashish Sharma, martyred in an encounter with Naxalites in the forests of Rajnandgaon district, Chhattisgarh on November 19.
High-tech INTERSTATE thief with 28 casesheld, Rs 20 lakh worth goods recovered





Staff Reporter :

THEAyodhya Nagar Police in the State capital have achieved a major breakthrough by arresting an interstate, high-tech thief with 28 cases registered against him across multiple states. The arrest has solved six burglary incidents in the Minal Residency area, with the police recovering stolen goods and cash worth approximately Rs 20 lakh. DCP Zone-2, Vivek Singh, reported that a police team led by Ayodhya Nagar Station Incharge Mahesh Lilhare arrested the accused, identified as Vijendra alias Bunty, from Indore.

The police seized gold and silver jewellery along with a scooter from his possession. Thief Tracked Down Using CCTV and Technology: Following an increase in break-in incidents in the area in May, the police conducted an intensive analysis of CCTV footage, which led to the identification of the criminal. After technical surveillance, the police team tracked the thief to Indore, where he was detained. During interrogation, he confessed to his crimes. Police stated that the accused would conduct detailed reconnaissance of locked houses during the day and commit burglaries at night.

Used Google Maps for Organised Crime: Despite dropping out of school after the fifth grade, the 46-year-old accused, Bunty, is described as tech-savvy and operated his burglaries in an organised manner. He used Google Maps on his mobile phone to identify posh colonies for theft and precisely mark specific houses and lanes. According to the police, the accused has been active in the criminal world since childhood. A total of 28 cases, including theft, burglary, NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act), Arms Act, and related offences, are registered against him in several states, including Rajasthan, Haryana, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh. Vijendra alias Bunty was currently residing in the Amravati district of Maharashtra, where he had started a business buying and selling old vehicles as a cover-up.
NMCs fire brigade to procure foam tender for combating oil blaze





By Sagar Mohod :

To strengthen the Fire and Emergency Services (F&ES), Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is going for induction of a foam-cum-water tender so as to be ready for any blaze, especially where oil spill is involved. Though not many fire incidents in the city require usage of foam, since one cannot predict when such situation might arise, the Fire Brigade unit wants to be ready for any eventuality. Its better to be ready than face situation where one feels helpless. Moreover, more the equipment, more the option to cut down losses, stated Tushar Barhate, Chief Fire Officer (CFO), NMC. Barhate said, the Fire Brigade will be placing the order for the foam-cum-water tender. As to specifications, the foam tank would be of 12,000 litres, while the accompanying water tank would be 1,000 litres. To a question, Barhate said, these days, the delivery from companies is quite fast and within six months, the force would be having the new unit.

The new tender would have a pre-fitted 360 degrees water monitor. This would help in directly aiming at the blaze from a safer distance using the foam plus water mixture. In past, NMC did have one foam unit, but same was scrapped as per policy, it had completed 15-year period. As per rules, all Government-owned vehicles once they complete 15-year life period their registration cannot be renewed. So eventually, Fire Brigade decided to place the order for a new foam tender. The force, at present, does have cylinder filled with foam and if required, they are attached to water cannon and the mixture is sprayed at the required site, depending upon the situation on hand. As to the working of foam, Barhate said, the spraying of foam help prevent spread of the flames.

The oxygen supply is cut off from the oil blaze when spraying of water does not help. Once the flames are deprived of oxygen, the oil-induced fire can then easily be controlled. Otherwise, Barhate said fighting the oil blaze drains of the fighting force energy. Fire fighting of oil blaze is quite risky and traditional method of using is akin to adding fuel to fire. Hence, the foam can be quite handy in handling the dangerous situation because it may trigger major situation at the fire fighting site. Barhate also said, the issue with storing foam is it does not have a long shelf life. The foam loses its viscosity so one cannot invest much in having many foam cylinders. Even otherwise, the city does not have any industrial area, where oil spillage could trigger major fire. Just to be on safer side, NMC will be installing one middle storage foam unit. At times, the MIDC Fire Brigade asks for foam tender from NMC to help control the blaze in the industrial belt.
PESO hosts day-long Chintan Shivir





Business Reporter :

The Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO), under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, convened a full-day Chintan Shivir in the city to align Indias fast-growing energy and allied sectors around clear, practical safety outcomes. The programme brought together senior government officials, public and private operators, and industry associations for concentrated, solution-oriented deliberations. R N Meena, Chief Controller of Explosives (CCE), PESO, inaugurated the event, welcoming delegates and senior PESO officers from across the country. In his remarks, Meena underlined that PESO is not just a regulator; it is a facilitator - guiding industry to build safety right from the design stage.

Meena also underscored PESOs national footprint and century-plus technical stewardship, its network of headquarters, circle/sub-circle offices and specialised centres (FRDC, Sivakasi, National Academy of Petroleum & Explosives Safety (NAPES) Testing Station) and its practice of handholding and training industry to move from outdated to globally benchmarked safety, including examining and nominating competent persons for third-party inspections. The keynote address was delivered by Amol Ket, Director (Explosives), DPIIT, who reinforced the ministrys focus to engage with the industry so that growth, innovation and public trust advance together.
Police Image





PRIME Minister Mr. Narendra Modi is rightly concerned about the public perception of Police in India. He expects the leadership of the Police force in the country to think of ways and means to transform peoples perception about how policing is done. In the process, he expects the Police force to make suitable alterations in the policing style so as to glean maximum positive benefit for the larger society. There is no doubt that Mr. Modi is fully conscious of what the common people think of Police and what actually ails the Police force. Addressing the national conference of the Directors General and Inspectors General of Police, he has expressed his anxiety about transforming public perception with careful and planned efforts.

The Prime Ministers concern and anxiety are quite easily understandable. It must be stated with emphasis that the manner and method of training of the rank and file of Police force in the country has undergone a massive change over the past few decades. It must be admitted that the Police force overall has become smarter in the discharge of its duties -- at all levels. Despite that, in the light of the rapidly changing weave of the socio-political fabric of the larger Indian society, policing must undergo further transformation not just in terms of induction of technology in the tasks and duties but also -- more importantly -- in terms the mindset of the Police force as a common entity. On that count, too, some positive change has been noticed over the past few decades, all right. Yet, despite much effort, the cops have not been able to shed their image as a force that is often bogged down by corruption of worst order. This image has mane shades of grey -- one must admit.

One of the most important reasons for such an image is that the people in political structure have not stayed shy of using the Police as their hand-maiden to get things done. This image has a legacy that started from the British raj when the rulers used the cops as ruthless and cruel beaters of freedom-fighters. The cops who fired countless bullets at the freedom-fighters meeting at Jallianwala Baagh were mostly Indian. Elsewhere, too, a similar picture was available in the country during all stages of the long struggle for Independence.

Had the cops refused to follow such diabolical orders, the picture today would have been different -- as per the opinion of many experts. Now also, the image has changed only to a small measure, and the political leadership is known to abuse its control of the Police force in a big way. If the Prime Minister wishes to change the perception of the Police as an under-performing force and transform it as a super-efficient arm of governance, then some basic changes will have to be made in the way how the country treats this arm of governance. Even in the current political set up in the country, the Police force is allegedly used for non-professional tasks.

A change in the image of the Police force may be brought about only if the Police force is allowed to conduct itself as a fully professional force. The Police force suffers from many legitimate issues and problems, one of those being inadequate numbers of rank and file at all levels. This problem has assumed menacing proportions in most States. True, the Government has been giving a fair attention to the cops and their issues. Yet, this attention is far below par. What the country needs at this stage is a massive input of all resources into the Police force and make it highly efficient. If money is one of the Police forces needs, careful application of standard leadership principles to transform the force into a super-alert entity is another. For, mere technology upgradation will serve only a small purpose. In addition, what Indian police force needs is appropriate importance with complete solicitousness. The Government must spend enough money to modernise the Police, all right, but it must also ensure that parallel efforts are done to make the force future-ready on human resources indices as well.
Police resort to lathi charge onprotesting land dealers in Durg





Staff Reporter :

THE real estate developers gheraoed Durg Collectorate on Monday to protest the steep hike in land guideline rates. During their demonstration the situation escalated, prompting police to resort to lathi charge. Land traders were chased and beaten on the streets. Many protesters were injured during the protest. Police detained a large number of protesters. As per information, a large number of real estate developers and land dealers gathered on Monday to protest the steep hike in land guideline rates. Carrying black balloons and black flags, they marched on foot towards the Collectorate. Traders say the new rates have made land and house registration extremely expensive, leading to shutdown of their business.

Upon receiving news of the protest, police increased security in the area. Police from six police stations were deployed outside the Collectorate and Registrars office. Amidst the protests, Congress also protested against the government, brandishing black flags. Main roads leading to the Collectorate had already been blocked. As soon as the protesters reached Patel Chowk, police tried to stop them from proceeding. Despite repeated attempts to persuade them, the crowd remained adamant. Tensions escalated when some people threw water pouches at the police while trying to stop the crowd. After this, pushing and shoving started between the two sides. Seeing the situation deteriorating, the police resorted to lathi charge to disperse the crowd.

During this, several protesters were injured and had to be taken to the hospital. The police have also arrested 7-8 people. During the protest, Congress workers burned effigies of the government and police administration and raised slogans against the government. Regarding the protest, Durg police stated that they used mild force to disperse the protesters. The situation is currently under control. Additional SP Sukhnandan Rathore said that the protesters took out a procession without permission and tried to block the road at Patel Chowk. He said that despite repeated persuasion, the crowd did not listen. The situation worsened when some people in the crowd threw water pouches on police as such force had to be used. The police have registered cases against them for obstructing government work and blocking the road.
Restoration of Samadhi Sthal of Gond King Bakht Buland Shah: Remembering legacy of Founder of Nagpur City

By Prof Anoop Kumar :

These are the pictures of the proposed and sanctioned work of the restoration of the Samadhi sthal of Gond King Bakht Buland Shah and his successors. These pictures have been provided by young architect Aseem Ahmed. These are part of 3D presentation made by Aseem.

IAS (Retd) If one were to ask members of Generation G in Nagpur, Who founded the city?, most would likely respond: Bakht Buland Shah. The reason is evidentthe grand and imposing statue of the Gond King, seated on his throne, stands prominently at Vidhan Bhavan Chowk in Civil Lines. This monument, honouring Nagpurs founder Gond King Bakht Buland Shah, was installed in January 2008 after persistent demand from the citys residents. Yet, if the question shifts to Who was Bakht Buland Shah, and what is his legacy?, answers become scarce. And if one asks, Where is the tomb of Nagpurs founder?, almost no onefrom Generation G, X, Y, Alpha, or even senior citizenswould know the correct response.

Even I was unaware that, hidden within the bustling locality of Sakkardara, lies the largely forgotten and severely neglected Samadhi (mausoleum) of Gond King Bakht Buland Shah, now in a dilapidated state. Bakht Buland Shah of the Deogarh dynasty (Deogarh is near modern Chhindwara) founded Nagpur in 1702 by consolidating 12 small and scattered hamlets into a cohesive urban centre. His reign was notable not only for territorial expansion but also for significant urban growth across central India. Proposal for restoration of Gond King Bakht Buland Shah Memorial The Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) recently placed before the Heritage Conservation Committee a proposal for the restoration and development of the memorial of Gond King Bakht Buland Shah. In an extensive discussion, my colleague and Chairman of NIT, Sanjay Meena, explained that the initiative was prompted by eminent tribal activists of Nagpur, led by senior leader Maya Iwnate.

They had drawn attention to the long neglect of the Samadhi Sthal of King Bakht Buland Shah and other members of the Gond royal lineage. Responding to these concerns, and following instructions from the Honble Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, NIT prepared a comprehensive heritage restoration plan worth Rs 9.6 crore, designed by the renowned architectural firm of Nagpur-Ashfaq Ahmed & Sons, known for Tajbaug restoration. This major heritage conservation initiative focuses on the Gond King Bakht Buland Shah Samadhi Sthal at Sakkardaraone of Nagpurs most significant yet neglected historical sites. The complex marks the resting place of Raja Bakht Buland Shah, the Gond King who founded Nagpur in 1703, along with his heirs.

The project encompasses: n Documentation and site clean-up n Restoration of samadhis using locally sourced stone to preserve Gond-era authenticity n Landscape development with enhanced green cover and improved pathways n Visitor amenities including toilets, seating, and semi-open pavilions for information display n Digital information points narrating the Gond dynastys legacy and Nagpurs early history

The initiative seeks to revive the Samadhi Sthal with dignity, ensuring its cultural and architectural significance is safeguarded for future generations. As per the Government-approved Heritage List, the site known as Raje Bakht Buland Shah Samadhi (memorial) is listed at Serial No. 52 and designated as a Grade-1 heritage site. The Superintending Engineer, NIT, sought permission for the restoration and beautification of the site through his letter dated April 29, 2025. A meeting of the Heritage Conservation Committee (HCC), chaired by me on July 2, 2025, took up this subject. A detailed presentation was made to HCC by Architect Ashfaq Ahmed, his son Architect Aseem Ahmed, and one of their colleagues.

The proposal consisted of the restoration and beautification of 0.4 acres of land in Mauza-Nagpur, Khasara Nos. 573 & 586 at Sakkardara. After extensive deliberations, the following observations were recorded in HCC n Evidence of ownership of the heritage sitewhether it remains private property of the Gond descendants or has been transferred to NITmust be presented to the HCC in the next meeting. n Heritage experts of the HCC, including Prof Madhura Rathod of INTACH and the SE, ASI, observed that since the Gond Raja Samadhi Sthal is of considerable antiquity, the inclusion of a Chhatri (canopy), which is not characteristic of Gond tradition, should be removed from the proposal and the modified proposal be resubmitted to the HCC.

In the subsequent meeting, NIT presented evidence of the voluntary transfer of land for heritage restoration by the current varasdar. Likewise, M/s Ashfaq Ahmed Architects submitted a revised design incorporating the removal of the Chhatris and compliance with other observations. Consequently, the crucial project related to the memorial of the founder of Nagpur was formally approved by the HCC. The deliberations, however, sparked in me a deeper curiosity about Raja Bakht Buland Shah. With the assistance of material provided by historian Dr Shubha Johri, member of the HCC, this article has been prepared. (The author is Professor of Practice, IIM, Nagpur, and Chairman, Heritage Conservation Committee, Nagpur.)
SC entrusts CBI with pan-Indiaprobe into digital arrest cases





NEW DELHI :

THE Supreme Court on Monday asked the CBI to carry out unified pan-India probe into digital arrest scam cases and asked the RBI as to why it was not using Artificial Intelligence to find out and freeze bank accounts used by cyber criminals. Digital arrest is a growing form of cyber crime in which fraudsters pose as law enforcement or court officials or personnel from Government agencies to intimidate victims through audio and video calls. They hold the victims hostage and put pressure on them to pay money.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked the States, including Opposition ruled West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana, to accord assent to CBI for probing digital arrest cases in their jurisdiction. It issued notice to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and sought its response as to why Artificial Intelligence (AI) or machine learning technology was not employed to freeze bank accounts used in cyber fraud cases.

The top court, which passed the directions in a suo motu case registered on the complaint of an elderly couple from Haryana, noted that mostly senior citizens were targeted by cyber criminals and their hardearned money extorted. It directed Information Technology intermediaries to provide details and cooperation to CBI in probe related to digital arrest cases. The bench also directed the CBI to take assistance from Interpol to reach cyber criminals operating from offshore tax haven countries.

It asked the Department of Telecom to ensure that telecom service providers do not provide multiple SIM cards to one user or entity, which may be used in cyber crimes. To ensure better coordination with the CBI, the bench asked all States, UTs to set up a regional and State cyber crime coordination centre to deal with such online offences. It asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to ensure views of various Union Ministries, including Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Telecom, Finance Ministry and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, are put before it to deal with cyber crimes cases.

The top court said all States and Union Territories and their police agencies along with CBI are free to freeze bank accounts used in defrauding citizens.
US benefitted immensely from talented Indians.







NEW DELHI :

THE US has been an immense beneficiary of talent from India, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said, and voiced strong support for the H1B visa prog r a m m e , cautioning that shutting it down would actually be very bad for America. The US tech billionaire made the remarks in an interview with investor and entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath on his podcast People by WTF, released on Sunday.

Yes, I think America has benefited immensely from talented Indians who have come to America... America has been an immense beneficiary of talent from India, Musk said. On the H-1B visa, the Tesla CEO said, while there has been some misuse of the work visa programme, he strongly believes that it should not be shut down. It would be accurate to say that... Some of the outsourcing companies have gamed the system on the H-1B front. And we need to stop the gaming of the system.

But Im certainly not in the school of thought that we should shut down the H-1B programme. Thats where some on the right are. I think they dont realise that that would actually be very bad, Musk said. His comments come at a time when the US has launched a massive crackdown to check abuse of the H-1B visa programme, used extensively by American technology companies to employ foreign workers.
Plan has 20 points, some things still need to be worked out  Zelenskyy

Photo: https://www.president.gov.ua/

The Ukrainian and U.S. delegations in Geneva and Florida have worked out 20 points of the plan, some things still need to be worked out, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

"Our delegation, which was at meetings in the United States with the team of the President of the United States, gathered in Ireland this morning. There are now 20 points that were worked out in Geneva, which were finalized in Florida. Some things still need to be worked out from what I saw," Zelenskyy said during a joint press conference with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in Dublin.

The president said the United States is taking serious steps to end the war.

"This is our task, and I am sure that this is our common task of everyone in Europe to really end the war. And not just get a pause in hostilities," he said.

The Head of State of Ukraine emphasized the need for a decent peace.
VED holds seminar on bamboo industries





Business Reporter :

The Vidarbha Economic Development Council (VED) successfully hosted a seminar on Bamboo Industries: A Catalyst for Vidarbhas Growth on Saturday at the Chitnavis Centre, Civil Lines. The inaugural session was graced by M Srinivasa Rao, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Nagpur, as the chiefg, and P Kalyan Kumar, Managing Director, Maharashtra Bamboo Development Board, as the guest of honour. In his address, M Srinivasa Rao highlighted that the Government Resolution (GR) for establishing the Forest Industrial Development Corporation (FIDC) - a dedicated body for promoting forest-based industries - has already been issued and will become fully operational soon. Rina Sinha, President, VED Council, Pankaj Mahajan, Vice-President, VED Council, Rina Sinha, President, VED; Pankaj Mahajan, Vice-President; Bhupesh Shukla, Vice-President; Rahul Upgalawar, Vice-President; Aliasger Wagh, Joint Secretary; Navin Malewar, Aatish Jindal, Premlata Saboo  Executive Members, Rajendra Korde, Member, VED representatives from various bamboo-related associations and others were also present, says a press release.
Vladimir Putin accused European governments of sabotaging the peace process in a series of harsh statements made minutes before a scheduled meeting with Donald Trump's envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in the Kremlin, and said that "European demands are not acceptable to Russia," according to the British The Guardian statement.

"Europe is preventing the US administration from achieving peace on Ukraine," Putin said, without specifying which European demands on Ukraine he considered unacceptable.

Speaking at an investment forum, he insisted that he "does not seek war with Europe," but warned that "if Europe wants to fight war, we are ready now."

According to the newspaper, his comments appeared to be aimed at bridging the divide between Washington and European capitals, which have backed Kyiv in its bid to revise a 28-point peace plan drawn up during previous U.S.-Russia talks that have largely favored Moscow.

The Russian leader also threatened retaliation for attacks on Ukrainian ports and ships in recent days, including several vessels from Russia's so-called "shadow fleet" in the Black Sea. He warned that Russia would "step up strikes on Ukrainian ports and on any ships entering them" in response to attacks on Russian tankers, which he called "piracy."
Ireland supports using frozen Russian assets to aid Ukraine and backs the European Commission's proposal for a loan to Ukraine secured by those assets, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said.

Regarding immobilized assets, Ireland's position is very clear. The country supports using immobilized assets to finance Ukraine's recovery and to provide financial support to Ukraine. Ireland supports the Commission's proposal for a loan based on these frozen assets for the purpose of financial assistance to Ukraine and reconstruction, he said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Dublin on Tuesday.

Martin said this stance is rooted, in part, in the belief that there must be deterrence against such behavior in the future, as the aggressor that has inflicted such devastating damage on a country must bear some responsibility.

Secondly, he emphasized the sheer scale and cost of rebuilding Ukraine and the question of who will pay for it. He stressed that it cannot be only European taxpayers, since Europe did not start this war.

He expressed hope that the December meeting will reach a conclusion. Ireland fully respects the concerns of the Belgian government, and these issues must be resolved. This must be a collective agreement across the entire European Union, Martin added.
Seven Grand Managers LLC bought a new stake in American Integrity Insurance Group, Inc. (NYSE:AII  Free Report) during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 50,000 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $920,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Boston Partners acquired a new stake in shares of American Integrity Insurance Group in the 2nd quarter worth about $6,414,000. Emerald Advisers LLC bought a new position in American Integrity Insurance Group in the 2nd quarter worth about $653,000. Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust bought a new position in American Integrity Insurance Group in the 2nd quarter worth about $4,037,000. FNY Investment Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of American Integrity Insurance Group in the second quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of American Integrity Insurance Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,382,000.

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American Integrity Insurance Group Stock Down 2.2%

AII opened at $20.67 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $404.72 million and a P/E ratio of 4.59. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $22.92. American Integrity Insurance Group, Inc. has a one year low of $15.77 and a one year high of $26.36.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

American Integrity Insurance Group ( NYSE:AII Get Free Report ) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 12th. The company reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.10. American Integrity Insurance Group had a return on equity of 37.99% and a net margin of 31.63%.The firm had revenue of $62.03 million for the quarter.

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on AII shares. JMP Securities increased their price objective on American Integrity Insurance Group from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a market outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Citigroup reiterated an outperform rating on shares of American Integrity Insurance Group in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Citizens Jmp raised their price target on American Integrity Insurance Group from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a market outperform rating in a report on Monday, November 17th. Weiss Ratings restated a sell (e+) rating on shares of American Integrity Insurance Group in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of American Integrity Insurance Group from $22.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $26.80.

Read Our Latest Research Report on AII

Insider Transactions at American Integrity Insurance Group

In related news, Director Steven E. Smathers sold 171,800 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total value of $3,264,200.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 173,414 shares in the company, valued at $3,294,866. The trade was a 49.77% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Robert C. Ritchie sold 475,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.00, for a total transaction of $9,025,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,454,500 shares of the companys stock, valued at $46,635,500. The trade was a 16.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 3,000,000 shares of company stock valued at $57,000,000 in the last quarter.

American Integrity Insurance Group Company Profile

(Free Report)

We are a profitable and growing insurance group headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Through our insurance carrier subsidiary, American Integrity Insurance Company of Florida, Inc (AIICFL), we provide personal residential property insurance for single-family homeowners and condominium owners as well as coverage for vacant dwellings and investment properties, predominantly in Florida.

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Want to see what other hedge funds are holding AII? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for American Integrity Insurance Group, Inc. (NYSE:AII  Free Report).

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Agnico Eagle Mines (NYSE:AEM  Get Free Report) (TSE:AEM) was downgraded by Wall Street Zen from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Sunday.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on AEM. Raymond James Financial lifted their price objective on Agnico Eagle Mines from $155.00 to $182.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Bank of America boosted their price target on Agnico Eagle Mines from $209.00 to $226.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Weiss Ratings restated a buy (a-) rating on shares of Agnico Eagle Mines in a report on Wednesday, November 26th. Zacks Research cut shares of Agnico Eagle Mines from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, CIBC increased their price target on shares of Agnico Eagle Mines from $165.00 to $231.00 and gave the stock an outperformer rating in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Buy and an average target price of $185.50.

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Agnico Eagle Mines Stock Performance

Shares of AEM opened at $172.05 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $86.31 billion, a PE ratio of 25.12, a PEG ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 2.03. The companys 50 day moving average price is $166.28 and its 200 day moving average price is $142.27. Agnico Eagle Mines has a 52 week low of $76.91 and a 52 week high of $187.50.

Agnico Eagle Mines (NYSE:AEM  Get Free Report) (TSE:AEM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The mining company reported $2.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. Agnico Eagle Mines had a net margin of 32.62% and a return on equity of 15.97%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.14 EPS. Research analysts expect that Agnico Eagle Mines will post 4.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Pure Portfolios Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Agnico Eagle Mines by 1.6% during the third quarter. Pure Portfolios Holdings LLC now owns 3,781 shares of the mining companys stock worth $637,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Agnico Eagle Mines by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,640 shares of the mining companys stock valued at $951,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA raised its stake in Agnico Eagle Mines by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA now owns 4,446 shares of the mining companys stock valued at $749,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. Blue Bell Private Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Agnico Eagle Mines by 59.7% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Bell Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 198 shares of the mining companys stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the period. Finally, Evergreen Capital Management LLC grew its position in Agnico Eagle Mines by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 8,232 shares of the mining companys stock worth $979,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. 68.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Agnico Eagle Mines Company Profile

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Agnico Eagle Mines Limited, a gold mining company, exploration, development, and production of precious metals. It explores for gold. The company's mines are located in Canada, Australia, Finland and Mexico, with exploration and development activities in Canada, Australia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States.

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Air France-KLM SA (OTCMKTS:AFLYY  Get Free Report)s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded the stock from a neutral rating to an overweight rating. The stock had previously closed at $1.18, but opened at $1.26. Air France-KLM shares last traded at $1.26, with a volume of 6,002 shares traded.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Citigroup restated a neutral rating on shares of Air France-KLM in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Barclays raised Air France-KLM from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on Air France-KLM in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. They set an equal weight rating for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Air France-KLM has an average rating of Hold.

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Air France-KLM Trading Up 6.8%

The firms 50 day moving average is $1.28 and its 200 day moving average is $1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.69, a current ratio of 0.60 and a quick ratio of 0.55. The company has a market cap of $3.31 billion, a PE ratio of 3.00, a PEG ratio of 0.12 and a beta of 1.85.

Air France-KLM (OTCMKTS:AFLYY  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The transportation company reported $0.30 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.39 by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $10.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.92 billion. Air France-KLM had a net margin of 3.30% and a return on equity of 116.09%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Air France-KLM SA will post 0.21 earnings per share for the current year.

Air France-KLM Company Profile

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Air France-KLM SA, together with its subsidiaries, provides passenger and cargo transportation services and aeronautical maintenance in Metropolitan France, Benelux, rest of Europe, and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Airframe maintenance, Engine Maintenance, and Component Support.

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Arkema (OTCMKTS:ARKAY  Get Free Report) and Cabot (NYSE:CBT  Get Free Report) are both mid-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, valuation and dividends.

Volatility & Risk

Arkema has a beta of 1.01, indicating that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cabot has a beta of 0.9, indicating that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.

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Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Arkema and Cabot, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Arkema 2 2 1 0 1.80 Cabot 2 2 1 0 1.80

Earnings and Valuation

Cabot has a consensus target price of $63.67, suggesting a potential upside of 0.60%. Given Cabots higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Cabot is more favorable than Arkema.

This table compares Arkema and Cabots gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Arkema $10.33 billion 0.45 $383.06 million $2.08 29.33 Cabot $3.71 billion 0.90 $380.00 million $6.01 10.53

Arkema has higher revenue and earnings than Cabot. Cabot is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Arkema, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Arkema pays an annual dividend of $3.02 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. Cabot pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Arkema pays out 145.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Cabot pays out 30.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Cabot has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

93.2% of Cabot shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.0% of Cabot shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Arkema and Cabots net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Arkema 2.41% 6.36% 3.31% Cabot 11.14% 25.68% 10.92%

Summary

Cabot beats Arkema on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Arkema

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Arkema S.A. manufactures and sells specialty chemicals and advanced materials worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Adhesive Solutions, Advanced Materials and Coating Solutions, and Intermediates. The Adhesive Solutions segment provides solutions for construction, renovation of buildings, DIY, durable goods, and packaging and non-woven applications; and supplies technologies used in building activities for businesses and individuals, including sealants, tiles, flooring adhesives and waterproofing systems, and technologies used in industry, which include automotive, textiles, glazing, flexible and rigid packaging, and hygiene markets. This segment also offers performance polymers, such as specialty polyamides, PVDF, polyimides, fluorospecialties, and polyetherketoneketone; and performance additives which includes molecular sieves, organic peroxides, thiochemicals, and hydrogen peroxide. The Advance Materials and Coating Solutions segment offers coating solutions, including comprising EU/US acrylics and coating resins; coating additives, such as sartomer photocure resins and coatex rheology additives. This segment also provides decorative paints, industrial coatings, and adhesives; and solutions for applications in the paper, superabsorbent, water treatment and oil and gas extraction, and 3D printing and electronics industries. The Intermediates segment provides fluorogases and acrylics; and industrial intermediate chemicals used in construction, refrigeration and air conditioning, automotive, coatings, and water treatment sectors. Arkema S.A. was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in Colombes, France.

About Cabot

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Cabot Corporation operates as a specialty chemicals and performance materials company. The company operates through two segments, Reinforcement Materials and Performance Chemicals. It offers reinforcing carbons that are used in tires as a rubber reinforcing agent and performance additive, as well as in industrial products, such as hoses, belts, extruded profiles, and molded goods; and engineered elastomer composites solutions. The company also provides specialty carbons for use in inks, coatings, plastics, adhesives, toners, batteries, and displays; conductive additives and fumed alumina used in lead acid and lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles; fumed silica used in adhesives, sealants, cosmetics, batteries, inks, toners, silicone elastomers, coatings, polishing slurries, and pharmaceuticals; and fumed alumina for use in various products, including inkjet media, lighting, coatings, cosmetics, and polishing slurries. In addition, it offers aerogel, a hydrophobic, silica-based particle to use in various thermal insulation and specialty chemical applications; masterbatch and conductive compound products that are used in automotive, industrial, packaging, infrastructure, agriculture, consumer products, and electronics industries; and inkjet colorants for inkjet printing applications. The company sells its products through distributors and sales representatives in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. Cabot Corporation was founded in 1882 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

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Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. (NYSE:ASM  Get Free Report) shares traded down 4% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $5.29 and last traded at $5.3490. 1,260,389 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 71% from the average session volume of 4,297,428 shares. The stock had previously closed at $5.57.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on ASM. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Avino Silver & Gold Mines from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. Roth Capital set a $5.50 price target on shares of Avino Silver & Gold Mines in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. Finally, HC Wainwright upped their price target on shares of Avino Silver & Gold Mines from $6.10 to $7.60 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $6.55.

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Avino Silver & Gold Mines Price Performance

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Avino Silver & Gold Mines

The firm has a market capitalization of $824.75 million, a P/E ratio of 268.33 and a beta of 1.67. The businesss fifty day moving average is $5.00 and its 200 day moving average is $4.22. The company has a current ratio of 2.36, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ASM. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Avino Silver & Gold Mines during the first quarter valued at $118,000. Sprott Inc. raised its holdings in Avino Silver & Gold Mines by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. Sprott Inc. now owns 261,850 shares of the companys stock worth $482,000 after buying an additional 10,450 shares during the period. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Avino Silver & Gold Mines during the first quarter valued at about $134,000. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Avino Silver & Gold Mines by 18.5% in the first quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd now owns 31,452 shares of the companys stock worth $58,000 after buying an additional 4,904 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Avino Silver & Gold Mines by 208.7% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 209,440 shares of the companys stock worth $385,000 after buying an additional 141,594 shares during the period. 3.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Avino Silver & Gold Mines Company Profile

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Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. engages in the mining and exploration activities. It focuses on silver reserves in the Durango region of North Central Mexico. It operates through the Silver, Gold, and Copper segments. The company was founded on May 15, 1968 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

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B2Gold Corp. (NYSE:BTG  Get Free Report) traded down 4.5% on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $4.40 and last traded at $4.3950. 4,519,987 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 90% from the average session volume of 43,588,516 shares. The stock had previously closed at $4.60.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on BTG shares. Raymond James Financial upped their price objective on B2Gold from $4.75 to $6.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Friday, October 10th. Zacks Research downgraded B2Gold from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. Scotiabank reiterated a sector perform rating on shares of B2Gold in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Cormark lowered shares of B2Gold from a moderate buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, CIBC decreased their price objective on shares of B2Gold to $6.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $6.00.

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B2Gold Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $5.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.22, a PEG ratio of 0.33 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $4.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $4.07.

B2Gold (NYSE:BTG  Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.01. B2Gold had a negative net margin of 33.12% and a positive return on equity of 5.65%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.02 earnings per share. The companys revenue was up 74.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that B2Gold Corp. will post 0.4 EPS for the current year.

B2Gold Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.02 per share. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 2nd. B2Golds dividend payout ratio is 57.14%.

Institutional Trading of B2Gold

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of B2Gold by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,261,867 shares of the companys stock valued at $6,231,000 after buying an additional 3,640 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in B2Gold by 2.2% during the third quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 204,170 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,010,000 after purchasing an additional 4,429 shares during the last quarter. Rathbones Group PLC grew its stake in B2Gold by 5.9% in the first quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 83,160 shares of the companys stock valued at $236,000 after purchasing an additional 4,623 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its position in B2Gold by 47.3% in the 3rd quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 16,061 shares of the companys stock worth $79,000 after purchasing an additional 5,160 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mondrian Investment Partners LTD purchased a new stake in shares of B2Gold during the 3rd quarter worth about $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.40% of the companys stock.

B2Gold Company Profile

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B2Gold Corp. operates as a gold producer company. It operates the Fekola Mine in Mali, the Masbate Mine in the Philippines, and the Otjikoto Mine in Namibia. The company also has an 100% interest in the Gramalote gold project in Colombia; 24% interest in the Calibre Mining Corp.; and approximately 19% interest in BeMetals Corp.

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Natl Bk Canada cut shares of Bank of Montreal (TSE:BMO  Free Report) (NYSE:BMO) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Monday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on BMO. Royal Bank Of Canada downgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating and cut their price target for the stock from C$168.00 to C$163.00 in a report on Friday, October 3rd. TD Securities raised their target price on Bank of Montreal from C$170.00 to C$182.00 in a research note on Monday, November 10th. National Bankshares downgraded Bank of Montreal from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating and lifted their target price for the company from C$173.00 to C$181.00 in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Raymond James Financial set a C$182.00 price target on Bank of Montreal and gave the stock a market perform rating in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Desjardins boosted their price objective on shares of Bank of Montreal from C$156.00 to C$165.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, August 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of C$173.54.

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Bank of Montreal Trading Down 1.7%

Bank of Montreal Dividend Announcement

Shares of BMO opened at C$173.82 on Monday. Bank of Montreal has a 12-month low of C$121.31 and a 12-month high of C$182.90. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of C$176.23 and a 200 day moving average price of C$163.15. The firm has a market capitalization of C$124.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.23, a P/E/G ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.38.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 26th were paid a $1.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 30th. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.8%. Bank of Montreals payout ratio is presently 55.74%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Alan Tannenbaum sold 9,824 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$175.12, for a total transaction of C$1,720,408.35. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the companys stock.

About Bank of Montreal

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Bank of Montreal is a diversified financial-services provider based in North America, operating four business segments: Canadian personal and commercial banking, U.S. P&C banking, wealth management, and capital markets.

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B&M European Value Retail SA Unsponsored ADR (OTCMKTS:BMRRY  Get Free Report) gapped down before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $8.9420, but opened at $8.4950. B&M European Value Retail shares last traded at $8.4950, with a volume of 1,803 shares traded.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Zacks Research cut shares of B&M European Value Retail from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy.

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B&M European Value Retail Stock Performance

B&M European Value Retail Company Profile

The stocks 50-day moving average price is $10.53 and its 200 day moving average price is $12.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.95, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 1.35.

(Get Free Report)

B&M European Value Retail SA operates general merchandise and grocery stores. The company operates a chain of stores under the B&M, Heron Foods, and B&M Express in the United Kingdom; and stores under the B&M brand in France. It also provides property management services. The company was founded in 1978 and is based in Munsbach, Luxembourg.

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Broadstone Net Lease (NYSE:BNL  Get Free Report)s stock had its market outperform rating restated by equities research analysts at Citizens Jmp in a research report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $21.00 price objective on the stock. Citizens Jmps price objective suggests a potential upside of 20.00% from the companys current price.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. KeyCorp raised shares of Broadstone Net Lease from a sector weight rating to an overweight rating and set a $20.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a hold (c+) rating on shares of Broadstone Net Lease in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on shares of Broadstone Net Lease in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. They issued an overweight rating and a $21.00 price objective on the stock. JMP Securities restated a market outperform rating and set a $21.00 target price on shares of Broadstone Net Lease in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Finally, BTIG Research reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of Broadstone Net Lease in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Broadstone Net Lease currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $20.20.

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Broadstone Net Lease Price Performance

NYSE:BNL opened at $17.50 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.23 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $18.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $17.26. Broadstone Net Lease has a 1 year low of $13.96 and a 1 year high of $18.87.

Broadstone Net Lease (NYSE:BNL  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.23). Broadstone Net Lease had a net margin of 20.04% and a return on equity of 2.91%. The company had revenue of $114.17 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.89 million. Broadstone Net Lease has set its FY 2025 guidance at 1.490-1.500 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Broadstone Net Lease will post 1.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Broadstone Net Lease

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Evermay Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Broadstone Net Lease by 1.4% in the second quarter. Evermay Wealth Management LLC now owns 47,560 shares of the companys stock valued at $766,000 after purchasing an additional 656 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in Broadstone Net Lease by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 77,865 shares of the companys stock worth $1,250,000 after purchasing an additional 664 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc. raised its position in Broadstone Net Lease by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 16,574 shares of the companys stock valued at $296,000 after purchasing an additional 737 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Broadstone Net Lease by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 89,265 shares of the companys stock worth $1,432,000 after buying an additional 768 shares during the period. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of Broadstone Net Lease by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 55,951 shares of the companys stock worth $1,000,000 after buying an additional 779 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.07% of the companys stock.

About Broadstone Net Lease

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Broadstone Net Lease, Inc (the Corporation) is a Maryland corporation formed on October 18, 2007, that elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust (REIT) commencing with the taxable year ended December 31, 2008. Broadstone Net Lease, LLC (the Corporations operating company, or the OP), is the entity through which the Corporation conducts its business and owns (either directly or through subsidiaries) all of the Corporations properties.

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Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC  Get Free Report) has received an average recommendation of Hold from the twenty-one brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $40.00.

CNC has been the subject of several research reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Centene from $28.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Centene from $41.00 to $35.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 12th. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price objective on Centene from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an outperform rating and set a $45.00 price objective (up from $36.00) on shares of Centene in a report on Friday, November 21st. Finally, Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Centene from $28.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On Centene

Centene Price Performance

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CNC. Quarry LP bought a new stake in Centene in the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Addison Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Centene by 455.6% in the 3rd quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 739 shares of the companys stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 606 shares during the period. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Centene during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. WPG Advisers LLC lifted its stake in Centene by 44.5% in the third quarter. WPG Advisers LLC now owns 915 shares of the companys stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 282 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bogart Wealth LLC lifted its position in Centene by 11,011.1% in the 3rd quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 1,000 shares of the companys stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 991 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.63% of the companys stock.

Shares of CNC stock opened at $37.89 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.10. The stocks fifty day simple moving average is $36.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.97. Centene has a one year low of $25.08 and a one year high of $66.81. The firm has a market cap of $18.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.49.

Centene (NYSE:CNC  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.21) by $0.71. Centene had a negative net margin of 2.85% and a positive return on equity of 7.82%. The firm had revenue of $49.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $47.50 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.62 earnings per share. The companys quarterly revenue was up 18.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Centene will post 6.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Centene Company Profile

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Centene Corporation operates as a healthcare enterprise that provides programs and services to under-insured and uninsured families, commercial organizations, and military families in the United States. The company operates through Medicaid, Medicare, Commercial, and Other segments. The Medicaid segment offers health plan coverage, including medicaid expansion, aged, blind, disabled, childrens health insurance program, foster care, medicare-medicaid plans, long-term services and support.

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Photo: https://x.com/andrii_sybiha

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andriy Sybiha will visit NATO headquarters in Brussels, the Kingdom of Belgium, on December 3 to participate in the ministerial meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council.

According to the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Sybiha will also hold separate talks with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and the foreign ministers of Ukraine's partner states. "The minister will inform the allies about the intensification of Russian terror against Ukraine, the situation on the battlefield and the dynamics of peace efforts following the contacts of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and recent meetings of the Ukrainian and American delegations," the ministry said.

The ministry said the key goal of the talks at NATO headquarters will be specific solutions and contributions from allies to strengthen Ukraine's defense and resilience, in particular within the framework of the PURL initiative.

It is noted that among the priority topics of the talks will also be increasing pressure on Russia to end its war against Ukraine, strengthening sanctions against the Russian Federation, adopting a decision on a "reparations loan" and full use of frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine.
Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM  Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of Moderate Buy from the twenty analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have given a buy recommendation and two have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $128.6667.

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Bank of America raised their price objective on Exxon Mobil from $113.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, September 10th. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Exxon Mobil from $124.00 to $123.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 15th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Exxon Mobil from $141.00 to $144.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Exxon Mobil from $127.00 to $126.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Exxon Mobil from $134.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Monday, August 4th.

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Read Our Latest Analysis on Exxon Mobil

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Exxon Mobil

Exxon Mobil Stock Up 0.5%

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of XOM. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Exxon Mobil in the second quarter valued at $6,163,719,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Exxon Mobil in the 1st quarter worth $2,730,414,000. GQG Partners LLC boosted its position in Exxon Mobil by 15,135.7% in the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 10,071,077 shares of the oil and gas companys stock valued at $1,197,753,000 after buying an additional 10,004,975 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Exxon Mobil during the second quarter valued at about $607,621,000. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Exxon Mobil by 150.2% during the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 7,602,601 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $819,560,000 after acquiring an additional 4,563,707 shares during the last quarter. 61.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Shares of XOM opened at $116.54 on Friday. Exxon Mobil has a fifty-two week low of $97.80 and a fifty-two week high of $120.81. The companys fifty day moving average is $114.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $111.44. The firm has a market cap of $491.46 billion, a PE ratio of 16.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 17th. The oil and gas company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter. Exxon Mobil had a return on equity of 11.34% and a net margin of 9.17%.The business had revenue of $57.55 billion during the quarter. Analysts forecast that Exxon Mobil will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Exxon Mobil Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 14th will be paid a dividend of $1.03 per share. This is a boost from Exxon Mobils previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 14th. Exxon Mobils payout ratio is presently 59.88%.

About Exxon Mobil

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Exxon Mobil Corporation engages in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas in the United States and internationally. It operates through Upstream, Energy Products, Chemical Products, and Specialty Products segments. The Upstream segment explores for and produces crude oil and natural gas.

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Eldorado Gold Corporation (NYSE:EGO  Free Report) (TSE:ELD)  Analysts at Scotiabank boosted their FY2026 earnings estimates for Eldorado Gold in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, November 28th. Scotiabank analyst T. Jakusconek now expects that the basic materials company will earn $3.20 per share for the year, up from their previous forecast of $3.06. Scotiabank has a Sector Perform rating and a $33.00 price objective on the stock. The consensus estimate for Eldorado Golds current full-year earnings is $1.50 per share.

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Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded Eldorado Gold from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Saturday, October 11th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Eldorado Gold from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an underperform rating in a research note on Monday. Weiss Ratings reiterated a buy (b) rating on shares of Eldorado Gold in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. CIBC upped their price target on shares of Eldorado Gold from $32.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an outperformer rating in a report on Friday, October 10th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group raised Eldorado Gold from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $31.20.

Eldorado Gold Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of EGO stock opened at $31.26 on Monday. The stocks 50 day simple moving average is $27.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $24.17. Eldorado Gold has a twelve month low of $13.29 and a twelve month high of $31.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 2.65 and a current ratio of 3.23. The company has a market capitalization of $6.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.71, a PEG ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.49.

Eldorado Gold (NYSE:EGO  Get Free Report) (TSE:ELD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The basic materials company reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.49 by ($0.08). The company had revenue of $436.44 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $422.25 million. Eldorado Gold had a return on equity of 8.79% and a net margin of 26.07%.

Institutional Trading of Eldorado Gold

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of Eldorado Gold by 33.9% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 16,499,858 shares of the basic materials companys stock valued at $476,679,000 after purchasing an additional 4,173,963 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Eldorado Gold by 228.2% during the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,994,328 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $101,649,000 after buying an additional 3,472,504 shares in the last quarter. Candriam S.C.A. bought a new stake in Eldorado Gold in the 1st quarter valued at $27,281,000. L1 Capital Pty Ltd raised its stake in shares of Eldorado Gold by 22.7% in the 1st quarter. L1 Capital Pty Ltd now owns 8,774,080 shares of the basic materials companys stock valued at $147,580,000 after buying an additional 1,621,173 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invenomic Capital Management LP raised its stake in shares of Eldorado Gold by 127.2% in the 1st quarter. Invenomic Capital Management LP now owns 2,262,181 shares of the basic materials companys stock valued at $38,050,000 after buying an additional 1,266,329 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.58% of the companys stock.

Eldorado Gold Company Profile

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Eldorado Gold Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the mining, exploration, development, and sale of mineral products primarily in Turkey, Canada, Greece, and Romania. The company primarily produces gold, as well as silver, lead, and zinc. It holds a 100% interest in the Kisladag and Efemcukuru mines located in Turkey; Lamaque complex located in Canada; and Olympias, Stratoni, Skouries, Perama Hill, and Sapes gold mines located in Greece, as well as the 80.5% interest in Certej development projects located in Romania.

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Capital Fund Management S.A. increased its position in Primerica, Inc. (NYSE:PRI  Free Report) by 37.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 17,606 shares of the financial services providers stock after buying an additional 4,811 shares during the period. Capital Fund Management S.A. owned 0.05% of Primerica worth $4,818,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PRI. Hilltop National Bank acquired a new position in shares of Primerica during the 2nd quarter worth $31,000. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Primerica in the 2nd quarter valued at $33,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Primerica by 1,714.3% in the second quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 127 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc boosted its holdings in Primerica by 108.5% in the second quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 148 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC increased its position in Primerica by 2,300.0% during the first quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 168 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 161 shares during the last quarter. 90.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on PRI shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a buy (b-) rating on shares of Primerica in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Primerica from $293.00 to $283.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Primerica from $306.00 to $301.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on Primerica from $320.00 to $315.00 and set a market perform rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Primerica from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and lifted their price target for the company from $292.00 to $318.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $301.80.

Primerica Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of PRI stock opened at $256.12 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $8.18 billion, a PE ratio of 11.77 and a beta of 0.90. Primerica, Inc. has a 12 month low of $230.98 and a 12 month high of $304.49. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $264.30 and a 200-day moving average of $266.37.

Primerica (NYSE:PRI  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $6.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.52 by $0.81. Primerica had a net margin of 22.36% and a return on equity of 31.75%. The company had revenue of $838.88 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $817.81 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $4.83 EPS. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Primerica, Inc. will post 20.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Primerica Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 21st will be paid a $1.04 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 21st. This represents a $4.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.6%. Primericas dividend payout ratio is currently 19.12%.

Primerica declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, November 19th that permits the company to repurchase $475.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to reacquire up to 5.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the companys management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Primerica

In other Primerica news, President Peter W. Schneider sold 2,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.30, for a total value of $510,600.00. Following the sale, the president directly owned 7,301 shares in the company, valued at $1,863,945.30. This represents a 21.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Glenn J. Williams sold 2,500 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $259.65, for a total transaction of $649,125.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 33,892 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,800,057.80. The trade was a 6.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Primerica Profile

(Free Report)

Primerica, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides financial products and services to middle-income households in the United States and Canada. The company operates in four segments: Term Life Insurance; Investment and Savings Products; Senior Health; and Corporate and Other Distributed Products.

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Commonwealth Business Bank (OTCMKTS:CBBI  Get Free Report)s stock price traded up 0.3% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $10.65 and last traded at $10.60. 19,834 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 156% from the average session volume of 7,754 shares. The stock had previously closed at $10.57.

Commonwealth Business Bank Trading Up 0.3%

The business has a fifty day moving average of $10.91 and a 200-day moving average of $10.67.

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Commonwealth Business Bank (OTCMKTS:CBBI  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 24th. The company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of $17.58 million during the quarter.

Commonwealth Business Bank Company Profile

CBB Bancorp, Inc operates as the holding company for Commonwealth Business Bank that provides various commercial banking products and services to individuals and businesses in the United States. It offers checking, savings, money market, and certification of deposit accounts; SBA lending; business lines of credit; business term loans; business and commercial property loans; construction loans; and credit cards.

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Distillate Capital Partners LLC lessened its position in Corpay, Inc. (NYSE:CPAY  Free Report) by 6.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 43,064 shares of the companys stock after selling 2,985 shares during the period. Distillate Capital Partners LLC owned about 0.06% of Corpay worth $14,289,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its holdings in Corpay by 54.6% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 10,590 shares of the companys stock valued at $3,693,000 after acquiring an additional 3,739 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in shares of Corpay by 50.1% during the second quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 20,297 shares of the companys stock worth $6,670,000 after purchasing an additional 6,775 shares during the last quarter. Peak Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Corpay during the second quarter worth $2,518,000. Czech National Bank grew its position in shares of Corpay by 7.6% in the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 17,230 shares of the companys stock valued at $5,717,000 after purchasing an additional 1,219 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Impact Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Corpay in the first quarter valued at $8,177,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.84% of the companys stock.

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Corpay Stock Up 0.0%

CPAY opened at $295.92 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $283.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $310.34. The company has a market cap of $20.70 billion, a PE ratio of 20.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 0.95. Corpay, Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.84 and a 1 year high of $400.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Corpay ( NYSE:CPAY Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $5.70 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $5.63 by $0.07. Corpay had a net margin of 25.17% and a return on equity of 39.13%. The firm had revenue of $1.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $1.16 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $5.00 earnings per share. Corpays revenue was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Corpay has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 4.600-4.800 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Corpay, Inc. will post 19.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Several research firms recently weighed in on CPAY. Wall Street Zen downgraded Corpay from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Saturday, October 11th. Williams Trading set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Corpay in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a buy rating on shares of Corpay in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Corpay from $360.00 to $356.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on shares of Corpay from $336.00 to $344.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Corpay presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $379.71.

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Corpay Profile

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Corpay, Inc operates as a payments company that helps businesses and consumers manage vehicle-related expenses, lodging expenses, and corporate payments in the United States, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company offers vehicle payment solutions, which include fuel, tolls, parking, fleet maintenance, and long-haul transportation services, as well as prepaid food and transportation vouchers and cards.

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Distillate Capital Partners LLC cut its stake in shares of Coterra Energy Inc. (NYSE:CTRA  Free Report) by 4.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 595,820 shares of the companys stock after selling 29,062 shares during the quarter. Distillate Capital Partners LLC owned approximately 0.08% of Coterra Energy worth $15,122,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State of Michigan Retirement System grew its stake in shares of Coterra Energy by 5.8% during the second quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 244,459 shares of the companys stock worth $6,204,000 after purchasing an additional 13,500 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp raised its stake in Coterra Energy by 165.3% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 4,213,315 shares of the companys stock valued at $106,934,000 after buying an additional 2,625,126 shares in the last quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Coterra Energy by 30.1% during the 2nd quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 294,598 shares of the companys stock worth $7,486,000 after buying an additional 68,100 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in Coterra Energy by 43.2% during the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 57,542 shares of the companys stock worth $1,468,000 after buying an additional 17,373 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio boosted its position in shares of Coterra Energy by 58.5% during the 2nd quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 87,745 shares of the companys stock worth $2,227,000 after acquiring an additional 32,376 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.92% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on CTRA. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Coterra Energy from $29.00 to $28.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Stephens dropped their price target on shares of Coterra Energy from $34.00 to $33.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Roth Capital reissued a buy rating and set a $27.00 price objective on shares of Coterra Energy in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Coterra Energy from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of Coterra Energy from $30.00 to $29.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $32.86.

Coterra Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CTRA opened at $26.98 on Tuesday. The companys 50 day simple moving average is $24.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $24.63. The firm has a market cap of $20.54 billion, a PE ratio of 12.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.36 and a beta of 0.30. Coterra Energy Inc. has a 12-month low of $22.33 and a 12-month high of $29.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Coterra Energy (NYSE:CTRA  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The company reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.02). Coterra Energy had a return on equity of 10.99% and a net margin of 23.80%.The business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.83 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.32 EPS. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 33.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Coterra Energy Inc. will post 1.54 EPS for the current year.

Coterra Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 13th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 13th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.3%. Coterra Energys dividend payout ratio is 40.55%.

Coterra Energy Profile

(Free Report)

Coterra Energy Inc, an independent oil and gas company, engages in the development, exploration, and production of oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids in the United States. The companys properties include the Marcellus Shale with approximately 186,000 net acres in the dry gas window of the play located in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania; Permian Basin properties with approximately 296,000 net acres located in west Texas and southeast New Mexico; and Anadarko Basin properties with approximately 182,000 net acres located in Oklahoma.

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Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust (NYSE:CEV  Get Free Report) declared a monthly dividend on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, December 12th will be paid a dividend of 0.05 per share on Wednesday, December 24th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 12th.

Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust Stock Down 0.6%

Shares of Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust stock opened at $10.43 on Tuesday. Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust has a twelve month low of $9.31 and a twelve month high of $10.75. The firms 50-day moving average price is $10.26 and its 200 day moving average price is $9.85.

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About Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust

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Eaton Vance California Municipal Income Trust is a close ended fixed income mutual fund launched and managed by Eaton Vance Management. It invests in the fixed income markets. The fund invests primarily in debt securities issued by education, hospital, housing, insured-education, insured-electric utilities, insured-hospital, insured-transportation, insured-water and sewer, transportation, and other sectors.

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Shares of First National Bank Alaska (OTCMKTS:FBAK  Get Free Report) gapped down prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $307.74, but opened at $291.01. First National Bank Alaska shares last traded at $291.01, with a volume of 2 shares.

First National Bank Alaska Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $903.55 million, a PE ratio of 12.21 and a beta of 0.19. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $275.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $267.96.

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First National Bank Alaska (OTCMKTS:FBAK  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The financial services provider reported $6.75 EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $56.17 million during the quarter.

First National Bank Alaska Dividend Announcement

First National Bank Alaska Company Profile

The firm also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 2nd will be issued a $4.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 1st. This represents a yield of 561.0%. First National Bank Alaskas dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 65.47%.

(Get Free Report)

First National Bank Alaska, a commercial bank, provides various banking products and services for business, industry, and individual customers primarily in Alaska. The company offers savings and checking accounts; money market deposits; safe deposit services; certificates of deposit; individual retirement accounts; and personal, home equity, and construction loans, as well as loans for stability and growth.

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Ford Motor (NYSE: F) has recently received a number of price target changes and ratings updates:

11/24/2025  Ford Motor had its buy (b-) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

11/24/2025  Ford Motor had its price target raised by analysts at Evercore ISI from $10.00 to $12.00. They now have an in-line rating on the stock.

11/17/2025  Ford Motor had its buy (b-) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

11/11/2025  Ford Motor was upgraded by analysts at Weiss Ratings from a hold (c+) rating to a buy (b-) rating.

11/5/2025  Ford Motor had its hold (c+) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

10/27/2025  Ford Motor had its price target raised by analysts at Citigroup Inc. from $11.00 to $13.50. They now have a neutral rating on the stock.

10/27/2025  Ford Motor had its price target raised by analysts at Barclays PLC from $11.00 to $12.00. They now have an equal weight rating on the stock.

10/24/2025  Ford Motor had its price target raised by analysts at Piper Sandler from $9.50 to $11.00. They now have a neutral rating on the stock.

10/24/2025  Ford Motor had its price target raised by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $10.00 to $11.00. They now have an underweight rating on the stock.

10/24/2025  Ford Motor had its price target raised by analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada from $11.00 to $12.00. They now have a sector perform rating on the stock.

10/20/2025  Ford Motor had its price target raised by analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $13.00 to $14.00. They now have an overweight rating on the stock.

10/14/2025  Ford Motor had its hold (c) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

10/6/2025  Ford Motor had its price target raised by analysts at UBS Group AG from $11.00 to $12.50. They now have a neutral rating on the stock.

10/6/2025  Ford Motor was upgraded by analysts at Jefferies Financial Group Inc. from an underperform rating to a hold rating. They now have a $12.00 price target on the stock, up previously from $9.00.

10/3/2025  Ford Motor had its price target raised by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $8.00 to $10.00. They now have an underweight rating on the stock.

Ford Motor Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 7th. Ford Motors payout ratio is presently 51.72%.

Ford Motor Company develops, delivers, and services a range of Ford trucks, commercial cars and vans, sport utility vehicles, and Lincoln luxury vehicles worldwide. It operates through Ford Blue, Ford Model e, and Ford Pro; Ford Next; and Ford Credit segments. The company sells Ford and Lincoln vehicles, service parts, and accessories through distributors and dealers, as well as through dealerships to commercial fleet customers, daily rental car companies, and governments.

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Franklin Resources Inc. reduced its position in Enersys (NYSE:ENS  Free Report) by 1.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 52,732 shares of the industrial products companys stock after selling 930 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc.s holdings in Enersys were worth $4,523,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Enersys during the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd boosted its holdings in Enersys by 2,500.0% in the 1st quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 338 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 325 shares during the period. Gen Wealth Partners Inc purchased a new stake in Enersys in the 1st quarter worth $36,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in Enersys by 80.6% during the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 773 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $66,000 after acquiring an additional 345 shares during the period. Finally, Covestor Ltd lifted its position in shares of Enersys by 34.0% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,036 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $95,000 after acquiring an additional 263 shares in the last quarter. 94.93% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Enersys Stock Performance

NYSE:ENS opened at $142.60 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $5.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.28, a PEG ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.13. Enersys has a 1 year low of $76.57 and a 1 year high of $144.58. The stocks 50 day simple moving average is $125.21 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $104.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 3.00 and a quick ratio of 1.91.

Enersys Announces Dividend

Enersys ( NYSE:ENS Get Free Report ) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The industrial products company reported $2.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.20. Enersys had a net margin of 9.60% and a return on equity of 21.99%. The firm had revenue of $951.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $890.27 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.12 earnings per share. Enersyss revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Enersys has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 2.710-2.81 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Enersys will post 9.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 12th will be issued a $0.2625 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 12th. This represents a $1.05 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Enersyss payout ratio is 12.28%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on ENS shares. Oppenheimer reiterated an outperform rating on shares of Enersys in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Roth Capital restated a buy rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of Enersys in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Zacks Research raised shares of Enersys from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a buy (b) rating on shares of Enersys in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Enersys from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Saturday, November 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and four have assigned a Buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Enersys presently has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $126.00.

Read Our Latest Analysis on Enersys

Enersys Profile

(Free Report)

EnerSys engages in the provision of stored energy solutions for industrial applications worldwide. It operates in four segments: Energy Systems, Motive Power, Specialty, and New Ventures. The Energy Systems segment offers uninterruptible power systems (UPS) applications for computer and computer-controlled systems, as well as telecommunications systems; switchgear and electrical control systems used in industrial facilities and electric utilities, large-scale energy storage, and energy pipelines; integrated power solutions and services to broadband, telecom, data center, and renewable and industrial customers; and thermally managed cabinets and enclosures for electronic equipment and batteries.

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Ireland is ready to make its contribution to peacekeeping and monitoring the ceasefire in Ukraine, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin has said.

"Yes, Ireland will be open to monitoring any ceasefire or, indeed, aspects of a peace settlement," he said at a joint press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Dublin on Tuesday.

Martin pointed to Ireland's experience in supporting peace in Lebanon and Africa.

"We want the war to end. Ireland is certainly open to contributing to peacekeeping and to peace monitoring in Ukraine, as well as working on reconstruction," the head of the Irish government said.

He also said Ireland would also be ready to help with post-war reconstruction in Ukraine. Martin added that quite a few Irish companies are already working in Ukraine, especially in the construction sector, and believes that there is a lot that can be done there.

Martin said Ireland is ready, together with their European Union colleagues, to invest in a wide range of programs to support the reconstruction of Ukraine.
A number of firms have modified their ratings and price targets on shares of Gerdau (NYSE: GGB) recently:

11/24/2025  Gerdau had its hold (c) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

11/18/2025  Gerdau was upgraded by analysts at Zacks Research from a strong sell rating to a hold rating.

11/17/2025  Gerdau had its hold (c) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

11/11/2025  Gerdau had its hold (c) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

10/20/2025  Gerdau was downgraded by analysts at Zacks Research from a hold rating to a strong sell rating.

10/14/2025  Gerdau had its hold (c) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

Gerdau Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.0521 per share. This represents a $0.21 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.8%. This is a boost from Gerdaus previous quarterly dividend of $0.02. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. Gerdaus payout ratio is 70.37%.

Gerdau SA, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a steel producer company. The company operates through Brazil Business, North America Business, South America Business, and Special Steel Business segments. It also provides semi-finished products, including billets, blooms, and slabs; common long rolled products, such as rebars, wire rods, merchant bars, light shapes, and profiles to the construction and manufacturing industries; drawn products comprising barbed and barbless fence wires, galvanized wires, fences, concrete reinforcing wire mesh, nails, and clamps for manufacturing, construction, and agricultural industries; and special steel products used in auto parts, light and heavy vehicles, and agricultural machinery, as well as in the oil and gas, wind energy, machinery and equipment, mining and rail, and other markets.

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Global Retirement Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR  Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,680 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock, valued at approximately $293,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Tobam acquired a new stake in Digital Realty Trust in the second quarter worth about $28,000. Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust during the 1st quarter worth about $26,000. AdvisorShares Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $32,000. NewSquare Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 149.3% in the second quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 187 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC increased its stake in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 163.5% during the second quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 195 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares during the period. 99.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Insider Buying and Selling at Digital Realty Trust

In other news, CEO Andrew Power sold 53,269 shares of Digital Realty Trust stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.16, for a total transaction of $9,330,598.04. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Mary Hogan Preusse sold 4,166 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $157.42, for a total value of $655,811.72. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 62,166 shares of company stock valued at $10,814,808. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

DLR has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup upped their target price on Digital Realty Trust from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $210.00 target price on Digital Realty Trust in a report on Friday, October 24th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Digital Realty Trust from a peer perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $194.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, October 20th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Digital Realty Trust from $199.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Cowen reissued a hold rating on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $198.14.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on Digital Realty Trust

Digital Realty Trust Trading Down 2.3%

Shares of DLR opened at $156.40 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 2.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has a 1-year low of $129.95 and a 1-year high of $195.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $53.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.41, a P/E/G ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.96. The businesss 50-day moving average price is $168.57 and its 200 day moving average price is $170.61.

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Friday, October 31st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter. Digital Realty Trust had a net margin of 23.67% and a return on equity of 6.41%. The company had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter. Analysts expect that Digital Realty Trust, Inc. will post 7.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Digital Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be issued a $1.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 15th. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. Digital Realty Trusts dividend payout ratio is presently 126.10%.

About Digital Realty Trust

(Free Report)

Digital Realty Trust, Inc operates as a real estate investment trust, which engages in the provision of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions. It serves the following industries: artificial intelligence (AI), networks, cloud, digital media, mobile, financial services, healthcare, and gaming.

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Global Retirement Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ingersoll Rand Inc. (NYSE:IR  Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 2,975 shares of the industrial products companys stock, valued at approximately $247,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of IR. Rathbones Group PLC increased its holdings in shares of Ingersoll Rand by 1.4% in the first quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 9,044 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $724,000 after purchasing an additional 121 shares during the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Ingersoll Rand by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,918 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $474,000 after acquiring an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc raised its holdings in shares of Ingersoll Rand by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 18,708 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $1,556,000 after acquiring an additional 138 shares during the period. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Ingersoll Rand by 5.3% during the 1st quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,942 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $235,000 after acquiring an additional 147 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its holdings in shares of Ingersoll Rand by 14.2% in the second quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,206 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $100,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the period. 95.27% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

IR has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Ingersoll Rand from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Ingersoll Rand from $83.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Ingersoll Rand from $94.00 to $91.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Ingersoll Rand from $78.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on Ingersoll Rand from $103.00 to $100.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $93.90.

Ingersoll Rand Price Performance

IR opened at $79.19 on Tuesday. The stocks 50-day moving average price is $78.73 and its 200 day moving average price is $80.92. Ingersoll Rand Inc. has a 12-month low of $65.61 and a 12-month high of $105.65. The firm has a market cap of $31.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.66, a PEG ratio of 5.19 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a current ratio of 2.16, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

Ingersoll Rand (NYSE:IR  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The industrial products company reported $0.86 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.87 by ($0.01). Ingersoll Rand had a net margin of 7.31% and a return on equity of 12.14%. The business had revenue of $1.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $1.95 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.84 EPS. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Ingersoll Rand has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.250-3.310 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ingersoll Rand Inc. will post 3.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Ingersoll Rand Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 13th will be given a dividend of $0.02 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 13th. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Ingersoll Rands dividend payout ratio is currently 5.93%.

About Ingersoll Rand

(Free Report)

Ingersoll Rand Inc provides various mission-critical air, gas, liquid, and solid flow creation technologies services and solutions worldwide. It operates through two segments, Industrial Technologies and Services, and Precision and Science Technologies. The Industrial Technologies and Services segment designs, manufactures, markets, and services air and gas compression, vacuum, and blower products; fluid transfer equipment and loading systems; and power tools and lifting equipment, including associated aftermarket parts, consumables, air treatment equipment, controls, other accessories, and services under the under the Ingersoll Rand, Gardner Denver, Nash, CompAir, Elmo Rietschle brands, etc.

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Shares of Gray Media Inc. (NYSE:GTN.A  Get Free Report) gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $8.02, but opened at $8.61. Gray Media shares last traded at $8.11, with a volume of 522 shares traded.

Gray Media Stock Performance

The firm has a 50 day moving average of $9.42 and a two-hundred day moving average of $9.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.56, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The stock has a market cap of $827.95 million, a PE ratio of 5.37 and a beta of 1.10.

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Gray Media (NYSE:GTN.A  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The company reported ($0.24) EPS for the quarter. The business had revenue of $749.00 million during the quarter. Gray Media had a net margin of 5.64% and a return on equity of 10.31%.

Gray Media Company Profile

Gray Television, Inc, a television broadcast company, owns and operates television stations and digital assets in the United States. As of February 28, 2019, it owned and operated television stations in 91 television markets broadcasting approximately 400 program streams, including approximately 150 channels affiliated with the CBS Network, the NBC Network, the ABC Network, and the FOX Network.

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Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE  Get Free Report) is projected to release its Q4 2025 results after the market closes on Thursday, December 4th. Analysts expect Hewlett Packard Enterprise to post earnings of $0.59 per share and revenue of $9.9141 billion for the quarter. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has set its FY 2025 guidance at 1.880-1.920 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 0.560-0.600 EPS.Individuals are encouraged to explore the companys upcoming Q4 2025 earningoverview page for the latest details on the call scheduled for Thursday, December 4, 2025 at 5:00 PM ET.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 3rd. The technology company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.09). The business had revenue of $9.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.77 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a net margin of 3.77% and a return on equity of 9.01%. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 19.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.50 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect Hewlett Packard Enterprise to post $2 EPS for the current fiscal year and $2 EPS for the next fiscal year.

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Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of NYSE HPE opened at $21.95 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $28.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.76, a PEG ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 12 month low of $11.97 and a 12 month high of $26.44. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $23.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $21.54.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Dividend Announcement

Insider Buying and Selling

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 17th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 18th were paid a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 18th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. Hewlett Packard Enterprises dividend payout ratio is presently 63.41%.

In related news, CEO Antonio F. Neri sold 166,666 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Friday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.03, for a total value of $4,171,649.98. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,585,726 shares in the company, valued at $39,690,721.78. The trade was a 9.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Maeve C. Culloty sold 3,738 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.12, for a total value of $93,898.56. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 293,738 shares of company stock valued at $7,252,098 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.36% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 317.3% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 149,810 shares of the technology companys stock worth $2,312,000 after buying an additional 113,906 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 44.7% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 4,456 shares of the technology companys stock valued at $69,000 after acquiring an additional 1,377 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 4.4% during the second quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 23,593 shares of the technology companys stock worth $482,000 after acquiring an additional 996 shares in the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC grew its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 25.8% in the second quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 15,662 shares of the technology companys stock worth $320,000 after purchasing an additional 3,215 shares during the period. Finally, WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the second quarter valued at $207,000. 80.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have weighed in on HPE shares. Piper Sandler began coverage on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. They set a neutral rating and a $24.00 target price on the stock. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a hold (c) rating on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Barclays increased their target price on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Raymond James Financial boosted their price target on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a strong-buy rating in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Thursday, September 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $25.24.

View Our Latest Analysis on HPE

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company provides solutions that allow customers to capture, analyze, and act upon data seamlessly in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Japan. It operates in six segments: Compute, HPC & AI, Storage, Intelligent Edge, Financial Services, and Corporate Investments and Other.

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Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its position in Molina Healthcare, Inc (NYSE:MOH  Free Report) by 13.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 122,472 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 14,498 shares during the quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC owned about 0.23% of Molina Healthcare worth $36,408,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MOH. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT acquired a new position in Molina Healthcare in the 1st quarter valued at about $29,000. Elequin Capital LP raised its position in shares of Molina Healthcare by 170.6% during the 1st quarter. Elequin Capital LP now owns 92 shares of the companys stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Molina Healthcare by 2,140.0% in the second quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 112 shares of the companys stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd lifted its holdings in Molina Healthcare by 2,744.4% in the second quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 256 shares of the companys stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 247 shares during the last quarter. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new position in Molina Healthcare in the second quarter worth approximately $94,000. 98.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Molina Healthcare news, Director Richard M. Schapiro sold 357 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.02, for a total value of $51,058.14. Following the sale, the director owned 11,352 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,623,563.04. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on MOH shares. Barclays restated an underweight rating and issued a $144.00 target price (down previously from $185.00) on shares of Molina Healthcare in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $165.00 price objective on Molina Healthcare in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley set a $158.00 price objective on shares of Molina Healthcare in a report on Friday, October 24th. Truist Financial set a $175.00 target price on shares of Molina Healthcare in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Molina Healthcare from $180.00 to $170.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Molina Healthcare currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $198.93.

Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on MOH

Molina Healthcare Stock Down 2.2%

Shares of MOH opened at $144.98 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 1.68 and a current ratio of 1.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.86 billion, a PE ratio of 8.98 and a beta of 0.55. The companys 50-day simple moving average is $168.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $204.89. Molina Healthcare, Inc has a 1 year low of $133.40 and a 1 year high of $359.97.

Molina Healthcare (NYSE:MOH  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The company reported $1.84 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.97 by ($2.13). Molina Healthcare had a return on equity of 22.95% and a net margin of 1.98%.The business had revenue of $11.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $10.99 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $6.01 earnings per share. Molina Healthcares quarterly revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. Molina Healthcare has set its FY 2025 guidance at 14.000-14.000 EPS. Analysts forecast that Molina Healthcare, Inc will post 24.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Molina Healthcare Profile

(Free Report)

Molina Healthcare, Inc provides managed healthcare services to low-income families and individuals under the Medicaid and Medicare programs and through the state insurance marketplaces. It operates in four segments: Medicaid, Medicare, Marketplace, and Other. The company served in across 19 states. The company was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Long Beach, California.

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Invesco Quality Municipal Income Trust (NYSE:IQI  Get Free Report) announced a monthly dividend on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 16th will be paid a dividend of 0.0631 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.6%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 16th.

Invesco Quality Municipal Income Trust Stock Performance

IQI traded down $0.04 on Tuesday, reaching $10.01. The companys stock had a trading volume of 45,126 shares, compared to its average volume of 171,776. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $9.96 and a two-hundred day moving average of $9.61. Invesco Quality Municipal Income Trust has a fifty-two week low of $8.86 and a fifty-two week high of $10.29.

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Institutional Investors Weigh In On Invesco Quality Municipal Income Trust

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of IQI. Quent Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Invesco Quality Municipal Income Trust in the third quarter valued at $27,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Invesco Quality Municipal Income Trust during the third quarter worth about $69,000. Olistico Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Invesco Quality Municipal Income Trust in the 2nd quarter valued at about $110,000. World Investment Advisors acquired a new stake in shares of Invesco Quality Municipal Income Trust in the 3rd quarter valued at about $112,000. Finally, Elequin Capital LP purchased a new position in Invesco Quality Municipal Income Trust during the 1st quarter worth approximately $118,000.

About Invesco Quality Municipal Income Trust

Invesco Quality Municipal Income Trust is a closed-ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Invesco Ltd. The fund is co-managed by Invesco Advisers, Inc, INVESCO Asset Management Deutschland GmbH, INVESCO Asset Management Limited, INVESCO Asset Management (Japan) Limited, Invesco Hong Kong Limited, INVESCO Senior Secured Management, Inc, and Invesco Canada Ltd.

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JPMorgan Chase & Co. lessened its holdings in iShares MSCI South Africa ETF (NYSEARCA:EZA  Free Report) by 12.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 736,189 shares of the exchange traded funds stock after selling 107,696 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned about 9.56% of iShares MSCI South Africa ETF worth $39,570,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Separately, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in iShares MSCI South Africa ETF by 65.9% in the second quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 9,141 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $491,000 after purchasing an additional 3,631 shares during the period.

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iShares MSCI South Africa ETF Price Performance

Shares of EZA stock opened at $67.45 on Tuesday. iShares MSCI South Africa ETF has a 1-year low of $39.74 and a 1-year high of $69.38. The company has a market cap of $532.86 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.34 and a beta of 0.78. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $65.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.75.

iShares MSCI South Africa ETF Profile

iShares MSCI South Africa ETF, formerly iShares MSCI South Africa Index Fund (the Fund), is an exchange traded fund. The Fund seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of publicly traded securities in the aggregate in the South African market, as measured by the MSCI South Africa Index (the Index).

Further Reading

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Isthmus Partners LLC cut its holdings in Comstock Resources, Inc. (NYSE:CRK  Free Report) by 18.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 188,846 shares of the oil and gas producers stock after selling 41,583 shares during the period. Isthmus Partners LLC owned about 0.06% of Comstock Resources worth $5,225,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Quantbot Technologies LP boosted its position in Comstock Resources by 75.9% in the second quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 239,545 shares of the oil and gas producers stock worth $6,628,000 after purchasing an additional 103,329 shares during the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Comstock Resources during the 2nd quarter worth $4,546,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. purchased a new position in shares of Comstock Resources in the 2nd quarter worth about $93,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Comstock Resources by 2,667.0% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,301 shares of the oil and gas producers stock worth $230,000 after buying an additional 8,001 shares during the last quarter. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd bought a new position in Comstock Resources during the second quarter valued at about $2,614,000. 36.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Comstock Resources Trading Down 1.4%

Shares of CRK stock opened at $26.49 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -110.35 and a beta of 0.24. The companys fifty day simple moving average is $21.22 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $21.07. Comstock Resources, Inc. has a 1 year low of $14.09 and a 1 year high of $31.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Comstock Resources ( NYSE:CRK Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 3rd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.04 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $449.85 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $433.54 million. Comstock Resources had a positive return on equity of 3.65% and a negative net margin of 5.05%.The firms revenue for the quarter was up 47.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.17) EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Comstock Resources, Inc. will post 0.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Several analysts have commented on CRK shares. Roth Capital lowered shares of Comstock Resources from a neutral rating to a sell rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $18.00 to $12.00 in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Comstock Resources from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 12th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Comstock Resources from $9.00 to $8.00 and set an underweight rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Comstock Resources from $21.00 to $19.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on Comstock Resources from $14.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a sell rating in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Comstock Resources has a consensus rating of Reduce and an average price target of $19.60.

View Our Latest Research Report on Comstock Resources

Comstock Resources Profile

(Free Report)

Comstock Resources, Inc, an independent energy company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of natural gas and oil properties in the United States. Its assets are located in the Haynesville and Bossier shales located in North Louisiana and East Texas. The company was incorporated in 1919 and is headquartered in Frisco, Texas.

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J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. increased its position in The Gabelli Utility Trust (NYSE:GUT  Free Report) by 23.8% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 104,742 shares of the investment management companys stock after acquiring an additional 20,163 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.s holdings in The Gabelli Utility Trust were worth $608,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GUT. Moors & Cabot Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of The Gabelli Utility Trust in the first quarter worth $53,000. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in The Gabelli Utility Trust in the 2nd quarter worth about $60,000. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in The Gabelli Utility Trust during the 1st quarter worth about $81,000. Trust Co. of Vermont acquired a new stake in The Gabelli Utility Trust during the 2nd quarter worth about $85,000. Finally, Valley Brook Capital Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of The Gabelli Utility Trust in the 2nd quarter valued at about $99,000.

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The Gabelli Utility Trust Stock Performance

GUT stock opened at $6.03 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $6.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $5.91. The Gabelli Utility Trust has a 52 week low of $4.71 and a 52 week high of $6.20.

The Gabelli Utility Trust Announces Dividend

The Gabelli Utility Trust Company Profile

The business also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 17th will be given a $0.05 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 17th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 10.0%.

(Free Report)

The Gabelli Utility Trust is a closed-ended equity mutual fund launched by GAMCO Investors, Inc It is managed by Gabelli Funds, LLC. The fund invests in the public equity markets across the globe. It makes its investments in stocks of companies providing products, services, or equipment for the generation or distribution of electricity, gas, water, telecommunications services, and infrastructure operations.

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High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas predicts decisive events by the end of the working week in diplomatic efforts to end the Russian-Ukrainian war.

"This could be a pivotal work week for diplomacy, intense talks on ending Russia's war continue. Everyone welcomes the push for peace, except Russia," Kallas said in her statement to the press on Tuesday, following a meeting of EU defense ministers, which discussed Russia's war against Ukraine and European defense.

She said "in this war, there is one aggressor and one victim." "Our job is to do all we can to support the victim and not reward the aggression. The goal is to have a just and durable peace, not a deal that lays ground for a next war," Kallas added.

She called "solid financing for Ukraine" a key issue. "Ministers today insisted that we need to agree on the funding options as a matter of urgency... Our work to build consensus and funding continues. Risks need to be shared  that is very clear  the European Council in December will be crucial in this regard. Ministers also discussed increasing our military support to Ukraine. Europe has already provided over 187 billion to Ukraine, more than anybody else," the EU High Representative said.

Also discussed, according to Kallas, was how to mobilize additional private financing in the defense-industrial sector, in particular through the European Investment Bank.

She said the Netherlands had signed an agreement with Ukraine on Tuesday to set up a production line on its territory.

Answering questions from journalists, the EU High Representative said the Russians had "been very clear, that they have no interest in peace right now." "Again, we need to put them in the position where they need to negotiate. Right now, they are not in that position because they think that they can outlast us, and they also hope that there is a very good offer made, because they see that there is a lot of pressure to put on the victim, but no sacrifices asked from them, at least we do not know that any of the sacrifices have been asked to of them. So clearly, they want to negotiate with those who are just offering them something on top of what they already have. This is clearly their interest, but it should not be ours," Kallas said.

When asked what U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy Stephen Witkoff will talk about with Vladimir Putin in Moscow, and whether there is a threat that he will again try to force Ukraine to make more concessions, she replied, "Yes, I am afraid that all the pressure will be put on the weaker side, because that is the easier way to stop this war when Ukraine surrenders." "But this is not in anybody's interest, not in the interest of Ukraine, not in the interest of European Union, also not in the interest of the global, overall security," Kallas said.
Jet2 (LON:JET2  Get Free Report) was downgraded by stock analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. to a neutral rating in a report issued on Monday,Digital Look reports. They presently have a GBX 1,450 price target on the stock, down from their prior price target of GBX 1,850. JPMorgan Chase & Co.s price target points to a potential upside of 7.86% from the companys previous close.

JET2 has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on Jet2 from GBX 2,059 to GBX 1,857 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a buy rating and issued a GBX 2,100 price objective on shares of Jet2 in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an outperform rating and issued a GBX 2,150 target price on shares of Jet2 in a report on Monday, November 24th. Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a buy rating and set a GBX 2,250 price target on shares of Jet2 in a report on Wednesday, November 12th. Finally, Panmure Gordon reissued a buy rating and issued a GBX 1,700 price target on shares of Jet2 in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of GBX 1,917.83.

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Jet2 Stock Down 2.9%

JET2 stock traded down GBX 39.64 during trading hours on Monday, hitting GBX 1,344.36. The companys stock had a trading volume of 487,398 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,172,323. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of GBX 1,357.73 and a two-hundred day moving average price of GBX 1,570.82. Jet2 has a 12 month low of GBX 1,088 and a 12 month high of GBX 1,963. The company has a market capitalization of 2.54 billion, a PE ratio of 6.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.34 and a beta of 2.27. The company has a quick ratio of 1.49, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 103.30.

Jet2 (LON:JET2  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 19th. The company reported GBX 300.40 earnings per share for the quarter. Jet2 had a net margin of 6.38% and a return on equity of 26.53%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Jet2 will post 170.9134615 earnings per share for the current year.

Jet2 Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Jet2 plc is a leading leisure travel group, specialising in friendly low fares from its award-winning airline, Jet2.com, and package holidays you can trust from the UKs largest package holiday provider, Jet2holidays.

Jet2.com is the UKs third largest airline, flying from 12 UK airports to over 70 destinations across Europe and beyond and Jet2holidays is the UKs largest tour operator.

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Kayne Anderson Energy Infrastructure Fund, Inc. (NYSE:KYN  Get Free Report) announced a monthly dividend on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.08 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.8%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 15th.

Kayne Anderson Energy Infrastructure Fund Stock Performance

Shares of Kayne Anderson Energy Infrastructure Fund stock opened at $12.33 on Tuesday. The stocks 50-day moving average is $11.91 and its 200 day moving average is $12.18. Kayne Anderson Energy Infrastructure Fund has a one year low of $9.82 and a one year high of $13.69.

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Kayne Anderson Energy Infrastructure Fund Company Profile

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Kayne Anderson MLP Investment Company is a closed ended equity mutual fund launched and managed by KA Fund Advisors, LLC. It is co-managed by Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P. The fund invests in the public equity markets of the United States. It invests in stocks of companies operating in the energy sector.

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Shares of Keysight Technologies Inc. (NYSE:KEYS  Get Free Report) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $202.17 and last traded at $201.2680, with a volume of 917447 shares. The stock had previously closed at $197.54.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on KEYS shares. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Keysight Technologies from $195.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Keysight Technologies from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a positive rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Keysight Technologies from $190.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Bank of America boosted their price target on Keysight Technologies from $175.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on Keysight Technologies from $215.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $214.82.

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Keysight Technologies Trading Up 1.9%

The stock has a market cap of $34.59 billion, a PE ratio of 64.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 2.94 and a current ratio of 3.59. The company has a 50 day moving average of $175.74 and a two-hundred day moving average of $168.22.

Keysight Technologies (NYSE:KEYS  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, November 24th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $1.39 billion. Keysight Technologies had a return on equity of 19.53% and a net margin of 10.36%.The businesss revenue was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.65 earnings per share. Keysight Technologies has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.950-2.010 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Keysight Technologies Inc. will post 6.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Keysight Technologies announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Monday, November 24th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the scientific and technical instruments company to repurchase up to 4.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the companys board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Ingrid A. Estrada sold 2,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.98, for a total value of $347,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 106,590 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,544,528.20. This represents a 1.84% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Ronald S. Nersesian sold 30,000 shares of Keysight Technologies stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.88, for a total value of $5,906,400.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 198,389 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,058,826.32. This trade represents a 13.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 32,142 shares of company stock worth $6,279,006. 0.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Keysight Technologies

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Foyston Gordon & Payne Inc lifted its stake in Keysight Technologies by 11.5% in the 1st quarter. Foyston Gordon & Payne Inc now owns 59,851 shares of the scientific and technical instruments companys stock valued at $8,964,000 after buying an additional 6,186 shares in the last quarter. Ground Swell Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Keysight Technologies in the 1st quarter valued at about $361,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Keysight Technologies by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,036,642 shares of the scientific and technical instruments companys stock valued at $155,258,000 after acquiring an additional 20,967 shares during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Keysight Technologies by 46.9% during the 1st quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 64,590 shares of the scientific and technical instruments companys stock worth $9,674,000 after acquiring an additional 20,631 shares during the period. Finally, Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich acquired a new stake in shares of Keysight Technologies in the second quarter worth approximately $621,000. 84.58% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Keysight Technologies Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Keysight Technologies, Inc provides electronic design and test solutions to commercial communications, networking, aerospace, defense and government, automotive, energy, semiconductor, electronic, and education industries in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates in two segments, Communications Solutions Group and Electronic Industrial Solutions Group.

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Several brokerages have updated their recommendations and price targets on shares of Kinross Gold (NYSE: KGC) in the last few weeks:

12/1/2025  Kinross Gold had its price target raised by analysts at UBS Group AG from $31.00 to $33.00. They now have a buy rating on the stock.

11/30/2025  Kinross Gold was downgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating.

11/28/2025  Kinross Gold is now covered by analysts at Desjardins. They set a buy rating on the stock.

11/22/2025  Kinross Gold was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating.

11/20/2025  Kinross Gold had its price target raised by analysts at CIBC from $36.00 to $37.00. They now have an outperform rating on the stock.

11/8/2025  Kinross Gold was downgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating.

10/31/2025  Kinross Gold had its buy (a) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

10/29/2025  Kinross Gold was downgraded by analysts at Cormark from a moderate buy rating to a hold rating.

10/23/2025  Kinross Gold had its outperform rating reaffirmed by analysts at Scotiabank.

10/23/2025  Kinross Gold had its price target raised by analysts at Scotiabank from $20.00 to $32.00. They now have a sector outperform rating on the stock.

10/17/2025  Kinross Gold was upgraded by analysts at Zacks Research from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating.

10/16/2025  Kinross Gold had its price target raised by analysts at UBS Group AG from $27.00 to $31.00. They now have a buy rating on the stock.

10/10/2025  Kinross Gold had its price target raised by analysts at Raymond James Financial, Inc. from $20.00 to $25.00. They now have a market perform rating on the stock.

10/10/2025  Kinross Gold had its price target raised by analysts at CIBC from $22.00 to $36.00. They now have an outperformer rating on the stock.

10/8/2025  Kinross Gold had its price target raised by analysts at TD Securities from $22.00 to $30.00. They now have a buy rating on the stock.

10/8/2025  Kinross Gold had its buy (a-) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

10/3/2025  Kinross Gold was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating.

Kinross Gold Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 26th will be given a $0.035 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 26th. This is a positive change from Kinross Golds previous quarterly dividend of $0.03. This represents a $0.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. Kinross Golds dividend payout ratio is presently 9.79%.

Kinross Gold Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of gold properties principally in the United States, Brazil, Chile, Canada, and Mauritania. The company operates the Fort Knox mine and the Manh Choh project in Alaska, as well as the Round Mountain and the Bald Mountain mines in Nevada, the United States; the Paracatu mine in Brazil; the La Coipa and the Lobo-Marte project in Chile; the Tasiast mine in Mauritania; and the Great Bear project in Canada.

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Lido Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL  Free Report) by 54.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 42,419 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock after selling 50,336 shares during the quarter. Lido Advisors LLCs holdings in Welltower were worth $6,521,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of WELL. SouthState Corp boosted its position in shares of Welltower by 704.8% in the first quarter. SouthState Corp now owns 169 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Welltower during the first quarter worth approximately $27,000. WPG Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Welltower in the 1st quarter valued at $34,000. Saudi Central Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Welltower during the 1st quarter valued at $38,000. Finally, Truvestments Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Welltower during the 1st quarter worth $41,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.80% of the companys stock.

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Welltower Price Performance

WELL stock opened at $203.89 on Tuesday. The stocks 50 day moving average is $183.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $167.86. Welltower Inc. has a 52-week low of $123.11 and a 52-week high of $209.05. The company has a market capitalization of $139.93 billion, a PE ratio of 140.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 4.19, a current ratio of 5.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Welltower Dividend Announcement

Welltower ( NYSE:WELL Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 27th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.30 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.70 billion. Welltower had a net margin of 9.69% and a return on equity of 2.71%. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 30.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.11 earnings per share. Welltower has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.240-5.300 EPS. Analysts predict that Welltower Inc. will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 20th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 11th were given a dividend of $0.74 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 10th. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.5%. Welltowers dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 204.14%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WELL. Raymond James Financial reiterated a strong-buy rating on shares of Welltower in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Welltower from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Saturday, November 22nd. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Welltower from $175.00 to $183.00 and gave the stock an in-line rating in a research report on Monday, September 15th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a buy (b-) rating on shares of Welltower in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, National Bankshares set a $246.00 price target on Welltower in a report on Friday, October 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Welltower presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $193.93.

View Our Latest Research Report on Welltower

About Welltower

(Free Report)

Welltower Inc (NYSE:WELL), a real estate investment trust (REIT) and S&P 500 company headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, is driving the transformation of health care infrastructure. Welltower invests with leading seniors housing operators, post-acute providers and health systems to fund the real estate infrastructure needed to scale innovative care delivery models and improve peoples wellness and overall health care experience.

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Lundin Mining (TSE:LUN  Get Free Report) had its price target upped by Morgan Stanley from C$25.40 to C$25.80 in a report released on Tuesday,BayStreet.CA reports. Morgan Stanleys price objective would suggest a potential upside of 1.18% from the stocks current price.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on Lundin Mining from C$16.00 to C$18.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Lundin Mining from C$18.00 to C$26.00 in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Cormark lowered shares of Lundin Mining from a moderate buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. TD Securities lifted their target price on Lundin Mining from C$26.00 to C$28.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Haywood Securities downgraded Lundin Mining from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Friday, September 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of C$21.39.

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Lundin Mining Price Performance

LUN traded down C$0.25 during trading on Tuesday, reaching C$25.50. The companys stock had a trading volume of 829,347 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,570,385. The company has a market cap of C$21.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 850.00, a PEG ratio of -0.26 and a beta of 1.93. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of C$22.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$17.45. Lundin Mining has a 1 year low of C$8.94 and a 1 year high of C$26.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 41.58.

Lundin Mining (TSE:LUN  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The mining company reported C$0.18 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of C$1.40 billion for the quarter. Lundin Mining had a net margin of 6.63% and a return on equity of 5.55%.

Lundin Mining Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Lundin Mining Corp is a diversified Canadian base metals mining company with operations in Brazil Chile Portugal Sweden and the United States of America producing copper zinc gold and nickel. Its material mineral properties include Candelaria Chapada Eagle and Neves-Corvo.

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Earnings & Valuation

This table compares M&F Bancorp and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Gross Revenue Net Income Price/Earnings Ratio M&F Bancorp $29.33 million $4.77 million 9.55 M&F Bancorp Competitors $604.66 million $154.64 million 13.58

M&F Bancorps peers have higher revenue and earnings than M&F Bancorp. M&F Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

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Profitability

This table compares M&F Bancorp and its peers net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets M&F Bancorp N/A N/A N/A M&F Bancorp Competitors 16.58% 9.98% 1.05%

Volatility & Risk

Insider & Institutional Ownership

M&F Bancorp has a beta of -0.5, suggesting that its stock price is 150% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, M&F Bancorps peers have a beta of 0.63, suggesting that their average stock price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.

50.4% of shares of all BANKS  SOUTHEAST companies are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of M&F Bancorp shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 12.8% of shares of all BANKS  SOUTHEAST companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

M&F Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. M&F Bancorp pays out 12.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, BANKS  SOUTHEAST companies pay a dividend yield of 2.1% and pay out 24.3% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

M&F Bancorp peers beat M&F Bancorp on 10 of the 11 factors compared.

About M&F Bancorp

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M&F Bancorp, Inc. operates as a bank holding company for the Mechanics and Farmers Bank that provides consumer and commercial banking products and services in North Carolina. It offers deposit products, including demand deposits; checking, savings, and money market accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. The company provides loans for commercial and residential real estate, and construction; and consumer and other loans; as well as ATM services. M&F Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.

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Millrose Properties, Inc. (NYSE:MRP  Get Free Report) has earned a consensus rating of Moderate Buy from the five ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $37.3750.

MRP has been the topic of several research reports. Citizens Jmp started coverage on Millrose Properties in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. They issued a mkt outperform rating and a $40.00 target price on the stock. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Millrose Properties from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. JMP Securities began coverage on shares of Millrose Properties in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. They set a market outperform rating and a $40.00 price objective on the stock. BTIG Research began coverage on shares of Millrose Properties in a research note on Monday. They issued a buy rating for the company. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a hold (c+) rating on shares of Millrose Properties in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th.

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Millrose Properties Stock Performance

MRP traded down $0.26 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $30.20. The company had a trading volume of 6,977,067 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,028,172. Millrose Properties has a 12-month low of $19.00 and a 12-month high of $36.00. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $32.04 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $31.12. The stock has a market cap of $5.01 billion and a PE ratio of 17.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.46.

Millrose Properties (NYSE:MRP  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.64 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $179.26 million for the quarter.

Millrose Properties Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Friday, October 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.73 per share. This represents a $2.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.7%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 3rd. This is a positive change from Millrose Propertiess previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. Millrose Propertiess dividend payout ratio is presently 171.76%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Patrick J. Bartels, Jr. bought 7,500 shares of Millrose Properties stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 28th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $32.52 per share, with a total value of $243,900.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 30,660 shares of the companys stock, valued at $997,063.20. This represents a 32.38% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Carlos A. Migoya purchased 1,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 12th. The shares were bought at an average price of $32.24 per share, for a total transaction of $32,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 16,766 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $540,535.84. This trade represents a 6.34% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders purchased a total of 11,476 shares of company stock worth $373,264 in the last quarter.

Institutional Trading of Millrose Properties

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Millrose Properties by 9.9% during the 3rd quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 3,506 shares of the companys stock valued at $119,000 after purchasing an additional 317 shares in the last quarter. Horiko Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Millrose Properties by 2.1% in the second quarter. Horiko Capital Management LLC now owns 15,732 shares of the companys stock worth $451,000 after buying an additional 323 shares in the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank boosted its stake in Millrose Properties by 0.9% during the third quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 36,731 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,235,000 after buying an additional 334 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its position in Millrose Properties by 0.3% during the third quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 125,165 shares of the companys stock worth $4,007,000 after buying an additional 338 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Millrose Properties by 55.8% in the 3rd quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 997 shares of the companys stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 357 shares during the last quarter.

Millrose Properties Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Millrose Properties, Inc is a real estate investment and management company that focuses on acquiring, developing, and managing high-quality commercial properties. They are headquartered in Purchase, New York.

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National Bank of Canada (TSE:NA  Get Free Report)s stock price hit a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as C$171.55 and last traded at C$170.18, with a volume of 258128 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$168.11.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price target on shares of National Bank of Canada from C$152.00 to C$148.00 and set a sector perform rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 28th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of National Bank of Canada from C$153.00 to C$152.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Raymond James Financial set a C$168.00 price target on National Bank of Canada and gave the stock a market perform rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of National Bank of Canada from C$159.00 to C$166.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, CIBC upped their price objective on National Bank of Canada from C$154.00 to C$166.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of C$150.77.

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National Bank of Canada Price Performance

National Bank of Canada Company Profile

The stock has a market cap of C$66.79 billion, a PE ratio of 16.78, a P/E/G ratio of 7.14 and a beta of 1.08. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of C$156.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of C$146.76.

(Get Free Report)

National Bank of Canada is the sixth-largest Canadian bank. The bank offers integrated financial services, primarily in the province of Quebec as well as the city of Toronto. Operational segments include personal and commercial banking, wealth management, and a financial markets group.

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Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lowered its stake in shares of Pimco Total Return ETF (NYSEARCA:BOND  Free Report) by 6.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 87,074 shares of the exchange traded funds stock after selling 5,938 shares during the quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. owned about 0.14% of Pimco Total Return ETF worth $8,026,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC grew its holdings in shares of Pimco Total Return ETF by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 25,410 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $2,342,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares during the period. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. boosted its position in shares of Pimco Total Return ETF by 2.6% during the second quarter. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. now owns 5,679 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $523,000 after purchasing an additional 144 shares in the last quarter. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC grew its stake in Pimco Total Return ETF by 1.4% in the second quarter. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC now owns 13,553 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $1,249,000 after purchasing an additional 183 shares during the period. HCR Wealth Advisors raised its holdings in Pimco Total Return ETF by 1.9% in the second quarter. HCR Wealth Advisors now owns 10,717 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $988,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Insight Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in Pimco Total Return ETF by 0.9% in the first quarter. Insight Wealth Partners LLC now owns 25,791 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $2,385,000 after purchasing an additional 242 shares in the last quarter.

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Pimco Total Return ETF Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of BOND stock opened at $93.20 on Tuesday. The companys fifty day moving average price is $93.64 and its 200-day moving average price is $92.40. The stock has a market cap of $6.24 billion, a PE ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.27. Pimco Total Return ETF has a 12 month low of $88.95 and a 12 month high of $94.56.

Pimco Total Return ETF Profile

The PIMCO Active Bond Exchange-Traded Fund (BOND) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the Barclays U.S. Aggregate index. The fund is an actively managed portfolio that aims to maintain a consistent level of dividend income by investing in a broad array of fixed income sectors and utilizing income efficient implementation strategies.

Further Reading

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding BOND? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Pimco Total Return ETF (NYSEARCA:BOND  Free Report).

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U.S. President Donald Trump called the war in Ukraine "chaos" and a situation that is "not easy to settle."

"We are trying to get it settled. I have settled eight wars. This would be the ninth, and 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 during a cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday.

Trump also said the United States is no longer financially involved in the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Nuveen Minnesota Quality Municipal Income Fund (NYSE:NMS  Get Free Report) announced a monthly dividend on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be given a dividend of 0.0665 per share on Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 6.7%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 15th.

Nuveen Minnesota Quality Municipal Income Fund Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of NYSE:NMS traded down $0.02 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $11.95. 1,761 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,606. The companys 50 day moving average price is $11.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $11.57. Nuveen Minnesota Quality Municipal Income Fund has a 52 week low of $11.07 and a 52 week high of $13.30.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nuveen Minnesota Quality Municipal Income Fund

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NMS. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. raised its stake in Nuveen Minnesota Quality Municipal Income Fund by 14.5% during the 1st quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 12,600 shares of the companys stock valued at $151,000 after purchasing an additional 1,600 shares during the period. Curi RMB Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Nuveen Minnesota Quality Municipal Income Fund during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $157,000. Wolverine Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Nuveen Minnesota Quality Municipal Income Fund during the second quarter valued at approximately $139,000. Osaic Holdings Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Nuveen Minnesota Quality Municipal Income Fund by 20.3% in the second quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 12,797 shares of the companys stock worth $146,000 after buying an additional 2,157 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Nuveen Minnesota Quality Municipal Income Fund by 7.0% in the third quarter. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 19,155 shares of the companys stock worth $228,000 after buying an additional 1,256 shares in the last quarter.

Nuveen Minnesota Quality Municipal Income Fund Company Profile

Nuveen Minnesota Quality Municipal Income Fund is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments, Inc The fund is co-managed by Nuveen Fund Advisors LLC and Nuveen Asset Management, LLC. It invests in the fixed income markets of the United States. The fund primarily invests in investment grade municipal securities that are exempt from regular federal and Minnesota personal income taxes.

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Nuveen New Jersey Quality Municipal Income Fund (NYSE:NXJ  Get Free Report) declared a monthly dividend on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.0785 per share on Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th.

Nuveen New Jersey Quality Municipal Income Fund Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of NXJ traded down $0.04 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $12.65. 16,904 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 135,800. The stocks 50-day moving average is $12.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.84. Nuveen New Jersey Quality Municipal Income Fund has a 12 month low of $11.01 and a 12 month high of $12.90.

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About Nuveen New Jersey Quality Municipal Income Fund

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Nuveen New Jersey Quality Municipal Income Fund is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments, Inc The fund is co-managed by Nuveen Fund Advisors LLC and Nuveen Asset Management, LLC. It invests in the fixed income markets of New Jersey. The fund invests in undervalued municipal securities and other related investments that are, exempt from regular federal and New Jersey income taxes that are rated Baa or BBB or better.

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Omega Healthcare Investors (NYSE: OHI) has recently received a number of price target changes and ratings updates:

12/1/2025  Omega Healthcare Investors had its price target raised by analysts at Truist Financial Corporation from $44.00 to $46.00. They now have a hold rating on the stock.

11/25/2025  Omega Healthcare Investors had its price target raised by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $45.00 to $48.00. They now have an overweight rating on the stock.

11/18/2025  Omega Healthcare Investors is now covered by analysts at UBS Group AG. They set a buy rating and a $50.00 price target on the stock.

11/13/2025  Omega Healthcare Investors had its price target raised by analysts at Scotiabank from $42.00 to $45.00. They now have a sector perform rating on the stock.

11/12/2025  Omega Healthcare Investors had its buy rating reaffirmed by analysts at Citigroup Inc.. They now have a $50.00 price target on the stock, up previously from $45.00.

11/6/2025  Omega Healthcare Investors had its price target raised by analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada from $41.00 to $44.00. They now have a sector perform rating on the stock.

10/21/2025  Omega Healthcare Investors had its price target raised by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $44.00 to $45.00. They now have an overweight rating on the stock.

10/8/2025  Omega Healthcare Investors had its buy (b) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

Omega Healthcare Investors Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 3rd were paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 3rd. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.9%. Omega Healthcare Investorss payout ratio is 149.72%.

Insider Activity at Omega Healthcare Investors

In related news, CEO C Taylor Pickett bought 20,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 5th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $43.14 per share, with a total value of $862,800.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer directly owned 20,000 shares in the company, valued at $862,800. The trade was a  increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CIO Vikas Gupta purchased 11,500 shares of Omega Healthcare Investors stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 6th. The stock was bought at an average price of $42.97 per share, with a total value of $494,155.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the executive directly owned 13,773 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $591,825.81. This trade represents a 505.94% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 1.50% of the companys stock.

Omega Healthcare Investors, Inc engages in the provision of financing and capital to the long-term healthcare industry with a particular focus on skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, independent living facilities, rehabilitation and acute care facilities, and medical office buildings.

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OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp lifted its position in Bristol Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY  Free Report) by 9.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 123,611 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock after buying an additional 10,900 shares during the period. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corps holdings in Bristol Myers Squibb were worth $5,722,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Bristol Myers Squibb during the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. REAP Financial Group LLC grew its position in Bristol Myers Squibb by 202.8% during the second quarter. REAP Financial Group LLC now owns 639 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 428 shares during the period. Accent Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Bristol Myers Squibb during the first quarter valued at approximately $33,000. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC raised its position in Bristol Myers Squibb by 66.0% in the first quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 581 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 231 shares during the period. Finally, GKV Capital Management Co. Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Bristol Myers Squibb during the 1st quarter worth $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.41% of the companys stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Scotiabank began coverage on Bristol Myers Squibb in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. They issued a sector perform rating and a $45.00 price objective for the company. Sanford C. Bernstein restated a market perform rating on shares of Bristol Myers Squibb in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Bristol Myers Squibb from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Dbs Bank upgraded Bristol Myers Squibb to a moderate buy rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets restated a market perform rating on shares of Bristol Myers Squibb in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fifteen have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Bristol Myers Squibb has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $54.42.

Bristol Myers Squibb Trading Down 0.1%

BMY stock opened at $49.14 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $100.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.82, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.54, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 1.11. Bristol Myers Squibb Company has a 1-year low of $42.52 and a 1-year high of $63.33. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $45.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $46.67.

Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY  Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.11. Bristol Myers Squibb had a return on equity of 80.04% and a net margin of 10.58%.The firm had revenue of $12.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $11.75 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.80 earnings per share. The businesss revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Bristol Myers Squibb has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.400-6.600 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Bristol Myers Squibb Company will post 6.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bristol Myers Squibb Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 3rd were given a dividend of $0.62 per share. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.0%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 3rd. Bristol Myers Squibbs dividend payout ratio is currently 83.78%.

Bristol Myers Squibb Company Profile

(Free Report)

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company discovers, develops, licenses, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products worldwide. It offers products for hematology, oncology, cardiovascular, immunology, fibrotic, and neuroscience diseases. The company's products include Eliquis for reduction in risk of stroke/systemic embolism in non-valvular atrial fibrillation, and for the treatment of DVT/PE; Opdivo for various anti-cancer indications, including bladder, blood, CRC, head and neck, RCC, HCC, lung, melanoma, MPM, stomach and esophageal cancer; Pomalyst/Imnovid for multiple myeloma; Orencia for active rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis; and Sprycel for the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia.

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OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp reduced its position in The TJX Companies, Inc. (NYSE:TJX  Free Report) by 6.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 47,875 shares of the apparel and home fashions retailers stock after selling 3,200 shares during the quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corps holdings in TJX Companies were worth $5,912,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in TJX Companies in the second quarter worth $28,000. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of TJX Companies during the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. True Wealth Design LLC lifted its stake in shares of TJX Companies by 121.1% in the 2nd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 272 shares of the apparel and home fashions retailers stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 149 shares during the period. Activest Wealth Management grew its position in shares of TJX Companies by 4,485.7% in the 1st quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 321 shares of the apparel and home fashions retailers stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 314 shares during the period. Finally, Maseco LLP bought a new stake in shares of TJX Companies in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $43,000. Institutional investors own 91.09% of the companys stock.

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Insider Buying and Selling at TJX Companies

In other news, Director Amy B. Lane sold 500 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.40, for a total transaction of $75,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 22,212 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $3,362,896.80. The trade was a 2.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ernie Herrman sold 24,363 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.31, for a total transaction of $3,686,365.53. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 510,780 shares in the company, valued at $77,286,121.80. This represents a 4.55% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 54,863 shares of company stock valued at $8,226,366. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the companys stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of TJX Companies from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on shares of TJX Companies from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Morgan Stanley reissued an overweight rating and set a $162.00 price target (up previously from $159.00) on shares of TJX Companies in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed an outperform rating and issued a $170.00 price objective (up from $155.00) on shares of TJX Companies in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on TJX Companies from $150.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Buy and a consensus target price of $158.90.

Read Our Latest Report on TJX Companies

TJX Companies Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE TJX opened at $151.03 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 1.17. The TJX Companies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $112.10 and a 52-week high of $154.66. The company has a market cap of $168.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.40, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.90. The firms fifty day moving average is $144.48 and its two-hundred day moving average is $135.08.

TJX Companies (NYSE:TJX  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 19th. The apparel and home fashions retailer reported $1.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.06. TJX Companies had a net margin of 8.59% and a return on equity of 58.63%. The firm had revenue of $15.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.80 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.14 EPS. The businesss revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. TJX Companies has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 1.330-1.360 EPS. FY 2026 guidance at 4.630-4.660 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that The TJX Companies, Inc. will post 4.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TJX Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 13th will be given a dividend of $0.425 per share. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 13th. TJX Companiess dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.53%.

TJX Companies Company Profile

(Free Report)

The TJX Companies, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an off-price apparel and home fashions retailer in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. It operates through four segments: Marmaxx, HomeGoods, TJX Canada, and TJX International. The company sells family apparel, including footwear and accessories; home fashions, such as home basics, furniture, rugs, lighting products, giftware, soft home products, decorative accessories, tabletop, and cookware, as well as expanded pet, and gourmet food departments; jewelry and accessories; and other merchandise.

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Oracle Power plc (LON:ORCP  Get Free Report)s share price rose 14.3% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as GBX 0.04 and last traded at GBX 0.04. Approximately 17,326,205 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 92% from the average daily volume of 228,088,391 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 0.04.

Oracle Power Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of 5.19 million, a PE ratio of -16.50 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.98, a quick ratio of 5.67 and a current ratio of 3.74. The businesss 50-day moving average is GBX 0.04 and its 200-day moving average is GBX 0.02.

Oracle Power Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Oracle Power Plc (AIM: ORCP) is an international project developer in the natural resources and energy sectors. The Company is currently committed to two areas of focus: Western Australia, home to two of Oracles highly prospective gold projects, and Pakistan, where it is working to establish one of the largest hydrogen production facilities in the region.

Located in the wind corridor in Jhimpir, Pakistan, The Green Hydrogen project is being developed on a fast-track basis thanks to the joint venture (JV) formed between Oracle and His Highness Shaikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum (through his wholly owned company, Kaheel Energy Limited).

The JV intends to support the global transition to a carbon neutral future through establishing Pakistan as one of the main Green Hydrogen players in the region, to meet global demand for clean hydrogen forecasted to be 660 million metric tons in 2050.

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Panagora Asset Management Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR  Free Report) by 26.7% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 676,605 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock after selling 246,479 shares during the period. Panagora Asset Management Inc.s holdings in Equity Residential were worth $45,664,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. CVA Family Office LLC boosted its position in Equity Residential by 425.3% in the 2nd quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 415 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 336 shares in the last quarter. GKV Capital Management Co. Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Equity Residential in the 1st quarter valued at $37,000. FNY Investment Advisers LLC lifted its stake in shares of Equity Residential by 1,000.0% in the 2nd quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 660 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the period. Keystone Global Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Equity Residential during the first quarter worth $47,000. Finally, Zions Bancorporation National Association UT purchased a new stake in Equity Residential during the first quarter worth $48,000. 92.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Equity Residential Stock Down 0.5%

EQR opened at $61.47 on Tuesday. Equity Residential has a twelve month low of $58.38 and a twelve month high of $76.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $61.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $64.88. The company has a market cap of $23.39 billion, a PE ratio of 20.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.88.

Equity Residential Dividend Announcement

Equity Residential ( NYSE:EQR Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.02. Equity Residential had a return on equity of 10.30% and a net margin of 37.58%.The company had revenue of $782.41 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $779.68 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. Equity Residential has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 1.020-1.060 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 3.980-4.020 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Equity Residential will post 3.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 25th were paid a $0.6925 dividend. This represents a $2.77 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 25th. Equity Residentials dividend payout ratio is currently 91.42%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Equity Residential from $66.00 to $65.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 24th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Equity Residential from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on Equity Residential in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. They issued an overweight rating and a $70.00 price target for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Equity Residential from $76.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered Equity Residential from an outperform rating to a hold rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $70.27.

Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on EQR

Equity Residential Company Profile

(Free Report)

Equity Residential is committed to creating communities where people thrive. The Company, a member of the S&P 500, is focused on the acquisition, development and management of residential properties located in and around dynamic cities that attract affluent long-term renters. Equity Residential owns or has investments in 305 properties consisting of 80,683 apartment units, with an established presence in Boston, New York, Washington, DC, Seattle, San Francisco and Southern California, and an expanding presence in Denver, Atlanta, Dallas/Ft.

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Taikang Asset Management Hong Kong Co Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM  Free Report) by 38.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 122,658 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 34,271 shares during the quarter. Philip Morris International makes up about 2.9% of Taikang Asset Management Hong Kong Co Ltds holdings, making the stock its 8th largest position. Taikang Asset Management Hong Kong Co Ltds holdings in Philip Morris International were worth $22,340,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of PM. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Philip Morris International in the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. Traub Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Philip Morris International in the second quarter worth about $25,000. Abound Wealth Management raised its position in Philip Morris International by 566.7% in the second quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 160 shares of the companys stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 136 shares during the period. Estabrook Capital Management purchased a new position in Philip Morris International in the second quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Briaud Financial Planning Inc grew its position in shares of Philip Morris International by 266.7% during the 2nd quarter. Briaud Financial Planning Inc now owns 165 shares of the companys stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 78.63% of the companys stock.

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Philip Morris International Stock Down 0.9%

PM stock opened at $156.14 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $155.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $166.76. Philip Morris International Inc. has a twelve month low of $116.12 and a twelve month high of $186.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $243.05 billion, a PE ratio of 28.29, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.42.

Philip Morris International Increases Dividend

Philip Morris International ( NYSE:PM Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 28th. The company reported $1.59 EPS for the quarter. The company had revenue of $8.12 billion during the quarter. Philip Morris International had a net margin of 9.33% and a negative return on equity of 122.14%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Philip Morris International Inc. will post 7.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 3rd were given a dividend of $1.47 per share. This is an increase from Philip Morris Internationals previous quarterly dividend of $1.35. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 3rd. This represents a $5.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.8%. Philip Morris Internationals dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 106.52%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on PM. Morgan Stanley set a $175.00 price target on shares of Philip Morris International and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Philip Morris International from $190.00 to $185.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a buy rating on shares of Philip Morris International in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Citigroup reiterated a buy rating on shares of Philip Morris International in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Finally, KGI Securities initiated coverage on Philip Morris International in a research note on Monday, August 4th. They issued an outperform rating on the stock. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $189.00.

Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on Philip Morris International

About Philip Morris International

(Free Report)

Philip Morris International Inc operates as a tobacco company working to delivers a smoke-free future and evolving portfolio for the long-term to include products outside of the tobacco and nicotine sector. The company's product portfolio primarily consists of cigarettes and smoke-free products, including heat-not-burn, vapor, and oral nicotine products primarily under the IQOS and ZYN brands; and consumer accessories, such as lighters and matches.

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PIMCO Strategic Income Fund, Inc. (NYSE:RCS  Get Free Report) announced a monthly dividend on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, December 11th will be paid a dividend of 0.04 per share by the investment management company on Friday, January 2nd. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 11th.

PIMCO Strategic Income Fund Stock Down 1.3%

RCS opened at $6.60 on Tuesday. PIMCO Strategic Income Fund has a 12 month low of $5.25 and a 12 month high of $8.09. The company has a 50 day moving average of $7.20 and a 200 day moving average of $7.06.

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About PIMCO Strategic Income Fund

(Get Free Report)

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PIMCO Strategic Global Government Fund, Inc is a closed-ended fixed income mutual fund launched and managed by Allianz Global Investors Fund Management LLC. The fund is co-managed by Pacific Investment Management Company LLC. It invests in fixed income markets across the globe. The fund primarily invests in government securities, including bonds issued or guaranteed by the United States or foreign governments, by their agencies, authorities or instrumentalities, or by supranational entities.

Receive News & Ratings for PIMCO Strategic Income Fund Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for PIMCO Strategic Income Fund and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.
Barrick Mining, Newmont, First Majestic Silver, Agnico Eagle Mines, Freeport-McMoRan, Hecla Mining, and Pan American Silver are the seven Gold stocks to watch today, according to MarketBeats stock screener tool. Gold stocks are shares of companies whose business centers on goldprimarily miners, explorers and producers, plus related firms such as royalty/streaming companies and funds focused on the gold sector. Investors use them to gain exposure to movements in the gold price and potential dividend income, but they carry company- and operational-specific risks (management, costs, geology, and geopolitics) that can make their performance diverge from the metal itself. These companies had the highest dollar trading volume of any Gold stocks within the last several days.

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Barrick Mining (B)

Barrick Gold Corporation is a sector-leading gold and copper producer. Its shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol GOLD and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol ABX.



In January 2019 Barrick merged with Randgold Resources and in July that year it combined its gold mines in Nevada, USA, with those of Newmont Corporation in a joint venture, Nevada Gold Mines, which is majority-owned and operated by Barrick.

Newmont (NEM)

Newmont Corporation engages in the production and exploration of gold. It also explores for copper, silver, zinc, and lead. The company has operations and/or assets in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Peru, Suriname, Argentina, Chile, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Ecuador, Fiji, and Ghana.

Read Our Latest Research Report on NEM

First Majestic Silver (AG)

First Majestic Silver Corp. engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of mineral properties with a focus on silver and gold production in North America. Its projects include the San Dimas mine covering an area of approximately 71,867 hectares located in Durango State, Mexico; the Santa Elena that covers an area of approximately 102,244 hectares located in Sonora State, Mexico; and the La Encantada covering an area of approximately 4,076 hectares located in Coahuila State, Mexico.

Read Our Latest Research Report on AG

Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM)

Agnico Eagle Mines Limited, a gold mining company, exploration, development, and production of precious metals. It explores for gold. The company's mines are located in Canada, Australia, Finland and Mexico, with exploration and development activities in Canada, Australia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States.

Read Our Latest Research Report on AEM

Freeport-McMoRan (FCX)

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. engages in the mining of mineral properties in North America, South America, and Indonesia. It primarily explores for copper, gold, molybdenum, silver, and other metals. The company's assets include the Grasberg minerals district in Indonesia; Morenci, Bagdad, Safford, Sierrita, and Miami in Arizona; Chino and Tyrone in New Mexico; and Henderson and Climax in Colorado, North America, as well as Cerro Verde in Peru and El Abra in Chile.

Read Our Latest Research Report on FCX

Hecla Mining (HL)

Hecla Mining Company, together with its subsidiaries, provides precious and base metal properties in the United States, Canada, Japan, Korea, and China. The company mines for silver, gold, lead, and zinc concentrates, as well as carbon material containing silver and gold for custom smelters, metal traders, and third-party processors; and dore containing silver and gold.

Read Our Latest Research Report on HL

Pan American Silver (PAAS)

Pan American Silver Corp. engages in the exploration, mine development, extraction, processing, refining, and reclamation of silver, gold, zinc, lead, and copper mines in Canada, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil. The company was formerly known as Pan American Minerals Corp. and changed its name to Pan American Silver Corp.

Read Our Latest Research Report on PAAS

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Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said that for the second day in a row, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin has made statements that demonstrate that he does not plan to end the war.

"Yesterday he [Putin] said he was prepared to fight through the winter. Today, he threatens sea ports and freedom of navigation. And these threats are directed first and foremost at Odesa, which President Trump spoke about with a lot of warmth. Russia must end the bloodshed it has started. If this doesn't happen and Putin just spits into the world's face once again, there must be consequences," Sybiha said on the X social network on Tuesday.

He said Russia must stop "wasting the worlds time, which must be the time for peace." Sybiha also stressed that Ukraine fully supports all fair efforts that can lead to a just peace.

"The teams of Ukraine and the United States, together with our European partners, have worked a lot and achieved important progress. Now it is time to force the source of war in Moscow to end it," the Foreign Minister said.

Putin reportedly accused European governments of sabotaging the peace process in a series of sharp statements made minutes before a scheduled meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump's envoys Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner in the Kremlin, and said that "European demands are unacceptable to Russia." Speaking at an investment forum, he insisted that he "does not seek war with Europe," but warned that "if Europe wants to fight, we are ready right now."
Prudential Financial Inc. raised its holdings in Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN  Free Report) by 12.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 183,545 shares of the closed-end funds stock after acquiring an additional 20,124 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc.s holdings in Franklin Resources were worth $4,378,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of BEN. Manchester Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Franklin Resources by 49.9% in the first quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 1,668 shares of the closed-end funds stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 555 shares during the last quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. grew its stake in Franklin Resources by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 20,968 shares of the closed-end funds stock worth $500,000 after buying an additional 706 shares in the last quarter. Gen Wealth Partners Inc increased its holdings in shares of Franklin Resources by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. Gen Wealth Partners Inc now owns 25,972 shares of the closed-end funds stock worth $500,000 after buying an additional 718 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Franklin Resources by 8.3% during the 2nd quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 9,351 shares of the closed-end funds stock valued at $223,000 after buying an additional 718 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aviva PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Franklin Resources by 8.2% during the 2nd quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 11,910 shares of the closed-end funds stock worth $284,000 after acquiring an additional 901 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 47.56% of the companys stock.

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Franklin Resources Price Performance

Shares of Franklin Resources stock opened at $22.56 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.55 and a quick ratio of 1.55. Franklin Resources, Inc. has a one year low of $16.25 and a one year high of $26.08. The businesss 50 day simple moving average is $22.72 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $23.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.49.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Franklin Resources ( NYSE:BEN Get Free Report ) last issued its earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The closed-end fund reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.10. Franklin Resources had a net margin of 3.73% and a return on equity of 8.76%. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $2.17 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.59 earnings per share. The businesss revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Franklin Resources, Inc. will post 2.16 EPS for the current year.

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a hold (c+) rating on shares of Franklin Resources in a research note on Monday, November 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Franklin Resources from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Franklin Resources from $25.00 to $23.00 and set an underperform rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Zacks Research lowered Franklin Resources from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 20th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Franklin Resources from $19.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an underperform rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Reduce and a consensus target price of $23.91.

Check Out Our Latest Analysis on Franklin Resources

Franklin Resources Company Profile

(Free Report)

Franklin Resources, Inc is a publicly owned asset management holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the firm provides its services to individuals, institutions, pension plans, trusts, and partnerships. It launches equity, fixed income, balanced, and multi-asset mutual funds through its subsidiaries.

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Quantbot Technologies LP increased its holdings in Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE:CW  Free Report) by 160.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 28,753 shares of the aerospace companys stock after acquiring an additional 17,723 shares during the quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP owned approximately 0.08% of Curtiss-Wright worth $14,047,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CW. Panagora Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Curtiss-Wright by 46.3% in the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 127,003 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $62,047,000 after purchasing an additional 40,169 shares during the period. Railway Pension Investments Ltd bought a new position in Curtiss-Wright in the second quarter worth approximately $14,021,000. Lido Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Curtiss-Wright by 11.8% during the second quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 1,350 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $660,000 after buying an additional 142 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its position in Curtiss-Wright by 3,264.8% during the 2nd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 33,244 shares of the aerospace companys stock valued at $16,241,000 after acquiring an additional 32,256 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Curtiss-Wright in the 2nd quarter worth $241,537,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.71% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CW has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Curtiss-Wright from $525.00 to $537.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a buy rating and issued a $625.00 price target on shares of Curtiss-Wright in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a buy (b) rating on shares of Curtiss-Wright in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Curtiss-Wright from $565.00 to $645.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Curtiss-Wright from $457.00 to $502.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Monday, October 20th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $562.83.

Curtiss-Wright Trading Down 3.3%

Shares of Curtiss-Wright stock opened at $545.51 on Tuesday. The firms 50 day simple moving average is $556.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $504.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.03, a PEG ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 1.12. Curtiss-Wright Corporation has a 12-month low of $266.88 and a 12-month high of $612.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Curtiss-Wright (NYSE:CW  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The aerospace company reported $3.40 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.28 by $0.12. Curtiss-Wright had a net margin of 13.66% and a return on equity of 18.34%. The business had revenue of $869.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $869.03 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.89 earnings per share. The businesss revenue for the quarter was up 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Curtiss-Wright Corporation will post 12.32 EPS for the current year.

Curtiss-Wright Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 28th. Curtiss-Wrights payout ratio is presently 7.82%.

Curtiss-Wright Company Profile

(Free Report)

Curtiss-Wright Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides engineered products, solutions, and services mainly to aerospace and defense, commercial power, process, and industrial markets worldwide. It operates through three segments: Aerospace & Industrial, Defense Electronics, and Naval & Power.

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ING Group (NYSE: ING) recently received a number of ratings updates from brokerages and research firms:

11/21/2025  ING Group was upgraded by analysts at Citigroup Inc. to a strong-buy rating.

11/19/2025  ING Group had its buy (b) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

11/13/2025  ING Group had its buy (b) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

11/11/2025  ING Group was downgraded by analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from a hold rating to a moderate sell rating.

10/25/2025  ING Group was upgraded by analysts at Weiss Ratings from a hold (c+) rating to a buy (b-) rating.

10/8/2025  ING Group was downgraded by analysts at Weiss Ratings from a buy (b-) rating to a hold (c+) rating.

ING Groep N.V. provides various banking products and services in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, rest of Europe, and internationally. It operates through five segments: Retail Netherlands, Retail Belgium, Retail Germany, Retail Other, and Wholesale Banking. The company accepts current and savings accounts.

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Global Net Lease (NYSE:GNL  Get Free Report) and Community Healthcare Trust (NYSE:CHCT  Get Free Report) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, risk, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Dividends

Global Net Lease pays an annual dividend of $0.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.3%. Community Healthcare Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.90 per share and has a dividend yield of 12.0%. Global Net Lease pays out -53.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Community Healthcare Trust pays out -475.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Community Healthcare Trust has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Community Healthcare Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

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Profitability

This table compares Global Net Lease and Community Healthcare Trusts net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Global Net Lease -48.52% -10.27% -3.49% Community Healthcare Trust -6.27% -1.66% -0.76%

Risk & Volatility

Analyst Ratings

Global Net Lease has a beta of 1.13, meaning that its stock price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Community Healthcare Trust has a beta of 0.72, meaning that its stock price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500.

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Global Net Lease and Community Healthcare Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Global Net Lease 0 1 3 1 3.00 Community Healthcare Trust 1 1 2 0 2.25

Global Net Lease currently has a consensus target price of $9.50, suggesting a potential upside of 16.64%. Community Healthcare Trust has a consensus target price of $18.00, suggesting a potential upside of 13.78%. Given Global Net Leases stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Global Net Lease is more favorable than Community Healthcare Trust.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Global Net Lease and Community Healthcare Trusts revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Global Net Lease $805.01 million 2.22 -$131.57 million ($1.43) -5.70 Community Healthcare Trust $119.55 million 3.77 -$3.18 million ($0.40) -39.55

Community Healthcare Trust has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Global Net Lease. Community Healthcare Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Global Net Lease, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

61.2% of Global Net Lease shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.8% of Community Healthcare Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of Global Net Lease shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.1% of Community Healthcare Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Community Healthcare Trust beats Global Net Lease on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Global Net Lease

(Get Free Report)

Global Net Lease, Inc. (NYSE: GNL) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust listed on the NYSE. The firm focused on acquiring a diversified global portfolio of commercial properties, with an emphasis on sale-leaseback transactions involving single tenant, mission critical income producing net-leased assets across the United States, Western and Northern Europe.

About Community Healthcare Trust

(Get Free Report)

Community Healthcare Trust Incorporated (the Company, we, our) was organized in the State of Maryland on March 28, 2014. The Company is a fully-integrated healthcare real estate company that owns and acquires real estate properties that are leased to hospitals, doctors, healthcare systems or other healthcare service providers. As of March 31, 2024, the Company had investments of approximately $1.1 billion in 197 real estate properties (including a portion of one property accounted for as a sales-type lease with a gross amount totaling approximately $3.0 million and two properties classified as an asset held for sale with an aggregate amount totaling approximately $7.5 million. The properties are located in 35 states, totaling approximately 4.4 million square feet in the aggregate and were approximately 92.3% leased, excluding real estate assets held for sale, at March 31, 2024 with a weighted average remaining lease term of approximately 6.9 years.

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River Road Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in EOG Resources, Inc. (NYSE:EOG  Free Report) by 15.2% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 75,878 shares of the energy exploration companys stock after acquiring an additional 9,999 shares during the period. River Road Asset Management LLCs holdings in EOG Resources were worth $9,107,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. StrongBox Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in EOG Resources by 1.9% in the second quarter. StrongBox Wealth LLC now owns 4,817 shares of the energy exploration companys stock valued at $576,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of EOG Resources by 45.1% in the 2nd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 283 shares of the energy exploration companys stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the period. Ameriflex Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of EOG Resources by 31.6% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriflex Group Inc. now owns 379 shares of the energy exploration companys stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Granite Harbor Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of EOG Resources by 3.2% during the first quarter. Granite Harbor Advisors Inc. now owns 3,034 shares of the energy exploration companys stock valued at $389,000 after buying an additional 94 shares during the period. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. increased its position in shares of EOG Resources by 2.0% during the second quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 5,032 shares of the energy exploration companys stock valued at $610,000 after buying an additional 98 shares during the period. 89.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on EOG. Roth Capital cut their price objective on EOG Resources from $126.00 to $114.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on EOG Resources from $130.00 to $125.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. Argus lowered EOG Resources from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Monday, August 25th. Scotiabank reaffirmed a sector perform rating and issued a $130.00 price target on shares of EOG Resources in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $145.00 price objective on EOG Resources in a report on Sunday, October 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and sixteen have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $140.33.

EOG Resources Price Performance

NYSE EOG opened at $109.56 on Tuesday. EOG Resources, Inc. has a one year low of $102.52 and a one year high of $138.18. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $108.62 and a 200 day moving average of $115.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a current ratio of 1.79. The company has a market capitalization of $59.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.65, a PEG ratio of 8.20 and a beta of 0.72.

EOG Resources (NYSE:EOG  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The energy exploration company reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $2.42 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $5.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.48 billion. EOG Resources had a net margin of 25.25% and a return on equity of 20.51%. The businesss revenue for the quarter was down 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.89 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that EOG Resources, Inc. will post 11.47 EPS for the current year.

EOG Resources Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 30th. Investors of record on Friday, January 16th will be issued a $1.02 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 16th. This represents a $4.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.7%. EOG Resourcess payout ratio is presently 40.64%.

EOG Resources Company Profile

(Free Report)

EOG Resources, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, explores for, develops, produces, and markets crude oil, natural gas liquids, and natural gas primarily in producing basins in the United States, the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and internationally. The company was formerly known as Enron Oil & Gas Company.

Further Reading

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Royal Bank Of Canada (NYSE:RY  Get Free Report) (TSE:RY) is expected to issue its Q4 2025 results before the market opens on Wednesday, December 3rd. Analysts expect the company to announce earnings of $2.53 per share and revenue of $12.1247 billion for the quarter. Individuals are encouraged to explore the companys upcoming Q4 2025 earningoverview page for the latest details on the call scheduled for Wednesday, December 3, 2025 at 8:00 AM ET.

Royal Bank Of Canada Stock Down 0.7%

Royal Bank Of Canada stock opened at $152.99 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $147.46 and a two-hundred day moving average of $138.59. Royal Bank Of Canada has a twelve month low of $106.10 and a twelve month high of $154.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $214.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.15, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on RY. Erste Group Bank raised Royal Bank Of Canada from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Royal Bank Of Canada from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Saturday, November 1st. National Bankshares reaffirmed a sector perform rating on shares of Royal Bank Of Canada in a report on Friday, August 15th. Barclays reiterated an overweight rating on shares of Royal Bank Of Canada in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Finally, Scotiabank restated an outperform rating on shares of Royal Bank Of Canada in a research report on Thursday, August 28th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $177.50.

Institutional Trading of Royal Bank Of Canada

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. EP Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Royal Bank Of Canada by 5.3% in the second quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,058 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $402,000 after buying an additional 155 shares in the last quarter. Ewing Morris & Co. Investment Partners Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Royal Bank Of Canada by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Ewing Morris & Co. Investment Partners Ltd. now owns 29,695 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $3,906,000 after acquiring an additional 157 shares in the last quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of Royal Bank Of Canada by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 66,712 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $9,828,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Royal Bank Of Canada by 86.5% in the 2nd quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 388 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 180 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Johnson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Royal Bank Of Canada during the third quarter worth $27,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 45.31% of the companys stock.

Royal Bank Of Canada Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Royal Bank of Canada operates as a diversified financial service company worldwide. The company's Personal & Commercial Banking segment offers checking and savings accounts, home equity financing, personal lending, private banking, indirect lending, including auto financing, mutual funds and self-directed brokerage accounts, guaranteed investment certificates, credit cards, and payment products and solutions; and lending, leasing, deposit, investment, foreign exchange, cash management, auto dealer financing, trade products, and services to small and medium-sized commercial businesses.

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Scotia Capital Inc. raised its stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG  Free Report) by 12.8% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,144 shares of the financial services providers stock after acquiring an additional 358 shares during the period. Scotia Capital Inc.s holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. were worth $1,006,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,096,542 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $9,954,625,000 after buying an additional 685,278 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 38.3% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 17,372,745 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $5,997,767,000 after acquiring an additional 4,815,007 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 4.9% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,959,673 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $1,021,798,000 after purchasing an additional 137,354 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 5.5% during the second quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 2,464,662 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $783,097,000 after purchasing an additional 128,071 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 2,381,835 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $762,473,000 after purchasing an additional 94,940 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.53% of the companys stock.

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Insider Buying and Selling

In other Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. news, VP Michael Robert Pesch purchased 4,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $247.12 per share, for a total transaction of $988,480.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the vice president directly owned 41,849 shares in the company, valued at $10,341,724.88. This represents a 10.57% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Christopher E. Mead sold 1,250 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.74, for a total value of $313,425.00. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 17,327 shares in the company, valued at $4,344,571.98. This represents a 6.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 37,105 shares of company stock worth $10,796,353 in the last three months. Company insiders own 1.60% of the companys stock.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AJG opened at $246.32 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $274.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $298.21. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a 1-year low of $239.47 and a 1-year high of $351.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.36. The company has a market cap of $63.26 billion, a PE ratio of 34.99 and a beta of 0.71.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.32 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $2.51 by ($0.19). Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 14.54%.The firm had revenue of $3.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $3.34 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.26 EPS. The firms quarterly revenue was up 20.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 11.54 EPS for the current year.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 19th. Investors of record on Friday, December 5th will be given a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 5th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.86%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on AJG shares. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. They set an outperform rating and a $291.00 price target on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. to a strong-buy rating in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report on Saturday, November 1st. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $370.00 to $353.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $330.00 to $277.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $316.33.

View Our Latest Stock Analysis on AJG

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Profile

(Free Report)

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co engages in the provision of insurance brokerage, reinsurance brokerage, consulting, and third-party claims settlement and administration services. It operates through the following segments: Brokerage, Risk Management, and Corporate. The Brokerage segment consists of retail and wholesale insurance brokerage operations.

See Also

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding AJG? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG  Free Report).

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Gold Fields Limited (NYSE:GFI  Free Report)  Investment analysts at Scotiabank increased their FY2025 earnings estimates for shares of Gold Fields in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, November 28th. Scotiabank analyst T. Jakusconek now expects that the company will post earnings of $3.06 per share for the year, up from their previous estimate of $3.04. Scotiabank currently has a Sector Perform rating and a $47.00 target price on the stock. The consensus estimate for Gold Fields current full-year earnings is $1.97 per share.

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A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group downgraded shares of Gold Fields from a buy rating to a hold rating and set a $39.00 price target for the company. in a report on Monday, October 13th. Zacks Research upgraded Gold Fields from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on Gold Fields in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. They issued an overweight rating and a $62.00 price target on the stock. Citigroup raised their price objective on Gold Fields to $57.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 26th. Finally, Capital One Financial set a $32.00 price objective on shares of Gold Fields in a report on Friday, August 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $41.88.

Gold Fields Stock Performance

Gold Fields stock opened at $43.10 on Monday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $40.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.40. Gold Fields has a 12-month low of $12.98 and a 12-month high of $47.18.

Institutional Trading of Gold Fields

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. DJE Kapital AG lifted its position in shares of Gold Fields by 19.7% during the 2nd quarter. DJE Kapital AG now owns 4,511,125 shares of the companys stock valued at $105,260,000 after acquiring an additional 742,174 shares during the period. Paradiem LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Gold Fields in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,010,000. U S Global Investors Inc. increased its stake in Gold Fields by 53.8% in the 2nd quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. now owns 100,000 shares of the companys stock valued at $2,367,000 after purchasing an additional 35,000 shares in the last quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management acquired a new position in Gold Fields during the second quarter worth $374,000. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in Gold Fields during the second quarter worth $1,316,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 24.81% of the companys stock.

Gold Fields Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Gold Fields Limited operates as a gold producer with reserves and resources in Chile, South Africa, Ghana, Canada, Australia, and Peru. It also explores for copper and silver deposits. The company was founded in 1887 and is based in Sandton, South Africa.

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Seven Grand Managers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of IDACORP, Inc. (NYSE:IDA  Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 75,000 shares of the energy companys stock, valued at approximately $8,659,000. IDACORP comprises 1.0% of Seven Grand Managers LLCs investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest position.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its position in shares of IDACORP by 15.6% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 10,066 shares of the energy companys stock valued at $1,170,000 after buying an additional 1,359 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its stake in IDACORP by 4.9% during the 1st quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 9,361 shares of the energy companys stock valued at $1,088,000 after acquiring an additional 437 shares in the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC boosted its holdings in IDACORP by 11.2% during the 1st quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 32,058 shares of the energy companys stock worth $3,726,000 after acquiring an additional 3,237 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in shares of IDACORP by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 49,756 shares of the energy companys stock worth $5,783,000 after acquiring an additional 615 shares in the last quarter. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd bought a new stake in shares of IDACORP in the 1st quarter worth $231,000. 89.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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IDACORP Price Performance

Shares of NYSE IDA opened at $130.33 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $131.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $124.34. IDACORP, Inc. has a 1-year low of $104.74 and a 1-year high of $138.03. The firm has a market cap of $7.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.59.

IDACORP Increases Dividend

IDACORP ( NYSE:IDA Get Free Report ) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The energy company reported $2.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.23 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $524.42 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $663.09 million. IDACORP had a return on equity of 9.18% and a net margin of 16.96%.During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.12 earnings per share. IDACORP has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.800-5.900 EPS. Analysts anticipate that IDACORP, Inc. will post 5.81 earnings per share for the current year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 5th were given a dividend of $0.88 per share. This is a boost from IDACORPs previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $3.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 5th. IDACORPs dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 60.48%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on IDA. Morgan Stanley set a $137.00 price target on shares of IDACORP in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of IDACORP to a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Weiss Ratings restated a buy (b) rating on shares of IDACORP in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Mizuho increased their price target on IDACORP from $129.00 to $144.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Finally, BTIG Research raised IDACORP to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $136.50.

Check Out Our Latest Report on IDACORP

About IDACORP

(Free Report)

IDACORP, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, distribution, purchase, and sale of electric energy in the United States. The company operates 17 hydropower generating plants located in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon; three natural gas-fired plants in southern Idaho; and interests in two coal-fired steam electric generating plants located in Wyoming and Nevada.

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Shares of Shinhan Financial Group Co Ltd (NYSE:SHG  Get Free Report) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $56.01 and last traded at $55.86, with a volume of 95259 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $54.74.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SHG has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a buy (b-) rating on shares of Shinhan Financial Group in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Wall Street Zen cut Shinhan Financial Group from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Saturday, August 30th. Finally, Zacks Research cut Shinhan Financial Group from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy.

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Read Our Latest Stock Report on Shinhan Financial Group

Shinhan Financial Group Trading Up 2.3%

The firm has a market capitalization of $27.18 billion, a PE ratio of 5.61, a P/E/G ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $52.05 and a 200 day simple moving average of $48.42. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48.

Shinhan Financial Group (NYSE:SHG  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 14th. The bank reported $2.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.97 by $0.08. Shinhan Financial Group had a return on equity of 12.27% and a net margin of 21.21%.The firm had revenue of $2.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $3.79 billion. Equities analysts expect that Shinhan Financial Group Co Ltd will post 5.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Shinhan Financial Group

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of Shinhan Financial Group by 8.2% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,994 shares of the banks stock valued at $289,000 after purchasing an additional 682 shares during the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Shinhan Financial Group in the 1st quarter worth approximately $203,000. XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new stake in Shinhan Financial Group during the 1st quarter valued at $227,000. US Bancorp DE raised its stake in Shinhan Financial Group by 5.0% during the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 28,603 shares of the banks stock valued at $918,000 after buying an additional 1,350 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Shinhan Financial Group by 10.5% during the 1st quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 617,210 shares of the banks stock valued at $19,800,000 after buying an additional 58,660 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 7.76% of the companys stock.

Shinhan Financial Group Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Shinhan Financial Group Co, Ltd. provides financial products and services in South Korea and internationally. The company operates through six segments: Banking, Credit Card, Securities, Insurance, Credit, and Others. It offers retail banking services, including demand, savings, and fixed deposit-taking; checking accounts; mortgage and home equity, and retail lending; electronic banking and automatic teller machines (ATM); and bill paying, payroll and check-cashing, currency exchange, and wire fund transfer services.

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Ukraine's State Customs Service (SCS) has developed and launched specialized software called "Sanctioned Vessels" to quickly identify vessels under sanctions and prevent them from entering the country.

According to an announcement posted on the SCS Telegram channel, the software was introduced after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed Decree No. 860/2025 on November 25, 2025, which for the first time imposes sanctions directly on vessels belonging to the aggressor state for a period of 10 years.

The agency said that previously, restrictive measures were applied only to individuals and legal entities. As of today, 56 vessels have already been added to the sanctions list.

"If such a vessel enters a port, customs records its status and denies customs clearance, making unloading or loading operations impossible," the SCS explained.

The agency stressed that in the context of Russia's full-scale military aggression, this issue is gaining special significance, and this mechanism remains a key instrument of international pressure on the aggressor state and its affiliated entities.
Skeena Resources Limited (NYSE:SKE  Get Free Report) was down 5.1% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $20.47 and last traded at $20.2760. Approximately 112,123 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 78% from the average daily volume of 517,982 shares. The stock had previously closed at $21.37.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on SKE shares. Scotiabank reissued an outperform rating on shares of Skeena Resources in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a sell (d-) rating on shares of Skeena Resources in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Skeena Resources from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Saturday, November 15th. Desjardins upgraded Skeena Resources to a moderate buy rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, TD Securities initiated coverage on shares of Skeena Resources in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. They set a buy rating on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy.

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Skeena Resources Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $2.53 billion, a PE ratio of -19.10 and a beta of 1.25. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $17.94 and a 200-day moving average price of $16.27.

Skeena Resources (NYSE:SKE  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 13th. The company reported ($0.09) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of ($0.06) by ($0.03). Research analysts expect that Skeena Resources Limited will post -0.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of SKE. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its holdings in Skeena Resources by 431.1% in the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,390 shares of the companys stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 1,940 shares during the last quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Skeena Resources in the 1st quarter worth $77,000. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Skeena Resources during the 1st quarter worth $89,000. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise acquired a new position in Skeena Resources during the 1st quarter valued at about $91,000. Finally, Advisory Services Network LLC purchased a new stake in Skeena Resources in the third quarter valued at about $99,000. Institutional investors own 45.15% of the companys stock.

Skeena Resources Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Skeena Resources Limited explores for and develops mineral properties in Canada. The company explores for gold, silver, copper, and other precious metal deposits. It holds 100% interests in the Snip gold mine comprising one mining lease and nine mineral tenures that covers an area of approximately 4,724 hectares; and the Eskay Creek gold mine that consists of eight mineral leases, two surface leases, and various unpatented mining claims comprising 7,666 hectares located in British Columbia, Canada.

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Taikang Asset Management Hong Kong Co Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV  Free Report) by 6.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 16,995 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 1,022 shares during the period. Taikang Asset Management Hong Kong Co Ltds holdings in Elevance Health were worth $6,610,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. WPG Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Elevance Health during the first quarter worth $29,000. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC raised its position in shares of Elevance Health by 94.9% in the 2nd quarter. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 76 shares of the companys stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Elevance Health during the 2nd quarter worth $32,000. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc lifted its stake in shares of Elevance Health by 400.0% during the 2nd quarter. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc now owns 100 shares of the companys stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Saudi Central Bank bought a new stake in Elevance Health during the first quarter valued at about $40,000. 89.24% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on ELV. Cowen reiterated a buy rating on shares of Elevance Health in a report on Wednesday, November 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Elevance Health in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. They issued a neutral rating and a $343.00 price target on the stock. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Elevance Health from $395.00 to $385.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Elevance Health from $330.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Elevance Health from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Saturday. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $398.44.

Elevance Health Trading Down 2.5%

Shares of Elevance Health stock opened at $329.86 on Tuesday. The firms 50 day simple moving average is $333.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $334.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $73.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.49, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 0.60. Elevance Health, Inc. has a 12-month low of $273.71 and a 12-month high of $458.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.56, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71.

Elevance Health (NYSE:ELV  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 21st. The company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.03 by $1.00. The business had revenue of $50.09 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.26 billion. Elevance Health had a net margin of 2.84% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The businesss revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $8.37 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Elevance Health, Inc. will post 33.96 EPS for the current year.

Elevance Health Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be issued a $1.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 5th. This represents a $6.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. Elevance Healths dividend payout ratio is currently 27.96%.

Elevance Health Profile

(Free Report)

Elevance Health, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a health benefits company in the United States. The company operates through four segments: Health Benefits, CarelonRx, Carelon Services, and Corporate & Other. It offers a variety of health plans and services to program members; health products; an array of fee-based administrative managed care services; and specialty and other insurance products and services, such as stop loss, dental, vision, life, disability, and supplemental health insurance benefits.

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Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW  Free Report) by 15.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 31,760 shares of the industrial products companys stock after acquiring an additional 4,296 shares during the quarter. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLCs holdings in Illinois Tool Works were worth $7,853,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Illinois Tool Works during the second quarter worth approximately $25,000. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. grew its stake in shares of Illinois Tool Works by 90.9% during the 2nd quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 105 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Saudi Central Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Illinois Tool Works during the 1st quarter worth $29,000. 1248 Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Illinois Tool Works in the 1st quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Banque Transatlantique SA acquired a new position in Illinois Tool Works in the first quarter valued at $30,000. 79.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Illinois Tool Works Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of NYSE:ITW opened at $247.48 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $71.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a 50 day moving average of $249.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of $253.27. Illinois Tool Works Inc. has a 52-week low of $214.66 and a 52-week high of $278.98. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39.

Illinois Tool Works Announces Dividend

Illinois Tool Works ( NYSE:ITW Get Free Report ) last posted its earnings results on Friday, October 24th. The industrial products company reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $2.72 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $4.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $4.09 billion. Illinois Tool Works had a net margin of 19.05% and a return on equity of 93.26%. The businesss revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.91 earnings per share. Illinois Tool Works has set its FY 2025 guidance at 10.400-10.500 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Illinois Tool Works Inc. will post 10.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of $1.61 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a $6.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Illinois Tool Workss dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 62.46%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on ITW. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on Illinois Tool Works from $265.00 to $268.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Barclays boosted their target price on Illinois Tool Works from $243.00 to $244.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $258.00 target price on shares of Illinois Tool Works in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Illinois Tool Works from $250.00 to $245.00 and set an underweight rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a buy (b-) rating on shares of Illinois Tool Works in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Illinois Tool Works currently has a consensus rating of Reduce and a consensus price target of $263.77.

Read Our Latest Analysis on Illinois Tool Works

Insider Transactions at Illinois Tool Works

In other Illinois Tool Works news, CAO Randall J. Scheuneman sold 6,802 shares of Illinois Tool Works stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.08, for a total transaction of $1,803,074.16. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 10,314 shares in the company, valued at $2,734,035.12. The trade was a 39.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Pamela B. Strobel sold 1,521 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.25, for a total value of $373,025.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 39,249 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,625,817.25. The trade was a 3.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Illinois Tool Works

(Free Report)

Illinois Tool Works Inc manufactures and sells industrial products and equipment in the United States and internationally. It operates through seven segments: Automotive OEM; Food Equipment; Test & Measurement and Electronics; Welding; Polymers & Fluids; Construction Products; and Specialty Products.

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Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC trimmed its position in Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:AIT  Free Report) by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,958 shares of the industrial products companys stock after selling 1,048 shares during the period. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLCs holdings in Applied Industrial Technologies were worth $2,082,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Applied Industrial Technologies by 27.9% in the 1st quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 602,798 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $135,835,000 after purchasing an additional 131,465 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp increased its holdings in Applied Industrial Technologies by 2.0% during the second quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 508,120 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $118,113,000 after buying an additional 10,015 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Applied Industrial Technologies in the second quarter worth approximately $107,228,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Applied Industrial Technologies by 452.6% during the 1st quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 436,565 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $98,376,000 after acquiring an additional 357,568 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Applied Industrial Technologies by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 381,187 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $85,897,000 after acquiring an additional 14,926 shares during the period. 93.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on AIT. Mizuho set a $305.00 target price on Applied Industrial Technologies in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Industrial Alliance Securities set a $290.00 price objective on Applied Industrial Technologies in a research note on Friday, August 22nd. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Applied Industrial Technologies from $275.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, August 22nd. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Applied Industrial Technologies from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Finally, Raymond James Financial downgraded shares of Applied Industrial Technologies from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a report on Friday, August 15th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $287.50.

Applied Industrial Technologies Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AIT opened at $256.43 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $9.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.99. Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $199.96 and a 52-week high of $280.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 2.36 and a current ratio of 3.55. The firms fifty day moving average is $254.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $251.98.

Applied Industrial Technologies (NYSE:AIT  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The industrial products company reported $2.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $2.47 by $0.16. Applied Industrial Technologies had a return on equity of 21.86% and a net margin of 8.61%.The firm had revenue of $1.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.19 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.36 earnings per share. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Applied Industrial Technologies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 10.100-10.850 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. will post 9.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Applied Industrial Technologies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 28th. Investors of record on Friday, November 14th were paid a dividend of $0.46 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 14th. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Applied Industrial Technologiess dividend payout ratio is presently 17.71%.

About Applied Industrial Technologies

(Free Report)

Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc distributes industrial motion, power, control, and automation technology solutions in North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. It operates in two segments, Service Center Based Distribution, and Engineered Solutions. The company distributes bearings, power transmission products, engineered fluid power components and systems, specialty flow control solutions, advanced automation products, industrial rubber products, linear motion components, automation solutions, tools, safety products, oilfield supplies, and other industrial and maintenance supplies; and motors, belting, drives, couplings, pumps, hydraulic and pneumatic components, filtration supplies, valves, fittings, process instrumentation, actuators, and hoses, filtration supplies, as well as other related supplies for general operational needs of customers' machinery and equipment.

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Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of Mueller Water Products (NYSE:MWA  Free Report) by 11.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 57,764 shares of the industrial products companys stock after selling 7,226 shares during the period. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLCs holdings in Mueller Water Products were worth $1,389,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Mueller Water Products by 16.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,795,482 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $503,201,000 after buying an additional 2,840,895 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Mueller Water Products during the 1st quarter valued at $61,497,000. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Mueller Water Products by 66.2% in the 1st quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,401,086 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $137,296,000 after purchasing an additional 2,152,096 shares during the period. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP acquired a new position in Mueller Water Products in the first quarter valued at about $53,854,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Mueller Water Products by 21.6% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,880,108 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $124,052,000 after buying an additional 865,977 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.68% of the companys stock.

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Mueller Water Products Price Performance

Shares of MWA opened at $24.07 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $24.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $25.02. Mueller Water Products has a 52-week low of $21.35 and a 52-week high of $28.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 2.56 and a current ratio of 3.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.76 billion, a PE ratio of 25.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.18.

Mueller Water Products Increases Dividend

Mueller Water Products ( NYSE:MWA Get Free Report ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 24th. The industrial products company reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $237.40 million for the quarter. Mueller Water Products had a net margin of 10.67% and a return on equity of 20.89%. Sell-side analysts predict that Mueller Water Products will post 1.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 20th. Investors of record on Monday, November 10th were paid a $0.07 dividend. This represents a $0.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 10th. This is a boost from Mueller Water Productss previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. Mueller Water Productss dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.14%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Weiss Ratings reiterated a buy (b) rating on shares of Mueller Water Products in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $29.00.

Check Out Our Latest Report on MWA

Insider Transactions at Mueller Water Products

In other news, Director Brian C. Healy bought 1,070 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 7th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $25.78 per share, for a total transaction of $27,584.60. Following the acquisition, the director owned 16,800 shares in the company, valued at approximately $433,104. This trade represents a 6.80% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 1.10% of the companys stock.

About Mueller Water Products

(Free Report)

Mueller Water Products, Inc manufactures and markets products and services for the transmission, distribution, and measurement of water used by municipalities, and the residential and non-residential construction industries in the United States, Israel, and internationally. It operates in two segments, Water Flow Solutions and Water Management Solutions.

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VanEck 5-10 Year Australian Government Bond ETF (ASX:5GOV  Get Free Report) declared a interim dividend on Monday, December 1st, MarketIndexAU Dividends reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.115 per share on Monday, December 15th. This represents a dividend yield of 22.0%. The ex-dividend date is Sunday, November 30th.

VanEck 5-10 Year Australian Government Bond ETF Price Performance

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Victorias Secret & Co. (NYSE:VSCO  Get Free Report)s share price dropped 4.8% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $42.07 and last traded at $41.9970. Approximately 290,714 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 91% from the average daily volume of 3,151,984 shares. The stock had previously closed at $44.12.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VSCO has been the subject of a number of research reports. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Victorias Secret & Co. from $18.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an underperform rating in a research report on Friday, August 29th. Morgan Stanley reissued a reduce rating on shares of Victorias Secret & Co. in a research note on Friday, September 12th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Victorias Secret & Co. from $28.00 to $26.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Victorias Secret & Co. from a sell rating to a neutral rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $18.00 to $32.00 in a report on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a hold (c) rating on shares of Victorias Secret & Co. in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $33.18.

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Victorias Secret & Co. Stock Performance

Institutional Trading of Victorias Secret & Co.

The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48. The stock has a market cap of $3.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.37 and a beta of 2.24. The stocks fifty day moving average is $32.92 and its 200-day moving average is $25.57.

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Virtus Advisers LLC bought a new position in Victorias Secret & Co. during the first quarter worth about $30,000. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Victorias Secret & Co. during the third quarter worth about $30,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Victorias Secret & Co. during the second quarter worth about $35,000. Hara Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Victorias Secret & Co. during the 2nd quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, State of Wyoming bought a new stake in Victorias Secret & Co. during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $48,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.29% of the companys stock.

About Victorias Secret & Co.

(Get Free Report)

Victorias Secret & Co operates as a lingerie, clothing and beauty retailer. It offers bras, panties, lingerie, pajamas, sleep, sport and swim apparel, and beauty products. The company was founded in 1963 and is headquartered in Reynoldsburg, OH.

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WCG Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (NYSE:TSM  Free Report) by 22.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 32,472 shares of the semiconductor companys stock after buying an additional 5,874 shares during the period. WCG Wealth Advisors LLCs holdings in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing were worth $7,355,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of TSM. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing by 20.9% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 10,930 shares of the semiconductor companys stock worth $2,159,000 after purchasing an additional 1,892 shares during the period. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing during the first quarter valued at approximately $6,344,000. Baker Avenue Asset Management LP grew its holdings in shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing by 106.5% in the first quarter. Baker Avenue Asset Management LP now owns 1,544 shares of the semiconductor companys stock worth $256,000 after purchasing an additional 25,208 shares during the last quarter. Cheviot Value Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing in the first quarter worth approximately $61,000. Finally, Manchester Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing by 25.4% in the first quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 494 shares of the semiconductor companys stock worth $82,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. 16.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Itau BBA Securities started coverage on shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. They set an outperform rating for the company. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing from $330.00 to $355.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, October 17th. Citigroup reiterated a buy rating on shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing in a report on Friday, October 17th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing from $300.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a positive rating in a report on Friday, October 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a buy (b-) rating on shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Buy and an average target price of $371.67.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Trading Down 1.2%

Shares of TSM opened at $288.00 on Tuesday. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. has a 1-year low of $134.25 and a 1-year high of $311.37. The company has a current ratio of 2.37, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The firms 50-day moving average price is $290.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $250.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.49 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.54, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.31.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 16th. The semiconductor company reported $2.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $32.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $951.89 billion. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing had a net margin of 43.72% and a return on equity of 36.06%. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturings revenue was up 40.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.94 earnings per share. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. will post 9.2 EPS for the current year.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 9th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 17th will be paid a $0.9678 dividend. This represents a $3.87 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 17th. This is a boost from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturings previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturings dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.74%.

About Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing

(Free Report)

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, packages, tests, and sells integrated circuits and other semiconductor devices in Taiwan, China, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Japan, the United States, and internationally. It provides a range of wafer fabrication processes, including processes to manufacture complementary metal- oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) logic, mixed-signal, radio frequency, embedded memory, bipolar CMOS mixed-signal, and others.

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Several analysts have recently updated their ratings and price targets for CRH (NYSE: CRH):

12/1/2025  CRH had its buy rating reaffirmed by analysts at Jefferies Financial Group Inc..

11/19/2025  CRH had its buy (b-) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

11/13/2025  CRH had its buy (b-) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

11/12/2025  CRH had its price target raised by analysts at DA Davidson from $110.00 to $116.00. They now have a neutral rating on the stock.

11/11/2025  CRH had its price target raised by analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $130.00 to $135.00. They now have an overweight rating on the stock.

11/7/2025  CRH had its price target lowered by analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada from $152.00 to $150.00. They now have an outperform rating on the stock.

11/7/2025  CRH had its price target lowered by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $135.00 to $133.00. They now have an overweight rating on the stock.

10/24/2025  CRH is now covered by analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co.. They set an overweight rating on the stock.

10/20/2025  CRH had its price target raised by analysts at Barclays PLC from $110.00 to $131.00. They now have an overweight rating on the stock.

10/14/2025  CRH is now covered by analysts at UBS Group AG. They set a buy rating and a $138.00 price target on the stock.

10/9/2025  CRH was given a new $134.00 price target on by analysts at Morgan Stanley.

10/8/2025  CRH was upgraded by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company to a strong-buy rating.

10/8/2025  CRH had its buy (b) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

10/7/2025  CRH is now covered by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company. They set an overweight rating and a $135.00 price target on the stock.

CRH Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 21st will be paid a $0.37 dividend. This represents a $1.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 21st. CRHs payout ratio is presently 22.11%.

CRH plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides building materials solutions in Ireland and internationally. It operates through four segments: Americas Materials Solutions, Americas Building Solutions, Europe Materials Solutions, and Europe Building Solutions. The company provides solutions for the construction and maintenance of public infrastructure and commercial and residential buildings; and produces and sells aggregates, cement, readymixed concrete, and asphalt, as well as provides paving and construction services.

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Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS (NYSE: TKC) recently received a number of ratings updates from brokerages and research firms:

11/28/2025  Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a hold rating to a buy rating.

11/25/2025  Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS had its hold (c) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

11/19/2025  Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS had its hold (c) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

11/16/2025  Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS was downgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a buy rating to a hold rating.

11/8/2025  Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS was downgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a buy rating to a hold rating.

10/30/2025  Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS had its hold (c+) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

10/8/2025  Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS had its hold (c) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S. provides digital services in Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and the Netherlands. It operates through Turkcell Turkey, Turkcell International, and Techfin segments. It offers work contact services, such as mobile communications, fixed business internet and business phone, and customer loyalty and programs; digital business services comprising uninterrupted access, cyber security, data center, Internet of Things, big data, e-transformation, technologies, and managed services, and cloud solutions.

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High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas states that Belgium is under significant pressure to provide financial assistance to Ukraine based on frozen Russian assets, while she is convinced that the reparation loan will strengthen the EU's position in negotiations with Russia on ending the war in Ukraine.

"It [the reparations loan] will definitely strengthen the European position vis-a-vis Moscow, that is very clear. We need to move on with this. This is clear that Russia owes reparations for the damages that they have caused to Ukraine, and the Reparations Loan based on the frozen sovereign assets of Russia, is actually the right basis for it. I do not, in any way, diminish the risks or the worries that Belgian government has. When we had the discussions in the European Council, everybody was saying that we are ready to share all the risks and the burden. Therefore, we need to work on this, on the legislative proposal to address all the risks, or mitigate all the risks, and to shoulder the burden regarding those risks. But we definitely need to move on," Kallas said in her statement to the press on Tuesday following a meeting of EU defense ministers, which discussed Russia's war against Ukraine and European defense.

She reported on the prepared document with possible alternatives to the reparations loan, but called the latter "the most viable option, because bilateral contributions are not covering this." The EU High Representative explained that not all EU member states bear the same financial burden, and Eurobonds or joint capital raising are also unacceptable for some member states.

"The reparations that Russia owes to Ukraine  actually, it is really Ukrainian money  if you think about the damages that Russia has caused, this is the best solution. Again, I want to stress that I do not, in any way, diminish the worries that Belgium has, but we can address those. We can shoulder those risks together, and we need to work on a viable solution to go on with the reparations loan," Kallas said.

She said Russia does not want this reparations loan to be granted, but "we can shoulder those risks together, and we need to work on a viable solution to go on with the reparations loan."

"It sends a three-way message  a very strong message - to Ukraine that we are there to help them to defend themselves. The second message to Moscow, that they cannot outlast us, and a third message also to Washington, that we are taking very strong and very credible steps," Kallas stressed.

As reported, EU leaders are expected to discuss the issue of financing Ukraine at a summit in Brussels on December 18.
Wellspring Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT  Free Report) by 27.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,933 shares of the healthcare product makers stock after buying an additional 411 shares during the period. Wellspring Financial Advisors LLCs holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $263,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Tortoise Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Abbott Laboratories by 10.7% during the 2nd quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 795 shares of the healthcare product makers stock worth $108,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. FF Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 4.3% in the second quarter. FF Advisors LLC now owns 1,904 shares of the healthcare product makers stock worth $259,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Trust Co lifted its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Trust Co now owns 14,018 shares of the healthcare product makers stock worth $1,907,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. now owns 12,555 shares of the healthcare product makers stock valued at $1,607,000 after buying an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lcnb Corp grew its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 0.5% in the first quarter. Lcnb Corp now owns 15,917 shares of the healthcare product makers stock worth $2,111,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.18% of the companys stock.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ABT has been the topic of several analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a buy (b) rating on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $144.00 to $142.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. Benchmark initiated coverage on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Friday, October 10th. They issued a buy rating and a $145.00 target price on the stock. Daiwa Capital Markets upped their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $134.00 to $136.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $153.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $147.00.

Abbott Laboratories Trading Down 0.6%

ABT opened at $128.11 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $129.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $131.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $222.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.71. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. Abbott Laboratories has a twelve month low of $110.86 and a twelve month high of $141.23.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT  Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 15th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.30. The firm had revenue of $11.37 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.40 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 17.78% and a net margin of 31.88%.The businesss quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.21 earnings per share. Abbott Laboratories has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.120-5.180 EPS. Analysts predict that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 17th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 15th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 15th. Abbott Laboratoriess payout ratio is presently 29.57%.

Abbott Laboratories Profile

(Free Report)

Abbott Laboratories, together with its subsidiaries, discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells health care products worldwide. It operates in four segments: Established Pharmaceutical Products, Diagnostic Products, Nutritional Products, and Medical Devices. The company provides generic pharmaceuticals for the treatment of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, irritable bowel syndrome or biliary spasm, intrahepatic cholestasis or depressive symptoms, gynecological disorder, hormone replacement therapy, dyslipidemia, hypertension, hypothyroidism, Menieres disease and vestibular vertigo, pain, fever, inflammation, and migraine, as well as provides anti-infective clarithromycin, influenza vaccine, and products to regulate physiological rhythm of the colon.

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Westerkirk Capital Inc. bought a new position in Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEARCA:VWO  Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 958,700 shares of the exchange traded funds stock, valued at approximately $47,417,000. Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF makes up 5.8% of Westerkirk Capital Inc.s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Westerkirk Capital Inc. owned approximately 0.05% of Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Boston Family Office LLC increased its stake in Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Family Office LLC now owns 10,817 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $535,000 after buying an additional 228 shares during the last quarter. Willis Johnson & Associates Inc. increased its position in shares of Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF by 6.0% during the second quarter. Willis Johnson & Associates Inc. now owns 1,630,927 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $80,666,000 after acquiring an additional 92,634 shares during the last quarter. Okabena Investment Services Inc. lifted its holdings in Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF by 14.2% during the second quarter. Okabena Investment Services Inc. now owns 311,047 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $15,384,000 after acquiring an additional 38,783 shares during the period. Financial Freedom LLC boosted its position in Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF by 306.4% in the second quarter. Financial Freedom LLC now owns 25,629 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $1,268,000 after purchasing an additional 19,323 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millington Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF in the 2nd quarter valued at $204,000. 67.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF Price Performance

Shares of Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF stock opened at $54.25 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $102.58 billion, a PE ratio of 15.08 and a beta of 0.55. Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF has a 1 year low of $39.53 and a 1 year high of $56.04. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $54.46 and a 200-day moving average price of $51.70.

Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF Company Profile

The Fund seeks to track the performance of the FTSE Emerging Markets All Cap China A Inclusion Index, that measures the return of stocks issued by companies located in emerging market countries.

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Westerkirk Capital Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT  Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 18,570 shares of the healthcare product makers stock, valued at approximately $2,526,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 1.8% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 172,800,851 shares of the healthcare product makers stock valued at $23,502,644,000 after purchasing an additional 2,977,715 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,293,067 shares of the healthcare product makers stock valued at $5,184,589,000 after buying an additional 1,390,554 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 12.8% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 29,763,415 shares of the healthcare product makers stock valued at $3,948,117,000 after buying an additional 3,371,113 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Abbott Laboratories in the second quarter valued at $3,026,180,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 29.2% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 15,985,797 shares of the healthcare product makers stock worth $2,120,516,000 after buying an additional 3,616,471 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.18% of the companys stock.

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Abbott Laboratories Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of ABT stock opened at $128.11 on Tuesday. Abbott Laboratories has a 12-month low of $110.86 and a 12-month high of $141.23. The company has a market capitalization of $222.77 billion, a PE ratio of 16.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.71. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $129.23 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $131.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

Abbott Laboratories ( NYSE:ABT Get Free Report ) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 15th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts consensus estimates of $1.30. Abbott Laboratories had a net margin of 31.88% and a return on equity of 17.78%. The company had revenue of $11.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $11.40 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.21 earnings per share. Abbott Laboratoriess quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. Abbott Laboratories has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.120-5.180 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 17th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 15th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 15th. Abbott Laboratoriess dividend payout ratio is presently 29.57%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on ABT shares. Raymond James Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $141.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Daiwa Capital Markets lifted their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $134.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $145.00 to $149.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, BTIG Research reiterated a buy rating and set a $145.00 target price on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Abbott Laboratories currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $147.00.

View Our Latest Stock Analysis on Abbott Laboratories

Abbott Laboratories Profile

(Free Report)

Abbott Laboratories, together with its subsidiaries, discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells health care products worldwide. It operates in four segments: Established Pharmaceutical Products, Diagnostic Products, Nutritional Products, and Medical Devices. The company provides generic pharmaceuticals for the treatment of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, irritable bowel syndrome or biliary spasm, intrahepatic cholestasis or depressive symptoms, gynecological disorder, hormone replacement therapy, dyslipidemia, hypertension, hypothyroidism, Menieres disease and vestibular vertigo, pain, fever, inflammation, and migraine, as well as provides anti-infective clarithromycin, influenza vaccine, and products to regulate physiological rhythm of the colon.

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Westerkirk Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (NYSEARCA:EWY  Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 29,432 shares of the exchange traded funds stock, valued at approximately $2,113,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Banque Transatlantique SA bought a new position in shares of iShares MSCI South Korea ETF during the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. CWM LLC raised its stake in iShares MSCI South Korea ETF by 328.8% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 596 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 457 shares during the period. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in iShares MSCI South Korea ETF during the 2nd quarter valued at $76,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its position in iShares MSCI South Korea ETF by 83.3% during the second quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 1,320 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $95,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the period. Finally, WestEnd Advisors LLC bought a new position in iShares MSCI South Korea ETF during the second quarter worth $106,000. 49.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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iShares MSCI South Korea ETF Stock Performance

Shares of EWY stock opened at $90.62 on Tuesday. iShares MSCI South Korea ETF has a 52 week low of $48.49 and a 52 week high of $100.79. The company has a market capitalization of $6.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.35 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $89.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $77.18.

iShares MSCI South Korea ETF Company Profile

iShares MSCI South Korea Capped ETF (the Fund) is an exchange-traded fund (ETF). The Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the MSCI Korea 25/50 Index (the Index). The Index consists of stocks traded primarily on the Stock Market Division of the Korean Exchange.

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Westerkirk Capital Inc. acquired a new position in Moodys Corporation (NYSE:MCO  Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 3,540 shares of the business services providers stock, valued at approximately $1,776,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MCO. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its position in shares of Moodys by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 527,518 shares of the business services providers stock valued at $244,817,000 after buying an additional 56,273 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp increased its holdings in Moodys by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 2,574,948 shares of the business services providers stock worth $1,291,568,000 after acquiring an additional 35,123 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in Moodys by 11.9% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 284,008 shares of the business services providers stock worth $132,260,000 after acquiring an additional 30,122 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in Moodys by 19.6% during the second quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 604,010 shares of the business services providers stock worth $298,502,000 after acquiring an additional 98,951 shares during the period. Finally, Fortis Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Moodys during the first quarter valued at $714,000. 92.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on MCO shares. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Moodys from $539.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Moodys from $597.00 to $620.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Seaport Res Ptn raised Moodys to a strong-buy rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Raymond James Financial raised Moodys from an underperform rating to a market perform rating in a research note on Friday, October 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Moodys from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Saturday, November 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $543.07.

Moodys Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of MCO stock opened at $487.06 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70. Moodys Corporation has a twelve month low of $378.71 and a twelve month high of $531.93. The companys 50-day moving average price is $481.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $492.23. The stock has a market cap of $86.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.15, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.40.

Moodys (NYSE:MCO  Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The business services provider reported $3.92 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $3.70 by $0.22. Moodys had a net margin of 29.92% and a return on equity of 63.58%. The company had revenue of $2.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.21 earnings per share. Moodyss quarterly revenue was up 10.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Moodys has set its FY 2025 guidance at 14.500-14.750 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Moodys Corporation will post 13.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Moodys Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 12th. Investors of record on Friday, November 21st will be given a $0.94 dividend. This represents a $3.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 21st. Moodyss dividend payout ratio is presently 30.23%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Moodys news, CEO Robert Fauber sold 1,167 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.95, for a total transaction of $558,934.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 61,082 shares of the companys stock, valued at $29,255,223.90. This trade represents a 1.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders sold 2,569 shares of company stock valued at $1,253,848 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.14% of the companys stock.

Moodys Company Profile

(Free Report)

Moodys Corporation operates as an integrated risk assessment firm worldwide. It operates in two segments, Moodys Analytics and Moodys Investors Services. The Moodys Analytics segment develops a range of products and services that support the risk management activities of institutional participants in financial markets.

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Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation (NYSE:VAC  Free Report)  Zacks Research lifted their FY2025 EPS estimates for Marriott Vacations Worldwide in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, November 26th. Zacks Research analyst Team now anticipates that the company will earn $7.00 per share for the year, up from their previous estimate of $6.72. The consensus estimate for Marriott Vacations Worldwides current full-year earnings is $6.23 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for Marriott Vacations Worldwides Q4 2025 earnings at $1.69 EPS, Q1 2026 earnings at $1.39 EPS, Q4 2026 earnings at $1.88 EPS, Q1 2027 earnings at $2.10 EPS and Q2 2027 earnings at $1.70 EPS.

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A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on VAC. Weiss Ratings reissued a sell (d+) rating on shares of Marriott Vacations Worldwide in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Barclays dropped their price target on Marriott Vacations Worldwide from $87.00 to $64.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Mizuho lowered shares of Marriott Vacations Worldwide from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and reduced their target price for the company from $85.00 to $58.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $83.00 price objective on shares of Marriott Vacations Worldwide in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $70.00 target price on Marriott Vacations Worldwide in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Marriott Vacations Worldwide presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $63.38.

Marriott Vacations Worldwide Price Performance

Marriott Vacations Worldwide stock opened at $54.86 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 3.22, a current ratio of 3.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.90 billion, a PE ratio of 12.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.37. The firms 50-day simple moving average is $61.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $69.83. Marriott Vacations Worldwide has a 52 week low of $44.58 and a 52 week high of $98.78.

Marriott Vacations Worldwide (NYSE:VAC  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $1.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.64 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.31 billion. Marriott Vacations Worldwide had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 11.44%. The companys revenue for the quarter was down 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.80 EPS. Marriott Vacations Worldwide has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.700-7.100 EPS.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of VAC. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Marriott Vacations Worldwide by 194.0% in the third quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 1,035 shares of the companys stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 683 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Marriott Vacations Worldwide in the third quarter worth $267,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Marriott Vacations Worldwide by 39,966.7% during the 3rd quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 1,202 shares of the companys stock valued at $80,000 after buying an additional 1,199 shares during the last quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC bought a new stake in Marriott Vacations Worldwide in the third quarter worth approximately $27,000. Finally, CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co boosted its holdings in Marriott Vacations Worldwide by 5.2% in the third quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 26,785 shares of the companys stock worth $1,855,000 after purchasing an additional 1,323 shares in the last quarter. 89.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Marriott Vacations Worldwide

In related news, Director William W. Mccarten bought 5,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 20th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $48.08 per share, for a total transaction of $240,400.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 13,708 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $659,080.64. This represents a 57.42% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Lizanne Galbreath acquired 5,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of $46.51 per share, for a total transaction of $255,805.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 25,714 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,195,958.14. This trade represents a 27.21% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders acquired 96,100 shares of company stock valued at $4,566,692. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Marriott Vacations Worldwide Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 17th were given a $0.79 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 17th. This represents a $3.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.8%. Marriott Vacations Worldwides dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 70.85%.

About Marriott Vacations Worldwide

(Get Free Report)

Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation, a vacation company, develops, markets, sells, and manages vacation ownership and related businesses, products, and services in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Vacation Ownership and Exchange & Third-Party Management.

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The initiative of High Representative of the European Union Kaja Kallas to provide Ukraine with ammunition has not yet reached its goal, but efforts to implement it continue.

"On the ammunition initiative, I regret to say that we are not there yet, although today, one Member State told me that in the coming weeks, they will have another decision that will also contribute to the ammunition initiative," Kallas said in her statement to the press on Tuesday following the meeting of EU defense ministers, which discussed Russia's war against Ukraine and European defense.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal and NATO Deputy Secretary General Radmila Sekerinska also joined part of the discussions.

"Today, we were also listening to the Defence Minister Shmyhal regarding the needs that they have, and also his call for Member States to do more. Of course, they also need drones and other capabilities, but they still need ammunition, so the work is still ongoing in this regard. When it comes to the overall support to Ukraine, then, of course, like you rightly say, the burden is not equally shared. So, those Member States who are doing more were also calling on those Member States who are not doing that much. Helping Ukraine now is much cheaper than [if] this war will continue. If we all make a collective effort to help Ukraine, to pressure Russia, the sooner this war will end and sooner the costs will stop as well," the EU High Representative said.

The meeting, she said, discussed how to mobilize additional private financing for cooperation with Ukraine in the defense-industrial sector, in particular through the European Investment Bank.

Kallas said the Netherlands signed an agreement with Ukraine on Tuesday to set up a production line on its territory.

"Europe and Ukraine must build together, produce together and innovate together. It is a win-win for both sides. Ukraine has the battlefield experience, and we also need this for our defence industry. I am glad that more Member States are doing so. Today, for instance, the Netherlands signed an agreement with Ukraine to set up a production line on its territory," she said.

The ministers also discussed European defense. "Everyone agreed that Europe must continue to boost its own defences. We do not have much time to act. Putin is unlikely to honour any agreement for long. And, if we are not strong, it is going to happen sooner. Leaders have given clear direction with the Defence Readiness Roadmap. Capability coalitions are being set up now. Some have already met on air defence and drones, for example. Others will follow soon. Concrete projects are expected in the first half of next year," Kallas said.

Initiatives were also discussed to help coordinate investments in areas where no member state can act alone. She particularly praised Finland for its steps in advancing the Eastern Flank Watch initiative.

As reported, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha thanked Kallas for the initiative to provide 2 million artillery shells to Ukraine and the EU member states, which have already pledged to deliver over 1.35 million shells by 2025.
Photo: https://www.president.gov.ua/

Territorial issues and the use of Russia's frozen assets are the most difficult on the way to ending the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

"There will be no simple solutions to end the war. We understand what is happening. We understand who we are dealing with. The issue is not the complexity of making decisions. I am capable of making them. It is important that everything is fair and open. So that there is no game behind Ukraine's back. So that nothing is decided without Ukraine about us, about our future. The most sensitive things and the most difficult issues concern the territories, frozen assets," Zelenskyy said on Telegram on Tuesday evening.

He said he is unable to speak on behalf of European leaders about frozen money in European countries, and can "only share my vision, and they can support me."

"And about security guarantees. We are counting on strong security guarantees from the United States and Europe, as well as some other leaders. This is one of the topics of the Coalition of the Willing. We are working on it. I think these three topics are the most sensitive and important. Our teams will continue to work on them," Zelenskyy said.
Prostate cancer tends to hit men of African descent harder. For one thing, it runs strongly in families. Genetic factors account for about 58 percent of prostate cancer risk; think of it like inheriting your dads eyes or your grandfathers nose. You can inherit a family cancer risk too. In fact, worldwide statistics show higher prostate cancer rates and deaths among Black men. Doctors even recommend Black men start PSA screening about five years earlier than others. DR. GREGGORY PINTO
Access to financing is key to homeownership, yet many Bahamians face delays and other challenges.

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Photo: elements.envato.com

The conduct of anti-corruption investigations in Ukraine shows that anti-corruption bodies are working in the country, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas has said.

"I also want to address the corruption probes in Ukraine, especially in wartime, trust matters. Ukraine's fight for freedom and its path towards Europe should not be tainted by this. However, the fact that investigations take place shows that anti-corruption bodies in Ukraine work. Also, the public outcry for this has been very, very strong," Kallas said in her statement to the press on Tuesday following the meeting of EU defense ministers, which discussed Russia's war against Ukraine and European defense.

As reported, on November 10, NABU and SAPO announced a large-scale operation to expose corruption in the energy sector, which was called "Midas." The activities of a high-level criminal organization have been documented, whose members built a large-scale corruption scheme to influence strategic state-sector enterprises, in particular JSC Energoatom.
Photo: https://www.president.gov.ua/

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he will wait for signals from the U.S. delegation after its meetings in Russia and is ready for a personal meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.

"Ukraine will wait for signals from the American delegation after its meetings in Russia. The U.S. delegation wants to report to us immediately after the meetings. The next steps depend on these signals. We will receive certain signals. If the signals work this way, if it is fair play with our partners, then maybe we will meet with the American delegation very soon. At what level  we will see, depending on the signals. If the signals provide an opportunity and a chance to make global, but quick decisions, then the level will be higher," Zelenskyy said on Telegram on Tuesday evening.

He noted that, depending on the results of today's talks, he is ready to "receive all the signals, ready to meet with President Trump."

"I am ready to receive all the signals, ready to meet with President Trump. Everything depends on today's talks... The United States says that bloodshed is enough. And we fully support them. But we must end this war so that in a year Russia does not come again, with a third invasion. They have not achieved the goal of occupying our state. But I am not sure that their goals have changed. They can be postponed, and we need protection for this," the head of the Ukrainian state said.
Four OPEC+ countries must compensate for nearly 4.6 mln bpd of excess oil output from Nov to June, nearly 3.35 mln bpd from Kazakhstan

Four OPEC+ countries must compensate for nearly 4.6 million barrels per day of excess oil production from November to June, OPEC said.

Kazakhstan alone must compensate for 3.357 million bpd from this amount.

Additionally, Iraq will compensate 947,000 bpd for eight months, the United Arab Emirates 244,000 bpd, and Oman 41,000 bpd.

The updated compensation plans were received in accordance with the agreement reached during a virtual meeting of eight countries on November 2 regarding additional voluntary adjustments, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Kuwait, and Algeria.
Trump's remarks on Venezuelan airspace closure spark wide condemnation

Xinhua) 09:16, December 02, 2025

People walks past a mural in Caracas, Venezuela, Nov. 5, 2025. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has repeatedly condemned Washington's actions as attempts to overthrow his government and expand the U.S. military influence in Latin America. (Photo by Marcos Salgado/Xinhua)

BEIJING, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump's remarks on the closure of Venezuelan airspace have sparked condemnation wide for endangering global air travel security, regional stability and peace.

Trump said in a post on social media Saturday that the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela should be considered to be closed "in its entirety." His remarks came after Washington had strengthened its military buildup in the Caribbean Sea on the grounds of "fighting drug trafficking."

Amid escalating tensions between the two countries, Trump confirmed on Sunday a phone call with his Venezuelan counterpart, without revealing any details of their conversation.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who had denied any involvement in drug dealing, sent a letter to Haitham Al Ghaism, secretary general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, warning that the U.S. military threat in the Caribbean could jeopardize global energy market stability.

Venezuela, claiming that Washington has been seeking regime change in the South American country and the control of its vast oil reserves, vowed in a government statement on Saturday to respond with legality and dignity.

President of Venezuela's National Assembly Jorge Rodriguez said on state television Sunday that they would form a special commission to investigate the U.S. military's deadly attacks on the alleged "drug trafficking boats" off the Venezuelan coast and in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Trump's latest remarks, the recent U.S. military buildup and attacks on these boats in the Caribbean have raised concern and ignited criticism from regional governments for potential risks to peace and stability.

The Colombian foreign ministry said in a statement that the U.S. move to close Venezuelan airspace is creating "unnecessary tension" and undermining Latin America's stability.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro urged Trump to "go back to respecting the international legal order" in a post on social media on Sunday.

Petro also called on Latin American countries to demand respect for regional sovereignty, stressing that only Venezuelans have the right to choose their government.

On Saturday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez warned of "persistent electromagnetic interference" caused by the United States in the Caribbean region, particularly affecting Venezuela's airspace.

"It is part of an escalation of military aggression and psychological warfare" against the Venezuelan territory, aiming to "forcibly overthrow the legitimate government" of Venezuela and endangering stability across the Caribbean, said Rodriguez.

Political and social organizations in the Dominican Republic, including the left-wing Broad Front party, issued a joint statement on Sunday, slamming Washington for closing the Venezuelan airspace, turning the Caribbean into a venue for its military experiment, and harming the safety of air travel and people's lives.

Trump's statement is a blatant violation of international norms and fundamental rules of international law, including those governing international air transport, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement on Sunday.

He denounced the move as an "arbitrary act and an unprecedented threat" to the safety and security of international aviation.

Since early September, the United States has carried out more than 20 military strikes on alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing over 80 people. Its military presence was further enhanced in mid-November with the deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford, a major aircraft carrier, to a level unseen in at least three decades.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Frida Kahlos 1940 painting The Dream (The Bed) is no ordinary work of art. And the recent auction where it fetched $54.66 million, making it the most expensive artwork by a woman ever sold at auction, proves it. Behind this representation, which, according to Sothebys, encapsulates her lifelong preoccupation with mortality, physicality, and the emotional complexities of selfhood, lies a story that describes the paintings abrupt departure from Mexico, against the backdrop of a romantic disappointment.

Professor Luis-Martin Lozano, a historian of Mexican and Latin American art, explains in a video call with EL PAIS that the artwork, which he describes as a complex self-portrait, left the country between the 1940s and 1950s, before the government decree in 1984 that declared Frida Kahlos complete works an Artistic Monument of the Nation and prohibited the export of her creations. Kahlos intention was to get rid of a gift she had painted for the American photographer Nickolas Muray, who had been her lover for 10 years and who, in 1939, announced to her that he was going to get married.

Those years were not easy for the artist. Having just arrived from Paris in 1939, Kahlo received devastating news. Diego Rivera asked her for a divorce, and Frida was heartbroken because she didnt understand why. They had an open relationship: she knew he was seeing many women; he, in turn, suspected she had lovers. It wasnt a conventional relationship, but the point is that she had to make her own way and was prepared to do so, explains Lozano. And she had reason to believe. She had just had a solo exhibition in New York where she had sold several works, the Louvre Museum had bought one of her paintings during her trip to the French capital, and, moreover, she had Nick. He was a support, a man who loved her and asked for nothing in return, the expert says, adding: Sort of, because, in reality, Nick would have married Frida if she had had the strength to leave Diego.

The news of Murays marriage caught Kahlo off guard, as she was about to finish The Dream (The Bed), a gift to thank him for his emotional and financial support over the years. Its a painting that deals with dreams, yes, but it also relates to that reality constructed in Frida Kahlos subconscious. What happens in that constructed reality? She has peace: shes detached from the conflict of Riveras divorce, detached from the conflict of her illness and her pain, and shes at peace when shes with Nick, because shes very happy with Nick Muray. But that happiness crumbled with the announcement of the upcoming nuptials, so that painting, with its profound significance for her, had to go.

According to the art specialist, in 1939, the Mexican painter told the photographer that she had been forced to sell the work to the Misrachi Gallery in Mexico City due to an urgent need for money, but this was a lie: the letter is from 1939, while the canvas is dated 1940. In other words, she hadnt finished it when she wrote that fictitious letter to Nick, says Lozano, who suggests that Kahlo didnt want to give the painting to Muray because he was going to get married and then he would no longer be the recipient of that message of gratitude and affection with which she had created it. According to the art historians research, the Mexican artist continued to offer The Dream (The Bed) to her American collector friends for $400, even after she had led the photographer to believe she no longer had it.

Nickolas Muray and Frida Kahlo in an undated photograph. Museo Frida Kahlo

At some point, the painting was indeed exhibited for sale at the Misrachi Gallery, where it was acquired by a man named Luis de Hoyos. We dont know much about him. What we do know is that he came to Mexico and that he loved to fish, Lozano remarks. And it is precisely De Hoyos who, in a way, explains the paintings subsequent appearance outside the country. When he died at his home in the United States, near New York, this was one of the paintings that were handed to Sothebys for auction, the expert recounts. The rest is history. On May 9, 1980, the auction house sold it to a private buyer, and last November 20, the canvas was seen again after 45 years. A triumphant return that not only broke records but also confirms the attraction and fascination that the Mexican artist evokes worldwide.

Anna Di Stasi, director of Latin American Art at Sothebys, told EL PAIS by phone that there is a universal emotional state in the artists paintings. Frida Kahlo continues to have a very direct, very emotional connection across generations with different women, in different countries, and with different people, she explained. For Di Stasi, the reaction to her [Kahlo] is always emotional, which goes hand in hand with the fascination with her work and her life. It is one of her most surreal paintings, and it is understood that it is not just a portrait of her or her face; it is rather a portrait of her emotional state and her relationship with death. It is a highly psychoanalytic work.

Di Stasi is not surprised by the success of The Dream (The Bed). Weve been building an art market primarily led by women for a decade now, many of them Latin American, who have found significant exposure for their artistic production at prices unthinkable 15 years ago, she explains. The Sothebys Senior Vice President also believes that these auctions establish an understanding that didnt exist before about the region and the cultural heritage of a continent. Furthermore, although she believes the art market fluctuates and has preferences just like the design market, for her, the important thing is to remain part of the conversation. Regarding the specific moment this record was reached, and what this says about the value placed on these types of works, she concludes: I dont know if were late to the party, but I imagine its better late than never.

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The Venezuelan president swore in the grassroots Bolivarian commands and announced the creation of a new political bureau with trusted aides to face the threats from Washington

With a new national radio and television broadcast, Nicolas Maduro re-emerged this Monday at a rally with his supporters from the United Socialist Party of Venezuela near Miraflores Palace in downtown Caracas, to declare that his adversaries will never be able to take us off the path of the revolution, under any circumstances.

Fully immersed in the narrative of his movementaccording to which Chavismo is fully acquitted of any responsibility for the countrys social and economic collapseand apparently, with no intention of relinquishing power, regardless of Washingtons threats, Maduro appeared energetic, relaxed, and smiling, after an absence of a few days during which rumors had swirled about his political fate.

The questions had multiplied, especially after U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledged to the media that he has had a telephone conversation with Maduro, and there was much talk about the imposition of an ultimatum by Washington.

The Monday event was Caracas response to all the media conjectures about a negotiated exit. We have lived through 22 weeks of psychological terrorism, which have tested us, said Maduro. The test of love for the homeland. At the event, held on Urdaneta Avenue, the Venezuelan leader swore in the Comprehensive Bolivarian Community Base Commands, with which the government is attempting to deploy its militants to organize block by block throughout the country, assuming political and territorial control with national defense as the supreme objective. These cellular efforts, in which the population is organized into territorial circles, have also been implemented within the military.

Maduro at the event this Monday in Caracas. Leonardo Fernandez Viloria (REUTERS)

Maduro seized the opportunity to announce the creation of a new political bureau, a plenipotentiary body composed of 12 leaders, which will accompany him in leading all social and political forces. We are more than a party: we are a force, and we have achieved unity among all Venezuelans in the face of these imperial threats, he declared.

This new body is composed of members of the ruling partys leadership: Diosdado Cabello, Jorge Rodriguez, Delcy Rodriguez, and Cilia Flores are among the most prominent. All were presented and sworn in by Maduro himself at this event.

Although political fervor is clearly lacking, Chavismo, already greatly diminished as a political movement, has structured itself in a disciplined manner around Maduro, offering a new demonstration of unity and organization at a particularly delicate political moment.

Even more: adhering to a strategic maxim of the late leader Hugo Chavez  to deepen the revolution to guarantee its stability after each siege by its enemies , the Chavistas seem willing to use the circumstances unleashed after last years presidential elections to radicalize the foundations of the Bolivarian revolution whenever possible.

So far this year, amid controversies over the legitimacy of his re-election and increased tensions with the United States, Maduro has hinted at the possibility of accelerating constitutional reforms to strengthen popular power as an executive and project management body.

He has also promised to develop a constituent assembly to co-opt the entire trade union movement and has offered to perfect Bolivarian democracy, with new mechanisms of representation and participation; direct democracy, the true democracy, according to Maduro, far removed from the model of bourgeois democracy.

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Tourists in front of the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford, docked in St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands on Monday.

The president has confirmed he spoke to Nicolas Maduro by phone on November 21. According to Reuters, during that call the Chavista leader received a deadline to step down by last Friday. The Venezuelan leader is allegedly seeking a second phone conversation

U.S. President Donald Trump met with his national security team on Monday to discuss the next steps regarding Venezuela, according to the White House, which did not provide details on what was discussed. Tensions have been running high for days over the possibility that the president may order attacks on land targets in the South American country.

The White House has also confirmed that on September 2, when U.S. forces sank the first alleged drug-running boat in Caribbean waters as part of their anti-drug campaign, they carried out a follow-up attack that killed the two survivors detected after the first strike. Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt attributed the order to Admiral Frank Bradley, head of the Special Forces command.

The meeting took place 24 hours after Trump confirmed that he had spoken to Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro by phone. According to an exclusive story by Reuters, during that call on November 21, the U.S. president gave the Chavista leader a deadline to step down by Friday, November 28, in exchange for guaranteeing his safe passage to a third country. According to sources cited by Reuters, that offer is no longer on the table.

Nicolas Maduro kisses a Venezuelan flag during a ceremony in Caracas on December 1. Leonardo Fernandez Viloria (REUTERS)

The expiration of the deadline without Maduro stepping down precipitated Trumps announcement on Saturday that the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela should be considered closed in its entirety, according to Reuters.

Among his conditions, Maduro demanded full legal amnesty for himself and his family, an end to international sanctions against him and a hundred other senior Venezuelan officials, and the withdrawal of the charges he faces before the International Criminal Court. He also proposed the formation of an interim government headed by Vice President Delcy Rodriguez until elections could be held.

If the news agencys information is confirmed, Maduros options have become considerably more complicated. The Chavista government is seeking a second telephone conversation, according to Reuters.

Monday meeting

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was one of the participants at Mondays meeting of top Trump advisers. Also present were Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chief of Staff General Dan Caine, Trumps Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and Wiless number two aide and the presidents chief domestic policy advisor Stephen Miller, among others. The meeting took place in the Oval Officenot the Situation Room, as would be the case for any ongoing operation and White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt indicated that, in addition to Venezuela, a number of other issues would be addressed.

Although he has admitted to speaking with Maduro, Trump has given no indication as to whether that call bore any fruit. I wouldnt say it went well or badly, it was a phone call, he told reporters accompanying him aboard Air Force One on his return to Washington on Sunday night, after spending Thanksgiving at his private residence in Florida, Mar-a-Lago.

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters while in flight on Air Force One on Sunday. Alex Brandon (AP)

The day before, the president had set off alarm bells by announcing to international airlines that they should consider Venezuelan airspace closed in its entirety, in what appeared to be a warning that some kind of U.S. action was imminent. But in his remarks to the press on Sunday, he cautioned against making a big deal out of it or reading too much between the lines.

Direct contact between the two presidents had raised hopes for a diplomatic solution to the conflict between their governments. Washington accuses Maduro of narco-terrorism and of leading the Cartel of the Suns, a term used to refer to corrupt groups and individuals within the Venezuelan government and the armed forces with ties to drug trafficking. Last week, the State Department added the Cartel of the Suns to its list of foreign terrorist organizations. The United States also considers the Chavista leader an illegitimate president due to irregularities in the electoral processes, particularly those of 2023.

The fight against drug trafficking is the argument Washington uses to justify the massive military deployment it has maintained in the Caribbean since August. Since September 2, U.S. forces have carried out at least 21 attacks against suspected drug-running boats in international waters in that sea and the eastern Pacific, killing at least 83 people in what has come to be known as Operation Southern Spear. The addition of the Cartel of the Suns to the list of terrorist organizations provides Washington, in the opinion of the administration, with new tools to launch a new phase of the operation that includes targets in Venezuelan territory.

State Secretary Rubio, one of the senior advisers at the Monday meeting, is a well-known hawk on Venezuela. He is one of the key architects of the hardline policy toward Caracas, including the U.S. military deployment.

Defense Secretary Hegseth, meanwhile, is embroiled in a major controversy after The Washington Post published information that, if confirmed, could make the Pentagon chief guilty of war crimes, according to several lawmakers. According to the Post, on September 2, in the first attack against a suspected drug-running boat carrying 11 people, two individuals survived and were seen clinging to the wreckage. A follow-up strike killed the survivors.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a press briefing at the White House on December 1. Evelyn Hockstein (REUTERS)

At her weekly news conference on Monday, Leavitt confirmed that the second attack did indeed take place. According to her explanation, the decision was made by the head of Special Operations Command, Admiral Frank Bradley, on grounds of self-defense, in international waters, and said the admiral 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 did not provide any arguments to justify that the second attack complied with the laws of armed conflict. The Pentagons 2023 Law of War manual specifically cites an order to attack shipwrecked sailors after an action at sea as an example of a case in which an order from a superior should be rejected.

The Pentagon and Hegseth have denied the information reported by The Washington Post. On Sunday night, the Secretary of Defense posted a supposedly humorous image about the attacks on his social media account. It is a parody of a childrens book, featuring the title Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists and showing Franklin shooting a rocket-propelled grenade from a helicopter.

Trump has also rejected the accusations against his Pentagon chief, albeit more ambiguously. I dont know anything about this, he declared aboard Air Force One. The president also stated that he wouldnt have wanted that, not a second strike.

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Salvador Nasralla has declared victory on social media, while Nasry Asfura is urging caution. The US president is trying to sow doubt by accusing authorities of manipulating the results: If they do, there will be hell to pay!

The preliminary results of the general election in Honduras have left its citizens with a feeling of surprise. Very few in this Central American country expected the election to be decided vote by vote due to a virtual tie between the two right-wing candidates: the liberal Salvador Nasralla and the nationalist Nasry Asfura. Nasralla has declared himself the winner on social media and presented data from his party that gives him an advantage over his opponent, but Asfura has opted for caution. While uncertainty reigns, electoral authorities have asked people for calm and urged them to wait for the final vote count. Given this virtual tie, we must be patient and wait until we finish counting the ballots, stated Ana Paola Hall, head of the National Electoral Council (CNE).

On Monday night U.S. President Donald Trump, who had endorsed Asfura ahead of the Sunday election, used social media to sow doubt about the vote count. Contrary to his administrations official position, which has called for patience, he posted: Looks like Honduras is trying to change the results of their Presidential Election. If they do, there will be hell to pay!

Meanwhile CNE chief Hall congratulated Hondurans for their turnout and for maintaining their composure despite the close results. The day after the election, normalcy prevailed in the capital, Tegucigalpa, despite earlier fears of unrest if the vote count did not favor Libre, the governing party, whose representatives had warned they would not accept defeat. Some businesses remained closed, while others still had plywood boards covering their windows. The margin of defeat for the ruling party is so large that its supporters have barely had time to absorb the blow.

On Monday, several government ministers began accepting defeat and resigning from their posts. This was the case with Daniel Sponda, Minister of Education, who wrote on social media: In a democracy, we also learn from defeat. We lost an election, but not our cause. Octavio Pineda, Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation, expressed a similar sentiment, announcing that he had already begun the transition process and instructed his team to hand over all the information resulting from the complex vote count to the new government.

Nasry Asfura in Tegucigalpa, on November 30. Leonel Estrada (REUTERS)

While Asfura and Nasralla continued their head-to-head campaign, awaiting the official results, Rixi Moncada, the candidate for the ruling Libre party, remained silent. She had promised a news conference after the preliminary results were released, but canceled it Sunday night and has not appeared publicly since. Former president Manuel Zelaya, who founded the party after the 2009 military coup that ousted him, did comment on the outcome. Libre is a party of ideals tested in the streets and with significant social and democratic achievements under the presidency of Xiomara Castro, he posted on X, referring to his wife and current president. Castro has not yet commented.

Electoral authorities are under pressure to release an official tally as soon as possible, before uncertainty further inflames already heated tempers following a highly polarized campaign rife with insults and threats. The country is experiencing a tense situation as supporters of both sides demand that their candidates claim victory. Asfura is still surprised to have climbed from third place in the polls to narrowly missing the presidency. The National Party, for which he is running in this election, has a dark history of politicians linked to corruption scandals, inefficiency, and ties to drug trafficking, as is the case of former president Juan Orlando Hernandez, known as JOH, who was sentenced in the United States to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking.

Despite the U.S. courts conviction, President Donald Trump announced a surprise pardon for JOH and an endorsement of Asfura last Friday, just three days before the election. He did so in a message on his social media platform, Truth, in which he also conditioned his support for the Central American country on the election of the conservative candidate.

Asfura, who comes from a family of Palestinian origin, gained a reputation among Hondurans as an efficient politician during his tenure as mayor of Tegucigalpa, thanks to his implementation of several urban infrastructure projects and public works. The candidate, who goes by the handle Papi a la orden on social media, wasted no time in capitalizing on Trumps endorsement: he posted photos of himself alongside the Republican leader and the Argentine president Javier Milei, who has also endorsed him. Asfura has promised economic reforms to attract foreign investors, but he has also stated that he will strengthen the armed forces of a country still reeling from the wounds of the 2009 coup.

For his part, Nasralla, who is running for president for the third time, is a familiar face to Hondurans, as he is a popular television host. He entered this election as a champion against the corruption of the political and business elites who have embezzled from the state, citing cases such as the corruption case that cost Hondurans more than $200 million and the Trans-450 infrastructure project, a bus rapid transit system for Tegucigalpa that was never completed but siphoned off $150 million from public funds. Nasralla has tried to convince voters that he is not part of the traditional political class and that his election will represent a new, cleaner way of governing. Corruption is a painful issue in this country and is possibly one of the reasons why Nasralla is also on the verge of winning the presidency.

The final decision rests on a recount that has a country on edge  a country that has turned its back on a left-wing transformation project that has proven ephemeral.

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IndiGo owner InterGlobe Aviation Limited on Tuesday announced that the Joint Commissioner of Central Tax and Central Excise, CGST Kochi Commissionerate, Kerala, slapped a GST notice amounting to around Rs 118 crore on December 1.

On the same day, a Kuwait-Hyderabad IndiGo flight made an emergency landing in Mumbai morning following a bomb threat, according to reports.

In Tuesday trading, IndiGo was swiftly punished in the National Stock Exchange, with the stock hitting a Rs 5,680 low, down by around 2 per cent from Monday's close.

In a regulatory filing, the IndiGo parent said that the CGST department denied input tax credit (ITC) availed by the company and issued a demand order along with a penalty to the tune of Rs 117,52,86,402 covering the fiscal years 2018-19 to 2021-22.

"The Company believes that the order passed by the authorities is erroneous," InterGlobe Aviation stated, "Further, the Company believes that it has a strong case on merits, backed by advice from external tax advisors. Accordingly, the Company will contest the same before the appropriate authority."

As for expected effect on the company's finances and other operations, it said: "Impact on financial, operation, or other activities of the listed entity, quantifiable in monetary terms to the extent possible. There is no significant impact on financials, operations or other activities of the Company."

Two weeks earlier, the IndiGo parent also announced that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation slapped a Rs 20 lakh penalty on the carrier after it supposedly failed in the "Implementation of Standard Instrument Departure (SID) Instrument Flight Procedure (IFP) formulated by the Company for Udaipur Airport, instead of being promulgated by Airport Authority of India (AAI) as mandated under Rule 133A of The Aircraft Rules, 1937 read along with DGCA CAR 9/EN para nos 2.2 and 2.34."

These penalties come at around the same time IndiGo is looking to inject $820 million into its wholly owned subsidiary, InterGlobe Aviation Financial Services IFSC Private Limited, which it plans to use for the "acquisition of aviation assets, thereby enabling ownership of aircraft."
The Supreme Court, on Tuesday, gave Kerala government the go-ahead to grant land in Thiruvananthapuram for the establishment of a BrahMos supersonic cruise missile manufacturing unit.

The apex court directed that 180 acres of land owned by the Nettukaltheri open prison in the district will be allotted to BrahMos Aerospace Trivandrum Limited (BATL).

BATL is a wholly owned subsidiary of BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited (BAPL), which is a joint venture between DRDO and Russia's NPO Mashinostroyeniya. The company has developed and supplied a wide range of precision and critical products for ISRO, DRDO, GTRE, HAL and Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). The company, which operates in a 15.8-acre land in Chackai of Thiruvananthapuram, had sought land in Kerala as part of a relocation and expansion plan.

ALSO READ: BrahMos diplomacy: Analysts explain why Southeast Asia sees India as a 'safer' arms supplier

The allotment of land for BATL, which comes under the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) is intended for the expansion of BATLs existing operations, specifically for the establishment of a second manufacturing unit dedicated to advanced missiles and strategic hardware. By providing the land, the State will contribute directly to national security and defence growth, Kerala had submitted in the court, reported The Hindu.

Following a report submitted by amicus curiae, the apex court bench agreed to the government's proposal to divide 257 acres from the 457-acre campus of the open prison between BATL, Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and a National Forensic Science University.

The state government had submitted that the open prison uses only 100 acres. The government said the establishment of a BATL unit will offer Kerala the permanent presence of a Central Armed Police Force, strengthen national security preparedness and provide employment and local development opportunities.
Two days before Russian President Vladimir Putin embarks on an official visit to Indiahis first to New Delhi ever since the Ukraine conflict broke out in February 2022Indias Navy chief Admiral D.K. Tripathi said there is no conflict in the Indian military having logistics agreements with both the US and Russian militaries.

The Navy chiefs statement acquires significance in the backdrop of the fact that India and Russia are expected to ink the Reciprocal Exchange of Logistics Agreement (RELOS) during the presidential visit for easier logistics access between the navies of the two countries.

On the other hand, in 2016, India and the US, among a slew of pacts, signed the LEMOA (Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement) to facilitate much easier and simpler access to each others naval bases in the form of logistical support, refueling, supplies, and other such services on a reimbursable basis.

On Tuesday, answering a question at the customary annual Indian Navy day press conference in New Delhi, Admiral Tripathi said: I dont think there is going to be any conflict, otherwise it wouldnt have come so far. There is no conflict at all.

India takes great pride in our strategic autonomy. It has been articulated at the highest levels of leadership. And we have the capacity to work with everyone and on issue-based convergences We have shown in the past that we can work with all.

I was in Washington DC about 15 days back, and there were no questions being asked about Russia. So, I think people understand the requirements of each country countries are mature enough to understand that, he added.

On Tuesday, the Russian parliament ratified the RELOS, paving the way for the inking of the pact.

Admiral Tripathi responded to questions on a range of issues. A revelation about Operation Sindoor was when the chief said that after the first four days of Operation Sindoor, the location of Pakistani naval assets was known to the Indian navy while declaring that the operation was still ongoing.

He further said India will soon commission its third indigenous nuclear-powered and ballistic missile-carrying submarine named Aridaman. This is Indias third ship submersible ballistic nuclear (SSBN) after INS Arihant and INS Arighat.
Following the extensive use of Heron Mk-II remotely piloted aircraft in Operation Sindoor for surveillance, reconnaissance, and documenting missile strikes on terror centers, India is set to order more drones from Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) under emergency procurement provisions.

According to news agency ANI, Israeli defence industry sources said all three branches of the armed forcesIndian Army, Navy, and the Air Forcehave decided to procure Mk-II.

Under the emergency procurement provisions, armed forces can purchase weapons systems worth up to Rs 300 crore.

Reports suggest that discussions are also underway to explore the possibility of manufacturing the UAV in India.

While additional orders have been placed by the Army and Air Force, which already operate the drones, the Navy is acquiring them for the first time. The induction of these drones will enhance the capabilities of the three services to undertake ISR missions beyond the line of sight ranges at higher altitudes of operations.

What makes Heron Mk II special?

Heron Mk II squadron, known as the 'Wardens of the North' is deployed in the northern sector and is capable of covering surveillance and strike missions against both China and Pakistan in a single sortie.

Capable of undertaking SATCOM (satellite communications) based operations along with advanced sensors and avionics suite, Heron Mk-II is a medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle which has an endurance of up to 45 hours, a service ceiling of 35,000 feet, and can fly over 1,000 kilometers without refueling.

ALSO READ: The battle of minds: Why India must prepare for cognitive warfare

According to IAI, "A particularly notable feature of the Heron MK II is its standoff capability. This function allows for the gathering of intelligence from tens of kilometers away, without the need to cross borders, made possible by its capacity to carry larger and improved sensors."

The drone can support a wide range of additional payloads, including electro-optics, radars, ELINT (electronic intelligence), COMINT (Communications Intelligence), ESM (electronic support measures), and communication relay systems.

"The payloads and the onboard avionics of the Heron Mk-II can operate at sub-zero temperatures and in any weather condition. This is helping the Indian Air Force achieve footprints over any type of terrain," Squadron Leader Arpit Tandon, who is a pilot of the Heron Mk-II drone squadron, was earlier quoted as saying.

The Heron Mk-II is a very capable drone. This is capable of longer endurance and has beyond line of sight capability. With this, the entire country can be surveilled from the same place. The drone simply amalgamates into the Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance matrix of the Indian Air Force, Wing Commander Pankaj Rana, commanding officer of the drone squadron, had earlier told ANI.
CLAIM:

C-section mothers experience intense post-operative pain and do not instantly feel an emotional connection with their newborns after birth. Many also struggle with feeding, holding, and caring for their babies in the first hours or days due to physical limitations and recovery challenges.

FACT:

Modern C-sections, performed under spinal anaesthesia, are less painful, and post-operative discomfort is generally manageable with proper pain relief. Studies and experts say that C-sections do not delay mother-infant bonding; factors like maternal mental health, hospital support, and rooming-in practices play a bigger role in establishing early connection.

A viral reel posted by Aishwarya Wagh Kendre, a vlogger who is currently documenting her motherhood journey, shares a deeply personal and emotionally charged account of life after a C-section that has struck a chord with millions online. The video captures the raw aftermath of a caesarean or C-section deliverynot just the physical pain, but also the emotional distance she says she felt from her newborn in the first few hours after birth.

In the reel, Aishwarya is seen next to her newborn child. When I woke up this morning, my child was crying next to me. It took me a while to realise that yes, I gave birth to him last night. But will you judge me if I say that I haven't felt any emotional connection yet? Maybe because I am a C-section mom, she says.

Challenging the popular belief that a mother instantly forgets all pain after seeing her baby, she adds, People say that after delivery, you will forget all your pain and sorrows by looking at the babys face. But I think this is only for normal delivery moms. Because C-section moms pain starts after the anaesthesia.

Describing her post-operative struggles, Aishwarya speaks about the overwhelming helplessness that follows a C-section. She adds that learning to care for a newborn, how to feed, latch, or burp the baby, is an exhausting process when your body is still recovering. Despite all her efforts, the infant still needs constant attention, leaving her feeling powerless because you can't even sit for a long time.

Aishwarya also shares the physical toll of recovery, swelling on the face, syringes in her hands, and a constant dependence on painkillers. You are hungry, but you can't eat, and sometimes you have to wait 24 hours just to drink a sip of water. I so wonder why no one in our society talks about this phase of a C-section, she adds.

The reel, which ends with her wishing she had been mentally and physically prepared for this phase, has garnered over 60 lakh views, 2.54 lakh likes, and 61,900 shares, sparking a nationwide conversation on the realities of recovery after a C-section.

Do Csection mothers suffer more pain?

Dr Prof. Abha Majumdar, Director and Head of the Centre for IVF & Human Reproduction at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, with 45 years of experience, explained that modern Csections are significantly different from the past. She noted that most procedures are now performed under spinal anaesthesia, making the surgery largely painless.

C-section is otherwise a painless procedure. Yes, there is some post-operative pain, but if painkillers are administered adequately, patients recover quickly, she said. Dr Majumdar added that post-operative pain after a C-section is generally manageable, and in many cases, less intense than the prolonged pain experienced during normal labour. She also emphasised that stitches from vaginal delivery can be painful for two weeks, while the abdominal scar from a C-section takes a similar period to heal.

She further explained that continuous pain relief through epidural or other analgesics ensures minimal discomfort: We should be liberal in giving painkillers, just like during normal delivery. In two to three days, most mothers are quite normalthey walk around, use the toilet, and begin basic activities.

Adding to this perspective, Dr Swati Rai, Consultant-Gynaecologist and Laparoscopic Surgeon at Motherhood Hospitals, Noida, clarified common misconceptions around post-C-section pain, Theres a myth that spinal anaesthesia causes back pain, but thats not true. Often, its due to how mothers sit while feeding for months or not taking proper supplements. Thats why people sometimes wrongly correlate C-section with long-term pain.

Do Csection mothers suffer delayed bonding with their baby?

A 2024 cross-sectional study in Eastern Poland examined 175 post-cesarean women within 13 to 72 hours after surgery, focusing on pain perception and coping strategies. The study found that cognitive coping strategies and an internal locus of control were linked to better pain reduction, while catastrophising and hoping correlated with lower coping competence.

The research said that the necessity for the application of an individual approach to women concerning coping with pain strategies after the cesarean section as well as their own pain locus of control during womens psychoeducation conducted by midwives and other healthcare professionals, for instance on antenatal classes. Furthermore, the results obtained suggest further investigations regarding the subject, for example, referring to the degree of pain experienced. Medical professionals comprehension of determinants of pain perception and ways of coping with pain used by parturients can have a positive influence on the quality of post-operative care on maternity wards.

In terms of early infant care, a study titled Does caesarean section have an impact on exclusive breastfeeding? Evidence from four Southeast Asian countries found that children born by C-section had lower odds of being exclusively breastfed compared to vaginally delivered children. The study concluded that the findings underscore the importance of providing adequate support and interventions to mothers who deliver by CS (caesarean section) and their family members to ensure they can successfully achieve exclusive breastfeeding, particularly in a global context where CS rates are rising.

Another 2023 observational study investigating the relationship between severe postpartum pain and maternal-infant bonding found that pain intensity did not significantly affect bonding outcomes in either vaginal or cesarean deliveries. Instead, factors such as maternal mental health and rooming-in practices were stronger predictors of bonding. The study concluded that contrary to expectations, severe postpartum pain did not influence maternal-infant binding in the cohort of patients with vaginal and cesarean deliveries". Instead, factors such as maternal mental health and rooming-in practices appeared to exert more significant influence.

Addressing concerns about mother-infant bonding, Dr Majumdar said, Bonding is not delayed because of C-section. The mother is awake, fully aware, and can hold the baby immediately after delivery. We put the baby to the breast while the mother is still in the operating room after the placenta is delivered.

She contrasted this with experiences during normal delivery, where mothers may sometimes delay holding the baby due to labour exhaustion, After a vaginal delivery, some mothers are in so much pain that they say, Take the baby away, I just want to rest. But after a C-section, mothers are generally happy to hold their babies because the delivery itself is painless.

Dr Majumdar also clarified that bonding depends on individual circumstances, hospital protocols, and postnatal support, not the mode of delivery. It is a personal experience if someone feels bonding is difficult. Adequate post-operative care, pain management, and allowing rooming-in ensure bonding happens naturally, she said.

She concluded, Both normal and C-section deliveries have their pros and cons. With modern anaesthesia and pain management, C-section is practically safe, and mothers can bond with their babies right after birth.

Adding to this, Dr Rai provided a complementary perspective on the gradual nature of bonding, Bonding takes time. Initial struggles with feeding or latching are normal for all mothers, regardless of delivery method. The connection with your baby develops gradually as you learn together.

This story is done in collaboration with First Check, which is the health journalism vertical of DataLEADS.
CLAIM:

Repeatedly boiling tea increases the extraction and concentration of acidic compounds like tannins and polyphenols, thereby lowering its pH and potentially triggering acidity in some people who consume it.

FACT:

Repeatedly boiling tea can increase the extraction of tannins and polyphenols, which are acidic compounds. Experts note that while this may slightly raise acidity, the human stomach usually neutralises it, and the effect is most relevant for individuals with pre-existing acid-related conditions. They also highlighted the need for more large-scale, long-term studies to fully understand the impact of repeatedly boiled tea on digestive health.

Winters are here, and with the nip in the air comes an unbreakable companion for many, a steaming cup of tea. From homes to roadside stalls, our favourite tea vendors keep the kettle on the stove all day, boiling tea again and again to serve a steady stream of customers. But have you ever stopped to think if repeatedly boiling tea could possibly affect your health?

In a viral Instagram reel, educator and content creator Ashu Ghai claims that overboiling tea can make it more acidic and may trigger acidity. As per his LinkedIn profile, Ghai is an educator dedicated to the learning of young minds. He also runs a YouTube channel titled 'Science and Fun', where he aims to make children not just learn but understand science and the fun it has in its concepts.

In the reel, Ashu is seen talking to his mother, who is boiling tea for quite some time. He asks her, Why are you boiling the tea for so long, mom? When she replies that she wants her brother to drink well-boiled tea, Ashu responds, Boiling the tea does not make the tea good, it makes the tea bad.

To prove this, he prepares tea with just milk and tea leaves, gives it a light boil, cools it, and measures its pH at 6.5, which is slightly acidic. He then boils the same tea again for 15 to 20 minutes. As the colour of the tea darkens, Ashu explains that boiling the tea again and again leads to two things. He says that with repeated boiling, tea leaves extract more tannins and polyphenols, which are acidic in nature. This reduces the pH of the tea and makes it more acidic, he notes.

He then points out that the pH of the repeatedly boiled tea drops to 5.9. Explaining the second effect, he adds that due to continuous evaporation, there is a loss of water, because of which the concentration of these chemicals is increasing per unit volume. He also clarifies that this is not mostly dangerous, but maintains that boiling the tea again and again does make it more acidic.

The reel has since amassed over 4.6 million views, 68,852 likes and more than 86,000 shares, fuelling debate on whether over-boiling tea can actually make it more acidic and trigger acidity.

Does repeatedly boiling tea really make it more acidic and trigger acidity?

There are no robust, large-scale studies directly examining the effect of repeatedly boiled tea on acidity in humans.

However, some older research and expert opinions provide insights into the possible mechanisms. An analytical study conducted at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, during 19992000 investigated the effect of different boiling times and temperatures on tannin extraction from three commercial tea brands. The researchers tested cooking times of two, four, six, eight, and 10 minutes at temperatures of 90C, 95C, and 100C, analysing tannin content and protein solubility.

The study found that a significant increase in tannin contents and a significant decrease in KoH solubility of protein with increase in time and temperature were recorded. Higher tannin levels reduced protein digestibility, which can contribute to digestive discomfort. The authors also noted that the tannin contents increased with an increase in boiling time, and protein solubility was decreased with an increase in tannin concentration.

Highlighting real-world practices, the researchers observed that at public places and roadside tea shops, tea is often repeatedly and prolonged boiling of tea for maximum extraction of colour and taste, a practice they warned could be harmful. The study concluded that two minutes boiling is sufficient for tea making in order to get a good ratio of tannins, and advised against prolonged boiling to preserve both sensory quality and nutritional safety.

Dr Anil Arora, Senior Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, explained the science behind this. He said that by repeatedly boiling the tea, more chemicals like tannins and polyphenols are extracted from the tea leaves. These compounds can irritate the stomach and, being acidic, may increase acidity.

However, he cautioned that the human stomach has huge reserves and multiple mechanisms to neutralise acidity, so whether repeated boiling actually causes harmful acidity is not straightforward. According to him, to prove this, you would need a trial with about 100 people, comparing tea that is repeatedly boiled versus tea boiled just once over 5 to 10 years. It is not easy to show that this is detrimental.

Dr Arora emphasised that while repeated boiling plausibly increases acidity, the effect would be most relevant for people with pre-existing acid-related conditions. People with a tendency for acidity or suffering from acid peptic disease should avoid repeatedly boiled tea. That is the lesson, he said.

He also noted the challenges in studying this scientifically, adding that large-scale, long-term studies would be needed, but there are so many other variables like stress, smoking, anxiety, and medications that contribute to acidity. Isolating the effect of repeated boiling alone would be very difficult.

This story is done in collaboration with First Check, which is the health journalism vertical of DataLEADS.
Despite Donald Trumps statement that Venezuelan airspace was closed, the two weekly flights to Caracas carrying deported migrants will resume

Tensions between Washington and Caracas have reached fever pitch following U.S. President Donald Trumps warnings about closing Venezuelan airspace and apparent disagreements between the two leaders during a phone call last week, according to U.S. media. Nevertheless, both governments have agreed to resume deportation flights that were supposed to be suspended, along with flights from several commercial airlines from Europe and Latin America, which canceled their routes following U.S. authorities warnings the danger posed by increased military operations.

On Tuesday, a statement from the Venezuelan Ministry of Transportation announced that the United States had requested authorization for Eastern Airlines to continue operating its Phoenix-Maiquetia route. By order of President Nicolas Maduro, Eastern Airlines aircraft are authorized to enter our airspace.

As a result, on Wednesdays and Fridays, flights carrying around 200 Venezuelan migrants each will continue as they have been since February, as part of agreements achieved by Trumps envoy Richard Grenell in exchange for the release of U.S. citizens detained in Venezuela.

A total of 75 flights carrying more than 13,000 Venezuelans have taken place this year, amid Trumps anti-immigration policies. The repatriation of our compatriots to reunite Venezuelan families through the Return to the Homeland Plan will continue, the Venezuelan statement concludes.

The measure further complicates the evolving political crisis between the two countries and the mechanisms that might drive a possible negotiation  or at least a communication channel amid the hostilities. Following a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) alert last week advising caution in Venezuelan airspace between November and February 2026, countries such as Colombia, Spain, and Portugal have recommended that their airlines avoid flying to the South American nation. This prompted Nicolas Maduros government to announce a temporary suspension of operating licenses for flights to Venezuela for Iberia, Plus Ultra, Air Europa, Turkish Airlines, Gol, Latam, TAP, and Avianca.

This was in retaliation for joining what Caracas called acts of state terrorism by Washington. The companies have not received official notifications of the decision, nor has the measure been published in Venezuelas official gazette. Tensions escalated further when President Trump reiterated on his social media that Venezuelan airspace was closed in its entirety.

Amid the uncertainty, airlines have followed their countries directives. The Spanish Aviation Safety Agency imposed a restriction until December 31, leading to the cancellation of approximately 36 weekly flights carrying around 300 passengers each during peak season. Portugal, for its part, issued a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) on Tuesday limiting operations with Venezuela until December 10. Airlines such as Panamas Copa and Wingo are operating with extreme caution, flying only during daylight hours. Domestic flights within Venezuela continue to operate normally.

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Despite booking a good number of corruption cases against government staff, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Telangana has failed to prevent staff from demanding and taking bribes, pointed out a report by Forum for Good Governance (FGG), a Hyderabad-based advocacy group. The FGG filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act to obtain details of the cases the agency filed over the last five years, from July 2020 to July 2025.

As per RTI data presented by the FGG, while a total of 621 cases were filed, the ACB completed the investigation in 519 cases and sent the files for the governments permission for prosecution. Most files dont get government permission and are shunted to departmental enquiry, which could be manipulated, explained M. Padmanabha Reddy, president of FGG.

Even when departmental or government action is taken, the courts take five to 15 years to decide the cases. Employees, meanwhile, manage concerned officials and evade punishment. Government employees have no fear of ACB. They think they can manage even if they are caught, pointed out Reddy.

Prof G. Surrender Reddy, who has extensive experience in the government sector, backed the concern. Many government employees believe the ACB will not reach them, and even if it does, they know they can circumvent the process. Everybody likes a bribe; it is important to make corruption a difficult choice, he said.

The FGG report also highlighted the ACBs reluctance to make the progress of corruption cases public. The ACB is not updating the details of progress in the cases on their website; thats why we had to file the RTI application. Our request for specific case details was denied, citing workload as the reason, said Mr Reddy.

When THE WEEK visited the ACB website, 442 FIRs filed between 2016 and 2024 could be seen, and access to each FIR is granted after entering one-time passwords (OTPs) sent to the phone. However, the current status of the cases could not be seen.

When asked for her comments on the ACB losing its preventive effect on government officials and staff, Charu Sinha, the director general of ACB, Telangana, refused to comment. The ACB cases can have any meaningful effect only if the bribe cases reach the prosecution stage quickly and the accused face severe punishments, including strict recovery, dismissal and jail terms.
A desperate SOS message (including a social media tweet) from two trapped Indian brothers from Uttar Pradesh, detailing the confinement of over a hundred people, threats of electric shock, and fears for their safety, has driven the Embassy of India in Cambodia and ministry of external affairs (MEA) to rescue 81 Indians with the help of Cambodian authorities.

The brothers were desperate as they posted WhatsApp images about the electric shock and confirmed the suicide of a fellow victim who was thrown into the jungles. Their only hope was that someone would notice their tweet.

The Indian Embassy in Phnom Penh found the tweet and established contact with the victims. The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) of the ministry of home affairs in New Delhi is learnt to have coordinated the matter and provided technical assistance in locating the compound's location, using Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) in Bavet area of Cambodia.

The Indian Embassy immediately raised the matter with the highest levels of the Cambodian government, providing specific intelligence tip-offs to the relevant Cambodian law enforcement agencies. 2Twenty-eight Indian nationals have been rescued. However, as efforts were underway, the Cambodian Authorities and the Indian Embassy in Phnom Penh zeroed in on 53 more Indian nationals who are now being rescued in Bavet, bringing the total number to 81 in 2 days.

While the collaborative rescue missions are ongoing and highly effective, authorities believe a significant number of youngsters are still working in scam compounds across Cambodia and the wider Southeast Asian region.

It is a long journey home as challenges persist, particularly the risk of victims who suffered trauma, the residual threats posed by the recruitment agents still operating in the shadows and even the rehabilitation of the victims.

However, the efforts of Indian Embassy officials, who are coordinating with Cambodian Immigration to verify identities, issue emergency travel documents (ETDs), and fast-track their deportation and repatriation orders, have brought hope of helping hundreds of Indian nationals return safely. They will return in batches, said sources, as their documents get verified to establish their identity and nationality. The Centre and the state governments often provide logistical assistance and flight arrangements to ensure their safe journey from the scam compounds in Phnom Penh back to their respective hometowns in India.

Based on various crackdowns across India, it has been learnt that the wide network of cyber fraudsters operating in these regions, where investment frauds and digital arrests continue to top the charts of cyber crimes targeting hapless individuals, is a matter of concern. Taking action against forced labour and human trafficking is a priority, said government officials, as the Indian embassy in Cambodia is actively working to dismantle the scam compounds located in a building in Bavet Kandal Village. Officials said the efforts are being expedited through crucial intelligence sharing and persistent diplomatic efforts from New Delhi, which is taking the lead in the fight against regional cyber slavery and investment fraud.

The Bavet compound is just one point on a sprawling map of exploitation, which is largely centred around laxly regulated border zones in Southeast Asia, where Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia converge, a region now infamously referred to as the Golden triangle of digital fraud.
A bomb threat mailed to Bengaluru police commissioner on November 30 warned that a "white collar terror team" is targeting several crowded locations in the city, according to a report.

Purportedly sent by a module linked to Jaish-e-Mohammed, the email claimed that Kempegowda International Airport and several malls in the city are being targeted, reported ANI.

Karnataka | The Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru City Police, recieved a bomb threat on his official email address on 30 November, targeting Kempegowda International Airport, and various malls in Bengaluru city. The threat was recieved via an email with the name 'Mohit Kumar'.  ANI (@ANI) December 2, 2025

Bengaluru police have registered an FIR under BNSS Section 173.

The bomb threat mail was sent from a user identified as Mohit Kumar. The malls mentioned in the email include Orion Mall and Lulu Mall in Rajajinagar, Forum South Mall in Konanakunte and Mantri Square Mall in Malleswaram.

"This is a warning from the Jaish-e-Mohammed White collar terror team, we targeted Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru, Orion mall, Lulu Mall, Forum South mall, Mantri Square Mall... for bomb blast at 7pm onwards. Thanks to our Allah and our master Mohit for serving our nation better," read the email.

There was no official confirmation regarding whether the bomb threat is a hoax at the time of publishing this article. In November, a team of police from Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana busted a Faridabad-based white collar module primarily comprised of doctors. After three doctors including Dr Adeel Rather, Dr Muzammil Shakeel and Dr Shaheen Shahid were arrested, a fourth member, later identified as Umar un Nabi, panicked and carried out a suicide blast near Red Fort metro station in Delhi. A total of 14 people were killed in the terror attack.

This comes less than a month after a woman techie sent hoax bomb threat to a Bengaluru school. Identified as Rene Joshida, 30, the woman reportedly tried to frame a man after he rejected her romantic advances.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) is facing an unexpected flashpoint in West Bengal, where the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has collided head-on with the unresolved citizenship claims of CAA-protected migrants.

At the heart of the controversy is a simple matter: if citizenship documentation becomes uncertain, voting rights inevitably come under a cloud. The petition before the Supreme Court filed by NGO Atmadeep on behalf of religiously persecuted migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan argues that those who are eligible for fast-tracked citizenship under the CAA may be left out of the SIR process. That exclusion, the plea says, will translate into their names being deleted from the voter list, triggering a cascade of political and humanitarian consequences.

ECIs tightrope

For the Election Commission, the CAASIR overlap is not merely an administrative inconvenience; it is a perception battle. The SIR is meant to be a cleansing, rationalising exercise to ensure accuracy in the electoral rolls. But, in West Bengal, where citizenship and identity politics have been deeply polarised since 2019, the process is being interpreted through the lens of CAA implementation.

The Commissions initial counter is clear, the SIR is a routine, legally mandated exercise, and no eligible voter will be deleted arbitrarily. Officials point out that every deletion must follow due process verification, notice to the elector, and opportunity for objections. They also emphasise that the CAA has not altered the Representation of the People Act norms governing voter registration.

Migrant fear: Being deleted before being recognised

The petitioners argue that CAA-protected migrants stand vulnerable precisely because the Union government has yet to complete the citizenship-granting process. West Bengal sees one of the highest concentrations of Hindu Bengali migrants from East Pakistan/Bangladesh, many of whom fall within the CAAs ambit but have not received citizenship certificates.

Their biggest fear is if SIR happens before CAA citizenship is granted, they may first lose their voter identity and get citizenship later, making the loss irreversible for the 2026 assembly election cycle. The timing, they argue, is not just unfortunate but discriminatory.

Supreme Court pushes for clarity

By issuing notice, the Supreme Court has effectively sought answers to a crucial policy overlap, can individuals awaiting citizenship under a central law be treated as doubtful voters during roll revision? And if yes, does that violate constitutional protections against disenfranchisement?

The judiciarys intervention could compel both the Centre and the ECI to align on a protocol either by insulating such migrants from deletion until their CAA applications are processed, or by mandating special safeguards in the SIR.

According to the petition, the plea has sought direction to authorities to expedite the issuance of citizenship certificates in furtherance of the application seeking naturalization as a citizen of India under Section 5B of the Citizenship Amendment Act, 1955 in order to enable the applicants to submit information in the ongoing SIR verification process.

The second prayer says, Grant extension of time for submission of information in the ongoing SIR verification process to the class of people who have applied for naturalization as a citizen of India under Section 6B of the Citizenship Amendment Act, 1955.

The plea highlights that several applications for naturalisation by migrants, recognised as persecuted minorities who are eligible for Indian citizenship under the CAA, remain pending due to administrative delays.

The petition adds that many similarly placed individuals are waiting to apply for such citizenship under Section 6B through the online system established by the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024.

The PIL is filed on behalf of several persons who are covered by the Proviso to Section 2(1)(b) of the Citizenship Act, 1955. It is stated that these persons, being the persecuted minorities of the neighbouring countries, mostly belong to the weaker section of society. It is also stated that several persons have already applied under Section 6B for the grant of a certificate of registration or certificate of naturalisation, and several others are waiting to apply. These persons have been residing in India for several years, and their names are already appearing in the Electoral Roll of 2025.

The delay in issuance of citizenship certificates, coupled with the non-recognition of acknowledgement receipts during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR), has created a serious constitutional crisis. The affected persons, already recognized by Parliament as persecuted minorities of Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who entered India deserving protection and integration, are now exposed to the risk of statelessness, social exclusion, and disenfranchisement, the plea stated.

What lies ahead

The coming months will determine whether the Commission can maintain the integrity of the SIR without triggering a crisis of confidence among CAA-eligible migrant communities. The Supreme Courts decision will likely set the contours for how citizenship-linked vulnerabilities should be treated within electoral processes.
A parliamentary committee has called for a clear legal definition of fake news, stronger penalties, and closer coordination between ministries to counter the rapid spread of misinformation across digital platforms.

The Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology, chaired by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, in its report tabled in the parliament, said the government needs to define fake news in law, create a unified national portal for complaints, strengthen the Press Council of India, and give statutory backing to the PIB Fact Check Unit.

A need has been felt for defining the term Fake News per se in a subtle manner and incorporate suitable clauses in the existing regulatory mechanism for print, electronics and digital media while maintaining the delicate balance of combating misinformation and protecting freedom of speech and individual rights as guaranteed under the Constitution, the report said.

The committee has also cautioned the ministry to consider all the dimensions and parameters related to the term in consultation with the stakeholders while defining it.

In a major recommendation, it suggested mandatory fact-checking units and ombudsmen in all print, TV and digital media organisations, as well as tougher action against repeat offenders, including the possibility of cancelling accreditation for those who repeatedly create or spread false information.

As Artificial Intelligence generated content is becoming a menace, the committee asked the government to consider mandatory labelling of AI-generated content and to explore licensing requirements for creators of AI-based videos.

The report warns that misinformation now spreads faster than the systems designed to stop it. The parliamentary panel said fake news affects public order, democratic processes, and even financial markets. It says the phenomenon is driven by low levels of digital literacy, political and financial motives, algorithm-driven amplification, bots and AI-generated deepfakes.

It also noted that almost anyone with a smartphone can publish content without editorial checks, weakening traditional safeguards.

The committee highlighted gaps in the current regulatory system. Oversight of digital media is divided between the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. It said the two ministries must work more closely, as most misinformation originates or spreads through online platforms. It recommended updating the IT Act, the Cable Television Network Act and related rules to address modern forms of digital content and cross-platform dissemination.

It also raised concerns about the lack of participation by many TV channels in existing self-regulatory bodies. More than half of licensed channels are not part of any self-regulation framework. The panel supported the governments move to make membership of a recognised self-regulatory body a condition for uplinking and downlinking permissions.

But are we prepared to deal with the menace?

The committee noted that fact-checking systems across India remain scattered. The PIB Fact Check Unit, independent fact-checking groups and newsroom teams often work in isolation. It said closer collaboration and shared tools would improve verification, especially given the high volume of misleading content online.

The report pointed to delays in grievance redressal. The Press Council of India has a backlog of cases after leadership vacancies and limited meetings, while action on complaints involving TV and digital platforms remains inconsistent. The panel recommended faster disposal of cases, regular meetings of inquiry bodies and digital tracking of complaints.

On penalties, the committee said current measures are not strong enough to act as a deterrent. While print outlets can be censured, TV channels can face fines or temporary bans, the digital publishers face relatively small fines under the IT Rules.

The panel recommended that the fines should be increased and penalties should escalate for repeated violations.

While, the fake news challenges originating from within the country can still be tackled, but the ones originating in foreign countries are a deeper challenge. The committee said such content is harder to regulate due to jurisdiction and language barriers, although the government can block harmful material under Section 69A of the IT Act. It called for more international cooperation through forums such as UNESCO.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has been asked to submit a time-bound plan responding to each of the committees recommendations.
A Kuwait-Hyderabad IndiGo flight made an emergency landing in Mumbai on Tuesday morning following a bomb threat.

The flight 6E-1234an Airbus A321-251NXtook off from Kuwait at 1:56 am and landed safely at Mumbais Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport at 7.45 am, according to reports.

They said the Hyderabad airport received a detailed email which warned of a human bomb on board the flight.

Security teams, including emergency responders, were on standby as the flight landed at the airport and was checked in the isolation area.

The airline has yet to give an official statement.

Last month, IndiGo received a message that there was a bomb threat for five airportsDelhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram.

The message ha claimed that these the five airports would be attacked within 24 hours.

The Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC) convened at the Delhi airport, and later the threat was declared as "non-specific".

Security measures have been enhanced at all the civil aviation installations like airports, airstrips, airfields, air force stations, helipads, flying schools and aviation training institute following the Delhi car blast on November 10.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)-led Tamil Nadu government has challenged the Supreme Court's order directing a probe by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the tragic Karur stampede. The state government argued there were "no exceptional circumstances exist to direct central agency intervention."

In its petition, the Tamil Nadu government urged the apex court to lift its October 13 order directing a CBI probe into the stampede during Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) leader Vijay's rally in Karur. Hearing a plea moved by the TVK, the apex court halted a probe by the Tamil Nadu police's SIT and a one-member judicial commission, and ordered a probe by the CBI. As many as 41 people died in the tragic stampede.

In its affidavit, the state said the Tamil Nadu police and its SIT are fully competent to conduct a "fair, thorough, and impartial investigation" and no exceptional circumstances exist to direct central agency intervention.

The DMK government argued that the interim order passed by the Supreme Court has "virtually allowed the writ petition" even before notice on maintainability could be decided. The apex court also appointed a three-member supervisory committee to oversee the probe.

"The allegation of negligence or dereliction of duty on the part of the Karur district administration and the police authorities is wholly baseless and devoid of merit," the state government said. "The records clearly establish that the district administration and police acted with utmost diligence, foresight, and compliance with all statutory and procedural safeguards," it added.

The state said over 600 police personnel were deployed for security, and senior police officials were present. "The venue selection, access routes, medical preparedness, and traffic management plans were all structured in conformity with the National Disaster Management Authority Guidelines," it said.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has expressed displeasure at the Nagpur bench of the Mumbai High Courts stay on the December 3 counting of votes for municipal councils and Nagar Panchayats across the state. The court further directed that the entire counting be held only on December 21 and also prohibited all exit polls until December 20.

However, the order has come as a disappointment for the Mahayuti, which was preparing to celebrate the results on Wednesday. This also comes as elections in 24 municipalities had to be postponed due to legal complications, along with the polls in 154 wards in 76 municipalities. This is the first time in the history of the state that elections have been postponed on such a large scale.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis himself expressed his displeasure over this, stating that postponing the announced elections and delaying the results was not acceptable.

I have been watching the local body elections for the last 25 to 30 years. But this is the first time that the announced elections arent going ahead, and their results are being withheld. Whatever method this is, I do not think it is right. The court decision has to be accepted, but this disillusions the candidates, those who work hard and campaign. It is not right for them to pay for the mistakes of the system. I think the Election Commission has to see that this does not happen at least in the next elections, Devendra Fadnavis added.

Amid reports of cracks in the coalition, the BJP has high hopes for the upcoming local body elections. The party believes people have faith in the BJP and the results will be in favour of the party.
Even as the ruling Trinamool Congress is all set to intensify its campaign against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll, the Election Commission has maintained that the exercise is progressing smoothly and that the draft voters list will be published on December 16.

Based on the trend of digitising the collected enumeration forms till Monday evening, the ECI has estimated that around 43.30 lakh names will be excluded from the draft voters' list, reported IANS news agency.

The report further quoted officials in the poll panel as saying that the final number might increase once the digitisation process is completed.

Among those whose names will be excluded from the list, 21.45 lakh are dead voters, while the number of untraceable voters stands at around 5.5 lakh.

The number of voters identified as having shifted out of their registered address is around 15.10 lakh, while a little less than one lakh voters have been found to be bogus or fake voters.

"The number of untraceable voters might change since some are 'untraceable' as yet might be traced in due course," an official in the CEO's office told the news agency.

West Bengal has a total of 7,66,37,529 as of October 27.

Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress has stepped up its anti-SIR offensive with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee set to address rallies in three border districts.

Banerjee will hold a rally in Malda on December 3, Murshidabad on December 4, and Cooch Behar on December 9. These politically sensitive districts have sizeable minority, migrant and displaced populations.

Last week, the Trinamool supremo had addressed a public meeting in Bongaon in the refugee-dominated Matua belt.

The ruling party in the state has termed the SIR a completely unplanned, reckless and heartless exercise, which, it said, has already led to the death of 40 people, including 17 Booth Level Officers.

On Friday, a delegation of Trinamool Congress MPs led by Derek O'Brien met Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in Delhi to submit their grievances.
Amid the ongoing leadership tussle in Karnataka, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D.K. Shivakumar met for breakfast for the second time in a week on Tuesday.

Shivakumar, who is also the president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, hosted Siddaramaiah with steaming plates of traditional Nati chicken and Idlis at his residence at Sadashivanagar in Bengaluru.

Though its not immediately known what transpired at the meeting, Shivakumar said in a post on X that they reaffirmed their commitment to good governance and the continued development of the state under the Congress vision.

Hosted the Honble CM for breakfast at my residence today as we reaffirm our commitment to good governance and the continued development of our state under the Congress vision. pic.twitter.com/qmBxr50S64  DK Shivakumar (@DKShivakumar) December 2, 2025

Shivakumars brother D.K. Suresh and Kunigal MLA Ranganath were also present at the meeting, which followed a similar interaction on November 29 at the chief ministers Cauvery residence.

Though both leaders had sought to put up a show of unity after last week's meeting, reports claimed that the discussion failed to make any major breakthrough as both sides stuck to their stand.

Meanwhile, media reports suggested that the Congress high command is exploring all options to find an early solution to the issue, which has plunged the party into a deep crisis in Karnataka.

Party's national president Mallikarjun Kharge has told the two warring leaders to honour the 'deal' made in 2023 when the high command chose Siddaramaiah as the chief minister, NDTV reported, quoting sources.

As per the purported deal, Shivakumar would be made the CM when the government reached the halfway mark. The party leadership, however, has never publicly acknowledged such an arrangement as being in existence.

Tuesdays meeting also assumes significance as the party plans to send out a strong message of unity ahead of the Assembly's winter session, scheduled to be held from December 8 in Belagavi.
ICE cites the fight against child trafficking to justify the involvement of local law enforcement in controls on sponsors, but critics denounce it as a ploy to deport more people

Locating undocumented migrants is one of the biggest challenges U.S. immigration authorities have faced in their attempt to increase arrests and subsequent deportations during this second Trump administration. An initiative in Florida, ostensibly aimed at ensuring the safety of migrant children, is intended to spearhead efforts to address this challenge and increase arrests. Last month, the UAC Safety Verification Initiative was launched in the Sunshine State, and the Department of Homeland Security hopes to expand it nationwide.

The measure means that local law enforcement will join Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in monitoring homes that have taken in children who entered the United States illegally. The DHS justifies the initiative as a fight against child trafficking and exploitation, but critics denounce it as a ploy by the administration to deport more people. The agreement intensifies the pursuit and arrest of undocumented migrants, as many of the minors sponsors lack legal status in the country.

The new alliance with law enforcement represents ICEs commitment to protect vulnerable children from sexual abuse and exploitation through collaboration with 287(g) law enforcement partners. The primary focus of this initiative is to conduct welfare checks on these children to ensure that they are safe and not being exploited, the Department of Homeland Security statement said.

Migrant advocates, however, consider the safety of children to be merely a pretext, another offshoot of policies adopted to achieve the largest deportation in history. There has been a lot of government reporting on unvetted sponsors and horrific cases of trafficking and abuse, but this seems like dishonest rhetoric, says Mary Miller Flowers, director of policy and legal affairs at The Young Center, an organization that advocates for children.

The Department of Homeland Security cites 450,000 children who, it claims, were placed with sponsors during the Biden administration without proper vetting and provides examples of criminals arrested by ICE during home visits. One such case involves a Guatemalan man arrested in Texas for human trafficking and rape; the unaccompanied minor, a 14-year-old girl, was pregnant by her sponsor. Other cases point to crimes such as drug trafficking, domestic violence, and armed assault.

Many of the children who came across the border unaccompanied were allowed to be placed with sponsors who were smugglers and sex traffickers, said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

In the checks that have already been carried out by ICE, agents have detained people who were not criminals and whose only offense was being undocumented, leaving minors in a difficult situation. The Florida initiative anticipates an increase in the number of children who will be left without caregivers.

Experts acknowledge that cases of abuse and exploitation by sponsors can occur, but they say these are not common. When unaccompanied minors arrive in the United States, they are turned over to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, part of the Department of Health and Human Services. This agency looks for a relative or acquaintance willing to take them in, but they must pass several screening processes before being released to them. In many cases, the children are picked up by their own parents, if they are already in the country.

Since Trumps crusade against immigration began, however, the administration has passed many measures that make it difficult for relatives to take custody of children. The government has implemented policies that basically make it impossible for an undocumented person to sponsor a child, Miller explains. One of these policies requires adults who want to take custody of children to declare their immigration status, leaving them vulnerable to deportation. The requirement to appear in person to pick up children, such as court appearances, has become a trap to detain them. There have been cases of children in custody asking their parents not to pick them up to avoid being arrested.

We have the example of a girl who was traveling in a car with her friend and her friends family when ICE stopped them all. The girl was taken into custody. Her parents live down the street, but now they will have to go through this verification process, which includes DNA testing. It requires having formal employment documents and a U.S. ID, but most undocumented people dont have the proper identification. Before, you could prove your identity with a foreign passport, but not anymore, Miller explains.

HHS data shows that only 106 children were placed with guardians in October, a far cry from the more than 8,000 placed monthly at the end of Bidens term. The time children now spend in Office of Refugee Resettlement facilities has skyrocketed. New rules have increased the average time in custody to nearly six months, up from 30 days last year.

The current situation has led to many children who have parents or relatives in the country being classified as minors who lack adequate sponsors and remaining in federal custody until they turn 18, at which age they can be transferred to ICE.

The prospect of being confined in a center, where conditions are inadequate for their physical and emotional well-being, creates a perfect breeding ground for children to prefer returning to the countries they fled. The Trump Administration is not only seeking to deport undocumented adults, but also wants to swell the list with minors. To that end, it has approved measures such as eliminating legal representation for children in immigration courts, where they must defend their asylum claims alone. Furthermore, they are offering children over the age of 14 who are in custody $2,500 to self-deport.

Its a perfect storm. You cant talk to your family, youre stuck in a federal detention center, and when you get to court, you dont have legal representation. So if youre 16 years old, youve been in custody for six months, and you dont have a lawyer, $2,500 seems like a good option, Miller points out. That has nothing to do with child safety. It has to do with increasing the number of mass deportations and getting rid of these kids, because many of them have legitimate claims for protection, but they dont even want to hear them, she adds.

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Iran has sentenced filmmaker Jafar Panahi to one year imprisonment over alleged propaganda against the country's Islamic regime, revealed his lawyer.

Panahi, who was handed the sentence in absentia, is also facing a two-year travel ban.

"Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court has, in absentia, sentenced Mr. Panahi to one year in prison, two years of a travel ban, and a ban on membership in political and social groups, on the charge of propaganda against the regime," Panahis lawyer, Mostafa Nili, said in a statement on X. The lawyer said he will appeal the verdict.

This comes as Panahi's latest feature, It Was Just An Accident, is being touted as a frontrunner for major awards, including the Oscars. The film was in September picked by France as its submission for the Academy Awards in international feature category. He had earlier won Cannes Palme d'Or for the film.

It Was Just An Accident was shot secretly in Iran without permission from the government and apparently flouted the regime's strick hijab rules. He was arrested several times by the Iranian authorities in the past two decades. The last time he got imprisoned was in 2023 and was released seven months later after he went on hunger strike.

He began shooting for the film after his release. Stories of fellow prisoners found space in his revenge drama. The plot of It Was Just An Accident revolves around a group of former convicts who end up finding the man they think could have been torturing in prison. However, they are not sure as they were blindfolded while in jail.
In what could be good news for job seekers, a survey has revealed that over 48 per cent of companies in the UAE and Saudi Arabia are planning to hire more people in 2026. The survey conducted by Cooper Fitch indicated a strong macro-economic growth, as evident from a positive hiring sentiment.

Dr Trefor Murphy, founder and CEO of Cooper Fitch, told Khaleej Times that the UAE job market looks very promising over the next five to six years. Adding that Dubai will lead the wave on the back of a very large infrastructure growth, Fitch added: We'll see next year and over the next five to six years, particularly in Dubai, very large infrastructure-type projects. We need more roads. We need a metro. We need a new airport as the current airport reaches its full capacity, said Murphy.

The survey covered key decisions across more than 1,000 organisations in the Gulf region and focused on recruitment activity, workforce headcounts, and salary trends for 2025 and projections for 2026, the report added. The areas that will see major workforce expansion include aviation, defence and aerospace, with the expectation being that the headcount might grow by double digits. While public-sector organisations anticipate significant increases, real estate and construction also will see substantial hiring, according to a Dubai-based global recruitment specialist.

However, consulting and financial services report relatively few double-digit changes in either direction, suggesting stabilisation.

Meanwhile, the study also found that 29 per cent of employers expect workforce reductions. This indicates that many companies are considering cost discipline and structural adjustments. A further 23 per cent anticipate no change to staffing levels, creating a broadly steady outlook for the year ahead.

That said, a huge majority of respondents believe that the UAE has enough talent to meet their hiring needs for the next 12 months, almost one-fifth  19 per cent  disagree, and 14 per cent are unsure.

The UAEs job market is becoming competitive as the population of the country has increased dramatically over the past five years.
Samsung has unveiled its very first multi-folding phone, the Galaxy Z TriFold. The company said that it is intended for customers who specifically want it.

The model, priced at about 3.59 million won ($2,440.17), unfolds into a 253.1 millimetre (10-inch) display, using three panels, and it is nearly 25% larger than Samsung's latest foldable Galaxy Z Fold 7 model.

The TriFold will be produced in South Korea and will go on sale in the country on December 12. The device will be on sale in China, Singapore, Taiwan and the UAE within this year. In the US, it is expected to launch in the first quarter of next year.

Samsung has been trying to get a foot in on foldable devices where Chinese rivals like Huawei has been gaining ground. The bid comes even with the high prices and production challenges of foldable devices. Analysts say that foldable devices will likely remain a niche category for now, but the competition in the sector is expected to intensify.

Alex Lim, Samsung Electronics Executive Vice President and head of the Korea Sales & Marketing Office said "I believe the foldable market will continue to grow, and the TriFold in particular could act as a catalyst that drives more explosive growth in key parts of the segment."

He said that the new TriFold is intended for customers who specifically want it, rather than as a volume driver.

The device had Samsung's largest battery in its flagship models and supports super fast charging, which allows it to power the phone to 50 per cent in just 30 minutes.

Lim said that the pricing was a difficult decision as costs of memory chips and other components have been rising sharply.

Analysts say that the TriFold is more of a showcase of new technology rather than a volume-driving flagship. Samsung is less likely to push large volumes of the product at this stage, according to Ryu Young-ho, a senior analyst at NH Investment and Securities, who spoke to Reuters.

Chinas Huawei launched the industrys first-ever three-way folding phone last September.

Samsung Z Trifold specifications and features

The Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold is a dual SIM foldable smartphone that runs on Android 16-based OneUI 8. It has an ultra slim profile measuring just 3.9 mm when unfolded. It also folds inward twice to reveal a 10-inch AMOLED inner screen with with a resolution of 2160 x 1584 pixels. In the folded state its profile measures 12.9 mm. It uses a titanium FlexHinge with two different sized hinges that work together with a dual rail design.

It runs on a 5,600mAh battery with support for 45W wired and 15W wireless charging. Its camera setup includes a 200-megapixel wide-angle, with a 10-megapixel 3x telephoto and a 12-megapixel ultrawide lens. it also has a 10-megapixel selfie camera on both the cover and inner screen.

The device is powered by a customized Snapdragon 8 Elite processor and includes 16GB of RAM with storage options of 512GB or 1TB.

The 16GB/512GB model is priced at 3,594,000 KRW ($2,4443) in South Korea. In the US the price will be at around $2,500.




The Indian Government has mandated that all smartphone companies begin pre-installing the app 'Sanchar Saathi' on all new devices that are being sold in the country. The Department of Communication has given 90 days to companies to follow the order.

The move is not likely to go down well with Apple. The company has strong privacy policies as its data is strictly maintained, stating that user data is collected and maintained only by its entities.

India is following Russia to frame rules blocking the use of stolen phones for fraud and for the promotion of the state-backed government service app.

In August, Russia mandated that a state-backed messenger app called MAX be pre-installed on all mobile phones including iPhones. The app is similar to other national messenger apps like the Chinese platform WeChat, Line, and KakaoTalk. MAX was criticised for its ability to be used as a form of government surveillance through its handling of user data like metadata, IP addresses, and contact lists. For other Russian government-approved apps, iPhones give users a prompt suggesting that they install the app and users can decide to opt out.

Similar apps include Pegasus, a spyware developed by NSO Group, Israels cyber arms company. The app was developed to be remotely installed on devices and marketed for use in fighting crime and terrorism. However, cyber watchdogs found that it was being used by several governments to spy on its human rights activists, journalists, heads of state, lawyers and politicians.

DoT issues directions for the pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi App on mobile handsets to verify their genuineness. The pre-installed App must be Visible, Functional, and enabled for users during the first setup. Manufacturers must ensure the App is easily accessible during pic.twitter.com/qrddTZFVk9  ANI (@ANI) December 2, 2025

Apples privacy policy says that way it controls personal data differs depending on where the user lives.

While the company pre-installs its own proprietary apps on phones, its internal policies prohibit the installation of any government or third-party app before the sale of a smartphone, one source with direct knowledge said.

Tarun Pathak, a research director at Counterpoint who spoke to Reuters, said "Apple has historically refused such requests from governments". The company is likely to seek a middle ground where they ask if they can persuade the users to install the app. "It's likely to seek a middle ground: instead of a mandatory pre-install, they might negotiate and ask for an option to nudge users towards installing the app," he said.

Apple had previously been in dispute with Indias telecoms ministry over the development of a government anti-spam mobile app, TRAI DND. In 2018, India had threatened to de-recognise Apple phones from the countrys networks if it does not comply. Apple agreed to let users install the app after two years of tussle, after making some changes to the apps functions.

Another controversial move, Centre directs mobile manufacturers to pre-install Sanchar Saathi mobile Application in all mobile phones, its functionalities cannot be disabled or restricted.



Unrestricted access to our phones ?! pic.twitter.com/pIA0BIFTVA  Arvind Gunasekar (@arvindgunasekar) December 1, 2025

Once the Sanchar Saathi app is installed, users will not be allowed to disable it. For devices that are already with users, the app is to be pushed through software updates. "The government effectively removes user consent as a meaningful choice," said Mishi Choudhary, who works on internet advocacy issues.
As Pakistan braces for a mega protest by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers outside the Islamabad High Court and Rawalpindis Adiala jail on Tuesday seeking access to jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, a video has been doing the rounds in Pakistan social media showing Imran Khans sister Noreen Niazi requesting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to launch Operation Sindoor 2.0 for her brothers release.

In the video, Noreen is seen highlighting the plight of Khan. People tell us this, and many police officers tell us this. They say that deep down, they themselves are with Imran Khan, Noreen says, adding that, From your channels platform, I also request Modi-ji that Imran Khan can only come out of jail if you do Operation Sindoor 2.

Imran Khan's Sister Is Requesting PM Modi To Do Operation Sindoor 2 So That #ImranKhan Can Be Released.



Soch Kya Rahe Hai Modi Ji Maar Dijiye Do Chaar Brahmos, #AsimMunir Ne Satta Ke Nashe Mei Pashtuno Ko Se Bhi Panga Le Liya Hai Jo Ussye Dauda Dauda Kar Pitnege. pic.twitter.com/bSzJI7SzXt  Brig. Rudra Pratap Singh (Retd) (@NFarjiwal) November 28, 2025

The post gained 78,000 views.

The video triggered a controversy with many accusing Noreen of spewing venom against Pakistan. Viewers, cat has now completely come out of the bag. Imran Khans sister Noreen Khan has requested India to conduct Operation Sindoor Part 2 against Pakistan, one user said.

Ruling party PML-N leader Abid Sher Ali also shared the video on his social media handle, hitting out at Noreen. The woman scholar is telling Madam Modi that you will only be able to get Imran Khan out if you carry out Operation Sindoor Part Two. In other words, attack Pakistan, and then rescue our brother. If it were up to them, theyd sell the country for Imran Khans sake, he said, calling Noreen loathsome and treacherous.

 Pakistans Information Meme Minister Attaullah Tarar lashes out at Imran Khans sister for appearing on Indian TV.

He accuses her of harming national interest and defending a convicted relative in the 190M scandal.#ImranKhan #PakistanArmy pic.twitter.com/J1nvwkmP7b  TridentX  (@TridentxIN) December 1, 2025

Najam Wali Khan, an anchorperson at state-owned PTV News, also used the video to slam Noreen. adding that Khan should have stayed in India if it was better. This woman is still telling her Playboy loafer brother, even after he got the position of prime minister, that he didnt get respect in Pakistan and he shouldnt have migrated; he should have stayed in India, India was better. It would be better if her brother were taken out of jail, she and her supporters were brought to the Wagah border in a procession while being beaten with shoes, and they were all pushed back to Hindustan.

However, according to Karachi-based Dawn Newspaper, the video is AI generated.

According to Dawn, analysis of the video using the forensic tool Deepware showed that the clip was flagged as suspicious. It added that a keyword search for the alleged video did not yield any news reports of Noreen making the alleged appeal to PM Modi.

A reverse image search also showed the clip was from a video interview given to an Indian channel a few days ago, wherein she expresses concern over Khans health. The report added that at no point did Noreen make any remarks about Operation Sindoor and PM Modi.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) expressed its gratitude towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he promised Indias support to former prime minister Khaleda Zia, who is battling for life at a Dhaka hospital due to a chest infection.

"BNP expresses its sincere gratitude to the Honourable Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, for his thoughtful message and kind wishes for the speedy recovery of BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia," the party wrote on X.

"BNP deeply appreciates this gesture of goodwill and the expression of readiness to extend support," it said.

BNP expresses its sincere gratitude to the Honourable Prime Minister of India, @narendramodi, for his thoughtful message and kind wishes for the speedy recovery of BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia.



BNP deeply appreciates this gesture of goodwill and the expression of readiness  Bangladesh Nationalist Party-BNP (@bdbnp78) December 1, 2025

Earlier, in a social media post, Modi had expressed concern over the health condition of Zia and wished for her speedy recovery.

Deeply concerned to learn about the health of Begum Khaleda Zia, who has contributed to Bangladeshs public life for many years. Our sincere prayers and best wishes for her speedy recovery, Modi wrote on X.

India stands ready to extend all possible support, in whatever way we can, he added.

Deeply concerned to learn about the health of Begum Khaleda Zia, who has contributed to Bangladeshs public life for many years. Our sincere prayers and best wishes for her speedy recovery. India stands ready to extend all possible support, in whatever way we can.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 1, 2025

According to media reports, Zia is "extremely unwell" and has been placed on ventilation, with both local and international medical specialists overseeing her treatment.

The three-time prime minister was admitted to the Evercare Hospital on November 23 when she developed a chest infection that affected both her heart and lungs. Four days later, she was shifted to the coronary care unit after several of her health complications worsened.

The 80-year-old leader has also been suffering from multiple other health complications, including liver and kidney issues, diabetes, arthritis, and eye-related illnesses.

"She is extremely unwell. The entire nation is praying for her recovery... She is seriously ill, and our doctors are making every possible effort. Local and foreign specialists are involved in her treatment. They are trying their best," BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said on Monday.
Luigi Mangione, who has been attending hearings from Monday, is on a bid to throw out key evidence from his case, prosecutors say ties him to the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Mangionie will be back on Tuesday at court to attend his State murder trial for his second day of testimony. The judges will have to weigh whether to throw out the key evidence.

In September, Mangiones lawyers got the State terrorism charges against him thrown out.

Now they are focusing on the improper evidence the police collected during his arrest CNN reported.

Mangiones defence team says that police illegally searched Mangiones backpack without a warrant and failed to read him his Miranda rights before questioning him. They say that the unconstitutional conduct tainted the arrest and threatened his right to a fair trial.

According to court documents, a gun, ammunition and a notebook were found inside the backpack.

The team says that the items should be excluded from the evidence list because the police did not have a warrant to search the backpack in which they were found.

They also want to remove some statements Mangione allegedly gave to the police, such as giving a false name, as the officers asked those questions before telling him he had a right ot remain silent.

The team also argued that the body camera footage where an officer searched through Mangiones bag, saying she was just checking to ensure there was not a bomb inside is was an excuse to cover up an illegal warrantless search of the backpack.

Removing Mangiones journal, which has been quoted extensively by the Manhattan District Attorney's office from the evidence list, would be a win for Mangiones team.

In the journal, Mangione writes about rebellion against the 'the deadly, greed-fuelled health insurance cartel' and said killing an industry executive 'conveys a greedy bastard that had it coming.'

The lawyers are also trying to have all statements he made to the officer from his arrest on December 9 until he was transported to New York on December 19 removed from the case.

Mangione has pleaded not guilty to both state and federal charges, which include two counts of stalking, one count of murder through the use of a firearm and one firearms offence.

The United Healthcare CEO was shot and killed on December 4, 2024, as he was walking to a Manhattan hotel for the companys annual investor conference.
As Sri Lanka faces the aftermath of one of its worst natural disasters in the past two decades, the country is reeling under a severe crisis, fighting hard to carry out rescue and relief operations. The flooding and landslides in various places across Sri Lanka have affected over 2.75 lakh children, plunging the country into an urgent humanitarian crisis.

According to UNICEF Sri Lanka, among the 1.4 million people affected, there are over 2,75,000 children who need urgent help. With communications disrupted and many areas inaccessible, the actual number of affected children may be significantly higher. UNICEF remains deeply concerned about the destruction the cyclone has caused to children and the vital services they depend on for their safety and well-being. We stand in solidarity with families who have suffered losses and displacement and extend our deepest condolences to those mourning loved ones, said Emma Brigham, UNICEF Representative in Sri Lanka.

UNICEF, in a statement, has said that the children urgently need help. It is a race against time to reach the most vulnerable families who direly require lifesaving services. The severe damage to homes and vital infrastructure, along with the disruption of essential services, has caused widespread displacement and increases the risk of disease outbreaks, malnutrition, unsafe living conditions, and severe emotional distress among children, she added.

The statement from UNICEF Sri Lanka also said that it is coordinating closely with the government, national authorities, and partners to assess the situation and has initiated life-saving support to respond to the urgent needs of children and families in the hardest-hit districts.

According to aid agencies and the NGOs working in Sri Lanka, the cyclone has deepened the struggles of Sri Lankas most vulnerable communities, who are still reeling from successive shocks, including the 2022 economic crisis. According to a World Bank 2025 report, poverty has more than doubled since 2019, rising from 11.3 per cent to 24.5 per cent. For millions of families, life remains unaffordable, with basic needs increasingly out of reach.

On December 1, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake over the phone and assured Indias continued support under 'Operation Sagar Bandhu', which was launched to help the island nation, as it continues to deal with the devastation caused by Cyclone Ditwah. As part of Operation Sagar Bandhu, India had helped evacuate over 70 nationals from the affected areas. The IAF aircraft have helped in rescuing nationals of Sri Lanka, India, Germany, Slovenia, United Kingdom, South Africa, Poland, Belarus, Iran, Australia, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

India was the first to respond to Sri Lankas call for help. As per its neighbourhood first policy, India sent immediate assistance; from INS Vikrant, INS Udaygiri, and MI-17 helicopters to assist people with relief items and rescue operations.
Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez was released by the US authorities on Tuesday a day after President Donald Trump pardoned him. The Honduran leader was imprisoned for drug trafficking.

According to US federal prison data, Hernandez was released from a West Virginia detention centre, where he served more than three years in jail. In 2024, he was sentenced to 45 years for being involved in cocaine drug trafficking to the US.

Why did Trump pardon Juan Orlando Hernandez?

Announcing plans to pardon Juan Orlando Hernandez, Trump last week urged the people of Honduras to vote for the conservative candidate Nasry "Tito" Asfura, who is a member of Hernandez's National Party of Honduras. This has raised criticism over Trump's intentions, with many questioning if his anti-drug stance.

Hernandez was Honduran president from 2014 to 2022. During his trial, the US prosecutors argued that he facilitated the export of around 400 tonnes of cocaine into the US.

When asked about the pardon, Trump said the people of Honduras "really thought he was set up and it was a terrible thing." "They basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country. And they said it was a Biden administration set-up. And I looked at the facts, and I agreed with them," he added.

Trump's White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated his stance, saying Hernandez was a victim of "prosecutorial overreach". She went on to claim that Hernandez was convicted as he opposed the "values of the previous administration".

However, Trump's own party members slammed him over the pardon. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy asked, "Why would we pardon this guy and then go after Maduro (Venezuela's President) for running drugs into the United States?"

Trump has been threatening to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro over unverified claims that he is a narco boss. Some Republicans in the House raised concerns about US military actions off Venezuela's coast, pledging to look into multiple strikes on one boat.
The Baloch Liberation Front, the Baloch ethnonationalist militant organisation based in Afghanistan, announced on Tuesday that it deployed a woman suicide bomber for the first time to target the Frontier Corps complex that houses a Chinese copper and gold mining project.

A statement by the BLA said a female suicide bomber, Zareena Rafiq, aka Trang Mahoo, stormed the heavily-guarded office of the Frontier Corps, killing six Pakistani personnel in the attack that happened last Sunday. The organisation also released the photo of the bomber, Zareena Rafiq, who detonated herself, clearing the way for the rebels to enter the complex.

 Image of BLF rebel Zareena Rafiq, also known as Tranag Maho, who carried out the suicide bombing at the entry point of the Frontier Corps headquarters in Nokkundi, Balochistan. https://t.co/KTMxagdH9e pic.twitter.com/yYOODqG72K  OSINT Updates (@OsintUpdates) December 1, 2025

In a statement released on Telegram, BLF spokesman Gwahram Baloch said the suicide attack was carried out by the Saddo Operational Battalion (SOB), the group's "self-sacrifice" unit, named after its martyred commander Waja Saddo alias Sadat Marri.

According to sources, the attacks targeted projects directly linked to China and a Canadian company. This indicates that Baloch insurgents are now shifting their strategy by attacking high-value targets with geopolitical significance.

The use of female fidayeen is considered significant suicide attacks was a tactic employed only by the Baloch Liberation Army's (BLA) Majeed Brigade, which has carried out several major attacks in recent years, including the Jaffar Express hijacking.

The attack also assumes significance as the BLF targeted the Saindak and Reko Diq projects, managed by Chinese companies and a Canadian firm, indicating the organisation's willingness to strike high-value assets. It also happened at Nokkundi in Chaghi, which is usually considered peaceful. It is also resource-rich.

Though Pakistan initially didnt confirm the attack, later reports said it confirmed a suicide bombing followed by an armed assault. Locals say two helicopters rushed from Quetta to the scene.
CBIZ, Inc. (NYSE:CBZ  Get Free Report) CFO Brad Lakhia bought 2,060 shares of CBIZ stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 26th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $48.51 per share, for a total transaction of $99,930.60. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief financial officer directly owned 40,584 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,968,729.84. This trade represents a 5.35% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

CBIZ Trading Down 0.1%

CBZ stock traded down $0.04 on Monday, reaching $48.66. The companys stock had a trading volume of 802,608 shares, compared to its average volume of 519,311. The firm has a market cap of $2.65 billion, a PE ratio of 32.02 and a beta of 0.90. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $52.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $62.63. CBIZ, Inc. has a 12-month low of $47.88 and a 12-month high of $90.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 1.60 and a current ratio of 1.60.

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CBIZ (NYSE:CBZ  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The business services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.07. CBIZ had a net margin of 3.89% and a return on equity of 14.02%. The business had revenue of $693.82 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $709.18 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.93 EPS. The companys quarterly revenue was up 58.1% compared to the same quarter last year. CBIZ has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.600-3.650 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that CBIZ, Inc. will post 2.65 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CBZ has been the topic of several research reports. Weiss Ratings lowered CBIZ from a hold (c-) rating to a sell (d+) rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. William Blair reaffirmed an outperform rating on shares of CBIZ in a research report on Friday, September 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Hold.

Read Our Latest Report on CBIZ

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Durable Capital Partners LP bought a new stake in shares of CBIZ during the third quarter valued at approximately $207,872,000. Sunriver Management LLC purchased a new stake in CBIZ during the 3rd quarter valued at $31,605,000. Citadel Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of CBIZ by 253.6% in the 3rd quarter. Citadel Advisors LLC now owns 623,060 shares of the business services providers stock worth $32,997,000 after purchasing an additional 446,876 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of CBIZ in the first quarter worth $23,494,000. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of CBIZ in the second quarter worth $21,739,000. 87.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

CBIZ Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

CBIZ, Inc provides financial, insurance, and advisory services in the United States and Canada. It operates through Financial Services, Benefits and Insurance Services, and National Practices segments. The Financial Services segment offers accounting and tax, financial advisory, valuation, risk and advisory, and government healthcare consulting services.

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Spanish Mountain Gold Ltd. (CVE:SPA  Get Free Report)s stock price traded up 26.5% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as C$0.22 and last traded at C$0.22. 2,763,812 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 468% from the average session volume of 486,528 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$0.17.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Atrium Research raised Spanish Mountain Gold to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, Spanish Mountain Gold presently has an average rating of Strong Buy.

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Spanish Mountain Gold Trading Up 26.5%

Spanish Mountain Gold Company Profile

The companys 50 day simple moving average is C$0.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$0.15. The company has a quick ratio of 3.03, a current ratio of 5.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The company has a market capitalization of C$105.40 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -21.50 and a beta of 1.09.

(Get Free Report)

Spanish Mountain Gold Ltd., an exploration stage resource company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral properties in Canada. It holds a 100% interest in the Spanish Mountain gold project, which comprises approximately 50 contiguous mineral claims and 13 placer claims covering an area of approximately 10,414 hectares located in the Cariboo region of central British Columbia.

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JBT Marel Corporation (NYSE:JBTM  Get Free Report) Director Olafur Gudmundsson sold 20,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.79, for a total value of $2,835,800.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 19,980 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,832,964.20. The trade was a 50.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

JBT Marel Price Performance

JBTM stock traded down $0.56 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $139.97. 454,907 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 556,083. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $136.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $132.39. JBT Marel Corporation has a 52 week low of $90.08 and a 52 week high of $148.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.27 billion, a PE ratio of -61.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.53.

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JBT Marel (NYSE:JBTM  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The company reported $1.94 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.43. JBT Marel had a negative net margin of 5.08% and a positive return on equity of 7.96%. The company had revenue of $1 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $936.75 million. The businesss revenue for the quarter was up 120.6% on a year-over-year basis. JBT Marel has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.100-6.400 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that JBT Marel Corporation will post 5.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of JBT Marel by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,539,674 shares of the companys stock worth $778,047,000 after purchasing an additional 56,115 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in JBT Marel in the second quarter worth $141,026,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. purchased a new stake in JBT Marel in the second quarter worth $135,854,000. Champlain Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of JBT Marel in the second quarter valued at $85,029,000. Finally, Bamco Inc. NY purchased a new position in shares of JBT Marel during the 2nd quarter valued at $84,182,000. 98.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

JBTM has been the topic of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a hold (c-) rating on shares of JBT Marel in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Robert W. Baird set a $169.00 price objective on shares of JBT Marel in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, William Blair upgraded shares of JBT Marel from a market perform rating to an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $156.00.

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About JBT Marel

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JBT Marel Corporation provides technology solutions to food and beverage industry in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Latin America. It offers value-added processing that includes chilling, mixing/grinding, injecting, blending, marinating, tumbling, flattening, forming, portioning, coating, cooking, frying, freezing, extracting, pasteurizing, sterilizing, concentrating, high pressure processing, weighing, inspecting, filling, closing, sealing, end of line material handling, and packaging solutions to the food, beverage, and health market.

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Dole (NYSE:DOLE  Get Free Report) is one of 38 publicly-traded companies in the AGRI OPERATIONS industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare Dole to similar companies based on the strength of its earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

44.3% of shares of all AGRI OPERATIONS companies are held by institutional investors. 41.8% of Dole shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 13.0% of shares of all AGRI OPERATIONS companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

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Volatility & Risk

Dole has a beta of 0.65, indicating that its share price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Doles competitors have a beta of 0.81, indicating that their average share price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

Gross Revenue Net Income Price/Earnings Ratio Dole $8.97 billion $125.51 million 97.70 Dole Competitors $34.14 billion $103.03 million 3.47

This table compares Dole and its competitors revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Doles competitors have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Dole. Dole is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Dividends

Dole pays an annual dividend of $0.34 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Dole pays out 226.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, AGRI OPERATIONS companies pay a dividend yield of 3.4% and pay out -99.2% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Dole has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Dole lags its competitors as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Dole and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Dole 0 2 0 0 2.00 Dole Competitors 418 793 1016 38 2.30

Dole currently has a consensus target price of $16.00, indicating a potential upside of 9.18%. As a group, AGRI OPERATIONS companies have a potential upside of 42.39%. Given Doles competitors stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Dole has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Profitability

This table compares Dole and its competitors net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Dole 0.28% 8.17% 2.62% Dole Competitors -293.40% -82.89% -18.09%

Summary

Dole competitors beat Dole on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

Dole Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Dole Food Company, Inc. (Dole) is a producer, marketer and distributor of fresh fruit and fresh vegetables. The Company is a producer of bananas and pineapples, and packaged fruit products, packaged salads and fresh-packed vegetables. The Company has three business segments: fresh fruit, fresh vegetables and packaged foods. The fresh fruit segment contains operating divisions that produce and market fresh fruit to wholesale, retail and institutional customers worldwide. The fresh vegetables segment produces and markets fresh-packed and value-added vegetables and salads to wholesale, retail and institutional customers, primarily in North America and Europe. The packaged foods segment contains several operating divisions that produce and market packaged foods, including fruit, juices, frozen fruit and healthy snack foods. In November 2013, Dole Food Company, Inc announced that an investor group acquired the remaining 60.43% interest in the Company.

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M&G plc (LON:MNG  Get Free Report) shares were down 0.5% on Monday . The stock traded as low as GBX 269.10 and last traded at GBX 271.10. Approximately 327,860,156 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 1,481% from the average daily volume of 20,740,682 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 272.40.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MNG has been the topic of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of M&G from GBX 305 to GBX 315 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a sector perform rating and set a GBX 265 target price on shares of M&G in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Berenberg Bank raised shares of M&G to a buy rating and increased their price target for the company from GBX 225 to GBX 342 in a report on Friday, October 10th. Finally, UBS Group restated a buy rating and set a GBX 275 price objective on shares of M&G in a report on Friday, August 15th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of GBX 280.33.

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M&G Trading Down 0.5%

The business has a 50-day moving average price of GBX 262.07 and a 200-day moving average price of GBX 256.54. The company has a quick ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 218.70. The firm has a market capitalization of 6.42 billion, a P/E ratio of -108.44, a PEG ratio of -2.76 and a beta of 1.47.

M&G (LON:MNG  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 3rd. The company reported GBX 10.10 earnings per share for the quarter. M&G had a net margin of 1.85% and a return on equity of 4.31%. Analysts anticipate that M&G plc will post 24.2485207 earnings per share for the current year.

About M&G

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M&G plc is a leading savings and investments business, managing investments for both individuals and for large institutional investors, such as pension funds, around the world.

We have a single corporate identity, M&G plc, and two customer-facing brands: Prudential and M&G Investments. Prudential offers savings and insurance for customers in the UK and Europe and for asset management in South Africa.

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Centerra Gold Inc. (NYSE:CGAU  Free Report)  Analysts at Scotiabank increased their FY2025 earnings estimates for shares of Centerra Gold in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, November 28th. Scotiabank analyst O. Habib now anticipates that the company will earn $1.05 per share for the year, up from their previous forecast of $0.99. Scotiabank currently has a Outperform rating on the stock. The consensus estimate for Centerra Golds current full-year earnings is $0.59 per share.

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Centerra Gold (NYSE:CGAU  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $395.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $314.74 million. Centerra Gold had a return on equity of 10.47% and a net margin of 26.35%.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on CGAU. Royal Bank Of Canada cut Centerra Gold from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $13.00 to $14.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 10th. Cormark raised shares of Centerra Gold from a hold rating to a moderate buy rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Centerra Gold from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Saturday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets reissued a market perform rating on shares of Centerra Gold in a research note on Monday, September 15th. Finally, Raymond James Financial restated a market perform rating on shares of Centerra Gold in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Centerra Gold has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $14.17.

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Centerra Gold Price Performance

Shares of Centerra Gold stock opened at $13.27 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.09, a PEG ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 0.89. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.59 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $8.96. Centerra Gold has a 12 month low of $5.41 and a 12 month high of $13.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 2.59.

Centerra Gold Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 13th were given a dividend of $0.07 per share. This represents a $0.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 13th. Centerra Golds dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 11.59%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Allianz Asset Management GmbH acquired a new stake in shares of Centerra Gold in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,196,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Centerra Gold by 37.5% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,180,721 shares of the companys stock worth $13,848,000 after purchasing an additional 594,674 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in Centerra Gold by 12.1% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,054,829 shares of the companys stock valued at $29,211,000 after buying an additional 436,175 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG raised its stake in Centerra Gold by 1,792.9% in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 439,501 shares of the companys stock valued at $2,791,000 after buying an additional 416,283 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its stake in Centerra Gold by 4.7% in the first quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 55,268 shares of the companys stock valued at $351,000 after buying an additional 2,499 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.40% of the companys stock.

About Centerra Gold

(Get Free Report)

Centerra Gold Inc, a gold mining company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and operation of gold and copper properties in North America, Turkey, and internationally. The company explores for gold, copper, and molybdenum deposits. Its flagship projects are the 100% owned Mount Milligan gold-copper mine located in British Columbia, Canada; and the Oksut gold mine located in Turkey.

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EOG Resources, Inc. (NYSE:EOG  Free Report)  Analysts at Scotiabank increased their FY2025 earnings estimates for shares of EOG Resources in a note issued to investors on Friday, November 28th. Scotiabank analyst P. Cheng now forecasts that the energy exploration company will post earnings of $10.45 per share for the year, up from their previous forecast of $10.25. Scotiabank has a Sector Perform rating and a $130.00 price target on the stock. The consensus estimate for EOG Resources current full-year earnings is $11.47 per share. Scotiabank also issued estimates for EOG Resources FY2026 earnings at $11.10 EPS.

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A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Argus downgraded shares of EOG Resources from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Monday, August 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price target on EOG Resources from $146.00 to $144.00 and set a market perform rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 21st. Mizuho reduced their price target on EOG Resources from $140.00 to $133.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 15th. Wolfe Research dropped their price objective on EOG Resources from $139.00 to $138.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on EOG Resources from $136.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and sixteen have given a Hold rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $140.33.

EOG Resources Price Performance

Shares of EOG stock opened at $109.56 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $59.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.65, a PEG ratio of 8.20 and a beta of 0.72. EOG Resources has a 12 month low of $102.52 and a 12 month high of $138.18. The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 1.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $108.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $115.13.

EOG Resources (NYSE:EOG  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The energy exploration company reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $2.42 by $0.29. EOG Resources had a return on equity of 20.51% and a net margin of 25.25%.The company had revenue of $5.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.48 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.89 earnings per share. The firms quarterly revenue was down 2.0% on a year-over-year basis.

EOG Resources Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.02 per share. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 16th. EOG Resourcess dividend payout ratio is 40.64%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise acquired a new position in shares of EOG Resources during the 1st quarter worth about $26,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd grew its holdings in EOG Resources by 10,950.0% during the second quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 221 shares of the energy exploration companys stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 219 shares during the period. Saudi Central Bank acquired a new position in EOG Resources during the first quarter worth approximately $28,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in EOG Resources during the second quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, JCIC Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in EOG Resources in the third quarter valued at approximately $32,000. 89.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

EOG Resources Company Profile

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EOG Resources, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, explores for, develops, produces, and markets crude oil, natural gas liquids, and natural gas primarily in producing basins in the United States, the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and internationally. The company was formerly known as Enron Oil & Gas Company.

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Shares of Bristol Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY  Get Free Report) have been given an average rating of Hold by the nineteen analysts that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $54.4167.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on BMY. Daiwa Capital Markets cut Bristol Myers Squibb from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and set a $42.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Bristol Myers Squibb from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 17th. Daiwa America lowered Bristol Myers Squibb from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Scotiabank began coverage on Bristol Myers Squibb in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. They issued a sector perform rating and a $45.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a market perform rating on shares of Bristol Myers Squibb in a research report on Monday, November 3rd.

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Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on Bristol Myers Squibb

Bristol Myers Squibb Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BMY opened at $49.14 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.54. The businesss 50 day moving average price is $45.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $46.67. The company has a market cap of $100.04 billion, a PE ratio of 19.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.33. Bristol Myers Squibb has a twelve month low of $42.52 and a twelve month high of $63.33.

Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.63 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.11. Bristol Myers Squibb had a net margin of 10.58% and a return on equity of 80.04%. The firm had revenue of $12.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $11.75 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.80 earnings per share. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Bristol Myers Squibb has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.400-6.600 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Bristol Myers Squibb will post 6.74 EPS for the current year.

Bristol Myers Squibb Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.62 per share. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 3rd. Bristol Myers Squibbs dividend payout ratio is 83.78%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BMY. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Bristol Myers Squibb in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,554,154,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Bristol Myers Squibb by 297.0% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 23,728,443 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $1,447,198,000 after acquiring an additional 17,750,938 shares during the period. GQG Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Bristol Myers Squibb by 22,647.6% in the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 12,023,454 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $733,310,000 after acquiring an additional 11,970,598 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Bristol Myers Squibb during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $624,369,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Bristol Myers Squibb by 16.8% during the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 70,802,680 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $3,277,456,000 after purchasing an additional 10,195,775 shares during the last quarter. 76.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Bristol Myers Squibb Company Profile

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Bristol-Myers Squibb Company discovers, develops, licenses, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products worldwide. It offers products for hematology, oncology, cardiovascular, immunology, fibrotic, and neuroscience diseases. The company's products include Eliquis for reduction in risk of stroke/systemic embolism in non-valvular atrial fibrillation, and for the treatment of DVT/PE; Opdivo for various anti-cancer indications, including bladder, blood, CRC, head and neck, RCC, HCC, lung, melanoma, MPM, stomach and esophageal cancer; Pomalyst/Imnovid for multiple myeloma; Orencia for active rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis; and Sprycel for the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia.

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Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL  Get Free Report) has received a consensus recommendation of Moderate Buy from the twenty-five brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seventeen have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $33.55.

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on CCL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Carnival from $34.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Monday, September 15th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Carnival from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Carnival from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Carnival from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on Carnival from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th.

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View Our Latest Analysis on CCL

Carnival Stock Up 0.4%

NYSE:CCL opened at $25.89 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.10. Carnival has a 12-month low of $15.07 and a 12-month high of $32.80. The stocks fifty day simple moving average is $27.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $27.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.49, a P/E/G ratio of 0.57 and a beta of 2.67.

Carnival (NYSE:CCL  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, September 29th. The company reported $1.43 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.32 by $0.11. Carnival had a return on equity of 27.86% and a net margin of 10.07%.The business had revenue of $8.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.09 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.27 earnings per share. The firms revenue was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. Carnival has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 0.230-0.230 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 2.140-2.140 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Carnival will post 1.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Carnival

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Carnival by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 127,764,837 shares of the companys stock worth $3,693,681,000 after buying an additional 1,101,344 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Carnival by 4.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 47,369,740 shares of the companys stock worth $1,369,459,000 after acquiring an additional 1,845,850 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its holdings in shares of Carnival by 0.8% during the third quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 36,109,629 shares of the companys stock worth $1,043,929,000 after acquiring an additional 291,864 shares during the period. Causeway Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Carnival by 9.6% in the 3rd quarter. Causeway Capital Management LLC now owns 31,912,001 shares of the companys stock valued at $922,576,000 after acquiring an additional 2,783,927 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Carnival by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 27,617,014 shares of the companys stock worth $773,398,000 after purchasing an additional 1,906,110 shares during the period. 67.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Carnival Company Profile

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Carnival Corp. engages in the operation of cruise ships. It operates through the following business segments: North America and Australia (NAA) Cruise, Europe and Asia (EA) Cruise Operations, Cruise Support, and Tour and Others. The North America and Australia (NAA) Cruise segment includes the Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, and Seabourn.

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Shares of Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste, S.A. de C.V. (NYSE:ASR  Get Free Report) have earned an average rating of Reduce from the seven analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $305.00.

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on ASR shares. Citigroup restated a buy rating on shares of Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste in a research report on Wednesday, September 10th. Zacks Research downgraded Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a neutral rating on shares of Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste in a report on Friday, November 14th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a hold (c) rating on shares of Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste from an equal weight rating to an underweight rating and set a $300.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, November 10th.

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Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste Price Performance

ASR opened at $302.75 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $309.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $317.10. Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste has a twelve month low of $249.21 and a twelve month high of $360.00. The company has a quick ratio of 5.16, a current ratio of 5.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The company has a market capitalization of $9.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.05, a PEG ratio of 8.54 and a beta of 0.77.

Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste (NYSE:ASR  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 22nd. The transportation company reported $3.84 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $5.26 by ($1.42). Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste had a return on equity of 17.47% and a net margin of 31.96%.The business had revenue of $478.54 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $502.91 million. Equities analysts expect that Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste will post 23 EPS for the current year.

Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared an annual dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 26th will be issued a $8.1473 dividend. This represents a yield of 271.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 26th. Grupo Aeroportuario del Surestes dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 200.48%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Assetmark Inc. grew its position in Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste by 494.7% during the second quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 113 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its position in shares of Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste by 13,800.0% during the 2nd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 139 shares of the transportation companys stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. State of Wyoming bought a new stake in shares of Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste during the 3rd quarter valued at about $46,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste by 766.7% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 156 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd bought a new position in shares of Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste in the second quarter worth approximately $58,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 10.57% of the companys stock.

Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste, S. A. B. de C. V. holds concessions to operate, maintain, and develop airports in the southeast region of Mexico. The company operates airports that are located in the cities of Cancun, Cozumel, Merida, Huatulco, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Villahermosa, Tapachula, and Minatitlan.

Further Reading

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American Axle & Manufacturing (NYSE:AXL  Get Free Report) and Carbon Streaming (OTCMKTS:OFSTF  Get Free Report) are both small-cap auto/tires/trucks companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

91.4% of American Axle & Manufacturing shares are held by institutional investors. 2.1% of American Axle & Manufacturing shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.4% of Carbon Streaming shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

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Profitability

This table compares American Axle & Manufacturing and Carbon Streamings net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets American Axle & Manufacturing 0.73% 8.90% 1.05% Carbon Streaming -24,943.55% -3.74% -3.57%

Analyst Recommendations

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score American Axle & Manufacturing 0 5 3 0 2.38 Carbon Streaming 0 0 0 0 0.00

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for American Axle & Manufacturing and Carbon Streaming, as provided by MarketBeat.

American Axle & Manufacturing presently has a consensus price target of $7.17, suggesting a potential upside of 11.54%. Given American Axle & Manufacturings stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe American Axle & Manufacturing is more favorable than Carbon Streaming.

Volatility & Risk

American Axle & Manufacturing has a beta of 1.6, indicating that its share price is 60% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Carbon Streaming has a beta of -78.99, indicating that its share price is 7,999% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares American Axle & Manufacturing and Carbon Streamings gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio American Axle & Manufacturing $5.83 billion 0.13 $33.80 million $0.33 19.47 Carbon Streaming $640,000.00 44.33 -$67.37 million ($0.35) -1.67

American Axle & Manufacturing has higher revenue and earnings than Carbon Streaming. Carbon Streaming is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Axle & Manufacturing, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

American Axle & Manufacturing beats Carbon Streaming on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About American Axle & Manufacturing

(Get Free Report)

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc. engages in the manufacture, engineering, design, and validation of driveline systems and related components. It operates through the Driveline and Metal Forming segments. The Driveline segment consists of axles, drive shafts, power transfer units, rear drive modules, and electric and hybrid driveline products and systems for light trucks, service utility vehicles, crossover vehicles, passenger cars, and commercial vehicles. The Metal Forming segment manufactures axle shafts, ring and pinion gears, differential gears, transmission gears, and shafts and suspension components for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and Tier 1 automotive suppliers. The company was founded by Richard E. Dauch on March 1, 1994, and is headquartered in Detroit, MI.

About Carbon Streaming

(Get Free Report)

Carbon Streaming Corporation a carbon credit streaming and royalty company focused on creating shareholder value primarily through the acquisition and sale of carbon credits. It provides capital to carbon projects globally, primarily by entering into or acquiring streaming, royalty or royalty-like arrangements for the purchase of carbon credits. The company was formerly known as Mexivada Mining Corp. and changed its name to Carbon Streaming Corporation in June 2020. Carbon Streaming Corporation was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in Burlington, Canada.

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Fisher Asset Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE:ZTO  Free Report) by 13.0% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,577,164 shares of the transportation companys stock after selling 535,732 shares during the quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLCs holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) were worth $63,495,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mackenzie Financial Corp purchased a new position in ZTO Express (Cayman) during the second quarter worth $12,604,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) in the 2nd quarter worth about $7,446,000. Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) by 340.1% during the 2nd quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 31,632 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $561,000 after purchasing an additional 24,444 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) by 11.7% during the 2nd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 12,931 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $230,000 after purchasing an additional 1,353 shares during the period. Finally, DNB Asset Management AS grew its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 11.4% during the 2nd quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 34,277 shares of the transportation companys stock valued at $608,000 after purchasing an additional 3,501 shares during the last quarter. 41.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on ZTO shares. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from $19.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 20th. Zacks Research raised ZTO Express (Cayman) from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a hold (c-) rating on shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) in a research note on Wednesday, November 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $22.36.

ZTO Express (Cayman) Price Performance

ZTO Express (Cayman) stock opened at $20.81 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $12.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.45 and a beta of -0.20. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $19.19 and a two-hundred day moving average of $18.77. ZTO Express has a 1 year low of $16.34 and a 1 year high of $22.01.

ZTO Express (Cayman) (NYSE:ZTO  Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 19th. The transportation company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $2.51 by ($2.08). The company had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $11.91 billion. ZTO Express (Cayman) had a return on equity of 14.33% and a net margin of 18.61%.The businesss revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.90 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that ZTO Express will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current year.

ZTO Express (Cayman) Company Profile

(Free Report)

ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc provides express delivery and other value-added logistics services in the People's Republic of China. It offers freight forwarding services; and delivery services for e-commerce and traditional merchants, and other express service users. The company was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China.

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Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF (NYSEARCA:EWL  Free Report) by 9,771.2% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,278,219 shares of the exchange traded funds stock after acquiring an additional 1,265,270 shares during the quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC owned approximately 0.05% of iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF worth $70,059,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. AlphaCore Capital LLC purchased a new position in iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $38,000. Parallel Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $56,000. Comerica Bank increased its holdings in shares of iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF by 36.3% during the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 3,405 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $176,000 after purchasing an additional 907 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tiemann Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $206,000. 68.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF Stock Performance

Shares of NYSEARCA EWL opened at $57.42 on Tuesday. The companys fifty day moving average price is $56.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $55.34. iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF has a 1 year low of $45.56 and a 1 year high of $58.35. The company has a market capitalization of $1.38 billion, a PE ratio of 21.82 and a beta of 0.81.

About iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF

iShares MSCI Switzerland Capped ETF (the Fund), formerly iShares MSCI Switzerland Capped Index Fund, is an exchange-traded fund (ETF). The Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the MSCI Switzerland 25/50 Index (the Index).

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D L Carlson Investment Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE:SCHW  Free Report) by 11.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 40,370 shares of the financial services providers stock after acquiring an additional 4,306 shares during the period. D L Carlson Investment Group Inc.s holdings in Charles Schwab were worth $3,683,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Charles Schwab by 1.9% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 151,182,081 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $13,793,853,000 after purchasing an additional 2,786,829 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Charles Schwab by 12.3% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 82,048,984 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $6,422,795,000 after buying an additional 8,954,248 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Charles Schwab by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 37,381,183 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $3,399,181,000 after acquiring an additional 1,038,376 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in shares of Charles Schwab by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 30,035,937 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $2,740,479,000 after acquiring an additional 815,625 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Charles Schwab by 1.0% during the second quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 21,376,690 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $1,950,409,000 after purchasing an additional 211,527 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.38% of the companys stock.

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Insider Buying and Selling at Charles Schwab

In related news, insider Paul V. Woolway sold 3,205 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.33, for a total value of $299,122.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 34,778 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $3,245,830.74. This trade represents a 8.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jonathan S. Beatty sold 3,072 shares of Charles Schwab stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.00, for a total transaction of $301,056.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 11,923 shares in the company, valued at $1,168,454. The trade was a 20.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 6.30% of the companys stock.

Charles Schwab Stock Performance

Shares of Charles Schwab stock opened at $92.69 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.55 and a quick ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market cap of $164.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 1.02. The stocks 50-day moving average is $93.75 and its 200-day moving average is $93.06. The Charles Schwab Corporation has a one year low of $65.88 and a one year high of $99.59.

Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $6.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.93 billion. Charles Schwab had a return on equity of 21.26% and a net margin of 35.93%.Charles Schwabs revenue for the quarter was up 26.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.71 EPS. Equities analysts predict that The Charles Schwab Corporation will post 4.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Charles Schwab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 14th were given a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 14th. Charles Schwabs payout ratio is currently 25.29%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SCHW has been the topic of several analyst reports. JMP Securities reiterated a market outperform rating and issued a $110.00 target price on shares of Charles Schwab in a report on Friday, October 17th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Charles Schwab from $84.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an underperform rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Charles Schwab from $112.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, October 17th. Barclays increased their price target on Charles Schwab from $114.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Friday, October 17th. Finally, Cowen reiterated a buy rating on shares of Charles Schwab in a report on Friday, October 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $106.45.

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Charles Schwab Company Profile

(Free Report)

The Charles Schwab Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a savings and loan holding company that provides wealth management, securities brokerage, banking, asset management, custody, and financial advisory services in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Investor Services and Advisor Services.

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Intech Investment Management LLC decreased its position in shares of Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE:RGR  Free Report) by 55.9% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,692 shares of the companys stock after selling 9,746 shares during the quarter. Intech Investment Management LLCs holdings in Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. were worth $276,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Byrne Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. by 32.0% during the second quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 1,278 shares of the companys stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 310 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. by 159.5% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,422 shares of the companys stock valued at $56,000 after buying an additional 874 shares in the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc raised its position in shares of Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. by 28.8% in the second quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 1,799 shares of the companys stock worth $65,000 after acquiring an additional 402 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE raised its position in shares of Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. by 22.1% in the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 2,310 shares of the companys stock worth $91,000 after acquiring an additional 418 shares during the period. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. by 148.7% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 2,420 shares of the companys stock worth $95,000 after acquiring an additional 1,447 shares in the last quarter. 64.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Insider Activity

In related news, Director Christopher John Killoy sold 8,776 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.00, for a total transaction of $351,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 28,249 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,129,960. The trade was a 23.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders sold 10,500 shares of company stock valued at $415,480 over the last quarter. Insiders own 4.60% of the companys stock.

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. Stock Down 1.4%

Shares of NYSE RGR opened at $29.71 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $473.70 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 95.84 and a beta of 0.13. The companys 50-day simple moving average is $39.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.12. Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. has a 52-week low of $28.33 and a 52-week high of $48.21.

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE:RGR  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.26). Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. had a return on equity of 9.53% and a net margin of 1.07%.The company had revenue of $126.77 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $124.22 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.28 EPS. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. will post 2.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 17th were given a $0.04 dividend. This represents a $0.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 17th. Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc.s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 123.08%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Weiss Ratings restated a sell (d+) rating on shares of Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Sell rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. has a consensus rating of Sell.

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About Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc.

(Free Report)

Sturm, Ruger & Co, Inc engages in the business of designing, manufacturing, and selling firearms to domestic customers. It operates through the Firearms and Castings segments. The Firearms segment focuses on manufacturing and selling rifles, pistols, and revolvers principally to a number of federally licensed, independent wholesale distributors.

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JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut its holdings in shares of Permian Resources Corporation (NYSE:PR  Free Report) by 35.2% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 2,943,334 shares of the companys stock after selling 1,600,098 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co.s holdings in Permian Resources were worth $40,088,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Empirical Finance LLC acquired a new position in Permian Resources in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,068,000. Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in shares of Permian Resources by 16.8% during the 2nd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 829,572 shares of the companys stock valued at $11,299,000 after acquiring an additional 119,105 shares during the last quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Permian Resources in the 2nd quarter valued at $259,000. WBI Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Permian Resources in the 2nd quarter worth $936,000. Finally, Waratah Capital Advisors Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Permian Resources by 16.6% during the second quarter. Waratah Capital Advisors Ltd. now owns 612,392 shares of the companys stock worth $8,341,000 after purchasing an additional 87,392 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.84% of the companys stock.

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Permian Resources Stock Performance

Shares of PR opened at $14.57 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $12.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.36 and a beta of 1.31. Permian Resources Corporation has a twelve month low of $10.01 and a twelve month high of $16.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.67. The firms 50 day moving average price is $13.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $13.49.

Permian Resources Dividend Announcement

Permian Resources ( NYSE:PR Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.30 by ($0.22). The company had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.33 billion. Permian Resources had a return on equity of 11.03% and a net margin of 15.65%.The firms revenue was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.53 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Permian Resources Corporation will post 1.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 17th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.1%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 17th. Permian Resourcess payout ratio is 55.05%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PR has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Permian Resources from $21.00 to $16.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on shares of Permian Resources from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Permian Resources from $16.00 to $17.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, August 20th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Permian Resources from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Finally, Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Permian Resources in a research report on Friday, September 19th. They set a sector outperform rating and a $21.00 price target on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $18.80.

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About Permian Resources

(Free Report)

Permian Resources Corporation, an independent oil and natural gas company, focuses on the development of crude oil and related liquids-rich natural gas reserves in the United States. The companys assets primarily focus on the Delaware Basin, a sub-basin of the Permian Basin. Its properties consist of acreage blocks in West Texas, Eddy County, Lea County, and New Mexico.

Further Reading

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Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its position in shares of Invesco Senior Loan ETF (NYSEARCA:BKLN  Free Report) by 19.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 42,505 shares of the exchange traded funds stock after buying an additional 6,830 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLCs holdings in Invesco Senior Loan ETF were worth $889,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Corebridge Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Invesco Senior Loan ETF during the 1st quarter worth $98,134,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Invesco Senior Loan ETF by 82.6% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 8,813,459 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $182,439,000 after buying an additional 3,988,121 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Invesco Senior Loan ETF during the first quarter worth about $59,076,000. CNO Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Invesco Senior Loan ETF during the first quarter worth about $44,029,000. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. increased its position in Invesco Senior Loan ETF by 177.4% in the 1st quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,896,817 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $59,964,000 after acquiring an additional 1,852,420 shares during the period.

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Invesco Senior Loan ETF Stock Down 0.1%

BKLN opened at $20.90 on Tuesday. Invesco Senior Loan ETF has a 52 week low of $20.02 and a 52 week high of $21.19. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $20.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $20.91.

About Invesco Senior Loan ETF

The Invesco Senior Loan ETF (BKLN) is an exchange-traded fund that mostly invests in high yield fixed income. The fund tracks a market-value-weighted index of senior loans issued by banks to corporations. BKLN was launched on Mar 3, 2011 and is managed by Invesco.

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J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Toronto Dominion Bank (The) (NYSE:TD  Free Report) (TSE:TD) by 14.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,005 shares of the banks stock after buying an additional 762 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.s holdings in Toronto Dominion Bank were worth $441,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Tobam raised its position in shares of Toronto Dominion Bank by 44.5% in the 2nd quarter. Tobam now owns 490 shares of the banks stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Balanced Rock Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Toronto Dominion Bank by 1.1% in the first quarter. Balanced Rock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 14,983 shares of the banks stock valued at $898,000 after buying an additional 163 shares during the period. Wright Investors Service Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Toronto Dominion Bank by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 5,827 shares of the banks stock worth $428,000 after buying an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. Intrua Financial LLC grew its position in shares of Toronto Dominion Bank by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Intrua Financial LLC now owns 7,812 shares of the banks stock worth $468,000 after buying an additional 183 shares during the period. Finally, Bridgewater Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Toronto Dominion Bank by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. now owns 10,994 shares of the banks stock valued at $808,000 after acquiring an additional 207 shares during the period. 52.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Toronto Dominion Bank Price Performance

TD opened at $83.57 on Tuesday. Toronto Dominion Bank has a 1 year low of $51.25 and a 1 year high of $84.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The company has a market capitalization of $141.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.79. The firms fifty day moving average price is $80.95 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $75.72.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TD has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Raymond James Financial raised shares of Toronto Dominion Bank to a hold rating in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Toronto Dominion Bank from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Weiss Ratings reissued a buy (b) rating on shares of Toronto Dominion Bank in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Zacks Research lowered Toronto Dominion Bank from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, Desjardins raised shares of Toronto Dominion Bank from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $93.00.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on Toronto Dominion Bank

Toronto Dominion Bank Company Profile

(Free Report)

The Toronto-Dominion Bank, together with its subsidiaries, provides various financial products and services in Canada, the United States, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Canadian Personal and Commercial Banking, U.S. Retail, Wealth Management and Insurance, and Wholesale Banking.

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D L Carlson Investment Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Bristol Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY  Free Report) by 78.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 44,126 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock after buying an additional 19,363 shares during the quarter. D L Carlson Investment Group Inc.s holdings in Bristol Myers Squibb were worth $2,043,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Bristol Myers Squibb by 1.8% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 194,925,206 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $9,023,088,000 after purchasing an additional 3,522,202 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Bristol Myers Squibb by 16.8% in the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 70,802,680 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $3,277,456,000 after buying an additional 10,195,775 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Bristol Myers Squibb by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 46,176,690 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $2,132,976,000 after buying an additional 723,459 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Bristol Myers Squibb during the second quarter valued at $1,554,154,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Bristol Myers Squibb by 5.3% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 25,974,504 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $1,584,185,000 after acquiring an additional 1,316,144 shares in the last quarter. 76.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Bristol Myers Squibb Stock Performance

Shares of BMY stock opened at $49.14 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.54. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $45.67 and a 200-day moving average price of $46.67. Bristol Myers Squibb Company has a 52 week low of $42.52 and a 52 week high of $63.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $100.04 billion, a PE ratio of 19.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.33.

Bristol Myers Squibb Announces Dividend

Bristol Myers Squibb ( NYSE:BMY Get Free Report ) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $12.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $11.75 billion. Bristol Myers Squibb had a net margin of 10.58% and a return on equity of 80.04%. The firms quarterly revenue was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.80 earnings per share. Bristol Myers Squibb has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.400-6.600 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Bristol Myers Squibb Company will post 6.74 earnings per share for the current year.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 3rd were issued a $0.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 3rd. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.0%. Bristol Myers Squibbs payout ratio is presently 83.78%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Scotiabank started coverage on Bristol Myers Squibb in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. They issued a sector perform rating and a $45.00 price target for the company. BMO Capital Markets restated a market perform rating on shares of Bristol Myers Squibb in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Daiwa Capital Markets downgraded shares of Bristol Myers Squibb from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and set a $42.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Bristol Myers Squibb from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Bristol Myers Squibb from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Saturday, November 8th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fifteen have given a Hold rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $54.42.

Read Our Latest Analysis on BMY

Bristol Myers Squibb Profile

(Free Report)

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company discovers, develops, licenses, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products worldwide. It offers products for hematology, oncology, cardiovascular, immunology, fibrotic, and neuroscience diseases. The company's products include Eliquis for reduction in risk of stroke/systemic embolism in non-valvular atrial fibrillation, and for the treatment of DVT/PE; Opdivo for various anti-cancer indications, including bladder, blood, CRC, head and neck, RCC, HCC, lung, melanoma, MPM, stomach and esophageal cancer; Pomalyst/Imnovid for multiple myeloma; Orencia for active rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis; and Sprycel for the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia.

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Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO  Free Report) by 26.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 5,240 shares of the oil and gas companys stock after purchasing an additional 1,106 shares during the quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLCs holdings in Valero Energy were worth $704,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of VLO. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Valero Energy by 276.9% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,795,436 shares of the oil and gas companys stock valued at $1,425,754,000 after buying an additional 7,931,018 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Valero Energy by 12.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 38,881,222 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $5,135,043,000 after acquiring an additional 4,155,522 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Valero Energy in the first quarter valued at about $529,864,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Valero Energy by 34.1% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,905,145 shares of the oil and gas companys stock valued at $647,823,000 after acquiring an additional 1,247,196 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Valero Energy by 16.7% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,141,511 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $1,089,897,000 after acquiring an additional 1,164,217 shares in the last quarter. 78.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Valero Energy from $166.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, September 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Valero Energy from $177.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Valero Energy from $201.00 to $223.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, November 14th. Raymond James Financial restated a strong-buy rating and set a $195.00 price objective (up from $181.00) on shares of Valero Energy in a report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Valero Energy from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note on Friday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $182.00.

Valero Energy Stock Performance

Shares of VLO stock opened at $180.40 on Tuesday. Valero Energy Corporation has a 12 month low of $99.00 and a 12 month high of $185.62. The companys fifty day simple moving average is $170.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $151.88. The firm has a market cap of $55.03 billion, a PE ratio of 37.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Valero Energy (NYSE:VLO  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The oil and gas company reported $3.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.51. Valero Energy had a net margin of 1.21% and a return on equity of 8.69%. The firm had revenue of $32.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $28.80 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.14 EPS. The companys revenue was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Valero Energy Corporation will post 7.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Valero Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 20th will be given a $1.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $4.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Valero Energys payout ratio is currently 94.36%.

Insider Transactions at Valero Energy

In related news, CFO Jason W. Fraser sold 9,933 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $174.02, for a total transaction of $1,728,540.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 134,196 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $23,352,787.92. This represents a 6.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.04% of the companys stock.

About Valero Energy

(Free Report)

Valero Energy Corporation manufactures, markets, and sells petroleum-based and low-carbon liquid transportation fuels and petrochemical products in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Latin America, Mexico, Peru, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Refining, Renewable Diesel, and Ethanol.

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Korea Investment CORP reduced its stake in shares of W.P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC  Free Report) by 33.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 107,430 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock after selling 53,993 shares during the period. Korea Investment CORPs holdings in W.P. Carey were worth $6,701,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of WPC. MTM Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of W.P. Carey in the second quarter worth $28,000. Cheviot Value Management LLC purchased a new stake in W.P. Carey during the 1st quarter worth about $37,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new position in W.P. Carey in the 2nd quarter valued at about $40,000. REAP Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in W.P. Carey by 56.4% in the 2nd quarter. REAP Financial Group LLC now owns 660 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 238 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hilltop National Bank acquired a new stake in shares of W.P. Carey during the 2nd quarter worth about $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.73% of the companys stock.

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W.P. Carey Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NYSE WPC opened at $67.24 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.74 billion, a PE ratio of 40.75, a P/E/G ratio of 9.57 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 0.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $67.31 and a 200-day moving average of $65.36. W.P. Carey Inc. has a 52-week low of $52.91 and a 52-week high of $69.79.

W.P. Carey Increases Dividend

W.P. Carey ( NYSE:WPC Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.25 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.23 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $431.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $424.44 million. W.P. Carey had a return on equity of 4.40% and a net margin of 21.75%.The companys quarterly revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.18 EPS. W.P. Carey has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.930-4.990 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that W.P. Carey Inc. will post 4.87 EPS for the current year.

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th were paid a dividend of $0.91 per share. This is a boost from W.P. Careys previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. This represents a $3.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.4%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 30th. W.P. Careys payout ratio is presently 220.61%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WPC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of W.P. Carey from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $68.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 11th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on W.P. Carey from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a sector perform rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. UBS Group increased their price target on W.P. Carey from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on W.P. Carey from $70.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an in-line rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a hold (c) rating on shares of W.P. Carey in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $67.89.

Read Our Latest Stock Report on WPC

W.P. Carey Company Profile

(Free Report)

W. P. Carey ranks among the largest net lease REITs with a well-diversified portfolio of high-quality, operationally critical commercial real estate, which includes 1,424 net lease properties covering approximately 173 million square feet and a portfolio of 89 self-storage operating properties as of December 31, 2023.

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Korea Investment CORP grew its position in shares of Revvity Inc. (NYSE:RVTY  Free Report) by 61.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 71,265 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 27,200 shares during the quarter. Korea Investment CORP owned approximately 0.06% of Revvity worth $6,893,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Revvity during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $5,351,000. Aviva PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Revvity by 5.0% during the second quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 89,527 shares of the companys stock worth $8,659,000 after purchasing an additional 4,303 shares during the period. Czech National Bank grew its stake in shares of Revvity by 3.1% in the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 28,811 shares of the companys stock worth $2,787,000 after purchasing an additional 858 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC increased its holdings in Revvity by 9.9% in the first quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 29,982 shares of the companys stock valued at $3,172,000 after purchasing an additional 2,702 shares during the period. Finally, Plato Investment Management Ltd bought a new position in Revvity during the 2nd quarter worth $500,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.65% of the companys stock.

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Revvity Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of RVTY stock opened at $102.59 on Tuesday. Revvity Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $81.36 and a fifty-two week high of $128.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 2.75 and a current ratio of 1.75. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $93.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $92.72. The company has a market cap of $11.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.55, a PEG ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 1.01.

Revvity Announces Dividend

Revvity ( NYSE:RVTY Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 27th. The company reported $1.18 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $698.95 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $699.75 million. Revvity had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 7.52%. The companys quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.28 EPS. Revvity has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.900-5.000 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Revvity Inc. will post 4.94 earnings per share for the current year.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 16th will be paid a $0.07 dividend. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 16th. Revvitys payout ratio is 14.07%.

Revvity declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Monday, October 27th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 8.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the companys board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Revvity from $122.00 to $123.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Guggenheim began coverage on Revvity in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. They issued a neutral rating on the stock. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Revvity from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of Revvity from $110.00 to $99.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Finally, Evercore ISI reaffirmed an outperform rating and issued a $108.00 price objective on shares of Revvity in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Revvity has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $114.75.

View Our Latest Stock Analysis on Revvity

Revvity Profile

(Free Report)

Revvity, Inc provides health sciences solutions, technologies, and services in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, and internationally. The Life Sciences segment provides instruments, reagents, informatics, software, subscriptions, detection, imaging technologies, warranties, training, and services. Its Diagnostics segment provides instruments, reagents, assay platforms, and software products for the early detection of genetic disorders, such as pregnancy and early childhood, as well as infectious disease testing in the diagnostics market.

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Rhumbline Advisers raised its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Co. (NYSE:BIPC  Free Report) by 1.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 208,253 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 3,198 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers owned about 0.17% of Brookfield Infrastructure worth $8,663,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Truist Financial Corp bought a new stake in Brookfield Infrastructure during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $232,000. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure by 42.5% during the first quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 65,225 shares of the companys stock worth $2,360,000 after acquiring an additional 19,453 shares in the last quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure during the second quarter worth $235,000. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. bought a new stake in Brookfield Infrastructure in the 2nd quarter valued at $202,000. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its position in Brookfield Infrastructure by 1,307.5% in the 2nd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 746 shares of the companys stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 693 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.38% of the companys stock.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on BIPC shares. Weiss Ratings reiterated a sell (d-) rating on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure in a report on Wednesday, November 26th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Brookfield Infrastructure from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Tuesday, August 26th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Brookfield Infrastructure from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Friday, September 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Brookfield Infrastructure currently has an average rating of Reduce and a consensus price target of $46.00.

Brookfield Infrastructure Price Performance

Brookfield Infrastructure stock opened at $44.91 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $5.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.85 and a beta of 1.46. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $44.41 and a 200-day moving average of $41.89. Brookfield Infrastructure Co. has a one year low of $32.08 and a one year high of $47.71.

Brookfield Infrastructure Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 1st will be paid a $0.43 dividend. This represents a yield of 384.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 28th.

About Brookfield Infrastructure

(Free Report)

Brookfield Infrastructure Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, owns and operates regulated natural gas transmission systems in Brazil. The company also engages in the regulated gas and electricity distribution operations in the United Kingdom; and electricity transmission and distribution, as well as gas distribution in Australia.

Further Reading

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Korea Investment CORP increased its holdings in shares of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE:TEVA  Free Report) by 0.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 374,455 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 3,000 shares during the quarter. Korea Investment CORPs holdings in Teva Pharmaceutical Industries were worth $6,276,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of TEVA. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries by 100.7% in the 2nd quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 723,974 shares of the companys stock worth $12,134,000 after buying an additional 363,252 shares during the last quarter. Amundi increased its holdings in Teva Pharmaceutical Industries by 18.5% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 678,758 shares of the companys stock worth $10,080,000 after buying an additional 105,846 shares during the last quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd raised its position in Teva Pharmaceutical Industries by 9.4% in the second quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 226,534 shares of the companys stock worth $3,797,000 after acquiring an additional 19,447 shares during the period. Jump Financial LLC raised its position in Teva Pharmaceutical Industries by 172.1% in the first quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 1,325,526 shares of the companys stock worth $20,373,000 after acquiring an additional 838,423 shares during the period. Finally, Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its stake in Teva Pharmaceutical Industries by 5.5% in the second quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 719,676 shares of the companys stock valued at $12,062,000 after acquiring an additional 37,455 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 54.05% of the companys stock.

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Insider Activity

In other news, Director Roberto Mignone sold 200,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.11, for a total value of $4,822,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 495,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,934,450. This trade represents a 28.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.49% of the companys stock.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Stock Performance

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NYSE:TEVA opened at $26.73 on Tuesday. The businesss fifty day moving average is $21.76 and its 200 day moving average is $18.89. The firm has a market cap of $30.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -167.03, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.45, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 1.06. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. has a 52-week low of $12.47 and a 52-week high of $26.96.

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Weiss Ratings reissued a sell (d-) rating on shares of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen raised Teva Pharmaceutical Industries from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Saturday, October 11th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on Teva Pharmaceutical Industries from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Buy and a consensus target price of $25.86.

Read Our Latest Research Report on TEVA

About Teva Pharmaceutical Industries

(Free Report)

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited develops, manufactures, markets, and distributes generic medicines, specialty medicines, and biopharmaceutical products in North America, Europe, Israel, and internationally. It offers generic medicines in various dosage forms, such as tablets, capsules, injectables, inhalants, liquids, transdermal patches, ointments, and creams; sterile products, hormones, high-potency drugs, and cytotoxic substances in parenteral and solid dosage forms; and generic products with medical devices and combination products.

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Korea Investment CORP boosted its position in shares of American Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:AFG  Free Report) by 118.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 46,588 shares of the insurance providers stock after purchasing an additional 25,300 shares during the period. Korea Investment CORP owned approximately 0.06% of American Financial Group worth $5,880,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quadrant Capital Group LLC increased its stake in American Financial Group by 43.2% during the second quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 10,001 shares of the insurance providers stock worth $1,262,000 after acquiring an additional 3,016 shares during the last quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas purchased a new position in shares of American Financial Group during the 2nd quarter worth $63,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of American Financial Group by 3.2% during the 2nd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,640 shares of the insurance providers stock worth $333,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of American Financial Group during the 2nd quarter worth about $1,073,000. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its position in American Financial Group by 16.5% in the second quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 7,690 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $971,000 after buying an additional 1,087 shares during the last quarter. 64.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on AFG shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of American Financial Group from $127.00 to $124.00 and set a market perform rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a hold rating and set a $142.00 price objective on shares of American Financial Group in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Weiss Ratings reissued a buy (b-) rating on shares of American Financial Group in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on American Financial Group from $130.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised American Financial Group from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Saturday, September 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $135.00.

Insider Activity at American Financial Group

In other news, CFO Brian S. Hertzman sold 1,777 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.51, for a total transaction of $253,240.27. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 11,300 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,610,363. This trade represents a 13.59% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 17.40% of the companys stock.

American Financial Group Trading Down 1.7%

NYSE:AFG opened at $135.32 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $11.29 billion, a PE ratio of 14.87 and a beta of 0.78. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $138.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $132.28. American Financial Group, Inc. has a 12-month low of $114.73 and a 12-month high of $150.02. The company has a current ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

American Financial Group (NYSE:AFG  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The insurance provider reported $2.69 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.35 by $0.34. American Financial Group had a return on equity of 17.41% and a net margin of 9.21%.The company had revenue of $2.33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.02 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.31 EPS. American Financial Groups revenue was up 13.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that American Financial Group, Inc. will post 10.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a special dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 17th were given a dividend of $2.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 17th. American Financial Groups payout ratio is 36.97%.

American Financial Group Company Profile

(Free Report)

American Financial Group, Inc, an insurance holding company, provides specialty property and casualty insurance products in the United States. The company offers property and transportation insurance products, such as physical damage and liability coverage for buses and trucks, inland and ocean marine, agricultural-related products, and other commercial property and specialty transportation coverages; specialty casualty insurance, including primarily excess and surplus, executive and professional liability, general liability, umbrella and excess liability, and specialty coverage in targeted markets, as well as customized programs for small to mid-sized businesses and workers compensation insurance; and specialty financial insurance products comprising risk management insurance programs for lending and leasing institutions, fidelity and surety products, and trade credit insurance.

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Korea Investment CORP acquired a new stake in Alamos Gold Inc. (NYSE:AGI  Free Report) (TSE:AGI) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 206,705 shares of the basic materials companys stock, valued at approximately $5,487,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in Alamos Gold during the 2nd quarter worth about $30,000. Banque Transatlantique SA bought a new stake in shares of Alamos Gold during the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Alamos Gold by 2.7% in the second quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 50,051 shares of the basic materials companys stock valued at $1,329,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH raised its position in Alamos Gold by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 196,833 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $5,225,000 after purchasing an additional 1,455 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Harbor Investment Advisory LLC raised its position in Alamos Gold by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 64,698 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $1,718,000 after purchasing an additional 1,471 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.33% of the companys stock.

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Alamos Gold Price Performance

AGI opened at $37.08 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $15.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.97, a P/E/G ratio of 0.50 and a beta of 0.50. Alamos Gold Inc. has a 12 month low of $17.80 and a 12 month high of $38.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $33.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $29.58.

Alamos Gold Dividend Announcement

Alamos Gold ( NYSE:AGI Get Free Report ) (TSE:AGI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.37. Alamos Gold had a return on equity of 12.69% and a net margin of 33.46%.The firm had revenue of $462.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $490.96 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.19 earnings per share. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 28.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Alamos Gold Inc. will post 1.29 EPS for the current year.

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 4th will be given a $0.025 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 4th. This represents a $0.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alamos Golds payout ratio is currently 7.81%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on AGI. Zacks Research cut Alamos Gold from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Alamos Gold from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Alamos Gold from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Saturday, October 25th. Scotiabank restated an outperform rating on shares of Alamos Gold in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a buy (a) rating on shares of Alamos Gold in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, Alamos Gold has an average rating of Buy and an average price target of $41.00.

Read Our Latest Analysis on AGI

Alamos Gold Company Profile

(Free Report)

Alamos Gold Inc engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and extraction of precious metals in Canada and Mexico. The company primarily explores for gold deposits. It holds 100% interest in the Young-Davidson mine and Island Gold mine located in the Ontario, Canada; Mulatos mine located in the Sonora, Mexico; and Lynn Lake project situated in the Manitoba, Canada.

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Bank of Montreal (TSE:BMO  Get Free Report) (NYSE:BMO) was downgraded by stock analysts at Natl Bk Canada from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on shares of Bank of Montreal from C$180.00 to C$185.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Bank of Montreal from C$173.00 to C$181.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Raymond James Financial set a C$182.00 price target on Bank of Montreal and gave the company a market perform rating in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Barclays raised their price objective on Bank of Montreal from C$157.00 to C$177.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Finally, CIBC lifted their target price on Bank of Montreal from C$180.00 to C$192.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bank of Montreal has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of C$173.54.

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View Our Latest Stock Analysis on Bank of Montreal

Bank of Montreal Trading Down 1.7%

Insider Buying and Selling at Bank of Montreal

Shares of Bank of Montreal stock opened at C$173.82 on Monday. Bank of Montreal has a 52 week low of C$121.31 and a 52 week high of C$182.90. The stock has a market cap of C$124.51 billion, a PE ratio of 15.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.38. The companys 50-day moving average price is C$176.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$163.15.

In other news, insider Alan Tannenbaum sold 9,824 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$175.12, for a total value of C$1,720,408.35. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Bank of Montreal

(Get Free Report)

Bank of Montreal is a diversified financial-services provider based in North America, operating four business segments: Canadian personal and commercial banking, U.S. P&C banking, wealth management, and capital markets.

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Scotia Capital Inc. trimmed its position in Intercontinental Hotels Group (NYSE:IHG  Free Report) by 66.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 12,269 shares of the companys stock after selling 24,022 shares during the period. Scotia Capital Inc.s holdings in Intercontinental Hotels Group were worth $1,415,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brooklyn Investment Group boosted its stake in Intercontinental Hotels Group by 219.5% during the first quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 246 shares of the companys stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 169 shares during the period. Hilltop National Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Intercontinental Hotels Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $41,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its position in shares of Intercontinental Hotels Group by 42.3% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 434 shares of the companys stock valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 129 shares during the last quarter. Aviso Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Intercontinental Hotels Group during the first quarter worth about $66,000. Finally, SVB Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Intercontinental Hotels Group in the first quarter worth approximately $76,000. Institutional investors own 15.09% of the companys stock.

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Intercontinental Hotels Group Price Performance

IHG stock opened at $132.51 on Tuesday. Intercontinental Hotels Group has a one year low of $94.78 and a one year high of $137.25. The companys 50 day moving average price is $125.16 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $120.79.

Analyst Ratings Changes

IHG has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Intercontinental Hotels Group from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Weiss Ratings restated a buy (b) rating on shares of Intercontinental Hotels Group in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Intercontinental Hotels Group from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Intercontinental Hotels Group from a neutral rating to an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold.

Get Our Latest Analysis on IHG

Intercontinental Hotels Group Company Profile

(Free Report)

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC owns, manages, franchises, and leases hotels in the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Greater China. The company operates hotels under the Six Senses, Regent, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Vignette Collection, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, Hotel Indigo, voco, HUALUXE, Crowne Plaza, Iberostar Beachfront Resorts, EVEN, Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn, Garner, avid hotels, Atwell Suites, Staybridge Suites, Iberostar Beachfront Resorts, Holiday Inn Club Vacations, and Candlewood Suites brand names.

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Korea Investment CORP cut its stake in shares of Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL  Free Report) by 20.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 157,177 shares of the transportation companys stock after selling 39,917 shares during the quarter. Korea Investment CORPs holdings in Delta Air Lines were worth $7,730,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new stake in shares of Delta Air Lines during the 2nd quarter worth $386,364,000. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in Delta Air Lines by 149.9% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,963,882 shares of the transportation companys stock valued at $246,487,000 after purchasing an additional 3,577,489 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in Delta Air Lines by 347.4% during the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,232,974 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $184,909,000 after purchasing an additional 3,286,741 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Delta Air Lines during the first quarter worth about $122,849,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines by 30.2% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,242,852 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $315,788,000 after purchasing an additional 1,681,464 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.93% of the companys stock.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on DAL. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Delta Air Lines from $66.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Delta Air Lines from $63.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Weiss Ratings restated a buy (b-) rating on shares of Delta Air Lines in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wolfe Research cut their price objective on shares of Delta Air Lines from $72.00 to $70.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Finally, Seaport Global Securities lifted their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $69.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, September 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and twenty have assigned a Buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Delta Air Lines presently has an average rating of Buy and an average price target of $71.68.

Insider Transactions at Delta Air Lines

In other news, SVP William C. Carroll sold 14,010 shares of Delta Air Lines stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.25, for a total value of $858,112.50. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 15,816 shares in the company, valued at approximately $968,730. This trade represents a 46.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP John E. Laughter sold 23,323 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.33, for a total value of $1,453,722.59. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 81,109 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $5,055,523.97. This represents a 22.33% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.88% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Delta Air Lines Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of Delta Air Lines stock opened at $64.15 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.34 and a current ratio of 0.40. Delta Air Lines, Inc. has a 52-week low of $34.74 and a 52-week high of $69.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.52. The companys 50 day moving average price is $59.00 and its 200-day moving average price is $55.91.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 15th. The transportation company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter. The company had revenue of $8.40 billion during the quarter. Delta Air Lines had a net margin of 7.36% and a return on equity of 23.83%. Equities research analysts forecast that Delta Air Lines, Inc. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Delta Air Lines Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 16th were paid a $0.1875 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 16th. This represents a $0.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Delta Air Liness dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.56%.

Delta Air Lines Company Profile

(Free Report)

Delta Air Lines, Inc provides scheduled air transportation for passengers and cargo in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Airline and Refinery. Its domestic network centered on core hubs in Atlanta, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit, and Salt Lake City, as well as coastal hub positions in Boston, Los Angeles, New York-LaGuardia, New York-JFK, and Seattle; and international network centered on hubs and market presence in Amsterdam, Bogota, Lima, Mexico City, London-Heathrow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Sao Paulo, Seoul-Incheon, and Tokyo.

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Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ boosted its holdings in KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY  Free Report) by 6.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 201,447 shares of the financial services providers stock after buying an additional 11,782 shares during the period. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publs holdings in KeyCorp were worth $3,509,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of KEY. Dakota Wealth Management boosted its holdings in shares of KeyCorp by 2.2% in the second quarter. Dakota Wealth Management now owns 27,374 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $477,000 after acquiring an additional 586 shares during the period. Bryn Mawr Trust Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in KeyCorp by 4.8% during the 2nd quarter. Bryn Mawr Trust Advisors LLC now owns 13,363 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $233,000 after purchasing an additional 608 shares in the last quarter. Investors Asset Management of Georgia Inc. GA ADV boosted its stake in KeyCorp by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Investors Asset Management of Georgia Inc. GA ADV now owns 22,412 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $389,000 after purchasing an additional 639 shares during the period. AlphaCore Capital LLC grew its holdings in KeyCorp by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. AlphaCore Capital LLC now owns 13,238 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $212,000 after buying an additional 651 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amalgamated Bank grew its holdings in KeyCorp by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 187,940 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $3,274,000 after buying an additional 683 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.69% of the companys stock.

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Insider Buying and Selling

In other KeyCorp news, insider Andrew J. Paine III sold 44,953 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.29, for a total transaction of $867,143.37. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 245,044 shares in the company, valued at $4,726,898.76. This trade represents a 15.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on KEY shares. DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of KeyCorp from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 17th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of KeyCorp from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, September 30th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of KeyCorp from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on KeyCorp from $19.00 to $19.50 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a hold (c+) rating on shares of KeyCorp in a research note on Wednesday, November 26th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $20.68.

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KeyCorp Stock Up 1.3%

KEY opened at $18.62 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $20.34 billion, a PE ratio of 22.98, a P/E/G ratio of 0.52 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. KeyCorp has a 52 week low of $12.73 and a 52 week high of $19.58. The businesss fifty day simple moving average is $17.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.77.

KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.03. KeyCorp had a return on equity of 10.14% and a net margin of 10.08%.The firm had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.87 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.47) earnings per share. The companys revenue was up 172.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that KeyCorp will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KeyCorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 2nd will be paid a $0.205 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.4%. KeyCorps dividend payout ratio is currently 101.23%.

KeyCorp Company Profile

(Free Report)

KeyCorp operates as the holding company for KeyBank National Association that provides various retail and commercial banking products and services in the United States. It operates in two segments, Consumer Bank and Commercial Bank. The company offers various deposits, investment products and services; commercial leasing, investment management, consumer finance; and personal finance and financial wellness, student loan refinancing, mortgage and home equity, lending, credit card, treasury, business advisory, wealth management, asset management, cash management, portfolio management, and trust and related services to individuals and small and medium-sized businesses.

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Schroder Investment Management Group cut its position in shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG  Free Report) by 3.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 668,274 shares of the restaurant operators stock after selling 27,379 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Groups holdings in Chipotle Mexican Grill were worth $37,524,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 4,804 shares of the restaurant operators stock valued at $290,000 after acquiring an additional 214 shares during the period. Bison Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Chipotle Mexican Grill in the 4th quarter valued at $224,000. Harbour Investments Inc. lifted its holdings in Chipotle Mexican Grill by 11.5% in the 1st quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 4,001 shares of the restaurant operators stock valued at $201,000 after purchasing an additional 413 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management raised its holdings in Chipotle Mexican Grill by 15.4% in the 1st quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 6,892 shares of the restaurant operators stock valued at $346,000 after acquiring an additional 922 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Commerce Bank increased its stake in shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 88,796 shares of the restaurant operators stock worth $4,458,000 after acquiring an additional 1,319 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.30% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CMG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Truist Financial decreased their price target on Chipotle Mexican Grill from $53.00 to $45.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Zacks Research lowered Chipotle Mexican Grill from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. UBS Group set a $45.00 price target on shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Rothschild Redb raised shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a hold (c) rating on shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Chipotle Mexican Grill presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $49.81.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Price Performance

CMG stock opened at $34.27 on Tuesday. The companys 50 day simple moving average is $36.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $43.92. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. has a 52-week low of $29.75 and a 52-week high of $66.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.98.

Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG  Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The restaurant operator reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts consensus estimates of $0.29. The firm had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.06 billion. Chipotle Mexican Grill had a return on equity of 44.32% and a net margin of 13.04%.The businesss quarterly revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.27 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. will post 1.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Chipotle Mexican Grill

(Free Report)

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, owns and operates Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants. It sells food and beverages through offering burritos, burrito bowls, quesadillas, tacos, and salads. The company also provides delivery and related services its app and website. It has operations in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

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River Road Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Science Applications International Co. (NYSE:SAIC  Free Report) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 177,318 shares of the information technology services providers stock, valued at approximately $19,767,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Lido Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Science Applications International by 1.7% during the second quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 6,437 shares of the information technology services providers stock worth $725,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its position in shares of Science Applications International by 49.4% during the 2nd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 201,428 shares of the information technology services providers stock valued at $22,683,000 after purchasing an additional 66,560 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Science Applications International in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $81,148,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Science Applications International in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,373,000. Finally, State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of Science Applications International by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 48,048 shares of the information technology services providers stock worth $5,411,000 after purchasing an additional 440 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.00% of the companys stock.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

SAIC has been the subject of a number of research reports. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of Science Applications International from $130.00 to $115.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 10th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Science Applications International from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Science Applications International from $104.00 to $91.00 and set a sell rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 8th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Science Applications International from $130.00 to $128.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a neutral rating and issued a $115.00 price target (down previously from $140.00) on shares of Science Applications International in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $115.10.

Science Applications International Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SAIC opened at $86.24 on Tuesday. The companys fifty day moving average is $93.77 and its two-hundred day moving average is $105.67. The company has a market cap of $3.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.54 and a beta of 0.43. Science Applications International Co. has a 12-month low of $84.15 and a 12-month high of $133.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20.

Science Applications International (NYSE:SAIC  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 4th. The information technology services provider reported $3.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $2.25 by $1.38. The business had revenue of $1.77 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.87 billion. Science Applications International had a return on equity of 24.18% and a net margin of 4.11%.Science Applications Internationals revenue for the quarter was down 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.05 earnings per share. Science Applications International has set its FY 2026 guidance at 9.400-9.600 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Science Applications International Co. will post 8.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Science Applications International Company Profile

(Free Report)

Science Applications International Corporation provides technical, engineering, and enterprise information technology (IT) services primarily in the United States. The company's offerings include IT modernization; digital engineering; artificial intelligence; Weapon systems support design, build, modify, integrate, and sustain weapon systems; and end-to-end services, such as design, development, integration, deployment, management and operations, sustainment, and security of its customers' IT infrastructure, as well as training and simulation and ground vehicles support which integrates, modify, upgrades, and sustains ground vehicles for nation's armed forces.

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River Road Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC  Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 96,144 shares of the financial services providers stock, valued at approximately $7,752,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in WFC. VestGen Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 9.7% in the second quarter. VestGen Advisors LLC now owns 19,617 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $1,562,000 after purchasing an additional 1,737 shares in the last quarter. Tobias Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 7.2% during the 2nd quarter. Tobias Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 3,022 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $242,000 after buying an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. West Family Investments Inc. grew its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 61.9% in the 2nd quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 16,721 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $1,340,000 after buying an additional 6,390 shares during the period. Wealthquest Corp increased its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 3.6% in the 2nd quarter. Wealthquest Corp now owns 3,810 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $305,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company in the 2nd quarter worth about $3,990,551,000. 75.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Cfra Research upgraded shares of Wells Fargo & Company to a moderate buy rating in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report on Saturday, October 4th. Bank of America upped their price target on Wells Fargo & Company from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $95.00 to $93.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $89.57.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Performance

Shares of WFC stock opened at $85.31 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $84.27 and a 200-day moving average price of $80.79. Wells Fargo & Company has a 52 week low of $58.42 and a 52 week high of $88.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $267.80 billion, a PE ratio of 14.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.22.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.55 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $21.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.11 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 17.18% and a return on equity of 12.51%. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.42 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 7th were given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 7th. Wells Fargo & Companys dividend payout ratio is 29.61%.

About Wells Fargo & Company

(Free Report)

Wells Fargo & Co is a diversified and community-based financial services company, which engages in the provision of banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products and services. It operates through the following segments: Consumer Banking and Lending, Commercial Banking, Corporate and Investment Banking, and Wealth and Investment Management.

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Smith Moore & CO. bought a new position in Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE:COF) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 3,522 shares of the financial services providers stock, valued at approximately $749,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its stake in shares of Capital One Financial by 588,668.3% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 117,447,497 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $24,988,129,000 after buying an additional 117,427,549 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Capital One Financial by 74.8% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 56,380,913 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $11,995,603,000 after purchasing an additional 24,129,990 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Capital One Financial in the second quarter worth about $1,701,511,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Capital One Financial by 64.1% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,008,841 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $2,970,628,000 after purchasing an additional 5,474,328 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners bought a new stake in Capital One Financial during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $534,777,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.84% of the companys stock.

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Capital One Financial Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of NYSE:COF opened at $220.27 on Tuesday. The companys fifty day moving average is $215.45 and its 200-day moving average is $212.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03. Capital One Financial Corporation has a 52 week low of $143.22 and a 52 week high of $232.45. The company has a market capitalization of $140.03 billion, a PE ratio of 92.94, a P/E/G ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.19.

Capital One Financial Increases Dividend

Capital One Financial ( NYSE:COF Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The financial services provider reported $5.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $15.46 billion during the quarter. Capital One Financial had a net margin of 2.24% and a return on equity of 10.94%. Equities research analysts predict that Capital One Financial Corporation will post 15.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 17th were given a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 17th. This is a positive change from Capital One Financials previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. Capital One Financials dividend payout ratio is presently 135.02%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Neal Blinde sold 43,200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $221.83, for a total transaction of $9,583,056.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 73,020 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,198,026.60. This represents a 37.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Frank G. LapradeIii sold 17,840 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.03, for a total value of $3,961,015.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 48,315 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $10,727,379.45. This trade represents a 26.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 272,013 shares of company stock worth $60,599,103 in the last three months. Company insiders own 1.26% of the companys stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on COF shares. Wolfe Research upped their price target on Capital One Financial from $260.00 to $262.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Cowen reissued a buy rating on shares of Capital One Financial in a report on Wednesday, November 26th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on Capital One Financial from $240.00 to $255.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Wall Street Zen raised Capital One Financial from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Capital One Financial from $258.00 to $261.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Capital One Financial has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $261.63.

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Capital One Financial Company Profile

(Free Report)

Capital One Financial Corporation operates as the financial services holding company for the Capital One, National Association, which engages in the provision of various financial products and services in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. It operates through three segments: Credit Card, Consumer Banking, and Commercial Banking.

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Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Brinker International, Inc. (NYSE:EAT  Free Report) by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 113,266 shares of the restaurant operators stock after acquiring an additional 1,832 shares during the period. Panagora Asset Management Inc.s holdings in Brinker International were worth $20,425,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EAT. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Brinker International in the 2nd quarter worth about $98,731,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Brinker International during the 1st quarter valued at $76,114,000. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP raised its holdings in shares of Brinker International by 102.0% during the first quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 995,713 shares of the restaurant operators stock valued at $148,411,000 after purchasing an additional 502,897 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Brinker International during the 1st quarter worth about $55,808,000. Finally, ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Brinker International in the 2nd quarter valued at about $55,725,000.

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Insider Activity at Brinker International

In other news, COO Douglas N. Comings sold 16,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.48, for a total transaction of $2,503,680.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 12,951 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,026,572.48. This represents a 55.27% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.43% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on EAT. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Brinker International from $207.00 to $180.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 30th. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Brinker International from $165.00 to $144.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Brinker International from $145.00 to $135.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Brinker International from $215.00 to $200.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Brinker International from $175.00 to $155.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Brinker International currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $167.44.

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Brinker International Stock Down 1.6%

EAT stock opened at $151.36 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $6.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.70, a P/E/G ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53. The stocks fifty day simple moving average is $125.76 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $149.61. Brinker International, Inc. has a 1-year low of $100.30 and a 1-year high of $192.21.

Brinker International (NYSE:EAT  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.17. Brinker International had a net margin of 7.94% and a return on equity of 164.66%. The firm had revenue of $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.32 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.95 EPS. The companys revenue was up 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Brinker International has set its FY 2026 guidance at 9.900-10.50 EPS. Analysts expect that Brinker International, Inc. will post 8.3 EPS for the current year.

Brinker International Company Profile

(Free Report)

Brinker International, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the ownership, development, operation, and franchising of casual dining restaurants in the United States and internationally. It operates and franchises Chili's Grill & Bar and Maggiano's Little Italy restaurant brands.

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Vaneck Australian RMBS ETF (ASX:RMBS  Get Free Report) announced a interim dividend on Monday, December 1st, MarketIndexAU Dividends reports. Investors of record on Monday, December 15th will be given a dividend of 0.10 per share on Monday, December 15th. This represents a yield of 40.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Sunday, November 30th.

Vaneck Australian RMBS ETF Price Performance

Vaneck Australian RMBS ETF Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

The Fund gives investors access to a portfolio of Australian residential mortgage-backed securities with AAA Credit Rating.

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Shelton Capital Management boosted its position in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS  Free Report) by 217.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 24,885 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 17,045 shares during the quarter. Shelton Capital Managements holdings in Novartis were worth $3,011,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of NVS. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Novartis by 60.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,660,485 shares of the companys stock worth $408,071,000 after purchasing an additional 1,377,252 shares during the last quarter. New Vernon Capital Holdings II LLC increased its position in Novartis by 12,664.1% during the first quarter. New Vernon Capital Holdings II LLC now owns 1,383,244 shares of the companys stock worth $154,204,000 after buying an additional 1,372,407 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can raised its stake in Novartis by 489.1% in the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 564,990 shares of the companys stock valued at $68,369,000 after buying an additional 469,080 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Novartis by 5.2% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,606,724 shares of the companys stock valued at $959,535,000 after buying an additional 422,869 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Midwest Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Novartis during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $32,297,000. Institutional investors own 13.12% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a sell rating and set a $118.00 price target (down previously from $119.00) on shares of Novartis in a report on Friday, September 12th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Novartis from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Friday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a buy rating on shares of Novartis in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. HC Wainwright downgraded shares of Novartis to a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Novartis from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Novartis has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $122.33.

Novartis Stock Down 1.1%

NYSE NVS opened at $128.96 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The company has a market cap of $272.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.62, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a 50 day moving average of $128.42 and a 200-day moving average of $122.89. Novartis AG has a 1-year low of $96.06 and a 1-year high of $134.00.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The company reported $2.25 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $2.26 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $14.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.70 billion. Novartis had a return on equity of 41.21% and a net margin of 26.49%.Novartiss revenue was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.06 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Novartis AG will post 8.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Novartis Profile

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Novartis AG engages in the research, development, manufacture, and marketing of healthcare products in Switzerland and internationally. The company offers prescription medicines for patients and physicians. It focuses on therapeutic areas, such as cardiovascular, renal and metabolic, immunology, neuroscience, and oncology, as well as ophthalmology and hematology.

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Robotti Robert lessened its stake in Allison Transmission Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:ALSN  Free Report) by 1.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 58,345 shares of the auto parts companys stock after selling 798 shares during the quarter. Allison Transmission comprises about 1.1% of Robotti Roberts holdings, making the stock its 22nd largest holding. Robotti Robert owned approximately 0.07% of Allison Transmission worth $5,542,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of ALSN. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Allison Transmission during the second quarter worth $100,347,000. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its stake in Allison Transmission by 109.1% during the 1st quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 929,434 shares of the auto parts companys stock worth $88,919,000 after buying an additional 484,916 shares during the period. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al purchased a new stake in Allison Transmission during the 2nd quarter worth $31,740,000. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Allison Transmission by 35.3% in the 2nd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 866,363 shares of the auto parts companys stock worth $82,296,000 after buying an additional 226,146 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC boosted its position in Allison Transmission by 341.3% in the 1st quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 288,674 shares of the auto parts companys stock valued at $27,617,000 after buying an additional 223,253 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.90% of the companys stock.

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Allison Transmission Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ALSN opened at $89.36 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 3.36, a quick ratio of 2.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.37. The company has a market capitalization of $7.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.95 and a beta of 1.02. Allison Transmission Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $76.01 and a twelve month high of $121.81. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $83.42 and a 200-day simple moving average of $89.66.

Allison Transmission Dividend Announcement

Allison Transmission ( NYSE:ALSN Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The auto parts company reported $1.63 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $1.95 by ($0.32). Allison Transmission had a return on equity of 41.37% and a net margin of 22.78%.The business had revenue of $693.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $779.97 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.27 EPS. The businesss revenue for the quarter was down 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Allison Transmission has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Allison Transmission Holdings, Inc. will post 9.06 earnings per share for the current year.

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 5th. Investors of record on Friday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 21st. Allison Transmissions dividend payout ratio is currently 13.24%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ALSN. Citigroup dropped their target price on Allison Transmission from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Allison Transmission from $90.00 to $87.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on Allison Transmission in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. They issued an equal weight rating and a $85.00 target price on the stock. Zacks Research upgraded Allison Transmission from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Friday, September 19th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Allison Transmission from a buy (b-) rating to a hold (c+) rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Reduce and a consensus price target of $92.00.

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Allison Transmission Profile

(Free Report)

Allison Transmission Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and sells fully automatic transmissions for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles and medium- and heavy-tactical U.S. defense vehicles, and electrified propulsion systems worldwide. It provides commercial-duty on-highway, off-highway and defense fully automatic transmissions, and electric hybrid and fully electric systems.

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John Hancock Investors Trust (NYSE:JHI  Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 11th will be given a dividend of 0.3649 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 10.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 11th. This is a 15.5% increase from John Hancock Investors Trusts previous quarterly dividend of $0.32.

John Hancock Investors Trust Trading Down 0.5%

JHI opened at $13.93 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $13.84 and a 200-day moving average of $13.86. John Hancock Investors Trust has a 52-week low of $11.61 and a 52-week high of $14.51.

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About John Hancock Investors Trust

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John Hancock Investors Trust is a closed-ended fixed income mutual fund launched and managed by John Hancock Investment Management LLC. It is co-managed by John Hancock Asset Management. It invests in the fixed income markets across the globe. The fund primarily invests in a diversified portfolio of corporate and government bonds, debt securities.

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PIMCO California Municipal Income Fund (NYSE:PCQ  Get Free Report) declared a monthly dividend on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 11th will be given a dividend of 0.036 per share by the investment management company on Friday, January 2nd. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 11th.

PIMCO California Municipal Income Fund Stock Down 0.7%

PIMCO California Municipal Income Fund stock opened at $8.78 on Tuesday. PIMCO California Municipal Income Fund has a 1-year low of $8.13 and a 1-year high of $9.90. The firms 50 day simple moving average is $8.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $8.57.

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PIMCO California Municipal Income Fund Company Profile

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PIMCO California Municipal Income Fund is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched and managed by Allianz Global Investors Fund Management LLC. It is co-managed by Pacific Investment Management Company LLC. The fund invests in fixed income markets of the United States. It seeks to invest in stocks of companies operating across diversified sectors.

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WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump suggested on Sunday that there was a "good chance" for a peace deal to be reached to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict that has lasted nearly four years.

His remarks came after a roughly four-hour high-level U.S.-Ukraine meeting in the U.S. state of Florida earlier on Sunday.

The talks were "going along, and they're going along well," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

"I think that there's a good chance we can make a deal," he said.

Following the meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that although "additional progress was made" on a revised peace plan to end the conflict, "there is more work to be done."

"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," Rubio said.

The Trump administration has "also been in touch in varying degrees with the Russian side, but we have a pretty good understanding of their views as well," Rubio said.

"The end goal, obviously, is not just the end of the war," Rubio said before the meeting began. "But it's also about securing an end to the war that leaves Ukraine sovereign and independent and with an opportunity at real prosperity."

Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council and head of the Ukrainian delegation, described the talks as "difficult but productive."

"We discussed all the matters that are important for Ukraine. And the U.S. was super supportive," Umerov told reporters.

"We have clear directives and priorities: safeguarding Ukrainian interests, ensuring substantive dialogue, and advancing on the basis of the progress achieved in Geneva," Umerov wrote on social media X after the meeting began. "We are working to secure real peace for Ukraine and reliable, long-term security guarantees."

Neither Rubio nor Umerov took questions from reporters after their talks.

Sunday's talks covered possible timetables for new elections in Ukraine, and the prospect of land swaps between Russia and Ukraine, said a senior U.S. official.

Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner also joined Sunday's talks, and will fly to Moscow on Monday for further discussions, The Wall Street Journal reported.

On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X: "In the coming days, it is feasible to flesh out the steps to determine how to bring the war to a dignified end."

Earlier this month, U.S. media outlets revealed a White House-drafted 28-point peace plan that Ukrainian and European officials criticized as overly favorable to Moscow. The plan was later revised during U.S., Ukrainian and European talks in Geneva, with the changes remaining unclear.

Trump has said that he will meet with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts only when the peace deal "is final or in its final stages." 
Victorias Secret & Co. (NYSE:VSCO  Get Free Report) had its price objective hoisted by research analysts at Telsey Advisory Group from $29.00 to $45.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a market perform rating on the stock. Telsey Advisory Groups price objective would indicate a potential upside of 2.30% from the companys current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on VSCO. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Victorias Secret & Co. from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report on Friday, August 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Victorias Secret & Co. from a sell rating to a neutral rating and raised their target price for the stock from $18.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Morgan Stanley restated a reduce rating on shares of Victorias Secret & Co. in a research note on Friday, September 12th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a hold (c) rating on shares of Victorias Secret & Co. in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays reiterated an overweight rating and set a $47.00 price target on shares of Victorias Secret & Co. in a research note on Monday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $33.18.

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Victorias Secret & Co. Stock Performance

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Victorias Secret & Co.

Shares of VSCO stock opened at $43.99 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 1.14. The firm has a market cap of $3.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.44 and a beta of 2.24. Victorias Secret & Co. has a 52 week low of $13.76 and a 52 week high of $48.73. The firms 50-day simple moving average is $32.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $25.57.

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Savvy Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Victorias Secret & Co. by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 11,895 shares of the companys stock valued at $323,000 after purchasing an additional 346 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its holdings in Victorias Secret & Co. by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 65,191 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,207,000 after buying an additional 483 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Victorias Secret & Co. by 7.7% during the second quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 7,258 shares of the companys stock valued at $133,000 after buying an additional 521 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of Victorias Secret & Co. by 2.6% in the third quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 21,266 shares of the companys stock worth $577,000 after buying an additional 545 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Everett Harris & Co. CA lifted its holdings in shares of Victorias Secret & Co. by 0.6% in the third quarter. Everett Harris & Co. CA now owns 98,121 shares of the companys stock worth $2,663,000 after buying an additional 565 shares in the last quarter. 90.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Victorias Secret & Co. Company Profile

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Victorias Secret & Co operates as a lingerie, clothing and beauty retailer. It offers bras, panties, lingerie, pajamas, sleep, sport and swim apparel, and beauty products. The company was founded in 1963 and is headquartered in Reynoldsburg, OH.

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M&T Bank Corp lessened its holdings in shares of Bristol Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY  Free Report) by 2.8% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 812,675 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock after selling 23,588 shares during the quarter. M&T Bank Corps holdings in Bristol Myers Squibb were worth $37,619,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BMY. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bristol Myers Squibb during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Accent Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bristol Myers Squibb in the first quarter valued at $33,000. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of Bristol Myers Squibb by 66.0% in the first quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 581 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 231 shares during the last quarter. GKV Capital Management Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Bristol Myers Squibb during the 1st quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, REAP Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Bristol Myers Squibb by 202.8% during the 2nd quarter. REAP Financial Group LLC now owns 639 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 428 shares during the last quarter. 76.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Bristol Myers Squibb Stock Performance

Shares of Bristol Myers Squibb stock opened at $49.14 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.54. The company has a market cap of $100.04 billion, a PE ratio of 19.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.33. The company has a 50 day moving average of $45.67 and a 200-day moving average of $46.67. Bristol Myers Squibb Company has a 1-year low of $42.52 and a 1-year high of $63.33.

Bristol Myers Squibb Announces Dividend

Bristol Myers Squibb ( NYSE:BMY Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.11. Bristol Myers Squibb had a net margin of 10.58% and a return on equity of 80.04%. The business had revenue of $12.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $11.75 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.80 earnings per share. The firms quarterly revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Bristol Myers Squibb has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.400-6.600 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Bristol Myers Squibb Company will post 6.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 3rd were given a dividend of $0.62 per share. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.0%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 3rd. Bristol Myers Squibbs dividend payout ratio is currently 83.78%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on BMY shares. Dbs Bank raised shares of Bristol Myers Squibb to a moderate buy rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a neutral rating on shares of Bristol Myers Squibb in a research note on Tuesday. Daiwa Capital Markets downgraded Bristol Myers Squibb from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and set a $42.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a market perform rating on shares of Bristol Myers Squibb in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a neutral rating on shares of Bristol Myers Squibb in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fifteen have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $54.42.

Read Our Latest Report on BMY

Bristol Myers Squibb Profile

(Free Report)

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company discovers, develops, licenses, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products worldwide. It offers products for hematology, oncology, cardiovascular, immunology, fibrotic, and neuroscience diseases. The company's products include Eliquis for reduction in risk of stroke/systemic embolism in non-valvular atrial fibrillation, and for the treatment of DVT/PE; Opdivo for various anti-cancer indications, including bladder, blood, CRC, head and neck, RCC, HCC, lung, melanoma, MPM, stomach and esophageal cancer; Pomalyst/Imnovid for multiple myeloma; Orencia for active rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis; and Sprycel for the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia.

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XTX Topco Ltd lessened its position in shares of Green Dot Corporation (NYSE:GDOT  Free Report) by 68.3% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 72,891 shares of the financial services providers stock after selling 157,284 shares during the quarter. XTX Topco Ltds holdings in Green Dot were worth $786,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. lifted its position in Green Dot by 18.6% in the second quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 5,478 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $59,000 after buying an additional 861 shares during the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Green Dot by 14.2% during the second quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 1,327,367 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $14,309,000 after acquiring an additional 165,026 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of Green Dot by 14.8% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,416,163 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $15,266,000 after acquiring an additional 182,113 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of Green Dot by 3.6% in the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 84,504 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $911,000 after acquiring an additional 2,938 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nierenberg Investment Management Company Inc. boosted its position in shares of Green Dot by 337.3% during the 2nd quarter. Nierenberg Investment Management Company Inc. now owns 339,110 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $3,656,000 after purchasing an additional 261,555 shares during the period. 92.56% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wall Street Zen lowered Green Dot from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Saturday, November 15th. Weiss Ratings restated a sell (d-) rating on shares of Green Dot in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. William Blair reaffirmed a market perform rating on shares of Green Dot in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Northland Securities set a $14.25 price target on shares of Green Dot and gave the stock a market perform rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Northland Capmk lowered shares of Green Dot from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Reduce and a consensus price target of $12.56.

Green Dot Price Performance

GDOT stock opened at $12.48 on Tuesday. The businesss 50-day moving average is $12.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $691.50 million, a P/E ratio of -14.68 and a beta of 0.84. Green Dot Corporation has a 1 year low of $6.12 and a 1 year high of $15.41.

Green Dot (NYSE:GDOT  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 10th. The financial services provider reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of ($0.11) by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $491.85 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $483.84 million. Green Dot had a negative net margin of 2.33% and a positive return on equity of 9.81%. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.13 earnings per share. Green Dot has set its FY 2025 guidance at 1.310-1.440 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Green Dot Corporation will post 0.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Saturnino Sixto Fanlo sold 13,451 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Friday, November 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.61, for a total transaction of $169,617.11. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 92,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,169,413.57. The trade was a 12.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director J Chris Brewster sold 7,969 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.37, for a total value of $98,576.53. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 133,215 shares in the company, valued at $1,647,869.55. This trade represents a 5.64% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the companys stock.

Green Dot Profile

(Free Report)

Green Dot Corporation, a financial technology and registered bank holding company, provides various financial services to consumers and businesses in the United States. It operates through three segments: Consumer Services, Business to Business Services, and Money Movement Services. The company provides deposit account programs, including consumer and small business checking account products, network-branded reloadable prepaid debit cards and gift cards, and secured credit programs.

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VestGen Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK  Free Report) by 23.9% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,027 shares of the asset managers stock after purchasing an additional 198 shares during the quarter. VestGen Advisors LLCs holdings in BlackRock were worth $1,078,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Orleans Capital Management Corp LA acquired a new position in BlackRock in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,160,000. BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $4,609,000. Lido Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 19.1% in the 2nd quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 20,909 shares of the asset managers stock valued at $21,940,000 after purchasing an additional 3,348 shares during the period. First National Advisers LLC lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. First National Advisers LLC now owns 5,061 shares of the asset managers stock valued at $5,310,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares during the period. Finally, Stablepoint Partners LLC boosted its holdings in BlackRock by 1.5% during the second quarter. Stablepoint Partners LLC now owns 1,317 shares of the asset managers stock worth $1,382,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BLK has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,301.00 to $1,407.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. UBS Group restated a hold rating on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. BNP Paribas Exane upped their price target on BlackRock from $1,160.00 to $1,265.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, October 9th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on BlackRock from $1,280.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on BlackRock from $1,310.00 to $1,360.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $1,302.59.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Rachel Lord sold 12,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,165.04, for a total transaction of $13,980,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 7,205 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $8,394,113.20. This represents a 62.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.98% of the companys stock.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of BlackRock stock opened at $1,039.31 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 4.04 and a quick ratio of 4.04. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $1,106.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $1,083.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $161.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.72, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.47. BlackRock has a 12 month low of $773.74 and a 12 month high of $1,219.94.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 14th. The asset manager reported $11.55 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $11.78 by ($0.23). The firm had revenue of $6.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.22 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 26.64% and a return on equity of 15.36%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $11.46 earnings per share. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that BlackRock will post 47.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be paid a $5.21 dividend. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 5th. BlackRocks dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 53.59%.

BlackRock Profile

(Free Report)

BlackRock, Inc is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to institutional, intermediary, and individual investors including corporate, public, union, and industry pension plans, insurance companies, third-party mutual funds, endowments, public institutions, governments, foundations, charities, sovereign wealth funds, corporations, official institutions, and banks.

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VestGen Advisors LLC trimmed its stake in shares of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE:BK  Free Report) by 62.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,812 shares of the banks stock after selling 25,111 shares during the period. VestGen Advisors LLCs holdings in Bank of New York Mellon were worth $1,350,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its stake in shares of Bank of New York Mellon by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 813,334 shares of the banks stock valued at $74,103,000 after purchasing an additional 2,500 shares during the period. Williamson Legacy Group LLC raised its position in Bank of New York Mellon by 122.3% in the 2nd quarter. Williamson Legacy Group LLC now owns 7,618 shares of the banks stock valued at $694,000 after buying an additional 4,191 shares during the last quarter. Virtus Investment Advisers LLC lifted its stake in Bank of New York Mellon by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. Virtus Investment Advisers LLC now owns 17,619 shares of the banks stock valued at $1,605,000 after acquiring an additional 1,163 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Bank of New York Mellon during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,081,847,000. Finally, Scotia Capital Inc. grew its stake in shares of Bank of New York Mellon by 7.6% during the 2nd quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 30,228 shares of the banks stock worth $2,754,000 after acquiring an additional 2,147 shares in the last quarter. 85.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Bank of New York Mellon Price Performance

NYSE:BK opened at $111.80 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $77.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.13, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.13. The firms fifty day moving average price is $108.27 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $101.11. The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation has a one year low of $70.46 and a one year high of $113.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.72.

Bank of New York Mellon Dividend Announcement

Bank of New York Mellon ( NYSE:BK Get Free Report ) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, March 26th. The bank reported $1.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of $4.38 billion during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon had a net margin of 12.86% and a return on equity of 14.03%. Equities analysts expect that The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation will post 6.96 earnings per share for the current year.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 27th were given a dividend of $0.53 per share. This represents a $2.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 27th. Bank of New York Mellons dividend payout ratio is presently 30.59%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on shares of Bank of New York Mellon in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. They issued an outperform rating and a $125.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Bank of New York Mellon from $104.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, October 17th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Bank of New York Mellon from $91.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an in-line rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Bank of New York Mellon from $130.00 to $133.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Monday, October 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Bank of New York Mellon from $106.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of New York Mellon presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $111.29.

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Bank of New York Mellon Company Profile

(Free Report)

The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation provides a range of financial products and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Securities Services, Market and Wealth Services, Investment and Wealth Management, and other segments. The Securities Services segment offers custody, trust and depositary, accounting, exchange-traded funds, middle-office solutions, transfer agency, services for private equity and real estate funds, foreign exchange, securities lending, liquidity/lending services, and data analytics.

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Taikang Asset Management Hong Kong Co Ltd raised its stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG  Free Report) by 14.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 12,878 shares of the financial services providers stock after buying an additional 1,620 shares during the period. Taikang Asset Management Hong Kong Co Ltds holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. were worth $4,123,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 38.3% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 17,372,745 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $5,997,767,000 after purchasing an additional 4,815,007 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,536,230,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,411,264 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $10,499,185,000 after buying an additional 739,130 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. during the first quarter valued at $240,665,000. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 3,142.2% in the first quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 640,911 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $221,268,000 after acquiring an additional 621,143 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.53% of the companys stock.

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Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Michael Robert Pesch acquired 4,000 shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $247.12 per share, for a total transaction of $988,480.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the vice president directly owned 41,849 shares in the company, valued at $10,341,724.88. This trade represents a 10.57% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Douglas K. Howell sold 8,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $299.54, for a total value of $2,396,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 100,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,186,742.58. This represents a 7.35% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 37,105 shares of company stock worth $10,796,353 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the companys stock.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Stock Performance

Shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. stock opened at $246.32 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $274.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $298.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $63.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.99 and a beta of 0.71. The company has a quick ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a 52 week low of $239.47 and a 52 week high of $351.23.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $2.51 by ($0.19). The company had revenue of $3.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.34 billion. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. had a net margin of 14.54% and a return on equity of 13.17%. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 20.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.26 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 11.54 EPS for the current year.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 19th. Investors of record on Friday, December 5th will be given a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 5th. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.86%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays downgraded shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from an equal weight rating to an underweight rating and cut their target price for the company from $328.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $365.00 to $366.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group upped their target price on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $322.00 to $329.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Friday, September 19th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report on Saturday, November 1st. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $370.00 to $353.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $316.33.

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About Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

(Free Report)

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co engages in the provision of insurance brokerage, reinsurance brokerage, consulting, and third-party claims settlement and administration services. It operates through the following segments: Brokerage, Risk Management, and Corporate. The Brokerage segment consists of retail and wholesale insurance brokerage operations.

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Stock analysts at Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Pfizer (NYSE:PFE  Get Free Report) in a research note issued on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. The firm set a neutral rating and a $26.00 price target on the biopharmaceutical companys stock. Citigroups target price would suggest a potential upside of 2.75% from the companys previous close.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Pfizer from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 10th. Weiss Ratings reissued a hold (c-) rating on shares of Pfizer in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated a market perform rating and issued a $30.00 price target on shares of Pfizer in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Scotiabank began coverage on shares of Pfizer in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. They set a sector outperform rating and a $30.00 price target for the company. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Pfizer from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Sunday, September 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $28.39.

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Pfizer Price Performance

PFE stock opened at $25.31 on Tuesday. The companys 50-day moving average price is $25.03 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $24.62. The firm has a market cap of $143.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.46, a P/E/G ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. Pfizer has a 12 month low of $20.92 and a 12 month high of $27.69.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $16.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $16.94 billion. Pfizer had a return on equity of 21.42% and a net margin of 16.84%. Pfizer has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.000-3.150 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Pfizer will post 2.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pfizer

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. GKV Capital Management Co. Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Pfizer during the 1st quarter valued at $27,000. Curio Wealth LLC increased its stake in Pfizer by 36,600.0% in the second quarter. Curio Wealth LLC now owns 1,101 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 1,098 shares in the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Pfizer during the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Harbor Asset Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Pfizer in the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Grey Fox Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Pfizer in the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. 68.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Pfizer

(Get Free Report)

Pfizer Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products in the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company offers medicines and vaccines in various therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular metabolic, migraine, and women's health under the Eliquis, Nurtec ODT/Vydura, Zavzpret, and the Premarin family brands; infectious diseases with unmet medical needs under the Prevnar family, Abrysvo, Nimenrix, FSME/IMMUN-TicoVac, and Trumenba brands; and COVID-19 prevention and treatment, and potential future mRNA and antiviral products under the Comirnaty and Paxlovid brands.

Further Reading

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Lido Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH  Free Report) by 6.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 39,545 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 2,304 shares during the quarter. Lido Advisors LLCs holdings in Cardinal Health were worth $6,644,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CAH. Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. purchased a new stake in Cardinal Health in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake in shares of Cardinal Health by 198.3% in the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 21,112 shares of the companys stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 14,034 shares in the last quarter. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Cardinal Health by 75.0% during the second quarter. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 175 shares of the companys stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the period. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC grew its holdings in Cardinal Health by 55.0% during the second quarter. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 200 shares of the companys stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the period. Finally, NewSquare Capital LLC raised its position in Cardinal Health by 100.0% in the second quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 214 shares of the companys stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. 87.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

CAH has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Cardinal Health from $170.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Cardinal Health from $165.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Cardinal Health from $190.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Leerink Partners lifted their price target on shares of Cardinal Health from $211.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Cardinal Health from $185.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cardinal Health currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $206.57.

Cardinal Health Stock Performance

CAH stock opened at $208.01 on Tuesday. The stocks 50 day moving average price is $178.77 and its 200 day moving average price is $163.90. The firm has a market cap of $49.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.25, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.72. Cardinal Health, Inc. has a 1 year low of $114.60 and a 1 year high of $214.93.

Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $2.55 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $2.22 by $0.33. The firm had revenue of $64.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $59.41 billion. Cardinal Health had a negative return on equity of 74.45% and a net margin of 0.70%.The firms quarterly revenue was up 22.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.88 EPS. Cardinal Health has set its FY 2026 guidance at 9.650-9.850 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Cardinal Health, Inc. will post 7.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Cardinal Health Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Investors of record on Friday, January 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.5107 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 2nd. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Cardinal Healths dividend payout ratio is presently 30.77%.

Cardinal Health Profile

(Free Report)

Cardinal Health, Inc operates as a healthcare services and products company in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and internationally. It provides customized solutions for hospitals, healthcare systems, pharmacies, ambulatory surgery centers, clinical laboratories, physician offices, and patients in the home.

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Timucuan Asset Management Inc. FL trimmed its holdings in shares of American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) by 0.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 807,710 shares of the payment services companys stock after selling 1,120 shares during the period. American Express makes up about 7.5% of Timucuan Asset Management Inc. FLs holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest position. Timucuan Asset Management Inc. FLs holdings in American Express were worth $257,643,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Access Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of American Express in the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Briaud Financial Planning Inc purchased a new position in American Express during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Chung Wu Investment Group LLC acquired a new position in American Express in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Solstein Capital LLC purchased a new stake in American Express in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, Proffitt & Goodson Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of American Express during the 2nd quarter valued at $41,000. 84.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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American Express Trading Down 1.4%

NYSE:AXP opened at $360.31 on Tuesday. The companys 50 day moving average is $348.58 and its 200-day moving average is $323.56. The company has a quick ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.78. American Express Company has a 12 month low of $220.43 and a 12 month high of $377.23. The firm has a market cap of $248.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.27.

American Express Announces Dividend

American Express ( NYSE:AXP Get Free Report ) last posted its earnings results on Friday, October 17th. The payment services company reported $4.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $3.98 by $0.16. American Express had a net margin of 14.97% and a return on equity of 33.41%. The business had revenue of $17.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.03 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.49 EPS. American Expresss revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. American Express has set its FY 2025 guidance at 15.200-15.500 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that American Express Company will post 15.33 EPS for the current year.

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th were given a $0.82 dividend. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. American Expresss payout ratio is currently 22.01%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other American Express news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 112,272 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.86, for a total value of $37,034,041.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 92,810 shares of the companys stock, valued at $30,614,306.60. This represents a 54.74% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Douglas Tabish sold 2,515 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $355.61, for a total transaction of $894,359.15. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 2,515 shares in the company, valued at $894,359.15. This represents a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 169,787 shares of company stock valued at $57,692,551 in the last three months. 0.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group increased their price objective on American Express from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Weiss Ratings raised American Express from a hold (c+) rating to a buy (b-) rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on American Express from $330.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an in-line rating in a report on Tuesday, September 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of American Express from $343.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, HSBC set a $295.00 price target on shares of American Express and gave the stock a hold rating in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, American Express presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $332.65.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on AXP

American Express Company Profile

(Free Report)

American Express Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as integrated payments company in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the Asia Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, Canada, the Caribbean, and Internationally. It operates through four segments: U.S. Consumer Services, Commercial Services, International Card Services, and Global Merchant and Network Services.

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Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund (NYSE:NAZ  Get Free Report) announced a monthly dividend on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.0655 per share by the investment management company on Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th.

Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund Price Performance

Shares of NAZ stock traded down $0.06 on Tuesday, hitting $11.93. The stock had a trading volume of 372 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,008. Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund has a twelve month low of $11.28 and a twelve month high of $13.55. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $11.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $11.80.

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Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund Company Profile

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Nuveen Arizona Quality Municipal Income Fund is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments, Inc The fund is managed by Nuveen Asset Management, LLC. It invests in the fixed income markets of Arizona. The fund invests in municipal securities and other related investments the income, exempt from regular federal and Arizona income taxes that are rated Baa or BBB or better and having an average maturity of 18.66 years.

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BEIJING, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Archaeologists in Beijing on Monday announced important discoveries in the recent excavation of the Jiankou section of the Great Wall, where a large cannon has been unearthed.

The excavation focused on three beacon towers and their connecting walls, revealing numerous artifacts this year, including weapons, architectural parts, and objects of daily use, according to Shang Heng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Institute of Archaeology, at a press conference on the latest archaeological findings in 2025.

Among these artifacts was a large cannon cast in the late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), measuring 89.2 centimeters in length and weighing 112.1 kilograms -- the largest artillery piece ever found in this section of the Great Wall.

Shang said that the well-preserved inscriptions on the cannon provide crucial new evidence for research on firearms manufacturing and historical military technology exchange during the period.

Also announced was the research findings of turquoise artifacts at the Xingong site, which is a rare settlement dating back to the Xia (2070 B.C.-1600 B.C.) and Shang (1600 B.C.-1046 B.C.) period in Beijing's urban area.

The site, featuring burial grounds, moats and residential remains, has revealed 28 turquoise artifacts. Analysis indicates the turquoise likely originated from mines at the junction of the provinces of Hubei, Henan and Shaanxi, providing key evidence of early cultural exchange in northern China, according to Yang Ju, a research fellow at the institute. 
Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY  Get Free Report) had its price objective upped by equities researchers at Citigroup from GBX 84 to GBX 97 in a report released on Monday,Digital Look reports. The brokerage presently has a neutral rating on the financial services providers stock. Citigroups price target points to a potential downside of 0.39% from the companys previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on LLOY. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an outperform rating and set a GBX 93 price objective on shares of Lloyds Banking Group in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Shore Capital reaffirmed a hold rating and set a GBX 84 target price on shares of Lloyds Banking Group in a research note on Wednesday, November 19th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Lloyds Banking Group from GBX 100 to GBX 110 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Lloyds Banking Group from GBX 85 to GBX 98 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a buy rating and set a GBX 105 price objective on shares of Lloyds Banking Group in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lloyds Banking Group presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of GBX 97.83.

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Lloyds Banking Group Price Performance

Shares of LON LLOY traded up GBX 1.88 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching GBX 97.38. The companys stock had a trading volume of 456,714,188 shares, compared to its average volume of 155,065,078. Lloyds Banking Group has a 52 week low of GBX 52.44 and a 52 week high of GBX 97.42. The stock has a fifty day moving average of GBX 87.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of GBX 81.88. The firm has a market capitalization of 57.46 billion, a PE ratio of 17.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.23.

Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY  Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported GBX 1 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Lloyds Banking Group had a return on equity of 11.22% and a net margin of 16.66%. Analysts anticipate that Lloyds Banking Group will post 7.3199528 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lloyds Banking Group news, insider William Chalmers bought 138,723 shares of Lloyds Banking Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 19th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of GBX 84 per share, for a total transaction of 116,527.32. Also, insider Charlie Nunn bought 217,494 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 19th. The shares were acquired at an average price of GBX 84 per share, for a total transaction of 182,694.96. 0.16% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Lloyds Banking Group Company Profile

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We are the largest UK retail and commercial financial services provider with over 25 million customers and a presence in nearly every community.

The Groups main business activities are retail and commercial banking, general insurance and long-term savings, provided through the largest branch network and digital bank in the UK, with well recognised brands including Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Scottish Widows.

Our shares are quoted on the London and New York stock exchanges and we are one of the largest companies in the FTSE 100 index.

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Societe Generale Group (OTCMKTS:SCGLY  Get Free Report)s share price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $14.29 and last traded at $14.19, with a volume of 433188 shares. The stock had previously closed at $13.88.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group upgraded shares of Societe Generale Group from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Morgan Stanley reissued an overweight rating on shares of Societe Generale Group in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a buy rating on shares of Societe Generale Group in a report on Friday, November 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a sector perform rating on shares of Societe Generale Group in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Societe Generale Group from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy.

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Societe Generale Group Stock Up 2.1%

The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.40. The businesss fifty day moving average price is $13.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $12.44. The firm has a market cap of $54.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.45, a P/E/G ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 0.81.

Societe Generale Group (OTCMKTS:SCGLY  Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.04. Societe Generale Group had a net margin of 20.06% and a return on equity of 6.18%. The firm had revenue of $7.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.54 billion. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Societe Generale Group will post 1.14 EPS for the current year.

Societe Generale Group Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 24th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 7th were issued a $0.109 dividend. This represents a yield of 216.0%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 6th. Societe Generale Groups payout ratio is 17.33%.

Societe Generale Group Company Profile

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Societe Generale Societe anonyme provides banking and financial services to individuals, corporates, and institutional clients in Europe and internationally. It operates through French Retail Banking, International Retail Banking & Financial Services, and Global Banking and Investor Solutions. It offers retail banking services, such as consumer credit, vehicle leasing and fleet management, online banking, wealth management, and equipment and vendor finance services; and insurance products, including home, vehicle, family, health, and mortgage insurance.

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Douglas Emmett (NYSE: DEI) has recently received a number of price target changes and ratings updates:

11/25/2025  Douglas Emmett had its hold (c-) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

11/25/2025  Douglas Emmett had its price target lowered by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $20.00 to $15.00. They now have an overweight rating on the stock.

11/25/2025  Douglas Emmett had its price target lowered by analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $18.00 to $16.00. They now have a neutral rating on the stock.

11/19/2025  Douglas Emmett had its hold (c-) rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings.

11/17/2025  Douglas Emmett had its price target lowered by analysts at Scotiabank from $18.00 to $16.00. They now have a sector outperform rating on the stock.

11/13/2025  Douglas Emmett was upgraded by analysts at Weiss Ratings from a sell (d+) rating to a hold (c-) rating.

11/11/2025  Douglas Emmett had its hold rating reaffirmed by analysts at Jefferies Financial Group Inc..

11/7/2025  Douglas Emmett was downgraded by analysts at Weiss Ratings from a hold (c-) rating to a sell (d+) rating.

11/6/2025  Douglas Emmett was downgraded by analysts at Piper Sandler from an overweight rating to a neutral rating. They now have a $14.00 price target on the stock, down previously from $19.00.

11/6/2025  Douglas Emmett had its price target lowered by analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald from $16.00 to $13.00. They now have a neutral rating on the stock.

10/24/2025  Douglas Emmett was upgraded by analysts at Weiss Ratings from a sell (d+) rating to a hold (c-) rating.

10/13/2025  Douglas Emmett was upgraded by analysts at Jefferies Financial Group Inc. to a hold rating.

10/8/2025  Douglas Emmett was downgraded by analysts at Weiss Ratings from a hold (c-) rating to a sell (d+) rating.

Douglas Emmett Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th were given a $0.19 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 30th. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.3%. Douglas Emmetts payout ratio is 633.33%.

Douglas Emmett, Inc (DEI) is a fully integrated, self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT), and one of the largest owners and operators of high-quality office and multifamily properties located in the premier coastal submarkets of Los Angeles and Honolulu. Douglas Emmett focuses on owning and acquiring a substantial share of top-tier office properties and premier multifamily communities in neighborhoods that possess significant supply constraints, high-end executive housing and key lifestyle amenities.

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Rio Tinto Group (LON:RIO  Free Report) had its price objective trimmed by Royal Bank Of Canada from GBX 5,000 to GBX 4,900 in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Digital Look reports. The brokerage currently has a sector perform rating on the stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on RIO. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Rio Tinto Group from GBX 4,600 to GBX 5,700 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Berenberg Bank reaffirmed a hold rating and set a GBX 5,200 price objective on shares of Rio Tinto Group in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Rio Tinto Group from GBX 6,170 to GBX 6,100 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of GBX 5,566.67.

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Rio Tinto Group Price Performance

Rio Tinto Group Company Profile

Shares of RIO stock traded down GBX 26 during trading hours on Monday, hitting GBX 5,439. 16,384,102 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 10,079,415. The company has a market capitalization of 88.37 billion, a PE ratio of 8.66, a PEG ratio of -0.64 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 25.28. Rio Tinto Group has a 12-month low of GBX 4,024.50 and a 12-month high of GBX 5,662. The businesss 50 day simple moving average is GBX 5,197.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is GBX 4,735.40.

(Get Free Report)

We operate in 35 countries where our 60,000 employees are working to find better ways to provide the materials the world needs. Our portfolio includes iron ore, copper, aluminium and a range of other minerals and materials needed for people, communities and nations to grow and prosper, and for the world to cut carbon emissions to net zero.

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EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP  Get Free Report) had its target price upped by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from $178.00 to $180.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an equal weight rating on the real estate investment trusts stock. Morgan Stanleys price objective suggests a potential upside of 0.09% from the companys previous close.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on EGP. BNP Paribas upgraded EastGroup Properties from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and set a $207.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $183.00 price objective on EastGroup Properties and gave the company a sector perform rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Industrial Alliance Securities set a $200.00 target price on shares of EastGroup Properties in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on EastGroup Properties from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of EastGroup Properties from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and set a $207.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $190.93.

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EastGroup Properties Stock Performance

EGP stock traded down $0.71 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $179.83. 44,772 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 406,414. EastGroup Properties has a twelve month low of $137.67 and a twelve month high of $188.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a quick ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 0.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $175.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $170.12.

EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $2.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.28 by ($0.01). EastGroup Properties had a return on equity of 7.28% and a net margin of 35.58%.The firm had revenue of $182.14 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $181.88 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.13 earnings per share. EastGroup Propertiess quarterly revenue was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. EastGroup Properties has set its FY 2025 guidance at 8.940-8.980 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 2.300-2.340 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that EastGroup Properties will post 8.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at EastGroup Properties

In other news, EVP Richard Reid Dunbar sold 2,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $350,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 20,630 shares in the company, valued at $3,610,250. The trade was a 8.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 1.00% of the companys stock.

Institutional Trading of EastGroup Properties

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of EastGroup Properties during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $252,405,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in EastGroup Properties during the 1st quarter worth $190,456,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in EastGroup Properties by 43.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,985,543 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $336,076,000 after acquiring an additional 602,253 shares during the period. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC raised its position in shares of EastGroup Properties by 1,058.6% during the 1st quarter. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC now owns 621,303 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $109,443,000 after acquiring an additional 567,678 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of EastGroup Properties by 89.5% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 927,566 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $155,015,000 after purchasing an additional 438,117 shares during the period. 92.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About EastGroup Properties

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EastGroup Properties, Inc (NYSE: EGP), a member of the S&P Mid-Cap 400 and Russell 1000 Indexes, is a self-administered equity real estate investment trust focused on the development, acquisition and operation of industrial properties in major Sunbelt markets throughout the United States with an emphasis in the states of Florida, Texas, Arizona, California and North Carolina.

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KB Financial Group Inc (NYSE:KB  Get Free Report) shares gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $85.98, but opened at $89.93. KB Financial Group shares last traded at $89.81, with a volume of 25,818 shares traded.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on KB shares. Wall Street Zen cut shares of KB Financial Group from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Sunday, August 10th. Weiss Ratings reissued a buy (b-) rating on shares of KB Financial Group in a report on Monday, November 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, KB Financial Group presently has an average rating of Buy.

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KB Financial Group Price Performance

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

The company has a quick ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36. The company has a market capitalization of $34.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.66, a PEG ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 1.14. The stocks 50-day simple moving average is $83.13 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $81.18.

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. First Horizon Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of KB Financial Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its holdings in KB Financial Group by 585.7% in the 2nd quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 336 shares of the banks stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 287 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Corp acquired a new stake in KB Financial Group during the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake in KB Financial Group by 187.4% during the 3rd quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 500 shares of the banks stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 326 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Triumph Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of KB Financial Group during the third quarter worth $46,000. 11.52% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About KB Financial Group

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KB Financial Group Inc provides a range of banking and related financial services to consumers and corporations in South Korea, the United States, New Zealand, China, Cambodia, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, and internationally. The company operates through Retail Banking, Corporate Banking, Other Banking Services, Credit Card, Securities, Life Insurance, and Non-Life Insurance segments.

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Intesa Sanpaolo SpA (OTCMKTS:ISNPY  Get Free Report) gapped down before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $40.33, but opened at $38.80. Intesa Sanpaolo shares last traded at $38.8380, with a volume of 4,890 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on ISNPY. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered Intesa Sanpaolo from a moderate buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Friday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley restated an overweight rating on shares of Intesa Sanpaolo in a research report on Monday, November 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Intesa Sanpaolo from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on shares of Intesa Sanpaolo in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. They set a moderate buy rating on the stock. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Intesa Sanpaolo from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Intesa Sanpaolo has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy.

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Intesa Sanpaolo Stock Performance

Intesa Sanpaolo Dividend Announcement

The firm has a market cap of $113.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 0.75. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $39.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $36.90.

The business also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 8th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 2nd will be issued a $0.9325 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 1st. This represents a yield of 445.0%. Intesa Sanpaolos payout ratio is 50.00%.

Intesa Sanpaolo Company Profile

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Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. provides various financial products and services primarily in Italy. It operates through six segments: Banca dei Territori, IMI Corporate & Investment Banking, International Subsidiary Banks, Asset Management, Private Banking, and Insurance. The company offers lending and deposit products; private and commercial banking, corporate and transaction banking, structured finance, investment banking, public finance, and capital markets; industrial credit, leasing, and factoring; asset management; life and non-life insurance and pension products; asset and wealth management; private investments; and bancassurance products.

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Sse Plc (OTCMKTS:SSEZY  Get Free Report) saw strong trading volume on Tuesday . 247,455 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 32% from the previous sessions volume of 187,625 shares.The stock last traded at $29.80 and had previously closed at $29.86.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup cut SSE from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Zacks Research downgraded SSE from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. UBS Group cut SSE from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, November 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an outperform rating on shares of SSE in a report on Friday, November 14th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a buy rating on shares of SSE in a research report on Friday, November 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold.

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SSE Trading Down 0.8%

SSE Company Profile

The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The firms 50-day simple moving average is $25.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $24.95.

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SSE plc engages in the generation, transmission, distribution, and supply of electricity. It generates electricity from water, gas, coal, oil, and multi fuel. The company distributes electricity to approximately 3.8 million homes and businesses across the north of the central belt of Scotland and central southern England; and owns, operates, and develops high voltage electricity transmission system in the north of Scotland and remote islands.

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Banco Santander Brasil SA (NYSE:BSBR  Get Free Report) hit a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $6.49 and last traded at $6.4550, with a volume of 39040 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $6.37.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on BSBR shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded Banco Santander Brasil from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note on Saturday, November 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of Banco Santander Brasil from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a hold (c+) rating on shares of Banco Santander Brasil in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Banco Santander Brasil presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $4.70.

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Banco Santander Brasil Trading Up 2.6%

Banco Santander Brasil Increases Dividend

The firms 50-day moving average price is $5.74 and its 200 day moving average price is $5.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.28, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.37.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 17th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.0983 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 23rd. This represents a $0.39 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.0%. This is a boost from Banco Santander Brasils previous quarterly dividend of $0.07.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Banco Santander Brasil

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hantz Financial Services Inc. lifted its stake in Banco Santander Brasil by 553.9% during the second quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 6,997 shares of the banks stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 5,927 shares during the last quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of Banco Santander Brasil in the 1st quarter worth about $46,000. Vident Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Banco Santander Brasil in the 1st quarter valued at about $50,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio boosted its holdings in shares of Banco Santander Brasil by 48.9% in the 2nd quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 11,617 shares of the banks stock valued at $63,000 after buying an additional 3,813 shares during the period. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Banco Santander Brasil during the 2nd quarter valued at about $70,000. 14.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Banco Santander Brasil

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Banco Santander (Brasil) SA, together with its subsidiaries, provides various banking products and services to individuals, small and medium enterprises, and corporate customers in Brazil and internationally. The company operates through Commercial Banking and Global Wholesale Banking segments. It offers local loans, commercial financing options, development bank funds, and cash management services; export and import financing, guarantees, structuring of asset services.

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DRDGOLD Limited (NYSE:DRD  Get Free Report)s stock price dropped 4.9% on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $28.42 and last traded at $28.5390. Approximately 126,110 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 77% from the average daily volume of 541,752 shares. The stock had previously closed at $30.01.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on DRD shares. Wall Street Zen cut shares of DRDGOLD from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report on Sunday, August 17th. Zacks Research upgraded DRDGOLD from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Weiss Ratings reissued a buy (b) rating on shares of DRDGOLD in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, HC Wainwright increased their target price on shares of DRDGOLD to $36.25 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, October 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $36.25.

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DRDGOLD Stock Down 4.1%

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

The businesss fifty day moving average is $27.46 and its 200 day moving average is $20.08.

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in DRDGOLD by 239.6% in the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 989,089 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $27,299,000 after acquiring an additional 697,840 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in DRDGOLD by 0.4% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 945,945 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $12,609,000 after purchasing an additional 4,030 shares in the last quarter. Amundi acquired a new position in DRDGOLD during the third quarter worth $17,467,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its holdings in DRDGOLD by 1.2% during the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 570,807 shares of the basic materials companys stock valued at $15,754,000 after buying an additional 6,740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in shares of DRDGOLD by 91.9% in the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 397,000 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $10,957,000 after buying an additional 190,152 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 14.70% of the companys stock.

About DRDGOLD

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DRDGOLD Limited, a gold mining company, engages in the surface gold tailings retreatment business in South Africa. It also involved in the exploration, extraction, processing, and smelting activities. The company recovers gold from surface tailings in the Witwatersrand basin in Gauteng province. DRDGOLD Limited was formerly known as Durban Roodepoort Deep Limited and changed its name to DRDGOLD Limited in 2004.

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China's express delivery sector handled more than 180 billion parcels from January to Nov. 30 this year, marking the first time the annual volume has exceeded that threshold, according to State Post Bureau data released on Monday. #XinhuaNews
Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach (OTCMKTS:FMBL  Get Free Report) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $8,000.00 and last traded at $8,000.00, with a volume of 29 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $7,990.00.

Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach Trading Up 0.1%

The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The stock has a market cap of $976 million, a PE ratio of 18.67 and a beta of 0.32. The businesss fifty day moving average is $7,568.80 and its 200 day moving average is $6,497.48.

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Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach (OTCMKTS:FMBL  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 21st. The company reported $147.32 EPS for the quarter. Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach had a return on equity of 3.84% and a net margin of 12.08%.The business had revenue of $73.67 million for the quarter.

Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach Dividend Announcement

Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach Company Profile

The company also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 1st will be paid a dividend of $43.00 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 215.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 28th. Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beachs payout ratio is 26.14%.

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Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach provides various banking products and services to individuals, professionals, and small to medium-sized businesses in Los Angeles, Orange, and Santa Barbara Counties. It offers checking, savings, Christmas club savings, health savings, market rate savings, and money market accounts; demand and time deposits; certificates of deposit; and individual retirement account.

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Unity Software Inc. (NYSE:U  Get Free Report) Director Tomer Bar-Zeev sold 250,000 shares of Unity Software stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.93, for a total transaction of $10,482,500.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 1,048,146 shares in the company, valued at $43,948,761.78. This trade represents a 19.26% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Tomer Bar-Zeev also recently made the following trade(s):

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On Monday, November 3rd, Tomer Bar-Zeev sold 250,000 shares of Unity Software stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.98, for a total value of $9,495,000.00.

On Wednesday, October 1st, Tomer Bar-Zeev sold 250,000 shares of Unity Software stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.83, for a total value of $9,957,500.00.

On Monday, September 15th, Tomer Bar-Zeev sold 150,000 shares of Unity Software stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.65, for a total value of $6,847,500.00.

Unity Software Stock Up 4.0%

Shares of Unity Software stock traded up $1.74 on Tuesday, hitting $44.88. 5,902,689 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,801,756. Unity Software Inc. has a 52-week low of $15.33 and a 52-week high of $46.94. The company has a quick ratio of 2.78, a current ratio of 2.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The stock has a market cap of $19.20 billion, a P/E ratio of -42.82 and a beta of 2.04. The firms 50-day moving average is $38.89 and its 200 day moving average is $34.42.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Unity Software ( NYSE:U Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $470.62 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $452.87 million. Unity Software had a negative net margin of 24.15% and a negative return on equity of 9.45%. The firms revenue was up 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.31) EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Unity Software Inc. will post -1.25 earnings per share for the current year.

U has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on Unity Software from $40.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Arete upgraded Unity Software from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $48.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday. Zacks Research lowered Unity Software from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Unity Software from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a market outperform rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Unity Software from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $39.99.

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Institutional Trading of Unity Software

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Unity Software by 10.8% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,967 shares of the companys stock valued at $119,000 after purchasing an additional 288 shares during the period. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Unity Software by 12.9% during the third quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,696 shares of the companys stock valued at $108,000 after buying an additional 308 shares during the last quarter. Xponance Inc. boosted its position in shares of Unity Software by 1.8% during the third quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 18,291 shares of the companys stock worth $732,000 after buying an additional 328 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in Unity Software by 88.1% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 728 shares of the companys stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 341 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allworth Financial LP increased its position in Unity Software by 28.4% in the 2nd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,865 shares of the companys stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 412 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.46% of the companys stock.

Unity Software Company Profile

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Unity Software Inc operates a real-time 3D development platform. Its platform provides software solutions to create, run, and monetize interactive, real-time 2D and 3D content for mobile phones, tablets, PCs, consoles, and augmented and virtual reality devices. The company offers its solutions directly through its online store and field sales operations in North America, Denmark, Finland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, China, Singapore, and South Korea, as well as indirectly through independent distributors and resellers worldwide.

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Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC  Get Free Report)s share price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $30.79 and last traded at $30.6460, with a volume of 270848 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $30.22.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a hold (c) rating on shares of Banco Santander Chile in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Banco Santander Chile from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Banco Santander Chile from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Citigroup cut shares of Banco Santander Chile from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Banco Santander Chile from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Reduce and an average price target of $27.67.

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Banco Santander Chile Trading Up 1.4%

The companys fifty day moving average is $28.19 and its 200-day moving average is $25.77. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.21, a P/E/G ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 0.58.

Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The bank reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.56 by ($0.06). Banco Santander Chile had a return on equity of 22.18% and a net margin of 24.74%.The firm had revenue of $581.56 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $732.50 million. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Banco Santander Chile will post 2.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Banco Santander Chile

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Brooklyn Investment Group increased its position in Banco Santander Chile by 54,450.0% in the 1st quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 1,091 shares of the banks stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 1,089 shares during the period. Simplex Trading LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Banco Santander Chile in the second quarter worth $25,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Banco Santander Chile during the second quarter worth $33,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Banco Santander Chile by 577.8% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,559 shares of the banks stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 1,329 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its holdings in Banco Santander Chile by 380.5% in the 2nd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 3,532 shares of the banks stock valued at $89,000 after purchasing an additional 2,797 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 6.42% of the companys stock.

Banco Santander Chile Company Profile

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Banco Santander-Chile, together with its subsidiaries, provides commercial and retail banking services in Chile. It operates through Retail Banking, Middle-Market, Corporate Investment Banking, and Corporate Activities segments. The company offers debit and credit cards, checking accounts, and savings products; consumer, automobile, commercial, mortgage, and government-guaranteed loans; and Chilean peso and foreign currency-denominated loans to finance various commercial transactions, trade, foreign currency forward contracts, and credit lines, as well as mortgage financing services.

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A convicted murderer who was unlawfully at large from prison for nine months has been ordered back into custody to serve the remainder of his sentence.

James Meehan, 56, failed to return to Magilligan Prison in Co Londonderry after being out on day release on December 9 2024.

Meehan was convicted in 2009 of murdering Jim McFadden, a father of four from Derry.

Mr McFadden died after being attacked outside his home in 2007 after he had attended a wedding reception in Co Donegal.

Meehan was arrested by gardai in the Republic of Ireland in September this year.

He was extradited back to Northern Ireland on Tuesday and was brought to Ballymena Magistrates Court where he appeared before district judge Nigel Broderick.

The judge was told that Meehan is set to face prosecution for an offence of being unlawfully at large.

He issued a warrant of committal to return Meehan to Magilligan Prison to serve the remainder of his sentence.

The prosecution, in all likelihood, will issue a summons in respect of any further alleged criminal offence, the judge added.

A solicitor for Meehan did not raise objections to the warrant of committal.
BEIJING, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- When two brothers long separated by time and circumstance were finally reunited, they uncovered a family secret that had been buried for years: their mother had died of AIDS and the elder of the two brothers had been born with the virus, but the younger, born after the introduction of preventive measures, had grown up healthy.

The older brother, who had once been given just three years to live, defied expectations and now lives a life many believed was impossible for someone with HIV, having even made his way to university. He is currently supported by the AIDS Prevention Education Project for Chinese Youth (APEPCY), a non-profit organization launched in 2006, through which volunteers deliver free medicine to him regularly.

The brothers' personal story is at the core of "Love Youth," a film that breaks decades of silence and brings youth-oriented HIV education and sexual health awareness boldly to the big screen, aiming to change the public perception and foster a better understanding of the disease.

China reported its first case of AIDS in 1985. As of December 2025, about 1.4 million people are living with HIV in China, with young people accounting for a rising proportion of cases.

Premiering nationwide just ahead of this year's World AIDS Day on Monday, the film tells how China has been supporting young people living with HIV through national public welfare programs like APEPCY.

The theme of this year's World AIDS Day in China calls for united societal efforts to prevent HIV, urging innovation in preventive measures and public awareness.

The film itself marks a pioneering effort in China's AIDS awareness campaign, with its entire cast and crew volunteering their time without pay.

Among the many projects supported by APEPCY is the Linfen Red Ribbon School in north China's Shanxi Province -- the only institution in China dedicated to children living with HIV.

The film draws inspiration from a real-life story that played out in the school.

Reflecting on a time when AIDS loomed like a terrifying specter and was barely spoken of, Wang Xia, the school's principal, said that "The mere mention of the word 'AIDS' made people recoil."

"But today, with medical breakthroughs and a society that has become more understanding and accepting, China has made a remarkable jump forward," Wang observed.

The overall prevalence of AIDS is kept at a low level in China, with transmission through blood transfusion largely curbed, and mother-to-child and drug-injection transmission effectively controlled, according to the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration.

Over the past two decades, the school has cared for 127 HIV-positive children from 14 provinces across the country.

Today, 65 of its former students are employed, and some have even started families of their own. Through advances in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission, the young mothers have had healthy children, ending the generational cycle of HIV.

Guo Xiaoping, the school's founder, called its success a "miracle."

"Over all these years, not a single child has died," he said. "Now, the only difference between these children and others is that they take one more pill every day."

Guo, now 62, retired as the school's principal in 2023 but continues to serve as guardian to every child under his care.

"I dream of the day when this school no longer has to exist," Guo said. "When every child with HIV can attend a regular school, and the next generation is born free of the virus, I'll know I've done all I can, and I will finally be able to retire in peace."

The film's closing words echo Guo's motto: "To protect our own children, we must also protect all children."

In 2004, China initiated support policies for people living with HIV/AIDS, as well as their families, including the provision of medications and living assistance. Orphans of deceased AIDS patients also receive free education under these policies.

According to the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration, over 95 percent of people diagnosed with HIV in China are currently receiving antiretroviral therapy, and over 95 percent of those on treatment have reached viral load suppression.

Han Mengjie, chief expert in AIDS prevention at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, noted that with no effective, available HIV vaccine, education remains the "social vaccine" in the battle against the virus.

Zhang Yinjun, the film's chief production planner, explained that the real challenge in HIV education for young people today isn't that the topic is untouched, but the deep, structural silence surrounding it.

"Sexual health and HIV prevention have long been overlooked in families, schools and society, and people tend not to talk about these things directly," Zhang said.

She noted that this avoidance makes it more difficult to share vital knowledge effectively, thus young people are less likely to fully develop the understanding and habits they need to protect themselves.

"Ending AIDS isn't just about medicine and testing; it's about creating a culture of understanding, acceptance and love," Zhang added. 
Irish premier Micheal Martin has pledged to support Ukraine for as long as it takes.

The Taoiseach welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on his first official visit to Ireland on Tuesday.

During a joint press conference in Dublin, Mr Martin told Mr Zelensky: Your struggle is our struggle we are with you for as long as it takes.

The Irish Government announced 100 million euros in non-lethal aid for Ukraine to coincide with the visit.

The additional funding brings to 200 million euros the total non-lethal military aid given to Ukraine this year.

Mr Zelensky responded, hailing Ireland for doing the right thing by choosing to help Ukraine and Ukrainians who have moved there, expressing his gratitude.

We should be grateful doing this because you understand what were going through, understand it historically speaking and based on value, he said.

It is not about size of assistance, its about the choice.

He said his visit as to Ireland comes at one of the most challenging and optimistic moments, and emphasised they want to see a positive outcome to talks for peace that are open, fair and just.

The funding is part of a new Ireland-Ukraine partnership signed by Mr Zelensky and Mr Martin, which builds on an agreement signed in Kyiv last year.

The 2030 Roadmap on Ukraine-Ireland Partnership sets out Irelands immediate commitments to Ukraine, including 25 million euros to support the restoration and protection of Ukrainian energy infrastructure and a scheme to support training and other efforts as part of Ukraines path to EU accession.

Mr Zelensky began the Dublin trip with a courtesy call to Irelands newly inaugurated president, Catherine Connolly.

He and First Lady Olena Zelenska arrived at Aras An Uachtarain, the official residence of the president, where Ms Connolly warmly welcomed them at a red carpet laid at the front door.

In a note in the visitors book, he said Ukraine is grateful for Irelands generosity to its people amid Russias invasion.

On behalf of the people of Ukraine, I express my sincere gratitude for Irelands steadfast support during our fight against Russian aggression, he wrote.

We greatly appreciate Irelands generosity in providing temporary shelter to displaced Ukrainians.

Ukraine values its friendship with Ireland and is committed to deepening our co-operation in pursuit of a just and lasting peace.

The two presidents discussed prospects for peace in Ukraine and the contribution of the Ukrainian community in Ireland during their meeting.

In a statement, Ms Connollys office said: Their discussions included the prospects for peace in Ukraine and the role that Ireland could play as a neutral country in securing a fair, just and enduring peace.

They also discussed the contribution of the Ukrainian community in Ireland and the significant similarities in the histories of both countries.

President Connolly was also interested to discuss the question of the enforced transfer of children from Ukraine and food security.

She paid tribute to the advocacy of the First Lady Ms Zelenska regarding issues such as mental health.

In a convoy of heavily-armoured vehicles, Mr Zelensky later arrived at Government Buildings for a meeting with Mr Martin, where a guard of honour was held for him.

Both the Ukrainian and Irish national anthems were played before he inspected two lines of 22 Irish troops after being invited by Lieutenant Adam OSullivan.

He is to later give an address in the Irish Parliament at Leinster House after being introduced by the Ceann Comhairle, or speaker of the house, Verona Murphy.

Mr Zelensky is also due to attend the inauguration of the Ireland-Ukraine Economic Forum with Irish deputy premier Simon Harris and Foreign Affairs Minister Helen McEntee.

Ms McEntee and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha are to hold the first meeting of the UkraineIreland Strategic Dialogue, which will also be established as part of the roadmap.

The visit comes a day after the Ukrainian president met French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Paris as part of discussions on ending the largest armed conflict in Europe since the Second World War.

Ukrainian and US officials have worked to revise the proposed US-authored peace plan, which was developed in negotiations between Washington and Moscow but criticised as being too weighted towards Russian demands.

Mr Zelensky said in Paris on Monday that the peace plan looks better but the issue of Ukraines control over its territories is the most complicated topic being discussed.

In April 2022, Mr Zelensky made a historic address to the Irish Parliament by videolink, in which he said Ireland had not been neutral to the disaster Russia had brought to Ukraine.
First and foremost . . .

We kinda have to thank Kansas City Democratic Party campaigner and veterans advocate Jason Kander for sharing his perspective given that he's really the only local connection to this hot topic that's dominating international headlines.

Agree or disagree . . . His perspective helps start the conversation.

TKC snark and just another moment of doubt for local readers:

Even a brief history of Grenada and Manny Ortega teach us that U.S. Presidents with bad polling numbers have repeatedly used Latin America as a punching bag. It's a cynical strategy but it works if only because smacking around a third world country inspires notions of "American Exceptionalism" for voters who need an excuse to feel happy as the American middle-class continues to fade.

Downside: War with Venezuela will only ASSURE more migrants, amnesty & citizenship for its citizens which is what has always happened after EVERY American military conflict.

That's our crackpot theory which only (barely) appeals to Gen-X old-heads who stopped believing in anything a long time ago . . .

Meanwhile . . .

Jason Kander has garnered the love of Kansas City progressives and Democratic Party voters with his far more inspiring perspectives . . . Here's the latest:

"Aside from the extremely dubious question of whether the occupants of the Venezuelan boat even qualified as 'combatants,' order a second strike from an aircraft for the sole purpose of killing defenseless people was absolutely an illegal order."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . .

White House says admiral ordered follow-up strike on alleged drug boat, insists attack was lawful The White House says a Navy admiral ordered a second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea and insists the September attack that has come under bipartisan scrutiny was lawful.

White House defends Hegseth and second strike on boat near Venezuela The White House insists the strike followed the laws of armed conflict.

What the law says about killing survivors of a boat strike, according to experts Leveling a second strike on the survivors of an initial attack on an alleged drug boat would have been a crime, legal experts say.

Lawmakers skeptical of alleged Hegseth kill orders in Venezuela - but issue stark warning Congress launches bipartisan probe into the Trump administration's controversial Caribbean drug strikes after reports allege Pete Hegseth ordered killing survivors.

US admiral to brief lawmakers as bipartisan scrutiny grows over boat strike Questions mount over US attack in Caribbean Sea that killed survivors on boat allegedly carrying drugs

Trump says he 'wouldn't have wanted' second hit on alleged drug boat President Trump defended his Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, Sunday following media reports the Pentagon chief ordered a second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean after an initial assault left two survivors earlier this year.

Hegseth's use of Franklin the Turtle in meme on boat strikes condemned by book series publisher The Canadian publishing house behind the "Franklin" children's books appeared to condemn Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, after he posted a cartoon image of the turtle blowing up a boat.

Developing . . .
BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. Azerbaijan will continue to play the role of a connecting link on the way to the strengthening of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), Yalchin Rafiyev, the country's deputy foreign minister and COP29 lead negotiator, said during an international conference on the Role of Universities in Green Energy and Sustainability being held at ADA University, Trend reports.

"One of the most important priorities of the Azerbaijani presidency is education and science. It's no coincidence that the founding meeting of the Coordinating Council of the Partnership Network of Leading Universities in February was the first event after we accepted the presidency. The full launch of this network is one of our significant achievements, which made today's conference possible," Rafiyev added.

He noted that the network was created to strengthen the partnership between the systems of higher education, universities, and academic communities of member states of the CICA to promote academic exchange and the development of joint research.

"We expect that this cooperation will strengthen mutual trust and understandingthe basic values of the CICA.

We urge the network to actively interact with other consultative bodies, develop joint initiatives, and strengthen trust measures," Rafiyev announced.

He added that Baku is preparing to host the conference of the CICA next year.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. Azerbaijan has mediated Turkiye's earning the right to host COP31, Yalchin Rafiyev, the country's deputy foreign minister and COP29 lead negotiator, said during an international conference on the Role of Universities in Green Energy and Sustainability held at ADA University, Trend reports.

The official pointed out that the convening of COP31 in Turkiye is poised to catalyze heightened scrutiny and discourse surrounding environmental and ecological paradigms in the region subsequent to Azerbaijan's involvement.

"Azerbaijan has offered its support to the Turkish side. The Turkish side is also interested in this and has planned to receive the Azerbaijani delegation in the near future," he added.

To note, the 31st session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP31) is scheduled to take place in November 2026.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, has sent a congratulatory letter to the President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Trend reports.

"Dear Brother,

On my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I am pleased to convey to you and, through you, to all your fraternal people my sincerest congratulations and best wishes on the occasion of the national holiday of the United Arab Emirates  Independence Day.

We are immensely pleased to see the large-scale construction initiatives being implemented across the country under your resolute leadership, resulting in magnificent and exemplary progress. All of this has been possible thanks to your multifaceted activity, wise leadership, and tireless service to the Motherland and the people.

Relations between Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates are based on brotherhood, friendship, mutual trust, understanding and support between our peoples. It is gratifying that our interstate relations, built on these solid foundations, have developed along an upward trajectory over the past period and reached a qualitatively new level. Undoubtedly, high-level regular reciprocal visits, meetings and close cooperation contribute to more rapid development and strengthening of these relations.

Your official visit to Azerbaijan in September provided a new impetus to the advancement of our bilateral relations. Several documents signed during the visit, particularly the Joint Declaration on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates, have elevated our interstate relations to a higher level, and expanded our interaction across new domains, along with the traditional areas of cooperation. At the same time, your visit to the liberated Karabakh region during your trip holds a profound symbolic meaning, and we evaluate it as a clear example of our brotherhood and solidarity.

Currently, cooperation agenda between Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates covers a broad range of areas. Our fruitful joint activities in the economic and trade, oil and gas, renewable energy, investment, digitalization and other areas are developing successfully.

I am confident that we will continue our joint efforts consistently and successfully to strengthen and diversify our cooperation that will serve the well-being of our countries and peoples.

On this festive day, I wish you robust health, happiness, success in your high state activities, and the brotherly people of the United Arab Emirates everlasting peace and prosperity," the letter reads.
Photo: Press service of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, has sent a congratulatory letter to the President of the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic, Thongloun Sisoulith, Trend reports.

"Dear Mr. President,

On my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I extend my sincere congratulations to you, and through you, your entire people on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of founding of the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic, and convey my best wishes.

Azerbaijan attaches special importance to the expansion of relations with Laos, and the enrichment of cooperation with new content both bilaterally and multilaterally.

I am confident that we will continue to make joint efforts to strengthen friendly relations between our countries and fully utilize the potential of our mutually beneficial cooperation.

On such a remarkable day, I wish you robust health, success in your endeavors, and your brotherly people everlasting peace and prosperity," the letter reads.
Photo: State Committee for Work with Diaspora of the Republic of Azerbaijan

BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. Azerbaijan's Fuad Muradov, Chairman of the State Committee on Diaspora Affairs, and Hungary's Lorinc Nacsa, State Secretary for National Policy, engaged in discussions on diaspora cooperation in Budapest, the committee said in a statement, Trend reports via the State Committee on Work with Diaspora.

Muradov drew attention to the modern diaspora policy implemented under the leadership of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, and shared details about Azerbaijani Houses abroad, weekend Azerbaijani schools, Coordination Councils, and a number of other projects.

The meeting noted that the Azerbaijani community in Hungary, with the projects it implements, contributes to the development of bilateral relations between the countries' peoples, which have common historical roots.

Nacsa warmly welcomed the Azerbaijani delegation and expressed the importance of the meeting and the exchange of experience. The parties had a wide exchange of views on the modern diaspora strategy, perspective plans, and cooperation platforms.

The meeting was attended by Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Azerbaijan, Tahir Tagizade, and Head of the Azerbaijan House in Budapest, Ibrahim Safarli.

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XINING, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The harsh winter winds of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau used to worry herder Sonam Tsering in a very specific way. They would blow plastic bags away from the nearby rubbish dumps, sending them swirling through the air before settling across pastures.

"It was heartbreaking to see my pasture littered with plastic bags," said Sonam Tsering, who is from Shaliuhe Township, Gangcha County of northwest China's Qinghai Province, pointing out that they had posed a potentially fatal risk to livestock, as accidentally ingesting such bags could cause death.

However, things are very different these days in Gangcha County, much to the relief of this herder: "Now, when the trash bin is full, a quick phone call ensures the waste is removed."

The change in circumstances Sonam Tsering mentioned is thanks to a shift in local waste-disposal methods. Instead of leaving garbage to degrade in nearby landfills -- it is now transported elsewhere for incineration.

When it comes to disposing of non-recyclable waste, there are two primary options -- landfills and incineration. In Sonam Tsering's hometown, situated on the northern shore of the pristine Qinghai Lake, this change reflects the efforts of local policymakers to find an optimal waste disposal solution that aligns with their broader goal of conserving the environment in this ecologically sensitive region.

Qinghai Lake, situated in the northeastern section of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, is one of the world's highest plateau lakes -- and plays a crucial role in maintaining ecological security in northwest China.

Over the past two decades, more than ten landfills have been established in the area around the lake to dispose of household waste. Most of these landfills are located in ecologically sensitive areas, such as grasslands and valleys around Qinghai Lake. Data shows that by the end of 2023, the total area of landfills in the lake region had exceeded 500,000 square meters -- with insufficient remaining capacity.

Waste management, notably, presents distinct challenges on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Landfills in this lake area are situated near natural grasslands, and the plateau's very cold temperatures and low oxygen levels significantly extend the waste degradation period. Moreover, some landfills reach full capacity before their planned lifespan, while others continue to operate beyond their intended lifespan.

During the windy winter and spring months, plastic bags from the landfills were often scattered around nearby pastures.

In 2023, with the launch of Qinghai Province's first large-scale waste incineration and power generation project in its capital, Xining, the counties surrounding Qinghai Lake gradually adopted a new waste management system. This system involves collecting waste from villages and transporting it through township and county-level areas before it reaches Xining for incineration.

From June 2024 to early May of 2025, the lake area transferred almost 2,000 truckloads of household waste -- amounting to nearly 30,000 tonnes. Incineration of this waste has, meanwhile, generated around 15 million kilowatt-hours of electricity.

Purifying steps are taken to ensure safe disposal at incinerators. Waste is first fermented and then incinerated at temperatures exceeding 850C, which effectively breaks down harmful substances, according to Wang Yongpeng, head of the garbage incineration and power generation project in Xining.

The flue gas generated during incineration is treated through processes like de-acidification, absorption and dust removal -- to ensure emissions comply with environmental standards, Wang added.

This overhaul of waste disposal is just one of a series of ecological conservation efforts aimed at protecting the Qinghai Lake region. Thanks to these efforts, the ecological environment of Qinghai Lake has improved, while biodiversity has been rapidly restored in recent years.

The lake has seen rising water levels and an expanded water area for 20 consecutive years. Satellite data obtained in September 2024 showed that Qinghai Lake's water body spanned 4,650.08 square kilometers -- sustaining two decades of continuous expansion since 2004.

In terms of waste disposal, the move from landfills to incineration in this lake area also aligns with the country's broader trend. In the past, China used landfills as a primary method of garbage disposal. Fueled by an intensifying environmental consciousness, China has transformed its waste management paradigm over the past two decades -- by promoting cleaner and more efficient waste incineration technology.

Today, over 1,000 large-scale incineration plants operate across China, processing more than 1.1 million tonnes of waste daily -- equivalent to filling 440 standard Olympic-sized swimming pools (each holding 2,500 tonnes of water).

Joining the trend, the Qinghai Lake region is forging new paths for waste disposal in high-altitude and low-oxygen areas both in China and globally. 
BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. Baku hosts the 16th Azerbaijani-Turkish High-Level Military Dialogue meeting between the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Turkiye, Trend reports via the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.

First, a meeting was held between the delegations led by Lieutenant General Azer Aliyev and Lieutenant General Ali Osman Yurdagul.

Expressing his satisfaction with seeing the guests in Azerbaijan, Lieutenant General A. Aliyev stated that Azerbaijani-Turkish military relations, established on the principles of brotherhood and friendship, continue to develop steadily.

Lieutenant General A.O.Yurdagul, in turn, expressed his gratitude for the sincere attitude and the attention shown, and noted that the mutual meetings significantly contribute to the exchange of experience between the two armies.

During the meeting, the current state of the work done within the cooperation in military, military-technical, and other fields was discussed.

The sides held broad discussions and exchanged views on the prospects of Azerbaijani-Turkish military relations, their development, as well as on issues of mutual interest.

In the end, the opening ceremony of the High-Level Military Dialogue Meeting was held with the participation of the delegations, and meetings between sub-working groups were also conducted.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. Statistical data indicate that a total of 233 residents of Baku, Ganja, Mingachevir, Tartar, and Fuzuli were among those affected by cluster munitions, said Hafiz Safikhanov, Chairman of the Azerbaijan Campaign Against Landmines Public Association, Trend reports.

Speaking at the 22nd Conference of the Mine Ban Convention and the presentation of the Landmine Monitor Report 2025 in Geneva, Safikhanov stated that among the victims, 8 are children, 13 women, while 182 individuals suffered injuries of varying severity, with the oldest victim recorded at 71 years old.

"Monitoring conducted in Azerbaijans liberated districts located along the conditional border with Armenia has revealed evidence of the use of cluster munitions on the countrys territory. Research shows that these weapons were deployed during both the First and Second Karabakh wars," he added.

He pointed out that, on August 15, 1992, two aircraft, without state registration numbers, dropped cluster bombs on Azerbaijani territory. This attack resulted in both civilian fatalities and injuries.

"Monitoring has shown that the districts of Fuzuli, Goranboy, Barda, and Tartar were targeted with cluster munitions. Furthermore, it has been reported that these weapons were also deployed during the Second Karabakh War," he explained.

In the aftermath of the Patriotic War, additional victims of cluster munitions were documented, with 12 individuals affected in the post-war period, he added.

Safikhanov clarified that "victims of cluster munitions" include those who lost their lives, sustained physical injuries, experienced psychological trauma, suffered social isolation, or faced challenges in exercising their rights. Among these victims were 21 servicemen, 2 of whom were killed and 19 injured

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. Azerbaijans Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov held a phone conversation with his Estonian counterpart, Margus Tsahkna, on December 2, 2025, to discuss key issues on the bilateral and multilateral cooperation agenda, as well as regional and global matters, Trend reports via the Azerbaijani MFA.

The ministers expressed satisfaction with the intensifying political dialogue and reciprocal visits between the two countries, highlighting the importance of mutual support within international platforms.

During the call, Tsahkna confirmed Estonias official decision to open its embassy in Azerbaijan in 2026. Bayramov welcomed the move, noting that it will provide an additional boost to relations between the two nations.

The ministers also exchanged views on other bilateral and regional issues, emphasizing continued collaboration.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. The 7th meeting of heads of state agencies responsible for diaspora issues in the member countries of the Organization of Turkic States was held in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. The event became another important platform for deepening cooperation between Turkic countries in one of the key areas of modern foreign policy  public diplomacy. The meeting was attended by the Secretary General of the OTS, representatives of Turkiye, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and the host country, Hungary. Azerbaijan was represented at the event by Fuad Muradov, Chairman of the State Committee on Work with the Diaspora, whose position became one of the central points of discussion.

The diaspora policy has long gone beyond supporting compatriots abroad. Today, it is a full-fledged instrument of international influence, allowing OTS countries to shape a common humanitarian and cultural context, strengthen their information presence, and promote strategic interests at the global level. Millions of representatives of Turkic peoples in different countries around the world represent enormous potential that requires a systematic, collaborative, and complementary approach. It is the diaspora that becomes the global bearer of common values, culture, and language, as well as the link between Turkic states and the international community.

Azerbaijan has been developing the most comprehensive and effective model of diaspora policy in recent years, becoming a benchmark for other members of the OTS. A modern multi-level system of interaction with Azerbaijani communities abroad has been formed, based on constant communication, support, educational programs, and extensive cultural activities. Consequently, this system has not only strengthened ties with compatriots around the world but has also transformed into a full-fledged instrument of the country's international humanitarian influence.

In his speech, Fuad Muradov emphasized that strengthening Turkic cooperation in the humanitarian sphere is of strategic importance. He recalled that the OTS was created on the basis of the Nakhchivan Agreement and noted that interaction between the countries of the Organization has become even more intense in recent years. According to him, it is the implementation of the Turkic Strategy for Joint Action of Diasporas. Bilateral and multilateral meetings, programs, forums, and initiatives within the framework of the OTS make an important contribution to expanding and strengthening cooperation between our countries, Muradov said.

In Budapest, special attention was paid to coordinating diaspora work within the framework of the OTS, and Azerbaijan's experience is one of the most successful in the Turkic world. The State Committee consistently develops international partnerships, builds systematic work with diaspora organizations, responds promptly to challenges related to disinformation, and actively advocates for the creation of a unified humanitarian agenda for Turkic countries. In the course of the discussions, the representatives of the countries noted that joint work should continue to be based on agreed strategies and shared responsibility, which is fully in line with Azerbaijan's approach.

A significant outcome of the meeting was the adoption of the Joint Action Plan on the Diaspora for 2026, a document that unites the efforts of Turkic countries in developing a unified humanitarian and cultural policy. This step was the result of multifaceted discussions, a broad exchange of experience, and Azerbaijan's active position, which once again confirmed its status as one of the key centers for the formation of public diplomacy in the Turkic world.

The meeting in Budapest demonstrated that OTS countries are interested in a gradual transition to a new architecture of public diplomacy based on complementarity and strategic coordination. Against this backdrop, the activities of Azerbaijan's State Committee on Work with the Diaspora stand out for their systematic approach, long-term vision, and innovative approach. The initiatives being implemented, the scale of the projects carried out, and the strategic approach make the Azerbaijani model one of the most successful examples of working with the diaspora in the region, providing the country with a sustainable humanitarian and informational effect in the international arena.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. The 16th Meeting of States Parties to the Second Protocol of UNESCO to the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict was held on December 12, 2025, Trend reports.

Following the session, the Republic of Azerbaijan was elected as a member of the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property for the 20252029 term.

Six countries vied for four vacant seats, with Azerbaijan receiving the highest number of votes in the first round.

The Committee is responsible for ensuring the protection of cultural property during armed conflicts, overseeing compliance with the 1954 Hague Convention and its Second Protocol, and providing technical, legal, and institutional assistance to states.

Azerbaijans re-election reflects its strong international standing in cultural heritage preservation, its active engagement on global platforms, and its consistent national policy in this field.

Azerbaijan previously served on the Committee from 2021 to 2025.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. On December 2, 2025, a telephone conversation took place between Azerbaijans Minister of Foreign Affairs Jeyhun Bayramov and Gambias Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and Gambians Abroad Sering Modou Njie, Trend reports.

During the call, the ministers exchanged views on bilateral and multilateral cooperation, including within the UN, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and the Non-Aligned Movement. They paid particular attention to Gambia's OIC chairmanship and the priorities of Azerbaijans upcoming chairmanship.

Minister Bayramov congratulated his Gambian counterpart on his appointment and wished him success. The discussion also covered regional issues of mutual interest to both countries.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 3. Azerbaijani military personnel took part in the observer day of the Eastern Mediterranean 2025 international exercises held in Turkiye, Trend reports.

The exercises included a marine landing group from Azerbaijan, a counter-terrorism unit from the United States, and a maritime patrol aircraft from Pakistan.

Representatives from 19 other countries also participated as observers.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. Azerbaijan is preparing a legal framework for the ethical and responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI), Deputy Minister of Digital Development and Transport Samir Mammadov said at the opening event of the ASAN AI HUB today, Trend reports.

According to him, the AI strategy, which defines the legal and normative basis and conceptual framework for the development of AI in Azerbaijan, has been adopted.

The deputy minister noted that the main directions of the strategy are the development and improvement of AI management, the establishment of databases and infrastructure, and the enhancement of talents and skills in the field of AI, as well as the creation of a favorable business environment.

"A normative legal framework is being prepared to ensure the responsible and ethical use of AI. These legal regulations will optimize the processes of using AI, paying special attention to human rights and data privacy. The purpose of the legal framework is not to limit the development of AI, but, on the contrary, to comprehensively support digitalization in the country on its basis," Mammadov explained.

He emphasized that this year marks the initiation of the inaugural state standards in the domain of artificial intelligence within Azerbaijan.

"The new standards envisage risk management, adherence to ethical principles, and ensuring transparency in the application of AI technologies. They also cover the most modern algorithms and approaches for the construction, implementation, maintenance, and continuous improvement of AI systems," the official added.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. The opening and presentation ceremonies of the ASAN Artificial Intelligence platform (ASAN AI Hub), established on the initiative of the State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations under the President of Azerbaijan, were held today, with memoranda of understanding signed between the hub andApolitical, Breakthrough Social Enterprise, GenAI Works, Trend reports.

The main goal of the platform is to bring together researchers, government entities, the private sector, and individual users in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) in Azerbaijan on a single digital platform. The ASAN AI Hub will promote open innovation and serve as a bridge between government bodies, the private sector, and universities. Technological challenges will be announced openly on the platform, and students, academics, entrepreneurs, and public organizations will have the opportunity to compete for a prize fund by submitting their solutions.

Ulvi Mehdiyev, chairman of the State Agency for Citizen Services and Social Innovations under the President of Azerbaijan, emphasized the importance of the platform for the countrys AI ecosystem. He noted that the ASAN AI Hub was established in line with President Ilham Aliyevs directive during his speech at the 80th anniversary of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences. The platform connects the public services sector, business entities, research centers, and the startup ecosystem, playing a crucial role in developing AI-based solutions.

Subsequently, Deputy Minister of Economy Sahib Alakbarov and Deputy Minister of Digital Development and Transportation Samir Mammadov highlighted the significance of the ASAN AI Hub in terms of digital transformation, economic development, and strengthening scientific potential.

Steve Nouri, CEO and co-founder of GenAI Works, a global AI platform with 14 million members offering accessible learning, application, and growth opportunities, gave a presentation on "Generative Artificial Intelligence in 2025," sharing insights on global trends, technological advancements, and AI applications.

The hub's collaborations with Apolitical, Breakthrough Social Enterprise, and GenAI Works will strengthen the centers integration into the global innovation ecosystem. A panel discussion titled "Open innovation in artificial intelligence: a bridge for all" was held, with speakers including Head of ASAN AI Hub Laman Ibrahimova, CEO and Co-Founder of GenAI Works Steve Nouri, Co-Director of the Edinburgh Financial Innovations Center and Lecturer in Finance at the University of Edinburgh Khaladdin Rzayev, and Associate Professor at Tsinghua Universitys Faculty of Information Arts and Design Fu Zhiyong. The panel, moderated by Katherine Miller Weber, Director of Partnerships at Apolitical, discussed open innovation models, public-private sector cooperation, inclusivity, and responsibility principles.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. The Azerbaijan Campaign Against Landmines Public Association has launched the project titled "Creating economic opportunities for landmine victims", the chairman of the association, Hafiz Safikhanov, said at a press conference dedicated to the 22nd Conference of the Mine Ban Convention, organized in Geneva by the association, and the presentation of the Landmine Monitor Report 2025 to the public, Trend reports.

According to him, the above project has been launched with the financial support of South Korea through the International Trust Fund for Enhancing Human Security. The project aims to support the socio-economic integration of mine victims living in the most mine-affected regions of Azerbaijan. This involves providing financial resources through the mechanism of creating small businesses, as well as reducing poverty and strengthening social equality.

"The project covers several key sectors, in particular, poverty reduction, gender equality, child protection, and health. Increasing family income will lead to better health, education, and nutrition opportunities, as well as promote the development of the private sector and small businesses. This will lead to the creation of new jobs in communities.

The project will be implemented in the Fuzuli, Aghdam, Aghjabadi, Tartar, and Tovuz districts," Safikhanov added
JERUSALEM/GAZA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Israel on Tuesday received the remains of an unidentified body from the Gaza Strip via the Red Cross, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement, adding they would undergo forensic identification.

"At the end of the identification process, and in accordance with the findings, an official notification will be delivered to the family," the statement noted, adding the remains will be transferred to the Ministry of Health's National Center for Forensic Medicine.

Under the Gaza ceasefire agreement, Hamas is required to release 20 living captives and the bodies of 28 deceased hostages. All living hostages were released early in the truce in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. However, the return of the deceased hostages' bodies has been slow, with Hamas citing extensive rubble and destruction as obstacles.

Before the latest handover, two hostages' bodies -- an Israeli and a Thai national -- were believed to remain in Gaza.

Also on Tuesday, a Hamas official stated that members of its armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, and the Islamic Jihad's al-Quds Brigades were trying to locate the body of an Israeli hostage in northern Gaza, an operation the official described as facing major challenges due to limited resources and equipment. 
BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. According to the 2025 training plan, during the inspections on the results of the year conducted in the Combined Arms Army by the Main Military Inspection of the Ministry of Defense, the successful activities of the military units and subunits were highly assessed, the ministry said in a statement, Trend reports.

Within the inspections, the actions of units that were put on alert, headquarters activities, combat training, commander training, combined-arms training, and the state of logistics support were checked. The personnel underwent evaluations in various types of training, carried out practical firing with small arms and artillery installations. Drill reviews were also held to check the material training base.

Training sessions on tactical-special training for the servicemen, as well as the activities of the commando units at the mountain commando rappel tower and on the scout trail, were observed.

The servicemen successfully fulfilled the assigned tasks by using modern technical means.

The results of the inspections held in the Azerbaijan Army and the professionalism of servicemen were assessed positively.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. The Azerbaijani State Service for the Protection, Development, and Restoration of Cultural Heritage under the Ministry of Culture identified and inventoried 25 more historical and cultural monuments, including 16 archaeological and nine architectural monuments, in the Aghdam, Fuzuli, Aghdara, and Khojaly districts, a source in the service told Trend.

The inventory efforts have been underway in accordance with Decree No. 1170 of the President of Azerbaijan dated October 29, 2020.

During the inventory work, field research was conducted, electronic maps of the monuments were prepared, photo documentation and drone footage were taken, archival documents were studied, and other sources were reviewed.

So far, the inventory work of 575 historical and cultural monuments in the areas liberated from occupation has been completed. Additionally, 402 historical, architectural, and archaeological sites have been inventoried, and a newly discovered monument has been registered.

By the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan, dated July 3, 2025, No. 193, 44 of these newly discovered monuments have been included in the list of immovable historical and cultural monuments. As a result, the number of historical monuments under state registration in Karabakh and East Zangezur has reached 749.

Among the 749 heritage structures designated for state safeguarding, the inventory assessment has encountered challenges for 130 of these assets. A significant proportion of the unaccounted-for monuments are situated in perilous, mine-laden zones, distanced from populated areas, within elevated mountainous terrains and densely forested locales.



The protracted three-decade tenure of occupation precipitated extensive degradation and defacement of culturally significant edifices. A comprehensive assessment reveals that a total of 68 monuments within the liberated zones have been irrevocably obliterated, while 114 monuments have endured significant and extensive structural impairments, with additional monuments exhibiting varying levels of degradation.

The service has calculated the material damage to 434 monuments, totaling over 700 million manat ($411 million).

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The New Year season is approaching, and with it, the traditional Gingerbread City returns! Opened on December 1 at Port Baku Mall, this years exhibition is inspired by the crescent and eight-pointed star on the Azerbaijani flag and is titled Winter in Azerbaijan. If you want to immerse yourself in the festive mood, dont miss this event!

NARGIS Publishing House regularly organizes large-scale events covering various areas of public life. Usually held during the holiday season, this exhibition showcases miniature models of Bakus landmarks and attributes related to Azerbaijani customs and traditions. The projects concept belongs to Ulviyya Mahmud, Editor-in-Chief of NARGIS magazine.

The exhibition is prepared by Azerbaijans professional confectioners and architects. The model, designed in the shape of a crescent and an eight-pointed star, reflects the symbols and rich cultural heritage of our country. Particular attention is given to presenting the composition internationally, which will provide strong momentum for promoting our culture to foreign audiences.

The NARGIS team extends its gratitude to Azerbaijan Airlines CJSC, Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, Azerpost LLC, Baku Metro CJSC, the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Baku City Circuit Operations Company, Wolt delivery service, MasterCard, Push30 LLC, Miniboss Business School training center, Medsol LLC, Kidsberry store, Glodemia training center, iTicket LLC, The Attack cafe, and aNanas cafe-bakery for their support.

The NARGIS team expresses special appreciation to Port Baku Mall for providing the venue for the exhibition.

The official opening of the exhibition took place on December 1 and will run until January 15, 2026. Admission is free.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. The court proceedings in the criminal case against Armenian citizen Ruben Vardanyan, charged under multiple articles of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan relating to crimes against peace and humanity, war crimes, terrorism, financing of terrorism, and other grave offenses, continued on December 2, Trend reports.

The open court session at the Baku Military Court, chaired by Judge Zeynal Aghayev and composed of judges Anar Rzayev and Jamal Ramazanov (reserve judge: Gunel Samadova), provided the accused with a Russian-language interpreter and a state-appointed defense lawyer.

Presiding Judge Zeynal Aghayev introduced the panel of judges, the prosecutors representing the state accusation, the interpreters, and other participants to the victims and their legal successors, who were taking part in the proceedings for the first time. He also explained their rights and obligations under the law.

Subsequently, the court heard statements from the victims.

Victim Elshan Babayev, responding to questions from state prosecutor Vusal Abdullayev, stated that in the territory of the Aghdara district, an explosion of an anti-tank shell fired by remnants of the Armenian army and illegal Armenian armed groups resulted in the deaths of Tural Amirov and Elchin Salmanov, and caused injuries to him and Yusif Hasanov.

Victim Elvin Mammadov, answering questions from state prosecutor Tarana Mammadova, said that in the Sardarkand village of Khojaly district, he and Kamran Hasanov were wounded by the explosion of a mortar shell fired by the enemy. He noted that at the time, the opposing side was firing mortars, sniper rifles, and other weapons.

Victim Khalid Shukurlu stated that he was injured in the Malibeyli village of Khojaly district as a result of a mortar shell explosion fired by the enemy. During the same incident, Sadig Mammadov and Nijat Ahmadzade were also injured.

Victim Taleh Humbatzade, answering questions from state prosecutor Fuad Musayev, said that in the Yenikand village of Khojavend district, he was wounded by the explosion of an artillery shell fired by remnants of the Armenian army and illegal Armenian armed groups. Javid Shavgatli was also injured during the incident.

Victim Fazil Amirli, responding to questions from Senior Assistant to the Prosecutor General Vusal Aliyev, stated that he, Seyfaddin Jabbarov, and Kamran Najafov were injured as a result of enemy fire in the Malibeyli village of Khojaly district.

Another victim, Ilgar Gasimov, answering questions from Nasir Bayramov, Head of the Department for Defense of State Accusation at the Prosecutor Generals Office, said that he and Huseyn Huseynov were wounded by the explosion of a mine planted by the enemy in the direction of Khojaly district.

The court proceedings continued with the examination of documents and other evidence contained in the criminal case materials.

The next court session is scheduled for December 5.

Ruben Vardanyan faces multiple charges under the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan, including Articles 100.1, 100.2 (planning, preparing, initiating, and waging a war of aggression), 107 (deportation and forced displacement of the population), 109 (persecution), 110 (forcible disappearance of persons), 112 (deprivation of liberty contrary to international law), 113 (torture), 114.1 (mercenary activity), 115.2 (violation of the laws and customs of warfare), 116.0.1, 116.0.2, 116.0.10, 116.0.11, 116.0.16, 116.0.18 (violations of international humanitarian law norms during an armed conflict), 120.2.1, 120.2.3, 120.2.4, 120.2.7, 120.2.11, 120.2.12 (intentional murder), 29.120.2.1, 29.120.2.3, 29.120.2.4, 29.120.2.7, 29.120.2.11, 29.120.2.12 (attempted intentional murder), 192.3.1 (illegal entrepreneurship), 214.2.1, 214.2.3, 214.2.4 (terrorism), 214-1 (financing of terrorism), 218.1, 218.2 (creation of a criminal group), 228.3 (illegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transportation, and possession of firearms, ammunition, explosives, and devices), 270-1.2, 270-1.4 (acts threatening aviation safety), 278.1 (forcible seizure or retention of power, forcible change of the constitutional structure of the state), 279.1, 279.2, 279.3 (creation of armed formations not provided for by law), and 318.2 (illegal crossing of the state border).
BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. The court proceedings in the criminal case against Armenian citizen Ruben Vardanyan, charged under multiple articles of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan relating to crimes against peace and humanity, war crimes, terrorism, financing of terrorism, and other grave offenses, continued on December 2, Trend reports.

The open court session at the Baku Military Court, chaired by Judge Zeynal Aghayev and composed of judges Anar Rzayev and Jamal Ramazanov (reserve judge: Gunel Samadova), provided the accused with a Russian-language interpreter and a state-appointed defense lawyer.

Presiding Judge Zeynal Aghayev introduced the panel of judges, the prosecutors representing the state accusation, the interpreters, and other participants to the victims and their legal successors, who were taking part in the proceedings for the first time. He also explained their rights and obligations under the law.

Subsequently, the court heard statements from the victims.

The next court session is scheduled for December 5.

Ruben Vardanyan faces multiple charges under the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan, including Articles 100.1, 100.2 (planning, preparing, initiating, and waging a war of aggression), 107 (deportation and forced displacement of the population), 109 (persecution), 110 (forcible disappearance of persons), 112 (deprivation of liberty contrary to international law), 113 (torture), 114.1 (mercenary activity), 115.2 (violation of the laws and customs of warfare), 116.0.1, 116.0.2, 116.0.10, 116.0.11, 116.0.16, 116.0.18 (violations of international humanitarian law norms during an armed conflict), 120.2.1, 120.2.3, 120.2.4, 120.2.7, 120.2.11, 120.2.12 (intentional murder), 29.120.2.1, 29.120.2.3, 29.120.2.4, 29.120.2.7, 29.120.2.11, 29.120.2.12 (attempted intentional murder), 192.3.1 (illegal entrepreneurship), 214.2.1, 214.2.3, 214.2.4 (terrorism), 214-1 (financing of terrorism), 218.1, 218.2 (creation of a criminal group), 228.3 (illegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transportation, and possession of firearms, ammunition, explosives, and devices), 270-1.2, 270-1.4 (acts threatening aviation safety), 278.1 (forcible seizure or retention of power, forcible change of the constitutional structure of the state), 279.1, 279.2, 279.3 (creation of armed formations not provided for by law), and 318.2 (illegal crossing of the state border).
BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. On November 6, the CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), Ben Black, met with President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev to discuss opportunities for expanding private investment in key sectors of the Uzbek economy, including energy, critical minerals, infrastructure, and digital technologies.

The corporation told Trend that the discussions centered on how DFC financing can promote shared interests and drive mutual prosperity in Uzbekistan and across Central Asia.

A DFC source noted that the corporation is seeking to deepen collaboration with the Uzbek government and the countrys private sector to further develop a strategic economic partnership. At the same time, the corporation stressed that it does not comment on specific projects that may or may not receive support due to commercial confidentiality.

"DFC aims to work closely with the Government of Uzbekistan and private sector leaders to foster partnerships that catalyze investment and support mutual economic growth and prosperity for both nations," a DFC representative said.

The DFC is a U.S. national development institution that mobilizes private capital for infrastructure and industrial projects in developing countries.
DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, December 2. Tajikistan and Turkiye laid their cards on the table, mapping out future plans to bolster their bilateral ties, with an eye on economic and sectoral cooperation, Trend reports via the Tajik president's office.

Discussions were held during a meeting between President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon and Numan Kurtulmus, Speaker of Turkiyes Grand National Assembly.

The parties discussed expanding trade and investment, highlighting plans to increase collaboration in key areas such as the textile industry, aluminum processing, and the creation of joint production ventures. They identified the development of projects using local Tajik raw materials as a major opportunity.

Both sides emphasized the role of the Joint Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation and the Turkish International Cooperation Agency (TIKA) in driving these initiatives forward. Plans were also made to further boost cooperation in education, science, culture, and tourism, ensuring a more diversified partnership.

The bilateral trade turnover between Tajikistan and Turkiye reached $621 million in 2024, marking a 17% increase over the previous year, with both nations targeting the ambitious goal of reaching $1 billion in trade. The foundation of this partnership rests heavily on the sectors highlighted for future collaboration: non-ferrous metals (primarily raw aluminum) constitute approximately 90% of Tajikistan's exports to Turkiye, while Turkiye's exports primarily involve clothing, textiles, and machinery. Furthermore, Turkish capital investment in Tajikistan has historically exceeded $285 million (20072024), driven largely by the efforts of TIKA, which has rolled out over 100 projects worth more than $30 million across a variety of sectors in Tajikistan.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. Iran's insurance sector should move towards embracing digital transformation, Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Ali Madanizadeh said at the 32nd International Insurance and Development Conference held in Tehran today, Trend reports.

According to him, digital economic development is now an inevitable necessity. Countries that lagged behind in development in the past have now made large investments in the digital sector. If Iran cannot apply modern technologies, it will definitely lag behind the world this time.

Madanizadeh articulated that the ingress into the digital domain engenders a plethora of lucrative prospects for Iran. Capital allocations ought to be strategically directed towards this paradigm, and it is imperative to transition towards a digitized economic framework.

The minister also said that when it comes to the scope and penetration of insurance, the scope and penetration of insurance in the world is 7.4% of the gross domestic product (GDP), more than 10% in developed countries, 2-4% in developing countries, and 2.4% in Iran.

Madanizadeh noted that this figure is very low for Iran, and the gap between developed countries and Iran will increase further. International studies have shown that economic development is effective in every percentage of insurance penetration and coverage.

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Kazakhstan unveils new goals for expanding nation's manufacturing sector

Photo: Kazakh Government

Kazakhstan is setting its sights on the manufacturing sector, hoping to hit the ground running and reach up to one-fifth of GDP by 2035. The government is pulling out all the stops, showcasing swift industrial growth, forging new global partnerships, and watching exports of processed goods soar.

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by Xinhua Writers Cao Pengyuan, Wang Xiaopeng and Shi Yifei

BEIJING, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- It was a full-circle moment for French sinologist Joel Bellassen when he saw the oracle bone inscriptions -- evidence of the written Chinese language from 3,000 years ago -- at the Yinxu Museum in central China's Henan Province this April.

Born in 1950, Bellassen once served as France's first General Inspector of Chinese Language at the Ministry of National Education. The prestigious scholar speaks fluent Mandarin and has been a dedicated promoter of cultural and educational exchange between France and China for decades.

Bellassen's first encounter with the written Chinese language was in his youth, when the Frenchman had been captivated by the characters on Chinese restaurant signage in Paris and the traditional written couplets ornamenting their door frames.

Inspired by this cross-cultural experience, Bellassen enrolled at the University of Paris VIII in 1969, majoring in Chinese. He still recalls that the choice had demanded immense courage, as career prospects related to the Chinese language were quite limited in his country at the time.

Despite the doubts of those around him, Bellassen pursued his passion for the Chinese language at university. There, Bellassen's interest in the exotic language evolved into a genuine love. Whenever he learned a new Chinese character, he would practice writing it over and over again, and he would then share it with his classmates. Later, these peers gave the zealous language learner a nickname: "Chinese."

In 1973, when China and France resumed cultural exchanges, Bellassen seized the opportunity and was in the first group of French students to study in China. "It was very good news for me at that time, and it changed my life," he told Xinhua.

After completing his studies in 1975, Bellassen returned to his home country. He has since dedicated himself to the promotion, study and teaching of the Chinese language, and his life has been closely intertwined with cultural exchange between China and France.

For Bellassen, Chinese characters are not just a linguistic form but a cultural vehicle and poetic creations. He appreciates ancient Chinese poetry and idioms because they use concise language to encapsulate profound thoughts and philosophies.

He can accurately recite the verses of the renowned Tang dynasty (618-907) poet Wang Wei without prompt, or use Chinese idioms such as "Learning-to-Walk-in-Handan" and "Frog-in-the-Well" spontaneously to describe real-life situations or philosophical ideas.

In addition to their epistemic functions, Bellassen said that Chinese characters also have unique aesthetic values. Every stroke of a Chinese character is important, and each must find its proper place. This is a unique form of training that involves both the brain and the hands, he added.

From the 1970s to the present, Bellassen has traveled to China hundreds of times. "Each visit deepens my understanding of Chinese culture. The more I learn, the more I realize how inseparable Chinese characters are from Chinese culture," he said.

This June, he traveled to China to participate in an academic tour organized by his Chinese alma mater, the Beijing Language and Culture University. He was impressed by the changes he saw in the vicinity of the campus -- a quiet field outside his dormitory back in the 1970s has now been replaced by a bustling urban street.

Over recent decades, China has achieved rapid modernization while managing to preserve its various kinds of cultural traditions, Bellassen noted. During his many tours of China, he has also become fascinated by locals practicing calligraphy on the ground in parks or on streets using water rather than ink.

He has recorded the practice with his camera and invested efforts to introduce this ground calligraphy culture to France. In 2019, which was the 55th anniversary of the establishment of China-France diplomatic relations, he joined efforts to launch the first Chinese Character Festival in Paris.

Ground calligraphy also featured in the festival. "I hope this festival becomes an opportunity for people to experience the beauty of Chinese characters firsthand," he said, remarking that his bond with the Chinese language has defined his life. 
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, December 2. In Uzbekistans Jizzakh region, a new 700-meter overpass and a 4-kilometer highway have been built for nearly 290 billion soums ($24.38 million) to connect the regional center with the international M-39 highway, Trend reports via the press service of the President of Uzbekistan.

The announcement was made during President Shavkat Mirziyoyevs visit to the Jizzakh region, where he reviewed ongoing efforts to develop modern and convenient road infrastructure.

The new road is capable of handling more than 14,000 vehicles per day.

The overpass, constructed using modern metal-structure technology, is designed for a 100-year service life. In juxtaposition, conventional reinforced concrete edifices typically exhibit a durability span of approximately 50 years, thereby achieving a lifespan that is effectively augmented by a factor of two.

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TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, December 2. Uzbekistan and China discussed measures to accelerate the implementation of major infrastructure projects, including the construction of the UzbekistanKyrgyzstanChina railway, Trend reports via the Uzbek Ministry of Investments, Industry and Trade.

The matter was discussed during a routine meeting of the Working Group, established within the framework of the cooperation mechanism between Uzbekistans Ministry of Investments and Industry (MIIT) and Chinas National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). The meeting was co-chaired by Deputy Minister Ilzat Kasimov and Zhou Haibing, Vice Chairman of the NDRC, with the participation of members of the Uzbek delegation and representatives from the Chinese side.

The parties also discussed prospects for cooperation in the field of artificial intelligence, as well as joint efforts to advance satellite technologies, including the creation of a regional Beidou system center for Central Asia. Both sides reaffirmed their readiness to further expand strategic dialogue and deepen practical cooperation.

Meanwhile, Uzbekistans trade turnover with China reached $13.1 billion from January through October 2025, up from $10.2 billion recorded during the same period in 2024 - an increase of approximately 28%.
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, December 2. Construction has commenced on a new solar power plant in Kyrgyzstans Issyk-Kul region, subsequent to the signing of a supplemental agreement between the Ministry of Energy, Sonningdale Limited, and CAREC LLC., Trend reports via the country's Energy Ministry.

The project, located in the village of Kyzyl-Oruk, is poised to enhance Kyrgyzstans renewable energy capacity, bolster national energy security, and attract additional foreign investment. The updated agreement outlines key provisions, including the respective responsibilities of each party, guarantees to ensure project stability, procedures for addressing potential issues, and the applicable legal framework.

According to the Ministry of Energy, initial construction activities are already underway. These include the preparation of temporary housing for workers, the pouring of the foundation for the substation, the installation of a 110-kV transmission line, and the mounting of brackets for the solar panels.

This new plant is a vital component of Kyrgyzstans broader strategy to diversify its energy mix and expand the role of clean energy within the national grid.

Previously, Kyrgyzstan set an official target to increase the share of renewable energy sources (RES) to 30% of its total energy balance by 2030, encompassing solar, wind, and small hydropower projects.

As of early 2025, the total installed capacity for solar photovoltaic (PV) generation in the country remains relatively modest, estimated at under 10 MW. The development of large-scale facilities, such as the one in Kyzyl-Oruk, is crucial to achieving the nations 2030 renewable energy targets.

The project directly supports the government's plan, established in 2024, to attract $1 billion in foreign investment into the renewable energy sector over the next few years.
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, December 2. United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ambassador to Turkmenistan Ahmet Al-Khay Khamad Al-Hammeli said that the UAE is seeking to double the trade turnover between the two countries in the coming years, Trend reports.

Non-oil trade nexus between Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) attained a substantial valuation of $1.759 billion in the fiscal year 2024, reflecting a remarkable 75% escalation relative to the preceding year, 2023. The UAE occupies a prominent position within Turkmenistan's trading ecosystem, securing the third spot in the initial three quarters of 2025.

Earlier, high-level visits between the two countries played a crucial role in boosting economic cooperation. In February 2025, UAE Vice President Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al-Nahyan met Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov in Ashgabat. In May, three UAE ministers visited Turkmenistan to discuss investment, energy, and infrastructure projects. Several agreements were signed, including joint development of gas fields and long-term supply contracts involving UAE investment companies and Turkmen state enterprises, in addition to existing collaboration in education, sports, and technology sectors.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. Azerbaijans Minister of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov held discussions with Abidin Gulmus, Chairman of the Board of the Turkish company GEN Ilac ve Saglk Urunleri Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S., regarding a pharmaceutical factory project in Azerbaijan, Trend reports.

The Azerbaijani minister shared this in a post on his official X page.

We were pleased to meet with Abidin Gulmus, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Turkiyes GEN Ilac ve Saglk Urunleri Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S.

Our discussions focused on the companys productive cooperation with Azerbaijan and the prospects for advancing partnership in the pharmaceutical industry.

Within the framework of our joint activities, we also reviewed the current status of the pharmaceutical plant project, the progress achieved to date, and the plans for the next phase," the post reads.

Azerbaijan currently possesses a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility, Scandens Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., which adheres to international standards and has the capacity to produce hundreds of millions of tablets and capsules each year. A joint Azerbaijani-Turkish pharmaceutical facility is being constructed in Pirallahi Industrial Park, with the objective of manufacturing over 70 varieties of medications, thus diminishing import dependence and enhancing domestic self-sufficiency.

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TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, December 2. Uzbekistan has officially reopened its border with Afghanistan, a strategic move aimed at facilitating the country's goal of increasing export volumes to $2.5 billion by 2026, Trend reports via the country's Chamber of Commerce.

Passenger movement across the TermezHairatan bridge has been reinstated, effectively lifting the restrictions imposed in 2021 that had hindered travel and restricted business activities. Citizens of both nations can now cross the border directly and securely, although visa requirements remain in place.

This reopening is seen as a crucial step in strengthening bilateral trade, particularly in light of the consistent growth in Uzbekistans exports to Afghanistan in recent years.

According to data from Uzbekistans Statistics Committee, trade turnover between the two countries reached $1.3 billion from January to October 2025, marking a 46.7 percent increase compared to the same period in 2024 ($886.3 million). Exports comprised $1.1 billion of this total, accounting for 84.6 percent of the overall trade volume.
Iran looks to fast-track development of joint oil field with Iraq

Iran and Iraq are set to start the second phase of the Azar (Badra) joint oil field soon. The plan includes drilling 19 new wells and installing pumps. Production is expected to rise by 30,000 barrels per day.

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BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, December 2. The Kyrgyz Ministry of Economy has revised a draft resolution on adjusting the procedure for determining the Value Added Tax (VAT) base and sent the updated document for further discussion, Trend reports via the ministry.

The draft, which amends the Cabinet of Ministers' Resolution No. 60 of February 5, 2025, is intended to improve tax administration, prevent unjustified undervaluation of the VAT base, and ensure fair competition among compliant businesses.

A multitude of observations was articulated throughout the interagency endorsement process and the public engagement sessions. To form a unified position, meetings with government bodies, business representatives, and associations were held on November 13 and 21.

The revised draft includes several key clarifications. VAT risk-based tax base rules will not apply to entities registered with the State Tax Services Office for Control of Large Taxpayers. For others, the tax base using risk indicators will be calculated from the average market price of the product, reduced by 30 percent. The compendium of significant fiscal contributors will be administered by the revenue authority in accordance with the applications and solicitations submitted.

The VAT tax base, inclusive of risk indicators, will undergo biannual updates, specifically prior to the deadlines of December 20 and June 20.

VAT is a major pillar of Kyrgyzstan's fiscal system. In 2024, VAT revenues constituted approximately 3540% of the total collected taxes managed by the State Tax Service, making its effective administration crucial for the state budget.

The Office for Control of Large Taxpayers (UOKPN) manages businesses that meet specific turnover thresholds. This division is vital, as fewer than 1,000 businesses managed by the UOKPN historically contribute over 60% of the country's total tax revenue. The exclusion of these entities from the newly implemented risk-adjusted VAT computation is strategically designed to mitigate operational disruptions for the state's foremost and most compliant tax contributors.

The original Cabinet Resolution No. 60 of February 5, 2025, which this draft amends, was part of a broader push to combat the shadow economy through digital means, notably through the mandatory use of electronic consignment notes (ETTN) and the electronic invoicing system, launched in 2023.

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ASTANA, Kazakhstan, December 2. Kazakhstan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are preparing a new set of infrastructure and energy-sector projects, Trend reports via Kazakh PM's office.

Key projects under consideration include ADB financing for the construction of the Yesil counter-regulator on the Yesil River in the Akmola region. The two sides are also working on wastewater treatment plant upgrades in Zhezkazgan, Satpayev, Stepnogorsk, and Balkhash.

The plans were outlined during a meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev and Leah Gutierrez, ADB Director General for Central and West Asia. Discussions focused on upcoming investment plans in water supply, wastewater treatment, energy transition, and catastrophic risk insurance.

ADB representatives signaled interest in joining Kazakhstans National Project for the Modernization of the Energy and Utilities Sectors, which aims to accelerate upgrades in power infrastructure and improve service reliability. Both sides described the outlook for long-term cooperation as positive and said they expect to expand joint project planning in the coming months.

The ADB's stated interest in joining Kazakhstan's National Project for the Modernization of the Energy and Utilities Sectors places the bank at the center of the country's most ambitious infrastructure overhaul.

The National Project is designed to run from 2025 to 2029 and is budgeted at over 13 trillion tenge (more than $24 billion in total investment). The primary objective of this massive investment is to reduce the crippling wear and tear on aging networks, which currently exceeds 60% in many electricity supply regions and averages 53% in heat supply.

The project aims to reduce network depreciation by an average of 15% overall and includes plans to construct and repair 86,000 kilometers of utility networks. Moreover, one of the initiatives is an addition of 7.3 GW in new generation capacity by commissioning 15 new projects and modernizing 14 existing facilities.
GUANGZHOU, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- China Southern Airlines has launched direct flights between Guangzhou and Madrid, establishing the first non-stop air link between the southern Chinese metropolis and the Iberian Peninsula.

The route is operated by Boeing 787 aircraft with a flight time of approximately 13 to 14 hours, offering three weekly flights on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Flight CZ377 departs Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong Province, at 10:50 a.m. Beijing time and arrives in Madrid at 6:30 p.m. local time, while the return service, CZ378, leaves Madrid at 8:30 p.m. local time and touches down in Guangzhou at 4:40 p.m. the following day, Beijing time.

Meanwhile, China Southern Airlines has launched services for passengers from cities in southern China, including Kunming, Haikou and Shantou, to transfer in Guangzhou within three hours for travel to Madrid, a European transport hub. The route also facilitates onward travel from Madrid to Latin American destinations.

Spain serves as one of China's major trading partners within the European Union. This year is the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Spain comprehensive strategic partnership.

The new route enhances the efficiency and convenience of transfer services for global passengers through Guangzhou and supports China's opening-up efforts, said Zeng Yongchao, deputy general manager of China Southern Air Holding Company Ltd. 
BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. Host Country Agreement between the Government of Azerbaijan and the Clean Energy Center of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) has been signed, Trend reports via the Ministry of Energy.

The agreement was signed on behalf of the Government of Azerbaijan by Minister of Energy Parviz Shahbazov and Executive Director of the Clean Energy Center of the Economic Cooperation Organization (CECECO) Aysel Yagubova.

The agreement ensures the effective implementation of the center's functions and responsibilities, including the legal status and privileges of CECECO in accordance with the charter, and also regulates relations between CECECO and the Host Country.

CECECO plays an important role in promoting and coordinating sustainable energy, energy transition, and energy efficiency projects at the national and regional levels. The institution's activities will not only create additional opportunities for national and regional green energy projects implemented in Azerbaijan, but will also serve to further strengthen the role of our country in regional energy processes, including in establishing energy connections with Central Asia.

The location of the Clean Energy Center in Baku is a clear indication of Azerbaijan's commitment to the transition to clean and green energy in the ECO format, as well as its contribution to regional cooperation in this area.

Meanwhile, at the 25th meeting of the ECO Council of Foreign Ministers held in Ashgabat on November 27, 2021, the Charter of the ECO Clean Energy Center was adopted, and Azerbaijan was selected as the host country for the CECECO.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. Azerbaijan discussed cooperation opportunities with the European Union (EU) in the energy sector, Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov wrote on his X page, Trend reports.

"We conducted fruitful discussions with the head of the EU Delegation to our country, Ambassador Marijana Kujundzic. We assessed the development of the Southern Gas Corridor, Green Energy Corridor projects, energy efficiency, hydrogen, and other priority areas of our strategic energy partnership, as well as the opportunities for cooperation emerging amid the new realities in the region," he added.

Azerbaijan and the EU have extensive energy cooperation, primarily centered on natural gas via the Southern Gas Corridor. Cooperation is expanding to include a focus on green energy through projects like the proposed Black Sea Interconnector Cable, which will transmit renewable energy from Azerbaijan and Georgia to Europe.

The Southern Gas Corridor includes the South Caucasus Pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum), the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which run to Southern Europe. The total length of the corridor is about 3,500 kilometers. The main goal of the project is to increase the security of gas supplies to Europe and reduce the European market's dependence on Russian gas.

Additional strategies encompass the enhancement of energy optimization protocols and the integration of sustainable energy matrices, such as offshore wind energy systems.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a US$130 million (112.4 million) financing package to Turkiyes Akbank to strengthen support for inclusive growth and digital investment among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country, Trend reports via the Bank.

The package consists of three components under the EBRDs dedicated financing programmes: a loan of up to US$70 million (60.5 million) for on-lending to women-led SMEs under the Turkiye Women in Business II programme; a loan of up to US$50 million (43.2 million) for youth-led SMEs through the Youth in Business programme; and a US$10 million (8.6 million) loan to support digital transformation projects by Turkish manufacturing SMEs under the Turkiye Digital Transformation Financing Facility.

The transaction is backed by first-loss risk coverage provided by the European Union via its European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus (EFSD+) Growth4All guarantee, as well as the Turkish Ministry of Treasury and Finance through KOSGEB and the Credit Guarantee Fund (KGF).

The EBRD remains one of Turkiyes largest institutional investors, with more than 23 billion committed across 502 projects since 2009, predominantly in the private sector.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. TotalEnergies, Tree Energy Solutions (TES), Osaka Gas, Toho Gas and ITOCHU have signed a Joint Development and Operating Agreement granting the three Japanese companies a combined 33.3% stake in the Live Oak project  a large-scale electric natural gas (e-NG, or e-methane) production facility under development in Nebraska, USA, Trend reports via the ITOCHU company.

Following the deal, TotalEnergies and TES will each retain a 33.35% share in the project.

The partners are now preparing to launch the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) phase. The project aims to develop approximately 250 MW of electrolysis capacity and 75 ktpa of methanation. Subject to a Final Investment Decision expected in 2027, commercial operations are targeted to begin by 2030, with plans to export e-NG to Japan. Osaka Gas and Toho Gas will serve as the primary offtakers. The initiative is set to support Japanese gas utilities in meeting their goal of injecting 1% carbon-neutral gasincluding e-NGinto the national grid by 2030.

The agreement builds upon the strategic partnership formed in 2023 between TotalEnergies and TES to scale up industrial production of e-NG. The Live Oak project will rely on Nebraskas significant biogenic CO resources, captured from bioethanol plants, as well as growing renewable power generation capacity in the United States.

Electric natural gas (e-NG) is a synthetic gas produced from renewable hydrogen and CO. Chemically identical to traditional natural gas, it can be transported, stored and used within existing LNG infrastructure without any modifications to consumer equipment.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. The European Union (EU) has included the Black Sea Interconnection Cable project, which envisages laying a green corridor from Azerbaijan to Europe, Trend reports via the European Commission.

The Commission has granted 235 cross-border energy projects the status of Projects of Common Interest (PCIs) and Projects of Mutual Interest (PMIs)  the second such list since its launch in 2023. The selected projects will be eligible to apply for EU financing from the Connecting Europe Facility and will benefit from expedited permitting and regulatory processes for swift execution and delivery.

On December 17, 2022, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania, and Hungary signed a strategic partnership agreement, which includes plans for the construction of a 1,000 MW submarine energy cable under the Black Sea, spanning 1,195 kilometers. This cable will transmit green electricity generated in Azerbaijan and Georgia to Romania, with further transport to Hungary and the rest of Europe, enhancing Europes access to renewable energy from the Caucasus region. Bulgaria has also expressed interest in joining the project.

In September 2024, Romanian transmission system operator Transelectrica, Georgian transmission system operator Georgian State Electrosystem, Azerbaijans power utility AzerEnerji, and Hungarys power utility MVM established a joint firm to install a submarine cable under the Black Sea.
ASTANA, Kazakhstan, December 2. Turkish Cengiz Holding plans to build two sugar plants in Kazakhstan with a total production capacity of up to 300,000 tons of sugar per year, Trend reports via the Ministry of Agriculture of Kazakhstan.

A memorandum of understanding for the project was signed following a meeting between the Minister of Agriculture, Aidarbek Saparov, and Cengiz Holding's board member, Shaban Cengiz.

According to Cengiz, the project will involve an investment of $500 million over a 10-year period. Construction of the two plants is expected to begin in 2026, with the goal of launching them within two years.

The potential locations under consideration for the plants are the North Kazakhstan and Pavlodar regions, both of which offer the necessary climate conditions, infrastructure, and land resources to support sugar production.

The execution of this initiative will not merely address the domestic sugar consumption requirements but will also catalyze the advancement of ancillary sectors, including livestock feed, culinary components, ethanol production, and various other commodities. The stakeholders reached a consensus to further engage in the projects intricacies and delineate the forthcoming action items in the imminent timeframe.

Meanwhile, Minister Saparov noted that Kazakhstan currently has four sugar plants, three of which process sugar beets with a combined annual capacity of 870,000 tons. However, the country's annual sugar consumption reaches 500,000 tons, and domestic production from local raw materials covers only 14% of this demand.

Cengiz Holding is a Turkish conglomerate with primary interests in construction, energy, mining, and tourism.

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HONG KONG, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Police expect to complete the search and evidence collection work of the major fire in the residential complex Wang Fuk Court within three weeks at its current speed, the Hong Kong Police Force said Monday.

The police began searching for remains in the last two of the seven fire-stricken buildings on Monday morning, and confirmed that the death toll in the fire had risen to 151 by 4 p.m. local time Monday. A total of 104 of the bodies had been identified.

The police's Disaster Victims Identification Unit will do their utmost to discover bodies or objects that can help identify the deceased, to which the surviving families can bid farewell, said Lam Man-han, regional commander of New Territories North of the Hong Kong Police Force.

So far, the police have arrested 13 people on suspicion of manslaughter who work for the head contractor, subcontractors and project consulting firm for the renovation. More arrests could be made pending the results of further investigation.

Construction mesh sheets that fall short of fireproof standards, coupled with highly flammable polyurethane foam used to cushion windows, might have caused the "unusually" rapid spread of the fire, according to authorities.

The police collected 20 samples of protective mesh draped over scaffolding from lower, middle and upper floors of the buildings. Seven of the samples failed fire resistance tests.

The ICAC said that suspects under investigation purchased substandard protective mesh to repair damages wreaked by the typhoon in July.

In October, a fire started from protective netting at a construction site in Central. To prepare for possible random quality checks, a much smaller batch of more expensive fireproof mesh sheets was purchased to drape over lower levels of each building, according to the ICAC.

A city-wide fire safety check of building maintenance materials had gone through 61 sites by 4 p.m. on Monday. The Labor Department has issued 53 written warnings and 13 notices for improvement, and brought two charges.

Support strengthened for those affected by the fire, with monetary donations being funneled in from individuals, companies and organizations from Hong Kong and beyond.

By 4 p.m. Monday, 1,861 households had received disaster-relief cash grant of 10,000 Hong Kong dollars (about 1,284 U.S. dollars) handed out by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government.

All individuals injured in the fire and admitted to public hospitals under Hong Kong's Hospital Authority will receive full fee waivers for all necessary healthcare services through the entire process of their treatment and rehabilitation, the Health Bureau announced on Monday. 
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Not Mandatory: Minister clarifies after Sanchar Saathi sparks row

Union Communication Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia Tuesday said Sanchar Saathi app is not mandatory and can be deleted if a user wishes to do so.

New Delhi: Union Communication Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia Tuesday said Sanchar Saathi app is not mandatory and can be deleted if a user wishes to do so.

If you want to keep it in your phone, keep it. If you want to delete it, do so. For example, when you buy a phone, many apps come pre-installed. Google Maps comes too. Now, if you don't want to use Google Maps, delete it, Scindia told reporters.

Scindias clarification came after the reports that the Narendra Modi government has asked smartphone manufacturers to pre-install Sanchar Saathi app in all their devices.

In a directive issued to phone makers privately, the government also asked to install the app in existing phones through forced updates.

The DoT directive sparked a massive outrage with the opposition party leaders calling the move beyond unconstitutional and Big boss surveillance moment for the smartphone subscribers in India.

A Matter of Customer Protection

Scindia, however, defended the move saying the decision has been taken for the protection of customers.

This is a matter of customer protection. There is nothing mandatory. If you do not want to register it, don't. It will stay dormant. And if you want to delete it, delete it, he said.

Not every person in the country knows that there is an app to protect him/her from fraud. So it is our responsibility to spread the information, he added.

In 2024, cyberfraud worth Rs 22,800 took place in our country. The opposition is asking us how we will stop fraud and when we are giving Sanchar Saathi to the common citizen, they are saying it is (snooping tool) Pegasus, he said.

The Sanchar Saathi app was launched on January 17, 2025 by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) which claimed that the app, a citizen-centric tool, brings robust security features and fraud-reporting capabilities directly to users smartphones.

The ministry claimed the app crossed 50 lakh downloads in August this year, and has blocked over 37.28 lakh stolen/lost mobile devices and traced more than 22.76 lakh devices since its launch.

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Surveillance, Beyond Unconstitutional: DoT Sanchar Saathi Directive Sparks Outrage

The Narendra Modi governments directive to smartphone manufacturers to pre-install Sanchar Saathi app has sparked a huge outrage

[Representative image generated by Gemini AI]

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi governments directive to smartphone manufacturers to pre-install Sanchar Saathi app has sparked a huge outrage.

The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) in the directive cited cyber security and fraud reporting capabilities of the app while asking the phone makers to pre-install it in all devices.

The DoT directive also asked the phone makers to install the Sanchar Saathi app in existing phones via forced update.

The opposition parties are however not convinced and have termed the move something which is beyond unconstitutional.

"Big Brother cannot watch us. The Right to Privacy is an intrinsic part of the fundamental right to life and liberty, enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution," Senior Congress leader KC Venugopal wrote on social media platform X.

"A pre-loaded government app that cannot be uninstalled is a dystopian tool to monitor every Indian. It is a means to watch over every movement, interaction and decision of each citizen. We reject this Direction and demand an immediate rollback," he added.

Another Big Boss Surveillance Moment

Slamming the governments move, Rajya Sabha MP from Shiv Sena (UBT) Priyanka Chaturvedi, said the move is "another BIG BOSS surveillance moment".

"Such shady ways to get into individual phones will be protested and opposed If the IT Ministry thinks that instead of creating robust redressal systems it will create surveillance systems then it should be ready for a pushback," she said.

Sanchar Saathi was launched on January 17, 2025 by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) which claimed that the app, a citizen-centric tool, brings robust security features and fraud-reporting capabilities directly to users smartphones.

The ministry claimed the app crossed 50 lakh downloads in August this year, and has blocked over 37.28 lakh stolen/lost mobile devices and traced more than 22.76 lakh devices since its launch.

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Winter Session: Govt agrees to debate on SIR after ruckus in Parliament

The Narendra Modi government Tuesday agreed to hold a debate on Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls after repeated disruptions by the opposition MPs leading to adjournments in the Lok Sabha

[MPs belonging to various opposition parties in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Tuesday protested outside the Parliament building against Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.]

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government Tuesday agreed to hold a debate on Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls after repeated disruptions by the opposition MPs leading to adjournments in the Lok Sabha.

In a video posted on X, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the Parliament will hold a discussion on electoral reforms from 12:00 PM next Tuesday December 09, 2025 and will continue on Wednesday if needed.

The government conceded to opposition demand of holding a debate on Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls after two days of chaos and disruptions.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had earlier in the day held a Business Advisory Committee meeting with floor leaders, where it was decided that a 10-hour-long discussion on electoral reforms will be held in the Lower House of Parliament on December 9 and 10, 2025.

A broad consensus has been reached between the ruling and opposition benches, Samajwadi Party MP Dharmendra Yadav told reporters outside the Parliament.

The opposition MPs had earlier also walked out of the Rajya Sabha urging the government to hold the debate on electoral reforms on priority basis.

These are urgent matters, people are dying; SIR is going fast, 28 people have died. I want discussion now, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha said.

Why ruckus over Special Intensive Revision?

The Election Commission of India is conducting Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in 12 States and Union Territories (UTs) starting November 04, 2025.

The Election Commission of India has given a months time to Block Level Officers or BLOs to check the voter lists at booth level and submit the required data.

Alleging that the time given to complete the task is insufficient, a number of BLOs in various states have committed suicide.

As per the reports coming from different states, 09 BLOs have committed suicide in Madhya Pradesh, 08 in Uttar Pradesh, 06 in Gujarat, 05 in West Bengal and 01 each in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Citing the deaths of the BLOs, it was demanded from the Election Commission to extend the December 04, 2025 deadline to submit the revised voter list or submission of enumeration forms. Following this, the ECI extended the deadline till December 11, 2025.

But, the Supreme Court of India has asked the ECI to extend the deadline by one more week.

The opposition parties are accusing the Election Commission of India of biased addition and deletion of electorates from the voter lists to favour the ruling alliance.

The ECI has rejected these charges.

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The News in Brief Tuesday, December 2, 2025

Several opposition parties in Georgia have issued a statement urging Western allies and credible international institutions to conduct an independent investigation following a BBC report suggesting the use of banned chemical substances against protesters in 2024.The statement calls for an impartial international inquiry to establish the factual circumstances, identify those responsible, and prevent further use of similar substances. It also urges international partners to consider temporary restrictions on the supply of specialized equipment or tools that could be misused against civilians. The opposition argued that such measures, directed at the ruling Georgian Dream party, would serve as a preventive step and reduce the risk of further human rights violations.According to the statement, the opposition is already collecting and processing relevant information in cooperation with democratic partners to provide to international institutions."The latest BBC investigation presented serious evidence that, in 2024, during the violent dispersal of peaceful anti-government protests, the Georgian authorities used banned chemical substances against Georgian citizens. If confirmed, this would represent a grave violation of international norms, obligations to protect human rights, and Georgia's commitments under international conventions," the statement read.The parties noted that internal accountability is unlikely under the current government, which they described as authoritarian and illegitimate, and emphasized the need for external oversight. "An impartial internal investigation cannot be conducted. Predictably, the government does not plan to invite an international investigative mission to ensure transparency. We, the democratic opposition parties of Georgia, call on credible international institutions to conduct an independent investigation and prevent the further use of such substances," the statement continued.The statement was signed by seven opposition parties, including Ahali, Girchi, European Georgia, the National Democratic Party, Freedom Square, Strategy Aghmashenebeli, and the Federalists.As of December 1, 2025, Georgian citizens must follow Poland's standard employment process and obtain a D-type national visa to work in nonseasonal jobs.The regulation, issued on November 21 by Poland's Minister of Family, Labor and Social Policy, removed Georgia from the list of countries eligible for the simplified procedure, which allowed work for up to 24 months without a standard permit. Armenia, Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine remain covered.Polish authorities cited the political situation in Georgia, potential restrictions on visa-free travel, and a decrease in work permit declarations compared to 2024 as reasons for the change.Under the previous system, employment required only an employer's declaration and a valid residence document. Now, Georgian citizens must first secure a work permit before applying for a D-type visa, which allows stays of up to one year.Those already working under previously registered declarations may continue until the expiry date, and applications submitted before December 1 will be processed under the old rules.In 2024, Poland deported more than 2,500 Georgian nationals, mostly for using forged documents, and over 1,500 others were reportedly involved in criminal offenses.Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has linked the change to security concerns, including a review of visa requirements following an alleged Russian-backed arson attack in 2024.
This photo taken on Dec. 2, 2025 shows a scene during the celebration for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Lao People's Democratic Republic in Vientiane, Laos. (Xinhua/Ma Huaizhao)

VIENTIANE, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Laos is alive with celebrations honoring five decades of steady national growth as the country marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Lao People's Democratic Republic on Tuesday.

The 50th anniversary celebrations began Tuesday morning with a grand parade, broadcast live on television, as residents across the country joined the festivities.

In a comprehensive address marking the historic milestone, Thongloun Sisoulith, general secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee and Lao president, reflected on the nation's journey.

He emphasized the unwavering commitment to the socialist ideal, the great national unity of all Lao ethnic groups, and the continuous strengthening of the people's democratic regime.

Thongloun outlined the nation's steadfast foreign policy of peace, independence, friendship, and cooperation. He also stressed the goal of building a self-reliant economy, following a balanced development path that harmonizes economy, culture, society, and environment toward green and sustainable growth.

Namfon, a 20-year-old student, expressed hope that Laos will continue to develop in the years ahead, noting that the celebrations serve as a reminder for the next generation to preserve the nation's achievements and build on the prosperity achieved so far.

Proudly celebrating the nation's development on this milestone, Noyna, a resident of Vientiane, said that she is firmly committed to contributing and working alongside the leaders to help further develop the country.

The celebrations were broadcast live on television and online, attracting a large audience who actively participated virtually. Netizens shared similar feelings of gratitude and hope.

In the evening, a drone display and fireworks will light up the sky to mark the occasion.

"The drone display rehearsals circulating online went viral a few days ago, offering a glimpse of the spectacular show for the Lao people. It was grand and exciting, and I can't wait to see it in person," said Andy.

To mark the occasion, senior Party and government leaders, led by Thongloun, paid tribute at key national monuments on Monday.

Senior leaders and officials from friendly countries attended the celebrations. Leaders from various countries also sent congratulatory messages. 

Lao soldiers participate in a military parade marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Lao People's Democratic Republic in Vientiane, Laos, Dec. 2, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhao Xu)

Lao soldiers participate in a military parade marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Lao People's Democratic Republic in Vientiane, Laos, Dec. 2, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhao Xu)

This photo taken on Dec. 2, 2025 shows a scene during the celebration for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Lao People's Democratic Republic in Vientiane, Laos. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua)
A man works at a construction site in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Dec. 3, 2025. The Afghan government's national procurement commission has approved 11 development projects valued at 1.5 billion afghani (over 22.5 million U.S. dollars) to boost infrastructure, healthcare, and economic opportunities, the office of the deputy prime minister for economic affairs announced Tuesday. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

KABUL, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Afghan government's national procurement commission has approved 11 development projects valued at 1.5 billion afghani (over 22.5 million U.S. dollars) to boost infrastructure, healthcare, and economic opportunities, the office of the deputy prime minister for economic affairs announced Tuesday.

The decision was made during a commission meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. Out of 30 proposals reviewed across multiple sectors, 11 strategic initiatives were granted final approval, according to the office's statement.

The approved projects are projected to create thousands of employment opportunities for local communities, aligning with the government's broader push to stimulate economic recovery and alleviate hardship in a country still rebuilding from decades of conflict, it said. 

This photo taken on Dec. 3, 2025 shows a construction site in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Afghan government's national procurement commission has approved 11 development projects valued at 1.5 billion afghani (over 22.5 million U.S. dollars) to boost infrastructure, healthcare, and economic opportunities, the office of the deputy prime minister for economic affairs announced Tuesday. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

People work at a construction site in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Dec. 3, 2025. The Afghan government's national procurement commission has approved 11 development projects valued at 1.5 billion afghani (over 22.5 million U.S. dollars) to boost infrastructure, healthcare, and economic opportunities, the office of the deputy prime minister for economic affairs announced Tuesday. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)
International student enrolment at US colleges dropped 17% in the fall 2025 semester, according to the Institute of International Education (IIE) and partner associations. The decline is linked to visa restrictions and stricter government policies introduced over recent years.

International students made up about 6% of the US higher education population and contributed nearly $55 billion (41.5 billion) last year. They supported over 355,000 jobs across the country, highlighting their importance to the economy.

Economic impact of the decline

Analysis of IIE data by NAFSA revealed that the decline in enrolments this year will cost the US economy $1.1 billion (831.7 million) in lost revenue and approximately 23,000 jobs. California is expected to lose around $161.9 million (122.4 million), followed by New York at $152.5 million (115.3 million), Massachusetts at $92.1 million (69.6 million), and Texas at $64.6 million (41.2 million).

Trump's Student Visa Policy Changes

According to NAFSA, the enrolment decline is due to the Trump Administration's changes in student visa policy.

The administration implemented multiple changes to international student visas. These include rescinding thousands of existing visas, increasing vetting and restrictions, and proposing new regulations to limit the duration of some visas to a fixed period.

For instance, a proposed regulation would limit F visas for international students to four years, requiring extensions afterward. The administration stated that these steps were intended to 'monitor' and curb visa abuse. However, the rules have caused chaos across US colleges and institutions.

'For too long, past Administrations have allowed foreign students and other visa holders to remain in the US virtually indefinitely, posing safety risks, costing taxpayers untold amounts, and disadvantaging US citizens,' the US Department of Homeland Security stated in August.

NAFSA Proposes Policy Solutions

NAFSA recommended several steps the Trump Administration could take to address the enrolment decline. It urged the government to improve visa availability and processing for all F and M students and J exchange visitors, exempt them from travel bans, safeguard F-1 student access to Optional Practical Training (OPT), and preserve the duration of status policy.

NAFSA also called on Congress to pass the Keep STEM Talent Act and provisions that create a pathway to a green card for F-1 students.

'A close read of enrollment figures from last year and this fall shows that the pipeline of global talent in the United States is in a precarious position,' said Fanta Aw, NAFSA's CEO.

According to an analysis by economic software company Implan, international students are vital to the economic health of US communities. Data on new students' spending shows they support $12.6 billion (9.5 billion) in US GDP, over $6.6 billion (4.9 billion) in labor income, and more than 93,000 jobs nationwide.

'International students do far more than attend classes  they sustain local economies,' said Bjorn Markeson, an economist at Implan. 'Their spending supports thousands of jobs, stimulates local businesses, and generates tax revenue that underpins community services.'

The decline poses a challenge for US higher education and the economy. Stakeholders emphasise the need for policies that attract and retain international students, vital for future growth and community prosperity.

Disclaimer: Our digital media content is for informational purposes only and not investment advice. Please conduct your own analysis or seek professional advice before investing. Remember, investments are subject to market risks and past performance doesn't indicate future returns.

Originally published on IBTimes UK
A new report from the Center for American Progress (CAP) issues a sharp warning: political control over public universities is not just compromising academic freedomit's actively driving talented academics away, mirroring the "brain drain" seen in nations with authoritarian governments.

The report, How University Governing Boards Can Protect the Independence of Colleges and Universities, identifies politically appointed governing boards and state legislative interference as the primary threats to the independence of U.S. higher education. The consequence, the report argues, is a self-inflicted wound that undermines the quality of teaching, research, and institutional global standing.

From Budapest to the Bayou: A Dangerous Parallel

The most alarming aspect of the report is its use of international case studies to forecast the U.S. future. It details how, in countries like Turkey, Hungary, and Poland, political actors used control over university governanceby consolidating power, replacing leadership, and dictating curriculato impose ideological agendas.

The result in these nations was a steep decline in academic quality, the suppression of critical inquiry, and a mass exodus of faculty. Crucially, their universities subsequently suffered a significant drop in global rankings.

The CAP report argues that the U.S. is already starting down a similar path. A 2025 survey of faculty in the southeastern United States found that nearly a quarter of academics sought roles in other states due to the escalating political climate. Furthermore, 17% of respondents reported experiencing direct administrator interference in curricular decisions.

"The lesson for the United States is urgent: Scientific and economic progress depend on the independence of higher education institutions," the report states. "If the United States slips into this pattern, it will sacrifice a generation's worth of scientific, cultural, and civic advancement."

The Mechanism: Governing Board Overreach

The engine of this threat is the university governing board, which serves as the ultimate legal authority for an institution. In most public institutions, members are political appointees chosen by governors or state legislators, often prioritizing wealth, political connections, and ideology over relevant academic expertise.

The report highlights how these boards are increasingly overstepping their fiduciary rolewhich should focus on finances and strategic oversightto interfere in core academic matters, specifically:

Curricular Dictation: Overriding faculty expertise on what is taught in the classroom.

Overriding faculty expertise on what is taught in the classroom. Weakening Tenure: Introducing new post-tenure review processes that enable the removal of tenured faculty for political, rather than professional, misconduct or financial reasons.

Introducing new post-tenure review processes that enable the removal of tenured faculty for political, rather than professional, misconduct or financial reasons. Research Interference: Intervening in the free publication and dissemination of academic research.

When trustees, who often have limited experience in higher education, overrule the judgment of tenured faculty with specialized doctoral training, it sends a clear message that political expediency outweighs scholarly merita dynamic that pushes top researchers and educators to seek refuge in more stable and independent environments.

The Economic and Academic Cost

For states that become hotbeds of political interference, the resulting brain drain translates into tangible costs. Losing key faculty members means:

Reduced Research Funding: Top academics bring in lucrative federal and private research grants, which fuel the local economy. Decreased Quality of Instruction: Students are deprived of learning from leaders in their field, harming the long-term value of the degree. Erosion of Institutional Reputation: A hostile environment diminishes an institution's ability to attract the best graduate students and future faculty, leading to a loss of global prestige.

To counter this, the report recommends depoliticizing the selection of board members and creating legal safeguards to affirm the authority of faculty in all matters of teaching and research. For university administrators, the challenge is immediate: they must act decisively to uphold the principle of shared governance and shield their academic workforce from external political demands, or risk presiding over a long-term decline in institutional quality.
Vietnam Briefing has developed into a premium source for insight on doing business in Vietnam. It publishes business news concerning foreign direct investment into Vietnam, including the most important tax, legal and accounting issues. The Vietnam Briefing Magazine was first published in 2009, and is contributed to by investment professionals based in Vietnam.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Multinational retail giant Costco has filed a lawsuit seeking to secure a full refund of import duties should the U.S. Supreme Court strike down President Donald Trump's use of emergency powers to impose tariffs.

In a complaint lodged with the Court of International Trade over the Thanksgiving holiday, the retailer asked judges to declare all tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act unlawful.

The company argued that Trump exceeded his authority when he used the statute to levy what he described as "reciprocal" tariffs, a move two lower courts have already found improper.

Costco said its business had been harmed by the duties and warned that, even if the Supreme Court ultimately agrees the tariffs were illegal, a refund is not guaranteed without its own separate legal action.

The company did not disclose how much it aims to recover, but trade data from the U.S. customs agency show importers have paid roughly 90 billion U.S. dollars in related tariffs as of late September. 
Christmas trees decorate the East Room of the White House during a press preview of the Christmas decorations "Home is Where the Heart Is," Monday, Dec. 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
TEGUCIGALPA, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Honduran National Electoral Council (CNE) said Monday that the presidential vote remains virtually tied as the preliminary tally advances peacefully a day after the country's general elections.

According to the latest update of the Preliminary Electoral Results Transmission System, with 57.03 percent of the votes counted, Nasry Asfura, candidate of the National Party, obtained 749,022 votes, or 39.91 percent of valid ballots.

His main contender, Salvador Nasralla, from the Liberal Party of Honduras, follows closely with 748,507 votes, representing 39.89 percent, a razor-thin margin of only 515 votes.

CNE president Ana Paola Hall described the situation as a "technical tie" and urged citizens to remain patient while contingency tally sheets are being processed.

"We must remain calm and prudent ... The peace experienced during election day must continue until the final declaration of results," Hall said in a public message, noting that the country awoke "without acts of violence," which she attributed to the civic commitment of voters.

More than 6 million Hondurans registered to cast their votes in this election to choose a new president, 298 mayors and 128 members of the National Congress, among other positions.

Honduras conducts its elections without a runoff, meaning the candidate with the largest share of votes secures the presidency. 
Mogherini implicated in probe into alleged misuse of EU funds.

Federica Mogherini, the Italian former EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, was detained for questioning in Belgium on Tuesday as part of a major fraud investigation led by the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO), Belgian media reported.

The investigation focuses on alleged irregularities related to an EU-funded training programme for junior diplomats - the European Union Diplomatic Academy - between 2021 and 2022.



Police carried out searches at the European External Action Service (EEAS) offices in Brussels and the College of Europe in Bruges, where Mogherini currently serves as rector and director of the academy, and at private homes.



The probe relates to the project for the nine-month training programme for junior diplomats, which was awarded by the EEAS to the College of Europe following a tender procedure.



Mogherini, 52, was one of three people detained for questioning along with Italian Stefano Sannino, a senior European Commission official and former secretary-general of the EEAS during the period when the academy was created.



The third person being questioned is a former director of the College, whose identity is not yet known.



Prosecutors suspect that rules around fair competition and public procurement may have been breached, including the possible sharing of confidential information with the College of Europe, which won the tender to organise the academy, before the tender was officially published by the EEAS.



Mogherini is a member of the centre-left Partito Democratico (PD) and previously served as Italy's foreign minister from February to October 2014 in the Renzi government.

Photo credit: Alexandros Michailidis / Shutterstock.com.
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic torch relay to tour Italy.

The Olympic flame for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Games will begin a tour around Italy in Rome on Saturday, culminating in its arrival at Milan's San Siro Stadium for the opening ceremony on 6 February.

The sacred fire, lit last week in Ancient Olympia, Greece, will arrive in Rome on Thursday, with its nationwide journey inaugurated at the Quirinale Palace in Rome on Friday in the presence of Italian president Sergio Mattarella.

Over the course of 63 days, the flame will crisscross all 20 Italian regions, taking in more than 300 towns and cities in a relay spanning 12,000 kilometres and involving around 10,000 torchbearers.

"Every step of the journey through our cities will remind the world of the power of sport in building bridges and breaking down barriers" - Giovanni Malago, president of the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation, stated - "It will be a journey that intertwines roots and future, hospitality and innovation, celebrating the best of the Italian spirit."

The torch relay will pass cultural heritage landmarks including Rome's Colosseum and the Trevi Fountain, Milan's Duomo and Venice's Grand Canal, along with places that represent resilience and rebirth, such as Amatrice - devastated by an earthquake in 2016 - and Scampia - the Neapolitan neighbourhood undergoing a major regeneration project.

The torch will be in Naples for Christmas and will celebrate New Year's Eve in Bari, while on 26 January it will return to Cortina d'Ampezzo, exactly 70 years after the opening ceremony of the 1956 Games.

The journey will conclude with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron in Milan on the night of 6 February 2026, officially launching the Olympic Winter Games.

Photo credit: Ververidis Vasilis / Shutterstock.com.
The Creative Writing Classroom as a Defense of Human Messiness

A few months ago, I ran a creative writing workshop on description. I asked students to write about a moment of arrival: stepping into a place for the first time. They wrote quietly for twenty minutes, then we shared pieces aloud. The first student described entering a hospital room, another wrote about moving to Rome, another about coming home after years away. Then one student, grinning, read a piece she freely admitted had been written almost entirely by an AI tool. I had given her permission to do so, just to see what kind of trouble it might stir up. The writing was fluent and polished. When she finished, there was a pause. One of her classmates said, Its good, but I cant feel anyone in it.

That remark, I cant feel anyone in it, might be the clearest expression of what is at stake when a tool can build a world before youve even had time to think.

We are no longer only writing for clarity or insight. We are writing for presence.

It wasnt an isolated moment. At a seminar in Florence, a student waited until the room had emptied before she approached me. She was thoughtful, visibly uneasy. Ive been using AI to help me write my stories, she said. It gives me ideas, but I dont know if any of them are really mine. She paused. It feels like cheating but it also feels like the only way I can start.

Her honesty stayed with me, partly because it captures a tension Ive seen growing among young writers, but also because it touched something Ive been noticing in my own life as an author and freelance writer.

Outside the classroom, the act of writing has changed almost overnight. The value of producing a carefully shaped piece of work (a story, an article, even a book) sits in a different cultural light than it did a decade ago.

When my brother joked recently in our family WhatsApp chat, Why are you still writing books? Just ask the thing, it landed like a small stone in my throat. I knew it wasnt an insult, but a sign of how quickly expectations are shifting. For years, I was the familys writer and editor. When I published a story, an article, or an edition of my book on Abruzzo, there was an understanding that the work came from a human being who had paid deep attention: the slow stitching-together of thought, the choices behind every line. That sense of craft once felt obvious to all who wrote and read, even taken for granted. Now I sometimes wonder how to explain that value, my own continued enthusiasm for the craft of writing, in a moment when a readable page can be produced in seconds. All of this keeps steering me back to one question: what does it mean to write honestly when the tools around us can mimic almost anything except the messy details of a persons inner life?

Trying to write with AI hovering in the background feels like its own odd contradiction. On one hand, AI tools have opened extraordinary possibilities. There is no doubt about it. They can give language back to people who have long felt excluded from it. On the other hand, as Pasolini once warned, technology tends to flatten what is most human in us: that slow, almost treacherous labour of taking experience and trying to give it shape. The very thing that makes writing human.

In fact, Pasolinis Rome was the opposite of flattening anything. It was jagged, restless. His novels, like Ragazzi di Vita, exhibit the full of contradictions of the city that still refuse to be tidied up. He found his stories in the fierce edges of Rome: the borgate, the street dialects. When I think about what we risk losing now, I often think of that Rome: a city where language grew out of social friction, where voices scraped against each other and produced something unmistakably alive. The algorithm, by contrast, smooths everything down. It removes the very grit Pasolini believed was necessary for truth to survive.

Rome, of course, teaches different lessons to different writers. Students arrive here holding the very human mix of excitement and fear, and- as I have witnessed- this spills into their writing almost immediately. They walk through the double doors at Fiumicino and into a veil of cigarette smoke and sharp sunlight, with men drifting past whispering taxi, taxi like theyre performing a spell. Theyre quickly caught between wanting to belong and realising they dont, not yet. I have witnessed that tension become part of their work. AI can sketch a postcard version of Rome, but it cant write from the feeling of arriving here and realising the city is larger than whatever plans you have for it. It cant capture the private, awkward moment when a place begins to change you. That interior shift is where the writing actually begins.

Ive felt the anxiety underneath the way some talk about this, especially those of us who came of age with a library thesaurus in our backpacks. I find myself more curious than afraid, listening as the same questions continue to surface:

If a machine can generate a good sentencewhat is left for us to do?

If it can imagine a storywhere does that leave imagination itself?

I have struggled with this line of thinking, in a way that is existential. Ive felt that uneasethough not in the muted, dont-say-it-out-loud panic I sense around me.

In conversations with colleagues, at my own desk planning lessons, I keep returning to the same realisation: there is a shared sense of loss, but Im not mourning anything. Writing still does what it has always done, and I see proof of that in the classroom every day.

The work weve devoted our lives to (teaching language, shaping stories, helping others find their voice) can feel precarious right now. Its easy to imagine were witnessing the slow fading of something vital. People talk of a slow erasure of the part of our humanity that once defined our excitement and enthusiasm for sitting at our desks drowning in scrunched-up bits of paper.

The reality is that the creative writing classroom has become even more essential than ever before. It is one of the few places left where language can breathe. In my classes, we sit together, we read work aloud. We listen to how a sentence feels in the mouth. We evaluate, we judge. We talk about rhythm, silence, image, emotion. These deliberate acts have taken on a new significance: they are small gestures of opposition, and they are exciting. They are the ways in which we remind one another that writing still begins with the human experience. And that is exactly the point. This is what matters; this is where we will find connection. The page is an extension of our lives, not just a surface for randomly-generated content: Hey, Pilot! Write me a metaphor

When I first began teaching creative writing, most of my energy went into helping students believe they had something worth saying. The question was always how to help them listen to their own thoughts, how to draw on their memories, how to find images that carried some emotional truth.

Those core elements are still present, though now we add another layer. The question has shifted somewhat. The work is also to help them know why to write at all. In a world where anyone can produce a readable story with a few prompts, the act of writing must be justified not by output but by the intention behind it, the impulse that drives it.

Readers, even novice ones, are beginning to sense when there is a human being behind the words. We can tell when characterisation has been worked hunched over a desk littered by coloured post-it notes. Readers want warmth, imperfection. That strange, whacky logic of being human, of holding multiple emotions or truths at once. The smoother the synthetic language becomes, the more we will crave and gravitate towards those imperfections. As I say to my students, Rome refuses to be streamlined or flattened, which is precisely why it pushes them back toward the slow, irregular act of noticing all that is the citys structure and chaos. It reminds them that the world is not made of polished sentences, but of fragments.

Writers have always adapted to whatever tools we come up with. Everything from the typewriter to word processing to social media. But this is the first time the tool can imitate the art itself. And we cannot ignore that.

But we can also remember that which the machine cannot replace: the depth of consciousness that makes writing an act of connection between one human and another.

Our task is no longer simply to produce original storiesbut to help writers understand why their stories exist at all, and why they might matter to others.

So what do we do with all this? We keep going. We write. We notice. Then we do it all over again.

As a teacher of fiction, Ive come to see the role of creative writing education as being in defence of human messiness. Not by policing technology (we cant!), but by deepening our relationship with experience, and letting it guide us across the lines of our notebooks. The real question is not whether AI can write, but whether we can still recognise what writing is for, and whats at stake when we prompt technology to pump out our sentences.

When I read student work, I look for the moments when something true breaks through. It might be a single image, or a line that lifts off the page. Those moments are small, but they matter. They remind me that writing is still one of the few spaces where a person can think in public, where vulnerability becomes art. In an AI world, that kind of risk may become rarer, but also more valuable. Machines can simulate patterns of thought, but they cannot crave, they cannot mourn, and they certainly cannot long for someone. They can only brush against the surface of these emotions.

At its core, writing is a way of being present in the world and with ourselves. It allows us to process our experiences and to find coherence amid all the uncertainty. And maybe this piece is proof of that: me untangling my own thoughts on the page, draft after draft, feeling my way forward, one sentence at a time.

I sometimes tell my students that writing can help us live in the world with greater honesty and vulnerability. In the years ahead, when language becomes ever more accessible, people will not come to creative writing for information or content.

They will come, and stay, to recognise themselves in it.

To feel that somewhere, in another persons words, their own experience has been understood.

by

Luciano Di Gregorio

Adjunct Professor, American University of Rome
Pavel Pepperstein: Before and After the Magic Mountain.

Rome'spresents Before and After the Magic Mountain, an exhibition by the Russian artist and writer, fromuntil

The show is curated by Alistair Hicks, Siena Hicks and Denise Di Castro and organised in collaboration with Purdy Hicks Gallery, London and Iragui Gallery, Paris, for the second chapter of The Contemporary Wall, a series of contemporary art exhibitions curated by Denise Di Castro.

The exhibition features early graphic works by the artist, as well as works that span Peppersteins life and creative journey, from 1978 to the present day.

The early works on display include those created by the artist, then Pavel Pivovarov, who adopted his pseudonym after becoming enchanted by reading Thomas Manns novel The Magic Mountain at the age of 13.

In 1987 Pepperstein became one of the three founders of the group Inspection Medical Hermeneutics (19872001) whose members produced a series of staged photographs taken at the Schatzalp Hotel in Davos for a group exhibition in Zurich in 1992.

Formerly a sanatorium, this hotel is believed to have been the prototype for the Berghof Sanatorium described by Mann in The Magic Mountain. These photographs are included in the exhibition as accompanying documentary material.

Antichita Alberto Di Castro is located at Piazza di Spagna 5.

Image: Pavel Pepperstein, Basterville Congress, 32 x 24 cm, watercolour, ink and felt-tip pens on paper, 1981.
Stephen Maguire

A man who travelled to Co Donegal after allegedly using Snapchat and WhatsApp to communicate with a child for sexual purposes is to stand trial.

The man, who is in his 20s, has been in custody since being arrested in the Letterkenny area in July.

He appeared by videolink at Letterkenny District Court from Castlerea Prison where he has been held since his arrest.

Garda Sergeant Jim Collins told the court that the man is to be sent forward for trial for charges under Section 7 and 8 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017.

The man cannot be named for legal reasons.

He was arrested in the Letterkenny area in July and was found in possession of five condoms, while other sexual paraphernalia was found in a property.

It follows allegations against the accused man, which were widely shared on social media.

The man was charged by detectives in Donegal at 4.07pm on Wednesday, July 16th.

He was charged that, between July 10th, 2025, and July 15th, 2025, both dates inclusive, within the State, did, by means of information and communication technology, namely Snapchat and WhatsApp, communicate with another person for the purpose of facilitating the sexual exploitation of a child under the age of 17.

He is also charged that on July 15th, 2025, at Paddy Harte Road, Letterkenny, County Donegal, did intentionally travel with the intention of meeting a child under the age of 17 years, having communicated by any means, specifically using an ICT device, with the child on at least one previous occasion, for the purpose of doing anything that would constitute sexual exploitation of the child.

Sergeant Collins previously told the court that detectives had obtained copies of conversations between the accused man and what was described as a fictional child, who he believed was 13 years of age on Snapchat and WhatsApp.

The man, with an address in the Dublin area, had allegedly booked an apartment in Letterkenny for a number of days.

Gardai also seized other items and documents from the mans vehicle.

The mans solicitor, Mr Rory OBrien, told the court that his client has a first-class honours degree from an Irish university.

Until recently, the man was in active employment, but is now unemployed.

Sergeant Collins said the Director of Public Prosecutions had consented for the accused to be sent forward to the next sitting of Letterkenny Circuit Court commencing in February, 2026, for trial.

Judge Emile Daly gave the accused man the alibi warning and remanded him in custody until his trial date.

Solicitor, Mr Rory O'Brien, sought one counsel in the case.
A dead baby dolphin has been spotted in the River Suir next to the Greenway near Killoteran.

If you see a dead or stranded dolphin, you can contact the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group.

Photo: John Hearne

People took to social media to express their sadness at this young dolphin's passing but also gratitude for the natural beauty of the greenway.

One person wrote: "The greenway is incredible all year round. Awash with wildlife from squirrels to sparrow hawks to dolphins."

This emergency hotline is only for animals stranded alive. (097) 28118 (You will be asked for GPS Pin of animal, a description of the animal and photo where possible)

You can log dead animals via the IWDG Reporting app.
Hassan Omar Hassan, the secretary-general of the United Democratic Alliance of Kenya, speaks at a forum on the English edition of the fifth volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, Dec. 1, 2025. A forum on the English edition of the fifth volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" was held in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, on Monday, with about 200 participants attending the event. The China-Kenya Readers Forum on "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" was co-hosted by China's State Council Information Office, China International Communications Group and the Chinese Embassy in Kenya. (Xinhua/Han Xu)

NAIROBI, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- A forum on the English edition of the fifth volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" was held in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, on Monday, with about 200 participants attending the event.

The China-Kenya Readers Forum on "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" was co-hosted by China's State Council Information Office, China International Communications Group and the Chinese Embassy in Kenya.

Speaking at the forum, Hassan Omar Hassan, the secretary-general of the United Democratic Alliance of Kenya, said that the fifth volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" establishes the foundation for socio-economic transformation across the globe.

"I think by and large it is a template that many countries can adapt into their national contexts and learn from the Chinese model," he said.

Mo Gaoyi, deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and director of the State Council Information Office, said that all five volumes of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" present the historic accomplishments, development path and defining features of China's path to modernization.

The series of books also offers valuable insights and approaches for Global South countries pursuing their own modernization, he added.

China stands ready to strengthen unity and cooperation with African countries, including Kenya, to jointly advance the four major global initiatives, promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and implement the 10 partnership actions for advancing modernization, Mo said.

China's progress on its path to modernization will continue to create new opportunities for Africa, as both sides work together to write a new chapter in building an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era, he said.

William Kabogo Gitau, Kenya's cabinet secretary in the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy, said "the forum is instrumental in helping Kenyan readers fully comprehend the essence of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and deepen their understanding of the practical results of Chinese modernization and its global significance."

He said that Kenya is keen to gain insight on China's path to modernization from the book, as the East African nation seeks to foster mutual exchange among scholars, media practitioners and authors from China.

During the event, the Chinese side presented foreign guests with copies of the English edition of the fifth volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China."

Participating experts and scholars exchanged views and held discussions on topics such as China-Kenya governance experiences, the Belt and Road Initiative, China-Africa cooperation, poverty alleviation, and cultural exchanges. 

William Kabogo Gitau, Kenya's cabinet secretary in the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy, speaks at a forum on the English edition of the fifth volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, Dec. 1, 2025. A forum on the English edition of the fifth volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" was held in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, on Monday, with about 200 participants attending the event.

The China-Kenya Readers Forum on "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" was co-hosted by China's State Council Information Office, China International Communications Group and the Chinese Embassy in Kenya. (Xinhua/Han Xu)

Participants attend a forum on the English edition of the fifth volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, Dec. 1, 2025. A forum on the English edition of the fifth volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" was held in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, on Monday, with about 200 participants attending the event.

The China-Kenya Readers Forum on "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" was co-hosted by China's State Council Information Office, China International Communications Group and the Chinese Embassy in Kenya. (Xinhua/Han Xu)
Newly appointed lecturer in Small Animal Veterinary Medicine at South East Technological University (SETU), Dr Emma Corbett-Coffey, has a major prize at the prestigious Emergency and Critical Care (ECC) Congress.

The Congress issued a call for general practice veterinarians and veterinary nurses to share frontline case reports that showcased real-world clinical decision-making and reflective practice.

A spokesperson for SETU told waterford-news.ie that from numerous submissions, five presentations were selected for the highly anticipated session: 'On the Frontline: ECC Case Reports by Vets and Nurses.'

Among those chosen was Dr Corbett-Coffey s case report: 'Take my breath away - a pneumothorax story', which explored the management of an unusual case of pneumothorax caused by lung worm infestation.

Presented before a judging panel and a packed audience, her case stood out for its educational value and practical relevance, earning her the prize for Best Presentation. This achievement came in the wake of her recent appointment as lecturer on the new Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine (MVB) programme at SETU.

SETU Lecturer in Small Animal Veterinary Medicine Dr Emma Corbett-Coffey presenting at the Emergency and Critical Care (ECC) Congress.

Commenting on her award, Dr Corbett-Coffey expressed delight at the recognition: Im delighted to have received the Best Presentation award at the ECC Congress. Its a wonderful complement to my new role at SETU, where Im proud to be contributing to the development of our veterinary medicine programme ahead of welcoming our first students in 2026."

Her journey in veterinary medicine began on her familys dairy farm in Co Waterford, where her interest in animal health first took root.

After graduating from the UCD School of Veterinary Medicine in 2010, she gained extensive experience in mixed practice across the UK, Cork, and eventually Tipperary, where she advanced her clinical expertise. She became an advanced practitioner in small animal surgery, earning her RCVS CertAVP from Liverpool University in 2016. Within a busy Tipperary veterinary hospital, she served as Clinical Director and provided referral services in both soft-tissue and orthopaedic surgery.

Her clinical passions include wound reconstruction, ear disease, cruciate ligament disease, and surgical oncology.

"Emma is equally committed to interprofessional care of animals between vets, veterinary nurses and other paraprofessionals, providing a holistic approach to veterinary medicine and better outcomes in patients," noted the SETU spokesperson.

In her new academic role, Dr Corbett-Coffey has been involved in shaping SETUs new veterinary medicine programme and her work includes engagement with regulatory bodies and industry partners, promotional activities, curriculum design, and exploring new research avenues. One of the highlights of her first year has been securing Strategic Alignment of Teaching and Learning Enhancement (SATLE) funding as part of a multidisciplinary team spanning Pharmacy, Land Sciences, Nursing, and Science.

This initiative aims to foster collaboration across disciplines and strengthen interprofessional learning within our university," she said.

"I feel very fortunate to be part of a wonderful department and team with a shared vision and strong work ethic. Our programmes distinctive features will help shape competent, confident, and well-rounded veterinarians for the future, she added.

Contributing to the creation of one of Irelands newest veterinary medicine programmes carries personal significance for her too: Its a privilege to be part of this historic moment, and as a proud Deise woman, Im especially delighted that its happening here at SETU.
The other week I had to travel to Kilkenny City on Waterford-related business. What began as a simple court marking turned into an hours-long lament about the state of infrastructure between the two cities.

At 9am on a Tuesday, I stood on The Quays with fellow passengers waiting for a certain bus company to come snaking up that single lane. Forty miserable minutes later it finally arrived. Once we pulled into the city, I power-walked my way from Ormond Street to Kilkenny Courthouse, trying not to get distracted by the amount of colourful, bespoke shop fronts and bustling populace.

Inside Kilkenny Courthouse, I noticed with pleasant surprise that the heating was on. I have lost count the amount of times I've been in a frigidly-cold courtroom on Catherine Street while the court staff apologetically inform attendees: "Dublin controls the temperature". I'd say it does.

Once my business was over with, I went for a little wander about town. I was shocked by what I found; shops selling unique wares, people socialising on a weekday afternoon in outdoor cafes (with heaters!). I stopped by The Pantry for a coffee and pancakes with streaky rashers. Watching the world go by outside, I was trying to understand why there was a profound distance between this city and our one only 40 minutes down the road.

We are not uniquely touched by a malign influence here in the Deise. The Kilkenny courtrooms are as busy, if not busier, than ours. We both have beautifully preserved medieval influence on our streets and architecture. Through these streets, however, there was a theme, a continuity, a bigger vision.

Local commercial rates have become a point of controversy here in the wake of a number of business closures. The councils commercial rates, which are currently some of the highest in the country, will rise to an Annual Rate Valuation (ARV) of .3082.

On Michael Street there is a shrinking community of independent businesses. Finders Keepers shuttered a year ago. The Vintage Factory is closing down at Christmas. These are places that had character, warm staff and a commitment to bringing something unique to Waterford. They were ingrained in the local community and added much needed vibrancy to our city.

No one is going to want to visit a town that has more vape shops than character.

We're accustomed to waiting in Waterford. Despite many valiant efforts, we are waiting on major interventions from the State in regards to 24/7 cardiac care, educational supports and housing. Up until very recently we were waiting on Government investment into the Airport.

It is wearying to see major investment going regularly going into towns/cities because of who is holding the purse-strings. Waterford holds 9% of the population, yet we barely get half of that percentage in State funding.

Reading a recent column by The Phoenix, I was reminded of something Alfie Hale said recently at The Book Centre; "We've great people here." I couldn't agree more, I just wish we could see them supported properly.
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Updated NationalWABushfires Farmer killed in WA bushfire identified as shire deputy president Hannah Murphy and Heather McNeill Updated December 2, 2025  2:40pm ,first published December 2, 2025  1:53pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

A farmer who died while trying to fight a bushfire on Western Australias south coast on Monday afternoon has been identified as Shire of Ravensthorpe deputy president Mark Mudie. Mudie had been responding to a bushfire emergency that was threatening properties in the agricultural region, and was operating a front-end loader to establish a firebreak on his West River farm, when his vehicle was engulfed by flames. Mark Mudie. Ravensthorpe Wildflower Show and Herbarium WA Police said he died at the scene. Detective Inspector Rhonda Alexander said Mudie was working with others to stop the blaze. Just after 2pm [Monday] afternoon, emergency services were called  to a large fire in the [Ravensthorpe] area, she said.

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People were working in and around that property and ... we believe a fire has started. The gentleman was operating a front end loader to try and create a fire break, as any farmer would do. Unfortunately, while he was doing that, the fire has come and engulfed the area that he was in, and he couldnt be saved. Alexander said Mudie was at the scene trying to protect crops and outbuildings with a fire break. [Mudie] was working as a farm owner, and to save crops and outbuildings and other people, hes gone to ... make a fire break, and unfortunately, hes lost his life doing it.

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Mudies farm and surrounding properties suffered some damage to crops from the fire, which detectives said was not believed to be suspicious. Related Article Tragedy Forever broken: Family of volunteer firefighter who died fighting Esperance blaze speak out Worksafe WA has been notified. Volunteer fire brigades and West Australian politicians have offered their condolences to the Mudie family. The Lower Chittering Fire Brigade, who were battling their own out-of-control fire at the weekend, said in a statement their thoughts were with all those impacted by Mudies death.

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In light of the tragic loss of the landowner in the West River bushfire yesterday, we extend our heartfelt condolences to the family, friends and the local community of West River, they said. This is an incredibly difficult time, and our thoughts are with all those affected by this devastating event. May you find comfort and support in one another as you navigate through this painful loss. We stand with you during this challenging time. WA Premier Roger Cook said the death was a desperately sad situation. Obviously, Ravensthorpe is a tight-knit and small community, he said.

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They will be impacted by this, and [this] will have a lasting impact on their community. A fire is a traumatic event for any community, but when its combined with a loss of life, thats devastating, so our hearts are going out to them today. Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas also spoke about Mudie in parliament on Tuesday. Id like to extend my condolences on behalf of everybody on this side of the house to the farmer who died in the Ravensthorpe bushfire, he said. We extend our sincere and profound condolences to a man who died trying to assist not only his family, but his community.

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It reminds us all of the perils of living in Western Australia at this time of the year in particular. Related Article Bushfires God, I hope its not mine: Geraldton man describes moment he found out his house had burnt down Nationals politician and Katanning farmer Peter Rundle offered his own condolences. Thinking of all those involved [and] many thanks to the emergency volunteers, he said. A tragic loss for this community, one of our own lost too soon.

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The shire also released a statement on Tuesday. The Shire of Ravensthorpe is devastated by the death of a local man at the West River fire yesterday afternoon, it read. Our thoughts are with his family and friends, and also all emergency services still working on the fire. Mudie worked on his 7000-hectare family sheep farm alongside his wife and son. He was elected to the shire as deputy president in 2023, and was also a member of the councils bushfire advisory committee.

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Mudie was well known for his contribution to the regions wildflower show, where he supplied Lambs Tail flowers for visitors to photograph. The fire is moving slowly in a north-east direction, and is contained but not controlled. Mark Mudie with the flowers he supplied to the local wildflower show. Ravensthorpe Wildflower Show and Herbarium More than 4000 hectares have been burnt so far, and a bushfire watch and act remains active for people bounded by South Coast Highway, Lake Road, Mallee Road, Fitzgerald Road and Koornong Road in West River and West Fitzgerald, in the Shire of Ravensthorpe and Shire of Jerramungup. About 60 firefighters are working to stop the blaze from spreading, and power has been cut to about 30 surrounding homes and properties.

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Mudies death comes two years after volunteer firefighter Harry Stead was fatally injured after falling from a private firefighting vehicle while conducting fire suppression activities on a farm near Esperance. The 2020 Hale School graduate was the son of prominent farmer and CBH Group chairman Simon Stead. Be the first to know when major news happens. Sign up for breaking news alerts on email or turn on notifications in the app.
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NationalWANAPLAN The WA schools excelling in NAPLAN for 2025 Holly Thompson December 3, 2025  2:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

Western Australias high-achieving schools for 2025 have been revealed, with government secondary schools in the metropolitan area forming the majority of top performers in this years NAPLAN testing. The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority released the testing results on the My School website on Wednesday. Students at high-achieving schools have continuously shown above-average literacy and numeracy results over time when compared with others with a similar background. The list was provided by ACARA and is unranked. Just four schools of the 20 listed were private, with the remaining public schools. Only one was a primary school.

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Jolimont Primary School principal Barbara Iffla said she was delighted and proud of the hard work the students and teachers had put in over the past year. Related Article Education WAs top public schools for 2025 revealed Literacy and numeracy are our core business, she said. This year we have provided practical on-the-ground guidance for teachers in developing their planning and assessment programs. Our whole-school approach using high-impact teaching strategies increases student participation and Teach Well training over the past two years has positively impacted both teachers practices and student learning.

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We also use Prime Maths as a whole-school program, which is based on problem-solving. Prime Maths supported our practices and has significantly improved student maths progress and achievement. It was the schools year 5 students who excelled the most, scoring above students of a similar background in all testing categories, and well above in numeracy. Golda Paparo, 8, Amelia Trinh, 7, and Leopold Boyatzis, 8, with Jolimont Primary School principal Barbara Iffla. Ross Swanbourne Compared to all Australian students, the year 5s scored well above in every testing category, and year 3 students were above in every category and well above in numeracy. Just one school on the list was located outside the metropolitan area  St Lukes College in Karratha.

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At the Pilbara high school, students reading and writing in year 9 was above other students, both with a similar background and nationally. In year 7, students were above others with a similar background in writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy. Principal Adrian Correia said being the only regional school acknowledged highlighted the dedication of staff and the students hard work, and showcased the quality of education available in regional WA. At St Lukes, we are fortunate to attract and retain highly skilled and passionate educators, and it is wonderful to see their commitment to student excellence recognised, he said. It is incredibly rewarding to see clear evidence that our teaching, targeted support, and whole-school approach are making a genuine impact on learning outcomes.

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Correia said a long-standing relationship with the Karratha and Roebourne Education Initiative meant they were able to include extra dedicated periods of literacy and numeracy in the past eight years. The schools partnership with the Polly Farmer Foundation also meant they could run the Follow the Dream program for First Nations students. Year 9 students from St Lukes College in Karratha. Our teachers volunteer their time to provide free after-school tutoring, so students can access support whenever they need it, Correia said. ACARA chief executive Stephen Gniel said the NAPLAN results gave parents, carers and the community clear and transparent data on Australias schools.

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The return of information on student progress shows how much the same students at the same school have improved since their previous NAPLAN assessments, he said. Student progress data provides the information to celebrate improvement in a fairer way that considers the individual circumstances of a school, as well as to better identify areas for renewed or continued focus. This is showing student attendance heading in the right direction while also reinforcing the need for continued focus and prioritisation. Start the day with a summary of the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
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NationalWAGina Rinehart Rinehart likens Perth to New York, Tokyo in push for Hancock HQ helipad Hamish Hastie December 2, 2025  5:27pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 10 View all comments

Representatives from Gina Rineharts Hancock Prospecting have likened Perth to Tokyo and New York as they plead their case for a helipad on the companys under-construction $270 million headquarters. City of Perth officers have recommended the council knock back Hancock Prospectings request to include the helipad to accommodate an eight-seat Bell 429 helicopter on top of its five-storey Ord Street headquarters, which will eventually house all of Rineharts mining and agricultural businesses. Gina Rinehart and an artists impression of Hancock Prospectings $270 million West Perth headquarters. However, at an agenda briefing session on Tuesday evening, Rineharts representatives argued the helicopter was essential for Hancocks business and that Perths status as a global city came with contemporary needs for globally connected businesses. The proposed helipad is a contemporary requirement for a business such as Hancock Iron Ore (Roy Hill and Atlas Iron) supporting high-level executive and corporate operations, the company said in its submission to council.

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This is part of its multimillion-dollar investment into WA, building a world-leading business hub in West Perth and aligns with the City of Perth Future Perth initiative, which supports development of our city as a premier international business destination with a focus on growing opportunities and is therefore a strategic fit in the future plans. Related Article Exclusive

Local government No mans land? How Chris Ellisons helicopter commutes flew under the radar The company argued rooftop helipads were commonplace in major and premier CBDs around the world, including New York, London and Tokyo. City officers have recommended the council refuse the helipad on the grounds it would have an adverse impact on the amenity of surrounding residential land uses and the noise impacts could not be mitigated. The proposed development is likely to have an adverse impact on the amenity of the adjoining properties and the locality as outlined in the written objections received from the surrounding owners and occupiers, officers said.

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Hancock offered to reduce the morning hour the helipad could be used from 7am to 9am and change the flight path to ensure the helicopter followed existing busy roads, but the company rejected concerns about noise from the chopper, saying an independent study it commissioned found nearby main roads were noisier than the Bell 429. The immediate locality is already subject to the background noise of Thomas Street and Kings Park Road (very busy roads) 24/7, and noise from bin trucks, ambulances, police, fire engines and freight trucks etc, which operate in the early morning or evening (and not just daylight hours as is being proposed), the company said. The noise level from our proposed helicopter (Bell 429) movement is 92dB in comparison to 106dB recorded maximum noise levels in the area already due to local traffic. Hancock also argued the helicopter would only generate noise at the site for two hours a year  roughly 10 minutes per landing and take-off. The company also revealed it had been speaking to emergency services bodies to discuss the potential for them to use the helipad.

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Related Article City of Perth Australias richest person wants a helipad at her companys $270m HQ. The local council has other plans With the buildings location right between Perths two major trauma hospitals, and the Perth Childrens Hospital, the helipad would provide a life-saving potential as it has the ability to serve as a crucial backup landing option for emergency services (such as Department of Fire and Emergency Services and police) and the Royal Flying Doctor Service, it said. We have entered discussions with the relevant bodies who have advised that they have aircraft in their fleet suited to use the facility. They have advised that they are often faced with scenarios where they cannot land at existing facilities and so any additional options could help save lives. City of Perth councillors will vote on the recommendation at their council meeting next week.

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Hancocks new headquarters were approved by the city in 2023 and construction is already under way. Its not the first time a West Australian mining billionaires helicopter has caused a stir among locals. Last year, this masthead revealed Mineral Resources boss Chris Ellisons use of a helicopter to commute to the companys Osborne Park headquarters had raised the ire of nearby land users, and led to questions about who, exactly, had given the green light for the chopper to land opposite a wildlife sanctuary. Start the day with a summary of the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
A New South Wales woman is behind bars after allegedly trying to transport $312,000 in suspected illicit cash onto a flight from Perth on Sunday.

Australian Federal Police officers arrested the woman, 24, at Perth Airport after security staff discovered a large amount of cash in her carry-on suitcase at an x-ray screening point.

The cash was allegedly concealed inside a black plastic bag inside the womans luggage. AFP

The luggage allegedly contained bundles of $50 and $100 notes contained in two black plastic bags.

She was charged with one count of dealing with proceeds of crime and faced Perth Magistrates Court yesterday, where she was remanded in custody.

AFP Detective Inspector Matt Taylor said the agency would continue to investigate how the woman came to be in possession of such a significant amount of cash.

The AFP works closely with airport partners to protect the community and Australias legitimate economy and ensure air travel is not used as part of the criminal supply chain, he said.

Anyone detected travelling in possession of significant amounts of unexplained cash will be investigated to determine whether the source of those funds is lawful.
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NationalWACourts Warnbro mother Erica was stabbed to death, then set on fire. Her killer claims it was self-defence Rebecca Peppiatt December 2, 2025  12:06pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

An alarming number of Australian women have been killed in recent years. Find out more about their lives. Some of the cases are still before the courts. See all stories .

A Perth man who was due to stand trial on Tuesday over the murder of his partner has pleaded guilty at the last minute  but claims he killed the 30-year-old mother in self-defence. The development in the murder case of Erica Hay has devastated her close friends, who are aghast she has been portrayed as a perpetrator. Victim Erica Hay had four children. Luke Sekkouah, 37, stabbed Hay multiple times in the head, body and legs on April 25, 2024 after a protracted argument at her Warnbro public housing property. The Supreme Court of Western Australia on Tuesday was told that after the violent killing, Sekkouah set Hays house on fire using a stolen bottle of turpentine.

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He and the mother-of-four had only been in a relationship for a few months, but he lived at her home with Hay and her youngest child, aged three at the time. Her other three children lived with their respective fathers. Sekkouah had been living in Kalgoorlie, and after they moved in together neighbours reported the mood of the house changed with doors closed all the time, prosecutors said. Around the time of her murder, there was an argument between Sekkouah and Hay about drugs, money and another woman. A neighbour heard Hay tell Sekkouah: Its about time you started treating me like a girlfriend.

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The argument escalated and became violent. Luke Sekkouah. Sekkouah admitted he stabbed Hay in the head, legs and body with a kitchen knife that punctured her heart and other vital organs. Her young daughter, who lives with autism and has developmental delays, was still in the house. Sekkouah then set the house on fire.

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He took Hays daughter and ran from the house to a neighbours, where he said the house was on fire and that he did not know where Hay was. Police found the victims body in the house and asked Sekkouah why he did not go back for her. He told them he was only a lodger and did not know she was in the property. Officers became suspicious when they noticed Sekkouah had no smoke damage or evidence of being in a burning house, and then discovered Hay had died from stab wounds. During an interview, Sekkouah repeatedly denied being in a romantic relationship with Hay and told them she was always yelling, that she was crazy, but claimed he did not yell back.

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Sekkouah pleaded not guilty, and the matter was set down for trial, but before it began he changed his plea  but did not accept the states facts of the matter, instead claiming he acted in self-defence. Sekkouahs lawyer Paul Bevilacqua told the court on Tuesday the argument between his client and Hay was one-sided and contained aggression of sorts. He armed himself because he was being attacked, Bevilacqua said. There were elements of provocation. On Thursday, a trial of issues will be held ahead of Sekkouahs sentencing that will hear from witnesses, including one of Hays former partners.

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Sekkouah himself will also give evidence. Outside court, Hays best friend Amanda Broad said she was devastated her friend was being painted as a perpetrator. To hear how she died, I couldnt imagine what she was feeling at that time and for him to turn around and blame her for everything  he wasnt the nicest person, she said. She was beautiful. She was into her spiritual stuff. She was into her music. Her kids meant everything to her. She just wanted someone to love her for her and, sadly, Luke took advantage of that.

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National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732). Start the day with a summary of the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
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Updated PoliticsFederalSocial media Minister refuses to explain $100,000 New York flights to spruik social media ban Brittany Busch and Nick Newling Updated December 3, 2025  12:05pm ,first published December 3, 2025  6:07am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

Communications Minister Anika Wells has refused to be drawn on her $190,000 trip to New York to spruik the governments teen social media ban, insisting she and her staff were doing important work at the United Nations to defend Australian children. In an at times hostile National Press Club appearance on Wednesday, the minister refused to say whether the cost of her teams September trip was value for money. Communications Minister Annika Wells travelled to New York to spruik Australias landmark teen social media ban. Alex Ellinghausen Wells billed taxpayers $70,000 to host an event while she was in New York, after she, a staffer and a public servant spent almost $100,000 on flights to attend the United Nations General Assembly. The minister and her staff member flew to New York after delaying their departure due to the Optus Triple Zero outage that was linked to three deaths when calls to emergency services would not connect. The senior public servant flew to New York as planned. The reason you know all those things [the cost of the New York trip] is because were transparent about them, and we will disclose them, and well continue to disclose information about that trip through the usual processes, Wells said at the press club.

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That event fuelled a global momentum in this space. You have seen a number of different jurisdictions come out from that moment, to as recently as last week, to announce that they are going to do exactly what Australia is doing. Ill continue to be transparent about what that cost, what it looks like, what we did, in the usual way. The minister then said the flights were not first class. Wells had been supposed to fly with the prime minister earlier in the week and came under fire for still going on the trip after the Triple Zero outage. The costs of her travel were revealed late on Tuesday when the government replied to an opposition question on notice from Senate estimates in October.

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Wells return commercial flights to New York cost $34,426.58, her deputy chief of staffs cost $38,165, and the flight of the online safety assistant secretary, who flew two days earlier, cost $22,236.31. A first-class Qantas return flight from Canberra to New York was available for about $16,000 on Wednesday. Flight costs are variable due to timing and seasonal changes. Accommodation and transport costs for the trio in New York were $US15,985 ($24,275). The government hosted an event at UN headquarters on protecting children in the digital age, which cost $US45,744.11 ($69,500). Prime Minister Anthony Albanese addressed the UN General Assembly about the teen social media ban in the Delegates Dining Room, which boasts a waterfront backdrop over New Yorks East River. The Delegates Dining Room at the United Nations in New York. www.delegatesdiningroom-un.com Wells said at the time that there were several world leaders at the event, including President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and prime ministers from Greece, Malta, Fiji and Tonga, among others.

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Wells trip to the United States had already faced criticism, with her departure coming just four days after the Optus Triple Zero outage on September 18, which resulted in three deaths. Related Article What We Know

Social media TikTok is making upsetting changes to comply with the social media ban. Heres how it will work Opposition communications spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh labelled the ministers travel to New York a PR trip. I have always said the minister for communications should never have left her post during the Triple Zero crisis, McIntosh said. As the crisis continued to unfold, the minister was holding a lavish event in New York. An event where the bill for over $73,000 was footed by the ministers communications department, also known as the Australian taxpayer, she said.

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And while families back in Australia are left wondering how the minister will actually make the under-16s social media ban work  the minister and her staff spent over $72,000 on flights to spruik its success to the UN. Wells met with industry groups and stakeholders on the trip, including the vice presidents of Meta and Microsoft and Amazons chief global affairs and legal officer. Loading Liberal senator Sarah Henderson said Wells decision to fly to New York after the Triple Zero crisis was offensive and at an enormous cost to Australian taxpayers. A government spokesperson said Wells attended the UN General Assembly to meet with world leaders about the new social media laws, which begin on December 10.

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PoliticsWAWA election WA electoral commissioner resigns ahead of parliament vote to fire him Hamish Hastie December 2, 2025  8:02pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 1 View all comments

WA Electoral Commissioner Robert Kennedy will leave his post on January 30, avoiding a vote in parliament to sack him. Electoral Affairs Minister David Michael announced late on Tuesday that Kennedy tendered his resignation to Governor Chris Dawson earlier in the day, to take effect in the new year. WA Electoral Commissioner Robert Kennedy. ABC News Kennedy had been on leave since March, following the problem-plagued March 8 state election that saw polling booths endure big lines, a lack of ballot papers, as well as understaffing issues. It became the subject of an inquiry by former governor Malcolm McCusker, which found the election was underfunded and staffing on the day was completely inadequate, with some voters waiting as long as three hours at polling booths, while others could not vote at all as ballot papers ran out.

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Opposition electoral affairs spokesman Shane Love introduced a motion in August noting the serious findings from the inquiry and declaring the house had no confidence in the WA electoral commissioner, and that he be removed from office. Related Article WA election Completely inadequate: WAs 2025 election issues laid bare The deadline for that motion was extended to Thursday, but it was reported that Kennedy was given an ultimatum to resign before then or face parliament dismissing him. Michael thanked Kennedy in a statement. Mr Kennedy has served the Western Australian community as a public servant for thirty years, including as the WA Electoral Commissioner since 2020, he said.

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On behalf of the Western Australian Government, I would like to thank Mr Kennedy for his service to the community. The appointment of a new Electoral Commissioner and Deputy Electoral Commissioner will be made in consultation with other parliamentary parties in due course. Love was less glowing in his statement following Kennedys resignation. I welcome the decision by the WA electoral commissioner to resign. This is something I have consistently called for following the fallout of the state election, he said. The WA Electoral Commission (WAEC) has been without the stable leadership needed to implement the findings of the recent special inquiry into the planning and delivery of the 2025 state election.

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Had the Cook Labor government acted with greater urgency to remove the commissioner, it would have provided voters some assurance the government was serious about fixing the numerous flaws identified at the state election. Love said the next task was to ensure stable leadership at the WA Electoral Commission and the government needed to establish a parliamentary oversight committee and look at how the commission was funded. Earlier on Tuesday, Premier Roger Cook refused to answer questions about Kennedys future. Im not going to go into the conversations which have taken place between the Public Sector Commissioner and the Electoral Commissioner, these are sensitive matters, and obviously, its important that theyre handled in that manner, he said. We are undertaking a range of processes at the moment, there is a motion in the parliament, and we are speaking with the speaker about that particular motion. Start the day with a summary of the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
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WorldAsiaChina relations Opinion How do we compete with Beijing when so few of us can speak Chinese? Lisa Visentin North Asia Correspondent December 2, 2025  2:00am

December 2, 2025  2:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 145 View all comments

When the fresh intake of Australian teenagers arrives at university campuses next year, the first crop of students born in 2008 will be among them. Its a milestone to be clocked with concern by those who care about Australias declining reservoir of China expertise which, frankly, should be everyone, but especially our policymakers. Few students are enrolling in Chinese Studies, including the language. Matthew Absalom-Wong As far as symbolism goes, the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics marked the moment China stepped on the global stage as an ascendant great power. It was galloping towards economic liberalisation with such promise that many hoped  naively, as it turned out  that it was on the cusp of a new era of political freedom. Since then, as Beijing has taken a sharp authoritarian turn under leader Xi Jinping and massively expanded its military machine, the China story has only become more important.

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Across the Indo-Pacific, Beijing is aggressively exerting its influence to the extent that Foreign Minister Penny Wong sees Australia as locked in a permanent contest with China to remain the regions top security partner. A knife fight is how one minister described it to me recently. At the same time, Australias economy is as reliant as ever on China buying our goods. Related Article Foreign relations We will not stand still: Wong sets out foreign policy vision for contest with China And yet, not nearly enough of 2026s new undergraduates and their successors will be specialising in Chinese studies for Australia to be sufficiently equipped to understand its greatest strategic threat and biggest trading partner in the years to come. Thats the message coming directly from Australian universities and China experts, who are sounding the alarm on a declining across-the-board interest in Asia studies. Its worrying because at a time when our focus on the region needs to increase, our capabilities are dropping, former secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Varghese tells me.

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In a report to the federal government last year on funding strategic policy, Varghese, chancellor of the University of Queensland, concluded that Australias declining China expertise was a systemic failure. One of the most concerning data points he and others highlight is this  across the countrys 40 universities, there are no more than five Australian graduates in any one year with an honours degree in Chinese studies including the language. Varghese doesnt see student interest substantially picking up unless the business sector steps up its investment in China  already a challenge of confidence on Xis watch  and, along with it, places a premium on hiring Australians with specialist knowledge of the countrys institutional and political culture. He might have a point. I recently spent four days in Guangzhou attending the annual Australia-China Youth Dialogue (generously benchmarked at under 40) alongside some of the best and brightest mid-career professionals identified as emerging leaders in a range of sectors on either side of the aisle.

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Ive spoken with current and past delegates on the Australian side, many of whom graduated from top universities fluent in Chinese, having immersed themselves in exchange programs at Chinas elite institutions, while earning degrees back home in law, economics, engineering and tech. They represent the pipeline of expertise Australia should be cultivating. Related Article HSC HSC language enrolments are falling but this school is bucking the trend But some painted a grim picture of the challenge they faced acquiring this expertise, only for the Australian jobs marketplace to place little value on it. A number were employed in roles that made little use of their China knowledge. One delegate told me he was the only domestic student in his Chinese studies course at university and, after struggling to find employers who valued his skills, moved overseas. At the risk of further extrapolating personal experience into trend, 2008 was also the year I started as an undergraduate at the Australian National University in Canberra. At the time, the Asian Century seemed well and truly upon us.

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Down the road, Kevin Rudd  an honours graduate himself in Chinese language and history from the ANU  was ensconced in The Lodge as the countrys first Mandarin-speaking prime minister. All around me on campus, students were studying Asian languages and, in particular, Chinese. As I battled my way through an arts/law degree, I quietly wondered if I had missed the memo. (Given my current role, yes, as it turned out.) Prime Minister Kevin Rudd greeting then-vice president of China, Xi Jinping, in 2010. Glen McCurtayn But rather than 2008 being an inflection point that turbocharged Australias investment in its China capability, this momentum evidently evaporated in the years after my cohort graduated. By 2013, Julia Gillards Asian Century white paper  which envisioned an Australia in 2025 that was Asia-literate and Asia-capable, with more students learning Mandarin, Indonesian, Hindi and Japanese  had been shelved by the incoming Liberals.

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A federal parliamentary inquiry is now examining this decade-plus erosion of Asia capability, and the data being presented by universities  albeit patchy  is bleak. Related Article Opinion

University Dumb and dumber: language cuts risk Australia's regional relationships The ANU, which has long been a hub for China expertise, estimates the size of its Asian studies degree has declined by 70 per cent over the past six years. Theres no reason to think they are an outlier. One of the issues is that language courses have become increasingly dominated by international students, and seen as their domain  a consequence of universities becoming drunk on foreign fees to ensure course viability as the government funding noose has tightened. The University of Sydney, for example, has recorded a combined 480 per cent increase in overseas student enrolment in Chinese and several other Asian languages, while domestic enrolments have declined 15 per cent.

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As a China-focused foreign correspondent based in Singapore, I assure you that when it comes to understanding your subjects, there is no substitute for meeting them where they are  on their home turf, and preferably in their own language. Its the reason why this masthead is eager to get back to Beijing permanently, after a five-year hiatus, resuming a four-decade stint of in-country reporting. The decline in China expertise will ultimately impact media coverage too (and yes, I can hear our critics chiming in here), and therefore the quality of the public debate on critical issues from Taiwan and the South China Sea, to Pacific diplomacy, and Donald Trump and trade wars. Already too few Australian experts make themselves available for media commentary, for reasons that I appreciate includes a wariness to put their head above the parapet on what has, at times, been a shrill and highly politicised national discourse. In the absence of considered expertise and on-the-ground coverage, debate can easily be pulled to the extremes.

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In the vast expanse of views between the fringes, reporters place a premium on China-literate experts who have carved a career out of poring through Communist Party documents, or picking through the entrails of Chinese elite politics, or developing a deep understanding of the countrys centuries-old history and culture and how this shapes decision-making. Or who are able to speak with nuance about Chinese society and business culture because they have lived and worked there. They arent the total of a well-rounded China knowledge base. But ideally, you want this literacy infused through the layers of decision-making and public policy discussion. For that pipeline to be guaranteed in the decades to come, we need 17- and 18-year-olds to be signing up for Chinese studies now, confident theres a job for them in five years time that values their skills. Lisa Visentin is the North Asia correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald Peter Hartcher is on leave. Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on whats making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.
Global experts gathered at the Baiheliang Underwater Museum in southwest China's Chongqing to experience the Chinese wisdom embodied in the submerged marvel and collaboratively address the protection, research, and sustainable utilization of hydrological heritage.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service 
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Analysis WorldEuropeRussia-Ukraine war The brutal reality that shows what Putin really thinks of Trumps peace plan David Crowe December 2, 2025  8:45am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 52 View all comments

Lviv, Ukraine: There are mobile apps to measure progress in the peace talks on Ukraine  and they are lighting up with warning signs. The apps tell people across the country when their city or region is likely to feel the blast of a missile strike or drone attack, giving them time to seek safety in a bomb shelter. The warning system is essential to saving lives and is based on the work of civil defence agencies tracking Russian missiles and drones through the air. It is like a weather forecast for impending terror, available on an iPhone screen. Fire rages after a Russian missile hit a multi-storey residential building in Vyshgorod, outside Kyiv, on Sunday. AP And for all the talk about a pathway to peace, the data displays an escalating war.

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Yaroslav Kolodiy felt the impact on November 19 when Russian missiles slammed into two apartment buildings in his home city of Ternopil, in western Ukraine. One of his friends, a mechanic, went to sleep that night as usual and died in the flames. His wife and children survived, badly injured. The attack was one of the worst of the war, killing at least 37 people, including seven children, and wounding more than 120 others. Kolodiy, safe in his house, heard the explosions and felt the destruction. You feel this freezing behind your chest, he tells me. It is a feeling like you are not in normal life. In the air, there is death. Black smoke and burning oil surrounded the buildings the next day, he says, and spread a physical as well as a psychological sickness over the city. One theory is that the missiles used infrared countermeasures to evade air defences. Smoke rises in the aftermath of Russian strikes on a building in Ternopil on November 19. AP

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Kolodiy is a patriot: his company, Koza Dereza, makes clothes with traditional designs, and his charity, Wheels of Victory, transports toughened 4WD vehicles to the front to help soldiers in battle. He worries that people do not really understand what is happening in Ukraine. He feels the Russian onslaught is destroying the world he knew. Composite of screenshots from app showing air-raid alerts in Ukraine SMH The records show that Russia is blasting Ukraine with a devastating intensity at the very time US President Donald Trump says a peace deal is close. Trumps personal envoy, Steve Witkoff, is expected in Moscow on Tuesday (early on Wednesday, AEDT) to encourage Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to end the war. There is no sign, however, that Putin will accept peace unless it comes with a capitulation from Ukraine. The tally shows a surge in strikes this year and new peaks in recent weeks, including 476 drones and 48 missiles in a single night on November 19, when Ternopil was struck. Russia launched 464 drones and 22 missiles on November 25. It attacked power systems around Kyiv on Saturday, leaving 600,000 without power for much of that day.

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In the latest attack, a Russian missile killed four people and wounded 40 others when a ballistic missile struck a civilian target in Dnipro, in eastern Ukraine. Most attacks are at night, but this one was on Monday morning. One study of the missile strikes, by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, shows a dramatic escalation in the second half of this year. Another study, reported by The Kyiv Independent based on work by Dragon Capital, found that Russia launched 359 missiles and more than 8000 drones in October and November. It said Ukrainian forces intercepted 80 per cent of drones but only 27 per cent of missiles.

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Ukraines former foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, says the attacks are part of a pattern that shows Putin is under insufficient pressure to sign a peace deal. The sequence of contrasting events captured the grim essence of the outgoing year, he writes in The Guardian about the latest attacks. Rescue workers at the site of a strike in Ternopil on November 19. AP By day, diplomatic battles are fought: hopeful statements are issued from Washington, London, Brussels and Kyiv. Immense energy is expended on containing Donald Trumps initiatives. By night, Putin brutally reminds the world that, for him, war remains the primary tool for achieving peace. Kuleba concludes that genuine peace will come only when there is a more forceful response from America and Europe to deter Russia.

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Putin is convinced that time is on his side  that Ukraine and its partners are approaching exhaustion, he writes. His motivation to sign a deal that does not give him the maximum possible gain is close to zero. Putins own words show Kuleba is right. The Russian leader last week said Russia was ready to keep on fighting until the last Ukrainian dies. Then, on Sunday, he expressed confidence in seizing the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk. Russian forces are advancing in practically all directions, he said. Calculating that Europe and America will not do enough to stop him, Putin increases his attacks while Trump and his aides try to negotiate a peace. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is trying to gain more support while Trump sends Witkoff to see Putin, given the risk that the White House will expect Ukraine to sacrifice its long-term security to secure a ceasefire.

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Zelensky met French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday in Paris (early on Tuesday, AEDT), and the two men joined a call with leaders from Britain, Germany, Poland, Italy, Norway, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands. The talks included NATO and the European Union. Related Article Blood Oil Blood oil on the ground: Ive seen first hand the devastation of war in Ukraine The next step for the Ukrainian leader is an official visit to Ireland on Tuesday with his wife, Olena, including an address to the nations parliament, the Oireachtas. European leaders are showing their support for Ukraine. Even so, their words are not enough to deter Putin, who feels he is on a historic mission to reclaim the Russian empire. Ukrainians see a weak peace deal as an invitation to Putin to wage war again later. And they see the missile and drone strikes as proof that Putin does not really want peace at all.

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The Russians are dangerous, says Kolodiy in Ternopil. They are saying that they are for peace, but they are killing. If somebody wants to understand the condition of the world, just talk to somebody who has survived in Ukraine. Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on whats making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.
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Updated WorldEuropeRussia-Ukraine war Ready right now: Putin warns of war with Europe ahead of Ukraine talks David Crowe Updated December 3, 2025  8:25am ,first published December 3, 2025  3:01am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 341 View all comments

Key points Russian President Vladimir Putin intensified Ukraine peace talks, declaring Russia was ready for war with Europe if its leaders launched a conflict.

The talks in Moscow between Putin and US negotiators, including Jared Kushner, concluded with the parties no closer to resolving the crisis in Ukraine.

Putin warned European leaders to back down from their demands on the peace deal and claimed progress in the ground war on the eastern front.

Lviv, Ukraine: Russian President Vladimir Putin has raised the stakes in peace talks on Ukraine by declaring he was ready for war with Europe if its leaders launched a conflict, as his talks with US negotiators in Moscow drew no closer to a peace deal. Putin appeared to harden his stance on a potential peace agreement going into the meeting, by warning European leaders to back down in their demands on the terms of the deal. Russian President Vladimir Putin, third from the right, at the talks with US special envoy Steve Witkoff, second left, and Jared Kushner, third left, at the Kremlin in Moscow on Wednesday (AEDT). AP We are not planning to go to war with Europe, but if Europe wants to and starts, we are ready right now, Putin told reporters in Moscow. They have no peaceful agenda, they are on the side of war.

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The comments heightened the divide over a potential deal as Putin began his talks with two of the key aides to US President Donald Trump over the war, starting their discussions on Tuesday night in Moscow (Wednesday, AEDT). Related Article Analysis

Russia-Ukraine war The brutal reality that shows what Putin really thinks of Trumps peace plan The meeting  with US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner  ran for more than four hours and concluded at about 12.30am in Moscow (about 8.30am AEDT). The talks were constructive, but much work remained, Yuri Ushakov, a senior adviser to President Vladimir Putin, told reporters in Moscow after the meeting. Both sides agreed not to disclose the substance of the talks.

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Ushakov called the conversation rather useful, constructive, rather substantive, but added that the framework of the US peace proposal was discussed rather than specific wording. Asked whether peace was closer or further away after these talks, Ushakov said: Not further, thats for sure. At the Kremilin ahead of the meeting with Putin, from left to right: Russian foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov; Jared Kushner; Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev; and US envoy Steve Witkoff. AP But theres still a lot of work to be done, both in Washington and in Moscow. Thats whats been agreed upon. And contacts will continue, the official said. Putins aide also said that so far, a compromise hasnt been found on the issue of territories, without which, he said, the Kremlin sees no resolution to the crisis.

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Some of the American proposals seem more or less acceptable, but they need to be discussed. Some of the wording that was proposed to us doesnt suit us. So, the work will continue, Ushakov said. There were other points of disagreement, although Ushakov did not provide further details. We could agree on some things, and the president confirmed this to his interlocutors. Other things provoked criticism, and the president also didnt hide our critical and even negative attitude toward a number of proposals, he said. Putin smiles during the talks. AP Ahead of the meeting, Putin also claimed progress against Ukraine in the ground war on the eastern front and threatened more attacks on the Ukrainian coast along the Black Sea in response to attacks on Russian ships. Ukraine attacked two oil tankers carrying Russian crude on Saturday and has stepped up its attacks on the Novorossiysk export terminal on the Black Sea, in a sign of its capacity to inflict economic damage on Putins government.

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Another tanker was attacked in the Black Sea on Tuesday and was said to be carrying sunflower oil, but Ukraine denied it was responsible. While Russia has captured Ukrainian territory along the Sea of Azov, such as Mariupol and nearby cities, it has not gained control of the western part of the country, including the key port of Odesa. The most radical solution is to cut Ukraine off from the sea, then piracy will be impossible in principle, Putin said in remarks aired on television before the peace talks began in Moscow. Witkoff and Kushner met Ukrainian negotiators in Florida on Sunday alongside US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who declared after the talks that the US sought an outcome that would ensure Ukraines long-term security.

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The pair then flew to Moscow for their talks with the Russian leader, while Trump said in Washington that the war in Ukraine was a mess and not an easy situation to resolve. Related Article Exclusive

Russia-Ukraine war Offer on the table: Australian army helicopters set to aid fight against Putin The talks in Moscow come after European leaders pushed back at the Trump administrations draft peace plan, which was seen as favouring Russia because it ceded territory to Russia, capped the size of the Ukrainian military, removed sanctions on Russia, and sought to bar Western troops from acting as peacekeepers in Ukraine. Europe sought a higher cap on the Ukraine armed forces and opposed the rapid removal of sanctions, but there is no agreement on the final text and no clarity on the security guarantee that is meant to deter Putin from waging further attacks after a ceasefire. NATO foreign ministers meet in Brussels this week, but Rubio will not attend, raising concerns about the US commitment to the defence alliance. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte dismissed those concerns at a press conference on Tuesday (early on Wednesday, AEDT).

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged the possibility that Trump might lose interest in the talks on the war and leave Ukraine exposed to further assault from Russia. Yes, I am afraid. If somebody from our allies is tired, Im afraid, he said when asked about this possibility. Its the goal of Russia to withdraw the interest of America from this situation. Zelensky declared that Ukraine wanted peace, but he also held out against any outcome that gave Russia an incentive for waging war. One strong country can start a war, another strong country can stop the war, but to restore justice and defend whats right, we need a community, a world made up of many different nations, he said.

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One can inspire everyone else, and that is why Ukraine is fighting for every voice in the world. In an address to the Irish parliament during an official visit on Tuesday, Zelensky described the war with Russia as a fight that other countries also needed to win to avoid future aggression. The aggressor must be held accountable for what was done. This has gone on far too long to simply close our eyes and turn the page on Russia, he said. With Reuters, AP Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on whats making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.
MOSCOW, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Kremlin said Tuesday the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. presidential special envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow will be a key step toward a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine crisis.

"So this will be, we have no doubt, a very important step towards peace, a peaceful settlement," Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a briefing for Indian media conducted by Russia's Sputnik news agency.

Putin and Witkoff will discuss the understandings reached between Kiev and Washington regarding the search for solutions, he said, adding that the meeting is expected to begin in hours. 
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a rally in Caracas, capital of Venezuela, Dec. 1, 2025. (Str/Xinhua)

CARACAS, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela does not want "a slave's peace," Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro told supporters Monday as U.S. military deployment has been "testing" his country for months.

"We want peace, but peace with sovereignty, peace with equality, peace with freedom; we do not want the peace of slaves or the peace of colonies. A colony never, slaves never," Maduro declared, noting that the 22-week U.S. military "aggression" can be described as "psychological terrorism."

Maduro stressed that national power is grounded in citizen participation and "rests on the immense strength of its people, their awareness, their institutions, their rifles and their determination to build this homeland above any difficulty."

In his view, strengthening that social fabric makes national power "invincible, eternal and perpetual."

Maduro said the goal is to preserve "peace with dignity" by defending the republic and the country's political autonomy.

U.S. President Donald Trump has intensified pressure on Venezuela with a significant naval build-up in the Caribbean, carrying out strikes on vessels suspected of smuggling drugs since September and issuing on Saturday stern warnings to stay clear of Venezuelan airspace.

Venezuela revoked the operating rights of six major international airlines that had suspended flights to the country following a warning from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

Maduro and his government have denied all criminal accusations and said the United States is seeking regime change to take control of Venezuela's vast natural resources, including oil.

In their phone call on Nov. 21, Trump issued an ultimatum to Maduro, demanding he leave Venezuela, according to media reports.

Since early September, U.S. troops have carried out at least 21 strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, killing at least 83 people. 

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro attends a rally in Caracas, capital of Venezuela, Dec. 1, 2025. (Str/Xinhua)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a rally in Caracas, capital of Venezuela, Dec. 1, 2025. (Str/Xinhua)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro gestures during a rally in Caracas, capital of Venezuela, Dec. 1, 2025. (Str/Xinhua)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro waves the Venezuelan national flag during a rally in Caracas, capital of Venezuela, Dec. 1, 2025. (Str/Xinhua)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro gestures during a rally in Caracas, capital of Venezuela, Dec. 1, 2025. (Str/Xinhua)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro gestures during a rally in Caracas, capital of Venezuela, Dec. 1, 2025. (Str/Xinhua)

People attend a rally in Caracas, capital of Venezuela, Dec. 1, 2025. (Str/Xinhua)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro kisses the Venezuelan national flag during a rally in Caracas, capital of Venezuela, Dec. 1, 2025. (Str/Xinhua)
SEOUL, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Tuesday proposed restoring communication channels with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), according to multiple local media. 
Sonya McLean

A former school teacher will be sentenced next week for the indecent assault of eight boys over 30 years ago at a private Dublin school.

Peter Kelly (73) of Booterstown Park, Booterstown, was convicted by a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury following a two-week trial in November.

He pleaded not guilty to 28 counts of indecently assaulting the boys at Willow Park School, Rock Road, Blackrock, Dublin, on dates in the 70s and 80s. The school is run by the Spiritan order of priests

Kelly was convicted on all charges. The eight victims are now all aged in their early 50s.

Judge Elma Sheahan heard the victim impact statements of each of the men that had been abused by Kelly. Some of the men took the stand to read their own statements while Inspector Rachael Kilpatrick read others into the record.

The men spoke of the various ways Kellys actions impacted their life, speaking of addictions, inabilities to deal with relationships, inabilities to express their emotions and inabilities to reach their full potential in adult life.

Some of the men have spent time in psychiatric hospitals, others have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), many of them are on medication for anxiety and depression.

The men spoke of times in their lives when they have struggled with thoughts of suicide. They spoke of the loss of their education and suffering from insomnia, night terrors and panic attacks.

One victim spoke of an occasion as a child when he deliberately crashed his bike on the way to school. He was later treated in hospital because he had pretended he had injured his leg.

He said in his victim impact statement that he did this so he could get out of school for some time and be away from Kelly.

Many of the victims spoke of how their life could have been so different had they not been abused by Kelly and how as young children they never stood a chance against him.

One of the victims spoke about how Kelly was one cog in a machine of systematic abuse.

He said the school tolerated widespread sexual abuse and how 37 sexual abusers had been identified in both schools between both Willow Park and its feeder school Blackrock College. He said as children they had no chance.

One of the victims told Kelly that he hopes he is made confront the harm you have done.

This man also stated in his victim impact statement that he hopes the court understands how you have not only violated the law but the life of a child and everything that he might have become.

Another victim said he was already vulnerable, already broken when Kelly abused him as he had been the victim of multiple sexual crimes committed by Kellys colleagues.

He said he was not abused because I was chosen or groomed but because I was there in his classroom completely unable to protect myself.

He used his position, he took advantage of my vulnerability and added to my pain, the man continued.

Insp Kilpatrick outlined the incidences of abuse committed on each of the boys, who were mostly aged between 11 and 13 years old at the time.

She said most of the abuse occurred in the classroom when Kelly would hold the child on his lap and molest them under the guise of tickling them. The victims said he would restrain them on his lap and bounce them up and down.

He also played a game called 'The Muppet Show' during which he would take the child under the cloak he wore as a school teacher and again tickle them and then molest them.

One of the victims was abused in the schools rugby changing room. He described being laid across Kellys lap before he was abused. Others were abused in the school gym.

Andrew Sexton SC, defending, told Judge Sheahan that there is not an acceptance of the verdict before he added that Kelly never owned a passport. He said Kellys entire life centred around the school and his home, with his home being right beside the school.

Counsel said the school implemented its own disciplinary regime following an initial complaint in the early 2000s, which was followed by a series of suspensions and which ultimately led to the end of Kellys career at the school with Kelly resigning his post in 2004.

The Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to prosecute the allegations that had been made in the early 2000s.

He suffered the cessation of his life as a teacher and it was not replaced by anything else, Mr Sexton told the court.

Judge Sheahan said it was very important to acknowledge that it had been a very difficult morning for the six victims who were present in court.

She pointed out that due to the law that existed at the time of Kellys offending the maximum penalty available to the court in most of the charges was ten years, while two of the offences allowed a penalty of up to two years in prison.

Judge Sheahan revoked Kellys bail and remanded him in custody pending sentence next Monday, December 8th.

She said he was to be given the medical attention he required having been informed that he has a number of medical conditions.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help.
BEIJING, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday sent a congratulatory message to Thongloun Sisoulith, general secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) Central Committee and Lao president, on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said the LPRP has united and led the Lao people in persevering through hardships and forging ahead, and achieved gratifying results in the cause of reforms and opening-up, with people's livelihoods continuously improving and the country's international and regional influence significantly enhanced.

As comrades and brothers, China is sincerely pleased with those progress, Xi added.

The Chinese side is firmly convinced that Laos will continue on a socialist path suited to its national conditions, ensure the successful convening of the upcoming 12th National Congress of the LPRP, and continuously open up new prospects for the cause of party and state development, Xi added.

Xi noted that Thongloun paid a successful visit to China in September, during which they reached new strategic consensus on deepening the building of the China-Laos community with a shared future.

China has always regarded Laos as a priority in its neighborhood diplomacy and stands ready to work with Laos to take the 65th anniversary of diplomatic ties in the next year as an opportunity to carry forward traditional friendship, strengthen solidarity and cooperation, as well as deepen and substantiate the China-Laos comprehensive strategic cooperation in the new era, to bring more benefits to the two peoples and make greater contributions to peace and development in the region and the world, he said. 
by Mohamed al-Azaki

SANAA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Ibtisam Abdullah has spent most of her life amid war, but the war she faces now is unlike any before -- this one rages within her own body.

At just 30 years old, Ibtisam is suffering from an aggressive cancer spreading across her thyroid, throat, and face. Surgeons at the Republican Hospital in central Sanaa removed a tumor from her thyroid only days ago, but her prognosis remains grim. Doctors at the National Oncology Center say she needs another surgery to open her airway, followed by radiation and chemotherapy. Even if she survives those treatments, the care needed to save her eyes is not available in Yemen.

Tumors in this area require precise equipment to avoid permanent blindness, said Masoud Al Zariqi, an oncologist at the hospital. He said the only way to save her sight is for her to travel abroad.

For Abdullah and thousands of others, that possibility remains out of reach. Sanaa and much of the northwest have been under Houthi control since 2014, locked in a long war against a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the internationally recognized government. The result is a country split in two, an economy in free fall, and a healthcare system close to collapse.

Inside the courtyard of the National Oncology Center, the human toll is unmistakable. Hundreds of patients from across Houthi-controlled areas cluster together as they try to pay for consultations, tests, and chemotherapy. Health authorities in Sanaa do not publish official figures, but local media report that 12,000 cancer patients have died each year since the conflict began.

Public sector employees in these areas have gone largely unpaid since the war began, including teachers like Ibtisam. Doctors continue to work for free or for far less than their former salaries. Hospitals that once offered free care have been forced to charge for every procedure.

Many life-saving drugs are missing from pharmacies, said Ali Al Mutawakkil, a pharmacist in Sanaa. He said the shortages have turned medicine into a lucrative business, with prices doubling.

For patients whose treatment cannot be found in Sanaa, the only path is to leave the country. Yet Sanaa International Airport has been closed to commercial flights for years because of the coalition blockade, with only rare exceptions for United Nations officials or limited humanitarian arrangements.

Recent regional flare-ups, including Houthi missile launches aimed at Israel after the Gaza war erupted in 2023, have deepened the isolation of the north.

With air travel cut off, patients must travel overland to Aden, the temporary capital in the south under government control. The journey is punishing.

Mona Sultan, 25, has cancer near her left eye and the base of her skull. She recently made the trip to Cairo via Aden, a journey that consumed her family's savings.

"It's a hellish road for healthy people," she said wearily, "let alone cancer patients."

Before the war, the around 370-km drive from Sanaa to Aden took four hours. Now, with detours around front lines and roads filled with potholes and rubble, it takes at least 24. Travelers face hundreds of security checkpoints where armed men search vehicles and often demand bribes.

"There is no mercy," Mona said. "The cost of traveling to Cairo and money on medical treatment amounted to about 10,000 U.S. dollars. My family sold everything we owned and borrowed money from relatives and neighbors."

Meanwhile, Ibtisam's family is running out of time. They have already paid 400 dollars for her first surgery, a staggering amount in an economy that has collapsed. As the tumor grows and distorts her face, her husband and relatives go door to door begging for help to fund the next operation.

Now, Ibtisam lies in a hospital bed with her eyes swollen shut and a bandage wrapped high across her neck. Her future now depends on a community that has been stripped of nearly everything yet still tries to save one of its own.

Ibtisam is still at the beginning of her treatment journey, and the road ahead is still long, rough, and expensive. She has survived a long, deadly conflict in the country. The fight ahead, the one inside her body, may be harder still. 
TotalEnergies: French court ruling boosts African cases against polluters

Some African countries have consumer protection laws that they could use to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for pretending to be green.

A court ruling in France could give African countries more power to hold corporations to account when they pretend to be environmentally friendly. The Paris Judicial Court found global oil and gas giant TotalEnergies guilty of misleading commercial practices, in a case brought by three environmental organisations.

The October 2025 ruling marks the first time a fossil fuel major has been punished by the courts for greenwashing  where a company makes misleading claims about being environmentally friendly.

TotalEnergies greenhouse gas emissions are increasing every year, yet in an advertising campaign the company presented itself as a major player in the energy transition. The company also said it would reach net zero by 2050, meaning it would emit no more greenhouse gases than it could absorb.

The organisations told the court that TotalEnergies made consumers believe it had a climate plan that met the Paris Agreements target of limiting global warming to less than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

To meet this target, greenhouse gas emissions need to drop by 43% by 2030. Fossil fuel polluters would need to stop most of their emissions.

The court agreed that TotalEnergies adverts would be understood by the average consumer as a claim that the company was part of the fight against climate change.

We are climate law specialists who analyse what global court judgments against fossil fuel pollution and climate damage mean for Africa.

We believe the Paris Judicial Court ruling against TotalEnergies is a landmark moment in corporate accountability and climate litigation. TotalEnergies defeat in court shows that companies cannot just promise to become carbon neutral. Their climate pledges require clear targets and must be scientifically verifiable.

The French judgment could pave the way for consumers to hold corporations accountable for climate advertising claims in national and regional African courts. It shows that civil society can use consumer protection law to act against big polluters before regulators do - and may do so in Africa too.

Controversial energy projects stir backlash

TotalEnergies operates oil and gas projects in 43 African countries. Its perceived as a controversial company because its large-scale oil and gas projects in Africa have been associated with environmental pressures and climate related concerns.

The company also has plans to expand on the continent. In August 2024, TotalEnergies decided to stop gas exploration in South Africas offshore blocks but later announced plans for offshore drilling in South Africa in 2026, if it receives the required environmental approvals.

In Mozambique, TotalEnergies has completed only 40% of a US$20 billion gas project that it paused for four years because of insurgent attacks in the Cabo Delgado region. The company faces a potential challenge from the government for asking for a 10 year contract extension to compensate for extra costs the delay has caused.

TotalEnergies is also involved in the fossil fuel project in the East African Crude Oil Pipeline in Uganda and Tanzania. Non-profit organisations there say the pipeline is a humanitarian and environmental disaster.

What TotalEnergies did wrong

In France, greenwashing is regulated. To protect consumers, companies environmental claims must be accurate, verifiable, and not misleading. The law also outlines legal consequences for consumers.

The French court ruled that TotalEnergies misled the public by saying it would reach net zero. This amounted to unfair and prohibited commercial practices, based on the French Consumer Code.

The court ordered TotalEnergies to stop its greenwash advertising. It must publish the ruling on its website for 180 days or incur a penalty of 20,000 (US$23,000) per day. The company was also ordered to pay 8,000 (US$9,230) to the plaintiffs for causing non-financial harm.

Whats new legally is that the court didnt just look at TotalEnergies greenhouse gas emissions to judge whether it was following climate rules. It checked whether the companys future climate promises matched the legally binding Paris Agreement goal (to limit warming to 1.5C higher than the global temperature was before 1760).

The court ruled that it was misleading for TotalEnergies to make plans to increase oil and gas production, which releases more greenhouse gases, and at the same time claim to be reducing its carbon emissions.

In effect, the court applied a science-based standard to assess whether the companys claims were true.

Why the judgment matters

The judgment follows several cases where the European Court of Human Rights has found that countries are not doing enough to prevent further climate damage. For example, the court found that Switzerland had not developed enough climate policy to protect citizens rights to life. It also found that Norway must conduct full climate impact assessments  including greenhouse gas emissions from burning oil abroad  before approving new oil and gas projects.

Both the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea have said that countries must make every effort to take precautions against human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. The International Court of Justice has also confirmed that a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is a human right.

Together with the TotalEnergies greenwashing ruling, these judgments reflect a deeper transition in climate law. The law has moved from regulating what polluters emit to scrutinising what they represent.

Whats next for Africa

The African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights already recognises that people have the right to a general satisfactory environment favourable to development. And the court ruling makes it clear that misleading climate claims violate this right to clean development.

The ruling also makes it plain that greenwashing is a breach of consumer rights. For Africa, this means all governments must ensure that their consumer and advertising laws protect society from misleading greenwashing.

South Africas Consumer Protection Act, Nigerias Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act and Kenyas Competition Act already prohibit misleading claims by advertisers. And South Africa has been the first to test this law against climate communication. In August 2024, the South African Advertising Regulatory Board found TotalEnergies guilty of misleading sustainability advertising.

Overall, the ruling shows that misleading green or carbon-neutral claims could lead to legal action in African courts. For consumers, investors and policymakers, the lesson is clear: companies must be honest about their climate actions.

Zunaida Moosa Wadiwala, Legal Researcher, PhD Candidate and Lead of the African Climate Law Programme, Mandela Institute, University of the Witwatersrand and Tracy-Lynn Field, Director of the Mandela Institute, Professor of Law, University of the Witwatersrand

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Why AI still needs humans: key lessons from the Wits FHS Prestigious Lecture 2025

In the near future, people, pharmacists and employers wont need to decipher difficult-to-read doctors scripts and sick notes.

An ambient scribe, an AI tool that listens in on a medical consultation and automatically generates a written document, could also cut hours of administrative work, ease doctors burnout, and redirect more time to actual patient care. This was relayed by Professor Bruce Bassett, AI Chair at the Wits Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery (MIND) Institute, who presented at the Wits Faculty of Health Sciences 2025 Prestigious Research Lecture, From Data to Diagnosis: Rethinking Medicine in the Age of AI.

Theres little doubt that AI is reshaping medicine, but pertinent questions and challenges remain, including reliability and ethics. Encouragingly, human expertise and locally-generated data remain at the centre of any meaningful healthcare interaction.

Tools such as the ambient scribe are only as reliable as the data that feeds them. The adage garbage in, garbage out, will continue to be true, said Professor Bassett. He explained that flawed or incomplete data can lead to misdiagnosis, biased treatments and inappropriate treatment. AI cant compensate for the absence of African genomic information or inconsistent health records, for example. Humans will always provide the necessary quality.

Therefore, human-led expertise, and particularly, AI trained on African-specific data, was central to the prestigious lectures overall message. Professor Collen Masimirembwa, Senior Scientist at the Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience at Wits, who also presented at the lecture, reminded the audience that should AI be meaningfully used in healthcare, data reflecting African biology, epidemiology and treatment responses are critical.

Africa has the highest genomic diversity in the world, but remains underrepresented in global medical datasets. African populations have about 200 times more genetic variation than Europeans, but diagnostic tools, risk scores and pharmacogenetic studies are based on non-African data, explained Professor Masimirembwa.

He has done extensive work on the antiretroviral drug, efavirenz (EFV). When African patients took the standard 600 mg dose of EFV, they reported neuropsychiatric symptoms, including increased suicidal thoughts. Professor Masimirembwa found that patients from Zimbabwe and Botswana carried a gene variant that increases EFV metabolism, making the standard dose (tested in non-African populations) toxic. Indeed, genomic studies in Botswana showed that 13.5% of the population would not benefit from EFV-based therapies at all.

Lower genomically guided doses at 400mg led to increased treatment compliance and better HIV viral control. These results have profound impacts on national HIV policies. Indeed, Botswana shifted to dolutegravir-based regimes, said Professor Masimirembwa.

Professor Bruce Bassett shifted the discussion to multimodal AI systems which can influence diagnostic reasoning and patient management. He used the example of doctors missing pulmonary embolism diagnoses, which AI systems successfully flagged. We see a rapid rise of digital biology and the growing ability of AI to synthesise radiology, pathology, genomics and clinical histories to generate preliminary diagnostic hypotheses.

The presentations were further deliberated on during a panel discussion chaired by Professor Helen Rees, the executive director of Wits RHI. Panellists included Dr Maurice Goodman, Discovery Healths Chief Medical Officer, Dr Scott Mahoney, Senior Programme Officer for AI and Health at the Gates Foundation and Dr Aisha Pandor, co-founder and CEO of Pandora Health.

Dr Goodman spoke about the need to equip health professionals with the skills to interpret AI outputs. Dr Mahoney reflected on Africas severe health workforce shortage, noting that the continent holds only three percent of the global health workforce, while carrying 24% of the total burden of disease. He positioned AI as a potential reach extender, particularly in areas where many communities remain far from healthcare facilities. But AI can only succeed, he said, if the continents data systems are strengthened.

Dr Pandor stressed the important of building community trust, ensuring equitable access and avoiding AI technology that reflects top-down assumptions rather than local realities. Professor Rees highlighted that data quality, regulatory capacity and clarity, and training are as important as the technology itself.

Closing the event, Professor Shabir Madhi, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, reminded the audience that AI presents a unique opportunity to reimagine clinical care, research and education. But he emphasised that Africa must become a producer rather than a consumer of AI-driven health solutions. AIs power lies in elevating the quality of human decision-making, but only if the data, context and values shaping these systems are rooted in Africas realities.
The Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development is held in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, Dec. 1, 2025. Under the theme of "Uniting Overseas Chinese Talent, Forging a New Era of Innovation," the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development kicked off here on Monday. (Xinhua/Zhou Yi)

This photo shows robots displayed at the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, Dec. 1, 2025. Under the theme of "Uniting Overseas Chinese Talent, Forging a New Era of Innovation," the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development kicked off here on Monday. (Xinhua/Zhou Yi)

This photo shows a digital electroencephalography acquisition system displayed at the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, Dec. 1, 2025. Under the theme of "Uniting Overseas Chinese Talent, Forging a New Era of Innovation," the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development kicked off here on Monday. (Xinhua/Zhou Yi)

This photo shows a bionic aircraft displayed at the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, Dec. 1, 2025. Under the theme of "Uniting Overseas Chinese Talent, Forging a New Era of Innovation," the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development kicked off here on Monday. (Xinhua/Zhou Yi)

This photo shows cultural and creative products displayed at the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, Dec. 1, 2025. Under the theme of "Uniting Overseas Chinese Talent, Forging a New Era of Innovation," the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development kicked off here on Monday. (Xinhua/Zhou Yi)

This photo shows cultural and creative products displayed at the Harbin booth at the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, Dec. 1, 2025. Harbin is the guest city of honor this year. Under the theme of "Uniting Overseas Chinese Talent, Forging a New Era of Innovation," the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development kicked off here on Monday. (Xinhua/Zhou Yi)

This photo shows the Harbin booth at the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, Dec. 1, 2025. Harbin is the guest city of honor this year. Under the theme of "Uniting Overseas Chinese Talent, Forging a New Era of Innovation," the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development kicked off here on Monday. (Xinhua/Zhou Yi)

This photo shows a robot displayed at the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, Dec. 1, 2025. Under the theme of "Uniting Overseas Chinese Talent, Forging a New Era of Innovation," the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development kicked off here on Monday. (Xinhua/Zhou Yi)

This photo shows a scene of the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, Dec. 1, 2025. Under the theme of "Uniting Overseas Chinese Talent, Forging a New Era of Innovation," the Third Overseas Chinese Talent Conference for Development kicked off here on Monday. (Xinhua/Zhou Yi)
Keir Starmers Labour governments preparation for an assault on the historic right of trial by jury in Britain was exposed last week in a leaked Ministry of Justice internal briefing from Justice Secretary David Lammy.

According to the document, Lammy, who is also the deputy prime minister, aims to introduce legislation to end jury trials for all cases carrying a maximum sentence of less than five years.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks with Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy as he hosts his weekly Cabinet in 10 Downing Street, September 9, 2025 [Photo by imon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

The proposals must be understood alongside the Labour governments accelerating preparations for war abroad and for major conflict with the working class at home.

Courts Secretary Sarah Sackman claimed the measures are aimed against career criminals supposedly gaming the system by having the temerity to opt for their democratic right to a jury trial. One of the central targets of the legislation, however, is what is called jury equity or jury nullification. This refers to the right of a jury to determine whether a crime has been committed at all, regardless of the opinion of the trial judge.

Jury equity was famously exercised in 1985 by the jury in the case against civil servant Clive Ponting, who leaked details of the then Tory governments misinformation over the circumstances surrounding the 1982 sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano by the Royal Navy, with the loss of 272 lives.

Ponting was acquitted after a two-week trial, despite admitting that he had leaked the documents in question and the trial judges insistence that he had no defence in law. Ponting claimed, and the jury agreed, that releasing the documents, which exposed government lies over the circumstances of the sinking, was in the public interest.

The principle has become an irritant to governments ever since, particularly following a series of cases in which members of climate and anti-genocide protest organisations such as Extinction Rebellion and Palestine Action have been acquitted despite instructions from the bench.

In 2023, retired Walthamstow social worker Trudi Warner held up a sign, for 30 minutes, outside the court at which activists for the Insulate Britain climate activist group were to be tried over their protest actions in blocking the M25 London orbital motorway. Warners sign read, Jurors, you have an absolute right to acquit according to your conscience.

Warner was arrested and sent for trial at the Old Bailey where, extraordinarily, the same message is displayed on a plaque commemorating the 1670 jury in the case of Quakers William Penn (later founder of Pennsylvania) and William Mead, accused of unlawful assembly. The plaque celebrates the stand of Thomas Vere, Edward Bushell and ten others who refused to give a verdict against Penn and Mead although they were locked up without food for two nights and were fined for their verdict of Not Guilty. The case established the jurys authority to judge both the facts and the law, with a November 1670 ruling by Lord Chief Justice Vaughan upholding the principle that juries could not be punished for their verdicts.

Warner was informed by then Solicitor General Michael Tomlinson that he was minded to commit her to prison. Her stance was taken up by what became the group Defend Our Juries, which organised protests in Warners defence outside every Crown Court in England and Wales.

In the end the Solicitor Generals case was thrown out and was finally dropped in 2024 by Labours new appointee to the office, Sarah Sackman.

Subsequently, however, hundreds of people have been arrested for opposing the Palestinian genocide by holding up signs opposing the proscription of the peaceful direct action group, Palestine Action. Once again, Labour wants to aggressively push forward the repressive measures prepared by its Tory predecessor.

Should the plans be enacted, instead of jury trials, a new tier of courts, the Crown Court Bench Division, would be created between magistrates courts and Crown Courts, to hear cases that did not involve murder, rape or manslaughter charges. The proposals are based on those floated earlier this year in a report from retired judge, Sir Brian Leveson, and are being presented as a response to backlogs in the legal system meaning that cases can wait four or five years before going to court. Some 78,000 cases are reported as currently awaiting trial.

Commissioned in 2024, Levesons report complained that reduced numbers of courts and court staff, poorly maintained court buildings, disorganisation in the justice system exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, pro-active policing policies of successive governments, along with greater complexity of cases and new forms of evidence all combined to make jury trials take twice as long as in 2000. The years long backlog of cases meant that justice delayed is justice denied.

Levesons recommendations included a series of pragmatic measures, such as more Out of Court Settlements, streamlined digital processes to facilitate those, further investment in drug and alcohol misuse rehabilitation services, more encouragement towards rehabilitation, out of court resolutions for minor offences and similar measures.

Leveson also proposed restricting the right to elect for a jury trial to cases with maximum sentences of over three years. The right of appeal would also be curtailed to a more restrictive permission to appeal.

Lammys proposals go further. The justice secretary is seeking to increase the jury trial threshold to cases carrying sentences of five years imprisonment or over. Leveson also proposed that juries would be replaced by a trial judge and two magistrates. This token safeguard, it is reported, has also been abandoned by Lammy who is suggesting a single judge could preside over most cases, with juries being reserved only for the most serious crimes such as murder and manslaughter.

Lammys measures were denounced from within the legal profession itself, with comments warning of the threat to the legitimacy of the legal system itself.

The Law Society warned, Our societys concept of justice rests heavily on lay participation in determining a persons guilt or innocence. Allowing a single person to take away someones liberty for a lengthy period or decide a potentially life changing complaint would be a dramatic departure from our shared values.

Riel Karmy-Jones KC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association, told the BBC, The consequences... will be to destroy a criminal justice system that has been the pride of this country for centuries, and to destroy justice as we know it.

Commenting on the government pretext of a case backlog, Karmy-Jones noted, Juries are not the cause of the backlog. The cause is the systematic underfunding and neglect that has been perpetrated by this government and its predecessors for years.

In 2022, criminal barristers took strike action demanding an increase in fees for legal aid work to prevent an exodus of trained barristers moving into more lucrative areas of work. Barristers noted the 2 billion slashed from legal aid and the repeated concerns raised over the escalating backlog. In March 2020, the awaiting trial backlog was 40,000. It is now nearly double that.

According to the BBC, Lammys proposal is in the process of being given approval by cabinet ministers and Whitehall departments before a planned December announcement of legislation being introduced early in 2026.

In a parallel expression of the Labour governments anti-democratic clampdown, the Guardian reported on the removal of the judge presiding over a judicial review challenging the ban on Palestine Action.

Justice Martin Chamberlain, described by Defend Our Juries as widely respected for his fairness and independence, will be replaced by Dame Victoria Sharp, Justices Karen Steyn and Sir Jonathan Swift.

According to Novara media, Chamberlain has no scheduling conflicts, and the judiciary press office refused to offer any comment when approached by the Guardian. Swift is most known for his 2023 rejection of Julian Assanges appeal against extradition, and his 2022 ruling in favour of the then Tory governments brutal plan to deport failed asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Steyn ruled in June in favour of government exports of F-35 fighter jet components to Israel amid the ongoing genocide. Sharps twin brother is a former banker, adviser to Boris Johnson and a multi-millionaire Tory donor. The judicial review began November 26.
LUSAKA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) on Tuesday urged member countries to accelerate the adoption of digital technologies to deepen regional integration.

COMESA Secretary-General Chileshe Kapwepwe said digital technologies offer unprecedented opportunities to overcome bottlenecks associated with regional integration by enhancing productivity, improving infrastructure connectivity, accelerating trade, and empowering small and medium-sized enterprises.

"Digital transformation stands as our greatest catalyst for accelerating progress across all sectors. With our collaborative efforts, we need to ensure that ongoing projects are effectively managed to achieve the intended objectives," she said at the opening of the 46th meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee in Lusaka, the Zambian capital.

The two-day meeting, held under the theme "Leveraging Digitalization to Deepen Regional Value Chains for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth," precedes the COMESA Council of Ministers' meeting on Thursday.

With a population of over 680 million and a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of 1 trillion U.S. dollars, Kapwepwe said that COMESA's economic and demographic strength positions the bloc to help reshape regional trade and investment through innovative digital solutions.

While noting that sectors such as agriculture, agro-processing, and tourism remain central to member economies, the official emphasized the need for the bloc to adapt to an increasingly digital global marketplace. She also urged the use of frontier technologies to reinforce trade-facilitation tools, support intra-regional commerce, expand value chains, and sharpen the region's competitiveness.

Kapwepwe highlighted several ongoing digital initiatives, including the 2.2-billion-dollar COMESA-World Bank Digital Acceleration Program launched this year, which aims to connect 180 million people and deliver digital services to about 100 million people by 2030.

She also cited the COMESA Digital Retail Payment Platform, designed to enable secure, paperless cross-border payments and support the growth of e-commerce.

Zambia's Minister of Commerce, Trade, and Industry Chipoka Mulenga said the meeting's theme challenges countries to reflect on how digital transformation can redefine the region's economic future.

He said recent global shocks have underscored the need to modernize trade systems and advance digital platforms, particularly to empower small-scale traders.

COMESA is Africa's largest regional economic organization with 21 member states. 
The United Nations committee on torture has said that Israel has a de facto state policy of organised and widespread torture and ill-treatment that has gravely intensified since October 7, 2023.

It expressed deep concern over allegations of repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, waterboarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence, as well as the impunity of Israeli security forces for war crimes.

Blindfolded Palestinian detainees inside the Sde Teiman detention camp in May 2024 [Photo: Obtained by CNN - https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/10/middleeast/israel-sde-teiman-detention-whistleblowers-intl-cmd/index.html]

The report, published Friday alongside reports on Albania, Argentina and Bahrain, was part of the committees regular monitoring of countries that have signed the UN convention against torture. It covered the last two years since the start of the Gaza genocide.

The UNs committee of 10 independent experts expressed its concern about the disproportionate nature of Israels response to the October 7 attacks that have resulted in 70,000 deaths, the destruction of or damage to much of Gazas infrastructure and buildings and the displacement of 90 percent of the population.

It said Palestinian detainees were humiliated by being made to act like animals or being urinated on, were systematically denied medical care and subject to excessive use of restraints, in some cases resulting in amputation.

It noted that Israel lacked a distinct offence criminalizing torture and that its legislation exempts public officials from criminal culpability under the necessity defence when unlawful physical pressure is applied during interrogations.

It drew attention to the high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand, noting the age of criminal responsibility imposed by Israel is 12, and that children younger than 12 have also been detained. Children categorised as security prisoners have severe restrictions on family contact, may be held in solitary confinement, and do not have access to education, in violation of international standards, it states. The UN committee appealed to Israel to amend its legislation so that solitary confinement is not used against children.

The UN report adds to the mounting evidence produced by Israeli and Palestinian human rights and legal advocacy groups of the torture, abuse and neglect in Israels detention centres, operated by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and the Israel Prison Service (IPS). Israels Channel 14 aired a programme showing an Israeli prison officer describing the abuse, while testimony of the abuse and torture have been widely disseminated on social media, accompanied by the photos and videos shot by Israeli soldiers and former detainees.

The report Death Sentence for Palestinians in Custody | New Report and Testimonies, published recently by the Physicians for Human RightsIsrael (PHRI), says that at least 98 Palestinians have died in Israeli detention centres since October 7, 2023, with evidence pointing in many cases to torture, starvation or medical neglect. Since hundreds of Palestinians detained in Gaza are missing, the real toll is likely to be substantially higher. Fewer than 30 prisoners died in Israeli custody in the 10 years before the war.

These large numbers, and the fact that they occurred across at least 12 detention centres, those of both the Israel Prison Service (IPS) and the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), indicate that they were not isolated incidentsor the result of a few bad applesbut flowed from a deliberate policy of killing Palestinians in custody.

The PHRI report tracked deaths from causes including physical violence, medical neglect, the lack of treatment for severe infections and malnutrition, using freedom of information requests, forensic reports and interviews with lawyers, activists, relatives and witnesses. It provides evidence of the severe abuse meted out by the Israeli security forces to Palestinian detainees.

The emaciated appearance of the 1,726 detainees who were recently released and returned to Gaza made plain the suffering they had endured. They described the shocking mistreatment they had received, including being deprived of food, water and sleep, denied medication and treatment, allowed access to the toilet just once a day, shackling in painful positions, suffocation, sexual assault, rape, beatings, abuse and torture that resulted in some cases in permanent injury and even blindness. Verbal, physical, and psychological torture and humiliation were routine.

Freed Palestinian prisoners wave as they arrive in the Gaza Strip after their release from Israeli jails under a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025. [AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi]

The PHRI report provides chilling details of the physical abuse and medical neglect suffered by prisoners, including personal testimonies from prison staff who spoke of such severe shackling of prisoners, causing such severe wounds to their arms and legs that their limbs had to be amputated. Other cases point to a systematic pattern of severe violence, including head trauma, internal haemorrhages and broken ribs.

The UN committee found the death toll in Israeli custody to be abnormally high and appears to have exclusively affected the Palestinian detainee population and noted that to date, no state officials have been held responsible or accountable for such deaths.

It drew attention to Israels widespread use of the Unlawful Combatants Law to justify the prolonged detention without trial of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children. This law allows Israel to imprison people indefinitely, without charge or trial, during wartime without recognising them as prisoners of war as mandated by the Geneva Conventions, if there are reasonable grounds to believe they participated in hostile activities against the State of Israel, or that they are a member of a group that has done so. Detainees can be denied access to a lawyer for up to 75 days, while the courts routinely extend their detention, based on secret evidence.

According to the Israeli human rights group HaMoked, the prison service is holding about 2,660 Gazans as unlawful combatants, the highest number since the start of the war, while legal rights groups believe hundreds more are being held in military detention centres before being transferred to IPS prisons. The law means that hundreds if not thousands of Palestinians have been forcibly disappeared and held without external oversight.

Yet data obtained in May from the IDFs Military Intelligence Directorate showed that Israel had arrested only 1,450 Palestinians from the military wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) of the 47,653 Palestinians it considers to be Hamas or PIJ militants. This means that the overwhelming majority of the 10,000 or so Palestinians held in prisons and the thousands more held in military detention centres are civilians who are not members of either group. Human rights groups and Israeli soldiers have testified to an even smaller ratio of fighters to civilians among those detained in Gaza than the numbers leaked from IDF sources.

Michael Sfard, one of Israels leading human rights lawyers, explained that international law only permits the internment of civilians if they pose an imperative security threat, while at the same time guaranteeing basic rights, which Israel is violating.

He said, The conditions of Gazans in detention in Israel absolutely, without doubt, do not meet what is stipulated in the Fourth Geneva Convention, noting that violent abuse, food deprivation, and the denial of Red Cross visits and family communication is routine. He added that the legislation used to hold them is also itself a flagrant violation of international law.

These numbers flatly contradict the IPSs claims, without citing any evidence, that almost all the unlawful combatants held in Israeli prisons are members of Hamas or PIJ, as well as those of Israels politicians, the IDF and media that routinely brand all Palestinian detainees from Gaza as terrorists. As Tal Steiner, director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, said, the fact that most are not members of militant groups undermines the entire justification for their detention.

Israel is responsible for the deaths of dozens of Palestinian civilians in custody as a result of the atrocious conditions in its detention centres. The Palestinian Prisoners Club said that Palestinian prisoners are exposed to slow death through systematic deterioration of inhumane living conditions, medical crimes, and torture and pointed to the medical neglect of Palestinian prisoners.

This pattern of abuse is a deliberate strategy, designed to terrorise the Palestinians and demonstrate the futility of resistance. Itamar Ben Gvir, the far-right National Security Minister, declared that one of his top priorities was to worsen conditions for Palestinian prisoners, including by providing only minimal food, and to reduce their rights to the minimum required by law.

In June 2024, Ronen Bar, who headed Israels domestic spy agency Shin Bet, warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the overcrowding in the prisons that were holding 21,000 people50 percent more than their maximum 14,500 capacitywith the treatment of prisoners bordered on abuse, exposing state employees to possible criminal proceedings abroad.

While the IDF claims that it investigates all allegations of abuse, its top lawyer has brought no prosecutions against soldiers for killing civilians. This is even after high-profile attacks that have prompted international outrage and were clearly in breach of international humanitarian law, including the killing of hundreds of medical and health care workers and 562 aid workers, not to mention tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians.

Only one Israeli soldier has been prosecuted and convicted, receiving a seven-month sentence for assaulting detainees from Gaza. Five other soldiers have been charged with aggravated abuse and causing serious bodily harm to a detainee at the Sde Teiman detention centredowngraded from initial allegations of rapeafter footage of soldiers raping a blindfolded Palestinian detainee and causing serious injuries was leaked to the Israeli media last year.

Israeli soldiers gather at the gate to the Sde Teiman military base to protest in support of soldiers being questioned for detainee abuse, July 29, 2024 [AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov]

This is deliberate policy. Last month, there was uproar after Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the IDFs top lawyer, revealed that it was she who leaked the infamous video. She became the target of a right-wing campaign of vilification, arrest and possible prosecution that had already mobilised in defence of the IDF criminals.

That the Arab regimes along with the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Fatahs Central Committee have remained silent about Israels abuse and torture of prisoners testifies to their perfidy and collusion with Israel in suppressing the Palestinians.

The silence of world leaders and the corporate media about Israels abuse and torture of Palestinian prisoners is confirmation of their complicity in Israels genocidal assault on Gaza and its escalating attacks on the West Bank. Israel enjoys the support of all the imperialist powers that are now themselves slashing democratic rights and freedom of speech to suppress all opposition to their domestic and foreign policies. As far as they too are concerned international humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention drawn up in the aftermath of World War II are a dead letter.
On November 18, Associated Kiln Driers (AKD) suddenly announced the closure of its sawmill in the small town of Yarram, in Gippsland. The facilitys 73 workers were given no forewarning of the shutdown, arriving at work on the Tuesday morning, only to be told they would be made redundant, effective immediately.

Yarram sawmill

Workers were told they would receive just nine days of paid leave, until November 28, then redundancy payments. Reportedly, the company has imposed a gag order, telling workers these meagre payments could be withheld if they speak to the media.

The Yarram sawmill, which cut softwood for products like pallets and fencing, has been operating since 1996, passing through several different corporate owners before AKD acquired it in 2018.

No clear explanation has been given for the sudden shutdown of the sawmill. The 2023 closure of the Opal paper mill an hour away in Maryvale, which had been purchasing wood chips from the Yarram plant may well have contributed.

AKD said in a media release the Yarram sawmills closure was part of a restructuring operation at the company. Following an organisational review, the company had decided that, because of challenging market conditions, the prolonged slowdown in housing construction across the country and increasing operating costs, Yarrams operations had become unsustainable.

Yarram sawmill workers and local residents told World Socialist Web Site reporters they had been blindsided by the sudden closure of the plant, which had been training new staff, had recently been upgraded, and appeared to be in full operation.

One local said the company had been planning it for sure. They were really holding it close to their chest, because everyone was in the dark.

AKD told workers they could perhaps find employment at its four other facilities where it employs over 900 workers. But there is no guarantee, and even if workers are offered such positions, the nearest AKD mill is in Colac, more than four hours drive away, meaning they would be forced to pick up and move their whole family, without warning. AKDs other locations are even further afield, located in Tumut and Oberon in New South Wales, and Caboolture in Queensland.

The closure of the Yarram sawmill, the second largest employerafter supermarket chain Woolworthsin the town of over 2,000 people, threatens to cascade through the local district, adding to the ongoing employment crisis in the Gippsland region.

Although it has virtually no members at the sawmill, the Timber, Furnishing and Textiles Union (TFTU) bureaucracy immediately arrived on the scene to help the company complete the shutdown as smoothly as possible. The TFTU was previously the manufacturing division of the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU), but, with the help of the federal Labor government, split from the building union earlier this year after a protracted legal battle.

TFTU national secretary Michael OConnor said the union was doing everything we can to see if we can place [Yarram workers] in other mills. Weve had at least one mill offer work.

By volunteering its services as a de facto job placement agency, the TFTU is sending workers a clear message that nothing can be done to prevent the closure of the Yarram sawmill, the destruction of 73 jobs and the enormous flow-on effect it will have on the town.

As is the case for AKD itself, the TFTU leaderships main concern is not for the sacked workers, but to prevent any opposition to the closure, and especially any broader ramifications for the companys other facilities, including its largest in Colac, where the TFTU does have coverage.

The TFTU is using a tactic practised and perfected over decades by the union apparatus to impose the orderly closure of factories and even entire industries. Workers are isolated from the rest of the working class, fed fairy tales that they will be looked after through union-management redeployment programs and, above all, told that a fight to defend their jobs is impossible.

The orderly closure operation at Yarram is just the sharpest expression of what the TFTU bureaucracy is carrying out more broadly in response to growing concerns over the future of the forestry industry. The union is promoting illusions that the federal Labor governments Timber Fibre Strategyjointly endorsed by the TFTU and Forestry industry representativeswill protect and even create jobs.

The shutdown and destruction of jobs in Yarram can and must be fought, but it will require a fight to mobilise the support of workers at the other AKD facilities in Colac, Caboolture, Tumut and Oberon, throughout the timber industry and more broadly.

The material basis for this support is that the sudden Yarram closure is not a unique phenomenon, but part of a global attack on the working class. It is a reminder that, under capitalism, no worker is safe from being thrown on the scrapheap without notice, according to the profit imperatives of corporations and their shareholders.

This cannot be fought through the trade unions, which not only defend the capitalist profit system, but are an integral part of it, serving as an industrial police force to impose the attacks on jobs, wages and conditions demanded by big business and governments.

Instead, new organisations must be builtrank-and-file committees, democratically run by workers and totally independent of the unions and Labor. The urgent task of such committees in Yarram and at AKDs other facilities is to lead a political and industrial fight to demand the reopening of the sawmill and the restoration of all jobs. If the company claims this is impossible, then the facility should be placed under public ownership and democratic workers control.

The sudden shutdown of the Yarram sawmill and destruction of 73 jobs is one stark expression of the domination, under capitalism, of corporate profits over workers needs. The fight against this and other attacks on jobs, wages and conditions, must be connected with a broader struggle by the working class for a political alternative.

Contact the Socialist Equality Party to enquire about forming a rank-and-file committee in your workplace or community.
8-year-old Fadi, left, and 11-year-old Juma Abu Asi, right.

Two Palestinian children were killed by an Israeli drone strike on the edge of the Bani Suheila neighborhood of Khan Younis in Gaza on Saturday.

Palestinian medical officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis reported that an Israeli drone fired on two brothers in the area east of the city, in a zone that Israel designates as being on the Israelicontrolled side of the ceasefire line.

Palestinian media also reported the identities of the victims as brothers from the Abu Asi family, Juma, aged 11, and Fadi, aged 8. International coverage noted that the strike took place close to the mapped Yellow Line east of Khan Younis, where the army has warned Palestinians not to approach its forces and has used drones and live fire to enforce the boundary.

Relatives interviewed by Palestinian outlets said the children had gone out to collect firewood for their injured father when they were attacked, underscoring that they were engaged in basic survival activity in an area that Israel had arbitrarily transformed into a kill zone.

Gazas Health Ministry has repeatedly stressed that those killed in such incidents are overwhelmingly civilians, including large numbers of children, and has characterized the ongoing Israeli fire in ceasefire conditions as deliberate terror against a besieged population.

While details of the incident remain limited, Reuters and other agencies have consistently reported that children of similar ages have been killed in Israeli attacks in southern Gaza, citing Gazan medical officials who provide names and ages as the bodies arrive at hospitals.

These reports confirm that the pattern seen in Bani Suheilachildren killed while attempting to secure necessities in areas emptied and controlled by the Israeli armyis not a rare or isolated event but a feature of the Israeli occupation regime.

The Israeli military claimed that the two boys were suspects who crossed the Yellow Line in Bani Suheila, were engaged in suspicious activity on the ground and approached Israeli forces in a way that posed an immediate threat. They said that an air force drone strike was launched to remove the threat.

This formula is identical to wording used repeatedly since the official start of the ceasefire on October 10 to justify lethal force against unarmed Palestinians, including children, whose mere presence inside their own territory is redefined as a security danger.

Throughout the ceasefire period, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has continued to reject any recognition of Palestinian statehood even as the Gaza peace framework is pushed through the UN Security Council, insisting that Israels opposition to a Palestinian state in any territory has not changed. This stance is mirrored by the murderous attacks on Palestinians that has continued and is essentially an extension of the genocide that began more than two years ago.

Israeli officials have paired such statements with assertions that they will maintain full freedom of military action in Gaza throughout the ceasefire period, openly admitting that the lines and maps published for civilians do not restrict the armys right to strike anywhere it deems necessary.

According to Gazas Health Ministry, as many as 350 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 900 wounded by Israeli fire since the ceasefire formally came into effect on October 10. These figures include people killed by drone strikes, tank fire and snipers along and beyond the Yellow and Red Lines, as well as those killed in continued airstrikes on residential areas and camps that Israel claims are linked to security operations.

Gazas government media office has documented nearly 500 ceasefire violations by Israel in this same period, including direct shooting incidents, incursions of armored vehicles beyond the Yellow Line, airstrikes, and the destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure in zones that were supposed to be safe for movement and limited reconstruction.

Independent trackers and timelines of the Gaza war confirm that the ceasefire has been punctuated almost daily by Israeli attacks, with Palestinian casualties rising steadily and the army explicitly invoking alleged ceasefire violations as pretexts for renewed bombardment.

Under the October 10 arrangement, Gaza has been divided into zones marked on online maps and physical markers indicating Yellow and Red lines that Palestinians are told not to cross. The Yellow Line separates areas open to limited civilian movement from zones under direct Israeli military control, while Red zones remain entirely off limits, encompassing swathes of destroyed neighborhoods and agricultural land.

Palestinians report that Israeli forces have frequently fired on people who remained within the supposed permitted areas but were deemed too close to the lines, and that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) vehicles routinely push beyond the Yellow Line deeper into Gaza.

The Bani Suheila drone strike, carried out against children on the Israelicontrolled side of the ceasefire line, exposes the reality that the mapped barriers exist to regulate and punish movement rather than to guarantee any safety.

Parallel to the ongoing violence is the Trump administrations aggressive reconstruction and stabilization scheme that would further partition Gaza and entrench Israeli control of Gaza. A USbacked UN Security Council resolution endorses Washingtons 20point ceasefire strategy, calls for deployment of an International Stabilization Force to enter, disarm and govern Gaza, and establishes a Board of Peaceheaded by the fascist US President Donald Trumpto oversee Israeli control, without any genuine Palestinian representation or commitment to statehood.

Central to this plan is the construction of large Alternative Safe Communities in Israelicontrolled areas of Gaza, composed of dense housing compounds made of temporary structures, each designed to hold between 20,000 and 25,000 Palestinians and to include clinics and educational facilities.

These residential zones would be built primarily on the eastern half of the Strip under longstanding Israeli military control, creating a chain of isolated settlements ringed by army positions and international forces along the Yellow Line.

Media reports about the scheme identify senior Trump administration official Aryeh Lightstonepreviously a key aide to former ambassador David Friedman and an architect of the Abraham Accords economic projectsas the point man for the Alternative Safe Communities initiative, publicly arguing that the compounds are the easiest way to get Palestinians into housing as soon as humanly possible.

Meanwhile, Jared Kushner, Trumps soninlaw, has been closely associated with postwar economic and realestate planning in Gaza and the wider region, leveraging his ties with Gulf monarchies and his background in property development. This is an unambiguous indication of the plan by powerful real estate interests to make a fortune from the conversion of Gaza into a vast wasteland of rubble where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed and many thousands are still buried.

Media reports also indicate that other US officials involved include figures from the National Security Council and State Department Middle East teams who previously worked on regional investment schemes under the Abraham Accords framework, coordinating with Israeli officials and Gulf donors on infrastructure and housing proposals.

The US proposal explicitly seeks financial backing from Gulf statesparticularly Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qataroffering contracts and management roles to American and Israeli construction, engineering and security firms, which stand to make enormous profits from the construction and operation of these compounds and the policing architecture around them.

The funding model under review relies on a mix of Gulf grants, loans tied to international financial institutions, and private investment vehicles connected to US and Israelilinked developers. Palestinian residents would have no ownership rights in these compounds and would remain dependent on external donors and administrators for housing, employment and access to services, via screening and vetting mechanisms run jointly by Israel, the International Stabilization Force and the Board of Peace.

For US and Israeli capital, the plan opens a new frontier of profit in the guise of humanitarian relief: construction contracts for temporary and semipermanent housing, security and surveillance systems, logistics, and the redevelopment of select green zones for commercial projects that exclude the mass of the Palestinian population.

By transforming Gaza into a patchwork of fenced safe communitiesessentially overcrowded concentration campsand offlimits Red zones, the plan aims to convert a devastated, densely populated enclave into a source of highly-exploited labor and a consumer pool under longterm occupation.

As pointed out by the World Socialist Web Site since the announcement of the October 10 ceasefire, the USIsraeli peace framework is not a step toward Palestinian selfdetermination or an end to the barbaric treatment of Gazans. These are instruments for consolidating a strategic defeat of the population while preserving the foundations of Zionist rule and US imperialism in the region.

The ceasefire has not halted Israeli violence; instead, it has provided a political and legal cover for continued killings, such as the Bani Suheila drone strike, while internationalizing the occupation through an International Stabilization Force that would police Palestinians on Israels behalf.

The creation of Alternative Safe Communities corresponds in content to the goal of ethnically cleansing zones in Gaza in which an uprooted people are warehoused under guard, stripped of basic democratic rights and any genuine control over their own lives.

By channeling reconstruction funds through USdominated businesses and Gulf monarchies, the plan will tie Palestinian survival to the same capitalist and imperialist forces responsible for their historic dispossession and make every aspect of daily life contingent on political oppression and subordination to the wealth accumulation aims of the international financial oligarchy.

The USIsraeli plan, backed by all the imperialist powers and regional bourgeois regimes, aims to extinguish the Palestinian independence within the framework of capitalism by converting Gaza into a laboratory of permanent military control and super-exploitation.
Bjorn Hocke [AP Photo/Jens Meyer]

This statement was distributed to a protest of tens of thousands of young people against the founding of the youth organization of the AfD in Giessen on November 29.

Tens of thousands are demonstrating in Giessen against the founding of the fascist youth organisation of the Alternative for Germany (AfD). The mass protests are significant, because the AfD is being ever more openly integrated into the political establishment. Substantial parts of its programme, such as the persecution of refugees and the massive rearmament drive, are being implemented by all the parliamentary parties.

However, the protest is being led politically by the very forces that are themselves moving ever further to the right and paving the way for the fascist AfDthe trade unions, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens, the Left Party and even the Liberal Democratic Party (FDP). A serious struggle against the fascist danger requires a clear understanding of the causes of this shift to the right: escalating militarism and the deep crisis of capitalism. It requires a socialist perspective that abolishes the foundation of war and fascism: the capitalist system.

In the United States, Donald Trump has already formed a government of the financial oligarchy that suppresses all resistance to the mass deportation of immigrant workers, to the genocide in Gaza and to its war plans, with the help of fascist gangs and the military.

In Germany, too, the fascists are increasingly being integrated into parliamentary work. The Association of Family-Owned Businesses recently announced that it will in future cooperate with the AfD. In the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), faction leader Jens Spahn and Bundestag (parliament) President Julia Klockner have long been working towards receiving support from the AfD, or even bringing it directly into government.

For this reason, the mobilisation for todays demonstration has also been massively attacked. In Berlin, students were prohibited from holding anti-fascist assemblies in order to mobilise for Giessen. The CDU-SPD state government in Hesse sent thousands of police officers into the city to brutally suppress the protests and enable the founding of the fascist youth organisation.

These are not isolated misjudgements. The support and integration of the AfD are fully in line with the policy of the federal government. It makes refugees and migrants scapegoats, deports people on a mass scale, cuts social spending at federal, state and municipal levels and is rearming on a scale not seen since Hitler.

It is making Germanys infrastructure fit for war, reintroducing conscription and converting the economy to armaments production so that Berlin can be in a position to wage war against Russia within three years. These insane plans and the militarisation of society as a whole cannot be enforced through democratic methods. This is why opponents of war and genocide are already being suppressedand why the fascists of the AfD are being courted. At the international level, the German government has long been working closely with the fascist Giorgia Meloni in Italy and bowing before Trump.

The mass layoffs in industry, the severe social cuts and the aggressive war policy arise from the deep crisis of capitalism, which is being further intensified by the technological revolution of artificial intelligence. Just as Hitler was brought to power in 1933 by the elites of business, politics and the military in order to save capitalism and prepare world war, the ruling class today is once again relying on authoritarian and fascist forces to defend its utterly bankrupt social order.

This is why a movement against fascism must also turn against its root cause: capitalism. Only if the major banks and corporations are expropriated and placed under democratic control can the world economy be planned rationally and serve human needs. Otherwise, the ultra-wealthy financial oligarchy will return to barbarism to defend its absurd privileges.

There is a strong objective basis for this socialist perspective: the international working class, that is, all those who create all wealth and bear the full burden of war and crisis. Across Europe and internationally, the working class is entering into struggle. In Italy, millions of workers are striking against the fascist Meloni government, in Belgium and France millions are protesting against austerity diktats and war policy, and in the United States the No Kings protests were the largest coordinated demonstrations in the countrys history. Todays demonstration against the AfD is part of this international mobilisation.

But the decisive question is that of perspective. If the protests remain within the capitalist framework and are dominated by pro-capitalist parties and trade unions, they will achieve nothing.

In the United States, the Democratic Party is working closely with Trump. The newly elected left-wing mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, reconciled himself with Trump even before taking office. This shows that the entire ruling class is committed to war and dictatorship.

Here too, the Greens and the Left Party support the extreme right-wing policy of the federal government on all essential points. The Left Party approved the one-trillion-euro war credits in the Federal Council, enabled Friedrich Merz to be elected chancellor swiftly and lends the government its votes whenever they are required. At the state and municipal level, it implements cuts and deportations. For the Greens, the governments war policy does not go far enough; they would prefer to wage war against nuclear-armed Russia sooner rather than later.

The formerly left parties are marching straight to the right because they defend the bankrupt capitalist system, which is descending ever deeper into barbarism. The same applies to the trade union bureaucrats. They have degenerated into co-managers who enforce the dictates of corporate executives against the workforce. They support the nationalist agenda of trade war and military conflict.

Workers can halt the shift to the right and prevent war and fascism only if they break with these pro-capitalist organisations and organise themselves in independent rank-and-file action committees that link the struggle against social attacks with the struggle against war and defend democratic rights. These action committees must unite across all national borders and join the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees.

Only if the masses intervene independently in political life on this basis can the power of the banks and corporations be broken and war and fascism prevented. We therefore call on all participants in the demonstration to study the programme of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) and to take an active part in building it as a new socialist mass party.
Last month, Mehring Yaynclk, publishing arm of the International Committee of the Fourth International in Turkey, organized two public screenings of the unique documentary film on the 1917 Russian Revolution, Tsar to Lenin, in Istanbul and Izmir.

The events were held with the collaboration of the Sosyalist Esitlik Partisi  Dorduncu Enternasyonal (Socialist Equality Party  Fourth International) and its student and youth organisation, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE). SEP chairman Ulas Sevinc delivered a speech on The Relevance of the October Revolution of 1917. Based on David Norths introduction to the 2012 DVD release, the films extraordinary story was presented to the audience at both events.

Tsar to Lenin

The films first public screening in Turkey was organized by the Social Equality Group, in political solidarity with the ICFI, on November 16, 2014, in Taksim, Istanbul. At the event, the groups leader, Halil Celik, gave a speech titled The October Revolution and the struggle against imperialist war.

Halil Celik

The next public screening took place in Kadkoy, Istanbul, in 2017. Celik gave a presentation titled The Relevance of the Russian Revolution on its centenary. It was organized as part of ICFIs lectures and events marking the centenary of the Russian Revolution.

The screening held in Istanbul on November 15, 2025, had a special historical significance. The venue, Tokatlyan Han in Beyoglu, was a famous hotel in the 1920s. In February 1929, Leon Trotsky, who co-led the October Revolution alongside Vladimir Lenin, was exiled to Istanbul by the Stalinist bureaucracy. The hotel hosted Trotsky for several weeks after he was forced to leave the Soviet consulate. He would eventually settle on Prinkipo (Buyukada). The film would be completed in 1931, while Trotsky was in exile on the island.

Tokatlyan Ishan, 2021 [Photo by Ealinggirl1954 - Yukleyenin kendi calsmas / CC BY-SA 4.0

The event in Istanbul took place on the last day of painter Gulhans exhibition, Trotsky Was Here. Gulhan had played a significant role in initiating the annual Trotsky commemorations on Prinkipo. At the event, she presented her exhibition, Trotskys Path, which is a comprehensive work related to the places Trotsky visited throughout his life. The exhibition first opened in August at the Third International Commemoration of Leon Trotsky on Prinkipo, which featured an online interview with David North on the 85th anniversary of the assassination of Trotsky.

The event held in Izmir, an Aegean Sea city, on November 30 was the first public event of the SEP in this major city. With a population of 4.5 million, Izmir is Turkeys third largest city.

Ulas Sevinc began his remarks by drawing attention to the recent upsurge in workplace fatalities, including those involving children. Recently, seven workers died in Dilovas, a 75-year-old truck driver died in Fatsa, and a 16-year-old child worker died in Mersin. The death of 15-year-old Muhammed Kendirci in Urfa was one of the latest examples of preventable workplace deaths in Turkey, caused by the pursuit of capitalist profit and wealth accumulation.

He stated that the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that approximately 3 million workers worldwide die each year due to workplace accidents and occupational diseases. As a global problem, this massacre stemmed from the capitalist system.

Ulas Sevinc, left, and Can Denizli, an IYSSE member, Izmir, November 30, 2025.

Sevinc pointed out that all of this occurred in a world where production and social wealth had grown enormously, alongside revolutions in science and technology. Yes, there is massive social wealth, but it belongs not to the workers who produce it, but to capitalist oligarchs. We have the infrastructure and wealth to rapidly address basic social needs, such as food, health care, education, housing, employment, and culture. However, the interests of a handful of capitalists stand in the way.

The ruling class was aware that social tensions and discontent are steadily increasing. To protect and expand its wealth and power, it has two interconnected solutions: declaring war on the working class and its living conditions and replacing democracy with authoritarian regimes. The second and connected solution is imperialist re-division of the world by war.

In this environment, we are witnessing the rise of political oppression and the elimination of democratic rights in Turkey, he continued, emphasizing that this does not stem solely from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the so-called strongman, as the pseudo-left claims. This was a result of the crisis of the entire capitalist system and the interests of the ruling class.

To understand the link between widespread child labor exploitation, increasing workplace fatalities, growing poverty, and authoritarianism, one must look at the enormous social inequality. According to UBSs 2025 Global Wealth Report, Turkey ranked second in wealth inequality across Europe as of 2024, based on the Gini coefficient. According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), 7 million children (31.3 percent) in Turkey were living below the poverty line in 2023. Turkey ranked second in Europe among OECD members in terms of child poverty.

Sevinc explained that the situation in Turkey was part of a global crisis and that the epicenter of the crisis was the United States, the heart of the imperialist system. This was a revolutionary crisis. He reported that North gave lectures titled Where is America going? in Berlin on November 18 and in London on November 22, noting that he drew attention to the enormous social inequality in the US as a key to understand the escalating crisis.

North drew parallels between the pre-French Revolution period and modern-day America, stating, It is a characteristic of every ruling class that as it heads for extinction it becomes increasingly aggressive. A similar situation applied to Turkey and other countries.

The Trump administration was demonstrating the international drive towards authoritarianism. The complicity of the Democrats and democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani who has embraced Trump, emphasized that there is no solution to this trajectory under capitalism. Sevinc said, There is no alternative to capitalism other than a revolutionary solution. This situation applies not only to the United States but also to Turkey and other countries. The capitalist-imperialist system and the interests of the ruling classes are incompatible with democracy, social equality, and peace.

The ruling class in Turkey, sitting on a powder keg of social unrest, was also directly affected by the emerging imperialist war and geopolitical tensions across the region: the genocide in Gaza, preparations for war against Iran, and the US-NATO war in Ukraine against Russia which posed the risk of a nuclear conflict.

Sevinc emphasized that Trumps attempt to reach an agreement with Russia on Ukraine or the peace he declared in Gaza would not end the war stemming from the contradictions of the capitalist system. The same was true for the US-backed negotiations between the Turkish state and Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The Marxist-Trotskyist movements peace program was based on the socialist revolution of the international working class.

Before the screening of Tsar to Lenin, Sevinc gives a speech on the film and the October Revolution, Istanbul, November 15, 2025.

Led by Lenin and Trotsky, the October Revolution of 1917 brought an end to World War I through the independent political intervention of the working class. It continued to show the way forward for ending imperialist wars. The same was true for eliminating social inequality and dictatorship arising from the contradictions and crises of the capitalist system.

Sevinc continued:

The power of this revolutionary perspective, which paved the way for the October Revolution 108 years ago, stems from the fact that it is the only valid and progressive perspective in todays conditions. This Marxist perspective also explains how capitalisms internal contradictions lead to disaster while simultaneously preparing the ground for social revolution. The ruling class can no longer rule as before. At the same time, opposition is growing among the working class and youth worldwide, and the sense is developing among the masses that it is no longer possible to live as before.

The great political confusion that emerged after the dissolution of the USSR in 1991the final betrayal of the October Revolution by the Stalinist bureaucracyhas begun to be overcome, said Sevinc. An alternative to Stalinism existed from the beginning and was represented by the Left Opposition, and the Fourth International led by Trotsky. New generations of workers and youth were searching for an alternative to capitalism. A striking example of this was a survey showing that 62 percent of young people under the age of 30 in the US view socialism positively.

Sevinc recalled the mass protests that erupted in Turkey in March, the mass movements developing in Africa and South Asia, protests around the world against the genocide in Gaza, the No Kings demonstrations against Trump in the US, and the recent general strikes in Belgium, Italy, and Portugal.

The decisive question was not whether mass revolutionary movements will erupt, but rather, what perspective and leadership will guide them:

The 1917 October Revolution would not have been possible without the leadership of the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin and Trotsky. The outcome of the question of barbarism or socialism, which stands before us today as an urgent problem, depends on our struggle and on developing socialist consciousness within the working class. To achieve this, a break from all parties defending capitalism and repeating the old lie that this system can be reformed is necessary. This means consciously joining the struggle for socialism.

In conclusion, Sevinc informed the audience that David North had announced Socialism AI at the Berlin and London lectures, representing a major breakthrough in the struggle to develop socialist consciousness within the working class. As North stated, just as Diderots Encyclopaedia contributed to the French Revolution, Socialism AI will be an instrument of the world socialist revolution.

At both events, the Mehring Yaynclk book stall was open, and lively discussions were held with participants.
Many houses in Giessen displayed banners against fascism: such as Fascism is no alternative, For a future without fascism

Several tens of thousands of young people from across Hesse and beyond protested in Giessen on November 29 against the founding of a new youth organisation by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Driving the protests was an alliance called Widersetzen (Resist), consisting mainly of groups such as Students against the Right, University Students against the Right, Apprentices against the Right and others. They had already called nationally for a school strike against the AfD on Friday, November 28, and in the weeks beforehand.

Protected and shielded by the state authorities in Giessen, the AfD founded its new version of a Hitler Youth movement under the name Generation Germany.

Journalists from public broadcasters, reporting from the AfD assembly in the Giessen exhibition halls, expressed shock, saying the new organisation was obviously firmly right-wing extremist. The demand for the mass deportation of millions had been greeted with frenzied applause. The delegate Alexander Eichwald, who delivered a speech to the assembled fascists, mimicking Hitlers distinctive verbal style, received more than 12 percent of the votes in the preliminary elections.

Zita, Leo, Felix and Jule from Darmstadt

We cannot allow right-wing extremist, fascist politics to spread more and more in the public arena, Zita, Leo, Felix and Jule from Darmstadt told the World Socialist Web Site. This also has to be stopped when it comes in the guise of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) or other establishment parties. The four agreed that capitalism must be abolished, and that none of the establishment parties aims to do so, not even the Left Party.

The centre of Giessen was full of young people, both school pupils and young workers, who had travelled from all over Hesse and beyond by car, train and in around 200 buses to protest.

Ali from Wetzlar, who had come to Giessen with his brother Ismail, told the WSWS that 10 years ago he had still hoped that the political situation would constantly improve. But today, he said, one could already see from Trump in the United States how brutal everything has become. Both reported that many of their acquaintances in Wetzlar had just recently been laid off at the Buderus steelworks. For several years now, you can simply feel that everything is moving more and more to the right.

Police cordon at the Konrad Adenauer Bridge

The protesters were confronted with massive police violence: around 6,000 officers with water cannon, drones and helicopters, as well as dog and mounted units, were on the scene. The police used batons and pepper spray against the blockades to ensure that the AfD event succeeded.

The decision to hold an AfD event in Giessen, a city with a long anti-fascist tradition, was a deliberate provocation. In the working class city and in the neighbouring town of Wetzlar, home to the Buderus steelworks, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens and the unions have traditionally been strong; in recent years (especially since the Nazi murder of the Kassel district president Walter Lubke) there have been numerous large demonstrations against the AfD.

Protests therefore had to be expected. The Hesse state Interior Ministry took advantage of this by using the day to conduct a major police operation. The exhibition halls were cordoned off completely and across a wide area; police escorted AfD participants partly across the premises of the municipal utilities towards the venue.

The city centre was closed to cars, and most shops had shut. Many houses displayed banners against fascism.

On Berliner Platz, the SPD, the Left Party, the Liberal Democratic Party (FDP), the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), the Verdi union and the SPDs Young Socialists (Jusos) had gathered with organisations such as the Workers Welfare Association (AWO), Grandmothers against the Right and Amnesty International to hold a so-called festival of democracy with mulled wine and music.

Here, the hypocrisy was palpable. Because the establishment parties all collaborate with the AfD and pave the way for it politically in various legislative bodies, their speakers effectively had nothing to say. Their speeches were full of hollow phrases such as Giessen remains colourful and strong, We will not let our diversity be taken away and: How great that so many people have come (although there were only a few hundred people on Berliner Platz).

The festival of democracy on Berliner Platz

The cynicism was breathtaking. The mayor of Giessen, Frank Tilo Becher (SPD), who presented himself on stage as an anti-fascist, had, together with the CDU-led state Interior Ministry, strategically planned the police operation for this day. This was claimed to be necessary out of a democratic obligation. Yet it was a truly fascist crowd that had gathered in Giessen.

For comparison: when protests took place against the genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza, there was never any talk of such a democratic obligation. Those protests were repeatedly banned and brutally attacked by police.

Speaking to the WSWS, many expressed their anger and made clear that the official propaganda is increasingly met with distrust.

Jacqueline, a Giessen resident, said: One only has to look at European Union policy at the external borders of Europe. The general European asylum law was adopted two years ago in the European Parliament by the Greens and the SPD. These are the laws that the CDU is now implementing at national level. This is pure AfD policy, implemented by the Greens, the SPD and the CDU.

Group from Giessen: Ilja on the right, Jacqueline in the middle with umbrella

Ilja, from Students against the Right, reported on the behaviour of the police towards the young people. The police are deliberately trying to intimidate us. Police vehicles with clearance equipment were positioned on all the bridges to make it obvious that they were prepared to act against us. He said students had called for a large school strike on Friday. The school authority then suddenly lifted compulsory attendance for that day and announced that no buses would run. Nevertheless, 800 people came to our protest.

From the establishment parties, which attempted to co-opt the protest, there were practically no political statements on how fascism can actually be stoppedother than reactionary appeals to the bourgeois state. Only the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) and its youth organisation, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE), put forward a clear, well-thought-out perspective. In the statement The fight against the AfD requires a fight against capitalism, which also appeared on the WSWS over the weekend, it reads:

[T]he AfD is being ever more openly integrated into the political establishment, and substantial parts of its programmesuch as the persecution of refugees and the massive rearmament driveare being implemented by all the parliamentary parties.  A serious struggle against the fascist danger requires a clear understanding of the causes of this shift to the right: escalating militarism and the deep crisis of capitalism. It requires a socialist perspective that abolishes the foundation of war and fascism: the capitalist system.

The statement received a strong response, and many young people agreed that the establishment parties, including the Left Party, are moving further and further to the right in their policies. The protest in Giessen was therefore an expression of a new movement against war, fascism and social devastation, which is developing across Europe and must be armed with a clear socialist perspective and leadership.
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature

Latin America

Contingent Petrobras refinery workers in Minas Gerais, Brazil vote to continue their strike indefinitely

After one week on strike, contingent workers at the Petrobras Gabriel Passos Refinery (REGAP) in Minas Gerais, Brazil, in an assembly, voted to continue their job action indefinitely. The workers, whose commission pay is linked to the companys profits, are demanding equal pay with workers at other Petrobras refineries, compensation for months already worked in the current contract, better working conditions and an end to the victimization of workers who insist on their rights.

The strikers have formed a workers commission (Comissao de Representacao dos Trabalhadores) with more than 1,000 active participants, and are gaining the support of workers across the industry.

The Brazilian government owns 64 percent of the companys shares of stock. The remaining shares are owned by private investors.

Farmers and truckers stage protests in 16 Mexican states

On November 24, thousands of farmers and truckers blocked roads and bridges throughout Mexico. On the Zaragosa Bridge, which connects El Paso, Texas with Ciudad Juarez in Chihuahua state, hundreds of demonstrators and scores of trucks blocked commerce. Farm workers also occupied customs offices in Ciudad Juarez.

The farmers are protesting changes in the Federal Law that regulates water use (Ley General de Aguas), supported by President Claudia Sheinbaum, that establishes government-owned water banks. The farmers reject government control over water.

The issue with the truckers is increasing criminal attacks along the highways. The protests took place in 16 Mexican states.

Workers protest economic implosion impacting life in the Dominican Republic

On Sunday, November 30, workers and students marched and rallied in the nations capital, Santo Domingo, against the economic implosion that now affects the country. The protest was led by the liberal-reformist Peoples Force Party (Partido Fuerza del Pueblo).

Thousands marched in city streets, protesting hunger wages, the deterioration of living conditions, the wave of electricity failures, the shortage of potable water and the crisis in medical care for the poor. During the march, one truck carried a canoe, symbolizing the precarious conditions faced by the working class, with workers threatening to escape on canoes to nearby Puerto Rico.

United States

New York City IT workers strike non-profit for living wages

IT workers at one of New York Citys largest non-profits walked off the job November 5 on an open-ended strike to secure decent wages and a multi-year contract. The non-profit CAMBA has refused to return to the bargaining table until the CAMBA IT Workers Union withdraws an unfair labor practice charge and accepts managements wage proposal that the union described as a poverty wage.

Cambra IT workers picket November 23, 2025 [Photo: NYC Central Labor Council ]

Workers are demanding living wages for administrative assistants and annual cost-of-living increases. CAMBA assists low-income New Yorkers to access housing, education and legal support.

Workers are incensed at the fact CAMBA is rejecting their modest demands while CEO Valerie Barton-Richardson took home a staggering $51,700 every two weeks during 2024.

Rochester, New York, healthcare workers protest premium hikes by management

Healthcare workers in Rochester, New York, rallied outside Rochester General Hospital November 19 after management unilaterally adjusted 2026 health premiums upwards to 10 to 15 times the current 2025 levels.

Jeanne Moran, a nurse at Rochester General, told NBC News10, No one should be working and paying for health insurance and then having to ration their health insurance when they have an issue. And we actually have people telling each other, I dont know if Id go in for certain things because of the amount of out-of-pocket expenses Im going to incur.

When contacted for comment, hospital management issued a typical boilerplate statement about managements dedication to staffing and patient care but refused to address the issue of premium hikes.

Rhode Island declares Providence charter school teachers strike illegal

State education commissioner Angelica Infante-Green has issued a letter declaring the strike by 36 elementary school teachers at Highlander Charter School in Providence, Rhode Island illegal. The educators went on strike November 24 demanding increased pay and benefits. The strike was launched in defiance of the states ban on strikes by public school teachers. The law categorizes charter schools as public entities due to their receiving public funding.

Certified teachers participating in an illegal strike are putting their continued state certification at risk, Infante-Green said.

IBEW Local 2323, which represents teachers, responded to the commissioners threat, calling it a false narrative and empty threats. The union maintains that Highlanders teachers were certified under federal law, not state law and filed a complaint saying, Its not even a close question.

The teachers unionized back in 2024 and are bargaining for a first contract. Their current wages are below those of the states public school teachers.

Lindsay Robinson, a twelve-year third-grade teacher at Highlander, told the Boston Globe the situation for her co-workers was increasingly dire.

Financially, its becoming increasingly difficult to afford to take care of ourselves and our families. A lot of people are really struggling with affording their health care costs.

Canada

Quebec workers stage mass rally against right-wing provincial government

More than 50,000 workers marched through downtown Montreal on Saturday to protest the right-wing politics of Premier Francois Legaults Coalition Avenir Quebec government. Workers attending the demonstration angrily denounced the governments cuts to public services, the underfunding of social programs and attacks democratic rights, including the right-to-strike in the province.

The march was supported by nine major unions across the province and five umbrella groups that represented over 4,500 community organizations. It took place the day before Law 14also known as Bill 89came into effect. That legislation allows the government to force striking public sector workers into arbitration and provide minimum services for the public during any strike or lockout that would virtually eviscerate the effectiveness of any job action.

The government is also proceeding with a bill that would restrict the deployment of mandatory union dues to help finance social and political campaigns or conduct court challenges. Funds could only be used for such activities after they were approved through a majority vote of the membership.

Nova Scotia long-term care workers vote to strike

Long-term care workers in a dozen Canadian Union of Public Employee locals across the province of Nova Scotia have voted to strike should a contract not be reached in a conciliation process that will soon begin. All of the locals produced massive majorities for a strike, with several recording 100 percent strike mandates.

The workers are fighting for a significant improvement to wages as well as recruitment and retention initiatives. Long-term care workers in Nova Scotia are the lowest paid in Atlantic Canada, with most support services classifications making less than $20 an hour. The Nova Scotia Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives estimates that the living wage in the province ranges from $24-$29 an hour at a minimum.

In addition, workers are demanding improved recruitment and retention efforts to reduce grueling mandatory overtime schedules. The minimum 4.1 hours of provincially recommended hours of care per patient is currently met by less than half of the care institutions.

The under-staffed workforce must care for people, primarily seniors, who need ongoing support due to chronic illness, frailty, or complex needs that cannot be met at home. Patients in these facilities require various levels of care, from medical and personal assistance in nursing homes to help with daily activities in residential care settings, and often have conditions like dementia.
Two students from Western International High School (WIHS) in Detroit16-year-old cousins from Venezuelawere seized by federal immigration agents in a predawn raid on November 20. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents swept into their home on Detroits east side with a search warrant for another individual. Not finding their target, the CBP seized the young students together with one parent from each family.

The youths are Venezuelan asylum seekers with active cases and valid work permits. They both worked at a Chilis restaurant and were described as excellent students. The young boys and their family members are now imprisoned in the South Texas Family Residential Center, an ICE facility.

Attorney George Washington, who is part of the familys legal team, told the Detroit Free Press that ICE agents entered the home while the occupants were sleeping. Suddenly, ICE appears at the door, busts into the place, and tells them that theyre all being arrested. All four who were detained had pending asylum petitions, Washington said. We have a tremendous immigration lawyer from Detroit who did everything he could, to assist the four while they remained in Michigan. But, Washington said, they were sent to Texas too quick. Hes going to continue representing them, and were going to get them out, Washington said.

These children are not the first Western International students to be abducted. On May 20, 2025, Maykol Bogoya-Duarte was pulled over by Rockwood, Michigan police while on his way to a school field trip. Unable to produce a drivers license, he was arrested by Border Patrol and deported to Colombia in June.

There is no national or statewide database of how many students or youth have been abducted, detained or deported, although the Detroit ICE field office oversaw the deportation of approximately 2,300 people to more than 80 countries in the first six months of 2025. The available information indicates that these deportees include at least 40 children under 16, the youngest of whom is three or four years old.

This is very wrong! Kids shouldnt be taken, a Western International student told the World Socialist Web Site. School is supposed to be a safe space. They were kidnapped by ICE even though they were following the rules. This is kidnapping, no matter how you cut it. Kidnapping in its finest form. Kids should be able to go to school without having to be worried about if ICE is going to take them or not.

High school students nationally are incensed at the brutal attacks on their classmates. Last week, more than 56,000 students in districts across North Carolina walked out or did not go to school to protest the presence of ICE and Border Patrol. Western Interational students walked out last March to protest Trumps deportations.

A Western International teacher, speaking to the WSWS, explained that fliers in the school first said the students were missing. We just thought they were missing. Everyone thought that it was a non-governmental, ordinary criminal who kidnapped them. Then we found out it was ICE.

The abduction is quick, but the process takes so long when ICE abducts people. Even when someone is arrested for a crime they are given due process, then everyone knows what happened and where they are.

How do they get away with this? Not letting anyone know? The rapidity of this is outrageous. If you cant identify yourself and explain what youre doing, you are trying to outrun due process, and that is wrong. It is illegal and should be stopped.

There is a comparison to GITMO [the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay]. They abducted and detained people who they said were potential terrorists, these are children who have done nothing wrong.

I had a student in a terrible situation, she was separated from her father, and she didnt have any paperwork. He had all of her paperwork. She was living in Warren [Michigan] and was trying to make it to Southwest Detroit every day to school. We worked it out for her to come once a week.

Then all of a sudden, I didnt hear from her again. She was an NHS [National Honor Society] student, and I still have her senior picture on my desk. She did very well, all the things she was supposed to do, and now shes gone. Its devastating.

Over 70% of our students are ELL [English Language Learners] and newcomers. We have the procedure for defending them if ICE comes. We call down to the district and they send a battery of lawyers. I dont want to say how many times this has happened but our attendance has dropped dramatically, as you can imagine.

Students try to keep their heads down and stay under the radar. This is aimed at everybody. There will be a different reason for this type of behavior when they use it on the rest of us.

The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) campaigned at Western International last week, alerting students of the abduction of their classmates. Most had not yet been informed. The IYSSE not only demanded the immediate release of the students, but put forward a program to build rank-and-file committees among students, teachers and workers to organize independent resistance. The IYSSE stressed that young people had to turn to the working classthe social force that had the power to cut off the flow of profits to the oligarchy and drive Trump and his fascist cabal from office.

This meant mobilizing the collective strength of workers in the auto, healthcare, logistics and other industries fighting job cuts and deadly working conditions, federal and other government workers fighting budget cuts and mass layoffs and other sections of the working class.

Such a fight could only be waged if workers organized independently of the union bureaucracies and the Democratic Party, which have done everything possible to block resistance by workers and young people to these attacks. The industrial counter-offensive of the working class being championed by the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees had to be combined a political counter-offensive against Trump and his Democratic Party enablers and for workers power and socialism.

By contrast, on the same day, the pseudo-left Peoples Assembly held a small rally, bringing together various activists and Democratic Party officials at nearby Clark Park to distribute whistles. A representative from the Democratic Party-aligned 482Forward organization made explicit their policy, We need all Detroiters to stand up against these kidnappings... calling on all Detroiters, including elected officials, to do all they can to get the immediate release of these young people and their family.

In other words, the message was that protests must be limited to pleading with the Democrats. In the audience were leading Democrats, including Michigan Senator Stephanie Chang and US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who have worked to contain opposition within the capitalist Democratic Party.

Far from opposing Trump, The Democrats have facilitated the fascist presidents policy of mass deportations every step of the way, including providing critical support to the Laken Riley Act, which has normalized the criminalization of immigrant workers and channels funding and police powers into federal immigration enforcement, enabling mass roundups. Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer backed federal proposals to make it easier for immigration officers to remove those who are here unlawfully, and even supported deploying the National Guard to the bordermoves that politically and materially facilitate Trumps illegal war against immigrants and the working class as a whole.

No amount of alarm whistles can conceal the dead end of placing hope in the Democrats. The defense of immigrant communities requires the fight for independent rank-and-file committees and the mobilization of the working class in Detroit and beyond to demand a halt to the raids, the expulsion of ICE and CBP and the liberation of all detainees.

To join the fight for rank-and-file committees, fill out the form below.
A section of the protest outside the Best Defence Conference in London, Ontario on October 21, 2025 [Photo: World Beyond War]

London, Ontario police carried out coordinated pre-dawn raids on November 25 against four homes across southern Ontario, targeting members of the anti-war and Palestinian-solidarity group World Beyond War (WBW). The raids bring to six the number of peace activists charged in relation to a protest of more than 100 people against the Best Defence Conference in London at the end of October, an arms-industry gathering attended by Israeli-linked weapons manufacturers and Canadian military officials.

The sweeping operation saw officers burst into homes at 6 a.m., frighten children, seize personal electronic devices and haul activists hours away from their communities.

The World Socialist Web Site and the Socialist Equality Party (Canada) unequivocally condemn these raids and charges. They represent a serious escalation of state repression aimed at criminalizing anti-war and anti-genocide dissent under conditions where the Canadian government is deeply implicated in US-led wars around the world and Israels genocide in Gaza. All charges must be dropped immediately.

On the morning of October 21, WBW and other anti-war activists blockaded entrances to the RBC Place convention centre in London, attempting to prevent arms dealers and military officials from entering the weapons conference.

The event was sponsored by Israel-based defence contractor Elbit Systems, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Hensoldt, Saab and Gastops. All of these firms are directly involved in supplying drones, munitions, targeting systems and surveillance technology used in the genocidal assault on the population of Gaza. Notably, Ottawa-based contractor Gastops is the sole supplier of critical engine sensors for the F-35 jets that Israel uses to drop 2,000-pound bombs.

Protesters denounced the corporations for supplying a government engaged in mass killings and demanded that the Canadian government impose an arms embargo on Israel. For this, the organizers of the protest are being treated as criminals.

Just over a month after the protest, on November 25, the London Police Service Street Crime Unit, normally deployed against drug trafficking and organized crime, executed search warrants at homes in London, Hamilton, Marmora and Owen Sound. The items seized reveal the political nature of the operation: computers, laptops, hard drives, phones, USB sticks, two-way radios, protest placards and even a Free Palestine wreath taken from one activists door. Police also paraded before the media the discovery of purported plans indicating how to cause property damage and documents describing police Public Order Unit tactics.

In its own account, WBW describes officers waking families before dawn, crowding into small homes, harassing parents, disturbing disabled residents and seizing every electronic device in sight. These were intimidation raids carried out to send a message that opposition to war will be punished.

Those arrested and charged include WBW Canada organizer Rachel Small, longtime London activist and Western University professor David Heap, Hamilton activist Patricia Mills and Toronto-based organizer Diana Thorpe, whom police now claim is wanted. Earlier in October, charges were also laid against Nicholas Vincent Amor and Pamela Reano.

The charges include mischief over $5,000, conspiracy, resisting arrest, disguise with intent and obstructing a peace officer, the standard prosecutorial arsenal used to intimidate protest movements.

Speaking to CBC News about the excessive charges, Heap noted, I think the police response is overreaching, and that's because they're trying to intimidate people from standing against war industries ... more generally, and it won't work. Responding to police claims about property damage, Heap explained, I think we should be thinking about [how] these war industries are used to kill civilians in many parts of the world. Property damage pales in comparison.

The London police statements are shot through with politically-motivated exaggerations and insinuations. A handful of activists allegedly damaged electronic locks or threw paint, acts that are insignificant next to the industrial-scale violence of the corporations and military officials being protected by the police, companies profiting from the arming of the Zionist regime in Israel as it commits genocide, and Canadian military officers providing training, intelligence and logistical support.

The London raids form part of a broader pattern of repression unfolding across Canada.

The Peace 11 frame-up in Toronto in 2023 targeted protesters who splashed washable red paint on the front of an Indigo bookstore to highlight CEO Heather Reismans support for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The police conducted violent no-knock raids, seized electronics and handcuffed family members, while the corporate media smeared the protesters as antisemites for opposing genocide.

The increasing brazenness of the authorities was underscored in a further incident last month, when 95-year-old legal scholar Richard Falk, a former special rapporteur for the UN on human rights in the Palestinian Territories, was detained for three hours at Pearson Airport in Toronto. Falk was attending a peoples tribunal in Ottawa aimed at exposing Canadas complicity in Israels imperialist-backed genocide of the Palestinians.

In Quebec, longtime anti-war writer and NDP leadership candidate Yves Engler stood trial last week on charges of harassing a Montreal hate-crimes detective after he was told he would be arrested for criticism of a Zionist provocateur on social media. Englers alleged crime is encouraging his supporters to join in an email writing campaign to the police demanding that the spurious charges be dropped. The fact that this escalated into a criminal prosecution underscores the drive by police and prosecutors to criminalize any protest against imperialist war.

The federal Liberal government and its provincial counterparts, Liberal, Conservative, Coalition Avenir Quebec, and NDP alike, have fuelled this climate. Prime Minister Mark Carney has continued the Trudeau governments backing of Israel's slaughter in Gaza with weapons, diplomatic cover and intelligence support. It was only after immense pressure that Ottawa cast a largely symbolic UN vote for a ceasefire, while simultaneously affirming Israels right to complete its war aims.

The Liberal government can tolerate no opposition to war under conditions in which it is enforcing a massive increase in military spending unprecedented since World War II. With the backing of the New Democrats and trade unions, Carneys government just passed a budget containing over $80 billion in additional military spending over the coming five years aimed at equipping Canadian imperialism to secure its share of the spoils in a rapidly escalating third world war.

The Ontario NDP, meanwhile, hounded legislator Sarah Jama and kicked her from its caucus for denouncing Israels apartheid regime. This gave fuel to a campaign by the right-wing Ontario government of Tory Premier Doug Ford to ban her from speaking in the legislature until she recanted. Jama was subsequently blocked from standing as a candidate for the ONDP in elections earlier this year.

Under these conditions, police forces have been emboldened to treat anti-war protests as a threat to national security. The raids on WBW members follow the logic of Canadian imperialisms warmongering, in which war abroad requires repression at home.

The lessons of the past two years of anti-genocide and anti-war protests in Canada and internationally must be drawn. Despite enormous public opposition to Israels genocidal assault on the Gaza Palestinians, and despite countless appeals to Liberal cabinet ministers, NDP MPs, municipal officials and international bodies, the slaughter and dispossession continue unabated. Protest alone, especially when subordinated to moral appeals to the very governments and corporate CEOs arming the Zionist state, cannot halt imperialist war and genocide.

The working class requires its own independent organizations of struggle. Rank-and-file committees must be established in workplaces, campuses and neighborhoods to unite workers against war, austerity and repression. These committees must be guided by a socialist program that links opposition to militarism with the fight against the capitalist system that breeds war.

The criminalization of anti-war activism flows from the preparations of the ruling class for a global conflict against Russia and China. The fight to defend the WBW activists and oppose war and genocide is inseparable from the struggle to build an international revolutionary political movement of the working class against capitalisms descent into barbarism.
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The official death toll in the catastrophic fire that engulfed seven high-rise residential buildings of Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, Hong Kong rose to 151 on Monday.

Over 2,000 survivors have lost everything and are now homeless. Hundreds are housed in converted COVID isolation shelters on the runway of the old Kai Tak airport.

People offer flowers for the victims near the site of a deadly fire at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories on Monday, Dec 1, 2025. [AP Photo/Chan Long Hei]

Fourteen people connected to the engineering company and the scaffolding subcontractor carrying out renovation work on the exterior walls at Wang Fuk Court have been arrested on charges of manslaughter in an ongoing investigation into the causes of the fire.

Investigators have determined that, among other violations, the contractors used illegal, highly flammable netting on the bamboo scaffolding that encased the buildings. The flames spread from the netting to styrofoam boards covering the windows, which acted as an accelerant spreading the fire throughout the building. The homes of thousands had been wrapped in tinder.

Over the weekend, an unmistakable but unremarked change swept Hong Kong. The green netting that surrounds every construction and renovation site was being quietly taken down; bales of the stuff lie on street corners. The skeletons of bamboo scaffolding stand stark throughout much of the city. It is a tacit admission of the ubiquity of the use of substandard and illegal materials, and indicates the degree of failure of government oversight and lax enforcement.

Wang Fuk Court was covered in approximately 2,300 non-compliant sheets of netting. Each illegal sheet cost about $HK50 less than a mandatory flame-resistant one. The cost-cutting measures that ravaged the complex and killed over 150 people likely saved $HK115,000, about $US15,000roughly a hundred US dollars per incinerated human being.

The cindered remains of Wang Fuk Court stand in Tai Po in the New Territories. It was the last of the land carved out from China in the Pearl River Delta by British imperialism. Britain seized Hong Kong through multiple Opium Wars, demanding at gunpoint that China open its borders to the poison Britain grew in poppy fields in India, processed in Singapore, and marketed through Canton.

Britain handed Hong Kong back to Beijing in 1997, a city shot through with staggering levels of inequality, bearing the imprint of a century-and-a-half of colonial subjugation.

The broad democratic impulses that exist in Hong Kong are certainly not a product of British colonial rule, nor its re-integration by the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) in Beijing, which implemented modestly expanded direct legislative elections. Rather, they are the legacy of hard-fought battles by the working class which staged general strikes and mass protest actions in coordination with workers in Guangzhou in the first half of the 20th century.

Beijing presides over the reintegration of Hong Kong with the mainland under the mantra one country, two systems. Under this rubric it has preserved the Basic Law drawn up with Britain, maintaining a certain political autonomy for the Special Administrative Region. The fundamental concern for Beijing is that Hong Kong continue to serve as a connecting point for the free flow of international finance capital; all other considerations are subordinate to this.

What Beijing fears most of all is the social contamination of unrest spilling across the border. The Greater Bay Area of the Pearl River Delta from the Mainland of Shenzhen and Guangzhou to the islands of Macau and down the Kowloon peninsula to Hong Kong is a single economic unit. The spark of working class resistance at any point could spread the conflagration of revolution throughout Southern China.

Amid widespread shock and anger over the fire, the Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong has warned that anyone attempting to use the victims grief to advance their political ambitions would be arrested and punished by law. Chinese authorities are well aware that anger over the unnecessary loss of life in Hong Kong will resonate with working people in China who have suffered tragic loss of life in apartment, factory and hospital fires as a consequence of lax safety measures and the cost-cutting of developers and builders.

While the horrors of the Wang Fuk Court fire are cloaked in the particularities of bamboo scaffolding and green netting, it is not only a Hong Kong event. The inferno in Tai Po is a local eruption of a global crisis. Capitalism is producing catastrophe upon catastrophe for the working class.

The most obvious and striking parallel is the Grenfell Tower fire in London, the 2017 conflagration that incinerated 72 people. The green netting of Wang Fuk corresponds to the flammable cladding of the Grenfell-encased working class housing. Both exemplify the cramped homes of the expendable.

Engels, writing The Conditions of the Working Class in England in 1845, coined the phrase social murder for the process whereby capitalism placed hundreds and thousands of workers in conditions that led to their too early and unnatural death. It is precisely apt.

The catastrophes of Wang Fuk Court and Grenfell are spectacular eruptions of the miserable, and entirely preventable, world housing crisis. They are not mere excesses, not simply failures of regulation. They are an inescapable part of capitalism. For capitalism, what is an act of murder is at the same time a routine cost of doing business. A mass death toll is intrinsic to the functioning of the system.

Cost-cutting, assembly line speed ups, real estate swindles and mass evictionscapitalism is driven to these measures by its own inherent logic of competition and profit-making. The capitalist who will not employ these measures will be displaced by one who will, and the stock exchange will rise.

The social character of the capitalist class, bred bone-deep by this competition, bears the indifference and rapacity of over two centuries of global exploitation.

Around the globe those that construct and tend the glittering excesses of financein Hong Kong, the bank towers of Central Hong Kong and the mansions of the Peakthese workers live in hovels, in cages. They gather for the family dinner in homes surrounded by flammable netting.

Capitalism has urbanized the world, but in a grotesquely unequal and irrational manner.

Around 300 human beingsfathers, grandmothers, infant children, migrant workerswere incinerated in their homes at Grenfell and Wang Fuk Court. How many millions more die of disease in the squalor of shantytowns and slums of the world? The threadbare possessions of evicted tenants are thrown into the streets in America under the watchful eye of the police.

Even in its centers of concentrated wealth, capitalism routinely cannot provide homes to the working class with potable water, or factory workplaces safe from maiming and death. The infrastructure for flood control in countries subject to the ravages of typhoons  the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Vietnamis criminally undeveloped and ill-maintained, and thousands of working people die each year as floods engulf their homes.

All is subject to the profit motive. There is no other governing principle under capitalism. Human lives must not be measured by its metrics.

The social murder of Wang Fuk Court cries out for the overthrow of capitalism and its replacement throughout the world by socialisma system that measures rational economy by human need and that shelters everyone in dignity, comfort and safety.
GUANGZHOU, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Many participants of the 2025 Understanding China Conference have said that China's development practices offer the world -- countries in the Global South, in particular -- an alternative type of modernization distinct from established Western models, adding stability and momentum to global development.

Themed "New Plan, New Development, New Choices -- Chinese Modernization and New Vision for Global Governance," the conference took place from Sunday to Tuesday in Guangzhou, the capital of south China's Guangdong Province. It attracted a record 800 participants from home and abroad, about 70 percent of whom come from countries in the Global South.

Discussions centered on the Communist Party of China Central Committee's recommendations for formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) for China's economic and social development, as well as its global significance.

"The Chinese path to modernization offers a new choice to the developing countries, particularly to African countries, as well as to the Global South at large, by presenting an alternative model to the traditionally conceived perception of Western-style development," Mulatu Teshome, former Ethiopian president, said at the opening ceremony. He said China has made great contributions to global economic growth, poverty reduction, environmental protection and global governance.

"From the experience of Chinese modernization, we can vividly see that countries can achieve progress based on their own national conditions and historical backgrounds by challenging the notion that equals modernization with Westernization," Teshome said.

His view was shared by other participants, including Andrei Bystritsky, chairman of the board of the Foundation for Development and Support of Russian think tank Valdai Discussion Club, who said that China's development proves there is more than one path to national prosperity.

China has transformed and modernized itself rapidly, and radically changed the way of life for a huge number of people, reshaping its role on the global stage, Bystritsky said.

China's pragmatic actions in international cooperation also drew significant attention at the conference. Erastus Mwencha, former vice chairman of the African Union Commission, hailed China's remarkable contributions to multilateralism.

Through the Belt and Road Initiative, China has made significant investments and promoted trade, Mwencha said. Tariff reductions have helped open the Chinese consumer market to Africa while enabling African buyers to access a wide range of China-made products, he said.

Ong Tee Keat, former Malaysian transport minister, noted that multilateral development banks such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank can help bridge infrastructure gaps and support growth needs across the Global South.

According to the China International Development Cooperation Agency, China has increased its Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund to 4 billion U.S. dollars under the Global Development Initiative. It has mobilized over 23 billion U.S. dollars to support the development and invigoration of the Global South, and launched more than 1,800 cooperation projects.

China has also long been providing medical assistance to developing countries. According to the National Health Commission, China has dispatched nearly 30,000 medical workers to 77 countries or regions and established partnerships with 48 hospitals in 43 countries since 1963.

International guests also emphasized that China's development is closely linked to the future of the Global South.

China's Global Governance Initiative reflects the aspirations of the Global South and represents the pursuit of justice and equality, said Essam Sharaf, former prime minister of Egypt.

Sharaf added that the reasonable, timely initiative does not seek to replace existing systems but rather to promote a more balanced and stable world order.

Participants also hailed China's green development. The severe impacts of global climate change demand joint action, and China's green transition offers new opportunities, said Rishan de Silva, executive director of the Geopolitical Cartographer in Sri Lanka.

The China-ASEAN Free Trade Area charts a clear course for strengthened trade ties, Ong said. In the coming years, Malaysia will enhance its green industry cooperation with China and strengthen supply-chain resilience, he added. 
A group of Buddhist monks, with the support of a few Sinhalese residents in the area, sought to illegally erect a shrine with a Buddha statue on November 16, at the beachfront on Fort Road in Trincomalee in eastern Sri Lanka.

The location was near a coffee shop built with the patronage of the adjacent Buddhist temple, Sambuddha Jayanthi Bodhiraja Viharaya, to channel part of its income to the temple. The land on which the coffee shop stood was disputed, as the authorities of the Coast Conservation Department (CCD) had demarcated it as part of the coastal area for the use of local residents and visitors.

CCD officials told the media that while they were preparing to carry out the court-mandated demolition [of the hotel] with police assistance a new religious structure containing a Buddha statue was suddenly erected at the site. Officials said it was a deliberate act to obstruct the court order.

Trincomalee is a major city in the Eastern Province, where Tamils, Muslims, and Sinhalese live. The erection of a Buddhist shrine was a deliberate provocation with the potential to ignite communal tensions between Sinhala-Buddhists and the Tamil and Muslim communities that form a majority in the province.

The North and East were devastated by the 26-year communal war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which ended in May 2009. As part of the systematic discrimination against Tamils, successive Colombo governments established Sinhala colonies, particularly in the East, in a bid to change demographic patterns and foster communal tensions. Since the end of the war, Buddhist monks have been seeking to re-establish their heritage and expand their influence in the north and east.

Trincomalee District MP, Shanakiyan Rasamanickam, from the Tamil nationalist party ITAK notified authorities about the incident. Initially, Ananda Wijeyapala, the public security minister in the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna/National Peoples Power (JVP/NPP) government, instructed the police to remove the statue.

However, amid an outcry by Buddhist monks denouncing discrimination against Buddhism, Minister Wijeyapala immediately backtracked and instructed the police the next day to replace the statue. In parliament, he justified his decision to remove the Buddha statue by saying he had only done so for its protection having received information that it could be vandalised.

Police returning the statue [Photo: Varadan Kirusna (Facebook)]

Sections of the Buddhist clergy condemned the removal of the statue as an attack on the supremacy of Buddhism. Uyangoda Maithrimurthi, the chief monk of the Amarapura Nikaya sect, said the temple had existed on the land in Trincomalee since 1951. He filed a court case to obtain a ruling declaring the area belongs to the temple.

On November 19, Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara, the monk who heads Bodu Bala Sena, which is notorious for provocations against Muslims, Tamil and Christian communities visited the site. He declared that police have no authority to remove Buddha statues from any location anywhere in the country, adding that no one can question the supremacy of Buddhism in Sri Lanka.

The phase supremacy of Buddhism has a definite legal meaning. Sri Lankas constitution is a reactionary document which declares the priority of Buddhism and the Sinhala language, and discriminates against the Tamil and Muslim communities. The Buddhist hierarchy derive considerable material benefits that amounts to state sponsorship of the religion.

The Colombo political establishment has long used Sinhala supremacist ideology and anti-Tamil chauvinism to bolster their support and divide the working class, particularly in times of crisis. All of the opposition parties immediately joined the fray, condemning the removal of statue as an attack on Buddhism.

Speaking in the parliament, the opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, from the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), demanded that the government uphold the constitution and the supremacy of Buddhism. Sections of the establishment media joined in the filthy communal campaign.

In response, the Tamil nationalist parties opposed the governments actions on the basis of their own communal politics. ITAK spokesperson M.A. Sumanthiran called on all Tamil members of the government to resign immediately, declaring that the governments support for the placement of the statue exposed its claims to be fostering equality for all.

Tamil National Peoples Front leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam condemned the government, saying incident reflected the long history of state-driven demographic change in the Tamil homeland. He warned that conflict inevitably arises when the state manipulates to disadvantage the regions historically-rooted Tamil-speaking population.

These Tamil parties mirror the communal politics of the dominant Sinhala ruling elites. They have no concern for the democratic rights of Tamil working people but exploit the outrage caused by such incidents to push for greater powers and privileges for the Tamil elites.

Amid the ongoing furore, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake appeared in parliament on November 18. The Buddha statue, he said, had been replaced at the original location and everything related to this issue has now been resolved. The government would act according to the verdict of the court to be delivered on December 26.

We do not allow communalism, Dissanayake lyingly declared. If someone is trying to revive old communalism, they will not be allowed at present or in the future. In fact, the JVP has been steeped in Sinhala supremacism since its formation in 1966 and an aggressive and violent patriotic defender of the Sinhala nation, particularly during the protracted communal war against the LTTE.

However, as it sought to win power for the first time last year, the JVPtogether with its electoral front, the NPPdrawn from layers of the upper middle classattempted to put on a democratic and liberal face and whitewash its past. The aim was to boost its vote among Tamils and Muslims and get the backing of sections of big business.

A year on, the governments promises about democracy and reconciliation have been jettisoned. The North and East of the island are still under military occupation. The political prisoners are in jails despite JVP/NPPs pledge to release them. Those responsible for war crimes and atrocities of the Sri Lankan military have not been held accountable.

Earlier this year, another incident demonstrated that the JVP/NPP is mired in Sinhala racialist politics: the expansion of a Buddhist temple in Thayitti village in the Jaffna Peninsula. Tissa Viharaya was built illegally by the Sri Lankan army on private land belonging to 14 Tamil families displaced during the war. The government has simply ignored the ongoing protests of the families who are demanding the return of their land.

Now the JVP/NPP government has caved into the demands of the Sinhala Buddhist supremacists over the statue in Trincomalee. Dissanayakes opposition to communalism is empty political posturing.

The Sri Lankan ruling class confronts a deepening political and economic crisis. The JVP/NPP government is intensifying the implementation of the International Monetary Funds (IMF) demands for devastating austerity measures. It will resort to anti-Tamil chauvinism to whip up communal provocations and divisions as it faces mass opposition from workers and the rural poor to the destruction of jobs and their living conditions.

The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) opposes all forms of racialism and nationalism and urges Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim workers to learn the lessons from the bloody consequences of the pastabove all the 30-year communal war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

It is only the working class in the fight for socialism that will defend the basic democratic rights of all. Workers need to unite and rally the rural poor and oppressed in the struggle for a workers and peasants government that will restructure society from top to bottom to meet the needs of the vast majority, not the profits of the wealthy fewthat is, along socialist lines.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is pausing indefinitely all decisions on asylum applications, while launching systematic reviews that threaten the legal status of two large groups of immigrantsthe 3.3 million green card holders from 19 countries designated by President Trump and the 180,000 people admitted as refugees during the four years of the Biden administration.

The Trump administration claims that these actions are in response to the shooting Wednesday of two National Guard soldiers in Washington D.C. by an Afghan refugee, a former participant in a CIA-run death squad in his home country who fled after the Taliban takeover in 2021. One of the two soldiers, Sarah Beckstrom, 20, of Summersville, West Virginia, has died, while the other, Andrew Wolfe, 24, of Martinsburg, West Virginia, remains in critical condition.

Luis, an asylum seeker from Ecuador and father of three children, is detained by federal agents as he exits a courtroom after his immigration hearing, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025, in New York. [AP Photo/Olga Fedorova]

The shooting last week is merely a pretext, as both the selection of the 19 countries of concern was announced in June and the decision to review all refugees admitted during the Biden administration had been made public Monday, before Wednesdays attack.

The review of green card holders will affect 3.3 million people, the bulk of them, 2.2 million, from three countries in the Caribbean basin1 million from Cuba, 700,000 from Venezuela and 500,000 from Haiti. All three countries are subject to either US economic blockade or other forms of sanctions, which have devastated living standards.

The majority of these Caribbean green card holders live in Florida, although there are other large concentrations in New York, New Jersey and many other states.

Ten African countries are affectedBurundi, Chad, Congo (Brazzaville), Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan and Togo. The largest such group is Somalis, concentrated in the Twin Cities metropolitan area of Minnesota and targeted for incessant witch-hunting by the Trump administration.

Six Asian countries are affectedAfghanistan, Iran, Laos, Myanmar, Turkmenistan and Yemen. Iran alone accounts for at least 400,000 green card holders, with the largest concentration in Southern California but widely settled across the US.

The agency also declared that in the case of at least seven of the 19 countries, including Afghanistan, Somalia and Venezuela, there was no competent or central authority for issuing passports and civil documents, which would make it virtually impossible for the USCIS to favorably review their cases.

The Trump order to pause all asylum decisions does not stop the processing of applications already submitted or prevent refugees from making new applications. But it means that no refugees will be given final approval for asylum for the indefinite future. The USCIS guidance to officers reviewing asylum cases reads: Once youve reached decision entry, stop and hold.

Trump sought to justify his sweeping attack on refugees with a racist diatribe against Third World Countries whose people would be non-compatible with Western civilization. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the administration had effectively stopped all refugee intake since taking office, with the exception of Afrikaners fleeing persecution in South Africa. (In other words, members of the white South African minority who ruled under apartheid.)

The plan to review the cases of all 180,000 refugees admitted to the US between January 20, 2021 and February 20, 2025 was revealed November 24 by the Associated Press, which obtained an internal memo from USCIS Director Joseph Edlow. The memo also required that even refugees who have already received green cards should be subjected to review.

The memo declared that if the USCIS determines the person did not qualify for entry as a refugee, the person has no right to appeal and would immediately be put into removal proceedings through an immigration court.

The agency already has an enormous backlog of 1.4 million pending asylum claims, and the addition of automatic reviews of Biden era admissions, as well as the review of 3.3 million green card holders from the 19 countries of concern, effectively extends the waiting list indefinitely.

The long delays make it more likely that refugees awaiting determination of their claims will fall afoul of the complex and burdensome requirements, including endless paperwork and regular reporting to federal officers, leading to their seizure by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP) thugs for detention and deportation.

Trumps border czar Tom Homan told Fox News, referring to Biden-era refugees and immigrants, I really, truly think that most of them are going to end up getting deported, because were not going to be able to properly vet them.

At a press conference Monday afternoon, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declared, President Trump believes that he has a sacred obligation to reverse the calamity of mass unchecked migration into our country.  In the wake of last weeks atrocity, it is more important than ever to finish carrying out the presidents mass deportation operation.

The response of the Democratic Party to Trumps effort to smear all immigrants with the blood of the two National Guard soldiers shot last week has been one of tacit acceptance. At his press briefing Monday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries did not even raise the issue, instead appealing for the Trump administration and the Republicans to actually partner with Democrats to solve problems on behalf of the American people.

Only when directly asked by a reporterafter a lengthy disquisition on healthcare subsidies under the Affordable Care Actdid Jeffries address the effective ending of asylum for refugees and the attack on green card holders and then with another appeal for bipartisanship.

Yeah, our view is that, one, of course we support the notion of having strong border security, no one ever disputes that, the Democrat said. We have a broken immigration system. We need to fix it, but it should be fixed, in a comprehensive and bipartisan way. But at the same period of time we are going to stand up for law-abiding immigrant families and communities who have been under assault by Donald Trump and the so-called secretary of homeland security. Theyre a disgrace.

As to taking any action to oppose this disgrace, the House Democratic leader said nothing.
Protesters shout slogans during a protest against immigration crackdown in the aftermath of a raid on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in New York. [AP Photo/Olga Fedorova]

Protesters thwarted a federal immigration raid in New York City on Saturday, despite a violent crackdown by the New York Police Department (NYPD), overseen by Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdanis re-appointed police commissioner, Jessica Tisch.

The spontaneous protest erupted outside a parking garage in Manhattans Chinatown, where agents from Trumps Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were preparing to launch their second large-scale immigration raid in six weeks. A crowd of roughly 200 people formed human chains and barricades made of trash to block the convoy of agents from exiting the garage.

The NYPD responded by deploying its notorious Strategic Response Group, which is known for using militarized tactics to suppress protests, to aid the immigration Gestapo. Officers forcibly cleared a path for the agents, violently assaulting demonstrators who refused to move, deploying pepper spray and arresting more than a dozen people. Ultimately, the protest succeeded in forcing the federal agents to call off the raid and retreat to New Jersey.

Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition, summarized the role of both federal agents and police. The violence that occurred today could have been avoided had ICE agents not escalated tensions, he said. But instead of holding federal agents accountable for their aggressive tactics, the NYPD instead helped facilitate ICEs campaign of terror. ICE must stop wreaking havoc across New Yorkseparating families and harming our communities. The NYPD must immediately release the New Yorkers who they arrested, and stop all collaboration with ICE.

Saturdays police crackdown on anti-ICE protesters was not an anomaly. Since Trump returned to office, the NYPD has maintained a heavy presence around federal buildings, where ICE agents abduct immigrants during check-ins and hearings, shielding them from protest. Last month, a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that the NYPD and the FBI had been monitoring a Signal chat used to coordinate legal observers at immigration court, a blatant violation of constitutionally protected activity.

The NYPDs repression of anti-ICE protesters mirrors its brutal crackdown on anti-genocide demonstrations, including violent raids on college campuses, assaults on street protests and the deployment of its vast surveillance apparatus to target activists.

This is the NYPD that Mamdani will soon oversee. His retention of Commissioner Tischthe billionaire heiress who has been directly responsible for repressionsends a clear signal: When it comes to the most basic functions of the capitalist state, defending the interests of the ruling class through bodies of armed men, Mamdanis so-called democratic socialist administration intends not to challenge that order but to enforce it.

During the election campaign, Mamdani postured as an uncompromising opponent of Trumps immigration policies, denouncing ICE as a rogue agency, one that has no interest in laws, no interest in order. His campaign appealed to widespread outrage over Trumps brutal immigrant roundupsthe spearhead of a developing dictatorshipwhile attempting to breathe new life into the discredited Democratic Party.

The significance of Saturdays NYPD operation under Tisch is that it strips away the rhetorical pretense and bares the political reality of Mamdanis incoming administration.

New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch overlook the New York City Police Memorial, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025. [AP Photo/Richard Drew]

As of Monday, Mamdani has made no public comment on the ICE raid or the NYPDs role in defending it. His transition spokesperson, Monica Klein, told the press: The Mayor-elect has made it clearincluding to the Presidentthat these raids are cruel and inhumane, and fail to advance genuine public safety.

Tisch, meanwhile, informed the New York Times that she had spoken with a Department of Homeland Security official and called the federal agents actions unacceptable. Neither Mamdani nor Tisch addressed the glaring contradiction: If ICE is a rogue agency conducting cruel and inhumane raids in an unacceptable manner, why did the NYPD, led by Mamdanis appointee, defend it against protesters?

The attempted raid also explodes the myth that Mamdanis meeting with Trump at the White House was a clever political move that neutralized the fascist president and prevented further immigration raids. Just over a week after their meeting, federal agents were preparing a major operation that could not possibly have gone ahead without Trumps approval.

The raid was a clear political statement by Trump of who controls the partnership. Mamdanis appearance in the Oval Office did not shield the city from Trumps attacks; it disoriented workers and youth drawn to Mamdanis promises to oppose oligarchy and inequality, by promoting the lie that Trump can somehow be used to advance this goal.

Saturdays ICE raid was not stopped by Mamdanis backroom dealings with Trump. It was stopped by the independent initiative of ordinary New Yorkers who took it upon themselves to defend their neighbors. That spontaneous action is an indication of future struggles on a much broader scale.

Trump, acting on behalf of the capitalist oligarchy, is accelerating the drive toward dictatorship. Opposition to Trump and fascism must be consciously organized, based in the international working class, and completely independent of and in opposition to the Democratic and Republican parties.
Your Partys founding conference held in Liverpool on November 29-30 confirmed the extraordinary decline in the partys political fortunes since it was announced by former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and ex-Labour MP Zarah Sultana.

It was a conference of crisis. Months of bitter and unprincipled factional warfare between Corbyn and Sultana, centred on control of financial assets and membership lists, saw a wave of enthusiasm among workers and young people collapse. From 850,000 who signed up as supporters, just 55,000 had joined by the eve of conference.

Jeremy Corbyn speaking at the Your Party founding conference [Photo: X/Jeremy Corbyn]

Your Party has been eclipsed in the polls by Zack Polanskis Green Party, which now has more than three times as many members, including over 50,000 in its youth section, and is seen by many as a better left alternative to Keir Starmers despised Labour government.

From a forecast attendance of 13,000 two months ago, and 4,000 a week ago, fewer than 2,000 members arrived at Liverpool Arena and Convention Centre. A conference livestream attracted just 1,700 viewers. Online voting that began pre-conference on the partys name and a series of vetted amendments never surpassed 17,000.

The conference saw Corbyn and his main backersled by chief enforcer Karie Murphyride roughshod over basic democratic normsbeginning with a witch-hunt and expulsions targeting the left, and continuing with every conceivable form of bureaucratic skullduggery.

Jeremy Corbyn: the witch-hunter

On Friday, Corbyns Independent Alliance of MPs and their appointed conference steering committee expelled Socialist Workers Party (SWP) national secretary Lewis Nielsen and SWP members Samira Ali and Hector Sierra. So zealous were the witch-hunters that Alex Callinicos, the SWPs leading theoretician, was also sent an expulsion email, despite his never having joined. Michael Lavalette, former Preston councillor and Counterfire member, was refused entry, alongside James Giles, former political adviser to George Galloway and councillor from Kingston, south London, a close ally of Sultana.

Corbyns Day of the Long Knives sent an unmistakeable message to the founding conference: No opposition will be tolerated toward the partys founding as a Labour Party Mark II and all efforts to shift it in a more left-wing direction will be blocked.

Jeremy Corbyn addressing the Your Party founding conference [Photo: X/Jeremy Corbyn]

Yet Nielsen, speaking that night at Sultanas pre-conference rally, proclaimed, Im filled with the possibility of hope for the first time in a long, long time. Faced with Corbyns factional assault, he insisted: We can make this thing work we can turn Your Party into a political force that can win.

Silent on his own expulsion until midway through his seven-minute speech, Nielsen refused to name those responsible, referring only to a clique of people running the party from the top.

He insisted, This weekend has to be a turning point, pledging the SWP would support Sultana all the way, and stating, We dont need a Labour Party Mark II.

But Corbyns backers delivered exactly that, safe in the knowledge that Sultana and her cheerleaders in the SWP, Counterfire and other pseudo-left groups had already declared the overriding need for unity.

Bureaucratic stitch-up

The conference was a stitch-up, with Corbyns clique retaining their grip over the organisation.

Your Partys founding documentsthe Constitution, Political Statement, Standing Orders and Organisational Statementhad been opened to grassroots member feedback over the preceding month via a dubious online crowd-editing tool created by Yanis Varoufakis DIEM25. Its opaque algorithms would supposedly identify where consensus was reached and where documents had evolved.

Members had just 36 hours to respond to these evolved founding documents. Out of 560 amendments proposed by members, only 100 were deemed approved. A handful were selected by YPs unelected steering group as Roadmap Amendments for debate at conference, framed to block any threat to the Corbyn clique.

Above all, no amendments to YPs reformist Political Statement were accepted. It was not debated at conference.

In opening the conference, Andrew Jordan (ex-Labour Party and Momentum), chair of the Standing Orders Committee (SOC) appointed by Corbyns Independent Alliance of MPs, announced a ban on amendments or points of order by YP members from the conference floor. Those with either were directed to a separate room, where SOC members would decide which (if any) would be presented to conference.

Members who spoke against such bureaucratic procedures were threatened with ejection, or had their mic cut. The live feed to members watching remotely was repeatedly suspended. Members of the SOC who chaired the conferenceJennifer Forbes, Claudia Webbe, Laura Smith and Aghileh Djafari-Marbiniruled any criticism of Corbyns Independent Alliance MPs out of order, with Djafari-Marbini dressing down members who booed, declaring arrogantly: You dont scare me!

The SWPs Samira Ali was physically removed from the conference venue by security guards who confirmed they were acting on the orders of Corbyns former chief of staff, Karie Murphy. The SWPs Stand Up to Racism stall was dismantled. If this is how YPs leadership treats loyal critics like the SWP, how would they respond in government to striking workers or to mass popular opposition to austerity and war?

The claims made subsequently by the SWP (and others) that Corbyns unelected cabal suffered defeat at conference, via members backing dual membership, a collective leadership structure and funding to branches, are a whitewash.

Conference was presented with just two options on dual membership. Option A, which carried by 69.2 percent, allowed members of aligned parties to join, but only from a list approved by the Central Executive Committee (CEC). The most widely accepted option at regional assemblies, that members of other parties should be free to join unless their party fielded candidates against YP, was excluded by the steering group.

Members voted for collective leadership against a single leader model, by 51.6 percent. This means Corbyn will be spared a leadership contest with Sultana, but still guarantees ongoing warfare at the top. Corbyns cabal will seek to bolster their position on the CEC through the inclusion of organised sections and party affiliates. The steering group is tasked with drawing up a list of these as part of a 12-month strategic review.

The same ruthless methods employed by the Labour Party against any challenge from below have been transplanted in toto by Corbyn, Murphy and their Stalinist backers.

One of the most popular amendments, receiving hundreds of online endorsers, was the demand that Your Party MPs and office holders receive a wage equal to that of an average worker. This amendment was suppressed, and members who called for its inclusion, to sustained applause, also had their mics cut.

Zarah Sultana

Your Partys founding conference confirmed Corbyns eclipse as leader by Sultana.

Corbyn, who broke with Labour only reluctantly, years after he was expelled from the Parliamentary Labour Party, was bounced by Sultana into supporting Your Party. He has done everything in his power to confine it to the minimal reformist nostrums he pursued as Labour leader.

Zarah Sultana speaking at the Your Party founding conference (screenshot from video) [Photo: X/Zarah Sultana]

Sultana has argued for a more radical presentation, seeking to channel an insurgent mood in the working class, especially its younger generations, behind an alliance of pseudo-left parties (including the SWP, Counterfire, the Socialist Party) and left-talking trade union bureaucrats. The support she has won on this basis was evident at conference.

On Friday night, at a pre-conference rally of 400 people, most of them aligned with the SWP et al, she declared: I dont want the policy of witch-hunts, stitch-ups and psychodramas. I want to work with every socialist in a spirit of comradeship and equality, and I want the working class to control Your Party as they should someday control the world. She boycotted the first days proceedings, telling reporters outside the venue that she was opposed to expulsions and witch-hunts by nameless and faceless bureaucrats who are working in the shadows.

A rival event by Corbyn on Friday night, called as a spoiler, attracted fewer than 150 aging supporters. His opening address at conference Saturday morning met a lukewarm response, with many refusing to join a standing ovation.

Sultana, who attended on Sunday, won repeated standing ovations, cheering and applause as she denounced Starmers right-wing government, defended immigrants and refugees, attacked war, occupation and genocide, demanded abolition of the monarchy, an end to rule by the billionaires and the socialist transformation of society. Corbyn listened with evident discomfort and has since ridiculed her call for nationalisation of the entire economy.

Britains pseudo-left groups have united to insist that Sultanas campaign can transform Your Party into a vehicle for socialism. In doing so, they are seeking to repeat, under far more dangerous conditions, their earlier promotion of Corbyn, who was said to be transforming Britains Labour Party into an instrument for 21st century socialism.

The real measure of Sultanas insurgent campaign is her continuing declarations of unity with Corbyn. The SWP follows suit. Even after their own members were expelled by Corbyns clique, the SWP wrote on Sunday that Your Partys best chance is if it is united with a collective leadership with both Corbyn and Sultana.

In her speech to conference Sunday, Sultana hailed Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) politician elected Mayor of New York City last month, describing him as unapologetically socialist, unapologetically Muslim, unapologetically immigrant, who built a campaign that proved what is possible when the working class unites people who look different, pray differently and love differently.

Mamdanis victory expressed a leftward shift among workers and young people in the heart of world imperialism, but he and the DSA have worked with the Democratic Party machine, Wall Street executives and the state to row back on policies that propelled him into office. This process culminated in Mamdanis abject surrender to fascist president Donald Trump inside the Oval Office on November 21.

Workers and youth looking for a socialist alternative cannot afford to place their trust in words. It is urgently necessary to review parties, their leaders and programmes, based on their history and the class interests which they serve. The indispensable political and theoretical resources for achieving this task are to be found in the struggle waged by the world Trotskyist movement, the International Committee of the Fourth International and its daily publication, the World Socialist Web Site.

***

The WSWS thanks readers who sent letters protesting Your Partys decision to ban our reporter from conference. While the ban on WSWS was maintained, our statement of protest had one positive outcome. A reporter from the right-wing Daily Express complained they were de-credentialled following our statements publication.

Speaking outside conference Saturday, Zarah Sultana opposed the ban on WSWS and other left-wing publications. She pointed out that Your Party officials had credentialled the Daily Express despite its senior political correspondent, Christian Calgie, having called for her deportation from the UK.
Yang Zhen, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, attends and addresses the opening ceremony of the 2025 Imperial Springs International Forum in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, Dec. 2, 2025. (Xinhua/Wu Lu)

GUANGZHOU, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Yang Zhen, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, attended and addressed the opening ceremony of the 2025 Imperial Springs International Forum held in Guangzhou in south China on Tuesday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has successively put forward the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative and the Global Governance Initiative, providing China's wisdom and solutions for responding to the changing world and solving the problems facing humanity, Yang said.

China is not only the initiator, but also a doer in promoting the implementation of the four major global initiatives, Yang added.

China is willing to work with all parties to address risks and challenges through solidarity and collaboration, unleash development vitality via openness and inclusiveness, pool cooperation strength through mutual benefit and win-win results, and promote practical achievements via concrete actions -- so as to jointly create a brighter future for humanity, Yang noted.

During this forum in Guangdong Province, 28 former foreign leaders from 23 countries and former heads of international organizations, as well as representatives from political, business and academic circles, engaged in in-depth discussions under the theme "For Global Cooperation and Solidarity." 
This undated aerial drone photo shows a view of the Zhao Yiman Memorial in Yibin, southwest China's Sichuan Province. (Xinhua)

CHENGDU, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Eight decades have passed since the end of World War II, yet in a remote city by the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the memory of a native-born female martyr remains deeply cherished in the hearts of local people.

This year marks the 120th anniversary of the birth of Zhao Yiman, a Chinese national hero who sacrificed her life fighting against Japanese aggression. In her hometown of Yibin, southwest China's Sichuan Province, the Zhao Yiman Memorial has witnessed a significant increase in visitors this year, with the number of visits doubling to nearly 600,000.

"Zhao Yiman has never truly left us. Here in Yibin, every child grows up hearing her story," said Yang Fan, a museum guide.

Located at the mountainside of Cuiping Hill in the downtown area, this memorial is not only a frequently visited site for local residents but also serves as a patriotic education base for students.

The museum has undergone continuous upgrades to better tell Zhao's story. "Our latest exhibition includes a section dedicated to her descendants, which showcases the enduring legacy of our heroine's bloodline," Yang added.

Eight-year-old primary school student Chuan Jinxuan visited the memorial with her aunt and two younger cousins. She has lost count of how many times she has been there.

"When I was little, I couldn't read the words on the walls. But now, I can understand more and more of them," she said. "I take great pride in her legacy. She was a brave person."

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Zhao was honored among the 100 major heroes and role models named by the country.

Originally named Li Kuntai, she was born in 1905 in a village of Yibin. She joined the CPC at the age of 21. Following Japanese invasions on Sept. 18, 1931, Zhao was sent to northeast China to lead the anti-Japanese guerrilla war amid extreme conditions of severe cold and hunger.

In 1931, China began its 14-year war of resistance against Japanese aggression, which is considered the beginning of the World Anti-Fascist War.

Zhao was severely wounded and captured by enemy forces in November 1935 while covering the retreat of Chinese troops. She endured brutal torture, yet steadfastly refused to divulge any information about the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army.

Earlier this year, a series of detailed archival records documenting Zhao's arrest and imprisonment were publicly exhibited for the first time in the Museum of the War of the Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in Beijing.

Yang, who has reviewed these documents, noted that the Japanese had employed a variety of torture methods, including electric shock, inserting steel needles into fingers and pouring chili water up the nose, all deliberately designed to inflict extreme pain without bringing about immediate death.

The newly displayed records, featuring meticulous details, are living testimonies to history -- a past that must never be forgotten, Yang said.

She added, "I know some people in the world want to erase history, but for us Chinese, history is like an inseparable river flowing towards the future."

Yibin, where Zhao once lived, was also a heroic city in the fight against Japanese aggressors. During the war, it suffered eight bombings by Japanese planes, but still received a large number of refugees from occupied areas, including a group of famous scholars, and helped to preserve the cultural heritage of the Chinese nation.

The emotional climax of the exhibition in the memorial of Zhao Yiman is her farewell letter to her young son, written on Aug. 2, 1936, before she was executed by Japanese soldiers.

It's my regret that I haven't fulfilled a mother's duty to raise and guide you. There will be no chance for us to meet again in this life. My most beloved child, I have no need for a thousand words to teach you. I teach you by how I have lived. When you are grown, I hope you will never forget that your mother gave her life for the country, she wrote.

"We owe our life today to the war heroes," said Miao Jiarui, a student from Yibin University, who was among a group of volunteers cleaning the floors of the memorial.

"It is important for young people like us to revisit this history so that we can develop a deeper sense of national belonging," she added.

Near the exit of the memorial, on an electric handwriting screen, a young boy had written: "Never forget national humiliation."

"Zhao Yiman is one of countless heroes from that war. We remember her story not to nurture hatred, but to cherish peace and ensure history does not repeat itself," Yang said. 
WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday evening met with his top national security advisors at the White House Oval Office to weigh next steps, including potential land attacks on Venezuela.

According to media reports, Trump set last Friday as a deadline for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to relinquish power and leave the oil-rich South American country with his family during a phone call between the two on Nov. 21, but Maduro refused to comply.

During the phone call, Maduro declined the ultimatum, demanding "global amnesty" for himself and others, according to reports published Sunday and Monday.

Trump on Sunday confirmed that a call between the two leaders had occurred, telling reporters: "I wouldn't say it went well or badly, it was a phone call."

Sources told the Miami Herald, a U.S. newspaper, that Trump sent a "blunt message" to Maduro during the phone call, amid a mounting pressure campaign in which the White House has intensified the U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean Sea since August -- a buildup not seen in at least three decades.

"You can save yourself and those closest to you, but you must leave the country now," Trump allegedly said, offering safety to Maduro and his family "only if he agreed to resign right away."

However, Maduro allegedly refused to give up power and reportedly made his own demands, including global immunity from prosecution and being allowed to retain control of the military if he steps down.

The Miami Herald said no further contact between the two leaders has occurred, although Maduro supposedly asked for a second call after Trump closed Venezuela's airspace.

Last month, Trump said he would not rule out the use of military force in Venezuela by land to dismantle what the Trump administration calls "narco-terrorists." Critics, however, question whether counternarcotics are indeed the only U.S. motive.

Washington has deployed around a dozen warships and 15,000 troops to the Caribbean Sea, which shares a significant amount of coastline with Venezuela. U.S. forces have carried out at least 21 known strikes since Sept. 2 on boats suspected of carrying drugs in the Caribbean and East Pacific, killing at least 83 people.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Friday maintained the attacks are "lawful," following a report from The Washington Post that said Hegseth ordered the military to "kill everyone," leading to a second strike on Sept. 2 against a boat to make sure there were no survivors.

In Thanksgiving remarks to U.S. troops on Thursday night, Trump suggested that the United States could "very soon" take actions targeting drug trafficking networks in Venezuela by land.

"We'll be starting to stop them by land," Trump said, "Also, the land is easier, but that's going to start very soon."

However, some local analysts have expressed skepticism that Trump will actually take military action.

"Maduro and most of his cohorts view the U.S. military threats as a bluff," a source connected to top Venezuelan officials told the Wall Street Journal last month.

Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Michael O'Hanlon told Xinhua: "I doubt very much Trump would invade. But American presidents are often tempted to try regime change in the near abroad."

Christopher Galdieri, a political science professor at Saint Anselm College in the northeastern state of New Hampshire, told Xinhua the Trump administration has "made zero efforts to sell this to the country, as the (President George W.) Bush White House did for most of a year leading up to the 2003 Iraq invasion."

"The drug trafficking argument seems exceptionally flimsy," Galdieri said.

During his campaign for president, Trump "ran against U.S. involvement in the Middle East and Ukraine, and now both of those situations continue while he may be adding a nebulous conflict with Venezuela to the mix," Galdieri said. 
A theme park based on the beloved French comic strip series Asterix is to open in Germany, the first time the adventures of the pugnacious Gaul are to be the focus of an attraction outside France, its operator said on Tuesday.

An existing theme park called Belantis outside the east German city of Leipzig is to morph into an Asterix theme park by 2030-2031, operator Compagnie des Alpes said.

The new attraction will be a twin of the vast Parc Asterix outside Paris, one of France's premier tourist attractions which opened in 1989.

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The change at the park in Germany will take place gradually, with the first area dedicated to Idefix -- the dog of Asterix's burly sidekick Obelix -- opening as early as March 2026, the French group said.

In terms of the numbers sold of Asterix comic books -- originally written and illustrated by the duo of Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo -- Germany is the second largest market, just behind France.

Compagnie des Alpes said that "this park has the potential to eventually welcome nearly 900,000 visitors per year".

The second most visited amusement park in France after Disneyland Paris, Parc Asterix welcomed 2.9 million visitors during the 2024-2025 season. It is currently ranked 8th most visited in Europe.

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With the book franchise showing no sign of slowing after the deaths of Goscinny in 1977 and Uderzo in 2020, the latest Asterix cartoon adventure released in October was published in 19 languages and across 25 countries set in ancient Portugal.

"Asterix in Lusitania" was the 41st instalment in the legendary series, taking him to the far reaches of the Roman Empire, in an adventure now created by author Fabcaro and illustrator Didier Conrad.

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The numerous allegations lobbed against hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs  including but not limited to sexual assault, physical abuse, racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution  racked the music world when they became public knowledge following a November 2023 lawsuit from his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura.

The carefully crafted persona that Combs (who was professional known as Puff Daddy, P Diddy and, later, simply Diddy) had made for himself over the decades  one of professional ambition, financial success and cultural power  came crumbling down as more alleged victims started coming forward with a flood of their own accusations and lawsuits.

It's this fall from grace that serves as the subject of the new Netflix docuseries Sean Combs: The Reckoning, a four-part examination into Combs' meteoric rise to fame and the various crimes that derailed it.

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"This is a story with significant human impact. It is a complex narrative spanning decades, not just the headlines or clips seen so far," the documentary's director Alex Stapleton and producer Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson said in a statement to Variety. "We remain steadfast in our commitment to give a voice to the voiceless and to present authentic and nuanced perspectives. While the allegations are disturbing, we urge all to remember that Sean Combs' story is not the full story of hip-hop and its culture. We aim to ensure that individual actions do not overshadow the culture's broader contributions."

Combs is reportedly less-than-pleased with the release of the Netflix doc (more on that in a minute!), which debuted on the streaming platform on Tuesday, December 2, as it will undoubtedly raise even more questions about the legal mess that has been swirling the rapper-slash-record executive these last few years. Ahead of the docuseries, here's everything to know about the allegations against Diddy, what happened during his trial and where things stand today.

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WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 20: Sean "Diddy" Combs attends Sean "Diddy" Combs Fulfills $1 Million Pledge To Howard University At Howard Homecoming  Yardfest at Howard University on October 20, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Shareif Ziyadat/Getty Images for Sean "Diddy" Combs) Shareif Ziyadat/Getty Images for Sean "Diddy" Combs

What did Diddy say about the 50 Cent documentary?

Via lawyers, Sean Combs recently reacted to The Reckoning docuseries, which includes "explosive" footage that the star himself filmed in the days before his arrest. Director Alex Stapleton maintains that said footage was obtained legally, telling Variety: We moved heaven and earth to keep the filmmakers identity confidential. One thing about Sean Combs is that hes always filming himself, and its been an obsession throughout the decades. We also reached out to Sean Combs legal team for an interview and comment multiple times, but did not hear back.

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However, when it comes to the legality of the included footage, Combs' spokesperson claims otherwise. Netflixs so-called documentary is a shameful hit piece, a spokesperson for the emcee told Variety. [Mondays] GMA teaser confirms that Netflix relied on stolen footage that was never authorized 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.

"If Netflix cared about truth or about Mr. Combss 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 rep continued, adding: "It is equally staggering that Netflix handed creative control to Curtis 50 Cent Jackson  a longtime adversary with a personal vendetta who has spent too much time slandering Mr. Combs."

What was Diddy convicted of?

Though the list of accusations made against Sean Combs was lengthy  including more serious charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, both of which he was acquitted  he was only convicted of two counts of violating the federal Mann Act, a law that prohibits transporting individuals across state lines for illegal sexual activity.

Related: What Is a Freak Off? Peek Inside Diddy's Infamous Parties

How long is Diddy's sentence?

On October 3, 2025, Combs was sentenced to 50 months (just over four years) in federal prison for the two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. He was also ordered to pay a $500,000 fine and will serve five years of supervised release after his prison term.

Is Diddy currently in jail?

Yes, Sean "Diddy" Combs is currently incarcerated  he is serving a 50-month sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Fort Dix, a low-security prison in New Jersey that houses about 4,000 federal inmates.

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Prior to his conviction and sentencing, the Bad Boys Records founder has served approximately 13 months at the Metropolitan Detention Center, which was credited towards his overall sentence, leaving him with about three more years to serve in prison.

Related: Who Calls Diddy Daddy? All About Sean Combs 7 Kids

When is Diddy being released from prison?

Combs' current anticipated release date is June 4, 2028, though this date can fluctuate with good behavior. In fact, the release date has already changed since he entered prison  his original date of May 8, 2028, was delayed a month after it was reported that the convict allegedly violated prison rules.

Per TMZ, the rumor was that the violation consisted of Combs being caught drinking homemade alcohol (made with a mix of Fanta soda, sugar and apples and left to ferment for two weeks) on November 7 inside the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI), Fort Dix, in New Jersey. However, a spokesperson said that those accusations are false, telling People: There have been several false and reckless reports circulating about Mr. Combs. He has not violated any prison rules. His sobriety and self-discipline are priorities, and he is taking them seriously.

What are the conditions for Diddy's supervised release?

As mentioned, Combs' sentence includes five years of supervised release after his prison term. This means he is legally barred from any contact those involved with the cast, including ex-girlfriend and key witness Cassie Ventura.

Did Diddy escape prison?

No, any rumors of Combs' escape from the New Jersey correctional facility that he's currently imprisoned at are false.

Was Diddy's appeal approved?

No, the star's appeal has not been approved. However, in November 2025, Combs' secured an expedited appeal process for his prostitution conviction and prison sentence, which would fast-track the appeal process. Per the granted request, oral arguments can begin as early as April 2026.

Next: How to Watch Peacock's Sean 'Diddy' Combs Documentary, 'The Making of a Bad Boy'

This story was originally published by Parade on Dec 2, 2025, where it first appeared in the Celebs section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
NEED TO KNOW

Queen Maxima of the Netherlands wore the Dutch Diamond Bandeau tiara during a state banquet

The Queen and her husband, King Willem-Alexander, are in the midst of a state visit to Suriname

The Dutch tiara reveal comes ahead of a German state visit to the U.K. this week, where Kate Middleton is expected to don her third tiara of the year

Queen Maxima of the Netherlands sported an elegant tiara during a recent state visit to South America.

The Queen and her husband, King Willem-Alexander, are on a three-day official visit to Suriname, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the former Dutch colony's independence. On Monday, Dec. 1, they attended a state banquet at the Presidential Palace in the capital city of Paramaribo, where the Queen made a regal statement with both her gown and accessories.

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The 54-year-old royal sported a burnt orange gown with a deep V-cut and attached cape for the event, which was hosted by President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons. Orange is famously the Netherlands' national color, and the royal family belongs to the House of Orange-Nassau. The King and Queen's eldest child, Princess Catharina-Amalia, holds the title of Princess of Orange as the heir apparent to the throne.

The Queen accessorized her look with the Dutch Diamond Bandeau tiara, one of her signature pieces. The unique diadem features 27 large round diamonds in a single band. It was created from a Diamond Riviere gifted to Princess Emma of Waldeck-Pyrmont when she married King William III of the Netherlands in 1879.

Sipa via AP Images Queen Maxima during the State Banquet at the Presidential Palace in Paramaribo during the state visit of the Dutch Royals to the Republic of Suriname on Dec. 1, 2025 Queen Maxima during the State Banquet at the Presidential Palace in Paramaribo during the state visit of the Dutch Royals to the Republic of Suriname on Dec. 1, 2025

That headpiece was reconstructed in 1937 to create the Diamond Bandeau tiara for the then-Crown Princess Juliana. It was a favorite of Juliana's when she became Queen and was also worn by Princess Margriet and Princess Christina.

Queen Maxima began wearing the headband-like tiara in the mid-2000s and has continued to don it for important occasions, including the 2013 abdication dinner for Queen Beatrix, who passed the Diamond Bandeau down to her daughter-in-law.



Danny Martindale/WireImage (L to R): King Willem-Alexander , Queen Beatrix, and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands attend a dinner in honor of Queen Beatrix's abdication on April 29, 2013 (L to R): King Willem-Alexander , Queen Beatrix, and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands attend a dinner in honor of Queen Beatrix's abdication on April 29, 2013

In addition to Princess Catherina-Amalia, 21, the King and Queen are also parents to Princess Alexia, 20, and Princess Ariane, 18. Their daughters did not appear to join them for the Suriname state visit, during which the royal couple also met with local schoolchildren and paid respects by laying a wreath at the Mama Sranan monument.

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The Dutch Queen's tiara moment comes ahead of an anticipated upcoming royal reveal for Kate Middleton.

This week, King Charles and Queen Camilla are hosting the president and first lady of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Elke Budenbender, for an official visit to Windsor Castle, which will include a lavish state banquet.

It will be Kate and Prince William's third state banquet of the year, marking the Princess of Wales' third opportunity to sport one of the royal family's impressive tiaras. For both of the previous banquets  French President Emmanuel Macron in July, and U.S. President Donald Trump in September  she donned her go-to royal headpiece, Queen Mary's Lover's Knot Tiara.

Chris Jackson/Getty; Aaron Chown-WPA Pool/Getty Kate Middleton has favored the Queen Mary's Lovers Knot tiara at previous state banquets Kate Middleton has favored the Queen Mary's Lovers Knot tiara at previous state banquets

On both occasions, Kate completed her royal regalia with the Royal Family Order of King Charles III and the Royal Family Order of Elizabeth II along with the Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order star and sash.

Can't get enough of PEOPLE's Royals coverage? Sign up for our free Royals newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more!

She was a particular hit with both Macron and Trump, with the French president sharing a wink during dinner and the U.S. leader calling her "radiant" in his remarks.

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Royal biographer Ingrid Seward spoke with PEOPLE following the Trump state visit, sharing how Kate is "very aware" that the spotlight increasingly falls on her during these events.

"She is definitely showing traits of being a remarkable future queen," Seward says, adding, "She has the most beautiful smile, which captivates everyone. Its just magical."



Read the original article on People
The fun continues.

While many folks sat around the family table slicing up turkey in cooler climes over Thanksgiving, Sydney Sweeney was soaking up the sun.

Who could blame her? The Euphoria star bought a sweet mansion in the Florida Keys last summer, and was duly enjoying her mortgage.

The 28-year-old It Girl, whos originally from the rainy state of Washington on the West Coast, wasnt solo.

Sweeney brought along a couple of pals, including new boyfriend Scooter Braun. Sparks reportedly first flew with the onetime celebrity manager (and Taylor Swift foe) at Jeff Bezos Venice wedding to Lauren Sanchez in June.

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The new couples relationship appears to be heating up by the day. Paparazzi snapped the two on their getaway, sharing pictures of them riding on jetskis, playing volleyball and chilling in the pool.

Sweeney, too, shared some pics on an Instagram carousel with her girlfriends entitled Friendsgiving week. In one photo, the actress is holding a shot at iconic bar Sloppy Joes, in another, doing karaoke at the Key West EmPOURium.

Sweeney also shared snippets from a Shrek-themed party at her house, decorated like the village seen in the beloved franchise about an ogre who falls for a princess. The hostess dressed up in red lingerie and devil ears as Dragon, the feisty wife of Donkey, voiced by Eddie Murphy.

So, we have to know: Is Sweeney just a rabid Shrek fan or could she be teasing a possible project? Because we hear No. 5 is coming down the pike, with such actors as Miami native Marcello Hernandez already in the mix. And Murphy confirmed to Screen Rant that there was Donkey spinoff in the works, too.

Casting directors, make your move.
A child star who gained fame for starring in the 90s hit sitcom Home Improvement was arrested for the sixth time Saturday after his fiance allegedly attempted to run him over with their three kids in the car.

Zachery Ty Bryan, 44, and his fiance Johnnie Faye Cartwright, 32, were both cuffed by deputies with the Lane County Sheriffs Office around noon Saturday near a popular camping area in Lowell, Oregon, according to a

Zachery Ty Bryan, 44, and his fiance were arrested in Oregon on Saturday. Lane County Jail

Bryan, Cartwright and their three small children were driving through the area in a pickup truck when, at some point, Bryan stormed out of the vehicle and started walking down the road, according to authorities.

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Cartwright then attempted to run over Bryan, but missed when he dove out of the way  and wound up driving their pickup into a ditch, the sheriffs office said.

Bryan and his fiance Johnnie Faye Cartwright, 32, share three children.

No one was injured, but deputies observed signs that Cartwright and Bryan were both impaired when questioning them, according to the office.

Bryan was eventually arrested for violating a court order from a prior case. He is being held without bail, though he is set to be released on Wednesday, according to the Lane County Jails inmate records.

In 2021, he pleaded guilty stemming from allegations that he tried to strangle Cartwright. He later downplayed the ordeal and said it was blown out of proportion.

Bryan has been arrested six times in the last five years. Horry County Sheriff's Office

As part of the plea, Bryan agreed not to contact Cartwright, though the couple has had three children since then.

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Cartwright was also arrested over the weekend spat following additional investigation, according to authorities.

She faces charges for reckless driving, three counts of reckless endangerment and DUI. Two of the reckless endangerment counts have since been cleared, according to Lane County Jails inmate records.

Bryan played Brad Taylor in the 90s sitcom Home Improvement. Touchstone Television/Courtesy Everett Collection

The couples children were placed in the care of a family member, authorities said.

Bryan has had numerous run-ins with law enforcement over the last five years.

Beyond the strangulation allegation, he also pleaded guilty to a felony assault against an unnamed woman in October 2023.

In 2024, he was arrested twice for DUI.

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And in early 2025, he was arrested during another domestic dispute in South Carolina where he allegedly choked and punched an unnamed woman who told police that they live together and have children in common, according to a police report obtained by PEOPLE.

Bryan shares four children with his ex-wife Carly Matros. The pair separated after 13 years of marriage in 2020.

On Home Improvement, Bryan played Brad Taylor, the eldest son of Tim The Toolman Taylor, who was played by star Tim Allen.

Bryan did not appear in the shows reunion in late September.
The newly-crowned Miss Universe, Fatima Bosch , is speaking publicly for the first time since winning the pageant in an ABC News exclusive interview, amid accusations of vote-rigging and favoritism.

Bosch, who represented Mexico, was crowned the 74th Miss Universe on Nov. 21 in Bangkok, Thailand, emerging at the top amid a competition that drew contestants from approximately 130 countries.

After winning, Bosch said she would like to be remembered as a person that changed a little bit the prototype of what is a Miss Universe and a real person that gives the heart.

To see more of Juju Chang's exclusive interview with Miss Universe, tune in to tonight's episode of "Nightline."

Bosch told "Nightline's" Juju Chang it was her first time competing in a pageant and "that moment felt like a dream come true."

Sakchai Lalit/AP - PHOTO: Miss Mexico Fatima Bosch, center, is celebrated by other contesters after winning the 2025 Miss Universe pageant in Nonthaburi, north of Bangkok, Thailand, Nov. 21, 2025.

The titleholder also pushed back at some social media critics who insinuated she only won the pageant because her father, an executive in the oil industry, shares some business interests with Raul Rocha Cantu, the co-owner of the pageant from Mexico.

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"They make, like, this campaign of hate. My father has nothing to do with the organization," Bosch said. "And it's crazy. How are you going to buy a crown? Maybe in Walmart, you can buy a crown, yeah. But not in Miss Universe, for sure."

Miss Mexico crowned Miss Universe

This years Miss Universe pageant has been mired in controversy and drama, stirring up headlines, including one where a contestant  Miss Jamaica  fell off the pageant stage while competing in an evening gown round and was taken to a local hospital where she remains under medical care.

"The lights that come to us make everything darker, like you can see us, but we couldn't see," Bosch said of what it's like walking out during the competition.

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In the days leading up to the final pageant competition, Omar Harfouch, one of the judges, resigned, alleging the competition was fixed and that 30 finalists were chosen ahead of time in a secret vote. Harfouch even called for Bosch to be disqualified from the competition.

Miss Universe owner shares update after contestant falls off stage

"My response to them and to him was that if maybe he wanted, like, more followers on Instagram, he should like, I don't know, get into a [TV] show," Bosch responded when asked about Harfouch.

ABC News - PHOTO: Miss Universe Fatima Bosch is speaking out in an ABC News exclusive interview.

In a statement shared to Instagram, the Miss Universe organization disputed Harfouch's claims, saying in part, "no impromptu jury has been created, that no external group has been authorized to evaluate delegates or select finalists" and that all competition evaluations adhered to the organization's protocols.

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Harfouch said he stood by his claims in a statement to ABC News on Tuesday, saying "everything had been set up for Fatima to win" and called Bosch's suggestion that he was making claims to gain more social media followers "false and frankly ridiculous" because he already had over 1 million followers on Instagram before the pageant.

Bosch herself also made headlines, walking out of an event after a pageant official, Miss Universe Thailand director Nawat Itsaragrisil, was seen in a video seemingly criticizing her, allegedly calling her a "dumb head," which he denied to ABC News.

Bosch's walkout also prompted other contestants to walk out with her in solidarity.

"He wanted, like, to humiliate me in front of all the people. And that was not OK," Bosch said, adding that she felt "scared at that time." "I told him like, 'You can't talk to me like that. You can't call me dumb.'"

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"I couldn't stay quiet because in every case, your dignity is more important than any prize or any dream that you have," Bosch added.

Itsaragrisil apologized for his statements, saying the video clip of the incident was taken out of context.

"I do want to clarify my part in the situation. She stated publicly that I called her a 'dumbhead,' when in fact I said the word 'damage.' Video evidence clearly confirms this," Itsaragrisil said in a later statement to ABC News. "Unfortunately, this misunderstanding became a central cause of the conflict and significantly escalated the situation. Nevertheless, I acknowledged the miscommunication and expressed my regret for any distress it caused to her, to the contestants, and to the public."

Boschs walkout drew attention and even earned her global praise. The Miss Universe pageant also pulled in massive ratings with the organization touting 2.6 million views in an Instagram post.

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But alongside the praise, there have also been some rumors. Some critics said Bosch was crowned the winner as a reward for taking a stand against Itsaragrisils comment and that Bosch was going to step away from the crown soon after winning, but Bosch dismissed both allegations.

"I think I make history. So why not? But of course, no, I make the same effort that all the pageant [contestants] make. And this is a job," Bosch said.

"I will never step away for this crown because I work really, really hard to be here, Bosch added. I'm not here for fame of modeling or searching [for a] husband. I'm here because God put a purpose on my heart. I have a mission and I will do that all year, to serve others and help."

Bosch said she plans on continuing to work with children who have cancer, as well as migrants and spreading awareness about the endangered monarch butterfly.
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Credit: Kongehuset/Instagram

With kids and pets in the mix, there's sure to be a few Christmas mishaps when decorating the tree each year, as the Danish royal family demonstrated in a new Instagram Reel on Monday, December 1. King Frederik, Queen Mary and their children Crown Prince Christian, 20, Princess Isabella, 18, and twins Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine, 14, got into the holiday spirit in Copenhagen, Denmark over the weekendand their adorable dog joined in the fun.

In their new Reel, the royals hung ornaments and even did a festive dance together at Amalienborg Palace, with one of the family's border collies hanging out by the tree. Crown Prince Christian, who will become king after his father, laid down on the floor to pet the brown-and-white dog in one scene, while Queen Mary played with a dog toy in another.

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The family owns two lookalike border collies Grace and Coco, and this isn't the first time one of their dogs have stolen the show at a family occasion. In May, one of the pups ran out on the palace balcony during King Frederik's birthday celebrations, making their family photos all the more memorable.

Princess Isabella gave her dog some pets in the new Reel. | Credit: Kongehuset/Instagram

Queen Mary is seen decorating the royal Christmas tree. | Credit: Kongehuset/Instagram

Queen Mary took a decorating break to play with their dog. | Credit: Kongehuset/Instagram

The family hung personalized balls with their names, one that looked like the palace, and even an ornament shaped like the Sydney Opera House, in honor of Mary's home country of Australia. Princess Isabella and Princess Josephine also joined their dad for a traditional dance, lifting their arms to form a bridge and laughing as the rest of the family climbed a ladder to trim the tree in the background.

And like most families, there was an ornament casualty, with the Reel showing a smashed Christmas ornament on the floor during their festivities.

"Love this the king and queen being a normal family decorating their Christmas tree and having fun even with the dog," one fan commented on the Reel, while another added, "Love the zoom on that broken ornament ."

Another Instagram follower added, in part, "They decorate, be silly, dance, love for each other, and doggies with it all. Our royal family just having fun as it should be        ."
First lady Melania Trump unveiled the White House's Christmas decorations on Dec. 1.

Christmas has been a touchy subject for the first lady in the past. In 2018, her choice of red Christmas trees sparked ridicule. In 2020, a secret recording of Trump complaining about her White House holiday duties became public.

This year, she drew her inspiration from motherhood and business for the theme "Home is where the heart is."

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"The constant movement has taught me that home is not merely a physical space; rather, it is the warmth and comfort I carry within, regardless of my surroundings, she said in a statement. This Christmas, lets celebrate the love we hold within ourselves, and share it with the world around us. After all, wherever we are, we can create a home filled with grace, radiance, and endless possibilities.

See photos of Christmas at the White House through the years:

More: Melania Trump's White House Christmas decor includes Lego, 51 trees

See photos of the 2025 White House Christmas decorations

A toy truck is seen on display in the East Room. A Christmas tree and decorations are on display in the Red Room of the White House. Christmas trees are lit with lights in the East Room of the White House on Nov. 30, 2020. A White House gingerbread house is showcased in the State Dining Room of the White House as part of the Christmas decorations. Christmas decorations are on display in the Cross Hall and Blue Room of the White House, featuring lines of Christmas trees. Christmas decorations are displayed in the East Room of the White House. Red ornaments hang on the trees in the Cross Hall of the White House on Nov. 30, 2020. An extra hint of green is prominent in the Green Room of the White House as a Christmas tree and decorations are on display. A U.S. Space Force themed ornament hangs on a Christmas tree at the White House on Nov. 30, 2020. Garland decorates the door frame in the Cross Hall and Blue Room of the White House on Nov. 30, 2020. White House Christmas 2020: Melania Trump's holiday decorations unveiled 1 of 10 A toy truck is seen on display in the East Room.

See photos of Jill Biden's holiday decorations over the years

Holidays at the White House 2024:

Holidays at the White House 2023:

Holidays at the White House 2022:

2023 White House Nutcracker video resurfaced

The Trump War Room used the Christmas launch to take jabs at former first lady Jill Biden's 2023 White House holiday promotions.

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In 2023, her theme was "magic, wonder and joy" of the holiday season. She had an Advent calendar, a visit from the snowman Olaf "Frozen," and ornaments honoring fallen service members.

On Dec. 13, 2023, Biden posted a video of a New York tap dancing group performing a number from their interpretation of The Nutcracker Suite in the White House.

"Jill Biden made a mocked Christmas by featuring woke clowns in her Christmas decorations!" the Trump War Room posted on Dec. 1.
Guests attend the Tianshan Forum for Central Asia Economic Cooperation in Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Dec. 2, 2025. The Tianshan Forum for Central Asia Economic Cooperation opened on Tuesday in Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, drawing over 300 government officials and representatives from financial institutions, think tanks and the private sector to discuss promoting trade and investment across the region. The two-day forum, themed "Unlocking Connectivity and Investment in Central Asia," brought together Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) member countries. Discussions focused on trade, transport, energy and digital connectivity in the region. (Xinhua/Zhou Shengbin)

URUMQI, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Tianshan Forum for Central Asia Economic Cooperation opened on Tuesday in Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, drawing over 300 government officials and representatives from financial institutions, think tanks and the private sector to discuss promoting trade and investment across the region.

The two-day forum, themed "Unlocking Connectivity and Investment in Central Asia," brought together Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) member countries. Discussions focused on trade, transport, energy and digital connectivity in the region.

In his opening remarks, Chinese Finance Minister Lan Fo'an said that CAREC cooperation has made significant progress and should expand in scale and depth to benefit people in the member countries.

"The Tianshan forum will serve as a bridge linking policymakers, the private sector, development partners and the research community to offer solutions to our shared challenges," said Charymuhammet Shallyyev, director of the CAREC Institute, which organized the event. He noted that since the 2015 launch of its physical base in Urumqi, the institute has conducted over 180 research studies and empowered more than 2,000 government officials of CAREC member countries through 150 training programs.

Pakistan's Federal Minister for Planning, Development & Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal noted that the current global landscape is undergoing profound transformation, with Central Asia and South Asia emerging as core engines driving global economic growth. He highlighted successful Pakistan-China projects and called for deeper cooperation on industry, people-to-people exchange, and agriculture and technology.

The forum also saw the launch of a Central Asia fiscal cooperation research center, established by the CAREC Institute and Xinjiang's regional department of finance.

Central Asia is a crucial hub at the heart of Eurasia. Trade between China and Central Asia has surged since the first China-Central Asia Summit in May 2023, totaling 94.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2024. Bordering multiple Central Asian countries, Xinjiang is strengthening its role as a core hub along the Belt and Road. 

Mzia Giorgobiani, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure of Georgia, speaks during the Tianshan Forum for Central Asia Economic Cooperation in Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Dec. 2, 2025. The Tianshan Forum for Central Asia Economic Cooperation opened on Tuesday in Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, drawing over 300 government officials and representatives from financial institutions, think tanks and the private sector to discuss promoting trade and investment across the region.

The two-day forum, themed "Unlocking Connectivity and Investment in Central Asia," brought together Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) member countries. Discussions focused on trade, transport, energy and digital connectivity in the region. (Xinhua/Zhou Shengbin)
NEED TO KNOW

Steve McBee Sr. has begun his 24-month sentence in his crop insurance fraud case

The reality star self-surrendered to prison in Yankton, S.D. on Monday, Dec. 1

McBee recently revealed to PEOPLE his plans for an early release

Steve McBee Sr. has entered prison.

The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys star, 52, self-surrendered to federal prison in Yankton, S.D., on Monday, Dec. 1, PEOPLE has learned. He was ordered by the judge in his crop insurance fraud case to do so by 2 p.m. local time. He turned himself in at approximately 1:30 p.m. local time.

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McBee was sentenced to 24 months in prison in October after pleading guilty to one count of federal crop insurance fraud in 2024. He was also ordered to pay $4,022,124 in restitution.

McBee recently told PEOPLE that he hopes for an early release, either through the First Step Act or a pardon from President Donald Trump.

"I've been meeting with pardon attorneys," he said. "We're putting everything together to fill out the application and turn everything in."

As he prepares the application for the pardon, McBee said he's been getting advice from fellow reality star Todd Chrisley, who received a full pardon in May while serving his prison sentence for conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and tax fraud.

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"We've had hours of conversation," McBee said. "He doesn't owe me anything, and he's texted me every other day, like, 'Checking on you, buddy. How are you feeling today? It's going to be okay. Everything's going to be all right. We're going to get through this. I'm going to help you any way I can.' "

Emerson Miller/PEACOCK via Getty Steve McBee Sr. Steve McBee Sr.

Ahead of entering prison, McBee spent Thanksgiving with his family on his ranch in Gallatin, Mo. He and his family  including his ex-wife Kristi and their four sons: Steven Jr., Jesse, Cole and Brayden  then drove in a bus together to Yankton on Sunday, Nov. 30, and McBee documented their travels on his Instagram.

"Everybody's trying to have a great time and spend the moments together," he said in one video. "That's what life's about."

His ex, Galyna Saltkovska, also wished him well in a video posted to Instagram.

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"I just wanted to let you know I'm sending you good vibes and good luck," she said. "I know you got it, and we got it here. We'll see you back here before you know it."

To PEOPLE, he joked that the "hardest expectation" on him is that he has to get "all big and buff" while he's in prison.

"I'm afraid if I come out, and I just look like me, they're going to be like, 'Really? You had months to work out,' " he said. "That's a lot of pressure! I have to go in there and hit it hard. Yankton is an old college, and they said they have a really good gym in there and that the food is better than a lot of other places. I'm trying to find all the positives."

One thing McBee said he feels "so guilty" about is how his prison sentence is affecting his son Cole's wedding planning with fiancee Kacie Adkinson. The two got engaged on Nov. 7 and share a 10-month-old daughter, Blair.

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"When I'm out, we're going to have a big wedding," he said. "The best case scenario is I would get a pardon or get home early, like in nine or 10 months. So, they tentatively want to get married next fall, but if dad's not home, it's going to have to flow to the spring. I feel so bad, but they'll be okay and we'll get through it."



Paul Andrews/PEACOCK via Getty Steve McBee Sr. Steve McBee Sr.

With the beginning of his sentence, McBee is hoping he can start putting the past behind him.

"Obviously, we hope for the best and pray for the best, but the storm is finally clearing," he said. "A captain doesn't become a skilled captain on calm water, they learn how to navigate through storms. This was certainly a level five hurricane, but when the storm breaks, you smell the fresh, clean air. We're starting to come out of that, so I'm feeling a lot better."



McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys seasons 1 and 2 are streaming on Peacock.



Read the original article on People
Taylor Swift tries to keep a low profile at fiance Travis Kelces matches. However, fans might wonder why the Chiefs have not splashed her face on the Jumbotron. Sportscaster Kay Adams spoke to Kansas City Chiefs President Mark Donovan about how the team has handled Swift and Kelces high-profile relationship.

Chiefs boss reveals how they handled Travis Kelce and Taylor Swifts romance

Chiefs president Mark Donovan revealed how the team takes care of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelces relationship. In an interview with Kay Adams, Donovan confessed that the team does not want to take advantage of the high-profile relationship. Hence, they dont show the pop star on the Jumbotron in their home stadium.

Adams playfully asked Donovan, What have you learnt about Swifties? Donovan laughed and replied, Taylor has been amazing to us. Its been nothing but good. She is a phenomenon, but she is a special kind of person. The president confessed that he told Kelce that the Chiefs will respect and protect their relationship the same way they do for other players.

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Donovan stated, I told Travis, Look, we are going to treat you and your relationship with the same respect that we treat any other players relationship. We are not going to monetize it. We are not going to go out there and go crazy.

Continuing further, he stated, You know all those shots you see of Taylor in the stadium, right? We never showed Taylor on our big boards in our stadium. Adams seemed surprised and remarked, Really.

Donovan dished, Never. It was respectful. We are not taking advantage of this relationship. I joked with him (Kelce) early on in the first year, We never played a Taylor Swift song in the stadium when shes in the building. Travis, to his credit, is all about the team and all about the guys.

Furthermore, Adams asked what Travis Kelce and Taylor Swifts relationship has done for the growth of the Chiefs brand. Donovan replied sincerely, Yeah, it has a big impact on us I say that everything Taylor brought to us has been good and positive, and it has accelerated.

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Donovan explained that Swifts international fame with the mega Eras tour brought much-needed attention to the Chiefs as well as their high-profile relationship.

Originally reported by Anwaya Mane on Mandatory.

The post Taylor Swift Kept off Camera During Travis Kelces Game for This Reason appeared first on Reality Tea.
Arcadia, the second feature from writer-director Yorgos Zois (Casus Belli), is hoping to secure a nomination in the best international feature film Oscar race for Greece.

Since its world premiere in the Berlin Film Festivals 2024 Encounters program, the metaphysical mystery drama, which he co-wrote with Konstantina Kotzaman, has won such honors as the best director award at the Sarajevo Film Festival and the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) best international film prize at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. It also won the best film, best director and best screenplay honors at the Hellenic Film Academy Awards this year.

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The film stars Vangelis Mourikis (The King, Digger) and Yorgos Lanthimos collaborator Angeliki Papoulia (Dogtooth, The Lobster).

They play Katerina, a neurologist, and Yannis, a respected retired doctor, who drive to an off-season seaside resort. Yannis has been called to the hospital in the small town to identify the victim of a tragic accident. Mystery ensues. During nightly excursions to a mysterious beach bar called Arcadia, Katerina begins to put the puzzle together of what is going on.

Konstantinos Koukoulios handled the cinematography for Arcadia, while Yannis Chalkiadakis served as the editor.

Arcadia has been described as a genre-defying meditation on love, loss, grief, the afterlife, and transitional places or states.

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The Greek committee selecting the countrys Oscar submission lauded Arcadia for its outstanding technical and distinctive artistic merit, as well as conveying a distinct Greek identity.

THR can now premiere an exclusive clip from the film, which showcases, among other things, its otherworldly atmosphere. And yes, it also touches on memory, sex  in a very direct way, and expensive taste in clothing.

If you are wondering what all of that has to do with anything and are ready to be faced with more questions than answers, check out the exclusive Arcadia clip below.

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Top Mexican production house Woo Films  behind banner Netflix Spanish-language titles The House of Flowers, Sagrada Familia and Pedro Paramo as well as Toronto Platform premiere The Good Girls  has boarded Gods Favorite Girl from Spains Funicular Films, a key producer on Spanish TV breakout This Is Not Sweden.

The news of the major co-production boost comes just days after Gods Favorite Girl (La favorita de Dios), already set up as a co-production with Ecuadors Abaca Film, has scored co-development funding from Ibermedia, the Ibero-American equivalent of Europes Eurimages.

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Now bulwarked by backing from the Spanish-speaking worlds two biggest markets, Spain and Mexico, Gods Favorite Child is fast emerging as one of the biggest of the 12 titles which will be presented on Dec. 3 at Ventana Surs Proyecta co-production forum, one of the the Buenos Aires markets industry centrepieces.

The Woo Films partnership will also open up access to top-notch Mexican talent and Woos know-how at creating international hits.

Gods Favorite Girl will already hit Ventana Sur with the added momentum of having won First Prize at the ESCAC Opera Prima Lab, a development initiative of the celebrated Barcelona film school, plus this year a BDC Producciones Award at Guadalajara Festivals 2025 Co-Production Meetings in Mexico.

The feature debut of director Diego Ulloa, the dark dramedy is set in Ecuador. When her parents tell her theyre getting a divorce, Moni does what any 16-year-old girl would do: She claims that the Virgin Mary speaks to her, the logline runs. What she doesnt imagine is that her little lie will turn into one of the greatest religious frauds of the 20th century.

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We are delighted at Woo Films to join Gods Favorite Girl to make known this story which, deriving from a highly singular event, can attain a global echo. Its a film which is in line with the narratives at our company and our commitment to Latin-America cinema and backing new talents, said Woo Films Manolo Caro, creator of The House of Flowers and Sagrada Familia.

At Funicular Films, were very happy with the organic development full of good news which Gods Favorite Girl is seeing, noted Funicular Films producer Marc Clotet. To go forward hand-in-hand with Woo Films is a dream made reality in order to move closer to Ibero-American audiences on this dramatic comedy which we consider to be profoundly universal.

Gods Favorite Girl is co-written by Ulloa and Marina Pares, who won a 2021 best adapted screenplay Spanish Academy Goya for Ane is Missing. Ulloas feature film Dedicada a Mi Ex premiered on Netflix Latin America to breakout success.

Abaca Films credits include Los Ahogados, from Juan Sebastian Jacome and Victor Mares, which won four industry prizes at 2023s Ventana Sur.

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A Nanouk Films, Funicular and Anagram Sweden production, co-produced by RTVE, 3Cat and Swedens SVT in co-production with NDR and YLE, This Is Not Sweden is a pioneering Spain-Scandinavian-German TV series co-production. It won a Europa Prix and a Canneseries 2024 best performance award for co-creator, co-director and co-writer Aina Clotet, as well as scoring bullish ratings on RTVE Play and 3Cat.

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Magnolia Network stars Joanna and Chip Gaines got a little too familiar with the wildlife at their new Colorado mountain housewhere they quickly learned that their scenic surroundings are as petrifying as they are pretty.

The renovation experts were working on their new abode, a process that they are documenting in their new series, "Fixer Upper: Colorado Mountain House," when they had a scare with a bear that emerged from the woodland that surrounds the property.

Joanna, 47, and Chip, 50, were seen scrambling to ensure everyone on the groundsincluding their youngest son, Crew, 7was safe in a new teaser clip from the spinoff, which is due to premiere on Dec. 9.

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In the video, the couple, whose daughter, Ella, also stars in the show, were seen working on various projects in and around the home, before Joanna began talking to the cameras about the renovation while standing on the terrace outside the dwelling.

However, just as she begins speaking, the mother of five is interrupts by the sound of leaves rustling behind herprompting her to turn around, at which point she spots a creature lurking in the woods.

Magnolia Network stars Joanna and Chip Gaines got a little too familiar with the wildlife while transforming their Colorado getaway. (YouTube)

In a teaser for Joanna, 47, and Chip's new spinoff series, "Fixer Upper: Colorado Mountain House," the home renovation pro revealed that she and her husband, 50, had a scare with a bear while working at the abode, which is surrounded by woods. (YouTube)

The clip starts by showing the couple working on the property, before Joanna begins speaking to the camera about their plans for their home. (YouTube)

Its either Sasquatch or Chip Gaines, but I do think that was a bear, Joanna said, before taking a second glance.

Oh my gosh, its a bear! Its a bear!" she added.

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A production crew member can then be heard asking her, "Do we have anyone down there?" to which Joanna replied, "Well, Chip is down there with [our son] Crew."

The preview comes to an end there, leaving fans wondering what will happen next as Joanna and the crew attempt to ensure Chip and their son are safe from the bear.

The shocking teaser comes after it was revealed that the couple's 19-year-old daughter would be joining them on a project for the first time.

Chip and Joanna took to social media to share a sneak peek from the upcoming series, revealing that Ella will be caught on camera taking on a very special project as part of the renovation.

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In a video share on their Instagram accounts, Joanna is seen explaining that the project was particularly emotional for the family, not least because it marked the first time that the family had taken on such an ambitious renovation outside of Central Texas.

"This is our first out of Central Texas project. I want it to feel like something that I put together for my family," Joanna explained. Chip had an idea to have our daughter design the little cottage."

However, she is interrupted by the sounds of leaves rustling behind her. When she turns around, she spots something terrifying. (YouTube)

Oh my gosh, its a bear! Its a bear!" she added. (YouTube)

The preview comes to an end there, leaving fans wondering what will happen next as Joanna and the crew save Chip and their son from the bear. (YouTube)

The shocking teaser comes after it was revealed that the couple's 19-year-old would be joining them on a project for the first time. (YouTube)

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Ella is then seen telling the cameras: "I'm accepting the challenge."

"Fixer Upper: Colorado Mountain House" marks the latest in a long line of "Fixer Upper" spinoffs that followed the end of the main seasonwhich the couple revealed was coming to an end after its fifth season back in 2017.

At the time, the duo wrote about their decision to call in quits in a post on their blog, telling fans that they wanted to prioritize spending time with their kids.

"This is just us recognizing that we need to catch our breath for a moment," they said. Our plan is to take this time to shore up and strengthen the spots that are weak, rest the places that are tired, and give lots of love and attention to both our family and our business.

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The Gaines have kept their children mainly out of the limelight since 2018although Ella's appearance in the latest "Fixer Upper" installment suggests that they may be prepared to share the spotlight with their kids more moving forward.

Joanna has been openly documenting her struggle to cope with her kids growing up, revealing earlier this year how she was coping with Ella moving out of the family home and into a college dorm, joining her brother, Drake, who had already started his university experience.

In August, the mom shared a photo of her eldest son's room filled with boxes and suitcases, while detailing her bittersweet emotions around the milestone moment.

"They told me it would go by quicker than I think. That the days are slow but the years are fast. And darn it if they were right. This beautiful gift of time has roared past us all just like I was told," she wrote.

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"My oldest son left for his third year of college while my oldest daughter packs for her first year across the country.

The couple previously took to Instagram to show off their upcoming series, "Fixer Upper: Colorado Mountain House," which hit TV screens Oct. 28. (YouTube)

In addition to showing off the the projects they would be taking on, they also revealed that a special guest would be joining themtheir daughter. (joannagaines/Instagram)

The Gaines have kept their children mainly out of the limelight since 2018. (YouTube)

"This season already feels like one big, breathless surrender. Lord, how do I hold them close while also letting go?"

Joanna went on to note that, while she feels a strong desire to keep her kids with her, she knows that they are "made for more" than they can experience inside the family's Waco home.

"Help me to embrace change with a heart filled with hope for the part I know to be truer than the restmy kids and I may have been made for each other, but I also believe they were made for more. More experiences, more knowledge, more growing than could ever happen within our walls," she added.

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The mother of five concluded her post with a message to other parents who have yet to experience what it's like to have a child leave home.

"To all the parents packing up and moving kids to new places, and to all those with years still to spare: hold them close, hold them well, and lets all lean on each other when the time comes to hold it together," she said.

Joanna had previously admitted that she was struggling more with Ella's departure from the family nest than she did when Drake moved outlargely because she and her daughter were so used to spending time together.

"With Ella, we love to go to antiques shops, plant shops, and go get coffeethat's our rhythm. I kind of feel like I'm losing a friend in my everyday life," she said.

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As for Ella, Joanna admitted that her daughter couldn't wait to head off to college, particularly because the new setting was going to give her a chance to establish her own identity, away from her parents' fame.

"She's excited about going somewhere and just being known for her," the Magnolia Network star revealed. "She's like, 'I don't want anyone knowing that you're ... I just want to go and be myself.'"
Guatemalan beauty queen and television host Raquel Escalante has died at just 28 years old after a long health battle, her employer confirmed. Escalante, who earned national recognition as Miss Intercontinental Guatemala 2021, had been open about her struggle with cervical cancer, documenting her journey with her followers and the communities she touched through her work. The heartbreaking news was first announced in late November by TV Azteca Guate, where she worked as a host.

Network Pays Tribute To Raquel Escalante's 'Joy, Charisma, And Special Light'

In a touching tribute, the network remembered Escalante as a radiant presence both on and off-screen. "Her charisma, her joy, and that special light that always accompanied her made every moment by her side something unique and memorable," the tribute read. "Today, we bid farewell to a colleague and friend who left a huge imprint on our hearts. Her smile, her energy, and her passion for communicating will continue to inspire us every day."

Through Her Illness, Escalante Remained A Beacon Of Strength On Social Media

In August 2024, Escalante revealed she had been hospitalized due to decreasing hemoglobin levels, marking one of several health updates she shared publicly. By October, her cousin confirmed she had been diagnosed with cervical cancer earlier in the year, prompting an outpouring of concern and support from fans, viewers, and members of the pageant community.

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A GoFundMe account was launched to help ease the mounting cost of her medical care. "We are reaching out to all kind-hearted people who wish to support her with her medical expenses, as Raquel is very ill," the fundraiser read. "She has spent most of her time in the hospital since February and has had to pay a lot of money in hospitals. Her adoptive family has helped her, however, there are situations that are beyond our control."

Escalante's social media presence remained strong throughout her battle, and supporters say she continued to radiate gratitude, grace, and faith despite the physical toll.

Raquel Escalante's Death Comes As The Pageant World Faces Major Turmoil

Escalante's passing lands at a turbulent moment for the global pageant community, arriving just weeks after a major scandal erupted within the Miss Universe Organization.

Former Miss Universe judge Omar Harfouch has gone public with accusations against the organization, claiming serious misconduct in the days leading up to the competition. Harfouch shocked viewers and insiders when he abruptly resigned on November 18, alleging that the Top 30 finalists were pre-selected by what he described as an "impromptu jury."

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The Miss Universe Organization swiftly denied the accusations, but Harfouch doubled down.

Legal Threats Loom As Harfouch Outlines Claims Of Fraud And Corruption

One day after Miss Mexico Fatima Bosch was crowned Miss Universe 2025 on November 21, Harfouch announced on Instagram that he had entered the early stages of pursuing a formal complaint. "I have officially consulted one of the leading law firms in New York to examine the potential filing of a formal complaint before the Office of the Attorney General against the Miss Universe Organization," he wrote.

He said the potential issues under review include fraud, abuse of power, corruption, deception, breach of contract, conflict of interest, and emotional and reputational damages. Speaking to PEOPLE, Harfouch added that he and his team had intentionally waited until the winner was announced before moving forward.

He stated that they "were waiting to see if Miss Mexico won before we started to pursue legal action, and she did win." His motive, he says, is to "bring justice to contestants, especially the 106 countries who were kicked out three days before the show by a mysterious 'entity' [the impromptu jury]."

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In a statement posted to Miss Universe's official Instagram on November 18, the organization categorically denied Harfouch's allegations.

As Raquel Escalante's Legacy Lives On, The Pageant World Faces Tough Questions

As the pageant community mourns the loss of Raquel Escalante, a rising star, beloved host, and devoted advocate for her home country, it now also finds itself facing one of its most public controversies in years. Escalante's legacy, rooted in kindness, determination, and a passion for communication, continues to inspire those who knew her and those who followed her journey.

Meanwhile, the Miss Universe scandal continues to unfold, raising questions about transparency, fairness, and the future of global pageantry.
VIRGINIA BEACH  A new HGTV series kicks off this week with an episode featuring a Virginia Beach couple who loves to surf and wants to buy a bargain house near the water.

Cheap A$$ Beach Houses premieres at 9 p.m. Wednesday.

The half-hour episode centers on married couple Jordan and Cat, who dont want to break the bank to live by the beach. Theyve been renting inland but have dreamed of owning property closer to the ocean and have been saving up for the move.

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The median listing price for homes at the Oceanfront is $649,000 as of September, according to realtor.com, the official site of the National Association of Realtors. The couple has a budget of $300,000 to $450,000.

Were finally in the right spot to own a home, Cat says in a rough cut screening of the premiere.

Jordans a litigation manager for an insurance company; Cats a chiropractor. They love the outdoors, running and walking Miller, their Australian shepherd.

In the series premiere, the couple enlists Virginia Beach real estate agent and friend, Scott, who is also a surfer, to help them find a home.

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Cat tells Scott she wants lots of natural light; Jordan wants an extra bedroom for guests and a location as close as possible to the beach.

I would love toes in the water, Cat says.

Filmed during the summer, the episode follows the couple as they surf at the Oceanfront and relax on the crowded, resort area beach. The Virginia Beach Fishing Pier and the Lesner Bridge are among the local landmarks featured.

The house hunting journey begins in the Oceanfronts South End. They walk through a home listed at $362,000, but it has an outdated fireplace and 1980s-style bathrooms begging for upgrades.

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I dont love fireplaces, especially when they jut out four feet into the living room, Jordan says.

The couple and their realtor check out several more options including a two-bedroom, one-bathroom unit in the heart of the resort area for $279,900, and a fully-renovated, 1,000-square-foot, high-rise condominium overlooking the Chesapeake Bay at $469,000. The show wraps up with the pair deciding on their favorite cheap house while sipping fruity drinks at Ocean Eddies Seafood Restaurant on the fishing pier.

Cheap A$$ Beach Houses will have 16 half-hour episodes. The second one in the series, airing at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, features a couple from Flint, Michigan, who head to Fort Myers Beach, Florida, to search for the ideal waterfront home at a reasonable price.

The series will be available to stream starting Thursday on HBO Max and Discovery Plus.

Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com
The Hallmark Channel, one of the most festive TV channels during the holidays, features a Northern Kentucky couple this Christmas season.

Marko Adams and Steven Sunderman, from Cold Spring, Kentucky, are currently on the reality competition series "Baked with Love: Holiday." The duo compete for $50,000 and a chance to have one of their bakes featured in an original Hallmark Christmas movie.

The series pits 10 pairs of home bakers against each other in a family-recipe bake-off. The competitors "infuse their heritage, personal stories, and cherished family recipes into classic bakes with a holiday twist," according to the Hallmark Channel.

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The bakers present their dishes to judges, Irish chef and BBC personality Anna Haugh and NYT Cooking producer Vaughn Vreeland. "Sister, Sister" star Tamera Mowry-Housley hosts.

Hallmark recruited Adams and Sunderman, who are married and getting ready to celebrate their 40th anniversary, in March, Adams told The Enquirer.

The two have decades of artistic experience.

Adams, 63, is a semi-retired visual designer for Saks Fifth Avenue, where he's worked for more than two decades. Sunderman, 60, is now retired but was the executive director of Cincinnati's May Festival for 28 years. He is the longest-serving executive director in the festival's 152-year history.

Steven Sunderman, left, and Marko Adams are competing on the Hallmark Channel's "Baked with Love: Holiday."

"It has all been a whirlwind of fun and baking challenges for the past few months," Adams told The Enquirer.

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The latest episode in the series airs Monday, Dec. 1, at 9 p.m. ET on the Hallmark Channel.

The series premiered on Oct. 27. New episodes air on the Hallmark Channel on Monday nights at 9 p.m. and are available to stream on Hallmark+ the next day.

Viewers can make each episode's winning dish. Find the winning recipe at hallmarkchannel.com/baked-with-love-holiday/baked-with-love-holiday-winning-recipes/**.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cold Spring couple compete on Hallmark Channel's 'Baked with Love: Holiday'
RuPauls Drag Race is revving up for another lap around the Werk Room runway.

MTV has ruvealed the 14 fresh queens set to battle it out on Season 18 when the Emmy-winning phenomenon returns Friday, Jan. 2 (at 8 p.m. ET/PT) with supersized 90-minute episodes.

The new cast will compete for the title of Americas Next Drag Superstar, an official Anastasia Beverly Hills Cosmetics collaboration and a crisp $200,000 courtesy of the RuPauls Drag Race Match Queen game  all while trying to follow in the fierce footsteps of Season 17 winner Onya Nurve.

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In the premiere challenge, titled Reclaim! Renew! Rejoice!, the queens must channel their charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent as they transform leftover treasures from the Drag Race vaults into signature looks paying homage to the legends who came before them.

And the drama wont end on the main stage: RuPauls Drag Race: Untucked returns immediately after (at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT) to capture every backstage beat as the competitors await their fate.

Below, read all about the queens through their official MTV bios:

01 of 14

Athena Dion

MTV Athena Dion Athena Dion

Miami, FL | @athenadion

Named after the Greek goddess, Athena Dion brings legendary energy wherever she goes. A talented hostess and prolific drag mother, she has built a dynasty spanning Miami and Mykonos, Greece, counting Morphine Love Dion and Plane Jane among her drag daughters. This season, Athena makes Drag Race herstory alongside Juicy Love Dion, marking the first-ever mother/daughter duo to compete together.

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02 of 14

Briar Blush

MTV Briar Blush Briar Blush

Boston, MA | @briarblush

Bostons pin-up princess, Briar Blush is a walking contradiction: retro yet edgy, goth yet glamorous, sweet but with a sting. With her signature jet black hair and killer beat, she commands attention wherever she goes. Named after the thorns on a rose, Briars sharp wit and prickly personality prove shes not here to be liked shes here to be remembered.



03 of 14

Ciara Myst

MTV Ciara Myst Ciara Myst

Indianapolis, IN | @the_ciara_myst

Indys shapeshifting superstar, Ciara Myst blends sci-fi, horror, fantasy, and magic into her drag. A prosthetic makeup artist with credits ranging from Dynasty to Marvel Studios productions, Ciara Myst crafts her own costumes and promises to bring creature transformations to life on the main stage. A little ooky spooky, a little ethereal, Ciara Myst is ready to haunt, mesmerize, and transform the competition one look at a time.

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04 of 14

Darlene Mitchell

MTV Darlene Mitchell Darlene Mitchell

Los Angeles, CA | @itsdarlenebtw

A country, camp queen, Darlene Mitchell blends soap opera glamour with Midwestern trailer trash panache. Known for her signature Peg Bundy-style hair, she originally hails from Greentown, Indiana, and once performed under the name Trash. After 10 years in drag but a 5 year hiatus from the performance circuit Darlene comes to the competition to see if RuPaul and the main stage can coax her back out of her bedroom once more.

05 of 14

DD Fuego

MTV DD Fuego DD Fuego

New York, NY | @ddfuego

Fiery and feisty, DD Fuego is a full-on production, serving runway-ready looks with a wink and a nod. Born in Monterey, Mexico, she brings the heat without the cha-cha-cha Latina cliches. A former production designer for TV and off-Broadway theater, she created behind the scenes before stepping into the spotlight. High heat and maximum impact DD Fuego leaves nothing on the stage but smoke.

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06 of 14

Discord Addams

MTV Discord Addams Discord Addams

St. Petersburg, FL | @discordxaddams

Whos ready for a little chaos? Discord Addams is a high-fashion punk rock maximalist, serving looks packed with safety pins, studs, and unapologetic attitude. Known for playing guitar in a punk rock band, Discord brings a dark, raw energy to the stage. Her ultimate goal: to trade the mosh pit for the runway and become a bona fide drag rock star.

07 of 14

Jane Dont

MTV Jane Don't Jane Don't

Seattle, WA | @heyjanedont

Inspired by old-school funny ladies like Bette Midler and Joan Rivers, Jane is a comedy queen serving up sharp jokes and even sharper shoulder pads. Counting as her drag sisters both Bosco (Drag Race Season 14 and All Stars 10) and Irene The Alien (Drag Race Season 15 and All Stars 10), Jane Dont walks into the competition ready to make her own mark - and make the other queens sweat.



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08 of 14

Juicy Love Dion

MTV Juicy Love Dion Juicy Love Dion

Miami, FL | @thejuicylove

Small in size, colossal in talent, Juicy Love Dion turns every performance into a masterclass in dance. Self-described as "Miamis Afro-Cuban dancing doll," Juicy brings energy, precision, and flair to every stage she steps on. A proud member of the Dion Dynasty, she's the drag daughter of Morphine Love Dion, and technically the drag granddaughter of fellow competitor Athena Dion proving that in the Dion Dynasty, the juice flows through every generation.



09 of 14

Kenya Pleaser

MTV Kenya Pleaser Kenya Pleaser

Sumter, SC | @kenyapleaser

This Southern showstopper is already serving you the answer to the question in her name: Can you please her? Only if you can handle all this auntie energy and attitude! A celebrated Lizzo impersonator, Kenya mixes heart, humor, and high energy performances that get the crowd on their feet. Kenya is here to show the world that Southern charm, curves, and confidence are a winning combination.



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10 of 14

Mandy Mango

MTV Mandy Mango Mandy Mango

Philadelphia, PA | @mandyy.mango

A mango a day keeps the doctor away! Mandy Mango is Phillys favorite fruit, serving kooky, conceptual looks with playful flair. By day, shes a nurse specializing in HIV and sexual health, caring for the LGBT community by night, shes giving the stage a healthy dose of fruity energy. With a cheeky bedside manner, Mandy Mango prescribes high doses of charisma, charm, and contagious energy with every performance.



11 of 14

Mia Starr

MTV Mia Starr Mia Starr

West Palm Beach, FL | @theofficialmiastarr

Mia Starr is a 90s/early 2000s hip-hop dancing diva bringing urban style, sharp choreography, and powerhouse personality to the main stage. A talented backup dancer with world tour credits for Rihanna and Britney and a Super Bowl performance with J Lo, she started drag 17 years ago, took a 14-year break to chase her dance career, and now shes back - ready to shine front and center.



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12 of 14

Myki Meeks

MTV Myki Meeks Myki Meeks

Orlando, FL | @myki.meeks

Gorgeously stupid, and stupidly gorgeous, Myki Meeks is Orlandos dynamic theatrical powerhouse. A self-described recovering theater kid, Myki blends glamour with camp, lights up the room as a host, and is known back home for her quick wit and ease with a microphone. A talented actress and consummate performer, Myki brings a stage presence that will keep the competition on its toes.



13 of 14

Nini Coco

MTV Nini Coco Nini Coco

Denver, CO | @theninicoco

A high-energy, high-fashion diva from the Mile High City, Nini Coco is equal parts theatrical and fierce. A skilled costume designer, she blends conceptual looks with show-stopping performances. Having quit her day job as a mechanical engineer, shes here to prove that trading blueprints for sequins is a risk worth taking - because in her world, its all or nothing.

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14 of 14

Vita VonTesse Starr

MTV Vita VonTesse Starr Vita VonTesse Starr

Montgomery, AL | @vitavontessestarr

Calling herself Queen V, Vita VonTesse Starr is a pageant powerhouse and an icon of opulence. Hailing from the famed Starr drag family, shes a multi-titleholder who brings elegance, precision, and a flair for the dramatic to every performance. Vita handcrafts show-stopping looks that match her stage presence, making her a formidable competitor in any sewing challenges.

Read the original article on People
Niv Sultan, the breakout star of Tehran, leads the cast of a new crime thriller, Murder at the Dead Sea, which is produced by Yoav Gross Productions, the banner behind Nutuk, Red Skies and Manayek.

Keshet International has boarded worldwide sales on the seven-part show and will introduce it to buyers at the London TV Screenings on Feb. 24. Currently in post-production and set to premiere on Keshet 12 on Dec. 22, Murder at the Dead Sea is created by Raz Yuvan (Kfula, Hezi and Sons), directed by Tomer Shani (Carthargo, Nehama).

More from Variety

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Set against Israels Dead Sea, Murder at the Dead Sea opens with the mysterious death of Sarah Hacohen, a pop icon whose body plummets from the ninth floor of a quarantined hotel during the height of the pandemic. What begins as an apparent suicide quickly unravels into a dark web of deceit, betrayal, and murder. Trapped in isolation, young police investigator Revi Shem-Tov (Sultan) must uncover the truth among a group of quarantined strangerseach hiding secrets more dangerous than the virus itself.

Murder at the Dead Sea is a high-end thriller that reinvents the locked-room mystery for todays global audience, said Kelly Wright, Keshet Internationals managing director of distribution. It features a stunning and exotic location, twisty plot, and an outstanding performance from Niv Sultan.

Karni Ziv, Keshet 12s head of drama and comedy, adds: We think Keshet 12 viewers are going to love this contemporary reimagining of the classic Agatha Christie whodunnit set in a COVID hotel by the Dead Sea, because it combines the taut suspense of And Then There Were None with the cinematic storytelling of The White Lotus.'

Recent scripted commissions by Keshet 12 include the October 7 drama, Red Alert which ranks as Israels highest-rated drama of the last decade; Nutuk, a gripping suspense drama where a boys memories of another life lead two families into the heart of a buried murder mystery; and Save the Date, a romantic comedy starring Tomer Capone.

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Migrants disembark from a migrant repatriation flight at Maiquetia International Airport near Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 3, 2025. Venezuela has approved a U.S. request to resume migrant repatriation flights, the country's transport ministry said on Tuesday.

According to Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil, two migrant repatriation flights carrying 304 and 266 Venezuelan migrants respectively arrived Wednesday at Maiquetia International Airport. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

CARACAS, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela has approved a U.S. request to resume migrant repatriation flights, the country's transport ministry said on Tuesday.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has granted authorization for aircraft operated by Eastern Airlines of the United States to enter the airspace of Venezuela on the Phoenix-Maiquetia route, said the ministry in a statement.

The Eastern Airlines repatriation flights will land at Maiquetia International Airport near the country's capital of Caracas, it said.

Last Saturday, Venezuela criticized the U.S. unilateral suspension of regular flights for the return of Venezuelan migrants.

The halt of flights came after U.S. President Donald Trump declared that Venezuela's airspace should be considered to be closed "in its entirety." 

A migrant repatriation flight from the United States is about to land at Maiquetia International Airport near Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 3, 2025. Venezuela has approved a U.S. request to resume migrant repatriation flights, the country's transport ministry said on Tuesday.

According to Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil, two migrant repatriation flights carrying 304 and 266 Venezuelan migrants respectively arrived Wednesday at Maiquetia International Airport. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

Migrants disembark from a migrant repatriation flight at Maiquetia International Airport near Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 3, 2025. Venezuela has approved a U.S. request to resume migrant repatriation flights, the country's transport ministry said on Tuesday.

According to Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil, two migrant repatriation flights carrying 304 and 266 Venezuelan migrants respectively arrived Wednesday at Maiquetia International Airport. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

A migrant repatriation flight lands at Maiquetia International Airport near Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 3, 2025. Venezuela has approved a U.S. request to resume migrant repatriation flights, the country's transport ministry said on Tuesday.

According to Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil, two migrant repatriation flights carrying 304 and 266 Venezuelan migrants respectively arrived Wednesday at Maiquetia International Airport. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

Migrants disembark from a migrant repatriation flight at Maiquetia International Airport near Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 3, 2025. Venezuela has approved a U.S. request to resume migrant repatriation flights, the country's transport ministry said on Tuesday.

According to Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil, two migrant repatriation flights carrying 304 and 266 Venezuelan migrants respectively arrived Wednesday at Maiquetia International Airport. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

A migrant repatriation flight from Mexico lands at Maiquetia International Airport near Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 3, 2025. Venezuela has approved a U.S. request to resume migrant repatriation flights, the country's transport ministry said on Tuesday.

According to Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil, two migrant repatriation flights carrying 304 and 266 Venezuelan migrants respectively arrived Wednesday at Maiquetia International Airport. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

Soldiers stand guard beside a migrant repatriation flight at Maiquetia International Airport near Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 3, 2025. Venezuela has approved a U.S. request to resume migrant repatriation flights, the country's transport ministry said on Tuesday.

According to Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil, two migrant repatriation flights carrying 304 and 266 Venezuelan migrants respectively arrived Wednesday at Maiquetia International Airport. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

A Venezuelan migrant looks through a porthole after a migrant repatriation flight lands at Maiquetia International Airport near Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 3, 2025. Venezuela has approved a U.S. request to resume migrant repatriation flights, the country's transport ministry said on Tuesday.

According to Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil, two migrant repatriation flights carrying 304 and 266 Venezuelan migrants respectively arrived Wednesday at Maiquetia International Airport. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)
Seth Meyers' annual family Thanksgiving show got a whole lot more chaotic this year thanks to three small future stars.

The Late Night host's children  Axel, 7, Addie, 4, and Ashe, 9  stopped by for a surprise interview that went off the rails in the best way, ending with all three kids yelling "No! No! No!" directly into their microphones because they didn't want to leave the stage.

The Meyers kids had come to 30 Rock to film their yearly Turkey costumes clip, and had no idea they were going to be sitting down with their talk show host father. The tiny trio made the most of their time in the spotlight, but youngest kid Addie gave some particularly explosive answers.

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When asked what they had dressed as for their family photos, Addie claimed she was "Elf-aba" and shared that her cousin Agnes was dressed as a tomato (despite the theme being the movie Elf). She shared her unprompted opinion of what the New York City subway smells like, and said she loves Ashe, but not Axel. She excitedly described an episode of Peppa Pig, and even climbed across her dad's desk as the interview ended.

Her brothers, meanwhile, shared their love for the Pittsburgh Steelers and danced when the spirit moved them.

RELATED: Seth Meyers Captured Daughter Addie's "Elf-Aba" Encounter with Cynthia Erivo [PHOTO]

Axel Meyers couldn't stop dancing

Axel, the middle Meyers kid, was practically dancing in his chair throughout the segment, and his dad offered him a couple opportunities to show off his moves.

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"Axel, do you wanna just dance for a second? You feel like you wanna dance for a second," Seth said. "Sometimes, you can just tell when Axel wants to dance."

Ashe Meyers, Axel Meyers, and Adelaide Meyers giggle on the couch on Late Night with Seth Meyers Episode 1337.

When Seth Meyers asked his kids what they like to do in school, Addie said she likes to draw, while Axel declared that his favorite thing to do is "definitely not read or write." Ashe said he likes reading best, and Addie jokingly covered his mouth with her hand.

RELATED: Seth Meyers Captured Daughter Addie's "Elf-Aba" Encounter with Cynthia Erivo [PHOTO]

Seth Meyers explained why daughter Addie said she dressed like "Elf-aba"

After the interview aired, Meyers shared some context on Instagram to explain Addie's answers.

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"Lest anyone think Addie was talking nonsense some of her most confusing answers made a ton of sense," he wrote.

One photo proves that Agnes, who was dressed as an elf in red and green, really did look a bit like a really cute tomato, and another explains why Wicked was on her mind: she had just met Elphaba herself.

"Special shoutout to Cynthia Erivo for taking the time to talk to her right before her interview," the caption continued, and the picture shows the Wicked: For Good star crouched on the ground to talk to the youngest Meyers kid. We can only imagine what they were chatting about, but if it was Addie herself who came up with the "Elf-aba" pun, get that kid in the Late Night writers' room!

RELATED: Seth Meyers Met His Wife at This SNL Cast Member's Wedding: "I Had a Sense..."

The Meyers kids' 2025 turkey video paid tribute to late dog Frisbee

Seth and His Family Share Their Annual Meyers Kids Turkey Clip for 2025

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Cousin Agnes also participated in the turkey clip, which was the first to be filmed since the death of the Meyers' beloved family dog, Frisbee. The little Italian Greyhound, who died in August at the age of 14, still managed to make an appearance in the video in the form of a crocheted stuffy seated on the couch, wearing a little hat.

Hopefully there are multiple crocheted versions of Frisbee, so Meyers can gift one to noted fan Andy Samberg for the holidays.


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Is there anything more dreamy than a wall of built-in bookshelves filled with volumes of books? We think not. Shelves come in many shapes and forms for displaying your books and collections (think free-standing, floating, and more), but were partial to the form-meets-function of a built-in, so weve rounded up 35 of our favorite built-in bookcase ideas from designers across the country to inspire your next built-in project at your own home.

The rooms pictured below will give you lots of ideas to help with your plans for adding shelves to living rooms, family rooms, bedrooms, and home offices, plus outside-the-box spaces like dining rooms, hallways, and even bathrooms (yes, bathrooms!). Youll also find plenty of inspiration for how to upgrade any shelves you already have in your home. After all, what better way is there to fill any empty wall space, especially around a fireplace!, for both modern and traditional-style rooms? Now scroll on down and start dreaming those lovely bookshelf dreams...



Here are even more design ideas for book lovers and trinket collectors alike:





Create a Seamless Look with Paint

Unify the look of a room by using the same paint color on your new built-in shelves as is on your walls, like you see with this handsome living rooms smoldering hue. Place swivel chairs nearby like you see in this cozy English country-style home so you can easily grab a novel off the shelf and get to reading in front of the fire.

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Get the Look:

Wall & Bookcase Paint Color: Fairview Taupe by Benjamin Moore

RELATED: Cozy Living Rooms Youll Want to Snuggle Up In Forever

Becky Luigart-Stayner for Country Living





Bring Book Space into Small Spaces

Theres no space too small to add built-in bookshelves. Here in Nora Murphys coastal cottage they are tucked into the corner next to a window of an eat-in kitchen to provide ample room for cookbooks or other volumes. In front of the shelves, a massive wood-burning fireplace is the anchor of the room fronted by an Irish pine and black-painted Windsor chairs and a long bench.



RELATED: Breakfast Nook Design Ideas for a Stylish Start to Every Day

Dylan Chandler, styling by Matthew Gleason for Country Living





Outfit a Landing

Have empty wall space along a hallway and lots of books that need a home? Make it a wall of shelves like this one in an upstairs landing that leads to the attic and doubles as a studio space. New beadboard on the remaining walls round out the custom look of the space in this New York farmhouse designed by Jersey Ice Cream Co.

RELATED: Beadboard vs. WainscotingWhat are They and How are They Different?

Kate S. Jordan





Paint Your Bookcase a Pretty Color

In this family room, designer Cameron Ruppert took a cozy stone space crowned with wood beams and added style and function with

wall-to-wall blue-painted bookcases. For a unique touch, she added custom strawberry vine needlepoint panels on the lower closed cabinets. The room is outfitted with an antique trestle table and chairs that serves double-duty as a workspace or gathering spot for playing cards or board games.

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Get the Look:

Bookcase Paint Color: Stone Blue by Farrow & Ball

RELATED: The Top 100 Paint Colors For Every Room in Your House

Stacy Zarin Goldberg





Work with Your Architecture

Designer Mark D. Sikes dreamed up this happy little corner in a home in Birmingham. Working with the quirky slant of the roof, he embraced the shape of this room and added a slanted bookcase above a bench. A colorful assortment of books and trinkets bring a happy spirit.

RELATED: 70 Stylish Kids Room Ideas That Even Grownups Will Love

Mary Margaret Smith





Think Beyond Books

When temperatures drop in autumn, homeowner Justin Reis stacks firewood along the bottom of his living room built-ins, which are painted a deep navy that took three tries to get right.



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Get the Look:

Wall and Bookcase Paint Color: Dark Navy by Behr

RELATED: Tour More of This Connecticut Georgian Colonial That is an Old House Lovers Dream

Alpha Smoot





Use Reclaimed Wood

Reclaimed barn boards add cozy texture to the walls of this primary bedroom, which features built-in shelves and an antique Swedish desk topped with a collection of tramp art boxes.

RELATED: Everything You Need to Know About Buying and Using Reclaimed Wood

Annie Schlechter





Create a Multi-Use Room

No library? No problem. Inspired by Irish pubs they visited during their travels, Minnesota homeowners Jeff and Jill Murphy created what the family calls its Dibrary, a dining alcove lined with bookcases.

Get the Look:

Wall Paint Color: Deep Caviar by Benjamin Moore



RELATED: See More of This Dream Cottage on Minnesotas Lake Pulaski

Marta Xochilt Perez





Create a Campy Space

Homeowner Kelly Gray counts old camp movies like On Golden Pond as major style inspirations for her choices, such as this living rooms rattan chairs that have drink and magazine holders. The perfectly crammed built-in bookcases add to the campy spirit of the room and a small desk in the corner provides a quiet place to read.

Brie Williams

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Balance with a Window

Homeowner and Country Living Editor-in-Chief Rachel Barrett filled her original built-ins in the family room of this former hunting lodge with antique treasures. The symmetrical casing with the window on the right side of the room brings balance to the fireplace wall.

RELATED: Tour more of this before and after former hunting lodge in Mississippi.

Becky Luigart-Stayner for Country Living





Keep It On Theme

Homeowner Carter Smith embraced the mystery of his coastal Maine cottage (and indulged his Scooby-Doo obsessed niece!) when he dreamed up a secret revolving-door bookcase that leads to a powder room. Keeping on theme, he filled the shelves with his collection of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries.



RELATED: Just Buy Old Books From the Thrift Shop? Try This Trick Before You Bring Them Home.

Maura McEvoy





Create a Small Nook

This inset, channel-back banquette off the kitchen created the perfect narrow space for a built-in shelving nook used for storing cookbooks and extra kitchen knick-knacks.

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Get the Look:

Kitchen Wall Paint Color: Dark Night by Sherwin-Williams

RELATED: Tour More of This Wisconsin Cabin That Feels Like Happy Hour

Adam Albright





Try the Cocoon Effect

Painting your built-ins the same color as your walls and trim can make any room feel more modern and cozy. Bonus: The cocoon effect can really help your books and antiques sing. Here, a vibrant green paint color compliments the warm wood floors and antique desk.

Get the Look:

Room Paint Color: Arsenic by Farrow & Ball



RELATED: Get more pretty green paint color ideas than will liven up your rooms.

Peter Murdock





Think Outside the Box

If were honest, one of lifes great joys is reading a book in the bath. Here, built-in bookshelves in a bold blueish-black hue keep books nearby for just the occasion. Tip: Drop-in, alcove, or undermount tubs like the one shown here are best suited for this look, as they provide a natural base for built-ins.



RELATED: Dozens More Ideas to Help You Add Soul to Your Bathroom

Paige Rumore





Add a Library Ladder

When the Wright family turned a welding factory into their family home, this library/music room was created to connect two larger sides. The dressed up the simple white built-in shelving with a brand-new rolling library ladder. The nestled-in piano dates back to 1914.

Aaron Colussi

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Go with Dark Paint for High Contrast

Homeowner Jeannette Fristoe takes a more is more approach to decorating. Here, dark black built-ins showcase a collection of creamy white books and patinaed silver under the careful watch of a flock of antique sheep.

Get the Look:

Bookcase Paint Color: Jet Black by Behr



RELATED: Find treasures galore in this serene Maryland bungalow.

Rikki Snyder





Make it Modern

In this Massachusetts cabin, the homeowner set the scene with pickled knotty pine walls and simple bookcases. Filling the shelves with neutral books and objects helps the texture of the wood shine and the graphic tin B, part of an old gas station sign, pop.

RELATED: Wood Walls Are Back! Heres Everything You Need to Know About Knotty Pine.

John Gruen





Use as a Bedside Table

Skip adding a nightstand to your bedroom and add a floor-to-ceiling bookcase or built-in bookshelf unit instead. Then tuck a comfy reading chair and side table in front to create a reading nook for when youre not quite ready for bedtime.

RELATED: The Most Comfortable and Cozy Chairs for Reading

David A. Land





Add Game Room Storage

Built-ins traditionally grace living rooms and libraries, but here they enhance a game room with much-need room for game storage. Additionally, the extra shelving makes room for more personal collections like the homeowners vintage National Geographic magazines, which provide a fun yellow punch.

RELATED: See more vintage finds in this Georgia lake house.

Brie Williams for Country Living

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Surround a Window

A window can be a lovely anchor for a custom bookcase. The sunny view helps break up visual density and the space underneath the window can be turned into a upholstered window seat or small shelf depending on how deep the space.

RELATED: 35+ Cozy Reading Nook Ideas for Whiling Away the Afternoon

David A. Land





Carve Out a Shelving Nook

Inside this Minnesota lake cottage, a mantel shelf that spans the length of the wall creates clever storage against a wall of moss rock. Besides providing a perch for displaying art and decor, its also accented with a built-in bookcase nook that holds the homeowners large collection of vintage vinyl records and music equipment.

RELATED: Tour More of this Dream Cottage on Minnesotas Lake Pulaski.

Marta Xochilt Perez for Country Living





Create a Reading Corner

Tucked in the corner of the family room, a built-in bookcasepainted the same color as the walls for a calming, cohesive feelholds the homeownerss collections of leather books, earthy pottery, and copper accents. An over-sized upholstered reading chair placed irreverently in front helps the space feel layered and inviting.

RELATED: See More of This Dreamy Alabama River Cottage That Beckons You to Slow Down and Savor Every Minute.

ALI HARPER





Go Floor to Ceiling

In this welcoming living room, the homeowners opted to skip lower cabinets and instead ran the built-in shelving from floor to ceiling allowing for even more space for books, artwork, and antiques.



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Get the Look:

Wall, Millwork, and Ceiling Paint Color: Mouses Back by Farrow & Ball

RELATED: Tour More of This Charming Cottage That is Proof that the Best Things Come in Small Packages.

ALI HARPER





Create a Wall of Built-Ins

DIY-loving duo Victoria and Marcus Ford teamed up with Country Living to breathe new life into their 1970s Dutch Colonialstyle home. Inspired by their love of reading, they transformed a long, awkward space into a cozy library-like living room by adding built-in b0okcases and a tufted leather sofa.

Get the Look:

Wall and Millwork Paint Color: Endless Sea by Sherwin-Williams

RELATED: See More of the Fords Home Makeover.

Brie Williams





Add Character to New Builds

This new home built in a historical style in South Carolinas Low Country uses built-ins to add layers of character. The architecture firm Historical Concepts and interior designer Barbara Westbrook used cypress paneling to create this warm and refined office space. A spindle-leg farm table used as a desk adds more history and charm.

RELATED: Tour More of This New Build That Embraces Old Country Charm (You Have to See the Kitchen!)

Eric Piasecki





Fill with Monochromatic Treasures

Wood walls bring the cozy to this game table corner of the living room, but a collection of mostly green treasures filling the shelves, including framed antique art with green mattes to coordinate with vintage books, helps break up the warmth.

Becky Luigart-Stayner

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Add Character with Collectibles

If an artful arrangement is what youre after, collectibles and small-scale objects can help create interest and corral your books. Here, no tools or supplies are required for these petite bookends! Simply buy a matching pair of small vintage corbels (these are 10 inches high) and place on a bookshelf with your favorite titles sandwiched in between.

RELATED: 100+ Best Places to Shop for Antiques and Vintage Online

Becky Luigart-Stayner





Add Unique Lighting

Take a new or existing built-in bookcase to new heights with the addition of lighting. Built-in bookshelves in this colorful kids room are complemented by red shaded wall sconces. The center placement of the fixtures gives the space an extra punch of personality and provides lighting for books, art, and keepsakes.

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Get the Look:

Sonces: For similar, Linlithgow Plug-in Armed Sconce by Everly Quinn

RELATED: The 3 Types Of Lighting Every Room Needs

John Ellis





DIY Custom Built-Ins

Just off the dining room, homeowner Bambi Costanzo carved out a 7- by 7-foot space for a pocket-size library. She customized one wall by adding molding to four Ikea bookshelves to make them look built in. Mossy green paint and inexpensive brass sconces she customized with patterned fabric glued onto plain shades gives the room an English country look.

Get the Look:

Green Paint Color: Pinetop by PPG Paints

RELATED: See more of the big personality in this tiny West Virginia cottage.

Brie Williams





Embrace Old Home Quirk

Homeowner Mary Barrett embraced the narrow shelving original to her vacation home in Maines Boothbay Harbor, artfully filling the funky little nooks and shelves with an assortment of books and nautical knickknacks. New custom built-in shelving might be wonderful for storage, but this shelving nook proves that the original character of a home is worth holding on to.

RELATED: More Coastal Decor Ideas That Will Make Major Waves in Any Interior

Gridley and Graves for Country Living





Add Whimsy with Wallpaper

A small nook in a shared boys room is transformed into a creative space with the addition of built-in shelving. A woodland-patterned peel-and-stick wallpaper adds youthful spirit to standard shelves and helps them feel more custom.

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Get the Look:

Wallpaper: Wild in Gold/Cream by Chasing Paper

RELATED: The Best Removable Wallpapers, Tested by Our Editors

David A. Land





Repurpose a Hallway

The owner of this California home turned a 15-foot-wide section of hallway into a snug spot for reading with the help of rich, navy blue paint, simple recessed bookshelves, and an antique leather club chair.

Get the Look:

Wall Paint Color: Hague Blue by Farrow & Ball

RELATED: The Best Dark Blue Paint Colors for Any Room in the House

Max Kim-Bee





Recess Built-In Shelving

Unused attic space is now this kid- and adult-friendly hideaway complete with a pillow-filled bed, books, and a reading light. The recessed shelving holds beloved childhood toys and books. You can always find at least one kid curled up here, says homeowner Megan Duncan.

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Get the Look:

Sconce: Exeter Wall Sconce by Hudson Valley Lighting Group

RELATED: Step inside more of this cozy Wisconsin lakeside cabin.

Dana Gallagher





Pair With a Window Seat

Flanking a scenic view, these built-in bookcases also frame a warm perch above the radiator that is topped with a cushion covered in a romantic cabbage rose fabric, which is repeated on the windows Roman shade.

Brent Darby





Add a Glass-Paned Door

This quirky, built-in glass-front cabinet is original to the house, trimmed in the hallmark Victorian-style millwork, but you can create something similar with a salvaged door. The contractor had that taken out, but we put it back in, says homeowner Claire Zinnecker of the cabinet that she uses for display and books.



RELATED: See inside more of this charming farmhouse that was purchased on Facebook for $15,000.

Buff Strickland

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As the December festivities fade away and the reality of January's long, gray days start to set in, many of us start daydreaming about building sandcastles by the beach instead of stoking the fireplace or swapping heavy coats for bathing suits. It's a legitimate concern  and science backs it up. A 2025 meta-analysis published in the Journal of Affective Disorders found that people living in higher latitudes  where winter daylight is severely limited  are more likely to experience Seasonal Affective Disorder, which triggers symptoms of listlessness, low energy, and oversleeping.

What better cure than a vacation under the sun? If an October 2025 Airbnb report is anything to go by, travelers are pining for winter getaways under the sun. The company's internal search data showed that six out of seven of the most searched destinations for December to February were in warm countries that teem with adventurous escapades, stunning beaches, and a ton of cultural sights to explore.

Fortunately, traveling during the off-season can be one of the best ways to dodge crowds and save money while you travel. And January hits a sweet spot between affordability and indulgent sunny weather  if you know where to look. Here are five affordable, sun-drenched destinations that offer a temporary reprieve from the biting cold air and gray skies in January.

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Read more: Looking For A Worry-Free Vacation? These Countries Are Ranked The Safest In The World For 2025

Vietnam

Mother and child looking out at Halong Bay - Galitskaya/Getty Images

The best thing about visiting Vietnam in January is how its weather varies between its northern and southern regions. Venturing north, you'll enjoy a cool yet comfortable 59 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit, ideal for taking in Hanoi's landmarks like its Old Quarter, its numerous temples, and the UNESCO World Heritage site, Halong Bay  you get that glorious sunshine without the sweltering heat. Once in Vietnam, prepare your taste buds for a feast, where $8 street food meals can be just as satisfying as fancy $50 fine dining menus.

Meanwhile, it's peak dry season in southern Vietnam, so get your sunglasses out. Ho Chi Minh in January averages about 244 hours of sunshine, and temperatures hover between 70 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit. That's a cue to visit the south's beach towns like Nha Trang, Mui Ne, or the archipelago of Con Dao, an overlooked tropical paradise that's relatively crowd-free.

Affordable January accommodations boil down to timing. Arriving after the December holidaymakers leave, and before or after the Tet Festival (Vietnam's Lunar New Year celebrations), is key, as hotel prices can surge during peak season. Still, depending on where in Vietnam you decide to land, you'll find some well-rated hostels between $7 and $65. Even during the height of Tet, a $142-a-night room at a luxury oceanfront resort in Nha Trang costs significantly less than an equivalent room at a property in Waikiki.

Nicaragua

Rope bridge from a palm tree in Big Corn Island, Nicaragua - Alira Vale/Shutterstock

If you're on the lookout for a Central American getaway that delivers sun and savings, don't overlook Nicaragua. The generous sunshine in January  its capital, Managua, boasts an average of 265 hours of sunshine during the month  opens up plenty of opportunities for outdoor adventures: Surfing the waves at Popoyo or Playa Maderas, hiking to the top of active volcanoes, or soaking in the laid-back Caribbean vibe of Big Corn Island for a few days. Culture, architecture, and history lovers have much to discover in Granada, whether it's visiting the iconic Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion or watching the craft of rolling tobacco leaves into cigars at the Dona Elba factory.

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There is a wide range of accommodations across the country. If roughing it is more your style, there are hostels that start at $18 in Managua. Even swanky resort hotels are relatively affordable, costing no more than $300 a night in surfer's paradise San Juan del Sur. Slow travelers quote a ballpark of $30 to $60 a night for mid-range accommodations. Eating local ranges from $3 to $5 a meal, while mid-range restaurants and international meals can cost up to $15. Meanwhile, meals at splashy fine-dining establishments average between $20 and $60.

South Africa

Coastal round near Cape Town, South Africa - ByDroneVideos/Shutterstock

Though it's quite a trek to get there, the long flight and the biting cold of North America fade into a distant memory upon landing in sun-drenched South Africa. January falls in the country's summer season, proven by average highs of 86 degrees Fahrenheit and lows of 59 degrees Fahrenheit across its different climate zones. Mostly warm and sunny, it's the ideal time to climb Cape Town's Table Mountain, sip your way through a Stellenbosch wine tasting tour, or observe African penguins in their natural habitat at Boulders Beach.

Because January is peak summer, hotel and flight rates tend to run higher. Still, if you plan and time your trip in advance, you'll find some workarounds. Plane fares often ease around mid-January when the school calendar begins: Booking a flight during the first two weeks of January costs hundreds of dollars more than booking in the last two weeks of the month. Cape Town hostels fit budgets of $21 to $90 a night, and there are well-rated mid-range accommodations that start at $52. Even in peak season, you'll find that high-end hotel brand rates are much cheaper in South Africa than in London or Tokyo.

There are some unforgettable road trips to be taken in South Africa, offering a range of accommodations that can fit your budget. Safaris can be expensive, but half-day or self-drive safaris can be significantly easier on the wallet.

Mexico

Clear waters of a beach in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - Hello Cinthia/Shutterstock

If you aren't crazy about the idea of jumping on a 14-hour transatlantic flight, you're in luck, because neighboring Mexico is teeming with beaches, cultural sights, and adventure-packed itineraries that can be savored under ideal January temperatures. Clocking around 233 hours of sunshine, January averages between 64 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit. If beach holidays are on your agenda, favor Southern and coastal locations. The waters of the Pacific coast  Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta, Sayulita, and Puerto Escondido, among others  normally hover around 83 degrees Fahrenheit. Cancun, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, and other destinations around the Caribbean Sea will have slightly cooler  but still swimmable  ocean waters at about 78 degrees Fahrenheit.

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Puerto Vallarta is heartily recommended by Redditors for its sunny, affordable January destinations, with many praising its authentic vibe, cheap transportation, and great food in addition to the warm weather. "Because it's on the main land, you won't pay through the nose for food and beverages and taxis and everything else like you do in the islands," shared one user. Otherwise, head to the Yucatan Peninsula if visiting Mayan ruins or scuba diving in an iconic Mexican cenotes is more your style.

Depending on the level of comfort you're looking for, savvy travelers staying in budget hostels and eating local can get by with $30 a day; mid-range travelers can expect a daily spend of about $80, and luxury holiday chasers can set aside approximately $200 per day for an all-out lavish vacation.

Malaysia

A tourist in a boat in Langkawi Island, Malaysia - DLeng/Shutterstock

While Thailand is almost a default Southeast Asian destination for sun-seekers, Malaysia is well worth considering for a January getaway. Besides being a country with one of the world's cheapest costs of living, urban bustle, and tropical beauty, expect  and prepare for  a solid amount of sun: We're talking 84 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit in January.

It's best to avoid traveling to the eastern parts of Malaysia this time of year, as these areas are prone to storms, rough seas, and rainfall. You'll find more than enough to occupy you in the western part of the country, starting with Kuala Lumpur  Malaysia's vibrant capital, where world-renowned street food, energetic nightlife, and a modern cityscape dominated by the famous Petronas Twin Towers converge. After soaking up the city's energy, you can cool off on the beaches of Langkawi, indulge your inner foodie in Penang, or immerse yourself in the cultural heritage of Malacca.

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Careful planning can get you good prices in January, when travelers arrive to take advantage of the good weather. Still, accommodations are relatively affordable, with hostel prices around Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Malacca ranging from $12 to $50 a night. Mid-range hotels in bigger cities like Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Langkawi range from $40 to $80 a night, while five-star resorts can charge as low as $60 or as high as $1,000 a night, depending on location.

Ready to discover more hidden gems and expert travel tips? Subscribe to our free newsletter and add us as a preferred search source for access to the world's best-kept travel secrets.

Read the original article on Islands.
Germany is famous for its beer halls, medieval towns, and hearty comfort food, but the country offers far more variety than most first-time travelers expect. Beyond the cliches lies a culture shaped by centuries of craftsmanship, intellectual curiosity, and regional traditions that feel almost like visiting dozens of mini-countries in one trip.

Many visitors arrive anticipating predictable tourist routes, only to discover an unexpected mix of innovation, nature, and deeply rooted rituals that make everyday experiences feel special. Germany blends old-world charm with modern efficiency in a way that constantly surprises even seasoned travelers.

Whether you're wandering through cathedral squares, sipping regional wines, or exploring architectural wonders, the country rewards slow travel and open-minded curiosity. These experiences showcase how German identity goes far beyond beer and sausages, revealing a dynamic nation with a strong sense of pride, community, and storytelling.

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Travelers who dive into these cultural moments end up forming far richer memories than they imagined, often returning home with a newfound appreciation for German lifestyle. Germany, at its best, is both familiar and full of delightful contradictions.

Oktoberfest Traditions in Munich

Image Credit:Shutterstock.

Oktoberfest is more than just giant mugs of beer, its a deeply rooted celebration that blends Bavarian pride, folk culture, and centuries-old brewing traditions. Visitors often arrive expecting a rowdy party, but what they discover is a massive, carefully orchestrated festival filled with history, ritual, and community spirit.

Locals dress in traditional outfits not because its trendy but because its part of preserving an identity tied to craftsmanship, agriculture, and family heritage. Walking through the tents reveals a world where music, food, and camaraderie feel almost ceremonial.

What surprises many visitors is how much of the festival is centered on storytelling and regional customs, making each tent feel like its own cultural universe. From brass bands to giant pretzels and festival parades, the atmosphere carries a nostalgic charm that evokes an earlier era of Bavaria. Travelers who take time to engage with locals often find themselves invited into toasts, songs, and traditions that feel unexpectedly intimate. Oktoberfest becomes a warm, human experience far richer than its global reputation.

Exploring the Fairy-Tale Castles of Bavaria

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Many travelers dream of seeing Neuschwanstein, but Bavarias castle culture extends far beyond the famous postcard view. Each fortress and palace tells a story of kings, artists, architects, and political intrigue that shaped German identity over centuries. Visitors often expect a tourist site and instead find landscapes that feel straight out of myth and legend. The dramatic alpine backdrop only amplifies the magical effect.

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As you wander through frescoed halls and ornate courtyards, it becomes clear how deeply romanticism influenced Bavarian architecture and culture. The castles are emotional expressions of a time when imagination and aesthetics mattered as much as practicality.

Many travelers leave feeling as if theyve stepped into a storybook universe that challenges the modern perception of Germany as purely efficient and contemporary. The fairytale aesthetic becomes one of the most enchanting surprises of a trip to the region.

Sampling Germanys Regional Sausages

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Bratwurst is only the beginning, Germany has over 1,500 sausage varieties, each with flavors shaped by local traditions. Visitors often expect a single classic version and are stunned by how different sausages taste from region to region.

Whether it's Thuringer Rostbratwurst cooked over charcoal or Nurnberger sausages served in sets of six or twelve, each bite tells a cultural story. The diversity reflects centuries of butchery skills passed down through families.

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Eating sausages becomes an exploration of geography and history, not just food. Every region takes pride in its spices, preparation methods, and serving rituals, making even simple meals meaningful. Travelers who explore local markets and small taverns discover that sausage culture is deeply woven into community identity. It becomes one of those unexpectedly rich experiences that define a German journey.

Driving the Romantic Road

Image Credit:Shutterstock.

The Romantic Road is a journey through half-timbered villages, rolling hills, and medieval towns that feel frozen in time. Visitors quickly realize it's not just a scenic drive but a cultural route that ties together centuries of art, architecture, and traditions.

Each stop reveals a different facet of German heritage, from fortified walls to cobblestone squares filled with bakeries and flower boxes. The landscapes evoke an emotional response that surprises many who associate Germany with industry and modernity.

What makes the road special is the intimate sense of discovery it fosters. Travelers drift between regions with distinct personalities, stumbling into festivals, vineyards, and local eateries that make every pause feel meaningful. The pace is slow, reflective, and full of small, beautiful moments. It becomes a journey that captures a softer, more romantic side of Germany.

Discovering Berlins Street Art Culture

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Berlins street art scene reflects the citys rebellious energy and its history of reinvention. Visitors expecting a polished capital often find themselves captivated by walls filled with political messages, surreal imagery, and vibrant murals. The art feels alive, constantly evolving with new layers appearing overnight. It represents a creative freedom that has come to define Berlins identity.

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Exploring the street art becomes a deep dive into the citys social memory, shaped by division, reunification, and cultural experimentation. Every neighborhood offers its own visual language, making urban exploration feel like visiting an open-air museum. Travelers often leave with a deeper understanding of Berlins emotional complexity and its commitment to expression. The citys art becomes one of its most surprising and moving elements.

Exploring Germanys Christmas Markets

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Germanys Christmas markets transport visitors into a world filled with warm lights, wooden stalls, and the smell of mulled wine drifting through crisp winter air. Travelers expecting commercialized holiday scenes are surprised to find markets rooted in centuries-old traditions that feel authentically nostalgic. Crafts, candles, and handmade ornaments showcase regional artistry that has been preserved for generations. Each market offers its own specialties, making exploration a joyful ritual.

What makes the markets magical is the atmosphere of warmth and togetherness. Locals gather under twinkling lights to share bratwurst, gingerbread, and seasonal treats, creating a sense of community that feels almost storybook-like. Many travelers come away feeling a childlike wonder they hadnt expected. Germanys markets redefine what holiday spirit can feel like.

Hiking the Black Forest

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The Black Forest surprises many visitors with its vastness and beauty, offering deep valleys, dense woods, and peaceful villages. Travelers often imagine a simple hike but instead find landscapes that feel almost mythical. Trails wind past waterfalls, lakes, and panoramic viewpoints that evoke old tales of witches, wolves, and folklore. The air feels crisp, clean, and deeply calming.

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The regions culture adds another layer to the experience. Local farms, cherry cake traditions, and spa towns create a balance between nature and comfort that feels uniquely German. Travelers end up connecting with the landscape in an emotional way, finding quiet moments that stay with them long after they leave. The Black Forest becomes a highlight that exceeds expectations.

Tasting Germanys Under-the-Radar Wines

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Germanys wine culture surprises many travelers who associate the country mostly with beer. Regions like Mosel and Rheingau produce world-class Rieslings and Pinot varieties that reflect centuries of viticulture knowledge. The vineyard landscapes are striking, with steep terraces dropping into rivers and cozy villages tucked between hills. Wine tastings become intimate, educational, and deeply scenic experiences.

What often shocks visitors is the complexity and elegance of German wines. Winemakers explain how soils, slopes, and microclimates shape flavor in ways that feel almost scientific. Travelers leave with a newfound appreciation for the countrys winemaking traditions and often become lifelong fans. The wine regions quickly become one of Germanys best-kept secrets.

Touring Germanys Historic Breweries

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Germanys brewing culture runs far deeper than Oktoberfest, and visiting historic breweries reveals a meticulous craftsmanship that spans generations. Travelers expecting simple beer tasting find themselves immersed in stories about purity laws, ancient brewing methods, and regional specialties. The breweries feel almost monastic, with cellars, copper kettles, and centuries-old rituals. Each tour becomes a rich cultural lesson.

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The experience often leaves visitors amazed by how seriously Germans take their beer  not as a drink, but as heritage. Brewery-run taverns offer hearty meals and warm atmospheres that reflect community and hospitality. The combination of storytelling and flavor creates a memorable impression. It becomes a highlight that reshapes how travelers think about beer.

Experiencing Hamburgs Harbor Culture

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Hamburgs harbor is a world of its own, shaped by maritime traditions and a cosmopolitan spirit. Travelers often expect a business-oriented port city but discover a waterfront filled with history, culture, and striking architecture. The Elbphilharmonie, old warehouses, and bustling quays coexist in a dynamic, energetic rhythm. Boats, markets, and promenades create a distinct feeling found nowhere else in Germany.

What captivates visitors is the sense of openness and international influence that permeates the city. Hamburg feels both gritty and refined, offering everything from street food to world-class performances. The harbor becomes a gateway into understanding how trade shaped German culture. Its an experience that lingers long after departure.

Exploring Colognes Cathedral and Riverside Charm

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Colognes cathedral leaves visitors awestruck with its towering Gothic presence and intricate details that took centuries to complete. Many arrive expecting a typical landmark but find a structure that feels almost spiritual in scale and craftsmanship. The city around it is vibrant and youthful, creating a contrast that feels uniquely German. Riverside promenades bring warmth and life to the historic core.

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Visitors often stay longer than planned because the citys atmosphere feels welcoming and full of hidden corners. Breweries, museums, and river cruises create a sense of leisurely exploration. Cologne becomes a place where old and new blend effortlessly. Travelers leave feeling unexpectedly attached to its charm.

Visiting Dresdens Reborn Old Town

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Dresdens rebuilt Old Town astonishes travelers who know its tragic wartime history. The meticulous reconstruction brought baroque architecture back to life with breathtaking beauty. Visitors often wander in disbelief, marveling at how modern craftsmanship restored a lost world. The city feels like a testament to resilience and cultural pride.

What surprises many guests is the depth of Dresdens artistic legacy. Museums, opera houses, and riverside views create a sophisticated cultural landscape. The city becomes a symbol of renewal and the power of preservation. Travelers leave moved by its emotional story and elegant surroundings.
Few cocktails have seen such a resurgence as the Espresso Martini. Crafted from vodka, coffee liqueur, and espresso, this buzzy drink was first created by British bartending icon Dick Bradsell during the 1980s, when a well-known model allegedly requested a drink that would wake me up and then fuck me up. Today, the drink is more popular than ever. The cocktail is also surprisingly easy to make.

Espresso Martinis are great to make at home because theyre simple yet sophisticated, with just a few ingredients that deliver a big impact, says Jules Longet, food and beverage manager at the Mandarin Oriental in New York City. Longet describes the cocktail as ideal for coffee lovers who enjoy a touch of indulgence and energy in one glass, and notes its best enjoyed after dinner or as a lively pick-me-up.

Related: This Mexico-born espresso cocktail keeps the party going.

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Aude Fraisse, bartender at San Franciscos Bar Crenn, finds that Espresso Martinis offer a playful way to explore coffee in one of its many versatile forms. The Espresso Martini is a drink that welcomes everyone; coffee lovers, curious home bartenders, and friends who enjoy a delicious moment shared over a beautifully shaken glass, she says.

When Bradsell first crafted the now-modern classic, there were only a few coffee liqueur options. Kahlua from Mexico and Tia Maria from Jamaica were the most popular. Today, there are a variety of coffee liqueurs with different base spirits and layers of complexity to customize your Espresso Martini.

We asked bar pros which bottles they reach for when preparing this crowd-pleasing cocktail at home. Here are their recommendations.

01 of 05

Mr. Black Coffee Liqueur

Food & Wine / Mr. Black

Since launching in the U.S. in 2017, Mr. Black has seen global success. Produced in Australia, this expert-approved liqueur is made from Australian wheat vodka, 100% specialty-grade Arabica coffee beans, and a hint of cane sugar, resulting in a quality product that puts the coffee flavor front and center.

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Mr. Black is Longets go-to coffee liqueur, especially when crafting Espresso Martinis. Its bold, roasted flavor and low sugar content allow the espresso to really shine, creating a more refined and balanced cocktail with a clean, dry finish, he says, adding that the well-balanced profile of the liqueur allows the true character of the coffee to shine.

02 of 05

Cazcabel Coffee Liqueur

Food & Wine / Cazcabel Tequila

Adam Baca, beverage director at Bond Hospitality, says Espresso Martinis are great cocktails to enjoy at home because theyre easy to make with a few ingredients. The Espresso Martini is a very versatile cocktail that can be paired with most spirits and quality espresso for an elegant and energizing experience, he says. Cazcabel Coffee Liqueur is his liqueur of choice. We love this one because its tequila-based and made with roasted coffee, all sourced from Mexico. The liqueurs chocolate and coffee notes pair well with the roasted agave.

Related: Earthy reposado tequila is the star of this delicious riff on a classic Espresso Martini.

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03 of 05

Merlet C2 Cafe au Cognac Liqueur

Food & Wine / Merlet

Our go-to coffee liqueur for an Espresso Martini is Liqueur de Cafe C from Merlet, a beautifully crafted expression that bridges the elegance of Cognac with the bold intensity of freshly roasted Brazilian arabica, says Fraisse. Because of the liqueurs restrained sweetness, she says, its authentic coffee notes come through clearly. The Cognac base adds a gentle richness and structure, resulting in an Espresso Martini that is refined, balanced, and especially layered.

04 of 05

Caffe Borghetti Espresso Liqueur

Food & Wine / Borghetti

Longet also thinks Caffe Borghetti Espresso Liqueur is a great option for Espresso Martinis. The uniquely Italian liqueur was originally created by Ugo Borghetti in 1860, but is now produced at Fratelli Branca Distillerie in Milan. The liqueur uses a neutral base spirit and is roasted with arabica and robusta beans, with a hint of sugar. It has an authentic Italian espresso taste with a rounder, slightly sweeter profile, which adds depth and a touch of caramel warmth to the cocktail, he says.

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05 of 05

Forthave Brown Coffee Liqueur

Food & Wine / Forthave Spirits

Baca and his team at Sartianos in New York City have been experimenting with a coffee liqueur made in their backyard. Forthave Brown Coffee Liqueur, made by a local spirits company that roasts in Brooklyn, adds a new complexity to Espresso Martinis with notes of toasted almonds and dried cherries, he says. The liqueur, he says, is also delicious on its own, after a long meal.

Whichever bottle you choose, the key to a great Espresso Martini lies in balance  bold coffee flavor, just enough sweetness, and a lively shake.

Read the original article on Food & Wine
Surrounded by snow-dusted mountains and glassy fjords, Troms sits within a dramatic backdrop some 200 miles into the Arctic Circle. Naturally, this Norwegian city is a good base for watching the famous northern lights, but theres much more to it than craning your neck skyward to glimpse the aurora borealis.

Whether youre eating reindeer stew with traditional Sami herders or soaking in the striking architecture of the Arctic Cathedral, youll find the city known as the Paris of the North is a delight long before the evening sky lights up. Here's what you need to know before planning a trip to Troms, Norway.

Best Things to Do

Beata Zawrzel/Getty Images Reindeer sledding at Troms Arctic Reindeer. Reindeer sledding at Troms Arctic Reindeer.

Spot the northern lights.

The greatest light show in the world appears above Earths most northerly reaches from late August through early Apriland Tromss latitude just below 70 degrees north means it's highly likely youll catch the kaleidoscopic glow of the aurora. There are several places to enjoy the lights when the clouds part, from the summit of Storsteinen to open parkland with less light pollution. One of the more magical aurora experiences is aboard one of Brim Explorer's electric-powered boats as it glides quietly through the Tromsysundet straits darkness while the bright green streaks flare across the night sky.

Learn about Sami reindeer culture.

The Sami people are indigenous to northern Scandinavia, often living semi-nomadic lives largely based around reindeer herding. Troms Arctic Reindeer is a rural camp around 30 minutes north of the city, and its a wonderful window into Sami life and their relationship with reindeer.

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Here, you can listen to stories from Sami people inside toasty lavvu tents, feed the reindeer, go for sleigh rides, and sample traditional meals like hearty stews cooked with reindeer meat, carrots, and potatoes. If youre visiting during the colder months, you might even catch the northern lights, too.

Go Arctic fishing.

Even in the coldest months, fishing in Tromss freezing fjords is possible, and several companies offer Arctic fishing trips. These waters are home to the likes of cod, salmon, herring, halibut, and even basking sharks. Even if you arent lucky, the camaraderie and beautiful passing scenery are worth the journey. Just dont forget to bring a pair of gloves; clutching a rod in frigid temperatures becomes a fairly testing experience after a while.

Explore a northern cathedral.

Jakub Porzycki/Getty Images Visitors outside of the Arctic Cathedral in Troms. Visitors outside of the Arctic Cathedral in Troms.

Completed in 1965, the multilayered triangular design of the Arctic Cathedral is one of Tromss most arresting sights. Whether it was inspired by the nearby twin-peaked island of Haja or the shape of a Sami lavvu tenttheres no definitive answerits undeniably Arctic. Crossing the wind-blasted Troms Bridge as the cathedral reveals itself only feels more evocative, and the stained-glass windows are particularly majestic at night.

Where to Eat and Drink

Paolo Picciotto/Getty Images Interior of the historic brewery lhallen. Interior of the historic brewery lhallen.

lhallen

Tromss oldest pub is a wonderfully old-world way to escape winters chill. Opened in 1928, lhallen is the first place to start any evening in Troms. Many of its beers are brewed by Mack, billed as the worlds northernmost brewery. Be sure to sample the classic pilsner, and dont miss the chance to pose with the pubs imposing taxidermy polar bear.

Fiskekompaniet

Despite Tromss extreme climateyoull experience 24 hours of daylight between late May and late Julyquality produce can still be grown, and Arctic seafood is a local speciality. The best of the regions distinct gastronomy is showcased at Fiskekompaniet, a slick, fine-dining restaurant that serves a multicourse tasting menu near Tromss waterfront.

Where to Stay

Clarion Hotel The Edge

The angular Clarion Hotel The Edge looks out over Tromss harbor; its in the perfect location for guests to jump on a boat tour, explore the city, or simply watch the night sky. Speaking of which, youll find Tromss only rooftop bar on the 11th floor.

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If there's a Gen Zer on your holiday gift list this year, it may be best to forego one of the quintessential young adult presents: a wallet.

Some 4.4 billion people, or about half of people worldwide, are using digital wallets, with that number expected to grow 35% by 2030, according to tech strategist firm Juniper Research. Adults 24 and younger are most likely to pay with their phones, using them to make 45% of their purchases, according to a 2025 report from the Federal Reserve (across age groups, mobile phones were used for 23% of payments). Cash now accounts for just 14% of all purchases, and is more likely to be used by people older than 55 or in households that made less than $25,000 a year. A McKinsey survey in 2024 found that one in five people in the US and Europe who use digital wallets often go out without bringing a physical one, and in the UK, only 38% of people ages 18 to 24 own a wallet or purse that they see as essential in their daily lives, according to Link Scheme, a nonprofit that works to provide cash access in the UK. People are increasingly ditching cash, with 30% of Americans saying they haven't taken cash out of an ATM in the past month, and 17% saying it's been longer than six months, according to a LendingTree survey.

That shift is changing how they think about the money they spend. For older generations, cash feels real; for younger people, it might as well be Monopoly money. Hailey Moore, a 26-year-old in Los Angeles, tells me she hasn't had a wallet in more than a decade, and rarely carries cash. If she does get some, maybe in a birthday card, it feels like fun money: "If I have cash on me, it's money that doesn't exist," she says. And it disappears quickly. "I can just use this to get myself a little treat."

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To younger shoppers, cash has lost its cachet.

Apple Pay arrived 11 years ago, but people were slow to put their credit cards on their phone; tapping a phone didn't seem any better use case than swiping a credit card. That changed largely when contactless payments were favored in the pandemic and Apple Pay became easy to use when online shopping. Now, digital payments and cards are becoming increasingly prioritized. Pennies, which each cost about two pennies to make, went out of print in November. Digital IDs are now accepted at more than 250 US airports for domestic flights. More and more daily activities can be done with just a phone. Oura is even looking into ways to make its smart rings work as wallets and keys.

If I have cash on me, it's money that doesn't exist. I can just use this to get myself a little treat. Hailey Moore, 26

And as digital wallets are used more frequently, people "trust the digital wallet more than they trust cash," says Adam Gray, chief transformation officer at payments tech firm Stax Payments. They're more secure than carrying a physical wallet stuffed with cash and cards. "We're trying to enable as many merchants and places to take it because it's better for everyone."

Historically, people tend to spend more when paying with credit cards than cash. But that might be shifting among Gen Z  a Cash App survey published last month found that 54% of Gen Zers say they're more likely to spend cash thoughtlessly. The money that has already left your bank account or came in a card from your aunt might feel inconsequential, compared to growing numbers on a credit card statement that you'll have to face at the end of the month. Moore also tells me that she mostly uses her debit card, only tapping a credit card for large purchases or those where she knows she'll earn points, like at gas stations and grocery stores. She mostly wants to build credit, and pays off the card early to avoid overspending what's in her bank account.

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Shoppers have different feelings about using cash over cards. A 2023 study from the University of Notre Dame found that people prefer to use cash on purchases they feel guilty about. But cards can also lead to quick-dopamine hit spending  researchers at MIT found that using credit cards can activate a reward pleasure sensor in the brain, driving people to become addicted to spending or at least lower the restraints to spending. (The researchers behind this 2021 study did not look at contactless mobile payments, but did say that the ping that followers a purchase made on a phone could serve as a reminder of money spent, and disincentivize tapping with abandon).

Being the first to throw your card onto the check at dinner and max out rewards has become appealing to travelers, but more young people are rapidly adopting buy now, pay later companies like Klarna and Affirm. Last holiday season, Gen Z used BNPL services more than credit cards, according to research from J.D. Power. To the people who use these services, "the payment terms are just much more reasonable and transparent than credit card payment terms," says Sean Gelles, senior director of payment intelligence at J.D. Power. Frances Boyle, a 29-year-old in Seattle, says has used buy-now, pay-later services on clothes. "It's almost a way of justifying the purchase, because I'm like, 'I can't spend over $100 right now. But $20 a month, that doesn't sound that bad."

Data from PayPal shows that BNPL can lead people to spend 91% more at large businesses and 62% more at small businesses. Half of shoppers say they're more likely to complete a purchase when the split payment option is at the checkout. But a frictionless way to buy little things online now can turn into a pesky payment that lasts for months, and even barrel into a big debt down the road.

It might seem convenient to ditch cash, but a digital wallet can't cover everything.

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Tori Khutorna, a 28-year-old who lives in Prague, says she doesn't own a wallet anymore  she uses a digital wallet and an app that houses her ID. It all started during the COVID-19 lockdowns with online purchases. "Moving on, I didn't see any real need in having cash." But her plan has hit snags when traveling. Khutorna also says she had to ask a stranger for cash to buy food and then transfer her the money when she was in Ukraine and a major power outage took out a neighborhood's card payment options. Once, while in Italy, she couldn't buy a bus ticket because a card machine was broken. She was fined for not having a ticket (the fare enforcer, conveniently, had a device that allowed her to use Apple Pay to settle up her fine instantly). "Sometimes, I feel really out of touch with reality" without cash, she tells me. When she sees a nice wallet for sale, she sometimes feels drawn to buy it. "Then I think, for what?"

For the young people saying goodbye to wallets, the world may soon have to catch up.

Amanda Hoover is a senior correspondent at Business Insider covering the tech industry. She writes about the biggest tech companies and trends.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Key Points

Navagio Beach was named the most "paradise-like" beach in Greece, and one of the most gorgeous in the world.

The secluded cove, known for its turquoise waters, golden sand, and iconic shipwreck, can only be reached by boat.

With 10 percent of travelers calling it paradise-like, Navagio joins destinations like Vanuatus Port Olry Beach and Mozambiques Bazaruto National Park on the list.

Looking to spend your next vacation in a certified paradise? We got you. Over the summer, the family travel specialists at Kuoni released a list of the 20 most "paradise-like" beaches in the worldand in Greece, one dreamy stretch of sand stood out.

The tourism company determined the dreamy locations by first curating a seed list of more than 180 globally recognized beaches, using both internal expertise and recommendations from leading travel publications.

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Next, the team analyzed each destination's percentage of positive traveler reviews on popular platforms, looking specifically for the word "paradise." After tallying the results, it named Navagio Beach on the coast of Zakynthos, the most paradise-like beach in Greece, and No. 8 worldwide.

"With an iconic shipwreck, deep but spectacularly clear waters, and light gold sands, this cove is reached by boat and is one of the most stunning hidden gems in Greeces Ionian Islands," the team shared in its findings. They noted that 10 percent of the reviews called it "paradise," with many claiming the "stunning views made their hearts race, and many giving the beach experience a full five stars even when conditions meant they were unable to step ashore."

Of course, it's not the only beach on the planet worth swooning over. According to the research, Port Olry Beach in Vanuatu is No. 1 overall in the world, making it a must-visit on your quest to find the perfect vacation destination.

"Found among the islands of Vanuatu, Port Orly Beach takes top spot as the worlds most paradise-like beach thanks to its divine combo of natural tropical scenery, convenient facilities, and lack of crowds," the report stated. "Found on the east coast of Espiritu Santo, Port Orly Beach has all the classic ingredients of heaven on earth; emerald-green foliage hugging golden sands and shimmering turquoise waters."

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The remote Parque Nacional de Bazaruto in Mozambique came in a close second, winning over travelers with its powder-soft white sand dunes and azure seas. However, what really cinched its high rank is the abundant wildlife. "Flamingos, dolphin sightings, and even a dugong population are just some of the examples of extraordinary tropical animals that live here," the team said.

One Foot Island in the Cook Islands rounds out the top three spots, which the researchers called a "postcard-perfect lagoon." The findings noted that reviewers are quick to "call out how private the beach feelsand many express their joy at the islands unique footprint passport stamp."

As Marco Rocha, family travel expert at Kuoni, noted, the idea of "paradise" can be different from person to person; however, the report, he added, did uncover some commonalities.

"Our analysis saw that the most common themes, besides the paradise-beach aesthetic, are the opportunity to see wildlife as well as a sense of privacy and being alone,'" Rocha said, "all whilst still having convenient facilities.

The top 20 most "paradise-like" spots in the world.

Port Olry Beach, Vanuatu Parque Nacional de Bazaruto, Mozambique One Foot Island, Cook Islands Ao Thong Yee, Thailand Veligandu Island Beach, Maldives Champagne Beach, Vanuatu Lalomanu Beach, Samoa Navagio Beach, Greece Ora Beach, Indonesia Surin Islands (Mu Koh Surin National Park), Thailand Bon Bon Beach, Philippines Ko Lipe, Thailand Pentle Bay, United Kingdom Sok San Beach, Cambodia Whitehaven Beach, Australia Palm Cove Beach, Australia Entalula Beach, Philippines Secret Beach, Ambergris Caye, Belize Huvadhu Atoll, Maldives Hidden Beach, Palawan, Philippines

Read the original article on Travel & Leisure
Along the rugged coast of Maine, salty air meets evergreen forests for hikers on the ascent up Klondike Mountain. Located near the small town of Lubec (the continental United States' easternmost point), the mountain is small in size but big on breathtaking views. It is part of a 46-acre preserve managed by the Downeast Coastal Conservancy, and Klondike's smooth, short trail culminates in a rounded outcrop that serves as a natural observation deck. From this vantage point, hikers are treated to panoramic views of classic New England scenery and across the border into Canada.

For those accustomed to more challenging ascents, Klondike Mountain offers a welcome respite with optimal accessibility. The trail includes two mountain summits on a trail network that's less than 1 mile in total length. Parking is available at the base of the mountain, where a local family once raised dairy cows and grew apples; hikers pass through open fields where a handful of apple trees remain (and yes, you can pick a few). The trail reaches the waterfront before ascending to the first peak and then the second, reaching an elevation of just 150 feet.

Though shorter than famed Pine Tree State peaks, such as Mount Katahdin and Saddleback Mountain, Klondike delivers high-quality views without requiring an all-day trek. Early risers can appreciate the first sunrise of the day over the U.S. mainland. Then, with the sun high in the sky, the peak reveals a beautiful patchwork of forest peninsulas, waterways, islands, and surrounding bays. At low tide, it's even possible to see fragments of the old Fowler's Mill dam, which is best seen from the short Fowler's Mill Pond Trail along the way.

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Read more: One Of West Virginia's Best-Kept Secrets Is A Train Ride Through A Canyon You Can't Reach By Car

Visiting Klondike Mountain and Downeast Maine

The view from Klondike Mountain - @the_real_maine_shorts_guy/Instagram

Downeast Maine (or sometimes Down East Maine) is a gorgeous section of the state that encompasses parts of the eastern shoreline. It starts around Ellsworth, a picturesque city with a charming downtown, and includes Roque Bluffs State Park with its rocky shores, bold cliffs, and serene swims and the postcard-worthy scenery at Acadia National Park. It finishes up near Washington County, the northeast corner of the state where you find Klondike Mountain. The entire coastal area makes for a fun road trip, which one can pair with delectable breweries and cozy taverns on Maine's fun beer trail.

Like the trail itself, getting to Klondike Mountain is fairly simple for those passing through Downeast Maine. Take US Route 1 to ME Route 189, and head toward North Lubec Road. McFadden's Variety sits on the corner, providing both a landmark and pit stop for those wishing to grab water and snacks. Drive for about 1 mile until you see the Klondike Mountain Preserve sign. Park in the designated parking area, and make your way to the trail on the south side of the lot. For those arriving by plane, the closest airport is Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport (BHB) about 90 miles southwest, near the start of Downeast Maine. If coming from Canada, travelers can arrive in New Brunswick at Saint John Airport (YSJ) about 130 miles northeast.

The preserve featuring Klondike Mountain does not permit campfires, camping, ATVs, or snowmobiles. It does, however, permit hunting in the fall and winter. Hikers are advised to wear orange during hunting season, but at a bare minimum, definitely avoid wearing a Chicago Bears or Milwaukee Bucks jersey for the day  just in case.

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Ready to discover more hidden gems and expert travel tips? Subscribe to our free newsletter and add us as a preferred search source for access to the world's best-kept travel secrets.

Read the original article on Islands.
A national food website claims that one particular coffee shop in New Jersey reigns supreme over all the rest  talk about a latte praise!

Mashed recently published a list of the best local coffee shops in every state. New Jerseys representative was a cafe that is no stranger to praise  Paper Plane Coffee in Montclair.

Here is what the website said about the beloved coffee shop:

Be ready to try bold flavor combinations and cleverly named mixed drinks when you stop by Paper Plane Coffee Co. The Science menu includes concoctions like the Mint Eastwood with peppermint and Nam-Dam with cardamom. Meanwhile, the Bubbly selection features espresso-and-soda mixes, like the Vincent Vega with Coca-Cola and the Rusky with ginger beer. Far from a novelty cafe with wacky beverages, Paper Plane sources and roasts specialty-grade beans.

Best coffee shops in N.J.

Jonathan Echeverry and Melissa Anderson opened Paper Plane Coffee Co. in 2019. The Essex County shop has become so popular it has expanded to take over multiple storefronts  with the main shop taking on an airplane travel-themed aesthetic complete with airline-style seats and windows along a wall that will make you feel like youre actually on a plane.

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The menu at Paper Plane is ever-changing, with speciality drinks like the pumpkin king (their elevated take on a pumpkin spice latte), Its Corn! (sweet corn simple syrup, cinnamon, oat milk and matcha) and espresso toddy (lemon, spiced honey, hot water and espresso) available in the fall. But their classics like the Mint Eastwood (peppermint simple, milk and chocolate-cinnamon espresso) are always available.

Paper Plane came in at No. 3 on NJ.coms list of the states best coffee shops. Echeverry also told NJ Advance Media earlier this year that a second Paper Plane Coffee Co. location is in the works in Maplewood.

Read the original article on NJ.com. Add NJ.com as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
COLOMBO, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Cabinet of Ministers in Sri Lanka has approved the creation of a fund to support national recovery efforts following the severe damage caused by Cyclone Ditwah, which the government described as one of the most destructive natural disasters in recent years.

According to the cabinet decision, the "Rebuilding Sri Lanka" fund will be set up as a statutory body under the Presidential Secretariat. Its management committee will include senior government officials and private-sector representatives.

Minister of Labor and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning Anil Jayantha Fernando has been appointed chairman of the committee.

The committee will be authorized to manage the fund's operations, assess recovery needs, determine priorities, allocate resources and disburse funds for approved projects. It will also be responsible for ensuring transparency in all financial procedures, including management and auditing.

The death toll from extreme weather conditions hitting Sri Lanka has risen to 410, while 336 people remain missing, the country's Disaster Management Center said Tuesday. 
Some families are not buying any presents for the holidays  and have asked others not to buy them gifts.

And theyre not alone.

In a study this fall by Empower, 33% of people surveyed said they were not asking for gifts this year.

The no gifts trend suggests a counter-trend to consumerism, said Rebecca Rickert, Empower's head of consumer insights.

Not giving gifts is certainly an economic signal, but its also becoming its own act of generosity, Rickert told USA TODAY. It takes the pressure off the other person to give.

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In that same survey, 60% said the gifting culture is "out of hand," and an additional 48% feel "gift fatigue." Forty-four percent said they'd rather give "the gift of time" instead of material items.

Josie Bradley of Snohomish, Washington, and her family have decided not to exchange Christmas gifts this year. Bradley, shown with two of her grandchildren, said the family will spend time putting on a talent show instead.

Family can save money by not exchanging gifts

Josie Bradleys family is opting out of exchanging gifts this year and turning to their talents.

The family in Snohomish, Washington, is being a bit silly, Bradley said, and is turning their holiday family time into a talent show.

Bradley said her family has been working up to the no-gifts Christmas for a few years.

Over the past three or four years they went from everyone buying one another gifts to picking a name out of a hat for one person.

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But for years and years, Ive wanted to do this celebratory Christmas where were doing performances for each other, said Bradley, explaining that when she was growing up in her hometown in Canada, her whole community had a party and talent show in lieu of exchanging gifts.

Bradley, 53, has four adult children, two of whom are married with children, for a total of 13 people. The family live together in an intentional community sharing expenses.

Were all looking at ways of saving money as a unit, as a community, and so everybody got on board this year with the idea of not buying one another gifts, she said.

Some family members are sharing their budding talents  Bradley is trying to learn to play the didgeridoo, and her son is learning to play a whistle. In a TikTok post about their familys decision not to buy gifts, Bradley said her daughter-in-law said she was going to twerk for the family. (It might have been said as a joke, Bradley said.)

Family is less stressed without holiday shopping on to-do list

Bradley said she and her family are looking forward to not having the stress of shopping during the holiday season.

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Weve all done that and felt so stressed out about it, and you go back and try to remember the gifts you gave or were given and you cant, she said.

Bradley said she believes it was a little easier getting her family on board because, as the matriarch, it was her idea.

There was some reluctance because some people, like my daughter-in-law, is incredibly good at buying gifts, and thats like really a part of her love language. But her daughter-in-law was more open to it this year, Bradley said.

There will be a key exception, however.

Bradley said the family decided to still buy a large gift for each of the grandkids because they didnt want them to feel socially left out when they were around other children who had received presents.

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But she is excited she can enjoy the lead-up to Christmas without gift shopping.

For the first time, Im actually giddy in my heart about the celebration of Christmas rather than ... feeling pressured to buy gifts, she said.

Buy Nothing: Why are these Facebook users gifting things to each other for free?

Eliminating gift exchange puts focus back on family time

Lori Meo of Foster, Rhode Island, and her family have also decided to nix presents this year  and Meo couldnt be happier.

Every year, weve been cutting back since the kids were young, and honestly, none of us need a thing, Meo said in a TikTok post in which she shared that she, her husband, their two adult children and her mom are not shopping for presents this year.

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Honestly, I dont need another throw blanket, candle, thing of lotion, she said in the post.

The Meo family of Foster, Rhode Island -- from left, Henry, Lori, Steve and Eleanor Meo and Lori's mom, Jane Deming (in front), have decided not to buy or exchange gifts this Christmas. They want to save money, relieve stress and focus on the family.

Meo, 57, told USA TODAY she has been saying for the past few years that she wanted to eliminate gift-giving.

Her 23- and 25-year-old children are saving money to buy houses.

Meo also talked with her stepmother, who usually gives her some money while Meo buys her a gift card, which is a wash, so they also agreed not to exchange gifts.

Eliminating gifts also takes away the pressure of pretending you like a gift when you dont, Meo said.

I dont love it and I dont need it and I dont want to have to return it, Meo said. So I think everyones feeling good.

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Meo said she will still give some cash to her children and their significant others, but she hasnt decided if shell fill some stockings.

But otherwise, she has bought a new game for the family to play and will make a big breakfast Christmas morning.

We are going to put the focus back on family and being together and not so much on gifts.

Betty Lin-Fisher is a consumer reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at blinfisher@USATODAY.com or follow her on X, Facebook or Instagram @blinfisher and @blinfisher.bsky.social on Bluesky. Sign up for our free The Daily Money newsletter, which breaks down complex consumer and financial news. Subscribe here.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No holiday gifts? These people say they're less stressed.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Especially in my neighborhood! Houses are decorated with Christmas trimmings and twinkling lights adorn the public trees.

But when is the right time to put up the tree?

According to Balsmahill.com, an online Christmas tree company, there are a few key factors that can decide this decision.

If you follow a religious tradition, the Christmas Tree will go up during advent, which is fourth Sunday before Christmas. This year is that falls on Sunday, Nov. 30.

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And, for some families who don't follow a tradition, and buy real trees, they will stay, look and smell their best for the holiday season when they are put up in the first week of December.

Overall, the timing depends on you and your preference, but the most common time to put up your tree is anytime post-Thanksgiving weekend to mid-December the report stated.

What is Christmas?

Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25. Over the years the broader meaning has increased to themes of generosity, compassion, and peace.

When should the Christmas Tree come down?

The dailyrecord.com says according to tradition, Christmas trees are taken down 12 days after Christmas on Jan 5.

Where can I buy a real Christmas tree?

Families can purchase real Christmas Tree at retail stores such as Home Depot and Lowe's.

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New Jersey has plenty of Christmas tree farms in Monmouth and Ocean County that include:

Anne Ellen Christmas Tree Farm

Conover Christmas Tree Farm

The Fir Farm

Patterson Greenhouses

Picea Acres

Yuletide Tree Farm

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: When should the Christmas tree go up? When experts suggest
Trevor De Foite was talking with a client in Monaco. It started with a simple conversation. But as so often happens with these kinds of ideas, one thing naturally led to another, and a business partnership felt almost destined to happen.

De Foite is managing director for Outer Reef Yachts, which builds midrange motoryachts that are designed and outfitted to go places. The kinds of people who choose an Outer Reef don't generally want to hang around a popular marina sipping cocktails. They tend to be more like that client De Foite was talking with in Monaco, a man who had already gone around the world on his previous yacht, which was a Royal Huisman.

Komodo, in Indonesia, is a bucket-list destination that EYOS Expeditions can help boaters reach. Courtesy EYOS Expeditions / EYOS

"He's looking to build with us for a bigger motoryacht," De Foite recalls. "He said he wants to go to Galapagos and places like that, so he wants to use the same services that get all the paperwork sorted out. They did it all for him. It led from there basically to thinking that a lot of our clients could use this."

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The client was talking about EYOS Expeditions, a company founded in 2008 to organize expeditions for yacht owners and guests in remote locales. EYOS has long been popular with larger-yacht owners and charter-yacht operators who want to go to places like Antarctica, where the infrastructure is minimal and the terrain is daunting. The EYOS team organizes a range of services for yacht owners to use with their own boats, from logistics support to onboard pilots and guides. EYOS also works with a variety of explorer yachts to offer adventures in parts of the world where people don't want to take their own yachts.

Antarctica (top right) and Raja Ampat, Indonesia (bottom right), are all options for owners in this program. Courtesy: EYOS Expeditions (top left); EYOS Expeditions / EYOS (top right); EYOS Expeditions / Mos

Both types of assistance will now be available to Outer Reef owners, who De Foite says are a great match for that kind of expedition-minded thinking.

"They want to do more of the adventurous stuff, but they maybe don't have the confidence to do it themselves," he says. "For competent coastal cruisers, going to the top of Alaska can be a bit daunting. EYOS can supply captains, crew, whatever is necessary."

A partnership like this wouldn't have made sense for owners of midsize motoryachts in the past, he says. Most of the boats simply weren't built for this kind of exploring off the grid. But that has been changing for a while now. Two years ago, a 70-foot Outer Reef went around Cape Horn. "Nobody would have thought a 70-foot powerboat could have done that 20 years ago," De Foite says. "Now they have the range, the capacity and the equipment to do it."

EYOS Expeditions guides can open a world of adventures for yacht owners to explore. Courtesy EYOS Expeditions / Mosaic Studios

What the motor-yachts in this size range don't generally have is, say, an ice pilot in the crew. Or some kind of security staff that's a good idea for a particular crossing. Those are among the things that the EYOS partnership can provide, in addition to services such as accessing expedition captains for questions. Pairing that kind of know-how with Outer Reef's own in-house knowledge, De Foite says, is a powerful package for yacht owners to have at their disposal.

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"We know our own boats better than anyone, so if our client is stuck wherever he might be, we can provide all of that," he says. "We know the vessels inside and out, and we have a 24/7 emergency help line, so when EYOS rings us up, we can solve the problem immediately."

The Outer Reef 27 YXT is built for exploring the globe while carrying lots of tools and toys on board. Courtesy EYOS Expeditions

For owners who want an adventure on somebody else's boat, Outer Reef will work with EYOS to put together an itinerary that's exclusive to Outer Reef's clients. It would have, perhaps, a dozen staterooms, and all of them would be used by Outer Reef owners, De Foite says. "Maybe it would be Newfoundland, Greenland, into the Arctic and the ice floes, back to Scandinavia," he says. "Maybe it would be in Patagonia. We would take it for that 10 days or whatever it is, and nobody else could go on it. This would be tailored for Outer Reef owners."

The partnership between the boatbuilder and the expedition company seems like a natural progression, De Foite says. "Looking at this from a client perspective, this is their dream," he says. "They've hankered after this their whole life. This is about making the experience better and supporting that journey."

The post Outer Reef and EYOS Expeditions Partner for Adventures appeared first on Yachting.
On this episode of Sam Choys in the Kitchen, Uncle Sam and John are joined by local viral sensation Kalani Tsunami. Many in Hawaii will remember Kalani from the KHON2 live coverage of the tsunami warning, where he humorously showed off the fish he had caught on live television. That same love for fishing is what brings him to the kitchen, and on this day he shares a papio he caught the day before.

The episode begins with a hands-on lesson for viewers on how to clean a fish. Kalani and Uncle Sam show the simple but important steps to prepare a fresh catch for cooking, an essential skill for anyone who enjoys fishing in Hawaiis waters. From there, they turn the papio into three dishes that celebrate freshness and flavor.

The first dish is a papio carpaccio. The fish is sliced thin and topped with jalapenos and diced peppers for a little heat. Green onion, ginger, and cilantro are finely minced and mixed with oil to create a fragrant base. Lemon juice, lime juice, and chili pepper water are added to the mixture and then poured over the fish. The bright acidity and spice bring the delicate papio to life.

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The second dish makes use of the head and bones of the fish in a papio soup. Dashi is added to boiling water, followed by tomatoes, onion stems, cilantro stems, ginger, sweet onions, and jalapenos. The bones and head are simmered in the stock to deepen the flavor, then everything is strained. The meat is carefully plucked from the bones and placed into bowls before the hot soup is poured over. A garnish of fresh cilantro completes this comforting dish.

For the finale, Kalani and Sam prepare fried fish using taro brand pancake mix. The last pieces of papio, along with some lai fish, are lightly coated and pan-fried until golden and crisp. Simple, satisfying, and irresistibly crunchy, it is the perfect way to finish the meal.

Kalanis papio turned into three delicious creations that highlight Hawaiis fishing lifestyle and the joy of cooking what you catch.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KHON2.
Travelers now have new options to visit Belize.



Spirit Airlines just launched new nonstop service between Belize City and Fort Lauderdale, according to the low-cost carrier. The flights, which took off for the first time on Nov. 21, are operated between Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) and Belize's Philip Goldson International Airport (BZE) on Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

"Belize is a beautiful and adventure-packed getaway for travelers looking to explore diverse natural landscapes, historical sites and world-class water excursions at an unmatched value," Andrea Lusso, Spirit's vice president of network planning, said in a statement. "Adding Belize City to our international route map is a great win for our Guests, and we thank the airport and the community for such a warm welcome to this one-of-a-kind destination."

Travel + Leisure spotted wide availability on the new route, with one-way fares to Belize starting as low as $67 in January 2026. Spirit offers several classes of service: Value, Premium Economy, and Spirit First (which includes the airline's "Big Front Seat"). The carrier's lowest cost option, Value, does not include a carry-on bag, checked luggage, or other amenities, which are available to purchase for an additional cost.

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Anthony Mahler, Belize's minister of tourism, youth, sports, and diaspora relations, said in a statement the new route "enhances our connectivity and offers more convenient travel options for both visitors and our diaspora.

"From our breath-taking natural beauty to our rich cultural experiences, theres so much waiting to be discovered in Belize," Mahler added. "Strengthening this link with Fort Lauderdale not only boosts travel to our shores but also deepens tourism ties between our destinations and paves the way for shared economic opportunities.



Home to the UNESCO World Heritage-recognized Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, the country offers everything from incredible all-inclusive resorts to adventures for outdoor enthusiasts like canoeing, caving, fishing, hiking, kayaking, snorkeling, and more.

Last year, Belize welcomed more than 562,000 overnight visitors, according to the tourism board, setting a new record for the country. This was a 21 percent increase compared to 2023 and an 11.8 percent increase compared to 2019.

The new route also marks the latest foray into international travel for Spirit. This month, the carrier similarly plans to start flying between Fort Lauderdale and Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands. The airline also operates flights to popular destinations like Aruba; Cancun, Mexico; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; Lima, Peru; Kingston, Jamaica, and beyond.



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Are you ready for some Christmas cheer? The Yuletide festivities will soon begin on this special day in early December.

The Feast of St. Nicholas, fondly referred to by many as St. Nick's Day, takes place annually on Dec. 6. Though the holiday involves stockings and small gifts, it is separate from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations.

Here's everything to know about St. Nicholas Day 2025.

Revellers dressed as Saint Nicholas (L) and the Devil take part in a parade to celebrate Saint Nicholas Day (Mikulas) in Prague, Czech Republic on December 5, 2023. Meeting Saint Nicholas, the Angel, and the Devil, who talk to children and reward those who have behaved well during the year with small presents, is tradition in the Czech Republic before the Christmas holidays. (Photo by Michal Cizek / AFP) (Photo by MICHAL CIZEK/AFP via Getty Images)

When is St. Nick's Day?

St. Nick's Day occurs annually Dec. 6, a Saturday this year.

Who was St. Nicholas?

HAUZENBERG, GERMANY - DECEMBER 05: Members of the Saint Nicholas Guild, disguised as Holy Bishop Nicholas distribute little gifts to children in the Oberdiendorf quarter of Hauzenberg on December 5, 2007 in Hauzenberg, Germany. According to the Bavarian holiday tradition Saint Nicholas (as forerunner of the profane Santa Claus) and his companion Krampus (Black Peter) visit families and give presents to the children on the 5th and 6th of December. (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

Saint Nicholas of Myra, or St. Nicholas, was a bishop during the Roman Empire who became the Patron Saint of Children because of the kindness he showed to young kids. He was widely known for gift-giving and helping the poor, even if it meant selling his possessions.

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St. Nicholas left golden coins behind for some children, slipping them into stockings that were hung up to dry. This led to the creation of the long-lasting tradition of children hanging up stockings or leaving a plate out on St. Nicholas Eve.

When is the feast day of Saint Nicholas?

St. Nicholas was believed to have died Dec. 6, 343 A.D. The day is celebrated as a feast day.

The Feast of St. Nicholas became a popular tradition during the medieval period, particularly in Germany and German-speaking countries.

What is St. Nicholas Day, and how is it celebrated?

88. St. Nicks Day is a mini-holiday to tide you over till Christmas with a few little treats in your stocking or shoes. Milwaukee has held on to the tradition because of its German or Dutch influence. St. Nicholas is celebrated Dec. 6. Traditionally, St. Nick is thought to go from house to house on the night of Dec. 5, leaving treats in the shoes of children.

St. Nicholas Day, or the feast day of St. Nicholas, honors the fourth-century bishop of Myra. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, children are often given cookies, candies and gifts under their pillows or in their shoes and stockings during the feast day. Other common St. Nick's Day items include oranges, chocolate coins and candy canes.

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It is also common for children to leave letters for St. Nicholas and carrots or grass for his donkey or horse.

What night does St. Nick come on?

Traditionally, he leaves gifts in stockings or shoes on the night of Dec. 5 for children to find in the morning.

When did St. Nick's Day come to America?

St. Nick's Day was brought to the United States with German immigration that began in the 1600s.

In Cincinnati, Dr. Ludwig "Louis" Rehfuss, a German immigrant who was a medical doctor, set up the first Christmas tree in the early 19th century, Don Heinrich Tolzmann, curator of the German Heritage Museum and president of the German American Citizens' League, told The Enquirer in 2021.

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St. Nick's Day began in Cincinnati around that same time period.

"That custom, because of the German heritage of our area, is widely celebrated here even to this day," Tolzmann said.

What's the difference between St. Nicholas and Santa Claus?

On St. Nick's Eve, St. Nicholas fills stockings left out for children based on how they behaved that year.

On Christmas Eve, Santa Claus  sometimes referred to as St. Nick, Kris Kringle or Father Christmas  similarly fills stockings and gives presents to children based on their behavior.

According to Smithsonian Magazine, a Bavarian immigrant named Thomas Nast, a cartoonist during the Civil War, created the first image of Santa Claus in 1863. The image, which first appeared in Harper's Weekly, was created as Union propaganda during the war, featuring Santa handing out presents at a Union Army camp. In the image, Santa wears a jacket that has stars and pants colored in stripes.

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The image was based on the likeness of St. Nicholas.

When is St. Nick's Day 2026?

St. Nick's Day will occur next year on Sunday, Dec. 6, 2026.

A version of this story was published in 2024.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: When is St. Nick's Day 2025? Here's why and how people observe the day
Key Takeaways

Many airlines and hotels have begun offering deep discounts to those booking trips on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving, now dubbed "Travel Tuesday".

Consumers can find good deals on winter getaways, but may not have as much luck on trips further out, said Clint Henderson, managing editor of The Points Guy, a travel site.

You may still be settling in from a Thanksgiving trip, but experts say it's smart to start planning your next getaway.

Nearly all major airlines and several hotels will offer bargain rates tomorrow in what's become known as "Travel Tuesday". Travel companies now extend more deals on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving than on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined, according to Hopper, a travel booking app.

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The industrywide promotion grew out of an annual deal Hopper launched in 2017, and has become a bonafide opportunity for bargain-hunting, said Clint Henderson, managing editor of The Points Guy, a travel site.

"Its probably the best time of the year to book cheap flights," said Henderson, later explaining that he initially saw Travel Tuesday as a marketing move. I used to tell people, Dont bother, but now Im all in.



Travel Tuesday airfare deals often promote winter travel, and only apply to flights departing in January or February. Warm destinations are widely touted. For instance, Delta Air Lines (DAL) is selling roundtrip tickets from New York City to the Dominican Republic, Cayman Islands and St. Thomas for less than $300.

But domestic airfare may be particularly inexpensiveAlaska Air Group (ALK) is promoting regional one-way tickets for as low as $29, and trips from California to Hawaii for $99, according to its website.



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Several hotels are participating in travel Tuesday. People can get 40% to 50% of stays booked through Hopper in a number of warm locales. Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), Marriott International (MAR) and Hilton Worldwide Holdings (HLT) are knocking up to 25% off bookings, though sometimes only for members of their loyalty programs.

Those who plan carefully may be able to snag inexpensive tickets and lodging for spring break, Henderson said. For instance, BermudAir is offering 40% off flights to Bermuda and Anguilla that depart from Dec. 7th to May 26th, The Points Guy reported.

The deals are drawing attention. Last year, consumers booked 3.5 times more trips on Travel Tuesday than on the prior Tuesday, Hopper said.



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NEED TO KNOW

Houston residents John Alan Ambrose and wife Vicky Ambrose bought an old Italian mansion for $160,000 to renovate into their dream vacation home

The couple purchased the property without seeing it in person first, and the entire project ended up taking three years to finish

During the renovation process, the pair ran into a number of unexpected issues, which they detailed in a recent interview with CNN Travel

A Texas couple took a chance on a historic Italian fixer upper to turn into their dream vacation home  but it came with plenty of unexpected challenges.

Houston residents John Alan Ambrose, 61, and wife Vicky Ambrose, 57, purchased a rundown palazzo in northern Italys Piedmont region for $160,000, they told CNN Travel in a recent interview. They chose the quiet city of Biella, nestled at the foothills of the stunning Alps, as the destination for their vacation getaway.

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The pair were drawn to the historic 1930s abode due to a number of attractive qualities, including its previous ownership by an Italian aristocratic family, its Liberty-style architecture, and of course, its direct view of the sprawling European mountain range. Along with its arched windows, it also had 14-foot ceilings, sturdy wooden doors and a cellar perfect for storing wine.

While Vicky had visited the region before and made a local friend in Biella, John had never been to the quaint location. However, he was quickly won over by his wifes description of the beautiful place.

Getty Town in Northern Piedmont Town in Northern Piedmont

After stumbling upon the 3,000-square-foot fixer upper online, the couple took a leap of faith and purchased the property without seeing it in person first.

While they knew the space wasnt in pristine condition by any means, when they first arrived at their new home, they discovered a number of flaws  from shattered wall tiles scattered across the hallways to an old gas-powered water heater hanging from one of the walls in the kitchen.

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They also encountered issues with local contractors during renovations.

Getty Residential buildings in Biella, Italy Residential buildings in Biella, Italy

First the language barrier, then the quotes that shifted like seasons, contractors that vanished and appointments blurred into indefinite timelines, Vicky told the outlet.

The difficulty with some vendors and tradespeople proved to be a major complication during the process. While they were able to find a very reliable plumber, Vicky said others held our money for nearly a year with multiple excuses and delays. I had to make multiple trips a year to supervise or push for progress.

She continued, There was a large cultural divide, as a project that would have taken at most six to eight months in the U.S., dragged on for almost three years.

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John noted that some contractors seemingly tried to take advantage of them knowing that they were foreigners.

We have also actively owned real estate and properties so have a general knowledge of what things should cost as labor rates in the U.S. should be higher than Italy, but many suppliers in Biella wanted to overcharge for their services.

Getty Northern Italy in winter Northern Italy in winter

Additionally, the couple came across another challenge with the local municipality when they tried to update the windows in their new home, as the building has old roots in the city.

As these were exterior windows and we are in the historic center, we had to demonstrate that they would not adversely affect the architectural facade of the building, while also receiving the blessings of the condo association, John told CNN.

Never miss a story  sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

While the couple had to work through each challenge, and even take on a few DIY projects that required constant trips to the Italian city, they finally finished their dream home nearly three years later.

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In the end, they spent an additional $174,000 in renovations to turn the fixer upper into the four-bedroom, two-bathroom boutique luxury residence it is today.

Despite going into the purchase almost blind, the couple now have a functional getaway property that they use for longer ski trips and as a place to stop on the way to other European destinations.

Read the original article on People
The Type A in me truly comes alive when it comes time to plan a trip. For me, something is thrilling about crafting the perfect master plan for the best possible trip and planning out every detail, right down to the restaurants Ill dine at. In general, planning travel to one city or country can be overwhelming in itself  so its pretty fair to admit that planning the logistics split destination trip for the first time overwhelmed me. Would it just too much to visit two countries in one trip?

After trying it just once, I realized that with some careful planning and a well-crafted Excel sheet, visiting two destinations in the same trip can make for some of the best memories and well-rounded trips. Visiting two destinations in one trip can give you a taste of two cultures, different activities, and unique sights. Even places that geographically arent too far apart (Malta and Italy, for example) offer a completely different travel experience. Heres how (and why) I love the concept of visiting two destinations in the same trip.

How to destination hop

When planning to country hop, I recommend starting with the most obvious consideration: Time and geographical location.

Consider the time needed in each destination

Unless youre retired and have weeks at a time to travel, time constraints are a clear limitation to country hopping. With limited time in each spot, you may feel that your trip feels rushed. For this reason, I recommend pairing cities that you feel you can comfortably cover all you want to do within a few days.

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For example, 3 to 5 days in Rome or Cairo may be enough to see all of the top sights, but you may find 3 to 5 days in other locations, like Crete, to feel rushed. In my experience, country hopping works best with a time frame of 3 to 6 days for each destination, allowing you enough time for a total of a 7-12 day trip.

Geographic considerations

From a geographical standpoint, youll also want to consider how far apart the destinations you want to visit are. For example, a trip to Valletta, Malta, and Rome, Italy may make sense  but pairing Singapore with a trip to Malta and Italy just wouldnt make sense. I recommend pairing destinations that are under four hours apart (either by plane, train, or ferry). Some examples include:

Naples, Italy, and Valletta, Malta

Barcelona, Spain, and Marrakesh, Morocco

Crete, Greece, and Athens, Greece

Cairo, Egypt, and Marrakesh, Morocco

Paris, France, and Rome, Italy

As you consider where to go, consider the types of activities to do in each spot. Consider mixing in areas that are a mix of rural and urban or that offer different natural features to craft a well-rounded vacation.

Logistics

The worst part of destination hopping is figuring out the logistics of your travel. With this scenario, most likely you will be booking multiple one-way flights, departing home from a different airport than you arrived at. You also need to factor in all the time in transport to do the whole airport process (driving to the airport, checking bags, security, customs, etc) in your scenario. Most importantly, youll want to select two destinations that have non-stop options between them. This is especially easy for various countries in Europe that are geographically close to one another.
Mikie Sherrill (D) resigned from Congress last month in advance of becoming governor in January, leaving the 11th District's House seat vacant. (Photo by Amanda Brown for New Jersey Monitor)

A whopping 13 Democrats and a single Republican filed petitions Monday to get on the ballot for the special primary election to replace Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill in Congress.

Most of the would-be candidates are not a surprise. They started announcing their bids to replace Sherrill, a Democrat, even before she won the governors race on Nov. 4. She resigned from Congress effective Nov. 20, leaving a vacancy in the 11th Congressional District until Jan. 3, 2027.

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The special primary is slated for Thursday, Feb. 5.

The Democrats who hope to compete in the primary are: Passaic County Commissioner John Bartlett; Army veteran and businessman Zachary Beecher; attorney and comedian J-L Cauvin; former Sherrill intern Marc Chaaban; former Obama staffer Cammie Croft; Maplewood Committeeman Dean Dafis; Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill; Morris Township Committeeman Jeff Grayzel; ex-Rep. Tom Malinowski; ex-Sen. Bernie Sanders advisor Analilia Mejia; Chatham Councilman Justin Strickland; Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way; and community activist Anna Lee Williams.

On the GOP side, Randolph Mayor Joe Hathaway is the sole candidate.

Most of the would-be candidates filed far more than the 500 signatures needed to win a spot on the ballot for the special primary. The deadline to file objections to petitions is Friday.

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The Democratic winner will face Hathaway on Thursday, April 16.

Sherrill, who becomes governor on Jan. 20, said she wont be weighing in on which candidate she supports. Gov. Phil Murphy (D) urged voters to cast their ballot for Gill, who managed Murphys 2017 gubernatorial campaign. U.S. Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) endorsed Malinowski.

The 11th District includes parts of Essex, Morris, and Passaic counties. When Sherrill was first elected to represent it in 2018, she was the first Democrat to win the district in decades. Its boundaries have since been redrawn to make it easier for Democrats to win. It went for Democrat Kamala Harris over Republican Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race by nearly 9 points, and Sherrill won it in last months gubernatorial race by about 15 points.

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This photo taken on Dec. 2, 2025 shows a scene during an event in Vientiane to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Lao People's Democratic Republic. A grand mass march and a military parade were held in Vientiane on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Gao Jie)

This photo taken on Dec. 2, 2025 shows a scene during an event in Vientiane to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Lao People's Democratic Republic. A grand mass march and a military parade were held in Vientiane on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Gao Jie)

This photo taken on Dec. 2, 2025 shows a scene during an event in Vientiane to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Lao People's Democratic Republic. A grand mass march and a military parade were held in Vientiane on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Gao Jie)

This photo taken on Dec. 2, 2025 shows a scene during an event in Vientiane to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Lao People's Democratic Republic. A grand mass march and a military parade were held in Vientiane on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Gao Jie)
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German astronauts Matthias Maurer and Alexander Gerst are the hottest candidates for the first European seat on a moon-bound Artemis mission. | Credit: INA FASSBENDER/Getty Images

BREMEN, Germany  A German astronaut will be the first European to fly to the moon with a future NASA-led Artemis mission, the European Space Agency's (ESA) Director General Josef Aschbacher said at the ESA Ministerial Council, a high-level conference deciding the agency's budget and future direction, on Thursday, Nov. 27 in Bremen, Germany.

Germany is ESA's biggest budget contributor. An Airbus factory in Bremen assembles the European Service Module, which provides propulsion, power and atmosphere regeneration for the Orion space capsule designed to house astronauts during Artemis moon trips. Europe also builds components for the Lunar Gateway , a space station intended to orbit the Moon from 2027. Elements of the Lunar Gateway are being built by consortia led by France and Italy, whose nationals will be on subsequent Artemis flights, Aschbacher said at the conference. It is in exchange for these contributions that ESA secured three seats on the moon-bound trips. "An ESA astronaut traveling beyond [low Earth orbit] for the first time will be a huge inspiration and source of pride for their country and for Europe at large," Aschbacher said at the conference.

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Germany currently has two experienced astronauts among the ESA astronaut corps  55-year old Matthias Maurer and 49-year-old Alexander Gerst. Both have spent months at the International Space Station. Germany also has two astronauts in ESA's reserve team: 36-year-old Amelie Schoenenwald and 40-year-old Nicola Winter. Neither of them, however, has flown to space yet. Gerst and Maurer are therefore the most likely contenders for that coveted Artemis 4 seat.

Gerst's first six-month stint on the ISS took place in 2014, during which he performed a six-hour spacewalk, installing new equipment outside the space station. He returned to the orbital outpost in 2018 when he also served as a commander. With 362 days in space, he is among ESA's most experienced astronauts. His colleague Maurer has completed one mission, having spent 176 days at the space station in 2021. He also performed a space walk during that time.

ESA, a cooperation between 23 European countries, is part of the International Space Station partnership and regularly has its astronauts among the ISS crew. In the 1990s, several European astronauts participated in repair missions to the Hubble Space Telescope, which orbits some 340 miles (540 kilometers) away from Earth, about 90 miles (140 km) farther than the space station. No European, however, has ever ventured deeper into space.

"We can now, for the very first time, send a European astronaut flying 360,000 kilometers away," Dorothee Bar, Germany's Federal Minister of Research, Technology and Space, said at the press conference. "This means that a European astronaut will be traveling for approximately three days until for the first time he sees the Earth as a whole. No European has ever seen that before."

(Left to right): Astronaut Alexander Gerst, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, astronaut Matthias Maurer at the EAC (European Astronaut Centre) of the ESA. | Credit: Raimond Spekking via Wikimedia Commons

NASA has so far announced the crew for the upcoming Artemis 2 mission, which will return humans to the moon's orbit next year. Three NASA astronauts  Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch  will take the journey together with Canadian spaceman Jeremy Hansen. In 2027, the subsequent Artemis 3 mission will attempt to place humans onto the moon's surface for the first time since the end of the Apollo program in 1972. The crew for that mission has not yet been named but it is unlikely to include a European as Aschbacher said earlier that ESA had secured seats on Artemis missions 4 and 5. Artemis 4 is currently planned for the second half of 2028, while Artemis 5 mission is expected to take place in 2030.

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While a German astronaut will be the first European to orbit the moon, the first European footprints on the moon's surface will probably belong to a Frenchman or an Italian. France's Thomas Pesquet (47) is likely one of the front-runners for that honor. A member of two seven-month missions to the International Space Station in 2016/2017 and in 2021, he has 397 space days under his belt. He performed several space walks during those missions and also briefly served as an ISS commander.

French helicopter pilot Sophie Adenot was selected as an ESA astronaut in 2022 and will be the first of the new astronaut cohort to fly to the ISS for an eight-month mission early next year. That flight will allow her to gain precious experience, which might qualify her for a future Artemis moon trip. (Reserve astronauts Marcus Wandt, of Sweden, and Poland's Sawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, flew to the ISS for two-week stints with Axiom paid for by their respective countries in 2024 and 2025 respectively.)

Among the Italians, the most likely contenders for an Artemis seat and a possible place in a lunar lander are 49-year-old Luca Parmitano and 48-year-old Samantha Cristoforetti, both of whom participated in two long-duration missions to the International Space Station. Parmitano performed multiple space walks during his time in space, including one that nearly killed him when his helmet filled with water because of a clogged filter.

Artemis 6 is foreseen to launch no earlier than 2031. Beyond that, the fate of the Artemis program is uncertain as the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump intends to discontinue the Space Launch System and Orion programs  the rocket and capsule used to conduct the Artemis missions  and replace them with commercially built spaceships. ESA has agreements with NASA in place to produce Orion Service Modules for six Artemis missions.

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"Beyond European Service Module number six, we want to keep the options open," Daniel Neuenschwander, ESA's Director for Human and Robotic Exploration told Space.com. "It's possible that the U.S partner will come to us and look for the continuation of the Orion  European Service Module couple."

Europe is also working on a lunar lander for cargo delivery called Argonaut, so hopes to have something up its sleeve to pay for possible future moon trips.
The Brief

Two Little Caesars employees, 32-year-old Shaquille Simmons and 21-year-old Mary Visser, were fatally shot Monday morning at the restaurant near Guadalupe and Rural roads in Tempe.

Tempe Police, who were in the area and heard the shots, quickly arrested suspect Benjaman Visser Jr., 27, at the scene with a gun in his hand; investigators said the suspect and victim Mary Visser were married.

The shooting occurred as Tempe Police were also investigating an unrelated fatal shooting that took place Monday morning at Tempe Marketplace, where a suspect remains at large.

TEMPE, Ariz. - Two Little Caesars employees were fatally shot Monday morning at the restaurant in Tempe, and police reported that the suspect in the shooting is married to one of the victims.

What we know

The Dec. 1 incident reportedly happened at a Little Caesars in the area of Guadalupe and Rural roads at around 9 a.m.

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Tempe Police said 27-year-old Benjaman Visser Jr. was arrested in connection to the shooting of the victims, who were employees of the restaurant.

"Officers were in the area of Rural Rd. and Guadalupe Rd. when they heard shots ring out. Officers found Visser who was still on scene with a gun in his hand. Officers detained Visser. The victims were both employees of Little Caesars and were transported to the hospital in critical condition. Both victims, a male and female, died of their injuries at the hospital," Tempe Police said.

The victims were identified as 32-year-old Shaquille Simmons and 21-year-old Mary Visser. Investigators say the suspect, Benjamin, and one of the victims, Mary, were married.

What they're saying

"The Tempe Police Department extends their sympathies to the victims and the employees of Little Caesars during this difficult time. The Tempe Police Department commends the quick and coordinated response of officers who were immediately on scene and detained the suspect. Their professionalism, compassion, and commitment to excellence helped bring this dangerous situation to a safe conclusion," the police department said.

What's next

Visser was arrested and booked into the Tempe City Jail.

Dig deeper

An unrelated fatal shooting also broke out Monday morning at Tempe Marketplace. The suspect hasn't been caught.

@TempePolice confirm they are working a double shooting Rural & Guadalupe, witnesses say they heard multiple gunshots coming from inside a business at a strip mall several people have been transported to hospitals #fox10phoenixpic.twitter.com/IgJO49Jb7M  Rick Davis (@rdavisfox10) December 1, 2025

Area where the incident happened

The Source

Information for this article was gathered from a statement released by the Tempe Police Department.
Police in Delaware are investigating a double shooting that injured two men.

The gunfire erupted just before 7 p.m. Monday on the 800 block of West 8th Street in Wilmington.

Police say the two men were shot multiple times.

Both were rushed to Christiana Hospital in critical condition.

Investigators found more than 30 shell casings at the scene.

There's no word on a motive, and no arrests have been made.
Three homes in the San Fernando Valley were broken into overnight, triggering an investigation and a search for the suspects.

Several suspects, only described as men, were involved in all three cases and the Los Angeles Police Department is looking into whether they're connected.

The rash of break-ins started at a home on Topeka Drive in Tarzana around 7:40 p.m. Monday. According to the LAPD, someone was home at the time but police could not give further details about that incident.

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The other two homes were in Encino, an area that has been targeted before. Earlier this year, an "American Idol" executive and her husband were killed by an intruder in their Encino home.

Less than an hour after the first break-in, around 8:20 p.m., suspects broke into a home on Ostrom Avenue. Shortly before 11 p.m., another home less than two miles away was hit on Alonzo Avenue.

Police say that was the only home where property was taken, but it's unclear what that was or how much it was worth.

Nobody was home in either of the Encino break-ins.

Last week, burglars broke into the home of music producer Benny Blanco's mother in Studio City.
Three men from Ohio and two from Georgia were arrested in Brookhaven after officers found a stolen vehicle with drugs and a stolen gun inside.

Brookhaven police said they were alerted to a possible stolen vehicle traveling in the city via their Operation Plugged In camera network.

When they found the vehicle on Peachtree Road, officers confirmed it was stolen out of Ohio and performed a traffic stop.

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All five occupants were detained, Brookhaven police said. A search of the vehicle led to officers locating narcotics and a stolen firearm.

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TRENDING STORIES:

The following individuals face charges in DeKalb County.

Dieon Love 19 years-old, College Park:

Theft by receiving stolen vehicle

Theft by receiving stolen property (firearm)

Possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony

Possession of marijuana w/intent to distribute

Driving on a suspended license

Jamere Thomas 27 years-old, Akron, Ohio

Possession of marijuana w/intent to distribute

Derrick Ray 18 years- old, Atlanta, Georgia

Possession of marijuana w/intent to distribute

Samiel Proctor 21 years-old, Akron, Ohio

Possession of marijuana w/intent to distribute

Debron Nurse 23 years-old, Akron, Ohio

Possession of marijuana w/intent to distribute

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In America, if a consumer doesn't like the product, they have the right to explore legal recourse, and many do. Honda has been taken to court over steering issues, Ford is being sued due to a missing F-150 Lightning feature, and GM has to resort to legal counsel because of allegedly defective V8 engines. Now, Toyota is heading to the courtroom for a class action lawsuit arising because of allegedly defective eight-speed transmissions, according to Car Complaints. The transmissions are produced and supplied by Aisin, which is a member of the Toyota Group and, according to the lawsuit, is 25% owned by Toyota. That's not quite accurate, as Reuters reported last year that Toyota has offloaded some $1 billion in shares, bringing its stake from 24.8% to 20%. Regardless, the lawsuit blames Toyota. So what's the problem, and which cars are affected?

Numerous Toyota Models Named In Class Action

Toyota

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California by plaintiff Neil Pallaya, alleges that numerous Toyota and Lexus models equipped with the eight-speed auto "slip, hesitate, lose power, make loud whining sounds, shift erratically, and fail." That's quite a list of concerns, and the lawsuit names the following models:

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The abovementioned plaintiff bought a new 2020 Toyota Highlander in December of that year, which features the 2GR-FKS 3.5-liter V6 engine and UA80E transmission, the latter of which also appears in all the abovementioned cars. The car came with a five-year/60,000-mile limited warranty, which would have been all good, but in September 2025, with roughly 67,200 miles on the clock, "the eight-speed transmission began making a persistent high-pitched whining noise when pressing the accelerator." The lawsuit alleges that a dealer inspection revealed that the transmission had failed and needed replacement at an estimated cost of $7,451.33. With the warranty having expired, the customer was on the hook for the bill.

Plaintiff Files For $5 Million, Alleges Toyota Knew About Issues For Years

Toyota

The suit, which is asking for "more than $5 million," reportedly cost Pallaya $405 to file. His transmission still has not been repaired, and he says that the Highlander SUV has a "diminished quality and value than represented and failed to meet ordinary consumer expectations regarding safe and reliable operation." Moreover, he contends that Toyota and Aisin knew about the problems with this transmission (where excessive heat allegedly builds up inside the torque converter, causing the transmission fluid to burn and prematurely degrade, damaging the clutch) all the way back in 2015.

Related: Toyota Sued for $5.7 Billion Over Mirai Hydrogen Cars

Pallaya's class action claims that the two companies should have ordered a redesign of either the torque converters or the transmissions after Toyota's warranty analytics group allegedly flagged the transmission as a "high-priority powertrain concern" by February of 2017. This is said to have prompted a series of Technical Service Bulletins (TSBs) to address a "harsh shift," "hesitation," "abnormal transmission noise," and "improper torque converter operation." The lawsuit also brings attention to the transmission control module software and claims that the transmission should last at least 200,000 miles. The numerous relevant TSBs are listed below:

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This story was originally published by Autoblog on Dec 1, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Autoblog as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The survey, conducted by Tel Aviv University, examined the attitudes of Israels Arab population following the conclusion of the war in Gaza.

More than 75% of Israels Arab citizens support an Arab party joining the government coalition following the end of the war, a new study revealed.

The study surveyed the attitudes of Israels Arab population following the conclusion of the war in Gaza after October 7th, and was conducted by the Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University.

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Data presented by the university shows a sharp increase in support compared to May 2023, when just 63% of Arab citizens supported joining the coalition.

According to the study, if elections to the Knesset were held today, voter turnout among Arab communities would stand at around 52.4%, similar to the 53.2% turnout for the 25th Knesset elections in November 2022. In such a scenario, the Arab parties Hadash-Taal and Raam would win 5.3 and 3.9 seats respectively, passing the electoral threshold, while Balad would again fall short with 2.6 seats.

If the Joint List were re-established, uniting the four Arab parties as in previous election cycles, turnout would rise significantly to 61.8%, with the Joint List projected to win 15.5 seats. Overall, 77.4% of respondents said they support an Arab party participating in the next government - nearly half supporting joining any coalition formed, and 31.8% supporting participation specifically in a center-left government. The Dayan Center noted that these findings align with previous surveys conducted during the war.

Members of the Arab community protest against the violence in their community, outside the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, November 27, 2024. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

The survey also explored the issues most important to Arab citizens. A clear majority (74%) identified combating violence and crime as the top priority for the community, far outweighing other concerns. Smaller but notable portions pointed to resolving the Palestinian issue (7.6%) and improving planning and construction policies in Arab towns (7%).

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The study further revealed major components of personal identity among Arab citizens, with Arab identity (35.9%) and Israeli citizenship (31.7%) emerging as the strongest. Religious affiliation (17.3%) and Palestinian identity (14.7%) were also significant factors.

Rising violence in Arab society a main concern

Despite relatively stable political engagement, the survey found deep concern regarding personal safety: 76.6% of Arab citizens reported feeling a weak sense of personal security. The leading cause for the negative mood was the rise in violence within Arab communities (51.9%), followed by fears of another regional war (14.2%), the situation in Gaza (11.3%), and economic hardship (10%). Interestingly, 73.4% of respondents said their economic situation is relatively goodthe highest such figure recorded in surveys taken during the war.

Relations between Arab and Jewish citizens were also viewed pessimistically. Nearly three-quarters of participants (74.6%) said relations have deteriorated over the past two years due to the war, with almost half saying the deterioration was significant. More than a third (37.5%) reported that their sense of belonging to the state has weakened since the war began, though a slight majority (50.8%) felt the conflict had not changed their feelings toward the state.

On the political front, 64.6% of Arab citizens expressed belief in the possibility of Arab-Jewish political cooperation, though only 44.7% believe such cooperation is supported by the Jewish public. Regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 47.3% said the most realistic solution is a two-state outcome based on the 1967 borders. Fourteen percent favored a single binational state, 8.5% backed a regional solution with international mediation, and 21% believed no political solution is currently realistic.

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Dr. Arik Rudnitzky, Director of the Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation at the Moshe Dayan Center, said the findings highlight the resilience and political maturity of Arab society.

The past two years have not been easy for Arab citizens, as the ongoing war in Gaza and the suffering of the Palestinian population have deeply concerned them," Dr. Rudnitzky said. "Yet the support for an Arab party joining the coalition, as well as belief in Arab-Jewish political partnership, even amid a prolonged war, shows that the Arab public is demonstrating notable political maturity, upholding public order and democratic values, and seeking now to contribute to the rehabilitation of Israeli society as a whole after the war.

He added that despite the most severe confrontation in the history of the conflict, Arab citizens remain focused on day-to-day civil issues; The Palestinian issue is always in the background, but for the vast majority of the Arab public it does not dictate their political priorities.
Several people, including a Massachusetts resident, are facing charges in connection with a traffic crackdown in New Hampshire on Thanksgiving Eve, authorities said.

New Hampshire State Police say troopers stopped 224 vehicles during a high-visibility DUI saturation patrol in the Seacoast area on Wednesday, Nov. 26, through the early morning hours of Thanksgiving.

The effort focused on major corridors in Rockingham County and the Spaulding Turnpike, netting nine arrests and 79 citations, according to state police.

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State police identified the nine people who are facing charges as:

Robert J. Stryke , 64, of Somersworth, New Hampshire, was arrested on charges of driving under the influence of liquor and lane control.

Karen T. Boston , 40, of Exeter, New Hampshire, was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence of liquor.

Luis Gerardo Saldana Meza , 29, of North Chelmsford, Massachusetts, was arrested on a charge of aggravated driving under the influence of liquor (driving 30 mph or greater over the speed limit).

Rickie G. Montgomery , 67, of Somersworth, New Hampshire, was arrested on charges of driving under the influence of liquor and arrest on a warrant (other local police agency).

Scott S. Rand , 60, of Hampton, New Hampshire, was arrested on a charge of operating after certification as a habitual offender.

Aiden P. Kepple , 16, of Litchfield, New Hampshire, was arrested on a charge of reckless operation.

Darby A. Burnham , 29, of Dover, New Hampshire, was arrested on charges of alcohol ignition interlock circumvention, operating without a motorcycle license, and speeding.

Shaimir Ameen Blackwell , 31, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was arrested on charges of driving after suspension, operating without lights, and Sherrills Law (move over) violation.

Ayia Aribi, 23, of Biddeford, Maine, was arrested on a charge of reckless operation.

State police warned the public that similar saturation patrols will be conducted throughout the holiday season.

"The New Hampshire State Police encourage all drivers to make safe choices before getting behind the wheel and remind everyone that impaired driving is preventable," the agency wrote in a news release.

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Anyone who observes a suspected impaired driver should call 911 immediately.

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The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Herford in the west of the country has removed Alexander Eichwald from its faction in the local council following a firebrand speech he held at the weekend, a party representative told dpa.

Bielefeld AfD MP Maximilian Kneller told dpa on Monday that Eichwald has been removed. A spokeswoman for the city of Herford confirmed the information.

At an AfD congress to establish a new youth organization on Sunday, Eichwald took to the podium in Giessen with a speech reminiscent of Nazi Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler.

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The 30-year-old addressed the participants as "party comrades" and called out to the hall, "We share our love and loyalty to Germany here together."

He said, "it is and remains our national duty to protect German culture from foreign influences," in a statement that met sharp criticism from the hall.

According to Kneller, preparations are also under way in the AfD district association for party expulsion proceedings against Eichwald.

He had only been in the AfD for a few weeks. Hardly anyone knew him, Kneller said.

Eichwald had behaved inconspicuously until now. This suggests that his appearance in Giessen was a deliberate act, whether on his own initiative or on behalf of third parties is speculation, Kneller added.

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The AfD was immediately unanimous and is taking all necessary steps "to get rid of him wherever possible," Kneller asserted.

AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla told German broadcaster ntv that he didn't think Eichwald would remain a member of the party for long, referring to his comments as "very poor satire."

"Let's see what else comes out," Chrupalla added. "We don't yet know everything that might happen. In any case, he will not remain a member of the party. That much is certain."

Expulsion from the party would have to be enforced by an AfD arbitration panel.

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The information about Eichwald was updated on the city council's website on Monday.

Since the newly elected city parliament was constituted a few weeks ago, he had been listed there as a member of the AfD faction.

Until the committee reshuffle takes effect through a council decision in mid-December, he will be listed as an independent, a spokeswoman for the city of Herford said.
GENEVA, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Artificial Intelligence could widen gaps between developed and developing countries, a U.N. report said on Tuesday, calling for policy measures to limit the impact.

The report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) warns of a possible "great divergence" emerging between nations in terms of economic performance, people's skill sets and governing systems.

"We think that AI is heralding a new era of rising inequality between countries, following years of convergence in the last 50 years," Philip Schellekens, Chief Economist for UNDP Asia Pacific Regional Bureau told a Geneva press briefing.

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The UNDP report 'The Next Great Divergence: Why AI May Widen Inequality Between Countries' says that trade, technology and development have helped close gaps between states in recent decades, bringing major income, health and education gains.

These gains now risk being eroded, it says.

Ultimately, even wealthier countries would suffer if poorer states are left behind by AI, said Schellekens.

"If inequality continues to rise, the spillover effects of that in terms of the security agenda, in terms of undocumented forms of migration, will also become more daunting," he said.

(Reporting by Emma Farge, editing by Thomas Seythal)
BEIJING, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Many universities across China are preparing to offer embodied intelligence as a major, exemplified by humanoid robots, to address a talent shortage in this red-hot, fast-growing industry.

Most of these universities already have strong technology and engineering credentials, such as Beihang University in Beijing, renowned for its expertise in aeronautical and astronautical research, and the Hangzhou-based Zhejiang University, located in east China, where the founders of DeepSeek and many other AI startups pursued their studies.

The latest university to join this trend is Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which recently released a public notice indicating the addition of an undergraduate major in embodied intelligence, revealing that the program will be offered by its School of AI.

According to this university, the academic lead of this major will be Lu Cewu. He is also the co-founder of Noematrix, a Shanghai-based embodied intelligence company that managed to secure more funds from investors during a funding round led by tech giant Alibaba Group in October.

Lu's dual role reflects the integration of industry, academia and research within the new program. The university said it is aiming to establish a collaborative platform, enhance strategic partnerships between the campus and leading embodied intelligence companies, and jointly develop a network of industry-linked practicum centers.

Employment orientation is another distinct feature. For instance, the embodied intelligence program at the Beijing Institute of Technology plans to enroll 120 undergraduates. Among them, 70 are expected to pursue further education and 50 to enter the workplace, including state-owned space technology groups, automobile manufacturers and renowned private companies like Huawei and Tencent.

From humanoid dancers to care-giving robots, embodied intelligence is a term that has gradually captured public interest in China. It highlights how intelligent systems can become more capable and responsive by being closely connected to a physical body -- learning and adapting through real interactions with the environment.

In 1973, the world's first humanoid robot, WABOT-1, was developed at Waseda University in Tokyo. Since then, factories, universities and research institutions have been engaged in the development and utilization of humanoid robots.

Notably, the recent surge in university embodied intelligence programs in China has been driven by both strong policy support and vast market potential.

China has identified embodied intelligence as a key future industry. This year's government work report called for development of embodied AI. Also, together with quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen and fusion energy, brain-computer interfaces and 6G mobile communications, embodied intelligence has been designated one of the country's new engines of economic growth for the next five years.

The market scale of China's embodied intelligence industry is expected to reach 400 billion yuan (56.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2030 and exceed 1 trillion yuan in 2035, according to a report from the Development Research Center of the State Council.

However, behind the wave of embodied intelligence programs lies a thriving industry currently starved of talent.

A recent report focused on talent supply and demand conducted by Liepin's Big Data Research Institute, indicated that the average annual salary for recruitment in the field of embodied intelligence is 333,400 yuan -- much higher than the 290,900 yuan in the rest of the AI sector.

Xi'an Jiaotong University in northwest China's Shaanxi Province has found that companies including ByteDance, JD.com, Huawei and BYD have all announced job offers related to embodied intelligence or humanoid robots. The monthly salary for embodied intelligence algorithm engineers ranges from 25,000 to 90,000 yuan.

As of the end of September 2025, the cumulative financing amount for humanoid robots globally this year had surpassed 32.8 billion yuan, featuring a total of more than 140 financing events, and 120 of these were in the Chinese market -- accounting for over 80 percent of the global total, as revealed by data from the Humanoid Robot Scene Application Alliance.

The Beijing Institute of Technology estimates that there is a talent shortage of roughly one million in this industry.

Shanghai Jiaotong University said current curricula fail to meet the talent requirements which the embodied intelligence industry demands. Programs remain fragmented across scattered disciplines, engineering and practical training are weak, labs and platforms are outdated -- and courses are detached from real-world scenarios.

There is an urgent need to fill the gap by launching a new major that can break down disciplinary barriers and integrate AI, mechanical engineering, computer science and technology into one systematic curriculum, the university said. 
Tech leaders are split on whether AI will bring about a jobs Armageddon or a utopia of zero work and universal high income. Now, Google CEO Sundar Pichai is adding to the debate. And in his eyes, everyones job could be impacted by the new techeven his own. People will just have to adapt accordingly.

AI is the most profound technology humanity is ever working on, and it has potential for extraordinary benefits, and we will have to work through societal disruption, Pichai told the BBC in a recent interview.

The chief executive has a front-row seat to how AI will shake up the world; last month, Google rolled out its latest model, Gemini 3, and received critical praise. The innovationseen as an improvement on Gemini 2.5, released around eight months agoignited optimism among investors and analysts, who heralded the chatbot as their favorite model generally available today. As the technology continues to advance, Pichai emphasized that it will create new opportunities, while also admitting that some roles will be phased out.

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It will evolve and transition certain jobs, Pichai continued. People will need to adapt, and then there will be areas where it will impact some jobs. So, as a society, I think we need to be having those conversations.

People may believe only certain entry-level roles are being automated, like customer service representatives or junior analysts, but Pichai is adamant all roles will be touched by the tech. He even said his own job as CEO is one of the easier things for AI to take over one day. There is no industry or high-powered role disconnected from the age of AIbut those who embrace the tools will be the ones who succeed.

I think people who learn to adopt and adapt to AI will do better, Pichai continued. It doesnt matter whether you want to be a teacher, a doctorall those professions will be around, but the people who will do well in each of those professions are people who learn how to use these tools.

AI is wiping out jobsbut Pichai says kids shouldnt change course

Young, up-and-coming professionals may hear Pichais prediction and question if they chose the right career path. After all, theyre stepping out of college and into an uncertain labor market.

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Job postings across the U.S. have fallen by about 32% since ChatGPT hit the market, according to data from the Federal Reserve, as businesses deploy AI tools to boost efficiency. The percentage of Gen Z staffers at large public tech companies has been cut in half within the past two years; once-lucrative career paths, like computer programming, have hit employment lows; and now, humanoid robots are even being designed to take on physical work.

Its a dire situation thats forced many aspiring Gen Zers to reconsider if costly college degrees are worth the dwindling payout, or even switch to seemingly more AI-proof blue-collar careers. However, the Google CEO asserted that there is no golden-ticket college major or profession that is guaranteed to be safeguarded from AI; people should pursue whatever career they want, regardless of how the tech changes the job landscape.

Based on what I see, I wouldnt change anything of how weve always thought, Pichai said in reference to how parents should advise their kids. I think theres going to be a wide variety of disciplines which will end up mattering. I would encourage the next generation to embrace the technologylearn to use it in the context of what you do.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
The effects of the fatal boat crash that occurred earlier this year on Smith Lake are still reverberating throughout Alabamas tournament fishing community  as evidenced by the recent cancelations of several bass tourneys there. Tournament directors are now citing liability concerns, while others are seeking clarification on the laws and permits that guide these kinds of events.

This all reflects a broader uneasiness across Alabama in the wake of the Smith Lake crash that occurred during a bass tournament there in April, when MLF tournament angler Flint Davis crashed into a striped bass charter and killed three anglers onboard. It resulted in a wrongful death lawsuit against one of the sports biggest tournament organizers, Major League Fishing. Davis has since been indicted on manslaughter charges in a criminal case that is separate from the civil lawsuit, which also names Davis as a defendant.

In the wrongful death lawsuit, the family of one of the anglers killed accused MLF of creating a culture that incentivizes recklessness, and of failing to implement a proper safety plan to protect the public. This latter allegation may be giving other tournament directors pause, especially for smaller-scale local tournaments that may not have the legal or financial resources of an organization like MLF.

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This would include the Guntersville Open Bass Tournament, which decided in early November to not only cancel two of its marquee tournaments, but to disband as a club altogether. (A YouTuber who spoke with the organization confirmed that it will also delete its social media pages permanently.)

Read Next: Pro Bass Fisherman Indicted on Manslaughter Charges as Officials Release Deadly Boat Crash Footage

The group said in a Nov. 2 Facebook post that the popular Black Friday and New Years Day tournaments held annually on Lake Guntersville will officially come to an end. It clarified that this difficult decision was made in light of the Smith Lake incident.

Its unfortunate that something like this has to bring an end to such a long-standing tradition, Guntersville Open Bass Tournament organizer James Cornelies said in the Nov. 2 announcement. But we have to protect ourselves and do whats right.

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Another, similarly worded announcement came from Auburn Universitys bass fishing team on Nov. 20. The team said in a Facebook post that it would be canceling its upcoming tournament on Lake Jordan due to recent events  i.e. the Smith Lake crash and the resulting legal outcomes  and because of a law requiring a permit for marine events like fishing tournaments. The team said it was canceling the tourney to keep the team protected, presumably from litigation that could result from a boat crash.

A picture that Auburn University posted as part of its announcement to cancel the tournament that was scheduled for Dec. 7. Photo via Facebook / Auburn University Bass Fishing Team

These announcements and the resulting chatter among tournament fishermen have caught the attention of at least one legislator, Craig Lipscomb, who represents District 30 in the Alabama House of Representatives. In a social post made just one day after Auburns announcement, Lipscomb said hed heard from many of his bass-fishing friends about their concerns around permits and liability. He said he was communicating directly with the Alabama Marine Patrol to seek clarification and eventually resolve these concerns.

Lipscomb clarified in a podcast last week that a lot of this uneasiness revolves around the permit that the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency requires for public events held on public waters. ALEA has required tournament organizers to obtain these permits since 1994, according to one agency spokesperson. But Lipscomb said there is room for improvement with this process, which requires organizers to mail in a written application for a permit at least 15 days before an event. This is required, in part, to ensure that local law enforcement officers have enough resources to keep the public safe when lakes are busier than normal.

Lipscomb said that in addition to modernizing the permitting process by shifting from a mail-in to an online system, ALEA should set a threshold for the kinds of events that actually require a permit, based on the number of boats involved.

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Read Next: Watch: Pro Bass Anglers Could Have Been Killed in Crash While Speeding Back to Weigh-In

What size tournament is that going to be? I dont know yet. I know the number 25 has been tossed around  Id rather see that closer to 50, but I dont get to make those decisions, Lipscomb said. At some point, we are going to find out from the Marine Police what they think is appropriate for them to manage. Its really all about their staffing.

He explained that without this clear threshold, small-scale tournament organizers have in past years been unsure of whether they need a permit, which has led to uncertainties around public safety, insurance plans, and liability. And with the Smith Lake incident still at the forefront of peoples minds, tournament organizers arent willing to take any chances that could result in them being sued.

These accidents are still going to happen, but just as far as the sake of filling out the permits, Lipscomb said. If everybody wouldve been doing this all along for all of these years we wouldnt be here talking about [this.]
Alan Wong was sworn in Monday as the Sunset District's newest supervisor, filling a seat left vacant after months of political upheaval.

Surrounded by swaths of community leaders, Mayor Daniel Lurie administered the oath of office outside Lincoln High School - Wong's alma mater - as students watched from classroom windows upstairs.

The appointment comes after a year of political tumult for the Sunset. Its voters recalled former Supervisor Joel Engardio in September for his support of closing the Great Highway, despite residents' large opposition.

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San Francisco voters approved Proposition K in last year's November election to shut down a stretch of the highway to make way for a new park.

After the recall, Lurie's initial pick for the district's next supervisor quickly backfired. Isabella "Beya Alcaraz" lasted in office just seven days before submitted resignation amid controversy.

EXCLUSIVE: Resigned SF supervisor responds to texts detailing questionable business practices

The mayor's office was first met with skepticism about Alcaraz's thin resume and qualifications, but questions about how she ran her previously-owned business quickly emerged in the subsequent days.

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Alcaraz resigned hours after ABC7 Political Reporter Monica Madden pressed the supervisor about the allegations. Lurie acknowledged the criticism and said Monday hiis office took a "deeper, more deliberative process" this time, including community feedback.

Wong, a San Francisco native, noted to reporters that he personally voted against Prop. K, and pledged to lead by listening.

"I will always hear my constituents before moving forward with major policy decisions. I will meet with everybody, including those that support the closure and those that want to return to the compromise.

Wong is no stranger to city politics. He has been a member of the City College Board of Trustees after first being elected in 2020 and previously worked as a legislative aide for former Sunset Supervisor Gordon Mar. He's also a longtime member of the California National Guard.

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Community leaders at Monday's ceremony expressed hope that Wong will bring stability.

But challenges await. Wong will face contentious issues from day one, including debates over the Great Highway and new housing proposals.

His first major test comes Tuesday, when the Board of Supervisors votes on the mayor's zoning plan to make it easier for developers to build housing.

Wong told reporters he plans to vote yes - a stance likely to draw pushback from some Sunset residents.

If you're on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live




Key Points

Aldi recalls popular holiday snacks in 26 states and regions over undeclared allergens.

Products impacted are Pecan, Cranberry & Cinnamon Holiday Bark and Cookie Butter Holiday Bark.

Those with wheat or pecan allergies may experience severe allergic reactions.

Aldi just announced a recall on two popular holiday snacks sold in 26 states and regions, according to the companys website. This is due to undeclared allergens.

The Silvestri Sweets Inc. products affected are 5-ounce bags of Choceur Pecan, Cranberry & Cinnamon Holiday Bark and Choceur Cookie Butter Holiday Bark. These barks are being recalled for undeclared wheat and pecans, respectively.

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Aldi locations in the following states and regions are impacted by this recall: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.

If you have one of the holiday barks on hand, the company is urging you to discard the product immediately or return it to your local Aldi for a full refund. Those with a wheat or pecan allergy could experience symptoms as severe as anaphylaxis after eating. Call 911 if you are showing signs of a severe allergic reaction.

Customers with questions may contact Silvestri Sweets by calling 1-630-232-2500, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. CT.



Read the original article on EatingWell
An Altadena man got a big surprise last week when he found a 500-pound bear living underneath his home. Now, the homeowner is facing a serious problem because the stubborn animal won't leave!

Ken Johnson, a local product photographer, said it all started last Tuesday when he took a look at one of his surveillance cameras and noticed a bear had made his narrow crawl space a den for the winter.

"In June, I walked by there and noticed [the crawl space] had all been torn up," Johnson told Eyewitness News on Monday. "The bricks had been pulled out, the frame had been ripped up apart, so I put a camera there to see what was doing it."

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He said he had seen a YouTube video of another Altadena resident who had a bear living in its crawl space, so he started to wonder.

"It looked just like my crawl space, so I thought, 'There's possibly a way,'" he said. "Next thing I know, my camera picks up a bear crawling out from under the crawl space -- and now he's been in and out all week."

Johnson said the bear stays right under his kitchen, so he hears the bear moving around.

"I thought he'd be long gone by now. It's unnerving," he said. "I think the longer he's there, the more comfortable he's going to be, and this won't end."

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In fact, Johnson said he even came pretty close to the bear when he was trying to change the camera's batteries.

"I went to replace the batteries, and this huge growl came from underneath the space and scared me to death," he said. "I couldn't stop shaking. It's the strangest sound, too. It's like a roar, but it's got this hiss on it too, like a dragon. I mean, it's just incredible, and coming out from underneath that space, it just reverberates even more... just horrible."

The bear is famous in this neighborhood along Altadena Drive below the San Gabriel Mountains because it's been spotted almost every week for over six months. Some residents believe the Eaton Fire destroyed its home, which is why it now roams their neighborhood looking for shelter and food.

"Our neighbors had a bear, and I hear now there's one across the street. It's the mountains, and we burned, so they had to go somewhere. They had no place to live," said neighbor Janet Patton. "Where are they going to go? A nice dark basement is the perfect place."

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The size of this particular bear, which is tagged, is what concerns Johnson. He says he's working on a plan to draw the bear out of the crawl space, then block the entrance with sandbags.

Johnson said he contacted the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), which says it is aware of the situation and will determine the next steps, which could include capturing the bear and transporting it back up to the mountains.

"Keep your distance as much as you can. Make sure that you're giving the bear enough space to escape. That's a huge element. Bears don't want to be around us any more than we want to be around them, and if they feel like they're cornered, that's a problem," said Cort Klopping with CDFW. "If they see an escape route, they're going to take it. And then you also want to make sure you're being loud, make yourself big, waving your hands, and slowly backing away."

CDFW says securing your crawl space, especially during the colder months, is also important.
At roughly the length of a small school bus, anacondas are famously some of the worlds largest snakes. Now fossil evidence proves that these enormous reptiles are also glimpses of an ancient world. According to a study published on December 1st in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, anacondas reached their maximum length around 12.4 million years agoand have remained giants ever since.

Some of todays largest animal species are puny compared to their Middle-to-Upper-Miocene megafauna ancestors. South Americas black caiman crocodile (Melanosuchus niger) grew up to 21 feet long, but about 16 million years ago, its Purussaurus genus relatives averaged a length of around 34 feet. Meanwhile, the freshwater turtles of the Stupendemys genus from nine million years ago featured over 10-foot-wide shells.

A number of factors contributed to the Miocene growth spurt, such as warmer and wetter climates as well as plenty of food to support large animals. But while evolution often eventually favored (relatively) smaller species, one group of snakes has stayed the same for millions of years.

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Other species like giant crocodiles and giant turtles have gone extinct since the Miocene, probably due to cooling global temperatures and shrinking habitats, University of Cambridge zoologist and study co-author Andres Alfonso-Rojas said in a statement. But the giant anacondas have survivedthey are super-resilient.

Anacondas can sometimes reach up to 30 feet in length and thrive in semi-aquatic environments like the Amazon regions marshes, large rivers, and swamps. But while the rainforest basin encompasses around 2.7 million square miles today, essentially all of northern South America featured similar habitats that allowed the snakes to flourish.

Anacondas can have more than 300 vertebrae in their backbones, and measurements of the size of individual fossilised vertebrae can provide a reliable indication of how long a snake was. Credit: Jorge Carrillo-Briceno

Knowing this, Alfonso-Rojas and colleagues examined 183 fossilized anaconda vertebrae from at least 32 different snakes collected in Venezuela. Combined with additional fossil data gathered across South America, the team determined Miocene anacondas routinely reached 13 to 16.5 feet long. This is virtually identical to adult anacondas of the present-day Eunectes genus. Prior to the new study, paleontologists werent entirely sure when in Earths history that the snakes first reached their imposing sizes.

The team also uncoiled an unexpected twist in the snakes evolutionary trajectory. Basically, anacondas have always been the megafauna they are today.

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This is a surprising result because we expected to find the ancient anacondas were seven or eight meters [22.9 or 26.2 feet], said Alfonso-Rojas. But we dont have any evidence of a larger snake from the Miocene when global temperatures were warmer.

Anacondas have remained apex predators for over 12 million years and arent considered endangered, but that doesnt mean theyre necessarily safe. Tropical rainforests may still support their size, but climate change and deforestation pose major threats. Without conservation efforts, the megafauna may finally meet their match in the near future.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is unlikely to receive any compensation upon leaving Royal Lodge in Windsor, according to information published by the Public Accounts Committee.

As part of his leasing arrangement, Andrew could have been entitled to 488,000 for an early surrender of his 75-year lease.

But a report from the Crown Estate for MPs on the public spending watchdog says that the property is so dilapidated and in need of repairs that in "all likelihood" Andrew "will not be owed any compensation".

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There will now be an MPs' inquiry launched into the Crown Estate and its royal leases, says committee chair, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown.

Sir Geoffrey said the information from the Crown Estate "clearly forms the beginnings of a basis for an inquiry" which will begin next year and will consider the Crown Estate and property leases with the Royal Family.

It is not known yet whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor will be called to give evidence.

Prince Andrew had a 75-year lease on Royal Lodge on the Windsor estate [Shutterstock]

The information supplied by the Crown Estate also showed Andrew handed in his notice on the property on 30 October, the day it had been announced he had lost his titles.

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He gave a year's notice, so could stay for another 10 months, but it has been expected that he will move from Royal Lodge to Sandringham in Norfolk early next year.

MPs on the cross-party committee had wanted to know the details of Andrew's financial arrangements for Royal Lodge and whether taxpayers' interests had been properly protected.

Andrew had taken on a 75-year lease of Royal Lodge in 2003, paying over 8.5m up-front to cover renovation costs and paying in advance to remove any requirement for rent, based on a notional rent of 260,000 per year.

There was also a token "peppercorn" payment, which the Crown Estate notes is standard practice for long leases, where there's an advance payment in lieu of rent.

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A clause allowed him to get some of his advance payments back if he left within 25 years, but that depended on the property being maintained.

The report says the current condition of Royal Lodge is "not out of keeping with a tenancy of this duration", but the cost of repairing "dilapidations" meant any payback was unlikely.

Overall, the terms of the Royal Lodge deal were "fair, reasonable and in line with market practice", says a letter from the Crown Estate commissioners to MPs.

The spending watchdog also published information about Forest Lodge, the Prince and Princess of Wales's new home in Windsor, saying it had been taken on a 20-year lease from the Crown Estate.

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The couple, who moved in this autumn, are described as paying an "open market rent" using levels agreed by independent valuers.

There had been pressure on Andrew, 65, to move from his Windsor home for over a year, in what had become known as the Siege of Royal Lodge.

King Charles had stopped financial support for his brother, but Andrew had a private lease that he had previously shown no signs of relinquishing.

But following a growing public outcry about his links to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Andrew was stripped of titles such as the Duke of York and his status as prince, becoming Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

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As part of that announcement in October, Andrew was also to leave Royal Lodge and to move into some other accommodation in Sandringham, the King's private estate in Norfolk.

Andrew has also faced calls from Democrat members of the US Congress to give evidence to a committee investigating Epstein's activities.

Mr Mountbatten-Windsor had not replied to the request by the end of their deadline last month.

[BBC]

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In an ever-changing story about the disappearance of Lonene Ray Rogers nearly 45 years ago, Clinton Randall Rogers has changed his tune once again, admitting not only to murdering his wife but telling police how he did it and why. And a conversation with their daughter, Alison Duiker, reveals even more.

Clinton, 76, faces charges of criminal homicide and aggravated assault in the 1981 disappearance of Lonene, who was 29 at the time. On Friday, he was transferred from Indiana County jail to Crawford County jail and denied bail.

On Jan. 7, 1981, Clinton reported his wifes disappearance from their Hayfield Township home near routes 98 and 198 at Littles Corners. Clinton told police that he and his wife, who was almost completely deaf and unable to speak fluently, had argued the previous evening. He last saw her, he told police at the time, when he went to bed at 12:45 a.m. He reported waking up during the early-morning hours and discovering his wife was not at the residence. Clinton told authorities that he initially wasnt worried so he didnt contact police right away.

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Lonenes disappearance occurred during a severe snowstorm, according to Pennsylvania State Police. Her purse, hearing aids and glasses, car and keys  and her two children, who were 1 and 6 at the time  were left behind.

Since the incident, family and friends have maintained that Lonene would not have willingly left the residence without her kids, according to police. Numerous searches conducted over the years proved fruitless. At the same time, however, since the disappearance, none of her close friends or relatives have had any contact with her and there has been no activity for her Social Security number, state police told The Meadville Tribune earlier this year.

Now, Clinton is changing his side of the story. According to an affidavit of probable cause, he told state police just a few weeks ago, on Nov. 5, that he was arguing with Lonene the night of her disappearance. Both Lonene and Clinton are deaf, and he had found messages on the teletypewriter machine  an electronic device that uses a keyboard to send and receive messages over the telephone line  between her and another man.

Clinton then said he choked Lonene in a fit of rage and alleges that he blacked out and doesnt remember how long he choked her for, according to the affidavit.

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Then, last Wednesday, Clinton spoke with police again and said he argued with Lonene about her lying about having relationships with other men about her having marijuana. He said Lonene then fell asleep on the couch and he was so angry that he choked her to death on the couch, then carried her to the bedroom where he wrapped her body in a pink blanket.

When he spoke with police on Nov. 5, Clinton would not say what he did with the body, but on Wednesday, he admitted to putting her body in the bed of his Ford Bronco and driving to a dumpster, where he said he threw her body in the dumpster.

This is a detour from his long-held story that he was sleeping and found her gone in the middle of the night. Duiker, the daughter of Clinton and Lonene, who was only 6 at the time, has always thought her father was the culprit.

When speaking with the Tribune on Monday, Duiker painted an abysmal picture of her life following her mothers disappearance. Her and her younger brother lived with their father off-and-on in the years that proceeded.

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We would be with him and then we get taken away by children services for abuse and neglect, and then he all of a sudden would be fit to be a parent again, and theyd return us and then he would do the same, she said.

The last time she spoke with him was when she was 14 and he dropped her off at the police station. Duiker said Rogers decided to give her up.

My father was deaf so you know Im signing for my father, telling the police officer that he didnt want me anymore, she recalls of that night.

Thankfully, a guidance counselor had offered Duiker help that day, writing her phone number on a piece of paper that Duiker was able to pull out of her pocket when police asked if there was anyone who they could call for her.

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I havent really seen my father since that day, she said.

Since then, though, shes been a steadfast advocate for Lonene, writing a book about her mother and legislation pertaining to cold cases. She also posted billboards as recent as last fall in the Meadville area asking residents to contact state police with any information about the disappearance.

Over Memorial Day weekend, she hosted two rallies and a candlelight vigil on back-to-back nights outside of the state police barracks in Vernon Township. At the time, she said it was to keep pressure on police and to keep the memory of her mother alive.

That wasnt all she was doing, though. She had contacted Private Investigations for the Missing, a nonprofit that helps loved ones.

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Without them we wouldnt we wouldnt be having this day, Duiker said, remarking that she had begged state police time and time again to interview Rogers about the murder but was dismissed as it was a cold case and not an active threat.

With private investigator Jeff Walters, though, Duiker said police cooperated and they were able to move the investigation forward.

When faced with the big question of why confess now?, Duiker said she thinks a few factors brought Rogers to admit to murder, and it wasnt just a private investigator on his tail.

Rogers had recently been charged in Indiana County for violating a protection from abuse order and stayed the maximum sentence of six months.

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I believe that he was at such rock-bottom that jail looked better, you know, three hots and a cot, Duiker said. The weather, not having having a home, couldnt find somewhere to go, probably needing food, didnt have money  I think total desperation is what was instrumental in him confessing.

She also believes that, as he faces the latter portion of his life, fear plays a part.

I guess he found God recently and said God forgives him, but he said the devil kept coming to him and just bugging him and I think thats his guilty conscience, Duiker said.

After years of feeling mistreated and brushed off by state police, Duiker doesnt feel justice yet. She feels closure over finding answers about her mother, but she is fearful that Clinton will get away with murder, quite literally.

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I will be able to feel justice and feel relief when sentencing day comes, she said. Until then, I still feel very anxious, and Im just just hoping that everything works out as it should because hes gotten away with like every crime hes ever committed. Its insane.

She is thankful for the circumstances that brought him to confess, however, saying that she feels her mothers honor has remained and their claims about her character have stood above all.

One of the things that I feel good about is I feel that my mother is vindicated, she said. This confession, it proves that she indeed would never have left her children, that they were the most important thing to her.

Clinton Rogers was originally taken into custody in Indiana County, where his most recent residence is documented on court records, but he will face charges in Crawford County. His preliminary hearing is set for Dec. 9 at 2 p.m. in front of Magisterial District Judge Lincoln S. Zilhaver.

Crawford County District Attorney Paula DiGiacomo will prosecute the case. On Monday, she told the Tribune that she had no further comment at this time since the case is ongoing but that her office wants to try to bring some justice for Lonene Rogers and her family and friends.
By John Kruzel and Andrew Chung

WASHINGTON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on Tuesday in a case from New Jersey involving the state attorney general's investigation into the operator of Christian faith-based "crisis pregnancy centers," facilities that seek to steer women away from having abortions.

The justices will consider whether to revive a bid by First Choice Women's Resource Centers to block a records request made by Democratic Attorney General Matthew Platkin as part of a probe into whether it unlawfully deceived donors and potential clients into believing the facilities offered abortions and other reproductive healthcare services.

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First Choice, which has five locations in New Jersey, has appealed a lower court's determination that the organization's federal lawsuit challenging Platkin's subpoena was premature in light of ongoing state court litigation over the matter.

Crisis pregnancy centers provide services to pregnant women with the goal of dissuading them from having an abortion. Such centers often do not clearly advertise their anti-abortion stance, and abortion rights advocates have called them deceptive.

First Choice is represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal group that has brought other cases on behalf of anti-abortion plaintiffs. President Donald Trump's administration is backing First Choice in the case.

The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, in 2022 overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that had legalized abortion nationwide.

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Following that decision, Platkin's office issued a consumer alert that warned the public that crisis pregnancy centers do not provide abortions and noted that such facilities "may also provide false or misleading information about abortion."

Platkin in 2023 issued a subpoena to First Choice seeking internal records, including the names of its doctors and donors, as part of an investigation into potentially illegal practices under a state consumer-protection law and other statutes.

Days before its records were due to be handed over, First Choice sued Platkin in New Jersey federal court, arguing that the subpoena chilled its federal rights to free speech and free association under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.

Platkin sought to enforce the subpoena in state court, a move that First Choice contested. A state judge in 2024 declined to quash the subpoena for the time being, ordering the parties to negotiate a narrower subpoena. The judge said that the constitutional issues could be litigated going forward.

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In the federal case, U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp dismissed First Choice's complaint, finding that its federal claims were premature because it could continue to make its constitutional claims in the state court and did not face any immediate threat of being held in contempt.

The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 ruling in 2024 upheld Shipp's ruling, prompting First Choice to appeal to the Supreme Court.

First Choice has argued that federal civil rights law is intended to guarantee parties a federal forum to assert their constitutional rights. It said that forcing it to litigate in state court would effectively deny it that forum because the constitutional claims would be decided before a federal court could ever hear them.

Platkin has argued that First Choice has not demonstrated that his subpoena - which can be enforced only by order of a state court, where litigation is ongoing - has chilled the organization's First Amendment rights.

(Reporting by John Kruzel; Editing by Will Dunham)
Lawyers for First Choice Women's Resource Centers say New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin's subpoena violates their constitutional rights to free speech and association. (Photo by New Jersey Monitor)

New Jersey officials three-year effort to investigate a network of Christian antiabortion pregnancy centers accused of using deceptive practices landed before the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, when justices heard arguments over the narrow jurisdictional question of whether the case belongs in state or federal court.

Since 2023, lawyers for First Choice Womens Resource Centers have been fighting a subpoena Attorney General Matt Platkin issued for a wide array of the nonprofits records and communications, including donors names.

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In New Jersey, state courts have the power to handle subpoena disputes. But First Choice sued in federal court to block enforcement, saying that the subpoena unconstitutionally chills its free-speech and free-association rights and that federal courts should decide constitutional challenges.

Tuesday, First Choices attorney Erin Morrow Hawley urged the justices to protect donor privacy, consider Platkins motives, and consider his coercive subpoena a violation of the First Amendment. Such a ruling would reverse earlier decisions by a U.S. federal judge and a federal appeals panel that the case should remain in state court, at least until a state judge decides whether First Choices noncompliance warrants sanctions.

The attorney general of New Jersey issued a sweeping subpoena commanding  on pain of contempt  that First Choice produced donor names, addresses, and phone numbers so his office could contact and question them, said Hawley, adding, This is the context of a hostile attorney general who has issued a consumer alert, urged New Jerseyans to beware of pregnancy centers, and assembled a strike force against them.

Hawley is a former law clerk of Chief Justice John Roberts. Vivek Suri, assistant to the Solicitor General in the U.S. Department of Justice, joined Hawley in arguing on First Choices behalf, saying people with a constitutional challenge always have standing in federal court.

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Sundeep Iyer, Platkins chief counsel, warned that restricting constitutional challenges solely to federal judges would clog the courts and represent a pretty dramatic sea change in historical practice. Platkins office alone has issued more than 500 subpoenas this year to people and companies its investigating, while Google got about 50,000 subpoenas last year, Iyer added.

State and local governments issue tens of thousands of subpoenas every year, but the federal governments theory would risk turning many of these ordinary subpoena disputes into federal cases, Iyer said. Even without a First Amendment claim, that would be a remarkable break from history and tradition. No court has accepted that theory, and this court should not be the first.

The case made for unusual allies, with groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression siding with the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Christian legal advocacy group where Hawley works. In an August amicus brief, the ACLU and the foundation fretted about censorship by intimidation and warned that authorities of all political persuasions increasingly are using their powers, including subpoenas, to squelch disfavored speech as society grows more polarized.

Over 90 minutes of arguments Tuesday, both sides strayed far from the jurisdictional issue and the justices peppered attorneys with a steady stream of questions.

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The justices mulled the purpose of Platkins request for donor details (to see if donors thought their contributions were going to an abortion-rights group) and whether compliance with subpoenas is mandatory (no, unless a judge orders compliance). The jurists also debated the degree of chill that might deter donors and if a letter of request instead of a subpoena would have sparked the same court fight.

They wrangled with whether the mere receipt of a subpoena can cause imminent injury or pose a credible threat, if courts have not yet sanctioned  and might not ever  a noncompliant recipient. First Choice attorneys argued that they suffered harms in the cost of the legal fight, anticipated losses of charitable contributions from donors who fear public disclosure, and possible regulatory retaliation if they dont comply with the subpoena. Platkins team had called claims of such harms speculative.

Some justices opinions seemed clear in their questioning.

Justice Clarence Thomas asked Iyer whether investigators had received any reports of deceptive practices by First Choice, and Iyer conceded they had not.

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You say you have no complaints. But rather you looked at the website and their materials, and you think it could have been misleading, Thomas said.

Subpoenaing donor information just seems to be a burdensome way to find out whether someone has a confusing website, he added.

Tax law requires charitable organizations to identify major donors in tax filings in order to retain their tax-exempt status. That law also is being challenged in federal court in Ohio.

Hawley urged the justices to reject Iyers claim that subpoenas are voluntary, negotiable, and not intimidating.

Subpoenas would terrify normal donors, mom-and-pop donors, Hawley said. If you look at the allegations in this case, some donors gave as little as $10. Those folks are going to be worried about a state attorney general, the highest law enforcement officer in the country, demanding their names, phone numbers, addresses, places of employment so that he can contact them about a donor website.

First Choice has five centers in Jersey City, Montclair, Morristown, Newark, and New Brunswick.

A decision is expected by the summer.

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KIEV, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that Ukrainian and U.S. delegations refined the Geneva peace plan during their recent meeting near Miami, Florida.

"The work was based on the Geneva document, and that document has been refined," Zelensky wrote on Facebook following his talks with the Ukrainian delegation.

He said the Ukrainian-U.S. meeting on Sunday also discussed the feasibility of measures on the front line, as well as challenges related to protection against Russian strikes and preventing violations of the agreements if a ceasefire is achieved.

Zelensky emphasized that Ukrainian diplomats are actively coordinating with international partners to involve European countries and other members of the "Coalition of the Willing" in mulling decisions.

After a U.S.-proposed 28-point peace plan was unveiled on Nov. 20, representatives from the United States, Ukraine and several European countries met in Geneva and revised the plan to 19 points. 
The application process for current participants in Tennessees private school voucher program for the 2026-27 school year will begin on Dec. 9, while new applicants will have to wait until January, the state Department of Education announced.

Education Freedom Scholarships, the states taxpayer-funded private school choice program, offers 20,000 scholarships of $7,295 to Tennessee students regardless of where they live.

Half of the vouchers are reserved for families with incomes of $173,000 or less for a family of four, and the rest are open to any Tennessee student, regardless of income. Participants are required to take a national achievement test but are not required to participate in Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program testing.

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Current families enrolled in the voucher program may apply to renew beginning Dec. 9.

Applications will open for new families beginning Jan. 13. Applicants who applied for the program last year but were not accepted are considered new applicants, and may apply on Jan. 13.

The application process will close on Jan. 30.

Lawmakers approved the $447 million program despite bipartisan opposition this spring, with built-in provisions allowing the legislature to expand it based on applicant demand.

More than 42,800 people applied for 2025-26 vouchers when the application process opened last year. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has said he hopes the legislature will fund more slots for the program next year.

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Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds called the first year of implementation a remarkable success.

I look forward to continuing to deliver families with quality educational choices to best serve their students unique needs, Reynolds said. Im grateful to the families and schools who have engaged in the program, and encourage interested families to apply.

Just over 82% of the scholarships last year went to students in metro and suburban areas around Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Clarksville, Murfreesboro, Franklin and Jackson. Most of the schools benefiting from the program are religious institutions.

TDOE turned away more than 11,100 applicants for the Education Freedom Scholarships this summer who fell under the $173,000 income cap for a family of four.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee's private school voucher process to begin Dec. 9
A Chinese flag flies with tourists hiking along the Great Wall, near Beijing, China, November 10, 2025; illustrative. (photo credit: Cheng Xin/Getty Images)

Chinese archaeologists uncovered the largest Ming Dynasty cannon ever found during excavations at the Great Walls Jiankou section, alongside rare artifacts and ancient structures.

Chinese archaeologists announced the discovery of the largest ever cannon found during an excavation of the Jiankou section of the Great Wall of China, state media confirmed on Monday.

The cannon, cast during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), measured 89.2 centimeters in length and weighed 112.1 kilograms, Xinhua, the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China, clarified.

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Shang Heng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Institute of Archaeology, spoke at a press conference announcing the excavation's findings.

Shang said that "well-preserved inscriptions on the cannon provide crucial new evidence for research on firearms manufacturing and historical military technology exchange," during the Ming Dynasty period, Xinhua reported.

Archaeologists find turquoise artifacts dating back to ancient Xia, Shang Dynasties

Other items found during the excavation included burial grounds, moats, residential remains, and 28 turquoise artifacts dating back to the Xia Dynasty (2070 BCE - 1600 BCE) and Shang Dynasty (1600 BCE - 1046 BCE), Xinhua added.

A visitor walks past cannons on display at the Jiayu Pass, the first frontier fortress at the west end of the Ming dynasty Great Wall, in Jiayuguan, China's northwestern Gansu province on October 28, 2024; illustrative. (credit: ADEK BERRY/AFP via Getty Images)

The archaeologists also found storage rooms used by frontier garrison troops during the Ming Dynasty, as well as three previously unknown watch towers and connecting walls, Global Times, a daily Chinese tabloid under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party's flagship newspaper, the People's Daily, reported.

The archaeology project was funded by "social forces rather than government or construction projects," the tabloid noted.
An inmate who escaped from Grady Memorial Hospital on Monday morning is still on the run.

The Rockdale County Sheriffs Office told Channel 2s Cory James on Monday night that Timothy Shane was seen on camera stealing a silver Pontiac Grand Prix with Georgia tag RWN9945 near Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The vehicle was located abandoned in the parking lot of the Publix on Hwy. 155 in Henry County.

Investigators say they do not know if he stole another vehicle or is still in the area.

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Lt. Billy Burrell said Shane went to Grady Memorial Hospital for a medical evaluation on Sunday night after a suicide attempt. He later escaped around 1:20 a.m. Monday. Burrell said investigators are still working to find out how Shane escaped.

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After his escape, the sheriffs office said Shane stole a SUV at Piedmont Ave and Auburn Ave, but crashed it less than a mile away on Ivan Allen Jr. Blvd. The cars owner says a Glock handgun was stolen.

Investigators later told Channel 2s Candace McCowan that they believed to have a confirmed sighting of Shane in Atlantas Little Five Points neighborhood wearing a red hoodie and dark blue pants.

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Three Chinese astronauts have finally returned to Earth after they were stranded in orbit when their return capsule was damaged by space debris.

What's happening?

Commander Chen Dong and crewmates Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie had been in space since April, according to Wired. The team was set to return in early November, but the Shenzhou 20 spacecraft sustained damage from debris. Officials later confirmed the return trip would be postponed.

"Things like this will become increasingly common as billionaires increasingly treat low Earth orbit like their personal playground and garbage dump," one Bluesky user said.

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Wired reported that the stranded crew eventually returned on the newer Shenzhou 21 spacecraft. It described the trip as the "longest-duration crew mission for China's space program."

Why is space debris important?

There are nearly 6,000 tons of materials in low Earth orbit, according to NASA. Space debris, also called space junk, can move up to 18,000 mph, or nearly seven times faster than a bullet. With those rates of speed and the quantity of debris, there are many safety hazards in space.

According to SpaceNews, there are more than 10,000 operational satellites in low Earth orbit and thousands of defunct ones too. The Government Accountability Office estimates that the number could increase to as much as 58,000 by 2030.

More satellites could make collisions with space debris more likely. For example, Elon Musk's SpaceX has about 8,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, though an astrophysicist told EarthSky that at least one falls from the sky each day.

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The presence of space debris poses environmental risks for the planet too. According to Earth.org, small debris in low Earth orbit will gradually burn up in the atmosphere. The toxic pollutants released can have a negative impact on the climate.

What's being done about space debris?

In 2024, NASA unveiled its Space Sustainability Strategy. The program looks to clean up space junk in orbit and make sure that resources are shared in a sustainable way.

Others are focused on safety measures. Atomic-6, an aerospace startup, introduced impact shielding tiles to keep astronauts safe after reports of falling Starlink satellites.

Meanwhile, people have called on the tech giants investing in space exploration to make changes.

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"Billionaires should spend money cleaning up space and the toxic waste they are dumping on the planet," another Bluesky user wrote.



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News that the Trump administration has paused asylum decisions, halted visas for Afghans who assisted the US war effort and is re-evaluating green card applications for people from countries of concern has left asylum seekers across the US reeling  and pushed deeper into limbo.

People say that fear travels faster than information. And thats exactly what has happened, said Reza Hussaini, a 23-year-old asylum seeker from Afghanistan who came to the US in 2022 and is still awaiting an interview to evaluate his case.

Immigration lawyers and advocates are still trying to understand exactly how the Trump administrations flurry of immigration policies restricting asylum and legal immigration would be implemented. The far-reaching policy announcements, aimed at dramatically curtailing legal pathways to immigration, came after Donald Trump vowed to permanently pause migration from third world countries following last weeks shooting of two national guard members in DC by a suspect who is an Afghan national.

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The new rules could affect nearly 1.5m pending asylum cases with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

Legal experts expect that the broader asylum pause and other policy changes will face challenges in court. Advocates have warned that the administrations policy announcements targeting refugees, asylum seekers and specifically Afghan nationals following the shooting amount to collective punishment.

Related: US halts all asylum decisions after national guard shooting

Hussaini  like many other Afghans and asylum seekers in the US  doesnt know how his immigration case, or those of his friends and community, would be affected. But it kind of puts me in a corner  Even more than fear, its uncertainty about what my status could be, whats going to happen next, what my future is going to look like. What if I get deported back to Afghanistan  back to a government that sees me as the enemy?

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Hussaini says he survived two terrorist attacks in Afghanistan. He began working with non-profit organizations in Afghanistan as a teen, advocating for education, womens rights and democracy. He was detained and questioned by the Taliban forces in 2021, he said, and escaped via Pakistan shortly after. If the US expels him now, he fears hell have an even bigger target on his back than before.

It appears that the intention of these policies is to be demoralizing, said Faisal Al-Juburi, head of external affairs at the legal aid group Raices, which has more than 50 pending asylum cases with USCIS. And its leaving people in a limbo, creating a greater sense of unease, of opacity around peoples future.

Lawyers and advocates at Raices have been working to reassure asylum seekers and other immigrants that not all the proposed policy changes may be legal, he said, and that attorneys across the US will be seeking to understand and clarify the impacts. We cant go by what ifs, because right now, there is no clear picture.

What if I get deported back to Afghanistan  back to a government that sees me as the enemy? Reza Hussaini, asylum seeker from Afghanistan

What is certain is that asylum seekers are looking at an even longer process than they had been expecting. The USCIS director, Joseph B Edlow, said that the agency has halted all asylum decisions until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.

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That pause will exacerbate an already spiralling backlog of pending asylum cases, said Yliana Johansen-Mendez, the chief program officer at Immigrant Defenders Law Center. For those people that have been waiting for eight years for their interviews, who thought they were finally going to get some resolution and some protection and some stability, its just going to prolong their wait.

Indeed, while the pause announcement has rattled many asylum seekers, the fact that the asylum process already stretches out over a long time has dulled the sting. The process is so slow. So whats some statement that theyre not going to process asylum applications, that theres going to be another year added to an already years-long process? said Dave Meyer, a volunteer with the Bloomington Refugee Support Network in Indiana, which helps immigrants adjust to life in the US, and find services and access to medical care.

Amir, who fled Afghanistan and came to the US via Mexico last year, said he still doesnt understand what the policy changes mean for him. The Guardian is not using his real name to protect his privacy and safety.

I dont know exactly what it means, but I know everyone with a pending case is worried, he said. The USCIS policy change applies to affirmative asylum cases  filed by migrants who are in the US, and are not in deportation proceedings. But Amir has a defensive asylum case  he is facing removal and will have the chance to make a case for asylum in front of an immigration judge under the Department of Justice next year.

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Related: Trump says he will permanently pause migration from third world countries after national guard shooting

I dont know what will happen. But I think its not fair to blame all immigrants for the actions of one person, he said. And I hope that if we havent done any crimes, if we havent done anything wrong, then this wont affect us.

Still, he and pretty much every other asylum seeker and Afghan immigrant he knows is either confused or afraid, or both, he said. Amir is part of the Hazara Shia minority in Afghanistan, which has faced escalating violence and persecution since 2021. There is no safe place for us in Afghanistan.

Hussaini, who has also helped several Afghans who worked with the US military with their immigration cases, said he had been fielding frantic messages from many of them in the past few days.

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One man, who worked with the US military for 20 years before being forced to flee Afghanistan, finally obtained asylum after a harrowing, months-long process. He was deflated on the phone, worried that his status could be ripped away. Its that feeling of starting everything from zero again, Hussaini said.

He has also been struggling to maintain a sense of steadiness amid the uncertainty, he said. I used to think coffee tastes nasty. But since what has happened, the only way I can escape is I just run every few hours to the gas station to get some coffee and drink it, just to calm my mind, he said. Its hard. Its devastating.
Australia's Communications Minister Anika Wells has told the BBC she is not intimidated by technology companies who disagree with the country's "world-leading" social media ban and is ready if Washington weighs in.

From December 10, ten social media firms including Snapchat, Meta, TikTok and YouTube will have to take what the government says are "reasonable steps" to stop children under 16 from having accounts on their platforms.

"We stand firm on the side of parents and not on the platforms," Wells said.

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Companies including Meta have said they agree more is needed to keep young people safe online, but don't think a ban is the answer, with some experts raising similar concerns.

Speaking to the BBC in Brisbane, Wells said the tech companies have had plenty of time - 15 to 20 years - to improve their practices, in light of research indicating their platforms cause harm.

"I am not intimidated by big tech because I understand the moral imperative of what we're doing," she said, adding that speaking to parents whose children have suffered online kept her strong.

She said the policy is the envy of many countries around the world, rattling off a list of leaders she says have contacted her government for advice emulating it.

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"We're pleased to be the first, we're proud to be the first, and we stand ready to help any other jurisdictions who seek to do these things."

However, US President Donald Trump has previously said he would stand up to any country that attacked US tech companies. Australia's e-Safety Commissioner - who has been charged with overseeing the social media ban - has also been called to testify in front of US Congress.

Wells said the White House and Congress have a right to weigh in, and to examine Australia's actions, but she and her officials won't be distracted.

"We are very much concerned with doing our duty to Australians and Australian taxpayers who pay us to look after good public policy."

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She also said tech companies are right to be worried about this legislation in Australia  to have fears it could be the first of many countries to restrict social media for teens.

"If you don't have a safe operating model and if people are losing their lives as a result of your operating model, I think you can expect public policymakers to act."

Australia's legislation, while popular, has not been without criticism. Some experts have argued other measures - like greater restrictions, more parental controls and more robust digital education - would have worked better.

Though the law is being touted as a world-first in terms of its scope, some other jurisdictions have tried to implement similar policies with little success and critics worry about enforcement here too. Several states in the US, for example, have tried to implement similar legislation but have been pushed back by the courts. In Australia, two teenagers last week launched a High Court challenge, arguing the ban disregards the rights of children.

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One of the biggest criticisms of the ban, however, has been the exclusion of online gaming, which parents and online safety researchers say also cause significant harm. The platform Roblox has been singled out by many as a concern.

"The safety e-Commissioner definitely has her eye on Roblox and you would have seen that Roblox even in recent weeks has had to take steps to make their platform safer," said Wells.

Over the next two years, the government will review the ban. "This isn't a cure, it's a treatment plan, and treatment plans will always evolve as we can adapt and address harm and see what works and what doesn't," Wells said.

She has repeatedly sought to manage expectations, saying rollout of this policy might be messy, but the social change will ultimately be worthwhile.

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"In the same way that people under 18 aren't allowed to drink alcohol in Australia, there will be people today under 18 that drink alcohol... they may even be supported in doing that by their parents.

"That still doesn't mean that we shouldn't have a law that prevents under 18s from drinking alcohol in Australia because the public health evidence tells us that is a good and proper thing to do."

Wells herself has three young children, and told the BBC policing screen-time and social media use is a challenge in her household too - one which largely falls to her husband given the travel demands of her job.

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"So in a funny way, me being the lawmaker for this social media ban is my own contribution to helping those kinds of fights," she said, adding that many parents have thanked her for her work on the policy.

"You can't out-parent an algorithm and this is giving parents another weapon in their arsenal."
Peruvian police recently detained a South Korean man who was attempting to smuggle hundreds of endangered tarantulas onto a plane.

What's happening?

The Washington Post reported the bizarre encounter started in Lima's Jorge Chavez International Airport. Staff were conducting security checks on passengers and noticed a man who appeared to have a swollen stomach. After asking him to lift his shirt, they discovered dozens of camouflaged plastic bags tied to belts. Inside were 35 adult and 285 juvenile tarantulas, 110 centipedes, and nine bullet ants. The officials detained the man and turned the animals over to Peru's National Forest and Wildlife Service.

"While the animals were completely overcrowded, mistreated and [carelessly] wrapped, they were put in a safe place," the wildlife agency said, according to the Post.

Why is wildlife trafficking concerning?

The Post, citing a U.N. report, noted that wildlife trafficking affects more than 4,000 animal and plant species worldwide  this includes 3,250 endangered species.

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In fact, the adult tarantulas being smuggled by the 28-year-old man in Peru are on the country's endangered list, the Post reported.

Wildlife trafficking is concerning for many reasons. For one, it is harmful to animals, as they are taken out of their native habitat, decreasing their populations. Further, many animals die needlessly during transport.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, wildlife trafficking can also increase the risk of zoonotic diseases and severely impact food, land, and other natural resources that humans depend on for survival.

What's being done about the wildlife trade?

Currently, there are a number of international and national laws in place to help curb the trafficking of wild animals. For instance, CITES is an international agreement between governments that aims to ensure the international trade of wildlife does not threaten the survival of species.

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Meanwhile, the Endangered Species Act and the Lacey Act restrict the trade and transportation of wild animals or plants in the United States.

There are also a number of individuals and organizations dedicated to curbing the illegal trade. For instance, Earth League International collects and disseminates information about wildlife crime. Traffic is another NGO that aims to reduce illegal wildlife trafficking.



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Motorists can check road conditions when they head out as winter hits the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area.

Here are some tools to help you be prepared as you travel.

Ohio and Kentucky road condition updates online

The Ohio Department of Transportation has several ways to communicate road conditions to motorists.

More: What is the snow emergency level today? Check Cincinnati road conditions

Follow ODOT Cincinnati on X for updates on road conditions in ODOT District 8, which includes Butler, Clermont, Clinton, Greene, Hamilton, Preble and Warren counties in Southwest Ohio.

We have more than 230 crews out clearing roads across southwest Ohio this morning. Please give them room and allow extra time for your morning commute. #ODOTWinter pic.twitter.com/huqJiF1XC3  ODOT Cincinnati (@ODOT_Cincinnati) December 2, 2025

You can also see interstate road conditions in Ohio and Northern Kentucky on your computer or mobile devices using the traffic cameras.

Kentucky posts on X to update conditions

In Kentucky, you can follow The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet in KYTC District 6 on X, which provides service to an 11-county area, including Boone, Bracken, Campbell, Carroll, Gallatin, Grant, Harrison, Kenton, Owen, Pendleton, and Robertson counties.

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The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet also operates SnowKY which gives updates about road conditions across the Bluegrass State during winter weather.

Cincinnati has a live snow plow tracker

During a winter weather event, the city of Cincinnati has a live snow plow tracker with an interactive map that shows where snow vehicles have already been, when a vehicle was on a particular street and the distance covered by snow vehicles since the start of the winter weather event. There is also a mobile version.

You can also use the tracker to report untreated streets.

The interactive Snow Routes map shows priority routes for treatment during a winter event.

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The city's website says during winter weather events, the Cincinnati Department of Public Services is clearing 3,112 lane miles within a 79-square-mile area.

This story was republished to add a gallery.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Check road conditions in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky
A-G Gali Baharav-Miara warns that splitting her office would turn legal authorities into "private lawyers" and "harm the foundations of the regime, the rule of law, and human rights."

Proposals to split up the responsibilities nestled in the Attorney-General's Office would strip Israels top legal gatekeepers of their independence and undermine the core safeguards that protect democracy, Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara said late Monday night.

Her comments were published alongside a sweeping, nearly 130-page advisory opinion warning that the bills would constitute a fundamental regime change, replacing an independent A-G with politically dependent legal officers whose primary loyalty would be to the government - rather than the public.

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Her announcement, publicized with an advisory opinion on the matter, came ahead of scheduled discussions for Tuesday morning on bill proposals to do exactly that. The proposals were discussed in a heated debate in the Knessets Constitution, Law and Justice Committee on Tuesday. They intend to split the role into three separate positions - a legal advisor to the government, a state prosecutor, and a government litigator (the states representative in court).

The committee meeting broke into clashes between MKs and senior legal officials regarding the advancement of the legislation at the Knesset panel. Meetings have been taking place weekly, led by committee Chairperson MK Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionist Party), who is among those who submitted the various proposals to split the role of the A-G.

The legislation would also reshape the appointment process, qualifications, term length, and powers of each role, marking a sweeping overhaul of Israels legal advisory and prosecutorial structure. According to the advisory opinion, the changes would give the political echelon exclusive control over appointments and dismissals, remove the binding force of the A-Gs legal opinions, and turn all three new positions into roles subordinate to political interests rather than independent guardians of the law.

Bill to 'abolish institution of Attorney-General'

The opinion, authored by Deputy Attorney-General Dr. Gil Limon, stressed that the governments framing of the reform as a technical division of labor is misleading. The bills, he wrote, effectively abolish the institution of the Attorney-General, splintering it into three weakened posts that could be appointed and dismissed at will, with no search committee, professional vetting, or insulating mechanisms - a dramatic break from the model developed over decades of Israeli governance.

Attorney general Gali Baharav-Miara at a Constitution, Law and Justice Committee meeting at the Knesset, in the Israeli parliament on September 30, 2025. (credit: OREN BEN HAKOON/FLASH90)

That model is rooted in the 1962 Agranat Committee, which first articulated the A-G as an independent legal authority protecting the public interest - rather than the governments political needs. It was reinforced again after the Bar-On Hebron affair in 1997, when the Shamgar Committee recommended a professional search committee, a fixed six-year term, and clear grounds for dismissal to prevent political interference. These guardrails, later adopted in government resolutions, were meant to ensure that an A-G could stand firm against unlawful directives without fear of retaliation.

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Because Israel lacks many of the checks and balances common in other democracies - including a full constitution, a bicameral legislature, and an independently elected executive - the A-Gs independence became over the years a central stabilizing pillar. The advisory opinion emphasizes that the A-Gs binding legal interpretations, oversight of government actions, and unified authority over prosecution and state representation emerged precisely to counterbalance the structural weakness of Israels separation of powers.

Supporters of the reform - including members of the coalition - argue that the A-G has amassed too much power, exercising what they see as an undemocratic veto over government policy. They contend that in many democracies, prosecution, government legal advice, and state representation are separate functions - and that Israel should align accordingly. Some also argue that the search committee model is outdated and elitist, giving unelected officials disproportionate influence over state policy.

Opponents respond that the comparison is flawed. While other democracies separate these functions, they also have robust constitutional safeguards that Israel does not. Splitting the A-G while simultaneously politicizing appointments, they argue, removes the only effective constraint on government power.

Some legal scholars have warned that the bills would allow political influence over criminal investigations, including those involving senior officials, and would give the government the ability to determine the legal positions presented to courts on behalf of the state. Limon wrote that without an independent A-G, the executive branch will face no meaningful legal restraint, and the protection of rights, equality, and fair governance could erode irreversibly.

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The opinion concludes that, combined with other legislative initiatives, the package represents a cumulative weakening of the remaining democratic guardrails - especially significant in a year preceding national elections - and would ultimately transform the legal advisory system into one answerable not to the public interest, but to the sitting government.

Baharav-Miara added that the proposals would turn the A-G and prosecution from state authorities obligated to the public interest into the governments private lawyers.

Passing these bills will harm the foundations of the regime, the rule of law, the fight against governmental corruption, and human rights, said the attorney-general.
Sanders and NYC mayor-elect Mamdani joined striking Starbucks workers on a Brooklyn picket line.

Their visit comes as Starbucks faces a record $38.9 million settlement over worker-rights violations.

Mamdani slammed CEO Brian Niccol's record pay, saying baristas are "striking for the bare minimum."

Starbucks baristas on an open-ended strike in Brooklyn got the kind of star power most labor actions can only dream of.

Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani showed up to walk the picket line alongside them on Monday, lending momentum to a movement energized by a historic legal win.

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New York City announced on Monday a $38.9 million settlement with Starbucks for what officials described as "systematic violations" of the city's Fair Workweek Law.

A multi-year investigation by the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection found the coffee giant committed more than 500,000 violations across 300 stores, including arbitrarily slashing hours, unpredictable schedules, and keeping baristas involuntarily part-time.

More than 15,000 baristas in the city are now set to receive restitution checks as soon as this winter.

Against that backdrop, Sanders and Mamdani joined striking workers outside a Brooklyn Starbucks store, posing for photos and blasting the company's labor practices.

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In a statement on Monday, Starbucks said it supports the intent of New York City's Fair Workweek Law but said that the rules are so complex that even minor schedule changes can trigger violations.

The company said the settlement reflects compliance challenges shared across the restaurant industry, and pointed to recent investments in scheduling tools, training, and partner benefits.

Starbucks spokesperson Jaci Anderson told Business Insider on Tuesday that Workers United "decided to walk away from the bargaining table."

"We've been very clear that we're ready to talk when the union is ready to return to negotiations," she said.

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Starbucks maintains that several union proposals  including fruther wage increases and added premiums  are not viable.

Scroll to see photos from the Brooklyn picket line.

Sen. Bernie Sanders and Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani joined the picket line on Monday

Sen. Bernie Sanders and Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani lent support to striking Starbucks baristas in Brooklyn on Monday. Lev Radin/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

The strike  which began on Red Cup Day, historically one of Starbucks' busiest sales days where customers can get a free reusable cup with their order  has already spread to dozens of stores nationwide.

The union has warned that the work stoppage could expand to more than 500 stores if negotiations continue to stall.

Sen. Bernie Sanders marches with Starbucks strikers

Bernie Sanders held a sign reading "Rebellion  Unfair Labor Practice Strike" while on a picket line on Monday. Lev Radin/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

Sanders, a longtime champion of labor rights, voiced support for workers demanding stable schedules and a living wage.

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Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and Sen. Bernie Sanders spoke to the press

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and Sen. Bernie Sanders spoke to the press as they joined a picket line of striking Starbucks workers in front of Starbucks on 4th Avenue in Brooklyn. Lev Radin/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

Mamdani, who urged New Yorkers to boycott Starbucks during the strike last month, used the moment to reaffirm his intentions for the mayoralty.

In one photograph he shared on social media, he appeared to be holding a sign that read: "No contract, no Starbucks."

'Glad to be on the right side of the picket line with them'

Zohran Mamdani had previously called on New Yorkers to boycott Starbucks while the strike was ongoing. Lev Radin/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

Mamdani has highlighted the pay gap driving worker frustration.

In a post on X on Monday, he contrasted the company's record executive compensation with what striking baristas say are basic demands for stability and respect.

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"Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol made $95 million last year. His workers are striking for the bare minimum. Glad to be on the right side of the picket line with them," Mamdani wrote.

"We are continuing to fight back against Starbucks' greed"

Picket line of striking Starbucks workers in front of Starbucks on 4th Avenue in Brooklyn, New York, NY on December 1, 2025 Lev Radin/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

In a press release announcing the city's settlement, a Workers United union boss called it a "major victory."

"It shows the power baristas have when we stand together and demand change," Kai Fritz  a New York City Starbucks worker  said, which was also included in the press release. "We are continuing to fight back against Starbucks' greed and will not stop until we have a fair contract that ensures the support and protections we need to thrive."

Read the original article on Business Insider
LUSAKA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Zambia is stepping up its resolve to secure free education through the enactment of a law that will guarantee free education for children, a senior government official said on Tuesday.

Minister of Education Douglas Syakalima said the ministry has proposed amendments to the current education law to guarantee free education for children from early childhood through secondary school.

"We have seen the massive benefits brought by free education, and we want to ensure this policy is anchored in law," he said when meeting with officials from the Educational Association for Quality Assurance in Zambia (EAQAZ) and higher education institutions.

He said the surge in school enrollments since the introduction of a free education policy in 2022 demonstrates the strong demand for education, previously hindered by school fees.

While acknowledging that free education for learners, Syakalima emphasized the importance of upholding the quality of education.

EAQAZ President Chilao Mutesa said the organization's mission is to promote excellence, foster collaboration, and strengthen capacity in quality assurance across Zambia's education sector.

He welcomed the government's decision to enact a law on free education, saying it will ensure that the policy becomes permanent.

President Hakainde Hichilema said recently that the introduction of the free education policy has led to over 2.3 million children returning to school as of October. 
This article was originally published in Honolulu Civil Beat.

Since 2020, the Hawaii education department has offered the largest bonuses in the nation to special education teachers to address staff shortages. But the state has seen limited improvements in filling special education teacher positions, according to recent data from the department and the National Council on Teacher Quality.

The Hawaii Department of Education introduced bonuses  also known as pay differentials  for teachers working in special education and other hard-to-fill positions in 2020. Its a strategy that has become popular in other parts of the country. In 2025, 85 districts offered financial incentives for special education teachers, up from 63 in 2022, according to a recent NCTQ report.

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Hawaii continues to offer the largest bonuses to its special education teachers, with local educators receiving $10,000 annual salary increases. On the mainland, Atlanta Public Schools in Georgia provides a $3,000 bonus to special education teachers, while Jackson Public Schools in Mississippi offers $5,000 pay bumps over three years, according to the national report.

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In some parts of Hawaii, special education teachers also qualify for hard-to-staff bonuses, further boosting their pay. All Hawaii educators working in schools that are geographically isolated or significantly struggle with vacancies receive pay bumps ranging from $3,000 to $8,000, meaning that special education teachers in these schools can earn up to $13,000 to $18,000 in annual bonuses.

But a recent study on teacher pay commissioned by the DOE shows the bonuses did not fix the shortage. Statewide, the percentage of licensed special education teachers has increased since the bonuses began, but schools still face many unfilled positions.

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Vacancy rates for special education teachers fell in 2020, the first year the bonuses were introduced, then rose steadily during the pandemic. Those rates have since improved but remain roughly at or above pre-pandemic levels for most schools in the state.

The only improvements to special education vacancies were in the Nanakuli-Waianae and Hana-Lanai-Molokai complexes, where teachers earned the maximum $18,000 annual salary boost. In those schools, vacancy rates for special education teachers fell from 14% to 5% over the past seven years.

The proportion of unlicensed special education teachers in those schools also fell from 14% to 6% since 2019, according to the salary study.

Statewide, special education vacancies have made up a smaller proportion of unfilled teacher positions since the bonuses began. In 2024, special education positions accounted for 20% of total teacher vacancies, compared to 30% before the pandemic.
The Boston Police Department is asking for the publics help in identifying a person they say recently stole a loaded firearm.

The incident happened shortly after 4 a.m. on Monadnock Street on November 29, according to Boston Police.

During the incident, the suspect entered the victims motor vehicle and stole a loaded firearm, police say.

Boston Police released photos of the person theyre looking for.

The Boston Police is asking for the public's help in identifying a person they say is involved with the larceny of a firearm. Photo Credit: Boston Police

The person is described as being a light skinned male, according to Boston Police, who also say he was seen wearing a black winter hat, a gray or olive green jacked, a black hooded sweatshirt, and baggy black pants with white and black sneakers.

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The person was last seen walking on Dudley Street towards East Cottage Street, according to Boston Police.

Anyone with any information is asked to call Boston Police at 617-343-4275. Police say you can also submit information anonymously at 1-800-494-TIPS, or by texting the word TIP to 27463.

The Boston Police is asking for the public's help in identifying a person they say is involved with the larceny of a firearm. Photo Credit: Boston Police

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

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Brevard Public Schools is expected to form a task force to help the district navigate Floridas new Schools of Hope law  a program aimed at bringing high-performing, privately run charter schools into low-performing traditional schools.

The program was expanded to allow for co-location of charter schools at underutilized or vacant public school facilities.

One state-approved operator, Mater Academy, has already expressed interest in opening programs at Cape View Elementary, Oak Park Elementary, Roosevelt Elementary, and Palm Bay Magnet High School.BPS objected, noting that Cape View and Roosevelt are A-rated and not located within state-designated Opportunity Zones.

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At Palm Bay Magnet, the district pushed back against Maters proposal to run a full K12 program. And at Oak Park, officials say the space Mater requested simply isnt available.

More requests, however, are expected.

School Board Chair Matt Susin says new requests bring operational questions  from school resource officers to specialists who may not be able to contract with a private operator. He emphasized that these are taxpayer-funded buildings and that the district wants to ensure any shared use supports community needs and parental choice.

Susin told Eyewitness News, Theres a lot more that goes into this than just allowing people to start coming into our schools. And quite frankly, we like the model as far as look, this is the taxpayers dollars. This is the taxpayers building. This is not Brevard Public Schools this is theirs. So, we want to try to find a way to utilize the space for good things and parental choice. We just need to make sure that the safety of our children is taking into consideration.

Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Fifteen fourth graders each grabbed their colorful and glittery ornaments from the box and placed them carefully and purposefully on the Christmas tree in the Governors Mansion.

As they did this on Monday morning, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and first lady Abby Cox visited with them, asking about the ornaments and decorations they had made.

Gov. Spencer Cox high-fives a North Park Elementary fourth grader as she leaves the Governors Mansion after decorating a Christmas tree in Salt Lake City on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

The students were invited from North Park Elementary in Tremonton as part of a tradition in which one class from around the state is brought to the mansion each year to help the governor and first lady decorate for Christmas.

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Later, the students turned the tables on the pair, asking the governor questions about his job and goals for the state.

Thank you to the 4th-grade class from North Park Elementary in Tremonton for helping us decorate the library tree at the Governors Mansion.



In addition to plenty of Christmas cheer, they brought handmade ornaments inspired by this years theme: Looking Up: A Season of Wonder. pic.twitter.com/9HtXAB9BP9  Governor Cox (@GovCox) December 1, 2025

Under the direction of their teacher, Jenny Rogers, the kids made by hand each of the decorations and ornaments, following the mansions Christmas theme for this year: Looking Up: A Season of Wonder.

When Rogers discussed the theme with her students, their thoughts turned to the northern lights, she said. So the students made ball ornaments filled with different colors of glitter.

They also made snowflakes out of popsicle sticks and little snowmen to be placed on the mantel.

It really is about that season of wonder, that time ... to remember as a little kid how fun Christmastime is and the holiday season is. First lady Abby Cox

This was the kids highlight; were finding that creativity is kind of harder to find among kids, so this has been good to get kids channeling that creative brain, Rogers added.

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Before they decorated the tree and mantel, the students were welcomed to the mansion by the governor and first lady.

Pretty cool place, isnt it? Gov. Cox said to the students. This is our favorite time here. This is always a beautiful place. Its more beautiful when we have the Christmas trees up and the lights and everything about the holidays.

When asked what they thought of the mansion, one student, Deryck Fronk, enthusiastically responded, saying, It looks incredible.

First lady Abby Cox reads to North Park Elementary fourth graders from Tremonton before they decorate a Christmas tree at the Governors Mansion in Salt Lake City on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

Abby Cox explained more about the theme for the decorations this year, It really is about that season of wonder, that time ... to remember as a little kid how fun Christmastime is and the holiday season is.

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Rogers shared that she was on maternity leave when she found out her class had been given this opportunity, but it made her so excited that she wanted to tell her students herself instead of having a substitute teacher do it.

It is such a privilege, we are really so grateful, she said.

She added that, throughout December, she will incorporate Christmas activities into learning and that helps the students be more engaged.

AJ Hernandez decorates a Christmas tree with other North Park Elementary fourth graders at the Governors Mansion in Salt Lake City on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

While the kids were at the Governors Mansion, the first lady also read a few childrens books to her guests. The first was a Christmas book titled Bear Stays Up for Christmas. She read two other books that she said her kids loved when they were younger: I Dont Care! Said the Bear and The Day the Goose Got Loose. She then spoke to the kids about how important reading is.

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I will just tell you that Im really excited about reading. I think we dont read enough anymore, the first lady said. Its really good for our brains, right? Put down the phones and screens. Just read.

She also invited the young students to read to their siblings, their parents and even their grandparents.

Later, Abby Cox spoke to the Deseret News about the importance of reading: We need to make sure kiddos are reading. We need to make sure adults are reading. It starts with our kiddos, and it starts with us as adults modeling what reading does for us, how much joy it brings to us.

Deryck Fronk carries a box out of the Governors Mansion after he and other North Park Elementary fourth graders from Tremonton finished decorating a Christmas tree in Salt Lake City on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

A mantel decorated by North Park Elementary students from Tremonton is pictured at the Governors Mansion in Salt Lake City on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

Ornaments hang on a tree that North Park Elementary students from Tremonton decorated at the Governors Mansion in Salt Lake City on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

Piper Bird hangs an ornament as she and other North Park Elementary fourth graders decorate a Christmas tree at the Governors Mansion in Salt Lake City on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

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Gov. Spencer Cox puts a star on top of a Christmas tree after North Park Elementary students from Tremonton decorated it at the Governors Mansion in Salt Lake City on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

North Park Elementary fourth grader Emily Pierce decorates a Christmas tree with her classmates as Gov. Spencer Cox and North Park fourth grade teacher Jenny Rogers watch at the Governors Mansion in Salt Lake City on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

Ornaments hang on a tree that North Park Elementary students from Tremonton decorated at the Governors Mansion in Salt Lake City on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

After giving the children a tour of the mansion, Gov. Cox gave them time to ask him questions, with each student getting a chance to ask him a question.

They asked him if he knew President Donald Trump, how he keeps Utah safe, whether he gets free time and how he became governor.

The governor also shared that his favorite parts of his day are when he gets to meet with different people from across the state, especially kids. He told the students that his favorite part of his day that day was meeting with them.

As the students were leaving the mansion and saying goodbye to Gov. Cox, one of the students, Riggin Adams, turned to him and said, If theres anything you need help with, just ask us.
Plaster is under repair on Dec. 2, 2025, in the Senate gallery at the South Dakota Capitol in Pierre. (Photo by Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)

Repairs to water-damaged, cracking plaster at the South Dakota Capitol in Pierre will be complete by the time lawmakers convene in the building for the 2026 legislative session in January.

Darin Seeley, commissioner of the Bureau of Human Resources and Administration, told lawmakers Tuesday on the Joint Appropriations Committee that the fixes are the first phase of a three-phase restoration effort.

The money for the current work came from a $3 million pool of funds approved by legislators earlier this year.

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Once the plaster repairs are complete in the hallways and the galleries of the Senate and House of Representatives, second phase work can begin with repairs to the Rotunda. That work is set to begin after the 2026 sessions March conclusion, and is expected to be complete by November.

The third phase wont repair a thing, at least not right away. Seeley told the committee that his agency plans to spend about $780,000 to hire a consultant for a comprehensive needs analysis meant to identify issues across the whole of the Capitol complex.

The buildings communications infrastructure needs an upgrade, Seeley said, as part of a multi-year, multi-phase restoration of this building.

There is a lot of work that needs to be done for two reasons, Seeley said. One, to make the Capitol as beautiful as it can be, but more importantly, to bring it up to modern standards in relationship to electrical codes, plumbing and then usability of the space.

When a committee of legislators asked Seeley in August to guess what a full Capitol restoration might cost, he said were talking probably between $150 million and $200 million. The building hasnt undergone a full restoration in about four decades. Its construction was completed in 1910.
Kansas Interfaith Action members participate in a demonstration on May 20, 2025, outside the federal courthouse in Topeka, where they protested Core Civic and the for-profit detention of immigrants. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

As of late last year, more than 1,300 children torn from their parents arms at the U.S.Mexico border from 2017 to 2021 had not been reunited with their parents. This figure represents nearly a third of the 4,600 children forcibly separated from their families.

Human rights organizations described this as potentially a form of torture, due to the intentional infliction of suffering and the systemic nature of the separations as an immigration deterrent.

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Such measures enjoyed support and even celebration from the American Christian right, leaving many to wonder: What kind of religion endorses such cruelty, the withholding of health care, winking at racism and embracing xenophobia?

Theres little Christian about this, it seems, unless viewed through a theologically Calvinist lens.

The Rev. Robert Johnson, who leads Church of the Resurrections new Lees Summit location, said the seeming detachment from suffering, tolerance of destructive ideas like Manifest Destiny and more likely have Calvinist roots.

The Rev. Robert Johnson (Submitted photo)

In their minds, God has already chosen, said Johnson, who earlier led a United Methodist Church in Wichita. Social justice is viewed as impudence to Gods executed will, and its also anti-empathy. In fact, empathy is meaningless.

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In August, PBS News published a story headlined, Is empathy a sin? Some conservative Christians argue it can be.

For them, empathy is a cudgel for the left, the article explained. It can manipulate caring people into accepting all manner of sins according to a conservative Christian perspective, including abortion access, LGBTQ+ rights, illegal immigration and certain views on social and racial justice.

Allie Beth Stuckey, author of Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion, was quoted as saying: Empathy becomes toxic when it encourages you to affirm sin, validates lies or supports destructive policies.

Christian right beliefs have buttressed political conservatism for decades, from the Confederacys Lost Cause, to Jerry Falwells Moral Majority, to todays MAGA movement. Falwells Liberty University didnt originally admit Black students. To be fair, not all evangelicals hold such beliefs, but we should try to understand where the beliefs of so many might come from.

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A review of Anthea Butlers White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America, by Bianca Mabute-Louie, identifies evangelicalism as a nationalist political movement to support white, Christian hegemony. Racism is a feature, not a bug, of the movement.

Butler, according to Mabute-Louie, said, interpretation of Scriptures, theology, and belief informed evangelicals social and political actions, and justified the oppression of African Americans during and post-enslavement.

Many Americans have been puzzled by evangelicals devotion to President Donald Trump despite his lurid personal picadilloes, his seeming lack of religiosity and the cruelty of his recent attempt to deny millions, including children, of food benefits.

Christians and non-Christians alike have asked earnestly how any believer  left, right or otherwise  could support such policies and such a person.

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Johnson suggested these beliefs reach deep into 1500-era teachings of John Calvin and predestination.

Most students learned about Calvinism from a historical, not religious, perspective. The Pilgrims, for example, were Calvinists. Thats also where the Protestant work ethic originated, as well as interpretations of the Bible as without error.

Calvin believed that even before creation, God had chosen some people for salvation, a belief associated with predestination, according to Christianity.com. Calvin fumed at how Catholicism reduced religion to salvation by works.

His refrain? People shouldnt try to manipulate God nor place Him in their debt. Saved people are saved only Him, not by good works.

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This is the perfect theology for what we see in the evangelical movement, Johnson said. This is why they may not consider themselves bigoted or racist. They have found a denominational justification for our racial caste system. Its why they dont like social activism. To them, there is no social Gospel, only individual salvation.

Johnson pointed to the acronym TULIP for understanding.

TULIP stands for total depravity (theres no good in us), unconditional election (God has already chosen those who prosper), limited atonement (Jesus died specifically for the elect), and perseverance of the saints (the elect will be saved).

John Wesley, a founder of modern Methodism, provided an alternative to this theology for many, including for Johnson.

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Wesley, Johnson said, looked at slavery and like Calvin, saw the total depravity. But Wesley also saw God in the tortured enslaved people and heard an ecclesiastical call to rescue them.

From his deathbed, John Wesley pleaded with people gathered around him to promise to end the scourge of slavery, Johnson said. I follow United Methodism in that spirit.

A photo of a crying toddler caught up in a nighttime border raid remains an enduring image from the first Trump administrations zero tolerance immigration policy.

The prolonged family separation stemmed from the federal governments failure to maintain a central database. A 2018 court order halted the practice, and a 2023 settlement requires continued reunification efforts and support through 2031.

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But a lifetime of damage already has been done, especially to the children. Pope Leo has called out the extremely disrespectful treatment of migrants in the U.S., according to an NPR report.

The question then becomes not if God exists in the crying toddler or her parents, but where is God in a faith tradition that embraces such wanton and intentional cruelty?

Mark McCormick is the former executive director of the Kansas African American Museum, a member of the Kansas African American Affairs Commission and former deputy executive director at the ACLU of Kansas. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.
Public school districts have a responsibility to educate students, safeguard taxpayer money, and provide families with opportunities for success. However, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has become a national example of how a school system collapses under mismanagement, political patronage, and an absence of accountability.

A report from the Chicago Board of Education's Office of Inspector General uncovered $23.6 million in misused spendingspecifically, spending on lavish and often unapproved travel: $1,000-a-night hotel rooms, airport limos, luxury suites, and "professional development" trips that doubled as vacations. One teacher stretched a four-day seminar into a weeklong Hawaiian resort stay costing $4,700.

A principal booked a Las Vegas Strip suite for an anniversary celebration and extended the trip without authorization. In another incident, 24 employees from one school spent $50,000 to attend a Las Vegas conference. More than $142,000 was spent on overseas trips to South Africa, Finland, Estonia, and Egyptcomplete with hot-air balloon rides and game-park safaris.

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The abuses skyrocketed further when federal pandemic funds loosened district budgets. Of the $23.6 million, $14.5 million was spent in 2023 and 2024 alone. These dollars were intended to address severe learning loss after the Chicago Teachers Union forced schools to remain closed for 78 weeks during the pandemic. Instead of supporting students' academic recovery, millions became a travel fund.

That level of waste is why students like me need school choice. When a district spends public money this irresponsibly while failing to educate its students, families deserve the freedom to go elsewhere.

Meanwhile, only two in five CPS students read at grade level, and barely one in four meets math expectations. In some neighborhoods, proficiency falls into the single digits. Nearly 45 percent of studentsand more than half of high schoolersare chronically absent. These figures reflect a district that has walked away from its obligation to prepare young people for the workforce, higher education, and civic life.

Chronic absenteeism and low achievement correlate closely with higher rates of youth crime. Chicago's public-safety challenges cannot be separated from the fact that tens of thousands of teenagers are disconnected from school. No city with these levels of absenteeism and academic collapse can expect improvements in long-term safety.

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This pattern of misused funds and misplaced priorities is not limited to Chicago. New York lawmakers continue to steer resources away from academics and toward politically acceptable initiatives.

In New York's 2025 "People's Budget," Democratsincluding Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who was serving in the Assembly at the timeproposed an $8 million initiative to "increase teacher diversity" through new recruitment and training programs. Yet New York City's teaching workforce is already about 42 percent black, nearly double the city's black population share of roughly 22 percent.

The same budget allocates $250,000 for "racial and cultural inclusivity" initiatives, $3 million for an Adirondack exhibit on African American history, and over $350,000 for statewide conventions for "underrepresented" educators.

Meanwhile, NYC public schools serve 154,000 homeless students, and nearly half of the students statewide cannot meet basic reading benchmarks. New York spends more than $39,000 per pupilthe highest amount in the countryyet academic outcomes continue to fall.

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If the problem were money, New York would be leading the nation. But this is a crisis of priorities.

Charter schools offer a proven alternative that disrupts the cycle of low achievement and disengagement. Unlike traditional public schools, charter schools provide students with 30 percent to 50 percent more instructional time. This extra time correlates directly with stronger academic performance and higher rates of student engagement.

A study found that entering a North Carolina charter school in ninth grade was associated with a roughly 30 percent reduction in a student's likelihood of committing a crime compared with students in traditional public schools. Research from Milwaukee's voucher program found that students in choice programs were significantly less likely to commit crimes as young adults.

School choice gives students in failing districts an exit ramp. Programs in Florida, Arizona, and North Carolina show that scholarship and charter systems can coexist with public schools and often improve them through competition.

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Chicago's waste, New York's misplaced priorities, and the falling academic performance nationwide all point to the same conclusion: Familiesnot bureaucraciesshould decide where and how children are educated.

The post Chicago Is the Latest Example of How Public School Spending Doesn't Prioritize Students appeared first on Reason.com.
Tokyo is considering exporting a missile system to the Philippines as it seeks to ease its weapons-export restrictions, Japanese media reported - a move likely to draw criticism from Beijing.

The missile system, dubbed Type 03 Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missile, is of the same type that Tokyo plans to deploy on Yonaguni, an island only 110 kilometres (68 miles) away from Taiwan. Beijing has blasted the deployment on Yonaguni as "extremely dangerous".

Kyodo News reported on Sunday that Japan has held informal talks with the Philippines about the possible export of the Japanese-developed missile system, citing sources familiar with the matter.

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A substantive study of the export is expected to begin once Tokyo formally decides to scrap a rule limiting defence-equipment exports - a change that could come next year, according to the report.

The truck-mobile air defence system has a range of 50km. With active radar homing, it can shoot down aircraft and cruise missiles. The Kyodo News report said the Philippine side has expressed its interest in acquiring the system for its military.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Japan would lift defence spending to 2 per cent of GDP by March - well ahead of her party's earlier timelines. Photo: AFP alt=Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Japan would lift defence spending to 2 per cent of GDP by March - well ahead of her party's earlier timelines. Photo: AFP>

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Manila is also locked in tensions with Beijing over the disputed South China Sea, where Chinese air force activities are frequent. In addition, the Philippines is part of the strategic "first island chain" in the Pacific, with its nearest island about 140km from Taiwan.

Tokyo's move came as the Sanae Takaichi administration seeks to revise the country's Three Principles on Transfer of Defence Equipment and Technology, which guide its arms exports. In recent years, Tokyo has repeatedly sought to revise these principles.

Tokyo and Manila have also increased defence cooperation in recent months. The two US allies have both taken stances against China's activities in the East and South China Seas amid maritime disputes.

Under Japan's current guidelines on defence equipment exports, only five categories of defence equipment - for rescue, transport, warning, surveillance and minesweeping - can be sold to Japan's security partners.

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The three principles, originally laid out in 1967, stated that weapons would not be provided to communist bloc countries, nations subject to United Nations arms embargoes or states involved in or likely to be involved in international conflict. The principles were expanded in 1976 to effectively cover all areas of the world.

Last month, Beijing blasted Japan's deployment of Type 03 missile on Yonaguni as "extremely dangerous", saying it stoked regional tensions and military confrontation.

Tokyo's expanded military capabilities have also raised concerns.

In October, Takaichi said she intended to increase Japan's defence spending to 2 per cent of GDP by the end of March next year, fully two years ahead of the deadline set by previous governments of her ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

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In September, a new defence pact between Tokyo and Manila, both US allies, allowed the Japanese military to deploy in the Philippines for the first time since World War II.

Less than a month after the pact took effect, Japan and the Philippines held a five-day joint military exercise, which included the delivery of emergency relief supplies to the Philippine island of Cebu.

The drill was conducted a day before China's People's Liberation Army held its annual joint exercise with Malaysia.

Two days later, Japan took part in another joint drill involving regional allies, led by the Philippines and the US.

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Last month, Japan had exported domestically produced Patriot surface-to-air missile interceptors to the United States, a move which Chinese observers and media said has sent an "extremely dangerous signal" indicating expanded military capabilities.

For years, Beijing has accused Japan's political right-wing of trying to amend its pacifist constitution, alter its non-nuclear policy and expand its military capabilities.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2025. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Chinas navy is gradually moving closer to becoming a peer adversary for U.S.naval forces in the Pacific region, as evidenced by Chinas growing number of modern aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships.

The increasing quality of these flattops also threatens to erase the qualitative advantages that U.S. ships currently have.

The Peoples Liberation Army Navy, or PLAN, has expanded its aircraft carrier well beyond its humble origins. It recently commissioned the domestically built Type 003 Class Fujian aircraft carrier, the first non-U.S. aircraft carrier in the world equipped with electromagnetic catapults used in the Gerald R. Ford-class of carriers.

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Open-source intelligence also indicates that China appears to be building a nuclear-powered supercarrier. (A supercarrier is an unofficial term for the largest aircraft carriers). That means China could join the United States and France as the only countries operating nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

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And in November, Chinas newest and most modern Type 076 amphibious assault ship, the Sichuan, left port for sea trials. Like the Fujian, the vessel features an electromagnetic catapult for both manned aircraft and drones. If China ever launched an invasion of Taiwan, such a ship could launch drones against naval targets while keeping its most valuable pilots and aircraft farther back and under the protection of land-based airpower.

All these flattops serve multiple purposes in Chinas current strategy, allowing it to project power, develop operational experience with naval aviation, and ultimately extend its defensive perimeter beyond the First Island Chain, which includes Japan, Okinawa, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

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Chinas aircraft carrier program has come a long way since it purchased an unfinished Soviet flattop from Ukraine in the 1990s, which it renamed the Liaoning. Although the vessels capabilities were limited, China successfully used it as a training ship to learn the nuts and bolts of carrier aviation.

Launched in 2017, Chinas first domestically built aircraft carrier, the Shandong of the Type 002 Class, underwhelmed some Western strategists, but China was playing the long game.

By the time China commissioned the Fujian last month, it was clear the PLAN had pulled off a great leap forward. The Fujian is fundamentally different from its two predecessors. It is close to the size of American supercarriers and features three electromagnetic catapults  the Ford, by comparison, has four such catapults.

The Fujians electromagnetic catapults increase the number of aircraft that the Fujian can launch, including the J-15 Flying Shark; the J-35 stealth fighter; the GJ-11 Sharp Sword, Chinas stealthy uncrewed combat aircraft; and the KJ-600, a fixed-wing airborne early warning aircraft comparable in concept to the American E-2 Hawkeye.

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Now, satellite imagery from Chinas Jiangnan shipyard in Shanghai has revealed the PLANs Type 004 aircraft carrier could be nuclear-powered, and that would give it practically unlimited range  although successfully operating nuclear-powered carriers requires a disciplined maintenance culture, highly trained engineering teams, and decades of refinement.

On our YouTube channel, Task & Purposes video producer, Kyle Gunn, explains how Chinas fleet of flattops is growing and fast-becoming a more effective naval force  and a bigger threat.
BEIJING (Reuters)  Chinas first crewed spacecraft to be ruled unfit to fly in mid-mission will be sent back to Earth for experts to assess the damage it sustained more closely, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Monday.

On November 5, the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft was meant to bring its crew back to China just after finishing a six-month stay aboard Beijings permanently inhabited space station Tiangong.

But after the Shenzhou-20 crew discovered a crack in the window of the vessels return capsule right before takeoff, the return mission was delayed  a first in Chinas human spaceflight program.

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The vessels crew was forced to return to Earth in a different spaceship nine days later, temporarily leaving Tiangong and its remaining trio of resident astronauts without a flightworthy vessel.

What happens if a black hole passes through your body?

Chinas space-industrial complex raced to remove that risk by working overtime to execute its first emergency launch mission on November 25, just 20 days after the initial delay was announced.

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But the future of the damaged Shenzhou-20 vessel, which remains docked at the Chinese space station, was unknown until CCTVs televised report on Monday.

Ji Qiming, a spokesperson for the China Manned Space Agency, told the state broadcaster that Shenzhou-20 would return without crew to Earth, adding that on its way back it would obtain the most authentic experimental data, without elaborating further.

Jia Shijin, a designer of the Shenzhou spacecraft, revealed to CCTV more details about the tiny crack that permanently altered Chinas crewed spaceflight schedule.

Our preliminary judgement is that the piece of space debris was smaller than 1 millimetre, but it was travelling incredibly fast. The resulting crack extends over a centimetre, Jia said.

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But we cant directly examine it in orbit, we will study it closely when Shenzhou-20 returns.

Russias only platform to launch for ISS is damaged

Jia added that the decision to delay the Shenzhou-20 return mission was based on a worst-case scenario where the window crack might spread, leading to cabin depressurisation and the ingress of high-speed gases.

If this happened, it could then rapidly overwhelm life-support systems and prove fatal to the astronauts.

(Reporting by Eduardo Baptista; editinjg by Mark Heinrich)

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation.
A man makes coffee at the African Coffee Park in western Ugandan district of Ntungamo on Nov. 28, 2025. (Photo by Ronald Ssekandi/Xinhua)

KAMPALA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- China's expanded zero-tariff policy for African goods is expected to significantly boost Uganda's coffee exports and raise household incomes, a leading Ugandan coffee entrepreneur has told Xinhua.

Nelson Tugume, chief executive officer of Inspire Africa Group, which owns the African Coffee Park in Uganda's western district of Ntungamo, said that China's new policy offers a far more conducive business environment compared with markets that continue to impose high tariffs on African products.

Effective from Dec. 1, 2024, China has granted zero-tariff treatment to all least developed countries with which it has diplomatic relations, including 33 African nations on 100 percent of their products.

An extension of zero-tariff treatment was later announced to cover 100 percent of tariff lines for all 53 African countries that have diplomatic ties with China.

Tugume said the policy, combined with China's rising demand for coffee and uncertainties in major coffee-producing countries, creates a timely opportunity for Ugandan farmers seeking new and stable markets.

"For any business interested in growth, you go where the environment is conducive," he said, ahead of the flag-off of a consignment of locally sourced and processed coffee bound for China.

He said that to meet China's standards and ensure a sustainable supply, Uganda must prepare adequately.

"We have seen countries grow and learn from each other," Tugume said, noting that more than 40 Inspire Africa staff had recently returned from China after acquiring technical skills. Another 40 employees will be sent to China to master the technologies used in coffee processing machinery.

"For our people to understand, there must be a transfer of knowledge. We have partners in China who have allowed us to get into their factories and learn how these technologies are working," he added.

Data from Uganda's Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries indicate that coffee exports to China surged by 190 percent in March 2025 alone, making China Uganda's second-largest coffee market in Asia.

Earlier this month, the ministry also reported that Ugandan exporters secured deals worth 3 million U.S. dollars at the China International Import Expo.

During the event, Uganda signed a memorandum of understanding with Cotti Coffee, a Chinese private coffeehouse brand, to promote Ugandan coffee across China. The partnership will connect Ugandan farmers and processors directly with Cotti Coffee, which operates more than 7,500 outlets in 28 countries.

Coffee remains one of Uganda's key commodities for economic transformation, with about 1.8 million households depending on the crop, according to the agriculture ministry. 

Workers sort coffee packages from a machine at the African Coffee Park in western Uganda district of Ntungamo on Nov. 29, 2025. (Photo by Ronald Ssekandi/Xinhua)

This photo taken on Nov. 29, 2025 shows coffee packages at the African Coffee Park in western Uganda district of Ntungamo. (Photo by Ronald Ssekandi/Xinhua)
By Eduardo Baptista

BEIJING, Dec 3 (Reuters) - The Shanghai branch of China's cyberspace regulator said on Tuesday that it removed thousands of online posts for "doom-mongering the real estate market and distorting interpretations of housing policies", amid a prolonged property slump.

Over 40,000 posts on social media platforms including the Instagram-like RedNote and video-sharing platform Bilibili were removed since November 14, when the Cyberspace Administration of China branch in Shanghai launched the crackdown, along with the financial hub's housing bureau and internet police.

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A prolonged property downturn since 2021, marked by many developers failing to repay debt and complete presold homes, has weighed on consumer confidence and sapped household spending. Chinese policymakers have struggled to revive the flailing market.

The weeks-long crackdown in Shanghai also led to penalties for over 70,000 real estate accounts and 1,200 livestream rooms, the city's CAC branch said in a post published on Tuesday on its official WeChat account.

Under President Xi Jinping, political dissent has been all but extinguished within the so-called "Great Firewall" restricting China's internet. Beijing's army of online censors have instead in recent years clamped down on criticism about the Chinese economy and its slower growth since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The latest crackdown also highlights authorities' fears that online expressions of panic or discontent about the struggling property sector could lead to broader criticism of the government.

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Xi, speaking last week at a study session of the Politburo, one of the ruling Communist Party's decision-making bodies, said that authorities should "dare to draw the sword" to cut off profit and industry networks behind online misconduct.

The Chinese leader added that artificial intelligence should be used to strengthen cyberspace governance. Shanghai CAC said on Tuesday that it targeted some accounts for passing off AI-generated property pictures as authentic.

(Reporting by Eduardo BaptistaEditing by Peter Graff)
China and Japan's coast guards have given different accounts of a confrontation that occurred near a group of geopolitically sensitive islands in the East China Sea.

China's Coast Guard said on Tuesday that a Japanese fishing vessel had illegally entered the waters of the Diaoyu Islands - which Tokyo calls the Senkaku Islands. China claims them as their territory, despite the islands being administered by Japan.

Japan's Coast Guard, meanwhile, said it intercepted and expelled two Chinese Coast Guard ships as they approached the fishing vessel.

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The confrontation comes as diplomatic ties between the two nations spiral, after Japan's leader made controversial comments about Taiwan last month.

While responding to a question in parliament in November, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, known to be a vocal critic of China and its activities in the region, suggested that Tokyo could take military action if Beijing attacked Taiwan.

Beijing views self-governed Taiwan as part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to "reunite" with it.

Both sides have since engaged in increasingly hostile rhetoric towards each other, with the widening rift affecting daily life for citizens in both countries.

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Taiwan is located about 160km south-west of the Senkaku Islands.

China Coast Guard (CCG) spokesperson Liu Dejun said that Chinese vessels on Tuesday approached and warned off a Japanese fishing boat that had "illegally entered the territorial waters of China's Diaoyu Dao", according to a state media report.

Liu added that the CCG took "necessary law enforcement measures", claiming that the islands were Chinese territory and urging Japan to "immediately stop all acts of infringement and provocation in these waters".

The Japan Coast Guard (JCG) offered a slightly different account, saying they approached the Chinese vessels shortly after they were seen entering Japanese waters in the early hours of Tuesday and issued a demand that they leave the waters.

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The JCG's patrol ship ensured the fishing boat's safety until the CCG left the territory a few hours later, it said.

While Japan and China made an in-principle agreement in 2008 to jointly exploit resources in the East China Sea, the waterway that separates the two countries, tensions have escalated over the past decade-and-a-half.

The Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, which are uninhabited, represent a flash point in these tensions.

China has sent an increasing number of ships towards the islands, in what appears to be an attempt to test Japan's resolve to defend them. Last year, the number of days Chinese government vessels were spotted in the territory hit a record high for the third consecutive year. There were also a record number of CCG vessels operating in the waters.

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Prior to the events of Tuesday morning, the CCG last entered the waters surrounding the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands on 16 November, conducting what it described at the time as "a lawful patrol operation conducted by the China coast guard to uphold its rights and interests".
Former hostage Alon Ohel describes threats, sexual harassment, starvation, and surgery without anesthesia during months in Hamas captivity.

Content warning: This article discusses sensitive topics, such as violence, sexual harassment, and disturbing images.

Former hostage Alon Ohel recounted his time spent in captivity, including threats, sexual harassment, and surgery without anesthesia, while being held by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip during an interview with N12 on Monday.

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Ohel recounted how he was temporarily left alone in a terror tunnel after being held with other hostages. During this time, he was faced with terrorists whose "entire aim was to terrorize."

"They would play with the amounts of food, and sexually harassment," Ohel said.

"You go into the shower, and the terrorist comes to shampoo you. He puts shampoo in his hand and starts soaping you in the shower. He touches you," he recounted.

Ohel tried to move away from the sexually abusive terrorist, telling him that he could wash alone, but the terrorist continued.

Released hostage Alon Ohel arrives to Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus, Petah Tikva, October 13, 2025. (credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/FLASH90)

"He said it was important to him that I shower well, so that I don't get rashes. Luckily, the sexual abuse didn't go further," Ohel added.

Former hostage Alon Ohel recalls his kidnapping

Ohel told N12 about the moment when Hamas terrorists kidnapped him.

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"They threw me like a sack of potatoes into the pickup truck. I was in shock, and asked myself if I was dreaming," Ohel said.

"I saw someone jump from the pickup, and they took him apart. I told myself, 'No matter what, I choose life,'" he added.

"They started driving, and within seconds, we were in Gaza. I was in shock. We passed a gate, and boom, Gaza. You say 'f***, where is the air force? What is happening?" he stated.

"All of my hair was full of concrete from the shelter I was hiding in, and I was dripping endless blood with crazy amounts of pain in my head, shoulder, and eye. I couldn't see," he recounted.

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Ohel noted how they arrived at a hospital, and saw a large crowd of Gazans full of hatred for the hostages.

"You can't call them uninvolved," Ohel said, describing the crowd. "Everyone there is involved," he affirmed.

"I screamed to them that I could not see, and they took off my clothes while trying to make sure people did not come in," he said, adding that they were taken to a house next to the hospital and were given anesthesia. "I woke up the next day, and could not breathe from the pain," he recalled.

Ohel recounted that the terrorists sewed the hostages up "in a degrading manner," without applying anesthesia, forbidding them to scream or speak.

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"In the first two weeks, we didn't speak. I sat there with people and had no idea who they were," Ohel said.

"They take you in a moment from life. I'm a 22-year-old. What do I know about life? They tore me from reality and put me in hell in a second," he stated.

Alon Ohel's injured right eye

When Ohel closes his left eye, his vision becomes blurry, but when both of his eyes are open, he is able to see, N12 noted.

However, he recounts that he always knew he was going to "come back to my mother in the end, whatever happens."

Shortly before his eye surgery upon his return to Israel, doctors explained the procedure to Ohel, checking that he understood. One moment during the surgery he was laughing, and then the next moment he would cry, N12 said.

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"In Gaza they took away my rights of movement, freedom, and liberty, but not the right to choose to be a victor," Ohel said.

"You break down all the time, but [fellow hostage] Eli [Sharabi] would tell me 'it is ok to break, but you must never lose hope,'" Ohel remembered.

Ohel recalls running away at Nova

"We ran from the Nova music festival the moment the bombing started," Ohel recalls.

"We saw the interceptions and said, 'we are out of here.' We thought of stopping at a shelter, and I really wanted to continue running once the rockets ended. We stood in the shelter, but the rockets didn't stop. Even more so, we started hearing Kalashnikovs. 'Where is the army?' we asked. You were simply waiting for your death," he continued.

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Ohel saw Aner Shapira, an IDF soldier, throwing grenades from inside the shelter to outside. "I told him everything will be ok. He didn't look me in the eyes. He saved all of us."

"After Shapira was murdered, there was a grenade that Hersh [Goldberg-Polin] came to throw. I screamed at him to throw it, but he didn't make it in time. The grenade exploded a few centimeters from Hersh and blew up his hand. I saw everything, and think that was the grenade that blew up my eye," Ohel remembered.

The interviewer asked if Ohel felt that the IDF knew where they were.

"Absolutely not," he answered. "I'm afraid of the army that was supposed to protect me. They didn't know anything."

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Ohel recounted how he was taken into a terror tunnel after 52 days, meeting Eli Sharabi, Almog Sarusi, Ori Danino, and Goldberg-Polin.

However, shortly afterwards, Sarusi, Danino, and Goldberg-Polin were taken away, with Ohel recounting how he felt sure they were being taken to be released. In fact, they were taken to be a different tunnel, where they were murdered by terrorists in August 2024.

Ohel was left in a tunnel with Eliya Cohen and Sharabi, who Ohel describes as a father to him during their captivity.

"From the beginning, we connected. There was this click. There was one time they threw a bowl with a bit of pasta, and I lost it, punching the wall, breaking my hand, and I started crying. Eli was there to hug me, it was a father's hug," Ohel recalled.

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Sharabi told Ohel about his daughters, who were murdered by terrorists during the massacre, and burst into tears. They promised each other that they would survive for the sake of their family members waiting for them.

"Whoever was not there will not be able to understand our captivity. In your life, you have not experienced starvation, you have not been connected to chains for a year and a half, shackled like a monkey, and eating like a dog. You are not a human being, you are an animal," he said.

"We would eat pita and four spoons of peas a day. There was a period when we ate only dried dates. And you know they have food. You tell yourself, In the end, you get used to hunger, but no. Its pain in the whole body, all the time. You look like a skeleton. You look at yourself, and you see a corpse, and it makes them feel good in their heart," Ohel said, describing how he tried to stay strong mentally.

The IDF bombed the tunnel they were in and a missile blew up the mosque and school from which the tunnel shafts came out, Ohel said.

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The hostages were sure they would be rescued and that IDF soldiers were entering the tunnels. "We went out and ran between the ruins," he said. "We heard machine guns, and we kept running until we reached another tunnel that had nothing."

Ohel recalled how a senior terrorist told them how the other hostages being held with Ohel were being released. They tore him from Sharabi, and he refused to leave. Both he and Sharabi were shaking, he recalled.

"I told Eli, 'Wow, I'm happy for you.' He said that everything will be okay."

Ohel recounted how, after eight months in captivity, he was relocated to the south of the Gaza Strip.

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"Suddenly, we stopped," he said. "They took me out of the vehicle, and we started wandering in Gaza. In retrospect, I understood that they relocated me to create pressure on Israel."

After being moved, Ohel was united with fellow hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal. The two served together in the navy, and recognized each other immediately, Ohel recounted.

The two were taken into a tunnel and ordered by terrorists to write a letter to their families.

Izzadin al-Haddad, then-commander of Hamas's Gaza Brigade, who has since been promoted to head of the so-called military wing, the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, came into the tunnel and told Ohel and Gilboa-Dalal that they were being released.

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"From there, everything happened very quickly. A woman from the Red Cross took me and apologized. She was very embarrassed because the Red Cross didn't do anything. They're a disgraceful organization - no different from the UN," he affirmed.

From the window of the Red Cross vehicle, he saw IDF soldiers. He recalled how he noticed that they were reservists with families and children.

Ohel noted that he did not break down upon being reunited with his family. What was important to him was to give them the feeling that he returned sane, healthy, and whole, but then he allowed himself to show emotions.

When he learned that Sharabi lost his entire family, he broke down, he remembered.

"For two years, I was a dead person. I prayed that someone would save me, but I discovered that I am strong, I can do everything, I am not a victim, I am not looking for self-pity. I went through what I went through, and I take it and grow, continuing to learn and develop. I am going to conquer the world," Ohel concluded.
The bomb threats were sent to Schumer's Rochester, Binghamton, and Long Island offices, with "MAGA" in the subject line, and an email address claiming the 2020 election was "rigged."

SenatorChuck Schumer's offices in Rochester, Binghamton, and Long Island, New York, received bomb threats on Monday morning, the senior Democrat confirmed on X/Twitter.

The threats contained "MAGA" in the email subject line and were sent from an address that alleged that the "2020 election was rigged," Schumer added.

He noted that he was informed of the threat by New York law enforcement, who, along with federal agents, responded "immediately" and conducted full security sweeps.

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"Everyone is safe, and I am grateful for their quick and professional response to ensure these offices remain safe and secure for all New Yorkers," Schumer said.

"As I have said many times, these kinds of violent threats have absolutely no place in our political system. No oneno public servant, no staff member, no constituent, no citizenshould ever be targeted for simply doing their job," he concluded.

US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) speaks at a press conference following the weekly policy luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington, November 19, 2025; illustrative. (credit: REUTERS/TOM BRENNER)

Schumer also read his statement on the Senate Floor on Monday, NBC News reported.

A law enforcement source confirmed to Associated Press that Suffolk County police responded to Schumers Long Island office but were unable to confirm the details of the threat.

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The source commented on condition of anonymity as the investigation is ongoing.

The US Capitol Police declined AP's request for comment, saying they do not discuss member security for safety reasons.

Jewish Sen. Slotkin targeted by bomb threat after Trump accuses her of seditious acts

After US President Donald Trump called for her arrest on grounds of sedition, Michigan police on November 21 responded to a bomb threat at Jewish senator Elissa Slotkins home, her office announced.

The Democratic Senator from Michigan was away from home at the time, her office noted, adding that police searched the property and confirmed that no one was in danger.

Corinne Baum contributed to this report.
Trotwood City Council voted not to pass its 2026 budget plan that would have called for the elimination of five full-time firefighting positions.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

News Center 7 previously reported that the Trotwood Fire Department used a 2021 FEMA Safer Grant to pay for nine temporary employees. The grant lasted for three years.

TRENDING STORIES:

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When the grant ended earlier this year, the city found money to hold on to five of those workers for the rest of the year.

FEMA made changes to the retention portion of the grant program nationwide, making Trotwood ineligible to renew it, the city said in a statement.

The citys proposed 2026 budget does not include those five grant positions, meaning those firefighters will lose their jobs at the department.

The city council voted Monday night to reject the plan.

I applaud the members of council that voted not to lay them off, and hopefully we can sit down and get to work and figure out how to how to keep firefighters long term and not just keep the ones we have, John Harvey, the President of the Ohio Association of Professional Firefighters, said.

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The Trotwood Fire Departments Public Information Officer told News Center 7 that they appreciate the Unions role in advocating for their fire crews.

News Center 7 will continue to follow this story.

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COLLINS: Hernandez had been sentenced, last year, to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking offenses. An American jury found that he was guilty of conspiring with cartels, to move 400 tons of cocaine through his home country toward the U.S. The Justice Department estimated that that amounts to approximately 4.5 billion individual doses of this drug.

But the President claimed today that many people have told him that Hernandez had been treated very harshly and unfairly, and that it was all set up by the Biden White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The people of Honduras really thought he was set up, and it was a terrible thing. He was the president of the country, and they basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country. And they said it was a Biden administration setup. And I looked at the facts, and I agreed with them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: My legal sources tonight are:

CNNs senior legal analyst, Elie Honig.

And former Justice Department pardon attorney herself, Liz Oyer, who was fired by the Trump administration earlier this year.

And Elie, despite what we are hearing from some officials, about this being a Biden setup. Part of this investigation actually started when the President was in office, the first term, President Trump. Because one of the lead investigators who convicted Hernandezs brother in this scheme, was actually Trumps own former personal attorney, he would go on to be so, Emil Bove, at your former stomping grounds of SDNY.

Do you believe this was over-prosecution, as the administration is putting it?

ELIE HONIG: Not at all, Kaitlan. And the record proves to the contrary.

So, if you look back at this case, it was charged by the Justice Department, the Southern District of New York. This individual, Mr. Hernandez, was given a three-week jury trial. The judge, Judge Kevin Castel, Ive tried cases in front of him, very experienced, very fair, tolerates no BS from prosecutors, runs a tight, fair trial. He was convicted by a jury. He was then sentenced to 45 years.

He was actually about to have his appeal argument, next week. And I think its worth noting, Kaitlan, that Hernandezs own lawyers are not even making the kinds of arguments that we just heard from the President. Theyre not arguing that this was a setup, or politically- driven, or anything of that nature.

So, whoever these Honduran people are, who are making these statements to the President, Im not sure who they are. But these claims are completely different from what Hernandez is actually claiming in  or was claiming in court, before the pardon.

COLLINS: Well, one of them actually is Roger Stone, a Trump ally. Hes been elevating this case and talking about this, defending the pardon, as he did today.
While some states' coldest temperatures were recorded recently, others were documented decades ago.

Hawaii remains the only state in the US yet to report a temperature below zero degrees Fahrenheit.

The coldest temperature ever recorded in the US was -80 degrees in Alaska in 1971.

Despite record-breaking temperature drops across the US over the last century, the world continues to get hotter. In fact, only three states have recorded their lowest-ever temperatures in the 21st century.

It doesn't mean, however, that the US hasn't experienced some excruciatingly low temperatures in recent years. This week, a winter storm is barreling across states, dumping snow and ice, and potentially inflicting daily record lows in the Plains, Midwest, and Northeast, The Weather Channel reported on Tuesday.

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The coldest temperature ever recorded in the US was -80 degrees in Alaska in 1971. And since records began, all but one of the 50 states has reported a temperature below zero. What's the holdout? Hawaii, which recorded its lowest temperature of 12 degrees Fahrenheit at the Mauna Kea Observatory on May 17, 1979.

According to data compiled by NOAA's State Climate Extremes Committee, the coldest temperatures ever recorded in each state are listed below.

Melissa Wells contributed to a prior version of this story.

Alabama's lowest recorded temperature was -27 degrees Fahrenheit at New Market on January 30, 1966.

Snowy winter road in Alabama. Melissa Bobo/Shutterstock

On this snowy January day, it was Lucille Hereford, the postmaster and town volunteer weather observer, who recorded the -27-degree temperature, calling it a "terribly cold" morning in a 1988 interview with an Alabama State climatologist.

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Per a 2021 news report by WHNT, a local news outlet, the official story comes with a caveat: The temperature was initially erroneously recorded as warmer than the -24 degrees Fahrenheit reported at Russellville the same day. It wasn't until years later that a Birmingham reporter uncovered the truth, and the National Climatic Data Center finally issued a correction in its records.

Alaska's lowest recorded temperature was -80 degrees Fahrenheit at Prospect Creek Camp on January 23, 1971.

A dramatic sunset illuminates the clear waters of Phelan Creek in early spring in the Alaska Range. Troutnut/Shutterstock

The Anchorage Daily News reported in 2013 that there have been unofficial measurements of even lower temperatures. On the National Weather Service Alaska website, Phil Schaefer said it hit -84 degrees Fahrenheit in Coldfoot in 1989, and Joe Cochran said the temperature in Hughes dropped to -85 degrees Fahrenheit in the '90s, The Daily News reported.

However, the Prospect Creek Camp temperature is the only one that's been verified.

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This is the lowest temperature ever recorded in the US.

Arizona's lowest recorded temperature was -40 degrees Fahrenheit at Hawley Lake on January 7, 1971.

Arizona after a heavy snow storm. Alexey Stiop/Shutterstock

Hawley Lake isn't a town so much as a remote weather station, but it's important in Arizona's meteorological history. In addition to setting a state record for 91 inches of snow in 1968, the overseer of Hawley Lake, Stan Bryte, recorded the state's lowest temperature of -40 degrees Fahrenheit in 1971, per AZCentral.

In fact, on the morning of January 7, 1971, Bryte's chief meteorologist told him, "You need to get up to Hawley Lake. I have a suspicion this is going to be a real record."

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Arkansas' lowest recorded temperature was -29 degrees Fahrenheit in Brook Farm Pond near Gravette on February 13, 1905.

Early morning sunrise in Arkansas. Michael t. Morrison/Shutterstock

Brook Farm Pond is near the town of Gravette, which has just over 3,500 residents, according to census data.

It is located in Benton County, which has the motto "The Heart of Hometown America." At one time, it also bore the name of "Gate Community" for serving as a gateway to northwest Arkansas from Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma.

California's lowest recorded temperature was -45 degrees Fahrenheit in Boca on January 20, 1937.

View of Truckee river and Boca Hill in snow near interstate 80 at the California-Nevada state line. AJ9/Shutterstock

The Los Angeles Times reported in 1937 that the low temperatures had brought "influenza, frozen toes, broken water pipes and automobile radiators, icy streets and traffic disruption."

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Colorado's lowest recorded temperature was -61 degrees Fahrenheit in Maybell on February 1, 1985.

Teri Virbickis/Shutterstock

CBS News reported in January 2023 that Maybell, located 25 miles west of Craig, is home to just 76 people.

Maybell resident of 56 years Georgia McIntyre told 9News in 2015, "You don't think about how cold it is. You just put all the clothes you've got on, and we even put newspapers in our shoes because we didn't have all these fancy things you have now."

Connecticut has recorded temperatures of -32 degrees Fahrenheit twice: First in Falls Village on February 16, 1943, and then again in Coventry on January 22, 1961.

Winter in Connecticut. Michael Macsuga/Shutterstock

In 1943, a National Weather Service observer noted February was a "relatively mild month" in Connecticut, only for the state to record its coldest temperature in the state's history 16 days into the month, per a 2023 CT Insider article.

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A freezing day in January just 18 years later would hit that same low temperature.

Delaware's lowest recorded temperature was -17 degrees Fahrenheit in Millsboro on January 17, 1893.

Beautiful view near the river after a snowstorm in Delaware. Khairil Azhar Junos/Shutterstock

Thirty-seven years later, a Millsboro weather station recorded a temperature of 110 degrees Fahrenheit on a scorching July day, according to the National Weather Service.

Florida's lowest recorded temperature was -2 degrees Fahrenheit in Tallahassee on February 13, 1899.

Sunrise in Florida in the Winter. Jesse Kunerth/Shutterstock

WTXL Tallahassee reported in 2020 that in Tallahassee 124 years ago, an inch of snow coated the city (its third biggest snowfall ever), and a record low of -2 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded.

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Headlines at the time read "All Previous Records Broken," and editors were calling the storm, "The Snow King," "The Ice King," and "the Great Blizzard of 1899," Tallahassee Democrat reported in 2018.

Georgia's lowest recorded temperature was -17 degrees Fahrenheit in CCC Fire Camp F-16 near Beatum on January 27, 1940.

The snow-filled mountains in Georgia. PaulDaniel5010/Shutterstock

Not even 12 years later, on July 24, 1952, Georgia recorded its highest temperature at 112 degrees Fahrenheit in Louisville and again on August 20, 1983, in Greenville, according to NOAA's State Climate Extremes Committee.

Hawaii's lowest recorded temperature was 12 degrees Fahrenheit at the Mauna Kea Observatory on May 17, 1979.

Sunset at the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Alexey Kamenskiy/Shutterstock

Forecasters think this record may have changed because, on February 11, 2019, several sensors at the Mauna Kea Observatory reported temperatures between 8 and 11 degrees Fahrenheit, Khon2 reported in 2022, but it has yet to be confirmed.

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Idaho's lowest recorded temperature was -60 degrees Fahrenheit in Island Park Dam on January 18, 1943.

Winter Shoreline in Idaho. Grimm Film/Shutterstock

Island Park Dam is located in the Targhee National Forest in the northeast corner of the state. It's tied for the eighth coldest temperature ever recorded in the US.

Illinois' lowest recorded temperature was -38 degrees Fahrenheit in Mount Carroll on January 31, 2019.

Old Train Bridge over a Canal in Winter (Illinois). Randy R/Shutterstock

Frigid temperatures across Illinois in late January 2019 led to a startling discovery: On the morning of January 31, the weather observer at Mount Carroll in Carroll County recorded a temperature drop to -38 degrees Fahrenheit.

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Only after an extensive review did the State Climate Extremes Committee collectively validate the reading as the new state record low temperature, The State Journal-Register reported in 2019.

Indiana's lowest recorded temperature was -36 degrees Fahrenheit in New Whiteland on January 19, 1994.

Winter in Indiana. Waldos photo/Shutterstock

ABC57 reported in 2020 that all temperatures across Indiana dropped below zero on the morning of January 19, 1994.

In a newscast from 1994 for WRTV Indianapolis, a mail carrier told former Channel 6 meteorologist David James, "Well, I'll tell you, it's better today than it was yesterday, 'cuz there's not that wind. So, I don't mind this at all."

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Iowa's lowest recorded temperature was -47 degrees Fahrenheit in Elkader on February 3, 1996. Previously, it was in Washta on January 12, 1912.

Iowa winter garden on full display. Lisa J Loewen/Shutterstock

Iowa was one of many states in the Midwest that experienced the "1996 Cold Wave," as KCRG-TV9 described it in 2016.

Kansas' lowest recorded temperature was -40 degrees Fahrenheit in Lebanon on February 13, 1905.

Pedestrians walk down snow-swept streets in Kansas. Julie Denesha /Getty Images

The winter of 1905 was reportedly so bitterly cold that "it was impossible for one to face the storm," according to "Reno County Kansas, Its People, Industries, and Institutions," by B.F. Bowen & Co. Inc. of Indianapolis, published in 1917 and reported in 2014 by The Kansas City Star.

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Kentucky's lowest recorded temperature was -37 degrees Fahrenheit in Shelbyville on January 19, 1994.

Beautiful winter morning on a small lake in Kentucky. Alexey Stiop/Shutterstock

According to meteorologist John Belski, January 19, 1994, "was certainly a day for the history books."

"Those who were not around in 1994, it was the only time I can remember when grocery stores in parts of Louisville ran out of food and gas stations ran out of gas that week since no deliveries were able to be made for several days. It was so strange to see people walking in the middle of Bardstown Road and also Broadway," he recalled for WLKY News in 2020.

Louisiana's lowest recorded temperature was -16 degrees Fahrenheit in Minden on February 13, 1899.

Minden, Louisiana. Logan Rhoads/Shutterstock

Over two weeks in February 1899, freezing weather swept over the US, with record-low minimum temperatures recorded in 12 states. According to weather historian David Ludlum in "The Great Arctic Outbreak and East Coast Blizzard of February 1899," this was "the greatest arctic outbreak in history" at the time.

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Maine's lowest recorded temperature was -50 degrees Fahrenheit in Big Black River on January 16, 2009.

Maine saw the highest share of inbound movers in 2023, for reasons that could include access to nature and more living space. Andrew Siegel/Shutterstock

After a month of scrutinizing weather data, scientists said in February 2009 that Maine had reached a record low: 50 below freezing.

After much evaluation by the State Climate Extreme Committee, "It turned out [the -50 reading] was spot on," Bob Lent, Maine director of the US Geological Survey, said, as reported by NBC News in 2009.

Maryland's lowest recorded temperature was -40 degrees Fahrenheit in Oakland on January 13, 1912.

Muddy Creek Falls in Swallow Falls State Park in Oakland, Maryland. Richard Bizick/Shutterstock

Oakland, Maryland, is home to 1,851 people, according to census data. It was established in 1849 and became a well-known tourist spot when the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad built a rail line that traveled through the town, according to Britannica.

Massachusetts's lowest recorded temperature was -35 degrees Fahrenheit in Chester on January 12, 1981; in Coldbrook on February 15, 1943; and in Taunton on January 5, 1904.

Winter-time hiking to the Sanderson Brook Falls in Chester, Massachusetts. scott conner/Shutterstock

The same temperature was previously recorded in Coldbrook on February 15, 1943, and in Taunton on January 5, 1904.

Michigan's lowest recorded temperature was -51 degrees Fahrenheit in Vanderbilt on February 9, 1934.

Sunrise over frozen lake in Michigan. John McCormick/Shutterstock

Only 11 states have recorded colder temperatures than Michigan: Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Minnesota's lowest recorded temperature was -60 degrees Fahrenheit in Tower on February 2, 1996.

Minnesota. JordanSchopper/Shutterstock

The average low in this sparsely populated former mining town is usually around 4 degrees Fahrenheit in February, according to WorldClimate.com.

Mississippi's lowest recorded temperature was -19 degrees Fahrenheit in Corinth on January 30, 1966.

Trees on snow-covered field during winter in Mississippi. Barbara Windham / 500px/Getty Images

By contrast, Mississippi's highest recorded temperature was recorded 36 years prior on July 29, 1930, when the mercury in Holly Springs hit 115 degrees Fahrenheit.

Missouri's lowest recorded temperature was -40 degrees Fahrenheit in Warsaw on February 13, 1905.

Table Rock Lake, Branson, Missouri. Tara Ballard/Shutterstock

Interestingly enough, the coldest and hottest temperatures recorded in Missouri have both been in Warsaw, according to the University of Missouri Climate Center. The hottest temperature was a whopping 118 degrees Fahrenheit on July 14, 1954.

Montana's lowest recorded temperature was -70 degrees Fahrenheit in Rogers Pass on January 20, 1954.

Mountain at Rogers Pass in Glacier National Park in Montana. Urban Images/Shutterstock

"It's a day that will probably live in American history forever," Corby Dickerson, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said of the record, NBC Montana reported in February 2023. "It was the coldest day ever observed in the lower 48 states."

Nebraska's lowest recorded temperature was -47 degrees Fahrenheit in Oshkosh on December 22, 1989. Previously, it was in Bridgeport on February 12, 1899.

Sunrise over the Platte River after a snowstorm in Nebraska. Diana Robinson Photography/Getty Images

The biggest snowstorm on the southeast US coast was known as the "Christmas Snowstorm of 1989," according to The National Weather Service, and it was felt all the way to Nebraska. It broke snowfall records in several states, and unheard-of temperatures followed.

Nevada's lowest recorded temperature was -50 degrees Fahrenheit in San Jacinto on January 8, 1937.

Nevada winter landscape with cloud inversion. Neil Lockhart/Shutterstock

Fifty-seven years after the state's cold temperature, a weather station in Laughlin recorded a temperature of 125 degrees Fahrenheit in June, per data from NOAA's State Climate Extremes Committee.

New Hampshire's lowest recorded temperature was -50 degrees Fahrenheit in Mount Washington on January 22, 1885.

View from Boott Spur Trail, towards Huntington Ravine and Raymond Cataract on Mount Washington, New Hampshire. Ed Dods/Shutterstock

More recently, sensors on Mount Washington logged the US' coldest windchill on record: -108. The Weather Service office serving Mount Washington posted in February 2023 that its recording software refused to log the reported low number.

New Jersey's lowest recorded temperature was -34 degrees Fahrenheit in River Vale on January 5, 1904.

A road just plowed after a large snowfall in rural Central New Jersey. Andrew F. Kazmierski/Shutterstock

"That was a very cold morning in northeastern New Jersey," David Robinson, a New Jersey State Climatologist, told NJ.com in 2019.

"A deep fresh snow cover, the valley location, adjacent to a pond that was used to make ice, and a generally treeless landscape near the station all helped contribute to the excessive cold."

New Mexico's lowest recorded temperature was -50 degrees Fahrenheit in Gavilan on February 1, 1951.

Snow-covered mountains in New Mexico. Roschetzky Photography/Shutterstock

Conversely, the hottest temperature in New Mexico was recorded on June 27, 1994, at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Loving, where it reached a blazing 122 degrees Fahrenheit.

New York's lowest recorded temperature was -52 degrees Fahrenheit in Old Forge on February 18, 1979.

Winter Sunrise from Bald Mountain in Old Forge, New York in the Adirondack Mountains. PureADK/Shutterstock

Jane Tormey, the official weather watcher for Old Forge for CNY Central, recalled in 2013, "People were saying their milk froze on the way home from the store to home. A lot of cars obviously couldn't get started. My car window driver's side was shattered."

North Carolina's lowest recorded temperature was -34 degrees Fahrenheit in Mount Mitchell on January 21, 1985.

Fresh snow covers trees at crest of Mount Mitchell in North Carolina. Bonita R. Cheshier/Shutterstock

One of the past century's most extreme arctic outbreaks occurred between January 18 and January 22, 1985. According to the National Weather Service, newspapers at the time reported at least 165 deaths related to the weather.

North Dakota's lowest recorded temperature was -60 degrees Fahrenheit in Parshall on February 15, 1936.

Driving on state Highway 85 north of I-94 in North Dakota. CJ Cagney/Shutterstock

Coincidentally, both the hottest and coldest temperatures recorded in North Dakota's history happened in the same year, with Steele hitting 121 degrees Fahrenheit on July 6, 1936, KYFR-TV reported in 2023.

Ohio's lowest recorded temperature was -39 degrees Fahrenheit in Milligan on February 10, 1899.

A snowy winter sunrise scene in Ohio with the snow clinging to the trees. Michael Shake/Shutterstock

Ohio was another state affected by the unprecedented cold of February 1899. The US Weather Bureau reported 105 fatalities between January 29 and February 13 from the arctic temperatures and avalanches brought on by "the Great Arctic Outbreak."

Oklahoma's lowest recorded temperature was -31 degrees Fahrenheit in Nowata on February 10, 2011.

Street full with snow in Oklahoma. Wichakorn Kitrungrot/Shutterstock

2011 was reportedly Oklahoma's third snowiest year, and the state's record for most snowfall in 24 hours was reached in Spavinaw, with 27 inches, FOX23 News reported in 2020.

Oregon's lowest recorded temperature was -54 degrees Fahrenheit in Ukiah on February 9, 1933, and in Seneca on February 10, 1933.

A winter sun sets over the Cascade Mountain Range in Central Oregon. Wasim Muklashy/Shutterstock

Ukiah and Seneca are occasionally known as "Oregon's Icebox" due to their icy winter conditions. That said, Meacham residents have said the temperature once plummeted to -62 degrees Fahrenheit, but it has never been proven officially, The Oregonian wrote in 2010.

Pennsylvania's lowest recorded temperature was -42 degrees Fahrenheit in Smethport on January 5, 1904.

Winter landscape in Pennsylvania. Marcello Sgarlato/Shutterstock

By contrast, in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, two consecutive days of 111 degrees Fahrenheit were recorded on July 9, 1936 and July 10, 1936, in the hottest temperature ever recorded in the state.

Phoenixville is five hours from Smethport, where the coldest temperature was recorded 32 years prior.

Rhode Island's lowest recorded temperature was -28 degrees Fahrenheit in Wood River Junction on January 11, 1942.

Winter sunrise in Rhode Island. JonPeckham/Shutterstock

According to NOAA's State Climate Extremes Committee, -25 degrees Fahrenheit was previously reported at Greene, Rhode Island, on February 5, 1996, but it could not be verified.

South Carolina's lowest recorded temperature was -19 degrees Fahrenheit in Caesar's Head on January 21, 1985.

Winter in South Carolina. Casual Creation/Shutterstock

In 1985, in the Carolinas, the coldest temperatures ever recorded were dubbed "The Coldest Day," WMBF News reported in 2020.

South Dakota's lowest recorded temperature was -58 degrees Fahrenheit in McIntosh on February 17, 1936.

Girl standing under frozen waterfall in South Dakota. Byron Banasiak/Shutterstock

McIntosh was home to just 111 people in 2020. It is the county seat of Corson County.

Tennessee's lowest recorded temperature was -32 degrees Fahrenheit in Mountain City on December 30, 1917.

Snow Panorama in Tennessee. RichardBarrow/Shutterstock

The two days of 113 degrees Fahrenheit were recorded in Perryville on July 29, 1930, and August 9, 1930, making them the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Tennessee.

Texas' lowest recorded temperature was -23 degrees Fahrenheit in Seminole on February 8, 1933. The same temperature was also recorded in Tulia 6NE on February 12, 1899.

Winter sunrise on the face of a rock outcropping in the caprock canyons of West Texas. Chris Jeans/Shutterstock

Texas is known for its heat, but even this state has seen severe drops in temperatures  the best known was during the Great Blizzard of 1899.

Some unofficial reports even claim temperatures reached -30 degrees Fahrenheit in February 1899 at Wolf Creek, Texas. Either way, the Concho Valley Homepage reported in 2022 that newspapers in 1899 described the temperatures as "the worst freeze ever known in the state."

Utah's lowest recorded temperature was -50 degrees Fahrenheit in Strawberry Tunnel (East) on January 5, 1913.

A hiker ventures along the snowy trails of Utah in the winter. Ashley Hadzopoulos/Shutterstock

By contrast, the city of St. George has been home to the state's record for hottest temperature  twice. A temperature of 117 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded in July 1985 and again in July 2021.

Vermont's lowest recorded temperature was -50 degrees Fahrenheit in Bloomfield on December 30, 1933.

Winter morning in Vermont. andrew12832/Shutterstock

Bloomfield, a town in Essex County, had a population of 217 in the 2020 US census. The weather station existed from 1906 to 1968, according to Century 21 Farm & Forest.

Virginia's lowest recorded temperature was -30 degrees Fahrenheit in Mountain Lake Biological Station on January 21, 1985.

Winter landscape in Virginia. mbell/Getty Images

Centered in the Allegheny Mountains is Mountain Lake, one of only two freshwater lakes in Virginia, according to the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources.

Just a year after this temperature was recorded in 1985, Mountain Lake was made famous again for "Dirty Dancing," which is where the movie was filmed.

Washington's lowest recorded temperature was -48 degrees Fahrenheit on December 30, 1968, in two different towns: Mazama and Winthrop.

North Cascades National Park near Winthrop, Washington. Marina Poushkina/Shutterstock

On June 29, 2021, Hanford, Washington, reached 120 degrees Fahrenheit, the hottest recorded temperature in that state.

West Virginia's lowest recorded temperature was -37 degrees Fahrenheit in Lewisburg on December 30, 1917.

Snow on a frigid December day in a patch of woods and fields in West Virginia. Malachi Jacobs/Shutterstock

Just 13 years later, the highest temperature recorded was 112 degrees Fahrenheit in Moorefield, West Virginia, on August 4, 1930.

Wisconsin recorded the lowest temperature in the state's history on February 2, 1996, in Couderay. Two days later, it broke its own record at -55 degrees.

Stream running through a snow covered Wisconsin forest with snow covering the trees in January. Michael Tatman/Shutterstock

The coldest temperature recorded in Wisconsin ranks ninth in the nation.

Wyoming's lowest recorded temperature was -66 degrees Fahrenheit in Riverside Ranger Station in Yellowstone National Park on February 9, 1933.

Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Bruce Beck/Shutterstock

Although Yellowstone's temperatures in Wyoming haven't plummeted to the levels they once did in 1933, "since most of the park lies at an elevation of 6,000 feet above sea level or higher, unpredictability characterizes Yellowstone's weather," the National Park Service has said.

Correction: January 9, 2024  An earlier version of this story included an image that was mislabeled as Minden, Louisiana. The photo has been replaced with one of Minden.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Most Americans no longer hold the optimistic view of higher education they once did.

A new poll published by NBC News found nearly two-thirds of Americans, or 63%, believe a four-year college degree is "not worth the cost because people often graduate without specific job skills and with a large amount of debt to pay off.

The poll, fielded Oct. 24 to 28 among 1,000 registered voters, adds to a growing body of research showing a dramatic shift in Americans' views on college over the past decade. A similar CNBC poll in 2013 found a majority, or 53%, of Americans believed college was worth the financial investment.

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More: College students less comfortable expressing beliefs after Kirk death

A Gallup poll published in September found only 35% of American adults viewed college as very important, compared with 70% in 2013.

The changing outlook comes amid major transformations to the higher education landscape and the labor market, including the rising cost of a college education and advancements in artificial intelligence that are changing the workplace.

The cost of one year of college at a private four-year institution jumped from an average of $26,580 for the 2010 academic year to $38,420 for the 2022 academic year, a roughly 45% increase, according to the Education Data Collective.

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More: Trump keeps flattening the Education Department. Will students notice?

Lane Kirk, 21-year-old senior, and his girlfriend Bailey Johnson, 20-year-old junior, walk across Millsaps College campus in Jackson, Miss., on Monday morning, Sept. 15, 2025.

Americans with advanced degrees have historically earned more and had lower unemployment rates than their peers without any college experience, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But Gad Levanon, chief economist at the Burning Glass Institute, a think tank focused on the future of work, argues that the high cost of college has begun to close the gap.

Although college graduates are still more likely to earn a higher income, Levanon said, the college wage premium is shrinking.

The rise of artificial intelligence, or AI, should be a pretty big concern for college graduates, Levanon said. But he warned that the rise in automation probably will affect trade workers in the future, too.

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If you look like 10, 20 years from now, maybe the balance will shift again and then people would regret not doing a bachelors degree, he said. Its hard to predict what will happen.

A political divide

People across age, race and gender demographics were all less likely to see college as important and worthwhile than than they did a decade ago in both surveys.

But both Gallup and NBC found the shift in sentiment more pronounced among Republican voters. According to the NBC survey, 55% of Republicans saw college as worthwhile in 2013, compared with just 22% today  a 33% decline.

Support among Democrats, meanwhile, dropped 14%.

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More: New rules under Trump would change who qualifies for student loan forgiveness: What to know

Students walk on campus on the first day of the fall semester at College of the Desert in Palm Desert, Calif., on Tues., Sept. 2, 2025.

During the same time frame, the makeup of the Republican and Democratic parties has shifted. Democrats have gained support among voters with degrees, and Republicans have made inroads among those without them.

The larger drop in support for higher education among Republican voters probably is related to concerns that colleges and universities are partisan, according to a Gallup analysis.

Research by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation, a nonprofit higher education organization, found that 38% of Americans who lack confidence in higher education cite politics, with another 32% saying college doesnt teach the right things.

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Karissa Waddick, a reporter on USA TODAY's Nation Desk, can be reached at kwaddick@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is college worth the cost? A majority of Americans say no
An innovative weather app created by a Naples high schooler caught the attention of a Southwest Florida politician.

The office of Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, who represents the 26th Congressional District, hosted its 10th annual Congressional App Challenge competition and recognized winner Dallas Szittai, from Gulf Coast High School.

"My team was proud to recognize Dallas Szittai for winning the 2025 Congressional App Challenge with his innovative weather app, Warn.live," Diaz-Balart's office announced in a November news release. "This real-time tool pairs live radar with National Weather Service warnings and advisories, delivering instant alerts to help keep communities safe."

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When asked about the inspiration behind the app and future developments], Szittai told Diaz-Balart's office, Warn.live is a real-time severe weather app that pairs live radar with National Weather Service warnings and advisories and delivers instant push notifications whenever new alerts are issued."

Szittai told Diaz-Balart's office that he created it out of a passion for weather and built it by learning skills in web development, mapping technologies and backend architecture.

The project, created because of the Congressional App Challenge, taught him not only technical problem-solving but how to manage time effectively under pressure, Szittai told Diaz-Balart's office.

The office of Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, who represents the 26th Congressional District, hosted its 10th annual Congressional App Challenge competition and recognized winner Dallas Szittai, from Gulf Coast High School in Naples.

"I plan to continue developing Warn.live by expanding nationwide notifications and adding more advanced weather features," Szittai told Diaz-Balart's office, according to a news release shared by his office.

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Students competed with peers in Florida's 26th Congressional District by creating and exhibiting their apps for mobile, tablet, or computer devices on a platform of their choice. Each winning team is invited to showcase their winning app to Congress during an annual festival.

Diaz-Balart in November 2024 earned his 12th term as a U.S. representative for Florida's 26th District.

Tomas Rodriguez is a Breaking/Live News Reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. You can reach Tomas at TRodriguez@usatodayco.com or 772-333-5501. Connect with him on Threads @tomasfrobeltran, Instagram @tomasfrobeltran, Facebook @tomasrodrigueznews and Bluesky @tomasfrodriguez.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Weather app combines community safety from Naples high school student
Colorado just set a major new climate goal for the companies that supply homes and businesses with fossil gas.

By 2035, investor-owned gas utilities must cut carbon pollution by 41% from 2015 levels, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission decided in a 21 vote in mid-November. The target  which builds on goals already set for 2025 and 2030  is far more consistent with the states aim to decarbonize by 2050 than the other proposals considered. Commissioners rejected the tepid 22% to 30% cut that utilities asked for and the 31% target that state agencies recommended.

Climate advocates hailed the decision as a victory for managing a transition away from burning fossil gas in Colorado buildings.

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Its a really huge deal, said Jim Dennison, staff attorney at the Sierra Club, one of more than 20 environmental groups that advocated for an ambitious target. It's one of the strongest commitments to tangible progress that's been made anywhere in the country.

In 2021, Colorado passed a first-in-the-nation law requiring gas utilities to find ways to deliver heat sans the emissions. That could entail swapping gas for alternative fuels, like methane from manure or hydrogen made with renewable power. But last year the utilities commission found that the most cost-effective approaches are weatherizing buildings and outfitting them with all-electric, ultraefficient appliances such as heat pumps. These double-duty devices keep homes toasty in winter and cool in summer.

The clean-heat law pushes utilities to cut emissions by 4% from 2015 levels by 2025 and then 22% by 2030.

But Colorado leaves exact targets for future years up to the Public Utilities Commission. Last months decision on the 2035 standard marks the first time that regulators have taken up that task.

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The commissions move sets a precedent for other states working to ditch fossil fuels from buildings even as the federal government eliminates home-electrification incentives after Dec. 31. Following Colorados lead, Massachusetts and Maryland are developing their own clean-heat standards.

Gas is still a fixture in the Centennial State. About seven out of 10 Colorado households burn the fossil fuel as their primary source for heating, which accounts for about 31% of the states gas use.

If gas utilities hit the new 2035 mandate, theyll avoid an estimated 45.5 million metric tons of greenhouse gases over the next decade, according to an analysis by the Colorado Energy Office and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Theyd also prevent the release of hundreds more tons of nitrogen oxides and ultrafine particulates that cause respiratory and cardiovascular problems, from asthma to heart attacks. State officials predicted this would mean 58 averted premature deaths between now and 2035, nearly $1 billion in economic benefits, and $5.1 billion in avoided costs of climate change.

I think in the next five to 10 years, people will be thinking about burning fossil fuels in their home the way they now think about lead paint, said former state Rep. Tracey Bernett, a Democrat who was the prime sponsor of the clean-heat law.

Competing clean-heat targets

Back in August, during proceedings to decide the 2035 target, gas utilities encouraged regulators to aim low. Citing concerns about market uptake of heat pumps and potential costs to customers, they asked for a goal as modest as 22% by 2035  a target that wouldnt require any progress at all in the five years after 2030.

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Climate advocates argued that such a weak goal would cause the state to fall short on its climate commitments. Nonprofits the Sierra Club, the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, and the Western Resource Advocates submitted a technical analysis that determined the emissions reductions the gas utilities would need to hit to align with the states 2050 net-zero goal: 55% by 2035, 74% by 2040, 93% by 2045, and, finally, 100% by 2050.

History suggests these reductions are feasible, advocates asserted.

We're recommending targets that put us on a technology-adoption curve  a trajectory that's been seen over and over again, said Ramon DC Alatorre, senior program manager at the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project. There's a tremendous amount [of] mature technology available today in order to be able to meet these targets.

Heat pumps, for example, have a track record of holding their own even in Denvers deepest freezes. Some companies are devising ways to bring installation costs way down. And the state is making the tech more affordable via a federally funded rebate program for low-income households and tax credits worth hundreds of dollars for both customers and contractors.

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Expecting the market to move more slowly than advocates predicted, the Colorado Energy Office and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment recommended a 41% cut. But then in September, after reviewing stakeholders comments, the agencies dropped it to 31%  a more realistic, yet still ambitious goal, they wrote.

The agencies 41% proposal was far better supported by their own analysis, Commissioner Megan Gilman said at the Nov. 12 commission meeting: Agencies found that this target comports with the clean-heat law. The 31% figure, by contrast, seemed untethered to the legislations mandates, she noted.

The commissions decision doesnt factor in concerns about the cost of decarbonization  nor is it meant to, Gilman said. The regulators will address cost-effectiveness when they evaluate utilities specific plans for complying with the statute, which are required every four years. Xcel Energy, the states largest utility, will file its next plan in 2027.

Utilities still need nudging to go beyond gas

Even as Colorado doubles down to leave gas in the past, Xcel isn't planning to relinquish the fossil fuel anytime soon.

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Xcel provides gas to 1.5 million customers across the state. From 2025 to 2029, the utility is seeking to invest more than $500 million per year on the gas system  costs passed on to customers via their energy bills. Thats a bigger investment than Xcels $440 million plan for 2024 to 2028 to reduce reliance on gas by implementing clean-heat measures.

Overbuilding gas infrastructure now could have decades-long ramifications for energy bills. If utilities are not scaling these [electrification] programs, the customers left on the gas systems are ultimately going to face higher costs, said Courtney Fieldman, utility program director of the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project.

Colorado is nudging gas utilities to instead become clean-heat utilities; for example, lawmakers have directed the companies to pilot zero-emissions geothermal heating projects and thermal energy networks.

Meanwhile, the commissions November decision sends a clear signal that utilities need to adjust their gas-demand forecast, the Sierra Clubs Dennison said. While advocates hoped that regulators would create more policy certainty by setting targets beyond 2035, commissioners demurred. They have until 2032 to get those standards finalized.

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The targets that conservation advocates have proposed are achievable, said Ed Carley, an expert on building decarbonization policy at Western Resource Advocates. Adopting them is really our opportunity to be a leader in achieving our greenhouse gas emissions goals  and demonstrating that market transformation is possible.



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OTTAWA, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Algoma Steel, one of Canada's largest steel producers, on Monday said it will lay off approximately 1,000 workers due to severe financial pressure from "unprecedented" U.S. tariffs, local media reported.

The company, based in Ontario province's Sault Ste. Marie, is one of the country's top integrated steel producers and a major regional employer with a workforce of around 2,700 people, with the layoffs representing more than a third of its staff.

According to the report, the company said the 50 percent tariffs imposed by the United States have "fundamentally altered the competitive landscape" and sharply limited its access to the U.S. market. The layoffs are scheduled to take effect on March 23, 2026.

In September, Algoma Steel received 500 million Canadian dollars (around 360 million U.S. dollars) in federal and provincial loan assistance to help it cope with the U.S. tariffs.

Ontario's Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, Vic Fedeli, said the province is activating a special support center to provide retraining programs for impacted workers.

The minister called on the federal government to "speed up procurement to use Ontario steel to build pipelines, critical infrastructure, ships and other military and defence equipment." 
A proposal to build an underground storage site for high-level nuclear waste is dividing the small Japanese fishing town of Suttsu.

The controversy caught many residents completely by surprise. Scienceline reported that Nobuka Miki, a local beauty salon owner, first learned of the plan when a TV reporter ambushed her about it at a festival in 2020.

"Everything was lovely and suddenly, I heard 'nuclear waste,'" Miki told Scienceline. "I felt surprised."

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The real shock came when Miki learned why. Her town's mayor, Kataoka Haruo, had volunteered Suttsu back in 2020. With the village's main industry, herring fishing, in decline, a "subsidy incentive" was promised.

And it's a lot of money. We're talking up to 2 billion yen ($19.4 million) for the first survey stage and 7 billion yen ($48.6 million) for the second.

Five years later, that money has split the tiny village of less than 3,000 people.

Scienceline reported that neighbors who grew up together won't even speak to one another. Their kids don't play together anymore.

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"People who support the decision wouldn't come to my salon and I wouldn't go to their shops either," Miki, who now helps lead the opposition, said.

Of course, not everyone is against it. Proponents see it as a necessary discussion.

"We all benefit from nuclear power, after all," local shop owner Tanaka Noriyuki told Nippon.com. "I don't feel any group has the standing to oppose the survey process."

This local fight gets at the giant, messy debate over nuclear power.

On one hand, it's a massive source of low-carbon electricity that helps support energy security and back up renewables. On the other hand, it has huge upfront costs, safety risks, and this exact problem: toxic, radioactive waste.

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In fact, more than a dozen nations are trying to develop underground storage facilities for high-level nuclear waste. None are open yet, and many are mired in controversy.

While nuclear waste isn't the green goo many imagine it to be, solving that waste problem is nonetheless key.

Researchers are already using advanced computers to predict how nuclear waste might move underground over thousands of years. Scientists at Ohio State are developing a device that uses special crystals to generate electricity from the waste's radiation. One company, Disa Technologies, even has a process that separates safe, usable sand from dangerous uranium mine debris.

But for Miki and other residents in Suttsu, those high-tech solutions feel a world away. Their main feeling is frustration.

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"Nobody showed up and asked about our concerns," Miki said.



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Costco filed a lawsuit to recover tariff payments imposed by the Trump administration.

The retailer challenged tariffs enacted under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Costco is seeking a full refund of duties paid.

Costco is suing the government to recover tariff money.

The wholesale retailer has filed a lawsuit against the United States, the US Customs and Border Protection agency, and Rodney S. Scott, the Commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection.

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The suit asks the US Court of International Trade to strike down tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump by executive order under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and to ensure tariff refunds for businesses that paid import duties.

In a complaint submitted Friday, November 28, the retailer said it is seeking a "full refund" of duties it paid after Trump used the emergency-powers law to levy what he described as "reciprocal" tariffs.

The complaint cited a previous lawsuit, VOS Selections, Inc. vs. Trump, filed against the Trump administration, for which the US Supreme Court heard arguments in early November.

"This separate action is necessary, however, because even if the IEEPA duties and underlying executive orders are held unlawful by the Supreme Court, importers that have paid IEEPA duties, including Plaintiff, are not guaranteed a refund for those unlawfully collected tariffs in the absence of their own judgment and judicial relief," the complaint reads.

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The complaint highlights a process called liquidation, which is when customs completes its final review and determines the official amount of duty for a particular shipment. Liquidation typically provides Customs and Border Protection with the opportunity to either refund the importer or demand additional duties to be paid. This process must be completed within one year of a shipment's entry unless it is extended at the discretion of the CBP. It is unknown if a refund could happen once liquidation is over.

According to the complaint, tariffs on Costco's imports will begin to be liquidated as early as December 15, and the CBP has already declined the company's request to extend the liquidation.

"Plaintiff seeks relief from the impending liquidations to ensure that its right to a complete refund is not jeopardized," the complaint reads.

The Court of International Trade and the District Court for the District of Columbia have both ruled the IEEPA tariffs illegal on separate occasions. Their rulings are mostly based on the Constitution, which says that Congress has the exclusive power to levy taxes and collect duties. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reaffirmed the CTI's decision in August.

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The use of the IEEPA for tariffs eventually made its way to the Supreme Court, and the court is currently deliberating.

Costco did not specify the amount of duties it has paid in the complaint. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a filing submitted to SCOTUS in September that the government could end up owing $1 trillion in tariffs should the court rule against the Trump administration.

Earlier this year, Costco's CEO, Ron Vachris, said during a Q2 earnings call, "About a third of our sales in the US are imported from other countries, and less than half of those are items coming from China, Mexico, and Canada." This was before Trump's April 2 "Liberation Day" tariffs.

Costco, the White House, and the US Customs and Border Protection agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Americans have a complicated relationship with math.

Studies reveal that a vast majority of adults living in the United States believe math skills are essential  but more than a third report having negative feelings about the wide-ranging academic discipline encompassing numbers, shapes, patterns and logic.

But a growing number of students at Utahs Hurricane High School are discovering that math doesnt have to be scary. Algebra, trigonometry, calculus and other math subjects are even helping them better connect with their peers  while simultaneously learning problem-solving skills valued far beyond the classroom.

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Over the past few years, the math faculty at the Washington County high school have watched students of all backgrounds benefit from the so-called Building Thinking Classrooms teaching approach that emphasizes collaboration, real-world problem-solving, perseverance and risk taking.

The teaching method  which involves students working in small groups using whiteboards  has bumped-up student engagement and math growth scores, Hurricane High Principal Daniel McKeehan told the Deseret News.

This is a very active engagement-type strategy where kids are learning to problem solve, he said. Theyre up. Theyre moving. Theyre thinking and theyre working with other students."

Its fascinating to watch.

Teaching ancient math subjects  in a new way

Hurricane High students work together on math problems as part of a "Building Thinking Classrooms" teaching strategy designed to help students build confidence in their math skills. | Hurricane High School

Scrapping traditional teaching methods might seem daunting  particularly for math educators who have already spent decades in the classroom

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McKeehan noted that several of the teachers in Hurricanes math department have more than 30 years of experience in the profession.

And sometimes its hard to change when youve been doing something for a long time  but this math team at Hurricane is not like that. They felt that they needed more real world application (in the classroom)."

The Hurricane math teachers, he added, told him: We need kids to understand why this is important. We need kids to really understand the bigger picture in life and learn how to problem solve  whether it be in math or something else.

One math teacher shared with McKeehan a few ideas she gleaned from the book Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics which challenges institutional teaching norms by implementing a series of optimal practices for thinking to facilitate deep mathematical thinking and learning.

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Intrigued, several of the Hurricane High math teachers attended a Building Thinking Classrooms national conference to learn more.

It totally changed their way of teaching math, said McKeehan. They have adopted this Building Thinking Classrooms style and strategy.

Its all about problem-solving  as opposed to solving math equations.

Once students are trained to problem-solve, he added, Then solving math equations becomes second-nature because their mind is in the problem-solving phase.

Collaboration is a key element of the Building Thinking Classrooms teaching approach. That can be challenging for students often attached to their cellphones and ear pods.

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Sometimes kids kind of stick to themselves, but this math system requires students to work in small groups, said McKeehan. Theyre not sitting at desks, theyre up on whiteboards. The whole room has whiteboards wrapped around it, and the kids work in random small groups.

And youre never with the same people twice. Its completely randomized.

Teachers still offer instruction and guidance during the class period  but the students are working together instead of sitting alone at their desks, heads buried in textbooks.

Of course education is a results-driven culture  and some Hurricane High teachers understandably wondered how the novel approach would affect math test scores. But we were less concerned about test scores  and more concerned about if the students are engaged and growing, said McKeehan.

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The principal is certain that the test scores will take care of themselves. Were going to do everything we can for that 80 minutes in class to help students problem-solve and develop as learners.  Its totally revolutionized what we do.

And the results, added McKeehan, have been fantastic.

Several Utah school districts have reached out to Hurricane High to learn more.

Meanwhile, while proficiency scores at the school have remained about the same since implementing the new strategy, math growth scores at the school have significantly increased, according to McKeehan.

Obviously, I feel like we have good teachers, he added, and the kids have clearly shown that this is working for them.

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The principal noted that the Building Thinking Classrooms strategy is being utilized to varying degrees across a variety of math courses at Hurricane  ranging from Advanced Placement classes and algebra and concurrent enrollment.

McKeehan also believes the schools teaching approach in math would work across other subjects. When students are engaged in their learning, theyre learning better.  Its a game changer.

No more zombie copying

A veteran math educator at Hurricane High, Franci Homer admits she was initially hesitant to modify her teaching approach. That changed after reading Building Thinking Classrooms.

It completely changed my ideas and thoughts about how kids learn, she told the Deseret News.

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The book challenged Homer and her colleagues to get away from standing at the board in front of seated students  with the students zombie copying their work.

Now, instead, we give a launch by teaching about something for about five to 10 minutes  and then we split kids up into groups of three and throw them at the whiteboards.

We have them work through a series of problems, learning how to solve them without us giving direct instruction.

Homer said she can now never go back to the traditional form of teaching. Its been awesome to see kids work together and really struggle through math problems, knowing that the three of them together are eventually going to get there.

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An additional benefit of the Building Thinking Classrooms strategy: Hurricane High students are connecting with fellow students/collaborators that they might not otherwise ever speak with.

We try to promote a little bit of socialness before we work so that the students can start to learn who their classmates really are.

Building skills  and friendships  beyond math class

Shyanne Standing and Tanner Matua are both juniors at Hurricane High School. And they both have generally enjoyed math during their school years.

But their high schools Building Thinking Classrooms approach is now helping them build skills that go beyond that days math assignment.

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Honestly, Ive really liked the changes, said Shyanne. We now problem-solve on our own. We are provided with a little bit of material, and then you have to go try to persevere through finishing the problem without too much help.

But the teacher is always available to assist, she added. And you also have your group members to help you if you get stuck.

Tanner admits that the updated math approach is different from his past classroom experiences  but in a good way.

And especially just for tests and things, we feel a lot more prepared  and you get to know the people around you a lot better by working together in groups.

Neither student expects to focus their future college studies on math, but both say the skills they are learning now will serve them well in the future.

A math anxiety-free future.
Sri Lankan actor and musician GK Reginold rides a motorised fishing boat through Colombo's suburbs, hoping to bring food and water to those in desperate need.

Some of the families, Mr Reginold says, have not received aid for days, isolated by the South Asian island nation's worst weather disaster in recent years.

Cyclone Ditwah lashed the country last week, bringing catastrophic floods and landslides that killed more than 460 people, left hundreds missing and damaged some 30,000 homes.

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But the deluge has also inspired volunteerism among its people, as they face what their president has described as the "most challenging natural disaster" in its history.

"The main reason why I wanted to do this, is to at least help them to have one meal," Mr Reginold tells the BBC. "And I was so happy that I was able to do that."

Volunteers have been taking fishing boats out to rescue flood victims and deliver aid [BBC Sinhala]

More than one million people have been affected by the disaster and President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has declared a state of emergency.

Sri Lanka's military has deployed helicopters for rescue operations, while humanitarian aid is flowing in from foreign governments and non-governmental organisations.

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But it will be a long journey to recovery for Sri Lanka, which has seen its fair share of turmoil in recent years.

Activists volunteer in community kitchen

In Colombo's Wijerama neighbourhood, activists who protested against former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022 are now helping run a community kitchen that churns out food aid.

The protests from three years ago were fuelled by a spiralling economic crisis that caused shortages of fuel, food and medicine. Public anger exploded and led to Rajapaksa being ousted. Now, that political activism is being channelled to cyclone relief.

"Some volunteers came after work, some took turns and some even took leave to be there," Sasindu Sahan Tharaka, a social media activist, tells the BBC.

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"We reactivated the group as soon as we heard what was happening last Thursday," he says.

At a community kitchen in Wijerama, volunteers prepare meals for flood-affected residents [Sasindu Sahan Tharaka]

Mr Sahan also considers the kitchen as an "extension" of his volunteer work in 2016, when torrential rain and floods killed 250 people across the country.

Volunteers have compiled hundreds of requests for help, sent it to authorities, and organised the distribution of food to residents, Mr Sahan says.

"Whatever we asked for, we got more than enough in response from the community," he says.

Online campaigns for aid

A flurry of activity is also happening online, where social media users have created a public database to direct donations and volunteers.

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Another volunteer-backed website helps donor find relief camps and what is most needed in those areas.

Private companies have organised donation drives, while local television channels have launched an effort to provide food and basic necessities like soap and toothbrushes.

Facing criticism over his handling of preparations for Cyclone Ditwah, President Dissanayake has urged Sri Lankans to "set aside all political differences" and "come together to rebuild the nation".

Opposition politicians have accused authorities of ignoring weather warnings, which they say exacerbated the disaster's impact.

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On Monday, opposition lawmakers staged a walkout in parliament, claiming that the ruling party was trying to limit debate on the disaster.

On the ground, however, there remains a sense of unity as Sri Lankans pick up the pieces after the floods.

"In the end, the joy of helping someone else to save lives makes that tiredness fade," Mr Sahan wrote in a Facebook post on Monday, after putting in long hours at the community kitchen in Wijerama and other relief sites.

"Disasters are not new to us. But, the empathy and capacity of our hearts is greater than the destruction that occurs during a disaster."
The deadline to file a claim for money from the $177 million AT&T class action settlement is coming up.

AT&T agreed to the settlement to resolve a lawsuit that accused it of failing to protect customer information, leading to two separate data breach incidents last year.

According to the settlement website, in the first incident on March 30, 2024, AT&T announced that customer information including addresses, Social Security numbers and passcodes was released on the dark web.

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In a second incident, on July 12, 2024, AT&T announced customers' call and text records had been illegally downloaded.

In a statement to USA TODAY, AT&T said it is "committed to protecting our customers' data and ensuring their continued trust in us.

While we deny the allegations in these lawsuits that we were responsible for these criminal acts, we have agreed to this settlement to avoid the expense and uncertainty of protracted litigation," the statement said.

Here's what to know about the settlement.

When is the deadline to file a claim?

The deadline to submit a claim is Thursday, Dec. 18. Online forms must be submitted by that date. Mailed claims must be postmarked by then.

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This deadline was updated from the original Nov. 18 deadline.

How to file a claim in AT&T settlement

AT&T customers who are eligible for the settlement can file a claim online at telecomdatasettlement.com. Claims can also be sent by mail to:

AT&T Data Incident Settlementc/o Kroll Settlement Administration LLCP.O. Box 5324New York, NY 10150-5324.

Who is eligible to file a claim in AT&T data breach settlement?

Two settlement classes, or groups of eligible customers, can file a claim.

The first class is AT&T customers hit in the March 30, 2024, data breach.

The second class is AT&T customers who were part of the July 12, 2024, data breach.

Some customers may be included in both classes.

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According to the lawsuit and a 2024 statement from AT&T, the breaches are believed to have affected more than 7 million people who had AT&T accounts in 2024 and more than 65 million people who had AT&T accounts between 2019 and 2024.

Customers who are not sure if they are included in the settlement can call 833-890-4930 with questions.

The AT&T logo is seen outside a building in Washington, DC, on July 9, 2019.

How much money can eligible AT&T customers get?

Eligible claimants can receive up to thousands of dollars depending on which settlement class they are part of. Customers who were part of both data breaches could get up to $7,500, according to the settlement website.

Customers affected by the March 30, 2024 data breach: Up to $5,000 through a documented loss cash payment option, meaning they must present documentation of the losses Or a Tier 1 or Tier 2 cash payment: Those whose Social Security numbers were included in the March 30 data breach can file a claim for Tier 1. Customers whose data but not social security numbers were included in the March 30 breach can file for Tier 2. Tier 1 payments are five times the amount of Tier 2.

Customers affected by the July 12, 2024 data breach: Up to $2,500 through a documented loss cash payment option Or a Tier 3 cash payment: A share of the settlement after administration costs and claims are issued.



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Melina Khan is a national trending reporter for USA TODAY. She can be reached at melina.khan@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: AT&T data breach settlement claim deadline extended. How to file.
A photo illustration shows sample claim mailers included in part of a class action lawsuit against Deloitte that is now open for claims submission. (Photo illustration by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)

Rhode Islanders who received letters from the state that their personal information was compromised in the RIBridges data breach have the next six weeks to file a claim for a share of the $6.3 million class action settlement with Deloitte, the systems vendor.

An estimated 735,501 Rhode Islanders whose personal information was compromised are considered class members, who can seek a flat reimbursement estimated at $100 per individual without having to provide proof of identity theft. Or, if you can provide documentation of losses tied to the breach, you can file for up to a $5,000 reimbursement. Class members can also make claims for two years of medical data monitoring, regardless of which payout they choose to pursue.

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Eligible Rhode Islanders have started to receive postcards in the mail with instructions on how to file a claim. Claims can also be made at the settlement website, ribridgesdatasettlement.com.

Claims need to be filed by Jan. 14, 2026.

People who wish to opt out of or object to the class action settlement need to file by Dec. 30, 2025. The settlement is being managed by the Kroll Settlement Administration.

The data breach was made public in December 2024. The cyberattack, for which cybercriminal group Brain Cipher eventually took credit, stole private information from people who used the RIBridges platform, which is used to apply for public benefits such as food stamps as well as health insurance coverage through the state marketplace.

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The settlement is the end result of the case Pannozzi v. Deloitte Consulting LLP, which was filed in March in U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island and consolidated multiple lawsuits against Deloitte for the global firms role in the data breach. As part of the suit, the state-contracted Deloitte has denied any wrongdoing.

The $100 payout, however, is an estimate as the settlement is structured to pay out attorneys fees and other court costs before class members can be compensated. The plaintiffs legal team can absorb up to one-third of the settlement money, under the agreements terms. The seven named plaintiffs in the suit are also allowed $2,500 payouts.

If each of the more than 735,000 class members filed a claim, that would work out to about $8.50 per flat payment, prior to litigation fees or other costs. Accounting for litigation fees and the larger payouts attached to documented losses, the flat rate payouts could drop lower. Conversely, payouts could potentially be more than $100 if fewer people sign up for compensation.

After the deadline for claims submissions, on Jan. 29, 2026, the settlement is scheduled for a court date in which its expected to receive the final OK from a federal judge.

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Lawmakers, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and U.S. Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), are facing renewed criticism online following the fatal shooting of National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20.

As previously reported by The Dallas Express, suspected gunman Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, arrived under the Afghan evacuation system launched during the Biden administrations withdrawal from Kabul. The case has prompted critics to reexamine congressional actions taken during that period  including bipartisan support from Cornyn and Crenshaw for efforts to accelerate Afghan admissions.

Cornyn Co-Sponsored Bill Waiving Pre-Arrival Medical Exams

In June 2021, Cornyn co-introduced the HOPE for Afghan SIVs Act alongside Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA). The legislation authorized the Departments of State and Homeland Security to waive the required pre-arrival medical exam for qualifying Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants.

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Cornyn defended the bill at the time, saying Afghan interpreters and translators who assisted U.S. forces needed a faster path to safety:

The HOPE for Afghan SIVs Act will remove one hurdle that prevents them from quickly escaping the dangers they face in Afghanistan due to their service to our troops.

The HOPE Act allowed medical exams to occur after entry rather than before, enabling expedited relocation.

Crenshaw Urged DHS and State Dept. to Expedite Afghan Processing

Crenshaw also publicly pressed the administration to accelerate admissions from Afghanistan.

In a June 25, 2021, letter co-signed with Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX), Crenshaw urged DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to immediately begin the process of reviewing the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program to address delays.

Dan Crenshaw wrote a letter asking the federal government to speed up the importation of Afghan nationals pic.twitter.com/1t08CQAGM8  Kenny Webster (@KennethRWebster) November 30, 2025

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The letter asked the administration to:

Expedite SIV adjudication

Prioritize clearing backlogs

Allow recipients access to financial assistance for emergency evacuation flights

Crenshaw wrote: These Afghan civilians were critical to the United States mission in Afghanistan and must be included in our evacuation plan.

Biden Administration Moved to Evacuate Afghans Ahead of Withdrawal

Days before Kabul fell, the Biden administration prepared to relocate thousands of Afghan interpreters and support personnel to U.S. territories and third-country sites while their applications were processed.

Officials at the time acknowledged that tens of thousands of Afghan nationals were at risk as the Taliban advanced.

Criticism Surges After Beckstroms Killing

The renewed scrutiny comes after Lakanwal allegedly shot two National Guard members near the White House on November 26. Beckstrom later died of her injuries.

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DHS Inspector General findings published in 2022 revealed that federal screening during the 2021 evacuation suffered from incomplete or missing biographic data, inconsistent identity verification, and instances in which evacuees were admitted without full vetting  as previously reported by The Dallas Express.

Following the attack, commentators revisited the votes and letters from 2021.

A user on X wrote: Why Texas needs to rid ourselves from John Cornyn.

Radio host Kenny Webster posted: Dan Crenshaw wrote a letter asking the federal government to speed up the importation of Afghan nationals.

The Dallas Express reached out to Cornyn and Crenshaw for comment on the renewed criticism but did not receive a response.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  Democrat Mandela Barnes, who served four years as Wisconsin's lieutenant governor and narrowly lost a 2022 U.S. Senate bid, said in an interview Tuesday that he jumped into the battleground states open race for governor because the moment is too urgent.

Given his prominent name recognition and statewide funding network, Barnes enters the 2026 race as the presumptive front-runner in a crowded primary of lesser-known candidates who have no built-in network of support.

Wisconsin is a politically divided state that elected President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2024 and President Joe Biden in 2020. All three elections were decided by less than a percentage point.

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Barnes used his campaign launch video to appeal to Democratic voters with an attack on Trump and to pitch a broader message for key independent and moderate voters focused on improving the economy.

I decided to get into this race because the moment is too urgent, Barnes told The Associated Press. We need bold leadership to take on Donald Trump. Things are getting much more difficult for people all across Wisconsin.

Barnes has met with some opposition among Democrats who have publicly expressed worries about him running after he lost the Senate race to Republican incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson three years ago. If he wins next year, he will become Wisconsins first Black governor.

Mandela had his opportunity. He didnt close. And that means its time for a new chapter, the Black-owned Milwaukee Courier newspaper wrote in an Oct. 25 editorial. We need a candidate who can unite this state  and win. Mandela Barnes already showed us he cant.

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Barnes lost to Johnson by 1 percentage point, which amounts to just under 27,000 votes.

Barnes on Tuesday recalled speaking with former President Barack Obama the day after his defeat. Barnes said Obama talked about the campaign for Congress that he lost.

He got back out there and he kept organizing," Barnes said. "Thats what Ive been up to.

After his defeat, Barnes formed a voter turnout group called Power to the Polls, which he says helped bolster turnout among Black voters in Milwaukee and strengthened his position heading into the governors race. He also has a political action committee.

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Barnes joins a crowded field in the open race for governor that already includes the current lieutenant governor, two state lawmakers, the highest elected official in the Democratic stronghold of Milwaukee County and a former state economic development director.

Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a staunch Trump supporter, is the highest profile GOP candidate. He faces a challenge from Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann.

Tiffany called Barnes a dangerous far-left extremist and said voters rejected him in 2022, and they will do it again in 2026.

He made a series of posts on the social platform X that he said showed why Barnes' agenda was wrong for the state. Tiffany noted Barnes past support for reduced funding for police, allowing immigrants who are not citizens to get drivers licenses and pay in-state college tuition, and implementing policies that recognize climate change.

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Barnes told AP that Tiffany has been nothing but a rubber stamp for Trump.

Hes put politics before the people he represents," Barnes said. He has sat idly by as things have become more difficult. And people are tired of political games. They're tired of the nonsense. They don't want somebody who's just going to suck up to the president."

It will be Wisconsins highest-profile race next year, as Democrats angle to take control of the state Legislature thanks to redrawn election maps that are friendlier to the party.

The governor's race is open because current Democratic Gov. Tony Evers decided against seeking a third term. Barnes, a former state representative, won the primary for lieutenant governor in 2018 and served in that position during Evers first term.

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The current lieutenant governor, Sara Rodriguez, was the first Democrat to get into the governor's race this year. Others running include Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley; state Sen. Kelda Roys; state Rep. Francesca Hong; and former state economic development director Missy Hughes.

An August primary will narrow the field ahead of the November election.

The last open race for governor in Wisconsin was in 2010. Republican Scott Walker won that year and served two terms before Evers defeated him in 2018.

Evers won his first race by just over 1 percentage point in 2018. He won reelection by more than 3 points in 2022.

___

This story has been corrected to show that Gov. Tony Evers decided against seeking a third term, rather than a second term..
A Tennessee special election for a House seat in the states deep-red 7th Congressional District is teeing up one of the last major electoral tests for Democrats this year as they hope to continue their winning streak ahead of 2026.

Republican Matt Van Epps, a former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of General Services, is running against Democratic state Rep. Aftyn Behn to succeed former Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), who resigned from Congress earlier this year for an opportunity in the private sector.

The race has attracted big names to the state, including former Vice President Kamala Harris, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and the chairs of both national parties. President Trump, who has endorsed Van Epps, on Monday hosted a telerally for Van Epps.

Here are five things to watch for in the Tuesday special election.

Can Democrats keep their winning streak going?

One of the biggest questions for Tuesday is whether Democrats might be able to actually flip the district, which includes parts of north and west Nashville and stretches from Tennessees northern border with Kentucky to its southern border with Alabama.

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Both Trump and Green won this district by around 22 points in November 2024, making it a comfortably red House seat.

The last time the 7th District was a competitive race was back in 2018; the lines for the House seat at the time did not include parts of Nashville, unlike the ones in place now.

Democrats were also encouraged by a strong primary voter turnout in addition to the partys resounding wins in Novembers off-year elections, adding further hopes that this special election  the first congressional one in the state in nearly 40 years  could be different.

Still, flipping the seat will be a tall order. Lisa Quigley, who worked as chief of staff to former Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), suggested Davidson County, where Nashville is located, would need to contribute around half of the total vote share in order for Democrats to even keep the race close.

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So far, that looks unlikely, as about one quarter of the share of early and absentee voters comes from Davidson County, according to data from the Tennessee secretary of states office.

If they lose, what are the margins?

Observers will be watching closely to see the margin between the two candidates, given Democrats are hoping to see another overperformance in the district.

Members of the party suggested to The Hill last month that a margin of up to 10 points would represent a good night for Democrats  close to half the margin they lost the House seat by in 2024.

Geoffrey Skelley, chief elections analyst at Decision Desk HQ, suggested in a Substack post on Monday that theres a key indication the race could be tight beyond recent polling showing a close contest: Outside GOP and Democratic groups have been spending several million dollars there.

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Republican outside groups are outspending Democratic groups, according to Skelley, though Behns campaign outraised Van Epps between Oct. 1 and Nov. 12.

How does early voting compare with Election Day?

Traditionally, Democrats have performed better in early in-person and absentee voting than Republicans, while Republicans have performed better in Election Day turnout. However, Republicans made gains in early voting last year as Trump has tried to encourage members of the party to vote earlier despite his past criticism of early-voting methods.

Just more than 84,000 people voted early in the district.

At least 60% of the total 2024 vote in every county within the 7th District was cast early or absentee, which points to a smaller partisan gap in how voters voted, Skelley wrote in his analysis.

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Knowing that many Republicans did vote early in 2024, the early voting shortfall in the special election means that Republicans will need a surge in Election Day voting for overall turnout in those dark-red counties to catch turnout in the more populous counties, he added.

How correct were the polls?

A small number of polls taken of the race have been released in the last several weeks. The most recent one, a survey conducted by Emerson College Polling and The Hill, showed Van Epps barely edging out Behn by 2 points but still within the polls margin of error.

Two Democratic-sponsored polls conducted in October by Workbench Strategies and Impact Research both had Van Epps up by 8 points.

Turnout in special elections is difficult to gauge given they typically take place outside the normal November election timeline.

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The polls underestimated Democrats strength in key races last month, including in New Jerseys gubernatorial election, which Democratic Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill won by double digits, raising questions around how well several surveys have gauged the race this time.

What does this tell us about next year?

Though a December special election in Tennessee cant necessarily predict what the midterm environment will look like, a good night for Democrats would put more wind in their sails ahead of 2026.

Democrats enjoyed a string of overperformances and several red-to-blue flips in the lead-up to Novembers off-year elections. If the party is able to keep the election tight, and especially if they keep it within single digits, that would offer Democrats another hint of what to expect during the midterms.

Some of this is because the presidents party in power typically sees voter backlash during midterm and off-year cycles. It also doesnt help that Trumps approval rating now sits around 42 percent, although this is higher than his approval rating at this point in the first year of his first term.

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One variable yet to play out that could hugely benefit Republicans is whether the Supreme Court decides to gut the Voting Rights Act. The high court signaled it was inclined to restrict the use of race in redistricting during October oral arguments; if a decision comes early enough, that could allow a whole slew of Southern states to redraw their House maps for Republican gain.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Deputies shot and killed an armed man during a death investigation Monday, the Bartow County Sheriffs office said.

Deputies and investigators executed a search warrant around 4:50 p.m. at a home on GA-20 Spur in Cartersville and said Dylan Burl Rice, 39, refused to come out.

Flashbangs were fired into the home, and Rice got out through a back door and was holding what appeared to be a rifle, officials said in a statement.

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They said Rice pointed the weapon at law enforcement officials after less-lethal foam and pepper rounds were used to try and stop him, and deputies shot and killed him.

Investigators later determined Rice was holding a pellet air rifle. No deputies or other officials were injured.

The sheriffs office requested Georgia Bureau of Investigation to investigate the officer-involved shooting.

An autopsy will be completed on Rice at the GBIs Medical Examiners Office, and the results of the GBI investigation will be provided to the Cherokee Judicial Circuit District Attorneys Office.

Members of the State Fire Marshals Office joined Bartow County deputies when they served the search warrant.

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Channel 2s Tom Regan was at the scene during WSB Tonight at 11 p.m. A witness said they had heard what sounded like a flashbang grenade at the home.

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KUALA LUMPUR, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- In the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, ingots of pewter, an alloy primarily made of tin, are transformed into works of art by skilled artisans, some of whom have been working in the craft for decades.

From pouring the molten pewter into molds and refining the cast objects to removing spurs and seams and giving each piece its final polish, the process reflects a tradition that has come to define the quality and collectability of Royal Selangor, the world's largest maker of pewter products.

Yong Yoon Li, who serves as its managing director, said that in recent years, the company has continued to witness strong potential in the Chinese market and intends to further expand its presence there.

"Royal Selangor hopes to deepen its engagement with Chinese consumers by bringing more handcrafted pieces that blend traditional techniques with contemporary design," he said.

The cultural exchange is evident at the Royal Selangor Visitor Center in Kuala Lumpur, where rows of pewter pieces, from traditional tableware and tea sets to modern sculptures and limited-edition collectibles, illustrate a blend of heritage and innovation.

Royal Selangor was founded in 1885. Through new techniques, materials and design approaches, the company has built a reputation for craftsmanship that continues to evolve.

Yong recently visited Dunhuang in northwest China and was deeply impressed by the profound cultural heritage of the Mogao Caves. Royal Selangor's latest product release, the "Silk Road" series, draws inspiration from classic artistic motifs such as the flying apsaras of Dunhuang. "As a key hub along the ancient Silk Road, Dunhuang provided tremendous inspiration to our design team."

Looking ahead, China remains a central focus of the company's strategy. Yong said the company has witnessed increasing demand from Chinese consumers and plans to further expand its footprint there.

"We have already opened our largest overseas flagship store in Beijing and established counters in Shanghai and Chengdu. In the future, we plan to expand our offline retail network to more cities," he said. 
A doctor and his wife were both shot to death outside their California home on Sunday, according to authorities.

The victims, Eric and Vicki Cordes, were found injured in the driveway of their Simi Valley residence, according to FOX 11 Los Angeles. They were found around noon on Sunday.

The two suffered multiple gunshot wounds and were rushed to a local hospital before being pronounced dead.

Eric Cordes was a board-certified radiologist who worked for Adventist Health Simi Valley.

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Three Landscape Supply Employees Gunned Down In Texas Shooting, Police Say

Witnesses told FOX 11 that the shooting happened fast and that the suspect drove off after opening fire.

Read On The Fox News App

Hours after the shooting, officials found a charred vehicle and a body in Chino, California, over 60 miles away from Simi Valley.

The body and car were found in Ruben S. Ayala Park. Officials believe that the person in the car committed suicide, and that there may be a connection between the two scenes.

Speaking to FOX 11, Sgt. Rick Morton of the Simi Valley Police Department said that it's rare for double homicides to happen in the city.

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Insurance Ceo's Home Riddled With Bullets; Gunman Remains On The Run

"We do believe the victims were targeted," said Morton.

"We'll have more information on that as the investigation proceeds further."

In a statement obtained by FOX 11, Adventist Health Simi Valley said that it was "heartbroken by the tragic deaths" and called Eric Cordes a "highly respected" and "beloved" physician.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Simi Valley Police Department and Adventist Health Simi Valley for additional comment.





Original article source: Doctor, wife gunned down in shooting outside California home; authorities probing possibly-linked suicide
Seth Graham was walking his dog named Coulee with a friend in the Roslyn Urban Forest when the nearly 1-year-old Heeler Lab fell into a crevasse on Sunday morning.

She fell at around 10:30 a.m., and almost went out of sight.

All I could see was her eyes, like with the phone, you could see her glowing eyes. Seth tells KIRO 7.

His friend stayed with Coulee while Seth ran back down the trail and called his wife, Angel.

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I didnt realize how bad it was gonna be until we got up there." Angel Graham said.

They started making calls to friends and local agencies to help get her out.

We were all there for probably about six and a half hours before the Washington State animal rescue team got there. Angel said.

Rescue teams set up a rope system and were able to bring her up and out of the crevasse.

A veterinarian was standing by as soon as she was lifted out.

We couldnt be could not be more grateful to the crews that came out. I mean, to have thirty or forty people around a hole to save one little dog. Angel said.

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Coulees family said shes back home and only suffered bumps and bruises.

Cou is incredibly tough  but today proved something else: our community is even tougher. We are so lucky to live in a place where first responders and volunteers show up like this," their daughter Paige wrote on Facebook.
The Justice Department is quietly mulling whether to seek new indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, a gamble to salvage the cases against two of President Donald Trumps perceived political foes.

A week after a federal judge threw out both cases  prompting a vow by the White House and Justice Department to quickly appeal  federal prosecutors have taken no public steps to revive the cases. But two people familiar with the cases, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe ongoing internal deliberations, said the department is strongly considering forgoing an appeal and instead asking one or more grand juries to re-indict Comey and James.

Such a move could be politically fraught. A new grand jury could decline to greenlight charges against Comey or James, risking Trumps ire and another embarrassing blow after the Justice Department has faced intense scrutiny for its handling of the cases.

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The ruling from U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie last week was a particularly pointed snub of Trump because it rejected his gambit to install one of his former criminal defense lawyers, Lindsey Halligan, to bring the cases after other prosecutors refused to seek the politically charged indictmentsthe president demanded.

Well be taking all available legal action, including an immediate appeal, Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters last week, hours after Curries decision disqualifying Halligan and tossing the cases. Bondis comments echoed an earlier statement that day from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt promising an appeal very soon. So soon, she told reporters, that DOJ might have filed it already.

A Justice Department spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment. An attorney for Comey, Patrick Fitzgerald, and a spokesperson for James declined to comment. Lawyers for the pair have said the cases lacked merit and amounted to a vindictive prosecution against their clients. Both Comey and James pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.

One reason the Justice Department may be slow-walking its next move is the fact that Halligan isnt the only Trump-backed prosecutor tossed by the courts in recent weeks. On Monday, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling disqualifying Alina Habba, another former Trump personal lawyer, from continuing to act as New Jerseys U.S. attorney. That ruling could inform the departments next steps, although the circumstances of their appointments are somewhat different.

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The lack of any appeal filing in the Comey or James cases has led some legal experts to surmise that in lieu of an immediate appeal DOJ officials could seek to cure the flaws in the earlier indictments in a number of ways: Halligan could re-present the cases to the same or another grand jury not as an acting U.S. attorney but a special attorney appointed by Bondi; officials could assign other prosecutors to present the evidence along with her; or officials could select a new set of prosecutors do it.

One legal analyst said those options may be successful at re-leveling the mortgage fraud charges against James, the New York attorney general, but is unlikely to work to resurrect the case against Comey, the former FBI director charged with lying to and obstructing the work of a Senate committee. The statute of limitations to prosecute Comey ran out five days after Halligan brought charges against him.

For Attorney General James, theres no problem re-indicting here, said Gene Rossi, a former senior federal prosecutor in the eastern Virginia office Halligan was tapped to run. For Comey, theres no hook.  For the Comey case, I think its gone.

Paperwork initiating an appeal is not complex and doesnt require legal argument. Its typically a one-page notice that effectively elevates a case from the district court to the court of appeals, in this instance the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th Circuit. Such steps technically require the approval of Solicitor General D. John Sauer, which prosecutors have often obtained within a day or less. Under court rules, prosecutors have 30 days from the dismissal to file an appeal.

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Former prosecutors said the delay in any appeal may be intended to allow officials to consider a series of complex strategy questions raised by re-indicting rather than simply appealing Curries ruling that Halligan wasnt properly appointed.

An effort to bring new indictments could give Halligan the chance to fix some alleged errors with her initial presentation to the grand jury in the Comey case, whichjudges seized on in earlier hearings. The safest route to new indictments would involve using other grand juries that didnt receive the earlier presentations, but that also creates the possibility that the cases fizzle if the new grand juries refuse to indict. That could be a tough development to explain to Trump.

Following Halligans presentation of the Comey case to an Alexandria, Virginia-based grand jury in September, the jurors took the rare step of rejecting one of the three felony charges she proposed. The other two charges were approved with only 14 affirmative votes, just two more than the minimum to indict.

While a different set of grand jurors could be more receptive to the charges, they could also be more skeptical.

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And even if a grand jury chooses to re-indict Comey, the statute of limitations issue could sink the revived case. Prosecutors have argued that a federal law gives the government an extension of six months or more when a judge dismisses an indictment, but Comeys lawyers have disputed that timeline.

Currie seemed to side with Comeys defense on that issue, but it wasnt essential to her ruling and its unclear precisely when the statute-of-limitation extension applies. Rossi said he doesnt think prosecutors are entitled to the extension when the original indictment wasnt valid to begin with.

Whatever document came from that grand jury was meaningless, Rossi said. You can't supersede something that doesn't exist. If there's no time left in the statute of limitations, they're out of luck when it comes to Comey.  If they go that route and try to supersede or refile the indictment against Comey, they're going to lose.

While the department might be forgoing an immediate appeal by re-indicting the cases, prosecutors would likely be able to pursue arguments at the appeals court if lower court judges again dismiss the cases or exclude important evidence. Officials might also decide to re-indict one case, while appealing Curries ruling in the other one.

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Its unclear whether DOJ will seek to recruit other prosecutors to bring the charges, sidestepping concerns about the propriety of Halligans continued involvement in the cases, or simply have the line prosecutors from other districts who agreed to take on the Comey and James cases appear with Halligan before the grand jury.

Bondi said last week she has full confidence in Halligan and she has all the legal authority she needs to continue to pursue Comey and James.

She is in court and she can fight in court just like she was, Bondi said.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this report misstated Halligan's nomination status. She was nominated for the U.S. attorney post in September.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs violated federal law by refusing to turn over statewide voter registration records requested under the Civil Rights Act of 1960, according to court documents.

Federal attorneys said the request was part of an ongoing review of how Washington maintains its voter rolls under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

The DOJ argues that federal law gives the Attorney General broad authority to access election-related documents, including voter registration lists containing full identifying information such as dates of birth and portions of Social Security numbers.

What prompted the federal demand

According to the complaint, the DOJ sent Hobbs a letter on Sept. 8 asking for a current electronic copy of Washingtons statewide voter registration list.

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The request included all fields collected under federal law  full names, addresses, dates of birth, drivers license numbers, and the last four digits of Social Security numbers  as well as voter registration application records from the previous 22 months.

The department said the request stemmed from Washingtons reported data in the U.S. Election Assistance Commissions 2024 Election Administration and Voting Survey.

After reviewing the report, officials sought additional information to evaluate whether the state is properly removing ineligible voters and using accurate methods to identify duplicates and verify registrants.

HAVA requires that states assign a unique identifier to each registered voter and verify identification numbers during registration.

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DOJ attorneys said they cannot evaluate Washingtons compliance without the unredacted list.

Why the state refused

Hobbs rejected the request in a Sept. 23 letter, saying Washington law bars the release of certain personal information, including birthdates and partial Social Security or drivers license numbers.

He argued that those restrictions apply even when the federal government requests the documents.

The DOJ countered that state public disclosure laws do not apply to federal investigations, noting that Title III of the Civil Rights Act specifically overrides conflicting statutes.

Federal lawyers also pointed out that HAVA explicitly states the last four digits of a Social Security number are not considered a Social Security number under the Privacy Act, and that federal law allows the government access to drivers license data for enforcement purposes.

What the lawsuit seeks

The DOJ is asking a federal judge to order Hobbs to produce the entire voter database, unredacted, within five days of the courts order.

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The federal attorneys want the list delivered through a secure encrypted portal as outlined in their demand letter.

Prosecutors emphasized that the Civil Rights Act requires a summary proceeding, limiting the courts review to only two questions: whether the Attorney General made a written demand and whether the custodian of records refused to comply.

According to the filing, the court is not permitted to evaluate the DOJs investigative reasons or modify the scope of the requested records.

What happens next

If the court grants the DOJs motion, Washington would be required to hand over the full statewide voter list, including protected personal information, for federal inspection, copying, and analysis.

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The lawsuit does not allege wrongdoing in Washingtons voting system but focuses on the states refusal to provide the data required for the compliance review.

In a response to KIRO 7 News, Charlie Boisner with the Office of the Secretary of State said:

Our only knowledge of this lawsuit is through media requests and your initial reporting. Id recommend asking the Department of Justice how they intended to notify us and if theyre taking similar actions against other Secretaries of State, both Republican and Democrat alike, who are also protecting the private information of their voters. While we wait to be officially receive a service of process, we eagerly await Ms. Dhillons response to our Sep. 23 questions on how she intends to use the requested information.

KIRO 7 News has reached out to the Department of Justice for a response.

Follow Shawn Garrett on X. Read more of his stories here. Submit news tips here.
Critics quickly spotted a major flaw in President Donald Trumps latest attack on Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.).

Trump has spent days escalating his rhetoric toward Kelly  a former U.S. Navy fighter pilot and NASA astronaut  after Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers released a video urging U.S. service members to refuse unlawful orders.

Politics: James Carville Pinpoints Whats Oozing Out Of Trump Right Now: You Can Just Feel It

Trump in response has accused the lawmakers of SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, amplified posts about executions and, in a Truth Social outburst on Monday, wrote:

Mark Kelly and the group of Unpatriotic Politicians were WRONG to do what they did, and they know it! I hope the people looking at them are not duped into thinking that its OK to openly and freely get others to disobey the President of the United States!

The White House reposted Trumps message on X, formerly Twitter.

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While Trumps MAGA base cheered, critical commenters pointed out a crucial detail the president ignored. Namely, that the lawmakers urged troops to refuse illegal orders and not to disobey Trump personally, as he implied.

Many reminded Trump that U.S. service members swear an oath to the Constitution, not to any individual president.

You work for US not the other way around.  Tracey Gallagher (@asmartbrunette1) December 2, 2025

They advised the military to stop following illegal orders when they learned about the illegal strikes. That's the law and there is nothing wrong with stating it.  Ben Schaeffer (@BenSchaeffer_) December 2, 2025

We will not be ruled. Servicemembers swore an oath to the constitution, not a king. You are no different.  Save America Movement (@SaveAmericaMvm) December 2, 2025

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Odd. Mark Kelly never said to disobey Trumps orders, just illegal ones. So in stating this, does Trump feel his orders were illegal?  Christine Bardin (@pillchild) December 2, 2025

Calling lawful dissent seditious is exactly how democracies slide into authoritarianism.

When the government says disagreement = treason, the government is the problem.  Peter A Patriot (@PeterAPatriot) December 2, 2025

If the president ordered the military to do something illegal then it is illegal to follow that order.

The president is willing to throw others to the wolves because he has immunity.  Tom Bombadil (Parroty)  (@1n44n6) December 2, 2025

How is this okay in anyones mind? This is the most authoritarian post Ive ever seen from an American. https://t.co/ndFO9khDWU    Tysse (@JwT4Liberty) December 2, 2025

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The military pledges allegiance to the Constitution, not to the president. NOBODY is above our Constitution.  Paulina Plazas (@paulinaplazas) December 2, 2025

Disobeying unlawful orders is not sedition. Giving them is.  Jay Nector (@Truth_Bureau) December 2, 2025

They said disobey ********* orders. Stop misrepresenting.  Fleeting Yeets (@fleetingyeets) December 2, 2025

When the President of the United States issues illegal orders, it is. https://t.co/IPgW0jFh4K  Greg (@GregoryGregman) December 2, 2025

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Massachusetts was one of the first states to criminalize drunk driving in 1907, almost a century before Congress mandated national standards in 1998.

At that time, Congress also required states to enact open container laws, or laws prohibiting the possession of any open alcoholic beverage container by car drivers or passengers, or lose some of their federal highway construction funds.

Massachusetts, along with most other states, followed the directive. But some states still dont have open container laws that comply with federal requirements.

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Heres what to know.

Is it legal to drive with open containers in Massachusetts?

No, its illegal to have an open container in the car while it's operating in Massachusetts.

Massachusetts law says that there cannot be an opened alcoholic beverage in the passenger area of a car, which includes any area that is readily accessible to the driver or passenger while in a seated position, including the glove department.

The passenger area does not include the cars trunk, locked glove compartment, or, if the car doesn't have a trunk, the area behind the last upright seat.

Whats the punishment for driving with an open container in Massachusetts?

If you have an open container in the car, you can be subject to a fee of $100 to $500.

Tennessee's open container law does not keep passengers from drinking, just drivers.

Where can you drive with an open container?

As of Oct. 2022, 38 states, including Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia had open container laws that comply with federal requirements, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

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That means there are still several states with looser open container laws.

One of those states is Tennessee: while drivers are banned from consuming or possessing an open container of alcohol while their car is running, the prohibition does not extend to passengers.

Connecticut is similar: while drivers may not drink alcohol while driving, passengers over the age of 21 can.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Is it legal to drive with open containers in MA? It is in some states
The bill literally arrived in the dead of night.

Dropped into a lame duck session just before Thanksgiving and fast-tracked for a hearing, the timing was immediately suspect  as if no one would notice a measure that would gut an agency intended to fight corruption, waste and fraud in a state known for such abuses.

But an effort by state Senate President Nicholas Scutari to undercut the watchdog role of the Office of the State Comptroller was quickly reported out of the State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee on Monday by a 5-0 vote.

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The action followed an often contentious, hours-long hearing in Trenton that sometimes turned into a shouting match, as dozens complained about the shockingly quick action on a bill they said had allowed little opportunity for anyone to challenge it.

Critics say Scutaris bill, S4924, would gut the powers of the comptroller while transferring much of its responsibilities to the State Commission of Investigation, or SCI. It came in the wake of a series of blistering reports by the comptroller in recent years that have embarrassed or angered officials who have been targets of the comptroller.

In his first public comments on the legislation, Scutari  the lone sponsor of the measure  strongly defended the bill before the committee. He said the goal was to bring more oversight and greater accountability by empowering SCI in a more effective way.

This is a reallocation of small resources, the Union County Democrat argued, calling it a model for anticorruption. In fact, he said the measure would allow the SCI to regain its original authority as New Jerseys premier watchdog organization.

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We want to restore and expand those powers in the SCI to where they belong  into a criminal investigatory body, Scutari said.

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and U.S. Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J.  who were oddly left waiting to speak for more than four hours until the very end of the hearing  both sharply criticized the legislation and what they saw as its intent.

When Sen. James Beach, D-Camden, the committees chairman, was challenged by several speakers about the delay in calling the two top elected officials, he declared, no one is special.

Both Platkin and Kim asked why New Jersey would want less government oversight while diminishing the power of the next governor to combat corruption in New Jersey.

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The attorney general said that at a time when the federal government has abdicated its responsibility to hold the powerful and well-connected to account, New Jersey must step up its efforts to combat corruption and abuse of power.

I thought my days of testifying to the Legislature were behind me. But this bill is too important, and too troubling, for me to stay silent, said Platkin, whose tenure will end with the departure of Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in January.

Let me be blunt, he added. This proposed legislation is bad for transparency and accountability, and it undermines the rule of law.

Matthew Platkin

Kim, who asked why the bill was rammed through the lame duck session, also called upon the committee to kill the legislation.

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We live in the time of the greatest amount of distrust in politics in modern American history. 84% of New Jerseyans surveyed believe their elected officials are corrupt. They want politics that isnt some exclusive club for the well off and the well connected, he said.

He added, this isnt the right time to push this kind of legislation.

Even if you think there are legitimate reforms that can be made, you know this is not how you go about it. Pushing something rapidly during a lame duck session when we have a new governor coming in next month, said Kim.

Jim Sullivan, the policy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, told the committee there is no reason to make the drastic changes this bill proposes to an important public watchdog.

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Sullivan said if the state Legislature wants the state government to run more efficiently, getting rid of government watchdog agencies is the exact opposite of what they should be doing. The more watchdog groups we have, the better.

Scutari had been hinting for months that he might be going after the comptroller, telling reporters as far back as January that he thought lawmakers should consider consolidating watchdogs.

Those comments came in the wake of county officials who have been the subject of much of the critical findings by the comptrollers office to demand that lawmakers rein in the agency.

Last year, the New Jersey Association of Counties urged Scutari to curb the comptrollers power and establish procedures that could challenge the agencys findings.

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John Donnadio, the executive director of the association, told the committee that his organization has long been asking for reforms to the comptrollers office and the manner in which that he conducts his investigations arbitrarily and capriciously in the way that we look at it, without regard for disputed facts, disputed material, issues of fact, disputes of law, circumstances and regardless of the irreparable damage that its made to public officials throughout the state.

He complained there seems to be no accountability, no due process of the law.

Among the comptrollers most recent findings was a report earlier this year that uncovered hundreds of thousands of dollars earmarked for drug prevention, treatment, or recovery from the deadly opioid epidemic.

Instead, the Essex County township of Irvington spent the money on awareness concerts that did nothing to promote opioid awareness or provide opioid-related services to people dealing with addiction.

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Another report said nearly 400 New Jersey law enforcement agencies paid more than $1 million over five years for controversial seminars offered by a private police training firm that came under fire over its alleged use of racist, misogynistic and sexually explicit language in classes attended by hundreds of cops.

Last year, an investigation by the comptroller questioned how Essex County spent COVID-19 funding. The comptroller noted that one county employee was paid $130,000 over 11 months, yet the county health officer didnt know who she was or what she did.

At least eight workers paid to work in the vaccination program were also full-time employees of other government agencies at the same time. Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo called the comptrollers findings unbalanced and unfair.

Walsh, the acting state comptroller, charged that Scutaris bill would weaken the powers of his office as well as diminish the power of the next governor to combat corruption in New Jersey.

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He called a vote for the bill a vote for corruption, predicting that it would kill dozens of ongoing investigations while making it easier to be corrupt in New Jersey and to avoid detection.

His office could continue to investigate Medicaid fraud, under the bills current language.

Platkin, meanwhile, charged that the legislation would eliminate the states most powerful investigative arm, not because it has failed to do that job, but because it has angered too many powerful interests.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Susan K. Livio contributed to this report.

Read the original article on NJ.com. Add NJ.com as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
WASHINGTON  Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) accused House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) of lying Tuesday about why a priority of hers was left out of a defense policy bill.

It started Monday with Stefanik complaining on social media the deep state was blocking her proposal to require the Justice Department to notify Congress of investigations into presidential candidates.

Johnson said Tuesday it wasnt true. I dont exactly know why Elise wont just call me, he told reporters at a press conference, adding that the question of whether to include the provision in a defense bill hadnt even been brought to his attention.

Politics: Republicans Narrowly Hang On In Tennessee Special Election

Just more lies from the Speaker, Stefanik wrote Tuesday. It wasnt on your radar? This is the ONLY provision in the bill to root out the deep state rot.

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Its a striking rebuke from a top House Republican  one who was a member of Johnsons leadership team until Trump nominated her to be ambassador to the United Nations last year. Stefanik withdrew from leadership only for Trump to withdraw her nomination this year over concerns about Republicans tiny House majority.

Stefanik has since announced a bid for governor of New York, and bashing the deep state in Washington could be advantageous for her campaign.

The proposal in question is a response to the supposedly corrupt investigation of President Donald Trumps 2016 campaign for colluding with Russia. An investigation into the Russia probe faulted investigators for being overly aggressive but failed to turn up significant witch hunt activity by the deep state.

Stefaniks rebuke comes as Johnson contends with multiple high-profile Republican dissidents in the House, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who sided with Stefanik on Tuesday.

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As usual from the Speaker, promises made promises broken. We all know it, Greene wrote on X.

Political Updates

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Proposed school closures in Evanston-Skokie District 65 will likely not go forward at the end of the school year after the north suburban school board deadlocked once again on which schools to shutter to solve a multimillion-dollar funding gap.

There is no consensus again as District 65 school board members arrived at a tie vote Monday night on whether to close one or two additional schools at the end of this school year. That means Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies is likely the only one that will shutter next spring.

Like last month, board members deadlocked when voting on competing plans to close either just Kingsley Elementary School, or to close both Kingsley and Lincolnwood elementary schools. Community members decried the uncertainty, including a psychologist.

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"Think about your adult lived experience since 2016. That is the entirety of these children's lives and the world they have grown up in," said Dr. David Hauser, who is a parent of two children in the district. "The last thing these kids need is more volatility, disruption, and chaos. We are talking about school closures as if we are corporate consultants. Real vibes of move fast and break things, it'll all be fine, completely separating it from the actual lived experience of this current K-5 group."

The board unanimously voted not to advance a scenario that would have closed both Kingsley and Willard elementary.

The repeated tie votes make it likely that no action will be taken this year, because Illinois law requires the district to hold three public hearings on each school set for closure by winter break, which starts after Dec. 19.

Proposed closures are part of the district's Structural Deficit Reduction Plan, which will involve approximately $11-$15 million in budget cuts before fiscal year 2030.
FALL RIVER  The daycare proposed by Little Hands Scholars Inc. has made rounds of the Fall River Zoning Board of Appeals since the Sept. 18 meeting before being tabled by the board in October due to a pending legal decision. The matter was finally heard, and later denied, at the Nov. 20 meeting.

Attorney David M. Assad, who represents the petitioner, explained to board members in September that the applicant is duly licensed by the state to operate an early education daycare facility, and as such, was entitled to Dover Amendment protections that allow and encourage children access to services that support opportunities for enrichment, development and early childhood learning, as described in Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 40A, Section 3.

An opinion from Building Commissioner and Director of Inspectional Services Glenn Hathaway had been regarded as a deciding factor in whether the daycare could operate on Rock Street by right, but this was soon sorted out at the Nov. 20 meeting, when a new letter from Hathaway recounted a recommendation from Attorney Matthew Thomas, handing down the opinion that a special permit would, indeed, need to be granted for the project to move forward, and that the daycare could not move into the property at 551 Rock St. as a matter of right.

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Parking ordinances were not incorporated into the city's zoning by-laws until 2019.

Little Hands Scholars sought a special permit to waive parking requirements and to erect a sign indicating a proposed new use for 551 Rock St., formerly an orthodontic practice, and historically known as the First Church of Christ Scientists, circa 1956.

Assad, who represents the petitioners, said, I respectfully disagree with Attorney Thomass analysis, adding that he had planned to prepare a memorandum himself, but he instead supplied Attorney General Andrea Campbells memorandum, which stated Massachusetts law exempts local zoning discretion over the use of land or structures for the use of education or religion, which should be free from local interference.

The old church at 551 Rock St., Fall River, is seen here Sept. 30, 2025.

'Temple to Cod: Largest selection of bacalhau offered at unique space in Fall River

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Assad stacked a solid case in defense of the daycare, referencing state and local by-laws protecting the public good including maximizing community access to educational resources and enrichment.

Im extremely familiar with the Dover Amendment, said ZBA Chairman Joseph Pereira. Theres also the greater good that we have to monitor for the neighborhood itself.

ZBA at odds with petition that 'erodes' local board power

In discussion that followed, Hathways determination that the issue go before the zoning board was wrangled with, as Assad repeated his request to the board to vote on the special permit at Hathaways direction, though his presentation included state and local statutes that indicated legal permission for the project to move forward.

It seems that every case that goes by, it just keeps eroding the power and authority of local boards, quipped Pereira.

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Assad made remarks that indicated he could table the matter and file a legal suit to bring about a declaratory judgement.

Ultimately, the boards denial of parking relief for 20 on-street parking spaces and relief to erect a sign struck down plans for the 68-child and 19-employee daycare in the heart of the Highlands.

Fall River Public Schools: Major audit says School Dept. needs better management

Neighbors repeat concerns of traffic congestion and historic preservation

At the September meeting, neighbor Connie Soule, who has owned her home at 577 Rock St. since 1973, said that the addition of a daycare would fundamentally alter the neighborhood while undermining the provisions of the 40C historic district.

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Come Novembers meeting, she added that the proximity of the Antioch School significantly impacts traffic and congestion, creating a dangerous environment for neighbors, employees of nearby businesses, and parents attempting to navigate a busy one-way street.

William Brown, an abutter at 527 Rock. St., said 62 feet of on-street parking between Maple and Prospect streets is incalculable according to GIS maps, and the span does not account for fire hydrant clearance and driveways. Im expecting that youre going to protect my property, he told members of the board.

Alex Silva, president of the Preservation Society of Fall River, reminded the board to consider the use of the property in relationship to the neighborhood.

Just because there is a need doesnt mean it should be used as a justification to exploit our community, he said at the November meeting. What the city needs are daycare facilities that are appropriate for their settings.

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He added that inclement weather and the height of snowbanks could make the turnoff at Prosect and Rock  already a trepidatious intersection  worse.

In a Nov. 24 interview, Hathaway said the daycare could not open for operation. Although the daycare is allowed the use of the property for educational resources as protected under the Dover Amendment, they cannot legally open without meeting parking stipulations.

Hathaway said an appeal of the zoning boards decision on Nov. 20 would be the only move that could warrant further consideration of the matter.

(This story has been updated to correct an inaccuracy.)

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Daycare proposed for Fall River's Highlands is struck down. Here's why.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- The first People's BRICS Summit opened here on Monday, aiming to expand the participation of member countries' civil societies in global governance and strengthen cooperation across the Global South.

The meeting, as part of the BRICS Civil Council's agenda, brings together BRICS social movements to discuss economic cooperation, multilateralism, global geopolitics, governance challenges and ways to reduce emerging economies' dependence on the U.S. dollar.

Created in 2024 at the Kazan Summit in Russia, the BRICS Civil Council seeks to establish a permanent dialogue between civil society and bloc governments.

Organizers said the council marks "a milestone" in expanding the role of organized social groups, including grassroots movements, students, teachers and NGOs in BRICS discussions.

The summit is the last major BRICS event under Brazil's presidency before India assumes leadership next year.

Dilma Rousseff, former Brazilian president and president of the New Development Bank, said in a video message that the summit gives BRICS populations "a permanent channel of dialogue" with the bloc's decision-making bodies. 
While Japan has ambitions for nuclear energy to power about 20 percent of its electricity needs by 2030, it does not have truck-sized reactors keeping the lights on in its northern island of Hokkaido. According to false posts on several social media platforms, the East Asian country is testing "a tiny, box-sized nuclear power plant" built by Japan's National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS) that has the capacity to electrify a small town. But the agency told AFP that no such technology exists.

"Japan launched the Yoroi Reactor -- a tiny, box-sized nuclear power plant that fits in a shipping container and can supply 1 megawatt of clean energy to small towns or disaster areas," says a November 23, 2025 post from an Australia-based Facebook user, adding two units were unveiled in Hokkaido.

It also shares a post published on November 7 that largely repeats the false claim, along with an illustration of three workers examining what appears to be a working power plant tucked into a truck, with the yellow-and-black symbol for radiation on the vehicle's exterior.

Screenshot of the false Facebook post taken on November 25, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

Similar claims with the same image were also shared by Facebook users in other countries, and it also appeared on TikTok, LinkedIn and YouTube.

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In Australia, where this claim was shared in several conservative Facebook groups critical of the ruling Labor party, the government has poured billions into solar power, wind turbines and green manufacturing in its pledge to make the country a renewable energy superpower.

But the green push has detractors within the opposition centre-right Liberal Party, which earlier this month announced it would drop its commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 -- first introduced by the party's former leader Scott Morrison when he was premier in 2021 (archived link).

"This is the smart technology Australia needs to be using for our regional cities," wrote one user as she shared the claim on November 8 in a Facebook group in support of a Liberal MP.

"Clever people. Pity we don't have any clever politicians," said a commenter.

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Energy-hungry Japan pulled the plug on more than 50 nuclear reactors nationwide after a colossal earthquake and tsunami in 2011 caused a meltdown at the Fukushima plant, but more than a dozen have slowly resumed operations since then.

This month, local authorities in Niigata province approved the restart of the world's biggest nuclear plant, making a significant milestone for the government as it seeks to revive atomic energy to reduce its heavy dependence on fossil fuels and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 (archived link).

'Misleading information'

But it is "entirely inaccurate" that truck-sized nuclear reactor units are being tested in Hokkaido, said an official from the National Institute for Fusion Science, which the circulating posts credited with building the mini-plant (archived link).

"I would like to clarify that NIFS is not involved in any research, development, or operation related to the so-called 'YOROI Reactor'," Kazuya Takahata, director of NIFS's public relations office, told AFP in an email on November 26 (archived link).

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"We have recently become aware that misleading information about this reactor is circulating online, and in some cases, our institute is incorrectly associated with it. Please note that this information is entirely inaccurate. At this time, we have no understanding of how or why such misinformation originated."

The regional utility operator Hokkaido Electric Power Company also told AFP in a November 26 email that it has "no knowledge" of the truck-sized nuclear reactor, "including whether it exists".

Electricity generation by nuclear power in Japan, in gigawatt hours

The three reactors at the Tomari plant in Hokkaido -- one of which has passed a safety inspection, while the other two are under review -- are not currently operational (archived link).

Similar claims about portable nuclear reactors in Japan circulated earlier this year with a different image -- generating millions of views. It was debunked by the Australian Associated Press in July (archived link).

AFP has previously fact-checked claims related to Australia's energy policy.
The family of long-time Niagara Region businessman Jerome Williams has filed paperwork necessary to sue the city of Niagara Falls, the Niagara Falls Water Board and the New York Power Authority in connection with his death in a boating crash on the Niagara River.

The paperwork, known as a notice of claim, indicates an intention to file a lawsuit against a government entity or agency, usually for alleged negligence.

In the notice, a copy of which was provided to the Gazette, Williams daughter, Bridget, as the conservator of his estate, accuses the city, the water board and the power authority of negligent, wrongful, unlawful, willful, wanton and grossly negligent, careless and reckless acts and omissions in connection with the crash.

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Williams, 66, of Buffalo, and his fiance, Natalie Sansivero, 46, of Grand Island, were killed when a power boat, owned and piloted by Williams, slammed into a Falls Water Board water intake on the upper Niagara River, just west of the North Grand Island bridge at around 9:40 p.m. July 23. Witnesses said the vessel was traveling west when it slammed into a concrete abutment on the water intake.

Crash investigators have estimated that the craft was traveling at more than 43 knots (50 mph) when it crashed into the intake. Witnesses said the force of the crash sent Williams and Sansivero over the side of the boat and the vessel then appeared to capsize.

The shattered remains of the boat were later recovered from on top of the water intake and floating in the river nearby.

The body of Sansivero was recovered two days later, about a mile downriver from the crash site. Williams body has not yet been recovered.

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The New York State Park Police Marine Bureau has been conducting an investigation and accident reconstruction of the crash. The New York State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI) is conducting a review of Sansiveros death and overseeing Williams missing persons probe.

The notice of claim also alleges that the city, the water board and the power authority failed to properly maintain the (water intake) and failed to use reasonable care, caution and prudence ... to warn of the dangers of (the water intakes).

At the time of the crash, Water Board Chair Richard Sirianni confirmed that the crash had done some minor damage to the water intake, but said the crash had not affected water distribution in the city.

It did some damage to a ladder (used to service the water intake), so well need to replace that, Sirianni said at that time. But it has not affected the operation of the intake.

Sirianni also said work crews had checked and replaced the warning lights on the intake just a few weeks prior to the crash and that U.S. Coast Guard investigators who responded to the crash site said the lights on the intake were working on the night of the accident.
Italian luxury fashion house Valentino is facing criticism after posting "disturbing" adverts made using artificial intelligence (AI) for one of its luxury handbags online.

The brand announced a collaboration with digital artists as part of what it dubbed a "digital creative project" promoting its new DeVain handbag.

But an AI-generated advert it posted on Instagram has been met with intense criticism from fans, who called the visuals - and use of AI - "sloppy" and "sad".

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The BBC has approached Valentino for comment.

The Instagram post promoting the handbag, which has a label to say it was made using AI, shows a "surreal" collage of models spliced between Valentino logos and its DeVain bag.

At one point it shows models seemingly emerge from an ornate gold version of the handbag. At another, the brand's logo transforms into people's arms, before these morph into a coalescing swirl of bodies.

Some Instagram users said AI-generated visuals in Valentino's latest campaign were "weird" and "embarrassing" [Valentino/Instagram]

Among hundreds of comments left on Valentino's Instagram video on Monday were many criticising its AI use as "cheap" and "lazy".

"Disappointing from a couture fashion house," wrote one user responding to the video on Instagram.

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"Advertising campaigns are an opportunity to put talented creatives centre stage. AI in this instance is lazy at best."

Others called on the company's marketing department to "read the room", likened the content to "AI slop" and accused the company of "rage-baiting".

Dr Rebecca Swift, senior vice president of creative at Getty Images, said the negative reaction suggested many see AI content as "less valuable" than human creations.

"While people are excited by AI-generated content for personal use, they hold brands to a higher standard, especially expensive brands," she said.

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"Even full transparency about AI use wasn't enough to win them over."

The use of AI-generated visuals in Valentino's DeVain bag campaign, as above, comes amid wider criticism of similar initiatives by other brands [Valentino/Instagram]

'Creative possibilities'

The fashion industry, like many other creative sectors, has seized on generative AI tools which can create images and video in seconds as a way to cut production and promotion costs.

It has also been cited as an opportunity to examine how new and emerging tech can enhance key processes like design, manufacturing and sizing.

But doing so has also given rise to concern its increased adoption may displace human workers, or reduce the quality of fashion products.

Anne-Liese Prem, head of cultural insights & trends at creative digital agency Loop, said although Valentino was showing "the right instinct" by being upfront about the generative AI use, backlash to it showed "a deeper cultural tension".

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"The main issue is not the technology itself - it is the perception of what the technology replaces," she told the BBC.

"When AI enters the visual identity of a brand, people worry that the brand is choosing efficiency over artistry.

"Even if the execution is creative, audiences often read it as cost-saving disguised as innovation."

H&M's use of AI to create "digital twins" of models for ads and social media posts sparked criticism about its effect on human models, as well as on photographers and make-up artists who play a key role on shoots.

Meanwhile, an AI-generated Guess advert spotted in Vogue earlier this year raised concerns about its impact on female beauty standards.

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Ms Prem said while there were clear benefits and "new creative possibilities" for brands using AI, "the risk is equally clear".

"Without a strong emotional idea behind it, generative AI can make luxury feel less human at a moment when people want human presence more than ever," she said.

[BBC]

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Dec. 1Police started to notice a pattern in 2017 when sex workers in Albuquerque began reporting that a man held them captive in his vehicle for up to 20 hours and repeatedly raped and choked them.

Timothy Bachicha, 43, was sentenced last week to life in prison by U.S. District Judge Matthew Garcia. A federal jury found Bachicha guilty of kidnapping and sexually assaulting two women following a five day trial in December 2023.

"The assaults were violent, cruel and prolonged, demonstrating a degree of sadism rarely seen in the federal criminal justice system," prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed last month in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque.

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Police reports showed that in 2017 and 2018, Bachicha was a suspect in the rapes of six women, but only two of those cases ultimately came to trial. He was initially charged in state district court in both attacks, but prosecutors dropped those charges to allow his prosecution to proceed in federal court.

Bachicha committed at least two sexual assault after he was released from custody on an ankle monitor following his initial arrest in April 2018, federal prosecutors wrote.

The rapes followed a similar pattern, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a sentencing memorandum.

"The suspect would drive around Southwest Albuquerque and offer to give females a ride or proposition them for a 'date,'" prosecutors wrote. "He would then hold them captive in his vehicle for hours (ranging anywhere from 4 to 20 hours), where he would repeatedly strangle and rape them."

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During the assaults, the suspect would often talk about his "perverse sexual fantasies, his ex-wife, and his daughter," prosecutors wrote.

Albuquerque police initially arrested Bachicha in April 2018 on state charges including sexual assault and kidnapping, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.

The attack was reported by an Albuquerque business owner who saw a semi-tractor trailer parked behind his business. When the business owner approached, he heard a woman yelling for help, then saw her running naked from the truck, the complaint said.

Police later found the victim several miles away with injuries to her neck and reported that she had been held against her will, strangled and raped, prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memorandum.

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"She also reported Bachicha strangled her to the point that her body went 'numb' and everything became fuzzy," prosecutors wrote.

Bachicha was released from custody with a GPS ankle monitor a week after the attack, court records show.

In a subsequent attack, a then-21-year-old woman told police she was walking home from a bus stop on Oct. 30, 2018, when Bachicha forced her into his van near Indian School and San Mateo NE, according to 2nd Judicial District Court records.

The woman, listed in court records as Jane Doe 1, told police that Bachicha drove her to a parking lot behind the University of New Mexico Hospital, where he strangled and sexually abused her for about 20 hours.

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She said Bachicha let her go after his GPS ankle monitor kept beeping. A probation violation report said the monitor was beeping because the batteries were getting low.

News reports of the attack prompted another woman, listed as Jane Doe 2, to report that several weeks earlier, Bachicha held her for 16 hours in his vehicle near Interstate 25 and Comanche NE, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement.

Bachicha's GPS ankle monitor confirmed his presence at the time and location described by Jane Doe 2, the statement said.

Both women testified against Bachicha at his trial. Jurors also heard from two other women who suffered similar attacks by Bachicha in October 2017 and April 2018.
A massive emergency response is underway after a huge fire appeared to spread to multiple buildings in a city in southern New Hampshire on Tuesday morning.

Firefighters from multiple communities are battling a six-alarm blaze along Vine Street in Nashua, according to Nashua Fire Rescue.

Photos from the scene showed flames shooting from the roofs of at least two apartment buildings on Vine Street. Thick plumes of smoke were also spotted consuming the neighborhood.

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A Boston 25 viewer shared a video that showed the intense inferno raging in the distance.

There was no immediate word on injuries or the cause of the fire. It also wasnt clear if anyone was inside the buildings when the flames erupted.

Boston 25 News is working to learn additional details.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

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Rockingham Sheriff Sam Page is running against NC Senate leader Phil Berger the Senate District 26 GOP primary.

A North Carolina political race that has been brewing for years became official Monday, with Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page filing to run against Senate Leader Phil Berger in the Republican primary in the district that includes Rockingham and part of Guilford.

Candidate filing started Monday. When it ends at noon on Dec. 19, itll be clear where primary elections will be and who will glide into office unopposed next year.

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The conflict between Berger and Page burst into public view with Bergers support in 2023 for expanding casino gambling in the state  and building one in Rockingham County. Berger has since called that proposal dead, but that hasnt dulled the sharp accusations the two campaigns have traded this year.

Berger was elected to the state Senate in 2000. He is in his eighth term as Senate leader  formally Senate president pro tem  and is one of the most powerful politicians in the state. No other candidates had filed to run in Senate District 26 by Monday afternoon.

A Democratic primary that produced one of the closest results in the state in 2024 is headed for a rematch. Longtime former Rep. Michael Wray is challenging the current occupant of the NC House District 27 seat, freshman Rep. Rodney Pierce. In 2024, Pierce defeated Wray in the district that includes Halifax, Warren, and Northampton counties by 34 votes, or less than a percentage point. Pierce went on to run unopposed in the general election.

In Guilford County, Angie Williams-McMichael of High Point is running against Rep. Amanda Cook in the Democratic primary in House District 50. Cook was appointed to the seat a few weeks ago to replace former House member Cecil Brockman. Brockman resigned after being charged with sex crimes involving a minor, charges he has denied..

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Rep. Keith Kidwell (R-Beaufort), one of the most conservative members of the state House, has drawn a primary challenge from Darren Armstrong of Belhaven in House District 79.

Who will run in the new 1st Congressional District? Davis, Hanig are in

Republicans are aiming to turn the northwest 1st U.S. House District red in 2026, thanks to a new congressional map approved by the legislature and upheld by a federal court.

Which Republican will vie for that seat? That remains to be seen.

Its current occupant, Democratic U.S. Rep. Don Davis, said Monday he would run in the redrawn district despite new boundaries that strongly favor a Republican. Davis no longer lives in the district  he was drawn out of it by Republican map-makers and now resides in the neighboring 3rd district. But members of Congress are not required to live in a district to represent it.

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Many feel Washington, D.C. isnt serving their needs, and the redistricting battle clearly proves it, Davis wrote on social media Monday.

On the other side of the aisle, a contested primary is likely. Just one candidate has filed for the seat as of Monday: state Sen. Bobby Hanig, a Republican who has emerged as a rare dissenting GOP voice in the Senate on issues like a ban on shrimp trawling.

Ive always been very vocal when it comes to people coming after folks in my district, Hanig told reporters. People bring me to Raleigh to defend them and make sure that were taking care of them.

Will President Donald Trump weigh in on the GOP primary? Well see, said U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, who heads the national campaign arm to elect House Republicans.

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Well stay in contact as candidates emerge in the 1st district, and well see, he said. He may decide not to endorse, he may endorse.

Hudson has also drawn an early official opponent  Democrat Nigel Bristow, who serves as chief probation and patrol officer in Anson County, filed for the 9th district on Monday. He ran against Hudson and lost in 2024.
A Port St. Lucie police sergeant is recovering in the hospital after being shot in the face Monday evening.

The shooting happened when officers responded to a disturbance at a home, and as officers approached, a man emerged with an assault rifle, leading to an exchange of gunfire.

During the shootout, the armed suspect was killed in the exchange.

Sergeant Erik Levasseur was the officer injured in the shooting.

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He was transported to HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce.

The investigation is ongoing, and updates will be provided as more information becomes available.

Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall on Monday rejected Navy Adm. Frank Bradleys reasoning for launching a second strike on a vessel in the Caribbean as two wounded survivors clung on to the boat.

Under normal circumstances, itd be court-martialed. Hed be relieved of his duties, and hed be court-martialed, Kendall, who served as secretary under former President Biden, said during an appearance on MS NOW. The administration makes up logic and rationale for the things its doing that defy all legal history and all precedent, and thats basically what were seeing here.

Several other former U.S. government and military leaders have also dubbed the double tap attack a violation of the countrys law of war manual. Bradley is slated to provide a classified briefing to lawmakers Thursday as members of Congress continue to investigate the Trump administrations strikes in the Caribbean.

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Adm. Bradley was reported to have given an excuse, if you will, for the second engagement. That doesnt hold water. These people were wounded. They were in the water. They were not a threat to anybody. Again, thats a textbook example of a war crime, Kendall said Monday.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to The Washington Post, gave orders to kill everybody onboard the ship as part of the Trump administrations crackdown on the alleged sale and transport of narcotics in the Latin American region.

However, Hegseth says he did not order a second strike.

You cant kill survivors who can no longer fight, John Yoo, who served as an adviser in former President George W. Bushs administration, said during a Monday appearance on CNN. So, the admiral should not have obeyed the order that Secretary Hegseth gave. And even the soldiers who carried out the admirals orders should not have obeyed.

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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that Bradley acted within his authority and the law.

Leavitt alleged the strikes were justified after narcotrafficking groups were deemed foreign terrorist organizations, allowing for lethal targeting in accordance with the laws of war.

Her comments contradict the U.S.s war manual, which states orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal.

Legal experts told PBS the fatal attack violates peacetime laws as well as those governing armed conflict.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Stefanie Lambert Junttila and her then-attorney Dan Hartman on July 11, 2024. | Kyle Davidson

Former Adams Township Clerk Stephanie Scott and her private attorney Stefanie Lambert Junttila will stand trial in the 1st Circuit Court in Hillsdale County in an alleged voter data breach during the 2020 presidential election, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Tuesday in a press release.

Scott and Lambert Junttila allegedly allowed unauthorized computer examiner access to voter data, including non-public voter information, according to Nessels office. When the charges were first announced in May 2024, Nessel noted that Scott also allegedly refused to turn over a voting tabulator for maintenance and testing, as well as that Lambert Junttila illicitly transmitted data from the Adams Township Electronic Poll Book concerning the 2020 General Election under the direction of Scott.

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The deliberate violation of voter privacy to push a false agenda and spew misinformation is reckless and illegal, Nessel said in Tuesdays press release. My office takes these allegations very seriously and looks forward to further pursuing this case through the judicial process to defend the rights of Michiganders and protect their personal election data.

Scott and Lambert Junttila are each facing felony charges of Using a Computer to Commit a Crime, Computers  Unauthorized Access, and Conspiracy to Commit the Offense of Computers  Unauthorized Access. Scott also faces a felony charge of Misconduct in Office and a misdemeanor charge of Disobeying a Lawful Instruction or Order of the Secretary of State as Chief Election Officer.

Lambert Junttila is also facing charges in Oakland County for separate charges of alleged voter machine tampering, which she was indicted for in 2023 alongside former Republican attorney general nominee Matt DePerno and former state Rep. Daire Rendon (R-Lake City).

Her trial in that case was rescheduled until March 2026 last month after being postponed previously a number of times.
A former school administrator at Parkland High School in Lehigh County has pleaded guilty following accusations that he secretly recorded a student changing clothes.

In 2024, Francis Anonia, 44, of Allentown, was charged with five felony counts each of intercept communications and criminal use of a communication facility, as well as nine misdemeanor counts of invasion of privacy.

On Monday, the Lehigh County District Attorney's Office announced that he pleaded guilty to all the charges.

RELATED | Ex-performing arts director accused of recording Lehigh County student changing during rehearsals

Anonia, who was a former chorus teacher and director of visual and performing arts with the school district, allegedly recorded a student while they changed their clothes in a school dressing room back in 2021.

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Investigators say five secretly recorded videos of a student were found on Anonia's phone.

He faces a possible sentence of 44 to 88 years in state prison. He'll also be required to register as a sex offender for at least the next 15 years.

Sentencing is scheduled for February 12.


CHANGCHUN, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- China's leading automaker FAW Group said on Tuesday that its iconic Hongqi brand sold more than 420,000 vehicles in the first 11 months of 2025, marking a year-on-year increase of 9.2 percent.

In November alone, the brand reported sales of over 40,000 vehicles, maintaining its stable growth momentum. Sales of its new energy vehicles (NEVs) surged by 60.8 percent compared to the same period last year. The ultra-luxury sub-brand, Hongqi Golden Sunflower, has once again achieved sales exceeding 100 units in a single month.

Hongqi, meaning "Red Flag" in Chinese, debuted in 1958 as a hallmark achievement of China's first Five-Year Plan (1953-1957).

Hongqi plans to intensify its efforts to establish itself as a global automotive brand. Over the next five years, it aims to expand its presence to more than 100 countries and regions, build a global network of 1,000 sales and service outlets, and roll out a broader lineup of NEVs, energy-efficient models and ultra-luxury models worldwide. 
The Canadian publisher of "Franklin the Turtle" books was not amused by a social media post from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth showing a photo of the character holding a rocket-propelled grenade and targeting alleged drug traffickers.

Hegseth posted the image of the animated character on X on Sunday, Nov. 30, as part of a fictional book cover titled "Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists," along with the caption, "For your Christmas wish list " The post came two days after The Washington Post reported a second strike on a boat in the Caribbean on Sept. 2, with the vessel suspected of smuggling drugs.

The second strike, made after Hegseth gave the order to "kill them all," according to The Washington Post, which cited anonymous sources, killed two survivors clinging to wreckage. Military experts and members of Congress have expressed concern that the subsequent strike would violate the law.

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Hegseth pushed back, calling the report "fabricated," while President Donald Trump told reporters that the Pentagon chief denied giving the order. The White House acknowledged on Dec. 1 that a second strike had occurred.

Regardless, Kids Can Press, which publishes "Franklin the Turtle" books, on Monday, Dec. 1, posted across social media networks, including X, Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky, that it condemned "any denigrating, violent, or unauthorized use of Franklin's name or image."

President Donald Trump, flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, speaks during a Cabinet Meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Dec. 2, 2025. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth looks on as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting of his Cabinet in the Cabinet Room of the White House on Dec. 2, 2025 in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump's notes as he attends a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, Dec. 2, 2025. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks alongside President Donald Trump during a Cabinet Meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Dec. 2, 2025. The misspelled name card for Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is seen during a meeting of Trumps' Cabinet in the Cabinet Room of the White House on Dec. 2, 2025 in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump, flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, speaks during a Cabinet Meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Dec. 2, 2025. President Donald Trump speaks alongside (L-R) U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy during a meeting of his Cabinet in the Cabinet Room of the White House on Dec. 2, 2025 in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet Meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Dec. 2, 2025. Also pictured, from left, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, Secretary for Veterans Affairs Doug Collins, and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent (C) speaks during a Cabinet Meeting held by President Donald Trump in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Dec. 2, 2025. (L-R) Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and secretary of Interior Doug Burgum look on as President Donald Trump (not pictured) speaks during a Cabinet Meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Dec. 2, 2025. President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet Meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Dec. 2, 2025. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem (2nd-R) looks on as President Donald Trump (not pictured) speaks, during a Cabinet Meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Dec. 2, 2025. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick speaks alongside Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump (L) during a Cabinet Meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Dec. 2, 2025. Trump holds December Cabinet meeting as Hegseth faces scrutiny 1 of 13 President Donald Trump, flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, speaks during a Cabinet Meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Dec. 2, 2025.

Costco: Retailer sues US to preserve tariff refunds if Trump loses appeal

What is the 'Franklin the Turtle' image?

On Nov. 30, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X an image of a book cover titled "Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists," showing Franklin the Turtle in military gear firing a rocket-propelled grenade launcher from a helicopter, targeting boats.

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While the post, as of Dec. 2, has gotten more than 170,000 likes, it has received more than 17,000 comments, with some criticizing the image, including one user who said, "We're not a serious country anymore."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized Hegseth over the social media post from the Senate floor on Monday, Dec. 1, CBC News reported. "He wants to be taken seriously, but yesterday he posted a ridiculous tweet of a cartoon turtle firing on alleged drug traffickers  a sick parody of a well-known children's book."

For your Christmas wish list pic.twitter.com/pLXzg20SaL  Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) December 1, 2025

What did Kids Can Press say about Hegseth's 'Franklin the Turtle' post?

A day after Hegseth's post, the Canadian book publisher posted on several social media networks that "Franklin the Turtle is a beloved Canadian icon who has inspired generations of children and stands for kindness, empathy, and inclusivity.""We strongly condemn any denigrating, violent, or unauthorized use of Franklin's name or image, which directly contradicts these values," the statement, which did not mention Hegseth by name, continued.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told several outlets, including Axios and the Washington Post, "We doubt Franklin the Turtle wants to be inclusive of drug cartels  or laud the kindness and empathy of narcoterrorists."

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Kids Can Press, which has sold more than 65 million "Franklin the Turtle" books since 1986, responded to a request for comment from USA TODAY with the same statement posted to social media.

Contributing: Phillip M. Bailey and Francesca Chambers

Mike Snider is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com

What's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hegseth's 'Franklin the Turtle' post condemned by book publisher
The publisher of Franklin the Turtle has completely denounced Defense Secretary Pete Hegseths AI depiction of the childrens character launching missiles at drug boats, which made light of his own potential war crime.

Franklin the Turtle is a beloved Canadian icon who has inspired generations of children and stands for kindness, empathy, and inclusivity, Kids Can Press publishing house wrote on X Monday. We strongly condemn any denigrating, violent, or unauthorized use of Franklins name or image, which directly contradicts these values.

Hegseths postanother installment in the GOPs AI image fetishwas an imitation of the cover of the Franklin childrens books, and reads A Classic Franklin Story: Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists. It shows the turtle in full U.S. military combat gear, launching a missile at brown-skinned men in their boats from a helicopter.

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For your Christmas wish list  Hegseth captioned the post.

X screenshot Pete Hegseth @PeteHegseth For your Christmas wish list (AI meme of Franklin the Turtle)

The Trump administration has killed at least 80 people in its attacks on boats in the Caribbean Sea, claiming they are trafficking drugs to the United States. The most recent attack saw someone from the Trump administration order a boat to be bombed off the coast of Trinidad, and then bombed again once it was known that two people had survivedwhich may constitute a war crime. The White House has recently shifted blame onto Admiral Frank Bradley, but a Washington Post report noted that Hegseth made the initial order to leave no survivors.

Its a bleak situation when the administrations cruelty and lack of seriousness has Franklin the Turtles publisher reminding us not to use him in posts about extrajudicial bombings and warfare.
COLUMBUS  Marion County is among 15 counties in Ohio set to benefit from a new program to provide free vision services to young students.

The Ohio Student Eye Exam program, known as OhioSEE, will offer comprehensive eye care to kindergarten through third-grade students, according to a community announcement.

The program is designed to address a significant gap in vision care for children, particularly in areas where more than 80% of students who need additional eye care after a screening do not receive it. By providing services in schools, OhioSEE aims to eliminate barriers that prevent students from accessing necessary eye care during a critical learning period.

Program to launch in early 2026

The Ohio Department of Health has selected three vendors to administer the program: the Ohio Optometric Foundation, Vision to Learn and Health Partners of Western Ohio. The contracts will cover state fiscal years 2026 and 2027.

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The program is expected to serve about 14,000 students each year, with services becoming available in schools in early 2026.

OhioSEE to serve 15 counties

The 15 counties participating in the program are Allen, Butler, Clark, Clermont, Cuyahoga, Erie, Franklin, Guernsey, Huron, Jackson, Lorain, Mahoning, Marion, Montgomery and Ross.

OhioSEE is our pilot program to address the barriers preventing students from receiving the critical eye care they need. We are rolling this out in counties with urgent need, and we hope to include all Ohio counties in the future, Gov. Mike DeWine said in the announcement.

This is another step toward bringing a valuable resource to Ohio students, Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said. We look forward to providing services to students through these vendors by early next year.

Program details and implementation

School districts in eligible counties interested in participating in the program can request information through the Ohio Department of Health website.

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The OhioSEE program was introduced as part of DeWine's executive budget proposal, which was passed by the Ohio Legislature earlier this year.

This story was created by Jane Imbody, jimbody@usatodayco.com, with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct/.

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Marion County to participate in OhioSEE vision care program
Sen. Tom Willis, R-Berkeley, will serve as chairman of the West Virginia Senate Committee on the Judiciary. (Photo by Will Price/West Virginia Legislative Photography)

Sen. Tom Willis, a freshman Republican member from Berkeley County, will lead the Senate Judiciary Committee. Its one of the state Senates most powerful committees, where changes to state law are often vetted.

Willis is also running for the U.S. Senate, vying to replace current Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito.

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I am humbled and honored that the Senate President asked me to serve in this leadership role for our great state, said Willis, R-Berkeley. As Judiciary chair, I will continue my public service to the wonderful people of West Virginia, a journey I started 25 years ago when I joined the West Virginia National Guard in 2000.

The Judiciary Chair position was empty after Mike Stuart left the Senate earlier this year to serve as legal counsel in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under President Donald Trump.

Senate President Randy Smith, R-Preston

Senate President Randy Smith announced on Tuesday that Willis will lead the Judiciary Committee, effective immediately.

His extensive knowledge and background made him a natural fit, Smith, R-Preston, said in a statement. I am honored that he was willing to step up and take on this challenge, and I am confident hes dedicated to making the lives of West Virginians and their families better.

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Willis, who is from Hedgesville and describes himself as a Christian Constitutional Conservative, previously served as the Vice Chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

Judiciary is one of our busiest and most important committees, and I knew that I needed a strong, reliable leader to fill that role, Smith said.

Willis  an attorney and businessman  was elected in November 2024 to represent the fifth district, which includes portions of Berkeley, Morgan and Hampshire counties. Ahead of his election, Willis, in the May primary election, unseated longtime Democrat Senate President Craig Blair. Blair had held the seat for 12 years.

Willis has served as a Special Forces Green Beret with the West Virginia National Guard.

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He ran for U.S. Senate in 2018, coming in fourth in the Republican primary.



In July, he kicked off a campaign again for U.S. Senate.

While I am a declared candidate for U.S. Senate in 2026 because it is time for a change, rest assured I will give 110% to my work as Judiciary Chair as we work together in the Legislature to improve economic prosperity for all West Virginians, improve education outcomes and protect our personal liberties, Willis said.

Capito is expected to run for reelection next year in an attempt to secure her third six-year term.

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A Gaston County teacher and coach was denied bond on Tuesday after being arrested and charged with two counts of having indecent liberties with a child under 16.

Victoria Lynn Powell, 31, of Grover, is a PE teacher at Hunter Huss High School.

ALSO READ: Loved ones outraged after accused killer named Biggest Flirt in Gastonia high school yearbook

She allegedly took indecent liberties with the kid, who is a Hunter Huss student, on Nov. 1, officials said.

Mary Jackson has a daughter at the high school.

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The idea that its a teacher sickens me because we trust our children with you, Jackson said.

Jackson said Powell is a teacher and coach who is highly respected among students at the school.

Bubbly, smiley. Just one of those teachers that the students knew they could gravitate to her, Jackson said.

However, police said Powell got too close to one student.

Based off a relationship. A student-teacher relationship at Hunter Huss, said prosecutor Jason Meulemans.

The student reportedly shared their story with police about inappropriate incidents, which happened on a Saturday.

Police got a search warrant for her phone and found text messages.

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Basically, collaborating things that were said by the student, Meulemans said.

Jackson said, Now, I have to realize that I also have to protect my child form the very people thats supposed to protect them.

Victoria Powell was hired at Hunter Huss High in 2021.

School officials suspended her with pay two weeks ago.

Prosecutors said she was also a church youth leader.

VIDEO: Bomb threat evacuates Gaston County Courthouse, deemed unfounded
The German government is pushing for more industrial companies to get involved in defence production.

"Until now, defence companies and other important sectors of our industry have mainly worked in parallel. That should and must change," Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday.

Pistorius had been meeting representatives of industry and associations in Berlin together with German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche.

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Together, they presented the platform SVI-Connect that is intended to enable existing defence supply chains to be quickly supplemented with suitable resources from other industrial sectors.

"Security policy is now always also economic policy," said Reiche.

"We want to and must increase production capacities," said Pistorius. "And of course, it helps us if we integrate new suppliers into the value chains, thereby making the value chain itself more secure for the future."

However, industry representatives complained that there was still too much bureaucracy in the sector.

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Peter Leibinger, the president of the Federation of German Industry (BDI) said "the overly complicated procurement process must be radically simplified."

He added that civilian industry must also develop the skills to serve the armed forces. "We have to learn more about this," he said.
(Rod Lamkey/AP photos)

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) blasted House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) in a social media tirade on Tuesday, accusing him of getting rolled by Democrats and turning against Republicans aligned with President Donald Trump.

It all started on Monday when Stefanik posted a screed on X, saying Johnson was getting rolled by House Dems attempting to block my provision to require Congressional disclosure when the FBI opens counterintelligence investigations into presidential and federal candidates seeking office.

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The post came after apparent opposition to a Stefanik provision in the National Defense Authorization Act that would require the federal investigators to alert Congress when opening a counterintelligence probe into presidential and federal candidates seeking office, CNN reported.

Stefanik has been pushing the provision for the last few years in response to the FBI probe into the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and its alleged involvement with Russia.

   Republicans have the House, Senate, and the White House, yet the deep state is alive and well with the Speaker getting rolled by House Dems attempting to block my provision to require Congressional disclosure when the FBI opens counterintelligence investigations into  Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) December 1, 2025

On Tuesday, Stefanik doubled down, saying Johnson is blocking my provision to root out the illegal weaponization that led to Crossfire Hurricane, Arctic Frost, and more. He is siding with Jamie Raskin against Trump Republicans to block this provision to protect the deep state.

I just walked out of a briefing on this issue this morning CONFIRMING everything I posted yesterday. That yes, in fact, the Speaker is blocking my provision to root out the illegal weaponization that led to Crossfire Hurricane, Arctic Frost, and more. He is siding with Jamie https://t.co/6fVow5ALFV  Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) December 2, 2025

She added: This is an easy one. This bill is DOA unless this provision gets added in as it was passed out of committee.

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Johnson pushed back on Stefaniks claims, putting out a statement that, All of that is false. I dont exactly know why Elise wont just call me. I texted her yesterday. Shes upset one of her provisions is not being made, I think, into the NDAA.

Johnson added: I wrote her and said, What are you talking about? This hasnt even made it to my level.

JOHNSON on Stefanik: "All of that is false. I don't exactly know why Elise won't just call me. I texted her yesterday. She's upset one of her provisions is not being made, I think, into the NDAA. As soon as I heard this yesterday, I was campaigning in Tennessee, and I wrote https://t.co/EfvRoarJ4o  Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) December 2, 2025

Stefanik, who announced her New York gubernatorial bid last month, confirmed shed received a text from Johnson, and countered: Just more lies from the Speaker.

This is his preferred tactic to tell Members when he gets caught torpedoing the Republican agenda, she went on. It wasnt on your radar? This is the ONLY provision in the bill to root out the deep state rot.

Just more lies from the Speaker. And in true to form, the Speaker texted me yesterday claiming he knew nothing about it. Yeah right. This is his preferred tactic to tell Members when he gets caught torpedoing the Republican agenda. It wasnt on your radar? This is the ONLY https://t.co/AKxC6CU8ma  Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) December 2, 2025



The post GOP Civil War Brewing as Elise Stefanik Trashes Mike Johnson for Getting Rolled by Dems first appeared on Mediaite.
Grandpas Pawn & Gun will close its Ninth Avenue shop at the end of December, ending an 11-year run at the location and 32 years of business in Longmont.

Owner Rod Brandenburg said the citys recent railroad crossing safety project, dubbed the Quiet Zone Safety Improvement Program, eliminated the stores only viable exit, a change he believes leaves the property unsafe for customers and impossible to operate.

Brandenburg has run the business since 1999, when he purchased it from its original founder on Main Street. The shop spent more than three decades on Main before Brandenburg moved it to Ninth Avenue in 2014, a shift he said nearly doubled sales because the new site offered far better parking.

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When you walk in, you dont see just guns. We sell a ton of jewelry. Were the only ones in town that buy and sell turquoise, he said.

Brandenburg said the long-standing ingress on the east side and egress on the west side had been used continuously for 69 years until recent construction blocked it.

Owner Rod Brandenburg looks over a stack of correspondence between him and Longmont officials at Grandpas Pawn & Gun in Longmont on Monday. (Matthew Jonas/Staff Photographer)

According to Brandenburg, the city once confirmed in writing that the Quiet Zone Safety Improvements will not affect your physical property. He said the project resulted in the opposite. Parking remains available on the east side, but vehicles can no longer exit on the west because of fencing and a raised median installed along the railroad crossing.

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Brandenburg presented emails to the Times-Call that he said he received from city engineers.

A May 1, 2023, email from senior civil engineer for the city Mara Nelson, stated, It is not anticipated that there will be direct physical impacts to the property located at 104 9th Ave. as a result of this project since the property lies outside of the project limits.

In a separate email dated Sept. 12, 2025, Director of Engineering Jim Angstadt wrote, The city does not recognize the claim that the area west of the building is an access. There is no evidence in City records of an access ever being approved nor is there a driveway apron at this location. He also wrote that any use of the area west of the building as an exit is not authorized by the City of Longmont and is at the users risk.

Brandenburg disputes that. He said the store, its predecessors and its customers have used the west side of the building as an exit for decades. He said employees were told in a July 2025 meeting that the city would work on an egress for the business. No option has been provided, he said.

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In a statement emailed to the Times-Call on Monday, city spokesman Rogelio Mares wrote, As part of the City of Longmonts Quiet Zone Safety Improvements, travel lanes on 9th Avenue across the railroad were narrowed and a median was installed to increase crossing safety for all users. All improvements are consistent with Longmonts Municipal Code and rules and regulations.

Still, Brandenburg said the construction has created hazards for drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians. He pointed to the curb height, the narrowing of travel lanes, and what he described as a blind turn when pulling out of the parking lot. The intersection sees thousands of vehicles per day, he said.

Trains still sound their horns despite the quiet zone improvements, he said, and children attending nearby Columbine Elementary School frequently ride their bikes through the area.

Brandenburg cited several recent car crashes outside the shop, including a collision that pushed his daughters parked car 25 feet, totaling it.

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He said that wheelchair users must cross the train tracks at a perpendicular angle to avoid getting stuck.

Owner Rod Brandenburg points to on street parking in front of Grandpas Pawn & Gun in Longmont on Monday. (Matthew Jonas/Staff Photographer)

He also added that nearby businesses on Third Avenue, such as Gerber Collision and Glass and Hamilton Towing, were not affected by similar fencing or lane changes. He questioned why his business was treated differently.

Brandenburg also said the states evolving firearms laws have contributed to his decision to close. He believes gun legislation has discouraged customers and increased regulatory pressures. He said there is only one gun store left in Boulder that operates similarly to his, which he views as a sign of broader regional changes.

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Chris Lewis, a pawn broker who has worked at Grandpas Pawn and Gun for 19 years, said he and his longtime coworker had been planning to purchase the business and take it over before the news from the city.

He said each new state law related to firearms caused sales to decline, pushing out the timeline for when taking over the shop could be financially feasible. He said the road changes eliminated any remaining certainty. His coworker has moved out of state. Lewis said he plans to continue running his private gunsmithing business in Weld County.

Ohio resident Luann McHarg visited the shop on Monday while in Longmont with her husband to tour retirement communities. She bought a blue lapis pendant that she plans to wear as a necklace. She said she had not intended to shop for jewelry on her trip but was drawn in by the variety of jewelry and a local friends recommendation. Grandpas Pawn and Gun sells everything from jewelry to rare coins, guitars, radios and old snowshoes.

Longmont resident Kevin Griffith, who has been coming to the shop for more than 15 years, walked in Monday and learned of the closure for the first time. Griffith uses a cane and said he has frequently bought and sold firearms at Grandpas Pawn to make extra cash. He said the closure came as a shock and devastated him. Griffith added that he would not want to start a small business in Boulder County because of what he sees as red tape and inconsistent regulations.

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Brandenburg said he has always tried to keep the business community-oriented. He said employees have helped customers during emergencies, loaned money during crises, and tried to maintain relationships with law enforcement and the railroad. He said the store has averaged 23 employees over 27 years, many staying for long periods.

He said the loss of the store feels abrupt for customers who have been coming since the Main Street days. He said he does not plan to reopen elsewhere and does not intend to operate in Colorado again.

Why now? Why not 10, 20, 30 years ago? Because they dont like gun stores. They dont like what I stand for, Brandenburg said. This is what I stand for, he said, pointing to the side of his building where three words are painted: FAITH, FAMILY, FREEDOM.

In the citys emailed statement Monday evening, Mares added, This project is designed and approved in coordination with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, the Federal Railroad Administration and the Colorado Public Utilities Commission.

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Quiet Zone Safety Improvements will modernize 14 existing railroad crossings in Longmont to improve safety and eliminate the need for loud train horns.

The City of Longmont is in contact with businesses adjacent to railroad crossings in the first construction group of Quiet Zone Safety Improvements.

The recently updated railroad crossing at Ninth Avenue just west of Grandpas Pawn & Gun is seen in Longmont on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. (Matthew Jonas/Staff Photographer)
More than 1,000 Christmas trees are going to military families in North Carolina and Georgia.

Dozens of growers across Ashe, Allegheny, Avery,, Mitchell, and Watauga counties donated the trees to thank them for their service.

ALSO READ: Man turns Christmas trees into canes for veterans

The trees will go to several bases, including Fort Benning, Fort Bragg, and Marine Air Station Cherry Point, this week.

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Growers from Ashe County arrived Tuesday morning with trailers filled with Christmas trees.

There were 40 growers donating Christmas trees as part of the Trees for Troops program.

The Christmas Spirit Foundation has worked with Fed Ex and the growers to provide trees for thousands of troops for 21 years.

Grow smiles

Channel 9s Dave Faherty spoke with the growers Tuesday about their efforts to brighten Christmas for the troops.

Rusty Barr brought this trailer full of Christmas trees donated from his farm in Ashe County. He will never meet the service members and their families who will receive the free Christmas trees, but he hopes to make a difference for the men and women who serve our country.

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Theres a lot of families who have been in several conflicts, Barr said. A lot of people deployed and maybe the wives or the husbands are there by themselves, so its a great benefit for families. One little expense they dont have to bear during the holiday season.

Grower Charles Sturgill said his grandparents served in World War I and World War II.

We enjoy life so much because we get to grow smiles, said Sturgill, with Sturgill Tree Farms. Every time we send a Christmas tree out, we make someone smile on Christmas morning.

Power player

North Carolina is a power player in the Christmas tree industry.

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The state is the nations second largest producer of trees.

Frasier fir is by far the dominant species grown in North Carolina, according to the N.C. Christmas Tree Association.

Its the go-to for its soft needles, long-lasting smell, and stronger branches for the heaviest ornaments.

Tariffs could help sales across the North Carolina mountains, growers said.

The price of artificial trees is expected to rise 10% to 20%.

Last month, Channel 9 visited Christmas tree farms in Avery County.

One grower said prices for real trees have pretty much held steady for the last two years.

VIDEO: Christmas Town USA founder watches tradition brighten another year
Smith & Wesson handguns for sale in a gun store in 2022 in Houston. About 96% of guns recovered from crime scenes and traced between 2017 and 2023 were originally bought from licensed dealers, according to federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives data. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Licensed gun dealers are a major source of firearms that end up illegally trafficked, according to a new analysis using federal data by the research arm of Everytown for Gun Safety, which advocates for stricter gun laws.

Gun trafficking involves diverting guns from legal commerce into the illegal market, often through straw purchases, unlicensed dealing or other methods that bypass background checks and federal recordkeeping requirements.

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A straw purchase is when someone who can legally buy a gun does so on behalf of another person who cannot or does not want their name associated with the purchase.

Using trace data from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Everytown for Gun Safety found that 96% of guns recovered at crime scenes and traced between 2017 and 2023 were originally purchased from a licensed dealer. Everytown estimates more than 1.27 million guns will have been trafficked nationwide by 2026.

Licensed gun dealers earned an estimated $695 million from firearms that were later identified as trafficked, according to the report.

The report also points to gaps in federal oversight of gun shops, noting that the number of gun shop inspections has fallen sharply during the Trump administration. But the issue long predates the current administration.

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In Oregon, for example, federal regulators inspected fewer than 2% of the states roughly 2,000 gun dealers in 2022 and 2023, according to records obtained by Oregon Public Broadcasting, a nonprofit media organization.

A federal budget document released in June shows that the U.S. Department of Justice plans to eliminate two-thirds of the investigators responsible for monitoring federally licensed gun dealers  reducing the number of inspectors from about 850 to roughly 300.

In May, the ATF announced a new policy loosening the rules that dictate when gun dealer licenses should be revoked. And since Trump took office in January, roughly 80% of the ATFs 2,500 special agents have been directed to take on at least some immigration enforcement duties.

Everytown argues in its report that these oversight lapses allow suspicious sales to go undetected.

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ATF data also shows that trafficked guns are involved in twice as many shootings as non-trafficked firearms. Nearly 88% of people who received these guns were legally prohibited from buying firearms, according to the report. Trafficked guns were frequently linked to drug offenses, aggravated assaults, homicides and attempted homicides.

The Everytown report urges states to increase regulatory inspections of gun dealers, adopt gun laws to deter trafficking and use data to identify and disrupt illegal supply chains.

My years at ATF taught me that states dont have to wait for Washington to act, Marianna Mitchem, a senior firearms industry advisor at Everytown, wrote in an email. Mitchem is a former associate assistant director of field operations at the ATF.

At least 16 states and Washington, D.C., license and regulate firearms dealers, according to Everytowns research.

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Colorado and Illinois, for example, require gun dealers to obtain a state license and comply with security, recordkeeping, and storage standards, with state officials conducting regular inspections.

Stateline reporter Amanda Watford can be reached at ahernandez@stateline.org.

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MELBOURNE, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Scientists have developed a new, high-tech approach for treating ischemic stroke by enhancing removal of toxic waste products from the brain.

The "brain-draining lymphatics" are a set of drainage pathways that clear waste from the brain, with dysfunction of this "clean-up and drainage network" linked to Alzheimer's disease and other neurological and neurodegenerative diseases (NNDs), a media release of Australia's Monash University said Tuesday.

Scientists from Monash University and Yale School of Medicine in the United States are now developing non-invasive devices that help the neck's lymphatic vessels pump more effectively, improving the clearance of excess fluid and harmful waste from the brain right after stroke has occurred, at a time when every second counts, the media release said.

Advanced imaging in 140 participants has also revealed sex-based differences in brain lymphatic networks, with women showing less vessel coverage, potentially explaining their higher risk and poorer outcomes in conditions such as stroke and Alzheimer's disease, the release said.

"For decades, the brain was considered to be devoid of a lymphatic system," said Professor Natalie Trevaskis from the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash lead of the project.

"It wasn't until 2015 that two separate teams discovered lymphatics in the brain's outer layer transport fluid and waste products from the brain to lymphatic vessels in the neck," Trevaskis said.

"We now know that this system plays a crucial role in keeping the brain healthy. By boosting this natural clean-up system, we hope to change how ischemic stroke and other NNDs are treated," she said.

The team aims to develop new therapeutic technologies which can aid more effective recovery and reduce ongoing disability than current clot-removal procedures, she added. 
However, the identification process of the remains at Abu Kabir is "still ongoing," according to the Health Ministry.

The remains transferred by Hamas are "highly likely" not of a deceased hostage, an Israeli source told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday evening.

However, the identification process of the remains at Abu Kabir is "still ongoing," according to the Health Ministry.

A coffin containing the potential remains of a deceased Gaza hostage arrived at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir for identification on Tuesday evening, according to the Health Ministry.

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The IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) received the "findings" from the International Committee of the Red Cross, transferred from the Gaza Strip, the Prime Minister's Office confirmed earlier on Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier today, a Hamas official told Reuters it would turn over the remains of one of the two remaining deceased hostages still in Gaza.

The PMO also confirmed that Israel was preparing to receive "findings" from the Red Cross in a morning statement.

Israel Police escorting a coffin containing the potential remains of a Gaza hostage to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir, December 2, 2025. (credit: ISRAEL POLICE SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

"Israel is preparing to receive from the Red Cross findings that were transferred from the Gaza Strip," the PMO stated. It is yet unclear if the "findings" refer to remains belonging to a hostage.

Authorities in continuous contact with families of hostages still in Gaza

The PMO continued, emphasizing that the authorities responsible for handling missing persons are in continuous contact with the families of the two remaining hostages in Gaza.

Those hostages are Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak and Staff-Sergeant Major Ran Gvili.
Haredi demonstrators rioted in Beit Shemesh, blocking buses and throwing stones, as police units moved in to disperse the crowd.

Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) activists protesting against the ongoing draft bill process rioted in Beit Shemesh on Monday night, blocking buses, setting fires in trash cans, and throwing stones at police officers, Israel Police announced.

Israel Police mobilize to disperse rioting haredi protesters in Beit Shemesh, December 1, 2025. (credit: ISRAEL POLICE SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

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The protest activity was not coordinated in advance with Israel Police.

Officers from the police's Special Patrol Unit (YASAM) and Border Police officers mobilized in an attempt to control the riot, calling on protesters to cease and disperse.

The riot continued despite these calls to stop, leading to police officers forcefully dispersing the crowd, police confirmed.

Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) protesters gather in Mea She'arim, Jerusalem, to celebrate draft dodgers' release from miiltary prison, November 30, 2025; illustrative. (credit: CHAIM GOLDBERG/FLASH90)

Haredi stone-throwers attack Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion's car in capital

Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion's car was attacked by haredi rock-throwers at Avinoam Yellin Street in the capital city, Israel Police said last Monday.

No injuries were reported, although the vehicle's windshield was damaged.

At the time, the mayor was visiting the Mea She'arim neighborhood.

Police arrest 14-year-old suspected in attack on MK Yoav Ben-Tzurs vehicle

A 14-year-old Jerusalem resident was arrested, Israel Police announced on November 23, a week after the attack on the car of Shas MK Yoav Ben-Tzur.

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The incident occurred in central Jerusalem, where a group of ultra-Orthodox youths assaulted the vehicle and caused damage as Ben-Tzur left a weekly study session.

The arrest followed what police described as intensive operational and investigative work by the Jerusalem Districts crime-fighting unit. The teen was taken in for questioning, and investigators said on Sunday that efforts are ongoing to identify and detain additional suspects involved in the assault.

Sarah Ben-Nun and Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.
You can use the database to search by county or by restaurant name.

Florida's restaurant owners are not required to post restaurant inspection results where guests can see them. So every week, we provide that information for you.

For a complete list of local restaurant inspections, including violations not requiring warnings or administrative action, visit our Palm Beach County restaurant inspections site.

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Here's the breakdown for recent health inspections in Palm Beach County, Florida, for the week of Nov. 24-30, 2025. Please note that some more recent, follow-up inspections may not be included here.

Disclaimer: The Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation describes an inspection report as a 'snapshot' of conditions present at the time of the inspection. On any given day, an establishment may have fewer or more violations than noted in their most recent inspection. An inspection conducted on any given day may not be representative of the overall, long-term conditions at the establishment.

For full restaurant inspection details, visit our Palm Beach County restaurant inspection site.

Last week: Health inspections: 26 PBC restaurants get perfect scores; one closed

Which Palm Beach County restaurants got perfect scores on their health inspections?

These restaurants met all standards during their Nov. 24-30 inspections and no violations were found.

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** Restaurants that failed an inspection and aced a follow-up inspection in the same week

Which Palm Beach County restaurants were temporarily closed by inspectors?

These restaurants failed their Nov. 24-30 inspections and were temporarily closed. Follow-upinspections are required.

8790 Boyton Beach Rd Ste 2, Boynton Beach

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Complaint Inspection on Nov. 24

Facility Temporarily Closed: Operations ordered stopped until violations are corrected. The restaurant later re-opened and subsequently received a perfect score.

1 total violation, with 1 high-priority violation

High Priority - Live, small flying insects found Approximately 1 live flying insect on door frame to office. Approximately 6 live flying insects inside kitchen on trash cans next to back door. In kitchen approximately 5 live flying insects on old card board boxes on cart next to back door. Approximately 1 live flying insects on clean and sanitized vegetable slicer on kitchen prep table. Approximately 1 live flying insects on sealed box of seasoning. Above food prep table. Approximately 2 live flying insects on food prep table in middle of kitchen. Approximately 3 live flying insects in customer lobby area flying around windows. Approximately 6 live flying insects in customer lobby landing on tables. Approximately 1 live flying insects on exterior of walk in cooler door. Approximately 1 live flying insect on bag of chips at take out area prep station. Discussed with operator to eliminate all flying insects and clean and sanitize all areas.

What agency inspects restaurants in Florida?

Routine regulation and inspection of restaurants is conducted by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. The Department of Health is responsible for investigation and control of food-borne illness outbreaks associated with all food establishments.

How do I report a dirty restaurant in Florida?

If you see abuses of state standards, report them and the Department of Business and Professional Regulation will send inspectors. Call the Florida DBPR at 850-487-1395 or report a restaurant for health violations online.

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Get the whole story at our restaurant inspection database.

What does all that terminology in Florida restaurant inspections mean?

Basic violations are those considered against best practices.

A warning is issued after an inspector documents violations that must be corrected by a certain date or within a specified number of days from receipt of the inspection report.

An administrative complaint is a form of legal action taken by the division. Insufficient compliance after a warning, a pattern of repeat violations or existence of serious conditions that warrant immediate action may result in the division initiating an administrative complaint against the establishment. Says the division website: "Correcting the violations is important, but penalties may still result from violations corrected after the warning time was over."

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An emergency order  when a restaurant is closed by the inspector  is based on an immediate threat to the public. Here, the Division of Hotels and Restaurants director has determined that the establishment must stop doing business and any division license is suspended to protect health, safety or welfare of the public.

A 24-hour call-back inspection will be performed after an emergency closure or suspension of license.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: West Palm Beach area restaurant inspections Nov. 24-30, 2025
As the holidays approach, there are plenty of local non-profits in Lafayette that can use a helping hand.

If youre looking for a meaningful way to give back before the year ends, here are the top places asking for help  and exactly how you can get involved.

Gifting Grace Project

This nonprofit supports homeless and vulnerable children across Acadiana, and their annual holiday initiative is underway.

How to help:

Use their Online Gifting Tree (live Nov 1Dec 8) to sponsor a child for Christmas  pick a child code, buy a gift, and drop it off at their main office (217 Rue Louis XIV, Lafayette).

Volunteer: assemble care kits, distribute clothes or gifts, or help with outreach events.

Organize a small toy/hygiene drive or help the group connect with businesses/organizations.

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Address: 217 Rue Louis XIV, Lafayette, LA 70508

Phone: (337) 321-3356

Email: david@giftinggraceproject.com Gifting Grace Project+1

Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana (Lafayette branch)

Second Harvest serves thousands across South Louisiana, providing food for families, seniors, and individuals  especially critical in December when demand rises.

How to help:

Volunteer at their Lafayette location: tasks include sorting and packing food, distributing groceries, or helping run mobile markets.

Sign up for a shift via their VolunteerHub  you pick a time that works for you and they provide orientation when you arrive.

Address: 215 East Pinhook Road, Lafayette, LA 70501

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Phone: (337)-237-7711

United Way of Acadiana

United Way organizes community-wide volunteer opportunities  especially during the holiday season  through partner nonprofits across Lafayette and the wider region.

How to help:

Browse their volunteer portal to find one-time or ongoing volunteer projects: food drives, family assistance, community support, etc.

Use United Way to connect with multiple local nonprofits for flexible options and variety.

Address: 215 E Pinhook Rd, Lafayette, LA 70501

Phone: (337) 233-8302

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Where to volunteer in Lafayette this holiday season: top nonprofits to help
The four individuals allegedly assassinated were customs department officers and journalists who pointed to Hezbollah's connection with the deadly explosion.

Hezbollah's Unit 121 assassinated four Lebanese figures out of fear that they would expose links between the terror group and the 2020 Beirut Port explosion, IDF Arabic Spokesperson Col. Avichay Adraee claimed on Tuesday.

The explosion, which occurred in August 2020, is widely believed to have been caused by Hezbollah's storage of ammonium nitrate.

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The four individuals allegedly assassinated were customs department officers and journalists who pointed to Hezbollah's connection with the deadly explosion, Adraee commented.

Hezbollah denied its involvement in the deaths of the four individuals.

Adraee provided IDF intelligence on each of the four deaths.

Joseph Skaff was the head of customs inspections at the port, who was allegedly thrown from a height by Unit 121 assassins in 2017 after he requested that Hezbollah remove their stockpiles of ammonium nitrate from the port.

Mounir Abou Rjeily headed the anti-smuggling division in the customs department and was allegedly stabbed to death by Unit 121 assassins in December 2020 after he provided information to the authorities concerning Hezbollah's link to the explosion.

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Joe Bejjani was a photographer who was among the first to document the aftermath of the explosion and worked alongside the Lebanese Armed Forces to aid in the investigation. He was shot dead in his car in December 2020, assassins stealing his phone before fleeing the scene.

Lokman Slim was an outspoken political activist and journalist who frequently criticized the terror group. Slim was also shot to death in his car in February 2021, shortly after publicly accusing Hezbollah and Syria's Bashar al-Assad of responsibility for the explosion.

Adraee ties Hezbollah's Unit 121 to other assassinations, warns IDF has 'long list' of add'l murders

Adraee concluded his statement by noting that these four were not the only individuals assassinated by the terror group. Former prime minister Rafic Hariri, assassinated in 2005, and Christian Lebanese politician Elias Hasrouni, were also assassinated by the terror group.

The IDF is in possession of intelligence of a "long list we have yet to expose" containing additional instances when Unit 121 assassinated Lebanese officials and opponents of Hezbollah, Adraee warned.
New details are being revealed regarding Home Improvement star Zachery Ty Bryans latest arrest.

According to the Lane County Sheriff's Office, the actor and his fiancee, Johnnie Faye Cartwright, were both arrested on Saturday, November 29, after an incident in the Fall Creek area of Oregon.

On November 29th at about 12:30 p.m., Lane County Sheriffs deputies responded to a report of reckless endangering in the area of Big Fall Creek Road milepost 5, a popular camping area northeast of Lowell, police said in a statement via Facebook. Deputies learned Zachery Ty Bryan, 44, of Eugene, was in a pickup truck with Johnnie Faye Cartwright, 32, of Eugene, and their three small children. They were driving together in the area.

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According to police, Bryan got out of the pickup truck and began walking down a road.

Zachery Ty Bryans Ups and Downs Through the Years: Child Stardom, Legal Issues and More

Cartwright then attempted to run over Bryan, crashing the truck with the children inside into the ditch, police claimed in the statement. Bryan was able to move out of the way and avoid injury. No one inside the pickup was injured.

Deputies interviewed both Bryan and his fiancee and allegedly observed signs that both were impaired.

Officials also interviewed witnesses contacted on the scene. Per a court order from a prior case, police said Bryan was not supposed to be in contact with Cartwright.

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After additional investigation, Cartwright was arrested for Attempted Assault in the 1st Degree, three counts of Recklessly Endangering and DUII, police concluded in a statement. Bryan was arrested for a probation violation on an original charge of Assault in the 4th Degree. The involved children were placed with a family member.

Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic

According to online court records viewed by Us Weekly, both parties remained in custody as of Monday, December 1. It is unclear if Bryan or Cartwright have obtained legal representation to comment on their behalf.

Bryan starred alongside Tim Allen in the ABC sitcom Home Improvement from 1991 to 1999.

When asked about Bryan in 2022, Allen, 72, told The Hollywood Reporter, I dont know whats going on with him. Zach is a great kid who has grown into a complex man. All you can do is step aside and let somebody go through their process. At a certain point, he deviated from the guy I know to somebody who is reacting to situations that I had nothing to do with and cant control.

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This isnt the first time Bryan has found himself in various legal matters.

Zachery Ty Bryan and Then-Pregnant Fiancee Johnnie Had Heated Dispute Months Before His Arrest

In October 2023, Bryan pleaded guilty to felony assault in the fourth degree constituting domestic violence. As a result of his plea, the actor was expected to receive a downward dispositional departure to 36 months of supervised probation, seven days in jail and to abide by a set of conditions typical of domestic violence cases.

Ill always want whats best for the father of my children, Cartwright said in a statement to Us in August 2023. I ask everyone to please be respectful of our privacy for the sake of the children and our families so the healing process can begin.

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Bryan and Cartwright announced their engagement in November 2021. The pair share three children, including a daughter born in April 2022 and twins who arrived in May 2023.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.
Tegucigalpa, Honduras  A businessman who has President Trump's backing for the presidency of Honduras was locked in a "technical tie" with a rightwing TV host after a preliminary vote count, the Central American country's electoral body said Monday.



Nasry Asfura, 67, led 72-year-old rival Salvador Nasralla by just 515 votes, making it a "technical tie," National Electoral Council (CNE) head Ana Paola Hall said on X after a partial digital tally of Sunday's down-to-the-wire ballot.



She called for "patience" as the CNE starts a manual count in a vote that left the ruling left-leaning party out in the cold in one of Latin America's most impoverished and violent countries.

Trump backs candidate, claims effort to "change the results"

Days before the vote, former Tegucigalpa mayor Asfura won Mr. Trump's backing  as the U.S. president sought to put his finger on the scale of another Latin American election.

Honduran presidential candidate of the National Party Nasry Asfura gestures during a press conference in Tegucigalpa, Dec. 1, 2025, a day after the election. / Credit: Marvin RECINOS /AFP/Getty

In a Monday post on his own Truth Social platform, Mr. Trump accused the Honduran electoral body of "trying to change the results" of the vote, adding: "If they do, there will be hell to pay!"

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He claimed that the CNE had "abruptly stopped counting" ballots on the night of the election when the initial count "showed a close race between" Asfura and Nasralla, noting the slight lead that tally showed for Asfura.

"It is imperative that the Commission finish counting the Votes. Hundreds of thousands of Hondurans must have their Votes counted," he said in the post, which he published before the CNE chief urged patience for a manual count.



The U.S. president has become increasingly vocal about his support for allies in Latin America, threatening to cut aid to Argentina and Honduras if his picks do not win.



Ally Javier Milei came out on top in Argentina's mid-term elections, but it is not yet clear if Mr. Trump's endorsement will be enough to secure victory for Asfura, whose campaign slogan was: "Grandad, at your service!"

Could Trump help swing Honduras back to the right?

The election is a clear defeat for ruling leftists trailing far behind in the vote count. A swing to the right could help build U.S. influence in a country that under leftist government had looked increasingly to China.



The election campaign was dominated by Mr. Trump's threat and the surprise announcement that he would pardon former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez of Asfura's National Party.

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez is taken in handcuffs to a waiting aircraft for extradition to the U.S., at an Air Force base in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, April 21, 2022. / Credit: Elmer Martinez/AP

Hernandez, who has always maintained his innocence, is serving a 45-year prison sentence in the United States, where he was convicted of belonging to one of "the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world."

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During his trial, U.S. federal prosecutors said Hernandez turned his Central American country into a "narco-state" during his 2014-2022 presidency.



Some Hondurans have welcomed Mr. Trump's intervention, saying they hope it means migrants will be allowed to remain in the U.S.

Many Hondurans have fled north to escape grinding poverty and violence, including minors fearing forced recruitment by gangs.



This escape route has been made more difficult by Mr. Trump's immigration crackdown, and nearly 30,000 Honduran migrants have been deported from the U.S. since his second term started in January.

The clampdown has dealt a severe blow to the country of 11 million people, where money sent home from abroad accounted for 27% of GDP last year.

Others reject what they see as meddling by Mr. Trump.



"I vote for whomever I please, not because of what Trump has said, because the truth is I live off my work, not off politicians," Esmeralda Rodriguez, a 56-year-old fruit seller, told AFP.



Michelle Pineda, a 38-year-old merchant, hoped the winner would see the country "as more than just a bag of money to loot."



Preemptive accusations of election fraud from the ruling party and the opposition have sparked fears of unrest.



The vote count has progressed slowly, and final results could take days.



Lawmakers and hundreds of mayors were also elected in the fiercely polarized nation, which has swung back and forth between nominally leftist and conservative leaders.



Long a transit point for cocaine exported from Colombia to the U.S., Honduras is now also a drug producer.



But the candidates barely addressed drug trafficking, poverty or violence on the campaign trail.



"I hope the new government will have good lines of communication with Trump, and that he will also support us," said Maria Velasquez, 58. "I just want to escape poverty."

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Florida charter school company run by GOP figure leaves parents frustrated: "They dropped the ball"

Trump reacts to report alleging Hegseth gave verbal order on no survivors in Venezuela boat strike

New details about National Guard shooting suspect's mental health
Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Two days after the Nov. 30 general election, Honduras still has no president-elect.

The National Electoral Council said that with 57.03% of tally sheets processed, the two leading candidates -- Nasry "Tito" Asfura and Salvador Nasralla -- are separated by only 515 votes, creating what amounts to a virtual tie. The razor-thin margin has pushed the country into unprecedented electoral uncertainty.

The Preliminary Electoral Results Transmission system went offline Monday afternoon, leaving the official results platform frozen at the most sensitive stage of the vote count, the local outlet TuNota reported.

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The Electoral Council announced the shutdown of the preliminary results transmission system, moving the process into a new phase. The transmitted results will no longer be changed or updated, and the figures appearing on screen will remain frozen as a public reference.

The next steps include counting the remaining tally sheets under the council's contingency procedures, as well as conducting a special review to verify the results in cases of errors or discrepancies.

U.S. President Donald Trump warned Monday on his official Truth Social account of possible consequences if Honduras "alters" the results of election and urged the country's electoral authorities to resume the vote count, which was halted on election night.

"Honduras is trying to change the results," Trump wrote, adding that "there will be hell to pay!" if that happens.

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ADS Group, the company responsible for the technological infrastructure behind the TREP, said the system faced two hacking attempts. The incidents were linked to an unusual spike in request volume and atypical traffic patterns that affected service stability and caused an immediate disruption in system availability, El Heraldo reported.

Amid the situation, Electoral Council President Ana Paola Hall called for calm and said tally sheets still need to be processed under contingency mechanisms before moving to a special review ahead of the official results announcement.

"We must remain calm, be patient. ... The peace with which the process unfolded must be maintained until it ends," Hall said on X.

Hall noted that the country woke up in peace after the vote and reiterated that transparency and respect for the popular will are priorities in this tight race.

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Liberal Party candidate Salvador Nasralla declared himself the "projected winner," saying he is confident that outstanding tally sheets from his strongholds will reverse the trend.

"We are going to end up beating the National Party by 120,000 votes," Nasralla said, predicting a comfortable victory once the remaining votes are counted, local outlet Criterio reported.

On the other side, Nasry "Tito" Asfura of the National Party, who holds the narrow early lead, avoided declaring victory prematurely. Asfura urged voters to wait for the official results with patience and transparency and called on the electoral body not to prolong the process unnecessarily.

Asfura, whom Trump endorsed, also said his internal records still show him ahead.

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A third candidate, Rixi Moncada of the Libre Party, finished a distant third. Moncada rejected the preliminary results and warned she will not recognize any outcome until 100% of the tally sheets are counted, a position backed by former presidents Manuel Zelaya and Xiomara Castro.

This stance signals possible challenges from the ruling party if the final result does not favor them.
US-based hot dog chain Wienerschnitzel is re-entering the Waco, Texas market with a new restaurant scheduled to open on 3 December 2025.

The outlet, located at 305 S Valley Mills Dr, will be the companys first in Waco since it exited the city in 2009, and the 48th Wienerschnitzel location in the state.

The menu will include the brands established items such as the Chili Cheese Dog, the Junkyard Dog and Chili Cheese Fries.

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It will also serve desserts from the Tastee Freez line, including dipped cones and floats.

Seasonal limited-time options include Hostess Ding Dongs and Hostess Twinkies Shakes.

The Waco restaurant will offer drive-through, online ordering and delivery. Delivery services are due to commence in January 2026.

Local operator Brett Swartz will run the new restaurant. Swartz has longstanding experience in the Waco hospitality scene, leading local ventures such as Slow Rise Slice House.

Swartz noted: "This brand has been a Texas favourite for generations, and we're proud to finally return its legendary menu and welcoming service to our hometown. Our goal is to create a place where families, students and visitors can enjoy a fun, fast and memorable meal."

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Wienerschnitzel US Franchise Development director Ted Milburn called the expansion an exciting milestone.

"Brett's deep Waco roots and proven record of building successful businesses make him an ideal partner."

The launch in Waco continues the brands expansion drive.

In May, it revealed plans to open six new restaurants within Walmart locations in Alamogordo, New Mexico, in Bakersfield, California, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in Puyallup, Washington, in Reno, Nevada and in Tempe, Arizona.

In July, Wienerschnitzel secured a deal to set up seven new restaurants in Norfolk and Richmond in the state of Virginia.

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A month later, it signed two development agreements to launch eight new outlets across Spokane, Washington State and Fort Worth, Texas.

"Hot dog chain Wienerschnitzel returns to Waco, Texas" was originally created and published by Verdict Food Service, a GlobalData owned brand.




The Federal Emergency Management Agency has reversed course after reportedly caving to pressure from its own staff, ordering them back to work after they were put on leave for criticizing ICE Barbie Kristi Noems leadership.

Almost 200 FEMA employees signed an open letter in August, condemning Noem and President Donald Trumps disaster response plans, or lack thereof. A group of 14, those who put their names to it, were placed on leave and grilled by an internal goon squad of investigators because of the petition, dubbed the Katrina Declaration.

Reports emerged early on Monday that stated the group had been reinstated. I really did think we were going to get terminated, said a jubilant Virginia Case, the agencys external affairs officer.

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However, her buoyant mood was short-lived. In yet another twist, the Daily Beast has learned that the group has been placed on leaveagain.

The dissenters, most of whom signed the document anonymously, demanded that Congress protect workers from politically motivated firings at the agency, which is under the umbrella of Noems Department of Homeland Security. The group was placed on administrative leave the following day.

Trump, pictured with local officials and first responders near the Guadalupe River following devastating flooding, has mused about shuttering FEMA. / BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images

Bloomberg reported early Monday that, in an embarrassing U-turn for Noem, they had been called back. I am very glad that Im officially cleared of wrongdoing and that I get to be back at work and see my co-workers after three months, said Abby McIlraith, an emergency management specialist, ahead of her return to work on Monday.

David Seide, a lawyer for the nonprofit Government Accountability Project, said that FEMA ceased its investigation last week, ordering the group to return to work.

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However, in another stunning twist, the group has been put on leave again, according to FEMA. In a statement given to the Daily Beast late Monday afternoon, an agency spokesperson said that the 14 staffers were reinstated by bureaucrats acting outside of their authority.

So, naturally, they have been returned to a state of suspension. CNN reporting revealed that 14 FEMA employees previously placed on leave for misconduct were wrongly and without authorization reinstated by bureaucrats acting outside of their authority, a spokesperson conceded.

Once alerted, the unauthorized reinstatement was swiftly corrected by senior leadership. The 14 employees who signed the Katrina Declaration have been returned to administrative leave.

The statement went on, This Administration will not tolerate rogue conduct, unauthorized actions or entrenched bureaucrats resisting change. Federal employees are expected to follow lawful direction, uphold agency standards and serve the American people.

Noem, pictured at a round table event to discuss July's flash flooding in Texas. / Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

The 194 signatories argued that the Trump administrations cuts to the agency have weakened its ability to respond to disasters. The release of the letter was timed to fall on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and comes after Noem was criticized for her agencys response to flooding in Texas in July that killed over 130 people.

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The document cited a new level of bureaucracy imposed by Noem that slowed the response to that crisis. Noem must personally sign off on all DHS contracts and grants over $100,000, the rule states.

That added layer of bureaucracy was blamed for delaying the approval of vital federal aid for flood-ravaged parts of Texas. Our shared commitment to our country, our oaths of office, and our mission of helping people before, during, and after disasters compel us to warn Congress and the American people of the cascading effects of decisions made by the current administration, it read, in part.

The Daily Beast has also contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
Nazrin Abdul



A delegation led by Taleh Kazimov, Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan (CBA), has begun a working visit to the Republic of Korea, Azernews reports, citing the CBA.

According to the information, the visit will include a series of bilateral meetings with Koreas financial supervisory authorities.

Discussions are expected to cover the macroeconomic outlook, improvements to financial sector regulatory frameworks, technological innovations, and other key topics.

The purpose of the visit is to strengthen cooperation and expand the exchange of expertise between the two countries financial sectors.
JOHANNESBURG, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's real gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.5 percent in the third quarter of the year, marking the fourth consecutive rise in economic activity, according to a report released by Statistics South Africa on Tuesday.

Nine of the country's 10 production industries recorded improved performances in the third quarter, with mining and quarrying, agriculture, forestry and fishing, as well as trade, catering and accommodation registering the highest growth rates, the report said.

"Mining output increased by 2.3 percent, driven predominantly by platinum group metals, with support from manganese ore, coal, chromium ore and copper," it said.

After three consecutive quarters of contraction, the construction sector returned to positive territory with a marginal 0.1 percent increase.

The only industry in decline during the quarter was the electricity, gas and water sector, which fell by 2.5 percent.

Following growth of 0.1 percent in the first quarter and a revised increase of 0.9 percent in the second quarter, all three quarters of the year to date have shown continued economic expansion.

The figures come as the South African Reserve Bank forecasts GDP growth of 1.3 percent for the year, with a possible rise to 2 percent in the near term. 
Israel has accused the Lebanese Hezbollah of murdering several Lebanese citizens because they could have exposed the militia's complicity in a deadly explosion in the port of Beirut in 2020.

The four victims could have revealed that the explosion was caused by Hezbollah's storage of the highly explosive chemical ammonium nitrate, according to a statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Tuesday.

The individuals eliminated were officers in the Customs Department and journalists who had pointed to the link between Hezbollah and the explosion, the IDF claimed.

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The information could not initially be independently verified. Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the explosion in the past.

The explosion in the port of Beirut in August 2020 claimed the lives of more than 200 people. There were 6,000 injuries and entire neighbourhoods were destroyed.

The explosion was caused by hundreds of tonnes of the highly explosive chemical ammonium nitrate, which had been stored for years without safety precautions. The explosion was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions worldwide.

To date, no one has been held accountable for the explosion.

The investigation has stalled, mainly due to political influence, judicial blockades and massive corruption.

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Those responsible are evading investigation, and judges are being obstructed.

At the beginning of the year, the government announced a new attempt to investigate. This was also helped by the weakening of the politically powerful Hezbollah through the war with Israel, as it had prevented progress in the investigations for years.
The terrorist posed an immediate threat to IDF soldiers, the military said.

The IDF identified a terrorist who crossed the Yellow Line in the central Gaza Strip on Monday, the military confirmed.

The terrorist was approaching soldiers, posing "an immediate threat" to those operating in the area, the military said.

Israel Air Force soldiers killed the terrorist, the military added.

Tank shell shrapnel wounds soldier, terrorists killed crossing Yellow Line in northern Gaza

An Israeli soldier was moderately wounded when he was hit by shrapnel from a tank shell during operational activity in the northern Gaza Strip, the military said earlier on Monday.

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The soldier was taken to the hospital for medical treatment.

IDF soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip, August 1, 2025. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

The IDF earlier said that in northern Gaza, troops killed two suspected terrorists who crossed the Yellow Line into IDF-controlled Gaza territory in two separate incidents.

IDF kills three Palestinians crossing Gaza's Yellow Line in two incidents

The IDF killed three suspects who crossed the IDF-controlled Yellow Line zone in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, it announced.

In the first incident, two suspects crossed who were said to have been carrying out suspicious activities on the ground, the IDF said. The two men were approaching the soldiers before they were shot dead.

In the second incident, a terrorist was killed after he crossed the Yellow Line to approach soldiers.

Hamas terrorist surrenders to IDF after crossing Gaza's Yellow Line - CBS

A Hamas terrorist crossed Gaza's Yellow Line and surrendered to IDF soldiers on Saturday, a US official told CBS News.

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The report did not specify where the incident occurred along the ceasefire line.

The terrorist told the IDF that Hamas recently recruited him, but he regrets his choice to join the terror group, the official told CBS.

"Gazans know there can be no future under Hamas," the US State Department's Office Bureau of Near Eastern commented on X/Twitter.

"Gaza can be an incredible place but it must first be free of terror and terrorists," the department added.

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.
LONDON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Police in Britain will be able to require illegal migrants to remove their coats and allow mouth searches at British ports so officers can look for mobile phones or SIM cards and gather intelligence on their journey, the government said on Monday.

The Home Office (interior ministry) said the new powers would support investigations aimed at dismantling criminal gangs suspected of smuggling migrants across the Channel.

It said the gangs frequently use phone contacts and social media to recruit migrants for small-boat crossings from France, which have reached record levels this year.

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The Labour government has been hardening its immigration policies, above all on illegal immigration, in efforts to stem the soaring popularity of the populist Reform UK party, which has driven the immigration agenda.

The law is expected to receive "Royal Assent" - a formality that does not involve further debate - in the coming days.

Officers can make migrants remove coats, jackets or gloves to search for devices and may inspect mouths for concealed SIM cards or small electronics, the Home Office said.

The government department, led by Shabana Mahmood, explained that previously, mobile phone searches were only possible after a migrant's arrest, adding that the new powers would let officers collect information faster.

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Polls suggest immigration has overtaken the economy as British voters' top concern. Over the summer, protests took place outside hotels housing asylum seekers at public expense.

The government's tougher stance on migration has been criticised by some rights groups, which argue that some policies scapegoat migrants and fuel racism and violence.

"Using invasive powers to search through the clothing - and even inside the mouths - of desperate and traumatised people when they have just survived a terrifying journey across the Channel is a dystopian act of brutality," said Sile Reynolds, Head of Asylum Advocacy at Freedom from Torture.

(Reporting by Catarina Demony; Editing by Alex Richardson)
A number of documents with instructions on how to create AI deepfake sex images were posted to Indiana's state government website and have been discoverable through Google searches for nearly two weeks.

A Google search earlier in the afternoon of Dec. 2 showed PDF documents indexed under the web address for the Indiana Department of Health, advertising apps and tools such as "Best no filter NSFW generator"  an acronym for "not safe for work"  that, for example, can generate images that artificially removes a person's clothes.

Those documents have since been taken down.

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Greta Sanderson, chief communications officer for IDOH, said the agency discovered a "significant surge in bot activity" on Nov. 19 on three of IDOH's web applications that the public can access. This wasn't a hack, she said.

"IDOH worked with the Indiana Office of Technology to successfully contain the incident and no data were impacted," she said. "As a result, most of the files involved have been already been deleted, but we are still working through the process of also eliminating them from Google searches."

Google searches reveal some of the results that are showing up under the in.gov website Dec. 2, 2025.

She said the incidents are also not related to web-service provider Granicus, which has had a few other government-agency customers who have dealt with the unwanted uploading of illicit content.

In those cases, Granicus explained to Kansas station KWCH, outside actors used government web portals meant to solicit resident feedback and uploaded the content through public form submissions. Then, Google indexed these attachments in its search results.

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"While the above feature was intended by governments to provide transparency and good customer service, it has been abused in these instances," the company wrote in a statement.

As of state legislation passed in 2024, creating or distributing non-consensual pornographic deepfakes is a misdemeanor offense in Indiana. President Donald Trump also signed a federal law in May making the publication of so-called "revenge porn" online or on social media punishible by prison time.

This wouldn't be the state's first brush with an AI deepfake scandal. In August, allegations surfaced that staffers in the Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith's office watched a deepfake video portraying a state lawmaker's wife topless. A Marion County grand jury has investigated the alleged incident.

Contact IndyStar Statehouse reporter Kayla Dwyer at kdwyer@indystar.com or follow her on X @kayla_dwyer17.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana state website hosted AI deepfake porn instructions
India's Supreme Court prides itself on defending the rights of Dalits - historically the country's most oppressed citizens.

But a new study argues that the court's own language has frequently reflected the caste hierarchies it aims to erase. About 160 million Indians are Dalits, once called "untouchables", yet many remain trapped in menial jobs and shut out of social and economic opportunity.

For much of independent India's history, the country's top judges have struggled to speak about Dalits in ways that recognise dignity rather than reinforce stigma, the study found. That tension - between progressive legal outcomes and regressive language - is the central paradox documented in a sweeping review of 75 years of judgments of the top court.

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The University of Melbourne-funded research, conducted in partnership with the Supreme Court, offers a rare internal reckoning for one of the world's most powerful judiciaries.

The study examines "constitution bench" rulings - decided by five or more judges - from 1950 to 2025. These rulings are especially important because they set legal precedents, are taught in law schools, invoked in courtrooms and cited by later benches.

It found that while these landmark decisions often upheld Dalit rights, their language could be "demeaning or insensitive", notes Professor Farrah Ahmed of Melbourne Law School, a co-author of the study.

Some judgments liken caste oppression to disability, implying that the oppressed or disabled are inherently inferior.

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Others assume - contrary to evidence - that education alone can erase caste, shifting the burden from society to individual Dalits who must study their way to equality. Still others overlook the caste barriers that block access to jobs, credit and markets, deepening poverty.

Some judges likened Dalits to "ordinary horses'' in contrast to upper classes who were like "first class race horses". Others described affirmative-action measures as "crutches" that Dalits should not depend on for too long.

Some judges even described the origins of caste as "benign" - merely a system of division of labour. This, researchers say, "supported a bitterly unfair status quo that confines oppressed castes to reviled and poorly paid work".

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A 2020 judgement cited by the study talked about "primitive way of life [of Scheduled Tribes or other marginalised tribespeople] makes them unfit to put up with the mainstream and to be governed by the ordinary laws" - and describes them as needing a "helping hand to uplift them and to make them contribute to the national development and not to remain part of the primitive culture".

Such language, the study suggests, went beyond poor phrasing to reinforce harmful stereotypes.

"These comparisons - whether to animals or to people with disabilities - were offensive to both groups," says Prof Ahmed. "The real problem is not any supposed inherent limitation, but the society around them, which fails to support them to thrive."

KG Balakrishnan was the court's first Dalit chief justice between 2007 and 2010 [Hindustan Times via Getty Images]

The study found that such "stigmatising views" appeared in rulings that upheld Dalit rights.

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"I think the judges were genuinely unaware of the implications of the language they were using, and what it revealed about their deeply held attitudes. I don't think, in any of these cases, that there was an intention to insult or demean Dalit people," says Prof Ahmed.

Does this linguistic bias influence the court's reasoning or outcomes, or was it a blind spot that coexists with progressive decisions?

"I would find it surprising if the judicial language we discuss, including language that is demeaning or that downplays the perniciousness of the caste system, had no effect on judges' decisions," Prof Ahmed told the BBC.

Beyond individual rulings, Supreme Court judges influence Indian society and politics more broadly; their language matters because it is widely reported, debated and shapes public discourse.

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Yet, the court has actively addressed caste bias. In October last year, responding to an investigative report, it directed the federal government and states to revise prison manuals to address caste-based discrimination. This bias had been evident in the division of manual labour, segregation of barracks and rules that unfairly targeted historically marginalised communities.

Also, many judges stress that any outdated or problematic language is not intentional.

"Courts may not always be fully up to speed with how language evolves - that's possible. But there's no motive at play here," Madan Lokur, a former Supreme Court judge, told the BBC.

Recognising this, in August 2023, the Supreme Court released a 'Handbook on Combating Gender Stereotypes', featuring a glossary of "gender-unjust" words that judges and lawyers are advised to avoid in legal writing. This aims to eliminate demeaning, discriminatory or stereotyped language, particularly against women, children, people with disabilities and in cases involving sexual crimes.

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Could similar efforts realistically influence how Supreme Court judges write about caste?

India's Supreme Court is one of the most powerful courts in the world [AFP via Getty Images]

"This report is just a first step in shifting how judges write about caste. We are starting from a place where there was formerly little appreciation for the problem," says Prof Ahmed.

More internal reviews like this report are essential, she adds. Most importantly, "lawyers, legal academia and the judiciary need the insights that can only come from full inclusion of members of oppressed castes", says Prof Ahmed.

India's Supreme Court has had strikingly little Dalit representation. "On our estimate, there have only ever been eight Dalit judges on the Supreme Court," the researchers note.

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For the past six months, Chief Justice BR Gavai - the second Dalit to lead the court - headed it until his retirement last week.

Justice KG Balakrishnan - the court's first Dalit chief justice - served on the bench for two of the cases examined in the study, and his views are cited repeatedly in the report.

Justice Balakrishnan's writing, they point out, describes caste as an "unbreakable bondage" that consigns people to "impure" occupations, a condition from which "even death does not provide escape", given continued segregation in graveyards and crematoriums.

This, the researchers argue, contrasts sharply with rulings that downplay caste injustices - evidence, they say, that India's top court "desperately needs more diverse insights and perspectives, especially from oppressed castes".

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For a court treated as an institution above politics, the report marks an unusual moment of introspection. It suggests that the struggle for caste equality is not only waged in judgments and statutes, but in metaphors, analogies and everyday linguistic choices.

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Comet 3I/ATLAS appears to have spiral jets shooting off its surface, which the authors of a new preprint interpret as a type of cryovolcanism. | Credit: Josep M. Trigo-Rodriguez/B06 Montseny Observatory

The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS could be covered in erupting "ice volcanoes," new observations suggest.

Researchers found evidence that as the comet approached the sun, a series of cryovolcanoes (nicknamed "ice volcanoes") erupted on its surface. The activation of these icy jets can be explained by what the strange comet is made of, according to a study posted Nov. 24 to the preprint server arXiv .

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The study's findings, which have yet to be peer-reviewed, suggest that comet 3I/ATLAS is similar to icy trans-Neptunian objects  dwarf planets and other objects that orbit the sun beyond Neptune. If this is confirmed, it means that despite coming from another solar system, comet 3I/ATLAS has a surprising amount in common with objects in our own cosmic neighborhood.

"We were all surprised," study lead author Josep Trigo-Rodriguez , a staff leading researcher at the Institute of Space Sciences (CSIC/IEEC) in Spain, told Live Science. "Being a comet formed in a remote planetary system, it is remarkable that the mixture of materials forming the surface of the body has resemblance with trans-Neptunian objects, bodies formed at [a] large distance from the Sun but belonging to our planetary system."

There has been endless speculation about the origins of comet 3I/ATLAS since astronomers first spotted it in July. Much of the online speculation has centered around whether this interstellar visitor could be an alien spacecraft . However, most astronomers are confident that 3I/ATLAS is a comet from an unknown star system .

Comet 3I/ATLAS is only the third interstellar object ever recorded, and offers researchers a rare opportunity to learn more about conditions around other stars and in the deep past (comet 3I/ATLAS could be billions of years older than our system). This means that scientists are scrambling to study the object before it departs our solar system forever next year.

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For the new study, Trigo-Rodriguez and his colleagues studied the comet using the Joan Oro Telescope at the Montsec Observatory in the northeastern Catalonia region of Spain, pairing its observations with those made by other observatories in the region. The astronomers watched the comet carefully as it approached its closest point to our star, known as perihelion, on Oct. 29. Comets heat up as they fly closer to stars, causing ice on their surface to sublimate into gas, which researchers can then detect and study.

The researchers found that the comet entered a more intense sublimation stage when it got within about 235,000,000 miles (378 million kilometers) of the sun, while also brightening rapidly . Using the Joan Oro Telescope, they snapped the highest-resolution images yet of jets of gas and dust particles coming off the comet, which they interpreted as clear signs of cryovolcanism.

Cryovolcanoes are typically found in planetary bodies that are rich in ice, like trans-Neptunian objects. Trigo-Rodriguez noted that these planetary bodies have internal heat that melts the ice and produces the cryovolcanoes, which release vapor and dust into space.

In the case of comet 3I/ATLAS, the researchers believe that the cryovolcanism is driven by the corrosion of pristine material locked inside the comet. As the sun heated the comet, the threshold at which solid carbon dioxide (dry ice) sublimated into gas was breached. This then enabled an oxidizing liquid to flow into the comet's interior and react with reactive iron and nickel metallic grains and sulfides .

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To test their theories about the comet's composition, the researchers ran a spectroscopic comparison (analyzing how matter interacts with light) using primitive and pristine rocky meteorites called carbonaceous chondrites that NASA collected from Antarctica .

One of these Antarctic samples contained what the researchers believe is a piece of a trans-Neptunian object. The analysis revealed that comet 3I/ATLAS was similar to these remnants from the earliest days of our solar system , and is likely rich in natural metal.

Carbonaceous chondrites are believed to have played a role in life's origins on Earth, bringing volatile materials that helped establish our atmosphere and other conditions necessary for life, according to the Natural History Museum in London.

Comet 3I/ATLAS origins

While 3I/ATLASs exact size is still uncertain, Hubble Space Telescope observations suggest that it's somewhere between 1,400 feet (440 meters) and 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) wide. Rodriguez and his colleagues calculated that if the comet is 0.6 miles (1 km) wide and has the rocky composition they suspect it has, then its mass would be more than 660 million tons (600 million metric tons).

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However, even if 3I/ATLAS has a similar composition to carbonaceous chondrites and behaves like trans-Neptunian objects approaching the sun, it's still without a doubt not from our solar system. That's because of its hyperbolic trajectory, along which scientists first noticed it zooming at around 137,000 miles per hour (221,000 kilometers per hour)  too fast to be bound to our sun's gravity, according to NASA .

Josep M. Trigo-Rodriguez and his colleagues are observing jet spiral structures on the comet from Spain. | Credit: Josep M. Trigo-Rodriguez/B06 Montseny Observatory

Researchers don't know which star system comet 3I/ATLAS originated from, but it has certainly travelled a long way. The comet is likely billions of years old and potentially more than 3 billion years older than our own solar system. In fact, the comet has spent so much time in space that it could be extremely irradiated , which would make deciphering its origins even more difficult.

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'From another world': 3I/ATLAS photobombs a galaxy and shows off its multiple tails in stunning new image

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Mars orbiter narrows down the exact path of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS by 'ten-fold,' surprising scientists

Astronomers detect first 'radio signal' from interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS  but it wasn't aliens

Trigo-Rodriguez noted that it's important to study and track interstellar comets because they are a potential collision hazard for Earth . However, he also described them as "extraordinary objects" in their own right and worthy of consideration.

They "are space capsules, containing valuable information about the chemistry ongoing in another location of our galaxy," Trigo-Rodriguez said.
The initiative is expected to expand over the coming year, incorporating multiple languages, shorter digital content, and first-person testimonies.

Israel is working to reshape its international messaging, according to recommendations outlined in a final letter from US Conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the country was losing the information war among young Americans.

Working with the Prime Ministers Office, officials are gradually implementing key elements of Kirks message, which highlighted growing concern over Israels deteriorating image among younger audiences in America.

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Kirks letter, sent shortly before his assassination, stood out not only for its timing but also for its tone. Long considered a staunch supporter of Israel, Kirk, a prominent voice in the Christian evangelical and conservative movement, expressed deep concern over what he saw as Israels failure to communicate effectively with young Americans.

He described how, during campus events that drew thousands of students, questions about Israel were increasingly shaped by what he referred to as anti-Israel narratives. According to polling data he shared, nearly 50% of Americans aged 18 to 24 expressed sympathy for Hamas.

Kirk said the defeatist attitude of Everyone already hates us, so whats the point of trying? had shaped Israels communication strategy. He called for Israel to move away from relying solely on American pro-Israel advocates and instead to develop a direct, independent voice to reach international audiences.

Charlie Kirk holds an Israeli flag outside the Cave of the Patriarchs in the West Bank (credit: X/Itamar Ben-Gvir)

Jerusalem has since begun to reframe its understanding of the issue, recognizing that the challenge, in addition to combating misinformation, is influencing how young people perceive the Jewish state.

Rapid response team launched

In response, the government began establishing a rapid-response team to monitor online activity, identify negative trends in real time, and deliver counter-messaging. The team operates across government ministries and draws on techniques from US digital political campaigns.

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In addition, a central facts site has been launched to provide background, legal context, and historical information related to Israel and the region. This site serves as a foundation for a broader network of digital platforms targeting specific audiences, including university students, evangelical Christians, Latino communities, liberals, African Americans, and Jewish Americans.

The initiative is expected to expand over the coming year, incorporating multiple languages, shorter digital content, and first-person testimonies.

Centering Israeli voices

One of the main elements of the new strategy is the first voice model, a shift toward using Israelis to tell their own stories. These include civilians, evacuees, reservists, and individuals from minority communities.

To support the effort, the government is providing influencers and other content creators with access to video production tools, editing services, and subtitling to ensure professional presentation.

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The move reflects Kirks argument that simply asserting Israel is right is no longer sufficient in shaping public opinion. He wrote that, instead, audiences must see faces, hear personal experiences, and feel humanity.

Delegations and digital diplomacy

Recent delegations to the United States, including survivors of Hamas captivity and individuals wounded in conflict, are part of the broader push to share Israels story with American audiences. Participants have appeared in US media, taken part in interviews, and spoken publicly  an approach that closely mirrors Kirks recommendations.

Unified messaging structure

In another significant move, the government has adopted a unified communications model similar to that of the White House.

A single spokesperson now serves as the central point for foreign media messaging, eliminating the previous fragmentation between spokespeople from the IDF, the Foreign Ministry, and the Prime Ministers Office.

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Shosh Bedrosian, the Prime Ministers spokesperson for foreign media, took on the role just days after Kirks letter and his subsequent killing. She now delivers briefings and statements almost daily.

The decision to centralize media messaging is seen as a key step toward consistency, clarity, and focus in Israels international outreach efforts.
Israel has received "findings" from the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Tuesday.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas said earlier that it had transferred the remains of one of the last two hostages' bodies still held in Gaza to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Netanyahu's office said the "findings" were delivered to the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip and received in the presence of a military rabbi. They were then due to be taken to an Israeli forensic centre.

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The statement said the Israeli government is in constant contact with the families of the two killed hostages, which include a Thai national who was abducted from Israel during the attacks by Hamas and other militant groups on October 7, 2023.

Efforts to repatriate their bodies are continuing and will only end once the last remains have been handed over, the office added.

Israel and Hamas agreed to the handover of bodies as part of a ceasefire deal in October. According to the agreement, Israel must hand over the remains of 15 deceased Gazans for every Israeli hostage whose remains are returned.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Hamas released the remaining 20 surviving hostages on October 13 in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

However, the handover of the killed hostages has been slow, taking more than seven weeks.
The audit found that no statutory requirement obligates major transportation projects to meet the police's technical and operational security standards during planning, initiation, or tender stages.

There are significant gaps in preparedness against terrorist attacks on the Dan regions light rail, State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman said on Tuesday in a report on the countrys state of security.

Englman framed the findings starkly, saying the security reports should keep government ministers up at night, noting that they also touch directly on the safety of Israels citizens.

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Since October 7, he stressed, the obligation to fix the deficiencies identified by his office has only grown, with severe shortcomings... across a wide range of issues.

Between August 2024 and January 2025, the State Comptrollers Office conducted a sweeping review of the countrys preparedness for a terror attack on the Tel Aviv areas light rail, examining the systems and institutions responsible for protecting the Red Line  the most densely used transit corridor in the country.

The audit included the Israel Police, NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit, the Defense Ministry, the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA), the National Security Council (NSC), the Transportation Ministry, Fire and Rescue Authority, Magen David Adom (MDA), the Privacy Protection Authority, and the National Security Ministry.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Ronen Bar carry out a situational assessment in Jenin. January 22, 2025. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Investigators also conducted field inspections along the line and carried out supplementary checks with the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency). Cyberterror scenarios, however, were excluded.

Light rail security audit finds major gaps and staff shortages

A central finding in the audit was the absence of a legally defined authority empowered to determine or approve the casualty scenario for a terrorist attack on the light rail. Under the existing extreme scenario, such an attack would produce mass casualties. Yet despite the severity of the threat, there is no normative designation of responsibility.

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In practice, NEMA created the scenario based on operational research by the police and NTA, and believes the Transportation Ministry must approve it  while the NSC maintains the ministry should lead all security planning for national transportation infrastructure.

The Transportation Ministry rejected NEMAs September 2019 scenario as overly high in projected casualties, but by the close of the audit  January 2025, five years later  it had produced no expert alternative of its own.

This, the State Comptrollers Office noted, persists even though the ministry is responsible for Israels transportation infrastructure and funds its force-building. The police told Englman that after October 7, it re-evaluated the national terrorist reference scenarios but determined that no changes were necessary.

The audit also found that no statutory requirement obligates major transportation projects to meet the polices technical and operational security standards during planning, initiation, or tender stages - even though the police are the legally designated security authority and must approve certain licensed public facilities. Meanwhile, the police still have not completed the process of anchoring their underground-rail security standards as a binding national norm, despite beginning the effort in early 2023.

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Another gap concerns preparedness for a chemical terror attack. Although a designated security unit holds national responsibility for responding to chemical incidents  attacks that have occurred internationally  there is no regulated consultation process with this unit during the planning or tender stages of major public infrastructure projects involving enclosed underground spaces such as train stations. Nor is there any binding requirement to implement the units recommendations.

Staffing shortages within NTAs security guard corps emerged as a critical weakness in the reports findings. Even before the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War in 2023  and more sharply afterward  the number of security guards fell steadily.

Several shifts operated below standard staffing requirements, and in two cases, they fell below the minimum threshold, the report found. Guard refresher training also decreased, including hand-to-hand combat refreshers not covered in reserve duty.

With two additional light rail lines and a future metro system on the horizon, the report warns that the shortfall is projected to deepen as demand for trained guards grows.

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Because mass-transit systems move extremely high passenger volumes, both the police and NTA told the State Comptrollers Office that further use of advanced security technologies must be explored. The report also identified gaps in casualty-evacuation procedures.

One of the most persistent failures the comptroller found involves communication systems underground. Despite appearing in several earlier audits  including some published nearly a decade ago  the report found that MDAs radio network still cannot interface with police or fire and rescue systems in subterranean environments.

This leaves MDA teams unable to coordinate with other responders during an incident, while underground units also lack handheld radios; portable devices exist only in ambulances. This means that if cellular networks collapse, responders would be unable to communicate except physically or through a third body.

The comptroller reiterated long-standing calls  dating back to 2016  for a national underground training facility that could simulate the full range of subterranean infrastructure and train all emergency agencies  police, MDA, Fire and Rescue, Home Front Command, counterterrorism units, and light rail employees. Although officials from the Transportation, National Security, and Finance ministries, police, and Fire and Rescue Authority collectively recognized these needs already in 2016, no such facility has been built, and construction has not even begun nine years later, as of January 2025.

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The comptroller did report some positive findings: The audit found strong cooperation between the police and NTA, particularly in joint trainings and routine security operations  cooperation that became especially critical after the Red Lines opening and even more so after October 7.

Officials from the State Comptrollers Office also visited NTAs training facility in Moshav Tal Shahar, where Red Line guards undergo initial instruction and periodic readiness drills. They praised the modern infrastructure, which includes a dedicated train car for scenario-based exercises. However, the site is not an underground facility nor a national training center; it serves NTA guards alone, whose role is to provide the immediate frontline response in a terror incident.

Englman concluded that the Transportation Ministry must convene all bodies involved in formulating the current casualty scenario, study the research underlying it, and seek clarifications as needed. He further instructed the police and the National Security, Transportation, and Finance ministries to undertake full staff work on the national guard shortage  calling it a national challenge requiring urgent action  and to close the staffing gap once that analysis is completed.
Israeli forces have killed two suspected Palestinian attackers in the West Bank, the Israeli military said on Tuesday.

In one case, soldiers arrived at a location near the city of Ramallah after receiving a tip about a suspect, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

The man then allegedly stabbed the Israeli troops, prompting them to shoot him. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, the man was 18 years old.

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The Magen David Adom emergency service said two young men were slightly injured in the suspected attack by the Palestinian.

In a separate incident, soldiers killed a Palestinian overnight in connection with a suspected car attack in the Hebron area that left an Israeli soldier injured, the IDF reported.

Security forces found the suspect in a car with which he had allegedly rammed into Israeli forces the previous evening.

Troops shot and killed the suspect after he tried to flee and endangered Israeli forces, the IDF added.

The dead suspect was 17 years old, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

Tensions in the occupied West Bank have escalated since the war in Gaza, which broke out following the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.

Figures from the Palestinian Health Ministry suggest at least 1,019 Palestinians have since been killed in Israeli military operations, armed clashes and attacks in the West Bank. Radical Israeli settlers are also increasingly attacking Palestinians in the territory.
Huge flocks of migratory birds have arrived for the winter at Poyang Lake, China's biggest freshwater lake and the largest wintering ground for migratory birds in Asia. #China #bird #PoyangLake
The state was given until March 1 to file a detailed response and clarify why no recruitment policy is being set for Arab citizens and residents of Israel under the General Security Service Law."

The High Court of Justice on Tuesday ordered the government to explain why it has never set a formal policy on drafting Arab citizens to the IDF or assigning them mandatory civilian service, anchoring its demand in the principle of equality in the burden of military service.

In a conditional order issued by Supreme Court Chief Justice Isaac Amit and justices David Mintz and Yechiel Kasher, the state was given until March 1 to file a detailed response. The justices instructed the government to clarify why no recruitment policy is being set for Arab citizens and residents of Israel under the General Security Service Law, and, alternatively, why it is not advancing an alternative arrangement through appropriate legislation.

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The order was granted in a petition filed by Mordechai Yair Balens, a young haredi (ultra-Orthodox) man, represented by attorney Motti Shimon and reportedly backed politically by Likud MK David Amsalem. Balens asked why the court is prepared to force the government to begin drafting tens of thousands of yeshiva students, but has allowed a de facto exemption for Arab Israelis to persist since the states founding, without any explicit government decision.

The issue sits squarely on the fault-line opened by the courts unanimous June 2024 ruling that the state must start drafting haredi men and cannot continue funding full-time yeshiva students without a clear statutory basis. In that decision, the justices framed equality in the burden of military service as a core constitutional principle and a prerequisite for continuing the peoples army model.

Balenss filing argues that, if equality is now the yardstick, it cannot be applied only to haredim. The petition demands that the state issue call-up orders to all citizens, including Arabs, or direct them into a mandatory national-civilian service track, and impose criminal enforcement and loss of benefits on those who do not report.

The High Court of Justice in Jerusalem (credit: OREN BEN HAKOON/ISRAEL HAYOM/POOL)

The conditional order follows a months-long exchange between the court, the Attorney-Generals Office, and the political echelon in the same case.

A-G stresses 'relevant difference' between Arab, haredi communities

In September, Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara told the court that the long-standing practice not to draft Arab Israelis is a policy that has been in place since the establishment of the state, and that there is relevant difference between the Arab minority and the haredi community  meaning the haredi draft ruling does not automatically extend to other groups.

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She stressed that the government has full authority to change the policy and begin drafting Arab citizens, but urged the justices not to intervene at this stage.

Baharav-Miara had cited the Defense Ministrys position that there is no basis for the claim of a violation of equality in not drafting Arab Israelis, because of significant differences between the characteristics of the two groups, and noted that Arab citizens who wish to serve can volunteer and are considered on an individual basis.

By contrast, cabinet secretary Yossi Fuchs accused the legal establishment of applying a double standard. In a sharply worded letter appended to the states earlier response, he argued that there has never been a government decision formally exempting Arab Israelis, and described the current situation as a silent understanding under which the IDF simply does not summon them for service. Fuchs said that if funding is being cut for haredi draft dodgers following the High Courts ruling, similar standards should be considered for Arab citizens who do not serve.

The turning point for the court came after the state informed the justices on November 19 that the relevant political echelon does not intend to intervene in the practice in place to date whereby the IDF does not draft the Arab population.

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In light of that statement, the panel concluded that a bare reliance on IDF practice, without any decision or legislative framework by the elected branches, is no longer tenable  especially while the same government relies on the principle of equal burden to justify hard measures against haredi draft evasion.

Tuesdays order does not force the government to begin drafting Arab Israelis. Instead, it puts the onus squarely on the prime minister, defense minister, and cabinet to either articulate a formal policy  whether for military or civilian service  or to explain to the court, and to the broader public watching the haredi draft battle, why the existing vacuum should continue.
Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give us feedback.

WASHINGTON  U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, appears to be inching closer to a U.S. Senate bid, scheduling a special announcement for Monday.

Crockett, a second-term representative with a large national social media following, has teased a Senate run for weeks, saying publicly that she was exploring the possibility via polling and that she believed she could do what no Texas Democrat has done in over 30 years  win statewide  by expanding the electorate.

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I am closer to yes than I am no, she said in an interview with MS NOW, formerly MSNBC, on Sunday.

In one of the clearest signs that shes leaning toward yes, Crockett told The Dallas Morning News she called both of her prospective primary opponents, former Rep. Colin Allred and state Rep. James Talarico, to discuss the results of polling she had commissioned. The Talarico campaign said he called Crockett over the weekend, but that no polling data was shared; the Crockett campaign said the congresswoman offered to share internal polling but that Talarico didnt request to see it.

The Crockett campaign has not shared her internal polling publicly or with The Texas Tribune.

Crocketts entry into the race would scramble what had been a two-man primary to this point, increasing the likelihood that the March 3 primary goes to a runoff. Many Democrats were hoping that their primary could be wrapped up by early March, given that the Republican primary between Sen. John Cornyn, Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt is likely going to a runoff. Such a scenario would have given the winning Democrat time to raise and spend money in a general election scenario while Republicans continued to fight each other.

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Democrats had been trying to both avoid a glut of candidates running for the same office and attempting to organize a slate  Allred, Talarico, Rep. Joaquin Castro and 2018 candidate Beto ORourke held a Zoom meeting over the summer, to discuss dividing up the marquee statewide offices between them. But with all interested in U.S. Senate, an attractive race given there is a competitive Republican primary, no agreement was ever reached, and Allred launched his campaign shortly after.

With little time left until the Dec. 8 filing deadline, Crockett also said on MS NOW she wanted to organize a slate of Democrats with different electoral strengths.

We also need to make sure we have, what I consider to be, a strong slate  people that can also raise money, people that also have different groups of people that are attracted to them, Crockett said, adding that she is the leading candidate among Black and brown voters.

Instead of relying on one person to kind of carry the load, what type of ticket [can we run?] she said on MS NOW. So Ive actually been talking to other candidates, potential candidates, as well, trying to recruit them.

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Democratic state legislators are already running for the other statewide positions, and getting candidates to shift gears before Mondays filing deadline would be challenging.

Matt Angle, a Democratic operative and founder of the Lone Star Project, said the upside for Democrats is that the candidate that emerges from the primary will have been well-tested. But he lamented that they were not able to work out a slate where the strongest Democrats could run together instead of against each other.

Assuming that Congresswoman Crockett gets in, it means next fall, two of our best communicators are going to be on the sidelines, not seeking office, Angle said. Thats frustrating.

This is a year in which I think theres more opportunities, Republicans are more vulnerable in Texas than theyve been in a while, Angle continued. And so you hate that weve got our best candidates running against each other.

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Public polling of the race indicates that Crockett would be a formidable primary candidate, but may struggle, as Democrats in Texas have for decades, in a general election. A University of Houston Hobby School poll from late September, which included ORourke in a potential primary, found Crockett leading the field at 31% and beating both Allred and Talarico in head-to-head matchups. In general election matchups against each of the three Republican candidates, the poll found Crockett losing, though her position against Attorney General Ken Paxton was within the margin of error.

A public polling memo from Change Research, conducted in late November, found similar warning signs for Crockett. She had both the highest favorability rating among all candidates, at 33%, but also the highest percentage of voters who found her unfavorable, among the Democratic candidates. And the poll found that 49% of voters said they would definitely not vote for her, higher than Allreds or Talaricos share.

But Crockett has said she believes she can turn out unlikely voters and that her data shows she can win.

I am very formidable, regardless of what people may want to put out into the atmosphere, she said on MS Now. The numbers are the numbers.
LITTLE EGG HARBOR, New Jersey  A group of Pinelands Regional School District staff members held "pedophile parties" that school administrators failed to thoroughly investigate, according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of a former special education teacher.

Melissa Pomphrey, a former special education teacher in the New Jersey district, alleged in a complaint filed in Superior Court, Ocean County, that a school paraprofessional and other staff members participated in more than one "dress as your favorite pedophile party" sometime around August 2023.

The lawsuit alleges the paraprofessional involved displayed "egregious glorification of pedophiles" and that school officials allegedly took no action after Pomphrey told them about the parties.

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Pomphrey's lawsuit contends that she was demoted from the high school to a middle school special needs classroom after raising her concerns to administrators and telling them about the paraprofessional's alleged "inappropriate" relationship with an underage student.

The staff member also brought that student around another student in a special needs classroom who was known to be "sexually violent towards females," which posed a risk to the female student, according to the complaint.

After conducting a "sham" investigation in the matter, Pinelands Regional administrators "intentionally reassigned Plaintiff (Pomphrey) to a middle school classroom that is widely considered a demotion within Defendant Pinelands workplace, and each teacher assigned to this class consistently resigns," Pomphrey's attorney Matthew A. Luber wrote in the complaint. "Therefore, it was abundantly clear that Defendants (Pinelands' administrators) assigned Plaintiff (Pomphrey) this classroom in pure retaliation for her complaints of the unlawful, unsafe, and neglectful environment fostered by Defendants."

Pomphrey's lawsuit names the school district as well as High School Principal Troy Henderson, Director of Special Services Marisa Elwood and special education teacher Scott Beaton as defendants.

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Luber, her attorney, could not immediately be reached for comment on Dec. 1 by the Asbury Park Press, part of the USA TODAY Network.

An attorney for Pinelands Regional and its staff also could not be immediately reached for comment. However, an attorney for Pinelands Regional has denied the allegations in court documents.

As a result of the retaliation, Pomphrey "immediately experienced severe symptoms of anxiety and depression because of the demotion," her suit alleged.

The teacher found her new curriculum assignments at the middle school to be "insulting and degrading" to her special needs students, according to the lawsuit.

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The teacher spent the months between May and September of 2024 suffering from anxiety, depression, severe nausea and uncontrollable vomiting from the stress, according to the complaint.

By November of that year, her symptoms were so severe that her doctor and psychiatrist placed her on a disability leave of absence, which she took unpaid, according to court documents.

In May of 2025, Pinelands administrators informed Pomphrey that they would not renew her contract for the upcoming school year, according to the lawsuit.

The termination of contract was "in direct retaliation for her reports and objections to unsafe, unethical and unlawful conditions rife within Defendants' (Pinelands Regional's) workplace," Luber wrote in the lawsuit.

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A trial date has not yet been set.

Amanda Oglesby is an Ocean County native who covers education and the environment. She has worked for the Press for more than 17 years. Reach her at aoglesby@gannettnj.com or 732-557-5701.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: New Jersey school staffers held 'pedophile parties,' says lawsuit
Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough noted that the Trump administration is not fighting pushback from lefties in the fallout over a reported double tap strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel, but backlash from Fox News contributors and Republicans enraged by alleged war crime.

The Washington Post reported Saturday that a September 2 mission targeting a suspected Venezuelan smuggling boat, part of a Trump administration push against cartel drug routes, escalated after a drone spotted two survivors clinging to the wreckage, prompting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to allegedly order kill everybody with a second strike  an order Admiral Frank Mitch Bradley then reportedly carried out.

Legal experts have warned the decision may have been illegal under international law.

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President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One late Sunday that Hegseth told him he did not say those words and that he believed the Pentagon chief  although added that he would not personally have ordered the second strike.

Still, as scrutiny piled on Hegseth on Monday, he tweeted out support of Bradley and his combat decisions, appearing to indicate the admiral was responsible.

During Mondays Morning Joe, Scarborough, however, noted the bipartisan concern around the incident, specifically from Fox News contributors.

The host namedropped conservative legal commentator Andy McCarthys scathing column flagging the administration story as inconsistent as well as Fox News Chief Political Analyst Brit Humes quote-tweet of Hegseths Bradley post, commenting: How to point the finger at someone while pretending to support him.

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Scarborough said:

Once again that the administration, like in the Epstein files, finds themselves in a position where theyre not fighting lefties. Right? Theyre not going up against the most progressive voices in America, people they can call communists or marxists, it is Fox News contributors. It is Andy McCarthy saying, no, no, no, no, no, this new excuse of pointing, you know, at somebody else. No, this is inconsistent with what youve said before or Brit Hume saying, this is what pointing the finger at somebody else looks like, when of course, this all comes down to Pete Hegseth.

The host lambasted Hegseths boasting about loosening rules of engagement in speeches and appearance on Fox & Friends aired the day after the strike in question:

Were going to be showing clips of him bragging time and time again about getting rid of those politically correct rules of engagement: Were there to kill. I think most damningly, and this is just where the stupidity comes in, to have a strike on September 2, go on Fox & Friends September 3 to brag that you were there from beginning to end, and you saw the attacks, beginning to end, the first attack the second, and that it was all on you. It was all on you. Im the He-Man that carried out that strike.

The celebrational aspect of it, co-host Mika Brzezinski added.

Scarborough continued: If youre Donald Trump, you dont want anything to do with this war crime that more and more conservatives, more and more Republicans, not lefties, Republicans, are saying its deeply disturbing, this alleged war crime. It is frightening.

Watch above via MS NOW.

The post Joe Scarborough: Trump Admin Cornered by Fox News Contributors Over Alleged War Crime  Not Fighting Lefties first appeared on Mediaite.
CHEYENNE  A district court judge has delivered a major procedural setback to former state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, officially denying his motion to dismiss the defamation lawsuit brought by Wyoming businessman and former U.S. Senate candidate Reid Rasner.

The court order, filed on Nov. 25 by Johnson County District Court Judge Benjamin Kirven in Laramie County, marks a turn in the legal battle and begins the discovery phase. Though the lawsuit is ongoing, Rasner has indicated he will pursue legal action against others who accused Rasner of sexual misconduct, as Bouchard had, particularly online.

According to the judges decision, Rasner has stated valid claims of defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and harmful interference with business affairs, enough to uphold his defamation lawsuit against Bouchard.

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Bouchard had sought to have the case dismissed or concluded early in his favor, arguing that Rasner failed to state a viable claim under the law and that many of the statements were time-barred by Wyomings one-year statute of limitations.

However, the judge rejected these arguments offered by Bouchard. Kirven found that Wyoming law protects victims of hidden defamation, and that the statute of limitations begins when the victim discovers the false statements, not when they were initially made.

Rasner had claimed he did not become aware of Bouchards defamatory posts, which began around May 2024, until his mother informed him in August 2024.

The court also upheld Rasners claims regarding the severity of the allegations. Kirven noted that the statements published by Bouchard, which had claimed Rasner had a student sexual abuse record, could reasonably be viewed as damaging to Rasners reputation, business opportunities and emotional well-being.

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At a motions hearing preceding the decision on Nov. 12, Rasners attorney, Bill Fix, emphasized the severity of the claims made against his client, who is the founder and CEO of Omnivest and was pursuing a bid to purchase TikTok.

Fix argued that accusing Rasner of sexual misconduct qualified as defamation per se.

Hes calling him a pedophile in the age of Epstein. What could be worse than that? I cant think of anything. Say somebodys a murderer. Thats not as bad as calling somebody a pedophile in this day and age, he said at the hearing.

Casper College findings

The denial comes after evidence submitted by Rasners counsel contradicted the factual basis of Bouchards claims. Bouchards accusations were rooted in accounts heard from former state Sen. Austin Jennings regarding an alleged incident at Casper College around 2010.

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However, an affidavit from Casper College President Brandon Kosine showed that Casper College had conducted a search of records and has no records at all concerning any reports of sexual misconduct by Mr. Rasner.

Kosines affidavit, dated Oct. 29, also noted that Casper College did not locate the complaint Jennings alleged he had filed in 2010.

Fix argued during the Nov. 12 hearing that the available Casper College files showed absolutely no support for anything that Mr. Bouchard or Mr. Jennings now allege.

Bouchards counsel, Stephen Klein, attempted to dismiss the case by arguing that Rasners status as a public figure required him to prove actual malice, a high bar requiring proof that Bouchard had subjective awareness of the falsity or entertained serious doubts about the statements truth. Klein defended Bouchard, arguing that relying on the statement of a trusted friend like Jennings negates the possibility of proving actual malice.

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Beginning of full discovery

With the denial of the motion to dismiss, the case now moves into full discovery, where parties in a lawsuit exchange information and evidence to prepare for trial. According to a press release, Rasners legal team will now issue subpoenas for documents, communications and testimony.

From day one, I made it clear that these accusations were false, malicious, and completely fabricated. The Court has now backed that position and confirmed that this case moves forward, Rasner wrote in the press release. Every single person who pushed this lie will be held fully accountable. We are watching them closely. Some are still spreading the same nonsense even today, and they will face the exact same legal consequences.

Rasner asserts that Bouchard intentionally orchestrated attacks to continue to harm his business reputation and harm his political endeavors as he was, at the time, challenging incumbent U.S. Sen. John Barrasso in the Republican primaries.

Bouchard did not respond to WTEs request for comment prior to publication.
Jury trials in England and Wales for crimes that carry a likely sentence of less than three years will be scrapped, the justice secretary has announced.

The reforms to the justice system include creating "swift courts" under the government's plan to tackle unprecedented delays in the court system.

Serious offences including murder, robbery and rape will still go before a jury, and volunteer community magistrates, who deal with the majority of all criminal cases, will take on even more work.

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David Lammy said the reforms were "bold" but "necessary", but the Conservatives described the plans as the "beginning of the end of jury trials".

Retired Court of Appeal judge Sir Brian Leveson was asked by the Lord Chancellor to come up with a series of proposals to reduce the backlog in the courts, in a process which began back in December 2024.

These proposals included jury-free trials and more out-of-court settlements like cautions.

In July, Sir Brian said "fundamental" reforms were needed to "reduce the risk of total system collapse".

A previous version of the plan, leaked to the BBC and the Times last week and based on Sir Brian's proposals, was to end jury trial for most crimes attracting sentences of up to five years.

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But announcing the reforms in the Commons on Tuesday, David Lammy retreated from the most radical reforms.

Lammy said the new system would get cases dealt with a fifth faster than jury trials.

He added that it was necessary as current projections have Crown Court case loads reaching 100,000 by 2028, from the current backlog of almost 78,000.

This means that currently a suspect being charged with an offence today may not reach trial until 2030.

Six out of 10 victims of rape are said to be withdrawing from prosecutions because of delays.

A defendant's right to a jury trial would also be restricted to prevent them from "gaming the system", Lammy said.

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The reforms to the jury process will remove the right for defendants to ask for a jury trial where a case can be dealt with by either magistrates or a new form of judge-only Crown Court.

Defendants facing fraud and complex financial crime accusations will no longer get a jury trial - a recommendation made to the government earlier this year by a retired senior judge.

But jury trials will be guaranteed for the most serious offences, including rape, murder, aggravated burglary, blackmail, people trafficking, grievous bodily harm and the most serious drug offences, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said.

There are around 1.3 million prosecutions in England and Wales every year, and 10% of those cases go before a Crown Court. Of those, three out of 10 result in trials.

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The reforms appear to mean that more than two out of 10 will still go before a jury.

Critics of restrictions to trial by jury - including almost all barristers - say it won't have any impact on the backlogs because the real problem has been cuts to the MoJ.

Evidence also shows that ethnic minorities believe they get a fairer hearing with juries, than with magistrates alone.

Lammy has previously said that cutting juries would be a mistake, but told the BBC ahead of the announcement that the "facts had changed" and the government needed to bring in reforms to clear the backlog.

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick accused Lammy of "scrapping the institution he once lauded".

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He told the Commons: "Why on earth does this justice secretary think he has a mandate to rip up centuries of jury trials without even a mention of it in his party's manifesto?"

Lammy, in response, said the changes were needed because the previous government had cut court sitting days - and magistrates already deal with the vast majority of UK trials.

The reforms will give magistrates the power to hear cases that have a maximum sentencing range of up to 18 months. A back-up power to allow them to sentence a criminal up to two years will be created but held in reserve.

Currently magistrates can impose a sentence of up to 12 months or a fine of an unlimited amount.

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Legislation would need to be introduced to bring in the changes.

The Liberal Democrats said jury trials were a "fundamental right" and called for a strategy that "increases court sitting days, makes better use of underused courtrooms, fixes broken private contracts that leave defendants stuck in prison vans, and invests in rehabilitation to reduce re-offending."

Abigail Ashford, a solicitor advocate with Stokoe Partnership, who represents clients in the Crown Court, said the reforms risked trust in justice.

"Judge-only trials risk deepening existing inequalities and eroding confidence among communities who already feel marginalised," she said.

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"In complex or sensitive cases, removing the community from assessing credibility and fairness undermines trust in a way that cannot be compensated for by concentrating decisions in the hands of a single judge."

The Criminal Bar Association, which represents specialist criminal barristers in England and Wales, criticised the changes and said they brought "a wrecking ball to a system that is fundamentally sound and has been in place for generations".

"Juries work  they do their job superbly, and without bias," it said in a statement.

"Juries have not caused the backlog."

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Chair Riel Karmy-Jones KC also expressed concern "about the lack of detail provided in David Lammy's comments".

Tom Franklin, chief executive of the Magistrates' Association, said the increased powers for magistrates was a "big vote of confidence" but more resources were needed for courts including enough trained, well-paid legal advisers, and repairing crumbling buildings.

He also pressed the case for the new swift courts to include two magistrates passing sentences with a judge, as originally proposed by Sir Brian, so that "ordinary people" are involved in both verdict and sentencing.

Sir Brian will publish a second report focusing on measures to improve court efficiency, but he said that "they would not, on their own, be sufficient to change the overall position".
By Andrew Goudsward

WASHINGTON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - A key figure in the Trump administration's now-dismissed criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey has asked a federal judge to bar prosecutors from continuing to use crucial evidence, according to court documents made public on Tuesday.

The material at issue in the lawsuit from Daniel Richman, a law professor and former attorney to Comey, would likely be central to any effort by prosecutors to revive the case against Comey.

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Reuters reported on Monday the Justice Department is weighing whether to seek a new indictment as soon as this week after a federal judge tossed out charges against Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both perceived adversaries of President Donald Trump. The judge found the prosecutor leading the cases, Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed.

Richman sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, challenging prosecutors use of material the FBI seized from his electronic devices in a separate investigation in 2019 and 2020, alleging it violated his protection against unreasonable searches and seizures under the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment.

HURDLE AS ADMINISTRATION MULLS NEW CASE

Richmans lawsuit is one of several legal hurdles prosecutors could face in a renewed indictment against Comey, who pleaded not guilty to the initial charges.

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A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutors relied on the Richman material to charge Comey with making false statements and obstructing Congress for allegedly lying when he told a Senate committee in 2020 that he stood behind prior testimony that he had not authorized FBI officials to serve as anonymous sources in news reports.

The indictment alleged that Richman, who had served at one point as a special FBI employee, communicated with reporters about a probe involving Trumps 2016 election rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

JUDGE FOUND SERIOUS ERRORS

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U.S. Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick last month found that prosecutors may have made serious errors in handling material seized from Richman as part of the earlier probe into potential disclosure of classified information. Neither Comey nor Richman was charged in that investigation.

Prosecutors investigating Comey reexamined that material this year as part of a separate investigation into Comey without obtaining a new warrant, Fitzpatrick found. Prosecutors challenged Fitzpatricks ruling before the case was dismissed on other grounds.

Richmans lawsuit seeks a court order directing prosecutors to delete or return the seized material and barring any further use of evidence improperly seized or retained.

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; editing by Scott Malone and Rod Nickel)
Having a smartphone may be harmful for children younger than 12, according to a new study.

The study published Monday in the peer-reviewed journal Pediatrics found that owning a smartphone during early adolescence is associated with increased risks of mental health issues and obesity. As far as psychological impacts, it pinpointed higher incidences of depression and insufficient sleep among children who owned smartphones by ages 12 or younger, compared with others kids without the devices.

Researchers at Children's Hospital Philadelphia, the University of California at Berkeley, and Columbia University arrived at those conclusions after analyzing data from more than 10,000 adolescents around the United States who participated in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD) between 2018 and 2020. That study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, describes itself as "the largest long-term study of brain development and child health" in the country.

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According to researchers, 63.6% of the ABCD study's participants owned a smartphone, and the median age they received them was at 11 years old. Using that data, the researchers determined that younger children had greater risks than older participants of poor sleep or obesity linked to smartphone ownership, with increasingly worse health outcomes reported for kids the younger they were when they received their first smartphone.

"We didn't even look at what the kids did on the phone," Ran Barzilay, the lead author of the study and a child psychiatrist with the Youth Suicide Prevention, Intervention and Research Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told CBS News. "We basically asked one simple question: does the mere factor of having one's own smartphone at this age range have anything to do with health outcomes?"

The Pediatrics study also compared children who had obtained a smartphone by age 12 and children who had not, and found that one year later, those without smartphones were experiencing better mental health than those who had them.

"We did account for the fact that the kids may have had other technological devices like tablets or iPads, and it did not change the results," Barzilay said in an interview on CBS News' "The Daily Report."

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In a separate statement, Barzilay said his study's findings suggest that parents should see smartphones as having "a significant factor in teen health" and approach the decision to give children a phone with care and consideration. He noted that smartphones "can play a constructive role" in teens' lives by strengthening their social connections and helping them learn, adding that some families see smartphones as necessary for their children's safety.

Going forward, Barzilay said the researchers behind the study hope to investigate which aspects of smartphone use and ownership are connected with negative health effects for young people. Researchers intend to study younger children, who acquired smartphones before age 10, in an effort to understand who is most vulnerable to the detrimental impacts of smartphone use who and who could most benefit from it. Ultimately, Barzilay said the goal is to identify ways to protect children and adolescents who own smartphones from the consequences outlined in their findings.

In recent years, a growing number of experts have sounded the alarm about increased screen time and the effect it has on kids and teens. In a 2023 advisory on social media use and mental health, former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy recommended creating "tech-free zones" and encouraging kids to "foster in-person friendships." Meanwhile, several states have taken steps to ban cellphones in schools.

According to Pew Research Center, 95% of teens between the ages of 13 and 17 owned a smartphone in 2024. More than half of parents with children between the ages of 11 and 12 who were surveyed by the research center at that time said their kids also owned smartphones. The same survey found that nearly 30% of parents with children between 8 and 10 years old said their kids owned smartphones, as did 12% of parents with children between 5 and 7 years old, and 8% of parents with children younger than 5.

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"Most probably, all teens will eventually have a smartphone," said Barzilay. "Once this happens, it is advisable to monitor what our children do on their phones, ensuring they're not exposed to inappropriate content and that smartphones don't disrupt sleep."

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The Ukrainian general staff on Tuesday denied the Kremlin's claim that Russian forces have captured the key city of Pokrovsk, ahead of US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff's visit to Moscow.

"The units of the Ukrainian armed forces are continuing their defensive operations on the difficult sections of the front, including Pokrovsk, Vovchansk and Kupiansk," the staff said on Telegram.

The generals accused Russia of announcing the seizure with one eye on Witkoff's trip to Moscow on Tuesday, with the Kremlin seeking to showcase progress before discussions on a potential peace plan.

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An industrial hub formerly home to some 60,000 residents, Pokrovsk has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance in the war, which began with Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The city's capture would represent Kiev's greatest setback on the front line since the fall of Avdiivka in February 2024.

But the Ukrainian military insisted that its forces continue to control the northern part of Pokrovsk, along the railway line.

A group of Russian troops that hoisted a Russian flag in one of the city's districts has been destroyed, Kiev said. Additional supply lines are said to have been organized to support units in the Pokrovsk area and the neighbouring village of Myrnohrad.

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Russia has been grinding forward in eastern Ukraine since autumn 2023, absorbing heavy losses but adapting tactics by advancing in small infantry groups and avoiding using armoured vehicles vulnerable to Ukrainian drones.

The United States has stepped up its efforts to broker a peace in recent weeks, with Witkoff due to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday afternoon.

The discussions are expected to centre on a US-backed proposal to end the war.

An initial 28-point peace plan was criticized as too favourable to Moscow, and has since been reworked by Washington's European partners and Ukraine, though several points remain contentious.

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Amid the diplomacy, attacks have continued on both sides both on the ground and in the air, with the Russian region of Oryol reporting a fire due to a Ukrainian drone attack on Tuesday.

Governor Andrey Klychkov wrote on Telegram that the fire broke out at an energy plant in the Livny district, with no injuries recorded.

Unverified videos of the fire circulated on social media. Local residents said that an oil depot was attacked, the online portal Astra reported.

Kiev is aiming to disrupt its neighbour's vital oil sector, intending to cut supplies to the Russian military and limit a key source of revenue for Moscow.

However, the number of casualties and the extent of the damage in Russia are disproportionate to the destruction caused by the Russian military in Ukraine.
JERUSALEM (AP)  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has requested a pardon from the president during his trial on corruption charges that has long divided the country. The request was met with indignation Sunday by opposition politicians and government watchdogs, but some Israelis signaled support and indicated it is time to move on.

The presidents office called the request extraordinary, with significant implications. At stake is the reputation of Israels justice system as well as Netanyahus hold on power.

Heres what to know.

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The charges

Netanyahu is the only sitting prime minister in Israels history to stand trial. He is charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases accusing him of exchanging favors with wealthy political supporters including a telecom company, a Hollywood producer and a newspaper publisher.

The Justice Ministry announced the indictments in the three cases in 2019, after years of investigations, and the trial began in May 2020.

Netanyahu rejects the allegations and has described the case as a witch hunt orchestrated by the media, police and judiciary.

He has not been convicted of anything. Netanyahu has repeatedly requested postponements of his testimony, citing diplomatic engagements or security issues around Israels wars in the past two years with Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.

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Earlier delays in the trial were caused in part by years of political crisis that gridlocked Israel, with Netanyahu returning to office in late 2022.

The delays have angered many Israelis, including some parents of hostages long held in Gaza who accused Netanyahu of drawing out the war with Hamas as part of efforts to stay in office.

Netanyahus argument

The prime minister has portrayed himself in the trial as the victim of a deep state conspiracy trying to oust him.

He said his pardon request would help unify Israel at a time of momentous change in the Middle East, and asserted that an immediate conclusion of the trial would greatly help to lower the flames and promote the broad reconciliation that our country so desperately needs.

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Some government ministers, including Defense Minister Israel Katz, expressed support for his request.

Just weeks ago, U.S. President Donald Trump publicly urged Israel to pardon Netanyahu, turning to President Isaac Herzog during his speech to Israels parliament last month. Earlier this month, Trump also sent a letter to Herzog calling the corruption case political, unjustified prosecution.

Netanyahu mentioned Trump's request in his statement Sunday.

Herzog is a former political rival of Netanyahu, but the men have a good working relationship. Herzog in the past has said he believes the best way to end this legal chapter would be through a settlement between prosecutors and Netanyahus lawyers.

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Many Israelis are sensitive to issues involving Netanyahu and the law. Shortly after forming his current government in late 2022, the prime minister launched a plan to overhaul the justice system. That sparked huge anti-government protests as opponents accused him of trying to weaken the system of checks and balances and having a conflict of interest at a time when he was on trial.

The plan was revived earlier this year after being put on hold after the outbreak of the war in Gaza.

The criticism

Opponents of the pardon request said it could weaken democratic institutions and send a dangerous message that some people in Israel are above the law.

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He basically says, Im completely innocent, Im sure that I can prove this innocence, but not for my own interest, for the countrys interest Im requesting this pardon," said Yohanan Plesner, president of The Israel Democracy Institute. "So there is no assumption of responsibility whatsoever, and this might project a problematic message to all public figures and to what our public norms might look like.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid said Netanyahu cannot be granted a pardon without an admission of guilt, an expression of remorse and an immediate retirement from political life.

Legal experts said the pardon request cannot stop the trial. The only way to stop it is to ask the attorney general to withhold the proceedings, said Emi Palmor, former director general of the Justice Ministry.

Whats next

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The pardon request will be sent to the Justice Ministry for opinions and then transferred to the legal adviser in the Office of the President, which will formulate additional opinions.

Experts said the president has broad discretion to grant one, and oversight is limited.

However, as a rule, the president reviews a pardon request only after all legal proceedings have ended. The possibility of a pre-conviction pardon ... is extremely rare, The Israel Democracy Institute wrote earlier this month. A pardon before conviction, while legal proceedings are ongoing, threatens the rule of law and seriously undermines the principle of equality before the law.
PHNOM PENH, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- A newborn Mekong Irrawaddy dolphin was spotted on Monday in Cambodia, increasing the total population of the aquatic mammals to 112, the country's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) said in a press release on Tuesday.

The latest newborn dolphin calf, about one day old, was spotted on Monday afternoon at the Kampi dolphin pool in Kratie province's Chetr Borei district by a team of researchers from the Fisheries Administration and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

"This newborn healthy dolphin was seen swimming alongside its mother and a pod of another four adult dolphins," the press release said. "It is the eighth dolphin calf born in 2025."

The MAFF estimated that to date, 112 Irrawaddy dolphins are living along a 120-km main channel of the Mekong River in northeast Kratie and Stung Treng provinces.

According to the press release, the Southeast Asian country recorded for the first time ever zero Mekong dolphin deaths so far this year.

The Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphins have been listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. 
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took to social media to push for a sweeping travel ban on Monday, just one day after President Donald Trump claimed that his administrations pause on asylum decisions could last a long time.

In a post on X, Noem wrote that she had met with Trump, who recommended a permanent pause on migration from all Third World Countries following an ambush attack on U.S. National Guard members in Washington, D.C., last week. The suspect in the attack was an Afghan immigrant who entered the U.S. in 2021 as part of a Biden-era resettlement program and was granted asylum in April 2025 by the Trump administration.

Politics: Kristi Noems Latest Donald Trump Boast Has Critics Howling

I am recommending a full travel ban on every **** country thats been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies, Noem wrote. Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedomnot for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS.

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She concluded, WE DONT WANT THEM. NOT ONE.

Its unclear which countries would be targeted by such a ban and how extensive it would be.

Trump later reshared her post on his Truth Social platform.

I just met with the President.



I am recommending a full travel ban on every **** country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.



Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedomnot for foreign  Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) December 1, 2025

Social media users put Noem on blast over her embarrassing post, with one critic writing, What borders on insanity? Canada and Mexico.

This is embarrassing on more levels than I can count. https://t.co/CDMmhN2yzf  Franklin Leonard (@franklinleonard) December 2, 2025

What borders on insanity?



Canada and Mexico. https://t.co/1Fh2fhA0go  Dieter MacPherson   (@dmacpher) December 2, 2025

all of the killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies are coming from Mar-a-Lago https://t.co/VqUTL5oE1L  Keith Edwards (@keithedwards) December 2, 2025

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What about people who murder puppies? Are they allowed in? https://t.co/gmCcyMN6FP  Breathtaking Inanity (@breathtkinan) December 2, 2025

Noem when she sees a dog that looks like it may be from a foreign country pic.twitter.com/JrkakPCgRA  Janitor Jack  (@JanitorJack2) December 2, 2025

Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom is a wild statement while referring to a country build on genocide and chattel slavery. https://t.co/5DEJKhhoBE  Nina Turner (@ninaturner) December 2, 2025

Well, this is pretty much exhibit number one re: unconstitutional animus in any lawsuit against an impending travel ban. https://t.co/DomY1AMr9y  Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) December 2, 2025

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America First = America Alone https://t.co/DQ923P4hZH  Brett Bruen (@BrettBruen) December 2, 2025

Probably not the smartest course of action considering we depend on global trade and have international allies but do you, white nationalists. https://t.co/tM4Td8VC1L  Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) December 2, 2025

I assume she means everyone who isnt white. pic.twitter.com/FHo7FqSBSc  Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) December 2, 2025

Related...

Read the original on HuffPost
Donald Trumps presidential powers are practically supernaturalat least, according to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who thanked Trump during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday for his apparent ability to ward off hurricanes over the last year.

Sir, you made it through hurricane season without a hurricane, Noem said to laughter from the room. You kept the hurricanes away. We appreciate that.

Kristi Noem: "Sir, you made it through hurricane season without a hurricane. You kept the hurricanes away. We appreciate that." pic.twitter.com/NhmHLfbKUr  Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 2, 2025

While Noems comment may have been a joke, the reality is much less funny. Trump has spent months trying to dismantle the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, which provides disaster relief for areas severely impacted by natural disasters.

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Since he was on the campaign trail, Trump and his allies have spread unfounded conspiracies that the lead emergency response agency had run out of money and that the Biden administration had diverted funds from FEMA to help undocumented immigrants enter the country. (FEMA administrators fervently and repeatedly denied this.) Republicans, at the time, claimed that working with the White House to expedite disaster relief seemed political and even conspiratorially suggested that the hurricanes were a government manipulation.

Days after his inauguration, Trump pitched that it would be better to do away with FEMA altogether in favor of handing the money directly to the states, though that plan has not yet come to fruition.

Still, Trump has managed to transform disaster relief into a political issue. In October, the president approved aid for several states that voted for him in the last election, including Alaska, Nebraska, and North Dakota, but denied it to others that did not: Vermont, Illinois, and Maryland.

Meanwhile, FEMA funds have gone to projects that have absolutely nothing to do with disaster relief. In Octoberdays before the longest government shutdown in U.S. historythe Homeland Security Department issued a $608 million FEMA check to Florida to cover costs related to Alligator Alcatraz, the notoriously abusive immigrant detention center that has been roundly torched as a modern-day concentration camp tucked away in the Everglades.
Kristen Renee Miller, the editor in chief and executive director of Sarabande Books, is looking to readers and the broader community to replace federal funds the Louisville nonprofit decided to forego. (Photo provided)

This time of year, Louisville nonprofit publishing house Sarabande Books would typically learn how much federal grant money it could rely on for the next publishing cycle.

This year, that money isnt coming.

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Kristen Renee Miller, the editor in chief and executive director of the nonprofit, refused to sign a compliance agreement promising to not promote diversity, equity and inclusion and gender ideology this year, nor did she have the authors she wants to promote comply with the new rules. Sarabandes mission is, in part, to find and promote whats been underrepresented, Miller said  the antithesis of those restrictions.

The Trump administrations rules governing what the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) supports were successfully challenged in court this year. At the time Miller would have had to agree to them, though, she had no idea what the outcome would be, or how long a legal challenge would take.

We didnt feel like we were willing to wait around to see if they would or wouldnt (suspend the new rules), and in the meantime, sign our name to them, she said.

For most of its existence the publishing house, founded in 1994, has received $25,000$50,000 each year in NEA grants. This year, the NEA changed its rules, requiring arts applicants to abide by President Donald Trumps executive orders restricting DEI initiatives and condemning gender ideology. A court ruled in September that the gender ideology compliance requirement violated the First Amendment, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

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Miller interpreted gender ideology to mean publishing and promoting trans, gender fluid and non-binary authors, which is something we absolutely do, she said.

Because of its noncompliance, Sarabande is losing an already-promised grant for this year worth around $25,000, Miller said. She has turned to readers and the broader community seeking to raise the lost funds.

New priorities:

Previous Sarabande projects that got NEA funding include:

The projects that would have benefited from the next grant include:

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A letter rescinding the 2025 grant, which Miller shared with the Lantern, states the NEA terminated the latest grant because it is updating its grantmaking policy priorities to focus funding on projects that reflect the nations rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the president.

The NEA will now prioritize projects that elevate the nations HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities) and Hispanic Serving Institutions, celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, foster AI competency, empower houses of worship to serve communities, assist with disaster recovery, foster skilled trade jobs, make America healthy again, support the military and veterans, support Tribal communities, make the District of Columbia safe and beautiful, and support the economic development of Asian American communities, the letter says. Funding is being allocated in a new direction in furtherance of the administrations agenda.

Not a theoretical good

Sarabande took to social media Nov. 17 with a defiant message, saying it was exceedingly proud to be misaligned with this administrations vision for the arts and asking people to donate cash to make up the difference.

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Miller crafted this message from her own reaction to the NEA rules, she said, but also felt it was a unifying message for others with similar reactions.

The power of demoralization is a huge project of this administration. Its overwhelming us with demoralization, with the fear of things weve relied on being taken away, the sort of insistence that things we thought about our culture, about our society werent fragile, making them look fragile, Miller said. It seems to be just sort of a relentless assault on our resilience, on our sense of hope. And  I do take that very personally.

Motivated by the idea that the arts tell the story of a societys values, books should represent all people, Miller said.

What I do at Sarabande is not a theoretical good, Miller said. I believe that it is a crucial element of our culture.

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Shes counting on others agreeing with her. Nonprofits often juggle uncertainty, she said, and while cutting books already in production is not an option, the publishing house will look at ways to cut costs while simultaneously fundraising.

We refuse to be aligned, and we will be very loud about how misaligned we are with the administrations priorities, Miller said. Were not alone, and we know the community that agrees with us is bigger than those who are trying to push us out.

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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt flew into a rage against The New York Times while doing damage control over 79-year-old President Donald Trumps diminishing schedule.

On Nov. 15, the Times reported that the president has scaled back his official appearances by 39 percentfrom 1,688 during the first 10 months of his first term to 1,029 this year. Their analysis found that Trump now starts his days far later than he did in his first term, with official events typically beginning after midday rather than at 10:30 a.m.

But Leavitt was having none of it.

Leavitt, 28, furiously lashed out over reports that Trump has scaled back his schedule. / White House

The 28-year-old press secretary slammed the fake news story as unequivocally false at the end of Monday afternoons White House briefing.

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I want to point out one fake news story over the weekend before I let you all go, Leavitt told the press corps, referencing the Times article.

To cement her point, she held up an article titled Biden is doing 100 percent fine after tripping while boarding Air Force One.

Its deeply unfortunate that the story was written by the same outlet and the same reporter who wrote this, Leavitt said.

As the Times also noted, Trump and his team often deflect questions about his age by criticizing former President Joe Biden, who at 82 was the oldest president in U.S. history and whose cognitive decline aides worked to obscure. Trump, however, will surpass that record when he finishes his term at 82.

Trump has been captured seemingly dozing off at a number of events since the start of his second term. / Andrew Harnik/Getty

[Trump] is the most accessible president, Leavitt insisted Monday. He is taking meetings around the clock.

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The same day Leavitt defended the presidents cognitive health, she finally revealed that Trump had a preventative MRI last month to look at his heart and abdomen.

When asked about the MRI at the beginning of November, Leavitt said she would have to check why it was done. More than a week later, Trump claimed he had no idea why he had needed the MRI.

Leavitt said it was being released in an effort of transparency.

Leavitt wasnt the only one who was furious over the Times report. Trump raged at the outlet and insulted the reporter in a scathing Truth Social tirade last week.

The Radical Left Lunatics in the soon to fold New York Times did a hit piece on me that I am perhaps losing my Energy, Trump wrote, before attacking the reporter personally: The writer of the story, Katie Rogers is a third rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out.

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He went on to boast about his highest Poll Numbers, ever, despite reports surfacing on the same day that revealed his approval rating was underwater with every major pollster for the first time.

There will be a day when I run low on Energy but with a PERFECT PHYSICAL EXAM AND A COMPREHENSIVE COGNITIVE TEST (That was aced) JUST RECENTLY TAKEN, it certainly is not now!

President Donald Trump told reporters he was OK with his MRI being released on Nov. 30, weeks after it took place during an October physical. / Pete Marovich/Getty Images

The Times investigation comes after months of Daily Beast reporting on the presidents diminished state. It also comes as Trump faces intensifying scrutiny over his fitness for office, particularly after multiple incidents where he has appeared to nod off during public appearances.

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.

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In a previous statement, Leavitt said, Unlike the Biden White House, who covered up Joe Bidens cognitive decline and hid him from the press, President Trump and his entire team have been open and transparent about the presidents health, which remains exceptional.

President Trumps physician has released two detailed reports and anyone who watches President Trump in his daily public events can clearly see he is in impressive physical and mental shape, with an unrelenting work ethic.

The details of Trumps MRI came via a memo from Trumps physician, Dr. Sean Barbabella, which read: As part of President Donald J. Trumps comprehensive executive physical, advanced imaging was performed because men in his age group benefit from a thorough evaluation of cardiovascular and abdominal health.

Barbabella went on to say that the presidents cardiovascular imaging was perfectly normal, that there was no evidence of arterial narrowing impairing blood flow or abnormalities in the heart or major vessels and that Trumps cardiovascular system shows excellent health.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Tuesday defended the secondary strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea, citing the fog of war as reason for his not seeing any survivors in the water when the strike was ordered and launched.

Hegseths comments came during a cabinet meeting hosted by President Donald Trump the day after the administration insisted the strike, which it says was ordered by Navy Vice Adm. Frank Mitch Bradley, was lawful.

Legal experts say the U.S. military would have committed a crime if survivors were killed, and lawmakers have announced congressional reviews of the strikes.

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Bradley is expected to provide a classified briefing Thursday to lawmakers overseeing the military.

The Latest:

Trump-backed Republican wins US House special election in Tennessee

Republican Matt Van Epps has won a nationally watched special election in Tennessee for a seat in the U.S. House, maintaining his partys grip on the district with help from President Trump.

A military veteran and former state general services commissioner from Nashville, Van Epps defeated Democratic state Rep. Aftyn Behn to represent the 7th Congressional District.

Van Epps benefited from more than $1 million in spending from MAGA Inc. It was the first time the Trump-supporting super PAC spent money on a campaign since last years presidential race, a reflection of the special elections outsize importance.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson and GOP chair Joe Gruters rallied supporters in Tennessee on Monday. Trump addressed a crowd at a rally in the state by phone and later in the day held a tele-rally for Van Epps, his second of the general election.

Republicans entered Election Day hoping to scuttle Democratic claims that even red districts are now in play as Trump struggles with low approval ratings and persistent economic dissatisfaction.

USDA says SNAP management funds will be withheld from states that dont share data

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday that the Trump administration would withhold money for SNAP in most Democratic-controlled states starting next week unless those states provide information about people receiving the assistance.

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Democratic states have sued to block the requirement, saying they verify eligibility for SNAP beneficiaries and that they never share large swaths of sensitive program data with the federal government.

States and the federal government split the cost of running SNAP, with the federal government paying the full cost of benefits. After Rollins remarks, a USDA spokesperson later explained that the agency is targeting the administrative funds  not the benefits people receive.

Trumps Justice Department sues more states over voter data

The department is filing lawsuits against six more states in its ongoing campaign to obtain detailed voter data and other election information.

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Its suing Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington over their failure to produce statewide voter registration lists. The DOJ has portrayed the litigation as part of an effort to ensure the security of elections, but Democratic officials have raised concerns over how the data will be used and whether the department will follow privacy laws in protecting it.

Tuesdays actions bring to at least 14 the number of states the Justice Department has sued in its quest for the voter information.

The department has requested the voter data from at least 26 states, according to an Associated Press tally. Some Democratic secretaries of state have expressed concerns that federal agencies have apparently misled them and might be entering the data in a program used to verify U.S. citizenship.

Minneapolis mayor says Trumps critical depictions of Somali immigrants are wrong

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Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey says Somali immigrants have helped improve his community.

They have started businesses and created jobs. They have added to the cultural fabric of what Minneapolis is, Frey said.

To again, villainize an entire group is ridiculous under any circumstances. And the way that Donald Trump is consistent in doing it, I think calls into question major constitutional violations. And it certainly violates the moral fabric of what we stand by in this country as Americans, Frey said.

Chances dwindling for renewal of health care subsidies, risking premium spikes for millions

Hopes for an extension of health care subsidies were diminishing in Congress this week as Republicans and Democrats largely abandoned the idea of bipartisan talks on the issue, increasing the odds that millions of Americans could see sharp premium spikes starting Jan. 1.

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Democrats who agreed earlier this month to reopen the government in exchange for a December health care vote were hoping they could work with Republicans to extend the COVID-era Affordable Care Act tax credits that help many Americans pay for their health coverage. But lawmakers in both parties have spent most of the time since talking amongst themselves instead, while rehashing longstanding partisan arguments over the law in public.

I dont think at this point we have a clear path forward, I dont think the Democrats have a clear path forward, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday after Republicans met and discussed different proposals to overhaul the law.

 Read more about the health care subsidies

Federal judge orders Trump administration to resume Planned Parenthood payments

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U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction ordering the federal government to restore Medicaid funding for the nations largest abortion provider.

Trumps signature tax breaks and spending cuts legislation included cuts targeted at Planned Parenthood.

More than 20 mostly Democratic-led states, including California, New York, and Connecticut, sued the Department of Health and Human Services in July over the funding cuts.

The money has been in limbo as a separate legal battle over the funding plays out.

The district court again recognized the defund law for what it is: unconstitutional and dangerous, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Federation of America said in a statement.

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HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment but previously said states should not be forced to fund organizations that have chosen political advocacy over patient care.

House Republican hopes to force a vote on banning members of Congress from trading stock

GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna has filed a discharge petition that would bypass House leadership to force a vote on a bill to ban members of Congress from trading stock. The petition would require a minimum of 218 signatures to force the vote. GOP Rep. Tim Burchett has already signed onto the petition.

The push follows growing frustration from Luna and lawmakers in both parties that the legislation has still not received a floor vote.

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Political games have already started to play out behind the scenes so I couldnt wait any longer, Luna wrote on social media.

Arkansas ACLU opposes deployment of state National Guard troops to Washington, DC

Arkansans are proud of those who serve our communities with honor and integrity. But using our National Guard troops to advance political theater under the guise of law and order is deeply troubling, the statement said.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced Monday that 100 members of the Arkansas National Guard will be deployed to Washington as part of the plan to increase the Guard force by 500.

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The increase is in response to the Nov. 26 attack on West Virginia Guard members Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe. Beckstrom was killed and Wolfe remains hospitalized in serious condition. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, has been charged.

We live in a world where men want to tear down everything that is good and the Arkansas National Guard is being called to confront that evil head on and to confront it with good, Sanders said.

Department of Health and Human Services rolls back Biden-era nursing home staffing rules

The rule would have required nursing homes participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs to give residents a minimum of around 3.5 hours of nursing care per day.

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Safe, high-quality care is essential, but rigid, one-size-fits-all mandates fail patients, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement released with the news.

The administration said the change came after tribal communities shared concerns that they hadnt been properly consulted in the rule and that it would have significantly impacted facilities in their communities.

But some Democrats, including Senate finance committee ranking member Ron Wyden, said the administrations decision would diminish the quality of care for older adults.

Thanks to Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress, seniors are going to be less safe in nursing homes, he said in a statement.

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US-Russia talks on Ukraine were productive but work remains, Russian adviser says

President Vladimir Putin met U.S. President Donald Trumps envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner in the Kremlin in talks that began late Tuesday as part of a renewed push by the Trump administration to broker a peace deal to end the nearly four-year war in Ukraine.

Both sides agreed not to disclose the substance of the talks.

The meeting came days after U.S. officials held talks with a Ukrainian team in Florida and which U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described in cautiously optimistic terms.

At the center of the effort is Trumps peace plan that became public last month and raised concerns about being tilted heavily toward Moscow. The proposal granted some of the Kremlins core demands that Kyiv has rejected as nonstarters, such as Ukraine ceding the entire eastern region of the Donbas to Russia and renouncing its bid to join NATO. Negotiators have indicated the framework has changed, but its not clear how.

Appeals court mulls release of hundreds of immigrants detained in Chicago area

A federal appeals court is reviewing a district judges order to release on bond hundreds of immigrants detained in the Chicago area in recent months.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Tuesday about a 2022 consent decree in Chicago that outlines how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement can make so-called warrantless arrests.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings ordered the release of more than 600 people on bond, which the appeals court paused.

Attorneys representing the detainees say time is critical as many are being deported without knowing their options. Federal government attorneys said about 450 remain in custody.

One judge had sharp criticism and questions about the consent decrees validity, while two others had more technical questions.

The three-judge panel didnt indicate when it would decide.

Trump and Brazils president speak

Trump says he had a great talk with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil.

He said trade and sanctions were among the topics they discussed.

Trump has imposed some very steep tariffs on the South American country over the judicial systems treatment of Brazils former president.

We had a very good talk, Trump said of the current president. I like him.

Trump says his investment accounts will help children learn about business

Trump said that the billions of dollars to be donated to his Trump accounts for children will help to educate them about business and capitalism.

I think they can learn a little bit about the free enterprise system, Trump said. Then they can really learn a lot about how life works, how business works.

The accounts include an initial $1,000 going into the accounts for children born between the start of 2025 and the end of 2028. But people could separately donate to the accounts -- and Billionaires Michael and Susan Dell pledged $6.25 billion Tuesday to provide 25 million American children 10 and younger in zip codes with median incomes of $150,000 or less who wouldnt get the seed money.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said the accounts would create a new generation of capitalists who could monitor their investments in leading U.S. companies on their phones.

Activists express grief over National Guard shooting but oppose arming them further in Washington, D.C.

Free DC Co-founder and Campaign Director Alex Dodds expressed grief for West Virginia National Guard Spec. Sarah Beckstroms death but said the announcement by the Pentagon that all Guard members will now be armed in the city is illegal and illogical. More troops with more weapons will not change that fact, it will only further endanger DC residents and the Guard themselves.

Dodd, in a statement, said Guard members should be home for the holidays with their families.

Our hearts break for the family of Specialist Sarah Beckstrom who passed on Thanksgiving Day. No family should have to experience the type of grief hers is now going through. Our prayers are also with Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe who is still in the hospital.

The two were ambushed by Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, November 26.

Energy Department renames National Renewable Energy Lab to remove focus on wind and solar power

The sites new name, National Laboratory of the Rockies, is effective immediately and will be reflected in all official correspondence, officials said.

Assistant Energy Secretary Audrey Robertson said in a statement that energy issues facing the country today are unlike the crisis that gave rise to the former Solar Energy Research Institute in the 1970s. The site in Golden, Colorado was designated as a national lab in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush and renamed the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Robertson said the Trump administration is no longer picking and choosing energy sources and instead will invest in the scientific capabilities that will restore American manufacturing, drive down costs and help this country meet its soaring energy demand.

Trump calls Kevin Hassett a potential Federal Reserve chair

Trump on Tuesday has been teasing his pick to lead the U.S. central bank and he hinted the possibility that it might be the director of the White House National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett.

The president was at a White House event about his Trump accounts for children that can be accessed when they turn 18, celebrating plans for private donations to those accounts that are spearheaded by billionaires Michael and Susan Dell. Trump noted Hassetts attendance at the event, calling him a potential Fed chair and a respected person.

Trump earlier on Tuesday indicated that he had chosen a candidate to replace Jerome Powell as Fed chair. Powells term as chair expires in May. The president also said he plans to announce his choice in early 2026.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley declines Senate bid, says she will seek reelection to US House

Hearing from so many people from throughout our Commonwealth encouraging me to run for the United States Senate was deeply humbling and a testament to the strength of our movement, the Massachusetts Democrat said in a statement.

It would be an honor to serve the whole Commonwealthbut with our daughter in her last year at home before college and a district that has been in the crosshairs of this White House, I am certain that the Massachusetts 7th is where I belong in this moment, she continued.

Pressley is an avowed Boston-area progressive and one of the four congresswoman dubbed as The Squad following the 2018 midterms.

She had considered a run for a Senate seat currently held by Sen. Ed Markey. Rep. Seth Moulton, another House Democrat, announced in October he will run for the Democratic nomination in next years primary.

Trump administration says it will withhold SNAP food aid from Democrat-led states over data

The Trump administration said Tuesday that it will move to withhold SNAP food aid from recipients in most Democratic-controlled states starting next week unless they provide information on those receiving the assistance.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday that the action is in the works because those states are refusing to provide information the department requested such as the names and immigration status of the aid recipients.

She said the cooperation is necessary in order to root out fraud in the program. Democratic states have sued to block the requirement.

About 1 in 8 Americans use the program to help buy groceries.

Nations largest Somali community fearful over Trumps comments

The prospect of an immigration operation centered on Somali migrant s is likely to deepen tensions in Minnesota, where Trump asserted that people of Somalian descent have caused a lot of trouble.

Community leaders say Trumps rhetoric has revived fears of profiling as ICE agents make arrests. Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin denied any racial profiling, saying What makes someone a target of ICE is not their race or ethnicity, but the fact that they are in the country illegally.

Jaylani Hussein, a Somali American who is executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said around 95% of Somalis in Minnesota are U.S. citizens, and that a pretty small proportion are at earlier stages of the immigration process.

 Read more about the enforcement operation targeting Somalis

Federal authorities plan operation in Minnesota focusing on Somali immigrants, AP source says

The immigration enforcement operation will primarily target Somali immigrants living unlawfully in the United States, according to a person familiar with the planning. It could begin in days and is expected to zero in on people in the MinneapolisSt. Paul area who have final orders of deportation, the person said.

Teams of immigration agents would spread across the Twin Cities in what the person described as a directed, high-priority sweep, though the plans remain fluid and subject to change. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations that have not been publicly disclosed. The operation was first reported by The New York Times.

Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the agency would not discuss future or potential operations.

Trump says Somalis contribute nothing and he doesnt want them in the country

Trump said near the end of his lengthy Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that he doesnt want Somali immigrants. He said people from the war-ravaged eastern African country are too reliant on the social safety net and add little to the United States.

The presidents comment came days after his administration announced a halt to all asylum decisions following the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington. The suspect is originally from Afghanistan but Trump has used the shooting to raise questions about immigrants from other nations, including Somalia.

They contribute nothing. The welfare is like 88% or something. They contribute nothing. I dont want them in our country, He added, Their country is no good for a reason. Your country stinks and we dont want them in our country.

Man accused of shooting 2 National Guard members near White House pleads not guilty from hospital bed

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who was also shot, made his initial court appearance by video, pleading not guilty on Tuesday to first-degree murder and assault charges.

His attorney entered a not guilty plea on his behalf on the charges stemming from the Nov. 26 shooting that killed Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and wounded Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24.

Hegseth says he didnt stick around to see second strike on Caribbean Sea boat

During a televised Cabinet meeting, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth defended a scrutinized follow-up strike on an alleged drug boat from September.

Asked if he supported the second strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea in September, Trump said he didnt know anything and still havent gotten a lot of information because I rely on Pete, referencing Hegseth.

The defense secretary, who has said he watched the strike live as it happened, said next that he did not see that there were survivors in the water when the second strike was ordered and launched, saying that the thing was on fire.

Hegseth also said he didnt stick around for the remainder of the mission following the first strike, and said the admiral in charge had made the right call in ordering it, which he had complete authority to do.

Trump has his pick for Federal Reserve chair, but hes not naming names

Trump was pretty direct that he knows who he wants to succeed Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve.

We have it down to one, Trump said, without providing a name or a hint of who that person might be.

The president said his administration probably looked at ten candidates and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent interviewed some of them.

Supreme Court seems to favor abortion opponents appeal

A majority of the justices seemed likely Tuesday to side with a faith-based pregnancy center challenging a state investigation into whether it misled people to discourage abortions.

In New Jersey, Democratic attorney general Matthew Platkins consumer-protection division sent a subpoena to First Choice Womens Resource Centers for information, including about their donors.

You dont think it might have an effect on potential future donors to the organization, to know that their name, phone number, address, et cetera, could be disclosed? a dubious Chief Justice John Roberts asked an attorney for New Jersey.

The state argued that no information has been turned over yet, and it would only be used to ask donors whether they had been deceived about First Choices services. An ordinary person, one of the funders for this organization or any similar organization, presented with this subpoena ... is not going to take that as very reassuring, liberal justice Elena Kagan said.

 Read more about this Supreme Court case

Vought doodles as meeting approaches two-hour mark

White House budget director Russell Vought was spotted sketching a bucolic scene on the notepad in front of him.

Vought, using a notepad that had The White House printed across the top, drew mountains framed by pine trees and topped by the kind of fluffy clouds that public television legend Bob Ross preferred for his serene landscapes.

Vought also drew an arrow underneath his mountain. Where it was supposed to be pointing was not clear.

Senators say they will file war powers resolution if US strikes Venezuela

A bipartisan group of senators is pledging to call up legislation to check Trumps ability to use military force against Venezuela if the U.S. military carries out a strike against Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

Democrats, joined by Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, have already tried unsuccessfully to use war powers resolutions to mitigate attacks both in international waters off the Venezuelan coast, as well as against the country itself. Those were defeated by Republicans.

But Sens. Tim Kaine, Chuck Schumer, Adam Schiff and Paul warned that unauthorized military action against Venezuela would be a colossal and costly mistake that needlessly risks the lives of our servicemembers.

Trump occasionally closes eyes during Cabinet meeting

A television camera remained focused on the president during his lengthy Cabinet meeting. At times, he seemed to struggle to stay alert.

As each Cabinet member offered presentations in a meeting that stretched beyond 90 minutes, Trump could be seen sitting back in his chair with his eyes drooping, and sometimes shutting completely.

The president has criticized a recent New York Times story examining the 79-year-olds schedule and stamina. Trump is sharp, he declared Tuesday, before inviting each Cabinet member to speak at length.

Homeland Security secretary says deportations will continue through years end

Kristi Noem said more deportations are coming before 2025 is done. She said 2 million people have been deported already, and were going to send more home for the holidays to ... make sure that they get to be with their families.

Noem said the Biden administrations border policies used this department to invade the country of terrorists.

Mentioning the strikes in the Caribbean Sea, Noem said that we have saved hundreds of millions of lives with the cocaine youve blown up in the Caribbean.

Cabinet secretaries seem to see affordability differently than Trump

Trump called affordability  a key issue propelling Democrats to victory in last months elections  a con job, but some of his cabinet secretaries seem to see the issue as a real one for the country.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins referenced it Tuesday as a lingering issue for American farmers. She said the economic destruction over which Biden presided increased costs for the nations farmers, calling them massive numbers that will take some time to get out from under.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also called affordability a crisis. And Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner referenced affordability in the context of hundreds of thousands of Americans he said were able to become first-time homebuyers recently.

Vice President JD Vance sought to bring the issue back around to Trumps viewpoint, acknowledging affordability as a crisis Democrats created.

Agriculture secretary says bridge payment coming to farmers next week

Brooke Rollins told Trump during the Cabinet meeting that hes been opening overseas markets for U.S. farmers to help them become less reliant on government assistance.

But she said, we do have a bridge payment well be announcing with you next week.

Rollins didnt say how much the payment will be or which farmers will get assistance.

Trump says hes rebuilding Dulles airport

The president said Tuesday that his administration will embark on a reconstruction of Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia.

It should be a great airport, and its not a good airport at all. Its a terrible airport, Trump said during his Cabinet meeting.

Dulles is one of the three Washington-area airports and its quality and utility is a hotly-debated topic among Washingtonians. The real estate mogul-turned-president said it was incorrectly designed, even as he praised Eero Saarinen, the Finnish-American architect who designed its main terminal.

Were gonna make that into something really spectacular. We have an amazing plan for it, Trump said.

One of the people movers that ferry travelers between Dulles concourses crashed in November. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said his agency will announce a request for bids later Tuesday to repair the mobile lounges.

Democratic US Sen. Mark Warner launches bid for reelection

Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Warner announced his bid for reelection on Tuesday, launching what will be a key campaign in a narrowly divided Senate.

The Virginia senators campaign announcement says hes running to rein in Americas economic crisis, particularly regarding the impact of artificial intelligence on job displacement.

We need a vision to chart a new path and effective leadership to get it done, Warner said.

Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate. According to the Cook Political Report, Warner represents a solidly Democratic seat.

Hegseth identified as ssecretary of war during Cabinet meeting

The nameplate in front of the defense secretary, visible in video of the meeting, mistakenly includes an extra s.

Trump bragged about his move to rename the Secretary of Defense to the Secretary of War. Such a change requires an act of Congress that hasnt occurred.

Trump called on Hegseth to speak first as each Cabinet member gave brief presentations.

Neither Trump nor Hegseth mentioned the nameplate misspelling, but online posters were quick to point it out.

Trump says mother of National Guard member shot in Washington says hell be ok

Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom died and Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe remains hospitalized following the pre-Thanksgiving shooting in Washington. I want to pay my deepest respects to Wolfe and to Beckstrom, Trump said.

The president said he spoke with the parents of both National Guard members, and that Wolfes mother insisted her son will recover.

No doctor thought that, Trump said. It would be a miracle if Wolfe lives.

Hegseth says Pentagon always has commanders backs

Seated once again at Trumps left, Hegseth said the Department of Defense is getting back to its basics, which he said includes lethality.

Hegseths presence in the Cabinet Room is attracting extra attention as the Pentagon faces bipartisan scrutiny for a follow-up strike on an alleged drug boat in September. The Washington Post first reported that Hegseth issued a verbal order for the second strike that killed survivors on the boat.

Trump did not mention the strikes during his lengthy intro.

The White House said Monday that a Navy admiral acted within his authority and the law when he ordered the second strike. Lawmakers have announced congressional reviews of the U.S. military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs.

Navy Vice Adm. Frank Mitch Bradley, who White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said ordered the second strike, is expected to provide a classified briefing Thursday to lawmakers overseeing the military. We always have the back of our commanders, Hegseth said.

Trump says White House ballroom construction noise is progress

Trump raised the subject of his White House renovation projects as he spoke during what he said is the years final Cabinet meeting.

Trucks, cranes, excavators and other equipment have taken over the plot where the East Wing once stood.

Every time I hear them, I love the sound, Trump said, jokingly adding that he wouldnt say his wife, Melania Trump, is as thrilled as he is by the noise.

Trump said the work continues well into the night and that when the first lady asks for it to stop, he responds with, Sorry, darling. Thats progress.

Pope calls for US to pursue dialogue with Venezuela

Leo XVI has called for the United States to pursue dialogue and even economic pressure on Venezuela to achieve its goals, rather than threats of military action.

Historys first American pope told reporters aboard the papal plane returning from Lebanon that the Venezuelan bishops conference and the Vatican Embassy in Caracas have been trying to calm the situation and look out for the plight of ordinary Venezuelans.

The voices coming from the United States change, with a certain frequency at times, he said. On the one hand it seems there was telephone conversation between the two presidents, on the other theres this danger, this possibility of an activity, an operation including invading the territory of Venezuela.

I believe its better to look for ways of dialogue, perhaps pressure  including economic pressure  but looking for other ways to change, if thats what the United States wants to do.

Trump lauds respect for US as emissaries meet with Putin

Since his return to office, Trump said Tuesday that global respect for the United States has gone up, taking a moment to swipe at former Democratic President Joe Biden for putting the country in great danger.

Trump noted the ongoing diplomatic efforts in which U.S. officials have been speaking with Ukrainian and Russian counterparts in efforts to end that war.

A U.S. delegation was in Moscow Tuesday sitting down with Russian President Vladimir Putin. On Sunday, U.S. and Ukrainian officials completed roughly four hours of talks in Florida.

Trump complains about reporting on his physical and mental condition, insisting Trump is sharp

The 79-year-old president slipped into the third person as he criticized a recent New York Times report on his schedule and stamina. He had complained about the story on social media days ago and insulted the looks of the reporter. Now hes used his Cabinet meeting to continue to air his grievances and insist hes in great shape.

You people are crazy, Trump said, addressing reporters in the room. Ill let you know if theres something wrong.
A campaign consultant for Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) announced Monday he was quitting her team, accusing her of betraying President Trumps agenda.

Nancy Mace has yet again decided to turn her back on MAGA to hug the political cactus that is the Rand Paul + Thomas Massie wing of the Party, Austin McCubbin wrote on the social platform X, referring to a pair of Republicans who have criticized aspects of Trumps administration.

Last month the Rand Paul-affiliated Protect Freedom PAC began spending money on Nancys behalf. I had no prior knowledge of that, and campaigns cant control outside spending, McCubbin continued. I chalked it up to nothing but independent activity.

When I talked to Nancy last Wednesday, it became clear she has fully embraced the Rand Paul PAC. She told me she is directing a personal friend to fund a 7-figure check to Rands PAC, he alleged. She distanced herself, and now shes fully embracing the Rand Paul + Thomas Massie wing for money.

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McCubbin, who ran Trumps South Carolina political operation during the 2024 cycle and has previously advised Mace, said that when he warned her of the risks of her actions, she wouldnt hear it and suggested he was mansplaining.

A spokesperson for Maces campaign suggested the reason McCubbin was speaking out was because she declined to pay his requested monthly sum.

Mr. McCubbin didnt raise a dime for the campaign or better yet, never even bothered showing up. When he demanded $10,000 a month for services and was told no, he ran straight to X. Good luck with that, the spokesperson said in a statement.



Nancy Mace has stood with President Trump since Day ONE, they added. Mr. McCubbin said it himself: Nancy Mace will be the most pro-Trump and America First Governor in the country.'

Mace is running in a crowded Republican primary for South Carolina governor to succeed term-limited Gov. Henry McMaster (R). The field includes South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, Rep. Ralph Norman (S.C.), state Sen. Josh Kimbrell and South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette.

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Whoever wins the Republican primary is almost certain to win the general election next year. President Trump has not weighed in on the primary yet.

Mace has built a reputation for herself by bucking her party, most notably in 2023 when she voted alongside a group of Republicans to remove then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from his Speakership. More recently, she was among a small handful of Republicans who supported a discharge petition on a measure that mandates the Justice Department release information in the case of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

That legislation swiftly passed both chambers after Trump signaled he supported doing so after much resistance.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has repeated calls for peace and pledged absolute loyalty to his people at a rally attended by thousands in Caracas, as tensions escalate over potential military action by the United States.

The rally on Monday came as US President Donald Trump met with his national security team at the White House to discuss the next steps on Venezuela, according to media reports.

Maduro, addressing a crowd waving Venezuelan flags outside the Miraflores Palace, said his country wanted peace, but only a peace with sovereignty, equality and freedom.

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We do not want a slaves peace, nor the peace of colonies! Colony, never! Slaves, never! he said.

The Trump administration has been piling pressure on Venezuela with a military buildup in the Caribbean, in what it calls an anti-drug trafficking campaign. Caracas says the actions are aimed at toppling Maduros government.

The US has amassed 15,000 troops in the region and deployed the worlds largest aircraft carrier there, while also designating the Cartel de los Soles, which it describes as a drug trafficking cartel led by Maduro, as a terrorist organisation.

It has also carried out at least 21 strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific since September, killing at least 83 people.

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Experts say the assembled US firepower far outweighs what is necessary for a drug-trafficking operation, while Caracas says the US is seeking regime change to take control of Venezuelas vast natural resources, including oil.

Supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro attend a ceremony in Caracas, Venezuela, December 1, 2025 [Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/ Reuters]

Maduro on Monday accused the US of waging a campaign of psychological terrorism.

We have endured 22 weeks of aggression, he said. These 22 weeks have put us to the test, and the people of Venezuela have demonstrated their love for the homeland, he added.

Trump-Maduro call

Trump, meanwhile, confirmed on Sunday that he spoke to Maduro on the phone, but declined to give details, saying it did not go well or badly.

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The Reuters news agency, citing four sources familiar with the matter, reported on Monday that Trump offered Maduro safe passage out of Venezuela during the call on November 21.

Maduro told Trump he was willing to leave Venezuela, provided he and his family members had full legal amnesty, including the removal of all US sanctions and the end of a flagship case he faces before the International Criminal Court (ICC), Reuters reported, citing three of the sources.

Maduro also requested removal of sanctions for more than 100 Venezuelan government officials, many accused by the US of human rights abuses, drug trafficking or corruption, Reuters said.

Trump rejected most of his requests on the call, but told Maduro he had a week to leave Venezuela for the destination of his choice alongside his family members.

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That safe passage expired on Friday, prompting Trump to declare on Saturday that Venezuelas airspace was closed, two of the sources told Reuters.

There was no immediate comment from the US or Venezuela about the report.





The Trump administration has said it does not recognise Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, as Venezuelas legitimate president. Maduro claimed a re-election victory last year in a national ballot that the US and other Western governments dismissed as a sham, and which independent observers said the opposition won overwhelmingly.

Al Jazeeras Teresa Bo, reporting from Cucuta on the Colombia-Venezuela border, said Maduros appearance at the Caracas rally came amid rumours that he had left the country following Trumps declaration about Venezuelas airspace.

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Bo said Venezuelans crossing the Simon Bolivar International Bridge between Colombia and Venezuela were extremely concerned about the possibility of a military strike by the US on Caracas.

In the meantime, the Venezuelan government, too was continuing to deploy military units across the country, she said.

They are protecting the capital, Caracas, specifically the main highway that connects to the airport and the coastal areas of Venezuela. We have seen the minister of defence, Vladimir Padrino Lopez, show off some military equipment, among them aerial defences [and] fighter jets, Bo said.

Venezuelan officials know the countrys military is no match for the US, she said.

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Thats why they are focusing on another strategy. And this would include irregular attacks, sabotage, using criminal groups, government supporters, and possibly guerrillas, among others, Bo said.

The main idea would be to generate chaos [and] anarchy, and thats something that concerns many people in the country. And there are some that say that even though they would like to see Maduro go, they are concerned that violence could take over their country, she added.
A GOP senator has put forward a bill that would force dual citizens to renounce their foreign citizenship and submit exclusive allegiance to the United States  legislation that would strip the first lady Melania Trump, and son Barron of their Slovenian passports.

Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno shared his radical plan Monday, titled Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025, which would force anyone with dual citizenship to choose between the two countries.

An individual may not be a citizen or national of the United States while simultaneously possessing any foreign citizenship, Morenos bill read. A citizen of the United States who, after the date of the enactment of this Act, voluntarily acquires foreign citizenship shall be deemed to have relinquished United States citizenship.

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Moreno was born in Colombia and became a U.S. citizen at the age of 18.

It was an honor to pledge an Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America and only to the United States of America, Moreno said in a news release. Being an American citizen is an honor and a privilege  and if you want to be an American  its all or nothing. Its time to end dual citizenship for good.

The proposed legislation would strip the first lady Melania Trump and son Barron of their Slovenian citizenship (Getty)

Morenos plan will likely hit a snag  under the Fourteenth Amendment, a U.S. citizen cannot lose his or her citizenship unless he or she willingly surrenders it.

Melania moved to the U.S. in 1996 and is the only first lady to become a naturalized citizen. She obtained citizenship in 2006 and remains a dual citizen of the U.S. and Slovenia, along with her 19-year-old son, Barron, according to Mary Jordans 2020 book, The Art of Her Deal, about the former model.

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It was essential to the first lady that Barron spoke Slovenian and that he held a Slovenian passport, in addition to an American one, Jordan wrote.

[Donald] Trump has complained to others that he has no idea what they are saying, one passage of the book reads.

Moreno, who was born in Colombia and became a U.S. citizen at 18, said it was time to end dual citizenship for good (Getty Images)

In an interview last year, Jordan said that dual citizenship allowed Barron to work freely in all of Europe much more easily.

So if he wants to go start a Paris bureau of Trump.org or a Slovenian bureau, its much easier for him, and it just gives him more options, the author said.

Under Morenos bill, which would be enforced by the Department of Homeland Security and State Department, dual citizens would be flagged by the system and be given one year to renounce their foreign citizenship or give up their American citizenship.

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Anyone who does not comply after a year would automatically lose their U.S. citizenship and be recorded as a non-citizen.

The Trump administration has made unprecedented attempts this year to end birthright citizenship, which is being challenged in the courts.
TRENTON, New Jersey  In Washington, Sen. Andy Kim is known as a reliable vote against the Trump administrations agenda.

In Trenton, at least one Democrat is questioning that commitment  but only after Kim raised concerns that New Jersey lawmakers are trying to weaken a key state watchdog agency that has prioritized anti-corruption efforts.

A legislative showdown is brewing in the New Jersey Statehouse, with state Senate Democrats trying to take away investigative powers from the state comptroller, while at the same time giving a separate government watchdog  the State Commission of Investigation  additional responsibilities. And on Monday, a debate over the bill devolved into a raucous hearing with petty moves and political cheap shots against some of the states top officials.

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It comes a month after Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill won a landslide victory for governor, and the bill could hamstring her pledges on government transparency before she takes the oath. She has publicly said she will not comment on the bill.

The proposal from state lawmakers to weaken the comptroller has become a cause celebre for the states progressive Democratic base  while also drawing comparisons to the Trump administrations efforts to fire inspectors general and take control of independent agencies.

How can we legitimately criticize the lawlessness that we see and the disregard of transparency and accountability down in D.C., if we are taking actions in our own state capital that will weaken safeguards here at home? Kim told members of the State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee on Monday.

After Kim expressed his opposition to the comptroller bill, State Sen. James Beach, who chairs the committee, suggested that Kim was not sufficiently opposing the presidents agenda.

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I do not respect the President of the United States and why did you vote with him so many times? Beach asked Kim, prompting grumblings from the crowd which ironically was mostly comprised of Democratic activists. Beach cited Kim voting to support two of Trumps cabinet officials, Kristi Noem and Marco Rubio.

Kim responded: I will stand up against Trump in the same way that I will stand up against corruption here in New Jersey.

The Comptrollers Office under acting Comptroller Kevin Walsh has released headline-making reports, alleging fraud, waste and abuse in some of the highest levels of Democratic power in the state. The proposal lawmakers advanced on Monday would strip key investigative powers from the comptroller, leaving it to oversee Medicaid fraud, contract procurements and other audits while effectively killing its ongoing investigations.

The proposal to weaken the comptroller  pushed by Senate President Nick Scutari, the second-most powerful person in Trenton  has caused Kim, Walsh and Attorney General Matt Platkin to take the unusual step of trying to derail the legislation. All three spoke at Mondays hearing.

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The hearing had petty undertones. Beach had the three state officials wait nearly four hours to express their opposition to the proposal.

When Kim said that he waited hours to speak and would likely miss Senate votes because of the delay, Beach appeared uninterested in accommodating him.

Yeah, so what? So was everyone else. Why do you think youre special? Youre not, he said.

(A spokesperson for Kim later confirmed to POLITICO that Kim missed his train to Washington.)

Kim noted that another person who testified in favor of the bill was allowed to speak and take questions from senators for around 40 minutes.

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He came at my request  you didnt, Beach responded.

Platkin said that he would be looking into Beachs comments.

I would just note for the record thats a textbook First Amendment violation of viewpoint discrimination, which the Attorney Generals Office will be taking up, he said.

Beach was similarly cold toward Platkin. During the hearing, he told the Democratic Attorney General that there were many black eyes under his leadership and that you are the problem.

(Notably, Platkin tried prosecuting Beachs political benefactor, South Jersey Democratic power broker George Norcross, on corruption charges. A judge dismissed the charges although Platkin is appealing the case.)

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Platkin challenged Beachs claims that he drug down the department  and started listing his accomplishments ranging from billions in federal funds preserved due to lawsuits against the Trump administration, playing a key role in preserving birthright citizenship and lawsuits to keep New Jerseyans on federal food assistance during the federal government shutdown.

Whatve you been up to, senator? What are you claiming? Walsh chimed in after Platkin.

Beach declined to take questions after the hearing. When asked by reporters why he would not speak, he said: Im hungry.

Walsh told reporters after the hearing he was optimistic that Gov. Phil Murphy and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin would not allow the bill to become law.

This bill is an affront to democracy and the way that this bill was debated debased the Senate, he said.
An 82-year-old man knocked to the ground for bumping into his elderly neighbor in the West Village died of his injuries three weeks later  and the case has been deemed a homicide, police said Monday.

Dean Conover Whetzel hit the pavement after 79-year-old neighbor Dana Escoffier allegedly knocked him to the ground on Hudson St. near W. 10th St., just around the corner from the apartment building where both men lived, about 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 11, cops said.

I pushed him because he bumped into me, Escoffier, who was arrested near the scene that day, told a witness, according to the criminal complaint against him.

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Escoffier was charged with assault and aggravated harassment and released without bail following his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.

Whetzel, who hit his head on the concrete, languished in critical condition at Bellevue Hospital before dying there Nov. 5, cops said.

The city medical examiner performed an autopsy and deemed his death a homicide, the NYPD announced Monday.

Hes dead? Escoffier asked the Daily News at his apartment door Monday night. I dont believe it. I had no idea. Im just hearing this now. I dont think my attorney even knows.

Its not clear whether Escoffier will face upgraded charges. He is due back in court Thursday.

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Escoffier declined to comment on the incident except to say, He didnt die because of me.

Although Escoffier lived in the same building as the victim, he said the two never met prior to the fatal encounter.

A waiter at a nearby restaurant witnessed the incident.

The man who was pushed fell down to the ground and the other guy started walking away, Ethan Dank, 25, who waits tables at Cowgirl NYC, told The News. People surrounded the guy on the ground, trying to help.

It was very jarring, said Dank. He was lying on the ground. He was squinting, but he was still conscious.

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A friend of Whetzels said the victim was walking his dog, a black terrier named Buddy, when he was pushed.

Dean was a wonderful person. Its terribly sad. He was friends with everyone, said Bifa Secchini. Poor Buddy, his dog was with him when it happened.

Secchini said Whetzels remains would be sent back to his home state of Indiana. His dog is being cared for by a friend.

With John Annese
KABUL, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- A total of 169 development and maintenance projects have been completed and brought into operation in Paktia province, eastern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development announced Tuesday.

These initiatives include a range of essential improvements, including water dams, rural road reconstruction, water canals, bridges, culverts, and retaining walls, and were implemented in Zurmat district, according to the ministry's statement.

In a related development, the ministry has completed and handed over 51 infrastructure projects in northern Samangan province over the past week.

By prioritizing rural rehabilitation, water resource management, and essential public works, the Afghan government seeks to address persistent economic challenges, alleviate poverty, and generate employment opportunities across the country. 
A man has been arrested and charged after video captured the random attack of a New York University student on her way to class this week.

It happened Monday morning in front of 735 Broadway.

The 20-year-old victim was walking down the street when the man walked up behind her.

Police say the man pulled her hair and slapped her head and buttocks, knocking her to the ground.

Bystanders watched in shock before a group of women behind her stopped to help and called 911.

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"I saw the video as well, which was scary and very disturbing," said NYU graduate student Ashlyn Prieto. "So, it's definitely something to be more on the lookout, especially as my commute towards the park, especially because that was exactly like route that I would take. So it was very scary."

Police say they later arrested 45-year-old James Rizzo on Tuesday, and charged him persistent sexual abuse, forcible touching and assault.

They say they were called for a man sleeping in a building. Investigators then made the connection to Monday's attack, and arrested Rizzo.

He did not comment as he was led out of the 6th precinct in handcuffs on Tuesday night.

"I've always been concerned about safety a little bit, but definitely seeing something happen like that, it brings it to my concern more," said NYU freshman Rachel Rosenberg.

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NYU says it is offering support to the student, and are pleased that the suspect is in custody.

"The University is pleased that a suspect has been apprehended in the attack on one of its students that took place Monday morning on a Broadway sidewalk," NYU spokesperson John Beckman said. "We take this incident very seriously. We are continuing to offer support to the student, and our Campus Safety Department assisted the victim and worked with the police investigating the incident."

Investigators are now trying to determine if Rizzo is responsible for other random attacks on female students at NYU.

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The Salem County Prosecutors Office is investigating after they say a man died by suicide during an interaction with police on Thanksgiving.

The incident occurred shortly after 8 p.m. Thursday in a parking lot adjacent to a Wawa and a McDonalds on Route 130 in Penns Grove, officials said.

There was an incident on Thursday night where an individual took his own life with a handgun, Salem County First Assistant Prosecutor Jeffrey Barile wrote in an emailed response to questions from NJ Advance Media.

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Police officers from neighboring Carneys Point responded to the Penns Grove location where the shooting occurred as part of their investigation of an incident in Carneys Point, according to Barile.

He declined to release additional details about the incident, citing the ongoing investigation.

Authorities have not identified the man.

The state Attorney Generals Office of Public Integrity and Accountability assigned the prosecutors office to serve as independent investigator in the incident, the agencies confirmed Monday.

In a Facebook post on Thursday night, Penns Grove Mayor LaDaena Londo wrote that officers were approaching the man when the incident occurred.

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When officers approached, the individual stepped out of the car. In that moment, he took his own life, the mayor stated.

Authorities have not said if the individual had any communication with the officers before the shooting, and they have not described the earlier Carneys Point incident that brought officers into Penns Grove.

Located on the Delaware River, the borough of Penns Grove is less than a square mile in size and has a population of around 5,000.

In her post, Mayor Londo wrote that the holidays can be challenging for many people and urged residents to look out for each other.

My heart goes out to this man, his family, and all of his loved ones, she said. May they find peace, comfort, and support in the days ahead. My heart also goes out to the officers.

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Editors note: NJ Advance Media typically limits reporting on suicides to those that occur in crowded public places, involve public figures or, in special circumstances, where there is a larger public impact. Suicidal thoughts and behaviors can be reduced with the proper mental health support and treatment. If you are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.

Read the original article on NJ.com. Add NJ.com as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Police in Delaware say the discovery of a vehicle in a park after hours may have ended with a violent plot being thwarted.

The man inside the truck was found to have a gun, ammo, and a notebook with alleged "premeditated assault plans."

Although the threat was against the University of Delaware police department, the plot was discovered by New Castle County police officers, largely by coincidence as they conducted routine patrols in Wilmington.

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"And they just randomly drove up in the Canby Park West, and when they located the vehicle in the park, once they made contact with the individual, rather than just shooing the person out, saying, 'hey, the park is closed,' they did police work," Master Corporal Richard Chambers said.

Luqmaan Khan, 25, was arrested in that Wilmington park just after midnight last Monday, November 24 after refusing to comply with officers' requests.

Luqmaan Khan

Police said prior to the arrest, he appeared "visibly nervous," avoiding eye contact and reaching towards the same location multiple times.

After searching his vehicle, police found a gun, a conversion kit, body armor, binoculars, a laptop, and a notebook containing a diagram of the University of Delaware police department, including entry and exit points, "warfare techniques," and ways to avoid law enforcement detection, according to police.

In one section, he allegedly wrote, "kill all - martyrdom." In his post-arrest interview with police, he stated that becoming a martyr is "one of the greatest things you can do," and a goal of his, according to investigators.

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Upon discovering the notebook, New Castle County Police immediately contacted the FBI, which took over the case.

"They broke the glass and threw flash bangs in," recalled Khan's next-door neighbor, who asked to only be identified as Mary. She was home as federal agents executed a search warrant on Khan's home in Wilmington last week. His windows are now boarded up.

The FBI says another handgun was found in Khan's home equipped with an illegal "switch" to convert it into a machine gun. Neither weapon found in his possession was registered.

Khan has no prior convictions. He's from Pakistan but moved to the United States as a child and is a legal citizen.

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Khan is currently facing weapons charges but no charges regarding the threat against the police department. Those charges would come from the FBI, and that agency's investigation remains ongoing. Khan remains locked up.

Khan's neighbor, Mary, said Khan was a barber and she was looking for someone to cut her son's hair, who has autism. She allowed Khan to do it, and said he was friendly and talkative.

A few months ago, Mary noticed Khan's typical neighborly behavior had begun to change.

"He just went standoffish. So anytime anybody would say hi to him, he just completely ignored everyone," she said.

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In a statement sent out to students, the University of Delaware said "this frightens us all," but went on to reassure students that "there are no known or immediate threats to the University of Delaware community."

"I've always felt very safe on this campus, so obviously hearing anything like that is obviously gonna be shocking," University of Delaware freshman Charlotte Ward said.

"That can be scary. I know things like this happen all the time, but I'm really happy that I learned about it through our school's email. I feel like that really helped me realize that our school has a good system set up to keep us safe," Laney Benc, also a freshman, told Action News.

Khan has been banned from all UD campuses while the investigation is underway, interim president Laura Carlson said in a statement.
A man charged in a Shasta County murder-rape case that's gone unsolved for four decades pleaded guilty on Monday, Dec. 1 to first-degree murder in the 1984 killing of Terry Arndt and the sexual assault of his teenage companion, the Shasta County District Attorney's Office said.

Roger Neal Schmidt Sr. made the plea in the shooting death of Arndt, then 18, and an 18-year-old woman as the couple sat in Arndt's car near Burney Junior-Senior High School on December 14, 1984.

After Terry Arndt was killed and the young woman in his car assaulted after a unknown man approached their parked car in Burney, the murder-rape case prompted a long and difficult investigation that stretched over four decades.

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Despite early efforts, the case went cold until new DNA methods and forensic genealogy provided the breakthrough investigators needed.

Working with a private company that specializes in investigative genetic genealogy and the Tucson law enforcement officials, Shasta County officials said they traveled to Tucson in July of this year to obtain Schmidt's DNA, which confirmed the match.

After that, Schmidt was interviewed and confessed to all the charges, leading to his arrest for the murder and assault after so many years.

Schmidt had been born in Shasta County and was 23-years-old and living in Burney when the crimes were committed in 1984, according to investigators.

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More: Arizona man arrested in 1984 unsolved murder-rape case of 2 Shasta County teens

The agreed upon sentence will be life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the District Attorney's Office. Schmidt waived all appeal rights, officials said.

Schmidt is scheduled for judgment and sentencing on Dec. 16 at Shasta County Superior Court.

What police said happened initially in the case; a false lead

Terry Arndt, an 18-year-old Shasta College student, was shot twice through the window of his parents' car with a rifle on a wooded lovers' lane near Burney High School, according to authorities. The assailant then sexually assaulted the teenage girl he was with, authorities said.

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The case stayed unsolved for years.

"It was brutal," said Keith Arndt, Terry Arndt's father, during an interview in 2010 with the Record Searchlight about his grief. "That's why it makes it so hard to go away for his mom and I, the brutality of it. I've got tears in my eyes right now."

Terry Arndt

In 1995, deputies with the Shasta County Sheriff's Office arrested Thomas Elmer Brewster, then a 42-year-old felon with a history of violent crimes and drug abuse, and accused him of the killing.

Terry Arndt's date allegedly had identified Brewster in a standing lineup as the man who assaulted her, according to coverage from the Record Searchlight's archives.

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After sitting in jail for two years, Brewster went to trial in 1997.

But eight weeks into the capital trial, he was exonerated because DNA taken from the teen's semen-stained blouse proved Brewster wasn't her assailant.

Inexplicably, the blouse had been in investigators' possession since the murder, but it had not been tested until Brewster's lawyers discovered it.

Michele Chandler covers public safety, dining and whatever else comes up for the Redding Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. Accepts story tips at 530-338-7753 and at mrchandler@gannett.com. Please support our entire newsroom's commitment to public service journalism by subscribing today.

This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Man pleads guilty in murder-rape cold case from 1984 in Burney
MANITOWOC  Now that Old Man Winter appears here to stay, when can we expect to see more of the white stuff to fall from the sky?

Looks like Manitowoc County will see some light snow flurries Wednesday.

Accuweather says the area will see snow flurries Wednesday morning, with the day being cloudy, breezy and chilly. The high will be around 29 degrees, and the low a measly 3 degrees above zero.

Temperatures are expected to reach just 11 degrees Thursday and will be around the 20-degree mark through at least Sunday.

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Tuesday (Dec. 9) will see some snow showers in the morning, according to The Weather Channel. The snow will continue at night, with a 50% chance Manitowoc will see 1 to 3 inches of snow over the night.

Manitowoc parade rescheduled: Manitowoc's Lakeshore Holiday Parade rescheduled for Dec. 10

More snow will come on Wednesday (Dec. 10) and the high may reach above freezing at 33 degrees.

Light-falling snow looks to continue throughout the following weekend, with an inch or so here or there  which could add up over time!

Two Rivers parade rescheduled: Two Rivers Hometown Christmas Parade moved to Dec. 6

How much snow did the area get Nov. 30-Dec. 1?

Wondering how much snow the areas first significant winter brought over the weekend of Nov. 30 to Dec. 1?

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According to the National Weather Service, Manitowoc received 8 inches of snow and Two Rivers saw 7.1 inches, Kiel measured in at 10 inches and Mishicot had 8 inches.

Of course anything can happen, but it seems likely Wisconsin will see a white Christmas in 2025.

Contact reporter Patti Zarling at pzarling@usatodayco.com or call 920-606-2575.

This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Manitowoc and Two Rivers likely will see a white Christmas in 2025
A Massachusetts State Police trooper was arrested and charged after a lengthy investigation uncovered allegations that he assaulted his child.

On November 25, Trooper Michael Gagnon was taken into custody and charged with domestic assault and battery on a child under 14.

According to court documents, police spoke with the Department of Children and Families, which reported that a juvenile victim said his father allegedly struck him in the face with a closed fist, injuring his eye and face area.

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Gagnon allegedly told the child not to tell his mother, and to say a whiffle ball bat accidentally caused the mark on his face.

The police report states the injury happened while the child was visiting his father, as Gagnon and his wife were going through a divorce.

The childs mother told investigators the juvenile would allegedly throw tantrums whenever it was time to visit his father.

She consulted his physician, who advised her to bring the child to a therapist, where the allegations were reported.

Through the collaboration of DCF, the Plympton Police Department, the Plymouth District Attorney, and Massachusetts State Police, Gagnon was taken into custody just before 6 p.m. at his home in Plympton.

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Gagnon posted $1,000 bail and was released Nov. 26.

The Massachusetts State Police stands firmly against all forms of domestic violence. When the Department learned of these serious charges, we relieved the Trooper of duty and suspended him without pay. We will follow the court proceedings as part of our ongoing personnel investigation and await the outcome of that process, an MSP spokesperson told Boston 25 News.

State payroll records indicate Gagnon has been a trooper since at least 2020. Hes made $102,000 already this year.

Gagnon is scheduled back in court next month

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

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Mayor Brandon Johnson's controversial proposed 2026 budget has caused several Chicago City Council members to work overtime to come up with an alternative.

"We've been working with a lot of experts in municipal finance who are looking at these things with us. Experience that we have, or I had, as the finance chair," said 32nd Ward Ald. Scott Waguespack.

Waguespack is leading the charge against the mayor's budget, which includes a corporate head tax. Calling the tax a job killer, Waguespack sent the mayor's office a letter on Nov. 4 with a list of money-saving efficiencies.

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"Debt collection is a huge one, and the fact that they have $1 billion per year, uncollected debt over the last two years, is just outrageous," Waguespack said.

Waguespack says the city is owed everything from administrative court costs to parking tickets and fees. He also suggested money savings in fleet management, procurement, and health insurance for city employees. The mayor's budget team sent a response to Waguespack over the holiday weekend, telling him the ideas are not practical for the 2026 budget.

"On health insurance, we have contract with our labor partners, and those things all have to be negotiated. These are things that cannot be done in one year or one-budget cycle. These are things that will happen over time," said Budget Committee Chairman Ald. Jason Ervin.

SEE ALSO | Chicago Mayor Johnson offers aldermen online portal to submit budget efficiency ideas

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Johnson and Ervin are not backing off on the head tax as a way to pay for public safety initiatives. The tax would charge companies with over 100 employees $21 per head. Ervin says if alderpersons do not vote for the head tax, the options are property tax hikes or service cuts.

"No one is signing up for service cuts. We continue to ask people, 'Do you want that pothole filled in 10 days or 30 days?'" Ervin said.

Waguespack and others deny their alternative ideas will result in service cuts. They are putting together some revenue options that the alderman says does not include a property tax.

"We have a slew of those revenue ideas that we're finalizing, and we'll prepare those for presentation, probably late tomorrow or into Wednesday," Waguespack said.

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One idea is a delivery tax. The mayor's office has rejected it because his budget team says it needs state approval. Waguespack says it does not.

The city council has until the end of year to pass a balanced budget. As of now, the mayor will continue working on more votes for the head tax.
Megyn Kelly defended the Caribbean boat strikes ordered by President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, not only calling the criticism manufactured but also complaining that the people on the boats were being killed too quickly and she would prefer to see them suffer.

The Trump administration has been facing increasing scrutiny for the strikes on boats they have said were carrying narco-terrorists, especially after recent reporting of a second strike being ordered on survivors after an initial strike has led to growing accusations that these strikes are war crimes or otherwise illegal.

Kelly discussed the controversy on the latest episode of The Megyn Kelly Show during an interview with Mark Halperin (relevant section begins around the 36 minute mark).

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After mentioning that Hegseth had denied that he personally ordered the second strike so that may get Hegseth off the hook, Kelly said she thought it was kind of annoying to even debate it.

Our armed forces should, umm, not commit war crimes, Kelly continued, but also I feel like I object to even the scrutiny of this, of this event, because its all manufactured, arguing the criticism was only being done to retroactively justify the video by Democratic members of Congress who Hegseth was calling the Seditious Six, who had posted the video urging troops to refuse illegal orders.

The video from Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and others was based on nothing, Kelly argued, and they were just now digging in a fishing expedition to find something to accuse Hegseth of doing.

Thats how it feels to me, so Im really not that into it, said Kelly. Nor do I really care that were killing the drug boat guys trying to kill my kids and yours right now by bringing their fentanyl to the United States, to try to get our kids when they go to college with, you know, some drug in some moment of weakness where they think theyre taking a Xanax.

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Kelly continued, describing how she would like to see them suffer and die:

So I really do kind of not only want to see them killed in the water, whether theyre on the boat or in the water, but Id really like to see them suffer. I would like Trump and Hegseth to make it last a long time so that they lose a limb and bleed out a little. Like Im really having a difficult time ginning up sympathy for these guys who ten seconds earlier almost got taken out by the initial bomb, but because they managed to get ejected, you know, a little too soon, had to be taken out in the water. I realize legally it may make a difference, but truly, Mark, this is a tough case to really gin up the sympathies of the American people.

The alleged second strike on survivors was a textbook example of a war crime, CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said on Monday:

In a word, they were illegal. It is a core principle of the rule of law and of the law of war that you cannot target and kill people who have been rendered incapacitated or defenseless. That conflicts with the Geneva Convention. There was a group of Judge Advocate General, former military attorneys, who came out with this statement over the weekend saying that these acts would be patently illegal. Colonel Cedric Leighton just told you 15 minutes ago on air that it would be illegal. And Wolf, if you look at the Department of Defenses own manual on the law of war, it uses as an example of something that would be illegal this exact scenario. It says if you have survivors of a shipwreck, they cannot be targeted because they are incapacitated. So if somebody took this order or gave this order knowingly and with the intent to take out two survivors who had been rendered helpless in the water, then yes, it would absolutely be illegal.

Watch the video above via The Megyn Kelly Show on YouTube.

The post Megyn Kelly Complains Trump Isnt Prolonging Deaths of Alleged Drug Traffickers: Id Really Like to See Them Suffer first appeared on Mediaite.
Louisiana is hoping that an enormous data center will spur economic growth, but residents fear the negative consequences.

Meta, the eighth-largest company in the world, is building an artificial intelligence data center in Richland Parish, Louisiana. The construction is upsetting people's daily routines and already driving up their power bills, CBS Evening News reported.

"It's always noise, all the time," Lisa Hopkins said. "... We honestly didn't know how big of a scale it was going to be. ... Some mornings it's hard to get out of our driveway, just because of all the dump trucks."

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The family's utility bill is up $13 a month over last year's, and the data center's demand for energy is expected to spike gas prices, too. Almost 25% of the parish's citizens live in poverty, according to CBS, and Entergy will pass on the cost of a $550 million transmission line for the facility to all its 1.1 million customers in the state.

Meta's revenue in 2024 was $164.5 billion, and the project is pegged at $10 billion. A spokesperson said the company has been in the community every day, spending $1 million to help low-income customers pay their bills and earmarking $200 million for local infrastructure projects as well as school programs to aid the area, per CBS.

An expert said the data center will use three times as much energy as New Orleans does every year.

"It's up to state regulators, really, to step in and protect consumers and make sure that tech companies and utility companies are paying their fair share for this development," Paul Arbaje, an energy analyst in the Union of Concerned Scientists' Climate and Energy program, told CBS.

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"It's not fair. It's not something that we asked to be put here," Hopkins said of the Meta data center.

Resident Donna Collins added: "I definitely don't feel like I had a say, and I don't know many people that do."



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A milk carton with a 'missing' poster of U.S. Rep. John James (R-Shelby Township) that supporters of Michigan Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt brought to Michigan Republican Party gubernatorial debate in Sparta, Mich. James was invited but did not attend. Oct. 29, 2025 | Photo by Ben Solis/Michigan Advance

Nine months out from the 2026 Michigan gubernatorial primary, contenders for the Republican nomination are running like they have all the time in the world.

You would be forgiven for thinking Michigan isnt even holding an election for governor in 2026. While the race exists on paper, in press releases and in campaign finance filings, few of the candidates have full-time staff, have spent meaningful money or have done anything more than make the rounds at rubber-chicken dinners hosted by county Republican parties.

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Republicans have a reasonably long front bench. Congressman John James, state Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, former Attorney General Mike Cox and former Speaker of the House Tom Leonard all bring experience, fundraising capability and established networks of support. The others  who I wont even name  are unlikely to make the ballot.

And yet, for all the theoretical strength, almost none of these campaigns resemble a serious statewide operation.

Republicans, if they want to take back the governors office, must start running a real race.

The political dynamics of 2026  an open seat after eight years of Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and an electorate that remains deeply divided  theoretically favor a strong Republican nominee. Add in the wildcard of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggans faux independent bid and the race is even more ripe for a win.

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But that nominee must first run a campaign worthy of the office.

That means hiring real staff and putting them out front. It means building out an organization in all 83 counties. It means spending money instead of hoarding it. And it means making a public case for why each candidate should be governor, instead of waiting for a Truth Social notification that may never come.

Ask party insiders who is actually managing these campaigns and the answer is often a shrug, followed by a comment about consultants helping informally. Aside from an occasional press release touting how much cash theyve raised, the kind of structure expected at this stage simply isnt there.

Endorsements are similarly scarce.

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Normally by now, you would see state legislators, party officials and grassroots activists pick sides. You would expect candidates to have a chair in every county. As of this writing, only Leonard and Nesbitt have released endorsements  and even then, were talking about a handful of names, maybe a dozen at most. Do any of these campaigns even have a statewide steering committee, let alone a campaign chairman? The silence is telling.

Contrast that with Lieutenant Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. Not only do the two Democrats do a stronger job touting endorsements, but their campaigns also appear to exist beyond the confines of social media feeds.

Among Republicans, it feels as if nobody wants to do anything substantive because President Donald Trump might post a late-night endorsement on Truth Social, thereby ending the race before it truly starts.

If thats the strategy, it rests on shaky ground.

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Trumps 2026 endorsements have mostly focused on races for Congress. Whatever he ultimately decides, theres little evidence hes preparing to wade into the Michigan GOPs gubernatorial primary. And even if he does, candidates cannot run a statewide campaign in a battleground state by holding their breath until absentee ballots drop in June.

Elections are won by the candidates who show up. Right now, the would-be standard-bearers for Michigan Republicans arent showing up nearly enough.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Despite U.S. President Donald Trump's repeated denunciations of urban violence, it remains uncertain whether his administration will manage to deploy troops to several American cities.

Trump has deployed troops to cities, including Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Memphis, many of which have Democratic party leadership.

The president argues that a rise in crime in recent years has made cities unsafe and that many Democrat-led cities allow violent criminals to walk the streets. The White House also cites "violent protests" at immigration facilities as hindering federal agents, arguing that National Guard troops are required to impose order.

Many Democratic city leaders and state officials push back, arguing that the federal deployments are politically motivated, aimed at boosting Trump's image rather than responding to public-safety emergencies.

Thus far, Trump's attempts to deploy troops to cities including Chicago, America's "second city," and Portland, Oregon, have been blocked by lower courts that maintain the deployments are unlawful.

The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on the legality of the federal deployment of the National Guard, but no final decision has been announced yet.

"Lawsuits challenging Trump's authority to send National Guard troops into U.S. cities could well end up at the Supreme Court," Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.

"There are important legal issues at stake in these cases and local officials are outraged at what they see as an abuse of presidential power," West said.

Recent high-profile events have prompted Trump to double down on his contention that cities are unsafe.

In late November, a woman was set on fire in Chicago by a man who had 72 prior arrests on his record. Trump castigated the so-called "liberal judges" who allowed that man to walk the streets prior to the gruesome attack, despite prosecutors' calls to put him behind bars. Critics said the attack could have been avoided if the judge had incarcerated the assailant.

"They burned this beautiful woman riding in a train. A man was arrested 72 times. 72 times. Think of that. And they'll let him out again, the liberal judges will let him out again," Trump said.

Speaking from the White House, Trump has lately called on Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to permit National Guard troops to be deployed to Chicago.

That came on the heels of an incident whereby a teenager was shot dead and eight others wounded after two separate shootings on the same night in downtown Chicago in November, when Trump just claimed a National Guard deployment would make Chicago "totally safe" in just a few weeks.

"And the people of Chicago want us to go there. And if you look at the crime that's taking place in Chicago in the last two weeks, just take a look. It's on the front page of every newspaper," Trump said. "It's out of control."

Pritzker and Johnson regarded any Guard deployment to Chicago as unconstitutional, contending that the city is not as dangerous as Trump claims.

Johnson referred to Trump's push for troops in Chicago as "illegal, unconstitutional, dangerous, and unnecessary," deeming the deployment a move toward authoritarianism rather than public safety.

Separately, two National Guard troops deployed to Washington, D.C., were shot last week, with one succumbing to her wounds.

Trump has been vocal regarding the killing, calling it an "act of evil" and a "crime against our entire nation." He ordered the deployment of 500 additional National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., following the shooting.

However, it remains unknown whether the shooting will strengthen the legal argument that National Guard units are needed in cities across the country.

Following the shooting, some netizens argued on the social platform X that the National Guard troops should never have been there in the first place and blamed the president for making the deployment. 
Milwaukee Public Museum remains on track towards a $240 million fundraising goal tied to its new building, says the museum CEO and president.

Ellen Censky declined to provide an updated amount because that number is continually rising.

"I'm reluctant because it'll end up in a newspaper," Censky said. "And tomorrow, it'll be a different number."

Censky made her comments during a Dec. 2 appearance before the County Board's Committee on Parks and Culture.

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Museum officials will provide an updated amount in early 2026, she said, after the year-end "giving season" is over.

Censky told committee members in March the museum has raised 80% of the $240 million tied to development of its new building scheduled to open in 2027.

That $191 million included around $105 million from private donors as of the end of 2024.

In the Dec. 2 committee appearance, Censky said the museum has since raised millions  including $4.5 million raised in recent weeks.

"We are bringing in checks every single day," Censky said.

The museum is seeking $150 million in private donations. That includes donations for the museum's endowment, which won't be used for building the new facility.

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Along with securing $45 million from the county and $40 million from the state, the museum is seeking $5 million in federal grants.

The fundraising will continue until the new museum, named the Nature and Culture Museum of Wisconsin, opens in about 18 months, Censky said. The five-story, 200,000-square-foot building is under construction at North Sixth Street and West McKinley Avenue.

The cost of designing and constructing the new museum and its exhibits is estimated at $200 million. Additional costs include $20 million for the museum's endowment and $20 million to move the collections.

The current museum, which opened in 1963 at 800 W. Wells St., is too large, inefficient and affected by years of deferred maintenance, according to museum officials.

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Censky mentioned some of those issues to the committee. That includes problems with escalators and elevators shutting down periodically since June  which she called "a major inconvenience."

The museum finished its fiscal year on Aug. 31 with an operating surplus of $2.2 million, compared to a $1.2 surplus from the previous fiscal year.

Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, Bluesky, X and Facebook.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Public Museum remains on track toward its fundraising goal
Thanksgiving week is typically one of the biggest travel periods of the year, but winter holidays like Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Eve aren't that far behindand all that traveling, plus large gatherings, means you're more likely to be exposed to all sorts of illnesses this time of year, including COVID-19.



While most of us are long past the days of social distancing and isolation, the coronavirus is still dangerous, especially for those with pre-existing conditions that can make them predisposed to complications, and even for otherwise healthy people and can have debilitating, long-lasting effects from mild infections.



Thankfully, five years in, we pretty much know how to handle all of it. Here are the most common symptoms of COVID-19 that doctors and infectious disease experts are seeing right now, as well as tips for protecting yourself and others from serious illness.



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What Are the Most Common COVID-19 Symptoms in December 2025?

You can expect to see the usual suspects in terms of COVID-19 symptoms this December, board certified family medicine physician at Providence Saint Johns Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., Dr. David M. Cutler, MD, told Parade.

"The most common symptoms of COVID are essentially the same ones we have seen for the last six years," Dr. Cutler said. "Most cases are mild, so you can be infected and have few, if any symptoms. But if you do get sick, you can expect some or all of the following: fever, chills, cough, sore throat, nasal congestion or runny nose, loss of taste or smell, fatigue, body aches, headache, nausea or vomiting and diarrhea. Shortness of breath indicating a more severe infection is less common but can occur and should trigger seeking medical attention."

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What makes identifying COVID strains tricky is that they can often mimic symptoms of other illnesses, including the common cold, flu, RSV or strep throat and even allergies for some people.

"There's no single symptom that really exists that clearly distinguishes one from another," Dr. Suraj Saggar, DO, chief of infectious disease at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, N.J., tells Parade. "With the recent COVID strains, Nimbus and Stratus, there was a razor blade throat symptom, which some people report very intense, sore throat and cough, dry, hacking cough. But overall, the symptoms of COVID, influenza and RSV can be very similar."

He adds that they can all cause fever, headache, cough and fatigue, but that "Influenza often causes more pronounced body aches, joint and bone pain that tend to be more severe and last longer than the common cold. RSV can attack the lungs and cause wheezing. But COVID can also cause these symptoms."

Photo by South_agency on Getty Images

Dr. Bernadette Boden-Albala, MPH, DrPH, founding dean of the UC Irvine Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health, agrees.

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"Based on trends from the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control, we arent seeing new or unusual symptoms with the variants circulating now," she says. "Stratus and Nimbus, current COVID variants, largely mirror previous strains, with symptoms like fever, cough, congestion and fatigue still the most common. The one unique feature of the Nimbus variant is a pronounced 'razor blade' sore throat, which clinicians are reporting more frequently. Overall, this consistency in symptoms suggests were not seeing a significantly different strain emerging this flu/COVID season."

What's more, a lot of the symptoms that seemed to be COVID hallmarks early in the pandemic aren't nearly as prevalent now.

"When COVID first appeared, we saw the lower respiratory tract manifestation of pneumonia. We don't see that anymore," Dr. Saggar says. "Current variants mainly cause upper respiratory tract infections. Also, the loss of the sense of taste (known as ageusia) or dysgeusia (metallic taste) was associated with early variants of COVID, but that is no longer the case."

"As time goes on and COVID infections become generally less serious, we see fewer cases of severe respiratory symptoms leading to hospitalization or death," Dr. Cutler said. "But this can occur as there were about 50,000 covid deaths in the country during the past year. To put this in perspective, this is about double the number of deaths from the flu. However, covid caused only about 1% of the total deaths which have occurred in the past year, making it the tenth most common cause of death."

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All of this is why testing is crucial if you feel sick, because treatments can vary for each.

Related: The Surprising COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effect No One Is Talking About

Should You Get the COVID Booster?

Doctors agree: Vaccination is your biggest safeguard against getting a severe case of COVID-19, as well as the flu. The very best time to have gotten vaccinated was yesterday, but there's still time!

"The best time to get a COVID-19 vaccine or booster is now before holiday gatherings and increased travel, especially by air," Dr. Boden-Albala says. "Vaccination offers safer and more predictable protection than infection, and it takes about two weeks for the immune system to build a strong response after a dose. Because protection is highest in the first few months, getting vaccinated ahead of the holidays ensures people enter peak flu/COVID season with optimal immunity to protect themselves, their loved ones, and the community."

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What's more, getting the COVID vaccine can also protect you from long COVID, which is no joke. A 2024 study revealed that being vaccinated against COVID-19 led to a whopping 50% drop in risk of developing long COVID if you get infected!

And for skeptics, well, you're literally only hurting yourself (and your loved ones potentially), and that makes us sad.

"The most controversial COVID vaccine side effect is myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart," Dr. Cutler noted. "While it can occur from the vaccine, it is far more likely to be caused by a COVID infection. Most experts believe that in general, the risk of myocarditis is not a reason to avoid the vaccine."

Related: Can You Get a Flu Shot and a COVID Shot at the Same Time?

Whats the Best Way To Protect Against COVID-19 Right Now?

In addition to vaccination, masking up in crowded places is still a smart move if you're concerned about COVID. Washing your hands frequently (and properly!), avoiding infected persons and getting seven to 10 hours of sleep every night can also go a long way to keeping yourself and others safe.

Related: These Are the Vaccine Side Effects You Should Actually Worry About, According to Infectious Disease Experts

Whats the Quickest Way To Get Rid of COVID Symptoms?

So you've done your due diligence, but still physically feel like something found on the bottom of a shoe. What now?

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First things first: Book an appointment with your physician or urgent care clinic if you can, so a medical professional can give you a proper diagnosis. If that's unfeasible, take an at-home PCR test.

If and when you've confirmed a COVID diagnosis, talk to your doctor about your treatment options. You may be able to snag a prescription for Paxlovid, which can shorten your suffering through COVID symptoms.

You'll also want to stay hydrated, isolate from others and try to rest as much as you can. You can treat symptoms with over-the-counter medications. Depending on what your individual symptoms are, antihistamines, decongestants (you'll have to get these from the pharmacy counter), lozenges, cough syrup, pain relievers and fever reducers can go a long way to making you feel human againbut be sure to check with your doctor and/or pharmacist to make sure nothing you take will interact negatively with any other medications you may be taking or other conditions you may have.

Up Next:

Related: COVID Had a Startling Impact on Our Brains, New Research SaysHeres What a Neurologist Wants You To Do

Sources:

This story was originally published by Parade on Dec 1, 2025, where it first appeared in the Health & Wellness section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Weather around the midwest has caused thousands of flight delays and travel issues over the Thanksgiving holiday, disrupting travel and making life difficult for millions of Americans in the region.

Some states were hit with over a foot of snow over the weekend, and the National Weather Service says that more is on the way. Some areas are set to receive an additional three to five inches of snow, making travel even more difficult across both Monday and Tuesday.

More inclement weather is set to come to the Northeastern part of the country, and some meteorologists believe it could bring severe, bitter cold along with it.

Snow Expected Before Polar Vortex

According to AccuWeather's Brandon Buckingham, "the rain vs. snow line is expected to come close to the Interstate 95 corridor between Monday night and Tuesday."

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A slight shift in the storm track farther offshore could help to pull in cold enough air for snow to occur in places like Philadelphia, New York City and Boston.

Snowfall of six inches or more is possible in certain areas, but the snow could be the least of the issues facing those in the region.

MIT climatologist Judah Cohen believes that severe cold is coming to the Northeast, telling USA TODAY that the cold weather and snow this week will be an "appetizer," and that the "main course will be in mid-December."

Based on findings from his team's weather modeling computer, Cohen says the extent of cold weather will stretch from the plains of Canada to the United States' East Coast in the third week of the month.

Cold Air and Bitter Temperatures

The cold air will come from a rapidly-moving polar vortex that will shift lower than expected. Cohen isn't sure what the exact temperatures will be in a matter of weeks, but he believes they'll be lower than what those in the Midwest are currently experiencing.

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For reference, temperatures in the Midwest are between the 10s and 20s this week, and some areas have experienced temperatures at or below 0.

New York City hasn't experienced a white Christmas since 2009, when two inches of snow fell on the ground in the center of Manhattan. The phenomenon has been relatively rare in the Big Apple, but the bitter cold and expected snowy conditions could make it more possible than normal this time around.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Dec 1, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Well know Wednesday morning if a special election in Tennessee is truly a referendum on country music, pedal taverns and bachelorettes.

Or, if we can divine a deeper political meaning from the results of the special election in Tennessees 7th Congressional District.

Democrat Aftyn Behn is trying to tip the scales in favor of her party in a district which President Trump carried by about 20 points and former Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., won by a similar percentage last fall.

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Behn faces GOPer Matt Van Epps. Its a Republican district. But political observers are watching the race to gauge potential weakness by President Trump, a softness in the Trump coalition, issues with the Republican brand or early indications of a possible blue wave in the 2026 midterms.

Democrats, Republicans Go All In On Final 2025 Congressional Ballot Box Showdown

Depending on who you ask, the race for Tennessee's 7th congressional district  between Republican nominee Matt Van Epps, former state Department of General Services, and Aftyn Behn, a Democratic state representative  may be headed for a photo finish.

It was Behn who proclaimed that she abhorred Nashville several years ago. "I hate the bachelorettes, I hate the pedal taverns, I hate country music. I hate all the things that make Nashville apparently an it city," complained Behn.

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About all Behn left out in her animus toward Music City was dissing The Grand Ole Opry, hot chicken and Goo Goo Clusters. But if voters go goo goo over Behn Tuesday, Republicans face a cluster of another sort. A Behn victory may signal major problems for Republicans and President Trump heading into the midterms.

Behn is characterized as the "AOC of Tennessee," a reference to progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. Republicans have been sure to boomerang that against Behn, suggesting shes not in tune with the district, leans too far to the left and is closer to the liberal values of New York or Los Angeles than Nashville. Republicans believe Behn is just a bad fit for Nashville. Kind of like having Bad Bunny perform at the Ryman Auditorium.

"It shouldnt even be close. But it is," mused Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., on Fox.

So Republicans are pouring in money to protect the seat. Democrats are pouring in money to steal the seat. If Democrats pull off the upset, the party should uproot the goalposts at FirstBank Stadium in downtown Nashville and dump it in the Cumberland River. Kind of what Vanderbilt fans did last year when the Commodores upset number one-ranked Alabama.

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Lets explore what a Behn win might mean for Republicans. It could indicate that voters are tiring of President Trump. Or that the GOP brand is toxic. Or perhaps its the continuation of a trend which Democrats enjoyed this fall: near blowout wins by New Jersey Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill and Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger.

But theres a downside for Democrats. Yes. They may flip the seat. But a win may also show that the party is tilting more to the left. It would be hard to argue with success if Behn prevails, regardless of her progressive streak. But this may give other liberals ideas that they can win in other red or purple districts. That may work against Democrats  especially since every Republican, except President Trump  has highlighted the left-wing politics of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.

Trump Makes 11Th-hour Plea For Matt Van Epps Over Aftyn Behn, Whom He Claims 'Hates Christianity'

Democrats probably need to run more centrist candidates in purple areas to regain control of the House. A Behn victory could open the floodgates for a host of progressive candidates in competitive House districts nationwide. Behns message  or that of Ocasio-Cortez or Mamdani  wont work in most places where Democrats need to be successful to seize control of the House.

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But what if Republicans hold the seat and Van Epps wins?

It probably depends by how much.

Yes, there were five special elections in 2017  the first year President Trump was originally in office  which Democrats made competitive. All were closer than they should have been. But Democrats didnt win any of them. Still, astute political observers suggested there was unpopularity with the president and the GOP agenda. Democrats won 41 seats and gained control of the House in the 2018 midterms.

So, even if Van Epps wins, examine the margin. And if Behn wins, see if Republicans downplay it because it was a special election and the customary electorate just doesnt turn out for special elections. Especially one wedged between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

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If Republicans hold the seat, the GOP will argue this was a repudiation of a leftist like Behn and someone who was out of step. They will also suggest that its a GOP seat and Republicans should win anyway. Thats what happened earlier this year when there was consternation before two Florida special elections. But Reps. Randy Fine, R-Fla., and Jimmy Patronis, R-Fla., both won in March.

Heres another factor which bears watching: the message the press corps and political observers glean from the election results. After all, special elections are always special. Its natural for analysts and journalists to search for particular meanings or signposts in these contests. Such was the case with the off-year elections in New Jersey, Virginia and New York City. Sometimes these observations are spot-on. Other times, they mean nothing. If anything, there is a tendency to over-illuminate the outcomes of these contests. They are moments in time. Kind of like listening to a few bars of a song. Maybe it tells you a lot about the song. Maybe not.

House Republicans could well freak out if Behn is victorious. Theres lots of grumbling among Republicans. Some are frustrated by how their leadership handled the government shutdown. And others could follow Mark Green and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and hit the exits early.

This is a fragile time for House Republicans. Thats one reason why a flip of this seat could mean a little bit more.

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Dem House Hopeful Getting Yanked From Governor's Office During Attempted Sit-in Goes Viral Ahead Of Election

Still, its rare to flip seats in House special elections. Former Rep. Don Cazayoux, D-La., won a special election in a red district in Louisiana in 2008 after former Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., resigned. But current Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., then won that seat in the general election and served in the House before moving to the Senate.

Former Rep. Mayra Flores, R-Texas, flipped the seat held by former Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Texas, in 2022. But she lost reelection that fall.

Former Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., won a special election in 2020 after former Rep. Katie Hill, D-Calif., resigned just months into office. Garcia held the seat until Rep. George Whitesides, D-Calif., defeated him a year ago.

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Former Rep. Charles Djou, R-Hawaii, won a special election in Hawaii in 2010 against two Democrats  former Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, D-Hawaii, and Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii. But Democrats got the seat back in 2012.

Former Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, won a special election in 2022 to flip Alaskas at-large district from red to blue following the death of late Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska. Young held the seat for nearly 50 years. But Rep. Nick Begich III, R-Alaska, defeated Peltola last year.

Just because seats are won in special election upsets, doesn't mean they've permanently fallen to the other party. Rep. Nick Begich III, R-Alaska, who unseated his Democratic predecessor, former Rep. Mary Peltola  herself a special election victor  is a prime example.

In short, even if someone flips a seat, its rare that they have the seat for long. Often, only through the next regular election.

So a word of caution as you evaluate the election results on Tuesday night. If Republicans hold the seat, that may be expected. If Democrats flip the seat, some will proclaim its the second coming of the Music City Miracle.

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But frankly, its probably not.





Original article source: Music City Miracle: A look at an unusually contentious election in the Volunteer State
An abrupt rise in global sea level last year has raised concerns. The increase was more than what scientists had been expecting, a NASA-led analysis revealed.

What's happening?

A higher-than-usual amount of ocean warming, along with meltwater from land-based ice, caused a jump in sea level that surprised scientists. The rate of rise in 2024 was 0.23 inches per year, more than the rate of 0.17 that forecasters had projected.

"The rise we saw in 2024 was higher than we expected," said Josh Willis, a sea level researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, per ABC News. "Every year is a little bit different, but what's clear is that the ocean continues to rise, and the rate of rise is getting faster and faster."

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NASA blamed the rise mostly on the expansion of ocean water as it warms, a process known as thermal expansion. In recent years, approximately two-thirds of sea level rise resulted from land-based ice melt, while one-third was due to thermal expansion. However, in 2024, this trend reversed  thermal expansion accounted for two-thirds of the rise.

Why is an unexpected rise in sea level important?

The average yearly rise in sea level has more than doubled since NASA started using satellites to measure global sea level rise in 1993, with the global sea level increasing by a total of 4 inches.

Officials in Northern California have warned that environmental changes from rising sea levels are already being experienced in the region. A Central American Indigenous community is at risk of relocation because of the threat of flooding from rising sea levels on their small island.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has said rising seas will worsen storm surges as water levels climb along coastlines.

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"Higher background water levels mean that deadly and destructive storm surges, such as those associated with Hurricane Katrina, 'Superstorm' Sandy, and Hurricane Michael, push farther inland than they once did," according to a NOAA report. "Higher sea level also means more frequent high-tide flooding, sometimes called 'nuisance flooding' because it isn't generally deadly or dangerous, but it can be disruptive and expensive."

What's being done about rising sea levels?

Bringing awareness to critical climate issues, including the impacts of rising sea levels, by talking with friends and family can help people see the importance of cooling down our overheating planet. Another way to help is by voting for candidates who pledge to fight for the future of Earth.



Get TCD's free newsletters for easy tips to save more, waste less, and make smarter choices  and earn up to $5,000 toward clean upgrades in TCD's exclusive Rewards Club.
Nashville is part of a coalition of local governments and nonprofits suing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development over sweeping changes to funding for projects addressing homelessness.

The lawsuit was prompted by HUD's decision on Nov. 13 to rescind expected funding and make governments and agencies apply for grants again under new conditions, some of which go against established best practices for addressing homelessness and reward ideological policies in line with President Donald Trump's agenda.

The jeopardized funding, which comes from HUD's Continuum of Care program, provides permanent housing for 826 people in Nashville, according to a declaration filed in court by Metro Office of Homeless Services Director April Calvin. Many would be at risk of eviction if HUD's changes are allowed to stay in place.

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Nashville received more than $11.8 million through the HUD program in the most recent fiscal year.

The recently rescinded grants were set to go out by January 2026 at the latest, according to the lawsuit, leaving a critical funding gap, as grants are now on track to be delivered by May 1, 2026, at the earliest.

In a statement, Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell said, Weve started building a housing crisis resolution system in Nashville, and much of it could be wiped out overnight.

"The damage would be immediate and irreversible," O'Connell said.

Antonia Fasanelli, executive director of the National Homelessness Law Center, said HUD's new policy shifts "direct funding to cities that impose anti-trans, anti-homeless, and anti-immigrant policies and will force hundreds of thousands of people back into homelessness." For example, HUD will now score a grant applicant less favorably if it has used or uses a definition of sex other than as binary in humans."

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The policy changes put nonprofits working with domestic violence survivors at a particular disadvantage, according to a news release from O'Connell's office.

For example, grants provided through the Violence Against Women Act and the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act cannot go to projects that require beneficiaries to receive support services before getting housing. But HUD's new scoring system for grant applicants gives 29 of 130 points to organizations that require support services as a condition for housing.

The lawsuit argues several reasons the policy changes are illegal, but the simplest is that HUD missed a deadline to change how it will award the Continuum of Care funding Congress appropriated to the agency in March.

In 2024, Congress authorized a two-year funding cycle for the Continuum of Care program, allowing HUD to base grant awards for the upcoming fiscal years on one application. According to the lawsuit, cities and nonprofits that received grants for the 2024 fiscal year planned to receive the second year of funding.

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Congress sent money for the Continuum of Care program to HUD on March 15. Under federal law, if HUD wanted to instead make grant recipients reapply for that Continuum of Care funding, it had to do so within three months, long before its Nov. 13 rescission, the lawsuit states.

The new HUD policy also usurps congressional authority, the lawsuit argues.

"Congress decides how the funds can be used and has repeatedly directed HUD to prioritize housing stability, Housing First (which means not requiring treatment before obtaining supportive housing), and renewal of existing projects," the news release from O'Connell's office states. "All have been slashed by the new rules by more than 60% and could be reduced to zero."

Nashville is joined in the lawsuit by four nonprofits, including the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the National Low Income Housing Coalition, and six local governments including Boston, San Francisco and Tucson, Arizona.

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The groups are seeking an injunction to restore the funding expected under the previous two-year cycle authorized by Congress.

The Tennessean left a message seeking comment with Eric Sidle, HUD's chief information officer.

Have questions about the justice system? Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him with questions, tips or story ideas at emealins@tennessean.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville sues HUD over homelessness program funding changes
Nigeria has granted asylum to Guinea-Bissau presidential candidate Fernando Dias da Costa just days after a coup prevented the results of the recent election being announced.

The 47-year-old, who ran as a candidate for the Party for Social Renewal, was under special protection at the Nigerian embassy, following "threats made against" him, Nigeria's foreign minister said.

Dias was the main challenger to Umaro Sissoco Embalo, who was seeking a second term as president and has left the country following the military takeover.

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A delegation from the West African bloc Ecowas has been in the country, urging the military to step aside and release the results of the vote.

But the electoral commission has now said it will not be able to publish the results as armed men wearing balaclavas had destroyed paperwork and the main computer server that was storing the results from different regions.

Both Embalo and Dias had claimed victory in presidential poll held on 23 November.

The PAIGC party, the liberation movement that ended Portuguese colonial rule, had been barred from fielding a candidate.

The coup took place three days after the vote. The military suspended the electoral process, blocked the release of the results and insisted it was acting to thwart a plot to destabilise the politically unstable country.

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The junta has also tightened restrictions in the country, banning all demonstrations and "all disturbing actions of peace and stability in the country".

Tensions remain high in the capital, Bissau. PAIGC said its headquarters had been "illegally invaded by heavily armed militia groups" following the coup.

Its leader, Domingos Pereira, was arrested on the day of the coup, according to family and party members.

Dias said he escaped from his campaign headquarters on the day of the coup as armed men came to arrest him.

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Nigeria's Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar said President Bola Tinubu had agreed to give Dias protection inside the Nigerian embassy in Bissau.

"The decision to accommodate Mr [Fernando Dias] da Costa in the Nigerian premises underscores our firm commitment to safeguarding the democratic aspirations and the sovereign will of the good people of Guinea-Bissau," Tuggar said in a letter to Ecowas Commission president Alieu Omar Touray.

The letter also asked that soldiers from an Ecowas unit in the country be deployed to the Nigerian embassy to keep Dias safe.

Meditation talks on Monday between the Ecowas delegation, led by Sierra Leone's Foreign Minister Alhaji Musa Timothy Kabba, and the junta were heated.

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Afterwards, Kabba told journalists that the discussions were "productive," but noted that "both parties expressed their concerns".

The junta has already sworn in a new transitional leader, Gen Horta N'Tam, who will rule the country for a year.

Ecowas leaders have suspended Guinea-Bissau from all decision-making bodies until constitutional order is restored.

On Tuesday, Idrissa Djalo, a senior official of the electoral commission, explained how its offices had come under attack on the day of the coup.

"They confiscated the computers of all 45 staff members who were at the commission that day," he said in a statement.

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Not only had the results held there been destroyed but also election tally sheets from the two key regions that were being transferred to the capital were intercepted and confiscated by armed men, he added.

The true motives behind the coup in Guinea-Bissau remain unclear amid speculation that it may have been staged.

Senegal's Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and Nigeria's ex-leader Goodluck Jonathan have both said the coup was fabricated without providing evidence.

Some local civil society groups have also accused Embalo of masterminding a "simulated coup" against himself with the help of the military, saying it was a ruse to block election results from coming out in case he lost.

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Embalo, who has previously faced accusations of using crises to quash dissent, has not responded to the coup allegations.

The 53-year-old was allowed to leave for neighbouring Senegal on Thursday, from where he reportedly moved on to Congo-Brazzaville at the weekend.

Guinea-Bissau has witnessed at least nine coups or attempted coups over the last five decades.

Sandwiched between Senegal and Guinea, it is known as a drug-trafficking hub where the military has been influential since it gained independence from Portugal in 1974.

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Nigeria's Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, has resigned from his position with immediate effect for health reasons, the president's office has said.

The 63-year-old's departure coincides with a period of heightened security challenges across Nigeria, with the government under pressure to deal with a spate of mass kidnappings.

Last week, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that at least 402 people, mostly schoolchildren, had been kidnapped since mid-November.

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A retired general, Christopher Musa, has been nominated by President Bola Tinubu as Abubakar's replacement.

General Musa, 58, served as Nigeria's chief of defence staff from June 2023 until October 2025 and is widely regarded as one of the country's most experienced military strategists.

He is known in particular for commanding major counter-insurgency operations against jihadist groups in north-east of the country.

In the latest sign of the insecurity, gunmen abducted at least 20 people, including a Christian pastor, a Muslim bride and her bridesmaids, in two separate raids in the north on Sunday.

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Some 250 schoolchildren and 12 teachers from a Catholic school in central Niger state are still believed to be missing following the biggest mass kidnapping attack in recent weeks.

It is not clear who is behind the kidnappings - most analysts believe they are carried out by criminal gangs seeking ransom payments, however a presidential spokesman has told the BBC the government believes they are the work of jihadist groups.

Abubakar was appointed to his post in August 2023, and it is unclear what health issues prompted him to resign.

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He wrote a letter to President Bola Tinubu, informing him of his decision.

Tinubu's office said the president accepted his resignation, and thanked him for his "services to the nation".

It also noted that Tinubu had declared a national security emergency, with plans to bolster the police force to about 50,000 by recruiting to 20,000 more officers.

Nigeria is facing numerous security challenges - including kidnappings for ransom by criminal gangs, an Islamist insurgency in the north-east, separatist violence in the south-east, and a battle between herders and farmers in the centre over access to land and water.

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Experts say corruption, poor intelligence sharing and underfunded local policing have hampered efforts to tackle the various crises.

Abubakar served as a two-term governor of the northern state of Jigawa from 2015 to 2023.

He was an important figure in Tinubus presidential election campaigns just over two years ago, helping him win his native Jigawa state. He was rewarded with the defence portfolio when Tinubu took office.

Nigeria's Senate is expected to begin confirmation hearings for Gen Musa soon. If approved, he is expected to oversee Nigeria's most ambitious security overhaul in decades.

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Meanwhile, the US House Committee on Appropriations will be leading a high-level roundtable meeting later on Tuesday to examine allegations of Christian persecution in Nigeria, amid growing international concern over escalating violence in the country.

"We will never turn a blind eye to our brothers and sisters in Christ who suffer for their faith," Tom Cole, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, posted on X.

Earlier in November, US President Donald Trump threatened to intervene militarily in Nigeria if the government failed to stop "the killing of Christians".

Nigeria's government and security analysts have been at pains to point out that both Muslims and Christians have been victims of attacks.

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Last week, Nigeria's National Security Adviser Mallam Nuhu Ribadu led a delegation to Washington for talks - and it was agreed that a US-Nigerian working group would be set up to focus on strengthening defence and security co-operation.

Additional reporting by Chris Ewokor in Abuja

More BBC stories on Nigeria's kidnapping crisis:

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Democrats gather on the floor after the conclusion of the special session on Oct. 2, 2025. The New Mexico Supreme Court issued an order Dec. 2, 2025 that denies a request to repeal Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams line-item vetoes on the bill lawmakers passed. (Danielle Prokop/Source NM)

The New Mexico Supreme Court on Tuesday issued an order declining to repeal several line-item vetoes Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham struck from legislation lawmakers approved during a recent special legislative session.

Duke Rodriguez, a prominent statewide cannabis executive and possible Republican gubernatorial candidate, filed a lawsuit in mid-October asking the Supreme Court to disallow the governor from striking certain language from a spending bill the Legislature approved in October to counteract anticipated effects from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act President Donald Trump signed in July.

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The Legislature approved $162 million in state funding to counteract federal cuts to Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and health insurance tax credits. When lawmakers sent that bill to the governor for her signature, she signed it except for what she described as minor but necessary changes to counteract provisions that unduly constrain the Executive Departments ability to assist New Mexicans.

The bill awarded $12 million to the state Health Care Authority to maintain the minimum federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit for elders and people with disabilities. But the governor struck the words minimum federal.

She also struck language regarding approximately $6 million aimed at replenishing funding local public broadcasters lost when Congress cut funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. She removed requirements that the unexpended funding to the state finance and Indian Affairs departments be returned to the general fund, and she removed language requiring the funding to be spent within the next two fiscal years.

Rodriguezs lawsuit, filed with the help of attorney and former lawmaker Jacob Candelaria, argued that each of those vetoes distorts legislative intent and is therefore an unconstitutional attempt by the Executive to substitute her policy-making judgment for that of the peoples elected representatives.

The governors office responded in court in early November that the lawsuit was meritless, arguing that Rodriguez lacked standing to bring the lawsuit and also that the governors vetoes sought only to make it easier for her and the agencies she oversees to implement the Legislatures intent.

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At the end of the day, the funds will still be spent on the exact programs the Legislature wanted to fund; the Governor merely struck language that could cause the funds to be spent in an inefficient manner, Holly Agajanian, chief general counsel for the governor, wrote.

The Supreme Court, in a brief order issued Tuesday, did not specify why it ruled against Rodriguez, simply stating that the Court was denying Rodriguezs request after having considered the petition and being sufficiently advised.

Rodriguez, in a statement Tuesday to Source New Mexico, said he respects the Courts decision but wishes the Court had issued a full opinion, rather than an unexplained order, to address issues he deems critical, including who has standing to challenge executive orders and the true scope of a sitting governors veto authority.

Without clearer legal guidance, it is evident that a sitting governor may exert significant influence over  and potentially reshape  the actions of future Legislatures, he said in an email. That reality raises the stakes for New Mexico.

The continued ambiguity, he said, means the next election will matter even more than many realize. This may be the final push I needed to officially enter this race.
It was just six weeks ago that Democrats celebrated No Kings Day. At the time it seemed like a puerile demonstration of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Of course, there should be no kings in America, but no one in the MAGA movement was seriously arguing in favor of a despotic monarchy in the first place. Nor was blind loyalty to President Trump considered a requirement for those who want to Make America Great Again.

But since then, a number of things have happened which have put at risk the coalition which Trump built in 2015 and then pieced back together in 2024. And some of those things suggest that Trump didnt get the message about no kings.

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Everyone can make their own list, but here are a few of the most questionable moments in the Trump administration recently that suggest a royal lack of accountability:

When meeting with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, who has been credibly accused of ordering the death of a Washington Post columnist, Trump said of the allegation, "Things happen." That might be something Richard III would say after killing his nephews.

Asked a question he didnt like by a reporter, Trump threatened to remove ABCs broadcast license. This followed another incident in which he called a woman reporter "piggy." Retaliation against the media asking hard questions may not be strictly a royal trait, but every despot does it. This goes beyond Richard Nixon and his notorious "enemies list."

In responding to a video put out by six members of Congress advising members of the military that it is their duty to disobey illegal orders, Trump suggested the six should be charged with sedition - and reposted on social media calls that they be put to death. Whether you think the video was appropriate or not, we should all agree that executing your political enemies, which was the fate that befell Jamal Khashoggi, is not a democratic norm.

We all know that Trump lives in the margins of civility, and that has been part of his political charm - telling the elites where to go. But at some point even MAGA supporters like myself have to ask whether there are limits.

If we all agree there should be no kings in America, we should also agree that there should be no blind loyalty to our leaders. They do need to be held to account whether in politics, media, or business.

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Which brings me to Marjorie Taylor Greene, who broke with Trump on the matter of releasing the so-called Epstein files and other matters, and was subsequently exiled by Trump to the nether regions of Truth Social.

Inexplicably, Trump had been adamantly opposed to releasing Justice Department files about his former friend Jeffrey Epstein - a convicted sex offender - even though he promised during the 2024 campaign to turn them over if he were elected.

I wrote a column in September saying that Trump calling the Epstein files a hoax was "a low point in his presidency." My goal then, along with that of other MAGA supporters such as Rep. Greene, was to dissuade Trump from pursuing a self-destructive path that would injure not just himself but the Republican Party and the MAGA movement he founded.

But Trump was having none of it. When Greene asked him to meet with the victims of Epstein at the Oval Office, he did not accept the offer, again blaming a "hoax." She responded, "Jeffrey Epstein is a convicted pedophile. That takes away the whole hoax thing. Its not a hoax. Its not a lie."

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I agreed, and I was hoping Greene and other women prominent in the MAGA movement such as Rep. Lauren Boebert and Laura Loomer - and maybe even Melania Trump - would succeed in convincing Trump to separate his personal concerns about political embarrassment (theres no evidence of criminal wrongdoing on Trumps part) from the necessity of providing an open window on the issue of whether or not the Justice Department had worked to protect Epsteins rich and powerful friends.

That didnt happen. Although the president eventually went along with the inevitable vote in Congress to release the materials, he singled out Greene for retribution, calling her a "ranting lunatic" in a Truth Social post on Nov. 14. What Trump doesnt seem to understand is that if Greene is a lunatic, what does that say about his policies? What she has been ranting about most during the past decade is her total support for almost all of the presidents programs.

Something doesnt add up.

So when Greene appeared on CNNs "State of the Union" two days later, it was a signal that sides were being chosen, and everyone in MAGA needed to make a decision - transparency or blind loyalty. Trump made it clear: He wanted blind loyalty, and as a result he went scorched earth on the Georgia congresswoman.

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Mind you, MTG is not without blemish herself. She has advocated positions that are beyond the pale. In late 2021, she promoted a "national divorce" between red states and blue states, which kind of goes against the whole idea of the United States of America. And like Trump, she has all but advocated the execution of various political opponents, including Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton. She has promoted the conspiracy theory that leading Democrats belong to a Satanic pedophilia cult. Most absurd of all, she suggested that wildfires in California were lit by lasers from outer space.

So lets make it clear. No one should give MTG blind loyalty either. If there are no kings, there are no queens. All leaders should be subject to the utmost scrutiny, and each of us as citizens must learn to reject bad ideas without throwing out the good.

Hopefully, that is the standard the MAGA movement will hold itself to. When she appeared on CNN, Greene was absolutely right to caution that unanimity should not be the hallmark of Trumps coalition.

"I have disagreed with [the president] at times," she said. "I'm allowed to do that. I think thats the most important thing we can do as Americans. And Im urging my party, I have been putting massive pressure on my party and our speaker to pass the agenda that the American people vote for."

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That about sums up where I am too. Although I voted for Donald Trump twice, mainly because of his promises to end illegal immigration and to deport those here illegally, I do not agree with everything he says or does. That includes his reluctance to unseal the Epstein files. More importantly, there are substantive issues that raise concerns, such as his insistence that H-1B visas for foreign workers are necessary because Americans lack "certain talents."

But based on the way Trump has treated Greene in the wake of her public disagreement with him, I should expect to be drummed out of the MAGA coalition any day now.

In a Truth Social post, the president called Greene "Wacky Marjorie Traitor Brown (Remember, Green turns to Brown where there is ROT involved!)" and he specified that she was not just a traitor to him personally or to the MAGA movement, but a "Traitor to our Country."

That can only be compared to the dictum attributed to King Louis XIV of France, "Letat cest moi," or "The state, it is me" - a sentiment Trump has actually quoted on social media himself. That grandiose belief is self-evident in Trumps assessment of Greene as a national traitor when she has in fact only challenged the president on a few specific policies.

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It is possible that Trump will continue to enjoy policy successes by strong-arming his opponents and his allies alike, but I am concerned that his transparent disregard for minority rights or often for common decency will result in long-term damage to the Republican brand.

And if Democrats win back Congress in 2026 and claim the presidency in 2028, then all the good Trump did in the last decade will be undone in short order.

Frank Miele, retired editor of the Daily Inter Lake in Kalispell, Mont., is a columnist for RealClearPolitics. His book The Media Matrix: What If Everything You Know Is Fake is available from his Amazon author page. Visit him at HeartlandDiaryUSA.com or follow him on Facebook @HeartlandDiaryUSA and on X/Gettr @HeartlandDiary.
BEIJING, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- From robotic chefs to AI-powered ingredient tracking and smart reservation systems, intelligent technologies are reinvigorating China's catering industry, elevating consumer experiences while tackling long-standing operational challenges.

At a lively Haidilao hotpot outlet in Beijing, Yang Lin, a regular customer, recently discovered a new digital helper. "Xiaolaolao," the AI assistant, seamlessly handled everything from booking a table to confirming group size and arrival time.

"It's convenient to just speak to it. I've never seen anything like this before," Yang said.

According to Haidilao, "Xiaolaolao" goes beyond bookings, offering tailored suggestions like low-fat options for health-conscious diners or children's meals for families. Yang tried its smart bill-analysis feature, which helps optimize coupon usage and alerts customers to unused membership benefits, adding yet another layer of convenience.

Smart tools such as Haidilao's AI assistant are becoming bright spots for an industry seeking fresh momentum.

While data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows a modest 3.3 percent year-on-year rise in catering revenue to 4.62 trillion yuan (about 652.6 billion U.S. dollars) from January to October 2025, data from Meituan shows rising store closures and volatile new openings, signaling increasingly fierce competition.

Traditional restaurants in China are grappling with challenges such as product homogeneity, high operating costs, low efficiency and limited service scenarios, according to an industry report published by Hongcan, a catering research institute.

Experts believe that overcoming these constraints and achieving sustainable growth will require embracing new technologies to carve out a new development path.

HEYTEA, a renowned Chinese beverage brand, has equipped its stores with self-developed devices, including smart tea brewers, scales and tea-making assistants, enhancing operations at multiple stages. For instance, manually peeling a basket of green grapes takes 15 minutes, while an automatic peeler completes the task in just one minute.

Meanwhile, JD.com's 7Fresh Kitchen in Beijing, which specializes in stir fries, snacks, fried rice and noodles, has introduced cooking robots.

Similarly, at Juneyao Air's cafeteria, where thousands dine each day, cooking robots have greatly improved the cooking process, while AI-powered recognition and calculation systems have helped curb food waste.

"Smart tools and technologies, like AI and automated cooking equipment, help restaurants reduce repetitive labor and optimize operations for leaner management," said Tang Xin, a researcher at Hongcan.

This tech shift is in line with broader national goals. The government has issued guidelines to accelerate the application of new technologies in various consumption scenarios.

He Qing, an industry expert with over a decade of experience in catering intelligence, said that the national push for scenario-based technology adoption suits the catering sector, where AI can improve food safety and healthy eating.

Looking ahead, catering intelligence is evolving from isolated tasks like cooking and coffee-making toward fully integrated digital systems.

Shanghai recently released the country's first provincial-level action plan for intelligent development in catering scenarios. The plan promotes a "smart restaurant" ecosystem, covering central kitchens, food traceability and marketing, and calls for "building pilot projects of leading smart catering integrated scenarios and promoting the application of large models in catering scenarios."

By the end of 2028, the city aims to boost the full-chain intelligentization rate in group catering, fast-food, and beverage enterprises to over 70 percent, the intelligentization rate in key processes of full-service restaurants to over 50 percent, and supply chain intelligent management coverage to over 60 percent.

Experts believe that smart technologies are illuminating the future development path of the industry. "As a rapidly maturing industrial chain drives down costs and boosts efficiency, catering intelligence will see broader adoption, fostering a safer, more efficient industry landscape," He Qing said. 
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) on Monday ripped President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after the Pentagon launched a probe that could see him recalled to active duty to face a court-martial.

Ive been through a lot worse in service to my country. The president and Pete Hegseth are not going to silence me, Kelly, a retired astronaut and U.S. Navy veteran, said at a press conference.

Politics: Trump Launches Into Massive, Unhinged Late Night Posting Spree

Kelly, who was among the group of Democratic veterans who urged military service members to disobey illegal orders in a video, emphasized why he wont be intimidated by Hegseth and Trump, the latter of whom accused the lawmakers of SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR and promoted calls for their executions.

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In 1991, when Donald Trump was driving the Taj Mahal casino into bankruptcy, I was getting shot at over Iraq and Kuwait, said Kelly. In 2001, after Donald Trump said that the collapse of the Twin Towers meant he now owned the tallest skyscraper in Manhattan, I was carrying flags honoring 9/11 victims into space on a rocket ship.

Kelly noted that when Trump was writing a birthday message for Jeffrey Epstein and peddling birther conspiracy theories about former President Barack Obama, he was busy helping to recover the remains of those aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and supporting his wife, then-Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), after she was shot in the head during a 2011 assassination attempt.

Kelly: When Trump was driving the Taj Mahal Casino into bankruptcy, I was being shot at over Iraq. When Trump was writing birthday greetings to Epstein, I was the first on the scene to recover the bodies of my fellow astronauts When Trump was peddling conspiracy theories pic.twitter.com/wRnJiTgL6e  Acyn (@Acyn) December 1, 2025

Kelly called the Pentagons probe a dangerous moment for the U.S. and reiterated his past observations that Hegseth was unqualified for his post.

He runs around on a stage like hes a 12-year-old playing army, and it is ridiculous. It is embarrassing, Kelly said.

Politics: White House Media Attack Falls Apart After It Calls Fox Woke

This week, Hegseth has faced backlash after a Washington Post report claimed that he had ordered U.S. military forces to kill everybody in a strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean  an order that prompted a second attack to kill the survivors of the first strike. In response, Hegseth blamed the fake news for its fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting, and tried to make a meme about the scandal using a doctored image of Franklin the turtle from Paulette Bourgeois childrens book series.

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Hes putting out on the internet, turtles with rocket-propelled grenades. I mean, have you seen this? This is the secretary of defense. This is not a serious person, Kelly said. He shouldve been fired after Signalgate  and then every single day after that.

Kelly: He runs around on stage talking about lethality and the warrior ethos.. Thats not the message that should be coming from the Secretary of Defense He runs around on a stage like hes a 12 year old playing army. Its embarrassing.



He is in the national command authority pic.twitter.com/Gd4cywVRMI  Acyn (@Acyn) December 1, 2025

Related...

Read the original on HuffPost
Numerous non-profits in Central Florida are participating in Giving Tuesday initiatives to address food insecurity and homelessness, where the need for support is particularly high this year.

The Salvation Army is dedicated to raising funds to offer adequate shelter, warm meals, and support for local families facing challenges with rent or purchasing Christmas gifts. Additionally, they have introduced a virtual Red Kettle campaign.

Entryway Central Florida and New Beginnings of Central Florida are raising funds to support homeless families, emphasizing donations that provide emergency housing and essentials like diapers and hygiene kits.

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Several other local organizations are seeking support for their specific missions, including Make-A-Wish Central and Northern Florida, Help Now of Osceola & Hope Partnership, Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida, Give Kids the World Village, Ronald McDonald House, and One Heart for Women and Children.

To maximize the impact of donations, experts suggest verifying the charitys name, assessing its transparency, and taking advantage of matching gifts offered by employers.

Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
A police officer shot a vehicle near a west suburban high school on Tuesday morning, officials said.

Aurora police said someone called 911, saying a driver was following them near Jackson Street and East Benton Street and that the driver had a gun and claimed to be in law enforcement.

Officers responded just after 9:30 a.m. and found the vehicles at 4th Avenue and South State Street, near East Aurora High School. The driver referenced in the 911 call was standing outside of his vehicle, police said.

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Police said during an encounter, an officer discharged their firearm once, striking the driver's vehicle. No one was hit, and no injuries have been reported.

Police said the driver, a 48-year-old man, was taken into custody. He has no affiliation with any law enforcement agency.

The officer who fired their weapon was taken to a local hospital for evaluation.

The Aurora Police Department's Investigations Division detectives and evidence technicians are investigating.

Aurora police asked anyone with information to call them at 630-256-5500.

The Aurora Police Department's Deadly Force Investigative Team is investigating the officer-involved shooting.

Further information was not immediately available.
An Ohio man pleaded guilty in U.S District Court on Monday to two child pornography crimes.

Austin Pittman admitted to distributing images of real child pornography and using AI to morph videos and photos of real children, according to the Southern District of Ohio United States Attorneys Office.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

News Center 7 previously reported that Pittman, 35, was arrested after allegedly creating Kik accounts and sharing AI-generated child sexual abuse material.

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In January of 2025, the Franklin County Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force received multiple tips reporting Pittmans activity on Kik.

On the app, Pittman allegedly distributed child pornography that depicted an adult sexually abusing a child, according to the Southern District of Ohio United States Attorneys Office.

Further investigation revealed that Pittman also allegedly uploaded 47 files of child pornography to Kik in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in 2024.

A search warrant that was served at Pittmans residence in April led to the seizure of numerous devices. During the search of his phone, law enforcement officers found images and videos of real children that Pittman had access to, and secretly recorded and created some of the images himself.

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Pittman then allegedly used AI programs to alter the images and videos to depict the minor females as fully nude.

Pittman was federally charged and arrested on April 29, 2025.

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A University of Oklahoma student claimed she was discriminated against because of her religious beliefs after she received a failing grade on an essay for her gender studies class. Now, Turning Point USA has taken on her push for academic freedom and her case has become a national sensation.

Samantha Fulnecky, a junior at OU, reported her psychology instructor to the school after she received an F on her paper. The universitys chapter of Turning Point USA, a conservative nonprofit founded by Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in September, posted Fulneckys essay and instructor Mel Curths response online and blasted the instructor. Curth uses she/they pronouns.

In a social media post, Turning Point USAs OU chapter voiced support for Fulnecky and denounced Curth: We should not be letting mentally ill professors around students.

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The classroom clash has blown up online. Some social media users agreed with the instructor, criticizing Fulneckys writing ability, lack of sources, and digression from the instructions.

Her paper was absolutely embarrassing. She failed to follow directions, didnt meet the word count and didnt cite a single source, MaileonX wrote on the platform.

While others have dubbed the college student an American hero, and launched personal attacks at the instructor, while alleging the incident raises First Amendment concerns.

Samantha Fulnecky is an American hero, Former Oklahoma schools Superintendent Ryan Walters wrote on X. She stood firm in her faith despite the radical attacks from the Marxist professors at the University of Oklahoma. The OU staff involved should be immediately fired and OU should not be receiving taxpayer dollars if they continue their assaults on faith. The war on Christianity is real, and we will not be silenced.

Samantha Fulnecky, a junior at the University of Oklahoma, filed a discrimination complaint after she received a failing grade on a psychology essay, leading to the instructor being placed on leave and Turning Point USA getting involved. (Turning Point USA OU)

The assignment, according to the nonprofits Thanksgiving social media post, was to write a 650-word essay reacting to a psychology article about the effect of gender norms on middle school students and their impact on mental health.

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In her essay, Fulnecky repeatedly cited the Bible and emphasized her right to free speech, stating she believes eliminating gender in our society would be detrimental, as it pulls us farther from God's original plan for humans.

Women naturally want to do womanly things because God created us with those womanly desires in our hearts. The same goes for men, the junior wrote in the essay where she claimed gender roles should not be seen as stereotypes.

The reason so many girls want to feel womanly and care for others in a motherly way is not because they feel pressured to fit into social norms. It is because God created and chose them to reflect His beauty and His compassion in that way, Fulnecky argued.

Society pushing the lie that there are multiple genders and everyone should be whatever they want to be is demonic and severely harms American youth.

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The social media post also included Curths comments. The instructor noted that the grade deductions didnt stem from her beliefs, but for posting a reaction paper that does not answer the questions for this assignment, contradicts itself, heavily uses personal ideology over empirical evidence in a scientific class, and is at times offensive.

Curth said Fulnecky is entitled to her own beliefs, but the article is based on years of psychological research and evidence, not just society pushing lies.

You may personally disagree with this, but that doesn't change the fact that every major psychological, medical, pediatric, and psychiatric association in the United States acknowledges that, biologically and psychologically, sex and gender is neither binary nor fixed, the instructor wrote, urging her to apply more empathy in her work.

Another instructor for the course, Megan Waldron, said she concurred with Curths F grade, saying Fulneckys essay should not be considered as a completion of the assignment. Waldron similarly urged the college junior to be more thoughtful and to cite empirical evidence in her arguments.

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Turning Point had a different take, attacking the transgender community and higher education.

The University of Oklahoma said its reviewing the matter and is conducting a formal grade appeals process (Getty Images)

We at Turning Point OU stand with Samantha. We should not be letting mentally ill professors around students, the OU chapter of the nonprofit wrote.

Clearly this professor lacks the intellectual maturity to set her own bias aside and take grading seriously. Professors like this are the very reason conservatives can't voice their beliefs in the classroom. Kuddos to Samantha for leading by example and standing up for what she believes in. @UofOklahoma, do better!

Fulnecky insisted to The Oklahoman that she received zero points out of 25 for my beliefs and using freedom of speech, and especially for my religious beliefs."

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The university said it launched a full review of the situation after receiving a complaint from the student, including conducting a formal grade appeals process, reviewing the discrimination claim, and placing the instructor on leave, according to a statement released over the weekend.

The University of Oklahoma takes seriously concerns involving First Amendment rights, certainly including religious freedoms, the school said. OU remains firmly committed to fairness, respect and protecting every student's right to express sincerely held religious beliefs.

In a follow-up post Sunday, the organization wrote: It's time for conservatives to take a stand and show teachers that we will not be intimidated for sharing conservative or Christian beliefs on assignments any longer. The only right thing to do is fire this professor. Good job Samantha Fulnecky, we stand with you.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in February eradicating anti-Christian bias, vowing to terminate any unlawful and improper conduct, policies, or practices that target Christians.

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Several prominent GOP voices in the state, including Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, weighed in on the matter, siding with Fulnecky and Turning Point USA.

The 1st Amendment is foundational to our freedom & inseparable from a well rounded education, he wrote in a social media post Sunday. The situation at OU is deeply concerning. Im calling on the OU regents to review the results of the investigation & ensure other students arent unfairly penalized for their beliefs.

Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt and several other prominent Republicans in the state defended Fulnecky. (Getty Images)

Dusty Deevers, a Republican member of the Oklahoma Senate, also defended Fulnecky, claiming the clash raises serious First Amendment concerns and looks a lot like unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination by a state actor.

If a conservative professor gave a Muslim or transgender student a zero for expressing their convictions, the university would treat it as a civil-rights crisis. The standard must be the same when the student is a Christian, Deevers wrote in a lengthy post. Students do not lose their rights because a professor is offended.

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Many others online argued that her essay was not up to snuff and she deserved the grade she was given.

Have we considered that Samantha wrote a bad Essay, one X user remarked.

Not remotely following an assignment has always been grounds for failing grade. If this is your attempt at a controversy it simply sends the message that your organization is run by people who cant follow a basic homework assignment, yet another wrote.

Another succinctly said: Calling trans people demonic is evil. Plain & simple. Hope that helps.
A University of Oklahoma student who received a failing grade for her essay about gender and societal expectations filed a complaint with the university, charging discrimination over her religious beliefs.

Meanwhile, the graduate instructor who assigned and graded the paper has been put on leave, the Oklahoma governor is weighing in, and the incident has ignited a conversation about whether its appropriate to cite the Bible as a source in academic papers.

The 1st Amendment is foundational to our freedom & inseparable from a well rounded education. The situation at OU is deeply concerning. Im calling on the OU regents to review the results of the investigation & ensure other students arent unfairly penalized for their beliefs.  Governor Kevin Stitt (@GovStitt) November 30, 2025

The story was first reported by the University of Oklahoma chapter of Turning Point USA in an X thread posted on Thanksgiving.

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According to the thread, Samantha Fulnecky was asked to write a 650-word essay reacting to an article about how people are perceived based on societal expectations of gender. In her essay, Fulnecky argued that traditional gender roles should not be considered stereotypes. She cited the Bible to support her stance that eliminating gender in society would be detrimental because that would put people farther from Gods original plan for humans. She received zero points out of 25 on the essay.

The group posted Fulneckys essay online, as well as the response from her instructor, which the thread identified as Mel Curth.

In a response issued Sunday on social media, the University of Oklahoma said it has launched an investigation, and that the instructor involved had been put on leave. The university did not confirm the identity of any of the people involved, but said the student would not suffer any academic harm from the grade.

Statement from the University of Oklahoma: pic.twitter.com/5YWBfyW9u0  University of Oklahoma (@UofOklahoma) November 30, 2025

Fulnecky, a junior at the University of Oklahoma, provided her essay and her instructors feedback to The Oklahoman, which published both in full.

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In the essay, Fulnecky wrote that eliminating gender as a construct in society would be detrimental as it pulls us farther from Gods original plan for humans and said that she doesnt necessarily think its bad to tease people as a way of enforcing gender norms.

Society pushing the lie that there are multiple genders and everyone should be whatever they want to be is demonic and severely harms American youth. I do not want kids to be teased or bullied in school. However, pushing the lie that everyone has their own truth and everyone can do whatever they want and be whoever they want is not biblical whatsoever. The Bible says that our lives are not our own but that our lives and bodies belong to the Lord for His glory, she wrote.

In the grading remarks, the instructor said that the essay heavily uses personal ideology over empirical evidence in a scientific class, and is at times offensive.

The instructor went on to say, To call an entire group of people demonic is highly offensive, especially a minoritized population. You are entitled to your own beliefs, but this isnt a vague narrative of society pushes lies, but instead the result of countless years developing psychological and scientific evidence for these claims and directly interacting with the communities involved.

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You may personally disagree with this, but that doesnt change the fact that every major psychological, medical, pediatric, and psychiatric association in the United States acknowledges that, biologically and psychologically, sex and gender is neither binary nor fixed, the instructor wrote.

The dispute between the instructor and student has spilled into multiple outlets, with some people denigrating the student and even her mother on Facebook, and others denigrating the reported instructor on the website Rate My Professors  reviews that have since been removed.

The vitriol is hot, in part, because the story sits at a busy intersection in the culture wars: gender ideology and higher education.

For years, religious conservatives bemoaned their lack of influence in the secular halls of higher education, where conformity with progressive gender ideology was expected. In the past year or two, however, there has been a tide change, with even the Chronicle of Higher Education acknowledging last week, in a feature on conservative Princeton scholar Robert P. George, that progressive orthodoxy is weakening.

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George concurred, saying that he sees a vibe shift happening on campuses where People feel freer to express views that dissent from woke orthodoxy.

Whatever the academic outcome, all parties involved in this story will learn that the internet has a long tail, and their names will show up in Google searches for perhaps longer than they want  at least the parts that arent intentionally deleted.

A social media post from the University of Oklahomas Department of Psychology that celebrated Curth as the recipient of the departments Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award has been taken offline.
The University of Oklahoma has placed a trans graduate instructor on administrative leave after a student received a zero on a psychology assignment that described transgender people as demonic and asserted that gender roles are Biblically ordained. The dispute has quickly escalated into a statewide political flashpoint.

Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ + news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.

The controversy began when junior Samantha Fulnecky submitted a 650-word reaction paper for a course on how social expectations shape gender. Instead of addressing the assignments questions using data, her essay claimed society is pushing lies about gender, warned that eliminating strict gender roles would be harmful, and described transgender identities as demonic, Them reports.

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Related: Oklahoma transgender student dies after allegedly assaulted by students at school



Screenshots of the essay and instructors comments were posted by the campus chapter of Turning Point USA on Thanksgiving. Right-wing media networks quickly boosted it.

 (@)

Graduate teaching assistant Mel Curth, who graded the paper, wrote that the zero was based on academic criteria, not retaliation for the students religious views. Curth wrote that the essay does not answer the questions for this assignment, contradicts itself, heavily uses personal ideology over empirical evidence in a scientific class, and is at times offensive. Curth also noted that portraying a marginalized group as demonic is highly offensive, and urged the student to use empirical sources rather than doctrinal statements when critiquing course material.

Related: Oklahoma trans woman fired over Charlie Kirk comments was nearly driven to suicide



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A second instructor, Megan Waldron, independently reviewed the paper and agreed that it did not satisfy the assignment prompt or basic academic writing expectations.

Fulnecky then filed a religious discrimination complaint with the university.

OU confirmed Sunday in a new public statement that it takes seriously concerns involving First Amendment rights, certainly including religious freedoms.

 (@)

The university said it immediately began a full review after receiving the students complaint, maintained regular communication with the student, and ensured no academic harm resulted from the disputed grade. OU also said the student filed a discrimination claim based on religious belief, that the review process has been activated, and that the graduate instructor was placed on administrative leave to ensure fairness. A full-time professor is now teaching the course for the rest of the semester. OU said the instructor will not face academic or financial harm during the review.

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On Sunday, Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt urged OUs Board of Regents to investigate and warned that students should not be penalized for their religious beliefs, in a social media post.

 (@)

His intervention helped transform a grading dispute into a statewide ideological battle over higher education governance and LGBTQ+ inclusion.

On Monday, the campus chapter of Turning Point USA posted on Instagram that Curth was placed on leave for blatant discrimination and framed the grade as punishment for quoting the Bible, claiming the universitys Sunday statement confirmed its position.

OU has not said when its investigation will conclude.

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This article originally appeared on Advocate: Oklahoma University instructor suspended for failing students unscientific anti-trans psychology essay

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Deputies in Orange County said a man is accused of robbing a taxi driver after being picked up from a bar in Orlando.

Officials said the incident happened after Julian Guada left s bar on South Orange Avenue.

According to a report, Guada urinated in the backseat of the taxi before grabbing cash from the center console and fleeing the scene.

Deputies said they found a man matching the description provided by the victim, who then positively identified Guada as the suspect.

Guada is now facing charges of robbery and grand theft.

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Senate President Nicholas Scutari speaks in favor of his bill that would revamp the state comptroller's powers in the Trenton Statehouse on Dec. 1, 2025. (Photo by Anne-Marie Caruso/New Jersey Monitor)

A New Jersey Senate panel unanimously approved legislation Monday that would strip some investigatory powers and staff from the states comptroller over overwhelming opposition from activists, other watchdogs, and New Jerseys chief law enforcement official.

Over nearly four hours of testimony in front of the Senate state government committee that included several shouting matches, a range of critics urged lawmakers not to advance legislation that would end the Office of the State Comptrollers ability to issue subpoenas and launch investigations into waste, fraud, and abuse.

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Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), the bills chief sponsor, defended the measure at the start of the hearing and said criticism of it is overblown.

This is a reallocation of small resources from one department to another which is more properly equipped to handle them, Scutari said.

The bill would remove powers and duties the comptroller inherited from the states defunct inspector generals office in 2010.

The proposed shift would eliminate the offices duty to investigate complaints of governmental waste, fraud, and abuse flagged by members of the public and strip the comptroller of some investigatory tools.

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The comptrollers office would keep its authority to audit state and local governments and the states Medicaid program, though the bill would make it harder for it to obtain documents to aid those audits.

Though state law requires governments to share documents with the comptroller at the offices request, the office has said some bodies  including joint health insurance funds with ties to South Jersey Democratic power broker George Norcross  have declined to turn over records.

The bill would shift the comptrollers lost powers to the State Commission of Investigation, a body originally convened in 1968 to combat organized crime that has grown less relevant and less productive as New Jerseys mobs weakened.

Bruce Keller, who was appointed as the commissions executive director in July, argued during Mondays hearing that his agency is better positioned to conduct investigations now overseen by the comptrollers office.

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Investigations is 100% of the SCIs work, and the SCI does it with former prosecutors and deeply experienced state and federally trained investigators, and were adding even more in the months ahead, he said.

The legislation would grant the State Commission of Investigation an expanded mandate, allowing it to investigate misuses of taxpayer money as the comptroller does now. The bill would also allow it to investigate misconduct by law enforcement.

The latter provision, combined with another allowing the commission to seek approval for wiretaps, pushed New Jerseys top law enforcement official to sound the alarm.

The idea of wiretapping conducted by a civil enforcement agency never once came up to me, in my four years as an attorney general, as an idea we should even consider, much less one I should be testifying about before this body, said Attorney General Matt Platkin.

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Platkin added that he has significant concerns about the bills constitutionality, warning the provisions that would allow staff at the State Commission of Investigation  an agency overseen partly by the Legislature  to seek wiretaps or participate in prosecutions risk trampling on the separation of powers by allowing the Legislature to enforce laws, rather than draft them.

What it does is it creates a rogue prosecution agency reportable to legislative leadership with an executive director  as great as Bruce Keller may be  the Legislature reaffirms can be fired at will with no notice, said Platkin.

From left, Attorney General Matt Platkin, U.S. Sen. Andy Kim, and acting Comptroller Kevin Walsh speak against a bill that would limit the comptrollers powers at the Trenton Statehouse on Dec. 1, 2025. (Photo by Anne-Marie Caruso/New Jersey Monitor)

Few who testified Monday said they oppose making the State Commission of Investigation more robust, though almost universally, witnesses said changes should not come at the expense of the comptrollers office.

Acting State Comptroller Kevin Walsh said his office is more productive, noting it had published 25 reports in 2025 to the commissions zero.

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The reality is SCI can return to its glory days, and Mr. Keller may even be the one to do it, but it doesnt need to come at the cost of undermining the executive branchs watchdog when we have been more effective, more prolific, including in investigations, Walsh said.

The comptrollers falling out with legislators began in 2023 after the office released a report that Union County had improperly paid some of its top officials, and that conflict heated to a boiling point over the following two years.

Subsequent reports that found waste in Essex Countys COVID-19 vaccine program and procurement violations in Hudson County spurred calls from county officials to rein in the office with legislative hearings.

Some witnesses  including some of the states other oversight officials  suggested the bill is retaliation over the comptrollers work.

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While it has been presented as if it were not an attack on one agency, it does appear to be an attack on one agency  not because its doing a bad job, but quite a good job, I think, said Terry Schuster, New Jerseys corrections ombudsman. Independent oversight bodies have to be able to say the truth, even when its unpopular.

State Sen. John Burzichelli (D-Burlington) said the bill was drafted because of dissatisfaction with how things have been running at the comptrollers office, though neither he nor any other members of the committee named particular problems there.

Sen. Jim Beach (D-Camden), the committees chair, suggested the bill was spurred by discontent with Platkins performance as attorney general, though the bill does not affect Platkins office outside of allowing the commission to seek wiretap approval for employees of the Office of the Attorney General.

Sen. James Beach speaks during a hearing on a bill that would revamp the state comptrollers powers in the Trenton Statehouse on Dec. 1, 2025. (Photo by Anne-Marie Caruso/New Jersey Monitor)

Beach, who chairs the Camden County Democratic Committee and is a close Norcross ally, imposed a strict three-minute time limit on testimony by most of the bills roughly three dozen opponents  including, at times, by cutting their microphones  but not its supporters.

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Beach engaged in shouting matches with Walsh and also with U.S. Sen Andy Kim (D-NJ), who was among those to testify against the bill. Kim had asked to testify at the start of the hearing, but Beach would not allow him to speak until near the end, even when some witnesses whose names were called earlier said they would cede their time to Kim.

When Kims testimony surpassed the three-minute mark, Beach told him he had to conclude.

Sir, I have been here for five-and-a-half hours, Kim told Beach.

Yeah, so what? Beach responded. So has everyone else. Why do you think youre special? Youre not.

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Pennsylvanians working in personal assistance services, a type of home care, earn $20.63 an hour on average  the lowest rate of all neighboring states. (Getty Images)

Some 135 days after its deadline, Gov. Josh Shapiro signed a bipartisan budget compromise into law and ended a monthslong impasse  but many Pennsylvanians working in home care were shut out of any additional funding, prompting a call for more investment in 2026.

The Pennsylvania Homecare Association seeks to raise Medicaid rates by 23% and invest upwards of $800 million into home care to stabilize the industry, citing studies commissioned by the Shapiro administration and a bipartisan legislative committee. But the 2025-2026 budget allotted just $21 million for Direct Care Workers, which the association said helps just 6% of the workforce.

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Pennsylvanias in-home care crisis is both devastating and straightforward the workforce is collapsing, and people are going without care, Mia Haney, the associations CEO, said in a release. The Governor and Legislature have taxpayer-funded studies that spell out exactly what must be done. Families are missing hours theyre authorized for, medically fragile children are losing care, and seniors are being left without help. We dont need more reports  we need leadership.

PHA represents more than 700 homecare, home health and hospice providers across the commonwealth. The organization filed a formal Program Revision Request for a 13% increase in personal assistance services  at minimum  and a $59 per hour nursing rate in the next fiscal year, which starts on July 1.

According to PHA, the average hourly reimbursement rate for personal assistance services is the lowest among neighboring states at $20.63, a rate that ranges from $36.31 in New York to $25.58 in Maryland. The group added that managed care organizations report that 10% of personal assistance staff hours and 27% of nursing hours are unfilled each month.

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Pennsylvanias growing senior population is straining home care resources, especially in rural areas, as the Baby Boomer generation reaches retirement age. By 2030, rural Pennsylvanians aged 65 or older are expected to outnumber those under the age of 20.

Raising rates isnt an item on a wish list  its an absolute necessity for tens of thousands of vulnerable Pennsylvanians, Haney continued. This is both a moral and fiscal imperative. Every month of delay costs taxpayers millions and leaves more Pennsylvanians without care. The Commonwealth cannot keep balancing its budget on the backs of vulnerable families and underpaid caregivers.

A little more about the budget process

When Shapiro signed the states budget into law last month, Pennsylvanias Office of the Budget was already months into the process for developing the next fiscal years funding plan.

Instructions for state agencies submitting budget requests went out in August, amid the impasse. They directed each to submit cost to carry budget requests, or plans maintaining current levels of service. The 74-page document warns agencies that federal funds that are lost  or anticipated to be cut  should be incorporated into their requests.

However, agencies should not request increased state resources to address these impacts in their agency submissions unless directed by the Office of the Budget.

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Agencies submitted their funding requests on Oct. 15. Program Revision Requests, which alter current programs outside of the submitted agency budgets, increase or decrease funding by more than 15% and have more than a $200,000 impact.

Sometime this month, the governors office typically meets with the General Assembly for a mid-year briefing on budget issues and to apprise them of anticipated spending and revenue levels and to discuss major fiscal issues.

The governors office then finalizes their budget proposal before a formal submission to the legislature in early February, kicking off negotiations before the June 30 budget deadline.
Guests attend a ceremony marking the launch of China Eastern Airlines' direct flight between China's capital Beijing and Muscat, in Muscat, capital of Oman, on Dec. 1, 2025.(Chinese Embassy in Oman/Handout via Xinhua)

MUSCAT, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- A ceremony was held on Monday evening to mark the launch of China Eastern Airlines' direct flight between Beijing and Muscat, capital of Oman.

Chinese Ambassador to Oman Lyu Jian said at the ceremony that the opening of the route is the latest measure to implement the outcomes of the first China-Arab States Summit and the first China-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit, and will better facilitate exchanges in political and diplomatic affairs, practical cooperation and people-to-people ties.

Li Ye, executive vice president of China Eastern Airlines Group, said the Beijing-Muscat service is an important long-haul route for the airline in expanding its Middle East network this year, and will help facilitate business exchanges, cultural interaction and tourism.

Oman's Minister of Heritage and Tourism Salim bin Mohammed Al Mahrouqi told Xinhua that China is a major outbound tourism market and that the new route will make travel more convenient and attractive, adding that both sides are expected to see an increase in two-way tourism.

A China Eastern aircraft landed at Muscat International Airport on Sunday evening, marking the successful launch of the Beijing-Muscat route. 
Israel Railways announced that the trains have since returned to full operation.

A man has died after being hit by a passing train near Ganot junction, Magen David Adom said on Sunday morning.

The man had been injured by a passing train after falling from a bridge onto the tracks south of the HaHaganah train station in Tel Aviv, causing an hour and a half delay in trains across Israel, Israel Railways said earlier on Sunday.

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Israel Railways announced that the trains have returned to full operation after Israel Police allowed partial train movement from southern Tel Aviv, operating with one track instead of two, following the incident.

In a separate incident, six people were injured in a three-vehicle pileup in Rosh Haayin. Magen David Adom personnel treated a 58-year-old man who was seriously wounded, a 45-year-old woman in moderate condition, and four others with minor injuries.

All six were transported to Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus in Petah Tikva for further treatment.

A truck on fire along Highway 1, near Ben-Gurion Airport, November 18, 2025. (credit: SCREENSHOT/VIA SECTION 27A OF THE COPYRIGHT ACT)

Route 444 near Ben-Shemen closes after truck catches fire

Route 444 heading north in the Ben-Shemen area has been closed to traffic after a truck caught fire, Israel Police said.

Traffic is being diverted from the Gimzo junction to Route 443, according to Ynet.
Despite pleas from Parkland survivors, grieving families, student groups, safety advocates and Democrats, a Florida House panel voted to repeal the state's minimum age requirement for purchasing a rifle  a protection originally put in place after the 2018 Valentines Day mass shooting at a Broward County high school.

The bill (HB 133) now is cleared for consideration by the full House when the Legislature convenes Jan. 13, made up of a GOP supermajority that generally favors Second Amendment-related legislation. The House Judiciary Committee met Dec. 2 to deliver the last committee vote.

Gun rights advocates have so far failed to persuade the courts to declare a 21-or-older age requirement to buy long guns unconstitutional. This will now be the fourth consecutive legislative session in which a repeal has been filed, again by House Republican Leader Tyler Sirois of Merritt Island.

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The age requirement was enacted after a 19-year-old purchased an AR-15 used in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, where 17 students and staff members were killed.

Catherine Donovan of the Giffords gun safety organization told lawmakers the age requirement was a moment of courage in our state. It was a promise that we would learn from the tragedy, and we would do better. HB 133 breaks that promise.

Rep. Tyler Sirois and Moms Demand Action wait for the start of a committee hearing on a Sirois bill the group opposes. Dec. 2, 2025

Lawmakers prohibited those under 21 from buying a rifle after being lobbied by the student survivors of the shooting.

Rep. Dan Daley, D-Coral Springs, said the fact that most school shootings are committed by white males aged 1821 convinced lawmakers to require a minimum age for firearm purchases: Thats why the Legislature did it. Thats why so many people voted for it. Thats why it should still be the law in the state, he said.

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When another Democrat, Rep. Dotie Joseph of Miami, asked Sirois why he wanted to repeal the one thing that both Republican and Democrats agreed on in the shootings aftermath, he said he wasnt a member of the Legislature when that tragedy occurred."

Matthew Grocholske testifies before the House Judiciary Committee December 2, 2025

In my view this is the correct public policy to pursue to restore the rights of law-abiding citizens, Sirois said.

About 40 citizens signed up to speak at the hearing, opposing the measure by a 61 margin. Among them was Matthew Grocholske who told the panel he was a middle-schooler when Parkland occurred, and for every Valentines Day after he has feared going to school because of a potential copycat killer.

Grocholske did not say where he attended school. I remember my high school graduation having seats empty because of victims of gun violence, he said. If a 19-year-old cannot be trusted with a Bud Light, maybe he shouldnt be trusted with an AR-15.

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But Jeff Carroll of Gun Owners of America said many young adults are responsible, adding that Sirois' measure will restore fairness in Florida gun laws and provide equal treatment under the law."

Eighteen to 20-year-olds can legally carry a firearm. They can even open(ly) carry a firearm, but they cannot legally purchase one. That means their right to self-defense exists only if someone else buys the firearm for them, and let's be honest, that only works for some young adults, those that come from families with means, Carroll said.

The committee eventually voted to send the bill to the House floor 137. Two Republicans  Rep. Adam Anderson of Palm Harbor and Rep. Hillary Cassel of Dania Beach  broke ranks and voted with Democrats in opposition.

The measure has yet to gain a Senate companion. The past three sessions, the House has passed a repeal; the Senate has declined to consider it.

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James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com. Follow on him X: @CallTallahassee.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Will lawmakers repeal age requirement to buy rifles in Florida?
TURMUS AYYA, West Bank (AP)  The olive harvest that was marked by violence is complete in the West Bank, but fear still hangs over many Palestinian villages, where residents keep constant watch for armed Israeli settlers.

In recent months, the community of Turmus Ayya has endured near-daily incursions by settlers, residents say, including one in which a Palestinian grandmother was beaten unconscious with a spiky club.

The fear extends across the Palestinian territory. During last months harvest, settlers launched an average of eight attacks daily, the most since the United Nations began collecting data in 2006. The attackers burned cars, desecrated mosques, ransacked industrial plants and destroyed cropland. Israeli authorities have done little to curb the violence beyond issuing occasional condemnations of it.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the attackers as a minority that did not represent most settlers in the West Bank. But their continued expansion of outposts  conducted in public with seemingly few legal repercussions  and the violence have cemented a fearful status quo for their Palestinian neighbors.

___

This is a photo gallery curated by Associated Press photo editors.
Plaid Cymru has confirmed for the first time that talks are underway with Labour over the Welsh government's budget.

The party says it has made a "public offer" to do a deal, on the basis more cash is found for councils and the health service.

Party leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said the Welsh government's existing plans, announced in October, would "hit our public services hard" .

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The Welsh government said it was "committed to working with all parties in the Senedd to pass the budget".

Plaid's leader accused the First Minister, Eluned Morgan, of not knowing what was going on with the budget talks as the two clashed in the Senedd on Tuesday.

At the last budget Labour ministers were able to rely on the single vote of Jane Dodds, the Welsh Liberal Democrat leader, to get their spending plans through a Senedd vote.

But Plaid's victory in the Caerphilly by-election has meant that Labour needs two extra votes to get next January's budget through the Senedd.

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To find a deal, ministers have already spoken to the Welsh Conservatives, Dodds and independent MS Russell George.

Although Plaid has struck budget agreements with Labour in the past, it joined the Conservatives in voting against the last set of spending plans.

Meanwhile the Conservatives say they have further meetings planned between their Senedd leader, Darren Millar, and Eluned Morgan.

Last October draft budget published by Finance Secretary, Mark Drakeford, planned to increase each Welsh government department's funds rise by around 2%.

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But the figure is expected to change, because the budget left hundreds of millions unallocated and available for discussions with opposition parties on how they might want to spend it.

There were warnings that if the budget did not change, NHS organisations and councils may need to cut services and jobs, when costs are rising at different rates in different services.

Drakeford has said he is open to providing extra money to both services through the budget talks.

'Grim picture'

A Plaid source confirmed that the party's finance spokesperson, Heledd Fychan, and Drakeford had met.

They said the figure of extra cash to work with was not precisely known - it was reported to be 230m for day to day services in early November.

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Eluned Morgan came under fire from Rhun ap Iorwerth in the Senedd on Tuesday, claiming that thousands of council jobs were on the brink.

"A grim picture emerges of public services teetering on the edge," he said, saying that the spending increase for the NHS amounts to 0.3% in real terms.

Morgan told the Senedd on Tuesday that "our door is open" to Plaid.

"We have invited you to talk to us about the budget... you could help to fix that."

In response, Ap Iorwerth told the first minister to "keep her fingers on the button and keep up with what's going on".

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"Plaid Cymru is, first minister, ready to get Wales out of the hole made by Labour," he said.

A later statement from him accused Morgan of being "seemingly unaware that initial discussions had already taken place to understand the budgetary situation".

Ap Iorwerth said Morgan had "completely ignored the public offer by Plaid Cymru to allow a budget settlement to save the NHS and councils from the harm of Labour's original budget tabled".

The Welsh Conservatives have called for scrapping stamp duty on all main homes in their talks with the Welsh government.

Welsh Conservative leader in the Senedd Darren Millar said: "Another Labour and Plaid Cymru-backed budget deal will mean yet more taxpayers' money squandered on vanity projects, rather than the priorities of the people of Wales.

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He added: "We continue to engage, in good faith, in the budget negotiation process with further meetings scheduled."

Analysis

By Gareth Lewis, BBC Wales political editor

No one seems in any doubt that a deal will be done, because of the threat of huge cuts to public services if it is not.

But it's not done until it's done.

The Welsh government will view today as Plaid publicly accepting that there cannot be a "no deal scenario".

Plaid will try to portray this as a serious attempt to mitigate the effects on public services of a budget they fundamentally disagree with.

Rhun ap Iorwerth's party might well be running those public services from next May, depending on the result of the Senedd election.
A man was shot and killed by police near South Othello Street and Martin Luther King Junior Way in Seattle early this afternoon.

The incident occurred around 1:30 p.m. when police responded to reports of a shirtless man waving a gun near a school.

Investigators say the man did not comply when approached and walked toward officers, prompting them to open fire.

Obviously, if somebody is brandishing a firearm, walking toward an elementary school, walking toward an area of commerce, you want that person to put that weapon down as soon as possible. Compliance is always best, de-escalation is always best, but sometimes you dont have the benefit of time when someone is carrying a firearm and walking toward you, or walking toward innocent people, Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes stated.

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After the man was shot, police used a 40-millimeter sponge round to disarm him, knocking the gun out of his hand.

CPR was performed, but the suspect did not survive.

Salish Sea Elementary School was placed on lockdown during the incident, and police say a passerby was injured by shards of glass or possibly bullet fragments, though they are expected to recover.

Eyewitness Hashim Banks expressed concern over the police response, suggesting more could have been done to de-escalate the situation before it turned deadly.

The King County Force Investigative Team is conducting an independent investigation into the shooting, with involvement from the Office of Police Accountability and the Office of the Inspector General.

The investigation into the shooting is ongoing, as authorities seek to understand the circumstances that led to the fatal encounter.
Police involved with Luigi Mangiones arrest were so skeptical that the tip on his whereabouts was true that they joked about a reward sandwich in text messages, Manhattan state court proceedings revealed on Tuesday.

He said, if you get the New York City shooter, Ill buy you a hoagie from a local restaurant, testified Joseph Detwiler, an Altoona, Pennsylvania police officer, of texts exchanged with a supervisor. I said, Consider it done.

In less than an hour, Detwiler learned that this seemingly spurious tip was true.

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Mangione was captured in Pennsylvania at a McDonalds on 9 December 2024 in connection with the murder of Brian Thompson, the United HealthCare CEO. Thompsons death on a New York City street on 4 December 2024 both spurred a sprawling manhunt for his killer and stoked public outrage over the practices of the USs for-profit health insurance industry.

Related: Luigi Mangione under constant watch in prison to prevent Epstein-style situation

Following the dispatchers orders, Detwiler and another officer went to the McDonalds. I saw the male sitting at the table there, next to the bathrooms, Detwiler said. The man had on a large coat, brown beanie and blue medical mask, just as the tipster had said. I walked by. I wanted to see what he did when he saw us.

Detwiler asked the man his name and explained that someone called, they thought you were suspicious. He asked for identification, which the man provided. This ID would prove to be fake.

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Detwiler also asked the man to pull down his mask. I knew it was him immediately, Detwiler said.

Mangione was led into court just after 9.50am, wearing a dark jacket. His hand restraints were removed before he sat at the defense table. He faces Manhattan federal court charges in addition to his state case and has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.

Detwilers testimony came on day two of a potentially weeklong proceeding about whether evidence was gathered illegally during Mangiones encounter with police at this fast-food eatery. Mangiones lawyers have repeatedly pushed for the exclusion of evidence obtained during his arrest, alleging that he was not immediately informed of his constitutional rights.

Detwiler and another officer were sent to a local McDonalds after the restaurants manager called 911, saying customers thought they had spotted the shooter. He was the first police officer to question Mangione.

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The audio recording chronicling Detwilers dispatch was played in court.

Theres a male in the [McDonalds] that looks like the NYC shooter, police dispatch told Detwiler of the reported sighting.

Detwiler responded: 10-4. Well be on that.

Prosecutor Joel Seidemann asked Detwiler about his tone.

I was being semi-sarcastic when I said it, Detwiler explained. I did not think it was going to be the person that they thought it was.

As Seidemanns questioning progressed, Detwiler gave more details about Mangiones arrest. Body-worn camera footage was displayed in court.

Detwiler stayed calm after recognizing Mangione and called his supervisor. Yes, hes here. Its him, Detwiler remembered saying.

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On the call, Detwiler insisted that he wasnt kidding. He was surprised, because he was the one who sent me the text message when we got the call.

About the free hoagie? Seidemann asked.

Yes.

Detwiler tried to act as normally as possible, telling Mangione that police were there over complaints that he had been lingering too long. Body-camera footage showed Mangione eating a hash-brown patty and, shortly thereafter, another item.

I asked him if it was a steak sandwich, Detwiler said. Mangione responded with an mm-hmm. I said it was my favorite.

What was the point out of that? Seidemann said.

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Just trying to keep things calm and normal, like I said before.

How much of a role Mangiones mask played in attracting attention remains unclear.

Seidemann asked Detwiler about mask culture in Altoona.

We dont wear masks, Detwiler said. We have antibodies.

And since no one wears masks there, Detwiler knew the man they would later identify as Mangione was the man who had prompted suspicion.

He had a mask on, Detwiler said. So he had to be the person we were called there for.

Karen Agnifilo, one of Mangiones attorneys, examined Detwiler after the prosecution wrapped its inquiry. She pressed on details about his identification of Mangione to bolster the defense position that circumstances surrounding the interdiction were legally problematic.

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Agnifilo asked about the dispatch call, which said that there was a suspicious male that resembled the NYC shooter at McDonalds. The dispatch call was low-priority.

It didnt sound serious on the radio, no, Detwiler said.

You didnt use lights and sirens? Agnifilo said.

Detwiler said they did not.

Agnifilo noted that Detwiler asked the man he would later identify as Mangione to lower his mask, and he did so right away. She suggested through questioning that the timing seemed off for such a swift identification.

Its at that moment, two seconds into seeing him, you know: hes the New York City shooter?

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Detwiler again insisted that he knew. No doubt in my mind.

Agnifilo also sought to suggest that Mangione was held without being apprised of his rights. She asked Detwiler, whose pre-Altoona police resume includes the air force and private security in Iraq, about he and his partners physical position at McDonalds.

Mangione was in the corner booth, back to the wall, and Agnifilo pressed Detwiler to explain whether he and his partner were standing in a way to prevent him from leaving. Detwiler said he and his partner needed room.

Were not going to stand next to each other and hold each others hands.
Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Pope Leo XIV spoke out Tuesday on migrant issues and rising tension between the United States and Venezuela.

The pontiff hinted at danger and "signals" of threats of possible U.S. military intervention and "invasion" of Venezuela on his return trip to Rome from Lebanon, saying "so we must see."

"On the one hand, it seems there has been a telephone conversation between the two presidents," he told reporters on board. "On the other hand, there is this danger, this possibility, that there could be an action, an operation."

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Leo ended his nearly week-long trip in Beirut at a waterfront mass that drew at least 150,000 worshippers.

On Tuesday, the Roman Catholic Church head addressed a number of global topics.

The U.S.-born Leo stated his belief it's better to "seek dialogue" with the government of Venezuela's strongman President Nicolas Maduro.

"I know that in Europe, there are many times fears that are present but often times generated by people who are against immigration and trying to keep out people who may be from another country, from another religion, from another race," he continued.

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Pope Leo added the church's Conference of Bishops was attempting to "calm" the widening diplomatic imbroglio in South America.

He said that in Europe "and North America, we should perhaps be a little less fearful and look for ways for promoting authentic dialogue and respect."
Pope Leo XIV led a silent prayer at the site of the Beirut port explosion and demanded justice for its victims, as he wrapped up his three-day visit to Lebanon.

He also met some relatives of the 218 people who were killed by the massive blast on 4 August 2020, which devastated a large part of the capital.

Later, the Pope said he was "deeply moved" by his visit to the port and shared "the thirst for truth and justice, of so many families, of an entire country".

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No-one has yet been held accountable for the disaster, which happened when a fire triggered the detonation of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that had been stored unsafely at a port warehouse for almost six years.

It is widely believed that officials and politicians were aware of the combustible chemical's existence and the danger it posed but that they failed to secure, remove or destroy it.

Victims' relatives and activists say the domestic investigation into the disaster has been hampered by the political leadership's efforts to shield those responsible from scrutiny.

Cecile Roukoz, whose brother Joseph was killed, said the Pope's visit to the memorial was "very important". "We know that he raises his voice for justice, and we need justice for our brothers and all the victims of this explosion," she added.

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Tatiana Hasrouty, who lost her father Ghassan in the blast, said: "He's trying to help us find the truth in some sort of way, in his way, maybe in praying and maybe in just looking at us... We, the families, now, after five years, we need people to look at us."

An estimated 150,000 people gathered at Beirut's waterfront for the Pope's final Mass in Lebanon [EPA]

After praying at the blast site, the Pope celebrated the final Mass of his trip in front of an estimated 150,000 people gathered on Beirut's waterfront.

Addressing the crowd, he lamented that the beauty of Lebanon had been "overshadowed by poverty and suffering, the wounds that have marked your history".

But he appealed to the country's diverse communities to unite to solve its problems.

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"Let us cast off the armour of our ethnic and political divisions, open our religious confessions to mutual encounter and reawaken in our hearts the dream of a united Lebanon," he said.

"A Lebanon where peace and justice reign, where all recognise each other as brothers and sisters."

Returning to Rome on Tuesday, the Pope told reporters that Lebanon was an example of "a land where Islam and Christianity are both present and are respected".

He later added: "I think those are lessons that would be important to be heard in Europe or North America - that we should perhaps be a little less fearful, and look at ways of promoting authentic dialogue and respect."

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Since the last papal visit in 2012, Lebanon has been plagued by multiple crises.

In 2019, the country suffered one of the worst economic depressions recorded in modern times, which pushed millions into poverty.

It was followed by mass anti-government protests, the coronavirus pandemic, and then the Beirut port explosion.

Political paralysis prevented the country from passing the economic and structural reforms demanded by foreign donors in return for billions of dollars in aid.

Lebanon was later devastated by the 13-month war between the Shia Muslim Hezbollah movement and Israel, which killed 4,000 Lebanese and 120 Israelis.

A ceasefire ended the conflict a year ago, but Israel has continued to attack targets it says are linked to Hezbollah, accusing the Iran-backed group of trying to rearm.
As people get ready to give gifts this holiday season, neighbors in the Harlan Ranch community in Clovis are concerned about porch pirates and mail theft.

A string of videos posted to social media shows a man dressed as a delivery driver stealing packages.

"Ok, that's crazy because that's behind me, right there. Yeah, that is on the street behind me," said neighbor Steve Gejeian.

He has lived in the neighborhood for about 11 years. Although Gejeian's family hasn't been the victim of porch pirates, he shares how he's concerned about this latest theft.

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"It looks like they're showing up in the zip-up yellow jacket, which is deceptive. With our kids, it makes me a little nervous," Gejeian said.

Gejeian said the community mailbox he uses was recently broken into, creating extra stress this holiday season.

"It's very disturbing because a lot of personal information. Bills, a lot of things come in the mail that you're concerned about," said Gejeian.

Clovis Police encourage neighbors to call police if they see something suspicious. Sgt. Nathan Jaime said there could be serious consequences for thieves if caught.

"If it's under $950, it's considered misdemeanor petty theft," he said. "If it's over $950, it's considered grand theft, which is a felony."

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At minimum, authorities explain a person could spend at least a year in jail for stealing mail and or packages.

But beyond the potential criminal charges, Gejeian said the act is just cruel.

"It's one thing to lose the stuff, but that someone else would do that to you. I think it stabs at the heart a little bit," he said.

A piece of advice is to make sure security cameras aren't blocked by any holiday decorations. Police add that if you do find someone stealing, you want to gather as much identifying information about the suspect, and again, report it to authorities.

For news updates, follow Vince Ybarra on Facebook, X and Instagram.
Federal prosecutors in Detroit are asking a federal appellate court to dismiss the appeal of the ex-Detroit Riverfront Conservancy CFO that requests his 19-year prison sentence for embezzling more than $44 million from the nonprofit be tossed and he be resentenced.

William Smith's attorney filed the appeal Nov. 18 with the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

Federal prosecutors filed a 10-page response Dec. 1 asking for the dismissal, saying Smith pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering and "received a within-guideline sentence of 228 months."

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"In his plea agreement, Smith waived 'any right' to appeal a sentence 'on any grounds' provided his sentence did not exceed 235 months. Smith acknowledges in his appellate brief that his plea agreement contains an appeal waiver, nonetheless he appeals his sentence. Given the appeal waiver, Smith's appeal should be dismissed," prosecutors wrote.

Smith, 53, was sentenced in April after an 11-year-long scheme. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering in a plea agreement last year. He is at the Federal Correctional Institution in Milan, a low-security institution in Washtenaw County.

More: Detroit Riverfront Conservancy to shrink board, tighten controls after massive fraud

Smith's attorney argued the appeal "raises important questions relating to the substantive reasonableness of a lengthy criminal sentence, and the improper application of multiple sentencing guideline enhancements that increased the sentencing guideline range."

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He argued the proper calculation of Smith's offense should have resulted in a shorter sentence of 151 to 188 months, or roughly 13 years to 16 years, in prison.

Prosecutors wrote that at the plea hearing, the district court asked Smith whether he had the opportunity to review the plea agreement, discuss it with his attorney and if he understood it. They said Smith responded yes to all three questions.

Prosecutors said the government placed the appeal waiver on the record "explaining that Smith agrees to waive his right to appeal his conviction on any grounds and to appeal his sentence if it does not exceed 235 months or the midpoint of the guidelines, whichever is greater ... The court asked Smith if he understood the terms and consequences of the agreement. ... He did."

They added that the district court reviewed the appeal waiver with Smith "telling him that if it accepted his guilty plea that he would not be able to appeal his conviction and sentence" and it explained how the plea agreement was a binding contract between the parties and that both sides were bound by its terms.

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"The court asked Smith if he understood that he could 'not successfully argue that [he] did not realize how severe [his] sentence might be,'" prosecutors wrote in their motion. "Smith said he understood."

Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @challreporter.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Prosecutors ask court to dismiss appeal by ex-Detroit Riverfront CFO
MANILA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) on Tuesday reported that the country's merchandise exports rose 19.4 percent in October 2025 compared to the same month last year, extending a ten-month streak of year-on-year expansion.

The DTI said the sustained double-digit growth reflects a strong rebound from the slowdown experienced over the past two years, with key sectors continuing to post improved performance amid recovering global demand.

From January to October 2025, total exports reached 70.43 billion U.S. dollars, up from 61.90 billion dollars in the same period in 2024, marking a 13.80-percent increase.

Electronics, still the country's leading export category, grew by 11.7 percent, rising from 36.54 billion dollars in 2024 to 40.82 billion dollars in 2025.

"This expansion suggests sustained momentum in semiconductor and electronic component manufacturing, supported by both export diversification and increased orders from major trading partners," the DTI said in a statement.

Meanwhile, non-electronics exports outpaced electronics, posting a robust 16.8 percent growth rate. Shipments climbed from 25.35 billion dollars to 29.61 billion dollars, driven by stronger performance in sectors such as manufactured products, minerals, and agro-based goods.

Services exports contracted slightly in the first half of 2025, according to the DTI data.

From January to June 2025, Philippine services exports amounted to 24.43 billion dollars, marginally lower than the 24.65 billion dollars recorded in the same period of 2024. 
Publix will be closing two stores in metro Atlanta just days after Christmas.

The grocery chain confirmed to Channel 2 Action News Atlantic Station and 2562 Shallowford Rd. NE locations are closing for good on Dec. 27. Employees were notified on Monday.

Publix said in a statement to Channel 2 Action News that a number of factors went into the decision to close the stores. It will be offering associates positions at neighboring stores.

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In our 95-year history, Publix has never had a layoff, a spokesperson said.

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Channel 2s Audrey Washington was outside the Publix at Atlantic Station talking to customers who were sad to see the store go.

I live over here, and I like that its walkable, close by. I can just go and get whatever I need quickly, said shopper Didem Pehlivanglu.

A spokesperson for Atlantic Station shared a statement that said they see this as an opportunity to reimagine the space and consider concepts that will add new options and value to the surrounding community.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

Customers can visit five other Publix stores within a 2-mile radius of Atlantic Station:

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The Plaza Midtown (1 mile): 950 W Peachtree St NW, Atlanta, GA 30309

Howell Mill Village (1.5 miles): 2020 Howell Mill Rd NW Ste A, Atlanta, GA 30318

Ansley Mall (1.6 miles): 1544 Piedmont Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30324

Publix at Piedmont (1.8 miles): 595 Piedmont Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30308

Peachtree Battle Shopping Center (2 miles): 2365 Peachtree Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30305

Customers of the Shallowford Road store have five locations within 4 miles:
Vladimir Putin hailed the capture of the key front-line stronghold of Pokrovsk hours before talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow.

But Ukraine dismissed the Russian report, saying the strategic city was still standing and Moscows claims were part of its information war.

Speaking late on Monday, Putin hailed the apparent advance as an important direction during his third uniformed visit to command posts close to the fighting in just over a month.

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Footage released by Russias defence ministry and aired on state television showed soldiers raising a Russian flag in the centre of the shattered city.

Moscow is believed to have controlled the city centre for weeks after pressing in from the south, while Ukraine says it still holds northern districts of the strategic hub.

A still from a Russian Defence Ministry video, said to show Putins troops on the streets of Pokrovsk - Shutterstock

Ukrainian soldiers said on Tuesday that they had beaten back the unit that planted the flag, insisting that fighting continued in the vital logistics node in eastern Donetsk.

The Ukrainian militarys eastern command said on social media: Search and assault operations and the elimination of the enemy in urban areas continue in Pokrovsk.

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Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X that Russia had launched new disinformation campaigns ahead of the American delegations visit, without directly mentioning Pokrovsk or the wider front line.

DeepState, a Ukrainian open-source intelligence (OsInt) mapping project, said large portions of Pokrovsk were still contested, aligning with assessments from other analysts.

The fortress city  previously known as Krasnoarmiisk  has been one of the fiercest battle zones, with Ukrainian forces resisting a major Russian offensive under worsening conditions for a year.

Its rail and road links have made it central to Ukraines fortifications, though its strategic value has diminished as Kyiv has been forced to shift to alternative supply lines amid heavy drone and artillery strikes on the main routes.

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It has been widely anticipated that Russia will eventually take the city, but Kyiv continues to mount attacks on Russian positions there with drones.

Analysts have warned that Moscows announcement ahead of Mr Witkoffs sixth visit there this year was likely timed to try to extract further concessions in peace talks and defer a ceasefire.

Telegram / @oleksiihoncharenko

Territorial gains on the battlefield will likely strengthen Moscows negotiating position, and Pokrovsk would be one of its biggest captures in months.

The capture of the stronghold would show Mr Witkoff that Russian forces were making headway in Donetsk as peace talks centre on Ukraine ceding the rest of the region.

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Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraines centre for countering disinformation, said the claims had been made exclusively for Western audiences and to raise the stakes in diplomacy.

Mr Witkoff, along with Jared Kushner, Donald Trumps son-in-law, were expected to meet with Putin on Tuesday afternoon to discuss a revised version of an earlier peace plan reportedly co-authored by Moscow, incorporating later input from Ukrainian officials.

A Russian video shows Donetsk National Technical University with severe damage to its roof and grounds - AFP

Russia has often been accused of inflating its battlefield successes.

In November, Valery Gerasimov, Russias top general who reports to Putin, claimed that Russia had captured the city of Kupyansk just as Ukraine received a US proposal to end the war. The claim was disputed even by Russian military bloggers.

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Last month, a former military cartographer who deserted the Russian army, told independent outlet Mediazona that he had been forced to make maps for Gerasimov showing non-existent advances.

If Moscow succeeded in seizing Pokrovsk, it could offer Russian troops a path to drive north towards Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the two biggest cities left under Ukraines control in the Donetsk region.

Last month, Russia made its biggest advances since November 2024, according to an AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War, a US-based think tank.

Russian media suggested that Moscow could use the purported gains to fend off US pressure to agree to a peace deal in Ukraine.

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Komsomolskaya Pravda, a Moscow daily newspaper, cast the purported advance as a hint that more and more Ukrainian territories are under our control, and next time Russias conditions may be tougher. Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the government paper, said there was now no need to rush in talks.

Russian commanders told Putin on Monday night that their forces were advancing along the entire front and had taken the town of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region. Ukrainian officials have not responded to the claims.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected changes to US President Donald Trump's 28-point plan for ending the war in Ukraine.

According to Russian news agency Interfax, Putin said the European amendments were intended to block the peace process.

He made the comments ahead of a meeting with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner in Moscow.

Putin said Russia is prepared to involve Europeans in negotiations as long as they recognize the realities on the battlefield in Ukraine. The Kremlin on Monday announced the capture of the key eastern Ukraine city of Pokrovsk, a claim that was rejected by Kiev on Tuesday.

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"We have no intention of fighting Europe, I've said that 100 times," Putin said. "But if Europe wants to fight again and starts, then we are ready for that immediately."

The European Union has made it clear on several occasions that it will not accept a violent shift of Europe's borders, and that only Ukraine can decide on its territories.

Putin insists that Ukraine must surrender the eastern Donbass region in order to achieve peace, including areas that Russian forces have failed to seize in more than three and a half years of war.

Kiev categorically rejects the position.
Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks in Moscow on Tuesday with US representatives about a possible end to the war in Ukraine.

US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, took part in the meeting in the Kremlin.

Immediately beforehand, the Russian president issued a stern warning to Ukraine  and its supporters in Europe. If Europe wants to fight and starts doing so, Russia is ready to respond immediately, Putin asserted.

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Putin criticised the changes made to Trump's original 28-point peace plan at the insistence of the Europeans. According to Russia's Interfax news agency, Putin said that Europe's proposals were aimed "at blocking the peace process."

Putin said Russia is prepared to involve Europeans in negotiations as long as they recognize wjhat he termed the realities on the battlefield in Ukraine.

The Kremlin on Monday announced the capture of the key eastern Ukraine city of Pokrovsk, a claim that was rejected by Kiev on Tuesday.

"We have no intention of fighting Europe, I've said that 100 times," Putin said. "But if Europe wants to fight again and starts, then we are ready for that immediately."

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The European Union has made it clear on several occasions that it will not accept a violent shift of Europe's borders, and that only Ukraine can decide on its territories.

Putin insists that Ukraine must surrender the eastern Donbass region in order to achieve peace, including areas that Russian forces have failed to seize in more than three and a half years of war. Kiev categorically rejects the position.

Witkoff and Kushner were to present the current US peace plan for ending the war in the Kremlin. Its exact content is not publicly known. However, the plan, which was made public at the end of November, has undergone various changes in recent days because many of the initial proposals were unacceptable to Ukraine and the European states.

Putin threatened Ukraine with harsh retaliation following attacks on Russian tankers and ships calling at Russian-controlled ports.

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"We are expanding our attacks on port facilities and ships calling at Ukrainian ports," Putin said, adding that as a last resort he would cut Ukraine off from the sea.

Putin described the attacks in neutral waters as piracy and blamed them directly on the Ukrainian armed forces. "If this continues, we will consider countermeasures against ships from countries that are helping Ukraine in these acts of piracy," Putin said.

In recent days, two tankers belonging to the so-called Russian shadow fleet in the Black Sea had been attacked with sea drones.
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY)  The Virginia Beach Police Department announced their use of a new tool allowing for real-time language interpretation.

According to VBPD, the Axon platform called Axon Translation is an innovation designed to enhance public safety and community engagement.

The Virginia Beach Police Department is committed to leveraging advanced technologies, not only to fight crime, but also to strengthen our connection with the community, said Chief Paul Neudigate. With tools like Axon Translation, we are breaking down language barriers while building additional trust and safety. It is our goal to ensure every resident and visitor feels heard and protected.

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Police technology administrator Brandon Kyle said the goal is for every officer to be using the technology before the end of the year.

We were at a bit of a disadvantage, and that was an impact on the officer, Kyle said. That was an impact on the citizen, and the options were rather limited on when this encounter would occur.

Law enforcement officials shared that Axon Translation provides officers with language interpretation in 56 dialects.

Its basically like a flip of a switch, said Master Police Officer John Hlebinsky, a public information officer with Virginia Beach Police. You think about turning a light switch on. Its just that easy.

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When helping someone who is speaking another language, all officers have to do is turn the feature on, which is already installed in their body-worn cameras.

The technology will automatically detect the language that is being spoken, and then translate it in English to the officer. The officer can reply in English, and the camera will then translate and reply in the other language.

That vital information in that first 30 seconds to get that out is crucial, and we can capture that with this technology, Hlebinsky said.

They said it will help bridge communication gaps with residents, visitors and tourists from around the world.

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Its just one less thing that you have to worry about, a distraction with the phone or going back to your cruiser, Hlebinsky said. Literally, I can stay where Im at on the scene and just handle that conversation, or handle my case. Its going to move volumes. Its going to go fast.

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Testimony continued Tuesday in the murder trial of Brian Walshe, the Cohasset man who is accused of killing and dismembering his wife, Ana Walshe, on New Years Day 2023.

Watch live: Day 2 of testimony is underway in Norfolk Superior Court

Cohasset Police Officer Harrison Schmidt  the first witness  returned to the stand on Day 2 of the high-profile trial. Schmidt testified about the initial investigation before Walshes arrest and played interviews where Walshe allegedly lied about Ana leaving for a work emergency in Washington, D.C.

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During questioning, police asked Walshe if he had harmed his wife. He said no. But investigators later discovered chilling searches on an iPad belonging to Walshes son, including:

How to dispose of a body

How to get blood out of hardwood floors

How to dispose of a body in the trash

How to stop a body from decomposing

List of 21 Google searches Brian Walshe allegedly made before, after his wifes death

Court exhibit

Those searches were made around 4:54 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2023. Walshe claimed he never used that iPad.

There are dozens of searches from that iPad the morning of the first and how do you explain that? Schmidt asked in the audio recording played in court. I dont, I have no idea...I dont use that iPad, so thats really weird, Walshe replied.

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The second witness of the trial, Massachusetts State Police Trooper Nicholas Guarino, was called to the stand after Schmidt was dismissed.

Guarino was asked by the prosecution to review digital evidence connected to the case.

During opening statements on Monday, defense attorney Larry Tipton told jurors that Walshe panicked after allegedly finding Ana dead in bed following a New Years Eve party, leading him to lie to investigators and hide her remains.

Prosecutors argue Walshe meticulously planned her murder. In addition to the Google searches, theyve pointed to evidence recovered from a dumpster near Walshes mothers home including a hatchet, hacksaw, and drugs  all allegedly bearing Anas DNA.

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The trial is expected to last about three weeks.

Anas remains havent been found.

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The late Utah Rep. Mia Love was honored Monday with the first ever Martha Hughes Cannon Legacy Award, highlighting her trailblazing career as the first Black Republican woman elected to Congress.

Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a close personal friend of Loves since she first became mayor of Saratoga Springs in 2010, presented the award at the state Capitol. She recalled first meeting over the phone during Loves mayoral campaign, when the candidate reached out to Henderson for advice.

Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson greets members of Mia Loves family after presenting the Legacy Award to Jason Love at the Martha Hughes Cannon Award ceremony at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Weve been very good friends ever since, the lieutenant governor said. We went through a lot together: wins and losses  both of us  ups and downs, sickness and health. And I learned a lot from my good friend. One of the things that I learned from Mia is that public service is not about you. Public service is about what you can do to help other people fulfill their opportunities.

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Love was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme brain cancer in March of 2022 and died in March at the age of 49. She served two terms in Congress from 2015 to 2019.

Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson talks about her friend Mia Love, who died at her Saratoga Springs home of glioblastoma multiforme brain cancer on March 23, 2025. Henderson presented the Legacy Award to Jason Love at the Martha Hughes Cannon Award ceremony at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Love is the first recipient of the Legacy Award, given by the Utah Women Run, a nonprofit that offers training for female candidates for public office at all levels. The organization has honored other Utah women for three straight years with Martha Hughes Cannon Awards, named for the former state senator who was the first female senator elected in the United States in 1896.

Henderson compared Love to Cannon not just as a trailblazer in politics, but as someone who worked to lift others as they climbed.

The Martha Hughes Cannon Award ceremony at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

I learned from Mia that friendship is important, she said. Sometimes were the only women in the room. Those of us who happen to be in public service find ourselves sitting at tables filled with men. Were sitting in rooms filled with men. And Mia taught me that I belong in the room. You belong in the room. We deserve a place at the table, and Mia was not about to let anyone tell her that she didnt belong.

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Jason Love, Mias husband, accepted the award on behalf of his wife. Standing in front of a backdrop emblazoned with the Utah Women Run logo, he read each word and said: These are things Mia loved.

Audience members listen during the Martha Hughes Cannon Award ceremony at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

She was so honored to serve the people of Utah for so many years at the city level and federal level, he said. She also loved to run. ... (She) went out in the street in winter still and jogged, but she also loved to campaign. She loved the energy and ... the excitement from the campaign season, but she was also very proud of her womanhood, and she considered it a strength.

He said many Saratoga Springs residents still remember Love knocking on their doors during campaign season with her small children in tow.

Jason Love, husband of Mia Love, who died at her Saratoga Springs home of glioblastoma multiforme brain cancer on March 23, 2025, was presented the Legacy Award at the Martha Hughes Cannon Award ceremony at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Knocking on doors, shaking hands, building relationships was such a critical part of her being able to gain voters and learn about the city issues, he said. And her motherhood, her womanhood, gave her the ability to be there in the city and also take our children with her and teach them to be an example.

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Utah Women Run also honored five other Utah women for their contributions in politics.

Utah House Majority Whip Candice Pierucci, R-Riverton, and House Minority Leader Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, were recognized for their impacts in their respective parties. Former Salt Lake City School Board member Kristi Swett was recognized for her work in local government, State School Board member LeAnn Wood was honored for her work in policy and advocacy and Logan Mayor Holly Daines received the organizations Lifetime Achievement Award.
People visit the courtyard where Charlie Kirk was hosting an event when he was killed at Utah Valley University in Orem on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)

An outside review of Charlie Kirks assassination at Utah Valley University and the schools security protocols is expected to begin in January and conclude before summer 2026.

The Orem university laid out the timeline in a request for proposals posted last month on its procurement website for contract vendors. UVU had announced in September that it was initiating a comprehensive independent review with an external organization but didnt give a timeline or disclose the name of any firm.

A spokesperson did not immediately provide answers to questions from Utah News Dispatch Monday. The college of more than 46,000 students in Orem  the states largest  is accepting bids from would-be reviewers until Wednesday.

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The development comes as the shooting of Kirk, a prominent conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump, has also drawn new focus to security protocols and police resources on college campuses across the state.

While the universitys request for bids doesnt explicitly mention Kirk or reference a shooting, it says the purpose of the probe is to analyze what happened before and after an incident on Sept. 10, including contributing factors. Evaluators will also scrutinize the universitys security and emergency preparation and response actions and protocols and make recommendations for improvement, according to the 22-page call for proposals.

Kirk was shot from a roof on campus while answering a students question in a courtyard, killing him. Security experts have said UVU seemed to miss important security steps such as monitoring rooftops and criticized the school for not staffing the event with more police officers.

UVU Police Chief Jeffrey Long said just after the shooting that six officers worked the event, in addition to Kirks private security team of eight.

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The university announced last month it was in the process of hiring eight new campus police officers and two new safety managers to its existing force of 23 officers.

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The coming review is set to begin in the first week of January and end sometime in late spring 2026, and will include a report prepared for the public. Evaluators are expected to conduct interviews with university leaders, law enforcement, emergency management workers, employees and students, the document says.

Theyre also tasked with looking over video, emergency plans, training records, incident logs and other relevant records that will help them piece together a timeline and identify key decision points.

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Also under the microscope is the universitys coordination with outside agencies like local law enforcement and emergency services. The Utah County Sheriffs Office has said it was not involved that day until the shooting happened.

Reflecting on campus safety throughout the state, Gov. Spencer Cox told reporters last week that we want to make sure we have the funding necessary to keep our kids safe on campus.

Asked whether hed push for the state to free up funds for public universities to expand police forces, Cox replied, Were having that conversation with the department of public safety and all of our colleges and universities. We want our students to be safe. Ive got kids on college campuses right now. Its important to all of us.

He noted UVU is the states largest university in terms of student enrollment, but said its campus is more compact than most, saying thats a factor in the size of its police force.

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A newly formed state task force on higher education and public safety includes officials from Utah universities, law enforcement agencies and private businesses.

Its members are set to convene for their first meeting on Dec. 8, Katie Mazzie with the Utah System of Higher Education told lawmakers on a school safety panel at the Capitol Monday.

The task force plans to start by evaluating policies across Utahs public colleges, Mazzie said, with the eventual goal of standardizing practices to make campuses safer.

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America's political attention is turning to Tennessee.

Volunteer State voters are heading to the polls on Tuesday, Dec. 2, for a special election to replace former Republican Rep. Mark Green in the 7th congressional district, which is just west of Nashville.

The district, which includes parts of Davidson County and 13 other counties, has become competitive between the two major parties in recent weeks, with polling showing a close race between Republican combat veteran Matt Van Epps and Democrat state representative Aftyn Behn.

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More: Trump says 'whole world is watching' Tennessee race as GOP works to avert disaster

Democrat Aftyn Behn (L) and Republican Matt Van Epps (R).

Van Epps is leading by only 2 percentage points over Behn, 48% to 46%, according to an Emerson College Polling/The Hill poll released last week. The survey results are within the margin of error.

Top Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson and President Donald Trump, have campaigned for Van Epps with an eye on keeping GOP control of the area and also the party's narrow majority overall in the U.S. House. Top Democrats have also shown out for Behn, including former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Tuesday's election comes as Democrats have seen major wins in off-year elections, including the governor races in New Jersey and Virginia, as well as the New York City mayoral race.

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Heres what to know about the election.

Who is Democrat Aftyn Behn?

Tennessee state Rep. Aftyn Behn speaks during a Democratic Party forum for candidates running for the 7th Congressional District special election at the Fairview Recreation Center in Fairview Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025.

Behn, a 36-year-old state House representative, was first an activist in the halls of the state Capitol before joining the statehouse.

She was elected to represent House District 51, which includes parts of Davidson County where Nashville is located, in a special election called after the death of former state Rep. Bill Beck in 2023. She won reelection to the district in 2024. Shes the youngest female member of the Tennessee state legislature.

Prior to being elected to the statehouse, Behn spent nearly a decade organizing across Middle Tennessee, advocating for Medicaid expansion, fighting rural hospital closures, and seeking to lower the cost of living.

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Affordability is one of the key policies shes campaigning on to make it to the U.S. House.

Behns campaign slogan is to feed kids, fix roads and fund hospitals.

If you think things are going well, I am not your candidate, Behn said during an October interview on NewsChannel 5. If you are upset with the cost of living and the chaos of our federal and state government, then I am your candidate because I will go to Washington to fix it.

Who is Republican Matt Van Epps?

Republican congressional candidate Matt Van Epps speaks during a get out the vote event on Dec.1, 2025 in Franklin, Tennessee.

He scored the endorsement from Trump. He got the backing of billionaire-funded PACs. And he even got the support from current and former Tennessee governors.

Van Epps, 42, went from virtually unknown to a Republican heavy hitter who saw the backing of Republican strategists, donors and state officials in the now closely-watched race.

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Van Epps grew up in an affluent suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, and moved to Tennessee after a 10-year military career in the U.S. Army. He is a decorated combat helicopter pilot who served nine tours in Afghanistan and Iraq and is a West Point graduate.

He is now a lieutenant colonel in the Tennessee Army National Guard.

Outside the military, Van Epps worked in the Veterans Services and Transportation departments, and led the Department of General Services.

He was also labeled as Tennessees Fauci by opponents in the Republican primary. Van Epps job title was strategic planner in Tennessees COVID-19 Unified Command Group at the beginning of the pandemic from March 2020 until May that year. He was part of a tight circle of state leaders that helped shape the states COVID-19 policies and no-bid contract spending  without legislative approval  during the pandemic.

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Tennessee was one of the fastest states to reopen after the pandemic shutdown, and nearly 28,600 Tennesseans died due to COVID-19 between 2020 and 2022.

Democratic Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani and his wife, Rama Duwaji, votes at The Frank Sinatra School of the Arts on Nov. 4, 2025 in the Queens borough of New York City. Voters in NYC are voting for who will be replacing Mayor Eric Adams between the front runner New York Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani and New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo and Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa. More than 735,000 people have voted early, according to the Board of Elections, more than four times as many as in the 2021 contest. This election also has other city offices on the ballot, as well as six proposals. Independent mayoral candidate and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo departs after voting at a polling location at the High School of Art and Design in the Manhattan borough of New York City on Nov. 4, 2025. Election workers transport ballots on a cart during a special election on redistricting at the Los Angeles County Ballot Processing Center in City of Industry, California, November 4, 2025. A display shows an advertisement for betting on the New York City mayoral election, featuring Democratic candidate for New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani and Independent candidate for New York City mayor and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, in Times Square, in New York City, November 4, 2025. A poll worker poses for a photo during Pennsylvania Municipal Election in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 4, 2025. Mary Wellington, from left, with Ventura County Elections Division, helps first-time voter Makailee Lindbergh, 18, cast her provisional ballot on Proposition 50 at the Best Western Plus Thousand Oaks Inn in Thousand Oaks, California on Nov. 4, 2025. New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial candidate, U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), (L) is cheered by supporters as she exits the polling center after casting her vote on Nov. 4, 2025 in Montclair, New Jersey. Sherrill faces off against Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli, in a tightly contested race for New Jersey governor. A person exits a polling center after casting her vote on Nov. 4, 2025 in Montclair, New Jersey. Virginia voters cast their ballots at Robius Elementary School Nov. 4, 2025 in Midlothian, Virginia. Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger faces off against Republican candidate Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears in the Commonwealth of Virginias off-year election for governor and other statewide offices on November 4, a race that will lead to the first female governor in the commonwealths history. Bob Elsea, poll clerk at Ward 6 Precinct 1 at Trinity United Methodist Church, shouts out "polls are open" at 7 a.m. during election day in Anderson, South Carolina., Nov. 4, 2025. Shunmuga Sankaran displays the sticker he recieved while voting at Cherry Hill East High School in Cherry Hill, New Jersey on Nov. 4, 2025. Michael Powers, 63, of Pontiac, votes at precinct nine in the gymnasium at the Kennedy School in Pontiac, Michigan on Nov. 4, 2025. The Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr. smiles as he waits to turn in his ballot alongside his wife Robin Kinloch early on Election Day inside Chrysler Elementary School in Detroit on Nov. 4, 2025. People vote at the Old Portage Masonic Temple on Nov. 4, 2025, in Akron, Ohio. Eight people are vying for four seats on the Akron Public School District board. Election officials check in mail-in votes at the Buttonwood Warming House polling station in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Election workers process mail-in ballots at the Lebanon County Courthouse in Pennsylvania on Nov. 4, 2025. MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - NOVEMBER 4: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (C) submits his ballot with his daughter Freida Frey as he holds his child Estelle Frey at a polling place on Election Day on November 4, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey is seeking reelection to his third term in office as he is opposed by three other local Democrats. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) Voters cast their ballots in the municipal election on Nov. 4, 2025, at Holly Tree Elementary in Wilmington, North Carolina. Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins talks with election worker Rhonda Lewis Warren before voting at the Runyon Heights Community House in Yonkers Nov. 4, 2025. Jenkins is running for his first full four-year term for County Executive after winning a special election earlier this year to replace former County Executive George Latimer who had been elected to the U.S. Congress. Mayor Mitch Colvin hugs a voter at a polling site at Cliffdale Recreation Center in Fayetteville on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. Hope Mills Commissioner Bryan Marley, left to right, Hope Mills Mayor Jessie Bellflowers and Chilleko Hurst talk outside a polling site at Hope Mills Recreation Center in Hope Mills on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. Shortly before 6 a..m., a voter arrives to cast their ballot at Cherry Hill East High School in Cherry Hill, NJ, on Election Day, Tuesday, November 4, 2025. New Yorkers vote to pick their new mayor at an election site in a church in Manhattan on November 4, 2025 in New York City. The latest polls show the front-runner continues to be Zohran Mamdani, holding a clear lead over independent Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa. Hope Mills Commissioners candidate Ronald Starling talks to a voter outside a polling site at Hope Mills Recreation Center in Hope Mills, North Carolina on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. People register to vote at the Lakewood Municipal Building Tuesday morning, November 4, 2025. New Jersey voters decide on who will be the next governor of New Jersey, in addition to the Assembly, and county and local elections. Keith Sjostrand holds his granddaughter, Ila Barrett, 2, while poll worker, Kathleen Forman hands her a voting sticking. Behind them Ila's great-grandfather, Donald Sjostrand, watches with a smile.The family voted at Licking County Church of God in Newark, Ohio, Nov 4, 2025. Two days before election day, Lakewood, NJ, voters and their families wait to cast their early ballots late Sunday afternoon, November 2, 2025, at the Municipal Building on 3rd Street. First time poll worker, Benita Neely, dances with her arms in the air to call people over to drop their ballots in the ballot box at Cherry Valley Elementary in Newark, Ohio, Nov 4, 2025. A volunteer for the Working Families Party speaks to a voter during the Pennsylvania Municipal Election in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 4, 2025. Michael Lopez, 13, takes a selfie with his mother, Olga, after she voted at Burncot High School on Tuesday, Nov. 4. The photo was for Michael, an 8th grader at Burncoat Middle School, to receive extra credit in Steven Mendard's social studies class which was learning about the election process. Bruce Williams fills out a ballot during Election Day at China Grove AME Church in Madison, Miss., on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. Election workers extract ballots as part of ballot processing during a special election on redistricting at the Los Angeles County Ballot Processing Center in City of Industry, California, November 4, 2025. See candidates and constituents cast their ballots on Election Day 2025 1 of 32 Democratic Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani and his wife, Rama Duwaji, votes at The Frank Sinatra School of the Arts on Nov. 4, 2025 in the Queens borough of New York City. Voters in NYC are voting for who will be replacing Mayor Eric Adams between the front runner New York Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani and New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo and Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa. More than 735,000 people have voted early, according to the Board of Elections, more than four times as many as in the 2021 contest. This election also has other city offices on the ballot, as well as six proposals.

Why is there a special election?

Green, who was first elected in 2018, announced in June that he was resigning from Congress on July 20 to start a new job in the private sector, leaving the historically Republican leaning district open to the special election.

During his resignation announcement, Green said he would stay on to help pass President Donald Trumps big, beautiful bill, which was signed into law on July 4.

More than a dozen candidates jumped into the race to fill Greens seat. Van Epps and Behn won their respective primaries in October.

Who won the 7th congressional district in 2024?

Tennessees 7th congressional district has been a solid red seat after the states Republican-controlled legislature redrew its boundaries in 2022 by splitting Democrat-stronghold Nashville into three districts.

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In November 2024, Green cruised to his fourth term with nearly 60% of the vote before resigning just months later.

It was a district that Trump also won by 22 percentage points over Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

Contributing: Vivian Jones, Nashville Tennessean; Joey Garrison and Zac Anderson, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Who are Tennessee special election candidates Behn and Van Epps?
The U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.(Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

The U.S. House of Representatives took all of October off. In fact, the GOP-led chamber has only worked 14 days since July 25. As Congress sat idle, hardworking Ohioans faced rising health care costs, farmers battled dangerous market instability, and millions may lose necessary food assistance.

Its time for Congress to show up for the people it serves  to lower costs, raise wages, and protect the freedom to make choices about our own lives. As the Communications and Policy Director for the Rural Democracy Initiative, I worked with 40 local, state, and national organizations  including the Ohio-based Black Appalachian Coalition (BLAC)  to create the Rural Policy Action Report, which offers a roadmap of popular policies lawmakers could implement today.

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Here are five priorities to help families, small businesses, and rural communities thrive.

1. Fix health care.

To start, lawmakers should reverse the Medicaid cuts and renew the Affordable Care Act tax credits that they allowed to expire to pass tax breaks for billionaires.

More than undoing the damage Congress did this year, we need them to go further: lower prescription prices, support rural hospitals, and ensure reliable care close to home.

Access to life-saving services shouldnt depend on your ZIP code or your income.

2. Stand with farmers, not just corporations.

For farmers, rising health care costs are just part of the growing challenges.

Our members are feeling the pain of a chaotic trade policy, massive cuts to USDA programs that serve all farmers and rural communities, and the ever-growing threat from monopolies that manipulate the agriculture marketplace, said Aaron Lehman of the Iowa Farmers Union, a contributor to the report.

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With the Farm Bill years past due, it seems Congress only makes time to fund programs for the biggest agribusinesses.

But Congress could help develop local markets by investing in local food systems, reinstating the Local Food Purchase Assistance program that helped schools buy fresh food from local farms, and helping farmers protect soil and water.

They should retool crop insurance and credit programs so they work for smaller, more diverse farms.

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Farmers watched as new tariffs hurt the U.S. soybean market, and boosted sales for Argentina.

To top it off, the Trump administration promised Argentina an additional $20 billion bailout gift. Congress must rein in our trade policy and prioritize independent producers, small-town businesses, and workers.

3. Strengthen public schools.

Rural schools are the heart of their communities, preparing students with the skills to compete.

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But the federal government diverted billions from public schools to private schools with a voucher tax credit that could cost taxpayers up to $51 billion a year  more than the federal government spends on all public K12 education.

Lawmakers should stop the voucher programs and instead ensure students have properly funded schools with speech and reading services and support for kids with disabilities.

4. Empower workers

Rural workers often earn less, have fewer benefits, and face higher injury rates. When workers are respected and fairly paid, they spend locally and keep main streets alive.

But the Trump administration has tried to eliminate dozens of worker safety rules, rescinded an important overtime rule, and ordered immigration raids at work sites across the country.

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Congress should protect the right to organize, ensure safe work sites, and guarantee paid family and medical leave.

5. Make essentials affordable

Everyone should be able to afford groceries, medicine, and energy bills  but prices keep climbing.

Congress must work to lower prices and enable small businesses to be competitive so people have real choices.

Congress should also restore food assistance, cut costs for childcare, housing, and energy, and expand broadband access.

Congress needs to work for us, not for the special interests of big corporations and the ultra wealthy.

Rural communities have been overlooked  or actively harmed  by federal policy.

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The Rural Policy Action Report shows a better path: a practical plan with example legislation to improve health care, support farmers, strengthen public schools, stand with workers, and lower costs.

Read more at RuralPolicyAction.Us.

Michael Chameides is the communications and policy director for the Rural Democracy Initiative. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org.

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Primary and middle school students in Xinjiang's Altay Prefecture are enjoying their first-ever "snow break." From December 1 to 5, with weekends on both sides, local students can take up to nine consecutive days off.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service
VIENNA (AP)  The United States and Russia have both recently threatened to resume nuclear testing, alarming the international community and jeopardizing a global norm against such tests.

Experts say these threats from the worlds two largest nuclear powers put pressure on nonproliferation efforts and endanger global peace and security.

Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis, U.S. President Donald Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site at the end of October. That process will begin immediately.

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Moscow quickly responded.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Security Council that should the U.S. or any signatory to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty conduct nuclear weapons tests, Russia would be under obligation to take reciprocal measures.

Heres is a look at what a resumption of nuclear testing could mean.

The treaty established a norm against nuclear testing

Concerns about the negative effects of nuclear weapon tests grew in the 1950s when the U.S. and the Soviet Union carried out multiple powerful atomic tests in the atmosphere. As a result, a limited nuclear test ban treaty was negotiated that prohibited such tests but underground tests were still permitted.

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Renewed international efforts to ban all nuclear tests resulted in the start of negotiations for a comprehensive treaty in 1994, culminating in its adoption by the U.N. General Assembly in 1996.

With 187 states having signed the treaty and 178 having ratified it, most experts believe the treaty has established a norm against atomic testing  even without formally entering into force.

For the treaty to officially take effect, 44 specific states  listed in an annex to the treaty  must ratify it. Nine of them have not yet done so.

China, Egypt, Iran, Israel and the U.S. signed but didnt ratify it. India, North Korea and Pakistan neither signed nor ratified the treaty. Russia signed and ratified the treaty but revoked its ratification in 2023, saying the imbalance between its ratification and U.S. failure to do so was unacceptable in the current international situation.

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Alongside the treaty, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization was established in Vienna. It runs a global monitoring network to detect nuclear tests worldwide, operating 307 monitoring stations, using seismic, hydroacoustic, infrasound and radionuclide technologies.

The organization is financed mainly through assessed contributions by its member states. Its budget for 2025 is more than $139 million.

China and India would profit from resuming tests

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington, said that a resumption of U.S. atomic tests would open the door for states with less nuclear testing experience to conduct full-scale tests that could help them perfect smaller, lighter warhead designs.

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This would decrease U.S. and international security, he said.

Joseph Rodgers, fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that states such as China or India stand to profit from a resumption of nuclear tests.

It makes more sense for them to test than it does for the U.S. or Russia, the two states who have conducted most atomic tests to date, Rodgers said.

The U.S. conducted its last nuclear test in 1992. Since 1996, only 10 nuclear tests have been conducted by three countries: India, Pakistan and North Korea. None of them have signed or ratified the treaty

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The vast majority of nuclear tests  approximately 2,000  occurred before 1996, mostly by the U.S. and Soviet Union.

The organization creates confidence

Given the uncertainty around Trumps announcement and the potential for escalation of tensions around the issue, the test ban treaty organization could play a role in resolving the situation.

Rodgers said that the treaty organization is primarily a scientific one and should focus on providing scientific data to the international community.

But Kimball disagrees, suggesting the organization's Executive Secretary Robert Floyd could take the initiative and bring together officials from the U.S. and other countries to help resolve some uncertainties, such as what type of nuclear tests the U.S. president was referring to in his statement.

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Floyd told The Associated Press that in the current situation, he believes his organizations main role is providing confidence to states that they would know if a nuclear weapon explosion occurred anywhere, anytime.

The organization's monitoring network successfully detected all six atomic tests conducted by North Korea between 2006 and 2017, he said.

Not all atomic tests create explosions

The White House has so far not clarified what kind of tests Trump meant and what other countries he was referring to in his statement. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the new tests would not include nuclear explosions.

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Nuclear test explosions banned under the treaty are so-called supercritical tests, where fissile material is compressed to start a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction that creates an explosion.

These tests produce a nuclear yield  the amount of energy released, which defines a weapons destructive power. The treaty bans any nuclear explosion with a yield, following a zero yield standard.

In contrast, subcritical nuclear experiments, the ones Wright was referring to, produce no self-sustaining chain reaction and no explosion. Nuclear weapon states, including the U.S., conduct these experiments routinely without violating the treaty.

Some tests may remain undetected

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Kimball says hydronuclear tests with extremely small yields conducted underground in metal chambers are undetectable by the organization's monitoring system.

So that creates what I would say is a verification gap regarding this particular type of extremely low yield explosion, he said.

When the organization's monitoring system was established in the 1990s, it was designed to detect nuclear explosions of 1 kiloton (1,000 tons of TNT). Floyd said the system actually performs better, detecting explosions below 1 kiloton, at 500 tons of TNT.

The nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima by the U.S. was approximately 15 kilotons.

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The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Additional AP coverage of the nuclear landscape: https://apnews.com/projects/the-new-nuclear-landscape/
A Russian-owned oil tanker was attacked in the Black Sea about 80 miles north of the Turkish city of Sinop, according to Turkish and Russian authorities. The strike was highly likely carried out by aerial drones, according to the Ambrey maritime security firm. The attack on the Midvolga-2 was the third against Russian-connected ships in the Black Sea in the past three days and came a day after Turkish President Recep Erdogan issued a stark warning that the war in Ukraine was spilling over and endangering navigation.

While Ukrainian media have speculated that the Midvolga-2 was hit by long-range Ukrainian drones, Kyiv denied any involvement, which you can read more about later in this story. The incident took place about 340 miles from Ukrainian-held territory.

An aerial view of the Midvolga-2 seen after what Turkey and Russia said was an attack in the Black Sea on December 02, 2025. (Photo by Ramazan Ozcan/Anadolu via Getty Images) Anadolu

The Midvolga-2 was sailing from Russia to Georgia loaded with sunflower oil when it was struck, the Turkish Directorate General of Maritime Affairs (TDGMA) stated on X. The directorate added that all 13 crew were unharmed and did not request help. The ship was headed back toward Sinop under its own power.

 MIDVOLGA-2 tankeri, Rusya'dan Gurcistana aycicek yag yuklu olarak seyrederken kylarmzdan 80 mil ackta saldrya ugradgn bildirmistir. Halihazrda 13 personelinde olumsuz durum olmayan geminin yardm talebi yoktur. Gemi, makineleri ile Sinopa dogru seyir etmektedir. pic.twitter.com/Ov9tEeswEk  DENIZCILIK GENEL MUDURLUGU (@denizcilikgm) December 2, 2025

TDGMA did not say what struck the ship or who was behind the attack. The Russian Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport (Rosmorrechflot) confirmed the attack and said it was carried out by drones, according to Russian official media.

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Ambrey said its analysis of what struck the Midvolga-2 is based on a review of images that emerged showing the aftermath of the incident. You can see pictures of the damage, including a hole punched into the roof of the bridge, shrapnel holes and what appears to be the remains of a drone, in the following social media posts.

Russian tanker Midvolga 2 was targeted by kamikaze drone this morning in the Black Sea. pic.twitter.com/8PRtrZTDkt  Special Kherson Cat   (@bayraktar_1love) December 2, 2025

Photos from the Russian tanker MIDVOLGA-2, which was attacked by a drone this morning near the Turkish coast.



According to preliminary information, the strike was carried out by a fixed-wing type drone, likely an FP-1. https://t.co/BR4gXJ4vc0 pic.twitter.com/kYGaHQFTZ9  Clash Report (@clashreport) December 2, 2025

The imagery showed that this was highly likely an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attack, Ambrey said in a Priority-1 alert issued when there are concerns about an immediate threat to life. The bridge of the vessel was likely struck on the port side. The deck of the vessel showed a large number of shrapnel impacts.

The Ukrainian Defense Express outlet suggested the attack was carried out by a Ukrainian Lyuty-196 long-range drone.

Thus, with the help of these deepstrike drones, the Russian tanker Midvolga-2 was attacked approximately 150 km from Yalta, which was determined by the wreckage on board, the outlet noted. As a result, it received some damage, but was able to head to the Turkish Sinop, which is located near the incident site, under its own power.

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In order for one of Ukraines long-range strike drones to attack a moving target at this range, it would require some type of dynamic guidance, likely with a man-in-the-loop, although autonomous control is on the horizon. Ukraine doesnt have that, generally speaking, on its long-range one-way attack drones, because they are limited to striking static targets. A nearby ship with a controller onboard could have picked-up manual control of the drone as it approached the target area. We have also seen indications that equipping these drones with satellite terminals that could allow for this kind of control is an ongoing initiative, but how widespread their use is isnt clear. It is also possible that the attack was launched from much closer to the ship. Ukraine, as we have written in the past, has uncrewed surface vessels, the same kind that were used to strike other Russian-aligned tankers recently, that can launch aerial drones. Drones could also have been launched by virtually any ship nearby.

Russian recon drone found with Starlink terminalhttps://t.co/JbD0WjQGJ2  Defence Blog (@Defence_blog) December 1, 2025

The War Zone cannot independently verify the Defense Express claims and has reached out to Ukrainian security and intelligence services for more details. In a post on X, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs vigorously denied any involvement in the incident and suggested it could have been staged.

Ukraine has nothing to do with this incident, and we officially refute any allegations of such kind made by Russian propaganda. Furthermore, the alleged route from Russia to Georgia across Turkiye's EEZ makes no senseand suggests that Russia may have staged the whole thing. https://t.co/bA8tXEjQHt  Heorhii Tykhyi (@SpoxUkraineMFA) December 2, 2025

Regardless of what happened, the vessels reported owner, Middle Volga Shipping LLC, is currently under Ukrainian sanctions for transporting Russian oil, according to the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Directorate (GUR).

Kyiv has repeatedly called on the West to take real action against Russias so-called shadow fleet, which the Ukrainian government says is helping Moscow export large quantities of oil and fund its war in Ukraine despite Western sanctions, NBC News explained. The fleet of hundreds of often aging, unregulated vessels came to prominence after Russias invasion of Ukraine, bypassing Western sanctions aimed at reducing Moscows oil revenue.

The Midvolga-2 arrived off the coast of Sinop, Turkey, on Dec 2, 2025. (Photo by Veysel Altun/Anadolu via Getty Images) Anadolu

Ukraine, as we have frequently reported, is waging a campaign against Russias energy infrastructure involving numerous attacks on refineries and other supply hubs inside Russia. Now it appears to be taking place in the Black Sea as well. On Friday, Ukraine used domestically produced Sea Baby naval drones to strike two Russian oil tankers in that body of water, an official from Ukraines security services told The Associated Press on Saturday.

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The two oil tankers, Kairos and Virat, were struck in quick succession off Turkeys Black Sea coast late Friday afternoon, according to the wire service. Both vessels are said to be part of Russias shadow fleet that evades sanctions, the AP noted. The strikes prompted rescue operations by the Turkish coast guard and other teams. Crew members on board both vessels were reported to be safe.

The SBU official, who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the operations, provided a video of the alleged attack, purporting to show the destruction of two tankers at sea. In the following video, the Sea Babies can be seen approaching the vessels, followed by balls of fire resulting from the explosions.

Ukrainian SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) underwater drones hit two tankers from Russias so called shadow fleet in the Black Sea on Friday, the Kairos and the Virat. A newly released video captures the moment of the strike. pic.twitter.com/GaYgCSbjtp  Tatarigami_UA (@Tatarigami_UA) November 29, 2025

All three of these incidents took place in international waters, but in Turkeys exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The VesselFinder ship tracking website showed the Virat was anchored north of the Bosphorus, not far from its current position, on Nov. 4, The Associated Press noted. The Kairos last position was on Nov. 26, south of the Dardanelles Strait connecting the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara.

On Friday, the Turkish president issued a blistering warning about the safety of the Black Sea in the wake of last weeks attacks.

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The war between Russia and Ukraine has clearly begun to threaten navigational safety in the Black Sea, Erdogan told reporters. The targeting of vessels in our Exclusive Economic Zone on Friday signals a worrying escalation.

We cannot justify these attacks in any way, the Turkish leader added. We are conveying the necessary warnings to all relevant sides regarding such incidents.

 Erdogan sounds the alarm  the war between Russia and Ukraine has reached Turkeys doorstep



The security of the entire Black Sea is now at risk, the Turkish leader said after the attack on Russian tankers of the shadow fleet.



 Kairos and Virat were blown up just a few pic.twitter.com/n5MOpYM5VL  NEXTA (@nexta_tv) December 1, 2025

Up until recent days, the vast majority of Kyivs attacks were in the northern Black Sea and against Russian Navy vessels. As we have frequently pointed out, Ukraines USVs have attacked Russian ports, ships and the Kerch Bridge. They have forced Russias Black Sea Fleet (BSF) to avoid operating in the open waters of the northern Black Sea, and limit activities in other areas.

We may soon learn more about who and what was behind the Midvolga-2 incident. Regardless, Ukraines acknowledgement of Fridays attacks on ships near Turkey is an indication that Kyiv is expanding its Black Sea campaign.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com
A Russian-flagged tanker in the Black Sea has reported being attacked off the Turkish coast, the third such vessel to have been targeted within a week.

The Turkish Directorate General of Maritime Affairs said on Tuesday that the Midvolga-2 had reported coming under attack about 130km (80 miles) from land.

The tanker was reportedly carrying sunflower oil to Georgia. The attack follows strikes by Ukrainian naval drones on two Russian-flagged vessels that Kyiv said were part of Russias shadow fleet shipping crude exports in violation of international sanctions.

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Fridays strikes saw Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warn that attacks on commercial shipping in the Black Sea signalled a worrying escalation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.





The 13 members of the Midvolga-2 crew were unharmed, the directorate said on X, adding that the vessel had not requested assistance and it was proceeding towards Turkiyes Sinop port.

It did not provide further details, but Turkish TV channel NTV reported that a kamikaze drone was used.

A Turkish official told the Reuters news agency that in response to the incident, the necessary messages were conveyed to the relevant parties, including Ukrainian authorities.

Turkish balancing act

The Kairos and the Virat were targeted on Friday by Ukraine as they headed to a Russian port to load up with oil destined for foreign markets, a Kyiv official told Reuters.

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A total of 113 such vessels sailed under a false flag in the first nine months of this year, transporting some 11 million tonnes of Russian crude, valued at 4.7 billion euros ($5.4bn), according to a recent report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a Helsinki-based think tank.

NATO member Turkiye has maintained cordial relations with both Kyiv and Moscow throughout the war, which was triggered when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022.

It has sought to assume a role as a mediator, hosting three rounds of peace talks.

As part of NATO, Ankara has provided military support to Ukraine. However, it has refused to join Western sanctions against the Kremlin and insisted that navigational security be maintained in the Black Sea.

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We cannot condone these attacks, which threaten navigational safety, life, and the environment, especially in our own exclusive zone, Erdogan said in a televised address on Monday, adding that Turkiye had issued a warning to all related sides.

Crude target

Kyiv, which for years has sustained heavy attacks targeting its energy infrastructure, has focused in recent months on disrupting Russias oil industry in a bid to starve Moscow of funds to sustain its war.

It has concentrated fire on Russian refineries and crude terminals.

Russias foreign ministry said on Sunday that Ukrainian attacks on oil tankers and infrastructure in the Black Sea were acts of terrorism that threatened freedom of navigation in the region.

A Ukrainian drone attack caused a fire at an oil facility in the southern Russian region of Oryol, authorities said on Tuesday.
Most Rutherford County Library System Board members agreed to retain Cody York as chairman Dec. 1 after hearing misconduct accusations against him.

"I deny completely any wrongdoing," York said prior to the 7-2 vote against removing him as chairman. He abstained from the vote.

Cody York was voted as the new chairman of the Rutherford County Library System Board during the board meeting that was held in the Council Chambers of Murfreesboro City Hall, on Tuesday, June 2, 2025.

Board member Allison Belt called for removing York as chairman with the support of fellow board member Angela Frederick.

Belt also asked first-year Library Director Luanne James to speak about misconduct concerns involving York.

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James, who's been director since July 28, told board members she's made a complaint that includes accusations of York making the following requests of her:

Asking to remove books without the required board majority approval;

Providing him with private information about library patrons;

Suggesting the library system no longer celebrate Banned Books Week, which has branches typically displaying famous titles previously removed, such as novels, "Huckleberry Finn," by Mark Twain, and, "The Catcher in the Rye," by J.D. Salinger;

And showing books to her that he removed from the collection without returning.

Luanne James

Censorship debate: Rutherford library board rescinds decision to remove books on transgender issues

York told fellow board members who appointed James to director that he "categorically denies" the accusations other than his suggestion for the system to no longer participate in Banned Book Week. York also oversees information technology services for the Rutherford County government.

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The accusations, especially involving private patron information, shocked many in the packed board meeting at Murfreesboro City Hall. Some in audience seats and standing in the packed room included people opposed to censorship, as well as some Christian-identified supporters of York who support removal of books to protect children.

Censorship: Rutherford County libraries close for week to adhere to Trump 'gender ideology' order

Protesters speak against censorship prior to meeting

Debbie Gentry holds protest sign Dec. 1, 2025, with message, "Tell Tennessee protect the freedom to read ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)," in front of Murfreesboro City Hall prior to a Rutherford County Library System Board meeting.

Over 50 protesters opposed to the removal of books on transgender topics and other ideas, voiced their concerns Dec. 1 outside the front of Murfreesboro City Hall about an hour prior to the library board meeting.

The protesters included Debbie Gentry of Murfreesboro. She held a sign provided by the presence of American Civil Liberties Union staff that said, "Tell Tennessee, Protect the freedom to read, ACLU."

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"I'm 70 years old, and this is my first protest," Gentry told The Daily News Journal.

"It's important to me because men have fought and died for our rights, and I don't like people trying to take the rights away from everybody. I want to be able to read what I want to read, and not try to ban something, just because they don't like it."

There's going to be compromises that can be made, Gentry said.

"Just don't ban the books," Gentry said.

Censorship decision March 2025: Divided Rutherford County Library System Board agrees to remove transgender books 'to protect children'

Board previously attempted to remove books

Many protesters also attended a March meeting when York prior to becoming chairman called for the board to "remove material that promotes, encourages, advocates for or normalizes transgenderism or "'gender confusion' in minors.'"

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York by June then called for the board to rescind the decision to remove the books to protect children because they could face First Amendment legal challenges to the March decision. Those opposing the book removals include the National Coalition Against Censorship in New York.

The majority of the board in June also appointed York to be their chairman.

Protesters have complained about recent week-long closures of three Rutherford County library branches to review materials and adhere to President Donald Trump's January executive order on "gender ideology extremism."

At least a couple of counter protesters who support book removal policies also blended into the crowd holding signs, including one saying the following: "It's about protecting our children!!!"

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Free speech issue: ACLU files First Amendment lawsuit against Rutherford school board for book bans

6 of 9 public comment speakers oppose book bans

The board during the meeting also heard from nine public comment speakers with six opposing library book bans.

Three supported the removal of books. Two mentioned Christian biblical values being at risk. One of them explained why many audience members wore white as a symbol of protecting the innocence of children.

Another wearing a white T-shirt with "Freedom" on the front asked board members to make sure content is age appropriate for children.

Book banning issue April 2024: Rutherford County Library Board delays vote to possibly rescind vote to remove transgender books due to legal issues

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Two of the speakers against the library removing books, Tatiana Silvas and Matt Fee, each shared copies of their speeches with The Daily News Journal.

Silvas questioned why the board led by Chairman York decided to pursue legal representation to pursue policies to remove books from the American Center for Law and Justice.

"By engaging a partisan legal organization like ACLJ, whose retainer specifically states that any settlement or loss will make you personally liable for all legal fees, you are taking a risk that goes far beyond policy," Silvas told the board.

"It guarantees when, not if, you are sued, you will face the burden of those crippling financial penalties. Are you comfortable making a decision that carries a 66% chance of turning your public resources and personal assets against you? I leave that to your conscience."

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'We are banished': Rutherford schools book banning upsets free speech advocates

Board approves legal contract on book removal policies

Fee, who's chairman of the Rutherford County Democratic Party, also questioned Chairman York and the board pursuing legal counsel to craft policies to remove books.

"York prematurely signed an agreement with the ACLJ without consent or approval of this board," said Fee, who along with his wife, Tiffany Fee, founded the Rutherford County Library Alliance to promote book freedom.

"There is no version of events where that can be explained away as an accident. His (York's) own boss, (Republican) Rutherford County Mayor Joe Carr, was censured (by the Rutherford County Commission) for doing the same thing when (the mayor) signed a contract with Waste Management without proper authorization."

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The majority of the board after hearing public comments approved the contract with ACLJ legal services and then went into private executive session for attorney counsel.

This is a developing story.

Book banning: Rutherford schools removal of 160 more books draws opposition from 1st Amendment advocates

Book-banning protesters hold American Civil Liberty Union signs, "Tell Tennessee, Protect the freedom to read, ACLU." during rally Dec. 1, 2025, in front of Murfreesboro City Hall prior to the Rutherford County Library System Board meeting in Council Chambers.

Protester Frank Fenton holds "No Book Banning!!" sign during rally Dec. 1, 2025, in front of Murfreesboro City Hall prior to the start of a Rutherford County Library System Board meeting in Council Chambers.

Jessica Robertson, right, sits in audience Monday, March 17, at the Rutherford County Courthouse to join others opposing a Rutherford County Library System Board agenda issue calling for removal of books promoting "transgenderism."

Reach reporter Scott Broden with news tips or questions by emailing him at sbroden@dnj.com. To support his work with The Daily News Journal, sign up for a digital subscription.

This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: Rutherford County Library System Board retains chairman after complaint
By Diana Novak Jones

Dec 2 (Reuters) - The city of San Francisco sued Kraft, Mondelez, Coca-Cola and other makers of ultra-processed foods on Tuesday, accusing them of knowingly sickening California residents with addictive and harmful products.

City Attorney David Chiu filed the lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court, alleging that the companies employed tactics similar to those used by the tobacco industry to design and market products intended to addict consumers. The lawsuit accuses the companies of violating California laws on public nuisance and deceptive marketing.

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These companies engineered a public health crisis, they profited handsomely, and now they need to take responsibility for the harm they have caused, Chiu said in a statement.

As ultra-processed foods have proliferated, rates of obesity, cancer and diabetes have increased, the lawsuit claims. According to Chius office, heart disease and diabetesboth linked to ultra-processed foodsare among San Franciscos leading causes of death, with higher rates of diagnosis among minority and low-income communities.

Representatives for Mondelez, Coca-Cola and Kraft-Heinz did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The city is seeking restitution and civil penalties to offset its healthcare costs, along with a court order prohibiting the companies from engaging in deceptive marketing and requiring them to alter their practices.

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Although the definition of ultra-processed foods remains under debate, researchers generally apply it to many packaged snack foods, sweets and soft drinks made using processing techniques, additives and industrial ingredients, and mostly containing little whole foods.

In a report put out by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in May, the Trump administration pointed to ultra-processed foods as among the causes of an epidemic of chronic illnesses in children in the country.

The lawsuit marks the first time a municipality has sued over claims food companies have knowingly marketed addictive and harmful ultra-processed foods.

San Francisco is represented by attorneys from Morgan & Morgan, the firm that was behind an earlier lawsuit over similar claims brought by a Philadelphia man, who said he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease as a 16-year-old due to his consumption of ultra-processed foods.

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That lawsuit was dismissed in August after a Pennsylvania federal judge said the plaintiff had failed to connect specific products to his health conditions, a problem that could dog many similar claims.

(Reporting by Diana Novak Jones in Chicago; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Leslie Adler)
Jenny Wooten, seen testifying Friday, Sept. 26, 2025, at the Richland County Courthouse in a case regarding the possible release of state voter information to the U.S. Department of Justice, was tapped to lead the State Election Commission. (Photo by Jessica Holdman/SC Daily Gazette)

COLUMBIA  The interim director for South Carolinas elections agency is slated to become its permanent director following a unanimous vote from the commission Tuesday.

Jenny Wooten, previously the agencys chief of staff, took over as interim director in September, after the five-member commission voted 3-2 to fire then-director Howard Knapp.

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Knapp was arrested in October on charges of embezzlement and misconduct in office. Investigators claimed he used state vehicles for personal travel and a public credit card to pay for fuel on those trips over eight months, according to court documents.

Knapps former deputy director, Paige Salonich, was arrested the same day on a single charge of wiretapping. Both Knapp and Salonich were released from jail on personal recognizance bonds. That means they pay nothing up front as long as they continue to show up for court hearings.

Commission members have publicly praised Wooten for her transparency with the oversight board, especially when it comes to the agencys budget. Wooten first started working for the State Election Commission in 2022, overseeing policy and outreach, according to a commission news release.

She will need approval from the Senate to officially become the agencys director.

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Ensuring the impartiality, accessibility, and integrity of South Carolinas elections is essential to maintaining public faith in our democracy, Wooten said in a statement. Im grateful to the commission for the trust they have placed in me as our agency strives to uphold that mission.

Wooten most recently worked in communications for Columbia nonprofit Serve & Connect, which works to form relationships between police and civilians. Before that, she oversaw programs for college savings, tuition repayment and financial literacy for the Treasurers Office. She has also worked for the attorney generals office and as an office assistant for Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, according to her LinkedIn.
Sen. Chuck Schumer's downtown Binghamton office was among three targeted with bomb threats, according to the Senate Majority Leader.

The Democratic senator's offices in Rochester and Long Island also received threats through emails with the subject line MAGA, which alleged the "2020 election was rigged." Law enforcement officials informed Schumer of the incidents Monday morning and are conducting full security sweeps, Schumer said.

Schumer's Binghamton office is inside the Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse at 15 Henry St.

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"Everyone is safe, and I am grateful for their quick and professional response to ensure these offices remain safe and secure for all New Yorkers," Schumer said in a written statement. "As I have said many times, these kinds of violent threats have absolutely no place in our political system. No one  no public servant, no staff member, no constituent, no citizen  should ever be targeted for simply doing their job."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said he had called New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to congratulate him for winning the 2025 election. Schumer did not endorse Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, during the race.

Schumer is the most recent victim in a string of political violence affecting New York politicians.

A window at the Washington, D.C., residence of Rep. Claudia Tenney  a Republican who represents parts of upstate New York  was smashed on Nov. 20. And earlier this year, Tenneys district offices in Canandaigua and elsewhere in the sprawling 24th Congressional District were closed temporarily because of, as Tenney alleged, violent threats made to her staff.

At the time of the broken window incident, Tenney said, in part: "Violence, intimidation, and attacks against public officials or their families have no place in our society. I will not be deterred from doing my job on behalf of the people of New York.

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Contributing: Canandaigua Daily Messenger reporter Mike Murphy

Emily Barnes reports on consumer-related issues for the USA TODAY Networks New York Connect Team, focusing on scam and recall-related topics. Follow her on X and Instagram @byemilybarnes. Get in touch at ebarnes@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Schumer NY offices receive bomb threats citing 'rigged' election
Ocelots, the medium-sized wild cats that look a bit like miniature jaguars, once roamed widely across South Texas. But after population declines caused by habitat loss, hunting, and road deaths, they have been on the federal endangered species list for more than 50 years. Officials have estimated that only around 100 exist in South Texas.

Now, DNA analysis of an ocelot killed by a driver in 2021 has given some indication that there may be more of these rare animals in the wild than previously thought, The Texas Tribune reported.

The DNA of the ocelot, discovered about 50 miles from where ocelots are known to reside in the state, had all seven unique markers associated with Texas populations. It also had two markers found in the Mexican ocelot populations.

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Scientists are divided over what this data means, however. Biologist Dr. Mike Tewes said, per the Tribune, that while the DNA markers conclusively showed that the ocelot had not been a captive animal, he "would be extremely cautious of trying to make any other generalizations or summary beyond that," adding that he had seen cases of single ocelots wandering far from their populations in search of food (although in those cases, they usually travel up to around 30 miles).

Others were more optimistic about the possibilities of unknown ocelot populations in the wild. But one thing that these experts agreed on was the challenges that wild ocelots face and the need to protect them.

As we have seen in other recent cases of rare or endangered animals, such as blue whales and giant anteaters, it is not impossible for an animal whose populations have been threatened by human activity to rebound and begin to return to the wild. This can be accomplished by protecting and restoring the habitats that these animals reside in or via more direct rewilding efforts.

As human-caused pollution, habitat loss, and hunting have caused the deaths of so many animals, it is also the responsibility of humans to make sure that threatened and endangered animals can continue to exist and thrive in the world.

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This contributes to a healthier future for us all. The ocelot, for example, hunts rodents, helping to control the population of a creature that can carry disease.

"Ocelots are holding their last stand against human development occurring at unprecedented rates in South Texas," Sharon Wilcox, senior Texas representative for Defenders of Wildlife, said in the Tribune article. "These cats need wild spaces and places to roam and this documented sighting of this cat gives us hope that they are holding on in the wildest corners of our region."

Join our free newsletter for cool news and cool tips that make it easy to help yourself while helping the planet.
NEED TO KNOW

A Sea World helicopter pilot's fiancee testified at a recent hearing that he had a "breakdown" before the fatal collision outside of the Sea World theme park on Jan. 2, 2023

Additionally, he was seen using cocaine by multiple people the day before the fatal crash

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau previously determined that he was unlikely to have been directly affected by the drug at the time of the accident," according to reports

Almost three years after two Sea World helicopters collided in Australias Gold Coast, a pilot's fiancee testified that he had a breakdown in the weeks leading up to the crash that killed him and three others  and that he used cocaine a day before the fatal incident.

On Tuesday, Dec. 2, Kosha Richardson-Johnson testified at a Coroners Court of Queensland hearing in Brisbane about fiance Ashley Jenkinsons state of mind around the time his chopper hit another helicopter outside of the Sea World theme park on Jan. 2, 2023, The Guardian, ABC Australia and The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

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In addition to Jenkinson, 40, the crash killed Vanessa Tadros, a 36-year-old woman from Sydney, and Ron and Diane Hughes, a U.K. couple aged 65 and 67, The Guardian previously reported.

On the witness stand, Richardson-Johnson said that before Christmas 2022, she found her partner crying in a closet and asked him, Whats wrong?

Thats when he had a breakdown, Richardson-Johnson said in court, according to The Guardian. He said, You dont know what kind of pressure Im under. 

The man, who served as Sea Worlds chief pilot, told his fiancee that hed been working long hours to complete paperwork and prepare new helicopters for the holiday season.

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Richardson-Johnson also testified that she saw Jenkinson use cocaine at a New Years Eve party in 2022, with his last line taken around 3 a.m., according to the reports. She went on to say that he used cocaine at social gatherings approximately six to eight times a year, but did not have any concerns that he may have had an addiction to the drug.

While Jenkinson tested positive for cocaine during an autopsy, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau determined that he was unlikely to have been directly affected by the drug at the time of the accident, according to The Guardian.

DAVE HUNT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Wreckage following the midair collision in January 2023. Wreckage following the midair collision in January 2023.

Other people at the hearing testified to witnessing Jenkinson use what appeared to be cocaine at the holiday party, including Ross Meadows, a digital marketing company director who described himself as the pilot's best friend.

At the courthouse, Meadows recalled seeing the pilot inhale a white substance around 9 p.m., the paper reported.

JONO SEARLE/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock First responders at the scene in Queensland, Australia, in January 2023. First responders at the scene in Queensland, Australia, in January 2023.

I assumed it was cocaine, Meadows said, according to the report, noting that he went on to tell Jenkinson, Nothing good comes from that s---.

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Meadows described his friend as a phenomenal pilot, who took his work seriously. He also said that he felt no need to report Jenkinson for drug use, according to The Guardian.

Never miss a story  sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

He was his own person, Meadows said, according to the report. Im not responsible.

The Coroners Court of Queensland and Sea World Helicopters did not immediately respond to PEOPLEs requests for comment. Additional hearings into the crash are scheduled through Monday, Dec. 8.



Read the original article on People
MEMPHIS, Tenn.  Sheldon Timothy Herrington, the man who pleaded guilty to murdering University of Mississippi student Jimmie Jay Lee, received a 40-year sentence while in court on Tuesday morning.

This comes after Herrington was scheduled to have a jury selection on Monday, but pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and tampering in connection with Lees death instead.

The judge gave Herrington a 40-year sentence for the second-degree murder charge, with 10 years suspended, meaning he will serve 30 years.

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For the tampering charge, Herrington was sentenced to 10 years, which will run concurrently with the second-degree murder charge.

Man indicted on capital murder charge in Jimmie Jay Lee case

The guilty plea comes nearly a year after a judge declared a mistrial, with 11 jurors finding the defendant guilty in December of 2024.

During the sentencing hearing, Lees father took the stand to deliver his impact statement.

I had to witness my sons skeletal remains. I touched his skull. No father should have to go through that. No parent should have to go through that, Jimmie Lee Sr. said. I miss my son every single day. I miss the conversations of traveling down the road and having hours of conversation. But I cant hear his voice anymore, I cant see his face anymore. Only in my memory.

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After the sentencing hearing, the Oxford Police Department held a press conference regarding the case.

District Attorney Ben Creekmore says the duct tape Herrington purchased from Walmart was the same match as the duct tape found wrapped around Lees remains when he was found earlier this year.

Lees father said Lee died on his mothers birthday. He is now asking for a bipartisan bill to help in the search for an individual under 21.

20-year-old Jimmie Jay Lee, who disappeared in July of 2022, was believed to have been visiting someone at Molly Barr Trails in Oxford at the time of his disappearance. Lees friends and family reported him missing after he failed to return home. Herrington was accused of killing Lee to hide an alleged romantic relationship.

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Herrington went to trial in December 2024, but a jury was unable to reach a verdict, and a mistrial was declared.

In February 2025, Lees remains were found in Carroll County, Mississippi, by deer hunters nearly three years after his disappearance.

It really was a God thing that after we got our verdict, which was 11 to 1 for guilty, for capital murder, that in February 1st, like a month later, that Jays body was finally recovered and he was able to come home, said Gwen Agho, Assistant District Attorney.

Police confirm Jimmie Jay Lee remains found in MS

Carroll County Coroner Mark Stiles says Lees manner of death could not be determined due to the decomposition of the body. Stiles says the remains were skeletal, with no soft tissue.

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Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Humanitarian needs are rising in Sudan's Darfur and Kordofan regions and the Northern and River Nile states amid increased displacement, UN humanitarians said Monday.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) quoted local sources as saying that insecurity, including deadly armed robberies, continues to affect civilians in El Fasher, North Darfur state's capital.

Aid organizations still cannot reach civilians inside the city following its takeover by the Rapid Response Forces in late October, OCHA noted.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that as of a week ago, more than 106,000 people had been displaced from El Fasher and surrounding villages, with nearly 80 percent of them staying in rural villages west and north of the city, without adequate support or safe passage for those wishing to travel onward.

In South Kordofan, the IOM reported that on Friday, more than 1,600 people fled Kortala village in Habila locality due to hostilities.

Displacement from North Darfur state and the Kordofan region is deepening needs in Northern and River Nile states, where OCHA met local officials and led assessments over the weekend, it said, adding that displaced families reported urgent needs of shelter, health services, as well as assistance with water, sanitation and hygiene.

In Northern state, local authorities estimated that 7,000 people who sought refuge there in recent weeks are scattered across rural Ad Dabah, with more than 300 people arriving daily, said OCHA.

The United Nations and its partners are providing primary health care, food assistance, safe water, and psychosocial support, the office said, adding that funding shortfalls have left key gaps, including in latrine coverage.

OCHA called on all parties to guarantee safe, unhindered humanitarian access and protect civilians, including aid workers.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said that the personal envoy of Guterres, Ramtane Lamamra, is currently in Port Sudan and held meetings with General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, chairman of Sudan's Transitional Sovereign Council, and other senior officials, including transitional Prime Minister Kamil Idris, and Foreign Minister Mohieldin Salim Ahmed Ibrahim.

Dujarric said the envoy is expected to go to Addis Ababa for further consultations with key stakeholders, including senior African Union and Ethiopian officials, with the urgent need for better protection of civilians at the forefront of all his discussions during the visits. 
TURMUS AYYA, West Bank (AP)  The fear is palpable in this Palestinian village. Its clear in how farmers gather their harvests quickly, how they scan the valley for movement, how they dare not stray past certain roads. At any time, they say, armed Israeli settlers could descend.

In a matter of minutes, they get on their phones. They gather themselves, and they surprise you, said Yasser Alkam, a Palestinian-American lawyer and farmer from the village of Turmus Ayya. They hide between the trees. They ambush people and beat them up severely.

In recent months, Alkam says Turmus Ayya has weathered near-daily attacks by settlers, especially after they set up an outpost that the anti-settlement watchdog group Peace Now says is on his villages land.

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Alkam says he cant reach his own fields for fear of being assaulted. In a particularly gruesome attack, he watched a settler beat a Palestinian woman unconscious with a spiky club.

The fear is shared throughout the West Bank. During October's olive harvest, settlers across the territory launched an average of eight attacks daily, according to the United Nations humanitarian office, the most since it began collecting data in 2006. The attacks continued in November, with the U.N. recording at least 136 more by Nov. 24.

Settlers burned cars, desecrated mosques, ransacked industrial plants and destroyed cropland. Israeli authorities have done little beyond issuing occasional condemnations of the violence. The attacks have surged since the war in Gaza erupted two years ago.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the attackers as a minority that did not represent most settlers in the West Bank, where settlements are considered illegal by most of the international community. But their continued expansion of outposts  conducted in public with seemingly few legal repercussions  and the violence have cemented a fearful status quo for their Palestinian neighbors.

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A brutal assault on a grandmother

While driving in fields east of Turmus Ayya on Oct. 19, Alkam saw Afaf Abu Alia, a grandmother from a nearby village, harvesting a grove of olive trees. They were loaned to her after the Israeli military bulldozed her own 500 trees this year, she said.

She worked until she heard yelling in Hebrew. Settlers descended on the road nearby. Suddenly, one ran toward her with a club.

The monsters started beating me, she told The Associated Press three weeks after the attack. After that, my memories get all blurry.

Video of the attack obtained by the AP shows a settler beating Alia with the jagged club, even after she was motionless. She was hospitalized for four days, requiring 20 stitches on her head, she said.

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Asked for comment on the attack, the military said its troops and police had defused a confrontation in which Israeli civilians were torching vehicles and using violence.

In rare move, Israel charges settler responsible

Police arrested a man named Ariel Dahari for beating Abu Alia. An Israeli court charged him later with terrorism.

Dahari is being represented by Honenu, an organization that provides legal aid to settlers, who say the West Bank is part of the biblical Jewish homeland and often cast attacks as self-defense. According to an article about Dahari on the group's website, he has received at least 18 administrative orders since 2016 that included house arrest and confinement to his town in Israel.

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He told the Israeli news site Arutz Sheva in 2023 that he had been kicked out of the territory twice. It is not clear how he was able to return.

Palestinians and human rights workers say Israeli soldiers and police routinely fail to prosecute attacks by violent settlers. Their sense of impunity has deepened under Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a settler, and Defense Minister Israel Katz, who in January released settlers from administrative detention, Israels practice of detaining individuals without charge or trial.

The number of investigations opened into settler violence since 2023, Ben-Gvir's first year in office, has plummeted, according to a report by Israel's Channel 12 TV that cited official police data. Police opened only 60 investigations into settler violence in 2024, compared with 150 cases in 2023 and 235 cases in 2022, the report said.

About 94% of all investigation files opened by Israeli police into settler violence from 2005 to 2024 ended without an indictment, according to Israeli rights group Yesh Din. Since 2005, just 3% of those investigations led to convictions.

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Dahari told Arutz Sheva that he was determined to stay in the West Bank.

We will not give up our grip on our land because of one order or another. We will continue to build it and make it flourish everywhere, he said, adding that he hoped the security establishment would invest all its resources in the war against the Arab enemy, who is the real enemy of us all.

When reached by the AP, Daharis lawyer, Daniel Shimshilashvili, sent a statement from Honenu, saying there was slim evidence against Dahari.

Threats are reinforced by settler outposts

The villagers from Turmus Ayya say it's not enough to arrest one settler  the threat of violence is reinforced by the outpost in the nearby valley called Emek Shilo.

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Emek Shilo was founded this year on private Palestinian land, according to Peace Now. It was started by a well-known settler named Amishav Melet, said three Palestinians living in Turmus Ayya and Yair Dvir, the spokesperson for Israeli rights group B'tselem. On his personal X account, Melet posted videos of the outposts construction.

Villagers alleged that Melet travels the valley in an all-terrain vehicle, surveilling their activities. Hes frequently armed, they said.

Usually little more than a few sheds and a pen for livestock, such outposts can impose control on nearby land and water sources. They often turn into authorized settlements, spelling the end of Palestinian communities.

Israeli police did not comment when asked about Melet.

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Abdel Nasser Awwad had to halt construction of a new family home when the outpost was established. In security camera footage he shared with AP, masked figures showed up at the construction site, smashing his truck with a club and appearing to cut piping. He said they have stoned three of his workers.

When AP visited the village, groups of settlers were visible around the outpost and a settler tractor patrolled the area. Drones hummed in the air.

Melet was convicted of assaulting police in 2014, according to court records. In an interview with Israel's Ynet news in 2015, Melet said he had received administrative orders barring him from the West Bank.

In response to questions from the AP, Melet said he was a peace activist.

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Any claim against me that I am active or connected to violence or terrorism or any illegal action is a lie and a falsehood! he wrote.

He called the APs questions part of a cruel and false campaign against Zionism that reeks of antisemitism.

In video from Oct. 20 shared with the AP by Alkam, a man who Alkam said was Melet was recorded telling a farmer picking olives to leave. The farmer responded, The army allowed us to be here today.

Where is the army? the man identified as Melet said. I am the army.

Palestinians take defense into their own hands

When settlers descend on Turmus Ayya, the mosque emits a loud siren. Young men dash quickly to the village entrance, forming a barrier between their families and the settlers.

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During the harvest, many villagers brought cameras into the fields, hoping footage showing assaults would help hold settlers accountable.

Its a far cry from past olive harvests, when families spent all day in the groves, picnicking beneath the trees.

Abu Alia, the grandmother, said nothing will prevent her from returning.

Ill be back next year.
In this season of giving thanks, there is one Democrat that the White House is particularly grateful for: Gretchen Whitmer.

President Donald Trump and the Michigan governor, an oft-talked about 2028 presidential candidate, have developed a surprisingly productive and affable relationship, according to two White House officials and a Whitmer political aide.

Of the Democrats, she is the one who we have spent the most time with, who has reached out to us the most, who has wanted to work with us, said one of White House official, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. From the Democrats, she is definitely the one who's most willing to get things done.

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Whitmers decision to work with the White House stands in stark contrast to potential 2028 rivals such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who have both repeatedly criticized the president as a tyrant and his administration as a threat to American democracy.

As Governor Whitmer has said, she and the president disagree on a lot of topics, said a Whitmer political aide, granted anonymity to describe the relationship. And she is not afraid to hold him accountable. But leadership means finding common ground where you can so you can get things done.

The relationship offers the swing-state governor an opportunity to bring in crucial federal investments and avoid Trumps ire. But her rapport with Trump comes at a cost. Fellow Democrats have criticized her for appearing too collaborative, and a working relationship with Trump could be a liability if she decides to seek higher office.

As governor, you work with whoevers in power to deliver for your state, John McCarthy, a Democratic strategist, told POLITICO. But since 2024, Democratic voters have been clear, and they want leaders who dont just manage around Trump, but define a bold, post-Trump future  and draw a sharp contrast. Anyone hoping to lead the Democratic Party should keep that front of mind.

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Whitmer has sought to walk the line, insisting that she disagrees with Trumps policies and rhetoric in public while taking a softer tone in private. She has visited the White House three times this year, more than any other Democratic governor. During one visit, she hid her face behind some blue folders, hoping not to be seen. The subsequent New York Times photo went viral, underscoring the tightrope she is walking.

Publicly, she said she hid because she was not happy to be there. Privately, she signed a copy of the newspaper bearing the photo the next time she visited, and joked about the affair, according to the two White House officials. The autographed gift has not been previously reported.

The chumminess is a dramatic shift for Trump who dismissed Whitmer in 2020 as that woman from Michigan after she criticized his administration's pandemic response.

Whitmers aide noted that shortly after that viral photo, polling showed Whitmer had a 63 percent job approval rating, her highest ever. And several Michigan Democrats have praised her bipartisan spirit

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While the photo drove the news cycle, Whitmer during that meeting pitched the White House on securing a new fighter mission for the Selfridge Air National Guard Base, which was in danger of closing. A few weeks later, Trump announced a new series of fighter jets for the base, which is a huge economic driver in Macomb County.

The area also happens to be one of the mostpolitically significant in the country. Trump carried Macomb County by nearly 14 points in 2024. Whitmer won it by 3.5 points in 2018 and 5 points in 2022.

But it hasnt all been smooth sailing. Whitmer in August pleaded for additional disaster aid to help struggling utilities recover from an ice storm and warned Trump Michigan residents would face rate hikes of at least $4,500 per household if it was withheld.

The request was denied and residents in northern, rural Michigan are likely to bear the costs.

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Whitmer has also has pushed back on Trump policies when she felt they harmed Michigan. During her August meeting at the White House, she criticized cuts to Medicaid in Trumps signature tax legislation and the presidents tariffs, noting 9.2 percent of Michigans economy is tied to the auto industry, according to her political aide.

But what she hasnt done  at least not yet  is go after Trump, personally. And thats a decision the White House officials notice and appreciate.

She's never really said anything negative, like directly at the boss, said the White House official.
Dec. 1The Haywood County Sheriff's Department is putting more than $240,000 toward outfitting its vehicles with custom accessories  an investment Sheriff Bill Wilke said is necessary to improve the county's safety.

"It's the cost of doing business the way we do it  and the question is, do we want to pay it?" Wilke said at a recent county commissioners meeting. "Because the alternative to not paying the few thousand dollars or to do things differently creates a much greater risk to our public."

The money will fund upgrades to nine vehicles  suiting them up with things like light bars, pushbumpers, radios, and tinted windows. But the added emergency equipment comes at a price of around $26,700 per vehicle.

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Commissioner Terry Ramey questioned the high price tag, asking Wilke if there was anything he could trim to ease the burden on the budget.

"I think we need to save every penny we can," Ramey said. "And I understand, public safety that's our number one concern, but I just wonder if there's anything that we could take out that's not absolutely necessary to enhance the safety of the county."

Wilke blamed the high costs partly on national economic factors, saying the cost to outfit vehicles has doubled in recent years. But it's still a price he'll pay to ensure the safety of his deputies and citizens.

"I'm not willing to advocate for anything less than the best safety equipment for our deputies," Wilke said.

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Some level customization is standard on any law enforcement vehicle, such as lights and radios. But Ramey questioned the Sheriff about the need for tinted windows and push bumpers.

"I was asked about the amount of money it's going to take to put the tinted windows and push bumpers and stuff on them," Ramey said.

In response, Wilke doubled down on the ask being about safety. In a chase, the bumpers are used to strike a fleeing vehicle and bring it to stop. Known as a PIT maneuver, or Precision Immobilization Technique, it causes the fleeing suspect to spin around.

While these maneuvers can be effective, they can also be dangerous for drivers and bystanders alike given the high speeds. But Wilke claims they're safer and more effective than other options like stop sticks.

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"A PIT maneuver, most often, given the right circumstances is the best option to prevent death, injury or extensive damage to our vehicles, our deputies, or our citizens," Wilke said. "It is among, if not the safest maneuver to stop a pursuit as soon as possible."

Outfitting patrol cars with push bumpers was part of Wilke's campaign calling for better equipment when first running for sheriff in 2022.

"If they run from us, we need to put that car in a ditch so they don't hurt anyone else," Wilke said during his campaign three years ago.

And the push bumpers on the front of the cars can help extend the vehicles' lifespans by reducing damage to the front bumper, Wilke added.

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As for the tinted windows, Wilke said they're necessary to protect his officers.

"Oftentimes we roll up to domestics, we go to very rural areas, we respond to places where gunshots have been fired. I've been there. I don't want anyone having a clear shot at the head of one of our deputies because they can see through the windshield," Wilke said.

He added that the vehicles often act as extensions of the physical Sheriff's office, and so tinted windows keep whatever's happening inside the vehicle private and out of public view.

"While we are required to stay at a crime scene, we don't want anybody to see what we're doing or what's being conducted inside those vehicles," Wilke said. "We conduct a lot of business inside those vehicles as we would in an interrogation or an interview room in our office  those are not open for the public to see. There are computer systems open with law enforcement sensitive information, sometimes there are suspects inside, sometimes there are victims inside, victims of very serious crimes. We don't want that visible to the public."

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The sheriff's office did go out to bid for the upgrades, but only one company offered to take on the project. This means the department didn't have much choice in the price of the work. But Wilke said he knows from experience that paying a little extra up-front for nicer equipment can pay off in the long run.

"We saved a bit of money on light bars last time around  those light bars quit working," Wilke told commissioners. "We had to keep fixing them two and three times and it cost us more money to fix the cheap stuff than it would if we just got better (equipment) on the front end, and that's what we did this time."

Despite Ramey's desire to cut costs, the commission voted in favor of the equipment upgrades. The $240,000 had already been budgeted for the Sheriff's office to use this year, so the funds were available without having to cut other expenses.

"I think we outfit cars all the time and these are all budgeted items," said Chairman Kevin Ensley, adding that it's better to spend the money than to jeopardize public safety. "You can be pennywise and pound foolish with some of the things that you buy. I think we all understand that."
There's bad news for anyone already sick of seeing the snow: it will be sticking around for a few more days.

According to meteorologists with the National Weather Service, temperatures are expected to remain below freezing, which will provide few opportunities for the snow to melt away.

"A lot of what's on the ground isn't going anywhere any time soon," said Mike Ryan, a meteorologist with NWS Indianapolis. "Whatever doesn't melt by tomorrow is going to hang around into the weekend due to the cold weather."

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Beginning late Wednesday, Dec. 3, an Arctic cold front is expected to bring frigid breezes and wind chills as low as zero that will linger through the morning of Friday, Dec. 5.

How many inches of snow did Indiana get? Early totals for Dec. 1-2

Continued chilly to cold, and at times brisk conditions will maintain wind chill values in the teens at night and 20s during the day through Wednesday. Arctic cold front Wednesday night to bring robust breezes and wind chills as low as zero through early Friday. #INwx pic.twitter.com/u0t5SbO4ig  NWS Indianapolis (@NWSIndianapolis) December 1, 2025

In Indianapolis, temperatures are expected to drop as low as 10 degrees on Dec. 4 due to arctic air and wind chill. Some cities, like Crawfordsville and Kokomo, are expected to reach temperatures as low as 0 degrees and -1 degrees.

Meteorologists recommend people wear multiple layers if they plan to go outside or spend time in frigid conditions. It is also recommended that people take shelter inside during these two days of extreme freezing temperatures.

What is black ice?

As snowplow crews continue to treat the roads and highways throughout the next few days, there is a likelihood that icy conditions may remain along the roads.

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Notably, black ice  a thin transparent layer of ice  can form on surfaces such as roads, sidewalks and driveways. When temperatures drop below freezing, this layer of ice becomes extremely slippery and creates dangerous conditions for drivers and pedestrians.

Black ice is difficult to detect due to its transparent nature. Drivers are advised to use caution on overpasses and bridges, where water freezes faster, when exiting tunnels and when traveling on rural roads.

How to see if your Indianapolis street has been plowed

Reading the map

Light blue lines show plowing that is currently in progress.

Lime green lines show any plowing that has happened in the past 0-2 hours.

Dark blue lines show any plowing that has happened in the past 2-4 hours.

Magenta lines show any plowing that has happened in the past 4-6 hours.

Red lines show any plowing that has happened in the past 6-8 hours.

Any streets that have been plowed 8 hours ago or longer are outlined in gray lines.

Driving in Indianapolis? Check out this live traffic map, per Waze

Drivers can use a live traffic map from Waze to navigate Indianapolis. The navigation app from Waze provides traffic updates, road condition information and offers directions.

How to check road conditions on Indiana's highways

The Indiana Department of Homeland Security keeps tabs on travel statuses for every county in the state. Hoosiers can also check INDOT's TrafficWise website for information about traffic conditions, road closures and travel times on roadways throughout Indiana.

NWS Forecast for Indianapolis

 Today: Cloudy, with a high near 28. West-northwest wind around 7 mph.

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 Tonight: Areas of fog. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a low around 18. South-southwest wind 3 to 6 mph.

 Wednesday: Patchy fog before 10 a.m. Otherwise, partly sunny, with a high near 35. South southwest wind 6 to 9 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph.

 Wednesday Night: A 40 percent chance of snow. Cloudy, with a low around 16. Southwest wind around 7 mph, becoming north northwest after midnight.

 Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 23. North northeast wind 6 to 8 mph.

 Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 8. Calm wind.

 Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 29. Southwest wind 3 to 6 mph.

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 Friday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 21. Southwest wind around 5 mph.

 Saturday: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 32. West wind around 6 mph.

 Saturday Night: A 20 percent chance of snow after 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 21. Light north wind.

 Sunday: A 20 percent chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 30.

 Sunday Night: A 20 percent chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 15.

 Monday: Partly sunny, with a high near 30.

Indianapolis weather radar

Weather travel advisories

Weather info you need

 Indiana Weather Alerts: Warnings, Watches and Advisories.

 Indiana power outage map: How to check your status.

 Internet outages: How to track them.

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 What you should and shouldn't do when the power is out.

 Your neighbor left their pet outside. Who you should call.

Where to report power outages and downed lines

AES Indiana customers: 317-261-8111

Duke Energy customers: 1-800-343-3525

How to report downed traffic signals or tree limbs blocking a road

If you encounter a downed traffic signal or a limb blocking a roadway, contact the Mayor's Action Center at 317-327-4622 or online at RequestIndy.gov. When calling after hours, press "2" to be connected.

Indianapolis and Indiana road conditions

Check road conditions, including road closures, crashes and live webcams using Indiana's online Trafficwise map at 511in.org, or visit our gridlock guide page for live traffic cams and more.

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INDOT's CARS Program provides information about road conditions, closures and width and weight restrictions. The website has a color-coded map of Indiana's highways and highlights hazardous road conditions and travel delays.

The interactive map also shows road work warnings, closures, roadway restrictions and other information helpful to drivers.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: When is the snow in Indy going away? You might not like the answer
SAN JOSE, Calif. - San Jose police on Monday announced an arrest following the triple shooting at Valley Fair Mall on the day after Thanksgiving.

On social media, the police wrote, "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him. Last night SJPD located and arrested the suspect responsible for the triple shooting at Valley Fair Mall" on Friday.

It turns out, the person arrested was a 17-year-old, who had been previously identified as someone suspected of gang activity by police, according to SJPD Chief Paul Joseph.

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They shared an image of the back of what appeared to be a young man in black Levi's and a gray sweatshirt with his hands tied behind his back.

UPDATE: Juvenile opened fire on perceived gang rival at Valley Fair Mall @westfieldvf while with female pushing baby in stroller,hitting intended target & 2 innocent female victims,per @SanJosePD. Families were diving for cover instead of diving for deals, says @SJPD_AC_Josephpic.twitter.com/NYgrwN8Dau  Henry K. Lee (@henrykleeKTVU) December 2, 2025

Police did not identify the suspect responsible for the shooting on Friday at 5:30 p.m. outside the women's Macy's because he is a juvenile. The Santa Clara County District Attorney said a woman helped the shooting suspect escape and that the pair are facing charges.

'Gang-related clothing'

At a late afternoon news conference, following the announcement of the arrest, police Chief Joseph said the Black Friday post-holiday event took on a dark turn at the popular South Bay mall. He said it was miraculous that no one was killed.

"Instead of the usual holiday hustle and bustle, gunfire ripped through Valley Fair Mall while thousands of people were inside," said Chief Joseph. "On a day built around door busters and discounts, families were diving for cover instead of diving for deals."

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Joseph said a group of individuals had decided to go to the mall wearing what he called "gang-related clothing." One of them had a gun tucked inside his waistband, according to police. The Chief of Police said a conflict arose with an "apparent rival gang" inside the mall.

Joseph said the juvenile suspect who opened fire at the mall was accompanied by a 21-year-old woman pushing a stroller with a baby inside.

Earlier, investigators said a verbal altercation escalated when a man pulled a firearm from his waistband and fired several rounds. The suspect's intended target, an adult male, was shot and injured, Joseph said.

In addition, a woman and a 16-year-old girl, both bystanders, were struck by gunfire. All three victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Police said everyone who was shot is now out of the hospital.

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Police initially said the incident was gang-related, but that the circumstances were under investigation. At the news conference, the police chief said since Friday they have reviewed hours of surveillance footage, interviewed witnesses across two cities, and coordinated with their partner agencies.

The suspect was arrested at a San Jose residence. Joseph said automated license plate reader technology was used in this investigation.

Woman pushing stroller and prior firearm arrest

Chief Joseph said he was limited in what he could say about the juvenile suspect, but did say he had a prior firearm arrest and appeared to have faced little to no consequences and then got another gun and ended up escalating his violence.

The Chief said the suspect fled from SJPD officers in February of this year. The suspect had a loaded gun in his waistband and was deferred to a probationary program, according to police.

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"In California, our laws do not treat gun violence with meaningful consequences," Joseph said, adding that for juveniles, those consequences are almost nonexistent. He pleaded for lawmakers to look into reforming what he considered a flawed system. Joseph said he was confident District Attorney Jeff Rosen would take this gun violence seriously.

Rosen spoke at the conference. He called the shooting "terrorism." He said the D.A.'s office will file serious charges against at least two individuals, including the shooter, in the next two days. Details of those charges will be made at the arraignment in a couple of days, Rosen said.

San Jose police arrest a suspect in the Valley Fair mall shooting. Dec. 1, 2025 Photo: SJPD

Rosen clarified that there is at least one person who assisted the shooter following the incident, who is essentially being looked at as an accessory after the fact.

"There is an additional individual who will be charged with allowing and facilitating the escape of the shooter from the scene before the shooter and the individual that helped the shooter escape were apprehended by the police department," Rosen said. He identified that additional person as the woman with the stroller.

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Rosen clarified that there may be other charges brought up against individuals who helped the shooter hide from police, but at this point they are focused on the shooter and the woman with the stroller.

Rosen said that the woman with the stroller and the shooter are not married, but they have a "familial relationship". He also said that the baby in the stroller was not the child of the shooter.

Mayor Matt Mahan said while the suspect caused bodily harm to a few victims, he caused emotional harm to many. "The videos flying around on social media paint a picture of fear," Mahan said. "We are so lucky that no one lost their life at Valley Fair on Friday."

The mayor thanked police and emergency workers. "Guns are not toys and they should not be in the hands of teenagers."

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He also echoed the police chief's call for stricter consequences for gun violence, saying the system as it exists, provides an incentive for gangs to recruit "children" at younger ages.

Terror at the mall

One worker at the mall told KTVU they were on break at the time of the shooting.

"I didn't know what was happening," he said. "I was really confused because I went into the restroom."

He said that when the shots rang out, he and his co-workers ran and hid in the storeroom of the shop where they worked.

What's next

D.A. Rosen said the charges will be disclosed at the arraignment for the shooter and the unidentified woman pushing the stroller on Wednesday, Dec. 3.
A South African radio presenter appeared in court on Monday accused of recruiting men to fight for Russia in the war in Ukraine.

Nonkululeko Mantula, 39, was arrested alongside four men after a tip-off, South African police said. She is accused of recruiting the four men and organising for them to join the Russian army.

South African police said three of the men were detained while trying to board a flight to Russia via the United Arab Emirates. Police said they believed another person had already travelled to Russia after being recruited by Mantula.

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It is illegal in South Africa to fight for another country's military without the government's permission. The five suspects arrested in South Africa were ordered to be held in custody until a bail hearing next week.

A person walks past a billboard showing a Russian soldier participating in military action in Ukraine reading "The pride of Russia" in St. Petersburg, 24 November, 2025 - AP Photo

The arrest of Mantula, a presenter on the state broadcaster's SAFM radio station, came as police are separately investigating the daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma for allegedly tricking another 17 men into fighting as mercenaries for Russia in Ukraine.

Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla resigned as a lawmaker for her father's opposition MK Party last week over the allegations.

Her half-sister accused her of duping the men into travelling to Russia under the pretence that they would receive security training that would help them secure jobs.

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Zuma-Sambudla has previously been accused of promoting Russian interests over the war in Ukraine.

Support for Russia

A 2023 report by the international nonprofit Centre for Information Resilience said Zuma-Sambudla's social media account was instrumental in spreading pro-Russia messages soon after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

The South African government said last month that it received distress calls from the 17 South Africans, who had been forced to fight for a Russian mercenary group in eastern Ukraine and were now trapped there.

Another South African political party alleged it had information that the men's passports and clothes were burned and their mobile phones confiscated when they arrived in Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks as he visits one of the command posts of the West group of Russian Army in an undisclosed location, 20 November, 2025 - AP Photo

The South African government launched a separate investigation into how the men came to be on the front lines of the war and is working with international law enforcement agencies to repatriate them.

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Russia has been accused of recruiting men from other countries to fight in the war under the pretext of offering them jobs. It has also been accused of tricking women from South Africa and other parts of Africa into working in Russian drone factories through social media campaigns promising them jobs in fields like catering and hospitality.

The South African government has warned people to be cautious about campaigns promoted by South African social media influencers that promise jobs and study opportunities in Russia.
Dec. 1ROCHESTER  A South Carolina man faces a felony charge for threatening violence in a message to the Rochester City Attorney's Office after the office announced charges in a viral video involving alleged racial slurs directed at a child.

Austin James Garlington, 25, of Ruffin, South Carolina, was charged in Olmsted County District Court Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025, with felony threats of violence and two charges of misdemeanor harassment for leaving multiple messages and making a threat of murder in August.

According to the criminal complaint, Garlington's calls came the day following the city's announcement of charges against a woman after she allegedly hurled racial slurs at a boy at a Rochester playground.

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Garlington allegedly left multiple messages with the City Attorney's Office including one in which he explicitly threatens to come to Minnesota and "start murdering people."

That message was left in a voicemail box Aug. 27, according to the complaint. On Aug. 26, the City Attorney's Office filed misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges against Shiloh Hendrix, 36.

Hendrix was identified as the woman in a video, originally posted on TikTok the week of April 28, 2025, of a man confronting her for allegedly calling a Black child a racial slur at Roy Sutherland Playground at Soldiers Field Park.

According to the complaint against Garlington, the city office was flooded with calls following the decision. Michael Spindler-Krage decided to allow calls to go to voicemail. City staff who reviewed the voicemails found the message from Garlington in which he allegedly made threats.

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Investigators reviewed phone records and identified a number associated with Garlington. Local law enforcement officials went to Garlington's home in Ruffin, South Carolina. They met with him in person to tell him that Minnesota law enforcement would contact him. A detective from the Rochester Police Department called Garlington on the same number that had left the threatening message. Garlington allegedly told the detective he was upset that Hendrix had been charged with a crime but agreed he would stop calling the city attorney's office.

Garlington is scheduled to make a first appearance on the charges May 14, 2026.
South Korea's president ordered on Tuesday swift action to penalise those responsible for a major data leak at e-commerce giant Coupang affecting more than 33 million customers.

It was "astonishing that the company failed to recognise the breach for five months", President Lee Jae Myung said, adding that the "scale of the damage is massive".

Coupang is South Korea's most popular online shopping platform, serving millions of customers with lightning-fast deliveries of products from groceries to gadgets.

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Seoul has said the leak took place through overseas servers from June 24 to November 8.

But Coupang only became aware of it last month, according to police and local media, who said the company had issued a complaint in November against the alleged culprit -- a former employee and a Chinese national.

On Tuesday, Lee ordered the government to "strengthen fines and make punitive damages a reality", calling for "substantive and effective countermeasures".

"The cause of the accident must be quickly identified and (those responsible) must be held strictly accountable," he said.

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Police said Monday they were tracing computer IP addresses and looking into possible international collaboration as part of their investigation.

They warned the leak could "threaten the daily lives and safety of every single citizen".

Coupang has told customers that their names, email addresses, phone numbers, shipping addresses and some order histories had been exposed in the leak.

But the company said their payment details and login credentials had not been affected.

The case follows a major breach at South Korea's largest mobile carrier SK Telecom, which was fined about 134 billion won ($91 million) in August after a cyberattack exposed data on nearly 27 million users.

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South Korea is among the world's most wired countries, but has also been a target of hacking by arch-rival North Korea.

Police announced last year that North Korean hackers were behind the theft of sensitive data from a South Korean court computer network -- including individuals' financial records -- over a two-year period.

And last month Yonhap News Agency reported that South Korean authorities suspected a North Korean hacking group may be behind the recent cyberattack on cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, which led to the unauthorised withdrawal of 44.5 billion won in digital assets.

cdl/oho/kaf
When South Korea's leader declared martial law a year ago, one young woman blocked a tank, a civil servant resigned in protest and a lawmaker switched sides to remove him from office.

They are among the many South Koreans whose lives were transformed on December 3, 2024.

That wintry night, then-president Yoon Suk Yeol interrupted national television broadcasts to suspend civilian rule for the first time in more than four decades.

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Soldiers and tanks deployed in central Seoul. Troops landed by helicopter, smashing windows and storming parliament as lawmakers fought to overturn the decree.

With thousands of protesters filling the streets, the National Assembly voted within hours to nullify Yoon's order.

A year on, AFP spoke to three people who were there fighting to protect democracy, and whose lives will never be the same.

- Lawmaker with 'nowhere to go' -

Freshman lawmaker Kim Sang-wook rushed to the National Assembly, where he faced down armed soldiers.

"I shouted, 'The National Assembly is not a place for you to enter!'" he told AFP.

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Kim was a member of Yoon's conservative People Power Party party, but he felt martial law had to be undone.

After helping to halt the decree in an emergency vote, Kim found himself working with the opposition to impeach the president.

They were eight votes short, and Kim took the lead in persuading his colleagues.

Just over a week after the short-lived martial law, on December 14, a dozen lawmakers from Yoon's ruling party helped pass the impeachment measure.

"The first thought was relief -- we had stopped it," Kim said.

"The next thought was, 'What do I do now, what happens now?'" he added, saying he had "nowhere to go".

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As members of his party stormed out and the opposition cheered, Kim felt he "had been left completely alone in the world".

A photo of him sitting alone and crying in the chamber went viral.

After weeks of reflection, Kim publicly backed opposition leader Lee Jae Myung, who later became president.

Kim then also joined the party he once opposed.

"What happened after December 3 gave my life and my politics a direction," he said.

"I now know clearly where I should go, and for that, I am grateful."

- Lone civil servant -

Ryu Hyuk, then inspector general at the justice ministry, made his way to the office as soon as he heard Yoon's stunning decision.

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Officials had already gathered there to discuss the martial law.

As the ministry's internal watchdog, 57-year-old Ryu told AFP he was convinced "it would not be appropriate to carry out any work related to that declaration".

He decided to quit, and as he scribbled a resignation letter, his anger surged.

Bursting back into the meeting room, he shouted: "No matter your political views, martial law is not acceptable."

He then walked out -- the first and only civil servant to resign during the crisis.

Ryu said with certainty that "if martial law had continued, many public officials would have shared my views".

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Nearly a year later, he still has not decided where to turn next.

A registered lawyer, he could reopen his practice, but now usually spends his days scuba diving and running.

- The woman who 'wasn't afraid' -

Kim Da-in had only just learned how to drive but found herself speeding toward the National Assembly with her parents as martial law was declared.

"I think my family felt the weight of what martial law meant," Kim told AFP.

They arrived after parliament had struck it down, but the streets were still in chaos.

The 25-year-old then saw a military tank turning to the National Assembly, and ran towards it without hesitation.

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"I wasn't afraid," she told AFP.

After that night, she joined protesters who took to the streets in the freezing cold and rallied outside Yoon's residence.

Seeing "the culture, the energy" that activists had created "made me think they can do anything", Kim said.

"And it made me want to be among them."

She is now preparing to switch from online university studies to a physical campus, where she can attend classes with some of those who had inspired her.

Kim has become known as "the woman who stopped the tank" after a video of her action went viral.

"I didn't think about gender when I stepped in front of the tank," she said.

"What I want to say... is simple: I intend to keep standing my ground."

hs/hmn/oho/ami/kaf
Nearly 900 acres of land have been returned to the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation in California. The land borders Yosemite National Park -- one of the most visited National Parks and the Sierra National Forest.

The land was transferred from the Pacific Forest Trust and was underwritten by a grant from the California Natural Resources Agency Tribal Nature-Based Solutions Program.

Never miss Indian Countrys biggest stories and breaking news. Click here to sign up to get our reporting sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning.

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The Nation now has ownership of the culturally significant Henness Ridge, site of an ancestral trail from the Central to the Yosemite Valley and a key migration corridor for deer and other mammals.

The trust has a history of working with tribal nations. In the 1990s, the organization partnered with the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, establishing the first-ever conservation easement with tribal entities in the U.S.

Located just west of Chinquapin/Badger Pass and State Highway 41, the property overlooks both branches of the Wild and Scenic Merced River to the south and north, the Central Valley to the west, and the main Yosemite Valley to the north. Since time immemorial, the Southern Sierra Miwuks were stewards of the forests, meadows, and springs.

The Nation was expelled from its lands beginning in the late 19th century to make way for settlers and the lumber industry. The last of the tribal residents who lived in the valley were evicted by the National Park Service in 1969.

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Having this significant piece of our ancestral Yosemite land back will bring our community together to celebrate tradition and provide a healing place for our children and grandchildren, Southern Sierra Miwuk Nations Tribal Council Chair and elder Sandra Chapman said in a press release. It will be a sanctuary for our people.

Tribal Secretary Tara Fouch-Moore said the transfer will bolster the Nation's food sovereignty and traditional ecological practices.

We will be able to harvest and cultivate our traditional foods, fibers, and medicines and steward the land using traditional ecological knowledge, strengthening our relationships with plants and wildlife, and benefiting everyone by restoring a more resilient and abundant landscape," she said.

As well, the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation will take over protection of water quality feeding the two tributaries of the Wild and Scenic South Fork Merced River.

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About the Author: "Native News Online is one of the most-read publications covering Indian Country and the news that matters to American Indians, Alaska Natives and other Indigenous people. Reach out to us at editor@nativenewsonline.net. "

Contact: news@nativenewsonline.net
Nazrin Abdul



ASAN service, established 13 years ago on the initiative of President Ilham Aliyev, has evolved into one of Azerbaijans leading innovation platforms. In a short period, its innovative public-service model has been successfully implemented nationwide and is now being exported internationally.

As reported by Azernews, these remarks were made by Ulvi Mehdiyev, Chairman of the State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations under the President of Azerbaijan, during the opening ceremony of the ASAN Artificial Intelligence Center (ASAN AI HUB).

Mehdiyev noted that nearly 30 countries are currently studying the ASAN model with the intention of adopting it. This global interest, he said, stems from several factors:

ASANs openness to innovation and its support for new ideas are key elements enabling its international recognition and adoption.

The chairman emphasized that the importance of artificial intelligence has now become undeniable:

According to the latest data, the AI market has already reached a value of $800 billion. Forecasts suggest that by 2030, this figure will climb into the trillions of dollars. Nearly 400 million people are already using AI solutions in various forms.

He added that around 70% of international companies and businesses have integrated at least one AI solution into their operations.

This shows that AI has become an integral part of our lives  a crucial tool in the economy, industry, healthcare, education, and both social and personal spheres. Azerbaijan is keeping pace with these global trends. As you know, in March this year, the President approved the Artificial Intelligence Strategy for 20252028, which outlines serious tasks and a national framework for AI development, he said.

Mehdiyev stressed that Azerbaijan is not lagging behind; on the contrary, it is demonstrating a clear ambition to be among the leading countries, declaring the application of AI in governance, the economy, industry, and other sectors as a national priority.
KABUL, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Counter-narcotics police have seized 551 kg of illegal drugs and arrested two suspected smugglers during a vehicle search operation in northern Afghanistan's Takhar province, provincial police spokesman Nizamudin Omir said Tuesday.

The illicit drugs, consisting of opium, were concealed in a vehicle that was en route to an unknown destination when it was intercepted by police in Taluqan, the provincial capital, Omir added.

The dossiers of the arrested individuals have been referred to the judiciary for further investigation and legal proceedings, said the spokesman.

The Afghan government has intensified its crackdown on illicit drugs and individuals involved in the trade, pledging to continue the campaign until the country is fully free of poppy cultivation and the chemicals used to produce heroin. 
SpaceX has the OK to build out what will be the primary launch hub on the Space Coast for its Starship and Super Heavy rocket, the most powerful spacecraft in history.

The Department of the Air Force announced Monday it had approved SpaceX to move forward with the construction of a pair of launch pads at Cape Canaveral Space Force Stations Space Launch Complex 37.

A record of decision on the Environmental Impact Statement required under the National Environmental Policy Act for the proposed Canaveral site was posted to the Air Forces website, marking the conclusion of what has been a nearly two-year approval process. The milestone puts the Space Coast squarely at the center of the countrys hopes to return humans to the moon and perhaps make the first crewed landing on Mars.

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SLC-37s planned double towers would augment the single tower in the works at neighboring Kennedy Space Center. Combined, they could support up to 120 launches a year.

The decision states the Space Force will execute a property agreement for the site with a primary purpose to support national security missions, but allowing civil missions as well. It says Space Launch Delta 45 would need to set up requirements for Starship launches on the Eastern Range before it ever gets off the ground, though.

With three launch pads in Florida, Starship will be ready to support Americas national security and Artemis goals as the worlds premiere spaceport continues to evolve to enable airport-like operations, SpaceX posted on X.

A version of Starship is contracted to be the human landing system for NASAs Artemis III mission, which would return humans to the surface of the moon for the first time since 1972.

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Towering more than 400 feet tall, the combined Super Heavy and upper Starship stage launch with nearly 17 million pounds of thrust, which is more than twice the power of the Saturn V rockets of the Apollo program. The spacecraft is fully reusable, with its booster and upper stage returning to the launch site.

The company posted an update late Monday confirming the approval and noting construction is already underway.

The Space Force had previously cleared SpaceX to remove the former United Launch Alliance launch infrastructure at the site that supported the now-retired Delta IV Heavy rockets.

The introduction of Starship to the Space Coast, though, has been contentious. It has raised concerns about not only the effect on the environment, but also the specter of air traffic delays, rocket-noise annoyance and potential damage from sonic booms at all hours as well as the closure of publicly-accessed land during launch operations.

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And the single tower at KSCs Launch Pad 39-A remains under an ongoing Environmental Impact Statement being run by the Federal Aviation Administration.

SLD 45 officials have said the first Starship launches from the Space Coast would come as early as summer 2026 from the KSC site, assuming approvals come in, while work would continue on the Canaveral pads.

For now, SpaceX continues to perform test launches of the spacecraft from Texas.

As far as the Canaveral site, the Air Forces EIS states it would allow SpaceX to conduct up to 76 launches and 152 landings annually once a supplemental analysis of airspace impacts by the (FAA) is completed.

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The Air Force will assess the airspace analysis before finalizing its stance for allowing Starship launches.

The effect on air traffic of Starship launches and returns was a major concern after details were revealed under the KSC EIS. SpaceX is seeking another 44 launches and 88 landings from the KSC site.

The boosters are designed to return to the launch site to be captured by the launch towers swiveling chopsticks arms while the upper stage could return after at least one orbit of the Earth if the mission called for it. Those return flights would cut across Florida, blocking route access to several major airports in the state including Tampa, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

The worst-case scenario among the combined 120 launches and potential 240 landings could lead to 12,000 delayed commercial flights each year.

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Other concerns include the effect of the more severe sonic booms in store from the massive rocket. Some of the mitigation efforts outlined in the EIS include setting up a SpaceX insurance claim email.

With half the potential return landings coming during normal sleeping hours, though, the potential for public annoyance across Central Florida remains a concern. The only mitigation action in the EIS is for SpaceX to make public announcements about launch plans that could result in sonic booms.

Other mitigation plans in the Canaveral site plan include efforts to protect at-risk animal species including the Florida scrub jay, southeastern beach mouse, gopher tortoises and tricolored bats.

The document also outlines efforts needed to ensure the millions of gallons of water needed during launch activities dont seep into the ecosystem.

By implementing the mitigation measures identified in this (record of decision) and adhering to the mitigation plan described herein, the (Air Force) has adopted all practicable means to avoid or minimize environmental harm, the record states.
SpaceX is moving forward with plans to bring Starship launches to Floridas Space Coast.

The company announced it has received approval to develop Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Starship is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built.

It is designed to fly missions to the Moon and Mars.

With three launch pads in Florida, Starship will be ready to support Americas national security and Artemis goals as the worlds premiere spaceport continues to evolve to enable airport-like operations, SpaceX shared Monday on social media.

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SpaceX added that construction on Space Launch Complex-37 is already underway.

U.S. Space Force officials say Starship could launch from the Cape as early as the middle of 2026.

Weve received approval to develop Space Launch Complex-37 for Starship operations at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Construction has started.

With three launch pads in Florida, Starship will be ready to support Americas national security and Artemis goals as the worlds pic.twitter.com/USgwNzwK8L  SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 1, 2025

Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Floridas Space Coast had a rare week off from rocket launches during the 2025 Thanksgiving holiday.

But there is another launch on the horizon  with a late-afternoon launch window.

Last month, the Space Coast marked a milestone, surpassing 100 rocket launches in a year from here.

The next one is set to blast off from Cape Canaveral, if all goes according to plan. Liftoff is set for Tuesday.

The space agency founded by billionaire Elon Musk will send up a Falcon 9 rocket on another Starlink satellite mission.

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Rockets here launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at Merritt Island, Florida, or Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and people in and around Brevard County usually have the best chance at seeing this phenomenon in the sky.

Weather permitting and depending on cloud cover and trajectory, a rocket launch from Floridas Space Coast is sometimes visible as far north as Jacksonville Beach, St. Augustine and Daytona Beach and as far south as Vero Beach, Fort Pierce and Boynton Beach. The most recent ULA Atlas V rocket launch was spotted in the West Palm Beach sky, 150 miles away.

When theres a nighttime launch window or very early morning, theres an opportunity for unique photos  the rocket lights up the dark sky and the contrail after makes for a great photo.

Below is more information on the next rocket launch from Florida and suggestions on where to watch it in person (or virtually via the USA TODAY Networks Space Team).

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Is there a launch today? Upcoming SpaceX, Blue Origin, ULA launch schedule at Cape Canaveral

For questions or comments, email our space reporters Rick Neale at rneale@floridatoday.com, Brooke Edwards at bedwards@floridatoday.com or Eric Lagatta at elagatta@usatoday.com. For more space news from the USA TODAY Network, visit floridatoday.com/space.

When is the next rocket launch in Florida? Tuesday, December 2: SpaceX Starlink 6-95

Mission: A SpaceX Falcon 9 will lift 29 Starlink broadband satellites into low-Earth orbit.

Launch window : 3:16 to 7:16 p.m. ET Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025

Launch trajectory: Southeast

Launch location: Launch pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida

Sonic booms for the Space Coast of Florida (Titusville, Merritt Island, Melbourne area): No

Live coverage starts 90 minutes before liftoff at floridatoday.com/space: You can watch live rocket launch coverage from USA TODAY Networks Space Team, which consists of FLORIDA TODAY space reporters Rick Neale and Brooke Edwards and visuals journalists Craig Bailey, Malcolm Denemark and Tim Shortt. Our Space Team will provide up-to-the-minute updates in a mobile-friendly live blog, complete with a countdown clock, at floridatoday.com/space, starting 90 minutes before liftoff. You can download the free FLORIDA TODAY app, which is available in the App Store or Google Play, or type floridatoday.com/space into your browser.

For the latest news and launch schedule from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space. Another easy way: Click here to sign up for our weekly Space newsletter.

Live weather radar: Will it rain in Melbourne, Cocoa Beach or Cape Canaveral, Florida, today? Will weather cancel a rocket launch?

Shown is the National Weather Service-Melbourne radar, which shows conditions in real-time for the Space Coast, Brevard County, Orlando and other parts of Florida. The current date and time show up on the bottom right of this radar embed; otherwise, you may need to clear your cache.

Where to watch SpaceX rocket launch from Space Coast of Florida

Pretty much anywhere in Brevard, you'll get a view of the rocket launch  in certain areas, you can get an amazing view of SpaceX rocket boosters returning to the pads. The best view to watch a rocket launch from the Space Coast is along the beach. However, visibility will depend on weather conditions and people should make sure not to block traffic or rights of way on bridges and to follow posted rules at beaches.

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If you are viewing the launch along the Indian River in Titusville from Space View Park or Parrish Park, look east directly across the river.

If you are farther south along the Indian River, look northeast.

Playalinda Beach or Canaveral National Seashore is the closest spot to view liftoff because it is almost parallel to Launch Pad 39A. On the beach, look south along the coastline, (you can even see the pad from some spots).

Some hotspots to check out:

Jetty Park Beach and Pier , 400 Jetty Park Road, Port Canaveral. Note, there's a charge to park.

Playalinda Beach , 1000 Playalinda Beach Road, Canaveral National Seashore. Note, there's a charge to park, and access to Canaveral National Seashore isn't always granted depending on capacity and time of day.

Max Brewer Bridge and Parrish Park , 1 A. Max Brewer Memorial Parkway, Titusville. Note, parking is available on both sides of Max Brewer Bridge.

Space View Park , 8 Broad St., Titusville

Sand Point Park , 10 E. Max Brewer Causeway, Titusville

Rotary Riverfront Park , 4141 S. Washington Ave., Titusville

Riverfront Park at Cocoa Village , 401 Riveredge Blvd., Cocoa (just before State Road 520 Causeway)

Cocoa Village , near the parks and shops or near the docks

Various parks on Merritt Island

Rotary Park , 1899 S. Courtenay Parkway, Merritt Island

Kiwanis Park on Kiwanis Island Park Road on Merritt Island

Port Canaveral , with ships from Disney Cruise Line, Carnival Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean at port

Alan Shepard Park , 299 E. Cocoa Beach Causeway, Cocoa Beach. Note, there could be parking costs.

Cocoa Beach Pier , 401 Meade Ave. Parking fee varies.

Lori Wilson Park , 1400 N. Atlantic Ave., Cocoa Beach. Lori Wilson Park has a dog park, by the way.

Sidney Fischer Park , 2200 N. Atlantic Ave., Cocoa Beach. Note, there could be parking costs.

Downtown Cocoa Beach , along Minutemen Causeway

Tables Beach , 197 SR A1A, Satellite Beach

The Tides on SR A1A in Satellite Beach

Various parks, including the Pelican Beach Clubhouse, in Satellite Beach

Pineda Causeway

Eau Gallie Causeway

Front Street Park near Melbourne (U.S. 192) Causeway and U.S. 1 in Melbourne

Indialantic boardwalk at Melbourne Causeway and SR A1A

Paradise Beach Park , aka Howard Futch Park, 2301 SR A1A, Melbourne (this is a beachside park)

Sebastian Inlet Park, 9700 S. State Road A1A, Melbourne Beach (there is a cost to enter)

Where to watch a rocket launch in Indian River County, Florida

Sebastian Inlet State Park , 9700 S. State Road A1A, Melbourne Beach, Florida (cost to enter)

Wabasso Beach Park , 1808 Wabasso Beach Road, Wabasso, Florida

Ambersands Beach Park , 12566 N. SR A1A, Vero Beach, Florida (free parking)

South Beach Park , 1700 Ocean Drive, Vero Beach, Florida (free parking)

Merrill Barber Bridge in Vero Beach, Florida

Alma Lee Loy Bridge in Vero Beach, Florida

Where to watch a rocket launch in St. Lucie County, Florida

Fort Pierce Inlet State Park , 905 Shorewinds Drive, Fort Pierce, Florida

Blind Creek Beachside North and South, 5460 S. Ocean Drive, Fort Pierce, Florida

Blue Heron Beach , 2101 Blue Heron Blvd., Fort Pierce, Florida

Frederick Douglass Memorial Park , 3600 S. Ocean Drive, Fort Pierce, Florida

Dollman Park Beachside , 9200 S. Ocean Drive, Jensen Beach, Florida

Herman's Bay Beach , 7880 S. Ocean Drive, Jensen Beach, Florida

John Brooks Park Beachside , 3300 S. Ocean Drive, Fort Pierce, Florida

Middle Cove Beach , 4600 S. Ocean Drive, Fort Pierce, Florida

Normandy Beach in Jensen Beach, Florida

Pepper Park Beachside , 3302 N. SR A1A, Fort Pierce, Florida

Walton Rocks Beach , 6700 S. Ocean Drive, Jensen Beach, Florida (dog park)

Waveland Beach, 10350 S. Ocean Drive, Jensen Beach, Florida

Where to watch a rocket launch in Martin County, Florida

State Road A1A causeway in Stuart, Florida

House of Refuge and beach, 301 S.E. MacArthur Blvd., Stuart, Florida

Where to see Florida rocket launch in Daytona Beach, New Smyrna Beach area

In Volusia County, immediately north of Brevard County  home to Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station  you can get a great view of a SpaceX, NASA or United Launch Alliance rocket launch. The best views to watch a rocket launch from here are along the beach. Look due south. Recommended spots:

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 South New Smyrna Beach (Canaveral National Seashore)

 Mary McLeod Bethune Beach Park, 6656 S. Atlantic Ave., New Smyrna Beach. Bethune Beach is 3.5 miles south of New Smyrna Beach and one mile north of the Apollo Beach entrance to Canaveral National Seashore Park.

 Apollo Beach at Canaveral National Seashore (south of New Smyrna Beach). Canaveral National Seashore runs along Florida's East Coast in Volusia County and Brevard County. To access Apollo Beach, take Interstate 95 to exit 249, then travel east until it turns into State Road A1A. Follow SR A1A south to the park entrance.

 Oak Hill riverfront is the southernmost city in South Volusia County.

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 Sunrise Park, 275 River Road, Oak Hill

 Goodrich's Seafood and Oyster House back deck, 253 River Road, Oak Hill

 Seminole Rest national historic site, 211 River Road, Oak Hill

 Riverbreeze Park, 250 H.H. Burch Road, Oak Hill

 Mary Dewees Park, 178 N. Gaines St., Oak Hill

 Nancy Cummings Park, 232 Cummings St., Oak Hill

 Jimmie Vann Sunrise Park, 275 River Road, Oak Hill

 A.C. Delbert Dewees Municipal Pier, 243 River Road, Oak Hill

 Bird Observation Pier on River Road across from A.C. Delbert Municipal Pier (see above)

 Rose Bay in Port Orange, Florida

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 beaches along New Smyrna Beach, Florida

 New Smyrna Beach Inlet, New Smyrna Beach lifeguard station

 Halifax Harbor Marina in Daytona Beach, Florida

 Ormond-by-the-Sea in Ormond Beach, Florida

 George R. Kennedy Memorial Park in Edgewater, Florida

Space is important to us and that's why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: SpaceX rocket launch in Florida. What time is Cape Canaveral liftoff?
Penn Wood High School in the William Penn School District in Lansdowne, Delaware County, on June 15, 2023. (Amanda Berg for the Capital-Star)

Buried in a code bill passed with the 2025-26 state budget is a provision giving a single school district $5 million, outside of the typical formulas that are used to distribute funds to Pennsylvanias school districts.

The bill didnt mention the district by name, but specified the money is to go to one in a county of the second class A with a 2021-2022 adjusted daily membership greater than 5,590 and less than 5,595.

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It could only be William Penn, a Delaware County district represented by state House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D-Philadelphia).

William Penn has struggled financially for years, and was one of the six plaintiff school districts in a lawsuit that led to Pennsylvanias method of distributing money to schools being overturned in 2023. The Commonwealth Court called it unconstitutionally inequitable.

Gov. Josh Shapiro with Lt. Gov. Austin Davis (left) and House Speaker Joanna McClinton (right) at the 2025-2026 budget signing ceremony on Nov. 12, 2025 (Photo by Ian Karbal/Capital-Star)

District officials reached out to lawmakers to advocate for additional funding  as they do every year  during negotiations over the latest state budget, according to Jennifer Hoff, who sits on the William Penn Board of School Directors and chairs its Budget & Finance Committee.

William Penn needed the money even more than usual this year because the state budget impasse forced the district to borrow  and incur interest  to make up for delayed funding from the commonwealth, Hoff said.

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William Penn has long struggled and advocated for themselves around funding, Hoff said. We need to be properly funded. Thats what caused the problem, thats what keeps the problems going. Its more expensive to be poor than rich. Your insurance rates go up, it costs more to borrow. Thats where William Penn is. We never get ahead, and its a government-made problem.

More than two dozen other school districts, at minimum, likewise took out loans and incurred interest, according to the Pennsylvania State Education Association.

Asked why William Penn School District received additional funds, Beth Rementer, a spokesperson for the House Democratic caucus said in a statement, the guiding principle for the House Democratic caucus has always been and always will be to help the least advantaged. There is an overlap to the extent that our leaders represent some of the poorest areas. Maybe that is a good thing.

Rementer did not respond to follow-up questions about whether specific issues elevated William Penns funding needs above other districts.

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Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg, a senior attorney at the Public Interest Law Center, which represented William Penn in the case that led to the creation of the adequacy formula, provided some clarity about the districts unique needs.

William Penn recently found itself facing a $9.2 million deficit after uncovering record keeping issues and under-budgeting problems. Thats led the school district to consider cutting staff, including administrators and academic interventionists who work one-on-one with struggling students.

I do think the context matters, Urevick-Ackelsberg said. Theyre a district that has a judgement against the state for unconstitutional underfunding, and their budget situation, if anything, is even worse than previously understood  This was a catastrophe for them.

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Deirdre Abrahamsson, a William Penn spokesperson, said the district has taken steps to ensure that similar bookkeeping issues dont come up again.

We have implemented new internal controls and updated financial procedures to standardize record keeping and documentation, she said. Staff have received training in purchasing, payroll, and budget reporting to ensure consistency and compliance across all schools and departments. Oversight and accountability have also been increased, with more frequent internal reviews and stronger collaboration between the Business Office, administrators, and auditors.

The district is still making decisions about what to do with the $5 million from the state, according to school board member Hoff.

Its likely the money will go toward developing curriculum and mental health services. With the funds amounting to a one-time cash infusion instead of recurring revenue, the district is wary about using it on recurring costs like staffing, Hoff said.

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Kayla Anderson, a spokesperson for Gov. Josh Shapiro, who was a key negotiator for both the 2024-25 and 2025-26 budgets, did not respond to specific questions from the Capital-Star.

But she said in a statement, that the most recent spending plan, takes seriously the need to drive dollars out to the schools that need them most to ensure every Pennsylvania student has access to an adequate, equitable education. The final budget agreement was the result of a thoughtful, considered negotiation with all leaders in both parties.

Additional funding part of a Capitol compromise

This is the second year in a row that the state budget has included additional funding for school districts represented by members of House Democratic leadership.

Last year, Democratic lawmakers pushed for an adjustment to the adequacy funding formula, devised to help the least advantaged schools in the wake of the lawsuit. Ultimately, that led to 11 school districts receiving an additional $14 million annually all represented by Democratic House members, including members of leadership. William Penn was one of them.

Penn Wood High School in the William Penn School District in Landsdowne, Delaware County, on June 15, 2023. (Amanda Berg for the Capital-Star)

Democratic lawmakers said the move was the result of a compromise with Senate Republicans, who successfully pushed for changes to the adequacy formula that resulted in dozens of school districts  including those 11  receiving less funding than Democrats had hoped.

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The compromise, they said, protected districts that both genuinely needed money and were important to House Democrats whose votes were necessary to pass a budget and ensure the adequacy formula was enacted at all.

All 11 districts that received additional funding were affected by changes to the adequacy formula proposed by Republicans. But other districts  including many represented by GOP members  were affected as well, according to an analysis by the Capital-Star.

There are 500 school districts across the Commonwealth, and each have their own definition of what fair funding means, Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R-Indiana) said in a statement. For years, our Commonwealth has been dealing with formulas which seek to implement greater fairness, yet there is no universally agreed to definition of fairness. As we continue to meet our obligation to support educational opportunities for all children in Pennsylvania, looking at how adequacy dollars are dispersed remains a topic of conversation.

Urevick-Ackelsberg believes House Democrats, led by McClinton, have shown their bona fides advocating for better funding for K-12 schools across Pennsylvania, including in rural areas largely represented by Republicans.

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If I were evaluating Speaker McClinton fairly, I think I would say shes been a really good champion for increasing school funding. And I think by any reasonable metric, that caucus has repeatedly passed both fiscal reforms and more aggressive funding increases, but they havent passed both sides, Urevick-Ackelsberg said.

While he would like to see broader changes to Pennsylvanias school funding model that would help more schools, Urevick-Ackelsberg sees the $5 million for William Penn as a necessary expenditure for a district in crisis, though.

William Penn is in a pretty unique position in that this district that was the named plaintiff in the school funding litigation, and has a judgement against the state, was facing acute disaster, he said. I dont think you can draw any conclusions except to say we need to get all school districts this money on a faster timeline.

Originally, a seven-year plan to add $5.4 billion to the state budget for struggling districts was presented by a commission of lawmakers and members of the Shapiro administration. Theyd been tasked with developing the plan by Commonwealth Court in 2023 when it ruled the states school funding formula was unconstitutionally inequitable.

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But, lawmakers extended the timeline to nine years at the insistence of the Senate GOP majority.

We arent getting it out nearly as fast as it needs to go, Urevick-Ackelsberg said. If youre a child whos starting kindergarten, youll be in ninth grade before schools are adequately funded.
Illinois State Police are asking for the public's help in finding a vehicle involved in a deadly hit-and-run crash in the south suburbs last week.

State police said the crash took place between 6 and 6:30 p.m. last Monday on southbound Route 53 at Thele Road in Elwood.

Troopers found a male bicyclist on the ground in the area just before 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. He was taken to a local hospital, where he died, police said.

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SEE ALSO: Woman killed in Logan Square crash ID'd; Charges pending, Chicago police say

The vehicle involved is possibly a black 2007-2013 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck, police said.

The truck's front headlight and part of the bumper were found at the scene.

The victim's mother identified him as 25-year-old De'Avion Smith.

She said he was heading to work when he was killed.

Anyone driving in the area at the time of the crash, anyone who witnessed the crash or anyone who may have dash camera video of the incident or video of the location near the time of the crash is asked to call ISP special agents at 815-221-2709 or submit a tip on ISP's Crime Tip website.

There is a fundraiser Tuesday night in Smith's honor, at Second Baptist Church Joliet.
Stonehill College announced it is set to launch a Bachelor of Science in Nursing program after receiving approval from the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing.

The introduction of the nursing program marks a significant expansion for Stonehill College, aiming to meet the growing demand for healthcare professionals.

Stonehill 2030: Building Together is off to a strong start with the forthcoming launch of our BSN program, said Rev. John Denning, C.S.C., president of Stonehill College. This degree will enhance the future of healthcare by preparing skilled nurses whose practice is rooted in a desire to serve the common good, Denning added.

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The program will provide students with the necessary education and training to pursue careers in nursing, a field that continues to see increased demand nationwide.

The introduction of the BSN program marks the start of a transformative period for the College, Vice President for Academic Affairs Peter Ubertaccio said. As we elevate Stonehills academic offerings through this bold initiative, we remain committed to nurturing a student-focused community that prioritizes moral and intellectual growth.

According to a 2024 report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics it is projected that BSN positions will increase by 9% from 2020 to 2030.

Applications are now open, and classes will start during the 20262027 academic year.

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This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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Heres what youll learn when you read this story:

Poverty Point is an archaeological site north of New Orleans that experts believe was a major trading hub sometime between 1700 B.C.E. and 1100 B.C.E.

A new study proposes that the impressive 1.5-square-mile site was the work of an egalitarian hunter-gatherer societya departure from the previously held belief.

This discovery of artifacts from throughout the midwest and southeast regions of the U.S. seemingly confirms that Poverty Point was a major trading hub.

Around 1,500 B.C.E., civilization was really starting to take off. Ancient Egypt was entering a golden age known as the New Kingdom, the Hittites took root in the Middle East, the Shang Dynasty came to power in China, and the Olmecs emerged in the tropical lowlands of what would one day be Mexico. At this same time, in the Lower Mississippi Valleysome 350 miles from the mouth of the North Americas largest riverthe hunter-gatherers of a burgeoning egalitarian society were constructing one of the oldest and most impressive earthwork monuments in the western hemisphere.

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Known today as Poverty Pointa name derived from a 19th-century plantation that was located near the archaeological sitethis approximately 3,500-year-old structure (built sometime between 1700 B.C.E. to 1100 B.C.E.) is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And while the size of the site is certainly impressive, stretching some 1.5 square miles, these ancient peoples also moved the equivalent of 140,000 dump trucks of dirt without the use of horses or even wheels.

Its long been known that Poverty Point served as a kind of trading hub for ancient hunter-gatherers spread throughout southeastern and midwestern U.S. But in a new studypublished in the journal Southeastern Archaeology archaeologists from Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) re-examine the origin story of this impressive site, asking why ancient peoples built these mounds in the first place.

Typically, years-long intentional monument building is the work of hierarchies, like those of the pharaohs ruling Egyptians, kings governing Hittites, and Chinese rulers lording over their subjects. But Kidder and his co-author Seth Grooms (a former WashU PhD graduate and a member of the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina) believe that Poverty Point was the work of an egalitarian civilization coming to grips with increased severe weather and massive flooding in the region.

This goes against the previously held belief that this society must have also been hierarchical in nature, similar to the society that constructed Cahokia Mounds a thousand years later near present-day St. Louis, Missouri.

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The Western view is that they wouldnt travel all of that distance and do all of that work unless they were getting something of economic value out of it, the studys co-author, Tristram Kidder, said in the WashU magazine The Ampersand. We believe they felt a moral responsibility to repair a torn universe.



One of the key pieces of evidence that Poverty Point held some spiritual significance is that theres never been archeological evidence of permanent dwellings at the location. The old paradigm that people lived at Poverty Point continuously for centuries has been crumbling, and we needed a new framework, Kidder told The Ampersand.

Instead, what they found were materials such as quartz crystal from Arkansas, soapstone from northern Georgia, and pieces of Great Lakes copper. Kidder and Grooms believe that Poverty Point was a temporary gathering spot for people assembled in the thousands to do what humans do: socialize, trade, worship, and work. That makes Poverty Point a bit of a historical outlier in the ancient world, as Grooms said in another article for The Ampersand in 2023.

These people came together to build these incredible monuments, and according to the archaeological evidence, they did it in the absence of any kind of institutional hierarchy, wealth differences, or intensive agricultural systems, Grooms said at the time. All of that was once thought to be a prerequisite for social complexity.



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As many as 1 in 4 breast cancers occur in women younger than 50, a new study has found.

Among seven outpatient clinics in the New York region, 20% to 24% of breast cancers were found in women 18 to 49, researchers said Monday at the Radiological Society of North America's annual meeting in Chicago.

"This research shows that a significant proportion of cancers are diagnosed in women under 40, a group for whom there are no screening guidelines at this time," researcher Dr. Stamatia Destounis, a radiologist with Elizabeth Wende Breast Care in Rochester, N.Y., said in a news release.

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The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends mammography every other year starting at 40 and continuing through age 74, researchers noted.

The American Cancer Society recommends annual mammograms starting at age 45, but added that women can choose to begin breast cancer screening as young as 40.

For the new study, researchers tracked breast cancer diagnoses at EWBC between 2014 and 2024. EWBC has seven outpatient facilities located in a 200-mile radius of western New York.

The team identified nearly 1,800 breast cancers diagnosed in about 1,300 women under 50 over the 11-year period. Of those cancers, 81% were invasive, researchers said.

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"Most of these cancers were invasive, meaning they could spread beyond the breast, and many were aggressive types -- especially in women under 40," Destounis said. "Some were triple-negative, a form of breast cancer that is harder to treat because it doesn't respond to common hormone-based therapies."

Women younger than 50 consistently accounted for 1 in every 4 breast cancers detected, even in years when fewer women in that age group got screened, results show.

"This is striking because it shows that younger women not only carry a stable and substantial share of the breast cancer burden, but their tumors are often biologically aggressive," Destounis said. "That combination -- steady incidence plus disproportionately aggressive biology -- directly challenges age-based screening cutoffs and strengthens the case for earlier, risk-tailored screening approaches."

Younger patients need to be taught how to check themselves for breast changes related to cancer, and should start screening earlier if they have other risk factors for cancer, Destounis said.

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"This data reinforces that women under 50, especially those under 40, shouldn't be seen as low risk by default and can absolutely benefit from risk assessment being performed as early as possible," Destounis said.

"Those with a strong family history or genetic mutation, as well as certain minorities and ethnic backgrounds, are at higher risk for breast cancer at a younger age," Destounis continued.

"We can't rely only on age alone to decide who should be screened," Destounis said. "Paying closer attention to personal and family history, and possibly screening earlier for some women, could help detect these cancers sooner."

Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on breast cancer screening.

Copyright  2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
The Atlanta Police Department is seeking the publics help in solving a homicide.

The deadly shooting took place just before midnight on Nov. 23 at 1683 Lakewood Ave. SE.

Officers responded to a call about a shooting at about 11:53 p.m. and found a 36-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the left leg.

He was taken to the hospital for treatment.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

APD provided a photo of one of the suspects.

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The Atlanta Police Department Homicide Unit is urging anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers Atlanta or the department directly.

Tipsters can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward of up to $5,000.

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Tata Elxsi has collaborated with University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and OSF HealthCare to deploy rural digital health kiosks aimed at improving healthcare access in underserved regions of the US.

This initiative combines technology and academic research from Gies College of Business and Carle Illinois College of Medicine, using OSF HealthCare data in real-time and funding from Jump ARCHES.

Tata Elxsi noted that rural communities encounter significant barriers to healthcare, including long distances to healthcare providers, limited awareness of technology, inadequate payer coverage, poor connectivity of network, and low population density.

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An OSF-based analysis by Gies College of Business found that expanding preventive and primary care access in these areas reduces avoidable emergency care visits.

Tata Elxsis initiative will focus on behavioural and chronic diseases, targeting four main challenges: geographical and access barriers, hospital re-admission and post-acute care health monitoring, management of chronic diseases, and healthcare education and preventive measures.

Tata Elxsis TEngage platform forms the backbone of the digital health kiosks.

The kiosks operate on Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure and feature Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) for hospital information system (HIS) integration, vital sign collection, secure data workflows, and telehealth services.

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Discussions are underway to integrate IoT-based remote monitoring for more proactive and continuous care.

Tata Elxsi will begin the deployment in Illinois, expanding to several counties over three years. The phased approach will enable the kiosks to adapt based on usage patterns and community feedback.

Advanced features will include health monitoring, telehealth integration, predictive healthcare insights, AI analytics for epidemic tracking, electronic health record (EHR) connectivity, cloud-based device management, improved telecom infrastructure, and automated workflow.

Tata Elxsi senior vice-president and healthcare business head Sreevatsa Sahasranaman said: This partnership demonstrates our commitment to driving healthcare innovation and showcases how technology can make quality care accessible to all.

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By combining the University of Illinois research insights with our expertise, we are delivering hyper-customised care and impactful solutions that touch rural communities and elevate healthcare delivery to new milestones.

"Tata Elxsi announces launch of kiosks to improve healthcare access in US" was originally created and published by Hospital Management, a GlobalData owned brand.




A Palestinian inspects the car of Muhannad Tariq Mohammad Al-Zgheer who was killed by the Israeli forces, in the West Bank city of Hebron, Dec. 2, 2025. (Photo by Mamoun Wazwaz/Xinhua)

RAMALLAH, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in separate incidents in the West Bank on Tuesday, according to Palestinian officials, while the Israeli military said troops were responding to a car-ramming and a stabbing that lightly injured three soldiers in total.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said 17-year-old Muhannad Tariq Mohammad Al-Zgheer was shot dead in Hebron and that Israeli forces kept his body. Palestinian security officials said the shooting occurred as Israeli troops shut down northern checkpoints during a manhunt after an Israeli soldier was run over at a nearby military checkpoint.

The Israeli military said one of its soldiers was lightly injured in the car-ramming near Hebron and that the driver was killed when troops attempted to arrest him.

In a separate incident near the village of Umm Safa, north of Ramallah, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli forces fatally shot 18-year-old Mohammed Ruslan Mahmoud Asmar after a stabbing attack. Palestinian officials said his body was also withheld and that Red Crescent medics were prevented from reaching him.

Palestinian sources said troops closed all northern entrances to Ramallah, restricting movement in the area. The Israeli military said two soldiers were lightly wounded in the stabbing near the settlement of Ateret after the assailant pulled out a knife while being questioned. Ateret is an Israeli community settlement in the West Bank built on land confiscated from several Palestinian villages, including Umm Safa.

Separately, Tubas Governor Ahmad Al-Asaad said Israeli forces continued a large-scale operation in Tubas and the nearby town of Aqqaba, leaving the area under "complete closure" for a second day. He said dozens of homes were raided and some turned into military positions, describing the situation as tense. 

This photo shows bullet holes on the car of Muhannad Tariq Mohammad Al-Zgheer who was killed by the Israeli forces, in the West Bank city of Hebron, Dec. 2, 2025. (Photo by Mamoun Wazwaz/Xinhua)

A Palestinian inspects the car of Muhannad Tariq Mohammad Al-Zgheer who was killed by the Israeli forces, in the West Bank city of Hebron, Dec. 2, 2025. (Photo by Mamoun Wazwaz/Xinhua)

A Palestinian inspects the car of Muhannad Tariq Mohammad Al-Zgheer who was killed by the Israeli forces, in the West Bank city of Hebron, Dec. 2, 2025. (Photo by Mamoun Wazwaz/Xinhua)

Palestinians gather around the car of Muhannad Tariq Mohammad Al-Zgheer who was killed by the Israeli forces, in the West Bank city of Hebron, Dec. 2, 2025. (Photo by Mamoun Wazwaz/Xinhua)
A teen is facing charges in connection with a shooting that happened at a Washington County store.

Monday evening, the City of Washington Police Department announced that they arrested a 17-year-old boy, who will be charged as an adult.

He faces charges of conspiracy to attempt criminal homicide, robbery to inflict serious bodily injury, robbery to threaten serious injury, aggravated assault to cause serious bodily injury with extreme indifference, aggravated assault to cause serious bodily injury with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm by a minor, firearms not to be possessed not to be carried without a license and recklessly endangering another person.

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This arrest reflects the continued commitment of the City of Washington Police Department to pursue violent offenders and ensure the safety of our community, the City of Washington Police Department said.

Court documents show the suspect is Julian Asbury, of Washington.

Police were called to the Washington Food Mart on West Chestnut Street at 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, where they found a woman who had been shot multiple times. She was last listed in stable condition.

Officers said they were looking for three suspects in total.

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Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Voters in central Tennessee appeared set Tuesday night to elect Matt Van Epps, a Republican endorsed by President Donald Trump, in a special election that could be a bellwether for next year's midterm elections.

Voters in the 7th Congressional District, located just west of Nashville, went to the polls on Tuesday to decide between Epps, a former state Department of General Services commissioner, and Democratic state Rep. Aftyn Behn.

With 11 of 14 counties reporting, Epps was leading with more than 96,780 votes to Behn's 80,985, according to unofficial results from Tennessee Secretary of State's office.

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"We did it," Epps told supporters in his victory speech, saying they had sent "a message loud and clear that the people of Middle Tennessee stand with President Donald J. Trump."

"I am humbled beyond belief to stand before you tonight as your next representative."

Epps said Trump's endorsement "made the difference" in the election. He added, "and I will never forget it."

The president was quick to congratulate Epps on his victory, describing it as a "BIG Congressional WIN."

"The Radical Left Democrats threw everything at him, including Millions of Dollars," Trump said in a statement on his Truth Social media platform. "Another great night for the Republican Party!!"

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The special election was called in response to the resignation of Republican Rep. Mark Green, who was first elected in 2018.

In 2024, 60% of voters in the district voted for Trump.

While the district has historically leaned Republican, redistricting in 2020 made the 7th District slightly less rural and gave the Democrats a potential shot at whittling away at the Republican control of the U.S. House.

Despite being unable to flip the Republican-held House seat, Democrats said Behn outperformed in a district Trump won by 22 points, viewing the race as a potential crack in the GOP hold of the House.

"Aftyn defied expectations and over-performed in a way that reaffirmed that when we organize everywhere, we can compete anywhere," the Tennessee Democratic Party said late Tuesday.

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"The momentum we built in this special election will continue, powering local and statewide races across Tennessee for 2026 and beyond."

"TN took its place on the national stage and we sent a message loud and clear: Don't count out the South, because Tennessee has something to say."

Following the loss, Democrats were quick to point out that Republicans spent millions in the special election to win a seat in a district that Trump took by a large margin in the general election.

The fact that the GOP "lost so much ground should have the GOP shaking in their boots," Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said in a statement.

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Former Vice President Al Gore, who represented Tennessee in the U.S. Senate, said he's noticed a political shift in the district. He spoke Monday at a virtual rally for Behn.

"Having had the privilege of representing Tennessee in years past, I want to tell you that I have never seen the political tides shift as far and as fast as we're seeing them move in this election," he said, according to CNN.

Behn, 36, was elected to the Tennessee legislature's 51st District in Davidson County in 2023 as part of a special election to replace the late Rep. Bill Beck. She won re-election in 2024.

Before that, she was an activist who pushed for affordable cost of living, Medicaid expansion and fought against hospital closures in rural areas, USA Today reported.

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Endorsed by Trump, Van Epps, 42, was relatively unknown in the world of politics before receiving the backing of a billionaire-funded super PAC. He's a combat veteran who served 10 years in the U.S. Army with deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.

NPR reported the election has received more than $6.5 million in funding, including some $1.6 million coming from a pro-Trump super PAC.
WASHINGTON  Voters in Tennessees 7th District will elect a new House representative on Tuesday evening, and the race is shaping up to be much closer than initially expected  leaving Republicans in a scramble to keep a seat crucial to their slim majority.

The special election will fill the seat vacated by former Rep. Mark Green, who retired earlier this year. Green won the seat with nearly 60% of the vote, and President Donald Trump won by roughly 22 percentage points in the 2024 election.

But polling shows the Republican and Democratic candidates in a statistical tie, prompting GOP leaders to go into overdrive to save what should be considered a safe Republican seat.

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Special elections are strange animals, and anything can happen, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said on Tuesday. And when youre in a deep-red district, sometimes people assume that the Republican, the conservative, will win. And you cannot assume that, because anything can happen. So we encourage everybody to go out there and make that happen.

Johnson traveled to Tennessees 7th District on Monday to campaign alongside Republican candidate Matt Van Epps, appearing at 12 events within 10 hours, he said. Trump has also participated in virtual rallies for Van Epps, and he broke his silence for a rare social media post on X encouraging voter turnout.

Polls open in all Counties no later than 9:00 A.M., but some open as early as 7:00 A.M, he wrote. Polls close at 7:00 P.M. IF YOU ARE IN LINE BY 7 P.M., STAY IN LINE, AND THEY MUST LET YOU VOTE! Election Day is TOMORROW, December 2nd. GET OUT AND VOTE, VOTE, VOTE FOR MATT VAN EPPS  HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!

The race will serve as a test for Republicans trifecta in Washington, and a loss would be catastrophic for their slim majority in the House. With current margins, Johnson can only afford to lose two votes on any given vote, which would temporarily increase to three if Van Epps wins on Tuesday.

Republican congressional candidate Matt Van Epps, right, hugs a supporter during a campaign event in the special election for the seventh district Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. | George Walker IV

Democrats are closely watching the race, especially as national Republican groups outspend their opponents to ensure a victory. As of Tuesday, top political action committees led by Republicans have outspent their Democratic counterparts $3.1 million to $2.3 million, according to AdImpact.

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And with a new Emerson College/The Hill poll showing Van Epps just 2 percentage points above Democratic challenger Aftyn Behn, Democrats are taking the opportunity to hammer their GOP colleagues.

Thats shocking, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters on Monday. This is not a district that anyone believes should be competitive. No rational person believes this district should be competitive. And yet its apparently very competitive. Its going to be a much-closer-than-expected race.

To be sure, Democratic leaders are not openly projecting confidence theyll win the race. But the fact that Republicans are pouring so much money into what should be a safe seat during an off-year special election is considered a good sign for the minority party heading into the 2026 midterm elections.

Republicans have already lost, Jeffries said. The fact that they are spending millions of dollars to hold the seat that Donald Trump just won by 22 points is extraordinary, and more evidence that Republican extremists are completely and totally on the run because they have failed the American people.

A close race in deep-red Tennessee could be a bellwether of how Democrats will fare in next years midterm elections when the party hopes to flip the House out of GOP control. After a string of victories in other off-year elections last month, Democrats are hoping they can ride the semi-blue wave into next November.
Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give us feedback.

Texas Tech University System Chancellor Brandon Creighton on Monday imposed restrictions on how faculty discuss race, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation in classrooms and introduced a new course content approval process, underlining that instructors could face discipline for not complying.

In a memo to university presidents, Creighton said instructors may not promote that one race or sex is inherently superior to another; an individual, by virtue or race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, consciously or unconsciously; any person should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment because of race or sex; moral character or worth is determined by race or sex; individuals bear responsibility or guilt for actions of others of the same race or sex; or meritocracy or a strong work ethic are racist, sexist or constructs of oppression.

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Creighton defined promotion as presenting these beliefs as correct or required and pressuring students to affirm them, rather than analyzing or critiquing them as one viewpoint among others.

The memo includes a flowchart detailing a new approval process for any course content that touches on the restricted topics. Faculty will be required to submit the materials to department chairs, university administrators and ultimately the Board of Regents for their review and approval.

Instructors are first asked to determine whether the material is relevant and necessary. If it is, theyll next be asked if the material is required for professional licensure or certification or patient or client care. If it is, the material may remain in the course, but the Board of Regents will be notified. If it is not required for those purposes, instructors must seek approval to keep the material by submitting it to their department chair, dean and provost, who will forward their recommendation and justification to the Board of Regents.

In a news release, Creighton said the goal of the new policies was to provide clarity, consistency and guardrails that protect academic excellence. A system representative said the memo was intended to guide faculty as they prepare for the spring semester, which starts in six weeks. The representative said the system hopes the new approval process will move quickly, but is still working out the details.

Are political or cultural shifts spurring curriculum or policy changes on your college campus that Texans need to know about? Send tips to higher education reporter Jessica Priest at jessica.priest@texastribune.org or send her a message via Signal at @jessicapriest.79.

Creightons memo concludes that the integrity of this process depends on the earnest participation of every faculty member and warns that noncompliance may result in disciplinary action consistent with university policies and state law.

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It was immediately unclear how faculty across the Texas Tech University System reacted to the changes, but Kelli Cargile Cook, a professor emeritus who founded Texas Techs Department of Professional Communication, said the memo pushed her to scrap a class she planned to teach this spring and begin drafting a resignation letter instead.

Ive been teaching since 1981 and this was going to be my last class. I was so looking forward to working with the seniors in our major, but I cant stomach whats going on at Texas Tech, she said. I think the memo is cunning in that the beliefs that it lists are at face value, something you could agree with. But when you think about how this would be put into practice, where a Board of Regents approves a curriculum  people who are politically appointed, not educated, not researchers  that move is a slippery slope.

Cargile Cook was alarmed by the memos characterization of certain race and sex concepts as one viewpoint among many, saying it treats settled facts as if George Wallace being a racist is a viewpoint, referring to the former Alabama governor known for defending segregation.

Creightons memo describes the new requirements as the first step in the Board of Regents implementation of Senate Bill 37, a state law authored by Creighton before he resigned from the Texas Senate to lead the Texas Tech System. The law, which was approved earlier this year, requires regents to conduct a comprehensive review of the classes all undergraduates must take to graduate to ensure they prepare students for civic and professional life and reflect Texas workforce needs. The first review is due in 2027.

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System leaders launched restrictions on how faculty discuss gender identity in classrooms in September after a viral video of a Texas A&M professor teaching about gender identity drew conservative backlash, led to the professors firing and the university presidents resignation, and prompted universities across the state to scrutinize their course offerings.

Angelo State University, one of Texas Tech University Systems five institutions, was the first to act, quietly directing faculty in September to stop discussing transgender identities in class.

Texas Techs then-Chancellor Tedd L. Mitchell then issued a systemwide directive telling faculty they must comply with a Trump executive order, a letter from Gov. Greg Abbott and House Bill 229, which recognize only the existence of two sexes. Professors told The Texas Tribune at the time that Mitchells guidance prompted them to delay lessons, strip terms like transgender from curricula and self-censor. When they submitted questions to administrators  and the written answers were briefly posted online and then taken down  confusion only deepened.

Neither the executive order, the governors letter nor the new state law specifically mentions college instruction, and no federal or state laws  including SB 37  limit how professors should teach these topics. Early drafts of SB 37 included language restricting how universities could teach about race and sex, but lawmakers removed those provisions before passing the legislation.

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Creighton took over as chancellor last month after Mitchell retired.

The new policies at the Texas Tech University System follow in the footsteps of the Texas A&M University System, which last month approved a new policy that requires each campus president to sign off on any course that could be seen as advocating for race and gender ideology or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity. Texas Techs new rules appear to go further than A&Ms by adding a formal approval process that ends with the Board of Regents.

Other universities that announced course reviews after the A&M viral video controversy or in response to SB 37 have also circulated new instructions to faculty. At Texas State University, the student newspaper The University Star reported that faculty received guidance to rewrite course descriptions in ideologically neutral language and remove terms that could be associated with advocacy.

At the University of Houston, Chancellor and President Renu Khator instructed faculty to review their course titles, syllabi and content to ensure they were not knowingly or unknowingly violating the universitys stated academic commitments.

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Our responsibility is to give [students] the ability to form their own opinions, not to force a particular one on them, Khator wrote in a letter to the campus community on Nov. 21. Our guiding principle is to teach them, not indoctrinate them.

She outlined a four-phase review of all core curriculum under SB 37, beginning with a preliminary evaluation by the provosts office and the universitys lawyers by the end of December and culminating in a report to the Board of Regents by February.

The UH chapter of the American Association of University Professors replied, warning that the review process Khator described threatens academic freedom by allowing administrators to overrule faculty judgment and by encouraging false balance in the classroom.

Andrew Martin, the president of the Texas Tech chapter of the AAUP, called Mondays memo a profound disappointment.

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We had hoped that our new chancellors time visiting the campuses of the system and getting to know students, faculty and staff would encourage finding common ground and a recognition that academic freedom is a freedom we all share, one that is foundational to a free society, Martin said.

The new rules and process violates the First Amendment, Martin said, and harms transgender and gender nonconforming students and colleagues while continuing to misstate law.

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

Disclosure: Texas A&M University System, Texas Tech University, Texas Tech University System, Texas Tech University System and University of Houston have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribunes journalism. Find a complete list of them here.


Authorities recently determined that thieves looted an Ohio mans home knowing he was dead inside, according to our CBS affiliate WOIO-19 TV.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

The incident occurred at a home in Andover Township, Ashtabula County.

Ashtabula County Sheriffs deputies responded to reports of a dead body inside the home on Sunday, WOIO-19 reported.

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Upon arrival, deputies found a 76-year-old man who had died.

The Ashtabula County Coroners Office determined that the man had been dead for a while, WOIO-19 reported.

An autopsy has been ordered to determine the mans cause of death. No foul play is suspected, the sheriffs office said.

During the investigation, authorities found evidence that suggested the home had been broken into.

Detectives said the man died before the home was broken into, WOIO-19 reported.

Evidence from the scene indicates that the people who broke into the house found the body, but didnt report the death.

WOIO-19 reported that the thieves stole items from the house, but later returned to steal more.

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The stolen items include the mans car, a safe, and multiple personal belongings, according to the sheriffs office.

Detectives arrested a 21-year-old man for burglary on Dec. 1, WOIO-19 reported.

The mans safe was found in Pennsylvania, and his car was found in Williamsfield Township.

Authorities have been able to recover many of the stolen belongings throughout the investigation, according to the sheriffs office.

This incident remains under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Wolff at (440) 576-1446.

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ANKARA, Turkey (AP)  A tanker carrying sunflower oil from Russia to Georgia was attacked in the Black Sea, the Turkish maritime authority said Tuesday, days after two Russian shadow fleet oil tankers were attacked by Ukrainian naval drones.

The Turkish Directorate General of Maritime Affairs said the MIDVOLGA-2 came under attack about 130 kilometers (80 miles) off the Turkish coast. The 13 crew members were unharmed and the vessel has not requested assistance.

It was heading toward the Turkish port of Sinop, the maritime authority said in a statement on X.

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On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke out against Ukraines drone attack on two Russian vessels, the Kairos and Virat, saying it signaled a worrying escalation of the conflict.

We cannot condone these attacks, which threaten navigational safety, life, and the environment, especially in our own exclusive zone, Erdogan said in a televised address. We are issuing the necessary warnings to all parties regarding such situations.

Fridays attacks against the Kairos and Virat occurred inside Turkeys exclusive economic zone. Crew members on board both vessels were reported to be safe.

The OpenSanctions database, which tracks people or organizations involved in sanctions evasion, describes the vessels as part of a fleet of ships used to evade sanctions imposed on Russia following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine has carried out successful naval strikes against Russian shipping during the war, particularly using explosives-packed marine drones. However, Ukrainian missions have previously largely been limited to the waters of the northern Black Sea.
A TikTok creator who goes by Wolfy is drawing millions of views, and widespread condemnation, for reportedly filming himself handing out mini bottles of alcohol, cigarettes, and even machetes to unhoused people across multiple cities.

Keith Castillo frames the stunts as feeding the homeless, but critics say hes exploiting vulnerable people for content. Despite the videos going viral, police departments in the cities he visits have declined to comment.

"Keeping the homeless in the streets"

As of the beginning of December 2025, Castillo has published dozens of videos showing himself giving 18-inch machetes, miniature bottles of alcohol, and/or cigarettes to unhoused people for free. He appears to be mocking efforts to help these folks survive or climb out of homelessness, as each post is captioned the same way.

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"Keeping the homeless in the streets."

@povwolfy Feeding the homeless  blessed to be able to support people in need during these tough times   original sound - Wolfy

In one video from Nov. 13 that gained over 6.6 million views, he said "let's feed the homeless" and mixed up a bucket full of mini bottles of Fireball whiskey and loose cigarettes, then portioned them out on a table like they were meals.

Considering the association between addiction and homelessness, the implication may be that Castillo wants these vulnerable, struggling humans to dig deeper into their poverty holes. Now he's upping the ante with machetes.

Police stay silent as videos rack up millions of views

Despite the recent policy of arresting pro-Palestinian protesters on felony charges of riot incitement in some of these cities, authorities have not arrested the creator for the same. Not only has Castillo remained free (while those attempting to actually feed unhoused people risk arrest), cops in multiple cities declined to comment on the issue.

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Meanwhile, Castillo's most viral videoone which included a machetehad over 18 million views before it was deleted. The 29-year-old told the New York Post that he's heading to New York next, and plans to visit Las Vegas and L.A. as well.

"I travel around, bulk record in one city and then for my safety go to another city, do the same thing there for like two weeks," he said.

He claimed that he expects the unhoused recipients to use the machetes for "tool purposes" rather than as weapons. Some studies have found little correlation between visible homelessness and local crime rates, and many have revealed that these folks are far more likely to be victims of crime than the general population.

However, the combination of alcohol and machetes seems dangerous among any population.

Is it wrong to give homeless people alcohol?

Regardless of whether unhoused people are more likely to use those machetes for violence than anyone else, some TikTok commenters have serious doubts that Castillo's intentions are pure.

Under the machete video, @gustavoggs_ asked "how can people find this funny."

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"Isnt he automatically partially responsible for any crime done with them now?" @dominator.numbers inquired.

The number of people commenting to cheer Castillo on is a grim representation of how the U.S. population views unhoused people. Some, however, appeared to approve out of compassion rather than hate.

"I know this new trend is kinda as a joke, but in all honesty, this is both good and bad," wrote @jpope420 on giving unhoused folks alcohol and cigarettes. "Some of those people were addicts, and thats how they ended up on the streets. So giving them things like this to cope with their situation may only further the hole theyre in."

"HOWEVER, in the very same sense, this is a way to take away, temporarily, the stress and agony they are living being homeless. For a moment, they can all take the edge off, and just enjoy being alive briefly."

The internet is chaoticbut well break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dots newsletter here.

This story was originally featured on The Daily Dot.
Trains no longer run to Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region - part of the Donbas claimed in its entirety by Russia's President Vladimir Putin. It's another sign of the steady Russian advance.

Instead, the last station is now on the western side of the Donetsk border. This is where civilians and soldiers wait for a ride towards relative safety - their train to get out of Dodge.

Putin has been sounding more bullish since the leak of US proposals to end the war, widely seen as being in tune with his maximalist demands. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky says territory remains the most difficult issue facing US-led peace talks.

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At the last station on the line, soldier Andrii and his girlfriend Polina are parting after an all-too-brief time together. Andrii has to return to the front and they don't know when they'll see each other again.

He laughs when I mention peace talks, which have seen Donald Trump's envoys speak to Ukrainian negotiators before heading to Moscow, and dismisses them as "chatter, just chatter". He doesn't think the war will be over soon.

Soldier Denys is adamant that the Donbas should not be given to Russia in a peace deal [BBC/Matt Goddard]

There is scepticism, too, among other soldiers who board the train west for a brief respite from the fighting. They are taking some of their 20 days of leave. Most look exhausted.

Russian forces now control some 85% of the Donbas, made up of Luhansk and Donetsk. On Tuesday they claimed to have captured the key strategic town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk. Ukraine said fighting was continuing in the city.

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Denys, who has been serving in the Ukrainian army for the past two years, tells me "everyone's drained, everyone's tired mentally and physically".

Some of his comrades have already fallen asleep. His unit has been fighting in the besieged city of Kostyantynivka.

"It's scary, really scary," he says, describing drones flying around "like flies". But he makes it clear they are not ready to give up after sacrificing so much.

"Nobody will give Putin the Donbas. No way, it's our land," he says.

Ceding territory where at least a quarter of a million Ukrainians live - the Donetsk "fortress belt" cities of Slovyansk, Kramatorsk and Druzhkivka - will not be acceptable to most Ukrainians.

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Russia has spent well over a year trying to capture Pokrovsk and Ukraine is reluctant to hand over such important strategic hubs.

But US officials believe Ukraine is both outnumbered and outgunned.

There's already been an exodus of civilians from the Donbas. It's continuing as peace talks take place. We witness dozens, old and young, arriving at a reception centre just over the border in Lozova.

They had taken advantage of heavy fog to make their escape. Less chance of being targeted by drones. Around 200 people arrive at this one reception centre every single day. They're given basic supplies and some money.

Refugees fleeing the Donbas take advantage of foggy conditions as visibility is reduced for enemy drones [BBC/Matt Goddard]

Yevheniy and his wife Maryna have just arrived from Kramatorsk, along with their two children. She tells me there are "more drones now". "It's getting harder and harder to even go outside. Everything is dangerous," she says. "Even going to the shop, you might not come back."

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The family are planning to move to the capital, Kyiv. Yevheniy has little faith in the peace talks. He says "that side [Russia] won't agree to our terms. We understand nothing good will come of it".

But others appear more willing to contemplate giving up their home for good in return for peace.

Oleksandr says it is too dangerous to stay. His children have already gone to Germany. While he describes Russia's maximalist demands as "probably unacceptable", he appears willing to contemplate some of what was in the leaked peace plan - trading territory for peace. The original version of the US draft envisaged that areas of Donbas still under Ukrainian control be handed over to Russia de facto.

"Personally I would agree to those terms," he says.

"Serhii" has been in hiding since he deserted his unit in May [BBC/Matt Goddard]

Inna, escaping with her five children, also believes it's time to make a deal. She could no longer hide her kids, aged between nine months and 12 years, from the dangers of living in Kramatorsk. She had tried telling them the explosions they heard while seeking shelter in their cellar were just fireworks.

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"The main thing is that there will be peace," Inna says. When I ask whether that means giving up her home for good, she replies, "in this situation, yes". They're already making plans to rebuild their lives elsewhere.

Some soldiers sent to the Donbas are also voting with their feet. There have been nearly 300,000 cases of desertion, or soldiers going absent without official leave, since the start of Russia's full scale invasion - and numbers have risen dramatically over the past year.

One of them is Serhii - not his real name. We met him in hiding. His home has become his prison as he tries to evade arrest. Serhii volunteered to fight at the start of the year, whereas most of the men in his unit were forcibly mobilised - "taken off the street".

He says his unit was already below strength when it was sent to the front, near Pokrovsk, and they weren't properly trained or equipped. "I ended up in a battalion where everything was a mess," he says, although he still believes this was the exception, not the norm.

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Serhii deserted in May after two of his friends went awol.

"I wouldn't have gone if we had proper leadership and someone experienced in charge," he says. "I came to serve, not to run".

Serhii is still thinking about his next move, and the possibility of returning to the army. But he echoes recent US warnings that the odds in this war are stacked against Ukraine.

Asked whether he believes Ukraine can win, he is doubtful. "If you think logically, no. A country of 140 million against us with 32 million - logically it doesn't add up."

Additional reporting by Mariana Matveichuk
HONG KONG (AP)  Uncomfortable questions are being raised over who is to blame for Hong Kongs deadliest blaze in decades.

As the territory mourns over the high-rise apartment fire that killed at least 156 people, anger and frustration are mounting over building safety lapses, suspected construction corruption and lax government oversight.

But bigger issues are at play. Some political analysts and observers say the tragedy could be the tip of an iceberg in Hong Kong, a city whose skyline is built on high-rise buildings. Suspicions of bid-rigging and use of hazardous construction materials in renovation projects across other housing estates have left many worried the disaster could be repeated.

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Police and the city's anti-corruption body have arrested 15 people so far in the investigation of the renovation project at the Wang Fuk Court apartment complex, where the fire broke out on Wednesday. Those detained include scaffolding subcontractors, directors of a construction company and a consultancy.

Officials focus on safety of materials

The question (one) should be asking, really is that, what happened at Wang Fuk Court, can it happen elsewhere? said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London.

Hong Kong officials initially said tests of green netting covering bamboo scaffolding at the housing complex in suburban Tai Po showed that it met fire safety codes, but highly flammable foam panels used to seal windows during the repairs, aided by strong winds, caused the blaze to spread swiftly between seven of the eight towers in the complex.

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But on Monday, Eric Chan, Hong Kongs chief secretary, said that seven of 20 additional samples collected later from the site failed to meet safety standards. Authorities said there was evidence contractors cut costs by using cheaper substandard netting along with standard materials to pad their profits, after a typhoon in July damaged some of the netting originally installed.

Some fire alarms failed to sound when the fire started, residents and officials said.

It did open a Pandoras box, said John Burns, an honorary professor of politics and public administration at the University of Hong Kong.

Youve got all of these issues which have been swept under the table, Burns said. Because of all that we now know -- or believe we know -- about bid-rigging, collusion, corruption, no fire alarms, government negligence, all of these things have come out.

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As a precaution, authorities suspended work on renovations at 28 other projects managed by the same construction company. With residents of high-rises worried, contractors were removing foam boards and netting used to cover scaffolding at other projects.

The netting is not a one particular estate problem. Its a much wider general problem, said Tsang of SOAS.

Residents raised concerns before the fire

Government oversight also has been questioned. Residents of Wang Fuk Court had been voicing safety concerns to the authorities about construction materials such as netting used in the renovations, according to documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

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The Labor Department said it reviewed netting's product quality certificate and found it in line with standards. It also said it had conducted 16 inspections at the complex since last year  most recently about a week before the fire  and had warned contractors repeatedly they had to ensure they met fire safety requirements.

As critics raise questions about government accountability, Hong Kong officials are emphasizing actions they have taken against the contractors, and aid provided to the victims.

The focus of the peoples anger is on not so much the kinds of materials used (but the) lack of supervision and oversight from (government) departments, said Willy Lam, a political analyst and senior fellow at The Jamestown Foundation.

Responding to public pressure, the territorys chief executive, John Lee, said Tuesday that an independent committee led by a judge will investigate the fire. He brushed aside a question from a reporter on if he should keep his job.

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Yes, we need a reform. Yes, we have identified failures in different stages. That is exactly why we must act seriously to ensure that all these loopholes are plugged, he said, adding that the whole building renovation system will also be reformed to prevent any further such disasters.

Ronny Tong, an adviser to Lee, deflected questions about possible lax enforcement. Some people have broken the law and they were deliberately trying to deceive authorities. This is not the problem of those who enforce the laws, right?

Oversight is seen as lacking

Critics say bid-rigging and other collusion, inflated costs and a lack of transparency are common in Hong Kong projects. Multilayered subcontracting chains, which are common for big projects, raise the risks for substandard work and limited oversight, said Jason Poon, a contractor turned activist who has exposed problems at other Hong Kong construction projects.

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This is just the tip of an iceberg, Poon said.

Hong Kong, a former British colony that was handed to Chinese control in 1997, increasingly has cracked down on dissent and criticism of the government, which is deemed politically sensitive.

A sweeping national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020 after a crackdown on massive pro-democracy protests already has effectively eliminated most public dissent. So, Beijings national security arm in Hong Kong and local officials moved quickly to stifle accusations of government negligence over the deadly blaze.

On Saturday, the organizer of a petition calling for officials to take responsibility for the fire was arrested by national security police, local media including the online media outlet HK01 reported.

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The Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong warned that the citys tough national security law would be imposed against anti-China forces who use the fire to incite hatred against authorities."

The disaster may overshadow an election Sunday for Hong Kong's Legislative Council if angry voters stay away, said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a locally based political scientist and a senior research fellow at Paris Asia Centre think tank. Turnout for such votes is scrutinized by Beijing as an indicator of approval of the semi-autonomous territory's patriots-only governance system.

The question for the Hong Kong government is: do they care about what the people think? Burns said. They absolutely should. (And) if they ignore public opinion, I think, on this issue, this is a huge mistake.
Nevada Rep. Dina Titus is calling on the United States House Committee on Ways and Means to add the Fair Accounting for Income Realized from Betting Earnings Taxation Act (FAIR BET Act) to the legislative calendar before the end of the calendar year.

The act seeks to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 with respect to wagering losses.

And the full text of the bill? by striking 90 percent and inserting 100 percent.'

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Over the summer, when President Donald Trumps One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), passed, gamblers ended up holding the bag. One provision in the bill would only allow gamblers to deduct 90% of their gambling losses, as opposed to the current 100%. Put simply, losing gamblers could potentially owe tax money, and winning gamblers would see their winnings dramatically shrink.

Under this provision, if a gambler has $100,000 in winnings and $100,000 in losses, they would only be allowed to deduct $90,000. As a result, they would be taxed as if they made $10,000, even though they didnt.

At the standard 24% federal tax rate, that would be $2,400 tax bill on zero profit.

Even profitable bettors get slammed. Win $101,000, lose $100,000, and the bettor is technically up $1,000. Under this new law, theyd owe $2,640 in taxes, more than twice what they made.

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Titus bill would undo this part of the OBBBA.

Earlier this year the BS Budget Bill reduced the tax deduction for gambling losses to 90%.



In response, I introduced the FAIR BET Act to restore the commonsense 100% tax deduction to protect professional and recreational gamblers. I was the first in Congress to introduce this  Dina Titus (@repdinatitus) December 1, 2025

So far, bill not gaining traction

Titus  who is a Democrat  has gotten nine Republican legislators to lend their names to the bill as co-sponsors, most recently Rep. Mike Ezell of Mississippi, who signed on Monday. But despite the bipartisan appeal to the bill, no action has been taken on it since Titus introduced it on July 7.

As a result, many professional gamblers fear for their livelihoods.

This new amendment to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would end professional gambling in the US and hurt casual gamblers, too.



You could pay more in tax than you won.



Contact your representative quickly. pic.twitter.com/U5yToBZDcQ  Phil Galfond (@PhilGalfond) July 1, 2025

Earlier this year, the FAIR BET Act was blocked by the House Rules Committee when Titus attempted to add it as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

As for the hopes of this bill getting through this year?

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It would appear to be slim, as the House Ways and Means Committee isnt showing any signs it plans to take up the FAIR BET Act. There a pair of subcommittee hearings this week, but neither relate to the FAIR BET Act.

The indication here would be if Titus bill is going to move before the end of the year, committee leaders would have to add it to the schedule. Based on the public calendar, theres nothing to suggest its coming anytime soon.
LJUBLJANA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Slovenian companies are optimistic about the growing opportunities and prospects with the Chinese market, which they said has demonstrated a demand for high-end, high-quality and culturally distinctive products.

These companies expressed their confidence recently in interviews with Xinhua after attending the 8th edition of the China International Import Expo (CIIE) held on Nov. 5-10 in Shanghai.

GROWING DEMAND FOR HIGH-END, HIGH-QUALITY PRODUCTS

"The recent CIIE was a huge sign that things are improving, especially for high-end, specialized products," said Martin Gobec, sales and marketing manager at Clef Brewery, a craft beer producer from Slovenia's Savinja Valley, a region known for its more than 200 years of brewing tradition.

Gobec said the company's expo debut "brought abundant results," generating several promising business leads and valuable long-term contacts.

To the company, the market updates and access came along with strategic insights, both confirming its existing growth trajectory.

Health-oriented products were another attraction at the Slovenia booth at the international trade fair in Shanghai.

"We have noticed a sharp rise in demand for organic and natural supplements," said Liao Shasha, the general agent of Medex in China, which is a well-known Slovenian company specializing in honey, bee products and natural health supplements.

"Visitors look for organic certification, and the description of 'no artificial additives,' and compare the organic qualifications between different brands." Such behaviors indicate Chinese consumers' growing appetite for high-quality products, and this has strengthened the company's confidence in further expanding its presence in the Chinese market, she said.

MARKET EVOLUTION

Bojan Obrenovic, CEO of the Amethyste Wine company, which specializes in premium chocolate and wine, noticed a change in the consumption pattern in the Chinese market.

"A decade ago, Chinese consumers were more price-sensitive, but today they look for the best value for the money spent," he told Xinhua. Obrenovic noted that rising purchasing power and increasingly sophisticated tastes of Chinese consumers are driving a stronger demand for high-end imported goods.

Presently, "Consumers care deeply about quality standards, and premium products usually meet these expectations," he added.

Obrenovic said Amethyste Wine has been active in China's food and beverage market since 2019. As part of its marketing strategy, the company often organizes wine tastings with distributors. "Wine drinking is an experience, so we follow best-practice approaches -- tastings, storytelling and direct interaction -- to build brand recognition most effectively," he said.

EXPANDING PARTNERSHIP

To Domel, a Slovenian manufacturer of electric motors, which entered the Chinese market in 2006, technological innovation and local partnerships remain at the center of its development strategy.

"Our Suzhou manufacturing base is not just a factory, it is a showcase of our commitment to Industry 4.0," said Bostjan Demsar, Domel's general manager in Suzhou, a major city in China's eastern Jiangsu province.

"We see deeper collaboration with Chinese partners, moving beyond a buyer-supplier relationship to co-creation partnerships," Demsar noted, adding that the company's presence in China has evolved from a sales office into a full manufacturing and technology center in response to the market's scale and dynamism.

LONG-TERM POTENTIAL

Slovenia's Public Agency for Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Development, Investment and Tourism (SPIRIT) was impressed by the strong interest in Slovenian products during the Shanghai expo.

"We brought seven companies from five strategic fields, and the actual presence aligns perfectly with Slovenia's national development strategy," said Lana Svab, SPIRIT Slovenia's senior advisor for the Chinese market.

Slovenian participants recorded more than 420 business contacts during the six-day event, she said. "China is a distant market, so coordination and planning require considerable effort, but the level of interest we see reflects long-term potential," she noted.

According to SPIRIT Slovenia, Chinese visitors showed strong enthusiasm for Slovenian honey, natural royal jelly supplements, wine, chocolates and craft beer with traditional pastry flavors, underscoring a strong demand for authentic, high-quality European products. 
The Vietnam War was a vast calamity that cost millions of lives.

In the chaos of the air war, MiGs and Phantom fighters duelled for supremacy, while B-52 bombers and other types smashed vast areas to pieces; more bombs were dropped than in the entire Second World War. The dense jungle and mountains made air mobility vital, and helicopter transport, notably the Huey, came of age. Amid the napalm and jet noise, a new form of air warfare was born. Here are the Most Important Aircraft of the Vietnam War.

10: Douglas A-4 Skyhawk

Douglas A-4 Skyhawk

The A-4 Skyhawk was designed by Ed Heinemann, a legendary aircraft designer at Douglas Aircraft Company. The plucky Douglas A-4 Skyhawk bucked the trend of ever larger combat aircraft and proved capable of punching far above its weight. The A-4 Skyhawk was a carrier-capable attack aircraft that became a core part of US Navy and Marine Corps air operations in Vietnam.

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Though lightweight, the A-4 could carry a relatively large payload of bombs, rockets, and guided missiles. It was used in a wide range of missions, including close air support, interdiction, and strike operations. It demonstrated exceptional versatility, reliability and toughness.

10: Douglas A-4 Skyhawk

Douglas A-4 Skyhawk

The Skyhawk was also used in dangerous suppression of enemy air defence (SEAD) missions, attacking radar and missile sites. Its compact design made it harder to detect and target. Pilots appreciated its excellent agility, especially when flying low or evading groundfire or fighters.

The A-4's reputation for toughness, ease of maintenance, and flexibility made it one of the most valuable aircraft of the war. The Skyhawk's performance proved that a simple, well-designed aircraft could make a huge impact. Another carrier aircraft worthy of mention is the A-6 Intruder attack aircraft.

9: Boeing B-52 Stratofortress

Boeing B-52 Stratofortress

The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress was (and remains) an eight-engine heavy bomber used by the US Air Force. These bombers conducted massive carpet-bombing missions targeting North Vietnamese bases, supply lines, and troop concentrations, leveraging their long-range and heavy payload capacity.

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The B-52s massive bombload made them central to campaigns like Operation Rolling Thunder. Their high altitude and heavy armour allowed them to survive intense anti-aircraft fire, though 31 B-52s were still lost to surface-to-air missiles, enemy fighters, and accidents during the war.

9: Boeing B-52 Stratofortress

Boeing B-52 Stratofortress

The controversial B-52 bombings caused widespread devastation. Entire villages were destroyed, forests flattened, and civilian casualties were tragically high. The relentless bombing campaigns left deep physical and psychological scars across Vietnam, demonstrating the immense destructive power of aerial warfare.

The B-52s excellent survivability had much to do with the experience Boeing gained in developing, building, and studying the combat performance of the B-17 Flying Fortress and B-29 Superfortress bombers during the Second World War. Despite design work beginning in the 1940s, the B-52 remains in operational service today. 76 still operate, and are scheduled to operate until the 2050s.

8: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17' Fresco'

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17' Fresco'

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 was a Soviet fighter introduced in the early 1950s, further improving and rectifying the excellent, but flawed, MiG-15. The MiG-17 featured an afterburner, refined aerodynamics, including a new wing with greater sweep, which enhanced speed and climb performance compared to its predecessor.

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Though slower than US aircraft like the F-4 and F-105, the MiG-17 enjoyed exceptional manoeuvrability and a high turn rate. This allowed it to outturn American fighters, making it very effective in close-range dogfights against faster but less agile opponents.

8: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17

The MiG-17's armament typically included one powerful 37mm- and two 23mm cannons, delivering astonishing firepower. North Vietnamese pilots used the MiG-17's agility and heavy guns to ambush and engage larger US aircraft, taking advantage of surprise and terrain for hit-and-run attacks.

During the Vietnam War, the MiG-17 scored about 87 confirmed kills (though this is much debated). Its success showed that agility and manoeuvrability could challenge newer, higher technology jets like the F-4 Phantom. Despite being older, the MiG-17 remained a persistent threat.

7: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21' Fishbed'

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21' Fishbed'

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 was a Soviet supersonic jet fighter introduced in the late 1950s. With its tailed-delta configuration and powerful engine, it could reach Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound). Made in vast numbers, the MiG-21 was the most widely exported fighter of the Cold War.

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In the Vietnam War, the MiG-21 was vital for the North Vietnamese Air Force (NVAF). It challenged American air superiority by serving as a fast, agile interceptor and was used with effective hit-and-run tactics. Its small size and speed made it hard to detect and counter.

7: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21' Fishbed'

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21' Fishbed'

In air combat, the MiG-21 achieved notable victories over US planes like the F-4 Phantom. NVAF pilots relied on a combination of ground-controlled Soviet-style interception, surprise attacks, and local terrain knowledge. The MiG-21 played a key role in air defence, often using small formations and ambush tactics to shoot down enemy aircraft.

Vietnamese MiG-21s are credited with about 103 confirmed aerial kills (though kill claims from both sides are disputed), mainly against US fighters such as the F-4 Phantom II, F-105 Thunderchief, F-8 Crusader, and A-4 Skyhawk. The MiG-21 was an effective interceptor, flown by aces that included Nguyen Van Coc with nine kills.

6: North American RA-5C Vigilante

North American RA-5C Vigilante

The beautiful North American A-5 Vigilante, originally designed as a supersonic nuclear bomber for the US Navy, became a vital asset in the Vietnam War as a fast, reconnaissance aircraft. Re-designated the RA-5C, it carried advanced sensors and cameras, offering unparalleled intelligence gathering on enemy positions deep inside hostile territory.

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Its role in post-strike and pre-strike reconnaissance made it one of the most essential assets in planning and evaluating air missions. Vigilante crews flew dangerous missions at high speeds over North Vietnam's most heavily defended areas. Their intelligence often determined target accuracy, mission success, and pilot survival for strike packages.

6: North American A-5 Vigilante

North American A-5 Vigilante

The Vigilante's blistering performanceMach 2+ speed, high altitude capability, and excellent accelerationallowed it to outrun most threats. Its sleek design and afterburning twin engines gave it both range and speed. Despite its superiority, it had a relatively high loss rates, but much of this was due to the nature of its mission and tactics.

Yet its contributions to battlefield awareness, strike effectiveness, and overall air campaign planning made it one of the most strategically significant aircraft of the entire war, despite it having performed fewer sorties than aircraft like the A-6.

5: Lockheed AC-130 Spectre (and other fixed-wing gunships and transports)

Lockheed AC-130 Spectre (and other fixed-wing gunships and transports)

Before the AC-130, earlier gunships like the AC-47 "Spooky" and AC-119 (see next image) provided valuable fire support, but lacked the range, firepower, and advanced targeting systems needed for evolving battlefield demands. The AC-130 was a modified C-130 Hercules developed to deliver greater precision and destructiveness during nighttime operations over dense Vietnamese terrain.

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Equipped with a ferocious arsenal of massive side-firing guns and sensors, the AC-130 could orbit a target and deliver sustained, pinpoint fire. Its awe-inspiring ability to loiter for hours and strike with terrifying accuracy made it exceptional for protecting outposts, interdicting supply routes, and supporting troops in contactall crucial in Vietnam's unconventional warfare.

5: Lockheed AC-130 Spectre (and other gunships and transports)

Lockheed AC-130 Spectre (and other gunships and transports)

Building on the success of the AC-47 and AC-119 (pictured here), the AC-130 was far more potent. Infrared sensors, low-light TV cameras, and fire control computers gave it an edge in night operations. It identified and eliminated enemy convoys on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a key supply route.

The AC-130s overwhelming firepower and near-constant night presence made it feared by enemy forces. As a transport aircraft, the C-130 Hercules was also essential. Other important aircraft in this class included the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter and the Fairchild C-123 Provider, which supported logistics and troop movement throughout the war.

4: Douglas A-1 Skyraider/ O-1 Bird Dog and O-2 Skymaster

Douglas A-1 Skyraider/ O-1 Bird Dog and O-2 Skymaster

The Skyraider was essential in Close Air Support and Combat Search and Rescue missions, particularly in the "Sandy" role. Flying low to locate downed pilots, it would protect rescue helicopters from enemy fire. Its ability to take damage and still return safely made it a dependable guardian in some of the war's most dangerous operations.

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Though it was a piston-engine aircraft in the jet age, the rugged A-1 proved its worth time and time again. It demonstrated that loiter time, firepower, and reliability often mattered more than speed, cementing its reputation as one of the most important aircraft of the Vietnam War. It was fondly known as the Spad.

4: Cessna O-1 Bird Dog and O-2 Skymaster

Cessna O-1 Bird Dog and O-2 Skymaster

Do not be fooled by the humble appearance; the O-1 Bird Dog (pictured) and O-2 Skymaster served as critical forward air control (FAC) aircraft in Vietnam. Flying low and slow, these planes directed airstrikes and artillery, identified enemy positions, and marked targets with smoke rockets. Their ability to observe and communicate directly saved countless lives on the ground.

Although small and slow, the Bird Dog and Skymaster were incredibly effective. They bridged communication gaps, spotted threats invisible from higher altitudes, and made airpower far more accurate. Their role as the eyes and voice above the battlefield made them irreplaceable assets in Vietnam's unforgiving and complex combat environment.

3: Republic F-105 Thunderchief

Republic F-105 Thunderchief

The Republic company had created the P-47 Thunderbolt in the Second World War, a formidable machine that was the biggest single-engine fighter of the war. In the Cold War, Republic took the same approach in creating the heaviest single-engine jet fighter-bomber, the spectacular F-105.

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The F-105 Thunderchief, nicknamed "Thud," played a critical role in the Vietnam War as a high-speed fighter-bomber. It conducted the majority of early strike missions over North Vietnam, especially during Operation Rolling Thunder.

3: Republic F-105 Thunderchief

Republic F-105 Thunderchief

In air-to-air combat, the F-105 managed to score 27.5 confirmed aerial victories, mostly against MiG-17s and MiG-21s. However, it also suffered significant lossesat least 320 were lost in combat, primarily due to intense anti-aircraft fire and surface-to-air missiles. Its missions, which included defence suppression, required flying directly into the most heavily defended airspace in the world at the time.

Powered by a single Pratt & Whitney J75 engine, the F-105 could exceed Mach 2 at altitude. Though eventually supplanted by the F-4 Phantom II, the Thud earned a reputation as a tough and reliable warhorse. The F-105 was the workhorse of the United States Air Force. Despite many early misgivings, the F-105 developed a reputation for toughness and reliability.

2: McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II

McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II

The F-4 Phantom was a critical asset during the Vietnam War, serving as a versatile and powerful multirole aircraft. Originally designed as a fleet defence interceptor, it evolved into a key player for the US Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps. Its adaptability made it indispensable in varied combat scenarios.

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Equipped with twin engines and capable of flying at over Mach 2, the F-4 excelled in both air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. It carried a wide array of weapons, from missiles to bombs, allowing it to strike targets with precision. Its speed, payload, and durability made it unmatched in contested airspace.

2: McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II

McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II

One of the F-4's most vital roles was air superiority. It was often used to escort bombers and engage enemy MiGs in dogfights. The Phantom's advanced radar and missile systems helped US forces challenge North Vietnamese aircraft and limit their freedom of movement in the skies.

The F-4 also contributed heavily to ground support, reconnaissance and the Wild Weasel defence suppression role. It flew thousands of sorties, delivering vital support to troops on the ground and gathering crucial intelligence. Its performance in Vietnam shaped future fighter design and cemented its legacy as one of the most influential aircraft of the Cold War era.

1: Bell UH-1 Iroquois ("Huey")

Bell UH-1 Iroquois (

The defining image of the US involvement in the Vietnam War was the UH-1 Iroquois helicopter. It is popularly known as the "Huey"; this is because its original military designation was HU-1. The "HU" was pronounced "hoo-ee", which evolved into the nickname "Huey".

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The Vietnam War transformed helicopter tactical transport, building on earlier innovations by the French in Indochina, the British in Malaya, and US use in Korea. The French and British developed heliborne tactics for counterinsurgency. In Vietnam, the US refined these methodsusing helicopters like the UH-1 "Huey"to revolutionise modern airmobile warfare.

1: Bell UH-1 Iroquois ("Huey")

Bell UH-1 Iroquois (

The UH-1 "Huey" was used in Vietnam for troop transport, medevac, supply delivery, command and control, and close air support. Its versatility, speed, manoeuvrability, and ability to operate in rugged terrain made it ideal. The Huey's adaptability and reliability under fire made it a cornerstone of US helicopter warfare. Countless lives were saved by the much-loved Huey.

Over 7000 UH-1 helicopters were deployed in the Vietnam War. Approximately 3000 were lost due to enemy fire, accidents, and mechanical failure. Many were shot down by small arms, anti-aircraft guns, or during risky medevac and combat missions, highlighting both the Huey's heavy use and the dangers it faced.

1: Bell UH-1 Iroquois ("Huey")

Bell UH-1 Iroquois (

The UH-1 disproved critics who were sceptical of the helicopter's place in warfare, and it also birthed the attack helicopter. The sleek AH-1 Cobra, the first attack helicopter in the modern sense of the word, was based on the UH-1 and was used to great effect in the war. It was very fast and well-armed.

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Other important helicopters of the war included the CH-47, CH-34, CH-53, OH-6 Cayuse, CH-54, SH-3 and HH-3E (and the Mi-4 for the North Vietnamese). The tiny Hiller OH-23 Raven is worthy of a mention for its role in limiting the My Lai Massacre.

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In the First World War, fighter aircraft typically had only two light machine guns.

By the Second World War, the firepower available to combat aircraft had increased dramatically. An arsenal of massive cannons firing explosive shells, combined with multiple heavy machine guns and a vast supply of ammunition, made some combat aircraft high-speed flying battleships. Here are 10 aircraft with insane firepower:

10: Messerschmitt Me 262

Messerschmitt Me 262

Though famous for being the first jet-powered aircraft to see combat, it wasnt just the engines and speed that made the Messerschmitt 262 so formidable; its firepower, optimised for bomber destruction, was hefty, consisting of four 30-mm cannon firing explosive rounds at an extremely high rate.

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A conventionally armed 262 with its four 30-mm cannon might have found an honorary mention in the flying artillery hall of fame. Still, a 50-mm gun in that shark-like nose guarantees a place. The Mauser MK 214A was a 50 mm (1.969 in) calibre autocannon designed for use on Messerschmitt Me 262 and Me 410s.

Fortunately for Allied bomber crews, the entire 262 programme, including two versions earmarked for either a Mauser or Rheinmetall 50-mm autocannon, was hamstrung by administrative stupidity, technical headaches, and Hitlers absurd notion that it should be a bomber, not a fighter. Had the gun seen widespread operational use, it could have been disastrous for Allied bombers.

One to three 50-mm rounds were calculated to be enough to destroy a B-24 or B-17. Extra points are awarded for its intimidating appearance. With a top speed of 578 mph, the Me 262 was astonishingly fast and a serious threat to Allied aircraft.

9: Boeing YB-40

Boeing YB-40

This aircraft is a fighter of sorts, but, as you have no doubt spotted, it is also a B-17. In 1942, the US Eighth Air Force considered creating an effective escort by mounting a massive number of guns on a bomb-free Flying Fortress.

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No aircraft has ever flown with such a formidable machine-gun-based defensive armament. Unfortunately, this made the aircraft so draggy and heavy that it couldnt keep up with the bombers it was supposed to protect. Making the whole exercise rather pointless.

In a totally irrelevant but oddly satisfying aside, the YB-40 appeared in an Oscar-winning film  two of them appear in William Wylers The Best Years of Our Lives, which won nine Academy awards in 1947. The YB-40s film career was notably more successful than its operational one, but did not save it from the scrapmans torch.

The YB-40 could be equipped with up to thirty defensive guns, though it normally carried between fourteen and sixteen. Armament was mostly the .50-calibre M2 Browning machine guns in various configurations, though 40-mm cannons were also tested.

8: Northrop P-61 Black Widow

Northrop P-61 Black Widow

The massive and sinister Northrop P-61 Black Widow was a ferocious machine. It was the first purpose-designed night interceptor to enter operational service. The forward-looking requirement that led to the aircraft was issued as early as October 1940. The P-61 was of the twin-boom configuration.

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Pioneering British efforts with radar-equipped fighters had impressed US military planners. Using a first-generation airborne radar effectively required a large aircraft with a dedicated second crew member for its operation. The Black Widow started as 10,000kg beast when loaded; by the end of its career, it was a bulky 18,000kg

To put this in perspective, it was around the same weight as seven fully loaded Spitfire Mk1s! Finding the target with a radar was one thing, but destroying it effectively required firepower; the P-61 boasted four fixed 20-mm cannons in the belly.

But this was not all. The first 37 P-61As, the final 250 P-61Bs and all the P-61Cs also had an electric dorsal turret with four heavy machine guns. In addition to being heavily armed, the P-61 had its armament concentrated on its centreline, rather than in the wings, making it more accurate and destructive.

7: North American B-25G/H Mitchell

North American B-25G/H Mitchell

In the Second World War, the 75mm gun armed many US ground vehicles, including M4 Sherman tanks. Rather more remarkably, it was also fitted to the B-25 medium bomber. Intended for the strike and anti-shipping roles, these upgunned B-25s were offered to the RAF, USN and the USSR but only adopted by the USAAF.

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The short nose and squarish fuselage of the proven B-25 allowed for easy installation and operation (the weapon was hand-loaded by the navigator). The aircraft version of the 75mm gun had a lighter, thinner-walled barrel and a different recoil mechanism than the ground variants, but used the same ammunition.

The B-25 could also carry twelve to eighteen .50 cal (12.7 mm) heavy machine guns. Considering that rockets, bombs, and torpedos could be carried on the trusty B-25, it is a wonder it didnt win the entire Pacific war single-handed

The aircraft was particularly effective against shipping, sinking barges, freighters and small craft. It was noted that a single well-placed hit could inflict considerable damage, even to a destroyer. The 75mm gun was also tried experimentally on the Douglas A-26 Invader.

6: Tsetse Mosquitoes

Tsetse Mosquitoes

The Ordnance 57-mm QF 6-pounder gun was a land-based anti-tank gun used by both the British and United States Army. The Tsetse (named for an African biting fly) was created by fitting a quick-firing variant, the Molins, into a standard fighter-bomber Mosquito. This formidable weapon could fire 55 rounds per minute in fully automatic mode.

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The Molins gun replaced the Mosquitos normal primary armament of four 20-mm cannon; Two or four .303 machine guns were retained in the nose to sight the large gun (the aircraft retained the ability to carry bombs or rockets on its underwing hardpoints).

By the time the conversion flew, the 57-mm weapon was no longer competitive against armour, so it was decided to operate the new variant in the anti-shipping role instead. The results were spectacular. In 14 months, eight U-boats were destroyed wholly or in part by Mosquito Mk. XVIIs.

Decrypted Enigma information was used to send the Molins Mosquitoes to meet U-boats as they approached French ports and to coordinate anti-shipping strikes. At least one Ju 88 was destroyed by a Tsetse Mosquito in a fight during which a single 57-mm round was seen to rip one engine clean off the unfortunate Junkers.

5: Bristol Beaufighter

Bristol Beaufighter

The Beaufighter was a twin-engine bruiser that emerged from the tumultuous attempt to get the Royal Air Force a heavy fighter. Armed with four 20-mm cannon and six light machine-guns, it emerged as perhaps the best armed aircraft on its entry into service in 1940.

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Though British aircraft generally carried less ammunition than US equivalents, the Beaufighter is an exception. The A-20 Havoc could carry 252 kg of ammunition, the Beaufighter Mk IF, a stonking 367 kg. Compare this to the paltry 100 kg of the Soviet Pe-2.

The Beaufighter proved capable in a variety of roles, and other armament options included two 250-pound (113kg) bombs or eight 60-pound (27kg) rockets (RP-3 from Rocket Projectile 3 inch). It served with distinction as a night fighter, strike fighter and torpedo bomber.

Its wings were as big and thick as barn doors  its wing area of 46 square metres was almost 45% greater than its Japanese rival, the Ki-45 Toryu. Its empty weight  7000kg  was actually greater than the maximum take-off weight of the Me 110, and a fully loaded, late-war Beaufighter could top 11,500 kg gross weight, enough to make a bombed-up medium bomber blush

4: Junker Ju 88

Junker Ju 88

With Soviet tank production factories creating armour at a startling rate, Germany was forced to consider every conceivable measure of anti-tank warfare. Every combat aircraft type was assessed for suitability for the anti-armour role, which meant fitting heavy armour to withstand low-level ground fire and adding bigger guns.

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The twin-engined Junkers Ju 88, which first flew in 1936, was the most versatile of the Luftwaffes aircraft, serving in various roles, including bomber, heavy fighter, night fighter, torpedo bomber and reconnaissance. It was even adapted into an explosive-packed drone. With a glut of available Ju 88 airframes, it was considered convenient if they could be drafted into the anti-tank role.

Many gun types were tried with the Ju 88, including the huge 75mm PAK 40, capable of penetrating thirteen centimetres of tank armour at one kilometre. However, even the smaller 30mm Mk 101 was highly effective and could remove a tank if attacked in its relatively vulnerable rear.

The Ju 88 P variant was developed for the anti-armour role with a single Bordkanone series 75 mm, 50 mm (1.97 in), or twin 37 mm (1.46 in) calibre cannon in a ventral gun pod position. Produced in small numbers, this large, somewhat lumbering Ju 88s were not a success.

3: Hawker Hurricane

Hawker Hurricane

To take on tanks requires serious firepower, and with this (and other ground attack roles in mind), a Hawker Hurricane was tested with a wing-mounted 40-mm cannon in 1941. The Rolls-Royce 40mm cannon was tried but dismissed for a lack of reliability and smaller ammunition capacity in its drum magazine, and the Vickers S was selected instead.

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The Hurricane Mk.IID, armed with 40mm cannons, went to fight tanks in the desert as part of the No.6 Squadron of the Royal Air Force, earning the nickname The Can Openers for their ability to destroy armoured vehicles. Hurricanes armed with the hefty Vickers S gun claimed 47 tanks plus 198 other enemy vehicles.

With its water-cooled engine, the Hurricane IID was not ideal for the low-level ground attack role and suffered heavy losses, mainly from enemy anti-aircraft fire. The improved MkIV, operational from 1943 - had beefed up armour around the fuel tanks, engine and cockpit areas.

In June 1943, Hurricanes of No. 137 Squadron started flying Hurricanes with the option of a 40mm cannon or unguided rockets, initially known as Unrotating Projectiles (UP) and later Rocket Projectiles (RP). The rockets were more effective, but the unit was initially banned from using this secret weapon over enemy-occupied territory.

2: Yakovlev Yak-9

Yakovlev Yak-9

Though given different designations, the wartime Yak fighter family is the same series, with significantly more commonality than the Spitfire family can claim. Around 8700 Yak-1s were made, 6399 Yak-7s, and 4848 Yaks for a tremendous total of around 36,716, making it the most numerous fighter type in history.

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The Soviet Unions fixation with tactical air power meant no fighters could completely escape the ground attack, Close Air Support or Ground Attack missions. With its 37-mm cannon on excellent low-level performance, it is often thought that the Bell P-39 was a prime Soviet anti-tank aircraft, but it was primarily tasked with the low-level fighter role.

The Yak-9 performed more anti-tank missions, in particular, the Yak-9T variant with a 37-mm cannon, in this case the Nudelman-Suranov NS-37 (also fitted to the Ilyushin Il-2 and Lavochkin LaGG-3). This formidable cannon could penetrate up to 40 mm (1.6 in) of tank armour from 500 metres (1600 ft).

The Yak-9T carried 30 rounds of 37-mm ammunition, which fired through the propeller hub. A total of 2748 Yak-9Ts were produced. Attempts to up-gun the Yak-9 further to carry a 45-mm gun, as the Yak-9K, proved too much for the tiny fighter.

1: Henschel Hs 129

Henschel Hs 129

The Henschel Hs 129 is unique in this list in being purpose-designed for the Schlachtflieger (Close Air Support) mission, which included anti-armour; in this and several other respects, it was the A-10 of its time. In the 1960s, the USAF experience in Vietnam led to a desire for greater armour protection for ground attack aircraft; in the 1930s, the German Spanish Civil War experience had the same effect on the Luftwaffe.

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The requirement was issued in 1937, and soon, two contractors were down-selected: Focke-Wulf and Henschel. The new aircraft was required to have an armoured bathtub and carry 20-mm cannon. Focke-Wulf proposed a converted existing design, and Henschel a new one. Henschel won the contest, and the machine flew in 1939.

It proved troublesome, with the chronic lack of power and the poor pilot view (through the thick armoured glass) being among the worst problems. Considering the size and power of the aircraft, there were limitations on the size of gun it could effectively use. A lightened Pak 40, the massive BK 7.5 cm Panzerabwehrkanone was fitted to the Henschel Hs 129B-3, but was too much gun for the aircraft.

Though insufficient numbers of Hs 129s were made, they proved excellent at destroying tanks. Rudolf-Heinz Ruffer (1920-1944) was a German Luftwaffe ground-attack pilot who destroyed 80 tanks, most with the Henschel Hs 129. Though relatively slow and tricky to master, pilots felt reassured by its effective armour and armament. Had it been produced and deployed in larger numbers, like the Il-2 and Ju 87, it could have proved a significant problem for the Allies.

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HONOLULU  Tourists hoping to enjoy the natural beauty at several Hawaii state parks will soon have to pay a fee to do so.

In a recent announcement, the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources said it will implement "parking management and fee systems" at four popular state parks  Wailuku River State Park and Kekaha Kai State Park on Hawaii Island; Wailua River State Park on Kauai; and Puu Ualakaa State Wayside on Oahu  beginning in January 2026.

Nonresidents and commercial vehicles will be subject to the fee, which is meant to "enhance experiences, improve traffic flow and ensure that park resources are cared for sustainably," the agency said.

Wailua River State Park on Kauai will soon have a fee.

"Were always looking for ways to make our parks more enjoyable for both residents and visitors," Division of State Parks Acting Administrator Alan Carpenter said in the news release. "These partnerships allow us to provide more consistent visitor management while ensuring that the revenues collected are reinvested directly into our parks."

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The money will go toward improving the parks, including park maintenance, facility upgrades and long-term resource protection. Wailuku River State Park and Kekaha Kai State Park are each estimated to generate up to $1.5 million in revenue from the entry and parking fees, the Division of State Parks told USA TODAY in a statement.

Hawaii's travel industry

The parks will follow a similar fee structure already in place at 10 of the most-visited state parks, starting with the iconic Diamond Head State Monument on Oahu, according to the Economic Research Organization at the University of Hawaii (UHERO) in 2020. In 2022, nonresidents were required to reserve an entry time and pay an increased parking fee to manage visitor traffic, which was hitting upwards of 6,000 people in 2019.

The move aligns with Hawaii's overall direction toward a sustainable travel industry after decades of overtourism that strained natural resources and quality of life for residents.

Earlier in 2025, Hawaii became the first state to establish a climate impact fee. Called the "Green Fee," it raised the transient accommodations tax to help pay for projects related to environmental stewardship, climate resilience and sustainable tourism. According to UHERO, such fees are unlikely to deter most tourists from visiting.

14. The Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis saw 2,600,000 visitors in 2024. 13. Indiana Dunes National Park in Indiana brought 2,700,00 visitors. 12. Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio attracted 2,900,000 visitors. 8. The Olympic National Park is located in the state of Washington and drew 3,717,267 visitors. 7. Maines Acadia National Park saw 3,961,661 visitors. See the top 15 most visited national parks in the US. 1 of 5 14. The Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis saw 2,600,000 visitors in 2024.

How much are the new fees?

Park visitors without a Hawaii ID will pay $5 per person over the age of 3 to enter and $10 per vehicle at:

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Wailuku River State Park in Hilo, where visitors can see the 80-foot Rainbow Falls and an area of pools that bubble from underground water flow called Boiling Pots.

Kekaha Kai State Park in Kona on Hawaii Island, which offers beaches and a historic coastal trail.

Wailua River State Park, home to the longest river on Kauai, where visitors can kayak or take boat tours.

Puu Ualakaa State Wayside will charge only $7 per vehicle to park because it's "a short stopover" at a lookout in Honolulu, a Department of Land and Natural Resources spokesperson told USA TODAY.

Under these fee systems, entry is free for residents with a valid Hawaii state ID.

When will the new fees begin?

The new fees will take effect in early 2026.

What Hawaii state parks already charge tourists to visit?

The four parks are added to a list of 10 state parks that already charge tourists:

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Diamond Head National Monument on Oahu

Nuuanu Pali on Oahu

Waianapanapa State Park on Maui

Iao Valley State Monument on Maui

Makena State Park on Maui

Waimea Canyon State Park on Kauai

Haena State Park on Kauai

Kokee State Park on Kauai

Hapuna Beach on Hawaii Island

Akaka Falls State Park on Hawaii Island

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 4 Hawaii state parks to charge tourists an entry fee. Here's why.
UPDATE @ 2:08 a.m:

All lanes on Interstate 70 have reopened.

INITIAL REPORT:

Several lanes on Interstate 70 in Montgomery County are shut down due to a crash.

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According to the Ohio Department of Transportation, the crash happened on I-70 Westbound near State Route 202.

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An Ohio State Highway Patrol dispatcher said troopers are assisting with traffic.

Additional information wasnt immediately available.

News Center 7 is working to learn more and will continue to follow this story.

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A trial date has been set for the former Northmont City School bus driver accused of drugging and sexually assaulting students.

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News Center 7 crews were in court on Monday, where Hunts defense lawyers withdrew their motion to suppress a hearing.

After that, a Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas judge set a trial date for June 2026.

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As previously reported by News Center 7, Hunt was arrested in May at Northmont High School. Hes facing 17 counts of rape, 64 counts of sexual battery, and one count of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.

Prosecutors have detailed the severity of the charges against Hunt, which could lead to a life sentence if he is convicted on all counts.

In October, four former Northmont City Schools students who claim to be victims of Hunt filed a lawsuit against the school district and several employees.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, four former students said they were groomed and sexually assaulted by Matthew Hunt over multiple years. Three accusers attended Northmont High School from 2012 to 2016, and one attended from 2021 to 2025.

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The Northmont students in the lawsuit allege that Hunts pattern of grooming began in 2013 when he systematically targeted students through his role as Northmonts marching band bus driver.

He identified vulnerable minors, cultivated relationships of trust and dependency, offered them employment at his business (Hunt Pipe Organ Services, LLC, formerly known as Hunt-Krewson Pipe Organ Service, LLC), and used this pretense to isolate students and facilitate private contact outside school oversight, the complaint alleges.

From there, the complaint alleges that Hunt sexually assaulted students at various locations, including his own residences in Lewisburg and Brookville and various area churches.

Just four days before his arrest, despite Northmont officials having actual knowledge of sexual abuse allegations, Hunt drugged and raped (one plaintiff), the complaint states.

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The prosecutors office said they have identified nine victims in this case.

Hunt remains booked in the Montgomery County Jail.

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Troy Police Detective Danielle Trigger provided grim details in court testimony Tuesday, Dec. 2, about what she saw when she arrived at the Oxford Center in Troy on the morning of Jan. 31, the day 5-year-old Thomas Cooper was burned to death inside a hyperbaric oxygen chamber.

Chaotic would be the first word I would use to describe it," Trigger testified in 52-4 District Court in Troy, as the preliminary hearing for the Oxford Center CEO, Tamela Peterson, and three employees criminally charged in the death of the Royal Oak boy, continued for a fourth day before Judge Maureen McGinnis. "There were some females outside of the location in scrubs, very distraught. There was an ambulance there.

"Once we entered the building, there were some fire department members that were inside of an area that contained three hyperbaric chambers. ... The middle of those chambers was visibly very burnt.

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"There was what appeared to be a gurney partially pulled out of that chamber with the corpse of a small child ... unrecognizable whether it would be a male, female, age  burnt severely. The ceiling tiles had been blown out as a result of what we figured was an explosion."

Trigger said she began the task of documenting, collecting evidence and interviewing employees.

Although Peterson wasnt initially at the site, Trigger testified that she arrived soon after.

She said she overheard Peterson talking with someone, saying something to the effect of the manufacturer had to get out there to figure out what had gone wrong because they do everything by the book.

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And yet, Trigger said, as she and her colleagues at the police department continued their investigation, it became evident to her that some practices weren't necessarily "by the book" at the center.

She said throughout the investigation, the use of grounding wrist straps during treatments appeared not to be a common practice. Trigger read excerpts from safety and training manuals that outlined how essential it is to use the straps to discharge static electricity and reduce the risk of fire inside a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, which contains an environment with 100% oxygen that is highly combustible.

During a Feb. 5 search of the center, detectives saw a drawer within the laundry room area that held grounding straps, Trigger said.

"When we opened it, it contained things like half-eaten bags of chips, tape, things of that nature. I would describe it as a junk drawer," she said. "In the back, there was a plastic container. When we opened the plastic container, there were several wristbands ... with some cords attached. They had, I guess, what I would describe as oxidization, or a white film on them. It appeared as though they had not been used or touched in quite some time."

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Troy Police Detective Ryan Whiteside also testified, saying he collected and reviewed video footage of Thomas' three dozen hyperbaric oxygen therapy appointments at the center between Dec. 9, 2024, and Jan. 31, 2025.

During most of his visits, Thomas wore pajamas, and "the shoes were always removed prior to going into the chamber," Whiteside said.

He was given a blanket that had been directly taken from a dryer on the day he died, Whiteside said. Assistant Attorney General Chris Kessel suggested that can ramp up static charge. Whiteside didn't disagree.

Troy police Detective Ryan Whiteside testifies Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025 in 52-4 District Court in Troy about his investigation of the Jan. 31, 2025 hyperbaric chamber fire that killed 5-year-old Thomas Cooper. The founder and CEO of the Oxford Center, Tamela Peterson, and employees Gary Marken, Jeffrey Mosteller and Aleta Harward Moffitt all are criminally charged in the boy's death. They appeared for a preliminary examination of the evidence before Judge Maureen M. McGinnis, who will determine whether they should be bound over to trial.

In none of the 36 times Thomas underwent treatment at the Oxford Center was he wearing a grounding strap around his wrist to discharge static electricity, Whiteside said.

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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel alleges it was a single spark that lit the fire that killed Thomas, and has said the Oxford Center was an unscrupulous business that for years disregarded safety measures such as requiring grounding straps to be used inside the highly pressurized oxygen chambers "to provide unaccredited and debunked so-called treatments, chiefly because it brought cash into the door.

Nessel charged Peterson, 59, of Brighton, along with its safety director Jeffrey Mosteller, 65, of Clinton Township, and its operations director Gary Marken, 66, of Spring Arbor, with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in Thomas' death.

Thomas Cooper, age 5, died at The Oxford Center in Troy after a hyperbaric chamber he was in exploded.

More: Attorneys question hyperbaric chamber manufacturer after child's death

More: Family of boy who died seeks $100M in lawsuit against hyperbaric manufacturer, others

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Aleta Harward Moffitt, 60, of Rochester Hills, was the operator of the chamber on the morning of Thomas death and is charged with involuntary manslaughter and intentionally placing false information on a medical record.

All four have pleaded not guilty.

Gerald Gleeson II, an attorney for Peterson, tried in court to cast doubt that she intended to cause harm to Thomas by failing to use grounding straps. Peterson and her loved ones, he said, repeatedly used the hyperbaric chambers themselves without grounding straps. He asserted that no one in their right mind would do so if they thought it would be dangerous. Prosecutors must prove intent with a second-degree murder charge.

The founder and CEO of the Oxford Center, Tamela Peterson, left, stands with attorney Thomas Cranmer as she and her employees Gary Marken, Jeffrey Mosteller and Aleta Harward Moffitt are all criminally charged in the Jan. 31 death of Thomas Cooper, 5, inside a hyperbaric oxygen chamber at the center in Troy. They are appearing for a preliminary examination of the evidence on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025 in 52-4 District Court in Troy before Judge Maureen M. McGinnis, who will determine whether they should be bound over to trial.

Whiteside testified that only once  on Dec. 12, 2024  did he see Thomas patted down, which appeared to him as if the hyperbaric chamber attendant was performing a safety check, Whiteside said.

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An earlier witness, Andrew Melnyczenko, the technical and safety director of the Hyperbaric and Altitude Medicine Program at the Mayo Clinic, said it's a standard procedure to perform a safety check before each hyperbaric chamber treatment to ensure patients aren't bringing anything into the chamber that could be flammable or cause a spark.

Testimony is scheduled to continue Dec. 12 in 52-4 District Court in Troy and at least one more day before McGinnis is to decide whether there is enough evidence against the defendants to bind them over to trial in Oakland County Circuit Court.

(This story has been updated with new information.)

Contact Kristen Shamus: kshamus@freepress.com. Subscribe to the Detroit Free Press.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Troy police testify in hyperbaric chamber fire case
There was already a serious controversy surrounding the Trump administrations monthslong policy of deadly military strikes against civilian boats in international waters. Late last week, however, a report in The Washington Post took the controversy to another level.

In an article published on the day after Thanksgiving, the Post, citing two people with direct knowledge of the operation, reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive to military personnel in early September to kill the crew of a vessel carrying 11 people. The Post, in a report that has not been independently verified by MS NOW, noted that the initial military strike left two survivors who clung to a smoldering wreck.

Adm. Frank Bradley, who at the time headed the Joint Special Operations Command, ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseths kill everybody directive, according to the Posts two sources.

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A group of former military lawyers issued a joint statement that concluded that the allegations raised in the Posts report constitute war crimes, murder, or both. Plenty of others came to the same conclusion.

The denials came quickly. The beleaguered Pentagon chief called the article fake news. His top spokesperson, Sean Parnell, said the entire narrative presented by the Post was false, adding, These people just fabricate anonymously sourced stories out of whole cloth. Fake News is the enemy of the people.

Three days later, the administration changed its story: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed during a Monday briefing that the U.S. military did launch a second strike, adding that it was ordered by Bradley.

Soon after, Hegseth published an item to social media that read, Lets make one thing crystal clear: Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support. I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made  on the September 2 mission and all others since.

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On the surface, this might give the impression that the secretary was standing behind the admiral, but the context is everything: By referencing the combat decisions he has made, Hegseth appeared to be passing the buck to Bradley, rather than taking responsibility.

Indeed, a follow-up report in the Post noted that officials in Congress and the Pentagon expressed concern that the Trump administration intends to scapegoat Bradley, adding that Leavitts prepared comments elicited a furious backlash within the Defense Department, where officials described feeling angry at the uncertainty over whether Hegseth would take responsibility for his alleged role in the operation  or leave the military and civilian staff under him to face the consequences.

Complicating matters further, a video reemerged this week of Hegseth appearing on Fox News on Sept. 3, boasting that he watched the military operation unfold in real time a day earlier, making it more difficult for him to distance himself from what transpired.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, where the defense secretary was already lacking in allies, Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, responded to the latest allegations by calling for Hegseths resignation.

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If the reports are true, Pete Hegseth likely committed a war crime when he gave an illegal order that led to the killing of incapacitated survivors of the U.S. strike in the Caribbean, the senator said. The American people deserve to know exactly what happened, which is why Im proud to join colleagues on both sides of the aisle in calling for a thorough investigation and full transparency with Congress. Its deeply shameful that the Secretary of Defense would violate the laws of armed conflict and put our brave servicemembers in this position. He should resign immediately.

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut issued a similar statement soon afterward, insisting, Hegseth needs to go.  He should resign or be fired  or at least be put on leave while investigations proceed. Our men and women in uniform, as well as the American people, deserve no less.

On the other side of the aisle, Senate Majority Leader John Thune was also asked how comfortable he is with Hegseths leadership. I dont have, at this point, an evaluation of the secretary, the South Dakota Republican told reporters. Others can make those evaluations.

A ringing endorsement it was not.

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Bradley is expected to spend time on Capitol Hill this week to speak with senior lawmakers about what transpired. Watch this space.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

The post Trump admin. changes its story, confirms second strike on civilian boat in the Caribbean appeared first on MS NOW.

This article was originally published on ms.now
The Treasury Department is investigating fraud in Minnesota and Gov. Tim Walzs oversight as perpetrators allegedly defrauded the state government of $1 billion in funds, with some possibly diverted to the terrorist organization Al-Shabaab.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday that his department was acting fast to ensure Americans taxes are not funding acts of global terror. We will share our findings as our investigation continues.

Minnesotas social services departments are facing scrutiny after state residents allegedly stole the money through three schemes, prompting a Justice Department investigation.

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Members of Minnesotas Somali community were allegedly involved in the fraud and sent money back to Somalia, according to Bessent and reports of the plans. Charges have been filed against some of the alleged perpetrators.

President Donald Trump included the states fraud in his Thanksgiving post, last Thursday. Trump criticized the social programs abuse and placed responsibility on Walz, who was the Democratic vice presidential candidate in the 2024 election.

Minnesotas Department of Human Services staff blame Walz

On Saturday, an X account purportedly run by anonymous staff at Minnesotas Department of Human Services said, Tim Walz is 100% responsible for massive fraud in Minnesota.

Staffers say they alerted their governor of the fraud early on and hoped he would step in to stop the fraud. But no, we got the opposite response, the Minnesota DHS wrote.

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Walz systematically retaliated against whistleblowers using monitoring, threats, repression, and did his best to discredit fraud reports, they said.

When staff observed the fraud firsthand and approached leadership with concerns, they said they were reassigned to different projects and told to keep quiet. Higher-up leadership did not want to appear to discriminate against certain communities and were unwilling to take action, such as stopping fraud, that would have an adverse impact on their image, the post said.

The nearly 600-word post has accumulated more than 36 million views.

Walz responds to allegations of negligence on Meet The Press

NBC Meet the Press host Kristen Welker asked Walz to respond to Trumps Truth Social post and to allegations that he didnt do enough to clamp down on fraud in his state.

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This is cruelness; this is meanness, Walz said Sunday of Trump, adding that the presidents comments were made to demonize our Somali community.

Somalis bring the diversity and the energy to a place like Minnesota, and for him (Trump) to do this, it makes no sense. Do your job. Get the criminals out, secure our border, but do it with dignity and respect to the American tradition of respecting immigrants and refugees as a beacon of hope, Walz said.

Welker asked if Walz accepts responsibility for failing to address fraud in Minnesota, and the governor responded, Well certainly I take responsibility for putting people in jail.

Governors dont get to just talk theoretically; we have to solve problems. And I will note, its not just Somalis. Minnesota is a generous state ... but that attracts criminals. Those people are going to jail. Were doing everything we can, but to demonize an entire community for the actions of a few  its lazy, he said.

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Walz is seeking a third term as governor of Minnesota in 2026, and he has created a new task force, aiming to prevent, detect and combat fraud across Minnesota government programs.

In the state press release, Walz said, We have no tolerance for fraud in the State of Minnesota. Abuse of taxpayer dollars takes resources away from the people who need them most. If you commit fraud in Minnesota, you will be prosecuted and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.
Billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Bessent prepares to testify before the Senate Finance Committee during his confirmation hearing for Treasury secretary in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on Jan. 16, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent has ordered an investigation of ties between Somali-Americans convicted of stealing money from public programs and al-Shabaab, a Somalia-based terrorism outfit.

Bessent announced the investigation via social media, replying to a post from right-wing propagandist Christopher Rufo, who recently published an article claiming that ill-gotten gains from Minnesota have wound up in the hands of al-Shabaab.

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Bessents investigation would seem to be duplicative, however.

Over the past three years, federal prosecutors in Minnesota have charged 78 people in what they have called the largest pandemic relief fraud in the country, known as Feeding Our Future after a nonprofit that bilked a food aid program out of at least $250 million. Theyve charged others with Medicaid fraud.

Theyve yet to charge a single person with terrorism financing, however, even though the office has a previous history of charging Somalis for ties to al-Shabaab and ISIS.

Federal prosecutors have reported that fraudsters spent their proceeds on lavish purchases, including real estate abroad. But not in Somalia, which has no formal banking system.

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The al-Shabaab claim is not new. Fox9 reported in 2018 that child care fraud was funding Al-Shabaab. In his recent article, Rufo even cited the same retired Seattle police detective as the Fox9 story from seven years ago. There were no federal charges leveled then either, and a report from the Office of Legislative Auditor could not substantiate the al-Shabaab connection.

If fraudsters sent money to Somalia via cash remittances to rural areas of the country controlled by al-Shabaab, its possible the group would have taxed the money and wound up with some of it.

But former U.S. Attorney Andy Luger said recently that the fraudsters were not motivated by ideology. They were looking to get rich, not fund overseas terrorism, he told the Star Tribune.

The Star Tribune reports that Gov. Tim Walz said last week that he welcomed an investigation.

I think its the right thing to do, Walz said. But he added, I dont know if theyll find the connection.
The Trump administration is reversing the reinstatement of workers at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) who were placed on administrative leave after writing an open letter of dissent.

Fema in August suspended 14 workers who signed a petition warning that cuts to the agency were putting the nation at risk of repeating the mistakes made during the botched response to 2005s Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Last Wednesday, those 14 workers received notices that they were being reinstated at the beginning of this week. But within hours, Trump officials moved to re-suspend the staffers, after CNN broke the news of their return to work.

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When they went in at 8.30 in the morning, the employees email accounts were restored and they were given new entry cards, said David Seide, a lawyer at the non-profit group Government Accountability Project, which helped the Fema employees file complaints challenging their suspensions. But around midday  they stopped working and then after that, they began to receive notices saying: Youre back on administrative leave again.

Jeremy Edwards, former deputy of public affairs at Fema who signed the August petition, said the reversal represents the type of dysfunction and inefficiency that has plagued Fema under this administration.

Not only have these staffers not been provided any legal justification for being placed on administrative leave, they are being paid their full-time, taxpayer-funded salaries to sit at home and do nothing, when all they want to do is their jobs, Edwards said.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Fema, confirmed the reversal. CNN reporting revealed that 14 Fema employees previously placed on leave for misconduct were wrongly and without authorization reinstated by bureaucrats acting outside of their authority, a department spokesperson said.

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Once alerted, the unauthorized reinstatement was swiftly corrected by senior leadership. The 14 employees who signed the Katrina declaration have been returned to administrative leave, the spokesperson continued. This Administration will not tolerate rogue conduct, unauthorized actions or entrenched bureaucrats resisting change. Federal employees are expected to follow lawful direction, uphold agency standards and serve the American people.

Seide called the reversal unbelievable and appalling.

Ive never seen this happen in government operations like this, ever, and Ive been around 40 years, Seide said.

He said the employees suspension was illegal, violating protections for government employees and particularly for whistleblowers.

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You cant retaliate people just because they signed a petition, he said.

Femas decision to reinstate the employees seemed to reinforce that argument. Although the [Report of Investigation] substantiated the employees involvement with the so-called Katrina Declaration, FEMAs legal counsel has advised that the employees actions are protected under the Whistleblower Protection Act (5 USC 2302(b)(8)) and the First Amendment of the US Constitution, said a Fema email to the 14 staffers.

Political appointees reversed that, said Seide.

Called the Katrina declaration, the August petition from workers criticized the Trump administrations sweeping overhaul of Fema and stated desire to shift the responsibility for disaster response and preparedness to states. Sent days before the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, it was signed by more than 180 current and former Fema employees, some of whom remained anonymous.

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One day after the missive was sent, the 14 employees who used their names were informed that they were being placed on indefinite leave, Seide said. One of those 14 workers was then fired in mid-November, but she successfully challenged her termination, he said.

Related: You had to fend for yourself: Hurricane Katrina haunts New Orleans as Trump guts disaster aid

Fema staffers coordinated the petition with Stand Up for Science, a non-profit protesting against the Trump administrations attacks on federally funded science research. The group also helped organize a separate June letter from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) workers, which accused the Trump administration of violating the agencys mission to protect human health and the environment. After receiving that petition, the EPA placed 139 employees on leave, then terminated seven of them.

Before it was walked back, Seides group celebrated Femas decision to reinstate the 14 employees placed on leave, saying it could help build the case for EPA workers to similarly be reinstated.

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It would have seemed that reasonable judgments were made and should be followed, said Seide. But now I think the message is just the opposite.

The Trump administration has terminated, suspended and pushed out thousands of federal employees since re-entering the White House in January. Fema has been the subject of particularly scrutiny, with the president even floating plans to scrap the agency altogether.

A review council set up by Trump is soon expected to issue recommended changes to the agency.
BUSAN, South Korea, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Shanghai Anti-Doping Laboratory (SAL) has been granted World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accreditation, WADA announced here following its Executive Committee meeting on Tuesday.

This makes the Shanghai lab become the second Chinese anti-doping lab authorized by WADA following the Beijing lab which was founded in 1987. China is now the fourth country that owns two WADA-accreditated anti-doping labs besides Germany, the United States and Spain.

With construction starting in 2018, the Shanghai lab was named the Candidate Laboratory in 2021 and was approved in September 2024 to conduct blood analyses exclusively in support of the Athlete Biological Passport (ABP).

WADA's Executive Committee met prior to the opening ceremony of the sixth World Conference on Doping in Sport which runs to Dec. 5. 
WASHINGTON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Tuesday said the administration will be rebuilding Dulles International Airport in Virginia near Washington, D.C.

"We're also going to rebuild Dulles airport, because it's not a good airport. It should be a great airport. It's not a good airport at all," Trump said during a cabinet meeting at the White House.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Ryan Patrick Jones; Editing by Jasper Ward)
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Donald Trumps administration said Tuesday that it will move to withhold SNAP food aid from recipients in most Democratic-controlled states starting next week unless they provide information about those receiving the assistance.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday that the action is in the works because those states are refusing to provide data the department requested such as the names and immigration status of the aid recipients.

She said the cooperation is necessary in order to root out fraud in the program. Democratic states have sued to block the requirement.

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About 42 million lower-income Americans, or 1 in 8, rely on SNAP to help buy groceries. The average monthly benefit is about $190 per person, or a little over $6 a day.

The program is not normally in the political spotlight, but it has been this year.

As part of Trumps big tax and policy bill earlier in the year, work requirements are expanding to include people who are ages 55 to 64, homeless people and others.

And amid the recent federal government shutdown, the administration planned not to fund the benefits for November. There was a back-and-forth in the courts about whether they could do so, but then the government reopened and benefits resumed before the final word.

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In the meantime, some states scrambled to fund benefits on their own and most increased or accelerated money for food banks.

In a statement, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey called the administrations decision appalling and cruel.

The Trump Administration is once again playing politics with the ability of working parents with children, seniors and people with disabilities to get food. President Trump needs to order Secretary Rollins to release SNAP funding immediately and prevent more Americans from going hungry, Healey said.

The recipient records fight predates the attention SNAP received during the shutdown.

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The administration initially asked states to provide data in February.

Most Republican-controlled states have already done so. Most Democratic-run ones have gone to court to block the requirement, objecting to being forced to hand over individual records, including immigration status of SNAP participants.

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The Pentagon on Tuesday scapegoated a navy admiral for the extrajudicial double-tap strike that killed survivors of a 2 September attack on an alleged drug boat and vowed to continue operations, even as lawmakers investigate whether the attack constituted a war crime.

At a Pentagon briefing on Tuesday, Kingsley Wilson, the Pentagon press secretary said that the decision to re-strike the narco terrorist vessel was made by Adm Frank M Bradley, operating under clear and long standing authorities to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States was eliminated. Wilson added that Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon secretary, stands behind Admiral Bradley, 100%.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, on Monday explicitly named Bradley as the officer who directed the engagement, distancing Hegseth from accountability despite a Washington Post report that he ordered the deaths of everyone on the boat.

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Wilson dismissed critical reporting of the incident as fake news.

During a cabinet meeting alongside Donald Trump on Tuesday, Hegseth said: Weve only just begun striking narco boats and putting narco terrorists at the bottom of the ocean. He defended Bradley, who is set to provide a classified briefing to lawmakers overseeing the military on Thursday, saying Trump always has our back and that we always have the back of our commanders who are making decisions in difficult situations.

Later in the meeting, Hegseth cited the fog of war in defending the follow-up strike on the boat on 2 September. He said he did not see any survivors in the water, saying the vessel exploded in fire, smoke, you cant see anything  This is called the fog of war.

The Pentagon said 21 strikes had been conducted against drug boats, killing 82 people whom the administration describes as narco terrorists.

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Secretary Hegseth authorised Adm Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes, Leavitt said, adding: Adm 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.

The White House statement came after Trump said on Sunday he wouldnt have wanted that  not a second strike when asked about the incident, and claimed Hegseth told him he did not order the death of those two men. The president added: And I believe him.

The administrations apparent effort to distance Hegseth from the operation has not flown under the radar for some elected officials.

He is selling out Admiral Bradley and sending chills down the spines of his chain of command, who now know their boss will sell them out if he is taking heat, said Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator. A case study in how not to lead.

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The White Houses legal justification for the strikes, outlined in a classified justice department office of legal counsel opinion reviewed by the Guardian, treats the operations as targeting cocaine rather than people  meaning anyone killed on board should be considered an enemy casualty or collateral damage rather than a murder victim.

The reasoning differs sharply from Trumps public narrative that the strikes are an effort to stop overdose deaths, rather than attacks on a commodity that finances warfare.

Bipartisan scrutiny has mounted over a report that Hegseth issued a verbal order in September to strike the vessel, and according to the Washington Post, to kill everybody.

Democrats have said the allegations, first reported last week by the Washington Post, could amount to a war crime, and Republicans have also voiced their concerns about the legality of the attack on 2 September.

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The House and Senate armed services committees have opened investigations into the recent US military strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean.

In her comments to reporters on Monday, Leavitt did not dispute the Washington Post report that there were survivors after the initial strike.

Hegseth posted late on Monday, simultaneously praising the admiral and pointing responsibility in his direction: Adm Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support. I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made  on the September 2 mission and all others since.

A month after the strike, Bradley was promoted from commander of Joint Special Operations Command to commander of US Special Operations Command.

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Concern over the Trump administrations military strikes against the alleged drug-smuggling boats has been building in Congress, but details of this follow-on strike stunned many lawmakers from both parties and generated stark questions about the legality of the attacks and the overall strategy in the region, particularly toward the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro.

The lawmakers said they did not know whether last weeks Washington Post report was true, and some Republicans were sceptical. Still, they said the reported attacking of survivors of an initial missile strike posed serious concerns and merited further scrutiny.

Leavitt said Hegseth had spoken with members of Congress who may have expressed some concerns about the reports over the weekend.

Gen Dan Caine, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, also spoke over the weekend with the two Republican and two Democratic lawmakers leading the Senate and House armed services committees. He reiterated his trust and confidence in the experienced commanders at every echelon, Caines office said in a statement.

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The statement added that the call focused on addressing the intent and legality of missions to disrupt illicit trafficking networks which threaten the security and stability of the western hemisphere.

The Senate majority leader, John Thune, on Monday broadly defended the operations, echoing the Trump administration position that they were necessary to stem the flow of illegal narcotics into the US.

Thune said the committees in Congress would look into what happened. I dont think you want to draw any conclusions or deductions until you have all the facts, he said of the 2 September strike. Well see where they lead.

After the Posts report, Hegseth said on Friday on X that fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland.

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Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both US and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict  and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command, Hegseth wrote.

The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, called Hegseth a national embarrassment over his response to critics. Schumer demanded that Hegseth release the video of the strike and testify under oath about what happened.

The Republican senator for Mississippi Roger Wicker, the chair of the Senate armed services committee, pledged that his panels investigation would be done by the numbers.

Well find out the ground truth, he said, adding that the ramifications of the report were serious charges.

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The 2 September strike was one in a series carried out by the US military in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean as Trump has ordered the buildup of a fleet of warships near Venezuela, including the largest US aircraft carrier. More than 80 people were killed in the strikes.

Chaos has surrounded Hegseth, who has renamed himself the war secretary, in his first year on the job. He was outed for sharing sensitive military information about incoming strikes in Yemen on the messaging app Signal, suffered internal feuding among his senior staff, and has encouraged a paranoia-driven hunt for leakers, which have led to multiple top aides being fired.

A former Pentagon spokesman, John Ullyot  who had been a Trump loyalist  wrote in April that the department was experiencing total chaos and full-blown meltdown, suggesting Trump should consider removing Hegseth.

Trump has repeatedly defended Hegseth, saying this week that he is doing a great job.
In the latest of contentious interactions between President Donald Trump and the press, the president once again opted to push back against reporters as he side-stepped further inquiry into the absolutely perfect results of his MRI in October.

While traveling between Florida and Washington on Air Force One on Sunday, Trump was asked about calls from Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) to release his MRI results. What followed was an exchange with the press that consisted of him dismissing the idea that his results were a concern, claiming he had no idea what the MRI was meant to assess and ultimately attacking the intelligence of the reporters for asking a pretty obvious follow-up question, given the circumstances.

Life: Trumps 'Sour' Body Language While Getting Booed At A Football Game Speaks Volumes, Experts Say

It was just an MRI, he said in the clip. What part of the body? It wasnt the brain because I took a cognitive test and I aced it.

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However, theres often more to any interaction than what is said aloud  and the combination of Trumps words and body language might work together to tell a more complete story of this multilayered interaction.

To get a better read on how this exchange played out, HuffPost spoke with experts in body language, verbal and nonverbal communication about what really stood out to them.

Trump appears to have some playfulness but also clear irritation.

I see moments of playfulness, but its a playfulness rooted in mockery, Beth Dawson, a communication, body language and behavior analyst, told HuffPost. He chides the journalists  youre failing, you wouldnt pass a cognitive test, and so on. He toys with them, and the crinkle around his eyes tells us hes genuinely enjoying the performance. At the same time, there are clear flashes of defensiveness threaded through his delivery.

Life: The Funniest Posts From Women This Week (Nov. 22-28)

Dawson points out that Trumps tone blends authenticity and strategy in a way that was pretty telling: His laughter is real; his irritation is real.

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But he deploys both deliberately, she continues. He uses humor to belittle the premise of the question and to position himself as relaxed and amused  a man so unbothered that he can joke about something as serious as an MRI.

The lack of real, thoughtful answers about a world leaders health cant really be ignored here. And, as body language expert and behavior analyst Traci Brown noted, Trumps choice of words would naturally invite more questions.

Body language isnt the big cue here, its his words, Brown said. He says, I have no idea what they looked at. Everyone has an idea  at least a general one  of what theyre getting an MRI for.

Life: 4 Times Trump Was Asked About Epstein Where His Body Language Was Loud As Hell

This is the same thing in investigations that law enforcement listens for... Brown continued. The next question should be, Whats your best guess?

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Despite trying to keep that cool, unbothered tone, there are cracks that reveal irritation that Dawson points out.

His blinking, in particular, is worth noting as it reveals a more emotional reaction, she noted: At several points, he delivers a sharp cluster of quick blinks, a reliable sign in him that a question has struck a nerve. These rapid blinks arent dramatic; theyre quick flashes of emotional leakage. Trump has always been skilled at using humor to brush aside topics he dislikes, but his eyes give away the fact that the subject, in this case his health, still irritates him.

The moment when he opens his mouth slightly while simultaneously frowning, Dawson said, can demonstrate disbelief and annoyance.

Life: The Rudest Things You Can Do When Giving A Gift

It is an expression that says, I cannot believe were doing this, and it appears for just long enough to register before he folds it back into humor, she said. These tiny slips are important: they show that, despite the joking tone, Trump finds the underlying suggestion  that there might be something to worry about  irritating.

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Another tell appears when he mentions that hed been impeached. With a sharp, almost jerk-y gesture of his head to the left, its a move that can slip out without the person even realizing theyre doing it.

Movements like this often signal an internal spike of irritation or tension, Dawson said. Even though he keeps his tone light, that tiny head jerk suggests the topic lands harder than he wants to show.

She also notes that Trumps chin jut  where it pushes forward  is another consistent behavior worth marking. Typically, it communicates a physical signal of superiority or challenging the person theyre speaking to.

Life: Trump's Body Language After He Learns He's Been Brutally Mocked Spoke Volumes, Experts Say

Its a gesture that communicates that he sees the question as beneath him. Its the equivalent of an eye-roll, but more forceful, a way of reclaiming status, she said. He chides the reporters and plays with their questions, turning the interaction into a game that he intends to win.

Experts say Trump looks like hes working hard to control this narrative.

Dawson said that these signs of irritation reveal that he is working hard to keep the narrative where he wants it.

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Donald Trump uses his entire body, from his eyes to his gestures to the tension in his face, to reshape the tone of the interaction, she said. The result is a familiar mixture of playful banter (mockery) irritation, and unmistakable dominance.

One particular behavior Dawson highlights is Trumps smile in this exchange: with lips turned up and small wrinkles at the outer corners of the eyes, it conveys a genuine amusement.

And, in Trumps case, it frequently appears when he feels socially powerful, Dawson said. However, this isnt an effortless display of power when you look just under the surface.

In moments like these, amusement isnt just an emotion, its a tactic. Rather than treat the MRI question as serious or legitimate, he frames it as something slightly ridiculous, something he can play with, Dawson said. He is joking and not answering the questions directly.

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Even in claiming that he didnt know what part of the body the MRI was examining, he employs a tone of mock surprise that is meant to attack the validity of the questions from the reporters. However, those attacks can also reveal a few things.

He insults that reporter right in her face, Brown said. Thats the other thing he does when he doesnt know what to say.

And, ultimately, the choice to immediately attack the journalists asking him these questions is a telling part of his strategy: His amusement projects ease; his irritation adds edge; his gestures reinforce hierarchy. The exchange becomes less about addressing his health or offering reassurance, and more about performance, dominance and seizing the opportunity to make fun of the journalists.

He may not feel threatened by the question, Dawson continued, but he does feel the need to dominate it.

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(Screengrab via Truth Social)

President Donald Trump unleashed a frenetic, late-night posting binge on Monday, flooding Truth Social with more than 160 posts in less than five hours, in a wild spectacle that saw him teeing off on political opponents and policies.

From 7 p.m. to nearly midnight (ET), the president reposted an endless stream of clips, some of which were duplicated in what appeared to be an automatic loop, amplifying MAGA-friendly pundits and conspiracy theories.

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The torrent swung between nostalgia  including a Make Christmas Great Again video featuring Trumps cameo in Home Alone 2  and a parade of attacks on his usual Democratic targets, from California Governor Gavin Newsom and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and former President Barack Obama.

Among them was a clip of Alex Jones, featuring Bed, Bath and Beyond founder Patrick Byrne, whose video carried the bizarre caption: Michelle Obama may have used Bidens autopen in the final days of his disastrous administration to pardon key individuals. Other posts lauded his vow to nullify all of Bidens Autopen orders.

He also posted what appeared to be an AI-generated video of Elon Musk discussing Trumps vow to immediately revoke temporary protections for Somali migrants.

Even Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) was branded a traitor  again  in one of the few posts that the president authored himself as Trump rounded on the Democrat and his colleagues who featured in the now-infamous illegal orders video of encouraging military personnel to disobey him.

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He also demanded the release of disgraced Colorado election official Tina Peters, who is serving a nine-year sentence, writing: Colorado, FREE TINA PETERS, NOW.

The spree veered into other theatrics, with clips of users complaining about TikTok strikes and a repost of the moment he called a journalist stupid.

Despite the late night, the president was awake by 5:48 a.m. Tuesday to proclaim: TRUTH SOCIAL IS THE BEST! There is nothing even close!!!

The post Trump Fires Off Over 160 Truth Social Posts in Frenetic, Late-Night Blitz first appeared on Mediaite.
The Republican-controlled Indiana House returns to session on Monday to take action on congressional redistricting pushed by President Donald Trump.

And the GOP-dominated state Senate, in a major reversal, will reconvene in one week to "make a final decision on any redistricting proposal sent from the House."

The proposed new map would create another GOP-leaning congressional district in the solidly Republican Midwestern state.

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Indiana is the latest battlefield in the high-stakes redistricting showdown pitting Trump and Republicans versus Democrats to shape the 2026 midterm landscape as the GOP defends its razor-thin House majority.

Trump Turns Up Heat On Fellow Republicans In Push To Redraw Congressional Maps Ahead Of Midterms

The Indiana legislature on Monday returns to the Statehouse, seen in a file photo from 2017, to consider a congressional redistricting plan pushed by President Donald Trump.

State House Speaker Todd Huston announced last week that "House Republicans will gavel in on Monday, Dec. 1, reconvening the 2026 regular session. All legislative business will be considered beginning next week, including redrawing the states congressional map."

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Despite pressure from Trump and his political team, Rodric Bray, the Republican leader in the Indiana Senate, announced two weeks ago that there wasn't enough support in the chamber to move forward with redistricting.

Deep-pocketed Conservative Group All In On Helping Trump Redistricting Push

Trump, in response, repeatedly threatened to back primary challenges against state Republican lawmakers who didn't support his congressional redistricting push.

"A RINO State Senator, Rodric Bray, who doesnt care about keeping the Majority in the House in D.C., is the primary problem. Soon, he will have a Primary Problem, as will any other politician who supports him in this stupidity," Trump warned in a recent social media post.

President Donald Trump, seen pointing as he boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on Sept. 11, 2025, is targeting Indiana Republican lawmakers who are not supportive of the president's congressional redistricting push.

Bray confirmed in a statement last week that the state Senate would return into session to take action on whatever redistricting proposal passes the House.

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"The issue of redrawing Indiana's congressional maps mid-cycle has received a lot of attention and is causing strife here in our state. To resolve this issue, the Senate intends to reconvene as part of the regular 2026 session on Dec. 8," Bray wrote.

Republicans currently control seven of Indiana's nine congressional districts, and any new map passed by the GOP supermajority in the legislature would likely shift the state's 1st Congressional District from blue-leaning to a red-leaning seat.

Trump has been twisting elbows in his attempt to make Indiana the latest Republican-controlled state to change their congressional maps. The president has called state lawmakers and Vice President JD Vance visited the state twice earlier this autumn to discuss redistricting.

Trump Targets Red State Republican Lawmakers In Push For Congressional Redistricting

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Trump has also taken some jabs at Republican Gov. Mike Braun of Indiana, arguing that the governor "perhaps, is not working the way he should to get the necessary Votes."

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, seen speaking during a press conference on Oct. 30, 2025, supports President Donald Trump's push for congressional redistricting.

While Trump has called Braun "a good man," he has warned he "must produce on this, or he will be the only Governor, Republican or Democrat, who didnt."

But Braun, pointing to the president, has touted that he is "committed to standing with him on the critical issue of passing fair maps in Indiana to ensure the MAGA agenda is successful in Congress."

Newsom Takes Victory Lap After Landslide Redistricting Victory In California

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The push by the president in Indiana is part of a broad effort by Trump's political team and the GOP to pad the party's razor-thin House majority ahead of the midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.

Trump is aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterm elections.

Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio have drawn new maps as part of the president's push. And Florida and Kansas are also mulling redrawing their maps.

"We must keep the Majority at all costs," Trump wrote recently.

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But two federal judges in Texas delivered a blow to Trump and Republicans, by ruling that the state can't use the newly drawn map in next year's elections. The Supreme Court put in place a temporary stay on the ruling, ahead of weighing in on the dispute.

Meanwhile, Democrats are fighting back.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during an election night press conference at a California Democratic Party office Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Sacramento, Calif.

California voters a month ago overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, a ballot initiative which will temporarily sidetrack the left-leaning state's nonpartisan redistricting commission and return the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democrat-dominated legislature.

That is expected to result in five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which would counter the passage earlier this year in Texas of a new map that aims to create up to five right-leaning House seats.

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Illinois and Maryland, two blue states, and Virginia, where Democrats control the legislature, are also taking steps or seriously considering redistricting.

And in a blow to Republicans, a Utah district judge last month rejected a congressional district map drawn up by the state's GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternate that will create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.





Original article source: Trump forces Indiana GOP into redistricting reversal in race to draw new MAGA map
The effort to punish Donald Trump for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election ended last week with a whimper. While most Americans were focusing on Thanksgiving with their families, Trumps political allies were completing the greatest escape from criminal justice in the nations history.

Last Wednesday, a Georgia prosecutor filed a motion to end the final election-interference case against the president, and a judge obliged by promptly dismissing itthus killing what may have been the final chance that Trump will face a criminal jury for the gravest assault on American democracy since the Civil War. The prosecutors timing was no coincidence. Like the dismissal of the federal criminal cases against the president and like his pardons of thousands of January 6 rioters, Trump and his political allies aim to quietly kill the cases against them so the American people will forget the crimes they committed against our country.

Pete Skandalakis, a state official standing in for the disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, blended political polemic and practical considerations in his motion rationalizing an end to the case. What he did not do is suggest that the plot perpetrated by Trump and his co-defendants was legal.

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Skandalakis wrote that it is not illegal to question or challenge election results. But the defendants in the casewho also included Trumps former lawyer Rudolph Giuliani and his former chief of staff Mark Meadows, as well as three so-called false electorswere not prosecuted for expressing their political opinions, or for seeking to challenge the results of the election through lawful means like lawsuits or recounts. Instead, as Skandalakis later wrote, the indictment alleges a compelling set of acts which ... would establish a conspiracy ... to overturn the results of the November 2020 Presidential Election in Georgia, and in other states across the country.

Why, then, did Skandalakis dismiss the case? He gave different answers for different defendants. For the false electors, who were accused of unlawfully falsely [holding] themselves out as the duly elected and qualified presidential electors from the State of Georgia, he determined that he could not prove their criminal intent beyond a reasonable doubt. There may be some justice in that, at least for some of the unindicted electors. The key question is whether the electors were co-conspirators or pawns. Some of the false electors in swing states around the country seem to have believed Trumps aides who told them that their Electoral College votes would be counted only if a court later ruled that Trump had won the election. If that was the plan the indicted Georgia electors believed they were participating in, then Skandalakis was right to dismiss the charges against them.

The central conspiracy in the indictment, and the greatest injustice in its dismissal, was the attempt by Trump and his advisers to pressure Georgia election officials to manipulate the states vote totals and force the illegal counting of electoral votes cast for him on January 6, 2021. Skandalakis seems to concede the plot was illegal when he suggests that the appropriate venue for its prosecution was special counsel Jack Smiths federal case in Washington, D.C., which Smith ended upon Trumps reelection. Skandalakis then suggests that the inevitable yearslong delay in trying Trump for state crimes after he leaves office in early 2029 renders the prosecution not viable. And, he claims, prosecuting Trumps advisers without him would be unproductive and a financial burden on the prosecutors office.

This shell game, in which justice is never at hand but only off in some other court or jurisdiction, where prosecuting the most serious crimes ever committed by an American president and his political allies is somehow not worth it, is sadly familiar. Like the dismissal of Smiths federal charges in D.C.and in Florida, in the classified documents caseit has nothing to do with guilt or innocence.

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That is the tragic conclusion of the criminal cases against Trump. He will evade prison not because he is innocent of the crimes with which he has been charged but because he has improbably succeeded in evading the reach of the law.

The Georgia dismissal is the latest salvo in the profound corruption of the American justice system wrought by Trump and his political allies. This year, the Department of Justice has brought transparently partisan prosecutions and investigations for minor mortgage document errors allegedly committed by Trumps political opponents, including New York Attorney General Letitia James and Senator Adam Schiff. And in an Orwellian turn, federal prosecutors are now reported to be investigating Willis, the original prosecutor in the Georgia case, for unspecified offenses, after Trump said she is a criminal who should be prosecuted.

Meanwhile, Trump and his Georgia co-defendants will walk free without ever having to face a jury of their peers for their alleged crimes. Trump has already pardoned his adviser-accomplices, including Giuliani, John Eastman, and Kenneth Chesebro, for any federal crimes they committed as part of his plot. (Full disclosure: I served as the expert witness on constitutional law in the disbarment proceeding against John Eastman, and the Fulton County district sttorney relied on my report on the unlawfulness of the alternate electors scheme in the criminal prosecution of Kenneth Chesebro.) And perhaps most shamefully of all, on the first day of his second term of office, Trump pardoned more than 1,200 people convicted of federal crimes related to the Capitol riot on January 6, including hundreds who assaulted law enforcement officers.

But neither Trump nor the Georgia prosecutor can pardon or dismiss the legal and moral truth. Trump and his accomplices tried to steal the 2020 presidential election. The means through which they attempted to achieve that theft was the manipulation of the legal system, from the submission of false slates of electors to the pressure campaign on Vice President Pence to interfere with the electoral count on January 6. That scheme was unlawful, regardless of whether its perpetrators ever serve a day behind bars.

Trump and his allies who committed crimes in pursuing their plot will probably never face a jurys judgment. But the truth remains: Trump lost the 2020 election and lied to the American people about it, and then he unlawfully tried to seize power by manipulating the legal system. If American democracy is to survive, we must remember that unvarnished truth so those who would seek to subvert it in the future never hold power again.
President Donald Trump on Monday launched into a late-night meltdown on his social media platform that saw him promoting a conspiracy theory about former first lady Michelle Obama signing presidential pardons on former President Joe Bidens behalf.

The president turned up the dial on his typical Truth Social posting spree, making over 160 posts and reshares from 7 p.m. to nearly midnight on the East Coast.

Politics: Republicans Narrowly Hang On In Tennessee Special Election

Among those, the president promoted a clip from far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who platformed what he called a WILD claim about Obama and Biden from Overstock.com founder Patrick Byrne.

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Byrne, a known conspiracy theory-pusher, claimed on a recent episode of Jones show that Obama used Bidens autopen  the alleged use of which Trump has frequently attacked  to issue four to five pardons.

And then youd love to see, who knows if they charged a million dollars a par  who knows how that  thats so illegal! That is so illegal! he said in the clip.

Biden has previously dismissed talk of his autopen, telling media outlets in June that he made decisions about pardons, executive orders, legislation and proclamations during his administration.

Any suggestion that I didnt is ridiculous and false, Biden said in a statement.

President Donald Trump on Monday promoted a clip from far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who shared a "WILD" claim about former first lady Michelle Obama and former President Joe Biden on a recent episode of his show. Truth Social

Outside the Biden theory, Trump attacked former Attorney General Eric Holder, referred to Democratic veterans who urged troops to defy illegal orders as a threat to America, accused Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) of crimes against the country, and promoted a post calling Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) a terrorist from a terrorist family.

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In one post, he shared an apparently AI-generated video that depicts Elon Musk touching on Trumps pledge to immediately strip temporary legal protections for Somali migrants living in Minnesota.

Politics: Elise Stefanik Calls Mike Johnson A Liar

The post arrives as Trumps Treasury Department looks to investigate allegations that stolen taxpayer money in Minnesota has been funneled to a Somali terrorist group. Theres scant evidence to support such a claim, per The Minnesota Star Tribune.

Elsewhere in his posting spree, Trump pushed other conspiracy theories, including one that Joe Bidens former White House chief of staff, Jeff Zients, as well as Hunter Biden, were the SECRET PARDON PUPPET MASTERS in the administration.

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CORRECTION: This story has been amended to correct the name of the company Patrick Byrne founded.

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President Donald Trump called on Tennesseans to vote for Matt Van Epps, the Republican nominee in the special election for the Volunteer State's 7th Congressional District, in a Truth Social post on Sunday.

Just two days ahead of the election on Dec. 2, Trump urged "all America First Patriots in Tennessees 7th Congressional District, who havent voted yet, to please GET OUT AND VOTE."

The president claimed that Van Epps' Democratic opponent, state Rep. Aftyn Behn, "hates Christianity, will take away your guns, wants Open Borders, Transgender for everybody, men in womens sports, and openly disdains Country music."

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"She said all of these things precisely, and without question  ITS ON TAPE!" Trump claimed. "Do not take this Race for granted."

Mark Green Resigns From Congress, Further Shrinking House Gop Majority

"The Radical Left Democrats are spending a fortune to beat one of the best Candidates weve ever had, Matt Van Epps!"

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Trump concluded that Van Epps has his "Complete and Total Endorsement" and "WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!"

Van Epps, a lieutenant colonel in the Tennessee Army National Guard and a former Army helicopter pilot, was formally endorsed by Trump earlier this year and called his support "an incredible honor."

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Tennessee Governor Backs Military Veteran Just Days Before Crowded Primary Election

Democratic congressional nominee State Rep. Aftyn Behn, D-Nashville, attends a campaign event during the special election for the seventh district, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025, Nashville.

Trump's post comes as Behn draws national attention for her past comments, ranging from anti-police rhetoric to her dislike of country music and Nashville's drinking culture.

The Democrat was also once a frequent advocate for cutting police funding, even suggesting that the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department should be defunded.

Last week, Behn was asked to clarify her previous remarks during an episode of MS NOW's "The Weekend."

"In 2020, you made some tweets that have since been deleted that were very critical of police 2020 was obviously a very fraught year. Do you still stand by those comments? And if not, is there anything you want to clarify?" host Catherine Rampell asked.

U.S. 7th Congressional District candidate Aftyn Behn speaks during a political forum Monday, Sept. 8, 2025, in Dickson, Tennessee.

"Im not going to engage in cable news talking points, but what I will say is that, you know, our communities need solutions," Behn responded. "We need local people deciding, solving local problems with local solutions. And thats not the overreach of a federal government or state government of which we are dealing with in Nashville and our cities across the state of Tennessee."

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Fox News Digital's Paul Steinhauser, Alec Schemmel and Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.





Original article source: Trump makes 11th-hour plea for Matt Van Epps over Aftyn Behn, whom he claims 'hates Christianity'
Donald Trump has officially pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, according to the ex-leaders attorney. He was released from a federal prison in West Virginia early Tuesday.

Hernandez was sentenced to 45 years in prison for playing a central role in what the Biden administration deemed to be one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world. Though Trump is blaming the conviction on Biden, much of the investigation began during Trumps first term, with his now Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove acting as one of the lead investigators on the case.

The investigation found that Hernandez moved mountains of cocaine between 2004 and 2022, facilitating the influx of more than 400 tons of the highly addictive substance into the U.S.

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Under the protection of a machine gun-wielding, grenade launcher-toting gang, Hernandez received millions of dollars of drug money from some of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking organizations in Honduras, Mexico, and elsewhere. The politico used that money to fuel his political ambitions, pay off bribes, and extend legal protections toward himself and his drug trafficking co-conspirators during his time in office.

The decision to release him comes just days after Hernandez penned a sugar-coated letter to the U.S. president in which he claimed to be a victim of political persecution by the Biden administration, reported The New York Times.

Trump announced Friday that he planned to grant Hernandez a full and complete pardon, though a White House official told the Times that the decision had nothing to do with the letter. Trump, at the time, had not seen the appeal, the official said on the condition of anonymity.

This was a clear Biden over-prosecution, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. He was the president of this country. He was in the opposition party. He was opposed to the values of the previous administration, and they charged him because he was president of Honduras.

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Meanwhile, the Trump administrations approach to curbing narcoterrorismwhich has involved bombing small boats in the Caribbean suspected of smuggling drugs without evidencehas run afoul of international law. It has also placed an outsized target on drug mules, potentially the lowest and least significant participants on the drug trade totem pole.

The decision to wipe Hernandezs record clean appears to be a seismic departure from the Trump administrations rhetoric on drug trafficking. After celebrating the deaths of several people killed in an airstrike in September, Vice President JD Vance claimed that killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military. That rule apparently does not apply to the head honchos of the drug tradeor to the White House.

This story has been updated.
WINDHOEK, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Namibian President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah on Tuesday appointed Modestus Amutse as the new minister of industries, mines and energy, as the government intensifies efforts to implement national development priorities, the presidency said.

Amutse, who previously served as deputy minister of information and communication technology and held several leadership roles in Parliament, takes over from Minister of Defense and Veterans Affairs Frans Kapofi, who had been overseeing the Ministry of Industries, Mines and Energy on an interim basis.

The presidency expects Amutse's public service experience to support continuity and strengthen implementation across the portfolio.

Nandi-Ndaitwah said the appointment follows recent regional and local authority elections, during which citizens reaffirmed their confidence in the ruling South West Africa People's Organization party.

She noted that the administration remains focused on improving service delivery, strengthening accountability, and implementing national development priorities, including the party's election manifesto, its implementation plan, and the upcoming Sixth National Development Plan.

Namibia is prioritizing industrialization, strengthening its mining sector and accelerating progress in the energy space to support sustainable development across all 14 regions, the presidency added. 
Dec. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. prison officials released former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez after U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned him, Hernandez's wife revealed Tuesday.

Trump announced his plans to pardon Juan Orlando Hernandez in a Truth Social post Friday. A U.S. court convicted Hernandez in 2024 of trafficking drugs to the United States and sentenced him to 45 years in prison and an $8 million fine.

Trump said Juan Orlando Hernandez had been "treated very harshly and unfairly."

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Citing prison records, the BBC reported Hernandez was released from the high-security USP Hazelton prison in West Virginia.

Ana Garcia de Hernandez, the former president's wife, announced his release on social media Tuesday, thanking Trump for his freedom. Renato Stabile, Juan Orlando Hernandez's attorney, also offered his thanks.

President Donald Trump speaks during an event in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, D.C., on November 25. He pardoned the former president of Honduras this week, saying he had been treated unfairly. . Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI

"On behalf of President Hernandez and his family, I would like to thank President Trump for correcting this injustice," Stabile said, according to CNN.

"President Hernandez is glad this ordeal is over and is looking forward to regaining his life after almost four years in prison."

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Both Democratic and Republican members of Congress denounced Trump's plan to pardon Juan Orlando Hernandez given his crackdown on drug trafficking linked to immigration.

White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt blamed Juan Orlando Hernandez's on the Biden administration.

"This was a clear Biden over-prosecution. He was the president of this country. He was in the opposition party," she said. "He was opposed to the values of the previous ad."
By Brad Heath

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 2 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump vowed this year to flood San Francisco with federal agents  and even soldiers  to crack down on crime. Instead, his administration has quietly taken law enforcement away, leaving the city with less help to fight its deadly drug crisis.

The number of people charged with federal crimes in San Francisco and surrounding cities through November 1 of this year plunged 40% from the same period of 2024, one of the most abrupt retreats from prosecuting drug traffickers, gun criminals and other accused lawbreakers anywhere in the United States, a Reuters examination of more than 15 million federal court records found.

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The number of people charged with violating drug laws dropped even further, by about 50%, to 137, according to Reuters' analysis.

Instead, federal agents who once built those cases are now rounding up immigrants to deport, taking away one of the most potent tools for combatting everything from drug trafficking to gun violence, nine current and former federal officials familiar with the changes said. All spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the department's work.

"They just don't have the agents to do criminal cases," a former Justice Department official said.

That dramatic pullback happened even as Trump described the city under its Democratic leadership as "destroyed" and "a mess," and insisted that it needed federal help to turn around.

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As recently as October, Trump promised a crackdown in the city and began assembling a force of immigration officers and other agents to storm into San Francisco to arrest migrants and try to tackle other crimes, as the government has done in Washington, D.C. and Memphis. Trump said in a social media post that he called it off after "friends of mine who live in the area called" and urged him not to go forward.

The Trump administration has launched the broadest overhaul of federal law enforcement in a decade, diverting thousands of agents to focus on immigration instead. That shift has taken a toll on the government's ability to prosecute people for almost everything else.

San Francisco is not alone in seeing a slowdown. The number of people charged with federal drug crimes has fallen about 10% nationwide this year to the lowest point in at least three decades as the Trump administration diverted agents and attorneys to focus on immigration, Reuters reported in September.

The slowdown has been among the most pronounced in San Francisco, a city whose liberal tilt has made it a target for the conservative administration, Reuters found after examining federal court records.

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Craig Missakian, the U.S. attorney in northern California, which includes San Francisco, said in a statement that the drop in the number of prosecutions there had "many contributing causes that the statistics alone do not explain." He declined to comment on what they are.

Missakian said "there is a natural ebb and flow to the volume of drug prosecution" and that his office "has made drug enforcement a top priority."

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said "the criminal illegal aliens now being arrested and removed from the country include terrorists, human traffickers, drug smugglers, and others participating in or organizing high-level, coordinated crimes" but did not comment specifically on activities in San Francisco in response to Reuters' questions. The Justice Department also denied that its focus on immigration has impacted its other work.

Reuters examined the extent of the Justice Department's pullback by gathering the dockets of every publicly available federal criminal case since the 1990s from Westlaw, an online legal research service that is a division of Thomson Reuters.

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The news agency compared the number of people charged with crimes between January 1 and November 1 with the same period in previous years. In some cases, Reuters used artificial intelligence to help classify the charges people faced. A review of a random set of records showed its assessments to be 98% accurate.

Those records show that almost every type of federal criminal enforcement has collapsed in northern California this year.

The Justice Department brought criminal charges against 355 people in northern California as of November 1, down from 575 during the same period last year and the lowest number of cases in at least two decades. That slowdown includes the federal courts in San Francisco as well as Oakland and San Jose.

Federal charges are a particularly powerful tool for combatting crime because they often come with longer prison sentences. "Dealers are 100% afraid of the feds," said Tom Wolf, a former addict who advocates for treatment with Rescue SF, a citywide coalition aimed at tackling homelessness.

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But city police? "They laugh at them. The dealers are not afraid of them at all," Wolf said, because an arrest routed to state court often means a quick return to the street.

A FEDERAL CRACKDOWN

The Trump administration's retreat began less than two years after the Justice Department launched a crackdown on drug-dealing in San Francisco  one of the wealthiest cities in the U.S. thanks largely to being a hub of the tech economy. Driven by complaints by civic leaders and even judges that the streets no longer seemed safe, the effort has continued, but court records show its pace has slowed sharply.

Initially, federal agents in the city worked with local detectives to buy drugs undercover and arrest the dealers. At other times, they surveilled drug deals and pounced.

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To act as a deterrent, prosecutors randomly selected days on which they would charge nearly all the dealers arrested in certain neighborhoods in federal court instead of state court, meaning that if they were convicted they faced harsher punishments.

The crackdown was concentrated in the citys Tenderloin district, roughly 50 square blocks in the center of the city where, day and night, people clustered on the narrow sidewalks to sell and use drugs.

City leaders credited the crackdown with driving many of the drug dealers off of street corners during the daytime, though they still re-emerge at night.

HARD TO MAKE IT HAPPEN

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Removing the dealers is one thing. Ferreting out the higher-level networks is a far more intensive undertaking, often requiring wiretaps and hours of surveillance. And its harder to muster the agents to do that work when so many have been sidelined by immigration duties, five current and former officials said.

These things take persistent effort and if youre being pulled in different directions, its hard to make it happen, a former official said.

The Justice Department disputed that impact. Assisting our partners with immigration enforcement has not deterred our ability to also successfully investigate and prosecute other types of crime to keep American citizens safe, spokeswoman Natalie Baldassarre said.

The falloff in federal drug enforcement in San Francisco has been previously reported by The San Francisco Chronicle, but the full magnitude of the government's retreat from fighting crime in northern California has not previously been documented.

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The Trump administrations policing pullback has touched almost every kind of federal crime-fighting activity in San Francisco, Reuters found after examining court records. The number of people charged with violating gun laws between January and the beginning of November dropped by 40%, to 42, compared to the same months in 2024.

But it has been most pronounced for the types of cases the U.S. government has long used to target higher-level criminals like the traffickers who flooded San Francisco with potent and inexpensive fentanyl. The government has charged 32 people with drug conspiracies in northern California so far this year, down from 89 in the same period last year, a drop of about two-thirds, court records show.

I know like about a few weeks ago, the DEA came and hit the streets. And that was the first time I've seen them pick people up in a long time, said Omar Ward, who chronicles the citys public drug use online under the pseudonym J.J. Smith.

A spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration did not respond to questions about that claim.

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The federal pullback comes at an especially challenging time for San Francisco because its own police force is already under strain. A wave of departures in recent years left the department short almost 500 officers, about a quarter of its total staffing. Guards have complained that its jails have become overcrowded.

"We welcome the help we get," Evan Sernoffsky, a spokesperson for the department said. "The feds have been incredibly helpful, but whatever any other law enforcement agency is doing is really up to them."

THE CITY AND THE SLOWDOWN

San Francisco has less violent crime than most major U.S. cities. But illegal drugs - and fentanyl in particular - have cut a deadly path through the community, killing more than 3,200 people over the past five years, according to reports by the citys medical examiner.

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On a recent afternoon, people smoked and injected themselves on the sidewalks in the Tenderloin neighborhood, a few blocks from San Franciscos federal courthouse. A few slumped across folding chairs or were crumpled on the sidewalk. As the sun set, a knot of young men, one carrying a backpack, warned black and white as a police cruiser approached, and clustered more closely behind a parked car.

There is little sign San Franciscos drug problem is ebbing.

The citys medical examiner reported that 497 people had died from accidental drug overdoses through the end of September, three-quarters of them because of fentanyl. Last year, 507 people died between January and September.

Local police are filling some of the gap. The number of drug arrests by local police in San Francisco increased about 20% in the first 10 months of the year, to about 1,600 from 1,310 in the same period the year before, according to records from the citys district attorney. This fall, Gavin Newsom ordered the state Highway Patrol to send more anti-crime teams to San Francisco and neighboring cities, including Oakland.

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But local police dont seem sufficient, said Jason Finau, the senior health director for the Glide Foundation, which provides services to addicts. Even with the police here, that has not deterred the folks from being here, dealing, and using openly, he said.

(Additional reporting by Matt McKnight; Editing by Michael Learmonth)
President Trump called into a rally for Tennessee Republican House candidate Matt Van Epps one day before Tuesdays special election in the states 7th Congressional District, urging his supporters to make it a sweeping victory.

The whole world is watching Tennessee right now, and theyre watching the district, Trump said over speakerphone, as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) held his phone up to the microphone.

Its gotta show that the Republican Party is stronger than its ever been. We have a bigger, stronger party than weve ever had. We have more members of the Republican Party than weve ever had, and we love Tennessee, he continued.

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Van Epps, a former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of General Services, is running against Democratic state Rep. Aftyn Behn in the special election to succeed former Rep. Mark Green (R), who resigned earlier this year.

While the district is considered solidly red, Democrats are optimistic they can overperform following widespread wins in last months off-year elections.

Win or lose, Republicans have been forced to spend millions, deploy resources, and pull out all of the stops to try to save a seat in a district that Trump won by 22 points, Abhi Rahman, deputy communications director at the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement.

While Matt Van Epps says there is no policy of Donald Trumps that he disagrees with, even if it means skyrocketing costs for Tennessee families, Aftyn Behn is laser-focused on lowering grocery, housing, and health care cost, he continued.

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Trump praised Van Epps as one of the best and very special, while knocking his Democratic opponent Aftyn Behn.

Shes actually said shes against Christianity. Shes against country music. Shes totally for transgender for everybody. Shes totally for open boarders and that mess, he said.

How the hell can you elect a person like that? he said.

Trump was in part referring to 2020 comments from Behn in which she said on a podcast that shes been heavily involved in the Nashville mayoral race because I hate this city, I hate the bachelorettes, I hate the pedal taverns, I hate country music.

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Behn addressed the comments in a video last month, acknowledging, Now, I always want Nashville to be better, right? I want Nashville to be a place where working people can thrive, right? But sure, I get mad at the bachelorette [parties] sometimes, I get mad at the pedal taverns, right? Talking to someone who has cried no less than 10 times in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

This story was updated at 1:26 p.m.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP)  A Tennessee congressional seat that President Donald Trump and Republicans have previously won with ease became the unlikely epicenter of the fight for Congress on Monday, as House Speaker Mike Johnson headlined rallies and former Vice President Al Gore and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told Democrats they could be on the verge of a monumental upset.

Trump even called in twice during the day to tell voters to back Matt Van Epps, the Republican candidate, in Tuesdays special election.

The whole world is watching Tennessee right now, and theyre watching your district, the president said after Johnson put him on speakerphone during an event inside a garage stocked with vintage cars on a supporters' sprawling farm in Franklin. Its a big vote and its gonna show something. And its gonna show that the Republican Party is stronger than its ever been.

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A few hours later, Trump drove home the message in a virtual rally, the second he's held for Van Epps since the former Army helicopter pilot and state general services commissioner became the Republican nominee.

The rush of attention on the reliably conservative 7th U.S. House Congressional District came as Trump hopes to rebound from recent Republican losses around the country. Democrats want a strong showing that could propel them in next year's midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

Behn, a self-proclaimed pissed-off social worker and progressive community organizer from Nashville, sprinted through her final campaign stops, including the virtual rally with Gore, a Tennessee native, and Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

Gore said people are struggling with high costs for groceries and health care while Trump is running by far, the most corrupt administration in history, enabled in Congress by way too many subservient cowards.

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Having had the privilege of representing Tennessee in years past, I want to tell you that I have never seen the political tides shift as far and as fast as were seeing them move in this election, Gore said.

Ocasio-Cortez said the competitive race shows that anything can happen and that miracles can happen, including in Tennessee with hard work.

Behn has been described by some state Democrats as our very own AOC of TN, a nickname that Republicans have harnessed to deride Behn as too far left for the district.

Theyre bringing in all their heavy hitters because they think they can flip this seat from red to blue," Johnson told reporters. That is not going to happen. Johnson is trying to maintain a narrow majority in the House, and he said the race is for all the marbles.

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Republicans have expressed concerns about turnout because early voting went into Thanksgiving week and Election Day follows the holiday weekend. Van Epps was supported by a phalanx of party leaders on Monday, including national chairman Joe Gruters, Gov. Bill Lee, and Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty.

I think that Matts going to be OK," Hagerty said. "But its not just winning. Its winning by a wide enough margin to send a real Tennessee message that were not going to stand for this.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris appeared in Nashville to rally voters last month while on a book tour, and national party chair Ken Martin visited as well.

The 7th District is one of three seats redrawn in 2022 to erode the influence of Nashville, the states largest city and a Democratic stronghold. Only about 1 in 5 of the 14-county district's registered voters are in Nashville. Last year, the district went to former GOP Rep. Mark Green by 21 percentage points and to Trump by a similar margin.

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Behn has condemned Trumps tariffs and tax cut legislation, both of which Van Epps supports.

Republicans have tried to turn Behns own words against her in television advertising, such as when she described herself as a radical or claimed to be bullying immigration agents and state police officers. A frequent target are comments Behn made about Nashville years ago, when she said I hate this city and complained about annoyances like bachelorette parties.

For the most part, Behn has answered questions about those remarks by redirecting to cost-of-living issues. But she has responded specifically about Nashville, saying she wants it to be a place where working people can thrive even if she gets annoyed at some tourist draws.

The barrage of negative attacks is a result of the fact that they dont have a plan to address the rising cost of health care, Behn said at a campaign event Monday.

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Jalen Smalls, a Behn voter, said his primary concern is getting people's basic needs met, such as funding for schools, feeding children, supporting hospitals and maintaining roads.

"Those are the bare minimum of what people need in order to thrive, not just survive, Smalls said.

John Rowenczak, meanwhile, said he is voting for Van Epps because he is concerned that the country is becoming too liberal. He said his primary concern is illegal immigration.

I feel like Trump is doing a good job, and thats kind of the way we need to go, he said. We want to continue the Trump agenda in this district.

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The House Majority PAC has put $1 million behind Behn. Van Epps has been backed by more than $1 million from the Trump-supporting MAGA Inc. super PAC.

Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries predicted an unexpectedly close race.

Republicans have already lost, Jeffries said Monday. "The fact that they are spending millions of dollars to hold a seat that Donald Trump just won by 22 points is extraordinary.

___

Mattise reported from Nashville, Tennessee. Associated Press writer Leah Askarinam contributed from Washington.
President Donald Trump told Tennessee Republicans to "get out and vote" and "show the world something" the day before Tuesday's special congressional election for a hotly contested GOP-controlled vacant House seat in a solidly red congressional district.

Trump's campaign pitch, the first of two on Election Eve, came as House Speaker Mike Johnson was spending all day at a slew of campaign stops with Republican nominee Matt Van Epps, who is facing off against Democratic nominee Aftyn Behn in the race to represent Tennessee's 7th Congressional District to succeed former GOP Rep. Mark Green, who resigned from office in June to take a private sector job.

"We're going to win this seat, but we cannot take anything for granted," Johnson said in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital ahead of a rally with Van Epps in Franklin, Tennessee, just south of Nashville.

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Trump carried the district  which is located in central and western Tennessee, stretches from Kentucky to Alabama, and includes parts of Nashville  by 22 points in last year's presidential election.

Democrats, Republicans, Go All In On Final 2025 Congressional Ballot Box Showdown

But Democrats, energized following the party's sweeping victories last month in high-profile ballot box showdowns from coast to coast, are spending big bucks in a race that's seen as a key barometer ahead of next year's midterm elections, when the GOP will be defending its congressional majorities.

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Republicans, working to protect the GOP's current razor-thin 219-213 majority in the House and aiming to avoid a major upset in the high-stakes showdown, have been showering Van Epps with resources and support in the final stretch of the campaign.

"Special elections are strange because a lot of people take for granted in a deep red district like this that the Republican is just going to win automatically. Nothing's automatic. So we're here to help turn out the vote and make sure we get this great candidate right over that line," Johnson said. "We take no vote for granted. We need everybody to turn out."

Van Epps, a military combat veteran and former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of General Services who is backed by Trump, predicted that "we're going to win decisively tomorrow."

"We have over 50 local endorsements as well. We have a whole day of events today with incredible backing, and we're going to get this done tomorrow," he emphasized in the Fox News Digital interview.

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Trump Makes 11Th-hour Plea For Matt Van Epps Over Aftyn Behn, Whom He Claims 'Hates Christianity'

Minutes later, as Johnson spoke to a crowd of a couple of hundred GOP activists and supporters, the speaker called Trump on his cell phone.

"Let's make it a sweeping victory," Trump said. "The whole world is watching Tennessee right now. And they're watching your district. The whole world. Its a big vote. Its going to show something. It's got to show that the Republican Party is stronger than it's ever been."

In a sign of the importance of holding the seat, Republican Gov. Bill Lee, GOP Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, as well as Republican members of Congress from Tennessee and state GOP lawmakers all spoke ahead of Johnson at the rally.

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Republican National Committee (RNC) chair Joe Gruters also spoke at the rally.

"Tennessee is the red wall. So theyre not getting past Tennessee. Were going to win this race," he told Fox News Digital. "From a registration perspective and from a part perspective this is our home turf. So Im saying Tennessee is the red wall and well get right back on track to the 2026 midterms with a victory tomorrow."

Music City Miracle: A Look At An Unusually Contentious Election In The Volunteer State

Behn, a state representative, former healthcare community organizer and a rising progressive star who some have dubbed the "AOC of Tennessee," is also getting a helping hand on Election Eve from top Democrats.

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Progressive champion Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, will headline a virtual rally for Behn on Monday evening.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., will speak Monday night during an Election Eve virtual rally for Democratic congressional nominee Aftyn Behn in the special U.S. House election in Tennessee.

Ocasio-Cortez will be joined by Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state, who chaired the Congressional Progressive Caucus the past four years, Black Voters Matter Fund co-founder LaTosha Brown and former Vice President Al Gore, a Tennessee native.

Democrats were laser focused on spotlighting the issue of affordability in this autumn's elections, and Behn is keeping to that script.

"Angry about high grocery prices? Worried about health care costs? Feeling burned by tariffs? Then Dec. 2 is your day to shake up Washington," she says in her campaign's final ad.

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By casting herself as the candidate who will put a check on Trump's party in Congress, Behn sees a path to victory.

Democratic congressional nominee state Rep. Aftyn Behn, D-Nashville, attends a campaign event during the special election for the seventh district, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn.

While Democrats privately acknowledge that the path to victory is narrow, Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin, who campaigned with Behn last month, argued that she has "an excellent shot to win."

Tennessee Democratic Candidate Caught Saying 'I Hate Nashville' And 'Country Music' In Resurfaced Clip

But Behn has faced repeated attacks that she's out of step with voters in the district.

"She does not represent the values of Tennessee or of America. She is as far left as you can get. She's a radical," Van Epps claimed in his Fox News Digital interview. "We have to reject that ideology. And we're going to do that tomorrow."

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Johnson, speaking to the crowd minutes later at the Franklin rally, argued that Behn was a "radical" and "a dangerous far leftist. And she will be a rubber stamp for Akeem Jeffries and AOC and all the radicals in Congress."

And Trump, repeating comments he made over the weekend on social media, charged that Behn "hates Christianity" and "hates country music."

"How the hell can you elect a person like that?" the president asked.

Scoop: Trump-aligned Maga Inc. Jumps Into High Stakes Ballot Box Congressional Showdown

Trump was referring to past comments Behn made from a 2020 podcast.

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"I hate the city, I hate the bachelorettes, I hate the pedal taverns, I hate country music, I hate all of the things that make Nashville apparently an 'it' city to the rest of the country. But I hate it," she said in the podcast.

The district is solidly red, but includes parts of the Democratic stronghold of Nashville, Tennessee's capital and its most populous city, and a major national center for the country music industry. The district encompasses parts of north and west Nashville, including the downtown area which has long been a very popular tourist destination.

Behn, in a CNN interview on Sunday, noted that she was a "private citizen" when she made the comments. "Nashville is my home. Do I roll my eyes at the bachelorette parties and the pedal taverns that are blocking my access to my house? Yeah. Every Nashvillian does. But this race has always been about something bigger. It's about families across middle Tennessee that are getting crushed by rising prices."

Democratic congressional nominee Aftyn Behn, a Tennessee state representative, is running in a Dec. 2 special election for a vacant U.S. House seat.

Republicans are also taking aim at Behn over an op-ed titled, "Tennessee is a racist state, and so is its legislature," that appeared in a 2019 edition of The Tennessean newspaper.

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The RNC, pointing in a recent social media post to the six-year-old opinion piece, asked, "If Behn hates Tennessee so much, why is she trying to represent it?"

Also resurfacing in recent weeks are anti-police comments Behn made on a now-deleted social media account.

Behn campaign manager Kate Briefs, pushing back, said last week,"The attacks from Washington Republicans are getting louder because their agenda is deeply unpopular  and because early vote returns show this race is a dead heat. They cant talk about fixing healthcare, lowering costs, or protecting our hospitals because they have no plan. So instead, theyre throwing mud."

Behn's campaign is pointing to what it says is "a surge of first-time and infrequent voters" turning out for early voting.

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Should Behn pull off an upset and win, the GOP House majority would become so fragile the Democrats could have a shot of taking back the chamber next year ahead of the midterms if one or two more Republicans leave Congress early. Republicans were rattled last month when MAGA rock star and top Trump ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene announced she would step down in January following a falling out with the president.

"Since I became speaker, I presided over some of the smallest majorities in history. Every seat counts," Johnson told Fox News Digital.





Original article source: Trump, Speaker Johnson, AOC blitz campaign trail on eve of crucial congressional showdown
President Trump urged Tennessee voters to back Republican Matt Van Epps in Tuesdays special House election to succeed former Rep. Mark Green (R), saying Democratic challenger Aftyn Behn openly disdains Country music.

I am asking all America First Patriots in Tennessees 7th Congressional District, who havent voted yet, to please GET OUT AND VOTE on Election Day, Tuesday, December 2nd, for a phenomenal Candidate, Matt Van Epps, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Sunday.

Matt is fighting against a woman who hates Christianity, will take away your guns, wants Open Borders, Transgender for everybody, men in womens sports, and openly disdains Country music, Trump added without adding evidence. She said all of these things precisely, and without question  ITS ON TAPE!

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Van Epps, a former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of General Services, is running against Behn, a state representative, for a special election to represent Tennessees 7th Congressional District after Green resigned from his seat earlier this year for an opportunity in the private sector.

Republicans have attacked Behn over comments she made in 2020 in a podcast episode of Grits, in which she said, Ive been heavily involved in the Nashville mayoral race because I hate this city, I hate the bachelorettes, I hate the pedal taverns, I hate country music.

I hate all the things that make Nashville apparently an it city to the rest of the country, she added.

Behn addressed the comments in a video last month, acknowledging, Now, I always want Nashville to be better, right? I want Nashville to be a place where working people can thrive, right? But sure, I get mad at the bachelorette [parties] sometimes, I get mad at the pedal taverns, right? Talking to someone who has cried no less than 10 times in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

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NO, I DO NOT HATE THE CITY I REPRESENT, Behn wrote in a post corresponding with the video, including three laughing emojis.

In a statement, Behn campaign manager Kate Briefs responded to Trumps Truth Social post, saying the president is lying because he is panicking about his tanking approval numbers as Tennessee voters hold him accountable for his failed economic policies that are raising their costs, while lowering taxes for their billionaire donors.

Aftyn Behns affordability message  to lower grocery costs, housing costs, and health care costs  is resonating with voters of all political stripes, which is why this race is now tied, Briefs added.

Though the 7th Congressional District is seen as a comfortably red one, Democrats are eager to overperform in Tuesdays election and offer another sign of Democratic voter enthusiasm entering next years midterms.

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At least one poll, from Emerson College Polling and The Hill, suggests the race could be tight. They survey, released last week, showed Behn and Van Epps neck and neck.

Updated at 10:49 a.m. EST

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Turkey's Stone Mounds Project, including Gobeklitepe and Karahantepe, features the world's oldest structures for gathering and rituals, dating to 9,500 BCE.

Turkey unveiled dozens of new finds at a major archaeological site in southeast Turkey last week, giving fresh insight into an area seen as showing humanity's transition from hunter-gatherers to settled societies more than 11,000 years ago.

On a plateau overlooking the fertile plains of what is often called the "cradle of civilisation," the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Gobeklitepe and nearby Karahantepe are transforming archaeologists' understanding of prehistoric times.

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Among the latest finds in Sanliurfa province is a statue with a facial expression reminiscent of a deceased individual. Archaeologists said it was a unique discovery in terms of death rituals and symbolic expression among Neolithic communities.

It was one of some 30 artifacts revealed last week, including human and animal statues, figurines, vessels, plates, necklaces, and beads, including a human-shaped one.

"What makes these archaeological sites unique is the way they reshape our knowledge of Neolithic history, as well as the transition to settled life," Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy told Reuters.

A pillar and a human statue stand at the Karahantepe excavation site, widely regarded with Gobeklitepe as keys to understanding the birth of symbolic thought, social complexity and monumental architecture thousands of years before cities or states existed, near the southeastern city of Sanliurfa, Tu (credit: REUTERS/UMIT BEKTAS)

He said the sites, which Turkey has dubbed the Stone Mounds project, show that humanity had a far higher level of consciousness in beliefs, rituals, social organization, and cultural production than previously assumed.

Gobeklitepe and Karahantepe reveal earliest ritual sites

Gobeklitepe is expected to attract around 800,000 visitors this year, he said, illustrating the growing recognition of the site's importance.

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The ministry-led project encompasses 12 Neolithic sites of settled communities in Sanliurfa dating back to 9,500 BC, with Gobeklitepe and Karahantepe featuring the world's oldest structures used for gathering and performance rituals.

Among the most striking features at the sites are oval-shaped monumental structures up to 28 meters in diameter surrounded by T-shaped limestone pillars, regarded as representations of humans, with reliefs of animals depicted on some of them.

Archaeologists say one recent excavation at Karahantepe uncovered a T-shaped pillar with a human face, representing the first known depiction of a human face on such a pillar.

"From nutrition to architecture, from the symbolic world to the rituals, the vast diversity of evidence obtained here brings us incredibly close to prehistoric societies," said Necmi Karul, the head of excavations, describing the builders of the structures as skilled craftsmen.

He said that until recently, it was assumed that settled life started with agriculture and animal husbandry. However, the project indicated that these people were still hunter-gatherers but had become settled.
Two men suspected of having raised millions in donations for Palestinian extremist group Hamas have been arrested in Denmark, Copenhagen police said on Tuesday.

A 28-year-old was taken into custody on Tuesday morning, while a 59-year-old has been held in pre-trial detention for some time, police said on X.

News agency Ritzau and broadcaster TV 2 reported that the men raised nearly 5.7 million Danish kroner ($886,000) for Hamas, which is classified by the European Union as a terrorist organization.

The money is believed to have been transferred to the group either via a network of Danish organizations or from abroad.

Both suspects have reportedly rejected the accusations against them.
Two local nonprofits that help individuals and families experiencing homelessness have received multimillion dollar grants from Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, and his wife Lauren Sanchez Bezos.

City Care and City Rescue Mission are each set to receive a $2.5 million grant from the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund to help them as they work to eradicate homelessness.

For City Rescue Mission, the grant is the largest one-time gift in the organization's history.

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"This unprecedented grant brings us closer than ever to a future where no child in our community has to face the trauma of homelessness," Erin Goodin, City Rescue Mission president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. "It is a transformative act of trust in our mission, and we are profoundly grateful. This grant will allow us to expand our work with families experiencing homelessness and bring more families home."

City Rescue Mission, plans to use the grant funding over the next five years to expand the agency's family housing program by adding diversion services, flexible housing assistance and a larger stabilization team to help families secure housing quickly and keep it. In addition to emergency shelter for individuals and families, the nonprofit offers programs focusing on employment readiness, life skills and how to live independently.

More: Calm Waters, YWCA-OKC and City Care: Meet the women now at the helm of these nonprofits

City Care leaders said their organization plans to use the grant to serve more families experiencing homelessness in Oklahoma City and Norman. City Care wants to use the funding to create lasting infrastructure that streamlines resource referrals, enhances wraparound supports and increases housing stability outcomes for hundreds of families over the next several years.

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Among other services, the nonprofit operates a low-barrier night shelter, free shuttles that help connect riders to vital services in the community, and affordable supportive housing.

"We are thrilled by this opportunity to expand our support for families experiencing homelessness, one of the fastest-growing populations facing housing instability," said Rachel Freeman, City Care chief executive officer, in a statement.

"This funding will greatly increase our capacity to meet families the moment they need help, surround them with care and guide them quickly into safe, stable housing and a place to call home."

City Care and City Rescue Mission were among 32 organizations across the country that were the 2025 Bezos Day 1 Families Fun award recipients. The awards, totaling $102.5 million, were given to agencies across the country to help expand their work to help families have a safe, stable place to call home.

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More: Billionaire MacKenzie Scott gives 2 OK nonprofits whopper grant: 'Vital agents of change'

Bezos' ex-spouse gives to state organizations

The Bezos' multimillion grants come on the heels of several major gifts awarded to three Oklahoma institutions of higher learning by Jeff Bezos' ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott.

In a little more than a week's time, Scott donated multimillion grants to the College of the Muscogee Nation, Northern Oklahoma College and Northeastern State University through her philanthropic organization Yield Giving.

More: Third Oklahoma college receives multimillion gift from MacKenzie Scott

On Nov. 22, Northern Oklahoma College in Tonkawa and Enid announced that it had received $17 million from Scott, the single largest contribution in the school's history. The philanthropist gave $17 million to Northeastern State University in Tahlequah in Tahlequah on Nov. 25.

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And The College of the Muscogee Nation in Okmulgee announced in a Nov. 28 Facebook post that Scott had donated $8 million to the tribal college.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife give $2.5M to OKC nonprofits
Two protesters who joined an effort to block a planned Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown on Canal Street in lower Manhattan were charged with felony assault after injuring two officers trying to control the crowd, prosecutors said.

The two were among a total of 18 arrested during a chaotic protest that included forming a human chain and using garbage cans and planters to block ICE agents trying to leave a Lower East Side garage. Activists had learned of the gathering point for a planned, large-scale ICE operation and converged on the garage Saturday.

ICE called the NYPD to deal with the protesters, who were issued multiple warnings to disperse. After an exit from the garage was cleared, officers were recorded pepper-spraying demonstrators as they chased the departing motorcade, throwing debris and garbage from a nearby dumpster at the vehicles.

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One of the two protesters facing felony charges, Natalia Arai, 37, kicked a garbage can that struck one officer in the left leg, causing a laceration, court documents show. Arai was charged with second-degree assault and resisting arrest.

Another officer suffered substantial pain and bruising after 26-year-old Asif Ali shoved a wooden pallet into his foot, a criminal complaint reads. Ali was charged with second degree assault.

After the protest, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told Ricky Patel, Department of Homeland Security special agent in charge of the New York field office that the way the situation unfolded was unacceptable, a source with knowledge of the conversation said.

ICE has tried this twice with these shows of force that are intended to cause chaos and disorder on our streets, but all they are doing is putting the public, federal agents and her cops in harms way, the source said. She warned them that this needs to stop because, if it happens again, someone will get hurt and it will be entirely on them.

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Because of New Yorks sanctuary city law, the NYPD is barred from helping the feds with civil immigration enforcement, but cops can be called in if a crime or violation is being committed, such as protesters blocking sidewalks or stopping traffic.

Two others arrested by the NYPD, Symmes Cannon, 20, and Eli Sairs, 40, were charged with misdemeanors.

Cannon faces multiple counts of trespassing for stepping into the garage where ICE agents were trapped, prosecutors said. Symmes is charged with reckless endangerment, obstructing governmental administration and disorderly conduct for allegedly throwing a garbage bag at a police officer, court documents show.

Arai, Ali, Cannon and Symmes all pleaded not guilty and were released without bail following their arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Sunday. Attorneys with Legal Aid representing the four defendants did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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The remaining 14 protesters who were arrested received desk appearance tickets and were released.

The scheduled ICE operation was believed to be similar to one that occurred on Canal Street a month ago when agents, in a surprise raid, swooped in to target illegal street vendors. The protesters on Saturday managed to locate ICEs rallying point  the garage  and quickly alerted fellow protesters to join them, sources said.

The day after the melee, politicians including Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, city Comptroller Brad Lander and City Council members Sandy Nurse and Crystal Hudson spoke in support of the protesters at a rally at Howard and Centre streets in Chinatown, near the garage where activists blocked ICE agents from leaving.

There is no reason they should be charged standing up for our constitutional rights, standing up for our First Amendment rights, and standing up for vulnerable New Yorkers, Nurse said at the rally.

_____
KABUL, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- A total of 10 Afghan nationals were killed after Iranian border guards opened fire on them along the border in western Afghanistan's Farah province as they attempted to illegally enter the neighboring country, said a statement from the provincial police office on Tuesday.

Provincial police spokesman Mawlawi Mohammad Nasim Badri said in the statement that the Afghans, all residents of Farah province, were trying to sneak into Iran when the Iranian border guards opened fire, killing them on the spot.

Two others remain missing following the incident, the official added, without providing more details.

Iran has expelled thousands of Afghans since early this year and has asked foreign nationals living in the country without legal documents to leave. Despite this, many Afghans continue to leave their homeland daily to escape unemployment and poverty. 
Two protestors who joined an effort to block a planned Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown on Canal Street in lower Manhattan were charged with felony assault after injuring two officers trying to control the crowd, prosecutors said.

The two were among a total of 18 arrested during a chaotic protest that included forming a human chain and using garbage cans and planters to block ICE agents trying to leave a Lower East Side garage. Activists had learned of the gathering point for a planned, large-scale ICE operation and converged on the garage Saturday.

ICE called the NYPD to deal with the protestors, who were issued multiple warnings to disperse. After an exit from the garage was cleared, officers were recorded pepper-spraying demonstrators as they chased the departing motorcade, throwing debris and garbage from a nearby dumpster at the vehicles.

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One of the two protestors facing felony charges, Natalia Arai, 37, kicked a garbage can that struck one officer in the left leg, causing a laceration, court documents show. Arai was charged with second-degree assault and resisting arrest.

Another officer suffered substantial pain and bruising after 26-year-old Asif Ali shoved a wooden pallet into his foot, a criminal complaint reads. Ali was charged with second degree assault.

After the protest, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told Ricky Patel, Department of Homeland Security special agent in charge of the New York field office that the way the situation unfolded was unacceptable, a source with knowledge of the conversation said.

ICE has tried this twice with these shows of force that are intended to cause chaos and disorder on our streets, but all they are doing is putting the public, federal agents and her cops in harms way, the source said. She warned them that this needs to stop because, if it happens again, someone will get hurt and it will be entirely on them.

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Because of New Yorks sanctuary city law, the NYPD is barred from helping the feds with civil immigration enforcement, but cops can be called in if a crime or violation is being committed, such as protesters blocking sidewalks or stopping traffic.

Two others arrested by the NYPD, Symmes Cannon, 20, and Eli Sairs, 40, were charged with misdemeanors.

Cannon faces multiple counts of trespassing for stepping into the garage where ICE agents were trapped, prosecutors said. Symmes is charged with reckless endangerment, obstructing governmental administration and disorderly conduct for allegedly throwing a garbage bag at a police officer, court documents show.

Arai, Ali, Cannon and Symmes all pleaded not guilty and were released without bail following their arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Sunday. Attorneys with Legal Aid representing the four defendants did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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The remaining 14 protestors who were arrested received desk appearance tickets and were released.

The scheduled ICE operation was believed to be similar to one that occurred on Canal St. a month ago when agents, in a surprise raid, swooped in to target illegal street vendors. The protesters on Saturday managed to locate ICEs rallying point  the garage  and quickly alerted fellow protesters to join them, sources said.

The day after the melee, politicians including Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, city Comptroller Brad Lander and City Council members Sandy Nurse and Crystal Hudson spoke in support of the protesters at a rally at Howard and Centre Sts. in Chinatown, near the garage where activists blocked ICE agents from leaving.

There is no reason they should be charged standing up for our constitutional rights, standing up for our First Amendment rights, and standing up for vulnerable New Yorkers, Nurse said at the rally.
Relations between American and Indian officials investigating the crash of an Air India 787 earlier this year have been tense, according to a new report, and there may be considerable daylight between the two sides over the cause of the disaster.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Indian authorities disagreed on where to examine the aircraft's flight recorders and the process for examining evidence. The Americans were also frustrated by the alleged slow pace of data recovery efforts.

At one point, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy threatened to withdraw American support for the probe unless her agency's demands were met, according to the newspaper.

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As of this month, the NTSB and FAA, and India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) are continuing to collaborate on the investigation, though no new information has been released through official channels in months. A preliminary report from the AAIB issued in July revealed that the 787's fuel control switches had been turned from "RUN" to "CUTOFF," which starved both engines of fuel and reduced their thrust. The document did not explain why the switches were moved to the cutoff position.

Black Box Standoff

According to the Journal, Indian officials wanted to examine the aircraft's flight recorders at a laboratory in the town of Korwa in northern India. The Americans thought the analysis would take place in either New Delhi or Washington, D.C., and were reluctant to send specialists to Korwa due to the risk of terrorism in the region.

Homendy allegedly blocked the plan and had State Department employees intercept NTSB investigators at the airport in Delhi so they would not board a military flight to Korwa arranged by the Indian government.

Homendy then issued an ultimatum-if Indian investigators did not pick between New Delhi or Washington within 48 hours, she would end U.S. support for the investigation. The Indian government settled on New Delhi.

Air India 787 [Credit: Shutterstock]

U.S. and Indian experts also did not see eye to eye on the overall process for examining and sharing evidence. The Indians conducted some aspects of the investigation sequentially, the Journal stated, while the Americans wanted a broader, faster review to determine if there was a problem with the 787, which would have posed a risk to the international flying public.

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It also took an unusually long time for Indian examiners to produce a flight recorder readout.

"We're champing at the bit to get the data," an FAA official in the U.S. reportedly said at the time.

We're Not a Third-World Country'

Differences between the U.S. and Indian investigators may have as much to do with culture and national pride as procedure.

The Journal report suggests the AAIB did not want an outside organization taking control of the probe or undermining its authority. Agency chief G.V.G. Yugandhar reportedly told American investigators "we're not a third-world country" and "we can do anything you all can do," according to people familiar with the discussions.

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Flight 171 crashed shortly after taking off from the city of Ahmedabad. The 787 failed to climb and struck the campus of a medical college, killing a total of 260 people, including all but one of the flight's passengers.

According to the Journal's report, U.S. and Indian experts disagree on where responsibility for the crash ultimately lies. Figures in the U.S. government and the American aerospace sector privately believe one of the pilots deliberately crashed the airplane, while Indian authorities and pilots associations have avoided talking about potential pilot culpability.

Data from the flight recorders and other instruments reportedly shows that, as the 787 lost altitude, the first officer panicked and attempted to pull up on the aircraft's yoke, while the senior pilot-suspected of cutting off fuel to the engines-did not.
UEA's 54th anniversary celebration since the union's creation was focused on the nation's role in improving the humanitarian situation in Gaza and on demands for the ceasefire plan.

The UAE is celebrating its National Day on Tuesday. In honor of the occasion, media in the UAE has also highlighted the importance of Gaza to Abu Dhabi. While the UAE has not been the most outspoken country during the war in Gaza, it has always worked to support the civilians in Gaza behind the scenes. This has been a major effort.

According to a report by Al Ain News, the UAEs humanitarian aid support for Gaza constituted more than 44% of all international aid to Gaza to date. It said that the Gulf country helped evacuate more than 3,000 wounded people from Gaza and sent over 100,000 tons of supplies. The UAE National Day brings joy to Gaza, it said.

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The media site reported that as the United Arab Emirates celebrates the 54th anniversary of the founding of the Union, it has chosen to immortalize this historic anniversary in the hearts of the people of Gaza through exceptional humanitarian initiatives. Al Ain called this the thawb [traditional regional garment] of joy initiative.

The report noted that, since the founding of the UAE in 1971, the country has developed and is currently able to provide humanitarian aid on a large scale. This reflects the values of giving and belonging, amidst a festive atmosphere that expressed the spirit of the national occasion. The report said that the UAE continues its humanitarian leadership in supporting Gaza by providing aid amounting to more than 9.4 billion dirhams during the two years of the crisis, which constituted more than 44% of the total international aid to Gaza so far.

The UAEs initiatives, known as operations in the Gaza Strip, have had several names. They have included one known as Noble Knight 3. This new initiative is aimed at supporting weddings, hence the use of the term gown or garment. The UAE will support grooms from various governorates of the Gaza Strip, to bring joy to the hearts of Gazans after months that were filled with sadness and pain.

Aid donated by the UAE for the people of Gaza is stored in a warehouse at the port of Limassol, Cyprus November 7, 2025. (credit: YIANNIS KOURTOGLOU/REUTERS)

Apparently, out of 577 men who put forward their names, several dozen were chosen to receive tents and relief packages, in support of their resilience and to assist them at the beginning of their new life. The newlyweds have expressed their gratitude to the humanitarian nation for its continued support of Gaza.

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The report also noted that the UAE had organized a national humanitarian event [for] the occasion of the 54th Union Day, which included preparing 1,971 relief parcels destined for Gaza, in a symbolic initiative that embodies the year of the founding of the UAE, and reflects the values of giving and belonging, amid a festive atmosphere that expressed the spirit of the national occasion.

Dr. Hamdan Musallam Al Mazrouei, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Emirates Red Crescent (ERC), who has emphasized the UAEs humanitarian role globally in past statements, noted the continued role the group plays in Gaza.

He explained that this issue reinforces that humanitarian work is an integral part of the Emirati identity since the first day of the Union, as every year of the countrys life is translated into charitable work that reaches those who need it around the world  so that the celebration of Union Day, through this initiative, becomes more than just a national occasion. It is a moral and humanitarian stance that reflects the UAEs commitment to supporting affected peoples, Al Ain said.

Mazrouei went on to note that the UAE was the largest donor of humanitarian aid in the world relative to its national income, which reflects that giving is a firmly established national identity.

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According to Al Ain, he added that the Red Crescent does not present itself only as a voluntary humanitarian organization; it is also a national voice that reflects the philosophy of the state and its leadership in serving humanity without discrimination or borders.

The UAEs role in the Strip began with the Noble Knight 3 operations two years ago. It has played a role in transferring aid via Egypt and via air drops.

Two years since first UAE relief operation to Gaza

The UAE's celebration of Union Day coincides with the two-year anniversary of the launch of "Operation Noble Knight 3," the UAE's largest relief operation to aid the people of Gaza, on November 5, 2023. The UAE has also backed the ceasefire brokered by the US in October. UAE state media noted that after the ceasefire deal the UAE Humanitarian Ship set sail today for the Gaza Strip as part of Operation Chivalrous Knight 3, carrying 7,200 tonnes of relief supplies aimed at meeting urgent needs and alleviating the suffering of people in the Strip.

The report added that the shipment includes 4,680 tonnes of essential food supplies, 2,160 tonnes of shelter materials, tents and winter clothing, along with 360 tonnes of medical supplies and four water tanks. The cargo represents a comprehensive humanitarian response addressing the most pressing daily needs of Gazas population. These initiatives come directly from the top due to President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who places humanitarian work among the countrys top priorities and ensures the continuity of relief support for the people of Gaza, UAE state media noted.

The convoys of aid from the UAE continue to flow. These include food, medical needs, and basic necessities, as well as shelter. Al-Ain noted, the successive convoys included food, medical, shelter, and health parcels, in addition to parcels designated for winter clothing, and parcels specifically for women and children, reflecting the operations keenness to meet the needs of various affected groups in the Gaza Strip. Abu Dhabi has also donated 33 ambulances, medical tents, and 36 water tankers to Gaza. Field bakeries have also been supplied to help produce food amidst the ruins. The UAE also backs water and infrastructure projects in Gaza.

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According to the report, the UAE humanitarian aid team oversees the preparation and dispatch of these convoys through the humanitarian aid logistics center in Al-Arish city, where the team handles the receiving, storage, repackaging and preparation operations, to ensure the speed and efficiency of delivering aid to the sector in coordination with the relevant authorities. For instance, a water project in Gaza, which the report terms the largest one of its kind, helps provide desalinated water to tens of thousands of people. The Emirati water pipeline stretches 7.5 kilometers with a production capacity of approximately two million gallons per day, serving more than 600,000 people.

The UAE is concerned about the future of Gaza. As it continues to support aid, an editorial at The National in the UAE expresses concern that Gaza will continue to be divided between an area controlled by the IDF and the rest of Gaza, where around 2 million people shelter amid hardship and destruction caused by the war. The editorial expressed concern that the small enclave will be cleaved in two. The UAE wants to see progress on the ceasefire plan. The editorial expressed grave concern about what might come in 2026 unless progress is made.
The Fresno Police Department has identified Maurice Session as the suspect accused of shooting at his Uber driver on Thanksgiving.

The shooting happened around 8:15 p.m. on South Tupman Street in Southwest Fresno.

When officers arrived on scene, they found the 40-year-old victim in his car.

Investigators say that the victim had picked up a man and a woman for a ride. Once they were in the vehicle, Session got into an argument with the victim and slapped him.

The victim told the suspects to get out of the car and threatened to call the police.

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Session pulled out a handgun and shot at the victim multiple times, with one of the bullets grazing his head.

The victim was taken to Community Regional Medical Center and has been released.

Police say Session is considered armed and dangerous. Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call the Fresno Police Department immediately or Crime Stoppers at (559) 498-STOP (7867), www.valleycrimestoppers.org.
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.

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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.

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"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 aid was welcome but only a step towards the major reconstruction that is "badly needed" and she was frustrated to see "yet another consignment of aid stuck at the border" earlier this year.

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"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 the arrival of the tents "represents months of ongoing work by the international community to push for greater aid access".

"The situation in Gaza is devastating as cold, and heavy rains continue to affect families living in extremely difficult conditions.

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"Even with the ceasefire, daily life remains incredibly challenging for children in the Gaza Strip.

"UK aidsupported 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.

"In this framework, hundreds of trucks enter each day carrying food, water, fuel, gas, medicines, medical equipment, tents and shelter equipment.

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"This takes place in close and ongoing coordination with the UN, international organisations, donor countries, and the private sector."

It added that over the past three months Cogat had "approved 100,000 pallet requests submitted by organisations, of winter-related items, shelter equipment, and sanitation supplies".

"These supplies are ready and waiting for weeks for immediate coordination by the relevant organisations so they can enter Gaza.

"The coordination depends on the international organisations, and Cogat is committed to facilitating the coordination process."

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[BBC]

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The UKs Product Regulation and Metrology Act 2025 introduces new rules on how goods must be packaged, labelled, and sold. Although the Act was passed in July 2025, its main provisions come into effect on 1 January 2026.

Businesses across the packaging supply chain now have several weeks to prepare for compliance, ensuring accurate product measurements, legally compliant pack sizes, and clear consumer-facing information.

These obligations work alongside the UKs Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme, which requires companies to report packaging data and assess recyclability.

What the new UK law requires from packaging

The Product Regulation and Metrology Act 2025 sets out rules for how product quantities are expressed and declared on packaging. Every packaged item must show accurate weight, volume, or unit count.

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Labels must be clear, legible, and correctly reflect the contents of the packaging. Mislabelled or incorrectly sized packaging could lead to fines or enforcement action once the law comes into force.

Producers and packaging suppliers are advised to review all labelling, measuring, and packing processes. Quality assurance must ensure that products are filled correctly and that declared quantities match the actual contents.

Detailed records and documentation will be critical for proving compliance during inspections or audits.

The Act also allows the Secretary of State to issue further regulations, meaning additional requirements on packaging formats, labelling standards, or size thresholds could be introduced in the future.

The role of extended producer responsibility

The UKs EPR scheme, introduced in January 2025, operates alongside the Metrology Act. Obligated producers must report the types and volumes of packaging they place on the market and pay fees based on recyclability.

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This adds a new layer of accountability for manufacturers, retailers, and online marketplaces.

For packaging businesses, this means ensuring that every packs material, weight, and size are recorded accurately. Companies must track packaging from production through to sale, and factor recyclability assessments into design decisions.

The combined effect of the Act and EPR is to improve transparency and encourage more sustainable packaging practices across the supply chain.

Preparing for compliance

Companies should take immediate steps to review and update packaging practices in anticipation of the 1 January 2026 enforcement date. This includes verifying the accuracy of declared quantities, checking labelling clarity, and auditing packaging sizes against the Acts requirements.

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Businesses under the EPR scheme should ensure that their reporting systems are ready and that data on packaging volumes and recyclability is complete and accurate.

The new UK rules mark a significant shift in how packaging is regulated. From 2026, packaging will not only serve as a container for products but will also be a regulated element of the product itself.

Early preparation will help companies avoid penalties, maintain consumer trust, and align with growing expectations around transparency and sustainability.

"New UK rules change how products must be packaged" was originally created and published by Packaging Gateway, a GlobalData owned brand.




Fighting has raged in Ukraine since Russia launched a full-scale invasion more than three years ago. Over the past year, Russian forces have slowly expanded the amount of territory they control, mostly in the east of Ukraine, and have continued their recent barrage of air strikes on Kyiv and other cities.

Talks to end the war have been continuing since a US-backed peace plan, which was viewed as being favourable to Russia, was unveiled in November.

With Kyiv preparing to present an alternative peace plan to the White House as it seeks to avoid making territorial concessions to Russia, here's a look at the situation on the ground in Ukraine.

Russia grinds forward in the east

In eastern Ukraine, Moscow's war machine has been churning mile by mile through the wide open fields of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions - also known as the Donbas - surrounding and overwhelming villages and towns.

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It has been trying to gain full control of the area along with two more regions to the west - Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Shortly after the invasion, Russia held referendums to try to annexe all these regions - in the same way it had annexed Crimea in 2014 - but it has never had them under full control.

[BBC]

Under the initial peace plan - drafted by US and Russian officials last month  Ukraine would cede control of all of Luhansk, Donetsk and Crimea, along with the areas of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson that Russia currently occupies, to Moscow.

Ukrainian forces would have to withdraw from parts of Donetsk they still hold and this would become a demilitarised area under de facto Russian control. Russian forces would withdraw from the small areas of Ukraine they currently occupy outside those regions.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has consistently said Ukraine will not hand over the Donbas in exchange for peace, saying such a concession could be used as a springboard for future attacks by Russia.

Key towns targeted

A recent report by the US-based Institute for the Study of War, (ISW) describes a "fortress belt" running 50km (31 miles) through western Donetsk.

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"Ukraine has spent the last 11 years pouring time, money, and effort into reinforcing the fortress belt and establishing significant defence industrial and defensive infrastructure," it writes.

A Russian summer offensive near the eastern town of Pokrovsk did make rapid advances just north of the town and Russia has recently made advances in the south of the town itself and to the east of nearby Kostyantynivka.

The battle for Pokrovsk, once a key logistics hub for Ukraine's military, has been grinding on for nearly 18 months. The city is already in ruins.

[BBC]

Russian officials claim to have captured the key strategic town, known in Russian as Krasnoarmeysk, which could give Moscow a platform to drive north towards the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in the Donetsk region, Kramatorsk and Slovyansk.

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Analysts tracking the front line say Russian forces have slowly been advancing from the south. Ukraine is losing ground, but Kyiv says it still holds the north, up to the railway line that bisects the city.

The ISW says it would take Russia "several years" to take the whole region.

However, it also notes that Russia's casualty rates have fallen in recent months despite its more rapid advances and says this is likely to be the result of its increased use of unmanned aerial vehicles - drones.

Russian incursion north of Kharkiv

Further north on the main front line, Russia has been trying to advance on the city of Kupyansk, which analysts suggest could allow it to encircle the northern Donetsk region.

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It has also been trying to push Ukrainian forces back from the border with the Russian region of Belgorod.

[BBC]

ISW analysts say Russia is trying to create a buffer zone inside Ukraine's northern borders and get within artillery range of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-biggest city.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says he wants this buffer zone to protect Russia, after Ukrainian forces captured a swathe of territory further north in Kursk in the summer of 2024. Russian forces eventually drove them out, with the help of North Korean troops.

[BBC]

As well as the counter-offensive in the Kursk region, Ukraine has struck air bases deep inside Russia. One of these attacks involved using 100 drones to target nuclear-capable long-range bombers.

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The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed the attacks had occurred in five regions of Russia - Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur - but stated planes had been damaged only in Murmansk and Irkutsk, while in other locations the attacks had been repelled.

Kyiv claims the drone operation inflicted $7bn (5.2bn) of damage to the Russian military. It hasn't been possible to verify either country's claims.

More recently Moscow blamed Ukrainian drones for a massive oil depot fire near Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi - the venue of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.

Ceasefire talks

Since US President Donald Trump took office at the start of 2025, the US has been pursuing an end to the war - now in its fourth year - through negotiations.

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Trump had been seen as more sympathetic to Russia than his predecessor Joe Biden was, and strained relations with Zelensky came to a head on 28 February when he and Vice-President JD Vance berated the Ukrainian president in the Oval Office on live television.

Public relations with Zelensky have vastly improved in recent months and Ukraine remains critically dependent on deliveries of US-made advanced weaponry, including air defence systems to repel deadly Russian air assaults, as well as intelligence provided by Washington.

Zelensky warned that Kyiv risked losing US support over the latest peace plan - the draft, in addition to ceding territory, would have required Ukraine to significantly cut the size of its army and pledge not to join Nato.

He met European leaders this week to discuss the proposals - they later put out a statement saying more work was needed to obtain security guarantees for Ukraine.

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Meanwhile, the Kremlin has shown little sign that it is willing to compromise on its key demands, including ruling out any future path to Ukraine joining the Nato military alliance.

Last week, Putin also restated his willingness to continue fighting until his forces take full control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Three years of fighting

Russia's full-scale invasion began with dozens of missile strikes on cities all over Ukraine before dawn on 24 February 2022.

Russian ground troops moved in quickly and within a few weeks were in control of large areas of Ukraine and had advanced to the suburbs of Kyiv.

Russian forces were bombarding Kharkiv, and had taken territory in the east and south as far as Kherson, and surrounded the port city of Mariupol.

[BBC]

But they hit very strong Ukrainian resistance almost everywhere and faced serious logistical problems with poorly-motivated Russian troops suffering shortages of food, water and ammunition.

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Ukrainian forces were also quick to deploy Western supplied arms such as the Nlaw anti-tank system, which proved highly effective against the Russian advance.

By October 2022, the picture had changed dramatically and, having failed to take Kyiv, Russia withdrew completely from the north. The following month, Ukrainian forces recaptured the southern city of Kherson.

Since then, the battle has mostly been in the east of Ukraine with Russian forces slowly gaining ground over many months - military experts estimate between 165,000 and 235,000 Russian service personnel have been killed since the invasion.

Ukraine last updated its casualty figures in December 2024, when President Zelensky acknowledged 43,000 Ukrainian deaths among soldiers and officers. Western analysts believe this figure to be an under-estimate.

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By Dominic Bailey, Mike Hills, Paul Sargeant, Chris Clayton, Kady Wardell, Camilla Costa, Mark Bryson, Sana Dionysiou, Gerry Fletcher, Kate Gaynor and Erwan Rivault

About these maps

To indicate which parts of Ukraine are under control by Russian troops we are using daily assessments published by the Institute for the Study of War with the American Enterprise Institute's Critical Threats Project.

The situation in Ukraine is often fast moving and it is likely there will be times when there have been changes not reflected in the maps.
The Irish government has approved an extra 125m (110m) in support for Ukraine in a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

It comes after the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Dublin in the Republic of Ireland for an official one-day visit.

Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Micheal Martin made the announcement at a press conference with Zelensky.

Martin said it was an honour to welcome Zelensky and the first lady Olena Zelenska on the first official visit of a Ukrainian president to Ireland.

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They left later on Tuesday night where Tanaiste (Irish deputy prime minister) Simon Harris said it had been an "honour to have them both in Ireland".

Martin said Ireland would continue to support Ukraine for as long as was needed.

He said the visit came at a "critical moment" for Ukraine and for Europe and underlined the value he placed in "the friendship between Ukraine and Ireland".

"Our is a relationship built on shared values, freedom, democracy, the right of all states to determine their own future - values the people of Ukraine have sacrificed to defend and protect," he added.

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Martin said Ireland was "open to contributing to peacekeeping and peace monitoring in Ukraine".

He said Ireland would also be willing to help in post-war construction in Ukraine.

President Zelensky said Ireland is a "neutral country" but not an "indifferent country" [Reuters]

'We are grateful'

President Zelensky said Ireland was a "neutral country" but not an "indifferent country".

"We are grateful to it.

"You are helping us and we appreciate it... Ireland's interests really matter because it is the influence of a large global community."

He said Ireland and Ukraine had signed a roadmap for a partnership between the countries for at least the next five years.

"We hope that during this period, Ukraine will become a member of the European Union," he said.

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He also expressed his gratitude to the Irish government, Irish communities and "every Irish home" that has sheltered Ukrainians.

Zelensky was met on arrival to Dublin by Taoiseach Micheal Martin [Reuters]

Earlier, a guard of honour took place as Zelensky visited Government buildings in Dublin, where the Ukrainian and Irish anthems were played.

It is understood Zelensky was also updated on the peace talks by a Ukrainian delegation in Dublin during the visit.

Ukrainian and US negotiators held meetings in Florida in recent days in an effort to revise a peace deal viewed as favouring Russia.

US President Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff is is meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow later.

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Zelensky also visited Aras an Uachtarain on Tuesday, where he was greeted by Irish President Catherine Connolly, and signed the visitors book in her study.

"We greatly appreciate Ireland's generosity in providing temporary shelter to displaced Ukrainians," he wrote in the book.

Zelensky signed the visitors book after meeting Catherine Connolly at Aras an Uachtarain [PA Media]

Further funding for Ukraine

Irish ministers signed off on an extra 100m (88m) in funding for non-lethal military support for Ukraine and a further 25m (22m) for the country's urgent energy needs.

Martin said on Tuesday that to date Ireland had provided 340m (299m) in financial support to Ukraine, including more than 173m (152m) in humanitarian supports, and 166m (146m) in non-lethal military assistance.

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The proposals were brought to the meeting, which took place in Dublin, by Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Helen McEntee.

McEntee also proposed Ireland's participation in an International Claims Commission for Ukraine.

The commission will be responsible for determining claims for damage, loss or injury caused by Russian internationally wrongful acts committed by the Russian federations against Ukraine, an Irish government source said.

At Dublin Airport this evening tor the departure of President Zelenskyy and the First Lady of Ukraine.



It has been an honour to have them both in Ireland today.



Ireland stands with Ukraine. Slava Ukraini



  pic.twitter.com/WOyNCqg3sR  Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) December 2, 2025

Zelensky also addressed both Irish houses of parliament - the Dail and the Seanad.

Speaking before the address, Ceann Comhairle (Speaker) Verona Murphy said the Good Friday Agreement was "born from decades of pain and division".

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"Yet it proved that even the deepest wounds can heal when people choose negotiation over violence.

"That lesson gives us hope for Ukraine," Murphy said.

It is the first official visit to Ireland by a Ukrainian president and first lady [PA/ Liam McBurney]

In his address, Zelensky said Ukrainian and Irish people are among "the few in Europe who spent centuries fighting for the right to remain themselves".

"Ireland has stood firmly and clearly for our independence and for a just end to this war so thank you for your steadfast support for these years of standing with us," he added.

The Ukrainian leader was given a standing ovation after the address.

He later attended the inauguration of the Ireland-Ukraine Economic Forum, alongside Harris and McEntee.

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More than 120,000 Ukrainian refugees have sought refugee status in Ireland since the outbreak of war in Ukraine in February 2022.

Some have returned and about 80,000 are estimated to be still living in Ireland.

'We pray for children, for soldiers, for all of people'

A group of Ukrainian women who fled the war to Ireland gather every Sunday to pray for peace [BBC]

Ukrainian refugee Uriivna Olena is one of a group of women who attend Ukrainian Mass every Sunday in north Dublin and prays for the war to end.

The women are hopeful peace talks currently under way will be successful to end the war.

"We go every Sunday to church to pray and we pray for children, for humans, for soldiers, for all of people and we wish war would end soon," she told BBC News NI after a Mass service finished last Sunday.

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"It's very hard for us."

"All of us are paying for peace in Ukraine. We hope that this terrible war is finally ended," said Tetiana Bilous, who is also a Ukrainian refugee.

She said the war starting has been "very difficult" and "understanding someone can have aggression against us, we are just people, citizens."

"We were living a normal life and suddenly everything was interrupted, everything was ended."

Ms Bilous said she is very grateful for the support from Ireland.

Ukrainian Mykhaylo Fedynyshyn has lived in Ireland for more than 20 years [BBC]

Mykhaylo Fedynshyn has been living in Ireland for more than 20 years and he also attended Mass.

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"My relatives still work in Ukraine and I hope they will get back to normal life, as it was before the war. So no missile, no sirens, no explosions."

He said he is hopeful peace talks would be successful.

"[I am hopeful] because Ukrainian people fighting so hard for independence, for freedom, so it has to be ended at some stage. But I believe it will be in Ukrainian favour, we will get the victory over our enemy."

Traffic restrictions around Dublin

An Garda Siochana (Irish police) said those travelling to Dublin Airport, should allow additional time to arrive at the airport due to possible rolling road closures, particularly on Tuesday evening.

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Traffic restrictions will be in place on:

Chesterfield Avenue, Phoenix Park from approximately 10:00 local time until about 13:00

Kildare Street, Merrion Street, Merrion Square and the vicinity of Government Buildings and Leinster House from 11:00

Stephens Green South, Stephens Green East and Leeson Street from 15:30

The public can also expect localised road closures to facilitate events and temporary rolling road closures to facilitate security escorts over the course of Tuesday.
The UN warned Israel over alleged abuses against rights defenders and detainees, calling for stronger legal protections and impartial investigations.

The UN Committee Against Torture addressed several concerns with Israel's alleged mistreatment of human rights defenders, journalists, whistleblowers, prisoners, and former military advocate-general Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, in a statement last week.

In Clause 47 of its statement, the committee called upon Israel to "ensure that all human rights defenders and journalists are able to carry out their legitimate work in an enabling environment, free from threats, reprisals, violence, or other forms of intimidation and harassment."

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The committee also urged Israel to release all "human rights defenders, journalists, and others who are arbitrarily detained as a result of exercising their rights to defend rights and freely expressing themselves."

It also called on Israel to "investigate promptly, thoroughly, and impartially all allegations of arbitrary arrest, extrajudicial killing and other torture or ill-treatment of human rights defenders and journalists, prosecute and punish appropriately those found guilty, and provide victims with redress."

In addition, the committee called on Israel to "provide detailed information on the situation of and any prosecution or disciplinary proceedings concerning Major-General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi and recommends that it establish a whistleblower mechanism to ensure that reliable information about torture and ill-treatment can be provided without risk of reprisals or prosecutions."

Then-IDF military advocate-general Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi; illustrative. (credit: FLASH90)

The committee also expressed its concern over allegations of arbitrarily detaining human rights defenders and journalists in the West Bank, and allegations of deliberate targeting of journalists in Gaza.

UN cm'tee against torture condemns Hamas's Oct. 7 massacre, but calls Israel's response 'disproportionate'

The committee expressed condolences to Israel for the "reprehensible loss of life and indelible physical and emotional scars left on victims and families resulting from" Hamas's October 7, 2023, massacre, "unequivocally condemning" the terror attack.

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However, while it recognized Israel's need to respond to security threats, it denounced what it called the "disproportionality" of Israel's response as something that is "of grave concern."

Clause 12 of the committee's statement addressed concerns over information that indicated Palestinians suspected of a criminal offense who were "deprived of their liberty" did not "receive all fundamental legal safeguards, in law or in practice, from the outset of their deprivation of liberty."

The committee was also concerned that "access to legal counsel, communication with family members, and presentation before a judge may be denied for significant periods in excess of international standards."

In addition, it was concerned that "medical examinations upon deprivation of liberty are frequently cursory and that detainees have allegedly been requested to sign documents in Hebrew, despite not speaking the language."

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The committee called on Israel to ensure that all detained individuals are informed of their rights and how to exercise them, as well as the reason for their arrest, and any charges against them, in a language that they understand, as well as the right to promptly consult with a lawyer of their own choosing in a confidential manner.

The committee also called on Israel to ensure the right to a free-of-charge medical examination by a doctor of the detainee's choice, with full medical confidentiality, as well as the right to notify a contact of their detention and the right to be promptly presented before a judge.
A proposed preliminary rendering of a new arts district on the University of Kentucky campus. (Photo provided by University of Kentucky)

The University of Kentucky Board of Trustees has accepted the largest donation in school history  $150 million from The Bill Gatton Foundation  to create a new arts district on campus.

However, some approval is still needed from the state legislature to move the project forward.

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The funds accepted Tuesday will support a new arts district on the western edge of the Lexington campus. It will include a new College of Fine Arts building along South Broadway, near the Gray Design Building, as well as a performance theater for dance, music and theater with several hundred seats. A pavilion and connecting park will link South Broadway and Bolivar Street near the universitys School of Art and Visual Studies (SA/VS) Building.

This gift will realize a vision to create an arts district on the western edge of our campus, UK President Eli Capilouto said in a press release. There, we can integrate art into an area of Lexington that is an increasingly vibrant and vital intersection of campus and city, town and gown.

Gatton, who died in 2022, was an alumnus of UK. His previous gifts to the university total more than $200 million and have supported programs such as the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment; the Gatton College of Business and Economics, and the Gatton Student Center.

Capilouto said in the press release that construction for the new arts district would require authorization from the Kentucky General Assembly to issue bonds. Discussions with legislative leaders are underway. The state legislature returns to Frankfort in January to convene for the 2026 session.

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Some Kentucky elected officials praised the donation in the universitys press release. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said the gift will help not only the university but also Lexington and Kentucky, as it creates a vibrant, welcoming arts district for students, Kentuckians and visitors to enjoy.

Education and the arts fuel our economy and our workforce, and investments like these are how we keep working to build a bright future for generations, Beshear said.

Republicans Senate President Robert Stivers, of Manchester, and House Speaker David Osborne, of Prospect, applauded the donation.

Im anxious to authorize bonds so that construction can begin quickly, Stivers said. This expansion may be the impetus for more students pursuing a fine arts degree and perhaps working in the film industry, a growing industry made possible by Senate Bill 1 of the 2025 session.

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Osborne said Gattons extraordinary generosity has transformed lives across Kentucky, and todays historic gift continues that legacy.

His vision for education, community and the arts reflects the very best of our Commonwealths values, Osborne said. It celebrates our incredible heritage and makes way for an even more promising future. This arts district will not only enrich the University of Kentucky, but will also strengthen Lexington and our entire state.
MOSCOW, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has been briefed on Russian forces' capture of Krasnoarmeysk in the Donetsk region and Volchansk in the Kharkov region, the Kremlin said in a statement on Monday.

Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, announced the capture of Krasnoarmeysk and Volchansk, also detailing the results of the offensive operations in other areas, it said.

The successful actions of the Russian Armed Forces in the city of Krasnoarmeysk will ensure the implementation of the tasks set at the beginning of the special military operation, Putin was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.

"This is an important direction, all of us understand how important it is and this will ensure the progressive implementation of all key tasks that are faced by us and were set at the beginning of the special military operation," said Putin.

On Monday night, the Russian Defense Ministry released video footage from Krasnoarmeysk showing servicemen raising the Russian flag in the city's main square, marking its capture.

So far, there is no acknowledgement that either place has fallen into Russian hands.

The announcement came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in Paris for talks with European leaders, and ahead of U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff's upcoming meetings in Moscow to discuss a U.S.-backed plan for resolving the Ukraine crisis.

Following his talks with French President Emmanuel Macron and European leaders on Monday, Zelensky said Ukraine sought to end the conflict "in a dignified manner."

He called for "solid" security guarantees, noting that the "territorial issue will be the most difficult" in future talks.

On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and presidential special envoy Steve Witkoff held talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Hallandale Beach, Florida.

Although "additional progress was made" on a revised peace plan to end the conflict, "there is more work to be done," said Rubio after the meeting. "Obviously, there's another party involved here that will have to be a part of the equation."

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Putin will meet with Witkoff in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss ending the conflict with Ukraine.

A U.S.-proposed 28-point "peace plan" was unveiled earlier this month. The plan was later revised during talks among the United States, Ukraine and Europe in Geneva, with the changes remaining unclear. 
Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Uruguay's government has approved seismic studies in deep waters of the South Atlantic to determine whether the country has offshore oil reserves -- a decision moving forward with support from major oil companies, but facing objections from scientists and environmental groups.

Operations are to occur hundreds of miles from Uruguay's mainland.

The work was awarded to Apache, Petroleum Geo-Services, Compagnie Generale de Geophysique Veritas, Searcher and major partners, such as Shell, Chevron, Argentina's YPF and Italy's ENI.

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The seismic technique uses air guns that release high-intensity sound pulses to create images of the seafloor.

These pulses, which can exceed 250 decibels, have raised concerns because they affect species that rely on sound to survive, including whales, dolphins and other marine mammals. Researchers also warn of impacts on fish, larvae and zooplankton, the base of the food chain.

As a precaution, the Environment Ministry ordered crews to halt activity immediately if marine life is detected within 3,300 feet of the vessel, a stricter standard than the usual 1.640 feet.

The ministry says the final authorization will include additional conditions to reduce risks.

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However, environmental organizations argue the measures are insufficient, and they have filed legal action to suspend the studies until an independent assessment of all cumulative impacts is completed.

They contend the activity could cause irreversible damage to one of the most sensitive ecosystems in the South Atlantic.

The debate is growing as the government also considers creating new marine protected areas that, according to local media, overlap with some of the areas granted for exploration.

These areas include underwater canyons and cold-water coral mounds, which are considered fragile ecosystems of high ecological value.

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Environment Minister Edgardo Ortuno said Uruguay aims to expand its network of protected areas to cover 30% of its maritime territory, but defended the need to move forward with the studies to determine whether the country has deep-water energy potential.

Amid the debate, Apache announced it plans to drill an exploratory well in 2026 in a block more than 124 miles offshore and in waters deeper than 6.560 feet..

YPF expressed optimism, comparing the potential to recent discoveries off Namibia.
By Trevor Hunnicutt, Bo Erickson and Leah Douglas

WASHINGTON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on Tuesday that the Trump administration will announce a bridge payment for farmers next week that is designed to provide short-term relief while longer trade and aid packages are finalized.

Farm groups and Republican lawmakers have pushed the administration to issue aid as farmers face low crop prices and billions in lost soybean sales to China during tense trade talks between the two countries.

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"We do have a bridge payment. We'll be announcing with you next week," Rollins told Trump at a cabinet meeting at the White House.

Trump's spending bill known as the "One Big Beautiful Bill" expanded some farm supports but farm groups say growers need additional money now to support planting for the next crop year.

The U.S. government is already expected to spend more than $40 billion on payments to farmers in 2025, the second-highest amount since 1933, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data, fueled by ad-hoc disaster and economic aid.

AID AMOUNT STILL UNCLEAR

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John Boozman, chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and John Hoeven of North Dakota, chair of the Senate agriculture appropriations committee, said they expect some aid to reach farmers by the end of the year, but are waiting on the administration to settle on the amount and timing.

I'm not exactly sure on the amount, but you know, we'll see, I think that's still being worked on, Hoeven said.

Boozman said one challenge was getting aid out as fast as possible given the delay due to the 43-day government shutdown.

The need is definitely there. Our farmers are in a situation that right now, if you're growing something out of the ground, you're losing money," Boozman said.

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Money for the aid will come from the Commodity Credit Corporation, a discretionary USDA funding pool, and the White House continues to look for additional funding sources, Boozman said.

(Reporting By Trevor Hunnicutt, Jarrett Renshaw, Leah Douglas and Bo Erickson in Washington; editing by Deepa Babington)
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said he "did not personally see survivors" before a deadly follow-up strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean.

An initial strike reportedly left two survivors clinging to the burning vessel, before a second strike was allegedly ordered that left them dead.

The 2 September strike has prompted concerns that US forces may have violated laws governing armed conflict.

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During a cabinet meeting at the White House, Hegseth attributed the strike to the "fog of war" in a chaotic situation. The White House has said that a top US Navy admiral, Frank Bradley, authorised the second strike.

The Washington Post first reported details about the second strike, which has led to concern from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers.

In response to a reporter's question during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Hegseth said that he watched the first strike "live" but quickly moved on to another meeting.

"I did not personally see survivors," Hegseth said of the first strike. "That thing was on fire and it exploded... you can't see anything. This is called the fog of war."

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He added that he learned of Admiral Bradley's "correct decision" to sink the boat "a couple of hours later".

"We have his back," Hegseth said of Bradley.

President Donald Trump, for his part, also defended Adm Bradley, although he distanced himself from his decision to strike the vessel a second time, saying that "we didn't know about" the follow-on strike.

"And I can say this: I want those boats taken out," Trump added.

More than 80 people have been killed in a wave of similar strikes across the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific since early September.

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The Trump administration has repeatedly defended the strikes as a necessary self-defence measure to save American lives from illicit drugs.

On Tuesday, Trump claimed that the strikes had led to a massive reduction in drug trafficking through maritime routes, although he did not provide evidence.

US lawmakers from both sides of the political spectrum have expressed unease about the 2 September incident, with the Senate Armed Services committee vowing over the weekend to conduct "vigorous oversight" to determine what occurred.

Adm Bradley - who was commander of the US military's Joint Special Operations Command at the time of the strike - is expected to appear on Capitol Hill this week.

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He is now overall commander of US Special Operations Command, having been promoted a month after the 2 September incident.

The Geneva Conventions forbid the intentional targeting of wounded combatants, saying that those participants should be apprehended and given medical aid.

Several experts who spoke to the BBC expressed doubts that the reported follow-up strike could be considered legal under international law.

Trump's critics have attacked the White House for its piecemeal revelation of information of the incident. Hegseth first dismissed the Washington Post report as "fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory" - before the White House later confirmed that a second strike had, in fact, taken place, and Hegseth made his "fog of war" remark.

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Since the 2 September strikes, the US has significantly expanded its military presence in the region, with Trump again on Tuesday vowing to "start doing those strikes on land".
A US F-16 pilot outflew a 15-minute barrage of enemy missiles during a Middle East mission in March.

He made extreme turns to avoid explosions just feet away, according to an Air Force award citation.

The incident looks to have occurred during the US military's bombing campaign against the Houthis.

A US Air Force pilot survived 15 minutes of enemy missile fire during a mission in the Middle East this year, making extreme high-G maneuvers as warheads exploded only feet away from his fighter jet.

Lt. Col William Parks was awarded the Silver Star Medal, the nation's third-highest military citation for valor in combat, at the Pentagon last week for his actions, according to an Air Force news release and a service citation obtained by Business Insider.

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The Air Force said the March 27 mission occurred within the US Central Command area of responsibility, which includes the Middle East region, but did not specify where exactly. However, the timeline aligns with Operation Rough Rider, the military's weekslong bombing campaign against the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Parks served as the mission commander overseeing a force package of 21 strike aircraft, while also leading four F-16 Fighting Falcon jets in suppression of enemy air defenses.

SEAD missions are designed to clear radars and surface-to-air missile launchers, giving friendly aircraft greater freedom to operate. The US military targeted Houthi air defenses throughout the Red Sea conflict.

During the mission, Parks "intentionally placed himself" within the range of air defenses protecting the "enemy's capital," the award citation reads. This decision allowed US aircraft to destroy ballistic missile production facilities.

An F-16 pilot evaded enemy missile fire by making high-G turns, according to the Air Force. US Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jackson Manske

Parks' fighter was targeted by a barrage of surface-to-air missiles and antiaircraft artillery that lasted for 15 minutes. The pilot pushed his F-16 through a string of high-G maneuvers and deployed countermeasures as munitions exploded just feet away.

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F-16s can withstand up to nine G's, or nine times the force of gravity, with a full fuel load during acceleration or a turn. The human body can generally handle 4-5 Gs for short periods of time; trained fighter pilots can handle higher Gs. Too long, though, and even a trained pilot may black out. It's unclear how many Parks pulled on March 27.

The mission's dangers didn't end there. Parks, with fuel below minimum levels and still over enemy territory, quickly coordinated an "emergency rendezvous with two separate tankers, ensuring his flight access to critical fuel and preventing the probable loss of two aircraft due to fuel starvation," his award citation reads.

"His courageous and steadfast actions directly contributed to the survival of his wingman and himself," it says of Parks, a former commander of the 480th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron.

Parks' fighter squadron defeated a "record" 108 enemy drones and land attack cruise missiles during its eight-month deployment, which supported a handful of US military operations in the Middle East, including one dedicated to fighting the Islamic State, the Air Force said in a Sunday release.

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The Air Force added that Parks showed "innovative" weapons employment by firing cheap laser-guided rockets and decades-old AIM-9M air-to-air missiles to shoot down hostile targets, saving the US more than $25 million in munitions costs.

The US spent weeks bombing the Houthis as part of the Red Sea conflict. Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images

The engagement also marked the first time in three decades that the AIM-9M Sidewinder, a supersonic missile developed by the US Navy in the 1950s, was used successfully in combat.

"It's a rare day when someone earns a Silver Star, with less than 100 being earned during the Air Force era," said Gen. Ken Wilsbach, the Air Force chief of staff, at an award ceremony last week.

Wilsbach said after hearing about Parks' experience, "I absolutely believe he deserves this honor. Recognizing valor in combat matters, and it is a privilege to serve alongside warfighters like him."

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The Air Force credited Park with the interception of six weapons that posed a threat to the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, which played a leading role in the counter-Houthi operations in the Red Sea, and five surface-to-air missiles that targeted his F-16.

Parks, who has several airmen in his family, described the Silver Star Medal as "incredible" and said it "means a lot."

"The amount of aviation and everything that we have in our family, that's what shaped me and helped mold me," he added.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said she will recommend a travel ban on several countries which she claims are "flooding" the US with criminal activity.

Writing on social media on Monday, Noem said she had met President Donald Trump and decided to suggest "a full travel ban on every damn country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies''.

Trump and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) then shared Noem's post on their respective official social media accounts.

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It is not yet clear which countries the proposed travel ban would impact, or when it could begin. The DHS told the BBC it would announce the list soon.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Monday evening that Trump had announced a travel ban several months ago on "third world and failed state" countries, and that Noem's recommendation would "widen" that to encompass more nations.

On 4 June, the White House listed 19 countries, predominantly in Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean, which would face full or partial immigration restrictions.

Noem's additions would expand that list to about 30 total countries, multiple US officials told CBS News, the BBC's US partner.

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Noem's comments come days after two National Guard members were shot in Washington DC last Wednesday. Prior to her comments about a travel ban, Noem wrote on social media that 100,000 Afghan nationals entered the US under the Biden-era Operation Allies Welcome programme, and she said the DHS would overhaul the vetting process.

Officials identified the suspect in the DC shooting as an Afghan national who entered the US in 2021 as part of that programme, which was designed for locals who had worked with American troops during the 20-year US deployment to Afghanistan.

According to emails from last year that were obtained by CBS News, the suspect struggled with his mental health after arriving in the US.

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The Trump administration has intensified its immigration crackdown in the wake of the shooting, which killed Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and seriously injured Andrew Wolfe, 24. West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey told reporters on Monday that Mr Wolfe had responded to nurses with a thumbs-up, but he remained in a serious condition in hospital.

All decisions on asylum requests were also halted after the DC shooting, with US Citizenship and Immigration Services director Joseph Edlow saying it would remain paused "until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible".

Edlow has also said he has been asked by Trump to review green cards issued to individuals who migrated to the US from 19 countries.

On Thursday, Trump himself went further, threatening to "permanently pause migration" from all "third world countries". The phrase "third world" is one previously used to describe poorer, developing nations.

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In his Thanksgiving social media post, Trump blamed refugees for causing "social dysfunction in America" and vowed to remove "anyone who is not a net asset" to the US.

During his second presidential term, Trump has sought to enact mass deportations of illegal migrants, to cut the annual number of refugee admissions, and to end automatic citizenship rights currently applicable to many born on US territory.

The Afghan Community Coalition of the United States issued a statement after the DC attack, expressing sympathy for the families of the victims, calling for a "comprehensive investigation" and emphasising it was the act of one person. The statement also urged the US government not to delay or suspend Afghan immigration claims.

"Twenty years of Afghan-US partnership must not be forgotten," the coalition's statement said, nodding to the two-decade effort launched by the US in 2001 to overthrow Afghanistan's Taliban rulers and establish security in the country.

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The UN has urged the US to observe international agreements on asylum seekers, news agency Reuters reported.
Let me be frank: The President of the United States is out of his mind, and nobodys doing a goddamned thing about it. What do I mean? Any number of red flags, really, but in particular right now its the latest five hundred words of blithering lunacy he shared on his bitcoin mining operation social media site Tuesday night. They are not the words of a man elected to lead the worlds most powerful nation. They are, instead, those of a malevolent Don Quixote tilting at a cancer-causing, bird-kill
By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - A group of U.S. senators who have tried repeatedly to rein in President Donald Trump's aggression against Venezuela said on Tuesday they would file a new resolution to force a congressional vote on the issue if the administration carries out a strike within the country.

"Unauthorized military action against Venezuela would be a colossal and costly mistake that needlessly risks the lives of our servicemembers," Democrats Tim Kaine of Virginia, Chuck Schumer of New York and Adam Schiff of California and Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky said in a joint statement.

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"Should a strike occur, we will call up a War Powers Resolution to force a debate and vote in Congress that would block the use of U.S. forces in hostilities against or within Venezuela," they said.

Republican-led congressional committees have launched investigations of the U.S. military campaign off the coast of Venezuela, the second time in recent days members of Trump's party have voiced concerns about one of his policy initiatives.

Last week, several Republican lawmakers harshly criticized the White House over its handling of a proposed Ukraine peace plan they said favors Russia.

On Venezuela, lawmakers cited concern about the administration conducting a months-long campaign without congressional approval as well as a report that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on September 2 ordered a second strike on a boat to kill survivors of a first strike, which could violate international law.

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'WE MAY HAVE A PROBLEM'

Senator Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican who is on the Armed Services and Intelligence committees, said he is still trying to ascertain the facts of the strike as well as the laws affecting it.

"But my understanding is that we may have a problem if you're killing survivors in the water after a strike," Rounds told reporters on Tuesday. "Once we get the facts, then we can start making determinations that need to be made."

U.S. troops have carried out at least 21 strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific in the past three months, killing at least 83 people as Trump escalates a military buildup against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government.

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White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that Hegseth had authorized Admiral Frank Bradley to conduct the strikes on September 2. She said the strikes were conducted to protect U.S. interests, took place in international waters and were in line with the law of armed conflict.

A few lawmakers have tried, and failed, repeatedly to force Trump to obtain Congress' approval of the campaign, citing the Constitutional requirement that only Congress, not the president, has the power to declare war.

Trump's Republicans in the Senate blocked a resolution in November that would have prevented him from attacking Venezuelan territory without congressional authorization. In October, Senate Republicans blocked a resolution that would have stopped the boat strikes.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; additional reporting by Bo Erickson; editing by Deepa Babington)
WASHINGTON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee said on Monday it plans to hold a December 8 vote on President Donald Trump's nomination of Jared Isaacman, the private astronaut and ally of billionaire SpaceX founder Elon Musk, for the post of NASA administrator.

Isaacman's nomination was withdrawn in June but Trump last month renominated him. Isaacman, an e-commerce mogul who flew to orbit twice on all-private astronaut missions as a customer and collaborator with SpaceX, faces a second confirmation hearing before the committee on Wednesday.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Tom Hogue)
Before the yellow caution tape was taken down from the crime scene of a deadly mass shooting in Stockton that occurred Nov. 29, one woman stood by waiting for access.

Just hours prior, there had been a birthday party held for a 2-year-old at a banquet hall located in the 1900 block of Lucile Avenue in Stockton.

The woman said she was the grandmother of the 2-year-old whose birthday party was thrown.

A memorial set up near the scene of a mass shooting shooting in the 1900 block of Lucile Avenue in Stockton.

As access to where the shooting occurred reopened, the family of the birthday girl entered the banquet hall and began loading birthday presents into an SUV.

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The mother of the 2-year-old, Patrice Williams, told The Associated Press Monday that family members were preparing to cut the cake when gunshots began to fire inside the banquet hall.

The grandmother of the birthday girl said when the shots were happening she began throwing kids into another room for cover.

An invitation to the childs birthday, which was shared on social media, indicated that the party was going to be held from 3 to 6 p.m.

The shooting was reported just before 6 p.m. on Saturday.

Three children and one adult were left dead and 11 others were injured, the San Joaquin County Sheriffs Office said.

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My baby was innocent: Modesto boy among Stockton mass shooting victims

A door is riddled with bullet holes at a banquet hall at The Outpost shopping center on Lucille Avenue near Thornton Road in Stockton on Nov. 30, 2025 where a mass shooting at a childrens birthday party occurred on Saturday, Nov. 29. Four people died and 11 were injured in the shooting.

I just want to say, Im sorry to the mothers out there who lost their kids at my birthday party, Williams told an AP reporter. Im here to help them whether they need anything. I dont care what it is  Im so sorry for everything.

Efforts to contact the family were not immediately returned. A family member who spoke to USA Today said they would call back.

As of Monday, no suspects had been identified or arrested. Williams told AP that she didnt know who opened fire or what sparked the violence.

Dispatch audio from when the shooting was reported stated that the address 1955 Lucile Avenue was advising that there was a shooting. The dispatcher said there were multiple 911 calls coming in.

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One woman said her son was not breathing and there were others with injuries.

I want to advise that there is one down, the dispatch audio said.

The sheriffs office said the shooting appeared to have started inside the venue then finished outside.

One of the entrances to the building had more than 14 bullet holes. Each hole held an evidence marker placed on it.

The San Joaquin County Sheriffs Office encouraged anyone with information that can assist in the investigation to call detectives at (209) 468-4400. Or, call Crime Stoppers at (209) 946-0600 with any information.

This article originally appeared on The Record: Im here to help. Family speaks out following Stockton mass shooting
Virginia's Republican Party (RPV) chair was praised Tuesday as he announced his resignation after a short but electorally tumultuous tenure, promising a renewed personal focus on fighting Democrats' redistricting "power grab."

RPV Chairman Mark Peake, who is also a state senator representing Lynchburg, Bedford and Forest, will have held the role for about eight months  taking the reins in April after previous chairman, retired Col. Rich Anderson, resigned to accept President Donald Trumps nomination as Assistant Secretary of the Air Force.

Peake's resignation comes after the GOP suffered crippling election losses in November, including a total flip of statewide offices and the loss of about a dozen House of Delegates seats.

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Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears lost in her quest to succeed outgoing Gov. Glenn Youngkin, while Attorney General Jason Miyares was ousted by scandal-plagued Norfolk Democrat Jay Jones. More than a dozen Republican delegates in both swing districts like Del. Geary Higgins of Lovettsville and friendlier districts like Del. Chris Obenshain of Blacksburg also lost re-election.

In a lengthy letter to Virginia Republican leaders obtained by Fox News Digital, Peake wrote that he made his decision after much "reflection, prayer and conversations with my family."

Winsome Sears Blasts Virginia Dems Surprise Redistricting Session As A Stunt To Pull Her Off The Trail

Read On The Fox News App

Virginia state Sen. Mark Peake, R-Lynchburg

"While my time as chairman will soon come to an end, my work on behalf of Virginians will not. I will continue serving in the State Senate, where I remain committed to standing firmly against radical Democratic policies and fighting for a brighter future for every corner of the commonwealth," Peake said.

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Peake suggested his resignation from leading the party and simultaneously serving in Richmond would allow him to focus completely on combating Virginia Democrats full-scale attempts to shift the commonwealth far to the left.

His decision was praised by the Senate's top Republican, Sen. Ryan McDougle of Hanover, who told Fox News Digital that Peake stood up to lead the party when "no one else would."

"Im proud of the work hes done this past year to protect your paycheck and keep Virginia the best place to live, work, and raise a family," McDougle said Tuesday.

"Im glad to have him on my team in the Senate as we keep fighting to put more money in your pocket and reduce costs for Virginia families."

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Peake noted the Oct. 31 resolution  heralded by Senate leader L. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, which may redraw congressional maps and potentially leave just Rep. Morgan Griffith in the far southwest as Virginias only Republican in Washington  saying it will "destroy our constitutional process."

"The Democrats are intent on setting a statewide referendum for April 2026, which will include 45 days of early voting. As a state senator, I will be fully engrossed in our legislative session, which lasts from January to March," he said.

Ramaswamy Endorses Winsome Earle-sears For Virginia Governor, Rally Planned Next Week In Swing Suburb

During the session, RPV must have a leader who can fully focus on his role at the state party level, versus someone like himself who would have to keep one eye on the party and its 2026 elections  where all state senators, state delegates, congressmen and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., are up  and one eye on elected Democrats and their "power grab," Peake wrote to GOP officials.

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He thanked Youngkin, Earle-Sears and Miyares for their partnership as they prepare to leave office.

Peake also credited McDougle and state House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore, R-Cumberland Gap, for their work together, as he looks to pivot back to working alongside them in Richmond.

Turning to the state of the commonwealth, Peake remarked that while it feels like the "cold, dark depths of winter" in more ways than one, he is confident RPV and the elected Republicans it supports will continue to fight for "values embodied in the Republican Creed, which can lead us to a victorious spring."

Click Here To Download The Fox News App

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"Our ideas are strong, our voters are energized, and our mission  to secure a freer, safer, more prosperous Virginia  endures. I believe that the foundations of our party remain strong, and that this organization is filled with passionate individuals who have proven their loyalty to our commonwealth and to the conservative movement," he said.

Fox News Digital reached out to Kilgore as well as Lucas for comment.





Original article source: Virginia GOP chair steps down after crushing 2025 loss  vows to rally party against Democrats 'power grab'
The China-proposed Global Governance Initiative reflects the country's ancient philosophical traditions, said Zheng Yongnian, a renowned Chinese political scientist, in an interview on Monday at the 2025 Understanding China conference. #GLOBALink
Moving between damp basements and muddy dugouts to fend off constant Russian attacks in the nearly 4-year-old war, exhausted Ukrainian soldiers say their motivation is fortified by knowing theyre fighting for higher cause: the defense of their homeland.

But as negotiators try to hammer out a peace deal, the troops also believe that Russia remains determined to conquer Ukraine  either now, or with a fresh army in a few years time  no matter what kind of agreement is reached.

And they also say Kyiv must maintain a sizable military to protect the now-800-mile (nearly 1,300-kilometer) front line.

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The Armed Forces of Ukraine are now the main barrier between peaceful civilian life of Ukrainians and our bad neighbor, said a 40-year-old artillery gunner who spoke to The Associated Press near the border between the Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions. He identified himself only by his call sign of Kelt," in keeping with military protocol, and on condition his exact location is not revealed.

The soldiers expressed strong doubts that Moscow can be trusted to abide by any peace deal. Without substantial security guarantees, such as NATO membership for Ukraine, they and military analysts believe a new Russian invasion with fresh troops and equipment is inevitable.

Seeing future Russian threats

From a dark, mud-walled trench, where he was sheltering to avoid buzzing enemy drones, Kelt fears any peace will be short-lived.

This truce will be short-term, to restore Russias forces  for some three or five years  and they will come back, said the former furniture salesman from Kyiv as the sound of booming artillery reverberated around him.

Serhii Filimonov, commander of the Da Vinci Wolves Battalion, in an operations room near the front line in eastern Ukraine, Nov. 27, 2025. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)

Serhii Filimonov, the commander of the Da Vinci Wolves battalion, worried that a deal would give Russia everything it needed to attack again.

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I think it would be nice for the Russians -- to end the war, remove the sanctions, prepare for a new war and attack again, he said. I dont believe there can be peace before Russia is destroyed, or at least the leadership is changed.

Ukraines overstretched manpower

Filimonov described how Russian troops had briefly entered the eastern town of Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub in the Donetsk region, but were pushed out. His brigade had managed to hold its stretch of the defensive line but were often let down by neighboring units filled with inexperienced recruits.

The Kremlin on Monday boasted that Russian troops captured the city after more than a year of fighting, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in Paris that fighting was still ongoing.

A major breakthrough by Russian forces will depend on Ukraines ability to increase and sustain its troop numbers, said American military analyst and academic Rob Lee.

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Ukraine lacks manpower, lacks reserves, he said. All it takes is for one Ukrainian brigade to really struggle, and then Russia can advance.

Taras Chmut, a Ukrainian military expert and fundraiser, told public broadcaster Suspilne on Friday that many battalions on the front are made up of only 20 fighters, instead of the usual 400-800.

Even though Ukraine may be mobilizing up to 30,000 recruits per month, many of them find a way out of serving or prove to be unfit to replace front-line troops.

Key sites are still being held

Nevertheless, Ukrainian forces are managing to hold their ground in places like Pokrovsk, as well as in Kupiansk and Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region  two sites on the front that Russia has been trying to capture for over a year, said Yurii Fedorenko commander of the Achilles UAV Brigade that is fighting in the area.

A medic of Da Vinci Wolves Battalion treats a Ukrainian soldier injured during fighting with Russian forces, Nov. 28, 2025. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)

Russia has poured tens of thousands of soldiers at the towns, he said, noting that its failure to capture them testifies to the high motivation and resilience of the Ukrainian army.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week the fighting wont stop unless Ukraine withdraws troops from the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson  the four provinces Moscow illegally annexed in September 2022. Russian troops occupy only half of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, and two-thirds of Donetsk.

The draft of a U.S.-Russia peace plan stipulated that Ukraines army be limited and that Kyivs forces must effectively withdraw from the rest of the Donetsk region. Zelenskyy has said since then that a subsequently revised version could be workable, but its unclear what will be in the final document.

Lee, who regularly visits the front, said Russia is advancing at a faster pace in 2025 than the previous year, but it is not a given that Moscow would capture the remaining third of the Donetsk region in 2026.

Wherever Russia advances, Ukraine kind of prioritizes defenses (and) they can hold for a long time, but (then) Russia advanced in other directions, Lee said, describing Moscows progress through Donetsk by simultaneously pushing in multiple directions.

Ukraine will still need Western aid

From his muddy trench, Kelt ridiculed the proposal to reduce the size of Ukraines military, saying it was tantamount to making it easier for Russia to kill you later rather than now.

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But sustaining an army of Ukraines current size of just over 1 million would be nearly impossible without continued Western support. Since the war began in 2022, Ukraine has spent almost all its tax revenue on feeding, clothing, housing and arming its military. The rest of its expenditures  for health care, social programs, education, pensions and energy  have been financed by Western grants and loans.

The European Union allocated $50 billion in aid from 2024 to 2027 as part of the Ukraine Facility Program, but Kyiv will need $83.4 billion for the military and $52 billion for the rest of the state expenditures for 2026 and 2027, said Glib Buriak, associate professor of economics at the Ukrainian-American Concordia University.

Ukraines future finances  including its ability to maintain an army  depends on what the peace plan includes regarding Russias frozen assets, said Buriak, noting the risk of a drop in aid if the war ends.

How they will be managed will determine Ukraines financial situation over the coming years, he said.

Yehor Konovalov contributed reporting.
President Donald Trump is set to make an announcement from the White House on Dec. 2 after holding a Cabinet meeting earlier in the day.

The announcement is expected to begin at 2 p.m. ET on Tuesday, according to the president's schedule.

Watch the live stream of the announcement at the top of this story.

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump opened his ninth Cabinet meeting by blasting Democrats for complaining about inflation and decrying the lack of news coverage of his accomplishments. At the meeting, Trump also reiterated his desire to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on resolving conflicts.

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Trump tells Cabinet: 'Affordability is a con job by the Democrats'

The president also told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that he did a "good job" after delivering the first Cabinet meeting report. Hegseth has in recent days faced scrutiny over a Sept. 2 strike on a suspected Venezuelan drug boat in the Caribbean.

A Nov. 28 report in the Washington Post about the strike said the U.S. military carried out a second, lethal strike that killed two survivors as they clung to the wreckage. Hegseth said the report was "fabricated," but the White House acknowledged on Dec. 1 that a second strike had occurred.

This story has been updated with new information.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Watch livestream as Trump makes announcement Tuesday
Saudi Arabia has given the Palestinian Authority 68m to prevent it going bankrupt, after Israel refused to hand over taxes it collects on behalf of the governing body.

Teachers and other public servants in the West Bank have gone for months without being fully paid, with some receiving no money at all.

Under the Oslo Accords agreed in the 1990s, the Palestinian economy runs on Israeli shekels.

The Israeli government collects taxes from Palestinians and is supposed to remit the funds to the PA.

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However, since May, Bezalel Smotrich, the ultra-nationalist Israeli finance minister, has refused to sign off on the monthly transfers, in apparent retribution at Western moves to recognise Palestine as an independent state.

This was in addition to an earlier decision to withhold millions of dollars each month to offset what Israel said was the PAs continuing practice of handing stipends to the families of terrorists, the so-called pay to slay scheme.

The PA says the scheme has now been stopped, but Israel contests this.

The Saudi grant, which should keep PAs essential services running for a few more weeks, was formally handed over at the oil-rich kingdoms embassy in Amman, Jordan, on Monday.

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Riyadh broadly supports Donald Trumps peace plan for Gaza.

However, it continues to insist on seeing a viable pathway to Palestinian statehood as a price for recognising Israel diplomatically and opening up trade between the two countries.

Under Benjamin Netanyahus leadership, Israel strongly opposes an independent Palestine, but the impasse has not stopped increased cooperation between the US and Saudi Arabia.

President Donald Trump and the Saudi Crown Prince have been holding talks about Gaza - Evan Vucci/AP

Mr Trump signed a significant defence agreement with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last month, including a commitment to provide F-35 stealth fighter jets, a decision that has prompted concern among Israeli military chiefs.

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Britain, France, Australia and Canada all reversed decades of diplomatic strategy in September by formally recognising Palestinian statehood.

However, the reality of life on the ground in the West Bank has never been worse for Palestinians, with daily attacks by violent settlers and an increase in IDF-imposed road blocks strangling economic activity.

Israel says it establishes the checkpoints for security reasons.

Mr Smotrich, who is from the West Bank settler community, has previously said he has no interest in the PAs existence.

Bezalel Smotrich has refused to sign off on monthly payments to the Palestine Authority - Bloomberg/Kobi Wolf

In addition to withholding tax revenue, he has threatened to collapse the entire Palestinian banking system by promising not to renew an indemnity waiver, without which Israeli banks will not trade with Palestinian banks.

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He first threatened the measure in 2024 following the imposition of sanctions against him by the Biden administration.

Last weekend, he authorised a two-week extension to the waiver, allowing the financial system to limp on, although its future beyond mid-December is unknown.

Along with Norway, France and Spain, Saudi Arabia has launched a fundraising drive to prevent the PAs collapse.

The body exercises administrative and security control in certain areas, mainly large towns, and administrative control only in others, with Israel in charge of policing and security.

In the majority of the rural areas, the Israeli military maintains full administrative and security control.

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The IDF said two Palestinian knifemen were shot dead in separate attacks in the West Bank on Monday, both of which injured Israeli soldiers.

The incidents came amid weeks of escalating violence by ultra-violent settler youths.

The PA has also accused the IDF of raiding and forcing the closure of the offices of the Palestinian agricultural workers committee on the weekend, in an effort to stifle local farming activity.

Pictures appeared in local news outlets apparently showing office workers on their knees being blindfolded by soldiers.

The IDF said they had confiscated inciting materials during the raid, confiscated equipment and money intended for terrorism, and detained eight people.

Try full access to The Telegraph free today. Unlock their award-winning website and essential news app, plus useful tools and expert guides for your money, health and holidays.
West Hartford-Bloomfield Health District

WEST HARTFORD/BLOOMFIELD, CT  This time of year, it seems like there are a lot of illnesses to be concerned with, from COVID to the flu to the common cold.

But the West-Hartford Bloomfield Health District is warning residents about another illness, offering up some defense to keep folks safe ... hepatitis.

Hepatitis B is a contagious virus that affects the liver.

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It can cause short-term illness, but in many cases it leads to chronic liver disease, including cirrhosis, liver failure, or liver cancer.

The virus spreads through contact with infected blood or body fluids, which means many people may be at risk without realizing it.

Hepatitis B vaccination is recommended for all adults ages 1959, and for adults 60 and older who have risk factors for Hepatitis B infection.

Those interested in getting vaccinated or who arent sure whether they need the Hepatitis B vaccine can call the district office in Bloomfield to schedule an appointment or speak with a nurse for more information. The phone number is 860-561-7900.

For more information on the West Hartford-Bloomfield Health District, click on this link.

West Hartford-Bloomfield Health District Warns About Hepatitis originally appeared on the West Hartford Patch
It's Election Day in Tennessee's 7th Congressional District. On Dec. 2, Tennesseans will vote to fill a vacant U.S. House seat long held by Republicans.

The critical race, which has drawn national attention, will see Republican nominee Matt Van Epps and Democratic nominee Aftyn Behn face off in the general election as both parties vie for momentum ahead of next years midterm elections.

Tennessees 7th District race, the final showdown of 2025, carries high stakes with Republicans holding only a razor-thin majority in the U.S. House.

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A Behn victory would flip the deep-red seat for the first time in more than four decades, while a Republican win would reaffirm the partys grip on reliably red territory, breaking a building wave of Democrat victories, the Tennessean reported.

Last minute campaign events: Mike Johnson, Al Gore stump in high-stakes TN congressional race

Here's everything to know as voting gets underway.

How to view election results

You may follow the election here and on The Tennesseans live election blog, updated regularly throughout the day. Results will also be posted to the GoVoteTN app from the Tennessee Secretary of State.

When do polls close in the Tennessee special election?

All polls close at 7 p.m. local time. However, eligible voters in line by the time the polls close are still able to vote.

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Eligible voters must be U.S. citizens, residents of Tennessee, and at least 18 years old on or before Election Day.

Where is Tennessee District 7? How they voted in previous elections

Where is Tennessee's 7th Congressional District? What voting district am I in?

Only eligible voters who live in U.S. House District 7  which includes parts of Middle and West Tennessee  may vote in the Dec. 2 election.

The 7th District spans all or parts of 14 counties, and includes Clarksville, parts of North and West Nashville, Dickson, south and western Williamson County, and stretches down to the Alabama border.

More: Billionaire-backed PACs pour $6M into race as Behn outraises Van Epps

If you live in one of these counties you can vote: Cheatham, Decatur, Dickson, Hickman, Houston, Humphreys, Montgomery, Perry, Robertson, Stewart and Wayne.

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You may be able to vote if you live in one of these counties: Davidson, Williamson and Benton. You may search your congressional district online at GoVoteTN.gov.

What documentation is necessary to vote?

All voters are required to show a federal or Tennessee state ID with their name and photo when voting, either during early voting or on Election Day, unless an exemption applies.

Any of the following IDs may be used, even if expired:

Tennessee driver license with your photo

United States passport

Photo ID issued by the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security

Photo ID issued by the federal or Tennessee state government

United States Military photo ID

Tennessee handgun carry permit with your photo

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If you are voting for the first time and registered either by mail or through Tennessees Online Voter Registration system, and your ID is expired, you must also present one of the following:

A copy of a current utility bill

Bank statement

Government check

Paycheck or other government document that shows the voters name and address

The following IDs are not accepted:

College student IDs

Photo IDs not issued by the federal or Tennessee state government are unacceptable. This includes county or city issued photo IDs, such as library cards, and photo IDs issued by other states.

The following people are exempt:

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Voters who vote absentee by mail

Voters who are residents of a licensed nursing home or assisted living center and who vote at the facility

Hospitalized voters

Voters with a religious objection to being photographed

Voters who are indigent and unable to obtain a photo ID without paying a fee

Where do I vote?

According to the Tennessee Secretary of State, the simplest way to find your nearest polling location is through the GoVoteTN app.

Is it too late to register to vote in this election?

Yes, its too late to vote in the December general election. You can register to vote in next years congressional and gubernatorial primaries by visiting the Secretary of States website, or any County Clerks office.

Can I still request an absentee ballot in Tennessee?

No, the last day to request an absentee ballot for the Dec. 2 general election was Saturday, Nov. 22.

Who is on the ballot?

Van Epps and Behn are the Republican and Democratic candidates, respectively. Also on the ballot are Teresa Terri Christie, Bobby Dodge, Robert James Sutherby, and Jon Thorp, all running as independents.

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Related: Trump weighs in on Tennessee special election: 'The whole world is watching'

What to know about Democrat candidate Aftyn Behn?

Democratic congressional nominee Aftyn Behn speaks at a town hall with U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett at Watson Grove Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee, on Nov. 7, 2025.

Behn is a longtime political organizer seeking to flip Tennessees 7th Congressional District.

Raised by working-class parents in Knoxville, she earned a graduate degree in social work, and then spent nearly a decade organizing across Middle Tennessee, advocating for Medicaid expansion, fighting rural hospital closures, and seeking to lower the cost of living and build a more inclusive democracy.

Behn was elected in 2023 to represent a state House district. Since then, she has sponsored legislation to repeal Tennessees 4% grocery tax, change corporate tax rules, restore abortion access, and reform how the legislature handles sexual assault complaints.

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Behn's campaign has focused on affordability and basic government functionality. Her campaign slogan is to feed kids, fix roads and fund hospitals.

What to know about Republican candidate Matt Van Epps?

Republican candidate for Tennessee's 7th Congressional District Matt Van Epps listens during a debate with other candidates at CabaRay Showroom in Nashville, Tenn., Friday, Sept. 5, 2025.

As previously reported by the Tennessean, Van Epps grew up in an affluent suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, and moved to Tennessee after a 10-year military career in the U.S. Army.

He has worked in the Veterans Services and Transportation departments and led the Department of General Services. He also helped shape Tennessees response to the COVID-19 pandemic, strategizing ways to get residents vaccinated.

He first moved to Nashville just over a decade ago.

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Van Epps has said he wants to run for Congress to make the country better for the next generation. He supports healthcare reform, improving services for veterans and President Donald Trump's political agenda.

"We cannot let the president down in this election," Van Epps said on a tele-rally with Trump on the eve of the primary. "Vote to defend Americas freedom, safety and way of life. We must stand united with President Trump against the radical left who are determined to destroy all we hold dear."

Election poll shows early voters favor Behn, Election Day crowd backs Van Epps

A Emerson College Polling/The Hill survey shows how Tennessean voters are leaning.

Early voters favor Behn 56% to 42%, while those planning to vote on Election Day lean toward Van Epps 51% to 39%. According to the Tennessee Secretary of State, 84,356 people participated in early voting through Nov. 26.

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Behns strongest support comes from voters under 40, with 64% backing her, while Van Epps gains more support among older voters, reaching 61% among those over 70.

There is also a clear gender divide. Men favor Van Epps 51% to 42%, while women favor Behn 50% to 44%. Both candidates have identical ratings among voters, 47% favorable and 41% unfavorable.

The gender divide extends to candidate favorability. Women are 54% more likely to view Behn positively compared to 41% of men, while men are 52% more likely to view Van Epps positively compared to 42% of women.

The economy is the top issue for 38% of voters, followed by housing affordability (15%), healthcare (13%), threats to democracy (13%), immigration (6%), crime (5%), and education (5%). Among those who rank the economy as their top concern, 48% support Van Epps and 44% support Behn.

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Contributing: Vivian Jones, USA TODAY

Diana Leyva covers trending news and service journalism for the Tennessean. Contact her at Dleyva@gannett.com or follow her on X at @_leyvadiana

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TN election results: Aftyn Behn, Matt Van Epps vie for District 7 seat
The White House said Monday that a Navy admiral acted within his authority and the law when he ordered a second, follow-up strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea in a September U.S. military operation that has come under bipartisan scrutiny.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt offered the justification for the Sept. 2 strike as lawmakers announced there will be congressional review of the U.S. military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean. The lawmakers cited a published report that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for a second strike that killed survivors on the boat.

Navy Vice Adm. Frank Mitch Bradley, who Leavitt said ordered the second strike, is expected to provide a classified briefing Thursday to lawmakers overseeing the military.

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Leavitt, in her comments to reporters, did not dispute a Washington Post report that there were survivors after the initial strike. Her explanation came after President Donald Trump a day earlier said he wouldnt have wanted that  not a second strike when asked about the incident.

Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes, said Leavitt. 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.

Late Monday, Hegseth posted: Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support. I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made  on the September 2 mission and all others since.

A month after the strike, Bradley was promoted from commander of Joint Special Operations Command to commander of U.S. Special Operations Command.

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Concern over the Trump administrations military strikes against the alleged drug-smuggling boats has been building in Congress, but details of this follow-on strike stunned many lawmakers from both parties and generated stark questions about the legality of the attacks and the overall strategy in the region, and particularly toward Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

The lawmakers said they did not know whether last weeks Post report was true, and some Republicans were skeptical. Still, they said the reported attacking of survivors of an initial missile strike posed serious concerns and merited further scrutiny.

The White House weighed in after Trump on Sunday vigorously defended Hegseth.

Pete said he did not order the death of those two men, Trump said. He added, And I believe him.

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Leavitt said Hegseth has spoken with members of Congress who may have expressed some concerns about the reports over the weekend.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also spoke over the weekend with the two Republican and two Democratic lawmakers leading the Senate and House Armed Services committees. He reiterated his trust and confidence in the experienced commanders at every echelon, Caines office said in a statement.

The statement added that the call focused on addressing the intent and legality of missions to disrupt illicit trafficking networks which threaten the security and stability of the Western Hemisphere.

Congress wants answers

Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Monday broadly defended the operations, echoing the Trump administration position that theyre necessary to stem the flow of illegal narcotics into the United States.

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Thune said the committees in Congress will look into what happened. I dont think you want to draw any conclusions or deductions until you have all the facts, he said of the Sept. 2 strike. Well see where they lead.

After the Posts report, Hegseth said Friday on X that fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland.

Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict  and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command, Hegseth wrote.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called Hegseth a national embarrassment over his response to critics. Schumer demanded that Hegseth release the video of the strike and testify under oath about what happened.

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Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, pledged that his panels investigation would be done by the numbers.

Well find out the ground truth, he said, adding that the ramifications of the report were serious charges.

Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the committee, who also called for the administration to release the video of the strike, said its inquiry would start with briefings about what actually happened from the officials involved.

If theyve done nothing wrong, then that video should exonerate them completely. Why dont they release it? he asked.

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In the House, Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican chair of its Armed Services Committee, said he was satisfied following a conversation with Hegseth on the attack, but that he also wanted to hear from Bradley.

Well all have clarity on Thursday afternoon, Rogers said.

Venezuelas president reacts

Trump met later Monday with his national security team to discuss the ongoing operations and potential next steps against Venezuela.

The U.S. administration says the strikes are aimed at drug cartels, some of which it claims are controlled by Maduro. Trump also is weighing whether to carry out strikes on the Venezuelan mainland.

Trump confirmed Sunday that he had recently spoken by phone with Maduro but declined to detail the conversation.

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Speaking to supporters in Caracas on Monday, Maduro said U.S. pressure has tested the country but Venezuelans are ready to defend it and lead it to the path of peace.

We have lived through 22 weeks of aggression that can only be described as psychological terrorism, Maduro said.

The September strike was one in a series carried out by the U.S. military in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean as Trump has ordered the buildup of a fleet of warships near Venezuela, including the largest U.S. aircraft carrier. More than 80 people have been killed in the strikes.

Venezuelas National Assembly has announced the launch of an investigation into the lethal strikes. Sundays announcement by the Assemblys president, Jorge Rodriguez, was the first time that a Maduro government official explicitly acknowledged that Venezuelans have been killed in the monthslong U.S. military operation.

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Rodriguez, Maduros chief negotiator, said a group of lawmakers will come together to investigate the serious events that led to the murder of Venezuelans in the waters of the Caribbean Sea.

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WASHINGTON  The White House on Monday shifted the blame for killing the survivors of a U.S. military strike on an alleged drug smuggling boat from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and onto the commanding admiral.

Killing survivors of a destroyed vessel is literally an example of a war crime in the U.S. Department of Defense Law of War Manual. For example, orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal, the manual reads.

News: Its Very Possible There Was A War Crime: Lawmakers Sound The Alarm Over Boat Strike Report

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt, nevertheless, repeatedly stated that it was legal  even as she further claimed, as President Donald Trump did Sunday, that Hegseth was unaware that it had happened.

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On Sept. 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, she said.

At the time of the attack off the Trinidad coast, Frank Bradley was head of the Joint Special Operations Command. According to a Washington Post report about the incident, it was he who relayed the order from Hegseth to kill everybody by sending Navy SEALs back to the disabled boat to have them kill the two people clinging to the wreckage.

In October, Bradley was promoted to run the U.S. Special Operations Command.

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Leavitt referred further questions to the Department of War, Trumps nickname for the Pentagon.

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An official there, however, said they could offer no further information beyond Hegseths statements in recent days on social media in which he called the Posts story fake news and, more recently, posted a cartoon to justify the killing of alleged smugglers.

Officials at U.S. Special Operations Command did not respond to HuffPost queries.

Later Monday evening, Hegseth posted a statement on social media confirming that Bradley, and not he, had ordered the second strike.

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I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made  on the September 2 mission and all others since, Hegseth wrote.

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Three months ago, Trump posted portions of a video of the Sept. 2 assault on his social media platform, bragging that the attack had killed 11 narcoterrorists.

That 11 people were aboard the vessel suggests that it was not, in fact, smuggling drugs, because every unnecessary passenger would decrease the boats payload capacity for drugs by, on average, 180 pounds. Most of the other strikes against alleged drug boats have had three or four people aboard.

Trump and his administrations explanations about the series of strikes against small boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific have been misleading or potentially downright false since they started.

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Trump has repeatedly claimed that the purpose of the strikes has been to stop the flow of fentanyl into the United States and has at times said that fentanyl had been aboard the destroyed vessels. In fact, the administration has offered no evidence that any fentanyl has been on any of the boats, which largely match the profile of vessels used by low-level cocaine smugglers.

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Trump has further claimed that the boats and their crews had been en route to the United States at the time of the attacks. That is also false. The boats have all been too small to get to the U.S. without repeated refueling stops and are ill-suited for long ocean passages.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Trump added a layer of hypocrisy to his policy of killing smugglers by pardoning a former president of Honduras who had been convicted in a U.S. federal court for his part in directing the smuggling of some 500 tons of cocaine into the United States.

Leavitt on Monday defended that pardon by repeating Trumps unfounded claim that Juan Orlando Hernandez had been unfairly prosecuted by Trumps predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden.

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His court-appointed lawyer was only given three weeks to prepare for trial. He shared that his conviction was lawfare by the leftist party who, quote, struck a deal with the Biden-Harris administration, she said. So the president heard the concerns from many people, as he does, and hes, of course, within his constitutional authority to sign clemency for whomever he deems worthy of that.

Political Updates

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Dhaka, Bangladesh- November 24, 2018: Plastic bottles are seen in a recycle factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh on November 24, 2018.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last week joined governors from six other states signing onto a petition demanding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency add microplastics to its program collecting data on contaminants not currently covered by the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Led by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, the petition requests the EPA include microplastics in the next Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule, which would develop a monitoring program for drinking water across the country, potentially leading to further regulation.

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Microplastics are small pieces of plastic between 1 nanometer and 5 millimeters wide. They have been found in every ecosystem on the planet as well as in food, beverages and in human and animal tissue.

While the health impacts of these materials is still being researched, exposure to microplastics is suspected to harm reproductive, digestive and respiratory health and could be linked to colon and lung cancer.

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Although the EPA was expected to release a proposed Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule in November with a final rule expected in December, the agency has yet to issue the proposed rule.

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Under a provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act, the EPA must include a contaminant on the monitoring list if it receives a petition from seven governors, unless it determines that monitoring a substance would block them from monitoring a contaminant presenting more of a public health concern.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, Delaware Governor Matt Meyer, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, and Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont were the other governors on the petition.

In a statement, Tami Renkoski, co-founder of the Michigan Microplastics Coalition praised the governors decision, emphasizing the need for data to determine the scope of the issue.

It takes guts to lead these days, especially on environmental issues but this is a bipartisan issue that will only continue to get worse if we dont start doing something now, Renkoski said. The health of our children, grandchildren and many ecosystems is at stake. Thank you, Governor Whitmer, for having the guts to lead on this issue.

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Wenonah Hauter, the executive director of Food & Water Watch similarly praised the move. The organization filed its own petition with the EPA last year, calling on the agency to monitor microplastics under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

This is a momentous step towards gathering critical information we need about the emerging crisis of microplastics in drinking water, Hauter said. We thank Governor Murphy for his leadership on this petition and Governor Whitmer and all the governors that have joined him in this vital effort. We now call on the EPA to grant this petition and get to work. People have a right to know about microplastic contamination in their drinking water.
Why clearance rates dont tell the whole story about solving crimes

Police departments clearance rates  the percentage of cases they declare closed  are one of the most widely cited benchmarks for how effectively they combat crime. Lawmakers reference clearance rates in hearings, mayors cite them during police budget debates, and community members often use them to judge how well their local department is functioning.

But the figures can be confusing  and in some cases misleading. Stateline looks at why these rates dont always give an accurate picture and how state lawmakers are pushing to better understand and improve clearance rates, as crime remains top of mind for many Americans and a defining issue in statehouses nationwide.

Efforts to help solve more crimes and support victims have become a rare area of bipartisan agreement. This year, lawmakers in Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Texas have considered or enacted measures that would boost police investigative capacity or improve crime data and clearance rate reporting.

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A new law in Illinois will require all law enforcement agencies to publish routine clearance data on nonfatal shootings and homicides starting in July 2026.

Missouri enacted a similar law, which will go into effect in 2026, that directs the states Department of Public Safety to publish clearance rates statewide and create a new grant program to help police departments solve violent crimes. And Texas lawmakers established a pilot program to set up rapid DNA testing facilities in two counties.

Lawmakers and police officials in some of these states say raising clearance rates is both a public safety priority and a matter of providing closure for victims and families. Research suggests that the likelihood of being caught is one of the strongest deterrents to committing a crime  making clearance rates a closely watched indicator of how well the justice system is working.

Clearing crimes is critical for public safety because it takes repeat offenders off the streets, helps resolve cases that never made it into official reports, delivers justice for victims, and strengthens the community trust that helps police solve future cases, said Thaddeus Johnson, an assistant professor of criminal justice and criminology at Georgia State University. Johnson, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan think tank Council on Criminal Justice, also served as a police officer in Memphis, Tennessee, for a decade.

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Clearance rate reflects police actions, but also the vibe and how the community feels  the confidence and faith they have in the police, Johnson said.

Across the country, clearance rates for violent crimes  including homicide, rape and aggravated assault  have declined for decades. The national homicide clearance rate, for example, has fallen from 72% in 1980 to 61% in 2024, the most recent year with FBI data available.

The decline is similar across other major crime categories. In 1980, police cleared 49% of rapes and 59% of aggravated assaults. By 2024, those figures had fallen to 27% and 49%, respectively. Robbery clearance rates also shifted over time, rising from 24% in 1980 to 30% in 2024.

But those figures reflect national averages. At the local level, clearance rates vary widely, with some departments solving a large share of cases while others struggle with consistently low numbers.

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Police departments in Vermont, Delaware and Idaho had the highest violent crime clearance rates in 2024, while New Mexico, Georgia and Mississippi had the lowest, according to a 50-state crime data analysis by the nonpartisan, nonprofit Council of State Governments Justice Center.

Some experts say there are several reasons clearance rates can swing in either direction. Chronic staffing shortages, overwhelmed detective units, rising caseloads and strained community relationships can push rates down. Strong victim and witness cooperation, better investigative technology and clearance of older backlogged cases can push them up.

At the same time, clearance rates  like most crime statistics  have limitations and can be difficult to understand.

Clearance rates, explained

A clearance rate is meant to show how often police solve reported crimes in a given year. The formula is simple  cleared cases divided by reported cases  but the definition of cleared is broad.

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Under federal rules, cases can be cleared either by arrest or by exceptional means. Arrest clearances are straightforward: Police make an arrest, file charges and hand the case to prosecutors.

Exceptional clearances apply when police say they have enough evidence to arrest someone but cannot do so for reasons outside their control  for example, when a suspect has died, fled the country, is being held in another jurisdiction that wont extradite, or when prosecutors decline to bring charges or victims choose not to move forward.

Since agencies have wide discretion in using exceptional clearances, similar cases may be counted as solved in one community and remain open in another. High exceptional clearance rates can give the impression that more arrests have been made than actually have.

Timing also complicates the statistics. Clearances are counted in the year a case is closed, not the year the crime occurred. For crimes that routinely take months or years to investigate, such as homicides or sexual assaults, this is common.

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As a result, departments that focus on long-term investigations or suddenly receive new evidence may clear a batch of older cases, making their current-year rate look higher even though more recent cases remain unresolved.

Most agencies do not publicly break down how many of their annual clearances involve older cases, but that doesnt mean they are intentionally manipulating their statistics.

National reporting isnt airtight either. The FBIs crime reporting program is voluntary, and some police departments may submit crime data but skip clearance data altogether.

Other measures of effectiveness

A clearance does not guarantee that prosecutors filed charges or that a case resulted in a conviction  outcomes that often matter most to victims and their families. It also doesnt capture whether the right person was apprehended.

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Its an imperfect metric for the performance of our criminal justice system, said Marc Krupanski, the criminal justice policy director at Arnold Ventures, a philanthropic research organization.

Clearance rates also say little about investigative quality, how consistently police update families, how quickly officers respond or whether residents feel comfortable coming forward with information in the first place.

For these reasons, experts recommend looking at other measures, including prosecutorial outcomes, police response times, victim satisfaction and levels of community trust.

Some experts say clearance rates are most meaningful when analyzed over time  ideally 10 to 20 years  and adjusted per capita or per 100,000 residents. Breaking out clearances by arrest and exceptional means also adds important context, as does examining how many arrests lead to charges or convictions.

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These outcomes, experts say, reflect both police work and community cooperation  from gathering witnesses to processing crime scenes and maintaining evidence  offering a clearer picture of investigative effectiveness.

Michigans proposal

Just last month, Michigan lawmakers introduced bipartisan legislation aimed at boosting the states clearance rates. Last year, Michigan police solved 48% of violent crimes, according to the Council of State Governments Justice Centers analysis.

The House and Senate versions of the Violent Crime Clearance Act are sponsored by Republican state Rep. Sarah Lightner and Democratic state Sen. Stephanie Chang. The legislation would create a statewide grant program for police departments, allowing them to use the funds to hire and train investigators or crime lab personnel, upgrade evidence-collection equipment or record-management systems and support witnesses in violent crime investigations. It would also establish strict clearance rate reporting requirements.

Regardless of where you sit on the political spectrum, I think theres just a general belief that we want crimes to be solved, Chang told Stateline.

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Rural police departments, which often have fewer staff and limited investigative resources, sometimes face challenges in solving certain types of cases. To help address this, the bill would require that grants be distributed across the state, and that no single agency receive more than 20% of the total program funding in a given year.

Supporters, including Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard, say the legislation would provide much-needed help for overburdened departments.

These arent just statistics. These are people.  They were dragged into the criminal justice system as a victim, and so for us, each case  and trying to find and bring closure, whether its an armed robbery, a rape or a murder  is critically important, Bouchard said.

This story was produced by Stateline and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
US President Donald Trump has been ramping up pressure on Venezuela's leader, President Nicolas Maduro.

In a sharp escalation of Washington's campaign on 10 December, the US seized a tanker off Venezuela's coast, accusing it of transporting sanctioned oil.

US warships are within striking distance of the South American country and dozens of people have been killed in attacks on boats alleged to have been carrying drugs.

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The Trump administration has also doubled the reward for information leading to Maduro's capture.

Who is Nicolas Maduro?

[Reuters]

Nicolas Maduro rose to prominence under the leadership of left-wing President Hugo Chavez and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader, succeeded Chavez and has been president since 2013.

During the 26 years that Chavez 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, Maduro was declared winner of the presidential election, even though voting tallies collected by the opposition suggested that their candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, had won by a landslide.

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Gonzalez had replaced the main opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, on the ballot after she was barred from running for office.

She was awarded the Novel Peace Prize in October for "her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy".

Machado defied a travel ban and made her way to Oslo in December to collect the award after months in hiding.

Why is Trump focusing on Venezuela?

Trump blames Maduro for the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants in the US.

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They are among close to eight million Venezuelans estimated to have fled the country's economic crisis and repression since 2013.

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.

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.

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Analysts have pointed out that Cartel de los Soles is not a hierarchical group but a term used to describe corrupt officials who have allowed cocaine to transit through Venezuela.

Why has the US sent warships to the Caribbean?

The USS Gerald Ford is among the ships deployed to the Caribbean, and was the springboard when the US seized an oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast [US Navy/Reuters]

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 to the region since the US invaded Panama in 1989 - is to stop the flow of fentanyl and cocaine to the US.

Among the ships is the USS Gerald Ford, the world's largest aircraft carrier. US helicopters reportedly took off from it before the oil tanker was seized off Venezuela.

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The US said the tanker had been "used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran". Venezuela described the action as an act of "international piracy".

In recent months, US forces have also carried out more than 20 strikes in international waters on boats alleged to have been carrying drugs. More than 80 people have been killed.

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.

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The US has also described those on board as "narco terrorists", but legal experts say the strikes are not against "lawful military targets". The first attack - on 2 September - has drawn particular scrutiny as there was not one but two strikes, with survivors of the first hit killed in the second.

A former chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court told the BBC that the US military campaign more generally fell into the category of a planned, systematic attack against civilians during peacetime.

In response, the White House said it had 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 say that Venezuela is a relatively minor player in global drug trafficking, acting as a transit country through which drugs produced elsewhere are smuggled.

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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 Administration 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".

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Fentanyl is a synthetic drug which is 50 times more potent than heroin and has become the main drug responsible for opioid overdose deaths in the US.

However, fentanyl is produced mainly in Mexico and reaches the US almost exclusively via land through its southern border.

Venezuela is not mentioned as a country of origin for fentanyl smuggled into the US in the US Drug Enforcement Administration's 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment.

How much oil does Venezuela export, and who buys it?

Oil is the Maduro government's main source of foreign revenue, with profits from the sector financing more than half of the government's budget.

It currently exports about 900,000 barrels per day. China is by far its biggest buyer.

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However, although a US assessment suggests Venezuela has the world's largest proven crude oil reserves, it says that it does relatively little with them.

Venezuela produced only 0.8% of global crude oil in 2023, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), due to technical and budgetary challenges.

After announcing that the tanker had been seized, Trump told reporters: "I assume we're going to keep the oil."

The US has previously denied Venezuela's allegations that moves against Maduro's government were an attempt to secure access to the country's untapped reserves.

Could the US carry out strikes on Venezuela?

Trump has confirmed that he spoke to Maduro on the phone on 21 November.

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While he did not reveal what was said in the call, Reuters news agency reported that Trump gave Maduro a one-week ultimatum to leave Venezuela along with his close family. It said that Maduro did not take him up on the offer of safe passage.

One day after the deadline expired, Trump declared the airspace around Venezuela closed.

Trump has already threatened to take action against Venezuelan drug traffickers "by land", but has not specified how such an operation would unfold.

Trump's press secretary has also not ruled out the possibility of US troops being deployed on the ground in Venezuela, telling reporters that "there's options at the president's disposal that are on the table".

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She did not elaborate further on the options but military analysts have for weeks pointed out that the US deployment in the Caribbean is much larger than needed for a counternarcotics operation.

Following the seizure of the oil tanker, a source told the BBC's partner, CBS News, that the Trump administration was considering more actions like it.
BRUSSELS, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Intensive talks on a plan aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict have kicked off involving the United States, the European Union, Ukraine and Russia. However, although European leaders have welcomed diplomatic efforts to end the almost four-year conflict, there is also significant unease over the U.S.-proposed peace plan.

LATEST PROGRESS

The plan at the center of the debate started as a 28-point proposal drawn up by the Trump administration and presented to Ukraine and its European allies in recent weeks.

The original draft required Ukraine to give up control of some territory, abandon its bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), accept limits on the size of its armed forces, and restrict any future NATO presence on its soil. It drew sharp criticism in Ukraine and across Europe, with many saying the plan ceded too much to Russia's demands.

Facing that backlash, the United States and Ukrainian negotiators met in Geneva, and cut the framework down from 28 points to a shorter outline. Some reports said that Britain, France and Germany have also led work on a "European version" of the 28-point plan.

On Sunday, the United States and Ukrainian teams held a new round of talks in Florida. Speaking in Paris on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the revised plan "looks better" than the first version but added that negotiations are far from over. He called topics over territory "the most complicated" part of the talks.

On Tuesday, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow to brief Russian President Vladimir Putin on the updated text, ushering in a new phase of negotiations.

WHY EUROPE IS WORRIED

Europe's stance on the Ukraine "peace plan" has been nuanced. While it has welcomed U.S. efforts to broker peace, it is also uneasy about where these efforts may lead.

Last week, the European parliament criticized the United States for its "political ambivalence" on Ukraine policy, saying it was "detrimental to the goal of lasting peace."

Meanwhile, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen on Saturday expressed concern that Ukraine could be "led into a situation where it would have to accept the terms of peace given to it."

"I'm afraid that all the pressure will be put on the victim," European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters after chairing a meeting of EU foreign and defense ministers on Monday. "Because that is the easier way to stop this war, when Ukraine surrenders. But this is not in anybody's interest."

Beyond the substance of the plan, Europe is also worried about its own role in the talks. The first U.S. draft was largely developed with many EU countries feeling blindsided.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reiterated last week at the European parliament that nothing about Ukraine should be decided without Ukraine, nothing about Europe without Europe and nothing about NATO without NATO, a formula meant to signal that Europe will not accept a settlement negotiated over its head.

WHAT EUROPE PLANS TO DO

To exert maximum influence over the terms of the deal and reinforce Ukraine's position, Europe is fighting for a seat at the negotiation table. The EU wants to ensure that the principles of European security are written into any peace arrangement, and that Ukraine receives stronger security guarantees, increased military aid and new financial tools.

French President Emmanuel Macron, standing alongside Zelensky in Paris on Monday, praised the U.S. peace efforts but insisted that any peace plan can "only be finalized with Europeans around the table."

At the same time, the EU and several member states are working on bilateral and multilateral agreements with Ukraine, covering air defense, ammunition supply, and training.

On the military side, the Netherlands has pledged 250 million euros (about 290 million U.S. dollars) in aid to Ukraine on Monday for purchasing American-made weapons under a NATO mechanism.

Money is another key lever. The European Commission has proposed using frozen Russian assets held in Europe as collateral for a 140-billion-euro "reparations loan" to Ukraine. However, Belgium, where much of the money is parked, has raised legal and financial concerns over this proposal, forcing EU leaders to push a final decision to a summit later this month.

As the U.S. envoy sits in Moscow, Europe is still scrambling for a say, hoping that it will have greater sway over the final terms of peace. (1 euro = 1.16 U.S. dollars) 
It was a concerning call for help to 911 dispatchers in the middle of the night on Monday.

The caller was advising she could hear somebody in her attic, said Chief Christopher Fabec of the Southern Armstrong Regional Police Department.

Southern Armstrong Regional police were dispatched to the Laneville section of Freeport Borough around 4:30 a.m. Investigators said three intruders, believed to be armed, were found inside of an apartment building on Main Street shortly after one of the neighbors moved out.

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We kept hearing a lot of banging going on, a lot of running up and down the steps, said Marlo Troup, who lives nearby. We thought it was the cleaning people, but obviously it was not the cleaning people.

Police found one of the men in an attic, above the vacant apartment. The chief told Channel 11 there was a language barrier, but the man was able to tell police he was with two others.

Through some translation, they initially told the officers they were armed, Fabec said.

Once inside, officers found a small hole that dropped into an apartment from the crawl space. Thats where they found the other two men. Police said all three men were in the United States illegally and had active warrants. They are now in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs.

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Police worked with the superintendent of schools to delay pickups at bus stops so Freedom Area students could get to school safely.

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A woman died and a child was injured in a Racine County house fire Dec. 1.

The fire occurred around 2:40 p.m. Dec. 1 at a house located at 2085 108th St. in the village of Raymond, according to the Raymond Fire & Rescue Department.

Two officers who were first on scene attempted a rescue but had to back out due to smoke. A deputy from the Racine County Sheriff's Office then made a second attempt and got the child out of the home, according to the fire department.

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Fire crews then entered the home and found the woman. First responders attempted life-saving measures, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.

The child was transported to Children's Wisconsin. Raymond Fire Chief Aaron Smith said the child, whose age he said he could not confirm, is in stable condition at the hospital as of Dec. 2.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Racine County Fire Investigation Task Force and the Racine County Sheriff's Office, the fire department said.

The fire caused an estimated $50,000 of property loss, according to the department.

The Raymond Fire & Rescue Department said multiple agencies responded to the scene, including the Norway Fire Department, the Union Grove-Yorkville Fire Department, the Kansasville Fire and Rescue Department, the South Shore Fire Department, the City of Burlington Fire Department, the Town of Paris Fire Department, the Tichigan Volunteer Fire Company, the Franklin Fire Department, the Racine Fire Bell Club, the Village of Waterford Fire Department and Somers Fire & Rescue.

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Contact Kelli Arseneau at (920) 213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @ArseneauKelli.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Woman dead, child hospitalized after Racine County house fire
Police in Atlanta are searching for clues after a woman was shot Tuesday morning, according to authorities.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Around 7:37 a.m., Atlanta officers received a call about a person shot near 450 Moreland Ave.

When officers arrived, they found a 48-year-old woman with an apparent gunshot wound, authorities said.

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According to APD, the woman was alert, conscious and breathing. She was taken to the hospital by ambulance. There is no word on her current condition.

Police say the victim was unable to give officers any information about a suspect or the reason for the shooting. Her identity was not released.

Investigators are working to learn what led up to the shooting. The investigation is ongoing.

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Archaeologists have found evidence of a highly gendered Stone Age society in China about 3,800 to 4,300 years ago, with male and female sacrificial victims chosen for separate purposes.

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that elite burials at a large Stone Age settlement in northwestern China often had female attendants who were ritually sacrificed  thousands of years earlier than previously thought.

The study also provided the first evidence of male mass burials associated with human sacrifice in the region.

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Archaeologists suspect the ancient society carried out two types of human sacrifices  one that involved mass burials of men that likely served public ritual purposes, and another accompanying high-status burials in which female victims were entombed along with the dead.

They found evidence that Chinas Shimao archaeological site in northern Shaanxi Province is a late Stone Age settlement, home to a hierarchical society that followed gendered norms.

These findings reveal a predominantly patrilineal descent structure across Shimao communities and possibly sex-specific sacrificial rituals, scientists wrote in the study published in the journal Nature.

Carving stone at Shimao city (Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology)

The stone-walled settlement covering an area of about 4sqkm (1.5sq miles) had distinct zones, with archaeological evidence pointing to hierarchical social organisation and gender bias in the way the ancient people performed human sacrifice.

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Previous research has found a level of organisation in the settlement typical of state-level societies, including sites of craft production as well as areas with large fortifications.

In the latest study, scientists assessed DNA data from 169 human remains along with several others found at seven archaeological sites across Shaanxi and neighbouring Shanxi province.

By comparing DNA from the remains, researchers found that the Shimao people were predominantly descended from local groups that inhabited the region roughly 1,000 years earlier.

Tomb owner and a sacrificed victim (IVPP)

The latest findings also challenge long-held assumptions about the gender of sacrificial victims at Shimao's East Gate.

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Contrary to previous theories that most sacrificed humans were female, genetic evidence showed that 9 out of 10 burials at the site were male.

Scientists found a clear sex-specific pattern in the way human sacrifices were made.

Male sacrifices were concentrated at the East Gate, while female sacrificial remains were mostly linked to elite cemeteries.

This reveals that Shimao's sacrificial practices were highly structured, with gender-specific roles tied to distinct ritual purposes and locations.

Landscape of Shimao city (IVPP)

The phenomenon of elites being buried alongside sacrificed female companions is observed in China only thousands of years later, during the early Iron Age period of 770221 BC.

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Researchers also found close genetic connections between the Shimao people and southern rice-farming communities, highlighting extensive interactions among prehistoric farming and pastoral communities in ancient China.

They hope further studies in the region could help better understand the origins of early East Asian states.
Dec. 1 (UPI) -- The medical condition is improving for U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, one of two National Guard members from West Virginia shot a few blocks from the White House last week, the governor and his mother said.

A memorial is growing outside the Farragut West Metro Station, where the shooting occurred at 2:15 p.m. Wednesday.

Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died one day after the attack outside the Farragut West Metro Station while conducting high-visibility patrols. President Donald Trump announced her death on Thanksgiving night.

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, a West Virginia National Guard Airman with the 167th Force Support Squadron, was wounded in a shooting near the Farragut Square Metro Station in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Photo by Staff Sgt. Zoe Morris/U.S. Army National Guard/UPI

Wolfe, 24, underwent surgery after the attack at 2:15 p.m.

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West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrissey has visited him at the undisclosed hospital in the nation's capital.

A memorial of flowers and American flags is seen outside the Farragut West Metro Station in Washington, D.C., on Monday for Sarah Beckstrom, a National Guard member who died Thursday, one day after she was shot. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI

"I want to say I'm not the doctor. I'm not going to try to pretend to be so. What I will say is that Andrew remains in serious condition," Morrissey said at a news conference Monday at the state's capital in Charleston.

Though he is "fighting for his life," the governor said Wolfe was able to respond when a nurse asked him to give a thumbs-up if he could hear her.

A memorial of flowers and American flags are outside the Farragut West Metro Station in Washington, D.C. on Monday. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI

"We were told that he also wiggled his toes," Morrisey told reporters. "So, we take that as a positive sign."

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He added: "I'm not here to speculate."

A woman places an American flag at a memorial outside the Farragut West Metro Station in Washington, D.C. on Monday. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI

Wolfe's mother, Melody, posted Sunday on Facebook: "We continue to have complete faith in a total healing of our sweet Andy. He is remaining stable, with good vital signs, and while being heavily sedated, he still continues to be very active. Moving his arms, legs, and mouth. His pupils are dilating normally and his brain pressure is normal. All huge wins!"

She is appreciative of all the support.

Military challenge coins are at a memorial outside the Farragut West Metro Station in Washington, DC on Monday, five days after two National Guard members were shot. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI

"We know there is a long road to go, but our faith keeps us hopeful. We remain grateful for the prayers and support of people all over the world. Our God is so good and I will continue to say this," she said. "Andy will have one heck of a testimony to share with all! We are praying for faith to be renewed in those who need it and for non-believers to come to know Jesus as they witness this miracle happening with our precious boy.

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Wolfe, a Martinsburg, W.V., native, enlisted in the National Guard in February 2019.

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, a West Virginia National Guard Airman with the 167th Force Support Squadron, was wounded in a shooting near the Farragut Square Metro Station in Washington, DC, on November 26, 2025. As of November 28, Staff Sgt. Wolfe remains in critical condition. Wolfe and his fellow guardsman, Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, were shot by Afghan national Rahmanulla Lakanwal. Photo by Staff Sgt. Zoe Morris/U.S. Army National Guard/UPI

West Virginians were deployed in the nation's capital since the Joint Task Force-DC mission began in August, ostensibly to cut down on crime. In all, there are 2,500 troops, including around 180 from West Virginia, with an additional 500 called up after the shooting to patrol the capital.

Morrisey said that over the weekend, he attended several vigils in West Virginia for the National Guard Members. He also visited

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, a West Virginia National Guard Airman with the 167th Force Support Squadron, was wounded in a shooting near the Farragut Square Metro Station in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. Photo by Staff Sgt. Zoe Morris/U.S. Army National Guard/UPI

"People were talking so eloquently about Sarah, who by all accounts is an amazing woman who lifted up people around her with a smile," Morrisey said. "And from talking to Sarah's parents and people in the unit, everyone had nothing but incredible things to say about Sarah."

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Memorials also have appeared at the site of the shooting.

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, a West Virginia National Guard Airman with the 167th Force Support Squadron, was wounded in a shooting near the Farragut Square Metro Station in Washington, DC, on November 26, 2025. As of November 28, Staff Sgt. Wolfe remains in critical condition. Wolfe and his fellow guardsman, Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, were shot by Afghan national Rahmanulla Lakanwal. Photo by Staff Sgt. Zoe Morris/U.S. Army National Guard/UPI

Suspect remains in hospital

The suspect, Rahmanulla Lakanwal, 29, is hospitalized after being shot by another guard member and will face a first-degree murder charge, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said Friday.

He also is facing three counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence and two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed. It is unclear when those charges will be unsealed.

Lakanwal is an Afghan national who worked with the CIA when the United States was involved in the war in the Middle East.

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He was a member of a partner force in Kandahar, "which ended in 2021 following the withdrawal from Afghanistan," according to CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

Though he was vetted before coming to the United States, Ratcliff said: "This individual -- and so many others -- should have never been allowed to come here."

Like thousands of other Afghans, he came to the United States during the Biden administration. That included family members.

He applied for asylum in 2024 and was granted asylum in April, under the Trump administration, according to ABC sources.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said 8,000 from Afghanistan have been granted asylum.

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"During my tenure, we are going through the databases to make sure that no known or suspected terrorists enter this country to harm our nation," FBI Director Kash Patel told the Senate Judiciary Committee in September.

Because of an expired work permit, ABC reported he couldn't find a job and was relying on others for rent and food.

A refugee volunteer told NPR that: "My biggest concern was that [Lakanwal] would harm himself. "I worried he would be suicidal because he was so withdrawn."

The volunteer, who didn't want to be identified, said Lakanwal was first met in 2022 at his home.

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"He was outside with his kids, laughing and playing and having animated conversations with other Afghan men," the person said.

The suspect likely was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, the person said.

He drove from his residence in Bellingham, Wash., to the nation's capital.

"Somebody drove across the country to Washington, D.C., to attack America," D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a news conference last week.

"What we know is that this is a targeted shooting and one individual appeared to target these guardsmen.

He used a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver, officials said.

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"As we continue to talk with his family and his contacts, more details will be revealed and we'll release those when it's appropriate," Noem said.

"Since he's been here, we believe he could have been radicalized in his home community, his home state, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noel said Sunday on This Week. "As we continue to talk with his family and his contacts, more details will be revealed and we'll release those when it's appropriate."
XAI employee Parsa Tajik recently posted that he worked about 36 hours with no sleep. His colleagues celebrated the effort.

"Work life balance is great, in-fact we recommend it to all our competitors," one xAI employee responded.

Elon Musk's companies, such as xAI and Tesla, are known for their long hours and "hardcore" work cultures.

A 36-hour work sprint at xAI? Cue the applause from colleagues.

Elon Musk's companies have long been known for their intensive work cultures. During Tesla's production ramps, some employees slept in their cars or, in Musk's case, on the factory floor. When Musk took over Twitter, he said to embrace an "extremely hardcore" schedule or be laid off.

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At xAI, one employee recently said that they worked for a day and a half straight, sparking responses from their colleagues  and Musk himself.

"Last night I left the @xAI office after ~36 hours of working with no sleep," xAI employee Parsa Tajik wrote alongside an image of himself inside his Tesla Cybertruck. "Although I was dead, I was also super energized. Incredibly grateful to be a part of this team. Happy Thanksgiving!"

Tajik's comments are full of fellow xAI employees voicing their support.

"And got 192 hours' worth of work done," one wrote. "Bro is a unicorn among unicorns."

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"Incredibly grateful to be working with and learning from you," another wrote.

A third xAI employee dropped two saluting emojis.

In a repost, xAI employee Ayush Jaiswal poked fun at the post while hyping up the company.

Work life balance is great, in-fact we recommend it to all our competitors.



Dont be angry with this post. Youre free to disagree & let us cook :) https://t.co/SjzL0xs2m0  Ayush Jaiswal (@ayushjaiswal) November 29, 2025

"Work life balance is great, in-fact we recommend it to all our competitors," Jaiswal wrote. "Don't be angry with this post. You're free to disagree & let us cook."

Musk responded to Jaiswal's post with a laughing-crying emoji.

XAI has had a busy autumn. Musk's AI company had mass layoffs and significant leadership changes. At a September all-hands meeting, a company leader told workers that the company had no further planned layoffs  before xAI cut more than 100 jobs.

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The company has also moved quite quickly, possibly a product of its intense work culture. XAI released Grok-1 in November 2023 after four months of development. Though the company was founded just over three months after ChatGPT's launch, xAI has already grown to a July valuation of $113 billion, per PitchBook.

Musk's businesses have a history of late nights. The CEO has famously said he slept on the factory floor during theTesla's Model 3 "production hell." Twitter's former director of product management, Esther Crawford, posted a photo of herself sleeping on the floor after Musk's takeover. (The photo was staged, according to the book "Character Limit," and Crawford called it "cheeky.")

Tajik's post, which now has over 11,000 likes, also drew concern from some online users who wondered if he drove home while sleep deprived.

"This is like bragging that you drove home drunk," wrote Jason Ginsberg, Cursor's head of product engineering. "Being awake for 36 hours is equivalent to a BAC of 0.16%. The legal limit is 0.08%."

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In a reply three days later, Tajik wrote that he apologized to "nobody," and that his Tesla FSD carpool with two other engineers took him safely home.

"I've been working long hours for many years," Tajik wrote. "This is how I got to @xAI from practically being homeless in 2020. Exceptional results require exceptional effort. Now is not the time to slow down."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing increasing bipartisan scrutiny on Capitol Hill after the Washington Post reported Friday that his initial order to kill everybody during a Sept. 2 attack on a suspected drug boat from Venezuela resulted in a second strike that may have violated U.S. and international law by taking out two survivors who were clinging to the ships wreckage.

Asked to clarify the issue on Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt seemed to confirm that more than one strike had occurred.

Does the administration deny that that second strike happened, a reporter asked, or did it happen and the administration denies that Secretary Hegseth gave the order?

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The latter is true, Leavitt said, before reading a statement that seemed to lay responsibility on Adm. Frank Bradley rather than Hegseth.

President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have made it clear that presidentially designated narco-terrorist groups are subject to lethal targeting in accordance with the laws of war, Leavitt continued. With respect to the strikes in question, on Sept. 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 went on to say that she would reject that Hegseth ever said the words quoted in a Washington Post story about killing everybody on the boat.

Leavitts remarks came a day after President Trump himself defended Hegseth, telling reporters aboard Air Force One that Pete said he did not order the death of those two men and I believe him, 100 percent.

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But Trump also made it clear that he would have opposed targeting survivors of the initial attack  an act that military experts and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have characterized as a possible war crime.

No, I wouldnt have wanted that, not a second strike, the president said.

Meanwhile, Hegseth took to social media on Sunday evening to share a mock childrens book cover depicting Franklin the turtle blasting Narco Terrorists out of the water with a rocket launcher.

For your Christmas wish list, the defense secretary joked in his post.

For your Christmas wish list pic.twitter.com/pLXzg20SaL  Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) December 1, 2025

The new questions surrounding the second strike  and Hegseths role in it  add another layer of controversy to the Trump administrations lethal, months-long campaign of attacking suspected drug boats in the Caribbean, which has so far killed more than 80 people without a legal process.

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Heres everything you need to know to make sense of the situation.

What happened on Sept. 2?

Citing two American officials familiar with the matter, the Intercept first reported on Sept. 10 that people on board the boat off the coast of Venezuela that the U.S.military destroyed last Tuesday were said to have survived an initial strike  but they were then killed shortly after in a follow-up attack.

Fridays story in the Washington Post  which was based on interviews with and accounts from seven people with knowledge of the Sept. 2 strike and the overall operation  confirmed the Intercepts reporting and added new details about how Hegseth may have played a part in the incident.

Before the initial strike, the Post reported, Hegseth gave a spoken directive, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation.

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The order was to kill everybody, one of them said.

When the smoke cleared, however, a live drone feed showed two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. In order to comply with Hegseths instructions, the Special Operations commander overseeing the attack ordered a second strike, according to two people familiar with the matter  and the two men were blown apart in the water.

The commander in question, Bradley, told his colleagues that the survivors were still legitimate targets because they could theoretically call other traffickers to retrieve them and their cargo, according to the Post.

Citing one person who watched the live feed, the Post added that if the video of the blast that killed the two survivors on Sept. 2 were made public, people would be horrified.

What has Hegseth said about the incident?

Hegseth denounced the Posts reporting, but he did not deny issuing an order to kill everybody.

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As usual, the fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland, Hegseth wrote Friday on X  before affirming that these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be lethal, kinetic strikes.

Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization, Hegseth added. [Former President Joe] Biden coddled terrorists, we kill them.

A few minutes later, Hegseth posted a single-sentence follow-up: We have only just begun to kill narco-terrorists.

In his remarks on Sunday, Trump gave the impression that Hegseth had refuted giving the kill everybody order  and suggested that there may have been no second strike at all.

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I dont know that that happened, Trump said when asked whether a hypothetical second strike would be illegal. And Pete said he did not want them  he didnt even know what people were talking about. So, well look at  well look into it.

The first strike was very lethal, it was fine, the president continued. And if there were two people around but Pete said that didnt happen. I have great confidence in him.

What have lawmakers and legal experts said about the incident?

Critics, lawmakers and military experts view the administrations entire campaign in the Caribbean as a possible violation of international law.

In previous administrations, the Coast Guard would intercept boats and arrest drug smugglers  not kill them.

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Trumps legal rationale, which the administration has articulated in a series of recent letters to Congress, is that the drug cartels are nonstate armed groups whose actions constitute an armed attack against the United States  forcing the U.S. to fight back in a formal armed conflict.

In response, experts have argued that drug cartels are not engaged in hostilities against the U.S.  the legal standard for armed conflict  because selling a dangerous product is different from conducting an armed attack.

It is illegal for the military to deliberately target civilians who arent directly participating in hostilities  even suspected criminals.

The notion that the United States  and this is what the administration says is their justification  is involved in an armed conflict with any drug dealers, any Venezuelan drug dealers, is ludicrous, Rep. Jim Himes, a Democrat from Connecticut and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, recently told CBS. It wouldnt stand up in a single court of law.

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This is not stretching the envelope, Geoffrey Corn, a retired judge advocate general lawyer who was formerly the Armys senior adviser for law-of-war issues, added in an interview with the New York Times. This is shredding it. This is tearing it apart.

Targeting people who can no longer fight  like survivors clinging to wreckage in open water  is considered an even clearer violation of the laws of armed conflict (regardless of whether they survived an attack that was intended to be lethal).

That would in essence be an order to show no quarter, which would be a war crime, Todd Huntley, a former military lawyer who advised Special Operations forces for seven years at the height of the U.S. counterterrorism campaign, told the Post.

On Sunday, Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska agreed, saying that if the Posts reporting is true, then it reveals a clear violation of the law of war.

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When people want to surrender, you dont kill them, Bacon told ABC. They have to pose an imminent threat. Its hard to believe that two people on a raft, trying to survive, would pose an imminent threat.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, both Democrats, raised the possibility of a war crime as well.

Meanwhile, the top Republican and Democrat on the Armed Services committees in both the House and the Senate have vowed to conduct vigorous oversight into the matter.

We take seriously the reports of follow-on strikes on boats alleged to be ferrying narcotics in the SOUTHCOM region and are taking bipartisan action to gather a full accounting of the operation in question, Reps. Mike Rogers, Republican of Alabama and the chair of the House committee, and Adam Smith, Democrat of Washington, said in a statement.

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The Committee has directed inquiries to the Department [of Defense], added Sen. Roger Wicker, Republican of Mississippi and the Senate committee chair, and Sen. Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island.

Kelly, a member of the Armed Services committee himself, told NBC on Sunday that he and his colleagues will put officials under oath as part of their inquiry.

Were going to have an investigation, Kelly said. Were going to have a public hearing. Were going to put these folks under oath. And were going to find out what happened. And then, there needs to be accountability.

According to the Post, Pentagon officials have not provided Congress with any specific names of traffickers or syndicate leaders they have targeted  nor have they publicly released further information beyond surveillance videos of the strikes themselves.

Video of the Sept. 2 attack did not show a second strike, and the administration has not fulfilled a bipartisan request from lawmakers to see unedited footage. But three people with knowledge of the situation told the Post that protocols were changed after the Sept. 2 strike to emphasize rescuing suspected smugglers if they survived.


ABUJA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria's Defense Minister Mohammed Badaru Abubakar resigned on Monday with immediate effect, citing health reasons, amid a surge in terrorist attacks and kidnappings in the most populous African country.

President Bola Tinubu accepted the resignation and thanked Abubakar for his service, according to a presidential statement issued late Monday by Bayo Onanuga, Tinubu's special adviser on information and strategy.

The statement said Tinubu is expected to notify the Senate of Abubakar's replacement later this week.

Abubakar, 63, a political ally of the president, served two terms as governor of the northwestern state of Jigawa from 2015 to 2023. Appointed on Aug. 21, 2023, he has served as defense minister for over two years.

His resignation comes less than a week after Tinubu declared a national security emergency. 
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Tuesday defended the secondary strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea, citing the fog of war as reason for his not seeing any survivors in the water when the strike was ordered and launched
The wife of former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez says he has been released from prison following a pardon from President Donald Trump
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates.

Azernews presents the letter:

Your Highness,

Dear Brother,

On my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I am pleased to convey to you and, through you, to all your fraternal people my sincerest congratulations and best wishes on the occasion of the national holiday of the United Arab Emirates  Independence Day.

We are immensely pleased to see the large-scale construction initiatives being implemented across the country under your resolute leadership, resulting in magnificent and exemplary progress. All of this has been possible thanks to your multifaceted activity, wise leadership, and tireless service to the Motherland and the people.

Relations between Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates are based on brotherhood, friendship, mutual trust, understanding and support between our peoples. It is gratifying that our interstate relations, built on these solid foundations, have developed along an upward trajectory over the past period and reached a qualitatively new level. Undoubtedly, high-level regular reciprocal visits, meetings and close cooperation contribute to more rapid development and strengthening of these relations.

Your official visit to Azerbaijan in September provided a new impetus to the advancement of our bilateral relations. Several documents signed during the visit, particularly the Joint Declaration on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates, have elevated our interstate relations to a higher level, and expanded our interaction across new domains, along with the traditional areas of cooperation. At the same time, your visit to the liberated Karabakh region during your trip holds a profound symbolic meaning, and we evaluate it as a clear example of our brotherhood and solidarity.

Currently, cooperation agenda between Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates covers a broad range of areas. Our fruitful joint activities in the economic and trade, oil and gas, renewable energy, investment, digitalization and other areas are developing successfully.

I am confident that we will continue our joint efforts consistently and successfully to strengthen and diversify our cooperation that will serve the well-being of our countries and peoples.

On this festive day, I wish you robust health, happiness, success in your high state activities, and the brotherly people of the United Arab Emirates everlasting peace and prosperity.

Sincerely,

Ilham Aliyev

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Baku, 28 November 2025.
KINSHASA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the March 23 Movement (M23) rebels on Tuesday traded accusations of violating a ceasefire in the country's east, each blaming the other for fresh attacks despite ongoing international mediation.

In a statement, Sylvain Ekenge, spokesperson for the DRC Armed Forces (FARDC), condemned a series of M23 assaults on military positions in South Kivu Province, where several localities, including the provincial capital, Bukavu, have fallen under rebel control.

The M23 rebels, in return, accused Kinshasa of "launching widespread attacks on densely populated areas as well as across all frontlines" in South Kivu. M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka alleged that FARDC forces struck the densely populated town of Kamanyola, a strategic crossroads now held by the rebels, killing at least three civilians and injuring five others.

According to United Nations sources, heavy clashes erupted early Tuesday on multiple fronts in South Kivu, heightening fears for civilians caught between the warring parties.

The latest escalation comes despite a framework agreement signed in November between the DRC military and the M23, outlining confidence-building measures toward a full ceasefire and a negotiated peace deal.

"These attacks clearly demonstrate their (M23's) determination and willingness to sabotage the peace agreements," Ekenge said. "All necessary measures are being taken to block the belligerent ambitions of this coalition of evil."

On Thursday, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame are due in the United States to endorse a peace accord already signed in June by their foreign ministers.

Eastern DRC has endured decades of conflict, compounded by the M23's resurgence since late 2021. Kinshasa accuses Rwanda of supporting the group, an allegation Kigali denies. 
A handicapped man walks with a prosthetic leg at a rehabilitation center run by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Nov. 30, 2025. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

KABUL, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Since the end of the war in Afghanistan more than four years ago, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) hospital here has turned its attention from war victims to other victims of society, including children with physical disabilities, in the post-war nation.

Taj Mohammad, 39, looks older than his real age. He visits the ICRC hospital regularly to receive medical treatment for losing his left leg in the war two decades ago.

A resident of the northern region of Afghanistan, he recalled that he lost the leg in a mine blast. He was crossing the frontline along with his goats, but suddenly he heard a big explosion, and when he regained consciousness, he found himself in the hospital.

Taj Mohammad said that scores of war-wounded patients visited the hospital daily during wartime. Since the war ended, fewer patients, mostly victims of past wars, visit the hospital.

Established in 1988 to treat war-wounded patients, the hospital nowadays provides medical treatment to children suffering from physical disability as well as patients with psychological problems. It also started a physical rehabilitation program to make artificial limbs and provide rehabilitation services to war victims in the post-war country.

Another disabled man, Mohammad Haris, who lost his leg 18 years ago in a gunshot accident in Mir Bachakot district, north of Kabul, said that he visits ICRC hospital every one or two years, depending on the situation of his injured leg.

"Here, all the services provided by the hospital are free. We just pay the transport fee to come here to visit the doctors," Haris said, expressing satisfaction over his ICRC-made prosthetic leg.

The majority of the staff and employees of the hospital, including its physicians, are disabled persons, a doctor at the hospital, Abdul Alim Sakhiyar, said.

"I became disabled 28 years ago. I lost my left leg in a landmine explosion when I was six years old," Sakhiyar told Xinhua inside the hospital.

Working in the section of making artificial limbs and bread earner of a four-member family, Sakhiyar muttered joyfully that the war had already ended, and his patients are mostly victims of past wars and children with physical disabilities.

Run by 315 staff, with 90 percent of them disabled people, the ICRC hospital also provides medical treatment to patients suffering from psychological problems, a doctor in the hospital, Abdul Jalal Maqsoodi, said.

"In general, we have 315 staff working here in this center in Kabul, and we have seven more centers in provinces," Maqsoodi, a physiotherapist who joined the ICRC in 1992, told Xinhua. 

A health worker checks a man with a prosthetic leg at a rehabilitation center run by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Nov. 30, 2025. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

Staff members work on prosthetic legs at a rehabilitation center run by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Nov. 30, 2025. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)
At a "Budapest Pride March 2.0" rally outside the Carmelite Monastery, the prime minister's office, Gergely Karacsony, the mayor of Budapest, vowed the city would "not kneel", as he handed the City Assembly's resolution on its "real financial crisis" to a government representative.

"This regime fears Budapest because we prove life outside their system can be freer, happier, and more humane," Karacsony declared on Monday evening, accusing the government of "petty vindictiveness, incompetence, and cruelty", despite the capital being "Hungarys engine and cultural heart".



The city's achievements included saving lives during the Covid pandemic, securing the cheapest energy during the energy crisis, supporting vulnerable people "when the state abandoned them", and building parks, "not hotels for cronies".



He also praised his administration's record on "defending student housing and Rakosrendezo", supporting Ukrainian refugees "where the government failed", and hosting Hungary's largest-ever Pride march after official bans.



Since the national ruling Fidesz party "lost control of the city", funding cuts had surged twenty-fold, he insisted. "Budapest now funds the government; more is taken away from it than given," he said.



Referring to the district where he gave his speech, Karacsony called the 700 billion forint Buda Castle investment a "vanity project for oligarchs".



Citing rulings by the Constitutional Court and the State Audit Office, he demanded from the government: "Just obey Hungarian law. Return our money, and we'll handle the rest."



He said the court declared it "unconstitutional for Budapest to finance the government" and "unlawful for the government to take Budapest's money", while the audit office declared that "the extortion cannot continue because Budapest is going bankrupt."



He warned that if 27,000 public workers went unpaid in January, "the city stops", and the country would bear the consequences.



"If the looting doesn't stop, neither will we," Karacsony pledged. "January is just the start."



Orban: Budapest is not the mayor's, but the nation's capital



"Budapest is not the mayor's capital, but the nation's -- it belongs to us all," Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a video posted on Facebook on Wednesday. "If the Budapest leadership cannot pay the salaries of BKV [public transport] employees, we will."



"We're not at war: this is our capital!" he told the mayor of the 9th district Krisztina Baranyi who approached him at an event on Wednesday. In the video, she asked him to personally discuss the "fate of the capital" with Gergely Karacsony, the city's mayor.



The opposition politician accused Orban of waging a war against the capital, insisting that "everyone stands to lose" as a result.



The prime minister responded: "There's no war; there is peace, and I will pay their wages ... you can count on that."





Source: MTI  Hungarys national news agency since 1881. While MTI articles are usually factual, some may contain political bias, and readers should be aware that such content does not reflect the position of XpatLoop, which is neutral and independent.



Since the goal of XpatLoop is to keep readers well briefed, right across the spectrum of opinions, MTI items are shared to ensure readers are aware of all narratives within the local media.



XpatLoop believes in empowering readers to form their own views through complete and comprehensive coverage. To facilitate this XpatLoop has a balanced range of news partners, as you can see when you surf around XpatLoop.com

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MANILA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Tuesday said it has approved a 10 million U.S. dollar policy-based grant to help Kiribati strengthen public sector management and advance environmental protection efforts.

The grant forms part of the Sustainable and Inclusive Economic Recovery Program (Subprogram 2), which builds on earlier reforms designed to promote inclusive and resilient growth across three key reform areas.

Under Subprogram 2, the ADB supported legislation and the rollout of measures to modernize public financial management, broaden the tax base, strengthen oversight of state-owned enterprises, update the legal framework for the digital economy, and improve transparency in budget expenditures.

The program also backs the establishment of a SafeNet database that records information on gender-based violence. The system aims to support more targeted intervention programs, including skills and vocational training that enhance financial inclusion and livelihood opportunities for women survivors.

A landmark fisheries and ocean resource management policy under the program seeks to help Kiribati protect, conserve, and sustainably manage its vast ocean resources.

The ADB said these initiatives underscore its continued commitment to supporting Kiribati's sustainable economic recovery while safeguarding critical ecosystems.

The 10 million dollar grant is accompanied by parallel cofinancing from the European Union, the governments of Australia and New Zealand, and the World Bank.

Policy-based grants help countries address financing gaps in their national budgets for general development spending. Rather than funding specific projects, the grants are released directly to the government's budget once agreed policy actions are completed. 
Agnes is a Budapest-born and based artist whose painting practice is complemented by several years of dedicated work as an art instructor.

Her paintings have been exhibited and collected internationally  from Canada and the United States to the Netherlands, Germany, and her native Hungary. In Budapest, her work has appeared in numerous venues, including the Zikkurat Gallery of the National Theatre.



Her pieces are currently on view at the Bristol Hotel Budapest, and her next solo exhibition is scheduled for April 2026 in a gallery located in the citys historic Castle District.



For more information about her work and upcoming exhibitions, please visit agiszikra.com or follow her on Instagram at @agnes.szikra.fine.art



1. Where did you grow up?

I was born in Budapest and grew up in the 11th district in Buda.



2. If you could be an expat anywhere in the world, where would you choose?

Hmm, that's a difficult one. The first two places that came to my mind are New Zealand and New York. The reason is not that these are both New... Very different vibes I guess. Never been to any of those.

I'd also consider South American countries, e.g. Peru.



3. What would you miss most if you moved away from Hungary?

I'd take my loved ones with me but I'd still miss the rest of the family and a few good friends.



4. Friends are in Budapest for a weekend - what must they absolutely see and do?

Well if they are my friends they must absolutely come over for dinner and chat to my house. :)

Also, you know, a great way to discover a new city, for me, is just wandering around. No destination, no guide, no map. So they should ramble the streets of Budapest and eventually pop in to a cafe, gallery, shop, market or restaurant they fancy. Meet local people. Have a taste of Budapest.



5. What is your favourite food?

I'm a pescatarian and love salmon but I could never refuse a good Indian or Thai curry. Just learning how to make a proper one.



6. What is your favourite sport / form of exercise?

Probably biking. Used to play badminton as an almost pro long ago and it still makes me happy to play.



7. What is your favourite place in Hungary?

Nature reserves and forests. Several different ones across the country. Some of my artworks were inspired by trips to these places.



8. What career other than yours would you love to pursue?

I always wanted to be an artist. Actually I needed to become one. Can't think of anything else more satisfying for me however I truly appreciate and respect the work of helpers, social workers etc.



9. Where did you spend your last vacation?

It was a motorbike trip to the Slovak Paradise. Absolutely beautiful.



10. Where do you hope to spend your next one?

Portugal. Italy. Morocco. Faroe Islands. I could continue...



11. What was your favourite band, film, or hobby as a teen?

I listened to a lot of rock music as a teenager. Led Zeppelin, Guns and Roses (saw them live in the 90s), Black Sabbath, Patti Smith and many more. One of my favourite movie director was Hal Hartley. Loved his movies. As well as Michelangelo Antonioni's. I used to make jewellery. That was my most beloved hobby.



12. Apart of temptation what can't you resist?

A hug from my partner.



13. Red wine or white?

Red, dry.



14. Book or movie?

Book. But it's not an easy choice.



15. Morning person or night person?

Definitely not a morning person. Night person.



16. Which social issue do you feel most strongly about?

Unfortunately there are too many to pick one...



17. Buda or Pest side?

Buda.



18. Which achievement in your life are you most pleased about?

I'm super happy to still live the life of a freelance artist and art teacher. I love creating, could not live without it. I also do love to accompany my students on their own pathway of growth. Amazing to see them being happy with their always developing art creations.



Not to mention the many expat friends I made throughout the years: as I offer classes in English and Hungarian I've been lucky to meet amazing people from all over the world.
The stir has once again intensified in the politics of Pakistan. The same condition that Pakistan Army had meted out to Nawaz Sharif to bring Imran to power, is being meted out to Imran to bring Nawaz Sharif back to power. When Imran was about to come to power, cases were rained on Nawaz and he was on the verge of going to jail. And now when Imran is in jail, Nawaz has returned to Pakistan politics.
Pakistan is facing rising political and security turmoil as the Shehbaz SharifGeneral Munir establishment bows to pressure from Imran Khans supporters, allowing his sister to meet him after a month-long standoff.
There is a good news for India. This news will increase the tension between China and Pakistan. First of all, service and maintenance of S-400 will be started in India. In the second phase, spare parts will be made in India.
ISLAMABAD, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Four people, including an official and two policemen, were killed on Tuesday when the official's vehicle came under attack in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, police said.

The incident happened in Bannu district, where the attackers opened fire on the vehicle before setting it on fire, Deputy Inspector General of the district Sajjad Khan told Xinhua.

He said that the official who was assistant commissioner of the district was on his way to appear before a court in some hearing against terrorists, adding that a civilian working in nearby fields was also among those killed in the assault.

Two policemen were also injured in the attack and have been shifted to a nearby hospital, Khan added.

The security forces have cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to track down the perpetrators.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet. 
STUNG TRENG, Cambodia, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Loem Houng, a 47-year-old Cambodian man, has become one of dozens of power engineers at the Lower Sesan II hydropower station here after having worked for the power plant for several years.

Joining the 400-megawatt Lower Sesan II hydropower station in Sesan district in northern Cambodia in 2017, Houng had been trained by Chinese experts to operate and maintain the machinery that generates power.

Now, he has become a supervisor at the hydropower station's operation and maintenance unit.

Speaking to Xinhua in a recent interview, Houng said he was very proud of working for a big hydropower plant, where he has learned new technologies and skills.

"The company has always trained new staff members on technical skills, communications and safety," he said. "I would like to express my profound thanks to the Lower Sesan II hydropower station for giving me an opportunity to work here, providing me with technical skills that I had never known before."

Meanwhile, he said the project has provided a lot of benefits to the nation's economy, local communities and Cambodian employees.

"This hydropower station has helped stabilize the electricity supply in Cambodia and created a lot of jobs for local people," he said.

Launched in 2018, the hydropower station is a joint venture among China's Huaneng Hydrolancang International Energy, Cambodia's Royal Group, and Vietnam's EVN International Joint Stock Company.

It is one of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) flagship projects carried out in the Southeast Asian country.

Khorn Ruos, a Cambodian technician at the hydropower station's operation and maintenance unit, said the hydropower station has offered him a specific skill that could feed him for life.

"I feel very proud of working with this Lower Sesan II hydropower station," he told Xinhua. "Besides a decent wage, the company has also provided accommodation, food and other fringe benefits."

Ruos, who has worked at the hydropower station since 2018, said he was satisfied with his job.

Pan Qi, a Chinese staff member at the hydropower station, said the hydropower plant has promoted localization to create employment and provided training to a new generation of Cambodian power engineers.

"Currently, dozens of power engineers are capable of independently operating our hydropower station," he told Xinhua.

Pan said the hydropower plant has supplied Cambodia with stable, green and clean energy.

"The plant adheres to the principle of building a power station to boost the local economy, protect the environment, benefit the local people, and jointly build a harmonious and shared development environment," he said. 
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Brunei recognizes the increasing importance of understanding the nation's mineral potential and the opportunities for sustainable downstream and midstream industries, a Brunei government official said on Monday.

Hajah Sarimah Haji Awang, an official of the Ministry of Development, said such efforts are crucial to diversifying the country's economy beyond the oil and gas sector, while supporting informed policy decisions aligned with Brunei Vision 2035.

She made the remarks at the 4th ASEAN-Korea Cooperation Fund technical workshop on critical mineral management.

According to the ministry, the transition toward clean energy is driving a surge in global demand for critical minerals. Renewable energy technologies require significantly larger quantities of minerals compared to traditional fossil-fuel systems. 
CANBERRA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government on Tuesday released a national plan to give guidance to industry, researchers, governments and the public on how to safely and beneficially use artificial intelligence (AI).

Under the National AI Plan, the government says it will prioritize supporting and reskilling workers whose roles are affected by AI, boost investment in data centers and share the productivity benefits of AI across the economy.

Tim Ayres, the minister for industry and innovation and minister for science, said that the plan would keep Australians safe as AI technology continues to evolve.

From 2026, a new government-funded AI Safety Institute announced by Ayres in November will be responsible for evaluating emerging AI capabilities and supporting timely responses to address potential risks.

"The National AI Plan is about making sure technology serves Australians, not the other way around," Ayres said in a statement.

The plan says that it is in Australia's interests to ensure that AI development happens locally and aligns with national priorities.

It projected that data centers could account for 6 percent of Australia's total electricity demand by the end of the 2020s, up from 2 percent in 2024.

Ayres said that the federal government is working in partnership with the states and territories to address the energy and water challenges.

The government had previously announced plans to impose 10 mandatory safeguards on "high risk" AI, including risk-management plans and the ability to challenge outcomes of automated decision-making, but has abandoned that approach and will not introduce dedicated legislation to regulate AI.

The Productivity Commission, the government's principal research and advisory body on economic, social and environmental issues, said in a report published in August that strictly regulating AI could cost the nation's economy 116 billion Australian dollars (75.8 billion U.S. dollars) over the next 10 years. 
ISLAMABAD, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's exports of services rose to nearly 826 million U.S. dollars in October 2025, up 17.6 percent compared with the same month last year, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

Imports of services during the month reached 1.05 billion dollars, marking a 12.8 percent increase year on year. The services trade deficit was recorded at 224.8 million dollars, slightly lower than in October 2024.

Month-on-month, exports increased 2.45 percent, while imports rose 3.97 percent, slightly widening the monthly deficit.

Cumulative data for July-October 2025 show services exports of 3.03 billion dollars, up 15.95 percent from the same period last year. Imports during this period reached 4.2 billion dollars, rising 12 percent, leaving a cumulative trade deficit of 1.16 billion dollars, according to data from the bureau. 
ISLAMABAD, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Seven terrorists were killed during intelligence-based operations in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the military said on Tuesday.

The security forces conducted the operations in two different areas of the North Waziristan district of the province, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan Army, said in a statement.

During the operations, intense fire exchanges took place between security forces and terrorists. The killed terrorists were actively involved in terrorist activities against security forces and the targeted killing of civilians in the area.

The ISPR statement said that weapons and explosives were also recovered during the operation.

Sanitization operation is being carried out to eliminate the presence of other terrorists from the area, it added. 
by Xinhua writer Gao Wencheng

LONDON, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Aboard the Hainan Airlines direct flight from Edinburgh to Beijing in November, industry veteran Alan Glen, president of the Scottish Passenger Agents' Association, and Edinburgh Airport Engagement Manager Jenna Donaldson, both seasoned travelers, were embarking on their first-ever visit to China despite decades in global travel.

During their 10-day stay as part of Edinburgh's first tourism familiarization trip to China, they discovered a country where ancient heritage and digital modernity coexist so seamlessly that it surprised them at every turn.

"I had two days in Shanghai," Jenna recalled in a recent interview with Xinhua. "The Oriental Pearl Tower - wow. The views were absolutely incredible. And the shopping... I bought so much for my baby girl."

Alan shared the same astonishment, "so many vehicles are electric. In Britain, we're nowhere near that yet."

From the Bund's glittering skyline to the lantern-lit canals, the group witnessed Shanghai's integrated blend of old and new. "You move from ancient bridges and quiet waterways straight into a futuristic cityscape," Alan said. "The contrast is amazing."

Their journey continued by high-speed rail to Zhejiang, where the poetic tranquillity of West Lake stood in striking counterpoint to Hangzhou's cutting-edge innovation corridors.

"West Lake reminded me of Loch Lomond," Alan said. "Half an hour from the city and suddenly you're surrounded by mountains, temples, and peace."

A few hours later, he found himself on China's famed "digital street," testing AI-powered translation glasses and watching intelligent robotics in action. "China is leading in areas that are absolutely mind-blowing," he said.

The cultural experiences also ran deep: picking Longjing tea leaves, learning the art of century-old Shaoxing rice-wine brewing, and exploring bustling markets where traditional craftsmanship meets seamless digital payment systems.

"The food markets were fantastic," Alan said. "Fresh, vibrant, you wonder how they feed so many people, but they do it so well."

In Beijing, glowing sunlight enhanced their visit to the Great Wall. "Not a cloud," Alan said. "It was perfect." The Forbidden City left another powerful impression, as did the warmth of schoolchildren practising their English with them.

One surprise that persisted throughout the trip was how inexpensive daily life felt compared with Britain. Metro rides cost only a few pence, and full restaurant meals came to no more than the price of a takeaway coffee in Edinburgh. For travel businesses, this affordability presents a real opportunity, the chance to design trips that feel premium while remaining accessible to a broader range of Scottish travellers.

Behind the delegation's journey was the year-round Edinburgh-Beijing direct service, now operated by Hainan Airlines. "We're the only airport in Scotland with a direct scheduled service to China," Jenna said. "We're very proud of that."

Passenger numbers are strong, though both she and Alan see room to grow. In addition, the route offers new strategic possibilities as well. "China can be a gateway," Alan explained. "You can do China-Southeast Asia, China-Australia... It's a huge opportunity."

Organized by the China National Tourist Office London, the trip also laid foundations for long-term cooperation, particularly for Scottish travel businesses. Local agencies expressed strong interest in designing products tailored to European travellers. This is where Alan sees major potential.

Inspired by the visit, he has begun drafting proposals for deeper collaboration not only with Beijing and Zhejiang, but also with Hainan. Later this month, China's Hainan Free Trade Port will launch island-wide independent customs operations, a major milestone.

"I want to explore Hainan as a new destination for Scots," he said. "Beaches, warm weather, duty-free shopping, great resorts, Hainan could be our next big thing. I plan to speak with partners about building it into future packages. There's so much potential."

His vision is to create itineraries that pair Beijing's rich cultural heritage with Hainan's tropical relaxation, offering Scottish travellers a two-center Chinese holiday unlike anything currently on the market. 
ISTANBUL, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- A Russia-flagged tanker sustained an attack off Turkiye's Black Sea coast on Tuesday, but continued its voyage with all crew members safe, the country's Directorate General for Maritime Affairs said.

In a statement on X, the directorate said that the Midvolga 2 tanker, carrying sunflower oil from Russia to Georgia, came under attack 80 nautical miles off Turkiye's coast.

It added that all 13 crew members were unharmed, and that the vessel continued its journey toward Sinop in northwestern Turkiye without requesting assistance.

The incident followed attacks on two other commercial ships in the Black Sea by unmanned surface vessels, for which Ukraine claimed responsibility.

After a cabinet meeting in Ankara on Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the targeting of commercial vessels in Turkiye's exclusive economic zone marked a worrying escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, stressing that Ankara had issued warnings to all relevant parties against actions that threaten navigation safety in its waters. 
OSLO, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Norwegian government announced on Tuesday that it is preparing new measures to improve safety for electric scooter (e-scooter) users, following a sharp increase in accidents.

According to the Ministry of Transport, the number of injuries resulting from e-scooter accidents in the capital city of Oslo has nearly doubled compared to last year.

"Too many people have been badly injured on e-scooters in recent years. We are now starting work on concrete measures to bring down the number of accidents," Minister of Transport Jon-Ivar Nygard said in a release.

One of the proposals under consideration is raising the minimum age limit for riding e-scooters. The current limit, set at 12 years in 2022, has not prevented a high incidence of injuries among children, who are seen as particularly vulnerable due to their lack of traffic experience. "With the accident trend we are seeing now, it is absolutely necessary to consider a higher age limit," Nygard said.

The government also intends to crack down on the sale of illegal e-scooters. While the legal speed limit for e-scooters in Norway is 20 km/h, commercial actors continue to sell models capable of much higher speeds. The minister warned that such e-scooters cannot be insured, leaving riders exposed to legal penalties and significant liability claims in the event of a crash.

To protect pedestrians, the ministry plans to make it easier for municipalities to ban e-scooter riding on sidewalks. It has asked the Norwegian Public Roads Administration to establish specific signage that local authorities can use to prohibit sidewalk riding in problematic areas while keeping roadways open.

Furthermore, the government is calling for stricter enforcement of existing rules. Nygard stated that he has requested the Norwegian Public Roads Administration to increase inspections and collaborate more closely with the police to target speeding, intoxication, and the use of illegal e-scooters. 
WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Monday that U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorized a second strike aiming to kill survivors on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean in early September.

The second strike reportedly killed the two survivors hanging onto the burning vessel following an initial strike on Sept. 2.

WHITE HOUSE COMMENTS

"President (Donald) Trump and Secretary Hegseth have made it clear that presidentially designated narco-terrorist groups are subject to lethal targeting in accordance with the laws of war. With respect to the strikes in question on Sept. 2, Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral (Frank) Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes," Leavitt said at the White House daily briefing.

"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 completely eliminated," Leavitt said. "The initial order, from U.S. Secretary Haig said, 'everyone be killed,' and that came from President (Donald) Trump."

She argued that the boat strike was "conducted in self-defense" and that Trump "has a right to take them out if they are threatening the United States of America."

However, when asked about the two survivors reportedly killed after the second strike on Sept. 2, Leavitt dodged the question, deferring it to the Pentagon.

And when asked if there was a "change in policy" regarding survivors of these attacks, she answered, "Not to my knowledge, no."

TRUMP AND HEGSETH

Leavitt's remarks came one day after Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he would not have wanted a second strike to kill survivors aboard alleged drug boats.

"I don't know that that happened, and Pete said he did not want -- he didn't even know what people were talking about. So we'll look at -- we'll look into it. But no, I wouldn't have wanted that. Not a second strike. The first strike was very lethal. It was fine, and if there were two people around, but Pete said that didn't happen. I have great confidence," said Trump.

The Washington Post reported Friday that Hegseth issued a verbal order to "kill everybody" aboard the boats suspected of transporting illegal drugs, and since the Sept. 2 initial strike left two survivors, Bradley ordered a follow-up strike to make sure no survivors were left.

Later on Friday, Hegseth issued a post on the social platform X, claiming that "the fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland."

"Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict," he wrote.

However, the Pentagon chief didn't directly deny that he authorized the second strike.

LAWMAKERS AND LAW EXPERTS

The Republican-led armed services committees in both the House and Senate have announced they are opening bipartisan inquiries into the second U.S. strike aiming to kill the survivors from the first boat strike.

In separate statements issued over the weekend, the House Armed Services Committee said it would take "bipartisan action to gather a full accounting of the operation in question," while the Senate panel vowed "vigorous oversight" to determine what occurred.

A number of Republican and Democratic lawmakers, as well as U.S. law experts, voiced deep concern over the incident on Sunday, suggesting the Pentagon order amounted to a war crime.

Democratic Senator Tim Kaine told CBS News on Sunday that if the report was accurate, the attack "rises to the level of a war crime."

Don Bacon, a Republian sitting on the House Armed Services Committee, told ABC News that if the strike occurred as the report said, "that is a violation of the law of war ... It's hard to believe that two people on a raft trying to survive would pose an imminent threat."

Asked by CNN on Sunday if he believed a second strike to kill survivors constituted a war crime, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly said, "It seems to."

Laura A. Dickinson, a professor of law at the George Washington University law school, told the Time magazine that if the report is true, Hegseth could be exposed to criminal liability under the U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).

"In an armed conflict, the intentional killing of a protected person -- someone who is a civilian or a person who is 'hors de combat' because they have laid down their arms or are shipwrecked at sea -- is a war crime," she said.

In her observation, most U.S. law experts do not believe there is an armed conflict between the U.S. and drug traffickers, the professor added.

The United States "is not at war at all, meaning that all of the strikes are illegal -- not solely the strike being discussed." Jennifer Trahan, a professor at New York University's Center for Global Affairs, also told the magazine.

Since early September, the Pentagon has carried out more than 20 known strikes on alleged drug vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, killing more than 80 people aboard. 
by Maya Majueran

The United States' conspicuous absence from two major international gatherings -- the G20 Summit in South Africa and the COP30 climate conference in Brazil -- has raised pressing questions about Washington's commitment to multilateralism. Yet paradoxically, both summits achieved significant breakthroughs in global cooperation and green development, even without the world's so-called indispensable nation.

Rather than slowing down, global cooperation accelerated. And in doing so, it sent a clear message: the world is no longer waiting for Washington.

The U.S. absence exposes a deeper and more structural reality. Washington remains reluctant to adapt to the emerging multipolar world order, still viewing global affairs through a zero-sum, Cold War-era lens. This mindset is increasingly incompatible with a 21st-century world defined by shared challenges and distributed power.

Meanwhile, the Global South, encompassing the vast majority of the world's population, is forging new pathways centered on inclusivity, sustainability, and mutual benefit. These priorities stand in sharp contrast to Washington's approach, which often seeks to preserve hierarchies, enforce dominance, and weaponize interdependence. The choice facing the West is stark: engage constructively or be left behind.

Despite the U.S. absence, the G20 Summit reached a historic milestone: the adoption of a joint declaration on day one, the first such achievement in the summit's history. It emphasized stronger support for developing countries and integrated an unprecedented African perspective on global governance and development.

At COP30, nations pledged solidarity and cooperation in addressing the challenges of climate change, reaffirming a collective commitment to green transitions and climate resilience.

Both outcomes underline a simple truth: The world is willing and capable of advancing global cooperation without U.S. leadership. And in many cases, it can do so more effectively.

If the United States and its allies continue distancing themselves from multilateral mechanisms, the Global South will continue strengthening its own institutional ecosystem. This evolution is already clear in the expanding influence of BRICS, whose enlargement and institutionalization reflect a growing confidence in Global South leadership. The momentum behind the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) further highlights the shift, as countries from Eurasia, South Asia, and the Middle East find common ground in security, economic cooperation, and development.

New platforms for trade, finance, and development are also emerging, allowing states to bypass traditional Western-controlled systems. These mechanisms along with intensifying South-South cooperation in technology, infrastructure, and climate adaptation represent the early foundations of a parallel global architecture. This movement is not an act of defiance, but a response to longstanding inequalities embedded in some international institutions, which have historically privileged a small circle of Western allies while sidelining the majority of nations.

Developing countries are no longer passive participants. They are demanding a global governance system that is transparent, inclusive, and equitable -- one that treats all nations fairly, regardless of size, wealth, or geopolitical alignment.

A quiet but profound transformation underway across the Global South is the democratization of technology and knowledge. Affordable innovation -- much of it driven by Chinese companies and open-source ecosystems -- is empowering developing countries to leapfrog traditional stages of development.

In many regions, low-cost solar systems are electrifying rural communities, reducing energy poverty, and enabling micro-enterprises. The spread of affordable electric vehicles is modernizing transport systems while cutting emissions. Meanwhile, the rise of open-source AI platforms from China is lowering barriers to advanced computing, allowing startups, universities, and small governments to harness tools that were once restricted to wealthy nations and tech giants.

This broad access to technology aligns with China's vision of a shared future for humanity -- one where prosperity is not concentrated in a handful of Western capitals but distributed across continents. For many in the Global South, this is not abstract diplomacy; it is visible and tangible in the form of new jobs, upgraded infrastructure, digital empowerment, and rising productivity.

Such accessibility to innovation is reshaping development trajectories. It proves that the Global South does not have to wait for the West's approval or technology largesse. It can build, innovate, and modernize on its own terms with partners who view development as cooperation, not control.

The era of weaponizing trade, technology, and currency is fading. A new global governance system must emerge -- one based on mutual respect, sustainable development, and shared prosperity.

Within this shift, China's Global Governance Initiative has resonated across the Global South, offering a framework built on connectivity, digital inclusion, and people-centered development. From innovation parks in Africa to renewable energy projects in Southeast Asia, the model is already delivering results.

This is not about replacing one hegemon with another. It is about building a world where every nation has the tools and opportunities to advance.

The world is undergoing a profound transformation. Power is dispersing, cooperation is broadening, and multilateralism is being redefined by those long left on the margins.

Washington can either participate in this transformation or isolate itself from it. The rest of the world has made its choice: to move forward collectively, to reform global governance, and to pursue a model of development that benefits all.

If the West continues to cling to outdated hierarchies, the Global South is fully prepared to shape the future -- economically, politically, technologically, and institutionally.

The message could not be clearer: Adapt to the new reality or be left behind.

Editor's note: Maya Majueran serves as the director of the Belt and Road Initiative Sri Lanka, an independent and pioneering organization with strong expertise in Belt and Road Initiative advice and support.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Xinhua News Agency.
Photo taken on December 2, 2025 shows the White House, in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Hu Yousong)

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said at a White House cabinet meeting on Tuesday that his administration will start strikes on land targeting drug traffickers in the Caribbean "very soon."

"We're going to start doing those strikes on land. You know, the land is much easier. It's much easier, and we know the routes they take," Trump said at the meeting. "We're going to start that very soon."

In his Thanksgiving remarks to U.S. troops on Thursday night, Trump thanked the Air Force's 7th Bomb Wing for their work to "deter Venezuelan drug traffickers," while announcing, "It's about 85 percent stopped by sea ... and we'll be starting to stop them by land."

"Also, the land is easier, but that's going to start very soon," Trump spoke from his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Since Sept. 2, the Pentagon has carried out at least 21 known strikes on alleged drug vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, killing at least 83 people aboard.

In the past months, Washington has deployed around a dozen warships, including the USS Gerald R. Ford, a major aircraft carrier, and about 15,000 troops to the Caribbean Sea, which shares a significant amount of coastline with Venezuela. The region has not seen such a massive U.S. military presence for at least three decades.

Critics, including multiple lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol, have questioned whether counternarcotics is indeed the only U.S. motive and the legality of U.S. military strikes in the Caribbean for months.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has denied having any ties to the drug trade and has accused the United States of "fabricating" a war aimed at regime change in his country. 

Photo taken on December 2, 2025 shows the White House, in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Hu Yousong)

Photo taken on December 2, 2025 shows the White House, in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Hu Yousong)
OTTAWA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Assembly of First Nations (AFN) chiefs on Tuesday passed a unanimous emergency resolution demanding the withdrawal of a new oil pipeline deal between the Canadian federal government and the Canadian province of Alberta, local media reported.

The resolution, passed on the first day of the AFN's annual December three-day meeting in Ottawa, also affirmed support for the continuation of a federal ban on oil tanker traffic in northern British Columbia waters.

The new pipeline agreement, announced last week, contemplates lifting the ban to ship bitumen to Asian markets.

AFN National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said that the agreement was made "as if First Nations rights can be wiped away with one federal-provincial MOU (Memorandum of Understanding)."

"Canada can create all the MOUs, project offices, advisory groups that they want: the chiefs are united," she was quoted as saying. "When it comes to approving large national projects on First Nations lands, there will not be getting around rights holders."

The federal government and Alberta announced last week to advance the development of the pipeline capable of transporting at least 1 million barrels per day of low-emission bitumen for Asian markets from a strategic deep-water port. 
Key Points

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10 stocks we like better than Enterprise Products Partners 

Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD) has been an elite income investment over the years. The master limited partnership (MLP) has raised its distribution payment for 27 years in a row. It currently offers a monster 6.7% yield, several times higher than the S&P 500 (1.2% yield).

The midstream giant is on the cusp of a major inflection point. That upcoming catalyst is why I'd buy the MLP without hesitation this December.

Image source: Getty Images.

The end of an era

Enterprise Products Partners launched a multi-year capital project investment cycle in 2022. The midstream giant has built several large-scale pipeline and marine terminal facilities over the past few years. Additionally, it has made a couple of acquisitions to expand its midstream footprint into new areas. As a result, it has the infrastructure to support growing production volumes in the Permian and Haynesville basins for many years to come.

This year marked the peak in capital spending. Enterprise Products Partners is on track to invest $4.5 billion into growth capital projects this year, up from $3.9 billion last year and $2.9 billion in 2023. That spending enabled the company to complete several large-scale capital projects, including its new Neches River Terminal and the Bahia natural gas liquids pipeline. Overall, the company anticipates finishing $6 billion of growth capital projects during the second half of this year.

Enterprise Products Partners expects its growth capital spending to decline substantially next year. At the end of the third quarter, the MLP anticipated that its 2026 growth capital spending would be between $2.2 billion and $2.5 billion. This would enable the company to wrap up construction on phase two of its Neches River terminal, build two additional gas processing plants, and the expansion of the Enterprise Hydrocarbons Terminal. While the company has since approved an expansion of the Bahia pipeline as part of a joint venture with ExxonMobil, its new partner is contributing cash to the venture, helping offset the expansion cost.

The coming free cash flow surge

Enterprise Products Partners is about to start an exciting new chapter. The $6 billion of growth capital projects entering service in the second half of this year will contribute significant incremental cash flow over the coming quarters as they ramp up their volumes. Additionally, the company's capital spending will decrease substantially next year. With its cash flow rising and its capital spending falling, Enterprise Products Partners' free cash flow should surge in 2026.
A coalition of ten major European banks has officially launched a new Amsterdambased company called qivalis to create a europegged stablecoin capable of countering the overwhelming dominance of US digitaldollar systems.

The consortium includes ING, UniCredit, BNP Paribas, Raiffeisen Bank International, SEB, Danske Bank, CaixaBank, KBC, Banca Sella, and DekaBank. Together, these firms intend to build a regulated European alternative as USD-focused tokens USDT and USDC capture a $261 billion market cap.

Coinbase Exec as CEO

The group has appointed JanOliver Sell, known for his previous work at Coinbase in Germany, as CEO. INGs digital asset lead Floris Lugt will serve as CFO, while former NatWest chair Howard Davies will head the board.

The plan is to secure an Electronic Money Institution license from the Dutch central bank, a process expected to take six to nine months. If approved, qivalis aims to launch its eurobacked stablecoin in the early second half of 2026.

On the other hand, the United States is accelerating its own stablecoin expansion under the GENIUS Act, which encourages dollarbacked token issuance to support US monetary influence abroad. Meanwhile, qivalis wants to reclaim monetary ground for Europe, competing with Tether and Circle.

Swedens Report on Stablecoins

The Swedish central bank, Sveriges Riksbank, recently released a detailed analysis exploring the systemic risks that widespread stablecoin adoption could pose.

It warned that if households move savings from insured bank deposits into private digital assets, the traditional banking sector could face higher funding costs, tighter lending conditions, and upward pressure on mortgage and businessloan rates.

The report also discussed concerns around firesale dynamics during redemption waves, inconsistencies in issuer guarantees, and competition between private monies that might trade at discounts.

Although MiCA creates a clear legal path for stablecoins backed by centralbank reserves, the European Central Bank and national central banks continue to restrict issuer access to settlement accounts.

They permit accounts for payment purposes but limit balances to operational necessities. This blocks the formation of fully backed, fullreserve stablecoins backed directly by centralbank liquidity.

Polands President Vetoed Crypto Bill

In Poland, President Karol Nawrocki vetoed a bill that would have put the country in line with EU crypto rules. He argued that the legislation threatened civil freedoms, introduced opaque domainblocking powers, and imposed regulatory fees that would crush small businesses.
JasonDoiy / Getty Images

Quick Read

Molina Healthcare (MOH) trades at 8.9 times trailing P/E after losing half its value in the past year.

Salesforce has dropped 30% year to date despite progress in agentic AI development.

Keurig Dr Pepper offers a 3.3% dividend yield and trades at 12.7 times forward P/E after an 11% decline.

Some investors get rich while others struggle because they never learned there are two completely different strategies to building wealth. Dont make the same mistake, learn about both here.

Bill Nygren's legendary Oakmark fund made some remarkable moves in the third quarter, to say the least. And in this piece, we'll have a quick look at four of the names that investors might wish to stash on the radars, not just because they're in the portfolio of a famous billionaire money manager, but because there still may be value to be had in a market that many would consider to be a tad lacking in bargains.

Without further ado, let's get into the three names, which might make sense to pick up even if you're not able to get a cost basis that's close to what Nygren's fund paid.

Molina Healthcare

Molina Healthcare (NYSE:MOH) might be the most interesting buy that Nygren's fund made last quarter. Undoubtedly, the managed care space has been under serious pressure in recent years, as medical costs surged, applying pressure to medical loss ratios.

And while Molina is a lesser-known name in the space, I do find it to be one of the cheapest and most exciting ways to play a bounce back in the industry. Molina Healthcare might be a lesser-known player, with its mere $7.8 billion market cap after shedding around half of its value in the past year. Still, what excites me most about the name is that it was announced as one of the longs in Dr. Michael Burry's portfolio in the third quarter.

Though Burry has since closed Scion, I do think his recognition of the name is a sign that shares might be too cheap for their own good. After an awful year, the stock is going for 8.9 times trailing price-to-earnings (P/E). And while the slew of rough earnings and seemingly non-stop guidance downgrades are a test of investor patience, I think the name is worth hanging onto in small doses if you have the stomach and horizon to be a deep-value investor.

Salesforce

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) is another smart pick-up after plunging around 30% year to date. The customer relationship management firm has made big strides in AI. And we've yet to see adoption of tech that'd inspire a move back to new highs, I do think that the firm's agentic AI tailwinds going into 2026 are difficult to ignore.
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Credent Wealth Management, a $4 billion registered investment advisor headquartered in Auburn, Ind., has sold a minority stake to Crestline Investors, an alternative investment manager and lender.

The move from Fort Worth, Texas-based Crestline adds to $50 million in debt financing it made in July 2024 to Credent. That financing helped the RIA nearly double its assets under management.

Crestline now joins the other 50 employee/owners in Credent, who are all part of the same shareholder class, a staple of Credents model, according to CEO and co-founder David Hefty.

How do you take all of these fiercely independent entrepreneurs and make all of them work together? Hefty asked. The answer for us was a single economic class with full transparency. ... That was the secret sauce, and that has become a stake in the ground for us.

Hefty said when Credent was exploring other stakeholder options with investment bank support from Ardea Partners, the equal shareholder setup was non-negotiable.

He also said Credent insisted on remaining a fee-only advisory, something he said is being eroded by private equity capital, which pushes firms to adopt fee-based models with proprietary or commission-based products.

Crestline, which has about $20 billion in AUM, will continue to support recruiting and acquisition efforts for Credent, which has completed more than 13 deals since 2018 and has 14 offices in the Midwest, Oklahoma and Texas. The funding will also go toward technology and platform investments, Credents turnkey asset management program, and its buyout program for retiring advisors.

If youre going to be a succession planning firm, you better have a liquidity lever, Hefty said. This event with Crestline provided that liquidity that was needed for those exiting advisors on our capital table, and then also provides for investing in our profit interest partners.

With the stake, Crestline Director Albert Hicks will get a board seat with the RIA.

We are proud to deepen our partnership with a firm that we believe is well-positioned to support advisors in their mission, offering transparent economics, independence, and a clear path to ownership and succession, Hicks said in a statement.

Credent will also continue to put funding toward its TAMP, Credent Advisor Solutions. Hefty said the TAMP caters to late-career advisors looking toward succession, and is not a separate line of business meant for all RIAs.
Africa Specialty Risks (ASR) has entered into the cyber insurance market for African businesses with the introduction of a digital quote-and-bind policy.

The new product is designed to offer coverage to companies across the continent, beginning in South Africa, Namibia and Mauritius.

The cyber policy is available through ASR 24-7, an automated underwriting platform, and provides coverage limits of up to $5m for businesses with annual revenues as high as $100m.

The initiative addresses the availability of cyber insurance in Africa and aims to improve access to risk protection using its distribution channels.

The coverage is supported by Lloyds AA-rated security.

ASR 24-7 enables authorised brokers to digitally generate quotes and bind policies, removing the requirement for manual underwriter involvement.

Additionally, ASRs cyber policy includes access to support services such as incident response, threat intelligence and security reporting.

ASR CEO Mikir Shah said: There is a pressing need for cyber insurance across the African continent, which remains woefully under-served despite facing an active cyber threat landscape similar to that of developed markets.

ASR is meeting this need by offering a Lloyds cyber insurance solution for African businesses. This new product is backed by a panel of leading vendor partners who can assist companies both in preparation for, and in response to, any cyber incident.

"We look forward to rolling out cyber coverage across the whole continent in the coming months via our ASR 24-7 platform.

Last month, ASR introduced Syndicate 2454 in South Africa, based in Sandton.

Underwriters from this unit will work with both insurance and reinsurance across South Africa and neighbouring countries, concentrating on specialty insurance classes.

"Africa Specialty Risks enters cyber insurance with digital quote-and-bind policy " was originally created and published by Life Insurance International, a GlobalData owned brand.




The E.U.s antitrust regulator could soon be looking at probing another transaction between Hong Kong port operator CK Hutchison and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC).

According to a report from Reuters, the European Commission is prepping to investigate a deal in which MSC and consortium partner BlackRock were set to take over 50 percent of Hutchisons terminal at the Port of Barcelona.

More from Sourcing Journal

Previous reports since early 2024 have tied MSC with the acquisition of half of Barcelona Europe South Terminal (BEST), with the Swiss container shipping giant expected to pay between 250 million euros and 350 million euros ($290 million and $406 million) for its half of the gateway. But details including BlackRocks potential role in that deal have not been disclosed.

The deal is separate from BlackRock and MSCs bid for most of CK Hutchisons global port operations, according to the ocean carrier. That $22.8 billion acquisition would see 43 ports switch hands, including two in Panama that have put the deal under significant international scrutiny. A probe by Chinas antitrust regulator and internal investigations by the Panamanian government have largely held up the transaction.

Like the larger ports deal, MSC would be buying the portion of the Spanish terminal via its own terminal operator subsidiary, Terminal Investment Limited (TIL). TIL already operates a terminal at Spains Port of Valencia.

In early November, MSC and Hutchison filed for the E.U.s approval of the plan to jointly control the terminal. The Port of Barcelonas board of directors voted in June to authorize the transfer.

The European Commission has set a Dec. 10 deadline to decide whether it should approve the deal, the report said. According to the Reuters report, the commission is expected to open a full-scale investigation after the deadline.

Such a probe could see regulators demand concessions from either MSC or BlackRock in return for clearance. TILs operation of MSC Terminal Valencia could potentially influence the commissions competition analysis.

Full-scale E.U. investigations typically last for four months or longer, with potential concessions including divestments to address the competition concerns. Non-E.U. assets would lie outside the commissions jurisdiction.

For CK Hutchison, BlackRock and MSC, all parties are currently embroiled in plenty of other drama surrounding the two ports based on each side of the Panama Canal. Hutchison conceded in August that any deal transferring ownership of the Cristobal and Balboa ports would not close by the end of 2025. Alongside needing approval from the Panamanian government, the port transaction would require regulatory go-aheads from the U.S., China, the U.K. and the E.U.
Dec 1 (Reuters) - Apple (AAPL) on Monday named veteran researcher Amar Subramanya as its vice president of AI, replacing John Giannandrea.

Apple  a laggard in the AI race  has been slow to add AI features to its products in comparison to rivals such as Samsung Electronics, which have been quicker to refresh their devices with AI features.

Shares in Apple were little changed in premarket trading on Tuesday after the move.

Subramanya will lead critical areas, including Apple Foundation Models, ML research and will report to software chief Craig Federighi.

He is joining Apple from Microsoft, where he most recently served as corporate vice president of AI. Previously, Subramanya spent 16 years at Google, where he was, among other roles, the head of engineering for the Gemini assistant.

Giannandrea will serve as an adviser to Apple until his retirement in spring next year.

Apple CEO Tim Cook with Craig Federighi and John Giannandrea during its annual developer conference on June 10, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Barria  REUTERS / Reuters

Earlier this year, Apple said that artificial intelligence improvements to its voice assistant Siri would be delayed until 2026.

There have been reports of Apple CEO Tim Cook losing confidence in AI head Giannandrea's ability to execute on product development.

(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Alan Barona)
Employees of the Argentine company Visuar at work in the factory, in Province of Canuelas, in Buenos Aires. Economic conditions have forced many other companies to close. File Photo by Enrique Garcia Medina/EPA

BUENOS AIRES, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- More than 30 companies have been closing each day in Argentina for the past 1 1/2 years, with a net loss of more than 236,000 jobs, according to a report from the Center for Political Economy of Argentina based on official data from the Superintendence of Occupational Risks.

A few days ago, U.S.-based Whirlpool announced the dismissal of 220 workers after shutting down its plant in Pilar, on the northern outskirts of Buenos Aires. The plant is ceasing operations because of falling sales and competition from cheaper imported products, factors that made continued operations in the country unviable.

The company's decision adds to a growing list of domestic and foreign firms that have stopped operating over the past 20 months. The wave of closures reflects the economic and structural challenges facing Argentina's productive sectors, with a direct impact on formal employment and the country's industrial capacity.

Hernan Letcher, director of the Center for Political Economy of Argentina, told UPI that public data show about 19,200 companies have closed since President Javier Milei took office, with an estimated average of 32 closures a day through August.

In addition to company closures, the economist tracks other labor conflicts, including mass layoffs and suspensions. He also noted firms in critical condition that have been forced to restructure production, along with cases of reorganization proceedings and bankruptcies.

Letcher said the sectors most affected are construction and industry.

"Construction is suffering because public works have been halted, while in industry the hardest-hit segments are automotive, textiles and footwear. Everything related to electronics and home appliances is also facing difficulties, partly because of lower tariffs," he said.

The meatpacking sector is under severe strain, as is the dairy industry, while metallurgy and steel are in a "very complicated" situation. The paper and plastics industries are especially affected by increased imports.

Letcher attributed the industrial crisis to a combination of factors. One of them is the drop in purchasing power, which has reduced sales by about 10% on average, with sharper declines in certain sectors.

He said the second and most damaging factor is the opening of imports. The third is an exchange rate that is uncompetitive for industrial production.

"It's no longer a cost problem tied to logistics or taxes, which probably also play a role, but the appreciation of the peso makes industry unviable in many segments," he said.
This story was originally published on C-Store Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily C-Store Dive newsletter.

Dive Brief:

Arko Corp., parent company of GPM Investments, has named Galagher Jeff executive vice president and chief financial officer, effective Dec. 1, according to a Monday announcement from the company.

Jeff resigned as CFO of convenience retailer Murphy USA in October. While he left after a financially turbulent year for Murphy, the company noted the split was not the result of any disagreement between the two parties.

He succeeds Rob Giammatteo, who left Arko in October to pursue a new opportunity outside the convenience store sector.

Dive Insight:

Jeff joins Arko amid the companys transformation plan that includes converting some underperforming stores to dealer sites and increasing its focus on food. The latter has featured the rollout of a new store design centered around Arkos Fas Craves foodservice program.

murphy usa

Mr. Jeffs tenured career in strategy and finance in multiple leadership roles, and his convenience store and retail experience, will augment an already strong ARKO team, said Arie Kotler, chairman, president and CEO of Arko.

Before joining Murphy as CFO in early 2024, Jeff worked for nearly a year as senior vice president of finance and strategy and chief transformation officer for discount retailer Dollar Tree. Before that, he spent more than three years in finance roles with car parts retailer Advance Auto Parts, according to his LinkedIn profile. He also served for more than a decade in a number of roles with Walmart, including more than two years as VP and CFO of the companys e-commerce arm.

I see tremendous opportunity for [Arko] as it continues to execute on its multi-year transformation plan, supported by its ongoing channel optimization work and execution of organic growth initiatives, said Jeff in the announcement.

Jordan Mann, SVP of corporate strategy, capital markets and investor relations, had been serving as interim CFO since shortly after Giammatteos departure.

In the announcement, Kotler thanked Mann for successfully providing a seamless transition for the Company during our CFO search and for supporting Galagher as he joins the ARKO family.

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Arla Foods is investing Skr70m ($7.4m) in a dairy plant in Sweden as the cooperative seeks to increase production of cottage cheese.

Denmark-headquartered Arla said the investment in its west coast Falkenberg site aims to boost annual output of Keso branded cottage cheese by 1,500 tonnes. The target for this year is 27,000 tonnes, which if realised would represent around a 17% rise over 2024, according to a statement.

Arla clarified that the project will focus on upgrading existing equipment, including filtration and cooling, alongside improving capacity and efficiency. The Falkenberg dairy, which mainly supplies the Swedish market but also exports to Finland, Denmark and Spain, currently has six packaging lines, the co-op confirmed.

No additional jobs will be created at the site, with the workforce remaining at around 130 people. However, Arla said staff numbers at Falkenberg have grown by around 20% in the past two years as cottage cheese demand increased.

Arla claims Falkenberg is the largest cottage-cheese manufacturing plant in Europe that also produces the Cheasy brand. The factory processes around 130 million kilograms of milk a year from its farmer suppliers.

The investment will be put to work early in the new year with the additional capacity expected to come on stream in the final quarter.

Sweden generated 1.59bn ($1.85bn) in revenue for Arla last year, an increase of 3.6%. Total group revenue climbed 0.7% to 13.77bn.

The country was also earmarked for investment earlier this year, with 34.5m due to be ploughed into Arlas facility in Jonkoping to kick start production of skyr.

Cream cheese was the target for another project in Denmark as the co-op set out plans to invest 59.4m in its Holstebro Dairy.

April marked a key development as Arla announced a plan to merge with German dairy peer DMK Group, subject to regulatory approval.

Asked for an update by Just Food today (2 December), an Arla spokesperson said it expects to receive the competition body's decision in the first half of the new year.

Meanwhile, Arla issued first-half results in August. Revenue was up 12.7% at 7.45bn while EBITDA registered a 5.5% increase to 540m.

EBIT rose 6% to 282m but net profit slipped 3.5% to 167m.

"Arla invests in cottage-cheese production at Swedish dairy plant" was originally created and published by Just Food, a GlobalData owned brand.




Associated Banc-Corp has agreed to acquire American National for up to $604m, to expand its presence across key markets in the US Midwest.

The acquisition will see American Nationals banking subsidiary integrated into Associated Banc-Corps subsidiary, Associated Bank.

Under the terms of the agreement, American National shareholders will receive 36.250 shares of Associateds stock for each share of American National stock.

The transaction value is based on Associateds closing price of $26.29 as of 28 November 2025.

This deal has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies.

American Nationals two primary shareholders, who jointly own 99% of the company, have also approved the deal and signed transfer, voting and registration rights agreements.

The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

Associated Banc-Corp president and CEO Andy Harmening said: Were excited for the opportunity to welcome American National clients, team members and communities to Associated.

This complementary partnership accelerates our growth strategy by deepening our presence in the Twin Cities, establishing our presence in the attractive Omaha market, and broadening our reach across the Midwest.

Importantly, we believe Associated is a natural fit for American National thanks to our customer-centric approach, our industry-leading products and services, and our focus on supporting and uplifting the communities we serve.

American National operates 33 offices across Nebraska, Minnesota, and Iowa, with focus on the Greater Omaha and Minneapolis/St. Paul metro areas.

The company reported total assets of $5.3bn, total loans of $3.8bn and total deposits of $4.7bn, as of 30 September 2025.

Based in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Associated Bank operates nearly 200 branches across more than 100 communities in four states.

Upon closing, the combined entity will deliver a wide range of banking services across Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa.

Evercore served as financial advisor, while Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz acted as legal advisor to Associated.

Piper Sandler & Co. served as financial advisor and Alston & Bird as legal advisor to American National.

American National Corporation executive co-chairperson/co-CEO John Kotouc and American National Bank co-chairperson/co-CEO Wende Kotouc, in a joint statement, said: Our organisations share a long history of success supporting client and community growth across the Midwest.

We are confident that this partnership will enhance the value and capabilities of our trusted banking services. Our teams will continue to provide the convenient, local, dependable and personalised service that our clients have enjoyed for decades.
This story was originally published on Banking Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Banking Dive newsletter.

Dive Brief:

Green Bay, Wisconsin-based Associated Bank has agreed to acquire Omaha, Nebraska-based American National Bank in an all-stock deal valued at $604 million, the companies said Monday.

Privately held American National would give $44 billion-asset Associated 33 branches across Nebraska, Minnesota and Iowa, and $5.3 billion in assets, $3.8 billion in loans and $4.7 billion in deposits, according to a news release.

The acquisition, expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, would make Associated Bank the No. 2 bank in the Omaha metro area and the No. 10 bank in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area by deposit market share.

Dive Insight:

Acquiring American National bolsters Associateds scale in the Midwest, executives said Monday. Associated has about 200 branches across Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota and Missouri. The bank also has loan production offices in Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, New York, Ohio and Texas.

When an analyst remarked during a conference call Monday that the Omaha move seemed surprising, Associated CEO Andy Harmening replied, You say surprising, I say contiguous.

Omaha is a great banking market, with strong population and economic growth, Harmening said. This market actually grows faster than many of the markets that were in today, the CEO said.

And American Nationals family ownership in a hyper-local market is crucial, he indicated. If you're going to buy a bank in Omaha  you better have connectivity to the community, and we do, Harmening said.

American National would give Associated an additional 79,000 customer deposit accounts. The smaller, commercially focused lender, founded in 1856, serves middle-market and family-owned businesses, according to an investor presentation.

Associated, meanwhile, brings American National more capabilities such as capital markets and equipment finance, and a stronger consumer product set.

Under the deals terms, American National shareholders will receive 36.250 shares of Associated stock for each share of American National stock. The transactions value is based on Associated's closing price of $26.29 as of Friday. Associated would own 88% of the combined entity would be 88% owned, and American National would have a 12% stake, according to the release.

The deal is expected to be about 1.2% dilutive to tangible book value per share at close, with a 2.25-year earnback period. Its projected to be 2% accretive to 2027 earnings per share.
Texas flag. - Torsten Asmus/Getty Images

Ask Texans what they love about the Lone Star State, and chances are their response involves barbecue and low taxes  especially no taxes on income. However, according to the Tax Foundation, Texas has one of the highest effective property tax rates in the country. According to the study, in 2023, the state had an average effective rate of 1.36%  the seventh highest in the country.

An effective property tax rate is the percent of a property's value that the homeowner pays in taxes each year. For example, if your home is valued at $600,000 and you pay $6,000 in property taxes, your effective property tax rate is 1%. Texas' high property taxes are likely a result of the state's lack of income and corporate taxes. State-imposed taxes across the country are used to fund local government and essential services. States that have high property taxes often have them in lieu of other types of taxes. This is also why Texas has a moderately high average sales tax rate of 8.2% when looking at the average state and local sales tax rate.

Read more: Retirees Are More Likely To Run Out Of Money If They Make These Mistakes

Counties with the highest taxes in Texas

Man looking at bill. - PeopleImages/Shutterstock

While Texas averaged a 1.36% property tax rate, it was not that same rate throughout the state. In fact, taking a granular look at Texas, the areas with the highest tax rates were as unexpected as Texas' generally high tax rate. Per the Tax Foundation's analysis, El Paso, McMullen, and Fort Bend Counties had the state's highest effective tax rates at 2.09%, 1.99%, and 1.99%, respectively. These areas are not the most populous in the state and generally have lower property values. Often, local governments set higher tax rates in such areas to generate revenue needed to fund their services.

Despite having the highest tax rates, El Paso, McMullen, and Fort Bend County did not pay the most in taxes. According to the analysis, in 2023, Travis, Collin, and Williamson Counties had the highest median property taxes paid with bills of $7,487, $7,432, and $7,079, respectively. Despite having a lower tax rate than El Paso, McMullen, and Fort Bend Counties, they topped the charts because they have some of the highest property values in the state. Even if you qualify for tax breaks you should know about if you own a home, such as rebates for mortgage interest, the high rates may make you regret moving to Texas to save on taxes  as many retirees have found out.

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Read the original article on Money Digest.
Over the past six months, Broadcoms stock has gained 59%. A significant boost to the stock in September was the Q3 earnings reveal that Broadcom secured $10 billion worth of orders for artificial intelligence racks, based on the companys XPUs (XPUs are custom AI accelerators) from OpenAI.

The recent release of Google Gemini 3 AI model was 100% trained on Google's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), as reported by CNBC. This was good news for Broadcom, as the company helps Google with the design of these chips. By training their frontier model on TPUs, Google demonstrated that Nvidia GPUs aren't necessary for developing advanced AI.

Meta clearly took notice of Google's success, as it is rumored to be in talks with Google to spend billions of dollars on Alphabet's TPUs for use in its data centers starting from 2027, as reported by Reuters.

Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya and his team updated their opinion on Broadcom stock in response to the Gemini 3 being 100% trained on TPUs, and the rumored deal between Google and Meta.

Bank of America raised its sales estimates for Broadcom.Shutterstock

Bank of America raises Broadcom price target

Analysts said that Google's increasing TPU leverage is a positive for its key design partner Broadcom (AVGO).

They raised their sales estimates for Broadcom for 2025, 2026, and 2027 by +0 %, +2 %, and +4 %, to $63 billion, $88 billion, and $120 billion, respectively.

The team noted that if Google were to go beyond renting out the TPUs from within the Google Cloud Platform and sell the chips directly to customers, that could create new competition for Broadcom's other custom silicon customers, such as Meta, ByteDance, and OpenAI.

Related: Fidelity portfolio manager updates tech stocks forecast for 2026

They said that Google might also add MediaTek to its design partner list for next-gen TPUv8 (high-end chip version would be TPUv8AX with Broadcom, and low-end chip would be TPUv8X with MediaTek), potentially reducing Broadcom's share.

In a research note shared with TheStreet, Arya reiterated a buy rating and raised the target price from $400 to $460, based on a 33 multiple of his estimate for the price-to-earnings ratio for calendar year 2027.

Analysts noted downside risk factors for Broadcom:

Semiconductor cycle risks

High exposure to Apple and Google with potential design out risks

Competitive risks in networking, smartphone, storage, enterprise software markets

Frequent acquirer of assets, which increases financial and integration risks

Large $60 billion net-debt

Broadcoms recent activity

Broadcom launched Brocade X8 Directors and Brocade G820 56-port switch. According to the company, they are the industrys first 128G Fibre Channel platforms designed for todays mission-critical workloads and enterprise AI applications.

The Brocade Gen 8 portfolio features quantum-resistant 256-bit encryption and other post-quantum cryptography algorithms to protect sensitive data and infrastructure from future quantum computers.

More Tech Stocks:

The company plans to expand its strategic partnership with NEC Corporation. NEC will implement VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) into its IT systems. This will enable NEC to provide a higher quality of service when delivering VCF-based solutions to customers.

Broadcom is also advancing an open, extensible ecosystem for VCF, enabling customers to build, connect, protect, and extend their private clouds.

The momentum behind VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 is undeniable. It's a platform that's redefining how organizations approach their private cloud journey, offering a consistent operating model that spans data centers to the edge, said Paul Turner, Chief Product Officer, VMware Cloud Foundation Division, Broadcom. By fostering an open VCF ecosystem, we're empowering businesses to build modern private clouds that align with their strategic needs, ensuring they can leverage the technologies required for their unique environments.

Related: Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and BofA drop verdicts on Nvidia earnings

This story was originally published by TheStreet on Dec 2, 2025, where it first appeared in the Investing section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE:UNP) is one of the best industrial stocks to buy. On November 20, Bernstein analyst David Vernon affirmed a Buy rating on Union Pacific, with a $290 price target.

Independent of the analyst action, a November 14 Reuters report revealed that 9 Republican state attorneys general drew attention to competition risks regarding Union Pacific's bid to acquire Norfolk Southern, a competitor despite its smaller operations, in an $85 billion transaction, which would ultimately result in Americas first coast-to-coast freight rail service.

Bernstein has a Positive Stance on Union Pacific Corporation (UNP)

Photo by Acton Crawford on Unsplash

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach led the team of officials who opposed the deal and wrote a letter to the Surface Transportation Board. In their letter, they stated that they were worried that this buyout "will result in undue market concentration that stifles competition and therefore creates higher prices, lower reliability, and less innovation at the expense of Americas manufacturers and, ultimately, Americas consumers."

The 9 opposing state attorneys general were also concerned about monopolistic pricing impacting American companies and their capacity to compete with foreign suppliers. They went as far as to mention that the merger could risk the industrial and agricultural sectors, as well as pose a danger to national security.

In response, Union Pacific said that it will present its case to the Surface Transportation Board to show how the combination benefits the nation, meets public interest standards, and improves competition. President Donald Trump gave the merger his verbal consent in a meeting with UNPs CEO in September 2025.

While we acknowledge the potential of UNP as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.

READ NEXT: Dow 20 Stocks List: Ranked By Hedge Fund Bullishness Index and 10 Unstoppable Dividend Stocks to Buy Now.

Disclosure. None.
For two decades, the playbook for Big Tech was fairly simple and extremely successful: Create disruptive innovations, deliver blinding growth rates and keep a lid on spending.

A handful of behemoths like Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp. used this formula to seize market share from legacy businesses and power the US stock market to record after record. But a key part of the program  the relatively small amount of capital required to generate those huge profits  is increasingly under threat from the race to develop artificial intelligence.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Theyre some of the best business models the market has ever seen, said Jim Morrow, chief executive officer at Callodine Capital Management, which oversees $1.2 billion in assets. Now youve seen this explosion in capital intensity to the point where its now the most capital intensive sector in the market. Thats just a radical change.

Those four companies alone are expected to devote more than $380 billion combined to capital expenditures in their current fiscal years, with most going to chips, servers and other data center-related expenses. Thats a more than 1,300% jump from a decade ago. And theyve all pledged to spend significantly more in the year after that.

Microsofts capex is now 25% of its revenue, more than three times what it was 10 years ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The software and cloud-computing giants spending-to-sales ratio is among the top 20% in the S&P 500, as are Alphabets and Amazons, well above companies in traditionally capital-intensive industries like oil and gas exploration and telecommunications.

Despite the uncertainty of future payoffs, investors are giving the tech giants the benefit of the doubt on their AI plans, at least so far. Almost all of the big spenders have seen their stock prices rise this year, and their valuations are elevated. For example, Microsoft shares are up 16% in 2025, and the stock is priced at more than 28 times profits projected over the next 12 months, higher than its 10-year average of roughly 27 times and the S&P 500s multiple of 22, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

But there are creeping signs of doubt. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, was punished after its third-quarter earnings report because Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg failed to chart a convincing path to bigger profits from rising AI spending. The stock had its worst session in three years on Oct. 30, plunging 11% the day after Meta reported earnings, and it has lost an additional 3.7% since then. After soaring 25% through the first three quarters, the shares are now up 9.6% for the year, underperforming the S&P 500.
Key Points

Billionaire Ken Griffin runs Citadel Advisors, the most successful hedge funds in history as measured by net gains since inception.

In the third quarter, Griffin started a position in the SPDR Gold Shares ETF, a fund that has returned 60% year to date.

Goldman Sachs says gold prices could increase another 13% in the next year, but investors should be cautious chasing momentum.

10 stocks we like better than SPDR Gold Trust 

Billionaire Ken Griffin runs Citadel Advisors, a hedge fund that outperformed the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) by 7 percentage points over the last three years. Even more impressive, he is the most successful hedge fund manager in history as measured by net gains (after fees) since inception, according to LCH Investments.

One of Griffin's more noteworthy trades in the third quarter was starting a position in the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (NYSEMKT: GLD), an index fund that has returned 60% year to date. Comparatively, Nvidia has returned 32%, Bitcoin has declined 2%, and the S&P 500 has gained 16%.

Importantly, while Citadel's position in the SPDR Gold Shares ETF is rather small, the hedge fund also owns call options on the fund. Those contracts, which afford Citadel the right but not the obligation to buy shares at a predetermined price, are collectively the fourth-largest position in the portfolio.

Also important, Griffin is not the only hedge fund billionaire to increase his exposure to gold during the third quarter. Israel Englander of Millennium Management and Paul Tudor Jones of Tudor Investment also added to their positions. Should you follow their lead?

Image source: Getty Images.

The SPDR Gold Shares ETF is a convenient way for investors to participate in the gold market

The SPDR Gold Shares ETF is an exchange-traded fund managed by State Street. It tracks gold prices by holding physical bullion in vaults and issuing shares. The primary benefit for investors is the ability to participate in the gold market without the inconvenience (and extra costs) associated with buying, transporting, and storing gold bullion.

State Street says, "Gold has demonstrated a low and negative correlation to many financial asset indexes over time and has a track record of providing a hedge during periods of large market drawdowns, systemic risk, and geopolitical volatility." Indeed, the S&P 500 fell by an average of 39% during the last three bear markets, but the SPDR Gold Shares ETF added an average of 4% during those events.

Investors buy gold in times of economic distress, and Goldman Sachs anticipates more upside

Gold prices depend on supply and demand. The annual growth in the above-ground gold supply has been 1.5% to 2.5% for decades, meaning the available supply changes very little in any given year. That makes demand the most consequential variable, and demand increases during times of economic distress.
Bitcoin entered December after ending the previous month with the worst performance for spot BTC ETFs since February, as heavy outflows met a sudden collapse in market liquidity.

SoSoValue data shows that spot ETF products ended November with $3.48 billion in net outflows, along with a brutal singleday exit of $903 million on Nov. 20.

BlackRocks IBIT saw its own recordsetting moment two days earlier when investors pulled $523 million and pushed its monthly outflows above $2.4 billion by Nov. 25. However, IBIT remains BlackRocks most profitable ETF globally and holds more than $119 billion in assets, with cumulative inflows still sitting near $58 billion.

A Major Defense Against Bears

Glassnode observed in an X post that a fresh costbasis cluster showed up after BTC dropped to the $80,000 range and created one of the densest accumulation zones on the current heatmap.

The firm pointed out massive demand at the exact moment many shortterm traders sold, which turned the selloff into an opportunity. This cluster is now a potential defensive wall for the Bitcoin price action.

Market analyst Michael van de Poppe added that the start of a new month activated algorithms and drained liquidity, especially after multiple market makers were wiped out in October.

Poppe added that BTC was rejected at a very important resistance and is still consolidating. He expects another test of that resistance within one or two weeks, followed by a real chance of a breakout toward $100,000.

Bitcoin was Executed?

On the other hand, entrepreneur Shanaka Anslem Perera argued that Bitcoin did not simply fall. In his words, it was executed. He attributed the shock to the spike in Japans government bond yields, which surged to levels not seen since before the global financial crisis.

That sudden rise dismantled the multitrilliondollar yen carry trade that allowed decades of cheap capital to flow into global assets. As yields climbed and the yen strengthened, leveraged positions turned unprofitable. Forced selling, margin calls and liquidations resulted in massive liquidations on October 10.

Perera also pointed out that whales accumulated roughly 375,000 BTC while institutions reduced exposure, and miners cut their own selling dramatically.

DCA All the Way

According to CryptoQuant analysts, whenever Bitcoin trades under the NonProfitable Days DCA Strategy line, new buyers sit at losses and the market enters a phase of stress and low volatility. Historically, such phases produced the strongest longterm results for patient buyers.

The method avoids attempts at prediction and relies on structural discount periods shown by costbasis behavior. The logic is simple: fear signals opportunity, not danger.

Read original story Bitcoin Wasnt Dumped, It Was Executed: Best DCA Opportunity Is Here? by Parth Dubey at Coinspeaker.com
BlackRocks most senior executives say the financial system is on the cusp of its biggest infrastructure overhaul since the arrival of electronic messaging in the 1970s, one driven by blockchain-based tokenization.

In a new column for The Economist, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and COO Rob Goldstein say that finance is entering the next major evolution in market infrastructure, one that could move assets faster and more securely than systems that have served investors for decades.

Tokenization records ownership of assets on digital ledgers, enabling stocks, bonds, real estate, and other holdings to exist as verifiable digital records that can be traded and settled without traditional intermediaries.

The executives view fits squarely within BlackRocks tokenization agenda, harking back to Finks 2022 statement that "the next generation for markets, the next generation for securities, will be tokenization of securities."

At first it was hard for the financial worldincluding usto see the big idea, the duo wrote, noting that tokenization was tangled up in the crypto boom, which often looked like speculation.

But beneath that noise, tokenization can greatly expand the world of investable assets and offers the potential to settle transactions instantaneously, while replacing manual processes, bespoke settlements and records that havent kept up with the rest of finance.

The worlds largest asset managers executives did caution that the technology won't replace existing systems immediately, describing it instead as "a bridge being built from both sides of a river" connecting traditional institutions with digital-first innovators.

Global Exchanges Urge SEC to Curb Broad Crypto Exemptions, Warn on Tokenized Stock Risks

A multi-cycle transition

Joshua Chu, a lawyer and co-chair of the Hong Kong Web3 Association, told Decrypt that BlackRock is "probably directionally right that tokenization will be part of the 'next generation for markets,' but the implied timing is, in my view, potentially over-compressed."

"This is a multi-cycle transition in which narrow, well-regulated use-cases will accrete over time, not a one-cycle revolution where everything is tokenized by next year," Chu said. "That is simply not how innovation works."

Tokenization absolutely has a place in modern finance, he said, but stressed it only earns its keep when it solves a real problem that a plain-vanilla structure cannot, whether by reducing settlement risk, improving collateral mobility, or opening access to previously unreachable assets.
Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW) is included among the 15 High Quality Dividend Stocks for Long-Term Investors.

BofA Raises ITW Price Target as Margins Reach Record Levels

On November 18, BofA analyst Andrew Obin upgraded Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW) to Neutral from Underperform, raising the price target to $255 from $220. The analyst noted that strong year-over-year margin expansion is expected in 2026, which should help EPS growth keep pace with industry peers through 20262027.

In its third-quarter 2025 results, Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW) reported a record operating margin of 27.4%, up 90 basis points, with enterprise initiatives contributing 140 basis points. Operating cash flow reached $1.0 billion, while free cash flow rose 15% to $904 million, translating to a 110% conversion rate relative to net income. The company highlighted progress on its strategic growth priorities and reaffirmed its commitment to above-market organic growth driven by customer-backed innovation. Management indicated that the strategy remains on track to meet 2030 performance goals, including a customer-backed innovation yield exceeding 3%.

For FY25, Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW) maintained its operating margin guidance of 26% to 27%, with enterprise initiatives expected to contribute 125 basis points for the year. Management reiterated confidence in achieving the $10.45 midpoint EPS target.

Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW) is a global industrial manufacturer that produces a wide range of value-added products, including engineered fasteners, equipment, and specialty items.

While we acknowledge the potential of ITW as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If youre looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.

READ NEXT: 15 Best Boring Dividend Stocks to Buy and 14 Best Up and Coming Dividend Stocks to Buy.

Disclosure: None.
US-based Brookfield has agreed to acquire Fosber, an Italy-based industrial technology supplier to the corrugated packaging industry, valuing the company at around $900m.

The carve-out transaction from Guangdong Dongfang Precision awaits regulatory clearances.

Completion of the deal is expected in 2026.

Fosber, established in 1978 and based in Lucca, designs and builds highspeed corrugating machines and provides spare parts, maintenance and digital monitoring solutions to box manufacturers worldwide.

The business operates in Italy, the US and China.

Chinese original equipment manufacturer Dong Fang Precision first invested in Fosber in 2013 and subsequently moved to full ownership.

It completed the purchase of the remaining 40% stake in September 2017.

Brookfield plans to finance the Fosber acquisition through its Brookfield Capital Partners strategy, with $480m in equity.

That includes an investment of $170m from its affiliate Brookfield Business Partners.

Brookfield's private equity arm has invested in industrial and manufacturing businesses for 20 years, with its previous deals involving Chemelex, Clarios and GrafTech.

Its European private equity strategy targets regional leaders that can be repositioned as global operators.

Brookfield Private Equity Group CEO Anuj Ranjan stated: Fosber is a market-leading industrial technology business that provides vital products and services to the packaging industry.

The transaction demonstrates our strategy of investing in industrial champions headquartered in Europe, and with Fosbers extensive operations in the US and Asia, the ability to draw on our global platform.

In November 2025, Fosber announced a partnership with FUJIFILM Integrated Inkjet Solutions, a division of FUJIFILM Dimatix, an inkjet solution provider.

The alliance aims to improve print quality, operational flexibility and sustainability in the corrugated packaging sector.

Brookfield Asset Management, based in New York, manages more than $1tn across infrastructure, renewable power and transition, private equity, real estate and credit.

Its private equity platform oversees $150bn.

"Brookfield to buy packaging machinery supplier Fosber for $900m" was originally created and published by Packaging Gateway, a GlobalData owned brand.




Bonnie Blue was kicked out of a nightclub in Bali for being "too famous".

Bonnie Blue was kicked out of a nightclub in Bali

The 26-year-old adult star  who boasted of having sex with 1,057 men in the space of a single day earlier this year  was turfed out of the late-night venue on the Indonesian island after her appearance sparked chaos.

Bonnie  who is currently in Indonesia for one of her outrageous sexual stunts  caused pandemonium at the club after arriving on her infamous Bang Bus with revellers desperate to get a glimpse, selfie or hug with her.

Crowds soon surged around her from all angles as security were forced to keep fans at arm's length. Even with a professional team on the ground, the venue struggled to cope with sheer level of attention.

A source close to the adult star said: "Bonnie didn't get 'kicked out' for bad behaviour  the club just couldn't accommodate her fame. People were going wild for her. In the end, it was safer for everyone if she left early."

Local police are said to have been asking nearby clubs about Bonnie's brightly-wrapped Bang Bus after it blocked the narrow streets, drawing huge crowds and social media attention.

However, Blue's team have stressed that there was no suggestion of wrongdoing and only curiosity about the commotion caused.

The insider said: "The police were just wondering what on earth this massive bus was doing turning up everywhere with screaming fans. It's pure hysteria, not scandal."

Bonnie  whose real name is Tia Billinger - and her team are also planning a series of behind-the-scenes feature from her trip to Bali once she leaves the island.

She teased fans: "What happened in Bali won't be staying in Bali for long."

Security is a big concern for Bonnie, who revealed earlier this year that she gets death threats on a daily basis because of her controversial explicit stunts and has to be accompanied by bodyguards when she leaves the house.

She told BANG Showbiz and other media: "I think we're in a world where, unfortunately, things happen to people, whether they've got money or not, whether they're famous or not, and that's disgusting. It's terrible that we live in a world where bad things happen to people all the time.

"But yeah, I'm fully aware that I get death threats every single day, so I'd be stupid to walk down the street without it, but I'm also OK with it."
In late November 2025, AnaptysBio announced it had filed a lawsuit against Tesaro (a GSK subsidiary) in Delaware Chancery Court, alleging breaches of their collaboration agreement for Jemperli, while Tesaro simultaneously filed its own legal action against AnaptysBio and challenged ongoing royalty and milestone payments.

The disputes center on exclusivity and commercialization obligations for Jemperli, a key immuno-oncology therapy, and occur as AnaptysBio also increased its share buyback authorization by US$100 million to US$175 million and extended the plan through March 2026.

Well explore how heightened legal risk around Jemperli royalties shapes AnaptysBios investment narrative following these recent announcements.

Trump has pledged to "unleash" American oil and gas and these 22 US stocks have developments that are poised to benefit.

What Is AnaptysBio's Investment Narrative?

AnaptysBio shareholders face a rapidly changing risk profile following the dual lawsuits with Tesaro and GSK, which now dominate the near-term outlook. Previously, the main short-term catalysts revolved around clinical trial milestones, ongoing royalty streams from Jemperli, and the impact of the companys aggressive share buyback, set at US$175 million and extended through March 2026. However, ongoing litigation over the Jemperli collaboration injects real uncertainty into royalty timing and amounts, which could impact near-term revenue and a highly anticipated sales milestone. While royalty payments are expected to continue during the proceedings, and recent price moves have been strong, the risk that GSKs legal action could seek to terminate or restructure the agreement now overshadows clinical data releases and buyback activity as the pivotal issue. Investors must now weigh the heightened risk to Jemperli economics as they assess the stocks potential.

But the risk of impaired royalty streams from the litigation remains a crucial factor to watch. Our expertly prepared valuation report on AnaptysBio implies its share price may be too high.

Exploring Other Perspectives

ANAB Earnings & Revenue Growth as at Dec 2025

Among Simply Wall St Community fair value estimates, only one perspective suggests a US$63.91 target for AnaptysBio. This single estimate contrasts with the complex legal risks discussed above and highlights the importance of understanding how events could quickly affect perceived value and future prospects. Explore additional viewpoints to understand the spectrum of investor opinion.

Explore another fair value estimate on AnaptysBio - why the stock might be worth as much as 55% more than the current price!
CAMBRIDGE, Ontario, December 02, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BWX Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: BWXT) announced today that it will provide Owners Engineer (OE) services at Bulgarias New Build Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant, Units 7 & 8, as part of a three-party consortium. The other parties are Laurentis Energy Partners and its subsidiary Canadian Nuclear Partners S.A. The full contract spans approximately ten years and is valued at hundreds of millions of euros.

The Bulgarian government is proposing to build two Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear power units at the Kozloduy site, which is currently home to two VVER-1000 nuclear reactors. The first AP1000 unit is scheduled to begin producing electricity by 2035.

As Owners Engineer, BWXT and the consortium will bring more than 70 years of experience in executing large, high-consequence nuclear energy projects, from design to construction to operation, including decommissioning. The OE will serve as a crucial partner in the development and management of the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant Project. Balancing technical oversight with rigorous safety and quality control, the OE team will act as an extension of the plant owner's organization, ensuring that the project aligns with the owner's objectives, safety standards and regulatory requirements.

Under the first phase of the contract, which will last approximately 12 months, the consortium will support Kozloduy NPP New Builds Plc with front-end services, such as Engineering, Procurement and Construction contract negotiations and constructability reviews, ahead of a potential Final Investment Decision. Assuming a Final Investment Decision is reached, the second phase of the contract will provide engineering services throughout the execution of the project.

"Our country has secured leading international partners with proven experience across the full nuclear lifecycle, from design through commissioning," said Zhecho Stankov, Bulgarias Minister of Energy. "This project is an investment not only in our long-term energy security, but also in the strength of Bulgarian industry. Thirty percent of the specialists working on the project will be Bulgarian experts, providing our workforce with new knowledge, advanced technologies, and meaningful growth opportunities."

"Ontario is solidifying Canadas global leadership in clean, emissions-free nuclear power and the world is watching," said Stephen Lecce, Minister of Energy and Mines. "This partnership will see Ontarios leadership cross the ocean to support Bulgarias large-scale nuclear expansion to deliver reliable, affordable power to their country, while protecting our economy here at home."
This story was originally published on WardsAuto. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily WardsAuto newsletter.

Carter Myers Automotive in October acquired Toyota and Hyundai dealerships in Maryland.

The acquisitions were strategic, Liza Borches, president and CEO of Carter Myers Automotive, told WardsAuto in a Zoom interview. There was a real purpose for us to go into that market, she said.

They are the dealership groups first acquisitions in Maryland, but the Virginia-based CMA had already begun building a dealership there after being awarded an open point by American Honda.

The business likes to have three-to-five stores in each market to allow for career growth for its employees without having to relocate, she said.

That number of dealerships also creates economies of scale for used cars, reconditioning operations and back office functions such as marketing and accounting, Borches said.

Rolling on day one

The Honda dealership is due to open in 2026. With that in mind, CMA started talking with other dealers in Lexington Park. They discovered Peter DArista  the owner of the Toyota and Hyundai dealerships  and his general manager, who was a minority owner, were looking to retire after 30 years.

DArista wanted a buyer who would take care of his team and continue to support the community. CMA fits that description.

For CMA, the timing is perfect. It allows the group to become involved with the Lexington Park community before the Honda dealership opens, Borches said.

CMA plans to initially keep all of the employees at the Toyota and Hyundai dealerships, as is its policy. Some of them may be promoted over to the Honda store, Borches says.

The group can also begin hiring service technicians and sales staff before the Honda store opens and use the two just-acquired dealerships as a training ground so that when the Honda store is ready to open, we can get rolling on day one, Borches said.

Image ready advantage

Manufacturers have been showing their new facility images to dealers more frequently in recent times, Borches said. She sees that as a sign.

I think were going to see more OEMs that, as an acquisition happens, are going to require the brand-new look, she said.

But renovations, or building completely new facilities, are expensive and time-consuming. So, the fact that the Toyota and Hyundai dealerships in Lexington Park were both image compliant made them very attractive, Borches said.

One of the most important things about this acquisition, Borches said, was we do not have to build or renovate any facilities.
Taiwan is confident the Trump administration will allow President Lai Ching-te to make a US stopover, a senior official said, citing recent communication with Washington.

We dont think having transit stops in the US will be an issue, Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said in a Bloomberg News interview on Tuesday. Based on our communication, we are confident in the near future, we can just have a visit to the Latin American countries by way of the United States.

Most Read from Bloomberg

President Donald Trump denied a request for Lai to pass through the US in August as part of a trip to diplomatic allies Paraguay, Guatemala and Belize, people familiar with the matter said at the time. The US was concerned the stopover could disrupt trade negotiations with China and a summit with President Xi Jinping, the people said.

Taiwan is confident the Trump administration will allow President Lai Chingte to transit through the US, Foreign Minister Lin Chialung told Bloomberg in an exclusive interview.Source: Bloomberg

If Lais transit does go ahead, it could complicate US-China ties as both sides work to implement a one-year trade truce reached in South Korea in October. Trump is also planning a visit to China early next year.

Turning to the dispute between China and Japan, Lin said the tensions sparked by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichis recent comments on Taiwan could take maybe a year to stabilize. He added that worsening the friction or issues related to Taiwan would offer little benefit to any party.

For Beijing, its also not in its interest to escalate the conflict, Lin said in his first TV interview with foreign media since taking up the diplomatic post last year.

Taiwan is at the center of the dispute between China and Japan, which started after Takaichi commented on the possible involvement of Japanese troops if China were to invade Taiwan. Beijing saw those remarks as crossing a red line, and responded with economic and diplomatic reprisals  though Takaichi has rebuffed its demand to retract the remarks.

At a regular briefing in Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian again urged Japan to walk back the comments. The Japanese side needs to honor its political commitments to China, retract the erroneous remarks and take practical steps to do soul searching and correct its wrongdoings.

Asked about the Taiwanese foreign ministers comments, Lin Jian accused the ruling Democratic Progressive Party of stoking tensions. The DPP authorities ill-intentioned attempts are simply disgraceful, and their attempts of seeking independence though soliciting foreign support will lead nowhere, he said.
China State Shipbuilding Corp (CSSC), the world's largest shipbuilding conglomerate controlling one-third of the global market, has pledged to build more cruise ships, deep-ocean drilling ships and nuclear-powered vessels as part of efforts to diversify its portfolio, according to a senior executive.

Assistant president Ma Yunxiang said on Monday the company's growing strength in building advanced vessels was reflected in the construction of Adora Flora City, mainland China's second self-built cruise ship, and Mengxiang, the country's first indigenous deep-sea drilling vessel.

"We believe that a powerful global shipyard is able to build not only [conventional] merchant ships," Ma added. "CSSC will deliver the Adora Flora City sometime next year to show our improved technique in building large cruise ships."

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

Ma made the remarks ahead of Marintec China, the world's largest maritime conference and exhibition, which will be held in Shanghai from Tuesday to Friday.

The Adora Magic City required 20 times more worker hours to build than a Capesize bulk carrier, according to CSSC. Photo: Getty alt=The Adora Magic City required 20 times more worker hours to build than a Capesize bulk carrier, according to CSSC. Photo: Getty>

During the event, CSSC would highlight its push to improve its capabilities in building more advanced, greener and smarter ships that could withstand various conditions and extreme weather, Ma said.

China now had the capacity to build about 65 million deadweight tonnes of large vessels annually, with its shipyards expected to hold a combined 65 per cent share of the global shipbuilding market this year, according to Gong Kangkang, head of the international organising committee for Marintec.

CSSC has been striving to move up the value chain over the past decade, developing cruise ships and specialised vessels in line with Beijing's ambition to transform the country into a shipbuilding powerhouse.

Shipbuilding is one of 10 core technologies included in Beijing's "Made in China 2025" industrial strategy, which aims to help the country catch up with global leaders in key industrial sectors, including robotics, semiconductor chips and new-energy vehicles.

The industry has also been a focus of US President Donald Trump, who has proposed investing tens of billions of dollars to revitalise US shipyards in a bid to challenge China's dominance.
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While the Central European nation of Austria recorded a record $46.71 million international tourists before the start of 2025, Austria still struggles to shed a reputation of not being as "exciting" as nearby European tourist hotspots such as Italy and France.

As the entire city of Salzburg is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and attracts fans of the 1965 movie "Sound of Music," the "boring" reputation has most perniciously stuck to Vienna.

"It's a common complaint among foreigners: that Austria's capital city of Vienna is pretty boring for foreign residents," local journalist Julia Hjelm Jacobsson wrote for TheLocal.at in 2023. Many of these accusations ultimately stem from Vienna's smaller geographical size and the historical rather than modern focus of many of its popular sites.

"Who better to judge if Vienna is dull?"

Instead of trying to fight this reputation with finger-wagging and lectures, the Vienna Tourism Board has decided to take a more unconventional approach by inviting an entire village in Scotland to come to Vienna and judge for themselves whether it is "dull."

The catch? The 100-person village in the central county of Perthshire is literally called "Dull."

The tourism board is sponsoring a trip in which any interested resident of Dull can come to Vienna for a free stay at the luxurious Hotel Imperial during this January. They will participate in a curated itinerary highlighting the city's top museums and restaurants, along with its music history (the city was home to Mozart and Beethoven  that means waltzing lessons).

Related: These hotels just got the equivalent of three Michelin stars

"While much of the world embraces Dry January and gym routines, Vienna begins the year in celebration mode, with more than 400 balls held each year, one of the world's largest ice rinks and UNESCO-recognised culinary treasures," Vienna Tourist Board wrote in announcing the campaign.

"And who better to judge whether Vienna is 'dull' than the citizens of Dull themselves?"

Vienna is also the home of the iconic Sachertorte dessert.Shutterstock

Horseback riding, waltzing, and desserts: Vienna vows to impress residents of Dull

Dull, Scotland, actually gets its name from an old Pictish word for "meadow" that has no relation to the English word for "boring."

Still, Conde Nast notes while writing about cities with unfortunate names, Dull is often viewed as a sister city to Boring, Oregon, in the U.S.

In order to further convince the residents of Dull, Vienna will give each one free horseback riding lessons at the prestigious Spanish Riding School and take them to try famous desserts such as the Sachertorte chocolate cake and Kaiserschmarrn sugar-coated pancakes.
While theres plenty to love about shopping at Costco, theres one element that many members truly dislike  the crowds.

If youve ever been bashed in the heel by an oversized Costco shopping cart, you know just how painful an experience that can be.

And if youve ever had to wait in a seemingly never-ending checkout line on a Saturday or Sunday, youve no doubt had that internal conversation where you pledge to never visit Costco on a weekend again  only to remind yourself you often dont have a choice.

The truth is that a stressful shopping experience isnt just bad for members who are going through it  its bad for Costco.

During Costco's last fiscal quarter, the company reported membership fee income of $1.72 billion  a 14% year-over-year increase.

Costco loves membership fee income because its effectively free money. But Costco also knows it needs to keep members happy so they continue to renew every year.

The good news is that a major shift in behavior among Costco members indicates a better all-around shopping experience.

Costco membership fee income has risen year over year.Shutterstock

Costcos big change in operating hours is benefiting everyone

When Costco announced several months ago that it would open its doors to Executive members early, that decision was met with some backlash.

Gold Star members argued that it made them feel like second-class citizens. Costco employees, meanwhile, felt that it would cause them undue stress, since it would mean needing to have merchandise ready and accessible earlier in the day.

Related: Home Depot makes new partnerships to keep prices low

But so far, it seems as though Costcos decision has done a lot more good than harm.

For one thing, Costco attributed much of its recent financial success to its new warehouse club schedule. And data from Placer.ai show that Costcos new opening hours have created a more positive shopping experience for all members.

Placer.ais report found that between July and October 2025, after early store openings began, Costcos traffic at peak times was reduced compared to 2024.

Specifically, since the new hours took effect:

The number of Costco visits lasting 30 to 45 minutes increased .

The number of Costco visits lasting 45 to 60 minutes decreased.

This indicates that with fewer crowds to contend with, Costco members are able to shop more efficiently.

Costco will need to keep a close eye on member shopping patterns

Costco knew it was taking a risk by adding early store hours only for Executive members. But it makes sense for Costco to reward those customers who pay the most for store access.

Costco Executive members account for about 74% of the stores sales, the company said recently. So it pays to make the in-store experience as pleasant for them as possible.
MICHAEL REYNOLDS/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Costco and Donald Trump.

NEED TO KNOW

Costco is suing the Trump administration over its widespread tariffs and seeking a refund for all duties paid as a result

The lawsuit states that Trump's tariffs are unauthorized under the IEEPA, as ruled in a previous suit

The wholesale retailer is the latest in a growing list of companies suing the Trump administration over alleged illegal implementation of tariffs

Costco is suing the Trump administration over funds collected as a result of the president's widespread tariffs.

The wholesale grocery store chain filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Nov. 28, alleging that the slew of tariffs President Donald Trump has implemented since his return to office in February are unlawful. Per the filing, Costco is seeking a refund of all tariffs paid.

The lawsuit, which was filed in the United States Court of International Trade, states that Trump's tariffs  which he justified under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)  are unauthorized by the IEEPA, as the court determined earlier in a separate case, V.O.S. Selections, Inc. v. Trump.

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Costco.

Costco's lawsuit asks the court to rule that "the IEEPA duties imposed by Defendants, and the underlying executive orders that directed them, are unlawful."

Costco, in its filing, says it is bringing its own lawsuit because the prior ruling about the legality of the tariffs. Dozens of other companies have brought similar lawsuits against the Trump administration regarding its tariffs, but Costco is "not guaranteed a refund for those unlawfully collected tariffs in the absence of their own judgment and judicial relief," per the filing.



In a statement to PEOPLE, White House spokesman Kush Desai wrote, "The economic consequences of the failure to uphold President Trumps lawful tariffs are enormous and this suit highlights that fact. The White House looks forward to the Supreme Courts speedy and proper resolution of this matter."

Costco is the latest business to file a suit against the Trump administration regarding its tariffs. Cosmetic company Revlon, Japanese motor company Kawasaki Motors, canned foods retailer Bumble Bee, and eyeglasses maker EssilorLuxottica have all filed similar suits, per The Independent and NBC News.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Donald Trump and his tariffs.

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Trump first enacted sweeping tariffs shortly after his return to office and has since implemented duties on almost all foreign countries. He is the first president to use the IEEPA law to impose import duties. While lower courts have ruled against the administration's use of the law, the tariffs have been kept in place while the legal process unfolds.
Costco has joined an expanding coalition of retail companies taking the Trump administration to court over its tariff policies.

The warehouse chain is suing to solidify eligibility for tariff refunds should the Supreme Court invalidate President Donald Trumps global reciprocal duties.

More from Sourcing Journal

Filed on Thursday in the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT), the complaint arose from widespread concerns about whether businesses would be guaranteed repayments on the tariffs theyve already paid should the high court find that the president overstepped his authority in implementing them.

After prevailing in a CIT this spring and in a Washington, D.C. federal circuit appeals court in August, small business and state petitioners saw their case appealed to the Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments for and against the tariffs in early November.

The administrations sweeping tariff policy faced pointed questioning from the nine justices, including those in the conservative majority, who expressed doubts as to whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) implies presidential authority to impose tariffs to combat an unusual or extraordinary threat to national security. The justices also questioned whether the executive branch should have the authority to levy duties, as taxes and tariffs fall historically under the authority of Congress.

Lawyers for Costco wrote that their separate suit was necessary because even if the IEEPA duties and underlying executive orders are held unlawful by the Supreme Court, importers that have paid IEEPA duties, including Plaintiff, are not guaranteed a refund for those unlawfully collected tariffs in the absence of their own judgment and judicial relief.

According to the filing, the import entries for which Costco has already paid tariffs will become liquidated as early as Dec. 15, which the lawyers asserted could jeopardize refunds from Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Costco is now seeking to stop impending liquidations to ensure that its potential refunds are not put at risk. Costcos counsel wrote that CBP already denied a request to extend liquidation for entries subject to IEEPA tariffs. As a result, the warehouse club retailer said it intends to file a motion for a preliminary injunction.

Costco is now seeking a declaration from the CIT that the IEEPA tariffs are illegal and an injunction preventing the defendants (the federal government) from imposing more duties through the executive orders being challenged. Its also seeking a full refund of all IEEPA tariffs it has already paid and those it continues to pay as the Supreme Court case plays out.
Dick Van Dyke hosted a two-hour charity singalong before his 100th birthday.

Dick Van Dyke leads epic singalong days before his 100th birthday

The big screen legend will hit the milestone age on December 13, and with just days to go he was joined by his musical quarter The Vantastix as they performed some of the most beloved songs from his storied career.

As reported by PEOPLE magazine, Van Dyke kicked off the celebrations early with a charity event with fans on December 30 to raise money for the Dick Van Dyke Museum and The Van Dyke Endowment of the Arts.

He started with the titular song from 1968's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and delighted fans with a rendition of You Two, which is his favourite tune from the same film.

He also sang Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from 1964's Mary Poppins, and brought the show to an end with Let's Go Fly A Kite.

During the evening - during which he was joined by his wife Arlene Silver at their Malibu home - a fan asked Van Dyke was he loved most about Christmas.

He admitted it was "the singing, the caroling", before they treated fans to Nat King Cole's Caroling, Caroling.

Van Dyke delivered some deeper cuts too, including Carolina In The Morning, and the theme song from his 1960s sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Reflecting on his reasoning behind the event, he told the audience: "There are several reasons for having these  all good  but mine is to revive the art of conversation.

I don't care if you're on a street, you're in a bus or in a restaurant, everybody's looking at their phones. Nobody talks.

"I've seen young couples having dinner together and they're both looking at their phones. I may be the only person in the United States over 10 who does not have a cell phone. I don't have a phone.

He insisted the best way to live is to "have a serene attitude about things at this age".

When his 54-year-old wife Silver described him as a "very special, almost 100-year-old person", he added: "I've never met a 100-year-old person."

She then brought out a giant version of his December 8 PEOPLE Magazine cover, joking he was the next "Sexiest Man Alive".

Van Dyke teased: "Oh my God. Isn't that great? At least I didn't end up fat and bald!
Wholesale retail giant Costco has sued the federal government to ensure it will receive a complete refund on import duties if the Supreme Court rules against President Donald Trumps sweeping tariffs.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York on Nov. 28 and reviewed by USA TODAY, asked the court to find Trumps use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs as unlawful.

Costco, the largest warehouse club operator in the United States, said it has been the importer of record for products affected by the tariffs, but did not provide a specific dollar amount it is seeking in damages. The corporation noted in the filing that the suit was necessary because importers are not guaranteed to receive a refund if the high court strikes down the tariffs, unless they sue.

A Costco Wholesale warehouse is pictured in Northridge, California, on May 7, 2025.

Costco also claims in the lawsuit that Customs and Border Protection denied its request to delay the calculation of the total tariffs that it owes. The lawsuit claims that Costcos ability to receive a refund will be significantly impacted if those calculations are completed.

The suit is separate from the larger case challenging Trumps tariffs that the Supreme Court heard on Nov. 5.

Other companies have sued to preserve refund rights, but the Issaquah, Washington-based retail warehouse club operator is among the largest to sue the administration so far. Others that have sought to protect tariff refunds include Bumble Bee Foods, eyeglass giant EssilorLuxottica, Kawasaki Motors, Revlon, and Yokohama Tire, court records show.

CBP deferred to an earlier White House statement on tariffs in an email sent to USA TODAY on Dec. 2. Costco did not respond to USA TODAYs request for comment on Dec. 1.

Trump touts tariffs, so why are small businesses they suing to stop them?

Razor-close case

During nearly three hours of debate on Nov. 5, Supreme Court justices questioned whether Trump has the power to impose sweeping tariffs on most imports using the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Several legal experts said the justices questions reveal a lot about where they stand on Trumps policy.

Ashley Akers, a former Justice Department attorney now with the law firm Holland & Knight, previously told USA TODAY that she heard a notable skepticism from justices across the ideological spectrum.

Overall, it felt like a strong day for the tariff challengers, though it feels like this will be a razor-close case, Akers said.

Several justices were concerned that if they sided with Trump, Congress would lose control over tariffs, even though the Constitution gives that power to lawmakers, said Curtis A. Bradley, an expert on foreign relations law at the University of Chicago Law School.
Except for tips and perhaps an impulsive purchase at the resort cafe, very few people in the U.S. still pay for any part of their hotel experience in cash.

The practice of not being able to check in without a credit card is so widespread that entire internet discussions center around how to book stays if you do not have one. Cashless resorts in countries like Mexico and the Dominican Republic are also becoming increasingly common.

While the southeastern African nation is considered to be one of the safest countries to visit on the continent, Malawi is choosing to go the other way and require every non-citizen to pay for their hotel in hard cash.

Why can Malawi travelers only pay for their hotels in cash?

The decision, which Malawian Finance Minister Joseph Mwanamvekha announced as part of the country's budget review at the end of November, means that anyone who is not a citizen of Malawi will not be able to check into a hotel until putting up the full sum in U.S. dollars, Euros, British pounds or another currency generally considered stable on the global markets.

The decision comes after the International Monetary Fund pulled out of its Extended Credit Facility program meant to pump $35 million USD into the developing country's economy, according to local press cited by Bloomberg.

Related: New US advisory warns traveling to this country a serious threat

Hotels are able to apply for permission to accept credit cards and other types of virtual payments with the Reserve Bank of Malawi, but for the time being and at most smaller properties, visitors will only be able to check in after presenting the cash.

The requirement, as Mwanamvekha explained to local reporters, is meant to keep any foreign currency in the country, ensuring a single way of tracking any money spent amid several decades of economic underdevelopment and reliance on an agricultural economy.

The move, while it may patch immediate holes in a struggling economy, is controversial, since it can drive away tourism by portraying Malawi as unstable.

Malawi is a landlocked country often sought out by hardened travelers.Shutterstock

"Abilities to deter and investigate crimes are limited": U.S. State Department

Sometimes called by the nickname the "Warm Heart of Africa" for its friendly people, Malawi is home to the UNESCO World Heritage Site Lake Malawi and diverse varieties of fish that biologists worldwide come to see in its lakes and rivers.

While at least two-thirds of Malawi's population lives in extreme poverty, it is also home to a number of luxury boutiques that will need to adapt to the new rules for booking foreign guests.

More on travel:
TSXV: DME,

U.S. OTC: DMEHF

Frankfurt: QM01

VANCOUVER, BC, Dec. 2, 2025 /CNW/ - DESERT MOUNTAIN ENERGY CORP. (the "Company") (TSXV: DME) (U.S. OTC: DMEHF) (Frankfurt: QM01) from the President of the Company. DME is pleased to announce it has signed a non-binding Letter of Intent ("LOI") to form a joint venture to build and operate a sodiumnickelchloride ("SNC") battery manufacturing facility in Roswell, New Mexico. The proposed operation would utilize produced water from regional oil and gas wells as part of an environmentally responsible cooling and processing system designed to support both battery production and a planned artificial-intelligence ("AI") data-center complex.

Strategic Use of Produced Water & Integration with AI Data Center

Under the contemplated structure, produced water from area operators would be treated and repurposed for cooling and processing needs, thereby significantly reducing the volume of water extracted from the aquifer, as well as lowering operating costs for smaller oil and gas producers. Desert Mountain Energy's own wells generate minimal produced water, but the Company's processing expertise positions it to serve as a strategic solutions provider to neighboring operators.

The initiative also supports the Company's plan to use its natural-gas resources to generate local electricity for the produced-water system and the adjacent AI data-center infrastructure, creating a vertically integrated and energy-efficient footprint.

Sodium, REE and By-Product Management

As part of the produced-water treatment process, salts and certain critical rare earth elements ("REEs") are extracted and separated.

Sodium will be dried and utilized directly in the production of SNC battery units.

Isolated REEs will be dried, sealed, and shipped to qualified facilities for further refining.

This creates multiple value-added revenue streams while minimizing waste and maximizing the commercial usefulness of extracted materials.

About SNC Battery Technology

Sodiumnickelchloride batteries are known for their stability, long lifecycle, and strong safety profile. Unlike lithium-ion systems, SNC batteries cannot burn or explode, making them well-suited for grid support, industrial power systems, and data-center applications. Altech Batteries Ltd., a global leader in the space, is currently constructing a US$170 million SNC plant in Saxony, Germany, underscoring the technology's growing commercial relevance.

Altech's publicly available research notes several advantages for SNC chemistry, including the potential for alumina sourced from recycled specialty aircraft componentssupporting broader circular-economy initiatives.
HELSINKI, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Digita Group ("Digita"), being Digita Oy in Finland and IslandsTurnar in Iceland, announced today that it has reached an agreement to be acquired by GI Partners. Digita is one of the largest independent, diversified tower companies in the Nordics, with nationwide tower portfolios across both Finland and Iceland. It is also essential for the Finnish population through its longstanding partnership with Yle, the nation's public TV and radio broadcaster.

Since 2018, Digita has been owned by funds managed by an affiliate of DigitalBridge Group, Inc. (NYSE: DBRG "DigitalBridge"). Under DigitalBridge's ownership, Digita evolved into a scaled, diversified tower and broadcast infrastructure platform, expanding from approximately 200 tower sites to more than 950, while accelerating growth in its Data Centre and Internet of Things (IoT) platforms.

Vesa Tykkylainen, CEO of Digita, said, "We are extremely grateful to DigitalBridge for the resources and expertise they have provided throughout their investment period. Their support and guidance has been instrumental in helping us to invest into the critical infrastructure in Finland whilst diversifying and scaling the business, which is positioned for further compelling growth. We are excited for our new partnership with GI Partners and look forward to continue to grow and achieve our ambitions together."

Zach Gellman, Principal at DigitalBridge, said, "We appreciate the partnership with Vesa and the Digita team and the progress made under DigitalBridge's ownership. GI Partners is well positioned to lead Digita through its next phase of growth."

Matt Barker, Head of Europe, Data Infrastructure for GI Partners, added, "We are excited to be making this platform investment to support Digita and its management team on the next stage of the company's growth. We recognize the role that Digita plays in providing critical communication and connectivity services to the populations of Finland and Iceland and see great opportunity to further expand the platform as an independent tower company, and operator of high-quality data centres and IoT networks."

Digita will continue to operate as an independent company within GI Partners' portfolio, leveraging GI Partners' support, expertise, and experience. This partnership will enable Digita to continue to serve its clients to the highest standard, whilst also accelerating growth.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026.
Our Excess Returns analysis suggests Pinnacle Financial Partners is undervalued by 36.3%. Track this in your watchlist or portfolio , or discover 923 more undervalued stocks based on cash flows .

Looking forward, the Stable Book Value is expected to reach $100.20 per share, supported by estimates from ten analysts. This suggests continued profitability and prudent capital management over time. According to the Excess Returns model, the intrinsic value of the stock is calculated at $146.32, indicating Pinnacle Financial Partners is trading at a 36.3% discount to its intrinsic value. This suggests the stock is significantly undervalued relative to its financial fundamentals.

Pinnacle Financial Partners currently boasts a Book Value of $86.33 per share, while analysts project Stable Earnings Per Share at $10.50. These earnings estimates are based on weighted future Return on Equity forecasts from eight analysts, who anticipate an average Return on Equity of 10.48%. The cost of equity, which represents the return that shareholders require for the risk they take, is estimated at $8.22 per share. Based on these metrics, the company is delivering Excess Returns of $2.28 per share.

The Excess Returns valuation model is designed to measure a companys ability to generate returns on invested capital above the cost of equity. For Pinnacle Financial Partners, this method focuses on whether management is delivering a return on shareholders investment that exceeds what investors could achieve elsewhere, adjusted for risk.

When it comes to valuation, Pinnacle Financial Partners scores a 4 out of 6 on our valuation checks , signaling several indicators of undervaluation. Here is a breakdown of how those numbers compare across various methods. At the end of this article, we will also explore an even more insightful way to think about value.

Recent headlines have highlighted the financial sector's volatility and regulatory shifts, which have kept investors cautious about regional banks. News around industry consolidation and bank stress tests is providing context to the recent price swings and shaping sentiment on the stock.

The stock has seen some movement lately, rising 0.5% in the last week and a solid 9.4% over the past month. However, the year-to-date return is still down 17.8%.

Wondering if Pinnacle Financial Partners is a good buy right now? You are not alone, as many investors are reconsidering its true value as market noise fades.

Story Continues

PNFP Discounted Cash Flow as at Dec 2025

Head to the Valuation section of our Company Report for more details on how we arrive at this Fair Value for Pinnacle Financial Partners.

Approach 2: Pinnacle Financial Partners Price vs Earnings

The Price-to-Earnings (PE) ratio is one of the most widely used valuation metrics for assessing profitable companies like Pinnacle Financial Partners. The PE ratio helps investors understand how much they are paying for a dollar of the company's earnings, offering a practical way to gauge whether the stock is attractively valued relative to its profits.

Growth expectations and risk levels play a crucial role in setting what is considered a normal or fair PE ratio. Companies with higher projected earnings growth, more robust profit margins, or lower risk profiles often command above-average PE ratios. On the other hand, uncertainty or slow expected growth can pull a companys fair multiple below the sector average.

Pinnacle Financial Partners currently trades at a PE ratio of 11.8x, just above the industry average of 11.5x and somewhat below the peer average of 13.5x. However, Simply Wall St's proprietary "Fair Ratio" is 24.7x. This ratio blends forward growth prospects, profit margins, risk, and company size for a more nuanced comparison. Unlike simple peer or industry averages, the Fair Ratio adjusts for specific company characteristics and offers a tailored benchmark that better reflects the risk and reward investors are weighing with Pinnacle Financial Partners.

With the companys actual PE ratio being significantly below the Fair Ratio, the analysis suggests the stock appears undervalued using this approach.

Result: UNDERVALUED

NasdaqGS:PNFP PE Ratio as at Dec 2025

PE ratios tell one story, but what if the real opportunity lies elsewhere? Discover 1444 companies where insiders are betting big on explosive growth.

Upgrade Your Decision Making: Choose Your Pinnacle Financial Partners Narrative

Earlier we mentioned that there is an even better way to understand valuation, so let us introduce you to Narratives. A Narrative is a simple, user-friendly tool that lets you create and follow your own story for a company like Pinnacle Financial Partners, connecting your perspective about its future prospects, such as predicted earnings, revenue, and profit margins, directly to a fair value estimate.

By linking a companys business story with a forecast and calculated fair value, Narratives help make sense of the numbers and allow you to see how your beliefs stack up against the market price. Narratives are accessible within Simply Wall St's Community page, used by millions of investors to share views and track their personalized valuations.

With Narratives, you can decide when to buy or sell by instantly comparing your Fair Value to the current share price. Because they update automatically with new news or earnings data, Narratives always keep your analysis current and relevant.

For example, some investors see Pinnacle Financial Partners merger-driven growth and set a high price target of $130, while others, concerned about regulatory and integration risks, remain cautious with a target as low as $95. Narratives help you choose which story you believe and act accordingly, making investment decisions smarter and more personal than ever.

Do you think there's more to the story for Pinnacle Financial Partners? Head over to our Community to see what others are saying!

NasdaqGS:PNFP Community Fair Values as at Dec 2025

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

Companies discussed in this article include PNFP.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son talked about SoftBank's move to dump its Nvidia stake.

He said the moves reflect an urgent need he saw to invest more in OpenAI.

Son said he did not want to sell and wishes he could have held onto its Nvidia stock.

SoftBank kicked off November by making an announcement that shocked Wall Street and the tech world: the Japanese conglomerate had sold off its entire stake in Nvidia, a holding worth nearly $6 billion.

The news pushed Nvidia stock lower as investors took it as a bearish signal from a major tech investor. In comments at an event in Tokyo on Monday, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son addressed the move and said dumping shares of the top AI chipmaker was a painful decision.

Son said that he wishes SoftBank could have held onto its Nvidia stock, highlighting his respect for both the company and its CEO, Jensen Huang.

He also said that the move was spurred by what he saw as an urgent need to put more money to work with another top AI name: OpenAI.

"I respect Jensen, I respect Nvidia so much, I don't want to sell a single share," he said during the FII Priority Asia forum in Tokyo. "I just had more need for money to invest into OpenAI, invest into our opportunities, so I was crying to sell Nvidia shares. If I had more money, of course, I wanted to keep Nvidia shares, all the time, any time."

SoftBank first invested in Nvidia in May 2017, taking a $4 billion stake in the chipmaker, years before the current AI boom began.

While Son said the decision was tough, it isn't the first time SoftBank has trimmed its holdings of the hardware maker. The firm offloaded its Nvidia stake in 2019 for $3.3 billion, though it began building up a new one in 2020.

Since OpenAI ushered in the current era of AI with its launch of ChatGPT three years ago, SoftBank has invested heavily. In April 2025, it announced a plan to invest $40 billion into the AI startup, including a $22.5 billion payment by the end of 2025.

Son also said that SoftBank's AI investment strategy is grounded in the belief that super intelligence is on the way, and when it arrives, it will drive at least 10% of global GDP growth. By his own estimate, it will require a cumulative investment of $10 trillion.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is set to offer 25m ($29m) in unfunded risk-sharing guarantee to Crnogorska komercijalna banka (CKB) to increase lending for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Montenegro.

The initiative is supported by the European Union (EU), which is providing both technical support and a first-loss counter-guarantee via the European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus (EFSD+) programme.

It enables up to 50m in new SME lending through the EBRDs portfolio risk-sharing (PRS) product, with the guarantee covering as much as 50% of the credit risk on loans issued by CKB.

EBRD Montenegro head Remon Zakaria said: This collaboration with CKB, supported by the European Union, marks a significant milestone in our efforts to expand access to finance for underserved businesses in Montenegro.

By sharing risk and combining innovative financial instruments with targeted technical assistance, we are enabling more SMEs to invest in growing their businesses.

Under this arrangement, CKB will be able to lend using its own funds while the part of the risk will be shared through the EBRD and EU-backed structure.

The approach uses financial instruments intended to broaden options available to Montenegros private sector.

CKB management board chair Tamas Kamarasi said: Our collaboration with the EBRD and the EU represents a landmark achievement for CKB and Montenegros financial sector.

By being the first bank in the country to introduce the portfolio risk-sharing instrument, we reaffirm our commitment to innovation and to empowering micro and small enterprises.

EBRD has so far invested more than 1bn in Montenegro, backing activities tied to sustainable development, infrastructure, private sector progress and regional integration.

The new PRS facility marks the first time this product has been implemented by EBRD in Montenegro.

Last month, EBRD announced 20m in financing to NLB Banka Prishtina to create additional funding avenues for SMEs in Kosovo with a focus on supporting digital development priorities.

"EBRD to offer $29m guarantee to CKB for MSMEs in Montenegro" was originally created and published by Leasing Life, a GlobalData owned brand.




The Gen Z and young millennial brand also unveils the Top 10 Destinations & Experiences for College Students in 2026 shaping where young travelers want to go in 2026

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- EF Ultimate Break, a leader in experiential, guided travel for 1835-year-olds, today announced Portugal as its 2026 "Destination of the Year," highlighting three new travel experiences that spotlight the country's unfiltered landscapes, slower pace, and deeply rooted traditions.

EF Ultimate Break Logo (PRNewsfoto/EF Ultimate Break)

Portugal's rise among Gen Z and young millennial travelers is real. Industry research shows it's now one of the most in-demand international destinations for U.S. travelers, celebrated for its affordability, authenticity, and wildly diverse scenery, from volcanic islands to cliff-lined coasts. EF Ultimate Break's Portugal collection taps into these trends, offering journeys rooted in "The Real Portugal": intentional experiences, genuine connection, and adventure that's accessible.

Introducing the Real Portugal: Three New Ways to Explore

EF Ultimate Break's Portugal collection has added three new experiences that span volcanic islands, hidden-gem beach towns, and the country's most iconic neighborhoods. Each itinerary blends slow, intentional travel with cultural immersion and adventure.

Portugal Adventure: Porto, Lagos Old Town & Benagil Caves (12 days, 3 cities; from $2,199): Sip Port wine in historic valleys, cruise sea caves along golden coastlines, and eat your way through three distinct Portuguese regions from north to south. Azores: Volcanic Island & Off-Road Expedition (9 days, 2 cities; from $1,849): Discover Portugal's wild island spirit through volcanic craters, thermal springs, and dramatic coastlines shaped by raw, unspoiled nature. Portugal: Lagos Beaches, Vibrant Nightlife & Local Markets (9 days, 5 cities; from $1,649): Dive into seaside village life, neon-lit Algarve nightlife, and Lisbon's colorful neighborhoods while feasting on fresh seafood and exploring local markets.

Why Portugal Is Resonating With 1835-Year-Old Travelers

EF Ultimate Break's travel insights highlight four defining reasons Portugal has become a hot spot with young travelers:
By Karen Brettell

Dec 2 (Reuters) - With bitcoin trading well below its recent highs, hedge fund manager and activist investor Eric Jackson is betting that investors will still want exposure to crypto  just with less pain on the way down.

Jackson's firm EMJ Capital is preparing to launch EMJX, a crypto-focused treasury company that will invest in bitcoin, ethereum and a selection of smaller cryptocurrencies.

While EMJX will buy and hold these assets, it plans to distinguish itself from other crypto treasury companies such as Michael Saylor's Strategy Inc by being multi-asset and through active hedging, aiming to limit large drawdowns while still participating when prices rise.

Crypto treasury companies allocate their cash reserves to holding bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies as a strategic asset.

"We think the next frontier is risk-managed digital treasuries," Jackson said in an interview. "It still allows us to hopefully capture the upside when bitcoin is doing well but helps insulate us from these massive drawdowns during these winter crypto markets."

Backtests of EMJX's strategy show that the treasury company's investments would be up 31% this year, even as bitcoin and ethereum have fallen 3% and 10%, respectively, while Strategy's shares are down 41%.

EMJ's strategy relies on proprietary artificial intelligence models to guide hedging. Jackson says the models have become more robust by incorporating signals from both bitcoin and ethereum, rather than focusing on just one of the two.

He also argues that crypto markets offer a richer data set than traditional assets, because blockchains record money flows in and out of specific tokens in real time. That transparency allows firms like EMJ to study the behavior of large market participants, or "whales," and track how they perform.

When it comes to smaller cryptocurrencies, EMJ will draw on the stock-picking experience Jackson's hedge fund has built. He cites used-car retailer Carvana as an example: after the stock fell as low as $3.50, his models tagged it as a "buy" at $11. It was at $378 on Tuesday.

We only have to be right on a handful and it could have a very significant impact on the value of the overall treasury as it plays out, he said.

(Reporting by Karen Brettell in New York; Editing by Alden Bentley and Matthew Lewis)
The infrastructure problem is fundamental. Charging a passenger EV at home overnight is one thing. Charging Class 8 trucks that need megawatt-level power to recharge massive battery banks in timeframes that dont obliterate productivity is something else entirely. The US doesnt have that infrastructure. Building it requires grid upgrades, utility coordination, real estate acquisition, and capital investment measured in billions. Nobody figured out how to fund that at scale, so were left with announced initiatives, pilot programs, and scattered charging stations that dont add up to functional networks.

The United States took the opposite approach. Throw tax credits at manufacturers, announce ambitious electrification targets, mandate technology adoption timelines, and assume infrastructure and economics will somehow sort themselves out. Its the regulatory equivalent of throwing EVs at the wall to see what sticks, and, surprise, most of it didnt stick.

The UKs relative success with commercial EVs didnt happen by accident. They coordinated between government, utilities, fleet operators, and charging infrastructure providers before pushing mandates. They built charging networks that match operational needs. They focused deployment in applications where current technology actually works, shorter hauls, predictable routes, and operations that return to base for overnight charging. They planned the rollout based on what the technology could do rather than what they wished it could do.

But before we get to Edison, lets talk about why the Trump administration just pulled EV tax credits for commercial trucks. Its not some political statement or shift in environmental priorities, its an acknowledgment of reality. America isnt ready for wholesale adoption of electric trucks because we never did the planning and infrastructure work necessary to make it viable.

Then I started paying attention to what Edison Motors was building in British Columbia, and I realized something important: EVs can work in trucking if you actually engineer them for how trucking operates, rather than forcing trucking to adapt to technology limitations.

So when the EV conversation started dominating trucking discussions, my initial reaction was skepticism bordering on dismissal. Battery-electric trucks looked like solutions engineered by people whod never operated in conditions where equipment failure has real consequences. The range limitations, charging infrastructure gaps, and operational disruptions seemed like deal-breakers that no amount of government subsidies or manufacturer marketing could overcome.

Im a diesel guy. Specifically, Im a CAT guy. Thats not nostalgia talking or resistance to change, its 25-plus years of experience knowing what keeps trucks moving and freight delivered when conditions get ugly. Diesel has always given me peace of mind because it works. You can find fuel anywhere. The technology is proven. When something breaks, mechanics know how to fix it. In an industry where downtime means lost revenue and missed commitments, that reliability isnt optional.

Weiterlesen

Ford just announced an electric truck for the European market in 2026 with a 186-mile range. For UK operations where you can cover the entire country in a day and the charging infrastructure is relatively dense, that may work. Drop that same truck into American long-haul operations, and its useless. The geography doesnt match, the infrastructure doesnt exist, and the operational economics dont work when youre stopping for multi-hour charging sessions that turn a 10-hour driving day into a 15-hour ordeal with no additional revenue.

Range anxiety isnt just about miles, its about operational flexibility and peace of mind. With diesel, if you need to adjust your route for traffic, weather, or a last-minute load change, you do it. If youre running low on fuel, you pull into any of the thousands of truck stops and refuel in 15 minutes. That flexibility is what makes trucking work. Battery-electric trucks with fixed range and dependency on sparse charging infrastructure eliminate that flexibility. Youre locked into planned routes with no room for adjustment, and if something goes wrong, you could be stranded waiting for a tow or an hours-long charging session.

For someone whose career has depended on CAT diesels that work in conditions where failure means youre stuck until a mechanic can reach you, which might be hours or days depending on where you broke down, the idea of voluntarily introducing that kind of vulnerability through technological limitations makes no sense. Diesel works because its proven, reliable, and supported by infrastructure that exists everywhere trucks operate.

But Edison Motors changed my thinking on whether EVs can work in trucking, because they approached the problem differently than everyone else.

Edison emerged from logging operations in British Columbia. If you know anything about logging, you know its an environment where equipment either works or youre in serious trouble. Youre operating in remote areas, harsh weather, demanding terrain, and conditions where breakdowns can strand you far from help. Chase Barber and his partners werent building trucks to meet regulatory requirements or chase government subsidies, they were solving problems they faced daily running equipment in some of the most unforgiving conditions imaginable.

When they looked at available EV options, they saw the same problems every trucker faces: range limitations, reliance on charging infrastructure, and operational disruptions that make battery-electric trucks impractical for how trucking actually works. So instead of trying to force diesel operations into EV constraints, they built hybrid technology that captures EV benefits while eliminating the problems that make pure battery-electric trucks non-starters.

Edisons trucks feature electric drivetrains with onboard CAT diesel generators that continuously recharge the system. Its basically a diesel-electric locomotive concept adapted for highway trucking. The electric motors provide instant torque, regenerative braking, and reduced maintenance on brake systems and transmissions. But the onboard generator eliminates range anxiety, charging infrastructure dependency, and the operational flexibility problems that plague pure battery-electric designs.

Heres what makes this brilliant for someone who trusts diesel: you get the efficiency and performance benefits of electric drive without giving up the reliability and infrastructure compatibility that makes diesel work. Youre not dependent on charging stations that may or may not exist where you need them. Youre not locked into a fixed range with no flexibility. You maintain an unlimited range as long as you can find diesel fuel, which is everywhere. And youre using proven CAT generator technology rather than betting operations on battery systems that are still evolving.

The peace-of-mind factor is huge. With Edisons hybrid approach, you can adjust your route or extend your day. If youre in an area without charging infrastructure, which is most of America, youre fine. If something goes wrong with the electrical system, youve got a diesel generator that can get you to a repair shop rather than being stranded waiting for a specialized EV technician.

Edison just received Canadian regulatory approval to manufacture and sell these hybrid heavy-duty trucks commercially. Thats an actual production vehicle competing in the real market. The approval validates that hybrid approaches can meet safety and emissions standards while addressing operational realities that pure battery-electric solutions ignore.

The fact that this innovation came from a small company emerging from logging operations rather than from major manufacturers or government programs tells you something important about where practical solutions come from. Legacy manufacturers built EVs around battery technology that doesnt meet operational requirements, then expected infrastructure and regulations to catch up. Government mandates pushed carriers toward technology that doesnt work for their business models. Meanwhile, Edison listened to what truckers actually need and built solutions that address real-world problems.

This pattern keeps repeating. When FMCSA couldnt build practical tools to combat chameleon carriers, private companies like Freight Validate and Genlogs stepped in with solutions that work. When legacy systems couldnt keep pace with technological change, startups built better platforms. When manufacturers focused on removing drivers through automation, Edison focused on giving drivers better tools to be more productive.

The UKs EV success stems from matching technology to operational environments. Shorter distances, denser infrastructure, coordinated planning, and fleet operations aligned with current EV capabilities created conditions in which the technology could succeed. The US has none of those advantages for long-haul trucking, which moves most freight across the country. We needed better planning, more infrastructure investment, and technology that fits American truckings operational realities before pushing aggressive electrification timelines.

The Trump administrations pulling EV tax credits acknowledges what should have been obvious from the start, were not ready. The infrastructure isnt there. The technology doesnt match how American trucking operates. And throwing subsidies at the problem without addressing fundamental operational and infrastructure gaps was never going to work.

But that doesnt mean electric trucks cant work in trucking. Edisons success in some of the most demanding conditions imaginable, logging operations in BCs interior, where equipment failure isnt an inconvenience, its a crisis, proves that EVs can work if you engineer them right. The key is to build around operational realities rather than forcing operations to adapt to technological limitations.

For me, diesel will always be what I know and trust. CAT 3406s have kept me moving and freight delivered through conditions that would have killed lesser equipment. That reliability and peace of mind arent something you give up lightly. If Edison Motors has taught me anything, its that EV technology can work even in the woods of British Columbia if you approach it with practical engineering rather than regulatory fantasy.

The hybrid approach makes sense because it doesnt ask truckers to give up the reliability and flexibility that make diesel work. You keep the infrastructure compatibility, operational flexibility, and the peace of mind that come with proven technology. But you add efficiency benefits, reduced maintenance, and emissions improvements that address legitimate environmental concerns without sacrificing operational viability.

Thats the kind of innovation that deserves attention, not because its revolutionary or disruptive or any other marketing buzzword, but because it actually solves problems that matter to people running trucks. Its technology built by truckers for truckers rather than by regulators and manufacturers who think they know what trucking needs.

Fords 186-mile-range European EV might work fine in the UK, where geography, infrastructure, and operational profiles align with its technology capabilities. It wont work in American long-haul operations, and removing tax credits that were propping up technology adoption before infrastructure and operations were ready is an acknowledgment of that reality.

What we need isnt more aggressive mandates or bigger subsidies, its better planning, infrastructure investment that matches operational needs, and technology designed around how trucking actually works rather than how regulators wish it worked. The UK did that planning. The US didnt. Edison Motors did that engineering. Most manufacturers didnt.

Im still a diesel guy. I trust what I know works. But Im also paying attention to what Edison is building because theyre approaching the problem the right way, starting with operational needs and working backward to the technology that addresses them. Thats how practical innovation happens, and its proof that EVs can work in trucking if youre willing to engineer solutions grounded in reality rather than regulatory timelines.

If Edison can make electric hybrids work in logging operations in BC, theres hope that thoughtful engineering can bridge the gap between diesel reliability and electric efficiency. But it requires listening to what truckers actually need rather than telling them what they should want. The removal of EV tax credits might slow down the rush to electrification. Still, if it creates space for practical solutions like Edisons hybrid approach to develop and prove themselves, thats probably a better path forward than subsidizing technology that doesnt work for how American trucking operates.

Sometimes the best innovations come from the people closest to the problems. Edison Motors getting approval to build electric hybrid heavy-duty trucks in Canada might matter more for truckings future than anything Ford or Tesla or any other major manufacturer announces, precisely because Edison was built by truckers who understand what actually works when youre 100 miles from anywhere and your equipment has to perform or youre in trouble.

Thats the kind of peace of mind I can respect, even from a diesel guy like me.

The post The EV Truck Reality Check and Why Edison Motors Hybrid Might Be What Actually Works appeared first on FreightWaves.
Megan Thee Stallion has won a defamation case against blogger Milagro Gramz.

Megan Thee Stallion has won her defamation case

The 30-year-old rap star previously filed a lawsuit against the blogger - whose real name is Milagro Cooper - after it was alleged that she was "a paid surrogate" for Tory Lanez.

A federal panel of five men and four women in Florida agreed that the blogger defamed and harassed the rapper, who has been awarded $59,000 in damages, according to NBC News.

Megan appeared in court in November to testify in the defamation trial, when she claimed that Gramz' comments affected her mental health, as well as her music career.

The chart-topping star revealed that she actually felt like life was not worth living at one point in time.

Megan launched her lawsuit back in October 2024, when she accused Gramz of "churning out falsehoods" about her shooting by Tory Lanez in 2020.

In a statement, Megan said: "Its time to hold bloggers accountable for years of harassment, cyber-bullying and the publication of misinformation about my personal and professional life.

"Ive endured countless attacks on my character based on false narratives from social media bloggers misrepresenting themselves as journalists.

"Its unacceptable behaviour and these individuals need to understand there will be repercussions for recklessly posting lies and defamatory falsehoods."

Megan's lawsuit accused Cooper of questioning her "mental status" and of calling her an "angry Black woman".

What's more, Cooper was accused of sharing a "deepfake pornographic video" of Megan - whose real name is Megan Pete - on X.

In August 2023, Lanez was sentenced to ten years in prison after being convicted of shooting Megan.

Despite this, the lawsuit claimed that Cooper cast doubt on whether he actually shot her.

The Grammy-winning star confirmed at the time that she was seeking "monetary damages" and "attorneys' fees and costs". Megan was also seeking "a permanent injunction barring Defendant Cooper from any future use or publication of intimate visual depictions of her".

In response to the lawsuit, Gramz wrote on X: "Countersuit gone go crazy (sic)"
Investing.com -- Retail-technology firm Alpha Modus has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against H&M Fashion USA, Inc., Investing.com has learned. The company is accusing the global apparel retailer of unlawfully deploying its proprietary closed-loop artificial intelligence systems across U.S. stores and digital platforms.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, asserts infringement of five patents, which Alpha Modus says cover core retail-automation technologies, including real-time shopper analysis, product interaction tracking, personalized marketing, inventory responsiveness, and point-of-sale automation.

According to the filing, H&Ms in-store systems, mobile app, RFID-enabled analytics, digital mirrors, and inventory workflows allegedly rely on Alpha Modus patented innovations without authorization.

The complaint states that these tools collectively utilize the companys protected closed-loop retail AI framework, which is designed to interpret live customer behavior and dynamically adjust retail operations.

Alpha Modus describes itself as a developer of advanced AI-driven retail technology, with patents aimed at enabling businesses to analyze consumer behavior and product interaction in real time and tailor marketing to pivotal purchasing decision moments.

The company notes that it has executed multiple IP licensing agreements outside of litigation, arguing that H&M could have pursued similar lawful channels.

In November, the company said it had entered into a patent license and authorized reseller agreement with an unnamed U.S.-based technology integrator.

Later in the month, Alpha Modus announced a patent infringement lawsuit against Inditex and its Zara brand.

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Dec 2 (Reuters) - At least three Chinese rare earth magnet makers have secured licenses enabling them to accelerate exports to some customers, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, fulfilling a key outcome of the summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

China began designing a new rare earth licensing regime centered around so-called "general licenses" following the late October meeting between Trump and Xi that eased trade tensions between the two countries, Reuters reported in early November.

JL Mag Rare Earth has obtained licenses to ship to nearly all of its clients, while Ningbo Yunsheng and Beijing Zhong Ke San Huan High-Tech secured licenses to export to some of their clients, the person said, declining to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The three companies and China's Ministry of Commerce did not immediately respond to questions.

(Reporting by Reuters staff; Editing by Sonali Paul)
By Ahmed Rasheed

BAGHDAD, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil has approached the Iraqi oil ministry to express its interest in buying Russian firm Lukoil's majority stake in the giant West Qurna 2 oilfield, five Iraqi official sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Lukoil is trying to sell its international assets after the U.S. imposed sanctions on the company, and Exxon's move would mark a major expansion of the U.S. major's return to Iraq as Moscow tries to offload key energy assets.

Exxon declined to comment while Lukoil did not respond to Reuters' request for comment.

The U.S. Treasury cleared potential buyers to talk to Lukoil until December 13, but they will need approval for specific deals. Reuters reported last month that Exxon had joined Chevron in considering options to buy parts of Lukoil's portfolio.

GIANT OILFIELD PRODUCES AROUND 9% OF IRAQ'S TOTAL

Lukoil's biggest foreign asset is a 75% operational stake in Iraq's West Qurna 2 oilfield, one of the world's largest with output of around 470,000 barrels per day. The field accounts for about 0.5% of world oil supply and 9% of total output in Iraq, OPEC's second-largest producer after Saudi Arabia.

Lukoil has declared force majeure at the field after Iraq halted cash and crude payments to the company.

Exxon had long been the operator of the neighbouring West Qurna 1 project before exiting last year when that part of the field produced around 550,000 bpd. In the run-up to Exxon's exit, the then-head of the state-run Basra Oil Company said Exxon had valued its 32.7% stake in West Qurna 1 at $350 million. The two parts of the West Qurna field are located in Iraq's south, near the city of Basra.

In October, Exxon signed a non-binding agreement with Iraq to help it develop its giant Majnoon oilfield and expand oil exports, marking the U.S. major's return to the country.

Exxon's move to return to Iraq followed a string of deals with other oil companies, including Chevron, BP and TotalEnergies, as Iraq seeks to accelerate oil and gas production by offering more generous terms.

IRAQ FAVOURS EXXON FOR TAKEOVER, SOURCE SAYS

"Exxon is our preferred option to take over from Lukoil. The company has the capacity and experience needed to manage a field as large and complex as West Qurna 2, said a senior Iraqi oil official who oversees foreign companies operations in the south.

A senior oil ministry official echoed the statement.

Iraq's oil ministry said on Monday it had invited several U.S. oil companies to enter negotiations about taking over West Qurna 2.
ExxonMobil has initiated discussions with the Iraqi Oil Ministry for the potential acquisition of Lukoils majority stake in the West Qurna 2 oilfield, reported Reuters.

This news comes as the Russian oil company seeks to divest its global assets following US sanctions.

Lukoil currently holds a 75% operational stake in West Qurna 2, which is among the worlds largest oilfields, producing approximately 470,000 barrels per day.

The West Qurna 2 oilfield is said to represent around 0.5% of global oil supply and 9% of total output in Iraq, the second-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries after Saudi Arabia.

The market value of West Qurna 2 is estimated at around $1.6bn, based on its production levels and reserves exceeding eight billion barrels.

Last month, the US Treasury gave clearance to potential buyers to negotiate with Lukoil until 13 December, but they will require further approval for specific transactions.

Exxon had reportedly joined Chevron in seeking opportunities to acquire parts of Lukoils portfolio.

Last month, Lukoil declared force majeure at West Qurna 2 after Iraq suspended both cash and crude payments to the company.

Exxon was previously the operator of the nearby West Qurna 1 project before exiting in 2024.

In October, Exxon signed a non-binding agreement with Iraq to help develop the Majnoon oilfield and to expand oil exports, marking the companys return to the country after leaving it almost two years ago.

This move follows several deals between Iraq and other oil companies as the country aims to boost oil and gas production by offering more attractive terms, the report said.

A senior Iraqi oil official who oversees foreign companies operations in the south, told Reuters: Exxon is our preferred option to take over from Lukoil. The company has the capacity and experience needed to manage a field as large and complex as West Qurna 2.

Recently, Abu Dhabis International Holding Company reportedly expressed interest in acquiring the foreign assets of Lukoil.

"ExxonMobil in talks to acquire Lukoils stake in Iraqi oilfield" was originally created and published by Offshore Technology, a GlobalData owned brand.




For its part, a Fidelity spokesperson told InvestmentNews that they only block online access and that a direct call with a company rep will help customers restore it (3).

One example is Phoenix resident Kelly Havins, 63, who told The New York Times that he enlisted a Pontera financial advisor because, when it comes to managing his 401(k), he doesnt have the time or the understanding (2). He said that when Fidelity contacted him to warn that he could be locked out of his account, he thought it was a scam. But it wasnt, and, after some back and forth with Fidelity, he lost online access to his account. Havins said he had to work with his financial advisor to regain access.

As a result, they warned that they would prevent platforms reliant on credential sharing from accessing and taking action in customer accounts. Now, customers who employed third-party platforms like Pontera are being locked out of their own Fidelity retirement accounts.

Back in September 2024, Fidelity released a statement expressing concerns about the dangers of credential sharing  particularly when it enables third parties to take high-risk actions, such as executing trades within the accounts (1).

Pontera allows financial advisors to access a clients 401(k) account, like those held with Fidelity, through their platform while protecting the clients personal login credentials. That way, advisors can safely manage the account while being restrained by the platform from gaining control over actions such as transferring a clients funds without authorization.

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The retirement rumble escalated recently when Fidelity began enforcing a new policy restricting access for third-party financial advisors, and clients learned they lost online access to their 401(k) accounts for enlisting outside help.

As a major investment company and financial technology (fintech) platforms fight over access to client retirement accounts, some customers caught in the middle are discovering that the K in 401(k) might just stand for Keep out.

Moneywise and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue through links in the content below.

Lire la suite

Still, financial advisor John Rathnam told news outlet Arizonas Family that the idea that people might get cut off from their largest savings account  thats kind of crazy. Thats mind-boggling to me. Ive got to believe that they could have handled it better than that (4).

Protect your retirement accounts

In spite of Havins experience, financial fraud is indeed common and something that Americans should watch out for when it comes to their retirement accounts.

In fact, according to Planadviser, retirement plans unique business model creates multiple potential openings for breaches participants contributions and data often move through multiple organizations before reaching the financial institution serving as plan custodian (5).

Thats why relying on a financial transaction monitoring service can help you to find peace of mind related to your investments and retirement accounts.

With Aura, you can track all your transactions in one place and set up customized threshold alerts for each account. These alerts help detect early signs of fraud on your credit cards, bank accounts, 401(k)s, and investment accounts  up to 250x faster than the competition.

In addition to transaction monitoring, Aura will notify you if changes occur in your account information or if your details appear on the dark web. They also provide credit alerts for all three major credit bureaus, along with alerts for any new inquiries on your credit file.

Sign up today to receive up to 75% off your first year.

Read more: Warren Buffett used 8 solid, repeatable money rules to turn $9,800 into a $150B fortune. Start using them today to get rich (and stay rich)

The debate over access and customer safety

In an open letter posted to their website on Oct. 10, Pontera framed the situation as a battle between one side that stands for consumer choice and another that is an entrenched institutional incumbent highly conflicted and motivated by their own economics (6). They labelled Fidelitys actions an anticompetitive power grab, accusing them of compelling clients to use their own in-house financial advisors. As well, they classified those same clients as captives  lacking the ability to move their money elsewhere as a 401(k) is tied to an employer, and its the latter who decides what investment company they use.

A Fidelity spokesperson told USA Today they do in fact work closely to support independent Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) who securely advise on employer-sponsored retirement accounts with plan sponsor oversight (7).

Brenden Gebben, CEO of Absolute Capital, also spoke with USA Today and said that his company has an agreement with Fidelity to advise on behalf of their clients, adding that We are a regulated entity" and noted Pontera is unregulated from a financial perspective.

Meanwhile, financial planner Ben Henry-Moreland said in an interview with InvestmentNews that Pontera and similar third-party platforms use 'screen scraping' technology that gives them access to a lot more client information than what's needed for the tool to perform its function (8). He warned that such data could potentially be sold without the clients permission, but did say that it's frustrating that Fidelity, if reporting is true, hasn't worked with Pontera to create a more secure connection between them.

To that end, Pontera told The New York Times that they tried to work with Fidelity to customize secure access to customer investment accounts, but didnt hear back.

Weighing the benefits of a financial advisor

The ongoing struggle between Fidelity and Pontera does raise the point that many Americans would prefer to choose their own financial advisor when it comes to handling their 401(k) accounts.

The advantages of a financial advisor are clear: personalized advice based solely on your own needs and desires, as well as a trusted professional to answer questions, explain your investment options and warn of risks you might not see coming.

That said, as Kiplinger notes, financial advisors have to get paid, too, and they typically charge an annual fee based on a percentage of the assets they manage, often somewhere between 0.5% and 1.5% (9). Still, the outlet adds that the personalized advice and improved performance they can provide may outweigh the cost of their fees over time.

Its also a good idea to weigh your need for an advisor. Ask yourself, are your account management needs complicated enough to necessitate outside help? If so, make sure to enlist a fiduciary investment advisor to look out for your financial needs. Fiduciaries, by law, must act solely in your own best interest when managing your accounts.

If you find that you do need a financial advisor, it can be challenging to find the right expert for your unique situation. You could rely on a word-of-mouth referral from a friend or a colleague, or you could do your own homework  all in one place.

Advisor.com can help you find a professional financial advisor who has expertise in your problem area  and it takes just two minutes.

Its simple to use: Just answer a few quick questions about yourself and your finances, then the platform will match you with up to three experienced fiduciary financial professionals to help you review your investments and retirement accounts, and develop a plan to achieve your retirement goals.

You can view the advisors profiles, read past client reviews and schedule an initial consultation for free with no obligation to hire.

Forbes notes that an advisor can take multiple separate accounts and employ a portfolio-based approach [that] focuses on achieving the target asset mix when all accounts are combined (10). The publication adds that your 401(k) may also need to be rebalanced regularly to ensure its working toward your retirement goals.

Article sources

We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.

Fidelity Investments (1); The New York Times (2); InvestmentNews (3,8); Arizonas Family (4); Planadviser (5) Pontera (6); USA Today ([7(https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2025/10/22/fidelity-pontera-fintech-401k-retirement/86695501007/)); Kiplinger (9); Forbes (10)

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
Gasoline prices fell just below $3.00 per gallon this week, their lowest level since 2021.

As of Wednesday, at least 30 states saw an average the $3 mark at the pump, according to AAA data, as lower crude prices and less expensive winter blends give relief to drivers heading into the December holiday season.

"With refinery maintenance largely complete and OPEC increasing oil production for December, oil prices have struggled," GasBuddy's Patrick De Haan said on Monday.

"Combine those factors, and you have a solid recipe for continued downward pressure on gas prices in the weeks ahead," he added.

De Haan noted some stations in the Midwest have even seen prices slip below $2 per gallon, with that number expected to grow as the Christmas holiday season approaches.

Read more: Find the best credit cards for gas in 2025

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) have increased output this year, sending Brent (BZ=F) and West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) futures down 15% and 16% year to date, respectively.

"OPEC supply increases in 2025 look aligned with the Trump Administrations ambitions to lower gasoline prices ahead of the mid-terms," Citi analysts wrote in a note on Monday.

OPEC recently announced it will stick with plans to pause output hikes in early 2026, as prices have come under pressure.

JPMorgan's Natasha Kaneva recently forecast that Brent will fall to $58 per barrel in 2026, with West Texas Intermediate trading $4 below this level.

In 2027, the firm sees prices falling by another $1 per barrel.

"At the risk of flogging a very dead horse, our message to the market has remained consistent since June 2023," Kaneva and her team wrote. "While demand is robust, supply is simply too abundant."

The per-gallon prices for the three grades of gasoline are electronically displayed on a pump at an Exxon station on Nov. 30 in Littleton, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)  ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ines Ferre is a senior business reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X at @ines_ferre.

Click here for in-depth analysis of the latest stock market news and events moving stock prices

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A new Vanguard analysis shows younger workers gaining unexpected momentum on retirement preparedness even as millions of baby boomers confront widening savings gaps.

Gen Z Tops Boomers In Retirement Readiness, Vanguard Says

Vanguard's 2025 Retirement Outlook shows Gen Z and millennials outpacing older generations on retirement readiness, reported Vanguard.

Nearly half of Gen Z workers and 42% of millennials are on track to maintain their standard of living, compared with 40% of baby boomers nearing retirement.

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"Younger workers are benefiting from better plan design features like autoenrollment, automatic escalation of saving rates over time, and investment in qualified default investment alternatives, but managing debt remains essential," said Nicky Zhang, a Vanguard investment strategist and co-author of the research.

DC Plan Access Nearly Doubles Retirement Success Rates

The report finds workers with access to defined contribution plans are nearly twice as likely to be on track for retirement54% versus 28% without access.

Vanguard estimates six in 10 Americans would be on track if every worker had a plan.

Baby boomers face the toughest terrain. The median boomer is projected to fall $9,000 short annually, about a quarter of expected expenses.

Co-author Fu Tan said modest changes can help: "For many, the path to greater retirement security isn't about dramatic sacrifices. It can be achieved by making smart use of retirement plans and savings vehicles, considering part-time work, or simply allowing a bit more time before retiring."

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Smart Retirement Moves For A $500,000 Portfolio

Financial personality Vincent Chan said retirees could make a $500,000 portfolio work by keeping expenses low, using a 4.7% withdrawal rate and relying on long-term growth.

He assumed a 9% annual return and noted the portfolio could still grow if retirees avoided panic-selling and lived modestly.

Chan also recommended taking withdrawals from traditional accounts up to the standard deduction so married couples could keep $23,500 a year tax-free, while allowing Roth IRAs to continue growing.

Earlier, retirement expert Brandon Buckingham warned that failing to update IRA beneficiary forms was one of the most costly mistakes investors made, with some leaving outdated or missing names despite forms overriding a will.
The logo of the Federation of German Industries (BDI). Germany's industrial sector is facing a dramatic low point at the end of 2025, the head of the Federation of German Industries (BDI) told dpa, warning that the government in Berlin is not acting decisively enough. Patrick Pleul/dpa

Germany's industrial sector is facing a dramatic low point at the end of 2025, the head of the Federation of German Industries (BDI) told dpa, warning that the government in Berlin is not acting decisively enough.

A new report expects 2025 industrial production to fall by 2%. This would mark the fourth consecutive year of decline, BDI president Peter Leibinger said, with Germany's business environment experiencing its most severe crisis since the founding of the Federal Republic.

"This is not a cyclical dip, but a structural decline," he said, adding that the German industrial base is steadily losing substance.

The chemical industry is particularly affected, with plant utilization reportedly at just 70%.

Machinery and steel sectors are also under pressure, while construction appears to be stabilizing.

The automotive sector is expected to see a production increase, with higher industrial capacity utilization, but employment remains under strain.

Leibinger called for a decisive economic policy turnaround to strengthen competitiveness and growth. Every month without structural reforms costs further jobs and significantly narrows the state's future leeway, he said.

He urged the government to prioritize investment over consumer spending and to use special funds transparently for new projects.

Critics have long pointed to the government shifting projects from the core budget into the multibillion-euro special fund for infrastructure and climate action, then using the freed-up money for other measures, such as expanding parental benefits.

The BDI chief also called for broad bureaucratic relief, noting that while some steps have been taken, companies need reforms that are tangible in day-to-day operations.
Shares in Bayer (BAYN.DE) rose over 9% during Tuesday morning trading in Frankfurt after a show of support from the US government.

Amid years of legal battles regarding product safety, the Trump administration urged the US Supreme Court to review a Bayer appeal concerning its Roundup weedkiller.

The German firm is currently trying to quash around 67,000 lawsuits in the US based on the claim that the weedkiller causes cancer  a claim Bayer denies. The product contains glyphosate, an ingredient deemed probably carcinogenic to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

US Solicitor General D. John Sauer, a government lawyer, said in a brief on Monday that the Supreme Court should agree to hear Bayers challenge to a $1.25 million (1.09mn) jury verdict reached in Missouri.

The Missouri court decided in late 2023 that Bayer should award damages to claimant John Durnell, who argued that his diagnosis of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was linked to Roundup exposure. Durnells lawyers claimed that the company failed to warn consumers about the products risks.

Bayers appeal is based on the argument that federal law should take precedence over state law in these cases. Sauer urged the Supreme Court to iron out this ambiguity, adding that upholding the Missouri verdict would undermine the authority of the federal US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

"EPA has repeatedly determined that glyphosate is not likely to be carcinogenic in humans, and the agency has repeatedly approved Roundup labels that did not contain cancer warnings," Sauer said in the brief.

The Supreme Court had sought Sauers advice on whether federal law should trump state law in June this year.

In a separate statement, Bayers CEO Bill Anderson said: The support of the US government is an important step and good news for US farmers, who need regulatory clarity.

He added: The stakes could not be higher as the misapplication of federal law jeopardises the availability of innovative tools for farmers and investments in the broader US economy.

The Supreme Court is likely to make a formal decision on whether to review the case by January.

Bayer acquired Roundup when it took over agrochemical firm Monsanto in 2018. In 2022, it started to replace the home-use version of Roundup with a non-glyphosate formula, although the company has still paid more than $10 billion (8.62bn) to cover verdicts and settlements related to the product.

The brief from Sauer also comes against the backdrop of the "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) movement, led by US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
There have been a lot of rumors floated regarding President Donald Trump's idea for a $2,000 tariff dividend payment, a fourth stimulus check in December 2025 and who qualifies for the possible IRS refund and when it may be paid.

In November, Trump vowed to issue dividend checks to "individuals of moderate income" sometime in 2026, before the midterm elections. Adding, "We've taken in hundreds of millions of dollars in tariff money. We're going to be issuing dividends later on. Somewhere prior to, you know, probably in the middle of next year, a little bit later than that. Of thousands of dollars for individuals of moderate income, middle income."

The president also expects his administration will pay down some of the growing national debt.

"The tariffs allow us to give a dividend, if we want to do that. Now we're going to do a dividend, and we're also reducing debt we have because of Biden and others; we have $37 trillion in debt," said Trump. "So we're going to be doing a dividend, which people will enjoy and spend and do what they want. But we're also going to be reducing debt very substantially."

Budget experts and lawmakers aren't sure though.

Erica York, a policy expert at the Tax Foundation, said in a post on X, "If the cutoff is $100,000, 150M adults would qualify, for a cost near $300 billion. If kids qualify, that grows. Only problem, new tariffs have raised $120 billion so far."

As of Sept. 30, the federal government had generated $195 billion in tariff-related revenue, according to officials, which compared to the possible payout of the dividend check proposal would come up short.

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson also said in an interview with Fox Businesss Maria Bartiromo the country "can't afford" Trump's $2,000 dividend idea, Look, we cant afford it. I wish we were in a position to return the American public their money, but were not.

Well have at least a $2 trillion deficit this year, Johnson warned, "That compares to prior to the pandemic. President Trump had deficits about $800 billion. Obama, in his last four years, $550 billion a year. Now were $2 trillion? Completely unacceptable. We have to start focusing on that and doing something about it.

The Congressional Budget Office last month projected the federal deficit would hit $1.8 trillion for 2025, according to news reports.

When will the $2000 tariff dividend payment be paid?

Trump previously floated the idea of using part of the government revenue being generated by the new tariffs and returning it to taxpayers of a certain income level in the form of a rebate check, similar to the stimulus checks sent during the pandemic, back in July.
Scarlett Johansson behaved awkwardly during her first date with husband Colin Jost.

Scarlett Johansson's romance with Colin Jost started in awkward fashion

The 41-year-old actress married the Saturday Night Live star in 2020 but admits that she feared the romance would be short-lived after she "panicked" due to a lack of dating experience on their first romantic evening together.

Scarlett  who has previously been married to Ryan Reynolds and Romain Dauriac  said while guest co-hosting Jenna and Friends: "My first date with Colin, honestly, nobody ever really asked me out before.

"I was a serial monogamist and I just never got the kind of traditional, 'Hey, would you like to have dinner somewhere?' I don't know if it was just because I was working since I was little, I don't know why.'"

The Jurassic World Rebirth star added: "So he actually asked me out on a date. We went to an Italian restaurant in the East Village. It was a lovely date."

Scarlett recalled how she refused an offer from Colin to continue their evening by spending time with friends that he had arranged to meet later on.

She said: "We had dinner at 8pm or whatever, and then afterwards, he was like, 'I'm meeting friends, let's go grab a drink.' And I hadn't dated basically ever, and so I was just like, 'I have to go now. I need to leave!'

"And I got home to relieve the babysitter and it was like 9:36, and she was like, 'Why are you home?' I was like, 'I went on this date and it was  I just felt so flustered.'

"Later on he was like, 'I totally thought that was it. You were acting so weird.' I panicked. I don't know."

Meanwhile, Johansson recently expressed her belief that women in Hollywood are held to higher "standards" than male stars.

The Asteroid City actress told The Telegraph newspaper: "I think its still tough. There have always been great roles in Hollywood for women. But the standards are tough.

"In general, theres so much more expected of female actors.

"If a female actor had experienced, lets say, a huge addiction, or a public fall from grace, the road to getting back for them is almost impossible to pave, right?

"Whereas for men, its just another dramatic twist in the story, and then its on to the comeback. For men, it can be almost heroic. But for women, its like you just disappear."
Lizs view

Who captures the value in AI? I increasingly think its unlikely to be the creators of the models themselves: Gemini and ChatGPT are currently trading the lead back and forth  Sam Altman, recently lapped, has declared a code red  but with enough time, power, and talent, theyll mostly converge.

Its more likely to be those upstream (the picks and shovels purveyors producing GPUs) and downstream (application makers and corporate customers that can replace workers with AI) of those models. LLMs will be to the AI age what electrons were to the electricity age  critical but mostly fungible, and useless without sockets and things to plug into them. The value lives mostly on the outside of the socket; electric-utility CEOs are not, by and large, billionaires.

In that light, OpenAIs bizarro-world investment in Thrive  normally venture firms give money to startups, not the other way around looks like a classic diversification play. OpenAI is worth $500 billion today. But if AI fortunes lie upstream and downstream of it, then it makes sense to put a few chips, so to speak, in those places.

Thats the bearish-on-LLMs case, but the bull case gets you to the same place. If ChatGPT is eventually smarter than human venture capitalists, the VCs will ask ChatGPT what companies to invest in. And now the people who built ChatGPT can own a piece of every company it recommends. Its a more circuitous monetization route than converting its 800 million weekly users into paying subscribers, but a fun one. Why not tack on an activist hedge fund?

Room for Disagreement

My colleague Reed Albergotti has a different take on the rivalry between OpenAI and Google. Picks and shovels are great businesses, and there are a bunch of good ones in the AI stack today. But the really big plays are the ones that touch consumers.

OpenAI isnt selling an AI model. Its selling consumer and enterprise services. Google isnt OpenAIs biggest competitor because of pre-training techniques (although that matters today). Its a threat because it has a massive install base of users for its AI products. The underlying AI models are essential, but the value is created in how they are integrated and implemented in products.

Notable
Goldman Sachs has signed an agreement to acquire Innovator Capital Management, a provider of defined outcome exchange-traded funds (ETFs), in a transaction worth around $2bn.

Innovator currently manages 159 defined outcome ETFs.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management will add $28bn in assets under supervision (AUS) from Innovator, enhancing its range of custom portfolio solutions and active ETF offerings.

The transaction is anticipated to conclude in the second quarter of 2026 pending regulatory approval and customary conditions.

Innovator and Goldman Sachs Asset Management manage over 215 ETF strategies worldwide as of 30 September 2025, with over $75bn in total AUS.

Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO David Solomon said: By acquiring Innovator, Goldman Sachs will expand access to modern, world-class investment products for investor portfolios.

Innovators reputation for innovation and leadership in defined outcome solutions complements our mission to enhance the client experience with sophisticated strategies that seek to deliver targeted, defined outcomes for investors.

As part of the acquisition, Innovators leadership team will join Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

This includes co-founder and CEO Bruce Bond, co-founder and president John Southard, executive vice president and chief investment officer Graham Day, and senior vice president and distribution head Trevor Terrell.

In addition, more than 60 employees from Innovator are expected to join Goldman Sachs Asset Managements third-party wealth and ETF teams.

The business will operate as a wholly owned unit of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, with the same investment management and service providers.

Goldman Sachs Global Banking and Markets served as financial advisor, while Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Willkie Farr & Gallagher provided legal counsel to Goldman Sachs.

Oppenheimer & Co served as financial advisor and Vedder Price as legal counsel to Innovator on this transaction.

Goldman Sachs also reportedly announced the expansion of its Birmingham office with the addition of 500 new roles over the coming years.

"Goldman Sachs agrees to acquire Innovator Capital for $2bn" was originally created and published by Private Banker International, a GlobalData owned brand.




Washington  Rep. Anna Paulina Luna on Tuesday followed through on a monthslong threat to try to force a vote on a bipartisan bill that would ban members of Congress from trading individual stocks.

Luna, a Florida Republican, introduced a discharge petition to circumvent House leaders and put the measure on the floor for a vote if it receives 218 signatures. The procedural maneuver has become a common tactic for rank-and-file lawmakers to try to force a vote on issues ignored by Republican leaders.

The congresswoman had threatened to file a discharge petition if there wasn't movement on the Restore Trust in Congress Act by the end of September. But the push for a vote was stalled by the 43-day government shutdown that began on Oct. 1. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, kept the House out of session during the shutdown, putting all committee hearings and markups of legislation on hiatus.

Dozens of House lawmakers across the political spectrum have coalesced behind the Restore Trust in Congress Act, which would prohibit members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from owning or trading individual stocks. The compromise bill was introduced by Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas in September and has the support of more than 100 members, including progressives, conservatives and moderate Republicans and Democrats.

But the bill is also facing bipartisan opposition, according to its cosponsors, who spoke to reporters ahead of a Nov. 19 hearing before the House Administration Committee about congressional stock trading.

"There are members in both parties who do not want this to happen, who are in the ear of leadership, who are trying to stop this from happening," Democratic Rep. Seth Magaziner of Rhode Island said.

Under a 13-year-old law known as the STOCK Act, members of Congress, executive branch officials and other federal employees are prohibited from using nonpublic information for their financial benefit. The law also requires officials to disclose stock trades exceeding $1,000 within 45 days.

Critics say the law needs reforms to require more transparency to ensure public officials are not using their positions for personal gain.

"This body has been enriching itself on the taxpayers' dime for too dadgum long, and it's got to stop," Republican Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee told reporters. "We're in committee meetings. We hear things before y'all do. We can make those connections."

Dan Savickas, the vice president of policy and government affairs at the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, told lawmakers during the hearing that "on average, members of both political parties outperformed the market."
This story was originally published on Restaurant Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Restaurant Dive newsletter.

Dive Brief:

Jim Holthouser, who served as GoTo Foods CEO since early 2020, will leave the company on Tuesday, according to a post from his LinkedIn profile.

Holthouser joined GoTo Foods, then called Focus Brands, from the hotel industry and led the company through several major changes, including a shift in its branding  to GoTo Foods  meant to emphasize its value as a franchisor.

The company has yet to share more information about Holthousers exit or possible transition plans.

Dive Insight:

Much of GoTos development under Holthouser focused on nontraditional or co-branded expansion, with Auntie Annes, for instance, targeting airport locations as a springboard toward streetside development. The company also created the dual-branded concept Cinnabon Swirl, a combination of Cinnabon and Carvel, that opened earlier this year in Oregon with a distinct brand identity and loyalty program.

The company started 2025 with significant growth potential. It signed 1,177 franchise agreements in 2024  split between 578 domestic and 599 international units  setting itself up for a fourth-consecutive year of increased net unit growth, the chain said in March. Last year, GoTo Foods signed 353 co-branded deals across 173 locations in 24 states, with 49% in streetside locations.

Holthouser said he was humbled by his experience as CEO after he entered his post as a restaurant industry outsider. He brought experience in analytics, branding, franchising and development from the hotel industry, but had to quickly learn about finance, tech, legal and other aspects of the restaurant industry.

Weve transformed so much together  digitally, operationally, culturally  and we did it not by outspending our competitors, but by outhustling and outthinking them, Holthouser said. Im proud of that.

Recommended Reading
Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) is included among the 15 High Quality Dividend Stocks for Long-Term Investors.

Graco (GGG) Targets Paint and Coatings Market Through Radia Acquisition

On November 17, Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) announced the acquisition of Red Devil Equipment Company, commonly known as Radia, in a deal valued at $69 million. Radia, which generates over $30 million in annual revenue, manufactures mixing, shaking, and automated material handling equipment for the expanding paints and coatings sector.

Mark Sheahan, Gracos President and CEO, made the following comment:

Radia brings complementary capabilities to Gracos Contractor business portfolio, enhancing our position in the color solutions space. Our acquisition of Corob last year expanded our precision tinting and dispensing capabilities, while Radia strengthens our portfolio with advanced mixing and material handling equipmentcreating a more complete solution for our customers.

In its third-quarter 2025 results, Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) reported a 5% rise in sales, with recent acquisitions contributing 6% of that growth. The company also continued executing its expansion strategy with the August purchase of Color Service.

Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) provides technology and expertise for managing fluids and coatings across both industrial and commercial applications.

While we acknowledge the potential of GGG as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If youre looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.

READ NEXT: 15 Best Boring Dividend Stocks to Buy and 14 Best Up and Coming Dividend Stocks to Buy.

Disclosure: None.
Real estate investor Grant Cardone recently questioned the value of a college education by approaching it as an underperforming asset, saying that it has led to "$1.7 trillion of wasted unforgivable debt."

His X post outlined additional reasons college feels like a bad investment, especially when considering the opportunity cost of getting into student debt instead of putting the same money into stocks and real estate.

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Unemployment Is Hitting Young Americans Hard

A job is the main promise of a college degree. Getting one is supposed to give you a significant competitive advantage over people who have only graduated from high school. However, Cardone points to high unemployment rates among recent college students as a red flag.

"4-year college degrees make up 25.3% of total unemployment," he said.

Not only did a large segment of unemployed workers graduate from college, but Gen Z college graduates have a higher unemployment rate than the national average. Fewer entry-level positions and AI have reduced work opportunities for young professionals, but student debt still lingers.

Trending: An EA Co-Founder Shapes This VC Backed MarketplaceNow You Can Invest in Gaming's Next Big Platform

College Tuition Continues To Rise Despite A Low ROI

Although more people have questioned the value of a college education, to the point where trade schools are seeing an uptick, tuition costs continue to rise. Rising university expenses have caused parents to cut back on vacations and major purchases to cover those costs in the future.

Cardone's X post casts doubt about whether those efforts are justified, especially when many college graduates are struggling in the job market. He said that the unemployment rate for college-educated workers has doubled since the 2008 Financial Crisis.

The unemployment figure for college-educated workers has approached pandemic levels, according to the chart in Cardone's X post. Furthermore, the chart specifies white-collar workers instead of the blue-collar employees who learn their craft through apprenticeships and trade schools.

See Also: Have $100k+ to invest? Charlie Munger says that's the toughest milestone  don't stall now. Get matched with a fiduciary advisor and keep building

Wasted Debt

Cardone wrapped up his X post by lamenting about the $1.7 trillion of debt that students have incurred in the pursuit of higher education. The total debt repayments will exceed $1.7 trillion since interest accumulation also plays a role.
The share price of Gulfport Energy Corporation (NYSE:GPOR) surged by 8.7% between November 21 and November 28, 2025, putting it among the Energy Stocks that Gained the Most This Week.

Gulfport Energy (GPOR) Price Target Updated by Analyst

Gulfport Energy Corporation (NYSE:GPOR) is an independent natural gas-weighted exploration and production company with assets primarily located in the Appalachia and Anadarko basins.

On November 17, Jefferies raised its price target on Gulfport Energy Corporation (NYSE:GPOR) from $250 to $260, and maintained a Buy rating on the shares. GPOR has gained almost 23% over the last month, with the analyst attributing the rally to a stronger winter weather outlook, which is boosting expected demand for natural gas.

Moreover, the analyst praised the energy firms inventory expansion in the Ohio Marcellus, as mentioned in its Q3 earnings call. The addition of these high-quality locations at no incremental land cost effectively doubles Gulfports net drillable Marcellus inventory in Ohio.

While we acknowledge the potential of GPOR as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If youre looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.

READ NEXT: 10 Best Renewable Energy Dividend Stocks to Buy Now and 14 Best Utility Dividend Stocks to Buy Now.

Disclosure: None.
Gunvor and Pedersen emphasized that the leadership transition was long planned, and formed part of the discussions when he was hired. Still, the new CEOs US credentials and experience may help to reassure the US administration that Gunvor really has achieved the definitive reset it touted in announcing Tornqvists sudden departure. The management buyout is being financed in part by a loan from Tornqvist, which means a connection to the company will continue even after his exit.

Gunvors also had a much stronger second half of 2025, he said, after the company and many of its rivals struggled to navigate sharp, headline-driven price swings in prices earlier in the year.

Everybodys going to feel the ownership: think like an owner and act like an owner, he said. Im going to work across the desks and co-ordinate with them on those opportunities as they come up.

In an interview on Monday, Pedersen, 56, said Gunvors new shareholder structure  the majority stake is being acquired by about 60 current employees  means that traders will have greater incentive to find new opportunities for profit. Investments in the US will remain a big focus for the company, he said, including in oil, natural gas and power.

Gary Pedersen, who previously ran Gunvors business in the Americas, cut his teeth trading gasoline at Koch Inc., where he worked for two decades, and most recently did a stint at hedge fund Millennium Management before joining Gunvor. Current and former colleagues describe the one-time Iowa State linebacker as a down-to-earth manager who prowls the trading floor and is willing to listen to ideas  even the risky ones  but places a high emphasis on access to sophisticated market analysis.

Now, as its new leader, Gunvor has turned to a relative outsider: a veteran American oil trader it hired only last year.

On Monday, the 72-year-old Swede announced an abrupt departure from the company he cofounded in a dramatic move to contain the fallout after the US Treasury Department called Gunvor the Kremlins puppet last month  an allegation that was made without presenting evidence but which evoked longstanding questions about the traders past ties to Moscow, despite its repeated denials.

Torbjorn Tornqvist spent three decades building Gunvor Group into one of the worlds largest energy traders  from early days exporting fuel from post-Soviet Russia, to todays sprawling global business that trades enough oil every day to supply the UK and France combined.

Story Continues

The Treasurys announcement last month that it would block Gunvors deal to buy the international assets of Lukoil PJSC sent shockwaves through the industry. Commodity traders rely on massive bank credit lines to fund their dealings, and Bloomberg reported shortly afterward that Spains Banco Santander SA had pulled funding commitments from Gunvor after the US Treasury comments, but that its other lenders remained supportive.

Pedersen declined to comment on the deliberations that influenced the timing of the announcement of Tornqvists departure, noting only that it was the right time for him and the right time for the company.

In its statement, Gunvor simply said that: misperceptions about its past have become an impossible distraction.

Windfall Profits

Gunvor hasnt disclosed financial terms of the management buyout, but Tornqvists 86% stake likely means that he exits the company as one of the biggest financial winners of the energy crisis wrought by Russias invasion of Ukraine, which generated windfall profits for the companies that buy, sell and ship commodities around the world.

And his departure marks the end of an era for a trader who has often epitomized his industrys willingness to take risks and go where others wont in search of profit.

Torbjorn TornqvistPhotographer: Walaa Alshaer/Bloomberg

Born in Stockholm, Tornqvist started in the industry in the late 1970s at what was then British Petroleum. He founded Gunvor in its current form in 2000 with Russian trader Gennady Timchenko, but the firms big break came a few years later when it was offered a major role in helping to keep huge volumes of Russian oil flowing to the world after the government seized the oil fields of Yukos Oil.

I understood this was the chance of a lifetime, Tornqvist told Bloomberg reporters Javier Blas and Jack Farchy, as recounted in their book .

A decade later, the companys Russian ties were already causing challenges. In 2014, the US sanctioned Timchenko for his relationship with President Vladimir Putin. It also said that Putin had investments in Gunvor and may have access to Gunvor funds. Gunvor denied any links with the Kremlin or Putin, and Tornqvist bought out Timchenkos 44% stake.

By then, the company also shifted its focus away from Russia, Tornqvist said: Our future, from a trading point, lies elsewhere, he told Bloomberg at the time.

In recent years, the CEO has steered Gunvor through a bribery investigation, as well as the wild market moves sparked by Europes energy crisis and Russias invasion of Ukraine  which helped drive unprecedented profits for the company and its peers, while straining its liquidity at times.

In 2022, Bloomberg reported that Tornqvist held early stage talks with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. about the potential sale of part or all of Gunvor, though the talks eventually stalled.

The company has poured some of its windfall profits into buying fixed assets, and grown its business in the US, particularly in LNG trading. But its also maintained a legacy of being willing to do deals that others might shy away from: in 2024, Gunvor helped finance Gabons purchase of oil assets from Carlyle Group just months after a military coup in the country.

Most recently, the companys plan to buy Lukoils international assets represented a hugely ambitious play that would have transformed Gunvors business and catapulted it into the big leagues of oil production, in addition to adding a sprawling network of gas stations across the US, Europe and Turkey.

Instead, it drew the ire of the US government, focusing attention on questions about Gunvors historical ties to Russia, forcing the company to abandon the deal and ultimately accelerating Tornqvists departure. While succession has been an ongoing question, the CEO has previously expressed a desire that his family retain control of the trading house, and in 2023 appointed his son to the board.

At Gunvor, Tornqvist is known for a hands-on management style, leading control of deal negotiations and in-depth discussions on trades. During the pandemic when oil prices were in freefall and soon to turn negative, Tornqvist marshaled his oil trading desks to hold back from buying until the very last minute.

I would warn my traders  you will see numbers you didnt think was possible, he said of the time Dont. Buy. Anything.

Slimmed Down

Pedersen is described by former and current colleagues as a well-liked and easy going trader with a reputation for consistent profits.

During his time at Koch, Pedersen lived and worked in Rotterdam, Singapore, London and Geneva, holding managing director roles in each location. He worked at Millennium as a senior portfolio manager for cross-barrel oil products since 2022, and signed on to join Gunvor last year, before starting in the job in April.

In the interview, he said the role at Gunvor appealed to him for the opportunity to combine his experience in both physical energy and derivatives. Pedersen was hired to expand the US business, but said that the conversation with Tornqvist from the outset included discussions about the future, his succession plans.

In the agreement announced Monday, the management group will buy his entire stake in a deal funded through a mix of their own equity and a loan from Tornqvist that will be repaid annually to his family foundation for a period of up to 10 years.

Pedersen said he envisages a slimmed down management team, and there will be a cap on individual shareholdings  the level has yet to be agreed on but it will not exceed 10%.

He reiterated the opportunities the company sees in the US: Were going to continue focusing on our upstream capabilities both in gas and crude; Weve got a desire to develop into the power business, were growing our metals capabilities over there as we speak.

(Updates with comments on financial performance in seventh paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Asia-Pacific private equity managers are more upbeat on the deal outlook, expecting stronger returns and fewer geopolitical risks than their global counterparts, even as deal activity in the region continues to soften, a new survey shows.

Respondents in the region expected an average net return of 17.4 per cent from the private equity industry this year, slightly higher than the 17.1 per cent expected by North American, European, Middle Eastern and African (EMEA) executives, according to Dechert's annual global private equity outlook report.

The law firm worked with Mergermarket to survey 100 senior-level executives at different private equity firms across regions in July.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

Regarding the threat of geopolitical conflicts to deal making over the next 12 to 18 months, only 30 per cent of Asia-Pacific managers cited it as a top risk, compared with 49 per cent globally and 65 per cent in EMEA.

The findings pointed to cautious optimism in Asia-Pacific, underpinned by interest in healthcare and technology deals and the wider use of flexible structures such as earnouts.

"We expect this optimism to translate into improved deal flow in Asia-Pacific in 2026," Maria Tan Pedersen, co-head of emerging markets at Dechert, said in a written response to the Post.

The life sciences and healthcare, and technology sectors were expected to lead activity in the region, Pedersen said. The focus on these two sectors reflected regional governments' priorities, the global push into artificial intelligence and demographic shifts as populations in markets such as India and the Philippines expanded while those in Japan and China aged, she added.

About three-quarters of respondents planned to invest in both sectors over the next two years.

Investments in expanding or fast-growing businesses would benefit from additional use of private credit support and earnout structures, according to Pedersen.

Such structures allow part of the purchase price to be paid only if the acquired company hits the agreed performance targets after the deal. Sixty per cent of Asia-Pacific private equity managers favoured earnout structures to bridge valuation gaps, higher than the global average of 48 per cent.

Populations in both China and Japan are expected to age, driving activity in the life science sector. Photo: Xinhua alt=Populations in both China and Japan are expected to age, driving activity in the life science sector. Photo: Xinhua>
Crypto policy creates friction for Hong Kong's one country, two systems principle. Credit: Jimmy Chan via Pexels.

Key Takeaways

The Peoples Bank of China has said that it considers stablecoins illegal under Chinas crypto ban.

The latest crackdown serves as a blow to Hong Kongs stablecoin ambitions.

Hong Kong-listed crypto stocks tumbled on Monday morning.

When Hong Kong launched its new stablecoin regime earlier this year, it was meant to usher in a new golden age of regulated crypto for greater China.

However, Beijings crypto ban continues to cast a shadow over the sector.

With the Peoples Bank of China (PBOC) reaffirming its position on Friday, Nov. 28, any hopes of looser rules have been dashed, undermining Hong Kongs stablecoin narrative.

Stablecoins Still Illegal

While Hong Kong operates under a different regulatory regime from the rest of China, some businesses have viewed the territorys stablecoin framework as a potential door to the mainland market.

Retail giants JD.com and Ant Group are among those that have lobbied the central bank to greenlight yuan-backed stablecoins in Hong Kong.

Initially, there were some promising indicators that Beijing might be open to the prospect.

However, after meeting with other government departments on Friday, the PBOC insisted that it considers stablecoins to be illegal under Chinas crypto ban.

Virtual currencies, including stablecoins, do not hold the same legal status as fiat currency and cannot be used as legal tender in the market, it said in a widely reported statement.

Crypto Stocks Sink

After the central bank in Beijing vowed to crack down on stablecoin activity, Hong Kong crypto stocks took a beating when markets opened on Monday.

As of 10 a.m. UTC, Yunfeng Financial Group was down more than 11% since Friday, while shares in OSL Group had declined by over five percent.

Crypto-adjacent stocks like Guotai Junan International, Bright Smart Securities and Commodities Group also suffered.

China Struggles to Enforce Crypto Ban

Despite Beijings tough language, more than four years after China moved to ban crypto, the country remains a hub for Bitcoin mining. Retail interest in digital assets has also stubbornly persisted.

For mainland investors, underground trading desks, VPN-routed trading flows, and proximity to Hong Kongs more flexible market underpin a shadow crypto economy.

For Hong Kong, this creates a strategic dilemma.

As the territory attempts to build a regulated crypto ecosystem, its largest potential market is legally off-limits.

But in reality, traffic from the mainland drives significant demand, creating a point of friction with Beijing that threatens to hamper its stablecoin ambitions.

The post Hong Kongs Stablecoin Momentum Takes a Hit as Chinas Anti-Crypto Hammer Falls Again appeared first on ccn.com.
Sean 'Diddy' Combs has slammed a new Netflix documentary about him as "a shameful hit piece".

Sean 'Diddy' Combs has hit out at a new Netflix documentary about him

The documentary, titled Sean Combs: The Reckoning, was released on the streaming service on Tuesday (02.12.25) and is described as a "staggering examination" of the rapper  who was sentenced to 50 months in prison in October on prostitution-related charges.

The four-part series includes what Netflix has described as "explosive" footage of Combs, 56, filmed in a telephone conversation with his lawyers in the days prior to his September 2024 arrest  although the star's spokesperson said it was "fundamentally unfair, and illegal" to use private footage.

The statement said: "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.

"If Netflix cared about truth or 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."

Diddy's spokesperson also attacked Netflix's "staggering" decision to give creative control on the series to rapper 50 Cent, who is described as a "longtime adversary with a personal vendetta".

The statement read: "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 disgraced star's spokesperson explained that the documentary featured footage that was "never authorised for release".

They said: "As Netflix and CEO Ted Sarandos know, Mr Combs has been amassing footage since he was 19 to tell his own story. It is fundamentally unfair, and illegal, for Netflix to misappropriate that work."

Netflix has not answered the request for a response but highlighted comments it has published from the documentary's director Alexandria Stapleton.

She said: "It came to us, we obtained the footage legally and have the necessary rights.

"We moved heaven and earth to keep the filmmaker's identity confidential."

50 Cent  who has a long-running feud with Diddy dating back two decades  is an executive producer and felt that it was necessary for the hip-hop world to address the crimes.

The 50-year-old rapper told Good Morning America: "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."
HSBC has entered a multi-year partnership with Mistral AI to advance the adoption of generative artificial intelligence (AI) across its global operations.

Based in France, Mistral AI claims to democratise AI via high-performance, open-source models, products and an end-to-end infrastructure.

The collaboration with Mistral AI aims to enhance the banks business processes, save employees time, and improve service for millions of customers worldwide.

HSBC will get access to Mistral AIs commercial models and future developments.

Under the agreement, HSBC and Mistral AIs applied AI, science, and engineering teams will jointly develop generative AI solutions for the bank.

HSBC will combine its technology expertise with Mistral AIs foundational model development and deploy self-hosted AI models on its internal systems.

HSBC Group CEO Georges Elhedery said: Working with Mistral is an exciting step forward in HSBCs technology strategy, enabling us to further enhance AI capabilities across the bank.

The partnership will equip our colleagues with tools to help them innovate, simplify daily tasks, and free up time to deliver for our customers.

The partnership builds on HSBCs ongoing investments in AI technologies, aimed at streamlining operations and enhancing customer service.

It will support a range of productivity and business tasks within HSBC.

These include enabling client-facing teams to deliver tailored communications quickly, allowing marketing teams to launch hyper-personalised campaigns, and assisting procurement teams in identifying risks and savings opportunities.

It will also enhance financial analysis in complex, document-heavy client lending or financing processes.

Additionally, the collaboration will support multilingual reasoning and translation services, helping HSBC translate and validate information in multiple languages to inform customer interactions.

The partnership aims to accelerate innovation cycles, enabling HSBC teams to prototype, validate, and launch new features more rapidly.

Mistral AI co-founder and CEO Arthur Mensch said: We are proud to engage in this long-term partnership with HSBC.

Our highly customisable, enterprise-grade frontier AI solutions will reinvent HSBCs workflows and services while ensuring full ownership of data.

Together, we will provide HSBCs employees with high-end, AI-powered productivity tools and a new generation of banking services for millions of customers worldwide.

In October this year, HSBC partnered with ValidiFI, a predictive data and analytics solutions provider, to enhance its bank account validation and fraud monitoring.
By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Instacart sued New York City on Tuesday, seeking to block enforcement of five laws affecting the grocery delivery company, including higher minimum pay for app-based workers and greater disclosures to customers about tipping.

According to a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, Congress forbade state and local governments from regulating prices and services for customers using platforms such as Instacart, while New York's state legislature "has long taken charge" of minimum pay standards.

Instacart, based in San Francisco, also said the U.S. Constitution prevents states and cities from discriminating against commerce by out-of-state companies.

The laws are scheduled to take effect on January 26, Instacart noted, saying an injunction was needed to prevent higher delivery costs that would harm consumers and grocers.

Minimum pay for grocery delivery workers would match the $21.44 per hour that restaurant delivery workers already receive.

"This legal challenge is about standing up for fairness, for the independence that tens of thousands of New York grocery delivery workers rely on, and for affordable access to groceries for the people who need it most," Instacart said in a blog post.

CITY SAYS WORKERS DESERVE BETTER

The defendants also include the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.

"App-based grocery delivery workers, like all workers, deserve fair and dignified compensation for their labor, and it is disappointing that Instacart disagrees," the department said in a statement.

"Instacart shoppers are currently paid just $13 per hour, with no benefits, no pay for waiting time, and no reimbursement for vehicle expenses," the department added. "No business in New York could legally compensate employees at such a low level. These workers deserve better."

Instacart is the trade name for publicly traded Maplebear. It had no immediate reaction to the city's comment.

MAYOR VETOED MINIMUM PAY LAW

The lawsuit targets Local Law 124, which sets the higher minimum pay for grocery delivery workers, and Local Law 107, which requires consumers to get options to tip at least 10% of the purchase price or manually enter what to tip.

Instacart also challenged laws requiring additional recordkeeping and disclosures.

New York City provided more legal rights to restaurant delivery workers after business surged during the pandemic.

"Instacarts business depends on the flexibility, independence, and convenience that its platform offers," the complaint said. "The local laws will degrade that business."
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Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) is a global biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets medicines, vaccines, and healthcare products.

It is set to report its Q4 2025 earnings on Feb. 3. Wall Street analysts expect the company to post EPS of $0.61, down from $0.63 in the prior-year period. According to Benzinga Pro, quarterly revenue is expected to reach $17.67 billion, down from $17.76 billion a year earlier.

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If You Bought Pfizer Stock 10 Years Ago

The company's stock traded at approximately $31.11 per share 10 years ago. If you had invested $10,000, you could have bought roughly 321 shares. Currently, shares trade at $25.71, meaning your investment's value could have declined to $8,264 from stock price depreciation. However, Pfizer also paid dividends during these 10 years.

Pfizer's dividend yield is currently 6.69%. Over the last 10 years, it has paid about $15.70 in dividends per share, which means you could have made $5,047 from dividends alone.

Summing up $8,264 and $5,047, we end up with the final value of your investment, which is $13,311. This is how much you could have made if you had invested $10,000 in Pfizer stock 10 years ago. This means a total return of 33.11%. However, this figure is significantly less than the S&P 500 total return for the same period, which was 287.90%.

Trending: An EA Co-Founder Shapes This VC Backed MarketplaceNow You Can Invest in Gaming's Next Big Platform

What Could The Next 10 Years Bring?

Pfizer has a consensus rating of "Neutral" and a price target of $33.35 based on the ratings of 24 analysts. The price target implies more than 29% potential upside from the current stock price.

The company on Nov. 4 announced its Q3 2025 earnings, posting adjusted EPS of $0.87, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.63, and revenues of $16.65 billion, compared to the consensus of $16.59 billion, as reported by Benzinga.

Pfizer raised its full-year 2025 adjusted EPS guidance to the range of $3 to $3.15, versus consensus estimate of $3.04. The U.S. drug giant reaffirmed its full-year revenue guidance of $61 billion to $64 billion, compared to the consensus of $62.88 billion.
Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron signaled that the country is preparing for far more active oversight of stablecoins.

Speaking at the Bank of Israels Payments in the Evolving Era conference in Tel Aviv, Yaron framed private digital dollars as a payments force that regulators can no longer treat as peripheral.

Yaron stressed that stablecoins have already become deeply embedded in global money flows, noting a market capitalization above $300 billion and more than $2 trillion in monthly transaction volume.

Given adoption among the public, it cannot be said that this is a marginal phenomenon, he told attendees before comparing the sectors scale to the balance sheet of a mid-sized global commercial bank.

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies whose values are pegged to an external reference, such as fiat currencies. These tokens help investors bypass price volatility associated with other digital assets and are widely used in trading and cross-border transactions.

The governor highlighted the industrys concentration risk, pointing out that 99% of stablecoin activity is controlled by just two issuers: Tether and Circle. Such centralization, he argued, amplifies systemic vulnerabilities and raises the stakes for regulatory clarity.

Yaron then laid out a series of pillars private issuers and supervisors must prioritize, these included fully 1:1 reserve backing, liquid reserve assets and the creation of a scalable regulatory framework.

Plans for a digital shekel were also discussed at the conference by Yoav Soffer, head of Israeli digital shekel project, who said that the digital shekel would become "central bank money for everything" while releasing a 2026 roadmap that included an intention to provide the official recommendations by the end of the year.

"The revelation of the new roadmap for 2026 demonstrates that the Bank of Israel, like the ECB, is accelerating the pace to the launch of the CBDC," Ben Samocha, CEO of media company CryptoJungle, told CoinDesk.
Huione Pay, the world's largest money laundering network in Cambodia, has announced a temporary shutdown after a bank run.

It has initiated a deferred repayment plan, and large queues of users have formed outside the company's headquarters in Phnom Penh, the country's capital.

Related: Crypto hacker loses millions as project wipes out stolen tokens

Huione attracts money launderers

Founded in 2014, Huione Group is a financial services conglomerate based in Cambodia that has a huge customer base among Chinese language users across Southeast Asia.

The company's crypto exchange, Huione Crypto, allowed users to trade with minimal Know Your Customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) norms and ended up onboarding a lot of bad actors.

Over the years, Huione has turned into a major platform for North Korea-linked crypto heists, cyber crimes like romance scams, etc.

TRM Labs revealed in an analysis on July 30 that Huione-linked infrastructure has received over $96 billion in cryptocurrency since 2021.

Huione Guarantee, an escrow service offered by the company, gained immense popularity among money launderers on Telegram.

More News:

Authorities go after Huione

But the authorities soon caught up.

In March, Cambodias financial regulator rescinded Huione Pays licence due to compliance violations at the worlds "largest online black market."

In May, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau within the U.S. Department of the Treasury, identified Huione Group as a financial institution of "primary money laundering concern" and proposed severing its access to the U.S. financial system.

Following the FinCEN's warning, Telegram removed channels linked to Huione Group in May.

In October, the FinCEN finally took the call and indeed cut off the Huione Group from the American financial system, delivering on its warning.

The same month, the FinCEN, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and the United Kingdoms Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) took a collective action and imposed sweeping sanctions against the Huione Group for allegedly laundering proceeds of cryptocurrency scams and heists on behalf of bad actors.

Related: CEO who bought Ferrari, Versace, luxury homes pleads guilty to $200M Bitcoin scam

Bank run forces Huione to temporarily shut down

On Dec. 1, Huione Pay temporarily shut down its operations until Jan. 5, 2026, and froze withdrawals, a local news report said.
Oracle's co-founder and its largest shareholder Larry Ellison, reportedly the third-richest man in the world, has accumulated a number of expensive properties in Palm Beach County recently.

The latest is Lion Country Safari. The family that founded Florida's largest drive-through safari has sold its 600-acre Loxahatchee land holdings for $30 million to an Ellison entity with the same address as his family foundation, according to Palm Beach County property records.

The park, which encompasses 254 acres, is located at 2003 Lion Country Safari Road west of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road and north of Okeechobee Boulevard.

Lion Country Safari announced the sale in a Nov. 19 post on their website. The park's statement said the drive-by safari will remain open and continue with normal operations.

Here's 5 things to know about Larry Ellison:

Larry Ellison has bought high-end properties in Palm Beach County

Technology magnate Ellison also has bought multiple other properties in Palm Beach County, including a Manalapan mega mansion, a waterfront estate in North Palm Beach and the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa that he purchased in 2024 for $277.4 million.

Neil Merin, a longtime Palm Beach County real estate broker, said that Ellison has spent almost half a billion on Palm Beach County land purchases in the past few years. He also spent $300 million for nearly all of the Hawaiian island of Lanai.

Larry Ellison is an ally and financial supporter of President Donald Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on AI infrastructure, next to Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at the Roosevelt room at White House in Washington, U.S., January 21, 2025.

Ellison is a political ally and financial supporter of President Donald Trump. His son, David Ellison, became chairman and CEO of the merged Paramount and Skydance companies this past summer.

Paramount owns CBS, which paid Trump $16 million in a controversial settlement over an interview the network conducted with then-Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024. Ellison and White House officials, according to various media reports, discussed the possibility of Paramount also buying the parent of CNN and then dismissing network on- air hosts viewed as critical of the administration.

More: Eau Palm Beach owner Larry Ellison became the world's richest person, at least for a while

Ellison family have history as wildlife advocates

The Ellison family has a history of philanthropic efforts on behalf of endangered animals. This year it unveiled the 197-acre Larry Ellison Conservation Center for Wildlife Care in Saratoga, California that offers programs to rehabilitate and breed native species.

It opened in March and, according to Local News Matters, people can drop off sick, injured and orphaned wild animals from a number of counties in the Bay Area. California's Department of Fish and Wildlife can also bring in wildlife in need of care.
This contract builds on Laurentis's European presence, where, through CNPSA, Laurentis provides Program Management Office and Owner's Engineer services for Cernavoda NPP in Romania under a framework agreement with S.N. Nuclearelectrica .

Laurentis is a subsidiary of Ontario Power Generation, Ontario's largest and one of North America's most diverse electricity generators, currently developing the G7's first small modular reactor (SMR).

Laurentis and its partners bring decades of expertise in nuclear new builds, refurbishment, lifecycle engineering, and international project delivery, supported by Canada's strong regulatory standards, project management success on complex nuclear projects, globally recognized safety culture, and proven supply chain  capabilities that directly support Kozloduy's New Build Project.

With a combined capacity of 2,300 MWe, Bulgaria expects the first new Westinghouse AP1000 unit at Kozloduy  Unit 7  will be operational in 2035, followed by Unit 8 in 2037. Once complete, the new units will significantly reinforce Bulgaria's energy security and support its long-term low-carbon transition.

The work is structured into two phases: Phase 1 focuses on pre-Final Investment Decision (FID) activities, including front-end engineering, constructability reviews, early project planning, and preparation for Engineering, Procurement, and Construction negotiations. Pending the Bulgarian government's decision to proceed, Phase 2 extends the consortium's support through design, construction, and commissioning.

The consortium will provide specialized technical advisory services and project-management oversight across all stages of the Kozloduy New Build Project to help ensure alignment with project objectives, regulatory requirements, safety expectations, and delivery strategy.

Announced today in Sofia, the partnership was formalized at an event attended by Ontario's Minister of Energy and Mines, Stephen Lecce, Bulgaria's Minister of Energy, Zhecho Stankov, and senior representatives of the consortium.

The owner's engineer contract is valued at hundreds of millions of euros and spans up to ten years, providing sustained engineering and project oversight through all major phases of the program.

SOFIA, Bulgaria, Dec. 2, 2025 /CNW/ - Laurentis Energy Partners (Laurentis), together with its subsidiary Canadian Nuclear Partners S.A. (CNPSA) and BWXT Canada Ltd. (BWXT), have signed a contract as a three-party consortium to advance two new Westinghouse AP1000 reactor units (Units 7 and 8) at Bulgaria's Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant New Build.

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"Ontario is solidifying Canada's global leadership in clean, emissions-free nuclear power and the world is watching," said Stephen Lecce, Ontario Minister of Energy and Mines. "This partnership will see Ontario's leadership cross the ocean to support Bulgaria's large-scale nuclear expansion to deliver reliable, affordable power to their country, while protecting our economy here at home. As jurisdictions around the world seek stable, democratic sources of power, global leaders are turning to Ontario's 50-year track record of safe, successful nuclear operating expertise and its proven ability to deliver major nuclear projects on time and on budget."

"Our country has secured leading international partners with proven experience across the full nuclear lifecycle - from design through commissioning," said Zhecho Stankov, Bulgaria's Minister of Energy. "This project is an investment not only in our long-term energy security, but also in the strength of Bulgarian industry. Thirty percent of the specialists working on the project will be Bulgarian experts, providing our workforce with new knowledge, advanced technologies, and meaningful growth opportunities."

"Laurentis's foundation is built on decades of experience supporting CANDU technology, but our project-management, technical, and owner's engineer expertise are highly transferable across reactor types and technologies," said Leslie McWilliams, President and CEO of Laurentis Energy Partners. "This contract reflects the confidence placed in Canadian nuclear capability for complex new-build programs. We're honoured to work alongside our partners in supporting Bulgaria's long-term clean-energy goals and strengthening the country's energy security for generations to come."

"This is another key step in the implementation of the new nuclear capacity in Bulgaria," said Mr. Petyo Ivanov, Executive Director of Kozloduy NPP New Build. "The companies have many years of experience in providing these services, which guarantees that the project will be completed on time, within budget, and in full compliance with regulatory standards."

"BWXT has significant experience successfully supporting the execution of large projects in the nuclear industry, including the refurbishments for Bruce Power and Ontario Power Generation," said John MacQuarrie, BWXT's President for Commercial Operations. "Our customers recognize that experience, and we are excited to leverage our technical capabilities in support of this important AP1000 development to help Bulgaria meet its energy security needs."

"As Canadian Nuclear Partners continues to expand its footprint across Europe, we are committed to providing the highest level of technical expertise and operational insight," said Giovanbattista Patalano, Managing Director, Canadian Nuclear Partners S.A. "Supporting the Kozloduy New Build and the Bulgarian nuclear program reinforces our role as a trusted partner for complex nuclear projects, ensuring safe, efficient, and well-managed execution throughout the lifecycle of these new units."

About Laurentis



Laurentis Energy Partners, a subsidiary of Ontario Power Generation, is a global provider of specialized nuclear services, leveraging decades of Canadian expertise to support the safe, reliable, and efficient operation of nuclear facilities worldwide. The company's capabilities include CANDU refurbishment and optimization, engineering, small modular reactor development, inspections, advanced nuclear by-product management, and decommissioning support across international markets. Laurentis is also a world leader in the production of life-saving medical isotopes used in cancer therapies and diagnostic imaging. Laurentis has offices in the Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton, and Bruce County in Ontario, Saint John in New Brunswick, and Bucharest and Cernavoda in Romania. Follow us on Twitter/X or LinkedIn or visit www.laurentisenergy.com

About BWXT

At BWX Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: BWXT), we are People Strong, Innovation Driven. A U.S.-based company with nearly 10,000 employees, BWXT is a Fortune 1000 and Defense News Top 100 manufacturing and engineering innovator that provides safe and effective nuclear solutions for global security, clean energy, nuclear medicine, space exploration and environmental restoration. In addition, BWXT and its industry partners support the U.S. Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration across numerous sites. For more information, visit www.bwxt.com. Follow us on LinkedIn, X, Facebook and Instagram.

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President Trump unveiled $12 billion in aid to US farmers, as the agricultural sector deals with the fallout from his sweeping tariff policies.

The sector has been hit particularly hard from the president's ever-changing trade policies, as farmers have struggled to sell crops and been hit by higher costs. Soybean exports have come in particular focus, with trade slowing to a crawl as China virtually halted its purchases before the countries agreed to a trade truce in October.

Trump said the money for farm relief would come from a "small portion" of tariff-related revenues. Despite welcoming the support, US farmers have said they need more than a $12 billion aid package to fully offset low crop prices and lost export opportunities due to Trump's trade war.

The farm bailout comes amid an increased push on Americans' price concerns. In an interview published Tuesday, Trump allowed he may look for "some" additional carveouts, weeks after his administration slashed tariffs on items like beef, coffee, and bananas.

The push to reduce food prices comes in the wake of electoral wins for Democrats across a number of key state and local races where candidates stressed affordability concerns. Trump has also in recent weeks floated the possibility of a tariff "dividend" for many Americans in the form of a $2,000 check.

The US Supreme Court is poised in the weeks ahead to decide the legality of the majority of those tariffs. The president invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to levy blanket tariffs on goods from other countries. As he has publicly braced for the high court's decision, Trump has claimed the "full benefit" of tariff policies would take effect soon, arguing that foreign buyers who stockpiled inventory would be forced to buy more goods.

Read more: What Trump's tariffs mean for the economy and your wallet

What else to know about Trump's tariffs:

The trade deal between the US and Indonesia is in danger of collapsing, according to The Financial Times. US officials have grown increasingly frustrated at what they view as Jakarta reneging on the terms of the agreement reached in July.

Trump threatened to impose an additional 5% tariff on Mexico if it doesn't provide additional water to help US farmers. Trump accused Mexico of violating a treaty that outlines water sharing between the countries.

Trump gave the green light on Monday for Nvidia (NVDA) to sell some of its more powerful H200 chips to China. The US president said that China's Xi Jinping had responded "positively" to the move.

Several US companies, such as Costco (COST), have filed lawsuits and claims to the US government for tariff refunds in the belief Trump's tariffs will be struck down by the US Supreme Court. If the courts rule against Trump's tariffs, the president may be forced to repay billions of dollars in collected revenue from imports, according to a report in the New York Times.

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Renewable energy company Low Carbon has gained a significant investment from CVC DIF, aimed at driving the next stage of the companys growth.

The CVC DIF investment, together with additional funding from current shareholder MassMutual, as well as the refinancing of existing project finance debt and a new holdco facility, brings the company's total committed capital to around 1.1bn ($1.45bn).

Low Carbon said that the new investment from CVC DIF will support the delivery of several gigawatts of renewable energy.

This capital injection is intended to enable Low Carbon to support its transition into a diversified independent power producer, contributing to the ongoing energy transition in the UK and Europe.

CVC DIFs primary equity investment, which includes both common and preferred shares, will result in a majority controlling stake in Low Carbon.

According to Low Carbon, the UK governments Clean Power 2030 plan, announced last year, which includes doubling onshore wind capacity and tripling solar photovoltaic (PV), requires 40bn of annual investment.

In parallel, the EU has set a new renewable energy target of 42.5%.

The partnership between CVC DIF, its investors, and Low Carbon is expected to position the company to play a central role in delivering clean and affordable electricity across these regions.

Low Carbon currently manages a 16GW pipeline and has 1GW of highly contracted operational and in-construction assets.

The latest capital is said to support growth in key markets such as the UK, Germany, and Poland, where the company plans to bring a 3GW portfolio of operational utility-scale solar, battery storage, onshore wind, and colocated assets online in the coming years.

Low Carbon said that MassMutual, which formed a strategic collaboration with the company in 2021, remains a significant shareholder and will continue supporting the companys growth with further investment.

MassMutual will collaborate with CVC DIF to expedite the development of Low Carbons renewables pipeline.

The CVC DIF investment will be made through DIF Infrastructure VIII and is expected to close this year, contingent on customary closing conditions.

Evercore served as the adviser to Low Carbon on the transaction.

Low Carbon chief executive and founder Roy Bedlow said: I would like to thank CVC DIF and their investors for the confidence they have placed in Low Carbon and our ability to develop, build and operate high-quality renewable assets in the UK and Europe.

In addition, MassMutuals continued investment in Low Carbon underlines our shared ambition of delivering long-term value across the full investment cycle of renewables that will help accelerate our goal to deploy renewable energy at scale to help tackle climate change.
Apple is handing the keys to its all-important AI strategy to Amar Subramanya, a veteran of both Google and Microsoft, in one of the companys most consequential leadership changes since it launched Apple Intelligence last year. The longtime researcher has been appointed vice president of AI, succeeding John Giannandrea, who will step down from his role and retire in spring 2026 after serving as Apples AI chief since 2018.

In a company announcement, Apple said Subramanya will report to software chief Craig Federighi and take charge of Apple Foundation Models, ML research, and AI Safety and Evaluation, placing him at the center of the tech underpinning future AI features across the iPhone, Mac, iPad, and Apples various services. Responsibilities previously overseen by Giannandrea will be redistributed under COO Sabih Khan and Eddy Cue, who runs Apples services division.

Subramanya comes to Apple with a resume spanning more than two decades, having spent his education and career dedicated to machine learning and large-scale AI systems, and applying that knowledge at some of the biggest companies across Silicon Valley. Just a few months before jumping to Apple, Subramanya joined Microsoft in July to become its corporate vice president of AI, where he worked on foundation models powering products like Microsoft Copilot, the companys AI assistant layer for productivity tools and enterprise services. He took that role after spending 16 years at Google, eventually becoming head of engineering for Gemini, Googles AI assistant and flagship generative AI product, which is now having a moment.

At Google, Subramanyas path ran from staff research scientist to principal engineer, and then vice president of engineering, leading teams that linked machine-learning research to large-scale consumer products. He also worked with DeepMind, Googles AI research unit, deepening his ties to cutting-edge work in model training and deployment, according to multiple outlets.

Like many in Silicon Valley, Subramanya has roots in both India and the U.S. He earned a bachelors degree in electronics and communications engineering from Bangalore University in 2001, then completed a PhD in computer science at the University of Washington in 2009, specializing in semi-supervised learning and graphical modelsmethods for training AI systems efficiently when labeled data is scarce. He was awarded a Microsoft Research Graduate Fellowship in 2007, and later coauthored the book Graph-Based Semi-Supervised Learning with researcher Partha Pratim Talukdar, adding to a portfolio of papers on natural language processing, entity resolution, and speech technologies.
Sienna Miller is pregnant.

Sienna Miller is pregnant

The 43-year-old actress revealed her growing baby bump on the red carpet at the 2025 Fashion Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Monday night (01.12.25).

The blonde beauty - who already has a daughter with boyfriend Oli Green, as well as Marlowe, 13, with ex Tom Sturridge - wore a see-through white dress over a small pair of white shorts at the glitzy event in the UK capital.

Sienna - who began her career as a model, before switching her focus to acting - hasn't made any public comment about her latest pregnancy. However, the actress previously revealed that she froze her eggs in order to future-proof her fertility.

The Edge of Love star admitted that she felt under pressure to have more kids while she still could.

Speaking to ELLE UK magazine in 2022, Sienna explained: "Biology is incredibly cruel on women in [their 30s] - thats the headline, or it certainly was for me.

"Then I got to 40 and I froze some eggs. Having been really focused on the need to have another baby, Im just like, if it happens, it happens. That kind of existential threat has dissipated."

Sienna was involved in a high-profile romance with actor Jude Law during her 20s, and the actress admitted that her life these days is almost unrecognisable from how it used to be.

The film star explained that she "cant quite believe" what she experienced during her younger years.

Sienna - who has been dating her 28-year-old boyfriend since 2022 - reflected: "It feels like somebody elses existence. I can go and visit it and look at it, but it doesnt feel like my life.

"I cant quite believe that it all happened. And not to put it specifically on that one thing, but just the chaos of the entire decade is so far removed from my life now."
President Trump was joined by Dell Technologies (DELL) founder Michael Dell and his wife Susan on Tuesday afternoon at the White House to unveil a $6.25 billion gift from the couple to supplement new savings accounts for young children that were passed into law earlier this year.

Dell's donation will go to the US Treasury, where in the year ahead it will be deposited in $250 increments into 25 million "Trump accounts" for children aged 10 or younger in low- and middle-income areas.

This private money will be in addition to $1,000 in federal dollars authorized in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act for newborn children as part of an overall program that is set to formally begin next July.

Trump called Dell's multibillion-dollar gift "big stuff, I don't care who you are" at the White House on Tuesday, promising the new accounts would amount to "trust funds for every American child."

Dell then took the microphone and said he was happy to offer his support.

"We believe that the best investment we can make is an investment in children," the businessman said. He called the new accounts "a platform" for family, friends, and companies to contribute to, saying he has already been lobbying other wealthy Americans to give money as well.

Michael Dell speaks as his wife, Susan Dell, and President Trump look on during an announcement about "Trump accounts" in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on Tuesday. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)  Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images

The outside money to start the accounts can be supplemented with annual after-tax contributions of up to $5,000 from the child's parents and other sources. Employers will also be able to contribute up to $2,500 of that total.

The accounts are then required to be invested in low-cost index funds.

The massive gift from the Dells could increase the appeal of these accounts after financial experts have raised questions about their ultimate value, noting the restrictions on where the money can be invested and that the contributions come from after-tax dollars and that eventual withdrawals will also be taxable.

The money becomes accessible after the child turns 18, when the account holder will be encouraged to make withdrawals to pay education expenses or buy a first home.

Learn more about high-yield savings accounts, money market accounts, and CD accounts.

The accounts were also applauded Tuesday by an unusual bipartisan pairing when Sens. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, and Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, jointly released a letter to the CEOs of Fortune 1000 companies urging them to support the accounts.

Booker posted his support on social media, comparing the accounts to an idea for "baby bonds" he has long touted.

Michael Dell is the 11th-richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with $148 billion. He and his wife have long given money to family-focused causes. He appeared at the White House in June to tout the accounts, calling them "a simple yet powerful way to transform lives."
Dec 2 (Reuters) - Chipmaker Microchip Technology on Tuesday raised its expectations for third-quarter net sales and earnings per share, driven by strong bookings, sending its shares up 2.3% in extended trading.

The company now expects adjusted earnings per share of 40 cents, which is at the higher end of its earlier projected range of 34 to 40 cents per share.

"With two months of the quarter behind us, our business is performing better than we expected at the time of our November 6, 2025 earnings conference call," CEO Steve Sanghi said in a statement.

Microchip said it now expects net sales to also be at the high end of its previous forecast range of $1.11 billion to $1.15 billion.

The revised revenue outlook implies a sequential growth of about 1% and a year-over-year growth of 12%, the company said.

Sanghi said the company's bookings activity has "remained strong through November with backlog filling in better than expected in the current quarter and growing nicely into the March 2026 quarter."

(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)
American Healthcare REIT, Inc. (NYSE:AHR) is included among the 14 Best Up and Coming Dividend Stocks to Buy.

Morgan Stanleys Confidence Rises in American Healthcare REIT (AHR) Following Senior Housing Review

On November 20, Morgan Stanley increased its price target on American Healthcare REIT, Inc. (NYSE:AHR) to $55 from $52, keeping an Overweight rating, according to a report by The Fly. After reviewing the companys third-quarter numbers and the broader supply-and-demand backdrop in senior housing, the firm said it has growing confidence in both Welltower and American Healthcares ability to capture additional margin upside.

For Q3 2025, American Healthcare REIT, Inc. (NYSE:AHR) reported GAAP net income attributable to controlling interest of $55.9 million, or $0.33 per diluted share. Same-store NOI for the portfolio rose 16.4%, reflecting strong operating momentum. The company also stayed busy on the acquisition front, closing roughly $210.8 million worth of deals during the quarter and more than $575 million in new acquisitions year-to-date.

Management also highlighted a new partnership with WellQuest Living, along with a development pipeline that is expected to cost around $177 million. The company also raised its full-year 2025 normalized FFO guidance to a range of $1.69 to $1.72 per diluted share, up from the prior outlook of $1.64 to $1.68, pointing to better-than-expected organic growth and ongoing improvement in occupancy.

American Healthcare REIT, Inc. (NYSE:AHR) is a publicly traded REIT investing in and operating a broad mix of healthcare real estate, with a focus on senior housing, skilled nursing facilities, and outpatient medical properties across the US, the U.K., and the Isle of Man.

While we acknowledge the potential of AHR as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If youre looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.

READ NEXT: 15 Best Boring Dividend Stocks to Buy and 15 Best Stocks to Buy for Medium Term.

Disclosure: None.
Semiconductor stocks remain the backbone of the AI and data center boom, even as geopolitics and uneven spending have tilted the group through recent cycles. Investors hunting durable exposure to chipmaking often focus on names that supply the factories, not just the chips.

One name now moving up that list is ASML (ASML). The company just received a major vote of confidence from Morgan Stanley, which not only raised its price target but also labeled ASML its Top Pick in European semiconductors. The call comes as demand strengthens across memory and logic, with new EUV tool cycles and DRAM transitions pointing to healthier margins heading into 2026.

More News from Barchart

For investors looking for a potential leader in the next semiconductor upcycle, heres a closer look at ASML.

About ASML Stock

ASML is a Dutch tech titan and the worlds largest supplier of chipmaking equipment. Its photolithography machines, especially the cutting-edge EUV tools, are absolutely critical for making the latest CPUs, GPUs, and memory chips. In fact, no other company makes EUV machines at scale, giving ASML a unique oligopoly in advanced chipmaking. Its customers include chip giants like TSMC (TSM), Samsung (SMSN.L.EB), Intel (INTC), and Micron (MU), who rely on ASMLs gear to etch ever-smaller transistors onto silicon.

ASMLs stock is having a monster year. Year-to-date (YTD) in 2025, the share price is up roughly 55%, making it one of the best performers in the chip sector. ASML stock jumped because big companies are buying more chips for AI and data centers, and ASML sells the machines needed to make those chips. Rising AI demand means more orders and stronger future sales.

Yet, that strong performance comes at a price. ASMLs valuation is sky-high by most measures. Its forward P/E is around 35x, far above the broad sector median, which trades at 23x.

www.barchart.com

Q3 Earnings Snapshot

ASML had a solid third quarter in 2025, as reported on Oct. 15, and the company missed the top-line estimate but surpassed earnings estimates. The company recorded 7.5 billion in sales, slightly higher than last year, and posted net income of about 2.1 billion. Earnings came in at 5.49 per share, which was better than a year ago. Gross margin stayed strong at just over 51%.
Nestle has engaged investment bank Morgan Stanley to examine strategic options for its Blue Bottle Coffee business, including a possible divestment, as reported by Reuters.

The review forms part of a wider restructuring initiative led by new CEO Philipp Navratil, who is seeking to simplify the groups portfolio and scale back direct involvement in running bricks-and-mortar retail.

Nestle acquired a controlling interest in Blue Bottle Coffee in 2017 in a deal that valued the speciality coffee chain at about $700m.

The brand, known for its drip coffee and minimalist cafes, was seen at the time as a premium addition to Nestles global coffee platform.

A sale now would likely be at a lower valuation than that 2017 benchmark. Deliberations are ongoing and no final decision has been made.

The potential exit follows a similar path taken by rival Coca-Cola, which is exploring options for its British coffee chain Costa Coffee, including a possible sale.

In August 2025, Sky News reported that Coca-Cola is working with investment bank Lazard on this process.

The soft drinks giant has opened discussions with potential bidders, including private equity companies.

Nestle and Morgan Stanley both declined to comment on the Blue Bottle review.

Blue Bottle currently runs around 100 outlets across the US and Asia. In addition to its cafe network, the brand sells packaged coffee and branded merchandise such as mugs.

Nestle is considering scenarios under which it would dispose of the physical cafes but keep control of Blue Bottles intellectual property, allowing it to continue distributing branded products without operating the retail sites.

Blue Bottle was founded by James Freeman in 2002 in Oakland, California, initially as a small-scale roastery.

Its first dedicated cafe opened in San Francisco in 2005, and the chain has since expanded into several major cities in the US and overseas.

The brand sits alongside Nestles larger coffee operations, which include global labels such as Nescafe and Nespresso.

The Blue Bottle review comes as Nestle conducts a broader reassessment of parts of its portfolio.

In July 2025, the group launched a strategic review of several vitamin and supplement brands, including Nature's Bounty, Osteo Bi-Flex, Puritan's Pride and its US private-label supplements business.

The company has also set out plans to sell its water division, which includes the Perrier and S.Pellegrino brands.

"Nestle weighs divestment of Blue Bottle Coffee chain" was originally created and published by Verdict Food Service, a GlobalData owned brand.
Nomura has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with OpenAI to focus on advancing asset management.

Under the collaboration, Nomura will implement OpenAI Deep Research and utilise its strategic and technical support for developing and deploying new services for clients.

The Japanese financial services group aims to continuously improve these technologies and explore new use cases.

Nomura will integrate its in-house data with the latest external datasets and information to deliver differentiated, value-added investment advice, data solutions and market analysis to clients.

Nomura Holdings president and Group CEO Kentaro Okuda said: Generative AI has the power to do more than boost efficiency. It can fundamentally transform financial services.

Through our strategic collaboration with OpenAI, we will combine Nomuras extensive data assets and deep expertise with state-of-the-art AI to deliver more advanced investment advice and market analysis.

By doing so, we will provide clients with more accessible and secure services, while also creating new revenue opportunities beyond traditional business models.

According to Nomura, recent generative AI advances have expedited the extraction as well as practical use of insights from vast datasets.

The company aims to combine its strengths with generative AI to boost productivity and design and implement solutions for the diverse challenges facing global capital markets and society.

OpenAI Japan president and CEO Tadao Nagasaki said: At OpenAI, our mission is to deliver safe, advanced AI technologies and help organisations unlock their value across a wide range of fields.

This collaboration offers a significant opportunity to introduce cutting-edge AI and open up new possibilities, from developing innovative services to strengthening operational capabilities.

In June this year, Nomura decided to close its office in Chinas Zhejiang province, one of the companys four branches in China, by the end of the year.

The firm is scaling back its wealth management operations in mainland China after years of financial losses.

"Nomura, OpenAI partner on asset management " was originally created and published by Private Banker International, a GlobalData owned brand.




Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) is one of the best dividend stocks to buy according to hedge funds. On November 19, Chris Kotowski, an Oppenheimer analyst, reiterated a Buy recommendation on BAC. The price target was set at $55.

In a November 5 report by Fortune, it was revealed that Bank of Americas yearly expenditure has risen by 44% over the course of the last ten years, reaching $4 billion in 2025. The increase in spending stemmed from new tech initiatives, notably the adoption of artificial intelligence within the bank.

Oppenheimer has a Positive Outlook on Bank of America (BAC)

Pixabay/Public Domain

Hari Gopalkrishnan, BACs chief technology and information officer, mentioned to Fortune:

We have steadily increased our spend in technology, now up to $13 billion a year, of which $4 billion goes into strategic growth. We leverage across the enterprise, so every dollar you spend gets the maximum bang for the buck, as opposed to sort of being siloed by line of business.

Gopalkrishnan mentioned that the latest AI products and applications will be scaled and implemented across each of the eight business segments at Bank of America.

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) is one of the most popular dividend stocks among hedge funds, with the company boasting 20 years of dividend payouts.

While we acknowledge the potential of BAC as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.

READ NEXT: Dow 20 Stocks List: Ranked By Hedge Fund Bullishness Index and 10 Unstoppable Dividend Stocks to Buy Now.

Disclosure. None.
It is hard to get excited after looking at PETRONAS Gas Berhad's (KLSE:PETGAS) recent performance, when its stock has declined 6.4% over the past three months. But if you pay close attention, you might find that its key financial indicators look quite decent, which could mean that the stock could potentially rise in the long-term given how markets usually reward more resilient long-term fundamentals. In this article, we decided to focus on PETRONAS Gas Berhad's ROE.

Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.

We've found 21 US stocks that are forecast to pay a dividend yield of over 6% next year. See the full list for free.

How Is ROE Calculated?

The formula for return on equity is:

Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations)  Shareholders' Equity

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for PETRONAS Gas Berhad is:

13% = RM1.9b  RM15b (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2025).

The 'return' is the yearly profit. Another way to think of that is that for every MYR1 worth of equity, the company was able to earn MYR0.13 in profit.

Check out our latest analysis for PETRONAS Gas Berhad

What Is The Relationship Between ROE And Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. Based on how much of its profits the company chooses to reinvest or "retain", we are then able to evaluate a company's future ability to generate profits. Assuming everything else remains unchanged, the higher the ROE and profit retention, the higher the growth rate of a company compared to companies that don't necessarily bear these characteristics.

PETRONAS Gas Berhad's Earnings Growth And 13% ROE

To begin with, PETRONAS Gas Berhad seems to have a respectable ROE. Especially when compared to the industry average of 8.9% the company's ROE looks pretty impressive. For this reason, PETRONAS Gas Berhad's five year net income decline of 2.6% raises the question as to why the high ROE didn't translate into earnings growth. Based on this, we feel that there might be other reasons which haven't been discussed so far in this article that could be hampering the company's growth. These include low earnings retention or poor allocation of capital.

So, as a next step, we compared PETRONAS Gas Berhad's performance against the industry and were disappointed to discover that while the company has been shrinking its earnings, the industry has been growing its earnings at a rate of 5.9% over the last few years.
Although pizza originated in Italy, the U.S. has arguably made it its own, popularizing iconic regional styles such as Chicago deep-dish, New York thin-crust, and Detroit square pan pizza. Over time, pizza has become such a defining American staple that the world's largest pizza chains are now predominantly U.S.-based.

As of 2025, the top domestic pizza chains by total number of locations include Hunt Brothers Pizza, Domino's Pizza (DPZ), Yum! Brands' Pizza Hut (YUM), Papa Johns, and Marco's Pizza, according to ScrapeHero.

Papa Johns has been a major player in the industry for over four decades, but amid intensifying competition, even legacy brands face struggles. In the third quarter of 2025, North America comparable sales fell 3% year over year, continuing a nearly uninterrupted downward trend in its U.S. market.

This decline led the company to make a significant shift in its restaurant portfolio, which could reshape its entire business for years to come.

Papa Johns sells locations nationwide

Papa Johns (PZZA) has sold 85 restaurants in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland, to Pie Investments Management, led by Chris Patel, making the group one of the pizza chain's largest U.S. franchisees.

With this acquisition, Pie Investments now operates more than 150 Papa Johns restaurants nationwide. The group plans to open 52 additional units in the Philadelphia market over the next five years, aiming to reach 250 locations by 2030.

The restaurants were previously owned by Colonel's Limited, LLC, a joint venture between Papa Johns and Steeplechase Express, Inc. The group, led by the company's longest-standing franchisee, William Freitas, who is now retiring, opened its first Papa Johns restaurant in 1993 and became an early adopter of digital channels, helping position the brand as one of the first major pizza chains to offer online ordering.

"Chris has built a team of leaders passionate about pizza, and his impressive record in acquiring restaurants and improving their profitability is well known across the Papa Johns system," said Papa Johns CFO and President of North America Ravi Thanawala in a press release.

Papa Johns refranchises 85 restaurants to drive profitable growth.Shutterstock

Papa Johns' refranchising strategy to boost growth

This latest sale is part of a broader refranchising initiative. During the third-quarter earnings call for fiscal 2025, Papa Johns stated plans to reduce company-owned restaurants in North America to a mid-single-digit percentage of its nearly 6,000 global locations.

Over the next two years, Papa Johns intends to accelerate its domestic refranchising efforts to drive profitable growth and expand into high-demand markets to improve the long-term economic model of its restaurants.
A group of U.S. ports and terminal operators has raised concern about the pending $85 billion railroad merger between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern, maintaining that it could degrade intermodal rail services, harm port competition and hinder regional trade.

In a letter to the Surface Transportation Board (STB), the National Association of Waterfront Employers (NAWE) urged the regulatory body to rigorously evaluate the mergers potential effects on intermodal shipping before considering its approval.

More from Sourcing Journal

The ports publicized the letter on Monday, the same day BNSF Railway filed a petition with the STB requesting the board immediately review Union Pacifics compliance with its prior acquisition of Southern Pacific in 1996. The Berkshire Hathaway-owned railroad has been a top critic of the looming deal, and is claiming Union Pacific has engaged in obstructive conduct since the Southern Pacific merger that has harmed customers and competition alike.

NAWE members contend that further concentration of the intermodal rail market would lead to fewer service options, or the prioritization of more cost-effective routes. Both outcomes could diminish economic opportunities in certain port regions, the group argues.

Many businesses rely, in turn, on the competitiveness of their local port delivery system, wrote Carl Bentzel, president of NAWE, in the letter. As such, continued concentration of intermodal rail service could negatively impact local and regional trade if rail carriers prioritize services that meet their own needs while disregarding opportunities to serve other regional port areas.

BNSF had previously shared concerns that the merger would result in the mass culling of 300 intermodal lanes across the U.S., with Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena refuting that claim. However, the railroad has given no direct indication of how many lanes it would plan on scrapping or consolidating, if any.

Marine terminals rely on efficient intermodal rail to handle increasing volumes of trade, according to NAWE, which said this service is pivotal to moving imports and exports through increasingly strained port complexes.

The market for intermodal shipping service into Chicago, which in turn acts as a hub shipment for much of the nations interior cargo, is serviced in large part through the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach where over 60 percent of import cargo is serviced by intermodal rail, Bentzel said. These ports, and the terminals that operate in the port, are market dominant precisely because of the levels of intermodal rail.
Rapper Poorstacy has died at the age of 26.

Photo: Getty Images

The Palm Beach County Medical Examiner confirmed the alternative star's tragic death to Page Six on Monday (01.12.25). The Boca Raton Police reported that the artist died on Saturday (29.11.25), following an "incident" at a local hotel. He was transported to a nearby hospital but did not survive.

Authorities have not released further details regarding his cause of death, and the Boca Raton Police Department has yet to provide additional comment.

However, a staff member at the hotel told TMZ that Poorstacy had checked in 10 days before his untimely death. Reports also suggested he arrived with a woman and a toddler.

Poorstacy, a Palm Beach native, built a dedicated following through two studio albums (2020's The Breakfast Club and 2021's Party at the Cemetery) and two EPs (2019's I Don't Care and 2020's I Don't Rap), blending rap, punk, and alternative influences. His collaborations with Blink182 drummer Travis Barker produced tracks such as Choose Life, Nothing Left, and Hills Have Eyes. The music star - whose real name was Carlito Milfort - also worked with Iann Dior and contributed to the Grammynominated Bill and Ted Face the Music soundtrack.

Tributes have flooded in with Travis writing on his Instagram Story: "Rest in peace you'll never be forgotten [broken heart emoji]."

Bring Me The Horizon frontman Oli Sykes shared a picture of them on his Instagram Story captioned: "R.I.P [black heart emoji]".

The last few years of his life saw the rapper caught up in a legal battle.

Milfort was arrested in 2023 for battery and child neglect following a domestic incident at a property in Coral Springs, Florida. The case was eventually dismissed in 2024, with all charges dropped.
Ensign Energy Services has seen its fair value estimate hold steady at CA$2.83 per share, while analysts have edged down the discount rate from 9.27% to 9.15% and slightly increased revenue growth expectations. This reflects a balanced shift in analyst sentiment, with optimism about valuation resilience balanced by caution regarding the company's operational outlook. As perspectives on Ensign's future continue to evolve, read on to discover how you can stay informed about the changing narrative and upcoming developments for this stock.

Analyst Price Targets don't always capture the full story. Head over to our Company Report to find new ways to value Ensign Energy Services.

What Wall Street Has Been Saying

Analyst sentiment regarding Ensign Energy Services is currently mixed, reflecting both expectations for growth and persistent sector headwinds. Here is a summary of notable perspectives from recent research coverage.

 Bullish Takeaways

RBC Capital increased its price target on Ensign Energy to C$3, up from C$2.50. This indicates recognition of potential upside in the companys valuation despite a more cautious overall stance.

Analysts note that the companys improved revenue growth expectations and valuation resilience suggest ongoing strengths in execution and a degree of momentum, even as near-term rig demand appears muted.

 Bearish Takeaways

RBC Capital analyst Keith Mackey downgraded Ensign Energy to Sector Perform from Outperform, citing flat near-term rig demand as a reason for greater caution around the companys immediate operational outlook.

The downgrade reflects concerns that some upside may already be priced in and that volatility in rig demand could pressure revenue growth and execution quality in the future.

Overall, analyst commentary reinforces a theme of cautious optimism, with price target adjustments reflecting both recognized progress and ongoing uncertainty in the oil and gas services sector. This balanced approach highlights the importance of monitoring Ensigns valuation, operational execution, and growth prospects in the months ahead.

Do your thoughts align with the Bull or Bear Analysts? Perhaps you think there's more to the story. Head to the Simply Wall St Community to discover more perspectives or begin writing your own Narrative!

TSX:ESI Community Fair Values as at Dec 2025

How This Changes the Fair Value For Ensign Energy Services
A report from the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) in partnership with Autodesk shows how AI is driving a rapid shift in the UK engineering and consultancy sector.

The report titled 'AI and the New Era of Engineering Innovation' claims that 68% of business leaders in the UK are stepping up investment in technology, a figure that surpasses global averages.

AI-powered automation is reported to enhance productivity by up to 40% and minimise project overruns by as much as 25%.

The research also points to an evolution of engineering roles, highlighting a rising need for skills such as AI literacy, ethics, data interpretation, and professional oversight.

Rather than substituting engineers, AI is described as reinforcing their expertise and supporting more effective solutions.

The report also includes case studies from companies such as Mott MacDonald, Stantec, and AECOM.

These case studies illustrate how AI is now integrated into regular operations, increasing productivity, speeding up design and analysis, and altering professional responsibilities in the built environment.

ACE CEO Kate Jennings said: AI will not replace engineers; it will empower them to reimagine what is possible. We are at an historic inflection point for the UKs consultancy and engineering sector.

From energy resilience to national infrastructure, our work underpins prosperity and progress - and AI is now reshaping how we deliver it. With the right frameworks, leadership, and skills, the UK can lead the world in safe, ethical and innovative engineering.

Our priority is ensuring technology enhances the human expertise that defines our profession, delivering lasting value for communities and the planet.

The publication calls for immediate action from both the industry and domestic government.

It recommends that industry bodies implement ethical frameworks for AI use, allow controlled pilots to help drive adoption, and invest in developing digital skills and relevant training schemes.

For government bodies, the document advises creating a National AI in Engineering Strategy with industry input, modernising procurement practices to encourage technological innovation, and broadening access to apprenticeships and accreditation programmes focused on AI.

The document concludes that the UK has an established industrial base, strong research infrastructure, and a skilled workforce to support the advancement of AI in engineering and infrastructure delivery.

The report states that sustained investment and detailed workforce planning are necessary to maintain global competitiveness.
Nordic hotel operator Scandic is expanding its Norwegian presence with the addition of a new franchise hotel to its portfolio.

The company launched a franchise hotel in Flor, Norway, following the rebranding of the former Comfort Hotel Victoria as Scandic Victoria Flor.

The hotel features 97 rooms and facilities capable of accommodating meetings for up to 150 people.

The development also supports the companys strategy to increase its share of the Nordic hotel market.

The Helle family, which previously owned the Comfort Hotel Victoria, will manage the property under a franchise agreement with Scandic.

Scandic Victoria Flor owners Mads, Ole and Leif Arne Helle said: We look forward to starting our collaboration with Scandic and the journey ahead.

"With the investments and upgrades that have been carried out, we are confident that Scandic is the right choice to elevate the hotel to new heights  and that Scandic Victoria Flor will have a strong, attractive hotel offering for locals and leisure travellers alike.

The move aligns with Scandics broader growth objectives announced in February 2025, which aim to add approximately 10,000 rooms across the group by 2030.

Out of these, half of the rooms will be introduced under the Scandic Go brand, targeting customers in the economy segment.

The plan also includes launching between 30 to 40 new franchise hotels to broaden Scandics presence throughout the Nordic region.

In June, the company launched its sixth signature hotel, The Dock 6939 by Scandic, which added 305 rooms to Troms under its brand.

Besides these openings in Norway, the company has finalised agreements for an additional five hotels within its portfolio, totalling more than 1,400 rooms.

Scandic Hotels Group chief operations officer Asle Prestegard said: Adding more franchise hotels to our portfolio will give our guests even more choices and destinations to experience Scandic, and these hotels are an important part of our ambitious growth strategy for 2030.

We are committed to continuously strengthening our well-invested portfolio with new hotels that create value for both guests and owners, and Scandic Victoria Flor is a stellar example of how we make this possible.

"Scandic expands in Norway by adding franchise hotel to portfolio" was originally created and published by Hotel Management Network, a GlobalData owned brand.




"Shark Tank" investors usually like to talk about their most successful investments, but a few recently took the time to rewatch and reminisce about their most emotionally fulfilling business decisions on the show.

The reaction video was uploaded to the show's official YouTube channel.

The investors, along with one of the founders featured in the video, shared what they were thinking during the pitches and provided viewers with a few behind-the-scenes secrets.

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Barbara Corcoran and Cousins Maine Lobster

Cousins Maine Lobster received a $55,000 investment from Barbara Corcoran in exchange for 15% equity of the franchise food truck business that primarily serves lobster rolls.

"I should've bought half of it," Corcoran said in the video.

Corcoran was the only investor who didn't pull out of consideration during the company's pitch. The other investors pulled out after asking founders Sabin Lomac and Jim Tselikis about the company's finances.

That actually worked in Tselikis's and Lomac's favor as Corcoran was the only investor the two were interested in, Lomac said in the video.

"We had targeted Barbara going into this," he said, adding that they asked producers to change their appearance date so Corcoran would be on the show. "We really, really wanted Barbara."

Corcoran was interested in the company from the start of their pitch. "The minute I laid eyes on those guys I couldn't wait to hear what they had to say," she said.

Cousins Maine Lobster now has 85 trucks in more than 30 states and has made more than $1 billion since its founding in 2012, the company announced earlier this year.

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Kevin O'Leary and Lovepop

"Mr. Wonderful" Kevin O'Leary was initially skeptical of 3D greeting card company Lovepop, he said in the YouTube video.

"We're in the middle of a digital revolution," he said. "Who needs a card? That's what I was wrong about."

O'Leary invested $300,000 in exchange for 15% of the company.

"Turns out that was one of my best deals ever," he said. "It's worth 10x that now, maybe 20."

He wasn't the only Shark interested in Lovepop. Investor Robert Herjavec offered an identical investment but the founders decided to go with O'Leary.
Singapore AI adoption in business continues to grow, with high uptake of AI and data analytics tools among companies, as reported by CPA Australias Business Technology Survey.

Despite this progress, most organisations have yet to fully integrate cybersecurity into their operations.

The CPA Australia survey notes that 95% of Singapore companies use data analytics and visualisation software such as Python, Power BI, and Excel.

This is slightly above the surveys average rate of 93%.

AI is also widely adopted, with 92% of businesses implementing some form of AI, compared to the survey average of 89%.

Around one in five of Singapore organisations have integrated AI deeply across their business processes, according to the survey.

However, occasional or ad-hoc deployment remains the main pattern for AI usage.

This approach is seen in 44% of companies, often involving tools such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, or AI-enabled assistants within platforms including Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.

Cybersecurity integration is less advanced in Singapore as only 23% of surveyed companies have embedded cybersecurity measures into both their strategy and operations.

This figure sits below the overall survey average of 28%.

CPA Australia Singapore divisional president Greg Unsworth said: Singapores strong foothold in AI reflects the nations continued push towards digital transformation and operational excellence. However, businesses must move beyond experimentation and strategically integrate AI across functions to unlock its full value.

The rise of AI-enabled threats, from sophisticated phishing to deepfake impersonation, makes it critical for businesses to strengthen their cyber resilience. Trust must be earned and reinforced through every digital interaction.

Additionally, 69% use cybersecurity software, trailing the average usage rate of 81% reported elsewhere.

The survey revealed that over 17% of companies take a reactive stance to cyber threats, meaning actions are taken only when incidents occur rather than through planned prevention.

Furthermore, 11% do not know how their company manages cybersecurity internally, indicating possible gaps in oversight or communication.

Over the past 12 months, these tools are said to have helped automate repetitive duties, streamline workflows and support quicker decision-making.

Despite these advantages, challenges remain. Relying more on AI prompts questions about human oversight and decision-making responsibility, especially where judgement or ethics are involved.

Some businesses report job losses among roles involving repetitive tasks and face difficulties connecting new AI systems to older legacy platforms.
Torbjorn Tornqvist co-founded trading house Gunvor with a Russian oligarch and close ally of Putin - Walaa Alshaer/Bloomberg

A Swiss billionaire has sold his multibillion-pound stake in the trading house he co-founded after the US accused him of being a Russian puppet.

Torbjorn Tornqvist has agreed to sell his entire 86pc shareholding in Geneva-based Gunvor, estimated to be worth $6.6bn (5bn) overall, to a group of employees led by the companys management.

His decision, which also means he will leave the company, follows Gunvors unsuccessful attempt to mount a $22bn takeover of assets owned by sanctions-hit Lukoil, the Russian energy giant, which was blocked by the US government.

The proposed deal prompted fresh suspicions about Mr Tornqvists ties to the Kremlin, with the US treasury accusing him of being a puppet of Vladimir Putin.

On Monday, Gunvor said the buyout would allow a definitive reset after controversies surrounding its past became an impossible distraction.

Mr Tornqvist co-founded Gunvor with Gennady Timchenko, a Russian oligarch and close ally of Putin, in 2000.

He then bought out his business partner when Timchenko was hit with sanctions in 2014.

Failed takeover bid

This long association with Moscow-aligned figures has prompted accusations  denied by Gunvor  that the trading house is effectively under the control of Putin through cutouts.

The Trump administration slapped sanctions on Lukoil, Russias second-largest oil company, in October in an attempt to squeeze revenues that could be used by the Kremlin to fund its war with Ukraine.

When Gunvor emerged as the potential buyer of Lukoils international assets, a week after the sanctions were announced, the US treasury voiced opposition.

The US treasury wrote on X: As long as Putin continues the senseless killings, the Kremlins puppet, Gunvor, will never get a license to operate and profit.

The treasurys opposition to the deal was decisive because it could have denied Gunvor critical licences and waivers related to the sanctions. Gunvor scrapped its takeover bid shortly afterward.

But the company has rejected the Trump administrations claims about it as fundamentally misinformed and false.

Gunvor announced on Monday that Mr Tornqvist would sell the entirety of his holdings in favour of a group of current employees, who will wholly own the company going forward.
President Donald Trump delivered on his promise to exempt tips from taxes but critics say the Big Beautiful policy may deliver a smaller advantage than expected  and could hurt the very workers its supposed to help.

I would be hard-pressed to think of a stupider tax policy thats become law, Brian Galle, a professor at UC Berkeley who specializes in tax law, told online news publication The Almanac (1).

Must Read

Like many of Trumps populist moves, the headline tax break sounds good for working people.

But when filers dig into the details, they may find the IRSs generosity isnt so generous after all.

Heres a look at the finer print behind the promise.

The not-so-fine print behind Trump's no-tax-on-tips policy

Trump made the policy sound pretty all-encompassing when he trumpeted the plan.

If you're a restaurant worker, a server, a valet, a bellhop, a bartender or one of my caddies ... or any other worker who relies on tipped income, your tips will be 100% yours, he said in January (2).

Read More: No time to lower your crippling car insurance rate? Heres how to do it within minutes  you could end up paying $29/month without a single phone call

Not exactly. As the blog Tax Act reveals, the maximum deduction through this policy is $25,000 per year per tax return.

Even if there were 0% taxes on your tips at the federal level (and its not that simple), you still have to report and pay state and local taxes on your tips.

Moreover your tips are not 100% yours until your payroll taxes (think Social Security and Medicare) are deducted, which represent 7.65% of your total (3).

Plus, not all tips are created equal. Only tips that are voluntarily paid by customers  as opposed to automatic service charges or gratuities  qualify for deduction.

That means if youre a restaurant server and theres an automatic gratuity on large groups, you cant deduct that gratuity.

People who make a lot of money from tips (more than $150,000 a year or $300,000 for those who file jointly with a spouse) wont be eligible.

So workers like bartenders, adult entertainers and people who have a salaried job and a tipped side hustle may be out of luck.
Food packaging company Tetra Pak has restructured its executive leadership team, naming five new executive vice-presidents.

The changes came into force on 1 December 2025, with all new appointees reporting directly to president and CEO Adolfo Orive.

Marco Dorna has been promoted to executive vice-president for market pperations.

He joined Tetra Pak in 2004 and has since worked in a series of commercial and leadership roles.

His previous posts include key account director for the Arabia area, Brazil and South Africa, and managing director for Central America and Caribbean.

In 2022, he became managing director for Brazil.

Tatiana Liceti has moved into the role of executive vice-president for packaging solutions, after serving as executive vice-president for market operations since 2021.

She has been with the company since 1998, having held the posts of managing director for Mexico, managing director for Andina, managing director for Peru and vice-president for the Americas.

Roberto Franchitti has been appointed executive vice-president for processing solutions and equipment.

He had been executive vice-president for services since 2021.

Since joining Tetra Pak in 2007, he has been cluster leader of services for South Europe, vice-president for the carton value and economy platform, and executive vice-president for services and quality.

Ola Elmqvist takes over as executive vice-president for services, following his spell as executive vice-president for packaging solutions from 2021.

Elmqvist, who began his career at Tetra Pak in 1990, has been cluster leader of services for Europe and Central Asia, vice-president for business unit liquid food, vice-president for supply chain operations in Greater China, managing director of Tetra Pak Southeastern Europe and executive vice-president for processing solutions and equipment.

Martin Scott has been named executive vice-president for sustainability and communications.

He has been executive vice-president for communications from 2024.

Scott joined Tetra Pak in 2018 and has been vice-president for internal communications and vice-president external and internal communications.

In November 2025, Tetra Pak and supermarket chain Mega Image began an eight-month pilot in the Romanian cities of Bucharest and Brasov to collect used beverage and dairy cartons through reverse vending machines.

The companies are working alongside partners Maspex, Tomra and Brai Cata for the initiative.

"Tetra Pak restructures executive leadership team " was originally created and published by Packaging Gateway, a GlobalData owned brand.
The Louis Vuitton logo can be seen on a store in Manhattan. Sven Hoppe/dpa

French luxury brand conglomerate LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE has announced that one of its top executives is stepping down.

LVMH said on Tuesday that Sidney Toledano will resign from his post in the company.

"After more than 30 years working with Bernard Arnault, Chairman & CEO of the LVMH group, Sidney Toledano has decided to step down from his operational role," the company said in a statement.

The group has appointed Pietro Beccari as chairman and chief executive of the LVMH Fashion Group. He will combine these new responsibilities with those of chairman and chief executive of Louis Vuitton, the company said.

Damien Bertrand, current deputy chief executive of Louis Vuitton, will become a member of the LVMH executive committee, the company said.

Bernard Arnault said: "I would like to warmly thank Sidney Toledano, who has been by my side for over 30 years and has always been present, in all circumstances, with determination, talent, and loyalty. He will remain my Special Advisor.

"After a rich decade of leading Dior and Louis Vuitton, I am delighted that Pietro Beccari has also agreed to bring his expertise to the LVMH Fashion Group Maisons.

"Pietro is a great leader and a unique talent with boundless

energy. He knows how to surround himself with talents and develop them to prepare the future of the Maisons.

"At the head of Louis Vuitton, he will be able to rely even more on Damien Bertrand, whose contribution has been significant in recent months and who now joins the Group's Executive Committee."

The new appointments are effective from January 1, 2026.
TotalEnergies, TES, and three Japanese gas companies have signed a development agreement for the Live Oak e-NG project in Nebraska, targeting commercial operations by 2030.

The agreement brings in Osaka Gas, Toho Gas, and ITOCHU, which together will take a one-third stake in what is set to become one of the most advanced synthetic gas developments in the United States. The Joint Development and Operating Agreement finalizes ownership shares, leaving TotalEnergies and TES with equal 33.35% interests and positioning the Japanese companies as strategic buyers of future output.

The partners will now begin Front-End Engineering Design for a facility designed to run 250 MW of electrolysis capacity and produce around 75,000 tonnes per year of synthetic methane. A final investment decision is planned for 2027, with start-up targeted for 2030. Osaka Gas and Toho Gas are expected to be the main offtakers, aligning the project directly with Japans target of blending at least 1% carbon-neutral gas into the national grid by the end of the decade.

The Live Oak project is built on Nebraskas unusually rich concentration of biogenic CO? from the states bioethanol plants, which will serve as a key feedstock for synthetic methane production. The facility will pair this captured CO? with hydrogen produced via renewable-powered electrolysis, creating a molecule known as e-natural gas or e-methane. Chemically identical to fossil natural gas, e-NG can be liquefied, transported, regasified, and distributed through existing LNG infrastructure without requiring equipment changes for customers. This compatibility is a major reason why Japanese gas utilities are moving quickly to secure supply, as it allows them to decarbonize without replacing appliances or overhauling networks.

The agreement marks the latest step in a broader partnership between TotalEnergies and TES, who began working together in 2023 to scale e-NG production worldwide. It also reinforces Japans strategy of diversifying future gas imports as it balances decarbonization goals with the realities of an energy system heavily reliant on LNG. For the United States, the project highlights how federal incentives and abundant renewable energy resources are helping accelerate investment in synthetic fuels and power-to-gas initiatives, particularly in regions with strong biofuel industries.

For TotalEnergies, the deal strengthens its low-carbon gas portfolio while deepening commercial ties with Japans largest city-gas suppliers. For the Japanese companies, it offers early access to a new class of carbon-neutral LNG-compatible molecules that could help secure long-term supply stability as global competition for clean fuels intensifies.
Adolescence may last far longer than anyone realised, with new research suggesting the teenage phase of brain development continues until the early 30s. The finding comes from one of the largest studies ever carried out on how the human brain changes from infancy to old age.

Adolescence lasts into the early 30s

Scientists at the University of Cambridge analysed MRI scans from nearly 4,000 people aged between birth and 90. By studying how water moves through brain tissue, the team were able to map major shifts in the brains neural wiring and identify five key epochs of development that shape how we think, learn and age.

The researchers discovered that adolescence starts at around age nine and does not end until roughly 32 years old.

Professor Duncan Astle, senior author of the study, said: Looking back, many of us feel our lives have been characterised by different phases. It turns out that brains also go through these eras. Understanding that the brains structural journey is not a question of steady progression but one of a few major turning points will help us identify when and how its wiring is vulnerable to disruption.

The study, published in Nature Communications, outlines a series of brain eras. The first begins at birth and lasts until about age nine. This is followed by the long adolescent phase, which continues into the early 30s. After that, the brain moves into an adult era that stretches for more than three decades.

A further shift happens around age 66, which the researchers describe as the beginning of an early ageing period. The final era, labelled late ageing, starts at around 83.

Dr Alexa Mousley, a Gates Cambridge scholar who led the work, said the eras offer a new way of understanding how the brain grows, adapts and becomes vulnerable.

She explained: These eras provide important context for what our brains might be best at or more vulnerable to at different stages of our lives.

It could help us understand why some brains develop differently at key points in life, whether that is learning difficulties in childhood or dementia in later years.

The team say the findings could eventually help doctors and educators understand when interventions are likely to be most effective and why certain stages of life come with particular mental health challenges.

by Natalie key for www.femalefirst.co.uk


TotalEnergies will sell a 40% stake in two exploration licenses offshore Nigeria to Chevron, as part of an ongoing discussion of global exploration opportunities between the two companies, the French supermajor said on Monday.

TotalEnergies is selling stakes in the PPL 2000 and 2001 licenses in the prolific West Delta basin offshore Nigeria, while it will remain operator with a 40% participation alongside Chevron with 40% and South Atlantic Petroleum with a 20% interest.

The new joint venture reinforces TotalEnergies global offshore exploration collaboration with Chevron, following the June acquisition of a 25% working interest in a portfolio of exploration leases offshore U.S. comprising 40 Chevron-operated blocks.

After launching our joint venture in US offshore exploration in June, were delighted to now expand our collaboration to Nigeria to unlock new resources in the West Delta basin, said Nicola Mavilla, Senior Vice-President Exploration at TotalEnergies.

This new joint venture aims at derisking and developing new opportunities in Nigeria, in line with the objectives of the country.

TotalEnergies oil and gas production in Nigeria was 209,000 boe/d in 2024 and the biggest African oil producer is a key contributor to the companys global hydrocarbon output.

Lately, oil majors have been boosting their presence in Nigeria, which looks to increase its oil and gas output as it moves to tackle theft and vandalism.

Last week, Shell plc completed the acquisition of an additional 10% interest in Nigerias OML 118 Production Sharing Contract, raising its stake in the deep-water Bonga field from 55% to 65% and reinforcing its commitment to growing upstream output.

Meanwhile, Nigeria is launching its 2025 oil licensing round, as the Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) steps deeper into the role once dominated by the state oil company. The move signals President Bola Tinubus intent to boost output, court investors, and drive the economy toward his $1-trillion target.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Angel Oak Mortgage REIT, Inc. (NYSE:AOMR) is included among the 14 Best Up and Coming Dividend Stocks to Buy.

UBS Adjusts Target on Angel Oak REIT (AOMR) Following Portfolio and Cost Optimizations

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

On November 18, UBS analyst Doug Harter trimmed his price target on Angel Oak Mortgage REIT, Inc. (NYSE:AOMR) to $9.75 from $10 while maintaining a Neutral rating, as reported by The Fly.

In its Q3 2025 update, Angel Oak Mortgage REIT, Inc. (NYSE:AOMR) noted that the quarter created a constructive backdrop for its business, allowing it to take advantage of opportunities that supported active portfolio growth. Management pointed out that two legacy securitizations were called and retired, with the capital redirected into higher-yielding investments. After the quarter ended, the firm also put a new credit facility in place at favorable rates, broadening its lender base and lowering interest costs.

Angel Oak Mortgage REIT, Inc. (NYSE:AOMR) reported a 13% increase in net interest income from a year earlier and a 2% sequential improvement. Operating expenses fell 13% from the third quarter of 2024 and were 5% lower than in the previous quarter. Treasurer and CFO Brandon Filson emphasized these reductions while discussing the results.

Angel Oak Mortgage REIT, Inc. (NYSE:AOMR) is a real estate finance company that focuses on acquiring and investing in first-lien non-QM loans and other mortgage-related assets across the US market.

While we acknowledge the potential of AOMR as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If youre looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.

READ NEXT: 15 Best Boring Dividend Stocks to Buy and 15 Best Stocks to Buy for Medium Term.

Disclosure: None.
[PA Media]

The Bank of England has warned of a "sharp correction" in the value of major tech companies with growing fears of an artificial intelligence (AI) bubble.

It said share prices in the UK are close to the "most stretched" they have been since the 2008 global financial crisis, while equity valuations in the US are reminiscent of those before the dotcom bubble burst.

The central bank's financial stability report warned valuations are "particularly stretched" for companies focused on AI.

In its report the Bank also announced plans to lower the amount of capital High Street banks need to hold in a bid to boost lending and spur economic growth.

It marks the first reduction in the amount lenders need to hold since the 2008 financial crisis, and followed stress tests showing they would be able to withstand a crisis scenario with unemployment doubling, house prices plummeting and the economy contracting by 5%.

AI bubble fears

The Bank said the growth of the AI sector in the next five years would be fuelled by trillions of dollars of debt, raising financial stability risks if the value of the companies falls.

It cited industry figures forecasting spending on AI infrastructure could top $5tn (3.8tn) and said much of this would be funded by AI firms themselves, but around half would come from outside sources, mostly through debt.

"Deeper links between AI firms and credit markets, and increasing interconnections between those firms, mean that, should an asset price correction occur, losses on lending could increase financial stability risks," it said.

The Bank of England is the latest institution to sound the alarm over a potential crash in the value of AI firms reminiscent of previous incidents such as the dotcom bubble.

Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of US bank JP Morgan, told the BBC in October he was "far more worried than others" about the risk of a serious market correction in the coming years.

The International Monetary Fund and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development have also warned of price corrections.

The dotcom booms refers to a period in the late 1990s, during which the values of early internet companies surged on a wave of optimism for what was then a new technology, before the bubble burst in early 2000 - with many share prices collapsing.

This led to some companies going bust, resulting in job losses.

A drop in share prices can also hit the value of people's savings including their pension funds.

Fears over an AI-related stock market correction come as Chancellor Rachel Reeves used her Budget to encourage savers to pile cash into stocks and shares by reducing the amounts which can be saved in cash Isas.
This story was originally published on Payments Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Payments Dive newsletter.

Airlines are dipping their loyalty programs back into debit cards after an extended hiatus, drawn by the large segment of consumers who dont use credit cards.

Two U.S. carriers, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines, introduced a new debit card within the past month, following a similar debit loyalty card from Wyndham Hotels & Resorts earlier this year. The cards allow for points and miles accrual, along with introductory bonus offers, although at levels that are far less generous than higher-fee credit cards.

United introduced its loyalty debit card on Nov. 4, one week after Southwest debuted its new card. All three debit cards are issued by Sunrise Banks and were developed by Galileo Financial Technologies, a card and payment platform operated by SoFi Technologies, a San Francisco-based fintech.

The Visa-branded debit card was Uniteds direct response to the needs of the modern, debit-first traveler, an airline spokesperson said Wednesday in an email. We saw a significant and underserved group of travelers  especially among Millennial and Gen Z flyers  who prefer the financial control of a debit card but were excluded from the best travel rewards.

Some 90% of U.S. adults have a debit card, spending about $4.3 trillion on these cards, Galileo Financial said in an email. Additionally, some 46 million Americans have thin or nonexistent credit history, leaving them unable to participate in credit-based loyalty programs, Galileo said.

These co-brand debit programs let airlines meet customers where they already are, give them a path into loyalty, and create engagement with a segment thats been overlooked for years, Bill Kennedy, Galileos interim CEO and chief financial officer, said in an emailed statement.

The new cards come after more than a decade in which airlines and hotels have focused their loyalty schemes around credit cards, with an expanding array of retail perks and airport amenities  coupled with far higher fees than in the past. American Express, for example, revamped its platinum cards in September, with an annual fee of $895, months after JPMorgan Chase introduced its revised $795 Sapphire Reserve card.

A spokesperson for Dallas-based Southwest said the carriers goal with the new card is to offer a rewarding experience to those who prefer debit cards over credit cards, or those looking to maximize their rewards with both debit and credit cards.
UnitedHealth Group has reached an agreement to divest its South American unit Banmedica to private equity group Patria Investments for $1bn (CI$831.99m), reported Reuters, citing sources.

UnitedHealth began its efforts to exit Latin America in 2022, having already divested its operations in Brazil and Peru.

Discussions regarding the sale of Banmedica have taken place over nearly one year.

Banmedica operates in Colombia and Chile.

By June, after its withdrawal from Peru, Banmedica reported 1.7 million health insurance members, seven hospitals and 47 medical centres.

Both Patria Investments and UnitedHealth did not respond to requests for comment regarding the deal, reported Reuters.

UnitedHealth recorded a loss of $8.3bn last year, including $7.1bn relating to Brazil and $1.2bn due to Banmedica.

The divestment allows UnitedHealth to focus on other restructuring measures under CEO Stephen Hemsley.

In October, the company increased its annual profit forecast, indicating targets for growth resumption in 2026 and plans for accelerated expansion by 2027.

Hemsley resumed leadership in May, having led the company from 2006 to 2017.

He is currently overseeing management changes and efforts to stabilise the company following various issues such as a senior executives death, a rise in medical costs and ongoing federal investigations.

Hemsley returned after UnitedHealth experienced its first earnings shortfall in more than ten years in April.

As part of further management changes, Wayne DeVeydt was appointed as chief financial officer (CFO) in August, replacing John Rex.

Rex will now serve as a strategic adviser to the CEO, after holding the CFO position since 2016.

"UnitedHealth to offload Banmedica to Patria Investments for $1bn" was originally created and published by Life Insurance International, a GlobalData owned brand.




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The U.S. agreed to remove Section 232 tariffs on pharmaceutical goods from the United Kingdom, according to a Monday press release from the White House.

The proposed deal includes U.K.-based pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical ingredients and medical technology, per the release. Further, the U.S. will not target U.K. pricing practices in any future Section 301 investigation during President Donald Trumps term.

The tariff exemption is in exchange for an agreement on pharmaceutical pricing between the U.S. and U.K., according to the release. Under the framework agreement, the U.K. will reverse declining National Health Service expenditures on medicines, and up the net price it pays for new medicines by 25%. Further, the U.K. will ensure that higher prices for new medicines are not impacted by a demand for portfolio-wide concessions under the Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing, Access and Growth, or other rebate schemes.

The latest announcement is part of the U.S.-U.K. Economic Prosperity Deal framework announced in May, which targeted tariffs and market access and included proposals for the pharmaceutical industry. If the pact is finalized, the Trump administration would keep its 10% tariff on U.K. imports. In return, the U.K. would cut tariffs on U.S. goods from 5.1% to 1.8%.

Trump continues to target pharmaceutical imports as part of his sector-specific tariff strategy, with the Commerce Department initiating a Section 232 investigation into the pharmaceutical industry in April. In August, Trump said levies could eventually reach 250%.

Trump later announced plans to implement a 100% sector-specific tariff on branded or patented pharmaceutical products in September. That same month, the U.S. launched a Section 232 probe into healthcare-related products, including surgical masks, syringes and pacemakers.

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By Douglas Gillison and Ross Kerber

NEW YORK / BOSTON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Wall Street's chief regulator said on Tuesday the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should reform rules requiring disclosure of executive compensation and move to reduce the legal burdens facing smaller companies.

In an address at the New York Stock Exchange billed as a statement of his vision for the future of capital markets, SEC Chair Paul Atkins also previewed major themes in the agency's deregulatory policy agenda.

Since taking over the role in April, Atkins has laid out plans that embrace the cryptocurrency sector and tilt the balance of power from investors back toward companies. The White House, asserting direct control over the agency, has also called for an end to quarterly reporting and reforms to shareholder disputes.

"When the SEC's disclosure regime has been hijacked to require information unmoored from materiality, investors do not benefit," Paul Atkins said in his prepared remarks. "We need a reset of these and other SEC disclosure requirements."

Atkins also said the burden of complying with SEC regulations was a barrier to raising capital for smaller companies.

"The last comprehensive reform to these thresholds took place in 2005. This dereliction of regulatory upkeep has resulted in a company with a public float of as low as $250 million being subject to the same disclosure requirements as a company that is 100 times its size."

Critics have warned that the SEC's deregulatory agenda and declining workforce are weakening the agency, potentially allowing risk and misconduct to build up in the financial system.

With support from some corporate leaders, Atkins and other Republicans have taken aim at a series of pay disclosure rules, including those put in place after the 2008 financial crisis, meant to give investors a clearer picture of managers' incentives.

Among other things, Congress required companies to report the ratio of CEO compensation to median employee compensation. The average pay of chief executive officers at S&P 500 companies stood at $18.9 million last year, a 7% increase over 2023, according to a review by the AFL-CIO labor federation, and the average CEO-to-worker pay ratio was 285 to 1 at these companies.

Democrats have argued for pay disclosures and limits they say are needed to limit risky behavior. In his prepared remarks, Atkins approvingly quoted Warren Buffett saying the required disclosures backfired, helping drive up CEO pay because the "new rules produced envy, not moderation."

(Reporting by Douglas Gillison in New York and by Ross Kerber in Boston; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Paul Simao)
This story was originally published on Waste Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Waste Dive newsletter.

Waste Harmonics Keter CEO Bob Boucher departed the company last month, and is now leading Missouri-based packaging company Novvia Group. Scott Gilbertson, chair of Waste Harmonics Keter's board and partner at its private equity backer, TPG, is serving as interim CEO while the company searches for a permanent replacement, according to a spokesperson.

Waste Harmonics Keter is backed by TPG Growth, an equity platform of global asset manager TPG. The investor first acquired Keter Environmental in 2021 before reaching a deal with Waste Harmonic's backer Arcapita to merge the two brokers in 2023.

At the time, the combined company was expected to serve about 750 customers in nearly 70,000 locations. Waste Harmonics Keter has combined Keter's retail services expertise with Waste Harmonics' industrial waste service capabilities to provide a broader range of services, Chief Commercial Officer Stephen Mohan told Waste Dive in May.

The merged company has taken a methodical approach to the combination and announced layoffs earlier this year in its New York office, which Mohan attributed to the restructuring process. Waste Harmonics Keters new headquarters is in Stamford, Connecticut, where Keter was based.

The combined company announced Boucher as its CEO on May 3, 2024. He took over for Michael Hess, who was previously CEO of Waste Harmonics.

TPG did not offer comment on Boucher's departure, and Boucher did not respond to a request for comment.

Boucher has a history of leading growing companies under private equity management. Through 2023, he was president and CEO of Win Waste Innovations, which was formed under Macquarie after it acquired Wheelabrator Technologies and other waste-related assets. Boucher had previously been CEO of Wheelabrator.

An industry veteren, Boucher was also formerly CEO of Transpacific and held other roles at companies like WM, Republic Services and Synagro.

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We can readily understand why investors are attracted to unprofitable companies. For example, although software-as-a-service business Salesforce.com lost money for years while it grew recurring revenue, if you held shares since 2005, you'd have done very well indeed. But while history lauds those rare successes, those that fail are often forgotten; who remembers Pets.com?

So, the natural question for Compugates Holdings Berhad (KLSE:COMPUGT) shareholders is whether they should be concerned by its rate of cash burn. For the purposes of this article, cash burn is the annual rate at which an unprofitable company spends cash to fund its growth; its negative free cash flow. We'll start by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves in order to calculate its cash runway.

This technology could replace computers: discover the 20 stocks are working to make quantum computing a reality.

How Long Is Compugates Holdings Berhad's Cash Runway?

You can calculate a company's cash runway by dividing the amount of cash it has by the rate at which it is spending that cash. When Compugates Holdings Berhad last reported its September 2025 balance sheet in November 2025, it had zero debt and cash worth RM2.5m. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through RM2.5m. Therefore, from September 2025 it had roughly 12 months of cash runway. To be frank, this kind of short runway puts us on edge, as it indicates the company must reduce its cash burn significantly, or else raise cash imminently. Depicted below, you can see how its cash holdings have changed over time.

KLSE:COMPUGT Debt to Equity History December 2nd 2025

See our latest analysis for Compugates Holdings Berhad

How Well Is Compugates Holdings Berhad Growing?

One thing for shareholders to keep front in mind is that Compugates Holdings Berhad increased its cash burn by 365% in the last twelve months. While that certainly gives us pause for thought, we take a lot of comfort in the strong annual revenue growth of 77%. In light of the data above, we're fairly sanguine about the business growth trajectory. In reality, this article only makes a short study of the company's growth data. This graph of historic revenue growth shows how Compugates Holdings Berhad is building its business over time.

How Hard Would It Be For Compugates Holdings Berhad To Raise More Cash For Growth?

Given the trajectory of Compugates Holdings Berhad's cash burn, many investors will already be thinking about how it might raise more cash in the future. Issuing new shares, or taking on debt, are the most common ways for a listed company to raise more money for its business. Many companies end up issuing new shares to fund future growth. By looking at a company's cash burn relative to its market capitalisation, we gain insight on how much shareholders would be diluted if the company needed to raise enough cash to cover another year's cash burn.
A British man has received a 33-month prison sentence after being found guilty of embezzling over 500,000 ($659,500) from his employer and converting the stolen money into cryptocurrency, which he used on gambling websites.

39-year-old Jason Lowe, from Skipton in North Yorkshire, had worked for the same Lancashire-based firm since 2016, but between March 2023 and February 2024 siphoned off the funds in order to feed his gambling addiction.

Structured as an employee-owned trust where staff benefitted from profit rewards, the unnamed company first detected that something was amiss when its finance department spotted an unusually high volume of payments to two businesses, Meteorbrand and PPC Guru.

Lowes bank also flagged large sums of money entering his personal account, including payments via PayPal, yet when questioned by the bank he said that the sums were from the sale of his business, which had been completed in 2021.

The Lancashire companys investigation initially aroused internal distrust, conflict and stress among staff members, with Lowe avoiding guilt for a period by the use of lies and false accusations.

However, the company submitted an Action Fraud report in February 2024, which led to North Yorkshire Polices Economic Crime Unit beginning its own investigation.

Lowe pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position of trust, and on Friday was sentenced at Bradford Crown Court to 33 months in prison.

A hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act will take place at an as-yet-undecided date, in order to begin the attempt to recover stolen funds.

Speaking in a press release, Detective Constable Neil Brodhurst of NYPs Economic Crime Unit said the force is pleased with the sentence handed to Lowe.

Even though the stolen funds were converted into cryptocurrency, we were able to trace the transactions and prove how he benefited, he said. Fraud is never a victimless crime, and this case highlights the wider ripple effect of Lowes actionsundermining morale, trust, and financial stability across the workforce.

UK Police Force Gets $665K Bitcoin Windfall From Seizures

White-collar crypto crime on the rise

While figures on this particular area of crime remain limited, experts suggest that white-collar crime involving cryptocurrencies is becoming more prevalent, with financial crime tending to follow the money.

This is the view of Phil Ariss, a former crypto lead for the National Police Chiefs' Council Cybercrime Programme, and now the Director of UK Public Sector Relations at TRM Labs.

He told Decrypt, Were seeing more cases where trusted insiders misuse access or company funds and route value into crypto for personal trading, gambling, or launderingpatterns that closely mirror the rise in traditional insider fraud during periods of market expansion or volatility.
Scarlette Douglas has fallen in love with her fitness instructor after coming out of a "toxic relationship".

Scarlette Douglas is in a relationship with her fitness instructor

The former A Place in the Sun host is "locked in" with her boyfriend Kyle Murray, who owns Funkee Fitness, and trained Scarlette for the upcoming series of Channel 4's Celebrity Hunted - which airs in 2026.

She told Hellomagazine.com: "We've been doing step routines on my social media, but people just think that he's my fitness instructor, because I haven't specifically said he's my boyfriend.

"There are little nods to it, like one of the last ones that we did, he put the song, You're My Lady, by D'Angelo."

Scarlette, 38, said Kyle is the man she "should have always been with".

She added: "I've had some terrible partners in the past, and my ex-partner, [well] it was a toxic relationship. And to have now come and met Kyle, I'm like, this is actually what I deserve.

"But sometimes you have to go through things to learn, to do the work on yourself, to then come out the other side and then meet your person."

As well as fitness, the Worst House on the Street presenter and Kyle have a shared passion for working with charitable causes.

The couple have recently thrown a charity event to raise money for the Hurricane Melissa - a Category 5 storm that devastated Jamaica in October - relief effort on the Caribbean island, as they both have Jamaican parents.

In 2024, Scarlette spent nearly two weeks at the Harley Street Fertility Clinic undergoing a "5910 give or take" procedure to freeze her eggs.

And extracting her eggs means the pressure of fertility has gone.

Scarlette said: "As much as I was dating, and I wanted to find my person, it just took a huge weight off. I didn't have that stress of, 'I must be with this guy because I need to have kids.'"

And the star - who is ready to have children - thinks Kyle will be an incredible dad.

She said: "I've always been so business-minded and focused on my career, whereas now I'm like, 'I'm ready, and I've got a guy.'

"I know [he] would be the most amazing dad and I've got his family and I've got my family and I really do believe that it takes a village to raise a child and I have that village around me, so I'm like, 'OK, you know what, I think I'm ready', so we'll see what happens."
Meanwhile, some of the latest economic data in the US suggest a softer tone , which has boosted expectations that the Federal Reserve is approaching a turn in policy.

On the green side, two coins saw double-digit increases. Rain (RAIN) is up 14.4%, now trading at $0.008129.

Zcash (ZEC) follows with a 7.5% decrease to the price of $332.

At the top of the red list we find Canton (CC) . Its down 7.8% to the price of $0.07674.

Its followed by Dogecoin (DOGE)s 0.7%, which is now trading at $0.1359.

On the other side, the highest drop is 1.1% by XRP , currently standing at $2.02.

Two more coins are green this morning: Solana (SOL) and Binance Coin (BNB) . SOL is up by 0.7% to $127, while BNB appreciated 0.4% to $829.

Ethereum (ETH) is down by 0.5%, now changing hands at $2,810.

Bitcoin (BTC) appreciated by 1% since this time yesterday, currently trading at $87,010. This is the highest rise in the category.

At the time of writing, 3 of the top 10 coins per market capitalization have seen their prices rise over the past 24 hours, while the rest remained in red.

TLDR: The crypto market capitalisation rose on Tuesday morning (UTC) by 0.5%; 63 of the top 100 coins and 3 of the top 10 coins have gone up today; BTC increased by 1% to $87,010, and ETH fell by 0.5% to $2,810; The bottom may not be in; The market expects outsized swings as we head into the new year; There were $1 billion in liquidations in 24 hours; Key factors imply a meaningful probability of sub-$80K BTC to start 2026; Participants increasingly exit positions at a loss due to fading momentum and deteriorating sentiment; The markets remaining leverage is relatively well-contained, reducing systemic fragility and improving the prospects for a more stable consolidation phase; US BTC spot ETFs saw $8.48 million in inflows on 1 December, while ETH spot ETFs recorded $79.06 million in outflows; BitMine bought more ETH during the latest market downturn; Vanguard is opening its brokerage platform to crypto-focused ETFs and mutual funds; Crypto market sentiment has tumbled back into the extreme fear territory.

Despite starting the month with a drop, the crypto market is up today, even if slightly, with the cryptocurrency market capitalisation rising by 0.5%, now standing at $3.03 trillion. 63 of the top 100 coins have gone up over the past 24 hours. At the same time, the total crypto trading volume is at $163 billion.

Story Continues

Market participants are awaiting a fresh batch of economic data releases this week and any comment by the Federal Reserve that would indicate its direction.

Source: US Federal Reserve

Meaningful Probability of Sub-$80K BTC to Start 2026

Nick Forster, Founder at onchain options platform Derive.xyz, commented that markets plunged overnight. This happened as global liquidity tightened and confidence in crypto deteriorated further following the Yearn hack.

Moreover, global risk assets were hit by the Bank of Japans signal that it may raise rates. This increased fears that liquidity could dry up.

The market saw almost $1 billion in liquidations in 24 hours, with $400 million in BTC wiped out and $240 million in ETH perps liquidated.

Volatility surged in response, Forster says, and skew collapsed. The move reflects aggressive demand for downside protection as traders reposition for further weakness.

Skews sharp step lower shows traders stacking puts, especially into the December 26 expiry, where open interest has concentrated at the $84K and $80K strikes. That positioning implies a meaningful probability of sub-$80K BTC to start 2026.

He concluded that I dont believe the bottom is in. Short-dated volatility now sits above long-dated BTC volatility, signalling that the market expects outsized swings as we head into the new year.

Moreover, Bitfinex analysts found that the scale of the losses surpasses the realised-loss waves seen at the two major lows earlier in the current cycle, notably during August 2024 and April 2025. This signals a more pronounced erosion of confidence.

Such heavy loss realisation is characteristic of a market under stress, and one actively seeking liquidity as participants increasingly exit positions at a loss due to fading momentum and deteriorating sentiment, the analysts argue.

They noted that these spikes in realised losses historically tend to occur near the later stages of corrective phases, as price drops flush out weaker hands before stability can be restored.

The market is now operating on a leaner leverage base, which reduces the likelihood of sudden, liquidation-driven volatility and reflects a more cautious, defensive stance across futures markets, they said and added that the markets remaining leverage is relatively well-contained, reducing systemic fragility and improving the prospects for a more stable consolidation phase.

Levels & Events to Watch Next

At the time of writing on Tuesday morning, BTC stood at $87,010. The coin initially fell from the $86,800 level to the intraday low of $83,989. It subsequently and gradually increased to the intraday high of $87,155.

Over the past week, the price fell by 1.3%, trading in the $84,553$92,346 range.

Should BTC continue rising, it could take back the $90,000 mark. This would open doors for a push to $97,000 and $100,000. On the other hand, a drop would lead below $83,000.

Bitcoin Price Chart. Source: TradingView

Ethereum is currently changing hands at $2,810. It plunged from the days high of $2,844 to the low of $2,724. It has recovered to the current price since.

It decreased by 4.3% in a week, trading between $2,736 and $3,072 over the past week.

The price may now move below the $2,700 level and towards $2,500. If the tides turn, ETH has a chance to reclaim the $3,000 mark, followed by $3,130.

Ethereum (ETH)24h7d30d1yAll time

Meanwhile, after standing unchanged for three days, the crypto market sentiment has tumbled back into the extreme fear territory. The crypto fear and greed index stands at 16 today, compared to 20 yesterday.

Market participants are getting more concerned about the markets immediate trajectory.

Macro uncertainty continues to dominate. A BOJ tightening, ambiguity around a U.S. Fed cut, and softening demand from DATs like STRAT all weigh on sentiment, Nick Forster said.

Source: CoinMarketCap

ETFs Start December With Mixed Picture

The US markets were closed on Thursday for the countrys Thanksgiving holiday, then worked shorter on Friday.

On Monday, 1 December, the US BTC spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw inflows of $8.48 million. This hasnt done much to change the total net inflow of $57.71 billion.

Two of the 12 BTC ETFs recorded inflows, and one saw outflows. Fidelity added $67.02 million, while Ark&21Shares added $7.38 million.

At the same time, BlackRock recorded outflows for the second day in a row of $65.92 million.

Source: SoSoValue

Moreover, the US ETH ETFs broke the positive flows streak on the first day of this month, letting go of $79.06 million on Monday. With this, the total net inflow pulled back to $12.87 billion.

One of the nine funds recorded inflows, and four saw outflows. BlackRock is the only green company on this list, adding $26.65 million.

At the same time, Grayscale saw $49.79 million in outflows, followed by Fidelitys $31.62 million.

Source: SoSoValue

Meanwhile, Vanguard, the worlds second-largest asset manager, is opening its brokerage platform to crypto-focused ETFs and mutual funds.

Starting Tuesday, the firm will let clients trade third-party funds that primarily hold cryptocurrencies such as BTC, ETH, XRP, and SOL.

Moreover, BitMine Immersion Technologies bought more ETH during the latest market downturn, adding nearly $70 million worth of the coin in three days.

The company says it now holds around 3.7 million ETH at an average cost of $3,008 per token.

Quick FAQ

Why did crypto move against stocks today?

The crypto market has posted a small increase over the past 24 hours, while the US stock market closed the first session of this month lower. By the closing time on 1 December, the S&P 500 was down by 0.53%, the Nasdaq-100 decreased by 0.36%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 0.9%. Investors concerns about valuations of big tech firms and spending on AI is still quite high.

Is this rally sustainable?

This is not a rally, as the market barely moved today. Whats more, since the month began, the market is actually moving in a very tight range. While it may decrease in the short-term, analysts argue that it also has room to grow more.

You may also like: (LIVE) Crypto News Today: Latest Updates for December 2, 2025 The crypto market extended its decline, with Bitcoin briefly slipping under $84,000 before rebounding above $86,000, while most major sectors traded lower. Select tokens such as NEXO, ICP, FARTCOIN, PIPPIN, MERL, and SAFE managed to outperform despite the broader downturn. Meanwhile, a Miner Weekly report warns that Bitcoin miners are now operating in the most difficult profit environment in history, with hashrate revenue falling to around $35/PH/s, well below average costs as network... Read original story Why Is Crypto Up Today?  December 2, 2025 by Sead Fadilpasic at Cryptonews.com
New ETF issuers are cropping up left and right, but what happens when more established firms come knocking?

Product launches have broken records, with nearly 800 new funds hitting markets in the first three quarters of 2025, already beating last years total of 746. But nearly half of issuers with at least 20 products bring in a third of their annual revenue from their largest fund. While top issuers may have the resources to market all of their funds, some companies, especially those with a few hundred million in assets or less, can struggle. That leaves the door wide open for consolidation, a trend that could reshape how products are developed and marketed.

Combining and bringing ETFs together under common ownership makes a lot of sense, said Ben Fulton, CEO of WEBs Investments, adding that just 20% of sponsors actually have the operational setup to support their products without having to outsource.

SUBSCRIBE: Receive more of our free ETF Upside newsletter. READ ALSO: What Netflixs Deal With Warner Bros. Highlights About Leveraged ETFs and BlackRock to Launch Staked Ethereum ETF

Marketing Madness

Some issuers have innovative products but lack distribution bandwidth. By rolling in strategies under a larger name, however, they can garner assets instead of languishing in obscurity. That makes the ETF industry similar to pharmaceuticals, Fulton said, where innovative products are being developed by companies with fewer assets, and merging with larger firms is a necessary precursor to market penetration. Private equity may also play a role in helping smaller issuers better market their products, Fulton added. If PE rolls in smaller firms  or provides a tech stack or a team of wholesalers  theres more time for distributors to actually distribute.

Some recent examples of platform consolidation include:

Last month, the crypto trading platform FalconX agreed to buy UK-based ETF provider 21Shares.

In 2023, Amplify acquired ETF Managers Groups product lineup, pushing the formers total assets to over $8 billion.

There are some great ideas sitting in smaller firms that, if brought into a larger firm or if someone used it as a roll-up, these products would shine, he said. But sitting by themselves in a firm with only a handful of products and maybe two or three salespeople, its going to be tough to fight through the maze.

This post first appeared on The Daily Upside. To receive exclusive news and analysis of the rapidly evolving ETF landscape, built for advisors and capital allocators, subscribe to our free ETF Upside newsletter.
The struggling hospitals face imminent threat of closure by their bankrupt owner, Prospect Medical Holdings, without a sale by the end of the year. The Centurion Foundation, an Atlanta nonprofit received conditional approval to buy the facilities in June 2024 but has been unable to raise the money for the purchase. Amid delays and signals of closure, Gov. Dan McKees administration brought in Prime to gauge its interest as an alternative buyer.

True did not address how the settlement might affect Primes ability to buy Roger Williams and Fatima.

We appreciate the City of Woonsockets partnership in resolving tax assessments from the period before Landmark Medical Center was formally recognized as a nonprofit, Noel True, a spokesperson for Prime, said in a statement Tuesday. This agreement is the result of a collaborative process that reflects our shared commitment to supporting the hospitals mission and ensuring stability for the community. We look forward to continuing our strong relationship with the City and providing high-quality, compassionate care for the Woonsocket community for generations to come.

As part of the settlement, Prime and the city have agreed to toss the lawsuits with prejudice  meaning Prime cant bring the same complaint against the city again.

Fair perhaps to Prime Healthcare Services  Landmark LLC, the local charity owned and operated by Primes nonprofit foundation, which alleged in the trio of lawsuits filed in Providence County Superior Court in 2018 and 2019 that the city illegally inflated the assessed value of its Woonsocket hospital properties and equipment, leading to excessive tax bills from 2015 to 2018.

Its a lot of money, but its very fair, City Solicitor Michael Lepizzera told the council during its Monday meeting.

The extra money comes from a settlement with the city of Woonsocket, where Prime Healthcare Foundation owns and operates Landmark Medical Center. The Woonsocket City Council authorized the payment agreement with Prime under a resolution presented at its meeting Monday. The settlement resolves a longstanding dispute  including three lawsuits  over city tax assessments and bills to the hospital operator that began a decade earlier.

As Prime Healthcare crunches numbers on a potential purchase of Our Lady of Fatima Hospital and Roger Williams Medical Center, the income side of its ledger is poised for a $2 million boost.

Prime Healthcare will receive a $2 million refund over the next five years from the city of Woonsocket, where its local subsidiary owns and operates Landmark Medical Center. Could Prime be looking to add two more Rhode Island hospitals to its portfolio? (Photo courtesy of Prime Healthcare)

Story Continues

An attorney for Prospect told a Texas federal bankruptcy judge on Nov. 25 that he expected to have an update on a deal by Friday. True did not immediately respond to questions regarding the status of Primes due diligence on Tuesday.

The Centurion Foundation is on track to secure the investor-backed bond financing on or around Jan. 15, CEO Ben Mingle wrote in an affidavit submitted to federal bankruptcy court Monday. Centurion also asked the federal bankruptcy judge to deny Prospects motion to close the hospitals by Dec. 31.

We are very pleased the new financing process is now underway and we are eager to work with the States leaders to meet this financing schedule, Mingle said in an email Tuesday.

Attorneys for the parties are expected to provide an update at Fridays court hearing in Dallas.

A Ponzi scheme

Back in Woonsocket, the City Council is firmly focused on former Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt, who it blames for the costly settlement with Prime over Landmark taxes.

This is part of the Ponzi scheme that was being run out of this building by the prior administration, Councilor James Cournoyer said during the meeting.

He repeatedly referred to Baldelli-Hunt as the disgraced former mayor and her best-in-the-state tax assessor Elyse Pare, mocking the descriptor of Pare given by Baldelli-Hunt.

Baldelli-Hunt led the city for a decade before resigning abruptly in November 2023 in the wake of a land purchase that violated city charter rules, first reported by WPRI-TV 12. Since she left, city officials have continued to grapple with the fallout of her administration, from sloppy bookkeeping to employee turnover and a series of settlements with other companies and property owners over allegedly inaccurate property assessments.

Including the $2 million deal with Landmarks owners, Cournoyer estimates the city has spent $5.5 million to resolve disputes over excessive property tax assessments from Baldelli-Hunts administration, including with the owner of a pair of shopping centers on Diamond Hill Road.

This is part of a broader pattern, Cournoyer said in an interview Tuesday.

Baldelli-Hunt, however, turned the focus back on current elected officials.

Sometimes people find it easier to settle than to fight for whats right, Baldelli-Hunt said in an interview Tuesday. Theyre not fighting for the city of Woonsocket.

Sometimes people find it easier to settle than to fight for whats right. Theyre not fighting for the city of Woonsocket.

 Former Woonsocket Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt responding to criticism by City Councilor James Cournoyer

Pare, who left Woonsocket in 2019 to take a job as tax assessor for the city of Providence, did not immediately respond to inquiries for comment Tuesday. She left her job with Providence in 2021 and now owns a wine bar in East Greenwich, according to her LinkedIn page.

Baldelli-Hunt also said the tax years in dispute were a period of transition for Landmark Medical Center, which limited her authority over tax assessments. Prime bought the struggling hospital in 2013, following a five-year bankruptcy process. In 2017, Prime successfully converted the facility from for-profit to nonprofit status. Primes lawsuits also alleged the city wrongfully billed it for property and tangible taxes in 2018, even though as a federally recognized tax-exempt organization, it no longer had to pay local taxes.

Were getting hit twice.

Roger Williams and Fatima would also be returned to nonprofit status under a sale to either Prime or Centurion, the buyers said. Without new, voluntary agreements with the city of Providence and town of North Providence, the sale and change in status would cost the two municipalities a combined $8.5 million in property taxes in fiscal 2026, according to their leaders.

The city of Providence has not had any formal discussions with any buyers regarding an alternative tax payment schedule, Anthony Vega, a spokesperson for Mayor Brett Smileys office, said in an email Tuesday.

The City remains committed to doing everything possible to ensure the hospital continues serving the community while maintaining proper fiscal stability, Vega said.

North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi also said he had not spoken with Centurion or Prime about tax payments to the town.

Were hoping its for-profit so then we get tax dollars, Lombardi said in an interview Tuesday.

Woonsocket has forgone property and tangible tax payments from Landmark since 2019; it would have received more than $1 million in property tax revenue alone based on the $50 million assessed value of the main hospital facility.

The citys settlement payments back to Prime are spread out over the next five years, with an initial $250,000 payment by Dec. 31. Jim Lathrop, the city finance director, confirmed in an interview Tuesday that the city has enough money to make the first payment based on revenue from an October tax sale.

But fulfilling the future financial obligations to Prime might be difficult, Lathrop acknowledged.

In addition to the $2 million payments, the city has also agreed to suspend fees for water and sewer charges, and issue credits, equal to $80,000 by Sept. 1, 2029.

Were getting hit twice, Council President Dan Gendron said during the meeting.

Cournoyer warned of future tax hikes.

A $500,000 payment  the amount due each year for 2026, 2027 and 2028  represents 1% of the existing $55 million annual city tax levy.

That puts a considerable strain on finances, that will likely result in us having to raise taxes at a greater rate than we otherwise would have, he said.

Lathrop hinted that there be alternative savings strategies that would cover the settlement costs, but declined to specify when asked, awaiting action by the council.

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President Donald Trump said he "wouldn't have wanted a second strike" against an alleged drug vessel, following controversy stemming from a report that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered all people aboard the vessel be killed.

Speaking to press aboard the Air Force one, Trump was asked specifically about the report and whether a second strike that finished off survivors would have been legal.

"I don't know that happened and Pete said he did not even know what people were talking about. We'll look into it. I wouldn't have wanted a second strike. The first strike was very lethal. It was fine. Pete said that didn't happen. I have great confidence. Pete said he didn't order the death of those two men," Trump said.

Reporter: If there were a second strike that killed wounded people, would that be legal?



Trump: I dont know that happened and Pete said he did not even know what people were talking about. I wouldnt have wanted a second strike. The first strike was very lethal. It was fine. pic.twitter.com/UYikol8Tc7  Acyn (@Acyn) November 30, 2025

Trump was then asked if he had concerns on "how those boat strikes have been carried out," to which he said "very little." "You can see the drugs on those boats and each one is responsible for killing 25,000 Americans," Trump added.

Hegseth seems to be in hot water following the report, especially as Republican-led Committees in the House and the Senate announced they will conduct respective investigations regarding the incident.

Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, issued a statement along with Democratic counterpart Jack Reed vowing to investigate the reported order.

They claimed to be "aware of recent news report  and the Department of Defense's initial response  regarding alleged follow-on strikes on suspected narcotics vessels," and said they will be conducting "vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances."

Likewise, the leaders of the House Armed Services Committee, including GOP Rep. Mike Rogers, said they are "taking bipartisan action to gather a full accounting of the operation in question."

On Saturday, Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu said Hegseth may have committed a war crime if the reporting is accurate.

In a social media publication, Lieu told Hegseth that he read the DOJ memo exempting military members involved in the deployment in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific from prosecution and nothing in it "or military law, authorizes a second kinetic strike against defenseless survivors."

"If the reports are true, then a war crime was committed. Also there is generally no statute of limitations for war crimes," Lieu added.

The report in question noted that Hegseth ordered that all people aboard the vessel be killed by a U.S. strike in September, prompting the military to conduct a second strike to finish off survivors.

Citing two people with knowledge of the operation, the outlet detailed that a second strike was conducted to kill two survivors of the first strike, which had already destroyed the vessel and killed nine.

Originally published on Latin Times
                                                

                         

                                          
Given Streaming an hour of YouTube or Netflix produces 42 grams of CO2 or 500 times more than sending 2 texts to Gemini, and given a one-hour Zoom call generates 17 grams of CO2, roughly the same amount as creating a short AI video - are concerns about AI energy usage overhyped? Even AI image generation creates 1 gram of CO2 per image, about 10 times more than asking ChatGPT a question - so what's the story?

The average person in a developed country produces about 10 tons of CO2 each year, and more and more of that comes from using digital technology. A new study by data infrastructure provider TRG Datacenters analysed the electricity consumption and carbon emissions of common digital activities and AI applications to find which everyday technologies leave the biggest environmental footprint.

The research measured energy use in kilowatt-hours (kWh) and converted these figures into CO2 emissions. The analysis included everyday digital activities like streaming, email, and video calls, alongside AI applications such as chatbot queries, image generation, voice assistants, and text-to-video tools. Each activity was ranked by its average carbon footprint to show how different technologies compare in environmental impact.

Here's a look at the carbon footprint of different digital activities and AI applications - from TRG Datacenters:

You can access the complete research findings here.

TRG Datacenters explains further: "YouTube streaming and Netflix streaming tie for first place as the digital activities with the highest carbon footprint. Watching an hour of HD video produces 42 grams of CO2, whether on YouTube or Netflix. This happens because streaming requires constant data transfer and server processing for that entire hour. That energy use comes to 0.12 kWh per hour, which is more than any other activity measured in the study. For context, if someone watches two hours of streaming daily, that adds up to more than 30 kilograms of CO2 over a year.

"Text-to-video generation comes in third among the technologies leaving the biggest carbon footprint. Creating a short clip between 6 and 10 seconds produces 17.5 grams of CO2. These tools need significant computing power to generate video from text descriptions, using 0.05 kWh for just a few seconds of output.

"Next in the carbon emissions is a one-hour Zoom call during which 17 grams of CO2 are generated. Video conferencing requires 0.0486 kWh per hour, as it constantly encodes, transmits, and decodes video and audio in real time. This means that a daily hour-long work standup can create about 6 kilograms of CO2 over a year.

"Sending a short email ranks fifth in environmental impact, producing about 4.7 grams of CO2 per message without attachments. Email uses 0.0133 kWh for every message, and while one text seems minor, the billions sent daily add up. Someone sending 50 electronic texts a day would create about 85 kilograms of CO2 annually just from one email address alone.

"AI image generation is also on the list. These tools consume 0.003 kWh to turn text descriptions into pictures, and this means that creating one image with the AI tool produces 1 gram of CO2. Compared to video generation, this is 17 times less, but also 10 times higher than asking an AI chatbot a question."

"AI voice assistant queries rank seventh with 0.175 grams of CO2 for every question asked. Voice assistants like Alexa, Siri, or Google Assistant use 0.0005 kWh per query. The lower footprint comes from the fact that these systems process relatively simple commands and return quick responses. You'd need to ask your voice assistant about 240 questions to match the carbon levels from streaming one hour of video.

"Google search and AI chatbot queries share eighth place, both producing around 0.105 grams of CO2 per use. A single Google search uses 0.0003 kWh, the same amount as asking ChatGPT or similar chatbots a question. This means someone could perform about 1K searches or chatbot queries to equal the emissions from one hour of streaming.

"Gemini text prompts come last in the carbon footprint with 0.084 grams of CO2 for every two prompts. This works out to 0.042 grams per individual prompt, making it the lightest activity measured. Gemini uses 0.00024 kWh for two prompts, showing that different AI models have slightly different carbon emissions."

"The tech sector added roughly 900M tons of CO2 to the atmosphere in the last year, comparable to the annual emissions of Germany, said the TRG Datacenters spokesperson.

By the end of 2025, that number is expected to exceed 1.2 billion tons. The issue isn't whether we use technology (that's inevitable) but how we power it. Right now, only about 30% of datacenter energy comes from renewables. If we all gather efforts, and get that to 80% or 90%, we would cut the carbon footprint of every digital activity by more than half, without anyone changing their behaviour."
Cactus Compute, a Y Combinator Summer 2025 startup, teamed up with Nothing and Hugging Face to host a global 24-hour hackathon, bringing together hundreds of developers across three innovation hubs of London, Boston, and San Francisco alongside participants joining online from all around the world.

The event focused on a central belief shared by all three partners: the future of personal AI will live on the edge, not in the cloud. With new breakthroughs in on-device inference, Cactus (YC S25) is working to make private, responsive, offline AI a reality for everyday users offering mobile

developers and its customers the on-device innovation  the Cactus interference engine.

The Mobile Agent Hackathon challenged developers to create mobile applications powered entirely through on-device AI, encouraging Flutter, React Native, and Kotlin builders to move beyond simple wrappers and instead design applications that genuinely use local inference to solve real user problems. Participants focused on delivering experiences with complete data privacy, real-time performance, and fully offline capabilities  three pillars that underline why edge

computing is becoming central to personal AI.

Developers built their projects using Cactus, a new framework designed for high-performance local inference on consumer hardware. The Cactus SDK supports React Native, Flutter, Kotlin, and C++, and participants were encouraged to push the limits of modern mobile devices using advanced models such as Liquid Foundation Models, Smol, and Qwen3, along with several additional models optimized specifically for edge hardware. Together, these tools enabled teams

to deliver the kind of on-device intelligence that previously required cloud resources.

The hackathon offered three avenues for competition: a main track focused on building the best on-device AI mobile application, and two specialist challenges that explored emerging patterns in the edge AI ecosystem. The first, called The Memory Master, asked participants to create innovative local memory or knowledge-base systems for small on-device models. The second, The Hybrid Hero, invited teams to experiment with localcloud hybrid inference strategies,encouraging creative approaches to routing, synchronizing, and scaling intelligence across different environments.

The event took place between November 28 and 29 from 5 PM to 5 PMGMT, welcoming both solo developers and teams of up to three. The Mobile Agent Hackathon culminated in a set of breakthrough projects that demonstrated just how far on-device AI has evolved.

First place went to Obi-Wan Qwenobi (InnerSense), a keyboard-centric personal intelligence layer that captures typed moments across applications, classifies emotional tone locally using the Cactus SDK, and generates private behavioral memory embeddings that never leave the users device.

As the top team, they will receive a sponsored trip to San Francisco for a week, including lunch with a YC partner.

Second place was awarded to Lucid (formerly Bscribe), an AR-powered intelligence layer that seamlessly merges the digital world of email, calendar, tasks, notes with the physical environment using fully local inference. Each member of the team will receive a Nothing Phone (3) as their prize.

Cactus Compute is a YC S25 startup building the infrastructure for next-generation personal AI by enabling advanced models to run directly on consumer devices. Its SDK empowers developers to create cheaper, faster, private, offline-capable AI applications that eliminate reliance on cloud

inference.
Starbucks has agreed to pay about $35 million to more than 15,000 New York City workers after the city found the company failed to give employees steady schedules and often cut their hours without warning.

City officials announced the settlement Monday, calling it the largest worker-protection agreement in New York's history.

Under the deal, Starbucks will also pay $3.4 million in civil penalties and must follow the city's Fair Workweek law, which requires fast-food employers to give workers regular schedules and chances to pick up extra shifts.

According to the BBC, most hourly employees will receive $50 for every week worked from July 2021 through July 2024, and workers who faced violations after that period may file a complaint to receive compensation.

The settlement follows a city investigation that began in 2022 after dozens of Starbucks employees reported sudden schedule changes and major cuts to their weekly hours.

Officials said the probe expanded to every Starbucks location in New York City and revealed a "pattern of systemic violations."

Investigators found that many workers never received predictable schedules and often lost more than 15% of their hours, making it hard for them to plan for child care, school, or second jobs.

The city also said Starbucks regularly denied employees the chance to take on additional shifts, keeping many stuck in part-time roles they did not want.

HOLY SMOKES!



"Starbucks will pay about $35 million to more than 15,000 workers in what officials are calling the largest worker protection settlement in New York City history."



VENTI-sized accountability.  pic.twitter.com/NKnlPLqJ77  Fight for a Union (@FightForAUnion) December 1, 2025

Starbucks to Rehire Laid-Off Baristas

As a result of the settlement, baristas laid off during recent store closures in the city will now be eligible for reinstatement at other Starbucks locations.

Starbucks said it is committed to following all local laws and noted that New York City's scheduling rules are complex.

A company spokeswoman explained that the law is "notoriously challenging to manage," adding that Starbucks supports the intent of the policy and aims to stay in compliance moving forward, NY Post reported.

New York City leaders praised the settlement. Officials said all workers deserve reliable hours and fairness on the job, and they hope the agreement reminds large companies to follow worker-protection laws.

Workers say unpredictable schedules make it difficult to provide good service and keep up with rising living costs.

The strike has spread to more than 100 stores as employees demand a contract that ensures stable hours.

Originally published on vcpost.com
Emergency Flood Relief Appeal

The people of Sri Lanka are in immediate need of disaster relief and assistance following the floods and landslides that devastated the country due to the impact of Cyclone Ditwah.

Donations in CHF can be sent through the following Bank Account of the Consulate General:

Account Name: Consulate General of Sri Lanka Bank Name: UBS Switzerland AG Account Number (IBAN): CH35 0024 0240 2561 2130 A BIC: UBSWCHZH80A

Please write Sri Lanka Flood Relief in the reference /reason field when you make the transfer.

All donors are requested to email the proof of transfer to the email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with your name and postal code. An official receipt will be issued and emailed for each donation while the original receipt can be collected from the Consulate.

More information on flood relief assistance can be found via the links below:

https://donate.gov.lk/ Official donation portal:

https://mfa.gov.lk/en/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Pres-Release.pdf Other Government Bank accounts to make financial donations:

https://donate.gov.lk/urgent-relief-supplies-needed-for-sri-lank The list of items urgently required for disaster relief operations as at 01.12.2025:

https://mfa.gov.lk/en/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/relief-consignment-clearance.pdf Instructions for relief cargo clearance:

Any support that you can extend at this difficult time is greatly appreciated.

Emergency contact regarding disaster relief:

WhatsApp +94767566174 / Mobile+41782596530 (English/Sinhala)

WhatsApp+94742129869 / Mobile +41783291413 (English/Tamil)

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Switzerland
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XALAPA, VER. The remediation of damage caused by the flooding from Tropical Disturbance 90Ewhich impacted 38 municipalities in the northern region of Veracruzwill take at least two years, announced Governor Rocio Nahle Garcia. She will also have to oversee the reconstruction of damage from the 2024 weather events that her predecessor, Morena member Cuitlahuac Garcia Jimenez, left unfinished.

Infrastructure damage in northern Veracruz has forced the federal government to intervene, allocating millions of pesos for cleanup and support in the affected municipalities. However, according to information from the Technical Committee of the Civil Protection Trust Fund for the Attention of Natural Disasters and Other Emergenciescreated under Garcias administrationthere are still projects and actions pending from the 2024 fiscal year, the final year of his term.

Since 2019, this Committee has overseen the reconstruction of roads, homes, and schools damaged by rains and flooding between 2020 and 2023. Many of these works were completed during the first months of 2025, while others are still being finalized.

Other projects reported as completed were never delivered at 100 percent. For that reason, the Internal Comptrollers Office of the Veracruz Institute of Educational Infrastructure (IVEE) and the State Comptrollers Office initiated administrative proceedings against the company Infraestructura Carretera, Estudios y Mantenimiento S.A. de C.V., responsible for the construction of housing units. The company collected payment for the contracts but did not finish the work.

At the beginning of 2025, Finance and Planning Secretary Miguel Santiago Reyes Hernandez asked the Technical Committee of the Civil Protection Trust Fund to consult his department before authorizing payments or assigning new projects, explaining that all decisions must be approved by Governor Rocio Nahle.

The Pending Projects Left by Cuitlahuac Garcia

Following the creation of the Civil Protection Trust Fund for the Attention of Natural Disasters and Other Emergencies in 2019, numerous projects were planned to rebuild infrastructure damaged by weather events in Veracruz. Most of these projects were completed during the first half of 2025.

On December 27, 2024, the Technical Committee held a meeting with the newly appointed officials of Rocio Nahle Garcias administration. An update was presented on the status of remediation works carried out by agencies such as the Veracruz Water Commission (CAEV), the Veracruz Housing Institute (Invivienda), and the Secretariat of Infrastructure and Public Works (SIOP), among others.

Among the reports, the SIOP-OP-PE-060/2024 contractregarding reconstruction of the base course, asphalt layer, complementary works, and signage along the Las ChoapasNueva Esperanza highwayshowed 47 percent physical progress and 46 percent of payment issued. The road had been damaged by severe rains from October 30 to November 1, 2020, and the delay was attributed to recent weather conditions.

The SIOP-OP-PE-061/2024 contract, for the Las Lajas bridge in the municipality of Misantla, reported 85 percent physical progress and 81 percent payment. Damage resulted from severe rains on October 15 and 16, 2023, which affected six municipalities.

The SIOP-OP-PE-062/2024 contract included reconstruction of the Axalap bridge along the TezizapaAxalpa section in the municipality of Naranjal, damaged by rains on August 3 and 4, 2023.

Another ongoing project was the reconstruction of an unnamed bridge along the Bocanita de la EsperanzaEl LimonPuente Rebelde road in Actopan, damaged by Hurricane Grace in 2021. This project showed 90 percent progress and 89 percent payment.

In 2024, four additional projects were contracted to address severe rain damage from September 10 to 16, 2022, across 19 municipalities. SIOP, then headed by Elio Hernandez Gutierrez, assigned projects in Medellin de Bravo, Ignacio de la Llave, Cosoleacaque, and Jesus Carranza.

In Medellin de Bravo, reconstruction of Marco Antonio Aguirre Street was 91 percent complete, with 72 percent payment. In Ignacio de la Llave, rehabilitation of Ignacio de la Llave Streetbetween Guerrero and Miguel Lerdowas 65 percent complete, with 47 percent payment.

In Cosoleacaque, rehabilitation of Miguel Hidalgo Avenuebetween the Transistmica highway and Ignacio Zaragozawas 72 percent complete, but no payment had been issued to the contractor. In Jesus Carranza, rehabilitation of the concrete slab on Hidalgo Avenuebetween Galeana and Miguel Alemanshowed 19 percent progress, with no recorded payments and the project temporarily suspended.

Another pending project involved reconstruction of the pavement on Miguel Aleman Streetbetween Miguel Hidalgo and Moctezumain the municipality of Omealca, with 75 percent progress and 33 percent payment.

During the committee session, it was agreed that all executing agencies would present updated photographic reports at the next meeting to document physical progress. By June 2025, most projects were reported as completed or in the process of administrative closure.

However, in the June 12, 2025 session, it was reported that road and urban roadway projects had been rescheduled in Actopan, Coatepec, Zongolica, Naranjal, Las Choapas, Cosoleacaque, and Omealca due to various impacts from 2021Hurricane Grace2022, and 2023. Despite delays, these works must be completed in 2025.

Remediation in the North Could Take Two Years: Nahle

On October 22, speaking from the municipality of Boca del Rio, Governor Rocio Nahle announced that, with federal support, reconstruction efforts would focus on damaged infrastructure in 38 northern municipalities and on supporting families affected by flooding that began on October 10 and lasted about five days. The task is work, cleanup, reconstruction, and attention. Even if it takes one or two years, we are going to rebuild the roads together with the Federation, she said.

The governor noted that the remediation trust fund could have at least one billion pesos available, which will be used to recover roads, homes, and basic services in the region. On October 16, she signed a disaster declaration for all 212 municipalities in Veracruz due to damage from rains recorded between October 6 and 10.

During the review of Governor Nahles first annual report, Finance and Planning Secretary Miguel Santiago Reyes estimated that cleanup and reconstruction from the October floods will cost 10 billion pesos.

As of his report to local legislators on November 19, at least 4 billion pesos had been invested in aid to victimsfunded by the federal governmentand one billion from the trust fund. For the 2026 fiscal year, the state will have 800 million pesos available.

Preliminary reports as of November 28, 2025, counted 53,093 affected homes in 26 of the 38 impacted municipalities, as well as damage to 479 schools. Additionally, 37 people were reported dead and seven remain missing.

Regarding pending reconstruction projects from 2021 and those contracted in 2024 under the Cuitlahuac Garcia administration, some were reported as completed while others remain in the final stages.

In June of this year, the trust fund reported income of 110 million pesos, which was invested to generate returns. For 2026, the state budget projects the trust fund will have 283 million pesos allocated for reconstruction.

Trust Fund Already Has One Billion Pesos

As part of the review of Rocio Nahles first annual report during local legislative hearings, Finance Secretary Miguel Santiago Reyes detailed that the states reconstruction trust fund holds 1.029 billion pesos.

Meanwhile, the head of the Civil Protection Secretariat (SPC), Guadalupe Osorno Maldonado, added that 14 million pesos have already been spent from the fund as part of temporary employment programs implemented in Poza Rica and Alamo for cleanup work.

None of the officials disclosed the total amount of damage caused by the rains. However, the SPC secretary emphasized that executing agencies will receive increased budgets for 2026, which will be used to support reconstruction efforts in the 38 affected municipalities.

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Macau has not yet reached super-aged society status, but with residents aged 65 and above projected to account for more than one-fifth of the population by 2029, authorities are moving to get ahead of the curve.

Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture O Lam and Social Welfare Bureau director Wilson Hon used Fridays policy debate at the Legislative Assembly (AL) to set out plans to expand smart elderly care, strengthen services for seniors living alone, and accelerate fee waivers for the Peng On Tung Tele-Assistance Service.

O Lam said care for elderly people living alone or in two-elderly-person households will be stepped up, with the free use of the Peng On Tung service.

The service, operated by the General Union of Neighbourhood Associations of Macau (UGAMM), offers 24-hour emergency support for the elderly in Macau. It also provides outdoor safety tracking services with real-time location monitoring for personal safety and activity monitoring.

At present, the service website states that the first user pays a monthly fee of MOP100 to rent a device, while a second user living in the same household pays MOP50.

The IAS president also addressed the governments hopes to encourage more elderly residents to use the Peng On Tung tele-assistance service by phasing in fee waivers.

According to Hon, the first phase of fees being waived will add 3,000 slots next year, prioritizing people aged 85 and above who live alone or in two-person elderly households, while also expanding the Safe Pass or Outdoor Safe Pass for seniors living alone. The age threshold will then be lowered to 75 in 2027 and 65 in 2028.

The fees for the Peng On Tung service will be waived in phases for single-person and dual-resident families who need it, remarked the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture. She added, We hope to reach 14,000 people in the first three years. In the first phase next year, we will prioritize installing for single elderly living alone aged 85 and above  as well as for dual-resident elders. We also previously had a preliminary support scheme for solo elderly  which we will also expand.

According to its latest service data, Peng On Tung reported 4,586 users of its basic service and 1,399 users for its outdoor coverage. Since launch, the service has handled tens of thousands of emergency calls and hospital referrals, while its outdoor coverage has supported 3,612 cases of people seeking help or using location tracking.

Authorities also mentioned plans to develop an electronic map that uses community centers for the elderly as hubs  integrating services such as activity registration and meal ordering to make support easier to access.

O Lam said elderly care facilities will be planned according to the proportion of seniors in each service area  stressing that current arrangements are only a first step and will be adjusted over time. She added that once new census data is available, resource allocation will be fine-tuned  noting that efforts to improve services will not be interrupted.

Silver economy in the GBA

O Lam also described healthcare and age-friendly living environments as the core of Macaus senior living industry, which the government intends to further integrate into the Greater Bay Area (GBA) market. On smart elderly care, she noted that the mainland is advancing rapidly in related technologies  making the introduction of mainland products a fast and effective way to upgrade local services.

On extending support options for seniors who may choose to live or receive services outside Macau, the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture mentioned that the government plans to launch cross-border elderly care pilot projects in Zhuhai and Zhongshan.

The official also said that, in line with the national 9037 model  which calls for 90% home-based care, 3% community-supported care and 7% institutional care  and given the growing number of care and nursing homes, the government plans to add more than 1,000 beds in two new pre-nursing homes in the winter of 20282029  bringing the total number of beds in Macau to more than 3,700.

The 9037 model reflects survey findings by the National Health Commission.

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The last person to get their hands on a painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci shelled out more than $450 million at auction. Now, Italian cultural officials are making it possible to purchase a limited edition, certified digital copy of the Renaissance genius Lady with Disheveled Hair for roughly the price of a Lamborghini.

The Italian nonprofit Save the Artistic Heritage with its technical partner Cinello are providing well-heeled collectors the possibility of owning a literal projection of original Italian masterpieces, sized and framed to match the museum experience.

Participating museums sign a certificate of authenticity, and in return receive 50% of the profits.

We dont want to sell a piece of technology. We want to sell a piece of artwork, said John Blem, the Italian-born Danish entrepreneur who founded the initiative and who serves as chairman of Cinello and vice president of the nonprofit.

Revenue sharing is key

The revenue sharing is integral to the project, which aims to help cash-strapped museums access new income streams, and a key part of the sales pitch, Blem said. Over the last two years, Save the Artistic Heritage has contributed 300,000 euros ($347,000) to its Italian museum partners, with prices of the digital masterpieces ranging from 30,000 euros to 300,000 euros.

Contributing to the value, each is sold in a limited series of nine, representing the conventional number of statues that can be cast from a single mold and still be considered original.

The catalog of some 250 Italian artworks comes from about 10 Italian museums and foundations, including the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan, the Capodimonte in Naples and the Pilotta in Parma, which owns Leonardos unfinished painting on wood of a woman with windblown hair, which sold for 250,000 euros (nearly $290,000).

Blem and a partner are in the process of setting up a similar nonprofit in the United States that is expected to launch next year.

The Digital Experience

The digital artworks appear backlit on screens sized to match their originals, the luminescent effect bordering on Technicolor for such brightly colored masterpieces as Raffaelos The Marriage of the Virgin, which hangs in Milans Brera Art Gallery.

Others on display in the non-profits Milan offices, like Leonardos wind-swept portrait and Andrea Mantegnas Lamentation over a Dead Christ, are more subdued. On close inspection, details are visible down to the brush stroke, but without any texture that may belong to the original.

I must say that the digital copy of The Marriage of the Virgin has aroused in me and all those who have seen it a great deal of interest, said Angelo Crespi, the Brera Art Gallerys director. The perfection, the luminosity, the visibility of the painting is amazing. But at the same time it doesnt deceive.  When they get close, people can see that its a digital copy on a screen.

Digital technology has been gaining ground in the art space, including digital canvases and even TV sets that display rotating artworks and photographs.

The Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam has experimented on two limited-time projects: textured, multidimensional scans of selected masterpieces in its Relievo partnership with Fujifilm and the Meet Vincent Van Gogh interactive experience seen by more than 1 million people globally.

Luke Gartlan, the head of the University of St. Andrews art history department, said Save the Artistic Heritages project falls in a long tradition of Italian institutions using copies of artwork to help support their activities and preserve their collections.

Italian museums, bodies, have been at the forefront of these technologies, he said, citing the Alinari Archive in Florence, a collection of over 5 million photographic materials dating from the mid-1800s, and the Vatican Museums, which collaborated on ultra-high-resolution digital photography to create a detailed record of the Sistine Chapel.

A revenue source

The Brera museum last week launched another phase with Save the Artistic Heritage, with a second series of nine artworks that can be used to woo donors and for promotional purposes, reinforcing the fundraising mission. Roman numerals distinguish them from the commercial series.

The Brera gets 30% of its roughly 14 million euro budget from donations, sponsors and other projects, and just 10% from the state. The rest comes from tickets. Any new revenue source is precious.

Save the Heritage is not just making a sale, Brera director Crespi said. They are creating a system that allows anyone who buys an artwork to contribute to the museum.

How it works and whats next

The digital copies are projected onto screens sized to scale with original artworks in replica frames. The patented technology comprises a box that contains the digital copy that unlocks when in communication with Cinellos mainframe. Computer code makes each digital copy unique.

The technology is patented in Europe, the United States and China, places where Blem is looking to expand.

In a next phase, Blem hopes to be able to support so-called digital exhibitions of masterpieces that are only rarely if ever put on loan, bringing them to far-flung and remote places where access to museum quality exhibitions are rare. He calls them Impossible Exhibitions.COLLEEN BARRY, MILAN, MDT/AP

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Authorities say they will work with Gaode Maps, also known as Amap, to develop an accessible map of cultural attractions and improve accessibility information for visitors and residents with disabilities.

Lawmakers Leong Hong Sai and Nick Lei addressed the slow pace of accessible environment construction and legislation in Macau, prompting Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture O Lam to say that lawmaking on accessible environments is scheduled to begin by the end of next year, backed by preliminary research from a commissioned professional body.

On Friday, O Lam told lawmakers she will push cross-department and cross-sector cooperation to strengthen support for people with hearing and visual impairments in public services, signaling that accessibility will be treated as a government-wide responsibility rather than the responsibility of a single bureau.

She also stressed that when it comes to barrier-free construction in private projects, close coordination with the public works bureau is essential, and that advancing such requirements through that channel will be more effective in the long term.

Responding to lawmaker Chao Ka Chon, O Lam addressed concerns about disability assessment certificate renewals. She clarified that subsidies and benefits remain unchanged during the renewal period. She also said renewals typically take three to four months, but pledged that the process will be accelerated next year with the rollout of a unified household registration system, which should simplify verification and data sharing.

In a related measure to improve accessibility awareness in the city, the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) launched in July an online Barrier-Free Access Guide detailing accessibility at nearly 150 attractions, ports, hotels, and venues across Macau, including facilities such as elevators and accessible restrooms. Meanwhile, in relation to Gaode, MGTO announced last month that it had partnered with the Chinese mapping giant to launch the One-Click Smart Tour of Macau platform.

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The Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Raymond Tam, announced yesterday plans to increase Macaus taxi fleet, currently at around 1,400 vehicles, with a particular focus on cars designated for persons with disabilities.

The government also plans to consult on amendments to taxi regulations to pave the way for the introduction of ride-hailing services.

During a Legislative Assembly (AL) Q&A session yesterday, Tam addressed concerns raised by legislator Loi I Weng regarding the declining number of taxis in Macau.

Loi noted that the taxi fleet has decreased from approximately 1,900 at its peak in 2019 to around 1,460 currently.

She expressed concern, stating, Even with the recent approval of 100 new vehicles, the total will still fall short of 1,600. With these vehicles not entering service until the second quarter of 2026, the fleet will continue to shrink, particularly impacting the elderly and persons with disabilities.

Loi also questioned the governments tactics for scientifically regulating taxi supply, as mentioned in the Policy Address.

How does this scientific regulation differ from the current practice of issuing licenses based on market conditions and bidding? she asked. She further inquired whether specific targets for taxi growth would be established based on population, passenger volume, and public transport conditions, and what criteria would govern future taxi license issuance or revocation. Additionally, she sought clarity on when the accessible taxi fleet would be expected to enter service.

The legislator also highlighted the demand for ride-hailing services from both local residents and the significant influx of tourists each year, urging the Secretary to provide a timeline for their introduction.

According to a recently disclosed plan by the authorities, 100 taxis are planned in the short term, with an additional 700 taxis subject to age restrictions to be added in the near future, bringing the total fleet to over 2,000 vehicles.

Currently, there are seven accessible taxis, but this number is set to increase to 28, with the launch of 700 chain taxis next year expected to allow corresponding accessible taxis to gradually enter service.

Regarding taxi operations, we will introduce relevant conditions to double the number of taxis available for transporting persons with disabilities, pledged Tam.

The Secretary also revealed plans to initiate consultation work on amendments to taxi regulations, aimed at creating favorable conditions for establishing ride-hailing services. After completing the consultation, we will formally initiate the legislative process to amend relevant taxi regulations, Tam stated, outlining a timeline that targets entering the legislative process next year.

In light of concerning data, the legislator also urged an examination of the reasons behind the significant increase in taxi violations. From January to October of this year, violations surged by 163% compared with the same period last year. Key issues include overcharging, refusing passengers, and failing to pick up passengers in the correct order.

In response, Tam indicated a commitment to address the issue. We will collaborate with law enforcement agencies to study and combat taxi violations, he affirmed.

Redundant bus routes to be restructured



During the legislative session, another legislator raised concerns about bus route restructuring. In response, the Secretary acknowledged that some routes overlap by over 90%, and prioritization will be given to restructuring these redundant routes. Tam also discussed the feasibility of allowing public and casino shuttle buses to operate during typhoons on the Macau Bridge, indicating this requires careful consideration. Additionally, three new bus routes have been launched in Zone A, with future adjustments based on resident demand.

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The 25th Macau Food Festival concluded on Sunday after a 17-day run at Sai Van Lake Square, drawing steady crowds through its final evening.

Vendors reported brisk business as residents and tourists queued for snacks, desserts, and specialty dishes, keeping the venue lively until closing, the Times observed.

According to the organizing committee, overall sales grew by roughly 30% compared with last year, with some booths reporting double their usual turnover.

Festival convener Chan Chak Mo said favorable weather and the citys ongoing promotional campaigns helped boost foot traffic and spending.

He noted that local consumption incentives, along with multiple large-scale events held simultaneously, contributed to stronger results for participating merchants.

Many vendors also invested more in booth design and presentation, which Chan said helped create a more engaging atmosphere for visitors.

Chan observed that younger visitors continue to drive demand for creative food options. Drinks priced around MOP4050 and pastries in the MOP3040 range remained popular, with many customers prioritizing novelty over cost.

He added that overall business has returned to about 70% to 80% of pre-pandemic levels, though the festival previously included international exhibitors whose offerings were typically more expensive.

Post-pandemic editions have focused on local operators, and organizers have encouraged vendors to provide promotions such as late-evening bundle discounts to clear inventory, Chan remarked.

Meanwhile, the official said there are no immediate plans to reintroduce overseas participants, noting that many local small and medium-sized enterprises continue to face economic pressures.

Instead, the committee intends to maintain support for local businesses while rotating out 30 to 40 less-popular booths each year.

Preliminary discussions for next year include expanding performance programming and adding new attractions to enhance visitor appeal.

This year marked the festivals first implementation of a full smoking ban inside the venue, a change Chan said was well received by families.

Only two violations were recorded over the entire event. Several long-time vendors also reported improved turnout, attributing the uptick to the participation of more young entrepreneurs and stronger spending from family groups.

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November closed with gross gaming revenue (GGR) reaching MOP21.088 billion, a year-on-year increase of 14.4% compared to 2024.

November results from local casinos also account for an accumulated GGR of MOP226.515 billion in the first 11 months.

This figure, just short of the full-year GGR results for 2024, represents a year-over-year increase of 8.6%.

With another result well over MOP20 billion, November was the eighth month of this year in which the GGR results exceeded the average estimation from the government under Sam Hou Fai, which was set at an average of MOP19 billion per month, or MOP228 billion for the whole year.

At the moment, with just one month to go until the end of the year, the monthly GGR average is holding steady at MOP20.592 billion. This figure is also almost 3% higher than the forecast made late last year by the departing government of Ho Iat Seng, which predicted the 2025 GGR to be MOP240 billion for the year, or MOP20 billion per month.

Missing from Sam Hou Fais Policy Address for 2026, the forecast for GGR in 2026 was finally debated last week during the 2026 Budget discussion at the Legislative Assembly, with several lawmakers criticizing the governments MOP236 billion projection as too conservative and disconnected from reality.

At the time, lawmaker Kevin Ho went further in these criticisms, remarking that such a forecast signals a decline in the performance of the gaming industry and that, rather than being too conservative, it can send the wrong message to investors by revealing a pessimistic view of the local economy for the upcoming year.

The government forecast also differs from that of market analysts, with Morgan Stanley describing the gaming industrys outlook as positive in a memo released this week. The private bank noted that monthly GGR continues to grow over 10% year over year, forecasting a further 16% rise through April 2026.

A similar analysis was presented by Citibank, which said 2025 might close around MOP248.6 billion, representing 10% year-on-year growth, and forecast 2026 GGR to grow between 5% and 7% to MOP265.5 billion.

Last week, investment bank CLSA added to the chorus of those disagreeing with the government forecast, upgrading its 2026 GGR forecast to MOP259.11 billion.

CLSA analysts predict that GGR will rise by 5% year-on-year next year, with particular focus on the second half, when, they claim, gains will be more notable.

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Pope Leo XIV prayed yesterday at the tomb of a Lebanese saint revered among Christians and Muslims as he brought a message of peace, hope and religious coexistence to a region torn by conflict.

Bells rang out as Leos covered popemobile snaked its way through the rain and thousands of enthusiastic Lebanese lining his motorcade route into Annaya, around 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Beirut. Some waved Lebanese and Vatican flags and tossed flower petals and rice on his car in a gesture of welcome as he zoomed by.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims visit the hilltop monastery of St. Maroun overlooking the sea to pray at the tomb of St. Charbel Makhlouf, a Lebanese Maronite hermit who lived from 1828 to 1898. Believers credit him with miraculous healings that have occurred after people prayed for his intercession.

Leo prayed quietly in the darkened tomb, and offered a lamp as a gift of light for the monastery.

Sisters and brothers, today we entrust to St. Charbels intercession the needs of the church, Lebanon and the world, Leo said in French. For the world, we ask for peace. We especially implore it for Lebanon and for the entire Levant.

Leos visit to the tomb, the first by a pope, opened a busy day for historys first American pope. He received a raucous, ululating welcome from nuns and priests at the Our Lady of Lebanon sanctuary in Harissa, a town north of Beirut.

There, Leo urged the church workers to offer their flocks, and especially young people, hope amid lifes injustices.

It is necessary, even among the rubble of a world that has its own painful failures, to offer them concrete and viable prospects for rebirth and future growth, he said to cheers and shouts of Viva il Papa (Long live the pope).

In the afternoon, the pope was to preside over an interfaith gathering alongside Lebanons Christian and Muslim leaders in the capital Beirut.

A message of peace in a time of turmoil

There, Leo was expected to hammer home his core message of peace and Christian-Muslim coexistence in Lebanon and beyond at a time of conflict in Gaza and political tensions in Lebanon that are worse than they have been in years. His visit comes at a tenuous time for the tiny Mediterranean country after years of economic crises and political deadlock, punctuated by the 2020 Beirut port blast.

We, as Lebanese, need this visit after all the wars, crises and despair that we have lived, said the Rev. Youssef Nasr, the secretary-general of Catholic Schools in Lebanon who was on hand to welcome Leo at the Our Lady of Lebanon Basilica in Harissa, a town north of Beirut. The popes visit gives a new push to the Lebanese to rise and cling to their country.

More recently, Lebanon has been deeply divided over calls for Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group and political party, to disarm after fighting a war with Israel last year that left the country deeply damaged. NICOLE WINFIELD, ANNAYA, MDT/AP

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Tetra Pak has named Marcelo Perazzo as managing director for its Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Indonesia (MSPI) market group effective Dec. 1, 2025.

Perazzo, who will be based in Jakarta, Indonesia succeeds Michael Wu who has led the MSPI region previously.

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The MSPI market is strategically important for Tetra Pak due to its rapid development evolving consumer demands and strong appetite for innovation, the company said.

Perazzos appointment underscores the companys commitment to helping customers innovate operate more efficiently and deliver safe sustainable food systems, it said.

Perazzo brings nearly three decades of experience at Tetra Pak, spanning leadership roles in finance, marketing and sales. His career includes work in the Southern Cone and Iberia regions where he focused on unlocking growth and efficiency for customers.

Most recently, Perazzo served as sales director for Tetra Pak Iberia where he led strategic customer management.

Im excited to contribute to the continued growth of MSPI and to work alongside our customers in the region said Perazzo, who holds a degree in Economics from UADE University in Buenos Aires.

The food and beverage industry here is evolving quickly and I look forward to supporting our partners in achieving their goals through innovation and shared value, he said.

Tetra Pak said Perazzos proven ability to turn strategy into action would help customers stay ahead of market trends improve production efficiency and create high-quality sustainable products.
Ted Grant is not widely known outside of revolutionary circles, but he was the most important Marxist theorist since the death of Leon Trotsky, who alone predicted the course of world politics after WWII. Amongst other things, he foresaw the post-war economic upswing; the expropriation of capitalism in China and much of Eastern Europe; Stalins clashes with Tito and Mao; and much more besides. In this episode, his closest collaborator Alan Woods, the main leader and theorist of the RCI, reminisces about Teds life and works, and explains the importance of his contributions.

Born Isaac Blank in South Africa, Ted was a lifelong revolutionary whose political activity spanned more than 70 years. After emigrating to Britain in the 1930s, he played an instrumental role in building the forces of Trotskyism during the War. Unfortunately, the so-called leaders of the Fourth International, founded by Trotsky before his assassination in 1940, failed to grasp the latters method and utterly misunderstood the post-war world situation.

When Ted and his supporters attempted to present their point of view, they were bureaucratically expelled from the International, which soon degenerated even further and splintered into a series of irrelevant sects. Ted and his supporters eventually regrouped and established the most powerful Trotskyist organisation in the world, the Militant Tendency, which at its height was a household name with thousands of members.

But this success went to the heads of part of the Militants leadership, who downplayed Marxist theory and sought short cuts, eventually wrecking the organisation. Ted and a small group of supporters once again found themselves in the wilderness, and once more rebuilt their forces, laying the basis for the organisation today known as the Revolutionary Communist International. Though Ted passed away in 2006, the RCI preserves the traditions, ideas and objectives he exemplified and fought for all his life.

In todays episode, Alan talks about Teds legacy. He emphasises not only Teds brilliant mastery of Marxism, which gave him a huge advantage over his contemporaries; but also his humanity, his indignance towards all forms of injustice, and his profound sense of optimism. While the road to revolution is long and often difficult, Ted always said, there are two indispensable traits for any revolutionary: a sense of proportion and a sense of humour!

Aside from the organisation we inherit today, Teds main legacy can be found in his tremendous contributions to Marxist theory and analysis. The third volume of his collected works will be released in January 2026.

Pre-order your copy today!

Pre-orders for the US and Canada are currently available here. Pre-orders for Britain are available here.
The British government has withdrawn its financial support for TotalEnergies major liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Mozambique, dealing another setback to the long-delayed development in Cabo Delgado. The UKs export credit agency, UK Export Finance, has cancelled a planned loan of USD 1.15 billion, saying on 1 December that continuing to back the project would not serve British interests.

The decision affects several British companies involved, including Centrica, the UKs largest natural gas supplier, which had planned to purchase LNG from the facility.

Environmental groups welcomed the decision, arguing it reflects growing concern over human rights abuses and climate risks associated with the project. Lorette Philippot of Friends of the Earth said the move shows that major financial institutions are beginning to open their eyes to the dangers, adding that the conditions no longer justify such support.

The Dutch Government, which has provided around 1 billion in credit insurance, is also reviewing its participation amid similar human rights investigations. TotalEnergies USD 20 billion LNG project has been suspended for four years due to insecurity linked to armed groups, and the company has yet to comment on the UKs withdrawal.
Cameroonian opposition leader Anicet Ekane, aged 74, died in custody on Monday, December 1st, after being held since 24 October on charges of insurrection, his lawyer Emmanuel Simh confirmed.

E. Simh alleged that Ekane, who had been detained at Gendarmerie premises, was critically ill but deprived of proper medical treatment. The Defence Ministry rejected the accusations, stating that Ekane suffered from chronic conditions and had received care from the Military Medical Corps in coordination with his personal physicians.

According to the ministry, he had also been hospitalised at the National Gendarmerie Military Medical Centre. Authorities have launched an investigation to determine the circumstances surrounding his death.

Ekane, leader of the African Movement for New Independence and Democracy (MANIDEM), was arrested in Douala amid post-election protests triggered by allegations of fraud in the 12 October presidential poll. His arrest followed his endorsement of opposition contender Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who claimed victory in an election officially won by President Paul Biya, now 92. Tchiroma has since fled to The Gambia, citing security concerns as political tensions continue to reverberate across the country.
Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has described, on December 1st, the fight for justice over the 1944 Thiaroye Massacre, as a battle for the very soul of Senegal and Africa, as the country marked the atrocitys 81st anniversary on Monday.

Speaking at a solemn ceremony in Thiaroye, where French colonial forces killed West African soldiers who had fought for France during the Second World War, Faye said the tragedy must never fade from collective memory.

He emphasised that no people should again be denied their history or dignity, noting that archaeological excavations have been commissioned at the site, with France offering technical support. The president also pledged to strengthen the teaching of Thiaroyes history in school curricula to ensure future generations understand the events and their significance.

The commemoration, attended by families of the victims, diplomats and foreign guests, also heard from Mamadou Diouf, chair of the Thiaroye massacre committee, who stressed the need for deeper historical inquiry into the colonial eras unresolved injustices.

He called for African countries to intensify research and documentation efforts, insisting that truth must guide all remembrance.

The Thiaroye Massacre remains one of the most painful symbols of colonial violence: while French archives suggest between 30 and 70 soldiers were killed after demanding unpaid bonuses, historians such as Armelle Mabon estimate the death toll at around 400, many buried in mass graves now marked only by a symbolic cemetery.
South African Deputy President Paul Mashatile has hailed on December 1st the approval of lenacapavir, a long-acting HIV prevention injection, as a transformative development for the countrys fight against HIV.

He made this statement during World AIDS Day at Ga-Masemola Stadium in Limpopo on Monday. The injectable provides six months of protection with just two doses per year, offering a practical solution for individuals unable to adhere to daily pill regimens. SAHPRAs regulatory readiness in October makes South Africa the first African nation and third globally to register lenacapavir, marking a significant step for marginalised communities, including young women and key populations facing stigma.

Deputy President Mashatile emphasised the urgency of rapid access to life-saving tools, cautioning against repeating past delays experienced during the early antiretroviral therapy era. He described lenacapavir as more than a drug, framing it as a symbol of progress achievable when science, political will, and community demand converge. The government also highlighted efforts to close the treatment gap for 1.1 million individuals, particularly those who have faced barriers due to transport, stigma, or mobility between provinces, through initiatives such as the Close the Gap Treatment Acceleration Campaign.

South Africa continues to strengthen HIV testing, treatment, and prevention through community-led programmes and structural reforms aimed at dismantling stigma for vulnerable groups, including women, girls, sex workers, people who use drugs, and LGBTQIA+ individuals.

Mashatile framed World AIDS Day as a moment to celebrate progress while reinforcing commitment to ending the epidemic, leveraging innovations, compassion, and coordinated multi-sectoral efforts. The announcement coincides with international initiatives such as the Global Funds 8th Replenishment Summit, which seeks US$18 billion to support HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria responses globally.
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Tactile deficits in individuals with early-stage AD and model mice. Credit: Nature Neuroscience (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41593-025-02137-4

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative condition characterized by the progressive deterioration of brain cells, which prompts memory loss, a decline in mental functions and behavioral changes. Estimates suggest that this disease affects approximately 1 in 14 people who are more than 65 years old and over 35% of people who are over 85 years old.

Due to its prevalence and debilitating nature, AD has become the focus of numerous neuroscience and medical studies. Most of these studies examined brain regions and neurogenetic processes that appear to be different in people diagnosed with AD.

Recently, some neuroscientists gathered evidence suggesting that parts of the brain that support somatosensory processing (i.e., the interpretation of tactile stimuli, pressure and the body's position in space), are also affected in individuals with AD. Yet the extent to which these tactile sensation-related deficits play a role in the cognitive decline typical of AD has not yet been determined.

Researchers at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, the Chinese PLA medical academy and other institutes recently carried out a study involving both humans and genetically engineered mice, aimed at further exploring the link between changes in tactile processing and cognition in AD. Their findings, published in Nature Neuroscience, show that individuals with AD show detectable deficits in the perception of tactile stimuli and these deficits are correlated with cognitive impairments.

"Somatosensory processing has been shown to be correlated with brain development and cognitive function, but whether and how tactile sensory deficits affect cognition decline remains unclear," Yang Zhou, Wen-Lian Li and their colleagues wrote in their paper. "We show that tactile function is impaired in individuals with AD, and this impairment is inversely correlated with Montreal Cognitive Assessment scores and positively correlated with Tau pathology."

Tau pathology in spinal cords of PS19 mice correlate with tactile deficits. Credit: Nature Neuroscience (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41593-025-02137-4

An overlooked feature of AD

To carry out their experiments, Zhou, Li and their colleagues recruited a group of patients with AD. They then tested both the tactile sensitivity of these people and their cognitive abilities, using established experimental tasks. They also performed experiments involving genetically engineered mice with three gene mutations associated with AD in humans.

In addition to probing sensory processing and cognitive skills, the researchers looked at the prevalence of the protein Tau. In AD, this protein is known to become abnormally shaped and accumulate inside neurons, disrupting their function and ultimately leading to their death.

Finally, they focused on a population of cells known as cholecystokinin (CCK)-expressing neurons. These neurons produce the signaling molecule CCK and contribute to the transmission of tactile information from the spinal cord to the brain.

Zhou, Li and their colleagues found that people diagnosed with AD exhibited significant deficits in the perception of tactile stimuli, which were associated with their cognitive abilities. Specifically, more significant tactile sensation-related deficits were linked with lower scores on a cognitive ability test.

"We observed similar deficits in presymptomatic 3Tg AD mice and found that cholecystokinin (CCK)-expressing neurons in the spinal cord are highly vulnerable to Tau pathology," wrote the authors.

Could restoring sensory functions improve cognition?

The researchers identified a population of CCK-expressing neurons in the mouse spinal cord that appeared to be most vulnerable to Tau pathology and were damaged early. They then explored how mutant Tau in these neurons or the silencing of Tau altered gene activity, as well as the animals' ability to process tactile information and their mental functions.

"Expressing mutant Tau-P301S in spinal cord CCK-expressing neurons aberrantly activates the transcription factor c-Maf, inhibits CCK neurons and induces tactile deficits, whereas silencing Tau or c-Maf restores tactile sensation and improves cognition in AD model mice," wrote Zhou, Li and their colleagues.

"Together, these gain- and loss-of-function studies demonstrate that Tau pathology in spinal cord CCK neurons contributes to tactile dysfunction and cognitive function."

The results of this recent study could soon inspire other researchers to probe the link between tactile sensation and impaired mental functions in AD. If validated in future studies, they could eventually inform the development of alternative approaches to predict the progression of AD or even slow down the cognitive decline linked to the disease.

Written for you by our author Ingrid Fadelli, edited by Gaby Clark, and fact-checked and reviewed by Robert Eganthis article is the result of careful human work. We rely on readers like you to keep independent science journalism alive. If this reporting matters to you, please consider a donation (especially monthly). You'll get an ad-free account as a thank-you.

More information: Yang Zhou et al, Spinal cord Tau pathology induces tactile deficits and cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's disease via dysregulation of CCK neurons, Nature Neuroscience (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41593-025-02137-4. Journal information: Nature Neuroscience

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Credit: Molecular Therapy (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2025.11.021

A cancer-targeting antibody that helps the body's immune cells spot and destroy hard-to-treat tumors such as triple-negative breast cancer has been developed by researchers.

The University of Queensland's Associate Professor Fernando Guimaraes said the antibody recognizes a unique part of the ROR1 protein, which is found on many aggressive cancers but rarely on healthy cells.

"The antibody precisely targets cancer cells, helping the immune system kill cancer more effectively while aiming to spare healthy tissue," Dr. Guimaraes said. "This could translate to treatments that are both more effective and gentler."

Dr. Guimaraes, whose group at the Frazer Institute led the research, said the new antibody activated natural killer (NK) cellsa type of immune cell that destroys tumors. The researchers found the antibody worked best when combined with treatment that blocked a cancer immuno-suppressing signalTransforming Growth Factor-beta or TGF-. The research is published in the journal Molecular Therapy.

"We engineered 'super NK cells' to boost cancer control," Dr. Guimaraes said. "By giving NK cells a genetic upgrade and making them resistant to TGF-, we created enhanced immune cells that were able to find and destroy ROR1-positive tumors more efficiently in both laboratory and animal models.

"Triple negative breast cancer is an aggressive and difficult-to-treat cancer, with limited effective therapeutic options currently available. Our results open the door to new immunotherapy options, including an upgraded version of NK cells that are better at finding and killing cancer."

Dr. Guimaraes said the results provide a foundation for future research into clinical applications. "If successful in people, this approach could improve survival and quality of life by shrinking tumors with fewer side effects than some current therapies," he said. "In practical terms this could lead to clinical trials and, longer term, new treatment choices for patients who currently have few."

More information: Joshua K.M. Wong et al, Development of a high-affinity anti-ROR1 variable region for broad anti-cancer immunotherapy, Molecular Therapy (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2025.11.021 Journal information: Molecular Therapy
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Some blood pressure medications can make the skin extra prone to sunburn. A registry study from Lund University in Sweden shows a possible increased risk of basal cell carcinoma with certain blood pressure medications. The risk increase is relatively lowat most 9%.

"Blood pressure treatment should not be discontinued. But it's good if doctors inform patients that extra sun protection may be needed," says researcher Johan Kappelin.

He recently earned his Ph.D. in medical science at Lund University and is a senior consultant at the dermatology clinic in Landskrona, Sweden. In one of the studies included in his dissertation, he investigated the links between common blood pressure medications and cases of basal cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer.

The study is published in the journal Acta Dermato-Venereologica.

This cancer type is very common, with 70,000 newly discovered cases per year in Sweden. It often appears on skin that has been exposed to intense sun.

"Basal cell carcinoma is a rather mild form of cancer, with a low risk of spreading and low mortality. Treatment usually involves surgically removing the tumor, but it's often also possible to freeze or scrape it away," says Kappelin.

Previous studies, both Swedish and international, have shown a likely increased risk of various skin cancers in connection with antihypertensive medications. When focusing specifically on basal cell carcinoma, Kappelin used several large Swedish registries to identify possible statistical associations between the disease and blood pressure medication.

There are many different blood pressure medications, grouped by their active substances. These types were included in Kappelin's study:

Thiazides (diuretics)

ACE inhibitors (angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors)

Angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs)

Calcium channel blockers

Beta blockers

Among those who used thiazides, ARBs, and calcium channel blockers, the risk of basal cell carcinoma appeared to increase by 9%. For the thiazide group, however, this only applied to medications containing multiple active substances (so-called combination therapy). For beta blockers, the results showed a 7% increased risk. For ACE inhibitors, on the other hand, no increased risk was found; according to these study results, the risk even appeared to decrease slightly.

Kappelin is somewhat surprised that such similar risk increases were seen across several medication types.

"It's also a bit surprising that medications containing only thiazides as the active substance did not appear to increase the risk of basal cell carcinoma. At the same time, an increased occurrence of basal cell carcinoma was seen in people who received thiazides as combination therapy. Is the risk found in the other agent, or is it the combination itself that creates the risk?" he said.

Other questions requiring further research include whether factors such as skin type and/or certain lifestyle factors contribute to the risk of basal cell carcinoma during blood pressure treatment.

"The increase in basal cell carcinoma risk with these medications is quite small in our study, and at present we see no reason to change any recommendations regarding the use of these drugs. However, there may be reason to be extra careful with sun protection when undergoing blood pressure treatment," recommends Kappelin.

How the registry study was conducted

To determine possible statistical associations, researchers compared people with basal cell carcinoma to people without such a diagnosed disease.

The approximately 130,000 patient cases come from the national Basal Cell Carcinoma Registry. The control group consists of roughly twice as many individuals, drawn from the Swedish Population Register.

Data on prescriptions for antihypertensive medications came from the Prescribed Drug Register. Researchers also collected registry data on other ongoing medications and other diseases among the included individuals.

Many other factors were not examined in the study, such as skin type or lifestyle factors. Therefore, the researchers emphasize, it cannot be definitively determined that it is the blood pressure medications that cause the increased risk of basal cell carcinoma.

More information: Johan Kappelin et al, Antihypertensive Medication as a Risk Factor For Basal Cell Carcinoma: A Nationwide Registry-based Case-control Study, Acta Dermato-Venereologica (2025). DOI: 10.2340/actadv.v105.42749
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Spatial maps of intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs) identified using the NeuroMark framework developed at the TReNDS Center. Each map represents a distinct functional component of the brain involved in thought, perception and emotion. Credit: Georgia State University

A new study from experts with Georgia State University has achieved a long-standing goal in neuroscience: showing how the brain's smallest components build the systems that shape thought, emotion and behavior.

The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, could transform how scientists understand cognition and aging, as well as mental health disorders like depression and schizophrenia.

By combining brain scans with genetic data and molecular imaging, the researchers have uncovered a detailed biological map linking different levels of the brain and revealing the long-sought bridge between micro- and macro-level brain organization.

Vince Calhoun is a Distinguished University Professor with Georgia State and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar with faculty appointments at Georgia Tech and Emory University. He leads the collaborative tri-institutional Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science, or TReNDS Center, and is a senior author on the study.

"We found that the brain's large-scale networks are built on a hidden biological blueprint. By aligning data from cells, molecules and imaging, we showed that the same architecture seen in fMRI is rooted in cellular and molecular organization," Calhoun said. "Each dataset alone gives part of the story. Together, they reveal how chemical and cellular gradients actually help wire the brain's networks."

Calhoun said understanding this connection could help experts better understand mental health conditions and brain disorders. It could also offer new insights, like why some people stay sharp later in life and others don't.

Brain maps of cellular, neurotransmitter and mitochondrial distributions, representing the microscopic biological foundations of large-scale brain networks. Credit: Georgia State University

The research team combined brain scans that show how regions communicate over time. By capturing shifting patterns of activity called dynamic connectivitywith detailed maps of brain cells, chemical messengers like serotonin and dopamine, and energy-producing structures such as mitochondriathey were able to build a comprehensive picture of the brain's inner workings.

Using a statistical technique called mediation analysis, the researchers showed that these networks don't just correlate with biology and behaviorthey actively bridge the two, helping explain how molecular features influence cognition.

Guozheng Feng, the study's lead author and a postdoctoral research associate at the TReNDS Center, said the research reveals how certain brain networks act as middlemen, linking the microscopic biology of the brain (like specific cell types) to complex behaviors and mental processes.

"This study is bringing us closer to answering one of the most fundamental questions in neuroscience: how microscopic cellular and molecular foundations shape the brain's networks which, in turn, give rise to complex thought, emotion and behavior," Feng said.

"Many mental and neurodegenerative disorders involve both molecular imbalance and network disruption," Calhoun added. "This work shows these are linked. Understanding the biological foundation of networks could help us pinpoint which systems are most vulnerable in schizophrenia, depression or Alzheimer'sand why."

Jiayu Chen is a research assistant professor with the TReNDS Center who was part of the research team. Her work, using advanced brain scans, focuses on studying how genes influence the way the brain looks and works.

"This work helps answer a big question in neuroscience: How do cellular and molecular organizations underlie the architecture of functional brain networks, which influence the way we think, feel and behave?" Chen said. "We are now one step closer to those answers."

Calhoun said the collaborative TReNDS Center is uniquely equipped for these kinds of discoveries. He hopes to ultimately create a "map" that links each person's biology with how their brain networks function.

This could help doctors customize treatments specifically to their patients based on how their particular biology influences their brain's networks.

More information: Guozheng Feng et al, Cellular and molecular associations with intrinsic brain organization, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-66291-w Journal information: Nature Communications
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The number of people living with arthritis in Western Australia is projected to increase significantly by 2045, suggests a new Monash University led-report, in collaboration with Curtin University, Arthritis & Osteoporosis WA and HelloJP consulting.

Using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the report investigated the current and future burden of musculoskeletal conditions in WA to offer critical insights to inform long-term and responsive policy, planning, resource allocation and appropriate care for people who live with these common conditions.

Chronic musculoskeletal health conditions such as arthritis, low back pain and fractures due to osteoporosis are a leading cause of disability globally, affecting populations in all countries and across the lifespan. People living with these conditions experience pain, loss of function, reduced participation in valued activities and lower quality of life.

The report forecasts a dramatic rise in diagnosed cases and the cost of managing chronic musculoskeletal conditions in WA. By 2045, the number of West Australians living with arthritis is projected to increase to 609,858 (equating to an additional 177,874 people relative to 2025 numbers), the number of people with long-term back problems is projected to increase to 597,635 (an additional 135,130 people relative to 2025 numbers) and the number of people with osteoporosis is forecast to increase to 152,694 (an additional 51,780 people relative to 2025 numbers).

Lead author Professor Ilana Ackerman, Deputy Director of Monash University's Musculoskeletal Health Unit, said the increasing burden of musculoskeletal conditions presents both a challenge and an opportunity for the Western Australian health system.

"As the population grows and becomes older, and as demand for equitable, timely and person-centered care continues to rise, there is great value in building a more deliberate and coordinated approach to improving musculoskeletal health across sectors, particularly in emerging digital technologies to support self-care and clinical care delivery," Professor Ackerman said.

The report found for all of the projection years, the greatest burden of arthritis, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis will be experienced by females. By 2045 the number of females living with these conditions is expected to be 47% higher for arthritis, 74% higher for osteoarthritis, 68% higher for rheumatoid arthritis and 392% higher for osteoporosis when compared with the number of males.

The report also found that based on recent spending levels and the projected number of people with these conditions, annual health system expenditure for osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and long-term back problems is conservatively forecast to exceed $1.03 billion in 2025 and $2.25 billion in 2045.

Co-author Professor Andrew Briggs, from Curtin University's School of Allied Health, said our ability to plan for and provide appropriate care for people who live with musculoskeletal conditions well into the future hinges on a solid understanding of what the future health landscape looks like.

"Western Australia is unique; its demographic, population health and health service delivery contexts are different to other parts of the country. For these reasons we need local data on how to respond to a projected health burden," Professor Briggs said.

He said we will need to co-create responses for the system that scale up accessible, affordable, person-centered service models, especially for vulnerable groups, that support high value care, deploying digital health innovations and prioritizing investment in research and innovation for optimal musculoskeletal well-being.

Ric Forlano, the Executive Director of the Arthritis and Osteoporosis WA, said, "The projections are more than numbers, they tell the story of what the future may hold and why action now is so critical. Behind each data point is a person who may one day face the uncertainty and challenges of living with a chronic musculoskeletal condition.

"By investing in prevention, ensuring timely access to high-quality care and strengthening health workforce capabilities, these projections can help shape a future for WA where support is available when and where it is needed most."
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Comparison of antigen presentation and costimulation following immunization with Ad5, mRNA, and protein vaccines. Credit: JCI Insight (2025). DOI: 10.1172/jci.insight.198069

A recent study has provided the first side-by-side comparison of how three major COVID-19 vaccine types differ in triggering immune responses and sustaining protection, according to an analysis published in JCI Insight.

While three vaccine subtypes (adenovirus-based, mRNA, and protein-based) were widely deployed during the pandemic, investigators say their immunological profiles and optimal use cases are more nuanced than previously understood.

"During the COVID-19 pandemic, three main types of vaccines were used around the world: Adenovirus-based vaccines like the AstraZeneca, ChAdOx1, and Johnson & Johnson shots, mRNA vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna, and protein vaccines like Novavax," said Pablo Penaloza-MacMaster, Ph.D., adjunct associate professor of microbiology-immunology, who was senior author of the study. "All of them worked, but we didn't have a clear and rigorous side-by-side comparison of how they differ in the way they trigger the immune system This study was designed to fill that gap."

The study, conducted in mice, revealed that adenovirus-based (Ad5) vaccines induced the most sustained antigen expression lasting more than a week and produced stronger immune responses after a single dose. In contrast, mRNA vaccines elicited robust immune responses but only after two doses, and triggered early immune activation within just a few hours, which could explain transient side effects. Protein-based vaccines were the weakest overall, particularly for T-cell responses, but caused less inflammation, potentially making them more tolerable for individuals sensitive to vaccine reactions.

"The key takeaway is that different vaccine platforms work best under different conditions, so there isn't a single 'winner,'" Penaloza-MacMaster said. "The context matters. Adenovirus vaccines may be great in situations where you want more sustained antigen expression and for cheap and quick, one-shot protection, but only in people without preexisting immunity to the vector. However, mRNA vaccines could be better for booster strategies and in people who might already have been exposed to adenoviruses."

Looking ahead, Penaloza-MacMaster and his team plan to apply these insights to other diseases.

"The next step is to take what we've learned from this comparative study and apply it to challenging diseases, especially HIV, which has remained one of the hardest viruses to vaccinate against," Penaloza-MacMaster said.

"By understanding how different vaccine platforms like adenoviral vectors, mRNA, and protein interact with the immune system, we hope to identify combinations that generate more durable and protective immunity. For example, we have found that priming with adenovirus and boosting with protein (heterologous vaccine regimen) is particularly effective for antibody responses. However, the other way around is not as effective, so when it comes to vaccines, A+B is not always the same as B+A."

The findings underscore the importance of tailoring vaccine strategies to individual and population-level immunitya lesson that could shape the development of next-generation vaccines for COVID-19 and beyond, he said.

More information: Bakare Awakoaiye et al, Comparative analysis of adenovirus, mRNA, and protein vaccines reveals context-dependent immunogenicity and efficacy, JCI Insight (2025). DOI: 10.1172/jci.insight.198069 Journal information: JCI Insight
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

At the University of Oslo, psychologists and collaborators following Norwegian families identified a sizable group of children whose eating patterns centered on avoidant and restrictive intake and whose difficulties stretched across development with some genetic associations.

Children whose avoidant or restrictive eating persisted from age 3 to 8 years showed more developmental problems and higher rates of conditions such as autism, ADHD, and epilepsy. Common genetic variants explained 8% to 16% of variation in avoidant or restrictive food intake phenotypes and overlapped with mental health, cognitive, growth, and gastrointestinal traits.

Feeding challenges beyond picky eating

Many young children push plates away, refuse new foods, or eat only a narrow set of familiar meals. Previous work describes "picky eating" in roughly 10% to 15% of children at different ages in early childhood and about 5.5% when picky eating persists across childhood. Broader eating problems can include low interest in food, sensory sensitivities to taste or texture, or fear of discomfort and choking.

Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) entered the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases to capture clinically significant avoidant or restricted eating that is not driven by weight or shape concerns.

ARFID involves a limited variety or volume of food with consequences such as nutritional deficiencies or failure to meet energy needs. Prevalence estimates for ARFID and ARFID-like symptoms span from 1.5% to 64% across clinical and community samples, ages, and definitions, with a recent meta-analysis placing nonclinical prevalence around 4.5%.

Studies have linked ARFID symptoms and persistent picky eating to physical complaints, emotional and attention problems, social difficulties, and co-occurring neurodevelopmental and gastrointestinal conditions.

Twin work has suggested high heritability (79%) for ARFID, as well as for related traits such as food fussiness, fruit and vegetable liking, and early appetitive characteristics.

Even so, knowledge about how avoidant and restrictive eating emerges, persists, or resolves across development remains limited, and most existing studies come from North American settings. Few investigations have used genome-wide methods to examine a genetic background.

Norwegian children over time

In the study, "Prevalence, Characteristics, and Genetic Architecture of Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Phenotypes," published in JAMA Pediatrics, researchers used data from the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study to estimate the prevalence of avoidant and restrictive food intake phenotypes, to track associated developmental characteristics from infancy to adolescence, and to investigate genetic architecture using genome-wide association analyses.

MoBa, the national pregnancy cohort at the center of the work, recruited approximately 114,500 children, 95,200 mothers, and 75,200 fathers. Genotype data are available for about 80% of participants, drawn from blood collected during pregnancy for parents and at birth for mothers and infants.

For the main analyses, investigators focused on 35,751 children with reported avoidant/restrictive food intake (ARFI) data at both 3 and 8 years of age. That group included 17,515 girls (49%) and 18,236 boys (51%). Questionnaires provided information about ARFI-related behaviors at 3 and 8 years, and national health registries supplied diagnostic codes from primary care and specialist services, including eating disorders, nutritional problems, growth concerns, and several medical conditions.

Defining avoidant and restrictive patterns

Study measures captured ARFI in two nested ways. ARFI-broad identified children with at least one reported symptom of avoidant or restrictive intake at age 3 and/or 8 years.

Items differed by age and included, for example, "does not eat well," "fussy," care devoted to ensuring the child eats enough, low enjoyment of new foods, getting full easily, eating slowly, leaving food on the plate, or eating less when upset or angry. For each item, the highest response option, such as "very true" or "always," served as the threshold indicating that a symptom was present.

Children meeting this symptom threshold at either age 3 or 8 years were then grouped into three ARFI-broad patterns. A persistent pattern meant symptoms at both ages. A transient pattern meant symptoms only at age 3 years. An emergent pattern meant symptoms only at age 8 years.

ARFI-clinical requires ARFI-broad plus at least one clinical significance indicator related to nutrition or eating. Indicators included too little weight gain, body mass index below the 5th percentile at ages 3 or 8 years, delayed physical growth, abnormal weight loss, severe or unspecified protein-energy malnutrition, nutrition problems, vitamin deficiencies, and childhood eating or feeding disorder diagnoses.

Patterns of picky eating

From the 35,751 children with data at both ages, 11,468, or 32.1%, met criteria for ARFI-broad at age 3, age 8, or both, leaving 24,283 children, or 67.9%, with no ARFI-broad symptoms.

Within the ARFI-broad group, 2,129 children, or 6.0% of the entire sample, showed persistent ARFI-broad with symptoms at both 3 and 8 years. Another 6,338 children, or 17.7%, showed transient ARFI-broad at 3 years only, and 3,001 children, or 8.4%, showed emergent ARFI-broad at 8 years only.

Patterns shifted further when clinical indicators were taken into account. Across the full sample, 2,265 children, or 6.3%, met ARFI-clinical criteria. That group included 624 children with persistent ARFI-clinical, representing 1.8% of the total sample, 1,157 with transient ARFI-clinical, representing 3.2%, and 484 with emergent ARFI-clinical, representing 1.4%.

Weight loss and growth problems formed the largest category of clinical indicators within ARFI-broad groups. Among children with persistent ARFI-broad, 22.59% showed weight loss or failure to grow, compared with 14.88% of the transient group and 12.10% of the emergent group.

Nutritional deficiency diagnoses affected 6.48% of the persistent group, 3.66% of the transient group, and 3.67% of the emergent group. Eating disorder or feeding disorder diagnoses associated with clinical significance indicators appeared in 7.14% of children with persistent ARFI-broad, 1.66% of those with transient ARFI-broad, and 2.03% of those with emergent ARFI-broad.

Symptom patterns at each age also carried distinctive features. At age 3, 60.17% of children with persistent ARFI-broad were described as fussy, compared with 37.90% of children with transient ARFI-broad.

Within the persistent group at that age, 28.56% did not eat well, 10.05% were not happy eating food, 26.87% had caregivers who were very careful to ensure enough intake, 36.03% had caregivers who tried to get them to eat even when they said they were not hungry, and 35.60% needed guidance or regulation to eat enough.

At age 8, children with persistent ARFI-broad often displayed patterns that limited exposure to new foods and reduced meal volume. In that group, 28.18% did not enjoy tasting new foods, 20.29% got full easily, 28.89% ate slowly, 4.13% took more than 30 minutes to finish a meal, 14.61% got full before finishing, 30.81% did not enjoy a variety of foods, 38.09% were not interested in tasting new food, 8.92% ate less when upset, 13.95% left food on the plate at the end of a meal, and 10.85% ate less when angry. Children with emergent ARFI-broad at age 8 showed similar behaviors at lower frequencies.

Developmental and diagnostic connections

Children with persistent ARFI-broad did not differ from peers only at mealtimes. Standardized scores across reported measures of eating-related difficulties, language development, motor skills, emotional problems, attention and hyperactivity, restricted and repetitive behaviors, and aggressive or uncooperative behaviors were higher for this group from infancy through age 14 years, indicating more difficulties.

Statistical tests comparing children with persistent ARFI-broad to those with no ARFI-broad showed significant group differences at all ages for reported measures.

By age 14, adolescents with persistent ARFI-broad also reported less prosocial behavior than peers without ARFI-broad. Children with transient or emergent ARFI-broad generally showed intermediate levels of difficulty in descriptive trends, falling between the persistent and no-ARFI groups. Children with persistent ARFI-clinical showed the highest levels of difficulties across developmental domains in descriptive comparisons.

Later diagnoses reinforced the depth of difficulties among children with persistent ARFI-broad. Intellectual disability diagnoses appeared in 0.36% of children with no ARFI-broad and 1.50% of those with persistent ARFI-broad.

Global developmental delay diagnoses affected 0.37% of children with no ARFI-broad and 0.99% of those with persistent ARFI-broad. Autism diagnoses appeared in 1.70% of the no-ARFI group and 5.50% of the persistent ARFI-broad group.

ADHD diagnoses occurred in 5.32% of children with no ARFI-broad and 9.49% of those with persistent ARFI-broad. Epilepsy diagnoses appeared in 1.33% of the no-ARFI group and 2.25% of the persistent ARFI-broad group.

Genetic signals and shared risks

Broad cases for genome-wide association included 10,219 children with at least one ARFI symptom at age 3 years, 4,430 with at least one ARFI symptom at age 8 years, 13,128 with symptoms at age 3 or 8 years, and 1,521 with symptoms at both ages.

Clinical cases included 2,336 children with symptoms at age 3 or 8 years plus a clinical indicator and 452 with both symptoms at ages 3 and 8 years plus a clinical indicator. Controls included 26,107 children with no ARFI-broad at either age and no eating disorder or relevant general medical condition diagnoses.

Genetic differences at common DNA markers explained a modest but real share of which children showed avoidant and restrictive eating patterns. At age 3, common DNA variants together accounted for about 8% of the differences between children in broad ARFI. At age 8, that share rose to roughly 12%.

When eating problems came with clear clinical consequences, common genetic variants explained about 16% of the differences between children. Checks that used stricter ways of defining who counted as a case produced very similar results, with strong statistical support.

Analyses that compared genetic patterns across traits pointed to small to moderate links between ARFI and several other outcomes. Children who carried more genetic risk for avoidant or restrictive eating tended to carry less genetic loading for higher educational attainment and for stronger cognitive performance.

Genetic patterns also tied higher ARFI risk to lower adult and childhood body mass index and to a lower inherited tendency to prefer low-calorie and savory foods. The same variants lend an inherited tendency toward consuming caffeinated sweet drinks.

Shared genetic influences extended into gastrointestinal and neurodevelopmental conditions. Higher genetic risk for ARFI went along with higher genetic risk for inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, and celiac disease, as well as ADHD. Genetic overlap between ARFI at ages 3 and 8 years appeared substantial, indicating that many of the same common variants contributed at both ages.

Implications for children

Common variants accounted for 8% to 16% of variation in ARFI phenotypes, leaving substantial unexplained variance and limiting power to detect small-effect variants, especially in persistent ARFI-broad and ARFI-clinical groups.

Patterns in this Norwegian cohort show that avoidant and restrictive eating in childhood can be common and, for a substantial minority, persistent and clinically significant.

Only a few children with persistent avoidant or restrictive intake experienced developmental challenges, higher rates of neurodevelopmental and neurological diagnoses, and connections to growth and gastrointestinal problems.

Genetic signals, including two genome-wide loci and an association with ADCY3, along with broad genetic correlations across psychological, cognitive, anthropometric, food-related, and gastrointestinal traits, mark avoidant and restrictive intake as part of a wider biological and developmental landscape.

Awareness and early recognition of persistent patterns along with patient, broad-based support for affected children emerges as a central need within the picture drawn by the analysis.

Written for you by our author Justin Jackson, edited by Sadie Harley, and fact-checked and reviewed by Robert Eganthis article is the result of careful human work. We rely on readers like you to keep independent science journalism alive. If this reporting matters to you, please consider a donation (especially monthly). You'll get an ad-free account as a thank-you.

More information: Ludvig Daae Bjrndal et al, Prevalence, Characteristics, and Genetic Architecture of Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Phenotypes, JAMA Pediatrics (2025). DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2025.4786 Journal information: JAMA Pediatrics

 2025 Science X Network
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A confidential internal memo from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is creating new controversy around vaccine safety after an agency official said the COVID-19 vaccine may have played a role in the deaths of at least 10 children.

The memo, which was obtained by The New York Times, has not been released publicly or reviewed by outside scientists.

It also does not include important details such as the children's ages, medical histories or how the FDA reached its conclusions about the vaccine's role in the deaths.

Still, the memo reflects a major change in how the agency is talking about vaccine safety.

The memo was written by Dr. Vinay Prasad, head of the FDA's vaccine division. In the note to staff, he said the deaths appeared to be tied to myocarditis, a rare type of heart inflammation that has been seen in some people after COVID vaccination.

"For the first time, the U.S. FDA will acknowledge that COVID-19 vaccines have killed American children," Prasad wrote.

He also said he plans to recommend a series of new reviews and stricter oversight for vaccines in general, although it is unclear whether the White House has been briefed on these plans. Any changes would still need to get a federal review before taking effect.

For years, public health leaders (including those from the Trump and Biden administrations) have strongly supported COVID vaccines, referring to them as lifesaving during the height of the pandemic.

Researchers note that myocarditis linked to the vaccine has typically been rare and quick to improve, especially compared with myocarditis caused by the COVID virus itself.

Infectious disease specialist Michael Osterholm said the timing of the memoright before a major CDC vaccine meetingappeared intentional.

"This is an irresponsible way to deal with a very critical public health issue like vaccination and adverse events," he said.

Other critics said the memo leaves out essential context. Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatric vaccine expert at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told The Times that the memo is an example of science "by press release."

He noted that children treated for vaccine-related myocarditis at his hospital typically recovered quickly.

"On the other hand, we saw children admitted to our hospital with myocarditis from the virus," he said. "It was quite severe and caused admissions to the intensive care unit."

Among Prasad's recommendations:

Requiring vaccine trials to include all groups, including pregnant women

Reassessing the yearly flu vaccine update process

Asking companies to run larger studies on vaccines given at the same time (such as flu and COVID shots)

Requiring long-term studies of pneumonia vaccines to prove they prevent disease, not only create antibodies

If adopted, these rules could make vaccine development more costly. Experts also warn this could also fuel mistrust at a time when measles, whooping cough and other illnesses are rising across the globe.

Prasad also used the memo to criticize past vaccination mandates, saying school and workplace requirements "coerced" people into receiving COVID shots.

His predecessor, Dr. Peter Marks, said the document's tone was unusually political and that the reported cases should be carefully reviewed.

"I would not be surprised if the attributions turn out to be debatable, as these cases are often quite complex," Marks said to The Times after reading the memo.

More information: Learn more about the role of the FDA.

 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
High Level Delegation Visits WEF as follow-up to Davos

Professor Klaus Schwab, Chairman of the World Economic Forum and

South Asia team leaders with members of the Sri Lanka delegation at the WEF Headquarters in Geneva



Following the participation of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and delegation at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos in January, a Sri Lankan delegation consisting of senior government officials and representatives from the private sector engaged in a two-day follow-up meeting at the World Economic Forums headquarters in Geneva. Coordinated by the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the UN in Geneva, the visit was aimed at strengthening the engagement between Sri Lanka and the WEF and to identify specific areas of engagement. The WEF, is the world leading "platform" that brings global political leaders, private sector leaders and thought leaders together to engage, discuss and deliberate and learn from each other.

During their visit on 21-22 March, the Sri Lanka delegation met Professor Klaus Schwab, Chairman of the World Economic Forum and several Managing Directors and senior teams representing different initiatives of the international organization. Coming two months after Sri Lankas participation in Davos, this visit highlighted the strong commitment of both the Sri Lanka government and the WEF to forge a new chapter in cooperation and collaboration between the two parties. The discussions centered on engagement by Sri Lanka across several areas of the WEF initiatives: Economic Growth and Social Inclusion, International Trade and Investment, Agriculture and Food Security, Future of Production Systems and the Future of Internet.

In introductory remarks, Sri Lankas Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha emphasized the importance of availing of the present momentum in collaboration with the WEF to ensure tangible benefits to Sri Lanka. While focusing on concrete next steps in the already identified areas, he also encouraged seeking out other areas where there was considerable scope for public-private sector partnership, such as in developing the resurgent tourism industry, where the extensive network and best practices available in various WEF platforms could benefit Sri Lanka.



The delegation from Sri Lanka led by Mr. Mangala Yapa, Managing Director (Designate), Agency for Development, Ministry of Development Strategies & International Trade, included Mrs. Sonali Wijeratne, Director General of the Department of Commerce, Dr. Rohan Wijekoon, Director General of the Department of Agriculture, Mr. Asitha Seneviratne, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Dr. Ajith Madurapperuma, Member of the Board of the ICT Agency, and Mr. Anushka Wijesinha, Chief Economist of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. Sri Lankas Permanent Representative to the WTO Ambassador R. D. S. Kumararatne, Sri Lanka's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Mrs. Samantha Jayasuriya and Second Secretary Mrs. Mafusa Lafir, were also associated in the meetings.



During the meetings at the WEF, the Sri Lanka delegation also discussed opportunities for Sri Lankan government agencies as well as Sri Lankan companies to engage in future WEF initiatives, and the specific next steps currently being planned. The World Economic Forum has already invited several policymakers from Sri Lanka to attend the 25th World Economic Forum on ASEAN taking place in Kuala Lumpur on 1-2 June and the Annual Meeting of the New Champions, which will be held this year in Tianjin, Peoples Republic of China on 26-28 June.

During their stay in Geneva the Sri Lankan delegation also held discussions with senior officials and programme managers of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and UN Institute for Research and Training (UNITAR), to explore potential areas for cooperation. At WIPO, meeting with a team led by Mr. Mario Matus, Deputy Director General/Development Sector, the delegation focused on the importance of using Intellectual Property (IP) as a tool for development. The need to evolve a coherent IP Strategy for Sri Lanka and integrating IP into innovation policy formulation in Sri Lanka by involving a wider base of stakeholders was emphasized. At UNITAR, meeting with a team led by Mr. Alex Mejia, Officer-in-Charge, potential support to help meet the capacity building needs in Sri Lanka, including developing youth entrepreneurial skills, integrating Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), waste management and the use of UNOSAT capabilities in agriculture, disaster management & mitigation etc. was discussed.

On March 23, the Sri Lanka delegation also traveled to Bern where they had bi-lateral consultations with officials of Switzerland's State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) led by Ms. Christine Busser Mauron, Head, Bilateral Economic Relations Asia/Oceania. The focus of the discussion was on Swiss SME policy and Innovation Policy, and best practices that could be of relevance to Sri Lanka.

Press Release in PDF



Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to UN in Geneva

25 March 2016
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Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Kegoratile Aphane did not flinch when the needle pierced the skin of her right buttock, injecting a yellow-colored drug touted as a revolution that could end the HIV pandemic.

The 32-year-old was among the very first South Africansand Africansto receive a dose of lenacapavir, a drug taken twice a year that has been shown to reduce the risk of HIV transmission by more than 99.9%, making it functionally akin to a powerful vaccine.

"I didn't even feel any pain," she said with a relieved smile after receiving the two injections that form the first dose.

Five other patients received lenacapavir Tuesday at a clinic outside of Pretoria as part of an implementation study by a Wits University research unit and funded by the international health agency Unitaid, which works on ensuring equitable access to medical innovations.

The study would enroll 2,000 people and "follow them for at least a year to understand how this prevention option works in real life", according to the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (RHI)'s Saiqa Mullick.

'Life-changing'

With close to one in five adults living with HIV, South Africa has one of the highest rates in the world, and reported last year the highest number of new infections for any single country170,000.

Until now, the best available prevention drug for HIV-negative people was through a daily pill.

The twice-yearly lenacapavir jab would be "life-changing", said the clinic's manager Magdaline Ngwato, especially for young people who struggled to maintain the daily schedule of the pill and groups like sex workers or LGBTQ patients who wanted to be discreet.

"Now with the injection it will be fine, because you can do it secretly," she told AFP, adding that many people had already expressed interest.

"Even mothers said they will send their children to come get it," Ngwato enthused. "I think we are going to have a lot of HIV-free generations."

For Aphane, the decision to take the groundbreaking treatment was deeply personal.

"I just lost my mom in 2021she was HIV positive," she told AFP with emotion.

"It's a very, very, very painful disease. So that's why I (am) so serious about this. Let me be safe and try this."

Twenty-year-old student Katlego, who asked to speak under a pseudonym, was "proud" to have received one of the very first doses.

"You won't know what the future holds, you might get raped or your partner might infect you without knowing. So it's important for us to take care of ourselves," she said.

A broader national rollout is expected next year, starting with 400,000 doses that would be received through a deal between lenacapavir's manufacturer Gilead Sciences and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS.

While lenacapavir currently costs around $28,000 a year in the United States, generic versions are expected to be available from 2027 at around $40 per year in more than 100 countries through agreements by Unitaid and the Gates Foundation with Indian pharmaceutical companies.

The rollout could usher in a different world for Aphane's daughters and future grandchildren, she said.

"The more they introduce it, the more they talk about it, the more they show (it) everywhere, it will save lives," she said.

 2025 AFP
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Physicians have worked to earn the trust of their patients for nearly 2,400 years, dating back to the days of Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine. Lucky for Hippocrates that his patients didn't have internet access.

How internet information affects trust

A new study published in Frontiers in Medicine by University of Florida Health researchers suggests that distrust of the health care system, including government health agencies, is seeping into the doctorpatient relationship and threatening the delivery of care.

The study noted that people with low trust in the health care system are more than six times more likely to say their interaction with a doctor worsened after they brought information from the internet to their medical visit.

The correlation remained true regardless of a patient's political leaning.

Study lead author Arch Mainous, Ph.D., a professor and vice chair of research in the UF College of Medicine's Department of Community Health and Family Medicine, said many patients turn to social media, online forums or self-described experts who often espouse misinformation.

"It really comes down to trust," Mainous said. "This is not explained by politics."

These individuals then arrive at appointments, he said, expecting their doctors to validate what they found online. When that leads to disagreement, Mainous noted, their relationship suffers.

"We have treated trust in the health system or in government health agencies and their advice as being a silo different from the patient-doctor relationship," Mainous said. "What our study shows is that distrust can infect this in-person relationship, too. And when that trust falters, it's going to affect the delivery of health care."

Survey findings and implications

The study analyzed national survey data from more than 2,500 adults who had discussed health information they had found on the internet with a medical provider in the prior year. Respondents to the National Cancer Institute's 2024 Health Information National Trends Survey provide a representative sample of U.S. adults.

The study noted that only a third of those surveyed said they had "a lot" of trust in the health care system. Those reporting low trust were much more likely to say their interaction with a doctor worsened after looking up online medical information. "If they don't trust one source of information, then they'll turn to another," said Mainous.

Among patients with high trust, only 3% reported that their doctor-patient interaction worsened after discussing online information with their doctor. But among those with low trust, that number jumped to 17%. Low-trust patients were also significantly less likely to report that their doctor was open or respectful during the conversation.

Mainous said the results signal a shift that physicians cannot ignore. Even if the information a patient finds is inaccurateand the study did not attempt to judge the accuracy of that materialdoctors must now navigate those conversations in ways that preserve their relationship with the patient.

Maintaining trust in the doctor-patient relationship

Mainous emphasized that it is not improper for a patient to be engaged in their medical care and to seek information online.

"They may have found an article or a testimonial that says a treatment doesn't work," he said. "But it's up to the doctor to say, 'I hear you. Let's talk through why the treatment I recommend is the best for you.'"

Doctors must listen respectfully and with empathy, a skill Mainous said most already possess.

Patients still largely trust their personal doctor, he noted. But that trust is no longer protected from broader skepticism about the health system. And if the trend continues, Mainous said, doctors might one day face even stronger headwinds.

"The patientphysician relationship is so critical to delivering quality health care," Mainous said, "that we cannot ignore it."

More information: Arch G. Mainous et al, Patient trust in the health system, Internet information searching and the patient-provider relationship, Frontiers in Medicine (2025). DOI: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1665927
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Between 0.7% and 1.5% of people in developed countries are estimated to suffer from intellectual disability (ID). In Spain, this is equivalent to more than 400,000 people. The term intellectual disability refers to a set of significant limitations in intellectual functioning and learning that manifest before the individual's 18th birthday as a result of genetic, acquired (congenital and developmental), environmental and sociocultural factors.

Researchers from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) are now seeking ways to empower young people and adolescents with ID by boosting their self-determination "to enhance their decision-making and goal-setting skills, act independently and purposefully and trust their own abilities," said Sergi Fabregues, a researcher at the Nutrition, Food, Health and Sustainability (Nutraliss) group at the UOC's eHealth Center. "Many families report not knowing or not fully understanding the concept of self-determination, which is often confused with autonomy."

The paper, "Development of a family-centered intervention to support self-determination in adolescents and young adults with intellectual disability in home environments: Protocol for a multistage mixed methods design," published in PLOS One, presents an innovative international research methodology that will lead to the design of an evidence-based intervention, providing the families of young people and adolescents with ID and the professionals who work with them with strategies to enhance their self-determination.

To carry out the proposed study, the researchers will recruit families with an adolescent between 16 and 22 years old with intellectual disability and mild or moderate support needs who attends a special education school. The study, which will employ both qualitative and quantitative methods, will be carried out in three stages: an initial stage involving structured interviews and using the photo elicitation technique with families to find out how they support self-determination at home; a mapping stage in which the young people, families and professionals involved will identify possible practical strategies to boost their self-determination at home, and a final stage involving the design of a family-centered intervention.

"Several studies have shown that increasing self-determination improves the quality of life of people with ID in areas such as academic performance, emotional well-being and employment prospects. On a personal level, self-determination fosters their autonomy and helps them make decisions, set goals and gain a better understanding of the consequences of their actions.

"All this can only be achieved with the family's crucial involvement and appropriate support," said Fabregues, a UOC researcher and leader of the project, which includes researchers from institutions such as Canada's Memorial University of Newfoundland, Colombia's Universidad del Norte, and Spain's University of Navarra, University of Zaragoza, Comillas Pontifical University, University of Deusto and University of Barcelona.

The family context, a key factor in self-determination

The family environment has been shown to be crucial in enhancing self-determination among young people and adolescents with intellectual disability. Parents shape their children's behavior and interactions from early childhood, a role that is particularly important for individuals with ID.

"Their families help them develop skills such as problem-solving, defending their opinions and setting goals. They also make decisions regarding their children's learning opportunities and create environments that can either support or restrict their self-determination. In the case of young people and adolescents with ID, family plays a particularly significant role, because these individuals face barriers not encountered by their peers," said Fabregues, who is also a member of the UOC's Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences.

Examples of strategies that can be helpful in fostering the self-determination of individuals with ID include arranging spaces at home to enhance autonomy; giving them choices, such as what to have for a meal or where to go on a family outing; allowing them to make everyday decisions; helping them set personal goals, whether in relation to household chores or for work or education; and expressing satisfaction and praise for their achievements, such as tidying their room without prompting, making a meal or making a decision for themselves.

After the first interview, families will be asked to take photographs of situations that help increase their children's self-determination, which they will later explain to the research team. "We use this techniquephoto elicitationbecause, while the first interview provides a general overview, the photographs help us discuss specific examples. This is very useful for identifying specific strategies that can later be used to design the intervention," said Fabregues.

A useful guide for families and professionals

The project has already started, with 15 families interviewed so far. The plan is to design an intervention proposal in the form of a practical and family-friendly guide over the coming year. "We want to publicize these strategies, as many families report not knowing or not fully understanding the concept of self-determination, which is often confused with autonomy. Another goal is therefore to help them understand the true meaning of self-determination, so that they can support their children in further developing this ability over time."

The next step will be to carry out a new study to verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the intervention and its reception by families. The research project has been registered in the Open Science Framework.

More information: Sergi Fabregues et al, Development of a family-centered intervention to support self-determination in adolescents and young adults with intellectual disability in home environments: Protocol for a multistage mixed methods design, PLOS One (2025). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0325919 Journal information: PLoS ONE
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Acute myelocytic leukemia (AML). Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A new generation of targeted treatments and gentler chemotherapy options for older adults with a new diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is driving better survival and cure rates.

Led by Mikkael Sekeres, M.D., M.S., chief of the Division of Hematology at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, the updated 2025 American Society of Hematology (ASH) AML treatment guidelines, appear in the journal Blood Advances. In addition, the updated guidelines will be presented Dec . 7 at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting in Orlando.

"The landscape of AML treatment has changed dramatically with more effective therapies," said Sekeres. "Our clinical studies have led to FDA approval of three drugs to treat acute leukemia over the past two years."

But incorporating these new drugs into patients' regimens is a long process.

The evolution of AML treatment

AML is a fast-growing cancer that disrupts the production of normal blood cells. While it can affect people of any age, AML is most common and often more aggressive in adults older than 60. Treating AML in this group can be especially challenging, as age and other health conditions can make intensive treatments risky. Finding the right balance between effective therapy and tolerable side effects is critical.

A physician-scientist, Sekeres led the 2020 and updated 2025 official ASH AML guideline panels. The panels include leukemia experts, geriatricians and patients who reviewed and discussed the best available research. The guideline recommendations aim to walk patients and their doctors through the AML treatment decisions in a meaningful and relevant way.

For decades, the standard treatment for AML was intensive chemotherapy to destroy leukemia cells and induce remission rapidly. Even just 20 years ago, two-thirds of people over 65 didn't get access to chemotherapy.

"We developed these guidelines to mirror the experience of an older adult's conversations with their doctor as they're considering treatment. The very first of those conversations is whether or not a person should receive any treatment," said Sekeres. "We didn't shy away from hard questions that patients and doctors ask, and I'm really proud of that."

Over the last decade, treatments such as gentler chemotherapy regimens, low-dose treatments, targeted therapies, and immunotherapies have improved AML care. More older adults are achieving remission and even pursuing cures like bone marrow transplants.

While AML treatment is more personalized, the decisions are more complex. "We're tailoring therapy more and more for each patient based on their age, fitness and genetic profile," said Justin Watts, M.D., Sylvester's chief of the leukemia section in the Division of Hematology. "Their genes tell us if they qualify for targeted therapies and can predict their risk level for relapseso tell us if they need a transplant."

Significant changes to treatment guidelines

In most cases, older adults should be offered treatment for AML, not just supportive care, the new guidelines say. Patients who are healthy enough, especially those in their 60s or with favorable disease genetics, should still get intensive chemotherapy.

If a patient isn't a candidate for intensive chemotherapy, they should consider lower-intensity options like hypomethylating agents (azacitidine or decitabine) or low-dose cytarabine. These treatments can be combined with venetoclax, a targeted therapy.

If genetic testing finds a specific gene change, older adults should be offered targeted therapies as part of their AML treatment plan. Patients with FLT3 mutations should receive a FLT3 inhibitor, and those with IDH1 or IDH2 mutations should receive a combination of azacitidine with targeted inhibitors, such as ivosidenib or venetoclax.

When a patient is in remission, they may be a candidate for a bone marrow transplant. Transplants can help older adults live longer, so the committee overwhelmingly recommends them for more patients with high-risk diseases, said Sekeres.

Improvements in the transplant process and the use of donors who are not a perfect match have made this an option for more people. If a patient isn't a candidate for transplant, they should continue post-remission therapy with gentler combination treatments, the guidelines say. These maintenance therapies can help prevent relapse.

"Finally, we made recommendations regarding blood transfusions for people who are getting palliative care or hospice," Sekeres said. Many hospices deny people with leukemia transfusions, "so we very definitively said that we consider blood product transfusions as a part of palliative care and hospice."

The future of AML treatment: What's next?

Even with these new guidelines, updates will likely be needed in the next few years as treatments continue to evolve. Ongoing research into new drugs, such as MENIN inhibitors, and combinations with existing therapies like venetoclax may further extend remission and improve outcomes in older adults with AML.

New, advanced tools are helping researchers better detect minimal residual disease and understand relapse riskleading to better decisions about who needs a transplant, said Watts. "We're making steady progress every year by better defining patient groups," and finding the right treatments for them, he added.

"We're moving more patients into the 'favorable benefit group'the group of patients who do well on these new therapies and live longer."

More information: Mikkael A Sekeres et al, American Society of Hematology 2025 guidelines for treating newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia in older adults, Blood Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1182/bloodadvances.2025017934 Journal information: Blood Advances
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Asia Pathogen Genomics Initiative (Asia PGI) has offered the first public preview of PathGen, an AI-powered sense-making and decision-making support platform for pathogen genomics and contextual data.

Designed for public health practitioners, clinicians and industry, it can help detect emerging disease threats earlier, assess risks faster, and coordinate responses within and across borders, all without compromising countries' ownership of their respective sovereign data.

The objective is to strengthen health security across Asia and beyond, reducing lives lost and livelihoods disrupted, and the economic impacts of communicable diseases.

The preview demonstration, hosted by the Duke-NUS Center for Outbreak Preparedness (COP) and Temasek Foundation, showcased how PathGen could integrate diverse data sourcespathogen genomics, clinical information, population data, climate, and mosquito habitat patternspowered by the latest AI technology and foundation models to provide enhanced situational awareness and decision-making support through timely, high-quality, actionable insights.

The result: Faster decisions taken with higher resolution and greater confidencefor example, guiding decisions on when to adjust treatment protocols, where to deploy vaccines, and how to allocate resources, before outbreaks spiral out of control.

More than 100 attendees, comprising senior health officials from the region, as well as philanthropic, scientific and technology partners, were at the preview and discussed governance, strategy, and next steps for regional deployment.

In a symbolic show of regional commitment, partners from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam placed their hands on the PathGen logo to affirm their pledge to co-create PathGen as a shared public good for regional health security, while partners from the Philippines joined virtually.

Credit: Duke-NUS Medical School

Mr. Ong Ye Kung, Singapore's Minister for Health and Coordinating Minister for Social Policies was the guest-of-honor at the PathGen preview.

PathGen is housed by Asia PGI, which is led by the Duke-NUS Center for Outbreak Preparedness. A coordination and capacity development hub advancing pathogen genomics sequencing for early detection, control and elimination of infectious diseases in the region, Asia PGI convenes more than 50 government and academic partners across 15 countries, with Singapore as its nerve center.

Asia PGI and PathGen are propelled by three key catalytic fundersthe Gates Foundation, Temasek Foundation, and Philanthropy Asia Alliance. Four development partnersAmazon Web Services (AWS), IXO, Sequentia Biotech, and Sydney ID at the University of Sydneyare contributing core technologies and expertise to bring PathGen from concept to practice.

Why now?

Traditional epidemiological surveillance reports what is happening (e.g., counts of disease cases, hospitalizations, etc), while genomic surveillance has the potential to reveal the "who, where, and how" infections emerge in populations. But today's systems are often hindered by siloed, non-interoperable databases that do not share information with one another, limited contextual data, data sovereignty barriers and policy constraints that slow responses and limit preparedness.

Urgent action is needed to overcome these barriers as rapid population growth, unprecedented mobility, climate disruptions and antimicrobial resistance are driving more frequent and complex disease outbreaks across human and animal populations.

Recent AI breakthroughs which underpin PathGen allow better synthesis of genomic, clinical, population, environmental, and mobility data to help make timely clinical and public health decisions.

A "federated," "sovereign-by-design" platform such as PathGen shares only the analytics; the underlying raw data is not moved or centralized to one location and remains under the control of the respective country/owner, enabling cooperation without compromising data integrity or eroding trust.

Professor Paul Pronyk, Director of Duke-NUS' Center for Outbreak Preparedness said, "This proof of concept shows how AI and pathogen genomics can work together to provide actionable intelligence for clinicians and public health authorities. By sharing only essential insights, countries can respond faster to outbreaks while strengthening trust and sovereignty."

Dr. Lee Fook Kay, Head of Pandemic Preparedness, Temasek Foundation said, "Every delay between detecting a pathogen and making the right public health decision costs lives.

"Temasek Foundation is catalyzing PathGen, as it can integrate genomic information with other relevant surveillance, population and environmental data sources into timely insights that health authorities can act upon. A shared intelligence system that protects sovereignty, cuts response time, and stops outbreaks before they become crisesthat's the future of health security and preparedness!"

Shaun Seow, CEO of Philanthropy Asia Alliance, added, "PathGen fills a critical gap with a decision-support platform built for Asia's needs and complexities. It enables shared intelligence without compromising data sovereignty, helping us better prepare for the next pandemic. Through our Health for Human Potential Community, we're proud to support this effort to strengthen public health resilience across the region."

What's next?

PathGen will advance from proof-of-concept towards a launch-ready platform over the next 18 months, with pilots from early 2026 and a staged roll-out through 2027.

These efforts will be supported through the Asia PGI network of country partners. Country-level engagement aims to help define priorities and technical needs; establish plans for secure in-country deployment; set governance and benefit-sharing arrangements; deliver core analytics and decision support tools with integration to national systems; build capacity for public health laboratories and implementation teams; and provide regular briefings and demonstrations to align partners on strategy, governance, and next steps.
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Graphical abstract. Credit: Cell Reports (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2025.116602

When blood cancer in children progresses particularly aggressively, it is often due to a genetic defect: a gene fusion, such as the NUP98 fusion oncoprotein, which drives uncontrolled cell growth. Standard therapies are often ineffective against this form of acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

A promising therapeutic approach for this type of blood cancer is the targeted degradation of these cancer-causing fusion oncoproteins. However, the molecular mechanisms controlling the stability of NUP98 fusion oncoproteins were previously unknown.

Using the CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing tool, the research team led by Florian Grebien, Adjunct PI at CeMM, Professor of Medical Biochemistry at Vetmeduni and research group leader at the St. Anna Children's Cancer Research Institute, searched for genes that influence the stability of the cancer-causing NUP98 fusion protein.

The paper is published in the journal Cell Reports.

They discovered the protein SPOP (E3 ligase Speckle-Type POZ Protein) as a central regulator: it controls the stability of the NUP98 fusion protein and simultaneously acts as a natural tumor suppressor in NUP98-r AML.

The findings reveal a novel approach to redirect the cell's natural degradation systemthe so-called ubiquitin-proteasome system. This could enable the targeted degradation of pathogenic fusion proteins in the future.

"The loss of SPOP increases the levels of NUP98 fusion oncoproteins, thereby promoting the proliferation of leukemia cells. By exploiting this specificity, we demonstrated that inducing spatial proximity between SPOP and the NUP98 fusion oncoprotein resulted in the complete degradation of the fusion oncoprotein. This induced terminal differentiation and cell death in NUP98-r leukemia cells both in vitro and in vivo," explains the study's senior author, Florian Grebien.

SPOP as a tumor suppressor in NUP98-r leukemia

SPOP has previously been associated with several human malignancies, where it can act either as a tumor suppressor or as a cancer-promoting factor, depending on the type of cancer. In their study, the researchers observed that both pharmacological inhibition and genetic disruption of SPOP led to increased levels of NUP98 fusion oncoproteins and enhanced proliferation of leukemia cells.

"Consistent with its potential role as a regulator of NUP98 fusion oncoprotein stability, SPOP expression was consistently low in NUP98-r AML patients, suggesting a tumor-suppressive role for SPOP in NUP98-r leukemia," says the study's first author, Ecem Kirkiz from the Vetmeduni.

Foundation for new therapies in NUP98-r AML

Since SPOP naturally binds well to NUP98 fusion proteins, the researchers took the next step by developing synthetic molecules called bioPROTACs. BioPROTACs are laboratory-designed biological molecules that specifically bring the two proteins together, triggering the degradation of the cancer-causing protein.

The expression of an SPOP-bioPROTAC led to the efficient and complete degradation of the NUP98 fusion oncoprotein within 24 hours, promoted the terminal differentiation of leukemia cells, and induced an apoptotic response in cell cultures and in vivo.

"Our study identifies SPOP as a novel tumor suppressor in NUP98-r AML, pioneers the application of proximity-inducing agents for the degradation of oncogenic fusion proteins and lays the foundation for the development of therapeutically relevant PROTACs to combat NUP98 fusion oncoproteins and beyond," says Ecem Kirkiz, highlighting the milestone achieved in the research of NUP98-r leukemia.

More information: Ecem Kirkiz et al, Harnessing the E3 ligase SPOP for targeted degradation of the NUP98::KDM5A fusion oncoprotein, Cell Reports (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2025.116602 Journal information: Cell Reports
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Proposed methodology framework. Credit: Operational Research (2025). DOI: 10.1007/s12351-025-00978-2

While telehealth use surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, some U.S. counties struggled to use resources efficiently, revealing widespread misallocation of health care infrastructure, workforce and technology, according to new research from the University at Buffalo School of Management.

Recently published in Operational Research, the study found significant inefficiencies with telehealth in the Midwest and across rural regions of the U.S., largely tied to limited broadband access, workforce shortages and challenges in people's everyday lives that make it harder to stay healthy.

"Telehealth was vital during the pandemic, but despite similar policy support nationwide, efficiency varied dramatically," says study co-author Raj Sharman, Ph.D., professor of management science and systems in the UB School of Management.

"For example, while counties in California had more urgent care centers and longer staff hours, structural shortages in the workforce, and with facilities and connectivity in states like Montana prevented efficient use, even with favorable policies."

The researchers used data envelopment analysis (a method of measuring efficiency) and machine learning to examine Medicare fee-for-service claims from more than 3,000 counties across the U.S. and found that several states, including Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wyoming, showed the lowest telehealth efficiency, while California, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island ranked among the most efficient.

Their findings show that the top factor in both urban and rural areas was limited English proficiency among residents. Counties with more residents who struggle with English consistently exhibited lower telehealth efficiency, underscoring the need for expanded multilingual support and culturally competent care. Other major predictors of telehealth inefficiency included median income, education levels, incentive program disbursements and political orientation.

In the future, Sharman says policymakers should tailor resources to local needs rather than relying on one-size-fits-all broadband initiatives.

"Telehealth cannot solve health care inequalities without targeted investment in workforce capacity, patient education, language accessibility and community-aligned planning," says Sharman. "Expanding access is not the same as ensuring effective telehealth use."

More information: Ying-Chih Sun et al, Optimizing telehealth utilization during COVID-19: enhancing efficiency and equity through data envelopment analysis and machine learning, Operational Research (2025). DOI: 10.1007/s12351-025-00978-2
BOI represents Sri Lanka at the World Investment Forum 2014





Hon. Lakshman Yapa Abeywardhana highlights the importance of private sector engagement in achieving Sustainable Development Goals Hon. Lakshman Yapa Abeywardhana highlights the importance of private sector engagement in achieving Sustainable Development Goals

Hon. Lakshman Yapa Abeywardhana, Minister of Investment Promotion led Sri Lanka delegation to the World Investment Forum 2014(WIF), held in Geneva from 13-16th October 2014.

The Hon. Minister addressed the High Level Ministerial Round Table held on 16th October, as part of the World Investment Forum 2014. The event gathered over thirty Ministers from many countries across the world as well as heads of International Organizations to debate the need of the private sector to be a vital partner to public sector efforts in achieving sustainable development goals(SGDs).




VIENNA (AP)  The United States and Russia have both recently threatened to resume nuclear testing, alarming the international community and jeopardizing a global norm against such tests.

Experts say these threats from the worlds two largest nuclear powers put pressure on nonproliferation efforts and endanger global peace and security.

Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis, U.S. President Donald Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site at the end of October. That process will begin immediately.

Moscow quickly responded.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Security Council that should the U.S. or any signatory to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty conduct nuclear weapons tests, Russia would be under obligation to take reciprocal measures.

Heres is a look at what a resumption of nuclear testing could mean.

The treaty established a norm against nuclear testing

Concerns about the negative effects of nuclear weapon tests grew in the 1950s when the U.S. and the Soviet Union carried out multiple powerful atomic tests in the atmosphere. As a result, a limited nuclear test ban treaty was negotiated that prohibited such tests but underground tests were still permitted.

Renewed international efforts to ban all nuclear tests resulted in the start of negotiations for a comprehensive treaty in 1994, culminating in its adoption by the U.N. General Assembly in 1996.

With 187 states having signed the treaty and 178 having ratified it, most experts believe the treaty has established a norm against atomic testing  even without formally entering into force.

For the treaty to officially take effect, 44 specific states  listed in an annex to the treaty  must ratify it. Nine of them have not yet done so.

China, Egypt, Iran, Israel and the U.S. signed but didnt ratify it. India, North Korea and Pakistan neither signed nor ratified the treaty. Russia signed and ratified the treaty but revoked its ratification in 2023, saying the imbalance between its ratification and U.S. failure to do so was unacceptable in the current international situation.

Alongside the treaty, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization was established in Vienna. It runs a global monitoring network to detect nuclear tests worldwide, operating 307 monitoring stations, using seismic, hydroacoustic, infrasound and radionuclide technologies.

The organization is financed mainly through assessed contributions by its member states. Its budget for 2025 is more than $139 million.

China and India would profit from resuming tests

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington, said that a resumption of U.S. atomic tests would open the door for states with less nuclear testing experience to conduct full-scale tests that could help them perfect smaller, lighter warhead designs.

This would decrease U.S. and international security, he said.

Joseph Rodgers, fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that states such as China or India stand to profit from a resumption of nuclear tests.

It makes more sense for them to test than it does for the U.S. or Russia, the two states who have conducted most atomic tests to date, Rodgers said.

The U.S. conducted its last nuclear test in 1992. Since 1996, only 10 nuclear tests have been conducted by three countries: India, Pakistan and North Korea. None of them have signed or ratified the treaty

The vast majority of nuclear tests  approximately 2,000  occurred before 1996, mostly by the U.S. and Soviet Union.

The organization creates confidence

Given the uncertainty around Trumps announcement and the potential for escalation of tensions around the issue, the test ban treaty organization could play a role in resolving the situation.

Rodgers said that the treaty organization is primarily a scientific one and should focus on providing scientific data to the international community.

But Kimball disagrees, suggesting the organizations Executive Secretary Robert Floyd could take the initiative and bring together officials from the U.S. and other countries to help resolve some uncertainties, such as what type of nuclear tests the U.S. president was referring to in his statement.

Floyd told The Associated Press that in the current situation, he believes his organizations main role is providing confidence to states that they would know if a nuclear weapon explosion occurred anywhere, anytime.

The organizations monitoring network successfully detected all six atomic tests conducted by North Korea between 2006 and 2017, he said.

Not all atomic tests create explosions

The White House has so far not clarified what kind of tests Trump meant and what other countries he was referring to in his statement. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the new tests would not include nuclear explosions.

Nuclear test explosions banned under the treaty are so-called supercritical tests, where fissile material is compressed to start a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction that creates an explosion.

These tests produce a nuclear yield  the amount of energy released, which defines a weapons destructive power. The treaty bans any nuclear explosion with a yield, following a zero yield standard.

In contrast, subcritical nuclear experiments, the ones Wright was referring to, produce no self-sustaining chain reaction and no explosion. Nuclear weapon states, including the U.S., conduct these experiments routinely without violating the treaty.

Some tests may remain undetected

Kimball says hydronuclear tests with extremely small yields conducted underground in metal chambers are undetectable by the organizations monitoring system.

So that creates what I would say is a verification gap regarding this particular type of extremely low yield explosion, he said.

When the organizations monitoring system was established in the 1990s, it was designed to detect nuclear explosions of 1 kiloton (1,000 tons of TNT). Floyd said the system actually performs better, detecting explosions below 1 kiloton, at 500 tons of TNT.

The nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima by the U.S. was approximately 15 kilotons.

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The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Additional AP coverage of the nuclear landscape: https://apnews.com/projects/the-new-nuclear-landscape/

By STEPHANIE LIECHTENSTEIN

Associated Press
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff was meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, taking a draft peace plan that Washington hopes can bring about an end to the nearly four-year war in Ukraine.

Putin, however, ahead of the talks accused Ukraines European allies of sabotaging U.S.-led efforts to end the war, calling their demands absolutely unacceptable.

U.S. President Donald Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner would join the meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. He said the talks would take as long as needed and involve only Witkoff, Kushner and an interpreter from the U.S. side.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Ireland during his European tour to sustain support against Russias invasion.

According to a draft of Trumps plan obtained last month by The Associated Press, it would cede land to Russia and limit the size of Kyivs military. Ukraine and European allies have been working with U.S. officials to amend the plan.

Here is the latest:

Russian adviser: Future Putin-Trump meeting depends on progress

Asked about a possible meeting between Putin and Trump, Yuri Ushakov, a senior adviser to President Vladimir Putin, said it depended on the progress of the peace effort.

When pressed about whether peace was closer or further, Ushakov said: Not further, thats for sure. But theres still a lot of work to be done, both in Washington and in Moscow. Thats whats been agreed upon. And contacts will continue, the official said.

Russian adviser says a compromise hasnt been found on Ukraine territories, but talks constructive

Ushakov said so far, a compromise hasnt been found on the issue of territories, without which we see no resolution to the crisis. While both sides could agree on some things, there were also proposals that evoked Moscows criticism and even negative attitude, he said. He called the conversation that lasted for five hours rather useful, constructive and rather substantive and said the work will continue.

Russian envoy calls talks productive

Referring to the talks in a post on social platform X, Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev simply wrote productive.

Witkoff arrives at US Embassy

After the end of the talks, U.S. envoy Witkoff was seen arriving at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported. There were no immediate statements to the media.

Meeting between Russian and US delegations has finished

The talks lasted for almost five hours and both sides have yet to make a statement.

Talks with Putin pass the 3-1/2 hour mark

Talks between the U.S. and Russian delegations have now passed the 3-1/2 hour mark.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he expects to be briefed by the U.S. delegation immediately after the meeting ends.

Meeting has begun between Putin and US envoy

Putin is now meeting with Witkoff and Kushner in Moscow for talks on ending the fighting in Ukraine.

The meeting comes days after U.S. officials held talks with a Ukrainian delegation on the U.S. peace plan. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters it was productive but more work needed to be done.

Putin threatens retaliation over strikes on vessels carrying Russian oil

Putin also threatened retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on vessels carrying Russian oil in Turkeys exclusive economic zone. He said Moscow would expand the range of its strikes against Ukrainian ports and ships.

He also said Moscow would consider the possibility of retaliatory measures against the vessels of countries helping Ukraine to carry out such strikes.

Putin accuses Europe of not having a peace agenda

Putin has accused Ukraines European allies of sabotaging U.S.-led efforts to end the war, asserting that they dont have a peace agenda, theyre on the side of the war.

The Russian leader accused Europe of amending peace proposals with demands that are absolutely unacceptable to Russia, thus blocking the entire peace process, only to blame Russia for it.

His remarks were in line with the narrative that Russia pushed after Trump came to office earlier this year and initiated talks with Moscow.

Putin urges journalists to visit areas he says are now in Russian hands

Speaking with journalists, Putin asserted that Moscows troops had taken control of the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk. He said it has special significance because from this base, from this sector, the Russian army can easily advance in any direction that the General Staff deems most promising.

Putin invited foreign journalists to visit Pokrovsk.

Ukraine has denied that Russian troops have taken control of the city. Ukraines General Staff described Putins new statements as a propaganda stunt. It said on social media that the Ukrainian army was preparing additional routes to deliver supplies to troops in the area.

Zelenskyy says US taking serious steps to end the war in one way or another

Speaking at a press conference in Dublin, Zelenskyy said: There are now 20 points that were drafted in Geneva, and were finalized in Florida. Some things still have to be worked on.

From what Ive seen, America takes serious steps to end the war in one way or another. And our mission, I am sure this is our common mission, of everyone in Europe, is to truly and this war and not just make a pause in hostilities.

We need decent peace, and for it to truly happen, every one has to be on the side of peace.

Ukraine belongs in the European Union

Irelands leader announced 125 million euros ($145 million) in new funding for Ukraine during President Volodymyr Zelenskyys visit to Dublin on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Micheal Martin said his government will provide 100 million euros in non-lethal military assistance and 25 million euros to support Ukraines energy system.

He said Russia has been deliberately, cynically attacking Ukraines energy infrastructure as winter approaches.

Martin said Ireland would try to push forward negotiations on Ukraine joining the European Union, saying: Ukraine is part of our European family. It shares the same values. It belongs in the European Union.

Zelenskyy arrives in Ireland

Zelenskyy was received at Government Buildings in Dublin by an honor guard and a military band playing the Ukrainian and Irish national anthems.

Earlier he visited President Catherine Connolly at her official residence. He wrote in the visitors book: On behalf of the people of Ukraine, I express my sincere gratitude for Irelands steadfast support during our fight against Russian aggression.

By The Associated Press
Online Assyrian Dictionary Marks 20th Anniversary

The online dictionaries hosted at assyrianlanguages.org are among the most enduring community projects dedicated to the preservation of Assyrian heritage. Conceived in France by the Association Assyrophile de France (AAF), the association began with the digitization of printed resources and gradually expanded into two major online tools: first the Akkadian--French/English dictionary, and later the Assyrian dictionary based on the Sureth dialect.

The Akkadian dictionary, which preceded the Assyrian project, today contains nearly 11,000 entries and attracts a significant audience. It consistently records more visitors than the Assyrian dictionary, which has grown to nearly 49,000 entries. Both tools illustrate how modest resources combined with steady perseverance can sustain platforms that benefit learners, teachers, and researchers worldwide.

Nurtured by one man's devotion

At the heart of these efforts is Jean-Paul Sliva, an Assyrian whose grandparents were among the first to settle in France and a honorary and founding member of the AAF. Based in southern France, he has been enriching the databases for years, word after word, in what he describes as a long-term commitment rather than a finished project. He often quotes a biblical phrase that has become emblematic of his mission: "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few," in a reference to the fact that few Assyrians have been able to keep up with his consistency and work to maintain and expand the dictionaries.

The project had its origins at a conference for foreign languages spoken in France where Jean-Paul Sliva met Olivier Lauffenburger, a talented computer programmer whose many hobbies included the Akkadian and Hittite languages. Lauffenburger had developed a Hittite website and had thus acquired the skills of dealing with cuneiform characters on screen displays. Association Assyrophile, having quite a few documents about Akkadian, suggested they join their effort. Lauffenburger agreed and wrote a program to create an Akkadian-English-French dictionary. Based on this work, Association Assyrophile and Lauffenburger were quickly able to begin the Assyrian dictionary project in 2006. What started as a modest project will celebrate 20 years of continuous existence next year, making it one of the longest-serving Assyrian online resources -- if not the oldest.

Over time, Jean-Paul Sliva has developed his own knowledge of linguistics to be able to feed the dictionaries. Yet, as he himself acknowledges, he cannot do everything alone. "I am not a specialist of the language. I have learned a lot, but often I need to reach out to more experienced contributors, people who can provide corrections or insights that I could not find on my own," he explains. This reliance on a network of contributors is both a necessity and a strength: it can slow down the pace of enrichment, but it also ensures that the content gains in precision and reliability.

Olivier Lauffenburger, the technical backbone of the project who created the software on which both dictionaries run, has proven to be a key ally. He continues to provide steady technical support whenever needed. The Association Assyrophile de France also provides minimal but essential financial backing, covering logistical costs such as hosting and server maintenance. Beyond that, however, the projects have no institutional funding. All work is voluntary, and their continuity depends entirely on the persistence of a handful of individuals.

"They belong to everyone who cares about the language"

What makes these online dictionaries remarkable is their international dimension. Although initiated in France, they are used daily from Europe, North America, Australia, and the Middle East. For many in the Assyrian diaspora, they have become indispensable tools for reconnecting with a linguistic heritage that is often absent from formal curricula.

The international aspect also manifests itself in the correspondence received by the team. Users send technical questions, suggest corrections, or ask broader clarifications about the language.

As Sliva observes: "The correspondence we receive shows that the dictionaries belong to everyone who cares about these languages. They are no longer just French initiatives; they are truly international." Always on the lookout for a helping hand, he says: "If someone is willing to lend a hand -- whether in linguistics, technical support, or simply by contributing their knowledge -- they are more than welcome".

Both the Akkadian and Assyrian dictionaries remain works in progress, constantly enriched and corrected. Balancing modern and classical Assyrian, and occasionally linking cognates with related languages, requires patience and rigor. For Jean-Paul Sliva, the challenge is as much about time as about resources. Yet he insists on the necessity of the effort: "Every new word we add makes the dictionary more useful. It is slow, but it is continuous", he says, adding: "That is the most important thing."
Second Session of the Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, 2023 17th May 2023

Thank you Mr. Chair,

Our comments at this point are with regard to paragraph 25 on legal review. It is the understanding of our delegation that legal reviews with regard to autonomous weapon systems should be inline with the already existing obligations under Art. 36 of the Additional Protocol I and that we should not in anyway agree to obligations on legal review for autonomous weapon systems that are weaker than the already existing obligations under Art,36. It is also recalled that most provisions of the Additional Protocols have gained the status of customary international law. We also note that the obligation under Art 36 of the Additional Protocol I finds its basis in article 35 of the Protocol which provides that the right of states to choose means and methods of warfare is not unlimited.

Art. 36 requires to determine whether the employment of weapons, means and methods of warfare would, in some or all circumstances be prohibited by international law. In this sense we believe that the legal review process should consider whether the use of an AWS is in compliance with international law  in some or all circumstance and we therefore suggest to make this change in the text. We also support the suggestion by the Swiss delegation as well the delegation of Ireland now to delete the words  seek to in this section.

We note that the issues of predictability and reliability  pose an important question with regard to compliance of an autonomous weapon system with international law. If an autonomous weapon systems functions in a way that could not be predicted due to a system error or due to its reaction to an unforeseen event, the question of accountability gap would come into play. Therefore it is also important to pay due consideration to unintended harm as well during the cause of legal review in the case of for example a system malfunction, cyber-attack or a programming error.

Art, 36 requires legal reviews be conducted  in the study, development, acquisition or adoption of a new weapon means or method of warfare. In this light we emphasize that the process of legal review should include the entire life cycle of an autonomous weapon system and that this aspect should be duly reflected in this paragraph.

We request to refer to international law and to IHL in particular in this paragraph in line with similar amendments suggested to other paragraph of the text. It is important for the process of legal review to consider whether autonomous weapon systems under review are not only in compliance IHL but also with international human rights law. For example whether the use of a particular weapon system constitutes a violation of the right to life or the right to dignity of the target should be considered in the process of legal review.

Finally Mr Chair, we would also like to highlight that as much as there is agreement including of my delegation on the importance of legal review, legal review of autonomous weapon systems would undoubtedly pose significant technical challenges that require considerable human and financial resources given the required level of multidisciplinary engagement in this process requiring expertise from various fields such as technical, medical, legal as well as operational. The increasing sophistication of weapon systems would also require frequent reviews to be conducted adding to the complexity of the legal review process of autonomous weapon systems.

Thank you Mr Chair.

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Individuals named Adeben are typically perceived as natural leaders with strong organizational skills, reflecting their position as the twelfth child in traditional Akan understanding. They often exhibit patience, wisdom beyond their years, and a calm demeanor that makes them excellent mediators and problem-solvers. The birth order significance suggests someone who is reliable, responsible, and capable of handling complex family or group dynamics with grace and fairness.



These individuals tend to be methodical in their approach to life, valuing tradition while also being adaptable to changing circumstances. Their position as the twelfth child in the traditional context implies they possess the cumulative wisdom of their older siblings while maintaining their unique perspective. Adeben-named individuals are often seen as the stabilizing force in their families or communities, bringing a sense of completion and harmony to group endeavors. They typically demonstrate strong emotional intelligence and the ability to see the bigger picture in challenging situations.
Cultural & Historical Significance

The name Alhraed holds significant cultural importance within Christian traditions, particularly in medieval European contexts. It emerged during the Anglo-Saxon period as a name denoting spiritual authority and divine guidance, often given to women who demonstrated exceptional wisdom or were destined for religious life. The name's association with 'divine counselor' reflects the medieval Christian ideal of women as spiritual guides and moral compasses within their communities.



Throughout Christian history, Alhraed became synonymous with female religious leadership and mystical insight. Many bearers of this name were recorded in monastic chronicles as women of profound spiritual insight who advised both clergy and laity. The name's usage peaked during the High Middle Ages when female mystics and abbesses played crucial roles in preserving religious knowledge and providing spiritual direction. Its cultural resonance lies in representing the Christian ideal of wisdom combined with compassionate guidance, embodying the biblical concept of women as vessels of divine wisdom.



The name also reflects the important role women played in early Christian communities as counselors and spiritual advisors, often operating within monastic settings where their wisdom was highly valued. This historical context gives Alhraed a rich cultural heritage that connects modern bearers to a tradition of female spiritual leadership and intellectual contribution within Christianity.
Individuals named Alistaire are often perceived as possessing a blend of traditional strength and intellectual depth. They typically exhibit natural leadership qualities, combined with a protective instinct toward others, living up to the name's meaning of 'defender of mankind.' These individuals tend to be principled, honorable, and reliable, with a strong sense of duty and responsibility. Their Scottish heritage often manifests in characteristics such as resilience, determination, and a quiet confidence that doesn't require constant validation.



Alistaires are frequently described as thoughtful decision-makers who balance emotional intelligence with practical reasoning, making them effective in both personal relationships and professional settings. They often possess a dry wit and cultural sophistication that reflects their connection to Scottish intellectual traditions. While they can be reserved initially, they form deep, loyal bonds with those they trust and are known for their steadfastness in both good times and challenging circumstances. The name suggests someone who combines traditional values with modern adaptability.
Cultural & Historical Significance

Arleene emerged as a distinctive variant of Charlene and Carlene during the mid-20th century, particularly within Christian communities seeking names that combined traditional values with modern appeal. The name carries the legacy of its root names, which themselves derive from Charles, meaning 'free man' or 'strong man', but adapted to feminine forms that emphasize strength, independence, and grace. In Christian contexts, Arleene often symbolizes the combination of spiritual strength and feminine virtue, reflecting the biblical ideal of the 'virtuous woman' described in Proverbs 31.



The name gained popularity during periods when parents sought names that were both distinctive and rooted in Christian tradition, offering a bridge between classical naming conventions and contemporary preferences. Its usage often indicates families valuing both individuality and religious heritage, with the name serving as a testament to the evolving nature of Christian naming practices that honor tradition while embracing modern creativity. The name's persistence in Christian communities reflects its ability to convey both spiritual depth and personal character, making it a meaningful choice for families seeking a name with both historical resonance and individual distinction.
The Atkinson name carries associations with a distinctive personality blend that combines intellectual depth with accessible humor. Those bearing this surname are often perceived as possessing sharp observational skills and the ability to find comedy in everyday situations, much like their most famous representative. There's an expectation of intelligence that doesn't take itself too seriouslya combination of academic capability with practical application. The northern English origins of the name suggest qualities of resilience, straightforwardness, and reliability, traits historically valued in the industrial and agricultural communities where the name originated.



Beyond the comedic associations, the name implies a personality capable of both deep focus and creative spontaneity. There's often an element of surprisethe quiet individual who reveals unexpected talents or the serious professional who possesses a wicked sense of humor. The patronymic nature of the name suggests someone who values family connections and tradition while being thoroughly modern in their outlook. This creates a personality profile that balances respect for heritage with innovation and adaptability to changing circumstances.
Cultural & Historical Significance

Balqis holds profound cultural significance as the legendary Queen of Sheba, a figure revered across Islamic, biblical, and Ethiopian traditions. In Islamic tradition, she is known as Bilqis and is prominently featured in the Quran as a wise and powerful ruler who governed the kingdom of Saba (modern-day Yemen). Her story with Prophet Solomon represents the triumph of wisdom and monotheism, as she ultimately accepts Solomon's message of one God after testing his renowned wisdom with challenging questions and riddles.



The name Balqis symbolizes female leadership, intelligence, and spiritual transformation in Muslim cultures. Her narrative emphasizes that true power combines political authority with spiritual wisdom, making her an enduring symbol of enlightened female leadership. The story also highlights cultural exchange and diplomatic relations between ancient kingdoms, as her journey to Solomon's court represents the meeting of different civilizations and the peaceful resolution of differences through dialogue and mutual respect. This multicultural legacy makes Balqis a name that transcends religious boundaries while maintaining strong Islamic roots.
Women named Bathilde are typically perceived as possessing a unique blend of strength and compassion, reflecting the name's heroic meaning and its most famous bearer's charitable legacy. They often demonstrate quiet determination and resilience, capable of overcoming significant challenges while maintaining their core values. Bathildes tend to be principled individuals who stand firm in their convictions, yet they combine this fortitude with genuine empathy and concern for others' welfare. This combination creates a personality that is both commanding and nurturingable to lead when necessary but equally comfortable serving others.



Their strength is not aggressive but rather emerges from deep inner conviction, making them natural reformers and advocates for justice. Many Bathildes display a thoughtful, contemplative nature, often drawn to intellectual or spiritual pursuits that allow them to explore deeper meanings and purposes in life. They typically value tradition and history while still possessing the vision to implement meaningful change, creating a balanced personality that honors the past while working toward a better future. The name suggests someone who moves through life with purpose and grace, combining practical wisdom with moral clarity.
Individuals named Beecher are often perceived as intellectually curious, principled, and deeply rooted in their convictions, much like the sturdy beech tree the name references. They tend to exhibit strong moral compasses and natural leadership qualities, often gravitating toward roles where they can advocate for justice or educate others. The historical association with the Beecher family suggests personalities marked by perseverance, eloquent communication skills, and a tendency toward reform-minded thinking. These individuals typically value tradition while simultaneously pushing for progress, creating a unique balance between respect for established systems and the courage to challenge injustice when necessary.



In social settings, Beechers are often seen as reliable and thoughtful, with a calm demeanor that masks strong inner determination. They tend to be good listeners who process information carefully before speaking, but when they do express opinions, they do so with conviction and well-reasoned arguments. Their connection to the natural world through the name's meaning often translates to an appreciation for nature, stability, and growth. While they can be somewhat reserved initially, they form deep, lasting relationships and are fiercely protective of those they care about, embodying the protective quality of the beech tree's canopy.
Fourth Session of the open-ended working group on reducing space threats through norms, rules, and principles of responsible behaviours, 28 Aug  01 Sep 2023

General Intervention by H.E. Himalee Arunatilaka, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN in Geneva, on 28 August 2023

Mr. Chair,

Sri Lanka compliments the work accomplished by you as the Chair of this open-ended working group to date, based on the mandate given by General Assembly resolution 76/231. We are thankful to all Member States for their constructive engagement throughout the past sessions towards reaching a substantive outcome of this working group.

Mr. Chair,

Sri Lanka recognizes the common interest of humankind in the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes without discrimination. Sri Lanka has been actively engaging in multilateral efforts for the prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) over many decades since becoming a signatory to the Outer Space Treaty in 1967. Significantly, Sri Lanka proposed a moratorium on the testing and development of space weapons preceding multilateral negotiations on a treaty to prohibit all weapons in space in 1985.

Furthermore, Sri Lanka has been co-presenting together with Egypt, the UNGA Frist Committee Resolution on Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space in keeping with our longstanding and principled position on this subject and the promotion of peaceful uses of outer space.

As stated in the PAROS resolution, the current international legal regime pertaining to outer space does not in and of itself guarantee the prevention of an arms race in outer space.

Today, with the rapid advancement of new space technologies, prevention of an arms race in outer space has become critical. We believe that the mandate of this working group is to make recommendations on possible norms, rules and principles of responsible behaviours which could contribute to the negotiation of a legally binding instrument. Further, we wish to highlight the necessity of effective measures for verification to prevent an arms race in outer space.

Mr. Chair,

Sri Lanka is of the view that the draft report should be strengthened on the need for the development of international law on space security. We also believe that the report should reflect a consensual text and reiterate Sri Lankas position that the early negotiation of a legally binding instrument on PAROS should be a priority.

An increasing number of space actors, related emerging new technologies and a fast-blurring line between civilian and military uses of space capacities, give rise to the need to address existing legal gaps in the Outer Space Treaty. Therefore, this open-ended working group needs to recognize the need for further advancement of international law on outer space, building on the existing legal frameworks. We welcome in this regard the recognition of the applicability of relevant treaty and customary international law to outer space activities in the draft report.

Sri Lanka further wishes to underline that the norms, rules and principles developed by the open-ended working group should not provide the ground for any subjective interpretation of existing legal obligations on the conduct in outer space or the possibility for generalization of outer space as a domain for possible conflict, undermining the goal of PAROS.

We reiterate that the working group should highlight the importance of applicability of international law regarding outer space activities. We also believe that Member States should further consider proposing possible norms, rules and principles to address mitigating outer space debris, prevention of militarization of space, and protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure. We should pay extra attention to preventing irresponsible behavior which could have potential impact on international peace, security and stability, as well as interrupting essential civilian services, scientific research and development, climate change adaptation and mitigation and disaster risk prediction.

In keeping with growing international concerns regarding modern outer space capabilities, Sri Lanka calls for the universalization of existing international law applicable to outer space activities.

It is important for our delegation that the OEWG report reiterates the priority need for early negotiation of a comprehensive and non-discriminatory legally binding instrument on PAROS. Voluntary non-binding measures including Transparency and Confidence Building Measures (TCBMs) cannot and should not be a substitute for an international legally binding instrument to prevent an arms race in outer space.

Mr. Chair,

We remain hopeful that the deliberations of this forum would lead to an inclusive and comprehensive consensus outcome report.

Thank you

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Individuals associated with the name Benoyce typically exhibit strong leadership qualities combined with deep wisdom and strategic thinking. They are often portrayed as natural rulers who balance authority with compassion, making decisions that consider both immediate practical concerns and long-term consequences. This name carries connotations of reliability and steadfastness, suggesting someone who honors commitments and maintains strong principles even under pressure.



The personality also reflects a connection to tradition and heritage, with a strong sense of duty to preserve cultural values while adapting to changing circumstances. Those named Benoyce often demonstrate diplomatic skills, able to mediate conflicts and build alliances through careful negotiation rather than brute force. There's an underlying mystical quality as wellan intuition or deeper understanding that guides their actions and earns them respect from both peers and subordinates. This combination of practical leadership and spiritual depth creates a compelling personality profile rooted in Arthurian ideals of kingship.
Individuals named Berthe are typically associated with a combination of intellectual depth, refined sensibility, and quiet strength. The name's meaning of 'bright' often manifests as mental acuity, creative insight, and the ability to bring clarity to complex situations. Berthes are frequently perceived as observant and thoughtful, possessing an innate dignity that commands respect without seeking attention. Their traditional roots suggest a respect for heritage and values, while their historical association with artistic and intellectual achievement indicates independent thinking and cultural sophistication.



In social contexts, Berthes are often seen as reliable, wise counselors who combine practical wisdom with emotional intelligence. They tend to approach challenges with calm determination and are valued for their ability to maintain perspective in difficult circumstances. The name carries connotations of steadfastness and integrity, suggesting someone who remains true to their principles while adapting to changing circumstances. This balance of traditional strength and modern adaptability makes the Berthe personality both grounded and forward-looking, capable of honoring the past while embracing the future.
Women named Bianca are commonly associated with elegance, intelligence, and emotional depth. The name suggests someone who carries herself with natural grace and sophistication, often possessing strong aesthetic sensibilities and creative talents. Biancas tend to be perceptive and intuitive, with an ability to read social situations accurately and respond with appropriate warmth or reserve. They typically value harmony and balance in their relationships, often serving as mediators or peacemakers in conflict situations. The 'white' symbolism of the name translates to perceived purity of character and clarity of purpose, making Biancas appear trustworthy and genuine. Many exhibit a blend of traditional values and modern independence, combining feminine grace with inner strength and resilience. Their communication style is often refined yet authentic, allowing them to connect with diverse people while maintaining their distinctive personal style and integrity.
Cultural & Historical Significance

The name Bick has roots in medieval English occupational surnames, originally referring to someone who lived near a ford where woodcutters or hewers worked. In Christian contexts, the name carries subtle symbolism of crossing points and transformation, as fords often represent spiritual passages in biblical literature. The occupational connection to hewing suggests craftsmanship and manual skill, values highly regarded in medieval Christian society where labor was seen as virtuous.



Throughout English history, the name evolved from a surname to a given name, particularly in rural communities where occupational names maintained their relevance. The name's rarity has preserved its distinctive character, making it appealing to parents seeking unique yet historically grounded Christian names with working-class roots. In American contexts, the name gained some recognition through literary works like 'Giant,' where it represented traditional values and connection to the land.
Individuals named Boothe are often perceived as having a complex blend of humility and intensity. The name's association with simple living suggests personality traits of practicality, groundedness, and a preference for substance over superficiality. These individuals tend to be resourceful and self-sufficient, capable of creating comfort and meaning from modest circumstances. There's often a strong sense of integrity and authenticity that others find compelling, along with a quiet determination that can surprise those who underestimate them based on their unassuming nature.



At the same time, the historical associations with the name suggest potential for dramatic expression and strong convictions. Many Boothes display creative talents or passionate beliefs that drive them toward significant achievements or, in some cases, controversial actions. They often possess the ability to command attention when necessary while maintaining their essential humility. This combination makes them intriguing figures who can move between quiet contemplation and powerful action, often leaving lasting impressions through their work or principles.



The Christian context of the name further suggests spiritual depth and moral conviction. Boothes are often seen as individuals who take their faith seriously, embodying Christian values of service, humility, and compassion while maintaining the strength of their beliefs. They may be drawn to vocations that allow them to express both their practical abilities and their deeper spiritual or ethical commitments.
Individuals named Buagh are typically characterized by strong determination, leadership qualities, and a competitive spirit that drives them to overcome challenges. They possess natural confidence and resilience, often serving as inspirations to others during difficult times. Their victorious nature isn't just about personal success but extends to helping their communities and loved ones achieve their goals. Buagh's tend to be strategic thinkers who plan carefully before acting, combining patience with decisive action when opportunities arise.



They value honor and integrity, believing that true victory must be earned through ethical means. While ambitious, they typically balance their drive with compassion and loyalty to those who support them, creating lasting bonds that strengthen their ability to achieve sustained success throughout their lives. This combination of strength and principle makes Buagh's natural leaders who earn respect through both their accomplishments and their character, embodying the full meaning of their name in their approach to life's challenges and opportunities.
Cultural & Historical Significance

The name Catterick holds profound significance in Arthurian and early British history, primarily through its association with the Battle of Catraeth. This legendary conflict, fought around 600 AD near modern Catterick in North Yorkshire, was immortalized in the Welsh poem 'Y Gododdin' by Aneirin, which describes the heroic but doomed stand of 300 warriors from the kingdom of Gododdin against overwhelming Saxon forces. The battle represents one of the last major stands of Celtic Britain against Anglo-Saxon expansion and has been woven into Arthurian legend as a symbol of chivalric sacrifice and martial valor.



In Arthurian tradition, Catterick became emblematic of the heroic age preceding Arthur's reign, often referenced as a testing ground for warriors who would later serve in Arthur's court. The name evokes images of the 'Heroic Age' of Britain, where warrior codes, loyalty to one's lord, and poetic celebration of martial deeds defined the cultural landscape. It connects to the broader Celtic tradition of celebrating heroic defeat, where glorious death in battle was preferable to dishonorable survival, making it a powerful symbol in the Arthurian mythological cycle.
Individuals named Chad are often perceived as confident, assertive, and natural leaders with a strong sense of determination. They tend to be practical problem-solvers who approach challenges with directness and resilience. While sometimes seen as competitive or dominant, Chads typically possess underlying warmth and loyalty to those close to them. Their straightforward nature makes them reliable friends and colleagues who value honesty and action over subtlety.



Many Chads exhibit a blend of traditional masculinity with modern adaptability, allowing them to navigate both conventional and contemporary social settings effectively. They often display physical confidence and comfort in leadership roles, though this can sometimes be misinterpreted as arrogance. The modern meme culture surrounding the name has amplified certain stereotypical traits, but in reality, most Chads balance strength with compassion and determination with flexibility, creating well-rounded personalities capable of both leading and supporting others.
Those named Chantae often exhibit personality traits that reflect the musical and expressive roots of their name. They tend to be naturally charismatic individuals with excellent communication skills and a flair for creative expression. Many Chantae's possess what might be described as emotional intelligencean innate ability to understand and respond to the feelings of others, making them excellent friends, partners, and collaborators. Their creative tendencies often manifest in various artistic pursuits, whether professionally or as passionate hobbies. There's typically a rhythmic quality to their approach to life; they seek balance and harmony in their relationships and environments. Chantae's are often perceived as resilient and adaptable, able to navigate challenges with grace and creativity. They frequently serve as emotional centers in their social circles, using their natural empathy and expressive capabilities to support and uplift those around them. This combination of artistic sensibility and emotional depth makes Chantae's particularly effective in careers involving communication, counseling, teaching, or the arts, where their natural talents for expression and connection can flourish fully.
Cultural & Historical Significance

The name Cromwell carries profound historical weight, particularly in British and Scottish history. Originating as a Scottish locational surname from the lands of Cromwell in Lanarkshire, it evolved into one of the most significant names in English political history through the Cromwell family's rise to power during the 17th century. The name became synonymous with parliamentary authority, military leadership, and revolutionary change during the English Civil War period.



In Scottish context, the name represents the complex relationship between Scotland and England, as Oliver Cromwell's campaigns significantly impacted Scottish sovereignty. The name embodies themes of authority, reform, and controversy, with its bearers often associated with strong leadership qualities and transformative political actions. Throughout centuries, Cromwell has maintained its association with power, governance, and historical significance across the British Isles.
Statement by Sri Lanka: Conference on Disarmament  Subsidiary Body 2: Prevention of nuclear war, including all related matters, 03 June 2025

Mr. Coordinator,

Sri Lanka reiterates its steadfast commitment to complete elimination of nuclear weapons and preventing nuclear war through legally binding instruments. As a nation that championed the 1978 UN General Assembly Special Session on Disarmament (SSOD1), Sri Lanka emphasizes the urgency of translating technical and institutional discussions into actionable, legally binding commitments.

As we all know, the current realities of multilateralism have proven the difficulties of negotiating or agreeing on a new legally binding instrument to address the asymmetries of the existing treaties for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. Therefore, identifying synergies and complementarities of existing treaties and mechanisms, including the NPT, the TPNW, the CTBT, and the relevant UNGA resolution and other legal provisions and exploring their full implementation to address the new threats of nuclear weapons and arsenals would be an alternative in addressing the rapidly escalating threats. The Universalization of the NPT, TPNW and the CTBT remains an urgent priority in order to bring all nuclear weapon states and non-nuclear weapon states into an inclusive dialogue on nuclear disarmament.

Sri Lanka believes that any new legally binding instrument must address the gaps in the existing legal regimes and enforce time bound, pragmatic, verifiable and irreversible steps to eliminate nuclear weapons.

As the President of the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference resulted in the indefinite extension of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which remains a significant and historic milestone of nuclear disarmament even today, Sri Lanka regrets the longstanding stalemate in international efforts to move forward in addressing the issue of nuclear weapons.

Under the Presidency of Sri Lanka, the 1995 NPT Review Conference also strengthened the review process of the NPT for the operation of the Treaty with a view to assuring that the purposes of the Preamble and the provisions of the Treaty are being realized. Today, all we need to do is collectively envisaging to address persistent challenges and build on lessons learnt from the previous review cycle, which ended without consensus, in order to avoid wasting the opportunities at the forthcoming Review Conference in 2026.

Let me also recall the opinion of Justice C.J. Weeramantry, a renowned Sri Lankan judge and a former Vice President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons in 1996.

Quote

Use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is illegal in any circumstances whatsoever. It violates the fundamental principles of international law, and represents the very negation of the humanitarian concerns which underlie the structure of humanitarian law.

Unquote

In his opinion, Justice Weeramantry further states that In the field of nuclear disarmament, it also reminds all nations of their obligation to bring these negotiations to their conclusion in all their aspects, thereby ending the continuance of this threat to the integrity of international law

Looking ahead, it should also be underlined that political will remains a challenge in achieving technical and institutional capabilities for nuclear disarmament.

In conclusion, Sri Lanka wishes to convey our appreciation to Switzerland for its leadership in this subsidiary body and for conducting informal consultations on diversified themes.

Thank you

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Individuals named Cyneleah are typically perceived as having a balanced combination of leadership qualities and gentle strength. They often exhibit natural authority and confidence, tempered by a deep appreciation for beauty, nature, and spiritual matters. This creates personalities that are both decisive and contemplative, capable of making firm decisions while maintaining sensitivity to their environment and the people around them. The meadow element of the name suggests individuals who are grounded, peaceful, and nurturing - they often serve as mediators or bring harmony to conflicted situations.



Meanwhile, the royal component indicates strong moral character, integrity, and a sense of responsibility toward others. Cyneleahs are often drawn to roles where they can protect, guide, or create beautiful, orderly environments. They tend to be reliable, principled individuals who value tradition while being open to progressive ideas that align with their core values of justice and compassion. Their Christian background often manifests in strong ethical frameworks, charitable inclinations, and a desire to serve their communities while maintaining the quiet dignity suggested by their name's noble origins.
Cultural & Historical Significance

The name Dareen carries significant cultural weight through its connection to biblical heritage and wisdom traditions. Derived from Dara, a descendant of Judah mentioned in the Bible (1 Chronicles 2:6) who was noted for his wisdom, the name embodies intellectual and spiritual depth. This Hebrew origin connects it to ancient Jewish traditions where wisdom was highly valued as both a practical and divine quality.



In modern contexts, Dareen has been adopted across various cultures while maintaining its core association with wisdom and insight. The name appears in Arabic-speaking communities, often spelled similarly, where it carries connotations of knowledge and enlightenment. This cross-cultural adoption demonstrates how ancient names can transcend their original contexts while preserving their essential meanings, serving as a bridge between different cultural traditions and historical periods.
Individuals named Doon are often perceived as strong, protective, and resilient, reflecting the name's meaning of 'fortress'. They tend to be natural guardians who create safe spaces for those around them, demonstrating loyalty and steadfastness in relationships. Their strength is typically balanced with a warm, approachable nature that makes others feel secure in their presence.



Doon's personality often combines practical wisdom with emotional depth, showing both the fortitude to withstand challenges and the sensitivity to understand others' needs. They are frequently seen as pillars of stability in their communities or families, offering reliable support during difficult times. This combination of strength and compassion makes them effective leaders and trusted confidants who can both protect and nurture those in their care.
Women named Eliska are often perceived as intelligent, determined, and principled individuals with a strong sense of integrity. They typically exhibit natural leadership qualities combined with emotional depth and sensitivity. Eliskas are known for their loyalty to family and friends, often serving as reliable confidantes and advisors. Their analytical minds and perceptive nature allow them to navigate complex situations with grace and wisdom.



Many Eliskas demonstrate artistic or creative talents, along with a deep appreciation for culture and tradition. They tend to be independent thinkers who value authenticity in relationships and pursuits. While they can be reserved initially, once trust is established, they reveal warm, compassionate personalities with a subtle sense of humor. Their combination of strength and sensitivity makes them particularly effective in roles requiring both emotional intelligence and practical problem-solving skills.
Cultural & Historical Significance

Elvern is a name with deep roots in Christian naming traditions, derived from the Old English name lfwine meaning 'elf friend.' In Christian contexts, the name evolved to represent spiritual wisdom and guidance, with the 'elf' element reinterpreted as representing angelic or spiritual beings rather than pagan mythology. Throughout medieval Christian Europe, names beginning with 'El-' were often associated with divine protection and spiritual insight, making Elvern a popular choice among families seeking to emphasize their Christian faith while maintaining connection to older naming traditions.



The name gained particular prominence during the 19th century Christian revival movements, where it was seen as embodying the ideal of the wise spiritual companion. In many Christian communities, Elvern came to represent the concept of being a 'friend of God' or having special insight into spiritual matters. This interpretation allowed the name to maintain its Christian significance while preserving its ancient etymological roots, creating a bridge between older cultural traditions and contemporary religious practice.
Women named Estefania are typically associated with a combination of grace, intelligence, and inner strength that reflects the name's royal connotations. They often possess natural leadership abilities and a dignified presence that commands respect without being intimidating. Estefanias tend to be highly organized individuals who excel in both personal and professional settings, bringing structure and beauty to their environments. Their personality often blends traditional values with modern thinking, making them adaptable to various social situations while maintaining their core principles. Many exhibit artistic talents or appreciation for aesthetics, along with a strong sense of personal style that is both elegant and distinctive.



In relationships, Estefanias are known for their loyalty and protective nature toward loved ones. They often serve as the emotional anchors in their families and social circles, providing stability and wisdom during challenging times. Their determination and resilience are hallmark traits, enabling them to overcome obstacles with poise and strategic thinking. While they can be perfectionists at times, this quality often drives them to achieve excellence in their chosen fields. The combination of warmth and strength in their personality makes Estefanias both approachable and authoritative, capable of forming deep connections while maintaining healthy boundaries and self-respect.
Individuals named Farees are often perceived as possessing strong leadership qualities, courage, and a protective nature. They tend to be decisive and action-oriented, with a natural inclination toward taking charge in challenging situations. The name suggests someone who is reliable and steadfast, much like the historical horsemen who were depended upon for community protection. These individuals typically exhibit confidence and determination, often pursuing their goals with singular focus and resilience. They may also demonstrate a strong sense of justice and fairness, standing up for what they believe is right. While they can be assertive, they usually balance this with a sense of responsibility toward others, showing loyalty to family and friends.



Beyond the obvious associations with strength and leadership, those named Farees often display a nuanced personality that combines traditional values with modern sensibilities. They tend to be practical problem-solvers who approach challenges with both strategic thinking and immediate action. Their protective nature extends beyond physical safety to emotional and moral support for those in their care. However, this strength is typically tempered with wisdom and compassion, preventing them from becoming overly aggressive or domineering. The name suggests a person who understands the balance between authority and service, making them natural leaders who earn respect through both competence and character rather than mere position or force.
Cultural & Historical Significance

Fearnleah originates from Old English Christian traditions where nature-based names were commonly given to reflect both spiritual and earthly connections. The name emerged during the Anglo-Saxon period when Christian missionaries often incorporated local landscape features into naming conventions to bridge pagan traditions with Christian beliefs. Throughout medieval England, Fearnleah was particularly popular in monastic communities, where fern-covered meadows were seen as places of contemplation and divine connection. The name carried connotations of humility and natural wisdom, reflecting the Christian virtue of finding God in creation.



During the Norman conquest, the name persisted in rural Christian communities as a symbol of English identity and resistance to foreign influence. In later centuries, it became associated with botanical scholars and natural theologians who saw the study of plants like ferns as a way to understand God's intricate design in nature. The name's endurance through various historical periods demonstrates how Christian naming traditions often incorporated environmental elements to express theological concepts of creation care and divine immanence in the natural world.
Cultural & Historical Significance

Filbert has deep roots in Christian tradition, originating from the Old German name 'Filibert' meaning 'very bright.' The name gained prominence through Saint Filbert (also known as Saint Philibert), a 7th-century Frankish abbot who founded the famous Jumieges Abbey in Normandy. His legacy as a monastic reformer and his reputation for wisdom and spiritual brilliance helped establish Filbert as a name associated with intellectual and spiritual illumination in Christian communities.



Throughout medieval Europe, the name was particularly popular among monastic orders and educated clergy, symbolizing both divine wisdom and earthly knowledge. The name's association with 'brilliance' made it appealing to Christian families seeking to honor both intellectual achievement and spiritual enlightenment in their naming traditions. In many Christian cultures, naming a child Filbert expressed the hope that the child would grow to embody both faith and learning, reflecting the ideal of an educated Christian who uses knowledge in service of God and community.
Cultural & Historical Significance

Graeghamm emerged as a distinctive Christian name during the medieval period, particularly in English and Scottish regions where surnames and place names often evolved into given names. The name carries strong connections to both geographical heritage and Christian values, with 'gray home' symbolizing stability, wisdom, and spiritual foundation. Throughout Christian history, the name has been associated with individuals who maintained strong ties to their ancestral lands while serving their religious communities, embodying the balance between earthly roots and heavenly aspirations.



In Christian tradition, the concept of 'home' holds deep spiritual significance, representing both the earthly church community and the eternal heavenly home, making Graeghamm a name that bridges temporal and eternal perspectives. The name's historical usage reflects the medieval Christian practice of naming children after meaningful locations or characteristics that embodied spiritual virtues, with 'gray' representing the wisdom that comes with age and experience, and 'home' symbolizing the Christian ideal of creating spiritual sanctuaries in a transient world.
Minister Senaratne draws attention of the World Health Assembly to the recent floods in Sri Lanka



Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Dr Rajitha Senaratne on Tuesday (24 May 2016) drew the attention of the 69th World Health Assembly (WHA) meeting in Geneva to the recent floods and landslides in Sri Lanka that affected nearly half a million people and appreciated the expression of solidarity and support by countries, partners and the World Health Organization (WHO), to strengthen the timely health response to the affected people.



Addressing the Assembly under this years theme, Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development , Minister Senaratne stated that the Government of Sri Lanka is fully committed to the Sustainable Development Agenda and has already set up a multi sectoral Sustainable Development Secretariat to achieve this goal. Drawing attention to the increasing influx of migration, Minister highlighted the need to pay attention to the health of migrants, irrespective of their status of migration. In this context, he recalled the offer made by the President of Sri Lanka to host the second Global Consultation on Health of Migrants in Sri Lanka October this year, and stated that Sri Lanka is envisaging a political declaration as the outcome of the Global Consultation to demonstrate the commitment to this important issue.



The invited speaker of this year, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Ms. Christiana Figueres, addressing the Assembly, highlighted the links between climate change and health, and warned that if the world does not fundamentally change its approach to energy within the next 5 years, there is a risk that damage to the atmosphere will be irrevocable and continue to impact health for decades. The meeting was also addressed by the President of the Assembly - Hon. Dr. Ahmed Bin Mohammed al Saidi, Minister of Health of Oman, Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General /WHO and a large number of Health Ministers from Member countries.On the side  lines of the WHA, the Minister also met with his counterparts from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand, Nepal and Spain, and with Dr Poonam Singh, the Regional Director of South East Asian Region (SEAR) of WHO. Minister Senaratne participating as a panellist at a side  event jointly organised by the WHO and several Member States, including Sri Lanka on Prevention and Control of Noncommunciable diseases (NCDs), shared the best practices of Sri Lanka in achieving its multisectoral NCD targets.

Sri Lankas Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha, Director General of Health Services Dr. P.G. Mahipala, and other senior officials of the Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine were associated with the Minister during his meetings.



Full Statement

Press Release in PDF



Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka

Geneva

26 May 2016
Women named Grania typically exhibit a compelling blend of strength and sensitivity that reflects their name's mythological origins. They often possess natural leadership qualities combined with deep emotional intelligence, making them both decisive and empathetic. Like their namesake from Irish legend, Granias tend to be fiercely independent, valuing their autonomy while maintaining strong connections to family and community. They often demonstrate remarkable resilience in facing challenges, drawing on an inner strength that others find inspiring. Their passionate nature means they approach relationships and causes with intense commitment, though this can sometimes manifest as stubbornness when their principles are challenged.



Granias are frequently creative problem-solvers who trust their instincts and aren't afraid to take unconventional paths. They balance traditional values with progressive thinking, often serving as bridges between old wisdom and new ideas in their social and professional circles. Their communication style tends to be direct yet compassionate, and they have a natural ability to inspire loyalty in others. While they can be private about their deepest feelings, they form intensely loyal bonds with those they trust. The combination of their name's historical weight and personal characteristics often results in women who are both grounded and visionary, practical in their approach to life's challenges while maintaining a sense of wonder and possibility.
Individuals named Guadalupe are often perceived as possessing strong protective instincts and deep loyalty, reflecting the name's 'wolf valley' etymology. They tend to be nurturing figures with a strong sense of responsibility toward family and community. Many display remarkable resilience and the ability to overcome adversity, mirroring the historical significance of Our Lady of Guadalupe as a symbol of hope and perseverance. These individuals often exhibit spiritual depth and cultural pride, whether expressed through religious faith or connection to heritage.



They're frequently described as having gentle strengthcombining compassion with determinationand the ability to bridge different worlds or perspectives. Their personality often blends traditional values with adaptive intelligence, making them both grounded and capable of navigating complex social environments. Many Guadalupes demonstrate a natural leadership quality that emerges through quiet confidence rather than overt dominance, and they often serve as unifying figures in their communities. The name seems to carry an expectation of integrity and moral fortitude, with those bearing it often developing a strong sense of purpose and commitment to their principles.
Individuals named Hamzah are typically perceived as natural leaders with strong protective instincts. They often exhibit courage, determination, and a sense of responsibility toward those in their care. Their lion-like qualities manifest as confidence in decision-making and the ability to take charge in challenging situations. Many Hamzahs display a quiet strength that commands respect without being aggressive, combined with loyalty that makes them dependable friends and family members.



Beyond their strong exterior, Hamzahs often possess deep emotional intelligence and compassion. They tend to be principled individuals who stand firmly for what they believe is right, sometimes showing stubbornness when their values are challenged. Their leadership style typically balances authority with fairness, and they often serve as mediators in conflicts. The combination of strength and sensitivity makes them well-rounded individuals who can inspire others while maintaining meaningful personal relationships.



In social settings, Hamzahs are often respected for their integrity and reliability. They may take time to open up to new people but form deep, lasting bonds with those they trust. Their natural authority often positions them as problem-solvers and advisors within their communities, while their protective nature makes them particularly attentive to the needs of family and close friends.
Individuals named Harac are typically perceived as possessing oak-like qualities: strong-willed, deeply rooted in their principles, and remarkably resilient in facing life's challenges. They often exhibit a quiet strength that doesn't need constant validation, much like an ancient oak standing firm through seasons and storms. Their personality tends to be grounded and practical, with a natural inclination toward protection and support of those in their care.



Harac's are often seen as pillars of their communitiesreliable, trustworthy, and consistent in their actions and beliefs. They typically approach problems with methodical patience, preferring to build lasting solutions rather than seeking quick fixes. While they may appear reserved initially, those who know them well appreciate their deep loyalty and the shelter they provide in times of need, mirroring the protective canopy of the oak tree that gives the name its meaning. This combination of inner strength and protective nature makes them natural leaders who inspire confidence through steady presence rather than dramatic gestures.
Cultural & Historical Significance

Heber holds significant cultural importance in Irish history as both a given name and surname. The name traces back to the Gaelic O hIomhair, meaning 'descendant of Iomhar', with Iomhar being the Gaelic form of Ivar, a name brought to Ireland by Norse settlers. This reflects the complex cultural interchange between Gaelic and Norse populations in medieval Ireland. In Irish mythology, Eber (Heber) was one of the legendary sons of Mil Espaine who conquered Ireland, making the name deeply rooted in Irish origin stories and national identity.



The name gained particular prominence through the Milesian genealogies, where Heber and his brother Heremon were said to have divided Ireland between them after their father's death. This mythological connection elevated Heber to a position of foundational importance in Irish cultural memory. During the 19th century, the name experienced renewed interest as part of the Gaelic Revival movement, when many Irish families sought to reconnect with their ancestral heritage and traditional names. The name's persistence across centuries demonstrates its enduring cultural resonance within Irish and Irish-diaspora communities.
Cultural & Historical Significance

The name Hilel holds profound significance in Islamic culture as it directly references the hilal, the crescent moon that marks the beginning of each lunar month in the Islamic calendar. This celestial symbol is deeply embedded in Muslim religious practices, particularly for determining the start of Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr, and Eid al-Adha. The sighting of the new moon represents divine timing and the rhythm of Islamic worship, making Hilel a name that connects the bearer to the cosmic order established by Allah.



Historically, the name has been favored among Muslim scholars and astronomers who studied lunar cycles for religious purposes. In many Islamic societies, the appearance of the new moon symbolizes renewal, guidance, and the continuous cycle of creation. The name carries connotations of illumination in darkness, much like the slender crescent that provides the first light after the moon's darkness, serving as a metaphor for spiritual enlightenment and the emergence of truth after periods of uncertainty.



The cultural importance extends beyond religious observance to include artistic and architectural symbolism, where the crescent appears in Islamic art, mosque architecture, and national flags of Muslim-majority countries. This widespread representation reinforces Hilel's position as a name that embodies both religious devotion and cultural identity across the Muslim world.
Cultural & Historical Significance

Histion holds a distinctive place in Christian mythology and history as a name that appears in early Christian martyrologies and Byzantine ecclesiastical records. The name is particularly significant in Eastern Orthodox traditions, where it is associated with several saints and scholars who contributed to the development of Christian theology during the Byzantine era. In Christian mythological contexts, the name often symbolizes spiritual navigation and guidance, drawing from its possible Greek roots related to sailing and navigation, which were metaphorically applied to spiritual leadership and missionary work.



The name's cultural importance extends to its representation of steadfast faith during periods of religious persecution. Historical records suggest that bearers of this name were often involved in important theological debates and church councils, helping to shape early Christian doctrine. In medieval Christian communities, the name Histion was sometimes given to children in hopes they would embody the spiritual strength and intellectual depth associated with its historical bearers, particularly in Greek-speaking Christian communities where the name maintained its original linguistic and cultural resonance.
Cultural & Historical Significance

Ierne represents one of the oldest known names for Ireland, dating back to Greek and Roman geographical accounts where it appeared as 'Ierne' or 'Ivernia.' The name carries profound cultural weight as it connects directly to Ireland's ancient identity before Christianization, embodying the island's mythological origins and pre-Celtic heritage. Throughout Irish literary tradition, Ierne has been used poetically to evoke the mystical, untamed spirit of the land itself, often appearing in romantic and nationalist writings of the 19th century as a symbol of Ireland's distinct cultural identity.



The name maintains special significance in academic and cultural circles where it's employed to reference Ireland's classical antiquity and its portrayal in ancient Mediterranean worldviews. Unlike the more common 'Eire' or 'Erin,' Ierne carries an academic and literary sophistication that appeals to those deeply connected to Ireland's classical heritage and mythological traditions, serving as a bridge between Ireland's ancient past and contemporary cultural expression.
Cultural & Historical Significance

The name Indee draws its cultural significance from its connection to India, a country with deep spiritual roots that have influenced Christian traditions. Many early Christian communities in India trace their origins to the Apostle Thomas, creating a unique blend of Eastern and Western religious practices. In Christian contexts, the name often symbolizes the rich missionary history in South Asia and represents the global nature of the Christian faith, embracing cultural diversity while maintaining spiritual unity.



The name serves as a bridge between Western Christian traditions and the ancient spiritual heritage of the Indian subcontinent, reflecting the universal message of Christianity across cultural boundaries. It honors the centuries-old Christian presence in India while celebrating the modern, interconnected nature of global Christianity. This cultural significance makes Indee a name that speaks to both historical depth and contemporary relevance in Christian naming practices.
Individuals named Ixaka are often perceived as possessing a joyful, optimistic disposition that aligns with the name's meaning of 'child of laughter.' They tend to be warm, approachable people who naturally uplift those around them with their good humor and positive outlook. This inherent cheerfulness is typically balanced with deep thoughtfulness and emotional intelligence, allowing them to form meaningful connections while maintaining their characteristic lightheartedness.



Beyond their joyful exterior, Ixakas often demonstrate strong resilience and perseverance, qualities that reflect the historical journey of the Sephardic communities who preserved this name. They frequently exhibit intellectual curiosity and cultural awareness, showing interest in traditions, history, and family heritage. While adaptable and sociable, they also value deep, lasting relationships and often serve as pillars within their communities. Their combination of joyfulness and depth makes them both beloved companions and trusted advisors to those fortunate enough to know them well.
Statement by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka at the 51st Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on 12 September 2022



Mr. President,

Madam Acting High Commissioner,

Excellencies,

At the outset, on behalf of our Government, I reiterate our unwavering commitment towards advancing, securing and protecting the human rights of our people, and continuing our engagement with the Council in a spirit of cooperation and dialogue. In keeping with our commitment, notwithstanding our categorical rejection of resolution 46/1, we have submitted Sri Lankas detailed written response to the High Commissioners Report. We have requested that Sri Lankas Comments be placed as an Addendum to the Report, to accord with best practices.

Mr. President,

We remain cognizant of and acutely sensitive to the events that have taken place in the recent past. The severe economic crisis emanating from factors both internal and external offer many lessons for all of us. We recall in this context the indivisibility of human rights, as enshrined in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action. The Government is extremely sensitive to the socio-economic hardships faced by our people, and has initiated immediate multi-pronged measures to address the challenges and to ensure their wellbeing through the provision of supplies essential to the life of the community. A staff level agreement has been reached with the International Monetary Fund, and discussions on debt restructuring are in progress. The Government is in dialogue with UN agencies as well as bilateral partners to protect the most vulnerable from the adverse impacts of the crisis. In spite of multiple challenges, Sri Lanka would endeavour to remain on course in meeting the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The recent changes that have taken place bear testimony to our continued commitment to upholding our longstanding democratic principles and norms. The constitutional rights to peaceful assembly and expression guaranteed the democratic space for our people to exercise their rights. In this regard, transgressions of the law resulting in criminal and unlawful activity were addressed in accord with the law and the Constitution, in circumstances where such freedoms were abused by elements with vested interests to achieve undemocratic political ends.

Mr. President,

Notwithstanding the severe constraints and challenges, Sri Lanka remains firmly committed to pursuing tangible progress in the protection of human rights and reconcilation through independent domestic institutions.

Sri Lanka along with several Members of this Council have opposed resolution 46/1, fundamentally disagreeing with its legitimacy and objectives. We have consistently highlighted that the content of the resolution, its operative paragraph 06 in particular, violates the sovereignty of the people of Sri Lanka and the principles of the UN Charter. Once again, we are compelled to categorically reject any follow-up measures to the resolution, as well as the related recommendations and conclusions by the High Commissioner.

Mr. President,

It is observed that the High Commissioners report makes extensive reference to economic crimes. Apart from the ambiguity of the term, it is a matter of concern that such reference exceeds the mandate of the OHCHR. In this context, we recall the paramount importance of adhering to UNGA resolutions 60/251, 48/141 and the IB package.

Notwithstanding, Sri Lanka has continued to brief the Council on the comprehensive legal framework that is being established to further strengthen governance and combat corruption. The proposed 22nd Amendment to the Constitution introduces several salient changes which would strengthen democratic governance and independent oversight of key institutions, as well as public scrutiny, participation in governance, and combating corruption including the constitutional recognition of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). This will include, inter alia, the composition of the Constitutional Council, and the reintroduction of the National Procurement Commission and the Audit Service Commission. The proposed legal framework will also strengthen the asset declaration system, protect the rights of whistle blowers, and increase the independence of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption. A proposal to establish a system similar to an Inspector General tasked with overseeing government expenses by detecting and preventing fraud, waste and abuse in public institutions, is under consideration.

Mr. President,

Measures aimed at promoting domestic reconciliation and human rights, if they are to be meaningful and sustainable, must be based on cooperation with the country concerned, be compatible with the aspirations of its people, and be consonant with its basic legal framework. The international community is aware that unconstitutional and intrusive external initiatives have repeatedly failed to yield meaningful results on the ground, and are in effect an unproductive drain on member state resources.

The Government would endeavour to establish a credible truth-seeking mechanism within the framework of the Constitution. The contours of such a model that would suit the particular conditions of Sri Lanka are under discussion.

The recommendations of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on Appraisal of the Findings of Previous Commissions and Committees and the Way Forward have, inter alia, resulted in the establishment of an Advisory Board under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), progressive amendments to the PTA, and the release of detainees. Further recommendations are awaited.

As we delivered on the onerous task of review and reform of the PTA this year, to further enhance human rights, we will replace the PTA with a more comprehensive national security legislation in accordance with international best practices.

The recent delisting of groups and individuals will provide further impetus for constructive dialogue.

The independent statutory bodies established to advance the rights of victims and their families, and to provide reparations, continue to vigourously execute their respective mandates.

The Office on Missing Persons (OMP) has commenced the process of inquiry and verification, set up separate units on Tracing and Victim and Family Support, and acts as an Observer on relevant judicial proceedings.

Despite economic constraints, the Office for Reparations (OR) continues to deliver on its mandate, and the recently adopted National Reparations Policy and Guidelines have expanded the work of the Office beyond monetary compensation, to other forms of support.

The necessary support and resources to strengthen the functioning of the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR) and the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL), continue to be provided.

The outreach to overseas Sri Lankans encompassing all communities and generations will be expanded through the establishment of an Office for Overseas Sri Lankans, thus facilitating more vigourous engagement.

Mr. President,

As recognized in the Universal Declaration, human rights are interdependent, interrelated and indivisible. In upholding human rights, we have benefitted from the considerable expertise available with other countries as well as the United Nations. We will seek further advice and support on best practices as we proceed, and as deemed necessary.

We will continue our cooperation with the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms. Sri Lanka is party to the 9 core Human Rights Conventions, and has maintained regular and constructive engagement with the UN Treaty Bodies. We have extended a standing invitation to all UN thematic Special Procedures mandate holders to visit Sri Lanka, and facilitated a high number of visits in the recent past. We look forward to constructive engagement with the Council through the Universal Periodic Review process. We have delivered on our commitments at the UPR, and will proactively engage in the upcoming UPR fourth cycle.

We have facilitated two visits by the Office of the High Commissioner to Sri Lanka in May and August this year, and provided unimpeded access. The visits provided the officials of the OHCHR with the opportunity to engage with a range of stakeholders, and witness progress.

Mr. President,

It is 13 years since the end of the conflict in Sri Lanka, and since then a new generation has emerged with their own aspirations. While issues of reconciliation and accountability are being comprehensively addressed through a domestic process, it is time to reflect realistically on the trajectory of this resolution which has continued on the agenda of the Council for over a decade, and undertake a realistic assessment on whether it has benefited the people of Sri Lanka. There is a need to acknowledge actual progress on the ground and support Sri Lanka.

The current challenges, though formidable, have provided us with a unique opportunity to work towards institutional change for the betterment of our people. Sri Lanka appreciates the solidarity and support extended by our friends and partners during this challenging time. In a message of unity and reconciliation, President Ranil Wickremesinghe in his inaugural address to Parliament said if we come together, we will be able to invigorate the nation.

Mr. President,

Through many a challenge, the people of Sri Lanka have remained steadfast and resilient while upholding their democratic values as one of Asias oldest democracies. We are not hesitant to acknowledge our challenges and forge ahead with renewed vigour. While our immediate concern is economic recovery, advancing the human rights of our people is of equal priority. We look to the genuine support and understanding of this Council, as we proceed on this path.

Thank you.
Cultural & Historical Significance

Jeanelle emerged as a distinctive Christian name in the 20th century, primarily in English-speaking countries with strong Protestant traditions. The name carries significant religious weight as it derives from Jane, which itself comes from the Hebrew name Yochanan meaning 'God is gracious.' This etymological connection places Jeanelle within the rich tradition of biblical names that express gratitude for divine favor and blessing. In Christian communities, the name is often chosen to reflect the parents' faith and their acknowledgment of God's grace in their lives, particularly when a child is seen as an answer to prayer or a special blessing.



The name's usage expanded during the mid-20th century as parents sought feminine variations of traditional biblical names while maintaining their spiritual significance. Jeanelle represents a bridge between traditional Christian naming practices and modern linguistic creativity, allowing families to honor their faith while giving their children unique identities. The name has been particularly popular in evangelical and Protestant communities where naming children with explicitly Christian meanings is valued as a declaration of faith and a way to instill spiritual identity from birth.
People named Jeff are typically perceived as the steady anchors in any situationreliable, practical, and emotionally grounded. They possess a natural ability to assess situations calmly and implement practical solutions without unnecessary drama. This pragmatic approach often makes Jeffs excellent problem-solvers in both professional and personal contexts. Their communication style tends to be direct yet diplomatic, allowing them to navigate conflicts while maintaining relationships. There's an inherent trustworthiness about most Jeffs that makes others naturally turn to them for advice and support.



Beyond their practical exterior, many Jeffs demonstrate quiet creativity and innovative thinking, though they often prefer to let their results speak for themselves rather than seeking attention. They typically value authenticity over pretense and have little patience for games or manipulation. In social settings, Jeffs are often the stabilizersthe ones who keep conversations grounded and ensure everyone feels included. Their combination of emotional intelligence and practical competence makes them particularly effective in leadership roles where steady guidance is needed. While they may not seek the spotlight, their consistent performance and reliable nature often propel them into positions of respect and influence.
Women named Jenesia are typically characterized by their innovative spirit and adaptability to new situations. They possess a natural curiosity that drives them to explore uncharted territories, whether in their personal lives or professional endeavors. This pioneering quality often makes them natural leaders who inspire others with their vision and courage. Jenesias tend to be resilient individuals who view challenges as opportunities for growth rather than obstacles. Their personality combines emotional intelligence with practical wisdom, allowing them to navigate complex social situations with grace. They are often described as bridges between tradition and innovation, honoring the past while embracing the future with open arms and creative solutions to contemporary problems.
Individuals named Jeraldo are often perceived as natural leaders with a strong sense of purpose and determination. They typically exhibit qualities of protection and guidance, reflecting the name's meaning of 'spear ruler' through their tendency to take charge in challenging situations and defend those they care about. Jeraldos are usually charismatic and confident, able to inspire others with their vision and conviction. They possess a strategic mindset that allows them to navigate complex situations effectively, much like a skilled warrior planning their approach. This combination of leadership qualities often makes them successful in positions of authority where decisive action and clear direction are valued.



Beyond their leadership capabilities, Jeraldos frequently demonstrate deep loyalty and protective instincts toward their loved ones. They tend to be reliable and steadfast, creating strong bonds with family and friends that last throughout their lives. Many Jeraldos balance their strong exterior with emotional intelligence and compassion, understanding when to be firm and when to offer support. Their protective nature extends beyond physical safety to include emotional well-being and moral guidance. This balanced personalitycombining strength with sensitivity, authority with empathymakes Jeraldos respected figures in their personal and professional circles, often serving as pillars of strength for those around them while maintaining the wisdom to know when compassion is needed more than force.
Women named Jeslyn are often perceived as possessing a natural elegance and refined sensibility that draws others to them. They typically exhibit a balanced combination of inner strength and external grace, carrying themselves with a quiet confidence that commands respect. Jeslyns are frequently described as having excellent taste and an eye for beauty in all aspects of life, from personal style to their surroundings. They tend to be socially adept, able to navigate various situations with poise and diplomacy.



Their inherent charm is often complemented by a sharp intellect and practical wisdom, making them effective problem-solvers who approach challenges with both creativity and logic. Many Jeslyns demonstrate a nurturing quality, often serving as pillars of support within their social circles while maintaining their independence and personal ambitions. They typically value meaningful relationships and cultivate deep connections rather than superficial acquaintances, reflecting the name's association with both wealth of spirit and beauty of character.
Individuals named Joash typically exhibit a complex blend of spiritual depth and practical leadership, reflecting the dual nature of their biblical namesakes. They often possess innate resilience and the ability to overcome early challenges, much like the young king who survived assassination attempts. Their personality tends toward reform-mindedness - they respect traditions but aren't afraid to implement necessary changes when they see systems in disrepair. Joash-named individuals usually demonstrate strong organizational skills and a methodical approach to problem-solving, combined with a deep sense of purpose that often feels divinely guided. They can be surprisingly mature from a young age and often take on leadership roles early in life. However, they may struggle with maintaining their initial idealism throughout long-term commitments and might face challenges in staying consistent with their core values when confronted with prolonged pressure or temptation. Their strength lies in their ability to recognize when they need help and their willingness to seek guidance from mentors or spiritual sources.
Women named Kathryn are often perceived as intelligent, composed, and possessing natural leadership qualities. The name carries connotations of sophistication and reliability, suggesting someone who is both practical and thoughtful in their approach to life. Many Katheryns are seen as having strong moral compasses and a deep sense of integrity, traits that align with the name's meaning of 'pure.' They tend to be organized, detail-oriented, and capable of handling responsibility with grace. At the same time, the name suggests a warmth and approachability that makes others feel comfortable seeking their advice or guidance. This combination of strength and compassion often positions Katheryns as natural mentors and trusted friends in both personal and professional settings.



Beyond these core characteristics, Katheryns are frequently associated with creativity and intellectual curiosity. The name's historical connections to learned women and saints known for their wisdom contribute to this perception. Many people expect Katheryns to be well-spoken, culturally aware, and interested in the arts or academia. There's also an expectation of resiliencethe ability to overcome challenges with dignity and determination. This stems from the name's association with historical figures who maintained their principles under pressure. While these are generalized perceptions, they reflect how the name Kathryn has come to symbolize a particular blend of strength, intelligence, and grace that many parents hope to instill in their daughters.
Individuals named Keelia are often perceived as graceful, elegant, and possessing a natural poise that reflects the name's meaning of 'slender' or 'comely.' They tend to exhibit refined manners and an appreciation for beauty in all forms, from art and music to nature and human relationships. Keelias are typically thoughtful and observant, with a keen eye for detail and harmony in their surroundings. Their slender symbolism extends metaphorically to their approach to lifethey often navigate challenges with flexibility and adaptability rather than brute force.



Many Keelias demonstrate artistic sensibilities, emotional intelligence, and a quiet strength that belies their gentle exterior. They value meaningful connections and often serve as peacemakers in social situations, using their natural diplomacy to resolve conflicts. While they may appear delicate, Keelias frequently possess remarkable resilience and inner fortitude, embodying the Celtic ideal of strength through grace rather than force. Their comely nature often translates to an ability to see and bring out the beauty in others and their surroundings.
Individuals named Ludwik are typically perceived as strong-willed, intellectual, and principled. They often exhibit leadership qualities combined with a deep sense of purpose and determination. The 'famous fighter' connotation suggests someone who doesn't shy away from challenges and is willing to stand up for their beliefs, whether in academic, professional, or personal contexts. Ludwiks are often seen as methodical thinkers with a strategic approach to problem-solving, reflecting the warrior aspect of their name's meaning.



They tend to be respected for their integrity and persistence, often taking on roles that require both mental fortitude and moral courage. Many Ludwiks display a balance between traditional values and innovative thinking, making them effective in roles that require both respect for established systems and the vision to improve them. Their personality often combines intellectual curiosity with practical determination, creating individuals who are both thinkers and doers who pursue their goals with consistent effort and strategic planning.
Individuals named Manauia are typically perceived as protective, resilient, and principled. They often exhibit strong leadership qualities with a natural inclination toward safeguarding others and standing up for their beliefs. This protective nature extends beyond physical defense to include emotional support and advocacy for community welfare. Manauias tend to be determined and steadfast, showing remarkable perseverance in the face of challenges. Their defensive orientation makes them excellent problem-solvers who can anticipate threats and create secure environments. While sometimes perceived as reserved or cautious, this stems from their thoughtful nature and commitment to ensuring safety and stability for those in their care. They often develop deep, loyal relationships and are known for their reliability in times of crisis, embodying the protective qualities their name signifies.
Statement by Ambassador and Permanent Representative Himalee Arunatilaka during the General Debate on Agenda Item 2 at the HRC 54, 13 September 2023



54th Session of the Human Rights Council

Agenda Item 2 - General Debate

Statement by Her Excellency Himalee Arunatilaka, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva

13th September 2023

Mr. President,

Resolutions 60/251 and 48/141 require that the work of this Council and the OHCHR should be guided by the principles of universality, impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity, and constructive international dialogue and cooperation.

Unfortunately, this does not appear to be the case with regard to Sri Lanka.

One such instance in the Written Update is the reference to the investigations on the Easter Sunday Attacks of 2019. It is regrettable that the OHCHR has sought to use incorrect and unsubstantiated information from biased sources in their analysis. As Sri Lanka has repeatedly informed this Council, extensive and comprehensive investigations have been carried out by the GoSL with regard to these attacks including a Presidential Commission of Inquiry, the report of which was submitted to the Parliament. Investigations carried out by the Government authorities were assisted by international professional agencies including the Australian Federal Police, the FBI of the United States and INTERPOL.

As at April 2023, 79 have been indicted in Easter Sunday terror attacks related matters. On 12 January 2023, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka delivered its judgement on the Fundamental Rights petition that was filed against the President, IGP, Director of State Intelligence Service, Defence Secretary and Chief of National Intelligence, at the time of these attacks.

In addition, the Government has decided to establish a Parliamentary Select Committee to address concerns raised in the public domain as of late and the President has appointed a committee, led by a retired Supreme Court judge to investigate the relevant allegations.

Mr. President,

We appreciate the many positive comments made by countries during the Interactive Dialogue on Sri Lanka, acknowledging the visible progress on the ground.

Mr. President,

Sri Lanka supports the One China policy and we welcome Chinas cooperation with UN human rights mechanisms. We reiterate that interference in the internal affairs of any sovereign country cannot and should not be tolerated.

Thank you.

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Cultural & Historical Significance

Marzuq holds significant cultural importance in Muslim societies as it embodies the Islamic concept of divine providence and blessings. The name originates from the Arabic root 'r-z-q' which relates to sustenance and provision, reflecting the belief that all blessings come from Allah. In Islamic tradition, being 'marzuq' means being favored with God's bounty, whether through material wealth, spiritual enlightenment, or fortunate circumstances. This name has been particularly popular in regions with strong Islamic scholarly traditions, including the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, and Southeast Asia, where it symbolizes both spiritual and worldly prosperity.



Historically, the name has been chosen by parents hoping their sons would lead blessed lives filled with divine favor and success in both religious and secular pursuits. The cultural significance extends beyond individual naming to represent community values of gratitude, recognition of divine blessings, and the understanding that true success comes from spiritual alignment. In many Muslim cultures, naming a child Marzuq expresses both hope for their future and acknowledgment that all provisions ultimately come from God.
Cultural & Historical Significance

Meriel has roots in Celtic languages, particularly Irish and Scottish Gaelic, where it evolved from 'Muirgel' meaning 'bright sea' or 'shining sea.' The name gained Christian significance during the medieval period when it was adopted by several saints and religious figures, becoming associated with purity, clarity, and spiritual illumination. In Christian tradition, the 'sea' symbolism connects to baptismal waters and spiritual journeys, while 'shining' represents divine light and grace. The name maintained popularity in Celtic Christian communities, particularly in Ireland and Scotland, where it was often given to girls born near coastal regions or as a blessing for a life guided by faith and clarity.



During the Victorian era, Meriel experienced a revival as part of the Celtic romantic movement, often chosen by families seeking names with both historical depth and Christian meaning. The name's association with the sea made it particularly meaningful for coastal communities and those with maritime traditions, while its Christian connections ensured its continued use in religious families. In modern times, Meriel represents a bridge between Celtic heritage and Christian tradition, appealing to those who value both cultural roots and spiritual significance in naming practices.
Women named Minetta are often perceived as possessing a unique blend of strength and grace. They typically exhibit the 'resolute protector' qualities inherent in their Williamina rootsshowing determination, loyalty, and a protective nature toward those they care about. At the same time, the French diminutive ending '-etta' suggests a certain elegance, creativity, and emotional sensitivity that balances their stronger qualities. Minettas are often seen as diplomatic individuals who can navigate complex social situations with tact and intelligence.



This combination of traits makes Minettas particularly effective in roles that require both leadership and empathy. They tend to be practical problem-solvers who approach challenges with both logic and intuition. Their artistic sensibilities often manifest in creative pursuits or an appreciation for beauty in everyday life. While they can be assertive when necessary, they typically prefer collaboration and consensus-building. The name suggests someone who values relationships deeply and invests considerable energy in maintaining meaningful connections with family and friends, making them reliable confidantes and supportive companions throughout life's various stages.
Cultural & Historical Significance

Nikolaus holds profound cultural significance throughout German-speaking Europe, deeply rooted in the legacy of Saint Nicholas of Myra, the 4th-century bishop renowned for his miracles and generosity. This connection establishes the name as intrinsically linked to Christmas traditions, particularly the celebration of Nikolaustag on December 6th, when children anticipate treats from the saintly figure. The cultural impact extends beyond religious observance to encompass values of charity, protection of the vulnerable, and community leadership that have been embodied by historical figures bearing this name.



The name's endurance through centuries reflects its ability to bridge ancient traditions with modern sensibilities. From medieval rulers to Renaissance scientists and contemporary artists, individuals named Nikolaus have often been associated with innovation grounded in respect for tradition. In German-speaking countries, the name carries connotations of reliability, wisdom, and benevolent authority, making it a choice that signifies both cultural continuity and personal integrity. The evolution of Saint Nicholas into the modern Santa Claus figure further demonstrates the name's cultural adaptability while maintaining its core associations with gift-giving and seasonal joy.
Symbolically, Qubilah represents the profound Islamic concept of unity in diversity and the transformative power of reconciliation. It serves as a living metaphor for the meeting point where different perspectives converge into harmonious understanding, embodying the Quranic ideal that humanity's diversity is meant to foster mutual recognition rather than conflict. The name symbolizes the bridge between apparent oppositestradition and modernity, individual and community, strength and gentleness. In spiritual terms, Qubilah reflects the soul's journey toward alignment with divine purpose and the harmonious integration of various aspects of human experience. It carries the symbolic weight of the Islamic principle that true peace comes not from the absence of difference but from the respectful engagement with diversity. The name thus becomes not just an identifier but a daily reminder of the higher purpose of human relationships: to reflect the divine attributes of mercy, justice, and compassionate understanding in everyday interactions.
Cultural & Historical Significance

Ruwaydah occupies a special place in Islamic cultural heritage as a name that embodies core Islamic values of gentleness, dignity, and thoughtful conduct. The name's historical significance is deeply rooted in early Islamic history through notable figures like Ruwaydah al-Aslamiya, who pioneered medical care during the time of Prophet Muhammad. Her establishment of a medical tent during battles represents one of the earliest examples of organized nursing in Islamic civilization, making the name symbolic of female contribution to community welfare. This historical connection gives Ruwaydah particular resonance in Muslim societies, where names connected to respected early Muslim women are highly valued. The name reflects the Islamic ideal of the 'middle path' - avoiding extremes and moving through life with balance and consciousness. In many Muslim cultures, naming a daughter Ruwaydah expresses the parents' hope that she will embody these cherished qualities of graceful conduct and meaningful contribution to society.



The cultural importance of Ruwaydah extends beyond its historical associations to encompass broader Islamic values. The concept of 'gentle walking' aligns with Quranic teachings about moderation and the importance of dignified behavior. In traditional Islamic scholarship, names carrying meanings related to positive character traits are encouraged, and Ruwaydah perfectly fits this criterion. The name has been passed down through generations in many Muslim families, often chosen to honor the legacy of early Muslim women who played significant roles in Islamic society. Contemporary Muslim parents continue to select this name for its deep cultural roots and the positive values it represents, ensuring its continued relevance in modern Muslim identity across diverse global communities.
Individuals named Sadhbba are typically characterized by their deep thinking, analytical nature, and strong sense of intuition. They possess a natural wisdom that often makes them sought-after advisors and confidants. Their thoughtful approach to life allows them to see patterns and connections that others might miss, making them excellent problem-solvers and strategic thinkers. Sadhbbas tend to be patient listeners who value knowledge and experience, often displaying a maturity beyond their years. They are typically calm under pressure and able to maintain perspective during challenging situations. While they may not be the loudest voice in the room, their insights are usually profound and well-considered. Their combination of intellectual depth and emotional intelligence makes them particularly effective in roles requiring diplomacy, teaching, or leadership.
Individuals named Salome often exhibit a fascinating blend of tranquility and intensity that reflects the name's dual heritage. They typically possess a calm, composed exterior that masks deep emotional currents and strong convictions. This combination makes them both approachable and mysterious, capable of maintaining peace in difficult situations while harboring passionate inner lives. Their natural grace and poise often draw others to them, yet they maintain a sense of privacy and self-possession.



Salomes tend to be creative, artistic souls with a strong appreciation for beauty and harmony. They often excel in fields requiring both emotional intelligence and disciplined expression, such as dance, music, or diplomacy. While they can appear serene and accommodating, they possess a core of steel when their principles are challenged. This balance between gentle peacemaking and fierce determination makes them both reliable friends and formidable opponents when necessary. Their complexity often surprises those who assume their tranquil nature indicates weakness rather than depth.
Individuals named Shaelynn are often perceived as charismatic and fortunate, living up to their name's meaning of being 'descendant of the fortunate one.' They typically exhibit a blend of traditional values and modern adaptability, showing strong family loyalty while embracing contemporary perspectives. Shaelynns are frequently described as intuitive and emotionally intelligent, with a natural ability to connect with others and create harmonious environments.



Their personality often combines the resilience and storytelling tradition of their Irish heritage with a forward-looking optimism that attracts positive opportunities and relationships. Many Shaelynns display creative talents and a strong sense of cultural identity, often serving as bridges between different generations or cultural contexts. They tend to be well-liked for their warm demeanor and ability to make others feel valued and understood, characteristics that align with the fortunate connotations of their name's origin.
Individuals named Shino are often perceived as possessing the quiet strength and resilience symbolized by their namesake. Like bamboo that bends without breaking in strong winds, Shinos typically demonstrate remarkable adaptability and emotional flexibility while maintaining core integrity. They tend to be observant, thoughtful individuals who process situations deeply before acting, often displaying wisdom beyond their years. Their calm exterior frequently masks a strong will and determination that emerges when principles or loved ones are threatened.



Socially, Shinos often exhibit grace under pressure and natural elegance in their interactions. They may prefer meaningful connections over superficial relationships, valuing depth and authenticity. Their analytical nature makes them excellent problem-solvers, though they might occasionally overthink situations. The bamboo symbolism suggests they grow steadily through challenges, developing stronger character with each life experience. Their combination of gentle appearance with inner toughness often surprises those who underestimate them, making Shinos quietly formidable individuals who embody the Japanese ideal of strength through flexibility.
Statement by Ambassador and Permanent Representative Himalee Arunatilaka during the Interactive Dialogue on the Annual Report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights at the HRC 59, 17 June 2025

Mr. President,

This session of the Council is taking place amidst multiple global challenges, threats to multilateralism and international institutions, while hunger, conflict and climatic disasters are threatening the very survival of millions across the world. The need for international cooperation and dialogue have never been more essential, than at the present juncture. It is timely to reflect the founding principles of this Council and adopt an approach that addresses the pressing human rights challenges of today.

Sri Lanka remains an active partner in the multilateral framework, despite domestic challenges facing its people. The Government of President Anura Kumara Disanayaka has undertaken substantive efforts towards introducing a new political culture, addressing corruption and prioritizing economic revival, while reaffirming commitment towards meaningful reconciliation through domestic institutions.

A number of initiatives have been undertaken to strengthen the national anti-corruption framework, supported by a stronger, more independent Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, reflecting the Governments firm intention to build a corruption-free society where fairness, integrity, and accountability shape every aspect of governance.

To enhance the independence and transparency of the criminal justice system and improve public trust, the Govt is seeking to expedite legal proceedings through the creation of an independent public prosecutors office. The Prevention of Terrorism Act is to be repealed following a review of the existing legislation.

The domestic independent mechanisms and processes working on missing persons, reparations and reconciliation, are continuing their work within the Constitutional framework. Increased engagement of the public with the work of these institutions showcase the growing public trust in their activities.

At a time when the UN human rights framework is facing challenges, Sri Lanka believes that the Council must prioritize thematic issues like food security, health, development and climate change that need to be addressed urgently for the benefit of humankind. Ensuring that the Council's actions lead to tangible improvements through a fair approach in human rights situations is essential.

Human Rights situations must be assessed with impartiality, non-selectivity and objectivity.

Mr. President,

Sri Lanka remains committed to engaging in a constructive spirit of dialogue and cooperation with the members of the United Nations including this Council within our national legal framework. In this context, we look forward to receiving the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Sri Lanka later this month. Thank you

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Individuals named Sophie are often perceived as intelligent, thoughtful, and articulate, living up to their name's meaning of wisdom. They tend to be analytical thinkers who approach problems with careful consideration and logical reasoning. Many Sophies display a natural curiosity about the world and a love of learning, often excelling in academic or creative pursuits. Their wisdom typically manifests as good judgment and the ability to see multiple perspectives in complex situations.



Beyond intellectual qualities, Sophies are frequently described as warm, compassionate, and socially aware. They often possess strong emotional intelligence and the ability to connect with others on a deep level. While they can be reserved in unfamiliar situations, they typically develop strong, lasting friendships based on mutual respect and understanding. Their combination of intellectual depth and emotional sensitivity makes them excellent advisors and confidants, though they may sometimes overthink decisions or take on others' emotional burdens.
Cultural & Historical Significance

Struana is a distinctly Scottish name deeply rooted in the country's landscape and Gaelic heritage. The name originates from the Gaelic word 'sruth', meaning stream or flowing water, reflecting Scotland's abundant rivers and waterways that have shaped settlement patterns, transportation, and mythology for centuries. In Scottish tradition, names derived from natural features like streams were believed to carry the essence and protection of those elements, with flowing water symbolizing life, purification, and continuity.



The name gained particular significance in the Highlands and Islands, where specific streams and rivers held sacred importance in local folklore. Many Scottish clans had traditions of naming children after nearby geographical features to establish a spiritual connection to their ancestral lands. Struana represents this deep bond between Scottish identity and the natural environment, embodying the flowing, adaptable yet persistent character of Scottish culture through generations of change and challenge.
Cultural & Historical Significance

Sunniva has deep roots in Scandinavian history and Christian tradition, most notably through Saint Sunniva, an Irish princess who fled to Norway in the 10th century to escape an unwanted marriage. According to legend, she and her followers settled on the island of Selja, where they lived as hermits until local farmers accused them of stealing livestock. When the farmers came to capture them, Sunniva prayed for protection, and a rockslide buried her and her companions, creating what became known as the Saint Sunniva Cave. Her remains were discovered years later, perfectly preserved, leading to her canonization as Norway's first saint and establishing her as the patron saint of Western Norway and the Diocese of Bjrgvin.



The name Sunniva represents the blending of Celtic and Norse cultures and symbolizes purity, faith, and divine protection in Scandinavian Christian tradition. The story of Saint Sunniva became an important part of Norwegian religious identity, particularly in western regions where her cult was strongest. Churches dedicated to Saint Sunniva spread throughout Norway, and her feast day on July 8th remains significant in the Norwegian Catholic calendar. The name continues to carry these historical and religious associations while also representing the enduring cultural connections between Ireland and Norway.
Cultural & Historical Significance

The name Watts carries profound cultural significance rooted in medieval English society, where patronymic surnames first emerged to distinguish individuals by their father's name. As 'son of Walter,' Watts connects to the Norman aristocracy that reshaped English culture after 1066. The Germanic roots of Walter ('ruler of the army') reflect the martial values of early medieval society, while the Christianization of these names demonstrates how pagan traditions were absorbed into Christian culture. Through figures like Isaac Watts, the name became permanently linked to Protestant hymnody and the Evangelical movement of the 18th century. His hymns, particularly 'Joy to the World,' transformed Christmas celebrations worldwide and established new standards for English religious poetry. In the Victorian era, George Frederic Watts represented the moral and aesthetic ideals of his time through symbolic art that addressed universal human concerns. The name's journey from medieval identifier to artistic and spiritual legacy illustrates how surnames can accumulate cultural meaning across centuries, reflecting changing social values while maintaining connection to their origins.
Cultural & Historical Significance

Wincel has deep roots in Central European Christian traditions, particularly within Polish and Czech cultures where it evolved as a vernacular form of the more formal Wenceslaus. The name carries significant Christian symbolism, representing the spiritual journey and the unexpected turns in one's path toward faith. Throughout medieval Europe, bearers of this name were often associated with pilgrimage traditions and the concept of divine guidance through life's winding roads.



In Christian communities, the name became symbolic of trusting God's plan even when the path ahead seems unclear or takes unexpected directions. The 'bend in the road' meaning resonated particularly during times of religious transformation and reformation, when many Christians found their spiritual journeys taking unforeseen turns. This cultural significance extends to family traditions, where naming a child Wincel often expressed hope that the individual would navigate life's challenges with faith and resilience.
Cultural & Historical Significance

Yeshaya holds profound significance in Jewish culture as the Hebrew form of Isaiah, one of the major prophets in the Hebrew Bible. The name is intrinsically linked to the Book of Isaiah, which contains some of the most influential prophecies in Judaism, including messianic predictions and visions of peace. Throughout Jewish history, the name has been particularly common among scholars and religious leaders, reflecting the prophetic tradition's emphasis on wisdom, moral leadership, and spiritual insight.



In traditional Jewish communities, naming a child Yeshaya often expresses hope that the child will embody the prophet's qualities of faith, courage, and devotion to God's message. The name carries the weight of Jewish prophetic tradition and has been borne by numerous rabbis, scholars, and community leaders across generations. During times of Jewish persecution and diaspora, the name served as a connection to biblical roots and a symbol of enduring faith. In modern Israel, while less common than some biblical names, Yeshaya maintains its status as a name representing deep Jewish identity and spiritual heritage.
Women named Zitkala are often perceived as free-spirited, intuitive, and deeply connected to their heritage and natural surroundings. They tend to possess a strong sense of independence and creativity, much like the bird their name represents, with an ability to see situations from a higher perspective. Their communication skills are typically well-developed, and they often serve as bridges between different communities or viewpoints, embodying the bird's role as a messenger.



These individuals frequently demonstrate resilience and adaptability, able to navigate challenging circumstances with grace and determination. They often show strong protective instincts toward their family and community, combined with a visionary outlook that allows them to work toward long-term goals. Their spiritual depth and connection to tradition often make them natural leaders and cultural preservers, while their artistic sensibilities enable them to express complex ideas and emotions in meaningful ways. The name suggests someone who moves through life with purpose and grace, maintaining their cultural roots while embracing necessary change.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to Visit Sri Lanka

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk will undertake an official visit to Sri Lanka from 23 to 26 June 2025. This marks the first visit by a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to Sri Lanka since February 2016.

During the visit, the High Commissioner is scheduled to call on the President and the Prime Minister. He will also hold meetings with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment, and Tourism, several other Cabinet Ministers, Members of Parliament, senior Government officials, religious leaders, representatives of civil society, members of the diplomatic community, and the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka.

As part of the programme, the High Commissioner will travel to Kandy where he will pay respects to The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic and call on the Chief Prelates of the Malwatte and Asgiriya Chapters. He will also travel to Jaffna and Trincomalee where he will meet with the Governors of the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

Substantive discussions during the visit will focus on further advancing the promotion and protection of human rights and reconciliation, in line with the Government of Sri Lankas ongoing constructive engagement with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment, and Tourism

Colombo

20 June 2025
SIUs Simon Institute hosts Pulitzer Prize-winning scholar on nations political contradictions

(Editors: Please note time change)

CARBONDALE, Ill.  Paul Starr, a Pulitzer Prize-winning scholar at Princeton University and the founding co-editor of The American Prospect magazine, will join Southern Illinois University Carbondales Paul Simon Public Policy Institute for a virtual conversation on Tuesday, Dec. 9.

Starr and John Shaw, institute director, will discuss political tensions and contradictions in the United States and Starrs new book, American Contradiction: Revolution and Revenge from the 1950s to Now.

The free, public discussion via Zoom begins at 1 p.m.; registration at paulsimoninstitute.org/events is required to view the conversation. Part of the institutes Understanding Our New World discussion series, the event will also examine American democracy, the future of journalism, the forces reshaping modern political life and how shifts in media, technology and political institutions are contributing to polarization and weakening democratic norms, Shaw said. Starr will also talk about the importance of rebuilding public trust in both media and civic institutions.

Starr is one of the most respected and incisive analysts of American politics and culture, Shaw said.

His new book provides profound insights about the fissures and tensions that are driving American politics and civic life. We are especially eager to learn more about this contention that Americans are a young and dynamic people, but the United States has become an old and static country, Shaw said.

Starr is a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University and the Stuart chair in communications and public affairs at Princetons School of Public and International Affairs. The American Prospect is a progressive magazine that Starr, Robert Kuttner and Robert Reich co-founded in 1990.

The author of several books, Starr won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction for The Social Transformation of American Medicine. Starrs latest book, published in October 2025, looks at the nations differing values and interests of contemporary America over the last seven decades. The choices of electing Barack Obama and then Donald Trump as president capture what Starr calls the American contradiction.

Starr earned his undergraduate degree from Columbia University and his doctorate in sociology from Harvard University. He previously taught at Harvard and was a senior adviser on health policy to the White House via the Department of Health and Human Services in 1993.

Attendees are encouraged to submit questions for Starr on the registration form or email questions to paulsimoninstitute@siu.edu.

More information, including a list of the institutes upcoming events and past speakers and events, is available.
Some who oppose talks with Taliban, propose talks with Tigers! 

Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the UN in Geneva briefs Swiss press on Sri Lankan situation





The Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office in Geneva, in collaboration with the Geneva Press Club - Club suisse de la presse , organised a press conference on the topic of the Current Situation in Sri Lanka, on 24 April 2009 at la pastorale, Geneva.







Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary to the Ministry of Human Rights and Disaster Management and Secretary General, Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process, and Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, Ambassador/Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office in Geneva were the two main speakers at this press meeting.



At the outset, Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha explained the events that took place from 2002 to 2005, providing a brief sketch of the situation. Briefing the gathering on the political means to address the issues that the government has proposed before, during and after the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA), Prof. Wijesinha outlined the key incidents that took place during the CFA. He said that while there had been only about 350 recorded violations by the government, the LTTE had violated the CFA about 3800 times.



After the election of H.E. Mahinda Rajapakse, President of Sri Lanka, despite the governments efforts to politically negotiate a settlement, the LTTE not only walked away from the peace talks but also launched two major attacks in the North and East and also attempted to kill the army commander of Sri Lanka using a pregnant suicide bomber.



The government then launched its military offensive in the East and liberated the East from the LTTE in 2007. An ex-LTTE cadre, who had been recruited as a child soldier and had become the leader of a political party formed after a group of fighters broke away from the LTTE in 2004, was made the chief minister of the eastern province after a democratic election. Prof. Wijesinha maintained that despite the fact that the government has launched 400 air strikes until December, only 78 civilian casualties were reported. He further elaborated and said that major civilian casualties were from the LTTE.



Prof. Wijesinha also highlighted as extremely helpful, the visit to Sri Lanka by Mr. Walter Kalin, Representative of the UN Secretary General on Human Rights of IDPs which took place in early April. With the help of the ICRC the government and the LTTE allowed the elderly, sick and wounded civilians to be transported to the government controlled areas. Nevertheless, the LTTE prevented a large number of civilians from moving into the government controlled areas. As the military engagements progressed and the government troops continued advancing on the LTTE, the latter, as they were retreating, took the civilians along with them. Even then, around 30,000 civilians escaped and came to those areas controlled by the government in January 2009.



In the second week of April, taking in to consideration the suffering of the civilians, the government declared a pause in fighting so that the civilians could come out of the fighting area. During this time, as in the past, LTTE built a wall around the area that they were holding on to in order to prevent the civilians from escaping. This was confirmed and criticized by the UN. Sir John Holmes, Head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, who said that the LTTE was very active in preventing civilians from crossing the area of fighting to the no fire zone.





In the latter part of April, the government troops were able to destroy the wall built by the LTTE, which allowed the entrapped civilians to escape into the government controlled areas. Since last week, 110,000 civilians have come out of the LTTE controlled areas. The government has been taking measures to address the welfare and well-being of these civilians. Prof. Wijesinha also praised the efforts of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Food Programme (WFP), both of whom have helped the government to put up shelters and provide food to these civilians in great numbers. Local NGOs have also been very helpful in providing food for these escaped civilians. Several local NGOs are providing lunch for the civilians in the camps, while the WFP and the government are providing them with the other two meals.





Last week there was another major development when two LTTE intellectuals who were members of the LTTE political wing, surrendered to the government. According to them, there remain only about 20,000 civilians with the LTTE.







After this initial briefing, questions were called for. A journalist from AFP asked how accurate the figures of civilians coming out of the LTTE area are. Prof. Wijesinha said that so far around 200,000 civilians have escaped and come to government controlled areas. Certain people estimate the number of civilians held by the LTTE to be 400,000, but this is due to double counting.



A journalist from Le Temps, a Geneva based news paper asked whether the government will take revenge when refugees and ex-soldiers of the LTTE come to government controlled areas. Prof. Wijesinha replied that around 3000 of those who have surrendered to the Sri Lankan armed forces have said that they had been fighting against the government for the LTTE, and that these former LTTE cadres have been directed to legal authorities. Only 32 out of these were proved to be strong LTTE fighters and they have been sent to rehabilitation camps. Most of the other cadres were underage children who had been forcefully recruited by the LTTE.



Addressing the issue of civilians crossing into government controlled areas, while acknowledging that families are divided, Prof. Wijesinha highlighted that the process of reuniting families in the camps, though initially slow, has sped up and has been successful.



A journalist from the AFP asked whether there will be a humanitarian pause to allow the civilians to come out. Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleka said that such a pause was not necessary and that the facts speak for this. He pointed out that already without such a pause, 180,000 civilians have escaped from the LTTE held area. Dr. Jayatilleka further pointed out that if there is a pause in fighting, the LTTE will only use it to launch attacks on the armed forces and escaping civilians. Highlighting further atrocities committed by the LTTE, Dr. Jayatilleka highlighted that the LTTE have already launched two suicide attacks on civilians trying to escape and built a wall around their stronghold to prevent people from crossing. In addition, they have also seized the food rations sent by the government and resold them to destitute civilians held by them. Therefore, Dr. Jayatilleka emphasized that what is needed is not a humanitarian pause but a surgical military operation, similar to that carried out by the armed forces a few days ago, to liberate these civilians from the clutches of the LTTE.







Ambassador Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka said that it is important to understand the nature of the LTTE. He quoted Pulitzer Prize winner John F. Burns, who said that Prabhakaran is the Pol Pot of South Asia. Barbara Crossette of New York Times has also said that the LTTE is the most lethal and totalitarian contemporary armed movement in Asia. The LTTE is a fanatical movement like Al Qaeda and with such movements, humanitarian pauses will not work.



Ambassador Jayatilleka said that Sri Lanka is partially dismayed but also partially amused by the fact that certain countries who are against talking to Taliban have suggested that the government should talk to the LTTE, an internationally banned terrorist organization.



The Security Council has clearly said that the LTTE should lay down arms. The Tigers have a clear cut record of rearming themselves during a ceasefire. Since 1985, the LTTE did not accept any peaceful solution. During the Indo-Lanka accord, the LTTE did not accept the peaceful solutions presented by the Governments of India and Sri Lanka. Instead, they started fighting with the Indian Peace Keeping Forces. In 1987, a proposal was made to grant provincial autonomy to the North and East through a provincial council system. At the same time, about 70,000 troops of the Indian Peace Keeping force were deployed in northern Sri Lanka. Due to this, the Sri Lankan forces were confined to the barracks while the Indian Army was maintaining the security and the peace in the North and the East. Without accepting the political solution proposed through the Indo-Sri Lanka peace accord, LTTE fought the Indian peace keepers. In 1991, in Tamil Nadu, an LTTE suicide cadre blew herself up and killed the then Indian Prime Minister, Shri Rajiv Gandhi, grandson of Nehru, first Prime Minister in India and the son of Indira Ghandi.



In 1990, President Premadasa engaged in direct talks with the LTTE and 14 meetings were convened. In 1993, President Premadasa was blown up by an LTTE suicide attack. After that, President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga was elected and she exchanged 45 letters with the leader of the LTTE. In 1999, an LTTE suicide bomber attempted to kill President Chandrika and left her blinded in one eye.



Ambassador Jayatilleka further said that LTTE not only killed leaders of the government but also killed their own community members. Anita Pratap, a journalist and the author of The Island of Blood, who was a sympathizer of the LTTE, interviewed Mr. Prabhakaran in 1990s. She requested from the LTTE to see Mahaththaya, deputy leader of the LTTE, who was at that time in the custody of the LTTE. A weakened and demoralized Mahaththaya was shown to Ms. Pratap, who asked from Mr. Prabhakaran as to why Mahaththaya was being punished and Prabhakaran told her that it was because he had been too soft when negotiating with President Premadasa. Later in 1994, Mahaththaya was killed by the LTTE.



A question was asked how the surgical military operation would bring a solution to the problem. Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleka said that this is the best available option. The armed forces sliced in to the territory held by the LTTE in order to allow the trapped civilians to escape the LTTE and come to the area controlled by the government. However, he added, the operation may not have been perfect, although the forces did their best.



The journalist of Le Temps asked the two speakers what they could say about the great numbers of Tamils protesting in the streets.



Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleka said that the LTTE is not the sole representative of the Tamil community. They have killed all the moderate Tamils, to name a few, Neelan Thiruchelvam and Rajini Thiranagama, who followed the footsteps of her elder sister Nirmala Rajasingham. Nirmala Rajasingham has written an article criticizing these Tamil demonstrations in favour of the LTTE. Rajinis two daughters who are studying in Oxford and Cambridge are still traumatized by their mothers death because they heard the LTTE gunshot that killed their mother, who was on her way home from the University. Rajini was a medical doctor who had a PhD and who fought against the army, LTTE and the Indian peace keeping forces.



If the protestors who lead comfortable lives in Western countries, are genuinely concerned about the welfare of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka, they should demand that the LTTE release the sick, hungry and wounded civilians that they are forcibly holding. Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha said that not only the UNHCR and WFP, but also local and international NGOs are present in the camps and liberated areas. As already mentioned, these NGOs are providing mid day meals to the refugees.



Hon. Minister Douglas Devananda, who has been targeted 13 times to be assassinated by the LTTE, addressed the Durban Review conference last week. He lost the sight in one of his eyes due to an attack by the LTTE. While addressing the Conference, the Hon. Minister said the following: Although over 70, 000 of those held initially succeeded in getting away, despite being shot at by the LTTE as they escaped, there are still a large number held in captivity. Yet even as I speak today, thousands managed to get away to refuge with the government. If the international community can pressurize the LTTE to surrender or at least to release the rest of these civilians unconditionally, that will go a long way in ending the suffering of the Tamil minority.



Prof. Wijesinha also said that he had been appealing to the UN to publicly state that the LTTE was taking civilians as hostages from September 2008. But the UN, even though they knew it was happening, did not say it openly because they were afraid that the UN staff and their families may be harmed by the LTTE. However, in November, the UN at last acknowledged that the LTTE was taking civilians as hostages. Although the government appreciates this late action by the UN, it feels that the call to release the civilians by the UN should have made much earlier.



The Sri Lankan government admires the encouragement given by the Japanese government. The Japanese government asked the LTTE to surrender, while asking the government to continue its military operation of zero civilian casualties, which they openly hailed.



Dr. Edward Perera, a member of the Sri Lankan diaspora asked what the speakers opinion was on the Bishop of Jaffnas comparison of the LTTE leader to Jesus. Both Ambassador Jayatilleka and Prof. Wijesinha said that the Bishop of Jaffna has not supported terrorism and that they are not aware of his making such a comparison. They queried the sources of the alleged statement.



Referring to the incidents happened in 1981 and 1983, Prof. Wijesinha said that he will not try to defend such indefensible incidents which were backed by certain elements in the Government of the time. However, what is important to keep in mind is that such incidents have not been repeated ever since.



Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations

Geneva





27 April 2009
Fugitive Economic Offender Vijay Mallya has questioned the Central government and public sector banks over what he described as inconsistent statements on the amounts recovered from him, and demanded the appointment of a retired judge to investigate the matter. Mallya said the government and banks were presenting conflicting figures in Parliament and to the public. In a social media post, he stated, "How long will the GOI and PSU Banks hoodwink me and the public? Finance Minister says to Parliament that Rs 14,100 crores recovered from me. Banks say Rs 10,000 crores recovered. What about the difference of Rs 4,000 crores?" he said. He further pointed out that the Minister of State has now told Parliament that he still owes Rs 10,000 crores, while banks claim he owes Rs 7,000 crores. "No statement of account or credit for amounts recovered," he said, adding that clarity was needed on the calculations. Mallya argued that an independent investigation was required to verify the actual figures. "Why not appoint a Retired Judge to investigate and find out the truth, particularly since my judgement debt was Rs 6,203 crores," he said, calling the situation "a pathetic state of affairs vis-a-vis myself." Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary on Monday informed the Lok Sabha that a total of 15 individuals have been declared Fugitive Economic Offenders (FEOs) under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 (FEOA) as of October 31, 2025. The information was shared in response to an unstarred question raised by Lok Sabha member and Congress MP from Dausa, Murari Lal Meena, during the Winter Session of Parliament. Meena asked the Finance Minister in Lok Sabha to answer, "The number of persons declared as fugitive economic offenders till date under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018, especially in cases related to large-scale financial frauds committed against public sector banks; the details of total financial loss (in rupees) caused to public sector banks by these declared fugitive economic offenders, name-wise and bank-wise; the name and number of persons involved in the settlement along with the names of banks concerned, the amount settled, and the discount offered." "Of the 15 offenders, nine are involved in large-scale financial fraud committed against public sector banks. The list includes several high-profile names, such as Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, among others, "Chaudhary said. Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary stated that these 15 FEOs collectively caused a principal financial loss of Rs 26,645 crore to banks up to October 31, 2025. In addition, the interest accrued on these loans from the date of becoming NPAs up to October 31, 2025, amounts to another Rs 31,437 crore. Chaudhary informed the House that Rs 19,187 crore has been recovered from these offenders till October 31, 2025. The names of declared Fugitive Economic Offenders are: Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Nitin J Sandesara, Chetan J Sandesara, Dipti C Sandesara, Sudharshan Venkatraman, Ramanujam Sesharathnam, Pushpesh Kumar Baid, and Hitesh Kumar Narendrabhai Patel. When asked whether the government was formulating a policy to ensure such offenders are prevented from leaving the country in the future, either through legal bans or watchlists, Pankaj Chaudhary said no such policy is currently being drafted. (ANI)
Payments and banking platform Razorpay for Businesses on Tuesday announced that it has secured the Payment Aggregator - Cross Border (PA-CB) license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). As per a company statement, this authorisation places Razorpay among a select cohort of fintechs permitted to facilitate both inward and outward cross-border payments with complete regulatory oversight. Razorpay's new license, as per the statement, cements its position as one of India's most trusted and regulation-forward infrastructures for global money movement - powering all kinds of businesses from high-growth exporters and SaaS companies to freelancers, D2C brands, and global firms entering India's digital economy. The authorisation adds "regulatory depth" to Razorpay's stack, already operating at significant scale, trusted by leading global leaders such as Airbnb, Agoda, Klook, Shopify, Hostinger, among others. Shashank Kumar, MD and Co-founder, Razorpay, said, "A growing number of Indian businesses today are being built for global customers from day one, just as a rising wave of global companies are choosing India as one of their most important growth markets. What these businesses need are financial rails that make it just as easy to serve a customer in New York or Singapore as it is in Mumbai. At Razorpay, we've always seen ourselves as a money-movement platform for businesses, not just a payments company." He added, "With Razorpay International Payments, we're taking the complexity out of cross-border payments and creating one trusted solution for ambitious businesses on both sides. Further, receiving the PA-CB license reinforces our deep focus on compliance, our partnerships with banks and regulators, and our commitment to helping Indian businesses participate in the global economy with confidence." Razorpay International Payments is designed to reflect how money actually moves in a global, digital-first economy. On the exports side, Indian businesses can accept payments in 130+ currencies through familiar methods like cards, wallets, and local bank transfers, with optimised flows delivering success rates of 95 per cent on international transactions. On the imports side, global platforms can go live in India in real-time, without having to set up an India entity, offering UPI, RuPay, EMIs, netbanking, and 100+ local methods through a single integration, with INR-native pricing, OTP-led checkout, and India-based support. "As cross-border digital commerce becomes a core pillar of India's growth story, Razorpay aims to be the default operating system for global money movement for Indian businesses. By bringing together payments, compliance, and infrastructure on a single platform, Razorpay is building the financial rails that allow Indian innovation to reach customers in every part of the world," the Razorpay statement concluded. Established in 2014, Razorpay provides technology payment solutions to businesses. It was founded by alumni of IIT Roorkee, Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur. (ANI)
Goa [India], December 2: TWH Hospitality, a leading hospitality brand, today announced its plans to expand its footprint in the F&B segment with an investment of over Rs. 30 crores. The Goa-based company aims to open 8 new outlets in 3 new cities by 2028, marking a significant milestone in its growth journey.

Currently, TWH Hospitality operates The Boho Cafe in Anjuna under its TWH cafe segment and The Boho Beach Resort in Morjim under its TWH Hotels division, both in Goa. The brand is now looking to aggressively expand its presence through franchise model and tie-ups with established brands under FOCO and FOFO models.

"We are excited to take our brand to new heights with this expansion plan," said a spokesperson for TWH Hospitality. "Our goal is to offer unique dining experiences and accommodations to our customers, and we believe this investment will help us achieve that."

The company has already identified 2 new locations in Goa and Tricity (Chandigarh) for its upcoming outlets and is in talks with international brands to bring them to India. TWH Hospitality is also exploring mall tie-ups in multiple cities to further expand its reach.

This expansion is expected to create new opportunities for hospitality professionals and entrepreneurs looking to join the TWH Hospitality family.

(ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
Samsung Biologics has announced a massive investment of 7 trillion won (about USD 4.8 billion) to build its third bio campus in Songdo, Incheon, marking another step toward expanding its global biopharmaceutical production and advancing next-generation drug manufacturing technologies, as per a report by Pulse, the English service of Maeil Business News Korea. The South Korean biopharmaceutical giant said it has signed a land purchase agreement with the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority (IFEZA) for about 187,000 square meters of industrial land within the Songdo Zone 11 Advanced Industry Cluster. The land deal, valued at around 248.7 billion won, represents a central part of Incheon City's "Bio Cluster Activation" strategy aimed at boosting the region's global competitiveness in biotechnology. Samsung Biologics, already a major global player in contract development and manufacturing (CDMO), currently runs five production plants at its first bio campus, providing a combined antibody drug production capacity of 784,000 litres. With the completion of its second campus, home to Plants 6 through 8, the company's total output capacity will reach 1.324 million litres, the world's largest at a single site. The third campus will further enhance this scale by including next-generation modalities such as cell and gene therapies (CGTs), peptide-based drugs, and antibody vaccines. According to the company, the facility will integrate research and production functions, paving the way for a more advanced ecosystem for biopharmaceutical innovation. Development of the new campus will occur in two phases from 2025 to 2034. Samsung Biologics plans to construct four key facilities in sequence to build a connected belt of R&D and manufacturing capabilities. "The company expects to create over 10,000 direct and indirect jobs and generate an estimated 12 trillion won in total economic impact by 2030," the report said. (ANI)
PNN Patna (Bihar) [India], December 2: Chief Secretary of Bihar, Pratyaya Amrit, met with a delegation led by National Award-winning producer and actor Neetu Chandra to discuss the development of a green, state-of-the-art Film City in Bihar. He emphasised that the state is on track to become a new technological hub, and the establishment of a technologically advanced Film City will serve as a major milestone in that direction. The project is expected to generate significant employment opportunities and further establish Bihar on the global map. The Film City proposed by the Bollywood-Hollywood actress will be a sustainable and inclusive facility, featuring modern infrastructure and eco-friendly design, an approach that aligns closely with the Chief Secretary's vision for the state. Expressing strong support for the initiative, Pratyaya Amrit assured the team of full cooperation to bring the Green Bihar Film City project to life. He said that with its blend of sustainability, innovation, and cutting-edge production infrastructure, the Green Bihar Film City is poised to become a premier destination for filmmakers. He also stated that the state looks forward to welcoming both Indian and international talent to be part of this groundbreaking venture and that, with film policy subsidies in place, Bihar is expected to experience significant socio-economic growth. (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same.)
In a thoughtful conversation at the AI4India podcast, Krishnan Narayanan and Omir Kumar from the Centre for Responsible AI (CeRAI), IIT Madras discussed the role of digital platforms and AI technologies reshaping work for millions of gig workers in India. While unpacking their new research report titled, "The Algorithmic Manager: AI, Apps, and Workers in the Indian Gig Economy", they also discussed how the often-overlooked human realities play behind the algorithms driving the sector. Omir Kumar, Policy Analyst at CeRAI, explained that gig work is one of India's fastest-growing sources of employment, with projections estimating over 2.35 crore blue-collar gig workers by 2029-30. Yet, despite the sector's scale, he noted, "Not enough attention has been paid to the technology that actually powers this ecosystem." Drawing from his experience at Zomato and his policy research background, Kumar said the study was motivated by a desire to understand how AI, automation, and app-based systems manage workers, and how workers themselves perceive these systems. Krishnan Narayanan, Researcher, CeRAI added that the research also fits into the broader work of CeRAI's Co-Intelligence Network, which studies the future of work. "We found that gig work, despite its size and impact, remains under-researched, especially through an interdisciplinary social-justice lens," he said. "I don't think workers fully understand AI yet. They have an understanding, but for them it's the platform. They don't fully understand the nuance of AI. They might say they've never used AI, even though they experience the effects every day," he said. A central insight from the report is what the authors call the "algorithmic-human manager", the combination of automated decision-making and human oversight that governs gig workers' everyday lives. Despite working through apps, many workers believe that humans still make key decisions behind the scenes. "Workers often assume an operations manager is ultimately deciding their allocation or incentives. Their understanding of AI is limited, even though they experience its effects every day," Narayanan noted. During the conversation, they highlighted two major concerns for the gig workers. One is the lack of transparency around wages and incentive calculations, and second is the inability to contact a real human during disputes or deactivations. Kumar highlighted that for the gig workers, grievance redressal is very crucial. "Grievance redressal is everything for workers. They don't want to talk to a bot, they want a person on the other end," Kumar said. Further, the study also examined dark stores in the booming quick-commerce sector, where handheld digital devices guide workers through picking and sorting tasks. Kumar said the workers montioned they do not fear being replaced by robots. "One warehouse employee laughed off the idea saying, a robot won't dodge potholes, climb stairs, or handle sudden changes. And if it breaks down, operations stop. Humans adapt, machines can't." "Humans and technology are working together. Workers have handheld devices that help them navigate the store. A worker told me, if a machine breaks down, operations stop. Humans can increase the pace of work when there's more load I can't tell that to a machine," he added. The report proposed a Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) concept called the Unified Worker Interface (UWI). It proposes a portable, unified digital ID for all gig and informal workers, standardized reputation and work-history portability across platforms. During the conversation, it was highlighted a protocol-based system enabling states and the Centre to deliver social security benefits directly, as well as a privacy-preserving, interoperable framework inspired by the success of UPI will play crucial role for gig economy. "The ecosystem today is fragmented. A protocol-based UWI would simplify social security delivery, reduce duplication, and empower workers to carry their histories across platforms," Kumar said. The study blends primary fieldwork with gig workers in Bengaluru and Delhi NCR, interviews with platform companies, experts, and social-science-based analytical frameworks. The researchers also drew from frameworks like John Rawls' difference principle, Amartya Sen's capability theory, and Johan Galtung's structural violence to analyze fairness, power dynamics, and inequities in gig work. (ANI)
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met senior Finance and Economic Ministers from Andorra, Montenegro, Hungary, Kuwait, Cayman Islands, Slovak Republic, Panama and Zimbabwe in New Delhi on Tuesday, reaffirming India's commitment to stronger global cooperation in tax transparency and exchange of financial information. "Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. @nsitharaman today met senior Finance and Economic Ministers from Andorra, Montenegro, Hungary, Kuwait, Cayman Islands, Slovak Republic, Panama and Zimbabwe," the ministry noted on X. According to the Ministry of Finance, the meeting took place in the presence of the Minister of State for Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary, on the sidelines of the 18th Global Forum Plenary and Associated Meetings, being held in New Delhi from December 2 to 5, 2025. The gathering marks India's role as the host of the 18th Plenary of the OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes. The Ministry said on X that the discussion focused on strengthening global cooperation to curb offshore tax evasion and promote fair tax practices among nations. It added that "The meeting reaffirmed India's commitment to strengthening global cooperation on tax transparency, exchange of financial information, and joint efforts to combat offshore tax evasion." The Global Forum Plenary is one of the largest international platforms where member countries work together to improve tax transparency systems and ensure accountability for the movement of financial information across borders. The event brings together policymakers and financial experts to set and implement standards for transparent tax governance. "As the host of this pivotal event, India stands firm in its dedication to championing shared trust and international tax transparency governance through active multilateral collaboration. India's hosting of this Plenary underscores a strong national commitment to #InclusiveGrowth, financial integrity and global cooperation, reinforcing trust in international tax governance and supporting efforts to mobilise domestic resources fairly," the ministry said on X. (ANI)
Geospatial technologies are becoming central to transforming land governance, rural development and national data infrastructure, stressing that India must accelerate the adoption of advanced mapping and spatial intelligence to strengthen governance and support long-term economic growth, senior government officials and industry leaders said today. The SVAMITVA programme is one of India's most significant technology-led governance reforms, said Vivek Bharadwaj, Secretary in the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, while addressing the GeoSmart World Conference & Expo 2025 held in New Delhi. The initiative, which uses drones and advanced mapping tools to survey rural land parcels, has so far covered more than 350,000 villages and enabled the issuance of nearly 30 million property cards. Bharadwaj said the programme had reduced disputes, expanded citizens' access to credit, and improved transparency in local administration. "This is not just mapping, it is rewriting the economic and social story of rural India," Bharadwaj said. Manoj Joshi, Secretary of the Department of Land Resources, said India was moving toward a modernised land-governance architecture anchored in high-precision geospatial layers. He detailed the government's work on creating an integrated 'India Land Stack', combining national base maps, verified parcel boundaries and unified datasets to support planning, service delivery and public trust. "A precise land map is the backbone of transparent governance, efficient planning and citizen confidence," he said. India should reduce its dependence on foreign navigation systems in light of recent GPS disruptions that affected aviation operations, Srikant Sastri, Chairman of the Geospatial Data Promotion and Development Committee, said. He said geospatial infrastructure was emerging as a pillar of India's economic resilience and technology sovereignty. Sastri cited the success of Operation Dronagiri, an initiative that deployed coordinated geospatial and satellite-backed insights to support local administrations and farmers, as a model for future cross-sector collaboration. Industry leaders too echoed government's call for rapid scaling. Esri India Managing Director Agendra Kumar said the adoption of GIS tools across governance, infrastructure, disaster resilience and climate programmes had expanded sharply. He noted that Esri India now hosts more than 800 authoritative datasets and is advancing platforms such as Bharat Envi Analytics, which blend satellite imagery, AI-driven models and geospatial insights. "Geospatial technology is now a strategic asset for national growth and India is ready to scale it like never before," he said. The private sector also announced new initiatives. GMR Group's Digital & IT chief, Rahul Shandilya, unveiled plans for a national spatial data bank developed with Vexcel, saying high-resolution aerial data would transform infrastructure planning, urban resilience and environmental management. "High-quality spatial data is a national resource," he said. Survey of India Additional Surveyor General S.K. Sinha reiterated the national vision of "One Nation, One Map", emphasising a unified geospatial framework integrating decentralised data through the new Unified Geospatial Interface. "Maps are no longer static tools, they are dynamic assets that enable precision governance and strengthen sovereignty," Sinha said. During his special address, former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant underscored that the Rs 50,000 crore geospatial market doubling by 2030 and the USD 44-billion projection for India's space economy by 2033 must serve as a catalyst for far greater ambition. He stressed that India's aspiration of a USD 30-trillion economy demands exponential growth in innovation, data accessibility, and public-private collaboration. (ANI)
PNN Pune (Maharashtra) [India], December 2: ESR, an Asia-Pacific ("APAC") focused real asset owner and manager, has acquired 60 acres of land in Pune, Maharashtra, for the development of ESR Talegaon Industrial and Logistics Park ("ESR Talegaon"), accelerating its growth strategy in India. With a total investment value of 650 crores (approximately US$73 million), ESR Talegaon has a development potential of 1.35 million sq. ft. (over 125,000 square metres). It will yield six Grade A buildings to support customers in automotive, fast-moving consumer goods, logistics, e-commerce, and advanced manufacturing industries. This strategic expansion underscores ESR's focus on enabling Western India's broader economic growth with its significant footprint of modern, large-scale industrial and logistics parks. These parks cover 480 acres from Ahmedabad to major industrial hubs in Maharashtra, including Nagpur, Ranjangaon, Chakan, Taloja, and Bhiwandi. "Maharashtra has emerged as one of our strongest and fastest-growing markets. Our continued investment in this state reflects the confidence we have in its industrial potential, talent ecosystem, and long-term growth trajectory," said Abhijit Malkani, Chief Executive Officer, India, ESR. "ESR Talegaon exemplifies our commitment to creating growth opportunities, connecting industries, and strengthening the supply chain. At ESR, we build future-ready, resilient, and sustainable real assets that deliver lasting value for investors, customers, and the communities we serve." This strategic location offers customers multimodal connectivity via NH-48, Mumbai-Pune Expressway, and the new Talegaon-Chakan Road, with direct access to Mumbai, Pune, Jawaharlal Nehru Port, and regional manufacturing clusters. Supported by a strong talent pool and robust infrastructure, this site is an ideal location for industrial and logistics operations. The area benefits from the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation's long-term vision and industrial planning, with Talegaon Electronic and Engineering City becoming a hub for advanced manufacturing and industrial operations. Strong policy support, recent connectivity enhancements, and planned investments in industrial infrastructure, including sustainable and circular economy initiatives, reinforce Talegaon's position as a future-ready industrial hub. Aligned with ESR's ESG 2030 Roadmap, the new facility in Pune is being developed with sustainability at its core, incorporating efficient energy and water systems, renewable power, and recognised green building certification. The campus will also offer smart park management solutions and thoughtfully designed amenities that enhance productivity and support the well-being of customers and their workforce. All ESR's industrial and logistics parks are pre-certified Gold or Platinum by the Indian Green Building Council. About ESR ESR is a leading Asia-Pacific real asset owner and manager focused on logistics real estate, data centres, and energy infrastructure that power the digital economy and supply chain for investors, customers, and communities. Through our fully integrated real asset fund management and development platform, we strive to create value and growth opportunities for our global portfolio of investors. We offer our customers modern space solutions to realise their ambitions across Australia and New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Greater China, Southeast Asia, and India, including a presence in Europe. Our purpose, Space and Investment Solutions for a Sustainable Future, drives us to manage sustainably and impactfully for the communities we serve to thrive for generations to come. Visit www.esr.com for more information. (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same.)
Minister Samarasinghe says Sri Lankas Opposition to the Resolution was a fight on a matter of Principle



Minister of Plantation Industries and Special Envoy of the President on Human Rights, Hon. Mahinda Samarasinghe has said Sri Lankas opposition to the Resolution being moved by the US, UK and a few other countries against Sri Lanka was a fight on a matter of principle and that Sri Lanka would not compromise on it. Noting that what is happening to Sri Lanka today, could happen to any other NAM country tomorrow, Minister Samarasinghe called upon all Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) member states to continue to show solidarity with Sri Lanka.





Minister Samarasinghe made these observations when he addressed the Permanent Representatives and delegates of the cross regional Non-Aligned Group in Geneva, on the sidelines of the 25th Session of the Human Rights Council today (13th March 2014). Sri Lankas Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Ravinatha Aryasinha was also associated with the Minister at this briefing.



The Minister who had earlier this week addressed the Asia Pacific Regional Group of Member and Observer States and the Latin American Group of Countries at the Palais de Nations in Geneva, said Sri Lanka over the years was a country that had continued to engage with the international community and needed no Resolutions encouraging it to do so. He said on this occasion too Sri Lanka was briefing that various groups and has been proactive and shared information in a transparent manner.



Recalling the challenges faced by the country in the aftermath of the conflict, Minister Samarasinghe pointed out that Sri Lanka looked after the internally displaced persons of around 300,000 taking care of their every need, leading to their resettlement after the completion of de-mining in their native habitats. The Minister also said that Sri Lanka has rehabilitated around 12,000 ex-combatants and former child soldiers have been reunited with their families while others have been provided with tertiary education, all within the space of under five years.



Briefing the cross regional Non-Aligned Group, Minister Samarasinghe also said that the Government of Sri Lanka had undertaken massive reconstruction of the former war ravaged areas and has invested heavily in its economic and infrastructure development. Having done all this, the Minister said, the Government was looking at also accounting to its own population. He said a Commission of Inquiry on Missing Persons had been appointed and census was in the process of being carried out to ascertain the number of people killed during the conflict.



He underlined the commitment of the Government of Sri Lanka to achieve comprehensive reconciliation. It was in order to achieve this objective, the Minister said, that Sri Lanka was requesting the cooperation of the international community, especially the western nations which have a large number of Sri Lankans domiciled in their countries, for their cooperation.



He also recalled the visit of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to the Sri Lanka in August 2013 and the subsequent visit of the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of the Internally Displaced Persons in December 2013. The Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants is due to visit Sri Lanka in May 2014 while the Special Rapporteur on Education has also been invited.



The Minister said that while Sri Lanka has continued to demonstrate its cooperation with the UN and the international community through its bilateral and multilateral engagements, it was disappointing to note that the country had been singled out through this Resolution. The Minister added that the country has its own domestic mechanisms to reach reconciliation and has continued to show progress and constructive engagement.



Minister Samarasinghe, together with Hon. Nimal Siripala de Silva, the Leader of the House and Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Management, is due to address the African Group as well as the Group of Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) next week.



View the Press Release in PDF





Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka

Geneva



13 March 2014
The Offer for Sale (OFS) of Bank of Maharashtra has received an overwhelming response, with the issue being subscribed 400% of the base size on Tuesday. This prompted the government to exercise the green shoe option, allowing it to divest an additional 1% stake in the bank, taking the total stake sale to 6%. In a post on X, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary said, "Offer for Sale in Bank of Maharashtra received overwhelming response in the markets today. The issue was subscribed 400 per cent of the base size. Government has decided to exercise the green shoe option. Retail investors get to bid tomorrow on 3rd December 2025. Congratulations to the staff and leadership at the Bank of Maharashtra for outstanding financial performance over the last few years. Keep it going..." The government aims to raise approximately Rs 2,492 crore through this OFS, with retail investors able to bid tomorrow, December 3, 2025. This move is expected to help the bank meet the minimum public shareholding norm of 25%. The Bank of Maharashtra has demonstrated outstanding financial performance in recent years, and this successful OFS is a testament to its strong market presence. In its earlier announcement, DIPAM had said the government would offer to disinvest 5% equity in the bank, with an additional 1% as a green shoe option. At the end of the September quarter, the government had a 79.6% stake in Bank of Maharashtra. Earlier in October 2024, the Bank of Maharashtra had completed a Rs 3,500 crore QIP to strengthen its capital base and move toward meeting public shareholding norms. (ANI)
'The Great Shamsuddin Family', a comedy-drama, is all set to be out soon on OTT, with Kritika Kamra, Purab Kohli, Farida Jalal, Shreya Dhanwanthary, Juhi Babbar, Sheeba Chaddha, and Dolly Ahluwalia in key roles. Set over one wildly eventful day in Delhi, the story follows Bani Ahmed (Kritika Kamra), a writer racing against a career-defining 12-hour deadline--until a cascade of mothers, aunts, cousins, and old flames barges into her home, each carrying their own emergencies. What begins as a simple workday spirals into a storm of secrets, simmering tensions, unexpected reunions, and emotionally charged showdowns. As Bani navigates interfaith complexities, generational clashes, and relentless family expectations, she's pushed to confront what she truly wants. By sunset, she must decide whether to chase her dreams across the world or stay rooted among the people who frustrate her, overwhelm her, and ultimately love her the most. On Tuesday, the show's trailer was unveiled. Have a look at it. https://www.instagram.com/p/DRwEaDwjK5D/?hl=en On what fans can expect from her role, Kritika, who will be seen playing the role of Bani Ahmed said, "Now that the trailer is out, I'm thrilled for viewers to finally meet Bani. This entire rollercoaster unfolds through her eyes. She's that quintessential elder daughter in a middle-income family--quietly dependable, endlessly responsible, and always putting herself last, even when all she wants is a single day to focus on her own future. Instead, she's swallowed by a whirlwind of family chaos. Playing her allowed me to tap into strength, vulnerability, wit, and frustration all at once. I can't wait for audiences to experience the storm she's trying so hard to outrun" Actor Purab Kohli added, "This film truly feels like a mirror held up to every Indian family--the laughter, the arguments, the affection, the utter pandemonium. That's exactly what makes it so relatable and so warm. Acting in it was a joy because it drops you straight into the heart of a loud, loving middle-income family where everyone talks over each other, but somehow the love always rises above the noise. I'mexcited for audiences to step into this madness with us." Actor Shreya Dhanwanthary also opened up about her experience working in the show. She shared, "The Great Shamsuddin Family strikes the perfect balance between heart, humour, and the everyday madness we're all secretly familiar with. I play the classic younger sister -- impulsive, dramatic, and always running back to her older sibling when things go sideways -- and it was such fun stepping into her shoes, especially since this is my first time doing comedy after a run of serious, heavy-handed dramatic roles. Working with this cast felt like being part of one big, chaotic, affectionate family; everyone brought their quirks and warmth to set." 'The Great Shamsuddin Family', which is directed by Anusha Rizvi , will be out on JioHotstar on December 12th. (ANI)
Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini said that celebrating Deepotsav on the banks of the ancient and historic Sannihit Sarovar on the auspicious occasion of Gita Jayanti is a moment of great pride. Speaking after offering Deepdaan at Sannihit Sarovar during the International Gita Mahotsav-2025 on Monday, he stated that the light of the sacred teachings of the Bhagavad Gita will spread to every human across the globe through this Deepotsav, enriching and elevating mankind. Earlier, CM Saini, Gita scholar Swami Gyananand Maharaj, Tourism Minister Arvind Sharma, and former Minister Subhash Sudha offered Deepdaan in Sannihit Sarovar amid the echo of Vedic chanting and the sound of conch shells on Gita Jayanti. Upon arrival at the Deepdaan ceremony, Saini received a grand welcome from various religious and social organisations. Extending greetings and best wishes for the International Gita Mahotsav, the Chief Minister said that today is a proud day not only for all of us but for the entire world. On the sacred land of Kurukshetra, Lord Shri Krishna delivered the teachings of the Gita. "Today, we are celebrating the International Gita Mahotsav with great joy and enthusiasm. The Gita will make everyone's life enlightened and progressive," he added He also conveyed gratitude and best wishes to the office-bearers of Tirthodgaar Brahmin Mahasabha for organising a grand Deepdaan ceremony. He further expressed appreciation and extended best wishes to various organisations for lighting thousands of lamps along the banks of Brahma Sarovar. On this occasion, Chairman Dharamveer Mirzapur, Zila Parishad Chairperson Kanwaljit Kaur, KDB Honorary Secretary Upender Singhal, and several other dignitaries were present. (ANI)
Accusing the Centre of pursuing "political vendetta" against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar alleged that central investigative agencies were being "misused" to target him in the National Herald case. Addressing reporters at Vidhana Soudha, Shivakumar on Monday said there were "limits to political harassment", asserting that the National Herald was a party asset and not the personal property of any Congress leader. "National Herald isn't a personal property of Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi. He was a shareholder by virtue of being president. CM and I are also presidents of several Boards and Corporations. As a president, they will have certain shares and they get transferred once they relinquish the post. It is a historic trend for Congress leaders to become presidents of National Herald," he said. Reiterating that the publication belonged to the party, he added that previous leaders, including former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, had taken decisions in the institution's interest. "They have already announced that neither Young India nor National Herald is private property. Morarji Desai had taken certain decisions in the interest of the party. When the party was in a difficult situation during Sitaram Kesari's time, party leaders approached Sonia Gandhi and requested her to take party responsibilities," he said. He recalled that during the tenure of Sitaram Kesari, Congress leaders had requested Sonia Gandhi to take over party responsibilities when the organisation was facing challenges. "They are now being targeted for political vendetta. History will repeat. Rahul Gandhi will not be bothered even if he is put in jail, but vendetta politics is not good. Politics must be direct. Let's fight elections, but don't torture like this, misusing investigative agencies," the Dy CM said. On reports of inviting Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for a breakfast meeting, Shivakumar dismissed speculation, saying, "This is between us. We are working together as brothers. There are no groups among us as you (media) are projecting. We have 140 MLAs and we will take everyone together." He also confirmed ongoing discussions with the Chief Minister regarding an all-party meeting in Delhi this week. "As the winter session is going on, we need to brief our MPs about the state's interests," he said. Earlier on Monday, after paying floral tributes to former Chief Minister Kengal Hanumanthaiah on his birth anniversary, Shivakumar praised his contribution to Karnataka's growth. "It was Kengal Hanumanthaiah who built Vidhana Soudha and SM Krishna built Vikas Soudha. Kempe Gowda built Bengaluru. Bengaluru is the legacy left behind by these leaders," he said, adding that their vision laid the foundation for the city's development. "If he had not chosen Bengaluru as the capital, the city would not have grown this big. We have to leave behind legacies when we get power," he added. (ANI)
Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel honoured Parsi religious leaders at a felicitation ceremony held in Ahmedabad, a CMO release said. The Chief Minister on Monday noted that on Gita Jayanti, the teachings of Lord Shri Krishna on Swadharma hold special relevance. He said the Parsis have lived this principle with unwavering commitment, preserving their faith even after migrating from Iran to Gujarat 1300 years ago. The community not only safeguarded its religious identity but also made remarkable contributions to India's progress and nation-building. He added that, just as the sacred wisdom of the Gita has been preserved for centuries, the Parsi community has undertaken the preservation of its religious heritage by installing a Time Capsule in Navsari to chronicle the enduring tradition of safeguarding the Holy Fire. He further stated that this initiative exemplifies Prime Minister Narendra Modi's guiding principle of "Vikas Bhi, Virasat Bhi", development alongside the preservation of heritage. The Chief Minister also affirmed that the Parsi community has embodied the Prime Minister's vision of 'Sauno Saath, Sauno Vikas, Sauno Vishwas, Sauno Prayas'. He highlighted the PM Jiyo Parsi Scheme, launched under the Prime Minister's guidance, as an important initiative to support the growth and continuity of the Parsi community. The Chief Minister stated that the Parsi community has integrated seamlessly into Gujarat's social life and is widely regarded for its longstanding tradition of generosity. He noted that this legacy is being advanced by the Areez Khambatta Benevolent Trust, which is committed to uplifting deprived communities through initiatives in healthcare, education, and social welfare, as well as dedicated support for individuals living with HIV. He added that the Trust's efforts continue to positively transform the lives of thousands of people each year. On this occasion, the Chief Minister said that even though the Parsi community is a minority, they have continued to carry forward their values, culture and capabilities from generation to generation. He recalled prominent Parsi figures who have contributed to various sectors of the country from the time of independence till today, including Madam Bhikaji Cama, Homi Bhabha, the Tata, Wadia, and Godrej families, Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, Fardunjee Marzban, Nani Palkhivala, Soli Sorabjee, and Fali Nariman. Dasturji Khursheed Dastur, the religious head of the Parsi community, praised the work of the Areez Khambatta Benevolent Trust and extended his best wishes. He also expressed gratitude to the Prime Minister for continuously working towards the development of all communities, including the Parsis. Founder Trustee of the Areez Khambatta Benevolent Trust (AKBT), Piruz Khambatta, welcomed all attendees and noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given the guiding mantra of "Vikas with Virasat." The felicitation of Parsi priests, he said, embodies this vision. He added that Gujarat, which continues to lead in development, is steadily advancing in every domain, including health, education and quality of life, under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel. He further stated that the Parsi community is committed to making an active contribution to the building of Viksit Bharat. On this occasion, he shared information about the work of the AKBT and announced a scholarship that will soon be launched for youth pursuing religious education within the Parsi community. Notably, as part of the two-day programme, various activities, including plays, music and comedy events, have been organised to create awareness among the younger generation of the Parsi community about their traditions and culture. Members of the Parsi community from across the country will be present at the event. On this occasion, Vada Dasturji Tehemton Mirza, Vada Dasturji Cyrus Dastur, and AKBT Trustee Smt. Persis Ariz Khambatta, Mrs Binaisha Piruz Khambatta, prominent leaders of the Parsi community, heads of social organisations and a large number of people were present. (ANI)
The Secunderabad Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Protection Force (RPF) apprehended an alleged habitual ganja peddler who was smuggling contraband from Nagpur to Hyderabad. The joint team seized 4.104 kilograms of dry ganja valued at Rs 2,05,200 during intensified surprise checks at Secunderabad Railway Station on Monday. The accused, Shaik Waheed, 21, a bike mechanic from Lalapet in Hyderabad, was intercepted around 11 a.m. near Gate No. 2 on Platform No. 1. According to police, Waheed is a repeat offender who has been previously arrested in NDPS cases under the Lalaguda and Tukaramgate Police Stations. Despite earlier jail time, he allegedly resumed procuring ganja from Nagpur at low prices and selling it in Hyderabad at a profit. Investigators said Waheed travelled to Nagpur on November 30, where he purchased the contraband from an unidentified supplier. He then boarded a train to Secunderabad, carrying the ganja in a backpack. During the station-wide inspections, the GRP and RPF personnel grew suspicious and detained him. A search led to the recovery of two packets of dry ganja from his bag. Police said Waheed confessed to buying the substance for both personal consumption and resale in smaller sachets to local customers. The seized material has been sent for analysis, and further investigation is underway to trace his supply chain in Nagpur and potential buyers in Hyderabad. The operation was led by B Saieashwar Goud (IRP) along with D Ramesh (SIRP), K Shanmukh Rao, K Chandra Shekar, D Rajarshi, and Y Chandra Shekar of GRP Secunderabad, working in coordination with RPF personnel under Bhavani Shankar Saraswat, IPF/SC. The effort was supervised by Chandana Deepti, IPS, Superintendent of Railway Police, and SN Jawed, DSRP SC(U). K. Ramesh Naidu, IPS, IGP Railway and Road Safety, commended the teams for their swift action and announced that the officers involved would be suitably rewarded. (ANI)
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha urged increased screening and awareness campaigns in schools and colleges to combat HIV/AIDS, highlighting the need for early detection and public education on the issue, according to a press release. Speaking at a program held on Monday at MBB Playground in Agartala to observe the State-Level World AIDS Day and virtually inaugurate Cancer Care Centres in North, Gomati, and Dhalai districts, CM Saha emphasised the need for public awareness and highlighted the strict measures taken by security agencies against drugs. Referring to the World Health Organization (WHO) calendar, he said about eight days are observed globally, including World AIDS Day. CM Saha highlighted the regular efforts of the Tripura State AIDS Control Society in combating AIDS. "We all know that once HIV infection is present in the body, there is no way to eradicate it, as there is no cure. But with modern medical systems, the viral load can be reduced. Those who are infected can lead a normal life. The Tripura AIDS Control Society is working to increase public awareness about AIDS. In the national-level review of the National AIDS Control Society, Tripura has been selected as a good-performing state and has been awarded for its overall work," he said. CM Saha, who also holds the Health portfolio, noted that the global number of HIV infections is around four crore, with India accounting for about 25.44 lakh cases. He urged establishing Red Ribbon Clubs at the school level to expand awareness beyond existing college-level programs. "Out of this, the number in India is about 25.44 lakh. Today's program is organised to create awareness about HIV infection. Before this, we have conducted several programs on this issue. Earlier, the Red Ribbon Club was only at the college level. That is why I appeal to the AIDS Control Society to establish Red Ribbon Clubs at the school level," he said. At the event, the Chief Minister also said that in today's world of consumerism, due to mental stress and other issues, youth are increasingly being influenced toward addiction. "Various security agencies of the government are taking a strict stance against drugs. A large amount of drugs was destroyed a few days ago. In combating drugs, it is not enough to focus only on arrests; we must also counsel children who are victims of drug abuse. The government is working in this direction. According to available information, 83% of our total infected population belongs to the youth group. Out of these, 39% are girls," said CM Saha. Addressing students and teachers of schools and colleges, the Chief Minister said that if there are any unruly children in the class, they should be kept under observation. In addition, attention should be paid to any student's prolonged absences. If necessary, parents should be contacted. More screening should be done to combat HIV/AIDS. "The more screening that is done, the more cases can be identified. More discussions are needed in schools and colleges to create awareness about these issues. Teachers should also discuss this issue for at least five minutes in class. Clubs and social organisations should also come forward in this regard," Tripura CM said. The Chief Minister said that currently, the number of deaths due to HIV/AIDS has decreased significantly worldwide, and it has also decreased in India. As of October 2025, the total number of HIV/AIDS-infected people in Tripura is 6,417, out of which 1,222 are women, 5,189 are men, and 6 are transgender persons. The government has arranged to provide an allowance of Rs 2,000 per month to HIV/AIDS-infected individuals. The event was attended by MBB University Vice Chancellor Bibhas Deb, Health Department Secretary Kiran Gitte, West District Magistrate Vishal Kumar, Superintendent of Police Namit Pathak, Higher Education Director Animesh Debbarma, Education Director N. C. Sharma, Health Department Director Dr. Debashree Debbarma, and others. (ANI)
A Nepal-bound bus caught fire, causing several injuries and the recovery of two dead bodies in Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh, on Tuesday. All passengers were evacuated, and the injured ones were sent for treatment. SP Balrampur, Vikas Kumar said, "There was an accident between a bus and a truck, due to which the bus caught fire. Prima facie, the fire originated in the bus's fuel tank. However, the actual causes of the fire are being investigated. All passengers were evacuated, with two dead bodies recovered. The rest of the evacuated people have been sent for treatment. Information is being collected, and police and administration are involved in relief work. Arrangements are being made." Further details awaited. On Sunday, in a similar incident, 11 people were declared dead, and more than 20 were injured when two state-run buses collided head-on near Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu, police said. According to a Sivaganga district police press release, the mishap occurred near Vivekananda Polytechnic College, under the Tuirupattur sub-division and the Nachiyar Puram Police Station. A Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation bus travelling from Kangeyam to Karaikudi and another TN government bus travelling from Karaikudi to Dindigul collided head-on at around 5:00 PM this evening. The injured have been admitted to the Karaikudi Government Hospital, Tirupattur Government Hospital, and Sivagangai Government Hospital, the police said. Police personnel and Fire and Rescue Service teams rushed to the spot and rescued the injured. The Sivagangai District Superintendent of Police, Deputy Superintendent of Police, and Tirupattur officials also arrived at the scene and expedited the rescue operations. Earlier this week, six people died, and more than 50 were injured in a similar crash in the Tenkasi district of the State.Chief Minister MK Stalin has condoled the deaths. Stalin said he had deputed Sivaganga District Collector and District In-Charge Minister KR Periyakaruppan to the accident spot immediately to ensure that all affected people received proper medical support. In a statement, he announced Rs 3 lakh each to the families of the deceased, Rs 1 lakh each to those who sustained serious injuries, and Rs 50,000 each to those who suffered minor injuries. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended warm birthday wishes to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National President JP Nadda on Tuesday, praising his humility, organisational strength and commitment to good governance. He described Nadda's contribution to strengthening the BJP as "laudatory" and highlighted his work in improving India's health infrastructure as well as the chemicals and fertilisers sectors. In a post on X, the Prime Minister hailed Nadda for his grounded personality and strong organisational leadership. https://x.com/narendramodi/status/1995692345967386688?s=20 "Best wishes to Shri JP Nadda Ji on his birthday. He is widely respected for his humble and affable personality. He is known for his organisational skills and passion towards good governance. His role in making the BJP stronger is laudatory. Equally noteworthy are his efforts to improve India's health infrastructure as well as our strides in the chemicals and fertilisers sector. May God bless him with a long and healthy life," PM Modi wrote. Union Home Minister Amit Shah also extended his birthday greetings, commending Nadda's role in expanding the BJP and advancing affordable healthcare. https://x.com/AmitShah/status/1995687966409458006?s=20 "Heartfelt birthday wishes to Shri @JPNadda ji, the National President of BJP and Union Health Minister. You are continuously working towards fulfilling the resolve of Modi ji to ensure affordable and quality healthcare reaches every individual. At the same time, you have played an appreciable role in the expansion of the organization. I pray to God for your good health and long life," Shah wrote on X. According to the BJP's official website, Nadda, who originally hails from Himachal Pradesh, was born on 2 December 1960 in Patna, Bihar. JP Nadda has been serving as the BJP President since 2019. He is also the current Union Health Minister and previously served in the same position from 2014 to 2019. In 2010, he was made the National General Secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha for the first time in 2012. (ANI)
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Kerala Chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Tuesday slammed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan over alleged violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), in connection with the ongoing case of the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB). While suggesting that the party is using the "hard-earned taxes" of Malayalees as the Communist Party of India (Marxist)'s party fund, he said that just like the Sabarimala alleged gold loot, this too has to be investigated thoroughly. "Kerala borrowed Rs 2,100 crore abroad at 9.5% interest when cheaper options were available in India. Let's be clear - this is a liability that hangs over the heads of every Malayalee, who deserve answers. And then quietly paid Rs 21 crore as "commission." Every other state raises bonds within India - no commission, no foreign middlemen, no secrecy," the BJP leader wrote on X. Questioning the CPM-led government, Chandrasekhar asked, "So why did Pinarayi go to London to raise money? Who got the Rs 21 crore commission? Why raise it abroad at 9.5%? Why avoid Indian markets where interest is lower? Who bears forex risk and was FEMA approvals sought as is required under law?" These questions, he claimed, would have been answered by an honest government, "But CPM and its INDI partner Congress don't believe in honesty or accountability. These are Malayalees' hard-earned taxes - not CPM's party fund. So they can't escape accountability," he wrote on X. The case concerns alleged irregularities in KIIFB's external commercial borrowings (ECB) through 'Masala Bonds' issued on the London and Singapore Stock Exchanges. Masala bonds are bonds issued outside of India but denominated in Rupees. The word was first initially coined by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) a member of World Bank Group. Earlier, the ED had issued show cause notices to Kerala CM Vijayan and officials of the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) in connection with alleged violations under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), officials said. The notices were issued 19 days back on November 12, 2025, during adjudication proceedings, said the officials, adding "the noticees are not required to appear personally." Besides the Kerala CM (Chairman, KIIFB), the notices were issued to KM Abraham (CEO, KIIFB), T M Thomas Issac (Vice Chairman, KIIFB), and KIIFB. (ANI)
Great Wall excavation yields key archaeological discoveries in Beijing

Xinhua) 08:31, December 02, 2025

An aerial drone photo taken on April 5, 2025 shows people visiting the Jiankou section of the Great Wall in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Chen Yehua)

BEIJING, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Archaeologists in Beijing on Monday announced important discoveries in the recent excavation of the Jiankou section of the Great Wall, where a large cannon has been unearthed.

The excavation focused on three beacon towers and their connecting walls, revealing numerous artifacts this year, including weapons, architectural parts, and objects of daily use, according to Shang Heng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Institute of Archaeology, at a press conference on the latest archaeological findings in 2025.

Among these artifacts was a large cannon cast in the late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), measuring 89.2 centimeters in length and weighing 112.1 kilograms -- the largest artillery piece ever found in this section of the Great Wall.

Shang said that the well-preserved inscriptions on the cannon provide crucial new evidence for research on firearms manufacturing and historical military technology exchange during the period.

Also announced was the research findings of turquoise artifacts at the Xingong site, which is a rare settlement dating back to the Xia (2070 B.C.-1600 B.C.) and Shang (1600 B.C.-1046 B.C.) period in Beijing's urban area.

The site, featuring burial grounds, moats and residential remains, has revealed 28 turquoise artifacts. Analysis indicates the turquoise likely originated from mines at the junction of the provinces of Hubei, Henan and Shaanxi, providing key evidence of early cultural exchange in northern China, according to Yang Ju, a research fellow at the institute.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Countries supporting US-led action against Sri Lanka are now a minority in the HRC - Amb. Aryasinha



Sri Lankas Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha has said countries supporting US-led action against Sri Lanka are now a minority in the Human Rights Council.



Speaking to media following the vote today (27th March 2014), the Ambassador said a significant point about the vote in the Human Rights Council on the resolution on Sri Lanka, was that since the US first began moving resolutions on Sri Lanka in 2012, a majority of the 47 members of the Human Rights Council - 12 countries opposing and 12 other countries abstaining - has made it clear that they do not support the action taken by the US, the UK and the other co-sponsors of the resolution to impose an international inquiry mechanism concerning Sri Lanka. Those 24 countries, as against the 23 ( that includes 12 - EU, EU aspirants and the USA), who refused to endorse the action being taken, have sent a very clear and emphatic message rejecting imposition of external solutions on Sri Lanka, and the detrimental effect it would have on the reconciliation process.





Algeria, China, Congo, Cuba, Kenya, Maldives, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela and Viet Nam opposed the resolution, while Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Gabon, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Morocco, Namibia, Philippines, South Africa abstained. The resolution was supported by 23 countries, which included the USA and 11 EU & EU aspirant countries which voted as a bloc (Austria, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Montenegro, Romania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, United Kingdom) as well as Argentina, Benin, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Cote d Ivoire , Mexico ,Peru ,Republic of Korea and Sierra Leone.



Earlier, addressing the Human Rights Council on behalf of Sri Lanka as the country concerned, Ambassador Aryasinha said Sri Lanka was disappointed to observe that a key imperative driving this resolution is not genuine concern for the welfare of the Sri Lankan people but electoral compulsions of some States at the behest of certain extreme elements with links to the LTTE. Such biases and extreme ideologies ignore the ground realities, the legitimate aspirations of the Sri Lankan people, and trivialize the price paid by all Sri Lankans to defeat a 30-year brutal terrorist conflict and consolidate peace.



Rejecting the resolution, he reaffirmed the Governments firm resolve and commitment to continue its ongoing process of reconciliation and nation building and assuring the Council that Sri Lanka will remain steadfast in its consistent position of cooperation with the international community and the United Nations.





Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka

Geneva

27th March 2014



View the Press Release in PDF



Interview:Action against us unnecessary: Sri Lanka's envoy on UN resolution






Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi took on the Centre on Tuesday for "taking parliament for granted," claiming that the government is claiming important issues while the Opposition MPs repeatedly demand a discussion on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). "For the second day in a row, the ruling party, the BJP, refuses to list the most important issue for opposition political parties on the agenda for parliamentary business today. Why is the BJP taking the Parliament for granted?" the Congress MP posted on X. He further claimed that the government only calls for "symbolic" meetings where they pretend to care about issues, but refuse to list the same issues on the Parliament's agenda. "Why have symbolic meetings before the Parliament session where you pretend to care about the concerns of political parties when you don't even mention it in the day-to-day agenda?" Gaurav Gogoi asked. He further criticised the winter session being one of the shortest for the legislature, claiming that this is a way to "seed chaos" in Parliament. "This is one of the shortest Winter sessions with only 15 working days. Is the BJP deliberately seeding chaos in India's parliament?" he asked. Meanwhile, Jhakrhand Mukti Morcha MP Mahua Maji said that the INDIA bloc has warned of a possible "chaotic session" if the government does not agree to discuss the SIR. "Yesterday morning, there was a meeting of opposition leaders, where it was decided that we would ask for a discussion on the SIR. There should be a debate, a discussion on it. If they don't agree, then we will oppose it. Since the ruling party didn't agree to discuss it yesterday, it's possible that in today's meeting, we will decide that if they don't give a date for the debate, then today's session will be chaotic," the JMM MP told ANI. Multiple Congress MPs have moved an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha demanding the immediate suspension of the allegedly "unplanned and rushed" Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, while also flagging the extreme pressure on Booth Level Officers (BLOs) that has reportedly led to multiple deaths. Congress MP Manickam Tagore submitted an adjournment motion seeking discussion on a "definite matter of urgent importance." Party MPs Vijay Kumar and KC Venugopal also moved a motion seeking a discussion on the issue. Opposition MPs are expected to continue their protest against the SIR as the Winter Session of Parliament enters its second day. On the first day, repeated adjournments occurred due to sloganeering and protests by the Opposition benches. The INDIA bloc MPs are scheduled to stage a protest outside the Makar Dwar of Parliament at 10:30 am ahead of proceedings. (ANI)
Janata Dal (United)'s newly elected MLA Vibha Devi faced trouble reading her oath during the first session of the Bihar Vidhan Sabha after the Assembly elections. Vibha Devi, wife of former MLA and strongman Raj Ballabh Yadav, was seen asking a fellow MLA to dictate the oath to her on Monday. Devi became an MLA from Nawada constituency after defeating Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) Kaushal Yadav by a margin of 27,594 votes. The first session of the newly elected Bihar Legislative Assembly began on Monday, with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, along with newly elected MLAs, arriving to participate in the important session. Ahead of the session, the newly elected MLAs expressed their commitment to work for the welfare of the people of Bihar and the constituencies they were elected from. JD(U) MLA-elect Vinay Kumar Chaudhary emphasised the party's commitment to public welfare in his remarks. "We work for the public and will continue to do so," he said, reflecting the party's focus on serving the people of Bihar. Vishnu Deo Paswan, newly elected MLA from LJP (Ram Vilas), shared his vision for Bihar's youth. "I want to work on creating employment opportunities so that the youth of Bihar do not have to migrate. Due to politics, Bihar did not see the development it deserved," he stated, emphasising the need for economic growth and job creation within the state. After an address by the Protem Speaker of the legislative assembly, Narendra Narayan Yadav, the session witnessed an oath-taking ceremony of newly elected legislators, starting with the ministers, then the LoP, and then the newly elected MLAs. The NDA registered a historic landslide victory in the 2025 Bihar assembly polls, winning 202 of the 243 seats, while the Mahagathbandhan secured only 35 seats. The ruling alliance secured a three-fourths majority in the 243-member Bihar Assembly, marking the second time the NDA crossed the 200-seat mark in state polls. In the NDA, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the largest party with 89 seats, followed by Janata Dal (United) with 85, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) (LJPRV) won 19, Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) (HAMS) won five, and Rashtriya Lok Morcha won four seats. Among opposition parties, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) won 25 seats, the Indian National Congress six, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Liberation) [CPI(ML)(L)] two, the Indian Inclusive Party (IIP) one, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] one seat. All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) secured five seats, while the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won one seat. (ANI)
Congress and other opposition MPs staged a protest against the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll as the Parliament gears up for the second day of the Winter Session. Opposition members, including MPs from the INDIA bloc, gathered outside the Makar Dwar of the Parliament ahead of the day's proceedings to express their discontent over the ongoing SIR exercise. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Sonia Gandhi also joined the protest. On Monday, the first day of the Winter Session, the Lok Sabha witnessed multiple adjournments till noon, 2 pm, and later in the day, as opposition MPs demanded a discussion on the SIR being conducted in 12 States and Union Territories. Congress MP Manickam Tagore said, "The INDIA Alliance decided yesterday morning that we will stress for the discussion on SIR and the election electoral reform-related things. Today, at 10:30 am, we are having a demonstration in front of the Makar Dwar demanding the same thing. All the MPs are going to protest outside the parliament." Tagore further emphasised that the Opposition seeks a debate on the issue, underlining its impact on citizens' voting rights. "I had given agenda motions also, and we hope that they are accepted. We want a debate on that subject. The government should not run from this critical issue, as the right to vote is at stake. In Bihar, 62 lakh voters have been removed. It has now been rolled out in 12 states. A lot of BLOs are committing suicide. We wanted to protect the democracy of India. And for that, we need a debate in the Parliament," the Congress MP said. On Monday, Congress MP Digvijaya Singh slammed the SIR exercise for delving into the question of citizenship, comparing it to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). He said, "We have always been in favour of the SIR. This has happened before. Back then, the SIR used to run for 2-4 months, and it was a process for registering every citizen's vote. Voters didn't fill out any forms. The BLO would come and ask, and we'd give them the information. Our vote would be added. This SIR requires us to fill out forms and provide proof of our Indian citizenship. You've enacted the CAA; get it investigated. This is not SIR, this is CAA. We object to it." Singh also said, "Our weakness is that we're not able to do the physical on-the-ground work the Congress Party should do." Hitting back at the Opposition amid continuous protests and sloganeering inside the House, BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi said that the Prime Minister showed them a mirror with his "drama" jibe. She added that if the INDIA bloc continues to create ruckus over "baseless issues", they will face similar electoral results as in the Bihar Assembly elections. The BJP MP said, "Yesterday, PM Modi showed a mirror to the opposition leaders and also advised MPs that we should work constructively in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, and wherever discussions happen, we should express our thoughts constructively. But this did not happen. After the Bihar results, the opposition parties should have introspected and learned that if they create a ruckus in Parliament, raising baseless issues, the result will be the same as what happened in Bihar." On the second day of the Winter Session, the Central government is scheduled to move the Central Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2025, for consideration and passing in the Lok Sabha. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to introduce the bill to amend the Central Excise Act, including proposals to increase excise duties and cess on tobacco products. (ANI)
The Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Vinai Kumar Saxena, visited Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Rohini, to review the progress in the laboratory with respect to the implementation of the New Criminal Laws. Forensic evidence reports are essential clues for investigations and for ensuring faster, science-driven justice delivery in the National Capital. During the visit on Monday, the Lieutenant Governor undertook a comprehensive review of the laboratory's infrastructure, technical capabilities, workflow processes, and ongoing modernisation initiatives. He also interacted with Senior Officers and Scientific Staff to assess operational requirements and challenges being faced by the divisions. The key focus of the visit was to examine capacity-building to dispose of POCSO cases in a time-bound manner and to clear the existing pendency of cases across various divisions, including Bio/DNA, Cyber Forensics, Ballistics, Chemistry and Toxicology, amongst others. The review aimed towards identifying bottlenecks for enhancing the efficiency and to ensure that the laboratory is fully prepared to meet the increased forensic demands under the new legal frameworks under BNS. The Lieutenant Governor also appreciated the overall functioning of the FSL and complimented the Scientists for their dedication and commitment to speedy delivery of Criminal Justice under the new BNS in the larger public interest, with empathy as well as in the interest of National Security. On this occasion, Principal Director Dr Anil Agarwal informed that "The Forensic Science Laboratory Delhi always stands committed to delivering the highest standards of scientific excellence, ensuring that every piece of evidence is examined with precision, integrity and unwavering professionalism. In this laboratory the modern technology and equipment are used to solve complex crime-related problems, which helps in resolving cases on time. This ultimately ensures a safe environment and justice for the people of Delhi. Our dedication to truth, supported by advanced technology and skilled experts, strengthens the criminal justice system and exemplifies our pursuit for justice through science." (ANI)
The Department of Telecommunications' (DoT) move to mandate the pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi application on all mobile handsets manufactured or imported in India has sparked political controversy. Congress MP KC Venugopal on Tuesday criticised the government's directive, calling it "an attack on privacy." Speaking to ANI, Venugopal said, "It is an attack on privacy. This is what it seems to be. In the name of helping, the BJP is trying to attack the privacy of the common people. We had an experience with Pegasus here in India. The government is trying to put surveillance on all the people of the country through this app..." Meanwhile, in a post on X, Venugopal also criticised the central government over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, which he said has claimed over 20 lives, adding that the government has refused to discuss the issue in Parliament. https://x.com/kcvenugopalmp/status/1995726335767969997?s=20 "A flawed, rigged SIR process has claimed over 20 lives, but the Modi government refuses to even have a discussion in Parliament about it! We, the INDIA bloc MPs, protested against this at the Makar Dwar in Parliament House this morning," Venugopal wrote on X. The DoT has issued directions to ensure that the pre-installed Sanchar Saathi application is readily visible and accessible to end-users at the time of first use or device setup, and that its functionalities are not disabled or restricted. For devices already manufactured and available in sales channels, manufacturers and importers have been asked to push the application via software updates. According to the ministry, the directions issued on November 28 aim to safeguard citizens from purchasing non-genuine mobile devices, enable easy reporting of suspected misuse of telecom resources, and enhance the overall effectiveness of the Sanchar Saathi initiative. The Telecommunication Cyber Security (TCS) Rules empower the Central Government to issue directions to manufacturers of telecommunication equipment bearing International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers to provide assistance as required in relation to tampered telecommunication equipment or IMEI numbers. India has a large second-hand mobile device market, where cases have been observed of stolen or blacklisted devices being resold, potentially making the purchaser an abettor in crime and causing financial loss.
The second day of the Lok Sabha on Tuesday witnessed only 15 minutes of legislative business, as Opposition sloganeering and protests forced the House to be adjourned till 12 noon during the Question Hour. As soon as the proceedings began at 11 AM, Opposition MPs continued their chant of 'vote chor, gaddi chod' (vote thief, leave your seat) against the Central government, while demanding a discussion on the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. While calling on members to maintain decorum, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said the Opposition's actions are being watched by the entire country. "Dear members, I would request you, the Question Hour is important, please let it continue. I am seeing the way you are protesting, inside the house and outside, this is not in the interest of the Parliament or the country," Speaker Birla said. The Opposition's sloganeering continued for the second day in the Parliament. Monday's session had also seen repeated adjournments, with legislative business taking place for less than an hour throughout the day. "Is this the tradition of the MPs? The country is watching. Disagreement in the Parliament is common but please maintain respect," the Speaker added. During the Question Hour, ministers continued to answer questions despite loud sloganeering. While answering a question regarding funds allocated under Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) and Animal Husbandry Development Fund (AHIDF) in West Bengal, Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh (alias Lalan Singh) gave an overview of the funds. "If we want to make a Viksit Bharat, then every state needs to have development. Until we develop every state, it cannot happen. Keeping that in mind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has started the PMMSY to revolutionise the fishing industry across the country. But the sad thing is that West Bengal did not support this," the union minister told the House. The Winter Session of Parliament saw disruptions for the second day in a row today. The winter session commenced on December 1 and will conclude on December 19. (ANI)
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has reported a marked improvement in Mumbai's air quality, attributing the positive trend to strict enforcement of pollution-control measures across the city and its suburbs, an official release said. The action will continue against private construction sites and government projects that violate air-pollution control guidelines. The Graded Response Action Plan Stage-4 (GRAP-4) is currently not applicable to Mumbai. According to the BMC release, Municipal Commissioner and Administrator Bhushan Gagrani has issued strict instructions to ensure compliance with all pollution-control measures. The BMC has been implementing various strong measures to curb air pollution across Greater Mumbai (city and suburbs). These measures apply to both private projects and major government works, such as roads and metro construction. Wind speed in the region has also improved, contributing to better air quality. Owing to these combined efforts, Mumbai's Air Quality Index (AQI) has shown continuous improvement since 26 November 2025, with significant progress recorded in the past 48 hours. The BMC has emphasised strict enforcement of the earlier 28-point guideline, and several construction projects have been served "stop work" notices for non-compliance. Commissioner and Administrator Shri Bhushan Gagrani has instructed that action must continue against all private, government, and semi-government projects violating these directives. He also clarified that GRAP-4 is currently not applicable to Mumbai, though monitoring has been intensified. Following the Commissioner's directives, Additional Municipal Commissioner (City) Ashwini Joshi is overseeing the on-ground implementation of various measures. Commissioner and Administrator Bhushan Gagrani stated that BMC has been proactively implementing multiple initiatives to control air pollution in Greater Mumbai. These include converting bakeries and crematoriums to cleaner fuels, using misting machines for dust suppression, washing roads with water, conducting special cleanliness drives, and running public awareness campaigns. To support pollution mitigation, BMC issued comprehensive 28-point guidelines on 15 October 2024. To ensure strict compliance, 94 mobile squads have been deployed across all administrative wards. These teams are actively inspecting private construction sites and road and metro projects, and issuing notices whenever norms are violated. They are also checking the functioning of sensor-based AQI monitoring devices installed at construction locations. Gagrani further noted that the Mumbai Port Authority has responded positively to BMC's instructions to stop bonfires (shekottis) in its premises. Thanks to these ongoing measures, Mumbai's AQI has been steadily improving since 26 November 2025. Before 28 November, the wind speed was only 3-4 km/hr, accompanied by high humidity. Now, wind speed has increased to 10-18 km/hr, contributing substantially to better air quality. Gagrani appealed to all private, government, and semi-government projects to strictly adhere to pollution-control guidelines, urged bakeries to convert to clean fuels at the earliest, and called upon citizens to avoid burning waste in the open and to support BMC's efforts. (ANI)
Proceedings of the Lower House of Parliament, Lok Sabha, saw incessant sloganeering by Opposition MPs on Tuesday, continuing their chant of 'vote chor, gaddi chod' (vote thief, leave your seat) against the Central government, while the Question Hour proceeded at 11 AM. The slogans started the second the proceedings began at 11 AM, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla urged the Opposition MPs to maintain decorum and get back to their seats. He claimed that the protests are not in the interests of the Parliament or the country. "Dear members, I would request you, the Question Hour is important, please let it continue. I am seeing the way you are protesting, inside the house and outside, this is not in the interest of the Parliament or the country," Speaker Birla said. Monday's session also saw repeated adjournments with legislative business taking place just short of an hour throughout the day. "Is this the tradition of the MPs? The country is watching, disagreement in the Parliament is common but please maintain respect," the Speaker said. While the Opposition MPs continued their protest over the ongoing SIR, both in and outside the Parliament, the Congress party has criticised the recent order of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) ordering mobile phones to pre install the cyber fraud reporting app Sanchar Saathi. Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju today responded to the Opposition's criticism of the Sanchar Saathi app, urging parties not to create disruptions in Parliament and assuring that the government is open to debate on all issues. Speaking to ANI, Rijiju said, "They dont need to dig out issues. A list of businesses has been prepared, and there are many issues. We will have a debate on the issues raised by the opposition as well, and think about how we need to move ahead. They dont need to find new issues and disturb the Parliament." Meanwhile, outside the Parliament, Congress and other opposition MPs staged a protest against the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll as the Parliament gears up for the second day of the Winter Session. Opposition members, including MPs from the INDIA bloc, gathered outside the Makar Dwar of the Parliament ahead of the day's proceedings to express their discontent over the ongoing SIR exercise. (ANI)
Congress Rajya Sabha MP Renuka Chowdhury on Tuesday launched a sharp attack on Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, calling him "nalayak" (useless), after the latter criticised the Opposition for obstructing Parliamentary proceedings over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists. Speaking to ANI outside Parliament, Chowdhury accused the Central government of failing to run the House effectively. She said, "Arey tum nalayak ho toh hum kya karein, tumko chalana aata nahi hai to hum kya karein? Hum mudda bhi na uthayein? (You're useless. If they don't know how to run the House, then what can we do?) Do they want us to do yes, sir and no, sir? This will not work. We are MPs, and it is our duty to raise people's voices." Her scathing attack came after Rijiju emphasised that while every concern holds significance, using them to block Parliament proceedings is "not right." "All issues are important in their own place, but if you use these issues as a weapon to stall the Parliament, it is not right... We will hold talks with opposition leaders. I am in touch with them already... We are not belittling their issues, but there are many issues in the country, not just one," the Union Minister said. On the second day of the Winter Session, the Lok Sabha was adjourned till 2 pm amid protests by the Opposition MPs over the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral roll. Speaker Om Birla summoned opposition floor leaders and ministers for a meeting to resolve the disruptions and restore order in the House. Meanwhile, Renuka Chowdhury slammed the Centre over mandating the pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi App in mobile phones, calling it a threat to national security. She said, "They brought in Pegasus and have been unable to keep it under control. MPs and MLAs all say that their phones are being tapped. For the last 11 years, basic rights of the Indians have been taken away. This is the real threat to national security." Chowdhury had also filed an adjournment motion on the Sanchar Saathi App in the Rajya Sabha. Earlier, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also called the Sanchar Saathi App a snooping App. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, "It is a snooping app. It's ridiculous. Citizens have the right to privacy. Everyone must have the right to privacy to send messages to family and friends without the government looking at everything. They are turning this country into a dictatorship in every form. The parliament is not functioning because the government is refusing to talk about anything. It's very easy to blame the Opposition. They are not allowing any discussion on anything. A healthy democracy demands discussion. There's a very fine line between reporting fraud and seeing what every citizen of India is doing on their phone. That's not how it should work." The DoT has instructed manufacturers and importers to pre-install the app in the mobile handsets and ensure the app is visible and accessible at first use, and cannot be disabled. For devices already on the market, companies have been asked to push the app via software updates. According to the Ministry of Telecommunication, the directions issued on November 28 aim to safeguard citizens from purchasing non-genuine handsets, enable easy reporting of suspected telecom misuse, and improve the effectiveness of the Sanchar Saathi initiative. (ANI)
With the adjournment of both houses, Lok Sabha MP Priyanka Gandhi said on Tuesday that the government is not ready to speak up on any issue, despite the ongoing irregularities in voter lists and the worsening Delhi pollution. She said, "We have been demanding a discussion on so many issues, SIR, air pollution and others, since the last session. But they (govt) are not ready to discuss any issue. Is this how the Parliament should run? Parliament is the temple of democracy; all voices should be heard, of different voices and different thought processes, there should be discussion and then decisions should be made. But they (govt) are not ready to discuss any issue." On SIR, she said, "You are changing the voter lists every other day and cutting the names of lakhs of voters. There is ongoing vote chori (vote theft). " On air pollution, she said, "The air pollution in Delhi is getting worse, and the Prime Minister is saying the weather is pleasant. So, should we remain silent and not discuss anything?" Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday appealed to Opposition MPs to allow the House to function, amid continued protests demanding a discussion on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Speaking to ANI, Rijiju said, "We have repeatedly urged to hold discussions in a peaceful and disciplined manner. We have always said that to raise one issue, you can't compromise on other issues. It is not right for some parties to disrupt the House." He further said, "There is always victory and loss in elections, but taking out the anger over this defeat in Parliament is not right. We are ready to discuss any issue." Appealing to MPs, he added, "I appeal to the opposition MPs not to disrupt the House proceedings." Earlier, the joint opposition used the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls issue to stage protests outside Parliament on Tuesday. Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, MP Mallikarjun Kharge, said, "We will continue to protest to save democracy and against injustice." Congress and other opposition MPs began their protest against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) on Tuesday, as the Parliament geared up for the second day of the Winter Session. The INDIA bloc MPs began their protest outside the Makar Dwar of Parliament ahead of today's proceedings. Even on the first day of the Winter Session, the Lok Sabha witnessed several adjournments till noon, 2 pm, and later in the day, as opposition members insisted on discussing the ongoing SIR exercise in 12 States and Union Territories. (ANI)
Statements made by Delegation of Sri Lanka during the 17th Session of Human Rights Council, 30 May 2011  17 June 2011 in Geneva

 Statement by Her Excellency Mrs. Kshenuka Senewiratne, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN, Geneva, to the statement of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay on 30 May 2011





 Statement By Hon. Mohan Pieris, Attorney-General of Sri Lanka during the Interactive Dialogue on the Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns, 31 May 2011



 Statement by Hon. Mahinda Samarasinghe, M.P., Minister of Plantation Industries, Special Envoy of His Excellency the President on human rights, and Head of Sri Lanka delegation at the 17th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, 30 May 2011



 Statement under Item 3 - Interactive Dialogues  the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants , 31 May 2011



 Statement by A.H.M.D. Nawaz, Deputy Solicitor General, Sri Lanka during the interactive dialogue with the Independent Expert on Human Rights and Extreme Poverty, 1st June 2011

 Statement by A.H.M.D. Nawaz Deputy Solicitor General, Sri Lanka during the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, 1 June 2011



 Statement delivered by Mr. Sugeeshwara Gunaratne, Sri Lanka delegation at the Interactive Debate on the Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, its causes and consequences on 03 June 2011



 Statement by the delegation of Sri Lanka during the ANNUAL FULL-DAY DISCUSSION ON WOMENs HUMAN RIGHTS, 10 June 2011



 Statement of the delegation of Sri Lanka during the general debate on agenda Item 7 of the Human Rights Council: human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories, 17th Session of the HRC, 14 June 2011



 Right of Reply by Sri Lanka on 15 June 2011
Congress MP Karti Chidambaram on Tuesday slammed the Department of Telecommunications' directive to pre-install the Sanchar Saathi app on all new mobile handsets, calling it "Orwellian" and warning that the government will now "pry into the private lives of every citizen" and is "replicating Russia". Speaking to ANI, Karti Chidambaram said, "It is Orwellian...The government will have access to and pry into the private lives of every citizen. This government is replicating Russia. I am sure there will be a lot of pushback." Congress MP KC Venugopal alsoy criticised the government's directive, calling it "an attack on privacy." Speaking to ANI, Venugopal said, "It is an attack on privacy. This is what it seems to be. In the name of helping, the BJP is trying to attack the privacy of the common people. We had an experience with Pegasus here in India. The government is trying to put surveillance on all the people of the country through this app..." The DoT has issued directions to ensure that the pre-installed Sanchar Saathi application is readily visible and accessible to end-users at the time of first use or device setup, and that its functionalities are not disabled or restricted. For devices already manufactured and available in sales channels, manufacturers and importers have been asked to push the application via software updates. According to the ministry, the directions issued on November 28 aim to safeguard citizens from purchasing non-genuine mobile devices, enable easy reporting of suspected misuse of telecom resources, and enhance the overall effectiveness of the Sanchar Saathi initiative. The Telecommunication Cyber Security (TCS) Rules empower the Central Government to issue directions to manufacturers of telecommunication equipment bearing International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers to provide assistance as required in relation to tampered telecommunication equipment or IMEI numbers. India has a large second-hand mobile device market, where cases have been observed of stolen or blacklisted devices being resold, potentially making the purchaser an abettor in crime and causing financial loss. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday lauded 19-year-old Vedamurti Devavrat Mahesh Rekhe for completing the Dandakrama Parayanam, comprising 2,000 mantras of the Shukla Yajurveda's Madhyandini branch, over 50 uninterrupted days, calling it an achievement that will be "remembered by the coming generations." "What 19-year-old Vedamurti Devavrat Mahesh Rekhe has done will be remembered by the coming generations! Every person passionate about Indian culture is proud of him for completing the Dandakrama Parayanam, consisting of 2000 mantras of the Shukla Yajurveda's Madhyandini branch, in 50 days without any interruption," PM Modi said in a post on X. "This includes several Vedic verses and sacred words recited flawlessly. He embodies the finest of our Guru Parampara. As the MP from Kashi, I am elated that this extraordinary feat took place in this sacred city. My Pranams to his family, the several saints, seers, scholars and organisations from all over India that have supported him," he added. Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, during his visit to Siddha Baba Palnath Ashram in Jhajjar, Haryana, highlighted the enduring relevance of Sanatan culture and its influence on human evolution while participating in the Pran Pratishtha and Aathman Bhandara ceremonies. "Sanatan culture is the world's oldest culture and has shaped human evolution. We have different methods of worship and traditions of knowledge sharing. Within this tradition, the Nath community plays a major role. From Shiva of Kailash to the Shiva temple at Rameshwaram, all of these connect us together," the Chief Minister said while addressing the gathering. Earlier in the day, CM Yogi held a 'Janta Darshan' at Gorakhnath Temple in Gorakhpur, where he met people from across the district, reviewed their applications, and assured them of timely resolution. He also interacted with children present at the venue. On November 16, the Chief Minister conducted another Janta Darshan in Lucknow, hearing the grievances of women and children and assuring them of assistance and prompt action. (ANI)
Alleging that there is a "rising menace of drugs, illegal liquor and crime" in Gujarat, Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday that multiple women have come to him telling their problems, during his 'Jan akrosh yatra' being carried out in the state. "During the Congress party's ongoing Jan Aakrosh Yatras in Gujarat, people--especially women--have repeatedly stated that the rising menace of drugs, illegal liquor, and crime has deepened the sense of insecurity in their lives," the LS LoP posted on X in Hindi. "Gujarat is the land of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel, where traditions of truth, morality, and justice have prevailed, but over the past few years, the future of the state's youth is being pushed toward the dark world of drugs and crime," he added. He added that criminals are getting protection from those in power while the women are being neglected, forcing them to come out on the streets in large numbers, while questioning the "silence" of the BJP government. "Women are taking to the streets in large numbers because criminals are receiving protection from those in power, while they themselves are met only with neglect. Gujarat is asking--why is the BJP government silent? Which BJP minister is providing cover for all this? Why are Gujarat's traitors being shielded?" his post added. Another major issue which the LoP says has come up in every meeting during the yatra is of the farmers, with the people suffering loss of their crops due to the recent floods. "The recent devastating floods have ruined thousands of Gujarati families and destroyed farmers' crops. When Modi ji was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, talk of relief packages never stopped. Today, Gujarat is drowning, there's a double-engine government, they are the Prime Minister, yet neither adequate relief is in sight nor any empathy,"he said. The LS LoP claimed that there is intense public outrage in Gujarat as every family is worried about their children's future. "Every family is asking--why aren't farmers' loans being waived, why isn't the drug trade being cleaned up? The Congress will continue to listen to the people's concerns and relentlessly expose the failures and corruption of the BJP government," he said. The Gujarat Congress launched its 60 days 'Jan Aakrosh Yatra' on November 21, with the aim of highlighting any issues the farmers, youth, or marginalised communities might face. The Yatra commenced from Dhima in North Gujarat and is set to cover 7 district, 40 Taluks, 12 cities in its first phase. The initial leg of the Yatra will conclude after covering 1,100 kilometres on December 3. (ANI)
The Akhil Bharatiya Janwadi Mahila Samiti (All India Democratic Women's Association AIDWA) on Tuesday held a protest outside the Deputy Commissioner's office in Shimla, demanding the resignation of BJP MLA from Churah, Hans Raj, who has been accused in an alleged case of sexual assault involving a minor girl. AIDWA leaders and women protesters raised slogans seeking the MLA's removal from his post and action in the case. Speaking to the media during the protest, Falma Chauhan, President of the Himachal Pradesh Democratic Women's Committee, said, "We are protesting against BJP MLA Hans Raj. As you know, he has been granted bail, but under the POCSO Act, bail is generally not permissible. Through this protest, we demand that his membership of the Legislative Assembly should be cancelled. The bail granted to him should also be revoked. The survivor and her family must be given protection," she said. Falma Chauhan further added, "We also demand the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under a retired senior officer. You know how influential the MLA is; he can influence the investigation in any manner. Other names have also surfaced in this case. Those involved must be brought forward, and a fair investigation should be ensured," she said. Alleging that attempts were being made to suppress the case. "When such an incident happens to a poor family, only they can understand the pain and the trauma their child is going through. A political effort is being made to bury the matter. That is why we want an impartial investigation," Falma Chauhan added. Warning of state-wide action, Chauhan said, "If this does not happen, AIDWA will protest across Himachal Pradesh against the MLA. We will also raise the issue in the Assembly and Parliament, where rapist MLAs and MPs continue to sit. We will bring this matter before the entire country," she said. (ANI)
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for reviving the legacy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on his 150th birth anniversary, highlighting the BJP's commitment to Patel's anti-corruption vision. Speaking at Sardar Sabha, the Defence Minister cited the party's move to introduce the "130th Constitutional Amendment" to ensure ministers resign if jailed for more than 30 days. Addressing the gathering, Singh said, "He (Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel) was very strict about corruption. He clearly stated that any complaint against any minister, regardless of position, must be investigated. If the allegations are found to be true, the minister should immediately resign from his post... This wish of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel has been respected for the first time in the history of independent India by the BJP... We have also decided to get the 130th Amendment Bill of the Constitution passed in the Parliament... If a person holding a position serves more than 30 days in jail, he will have to resign from his post. We are trying to get this law passed in the Parliament of India." Rajnath Singh further remarked, "We are here to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel... There were some political powers who wanted Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to get lost in the pages of history. PM Modi has played an important role in re-establishing him as a shining star in the pages of history." The ongoing Sardar @150 Padyatra has collectively covered 72 kilometres, promoting Patel's message of national unity and civic responsibility. The march continues to serve as a living tribute to his ideals, inspiring communities to embrace discipline, unity, and dedicated service while strengthening participatory citizenship across the country. Meanwhile, the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2025, introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 20, proposes a framework for the removal of the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers, and ministers if they are jailed for more than 30 consecutive days on serious criminal charges punishable with imprisonment of five years or more. The bill has been referred to a Joint Committee of both Houses of Parliament for further consideration. (ANI)
In a shining example of interoperability and joitnness of the armed forces, Chief Of Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh Tripathi on Tuesday highlighted how the decisive action said that the "immediate action and aggressive posturing" of India during Operation Sindoor kept the Pakistani Navy busy and forced them to remain near their ports and the Makran coast. "Suffice to say, that the aggressive posturing and immediate action during Op Sindoor, including of deployment of the carrier battle group in the Northern Arabian sea forced Pakistan Navy to remain close to their ports or near the Makran coast," CNS Admiral Dinesh Tripathi said during a press conference. While the Indian Air Force carried out various strikes on Pakistani bases, the Indian Army was used to keep an eye on the border areas while the forces played a pivotal role in defending against any attacks from Pakistan. He further wished the countrymen a Happy Navy Day in advance. While Navy Day is officially celebrated on December 4, CNS Admiral Tripathi said that the Navy will organise a program on December 3 (Wednesday), with President Droupadi Murmu, also the Commander in chief of the armed forces, attending as the chief guest. "Although the navy day is on December 4 I take this opportunity to wish all of us who are present here, and also to our countrymen a very happy navy day in advance," Admiral Tripathi said. Remembering the time Indian Navy launched decisive strikes on Pakistan in December 4 during the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971, much like Operation Sindoor, the Admiral highlighted how the strikes changed the course of the war in favour of India. "We celebrate the Navy Day on December 4 to commemorate our audacious and decisive strikes on December 4, 1971 which caused much destruction and shattered the enemy's will to fight. Dare I say it changed the course of war. This Day is also a day for us to remember our heroes, and pay homage to brave naval warriors for their sacrifices during the wars," he said. He also expressed gratitude to naval veterans who shaped the navy and propelled its growth to what it is today. "They vision, leadership, and selfless devotion, and commitment, built the foundation for today's combat ready, credible, cohesive future ready Atmnanirbhar Navy," the Admiral mentioned. This year's navy day will be celebrated at Shangumugham Beach at Thiruvanathapuram, Kerala, on December 3, according to CNS Admiral Tripathi. While India's marine history goes back thousands of years, the Indian Navy in its current form was officially founded on January 20 1950. The Indian Navy played a crucial role during the 1971 India-Pakistan War, which ultimately led to the creation of Bangladesh. The Navy's primary task was to blockade Pakistan's eastern and western coasts, disrupting supply lines and weakening Pakistan's maritime capabilities. The Navy's Eastern Fleet, under the command of Rear Admiral Krishnan, launched a series of strikes on Pakistan's ports, including a successful attack on the naval base at Karachi, severely damaging Pakistan's naval assets. (ANI)
India's third indigenously built nuclear ballistic submarine, INS Aridaman, is set to be commissioned "very soon," Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh Tripathi said on Tuesday. INS Aridaman is an upgraded Arihant-class submarine. Earlier, in August 2024, INS Arighaat' was also commissioned in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and INS Arihant was commissioned in 2016. "Indigenous nuclear ballistic submarine INS Aridaman would be commissioned very soon," CNS Admiral Dinesh Tripathi said during a press conference ahead of the Navy day celebrations. Apart from INS Aridaman, the Indian Navy also has INS Arighaat, and INS arahant, which will further strengthen India's nuclear triad, enhance nuclear deterrence, help in establishing strategic balance & peace in the region, and play a decisive role in the security of the country. The construction of INS Arighaat involved the use of advanced design and manufacturing technology, detailed research & development, utilisation of special materials, complex engineering and highly skilled workmanship. It has the distinction of having the indigenous systems and equipment which were conceptualised, designed, manufactured & integrated by the Indian scientists, industry and Naval personnel, according to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. On collaborating with other nation's navies, the Admiral said that the Navy is actively guided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Vision 'Mahasagar'. "We have conducted 21 bilateral, 9 multilateral, and 34 maritime partnership exercises, 5 corvette deployments, and 13 joint EZT approaches since the last Navy Day. I also want to highlight three maiden initiatives in the last year," the Admiral said. Talking about the Africa-India Key maritime engagement, he said, "we partnered with 9 African countries and assembled in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Our defence minister was present there along with the defence minister of Tanzania, and we had great camaraderie and an exchange of best practices among 9 African countries. This was greatly appreciated again, and Tanzania has volunteered to host the next edition, which we plan to make biennial, so the next edition will be in 2027." Meanwhile, also at the press conference, Vice Admiral K Swaminathan spoke on Pakistan testing missiles. "We were already aware of Pakistan's missile launch names P282. We were watching its launch. It's their claim that it's indigenous for them but we think it's not indigenous for them but if they say so let's believe it. We watched the whole launch ad it's capabilities," the Vice Admiral said. Similarly, referring to Bangladesh as a "friendly neighbour", he said that there is good cooperation between the countries and he does not "see any reason why Bangladesh would turn hostile to India." (ANI)
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi on Tuesday hit back at Union Minister of Communication Jyotiraditya Scindia over the directive mandating the Sanchar Saathi app, claiming that the app's functionality can neither be disabled nor restricted. Earlier, Jyotiraditya Scindia had asserted that activating the Sanchar Saathi app on mobile handsets is not mandatory, and it is entirely up to consumers to use it or delete it like any other app. In a response, Chaturvedi shared a copy of the directive by the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) and wrote on X, "I will request the Telecom Minister of India to read the notification before calling it an 'unnecessary controversy'. Read page 2, point 7 B. It is clearly written in it that the app's functionality is neither disabled nor restricted." Earlier today, addressing reporters outside Parliament, Scindia stressed that users retain full autonomy; those who do not wish to use the app are free not to register, and they may also delete it at any time. "If you want to activate it, do so. If you do not want to activate it, don't. Delete it if you wish. It is entirely your choice," said the minister. Scindia emphasised that misinformation should not overshadow the app's consumer-protection benefits, noting that the platform has contributed to preventing financial frauds amounting to Rs 22,800 crore in 2024. "Opposition doesn't have any agenda (mudda), and they want to find out agenda (mudda). We can't help the Opposition," Scindia said. Rejecting allegations of surveillance, Scindia stated unequivocally that the app contains no provisions for snooping or call monitoring. The Opposition's staunch attack came after the DoT instructed manufacturers and importers to pre-install the app in the mobile handsets and ensure the app is visible and accessible, and functionalities are not disabled or restricted. For devices already on the market, companies have been asked to push the app via software updates. According to the Ministry of Telecommunication, the directions issued on November 28 aim to safeguard citizens from purchasing non-genuine handsets, enable easy reporting of suspected telecom misuse, and improve the effectiveness of the Sanchar Saathi initiative. (ANI)
TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee, joined the opposition ranks to take on the Central Government on the activation of the Sanchar Saathi app on mobile headsets. The TMC leader said on Tuesday that mandating such an app by the government is completely illegal and unconstitutional. He said, "This is totally absolutely illegal. This will be completely in breach of privacy. For you (the government) to detect cybercrime, transparency is needed. You cannot detect cybercrimes by entering my phone; the government has no right to know my personal mobile details. This is totally illegal and totally unconstitutional. You know, when the Aadhar was introduced, we said that Aadhar cards cannot be made compulsory, because the information would be divulged. The Supreme Court said only in case of subsidised food, or any other benefits, etc., it can be made compulsory." Earlier, Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury slammed the Centre over mandating the pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi App in mobile phones, calling it a threat to national security. She said, "They brought in Pegasus and have been unable to keep it under control. MPs and MLAs all say that their phones are being tapped. For the last 11 years, basic rights of the Indians have been taken away. This is the real threat to national security." Chowdhury had also filed an adjournment motion on the Sanchar Saathi App in the Rajya Sabha. Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also called the Sanchar Saathi App a snooping App and alleged that the centre was imposing dictatorship. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, "It is a snooping app. It's ridiculous. Citizens have the right to privacy. Everyone must have the right to privacy to send messages to family and friends without the government looking at everything. They are turning this country into a dictatorship in every form. The parliament is not functioning because the government is refusing to talk about anything. It's very easy to blame the Opposition. They are not allowing any discussion on anything. A healthy democracy demands discussion. There's a very fine line between reporting fraud and seeing what every citizen of India is doing on their phone. That's not how it should work." Meanwhile, Union Minister for Telecommunication Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday clarified that the Sanchar Saathi application is entirely voluntary for consumers, reiterating that neither installation nor activation is mandatory. Addressing reporters outside Parliament, he stressed that users retain full autonomy; those who do not wish to use the app are free not to register, and they may also delete it at any time. "If you want to activate it, do so. If you do not want to activate it, don't. Delete it if you wish. It is entirely your choice," said the minister. Scindia emphasised that misinformation should not overshadow the app's consumer-protection benefits, noting that the platform has contributed to preventing financial frauds amounting to Rs 22,800 crore in 2024. "Opposition doesn't have any agenda (mudda), and they want to find out agenda (mudda). We can't help the Opposition," Scindia said. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has issued directions requiring manufacturers and importers to pre-install the Sanchar Saathi app on devices sold in India to enhance consumer awareness and curb the circulation of duplicate or tampered IMEIs. Developed under the Telecom Cyber Security framework, Sanchar Saathi supports users on both Android and iOS platforms, enabling verification of device authenticity and reporting of suspected fraud, thereby strengthening India's broader telecom-cybersecurity ecosystem. (ANI)
Malaysia Airlines has expanded its Thiruvananthapuram-Kuala Lumpur service to a daily schedule, a significant upgrade from its earlier five-day-a-week operation. The increase in operations, beginning December 2, is set to offer greater convenience to travellers from Kerala, especially those arriving in Thiruvananthapuram, due to low fares. With Kuala Lumpur serving as a major transit hub, offering extensive connectivity beyond Malaysia to destinations such as Australia and New Zealand, the airline's upgrade is expected to increase footfall at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport, operated by TRV (Kerala) International Airport Limited. Taking to X (formerly Twitter), the TRV Airport announced, "@MAS is commencing daily flights from ThiruvananthapuramAirport to Malaysia starting 2 December 2025." With this addition, the route offers 11 weekly flights from Thiruvananthapuram to Kuala Lumpur, including four AirAsia flights and seven Malaysia Airlines flights. Earlier in October, Thiruvananthapuram International Airport announced its Winter Schedule 2025, marking a significant 22 per cent increase in weekly flight operations compared to the Summer Schedule of 2025. The new schedule will be effective from October 26 this year to March 28 in 2026. According to TIAL PRO, under the new schedule, the TRV airport will handle 732 weekly Air Traffic Movements (ATMs), up from 600 in the Summer 2025 schedule. This expansion underscores the airport's growing connectivity and its increasing preference among domestic and international airlines. TIAL said that the airport will handle a total of 732 weekly ATMs, reflecting a 22 per cent increase from the Summer 2025 schedule. New destinations added include Navi Mumbai, Mangaluru, and Trichy. Enhanced domestic connectivity will cover key cities such as Kannur, Kochi, Bengaluru, Delhi, and Mumbai, while international connections will include Dammam, Riyadh, Kuwait, Kuala Lumpur, and Male. According to TIAL, international flight operations are set to grow by 9 per cent, increasing from 300 weekly ATMs to 326. Major international destinations and weekly flights include Abu Dhabi (66), Sharjah (56), Dammam (28), Kuwait (24), Male (24), Dubai (22), Muscat (22), Kuala Lumpur (22), Doha (20), Singapore (14), Bahrain (10), Colombo (08), Riyadh (06), and Hanimaadhoo (04). The domestic services will register a 35 per cent increase, rising from 300 to 406 weekly ATMs. This growth is driven by enhanced frequency to key metro and regional hubs. Major domestic destinations include Bengaluru (92), Delhi (84), Mumbai (70), Chennai (42), Hyderabad (28), Navi Mumbai (28), Kochi (26), Trichy (12), Kannur (10), Pune (08), and Mangaluru (06). "The new winter schedule reflects Thiruvananthapuram International Airport's growing importance as a preferred gateway to Kerala and beyond. With enhanced connectivity and new routes, we continue to support regional mobility and economic growth," said TRV Airport spokesperson. (ANI)
Sri Lanka accedes to the Marrakesh Treaty to increase access to books, magazines and other printed materials for persons with print disabilities

Sri Lanka on Wednesday ( 5 October 2016) became the 24th country to accede to the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled. Sri Lankas Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha, handed over the instrument of accession to the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Dr. Francis Gurry, during the ongoing 56th Series of Meetings of Assemblies of the Member States of WIPO, 3-11 October 2016 in Geneva.

More than 75 WIPO member states have signed the Treaty, which entered into force on 30 September 2016, 3 months following the ratification of the 20th country. The Marrakesh Treaty is envisaged to facilitate the availability of published works in accessible formats for the people who are blind, visually impaired, and print disabled.  such as Braille - through limitations and exceptions to the rights of copyright right holders. The Treaty is also designed to provide assurances to authors and publishers that their published works will not be misused or distribution to anyone other than the intended beneficiaries.







Earlier delivering Sri Lankas country statement at the Meeting of Assemblies on Tuesday, Ambassador Aryasinha said, enabling legislation will soon be introduced in Sri Lankas Parliament to amend the National Copyright Laws to facilitate access to published work for persons who are blind, visually impaired or print disabled. He also provided an update on Sri Lanka - WIPO cooperation in implementing a 10 Point Action Plan, which was embarked upon in November 2013 during the visit of Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Dr. Francis Gurry, to Sri Lanka.

Ambassador Aryasinha said a Steering Committee on Intellectual Property (SCIP) chaired by the Secretary of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce established last year, continued to have an exchange of views with WIPO officials in Geneva every two months through a video conference, to assess progress in the implementation of the 10 Point Action Plan.

He said, among the projects being operationalized - Sri Lanka was selected as one of the four pilot countries to participate in the CDIP Project titled Intellectual Property, Tourism and Culture, coordinated by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) and a WIPO Mission undertaken in May 2016 brought together the main stakeholders to create a National Steering Committee for the implementation of this Project. WIPO Missions had also been undertaken to Sri Lanka in June to support the creation of Intellectual Property Hubs (IP Hubs) bringing together a group of stakeholders from public and private sectors. A Mission in June also provided technical assistance in the development of a National Innovation Index. An IP Office Diagnostics Mission was undertaken in August to make an assessment of the capacity and resources of the National Intellectual Property Office (NIPO) and to enhance the IP registration system in Sri Lanka. The Government expects to complete accession to the Madrid Agreement and Protocol for the International Registration of Marks by end of 2017/early 2018 and a Madrid awareness raising session is scheduled for November 2016. An inter-Ministerial Working Group is also to be set up, supported by WIPO, in order to achieve the objectives of formulating a national policy for the protection of Traditional Knowledge, Genetic Resources, and Traditional Cultural expressions.

Director General of the National Intellectual Property Office of Sri Lanka, Mrs. Geethanjali Ranawaka, Deputy Permanent Representative Mrs. Samantha Jayasuriya, Counsellor Ms. Sashika Somaratne, and Second Secretary Ms. Dilini Gunasekera participated in this session.



Full Statement



Press Release in PDF



Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka

Geneva

5 October 2016
Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday launched a sharp political attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over its directive mandating the activation of the Sanchar Saathi app on mobile headsets, claiming that the ruling party is now extending surveillance into the private spaces of citizens. In a post shared on X, Akhilesh Yadav alleged that under BJP governance, not only has freedom of expression been curtailed, but the privacy of people's conversations inside their homes and families is also under threat. "Those whose history itself has been one of spying, how can they possibly give up espionage? In the BJP government, the freedom of expression was already being snatched away; now, even the private conversations within homes, families, relatives, friendships, and businesses will come under the vulture-like gaze of BJP members and their associates. Now that the public has decided that it doesn't want the BJP government, it simply doesn't want it. If the BJP goes, privacy can be saved," Yadav's X post read. Earlier today, Union Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia clarified that activation of the 'Sanchar Saathi' app on mobile devices is entirely voluntary. He emphasised that users can choose to use the app or delete it at any time, just like any other application. Scindia clarified that the Sanchar Saathi application is entirely voluntary for consumers, reiterating that neither installation nor activation is mandatory. Addressing reporters outside Parliament, he stressed that users retain full autonomy; those who do not wish to use the app are free not to register, and they may also delete it at any time. "If you want to activate it, do so. If you do not want to activate it, don't. Delete it if you wish. It is entirely your choice," said the minister. Scindia emphasised that misinformation should not overshadow the app's consumer-protection benefits, noting that the platform has contributed to preventing financial frauds amounting to Rs 22,800 crore in 2024. Meanwhile, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has issued directions requiring manufacturers and importers to pre-install the Sanchar Saathi app on devices sold in India to enhance consumer awareness and curb the circulation of duplicate or tampered IMEIs. Developed under the Telecom Cyber Security framework, Sanchar Saathi supports users on both Android and iOS platforms, enabling verification of device authenticity and reporting of suspected fraud, thereby strengthening India's broader telecom-cybersecurity ecosystem. (ANI)
In a breakthrough to the stalemate in Parliament over opposition's demand for discussion on Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, an all-party meeting chaired by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has decided that discussion on 150th Anniversary of 'Vande Mataram' will take place from 12 noon on Monday and discussion on election reforms from 12 noon on Tuesday. The resolution of the impasse has paved the way for the smooth functioning of the Lok Sabha from tomorrow. The House witnessed adjournments from the start of the winter session of Parliament on Monday. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju informed about the decisions taken at all-party meeting. "During the All Party Meeting Chaired by Hon'ble Speaker Lok Sabha today, it has been decided to hold discussion in Lok Sabha on 150th Anniversary of National Song 'Vande Mataram' from 12 Noon on Monday 8th Dec and discussion on Election Reforms from 12 noon on Tuesday 9th Dec," Rijiju said in a post on X. Rijiju had earlier given an indication of a solution to the impasse, saying the government is ready for discussion on electoral reforms. Sources said the BAC meeting allocated 10 hours for discussion on 150 years of Vande Mataram song. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to initiate the discussion on the 150th anniversary of the national song. They said ten hours have also been allocated to the discussion on electoral reforms. Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal is likely to reply to the debate on Wednesday. The winter session of Parliament began on Monday, and Lok Sabha witnessed three adjournments on the opposition's demand for SIR. The Opposition pressed with its demand on Tuesday also leading to adjournments. The House was first adjourned till 12 noon, then till 2 pm and later for the day. In the floor leaders' meeting, it was decided that the Lok Sabha will run smoothly from Wednesday without any disruption. In the Rajya Sabha, Opposition parties staged a walkout over their demand for immediate discussion on SIR. The monsoon session of Parliament was virtually washed out due to the opposition's demand for discussion on SIR. (ANI)
The Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, on Monday highlighted Operation Sindoor, an ongoing military operation. He highlighted the strategic role played by the Indian Navy, including the deployment of a carrier battle group in the northern Arabian Sea, which influenced Pakistan's naval movements. The Navy's deployment of a carrier battle group in the northern Arabian Sea influenced Pakistan's naval movements, keeping them close to their ports. While speaking at a press conference in Delhi, Adm. Dinesh K Tripathi said, "...It is an operation which still remains in progress, and therefore, many operational details cannot be put out in the open domain for obvious reasons... It is also in the open domain... The aggressive posturing and the immediate actions we took, including the deployment of a carrier battle group in the northern Arabian Sea, forced the Pakistan Navy to remain in its ports and airports, or close to the Makran coast, and it never ventured out. So that was the role which the Navy played, and it has also been reported that the Navy were ready to do what was demanded. We also noticed a noticeable effect on the Pakistani economy during those four to five days... " The Navy's deployment of a carrier battle group in the northern Arabian Sea influenced Pakistan's naval movements, keeping them close to their ports. The operation led to Pakistan's Navy staying close to its ports, and there were noticeable economic impacts, including shipping companies avoiding Pakistani ports and increased insurance premiums. Admiral Tripathi emphasised that while some details remain classified, the Navy's readiness and actions contributed to the outcomes. "Many major shipping companies worldwide began avoiding Pakistani ports. There was an increase in insurance premiums for ships going to Pakistan ports, which led to a reduction in the number of merchant ships willing to take the risk," he added. Admiral Tripathi's comments provide insight into the operation's objectives and outcomes, showcasing the Navy's role in India's strategic posture. Admiral Tripathi assured that the Indian Navy is maintaining the operational tempo and ensuring that maritime domain awareness is complete after Operation Sindoor. (ANI)
The Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, on Tuesday addressed concerns about Chinese research vessels in the Indian Ocean Region, emphasising the Indian Navy's vigilance, asserting that there is "no need for concern." Tripathi assured that the Indian Navy is aware of all activities, not just those involving China, and takes appropriate action as per government directions. He emphasised awareness over concern, highlighting the Navy's capabilities. Addressing the press conference in Delhi ahead of Navy Day, Admiral Tripathi said, "The planet is covered by 71% water, and in international waters beyond 200 nautical miles, anybody is free to go anywhere. The Indian Navy is aware of all activities and not just China. We take appropriate action as per the government's directions. There is no need to be concerned." Meanwhile, on Sunday, on reports claiming a delay in an Indian missile test due to the presence of a Chinese spy vessel, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh K. Tripathi said that he was not fully aware of the specifics of the matter, adding that such claims could also be "somebody's figment of imagination." "I am not fully aware of the specifics of this. This could also be somebody's figment of imagination, maybe planted. But in the past, we have noticed the appearance of survey ships and satellite-tracking ships in our area of interest, and we sometimes had to recalibrate our own activities. This is happening worldwide. This is a normal practice that happens in all parts of the world," Admiral Tripathi said. On modernisation efforts, Admiral Tripathi mentioned efforts to compress timelines for the four LPDs (Landing Platform Docks) and progress on the NUH (Naval Utility Helicopter) project, with clearance for 60 choppers through HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited). "For the 4 LPDs, we are taking steps to compress timelines and everything. One of the reforms is that we can do things in parallel. For the NUH, we have got clearance for 60 choppers through HAL," he added. Earlier today, Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi extended advance greetings for Navy Day, observed on December 4 to commemorate India's decisive 1971 strikes on Karachi. This year's Navy Day celebration will take place on December 3 at Shangumugham Beach in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, with the President of India presiding over the operational demonstration. (ANI)
BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday defended the Department of Telecommunications' (DoT) directive to pre-install the Sanchar Saathi App on mobile handsets, likening it to a 'suraksha kawach' (protection shield). He criticised the opposition for creating baseless controversy, alleging they were trying to undermine a beneficial initiative. "Every mobile has many apps, but what problem do you have if there is one app which works as a 'suraksha kawach'? ...A baseless controversy is being created on this," said the BJP MP. Prasad linked the opposition's stance to their recent defeat in Bihar, claiming voters hadn't complained about electoral issues. He also targeted the Congress party, suggesting they'd struggle to win elections with such opposition. "They (Opposition) had raised the issue of SIR even in the last session of Parliament. They faced defeat in Bihar. Not one person among crores of voters complained that they were not allowed to vote...Congress party will never win like this...," he added. Meanwhile, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has issued directions requiring manufacturers and importers to pre-install the Sanchar Saathi app on devices sold in India to enhance consumer awareness and curb the circulation of duplicate or tampered IMEIs. For devices already manufactured and available in sales channels, manufacturers and importers have been asked to push the application via software updates. According to the ministry, the directions issued on November 28 aim to safeguard citizens from purchasing non-genuine mobile devices, enable easy reporting of suspected misuse of telecom resources, and enhance the overall effectiveness of the Sanchar Saathi initiative. The Telecommunication Cyber Security (TCS) Rules empower the Central Government to issue directions to manufacturers of telecommunication equipment bearing International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers to provide assistance as required in relation to tampered telecommunication equipment or IMEI numbers. India has a large second-hand mobile device market, where cases have been observed of stolen or blacklisted devices being resold, potentially making the purchaser an abettor in crime and causing financial loss. (ANI)
Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi on Tuesday extended advance greetings for Navy Day, observed on December 4 to commemorate India's decisive 1971 strikes on Karachi. This year's Navy Day celebration will be held at Shangumugham Beach in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, with the President, the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, as the chief guest. The event will feature an operational demonstration, showcasing the Navy's capabilities. Addressing the press conference in Delhi ahead of Navy Day, Admiral Tripathi said, "Although the Navy Day is on the 4th of December, I take this opportunity to wish all of us who are present here, as also to our countrymen, a very happy Navy Day in advance... We celebrate Navy Day on the 4th of December to commemorate our audacious and decisive strikes on Karachi on the 4th of December, 1971, which caused massive destruction and shattered the enemy's morale and will to fight... It changed the course of the war of 1971," he said. "This year's Navy Day celebration will be held at Shangumugham Beach in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, tomorrow, 3rd December. The President, the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, will grace the occasion as the chief guest and witness the operational demonstration being conducted by us. We truly acknowledge the support of the government of Kerala and the local administration in Trivandrum during our planning and during the execution of the operation demonstration tomorrow," he added. The Navy Chief said India today stands at a "defining moment" in its journey toward becoming a Viksit Bharat, as the oceans continue to shape the nation's economic and security trajectory. "We as a country stand at a defining moment in our national journey towards becoming a 'Viksit Bharat'... Our economy is advancing steadily and confidently, and it is clear that the seas or oceans, which are our highways for trade connectivity and energy security, will continue to shape the trajectory of this growth," Admiral Tripathi said. "As the prime manifestation of India's maritime power, the Indian Navy... remains steadfast in promoting and protecting our national maritime interests. We remain committed to ensuring every sea lane critical to our national prosperity remains safe and secure at all times," he added. Admiral Tripathi emphasised the theme for this year's Navy Day, "Combat-ready, cohesive, Atmanirbhar Navy safeguarding national maritime interests anytime, anywhere, anyhow." Furthermore, the Chief of Naval Staff emphasised that the Indian Navy remains fully aware of all activities in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), asserting that there is "no need for concern" regarding the presence of Chinese research vessels or any foreign movement beyond India's maritime boundaries. "The planet is covered by 71% water, and in international waters beyond 200 nautical miles, anybody is free to go anywhere. The Indian Navy is aware of all activities and not just China. We take appropriate action as per the government's directions. There is no need to be concerned," he said. On modernisation efforts, Admiral Tripathi said steps are underway to shorten timelines for the four Landing Platform Docks (LPDs). "One of the reforms is that we can do things in parallel," he said. He also confirmed that the Navy has received clearance for 60 Naval Utility Helicopters (NUH) to be built by HAL. Moreover, Admiral Tripathi underscored the growing jointness among India's armed forces, recalling the strong tri-service coordination demonstrated during Operation Sindoor and Exercise Trishul. "In terms of operations, the synergy demonstrated between the 3 services during Operation Sindoor is very heartening. From the tactical to the operational level and beyond, we are all on the same page. That speaks very highly of the leadership," he said. He added that Exercise Trishul, conducted in early November off the Gujarat coast with the Navy as the lead service, showcased joint-effect operations across land and sea in a multi-domain environment. "We also conducted the Tri-Services Exercise Trishul, which some of you covered in early November of the Post of Gujarat with the Navy as the lead service... We conducted joint-effect-based operations on land and at sea in a multi-domain environment," Admiral Tripathi said. He said the armed forces are steadily advancing toward theaterization, aiming for unified planning, a common operational picture, integrated operations, and deeper cooperation on logistics, maintenance, and doctrinal development. "As we move towards theaterization, we aim to have unified planning, a common operational picture, and integrated operations... We have also moved forward with spares for joint doctrines, joint logistic notes, integrated maintenance working groups on various systems and equipment, and joint services study groups to address the issues faced by services," Admiral Tripathi said. (ANI)
After the second day of the Winter Session of Parliament, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi accused the government of avoiding critical debates, alleging that issues of national concern, particularly the stress-induced deaths of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and the ongoing SIR process, are being deliberately sidelined. Speaking outside the Parliament, Chaturvedi said to ANI, "Parliament session is done as per the timeline. You filled all your business in that timeline. We are saying that a certain agenda is important, the manner in which the SIR is ongoing, and BLOs are being given such heavy targets that they are dying from stress. That should be a matter of discussion." Accusing the government of deliberately avoiding scrutiny, she added, "They don't want to do this because 'chor ki daadhi mein tinka hain'. If it is discussed, all their lies will be exposed. So, we walked out as they are running away from the discussion." The Shiv Sena (UBT) MP also strongly criticised the government's directive mandating the Sanchar Saathi app, calling the official clarification "absolutely wrong". Earlier today, Jyotiraditya Scindia had asserted that activating the Sanchar Saathi app on mobile handsets is not mandatory, and it is entirely up to consumers to use it or delete it like any other app. On this clarification, Chaturvedi said, "The clarification is absolutely wrong. They are saying that its function should not be restricted, and it should not be disabled "If what the Minister is saying is true, then the notification should be withdrawn, and a fresh notification should be issued, and an apology must be offered to the country," she added. Earlier today, Chaturvedi shared a copy of the directive by the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) and wrote on X, "I will request the Telecom Minister of India to read the notification before calling it an 'unnecessary controversy'. Read page 2, point 7 B. It is clearly written in it that the app's functionality is neither disabled nor restricted." Earlier today, addressing reporters outside Parliament, Scindia stressed that users retain full autonomy; those who do not wish to use the app are free not to register, and they may also delete it at any time. "If you want to activate it, do so. If you do not want to activate it, don't. Delete it if you wish. It is entirely your choice," said the minister. Scindia emphasised that misinformation should not overshadow the app's consumer-protection benefits, noting that the platform has contributed to preventing financial frauds amounting to Rs 22,800 crore in 2024. "Opposition doesn't have any agenda (mudda), and they want to find out agenda (mudda). We can't help the Opposition," Scindia said. Rejecting allegations of surveillance, Scindia stated unequivocally that the app contains no provisions for snooping or call monitoring. The Opposition's staunch attack came after the DoT instructed manufacturers and importers to pre-install the app in the mobile handsets and ensure the app is visible and accessible, and functionalities are not disabled or restricted. For devices already on the market, companies have been asked to push the app via software updates. According to the Ministry of Telecommunication, the directions issued on November 28 aim to safeguard citizens from purchasing non-genuine handsets, enable easy reporting of suspected telecom misuse, and improve the effectiveness of the Sanchar Saathi initiative. (ANI)
Delhi's Patiala House court on Tuesday granted bail to 8 accused in the Parliament Street Protest case. A total of 17 accused were arrested by the police in a case lodged at Parliament Street Police Station. The court has already granted bail to 9 accused persons. They are accused of raising slogans and scuffling with the police. Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Sahil Monga allowed the bail pleas of 8 accused, subject to furnishing a bail bond of Rs 20,000. Counsel for the accused persons argued that there are allegations of raising slogans. They are students. Delhi police opposed the bail application and said that there are serious allegations against the accused persons. It was stated while seeking remand that the source of funding is to be verified as the accused are travelling, organising a conference, and they are using expensive mobile phones. It was also submitted that custody is required for the recovery of pepper spray and identification of the other accused. During the bail hearing, advocate Ahmad Ibrahim, counsel for Gurkirat, had argued that she was not involved in the protest or scuffle. She went to the police station after knowing that her sister Ravjot was detained by the police. She is not seen in the video. The counsel for the accused had opposed the custodial remand application. It was submitted that it is an admitted case of a scuffle between students and police at the Police Station. In this case, no police custody is required. No chilli spray was used at the protest site. The counsel had also argued that the video the police are relying upon is related to the incident of Kartavya Path for which an FIR is already registered. (ANI)
Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind president Maulana Mahmood Madani said on Tuesday that the organisation had debated Vande Mataram extensively in 2011 and noted that forceful implementation is not the idea of India. Madani also said that his organisation is mulling legal options to challenge the recital of Vande Mataram. "On Vande Mataram, our organisation debated a lot in 2011 and earlier as well. Now they are saying that Vande Mataram will be compulsory... Forceful implementation is not the idea of India... We will challenge it legally if necessary. First, we will talk about it and try to bring the civil society together," Madani told ANI. A day after controversy erupted over Madani's remarks over the meaning of "jihad," the Jamiat President, in an exclusive interview with ANI, clarified on his remarks and claimed that it is actually the Centre and state ministries which have put a negative association on the word, whereas its history is actually "pious" and the term is actually to fight against terrorists. Saying that the term "jihad" is being used in a planned manner, he alleged that various terms, like "Love jihad, land Jihad, 'thook' jihad, and vote jihad," are being coined to abuse Muslims in the country. "The entire ministry, be it centre, or be it state, have decided that if anything negative related to Muslims comes to light, it will be called Jihad. Jihad is a pious word. We are fighting for the real meaning of jihad. The term jihad is being used to abuse Islam in a very planned manner," the Jamiat president said. The Jamiat President, while speaking earlier during the National Governing Body meeting in Bhopal, questioned the independence of the judiciary, citing cases like Babri Masjid and triple talaq. He stated that the Supreme Court should be considered "supreme" only if it upholds the Constitution and the law. Regarding the term "jihad, he said that "Enemies of Islam and Muslims have made 'jihad' a synonym of abuse, conflict and violence. Terms like Love jihad, Land jihad, 'Taleem' Jihad, 'Thook' Jihad are used to insult the faith of Muslims. Unfortunately, responsible people in government and media feel no shame in using such terms." The comments received strong backlash from various people, including Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, and also members of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, among others. Meanwhile, in a breakthrough to the stalemate in Parliament over opposition's demand for discussion on Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, an all-party meeting chaired by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has decided that discussion on 150th Anniversary of 'Vande Mataram' will take place from 12 noon on Monday and discussion on election reforms from 12 noon on Tuesday. The resolution of the impasse has paved the way for the smooth functioning of the Lok Sabha from tomorrow. The House witnessed adjournments from the start of the winter session of Parliament on Monday. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju informed about the decisions taken at all-party meeting. "During the All Party Meeting Chaired by Hon'ble Speaker Lok Sabha today, it has been decided to hold discussion in Lok Sabha on 150th Anniversary of National Song 'Vande Mataram' from 12 Noon on Monday 8th Dec and discussion on Election Reforms from 12 noon on Tuesday 9th Dec," Rijiju said in a post on X. (ANI)
Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma on Tuesday met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders during his visit to Delhi. Speaking on his meeting with PM Modi, he wrote on X, "Today, in New Delhi, I met the world's most popular leader, the symbol of the Nation First resolve, the accomplished Prime Minister @narendramodi ji and received his guidance." He assured continued efforts towards development in the state, underlining that the government has completed two successful years in Rajasthan. "Under the leadership of the Prime Minister, the BJP's double-engine government in Rajasthan has completed two successful years of public welfare and good governance. On this occasion, I also requested him to visit Rajasthan...The state will continue to move forward steadfastly on his footsteps and actively contribute to the construction of a 'Developed India'," he added. Meanwhile, he also met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and provided information on the innovations being made in the direction of development and good governance in Rajasthan on the completion of 2 years of the double-engine government, public welfare schemes, and the works being done in the field of cooperation. While meeting the Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairy, Lalan Singh, two leaders discussed the progress on central schemes and the growth of Panchayati Raj institutions. He also expressed gratitude to Singh for his support in establishing Atal Gyan Kendras in the state. "I expressed gratitude to the Minister ji for his support in establishing Atal Gyan Kendras in the state. On this occasion, we had a special deliberation on strengthening local self-governance, the progress of central schemes, and accelerating the development journey of Panchayati Raj institutions," he wrote on X. Rajasthan CM Bhajanlal Sharma extended warm birthday wishes to the BJP National President JP Nadda and indulged in a detailed discussion on the modern reforms being undertaken by the state government in the health sector, the empowerment of medical services, and the progress of various public welfare schemes with him during his Delhi visit. "We are continuously striving to provide the best health facilities to the citizens of Rajasthan," he wrote on X. (ANI)
Sri Lanka nominated as coordinator of the Asian Group during the 2012 WIPO General Assembly



The Sri Lankan delegation, headed by Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha, participated in the 50th series of meetings of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Member States held 1-9 October 2012 at the WIPO in Geneva, with the participation of more than 180 countries. The comprehensive agenda and meeting schedule was accompanied by informal meetings that took place on the sidelines of the Assemblies. Sri Lanka was nominated as Asian Group Coordinator of the WIPO, at the commencement of the Assemblies. The Asian Group nomination comes at a significant moment with Sri Lanka playing a more visible role in the multilateral sphere after the ending of its 30 year long terrorist conflict.





Taking the floor on the opening day of the Assemblies, Ambassador Arysinha observed that with the conflict behind it, Sri Lanka had embarked on a new era of development where creativity and innovation would take the forefront. He said the country had readily understood the important role of intellectual property in this equation. Making special mention of how IP can better the socio-economic standing of developing countries, he noted the national initiatives undertaken to promote IP knowledge in the country, joint assistance projects undertaken with WIPO and developments on geographical indicators that assisted in providing Sri Lanka with a competitive edge. Ambassador Aryasinha further emphasized the need of a development perspective to Intellectual Property in order to assist developing countries to meet greater goals.



Mrs Sheitha Senarathna, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Industry and Commerce, made interventions under a number of agenda items including on traditional knowledge, genetic resources and cultural expressions, to express Sri Lankas continued commitment toward those deliberations and its hope for further progress. Mrs. Natasha Gooneratne who coordinates WIPO related activity on behalf of the Sri Lanka Mission in Geneva was associated in the session.



Earlier in a separate meeting with the Director General of WIPO, Dr Francis Gurry, Ambassador Aryasinha recalled the strong history between Sri Lanka and WIPO, with the late Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar being one of the pioneering figures from the region in the organization. Ambassador Aryasinha had affirmed Sri Lanka's deep commitment to the UN multilateral system, and expressed his intention to ensure that Sri Lanka plays its full role in the multi-faceted dialogue in the numerous fields headquartered in Geneva, including in the intellectual property sphere.



Read Full Statement by HE the Ambassador/PRUN, Geneva



Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka

Geneva



10 October 2012
They urged urgent Central assistance to support relief and restoration efforts after the cyclone battered large parts of coastal Andhra Pradesh in late October.

Lokesh briefed Shah on the state's relief efforts, including evacuating 1.92 lakh people to 2,471 relief camps and providing essential supplies. The state government took urgent measures to restore infrastructure and address disruptions.

He said that essential supplies, including food, drinking water, milk and other necessities, were provided, and each affected family received an immediate assistance amount of Rs 3,000. An emergency relief fund of Rs 60 crores was also released to kick-start restoration.

According to the detailed sector-wise assessment, the highest losses were reported in roads and infrastructure (Rs 4,324 crore), followed by permanent structures (Rs 1,302 crores) and agriculture and allied sectors (Rs 271 crore).

Damage to the power sector was pegged at Rs 41 crores, to water resources and irrigation projects at Rs 369 crores, to housing at Rs 7 crores, and to public assets at Rs 48 crores. Of the overall loss, around Rs 902 crore qualifies for immediate relief and temporary restoration under National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) norms.

Lokesh noted that a Central Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMCT) had already conducted a field inspection on November 12, following the state's preliminary submissions. The Andhra Pradesh delegation included several Members of Parliament, who urged the Centre to expedite support for rebuilding efforts in the cyclone-hit districts.

The ministers emphasised that while swift state action helped contain the impact, sustained assistance from the Centre is essential for comprehensive recovery and rehabilitation across the affected regions. (ANI)
In a rare and challenging medical case, doctors at a hospital in the national capital successfully performed a complex life-saving surgery on a 48-year-old man from Kyrgyzstan. The patient presented at the hospital with a 4.5 kg foul-smelling cancerous tumour (extra-skeletal osteosarcoma) measuring 19x18 cm, hanging from the right side of his face. The growth was so large that he had to physically support it with his hands and was forced to travel in isolation during air travel due to the intense foul smell. After being refused treatment at several hospitals across Delhi/NCR, the patient arrived at a hospital in Delhi. On arrival, he underwent a comprehensive diagnostic check-up, including a full-body PET-CT scan and an MRI scan of the face and neck, along with routine investigations. The imaging and tests revealed that the tumour had rapidly expanded, engulfing his cheek, jaw and neck, causing severe facial disfigurement. Doctors warned that if left untreated, the tumour could have ruptured, causing massive bleeding leading to death within days. The team of doctors led by Dr Archit Pandit, Director & HOD, Surgical Oncology, Fortis Escorts Okhla, along with Dr Vineet Goel, Consultant, Surgical Oncology at Fortis Escorts Okhla, and Dr Kushal Bairoliya, Consultant, GI Surgical Oncology, Fortis Escorts Okhla, successfully treated the patient, who was discharged within 6 days of the surgery. Evaluating the condition of the patient, the team of doctors surgically removed the cancerous tumour, including the nearby skin, salivary gland, facial muscles and lymph nodes. This was followed by reconstruction of the hemi-face (half face) using a skin and muscle flap from the back to cover the wound. Additionally, there was a high risk of heavy bleeding because the mass was close to major blood vessels supplying blood to the brain, face and neck. Despite the multifold risk factors, the surgery, which lasted for 10 long hours, was successful, and the patient gradually recovered. Giving details of the case, Dr Archit Pandit, Director & HOD, Surgical Oncology, Fortis Escorts, Okhla, New Delhi, said, "Extra-skeletal osteosarcoma is an extremely rare cancer that grows on soft tissues. There have been fewer than 100 such cases that have been reported worldwide, and its presence in the face and its occurrence in the face and neck area are even rarer. This is one of the largest head and neck soft tissue sarcomas excised to date. This was one of the most critical and challenging surgeries we have performed to date. The tumour was extremely large, highly infected and dangerously close to major blood vessels. If not treated on time, it could have led to a life-threatening situation, but our entire team worked with calm coordination and precision for 10 hours straight. We are glad that we could save the patient's life and help him begin a healthier chapter." (ANI)
Varanasi, the city of knowledge, spirituality, and cultural unity, once again witnessed a historic occasion when Kashi Tamil Sangamam 4.0 was inaugurated with great enthusiasm and traditional Vedic rituals. Delegates participated in this event, which aims to integrate the cultural heritage of North and South India. Following the inauguration ceremony, the Tamil delegates were taken on a Ganga cruise to introduce them to the spiritual and cultural heritage of Varanasi. All the guests were mesmerised by the grandeur of Kashi's ancient ghats as they floated on the calm waters of the Ganga. Standing on the boat deck, the delegates captured the beautiful scenery from Assi Ghat to Panchganga Ghat on their cameras. The breathtaking view of lamps burning on the banks of the Ganga in the evening, the continuous worship rituals on the ghats, and the fragrance wafting in the air all provided a divine experience for the travellers. After the cruise, everyone witnessed the grand Ganga Aarti at the world-famous Dashashwamedh Ghat. The chanting of mantras, the sound of bells and gongs, and the collective dance movements of priests holding lamps filled the atmosphere with spiritual consciousness. The Tamil delegates were seen overwhelmed during the Ganga Aarti. Many guests said they would never forget this divine moment. Students from Tamil Nadu openly praised the culture of Kashi and the affection shown by its people. One student said, "We have received amazing love in Kashi. The simplicity and spirituality of the people here have deeply impressed us. We thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his efforts that allowed us to undertake such a historic journey." The students particularly praised the Kashi Vishwanath Dham Corridor, expressing their pride and awe at the new look of the temple complex. The students also expressed their eagerness to visit the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple in Ayodhya. According to them, the experience of visiting these important pilgrimage sites in North India will broaden their cultural understanding. Furthermore, participants expressed that they will participate in the academic programme to be held tomorrow. They hope to learn a great deal by attending important sessions on history, art, language, and literature. Students say that this confluence is not only a medium for cultural dialogue but also a unique initiative to promote educational exchange. Kashi Tamil Sangamam 4.0 realises the Prime Minister's vision of bringing India's diverse cultural regions closer together. This programme conveys the message that while India's various languages, cultures, and communities may be separated by geography, their emotions and heritage are deeply intertwined. (ANI)
The Indian Navy has released an updated edition of the Indian Maritime Doctrine 2025, amid the evolving maritime security challenges, according to the Spokesperson of the Indian Navy. Taking it to X, the spokesperson of the Indian Navy said, "The #IndianNavy releases an updated edition of the Indian Maritime Doctrine - 2025, amidst evolving #maritimesecurity challenges." They further noted that the doctrine reflects the nation's vision of harnessing the ocean to achieve 'Viksit Bharat 2047' and emphasised adopting emerging technologies, among other initiatives. "The doctrine reflects India's vision of harnessing the oceans for #ViksitBharat2047, recognises multi-domain and grey-zone threats, formalises the No-War-No-Peace spectrum, and emphasises adoption of emerging technologies and jointness to strengthen India's role and influence across the region," the Spokesperson of the Indian Navy wrote on X. Meanwhile, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi on Tuesday extended advance greetings for Navy Day, observed on December 4 to commemorate India's decisive 1971 strikes on Karachi. This year's Navy Day celebration will be held at Shangumugham Beach in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, with the President, the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, as the chief guest. The event will feature an operational demonstration, showcasing the Navy's capabilities. Addressing the press conference in Delhi ahead of Navy Day, Admiral Tripathi said, "Although the Navy Day is on the 4th of December, I take this opportunity to wish all of us who are present here, as also to our countrymen, a very happy Navy Day in advance... We celebrate Navy Day on the 4th of December to commemorate our audacious and decisive strikes on Karachi on the 4th of December, 1971, which caused massive destruction and shattered the enemy's morale and will to fight... It changed the course of the war of 1971," he said. "This year's Navy Day celebration will be held at Shangumugham Beach in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, tomorrow, 3rd December. The President, the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, will grace the occasion as the chief guest and witness the operational demonstration being conducted by us. We truly acknowledge the support of the government of Kerala and the local administration in Trivandrum during our planning and during the execution of the operation demonstration tomorrow," he added. (ANI)
Union Minister L Murugan on Tuesday attended the 'Kashi Tamil Sangamam 4.0' in Varanasi, along with Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and UP CM Yogi Adityanath. Speaking to the media, L Murugan stated that the theme of 'Kashi Tamil Sangamam 4.0 is 'Let Us Learn Tamil - Tamil Karkalam'. As a part of the event, the Tamil Nadu teachers reached there to teach Tamil in various schools. "This year, the theme is 'Let Us Learn Tamil - Tamil Karkalam'. Tamil Nadu teachers have come here and will teach Tamil in various schools here. Students from here are also going to Tamil Nadu and will learn Tamil there. This is a huge cultural exchange... This is another milestone in 'Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat'," he said. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended warm wishes for the programme, underlining the spirit of the event 'Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat'. Taking to his X, PM Modi said, "As the Kashi Tamil Sangamam begins today, I convey my best wishes for this vibrant programme which deepens the spirit of 'Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat.' I wish everyone coming for the Sangamam a pleasant and memorable stay in Kashi!" Earlier, PM Modi, in his Mann Ki Baat address, reflected on the extraordinary confluence of the world's oldest language and one of the world's oldest living cities - the spirit of Kashi Tamil Sangamam. He highlighted the upcoming Kashi Tamil Sangamam beginning on December 02, 2025, at Namo Ghat and Banaras Hindu University, shaped by the inspiring theme "Learn Tamil - Tamil Karkalam." A reminder of how KTS has become a cherished platform for celebrating language, heritage, and unity, as Kashi prepares to welcome Tamil Nadu with warmth and pride. Reinforcing the spirit of Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat, the Prime Minister urged people to become part of the Kashi-Tamil Sangamam and to think about creating more such platforms that strengthen national unity and cultural diversity. Referring to the greatness of Tamil culture and language. (ANI)
The Delhi Government Cabinet has approved a proposal to procure 10,000 dual desks from the Tihar Central Jail Factory to address the shortage of furniture in the capital's government schools. The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta. Chief Minister Rekha Gupta stated that this move will not only improve the learning environment in schools but also create employment and rehabilitation opportunities for inmates lodged in the prison. Sharing details of the Cabinet decision, the Chief Minister said that this procurement aligns with the instructions issued by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs during the third National Chief Secretaries' Conference, which emphasised the rehabilitation of inmates and their engagement in productive activities. She added that all dual desks will be supplied at the proposed rates, inclusive of GST. The total estimated cost for 10,000 desks has been fixed at Rs. 8 crores 95 lakh 40 thousand, which includes transportation and other ancillary expenses. The Education Department has already earmarked Rs. 20 crores in the 2025-26 budget for the purchase of furniture and other essential items. The Chief Minister further clarified that this initiative fulfils the objective of rehabilitation, reform, and reintegration of inmates into society. The quality of desks manufactured by Tihar Jail is comparable to the furniture used by the Public Works Department (PWD) and is estimated to be approximately 25 per cent more economical than market prices. According to CM Rekha Gupta, this decision will enhance educational facilities for students while simultaneously providing a robust avenue for skill development and employment for inmates. The initiative is expected to strengthen both the education system and social reform efforts. According to Education Minister Ashish Sood, the Delhi Government currently operates a total of 1,086 government schools across the capital. In recent years, student enrolment has risen steadily, along with the construction of new classrooms. This has resulted in a shortage of dual desks. To determine the actual requirement, a special survey campaign was conducted in April, during which reports were collected from school principals, district deputy directors, and regional directors. Following this exercise, a requirement for 23,321 dual desks was identified across 127 schools. In addition, further requests were received from other schools, bringing the total demand to nearly 25,000 desks. To meet this requirement in phases, it has been decided to procure 10,000 desks in the first phase. The process of procuring desks will continue. (ANI)
The Centre's move to mandate the pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app on all mobile phones triggered a major political row on Tuesday, with Opposition leaders alleging a threat to privacy, while the government clarified that using or activating the app remains completely voluntary. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has mandated certain norms for manufacturers and importers of mobile handsets intended for use in India. They have been asked to ensure that the Sanchar Saathi mobile application is pre-installed on all mobile handsets manufactured or imported for use in India. The mobile handsets must have the pre-installed Sanchar Saathi application readily visible and accessible to end users at the time of first use or device setup, and its functionalities must not be disabled or restricted, the Ministry of Communications said in a statement Monday evening. For all such devices that have already been manufactured and are in sales channels in India, the manufacturer and importers of mobile handsets shall endeavour to push the App through software updates. Directions mandate completing the implementation within 90 days and submitting the report within 120 days. The oppositon leaders sharply criticised the government's directive on mandatory pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app on all mobile phones, alleging it amounts to mass surveillance and an intrusion into citizens' privacy. Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi said there is a fine line between reporting fraud and violating individuals' privacy, with the recent order doing the latter, after the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) issued an order mandating the pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi on all mobiles. "It's not just one thing. It is not just snooping on telephones. It is overall, they are turning this country into a dictatorship. You ask me everyday why Parliament is not functioning, it is because they are refusing to talk about anything. It is very easy to blame Opposition, but the fact is they are not allowing discussion on anything," Gandhi told reporters outside Parliament premises. Congress MP KC Venugopal also criticised the government's directive, calling it "an attack on privacy." Speaking to ANI, Venugopal said, "It is an attack on privacy. This is what it seems to be. In the name of helping, the BJP is trying to attack the privacy of the common people. We had an experience with Pegasus here in India. The government is trying to put surveillance on all the people of the country through this app." Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said, "Common sense tells me that these apps can be useful provided they are voluntary. Everyone who needs them should be able to download them. Making anything compulsory in a democracy is troubling. I need to look more into the logic of the government. The government should explain everything to the public instead of just passing an order via media reports. We need to have a discussion where the government reports the idea behind the decision..." Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Akhilesh Yadav launched a sharp political attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over Sanchar Saathi app, claiming that the ruling party is now extending surveillance into the private spaces of citizens. In a post shared on X, Yadav alleged that under BJP governance, not only has freedom of expression been curtailed, but the privacy of people's conversations inside their homes and families is also under threat. "Those whose history itself has been one of spying, how can they possibly give up espionage? In the BJP government, the freedom of expression was already being snatched away; now, even the private conversations within homes, families, relatives, friendships, and businesses will come under the vulture-like gaze of BJP members and their associates. Now that the public has decided that it doesn't want the BJP government, it simply doesn't want it. If the BJP goes, privacy can be saved," Yadav's X post read. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convener Arvind Kejriwal strongly criticised the Sanchar Saarthi app, calling it a "brazen attack on individual privacy and liberty." In a post on X, Kejriwal alleged that the notification neither seeks user consent nor provides the option to uninstall the app, describing it as a "gross dictatorial action" and demanding its immediate "The Modi government's diktat to all mobile manufacturers to install the Sanchar Saarthi app on all new and existing phones is a brazen attack on individual privacy and liberty. No democracy in the world has ever attempted to do so. The notification issued by the government has no mention of seeking individual consent to install the app or providing the option to delete it at any time. @AamAadmiParty condemns such gross dictatorial actions and demands immediate withdrawal of the notification," Kejriwal wrote on X. Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi strongly criticised the government's directive mandating the Sanchar Saathi app, calling the official clarification "absolutely wrong". "The clarification is absolutely wrong...They are saying that its function should not be restricted and it should not be disabled...If what the Minister is saying is true, then the notification should be withdrawn and a fresh notification should be issued and apology must be offered to the country," Chaturvedi said. Meanwhile, Union Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia asserted that activation of 'Sanchar Saathi' app on mobile handsets is not mandatory, and it is fully up to the consumers to use it or delete it like any other app. Scindia clarified that the Sanchar Saathi application is entirely voluntary for consumers, reiterating that neither installation nor activation is mandatory. Addressing reporters outside Parliament, he stressed that users retain full autonomy; those who do not wish to use the app are free not to register, and they may also delete it at any time."If you want to activate it, do so. If you do not want to activate it, don't. Delete it if you wish. It is entirely your choice," said the minister. Scindia emphasised that misinformation should not overshadow the app's consumer-protection benefits, noting that the platform has contributed to preventing financial frauds amounting to Rs 22,800 crore in 2024."Opposition doesn't have any agenda (mudda), and they want to find out agenda (mudda). We can't help the Opposition," Scindia said. The opposition's criticism of the initiative is misplaced. He underscored that Sanchar Saathi is designed as a participatory, citizen-centric tool enabling individuals to secure their own mobile identities. Through the app and the associated online portal, users can verify whether a device's IMEI number is genuine, report misuse of telecom services, and check active mobile connections registered in their name. Scindia highlighted the initiative's operational impact. To date, the Sanchar Saathi portal has recorded 20 crore downloads, while the mobile app itself has been downloaded over 1.5 crore times. He reported that 2.25 crore mobile connections linked to suspicious or fraudulent activities have been deactivated. Additionally, the system has helped trace nearly 20 lakh stolen devices, with 7.5 lakh of those phones successfully returned to their rightful owners. "Our responsibility is to help consumers and maintain their safety. What is Sanchar Saathi? Sanchar Saathi is an app and a portal through which consumer themselves are able to secure them." the minister added. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra also addressed concerns about the Sanchar Saathi app, clarifying its purpose and functionality. He emphasised that the app is designed to enhance user security, prevent fraud, and track stolen mobile phones. Addressing a press conference in the national capital, Sambit Patra said, "Those who are champions of misinformation will never understand what Sanchar Saathi is...Does the Govt want to snoop on you through Sanchar Saathi? No. Govt wants to do no snooping."Patra explained that Sanchar Saathi allows users to report suspicious calls, fraudulent activities, and malicious links, empowering them to protect themselves. The app utilises IMEI tracking to combat phone duplication and aid in recovering stolen devices." "Sanchar Saathi app cannot read your messages, it cannot listen to your calls, and it cannot breach your personal data. Its job is to provide security for users, stop fraud, track stolen mobile phones, and return them to their rightful owners. Sanchar Saathi is like a mobile phone reporter...It reports suspicious calls and fraudulent calls. You can report spam on Sanchar Saathi. You can report malicious links on Sanchar Saathi and protect you...," he added. Patra also highlighted the app's role in identifying and preventing misuse, such as detecting multiple phones registered under a single user's name. "IMEI on mobile phones are being duplicated these days. Through Sanchar Saathi, this duplication can be stopped. If someone has duplicated it, it can be followed, and your mobile phone can be brought back to you...Several people use mobile phones under different names and they use them for fraud...Sanchar Saathi will know at once how many mobile phones are used under one user's name. It is essential these days...," he added. However, Apple does not plan to comply with the mandate to preload mobile handsets with the 'Sanchar Saathi' app and will convey its concerns before the Indian government, Reuters reported, citing three unnamed sources. (ANI)
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to consider whether it is required to defer the exercise of filling and submission of enumeration forms, as part of the Election Commission's ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Kerala. A bench led by CJI Surya Kant issued the order on certain pleas filed by political parties in Kerala that have challenged the SIR process, alleging that it is causing an impediment to ongoing local body elections in the state. Petitioners may hand over their grievances to the Election Commission by tomorrow, following which ECI may take a decision and submit it before the Court, the apex court noted. The bench said it will consider the issue both "objectively and sympathetically" if it turns out that intervention is required. During the hearing, the Court noted that the writ petitions were filed by certain political parties seeking a direction to the ECI to defer the submission of enumeration forms until the completion of the local body elections. Senior Advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the petitioners, submitted that the local body elections would conclude on December 13, or soon thereafter, upon completion of counting. He argued that many political workers, local employees, and residents are fully engaged in the election process, and therefore, it would be preferable if the enumeration exercise is deferred by at least one week. Senior Advocates Rakesh Dwivedi and Maninder Singh, appearing for the ECI, argued that the SIR exercise does not impede the ongoing elections. They pointed out that the Kerala State Election Commission itself has placed around 25,000 persons at the disposal of the ECI for the SIR enumeration exercise. Eighty per cent of the enumeration forms have already been submitted, Dwivedi added. The State Election Commission (SEC) is conducting the local body elections without any shortage of staff, the senior lawyer stated. After considering all submissions, the apex court noted that it is not disposing of the matter and keeping it open. (ANI)
He compared the move to North Korea's surveillance practices, citing Kim Jong Un's regime.

Akhilesh Yadav told reporters, "What does the govt want to search in everyone's phones? Is the government following the path of North Korea's Kim Jong Un?"

Meanwhile, BJP National Spokesperson Sambit Patra told reporters here that the app's job is to provide security for users.

"Sanchar Saathi app cannot read your messages, it cannot listen to your calls, and it cannot breach your personal data. Its job is to provide security for users, stop fraud, track stolen mobile phones, and return them to their rightful owners. Sanchar Saathi is like a mobile phone reporter...It reports suspicious calls and fraudulent calls. You can report spam on Sanchar Saathi. You can report malicious links on Sanchar Saathi and protect you...," he said.

Meanwhile, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has issued directions requiring manufacturers and importers to pre-install the Sanchar Saathi app on devices sold in India to enhance consumer awareness and curb the circulation of duplicate or tampered IMEIs.

For devices already manufactured and available in sales channels, manufacturers and importers have been asked to push the application via software updates.

According to the ministry, the directions issued on November 28 aim to safeguard citizens from purchasing non-genuine mobile devices, enable easy reporting of suspected misuse of telecom resources, and enhance the overall effectiveness of the Sanchar Saathi initiative.

The Telecommunication Cyber Security (TCS) Rules empower the Central Government to issue directions to manufacturers of telecommunication equipment bearing International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers to provide assistance as required in relation to tampered telecommunication equipment or IMEI numbers.

India has a large second-hand mobile device market, where cases have been observed of stolen or blacklisted devices being resold, potentially making the purchaser an abettor in crime and causing financial loss. (ANI)
Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien has said that the opposition parties accepted government's proposal for discussion on electoral reforms in the spirit of parliamentary democracy and made a tactical change in their stance. He said opposition parties will corner the government during discussions on the 150 years of Vande Mataram and election reforms. The opposition parties had been insisting on discussion on Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, which is being carried out by Election Commission. "A responsible Opposition has done all it takes to get Parliament to function. We have been gracious and accommodating, even though we are up against a government who mock Parliament. Yes, a discussion on SIR was, and is, a top priority (people are dying). However, in the spirit of parliamentary democracy, we accepted the government's proposal about timing and made a tactical change. We will corner the government in both debates. Bring it on," Derek O'Brien said in a post on X. Earlier in the day, opposition parties staged a walk out in Rajya Sabha over their demand for immediate discussion on electoral reforms. They demanded discussion under Rule 267. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju had said that the government has accepted demand for discussion on election reforms but the opposition parties should not insist on timelines. "Government is ready for discussion on electoral reforms, Opposition should not insist on a timeline." Rijiju said earlier in the day that he would clarify the government's stand on the Opposition's demand. "We said from the first day that we should debate with a calm mind. Yesterday we protested against the protest. Today I want to protest against this (Opposition sloganeering) again," he said amid uproar. "There are multiple issues in the country, I do not consider any issue to be smaller than the other, but Parliament functions according to the rules, you cannot bury other issues," he added. Lok Sabha will hold discussion on the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram on December 8, and electoral reforms on December 9. (ANI)
Ambassador Prasad Kariyawasam of Sri Lanka re-elected to the UN Committee on Migrant Workers

Sri Lankas Ambassador to the USA, Prasad Kariyawasam, who has been a member of the UN Committee on Migrant Workers since its inception in March 2004, and the first Chair of the Committee , was re-elected for the fourth time at the Election held at the UN in New York on 28 June 2017, at the 8th Meeting of State Parties to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

The 51 States Parties to the Convention voted yesterday to select 7 members to the Committee, out of 11 candidates, for the period 2018-2021. The 11 candidates were from Albania, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Mali, Niger, Philippines, Senegal and Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankas candidate, Prasad Kariyawasam, was re-elected, securing the third highest number of votes, along with candidates from Albania, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Colombia, Senegal, and Niger.

The UN Committee on Migrant Workers (CMW), consisting of a total of 14 elected members, as its main responsibility, monitors the implementation of the Convention, which is the most comprehensive international instrument that deals with the rights of migrant workers. The Convention which came into force in 2003, is an important component of the core international human rights treaties in the UN Human Rights Treaty System.

Ambassador Kariyawasams re-election to the Committee for successive terms signifies the endorsement by the States Parties of his competence and contribution to the work of the Committee in promoting the human rights of migrant workers, and recognition of Sri Lankas role in this regard as well, on the international stage.

Today, migrant workers account for a substantial component of the worlds approximately 250 million international migrants. Migrant workers around the world make a significant contribution to the growth and development of their countries of destination, and also to the improvement of the economies of their countries of origin through remittances. However, migrant workers are often vulnerable to exploitation and human trafficking. The Convention seeks to prevent and eliminate the exploitation of migrant workers throughout the migration process and promote a rights based approach to migration with a view to protecting the rights of migrant workers and members of their families.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Colombo

29 June 2017
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, on Tuesday, addressed concerns over poor road conditions in Rajouri, attributing them to ongoing widening, 4-laning, and tunnelling projects. He emphasised the importance of maintaining existing roads, especially where tunnel work is underway. Abdullah plans to convey the issue to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, requesting accelerated work on border roads. He also highlighted the ongoing process of building bunkers, reassuring that it will continue. "The roads are in bad condition because of ongoing work. It is a road widening, 4-laning, and tunnelling project. Where tunnel work is underway, existing roads should be maintained... Whatever the condition of the roads is, I will convey it to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh because these are all border roads... I would request him to speed up the work on the border roads... The process of building bunkers is ongoing and will continue," said Omar Abdullah. Earlier on Saturday, CM Omar Abdullah raised concerns about reduced tourism, stating that the Srinagar region has faced a challenging year due to low footfall, and said it is now banking heavily on a good spell of snowfall in December to revive arrivals. Speaking to the media, CM Abdullah noted that a dry November has affected destinations. However, he added that steady tourist inflow continues, and fresh snowfall is expected to boost arrivals across the valley significantly. "Wherever there are business-to-business relations, it is expected that people associated with the tourism industry will benefit. The biggest factor contributing to tourism is promotion and marketing... This year has not been easy for us in tourism. Be it Pahalgam, or Delhi, or Nowgam..." he said. The Chief Minister cited snow as the biggest tourism magnet and hoped for a boost in tourism with a good snow spell in December. (ANI)
The INDIA bloc floor leaders will meet on Wednesday at 9:45 am in Parliament to chalk out their floor strategy. Opposition parties, including the Congress, have mounted sustained protests since the beginning of the winter session of Parliament, demanding discussion on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which is being conducted across 12 States and Union Territories. On Tuesday, senior leaders, including Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Sonia Gandhi, joined MPs from the INDIA bloc in a demonstration outside the Makar Dwar of Parliament, demanding a discussion on SIR. Protests over the demand for SIR discussion led to repeated disruptions in the Lok Sabha on both Monday and Tuesday. The House saw adjournments till noon, 2 pm and eventually for the day on each of the first two days of the session, with Opposition members insisting on an immediate discussion on the matter. In the Rajya Sabha, Opposition MPs staged a walkout on Tuesday over the same demand. A resolution to the deadlock emerged on Tuesday after an all-party meeting chaired by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju announced that consensus had been reached to hold two structured debates: a special discussion on the 150th anniversary of the national song Vande Mataram on Monday, followed by a discussion on election reforms at 12 noon on Tuesday. He said the government remains open to debate on electoral processes and hoped normal functioning would resume. Leaders who attended the meeting confirmed that the Lok Sabha is expected to run smoothly from Wednesday, marking a significant easing of the impasse that has overshadowed the session's opening. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju informed about the decisions taken at the all-party meeting. "During the All Party Meeting Chaired by Hon'ble Speaker Lok Sabha today, it has been decided to hold discussion in Lok Sabha on 150th Anniversary of National Song 'Vande Mataram' from 12 Noon on Monday 8th Dec and discussion on Election Reforms from 12 noon on Tuesday 9th Dec," Rijiju said in a post on X. Rijiju later told ANI that he looks forward to a "constructive" discussion. "Election Commission reform is a larger issue. Parliament makes laws. For bigger reforms in the Election Commission and the Election process, Parliament takes up all the matters. SIR is an administrative matter which was decided by the ECI. That is why I had stated that if at all we have to discuss the Election Commission and its role, then we have to widen the scope, you can't just pick up a matter which is administrative in nature," he said. "Since the matter has been settled by coming into an agreement for discussion and the time and the date have been finalised, I look forward to a very constructive and engaging discussion," he added. Rijiju had earlier indicated a solution to the impasse, saying the government is ready to discuss electoral reforms. Sources said the BAC meeting allocated 10 hours to discuss the 150 years of the Vande Mataram song. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to initiate the discussion on the 150th anniversary of the national song. They said ten hours have also been allocated to the discussion on electoral reforms. Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal is likely to reply to the debate on Wednesday. (ANI)
Frederico Meyer, Permanent Representative of Brazil to the Conference on Disarmament and Chair, Working Group on the Strengthening of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), said that the "biggest gap" in the current global biological weapons governance framework is the "international situation." Expressing his concern over the lack of a governance framework for biological weapons, he said, "Science evolves at the speed of light, while diplomats move very slowly." "The biggest gap (in the current global biological weapons governance framework) is the international situation. On the floor of the room where we discuss, there are strong national positions, which are very much involved with the polarisation in foreign policy at the moment," Frederico Meyer told ANI. However, Meyer also remained optimistic that the convention is still very young and as the world and the international scene evolve, efforts to close the gap will be made. "The convention is a young girl. It's only 50 years old. So, of course, the world has been in permanent evolution. That's why we have this working group, to strengthen the convention. As the world and the international scene evolve, we have working groups that want to address and close those gaps," he said. The international conference on '50 Years of BWC: Strengthening Biosecurity for the Global South', is being organised by the Ministry of External Affairs on December 1-2 in New Delhi to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the entry into force of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar addressed scientific experts, policy makers and diplomats from over 80 countries and representatives from international and regional organisations, as well as Indian academia and industry during the inaugural session on Monday. EAM reaffirmed India's commitment to the full and effective implementation of the Biological Weapons Convention and India's well-established non-proliferation record. He urged the participants to reflect on the new challenges posed by the rapid developments in science and technology in the context of the BWC. He highlighted India's proposal for a National Implementation Framework that covers identification of high-risk agents, oversight of dual-use research, domestic reporting, incident management and continuous training, according to a release from MEA. He noted that India's annual Disarmament and International Security Affairs Fellowship and Capacity Building Programme under ITEC on UNSC Resolution 1540 and Strategic Trade Controls further demonstrates its contribution to the global non-proliferation architecture. During the Conference opening, EAM also visited an exposition showcasing India's strengths in bio-surveillance, biotechnology, diagnostics, therapeutics and digital technology for disease surveillance and related fields. The exposition showcases the success stories of products and solutions developed by Government Departments/organisations, including DRDE, CSIR, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Department of Biotechnology-BIRAC, ICMR, and the Department of Animal Husbandry, and their private industry partners. The ICMR BSL-3 Lab and the DAHD Mobile Veterinary Unit are part of the exposition that represents India's innovation in public health preparedness. (ANI)
Abu Dhabi [UAE], December 2, (ANI/WAM): Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy and Tourism, affirmed that the 54th UAE Eid Al Etihad arrives this year, crowned with exceptional economic and tourism achievements that reflect the vision of the UAE's leadership and the strength of the Union. "The 54th Eid Al Etihad reminds us of the pivotal moment when the seven Emirates united under one nation -- a nation whose solid foundations, progress, and leadership were established by the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and his fellow founding fathers. Their vision transformed the Emirates into a leading model of growth, development, and prosperity, achieving exceptional accomplishments across diverse fields that have earned global recognition and strengthened the country's prominent regional and international standing," the minister said in his statement marking the 54th Eid Al Etihad. He added: "Today, we celebrate this cherished national occasion under the theme 'United,' reaffirming our pride in the Emirati national identity and strengthening the spirit of loyalty to our wise leadership. This occasion stands as a milestone that reflects the cohesion and solidarity of the nation's people, and underscores our commitment to supporting the comprehensive development of our beloved country under the leadership of the President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan; the guidance of his brother, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister, and Ruler of Dubai; and with the support of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Presidential Court; along with, the Rulers of the Emirates." The minister continued: "The 54th Eid Al Etihad carries special significance, as the country has witnessed exceptional and unprecedented economic and tourism achievements over the past year, reflecting its continued development and its ambitious vision for building a more advanced and prosperous future for current and future generations. On the economic front, the UAE topped economic growth rates at the GCC level. The UAE's real GDP grew by 4.2 per cent during the first half of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, while non-oil GDP recorded a growth rate of 5.7 per cent. The contribution of non-oil activities to real GDP reached 77.5 per cent, reaffirming the progress of the UAE's economic diversification and the strength of its economic foundations." 220,000 new companies in the UAE market Furthermore, the minister pointed out that UAE markets attracted more than 220,186 new companies from the beginning of January to the end of November 2025. During the same period, the Ministry of Economy and Tourism registered over 36,000 national and international trademarks entering the country's markets, marking a 48.2 per cent increase compared to the same period of the previous year. These indicators reflect the competitiveness and leadership of the UAE's business environment and its strong appeal for investments and projects from around the world. The UAE's tourism sector also recorded remarkable achievements, earning international recognition for its performance excellence. In a significant endorsement, the UAE's Sheikha Nasser Al Nowais was appointed Secretary-General of UN Tourism. Additionally, Masfout Village received the title of World's Best Tourism Village 2025, underscoring the distinguished calibre of UAE tourism and its growing global acclaim. Furthermore, the UAE ranked among the world's top seven destinations for international tourist spending. The nation's hospitality sector continued its strong upward trajectory in the first nine months of 2025, with hotels welcoming 23.27 million guests - up 4.9 percent compared to the same period in 2024 - resulting in more than 79.3 million hotel room nights booked. These achievements further solidify the UAE's position as one of the most competitive and high-performing tourism markets in the world. Hotel revenues for the first nine months of the year saw a notable increase of 7.2 per cent, surpassing AED 35.9 billion. Concurrently, the number of available hotel rooms rose to 216,248, distributed across 1,246 hotel establishments across the UAE. Hotel occupancy rates climbed to 79.2 per cent, up 1.8 per cent, driven by strong international visitor numbers and growth in domestic tourism. The average length of stay increased from 3.38 to 3.41 nights, indicating that visitors are engaging more deeply with the country's diverse tourism offerings. Simultaneously, the number of occupied rooms rose by 3.5 per cent to reach 46.17 million. The Average Daily Rate (ADR) also grew by 4.2 per cent, from AED534 to AED 557, signaling enhanced yield management and sustained strong demand across all market segments. Bin Touq explained that the Ministry of Economy and Tourism continues its efforts to develop the UAE's economic legislative framework. From January to November 2025, the Ministry contributed to the issuance of 11 economic laws and policies covering vital and diverse areas, including consumer protection, ecotourism, food security, air transport, and sustainability. During the same period, the Ministry also issued 8 regulatory policies and decisions encompassing rules of origin, combating harmful practices, company regulations, and competition regulation. This underscores the Ministry's pivotal role in developing a comprehensive legislative environment that supports the competitiveness of the national economy and enhances its appeal to investors. In conclusion, the minister stated that Eid Al Etihad inspires sentiments of dedication, hard work, and a renewed commitment to continue progressing with strong resolve under our wise leadership. This unwavering determination supports the continuation of the nation's distinguished journey and the achievement of its strategic objectives across all fields - foremost among them the 'We the UAE 2031' vision, which aims to double the national economy to AED3 trillion and position the country as a global hub for the new economy by the next decade. (ANI/WAM)
President Donald Trump convened a high-level meeting at the White House to review the next steps on Venezuela, amid heightened scrutiny over the recent US military action against the suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean, CNN reported, citing sources. According to CNN, key members of Trump's national security team -- including War Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller -- are expected to have attended the Oval Office meeting on Monday evening (local time). The deliberations came as the US has stepped up pressure on Venezuela through strikes on drug boats and a significant military build-up in the Caribbean under "Operation Southern Spear." The Pentagon has deployed more than a dozen warships and around 15,000 troops to the region. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump was regularly meeting his security team on global matters, adding that it was part of his responsibility to "ensure that peace is ongoing throughout the world." The meeting follows heightened scrutiny over US military actions after strikes on alleged drug vessels reportedly killed over 80 people. The US is not formally at war with Venezuela, and lawmakers from both parties have demanded clarity on allegations that a second strike was ordered to kill survivors after the initial attack. CNN reported. "If the facts are, as have been alleged, that there was a second strike specifically to kill the survivors in the water, that's a stone-cold war crime. It's also murder," independent Senator Angus King of Maine told CNN. On Monday, Leavitt identified Adm. Frank M. "Mitch" Bradley, head of US Special Operations Command, as the official who ordered the follow-up strike, asserting that he acted "well within his authority." She said Hegseth had authorised Bradley on September 2 to carry out the kinetic action to eliminate the threat posed to the United States. Pressed on the legal justification, Leavitt said the strike was undertaken in self-defence, was conducted in international waters, and complied with the law of armed conflict. Trump, however, told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday that he personally "wouldn't have wanted" a second strike and questioned whether such an order had been issued. "No. 1, I don't know that that happened, and Pete said he did not want them -- he didn't even know what people were talking about," he said. Leavitt said Hegseth had spoken to concerned lawmakers and noted that Congress had received 13 bipartisan briefings on the Venezuelan operations, along with access to classified legal opinions and other documents. The US military had carried out a follow-up strike on a suspected drug vessel operating in the Caribbean on September 2 after an initial attack did not kill everyone on board, sources familiar with the matter told CNN. That September strike was the first in what became a regular series of attacks on alleged drug boats. (ANI)
China is expanding its nuclear-warhead arsenal at blistering pace, one that constitutes the fastest build-up of nuclear weaponry in human history. Alarmingly, Beijing has failed to explain why it perceives the need to do so, until now, that is. A Pentagon report published in late 2023 tabulated 500 operational nuclear warheads in China, a figure that had increased to 600+ by late 2024. By 2030, China will have apredicted 1,000 nuclear warheads. China set about offering clarity as to its nuclear posture through a white paper entitled "China's Arms Control, Disarmament, and Nonproliferation in the New Era". Issued on November 27, 20 years since China last issued such a document, it however leaves many questions unanswered. Why is China embarking on the world's fastest buildup of nuclear weapons? One brief line in the white paper offers an explanation: "the modernization of its nuclear forces" is apparently "to safeguard China's own strategic security and overall global strategic stability". By multiplying its nuclear forces, Beijing blithely asserts that both it and the rest of the world can feel safer. Tong Zhao, Senior Fellow at Carnegie China's Nuclear Policy Program, commented that "China now argues more openly that the strengthening of its military is to strengthen the peaceful forces in the world - a vision that ties the achievement of global strategic stability to a more capable Chinese nuclear force." At its 3 September military parade through Tiananmen Square, missiles featured prominently and proudly. In fact, no fewer than five types of nuclear weapons appeared in the event: DF-61, DF-5C and DF-31BJ intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM); JL-1 air-launched nuclear-tipped missiles; and JL-3 submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Referring to this document's release, Lyle Morris, Senior Fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis, commented, "I wouldn't say the content is disappointing, since this is China's official position and repeats Beijing's historical positions from the past. To be sure, it's full of propaganda divorced from China's own actions and policies, but it nonetheless offers some new insights into China's own nuclear policy that merit our attention." One idiosyncrasy is China's assertion that it is a peace-loving nation and contributor to global security and prosperity. The white paper claimed: "The Chinese nation has always cherished peace and harmony among nations, upheld justice and opposed abuse of the weak by the strong and excessive use of force." Philippine and Vietnamese fishermen, and members of the Philippine Coast Guard, amongst others, would refute China's claims of innocence. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) and China Coast Guard are being particularly aggressive in the South China Sea. Furthermore, China eschewed and denigrated international organizations like the Permanent Court of Arbitration that told Beijing its territorial claims in the South China Sea are illegal. There is a lot of finger pointing in the white paper, generally towards the USA. "Today, humanity again has to choose between peace and war, dialog and confrontation, win-win cooperation and zero-sum game." It is therefore somewhat ironic that China steadfastly supports Vladimir Putin's bloody invasion of Ukraine when a choice of peace apparently exists. The "China's Arms Control, Disarmament, and Nonproliferation in the New Era" white paper added: "A certain country seeks absolute strategic superiority by constantly expanding its armaments, strengthening combat readiness and provoking bloc confrontation ... In particular, this country has strengthened military alliances in the Asia-Pacific region, exercised extended deterrence and forward-deployed ground-based intermediate-range missiles, provoking tension and opposition and severely undermining the security and interests of countries in the region." The only ground-based intermediate-range missiles the USA is believed to have currently stationed in Asia-Pacific is a battery of Typhon missiles in the Philippines. Yet the PLA has been expanding its own missile arsenal at unprecedented rates. The Pentagon estimates the PLA has some 500 DF-26 and DF-27 intermediate-range ballistic missiles in service, and at the 3 September victory parade in Beijing it unveiled a new variant called the DF-26D. Zhao identified hypocrisy in China's stance: "China denounces some states' Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF)-range missile deployments, but claims a legitimate need to 'modestly' build its own." Except, China's arsenal cannot be described as modest in anyone's book. Notably, China has largely refused to engage with US approaches for arms control talks. In spite of its own intransigence, Beijing blames the USA for withdrawing from various treaties. Indeed, President Donald Trump in his first term withdrew from the 1992 Open Skies Treaty; failed to reach an agreement with Russia to extend New START (this is the only treaty regulating strategic nuclear weapons in the world's two largest nuclear arsenals, and it expires in February 2026); and withdrew from the 1987 INF Treaty. Unsurprisingly, the white paper fails to admit the reason for the USA withdrawing from these agreements - the fact that Russia was already violating them, and that China refused to voluntarily join. Zhao commented, "Beijing appears to severely underestimate both the risk of a nuclear arms race and the importance of greater transparency and self-restraint in its nuclear policy as a measure of reassurance. If Washington begins expanding its nuclear arsenal, Chinese experts are unlikely to dismiss this as militarily insignificant or advocate for calm. Both nations risk knowingly entering a nuclear arms race." China further warned it will not entertain arms control or risk reduction measures until the USA abandons its "aggressive nuclear deterrent policy based on first use," and ceases its "hypocritical policy of inciting confrontation and creating crisis". Although increasing in size, it is correct that China's nuclear stockpile does not approach the size of those of Russia or the USA. "Countries possessing the largest nuclear arsenals should fulfill their special and primary responsibilities for nuclear disarmament and continue to make drastic and substantive reductions in their nuclear arsenals in a verifiable, irreversible and legally binding manner, so as to create the conditions for complete and thorough nuclear disarmament," Beijing pleaded. But how likely is this? Will North Korea, Israel, India and Pakistan give up their nuclear weapons voluntarily? Will China? It is easy to expansively ask others to make such pledges, but they are empty epithets because they will never happen. Elsewhere, the white paper said, "China calls for stronger solidarity and cooperation, opposes unilateralism, firmly upholds the status and authority of the United Nations, and supports the UN in playing an indispensable role in global governance." Beijing said it has ratified or signed 20+multilateral arms control treaties and "strictly complies with their obligations". Yet amidst the dramatic expansion of its nuclear arsenal, China says without a trace of irony that "global nuclear strategic rivalries are becoming more intense and complex, and the risk of a nuclear arms race is growing". Even more paradoxically, Beijing noted, "From the day it came into possession of these weapons, China has advocated their complete prohibition and thorough destruction." Somehow, though, China is multiplying its nuclear stockpile rather than dismantling it. Importantly, Jeffrey Lewis, Distinguished Scholar of Global Security at Middlebury College in the USA, said, "The new PRC white paper on arms control contains a strong and clear endorsement of China's no-first use policy. Whatever else one might say about the paper or the policy, one can't say it is ambiguous." Indeed, the document reassuringly noted, "China has always remained committed to the principle of no-first-use of nuclear weapons at any time and under any circumstances, and unconditionally undertakes not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states or nuclear-weapon-free zones." Zhao remarked: "The white paper leans heavily on no-first-use (NFU). Diplomatic leverage aside, China has no real military need to drop NFU as a declaratory policy. Rising confidence in conventional superiority drives a strategy of prevailing conventionally, while deterring US nuclear escalation." Beijing maintains its nuclear weapons are only for defensive purposes, that they offer a secure second-strike capability. "China's greatest contribution to international nuclear arms control lies in the fact that it has the most stable, consistent and predictable nuclear policy among all nuclear-weapon states." It also promised it never has and never will engage in any nuclear arms race in terms of level of expenditure, quantity or scale of nuclear weapons. This is arguable, however, given the rapid growth of its nuclear arsenal under Chairman Xi Jinping. Nor has China criticized Putin for his threats to employ nuclear weapons in the ongoing Ukraine conflict. China is simultaneously improving capabilities in strategic early warning, command and control, missile penetration and rapid response, as well as its survivability, when it comes to nuclear capabilities. China also generously excuses itself from the treaties and limitations it feels others are obliged by. Beijing pleaded, "Due to the vast differences between nuclear weapon states in their nuclear forces and policies, and in their security environment, there are no measures to reduce nuclear risks that can be universally applied." In other words, the rules applied to China should be different to those that apply to everyone else. This exceptionalism is like a "free get out of jail card" for Beijing. It also patted itself on the back for notifying some countries of its September 2024 ICBM firing into the South Pacific, an action that outraged nearby countries. Unsurprisingly, AUKUS - a trilateral agreement between Australia, the UK and USA - came in for vehement criticism. China accused AUKUS of undermining the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). "The nuclear submarine cooperation between the US, the UK and Australia involves the first transfer of naval nuclear propulsion reactors and weapons-grade highly enriched uranium from nuclear-weapon states to a non-nuclear-weapon state. This apparently runs counter to the object and purpose of the NPT and severely undermines the international nuclear nonproliferation regime," China fumed. It is okay for China to possess nuclear-powered - and nuclear-armed - submarines, but obviously not right for others. China should then have criticized North Korea for its similar nuclear submarine ambitions, but it stayed silent. Pyongyang's ambitions are likely to cause South Korea to pursue them too, and that in turn will prompt Japan to do the same. In fact, Zhao highlighted, "By omitting both 'denuclearization' and the nuclear issue from the section on Korea Peninsula security, China offers another sign of tacit acceptance of a nuclear North Korea - at the cost of weakening its ability to advocate denuclearization." China also blamed the USA's missile defense system as a source of confrontation and distrust. "In pursuit of absolute security, this certain country has advanced the Golden Dome global missile defense system without restraint and sought to deploy weapons in outer space, severely threatening outer space security." Yet China has its own missile defense shield and is leveraging space for military purposes too! In the "China's Arms Control, Disarmament, and Nonproliferation in the New Era" white paper, China paints itself as a responsible actor, a force for good. "It stays committed to the Chinese path to building a strong military and never engages in any form of arms race. A stronger Chinese military always adds strength to the world's peaceful forces." It is interesting that China criticizes others when they incrementally increase their defense budgets. China's enormous defense spending increases are always justified and appropriate, whereas moderate growth in others provokes an "arms race". Unfortunately, this is the kind of parochial and biased thinking that permeates this document.The white paper concluded: "No matter how the world changes, China stands firmly on the right side of history and on the side of human progress, and serves as a staunch force for upholding world peace and security." Conversely, Morris assessed: "In conclusion, the white paper attempts to signal China's principled stance on arms control, listing all the ways it has advocated through rhetoric and agreements the abolishment of nuclear weapons. But the inescapable fact not addressed is how China is embarking on the largest peacetime nuclear weapons breakout in peacetime history with no transparency. This fact completely undermines China's 'principled stance' on nuclear arms control. Continuing to scapegoat the US as the source of all problems is no longer a viable excuse for such an arms buildup." (ANI)
US Republican Senator Bernie Moreno from Ohio plans to introduce legislation on Monday that would require any US citizen who has foreign citizenship to choose between the two countries, Fox News reported. It would also require that if a US citizen seeks a foreign citizenship in the future, that person would effectively give up their US citizenship. Moreno, who was born in Colombia but has since renounced his Colombian citizenship, said in a statement to Fox News, "One of the greatest honors of my life was when I became an American citizen at 18, the first opportunity I could do so." "It was an honor to pledge an Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America and only to the United States of America. Being an American citizen is an honor and a privilege -- and if you want to be an American -- it's all or nothing," he said. "It's time to end dual citizenship for good," as per Fox News. Moreno's bill fits into the broader fabric of the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration in the US, and it isn't the first time that a lawmaker has sought to undo dual-citizenship laws in the country. Current law allows for Americans to hold citizenship both at home and abroad and does not require that a person choose one allegiance over the other. Moreno's legislation, dubbed the Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025, is billed as a measure that would bolster the interests of the US out of concern that holding dual citizenship creates "conflicts of interest and divided loyalties." It would change that immigration law to make current dual citizens choose between the US and whichever country they hold citizenship in, as per Fox News. The legislation would require that the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) create databases and rules to track and enforce the change in citizenship law. It would give Americans with dual citizenship one year after its enactment to either write to the secretary of state for a renunciation of their foreign citizenship or notify DHS of their intent to denounce their US citizenship. If a person does not comply with the change within the year, they will automatically be considered to have relinquished their US citizenship. And for those who do give up their US citizenship, voluntarily or involuntarily, the DHS and attorney general will be required to ensure that those people are "appropriately recorded in Federal systems and treated as an alien for purposes of the immigration laws," according to the bill text. There have been previous attempts to dismantle the country's dual-citizenship law, most recently in the House, where Republican lawmakers have moved to ensure that their colleagues either disclose any foreign citizenship on their statement of candidacy or completely prevent anyone with a dual citizenship from serving in Congress. And though US President Donald Trump has made moves to end birthright citizenship, which has been snarled in the courts and so far not taken up by the Supreme Court, the administration has not staked a position on dual citizenship. Moreno's push may also face issues in court. The Supreme Court weighed in on the question of dual citizenship in the 1950s and has upheld the ruling ever since. (ANI)
Israel's leading defence manufacturer, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), which is the only firm left in the Rs. 8,000-crore contract for supplying six mid-air refuellers, said it is fully aligned with the Indian government's requirements for providing 30 per cent 'Make in India' mandate for the project. Yehuda Lahav, an Executive Vice President of Israel Aerospace Industries, however, refused to comment on where these aircraft will be prepared. Earlier, ANI reported that the Indian Air Force is likely to award the around Rs 8,000 crore deal for buying six aerial tanker planes from an Israeli government-owned firm, which has emerged as a single vendor. "It's not specific to this project, but in any programme where we consider ourselves as a candidate, we are willing to comply. Hopefully, India will be the next customer," Lahav said. "We are fully aligned with local requirements, which means we are open to meeting any local content obligations. There is a will to do it, and we will do it. Regarding the refueller, if there are specific requirements, we will be 100 per cent aligned," he added. The Israeli firm Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), if awarded the contract, would be modifying six old and second-hand Boeing 767 commercial planes to turn them into tanker aircraft and then supplying them to the Indian Air Force, defence sources told ANI. As per the ANI report, the IAI has emerged as the resultant single vendor in a competitive bid where it has agreed to the need for around 30 per cent Made in India content through offsets involved in the deal, they said. The competition launched a few years ago has seen participation from Russian and European firms also, but IAI was the only one left in the race, as others were not meeting the requirements, including the one for 3-30 per cent indigenous content on second-hand planes, they said. The Indian Air Force has been operating a fleet of six Russian-origin Il-78 mid-air refuelling aircraft, which are based out of Agra and provide support to all types of fighter aircraft operations of the Indian Air Force and the Navy. The Indian Air Force has made several attempts in the last 15 years to buy six more flight refuelling aircraft, but has failed to do so due to multiple reasons. It has recently also wet-leased a tanker aircraft, but would require a larger number of aircraft to meet its expanding requirements. The Indian Air Force is in the process of phasing out its legacy aircraft, and its new fleet can fly for longer hours with mid-air refuelling. The Indian Air Force has made several attempts in the last 15 years to buy six more flight refuelling aircraft, but has failed to do so due to multiple reasons. It has recently also wet-leased a tanker aircraft, but would require a larger number of aircraft to meet its expanding requirements. The Indian Air Force is in the process of phasing out its legacy aircraft, and its new fleet can fly for longer hours with mid-air refuelling. (ANI)
Russia aims to achieve USD 100 billion in bilateral trade with India by 2030, focusing on improving trade quality, diversifying products and strengthening industrial cooperation, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister and co-chair of the India-Russia Inter-governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation Denis Manturov said in an exclusive interview to ANI ahead of Russian President's visit to India. Manturov described the USD 100 billion goal as "truly ambitious," noting that realising it would require coordinated efforts from governments, businesses and financial institutions in both countries. "We support the business circles by creating the necessary conditions and a favourable climate for expanding Russian-Indian cooperation," he told ANI, citing regular meetings of the Intergovernmental Russian-Indian Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation as a key platform for discussing investment projects. "Achieving $100 billion trade aim is a truly ambitious goal. In order to reach this milestone, it is necessary to work on the quality of our bilateral trade and the structure of our trade turnover. It requires concerted efforts from governments of both states as well as businesses and financial institutions," said Manturov. "We support the business circles by creating the necessary conditions and a favourable climate for expanding Russian-Indian cooperation through the holding of regular sessions of the Intergovernmental Russian-Indian Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation and its working groups, where investment projects are discussed," he added. Highlighting successful collaboration, Manturov pointed to the joint production of Vande Bharat trains in India, adding that other projects are under development. He also noted that negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) have been launched, with the first round recently held in New Delhi, aimed at improving the regulatory framework for bilateral trade. "Some of them are already being successfully implemented, for instance, the joint production of Vande Bharat trains in India, the others are being worked out. As part of improving the regulatory framework for our cooperation, the free trade agreement negotiations have been launched, the first round has recently taken place in New Delhi," said Manturov. Despite Western sanctions targeting Russia, Manturov emphasised that bilateral trade with India has not only been maintained but reached record levels. "Over the last five years, the Russia-India trade turnover saw a sevenfold increase," he said. Industrial cooperation forms a key element of the partnership, with joint projects in mechanical engineering, metallurgy, mining, chemical industries, pharmaceuticals, IT, and aircraft manufacturing. Russia is increasing exports of mineral fertilisers, machinery, equipment, and metallurgical products to India while importing agro-industrial goods, chemicals, industrial raw materials, equipment, and components from India. "I would like to point out that unilateral, unlawful sanctions of the Western nations aimed at paralysing the economic development of Russia have provoked the destruction of many international production and logistics chains," Manturov said. "However, thanks to the active and coordinated efforts of Russian and Indian governments, as well as the entrepreneurial spirit and flexibility of our business circles, our countries have managed not only to maintain the previous level of bilateral trade and economic relations, but also to achieve record levels in mutual trade", he added. He said that the last half a decade has seen the bilateral trade turnover increased by over 7 times, with one of the key elements being bilateral collaboration. Notably, joint projects in various fields of engineering, mining, chemical and pharma are being developed in partnership with the country. "For the last five years, the Russia-India trade turnover saw a 7-fold increase. One of the key elements of the Russian-Indian collaboration is the industrial cooperation. Joint projects are being implemented and developed in the fields of mechanical engineering, metallurgy, mining and chemical industries, pharmaceuticals, IT, aircraft manufacturing and other areas", he added. Manturov added that both nations plan to further diversify the bilateral trade basket, remove logistical and financial barriers, and deepen investment and technological cooperation, steps he said are essential for achieving the USD 100 billion trade goal set by the two leaders. The Russian Deputy PM said, "We are increasing the supply of mineral fertilisers, machinery and equipment, metallurgical products to India. At the same time, we are building up the imports of products of the agro-industrial complex, chemical industry, industrial raw materials, equipment and components from India." He said there are plans to further diversify bilateral trade as much as possible, systematically expanding the trade basket to include products that are in demand in our markets. He said that logistical and financial barriers will be eliminated, and deeper investment and technological cooperation will also take place. Resolving these issues will contribute to achieving the trade volumes outlined by our leaders. (ANI)
Sri Lanka first South Asian state to become a party to the Budapest Convention



Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Ravinatha Aryasinha has said, by becoming a State party to the Budapest Cyber Crime Convention from 1st September 2015, Sri Lanka has demonstrated its strong commitment towards harmonizing national laws, improving investigative techniques, and increasing law enforcement and judicial cooperation among nations in combating cyber crimes.

Addressing the High Level Policy Dialogue of the WSIS Forum held in Geneva 2  6 May 2016, he said, Sri Lanka was the first South Asian state to do so, which has enabled that Sri Lanka is safer for international investments and trade using digital infrastructure.





Sri Lanka also supports the multi-stakeholder framework for Internet Governance. He noted that Sri Lanka's experience in implementing successful ICT4D strategies have demonstrated, it is essential to ensure that stakeholders works towards achieving a safer and secure Internet accessible to all communities. Sri Lanka has worked closely with ICANN, ITU and we have also established a vibrant Internet Society (ISOC-LK).

Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka

Geneva
Ahead of Russian President's Vladimir Putin's India visit, Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister and Co-chair of the India-Russia Inter-governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation Denis Manturov said Russian President Vladimir Putin's upcoming visit to India marks a "return to the tradition of annual high-level summits," describing it as a major step toward deepening the strategic partnership between the two countries. "This will be President Putin's first visit to India in a long period," Manturov said during an exclusive interview with ANI, adding that both sides had "thoroughly prepared the agenda" to ensure the meetings on December 4-5 are productive. "That would be the first visit of our President Vladimir Putin to your friendly country for a long period of time. That returns us to the tradition of annual high-level summits which represents an undeniable success. Together with our Indian colleagues we have thoroughly prepared the agenda for the visit. We expect that all the meetings and negotiations that are to take place will be fruitful and will give new momentum for our two countries' strategic cooperation in all areas", said Manturov. Coinciding with Putin's visit, the India-Russia Forum will convene in New Delhi with senior government officials and business leaders from both nations. Manturov said the forum is expected to explore ways to expand and diversify bilateral trade, including boosting Indian exports of equipment, raw materials and food products to Russia. The discussions will also focus on deepening industrial cooperation, advancing joint investment projects and expanding collaboration in high-technology domains. Manturov stressed that the forum is intended to serve as a platform for direct engagement between businesses from both countries, helping to accelerate commercial partnerships and fuel growth in mutual trade. "In the context of the visit of the head of our country on December 4-5 India-Russia forum is to take place in New Delhi with participation of government and business representatives. During the forum it is planned to discuss the opportunities for expanding and diversifying bilateral trade, including increasing the volume of supplies of Indian products -- in particular various equipment, raw materials and foodstuffs", said Manturov. "Also on the agenda are the deepening of industrial cooperation and the implementation of joint investment projects, cooperation in the field of high technology and collaboration in other areas. The forum is designed to be a good platform for establishing direct dialogue between Russian and Indian companies and will contribute to the intensification of ties and the growth of mutual trade between our countries", he added. Manturov, on his vision for India-Russia relations in the next decade, said that Moscow expects its relationship with India to remain resilient, dynamic and deeply rooted in long-standing friendship over the next decade, outlining Moscow's long-term vision for the strategic partnership. Reflecting on the rapidly changing global landscape, Manturov noted that predicting the future has become more challenging, but certain fundamentals remain clear. "Even in ten years, Russia and India will stay true friends aimed at the comprehensive development of bilateral cooperation," he said. He emphasized that ties between the two countries will continue to "evolve dynamically and adapt to the demands of the time," while remaining anchored in decades-old trust and historical warmth. Manturov expressed confidence that current joint initiatives will reach fruition and pave the way for new areas of engagement. He said the next decade will see both nations advancing to a higher tier of cooperation, with a major emphasis on high-technology industries and both fundamental and applied scientific research. "Russia and India will successfully move to a more advanced level of cooperation where focus areas would be hi-tech industries and scientific achievements," he said. On the global stage, Manturov predicted a rising role for emerging economies, noting that cooperation between Moscow and New Delhi will contribute significantly to the strengthening influence of the Global South. "Thanks to joint efforts, the influence of the Global South will further strengthen," he said. The remarks underscore Russia's outlook for a partnership that blends continuity with transformation--preserving old foundations while opening new frontiers in technology, research and global diplomacy. Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay a state visit to India from December 4-5 at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During the visit, Putin will attend the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit and hold talks with PM Modi. The President of India will also receive Putin and host a banquet in his honour.The visit will provide an opportunity for the leadership of India and Russia to review progress in bilateral relations, outline the vision for strengthening the 'Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership', and exchange views on regional and global issues of mutual interest, the MEA statement said. The upcoming visit will mark Putin's first to India since 2021. The two leaders last met in person on September 1 this year in Tianjin, China, on the sidelines of the SCO Summit. (ANI)
Pakistan is currently experiencing one of the fastest-growing epidemics of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, with new infections increasing by 200% over the past 15 years, from 16,000 in 2010 to 48,000 in 2024, as reported by Dawn. This information was shared with participants of a walk organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNAIDS in observance of World AIDS Day. While HIV primarily affected high-risk populations in the past, it is now affecting children, spouses, and the broader community, largely due to unsafe blood management and injection practices, deficiencies in infection prevention and control, inadequate HIV testing during antenatal care, unprotected sexual activities, stigma, and restricted access to HIV services. Under the theme "Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response," WHO and UNAIDS collaborated with Pakistan's Ministry of Health to commemorate the day. "The discrimination, stigma, and this disease cannot be addressed by us alone. It must involve the communities and the health regulatory authorities. We need collective efforts to eliminate unsafe practices in injections and blood transfusions. Education is essential. We also need to engage our clinicians. Together, we can reach our objectives. We must provide children and adults in Pakistan with the healthy, HIV-free future they deserve," stated Ayesha Isani, Director General of the Health Ministry, according to the Dawn report. It is estimated that 350,000 individuals are living with HIV in Pakistan, but nearly 80% of those affected are unaware of their status. Children are increasingly impacted, with new cases among those aged 0-14 rising from 530 in 2010 to 1,800 in 2023. Over the past decade, Pakistan has increased the number of individuals living with HIV who receive antiretroviral therapy (ART) eightfold, from approximately 6,500 in 2013 to 55,500 in 2024--thanks to collaborative efforts by the government, UN entities, and partners. The number of antiretroviral therapy centres has also expanded from 13 in 2010 to 95 in 2025. Despite this progress, only about 21% of people living with HIV knew their status in 2024; 16% of these individuals were on treatment, and 7% had achieved viral load suppression. In 2024, there were over 1,100 reported AIDS-related fatalities, as highlighted by Dawn. "The rise in new cases and recent outbreaks that have particularly impacted children--threatening their futures as well as that of Pakistan, serve as a powerful reminder of the urgent need to enhance collaborative efforts and mobilise both domestic and international resources to eradicate AIDS as a public health threat. WHO will support Pakistan and its partners in safeguarding current and future generations from HIV, ensuring that no one is left behind," remarked Dr Luo Dapeng, WHO Representative in Pakistan, as emphasised in the Dawn report. In Pakistan, children have unfortunately been exposed to HIV due to unsafe injections and blood transfusions during recent outbreaks in locations such as Shaheed Benazirabad, Hyderabad, Naushahro Feroze, Pathan Colony (2025), Taunsa (2024), Mirpur Khas (2024), Jacobabad, and Shikarpur (2023), as well as Larkana (2019). In many of these outbreaks, more than 80% of the identified cases involved children, according to the Dawn report. Only 14% of pregnant women in need of treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV receive it, leaving thousands of children vulnerable. Among children aged 0-14 living with HIV, only 38% are receiving treatment, as revealed by the Dawn report. (ANI)
Conflicts between the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) fighters and Pakistani military forces have persisted for over twenty-four hours within a significant compound in Nokkundi, located in the Chagai district, as reported by The Balochistan Post (TBP). According to BLF spokesperson Major Gwahram Baloch, members of the group's Saddo Operational Battalion (SOB) initiated the assault at 8:19 pm (local time) on Sunday, aiming at what they referred to as the primary compound designated for the residential quarters and offices of foreign engineers and staff involved in the Saindak and Reko Diq mining projects. The BLF claimed its fighters "successfully infiltrated the compound" shortly after the initial attack and have "remained in their positions for the last twenty-four hours" despite numerous efforts by the Pakistani forces to regain control, as noted by TBP. The statement indicated that "special units" of the Pakistani military sought to advance via ground routes and helicopters, but the BLF asserted that these attempts were successfully repelled. The group further claimed that Pakistani forces had "withdrawn after encountering resistance" and stated that all "enemy objectives" have been thwarted thus far. Pakistani officials have not responded to these assertions. The BLF proclaimed the assault was aimed at delivering "a clear message to Pakistan, its foreign allies, and exploitative companies" that the natural resources of Balochistan belong to the Baloch people. It cautioned that without acknowledging what it terms "Baloch ownership and authority over land and resources," no major power or corporation would be permitted to collaborate with Pakistan in "exploiting Baloch national resources," as cited by the TBP report. In another statement, the BLF detailed the structure, aims, and ideological basis of its newly established Saddo Operational Battalion (SOB), describing it as a vital element of the group's expansion efforts. Major Gwahram Baloch characterised the SOB as the BLF's "practical expression of operational capability and organisational discipline," rooted in an ideology of "sacrifice, principle, courage, and steadfast determination." The BLF stated that the Saddo Operational Battalion (SOB) signifies what it refers to as an evolutionary advancement in its organisational structure, claiming that the unit will focus on targeting "areas where the opposing force does not anticipate an attack." The spokesperson depicted the battalion as the initial step in enhancing the group's operational abilities in response to "shifting regional dynamics," as highlighted by TBP. It mentioned that the concept of "self-sacrifice" in the Baloch resistance is not merely a reactive strategy, but a "well-considered philosophical and ideological decision" embraced by the youth who "prioritise national survival over personal existence" in the quest for what the group considers the sacred objective of an independent Balochistan, as reported by TBP. (ANI)
Israel Security and Intelligence expert Danny (Dennis) Citrinowicz said that India can add strategic value to Israel given its size and capabilities. Citrinowicz said that Israel can aid India in defence arena and help tackle its security issues. He said, "Israel and India have long-standing strategic relations, built over many years. These ties are critically important for both countries. Israel can support India in multiple areas, particularly in defense, where Israel's advanced technologies and defense industry can help India address its diverse security challenges. At the same time, India, given its size, growing capabilities, and global influence, offers significant strategic value to Israel. This partnership clearly serves the interests of both nations and is likely to expand further. He further said that both India and Israel have faced major security challenges. Therefore, strengthening security domain was essential. He said, "Both countries have recently faced major security challenges, India in its conflict with Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, and Israel in its confrontation with Iran since the events of October 7. Security cooperation is therefore essential. Strengthening collaboration not only enhances our capabilities but also signals to adversaries that this strategic alignment is robust and mutually reinforcing... While the partnership spans multiple domains, including economic cooperation, defense remains a central pillar, driven by shared interests and common threats." Talking about Operation Sindoor, Citrinowicz said that tackling the terror group is not enough, it is important to hold the sponsors of it responsible. He said, "It is not enough to target the group that carries out the attack; it is equally important to hold accountable the state that directs or enables such operations... India's response during Operation Sindoor, much like Israel's actions after October 7 against the Axis of Resistance, reflects a clear principle: deterrence must be directed at both the perpetrators and their sponsors. In many cases, striking the sender is the only way to restore stability and prevent further aggression." On India's defence capabilities and the implications post-Operation Sindoor, he said that India faced a significant challenge from Pakistan and China as they backed it. He said, "India faced a significant challenge, not only from Pakistan but also from the broader network supporting it, including Chinese and Turkish backing. Despite this, India demonstrated robust military capabilities, supported by its growing defense industry and close cooperation with partners such as Israel. The campaign was important because it established a firm red line: continued attacks would be met with decisive retaliation. This strengthened India's deterrence posture and showed that India has the capability and resolve to counter Pakistan effectively. These developments are being closely observed by adversaries..." On Israel-India defence cooperation, Citrinowicz said that deeper joint cooperation is crucial for strengthening military and defense capabilities. He said, "India is a sovereign nation and will make its own decisions regarding Iran. However, it is important to recognize the security risks Iran poses to India, including its activities in Jammu and Kashmir and its close alignment with Pakistan... India can also draw lessons from Israel's experience managing multiple fronts simultaneously. While India may not face the same number of fronts in the future, it does contend with significant challenges from China, Pakistan, and domestic terrorist threats. Israel's expertise in handling multi-front conflicts could offer valuable insights. Finally, deeper joint cooperation is crucial for strengthening military and defense capabilities, expanding economic collaboration, and building collective resilience," he said. He further added that enhanced cooperation will help both nations bolster their defence. "Enhanced strategic cooperation not only deters adversaries but also allows both countries to apply lessons learned from recent conflicts, whether Operation Sindoor or Israel's confrontation with Iran. Working together on these fronts will enable us to bolster our preparedness for any future challenges," he said. (ANI)
Sahil, an organisation that tracks gender-based violence, has indicated a notable increase in crimes against women throughout Pakistan during the first eleven months of 2025 in its annual report, as stated by The Express Tribune (TET). This report has been compiled based on data obtained from 81 national newspapers across all four provinces, the Islamabad Capital Territory, Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), and Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan (PoGB). It reveals that there were 6,543 reported incidents in 2025, up from 5,253 cases in 2024, marking an increase of almost twenty-five per cent within one year. The incidents recorded from January to November 2025 consist of 1,414 murders, 1,144 abductions, 1,060 physical assaults, 649 suicides, and 585 rapes. The data also shows that in 32 per cent of the rape incidents, the assailants were known to the victims, while 17 per cent involved unknown attackers. Husbands were reported as the perpetrators in 12 per cent of these cases, and in 21 per cent, the identity of the offenders was not disclosed, as highlighted by the TET report. The findings further reveal that a large portion of gender-based violence occurs within the victims' homes, making up 60 per cent of the recorded incidents, while 13 per cent took place at the premises of the attackers. In terms of regional distribution, Punjab accounted for 78 per cent of the overall cases, followed by Sindh at 14 per cent, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa at 6 per cent, and a combined 2 per cent from Balochistan, Islamabad, PoJK, and PoGB. Among all reported incidents, 77 per cent were documented with the police, while 21 per cent lacked any registration details. Only two cases were noted where the police refused to file a complaint. Recently, the Sustainable Social Development Organisation (SSDO) published its own fact sheet on violence against women, documenting over 20,000 incidents nationwide during the first half of 2025, as referenced by the TET report. The SSDO report pointed to extremely low conviction rates, delays in investigations and judicial procedures, and poor evidence quality as significant obstacles. Punjab was identified as the leading province due to its relatively active reporting systems, according to the TET report. Sahil's latest evaluation cautions that the true extent of gender-based violence may be significantly higher, as numerous incidents remain unreported due to societal barriers, lack of access, and safety issues. The organisation emphasised that without establishing secure reporting venues, providing effective legal support, and ensuring prompt justice for survivors, the rising trend of violence cannot be effectively addressed, as noted by the TET report. (ANI)
Anticipation continues to build to the visit of Russian President Vladmir Putin to India on December 4 and 5. Ahead of the visit Kremlin Spokesperson Dimitry Peskov hailed the relationship with India and said that Russia is proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with India during its historic growth. "Russia and Indian relationship is not just a standard set of diplomatic protocols and trade agreements, it's more of that it's much more important, our bilateral relationship rests on a deep historic background of mutual understanding. A mutual understanding of partnership, and a mutual vision of Global Affairs and system of Global Affairs based on international law on the rule of law, and the ability of taking it into account each other's interests. We are proud to have been shoulder to shoulder next to our Indian friends during their historic growth, and then the same time, we are very grateful to India for a very friendly stand nowadays, very friendly stand towards our country and towards our interaction on global in bilateral and global affairs. This background of our bilateral relations, gives us a very wide perspective of developing bilateral cooperation in various fields," he said. The Kremlin spokesperson highlighted Indo-Russian defence cooperation and said that there is bright future ahead for this cooperation. "We are in very close dialog with our Indian friends and International Affairs on the basis of United Nations. We are exchanging our views, finding that they really correspond in lots of majority of fields. As far as our cooperation in the defence industry goes, let's remember famous Brahmos missiles. It's not only just production or it's not only acts of buying or selling, it's exchange of high technologies, and it really paves the way for a bright future in this field of cooperation. We're developing quite, quite a variety of very complicated systems. And in this sense, of course, we have capabilities. We are ready to share this with our Indian friends, our experience," he said. Peskov said that Russia continues to be an important supplier of energy sources to India at competitive prices. "Energy security, where Russia continues to be a very important supplier of energy sources to India, competitive prices. We have no doubt that this trade is of a great benefit for India, and at the same time of mutual benefit. So we're exchanging mutual investments, joint investments and it makes this kind of cooperation even more valuable for our countries, in terms for securing future of this country. We were deeply involved in creating a sector of peaceful nuclear energy in India, in Kudankulam, and so we were hoping for continuation of this project," Peskov said. "Tariff between India and then the United States is rather a question of bilateral relations between India and the US, what concerns us is the way we're going to continue and enlarge the volume of our bilateral business with India, not letting anyone interfere," he added. The Kremlin spokesperson further said that the fact that a large volume of trade between the two countries was being paid in national currencies was important to secure this trade. "We have to organize our trade volume and our trade interaction in the way that cannot be affected by third countries. Nearly all, the whole volume of our trade relations is being paid by national currencies. This is very important. This is very important because thus we're securing our trade. We're securing our sovereignty of both countries, Russia and India, and we're securing our trade cooperation," Peskov said. Peskov said that Russia was looking at increasing imports from India and for this a forum of importers during the Russian President's visit which will aim to find ways at achieving this. "We are aware of that we're selling much more than we buy from India. And we know that our Indian friends are concerned about that and that we and by the way, we're jointly looking for his possibilities of increasing import imports from India to Russia. So we want to buy more from India, and so during the visit of the President, there will be a forum of importers. This will be an event In order to pursuing a goal to discuss the possibilities of increasing imports from India to Russia. We're working together with our Indian counterparts in order to find ways to include, to increase the amount of goods that we can purchase from India, not only goods but maybe services," he said. Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay a state visit to India from December 4-5 at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During the visit, Putin will attend the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit and hold talks with PM Modi. The visit will provide an opportunity for the leadership of India and Russia to review progress in bilateral relations, outline the vision for strengthening the 'Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership', and exchange views on regional and global issues of mutual interest. (ANI)
Amid the hubbub surrounding Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to India, Kremlin Spokesperson Dimitry Peskov said that Russia respected Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Peskov, while talking about the Russia-Ukraine conflict in a presser, said that Russia appreciates India's readiness to look for peaceful solutions. "With India, India wants to listen to us and it is mutual understanding. We're taking part in preparing personnel for those stations, in educating them, in supplying India with technologies, and so on and so forth. We appreciate position of India. We appreciate readiness of New Delhi to search for peaceful solution. We respect the position of PM Modi," he said. He then said that nearly all of their trade relations are being conducted in local currencies. "So the nearly, nearly all, the whole volume of our trade relations is being paid by national currencies. This is very important. This is very important because thus we're securing our trade. We're securing our sovereignty of both countries, Russia and India, and we're securing our trade cooperation," he said. Peskov then said that India is a great friend of Russia. "It's a great honor for me to have you here, and I want to thank you sincerely for taking your time and joining in this humble presentation, we are looking forward for a state visit of President Putin to India, and the day after tomorrow, actually, our president is going to fly to your country that we consider to be our great friend. People of India are great friends of us historically," he said. He further said that Russia-India relationship extends beyond diplomatic protocols. It is a mutual understanding of global affairs. "Well, Russia and Indian relationship is not just a standard set of diplomatic protocols and trade agreements, it's more of that it's much more important, our bilateral relationship rests on a deep historic background of mutual understanding, mutual understanding of partnership, and a mutual vision of Global Affairs and system of Global Affairs based on international law on the rule of law, and the ability of taking it into account each other's interests," he added. He added how Russia is ready to share their expertise and have also shared their energy sources on minimal prices to India. "And so we are experts in certainly fills and our expertise. And then we're really share. We are ready to share with our Indian friends, our experience. I think that this experiences of real value for our Indian friends. So, energy security, where Russia continues to be a very important supplier of energy sources to India. where Russia continues to be a very important supplier of energy sources to India on a competitive prices," he said. Peskov added that Putin will have a meeting with US Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff and is open to negotiations. "Putin and Witkoff will have possibility to discuss those understanding reached between Kyiv and Washington. Russia is open for peaceful negotiation, we have to reach our goals. In 5 hours there will be meeting with Witkoff. We continue to be open for open negotiation. We want to solve problem for coming generations," he said. Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay a state visit to India from December 4-5 at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During the visit, Putin will attend the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit and hold talks with PM Modi. The visit will provide an opportunity for the leadership of India and Russia to review progress in bilateral relations, outline the vision for strengthening the 'Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership', and exchange views on regional and global issues of mutual interest. (ANI)
With Russian President Vladimir Putin scheduled to visit India on December 4 and 5 it will be an opportunity for the leadership of India and Russia to review progress in bilateral relations. Ahead of the Russian President Visit the Kremlin Spokesperson Dimitry Peskov that the sale of additional S400 long-range anti-aircraft missile could be on the agenda during the visit. "Highly on the agenda and this could be discussed. Our military industry is working pretty well. Russian arms 36 % in Indian armed forces and hopefully will continue," Peskov said. Russia also hopes to discuss the possibility of India acquiring the Su-57 fifth generation stealth fighter. "SU- 57 is the best plane in the world. SU57 will be on the agenda," said Peskov "As far as our cooperation in the defence industry goes, let's remember famous Brahmos missiles. It's not only just production or it's not only acts of buying or selling, it's exchange of high technologies, and it really paves the way for a bright future in this field of cooperation. We're developing quite, quite a variety of very complicated systems. And in this sense, of course, we have capabilities. We are ready to share this with our Indian friends, our experience," he aded. Earlier, during the Dubai 2025 air show, a senior representative of Russia's state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said it was offering India both license production of air weapons for future generation aircraft and integration of Indian weapons. The official added that Russia and UAC are offering India the Su-57 produced in Russia along with a pathway to shift production to India in stages. As part of this, Rosoboronexport is offering "technology transfer" and "technological learning of fifth generation technologies, including engines, optics, AESA radar, AI elements, low signature technologies and modern air weapons. He also confirmed that Russia is willing to work with India on a two-seat version of the aircraft. He said the proposal includes "joint development of a two-seat modification of the Su-57E or FGFA." Meanwhile, Kremlin Spokesperson Peskov also said that there was the possibilty of an agreement on Nuclear energy between India and Russia during the President's vsit. "There will be an offer for small reactor. Russia possess important tech small and flexible reactor. Russia has real experience in producing small reactors. We're exchanging mutual investments, joint investments and it makes this kind of cooperation even more valuable for our countries, in terms for securing future of this country. We were deeply involved in creating a sector of peaceful nuclear energy in India, in Kudankulam, and so we were hoping for continuation of this project," Peskov said. The Russian diplomat also condemned the recent Delhi blasts and called for coperation to battle terrorism. "We condemn terrorism and our country had suffered a lot. We know the pain of losing people. India has faced this threat many times and we condemn terrorism. Only way to combat terrorism is to have international cooperation," Peskov said. Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay a state visit to India from December 4-5 at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During the visit, Putin will attend the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit and hold talks with PM Modi. (ANI)
Amid growing concerns over the health of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, who remains in jail, members of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) staged a protest outside the Islamabad High Court on Tuesday, raising slogans demanding justice and political reforms. PTI supporters gathered despite Section 144 being in force. The former PM has reportedly had no contact with anyone for nearly a month, prompting calls for immediate steps to ensure his well-being. As demonstrations were held in Islamabad, Minister of State for Interior Tallal Chaudhry said Section 144 would be strictly enforced in both Islamabad and Rawalpindi, where PTI has planned protests, Dawn reported. He warned that "whether they come to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) or the Adiala jail, action under Section 144 would be carried out without any discrimination," urging PTI-backed lawmakers to "abide by the law." The provision allows authorities to prohibit gatherings of four or more people for a limited period. According to Dawn, PTI activists are also expected to demonstrate outside Rawalpindi's Adiala jail, where Imran Khan is being held, over restrictions on visitation rights. Security has been tightened in Rawalpindi, with checkpoints on routes to Adiala jail and road closures leading to Islamabad's Red Zone. Chaudhry said Section 144 was imposed "in light of intelligence reports," claiming "terrorists look for instances [which they can use] to spread fear and make headlines; be it political gathering, courts or important places or offices." He added that terrorist groups often use social media and virtual private networks (VPNs) to conceal communication. He said the interior ministry and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority were working on controls to prevent misuse, without affecting legitimate IT operations. The minister also cited a Peshawar High Court ruling that bans the use of state resources for political purposes, cautioning provincial officials against deploying government assets outside their jurisdictions without prior notice. He stressed that criminal action would be taken against those violating the order. According to Dawn, Chaudhry maintained that Section 144 was intended to safeguard lives after a recent incident in Islamabad. He recalled earlier PTI demonstrations demanding meetings with Imran Khan and alleged that supporters "will do it themselves just like on May 9, and the entire Pakistan will face the consequences." On questions about shifting Imran Khan from Adiala jail to a new facility in Islamabad, Chaudhry said it was too early to comment, noting the jail was nearing completion and staff training would be required. He added that visas for Imran Khan's sons could be issued "in the next 24 hours" if all documents and a "tracking number" were provided. Meanwhile, Rawalpindi police said at least 3,000 personnel had been deployed across the city to maintain order. Police said "Section 144 has been imposed across Rawalpindi for three days, which restricts unlawful assembly, rally and protest." PTI leader Asad Qaiser said lawmakers planned to gather outside the IHC before marching to Adiala jail. "It has been decided to hold protests because IHC has failed to implement its order and the Adiala jail administration is not willing to implement the court orders," he said. Barrister Gohar Ali Khan and other PTI figures are expected to join the demonstrations. Last week, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi staged a sit-in outside Adiala jail after being denied access to Imran for the eighth time. Family members have been unable to meet him for several weeks amid ongoing speculation over his health. Government officials and PTI leaders continue to say he is in good condition. (ANI)
Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday stated Russia is working to strengthen its engagement with Afghanistan, noting that regional issues and joint interests are central to ongoing discussions. Peskov said, "We're building up our relationship with Afghanistan. We understand that we are our counterparts there, and we have to discuss the region's problems with them. We have our joint interests in the region, and we'll continue to develop our relationship with Afghanistan." He indicated that Moscow views cooperation with Kabul as essential for stability across neighbouring areas. He also commented on current economic adjustments involving Russian trade, indicating that market responses continue to evolve under external pressure. "Secondly, some companies are slowing down the purchase, while others are enlarging the purchase. The system is very flexible, and it responds to additional pressure from third countries very vividly and in a very sophisticated way," he added. Peskov's remarks come as Russia's relationship with Afghanistan enters a new phase after decades of diplomatic, security and economic shifts. According to historical records, ties date back to the 19th-century "Great Game," and were formalised with a Friendship Treaty in 1921 shortly after the Third Anglo-Afghan War. Relations deteriorated during the Soviet-Afghan War in the late 1970s and 1980s, when the Soviet Union intervened militarily, leading to a costly conflict and a withdrawal in 1989. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow adopted a policy of neutrality towards Afghanistan. While participating in international peace efforts, Russia also supported the Northern Alliance against the Taliban in the 1990s, reflecting long-standing security concerns, particularly relating to terrorism and cross-border unrest. In 2025, Russia shifted its approach significantly by officially recognising the Taliban government in Afghanistan. Moscow became the first country to accept the credentials of a Taliban ambassador on 3 July 2025, and earlier, in April 2025, it removed the Taliban from its list of designated terrorist organisations. Russian officials said the recognition would facilitate cooperation on security, counter-terrorism and combating drug trafficking. Moscow also pointed to trade and economic potential in sectors such as energy, transport, agriculture, and infrastructure. Russia has criticised Western policy towards Afghanistan, including sanctions and the freezing of Afghan assets, calling for an end to what it described as "confrontational policies." Officials in Moscow have indicated that the new framework aims to build pragmatic ties focused on regional stability and economic development. (ANI)
The Florida Orchestra has received a transformative $10 million donation from an anonymous benefactor, marking the largest single gift in its nearly six decades of existence. The announcement positions the orchestra for long-term financial stability and growth at a time when performing arts organizations across the country continue navigating post-pandemic recovery and evolving audience habits.

Leadership at the orchestra confirmed that the donation is not intended for short-term expenses but rather to support the endowment and advance the organization's long-term strategic plan. The gift is tied to a ten-year vision focusing on expanded community outreach, increased educational programming, and artistic innovation while securing the orchestra's future for generations of Florida audiences.

Ignacio Barron Viela, president and CEO of the Florida Orchestra, described the donation as a vote of confidence in the role of symphonic music in the Tampa Bay area and in the organization's future direction. He noted that the donor was reportedly moved by the orchestra's long-term strategy rather than a single project or performance. The scale of the gift, he said, reflects a growing belief among supporters that classical music remains relevant and essential in modern culture.

The donation comes on the heels of increasing philanthropic momentum for the orchestra. In previous seasons, the organization received two separate $1 million gifts, signaling an upward trend in investment from supporters. However, the new $10 million contribution eclipses all previous fundraising milestones and is expected to reshape what the orchestra can plan and sustain.

Based in the Tampa Bay region, the Florida Orchestra presents around 100 concerts each year across major venues including Ruth Eckerd Hall, the Mahaffey Theater, and the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts. The programming ranges from traditional symphonic repertoire to film scores, pop collaborations, and family concerts. Educational outreach has increasingly become a central focus, with programs aimed at schools, young musicians, and underserved communities.

Arts advocates in the region say the donation could have a ripple effect, encouraging additional giving and helping bolster the local cultural ecosystem. As performing arts funding continues to fluctuate nationwide, a gift of this scale offers stability and the chance to plan bold artistic choices without financial urgency overshadowing creativity.

For now, the orchestra is celebrating a milestone moment. The next chapter will focus on translating this historic gift into meaningful artistic and community impact that extends beyond the stage.

Originally published on classicalite.com
The Additional Directorate General of Public Information (ADG PI), IHQ of MoD (Army), on Tuesday announced the Indian Army has launched relief efforts for Sri Lanka under Operation Sagar Bandhu following Cyclone Ditwah, reaffirming India's regional commitment. In a post on X, ADG PI stated that as part of the national commitment of "Neighbourhood First", the Indian Army is deploying an Integrated Task Force, described as a "high-readiness, self-contained composite #HADR contingent from the #Shatrujeet Brigade" to provide support in the cyclone-affected areas. https://x.com/adgpi/status/1995795655479230815?s=20 According to the post, the contingent aims "to provide critical relief, restore essential services and support families in Sri Lanka affected by #CycloneDitwah." Highlighting India's broader humanitarian approach, ADG PI said, "The mission embodies our civilisational pledge of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam - The World is One Family' as the Indian Army stands firmly with Sri Lanka in its hour of need." In a coordinated humanitarian response, the Indian Army has deployed a specialised contingent to Sri Lanka under Operation Sagar Bandhu. The contingent comprises dedicated medical, engineering and signals components equipped to provide immediate and sustained relief. The medical team includes Advanced Dressing Stations (ADS) and Mobile Surgical Teams (MST), with an operation theatre capable of conducting major and minor surgeries and a facility to hold 20-30 patients at a time. Engineering elements are supporting the restoration of essential services and infrastructure, while the signals detachment is ensuring uninterrupted communication for relief operations. The Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka said two rapidly deployable Field Hospitals will reach the country by Tuesday evening, along with 70 personnel to support medical relief in areas hit by Cyclone Ditwah. Local media, citing figures from the Disaster Management Centre (DMC), reported that the death toll has climbed to 410, with 1.4 million people from 407,594 families affected as Sri Lanka continues to face flooding, landslides and severe weather. India's High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Santosh Jha, visited Sedawatta near Colombo on Tuesday to review National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) operations on the ground. The High Commission shared an update on X, stating, "High Commissioner Santosh Jha reviewed the NDRF rescue operations happening at Sedawatta near Colombo, today. NDRF teams are going door-to-door for evacuation and distribution of essential relief to inundated areas around Nadeegama, on the banks of the Kelani River, at this site. HC also interacted with some locals in the area. Some areas at this site are under 6 to 8 feet of water." Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Monday evening, offering condolences over the loss of lives and destruction caused by Cyclone Ditwah, while extending assurances of further assistance through Operation Sagar Bandhu. A statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) noted, "President Dissanayake conveyed his deep gratitude for India's assistance in the wake of the disaster and appreciated the swift deployment of rescue teams and relief material. He also conveyed the appreciation of the people of Sri Lanka for India's timely and effective response efforts." PM Modi expressed sympathy for the "loss of lives and widespread devastation" and pledged ongoing cooperation in line with India's maritime and humanitarian priorities, including Vision MAHASAGAR and its role as the "First Responder." According to the PMO statement, "Prime Minister assured President Dissanayake of India's continued support to Sri Lanka under the ongoing Operation Sagar Bandhu, providing rescue and relief to distressed persons. He assured that India, in line with its Vision MAHASAGAR and its established position as the 'First Responder', will continue to extend all necessary assistance in the coming days as Sri Lanka undertakes rehabilitation efforts, resumes public services, and works toward restoring livelihoods across the impacted regions." Both leaders agreed to stay in touch as relief and recovery efforts continue. (ANI)
Pakistani authorities at Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail on Tuesday permitted PTI founder Imran Khan's sister Uzma Khanum to meet the incarcerated former prime minister, Dawn reported. Uzma entered the prison while several PTI supporters accompanying her waited outside the facility. The meeting took place on a day when PTI held demonstrations outside the Islamabad High Court and Adiala Jail over restrictions on Khan's visitation rights. The party has maintained that members of Imran's family and senior leaders had been unable to meet him for several weeks. According to Dawn, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi earlier said that no one had been allowed to meet Imran or his wife, Bushra Bibi, since October 27. Ahead of the protests, Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code was imposed in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, barring gatherings of four or more people for a limited period. Minister of State for Interior Tallal Chaudhry warned the media that "whether they come to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) or the Adiala jail, action under Section 144 would be carried out without any discrimination". He urged PTI-backed lawmakers to "abide by the law". Chaudhry said the restriction had been enforced based on intelligence inputs, adding that "terrorists look for instances [which they can use] to spread fear and make headlines". He also said terrorists used social media applications with VPNs, prompting the interior ministry and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to work on measures to regulate VPN use. Dawn noted that he stressed the government did not intend to harm IT-related businesses but insisted the step was necessary to prevent misuse of digital platforms. The minister also recalled the Peshawar High Court ruling that barred the use of state resources for political activity. Referring to KP's chief minister, he said, "We hope that the KP chief minister, who repeatedly comes to Islamabad and Pindi, will not use state resources for his political activities." He reiterated that "KP police will [only] be used in KP for security" and warned that any use of state officials outside the province without proper intimation would lead to criminal cases in line with the PHC's order. Chaudhry said Section 144 had been enforced to protect lives, referring to "an incident" in Islamabad and to continuing threats. He remarked that PTI had held multiple protests in Rawalpindi demanding access to Imran and said the administration was monitoring the situation to prevent disruption. "To ensure that such gatherings of protests do not cause any loss," he added, recalling the violence of May 9, 2023. Dawn reported him as saying that the KP chief minister had no authority to demand a meeting with the PTI founder. Reiterating that the restrictions were linked to recent terror incidents, he said authorities did not want any situation that could "facilitate" militants. "We have made foolproof security arrangements, and God willing, no such incident will take place," he added, while emphasising cooperation from all stakeholders. He again warned that Section 144 would be "strictly imposed." When asked whether Imran might be shifted to a prison in Islamabad, Chaudhry said it was "too early to say anything." He stated that the new prison being built in the capital required completion and staff training, adding that it was intended to house inmates from the federal territory who were otherwise kept in other provinces. He also noted that if the necessary paperwork was provided, "Imran's sons would be issued visas in the next 24 hours." Dawn reported that security in Rawalpindi had been strengthened, with police saying around 3,000 personnel had been deployed. Section 144 is in place in the city for three days, and police warned that any violation would be dealt with strictly. Security pickets were set up on routes leading to Adiala Jail, while movement around Islamabad's Red Zone remained restricted. PTI leader Asad Qaiser announced that opposition lawmakers would protest outside the IHC before marching to the prison, citing non-implementation of the court's orders. Dawn added that last week, KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi staged a sit-in outside the jail after being denied a meeting with Imran for the eighth time. Imran's sisters have also protested multiple times outside the Rawalpindi prison after being denied access. The PTI earlier alleged that police had manhandled and "violently detained" Imran's sisters during a November 19 protest. Reports about the former prime minister's health had circulated, but both the government and PTI leaders stated he was in good health. (ANI)
Uzma Khanum, sister of PTI founder Imran Khan, on Tuesday confirmed that former Prime Minister of Pakistan, her jailed brother, was "perfectly fine" after she was allowed to meet him, Dawn reported. She was accompanied by a group of PTI supporters who gathered outside Adiala Jail while she went inside to see the former prime minister. Speaking to the media after the meeting, Uzma said, "Imran Khan's health is perfectly fine. However, he was very angry and said that they are subjecting him to mental torture." She added that Imran remained confined to his room most of the day with limited time outside and no communication with anyone. Uzma said the meeting lasted around 30 minutes. The visit took place as PTI staged demonstrations outside the Islamabad High Court and Adiala Jail against restrictions on visitation rights. The party has claimed that family members and senior leaders have been unable to meet the former premier for weeks. According to Dawn, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi said no one had been permitted to meet Imran or his wife, Bushra Bibi, since October 27. Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code was imposed in Islamabad and Rawalpindi ahead of the protests, banning gatherings of four or more people for a limited time. Minister of State for Interior Tallal Chaudhry said compliance would be ensured, warning, "Whether they come to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) or the Adiala jail, action under Section 144 would be carried out without any discrimination," while urging PTI-backed lawmakers to "abide by the law." Chaudhry linked the restrictions to intelligence inputs, saying, "Terrorists look for instances [which they can use] to spread fear and make headlines; be it [a] political gathering, courts or important places or offices." He said militants used social media with VPNs to conceal their identities and locations. He added that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority had issued guidance on registering VPNs to prevent misuse. Dawn noted that he said the government did not intend to harm IT businesses, but stressed that the step was necessary to curb terrorism. The interior minister also cited a Peshawar High Court ruling that barred the use of state resources for political activities. He said, "We hope that the KP (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) chief minister, who repeatedly comes to Islamabad and Pindi, will not use state resources for his political activities," adding that "KP police will [only] be used in KP for security." He warned that unauthorised use of provincial resources outside KP would lead to criminal cases under PHC directions. Chaudhry said Section 144 was imposed to protect public safety, referring to a recent incident and ongoing threats. He said authorities were closely monitoring protests "to ensure that such gatherings of protests do not cause any loss," recalling the unrest of May 9, 2023. According to Dawn, he claimed protesters "will do it themselves just like on May 9, and the entire Pakistan will face the consequences." When asked about the possibility of transferring Imran to a prison in Islamabad, Chaudhry said it was "too early to say anything." He said a new jail in the capital was nearing completion and would require staff training. He further stated that if provided the necessary documents and a "tracking number, Imran's sons would be issued visas in the next 24 hours." Rawalpindi police said around 3,000 personnel had been deployed to maintain law and order, with Section 144 in place for three days. Reports cited by Dawn said checkpoints were set up on roads leading to Adiala Jail. Various routes into Islamabad's Red Zone were also blocked to restrict movement. PTI leader Asad Qaiser said opposition lawmakers planned to protest outside the Islamabad High Court before marching to Adiala Jail, alleging non-implementation of court orders. Last week, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi staged a sit-in outside the prison after being denied a meeting with Imran for the eighth time. Imran's sisters have also protested several times after being barred from meeting him. PTI alleged police "violently detained" Imran's sisters during a November 19 protest. There were also speculations about the former prime minister's health, but both government officials and PTI leaders have said he is in good condition. (ANI)
In a deeply moving address in New Delhi, the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India, Mahishini Colonne, spoke of her nation reeling from the unprecedented destruction caused by Cyclone Ditwah, while expressing profound gratitude for India's rapid and generous assistance. "We meet at a time of immense difficulty for Sri Lanka," she began, recalling how the cyclone tore across the island with devastating force. "Over 410 lives have been lost as of this morning, 336 remain missing, thousands are displaced, and the damage to homes, schools, livelihoods, and infrastructure is immense." With entire communities in mourning and others beginning the painful task of rebuilding, she described Cyclone Ditwah as striking with the intensity of "an aerial bombardment" -- a force far beyond what the island's terrain, from its mountainous zones to its low-lying river basins, could withstand. Despite ongoing rescue and relief operations, she acknowledged that the disaster has revealed an unavoidable truth: Sri Lanka cannot recover alone. "In moments of grief and uncertainty, the true strength of friendship is revealed," she declared. "India, as always, has stood by Sri Lanka with remarkable solidarity." She highlighted India's swift launch of Operation Sagar Bandhu, which deployed search-and-rescue teams, medical personnel, naval vessels, aircraft, and more than 53 tons of relief materials. The continued flow of assistance, she said, has brought "relief and hope to countless families." On behalf of the President, the government, and the people of Sri Lanka, she conveyed heartfelt gratitude to India. She also extended appreciation to members of the diplomatic community, international partners, and individuals who have offered messages of solidarity as the island transitions from emergency relief to early recovery. Looking ahead, she stressed the need for sustained partnership. Discussions with the World Bank are already underway to assess the scale of destruction and determine the financial requirements for reconstruction. "The task ahead is immense," she said. "It is not a journey Sri Lanka can undertake alone." In a resonant appeal to the public, the High Commissioner underscored the deep and enduring ties between the two nations. "Your connection with Sri Lanka goes far deeper than geography," she noted. "Every visitor, every pilgrim, every student, every traveler strengthens our bond." She urged Indians not to turn away from Sri Lanka in its hour of recovery, but to come closer. "I warmly encourage you to continue traveling to Sri Lanka," she said. "Tourism sustains families and communities, and your presence will directly support our recovery." India has sent relief material to Sri Lanka under Operation Sagar Bandhu as part of its emergency response to Cyclone Ditwah, which caused widespread damage across the island nation. On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a telephone conversation with Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and expressed condolences on the loss of lives and widespread devastation in Sri Lanka in the wake of Cyclone Ditwah. He conveyed that the people of India stand in firm solidarity and support with the people of Sri Lanka in this hour of need, according to a PMO release. President Dissanayake conveyed his deep gratitude for India's assistance in the wake of the disaster and appreciated the swift deployment of rescue teams and relief material. He also conveyed the appreciation of the people of Sri Lanka for India's timely and effective response efforts. The Prime Minister assured President Dissanayake of India's continued support to Sri Lanka under the ongoing Operation Sagar Bandhu, providing rescue and relief to distressed persons. He assured that India, in line with its Vision MAHASAGAR and its established position as the "First Responder," will continue to extend all necessary assistance in the coming days as Sri Lanka undertakes rehabilitation efforts, resumes public services, and works toward restoring livelihoods across the impacted regions. The two leaders agreed to remain in close touch. India launched Operation Sagar Bandhu on November 28 to provide urgent search and rescue, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief support to Sri Lanka in the wake of the cyclone. The Sri Lankan High Commissioner was speaking at an event in Delhi, celebrating the launch of "Around the World in Magnets - Sri Lanka," a first-of-its-kind travelogue which invites readers to experience Sri Lanka through the stories, images, and memories carried in small but evocative souvenir magnets. Notably, Indian tourists form one of the largest and most vibrant groups of visitors to Sri Lanka, drawn by the island's beaches, heritage sites, spiritual connections, and cultural warmth. (ANI)
The 14th edition of the Joint Military Exercise EKUVERIN between the Indian Army and the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) commenced at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, on Tuesday, according to an official release by the Ministry of Defence. The exercise will be conducted from December 2 to 15. The Indian Army contingent of 45 personnel, represented by a battalion of the GARHWAL RIFLES, is participating alongside an equal-strength Maldivian contingent represented by the MNDF. EKUVERIN in Dhivehi translates to 'Friends', underscoring the deep-rooted bonds of friendship, mutual trust and military cooperation between the two nations. Conducted alternately in both countries since 2009, Exercise EKUVERIN continues to be a shining example of India's Neighbourhood First Policy and its commitment to building enduring defence partnerships with friendly nations. The release stated that the two-week-long exercise aims to enhance interoperability and operational synergy in counter-insurgency and Counter-Terrorism operations across jungle, semi-urban and coastal terrain. It will witness participation of troops from both sides sharing best practices, tactical drills and joint operational planning to strengthen their capability to respond to common security challenges in the region. The exercise reflects the growing defence cooperation and mutual commitment of India and the Maldives towards regional peace and stability in the Indian Ocean Region, the release noted. India and the Maldives share ethnic, linguistic, cultural, religious and commercial links steeped in antiquity. The relations have been close, cordial and multi-dimensional. As per a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs, India was among the first to recognise Maldives after its independence in 1965 and to establish diplomatic relations with the country. The importance of India's strategic role in Maldives is well recognised, with India being seen as a net security provider. Maldives occupies a special place under the "Neighbourhood First" foreign policy of India, which aims to bring stability and prosperity to the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). Also, both the nations are key players in maintaining safety and security of the IOR, thus contributing to India-led Security And Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) vision. (ANI)
In a post on X, he said, "Felicitations to FM Thongsavanh Phomvihane, the Government and people of Lao PDR on the Golden Jubilee of their National Day." He added that India remains committed to strengthening ties with Laos, stating, "Dedicated to advancing our civilizational bonds."

https://x.com/DrSJaishankar/status/1995872968363409623?s=20

Strengthening this message, Jaishankar highlighted ongoing cultural cooperation by sharing images of before-and-after restoration work carried out by India at the Vat Phou World Heritage site in the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

According to the visuals, the Archaeological Survey of India is undertaking efforts for "restoration and conservation of the Vat Phou World Heritage site in Lao PDR."

These images underscore India's continued cultural outreach and partnership with Laos, particularly in preserving shared heritage and historical legacy.

Further building on cooperation this year, the Indian government extended a grant of approximately USD 1 million to the Lao People's Democratic Republic under the India-UN Development Partnership Fund.

The support, provided on February 28, reflects India's sustained engagement in development, heritage conservation and capacity-building initiatives in Laos.

This grant will support the project titled "Strengthening Large-Scale Food Fortification: The Case of Investing in Rice Fortification."

According to a statement by the Permanent Mission of India to the UN in New York, the project, implemented by the World Food Programme, aims to promote food fortification programmes in Lao PDR, address long-term nutrition-specific strategies, strengthen food systems, increase nutritional diversity and overcome micro-nutrient deficiencies in the country.

"Support to the project is a reflection of India's deep-rooted ties with Lao PDR that encompasses multiple areas of cooperation," the statement added.

Notably, the India-UN Development Partnership Fund, established by the Indian government in June 2017, provides support to projects in developing countries that aim to contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Fund attaches centrality to the principles of South-South cooperation and places priority on national ownership, sustainability and development of local capacity.

A sum of USD 150 million has been committed by the Government of India towards this Fund, which has catered to 85 projects across 65 countries. (ANI)
Speaking at an investment forum in Moscow, Putin stated, "We are not planning to go to war with Europe, but if Europe wants to and starts, we are ready right now." He claimed European leaders are no longer prioritising negotiations and are instead backing continued hostilities in Ukraine.

Putin argued that European countries are putting forward demands related to the conflict that Russia cannot accept. He further accused Europe of obstructing initiatives by the United States and President Donald Trump to pursue a negotiated settlement.

According to Putin, "They are on the side of war," referring to European positions on the conflict.

His remarks come as US envoy Steve Witkoff and presidential adviser Jared Kushner meet in Moscow to discuss potential steps to end nearly 4 years of fighting.

Washington has circulated a 28-point peace proposal that was revised after pushback from Kyiv and European capitals, which criticised the initial draft for appearing too accommodating to Moscow's conditions.

European governments have voiced concerns that any peace structure could pressure Ukraine to give up territory currently under Russian control.

Putin also announced plans for a stronger military response, saying Russia would intensify attacks on Ukrainian ports and vessels after recent incidents at sea.

He described strikes on Russian tankers as "piracy." He added, "The most radical solution is to cut Ukraine off from the sea, then piracy will be impossible in principle."

Earlier, a Ukrainian security official said naval drones targeted two sanctioned tankers in the Black Sea as they sailed toward a Russian port to load oil for export.

On Tuesday, a Russian-flagged tanker carrying sunflower oil reported being struck by a drone off Turkey's coast, with all 13 crew members unharmed, according to Turkey's maritime authority and the Tribeca shipping agency.

Ukraine denied involvement in that incident.

Ukraine has previously conducted missile and drone attacks on the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, causing disruptions to oil shipping operations. (ANI)
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday stated that India is continuing to support Sri Lanka's flood relief efforts. An Indian Air Force C-17 aircraft carrying medical teams and equipment arrived in Colombo. In a post on X, he said, "An IAF C-17 transport aircraft with a self-contained, modular field hospital, over 70 medical & support personnel, and vehicles, landed in Colombo. India continues to aid Sri Lanka efforts at flood relief." https://x.com/DrSJaishankar/status/1995874318820278545?s=20 The assistance forms part of Operation Sagar Bandhu, under which an Indian Air Force helicopter on Tuesday delivered critical aid to Poramadulla in Kandy district and airlifted responders from Nuwara Eliya to boost ongoing operations following Cyclone Ditwah. The Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka said on X, "Under Operation Sagar Bandhu, Indian Air Force IFC 1885 flew essential relief to Poramadulla and transported personnel from Nuwara Eliya to support ongoing response efforts -- strengthening ground capabilities where help is needed most." Expanding on the relief efforts, the IAF's C-17 Globemaster also transported a Para Field Hospital with equipment and 73 medical personnel from Agra, landing in Colombo at 5.45 PM IST on Tuesday to assist relief teams on the ground. Meanwhile, IAF Mi-17 helicopters continued their missions, transporting over eight tonnes of relief supplies and evacuating 65 people, including foreign nationals, critically ill patients and a pregnant woman. According to the Indian High Commission in Colombo, India has sent two rapidly deployable Field Hospitals to Sri Lanka, together with around 70 personnel to deliver medical support in affected regions as rescue and relief work intensifies. Reports from Sri Lanka stated that the death toll from severe weather linked to Cyclone Ditwah has climbed to 410. Local media, citing the Disaster Management Centre, said 1.4 million residents from 407,594 families have been impacted, as floods, landslides and heavy rains continue across the island. Amid these ongoing operations, India's High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Santosh Jha, inspected National Disaster Response Force rescue efforts at Sedawatta near Colombo on Tuesday. The High Commission posted on X, "High Commissioner Santosh Jha reviewed the NDRF rescue operations happening at Sedawatta near Colombo, today. NDRF teams are going door-to-door for evacuation and distribution of essentials relief to inundated areas around Nadeegama, on the banks of Kelani river, at this site. HC also interacted with some locals in the area. Some areas at this site are under 6 to 8 feet of water." (ANI)
India and Israel Weapon Industries (IWI), the leading small-arms manufacturer, have opened discussions to explore the integration of the revolutionary Arbel computerised weapon system for Indian forces. Manufactured by IWI, Arbel is touted as the world's first fully computerised small-arms fire-control system, designed to significantly improve accuracy, lethality and decision-making for soldiers in complex battlefield scenarios. In an interview, IWI CEO Shuki Schwartz confirmed that talks are underway, saying: "We are now in the first conversations and talks regarding integrating the ARBEL systems in India." The Arbel system employs advanced sensors, real-time ballistic computation and target-acquisition capabilities to help soldiers achieve greater hit probability across varying combat environments. The system monitors the weapon's movement and trigger status to identify the user's tactical scenario and aiming pattern. Within milliseconds, its Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) algorithm determines the optimal fire solution. Once the trigger is pressed and held after the first shot, Arbel analyses the shooter's behaviour and releases subsequent rounds only when the probability of a hit is high. The system can be integrated with any small-arms platform and does not require a dedicated optical component to function. Over the years, Indian armed and security forces have acquired a range of IWI weapons: assault rifles like Tavor TAR-21 Assault Rifle and its variant IWI X95 Assault Rifle, sniper rifles from the Galil Sniper Rifle family, and light machine guns such as Negev NG-7 Light Machine Gun. In recent years, contracts have been signed for thousands of Negev light machine guns to bolster frontline and paramilitary firepower. Schwartz also highlighted the expanding partnership between IWI and the Indian defence sector. "In the last two decades, we have been working closely with India to equip different defence organisations, and we have seen the growth over the years," he said. "We are proud to be among the first to adopt the Make in India initiative, which has enabled larger quantities and a bigger market share in India." He added that IWI is already producing barrels in India and remains open to deeper technology cooperation as per India's requirements. "We are absolutely open to deeper technology as the market and contracts require," Schwartz said. (ANI)
OITA, Dec 02 (News On Japan) - Two male workers died after becoming trapped beneath a vacuum truck on a municipal road in Hita, Oita, with emergency responders confirming on December 1st that both had suffered fatal injuries after the vehicle appeared to move unexpectedly while they were preparing to begin waste collection work.

According to police and local authorities, the incident occurred at around 2:10 p.m., when a passerby reported that two men were pinned under a vacuum truck. Firefighters who arrived at the scene managed to pull the victims out, but both  one in his forties and the other in his sixties  were later pronounced dead.

The workers were about to start pumping sewage when the accident occurred, and given that the front section of the truck was found damaged, investigators believe the vehicle may have moved for unknown reasons, dragging the two men underneath. Police are continuing to examine the circumstances to determine what caused the truck to shift.

Source: FNN
TOKYO, Dec 02 (News On Japan) - A man carrying what appeared to be a knife entered a party venue at Hotel Miracosta inside Tokyo DisneySea on December 1st shortly after 8 p.m., briefly displaying the object before fleeing the scene, according to police.

The man reportedly walked into the banquet hall, removed a knife-like object from his backpack, and showed it to people nearby before escaping. No injuries were reported and no guests or staff members at the venue were harmed.

Police said the intruder is believed to be in his 30s to 40s and was wearing a black shirt at the time. Authorities are continuing to search for the man.

Source: FNN
The challenges stemming from the rise of terrorist threats were at the focus of discussions at a meeting held in Rabat Monday between Director General of National Security and Territorial Surveillance, Abdellatif Hammouchi, and the new Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Office of Counterterrorism, Alexander Zuev, who is currently on a working visit to Morocco.

The two sides discussed the challenges stemming from the rise of the terrorist threat in various high-risk areas around the world, particularly in the Sahel-Saharan region, the Horn of Africa, Syria, and Afghanistan, the DGSN-DGST said in a statement.

They also discussed ways to strengthen cooperation and mutual assistance between Morocco and the UNOCT in preventing and combating the risks of violent extremism.

Ways to coordinate counterterrorism initiatives at the regional and international levels, as well as mechanisms to expand these initiatives to areas of cooperation for securing major sporting events against terrorist risks and threats were also reviewed at the meeting.

The UNOCTs new Under-Secretary-General expressed his aspiration to learn about Moroccos experience in security matters in the fight against terrorism, describing it as essential for strengthening international cooperation in the fight against terrorist organizations and depriving them of any safe haven, rear base, source of funding, or sources of recruitment and enlistment, the statement said.

This meeting is part of the commitment of the DGSN and DGST to strengthen bilateral and multilateral cooperation mechanisms in the field of security. It also demonstrates the important role played by the Kingdom as a key and reliable partner in international initiatives and United Nations efforts to combat terrorism and extremism, the statement said.
DOT Crackdown Puts Thousands of Non-Domiciled CDLs  and State Highway Funding  at Risk

Federal transportation officials say California and Pennsylvania improperly issued commercial drivers licenses to non-domiciled applicants, ordering states to cancel invalid CDLs or face the loss of millions in highway funds.

The federal government has declared thousands of commercial drivers licenses issued to non-domiciled applicants in California and Pennsylvania invalid and warned the states that their federal highway funding could be cut unless they comply with new national licensing rules.

Under an emergency action announced by the Department of Transportation and FMCSA, hundreds of thousands of non-domiciled licenses issued to foreign citizens have been scrutinized after a nationwide audit flagged widespread violations. DOT said on Nov. 12 that the California Department of Motor Vehicles had illegally issued approximately 17,000 such licenses and that all must be canceled or the state could lose $160 million in federal transportation funds.

In a separate action, DOT informed the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation that its issuance of non-domiciled commercial drivers licenses was noncompliant with federal standards, placing about $75 million in federal funds on the line if the state does not correct the violations. FMCSA issued a preliminary determination of noncompliance and outlined steps state licensing agencies must take to regain eligibility for federal funds.

The emergency rule, issued Sept. 26, immediately tightened eligibility requirements for non-domiciled commercial learners permits and commercial drivers licenses. DOT officials cited a rise in horrific, fatal crashes involving non-domiciled drivers  along with audit findings  as justification for urgent intervention. The interim final rule restores stricter domicile-based licensing standards nationwide.

State officials now face pressure to review and revoke invalid licenses, retest affected drivers, and comply with federal licensing protocols. DOT has pledged to withhold funding from jurisdictions that fail to act.

This emergency action is essential to protect public safety and restore integrity to U.S. roads, DOT said in one of its press announcements.

The licensing crackdown has major implications for trucking companies, employer-sponsors, and state-level licensing agencies. Under the new rule, many non-resident drivers must upgrade their credentials or risk being removed from the road.

As of now, 17,000 California CDLs have been revoked. Pennsylvania and other states under review have been given a short window to comply with and avoid funding disruption.

DOT and FMCSA said they will continue audits and monitoring nationwide to ensure compliance and road safety.
After a month where every geopolitical bet fizzled, the oil market enters December searching for its next catalyst.

2026 Forecasts Slide to $62 as Oversupply Clouds Outlook

- The oil markets are increasingly forming a consensus view on 2026 prices, with a Reuters survey of analysts and economists yielding a $62 per barrel average for next year, a whopping $10 per barrel lower than their initial 2026 predictions.

- The IEAs expectations of a 4.2 million b/d oversupply is the most extreme outlook, perhaps overtly biased; however, even the most conservative estimate puts the total stock-build in 2026 at 0.5 million b/d.

- US shale output starting to decline next year - with WTI projected to average $59 per barrel, some $3-4 below the breakeven cost of a new Permian well  should put a floor under prices, so steeper price slumps are considered less likely.

- High freight costs have so far restricted the flood of Atlantic Basin barrels into Asia; however, with the Brent-Dubai EFS spread now trading negative, it is only a matter of time when easing freight costs open up those floodgates.

- ICE Brent front-month futures have averaged $68.80 per barrel in January-November 2025, a more than $11 per barrel drop compared to the 2024 average.



Market Movers

- US oil major Chevron (NYSE:CVX) will farm into two oil and gas exploration blocks in Nigerias deepwater operated by Frances TotalEnergies (NYSE:TTE), covering 2,000 km2 in the West Delta Basin.

- US pipeline operator Targa Resources (NYSE:TRGP) agreed to purchase Stakeholder Midstream for $1.25 billion in an all-cash transaction, boosting its natural gas processing portfolio.

- UK energy firm BP (NYSE:BP) has fully restarted its Olympic Pipeline system connecting the northwestern states of the US, following an almost month-long halt due to a leak.

- US oil major ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) has been approached by Iraqi authorities to express its interest in buying Lukoils 75% stake in the West Qurna-2 project, having only divested its equity in the neighbouring West Qurna-1 two years ago.

- Gold-focused mining giant Barrick Mining (NYSE:B) is considering an initial public offering of its North American gold assets, moving towards a spin-off of its Nevada gold mines under pressure from activist investor Elliott Investment Management.



Tuesday, December 02, 2025

The disappointing tug-of-war between oil doomers that anticipated a rapid return of Russian supply to markets after a quick Russia-Ukraine peace deal and the remaining oil bulls expecting military action in Venezuela has ultimately led to November going down as one of the most boring months in recent history, with ICE Brent trading within a $3-per-barrel trading range all month ($62.48 to $65.16). As the OPEC+ meeting brought exactly what the markets expected, all eyes are now on the Witkoff-led shuttle diplomacy between Moscow and Kyiv that could tilt the balance in December.

OPEC+ Rolls Over December Quotas. As assumed, OPEC+ members agreed to keep production levels unchanged for Q1 2026 as the group acknowledged oversupply risks amidst slackening demand, whilst also approving an internal mechanism to assess countries production capacity for 2027.

Henry Hub Hits 3-Year High on LNG Demand. US natural gas futures jumped to a 35-month high this week, at $4.9 per MMbtu, as the countrys feedgas demand continues to climb after a record 18.2 Bcf/d in November, with forecasts of below-average temperatures adding to the bullish sentiment.

Related: Tripoli and Algiers Push New Oil Cooperation After Ghadames Discovery

Copper Booms as China Announces Smelting Cuts. Copper prices in China, traded on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, rose to an all-time high of 89,650 per metric tonne ($12,650/mt) after CSPT, one of the countrys largest smelters, agreed to cut production by more than 10% in 2026.

CPC Resumes Loading After Drone Attack. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Kazakhstans main export conduit, has resumed oil loadings on Monday after a Nov 29 Ukrainian drone attack damaged its single-point mooring No.2, however shipments are currently only running at 50% capacity.

UK Pulls Out of Key African LNG Project. The British government has pulled its $1.15 billion financial backing for the TotalEnergies-operated (NYSE:TTE) Mozambique LNG project, a month after the plants 4-year force majeure was lifted, citing high security risks and shifting government priorities.

Gunvor Founder Quits Global Trader. Geneva-based commodities trader Gunvor announced that its co-founder and majority owner Torbjorn Tornqvist will retire as its chief executive and sell his stake after US allegations of him being a Kremlin puppet, launching a definitive reset for the company.

Senegal Struggles to Contain Tanker Leak. The African country of Senegal is scrambling to prevent an oil leak from the Mersin oil products tanker, attacked last week in what Moscow alleges was a Ukraine-orchestrated drone attack, as the blasts resulted in seawater ingress into the engine room.

Elliott Gets the Final Approval for Citgo Deal. A Delaware court authorized the sales of shares in PDVSA-owned refining giant Citgo Petroleum to Amber Energy, an arm of activist investor Elliott Investment Management, for $5.9 billion, the last legal step in a two-year auctioning process.

Venezuela Warns of US Eyeing Its Reserves. Venezuelas President Nicolas Maduro has accused the Trump administration of seeking to take over the countrys 300-billion-barrel oil reserves after imposing an airspace blockade on November 29, appealing to OPEC members for support.



Taiwan Doubles Down on LNG Usage. Taiwan published official energy consumption statistics for October, showing that LNG accounted for 53% of the countrys power generation mix for the first time ever, with Taipei boosting gas imports as it shut down its last nuclear reactor in Maanshan.

Black Sea Insurance Rates Soar on Drone Strikes. Ukraines drone strikes on tankers carrying Russian oil and dry bulk goods, with two confirmed hits in Turkish waters, have lifted insurance rates in the Black Sea as Russian loadings now wield a rate of 0.8% of ship value compared to 0.6% last week.

Canada Delays Decision on TMX Asset Sale. Canadas Carney government stated that it would only look at selling equity in the state-run $24 billion Trans Mountain oil pipeline after it is fully utilized, as tariff toll disputes are still keeping throughput rates at 75% of nameplate capacity.



China Pitches Iron Ore Expansion for Miners. Chinas Iron and Steel Association has urged domestic mining companies to expedite iron ore mining projects in the country as its import dependence has been soaring, taking in more than 1 billion tonnes last year or 70% of its overall requirements.

By Tom Kool for Oilprice.com
Artificial Intelligence has emerged as one of the biggest secular megatrends of our time. AI is powering the fourth industrial revolution and is increasingly being viewed as a key strategy for mastering some of the greatest challenges of our time, including climate change and pollution. Energy companies are employing AI tools to digitize records, analyze vast troves of data and geological maps, and potentially identify problems such as excessive equipment use or pipeline corrosion. AI is used to analyze seismic data, optimize drilling paths, and manage reservoirs more efficiently, maximizing extraction while minimizing environmental impact and human error. AI Driller employs AI to remotely manage drilling processes across multiple rigs; Petro AI and Tachyus deploy physics-informed AI models for production forecasting and reservoir management; OFS heavyweights Baker Hughes (NYSE:BKR) and C3.ai (NYSE:AI) utilize enterprise AI to predict failures across their assets while Buzz Solutions analyzes visual data for power line inspections.

Similarly, AI is reshaping the power sector by optimizing processes across the entire energy value chain, from generation to consumption, while simultaneously posing a significant challenge due to its own high energy demands.

AI is helping improve demand response and energy efficiency, with tools like Brainbox AI and Enerbrain helping to autonomously reduce energy drift while Uplight helps utilities to incentivize efficiency. AI is also facilitating renewable energy integration by analyzing vast datasets, including weather patterns, to accurately forecast the intermittent output of solar and wind energy sources. AI is used in renewable energy to improve grid management, optimize energy production, balancing supply and demand in real-time, and using machine learning to predict equipment failure, which reduces downtime and costs. For instance, Envision and PowerFactors provide integrated platforms that help manage vast renewable fleets; Clir and WindESCo employ AI to detect underperforming wind turbines, adjusting pitch and yaw to capture more energy; SkySpecs employs AI and autonomous drones to conduct automated inspections of wind turbines, while Form Energy is tackling the storage space.

Related: OPEC+ Holds Output Steady, Approves New Capacity Framework Through 2026



Meanwhile, AI is becoming integral in building smart grids by providing the visibility required to manage congestion and prevent blackouts. Kraken Technologies leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) as the "brain" of a modern energy grid to balance intermittent renewable supply with real-time demand, coordinate millions of decentralized energy assets, and automate operations for efficiency and stability.

WeaveGrid and Camus Energy use AI to help utilities integrate electric vehicles (EVs) and other distributed resources into the grid without causing overloads. WeaveGrid focuses on managing EV charging through software that optimizes it to align with grid capacity and renewable energy availability. Camus Energy uses AI, specifically machine learning, to create "copilot" systems that forecast electricity demand and power flow with high accuracy, which speeds up the grid's complex physics calculations and improves stability during events like EV charging peaks.

Finally, AI is used in carbon emissions and ESG management to centralize data, optimize operations, monitor supply chains, and improve reporting. It helps companies with real-time tracking, predictive analytics for emissions, and real-time supply chain management. Additionally, AI automates tasks like ESG reporting, anomaly detection in emissions data, and helps navigate complex regulatory landscapes. Carbon Chain and Watershed use AI and machine learning (ML) to provide accurate, scalable, and granular carbon emissions measurement and management for businesses, particularly focusing on complex supply chain (Scope 3) emissions.

Carbon Chain helps enterprises account for their total carbon impact by automating the ingestion and analysis of large volumes of supply chain data to generate detailed, audit-ready reports. The platform uses machine learning to ingest data from diverse and often fragmented sources (ERP systems, supplier reports, etc.) to build a granular picture of emissions.



Meanwhile, Watershed utilizes AI extensively across its enterprise sustainability platform to automate data collection, improve data accuracy, and provide actionable decarbonization insight. Watershed's key AI tool is "Product Footprints," which uses advanced AI models to break down every purchased item into its constituent materials and processes, tracing upstream steps like raw material extraction, manufacturing, and transportation. This approach replaces slow, manual life-cycle assessments or imprecise spend-based estimates, producing detailed emissions profiles in minutes.

On the flip side, all these AI advancements have come at a price, with reports emerging that states and regions with a high concentration of AI data centers are seeing a much bigger surge in power bills compared to the rest of the country. Big Tech and AI labs are now building giant data centers that consume a gigawatt or more of electricity in some cases, enough to power more than 800,000 homes. Its, therefore, hardly surprising that states with the highest number of data centers are also experiencing the biggest increase in electricity prices. With 666 data centers, Virginia has the largest number of these power-hungry facilities in the country. Interestingly, residential electricity prices in the state increased 13% in August compared with the same period in the previous year, the second-highest clip nationwide after Illinois 15.8%. Illinois has 244 data centers, the fourth highest amongst the 50 states.

Not surprisingly, theres growing techlash, with various politicians criticizing the Trump administration for cutting sweetheart deals with Big Tech companies and forcing consumers to subsidize the cost of data centers. This means we are likely to see more states adopt the Oklo (NYSE:OKLO) model wherein data centers provide their own electricity supply to avoid burdening the consumer.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

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Pro?West Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al?Sudani performed strongly in the 11 November parliamentary elections  the seventh since Saddam Husseins fall in 2003. With turnout around 56%, Sudanis Reconstruction and Development Coalition emerged as the largest faction, winning 1.3 million votes out of nearly 11 million cast, beating the pro-Iran State of Law Alliance by 370,000. However, Sudanis faction still only received 15% of the seats in parliament, totalling 46 out of 329. On the other hand, pro-Iran parties collectively won 121 seats -- the largest share, albeit not quite enough to form the government by themselves. Who ultimately takes the prime ministerial slot now is crucial not just for Iraq, but also for the two superpower blocs centred in Washington and Beijing who regard the country as critical to their plans for the entire Middle East and beyond. So, what happens next?

Technically, the procedure looks straightforward and quick. According to Iraqs 2005 Constitution, once the election results have been verified, the president asks the newly elected parliament to meet within 15 days. In that first gathering, parliament elects a speaker and two deputies by straight majority vote. It can then choose a new president  provided there is a two-thirds majority for a single candidate -- or extend the sitting presidents term. This is currently Abdul Latif Rashid, a Kurdish politician and member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, as the presidency is a role that traditionally goes to a Kurd. Once this has been finalised, the new president authorises the bloc that holds the most seats in the new parliament to form a cabinet led by its chosen nominee for prime minister. Although pro?Iran parties hold the most seats, they are not a unified bloc -- Sudanis coalition is. Whilst it might be expected that he would be the choice of his bloc for prime minister, the past has seen the apparent leader removed before he could take the top job. In any event, the prime ministerial nominee then has 30 days to put together a list of prospective cabinet members and submit it to parliament for a majority vote of confidence. If this vote fails, the president must select another nominee to attempt the same process.

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In reality, a lot can happen in these latter parts of the process  in fact, in the past, the entire procedure has taken as long as a year to conclude. The basis for this approach was to safeguard against the re-emergence of a single dominant force in Iraqi politics again, especially any resurgence of Saddam Husseins Baath Party. In this regard, it has succeeded so far, but the process has militated instead into long-running dealings between the three major groupings in the country: Shias, Sunnis, and Kurds. Since 2005, this has manifested into a broad power-sharing agreement between the three, with the largest of them  the Shias  assuming the prime ministerial role, the Kurds taking the presidential one, and the Sunnis securing the role of speaker.

Sudanis core problem here lies in the fact that his Reconstruction and Development Coalition bloc is part of the broader Shia-centric Coordination Framework, which also comprises an array of pro-Iran parties to varying degrees of zealotry. At the extreme end is the al?Sadiqoun bloc, with 27 seats, the political wing of U.S.-designated terrorist organisation Asaib Ahl al-Haq. Winning the same number of seats is the slightly more moderate pro-Iran State of Law bloc. The Coordination Framework also consists of pro-Iran blocs the Badr Organisation, the National State Forces Alliance, and other smaller factions. The problem here is that during his first tenure as prime minister  especially over the last year  Sudani has appeared to move away from Iran (and its key sponsors China and Russia) and towards the West (and its central presence, the U.S.). This has been seen in the re-entry into Iraq of multiple major oil and gas firms from the West, which have been awarded huge exploration and development contracts that are crucial to the fabric of Iraqs hydrocarbons sector, as analysed in full in my latest book on the new global oil market order.

These include TotalEnergies US$27 billion four-pronged megadeal (incorporating the vital Common Seawater Supply Project) and BPs US$25 billion five-pronged deal in northern Iraq, together with major deals signed by the U.S.s Chevron and ExxonMobil. It can well be argued that investment from these firms has been instrumental in the notable infrastructure improvement projects launched by Sudani that benefit Iraq. This rapprochement with the West also played a key part in keeping Iraq out of the recent war between Iran and Israel, according to senior legal sources exclusively spoken to by OilPrice.com recently. However, these moves are viewed with suspicion and some hostility by the pro-Iran factions. This is because, aside from the political influence that such deals might buy the West, these exploration and development sites are legally allowed to maintain an extensive on-the-ground presence of Western employees and whatever level of security personnel the firms see fit.

In all these developments, it should not be forgotten that both the West and China-Russia-Iran see Iraq as a pivotal space in the fabric of the Middle Easts power balance. Indeed, as exclusively revealed to OilPrice.com some years ago by a very high-ranking official from the Kremlin: By keeping the West out of energy deals in Iraq, the end of Western hegemony in the Middle East will become the decisive chapter in the Wests final demise. Consequently, the push has been on from Russia and China  especially since the U.S.s unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran in 2018  to remove all Western firms from southern Iraq and from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan territory in its north as well. On the other side of the superpower equation, the U.S. and its key allies believe breaking the multi-layered links between Iraq and Iran will not only significantly weaken Baghdads neighbour but its key sponsors, China and Russia, too. The U.S. and Israel also have a further strategic interest in utilising the Iraqi Kurdistan region as a base for ongoing monitoring operations against Iran. As also detailed in my latest book. The West additionally sees this northern territory as a critical security bridge from NATO member Turkey into the Middle East and beyond. It is in the context of this massive geopolitical power balance that news of Russian oil giants Rosnefts and Lukoils downscaling of its operations in Iraq should be seen.

Nouri al-Maliki is the only Iraqi prime minister to have two terms in office since 2003, but his second term was broadly seen as a failure in the country. The popular view is that the second term featured an upsurge in government corruption and a mishandling of Iraqs position between the West, the East and Iran. Both allegations have also been levelled at Sudani, including by some of his previously onside Coordination Framework allies, particularly arising from his opposition to completely expelling the U.S. military from the country. His refusal earlier this year to authorise the signing of a new law that would have legally upgraded the broadly pro-Iran Popular Mobilisation Forces to a permanent arm of the Iraqi state was also seen by some Coordination Framework allies as a betrayal in this context. It may then be that the only way Sudani sees of securing the crucial support of this group for a second prime ministerial term is to move back towards a more pro-Iran stance, at least in the short term. Otherwise, Iraqs likely new prime minister may well emerge from the harder-line ranks of the grouping.

By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com

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Rio Tinto is streamlining operations and drafting a fundamental reset to accelerate projects with quicker and better returns. The strategy overhaul is courtesy of the mining giants former head of the iron ore division, the groups biggest business, who became chief executive officer a few months ago.

New Rio Tinto CEO Simon Trott will unveil his vision of a streamlined Rio Tinto at a Capital Markets Day event in London on Thursday.

Trott has signaled that reorganization will continue to fundamentally reset the companys businesses. This could include asset sales, slowing developments in lithium projects, and additional cost cuts, analysts tell The Wall Street Journal.

Rio Tinto could slow the timeline for development of some lithium projects, according to investors, after the mining giant bet big on the critical metal last year with the $6.7 billion acquisition of Arcadium Lithium.

The mining group will still bet on lithium, but projects will have to compete with the iron ore and copper developments, analysts say.

Days after becoming CEO, Trott announced in August a new operating model and executive team to shape the companys next chapter.

Effective immediately, Rio Tinto simplified its product group structure to three businesses: Iron Ore, Aluminium & Lithium, and Copper.

Rio Tintos Lithium business moved into the Aluminium product group under the leadership of Jerome Pecresse.

I think if you try and do everything, you get nothing done, Trott said at the Goldman Sachs Global Metals and Mining conference 2025 in October.

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One of the really good things about having options, and we've got lots of options in the lithium space, is that the bar is really high, and so we can look at those projects and progress the very best of them.

Trott hinted Rio Tinto would be more selective in the lithium business to progress the most profitable projects.

The miner still sees strong lithium demand going forward, it said in its Third Quarter Operations Review.

Lithium demand remains strong, underpinned by a 27% YoY increase in global electric vehicle (EV) sales across the first seven months of this year (compared to 22% over the same period in 2024). Demand from stationary batteries remains solid and is providing additional upside, Rio Tinto said.

However, last month the group decided to mothball a $2.4 billion lithium project in Serbia after years of trying to obtain all necessary permitting.

As part of our focus across the overall portfolio to simplify and prioritize near term opportunities, the decision has been made to transition the Jadar project to care and maintenance, an internal memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal showed.

Prioritizing quicker returns and payback opportunities will be core to Rio Tintos new strategy under Trott.

The changes we are making are not incremental  they are fundamental, the CEO wrote in October in an emailed message shared with Bloomberg.

We are transforming to make life easier for our frontline and lift our performance. It will take discipline and effort from all of us.

Lithium demand has seen ups and downs in recent years, from booms to busts, as the pace of electric vehicle (EV) adoption, Chinas economic growth, and faded energy transition enthusiasm in the U.S. have shaped the market trends.

Over the past five years, lithium prices have gone from bust to boom and back to bust again because of a disjoint between demand and supply, said Oliver Heathman?, Head of Metals Assets, Metals & Mining Research at Wood Mackenzie.

New producers, such as Brazil and Zimbabwe, have emerged in recent years spurred on by higher prices, while the level of optimism over EV demand has subsequently waned creating the current market oversupply as demand growth rates have slowed.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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The strategy is comprehensive, focusing on all layers of technology from the extraction of critical minerals like lithium and cobalt to the advanced manufacturing of semiconductors, complementing domestic investments like the CHIPS and Science Act.

The primary motivation is to build resilience and reduce the West's dependence on China, which accounts for a dominant share of global refining capacity for key materials like rare earth elements, posing a risk of "coercive dependencies."

The United States is leading a diplomatic initiative with eight allied nationsincluding Japan, South Korea, and Australiato forge secure supply chains for the critical minerals and advanced semiconductors essential to the artificial intelligence sector.

The United States is launching a pivotal diplomatic push with eight allied nations to forge secure, end-to-end supply chains for the critical minerals and advanced semiconductors that underpin the burgeoning artificial intelligence (AI) sector. The effort, driven by geopolitical concerns over concentrated global production, is set to formally begin with a summit at the White House on December 12, according to Jacob Helberg, the Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs.

This strategic alignment, involving Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia, marks an escalation of the U.S. strategy to build resilience and reduce the West's dependence on China in high-stakes technological domains. The focus of the agreements will span energy, critical minerals, advanced manufacturing of semiconductors, AI infrastructure, and transportation logistics.

The Supply Chain as the New Strategic Battleground

The immediate impetus for the initiative is the strategic competition between the U.S. and China over future technologies. Helberg noted, "Its clear that right now in AI, its a two-horse raceits the U.S. and China." The risk is not merely commercial; it is one of "coercive dependencies," a vulnerability highlighted by Chinas history of imposing export controls on key materials.

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The participating nations were selected for their specific roles in the global tech ecosystem: either as home to world-leading semiconductor firmslike the Netherlands' ASML or South Korea's Samsung and SK Hynixor for their rich critical mineral resources, such as Australia. This targeted approach is a shift from previous, broader coalitions, emphasizing countries that control essential stages of production.

Fueling the Energy Transition and AI Boom

The stability of these supply chains is paramount, not just for AI, but for the global energy transition. Critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, nickel, and rare earth elements (REEs) are non-negotiable inputs for electric vehicle (EV) batteries, wind turbines, and the high-efficiency motors in advanced manufacturing.

The vulnerability is stark: China accounts for a dominant shareupwards of 90 percentof global refining capacity for rare earth elements and the subsequent manufacturing of rare earth permanent magnets, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). REEs, such as neodymium and dysprosium, are essential for the high-power magnets used in nearly all modern EV motors and large-scale wind generators. A disruption in the supply of these materials would directly impede the decarbonization efforts of the allied nations.

Similarly, the demand for cutting-edge semiconductors, which are the fundamental hardware for AI models, requires vast inputs of critical materials, including gallium and germanium. The U.S. relies on East Asia for an estimated 75 percent of global semiconductor production, illustrating a structural risk this initiative aims to mitigate.

Building on Prior Efforts with a Broader Mandate

The current initiative builds upon years of groundwork laid by prior administrations. The first Trump administration launched the U.S. Energy Resource Governance Initiative to focus on securing minerals like lithium and cobalt, while the Biden administrations Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) aimed to funnel investment into trusted producer countries.

However, Helberg noted that the new plan is broader, focusing on all layers of technology involved in AI, acknowledging the sector's explosion since platforms like ChatGPT came to the fore. Furthermore, the strategy complements major domestic investments, such as the CHIPS and Science Act, which earmarks billions of dollars for boosting domestic semiconductor manufacturing capacity. Other efforts, like the Department of Energy's (DOE) recent announcement of $355 million in funding to expand domestic recovery of critical materials from industrial byproducts, underscore the multi-faceted push to de-risk the supply chain from the mine to the final product.

Ultimately, the goal is to create a parallel, resilient ecosystem among trusted partners. As Helberg stated, "Countries who are participating understand the transformative impact of AI, both for the size of a countrys economy, as well as the strengths of a countrys military." The December summit is an effort to translate this shared understanding of strategic risk and economic opportunity into concrete, collaborative agreements.

By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com

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Bangui, Central African Republic (PANA) - During a visit to Bangui, the UN peacekeeping chief on Saturday praised the "positive trajectory" of the Central African Republic (CAR), where peacekeepers have been deployed since the civil war that shook the country a decade ago
Zipcar has reached the end of the road in the UK after its US owner pulled the plug on operations in the run up to the introduction of fresh London Congestion Charges for electric vehicles.

The car hire business has begun a formal consultation with employees in the UK and will stop taking new bookings beyond the end of the year, according to a company statement, in a move likely to lead to dozens of job losses.

In an emailed message to customers, Zipcar UK general manager James Taylor said: Im writing to let you know that we are proposing to cease the UK operations of Zipcar and have today started formal consultation with our UK employees.

?We will temporarily suspend bookings, pending the outcome of this consultation.

This means it will not be possible to make any new bookings beyond 31 December, 2025, pending the outcome of the consultation.

External cost pressures continued to negatively impact the company. Whilst there was some improvement in fuel prices, electricity costs remained high throughout 2024, the firm said in its accounts, published last month.

This particularly affected the company due to the size of the electric fleet and the fact that fuel costs are included in the cost of the rental.

Resale market values continued to be challenging, which also drove higher costs. Year on year increases in the cost of motor insurance also placed further pressures on costs.

Zipcar did not set out why it was withdrawing from the UK, but the suspension of operations coincides with the decision by London Mayor Sadiq Khan to extend the Congestion Charge to electric vehicles, a move that would have been likely to deal a hammer blow to the firms electric fleet.

The charge, from which EVs were previously exempt, will mean drivers will face a 13.50 daily charge from the beginning of next year.

Zipcar UK had 71 full time staff in 2024, a fall on the 92 staff the previous year.

The firm was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was listed on the Nasdaq before being acquired by Avis for $500m.

By Simon Hunt via CityAM

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U.S. natural gas futures spiked to their highest levels in nearly three years as models now show a frigid first half of December across the Lower 48. Several forecasters are also warning of a potential polar-vortex-driven Arctic blast event later this month, which could drive temperatures even lower.

Let's begin with an unusual sight (for this time of year) of winter storm alerts across the Northeast on Tuesday morning.

???? WINTER STORM TODAY ????

Heavy snow (5-10" expected) in the Interior Northeast & disruptive ice (up to 0.2" accretion) in the Central Appalachians will make today's commutes HAZARDOUS. The storm exits by Wednesday morning. pic.twitter.com/kkcnacF82O  NWS Weather Prediction Center (@NWSWPC) December 2, 2025

NatGas futures are on track for their largest quarterly gain since the first quarter of 2022. Prices on Tuesday morning were trading near $5 per mmbtu, the highest level since December 2022. The rally is being fueled by a rapid shift toward colder early-December temperatures across the Midwest and East, which has boosted heating demand expectations.

Weather models turned colder across the eastern two-thirds of the country for Dec. 6 to 10, with additional cooling expected for Dec. 11 to 15. These forecasts merely reinforce expectations for a near-term spike in residential and commercial heating loads.

Meteorologist Ryan Maue warned on X that the stratospheric polar vortex over the North Pole is set for another warming event in about two weeks.

The stratospheric "polar vortex" above the North Pole is loading up yet another "sudden warming" event in 2-weeks. After most extreme observed November SSW event, we're hitting multiplier x2 -- re-spinning the whole thing. Told you already we're going to see the "full load" pic.twitter.com/tgcBsmHsyA  Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) December 1, 2025

"It's going to be a long, cold winter," Maue noted in another post.

It was bound to happen. If you continue stretching the polar vortex, eventually it will let loose obscenely cold air. By next weekend into following week, the bottom drops out completely with coldest early December temperatures since 1876 in Chicago. pic.twitter.com/tw8FVhZHAS  Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) November 30, 2025

Meteorologist Judah Cohen stated, "IMO next PV stretch keeps cold train coming in Eastern US up to the holidays."

The weather pattern is in rinse, lather, repeat mode or in #PolarVortex (PV) parlance, one good stretch deserves another. IMO next PV stretch keeps cold train coming in Eastern US up to the holidays. Also first ever N Hemisphere snowfall forecast in blog https://t.co/CGUOIWUvOO pic.twitter.com/v2rQz182wb  Judah Cohen (@judah47) December 2, 2025

Greta Thunberg's sudden pivot to all things Palestine and Bill Gates' open acknowledgment that much of the climate-crisis narrative was overblown only reinforce what's becoming obvious: the climate-crisis narrative has collapsed like a house of cards. And with the Northeast already plunged into an early-season chill, spare us ... we could certaintly use a little "global warming" right about now.

By Zerohedge.com

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The U.S. federal government is considering further steps to speed up the buildout of liquefied natural gas export infrastructure as flows of natural gas to LNG plants hit a record high. Exports, as it happens, are also running at all-time highs.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commissions chairwoman announced the coming changes in a statement that said, Energy infrastructure needs to be built now, and existing projects need to be maintained efficiently to ensure grid reliability today and in the future. We are taking a hard look at our processes and ways we can simplify certain activities.

To speed up new infrastructure construction, the commission is considering a blanket permit regime rather than assessing each new project individually before granting approval for its construction. The same changes are being considered for hydropower plants as well, with a view to strengthening the grid.

A couple of days after the FERC statement, Bloomberg reported that natural gas flows to the liquefaction trains along the Gulf Coast had reached an all-time high of 19 billion cu ft daily this last Friday. Of this total, two companies took about half, with Cheniere Energy drawing in 5.1 billion cu ft for its plant in Sabine Pass, and Venture Global taking in 4.5 billion cu ft as it continued to expand production at its second LNG export facility, Plaquemines. The two accounted for 72% of total U.S. LNG exports in October.

Related: OPEC+ Holds Output Steady, Approves New Capacity Framework Through 2026

The news coincided with data suggesting the United States was on track to post another record month for LNG exports as Europe soaks in whatever volumes are available to stock up on gas ahead of winter. The data, from energy analytics firm Kpler, showed that the monthly total for November was on track to reach 10.7 million tons, which would represent a 40% increase on November 2024 and the highest ever exported by a single LNG-producing country.

The United States is already the biggest exporter of liquefied gas in the world. The Trump administration is working to ensure it stays this way, with the U.S. president making energy imports a mandatory part of his trade deal with the European Unionthe largest market for American LNG right now.

If the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission goes ahead with the planned changes, it could encourage even faster growth in LNG export capacity as global energy demand forecasts see consistent growth in demand for liquefied gas specifically.

Already, the Energy Information Administration projects that if all currently planned LNG facilities get built, this would boost the United States liquefaction capacity more than twofold, by some 13.9 billion cu ft daily between this year and 2029. Interestingly, the EIA made that projection last month, citing average daily flows to LNG plants of 15.4 billion cu ft.

Last month, Reuters reported that the United States had become the first country to export 10 million tons of liquefied natural gas in a single month. Citing data from LSEG, the publication reported that U.S. LNG exports in October had hit 10.1 million tons, of which 6.9 million tons went to Europe, and another 1.96 million tons went to Asia. Europe accounted for 69% of total U.S. exports of liquefied gas, cementing the continents top spot among U.S. LNG clients.

With winter setting in across the Northern hemisphere, chances are that U.S. LNG export rates will remain elevated in the coming months as withdrawals from storage in Europe accelerate amid peak heating demand season. This fits into the Trump administrations energy dominance agendabut it also raises gas prices for the average American.

Three months ago, natural gas futures were trading at below 43 per million British thermal units. Last week, the U.S. benchmark hit $4.85 per mmBtu. The price jump reflects strong global demand for liquefied gas amid a colder start to the winter than last years. Also, the EIA has reported two consecutive weekly inventory draws in natural gas, reinforcing the perception of tightening supply. This highlights the flip side of the energy dominance agenda: tighter supply at home.

U.S. energy industry insiders argue that there is plenty of natural gas to go around both at home and abroad, and while this may well be true, this supply is by no means unlimited. If all the planned new LNG export terminals get built, exports could increase by as much as 75% by 2030, according to analysts. This would mean daily flows into liquefaction trains of 30 billion cu ft daily by that year.

This, in turn, would necessitate higher productionand indeed, the EIA has projected a record-breaking 2025 for gas production, at 107.1 billion cu ft daily, followed by another record-breaking year in 2026, with output rising to 107.4 billion cu ft. Add to this demand from data centers and higher gas prices become inevitable. The question is just how high they would go.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was at the Elysee Palace in Paris on December 1 for talks with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, kicking off another week of intense diplomacy aimed at ending nearly four years of fighting in Ukraine following Russia's full-scale invasion.

The visit, aimed at finding "conditions for a just and lasting peace," came a day after talks in Florida between US and Ukrainian delegations that both sides praised as productive without providing further details.

After the Paris meeting, Zelenskyy said the two leaders had also spoken with US special envoy Steve Witkoff, who is due to hold talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 2. It will be Witkoff's sixth meeting with Putin since January.

"It was an important briefing, and we agreed to discuss more details in person," Zelenskyy wrote on social media. Speaking at a news conference, Zelenskyy said he also expected to discuss key issues with US President Donald Trump.

Macron said US mediation was "a very good thing" but indicated he believed it still had a long way to go. "It's not a complete peace plan. A complete peace plan will require Ukraine at the table, Russia at the table, and the Europeans at the table. It will happen," he said.

'Pivotal Week' For Peace Efforts

"The idea of ending the war by making some concessions to Russia will not work. On the contrary, it would only encourage Russia to continue its expansion in various directions," Mykhaylo Podolyak, an adviser in the Ukrainian presidential office, told Current Time on December 1.

"Some more or less clear compromise version of [US President Donald] Trump's peace initiative will be on the table," he added, referring to a plan proposed by the White House in mid-November that has led to the current burst of diplomacy.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on December 1 that "it could be a pivotal week" for peace efforts.

The initial 28-point US proposal alarmed Ukrainian officials -- and reportedly angered Zelenskyy -- who then held their own talks with Rubio and other US officials in Geneva on November 23.

Those talks resulted in a 19-point plan that leaves several major issues on the table, including the fate of a chunk of Ukraine's Donbas region, Ukraine's NATO aspirations, and a potential cap on the size of Kyiv's armed forces. They were followed by the talks in Florida a week later.

Russian 'Pleasure' At Ukraine Scandal

For Ukraine, an added complication has been the controversy surrounding Zelenskyy's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, who has been a key figure in talks.

Yermak -- who has not been charged by investigators and has said he has done nothing wrong -- resigned on November 28 amid an ongoing corruption investigation. He led the Ukrainian delegation in Geneva but was no longer part of the team in Florida.

Podolyak, who was Yermak's adviser, told Current Time that Russia was benefiting from the corruption scandal.

"They always invest in provoking internal conflict in Ukraine, inflating it as much as possible. They understand how to do this, have many information platforms, social networks that they use for this. And, of course, they now watch this internal conflict with pleasure," he said.Trump on November 30 cautioned that the scandal was not helpful to the peace process, adding that "Ukraine's got some difficult little problems."

Even as the diplomacy ramps up, the killing has raged on.

Ukrainian authorities reported on December 1 that four people were killed and at least 40 injured in a Russian missile attack on Dnipro.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Peskov complained about Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil infrastructure.

He said a weekend attack on Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) infrastructure was "outrageous given its international significance and the involvement of international partners," including US oil major Chevron.

Kazakhstan, a partner in the project, lodged an official protest with the Ukrainian government over the strike, which it said was "the third act of aggression against an exclusively civilian facility."

In the past, Kyiv has said it has targeted the oil industry in order to deny revenues that finance the Russian war effort.

For its part, Moscow has denied aiming at civilian targets in Ukraine, despite overwhelming evidence of attacks on schools, hospitals, housing, and other facilities since launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

By RFE/RL

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Kazakhstan plans to build a new large refinery and boost existing refining capacity to more than double its crude processing capacity by 2040, Energy Minister Yerlan Akenzhenov said on Tuesday.

Last year, the refining processing rate of the OPEC+ oil producer was 18 million tons per year. Expansion of existing capacity will boost the oil refining volumes between 2025 and 2032, from the current 18 million tons per year to 30 million tons per year, the minister said.

Then, by 2040, Kazakhstan plans to launch a new large-scale refinery with a capacity of 10 million tons per year.

All these expansions are set to more than double oil refining capacity to 40 million tons annually by 2040 from 18 million tons per year now.

With the capacity expansion comes the target to double petroleum product output to 29.2 million tons by 2040, up from 14.55 million tons expected for the current year.

Earlier this year, Talgat Makuov, deputy director of the energy ministrys oil transportation and refining department, said that Kazakhstans goal to more than double its refining capacity would need investments of between $15 billion and $19 billion.

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Expected investments in sector development, according to the Concept, range from $15 billion to $19 billion, enabling an increase in refining capacity from 18 to 39 million tons per year while significantly improving processing efficiency, Makuov was quoted as saying by local outlet The Times of Central Asia.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan has boosted its crude oil production this year and keeps pumping well above its quota in the OPEC+ agreement, although it continues to reaffirm its commitment to the deal.

Non-OPEC producer Kazakhstan is part of the OPEC+ agreement, but it has been overproducing for years above its quota and hasnt done enough to compensate for the overproduction yet. Kazakhstan has raised production this year from expansion projects involving international majors such as Chevron.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Nigeria has tendered 50 oil and gas blocks, eyeing $10 billion in new investments over the next ten years and 400,000 barrels daily in additional production capacity, local media report.

The blocks on offer include 15 offshore deposits, 19 frontier fields, and one deepwater block, the head of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Gbenga Komolafe, said.

The Commission understands that in todays volatile global energy landscape, certainty and predictability have become the true currencies of investment, Komolafe said, adding that Through extensive multi-client surveys, the NUPRC has reprocessed thousands of kilometres of 2D and 3D seismic data, producing sharper, higher-resolution images of our petroleum systems and reducing uncertainties that once hindered exploration decisions.

The oil commission first announced the tender in November, when Komolafe reviewed progress already made in the investment encouragement space. Since the start of this year, 46 field development plans have been approved, the active rig count has topped 60, and crude output has climbed to 1.71 million barrels per day, peaking at 1.83 million. The official also said recent final investment decisionsincluding $5 billion for Bonga North, $500 million for Ubeta Gas, and $2 billion for Shells HI Gas projectreflect renewed investor confidence in Nigerias oil and gas industry.

Lately, oil majors have been boosting their presence in Nigeria, in further evidence of progress on the part of the countrys government. Last week, Shell completed the acquisition of an additional 10% interest in Nigerias OML 118 Production Sharing Contract, raising its stake in the deep-water Bonga field from 55% to 65% and reinforcing its commitment to growing upstream output.

TotalEnergies, meanwhile, sold a 40% stake in two exploration licenses offshore Nigeria to Chevron, retaining another 40% in the acreage, remaining operator of the projects. A senior TotalEnergies executive said the tie-up with Chevron would derisk and develop new opportunities in the West African oil producer.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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The decline of Indias crude oil imports from Russia could be only temporary as Russia plans to boost supply and evade Western sanctions, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday as India prepares to welcome Vladimir Putin on an official visit later this week.

There can be, for a very brief period of time, insignificant decreases in the volume of oil trade, Peskov told Indian reporters today, ahead of Putins visit to India that begins on Thursday.

Before the latest sanctions on Russian oil trade, India bought from Russia around one-third of all the crude it imported, as it sought cheaper oil.

Amid tense trade negotiations with the United States, India earlier this year was singled out by U.S. President Donald Trump as the main financier of the Kremlins oil revenues. At the time, India remained adamant that it would buy the cheapest oil available regardless if it comes from Russia or elsewhere.

However, the U.S. sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil upended all previous plans by Indian refiners, who hastened to withdraw from the spot market for Russian crude in December.

All but two Indian refiners have skipped placing orders for Russian crude for December, apparently not willing to test how serious the U.S. Treasury would be with potential secondary sanctions.

Earlier this week, a former foreign minister in New Delhi told local media that India could reduce its imports of Russian crude oil by 50%, noting that both India and Russia would nevertheless look for ways to go around U.S. sanctions to keep some oil flowing.

We will be gradually reducing oil purchases from RussiaAlready there is a reduction, and therell be more reduction. It will be more like a 50 per cent reduction. But some oil will still come, Kanwal Sibal said, as quoted by Business Today.

Russias Peskov claimed today Russia manages to find ways to prevent the decline of its oil trade volume amid the sanctions against its energy sector.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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TotalEnergies is partnering with several Japanese firms to develop the Live Oak project in Nebraskaa facility to produce electric natural gas (e-NG), synthetic gas produced from renewable hydrogen and CO2, the French supermajor said on Tuesday.

TotalEnergies has signed a Joint Development and Operating Agreement that grants Japanese energy firms Osaka Gas, Toho Gas, and ITOCHU a combined 33% stake in the project, which the French major is developing with TES, a Europe-based green energy company.

Following the agreement, TotalEnergies and TES will each have a 33.35% stake in the project.

The project is subject to a Final Investment Decision in 2027, and in case of a positive investment decision, it is scheduled to begin commercial operations by 2030.

The project is planned to export e-NG to Japan, with Osaka Gas and Toho Gas as the primary offtakers.

This project helps the Japanese gas majors in achieving their goal of injecting 1% carbon neutral gas (such as e-NG) into the gas grid by 2030, the companies said in a joint press release.

The agreement builds on the strategic partnership between TotalEnergies and TES in 2023 to pioneer production of e-NG at scale.

The Live Oak project will use Nebraskas abundant biogenic CO2 resources, captured from bioethanol plants, and the growing renewable power generation capacity in the United States.

e-NG is chemically identical to conventional natural gas, and can be seamlessly integrated into existing LNG infrastructureliquefaction, transport, regasification, and distributionwithout any alterations to consumer equipment.

TotalEnergies, the biggest exporter of U.S. LNG, also plans to boost investments in conventional American LNG supply and will consider expanding the export projects it is already invested in, the supermajors CEO Patrick Pouyanne said earlier this year.

Last year, TotalEnergies announced a deal to buy a 45% stake in dry gas-producing assets owned and operated by Lewis Energy Group in the Eagle Ford basin in Texas, growing its gas production business and boosting its LNG portfolio.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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The UK governments decision to keep the windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas operators could wipe out as much as $20 billion (15 billion) of potential investment in Britains offshore oil and gas output, according to a Wood Mackenzie estimate cited by the Financial Times.

The government last week kept the windfall tax on operators in the Budget, dealing a blow to the industry.

Keeping the Energy Profits Levy (EPL), as the windfall tax is officially known since it was first introduced by a Conservative government at the height of the 2022 energy crisis, would wipe out all non-essential investment in the UK shelf, as it would compete with friendlier tax jurisdictions, according to WoodMac.

The UK has one of the highest tax rates of all major producing basins worldwide. Together with the windfall tax, which the government kept against industry calls for reform, operators are paying a massive 78% overall tax rate.

This has prompted many companies to halt investment in the UK and move to cut workforce numbers.

The latest announcement came from one of the top independent producers, Harbour Energy, which on Monday said it expects to reduce employee numbers by another 100, on top of 600 jobs already eliminated since 2023.

The industry slammed the governments decision, arguing that the windfall tax will eventually bury the offshore oil and gas industry and threaten Britains energy security.

The future of North Sea energy depends on investment, which wont come without urgent reform of the windfall tax, Offshore Energies UK Chief Executive, David Whitehouse, said in a statement.

The government turned down 50 billion of investment for the UK and the chance to protect the jobs and industries that keep this country running. Instead, theyve chosen a path that will see 1,000 jobs continue to be lost every month, more energy imports and a contagion across supply chains and our industrial heartlands, Whitehouse added.

The Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce said its Lights out for North Sea oil and gas as Chancellor keeps windfall tax.

The Chambers chief executive, Russell Borthwick, commented that instead of heeding advice from industry, the UK Government has instead opted for a cliff-edge end to North Sea production and to tax the industry to death inside five years. Jobs will be lost in their thousands as a direct result of this governments failure to act.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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The United States has denied a sanctions waiver to Serbian refinery Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS), majority owned by Russian state energy firms and sanctioned by the United States, forcing Serbias only refinery to shut down, Serbian President Aleksandar Vu?i? said on Tuesday.

We expected to get a license from the US government for continued oil supplies to our refinery in Pancevo...but we have not received a positive decision from the US, Vu?i? said at a briefing today, as quoted by the Tanjug news agency.

NIS last month applied for a special U.S. license to continue operations until talks for an ownership change conclude. The refinerys management submitted in mid-November a request to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury for the issuance of a special license that would enable the company to operate without disruptions.

Gazprom Neft and Gazprom affiliates hold a majority stake in NIS, with the Serbian state owning the remaining 29.9%.

The U.S. has waived the sanctions against NIS several times since it included it in the sanctions on Russias oil industry in January this year. The sanctions on the Russia-owned refinery in Serbia came into effect in early October as the last waiver expired.

OFAC has issued a license until February 13, 2026, which only authorized negotiations between shareholders and other interested parties regarding changes in NISs ownership structure.

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However, Serbian President Vu?i? said today that the Russians do not want to sell their stakes in the refinery.

We have to accept that as a fact. Unequivocally, the Russians do not want to sell and are not keen on selling. There is no doubt. This is not about money, but about politics. And logically, they are entitled to that. They are the owners, the Serbian president said.

Serbia will have sufficient fuel supply by the end of January, Vu?i? noted.

By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com

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The Hague, Netherlands (PANA) - States must firmly oppose the US governments threats and sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) and protect the Courts ability to pursue its independent and impartial mandate, Amnesty International has urged, at the beginning of the 24th Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute  the ICCs founding treaty  which runs until 6 December in The Hague
Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas will expand its capacity in Poland in response to strong demand for turbines in Europe, Reuters has reported, adding the ramp-up will serve mainly the German wind turbine market.

The ramp-up in capacity will involve adding a new production line at Vestas factory in Goleniow and hiring 300 more workers, the company said.

Germany is seen expanding its wind turbine capacity by 5.1 GW this year, after adding 2.2 GW in new capacity over the first half of 2025, Reuters noted in its report. The first-half figure represented a 67% increase on the year. The first-half additions were also the highest amount of new wind capacity in eight years. Still, the rebound in installations is still off track to reach the official targets, the German wind energy association said earlier this year.

Additionally, a total of 7.8 GW of new wind energy capacity was approved in Europes largest economy during the first half of 2025. Thats a record-high for approved capacity for the first half of any year and up by 55% compared to the first half of 2024.

Despite the jump in wind power installations, Germany still has a gap between the rate of capacity expansion and the legally mandated goals in the Renewable Energy Sources Act, the so-called EEG, the president of the wind industry association said in July. The targets in the Act will not be achievable until 2026 at the earliest, the lobby group also said at the time.

Meanwhile, this week, the head of one of Germanys largest power utilities called for an end to subsidies for wind and solar power. First priority for grid connection should go to whoever creates jobs, Leonhard Birnbaum, chief executive of E.ON, told Sueddeutsche Zeitung in an interview. The costs for the fixed feed-in tariff for new solar power may look harmless per year, the executive added. But the subsidy often runs for 20 years, and that adds up to billions.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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(Photo by Shoji Kudaka/Stripes Okinawa)



Just south of Naha in Tomigusuku City, a park with lush forest trails, monuments, a massive playground and a superb view of the southwest coast, is also the site of World War II history.

Kaigungo Koen, which means Navy tunnel complex park, is the site of the Former Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters. Every year, 100,000 people visit the site in Okinawa to learn more about the history of the headquarters, the people who fought inside it and the tragedies that unfolded during the war.

From its surface, the hilly Kaigungo Koen has the look of a neat public park, but over 80 years ago, this site carried strategical importance during the Battle of Okinawa.

History

In August 1944, the tunnel complexs construction quickly began and was completed in about four months. Since the tunnel was designated top secret, no civilians were mobilized in the construction.

The tunnel complex containing a series of passageways, measures 450 meters in length and was manually dug using pickaxes and hoes. Visitors can still see the axe marks in some of the walls of the bunker today.

According to the museums website, construction continued for four months to accommodate the growing number of Navy personnel and to prepare a stronghold for the Oroku Japanese Naval Base forces.

(Photo by Shoji Kudaka/Stripes Okinawa)

(Photo by Shoji Kudaka/Stripes Okinawa)



During the Ryukyu Kingdom (1429  1879), the site served as an outpost and lookout for smoke signals announcing the arrival of foreign ships. The hill would once again be used as a lookout during World War II, but this time in defense of the nearby Oroku Kaigun Hikojo (Oroku Air Base/Navy Oroku Airfield), now known as Naha Airport. During the war, the hill was called 74 kochi (highland), a reference to its height.

According to the park website, about 10,000 members of the Imperial Japanese Navy were stationed in Okinawa and of those, 4,000 were assigned to the underground bunker.

As the battle between the U.S. and Japanese forces intensified, the Navy would compromise its headquarters to provide some of its personnel to support the 32nd Army in Shuri.

The Last Days

According to a brochure of the park, following an order from the 32nd Armys commander, Lieutenant General Ushijima, the Oroku Japanese Naval Forces retreated on May 22, 1945, to the south only to quickly move back into the bunker as it ended up being a better stronghold than the new position.

According to Rear Admiral Otas biography Okinawa kenmin kaku tatakaeri by non-fiction writer Yozo Tamura, however, the return was not voluntary.

The book says the decision was based upon an agreement made in May 1944 between the Imperial Army and Navy that put the Imperial Navy in Okinawa under the command of General Ushijima of the 32nd Army in the case of ground operations, which forced the Imperial Navy to head back to the tunnel complex.

(Photo by Shoji Kudaka/Stripes Okinawa)

(Photo by Shoji Kudaka/Stripes Okinawa)



Up to this point, the Imperial Navy had provided to the 32nd Army more than 2,000 personnel, who happened to be their best ones. Before attempting to relocate to the south, the naval forces destroyed weapons that could not be carried, thus drastically reducing their resources when they had to return to the bunker.

On June 4, 1945, the U.S. 6th Marine Division landed near Oroku Peninsula and close to the Navy Underground headquarters. On June 6, the U.S. Marines conquered the Oroku Peninsula, narrowing the battlefield to a 4-km radius of the underground headquarters.

Recognizing the forthcoming fall of the headquarters, Rear Admiral Ota sent out one last telegram for which the line Okinawa kenmin kaku tatakaeri (This is how the people of Okinawa have fought the war) is known for. Otas message to the navy vice admiral was a reminder to officials to remember the sacrifice local Okinawans paid in the war.

On June 10, the Marines began directly assaulting the underground headquarters, which were filled with injured personnel.

On the afternoon of June 12, the top of the high ground was conquered by the Marines. Remaining personnel were ordered to leave the bunker and just past midnight on June 13, Rear Admiral Ota and his six officers killed themselves.

To the Bunker

The entrance to the bunker inside the Visitors Center has illustrations and panels displaying information about the Battle of Okinawa to provide more context of the bunkers history.

At the entrance, there is an exhibit of items like pens, tags, water canteens and more that were excavated from the bunker after the war.

To access the underground headquarters, visitors walk 105 steps down to the tunnels. According to the parks website, the tunnels run 450 meters in total, but only 300 meters are open to the public. The parks brochure indicates that the main tunnel runs as if drawing a triangle. Once you reach the end of the stairs, you find yourself at one corner of the triangle. The first room you encounter is the Signal Room, where visitors can touch a code transmitter.

(Photo by Shoji Kudaka/Stripes Okinawa)



Given that many telegrams were sent from there during the war, including Rear Admiral Otas farewell message, this room has historical importance.

By following the arrows, visitors will be guided to the Operation Room, Staff Room, Code Room, Medical Room and three Generator Rooms. Access to some of them requires going through smaller tunnels branching out of the main one, which makes it seem like a maze. In the Staff Room, the walls are riddled with holes from the grenades Ota and his officers used to end their lives.

After turning the west corner, visitors will see rooms lined up. During the last days of the headquarters, sailors were crammed there to the point where they slept standing up, according to the exhibit on the top floor. As the battle intensified, they could not leave the tunnels, creating an extremely difficult and hectic environment with wounded troops, piling bodies and bodily fluids.

The last feature of the tunnel is the Commanding Officers Room, which can be found along the third side, before the route heads back to the Signal Room. Admiral Ota left a farewell poem on the wall, which means Born as a man, nothing fulfills me more than to die under the banner of the Emperor.

The well-maintained and clean appearance of the underground tunnels today, may make it difficult to understand just how cramped and grueling the close quarters must have been on the young men squeezed in there. And while its forested exterior is an inviting place to get a breath of fresh air and some steps in, it also offers a glimpse into the areas gruesome history.

The Former Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters

GPS Coordinates: 26.186457, 127.676925

Hours: 9 a.m.  5 p.m. (last admission at 4:30 p.m.)

Admission: 600 yen (approx. $3.87) for high school students and above, 300 yen for middle school and elementary school students.

Website

Dontei Tomigusuku

The best way to describe this local fast-food chain would be Okinawan Yoshinoya. Just a few minutes drive from Kaigungo Koen, Dontei Tomigusuku is a good option for those who want an affordable and quick meal. Their menu features gyudon (490 yen), cutlet curry (700 yen), Okinawa soba noodles (750 yen) and more. I tried gyudon, which I found pretty satisfying for its price. Dining at this place lets you experience what a regular Okinawa would eat for lunch or dinner when they need something quick and easy.

GPS CIordinates: 26.183360, 127.677495

Hours: 11 a.m.  2 p.m.

Kateera mui (Kobobukiyama)

The Imperial Navy built another tunnel complex at this location around the same time as underground headquarters in Tomigusuku City. Measuring 350 meters in length, the tunnels accommodated rooms for a commanding officer, sailors, code and more. With its entrance shield by a fence, the inner portions cannot be accessed. The location is now known as Tabaru Koen (park).


Rep. Dwayne Yunker Requests Federal Review of Gov. Koteks $1 million tribal TANF distribution

By Oregon State Representative Dwayne Yunker,

Grants Pass, Ore.  Today Representative Dwayne Yunker (RGrants Pass) released the following statement regarding his request for a federal review of Oregons $1 million tribal TANF distribution, civil-rights compliance, and SNAP administration:

Oregonians deserve full transparency when it comes to how federal welfare dollars are being used, said Representative Yunker. When a million dollars in TANF funds is distributed rapidly and outside of normal processes, the public has the right to understand the basis for that decision and whether it complies with federal law.

The $1 million tribal TANF distribution raises serious concerns, said Representative Yunker. Oregon has roughly 8,000 tribal members receiving SNAP benefits and more than 757,000 total SNAP recipients statewide. That means the Governors decision equates to about $125 per tribal member versus about $7 for the average SNAP recipient. And ODHS has confirmed that this allocation was not based on any proportional formula, that it used expedited, nonstandard agreements, and that they were unsure whether those agreements could be provided for legislative oversight. That is not how transparent government is supposed to work.

My request to federal agencies is straightforward: determine whether these ancestry-targeted allocations comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act that prohibits discrimination based on race, ancestry, or Native American affiliation and ensure Oregon is administering its SNAP and TANF programs in a way that is fair, for their intended purpose, and in full accordance with federal law, said Representative Yunker. The integrity of our safety-net programs depends on it.

A copy of Representative Yunkers oversight letter is available here: https://shorturl.at/TOac1
By Taxpayers Association of Oregon

OregonWatchdog.com

Both Fox News, New York Post and others mentioned Portlands Tree-Lighting celebration at Pioneer Courthouse Square this weekend. The word Christmas was never mentioned. If the Christmas tree was referenced, it was called the tree.

One of the guest speakers was a woman with a massive Palestinian flag who chanted Free Palestine. She also wore the red triangle on her chest, which is a symbol in support of Hamas. So controversial this symbol is in Germany that it is banned by the government.

Here is how the red triangle was used by Portland protesters recently with a banner calling to Abolish Israel (photo by Taxpayers Association of Oregon).

People have different views of foreign policies and foreign politics, but it should stay out of unifying holiday events.

 Please support our watchdog journalism on how your taxes are being spent. Make a donation at OregonWatchdog.com (learn about a Charitable Tax Deduction or Political Tax Credit options to promote liberty).
Basil Thai Kitchen at Turtle Village continues to uphold its reputation as one of Phukets well-loved Thai restaurants, serving authentic flavors for over a decade. With its relaxed yet modern atmosphere, its a favorite spot for both casual dining and special occasions. Recently, the restaurant introduced its Hot Pot section, offering a fresh dining experience thats already gaining attention.

On our visit, we explored their Hot Pot menu, which features an impressive varietyfrom seafood and beef sets to pork and vegetable options. Since there were only two of us and we didnt want to overorder, we chose a selection of premium items: scallops, prawns, Kurobuta pork, and Tajima Wagyu beef. Every ingredient arrived fresh and beautifully prepared, matching the high standards the restaurant is known for.

The soup selection is equally diverse, including Sukiyaki, Chicken Broth, Tom Yum, and their signature Young Coconut Soup. Curious about its natural sweetness, we opted for the coconut soup but still wanted the comforting flavors of chicken broth. The staff kindly informed us they could do a half-and-half potsomething we truly appreciated, as it allowed us to enjoy two completely different profiles in one meal.

With quality meats and seafood simmering in flavorful brothand a wide range of dipping sauces to enhance each biteour Hot Pot experience felt complete and perfectly satisfying. Midway through the meal, we also ordered a Som Tam to refresh our palate, and it was wonderfully bold and balanced. The staff even asked for our preferred spice level before preparing it, a thoughtful touch that reflects the restaurants attentive service.

Basil Thai Kitchen remains a standout dining destination in Mai Khao, offering exceptional Thai cuisine, warm hospitality, and a refined yet comfortable setting. Whether youre a local resident, a traveler passing through, or a family looking for a memorable meal, this is a place youll want to return to again.

Basil Thai Kitchen Phuket

Location: Basil Thai Kitchen Turtle Village

GPS: 8.08386, 98.30403

Address: 889 Moo 3, Mai Khao, Thalang District, Phuket (2nd Floor, Turtle Village)

Opening Hours: 10:00 AM  10:00 PM, daily
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Afghan coders practice at the Code to Inspire computer training center in Herat province, western Afghanistan, Jan. 22, 2018. Credit: AP Photo/Ahmad Seir, File

Behind the hoopla over the promise of artificial intelligence lay difficult realities, including how such technology might affect people already disadvantaged in a data-driven world.

A new report by the United Nations Development Program notes most of the gains from AI are likely to be reaped by wealthy nations unless steps are taken to use its power to help close gaps in access to basic needs, as well as such advanced know-how.

The report released Tuesday likens the situation to the "Great Divergence" of the industrial revolution, when many Western countries saw rapid modernization while others fell behind.

Questions over how companies and other institutions will use AI are a near universal concern given its potential to change or replace some jobs done by people with computers and robots.

But while much of the attention devoted to AI focuses on productivity, competitiveness and growth, the more important question is what it will mean for human lives, the authors note.

"We tend to overemphasize the role of technology," said Michael Muthukrishna of the London School of Economics, the report's main author, told reporters. "We need to ensure it's not technology first, but it's people first," he said, speaking by video at the report's launch in Bangkok.

The risk of exclusion is an issue for communities where most people are still struggling to access skills, electric power and internet connectivity, for older people, for people displaced by war, civil conflict and climate disasters. At the same time, such people may be "invisible" in data that will not take them into account, the report said.

Chat GPT app icon is seen on a smartphone screen, Aug. 4, 2025, in Chicago. Credit: AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File

"As a general-purpose technology, AI can lift productivity, spark new industries, and help latecomers catch up," the report says.

Better advice on farming, analysis of X-rays within seconds and faster medical diagnoses, more effective weather forecasts and damage assessments hold promise for rural communities and areas prone to natural disasters.

"AI systems that analyze poverty, health, and disaster risks enable faster, fairer, and more transparent decisions, turning data into continuous learning and public value," it says.

Still, even in wealthy nations like the United States, the potential for data centers to devour too large a share of electricity and water has raised concerns. Ramping up power generation to meet higher demand may hinder progress in limiting the emissions of carbon from burning fossil fuels that contribute to global warming, while also causing health hazards.

The technology raises ethical, privacy and cybersecurity concerns: researchers have found hackers using AI to automate portions of cyberattacks. There also is the problem of deepfakes that can misinform or facilitate criminal activity.

Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly.

Asian nations including China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore are well placed to take advantage of AI tools, the report notes, while places like Afghanistan, the Maldives and Myanmar lack skills, reliable power and other resources needed to tap into the computing potential of AI. Inequalities between regions within countries mean some places even in advanced economies are prone to be left behind.

An usher directs an attendee to a seat for a seminar at a convention titled AI Expo in Tokyo, on Aug. 27, 2025. Credit: AP Photo/Hiro Komae, File

About a quarter of the Asia-Pacific region lacks online access, the report says.

If such gaps are not closed, many millions may be excluded from the kinds of devices, digital payment systems, digital IDs and education and skills that are required to participate fully in the global economy, falling further behind, said Philip Schellekens, the UNDP's chief economist for the Asia Pacific.

Other risks include misinformation and disinformation, surveillance that violates rights to privacy and systems that can act as "black boxes," reinforcing biases against minorities or other groups. So transparency and effective regulations are crucial guardrails for ensuring AI is used in fair and accountable ways, he said.

"We believe we need more balance, less hysteria and hype," Schellekens said.

AI is becoming essential for modern life, like electricity, roads, and now the internet, so governments need to invest more in digital infrastructure, education and training, fair competition and social protections, the report says.

"The goal," it says, "is to democratize access to AI so that every country and community can benefit while protecting those most at risk from disruption."

 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

The newly discovered spiral galaxy Alaknanda (inset) as observed in the shorter wavelength JWST bands. Several bright galaxies from the foreground Abell 2744 cluster are also seen. Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA, I. Labbe/R. Bezanson/Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Rashi Jain/Yogesh Wadadekar (NCRA-TIFR)

A spiral galaxy, shaped much like our Milky Way, has been found in an era when astronomers believed such well-formed galaxies could not yet exist. Two astronomers from India have identified a remarkably mature galaxy just 1.5 billion years after the Big Banga discovery that challenges our understanding of how galaxies form and evolve.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a powerful telescope capable of detecting extremely faint light from the early universe. Using JWST, researchers Rashi Jain and Yogesh Wadadekar spotted a galaxy remarkably similar to our own Milky Way. Yet this system formed when the cosmos was barely 1.5 billion years oldroughly a tenth of its present age.

They named it Alaknanda, after the Himalayan river that is a twin headstream of the Ganga alongside the Mandakinifittingly, the Hindi name for the Milky Way.

The discovery, made at the National Center for Radio Astrophysics of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (NCRA-TIFR) in Pune, India, has been published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Why is this surprising?

Classic spiral galaxies like ourswith two clear, symmetric arms (called a "grand-design" spiral)were thought to take billions of years to form. The prevailing view held that early galaxies should appear irregular and disorderedstill in the chaotic process of assembly rather than settled into the graceful spirals we see so often in the nearby universe.

Building a grand spiral requires time: gas must flow in steadily from surrounding space (called 'gas accretion'), settle into a rotating disk, then slow-moving waves (called 'density waves') may perturb the disk to sculpt the spiral arms, and the whole system needs to remain undisturbed by violent collisions with other galaxies.

Left panel: Image of Alaknanda in rest-frame near-ultraviolet filters. The star-forming regions in the spiral arms form a beads-on-a-string pattern, characteristic of UV emission from massive stars in star-forming regions. Right panel: Alaknanda as seen in rest-frame optical filters. The spiral arms are less prominent and the underlying disk is clearly seen. Credit: NASA/CSA/ESA, Rashi Jain (NCRA-TIFR)

Alaknanda defies these expectations. It already has two sweeping spiral arms wrapped around a bright, rounded central region (the galaxy's 'bulge'), spanning about 30,000 light-years across. Even more impressively, it is annually churning out new stars, their combined mass roughly equivalent to 60 times the mass of the sun.

This rate is about 20 times that of the present-day Milky Way! About half of Alaknanda's stars appear to have formed in only 200 million yearsa blink in cosmic time.

"Alaknanda has the structural maturity we associate with galaxies that are billions of years older," explains Rashi Jain, the study's lead author.

"Finding such a well-organized spiral disk at this epoch tells us that the physical processes driving galaxy formationgas accretion, disk settling, and possibly the development of spiral density wavescan operate far more efficiently than current models predict. It's forcing us to rethink our theoretical framework."

A cosmic magnifying glass

Alaknanda lies in the direction of a massive galaxy cluster called Abell 2744, also known as Pandora's Cluster. The cluster's enormous gravity bends and magnifies light from distant cosmic objects in its background, much like a magnifying glass. Called gravitational lensing, this effect made Alaknanda appear twice as bright, allowing JWST to capture its spiral structure in stunning detail.

Jain & Wadadekar analyzed JWST images of the galaxy taken through as many as 21 different filters, each revealing a different part of its light. This wealth of datapart of JWST's UNCOVER and MegaScience surveysallowed them to estimate with unusual precision the galaxy's distance, dust content, how many stars the galaxy contains, and how quickly new stars have been forming over time.

Rewriting the cosmic timeline

The discovery adds to a growing body of evidence from JWST that the early universe was far more mature than astronomers expected. Several disk-shaped galaxies have now been found at similarly vast distances, but Alaknanda stands out as one of the clearest examples of a textbook "grand-design" spiral (a galaxy with two prominent, symmetric arms) at such an early epoch.

"Alaknanda reveals that the early universe was capable of far more rapid galaxy assembly than we anticipated," says Yogesh Wadadekar, the study's co-author.

"Somehow, this galaxy managed to pull together ten billion solar masses of stars and organize them into a beautiful spiral disk in just a few hundred million years. That's extraordinarily fast by cosmic standards, and it compels astronomers to rethink how galaxies form."

Scientists will now debate how Alaknanda's spiral arms arose. One possibility is that the galaxy grew steadily by pulling in streams of cold gas, allowing density waves to naturally carve out spiral patterns. Another is that a gravitational encounter with a smaller companion galaxy triggered the armsthough such tidally induced spirals tend to fade quickly.

Future observations with JWST's own spectroscopic instruments or the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) telescope in Chile could measure how fast the galaxy is rotating and whether its disk is moving in an orderly way (dynamically "cold") or is more turbulent (dynamically "hot"), helping to distinguish between these scenarios.

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What does this mean for us?

This discovery is more than a pretty picture from the distant past. It forces astronomers to reconsider the cosmic timelinethe story of how stars, galaxies, and ultimately planets like Earth came to be. If galaxies could mature this quickly, the early universe was a far more dynamic and fertile place than we imagined, and the conditions for forming worlds like ours may have arisen earlier than anyone thought.

As JWST continues to peer deeper into space and time, more galaxies like Alaknanda are sure to emergeeach one a new clue to the universe's surprisingly rapid early development.

The early universe was far more capable of building complex and stable structures than previously believedand Alaknanda is compelling evidence of that being the furthest disk-dominated grand-design spiral galaxy ever discovered.

More information: Rashi Jain et al, A grand-design spiral galaxy 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang with JWST, Astronomy & Astrophysics (2025). DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202451689 Journal information: Astronomy & Astrophysics
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

In ancient Athens, the agora was a public forum where citizens could gather to deliberate, disagree and decide together. It was governed by deep-rooted social principles that ensured lively, inclusive, healthy debate.

Today, our public squares have moved online to the digital feeds and forums of social media. These spaces mostly lack communal rules and codesinstead, algorithms decide which voices rise above the clamor, and which are buried beneath it.

The optimistic idea of the internet being a radically democratic space feels like a distant memory. Our conversations are now shaped by opaque systems designed to maximize engagement, not understanding. Algorithmic popularity, not accuracy or fairness, determines reach.

This has created a paradox. We enjoy unprecedented freedom to speak, yet our speech is constrained by forces beyond our control. Loud voices dominate. Nuanced voices fade. Outrage travels faster than reflection. In this landscape, equal participation is all but unattainable, and honest speech can carry a very genuine risk.

Somewhere between the stone steps of Athens and the screens of today, we have lost something essential to our democratic life and dialogue: the balance between equality of voice and the courage to speak the truth, even when it is dangerous. Two ancient Athenian ideals of free speech, isegoria and parrhesia, can help us find it again.

Ancient ideas that still guide us

In Athens, isegoria referred to the right to speak, but it did not stop at mere entitlement or access. It signaled a shared responsibility, a commitment to fairness, and the idea that public life should not be governed by the powerful alone.

The term parrhesia can be defined as boldness or freedom in speaking. Again, there is nuance; parrhesia is not reckless candor, but ethical courage. It referred to the duty to speak truthfully, even when that truth provoked discomfort or danger.

These ideals were not abstract principles. They were civic practices, learned and reinforced through participation. Athenians understood that democratic speech was both a right and a responsibility, and that the quality of public life depended on the character of its citizens.

The digital sphere has changed the context but not the importance of these virtues. Access alone is insufficient. Without norms that support equality of voice and encourage truth-telling, free speech becomes vulnerable to distortion, intimidation and manipulation.

The emergence of AI-generated content intensifies these pressures. Citizens must now navigate not only human voices, but also machine-produced ones that blur the boundaries of credibility and intent.

When being heard becomes a privilege

On contemporary platforms, visibility is distributed unequally and often unpredictably. Algorithms tend to amplify ideas that trigger strong emotions, regardless of their value. Communities that already face marginalization can find themselves unheard, while those who thrive on provocation can dominate the conversation.

On the internet, isegoria is challenged in a new way. Few people are formally excluded from it, but many are structurally invisible. The right to speak remains, but the opportunity to be heard is uneven.

At the same time, parrhesia becomes more precarious. Speaking with honesty, especially about contested issues, may expose individuals to harassment, misrepresentation or reputational harm. The cost of courage has increased, while the incentives to remain silent, or to retreat into echo chambers, have grown.

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Building citizens, not audiences

The Athenians understood that democratic virtues do not emerge on their own. Isegoria and parrhesia were sustained through habits learned over time: listening as a civic duty, speaking as a shared responsibility, and recognizing that public life depended on the character of its participants. In our era, the closest equivalent is civic education, the space where citizens practice the dispositions that democratic speech requires.

By making classrooms into small-scale agoras, students can learn to inhabit the ethical tension between equality of voice and integrity in speech. Activities that invite shared dialogue, equitable turn-taking and attention to quieter voices help them experience isegoria, not as an abstract right but as a lived practice of fairness.

In practice, this means holding discussions and debates where students have to verify information, articulate and justify arguments, revise their views publicly, or engage respectfully with opposing arguments. These skills all cultivate the intellectual courage associated with parrhesia.

Importantly, these experiences do not prescribe what students should believe. Instead, they rehearse the habits that make belief accountable to others: the discipline of listening, the willingness to offer reasons, and the readiness to refine a position in light of new understanding. Such practices restore a sense that democratic participation is not merely expressive, but relational and built through shared effort.

What civic education ultimately offers is practice. It creates miniature agoras where students rehearse the skills they need as citizens: speaking clearly, listening generously, questioning assumptions and engaging with those who think differently.

These habits counter the pressures of the digital world. They slow down conversation in spaces designed for speed. They introduce reflection into environments engineered for reaction. They remind us that democratic discourse is not a performance, but a shared responsibility.

Returning to the spirit of the agora

The challenge of our era is not only technological but educational. No algorithm can teach responsibility, courage or fairness. These are qualities formed through experience, reflection and practice. Athenians understood this intuitively, because their democracy relied on ordinary citizens learning how to speak as equals and with integrity.

We face the same challenge today. If we want digital public squares that support democratic life, we must prepare citizens who know how to inhabit them wisely. Civic education is not optional enrichmentit is the training ground for the habits that sustain freedom.

The agora may have changed form, but its purpose endures. To speak and listen as equals, with honesty, courage and care, is still the heart of democracy. And this is something we can teach.

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When an ant pupa signals its imminent death caused by an incurable infection, worker ants unpack it from its cocoon and disinfect it, leading to its demise. Credit: Christopher D. Pull / ISTA

Ant colonies operate as tightly coordinated "superorganisms" with individual ants working together, much like the cells of a body, to ensure their collective health. Researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) have now discovered that terminally ill ant brood, like infected cells, release an odor signaling their impending death and the risk they pose. This sophisticated early warning system facilitates rapid detection and removal of pathogenic infections.

The study is published in Nature Communications.

In many social animals, group members try to conceal their sickness to prevent social exclusion. Ant brood, however, take the opposite approach. When facing an incurable infection, ant pupae actively emit an alarm signal that warns the colony of the contagion risk they are about to pose.

Upon receiving the signal, worker ants respond swiftly by unpacking the terminally ill pupae from their cocoon, creating small openings in their body surface and applying their antimicrobial poison, formic acid, which functions as a self-produced disinfectant. While this treatment immediately kills the pathogens multiplying inside the pupa, it also results in the pupa's own demise.

The video shows worker ants inspecting their brood, selecting a pupa, and initiating the destructive disinfection process. Credit: Christopher D. Pull / ISTA

"What appears to be self-sacrifice at first glance is, in fact, also beneficial to the signaler: it safeguards its nestmates, with whom it shares many genes. By warning the colony of their deadly infection, terminally ill ants help the colony remain healthy and produce daughter colonies, which indirectly pass on the signaler's genes to the next generation," explains Erika Dawson, first author of the study and former postdoc in the Social Immunity' research group headed by Sylvia Cremer at ISTA.

Their collaborative study with chemical ecologist Thomas Schmitt from the University of Wurzburg in Germany describes this altruistic disease signaling in social insects for the first time.

If a fatally ill ant were to conceal its symptoms and die undetected, it could become highly infectious, endangering not only itself but the entire colony. Active signaling of the incurably infected instead allows effective disease detection and pathogen removal by the colony.

Ant pupae represent the developmental stage between the larval and adult stages. Immobile, they are unable to react to infection by leaving the nest. Instead, when infected and nearing death, they emit an odor signal alerting the worker ants that they will become a highly contagious infection risk that may threaten the health of the entire colony. Credit: Line V. Ugelvig & Barbara Leyrer / ISTA

Altruistic self-sacrifice

At the colony level, ants function as a "superorganism," effectively forming a single living entity. While one or more queens are responsible for producing offspring, the non-fertile workers take on all tasks related to colony maintenance and health. This mirrors cell specialization in the human body, where germline cells in the reproductive organs are dedicated to offspring production while somatic cells carry out all other essential functions.

In both organisms and superorganisms, reproductive and non-reproductive components are fully interdependent, with each essential for the survival of the whole. Cooperation is therefore crucial. Much like cells in the human body, individual ants collaborate closely, even engaging in altruistic self-sacrifice for the benefit of the colony.

Find-me and eat-me signal

Why would a complex early warning system evolve if sick animals could simply isolate themselves from the colony?

"Adult ants that approach death leave the nest to die outside the colony. Similarly, workers that have been exposed to fungal spores practice social distancing," explains Cremer. "Yet, this is only possible for mobile individuals. Ant brood within the colony, like infected cells in tissue, are largely immobile and lack this option."

Body cells and ant brood, such as developing pupae, both rely on external assistance to safeguard the colony. Intriguingly, both address this challenge in similar ways: they emit a chemical signal that attracts either the body's immune cells or the colony's workers, allowing these helpers to detect and eliminate them as potential sources of infection. Immunologists call this the "find-me and eat-me signal."

"The signal must be both sensitive and specific," explains Cremer. "It should help to identify all terminally-sick ant pupae but be precise enough to avoid triggering the unpacking of healthy pupae or those capable of overcoming the infection with their own immune system."

What properties must such a signal have to achieve this level of precision?

Ant pupae represent the developmental stage between the larval and adult stages. Immobile, they are unable to react to infection by leaving the nest. Instead, when infected and nearing death, they emit an odor signal alerting the worker ants that they will become a highly contagious infection risk that may threaten the health of the entire colony. Credit: Line V. Ugelvig & Barbara Leyrer / ISTA

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Changes in pupal scent profile

Schmitt, whose research focus is on chemical communication in social insects, explains that workers specifically target individual pupae out of the brood pile.

"This means the scent cannot simply diffuse through the nest chamber but must be directly associated with the diseased pupa. Accordingly, the signal does not consist of volatile compounds but instead is made up of non-volatile compounds on the pupal body surface."

In particular, the intensity of two odor components from the ants' natural scent profile increases when a pupa is terminally ill. To test whether this odor change alone could trigger the workers' disinfection behavior, the researchers transferred the signal odor to healthy pupae and observed the workers' reaction.

"We extracted the smell from the signaling pupae and applied it to healthy brood," Cremer says in describing the experimental approach. The results were conclusive: Transfer of the signal scent alone was sufficient to induce unpacking by the ants, revealing that the altered body odor of fatally-infected pupae serves the same function as the 'find-me and eat-me' signal of infected body cells.

Signaling only in uncontrollable cases

According to Dawson, the fascinating aspect is that ants do not signal infection indiscriminately. "Queen pupae, which have stronger immune defenses than worker pupae and can limit the infection on their own, were not observed to emit this warning signal to the colony," she explains. "Worker brood, on the other hand, were unable to control the infection and signaled to alert the colony."

Worker ants organize the colony brood into separate nest chambers. Larvae, which have hatched from eggs and require frequent care, are grouped and fed often. Pupae, in contrast, do not eat and are protected from desiccation by their cocoons, so they only need occasional inspections. Credit: ISTA

Ant experiments in the lab. Ant pupae are collected in a dish, and individually infected on glass plates by gently rolling them through a spore suspension using soft forceps. Infected pupae emit chemical signals of their fatal condition when workers are nearby. Credit: Sylvia Cremer / ISTA

Worker ants organize the colony brood into separate nest chambers. Larvae, which have hatched from eggs and require frequent care, are grouped and fed often. Pupae, in contrast, do not eat and are protected from desiccation by their cocoons, so they only need occasional inspections. Credit: ISTA

By signaling only when an infection becomes uncontrollable, the sick brood enables the colony to respond proactively to real threats. At the same time, this approach ensures that individuals capable of recovery are not sacrificed unnecessarily.

"This precise coordination between the individual and colony level is what makes this altruistic disease signaling so effective," Cremer concludes.
Shenzhou-20 spaceship to make uncrewed return to Earth: spokesperson

Xinhua) 08:46, December 02, 2025

BEIJING, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- After a potential space debris impact, the Shenzhou-20 spaceship, currently docked with China's space station, will make an uncrewed return to Earth, according to Ji Qiming, a project spokesperson with the country's manned space program.

Following a suspected debris strike on Shenzhou-20's viewport, the three astronauts originally scheduled to return to Earth aboard the spacecraft were redirected to Shenzhou-21, which brought them home safely on Nov. 14.

China launched the Shenzhou-22 on Nov. 25 to provide a new return vehicle for the orbiting crew -- completing the first emergency launch in the history of its manned space program.

During a subsequent spacewalk, the Shenzhou-21 crew, who are now undertaking a six-month orbital stay, may be tasked with inspecting the cracked viewport. They may also perform protective work on it using specialized devices delivered by the Shenzhou-22 launch -- a procedure still being validated in ground tests, said Ji in a recent CCTV interview.

A day prior to their planned return on Nov. 5, the Shenzhou-20 crew spotted an anomaly on the viewport's edge -- a triangular, paint-like mark. They photographed it from multiple angles and under different lights, while the station's robotic arm cameras were employed to take supplemental external pictures.

The flaw was later identified as "penetrating cracks," said Jia Shijin, chief designer of the crewed spaceship system from China Academy of Space Technology. "The space debris responsible is preliminarily judged to be less than a millimeter in size, but struck with extremely high speed."

After this initial investigation, ground teams conducted extensive simulations and tests -- and commissioned two research institutions to perform wind tunnel tests for independent verification, Jia revealed.

In a worst-case scenario, the cracks could spread, causing the outer pane to detach -- with this leading to the failure of the inner pressure-sealing glass, resulting in cabin depressurization and the ingress of high-speed gases, Jia explained.

Guided by the principle of astronaut safety first, China opted for the historic alternative return and emergency launch procedures.

Ji said that Shenzhou-20's unmanned return mission will generate meaningful real-world experimental data for subsequent missions.

Four mice traveled to space aboard Shenzhou-21 spaceship. They were initially scheduled for a 5-to-7-day experiment on orbit, but instead stayed for about two weeks before returning with the Shenzhou-20 crew, according to Wu Dawei from the China Astronaut Research and Training Center. All mice returned in healthy condition, Wu said.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
New York, US (PANA) - More than 260 media professionals were killed in the recent hostilities in Gaza  the deadliest conflict for journalists in decades
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SDSS gri (blue-green-red) image of NGC 3221. Positions of point sources (previously known or detected in the paper) are labeled. Credit: arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2511.18283

Using ESA's XMM-Newton satellite, astronomers from Stanford University and elsewhere have conducted deep X-ray observations of a nearby galaxy known as NGC 3221. The new observational campaign detected a faint active galactic nucleus (AGN) in this galaxy and provided more insights into the properties of this system. The findings were presented November 23 on the pre-print server arXiv.

NGC 3221 is an edge-on star-forming luminous infrared galaxy at a distance of some 200 million light years away from Earth. The galaxy has a stellar mass of about 100 billion solar masses and a star formation rate (SFR) at a level of 9.92 solar masses per year.

Is an AGN out there?

Previous observations of NGC 3221 have suggested that it may host an active galactic nucleus (AGN). In general, AGNs are compact regions at the center of galaxies, more luminous than the surrounding galaxy light, and very energetic due either to the presence of a black hole or star formation activity at the core of the galaxy.

In order to verify the presence of an AGN in the center of NGC 3221, a team of astronomers led by Stanford University's Sanskriti Das, has employed XMM-Newton's European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC) to investigate this galaxy in detail.

"In this paper, we present the new deep XMM-Newton/EPIC observations of a nearby highly-inclined star-forming galaxy NGC 3221 and provide a comprehensive picture of its diverse X-ray emitting constituents utilizing spatial, temporal, and spectral information," the scientists explain.

In the results, the observations confirmed the existence of a low-luminosity AGN in NGC 3221. The astronomers assume that it may be a heavily obscured AGN with soft X-ray emission from the accretion disk, or a Compton-thick AGN with its reflected component and circumnuclear medium. Further observations are required to find out which of the two scenarios is true.

Bright regions, diffuse gas, and ULX variability

Furthermore, the observations identified two distinct bright regions in the stellar disk of NGC 3221. One of them is a supersoft source emitting exclusively in the energy range below 1 keV, and mostly below 0.7 keV. The other one is the brightest soft X-ray emitter in the disk and showcases a unique and puzzling spectral shape.

The astronomers conducted spectral analysis of the diffuse gas in and around the galaxy's stellar disk, which revealed two phases at 0.15 keV and 0.55 keV. The hot phase turned out to be an order-of-magnitude fainter than the warm-hot phase in the disk, but the former is more extended beyond the disk.

As part of the study, the researchers also investigated the light curves of six ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) in NGC 3221. As a result, they found diverse variability timescales in the broadband luminosity and a wide range of hardness ratios of these sources.

The study also found that the detected and unresolved point sources in NGC 3221, except the AGN, contribute to approximately 42% of the 0.210 keV unabsorbed intrinsic luminosity. According to the authors of the paper, this makes the diffuse component the primary contributor to the X-ray emission in the galaxy.

Written for you by our author Tomasz Nowakowski, edited by Sadie Harley, and fact-checked and reviewed by Robert Eganthis article is the result of careful human work. We rely on readers like you to keep independent science journalism alive. If this reporting matters to you, please consider a donation (especially monthly). You'll get an ad-free account as a thank-you.

More information: Sanskriti Das et al, Deep X-ray observation of NGC 3221: everything everywhere all at once, arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2511.18283 Journal information: arXiv

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The writer Geoffrey Chaucer is included in the database. Credit: Wiki Commons

When you picture medieval warfare, you might think of epic battles and famous monarchs. But what about the everyday soldiers who actually filled the ranks? Until recently, their stories were scattered across handwritten manuscripts in Latin or French and difficult to decipher. Now, our online database makes it possible for anyone to discover who they were and how they lived, fought and traveled.

To shed light on the foundations of our armed servicesone of England's oldest professionswe launched the Medieval Soldier Database in 2009. Today, it's the largest searchable online database of medieval nominal data in the world. It contains military service records giving names of soldiers paid by the English Crown. It covers the period from 1369 to 1453 and many different war zones.

We created the database to challenge assumptions about the lack of professionalism of soldiers during the Hundred Years War and to show what their careers were really like.

In response to the high interest from historians and the public (the database has 75,000 visitors per month), the resource has recently been updated. It is now sustainably hosted by GeoData, a University of Southampton research institute. We have recently added new records, taking the dataset back to the late 1350s, meaning it now contains almost 290,000 entries.

This data is mainly drawn from muster rolls (lists of names of soldiers comprising the military force) of men-at-arms (soldiers with full armor and a range of weapons) and archers. We can even see the little dots used by officials taking the muster to confirm the soldiers had turned up and had the right equipment. All these soldiers were paid and the Exchequer wanted to be assured it was receiving value for money.

We have also included protections and appointments of attorneys and legal mechanisms to protect local interests while serving overseas. Together, these records provide rich accounts of military activities, allowing for significant conclusions to be drawn. Careers of 20 years and more are revealed. We also see men moving upwards socially because of their good service. For many soldiers, especially archers, this information may be the only record we have of their existence.

The expanded data enables us to explore the garrison of Calais from 1357 to 1459. We can see the high manpower commitment needed to maintain this key English base in northern France. Calais was the gateway through which many great expeditions passed, including that of 1359 when Edward III set out to besiege Reims to be crowned King of France.

The database also allows comparisons with other emerging projects. For instance, we can establish the military experience of rebels in the peasants' revolt of 1381, a widespread English uprising driven by economic hardship, high taxes and social tensions, ultimately suppressed violently by King Richard II and his government. The data allows many deep dives into the past. It allows historians to demonstrate that, unlike today where the armed forces specialize, the medieval soldier would have served repeatedly across different theaters of war.

We can see expeditionary armies sent to invade France as well as naval campaigns in the English Channel. We also find soldiers in garrisons in Scotland, Ireland and France. Our data has allowed family historians to push their genealogies back further than has been previously possible.

Standout stories

The resource is home to many insightful records of key events and figures. One well known person is Geoffrey Chaucer, author of The Canterbury Tales, which were written between 1387 and 1400. The database holds a number of service records for him. He was a man-at-arms in the garrison of Calais in 1387.

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This was probably Chaucer's last foray into military service, but he had considerable experience as a soldier and as a diplomat. He had been in France in 1372, 1377 and 1378. He testified to the Court of Chivalrya court which settled disputes over coats of armsin 1386. He told the court that he was then aged "40 and upwards" and "had been armed 27 years." He gave more details about his service on the Reims campaign of 1359 where he was captured by the French and ransomed.

Records for a man named Thomas Crowe of Snodland in Kent shed some light on his rebellious past. During the peasants' revolt of 1381, he was accused of "taking up position and throwing great stones" to demolish someone's house. The database suggests he may have served in France in 1369. He was certainly in the garrison of Calais in 1385 and on a naval campaign in 1387. His military knowledge about trebuchetsa powerful type of counterbalanced medieval siege engineor giant catapults may explain how he was able to wreak so much destruction in the revolt.

The muster roll for the garrison of Calais in 1357 shows not only the names of men-at-arms and archers but also the support roles needed: mason, locksmith, fletcher (a maker of arrows), bowyer (a maker of bows), plumber, blacksmith, wheelwright, cooper (maker of barrels), ditch digger, boatman, carter and carter's boy. One record belongs to a tilerWalter Tyler. Was this the future rebel leader of 1381, Wat Tyler?

We hope the database will continue to grow and go on providing answers to questions about our shared military heritage. We are sure that it will unlock many previously untold stories of soldier ancestors.

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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

As many cat owners will testify, their pets are often mysterious creatures, independent, cunning and sometimes aloof. And now it appears that when it comes to communication, they might be playing favorites. A new study published in the journal Ethology has revealed that domestic cats meow more frequently when male caregivers walk through the front door.

Much of our knowledge of human-cat greetings was based on owners simply telling researchers what their cats did, rather than on rigorous scientific analysis. To better understand these cross-species interactions, scientists led by Yasemin Salgirli Demirbas from Ankara University studied 31 cats and their primary caregivers in the home environment.

The caregivers were asked to use a chest-mounted camera (like a cellphone or GoPro) to film the first few minutes of returning home while behaving as naturally as possible. The team then analyzed just the first 100 seconds of each recording, tracking 22 specific behaviors. These included the number of meows, head-rubbing against the leg and stress-related behaviors like yawning.

Meowing more for men

After analyzing hundreds of clips, one thing stood out clearly: cats vocalized more frequently (meows, purrs, chirps) when greeting male caregivers than when greeting female caregivers. This increased frequency was the same across the board, regardless of the cat's age, breed, sex, or even the size of the household. On average, cats produced 4.3 meows in the first 100 seconds of greeting men compared to just 1.8 with women.

The researchers propose a compelling reason for this. They suggest that because male caregivers tend to talk less to their cats and are generally less attentive, the cats adjust their communication to get their attention.

As the study authors comment, "Cats used vocal communication more frequently when greeting male caregivers... male caregivers might engage less frequently in verbal behaviors compared to female caregivers. This difference could prompt cats to use vocal signals more actively to elicit responses from male caregivers."

Complex greeting

The study also found that cats use several forms of communication when greeting their owners. They adopt friendly social behaviors (tail-up posture, approaching and rubbing against the person) and coping behaviors (yawning, stretching, scratching). The researchers interpret this as evidence that when a cat says hello, it is a complex form of communication that includes a desire for connection as well as a way to manage stress, such as relief now that the caregiver is home.

These findings offer a fascinating window into cat communication and behavior. However, the research was conducted only in Turkey, and the sample size was small. Further studies across different countries and cultures are needed to confirm if these gender-based differences in meowing are truly universal.

Written for you by our author Paul Arnold, edited by Gaby Clark, and fact-checked and reviewed by Robert Eganthis article is the result of careful human work. We rely on readers like you to keep independent science journalism alive. If this reporting matters to you, please consider a donation (especially monthly). You'll get an ad-free account as a thank-you.

More information: Yasemin Salgrl Demirbas et al, Greeting Vocalizations in Domestic Cats Are More Frequent With Male Caregivers, Ethology (2025). DOI: 10.1111/eth.70033

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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Research from a West Virginia University expert on consumer behavior shows the human desire for connection is a factor in many charitable donations.

When people choose causes and organizations to support, many will be in search of a payoff much bigger than the satisfaction of having done a good deed, according to Julian Givi, associate professor of marketing at the WVU John Chambers College of Business and Economics.

Givi has found charitable giving is driven by a desire to connect with othersand that people give the biggest sums when they feel their gifts add meaning to their lives. The research is published in the European Journal of Marketing.

Givi, associate professor, WVU John Chambers College of Business and Economics, says, "My colleagues and I did one of the first studies looking at the intersection between the urge to live meaningfully and the size of charitable gifts. Our research shows donors give more to good causes when they're thinking about how their gifts will help create meaning in their lives. It's the human desire for connection with others that links the search for meaning and the act of giving.

"If you see your life as 'meaningful,' you believe it has significance, purpose and impact. Benevolent actions that will be long remembered, like donating money for the construction of a library, can provide a life with meaning.

"When we asked study participants what making meaningful choices meant to them, many emphasized achieving a sense of fulfillment and acting according to deeply held values. In their appeals for donations, nonprofit organizations commonly try to evoke the joy or 'warm glow' that giving can inspire.

"But our work shows that leading donors to think about making choices that bring meaning to their lives will result in larger gifts. That's the opposite dynamic from what we see in personal consumption spending, where consumers focused on meaning tend to spend less than those focused on pleasure.

"Anyone fundraising on behalf of a good cause should be framing charitable appeals like emails and advertisements in a way that focuses on meaning and emphasizes social connectionsby featuring names, photos and personal stories of donation beneficiaries, for example."

More information: Julian Givi et al, When and why the pursuit of meaning increases charitable giving: the role of social connectivity, European Journal of Marketing (2025). DOI: 10.1108/ejm-01-2024-0041
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Thismia selangorensis in its natural habitat. Credit: PhytoKeys (2025). DOI: 10.3897/phytokeys.267.157968

Researchers in Malaysia have discovered a new endemic fairy lantern plant species with fewer than 20 individuals known to exist in the wild. They have classified the species as Critically Endangered under IUCN Red List criteria.

Described in the open-access journal PhytoKeys, the peach-to-pink Thismia selangorensis joins the expanding Thismia genus, which includes 120 known species of mycoheterotrophic plants. Unlike familiar photosynthetic plants, mycoheterotrophic species lack chlorophyll and do not get their energy from the sun. Instead, they depend solely on a parasitic relationship with fungi in the soil for their nutrition.

Species from this genus are typically found in undisturbed forests rich in leaf litter, where moist and shaded soils allow them to remain hidden for much of their lives, making their discovery extremely difficult.

Thismia selangorensis was no exception. Standing at only around 10 cm tall, with corallike roots and a peach-to-pink flower that develops into a distinctive umbrellashaped "miter" topped by three slender clubshaped appendages, Thismia selangorensis had gone unnoticed despite decades of human activity in its habitat.

Among the earlier individuals found, one was located in a hole at the base of a tree, as if living in a cave. Later, a few more individuals were found in more open areas near tree buttresses along the riverbanks.

"This discovery shows that significant scientific finds are not limited to remote jungles; they can also be made in ordinary environments where constant human activity leaves little room for expectation. Protecting Thismia selangorensis will require cooperation among researchers, the forest department, stakeholders, and the public, as its survival depends on how carefully we tread in its habitat," said Siti-Munirah Mat Yunoh (FRIM), lead author of the research paper.

"The most important effort now is to raise awareness about this species so the public realizes that it existsright here, in this small corner of the world, and nowhere else, at least for now. Understanding its presence is the first step toward ensuring that this extraordinary plant is not lost before many people even know it exists."

Naturalist Tan Gim Siew first spotted the elusive species in November 2023 during a routine photography visit to Taman Eko Rimba Sungai Chongkak, part of the Hulu Langat Forest Reserve and a longestablished picnic and camping destination near Kuala Lumpur. A tiny plant was growing among moist leaf litter near the buttress roots of a riverside tree. Follow-up surveys revealed that fewer than 20 individuals were present, with an estimated occupied habitat of only four km.

The authors highlight that, although part of the Sungai Chongkak forest remains relatively intact, plants growing close to riverside campsites and picnic areas could easily be destroyed unintentionally by trampling or flooding. They recommend careful management of visitor access around known sites, continued monitoring of the population and further botanical surveys to clarify whether the species occurs beyond its currently known locality.

More information: Mat Yunoh Siti-Munirah et al, Thismia selangorensis (Thismiaceae): a new mitriform fairy lantern species from Selangor, Malaysia, PhytoKeys (2025). DOI: 10.3897/phytokeys.267.157968 Journal information: PhytoKeys
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Satellite imagery lays bare the level of destruction caused by deadly flooding and landslides in Indonesia.

The deadly flooding that has killed hundreds in Indonesia was largely the result of monsoon rains and a rare tropical storm. But something else may have played a role: deforestation.

Environmentalists, experts and even Indonesia's government have pointed to the role forest loss played in flash flooding and landslides that washed torrents of mud into villages and stranded residents on roofs.

Forests help absorb rainfall and stabilize the ground held by their roots, and their absence makes areas more prone to flash flooding and landslides.

Indonesia is regularly among the countries in the world with the largest annual forest loss.

Mining, plantations and fires have caused the clearance of large tracts of the country's lush rainforest over recent decades.

In 2024, over 240,000 hectares of primary forest was lost, and that was less than the year before, according to analysis by conservation start-up The TreeMap's Nusantara Atlas project.

"Forests upstream act as a protective barrier, a bit like a sponge," explained David Gaveau, founder of The TreeMap.

"The canopy captures some of the rain before it reaches the ground. The roots also help stabilize the soil. When the forest is cleared upstream, rainwater runs off rapidly into rivers creating flash floods."

'Prevent deforestation'

Environmentalists have long urged the government to better protect the country's forests, which are a key carbon sink, absorbing planet-warming carbon dioxide.

Indonesia's forests are also home to enormous biodiversity and some of the world's most threatened species, including orangutans.

Experts, environmentalists and even government officials have pointed to the role of deforestation in Indonesia's deadly floods.

And in the wake of the flooding, even the country's president urged action.

"We must truly prevent deforestation and forest destruction," President Prabowo Subianto said Friday as the scale of the disaster began to emerge.

"Protecting our forests is crucial."

The floods carried not only collapsed hillsides and torrents of mud, but also timber that fueled speculation about the link between deforestation and the disaster.

On one beach in Padang, AFP saw workers dressed in orange using chainsaws to break up massive logs strewn along the sand.

The forestry ministry is reportedly investigating claims of illegal logging in affected areas, and Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni called the disaster a chance to "evaluate our policies".

"The pendulum between the economy and ecology seems to have swung too far towards the economy and needs to be pulled back to the center," he said over the weekend.

That is a message environmentalists in Indonesia have long delivered.

In one of the worst-affected areas, Batang Toru, "there are seven companies operating along the upstream region," said Uli Arta Siagian, forest and plantation campaign manager for conservation group Walhi.

"There is a gold mine that has already cleared around 300 hectares of forest cover... the Batang Toru Hydropower Plant has caused the loss of 350 hectares of forest," she told AFP.

Timber washed away in floodwaters has fuelled speculation about the role deforestation played in the Indonesia disaster.

Large tracts of forest have also been converted into palm oil plantations.

"All of this contributes to increasing our vulnerability."

Protection and restoration

Sumatra, where the flood damage was concentrated, is particularly vulnerable because its river basins are relatively small, explained Kiki Taufik, head of Greenpeace Indonesia's forest campaign.

"The massive change in forest cover is the main factor in the occurrence of flash floods," he told AFP, accusing the government of "recklessly and carelessly" granting permits for mines and plantations.

Deforestation rates in Sumatra are among the highest in Indonesia, according to Herry Purnomo, country director at the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF).

Losing forest also raises flooding risks because soil washes into rivers, raising the riverbed and reducing the capacity of waterways to absorb sudden torrential downpours, he said.

Two things are needed, added Herry, a professor at IPB University in Bogor: "Prevent deforestation, avoid it, and also carry out restoration."

 2025 AFP
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Above, specimens of the new species of sugarcane spittlebug; below, M. fimbriolata: without genetics, differentiation is only possible by examining the male genitalia. Credit: Andressa Paladini/UFPR

In 2015, Professor Gervasio Silva Carvalho of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUC-RS) in the South region of Brazil received several specimens of sugarcane spittlebugs (Mahanarva sp.) for identification.

The insects came from different sugarcane plantations in the South and Southeast of Brazil, where an insecticide commonly used to control the pest had been applied but was not producing the expected results.

The idea was that the researcher's expertise in insect taxonomy could determine whether those sugarcane spittlebugs were different from the species best known for attacking sugarcane fields based on the characteristics of the animal's body (morphology).

Shortly thereafter, unbeknownst to the researcher, Professor Diogo Cavalcanti Cabral-de-Mello from the Institute of Biosciences at Sao Paulo State University (IB-UNESP) in Rio Claro also received several specimens of the insect from the same person. Some had even been analyzed by Carvalho.

Cabral-de-Mello, a specialist in cytogenetics and genomics (fields that study the chromosomes and genetic information of organisms), noticed some differences that might indicate a new species. However, without knowing about the analyses carried out by Carvalho's group, which would provide morphological evidence, he could not make a categorical statement.

After learning about each other's work, the researchers joined forces, increasing the number of specimens analyzed to cover most of Brazil.

They were then able to describe the new species, Mahanarva diakantha, in a study published in the Bulletin of Entomological Research.

The description paves the way for a series of studies since, until now, Mahanarva diakantha was treated as one of its close relatives, such as Mahanarva fimbriolata and Mahanarva spectabilis. It may have a different life cycle, interact differently with its environment and hosts, and even have greater resistance to commonly used insecticides. These differences could affect its control and sugarcane productivity.

"This genus of sugarcane spittlebug has species that are very similar to each other, which we call cryptic. At that time, after dissecting the insects, we saw that some had different male genitalia, which could indicate a new species. Then, at a scientific event, we met other people working with this organism and decided to go ahead with the idea of describing it," says Andressa Paladini, first author of the study and currently a professor at the Federal University of Parana (UFPR).

At the time, she was doing postdoctoral research under Carvalho's supervision at PUC-RS.

"We isolated a specific sequence of mitochondrial DNA, known by the acronym COI [from cytochrome C oxidase], which varies between species and is therefore widely used to differentiate them from one another. However, the difference was so small that we couldn't have described it as a new species without morphological evidence," Cabral-de-Mello explains.

The study was supported through two projects coordinated by the researcher: "Investigating the evolution of satellite DNA in holocentric chromosomes of insect pests" and "Structure and evolution of repetitive DNA in Lepidoptera species and its relationship with karyotypic and sex chromosome diversification".

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Cryptic diversity

The new species is impossible to differentiate from the two closest species, Mahanarva fimbriolata and Mahanarva spectabilis, to the naked eye. Complicating matters further, the three species share an overlapping range in the South and Southeast of Brazil.

The only way to differentiate them without COI gene sequencing is by dissecting the males. The tip of the genitalia of the new species is differentiated in males by being bifurcated, which gave rise to its scientific name, M. diakantha, meaning "two thorns" in Greek.

To eliminate any doubt, the researchers applied a third method of species differentiation: geometric morphometrics, a technique that has been widely used in recent years to study insects. In this method, the researchers compared the shape of the hind wing of the three species of sugarcane spittlebugs. The results of the comparison showed significant statistical differences between the species.

"We don't know exactly how long ago, but everything indicates that the species differentiated recently. This is very evident in the genetic and morphological analyses," says Cabral-de-Mello.

With the description of the new species, previous studies with similar species must be reevaluated. While examining sugarcane spittlebug specimens in biological collections, the researchers found individuals of the new species that had been collected decades ago and misidentified as other species. One specimen dated from 1961 and had been misidentified as M. fimbriolata.

Some studies do not detail how the analyzed species were identified, which leads us to believe that different species may have been treated as a single species.

One of the next steps for the researchers is to increase sampling to more accurately verify the distribution of the new species in the country and its impact on crops. Another goal is to better understand the genetic diversity of the species, which is essential for developing management strategies.

"Now that it's been described as a new species, a range of new possibilities has opened up," Paladini concludes.

More information: Andressa Paladini et al, Shades of red: several lines of evidence reveal a pest of sugarcane as new species of Mahanarva (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cercopidae), Bulletin of Entomological Research (2025). DOI: 10.1017/s0007485325100503

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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Major storms are spreading industrial contaminants across entire neighborhoods, raising concerns about future well-being, especially in communities of color, according to new research from Rice University and the University of Alberta.

Jim Elliott, professor of sociology at Rice, said industrial activity has not only contributed to climate change but also produced enormous amounts of contamination at risk of remobilization during local flood events.

Elliott is the lead author of "Toxic Fear: Climate, Contamination and Worries about Future Flooding in Coastal Industrial Communities," published in Natural Hazards Review.

"We wanted to see how these dynamics are affecting people's worries about the future, particularly in coastal communities defined more by ongoing industrial activities than tourism," he said.

The scholars focused on Houston, analyzing survey data on residents' experiences during Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and their worries about future flood events.

The researchers found that residents who suspected their neighborhoods were not only flooded but also contaminated by the storm expressed significantly higher concern about future flooding, not just in general but also in terms of likely impacts to their home, health and neighborhoodpillars of community resilience.

"In terms of climate anxiety, it seems it's one thing to flood, but it is quite another thing for that flood to be toxic," said Alex Priest, professor of environmental sociology at the University of Alberta. "When that happens, residents worry a lot more about their climate futures."

The researchers found that this dynamic is particularly acute in communities of color, where suspected exposure to toxic floodwaters during Harvey was much more common.

"It's really quite stark," said Phylicia Brown, research affiliate at Rice's new Center for Coastal Futures and Adaptive Resilience (CFAR).

"We find that the average Black resident impacted by Hurricane Harvey would need to increase their household income by more than $200,000 to achieve the same protection as the average white resident from suspected contamination. That amount is even higher for Latino residents in our study."

Elliott said the findings show an urgent need for new flood strategies in America's coastal industrial communities.

"We need to stop thinking of industrial pollution and rising climate risks as separate environmental challenges," he said. "More and more they are connected and call for planning at all levels of government to make the places where they collide safer and more resilient for generations to come."

Stephen Brown, a graduate fellow in sociology at Rice, added, "The good news is that if we act now, we can help reduce worries that residents have about their long-term futures in the places they call home."

The researchers are working with local nonprofit organizations to address these ongoing challenges through Rice's CFAR.

More information: James R. Elliott et al, Toxic Fear: Climate, Contamination, and Worries about Future Flooding in Coastal Industrial Communities, Natural Hazards Review (2026). DOI: 10.1061/nhrefo.nheng-2568
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Credit: Jure Siric from Pexels

If you're a woman in your 20s, being single may feel like an empowering lifestyle choice. Taking smug delight in the recent Vogue article, Is Having A Boyfriend Embarrassing Now?, you can rest assured that you're independent, self-sufficient and living your best life.

From influencer Florence Given's mantra to "dump him," to Sabrina Carpenter denouncing the "manchild" and TikTok trends like "boy sober" and "elective celibacy" gaining traction, singlehood has been rebranded as a time for self-love, self-prioritization and personal growth.

But, what happens when you hit your 30s? Does the glow of single positivity begin to fade?

In my late 20s, I have certainly felt this shift. Once celebrated as an independent woman, the go-to girl for horrific dating stories (including a man who unironically referred to himself as the "Renegade Master") I now experience pity. Friends, acquaintances, even strangers share their worries about my fertility, question my sexuality, and tell me I am "too picky" or "too pretty" to be single. My singlehood is no longer seen an empowering lifestyle choice but a cause for concern.

I know I'm not alone in this. In my forthcoming research with 19 heterosexual women aged 21 to 52, I found that while singlehood was often celebrated in young adulthood, single positivity had a clear expiration date.

Women in their 20s described being single as empowering, a time to discover themselves, invest in friendships, and pursue careers. For research participant Emma, 24, being single is liberating.

She reflected on a cultural shift wherein the single woman is no longer the lonely spinster, or Bridget Jones's protege, but is confident, autonomous, and self-loving: "After always following someone else's lead, I realized I'm the main character of my own story, I've learned to find myself and be loving towards myself."

However, even in their 20s, many began to feel pressure to "settle down" and the freedom they once embraced started to feel like a ticking clock. Georgia, 21, told me: "I'm still young, so I don't get the 'when are you going to find someone?' question, but as I get older, I think it's going to be more of a problem."

Despite being only 21, Georgia anticipates that her singlehood will become a "problem" and is determined to embrace her freedom, while she can. Corrine, 23, also shared this feeling, enjoying her singlehood in her early 20s but anticipating that she would not feel empowered, nor satisfied, if her singlehood was to become permanent.

In fact, in my study, most women in their 20s were defiantly single and refused to "settle" just to "settle down". But equally, they did not see singlehood as a permanent choice. Bryony, 26, explained: "Unless someone can add to my life, I'm not wasting my time. But if I don't find someone in the next two years, I might start panicking because then I'd be looking at being 29, 30."

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Deadlines

This panic, for many, begins in or around their 30s. Robyn, 25, described this as an "internal deadline", a sense that by your 30s, you should be "in a relationship, thinking about kids, and ticking off life's milestones".

Comparably, while single men experience a similar pressure to couple up in midlife, with coupledom regarded a marker of maturity and stability, single women experience greater stigma, and the pressure comes much sooner.

Albeit anticipated by women in their 20s, women in their 30s and 40s reflected on the pressure around the 30s, having moved past those societal expectations. Lydia, 52, joked: "Because I haven't remarried, I think people assume I shriveled up in a corner and died 20 years ago. A lot of people pity me, they think being in a relationship is the sign of ultimate happiness, but for me, that's never been the case."

Amid a cultural shift and greater acceptance toward singlehood, it may be possible for women to challenge heterosexist and ageist "deadlines", and pursue a life where being single is not deemed the result of personal failure, but rather a voluntary choice.

Reflecting on their 30s, Lydia and Tania, 52, recalled having "been there, done that, bought the t-shirt and the divorce!" and, having pursued an unattached lifestyle, felt it was their duty to "pass on permission" for new generations of women to do so the same.

However, while women in their 50s were happily single, their experience shows that once women outgrow the "single girl" identity, the cultural script shifts and they become resigned to the "cat lady" trope. To this end, while single positivity promotes freedom from coupledom and an acceptance that women can be happily and voluntarily single, it often only applies to young, conventionally attractive and able-bodied women.

Essentially, while the single positivity movement has helped reframe singlehood as empowering, it hasn't entirely dismantled the couple norm. Instead, it offers a temporary reprieve, a phase of self-discovery before the pressure to settle down intensifies.

It's time we asked: why is singlehood only celebrated when it's temporary? Who gets to be happily single, and for how long?

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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New pan-European research has shown that the spread of conspiracy theories across the continent is driven by a continuous feedback loop between media reporting, political rhetoric, protest movements and social media algorithmsnot any single cause.

The REDACT project involves 14 researchers from across Europe, and it has examined how conspiracy theories take shape differently in the UK, German-speaking countries, the Balkans, the Baltics, Slovakia and Poland. Their findings highlight that conspiracy narratives reflect the political cultures, histories and social tensions of each region, meaning that approaches to tackling them must be tailored rather than imported wholesale from elsewhere.

A key theme across the reports is the feedback loop that enables conspiracy narratives to circulate. Even when politicians or media outlets refer to a conspiracy theory to debunk it, the resulting attention helps it spread further via social media amplification and mainstream exposure. This blurring of online and offline spaces allows fringe ideas to influence political rhetoric, as seen in Europe-wide variations of the "Great Replacement" narrative.

The research also explores how conspiracies evolve in response to local concerns. In the UK, anxieties around COVID-19 restrictions fed into narratives about "15-minute cities." In German-speaking countries, stigma around conspiracism has pushed much of it to the online sphere.

In the Baltics and the Balkans, the legacy of foreign occupation, conflict and surveillance shapes suspicion of elites and fuels a sense of victimhood. Conspiracy theories in Poland and Slovakia frequently target gender and LGBTQ+ rights, often influenced by US culture-war narratives.

The reports identify a lack of evaluation of initiatives designed to counter disinformation. Some fact-checking and NGO efforts themselves become targets of conspiracist suspicion, undermining trust and the stability of their funding. Nevertheless, media literacy campaigns, debunking and fact-checking each have a role to play when adapted to national contexts.

In the UK, the REDACT team argues that the current Online Safety Act does not go far enough. Unlike the EU's Digital Services Act, it does not explicitly address health misinformation, election-related disinformation or AI-generated content, leaving gaps in the regulation of systemic risks.

"Conspiracy thinking is not new, but in recent years, conspiracy theories have become increasingly widespread and normalized, rather than merely on the sidelines of society. Downplaying their impact or dismissing them does not make these theories disappearit actually allows them to take up all the oxygen on a topic and dominate discussion," says Professor Peter Knight, Co-Investigator on REDACT.

Ultimately, the project concludes that tackling conspiracy theories requires more than closing individual online channels. Efforts must address the structural political and social conditions that allow conspiracist narratives to flourish, as well as the business models that incentivize sensational content. The researchers urge a move away from simply asking why the public lacks trust, towards making institutions genuinely worthy of trust.
Port Sudan, Sudan (PANA)  The first high-level official delegation from the World Bank arrived in Sudan on Monday since relations were suspended in 2021, the official Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reported
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The egg and its base are sculpted from crystal featuring diamond-encrusted platinum snowflakes.

Faberge's The Winter Egg, considered one of his most beautiful creations, sold for nearly 23 million ($30 million) at auction Tuesday in London, smashing the sales record for the legendary jeweler of Imperial Russia.

It is the third time the delicate bejeweled egg, which went under the hammer at Christie's auction house, has set an auction record for a work by Carl Faberge.

An as-yet unnamed buyer stumped up 22.9 million for the dazzling piece created more than a century ago, amid strong interest among international collectors, according to the London auctioneers.

It had put a pre-sale estimate price of more than 20 million on "the exquisite" crystal egg, commissioned by Russia's Tsar Nicholas II for his mother in 1913.

"Today's result sets a new world auction record for a work by Faberge, reaffirming the enduring significance of this masterpiece," Christie's Margo Oganesian said in a statement minutes after the hammer came down.

She added the sale celebrated "the rarity and brilliance of what is widely regarded as one of Faberge's finest creations, both technically and artistically".

The previous sales record for a Faberge eggthe Rothschild Egg, which was not made for the imperial familyhad stood at nearly 9 million since it was sold in 2007 to a Russian collector.

Faberge, the master jeweler whose creations bedazzled Russia, created 50 Imperial Easter Eggs for the then-ruling Romanov family over a 31-year period, making them incredibly rare and valuable, Oganesian told AFP ahead of the auction.

The egg was commissioned by Russia's Tsar Nicholas II for his mother in 1913.

They were commissioned as Easter gifts in a tradition started by Tsar Alexander III in the 1880s.

His heir Nicholas II had an annual standing order for two Easter Eggs to be made for his mother and his wife, until the fall of the Romanovs in the 1917 Russian Revolution.

Today, only 43 of the Imperial Easter Eggs remain, with seven missing.

The imperial eggs have enjoyed renewed interest on the art market in recent decades, mainly among wealthy Russians keen to acquire a piece of their country's history.

'One of the rarest'

Carved from delicate rock crystal, the Winter Egg is an icy-looking orb studded with around 4,500 rose-cut diamonds, and stands at only 14 centimeters (five-and-a-half inches) tall.

Beyond its opulence, it is the "technique and craftsmanship" that makes it exceptional, according to Oganesian.

"The Winter Egg is truly one of the rarest items that you can find," she explained. "It's really hard to comprehend how Faberge created it."

The egg and its base are sculpted from crystal featuring diamond-encrusted platinum snowflakes.

Inside, it contains a delicious secret: a bouquet of flowers made of white quartz anemones held by gold wire stems, gathered in a platinum basket.

Like many other Romanov possessions, the egg bears witness to Russian history. It was transferred from Saint Petersburg to Moscow in 1920 after the revolution.

As with many other Imperial Eggs, it was sold by the Soviet government to generate foreign currency and was acquired by London jeweler Wartski between 1929 and 1933, according to Christie's.

The Winter Egg was subsequently part of several British collections but was considered lost from 1975, the auction house said in an essay attached to the sale lot online.

"For 20 years, experts and specialists lost sight of it until 1994, when it was rediscovered and brought to Christie's for sale in Geneva," said Oganesian.

Eight years later, in 2002, it was sold again for a record $9.6 million in New York.

 2025 AFP
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Credit: CC0 Public Domain

In sub-Saharan Africa, pastoral livestock farmingwhere cattle, goats and sheep roam freely across grasslands, grazing at willhas been the main form of livestock production. It has been a source of livelihoods for centuries, if not millennia.

But now, industrialized, mass livestock farmingfactory farmingis being increasingly funded by development banks.

This is a problem because factory farming is a high-emissions method of producing livestock. Once funds are poured into this, it becomes expensive to move away to climate-friendly farming.

Funding industrial animal agriculture locks African countries into decades of high greenhouse gas emissions (known as carbon lock-in). This is because countries' regulations, skills and markets have begun to evolve around industrial animal production.

Farmers take on debt to buy the costly machinery and inputs like antibiotics needed for industrial animal farming. Corporations consolidate control over farms, and consumer preferences shift towards more meat and dairy. These are patterns that are difficult to reverse.

I am an interdisciplinary researcher who studies how food systems are financed, how industrial animal agriculture affects the environment, and what this means for countries' climate futures. In a recent study, I examined 55 livestock projects funded between 2018 and 2024 by three development banksthe World Bank, the African Development Bank and the International Finance Corporationin low-income countries of sub-Saharan Africa.

My research found that 22 of these projects involved industrialization of animal agriculture. In total, multilateral development banks invested over US$1 billion in industrializing animal agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa between 2018 and 2024.

This nearly matches the funding for strengthening traditional pastoral systems (US$1.8 billion) during the same period. In other words, multilateral development banks are now promoting industrial livestock in low-income countries by funding it.

My research shows that development banks in sub-Saharan Africa ought to move away from funding industrial livestock expansion. This will help sub-Saharan Africa avoid long-term greenhouse gas lock-ins that make climate change worse.

Instead, these funds must be redirected to supporting pastoral or smallholder farming. These systems emit far fewer greenhouse gases and are better for the environment. They are also critical for food security and food sovereignty (having enough food to not rely on imports) for local populations.

Reshaping Africa's food systems

The World Bank, the African Development Bank and the International Finance Corporation's billion-dollar push towards industrial animal agriculture is reshaping food systems in the region.

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Industrial animal agriculture involves farming large numbers of livestock intensively. It's based on concentrated animal feeding operations that take place in large-scale, high-density facilities. It also features modern abattoirs where thousands of animals can be slaughtered every day and robotic milking equipment for cows.

It mirrors the factory farming systems of wealthier nations, instead of focusing on producing food to meet the needs of local people.

Industrial animal agriculture is also one of the causes of climate change, contributing between 12% and 19.6% of global greenhouse gas emissions. These include methane emissions produced when livestock break wind when they digest their food. Carbon dioxide is also released when forests are cut down to plant feed crops. Nitrous oxide is released into the atmosphere when microbes break down nitrogen in animal manure.

Industrial animal agriculture can provide smallholder farmers with processing facilities that they've long asked for. But this is mainly done so that the farmers can produce food they can sell on the export markets, rather than food that meets local nutritional needs.

Another way development finance reshapes food systems is that it is often catalytic. If development banks continue to promote industrial livestock systems, private investors will quickly follow. This could trigger a chain reaction that ultimately displaces traditional systems entirely.

What needs to happen next

The good news is that greenhouse gas lock-ins have not yet taken hold in sub-Saharan Africa. This is because industrialized animal agriculture has just begun. Livestock production is still mainly pastoral and smallholder-based.

Civil society organizations have started campaigns such as Stop Financing Factory Farming. They're urging multilateral development banks to stop funding high-emission systems.

The G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group also made it clear in its meetings in 2025 that new projects must be designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The G20 said funds must be spent in innovative ways that prevent global warming.

This growing international pressure means that multilateral development banks must reassess their investments in industrial animal agriculture.

There is still time for multilateral development banks to change course. They can redirect funding to climate-smart alternatives like agroecological systemsnature-based farming systems where animals graze freely.

Plant-based foods like beans, grains, nuts and seeds are examples of low-emission, nutritious food that could be farmed. New lab-grown meat or fermented meat should also be supported to meet the growing demand for protein.

It's vital that funds be set aside to strengthen pastoral systems. My research found that the World Bank alone invested US$807 million in pastoral development projects during the study period. These included building drought-resistant water systems for livestock, and restoring rangelands and grazing areas. They also created livestock market facilities and provided veterinary services.

Pastoral farming has supported Africa's dryland communities for generations without harming the environment. Maintaining this is important. Other development banks can learn from the World Bank's approach.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Schematic diagram overview showing how the various components combine in the preparation of the COS-MN-BDQ NPs. Credit: Molecules (2025). DOI: 10.3390/molecules30132845

African scientists have developed a nanoscale drug delivery system to treat pericarditis, a drug-resistant and lethal tuberculosis (TB). The scientists' system can breach the heart's protective membrane, a barrier that standard antibiotics cannot penetrate to be therapeutic.

This breakthrough from the Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform (WADDP) comes at a critical moment: As more infections become resistant to multiple antibiotics, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is increasing rapidly. The paper is published in the journal Molecules.

WADDP's strategy is to build precision nanoscale drug-delivery systems that enable existing medicines to reach the correct tissues, stay there longer, act more potently, and avoid toxicity.

TB pericarditis has one of the highest mortality rates of all TB forms because antibiotics cannot reach the site of infection.

"By engineering a nanosystem that crosses the pericardium and delivers bedaquiline [a first-line treatment for drug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant TB] directly to infected immune cells, we are opening a pathway to treat a condition that has long been considered almost untreatable," says Professor Yahya Choonara, WADDP's Director.

Bedaquiline is oily and usually hard to deliver to protected sites like the heart. Getting it through this otherwise impenetrable membrane is a significant step forward. It means doctors could one day deliver the drug directly into the pericardial space, achieving much higher local concentrations, fewer side effects, and potentially far fewer doses.

AMR kills more people every year than HIV/AIDS and malaria combined. Nearly five million deaths were linked to drug-resistant infections in 2019, and the World Bank's global economic modeling suggests the world could face a financial loss equivalent to repeating the 2008 global financial crisis annually by 2050 if no action is taken.

TB is now one of the world's top contributors to AMR-related mortality, and traditional approaches relying solely on new antibiotics cannot keep pace with the rate of bacterial adaptation.

Targeted drug delivery enables extending the lifespan of existing drugs, restoring the potency of those compromised by resistance, and reaching sites that conventional therapeutics cannot.

Instead of relying on ever-stronger antibiotics, which take a decade or more to develop, WADDP designed a tiny 100200 nm nanoparticle made from two natural polymers, COS and mannan. COS helps the particle slip through the tight cell layers of the pericardium, while mannan guides it directly to macrophages. Macrophages are immune cells where tuberculosis bacteria hide and multiply.

Inside this particle, bedaquiline is safely packaged and released slowly once it enters the cell, allowing the drug to act exactly where it is needed and for much longer.

In laboratory studies using both porcine and human pericardium, the nanoparticle worked the same way across tissue types. "This is an important sign that it could translate to real clinical use. The particles moved bedaquiline steadily across the membrane without damaging or weakening the tissue," says Choonara.

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This breakthrough for heart-related TB is part of a bigger wave of TB nanomedicine coming out of WADDP. The team has also been developing polydopamine (PDA) nanoparticles. These are a novel type of tiny carriers designed to solve problems that ordinary TB drugs can't. One of the challenges has been getting medicine into the hard, scar-like structures, known as granulomas, where TB bacteria hide.

These particles can also carry multiple types of payloads simultaneously, including imaging agents and immune-boosting molecules. This means they could one day help doctors both see and treat TB more precisely, while reducing toxicity and improving how well patients can stick to treatment.

"If bedaquiline can be delivered intrapericardially in sustained, low-frequency doses, this could become a blueprint for treating other hard-to-reach infections, from lymphatic TB to central nervous system involvement," says Choonara.

What makes WADDP's work globally significant is its focus on diseases and anatomical challenges that disproportionately affect low- and middle-income countries. TB pericarditis, for example, has a high burden in southern Africa due to HIV co-infection and late diagnosis. Conventional regimens fail not because the drugs lack potency, but because they cannot arrive at the relevant tissues at therapeutic concentrations. Localized, controlled drug delivery systems address this gap directly.

More information: Simisola Ayodele et al, Oligosaccharide Lactate Nanoparticles Enhance Tissue Targeting: A Case Study of the Controlled Delivery of Bedaquiline to Cardiac Tissue in TB Pericarditis, Molecules (2025). DOI: 10.3390/molecules30132845
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Artist's interpretation of an ancient total solar eclipse. This illustration is based on artistic imagination and does not represent the exact appearance of the eclipse recorded in 709 BCE. Credit: Kano Okada, Nagoya University (Based on an image by Phil Hart: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240402.html)

An international team of researchers has used knowledge of historical geography to reexamine the earliest datable total solar eclipse record known to the scientific community, enabling accurate measurements of Earth's variable rotation speed from 709 BCE.

The researchers calculated how the sun would have appeared from Qufu, the ancient Chinese capital of the Lu Duchy, during the total solar eclipse. Using this information, they analyzed the ancient description of what has been considered the solar coronathe dim outer atmosphere of the sun visible to the naked eye only during total eclipsesand found that its morphology supports recent solar cycle reconstructions for the 8th century BCE.

Their findings, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, provide reliable new data about Earth's rotation speed during this period and suggest the sun was becoming more active after a long quiet period, independently confirming what other scientists have found using radiocarbon analysis.

Finding the true location of an ancient capital

The total solar eclipse occurred on 17 July 709 BCE and was reported from Lu Duchy Court. Its description was found in a chronicle titled the "Spring and Autumn Annals" that was compiled roughly 23 centuries after the eclipse. The event was recorded as "the sun was totally eclipsed."

"What makes this record special isn't just its age, but also a later addendum in the 'Hanshu' (Book of Han) based on a quote written seven centuries after the eclipse. It describes the eclipsed sun as 'completely yellow above and below.' This addendum has been traditionally associated with a record of a solar corona. If this is truly the case, it represents one of the earliest surviving written descriptions of the solar corona," lead author Hisashi Hayakawa, Assistant Professor from the Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research and Institute for Advanced Research at Nagoya University explained.

Ancient Chinese text from the Spring and Autumn Annals that contains humanity's earliest datable written record of a total solar eclipse from 709 BCE. The text states "In autumn, in the seventh month, on the renchen day, the first day of the month, the Sun was totally eclipsed." The term "renchen" refers to a specific day in the traditional Chinese 60-day calendar cycle. Credit: National Archives of Japan

When the researchers tried to verify the solar eclipse record using modern astronomical calculations and reconstructions of Earth's rotation speed, they found that a total eclipse would not have been visible from the Lu Court at Qufu. They realized earlier studies had missed the exact location of the ancient city.

To correct the coordinates of ancient Qufu, the researchers used knowledge of historical geography, consulting archaeological excavation reports of the ancient city. They found that previous studies used coordinates that were some eight kilometers away from the true location.

"This correction allowed us to accurately measure Earth's rotation during the total eclipse, calculate the orientation of the sun's rotation axis, and simulate the corona's appearance," explained Hayakawa, who holds Ph.D.s in both solar physics and oriental history.

China developed exceptional traditions for astronomical records because ancient dynasties hired experts to monitor celestial events for omenological reasonsthe practice of interpreting celestial events as omens or signs. They believed strange sky phenomena indicated political wrongdoing by emperors, which motivated careful tracking of eclipses, auroras, and other astronomical events. Consequently, this systematic record-keeping across multiple dynasties has given China some of the world's best ancient eclipse records.

While the 709 BCE event represents the earliest explicit written mention of a total solar eclipse and possibly the earliest surviving description that refers to a solar corona, Hayakawa and his colleagues raise caveats on the reliability of the corona description because it appears only in the Hanshu as a quote written some seven centuries after the event.

Although questions remain about the reliability of the later corona description, the eclipse timing itself is based on scientific consensus and provides reliable new information on Earth's rotation and potential independent support for recent solar cycle studies.

Later Chinese historical text from the "Hanshu" (Book of Han), an official dynastic history, providing additional details about the 709 BCE eclipse. This source includes the description that the eclipsed Sun appeared "completely yellow above and below," which scientists regard as a description of the solar corona. Credit: National Archives of Japan

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When Earth spun faster and the sun was quieter

Our planet spins slightly slower now than it did 2,700 years ago because of several factors, including friction from ocean tides caused by the moon's gravity. Using the corrected coordinates, the team derived new accurate measurements of Earth's rotation speed in the 8th to 6th centuries BCE.

The study revealed that delta T (T), a parameter for Earth's rotation speed variability, during this eclipse was between 20,264 and 21,204 seconds. "This new dataset fixes coordinate errors in previous Earth rotation studies. Additionally, it improves the accuracy of dating and reconstructing historical astronomical events," Mitsuru Soma, co-author from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan said.

The research also supports recent solar cycle studies based on radiocarbon data from tree rings. "This unique historical addendum for the possible solar coronal structure is critical for providing a spot reference on solar activity reconstructions from tree rings and ice cores, as well as providing independent validation of solar activity models," Mathew Owens, co-author and professor of Space Physics at the University of Reading explained.

During photosynthesis, trees absorb carbon, including radiocarbon, which is stored in their annual growth rings. Because radiocarbon concentrations reflect past cosmic ray levels and cosmic rays decrease when solar activity increases, scientists measure these concentrations to track solar activity over time and reconstruct past solar cycles.

Approximately every 11 years, the sun cycles between more-active and less-active phases. Sometimes this pattern is interrupted by longer quiet periods called "grand minima" when the sun produces only stray sunspots. The eclipse occurred just after the end of a period of decreased solar activity known as the "Neo Assyrian Grand Minimum" or "Homer Grand Minimum," lasting from 808 to 717 BCE.

Morphologically, the ancient observers' descriptions of the probable coronal structure suggest the sun had come back to regular solar cycles with substantial magnetic activity by 709 BCE and reached the peak of its 11-year cycle. This result supports what other scientists have reconstructed using tree ring data.

This interdisciplinary study demonstrates how ancient human observations continue to provide invaluable scientific data. "Some of our ancestors were very skilled observers," Dr. Meng Jin, co-author from the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, noted. "When we combine their careful records with modern computational methods and historical evidence, we can potentially find new information about our planet and our star from thousands of years ago."

More information: Analyses of the Ancient Chinese Report on the Total Solar Eclipse in 709 BCE: Implications for the Contemporaneous Earth's Rotation Speed and Solar Cycles, The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2025). DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ae0461 Journal information: Astrophysical Journal Letters
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Language Mixing Scale scores across studies. Credit: Behavioral Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.3390/bs15101371

Parents in bilingual and multilingual families can wrestle with when and how to expose infants and toddlers to words in different languages. However, a new paper from the Concordia Infant Research Lab shows that language mixing does not harm a child's ability to learn words.

In fact, switching languages, even mid-sentence or to introduce a single word, is considered both a common and flexible way to communicate in multilingual homes.

"We found that language mixing is often an intentional strategy rather than something parents do subconsciously," says Ph.D. student Alexandra Paquette, the study's lead author.

"There was no strong evidence that vocabulary size was tied to language mixing. We found that children were able to successfully navigate two languages, even when they appeared in the same sentence. Parents don't need to worry that mixing harms their child's ability to learn new words."

Franglais begins at home

The study, published in the journal Behavioral Sciences, looks at data from almost 400 Montreal children being raised in bilingual homes. The Canadian metropolis benefits from a linguistically diverse population. French and English are both societal languages, meaning large portions of the population speak one or both. The city's linguistic makeup is also enriched by its significant immigrant population, who speak multiple heritage languages. The most common are Spanish, Arabic and Italian.

The researchers analyzed two groups: French-English bilingual families and families who speak a heritage language along with English and/or French. Parents completed detailed questionnaires about how often they mixed languages, their reasons for doing so and how much of each language their child heard. They also documented their children's understanding and use of words.

The results show that language mixing is common, but its frequency varies depending on the family's linguistic background. French-English parents tended to mix less than heritage-language parents, likely because both societal languages are well supported in Montreal. Heritage-language parents mixed more often, especially borrowing English or French terms while speaking their heritage language.

Parents of all backgrounds said they switched languages for several reasons: they could not find the right word in English, French or their heritage language; no good translation was available; or they wanted to introduce a new word to their child. Parents in French-English families with older toddlers were more likely to deliberately mix languages to encourage language development.

The researchers point out that language mixing had almost no effect on a child's vocabulary score in either French-English or English- or French-heritage language families. Even if parents mixed often, children knew the same number of words.

A unique linguistic environment

Montreal's particular makeup as a city with two status languages supplemented by many heritage languages shapes how parents raise their bilingual children. Language mixing is a byproduct of a cultural context in which language mixing is common in daily life in both English and French communities.

"This project shows us how flexible children are when it comes to language development," says co-author Krista Byers-Heinlein, a professor in the Department of Psychology.

"Rather than confuse children, language mixing can be a real teaching tool that parents have in their toolbox. Parents are strategic about it, and our research finds that it is either neutral or beneficial when it comes to vocabulary."

More information: Alexandra Paquette et al, Parental Language Mixing in Montreal: Rates, Predictors, and Relation to Infants' Vocabulary Size, Behavioral Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.3390/bs15101371
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Most toxic metals come from mineral fertilizers. A combination of mineral and organic fertilization would reduce it. Credit: Aleksandra Pienkowska / UFZ

Plants absorb not only nutrients but also toxic metals such as cadmium through their roots. It was previously unclear whether the toxic metals came from the soil or the fertilizers applied. Under the leadership of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, a research team has examined wheat grains to clarify the question.

Using a special isotope signature, they found that most of the toxic metals come from the mineral fertilizer. A combination of mineral and organic fertilization would not only reduce the concentration of toxic metals but also increase the concentration of metals important for human nutrition. The researchers reach this conclusion in their study published in Environment International.

"From field and greenhouse studies, it is known that the type of fertilizationi.e. mineral or organichas an influence on the metal concentration in crops," says Prof. Dr. Marie Muehe, head of the Plant Biogeochemistry working group at the UFZ and co-leader of the study. "But until now, it was not known whether the metals absorbed by the plants came from the soil or directly from the fertilizers." This is what the GermanAmerican research team aimed to find out with their current study.

The scientists used soil samples and wheat grains from the static fertilization experiment at the UFZ research station in Bad Lauchstadt. The static fertilization experiment was established in 1902 and is one of the most valuable long-term experiments worldwide, largely because of its exceptional duration.

"Some plots have not been fertilized for over 120 years while others have been fertilized with only mineral fertilizer, only organic fertilizersuch as manure from neighboring farmsor a mixture of both," says Muehe.

Grain harvest in the static fertilization experiment at the UFZ experimental station Bad Lauchstadt (Germany). Credit: Andre Kunzelmann / UFZ

Long-term experiment and sample analysis

Over the long duration of the trial, the soil properties (e.g. the pH value or the organic matter content) have diverged considerably. The sample material from this long-term trial was therefore the perfect basis for the analyses. Because soil samples and harvested wheat grains from all trial plots are archived each year, we have an excellent data basis.

For their study, the researchers took a closer look at samples from the past 20 years. "We first determined the respective metal contents in the soil, in the harvested wheat grains, and in the fertilizers used," explains Aleksandra Pienkowska, UFZ doctoral candidate and co-lead author of the study.

In order to find out whether the metals contained in the wheat grains originate from the soil or the fertilizer, the researchers used the strontium isotope signature method, which is based on the fact that the chemical element strontium (Sr) occurs in two different isotopes, 87Sr and 86Sr.

"Because the ratio of these two isotopes differs in each soil type, it is essentially a fingerprint," explains Robert Hill, doctoral candidate at Duke University and co-lead author of the study.

"If the ratio in the wheat grain is the same as in the soil on which the plant has grown, it can be concluded that the plant absorbed the strontium from the soil. However, if the isotope ratio in the grain corresponds to that of the fertilizer, this is a clear indication that the strontium got into the grain via the fertilizer."

And because it is known that plants absorb strontium and cadmium via similar pathways, conclusions can also be drawn for cadmium.

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Findings on metal origins and recommendations

The results show that the toxic metals in the analyzed wheat grains originate from the fertilizer rather than from the soil. In addition, the metal contents are particularly high when mineral rather than organic fertilization is used.

"To interpret these results, it is important to note that our investigations were carried out in a region with very fertile chernozem soils. These effects could become even more evident in sandy or acidic soils," says Pienkowska.

Given that long-term mineral fertilization also leads to soil acidification, measures to stabilize pH levels (e.g. liming) become even more important."

However, not all metals contained in mineral fertilizers are undesirable. For example, zinc is an important metallic trace element for nutrition. But can the absorption of zinc in wheat grain be promoted while preventing the absorption of toxic metals?

"Our investigations have also shown that by combining the fertilizers, it was possible to increase the zinc concentration in the wheat grain without increasing the cadmium concentration," says Muehe. "We therefore recommend combined fertilization or alternating applications of mineral and organic fertilizers. This not only reduces fertilizer costs but also improves grain quality."

In subsequent studies, the researchers aim to examine how metal levels in crops respond to changing environmental conditions, including those driven by climate change.

More information: Robert C. Hill et al, Impacts of fertilization on metal(loid) transfer from soil to wheat in a long-term fertilization experimentusing 87Sr/86Sr isotopes as metal(loid) tracer, Environment International (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2025.109851 Journal information: Environment International
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Aerial photograph of the Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Shire. Credit: Daniel Featherstone, RMIT University

First Nations Australians are twice as likely as other Australians to be digitally excluded and face barriers to accessing, affording and using the internet. For those living in remote Australia, the barriers are much greater.

Three in four First Nations people living in remote and very remote communities are digitally excluded according to the Mapping the Digital Gap report by RMIT University and Swinburne University of Technology. This means many face significant barriers to accessing and using online services needed for daily social, economic and cultural life.

This 2025 outcomes report draws on three years of fieldwork to compare digital inclusion levels for First Nations people to nationwide Australian Digital Inclusion Index (ADII) scores by remoteness, location, age and other factors.

Drawing on expanded data, the report found a 10.5 point digital gap for First Nations Australians nationally, with this gap more than doubling in the remote communities surveyed for the report.

But it wasn't all bad news; the Mapping the Digital Gap research found an 8.7 point improvement in digital ability for First Nations people in very remote communities, rising from 45.8 in 2023 to 54.5 in 2025.

This boost suggests First Nations Australians now have greater access to digital connectivity and support to develop online skills needed for work, education, health, banking and other vital services.

Co-investigator Associate Professor Daniel Featherstone from RMIT said people living in remote communities were rapid adopters of digital technology and innovative in finding ways to connect.

ADII Score by Remoteness Map. Credit: RMIT University

"We found digital participation is on the rise, with more people than ever before trying to get online." Featherstone said. "Connectivity is an essential service nowadays, especially in remote communities.

"But there are a range of barriers to having affordable and reliable internet access in these communitieslargely due to limited or strained infrastructure, low household connectivity and high reliance on pre-paid mobile services."

While access is improving in many remote communities with expanded mobile and Wi-Fi connectivity, it remains the largest contributor to the digital gap, 42.4 points below the national score for non-First Nations Australians.

The gap in access is nearly four times greater than the gap for affordability (11), and more than twice the gap for digital ability (19.3).

Elders, low-income households, and people with limited English or people living with a disability in remote areas continue to face significant barriers to getting online.

The RMIT and Swinburne research team partnered with local First Nations organizations in 12 remote First Nations communities from 2022 to 2024, working with community co-researchers to promote community engagement in the project.

First Nations co-investigator Professor Lyndon Ormond-Parker from RMIT said the community partners and co-researchers were critical to the project's success.

"All data collected is given back to the community through annual outcomes reports, with digital inclusion plans to support community-led and place-based solutions," he said.

The team is tracking progress towards Closing the Gap Target 17 under the National Partnership Agreement, which aims for equal digital inclusion for First Nations Australians by 2026.

Daily internet use of remote First Nations communities visited by the research team, compared to Non-First Nations. Credit: RMIT University

Chart comparing digital exclusion of the remote First Nations communities visited by the research team with First Nations Australians nationally and non-First Nations people in Australia. Credit: RMIT University

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Daily internet use rising but gaps remain

In 2022, 44% of people in remote First Nations communities visited by the research team used the internet daily, with 20% not online at all.

By 2024, daily usage climbed to 62%, while non-users fell to 14%. Meanwhile, 95% of non-First Nations Australians are daily users and just 2% are non-users.

Telstra, the study's industry partner, provides mobile, fixed line phone and broadband services in remote communities, providing essential connectivity.

Lauren Ganley, Head of Telstra's First Nations Strategy & Engagement, said reliable connectivity was critical to improving digital inclusion in remote communities.

"Quality connectivity can be life-changing for remote First Nations communities, unlocking access to opportunities and growth," Ganley said.

"Telstra is proud to partner in this important work and help bridge the digital gap, so communities can connect, learn and thrive."

New dashboard puts data in communities' hands

Under an expanded national project with support from the Australian Government, the ADII team last month launched the First Nations Digital Inclusion DashboardAustralia's first interactive, national data set tracking First Nations digital inclusion.

The dashboard empowers local organizations and communities to access up-to-date data to inform local decision making.

This will give First Nations communities better tools to track progress and advocate for further improvements, ahead of the next Mapping the Digital Gap report in December 2026.

Mapping the Digital Gap: 2025 Outcomes Report is published by RMIT University, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, Telstra, and Swinburne University of Technology.
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Exozodiacal dust, depicted in this artist's illustration as a glowing white haze above the horizon of a hypothetical habitable planet orbiting another star, was found to exist in such large quantities in the Kappa Tucanae star system that it has astronomers puzzled over its origin. Credit: ESO/L. Calcada

Seventy light-years from Earth, a star called Kappa Tucanae A harbors one of astronomy's most perplexing mysteries: dust so hot it glows at more than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, existing impossibly close to its host star, where it should have been vaporized or swiftly blown away.

Now, astronomers at the University of Arizona have discovered something that could finally help solve this cosmic puzzle: a companion star swinging through the region where this enigmatic dust persists.

The discovery, published in the Astronomical Journal and led by Thomas Stuber, a postdoctoral research associate at the U of A's Steward Observatory, represents the highest-contrast detection of a stellar companion ever achieved with the European Southern Observatory's MATISSE instrument.

It provides scientists with their first natural "laboratory" for understanding hot exozodiacal dust, a phenomenon that complicates humanity's quest to find potentially habitable Earth-like planets around other stars.

Why hot exozodiacal dust is puzzling

Hot exozodiacal dust presents a fundamental challenge to scientists' understanding of planetary systems. These microscopic particles, as fine as smoke from a fire, orbit so close to their stars that the combination of high temperature and intense radiation pressure should cause them to disappear almost instantly.

"If we see dust in such large amounts, it needs to be replaced rapidly, or there needs to be some sort of mechanism that extends the lifetime of the dust," Stuber said.

The mystery deepens when considering that this dust exists around some of the very same stars around which astronomers hope to find Earth-like planets. NASA's upcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), planned for launch in the 2040s, will use advanced coronagraphs to block starlight and reveal faint exoplanets. But hot dust creates what researchers call "coronagraphic leakage"scattered light that could mask the signals from potentially habitable worlds.

Three of the four Auxiliary Telescopes of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer in Chile that were used in this study are visible in this photo. Sandwiched between the orange glow of the sunset and the colorful center of the Milky Way is the whitish zodiacal light that results when fine, smoke-like particles distributed among the planets in the solar system scatter sunlight. Credit: ESO/B. Tafreshi

Understanding its origin and composition will be necessary in steering exoplanet research in the decades ahead.

Using a technique called interferometry, which combines light from multiple telescopes to achieve the resolution of a single, much larger telescope, Stuber's team made repeated observations of Kappa Tucanae A between 2022 and 2024.

Having led exozodiacal dust research around the world for over a decade before coming together for this project, the international team expected to study the dust's behavior over time.

Instead, the researchers discovered something entirely unexpected: a stellar companion locked in a highly eccentric orbit that brings it within 0.3 astronomical units of the primary starcloser than any planet in our solar system gets to the sun.

This discovery transforms Kappa Tucanae A from a puzzling system into a complex stellar laboratory, according to Stuber. The companion star follows an extremely elliptical path, swinging far out into the system before diving back through the dust-rich inner region.

"There's basically no way that this companion is not somehow connected to that dust production," notes Steward Observatory Associate Astronomer Steve Ertel, a co-author on the paper. "It has to be dynamically interacting with the dust."

Steward Observatory's role in the discovery

This breakthrough builds on decades of technological leadership at Steward Observatory in interferometry. The observatory's Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI), built on Mount Graham, revolutionized the search for warm exozodiacal dust, the less extreme sibling of hot dust, with its unprecedented stability and sensitivity.

The LBTI's unique capabilities propelled Steward to international prominence in the study of exozodiacal dust, positioning the observatory at the forefront of exoplanet research. Now, that expertise is being leveraged for the next generation of instruments, including a new European nulling interferometer that will be 50 times more sensitive than previous observations.

The lineage runs deep: Denis Defrere, who leads the European instrument development, was previously trained at Steward as a postdoctoral researcher, where he helped build the LBTI.

"Steward has established itself as the global leader in this kind of research, which is really critical for exo-Earth imaging," said Ertel, who obtained a NASA grant to study exozodiacal dust with this new instrument.

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Future research and unanswered questions

The Kappa Tucanae A discovery offers multiple avenues for future research. By studying how the stellar companion interacts with the dust, astronomers hope to understand the origin, composition, grain size and distribution of hot dust more broadly.

The findings could reveal whether magnetic fields trap charged dust particles, as described by Steward researchers George Rieke and Andras Gaspar, whether cometary material constantly replenishes the supply, as studied by Steward researcher Virginie Faramaz-Gorka, also a co-author on the paper, or whether entirely different physics govern these extreme environments.

The discovery also points toward the possibility that other hot dust systems may harbor similar stellar companions. Steward researchers now hope to revisit previously observed stars, searching for companions that may have been missed.

As NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory approaches reality, discoveries like this one provide the foundational knowledge needed to navigate the complex research ahead.

"Considering the Kappa Tucanae A system was observed many times before, we did not even expect to find this companion star," Stuber said.

"This makes it even more exciting to now have this unique system that opens up new pathways to explore the enigmatic hot exozodiacal dust."

More information: T. A. Stuber et al, Interferometric Detection and Orbit Modeling of the Subcomponent in the Hot-dust SystemTuc A: A Low-mass Star on an Eccentric Orbit in a Hierarchical-quintuple System, The Astronomical Journal (2025). DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/adfe66 Journal information: Astronomical Journal
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A particle is being levitated in the acoustic levitation setup in the Waitukaitis group's lab at ISTA. Credit: ISTA

Using sound to get objects to float works well if a single particle is levitated, but it causes multiple particles to collapse into a clump in mid-air. Physicists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) have now found a way to keep them apart using charge. Their findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could find applications in materials science, robotics, and microengineering.

Who hasn't dreamed of overcoming gravity and getting objects to hover above ground?

In 2013, Scott Waitukaitis, now an assistant professor at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), became interested in using acoustic levitation as a tool to study various physical phenomena. At that time, only a handful of research groups were using this technique for similar purposes.

"While acoustic levitation was being used in acoustic holograms and volumetric displays, it was essentially geared toward applications. I had the impression that the technique could be used for much more fundamental purposes," he says.

After establishing his research group at ISTA, Waitukaitis started building several experiments based on controlling matter with sound.

Overcoming 'acoustic collapse'

One curious aspect of acoustic levitation is that the method works well if a single particle is levitated. However, if multiple particles are thrown into the mix, they snap together like magnets in mid-air. This 'acoustic collapse' occurs because the sound scattering off the particles creates attractive forces between them. It is a central limitation of the technique.

Particles rearrange their configuration when the ISTA scientists trigger bounces on the levitation setup's charged bottom reflector plate, coated with a thin layer of indium tin oxide (ITO). Credit: Shi et al., PNAS

"Originally, we were trying to find a way to separate levitated particles so that they would form crystalsspecific repetitive patterns," says Sue Shi, a Ph.D. student in the Waitukaitis group and the first author of the study.

It was only later that they would realize that solving the collapse problem by separating particles was even more important. The key to this was adding another force to counteract collapseenter electric charge and electrostatic repulsion.

"By counteracting sound with electrostatic repulsion, we are able to keep the particles separated from one another," says Shi.

After developing a method to charge the particles, the team found that they could tune the charge to levitate them with various configurations. These included completely separated particle systems, fully collapsed ones, and "hybrids" in between with both separated and collapsed components.

The scientists could also bounce the particles off the levitation setup's charged bottom reflector plate to switch between the different configurations. Working with Carl Goodrich, assistant professor at ISTA, and Ph.D. student Maximilian Hubl, the team developed simulations to explain all the configurations they saw, based on balancing sound-scattering and electrostatic forces.

'Violating' Newton's law

As is often the case in science, phenomena that the team couldn't have anticipated ended up being even more interesting.

Some of the complex behaviors they observed hinted at the presence of "non-reciprocal" interactions, for example, ones that "violate" Newton's third law. Foremost among these were certain particle arrangements that would spontaneously start rotating, or pairs of particles that would chase each other.

First author and Ph.D. student Sue Shi with ISTA Assistant Professor Scott Waitukaitis in the lab. Together, they overcame "acoustic collapse," a fundamental limitation of acoustic levitation, by adding another force: electric charge. Credit: ISTA

The study's first author, ISTA Ph.D. student Sue Shi, places a particle inside the acoustic levitation setup. Credit: ISTA

Strictly speaking, Newton's third law can't be violatedthe extra momentum gained by the particles is lost to the sound. Although prior theoretical work had already predicted that such effects should exist in acoustically levitated systems, observations were not possible, precisely because the particles would always collapse into a single clump.

"You can't study how individual particles interact when you can't keep them apart," explains Waitukaitis. "By introducing electrostatic repulsion, we can now maintain stable, well-separated structures. This finally gives us a controllable platform to investigate these subtle non-reciprocal effects."

From frustration to fruition

The team's method opens up new possibilities for manipulating matter in mid-air, with potential applications in materials science, micro-robotics, and other fields that rely on forming controlled, dynamic structures from small building blocks.

The team is already using their approach to study the non-reciprocal effects that it gives access to. "At first, it was frustrating to see these hybrid configurations and weird rotations and dynamicsthey were preventing me from getting the clean, stable crystalline structures I was aiming for," says Shi.

However, presenting her results at conferences and seeing other scientists' excitement helped her appreciate them as a fascinating phenomenon in their own right. "That's the funny thing about experiments: the most interesting discoveries often come from the things that don't go as planned."

More information: Sue Shi et al, Electrostatics overcome acoustic collapse to assemble, adapt, and activate levitated matter, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2516865122 Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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Vector flow topology. Credit: Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adt9311

Imagine standing on top of a mountain. From this vantage point, we can see picturesque valleys and majestic ridges below, and streams wind their way downhill. If a drop of rain falls somewhere on this terrain, gravity guides it along a path until it settles in one of the valleys. The trajectory traced by this droplet is known as a flow line, a path that indicates the direction of movement determined by the landscape's gradient.

The complete network of valleys, ridges, and flow lines forms a topographic (or cartographic) map that captures the organization of the landscape. This organization, which remains stable as long as the terrain does not change, corresponds to a kind of "topological invariant," as physicists would call it: It characterizes the global structure of the flows without reference to local details.

Now imagine that a jolt goes through the landscape and it changes, with new valleys appearing, others merging and ridges shifting. The flow lines reorganize accordingly, forming a new pattern of connections. Comparing these patternslike two maps placed next to each otherreveals how the system's topology evolves when its underlying conditions change.

From the mountains to physics and mathematics

What does all this have to do with physics and mathematics? Well, nonlinear physical systems, such as driven-dissipative systems, can be understood in a similar way as the mountain landscape. When systems like MEMS oscillators (micro-electro-mechanical systems) are excited, they exhibit multiple oscillatory states.

In the analogy, valleys correspond to stable steady states, ridges to unstable ones, and the streams flowing down the mountain to the system's evolution toward equilibrium. Phase transitions occur when the landscape itself is reshaped so that valleys and ridges shift, disappear or merge, causing the system's trajectories to reorganize completely.

In a new publication in Science Advances, a research team from the University of Konstanz, ETH Zurich and CNR INO Trento presents a framework that captures these transformations, providing a unified way to classify and compare them. In this context, the topological invariant defined by the organization of flow lines in the landscape translates directly to the phase organization of resonator systems, where each stable oscillation mode corresponds to a valley in the dynamical landscape.

Topology in physics

The research group led by Oded Zilberberg investigates how a system's topology, meaning its overall structure and pattern of connections, determines why physical systems can abruptly change their behavior. Topology, a branch of mathematics that studies properties that remain unchanged under continuous transformations, has become a powerful tool in physics revealing how the global arrangement of a system influences its dynamics.

Traditional topological methods are designed for linear systems. To address the complexity of nonlinear, driven-dissipative systems, the team developed the aforementioned topography-inspired framework that maps the symbolic valleys, ridges and connecting flows of physical systems. In these dynamical systems, however, the flow lines are not elongated streams, but can wind or swirl, showing chirality, a handedness like a screw thread that indicates whether motion winds clockwise or counterclockwise. Including this feature allows for a more complete and precise topological classification of nonlinear behavior.

Abrupt phase transitions

The team's recent work introduces this framework as a new way to understand how nonlinear systems evolve during phase transitions, that is, during the sudden reorganizations where a system shifts from one stable configuration to another (like the jolt that goes through the mountain landscape and changes it). The key question is what features remain invariant even as the system's landscape changes. These enduring features, known as topological invariants, provide a global understanding of the system's structure and stability.

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Unlike gradual parameter changes, these transitions happen abruptly. A physical system can remain stable for a long time and then suddenly jump to a new pattern of behavior. Oded Zilberberg compares this to climbing a ladder: the system does not move smoothly but jumps from one step to the next. The researchers aim to uncover how these jumps occur and how topological invariants connect across transitions. "For us, it is not just about identifying invariants," says Greta Villa, a graduate student in the Zilberberg group, "but about understanding how one stable configuration transforms into another."

The analogy of a mountain landscape helps visualize the concept that has highly practical implications. The results are relevant for photonics, mechanics, electronics and experiments with ultracold atoms near absolute zero. For example, MEMS devices, such as those used in experiments at ETH Zurich by Alexander Eichler's team, already play key roles in technologies like noise filters in mobile phones, ensuring clear communication even in noisy environments.

More information: Greta Villa et al, Topological classification of driven-dissipative nonlinear systems, Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adt9311 Journal information: Science Advances
A Washington family has reached a $30 million settlement in a case involving a 13-year-old who was fatally struck while on a crosswalk with faulty lights.

The victim was identified as Michael Weilert, who died following an accident while walking on a crosswalk on July 19, 2022. The family's attorney, Evan Bariault, said that the settlement results from a suit that claimed the Washington State Department of Transportation was aware the flashing lights at the crosswalk were faulty but failed to address the issue.

Family Agrees to $30 Million Settlement Over Teen's Death

Bariault added that the case was never about the money, but instead, about finding justice for the victim and his family, and creating change and accountability. The attorney said that they learned early on that Washington state did not conduct any type of checks and balances for the crosswalk.

What this meant was that when one of the lights went out, the state was not notified that it was not operating. When the teenager died, five of the 11 crosswalks along SR-7 were not functioning properly, according to Fox13 Seattle.

Bariault said that they hope that part of the $30 million settlement would result in the state changing its processes and procedures to ensure that there is a proper system in place to avoid the same tragedy from happening in the future.

A few days after the teenage boy died, his parents vowed to fight for a change. His mother said they taught their son everything he needed to do to be safe when trying to cross the street, such as pressing the button and waiting for cars to stop.

Creating Change and Accountability

Bariault said that while the teenager's family was grateful that the legal process in the case had finally come to a close, they noted that no amount of settlement could fill the space that was left by their son's absence, The Seattle Times reported.

In a statement, WSDOT spokesperson Kris Abrudan said that they recognize Michael's loss was "devastating for the family, friends, and the community." She added that the company is continuing to work with communities and partners to better protect the public.

The $30 million settlement in the case, which was approved by the court on Nov. 7, is believed to be the largest ever entered into by the Washington State Department of Transportation. It is also potentially the largest in the history of the state for a wrongful death case involving a minor, as per the News Tribune.
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Spatial distribution and replicate detection frequency (number of positive detections per site) of Gambierdiscus taxa across three coastal locations in Queensland: (A) Townsville, (B) Gladstone, and (C) Hervey Bay. Bubble size corresponds to detection frequency (see legend, bottom), and colors represent different Gambierdiscus taxa (see legend, top). Credit: Harmful Algae (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.hal.2025.103006

A microscopic organism linked to serious seafood-related illness has been detected for the first time in the waters of Hervey Bay and Gladstone. The findings are published in Harmful Algae. Joseph Perkins, a James Cook University Ph.D. candidate specializing in harmful algal blooms, marine toxins and molecular ecology, led the study.

He said ciguatera poisoning, the world's most common non-bacterial seafood illness, causes debilitating illness and poses a serious challenge to public health in tropical and subtropical regions.

"Each year, between 10,000 and 50,000 known cases are reported globally, caused by fish that have accumulated ciguatoxins. These toxins are produced by microscopic organisms that thrive in warm seawater and then these toxins then accumulate up the food-chain into larger fish," said Perkins.

Using DNA metabarcoding, researchers examined the ecology and distribution of these micro-organisms, known as dinoflagellates, in coastal regions of Townsville, Hervey Bay and Gladstone.

"We identified established species, but also found several which differed genetically, including what may be an entirely new species. We also confirmed the presence of Gambierdiscus holmesii, a known ciguatoxin producer, in Hervey Bay and Gladstone for the first time.

"This extends its known range further south than previously recorded and marks the first detection of any Gambierdiscus (the primary producer of ciguatoxins) in the Gladstone region," said Perkins.

He said though temperature was not assessed in this study, the researchers recommend examining seasonal and thermal gradients to better understand how warming seas may shape the distribution of Gambierdiscus species.

"Our study provides vital insights into the distribution of harmful algal species in Queensland. But beyond that, it underscores the importance of continued monitoring as climate change may expand the reach and prevalence of these toxic dinoflagellates," said Perkins.

More information: Joseph C. Perkins et al, Taxonomy, distribution, and habitat associations of Gambierdiscus from coastal waters off Queensland, Australia, Harmful Algae (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.hal.2025.103006
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Capturing protein diffusion across different length scales and time scales with MHz-XPCS. Credit: Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-66972-6

At European XFEL, researchers have observed in detail how the vital iron protein ferritin makes its way in highly dense environmentswith implications for medicine and nanotechnology.

Inside biological cells, there is a dense crowd where millions of proteins move side by side, bump into each other or temporarily accumulate. At the same time, these proteins often have to fulfill important tasks at short notice. How exactly the proteins move in this confined space has been difficult to track until now.

An international research team led by Anita Girelli and Fivos Perakis, both from Stockholm University, has now used the European XFEL X-ray laser in Schenefeld near Hamburg to take a closer look at these movementsand discovered a surprising pattern. The results are published in Nature Communications.

Molecules in a 'cage'

The experiments focused on ferritin, a spherical protein that stores iron and is found in almost all living organisms.

When it is examined in high concentrations, it exhibits unusual behavior: Instead of moving evenly and randomlyas in classical Brownian motionferritin repeatedly finds itself in a kind of molecular cage: Surrounded by neighboring proteins, for short times it is blocked before it is freed again and can move on.

Snapshots every microsecond

To visualize these tiny movements, the team used a new technique: megahertz X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (MHz-XPCS). "With the extremely fast X-ray flashes from European XFEL, we are able to measure how the proteins move in only a millionth of a second," explains Johannes Moller, scientist at the Materials Imaging and Dynamics (MID) instrument at European XFEL.

The research is closing a gap between established methods such as light scattering or nuclear magnetic resonance, which can also measure protein movements, but not with such precision and speed.

The researchers place capillary holders containing the ferritin solutions in front of the detector at the MID experimental station of the European XFEL. Credit: Michelle Dargasz

Unexpected insightspractical consequences

The observations show that the denser the environment, the more pronounced the cage phenomenon becomes. "The proteins do not simply move more slowly, but in a complex way that is unusually restricted," says Girelli, leader of this study. "These findings are not only relevant for basic research. They could also help to develop new biomedical applications," adds her colleague Perakis.

Ferritin is already being investigated in drug delivery, where drugs can be packaged inside the protein to delay their release in the body. How quickly the proteins spread and diffuse directly influences their effectiveness. Other applications for ferritin are also being discussed, for instance, as a contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or as building blocks for nanomaterials.

"With the European XFEL, we were able to track the collective movements of proteins more precisely than ever before," says Girelli. This not only helps to better understand the fundamentals of biological processesit also opens up new perspectives for medical applications.

The study was carried out as part of a long-term project at the MID instrument. Participants included the Universities of Siegen and Tubingen, the Technical University of Dortmund, ESRFThe European Synchrotron, and the Institute Laue-Langevin (ILL), both in Grenoble, and the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY in Hamburg.

More information: Anita Girelli et al, Coherent X-rays reveal anomalous molecular diffusion and cage effects in crowded protein solutions, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-66972-6 Journal information: Nature Communications
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Since the discovery of the remaining seven wild crested ibises in Shaanxi Province's Yangxian County in the 1980s, the region has emerged as a key site for the conservation and recovery of the species through protection initiatives. The crested Ibis, once on the brink of extinction, has now established wild populations in over ten provinces, but long-term effective conservation challenges remain. Credit: Siqi Wang, Yangxian County, Shaanxi, China (CC-BY 4.0, creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Conservation programs are often too focused on a single charismatic species, Hai-Tao Shi at Hainan Normal University in China and colleagues warn in a perspective article publishing December 2nd in the open-access journal PLOS Biology.

With many species worldwide experiencing population declines, there is an urgent need for conservation initiatives to support their recovery. However, this urgency, combined with insufficient scientific knowledge about endangered species, means that conservationists have often relied on oversimplified measures of success. For example, historical conservation efforts often focused on the abundance of a single charismatic species as a proxy for overall ecosystem health.

The authors highlight three examples from China where oversimplified conservation priorities led to negative outcomes. The Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus) is known as a "cryptic species," because it has multiple, genetically distinct populations that look identical to the naked eye.

Unaware of this, conservationists began a large-scale captive breeding and reintroduction program, which led to genetic mixing that threatened native populations. In the case of the crested Ibis (Nipponia nippon) and Pere David's deer (Elaphurus davidianus), intensive captive breeding and release programs with limited suitable habitat have resulted in overcrowding, inbreeding and increased mortality.

Although well-intentioned, these initiatives have caused unforeseen issues for the ecosystem, and have often failed to improve the conservation status of the target species.

To avoid repeating these mistakes, the perspective article advocates for a more nuanced approach to conservation, focused on creating balanced ecosystems, restoring habitats and minimizing human intervention. Although there has recently been more emphasis placed on protecting whole ecosystems, charismatic species conservation is still prevalent in China and elsewhere.

Conservation programs that aim to preserve and restore ecosystem functions are a more effective use of limited resources, and are less likely to have unintended consequences, the authors say.

The authors add, "Conserving non-megafauna charismatic species may not be effective when conservation outcomes are purely based on abundance and do not facilitate the restoration of long-term ecosystems and their functions."

More information: Shi H-T, et al. Are we over-conserving charismatic species? PLOS Biology (2025). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003494 Journal information: PLoS Biology
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Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A study led by health communications experts at the University of California, Irvine has yielded a new way to monitor heat equity in real time, facilitating the design of heat warning systems and targeted mitigation efforts in California's most vulnerable communities.

Researchers at UC Irvine's Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health explored online posts by Californians about extreme heat to help inform the development of targeted public health interventions. The study is published in Weather, Climate, and Society.

As California experiences more frequent and intense heat waves, not all residents are prepared to withstand them. The state's diverse geography and population, combined with disparities in cooling access, create unique challenges in protecting public health. For example, about 20% of Los Angeles County households lack air conditioning, compared with less than 7% in Riverside County.

These differences reflect California's varied climate zones and housing patterns: Riverside's hotter, inland conditions have long driven greater air conditioning use, while many of Los Angeles's older homesparticularly in coastal and lower-income neighborhoodswere built when cooling was considered unnecessary. The result is a patchwork of cooling access across microclimates, leaving some urban communities more exposed to dangerous heat.

Using a machine learning-based approach, the study analyzed over 7,000 heat-related posts on X (formerly known as Twitter) and linked them to local conditions through the Healthy Places Indexa data tool developed by the Public Health Alliance of Southern California that combines 23 social and economic indicatorsand California census tract data.

"Extreme heat is an often-underestimated public health threat," said corresponding author Suellen Hopfer, associate professor of health, society and behavior at Wen Public Health. "By integrating health equity tools like the Healthy Places Index with social media monitoring, we can better understand how Californians experience and respond to heat and identify where targeted interventions are most needed."

The analysis found that residents in low Healthy Places Index areas, often characterized by fewer economic resources and limited access to cooling infrastructure, expressed more negative sentiments, venting and warning about the heat in their posts. In contrast, residents in high HPI areas more frequently described coping strategies and expressed relief and positive sentiments when temperatures dropped.

By combining social media analytics, including seven years of data from X, place-based health data and geospatial mapping, the researchers developed a powerful AI-based tool that could help agencies and fire departments monitor real-time conversations and existing data and respond with targeted interventions and resources in locations most affected by heat.

More information: Gomathi B. Sriperumbudur et al, How Californians Tweet about Extreme Heat Events on Social Media: A Health Equity Perspective, Weather Climate and Society (2025). DOI: 10.1175/WCAS-D-24-0147.1
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Ligia Coelho, a Postdoctoral Fellow in astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences and fellow at the Carl Sagan Institute, holds a menstrual cup. Credit: Sreang Hok/Cornell University

Eating from pouches, sleeping in a bag tied to the wall, using a vacuum-powered toilet: Basic processes of human life require scientifically tested solutions in space. It's the same for menstruation, a process female astronauts must plan for before flying to space, especially for longer missions in the future.

"We are developing so many systems, making humans survive in a place we're not supposed to be," said astrobiologist Ligia Coelho, 51 Pegasi b Postdoctoral Fellow in astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) and fellow at the Carl Sagan Institute. "The farther we go, to the moon and Mars, that's becoming harder and harder."

Testing menstrual cups in space

To equip astronauts with health choices for future missions, Coelho is leading research with AstroCup, a group that recently tested two menstrual cups in spaceflight as payload on an uncrewed rocket flight. Their container, designed by aerospace engineers on the team, measured temperature, acceleration and humidity. They analyze the results in "One Giant Leap for Womankind: First Menstrual cup Tested in Spaceflight Conditions" published in npj Women's Health.

Co-authors with Coelho are Catarina Miranda, Miguel Morgado and Diogo Nunes of the University of Lisbon and Joao Canas of aerospace company SpinWorks. Contributing authors are Andre F. Henriques, University of Lisbon, and Adam B. Langeveld, visiting scholar in astronomy (A&S) and CSI.

The menstrual cups performed well, said Coelho, who uses her expertise in biology toward understanding life processes related to space. Through pre- and post-flight testing, the team found that the silicon menstrual cups, made by Finland-based company Lunette, retained their structural integrity and functionality through 9.3 minutes of flight and some extreme acceleration, especially during liftoff and just before the parachute deployed for landing.

In fact, they sustained forces higher than they would on a crewed flight, Coelho said, assuring performance on a flight with astronauts on board.

A water test after the flight confirmed the cups retained their structural integrity. A test with glycerol, a blood analog, confirmed they retained functionality.

Implications for astronaut health and autonomy

"The first time something is done on a rocket payload, the paper is used as methodology precedent," Coelho said. "We wanted to have a bulletproof methodology that can be replicated by other people. We put a lot of thought into how we could do this consistently with a good control setting that could be replicated."

With these results, Coelho and her team show that a silicon menstrual cup made by a standard brand here on Earth will work in space flight conditions. They are also setting the stage for a larger discussion within the space industry, Coelho said.

"I get passionate about the reasons why menstrual devices are still not in space," she said. "We need to have a serious conversation about what it means to have autonomy for health in space."

Most astronauts who menstruate suppress menstruation hormonally on missions that last up to six months. There is currently an option to pack pads or tampons, but dealing with these single-use materials on a yearslong mission to the moon or Mars would be unsustainable, Coelho said.

At those long-term timelines, hormonal suppression becomes more difficult, too, requiring packing years of medicine. NASA is also looking into connections between hormonal suppression and blood clots, Coelho said. Under these conditions, choices around menstrual health will not just be convenient but essential.

Without workable options, women going into missions lasting five, 10 or even more years might be required to put their reproductive health on long-term hold. Plus, using a preferred method of menstruation care could improve astronauts' productivity and happiness on long missions.

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Future research and next steps

Cleaning and reusability must be studied, but portable sterilization kits used on Earth for camping or hiking trips could be repurposed for space, she said. Menstrual underwear is another simple solution closely related to current practiceall astronauts on the International Space Station wear single-use underwear.

In February, the AstroCup team (made of professionals in science and space fields who volunteer their time for the project) sent menstrual cups with crew members on the simulated Hypatia II Mission on the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, collecting data about usability and astronauts' reactions.

Their next step is to send more rocket payloads into space, with a goal of placing menstrual devices of various kinds on the International Space Station.

"It's validated, it works," Coelho said. "Now we can start implementing and redefine health autonomy in space."

More information: Ligia F. Coelho et al, One giant leap for womankind: first menstrual cups tested in spaceflight conditions, npj Women's Health (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s44294-025-00112-9
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The Space Coast's record rocket train of 2025 kept rolling with the first launch of December on Dec. 1.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 with 29 of the company's Starlink satellites lifted off from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-A at 2:44 a.m. marking the first of at least five planned launches on the Space Coast in the next two weeks.

This was the fourth launch of the first-stage booster, which made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic.

It marked the 102nd launch from either KSC or neighboring Cape Canaveral Space Force Station this year, with SpaceX responsible for all but seven of them. SpaceX, United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin combined to surpass the 2024 record of 93 launches last month, with the Space Coast on target to come close to 110 launches before the end of the year.

SpaceX has another launch planned for Dec. 2 with a Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-95 mission with 29 Starlink satellites aiming to lift off from Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 40 during the launch window that runs from 3:167:16 p.m. with backup Dec. 3 from 2:506:50 p.m. This will be the 25th flight for the first-stage booster, which will aim for a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic.

SpaceX then plans another Starlink launch on Sunday back at KSC with its fleet-leading booster going for a record 32nd trip to space and landing in the Atlantic.

Then on Dec. 9, SpaceX looks to fly a national security mission with a booster return on land that could bring a sonic boom to Central Florida.

A Falcon 9 is set to fly the NROL-77 mission with a classified satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office from Canaveral's SLC-40 at 2:16 p.m. with backup Dec. 10 at 2:02 p.m.

This will be the fourth launch of the first-stage booster that will aim for a recovery at Canaveral's Landing Zone 2, which could bring one or more sonic booms to residents of Brevard, Orange, Osceola, Indian River, Seminole, Volusia, Polk, St. Lucie, and Okeechobee counties.

The other launch on the calendar already this month could come from ULA on Dec. 15 with an Atlas V rocket slated to take off from Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 41 during a window that opens at 3:52 a.m.

The Amazon Leo 4 mission is the new name for what Amazon had been formerly calling Project Kuiper. The Atlas V looks to bring up 27 more satellites for what would be Amazon's seventh overall operational launch of its internet satellites, and fourth with ULA.

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This would increase Amazon's constellation to 180 of a planned 3,236 total slated to be in orbit by July 2029.

Amazon Leo is seeking to compete with SpaceX's Starlink, which has already had more than 10,000 satellites launched since SpaceX's first operational mission in 2019.

The Atlas V mission could be the final launch for ULA in 2025, but the sixth for the year, which also featured the third ever launch of its new Vulcan rocket. The company looks to grow that to closer to 20 missions in 2026.

Blue Origin had two launches in 2025, and had also originally been targeting a third launch of its New Glenn rocket before the end of the year, but now it's looking to make that flight in early 2026.

SpaceX, meanwhile, could continue its pace of one launch from Florida about every three days, and is expected to queue up Falcon 9 missions through the end of the year.

2025 Orlando Sentinel. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The Department of the Air Force announced it had given the OK for SpaceX to move forward with its Starship and Super Heavy launch pad plans at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 37.

A "record of decision" on the Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Canaveral site was posted to the Air Force's website late Monday for what has been a nearly two-year approval process.

The decision states the Space Force will execute a property agreement for the site with a primary purpose to support national security missions, but allow for civil missions as well. It says Space Launch Delta 45 would need to set up requirements for Starship launches on the Eastern Range before any launches could happen, though.

The company posted an update late Monday confirming the approval and noting construction is already underway.

The Space Force had already allowed SpaceX to remove the former United Launch Alliance launch infrastructure that supported the now-retired Delta IV Heavy rockets.

Its plans are to have two Starship launch towers at SLC-37 while it also pursues a single tower at neighboring Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39-A. That site remains under an ongoing EIS being run by the Federal Aviation Administration.

"With three launch pads in Florida, Starship will be ready to support America's national security and Artemis goals as the world's premiere spaceport continues to evolve to enable airport-like operations," SpaceX posted on X.

The Air Force's EIS for the Canaveral site would allow SpaceX to "conduct up to 76 launches and 152 landings annually once a supplemental analysis of airspace impacts by the (FAA) is completed."

The Air Force will assess the airspace analysis before finalizing its stance on allowing Starship launches.

The effect of Starship launches and its booster and upper stage returns to the launch site on air traffic was a major concern after details on potential impact were revealed under the KSC EIS. SpaceX is seeking another 44 launches and 88 landings from the KSC site.

Combined, the worse-case scenario among the combined 120 launches and 240 potential landings could lead to 12,000 delayed commercial flights each year. Other concerns include the effect of the more severe sonic booms in store from the massive rocket.

Towering at more than 400 feet tall, the combined Super Heavy and upper Starship stage launch with nearly 17 million pounds of thrust, which is more than twice the power of the Saturn V rockets of the Apollo program.

The boosters are designed to return to the launch site to be captured by the launch tower's swiveling "chopsticks" arms, while the upper stage could return after at least one orbit of the Earth if the mission called for it. Those return flights would cut across Florida, blocking route access to several major airports in the state, including Tampa, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

Space Launch Delta 45 officials said the first Starship launches would come as early as summer 2026 from the KSC site, assuming approvals come in.

2025 Orlando Sentinel. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Spain has found another seven dead wild boars infected with African swine fever near Barcelona, increasing the outbreak's total to nine cases, the agriculture ministry said on Tuesday.

The discovery of two cases in boars last week in the Collserola Natural Park, Spain's first since 1994, has sparked fears for the country's powerful pork export industry.

More than 100 members of the army's emergencies unit, Catalan regional officials and EU experts are working to uncover new cases and contain the disease, harmless for humans but devastating for pigs.

Laboratory tests have confirmed that seven wild boars found dead in the municipality of Cerdanyola del Valles were infected, "very close" to where the first two boars were discovered, the ministry said in a statement.

But pig farms in a 20-kilometer (12-mile) radius around the infected area were tested "without the detection of symptoms or compatible lesions," the statement added.

The European Commission's Veterinary Emergency Team joined the emergency response on Tuesday "to assess the measures deployed on the ground and issue recommendations" with the aim of controlling the disease "as soon as possible," said the ministry.

Any spread of the disease to farms could seriously harm the world's third-largest producer of pork and pork derivatives.

Spain exports almost three million tonnes each year to more than 100 countries, but Agriculture Minister Luis Planas has said a third of them have halted imports as a safety measure.

Planas welcomed on Monday the decision of Chinathe top export market for Spanish porkto continue accepting imports from outside the Barcelona region.

African swine fever is also present in the Baltic states and eastern Europe, where it arrived from Russia in 2014.

 2025 AFP
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Spain's pork industry is "very concerned" by a growing African swine fever outbreak among wild boars that has sparked jitters about the world's third-largest producer of the meat and its derivatives.

AFP looks at the possible consequences of the outbreak, the first in Spain since 1994, with Miguel Angel Higuera, director of Spain's National Association of Pork Producers (Anprogapor).

What is the health impact?

Swine fever does not affect humans but is highly contagious and lethal for pigs, storing up potentially devastating consequences for the pork sector.

After finding two cases in dead boars outside Barcelona last week, Spanish authorities confirmed a further seven cases on Tuesday within the same perimeter.

The sector is "very concerned by the situation" and the protection of domestic pigs is the "primary objective," said Higuera.

A weekend analysis of farms within a 20-kilometer (12-mile) radius of the outbreak found "100% negative samples," said Higuera.

"The direct health impact in farms is none, there is no African swine fever in domestic pigs in Spain," he stressed.

How has trade been hit?

Spain exports almost three million tonnes of pork products each year to more than 100 countries, but Agriculture Minister Luis Planas has said a third of them have halted imports as a safety measure.

The key Chinese marketthe world's most voracious consumer of pork and Spanish pork's largest export destinationis accepting imports as long as they are not from the Barcelona region.

Higuera said the industry was working with the agriculture ministry to see if such regionalized trade restrictions could be implemented elsewhere.

But the repercussions will reverberate for some time: at least 12 months must elapse from the last case to regain the important fever-free status.

"More positive boars will definitely be found, we still do not have the minute zero to start counting down those 12 months," warned Higuera, saying "the situation will drag on for a time."

How to deal with the scourge?

A response plan developed and tested by the agriculture ministry and Spain's regions, which have frontline responsibility for emergency management in the country's decentralized system, is now in place.

Higuera explained that the protocols established distances between pig farms, their size and the health checks carried out in them.

"We have sent very strong and powerful messages to our members to increase further, if possible, all the biosecurity measures" to prevent the disease infiltrating farms.

"Where we have problems, and where everyone in Europe has problems, is with the wild boar population, because there is overpopulation," said Higuera.

"There is not enough management through hunting to deal with this such high growth" in the number of boars.

"The only thing we have is to trust that all the containment protocols are working," Higuera concluded, as hundreds of regional health officers, troops and EU experts worked on monitoring the outbreak.

 2025 AFP
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Artistic impression of the long-held astronomical view that brown dwarfs resemble Jupiter in appearance, displaying prominent multiple zonal bands and stable vortices similar to the Great Red Spot. This Jupiter-like atmospheric circulation formed the basic picture for explaining brown dwarfs' large-amplitude variability. On right, a model of atmospheric circulation for super-Jupiter VHS 1256B. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Using images from the James Webb Space Telescope (Webb), an international research team including Western's Stanimir Metchev has discovered new answers to explain how some brown dwarfs form giant dust storms, contradicting previous assumptions. These storms may look similar to Jupiter's iconic Great Red Spot, but the new study, led by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, shows they actually form quite differently.

The findings are published in the journal Science Advances.

Brown dwarfs are celestial objects with more mass than a giant planet and less than a small star. Unable to sustain hydrogen fusion in their cores, they cool after formation. After billions of years, they reach low temperatures, becoming highly similar to giant planets.

Some brown dwarfs are 10 times heavier than Jupiter, so they're sometimes called "super-Jupiters." Because they resemble giant planets and demonstrate strong space weather activity, they make great test analogs for studying how the atmospheres of giant exoplanets (planets that orbit stars other than our sun) behave.

"Astronomers have generally assumed that brown dwarfs behave like Jupiter, with strong eastwest bands and stable storms shaping their skies," said Metchev, a physics and astronomy professor. "Our research challenges that idea, suggesting that some of these worlds don't follow Jupiter's pattern after all. By modeling a super-Jupiter's changing light patterns, we show its atmosphere may circulate in a fundamentally different way."

Findings build on previous brown dwarf research

Over the past decade, Metchev and his team have established the prevalence of atmospheric storms on brown dwarfs, and more recently, the ubiquity of dust (or "sand") clouds on warm brown dwarfs like VHS 1256B, the one studied in the latest research. Metchev previously teamed up with Xianyu Tan, senior author of the new study and a T.D. Lee Fellow at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and others for a study that conducted Webb observations that directly detected the dust in the clouds of this super-Jupiter.

The previous study showed VHS 1256B produced extremely high 'large-amplitude variability," meaning its perceived brightness rises and falls significantly over time. This brightness variance usually signals dramatic atmospheric features, such as the giant dust storms now discovered.

Based on these findings, Tan, Metchev and their collaborators simulated VHS 1256B's atmosphere to match its large-amplitude variability and compared this new model with observational data from Webb. The simulated model shows VHS 1256B's variability is caused quite differently than Jupiter's, stemming from large-scale equatorial waves.

Bolometric thermal flux maps, their time evolution near the equator, and the resulting long-term light curve evolution from the GCM. Credit: Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adv3324

These waves, created by a temperature imbalance as clouds near the equator heat the atmosphere, produce large east-west-moving dust storms. This phenomenon, known as "cloud-radiative feedback," explains both the strong brightness changes seen on VHS 1256B and the slow, long-term shifts in its light curve caused by dust storms that move and change over time.

"The cloud-radiative feedback circulation mechanism has been proposed, but for a model to be truly validated, it must withstand the test of observations, which is perhaps even more challenging than proposing the theory itself," said Tan. "Fortunately, successful comparisons with the VHS 1256B observations provided this opportunity, verifying the feasibility of the new circulation mechanism. Of course, we cannot yet completely rule out other potentially important mechanisms."

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Super-Jupiters: Why so different?

The study also shows that super-Jupiters like VHS 1256B behave very differently from Jupiter mainly because their atmospheres are much hotter and respond to radiation much more strongly. This rapid response creates large-scale equatorial waves and prevents Jupiter-like multiple zonal banding (or rings), while Jupiter's cooler atmosphere builds these rings by a slower turbulent process.

"The mechanism of giant planets' atmospheric circulation has long been an important and unresolved question in planetary science," said Xi Zhang, a professor at UC Santa Cruz and a key collaborator on the study. "These novel wave dynamical processes on super-Jupiters provide us with a unique perspective to examine our fundamental understanding of this problem."

More information: Xianyu Tan et al, Large-amplitude variability driven by giant dust storms on a planetary-mass companion, Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adv3324 Journal information: Science Advances
AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- 360training.com, Inc., a global provider of compliance and professional education, announced today the acquisition of UST Training.

Founded in 2003, UST Training pioneered online, state-approved Class A/B and Class C operator training for underground storage tank (UST) systems and has since trained more than 1.5 million Class C and 20,000 Class A/B operators nationwide. Its trusted, trademarked Tank Savvy brand has become synonymous with excellence in fuel-system safety and compliance.

360training's Family of Brands

"This acquisition is a key milestone for 360training," said Tom Anderson, CEO of 360training. "UST Training has set the benchmark for UST operator education and environmental safety. By integrating their industry-leading content and Tank Savvy brand with our scalable online learning platform, we can better serve regulated markets with high-quality, approved training that protects communities and the environment."

"I'm thrilled to see UST Training join forces with 360training, a company that shares our commitment to safety, compliance, and education," said Ben Thomas, Founder of UST Training. "This acquisition marks an exciting new chapter that will allow us to reach and empower even more professionals across the industry. I'm proud of the community we've built over the years, and I look forward to continuing my involvement with UST Training as we integrate with 360training to expand our impact and deliver even greater value to our learners and partners."

Shared Commitment to Safety and Environmental Protection

UST Training is known for helping operators understand and meet diverse UST compliance requirements across the country. UST regulations vary widely from state to state, and the company's website provides up-to-date information on UST operator training rules in each jurisdiction, an essential resource for compliance professionals and facility owners.

"Our mission has always been about making communities safer," said Samantha Montalbano, COO of 360training. "By combining our regulatory education infrastructure with UST Training's deep subject-matter expertise, we can deliver even more state-approved, environmentally focused content that helps operators stay compliant no matter where they work."

UST Training's PEI Membership Reinforces Industry Alignment

UST Training is a proud member of the Petroleum Equipment Institute (PEI), the industry's leading organization promoting safety, reliability, and environmental responsibility within petroleum equipment and fuel handling.

360training will continue and build upon this PEI membership, ensuring that UST operator education aligns with the highest industry standards and supports a network of professionals dedicated to compliance and environmental protection.

Enhancing the Customer Experience

Through this acquisition, 360training will integrate UST Training's catalog into its global platform, offering an expanded range of state-approved UST operator courses, along with enhanced learner tools such as faster course access, improved progress tracking, and team training management.

"From the user's perspective, this means a better experience," said Ryan Linders, CMO of 360training. "We're combining trusted, proven content with a modern learning experience to help operators train efficiently, meet deadlines confidently, and manage compliance with ease."

Key Benefits of the Acquisition

Expanded Course Portfolio: UST Training's nationwide, state-approved UST operator courses will be available on 360training's platform.





UST Training's nationwide, state-approved UST operator courses will be available on 360training's platform. Integrated Access to EHS Solutions: UST Training's programs will complement 360training's EHS catalog, expanding access to a broader range of safety and compliance training.





UST Training's programs will complement 360training's EHS catalog, expanding access to a broader range of safety and compliance training. Improved Technology: Streamlined learning management, team reporting, and certification tracking for enterprise and individual learners.





Streamlined learning management, team reporting, and certification tracking for enterprise and individual learners. Industry Collaboration: Continued alignment with PEI and regulatory agencies to support safer, compliant fuel operations.

About 360training

Established in 1997, 360training.com, Inc. is a trusted leader specializing in comprehensive online training solutions for individuals and businesses across various industries, including food and beverage, environmental health and safety, real estate, healthcare, and financial services. With innovative technology and a commitment to quality education, they offer accredited courses fostering safe and healthy communities. Having delivered over 11 million training plans across multiple brands, including Learn2Serve, OSHAcampus, AgentCampus, OSHA.com, VanEd, AdvanceOnline, ACLS Medical Training, American Resuscitation Council, Compliance Training Online, Hard Hat Training, HIPAA Exams, Mortgage Educators and Compliance (MEC), My Mortgage Trainer, Ready Training Online (RTO), TABC On The Fly, BASSET On The Fly, Certified On The Fly, and TIPS, 360training remains dedicated to expanding its offerings. As part of this commitment, the company continues to seek acquisition opportunities that build synergies and enhance value for its customers. Please visit www.360training.com or our social media accounts on Facebook and LinkedIn to learn more.

About UST Training

Founded in 2003, UST Training is a national leader in online education for Underground Storage Tank (UST) operators, offering state-approved Class A/B and Class C training across all 50 states and U.S. territories. Known for its trademarked Tank Savvy program, the company helps fuel-system operators go beyond compliance to strengthen safety, environmental protection, and operational excellence. A proud member of the Petroleum Equipment Institute (PEI), UST Training partners with regulators, environmental agencies, and major fuel brands such as Shell, Chevron, Costco, and 7-Eleven to advance industry standards and build a safer, more knowledgeable workforce.

SOURCE 360training.com, Inc.
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Conceptual models of oceanic anoxia and ecological disturbance in terrestrialmarine systems from the late Permian to Early Triassic. Credit: NIGPAS

A research team from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS), in collaboration with international partners, has completed a high-resolution biomarker analysis of the Zal section in northwest Iran. This study uncovers new insights into ecological disruption and microbial community shifts across the PermianTriassic (PT) transition in the region.

The findings, published recently in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, address a critical gap in global PT research: While the transition marks the most severe biotic crisis of the Phanerozoic Eon, microbial dynamics during this interval remain poorly documented in key areas of the Paleotethys Ocean.

Iran's western Paleotethys outcrops offer well-preserved, continuous marine sediment recordsmaking them a vital archive for studying the crisis. Comparative analyses between western (Iran) and eastern (South China) Paleotethys sites are critical to understanding global environmental and biological trends, yet Iran's specific environmental and microbial histories have long remained unclear.

The study identifies three overlapping environmental crises that unfolded simultaneously during the transition:

Biomarker data reveal a major shift in primary producersfrom eukaryotic green and red algae to bacteriawith cyanobacteria becoming dominant at the extinction boundary.

Sediment records document recurring bottom-water anoxia, strong water-column stratification, and prolonged intervals of euxinia (oxygen-depleted, sulfide-rich conditions).

Sharp increases in terrestrial organic matter, linked to intensified wildfire activity and soil erosion, suggest land-derived nutrients may have exacerbated marine eutrophication.

Notably, these biomarker patterns align with negative 13C isotopic shifts and match trends previously observed in South China, indicating that ecological decline occurred synchronously across the Paleotethys. Collectively, the results point to volcanism-driven terrestrial environmental collapse and widespread marine anoxia as key amplifiers of the end-Permian mass extinction.

More information: Shenglin Jiao et al, Ecological disturbance and microbial community dynamics across the PermianTriassic transition in Northwest Iran, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2025.113432 Journal information: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
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A diagram showing the fields of science and class of technology for the 700,000 "Pasteur's quadrant researchers" that the research team identified. Credit: Lee Fleming

When UC Berkeley biochemist Jennifer Doudna first began studying how bacteria fight virus infections, she had no idea it would result in one of the most important scientific breakthroughs of the century. Her curiosity-driven research on an obscure bacterial immune system called CRISPR eventually led to a revolutionary gene-editing tooland earned her the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

But Doudna didn't just publish her findings in academic journals, she also filed patents and founded multiple biotech companies to bring her discoveries to the world. Today, Doudna holds more than 100 U.S. patents alongside her 300-plus scientific publications. She embodies the type of researcher that a new UC Berkeley study suggests we need more ofscientists who refuse to choose between advancing fundamental knowledge and creating practical applications.

The new study, published November 27 in the journal Science, reveals that researchers who both publish papers and file patentsdubbed "Pasteur's quadrant researchers" after pioneering microbiologist and chemist Louis Pasteurproduce work that is more novel and more influential than those who stick to just one activity. The finding challenges long-held assumptions that scientists should focus pure research and leave applications to others.

"Having some understanding of the application of your researchas you do itactually increases the impact of your science," says study co-author Lee Fleming, a professor with appointments at UC Berkeley Haas and UC Berkeley Engineering. "The old linear model is that real scientists do pure science and don't want to get their hands dirty. Our work adds to the evidence that the linear model is probably wrong and that we should encourage scientists to think about their application while they are doing their research.

First comprehensive evidence

The research team, which included Institute for Business Innovation researcher Emma Scharfmann, MEng 24 (AI & operations research), and professor Matt Marx of Cornell's SC Johnson School of Business, linked all science publications and U.S. patents to create a dataset of nearly 700,000 individuals who've both published and patented since 1976.

The study provides the first comprehensive evidence that combining scientific inquiry with practical invention doesn't diminish either effortit enhances both.

The findings have significant implications for how universities evaluate faculty and how funding agencies allocate grants. For example, tenure criteria that penalize patentingor even view it as a distraction from "real" researchmay be counterproductive.

Complementary influences

According to the study's authors, working simultaneously in both science and technology exposes researchers to complementary influences that spark greater creativity and spur more innovation. Applied problems can increase motivation and prevent scientists from fixating on unproductive approaches.

Conversely, practical research can lead to unexpected observations that scientifically-trained minds are well-positioned to recognize and exploit. One classic example: scientists working on microwave communication technology accidentally discovered the background radiation from the Big Bang.

"There are those in the science world and those in the patent world. Ideally, there are people who straddle both worlds and will see ideas in technology that they can take into science and vice-versa," says Fleming.

The study found that researchers who published and patented at different points in their careers produced results that were more highly cited and more novel than those who only did one or the other. Researchers who published and patented in the same year were the most novel and highly cited of all.

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Early career innovators

Perhaps the most striking finding concerns young scientists. University administrators and tenure committees have long worried that early-career patenting distracts researchers from building a strong publication record. The data suggest otherwise.

Fleming and his team matched dual-purpose researchers by field, university, and number of science publications in the first five years of their career. Scientists who had also patented in their first five years had higher science productivity and impact (as measured by citations from other science papers). Even those who had one fewer publication in their first five years of research had 25% more citations over their career, relative to scientists who did not patent in their first five years of work.

"On the one hand, universities might not be wrong that focusing on patenting in your earlier career 'crowds out' time for publishing. But what we're missing is that this is the sort of applied research that yields the big breakthroughs in the long run," says Marx, the Bruce F. Failing, Sr. Chair in Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Cornell Johnson.

Even so, the researchers caution that their findings are correlational, not causal. They cannot rule out that certain personality traits or institutional environments drive both patenting behavior and research quality. But the patterns are consistent across fields, institutions, and time periods.

Among their other findings:

The number of dual-purpose researchers has increased by 350% between 1980 and 2016, likely due to the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act allowing universities and small businesses to retain intellectual property rights for inventions resulting from federally-funded research. These "Pasteur quadrant researchers" now comprise about 14% of all inventors and 4% of all scientists.

Female representation among this group has also grown dramaticallyfrom just 5% in 1980 to more than 25% by 2016.

These researchers concentrate heavily in wealthy geographic areas. By 2016, the top 1% of U.S. counties by economic output contained nearly half of all dual-purpose researchers.

Changing university policies

Fleming and his co-authors hope their study will encourage universities and funding agencies to reconsider how they allocate funding between basic and applied research, how technology transfers from academia to industry, and what drives science-based entrepreneurship. "Our findings should give pause to those departments with tenure criteria that do not value applied research," he says.

Momentum is building toward these policies. PTIE, or Promotion & TenureInnovation & Entrepreneurship (PTIE), is a global movement to support the recognition of applied research. The University of California enacted a policy in 2021 that explicitly recognizes innovation and entrepreneurial achievements among the criteria for faculty promotion and tenure review.

"Universities were traditionally seen as ivory towers, places for professors to pursue knowledge for its own sake. Today, the society we serve expects more, and needs more than the basic academic research we have excelled at for so long," wrote UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons, who served Berkeley's chief innovation & entrepreneurship officer, in the introduction to the new book Startup Campus. "The world is increasingly turning to our universities in pursuit of tangible ideas, innovations, and solutions that will advance the greater good."

In the meantime, Fleming and his co-authors' message is clear: the old model that separated scientists from inventors may have been holding back both science and innovation. Researchers like Doudnawho move fluidly between publishing papers and filing patentsaren't diluting their contributions. They're amplifying them.

More information: E. Scharfmann et al, Pasteur's quadrant researchers bring novelty, impact to publishing, and patenting, Science (2025). DOI: 10.1126/science.adx3736 Journal information: Science
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In the visualization, we see more than 100 cities in the Global South and their sparseness, a measure of how the population is distributed across the cities, as well as access to clean water and water tariffs. Credit: Complexity Science Hub

A new study analyzing more than 100 cities across Asia, Africa, and Latin America has quantified the stark consequences of urban sprawl on water and sanitation access, finding that how cities grow might determine whether hundreds of millions of people have access to these basic necessities.

The analysis, conducted by researchers at the Complexity Science Hub (CSH) and the World Bank, examined infrastructure data and economic indicators, including information on the footprint of 183 million buildings and 125,000 household surveys, to understand the relationship between urban form and access to clean water and sanitation.

The study modeled three scenarios for urban expansion and found that, if cities spread outward rather than building more densely, access to clean water and basic sanitation could be significantly impacted. "With horizontal growth, 220 million fewer people would have access to piped water and 190 million fewer would have access to sewage systems by 2050," points out Rafael Prieto-Curiel, lead author from CSH.

Distance from the city center matters

Cities that sprawl outward already face challenges, and the study quantified what many people already experience in cities like New Delhi, Cairo, Lagos, or Bogota. Water bills are 75% higher in sprawling cities compared to compact ones, and access to piped water drops by 50% in more dispersed urban areas, according to the paper published in Nature Cities.

"In addition, residents in outer neighborhoods have 40% less access to critical infrastructure compared to those living closer to the city center," add the researchers.

Liuhuaying Yang of CSH created an interactive visualization "Urban Thirst," that shows how urban form impacts water access and service costs in more than 100 cities in 55 countries.

This visualization shows cities across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, which are home to 650 million people and 183 million buildings. Credit: Complexity Science Hub

Asia and Africa are in the spotlight

Urban populations in Africa and Asia will grow substantially by 2050 (tripling and increasing by half, respectively), demanding considerable planning efforts. "African cities face particular challenges, with populations expected to surge from 550 million in 2018 to nearly 1.5 billion by 2050," point out the researchers. "African cities are already nearly twice as sprawling as Asian cities, with only 12% of residents living in central areas compared to 23% in Asia."

From evidence to action

"Water scarcity gets a lot of attention, but urban form is something we can actually control through planning and policy," says Prieto-Curiel. "Our analysis shows that effective planning can significantly enhance access to water and sanitation. Compact, walkable neighborhoods with adequate density aren't just environmentally sustainable. They ensure that basic services are available to everyone."

"Basically, our work shows that, by building cities better, we would be able to increase access to water and sanitation services. This can be done just by considering the shape of a city, no need to invest more money or build more infrastructure, but only considering the location of where that happens," adds Prieto-Curiel.

The researchers stress, however, that densification alone isn't a panacea; even some densely populated slums like Kibera in Nairobi, Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro, or those in Iztapalapa in Mexico City remain underserved. The research, however, shows that sprawling growth makes service delivery many times more difficult in cities.

By 2050, African cities will have a population of nearly 1.5 billion, up from 550 million in 2018. In addition, African cities are already almost twice as sprawling as Asian cities, with only 12% of residents living in central areas, while 23% live in Asian cities. Credit: Complexity Science Hub

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Why city shape matters for water access

The team modeled three growth scenarios for cities doubling in size: compact (building denser and filling gaps), persistent (continuing current expansion patterns), and horizontal (spreading outward). "We assumed the only element that changed was where new development happens within the city," explains Prieto-Curiel.

To compare cities of varying sizes, the researchers measured how spread out each city is. They call this sparseness: basically, do most people live close to downtown, or are they scattered far from the center?

Cities with low sparseness concentrate most residents near the center. Jakarta, Indonesia, exemplifies this: more than half its 33 million residents live in central areas. Cities with high sparseness scatter populations across distant neighborhoods. In Kigali, Rwanda, only 15% of the 2.2 million residents live centrally, with most far from the core.

The researchers found that round, dense urban development could provide piped water to 220 million more people and sewage services to 190 million more than horizontal sprawl would. Persistent growth, maintaining current patterns, would keep access rates roughly stable. But horizontal sprawl would actively reduce the share of people with access to these basic services.

More information: Urban sprawl is associated with reduced access and increased costs of water and sanitation, Nature Cities (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s44284-025-00338-3 Journal information: Nature Cities
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Credit: Earth System Science Data

With the GlobalBuildingAtlas, a research team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has created the first high-resolution 3D map of all buildings worldwide. The open data provides a crucial basis for climate research and the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. They enable more precise models for urbanization, infrastructure and disaster managementand help to make cities around the world more inclusive and resilient.

How many buildings are there on Earthand what do they look like in 3D? The research team led by Prof. Xiaoxiang Zhu, holder of the Chair of Data Science in Earth Observation at TUM, has answered these fundamental questions in this project.

The GlobalBuildingAtlas comprises 2.75 billion building models, covering all structures captured in satellite imagery from the year 2019. This makes it the most comprehensive collection of its kind. For comparison: the largest previous global dataset contained about 1.7 billion buildings. The 3D models with a resolution of 33 meters are 30 times finer than data from comparable databases.

In addition, 97% (2.68 billion) of the buildings are provided as LoD1 3D models (Level of Detail 1). These are simplified three-dimensional representations that capture the basic shape and height of each building.

While less detailed than higher LoD levels, they can be integrated at scale into computational models, forming a precise basis for analyses of urban structures, volume calculations, and infrastructure planning. Unlike previous datasets, GlobalBuildingAtlas includes buildings from regions often missing in global mapssuch as Africa, South America, and rural areas.

New perspectives for sustainability and climate research

"3D building information provides a much more accurate picture of urbanization and poverty than traditional 2D maps," explains Prof. Zhu.

"With 3D models, we see not only the footprint but also the volume of each building, enabling far more precise insights into living conditions. We introduce a new global indicator: building volume per capita, the total building mass relative to populationa measure of housing and infrastructure that reveals social and economic disparities. This indicator supports sustainable urban development and helps cities become more inclusive and resilient."

Open data for global challenges

The 3D building data from the GlobalBuildingAtlas provides a precise basis for planning and monitoring urban development, enabling cities to take targeted measures to create inclusive and equitable living conditionsfor example, by planning additional housing or public facilities such as schools and health centers in densely populated, disadvantaged neighborhoods.

At the same time, the data is crucial for climate adaptation: it improves models on topics such as energy demand and CO emissions and supports the planning of green infrastructure. Disaster prevention also benefits, as risks from natural events such as floods or earthquakes can be assessed more quickly.

The data is already attracting a great deal of interest: The German Aerospace Center (DLR), for example, is examining the use of the GlobalBuildingAtlas as part of the International Charter: Space and Major Disasters.

Like the databases and satellite data already available to the public, the project complies with all security standards for satellite data. In accordance with the German Satellite Data Security Regulation, the data is not considered sensitive due to its resolution of over 2.5 meters.

More information: All data and code are freely available via GitHub and mediaTUM, TUM's media and publication server. https://github.com/zhu-xlab/GlobalBuildingAtlas



https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/1782307
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Youth engagement is critical in the fight for a just and sustainable future. And creating opportunities for young people is a vital part of a just transition away from fossil fuels.

The Canadian government's 2025 federal budget has emphasized creating new opportunities for young people by establishing a Youth Climate Corps, providing employment placements in renewable energy, protecting biodiversity and retrofitting buildings. The government promised to invest $40 million over two years starting in 202627.

However, while the creation of the Youth Climate Corps is an encouraging step toward a more sustainable, equitable and resilient country, the 2025 budget simultaneously caters to the oil and gas industry, reducing requirements for urgent emissions reduction and increasing subsidies supporting oil and gas production.

Scientists have called for urgent and rapid cuts to fossil fuel production and emissions for decades in order to avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis. While Prime Minister Mark Carney has declared that Canada remains on track to meet the emissions reduction targets set out in the Paris Climate Agreement, the expansion of oil and gas brings this into question.

One of the leading causes of climate grief and anxiety among young people is government inaction, in Canada and elsewhere, that has led to feelings of betrayal, anger and despair about climate change.

In our research, colleagues and I have found that young Canadians are experiencing intense emotions related to the climate crisis, and they often have little to no hope for the future, envisioning apocalyptic conditions for themselves and their children.

Eco-anxiety

Although I am now a researcher, I have been involved in environmental and climate action since I was a child. I have witnessed the never-ending cycle of false commitments and lack of follow-through on the climate crisis.

Climate grief refers to grief in response to the losses caused by climate changeof trees, animals, place, homes as well as more intangible elements of culture and connection. Climate or eco-anxiety is defined by the American Psychological Association as "a chronic fear of environmental doom."

Young Canadians describe their grief in visceral, embodied ways, emphasizing how their concerns about climate change invade their daily lives, relationships and life choices.

In our research, politically active youth expressed anger, frustration and hopelessness at the state of inaction on the climate crisis.

As one participant told us: "There are times youth lose hope, when you try to push for something and then you have government push back and they just don't get it when it makes so much sense to you that our climate is changing and we need to do something about it. Why would you not listen? Why aren't you doing this?"

Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly.

Youth need genuine engagement

It's critical to involve more young people in the sectors addressing climate change and create better employment opportunities while building capacity to respond to increasing pressures from the realities of the climate crisis. The Youth Climate Corps is an important step in that direction.

The challenge, however, is that when youth are left out of the decisions that truly influence Canada's ability to reduce emissions, address biodiversity loss and adapt to the changes we face, it reinforces feelings of betrayal and grief.

Models of youth-adult partnership on climate action show that the most important outcomes come from positive, meaningful youth engagement. These models, when paired with the real-world experience of youth activists, make it clear that both youth and their adult counterpartsin this case government decision-makershave a responsibility to ensure that climate action is implemented in an intentional, thorough and meaningful way.

When youth are engaged in climate decision-making but the impact on overall action to address the crisis is negligible, it can reinforce and exacerbate climate grief and anxiety.

I see many of my peers facing an impossible job market, forced to take under-paying jobs that don't align with their values and desires for change. The Youth Climate Corps undoubtedly represents progress, but the recent federal budget investment is limited. It will create few jobs and likely won't meet the demands of young Canadians.

Limited progress in green jobs for young people doesn't make up for Canada's failure to reduce emissions and hold the fossil fuel industry accountable, making young Canadians question whether the federal budget is really one of "generational investment."

Without inclusive decision-making and concrete action, young people will continue to feel grief and anxiety over the climate crisis and its impact on their health, well-being, jobs and future prospects.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Mexico working to reestablish bison population in northern grasslands

Coahuila, Mexico  The government is working to reestablish the countrys bison population in the grasslands of northern Mexico. A new herd of 44 bison has been introduced to the Don Martin National protected area in Coahuila.

The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources says their reintroduction is essential to strengthen climate resilience, ecosystem regeneration and biodiversity conservation in these iconic ecosystems.

This coordinated effort contributes to the conservation of the species and the restoration of the grasslands it inhabits. The bison come from Rancho El Uno in the Janos Biosphere Reserve in Chihuahua, where Cuenca Los Ojos manages the herd.

This relocation marks a crucial step for conservation in Mexico by expanding the range of the American bison and strengthening the restoration of the Chihuahuan Desert grasslands.

Mexico is working to reestablish its bison population.

The bison is a keystone species for the regeneration of these ecosystems: it improves soil structure, promotes native vegetation, and is more drought-resistant than cattle.

The formation of this new population is part of a comprehensive strategy to strengthen the regulatory framework and move forward with changing the bisons category to special protection.

The strategy will also implement comprehensive population management that includes herding, recording and selecting individuals to establish new herds, regulate population growth through a utilization rate that allows reducing pressure on pastures and maintaining a healthy herd structure and donate specimens to ranches with suitable conditions to promote the expansion of the species into new territories.

Pedro Alvarez Icaza Longoria, the head of the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP), emphasized that the bisons expansion demonstrates the value of partnerships between public institutions, civil organizations, and communities.

Conservation progresses when coordinated, long-term efforts are built hand in hand with the communities and ecosystems they inhabit. The National Commission of Natural Protected Areas reaffirms its commitment to the recognition, respect, and protection of the environmental rights of the Indigenous peoples and communities living in Natural Protected Areas.

Gerardo Ruiz Smith, Director of the Pro Cuatrocienegas Foundation, celebrated the arrival of the new bison family.

The bison arrived from Rancho El Uno in the Janos Biosphere Reserve in Chihuahua.

The Pro Cuatrocienegas Foundation, in partnership with the Ndee/Nnee/Nde, is opening the doors of the El Santuario Reserve to welcome this herd, which will have ideal conditions to continue expanding the bison population in northern Mexico and regenerating ecosystems. We are honored to be part of this inter-institutional effort.

Karen Suarez, part of the Cuenca Los Ojos team, said the Janos population has grown remarkably in recent years. Today we contribute to establishing new herds that will strengthen the conservation of the bison in Mexico.

A total of 44 bison have been introduced to the northern grassland area.

This milestone expands the bisons distribution in Mexico, offering technical and regulatory certainty. This will encourage more landowners to adopt conservation herds and, consequently, restore the bisons presence in northern Mexico through sustainable efforts. Furthermore, the project makes a positive contribution to biocultural understanding, considering the Indigenous communities that have maintained a millennia-long, balanced relationship with this species.

The return of the bison strengthens the spirit of resilience and resistance of the Ndee/Nnee/Nde Nation.

In addition to contributing to ecological restoration, the return of the bison strengthens the spirit of resilience and resistance of the Ndee/Nnee/Nde Nation, an indigenous people who are resurging in parallel in the territory and throughout the Chihuahuan Desert, and who find, with this effort, a key symbol to generate anew the connections that restore the integral balance of the region.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Acclinate, a leader in inclusive clinical research and community-driven health engagement, has been named to the Vet100, the annual ranking recognizing the fastest-growing veteran-owned companies in the US. The award, presented by the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University in partnership with Inc., honors exceptional growth, leadership, and impact across industries.

This recognition underscores Acclinate's continued expansion, and its commitment to advancing health equity through long-term community trust and technology innovation. As the conversation around representative data becomes increasingly central to the future of clinical research, Acclinate's model demonstrates that sustainable growth and meaningful impact canand mustcoexist.

Veteran-Led Leadership That Fuels the Mission

Acclinate is led by CEO and Co-Founder Del Smith, PhD, an Air Force veteran whose service shaped his belief in accountability, integrity, and building systems that serve those who are often overlooked. That foundation informs Acclinate's mission today: to champion inclusive research by engaging communities consistently and authentically, long before the first study begins.

"Being named to the Vet100 is meaningful because it reflects the values that shaped me during my military servicealignment, discipline, and the belief that no mission succeeds because of one person alone. At Acclinate, we've built a team that executes with purpose and leads with empathy. That combination allows us to grow while staying grounded in our commitment to inclusive and equitable research," said Smith.

Driving the Industry Forward Through "Trust + Technology"

The Vet100 distinction highlights Acclinate's role as a trusted partner for sponsors and CROs who recognize that equitable research is not only the right thing to do, but a business imperative. Acclinate's "Touch + Tech" approach, combining sustained community presence with its analytics platform e-DICT, equips the pharmaceutical industry with both the insight and relationships required to design, enroll, and retain more representative clinical trials.

As health equity becomes non-negotiable for regulatory bodies and communities alike, Acclinate's Vet100 recognition reinforces that mission-driven companies can scale responsibly while strengthening industry standards.

About Acclinate

Acclinate is a health technology company improving health equity through community engagement and inclusive clinical research. Through its NOWINCLUDED community and e-DICT engagement platform, Acclinate helps pharmaceutical companies and healthcare organizations build trust, increase trial diversity, and design research that reflects the real world.

Media Contact

Lauren Clements

Head of Marketing

Acclinate

[email protected]

256-435-2800

SOURCE Acclinate
National Guard seize semi delivering stolen fuel in Cancun substation

Cancun, Q.R.  National Guard personnel stopped a semi Monday after it reached a CFE substation in Cancun. The vehicle was followed and subsequently stopped due to suspicion of stolen fuel.

Authorities monitored the vehicle as it drover along Cancuns Kabah Avenue Monday afternoon.

The driver and was stopped at his destination in SM 54 and arrested along with his passenger after being unable to legally prove where the fuel originated.

Authorities were alerted to the incoming delivery of fuel in an area where stolen petro had been discovered in August of this year.

National Guard requested the intervention of federal authorities since the theft of fuel is a federal offense.

Initial reports say several others from inside the CFE substation meeting place were also taken into custody.
Pair controlling waitresses into prostitution arrested during Cancun search

Cancun, Q.R.  A Dominican woman and a Mexican woman have been removed from the premises of a Cancun establishment. According to police, the two women were hired as waitresses and were being controlled into prostitution.

They were located by State Attorney General (FGE) agents during a coordinated search with the Secretariat of the Navy and National Guard as a result of compliance with a warrant.

Authorities searched the building in SM 89 near Tulum Avenue where they found the women and arrested a man and woman. Police have identified those in custody as Antonia N and Gamaliel N, allegedly in charge of the administration of the place and control of the women.

According to initial investigations, the women went to the establishment to work as waitresses and hostesses where they were threatened into performing sexual acts with clients.

The arrested woman was in charge of managing the accounts and providing condoms. The owners of the establishment took half of the money in addition to charging the girls for the use of the room.

During the operation, notebooks, a payment terminal, cell phones and various other items were seized and added to the corresponding investigation. Subsequently, the property was secured.

The two victims were taken to the FGE office where they received comprehensive care. Antonia N and Gamaliel N are facing human trafficking charges.
The much-anticipated Cancun Nichupte Lagoon bridge is nearly finished construction

Cancun, Q.R.  The much-anticipated Cancun vehicle bridge over the Nichupte Lagoon is nearly finished construction. Jesus Antonio Esteva Medina, the Secretary of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT), says the bridge is more than 90 percent complete.

Secretary Jesus Antonio Esteva Medina, who oversaw the project, says the bridge is an example of Mexican engineering. Once finished, it will reduced travel times 45 minutes and will serve as an alternate route in case of natural disasters.

Accompanied by the head of the Railway Transport Regulatory Agency , Andres Lajous Loaeza, and the General Director of the Secretario de Infraestructura, Comunicaciones y Transportes (SICT) Quintana Roo Center, Guido Mendiburu Solis, Esteva Medina pointed out that the bridge will transform mobility in Cancun, connecting the city with the hotel zone and boosting the social and economic development of the region.

He emphasized that once completed, the bridge will benefit 1.3 million residents and 20 million tourists who visit the area annually.

The project, an example of Mexican engineering, has generated around 51,000 direct and indirect jobs and will allow a savings of 45 minutes in travel times.

This iconic structure, which crosses the Nichupte Lagoon system, will be one of the longest bridges in Latin America over a lagoon and will serve as an alternate route in case of emergencies or natural disasters.

The project is a total length of 11.2 kilometers that consists of a bridge of 8.8 km with three lanes, one of them reversible, two junctions of 2.4 km (one on the side of the Luis Donaldo Colosio Boulevard and another on the Kukulcan Boulevard), as well as a 103 meter-long red metal arch.

The Nichupte Lagoon bridge was also constructed with bike paths.

It is a sustainable project, representing the largest environmental restoration program of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation with 306 hectares of mangrove reforestation.

During its construction, 10 environmental programs were implemented to minimize the impact and protect the mangrove ecosystem. He explained that 118 hectares of seagrass were rehabilitated and that 1,168 native vegetation specimens were rescued and more than 2,100 fauna specimens were relocated.

The bridge is scheduled to be inaugurated and operational by the end of this month.
Upon the recent passing of Richard Turnbull, we take a brief look at his extensive and significant contributions to scholarly work on heroes of the Christian faith and the role of Christian ethics in free enterprise.

The Rev. Dr. Richard Turnbull, long-time friend of the Acton Institute, sadly died on November 26, not long after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Many friends, colleagues, and collaborators joined a Whatsapp group to pray for Richard and his family in his final weeks, and the affection and admiration that so many people had for him was clearly expressed over those weeks. Richard and his family were deeply touched and supported by the heartfelt prayers of so many.

Richard participated in several Acton Institute events and inspired others, including staff members at the think tank he founded, to be involved, too. Richard had the perfect background for Acton, having graduated in economics and accounting and qualified as an accountant. He became a Christian at university. After time in professional life as an accountant, he was then ordained into Church of England ministry. He obtained a Ph.D. in theology from the University of Durham. He contributed greatly to the Church of England in various ways, including as principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He was also chairman of the Christian Institute, a religious think tank that has made a number of important contributions to the debate in the U.K. on life issues and sexuality.

When Richard moved on from Wycliffe, he founded, with Lord Griffiths of Fforestfach, the Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics (CEME) and became its first director. The mission of the Centre is to bridge the interface of theology, economics and business in promoting an enterprise economy built on solid ethical foundations.

At this point in his life, this was the ideal calling for Richard. His ability to reason as a theologian and an economist was important for making the case for enterprise and for markets as well as for the importance of ethics in same. In particular, he was able to use his knowledge of scripture, as somebody from the evangelical Anglican tradition, to make a unique contribution here. Richard also drew on Catholic social thought and teaching and was particularly impressed by the publication The Vocation of the Business Leader, which was published jointly by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development of the Vatican and the John A. Ryan Institute at St. Thomas Minnesota.

Scriptural insights are often not as prominent in Catholic analyses of economic and social concerns, and so Richard made an important contribution to Catholic thinking, too. It was therefore with great joy that we welcomed him to St. Marys University (the U.K.s biggest and oldest Catholic university) as a visiting professor in what was then our School of Business, Law and Society. At St. Marys, Richard guest lectured on the M.A. in Catholic Social Teachingagain providing insights from scripture that the students appreciated. St. Marys also organized joint events with CEME and a Christian fund-management firm, CCLA.

In my view, Richards most interesting contribution was in the field of Quaker capitalism. This might appear a niche area, certainly in the U.K., where Christianity-inspired businesses are less common than in the U.S. But this is an extraordinarily interesting and important phenomenon in the field of business ethics, which has implications for businesses today. There were only about 20,000 Quakers in England and Wales in the 19th century, but all of the following companies were founded by Quakers, and their management was explicitly based on Quaker principles: Cadbury; Rowntrees; Frys; Huntley & Palmers; Jacobs; Lloyds; Barclays; Clarks; Friends Provident; Reckitt and Sons, as well as many others. These grew into some of Britains most important businesses; indeed, many of them became significant on a worldwide scale. It is especially sad that Richard died just as he was due to start work on a commission from Cambridge University Press that would have produced the definitive work on this topic. In fact, he had recently retired as director of CEME to work on this project.

Especially interesting was work commissioned by Richard for CEME that examined the different attitudes to business among bishops, clergy, and laity in the Anglican Church. It found that the clergy had a much more negative view of business and a more positive view of higher taxation to solve societys problems than did the laity.

I particularly valued the contributions Richard made to projects in which I was involved. The Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales recently produced the document Render unto Caesar, in which Richard provided a chapter on Taxation in Sacred Scripture. Not yet published is a set of papers on ethics in investment and the relationship between investment and Catholic social teaching by the CCLA in which Richard also had a chapter focusing on scriptural insights.

As far as scholarly work is concerned, however, there was much more to Richards portfolio than his think tank work. He wrote a number of books, for example on Lord Shaftsbury and on the evangelical revival in 18th-century England.

On a personal level, Richard was always extremely supportive and an inspiration to many. He cooperated with a number of other organizations, never caring who got the credit. As Ronald Reagan is widely thought to have said, There is no limit to what you can achieve if you dont care who gets the credit. It has always amused me that this was first written by a Jesuit priest, Fr. Strickland, but he never gets the credit for it! Whoever originated the saying, it could certainly have been applied to Richard Turnbull.

Richards death was a very sad moment for all who knew and worked with him. At this time, we send our condolences to Richards wife, Caroline, and his four children. I know they will appreciate the prayers of all associated with the Acton Institute. May he rest in peace.
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Martha Stewart's homes can now be yours.

Prefab developer Hapi Homes is collaborating with Marquee Brands, a brand marketing agency that works with Stewart, to launch four build kits inspired by the iconic interior designer's properties.

The homes can be built as full-sized residences or accessory dwelling units and can be delivered in four to 12 weeks after all building permits have been approved, Marquee Brands and Hapi Homes said in a statement to Benzinga. Full-sized residences start at $450,000 and ADUs start at $150,000.

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"Martha has influenced how people live for decades," Hapi Homes CEO Mary O'Brien said in the statement. "This collaboration takes that influence beyond interiors and products, into the architecture of the home."

Martha's homes

The Marquee Brands x Hapi Homes for Martha Stewart Iconic Estate Housing Collection is inspired by four of Stewart's most famous houses: her Bedford country farmhouse, Lily Pond coastal cottage, Perry Street city residence, and Skylands heritage retreat.

"Martha's homes have always embodied the idea that design should enhance the way people

Live," Kevin Sharkey, executive director of design for the Martha Stewart brand, said in the statement. "With Hapi Homes, we were able to distill Martha's essence into adaptable, beautifully engineered homes. This collaboration proves that great design can be smart, sustainable, and within reach."

Trending: From Moxy Hotels to $12B in Real Estate  The Firm Behind NYC's Trendiest Properties Is Letting Individual Investors In.

Here's a quick breakdown of each model:

Bedford

Based on Stewart's 1925 farmhouse in Katonah, New York, the Bedford model has clapboard siding, fieldstone accents, and a metal roof. Inside, you'll find oak flooring and limestone surfaces with brass details

Perry Street

Stewart's former Manhattan apartment serves as the inspiration for this build kit, which comes with clean lines, white stucco, and expansive glazing. The broad openings, covered terraces, and framed views make it a good fit for city or suburban living.

See Also: This Jeff Bezos-backed startup will allow you to become a landlord in just 10 minutes, with minimum investments as low as $100.

Skylands

The Skylands model is inspired by Stewart's Maine estate and comes with a masonry facade, low-hipped roof, pergolas, and wide French doors.

Lily Pond

Cedar siding, stone detailing, gabled roofs, and large windows make this build kit the perfect choice for those trying to emulate Stewart's Long Island, New York, home.

Hapi Homes' process

Hapi Homes is a prefab developer with an emphasis on sustainable home building.

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The company uses a panelized light-gauge steel-frame system that cuts build times by 40% and reduces carbon emissions by half compared to traditional methods with minimal on-site waste, according to its website.

Read Next: An EA Co-Founder Shapes This VC Backed MarketplaceNow You Can Invest in Gaming's Next Big Platform

Image: Shutterstock

This article You Can Live In One of Martha Stewart's Homes  Kind Of. Iconic Designer Teams Up With Prefab Builder originally appeared on Benzinga.com
In first combined Thanksgiving travel since achieving a single-operating certificate, Alaska and Hawaiian have topped the list for guest reliability, and are continuing the holiday celebration announcing Cyber Week sales.

SEATTLE, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- With record number of passengers taking to the sky this Thanksgiving holiday, Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, and our regional air carrier, Horizon Air, provided the most dependable air service to guests on nearly 7,100 flights between Wednesday, November 26 and Sunday, November 30. This achievement reflects the dedication of our 35,000 employees in delivering outstanding care to our guests. Collectively, our airlines led U.S. carriers in key performance metrics:

In first combined Thanksgiving travel since achieving a single-operating certificate, Alaska and Hawaiian have topped the list for guest reliability, and are continuing the holiday celebration announcing Cyber Week sales.

A14 (82.3%)  the percentage of flights arriving within 14 minutes of their scheduled time;

 the percentage of flights arriving within 14 minutes of their scheduled time; Completion rate (99.1%)  the proportion of scheduled flights completed without cancellation; and

 the proportion of scheduled flights completed without cancellation; and DOT on-time arrivals (80.5%)  the percentage of flights arriving within 14 minutes of their scheduled time, and taking into consideration cancellations, diversions, significant delays and cause of delays.

"We appreciate our guests' trust and confidence in our ability to provide reliable transportation during the busy Thanksgiving holiday time," said Jason Berry, Chief Operating Officer, Alaska Airlines, "Our employees consistently deliver a premium, caring experience for our guests, and this Thanksgiving was no exception. I am grateful to those who dedicated their holiday to supporting our guests and maintaining an excellent travel experience."

Get in on the Travel Tuesday fun

On the heels of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Alaska and Hawaiian are celebrating Travel Tuesday by offering exclusive, one-day-only BOGO offers. Whether you are drawn to the vibrant buzz of Tokyo or Seoul, or have your sights set on an adventure down under in Sydney, the airlines have you covered. Visit https://alaskaair.com/ or https://www.hawaiianairlines.com/ for terms and conditions.

More deals will be shared throughout the week. Travelers are encouraged to visit https://alaskaair.com/ and https://www.hawaiianairlines.com/ daily as new deals are added.

About Alaska Air Group

Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines and Horizon Air are subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group, and McGee Air Services is a subsidiary of Alaska Airlines. We are a global airline with hubs in Seattle, Honolulu, Portland, Anchorage, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. We deliver remarkable care as we fly our guests to more than 140 destinations throughout North America, Latin America, Asia and the Pacific. We'll serve Europe beginning in spring 2026. Guests can book travel at alaskaair.com and hawaiianairlines.com. Alaska is a member of the oneworld alliance, with Hawaiian scheduled to join oneworld in spring 2026. With oneworld and our additional global partners, guests can earn and redeem points for travel to over 1,000 worldwide destinations with Atmos Rewards. Learn more about what's happening at Alaska and Hawaiian at news.alaskaair.com. Alaska Air Group is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as "ALK."

SOURCE Alaska Airlines
This piece is adapted from Barbieland: The Unauthorized History by Tarpley Hitt. Copyright  2025 by the author and reprinted with permission of Atria/One Signal Publishers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

One morning in 1960, amid the euphoria of Barbies first year, Mattel co-founders Ruth and Elliot Handler held a kind of debate. They brought in the toy marketing team. And the ad guys, Cy Schneider and his cohort from Carson/Roberts, thought they were there mostly to listen. The real presence was the exuberant doctor with a shrinking halo of red hair. Ernest Dichter, the self-styled Freudian marketer who claimed to plumb the psyches of the American consumer, was visiting from New York. On this particular day, as Schneider later remembered, the Handlers called him in to discuss a controversy that had been tearing the office apart, dividing old allies and forging unlikely alliances, and which so far seemed to have little prayer for resolution. The hope was that the Freud of Madison Avenue could bring some much-needed clarity to the question of Kens penis.

The company had gone public in April, and almost on cue, the Handlers found themselves contending with the public more directly than ever before. It wasnt just their shareholders; it was the fact that they were big enough to have shareholders, that Mattel had transitioned from a West Coast startup to a national entity with millions of customers, millions of fans, and millions of opinions on what they should do. In a way, Mattels problem was its own popularity. The early Barbies had come with a pamphlet, encouraging girls to write to their new doll at her very own address. But few could have predicted how many kids followed through. Letters arrived in such volume that Mattel hired a secretary just to handle the dolls mail. The outpouring was so intense it seemed to steer Ruths decisionmaking. The pamphlet had promised periodic responses, so Mattel began issuing a newsletter, which only compounded the problemthe reaction was enormous. The newsletter evolved into a magazine, then a club. We formed a Barbie Fan Club almost from the pressure, she said. It became the second-largest girls organization in the world, after the Girl Scouts. These avid Barbie fans were cacophonous, but some cries were louder than others. As Ruth remembered: There were a tremendous amount of requests for a boy doll.

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The phrase boy doll was, at that point, almost an oxymoron. Toy-men had long sold tin soldiers and masculine figurines, but to attempt a doll, the consensus went, was to appeal to a market made up of girls. As toy execs saw it, girls did not want boy dolls. The brave few toy-makers who had tried had failed. Mattel had considered it, of course, though execs saw it as a risky experiment better left for a more stable future. We were scared to death of boy dolls, Ruth said, and so was the rest of the toy trade. But the public demanded a boyfriend for Barbie, so the company acquiesced. On that, Ruth was unambiguous: Our consumers pushed us into the Ken doll early.

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The sculptors had to consider what a boy Barbie might mean. Ken was to be the first new character in the Barbie universe, and so his design raised questions about the norms of that world. Would they build his persona from scratch, or would they try to follow the same formal rules as the original doll? One of Barbies distinguishing features, like that of her German predecessor, Bild Lilli, was her anatomy. She was not the first adult doll, but she was blunter about her age. Any kid could pull down her shirt to find two tremendous emblems of adulthood. Ruth figured Ken should have some too. He needed some suggestion of the male organs, she said. I was ahead of my time in that respect. I did want them.

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The fight started out innocently enough. Ruth asked Mattels sculptors for a slope of sorts, nothing outstanding, not even especially realistic. (None of us wanted a doll with a penis showing, she said.) The sculptors responded with blank stares. The research and development department found Ruths suggestion ludicrous. In fairness, maybe it was. Barbies breasts had been plenty controversial, and she didnt even have nipples. The dolls claims to anatomical realism ended with the plastic strip between her legs. For Ken to hit the scene with anything more articulated was an invitation for outrage.

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The Ken question became so controversial it sucked in staff from across the companysculptors, costumers, market researchers, advertisers, high-ranking executives. Ruth found an ally in fashion designer Charlotte Johnson; both felt strongly about the dolls penis, though they could barely speak of it. Ruth called it a bulge. Johnson called it a bump. When the sculptors pulled up their first mold, all but identical to Barbie below the waist, the women voted it down. The designers came back with a Three Bears assortment of possible Ken crotches. One wasyou couldnt even see it, Johnson recalled. The second was a little bit rounded, and the third really was. She and Ruth picked the Goldilocks option, the middle one that was nice-looking.

The men were terribly embarrassed. The vice presidents, whom Ruth called the guys who made the decisions in all these things, wanted a permanent swimsuitpainted on, to avoid the suggestion of something below. But paint, Johnson later told historian M.G. Lord, would merely whitewash the problem: Do you know what every little girl in this country is going to do? she asked. They are going to sit there and scratch that paint off to see whats under it. She had a point. If Barbie was Americas doll, then her boyfriends bulge or bump or whatever they called it amounted to some blunt symbol of Americas virility. There was bound to be some curiosity about just how big it was.

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This discussion had reached something like a standstill when Dichter arrived. The doctor was, if nothing else, a strategic choice of consultant. This was a man who had once gotten an erection from killing chickens, who called on his colleagues to put the libido back in advertising. He saw the world as a series of encrypted symbols, and these symbols seemed to always translate as sex. So it was no surprise when Dichter sided with the pro-bulge faction. His own Barbie study had found that kids valued the act of dressing and undressing and came to expect a degree of realism as they aged. Interest in detail is high, he wrote, and thus the child is quick to look down upon the imitation. 

It was enough to bring the committee to a compromise: Ken would wear a permanent set of jockey shorts and keep a subtle lump. The size had to be adjusted once Johnson noticed that pants only exaggerated his proportions. (I realized when we were putting zippers in the flyand the zipper on top of that bumpit got bigger and bigger.)

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But none of it mattered. Once the molds went off to Japan for manufacturing, an engineering supervisor found the shorts too time-consuming and the lump too expensive. The adjustments added about a cent and a half worth of plastic to the product, Schneider wrote. He arbitrarily eliminated both. After all that, it turned out, the real arbiter was money.

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The Ken that debuted at Toy Fair in March of 1961 was smooth and commando. (Ken was just like Barbie, one ad seemed to wink, down to the smallest detail.) Ruths anger stayed with her for a while. The doll had almost no bulge, she complained years later. It was very unrealistic. I never forgave those people.

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But it was a feeling shed get used to. The battle of the bulge distilled the exact kinds of clashes Ruth would spend the 60s and 70s fighting, inside Mattel and out. Ken had been the first Barbie character designed in dialogue with the public. But the public would continue weighing in, and Ruth would not always like what they were saying. As the brand grew, so did the company, bringing with it more people, more oversight, more Brutuses scheming for control. In Barbie, Mattel had orchestrated what Dichter called a craze, and with visibility came scrutiny. And while Ruth wanted Barbie to reflect the world around her, there was rarely consensus on what that world should be.
When you think about how the second Trump administration has left an imprint on culture, a few big things come to mind. Its not been a good time to be Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, or CBS News, for instance, but business is booming for the South Park guys. Well, now we can add two more names to the list of Hollywood types who are having their fortunes shifted in the Trump economy: Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker.

On Tuesday, news emerged via Puck that Paramountand its new CEO, the Trump-friendly David Ellisonis going to produce a fourth installment of the Rush Hour franchise, after Trump personally pushed Ellison to make another one of the action comedies. When Trumps wish came true, Pucks man in Hollywood, Matthew Belloni, wrote that the president deserved an executive producer credit for making this all happen. Get ready for the dumbest possible state-controlled media, Belloni added.

There are a few obvious reasons why Trump might fancy himself Jack Warner when it comes to this particular franchise. To start, the Ellison family is looking to keep Trump happy as it bids to take over Warner Bros. Discovery, a move that, like its acquisition of Paramount earlier this year, will ultimately require Federal Trade Commission approval. Larry Ellison, Davids father, has even reportedly teased the White House about the possible firing of certain CNN anchors should he win control of the network, as he did with CBS, which is owned by Paramount.

Then theres the Brett Ratner of it all. The director of all three Rush Hour movies (as well as 2006s X-Men: The Last Stand, among others) became persona non grata in Hollywood during the #MeToo movement, after an actress accused him of forcing her to perform oral sex on him and five other women accused him of sexual misconduct, allegations he denied. But amid the election last year, Ratner was quick to attach himself to the Trumps by directing a documentary about returning first lady Melania Trump that Amazon snapped up for the eye-watering reported sum of $40 million. (Get readythats due out in January!) Having himself been repeatedly accused of and found civilly liable for sexual misconduct, Trump surely relishes the chance to effectively culturally pardon Ratner using his anti-woke powers as president.

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But when I read the news of the return of Rush Hour, I also figured there must be more to the story. Why this franchise? Why these action stars? I remember enjoying the first movie as a 10-year-old boy (arguably its target audience), but I confess I mostly forgot there had been a second installment, let alone a third. Why was Trump so keen to return to this world? I decided to find out by doing the only thing that seemed right: mainlining all three Rush Hour movies in 24 hours.

Now that Ive reemerged from this world of clumsy racial stereotypes, extravagantly objectified women, and more gong sounds than I ever imagined, Ive arrived at a theory: The universe of Rush Hour just makes sense to Trump. Although the films span 1998 to 2007, their vibe (and views on mens suiting) remains firmly in a bygone era when cops felt free to wave their guns in suspects faces to get information, when Jackie Chan saying the N-word to a Black bartender was the height of comedy, and when Brett Ratner could harass famous women in peace. With his teenage-boy tendencies, fuzzy sense of the law, and preschool-level conception of police work, Trump must feel right at home when he pops on Rush Hour. Hell, each one of these movies features a blooper reel during its credits, a feature that transported me back to a time long before I had to think about things like A.I. or the downfall of democracy. Its very likely that Rush Hour is simply to Trump what 2009s Julie & Julia is to my gay ass: a comfort movie that I have no problem returning to repeatedly. If ever somehow given the power of the executive branch, I would absolutely force a sequel. Isnt that what the presidency is for?

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Related From Slate The Most Humiliating Failure of the New Trump Administration Has Come to a Sad, Fitting Close Read More

The premise of the Rush Hour movies is simple: Its an East-meets-West, fish-out-of-water buddy-cop series wherein Chan must join forces with Tucker to stop the bad guys and save the day. In the first installment, set in the shadow of Hong Kongs return by the British to China, Chans Detective Inspector Lee travels to Los Angeles when the daughter of a top Chinese diplomat is kidnapped by the members of the Chinese crime syndicate network known as the Triads. (I gasped when I realized that a key henchman is played by a young, blond-buzz-cut-sporting Ken Leung, now best known for portraying Eric Tao on HBOs Industry.) As a form of punishment because none of his colleagues or superiors can stand him, LAPD Detective James Carter (Tucker) is assigned to babysit Lee to clear the way for the FBI to really lead the investigation. But Lees determinedness and Carters ego push them to play hero, save the girl, break up the syndicate, and expose a British diplomat (played by Tom Wilkinson) as its mysterious boss.

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Much like Trump can be, the film is occasionally funny. It worksjust barelybecause of the chemistry between Chan and Tucker, and their wildly different personalities, each of which is admittedly rooted in lazy racial stereotypes. Lee is quiet, deferential, and bound by honor, whereas the larger-than-life Carter is like a 7-Eleven, a character says in the 2001 sequel, because his mouth never closes. Much of the humor involves racist jokes that wouldnt fly today but serve to expose Carters American ignorance. In the first movie, he calls Lee Mr. Rice-A-Roni, for instance, and says hes been looking for his sweet-and-sour-chicken ass. In the second, he jokes about them eating dog for dinner. Crucial to this, though, is how clear it is that no one around Carter actually likes him. Lee may be the one on foreign soil, but Carter is just as much of an odd one out in this world.

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The two sequels take this concept and expand on it: In the second, its Carter who is now the fish out of water as the pair run around Hong Kong, investigating the Triads and their counterfeit-currency operation. In the 2007 third movie, both men are pushed out of their comfort zones when the action transports them to France, where they continue to fight Triad assassins. By this point in the trilogy, the pair have become best friends, with Carter now comfortably ordering moo shu pork and Lee ringing up room service at his Paris hotel for some fried chicken and sweet potato pie. (I told you the stereotypes were lazy.) But this is also where the films stop working. For one, we lose the tension between the pair that made their relationship somewhat charming. But more than that, watching Carter and his casual sexism rub off on Lee is a little depressing. When, in the second movie, Lee hogs a pair of binoculars to spy on a beautiful woman undressing, it feels out of character, and the audience is clearly supposed to laugh along.

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Indeed, if these movies were made and marketed to teenage boys (and our teenage-boy president), then their puerile treatment of women is instrumental to that mission. In the first movie, Carter sexually harasses his bomb squad colleague Tania (Elizabeth Pena) by spreading rumors that they slept together and asking her about the color of her underwear. In the second, when they visit a massage parlor, a group of lingerie-clad Asian women are put in a showcase for Carter to select from. (He chooses about five of them.) In the third movie, Ratner apparently decided to go for broke by invitingI kid you notRoman Polanski to cameo as a French detective. At one point, Carter pretends to be a costume designer for a Moulin Rougelike establishment so that he can con his way into the dressing room and offer his opinions on the womens breasts. Maybe Trump, who allegedly used to barge into the changing rooms at beauty pageants and would personally inspect contestants, saw a little part of himself on-screen.

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There could just be a simple answer for Trumps affinity for these movies. As we know from his decision to host a UFC match at the White House next year, the president does enjoy watching guys beat the crap out of each other. But its hard to watch the movies broad swipes at Chinese and Black American cultures, their insistence that sexism is charming, their often juvenile and crass punch lines, and their elevation of shoot-first-ask-questions-later policing without wondering if theres something bigger going on here. I left the movies doubtful that Rush Hour 4 will find new generations of fans almost three decades on, but if Ratner completes it before Trumps term ends, then it will probably have its premiere in the new White House ballroom, and the series will become a different kind of cultural flash point. After all, if we see Carter as a manifestation of Trumps id, then one of his lines from the first movie is extremely revealing: This isnt a democracy! he tells Lee. This is the United States of James Carter. Im the president. Im the emperor. Im the king.
Are blond white women OK? I am, notoriously, brunette, but even I have started to notice that blond white women are in such varied states of disarray. This summer, Sydney Sweeney seemed to tank her career (and then doubled down) with a poorly placed denim ad that was, incredibly, about white supremacy. Meanwhile, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, cant get her boss to stop talking about her hot, thin mouth while she ignores her nephews mothers deportation. And today, Olivia Nuzzis greatly anticipated (at least, if you ask any other journalists about it; most of us are unemployed anyway) memoir, American Canto, finally arrived. Intended to reveal the truth behind headlines from last year, the book is purportedly about her affair with thenpresidential candidate and now head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In reality, its mostly about how compelling Nuzzi thinks it is to be a blond white woman in journalism.

Nuzzi is fixated on blondness, her own and others, throughout American Canto. She writes about Marilyn Monroe and Britney Spears and Pamela Anderson, and wonders where her self-incrimination fits in as another blond woman misunderstood by our culture. She talks about her own looks at length, remarking on which public figures admired her features, while also saying she defied the odds to make it in journalism. Those odds remain unclear throughout the book, especially considering shes a conventionally attractive white woman (she keeps reminding us!) who went to a good school and became a nationally successful political journalist with name recognition in and out of Washington by her mid-20s.

Her deep reflections into blondness extend even to the president. If you do not count strawberry blondes or dirty blonde (a stretch, but I could make an argument), and if you do not count Gerald Ford (easier), Donald Trump is the first blonde president, she writes, 24 pages into her firstand if God is hearing me, perhaps lastbook. Is it any wonder then that he can so easily fetishize his own victimization?

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The section ends with an Alfred Hitchcock quote: Blondes make the best victims. Theyre like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints.

All this after one of the most overhyped rollouts in the recent history of media. After a year spent in self-imposed exile in Malibu, Nuzzi reentered public life as any shrewd media personality might: with a splashy and totally mortifying puff profile in the New York Times written by Nora Ephron and Carl Bernsteins son (apt), complete with video of her driving her Mustang down the Pacific Coast Highway, and then in an excerpt of the memoir in Vanity Fair, where shes an editor (for now), complete with a painted nude that she commissioned herself. Ah yes: another quintessential tragic blonde, this time rising from the ashes.

American Canto was the last real opportunity for Nuzzi to talk about what happened: tangibly, what she did to torpedo her career and personal life. It could have been a pulpy tell-all that explains how she fell in love with the worst Kennedy or a political book opening up her reporters notebook to share from a vantage point few people ever reach. After these brief weeks around Christmas, already a chaotic time to publish a book, the interest around her will ebb. American Canto could have helped redeem her if only it were interesting.

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Instead, it is illegible in ways you cant imagine. Historians will study how bad this book is. English teachers will hold this book aloft at their students to remind them that literally anyone can write a book: Look at this, its just not that hard to do. Three hundred pages with no chapter breaks, it swerves back and forth through time, from Nuzzis interviews with Donald Trump over the years to her combustible relationship with fellow annoying journalist Ryan Lizza to her alleged affair with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as he was running for president himself. Reading it is like spending time with a delusional fortune cookie: platitudes that feel like they were run through a translation service three times.

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Written in a stream-of-consciousness flow, the book offers almost no insight into Kennedy as a person, as a politician, as a figure helping guide our collective political moment, or even into Nuzzi herself as a journalist once widely lauded and now largely seen as embarrassing. If you have not studied the intricate details of the pre- and post-exile life of a broadly connected 32-year-old reporter, the books contents are nearly incomprehensible, like hieroglyphics written in dust. For those who have been locked in on the Nuzzi gossip of late, its merely ham-fisted and tedious. Throughout the book, Nuzzi conflates what shes responsible for with the L.A. wildfires, with political violence, and, of course, with the downfall of America.

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But hey, at least she devotes countless pages to the American flag. She writes about it being sewn, about it being raised, about its pigmentation: The blur of colors, the flash of red, of blue, of white, stretched and folded, pulled apart, undefined yet unmistakable, the flag. Its like a childrens book about good old red, white, and blueexcept it was written by Joan Didion in a black turtleneck, and it fucking sucks.

I dont begrudge Nuzzi for being shameless enough to churn a book out this fast. This is America, baby! Why wouldnt a well-known journalist capitalize on her opportunities? Besides, if she pulled this off, her scam would be complete, and shed deserve her success. Torpedoing your career with the brain-worm guy and then getting a job at Vanity Fair and writing a juicy tell-all about it? Put her on every television in the nationshes earned that much.

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But with little distance and zero self-reflection, Nuzzi has given us the least interesting version of her own story. Its disappointing only because the reader knows theres more, and Nuzzi is deciding too late to be cute about her derelictions. I could tell you the truth, she writes, with irritating coyness. I could tell you, probably, nothing that you would like. I could tell you, almost certainly, nothing that would redeem me. I could tell you that the year flew in birds. And I could tell you that the year flew in bullets. Really, just dogshit writing all around.

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Nuzzi might try to sidestep the details, but American Canto does confess to a clearly inappropriate romantic relationship with Kennedy as he ran for president. She says her work never overlapped with Kennedy, but there remain allegations that she helped torpedo stories that would impact him negatively. She did eventually help nudge Joe Biden out of the race by writing a scathing and widely read feature about his age-related ineptitude and shocking decline while in office. Whether she wants to be direct about it or not, it seems obvious that her love for Kennedy impacted her work as a journalist, which has inarguably changed the course of American history.

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But rarely does she ever say any of this directly, instead wrapping much of her narrative in self-mythologizing around her role as a reporter, her desire to never be too close to the story. After the affair was revealed to her then-employer, New York magazine, she was eventually fired. She hid out in Malibu, where she still lives now. Shes currently working for Vanity Fair, though her continued employment is under question as her ex-fiance, Ryan Lizza, is on Part 4 of an explosive Substack series about his version of events. He, too, has offered an equally annoying rollout that proves mostly that he was willing to stick it out with Nuzziand seemingly look the other wayso long as it personally benefited him.

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Throughout this story, theres been a lack of accountability from all parties involved. Nuzzi has tried to soften the blow of her betrayal to her readers and colleagues by writing American Canto as a love story. The Authors Note gets at it directly when she writes, It is also a book about love, because everything is about love, and about love of country. It would be a naive sentiment for a high schooler, never mind an experienced political journalist. After all this, whos going to finally tell her about power?

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Throughout the book, Nuzzi doesnt directly name most of the people she writes about, like some tool ripped from literary fiction that instead creates more distance between her and the reality of her actions. Kennedy is The Politician, Elon Musk is just a South African tech billionaire, Marjorie Taylor Greene is an inarticulate and overprocessed blonde congresswoman from Georgia. (Blonde-on-blonde crimepeople just do not talk about this enough.) Meanwhile, do you know who does get name-checked? Maureen Dowd and Dick Wolf.

The book is unemotional despite Nuzzis defense being among the most emotional kind: She had simply fallen in love with The Politician. Theres little mention of Lizza, and so it should be. Her real betrayal was always of her audience, and of the work she was trusted to do. Its a cowardly failure made worse by her refusal to name it, or name almost anyone.

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If youre reading American Canto for grimy details about Nuzzis affair with Kennedy, youll be disappointed. The book is slim on those, except for some icky bits about being in love with him and them wanting to fuck each others brains out. Besides, Lizza has already scooped her with his own poorly drafted newsletter. Writing like a pearl-clutching virgin, Lizza focuses on the lurid specifics meant to humiliate both perpetrators in the affair, as if were dealing with normal people in the normal world. Oh, did RFK drink his own cum, Ryan? HE KILLED A BEAR AND LEFT IT IN CENTRAL PARK.

Meanwhile, the most youll get from Nuzzi is her fawning over Kennedys chin, his eyes, hisand let me just make sure Im reading this righthis voice?? But Kennedy is just a small portion of the book, and when hes present, hes framed as some kind of tender but unreachable lover and not, say, the guy intent on bringing polio back. Good times ghost. Bad time crash, she writes. Alone at the after-party, a kind of honeymoon in hell. I am on the list, a bit of grave misfortune. I am in the New York Post, even worse. What the hell does this even mean?

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Most of American Canto is actually about Trump, and about his own efforts to spin and deceive the media and the public. There are some whiffs of revelations in there (though Nuzzi says she doesnt really care to break news), but theyre all about the same things that dont actually matter that much anymore: crowd size, hating his former press secretary. She sketches a believable portrait of him, but not a particularly interesting one. The world has already moved on beyond the kind of sourcing Nuzzi was known for, and her kind of access is no longer revolutionary. After all, Laura Loomer now occupies a desk inside the Pentagons press room. Theres little to learn from getting close to the president, and yet for pages and pages, she lets Trump ramble in endless monologue via interview transcriptions. What insight is there to be taken from the reality that Trump talks a lot, and that he appreciates an audience of a pretty, young, andyesblond woman?

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But mostly, Nuzzi is obsessed with her role as a fuckable victim. Nuzzi writes about a famous movie star who took her by her face and told her that the secret to life is to be rapeable. You are rapeable. Who knows what this possibly means to Nuzzi; she lets the statement hang like a prize only briefly before pivoting to a story about being in the Oval Office. (Who will tell Nuzzi the truththat everyone, actually, is rapeable?) Later, she writes that it felt like the country had snaked its hand up my skirt.

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Public attention is, to her, a kind of sexual violence. Of Trumps relationship with the country, she says its like a man who hits a woman and then kisses her to comfort her after. (You could not use this metaphor now, Nuzzi offers in an aside immediately after she employs this apparently verboten metaphor. Not in this climate. You would get a lot of angry feedback. How dare you compare anything to domestic violence, and so on.) Nuzzi lacks enough perception to be poetic and is too defensive to be incisive. The analogy shes offering isnt stupid because its crass to compare Trumps media spin to domestic abuse; its stupid because hes already been found liable for abuse against a woman. You can just say it with your chest, Olivia. Its allowed.

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When Nuzzi gets close to insight, it seems to shock her away, like an electric fence. She writes about going into journalism because she needed an antidote to her upbringing with her alcoholic mother. My childhood was an exercise in the daily management of fiction, in the upkeep of lies for survival, she writes. I found there was a kind of paradise within the privacy of a lie. I found the paradise was at turns a prison. She liked journalism because the rules were obvious: Do not lie, and do not let anyone lie to you. Its only near the end of the book that she briefly touches on the misery of her childhood, namely her addict mother, who was an uneven and explosive personality with an emotional range in primary colors. Nuzzi writes about keeping an untouched vial of cocaine in her apartment in New York, just to prove to herself that she wouldnt grow up to become like her mother. This is as close as you get to any kind of profound disclosure in her memoir.

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She retreats from anything truly revealing as quickly as possible. Even in her attempts at capturing her affections for Kennedy, Nuzzi paints herself as the most credulous reporter in the world making the most brain-dead assessments you could imagine. When Kennedy confesses to her that hes been using DMT (a type of hallucinogen), she doesnt consider that his sobriety has been compromised. I had heard he used another drug and there were rumors it sometimes interfered with his ability to perform the work of campaigning for office, she writes. If he was willing to tell me about the drugs he did consume, like DMT, it did not make sense that he would lie to me about the others. It could be a compelling moment braided with her story about her mothers addiction; instead, its a horrifying peek into the mind of a fully compromised journalist, and a foolish woman with a silly crush.

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American Canto offers no explanation for how Nuzzi got here. She doesnt explain how she went from reporting on politicians to allegedly sleeping with at least one of the men she profiled, or offering to kill stories for another, if Lizzas Substack is to be believed. Mostly, shes insulted that all of this has gotten so public. What occurred in private was supposed to be private, and it had not been my choice that it ceased to remain so, nor that a corporate media outfit with a political reputation to uphold had been spooked into participating in what I considered a siege of hyper-domestic terror, and through their actions would help to transform that terror into a public harassment campaign. A sentence both delusional and poorly constructed? Good thing shes a high-profile editor now.

The Nuzzi/Lizza/Kennedy affair has no winners. There are no safe ports here, no one to really root for. Kennedy was married and left Nuzzi to the wolvesan act of brazen cruelty considering their emotional intimacynever mind the ghastly public policies hes enacting while in the Trump administration. Lizza is yet another white male writer with a grudge against his much younger ex (warranted, certainly) who is trying to rebrand as a truth-teller while seemingly hoping no one brings up that he was fired from the New Yorker in 2017 for improper sexual conduct. Nuzzi doesnt suggest shes aware that her work and affair have helped implement a government thats devalued public health and safety. Instead, were once again confronted with a story about middle-aged men falling over themselves for a woman in her 20s, an embarrassing but familiar display. Nuzzis mistakes remain severe, but without any real insights from her, theres no room to consider all the men around her who knew better and performed abominably.

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God, everyone sucks so much in thisyou really have to pick the brain worm.

Memoir is a tough class of writing, usually among the hardest. It requires not only a mastery of basic writingand here, Nuzzi does not suggest even a limp command over the English languagebut the ability to turn a magnifying glass onto oneself. You can tell she doesnt really want to do that, and instead turns to self-mythologizing politicians like Trump and Kennedy and making ludicrous assessments about herself. She calls herself an improbable success in the straight world, which is especially insulting after reading several pages about her male sources hitting on her.

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Related From Slate The Only Explanation of the Year's Messiest Political Media Story You'll Ever Need Read More

Nuzzi has had nothing but chances, and nothing but powerful media figures, now including those at Vanity Fair, helping prop her back up. All she had to offer me as her reader was a good story. All she had to do to complete her inevitable cycle of retribution is prove that she can still write.

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But Nuzziand Lizza, too, dont let that 50-year-old toddler get away with anything eitherisnt even offering a compelling account of what is actually a pretty interesting life. I had thought it a blessing and still do that when I entered the profession, at the height of what was determined the personal essay boom for young women writers, I could not participate because I did not care to write of my own life and experiences because I did not find any of it terribly interesting and certainly not more interesting than whatever I might learn about the world from other people and their experiences, she writes in, again, one single fucking sentence. Her sentiment is clear: She has at least a little derision for her reader, who has only picked up this book because of the major moral failing that brought her to this point. Shed rather you pay attention to her for other reasons, but its her fault that you dont. She doesnt want to play ball. She dismisses the very kind of writing thats now her only remaining non-fictive avenue.

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A politicians greatest trick is to convince you that he is not one, Nuzzi writes in American Canto. And what is a politician? Any man who wants to be loved more than other men and through his pursuit reveals why he cannot love himself.

So what is a journalist? Shes someone who convinces her sources that shes not interesting, that theres nothing compelling about her. Only you are the story. Only you matter.

But thats never been Nuzzis playbook. She actively sought the spotlight and fed into the beast she now recoils from. She attended the White House Correspondents Association dinner and political conventions. We got to know her on the news and in documentaries and through her work, which always placed her in the scene as a foil and an active witness. She had a cameo in Billions. Nuzzi has pretended, for most of her career, that she was above all that female-centric personal-essay bullshit the rest of us were pumping out while she was doing Serious Business with Serious Politicians in Washington.

Nuzzi generated her own hype through mystique, but remaining unknowable is hardly any kind of protection in this world. Whats left? A lousy book, a renewed mean streak in group chats across New York and L.A., and a cadre of men who get to feel like they got away with it.
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The Federalist Society has for decades now carefully cultivated a public image as both the all-powerful Oz behind the throne of the American judiciary and somehow simultaneously a benign debate society that takes no role in legal and political affairs. In the Trump years, the group has doubled down on the doublespeak, claiming that they are devoted believers in the rule of law, but also that they support Donald Trump and his judicial picks wholeheartedly. For his part, Trump likes to pick online slapfights with Leonard Leo and other FedSoc stalwarts while he continues to rely on them to fill his judicial pipeline. On this weeks Amicus Plus podcast, Dahlia Lithwick spoke to Lisa Graves, whose new book, Without Precedent: How Chief Justice Roberts and His Accomplices Rewrote the Constitution and Dismantled Our Rights, was published this past fall. Lisa Graves leads True North Research and co-hosts Legal AF. She has served as a senior adviser in all three branches of the federal government, including as chief counsel for nominations for the Senate Judiciary Committee for Sen. Patrick Leahy. Their conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Dahlia Lithwick: The New York Times recently published a piece attempting to puzzle out the status of the jewel in the crown of the conservative legal movementthe Federalist Societyin Trump 2.0. And theres this strange push-me-pull-you apparently coming from FedSoc where they brag theyre kingmakers and theyre funneling everybody into judicial roles, but also claim that Trump is mad at them and they bear no responsibility for the lawlessness. Which is true?

Lisa Graves: The Federalist Society was literally created to make a pipeline for people to reach positions of power in order to advance a regressive agenda into the law. Theyve been very successful. You can see it at their events, where they are feting these Supreme Court justices, and other appointees to the lower courts, who are from their mold and who fit their agenda. That doesnt mean they agree with them on every single issue 100 percent of the time, but on the vast majority of the most important issues, they are in alignment. Thats why these judges have been handpicked by Leonard Leo for appointment to the circuit courts and for elevation to the Supreme Court.

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The Federalist Society literally has a statement on its website that says it takes no position on any legal issue, which is a funny statement for a group that has spent an awful lot of time advancing a regressive agendaparticularly on Roebut also suggesting that it violates someones religious rights for other people to have marriage equality, to be able to be themselves in our society and have equal rights.

The real tell to me is that this is a group that has claimed that its core devotion, as a policy matter, is to the rule of law. Yet it has been silent on issue after issue this year as we saw Donald Trump move forward with extreme actions, and lower courts with appointees from all presidents tried to block him, saying that these actions caused irreparable harm and appeared to violate existing law. The Federalist Society has remained silent as this Supreme Court, the Roberts court, has aggressively24 times!set aside those vital restraining orders based on well-founded facts and well-grounded law. John Roberts and the cohort that is the core Federalist Society victory on the court have paved the way for Donald Trump to put his foot on the gas. And lets not forget that is after this court orchestrated the unprecedented counter-constitutional creation of immunity from criminal prosecution for a president for anything deemed an official act. Those two bookends are what put us in this position.

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In lots of ways, the Federalist Society has been enabling this administrations lawlessness, and in some instances just enabling them through silence on this core notion of what the rule of law means. Now, there are some people within the Federalist Society who have dissented. There are people who were formerly very close to it, or embraced by FedSoc, like Judge Michael Luttig, who have stood up courageously and faced threats to their families for standing up against Donald Trump and standing up against the decisions of the Supreme Court. But I see these PR operations manifest in newspaper articles about the Federal Society and this desire to say whos in and whos out at this moment. The longer arc, however, the clear arc, is this is the court that Leonard Leo crafted in order to advance this regressive agenda. It turns out this agenda is one that has practically exonerated Richard Nixons ghost by saying that a president could not violate the law, could not do so prospectively and retrospectively, if he was engaging in whatever he deems to be official acts.

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Part of this Federalist Society movement is fighting the battles lost over the civil rights amendments and the civil rights acts, the battles lost in the Nixon administration, the battles lost in the Reagan administration, and it has come to the fore to basically give victories to battles that even a majority of Republicans would not take on, such as dismantling the Voting Rights Act.

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Your book reminds us that the bulk of Trumpism was actually built by John Roberts and the Roberts court over decades, from attacks on voting rights to big money in politics to the events of Jan. 6, 2021. You argue that this is not Donald Trumps world were living in, its John Roberts world and the conservative legal movements world, and Donald Trump right now is starring in it?

Related From Slate The Most Humiliating Failure of the New Trump Administration Has Come to a Sad, Fitting Close Read More

When you look at whats happened to the U.S. Supreme Court, you see, tracing back to the early 1980s, a definitive effort to capture the court. That effort was in reaction to a court that actually wasnt a fixed court. A lot of the big decisions then were truly bipartisan decisions. Brown v. Board of Education was written by a justice who had been appointed to the court by a Republican president. Roe v. Wade was a 72 decisionit was a nonpartisan decision. It was the reaction to these and other decisions among conservatives that led this right-wing legal movement to target the court for capture. At the beginning of that process, in the Reagan administration, their early attempts failed when they appointed a couple of justices who mostly followed the law and precedent, like Sandra Day OConnorwith the exception of Bush v. Gore. For the most part, Justice OConnor acted like a judge, a fair judge.

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The Republican legal establishment did not get what they wanted with the appointment of Justice David Souter, either. They got a judge who had been a Republican, whod been appointed to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, but when elevated to the United States Supreme Court, followed the law, and followed legal precedents. That led to a chant within the conservative legal movement, No more Souters. John Roberts was the first beneficiary of that campaign. He was chosen because they had every reason to believe he was not going to be like David Souter, that he was going to use that position on the court to reverse our rights, to roll back the law, and use the post of chief justice to steadily advance this right-wing movement and, in Citizens United, to unleash this massive amount of money into our elections that has emboldened these right-wing billionaires in particular.

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John Roberts assailed the Voting Rights Act himself, both early in his career and then from the bench, and now seemingly very soon will do so once again. This court has also triggered this national effort to rewrite the maps governing our elections coming into the midterms. That would not have been possible at the mere instigation of Donald Trump. The foundation was laid by John Roberts and the other judges who were part of this right-wing effort to capture the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Since Trump has taken office, that same Federalist Societyconstructed majority is giving cover, sometimes even fighting lower court judges (including Federalist Society judges) to protect Trumps prerogatives. The Federalist Societys National Lawyers Convention made news last month when Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche did a little fireside chat where he more or less said that he and the Justice Department were at war against federal district courts and asked young members of the Federalist Society to join in that battle. The video of that chat now seems to have been taken down. So there is this public-facing Were just a debate society FedSoc, but at the same time, whats happening in the inside of that ballroom is someone is openly trying to foment a rebellion against Article 3 judges. How do you square that particular circle?

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The presidents job is to faithfully execute the law. I was just finishing writing my book on Inauguration Day and John Roberts swore Trump in, and the president swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, to faithfully execute it. I wondered at that time, and I wonder even more so now, what that oath even means. It seems to have been rendered meaningless by John Roberts and his cohorts in the immunity decision, and in the series of unprecedented rulings this year that have allowed Trump to move forward with extreme actions that on their face look like theyre in violation of the Constitution, or statutes, or regulations, or rules, or contracts.

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President Trump tapped out a few posts on Truth Social recently, To Leonard Leo, Koch, and all of the countries and slimeballs that have ripped off the United States of America for years through the use of their own tariffs. We dont have a court system thats going to let you destroy our country any longer. I think parsing Trump tweetswell, that way madness lies, but I do want to ask whether that signals to you a meaningful break between Trump and the conservative legal movement?

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Its clear that he has this notion of 100 percent loyalty and anything less is not OK. Charles Koch has gotten a huge amount of what he wanted from Donald Trump. The tax breaks from Trumps first term were crafted by the Koch machine, pushed through in part with the help of Koch, and then they were made permanent. These are generational changes to our tax structure in ways that benefit billionaires like Koch, and Trump was more than happy to do it. The only time hes not happy is if the Koch operation dares to issue a brief on the other side, as it has done in the tariff case.

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The tariff case is an extraordinary circumstance where Trump has, yet again, claimed a power that is expressly committed to Congress. His lawyer has tried to expand a statute in order to basically shoehorn him into the ability to issue arbitrary and capricious and irrational tariffs. Some in the business community, like Koch, are objecting. Some groups that have lawyers whove been tied to Leonard Leo are objecting tooon that one issue. And its the one issue where the Roberts court, thats so beholden to this right-wing agenda and also to Trump, may defect. It looks like they may say that this is the one bridge too far, along with perhaps Trumps attempt to control the Fed, because it cuts against business interests. But on every other issue where our rights are at stake, where our future is at stake, where programs that Congress has funded to support our kids in schools, our health, cancer research, parks, the environment, on and on, this court has been putting its thumb on the scale of justice in a way that favors Trump and favors this right-wing movement. For an authoritarian, any daylight between someone and the regime is too much, but that doesnt mean that theres a meaningful, deep and wide difference between where Leonard Leo wants the court to headunitary executive theory, consolidating the other gains on anti-regulation, moving forward when they think its politically expedient on assailing marriage equality, continuing to drive forward on limiting abortion accessthese things are aligned, and Charles Koch, despite his libertarian roots, has been funding the groups that are all on board for that same agenda. Groups associated with Koch have announced that they will be spending big again in this midterm election like they did in the presidential, like they did in the midterm before that, to try to ensure that Donald Trump has a majority in both houses of Congress, regardless of the destruction that is unfolding for the rest of us.
MEMPHIS, Tenn., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- American Residential Services (ARS), a national leader in heating, cooling, plumbing, and electrical services, today announced the appointment of Divakar Jandhyala (DJ) as Senior Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, reporting directly to CEO Scott Boose.

Divakar Jandhyala, Senior Vice President & Chief Technology Officer

DJ joins ARS with more than 20 years of experience leading large-scale digital, data, and AI-driven transformations across technology-enabled service organizations. He brings deep expertise in architecting enterprise platforms and applying artificial intelligence to improve customer experience, field productivity, and business performance. He has held senior executive roles across product, technology, and AI at companies including CLEAResult, Balfour, and multiple high-growth software ventures.

"We are excited to welcome DJ to the ARS leadership team," said Scott Boose, Chief Executive Officer of ARS. "DJ brings a unique combination of strategic vision and hands-on expertise in AI, automation, and technology-enabled service delivery. His leadership will be essential as we continue to advance our digital foundation, elevate the customer and technician experience, and scale ARS for our next phase of growth."

His mandate includes leading ARS's digital strategy, driving automation and AI enablement to fuel ARS's growth, and expanding customer revenue opportunities by delivering field-ready, customer-centric solutions to boost technician productivity and improve the customer experience.

"I'm honored to join ARS at such a meaningful point in its evolution," said DJ. "ARS has demonstrated its ability to leverage a unified technology architecture unprecedented for platforms of its magnitude in the industry. There is an extraordinary opportunity for ARS to transform every step of the service experience by combining its national scale with data and AI. I'm excited to partner with Scott and the broader ARS team to build a stronger, smarter, and more connected future for our customers and technicians."

ARS serves homeowners nationwide through its expansive branch network and continues to invest in technology and innovation to improve service delivery, enhance operational performance, and support long-term growth.

About American Residential Services:

Based in Memphis, Tenn., privately-owned ARS/Rescue Rooter is one of the nation's largest providers of air conditioning, heating, electrical, energy-efficient, and plumbing services. Providing exceptional service, the ARS Network serves both residential and light commercial customers by offering heating, cooling, indoor air quality, plumbing, drain cleaning, sewer line, radiant barrier, insulation, and ventilation services. Each location has a knowledgeable team of trained specialists who undergo rigorous training and background checks. Further, ARS/Rescue Rooter has longstanding strategic partnerships with industry-leading suppliers and retailers to efficiently service consumers. For more information and a complete list of our locations nationwide, visit ars.com.

SOURCE American Residential Services, LLC
The first VisiPlate surgery in the US for the SAPPHIRE Trial was performed by Dr. Snyder of Sacramento Eye Consultants, in Sacramento, California.

SAPPHIRE Trial is a prospective, multicenter, open-label clinical trial with 1-year follow up, evaluating safety and effectiveness of VisiPlate  aqueous shunt in glaucoma patients.

VisiPlate shunt is uniquely designed: novel metamaterial, thinner than a human hair, aiming for longevity, comfort, and aesthetics.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Avisi Technologies, Inc., an ophthalmic medical device company advancing novel, sight-saving technologies, announces the first patient in the international SAPPHIRE Trial has been treated with Avisi's glaucoma treatment device VisiPlate. SAPPHIRE (NCT07220876) is a prospective, multicenter, open-label trial, evaluating the safety and effectiveness outcomes of VisiPlate in patients with Open-Angle Glaucoma (OAG).

Kiersten Snyder, MD, Jacob Brubaker, MD, Sacramento Eye Consultants Staff, and Avisi Team

The first VisiPlate surgery was performed by study investigator Dr. Kiersten Snyder. Dr. Snyder, along with Principal Investigator Dr. Jacob W. Brubaker, were enthusiastic about the device and surgery. Remarking on the surgeon experience, Dr. Snyder, shared "The VisiPlate is a remarkable technology showcasing a thin and flexible design for controlled aqueous outflow. It was also easy to install."

VisiPlate is a novel glaucoma treatment device engineered to sustainably reduce intraocular pressure (IOP) by improving outflow of aqueous. The VisiPlate device is designed with multiple and redundant microchannels to provide sustained aqueous flow while minimizing the risk of blockage and re-intervention. The device is made of ultrathin, biocompatible materials that seek to avoid longstanding reasons for failure of existing glaucoma treatment options. VisiPlate has been previously studied in the VITA Trial with long-term follow up data presented at the 2025 American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meeting.

"VisiPlate is an advanced technology designed to maximize patients' quality of life. Dr. Snyder's successful VisiPlate surgery progresses a needed solution for managing glaucoma and preserving vision," said the Founder and CEO, Rui Jing Jiang. "We are grateful for the expertise of our physician collaborators and look forward to treating more glaucoma patients through the SAPPHIRE trial."

The SAPPHIRE trial is currently active in several sites across the US, including:

Arizona Advanced Eye Research, Glendale, Arizona, United States, 85306

Glaucoma Associates of Texas, Dallas, Texas, United States, 75231

ICON Eye Care, Grand Junction, Colorado, United States, 81501

Sacramento Eye Consultants, Sacramento, California, United States, 95815

The Eye Centers of Racine & Kenosha, Kenosha, Wisconsin, United States, 53142

More site activations are scheduled for 2026. Approximately 65 patients will be treated in the SAPPHIRE Trial across 13 locations, and the resulting data is anticipated to support future FDA applications. This trial will evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the VisiPlate aqueous shunt in patients with OAG. The primary endpoint of the trial is the proportion of subjects achieving clinically significant reduction in diurnal IOP at 12 months compared to baseline, on the same or fewer number of glaucoma medications. Important safety evaluations and patient feedback, including vision quality, will be obtained through 12 months.

About VisiPlate

Avisi Technologies' VisiPlate aqueous shunt is a unique device made of a patented metamaterial that has been designed to be non-fibrotic and is many times thinner than a human hair. The device is both doctor and patient-centric, designed for ease of implantation, longevity, comfort, and aesthetics. Its multiple, redundant microchannels are engineered to provide sustained aqueous flow while minimizing the risk of blockage and re-intervention, both common challenges with currently available glaucoma surgical solutions.

About Glaucoma and Current Treatment:

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, affecting over 133 million people according to Market Scope's 2025 Glaucoma Surgical Device Market Report, and currently has no cure. In glaucoma patients, excess fluid builds up within the eye, increasing pressure on the optic nerve and leading to permanent vision loss. Glaucoma is a group of diseases, the most common of which are open-angle glaucoma (OAG) and angle-closure glaucoma.

OAG often has no early warning signs or symptoms. It occurs when the eye's drainage system (trabecular meshwork) becomes clogged, preventing normal fluid outflow and leading to elevated eye pressure. Without diagnosis and treatment, OAG can cause gradual vision loss over time. Current treatments for glaucoma include medications, lasers, surgeries, and medical device solutions. However, these interventions rely on patient compliance, re-treatment, or may fail due to occlusion and scarring over time. There remains a pressing need for safe and effective long-term treatments for glaucoma that improve patient outcomes and quality of life.

About Avisi Technologies

Avisi Technologies is a clinical-stage medical device company committed to advancing vision care through innovative ophthalmic solutions. The company's portfolio includes state-of-the-art treatments for glaucoma and other ocular conditions. These include its flagship VisiPlate aqueous shunt, V-001 sustained intraocular drug-delivery platform, and the VisiPlate-S drainage device for treating glaucoma at the time of cataract surgery. Avisi has been recognized and supported by numerous organizations, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Glaucoma Research Foundation, SXSW, Johnson & Johnson JLABs, Medtech Innovator Accelerator, UCSF Rosenman Institute, and the University of Pennsylvania, among others. Avisi is funded by venture capital investors, angel investors, and scientific research grants. For more information, visit avisitech.com.

VisiPlate is an investigational device. The VisiPlate device is for investigational use only, and not yet available for sale.

Media Contact:

Seth Harrington

[email protected]

More information on the SAPPHIRE clinical trial

SOURCE: Avisi Technologies, Inc.

SOURCE Avisi Technologies, Inc.
Artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek has unveiled its most powerful model variant, DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale, which is said to match Google DeepMind's new Gemini 3 Pro model in certain tasks, despite the Chinese firm having limited access to advanced semiconductor chips.

The achievement by the open-source lab has sparked extensive discussion within the AI research community as it coincides with the prestigious annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, or NeurIPS.

In its announcement on Monday, Hangzhou-based DeepSeek said V3.2-Speciale equalled Google's Gemini 3 Pro, released two weeks ago, in reasoning capabilities, while V3.2-Speciale's base model, the V3.2 introduced on the same day, performed on par with OpenAI's GPT-5 launched in August.

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Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

DeepSeek said that V3.2-Speciale achieved gold-medal performance on the International Mathematical Olympiad test - an accomplishment previously reached only by internal models from OpenAI and Google DeepMind that have not been made public.

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale is the start-up's most powerful AI model variant to date. Photo: Handout alt=DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale is the start-up's most powerful AI model variant to date. Photo: Handout>

DeepSeek has open-sourced the V3.2 model on the developer platform Hugging Face. However, V3.2-Speciale is accessible solely through an application programming interface, or API, due to its "higher token usage", according to the announcement.

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On social media, Google DeepMind principal research engineer Susan Zhang praised DeepSeek for the detailed technical report accompanying its new models, noting the start-up's efforts in stabilising the models post-training and enhancing their agentic capabilities.

According to its technical report, DeepSeek accomplished this despite having "fewer total training FLOPs" than its US rivals. FLOPs, or floating point operations per second, is the standard measure of computing power used to train AI models.

While acknowledging that V3.2 still lagged behind leading US models like Gemini 3 Pro in token efficiency and world knowledge, DeepSeek said it intended to close these gaps by scaling up the computing power used for pre-training models.

The launch of these new models ahead of NeurIPS has drawn comparisons with OpenAI's release of ChatGPT in late November 2022, which also coincided with that year's conference in New Orleans.

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Typically low profile, DeepSeek has not disclosed whether it will send staff to this year's conference. Any DeepSeek researcher present was likely to attract significant attention, said Florian Brand, an expert on China's open-source AI ecosystem attending this year's NeurIPS in San Diego.

"All the group chats today were full after DeepSeek's announcement," he said.

For the first time, the conference this year is held simultaneously in two locations - San Diego and Mexico City - due to concerns about securing US visas for international researchers. Many Chinese participants have opted for the Mexico City venue.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2025. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company will launch a prototype satellite to test AI hardware in space in 2027.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company will launch a prototype satellite to test AI hardware in space in 2027. (David Paul Morris/BloombergGetty Images)

Googles moonshot aspirations to expand its AI footprint are taking on a more literal meaning.

CEO Sundar Pichai said in a Fox News interview on Sunday that Google will soon begin construction of AI data centers in space. The tech giant announced Project Suncatcher earlier this month, with the goal of finding more efficient ways to power energy-guzzling centers, in this case with solar power.

One of our moonshots is to, how do we one day have data centers in space so that we can better harness the energy from the sun that is 100 trillion times more energy than what we produce on all of Earth today? Pichai said.

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Google will take its first steps in constructing extraterrestrial data centers in early 2027 in partnership with satellite imagery firm Planet, launching two pilot satellites to test the hardware in Earths orbit. According to Pichai, space-based data centers will be the new standard in the near future.

But theres no doubt to me that a decade or so away well be viewing it as a more normal way to build data centers, he said.

The data center space race

To be sure, Google isnt the only company looking to the skies for an answer to improving data center efficiency. Earlier this month, Y Combinator and Nvidia-backed startup Starcloud sent its first AI-equipped satellite to space. CEO and cofounder Philip Johnston predicts extraterrestrial data centers will produce 10 times lower carbon emissions than their earthbound counterparts, even taking into account the emissions from launch.

While the cost of satellites used to test AI hardware in space has decreased drastically, putting extraterrestrial data center development within reach, the cost of building these solar-powered centers is still an unknown, particularly as earthbound data centers are expected to require more than $5 trillion in capital expenditures by 2030, according to an April McKinsey report.

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Google, which catapulted itself back into the AI front-runner conversation with the recent release of Gemini 3, is one of several major hyperscalers pouring money into data centers to expand its computing capabilities. Google itself announced this month a $40 billion investment in data center construction in Texas.

All the while, speculation of an AI bubble threatens to create an oversupply of data centers, which could render the data center space race a dangerous overinvestment.

The stakes are high, the McKinsey report said. Overinvesting in data center infrastructure risks stranding assets, while underinvesting means falling behind.

Harnessing solar energy to power data centers has become increasingly appealing amid growing concerns about the sustainability of expanding AI compute, which requires an exorbitant amount of power. A December 2024 U.S. Department of Energy report on domestic data center usage found data center load has tripled in the past 10 years and may double or triple again by 2028. These data centers consumed more than 4% of the countrys electricity in 2023, and are predicted to consume up to 12% of U.S. electricity by 2028, according to the report.

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Google alone has more than doubled its electricity consumption on data center use in the past five years, using 30.8 million megawatt-hours of electricity last year compared to 14.4 million in 2020, when it began specifically tracking data center energy consumption, according to its latest sustainability report released in June.

Google has worked to reduce the energy needed to power its growing data centers, reporting it reduced its data center energy emissions by 12% in 2024, despite an increasing footprint. However, concerns about the lasting sustainability of data center expansion remain.

There is still much we dont know about the environmental impact of AI, but some of the data we do have is concerning, Golestan Radwan, United Nations Environment Programme chief digital officer, said in a statement last year following the programs note warning of the environmental impact of AI infrastructure expansion. We need to make sure the net effect of AI on the planet is positive before we deploy the technology at scale.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 27 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Dec. 2, 2025. | Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX has now launched 60 missions from California this year.

A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off Tuesday (Dec. 2) from Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Golden State's central coast at 12:28 a.m. EST (0528 GMT; 9:28 p.m. local California time on Dec. 1).

The Falcon 9 carried 27 of SpaceX's Starlink satellites toward low Earth orbit , where they will join more than 9,000 other spacecraft in the huge and ever-growing broadband megaconstellation.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rests on the deck of a drone ship shortly after launching launching 27 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Dec. 2, 2025. | Credit: SpaceX

The rocket's first stage came back to Earth as planned, touching down on the SpaceX droneship "Of Course I Still Love You" about 8.5 minutes after liftoff. It was the 20th mission for this particular booster, which is designated B1081.

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The Falcon 9's upper stage, meanwhile, deployed the 27 Starlink satellites about 62 minutes after launch.

The Falcon 9's first stage rests on the deck of a drone ship shortly its launch on Dec. 2, 2025. | Credit: SpaceX

Previous Booster 1081 missions

Crew-7 | CRS-29 | PACE | Transporter-10 | EarthCARE | NROL-186 | Transporter-13 | TRACERS | NROL-48 | 10 Starlink missions

Tuesday's liftoff was SpaceX's 60th of the year from Vandenberg, according to SpaceflightNow . That's impressive, but the company's East Coast operations are even more prolific: Ninety-four Falcon 9 missions have lifted off so far in 2025 from Florida's Space Coast. (SpaceX flies out of pads at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center , which are next door to each other).
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

The researchers calculate the price change of an organization's governance tokens compared to similar assets in six-hour intervals. Credit: Complexity Science Hub

In the crypto world, reports of cyberattacks tend to focus mainly on the funds that vanish immediately. A new study by researchers at the Complexity Science Hub (CSH) now shows that the indirect consequencessuch as falling token prices and eroding trustcan multiply the financial impact of such attacks, with investors bearing the brunt. The work is published in The Journal of Finance and Data Science.

More than a billion in indirect losses

"We examined 22 major cyberattacks in the crypto sector between 2020 and 2022. In 12 of those cases, the affected tokens experienced subsequent price crashes. While the direct damage in these twelve cases amounted to about 454 million US dollars, the indirect losses due to declining token values reached 1.3 billion US dollars," explains study author Stefan Kitzler from CSH.

On average, the affected tokens lost 14% of their value after an attack. In addition, trading volume increased in roughly 68% of the cases "as many investors traded actively, either selling quickly to limit losses or buying because they sensed an opportunity for future profits," Kitzler says.

"Reactions to cyberattacks in the DeFi sector closely resemble how traditional financial markets respond to scandals and security incidentshowever, on average, we observe larger declines on the one hand, but also counterintuitive price increases on the other," adds Bernhard Haslhofer, who leads the Digital Currency Ecosystems research group at the CSH.

Isolating the effects of attacks

The researchers analyzed price movements 24 hours before and 48 hours after an attack. They also compared the price movements with those of other tokens that had previously performed similarly to ensure that the observed price changes were actually due to the cyberattack and did not reflect general market trends.

No longer a niche

Decentralized finance, or DeFi, enables financial transactions with cryptocurrencies directly on the internetwithout banks, brokers, or centralized institutions. The technology is built on blockchain, a public digital ledger that transparently records all transactions.

This market for decentralized financial servicessuch as buying, trading, or lending crypto assetshas seen strong and steady growth. "In Austria, for instance, estimates suggest that at least 300,000 people have invested in crypto. It is therefore no longer a niche," says Haslhofer. At the same time, the system is increasingly targeted by criminal attacks exploiting technical vulnerabilities, fraud, or market manipulation.

A parallel to the 'real' financial world

The study focuses on the Ethereum network, currently the most important blockchain for DeFi applications. It examines attacks specifically targeting Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs)digital communities in which investors use governance tokens to vote on key decisions, much like shareholders in a company.

"Because DAOs structurally resemble traditional organizations in the real economy, we selected them deliberately," Kitzler notes. "We wanted to see whether the consequences of an attack on these digital organizations would mirror those observed in conventional financial systems," adds Haslhofer.

Despite their technological decentralization, markets and investors respond to negative events in very similar ways. "Our analysis shows that the indirect losses resulting from eroded market confidence are often greater than the funds stolen outright," Kitzler emphasizes. "This highlights the systemic nature of risks in DeFi: an attack affects not only the targeted organizations but the entire ecosystemand ultimately its investors."

DeFi projects cannot be viewed in isolation. For investors, developers, and regulators, this means that security, market stability, and trust are deeply interconnectedand must be protected together, the researchers conclude.

More information: Stefan Kitzler et al, The economic impact of DeFi crime events on decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), The Journal of Finance and Data Science (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.jfds.2025.100171
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Donald Trump's new "Genesis Mission" initiative promises to use artificial intelligence to reinvent how science is done, in a bid to move the dial on the hardest challenges in areas like robotics, biotech and nuclear fusion.

It imagines a system in which AI designs experiments, executes them, learns from the results and continually proposes new lines of inquiry. The hope is that this will unlock dramatically higher productivity in federally funded research.

This vision fits a wider international trend, including in the UK: governments are investing heavily in AI for science, citing successes such as DeepMind's AlphaFold, which predicts protein structures, and is now woven into many areas of biology and drug discovery.

However, core lessons from the philosophy of science show why "automating discovery" is far harderand riskierthan the rhetoric suggests.

The philosopher Karl Popper famously described science as a process of "bold conjectures and severe attempts at refuting [them]." Discovery, in this view, begins when researchers encounter an anomalya phenomenon that existing theories cannot easily explain. They then propose new hypotheses that might resolve the puzzle. Philosophers call this "abduction": inferring to an explanation rather than merely extrapolating from previous data.

The large language models that underpin today's AI systems mimic some patterns of abductive reasoning. But they do not possess the experience, know-how or situational understanding that human scientists draw on when reframing a problem or redefining what counts as an anomaly.

Machines excel at spotting regularities in existing data. Yet the most interesting scientific advances often occur when researchers notice what the data fails to captureor decide that a previously ignored discrepancy is actually a clue to a new area needing investigated.

Even once a new idea is on the table, scientists must decide which theories to pursue, refine and invest scarce resources in. These choices are guided not just by immediate empirical payoffs, but virtues such as coherence with other ideas, simplicity, explanatory depth or the ability to open up fertile new research programs.

None of these can be reduced to fixed rules. Trying to reduce them to simpler but more measurable proxies may result in prioritizing projects that yield short-term gains over speculative but potentially transformative lines of inquiry. There's also a risk of ignoring hypotheses that challenge the status quo.

Justification is not just data

Scientists assess competing theories using evidence, but philosophers have long noted that evidence alone rarely forces a single conclusion. Multiple, incompatible theories can often fit the same data, which means scientists must weigh the pros and cons of each theory, consider their underlying assumptions, and debate whether anomalies call for more data or a change of framework.

Fully automating this stage invites trouble, because algorithmic decision systems tend to hide their assumptions and compress messy trade-offs into binary outputs: approve or deny, flag or ignore. The Dutch childcare-benefits scandal of 2021 showed how this can play out in public policy. A risk-scoring algorithm "hypothesized" and "evaluated" which families were engaging in fraud to claim benefits. It fed these "justified" conclusions into automated workflows that demanded repayment of benefits, and plunged many innocent families into financial ruin.

Genesis proposes to bring similar forms of automation into scientific decision chains. For instance, this could let AI agents determine which results are credible, which experiments are redundant, and which lines of inquiry should be terminated. It all raises concerns that we may not know why an agent reached a certain conclusion, whether there is an underlying bias in its programming and whether anyone is actually scrutinizing the process.

Science as organized persuasion

Another lesson from the philosophy and history of science is that producing data is only half the story; scientists must also persuade one another that a claim is worth accepting. The Austrian philosopher Paul Feyerabend showed how even canonical figures such as Galileo strategically chose languages, audiences and rhetorical styles to advance new ideas.

This is not to imply that science is propaganda; the point is that knowledge becomes accepted through argument, critique and judgment by a scientist's peers.

If AI systems begin to generate hypotheses, run experiments and even write papers with minimal human involvement, questions arise about who is actually taking responsibility for persuading the scientific community in a given field. Will journals, reviewers and funding bodies scrutinize arguments crafted by foundation models with the same skepticism they apply to human authors? Or will the aura of machine objectivity make it harder to challenge flawed methods and assumptions embedded deep in the pipeline?

Consider AlphaFold, often cited as proof that AI can "solve" major scientific problems. The system has indeed transformed structural biology (the study of the shapes of living molecules) by providing high-quality predictions for vast numbers of proteins. This has dramatically lowered the barrier to exploring how a protein's structure affects how it works.

Yet careful evaluations emphasize that these outputs should be treated as "valuable hypotheses": highly informative starting points that still require experimental validation.

Genesis-style proposals risk overgeneralizing from such successes, forgetting that the most scientifically useful AI systems work precisely because they are embedded in human-directed research ecologies, not because they run laboratories on their own.

Protecting what makes science special

Scientific institutions emerged partly to wrest authority away from opaque traditions, priestly castes and charismatic healers, replacing appeals to enchantment with public standards of evidence, method and critique.

Yet there has always been a kind of romance to scientific practice: the stories of eureka moments, disputes over rival theories and the collective effort to make sense of a resistant world. That romance is not mere decoration; it reflects the human capacitiescuriosity, courage, stubbornness, imaginationthat drive inquiry forward.

Automating science in the way Genesis envisions risks narrowing that practice to what can be captured in datasets, loss functions and workflow graphs. A more responsible path would see AI as a set of powerful instruments that remain firmly embedded within human communities of inquiry. They would ultimately support but never substitute the messy, argumentative and often unpredictable processes through which scientific knowledge is created, contested and ultimately trusted.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

In most industries, maintenance is a waiting game. Things are fixed when they break. But in the 21st century, an age defined by data and automation, that approach no longer makes sense. The solution could be predictive maintenance. This is an approach that uses sensors and software to analyze equipment performance in real time and predict when it might fail.

Edward Khomotso Nkadimeng, a lecturer and researcher in artificial intelligence and data systems in nuclear/particle physics at Stellenbosch University, has researched how a predictive maintenance model can help keep critical systems runningfrom research equipment to national infrastructure. He explains why this approach could be a practical tool for resilience across Africa.

What is a predictive maintenance model and why did you build one?

For decades after the global industrial boom, many industries relied on a simple rule: wait for a machine to break, then repair it. That made sense when machines were simpler and downtime was just part of the routine.

Periodic maintenance is common too, but still inefficient and often based on time, not actual machine condition. That approach costs time, money, and sometimes even safety. Modern systems are more interconnected and expensive to halt.

A predictive maintenance model is a data-driven system that forecasts equipment failure before it happens. It predicts when systems are degrading, rather than just reacting. It monitors a variety of systems, from industrial pumps, compressors and turbines to scientific instruments, by collecting realtime data like vibration (which measures how much a machine physically oscillates), temperature, pressure and voltage.

These measurements come from Internet of Things (IoT) or condition-monitoring sensors. Even machines that aren't ultra-cutting-edge can be instrumented to provide this data. Once collected, the data feeds into machine learning models that learn to recognize patterns associated with slow drift towards failure.

The model monitors a broad range of systems: industrial pumps, compressors, turbines, and high-precision scientific instruments (cyclotrons, vacuum pumps, beamline diagnostics). It is designed for systems where sensor data can be collectedany instrument that generates measurable signals. It uses live data vibration, the physical oscillation of a machine component, where subtle changes in vibration amplitude or frequency often precede mechanical failures, such as bearing wear or rotor imbalance, as well as temperature, pressure and voltages.

While advanced machines may produce richer data, even legacy machinery can benefit with added sensors. The method is therefore broadly applicable to recognize when they're slowly drifting towards failure.

At NRF-iThemba LABS, a South African national nuclear and accelerator research facility, and Stellenbosch University, I built a system like this out of necessity. Our teams include physicists, engineers and computer scientists who collaborate on high-precision experiments in nuclear and particle physics.

The research instruments are complex, expensive and often one of a kind. When they fail unexpectedly, experiments stop, data is lost, and public funds go to waste. For example, we work with 70 MeV cyclotrons for isotope production, superconducting magnets, radiofrequency acceleration cavities and vacuum systems. These are one-of-a-kind instruments, sensitive to downtime.

So, the goal was to make an affordable, self-learning system that can scale from our research equipment to the industrial infrastructure that keeps African economies running pumps, turbines and power grids. Similar predictive maintenance systems are applied in industrial power plants, water utilities and aviation, reducing unplanned downtime by 20%40%. Our adaptation for African labs and industrial systems uses low-cost Internet of Things sensors with cloud-based AI.

What did you learn from the model? Why is this useful?

The first thing I learned is that machines whisper before they scream. Long before a breakdown, they show tiny signs like slight vibrations, small voltage drops, or subtle changes in speed.

With enough data on vibration, temperature, pressure, voltage and motor load, for example, these data streams form the input for AI models. These patterns form a kind of language, and artificial intelligence becomes the translator.

By training the model on real operational data like pump vibration over time and other readings, we discovered that failures aren't random: they follow recognizable signatures. Once the system learns these patterns, it can predict what's coming and even suggest what to do next. The real benefit is timing, scheduling maintenance exactly when it is needed and not too early, which wastes parts and labor, and not too late (which risks catastrophic failure).

Instead of over-servicing equipment or waiting for something to fail, maintenance can happen exactly when it's needed. That saves resources, reduces downtime and keeps operations running smoothly. And because the principle is universal, it applies just as well in factories, hospitals and water systems as it does in research labs. For example, detecting a failing motor before a line shutdown in a manufacturing plant, or ventilator sensors predicting pump failure in a hospital, or monitoring municipal pumps to prevent water shortages.

What are the practical implications of applying the model?

The practical impact is huge. Predictive systems help avoid blackouts, water shortages and unplanned shutdownsissues that affect daily life and essential services. An example can be seen in South Africa's blackouts: the power utility Eskom's transformers are monitored for predictive faults. In Cape Town, predictive maintenance of water systems reduces pump downtime. They also make workplaces safer and budgets more efficient.

For African countries especially, where technical resources are often stretched, predictive maintenance is a form of resilience. It replaces firefighting with foresight. By using affordable IoT sensors (small devices collecting data like temperature), cloud-based AI (online software that analyzes this data in real-time), and self-learning algorithms, maintenance becomes continuous, automated and smart.

It's the quiet side of AI, keeping the lights on, the pumps running and the economy stable. Physics, data and engineering can quietly work together to keep important systems alive and reliable.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Portable antenna mast with WiBACK directional antennas and a 5G gNodeB. Credit: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

In a disaster, there are often massive network outages. When the Ahr, a small river in Rhineland-Palatinate, burst its banks in July 2021, the entire telephone and mobile network quickly collapsed as the floodwaters and mud destroyed many exchanges. For emergencies like this, researchers at Fraunhofer FIT have developed smart communication solutions for civil protection and disaster relief to address the congestion of public networks.

In the 5G Opportunity project, they joined forces with Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg and Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences to develop and test a software-based, wireless and ad-hoc-capable communication system for emergency services.

The mobile, self-organizing communication network, based on Fraunhofer WiBACK (wireless backhaul) technology, enables emergency services to connect with each other, the incident command and the internet. The WiBACK communication network uses 5G/Open RAN (radio access network) and WiFi for smartphone access and multi-hop routing for backhaul.

"A WiBACK network can be set up in a very short time and be operated immediately in compliance with regulations," says Mathias Kretschmer, a research scientist at Fraunhofer FIT in Sankt Augustin who leads the project. "The hardware consists of self-sufficient, portable components. All you need to do is connect the batteries, align the antennas, and the network is ready to go."

The foundations for WiBACK technology were established ten years ago to connect rural areas with limited or no internet connection to remote network infrastructure. At its core, WiBACK is a self-organizing, self-sufficient multi-hop routing technology.

The cost-effective, wireless backhaul solution comprises small, solar-powered radios equipped with a motherboard, an antenna and a solar-powered charge controller, which connect the emergency vehicles and are characterized by low energy consumption.

The portable radio nodes configure themselves, eliminating the need for IT specialists or network technicians. This makes them ideal for use in disaster-stricken areas, where relief organization staff must quickly establish an alternative communication network in chaotic situations.

Bypassing congested public networks with private 5G cells

"Multi-hop routing is a method for extending the range of radio-relay links. It uses several intermediate nodes (hops) to exchange data between distant points. Once a hop or radio receives a signal, it bundles it and then transmits it to the next node, eliminating the need for a direct line of sight and allowing greater distances to be covered," Kretschmer explains. "We connect the smartphones through our own small 5G cells and use WiBACK for the vehicles."

Metal festival as a test environment

The project partners and Malteser Hilfsdienst e. V. successfully tested the innovative communication solution at the Summer Breeze Open Air 2024 metal festival. A 5G campus network was set up to enable network access at the festival site.

The use of this frequency band can be applied in order to operate a private 5G network. These frequencies are currently underused and could be made available to the emergency services in the event of a disaster. The radio and network nodes at the festival were reliably powered with solar panels and batteries, highlighting the potential for energy-self-sufficient communication networks in disaster-stricken areas.

The future of crisis communication

In the meantime, the follow-up project, HiLeit, has already been launched. It is coordinated by Fraunhofer FIT and involves Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, Malteser Hilfsdienst e. V. and Deutsche Funktechnik UG (DeFuTech). Plans call for HiLeit to use modular network nodes to enable rapid deployment and adaptation of communication according to the situation at hand.

The researchers want to expand the WiBACK architecture to include a LEO (low Earth orbit) satellite interface for internet connectivity. In HiLeit, the project partners aim to combine several technologies, including public communication networks, fiber optics, LEO/IRIS2 terminals, field cables and WiFi radio-relay systems to create a flexible, highly available network that can be configured according to the location and requirements.

Kretschmer says, "The focus here is on intuitive operation so that emergency services can quickly put the system into operation without in-depth technical knowledge."
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

School of Computing lecturer William E. Schiesser and junior mechanical engineering major Timothy Tran pose with the acoustic guitar that Tran designed and 3D printed. Credit: Binghamton University, State University of New York

Timothy Tran '27 has a new guitar for jamming out to his favorite Jimi Hendrix tunes, and he didn't pick it up at a music shophe printed it.

That's no rock 'n' roll fantasy. Tran, a Binghamton University, State University of New York junior majoring in mechanical engineering, has created a playable 3D-printed acoustic guitar. Unlike a traditional instrument, it's made out of thermoplastic filament, but it works. You can even play Hendrix's "Purple Haze" if you'd like.

And while most 3D-printed guitars have been electric, Tran's is unique for being an acoustic model.

"It wasn't something that people had really looked into," Tran said. "People have made 3D-printed electric guitarsthat's probably easier because you don't have to worry about the vibrations as much. I just wanted to try something new."

A guitarist since his senior year of high school, Tran was looking for ways to apply his engineering skills over summer break when he stumbled upon his dad's old guitar up in the attic. Unfortunately, it was no longer playable, but Tim saw an opportunity.

"I saw it broke and I said, 'I can make a new one for you,'" Tran said. "I decided it would be a good thing to just try."

With that goal in mind, Tran started designing a prototype based on his father's guitar and sought out assistance from William E. Schiesser, a lecturer at the School of Computing. The project "struck a chord" with Schiesser.

"I just kind of pointed in the right direction and gave him some guidance," Schiesser said. "We've met every week since the beginning of the summer, and he's really done some great work with us."

Timothy Tran, a Binghamton University junior majoring in mechanical engineering, has created a playable 3D-printed acoustic guitar with assistance from lecturer William E. Scheisser from the School of Computing. Credit: Binghamton University, State University of New York

String theory

You don't become a luthier (that's a person who builds stringed instruments) overnight, and you don't design a 3D printed guitar overnight either. Tran's design process took time and patience. He painstakingly measured the dimensions of his father's vintage guitar, a process that took a couple of weeks to get right.

"Design work is key," Schiesser said. "You have to do a lot of planning up front to make sure all the parts fit together."

Once the design was in place, Tran modeled the guitar in Fusion 360 design software and printed it on a Prusa MK4 3D printer. Because the printer was only 10 inches by 10 inches, pieces that normally would be a single unit had to be split up. For example, the fretboard was divided into two pieces.

Unlike a traditionally constructed guitar, the pieces fit together using a press-fit method. A special connecting plate allows the different pieces to slide together.

"Putting it together was pretty easy. It only took one or two days. It was more just waiting for the glue to dry," Tran said. "The longest part was probably just waiting for parts to print. Bigger pieces might take six or seven hours to print."

Unlike most acoustic guitars, Tran's prototype was printed on a Prusa MK4 3D printer. Credit: Binghamton University, State University of New York

Fine-tuning

Tran can play some classical pieces like Pachelbel's Canon, scales and a few funky licks, but the guitar is not quite stage-ready. The action (that's how far the strings sit above the neck of the guitar) is a bit too high, and the guitar is hard to keep in tune. Tran and Schiesser are developing a second prototype to work out the kinks.

"I'm just trying to figure out a way to make the neck piece a little more uniform, and how to get the action lower," Tran said. "Just to get it to a more playable feel, because right now this is pretty tough to play. It doesn't feel that comfortable."

"It's an iterative process. You make one prototype, see how it works, then correct any issues," Schiesser added.

Tran's father was excited about the project, regularly asking him for updates on when a new part was being made or which stage he had reached in the design process.

"Once I finished it, I gave it to him first, and he was overjoyed to play it; he texted all his siblings bragging about it!" Tran said.

Guitars without borders

While it's cool to play Led Zeppelin riffs in a campus lab, Tran and Schiesser hope that this design can be made accessible to people around the world who can't afford to spend big bucks on an instrument. One of Tran's guitars costs just $25$30 to print, which includes the price of one and a half rolls of filament, strings and tuning pegs.

Timothy Tran has been playing guitar since his senior year of high school. One of his favorite guitarists is Jimi Hendrix. Credit: Binghamton University, State University of New York

"If it were to become something really successful, I want it to be just something that can be free access for everyone," Tran said. "Growing up, we didn't have that much money  so if it's just something that's easy and accessible for people who need it, I think that'd be really cool."

Schiesser, who has a background in patents and intellectual property law, said that the design could be like an "open-source guitar."

"Just like we share software and code by open source with license, this could be posted online, and anybody could access the design for free, as long as they have access to a 3D printer and can get it printed out," Schiesser said.

Tran, who will intern at GE Aerospace in spring 2026, wants to work on vehicles and engines once he graduates. But he's not counting out a gig in the guitar industryif the opportunity is right. Whatever happens, he's happy that he was able to use his interest in engineering and apply it to another field that he's passionate about.

"It was good to put out into the world," Tran said. "It's just a good way to direct what I wanted to do, because I had a lot of ideas, but I didn't really know how to employ them. It was just really cool to see an idea I had just really come to life."
Founded in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in 1978, Barr, Inc. is a family-owned company with a deep commitment to the communities it serves. Recognizing the increased struggle many hard-working families faceparticularly during the holidaysthe company is leveraging its expertise and inventory, the largest in the world, to help community organizations ensure everyone can celebrate with a warm meal.

"Hunger is a problem that touches every county in America, and its impact is especially harsh on the most vulnerable," said Jarvis McLimans, Vice President of Sales at Barr, Inc. "More than 50 million people rely on food banks for support, and with one in five children facing food insecurity, these organizations play a more vital role than ever. The ability to safely store fresh produce and meats is essential to their mission. With 'Coolers for a Cause,' we are putting our industrial refrigeration expertise to work for a good cause, making it easier for food banks to keep their shelves stocked with nutritious, high-quality food."

Commercial refrigeration and freezer units are essential for food banks, enabling them to store fresh food and meat prior to distribution. Through the "Coolers for a Cause" program, Barr, Inc. is offering the following to designated 501(c)(3) food banks and pantries:

Deep Discounts: Significant cost reductions on new coolers, freezers, and commercial refrigeration units, as well as cost-effective, gently used refurbished units.

Significant cost reductions on new coolers, freezers, and commercial refrigeration units, as well as cost-effective, gently used refurbished units. Free Consultation: Complimentary consultation services to help organizations design and implement customized cold-storage solutions that meet their specific needs and goals.

Barr, Inc. first piloted its "Coolers for a Cause" program with the Oshkosh Area Community Pantry (OACP), demonstrating how enhanced commercial cold-storage capacity can strengthen local food distribution. OACP, also a regional hub for TEFAP and Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, distributes more than 3 million pounds of food annually and redistributed over 700,000 pounds to nearby pantries in 2024 alone.

The impact of this pilot partnership helped shape the national launch of "Coolers for a Cause," as Barr, Inc. works to support food banks across the country in evaluating and optimizing their cold-storage infrastructure.

Barr, Inc. urges the public and media partners to help spread the word about this program to eligible non-profit organizations across the U.S.

Non-profit food banks and pantries can take advantage of the "Coolers for a Cause" program by:

Calling: Todd Ziglinski  920-230-7317

Todd Ziglinski  920-230-7317 Emailing: [email protected]

Visiting: Request a Quote at Barr, Inc.

When reaching out, organizations should identify themselves as a non-profit food bank to receive the special program benefits. Barr, Inc. is proud to support food banks and pantries across the country and help make the holidays a little brighter for every family.

About Barr, Inc.

Barr, Inc. is a global leader in commercial refrigeration and freezer solutions, founded in 1978 and headquartered in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The company maintains the largest inventory of commercial refrigeration and freezers in the world, offering both new and refurbished units with a focus on customized, customer-centric solutions. Barr, Inc. is dedicated to operational excellence and a strong commitment to community service.

Media Contact:

Kristina Hoffman

[email protected]

Phone: 920-979-6534

SOURCE Barr, Inc.
On July 2, 1776, a Finnish American man held the destiny of the United States in his hands.

The scene was the hall in Philadelphia that hosted the Second Continental Congress of the 13 American Colonies of British America. The man of destiny was John Morton, speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly and the swing vote in his state delegation that could create the United States of America.

If Morton voted no, the influential Colony would be recorded as opposed to independence. This could deal a fatal blow to the infant nation by delaying or dashing hopes for a vote for independence from Great Britain that was unopposed by any of the Colonies. If he said yes, the Pennsylvania delegation would flip to a 3-to-2 pro-independence majority, creating unstoppable national momentum for a break with King George IIIs government.

But it would place Morton and his fellow delegates at risk of condemnation by many constituents who were pro-crown loyalists or independence skeptics, and in real danger of being executed if captured by British forces. The maximum penalty for treason against the king at that time was to be hung by the neck until the edge of death, then disemboweled and torn into four pieces  while still alive.

Morton made his decision. He voted for the independence resolution, and Pennsylvanias yea vote in the roll call of states enabled its unopposed passage. This was the moment that the United States of America came into existence. With the help of spirits from Finland  Mortons father, grandfather, mother and wife were all of of Finnish descent.

The country that Morton and his colleagues created July 2, 1776, became the wealthiest, most powerful nation on earth. And the society that Mortons distant relatives built in Finland also became one of the worlds most successful democracies.

For a nation of only 5.6 million people, brutal winter weather and few natural resources other than trees, Finlands achievements are striking. Finland ranks as the No. 1 worlds freest nation in Freedom Houses 2025 report, the happiest nation for eight years in a row, the developed country with the most skilled adult population and the nation that leads the world in progress toward achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including health and well-being, gender equality and ending poverty.

How has this happened? One reason is that Finland is, in the words of Helsinki-based journalists Anu Partanen and Trevor Corson in The New York Times, a capitalist paradise, a nation committed to free markets and capitalism. According to the Heritage Foundations 2025 Index of Economic Freedom, Finland has the best property rights in the world and scores higher than the United States in economic and investment freedom, judicial effectiveness, fiscal health and government integrity.

Taxes on personal income are significantly higher on average than in the United States, but they replace many large private expenses carried by U.S. households, and business and property taxes are lower. The national corporate tax rate in Finland will be lowered from the current 20% to 18% in 2027, which compares to about 25% in the United States when state taxes are included.

While Finns complain about their taxes, in the end, many people here consider them worth it, in exchange for a very strong social safety net, excellent universal public health care and free high-quality education through university. Medical bankruptcy, the No. 1 cause of bankruptcy in the U.S., is almost unheard of, as is the long-term stress associated with crushing student debt. Rates of violent crime, homelessness and hunger are extremely low.

There is some political polarization in Finland, and in the parliament, debates over immigration and an economy stuck in a cycle of low growth and relatively high unemployment are increasingly intense. But personal animosity in government plays out at a far lower intensity than in the United States, for example, and this may be one of the most powerful lessons Americans can learn from Finland.

On the eve of Americas 250 th anniversary, Morton and Finland can remind us that now is a good time for Americans to declare independence from the tyranny of hating each other.
(TBTCO) - Von vay nuoc ngoai cua Chinh phu, ac biet la von ODA va von vay uu ai a va ang tiep tuc ong vai tro quan trong oi voi phat trien kinh te - xa hoi, au tu ket cau ha tang, giao duc ao tao, khoa hoc cong nghe va chuyen oi so cua at nuoc. Tuy nhien, nghiep vu cho vay lai hien nay van con mot so kho khan
GUARDIAN Group has been awarded the Lisa James Award for Learning and Development by the Hum
The Hall of Justice on Knox Street, in Port of Spain.
New AI optimization tools target GEO and LLM visibility to elevate content strategies for PR, marketing and communications professionals

MINNEAPOLIS, Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Brandpoint, a leading sponsored content and media placement company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has announced the launch of Brandpoint AI Optimize , designed for PR teams navigating the rapidly shifting terrain of AI-driven search, large-language models (LLMs), generative engine optimization (GEO) and branded visibility.

"We are in an increasingly zero-click world where consumers are getting the answers they need from AI bots and AI overviews without having to click into websites. In partnering with 90% of the top U.S. PR agencies, we recognize PR professionals have a new performance metric: LLM visibility," said Lisa Jilek, CEO at Brandpoint. "With AI Optimize, we're helping brands take control of that shift, increasing the likelihood that their content will be the answer to audience searches online."

This launch comes in time for Q4 and the holiday season, when many brands are trying to increase visibility and prepare for the upcoming year. According to an Adobe report released after Black Friday, "AI-generated traffic to retail sites jumped 805% year-over-year." Furthermore, Adobe found that these shoppers were 38% more likely to convert than everyone else. [Source]

To help brands improve their chances of being cited as the answer in AI-driven search tools and see tangible business results, Brandpoint has created a comprehensive package that complements branded content strategies.

Brandpoint AI Optimize  includes:

Branded content optimized for AI visibility and human engagement by an in-house team of writers, editors and designers, trained in current best practices

A library of assets to support PR campaigns, including two distributions of the sponsored article on Brandpoint's premier publisher network

A customized release strategy to ensure best practices of placement timing, channel usage and content formatting

A technical audit of branded content and brand-owned landing pages

"Introducing AI-driven optimization tools to our suite supports the mounting pressure PR teams are facing to provide guidance and results for their clients," added Stacy Stusynski, Chief Commercial Officer of Brandpoint. "In 2026, the value for PR and brand awareness lies not just in placements, but in holistic performance in AI ecosystems."

Brandpoint AI Optimize  is available immediately for new and existing Brandpoint clients. For pricing and more details, contact Brandpoint at https://brandpoint.com/contact.

About Brandpoint

Brandpoint is an industry-leading sponsored-content agency that helps PR professionals and brand leaders strengthen awareness and engagement with reliable, on-demand branded content. Based in the Twin Cities, and with nearly 30 years of experience, Brandpoint has helped its clients tell their stories on an unmatched network of premium media outlets.

About Lisa Jilek

Jilek is the CEO at Brandpoint, providing clear vision and strategic insight as the company continues to be the market leader in the evolving branded content industry. She is an expert in transformational growth and leading companies through rapid innovation.

About Stacy Stusynski

With an unwavering passion for innovation and client value, Stusynski is an expert in product development and breakthrough technologies. As the Chief Commercial Officer at Brandpoint, her goal is to redefine the future of branded content with strategic vision and bold leadership.

SOURCE Brandpoint
If cockroach have no business in fowl party, politicians should also stay out of police acti
Border agents raided a migrant-aid camp near Arivaca last week, entering private structures without a warrant and arresting three people who were receiving aid there, volunteers with the group No More Deaths said.

On Sunday, Nov. 23, about 4:30 p.m., Border Patrol agents arrived at the entrance to No More Death's humanitarian camp, which provides medical aid, food and shelter to migrants who pass through the Southern Arizona area, about seven miles north of the U.S. border with Mexico.

At the camp entrance agents called out, "United States Border Patrol! Come out!" and asked for permission to enter the property, according to No More Deaths volunteers, who said they refused to let agents enter without a warrant.

About an hour later the agents entered the camp anyway, claiming they were in "hot pursuit" and didn't need a warrant, volunteers said.

Volunteers still refused to grant the agents access to the camp's trailers without a warrant, but at about 6 p.m., "agents started breaking into structures and detaining people who were receiving medical attention there," No More Deaths volunteer Aryanna Tischler told the Arizona Daily Star on Monday.

Volunteers said the fact that agents waited an hour before entering the camp, known as Byrd Camp, demonstrates they were not in "hot pursuit," and so were violating the 4th Amendment's protection against unreasonable search and seizure, Tischler said.

"If they were in hot pursuit, they would have just entered," Tischler said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has not responded to the Star's request Monday for comment and for an explanation of the warrantless arrests.

Video of the incident shared with the Star shows agents shining flashlights around the camp's trailers and appearing to force their way inside.

Tischler said the border agents arrested three men whom No More Deaths is not identifying at this time. Volunteers have been trying to locate the men using U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement's online "detainee locator," but have not been able to find them, Tischler said.

"We're working hard on trying to get in contact with the people who were arrested," she said. "There's this intentional black hole that's been created in ICE, where they intentionally made people disappear."

Human rights advocate Isabel Garcia, an attorney and co-founder of Tucson's Coalicion de Derechos Humanos, said the argument that agents were in hot pursuit doesn't appear credible.

Hot pursuit involves "exigent," urgent circumstances, when law enforcement is in the act of chasing someone, but border agents' hourlong wait before entering the camp rules that out, Garcia said.

"It's outrageous. This is not 'hot pursuit,'" she said. "None of it makes sense, but theyre lawless right now. Let's face it, Trump and his administration has allowed them to be lawless."

No More Deaths established the Byrd Camp in 2004, and the camp was also raided during the first Trump administration, in 2017 and twice in 2020. Heightened surveillance and militarization around the aid station preceded all of those raids, Tischler said.

While agents have previously entered the camp without a warrant, this is the first time they've entered enclosed structures on the site without a warrant, the volunteer group said.

"Past raids ... have been accompanied by a federal search warrant and a BORTAC (Border Patrol Tactical Unit) team. This marks the first time agents have entered buildings without a warrant, marking a new escalation for the agency," the group said in a news release.

In the most recent raid, "they were acting with impunity, as if they would face no repercussions for their actions," Tischler said.

The raid on Byrd Camp comes as the Border Patrol's aggressive operations in the U.S. interior have surged, with federal agents arresting hundreds of immigrants without warrants in Chicago alone, prompting public protests and a legal challenge.

In October, a federal judge sided with the ACLU and the National Immigrant Justice Center, which alleged the warrantless arrests in Chicago since June violated a 2022 settlement agreement.

No More Deaths also pointed to the arrest of a U.S. citizen in Charlotte, North Carolina, after border agents broke his vehicle's window.

"We're seeing this in Chicago, in Charlotte, and now in New Orleans," Tischler said. "We're witnessing this increase in constitutionally illegitimate state violence against U.S. citizens, but also undocumented people."

Migrant arrivals at the southern border have dropped precipitously since early 2024, but people are still crossing there, Tischler said.

Border agents arrested 1,741 migrants in the Tucson Sector in the month of October, the most recent CBP data show. For comparison, in December 2023, Tucson Sector agents were arresting 1,800 people in the southern Arizona borderlands daily, amid an international boom in migration.

But now, instead of surrendering to border agents, more migrants are traveling through dangerously remote areas of the desert, due to heightened militarization and restrictions on access to asylum, beginning under the former Biden administration and escalating under the Trump administration, Tischler said.

"No More Deaths firmly denounces this continued pattern of impunity and attacks on immigrants all over the country," the group said in a news release. "We affirm the right of all people  regardless of migration status  to receive humanitarian aid. In accordance with this vision, Byrd camp has always operated in accordance with protocols set by international humanitarian law."
The White House said Monday that a Navy admiral acted within his authority and the law when he ordered a second, follow-up strike on an alleged drugs boat in the Caribbean Sea in a September US military operation that has come under bipartisan scrutiny.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt offered the justification for the Sept. 2 strike after lawmakers from both parties on Sunday announced support for congressional reviews of US military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean. The lawmakers cited a published report that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for a second strike that killed survivors on the boat in that September incident.

Leavitt in her comments to reporters did not dispute a Washington Post report that there were survivors after the initial strike in the incident. Her explanation came after President Donald Trump a day earlier said that he wouldnt have wanted that  not a second strike when asked about the incident.

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Secretary Hegseth authorised Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes, said Leavitt, referring to US Navy Vice Admiral Frank Bradley, who at the time was the commander of Joint Special Operations Command. 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.

The lawmakers said they did not know whether last weeks Post report was true, and some Republicans were skeptical. Still, they said the reports of attacking survivors of an initial missile strike posed serious legal concerns and merited further scrutiny.

The White House weighed in after Trump on Sunday vigorously defended Hegseth.

Read moreUS to stop Venezuelan drug traffickers by land 'very soon', says Trump

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Pete said he did not order the death of those two men, Trump said. He added, And I believe him.

Leavitt said Hegseth has spoken with members of Congress who may have expressed some concerns about the reports over the weekend.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also spoke over the weekend with the four bipartisan lawmakers leading the Senate and House Armed Services Committees. He reiterated his trust and confidence in the experienced commanders at every echelon", Caine's office said in a statement.

The statement added that the call focused on addressing the intent and legality of missions to disrupt illicit trafficking networks which threaten the security and stability of the Western Hemisphere".

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Monday broadly defended the operations, echoing the Trump administration position that they're necessary to stem the flow of illegal narcotics into the United States.

Thune said the committees in Congress will conduct oversight looking into what happened. I dont think you want to draw any conclusions or deductions until you have all the facts, he said of the Sept. 2 strike. Well see where they lead.

After the Posts report, Hegseth said Friday on X that fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland.

Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both US and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict  and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command, Hegseth wrote.

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Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called Hegseth a national embarrassment over his response to critics. Schumer added that the armed services committees should demand that Hegseth release the video of the strike and testify under oath about what happened.

Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the panels inquiry would start with briefings about what actually happened from the officials involved.

Reed also called for the administration to release unredacted video of the strike.

If theyve done nothing wrong, then that video should exonerate them completely. Why dont they release it? he asked.

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Sen. Roger Wicker, the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, pledged that his investigation would be done by the numbers".

Well find out the ground truth, he said, adding that the ramifications of the report were serious charges".

Trump met later Monday with his national security team to discuss the ongoing operations and potential next steps against Venezuela.

The US administration says the strikes are aimed at drug cartels, some of which it claims are controlled by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Trump also is weighing whether to carry out strikes on the Venezuelan mainland.

Trump confirmed Sunday that he had recently spoken by phone with Maduro but declined to detail the conversation.

(FRANCE 24 with AP)
Lord Macaulay: Saint or Sinner?

While the Modi tribe is blaming Macaulay for our ills, the Dalit thinkers like Chandrabhan Prasad are hailing the contribution of Macaulay in laying the foundations which in due course led to the struggle for dignity and rights of equality for Dalit and marginalized sections of society

While delivering Ramnath Goenka Lecture, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that we should take a ten-year pledge to root out colonial mindset. In ten years, it will be 200 years when Lord Macaulay introduced the pattern of education in English.

As per Narendra Modi Macaulay project was to reshape Indian thought by dismantling indigenous knowledge systems and enforcing colonial education.

Modi goes on to state that Macaulays crime was to create Indians who are Indians in appearance but British in thought This system broke Indias self-confidence and introduced a sense of inferiority. (I.E. November 18, 2025)

Modi is a Pracharak of the RSS and Hindutva Nationalism. This ideology so far has been focusing more on the evil Muslim kings and their atrocities against Hindus like breaking Hindu temples and forcing Islam on them.

As per this narrative, India had a golden period in the past and the coming of Muslim invaders brought in evil practices here. Now, from last some time the Hindu nationalist thinkers are focusing on Coloniality as the evil introduced by British rule. This coloniality stands for the colonial mindset and suppression of the traditional knowledge and thought systems.

These thoughts are coming from the ideology whose followers had kept themselves aloof when the Indian masses under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi were fighting against colonial power at all levels of the struggle.

While the Modi tribe is blaming Macaulay for our ills, the Dalit thinkers like Chandrabhan Prasad are hailing the contribution of Macaulay in laying the foundations which in due course led to the struggle for dignity and rights of equality for Dalit and marginalized sections of society.

Modi and his ilk think that the culture introduced by Macaulay/British traveled in a straight line. Interestingly, they themselves stand for European style nationalism, based on language or religion.

What developed in India was much more complex where the introduction of English education did contribute to the introduction of modern liberal values and led to opening up of the portals of knowledge for all sections of the society like Dalits and women, who were deprived of education, where education as in Gurukuls was restricted exclusively to upper caste men.

In India, the traditional knowledge contributed by the likes of Sushrut, Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, Lokayat stream and Bhaskar had a tremendous impact on pushing forward the society in the direction of enlightenment. The knowledge was under the control of the traditional elite and was restricted. Knowledge, and thereby power and wealth, belonged to the privileged few.

True Macaulay had vested interests in producing the clerks and other sections who could serve the British empire. It is also true that the likes of Rudyard Kipling tried to undermine the Indians when they glorified the British by terming their mission here as white man's burden.

Through the womb of modern education also emerged nationalists who rose tall to combat the colonial enslavers. The likes of Gandhi, Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose and Nehru were all educated in England in this system. It is their contributions which combatted colonialism to give us a new path for our development, which was summarized in Nehrus famous Tryst with Destiny speech.

Did English suppress the regional languages? As a matter of fact, education in general promoted regional languages as well. Tilak (Maratha) and Gandhi (Navjivan) started their papers in regional languages. The doyens of regional languages contributed in this period also, Rabindranath Tagore and Munshi Premchand, to name just a few.

Many British researchers contributed to the recovering of our heritage like Brahmi Script and the structures like Ajanta-Ellora. Swaminathan Aiyer (TOI, November 2025) points out that the British created Archeological survey of India headed by Alexander Cunningham. Digging up mounds across India he uncovered dozens of dazzling sites from Taxila to Nalanda This is one example of the India centric outcome from colonial rule, though it was not their aim but just an outcome.

India did not accept the thinking promoted by British lock stock and barrel. There were strong oppositions to their policies by Dada Bhai Naoroji, M.G. Ranade, G.K. Gokhale and R. C. Datta. The freedom movement was the biggest opposition and challenge to the British promoted thinking. English was a tool and in due course English also got Indianized with many brilliant writers in this language acting as mirror of Indian thinking, Amitav Das, Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai for example.

The traditional knowledge systems can only be enriched by an interaction with other systems of thought. With the formation of linguistic states there is all the space for regional languages and the traditional knowledge systems. The only caveat is that the interaction with the world, not only the West, has been instrumental in combating our traditional caste and gender hierarchy, deeply rooted in our society. Modern education, with all its flaws, opened the door of these marginalized sections of society towards the path of equality and justice.

There is an interesting anecdote about the role of colonialism in India. Shashi Tharoor in his famous Oxford debate elaborated the plunder of India by the British (came as a book, Dark Era of British Empire). Few months later Dr. Manmohan Singh was in England. He eulogized the role of the British in initiating modern administration and education.

The core point is that this was the pathway which strengthened the foundations of liberal values and brought in modern administration. The liberal values laid the path of freedom movement where people irrespective of their religions participated in it to throw out British rule.

The predecessors of present Hindutva nationalists clearly stated that their goal is to restore the glory of ancient times when Manu smriti ruled. Shamsul Islam highlights Golwalkar's reported statement, "Hindus, don't waste your energy fighting the British. Save your energy to fight our internal enemies that are Muslims, Christians, and Communists". This perspective indicates a focus on communal issues over the anti-colonial struggle.

Now why are Hindutva nationalists focusing their energies on combating Coloniality and restoring traditional knowledge systems? This is also reflected in the New Education Policy. Hindutva nationalism stands for the traditional hierarchy of caste and gender which have been mildly shaken by the freedom struggle and Indian Constitution. To restore the traditional social hierarchies this route of opposing the Macaulay and Western Knowledge system is being highlighted. As such civilizations dont travel in straight lines. There is a constant Alliance of Civilizations which takes us forward towards justice and equality.

[The writer, Ram Puniyani, is former Professor at IIT Bombay.]

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